Books...

So I had a meeting at Noah's precschool recently and they did a presentation on child abuse and suggested that we read a book. "A Child Called 'IT'". I will warn you that it is the worst recorded child abuse case ever (yes, it's a true story). Noah's teachers said I would need a box of tissues while I read it, but I felt like I need a 'puke bucket' more than tissue. The things that this child went through......... This book should make ANY mother feel good about their parenting skills.

I am now reading the second book of the series and I'm not sure if it's the books or things that are going on in my life right now or what, but I'm just in a weird mood all the time. Not happy, not angry, just weird.

On a good note, Amelia almost rolled over last night! She was actually having a good time laying on a play mat and next thing we know she is on her side. We watched her for a while and she never rolled completely over, but she did turn herself in a circle. She's growing up........*sniff*

Daylight Savings

I love Daylight Savings! I know that there are a lot of people out there that complain about it, but for me the more sunshine the merrier!

The only thing that really screws me up is that I relied too much on when to cook dinner by where the sun was in the sky. So now that day light savings has come we tend to eat dinner at 7 now instead of 6.

I will be going about my day and then glance at the the clock....... "Oh crap! It's 6:30 already!"

Love the sunshine though.................. LOVE IT!!

Sleep Deprived

It has been a little hard to get myself going today. We went to Salt Lake this weekend for a short, impromtu, surprise visit. Mostly for Joey's mom, but we saw some friends as well.

So we got into Salt Lake about 12 friday night and stayed at a Motel 6 cuz they would take dogs. (We brought our little 'Schnoodle', Jack, with us) Now this motel room looked like it had seen better days and that the cleaning crew only did the minimal amount of work expected of them. That, and Amelia was sleeping with me, led to the very long night of not much sleep.

Now, going on vacation or a visit is exhausting in and of itself, but top it off with a limited amount of time and daylight savings in the middle it was VERY exhausting! We had a good visit with everyone though. Maybe a little too good because we didn't get on the road until about 5PM Sunday to start our 8-hour treck home. It was a good thing that the boys were good for the most part and that Amelia realized that it was night time so she slept most of the way. Therefore we didn't have to stop as much.

To make a long story short, we got home at 2AM this morning safe and sound and SLEEPY! I thought, "Good, and few hours of sleep before I have to take Noah to school". Well I was so sound asleep that I don't remember Elias climbing in bed with us sometime. Joey finally woke me up saying Elias was crazy hot. He had a fever, it was 5AM, I got up, gave him a drink of water, which he then decided to swallow and then cough and then spew all over me, gave him some medicine and soothing shower/bath and put him back to bed.

Sleep........oh so short.

Amelia then woke up at 7AM wanting to eat. After she ate she started coughing and threw-up all that she ate on ME. After a quick change and wipe down I had to get Noah off to school. Let's just say that I am running on empty today, but I am glad that my kidd-o's are feeling a little better than they were this morning.

Motherhood.......so full of fun and surprises sometimes.

The Challenge

So the gauntlet has been thrown. By whom you might ask? My hubby, that's who. I think he was tired of hearing me whine about my lack of slenderness or lack of being in shape. Whatever the case, he has challenged me to a dual. So here it is:

He says that he can get 6-pack abs BEFORE I can lose the weight I gained from the baby.

I think he knows that I am an extremely competitive person. (I think that comes from being the youngest of 7 kids.) I am most competitive when it comes to my husband and he knows that. So I'm not sure if he is really just tired of hearing me whine or he knows me so well that I need a challenge to excerise or he just wants me to lose weight. Whichever it is, it is working!

The thing is is that I only gained about 10lbs with Amelia and I only have about 3lbs to lose to get back to the weight I was before I was pregnant. So that shouldn't be too hard. It's the fact that I was NOT the weight I WANTED to be when I got pregnant so I am trying to lose more. I want to lose 13-15lbs and I am shooting for a flat stomach. So, here are the starting weight and measurements:

I wieghed and measured myself yesterday and I was 153 1/2lbs and my waist was 33in. BUT my FAT, aka "Love handles", around my stomach was 35 1/2in.

Can I do it? We shall see. I started a couple of days ago and I did a bunch of sit-ups and push-ups.(I would set a timer for 10 minutes and when it went off I would do 10 sit-ups or crunches and try to do at least 10 push-ups. Woosie, I know.) Then I went for a run/walk with the dog for about a mile. Yesterday I did about the same, but I went for a walk with the dog in the afternoon. And last night I played basketball with a bunch of ladies from 8:30-10:30. I am feeling the after affects of that decision today. OUCH! It was a really good cardio workout though. We have some girls that are still in highschool that play also that make us "old" and out-of-shape ladies RUN. Did I mention I'm in a little bit of pain?!? My body is screaming at me, "WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO DO TO ME?"

So wish me luck! Hopefully it will start getting better before it gets worse....... hopefully........

A shout out to all my friends in SLC...... we are coming down there TODAY!! We won't be there till LATE tonight since we are leaving when Joey gets off work and we will be leaving Sunday afternoon sometime. We might just pop in at church to say hi, so if we don't see ya I think we are planning a trip down there Easter weekend also. I'm excited!!

Pet peeves and pictures

So THIS is just one thing that really BUGS me!

Do you see what it is? It's not the HUGE pile of dishes that I have to wash or that I have to wash them. Have another guess? Maybe this picture will help........

Do you see the difference? Yes, the amount of the dishes is the same. Notice it yet? If you guessed that ALL the dishes are NOT piled in the SINK, then you win!! (What do you win? An imaginary gold star stuck to your forehead.) It drives me crazy that the dishes get piled up in the sink!! Yes they are dirty and yes they need to be washed, but how am I supposed to fill the sink with water if all the dishes are in it? Or how I am supposed to wash off Elias' tray for his highchair without getting water all over the floor and myself? RINSE YOUR DISHES AND PUT THEM ON THE COUNTER!! I am guilty of putting a dish in the sink every once and a while and since I tell Noah to put his dishes in the sink when he's done I know that there might be some in there occasionally. And since Elias can't reach the sink very well (without the assistance of a chair), can you guess who the culprit might be? I will stop now and just leave it at that........

So on a more upbeat note, here are some fun pictures of my beautiful kiddos.......

Here is a picture of Noah reading to Elias when Elias was only a few months old. I love this picture!!

Now here they are just a few days ago. Noah is 4 and Elias is 2. Noah still likes to read to his little brother.

I just took this one tonight. I set Amelia on the chair because she hates to lay down and I had to pick up the living room really quick. I guess Jack, our dog, wanted to sit with her. I think he is a little jealous of all the attention Amelia gets that he used to get. Silly dog!