Speechless

I'm a bit speechless right now. Or I have bloggers block. Or theres just a lull in the activity today. Whatever you call it, I just dont have anything to blog about.

Our flea situation (dare I say it?) seems to have improved. Sunday we still had a ton of fleas jumping on us whenever we went in the garage. I just couldnt take it any longer! I sent Derek and Jadon to Petco to buy some different spray that has IGR in it, which is insect growth regulator, and it kills all 4 stages of a fleas life, rather than just killing the adult fleas as the previous spray seemed to be doing. I sprayed that sunday night. Monday, I was afraid to go in the garage... dreaded it in fact, and avoided it as long as I could. But then I needed a screw driver, so I could avoid it no longer. I managed to get in and out free of fleas. Then I had to go back in again a bit later to get some chicken from the freezer for dinner. Again, flea free. Hmmm...
This morning Jadon and I spent an hour in there cleaning garage sale stuff and pricing things. I only had 1 flea on me the whole time, and it was obvious that the flea was not going to live much longer (other than the fact that i was squishing him) because he was very slow moving, and it was effortless for me to kill him.
But, my hopes are not up yet, and i'll be on the look out for the next few weeks!
The good that came about this is that we finally got our garage all cleaned, and now we can set up some more storage shelves, and hopefully have a much nicer garage!

I look forward to having this problem taken care of so that I have something on my mind, other than fleas, to blog about! ;)

The good, the bad, and the ugly

The good? Jadon gets to go to preschool!! This week we went in to meet the teachers and talk to them and tell them that Jadon's still not poop trained. The teachers were amazing! They were both so nice, and the head teacher came in and started playing on the floor with Jadon! We were there for an hour or so, and I left feeling REALLY good about him going there! They were fine with the fact that he's still not poop trained, and said it sounds like he is really close to getting the poop part down. I was so worried that after 6 months of telling Jadon he was going to get to go to preschool, they'd turn him down a week before it starts. And after this loooooooooong road, we've come a long way!
So, last night we went and bought him a backpack to take to preschool next week! He was soooooooooo excited!

Jadon also finished soccer on saturday. And he passed the Cottontails class, and now gets to move on to the Hoppers class!

The bad? Avery's had a heck of a time sleeping at night this week. She's had great naps, but nightime has been disastrous! She's got 2 top teeth that are taking their sweet time coming through for one thing. Also, we think she's trying to figure out how to stand. AND, she started saying a few words the other day. In the middle of the night a couple days ago, she was in bed having a cranky time, and she suddenly said Daddy, then shortly after that she said Mommy too. She hasnt said those again since, but she does say dadadada and mamamama. She also says now "uh oh" and "hello." So, on top of getting teeth in, she's having some developmental growth spurts, so its no wonder she hasnt been sleeping good! Still doesnt make it much easier for her parents though! ;)

The ugly? The fleas. Apparently you cant get rid of fleas overnight. Apparently you cant get rid of fleas in a week either. We still have a problem in the garage, but it seems to be slooooooooooooooooooowly improving.... or maybe i'm just hoping so much that its improving that i'm blind? I dunno. We hate to keep spraying poisonous chemicals all over the house with Avery crawling around on the floors, and putting everything in her mouth. But, we wont get rid of them if we dont.
We have not had any in the house for several days. Until today, I just found one downstairs crawling on a towel, and I woke up with 2 bites, and I just noticed that Avery has several bites on her as well. Grrrrrrr!!!!!! So, guess we'll be spraying the inside again as well. These things are indestructable!!!!!!!! Good grief!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hopefully we'll get rid of them before I go nuts!

Photoshop

So one of my facebook friends posted a video that I thought was really great:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4y5b7INvqE&feature=related

Of course, then I went to youtube and found it, which led me to several other videos about photoshopping.

