Harvest Party

On friday, Derek and I had the privilage of being able to help out at Jadon's preschool Harvest Party. We helped out last year, and were the only parents who signed up to help.... we were pretty surprised by that. This year, only one other mom signed up other than Derek and I. Again, we were surprised. Who wouldnt want to help out???? 4 and 5 year olds are so funny and so fun, and they are little for such a short time... and we like to know what goes on at preschool, how Jadon interacts with his pals and how he behaves. (he's well behaved in case anyone was wondering)
They started the day off by doing their morning circle time, and sang a halloween-y type of song while the teacher used the feltboard to move characters around. Then they read(sang) a book called "The Wheels on the Spooky Bus".... of course it was sometime around then that the garbage truck came outside to pick up the garbage..... and everytime the garbage truck comes they have to stop class because Jadon gets so excited and has to run to the window to watch. Silly kid!

After that, the games began. There were 4 different games, the same games as last year. They had to try to bite a donut off of a string hanging from the ceiling without using their hands. There was pin the nose on the witch. Another game they had to toss a ball through a hula hoop hanging from the ceiling, and there was a game where they had to search through a big bin filled with dry rice to find things. And there was also a cupcake decorating. Jadon lasted about 1 minute decorating his cupcake. I took his picture, then went out in the hall to get a good picture of him from the other side, and he was already done.

After that, we went to the gym where there was a little kiddy pool filled with leaves and candy, and they had to search for all the candy in the leaves. And since they have awesome teachers, after they found all the candy, all the kids were instructed to grab arm fulls of leaves to toss at the teachers and helpers on the count of 3. I got that on video ;)

Then it was free play time, and it was fun watching the kids run around riding bikes, playing with balls, etc. Derek made a little friend after playing catch for a minute with one of the girls. We were amused to see how rowdy the boys are and how subdued the girls are.

When free play was over, it was snack time, so we got to sit at the little tables and eat muffins, apples and carmel dip, and chocolate milk with the kids, then it was time for us to go for a little bit. After we left, Jadon got to play m&m bingo.

It was such a fun day, and i'm so glad we got to participate in it, and i'm even more glad that Derek has a job that allows him to take time off to do things with the kids.

Jadon pinning the nose on the witchJadon decorating his cupcake....you can see a little bit of his classroom
Digging through the leaves for candy

Throwing the leaves around at each other.

We're still alive

Thought you might be getting a little worried that i havent posted in awhile. We are still alive. I've just been, you guessed it- busy! Hopefully after the holidays are over i'll have more time for blogging. In the meantime, i'm trying to whip up 1 tutu a day! I've got alot to make and I dont want to leave it for the last minute!
I had a very generous person purchase some gridwall panels for me, and after getting them in the mail last week, they will be PERFECT! So thank you again Generous Donor- you know who you are :)

I spent alot of the weekend catching up on house cleaning. I'm embarrased to say that my house cleaning has slacked quite a bit in the last several months... and considering what a neat freak/germ freak I am, you'd be surprised to learn how long i've let a few chores go... :( I'm going to make a great effort to get the whole house cleaned weekly again like I used to, and get back on that schedule. Wish me luck!

The kids are doing good. Jadon's been having a great time at preschool.... this week he has today off, wednesday he goes to the pumpkin patch (we'll all go with him), and on friday he has a harvest party. Still trying to come to grips with the fact that its going to be november in a little more than a week!

Jadon and Avery went to a birthday party this weekend. It was a halloween themed birthday party, so all the kids came dressed in costume. Luckily i had the kids halloween costumes ready to go! Jadon's a fireman and Avery an angel. So cute! Averys costume turned out better than I anticipated. I always have a picture in my head of how i want things to look and i'm always disappointed when they dont turn out as i had pictured.... but Avery's turned out good! I had a white tutu already made up, so she is wearing that... i bought her some white tights and shirt. I made her halo, and I was going to make her wings too, but decided i dont have time to do it, and i found a website where i got her wings cheaper (even after shipping) than if i had made them myself. Jadons costume is very authentic looking.... (i bought it at costco.) ;) Eventually you'll see a picture of them, if I can get a good one.

Firetruck and pizza

So anyone who ordered a pizza from Domino's in Albany (over a three day period) between 5:15pm and 7:15pm, could get a free pizza and a fireman in a firetruck delivering it to your house! They would then come into your house, check your smoke alarms, and if they were working then your pizza would be free thanks to the fire dept.
Of course, we decided to do this in hopes that we would be picked and Jadon could have a fireman in a firetruck come to his house! But the odds are never good for us to win things and such, so we were doubtful.

But we got lucky for once!!! Holy cow!!! They came to our house! Jadon got to go check out the firetruck (he opted out of sitting in the drivers seat though), they gave him and Avery play fireman hats and sticker badges. And when they left they turned on the lights for Jadon!

On top of that, we ALWAYS keep our smoke alarms loaded with new batteries, so of course, we got 2 large pizzas and an order of breadsticks free! The free pizza meant nothing to me though, I was so excited for Jadon! Things like this dont happen to us! Unfortunately I forgot to take any pictures until they were leaving, and I only got one taken, and the flash went off so the picture was too dark to see. :(

Tomorrow we're going to a corn maze.... the first one for all 4 of us, so it should be fun and interesting! I'll remember to take pictures for that! ;)

I'm in!!

I've been accepted into a large craft bazaar in December! I'm so excited! I'm going to be a very busy bee until then, fullfilling tutu orders for Sunnypatch, orders from my website, as well as making lots of tutu's and things for the craft bazaar!
Its imperative that I stay organized, otherwise my sanity may leave me! I've already got a checklist made of what tutu colors i'm going to make, and the sizes, and the number of tutu's i'm making. I'm going to order some new, more professional looking business cards also!

I'm going to need lots of hangers with the clips on them.... i dont know what those are called.... so if anyone has any extras, i'll take them!

It will be good for me to stay really busy since fall has arrived and with it the typical Oregon rain. Already i'm terribly missing summer and sunshine.... it will be a very long fall/winter/spring this year.... a good reason to keep super busy!

After my last post about feeling overwhelmed trying to juggle a million different things, I came across a blog of a lady with young daughters, who irronically also is a stay-at-home mom and makes/sells tutus. She had posted a very similar post to mine about trying to juggle all the things a stay-at-home mom does, as well as her tutu business. Really made me feel better knowing that i'm not the only one feeling like i'm constantly being pulled in 50 different directions.

Avery's sleeping somewhat better the last few nights, although still waking up, and we have come to the conclusion that we think she has suddenly developed a fear of the dark. Last night at 1:30am when she woke up, I went to her and did the usual.... laid her back down, rubbed her tummy for a minute to sooth her, then quietly told her i was going back to bed and it was time for her to go back to sleep and that jadon was asleep in the room next to her, and mommy and daddy were just down the hall. As soon as I left her room she started wailing again. This time Derek went to her, and turned on her bedroom lamp and reassured her for a minute, and she was fine since he left the lamp on the rest of the night. Which brings us to the conclusion that she's scared of the dark.

We've also been having hitting issues. Not the parents. The kids. Both kids have been hitting each other alot lately. I know its their ages, but we never had this problem with Jadon when he was Avery's age.... probably because he didnt have a sibling to compete with and have to share toys with. But now, they are both offenders.
Jadons had a couple of rough weeks. We are thinking that its schedule related. This is how our typical weeks have been going- Starting with Saturday. Saturday he is usually a good boy. Sunday, he does a complete turn around and is a beast. Monday and tuesday are very similar to Sunday, but then wednesday through friday he is good again. So, we are thinking that since the weekend comes and messes up his routine a little, he gets bent out of shape, then by midweek he's out of that slump because we're back into a routine again. Makes complete sense to me. Kids thrive on predictability, routine. And i'm seeing this more and more with my kids. Its just sad when he has bad days because wed-friday he is the sweetest kid.... loving, obeying, enjoyable to be around, etc. But those bad days make both Derek and I want to rip our hair out. I thank God for those good days, and I hope that we will start seeing more and more of those good days as he gets older!!!!!!

The incredible balancing act

You know that part of the movie Dumbo, where at the circus, the women elephants are all balancing on each other, with the bottom elephant balancing on a ball?

I feel like that bottom elephant. I feel like i'm trying to balance a big load on my back and can never quite get my footing. Trying to balance between mom and wife, wife and maid, cook, chauffer, etc, etc, etc......; trying to get the kids up and ready and off to preschool, off to swimming lessons, and trying to promote my tutu business, and try to find a minute for me? My "me" minutes are now spent at exersize class (which by the way I am loving!)
But quite frankly, I feel like i'm failing at all of the balls i'm juggling. I have intentions.... lots of them! I have intentions to sit down with Jadon every day and help him learn something new, or do a craft, or play with him. Most days i'm lucky to get 15 minutes of uninterrupted time with him. Usually i'm having to jump up every couple minute to check on dinner thats in the oven, or switch loads of laundry.
Poor Avery rarely gets time alone with me doing nothing but playing. Now that Jadon's in preschool again, and we have 3 days alone together, I have intentions of sitting down and spending a good portion of that time devoted to her. But of course, my intentions are cut short, as usually thats the only time for me to run errands.

But its not just the kids....My role as a wife is lacking severely as well. Its hard to have a minute of free time for my husband. Even after the kids are in bed, seems like someone is always waking up needing something, or I have tutu's to make, or i'm so stinking tired I fall asleep on the couch watching our shows. Then I get annoyed when he gets annoyed that I dont have time for him.

My house has been less than appealing. Once again, my intentions are there.... to have a nice cleaning schedule every week. I cant keep up with the neverending laundry... sometimes its time to start the laundry again before I can get all the baskets that I just finished away. The bathrooms seem to accumulate a layer of scum overnight. The floors are never clean... as soon as I vacuum they are covered with grass or dirt, or crumbs, or tulle.

