8/28/12

Today was a much more standard day. I was back into the groove at work. I got a TON done today, and it always feels good to feel productive. Christian’s work has been going well too. I guess he has a week of vacation and some sick time that he needs to use pretty soon, before he loses it. I have a little time too, so we might take some time off coming up. Maybe get some stuff done around the house. We’d like to do some sheetrocking and painting in the laundry room and make it more “homey” than so “basementy”. We’ll have to think about cleaning up the yard pretty soon, getting ready for fall/winter. I’d like to get some stuff together to post on Craigslist – get some pictures and posting done. So, maybe we’ll take some “staycation” time together.

My mom had the girls today – Friday is “Track and Field” day at school, so we’re sending the girls. Today, they got to go to the fair with my mom and her friend. Lucky girls. They had stories galore for me all night long about their day. Going on rides, visiting the animals, seeing the “monsters” (haunted house I’m guessing), eating LOTS of food. They had a blast, and according to my mom, they got along ALL DAY LONG, no issues. So, yay for that! They were pretty tired all night, but not as crabby as I was expecting. We played outside a while, I made some dinner, Christian did some yard work. Just another typical night. After dinner, the girls took their baths and we started winding down for the day. Amelia was off to bed, Olivia watched a little TV. I did my workout and watched some TV myself. Tonight was the “Pretty Little Liars” finale, and OMG, it was so good! Yes, I’m like a teenage girl. But, it’s good, and I don’t care!

Here are some pictures of our playtime tonight. Including some of Olivia showing off her new skills...drawing a picture of me, and writing her own name. Growing TOO fast!

8/27/12

I can’t believe this is the last week of August. I feel like life, time, everything is just flying by. It’s going to be FALL in a couple of weeks…it’s just unbelievable.

Today was a pretty typical Monday. The girls were off to my in-laws for the day. Work was work. I ended up leaving early today. I wasn’t really in a “work” mood today – I just couldn’t get motivated. But, on top of that, we are in dire need of groceries in the house. I planned on going yesterday, but my headache kind of derailed those plans, so I took some time off this afternoon. Ran to Target (and, took my time for a change), packed everything away, spent a little time on the computer and made dinner before the rest of the house got home.

Christian was a little later than usual tonight. His sister and nieces moved back from Mexico on Friday, and they were supposed to stop over to his parents’ house tonight, so he waited for a bit to see if she showed up. Unfortunately, she couldn’t get a ride over, so she didn’t make it. Olivia can’t wait to see her cousins, so hopefully we can get them together soon! I had dinner ready for them when they got home. We got them right into their pajamas after they ate, and let them play for a while.

Tonight, we did become aware of one of their new little tricks though. Christian came in from the garage and asked where the dog was. We couldn’t find him anywhere, so I thought the girls had him downstairs with them. Christian peeked outside, only to see Chuy running around back by the fence. We couldn’t figure out how it got outside…but he opened the door to yell for him to come in, only to hear little toddler girl giggles coming from the downstairs patio. Turns out, they’ve learned how to unlock the patio doors and let themselves out. On top of that fun, they had pushed their little picnic table over by the swing, Amelia had climbed up into the swing, and Olivia was pushing her, like it was no big deal. Ugh – these kids, too smart for their own good! Our “deadbolt” lock on the doors is pretty tough to open, and it has a floor latch on top of it – I couldn’t believe they could get all THREE locks undone. Tricky girls. Thank god we’re fenced in!

We finally brought them inside and sent them off to bed. I got my workout in, caught up on some shows and was off to bed myself.

Here is a picture of the troublesome duo in action…

8/26/12

Well, it was another headache day for me today. I woke up with a slight, annoying headache. It progressed into a full blown pounding migraine by the end of the night. Seriously, so sick of them!

The girls were up bright and early today, at 6:15AM. I again sent them back into their room until a reasonable time. Of course, once they are up, and wake me up, I can’t fall back asleep. But at least it gives me a chance to just rest and wake up before the toddle chaos consumes me. Once we were all up and about, we just spent the morning playing and watching some cartoons. The morning was pretty gloomy, weather wise, so we just had a relaxing morning. Ate some breakfast, did some coloring, chased each other around the house. I was REALLY craving a trip to the fair, but we’re not going until next weekend. Things have been so chaotic and busy for us for so long, I’ve decided to try to lessen that burden – when possible – and only schedule one event per weekend. So, since we had the reunion yesterday (which, thanks to the rain, wasn’t as stimulating as I was anticipating), I planned our fair trip for next weekend. So, of course, all I could think about all day was fair, fair, fair.

