Epiphany?!

Garrett has been sick for a few days now. He's miserable and has spent most of today, thankfully, sleeping which I'm sure will give him a huge boost in the directions of getting better! Chelsea is feeling what I assume to be cabin fever. She's restless and whiny and almost intolerable. I found a few good kiddy websites geared toward getting your child/children ready for preschool. I tried to get Chelsea to do some of the worksheets with me but she shunned me and ran away crying!

Yesterday we went to Chuck-E-Cheese. We occasionally do things with our mom's club, Chi Rho Kids. This event was suppose to be last week but was postponed because of the snow. Then with the kids being sick I almost decided to stay home but I'm so glad I didn't. When I was a kid the Chuck-E-Cheese near our house was so huge and even when I was in 6th Grade and helped a neighbor of mine take her babysitting kids I was easily overwhelmed. That was my main fear when planning this trip to Chuck-E-Cheese. There were few people there. The food came quickly and the kids ran free without having to worry about someone snatching them or them getting lost in the crowd. Over all a very pleasing day. I will be putting pictures in that I got while there soon so come back for the updated version.






I read a few other blogs and in my most favorite written by the comical Ashlee Wheatherington I saw her pictures she had just put in her room based off the Twilight movie. It was the forest from the newest Twilight and it made me think.....
I use to be so negative and closed minded about the rest of the world. I would quickly retort things like, "I hate the rain...", "I would never live _______ because of the forests and lay of the land.", etc. I remember John's mom telling me once, as I commented on Chelsea being so loud all the time, how I have really mellowed out in my upping of years! I didn't notice!!! Now I find myself longing for the quiet, serene landscapes of places like the Northwest. I find that I don't mind the rain quiet as much although I still mind the smell the earth leaves after a rain. I found this picture that I want to put up as a wall mural once we get our own place. It would make a nice focal point of the room.

Other than that, I really haven't anything new to talk about. I am going to go make dinner. New Orlean's Rubbed Chicken with apricot-mustard sauce and a side of creamy spinach and veggies. It should be good. I'm excited to try it because I've never made it before and it's new from my Biggest Loser Cookbook. More soon!

Getting ready to start a whole nother month

So it's budgeting time again and as I sit here, listening to Garrett whine and Chelsea talk to her dinosaur that eats play-doh, I'm not so surprised that it's already March. With all the stresses and bustling of everyday life it's no wonder we've wandered our way through a quarter of the year already. Yes, I said it. A QUARTER OF THE YEAR!

Today appears to be turning out to be "one of those days". Let me set the setting for you. Garrett is sick and up most of the night. It's now a little after 9 and the lake is so still like a mirror that you can see the birds flying overhead and the trees that loom on the other side of the lake. The fog is lifting but the sun is refusing to shine. It's eerie in a calm sort of way.

10 Things that happened this weekend:
1. Got a rocking chair and Nortictrack Bike from Kevin and Becky for free
2. Got a pop-up camper from Lance for free
3. Cleaned out the car
4. Got all my work done for the week in only 2 hours
5. Got helathy groceries for me to try out more new recipes
6. Spent tons of time outside with the kids at the park and at the house
7. Move the sandbox up to the porch and got new sand
8. Had date night at the movies
9. Worked out hardcore
10. Heard a shooting by Twisters

First to start off with the free items we got. Kevin and Becky, the neighbors, called on Saturday and asked if we wanted to come look at these big items they were planning on taking to Goodwill. We took the rocking chair, which is gorgeous and comfy, and the exercise bike. Becky never uses it now that she has an eliptical. I can't wait to get our new house so we can incorporate all this in our new place.
Also Lance, a man that works with Ray, said that in exchange for Ray helping him build a shop we could have the camper. It's a pop-up 4 bedroom camper that looks tiny but is actually really spacious. It has a stove, fridge, eatting area, hookup for tv and electric, a showering tent, ac, etc. I think we might take it out for a spin on the 15th check to Citico Creek.
Last night since Ray and Ellie had a dinner party John and the rest of us went to Twisters for dinner and icecream. As we got there and were getting out of the car we heard a shooting and tons of screaming. I said, "John, is that screaming?" He wasn't sure either and I said, "It sounds like a death house over there!" Like in the movies. We didn't think anything more of it and we went in to eat. As we were eatting we saw tons of police cars and ambulance and once we were done we went over to Movie Gallery because they have a police scanner and they said that there was a murder over there!
All the rest of the stuff is pretty self explanatory. We saw Shutter Island at the movies, I just need to vaccum out my car, I got to workout for over an hour instead of just the regular 20 minutes because with Garrett being sick and John being a weenie with no sleep they napped.