And then theres my business. I cant get a good chunk of uninterrupted time where I can focus on it. Sometimes I think it would be so much easier to NOT be a stay at home mom with a business, but instead have a job outside the house. Then I could focus on my job during the day, and when my shift is over, I could focus on my kids and husband.

I know i'm not the first mom to ever say that I feel like i'm being pulled in 50 different directions at any given moment, but sometimes it sure feels like i'm the only stay at home mom being pulled in 50 different directions at any given moment.

And why is it affecting me so badly this week? Because Avery hasnt been sleeping this week, and quite frankly, i'm exhausted. I dont know what her deal is, but she seems to be scared of the dark all of the sudden. Last night I went to her in the middle of the night when she woke up, stayed with her for a bit and tried to get her comfortable and settled in her bed again.... when I went to leave, she ripped my heart out by calling to me with big crocodile tears "mommy, dont leave me!" For the love of Nancy, how can I resist that?!?!
Needless to say, since I Havent been sleeping well, i've had alot of migraines this week.

And all the while i've been sitting here typing this, my son has been begging me to come play cars "mommy, its time to play." But I just had to get it out. I just had to.

While i'm sitting here....

....Eating my lunch, I thought i'd take a minute to blog! Its hard to believe we just concluded the second week of school already! I know, I think I say it in every blog post, but TIME IS GOING BY SOOOO FAST! I really cant keep up!

I've already got a fridge door full of Jadon's artwork from preschool! I found a picture on Pinterest (yes, my FAVORITE new site) of this: http://pinterest.com/pin/54982230/ And decided it was a fantastic way to showcase the kids artwork! I want to display their stuff proudly so that all can see it so they will know how much I love it, and how proud I am! So, I bought two 6 feet boards, had Derek cut them in half, spray painted them and added the hooks. Added a couple hangers to the back for hanging, and presto! A stylish way to show off their art! Our staircase has long been in need of something to fill the walls, but since the walls are two stories high, I've been at a loss for what to put there without it looking odd. Here is the finished results!

I still have to put clips on the top two, but you get the point.

I've become quite the DIY enthusiast! I've also refound my interest in clothes and shopping for them. I say "refound" because I used to love clothes and shopping, but then when you gain weight it loses its fun. Now that i've lost weight and dropped 2 sizes, i've found my love for clothes again! :)

Its that time of year when the holiday bazaars and craft fairs start popping up. I'm contemplating doing 2, but arguing with myself whether I can do those, and still keep Sunnypatch stocked, and still have plenty of time for the kids, the husband, the house, the blog, etc. I'd like to do both, but we'll see!

Next week starts picking up a busy schedule. I'm going to start an exersize class on mon/wed evenings! This is good, because then i will have more time for the kids during the day.
The following week, Jadon starts swimming on tues/thurs nights, and Avery on friday mornings. Also Avery's birthday is in just a few weeks! We arent planning a big party. She's only 2, she wont remember. I'm thinking that we'll do "big" parties for milestone birthdays- 1, 5, 10, 13, 16, etc. So Jadon's next birthday I'm planning on it being a big one, since my little guy will be turning 5! I'm excited for him, but sad at the same time. They grow up so fast.

This weekend we will be purchasing and planting a new tree in the backyard. The tree we currently have in the backyard is beginning to take over the yard, as well as the 3 neighboring yards. The tree was never meant to stay there forever because I knew it would grow into too full of a tree for that tiny space. I really wanted a tree there, however, so that we'd have a little shade in the backyard in the summer, and that tree fullfilled that purpose for us. But this year it grew like mad! So now I need to find a good tree that will grow tall enough for some shade, but wont become full.

And now i'm done with lunch, and I can hear Avery getting into something in the garage so I better go see what the damage is!

Hello Hello!

So if you havent already read on wordpress, i've decided to stick with blogger for my regular blogging for now until i can figure out why my space on wordpress is getting filled up so much faster. But dont delete my wordpress blog ! I'm planning a project for that one that I know you will like! I'll let you know when I start that! :)

We've been trying to take advantage of every second of "summer" that we have, and therefore we've been- you guessed it! B-U-S-Y! Seems like every time we might have free day or even half of a day, it gets filled up with something. Which isnt a bad thing since i'm sure we'll be stuck home most of the winter with illnesses again. >:[

We spent another day at the swimming pool with the kids... we all love it! We went to the Art and Air Festival and saw hot air balloons glowing. We've worked on house projects. We went on the paddle boats. We started preschool- year 2.

Hard to believe that summer break is done and over already... i am still reeling with the thought that Jadon started school already on wednesday. I did great though, no tears this time! Next year however is kindergarten... so i'm sure i'll be a sobbing dope again when that time comes.

I dont have anymore time, but i've got a bunch of pictures. They are pretty much in backwards order (courtesy of blogger) and its a huge pain trying to rearrange them. Sorry :(

The first few were on Wednesday of Avery throwing a fit. I have to say, it cracks me up with she throws fits sometimes. :)

Jadons first day of his 2nd year of preschool. Again, backwards order. Here he's playing with his friend Ronan. Almost all of the same kids in his class this year.... 1 of the girls didnt come back, and there are 2 new boys, so this year is 8 boys and 5 girls.

When I transfered this picture off of my camera and onto my computer, i saw it for the first time, and i just about cried. He looks so grown up. My baby isnt a baby anymore, in fact, he doesnt even look at all "babyish" anymore.

Beautiful sunrise on wednesday morning

And here is our garage that we've managed to clean out so well! Looks a little messy because toys are all out and strewn aobut the floor. Isnt it great though??? Hopefully the kids and i can use it as like an extra room this winter.

Another quick fix on the house- we took the "decorative" paynes (sp?) out of the garage windows. Another quick fix- we took the railing off of our porch... really opened up the porch!

Anohter house project- we paved the side walkway that used to be rocks. Jadon liked helping daddy.

Last day of summer soccer.

Art and Air festival

Getting ready to go on the paddle boats. I think this is such a cute picture of my little cuties! :) Love 'em to pieces!!!

Jadon has done ALOT of drawing with chalk this summer, and its really improved! Here is a picture he drew of himself. His people are all still just heads with arms and legs coming out of the head... they dont have bodies, but he has really improved still!

Another thing he likes drawing is spiders. And he figured out how to draw spiders all by himself. A few days ago he drew a daddy long leg spider, and it had relaly long legs. I think its cute how all his spiders have smiley faces :)

There you are!

Summer has finally showed up!  God mustve felt pitty on my last whiney post about summer being absent this year and He has sent us a little summer!  This weeks forecast: 89 today, tuesday-90, wednesday- 96, thursday-94, friday-92 =o)

I've been busy............. my typical excuse now for not blogging, but at least its true!  I have discovered a whole new world of DIY!  Pinterest has really given me a crafting bug (by the way, if you havent already signed up for Pinterest, you need to!)
Anyways, I have discovered sooooooooo many websites for tutorials on all kinds of things, but mostly i'm interested in the tutorials on sewing.  Yes, sewing.  I've never been a big fan of sewing.  I just dont have the patience to sit and cut out a pattern... or at least that was the case when I was young.  But now..... well, i've discovered all the things you can do with used clothes!  Repurposing them for use as other things! 
For example, this weekend I made 2 little skirts for Avery out of an old shirt of mine that I dont wear anymore and an old nightshirt that I bought for wearing in the hospital when I had Avery.  My next projects- make a cardigan of sorts out of a black sweater thing, and embellish some of my t-shirts (although i'll have to go buy some fabric for the t-shirt embellishment project.)

I'm not sure how the cardigan will turn out... i'm not very creative, so i've been scouring the internet looking for cute cardigans to copy.

I've also been organizing.  You'd think with as much as I organize, i'd have nothing left to organize, but i can ALWAYS find something to organize!  I love organizing! It gives me such pleasure!!!!  And once again, Pinterest has given me so many ideas for organizing!  Its pretty sad, but I lay in bed at night and in the morning thinking about what I want to organize...how i can move things around and put things differently to make the house appear, well, organized and clean and uncluttered.  My main goal is always to make things convenient for us, as well as uncluttered.  For example, we have had half our shoes downstairs (the ones we wear the most often) and the other half upstairs in our master bedroom closet.  I figured it would be much simpler and make more sense to have all the shoes in one place, therefore, I moved all the shoes from our closet into the closet downstairs in the entryway and organized them in there.  This gave me the opportunity to organize the downstairs closet, and freed up space in our bedroom closet!  Its a win-win situation!  Yay!!!

(have i mentioned how much I love organizing???)

Happy Labor Day by the way!  Derek will be spending the morning laying a little cement slab (where i'll have the kids put handprints in it) and i'll be working on cleaning up the landscaping in the backyard.  I started yesterday, and I just love yardwork!  Once again, i love decluttering things, and outside that means pulling all the weeds, trimming all the plants and bushes, edging the grass to make a nice straight edge.... etc. :)

Also, possibly a new blog project in the works for your picture viewing pleasure.... more on that to come later!

Winter, Spring, ,Fall.... where's Summer? Almost over!

I'm not ready for school to start and summer to end.  Jadon starts school next wednesday.... only one week away, and I am still trying to figure out how we got here so fast!

We havent really had much of a summer in terms of weather.  We've only had about 2 or 3 days of temperatures in the 90's, the rest has been 70's and 80's, which has been very pleasant, i'm certainly not complaining.... but at the same time it feels more like spring.  Our sunny, warm weather didnt even start until the end of July, and we've had several mornings of waking up to gray and clouds (like today.)   I'm told this is all because of La Nina    ??
I love the smell of a hot summer.  I know, sounds strange, but I do.  I'm a summer girl.  But i've only smelled summer a couple of days this year... the couple of days when we were in the 90's.

