A Few Things

We got Noah a bike for his birthday.  I really hesitated about buying it cause (in all honesty) my kid is  not the most active fella in the world.

But, who can pass up a good deal?

So the $40 Jake bike came home with me.

And we got serious about it.

Every day.

Like it or not.

(thankfully we didn't have to deal with the "or not" side of things.

In just 4 days, he has literally taken off.

The first two were kinda painful (mostly for the person on the ground pushing the pedals, one at a time).

But the last two days, he has just taken off!

And now we are juuuuust about running after him.

So needless to say...we are super super happy and proud of our little bike rider.

 Beagle is now wearing the shock collar of shame.

I'm pretty tired of the howling for food.

And the bowl banging.

So the food bowl has been put away too.

Heres to a quiet couple of days.

:)

 For the second time, I have taken advantage of the lifetime warranty on our Analon non-stick pots and pans.

Introducing my new large skillet.

Complete with new lid (which I didn't even ask for).

Brand spankin new.

Also announcing that we have our first two bell peppers!

We added them to pizza, and they were well worth the minimal work we put into them.

 We also have several more small bell peppers and a few jalapeño buds poking out too.

Lastly, today was the 30th and final day of the 30 day Plank Challenge.

I never never never would have thought I could have survived.

It wasn't easy.

I was shaking like crazy, but I got it done.

And I'm super proud of myself!

That's all for tonight!

Happy Friday!

Party

I was gonna blog the birthday party yesterday, but the stomach bug hit, and I was lying in bed puking instead.

It was rough.

Really really rough.

The rough part of it was that I was the third and final Schuld to get it since Friday.

Our poor toilet.

So anyway, enough about me and my miserable stomach.

Here is my super duper special birthday boy on his first official b-day party.

:)  

He was pretty pumped about the whole thing.

You only get to be three once, you know?

All of his little Schuld cousins came out to celebrate, and his grandparents and aunts and uncles and even great grandparents.

You gott be pretty special for all that.

I'll write a better post on what my crazy little boy is doing on his actual birthday, but for now, some pictures of the little man on his special day:

Planking, Planking and Puking

This weekend we headed to Phoenix.

It was a good time full of three things:

1. Planking

2.  Planking

3. Puking.

You might have wondered why I listed planking twice.

See below:

We are Day 25 of the 30 Day Plank Challenge.

We are planking for 3.5 minutes.

That is a really really long time.

And over the next 5 days, we still have to add another minute and a half.

My dad is a total trooper.

it takes him a while to get set up for planking, but he holds strong!

It was fun to do together.

 After that kind of planking was done, the guys headed outside to do some more planking.
Actually, they were building with planks.
Building massive overhead storage for my dads garage, as well as a small work bench area.
The entire thing was built in 1 day (minus some plank painting my dad had done the day before).
I think the guys had a good time, and though tired, they seemed happy with the outcome.
I wanted to build my dad a "SOS" sign to hold up if my energizer-bunny husband wore him out.
But I don't think he needed it, and here are some pictures of the process/results:

And finally, this weekend consisted of puking.

Noah puked all the way up to Phoenix in the car.  

I counted at least 6.

On the positive side, I am happy to say that my child has learned the concept of puking into a bucket.

What a happy day.

But for the most part, the virus was short lived.

And then this morning Jeremy started.

And as of 8 pm he is still going strong.

I'm a little paranoid every time I feel a little rumble in my stomach.

Send some prayers our way.

We might be in for a rough few days.

Birthday pictures to come tomorrow!

8 Things

1.  I signed up for a continuing education course from Edlantis Education.  It is called "Understanding Autism: putting the pieces together".  Its a 12 hour course, and so far I'm so pleased with it.  It's a great perspective on sensory processing.  I can't wait to put some of the techniques into practice.  It's very different than the typical take-the-test type course.  It is interactive, with "homework" assignments to send to the instructor.  So far money well spent.

2.  We have had a few days of really rough behavior from the little man.  He has lost all TV privileges 2 days in a row, and tonight I brought down the hammer: losing his Jake toys.  This morning Noah told me that he didn't like me, only Daddy and that he can't wait to get get bigger so he doesn't have to listen to me.  ahhhhhh, life with a toddler.

3.  The base pool opens on Friday.  We won't be here, but I'm really excited to take Noah there maybe next week.  This weekend we plan to splash around in my mom and dads pool!  Get it warm for us!!!

4.  I have made SIGNIFICANT progress in my war on flies.  Between mesh magic, which cut down on the flies coming in, and my new electric mosquito racket, which kills the flies without the wild swatting.  I still have a few now and then, but it is soooo much better and I no longer feel like I'm living in a jungle.

