Planner

I am very much a planner by nature.  Love having a schedule, and writing things down and making lists.  I have everything on my phone, but I also like to have a “hard copy” to flip through to write every minute detail in.

I saw this life planner on another military spouse’s blog and checked out the website she provided, and I fell in love.  So I emailed Mark the link and told him that was what I wanted for my birthday, and that’s what he got me.

I love this planner because it has LOTS of space.  It has monthly views and weekly views with morning, day and night spaces.  Plus it has weekly goals lists and to do lists, which is really right up my alley.

It has an area in the front to list all your special occasions and then stickers in the back to put on individual days, and also lots of area for notes and numbers.

You can also have them put photographs on it, which I will probably do next year, but I didn’t want to put a family picture on it for a 2012 planner and then have a baby in December and have him not be on it.  I wish Mark would have put a picture of us on the front of it, but oh well.   My 2013 planner will have a picture on it.  =)

They also have really cute Christmas cards, but there is no way in heck I’m spending $2.25 PER CARD.  Maybe someday when I’m made of money I’ll do that, but for now that’s out of my price range.
I’ve had lots of fun filling up my planner so far.  Hopefully it’ll hold up through 16 months of being drug all over the place and used a lot!  I’ll let you know!

My new love.

We purchased one of our only big purchases for baby #2 last week.  I talked Mark into the 2011 BOB Revolution SE Duallie, and I absolutely LOVE this thing.

I knew I wanted to get a double stroller that was a side by side instead of a tandem, and I wanted one that I could use for walking/jogging also.  I have several friends who are “stroller guru’s” and most of them recommended the BOB to me.  I have a friend that I worked with in Oklahoma that has two kiddos, and she’s taken up running in the past year and has lost a ton of weight and is in great shape now.  She completely inspires me to kick it into gear after #2 is born and just get out and be more active.  She is one of the ones that recommended this stroller to me.

I’ve taken Abbie for a few walks on my parents road in this stroller and it’s an absolute dream to push.  Tonight I was walking both of my dogs with one hand and pushing the stroller with the other.  My dogs tend to pull a bunch when I take them for walks, but I had no problem controlling the stroller with one hand while I was constantly yanking on the dog’s leash and telling them to heel with the other.  Abbie really likes riding in the stroller too.  The first time I pushed her in it she said “This is niiice.”  =)

I’m debating on whether or not I want to buy a case for it.  JD Childress makes a custom case for the BOB Duallie’s, but the padded one is like $120 (non-padded is around $85).  I’m mainly worried about it getting beaten up during air travel, but I guess in all reality, I’m not sure we’ll be traveling with it by air a whole bunch.  I’m going to try to ship it back to Italy (if it’s not too big to mail via the USPS), and we’re just going to bring our single Maclaren back with us when we come back next June for Mark’s brother’s wedding.  Baby #2 will still be small enough to wear, so most likely I’ll have him/her in the Ergo if we’re out and about and then Abbie can ride in the stroller.  So we’d really only need the case for when we move back to the States and if we take it on any vacations with us when the kids are older.  I am hoping to have more than two kids though, so I know we’ll have this stroller for quite a few years and I just don’t want it to get all beat up with us moving every 2-3 years and all the traveling we do.  Do you think I should get the cover for it or just hold off for now?
I can’t wait for Mark to get back so he can see how great this stroller is too.  He’s the runner of the family right now and I know he’ll like pushing Abbie, and eventually #2, around in this during his runs once we get out of Italy and the crazy drivers and roads with no sidewalks.