~Coast Guard Crash~

It isn't often I speak about the Coast Guard here on my blog.  But my blog is about my family, and the Coast Guard is a big part of my family.  Without it, I wouldn't have met my husband. Or my best friends. For the last eight years it has been my second home.

We are a small service, no bigger than the NYPD, but we get the job done.

 Last night one of our helicopters fell from the sky.  

For many around the country those big Coast Guard orange helicopters have been a symbol of hope in times of need. They search for and rescue people everyday, often with very little fan fair.  They do it simply because it is their job and it is what they love.

Right now I ask that you pray for my Coast Guard family.  Rescue crews continue to search for three of the four members who are still missing. 

Hope and faith are what we must hold close tonight.

Read More Here

~Midweek Randoms~

Tuesday felt like a Thursday this week, so if that were the case today would be Friday.  Its not, but at least its pay day! Here we go...

~We still have our Christmas lights up.  Yes, its the Leap Year and I still have white icicles dangling from my roof.  I tell myself if we owned a ladder I would climb up there and take them down myself, but thats probably not true.  My real goal is to get them down before Saturday when we have visitors so they don't see that we are 'those neighbors'.

~I need to stop believing in the powers of Pinterest.  Take for instance last week.  I have a tendency to make recipes from Pinterest based on two things: 1. How astetically pleasing the picture of the food is 2. How many repins it has.  While this has worked a few times, last week was an epic fail.  The recipe in question called for a block of cream cheese, which should of been my first hint that this would not turn out well.  After two hours of simmering in my crock pot my house smelt awful  wonderful,  I made Rudy be the guinea pig and taste it.  It was no bueno. Turns out all of those people who were gushing over the the recipe had never actually made it.  I didn't find one 'review' that actually said it tasted good.  Lesson learned, read the reviews.  

~My husband loves award shows.  Not entirely sure why as he has yet to have ever been able to convey an exact reason to me, but nonetheless we watch them everywhere.  While I would have rathered not stay up til midnight to see a silent movie win, I did overall enjoy the broadcast.  A few of my favorites were...

Jessica Chastain from the Help.  I thought she looked stunning and I would kill to be able to haver her perfect Strawberry hair.

Penelope Cruz...I absolutely loved the color of her dress!

~ A couple of months ago I purchased one of Erin Condren's Year Round Notebooks.  While the blog world was oohing and aahing over the Life Planner, I just couldn't make myself love mine.  But the notebook is different, and works perfectly for me.  I don't have a ton of meetings/events that requires a lot of space for the day, but with the notebook I can just look at the entire month and fill in the smaller blocks.  I have the meetings/appointments for the month, our cleaning schedule, weekly meals, and blog topics.  In the back on the note pages, I compile my weekly grocery lists, and the lists of things I need to do.  I LOVE LISTS, and the notebook portion of this plannerish book is perfect!

~These are a Few of My Favorite Things: Spring ~

Now that the germs have left our home, I had the urge to actually get off the couch this weekend and venture out shopping.  While I didn't buy very much, I did find a few pieces that I am loving for spring and may have to snatch up.  Correction, I may have bought one or two of these things already and am still debating the others....

Michael Kors Rose Golden watches....

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Bath and Body Works green turtle candle holders...

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Sperry Ventura Thong Sandal...

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Lands End Canvas' Allover Eyelet Dress...

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And while I know this isn't specific to spring, it makes me think of spring...

Urban Decay's Naked Palette

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What's on your spring list?

~Sickies Be Gone~

For the last three weeks we have been riddled with the sickies.  First Rowen was sick for a week.  While we don't think we had the same cold, he reminded me of an ill teenage boy, just not feeling that great and wanting to just lay around.  And thats what he did for about a week. 

As soon as he started feeling better, Rudy and I caught a cold, and may of hindered each other's health by sleeping in the same bed and breathing each other's germs.  Gross, I know.  While Rudy had a speedy seven day recovery, on day eight I woke up with my left eye swollen shut.  At first I thought I had pink eye, which made no sense since Rowen didn't have it, and in my narrow mind the only way I could catch pink eye was from the hands of my wee child.

After three hours of weird looks at work I headed down to the clinic where they determined I had somehow gotten the cold that was currently tormenting my respiratory system in my eye.  Which also turned out to be highly contagious.  And would last another 7-10 days.

So now on day fifteen of cold number one and day seven of the eye cold, I only had to blow my nose three times, which is a great success.  This cold has taken me down hard, but I am thankful that I had it this winter instead of last winter when I couldn't abuse over the counter cold medicine.  I may or may not of convinced myself that I was practicing 'germ confussion' by taking a different brand/type of cold medicine every four hours.  

Sickies be gone, the Rivera family won't miss you.  We are ready to be health, happy, and to get our taste buds back!

~Valentine's Day, Not So Much~

Let's just say Valentine's Day has never really been my holiday.  I would rather celebrate St. Patrick's day on a grand scale than even acknowledge V-Day.  As a child I thought it an odd holiday since not everyone chose to participate in the exchange of Valentines but you still had to bring one for everyone.  

In college I may of celebrated a "We hate Valentine's Day" holiday.

