Hellooooo...

Anyone still out there? I suck at this blogging thing.

:D Will update soon!

More Pictures...

***Click On The Photo To Make It Larger***



Elizabeth playing :)

New Curtains - Ignore the laundry I am still putting away.

The dining room.

The formal living room.

Just for you...

***You can click on each photo to make them larger***

This is the formal living room. We've since rearranged the furniture and put cellular blinds up.



The entertainment "area". Isn't it just begging for a flat screen television and some shelving?




This is the formal dining room. Eventually we would like to put a china cabinet against the blue wall and a buffet against the floating wall (not pictured).



The kitchen.

The family room. Catherine is chillin' :)



The girls bedroom. Including the crib E has yet to sleep in.



Look familiar, GG?


The front of the house. We've ripped out all of those ugly bushes in front and plan on putting a pond with small fish in front of the window closest to the garage.

Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me...

My cheeks are still red from embarrassment.

While walking around Target yesterday, aimlessly wandering the store, Catherine and I were standing at an endcap, looking at something. I glanced up and saw a man walking towards us. Immediately, I knew what was going to happen. I desperately tried to distract Catherine with whatever toy thing was on the endcap, but as soon as her eyes rested on him, I knew I was out of luck.

"Mommy!!! Mommy!!!", she screamed as she pointed in his direction. "IT'S A PIRATE!!"

Quickly I tried to hush her, to distract her, but she wasn't having any of it. As he neared us, Catherine put on her best pirate face and yelled, "ARGH! Me hearty!"

The man - with the skull & bones bandanna and the black eye patch covering his right eye - looked taken aback.

The seconds seemed to pass as slowly as hours as Catherine reached her arm out to shake his hand... "Shake your hand, Capt. Feathersword."

Great... now not only is this poor man a pirate, but he is a queer Wiggle's pirate.

He smiled, shook her hand, and played along. A feeling of relief washed over me. At least he wasn't going to make me walk the plank.

I apologized as he walked away and listened to Catherine jabber on in half-formed sentences about Capt. Feathersword.

"We've finally got a piece of the pie!"

That's right, people... we're movin' on up!

We are all moved in to our new house. Well, all of our stuff is here. Things are still kind've a mish-mash. We've got the family room, the kitchen, the living room, and the dining room semi-settled, along with the girls bedroom and the playroom. The spare room... is filled with junk. Lots and lots of junk.

I keep telling myself it will all come together though. And it will :)

The girls and I are about to head to the gym. Where I get to kill myself on the treadmill, and Catherine gets to play, and E gets to get coo'ed at all morning. Can I please be 2.5 again?

I'll post pics of the house soon.

Drumroll, please!

So this morning, before I got in the shower, I decided to weigh myself. It is Sunday, after all.

I am down seven lbs. since our return from Lubbock! Yippie!

I am very pleased with that number and I know it will be such a good motivator, though I do wish I could bring myself to post my actual weight in numbers on here. Seeing that ugly number would be a much bigger motivator, but I just can't bring myself to type it up.

I have my Weight Watchers meeting today too. I have A LOT of questions for them about WW and how it works. I am still SO confused about my points. I have so many and never use all of them, but I'm still losing weight?

I also have to work today. Mike's mom is going to watch Catherine and I am going to take Elizabeth with me, as usual. I will be covering an "all-natural" cooking class today, at Back To Nature. In a few weeks they are holding an Italian cooking class where you don't cook with cheese! No thanks! I like my mozzarella!

I did it...

So yesterday, after the fiasco with Happy Mothers, I packed the girls in the car and drove to Sarasota. I called around yesterday and finally found the BOB Revolution Duallie at Baby & Kids at Bennett's in Sarasota. They even had it in orange!

So, this morning, Mike put it together, and the girls and I went out for a jog :)

www.happymothers.com

They suck. Plain and simple.

I ordered the BOB Revolution Duallie from them exactly a week ago. I started to get worried today, when they had charged my debit card already, but still hadn't sent a shipping e-mail with a tracking number. So, I called.