We have been so busy this summer also, seems like one thing after another.   Weddings, parties, gatherings, swimming lessons, etc.  Plus Derek has had to work ALOT of extra time this summer, and we've spent alot of our down time working on the house. 

I guess before summer started I was daydreaming of lazy, warm summer evenings spent outside, leisurely relaxing and sipping iced tea while the kids played in the pool..... and I was planning on lots of family walks in the evenings as well.  I had mental images of the kids and I playing outside in the morning before it would get too hot.... picking the strawberries that i planted and eating them fresh.....  :::::sigh::::::
Unfortunately, none of that has really happened.  We have only spent maybe 2 evenings, if that, in the backyard playing and the kids in the pool.  We've only had about 3, if that, evening walks.  And the mornings outside... well, we've been gone alot of mornings so that has not happened.  The strawberries that I planted ended up dying because I kept forgetting to attend to them and water them regularly.  So we got only a couple berries from them.  Very disappointing.

It hasnt been ALL disappointment though.  When I run errands, i try to take the kids to a new park each time so that they can have a little fun and run off energy.  We DID go to Enchanted Forest, Otter beach, paddle boats, Art and Air festival, the county fair,  and the coast one day.  We've had a few playdates with Jadon's preschool friends.  It sounds like we've done alot, but it sure doesnt seem like that. 

I lost 3 pounds at the beginning of the month (yay me!) But unfortunately have not been exersizing during nap time because i've been trying to catch up on other things around the house, and spending that time playing more with Jadon.  Plus Derek was off for a week for our anniversary, and I set aside my healthier eating habits, and i'm still trying to get back into the groove.  I hurt my back last week playing legos (dont laugh!  I think I was sitting on the floor in an awkward position) so i've been "trying" to take it easy to let my back heal.... Fortunately after 1 day of taking it easy, my back felt a heck of a lot better, and I went out and did some work in the backyard.... UNfortunately, that hurt my back all over again even worse.
Needless to say, I gained that 3 pounds back.  This just goes to show me how important good eating habits are as well as exersizing regularly!

So back to the beginning- next week starts a new "season" of life as we will fall into a new normal, a more consistent routine (hopefully.)  The kids will start swimming lessons again at the end of september (last week concluded their summer lessons.)  I recently read an article in a christian magazine about overscheduling, and i'll talk about that soon!  For now, my breakfast has been consumed and my coffee is gone, so its time for me to continue on with our day!

Oopsy....

Sorry, time got away from me again, and its been 11 days since my last post... Sorry Grandmother ;)

In my defense, we've been busy!  Derek has had this whole week off, so we've been trying to cram a few activities into our summer break and get a few things done around the house. 

Monday we went to Enchanted Forest and had a great time!  Jadon showed more interest in things than he has in the previous years.  Avery was too little to go on almost all the kiddy rides except 2, and she was very unhappy about that.  Jadon ended up having a nightmare that night about the log ride LOL!  The poor kid is so much like me.... such a worrier!  He says he doesnt want to go to Enchanted Forest again because he doesnt want to ride the log ride again.  Apparently it wasnt on his list of favorite rides. 

Tuesday we had a blast at Otter beach at the pool!  We went for toddler time, so we got to enjoy the pools and all the fun things before the bigger, more obnoxious kids were allowed in.  And they open up the big slide for the last half hour of toddler time.  Derek convinced Jadon to go on it with him... and told him that if he didnt like it, he didn't have to go on it again.  Of course he liked it and wanted to go on it again!   Avery went on it with me, and oooooooh boy she loved it!!  Of course she did, she's a fish! 
The water there is also shallow enough in large areas so that she doesnt have to stay attached to my arms, and can walk around without help, and she just LOVED that also!  There were a few times she fell face first into the water and couldnt get back up again, but thats the whole reason we are doing swimming lessons so that she can learn how to correct herself in those situations!
Derek also tried working with Jadon a little bit on his swimming, and Jadon did really well dunking his head, even attempting to do a front float with his face in the water!

Wednesday we (mostly Derek) spent the whooooole day prepping our side walkway for concrete to be poured. 

Thursday Jadon had a playdate with a friend from preschool, and that afternoon the concrete truck came to pour the sidewalk. 

Friday, swimming lessons for Avery in the morning, then paddle boats after lunch.  Derek went golfing at Par 3 with his buddies from work, and that evening we got together stuff for the neighborhood garage sale.

Which brings us to today, saturday.  We spent the morning and afternoon selling things at the neighborhood garagae sale. We were veryyyyyyyyy excited to get rid of our treadmill and a couple other large items that have been taking up space in the garage!  We also sold a few other smaller things. We didnt have a whole lot to sell since we had the garage sale last summer.   But, we price things very low.... so low that people are a little shocked.... afterall, we werent out to make a profit really, but just get rid of stuff that we no longer want. 
I took the kids in the wagon around to a few other garage sales and was appauled at the prices of things!!  One person wanted $5 for an old "Operation" game that he wasnt even sure if all the pieces were there.  We could get that game for close to that for brand new at the store, so I passed on that one!!!
At a different house, I came across a little vanity set almost exactly like this one, for Avery for just $3.  Everything is still there except for one makeup brush (no big deal), and the hairdryer even works still!  No broken parts or anything!  I had been looking at something very similar to that for Avery's birthday but decided against it because I didnt want to spend $30+ on it.  So anyways, both kids are enjoying that.  Jadon even did my hair, makeup and nail polish. ;)  

Not sure what we are going to do tomorrow, but its sad knowing that its Derek's last day off.  It feels like we need a vacation from our staycation!

Politics

I cringe when I hear that word.  I HATE HATE HATE politics!!!!  I hate everything about politics!  And mostly I hate when people are constantly whining, griping, complaining, bellyaching, bemoaning, bewailing, criticizing, defying, denouncing, deploring, deprecating, disagreeing, disapproving, freting, fussing, groaning, growling, grumbling, imputing, lamenting, nagging, objecting, opposing, protesting, refuting, sniveling, squawking, wailing, wimpering, yammering , kicking up a fuss, making noises about, raising a howl, raising a fuss, making a stink, moaning and groaning, airing a grievance, lodging a complaint, etc. etc. ETC.   And yes, I didnt feel that my few choices of words for "complaining" were adequate enough so I googled synonyms for the word "Complain."  YOUR COMPLAINING HELPS NOTHING.

We try not to use the word "hate" here at our house because we dont want Jadon running around saying he hates everything, but when it comes to politics, theres no other word that best describes just how much I INTENSELY HATE politics. 

So, the bottom line:  I dont care whose side your on, whether your democrat, republican, conservative, liberal, sane or insane, whether you love the president or hate him, whether you pee standing up or sitting down, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc.... I DONT WANT TO HEAR YOUR political whining, griping, complaining, bellyaching, bemoaning, bewailing, criticizing, defying, denouncing, deploring, deprecating, disagreeing, disapproving, freting, fussing, groaning, growling, grumbling, imputing, lamenting, nagging, objecting, opposing, protesting, refuting, sniveling, squawking, wailing, wimpering, yammering , kicking up a fuss, making noises about, raising a howl, raising a fuss, making a stink, moaning and groaning, airing a grievance, lodging a complaint, etc. etc. ETC.... PERIOD!!!!

Phew!  I feel so much better!!!!  Sorry for such a rotten post, but i've reached my boiling point on this, and its better I write in here to all the world!  I'm sure some people will appreciate this post while others will be less than appreciative! :)

Sorry

I didn't realize it had been so long since my last post!  I knew it had been a few days, but i didnt realize that it had been almost 2 weeks!  Yikes!

I've not really been in the mood to blog lately, actually, social networking in general is kindof annoying me lately.  Plus, now that we've finally had some decent weather and time, Derek and I have been trying to get some projects around the house done that we were wanting to do this summer.  Also, we recieved a flyer the other day that our neighborhood is having a garage sale in a few weeks, so we have been getting a few things together for that! 
We ended up taking the railing down on our front porch.   It was filthy dirty, and no amount of pressure washing or soap or magic eraser would remove the grim, so, instead of having to repaint it all, we decided to take it down.  So now we just have the beams.  It really opens up the porch!  It feels much bigger!  And, its much easier to sweep!
So, I spent the weekend doing some painting around the exteiror of the house, including the beams. 

Our next project will be a big one, and we are planning on starting that very soon!  We (Derek) will be laying a cement sidewalk on the side of our house where right now we have river rock.  This will make things a little easier for us, and will look nicer... cleaner. 

Next week, Derek and I will celebrate our 8th wedding anniversary!  Hard to believe its been 8 years already, but its been a wonderful 8 years! 
Last week we went golfing together.  It was the first time i'd played at a "real" course, and I had more fun than I thought i would. Plus it was nice to get away from the kids for a few hours! We only played the first 9 holes, but it was enough to wear me out.  The good news- we didnt lose any balls! 

This past friday I took the kids and some beautiful hydrangeas from our yard to the cemetary where my dad is buried.  Jadon was asking me questions that I have no idea how to answer in a way that a 4 year old would understand. Plus, he usually starts zoning out when you're trying to explain things to him that dont really interest him.

After that, we went to a park.  I've been trying new parks around Corvallis when we are there so we dont get bored with the same parks over and over.  Jadon made a friend.  Of course, he's so social now!  He proceeded to ask the boy out of no where if he'd ever been to taco bell.  The boy answered yes, and asked if Jadon had.  Jadon said no, but we go to arby's.  It was really amusing listening to him having a conversation with another kid. 

After the park we went and got a treat at Yogurt Extreme... mmmmm.... yummy!  Its my new favorite place!  Not only is it oooooh so tasty, its also good for you!  Of course, I splurged and let Jadon pick some of his toppings... so he ended up with less healthy things on his- m&m's, chocolate chips, skittles, sprinkles, etc.  He did want blueberries on it though, so that was a healthy option! ;)

And finally- i've noticed lately that i'm beginning to look like the hunchback of notre dame.  My posture is terrible.  I slouch soooo badly when I'm standing and even worse when i'm sitting!  Its a very unattractive habit!  So, i've been trying to really stand up straighter.  It feels weird, but i've got to put an end to this before my back permanantly has a humpback if it already hasnt!