While the girls napped, Christian and I hung out, watched some TV, and did a little bit of napping ourselves.  Olivia woke up about an hour into her nap, and was sent back to bed. This mama don’t play that! Amelia woke up about an hour after that, and she and I spent some time together while Christian cut the grass. The gloomy weather had passed, and it was sunny and hot again. Once Olivia was actually up, we all got dressed, grabbed Christian and went on a walk/bike to the park for a while. I can’t believe how good Amelia is with her bike already. This was her first time really trying it out, and she did so well. They let out some energy at the park and we made our way home for dinner.

Christian’s mom called on our way home and invited us over. I was tired and my headache was getting worse, so I stayed home. I also wanted the girls to have some time apart, and don’t like the way they act together when we’re all over there, so I kept Amelia home with me. It’s amazing the difference between 1 and 2 kids in the house! Amelia was perfectly content playing on her own, doing her own thing, and getting some random cuddles in with me. We had some dinner, and I started to feel really sick. I ended up texting Christian and having him come home a little earlier than planned. We got the girls ready for bed and tucked in for the night shortly after that, and the weekend came to a close.

Here are some bike riding pics…

8/25/12

Well, today was a pretty good day. The girls were up way too early – 6:00AM. I’m so sick of that. 6:00 wake-up call on the weekend is NOT going to happen…and it’s funny that they act like it’s torture when we get them up for school at 6:15, but on the weekend apparently that’s the ideal time to get up. Well, I sent them back to their room. I’ve decided they are no longer allowed to come out of their room until AT LEAST 7:00AM, maybe 7:30. So, from now on, they will be sent back to their room until it’s actually time to get up. I know if they had their own rooms it would be better – they wouldn’t wake each other up, and then think it’s time to stay up. That’s not going to happen for a long time though, so they just need to get used to it.

I took my measurements since I’ve finished the 30 Day Shred. This program was definitely my most effective inches-wise. To date, in just over 7 months, I’ve lost 32 pounds and 22.75 inches. 3.5” from my arm, 8.5” from my waist, 5.75” from my hips and 5” from my upper thigh. Pretty exciting!!! I think I’m going to continue to alternate the 30 Day Shred levels until my new workout series comes…hopefully in 2-3 weeks it sounds like. I was going to do Insanity next, but I think I need something completely different to shock my body – and the dancing/cardio workout should do that. *Hopefully*

Once we were all up, Christian was off and running right away. He took the truck in for the new tires today. The girls and I had some breakfast, and then Amelia actually went down for a REALLY early nap. She was crabby and obviously exhausted still. Olivia watched a movie and did some coloring while I cleaned up around the house a little bit. Then I jumped in the shower, got ready, got Olivia ready and made a pasta salad for today’s event. Christian arrived home and quickly got himself ready. Amelia was finally awake…got her ready, we all loaded into the car and were on our way.

Today was our family reunion with my mom’s family. Unfortunately, the weather was not cooperating…it ended up raining ALL DAY. The reunion was outside, but luckily we had a pretty big shelter to be under – and, it wasn’t as big of a turnout this year, so that helped too. We hung out for a few hours, catching up with some family and playing with the girls. They were pretty antsy stuck under the shelter all day…other than a short game of foosball inside with my mom and Christian. Hopefully next year we’ll be back to the great weather we usually have for it.

Olivia took a nap when we got home while we hung out with Amelia. Christian ran to pick up some dinner once she was awake and we spent the evening together. Christian and I had plans to watch a movie or two tonight, but we got sucked into a “Ridiculousness” marathon instead and laughed the night away. Overall, we’re in for a mighty low key weekend…I always crave a little down time, but after a while, it gets pretty boring!

Here are a couple pics I took today – family foosball and Amelia, our big catcher. It’s so gross, but she’s obsessed with bugs. Olivia calls her over to kill them when she finds one. LOL, gross.

8/24/12

Today started off badly, with weigh in. As expected, I gained. I’m so frustrated…I hate feeling like I do everything right – get my exercise, watch what I’m eating – and get nowhere. I’m taking my measurements tomorrow, which should help me feel better. But, ugh, so frustrating!