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YP31r70_QNM&feature=related
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ovpd5O6M8tQ&NR=1
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jID2uIFrdj8&feature=channel

My goal is to become confident in who I am and the way I look, whether fat or skinny, wrinkly or smooth, because I know that Avery is going to be watching my every move, hearing every bad thing I say about myself, seeing how I see myself as fat, ugly, unattractive, and she is going to grow up thinking that is the way a girl is supposed to feel about how she looks and that she's never perfect enough. The media puts plenty of pressure on girls to be perfect, and I know her friends will add to the pressure, and I dont want to add to that. I want her to be able to grow up feeling confident in who she is just the way she is, and not feel like she has to fit into a perfect mold. I dont want her to go through life feeling like she's never good enough, perfect enough.
So its my responsibity as her mommy to set her on the track to the correct way of thinking, but in order to do that, I need to first feel that way about myself. So, ive got my work cut out for me!
I know getting some exersize will help. And eating healthy and getting plenty of water. All things that I need to work on. Derek has recently started showing an interest in eating healthier things, and making healthier choices with food, and that will be a huge help! He's even started trying new foods, trying vegetables and fruits that he has said he doesnt like. He even ate some broccolli!!!!!!! I'm so very proud of him! ;)

So funny

Jadon is getting to the age where he starts rambling off these elaborate stories for us, and it is sooooo funny! I love this age! (of course i can say that today since we had a "good" day!) ;)

Anyways, thank goodness my laptop is downstairs, and thank goodness it has "sticky notes" on the desktop, because without those things, i probably wouldnt have written them down!

Here's a couple of things he has said lately. If you remember several weeks ago, he said "if mommy puts me in the washing machine, i will turn into clothes and she will fold me."

The latest two: "i used to be a lady when daddy was in mommy's tummy"
"i just went pee a little because i didnt want to lose my mind"

and just a few minutes ago, he rambled off this large story that started out "remember when i was a lady..." and it was like 4 different stories combined into one. He obviously listens to us talking, because we always call Avery a little lady.

Whew!

These days it just seems like life is powering forward at the speed of light! We just concluded a very busy week, and are now starting back into the typical daily grind.
Derek had all last week off for our anniversary, and it was so nice!! Probably not as nice as he would have liked, but when you have kids, you cant have your expectations be too high! ;)

So if I remember, I blogged about our flea infestation. Well, saturday night, I went into the garage to do some laundry, and almost instantly I had fleas all over my legs. IT WAS THE MOST DISCUSTING THING EVER!!!! I almost felt like panicking, because I knew the only way to get rid of them was to clean our garage. Our garage is pretty gross, the cats live in there at night so theres cat hair and litter all over, plus its been our storage area for a lot of stuff too. So, sunday morning, Derek took Jadon to church, and I started the long and tedious process of emptying every last item out of our garage. When Derek got back from church, he also started, and we managed to get everything out of the garage by dinnertime. After dinner, we cleaned it. Vacuumed everything: floor, walls, cracks, crevices, behind the washer/dryer, mopped the floor, and wiped everything down with soapy rags because everything was covered in a layer of dust.
Then it came time to move everything back in. We had tried to make it easy on us by putting everything into piles: garage sale stuff, garbage, and keeper stuff. Lets just say, we are going to have a small dumpster brought to the house because we've got alot of stuff we're throwing away. And, a large pile (now in the middle of the garage) of garage sale stuff, and the rest looks fantastic!!! Surprisingly, the fleas werent bad at all... Derek had sprayed the cats beds and stuff Saturday night, so most of the fleas were dead already.
It feels really good to have finally gotten that done, and it looks completely different, smells normal now, and we have room to walk!!
The cats have been kicked out of the garage and are strictly outdoor cats now.... until we get rid of them. Our neighbor lady is a huge cat person, and has fallen in love with one of our cats, so she is going to adopt him. The other two, if we cant find homes, will be going to the humane society.

Also, we will be having a garage sale in a couple of weeks with our neighbor lady, and I cant wait to get the rest of the stuff out of the garage!

So, life has been busy, and now i'm left with pricing everything for the sale. Prices will be super low, as I dont care about making much profit, I just want to get rid of things!

