Monthly Archives: May 2008

Thank you husband!

I wanted to say a quick thank you to my husband for not having a problem with me mowing the lawn. I’ve known of some guys who would say that it’s a man’s job and wouldn’t want their wife to do it. Or would be worried about what the neighbors might be thinking. Thankfully Zale is man enough to not worry about it and let me do what I enjoy.

I really thought that after the first week or two I would get mowing out of my system and have Anthony do it every week, but I find myself looking forward to it. I know, I’m weird, I admitted that a long time ago! But I think a little bit of weird is a good thing. Normal all the time would just get boring!

Very busy long day

I know that technically it’s tomorrow, but I haven’t slept yet, so I’m still calling it today. (Thursday the 29th). Today started out with the typical laundry, picking up, playing with the girls. Then it was time to do bills. I think this took me an hour or so. Next was mowing the yard. I cheated this time and used the riding mower for the front and back. I still pushed what I couldn’t get with the riding mower, but the work out wasn’t quite the same. We were all finally ready to go out and run all our errands around 3:30. Post office, dry cleaners, taking Anthony and Gracie to my Dad’s for the weekend, clothes shopping (more on that later), Sam’s, home and back out to Kroger. Keep in mind, Dad’s, Sam’s and clothes shopping aren’t things we can do where we live, it’s about a 30 minute drive each way. So after everything, we were finally all back home around 9:30.

The past few hours have been spent trying to get organized and packed for camping. The majority of it will be done tomorrow, but I think Zale and I both got a bit of a second wind with the anticipation of camping,  so we got quite a bit done tonight. :) Of course the house is in a bit of a mess and the washer and dryer are going in the middle of the night, but that’s okay. It’s all worth it!

Back to shopping. The reason clothes shopping was so important today was because my awesome husband is being sworn in Tuesday morning and will finally be able to practice law. Since I have gained so much weight and haven’t had to dress up much in the last five years, I literally didn’t have anything to wear. The last thing I had to dress up for was a wedding, I was 7 or 8 months pregnant with Reagan, so that outfit isn’t going to work! :) I am excited for Zale, but I’m not looking forward to putting on panty hose for the first time in about 5 years. I hope I remember how :) I was able to find a pants suit at Ross for $30, so I was really pleased with that. I’m hoping this will be something I’ll only wear once and that the next time I need to dress up I’ll be able to get something in a much smaller size!!

Tomorrow will be another busy day as we finish getting ready to go camping, so I don’t know that I’ll have time to post anything. I’m hoping to have lots of good stories to share when I get home on Sunday. The laptop is staying home. I think I’ll miss it a little, but it may do me some good to not have access to it for a couple of days! I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!!

camping plans

I mentioned camping in the last post and realized that I left some stuff out. We’re going to be camping on the water, which makes me a little nervous with the girls, but I know it will be fine. We’ll be camping with one of my best friends and her family. We use to do this several times a year, until I got pregnant with Hannah.

We’ve always tent camped, I never even thought we’d use anything but a tent, until we got too old to put it together. But this year we figured we’d need access to AC with the girls. So we’re renting a pop up camper. It’s hard to imagine not having to set up the tent or the air mattress and all the other things that come with tent camping. It’s always fun to do, but I am looking forward to less work.

Zale is a very roughing it kind of camper. He even starts our camp fires without the use of lighter fluid or anything, just some steel wool and flint. He jokes that if the movie Red Dawn ever became a reality we’d be okay. So I was extremely surprised when he said tonight that we may not ever tent camp again. Set up with our tent takes almost an hour, the pop up is only supposed to take 15 minutes. We’ll see how it goes. :)

One thing I really love about camping is that everything taste better after being cooked on an open flame. The really great thing is that Zale loves to do all of it. The prep work, cooking, cleaning, everything. Truth be told he’s probably a better cook than I am anyway, but all that is still a lot of work. I think I’m looking forward to his breakfast and dinner more than I am the S’mores! Yum!

I know, I know, I’m going to have to step it up on the elliptical just for this weekend! I’ll be sure to let you all know how it went when we get back.

happy day…again

I was extremely grateful that Hannah did it again today. Without being prompted or anything she “made brown” in the potty this morning. It’s so wonderful!

