Today is our third wedding anniversary :)

I know it is so beyond cliche to say something like, "I can't believe we made it." But, I almost can't. Michael and I have survived a lot of hardships through our short marriage and even before we ever got married. Getting pregnant with Catherine out of wedlock was the scariest thing that ever happened to us ; Now, it is one of the best.

I am so thankful for Michael - the man who stepped up to the plate, the man that I love with all my heart (even if he does piss me off by leaving cabinet doors open or dropping clothes all over the house as he comes in from work), the man who cares for his wife and his two beautiful daughter so completely.
Happy Anniversary, baby :)

Things have been so crazy around here - I'm looking forward to getting back into the swing of things.

I had an appointment with the CNM at my OB/GYN's office today - contrary to popular belief, I am not pregnant. I was just there to switch some meds around and to get back on birth control.

I've decided that I want to wait a little while longer to have another and Mike is kind of on board with that. I mostly would like to accomplish my health and fitness goals this year before I go into a third pregnancy and, subsequently, a third cesarean.

You can read more about my weight-loss journey here.

Anyways. Enough about me. The girls are doing well. Enrollment for VPK is coming up and I can't believe I will be camping out to get Catherine a spot at our top school! She is getting so old so fast - it totally freaks me out! She is my funny girl but she is also totally a snot!

Elizabeth is 14 months and she is so super sweet. We have finally basically weaned... though she still sometimes asks - even begs - to nurse. I love having my alone time with her while Catherine is at school. It's funny to watch her play with toys she can't normally because they are Catherine's. I also love just having one on one time with her and "talking" and playing! :D

Soon we will be moving the girls into one room - this really freaks me out. I'm really afraid I'll screw up their sleep schedules but we really need the room in the guest room. Ugh. I guess we could always just give it a go and if it doesn't work out, separate them again. I thought four bedrooms was plenty, but apparently not!

*sigh*

This has been a long few days.

As most of you know (aka Erica because she is probably the only person reading this blog), our friends had a house fire four nights ago. Though no one was home, they've lost their homes - and most importantly - their pets.

Allison put out a call to help and help people did. It has been truly inspiring to see a community come together to help this family... even people that had never met them were dropping loads of stuff off for them and their children. In a mere 24 hours, we had collected enough clothing to clothe all four of them, toys to keep the kids entertained for years, books to educate them, toiletries to cleanse them, furniture for them to sleep in and eat at. The next 48 hours brought them more clothes but also cleaning supplies for the home they will be living in while their house is rebuilt. Not to mention the gift cards and monetary gifts that came pouring in from across Lee County, across the state and the nation.




Sadly, late Sunday evening a little girl - whose fight with an incurable mitochondrial disease I followed at CaringBridge - passed away at home. I can not begin to imagine how her family is feeling. My prayers and my heart go out to them today as they hold her wake. Please, if you are the praying type, pray for them.


So while I am inspired by the giving nature of people, I am truly saddened and heavy-hearted over these two tragedies. Please also pray for the family that lost their home in a fire.

The road to not nursing is apparently really long. So far we have cut out all the nighttime/bedtime nursing session and most of the daytime nursing. The hardest to go seems to be the morning nursing. E just doesn't want to give up the boob first thing in the morning and is not at ALL interested in substituting milk. She doesn't have a problem with milk in general - she just really wants the boob in the morning. Especially when she wakes up super early. Like today. It's hard not to give into her signing for more milk!

back to school

THANK GOODNESS!

Catherine has gone back to school today :) She wasn't very excited at first but we talked about show and tell and what she wanted to take (her new Tinkerbell watch - thanks Greg, Debra, and Jenni!) and that got her excited. She was so happy when she got there today that I had to remind her to give me a hug and a kiss!

Samuel Aidan!

Yesterday, my dear friend Kris gave birth to her 3rd child, 2nd son. Samuel Aiden! Welcome to the world, little guy!!

Hi. I am very clearly a shitty blogger. However, my New Year's Resolution is to be better about my blog and post something every day on one of the three. This one will probably be updated more than the other two.

So - this counts as day one :D Wish me luck!

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!