A lot of interesting first....

I wrote in my last post about John's "neighbor" and how his dad instigated her coming over. Yesterday while I was making dinner for Chelsea and I and walking up the drive I saw this girl with her little girl. Yup, you guessed it. Ashley and her daughter. Everything that I had heard about her from school days and what not was nothing short of awful. And it turns out that she's really nice and a sweet girl. I knew that I was being stupid to allow nasty feelings to rise up in me and really it boiled down to the fact that whenever there is someone that comes over that use to know everyone before I came along it makes me feel left out. Childish, I know but I can't help it. Well she and her little girl, Jayda, are coming over again on Saturday because John's parents invited them for the day. And really I don't mind because she really is nice and someone I could see myself being friends with.

Alright....Today has been wonderful. The sun is finally out and even though I love the snow and wintery months I missed getting to see the sun and the feeling of Spring! The kids finally got to get out of the house and do something fun. We were going to go to the park but when we got to Oak Ridge only the park had snow left on it! OF COURSE IT WOULD. So we ended up going to the Books-A-Million because they have a great train set that Chelsea loves to play with.

Also today while at the book store I bought two books. I got the initial Biggest Loser Cookbook and it's amazing. Also I found a book about how to have the perfect husband by Friday. It's a super funny book and really a read that should be required for all young couples to read. I've only gotten through the first chapter but I can't wait to keep going on into the book to find out things I can do to improve my marriage. Well I'm off to bed. I have a great day and what a better way to end it than by keeping it short!!!

No matter how bad it gets......

A lot of people don't know this but in the 5 years of my marriage most of those years have been less than appealing. John and I started off with a lot of issues where we lost the people we fell in love with and became people that we never wanted to turn into. Because of what we morphed into we fought all the time, disliked being around each other and did things to intentionally hurt the other. Not ideal conditions for love and family!!! Then I decided to make a personal change and become happier with the person I am and the love I had and in return I lost my negative attitude and became more loving to those I love. I stopped being so nasty to John and the kids and started living my life with them, which is what they all deserved from the beginning.

Well yesterday after John got home his dad was talking to him about this neighbor girl, that John use to hook up with, that was back in town. John had said that he saw her on the side of the road (probably back here by the house- neighbor remember)and Ray said that he told her what John drove so she could keep an eye out for him. Ray had said that she wants to come by and "catch up" with John and that she wants to meet the kids and see what I was all about and all that. I had a laps of getting myself down by getting in my own head. It was stupid and childish and even though I'm still irritated that John's dad was pushing that she wait for him and comes over and hang out with our kids, etc. I know it was stupid to get irritated like he would leave me because an old neighbor was back in town.

It was retarded and I knew that it wasn't a big deal the moment I heard it. And I could have kept all that info to myself and not made myself sound stupid but writing all this was to prove that you can change things for the better and that John and I use to be in need of work not only on ourselves but on our perception of marriage and now that we are doing much better at that, things are better with us as a couple.

On another note I have been yearning for another baby. Not to actually have one right now but to know that in the near future like in another year or so we could possibly try for another. So I talked to John about it and sometimes he says he doesn't want to think about it and sometimes he say yes it would be nice. I have seen everyone getting pregnant and having these little bitty babies and it just makes me so sad that my kids are getting so much older. Now the little bitty baby part of all that only lasts for a week or two and then the hard works sets in and you have to deal with kids fighting, teething, not sleeping, not eating, etc. I like kids just born and then those that are already potty trained. I love my kids and I love all their milestones but my kids tend to be more on the aggressive side and grouchy side of childhood. My thinking behind all that is that if they are mean and grouchy now they will be super sweet when they get older! We'll have to test that hypothesis as the years go on!

Also we didn't get to pick orders this month like they said we would so we have to wait until the first or second week in March like they told us initially. I just really want to know where we are going to get to go. Once we know I can start looking in to preschools for Chelsea and see about the base daycare for Garrett and then I can plan for work and free time and finding a house, etc. I can't wait.