Today was a fairly busy day. Since I was off with the girls on Tuesday, I had to work today. But, the day did go pretty fast. I caught up on my usual end of the week work, and then I actually took the afternoon off. My new check card has gone missing somewhere in our house. We’ve pretty much cleaned the upstairs looking for it, so today wanted to tackle the basement to see if the girls had it down there. I took off a little after lunch time, and picked up all of the toys and chaos in the basement. Nothing, no sign of the card anywhere. I think it’s a goner – not sure if it was somehow thrown away or what, but it’s nowhere to be found. So frustrating.

By the time I finished picking up; it was time to pick up the girls from school. It’s been pretty cool out the last couple weeks, but today was it actually pretty hot. So, the girls were able to have water day, finally! They were both so excited and couldn’t wait to tell me about it.

I finished doing some cleaning and picking up around the house, Christian arrived home and then our friends Nate and Gini came over to have some dinner, hang out, and give Amelia a belated birthday present. We had some pizza, caught up for a while and watched the girls put on a little show. Christian and I were both pretty tired when they left, and pretty much just passed right out. We’re pretty exciting!

As I mentioned at that time, my friend Dawn that was in town took our family/girls’ pictures this year for us. We’re still waiting to get all of them, but she has posted a couple of them on facebook. So, I thought I’d share those today…the family one in front of the door is super cute, I really like that one. The one of Christian and I reminds me of our engagement pictures, which seems like a lifetime ago. The one of all of us in the grass cracks me up…we couldn’t get the girls to stop saying CHEESE, so they kept having these goody cheese faces in all of them. It was cute. I can’t wait to see the rest of them!

8/23/12

Today was a pretty low key day. Work has been “the usual” for both of us. The girls have been doing great in school. They both have new things to show or tell us every day – some new thing they learned or figured out. It’s so exciting to watch them grow and change, and they love going so much. Things have been great at home. I mentioned some home issues last week. Christian and I are both making so really great strides in working on our own, individual issues. It’s been very refreshing this last week or so, it feels good to work through some of our issues, and not try to brush them under the rug anymore. So, overall, everything is really great! Christian needs 2 new tires on the truck…which aren’t cheap and was stressing me out. I finally found out that Discount Tires offers no interest financing, so we can take advantage of that and just pay off a portion of it each paycheck. Which, works out perfect, because I’ll be paying off our carpet tomorrow. And, we’re still researching swing sets. We still disagree on what to get – I don’t want to waste the money on a wood set, just because it looks nicer – I would rather get a metal one with more features, for less money. We’ll see who wins out on that one. I have been putting together our next list of stuff to sell on craigslist though – so that will help us pay for that.

So, it was kind of a “figure it out” day today. Fairly successful.

I snapped this picture of the girls tonight as we played outside. They were both messy and dirty and....perfect.

8/22/12

Well, it was a bit of a chaotic day today. Work was busy, and the day flew by. Today was the annual “Government Employee Appreciation” lunch. We got some free Subway, chips and a drink and they had a couple games to play. We got in line late and had to wait quite a while, so we skipped the games this year. But, free lunch, YAY!

After work, I picked up the girls, got them changed quickly, and then we were off. Tonight we were off to a neighborhood festival that a local church puts on every year (they also do a big Halloween party every year). They give out free food, have a bunch of inflatables for the kids to jump in, and carnival games to play. Cotton candy, SnoCones and entertainment. It’s always a good time, and the kids have so much fun. This year they were giving out backpacks, and Olivia managed to get a super cool Cinderella one that she just adores. Lucky girl!

We left there around 8:00 – already passed Amelia’s bedtime, so she went right to bed when we got home. It’s amazing – this is the child that wouldn’t go to bed for anything as a baby – I would seriously fall asleep trying to get to sleep at night (and, the sleep never lasted long!). Now, she’s so easy. I tell her it’s time for bed…she usually heads to her room, but if she says no, I just tell her “OK, no songs then”, and she runs to her room as fast as she can. Then, I sing her 3 songs, and put her down. That’s it. I never thought it would be so easy to get her to sleep – I thought for sure she would give us a run for our money. I guess it’s all about finding the right system! Olivia has always been easy – she just goes down, no issue – as long as Amelia is already asleep of course!

I got my workout in, watched a little TV to cool down, then we were off to bed! Another day down, and hopefully all of the sugar from the festival doesn’t keep the girls up!