Swimming

Last night Jadon had swimming again.  We are not sure what level he is in.  He was signed up for level 2 (the same level he has been doing for 3 sessions now).  On tuesday evening, we thought they moved him back to level 1, but we are not so sure now. 

In order to move up to level 3, he has to be able to:  <children must be able to float unassisted on their front and their back for 5 seconds; they must also be able to float with assistance on each side for 5 seconds>  Jadon doesnt do any of that... he will barely stick his face in the water.

However, his new class is 2 older kids.... probably 7 year olds.... and they are doing more advanced things.  Jadon is supposed to do those things too, but the teacher assisted him to his "level" of confidence.  This teacher seems really nice and encouraging (I guess I should mention that every 5 weeks he gets a new teacher, which is terribly unfortunate since just as he is beginning to feel confortable with one, they change it on him again.)  Last night they worked in the deep end of the kiddy pool (which is 4.5 feet deep, and too deep for Jadon to touch the bottom.)  We were very encouraged by this new teacher, as she gentley made him do the things he was supposed to do (like dunking his head!)  He had to float on his tummy by himself on a pool noodle, and the teacher only held his hand, although he was panicking a little.  When he does his back floats, he typically will start panicking when the teachers try to let go of him.  This teacher somehow managed to let go of him for a second, and even though he panicked, it was progress.  He had to jump in the pool onto a noodle, unassisted by the teacher, and he did it!!! He even fell in the pool after losing his balance standing on the side, but he didnt freak out, although we could see on his face that he was bewildered and had we said anything to him he would have burst into tears.  Instead we sat there smiling big at him.  She seems to be pushing him more, which is exactly what he needs!!!!!!!!!!! 

I really hope he doesnt have to change teachers again this session (last session they switched the teacher halfway through the session, and this session he started out with a boy teacher then moved him.)   If he continues at this pace with this teacher, he may actually get somewhere instead of digressing. 

Avery... well, shes just a fish!  She had swimming this morning, and I feel like i'm just a big pain to her.  She doesnt want me to hold her, she just wants to go on her own!  She was full of energy and so happy in the pool!  She participated 100% in the class, had a blast jumping into the pool, and followed directions very well! 

I cant help but feel guilty for Jadon's fear of swimming.  I feel like if I had continued waterbabies and waterkids with him, he would also have been like Avery- loving the water and swimming, and not afraid.

An end and a beginning

We are concluding a very busy last few months, and it feels good!  Since April things have been really busy here.... as Derek said yesterday- its too busy and doesnt fit his lifestyle! :)

On Sunday we had the honor of watching Derek's baby sister get married....it was a beautiful wedding at Postlewaits Country Weddings.  The setting could not have been any more gorgeous!  Everything was carefully landscaped, complete with a waterfall and bridge, sunflowers dancing in the background, and a view of snow covered Mt. Hood in the distance.  It was breathtaking! 
The bride herself was also breathtaking! 

Derek and I had back stage passes for the event.... Derek was a groomsman, and I was Maid of Honor, which truly was an honor for me!  And it was probably the first and last wedding that i'll be in where wasnt a candle lighter!
Jadon got to sit in the front row aisle seat, and after the ceremony when the bride and groom were announced and walking back down the aisle to the song "Another one bites the dust," Jadon jumped up and started dancing!  This was just the beginning of his wild night!  (Pictures to follow soon!)

During the reception, he was tearin' up the dance floor!  He had alot of fun dancing the night away.... he was even dancing with the ladies! 
There were lots of little kids for him to play with, and he easily makes friends now with EVERYone.  One thing that I love about him!  He doesnt care who someone is or what they look like, he'll befriend them immediately!  I hope this is a character quality that he keeps through his life.

We just started a new session of swimming lessons last night for Jadon..... it didnt go well.  They dropped him back into level 1. Why?  Because he wont do his dunks.  He says it scares him to put his face in the water because he thinks he's going to sink.  But, when he was in level 1 several months ago, he did his dunks just fine.  But since he's been in level 2, they havent pushed him to complete his dunks, so he realized he can get away with barely sticking his face in and they count it.  Last night that finally backfired on him though. 
Its frustrating to Derek and I since we are paying for it, and we mentioned to each other last night that he might do better in a private lesson.  Something i might have to look into.  I think its important for him to learn how to swim.  I took swimming lessons off and on as a kid, and I know how to keep myself alive in the water if I needed to, but one thing that has always bothered me is that I have to plug my nose to go under water.  I hope that with consistent lessons both he and Avery will learn to swim for safety reasons, and so they will have more fun in the water.

Fashionless

Yup, thats me!  Fashionless!  Usually the fact that 90% of my shirts are t-shirts and tank tops doesnt bother me.  Every once in awhile it bothers me for a few minutes, then I get over it.  But this time i'm REALLY bothered by it.

Lots of people do cute things on their blog posts, like "Wordless Wednesday", or "Thankful Thursday", or they do 365 day challenges where they take a picture every day and post about it every day.  Lots of things like that, where the posts are centered around that theme for that day.

Anywho, I read a blog (yes, one of the many that I read weekly), of a mom who has two adopted kids... one is 2 I believe and the newest addition to their family is a newborn that they just adopted. 
So anyways, once you become a mom (particularly stay-at-home-moms), especially when the kids are younger, its so easy to get into a rut of not getting dressed and presentable every day.... sweat pants, not doing your hair, and no makeup become your daily attire.  Why?  because its easy, fast, and when you're just chasing kids around all day, you dont want to be stuck in uncomfortable clothes that dont let you move, and everything gets stained from dirty little fingers touching you, or when the toddler starts flinging food all over! 
So on her blog, this girl started doing "What I Wore Wednesday."  And what she does is take a picture of her outfit that she's wearing each day of the week, and then on the following Wednesday she posts those pictures of her in her outfit on her blog.  The point of this is to try to encourage her to look more presentable every day, instead of the sweatpants/t-shirt/no makeup/hair not done.

So where am I going with this?  Well, her outfits are so dang cute!  She is so much more stylish than me... in fact, it feels weird to even put "me" in the sentence with the word "stylish."  I have no fashion sense whatsoever.  Its sad. 

Typically the new styles that come out each year do not appeal to me until either a year or so down the road, or after seeing someone else where it.  I cannot imagine an outfit in my head when i'm shopping.  (Thats why mannequins are good for the fashionally challenged people like me ;) )

Another reason i'm fashionally challenged is because I cant fathom spending more than $10 on any one item.  However, these days the only thing you can find for that cheap are- you guessed it!- t-shirts and tank tops!

My hair also presents quite a challenge for me in a fashion sense.  Curly, thin, frizzy, flat... those are words that describe my hair.  I cant think of anything positive  about it.  Whenever i get my hair cut, the hairdressers always try to put some height on top by having me hang my head upside down while they dry.  It doesnt work for my hair. When they do this (or i've even tried doing it at home), the first 2 inches of hair from my scalp always create like a flat table topish nonsense, but then the rest poofs out in an unruly, frizzy mess.  And different cuts and layers do not help this... .so i'm doomed to having flat hair forever!

Also, the front of my hair, where bangs are when i have them, always hangs right into my face, hangs in my eyeballs, drives me nuts.... so i do what i've done pretty much every day for the last 4 years... pin the bangs back.  I'm soooooo sick of looking at this though!  Bangs arent an option for me.... its just too time consuming, and my bangs tend to have a mind of their own.

So, as you can see, I need help!  I would love to hear input from anyone about what styles they think would look good on me- hair and clothes!  Send links too if you want to help!  Visuals are always good! -TIA!!

Summer??? What's summer?

Summer apparently does not exist in the great northwest this year.  We had a whole week a week ago where it was nice and sunny, and in the 70's and low 80's... that was our summer.   We are back to clouds, rain, colder, and even fog!  And yes, I am complaining and whining!  You'd complain and whine too if the only 3 months out of the year that you get to see sunshine was instead filled with more clouds and rain!

Yesterday evening we were driving home and Jadon said "what's that smoke over there?"  Someone was using their fireplace.  IN JULY FOR PETE'S SAKE!!!  I mean seriously, it can't get much worse than this in July!  The weathermen have seriously screwed with us too.  Last week they predicted it to be partly to mostly sunny and 70's for temps.  They were completely wrong, and it has since changed to rain.  Of course.  Yesterday they were predicting that today, Monday, would be our nice day for the week- a lonely sunny 80+degree day smashed between 2 days of rain.  Last night when I went to bed, the weather widget on my computer was still saying that today was going to be sunny and 80 degrees.....woke up this morning to clouds, and the weather is now supposed to be thunderstorms. 

I read a blog of a girl who lives in Vancouver, WA, and they are having the same weather as us, and this is what she said (she puts it into words much better than I do!):
I wonder how much longer we are all going to be able to take this. It's getting pretty darn rough. Earlier this week we were told that the weather was going to be sunny and mid 70's today. It was a lie. I think it's just a conspiracy now to keep people from jumping off bridges and moving away. Luckily we knew that we could look forward to tomorrow's sunny 80 degree forecast. Wait. They've changed that too. More rain. Hopefully next weekend will be better... I mean really, it can't get much worse than pouring rain, roaring wind and pea soup thick fog. In July. And yes, I *did* just knock on wood after typing that!

I especially like the part where she said that the weathermen are just teasing us with promises of sunshine to keep people from moving away and jumping off bridges.  SO TRUE! 

Its also pretty sad that I can write an entire post based only on the crappy "summer" weather that we are having!  I feel like we are running out of time for summer!  Everyone in Oregon knows that once September hits, the rain starts coming back again... July and August are typically our most reliable summer months.