In two weeks, preschool starts. Plus, we want to put Jadon in soccer again, he's had so much fun with that. Also, i'd like to do something with Avery. I did swimming with Jadon when he was a baby... but i'm thinking about doing The Little Gym with her. Also, I have swimming aerobics twice a week now. And, i'm thinking about joining a mom group. I just have to find enough courage in me to join!! ;) So, this fall has the potential of being quite busy! I'm interested to see what all pans out, because at this point, none of that is set in stone (except for aerobics.)
Jadon's doing quite well now with potty training. He is dry almost all the time. He's still having poop issues though, so we are going to go in and meet the preschool teacher, and talk to her about this, and hopefully they still will let him go! I would hate to see him get this far, and then not get to go. Its pretty unlikely that he would go poop at preschool anyways, but we'll see how the teacher feels about it. Keep him/us in your prayers!!

So busy

We've had a busy week! Derek took the week off for our anniversary, so I of course packed our week full of fun!
We went to the coast on tuesday, with a plan of shopping at the outlet mall, and then spending the rest of the day playing in the sand. Jadon's been wanting to go to the beach for a really long time, but our Oregon weather has been horrible this summer, so we waited until it warmed up. Unfortunately, the weather at the coast was TERRIBLE. It was foggy, and drizzly, and only 52 degrees... needless to say, we didnt get much time on the beach, and we froze our heiny's off.
I did get the kids some much needed clothing from Carters though, so I was happy about that! And we ate at a really great pizza place that we found in Lincoln City last year called Galluchi's or something like that. They've got really good pizza!

Wednesday we relaxed a little, but we did take the kids to the "music park" as Jadon calls it. (Timberlinn park. He calls it this because that is the park where we went when we went to the Celebration Festival and there was music.) Jadon had a blast! He found a little hispanic shadow to boss around. Jadons usually the follower when he plays with other kids, but the little hispanic kid was happy to be the follower, and Jadon had no problem being the leader. It was kindof interesting to watch him.

Thursday we took the kids on a train ride up to Salem, then walked to the Salem Carousel and the A.C. Gilbert House. Everyday at Jadon's soccer practice, the amtrak train goes by, and all the kids get super excited, but probably none gets more excited than Jadon. So he has been wanting to ride a train for a long time. And Derek was interested in trying out a train ride as well. Although I had told him it was not all that great. As a kid, we rode the Amtrak to Colorado, and it was a pretty miserable few days trip.... both there and back.
Our morning train in Albany arrived right on time. As we waited for the train to get there, Jadon kept saying "i'm so excited! i'm so excited!" It was just a small train, and very few passengers. We actually had a whole car to ourselves! It was a very pleasant ride up!
Our train to go home was due to leave at 3:37pm, so we walked to the trainstation and got there about 30 minutes early. However, the train ended up being 2 hours late! So, we sat at the station for 2.5 hours! The kids did incredible, even though they were both tired, and bored and getting hungry. Finally our train arrived at the station, and it was one of the big Amtrak trains (like the kind we rode to Colorado), and it was packed, and trying to carry a large stroller, a small stroller, a bulging diaper bag, a baby, and a preschooler upstairs to our seats, was quite a challenge.
Even though the last part of the day went sour, the rest of the day was really nice, and i'm glad the boys got a chance to ride the train. Derek now says he'll never ride one again, but he's glad to have experienced it. And Jadon enjoyed it regardless!

Today, friday, was supposed to be a down day, so that I could catch up on some housework, and we could take it easy since we've been on the go. Not so though.
We have made the mistake of not treating our cats with Advantage for the last couple of years, and this year it bit us in the butt, literally. A couple weeks ago, I found a few fleas over a few days, so we got some Advantage, applied it to the cats, and have been fine. Until a couple days ago, I started getting bites all over my feet and ankles. Then this morning Avery and I got up, sat down on the living room floor, and within 10 minutes, i'd already drowned 4 fleas that had hopped on us. SOOO discusting!!!!!!!!!!!! So, we spent the day vacuuming the house, spraying the entire house with flea spray, and washing everything in the laundry. Oh, right after we sprayed we left the house for awhile until the carpet dried and the smell was gone, so we did get the grocery shopping done. So, today was horrible. And I will never ever again miss treating the cats with Advantage! All it takes is one fleabag stray cat in the neighborhood to totally infest our cats and house!
So, don't forget to spay and neuter your pets, but also, get them treated for fleas every few months!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On that note, does anyone want a cat? We have 3 adult cats that we are wanting to find homes for..... 2 are declawed, and all of them are fixed... Anyone??? PLEASE??? Dont make me get down on my hands and knees and beg!