And ever since I have had a Valentine, it hasn't meant that much to us.  Our first Valentine's Day I was in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.  And for the past half hour Rudy and I picked our brains about what we did last year and we determined a. He was on travel or b. I was working or c.  We did absolutely nothing. It's sad that I can remember more of the Superbowl last year (and I wasn't even that interested) than I can of Valentine's Day last year. 

This year we again chose the route of don't plan, don't acknowledge.  And then I got it in my head that we should have a somewhat fancy dinner together after Rowen went to bed and 'celebrate' the day over some nice crab legs.  

That was until we woke up yesterday morning sneezing, sniffling, and generally feeling miserable.  Instead of crab legs, which neither of us would of really been able to taste due to diminished taste buds a la the cold, we ate left over pizza.  Nothing says happy Valentine's Day like cold pizza.  

The best Valentine's Day gift I got was the Tylenol Cold and Cough I picked up last night at Target.  Because while I didn't get my husband a gift, it was apparently expected that I get my ten month old son's teachers gifts.  So I ended up in Target with all of the other crazies on a hunt for three cards that didn't say I want to make sweet sweet love to you, and some chocolates that I could throw in cute little gift bags.  I may have failed on the home front, but I did manage to give the teachers a little something nice, despite their lack of appreciation.  

 And while I did opt to get Rudy a card, it is still sitting in the glove compartment of my car, and will probably still be there next year. Rowen wore red, so I will chalk that up as a success!

At Christmas I gave Rudy a present that had all of the important dates in our life together, and not one of those dates was this day.  Whether we celebrated today or not, I am still with the people I love, who mean the world to me, and that to me is the most important part of Valentine's Day.  I hope you all had a wonderful day and got to share it with those you love!!

~Balance~

I find that more and more my sense of balance is becoming intertwined with the balance of my family.  Right now it is mainly Rudy because for the most part Rowen keeps a fairly routine schedule that doesn't really cause too many disturbances in the balance of our family.  I know there will come a day when that won't be the case.

When I say balance, I guess I am referring to the way we 'run'.  When we both are having good weeks at work, and getting enough sleep, we are like a well oiled machine.  We go to work, come home enjoy time with Rowen, cook well balanced meals, and find quite time together.  But when we are unbalanced, when one or both of us are having hard weeks, we are usually overtired, eat fast food, still squeeze in time with Rowen, but after that go back to doing work.  And being unbalanced makes our home feel dirty to me.

Take for instance last week.  We had just come off of a high week where everything went smoothly, and had had a great weekend.  And then Rudy had to work like crazy, travel, and most nights that week wasn't home until 630.  While that is a normal for many people, in our home we like to have dinner, dishes, and all chores done before 700 considering the fact that our day starts at 0430.  This week there was no way to plan for when he was going to be home, so it was usually a where would you like dinner from kind of week.  Any errands I needed to run waited until about 730 because Rowen goes to bed between 5 and 6.  We stopped working out.  I felt like we were just going through the motions.  And when Friday came around, we were exhausted as a family.  So much of the weekend was spent trying to catch up on sleep.   And worst of all, I let his unbalanced week make mine unbalanced and thus our families unbalanced.  I could of fought harder to get things accomplished and keep things running, but instead I said well he is exhausted from work so I have to be too.  

I told myself this week we would be better about the balance, and I am finding that in order to do that, I have to assert control where I can.  This means having a dinner prepped that I can pop in the oven and cook on short notice.  Making sure I am working out when I have the time.  Keeping our chores on track.  Trying to tackle all of the house and Rowen tasks (with the except of dinner clean up) before Rudy gets home.   Rowen has even thrown a kink into the system this week by having a nasty cold, and I have tried my hard to not let that derail this week.  There may of been a early evening couch nap here or there, but in general we have kept our feet moving.  Even if this week is unbalanced, I want it to seem balanced.

Today is Friday.  We have survived another week and have the weekend ahead of us.  In my book despite the bumps in the road, this has been a good, balanced week.    

~Product of the Week~

This week I am linking up with Aly & Tiffany for their Product of the week!  While this may be a common product that most people already use, I have found it to be my go to product around the house!  What am I talking about?  Windex Multi Surface with Vinegar.  

In our home, we have all black appliances.  This creates great opportunities for smudges and smears, and I have tried every kitchen cleaner under the sun trying to make them look like a toddler didn't just finger paint on them.  One day I already had a bottle of Windex with Vinegar under my kitchen sink so I decided to give it a try, and it works like a charm.  My counter tops also have a certain amount of shine to them so every night after dinner the last part of my kitchen clean up is spraying some Windex and wiping everything down, and you don't see any fingerprints or streaks when I'm finished!

While I love using Windex on my kitchen, my favorite use for this product is to clean my wedding rings and jewelry.  Yes you heard me right.  One of my good friends introduced me to this a few years ago, and I try to do it at least once a week.  All you need is some Windex with Vinegar, a soft cloth, and a tooth brush.  Let the rings or jewelry soak a little in the Windex, and spray some on the tooth brush.  Gently brush the jewelry with the toothbrush, removing all of the grime.  Lastly take the cloth and buff/dry your rings, and they will look all sparkly and new!  

Thanks again ladies for hosting this great link up!