Started off so Sweet and Ended so Sour =/

So I may have mentioned the last time I wrote that John had a 4 day weekend for Presidents Day and Valentine's Day. So my mom had Friday off like usual and decided to come up and watch the kids so John and I could have our Valentine's Day early. We initially planned on going to the Melting Pot, voted #2 most romantic Restaurant in Knoxville, but of course they were booked solid for the whole weekend (probably weeks and weeks in advance!). So we decided to make a spontaneous run up to Ober Gatlinburg to go skiing! I hadn't been skiing since my Freshman year which really wasn't that long ago, but......I was super terrible at it then so I could only imagine how awful I'd be at it now.
John took me up to the highest Professional run there first!!!! Didn't let me have any training or anything first. For God Sakes I couldn't even make it back up the kiddie hill before we went down the first time. I was terrified. It was a 10 min ride up the mountain - farther than the picture can show- and it took us around 30 minutes to get down. Needless to say we stuck to the kiddie trail after that! After a few goes at all that we had gotten a lot better and more comfortable with where we were. So it was all wonderful in the end.
We had so much fun! It was honestly one of the best things we've done since we got married and it tops things like eating in the Space Needle for our anniversary to taking a day trip boat ride up to Canada.

It all went down hill yesterday. We had a super crappy day. I got to sleep in till almost 9 which was the only good thing. I swear every time I try to sleep in John gets the grumps. So he suggested that we go to the TN Aquarium in Chattanooga....Garrett fell asleep early so I took that time to clean up the house, start laundry and wash the sheets then get everyone ready to go. We went to Mr. Gatti's for lunch which was alright and then everyone fell asleep in the car for the rest of the drive, until Garrett woke up right before my exit to get off the interstate. So he cried hysterically for about 10 min and John was no help. He decided to turn around and sit in his chair and just "let him cry it out". Then because I was irritated with all the crying and no help, he decided to not help me with directions in a completely new place that I've never been to or even seen, said that we should go home, yelled at me, etc. So I was irritated the whole way through the aquarium. Chelsea was also grumpy, not wanting to stay with us in the dark, not wanting to look at anything or do anything. Then John didn't want to eat after we got done at the aquarium (5pm) but made me stop at Best buy so he could look for stupid Cd's about some guy rapping making fun of hillbilly's. He got mad that no place had it so I took Chelsea to McD's. Of course he got something to eat! And the whole way home proceeded to tell me that I complain "all the time" and that I'm "never happy". HA! Crazy, right?! He said that all I do is yell at Chelsea and that because I don't bring in money (yet) that I spend too much time on the computer. So the whole 2 hour drive home was spent arguing and when we got home we gave the kids a bath. He got in with them so I went upstairs to make the bed (washed the sheets as said before). Came back to get the kids thinking they'd be done and he said, "What are you doing out there anyway?" I said nothing. He said, "well take him and get back to your facebooking or whatever." I said, "Yeah cause making the bed and doing more laundry is facebooking!"

Seriously a ridiculous day. I just wanted to run away and cry cause I'm so angry and don't know what to do. I hate arguing and having to ask for help. It completely zeros out the fun I had yesterday. Crappy huh?!

So I wrote an email to my mom telling her of my miserable day and how even being able to spend time with our whole family didn't make the day better and like she always does, she tells me that I should just let it roll off my back. I'm a little too prideful for that and sometimes I wish I had the strength of character to do just that and act like it never happened. Maybe today will be a little better and I can say at least we had 2 out of 3! We'll see. I hope you all enjoyed this display of natural married life! At least this is how it is for us sometimes. I hope everyone has a very Happy, Love-filled Valentine's Day.

Just another day.

This past week has been full of ups and downs. Early on Monday I got terrible heel pain from working out and now have to make a dr's appointment for it. Then on Tuesday we got to see Christie and Eden for Chi Rho Kids/Mom's Club where we frosted cupcakes and all the kids played. I got to touch Baby August baby belly! He's going to be so super sweet. Then that night we stayed at my mom's house in town because it was suppose to snow and it was a better idea to be snowed in at a family member's house instead of facing the weather while driving with the kids. We left early on Wednesday morning, drove through Oak Ridge to have lunch with John and then came on home. Now it's Thursday and John has another late night with work but has tomorrow off. It's getting closer and closer to Valentine's Day and we still don't have any plans and really for us it's just another day. I don't love him more on V-Day than I do any other day of the year. So who knows what we will do or not do.