If I sound like i'm starting to go a little nuts, its probably because I am!  I was hoping to put my jeans and sweaters away for a couple months and give them a break. 

Dont get me wrong, i'm extremely glad its not in the 100's here like elsewhere in the country.... i'd even be happy with just 70 and sunny... but the raaaaaaain is really getting OLD!!!

Any guesses what the forecast for wednesday, thursday and friday is????  Sunny and 70's.  Anyone wanna bet that it will change????  OH!  And the funny thing is that the weather seems to be mocking me now!  As if on cue, it just started raining!

Randoms

I still havent decided yet whether to keep Blogger or Wordpress.  Supposedly with Wordpress I have quite a bit more space for storing pictures than I do with Blogger, however, after looking at the space i've used already with each, i'm quite confused. 

After 3.5 years on Blogger, i've only used 14% of the space.... with Wordpress i've already used more than 5% in just a month!  I'm trying to figure out why i've already used that much space up in Wordpress, and if I cant figure it out, then i'll be sticking with Blogger for sure, since a good point of me blogging is for the pictures anyways!

On a different subject, one of my friends on Facebook had mentioned this website that she was just loving, so I went and checked it out, and oh my goodness, I LOVE it!  Its called Pinterest, and bascially people just submit pictures of things that they find on the internet that they like that they share with the rest of the Pinterest users.  Sounds lame, but its sooo not!  I've found so many ideas for gifts, kids projects, and home decorating ideas, etc.  Things that I never would have found otherwise!  Its great! 
Take a peak!  Go to www.pinterest.com and browse the categories they have. I started by looking under the "kids" category, and it brings up everything from picture ideas, to craft ideas, to room ideas, (all kid related) etc. 
If you sign up for the website, you will have to first request an invite, and then you'll likely have to wait a few days or so to get accepted.  Or, i can send you an invite, just let me know!  I dont know if getting an invite from me would speed the process up or not?

On another different subject, another friend on Facebook was talking about how her stepdaughter had just lost a tooth, and how at the daughters biological mom's house, the daughter gets $20 from the tooth fairy everytime she looses a tooth, which I thought was completely RIDICULOUS!!!!  I think I remember getting like a quarter... and I dont know if that was even for every tooth, or just for the first few teeth.  I dont remember getting anything for losing teeth once I got a little older.  So I was curious, what do you think is an acceptable $$$ amount for losing a tooth?? 
My poor kids will certainly NOT be getting a $20 for each tooth!

Beach day

We had a really fun day at the beach with our friends and their son on Sunday!  We had a picnic lunch on the beach and stayed there for about 4 hours, then went to the Hatfield Marine Science Center, then to dinner and we really enjoyed the day!

Jadon and Joshua were so good, we barely heard a peep from them the whole time!  They are very similar in personalities... very laidback, easy going, timid in trying new things... so they just get along great!  They are like two peas in a pod!

Avery had a really good time "playing" frisbie... as did Derek and I!  It was nice relaxing in the sun too!  :) We couldnt have asked for better weather, it was perfect! 

We didnt get home until about 8pm, and both kids had passed out on the way home, they were EXHAUSTED.  Lucky for us, they got into bed about 9:30pm after we'd given them showers and did their usual bedtime routine, and they had no problems going to sleep! Phew!

The only glitch to the day was that Avery only got about a 15 minute nap after we left the beach, so she was not real pleasant at the restaurant. (not like she usually is anyways, but it was worse this time.)

[gallery]

Poll results

Here are the results of the poll I posted a couple weeks back:

Give me some more time	2	33.33%
I'm indifferent	2	33.33%
The new one, hands down!	1	16.67%
Other answer...	1	16.67%
The old one	0	0%
Undecided	0	0%

The one that says "Other answer..." was from Derek, and it said: "i like the one that you like best"- typical answer from him! 

I havent yet decided which one i'm going to stick with yet.... on one hand, i hate to give up the old one because i've been blogging on it since before Jadon's first birthday.  But on the other hand, I like the change and have not been quite as annoyed with Wordpress so far as I get with Blogger. 

Blogger is extremely simple to use, whereas i'm still trying to figure Wordpress out.... i'm having to go through alot of the tutorials on Wordpress, something I didnt need to do on Blogger because it was so easy. 

One of the reasons I wanted to get away from Blogger was because its a pain to put pictures into the posts.  Wordpress has made that much easier!  However, i cant upload my videos into either, so thats annoying.  Not sure why my videos wont upload.

It seems that each has its pro's and con's, and i just have to decide which pro's are better, and which con's are more annoying!

Neighbors

Yesterday was quite a day.  We spent the morning out in the front yard, the kids played and I was doing some yard work/getting sunburned.  I didnt wear sunscreen because I was trying to get rid of the t-shirt suntan that I had gotten 2 days earlier.  I dont want any silly tan lines for my sister-in-laws wedding in 2.5 weeks!  However I ended up with a new tan line instead and sunburned shoulders instead.

So the kids were kindof being pains yesterday... they had gone to bed late late late the night before since they stayed up watching fireworks, so they were both a little out of sorts and testing my patience.  After lunch I set up the sprinkler in the front yard for them to play in, got myself settled in a lawn chair with my ice water and a crossword book... I was prepared to relax while the kids played in the sprinkler.  Neither one wanted to go in it though.  I dont know why Avery didn't want to go in, and Jadon didnt want to go in because Avery wasn't going in.  So, 10 minutes later we were heading back inside.  At that point, I called it a day and put Avery down for nap earlier and Jadon in quiet time, and I was completely exhausted so I also went and took a little 30 minute snooze.

Around 3:30pm, Jadon and I went back out in the front yard to play and clean up my mess from earlier.   Our neighbor a couple houses down came home and was hitching his boat to his truck, and I heard him make a noise that sounded like he'd hurt himself, looked up, and he was keeled over grabbing his hand.  He yelled over to me that he needed help, he had just gotten a really bad injury.  So I ran over, and sure enough, he's sliced his palm up BADLY.  He was dripping blood all over his driveway, but luckily he had applied pressure right away and the bleeding did stop.  I called 911 and asked them to send an ambulance for him, and grabbed a towel for him to wrap his hand in.  He said he didnt want to look at his hand because he was afraid he'd go into shock after looking at it.... I got a glimpse of it when he removed his hand to put the towel on it.... it was mangled. 

I had to stay there with him until the ambulance got there, while Jadon sat in our driveway watching at a distance.  I told him to stay there, not come over.  I didnt want him to see the hand for one thing... he's kindof a weenie when it comes to blood and injuries!

While we waited for the ambulance, the guy started saying things about how he needed to move his boat, then went over to try moving it with his good hand, to which i told him to stop because we didnt want anymore injuries.  Then he said his truck was in the road and it should be moved, and I said we'd just wait until the ambulance got there, it'd be fine until then.  (the paramedics did end up moving his boat and truck for him and closed up his garage.) Then he said that he could probably walk to the E.R. faster... he was not being sarcastic at this point, so I was afraid he was starting to lose it, so I said that the ambulance would be here any time now.  It did get there quickly, but for us waiting there it seemed like a year.  From the time I went over to assess the damage to the time the ambulance left his house couldnt have been more than 15 minutes.

I'm still curious to find out what the damage to his hand is..... if he broke any bones... he was certainly going to have to have lots of stitches, thats for sure!  So that was the second time so far this year that ive had to call 911 for one of our neighbors.  Do I just have really clumsy neighbors?  Or have I just been in the right place at the right time???

Anyways, hoping today is a better day!

Weekend festivities

We had a busy weekend, and it went too fast!  Just like Christmas, the 4th of July comes so fast packed with excitement, then before you blink its done and everyones tiredly crawling into the bed.

Saturday I spent a good portion of the day at Sunnypatch for the artisans boutique.  It was VERY slow, probably since it was  a holiday weekend, so I ended up leaving early, and didnt have any luck selling anything.  Pretty much all few people that came through didnt buy anything. 

Sunday we had friends over for the afternoon, so Jadon and their son Joshua spent the afternoon in our little pool, coloring on the porch with chalk, and throwing "Pop-its" that we had bought from the fireworks stand.

Someone threw quite a display of illegal fireworks at our neighborhood park last night.  It went on for a couple hours, and i'm not sure how they managed to not get caught.  It was pretty though, i'm just glad our house was a block down, and not one of the houses right across from the park!  Jadon really enjoyed the fireworks.  Its nice that he is getting older and can stay up for those special occasions like that.  Avery was very tired about halfway through doing our own fireworks, and by the time i took her inside to go to bed at about 10pm, she was just moaning with exhaustion.  It was hard for her to go to sleep with all the loud fireworks outside though.  She did manage to sleep until about 7:45 this morning, and Jadon slept until 8:45.  So far today she's pretty whiny, so i think she'll be going down for her nap a little early this afternoon!

And here are some pictures from the weekend:

[gallery]

Artisan Boutique

Tonight and tomorrow (friday/saturday) i'll be at Sunnypatch selling my things!   I've been terribly busy trying to get things done in time, and while I have a few things, its not nearly enough as i had hoped to have done.

Here's a preview of some items... some need a little tweaking before i'll be satisfied with them, but you get the idea!  Sorry, the picture of Avery is crooked but i'm too lazy to go fix it right now!

[gallery]

Breaking Point

I dont know how many of you have seen "Me, Myself, and Irene"... its a pretty vulgar movie. Its a comedy.  I dont know if i'd recommend it to anyone at this point.... in my younger days, that vulgarity (is that a word?) did not botherme, but it does now. 

Anyways, the movie is about a small town cop, who is a "nice guy," so nice that everyone takes advantage of him, and although he knows this, he turns the other cheek and doesnt say anything.  Until one day, he finds out that his wife is leaving him and their 3 kids for a midget that she has been cheating on him with.