5.  I had a really fantastic Jamie-day on Sunday.  Pedicure, eyebrow wax, starbucks, victoria's secret...it was really really nice.  I never take the opportunity to do that, so I'm so glad I did.  It was a huge treat.

6.  A few weeks ago, Beagle had a seizure.  It was a small one, but we are a little traumatized after our time with Rio.  We took him in to the vet, and all tests were negative.  We are watching him really carefully cause he is kind of our furry baby.  Nothing since that we know of.

7.  Having a great time with Fitness Blender. I'm SO glad my sister introduced me.  It is such a great way to get an awesome workout when I'm stuck at home.  Really, I even do it on days that I'm not stuck at home because I really enjoy it.  Every one is different and I don't get bored!  I bought a water belt for my outdoor runs, since its starting to get hot out!  Even the swings and slides are too hot after 9am!

8.  Jeremy's plane is really coming along!  I'll post pictures soon (maybe one the next blog post).  Its starting to really look like something thats going to fly!  Its going to be a VERY exciting day when that thing takes off!

Thats all for tonight!
Getting my ice cream scooper out!

In My Yard

I forgot to mention that we are growing a garden.
Well, sort of.  :)
We decided to make an attempt to show Noah about growing (and where veggies/fruits come from).
So off to Home Depot we went.

We tried to buy 2 bell peppers, 2 jalapeños, and 2 cilantro.
For some reason we came home with 1 bell pepper, 3 jalapeños, and 2 cilantro.

1 jalapeño got dug up by Riley while we were in Phoenix last month.
One just kind of petered out (maybe transplant shock?!?)/
You can kind of see it in the back of second picture.
Noah asks me almost daily "what is that?" and I usually answer "i'm not really sure".
So the grand total is
1 bell pepper:

1 jalapeno:

and 2 wildly growing, out of control cilantro.

For our daily, high consumption cilantro use.

uhhhhhhh...............

yeah, I don't know either.

Ask my husband.  ;)

Surprisingly, our measly garden is actually doing quite well.
It is in the shade from 11:30 am on, so with they are able to stay cool so far.

We also have a few of these little guys in our yard too:

I try to give them a little warning (a knock or a door handle shake) before letting Riley out in the in morning.

I'm a sensitive soul like that.  

And I would really hate to see a mangled rabbit in my yard.

So that is what is going on in my yard right now!

And considerably less flies! (But that is a whole different story for a whole different blog post) :)

Happy Sunday!

Fly Hater

I'm a fly hater.
This seems to be a really bad personality trait (?) to have at this house.
I swear every time I open the door 5 flies dive bomb into my house.
It's like they are waiting outside.
I don't know why.
There is really nothing good going (food wise) on in here.
It's driving me a little crazy.
Nobody should have to kill 8 flies before they even drink a cup of coffee

To make matters worse, I'm terrible with a fly swatter.
Count the number of flies and multiply by 5, and that's how many swats it takes.
It's pathetic, but true.
Jeremy says I don't have enough wrist movement.
Whatever.
Also, we can't say "kill" in our house, so it's difficult to describe what I'm doing when I'm wildly swing the fly swatter around.

So I bought "mesh magic" which covers the door with screen, but opens and closes (with magnets) to let the dogs in/out.
It cost $13.
It's our second one.
You get what you pay for.

It's so interesting because flies are basically the only bug (flying) that we have.
Which is a huge improvement from Mississippi, where the Mosquitos are as big as my palm (not an exaggeration).

So I'm standing up to flies.
Watch out. I'm onto you. :)

Mother's Day from a Different Perspective

I've spent a lot of time thinking about what I wanted to write today.
Something was/is on my mind, and I just wasn't so sure how to put it into words.

Those who know me, or have read my blog for a while know I try to be honest about the ups and downs of parenting, marriage, military life, and really everything!
I try to be honest about the struggles of being a mommy...and boy do I have my fair share.  :)
The last three years have been so life changing for me.

Before I was a mommy, I glamorized what mommy-life was like.
I imagined hours of snuggling with a warm squishy infant, taking long afternoon naps and having a child who showed his undying love to me at all times.

In reality, my child says "no" more times than I blink in one day (though we have made significant progress lately).
He demands chocolate milk for breakfast and dumps my folded laundry basket over when I tell him its bedtime.  :)

But he loves me, and I love him.
He asks me on a daily basis "mommy, can you keep me safe?"
And "mommy, will you take care of me?"
And I can assure him that I will do everything (and more) possible to do that.

I love that over the last three years, I have learned to read him
And I have learned how to comfort him like only a mommy can.

Sometimes we butt heads.
I'm stubborn.
He is stubborn.
And sometimes that doesn't work out too well.
But he always forgives me, and I always forgive him.
It just works.

So I don't mean to be negative, but I am trying to be honest.
There are ups and downs on mommy-hood.  Thats a fact.
And having a boy that has a lot of personality :) has been such an amazing time of growing in my life.
One that I am very grateful for.

So on Mother's Day, I want to say how thankful I am to have been blessed by a wonderful, special, beautifully created little boy who loves me even though I am still learning how to be a mommy.

Also, I want to say thank you to my wonderful mom, who is by my side as I go through my own motherhood journey.  :)  I couldn't have asked for a better mom!

Screwdriver

I've had a really long and tiring week.

I've been going to bed early and trying to catch up.

Besides being in a bit of a funk (which I'm really hoping to clear up with a bowl of Blue Bell), my child gave me a good little smile last night.

He brought this "N" to us, which Riley got ahold of a few months ago and ate, and said "daddy, can you get a screwdriver and fix this?"

Gotta love that little guy.

But I don't think a screwdriver is gonna help the "N".

Camping Report

So the camping trip went well.

Especially for me.  

Since I didn't go.

And I spent wonderful, beautiful, time alone.

Doing nothing.

In absolute quiet.

ahhhhh (just the thought makes me happy).

But enough about me.

Jeremy said it was a good time.

That there was constant motion of either packing or unpacking stuff.

Such is the life of doing anything with a toddler.

But it was good bonding time.

N was able to report back to me on all the things they had done.

Tent, campfire, cooking hot dogs and bacon, finding sticks, hunting around...

And they both came home stinky and tired (well, mostly the bigger of the two boys was tired).

And I'm really looking forward to the next one.

Though I may be the only one.  :)

Sunscreen Stock Up

Super pumped about my sunscreen stock up.

Over the past year, it has gotten harder and harder to find good deals.
The coupons are not as good, and the store deals are not as good either.

So I am so excited that I was able to stock up with 8 different sun screens for a total of $8.
Normally, at Walgreens, they sell for $10.50-$12.00 EACH!!!
We should be good for the whole summer (and then some maybe).
Its good to be done looking for great deals early in the summer season, and its also so great to get a good deal without having to worry about having store rewards to spend within a certain time frame.

Also you can see my milk in the back of the picture ($1.99 at frys, almost half the price at the commissary!!!)

LOVE good deals on stuff we need anyway!

Some Bullets

1.  I finally took my child to the doctor.  After about 15 minutes of ear picking and digging (which I was fascinated by), he was given the official diagnosis of ear infection and sinus infection.  He is on antibiotics and ear drops and seems to be feeling better already.  As we were getting in the car leaving the pharmacy, I asked Noah if he behaved at the doctor today (more on that in number 2) and he said "I behaved at the medicine place (pharmacy), but I did not behave at the doctor".  Interesting perspective, huh?

2.  So all in all, the doctor visit went well.  Our last doctor visit was so bad, we left with the doctor thinking that Noah was very out of control and crazy.  And, in her defense, he kinda was.  I few months ago I blogged that Noah had done really well at the dentist.  He even got on the scale (without me!!!).  So I was so pumped at the doctors office on Tuesday when he was able to get weighed, measured, temp taken and put the pulse ox monitor (twice)!!!  Doesn't sound like much to other people, but it was such a huge improvement, and made the doctor visit so much more do-able!  Granted, he did scream the during the entire ear-picking event, but I'm okay with that considering it is pretty invasive.

3.  The boys (husband and kid) are going camping tomorrow.  Its going to be such a great experience for both of them...I think they are both excited.  Noah wants to know what every piece of equipment packed in the truck does.  They are going to make a campfire,  cook breakfast, gather wood, and just do manly things.  Just as we were giving N the last few details of the camping trip, he asked if he could watch a show in the tent.  Not quite sure he understands the concept yet.

4.  We have really windy/dusty weather here today (and yesterday).  Many of my patients canceled, and I got to leave work early today.  :)  Its so funny though, because a "bad weather" day here would be considered a top 10 day back in Mississippi!  LOVE the weather here, even the "bad" days.

5. After an exhaustive church search, and almost a full year later, we still haven't found one that we love.  It is really frustrating...perhaps we have our expectations set too high after having such a wonderful church in Mississippi.  We have probably visited over 10 (or more) different churches, but we are still hunting (though the selection has diminished significantly).  Still looking though....

Thats all for tonight.  I'm multi tasking (painting toe nails, watching TV, blogging and thinking about that big bowl of ice cream I'm about to scoop)!