Finally our first real sunny day after weeks of rain. I never realized how much I missed the sun! John was suppose to be able to pick orders yesterday but couldn't so maybe he will be able to today. Seeing the sun makes me think that we will get something wonderful if he picks today. Its cold but beautiful. It feels like a good day to make decisions.

Garrett is cutting 4 teeth and isn't eatting or sleeping like normal. It drives me crazy and it's definitly the worst stage of entering Toddlerhood. There is nothing worse than having your baby act normal and then all of a sudden they are out of whack for weeks because of teeth! It's like you can't enjoy their childhood for at least the first year because you start of the exhausted new parent, then you are working with schedules, then it's the transition to solid foods, then teeth! I mean seriously! And in between all that is learning to roll, crawl and walk.

Lately Chelsea has been extra lovey on everyone. It's nice and also unexpected. Everytime Chelsea is lovey, Garrett is super grouchy! It's like their normal personalities decided to change bodies with the other kid! Really great stuff. She took her first shower yesterday evening....and cried the entire time! She has a fear of water in her face so I think the sprayer was just over the top.

I had a dream today about running shorts. Ellie, John's mom, went to this store and came home with like a giftbag type deal. It was like the Estae Lauder deals where if you buy so much worth of their product you get the free gifts. Anyway, in her giftbag was an entire pair of running clothes, sun glasses and headbands! It was amazing so I said I liked the pattern of the outfit she had and she said, "You can't wear this, it's a medium! And the pattern is pretty. I don't know that they'll have it if you go to get one." It was almost mean but just made me want to go to the store. So I went in with John and he was hitting on me (my own husband) and I was so concerned with asking about this running giftbag! SIGN?! Maybe.

Like a Baker

Today was our Cookie Making Day. Tomorrow is our CRK/Mom's Club get together and we were making cookies for everyone for Valentine's Day. We bought all the stuff needed like cookie cutters, special glitter icing and sprinkles! Chelsea only cares about eatting the dough instead of cutting them out or decorating them. So I had to do all the fun stuff and she just ate them! They turned out beautifully I think. And we both got the best of the cookie world!!!

There was another act of nudity in our house today...from the same little boy!!! He has now figured out how to strip down so I find him running around here like an exhibitionist. GAH. Other than that and standing on my feet for hours to get these cookies done so the icing would be hard enough to bag them tonight, there hasn't been much else going on. I'm just bored out of my mind staying in this house all the time. During the day it isn't so bad because it's just me and the kids here. But around 4 or 5 Ray comes in and then Ellie is usually next home and then John. It just gets old having to stay in someone elses house all the time. Chelsea has been told numerous times today to stay out of this or don't do that and I get tired of hearing someone who doesn't really care about her tell her to do things or not do things.

We get to pick orders this Wednesday and I'm excited to see what will be open and what John will put in for. I'm sure he will pick Washington as his first pick and maybe even his second and third if there are enough openings. I was hoping for Japan and I'm sure there will be tons open for there since most military people don't pick overseas, for whatever reason. I know that the opportunity wont come around again for us to live overseas and I am excited to possibly get the chance to have our kids live some place where most people aren't able. But we wont be able to know for sure where we get to go for another month at least. Hopefully we'll know something soon since we are going in sooner than expected! I'm really nervous about John being resentful if we get to go to Japan. He has voiced his thoughts about not wanting to go anywhere other than WA but knows how unrealistic it is to expect that he will really get it especially since there aren't many spots open for his job there. But when we talked about coming from San Diego to here I said I wanted it for our kids because our parents were old and we wouldn't be able to come home that often.

So until another day......

Superbowl Sunday!

GO COLTS! Sitting here watching replays of the plays and revelling in the awesomeness! Ellie gave Chelsea her fairy Princess outfit to help the Colts win the bowl. She is parading around here doing her Abby Cadaby chants and I think that every little bit helps when it comes to football!
Isn't she adorable?! Garrett is also loving the game. He is crying at this very minute and wiping his baby boogers on my cheek but he has been sitting to watch the first 10 points be won by the COLTS! It's a football kinda house tonight and I have to say I didn't see it coming! John always talks about Garrett being a linebacker in highschool.