Despite being told on Monday that it would ship out on Tuesday, the CSA I spoke with today told me that *whoops*, it was actually backordered and wouldn't be available to ship until the end of next week and then would not arrive until a week after that...

So, three weeks? For a stroller? That I was supposed to receive in one week? I don't think so.

I asked the CSA to please refund my money, to which he responded, "Would it help if we took $30 off your purchase?"

Umm, no. It would not help for you to refund 1/20th of my purchase. How about you ship my dang stroller today and ship it overnight!

*grumble*

So, I cancelled my order and now, I am packing my girls in the van and driving my lard ass up to Sarasota to purchase one from an in-store retailer.

Long story short, never order anything from HappyMothers.

Maybe I will take a photo of myself with the stroller at Bennett's with the lovely salesperson and send it to HappyMothers to show them what it looks like when a mother is actually HAPPY, as in their name, and not pissed off.

*Deep Breath*

$590.00 later and it's on its way...

My BOB Revolution Duallie in Mesa Orange.

I am beyond excited.

That thing is going to pound the pavement with me and the girls while I train for a marathon. I am going to take little steps. First, I am running the Aflac Irongirl 5K in April. I plan on registering for a 10K sometime over the summer, then I will do the Turkey Trot in November, a half-marathon in December, and then, I will do the USMC Marathon in Washington D.C.

Thankfully I have an amazing partner and her two little boys who are going to run by my side and keep me motivated!

In other news - Elizabeth rolled over today! For the first time! Yay :)

On the road to a new me...

So, while I was in Texas, I kind of "fell off the wagon" in regards to my weight loss. Since I am doing Weight Watchers online, and since I did not have regular access to the internet, it was difficult for me to keep track of points or to even know how many points the food I consumed had in it.

Well, I have been slowly trying to get back into the swing of things since arriving home, and tomorrow I am getting back on the wagon completely. I need to make time to go to the meetings - even if Michael is not home. I know a lot of people who would be willing to watch Cate for me once a week. I also need to make myself more accountable by updating on this blog. I have decided that I will be taking a photo of myself each week on weigh-in day, which will probably be Saturdays or Sundays, and posting it on here.

I think I also need to set small goals for myself.

For instance, I want to lose eight lbs by the end of March. I want to exercise for 30 minutes every day of the week - whether it is jogging, walking, riding the bicycle, or rollerblading. I want to get used to drinking 64 oz. of water every day instead of feeling like I'm drowning myself when I barely choke down the recommended amount. I want to fit into my favorite pair of jeans by the time we visit New York this summer. I don't want to feel like a freak in a bathing suit by the time we visit New York this summer.

My first BIG goal is to lose 50 lbs. and I would like to have that done by Catherine's birthday, August 17th. I put on so much weight with her pregnancy that I think it is only fitting that I set that goal for her birthday.

I would like to lose the remainder of my weight by the time we go to Lubbock for Christmas.

At the end of the road, when I've lost the weight that I want to, I think that I will need to talk to Mike about some kind of "reward". I lost my engagement ring a year and a half ago - maybe that would be a good reward to work towards... a new ring.

I know I can do it if I am honest with myself and put my mind to it. So, every weekend I will post a picture of myself with the amount of weight lost. Hopefully this will get me more motivated.

But first things first...a new haircut :)

Playing Catch Up...

It has been awhile since I last updated this blog. It has been hard getting back in the swing of things since returning home.

We had a great time in Texas and can't wait to go back for Christmas. We didn't get to do some of the things that we'd hoped (visit Nana's ranch, go to the Heritage Center, visit Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, etc.) but they are all minor compared to how much time we got to spend with our family. Anyways - here are some photos from the trip :)

Happiness is Lubbock, TX in my rearview mirror...

... Not quite.

I am loving it here. I miss my family immensely and Nana's incident has only made it that much more clear to me. I will be returning to Cape Coral next week though, where I have amazing friends and another great family. It is hard to be torn between the two.