After this, he reaches his breaking point, and after a few more incidents where people take advantage of him, he finally snaps. He suddenly develops a second personality, one that doesnt take being taken advantage of, and goes on a rampage getting people back when they do things to him. 

Anyways, sometimes I feel like i'm at my breaking point.  Some people in my life just make me want to scream profanity and put my head through the wall!  Instead, I keep my mouth shut.  I know lashing out at these people will not make the situation any better, even though i think it would feel sooooooooooo good to just go off on them!!!

James 1:2-4 says: "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, ³ because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. ⁴ Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."
Then later in verse 12 it says: ^"12  Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him. "

I cannot tell you how often I am reminding myself of this!  Its strange that the people who make me go the craziest are actually in my life to make me a better person.  Seems like a cruel joke, but then again, would I really be able to learn and grow in a perfect world?  Probably not. God knows what He's doing.

Lord, please help me to remember that these impossible people you have placed in my life have been hand picked by You to help me grow as a person and in my faith. Help me to learn from these situations and persevere, for a day will come when they will have to answer to You.   Amen.

Hair today; crazy mommy tomorrow!

Avery's hair keeps on growing, and fast.... but its not getting any longer.  Its just getting more curly and unruly.  (I have unfortunately passed along my annoying, curly hair gene.) Its so difficult to manage because its still so soft and fine, and not quite long enough to put it all in a ponytail.  Its always hanging down her face in her eyes and it drives me nuts, but she wont keep a clip in.  When i put it in little pigtails (which is a chore!  she wont sit still for nothin'!), when she's eating lunch or dinner, she'll play with them with her jelly covered hands.  Then it just turns into a mess of sticky snarls.
I've kindof given up.  I say kindof, because once in awhile it will drive me nuts to the point that i'll put it in pigtails. 

Then of course, when she wakes up in the morning, her hair is a mess, and will stay a mess until her next headwash.

Between her filthy, stained clothes from playing hard outside, and the mess on her head, people probably think she's either homeless, or not cared for very well!

Sometimes it feels like her hair is a completely separate kid that i have to take care of!  Ok, thats a little dramatic, but you get the point:  her hair is a lot of work!  I dont know if all little girls hair is this difficult to manage, but i sure hope its something that will eventually be easier to take care of!

Ouch....

Just found out that our house value has dropped to almost what we paid for it, so we definitely wont be selling for now.  Its depressing.... not the fact that we cant move, but the fact that the value of our house keeps dropping like a rock in the water. I really hate this economy.

Bottom line though, I feel very blessed to have our house, regardless.

Making a switch

So i've grown quite tired of blogger because of errors, or issues that are always going on. I tried to post my previous post with the dad video several times after i'd typed it up, and retyped it, and id get an error message when i'd try to publish. When i post pictures, i end up having to go through the whole post again to move the pictures where they need to be, and i can never upload my own videos, this is a problem that i've had forever. So, bottom line, it takes me much too long to do things- time that i dont have for things like that. So, i created a Wordpress blog that i'm going to try out for a bit to see if i like it any better. So far, its taken some getting used to, but posting pictures was simple and so much faster!
So, here's that address Loveless Family (click on Loveless Family)

I'll add a poll to see what you all 3 of you think. If you like that one better, then i'll probably stay with that from now on.... if you like this one better, then i might stay with this one. ;)

Jadon's 3rd Dentist appt.

Jadon had his 3rd dentist appointment today, and he did great!  He was super nervous, I felt bad for him.  If you remember back, his first appt was pretty much a bomb, he wouldnt even let the hygenist near him.  The second one, he actually got in the chair and let her look around in his mouth.  Today, he got all his teeth cleaned, looked at by the dentist, and even did the xrays!!

I dont know if i've mentioned it before, but one of Jadon's lower baby teeth never grew in, so the xrays were important so we could see if there was a baby tooth even in there, and if there was an adult tooth or not.  We got really good news from the xrays!  He has a perfect set of adult teeth in there, so when he loses his teeth, a new one will grow in where there is no baby tooth!  So, no missing teeth as an adult!  The doctor was REALLY pleased by this, and said only about 10% of the time is there an adult tooth there.  The dentist also said his teeth looked really really good and clean and no cavities, and told us to keep up the good work. :)  I'm happy to hear that!  We try hard to make sure his teeth are clean, we brush his teeth every night, and let him brush in the mornings so he can learn how to do it.  He drinks mostly water with the exception of milk and occasional juice or tea.  And we dont eat alot of candy, so thats not an issue.

So, overall, a good appointment all around!   Time to go vacuum the house before lunch![gallery]

Dad life

In honor of father’s day- Love this video!! Hilariously accurate!!

Derek mentioned a while back about how father’s day is a very insignificant holiday in comparison with mother’s day. I think the reason for it is because back in the day, fathers went to work and mothers stayed home and raised kids all day.
Time’s they are a-changin’ though! Today’s dad’s show much more involvement. Today, parents share equally the responsibility of parenting. I am so glad to live in THIS era where I get to share the parenting experience WITH my husband!
Speaking of his involvement in parenting…. My children are SO blessed, and I hope that when they are older they will see just how lucky they have it. Derek is such a great father! He is as involved at work as he possibly can be with the kids… taking time off to go watch them at swimming when work allows, or other events that they are involved in. When he works in Albany, he does everything he can to try to take Jadon to preschool and pick him up from preschool. He makes it a point to sit down and play with his kids frequently, and it’s obvious how much they enjoy this! One of his greatest joys is making his children laugh.
He works hard to provide for his family. Much of his hard earned income goes towards the children’s lessons, school, and events. He is very caring and loving when his children are sick. He comforts Jadon when he has bad dreams and night terrors. He changes Avery’s poopy diapers without me even asking him to, and doesn’t complain about it.
Wikipedia says this about a father: Involved fathers offer developmentally specific provisions to their sons and daughters throughout the life cycle and are impacted themselves by their doing so. Active father figures have a key role to play in reducing behavior problems in boys and psychological problems in young women. For example, children who experience significant father involvement tend to exhibit higher scores on assessments of cognitive development, enhanced social skills and fewer behavior problems. An increased amount of father–child involvement has also proven to increase a child's social stability, educational achievement, and even their potential to have a solid marriage as an adult. The children are also more curious about the world around them and develop greater problem solving skills.

My children and I are blessed to have such a wonderful man in our lives. Even though we don’t often get a chance to tell him or show him. Derek, you are the glue that holds this family together! Without you, mommy would lose her sanity! ;)
Happy Fathers day! We love you so much!

No more pencils! No more books! No more teachers dirty looks!

Jadon's last day of preschool was today! I felt a little emotional dropping him off for his last day, because it literally feels like just yesterday we were dropping him off for his first day! I suppose i'm going to turn into an emotional sap for everything with my kids.

It was also his snack day today, so he got to be line leader, prayer person for before snack, got to take a toy for show and tell, and all the other perks that come along with it being his snack day.

After preschool was over, the class and the teachers went down the road to the park for lunch and some play (and chatting for the parents.) The kids had a BLAST! The boys were all throwing sand at each other, and Jadon came home with enough sand in his pockets and Avery had enough in her shoes to fill the sand box! It was fun to see Jadon with his friends, and it was nice chatting with their moms. Avery ran. Pretty much thats all she did was ran. From one end of the park to the other end, every once in awhile she'd stop to go down a slide or something, but for the most part she just ran. I meant to take pictures, but completely forgot!

When we left and were saying goodbye to Jadon's teachers, his "head" teacher told me that Jadon never says the word "no", he's always got a big smile on his face, and he's the happiest kid shes seen! Hopefully this means we're doing something right! :)

So now its officially summer break! Jadon gets to go to a friends house for a couple hours tomorrow to kick it off.... it will be his first time at a friends house by himself without Derek or I present and he'll have a blast!

Hi!

I took some time off of blogging. Not on purpose, it just happened that way as things once again were busy.
My wonderful grandparents from Florida were here for a couple weeks, so we tried to spend as much time as possible with them, which wasn't enough time, but its tough working around our activities schedule and naptimes. I'm thankful that we got to see them though, and that they got to see the kids and vice versa.

Swimming lessons ended last week, so this week has been free of swimming, which has been really nice! 4 less trips driving to and from Corvallis this week! Swimming wont start again until towards the end of the month, so we have a couple weeks off from it. And when we resume, Avery will only be going once a week. Jadon will still go twice, but it will be evenings instead.

Jadon's last day of preschool is on tuesday, and I can hardly believe its here! Seems like just yesterday we were dropping him off for his first day, me balling before we even left the driveway! I am very pleased with his growth this year. He is finally FULLY potty trained, something I started to worry would never happen, he's made some friends, and is slowly learning how to write and draw- at his own pace. I say "at his own pace" because we have tried for the last 2 years to help him learn to write and draw, but he has not been interested, and even more he does NOT want help. So, preschool has been good for him in that aspect as well!

Sunnypatch is keeping me busy also! I've got an order for 10 more tutu's this week, plus another custom order today. In addition, once a month they will be doing an artisan's boutique, and people can rent space in the store for 2 days to sell their homemade crafts, so I will be doing that! I'm signed up for both July and August at this point. So, mark your calendars- Friday July 1 from 5pm-8pm, and Saturday July 2 from 10am-6pm i'll be there with my tutu's and wands, and maybe some new additions if I can squeeze in a little time before then for experimenting! I'm open to suggestions if anyone has any thoughts. I've got a few things in mind, but i'd love to hear your ideas also!

