There is no rest for the weary...

at least in my house anyway. Chris took off work today so we could take the kids out on the new boat. Caden and Macy are so wound up that they are never going to sleep again. I'm dog tired. I went straight from the lake to shower and change and head to an interview......while they all napped. So everyone is recharged and going 100mph. I think that if I sit still for more than 30 seconds I'll be out cold. I tried getting in bed but apparently in my house lying down anywhere is just an invitation to be jumped on. REPEATEDLY. There is no chance of cozying up in my perfect bed any time soon. And you know what? Chris is the ring leader. I stand by my statement that I have 3 children, 2, 3 and 27. My secret plot was to ditch the abusive wrestling match and get on the computer. It really annoys them when I get in my computer zone and usually spoils their fun. So in turn I can lay down. LOL. Yes, it's an evil plot but sometimes I'm flat out desperate. It isn't even working this time!!!!! Boo hoo for Sara. ha ha. I know there could be worse things in the world than a tired mom with a happy family. Count your blessings.....

Before We Were Married...LOL

My handsome Caden

Pretty Macy

So much new stuff!

I have so much to catch up on with this blog. But before I get to any of that I have to say something about cousin Chara's last post. All day I have been so frustrated with my children. I'm not used to staying with them 24/7. It can be very overwhelming. It seems as though my temper has been getting shorter.I don't know what has gotten into my kids lately. They have been at each other's throats. And the biting!!! Will it ever stop?! My new solution for that is rinsing their mouth's out with soap when they bite. It worked on me when grandma caught me saying a bad word as a kid. I figure it's worth a try. Anyhow, back to my point. My frustration has been reaching new levels. Some days I think that I'm just in wayyyy over my head. Having a 2 and 3 year old at my side every minute is a huge challenge. Anyway, here I sit in my chair just saying my thankful prayers that my children went to bed early and gave me a break and I click over to Chara's blog. My frustration melted. I remember feeling that same way. Wondering what kind of mom I would be. Wondering about the lifestyle changes that would come with the baby. Wondering about giving birth. That is such a special time in life. A highly emotional right of passage that some women wonder about their whole lives. And now I just feel silly. I had forgotten what I have to be thankful for. My children might be fighting and biting each other, but I get to be here to wipe every tear and give out hugs and apply bandaids. And even though I'm challenged beyond my measure some days at least right now I get to be here and be the one that gets to teach them the lessons they need. That was the most frustrating thing about working full time. I was almost never the one that got to teach them that little lesson. Whatever the lesson may have been at the time. So I will have to remember this. I will make a mental note that when I feel like I'm drowing in toddler chaos think back to the very beginning. So, Chara thanks for inadvertently reminding me to take a step back!

On a completely different subject......Health and Fitness! For a couple months now Chris and I have really been making a monster effort to get healthy. Chris has been wanting to lose weight and I have been worrying about the condition of our hearts and etc with all the junk we were eating. The way the whole thing started out is kind of funny. I've been trying to be supportive of Chris's weight loss goals for awhile but it is very hard for me. I'm not trying to make myself sound bad here, but I've never had to worry about weight. It comes and goes for me, but it always stays in about the same range. I can pretty much eat whatever I want and I never have to see it on my hips. Well, one week Chris was particularly irritated with his fitness. We must have had an arguement every day for 3 days straight about (in his words) how it is my fault he is not losing weight. Well he pushed my buttons one too many times. I threw out everything in the house and went to the grocery store. Everything was diet diet diet healthy blah blah. At first I was just mad and thought "Oh yeah! Well we'll just see what he thinks when he is eating his own seperate meals of tofu and cottage cheese every day! Hmph! That's what he gets for blaming me!" I'm not really sure how it changed from my spitefullness into an all out family campaign, but somehow it did. It took a little while but we actually managed to change our entire eating lifestyle. It's been a big change. Now that we conquered our bad eating habits I decided we needed to change our bad LAZY habits. So I just came up with my "Get off your butt!" campaign. Not that eloquent but the point is clear. I try to plan an activity for us most evenings. Chris has softball on Sunday evenings with his friends. Mondays we take the new dog for a walk and go to the field by our house and hit softballs. Tuesdays the kids have a standing appointment with my inlaws to go to the library for story time etc. So they stay there for dinner and that gives Chris and I a chance to do something that we can't really do with the kids. Yesterday we went to the driving range and hit golfballs for an hour. It was my first time ever and boy was I terrible. Then we went to the park and played tennis for another hour. Here I am thinking that I'm still little miss "I'm 28, have 2 kids and still skinny and active." AND BOY WAS I WRONG! That tennis kicked my butt! I seriously have not moved that much since I cheered in college. LOL. I'm not as sore today as I thought I would be, but still!!!!! My ego got knocked down a notch or two! Plus I'm just not athletic. I never have been. Somehow I managed to be a coordinated cheerleader/gymnast but those days are long long gone! Wednesday, well this one we took off. We sat around and recouped. I did however take the children and the dog on a mile walk this afternoon. And mom came along too! Thursdays Chris has softball again so I'll just do something active around the house. I'm thinking that Fridays should be swimming. I don't know we'll see. But we are on the road to living a much healthier life. The get off your butt campaign is all about doing something outside and active instead of sitting around developing diabetes and getting clogged arteries. So far so good! I just have to find a way to keep us motivated. Wish me luck!

Introducing Harley

Say hello to Harley our newest family member. He was wandering around our street for a few days and we took him in. We put up flyers and checked with all the vets in the area. We tried to find his owner but had no luck. We said we would look for his owner and if we didn't find him then we would find him a good home. However it's been 2 weeks now. I think the good home we found is ours! We are not allowed to have pets in our house so this causes a bit of a dilema. The kids have fallen in love with him and we have too. I just can't stand to think of sending him away!