Mike left to drive back on Saturday morning and got in late Sunday afternoon. I was worried about him driving that far by himself... it is a long drive... but he made it home safely. The girls and I are going to hop on a plane next week - that should be an interesting adventure in and of itself!

I will update more when I return home. I have a ton of great photos and great stories.

Texas or Bust!

Man... time sure flies! Just three weeks ago Mike and I finally decided that we were going to drive to Texas, and here we are... three short days from hitting the road.

Mike left for Tampa on Sunday evening. It is his final week in the training program for his soon-to-be (fingers crossed) promotion. Hopefully a position will open up in our area soon... even though he will have to commute to work farther, which means he will be away from us for an extra two hours every day. I know he needs to do what he needs to do to provide for his family though. I am so grateful for him and that I am able to stay home with the girls.

So, the girls and I are here getting ready for Texas on our own. We are mostly packed, the car is clean, we've got the GPS, DVD player, and travel trays all lined up and ready to go (thanks to some amazing friends). We've got plenty of food, soda, and water for the trip. I plan on packing the van up on Wednesday night... well, everything except for Cate's mattress (we couldn't find a travel cot) and E's Pack-n-Play... those will go in Thursday before we leave. We are also dropping Lady off at the IL's on Wednesday night.

So we are out of here on Thursday at noon, we'll pick up Mike in Tampa at 2-ish, and then we'll stop off in Tally-ho to have dinner with Mike's brother in his brand-new house. We'll leave at bed time and hopefully Cate will sleep through the night and she'll wake up in Texas.

I planned on uploading some photos, but I'll probably do that in a separate post before we leave. Elizabeth is waking up, so it is time to feed her and then hit the sack!

If he has a family... he is rich.

Well, we are back from PSL :)

The trip over and the trip back were a little difficult... Elizabeth was not happy to be in her carseat for an extended length of time and we had to pull over multiple times so I could nurse her. I definitely plan on pumping for the Texas trip so that we don't have to pull over as often. And as much as I don't want to, I'm thinking about introducing a pacifier to Elizabeth so that she can have something to soothe her on the car ride.

Catherine was really good and was happy to color, read her books, and sing her Music Together songs in her carseat. We plan on buying or borrowing a portable DVD player for the trip to Texas so that she has something else to keep her occupied when she gets sick of everything else. She didn't sleep well while we were in PSL, but that didn't really seem to effect her mood much. She was her happy self most of the trip. She had a good time at Papa's and I'm excited to return :)

Mike smoked his first Cuban cigar, courtesy of my Pops.

Elizabeth was loving her big sister - she cooed and smiled at her a lot.








And, as always, Catherine wanted to swim :)




She was also extremely careful to "duck" under Papa's plants...

Right after I took this photo, Catherine grabbed a huge handful of soil and threw it... Punk.




And, of course... the best part of the entire trip:

Port Saint Lucie

We are leaving this afternoon to visit my dad on the East Coast of Florida. It has been awhile since we've made that drive, but I am looking forward to a change of scenery (though, South Florida is South Florida...). I am excited to spend some time with my dad... I am especially glad that Catherine's gets to spend a few days with him. It's so cool to see them interact :)

Anyways. I guess I should stop blogging and finish packing!! I will add photos when we return!

Happy New Year!

Well, we here at the Clemence household really brought the New Year in with a bang...

NOT! Cate was asleep at 7:00 and Mike and I were passed out by 8:30...

Bunch of party animals.

Anyways - I've created this blog because I wanted to be able to keep my family and friends updated on the girls (mostly), especially those that are not able to see them on a regular basis. I will try to blog at least once a week with new pictures and the like.

The BIG NEWS this week is that Mike was granted his vacation time at the end of January, so we will be driving to Lubbock. I am so excited and can't wait to visit my family. It has been over a year since I've seen everyone. We will be leaving either Thursday the 23rd or Friday the 24th... we are waiting to find out if Mike will have that Friday off.

I hope everyone had a great and safe New Year's Eve and I hope this year brings everything you hope!