Anyways, pictures of our latest events will be posted as soon as I get a chance to do so!

Happy 7th Anniversary to us!

7 years, seems like such a long time, yet its gone so fast! I can honestly say that it just gets better each year. :)

I love you Derek! :)

Frumpy

Saturday I had the privilage of going wedding dress shopping with my sister-in-law and mother-in-law in Portland. It was the longest i'd been out of the house without kids since having Avery. Its always weird going anywhere when I dont have a kid or two to tote around.... strangely enough I always feel a little out of sorts, like i'm forgetting something, when I dont have the kids with me. Its difficult switching from mommy-mode to girl-time mode!

Anyways, I was looking forward to going from the time she asked if I would go! I've never been wedding dress shopping with anyone, other than for my own dress, so it was an honor for me.


Of course, the night before I couldnt go to sleep. That always happens to me the night before I get to go do something or have to be somewhere. I couldnt turn my mind off, plus it was really hot, and Avery had a really plugged nose, so I was up with her at 2am trying to suck the bugars out of her nose and put saline drops in. Finally I was able to go to sleep after 3am, only to have to get up at 6:30am to get ready to go to Jadon's soccer at 9am.


I think it was excitement of going wedding dress shopping, but I had plenty of energy for the whole morning, then once the dress was picked and it was time to go eat, my energy took a major nose dive.

We then went to eat at the spaghetti factory (yum!!!) and then off to do a little more shopping at the mall. It was a great day, a much needed day away from the kids, time that I could focus on something other than the kids! Although I made a few calls home to make sure Derek was handling everything just fine. Of course he was, and it sounds as though the kids were angels.

Derek's sister picked a gorgeous dress.... sorry, i cant post any pictures.... and I am so glad that I got to be there for it!!!


So, i've noticed over the last week or so that i've become quite frumpy looking. With all the mirrors at David's bridal, it was impossible to not catch a glimpse of myself in one of them occasionally, and I noticed how tired I look, and how i'm beginning to age. My eyes are sunken back in my puffy face with dark circles under them. I never realized how much i've aged since having kids, and I can only imagine its from all the lack of sleep i've had over the last 3 years! That, and the fact that my needs have taken a backseat. No longer do I have time to do my hair nice; I dress for comfort now, rather than what looks good; and finding time to do anything for myself is extremely rare. I'm not complaining, I knew my needs would become last place to my kids needs when I signed up to be a parent. Its worth it! But I tried to not let it happen, but it just slowly has, and now that I notice it, its a bit of a hard pill to swallow.

I'm losing weight and now beginning getting myself in shape some, but I feel and look like i'm 40, not 30. My hair, clothes and makeup need major updating! I just have no idea these days what hairstyle would look good for my face, and what clothes would be flattering on me. I hate feeling frumpy.

Busy Busy Busy

Thats how life feels lately! Busy busy busy! Anyways, heres a few quick pictures I took last night.
My little ham Avery is at that age where she loves to smile for the camera. I remember Jadon going through that phase... you get some great pictures during that time!


When she's outside, this is how she crawls. Actually she's been crawling like that alot lately, inside and outside, and she's getting really quick at it! Its really amusing to watch though.

Jadon put his undies on backwards last night, and it was hilarious looking! Looks like he's wearing womens underwear! Cute little buns! ;)
Look at the window.... see the curvy lines? Jadon drew his first REAL picture the other day. (those are special window markers in case anyone was worried.) Anyways, its a rainbow! He's never actually been interested in drawing anything other than scribbles... in fact, coloring doesnt usually last more than 10 minutes max, so he doesnt usually get much practice drawing things, and he NEVER wants us to help him write his name or draw things. He's got better things to do with his time! ;)

Fair

We went to the Benton County Fair yesterday and Jadon had a blast! Avery on the other hand, started out happy, but then got bored, then just got tired of being in the stroller.

Here's some pictures/videos of our time there. There are captions at the top of some of the photos, and i'm not sure why the video quality is so bad.... its not that way when I watch it on my computer. Anyways, it was a nice time. The weather was not very hot, and by evening when we left it was almost a tad chilly as the clouds had blown in and the wind was whipping! Last year when I was huge and pregnant and we went to the fair, it was 97 degrees, and I really thought I was going to die.

