So good, but so bad!

So, today is my 30th birthday. Betty B. was nice enough to surprise me with Krispy Kremes this morning. And, mmmmmm, were they ever good. They were so good, in fact, that I ate 6 of them today (luckily, the kids and Betty at the other half of the box for me). I only ran 25 minutes on my elliptical, but probably should have done an hour and a half considering what I've consumed today. Ah, well, I don't have to be good every day, do I?

My sweet husband also surprised me with flowers this morning, the delivery of which caused quite a ruckus. Lucy was in her bouncy in the bathroom with me and Ross was in the play kitchen when the doorbell rang. I was waxing my eyebrows at the time. I had, unfortunately only finished one. Now, when you wax your eyebrows, sometimes some wax and lint from the cloth strips gets left on your skin. I was frantically trying to wash it off (and ignore the fact that I looked like a complete idiot with one eyebrow waxed nicely and the other as bushy as an old mans) when I realized that Ross was opening the door yelling "grandma". Now, I knew it wasn't Betty because she was on her way to pick Reid up from preschool. So, I lit out of the bathroom as fast as I could so that Ross wouldn't either let a complete stranger in or leave the house with a complete stranger. So, I answer the door, collect the flowers and am trying to get back in the house as Ross is trying to get out. I distinctly remember saying to him, "step back, please, so that your toes don't get pinched in the door". He steps back and I shut the screen door -- ON HIS HAND! He moved his feet, but had his hand in the crack of the door. This, of course, led to a massive amount of screaming (on his part) and a little crying (on mine because I felt so bad). I actually thought I might have broken his fingers for a few minutes. So, I got him a baggie of ice, which he absolutely refused to put anywhere near his sore fingers. However, he was fascinated and promptly stopped his screaming to play with the bag of ice. Fine, whatever -- the ice fixed the problem (even if not in the way I expected). I tell you, it is NEVER dull around here.

Ah, yes, and here is a picture of the flowers. I really like the color combo on these and the fact that the vase is funky.

Some pictures of my little girly (and her bows, too).

So, today I thought I'd share a few of the 497 pictures I've taken so far this month (those are the ones that didn't get deleted for obvious defects).


Here is Lucy sporting her first custom M2M (made to match) bow. It is just too cute and is so nicely made. I got it from http://www.fiveblessedbows.com/ , who I highly recommend.



And here is one I made her. It isn't perfect, but it turned out pretty well. The korkers were really easy to make.

And I just LOVE this outfit and have been chomping at the bit to get it on her. It is still a bit big, but I don't care. And I made this bow myself, too.

And just a few from today. She is really pushing up well with her arms. I'm just waiting for her to get up on her knees a bit. She is really close to sitting up, too.

Do you Etsy?

Have you ever heard of Etsy (http://www.etsy.com/)? It is absolutely one of my favorite places to go for crafting ideas. It is essentially an online craft fair.

I've only bought from Etsy a few times, but this week I got a new apron. I had purchased a very similar one from the same seller for Johnna for Christmas. I loved it so much that I had to get myself one. And, if you've ever seen me in my kitchen, you know I am an apron wearer. I probably wear my aprons a good 4 or more hours a day -- I hate getting my shirts wet. So, anyway, here is a picture of it:

And now I want to try and make one myself. I really need several more aprons anyway. Of course, I want to do several things differently (though I do love the one I got), simply because I have to add my own personal flair to any project I do. It is rare that I ever follow a pattern/tutorial exactly as written. That is one of the things I love about crafting...putting my own unique spin on an item (I do the same thing with cooking -- I rarely follow recipes exactly as written, unless I'm baking).

I also want to try making Lucy several pillowcase dresses, which there are an abundance of on Etsy. Really, every time I visit Etsy, I come away with a list of things I want to try and make. Crafters beware!

Feet, sleep and sunny skies!

So, my foot is feeling much better today. Not perfect, but better. I'm trying to keep myself dosed up on ibuprofen still, but things are definitely better. Actually, my calf is bothering me more at this point than my foot is -- I've been walking around on my toes on my left foot and it has fatigued my calf muscles quite a bit. I did manage to run my elliptical for 35 minutes today, though.

And, you won't believe what happened here last night. The kids were all in bed and asleep by 9:00. Guess when I next heard from them?! Hmmm...I think it was about 7:10. I woke up at 6:40 and they were all still asleep. That is AMAZING! I passed out just after 10:00, so I got 8 1/2 hours of sleep IN A ROW!!! Wow -- did that ever feel good. I'm keeping my fingers crossed it will happen again (though, I know it is not likely for Lucy to go all night without eating). And Ross has gone to bed several times in the last week or two without too much of a ruckus. Things are getting better here on the sleep front, even if progress is slow!