Today has been good. The kids have been playing and using imagination. We had tea parties, played hide and seek in Nini's room, took our bath, ate good dinners and now hopefully getting ready for an easy transition to bed! Till tomorrow everyone! I have to go snuggle my babies =D

WIC day - Baby nudity

Today has been seemingly better than usual. My mom came to stay like she does most Thursdays, so I held off on going to do WIC stuff until she could go with me. While I was taking the time to lean over the sink and wash my hair I had Garrett sitting in his walker. Chelsea informed me, once I came downstairs, that Garrett was crying and she tried to "take care of him" by picking him up out of his walker....as far as she got was getting his shirt off! So I took him off and went back to drying my hair and then he came in naked! I thought for sure that I was going crazy. It turns out that once he was out he took off his diaper (it happens some mornings) and they were playing "catch". We call it ball in our house because he is just learning words so by calling it what it is he better understands what he is playing with.

We got our pedicure that we'd been waiting on for weeks and Chelsea got her toes painted. She picked purple with sparkles. TOTALLY CHELSEA. She soaked her toes and got all lotioned up and then stayed steady to get her toes painted. Never mind that it all came off within 10 minutes because she moved around in the chair trying to dry them. We still tell her they're beautiful. Then I did my WIC shopping, which is always awful. They give you these checks with limited numbers of items on them and then they have people with limited WIC knowledge to enter all the items. Sometimes things get missed and sometimes you can't find the things you need and it's just an all around hassle.

Once I finished my shopping I had to go drop some items off to my brother on the other side of town and it turns out it was his lunch break and I got to spend a whole hour with him, my mom, and my kids. It was a nice little change. Then I got home and the kids were sleeping and stayed asleep long enough for me to get all the groceries in the house while the rain was pouring down. Then they played and ate and are finally in bed. The bad part for this whole day is that John called around 5 and said he wouldn't be home until after 11. =C He said that he has to take a depper home after the PT meeting and then go to the hotel to train/workout/prep the guy that he put up for medical tomorrow. It reminds me how tough a job he really has and it really interfers with our family plans and the balance we have with out kids!

Picture this.

So today has been a seemingly great day so far. The kids have been getting up earlier than normal this whole week and I think it makes all of us feel better than when we sleep in till 8. Chelsea gets to see daddy in the morning and she goes to bed more willingly at night.
I was thinking about this very thing today, she doesn't get to see John all that often during the week because he gets home only an hour before bed sometimes and sometimes he doesn't get home until after bedtime. And when she starts school she will need to be up and ready before we have to leave so maybe this getting up thing isn't so bad.

Also first thing in the morning Garrett gets up and strips down to his birthday suit. I'm sure he loves the fact that he is so smart now and can take off his diaper to expose what God, and mom, gave him. And to my surprise, Chelsea went up stairs voluntarily to play by herself. This never happens and I was so thankful for the quiet time. Now, of course, they are both up and down stairs and beating up on eachother or instigating yelling battles. RIDICULOUS. Now we're back to the regular ol' daily tears and fights between the kids. And here I thought today would be different.

Another great thing that happened today was I sent John a text saying that today was going great and then asked him how his day was going. He sent this exact text to me, "Not for me. My guy on deck has an std." I couldn't help but laugh so hard because I didn't expect him to say anything like that to me. I mean not cool because this is for goal and when goal isn't reached by a station, the people have to make a weekend trip to Nashville for "training". Really that means they have to go for a whole day and get yelled at for not doing what they are suppose to be doing. Not good.

Today for lunch we had my Cabbage-Stuffed Strata. It's equivilent to a cabbage roll only in casserole form. It was delicious though. Chelsea insisted that we eat off her tea party supplies but really it was two plates and one set of utensils so I used my own supplies!

They are calling for snow again this weekend. I didn't hear anything about the groundhog till last night but I could have guessed he wouldn't call for Spring. Why would he?! Stupid Groundhog. It's alright though. I like snow. The only bad thing is that living on the lake keeps the temperture pretty solid because it's so deep. It means that we don't get weather as bad as it might be up the road and the snow doesn't stick around for long! Hopefully we have enough to make a snow man or something this weekend. Last week it just turned into slush and John was so disappointed he didn't get to sled.