Happenings

I started water aerobics this week with an old, old friend. We had so much fun, it was more fun, and less like exersizing! However, we could definitely feel the burn during the one hour session! We will be going every tuesday night, and hopefully also on most thursday nights.

It was nice getting out of the house by myself with no kids, but at the same time, I really felt lost. I felt like I was constantly forgetting something.

Anyways, i'm really excited to start getting a little exersize and get a tiny amount of time for myself. :)

Starting water aerobics couldn't have come at a better time. Jadon's full swing into his terrible 3's (although I think its more like terrible, horrible, awful 3's) and he is really pressing buttons around the house. A break from him 2x a week for an hour and a half will be much needed until he outgrows this phase. It was a difficult week at our house as patience wears thin, and all my buttons have been pressed.

Every night when I crawl into bed, I have my prayer time, and i've been praying that God will load me with extra patience. I also pray that Lord will make me into the best mom that I can be for my kids, because lately I have not felt like I've been the best mom that I can be. This potty training thing has really been a test for me, on top of the terrible 3's, and I am mentally and emotionally wore out... some days i'm physically wore out too. I never imagined that my sweet, laidback, easygoing little guy would end up going through terrible 3's so terribly!

Potty training is still a work in progress even though we are successfully going poo in the potty. He's getting a little lazy with peeing and we've had lots of accidents (some truely were accidents, and a few were intentional) the last couple of days. And after 3 days of going poo in the potty with no troubles at all, the next day he was suddenly worried about pooing again and has been since. We are still pooing in the potty though, and for the entire week he's only pooped in a diaper once. This is great progress, and I hope that the more he poops, the more confidence he'll get and the more comfortable he'll be with it. As far as peeing, he just doesnt want to stop what he's doing to go pee, so we'll have to figure out something there if it continues.

Avery finally got another tooth, cant remember if I mentioned it already or not, but we've now got 3 teeth, and looks like a 4th and 5th one will be following soon. Jadon already had 6 teeth by this point, so it just seems like teething is going on forever with Avery.

This week she also started something new with her sleeping. For about 4 nights in a row, she would wake up at some point in the night crying and flailing and nothing I did would help calm her down, and then all of the sudden she'd just stop. I think she's started having night terrors, and after researching, I found out that night terrors start as early as 9 months. Teething can trigger night terrors, mostly because teething disrupts sleep, and lack of sleep can cause the night terrors. Jadon had a few night terrors right around the time Avery was born. Apparently I used to get them as a child also; not sure whether or not they are hereditary.


Other than that, I love her to pieces. I love the age she is at, but at the same time, I'm beginning to feel very emotional about her rapidly approaching first birthday. I just cant wrap my mind around the fact that its almost been a year since my little girl was born.

Jadon got this $7 lawnmower that he has been wanting for months and months, he got the lawnmower as a special treat for going poo in the potty finally. He was so excited to mow the lawn with daddy.

The story behind this one is: Avery is getting into everything that she's not supposed to get into lately. She's curious! Jadon was the same way, so to keep them out of the kitchen area when our hands are full (like when i'm making meals), we lay down one of our kitchen table chairs between the bar area and the couch, and it makes a perfect little fence. Jadon is able to climb over it still, but it is successful at keeping Avery out. She protests wildly whenever you restrict her roaming space.... like when she sees you put the gate up at the bottom of the stairs so she cant climb them, she screams in protest!
In this picture, Avery got herself into the center of the chair and was just having a blast in there. Obviously she's pretty proud of herself!

It wasn't just a fluke!

The poop in the potty yesterday was not just a fluke. I know this because, he pooped THREE times in the potty yesterday!!!!!!!!!! :)

HE DID IT!!!!!!!!!!

JADON POOPED IN THE POTTY ALL BY HIMSELF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I knew that if we just let him be and quit pressing the poop issue and let him decide on his terms, he'd come around to it!

I am so proud of him!!!!!!!!!!!!!

To celebrate we are going to meet daddy for lunch at Arby's! Jadon loves going to Arby's and always asks to go, so thats what we are doing! :)