8/21/12

Today was my day home with the girls. Oh how I look forward to this day (though, it’s much better when it’s my usual Friday!). Life is so much easier when we don’t have to get up and go…go to school, go to work. Just spending the day with my girls makes it better, but also being able to just do what we need to do, get stuff done and not be so rushed all day long. It’s such a relief. It’s not the same as the weekends, because Christian adds a different layer of chaos since the girls act differently around us together vs. us individually, so my day with them alone is just special. I could never give up my job, but my day off with them just reminds me of how much...ummm, different, those days are – minus the constant toddler fight refereeing of course – I could do without that stress.

Today we were FINALLY off to Amelia’s 2 year check-up (just one more thing that has to be put off until my day off ). She is 25lbs and 33.75” tall. I was really curious where she would fall on the scale. Much to my surprise, our clinic has switched to tracking kids on a worldwide scale, instead of the United States scale, because America is getting too fat it was throwing everything off. Wow, that’s kind of sad, but at the same time, it sure made me feel better about Amelia. She actually wasn’t too bad on either scale now though – unlike in her infant months. On the US scale, her weight and height were around the 20% mark – much better than falling off the scale when she was younger. But, on the Worldwide scale, she’s actually completely average for both, right at the 42% mark for both. That was great to hear. She also had to get some bloodwork done today. But, no shots, which was great. I actually left her check-up, got the girls loaded into the car, and was heading home when I remembered she needed bloodwork. Oops, back to the clinic we went. I was fully prepared for my little drama queen to throw a fit, but she didn’t even flinch or shed a single tear through the whole process. My baby, tough as nails. The tech’s were all so impressed with her. She earned a sticker for herself, and Olivia, so that was pretty exciting.

Finally, we were ACTUALLY on our way home. I stopped at Wendy’s to get them some lunch, and myself a salad. We ate, then it was nap time. The girls took a nice long nap…I did some cleaning up and worked on their baby books – finally adding some pictures – for a while. We made some dinner, Christian arrived home and we spent the evening relaxing and hanging out. Back to the normal grind tomorrow – and now it’s going to be an extra LONG time until I’m off with them again. Boo!

Here is a picture of Amelia, showing off her bandaid from her finger prick. Tough girl!

8/20/12

Just another Monday in our world. Work, home, clean up, dinner, play time, baths and bed. That’s really about it! I’m off tomorrow because the girls are going to school on Friday, so it’s going to be a strange week. But, it’s nice to get that random break in the week. Should make the rest of the week go fast, so that’s a bonus!

Tonight I started my last week of 30 Day Shred. I’m excited to see the results. I haven’t been feeling great about my weight loss progress (or, lack of) lately. I feel kind of stuck right now. I’ve been doing my video, eating FAIRLY well. But, my head definitely hasn’t been in it. I think my body is kind of going through a rebelling stage right now as well, so that doesn’t help. I know I just need to push through, and get over that hump/plateau, but it’s so frustrating. I’m also having some digestive issues, and haven’t been feeling so great – so that is just another layer of badness. Hopefully I can get everything under control soon and get back on track. It’s much easier to stay motivated when you see results. I do think that I’m down inches though, so when I take my measurements that should help pick me back up.

Tonight, Olivia was playing on the tablet, Amelia on the iPod, and it just cracked me up. Definitely had to snap a picture of that…kids and their “toys”…

8/19/12

Another great Sunday around the house today.

Olivia woke me up at 7:00 and wanted to go inside (well, had to go potty), so with that, our camping adventure came to an end. After going potty, Olivia and Christian hung out, with Amelia soon joining them, and I rested in bed for a while. Camping out actually went a lot better than expected. Even with the rain, I actually slept pretty good!

I made pancakes for breakfast, and the day was in full gear. I spent the day doing chores around the house...dishes, picked up the kitchen, living room and bedrooms, did laundry all day (and, actually got all of it put away too, BONUS!). Christian watched the girls, made us lunch, vacuumed the house and grilled dinner. While the girls napped, I finally took on the task of going through the spare bedroom closet. Got all of the coats and winter gear straightened out. And, went through all of my old (aka, too small) clothes. I found a pile of stuff that was too dated, and no longer appropriate for me/in style, that will be getting donated. AND, I have a pile of stuff that I can add back into my wardrobe!! Some of it is too wintery, so can't come out yet, but I'm so excited. I was also able to pull out another pair of jeans. Yahoo, happy day!

After dinner, Christian was off to hang out with his friend from work. I think he's been feeling pretty cooped up in the house the past couple of weeks, and I was actually craving some alone time, so it worked out well. Ready to start off another week!

Here's a picture of Olivia and I. Always has to be so goofy!