This weekend we get to do something we haven’t done in 4 years, we’re going camping. I’m really excited. Hannah is already calling it her next adventure and can’t wait to go fishing with her Daddy. Zale had a couple of Academy gift cards so we went shopping for camping gear tonight while Anthony was in Switch. He doesn’t have any interest in camping and even less in shopping, so we spared him from both. I will sure miss him this weekend, but I understand that he’d rather spend the time at his Granddaddy’s.

Hannah got to pick out her first fishing pole at Academy. First she wanted Sponge Bob, then Dora, and she finally settled on Disney Princess. I was really surprised at that one, I figured it would be Dora. We got home and she couldn’t wait for Zale to to show her how to use the fishing pole. I have to say she’s already pretty good at casting. In the living room anyway. We’ll see what she does in the water. I have a feeling she’s going to love it!

work out diary…

I made it 25 minutes today on the elliptical. I think I could have gone for 30, but I didn’t start early enough and had to get done before Zale had to leave for a lunch meeting. Maybe I’ll make it tomorrow….

It finally happened!!!!

Today has been a very good day!!

The first great thing was that Zale started rearranging the shelves in my closet yesterday and was able to finish today. I think he more than doubled the space and it’s so wonderful to be able to have room for EVERYTHING and be able to get things off the floor. I can actually walk in the closet again. But that’s not what finally happened.

The really big news is that Hannah finally pooped (or “made brown” as she likes to call it) in her potty. I was beginning to wonder if it was ever going to happen. It did today. When we started potty training her we got M&Ms to give her when she went potty. It took that and getting a potty book to get it started, but it was still just once or twice a day. I finally stopped putting a Pull Up on her when we were home and letting her wear “big girl” panties, that seemed to work really well. For about a week she would have an accident a day, but not anymore. I still put a Pull Up on her at night and if we go anywhere, just in case, but it usually stays dry.

All that was great when it came to peeing in the potty, but not the other. So I tried buying little candy bars to reward (okay, bribe) her if she pooped in the potty. M&Ms for peeing, candy bar for pooping. She wasn’t interested. Every now and then I would get lucky and she would do her business when she had a Pull Up on, but several times it got pretty messy. So as a last resort I promised her that when she pooped / made brown in the potty we would immediately take her to the store and buy her a surprise. It FINALLY happened!!! At 8:50 PM tonight Hannah and I were headed to Wal Mart to buy her a surprise. And I was so excited to do it!!

While we were in Wal Mart I ran into someone I’ve actually been praying for an opportunity to talk to, and I’m always amazed when God works in our lives in such direct ways. What a great day!! I got more closet space, Hannah is one step closer to being completely potty trained, Reagan is crawling and getting her first tooth, Anthony and I are getting along, and God answered a prayer. I couldn’t ask for more than that!! Praise God!

Movie Night

Last night we hosted a movie night at our Lifegroup. I think it was one of the best turn outs we’ve ever had. There were a total of 17 people in our little living room. (Including our family of 5) It was great, we watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It had been so long since we had watched it that we didn’t think about a scene or two maybe not being appropriate for a church group, but it wasn’t any worse than what you’d see on TV anyway. So we watched the movie, ate popcorn and candy (all the more reason I needed that work out time today!), laughed and enjoyed our time together.

Next week we’ll go back to the prayer and devotional time, but I think it’s good to do a movie day every now and then. Especially if it brings in more people and helps them to feel welcome and at home here. At least I hope that’s how they feel when they’re here!

work out diary…

I made it back to the elliptical today. Ended up skipping yesterday. You would think finding 20 minutes to get on the elliptical would be easy, but it’s actually quite a chore. It involves getting the girls happy and Zale having the available time to watch them. It’s never just 20 minutes, it takes a few minutes to get ready and situated. You know how it goes, you’ve got to have the proper shoes on,  water available, TV on the right show or better yet a DVD with no commercials! Then after 20 minutes on the torture machine I look like I just got done swimming, so a shower is a must. I’m not one of those girls who “perspires”, I sweat from every pore. I know, maybe too much information, but it’s the truth. By the time all that is done it’s usually an hour. Some days that hour is hard to come by!

Over 1000

As of today there have been over 1000 views of this blog. Thank you to everyone who reads, I hope to keep you entertained for a long time to come. At least I hope it’s entertaining. :) God Bless!

Progress

I did another 20 minutes on the elliptical/torture machine this morning. My legs felt like Jello, but death didn’t seem as near this time….so that’s a good thing, right?