And as far as the weather here...it has been a crazy week. The area was pretty much shut down due to snow for 2 days. And it was in the low 60's and sunny today. It was GORGEOUS outside. I can feel a bad case of spring fever coming on...I am so ready for this nice weather to be here to stay! I just can't wait to be able to get back out into the yard to do some gardening.

Am I committed or stupid?

So, as I've mentioned before, I'm exercising at least 6 days a week right now. And I really prefer to do something everyday. Today while I was feeding the boys lunch, I realized that I couldn't put my left foot down without extreme pain -- it felt like I had a bunch of thumbtacks in my shoe. So, what do I do? I down 800 mg of ibuprofen with the hopes it will kick in before I work out. Did it help? Not really. Did I work out anyway? Yep. Twenty-five minutes on the elliptical and a full round of weight lifting later, I realize it wasn't a very good idea. My foot hurts worse now than it did this morning and I'm hobbling around like an old woman. So, here I sit pondering -- am I just really committed to being fit or just extremely stupid? I started off thinking committed, but the worse my foot hurts, the more my mind starts veering toward the other option.

And I'm not exactly sure what caused this, but I'm thinking my snow boots are to blame. I only had them on for an hour or so yesterday morning, but they had zero support. I distinctly remember stomping snow off my feet at one point and having it really hurt (like, hey, I was expecting the soles to provide a little cushion from the cement, but apparently not).

I'm hoping this goes away by tomorrow...I'd hate to be tempted to do anything stupid again.

Where am I?

It sure as heck doesn't feel like North Carolina around here. We have, what I think to be, about 4 inches of snow right now. The most we've had since we've moved here is a dusting. This is highly unusual for this area. Needless to say, everything is shut down here (which is good, because the locals around here don't know how to drive on snowy roads). The boys had a blast playing outside today.

I think the pool looks so funny. Bright blue and inviting...looks warm, doesn't it?

Oh, and I didn't have any snow boots for Reid (can't find them to fit on his wide feet). So, this is what we rigged up. Great, aren't they?

Happy Birthday, Jeremy!

Today is Jeremy's 30th birthday! I wish he were to here to celebrate with, but then, we did have a party for him back in November.

Here is a picture of my old man from last weekend (and he's looking pretty good -- I'm a lucky gal).

Editing to add: According to Jeremy, the Crossed Sabers are the most photographed monument in all of Iraq. There are two sets of sabers separated by a parade field (concrete). The hands holding the sabers are a model of Saddam’s right hand.

Two months down...

...only 4 more to go until R&R. Ugghhh. These have been the longest two months of my life. On the other hand, I've survived them well enough to be sitting here complaining about them.

The good news is that I lost another 3 pounds in the last month (so down 10 total since Jeremy left). I was pleasantly surprised to have lost anything in the last month, considering what I ate over the holidays. (Did I mention my mom & dad showed up here for Christmas with a gallon sized Ziploc bag of buckeyes? I should also mention I ate the majority of the bag.) I want to lose at least another 5 pounds before R&R, perhaps more, depending on how I feel when I get to my target weight.

Oh yeah, I'm to my skydiving weight -- woohoo! However, I have no desire to go until it warms up some. I'm really looking forward to it. I'm wondering, though, if I should wait for R&R so that Jeremy can go with me (he's been skydiving already with the Golden Knights -- lucky guy!). I'm not sure I'm patient enough to wait that long!

Hello to my Battelle friends!

I've been meaning to post for a while now to say hello to my Battelle comrades that check in here. If you don't know already, Battelle will NOT let my emails through (though I am able to receive emails from Battelle staff). So, if you've emailed me and not heard back, please don't think I'm being rude (speaking of which...I did email you back Rona, though I'm pretty confident that I was just "talking" to myself since it probably didn't get through).

Anyway...I'm glad you've found your way here!

I did something unusual this week.

I bought make-up. Well, I routinely wear foundation and powder (I love the Bare Escentuals mineral make-up line, by the way) and sometimes I throw on some lip gloss, too. But earlier this week I went out and actually bought mascara, lipstick (yes, real lipstick, not just tinted lip gloss), lip liner and eye shadow. Now, I'm positive that I haven't bought mascara since we lived in Toledo, so it has been about 7 years. The 1/2 dozen times I've worn mascara since then have been from the little sample tubes I got for "free" with my Clinique face soap. As for lipstick and lip liner? Heavens -- I probably bought those last in Toledo, too, though there is a possibility that I bought lipstick in Columbus. And I'll fess up to one eye shadow purchase in Columbus (which I still have by the way -- does anyone follow the tossing guidelines for make-up?).

All this is to say...I'm tired of looking like a stay at home mom all the time. Don't get me wrong -- I really do like being home. I just don't think my outside reflects my inside. I feel energetic, edgy, and powerful (I am woman, hear me roar!) on the inside. And on the outside I look like a pile of middle aged tiredness covered in toddler snot and baby spit and topped off with a pile of limp "hasn't seen hair product in months and has been styled by my 3 year old" hair. What a lovely picture I paint...