As I'm writing I'm looking through the Athleta magazine and Garrett is pulling at a hole in my pants. Well it's looking like it's about naptime. Hopefully I get a workout in today. I feel a change coming on. My horoscope hasn't been very helpful so I am going on gut feeling. Hopefully more good new soon.

With our powers combined........

The house if full of noise again after the short break while Garrett napped. I have two loads of laundry rotating around either the washer or dryer. There are toys scattered around the back of the tv room and Garrett's crumbs from lunch are still on the floor just waiting to get cleaned up. I've ranked common household chores by way of which I find to be most appealing to me:
Vaccuming
Dishes
Cleaning Windows
Cleaning Kitchen/Appliances
Laundry

When I think of all that needs to be done in a day, it sometimes makes my head spin. John use to tell me that whatever needed to be done in the house was my job to take care of because he was the one making the money! I use to hate having to do any sort of cleaning because it seemed that to be the only one to cleaned the house but not the only one who lived in the house was unfair and unrealistic. I think that might have been selfish thinking on my part.I understand the logic behind, "you stay home, therefore you do the grunt of the work".

My friend, Tara, does the majority of her housecleaning on Mondays. So you can always count on the fact that she is unavailable on Mondays. I envy the fact that she is one of those scheduled people who has a set plan for the day. Everyday feels like a cleaning day to me.

Some things I need to get done to feel like I'm more on a schedule would be:
1. Get Garrett to sleep in his own bed at night
2. Making every meal at a set time (b:8, L:12, S: 2 D:5, etc)
3. Scheduled "quiet time" -- we already do nap time at 12:30 and lunch is usually a little before 12
4. Set Bath time
5. Set Bed time
6. Real free time activities

Our day usually looks like this: Garrett up by 7-7:30, Chelsea up by 7:30-8, Breakfast and cartoons around 8:30, free time, lunch at 11:30-12, nap time 12:30-2 (which I either do a workout or just work), 2-5 free time, Dinner around 6, when it's a bath day bath around 7:30 and kids in bed by 9 or 9:30. The worst part is that there are a lot of "or's" in that schedule. Even with things running like that most of the time I feel like I do my kids a huge injustice by allowing them to watch cartoons after naptime or make them do other things while I try to get some work in. My mom likes to tell me that I need to be more scheduled for the mental health of my kids but never offers me an example of how I could improve. I feel like if things aren't at the same time everyday than I am thrown off course.

I hope that I'm not the only one in this battle of the scheduling book! Christi, the best mother I know has set things to do everyday. Her daughter does arts and crafts, reading time, etc. My daughter can't stop squealing long enough to hear a word I say. I think I might force Christi to start a bootcamp and we'd lable it "learning time with Christi" or something. She could be a like a teacher just without the school setting!! I think I will propose this offer to her and see where we get. *EVIL FACE!*

Green with ENVY

I have some free time to sit and think since Ray is out in town and Garrett is sleeping. Lately I have felt very unscheduled and completely envious of those who seem to keep things together after having two kids (or even one child for that matter)!
I recently started a seperate blog -- because I felt I was only focusing on the aspect of working out and living a healthy life in my SAHM blog instead of the everyday life I live. So I am taking some key notes from Christi, one of my girl-friends and fellow mothers, and trying to simplify and really focus on what this blog is suppose to be about.

Now back to my unscheduled-ness. When Chelsea was a smaller little kid she seemed to be easily scheduled and our days seemed to be a lot of the same activities which made for a more mentally sane day. Now with Garrett here I think that both kids are on different schedules and it makes me crazy.
I have to find a way to set up a schedule easy enough for both kids to follow that also allows me to get done what needs to be done during the day around the house. It might be more complicated now because we live in my in-laws house and that means we can't do things like we would normally do at our house. I am told that I am not allowed to give the kids a bath everyday because of using too much water. And I am told that they need to be quiet by 8pm because the news comes on. And I could go on forever on things that we aren't allowed to do in this house.

I am going to finish this post later today so I wont continue to be negative. I might want to take this time to get some laundry done! I've been denying the fact that it is piling up and needs to be done.