Derek has been working alot lately as well, which is good and bad. Good for the extra $$, but bad that we don't get some time with him. :(

We FINALLY had a warm day! Earlier in the week, we reached 83 I believe! It was wonderful! And it was breezy, so it was a very very nice day! We've had a few more nice days, but only in the 70's again (I'm certainly not complaining!!!) Spring might be here finally???
On the downside, the kids spend alot of time in the backyard when its nice..... as a result, it looks like a tornado has ripped through our backyard. Jadon has graffitied all over the place with chalk- the slide, the patio table, the screen door, the fence, the chairs, etc. They are destroying my bushes (for some reason Avery thinks she can sit on the bushes, and Jadon rips leaves off the bushes to make "cakes"), putting rocks all over the yard, sand from their sand table is all over the place, my poor little vegetable seeds that i planted in pots have been plucked and poked and ripped out of the dirt... toys are scattered EVERYWHERE..... sigh. When they go out after a day of rain, they track mud all over the house and carpet. at least i'm getting a little exersize from continually cleaning the house! ;)

Power

Every night we read a children's devotion book with Jadon. Tonights devotion was about the holy spirit giving us power to obey and be a witness. At the end of each devotion, it asks a simple question based on the devotion. So the question tonight was "What power does the holy spirit give us?" Jadon's answer: "electricity" ;)

Listening ears

Jadon may not be a very good listener at home, but we must be doing something right because he seems to be a great listener everywhere else.

Last week at swimming, it was halfway through the spring session, and at that point they do parent teacher conferences. So his swim teacher told me what I figured i'd be hearing- he's still tentative about sticking his face in the water, and he panics a little when he's floating on his back and the teacher lets go of him. But, she emphasized several times that he is a really good listener, and always tries to do everything. :)

Today at soccer, I stayed home with Avery as I had a large list of things that I needed to do, but when Derek and Jadon got home, I got some great news. Jadon's soccer class this term is a bit unruly. There are a couple of boys in the class that are just out of control, and completely disrupt the class. Drives me crazy as the parents really dont do much. Its not fair to the kids that are behaving, its not fair to the coach who has to deal with the little farts, and its not fair to the parents of the well-behaved kids either, since we ARE paying for the class that is constantly being interrupted by them!
So anyways, Derek told me that at the end of class today, the teacher said to the whole class Thank you to Jadon, who listened very well today and followed directions, everyone give Jadon a round of applause... something like that, i cant remember the exact words Derek told me. :)

So, even though he sometimes is a monster with me and Derek, i'm glad to know that he is still being respectful to his coaches and teachers! That makes me proud! Its important to me that he respect his superiors, and since he does so well at that, it gives me hope that one day, my sweet little guy will emerge from this monster costume that he sometimes wears at home! ;)

The last couple days have been beeeeeautiful! We are LOVING this weather! The kids have been outside digging in the dirt almost nonstop... making a complete mess of our backyard in the process. Dirt EVERYwhere. Rocks all over the place. Jadon put dirt in the dryer vent. Avery put dirt in the heat pump. Wait, what? Did I just say heat pump? Yes!!!! We got our heatpump installed yesterday, so this summer will be the first summer that we are not going to be miserable when the heat comes! Yay!!!

Anyways, i'll leave you with a couple pictures.

Avery first thing in the morning with her bedhead.
The last 2 were just taken about 15 minutes ago. The kids are outside enjoying the sunshine and some watermelon. And yes, Jadon has no pants on once again. That kid just hates to wear pants.

Headstrong

My daughter is wearing me out. She is CONSTANTLY on the move, screams about EVERYTHING, and is extremely headstrong (as the pediatrician put it.)

I was just telling Derek about a lady at swimming who's daughter is in Jadons class... she has a son who is around Avery's age. Her son sits quietly, never making a peep, rarely moves from his seat, and I have to envy the girl a little. Jadon was super good like that too when he was a toddler... content to just sit and take in the world around him.

Avery.... very much the opposite. Cant stand sitting still, can't stand being in her carseat since she is strapped down and cant move, and fights being put in her carseat like no other! Has to explore everything and most of the time she explores with her mouth, including food that has been dropped on the floor. (I found her eating a cheeto that was under the bleachers at swimming on tuesday. She was also going for a piece of candy that had been stepped on and squished into the ground, but luckily i caught her before she got to that one.)

Diaper changes have been an extreme challenge lately, she screams and fights them, and many of the times lately, she's ended up with poop in places other than on her bottom (socks, pants, shirt, my hands....) And when I try to distract her with a toy, she takes the toy and chucks it and continues to scream and fight even harder. We just change her diaper on the floor on a changing pad... just easier for us that way.... so, it usually comes down to my leg being placed across her chest and arms to hold her down, and I mentioned already how she hates being strapped down, so this leg on her chest thing does not go over well with her. (I actually read to do that in a book... afterall, she HAS to have her diaper changed, its not optional until she starts potty training.)

And she screams. Oh man does she scream! We've all heard those little girls that scream in such a loud, high pitch that it literally feels like your eardrums are being pierced.... Avery has a scream like that. And she's not afraid to use her scream.... for anything.... for everything.

Its a good thing she is so stinkin' cute, and loves to cuddle with me... because otherwise i'd probably ask if I could trade her in! ;)

Progress!

I'm convinced that seeing progress is the most motivating thing in weight loss/exersize.
A few weeks ago, I mentioned how I wanted to lose 5-10 more pounds in the next month or so.... and I figured 5 was the most realistic goal. Sometime around that same time, I had finally graduated down to an old belt that I used to wear in my skinnier days. I was on the last hole on it, but still! I was excited about it!

Since then, i've lost 4 more pounds! Of course, 2 of those pounds are from when I was sick, so I guess I cant take the credit for those 2 pounds. However, with my consistent 5 days a week of doing pilates/yoga, i'm starting to feel differences. I'm close to going down another hole on my belt... i'm right in between holes. I also tried on a pair of my "goal" capri's last night... a pair that I wore in Hawaii. And they fit great now!

To date, i've lost 32 pounds so far! I'd like to lose about 8 more, and then i'll be satisfied. Its taken me WELL over a year to lose this weight. So I encourage anyone else who is trying to lose weight to keep with it! Its not going to come off quickly if you're doing it the right way with diet and exersize, but it WILL come off!

Really, i've just made small changes. I'm the kind of person who will not stick with something if i'm not happy doing it. So, if I were to go on an intense diet/exersize routine, i'd probably fail within a week. I prefer baby steps. Here are a few baby steps that i've taken.

- healthier eating choices. bye bye potato chips, doritos, cheetos, etc. we've started buying veggie straws from Costco which are a healthier alternative to potato chips. More fresh fruits and veggies, or even dried fruits.
- we avoid eating out. I always tend to overeat when we eat out. By avoiding eating out, we are not only saving money, but my waistline as well! ;) The last time we had fastfood was on Jadon's birthday (march 13th), when he picked Arby's for his restaurant of choice.
- portion control. This has been key for me. I love food, and its sooooooo easy for me to overeat! Food just tastes soooooo GOOD to me! I try to tell myself at meals that when i'm feeling satisfied, but tempted to go for seconds, that the food is not going to grow legs and run away, it will be there tomorrow to eat as leftovers. Or, if there will be no leftovers, I tell myself that there will be another day when I can eat this yummy dish again, its not the last time i'll ever eat it!
- get moving. I dont have much problem with this area lately, since the kids keep me quite busy and rarely do I sit down during the day, except for meals. We've always parked far out in parking lots so we have to walk farther to get to the buildings, we take the stairs when possible as opposed to elevators, we go for evening walks when the weather permits. I try to avoid being lazy... for instance, when there's something I need upstairs, even if its just something little, I try to go get it, instead of being lazy and waiting until I have to go up there for something else.
- exersize... this has been a hard one for me, always has been. I've never been much of an exersize person, hate going to the gym, i'm clumsy and uncoordinated, and I hate hate hate feeling sweaty, unless I am able to take a nice shower afterwards. On top of that, something always seems to hurt.... joints, for example. So doing things like jogging and aerobics usually lead to my knees, or ankles or something hurting. I've found that water aerobics is extremely gentle on the joints, and it keeps me from feeling sweaty since i'm already all wet. I havent done water aerobics for some time now, especially since i've been at the pool 4 days a week as it is, and in the pool already on 2 of those days. I need to start it again, as its a super easy 300 calories burned in an hour!
I started doing yoga to try to help my stress levels. But then a few weeks ago, I fell down on my knee really hard on the cement, got a horrible painful bruise on my knee, and was unable to do yoga since many of the moves require kneeling on a knee. I decided to try pilates again during that time, as I dont need my knees as much for pilates. I used to do pilates before Derek and I got married, but I am actually enjoying it now! I've got 3 different DVD's, so I alternate between them, and the yoga, so I dont get tired of the same video over and over.
- and the most recent step i've taken to a healthier me is- something i never thought i'd be able to do..... dun duh duh dun............. cut out soda! WHAT?!?! Most of you know how much i love soda! There's just something about a carbonated beverage that quenches my taste buds! I only drink a can a day anyways.
When I was sick, i didnt drink a soda for several days. It was then that I decided that i'd try to go all week long without a soda, then allow myself to have a can on saturday and sunday. To my shock, I made it!! I almost gave in several times, but i held strong! In doing this, i've increased my water intake, which has made me feel alot better internally, and by cutting out soda for 5 days a week, i've cut out 850 calories a week! This is my 2nd week of doing this, and i surprisingly have not thought about soda much. Have not really had much craving. I think the reason this works for me, is knowing that i get that reward on the weekends.

Hopefully next time I blog about weight loss, i'll be 8 pounds skinnier! :)

Discipline

Jadon was the sweetest little baby. He was even an irresistably sweet toddler. But he is a monster of a preschooler!

Monday morning after swimming, he turned into a monster. I didn't know who the child was! It was horrible! He's been acting out like this for several weeks now, and we are at a loss. What do you do when timeouts dont work? He's never really been affected by timeouts, but now its getting ridiculous. Sorry Supernanny, regardless of what you think, timeouts DO NOT work for all kids! Unfortunately, my child is one of those kids.

So, I tried to research all other options of discipline before trying something else, its funny to read all these "experts" thoughts on discipline. One expert says to do this, the other expert says dont do it. One says to do such and such, the other expert says not to do such and such because it will damage his self esteem. I should have known thats what i'd find. When we had trouble with Jadon sleeping, I got several different books, did lots of research online, and again, all the experts have different opinions. Funny thing is, they all think that they are the right ones. Well, in the end, none of the books or experts worked for Jadon's sleeping. Time was all that worked, and he eventually figured it out. Now he sleeps very well!

So, I think with disciplining him, it will be alot of trial and error, and eventually we will find what works for us and for him. Also, once again, time will come into play. I know he's just going through a phase right now, and that this will eventually end. I just have to find some extra patience lying around in the meantime!

It was beautiful for a day last week, hovering right under 70 degrees! So of course, we spent lots of time outside!

Jadon did some "trimming" of my bushes with my kitchen tongs. He loves pretending he's the "lawn mower man" (the guy that does the landscape maintentance for our neighbor every monday.)

Avery enjoyed doing...well, pretty much anything. This kid LOVES the outdoors!

Jadon had made a "book" earlier in the day, and he brought it outside to "read" to me.

Of course, Avery loves to do everything her big brother does, so she brought a book outside too.

This made big brother very upset. Afterall, it WAS HIS idea! So it led to an all out hissy fit, and he ended up in his room screaming at the top of his lungs and lost his opportunity to go play at the park that evening after dinner... so it was quite unfortunate that such a lovely day turned sour so quickly.

Since we've had such a busy schedule lately, I often forget to slow down and enjoy the kids. In doing so, I've also been forgetting to let Jadon do more big boy things around the house... like get things for himself that he couldnt before, or help me out with things in the kitchen. He is growing up, and I forget that he can do things like this for himself now. So, the other day I thought it would be a good idea to let him try using my Swiffer Sweeper Vac (LOVE this product by the way!) on the entryway floor. Well, he was obviously proud, and he did a good job and had alot of fun doing it, so he has been asking us after every meal if he can vacuum. For the most part, he gets the bulk of the crumbs on the floor, so I can live with the remaining few left on the floor. Besides, this really does help me out!! And i'm glad to give him the opportunity to feel like a big boy and a big helper.

Jadon came home from preschool on thursday with a wrapped mother's day gift for me, and strict orders not to open it until mothers day. Well, the other day he told me "you cant touch the glass, but you can touch the wood."
This morning, first thing, he said "its mothers day, and you can open your present now!" Well, it turned out to be a picture frame with a picture of him in it. It was the cutest thing i've ever seen! Best mothers day gift a mom could get from her kids is the ones that they make! Then he said "I love you mommy." To which I almost started balling, but held it together. ;)

Happy Mothers Day Alicia

Hey Babe, Happy Mothers Day!!! Surpise, SHMILY! :)

I want to take this tell you what a wonderful wife, and mother to my children you are. God has blessed me so many ways, but one of the best blessings I have EVER been given, is the blessing of being married to you. You are simply put amazing. You have so much love to give and you never seem to run out. You are always there whenever the kids or I need you, even when the kids are running around screaming, bickering, getting into things, all the while you try to prepare dinner and clean at the same time.

You go through things daily that I can't even begin to imagine having to do with the kids, and yet you always have something good to say about the day, you keep our house clean and tidy, you always have dinner ready when I get home, and the kids are taken care of, you are like Super Woman, only better. I don't know how you do it, but you have a strength that few people I know can muster, I certainly can't!

In addition to 24/7/365 super mom, you are also a entrepreneur with your Tutu business. I am so proud of the work you have put into that, and I think you make a wonderful product. You dedicate a lot of time to your tutu's, and I think you will continue to be successful.

I love your support of me. Sometimes I work late, nights, weekends, etc., and while I know you don't necessarily like it, you still don't hold it against me, instead you are there for me. You are filling in with the kids when I can't be there to give you a break. You love me and support me in-spite of the fact that what I do for a living, calls for working some extra hours or off hours. :)

One of the things that I love most about you, is that you are God fearing. You love God, and I can see Him blessing all that you do, and being with you, carrying you through the tough times, especially those times when I'm at work and can't help with a bad day with the kids. I know that God has planned from the beginning for you and I to be together and I know we will be forever.

Alicia, you are the love of my life, you make me the happiest man on earth every day, over and over again. I am so thankful for all that you do for me, even if I don't always say or show it. I wish you a great Mother's day.

I love you!

Forever yours,

Derek

Frustrations

Jadon has really really REALLY been pushing our every buttons lately. He has been very easily angered and frustrated in the last month or so, and the way he expresses his frustration is by screaming or hitting. Its not a tantrum, this is obvious frustration.
It seems as though everything sets him off.... something as silly as me changing Avery's poopy diaper, and then going to the kitchen to wash my hands, will set him off and before I know what is happening, he's exploding into a fit of rage, yelling at the top of his lungs... not words typically, just noise.

Its to the point where I am mentally and emotionally drained, and I think Derek probably is too. Something has to change, for both mine and Derek's sake, and for the kids' sake.

I know that 4 is a difficult age. And I know that nothing we do will "cure" this... I know he'll just grow out of it eventually. But in the meantime, we can hopefully do something to minimize these "episodes."

We ordered him a responsibility chart, and we are going to have a little chat with him. I talked to him a little today, asking him what he was feeling, and he said he was frustrated. And I asked what he was frustrated about, and he said Avery. So I dug a little deeper, and asked what it was about Avery that frustrated him. And basically I got that he is frustrated that she doesnt get in trouble for things that he gets in trouble for. This is something we suspected bothered him to begin with, and it is completely understandable for him to feel that way. We've explained to him before that Avery is still too young to understand the consequences that bad behavior result in, but when she gets a little bigger, she will have the same consequences that he has and will get in trouble for the same things he does. Its hard for him to understand that she doesnt understand yet. Obviously there's not much we can do about this situation.

One thing we have found that diffuses his freakouts faster, is when we remain calm and understanding.

I hope that time and a few little changes will help us to better deal with this drama that he's presenting.... Lord knows theres plenty of other drama with ADULTS that we have to deal with, we dont need such drama from Jadon too!

Boring

I'm pretty sure I have the most boring blog EVER. I have nothing important or deep to talk about... the best I can come up with is detailed stories of our illnesses! Sorry! If anyone actually reads it, then thank you! ;)

I cancelled Avery from soccer. Why? Well, because we have to get a heat pump so that we can survive the summer in the house. If we dont have a/c, then the house has gotten up to 84 degrees before, and that was on the bottom floor, so imagine the top floor where our beds are! In the last few years, we've had a window unit in our office that has kept the house at a reasonable temperature, however freezing in the office. Now that we no longer have an "office" (remember, Avery moved to the office), we have no where to keep the window a/c unit. Therefore, we are investing in a heatpump! So, in an effort to save some money for that, I cancelled Avery's soccer. It was really chaotic anyways, and she's so young. She'll be fine if we start her out when she's older like we did with Jadon. Besides, she is really excelling in swimming!

And speaking of swimming, Avery started a new session of swimming. But, instead of being in Waterbabies, she is now in Waterkids, which is for ages 18-36 months. I'm so glad she's moved up now! We had our first class on tuesday, and its more fast paced than Waterbabies, and the parents really get into it alot more, and she gets to learn some more things, rather than just continuing with the same things she's already learned. She did really well on her first day! She seems to really love swimming, and I mean this seriously. She seems to love going underwater and swimming, which is so strange to me!

Jadon started his level 2 swimming lessons on monday. Hasn't gone so well. He still isnt fond of dunking his head under water, and so now he has been only doing half dunks, which isnt going to cut it in level 2. In order to get to level 2, he had to do 10 FULL dunks (head completely under water), and he did such a great job, I was so proud of him! But now he has a new teacher, (who he keeps saying he's nervous about.) She doesnt push him quite as much as the last teacher. In other words, she doesnt correct his dunks when he only does them up to his eyes, instead she tells him good job, or whatever. This is great! Encouragement is ALWAYS important, especially with Jadon, however, if he's not being corrected, he will totally take advantage of that. So, i'm frustrated, and not sure exactly what to tell him. I told him that even though he is in level 2 now, he still has to do his dunks all the way.

Anyways, time to put the kids to bed!

Back to the grind

On saturday, I was wondering how in the world I was going to have enough energy to care for the family and continue with our daily schedules. I was still thinking that on Sunday as well. This cold has really wiped us out! I kept thinking that it was just me, and since i've had a week off from exersizing.... but, Jadon's been taking naps, which is rare, so I feel like this cold has taken its toll on he and I and Avery. Derek has managed to stay clear of this cold so far... knock on wood!!

Anyways, monday came and went, and I survived. I was going to take a nap in the afternoon when the kids were, but got tied down with working on other things, and the nap just didnt happen. Today, tuesday, much of the same, except that instead of nap, I attempted some yoga. Its difficult to do when you cant breathe well through your nose, since alot of yoga is focused on nose breathing! So I struggled with not only the breathing, but the poses as well, which was really frustrating considering I was doing so well until a week ago when the cold settled into our family. I just feel like this cold has left me feeling really weak. So now I feel like i'm starting at the bottom again. How is it that just a week off can "hurt" you so much??

On the other hand, I stopped drinking my daily can of soda when I had that stomach thing going on, and i'd like to continue with that! So, i'm going to try to make it through each week without a soda, then reward myself with a little on the weekends. This way, i'm not completely depraiving myself, which i've tried before and never works! Wish me luck!!

In conclusion, i'd like to thank my wonderful husband for holding down the fort while I was ill thursday night-sunday! He did such a great job caring for 3 sickies, and keeping the kitchen clean and the house picked up!
Thank you sweetie!! I love you! :)