So, this is, hopefully, a step in the right direction towards feeling happy and confident about my appearance again. And hopefully all this stuff I bought is snot and spit proof...

Lucy's new tricks.

Lucy has been rolling from her stomach to her back for a while now. In the last week, however, she has started going from her back to her front. On Monday (I believe) she started rolling over to get places. I'm not sure she is doing it deliberately, but she'll roll until she runs into something (and then, of course, gets mad). I'm sure it won't be long, though, until she starts moving with a purpose. Of course, just a short trip totally exhausts her now...

She's had a love affair with her fingers for sometime now, too. She'll suck/chew on whichever ones are handy. However, earlier this week she discovered her thumb. She doesn't seem to be able to locate it at will, but when she does find it, watch out -- she loves it!

Thoughts on being green.

As most of you know, I've cloth diapered since Reid was born. As I was doing laundry this week, I had to laugh at my stash. here is a sample of some of my inserts:


Pretty pathetic, aren't they? The funny thing is that I threw the worst of my inserts out a few months ago, though these are getting close to being sent to the trash. I get a warm fuzzy feeling, though, every time I fold my diapers, because I know I'm doing something good for the environment. Do you know how many times those inserts have been used? I'd guess close to 500. Wow -- imagine how many disposable diapers I saved from going into landfills! And, yes, I know I used water and energy to wash my diapers -- which is why we have a high efficiency washer and I line dry whenever possible (which was almost 100% of the time when Reid was little, not so much now that I have an unmanageable amount of laundry to deal with on top of diapers).


So, I pose this question to you (and to myself) -- what (more) can you do to make your home more environmentally friendly? I can think of one big one for me, which involves a bit of a confession -- switch Ross back to cloth diapers (at least part time). Lucy is in cloth full time, but Ross has been in sposies for a month or so now -- not because I don't want him in cloth, but because I'm having trouble finding cloth diapers that fit him properly. I hate the idea of dropping a large chunk of cash on any more diapers, only to find out that they don't fit him properly.

I'm a firm believer that even little changes can have a big impact. So, I challenge you to find something (buy reusable shopping bags, switch to energy efficient light bulbs, buy cloth napkins instead of paper...anything!) to make your life a little more green!

Why buy toys?

Yesterday morning the boys were in a pretty good mood. They were playing nicely together in their room making "beds" on the floor with every blanket they could find in the house. This made me think of when we used to make tents at one of our friends house when I was a kid -- something that was always a blast. So, I pulled out the card table and piled all the blankets on top of it. This, easily, kept the boys occupied for a good three hours. Every once in a while they would remove the blankets, drag the table across the room and then ask me to rebuild it...easy enough deal on my end. And I had to promise to leave it up last night, so it is still sitting out in my living room. Wonder if I'll get another three hours of use out of it today...

Sleep, or more accurately, no sleep.

Ross turned two this week and he is STILL a terrible sleeper. I'm sure many of you will remember my complaints of his constant night waking, which peaked between 10 and 12 months, or as I prefer to call them, the "zombie months", as I was essentially a zombie 100% of the time due to the frequent night wakings.

He now will sleep longer stretches at night fine, though he routinely (maybe 3 nights a week), will wake up repeatedly with, what I believe to be, nightmares. When he wakes like this he is loud, belligerent and mad. He'll swing his head, scream, thrash his body around...all while still asleep. IF I can wake him up, he'll let me calm him. Often, though, he won't wake up and will continue with this nonsense for a long time.

His latest antics, though, are a nightly battle to get him to sleep. We've had nights in the past month where it has taken up to 1 1/2 hours to get him to sleep. Rarely is he down in less than a half an hour. I've tried various techniques. Sometimes I'll have success, but after a week or two he is back to his old tricks. I'm starting to wonder if he will EVER sleep well at night.

All this is to say that I am tired. Just really really tired -- both physically and emotionally. I dread bedtime. DREAD it, I tell you. And I'm loosing my patience, something I have precious little of as it is. Will I ever feel rested again?

The days are long, but the years are short, right? He is just lucky he is cute.

Happy Birthday, Ross!

So, we celebrated Ross' birthday on Saturday (even though his birthday is on Tuesday), while Hannah & Aunt Johnna were in town to join us for the party. It was nothing fancy, but he had a good time. We made a red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting (we = me, plus one big helper and two little "helpers" who made a big mess). The cake was really good (thanks, Paula Deen!), but neither of the boys seemed too impressed with it.

Jeremy & I got him a few train sets when we were at IKEA this fall. Both of the boys LOVE these. I wish we would have purchased a few more sets, because we're having sharing issues. Besides, this is one of those things, much like legos, that is just more fun when you have more pieces.

Here are a few pictures from our festivities: