Sunday March 1st

Unfortunately we woke up to 40 degree weather so the boat ride was off for Sunday. We went shopping instead. These are pictures of the kids in the play area in the court yard of the mall. I talked myself into the Under Armour store so that I could get back on the bandwagon again in the very near future. After a few hours of shopping and two cranky kids we went to P.F. Chang's for lunch and then headed home for a nap.

H loves her uncle Tony so much! He sat and watched Dora with her on her travel t.v. and patiently tried to learn all of the star's names! She was in heaven. I think she even let him hold her blankie!

Saturday February 28th

This was really a recovery day. I think I made my mom drive me around for an hour looking for a Starbucks just to help the pain go away. Once we got back to Tony's (and found him sleeping like this on the sofa) he informed me there was a Starbuck's two minutes from his house inside the local Target store. Oh well, we ended up at a mall so I walked away with four Godiva truffles too. I truly wonder how many calories I have consumed in three short days?

We went to a local marina to inquire about fishing or Dolphin cruises. Once we got there we decided we probably couldn't stand to get on a boat and would be better off trying again on Sunday. The kids were disappointed but only until we walked around the corner to find this jolly ol pirate. He knew how to make swords and butterflies out of balloons so the world was a happy place again, thank God! My mom and I walked around another corner straight into a margarita bar. Thankfully, mine was not any good so I threw my $10 margarita away and we went home.

Friday February 27th

Tony and I started our day off with a nice jog on the beach, followed by some "Bad Ass Kona Coffee" from one of the beach vendors, extremely enjoyable! We went back to his place and picked up the family and then we were off to Eglin Airforce Base for a tour. Once we were inside we were able to go to one of the hangers and go inside one of the C-130s that Tony works on. I found the climactic lab particularly interesting. They have this huge hanger where they can change the weather conditions to test their planes. When we drove by the sign said it was 120 degrees inside. Hmm, wonder what country they could be trying to replicate?

We also visited the Air Force Armament Museum. In addition to the much needed history lesson I figured out that I want this star as my next tattoo. I think it will cover the current M&M, a.k.a. cigarette burn quite nicely. My mom is having a heart attack right now listening to me rant about it so I'll post more once I consult Betsy :)

Next, we went to The Crab Trap for lunch. Yummy! We had Calamari which even H was fond of, GO FIGURE, the girl will not eat anything and then she gobbles down Calamari like it's her job?!? She wasn't as fond of the crab cakes. Everyone really enjoyed their meals. I had grilled tuna, Tony had shrimp po boy, Aaron had grouper, and Grandma had Mahi Mahi. The kids settled on corn dogs and more calamari.

If you are catching on that all we have done is eat you are correct!

For dinner we wanted to celebrate Tony's birthday at a sushi bar. The first one we choose was way too busy considering it was Friday night so we went to Camilles. It was amazing. I can't even begin to guess how many different rolls we tried. In addition, we ordered the kids a sausage pizza. I will use the word amazing for that too, and Grandma ordered something really yummy Thai dish. I am still completely dumbfounded as to how one restaurant could seem so authentic in three different ethnic cuisines?

We went back home and got N & H put to bed for Grandma and then we were off for the grand opening of The Swamp! This is a local bar that was re-opening for the Spring Break crowd. There was a live band here from Atlanta, Georgia and I sure wish I knew their name because I would be begging Carrie for that c.d. next! Or maybe just the picture of the lead singer I don't know. I really wish you were here with me! I tried really really hard not to embarrass my brother, but I'm pretty sure I was unsuccessful! The bars stay open until 4am here!

Happy Birthday Tony! Friday February 27th

Happy 26th Birthday Tony!

This was really why I wanted to go to Florida. I wanted to be able to celebrate another birthday with my brother. I don't think he has spent one with our family in ~8 years. My guess would be he likes it that way! Jodi and I came up with a list of 26 reasons we love our baby brother.

26. I love him because he loves me more cause I'm the favorite sister!
25. I can confide in him, and often times do
24. Tony and Jodi are only one year a part in age so they mostly torment each other and leave me alone
23. He got in his truck and drove to Iowa immediately just to be with his sister in her time of need
22. He has a great sense of style
21. He was kind enough to teach Jodi how to drive a stick with HIS truck
20. I love him because he loves me more cause I'm the favorite sister!
19. He has a really cool motorcycle
18. He is the best uncle to N & H
17. He has been practically everywhere
16. He tries really hard to be healthy
15. I love him because he loves me more cause I'm the favorite sister!
14. He loves to workout and we all need the extra boost of motivation every now and then
13. He takes life way less serious than me
12. Tony would do anything for anyone
11. Tony is an awesome listener
10. I love him because he loves me more cause I'm the favorite sister!
9. He knows when to tell me to shut up
8. Tony is honest and sincere
7. N appreciates that he and Tony look so much alike and he's not just a mini-me of his mom but his uncle too
6. N loves how Uncle Tony throws him up in the air
5. Tony is extremely kind hearted
4. Tony took me to a bar that stayed open until 4am on his birthday! After 7 hours of drinking with his friends he still doesn't hate me! (they might but he doesn't, the hottie lead singer might too, oops!) At least one of his friends still think I'm cool even if I beat them to 30, thanks James!
3. I'm loving the king size bed and bamboo sheets he gave up for me and my family while he took the couch...I'm thinking Aaron wasn't planning to buy me a new bed when we returned from vacation.
2. He let us visit him in Florida for an entire week and didn't go crazy
1. We love him for proudly serving his country

Thursday February 26

We were off to the airport by 6:30am to catch our 9:25 flight. We found our way to the airport through rush hour traffic before the gridlock hit and still had plenty of time to eat breakfast at Burger King and Cinnabon even allowing mommy to find a mocha :) The kids did so well I couldn't be more proud of them. The pictures above show them patiently awaiting boarding our plane. They were extremely excited but still they did so well. I admit that I was very nervous about them screaming the entire ride because their ears hurt or worse puking on me either because of motion sickness or excitement. Chris and Alec convinced me Benadryl was the way to go so we gave them each half a quick-melt tab and they flew like champions. Now I just need to remember that for the ride home. Favorite Girl enjoyed watching Dora and snuggling her blankie most of the ride. When we landed in Texas she had to go potty so bad but we could not get up until the plane made it all the way to the gate. I was very afraid I was going to have a wet girl to contend with but she was able to hold it for about five minutes until we safely made it to the gate.


We had to make a connecting flight in Texas. We landed in Texas at 11:25 at Gate D and had to high tail it to Gate B for take off at 12:05. It is appropriate to say I was sweating it a tad bit. We all ran to the tram to be shuttled across the airport and we made it with time to spare. Whew! At 1:45pm we landed in Pensacola and Uncle Tony was right there waiting for us.

When we got in the minivan and started driving to Uncle Tony's, N was amazed by all of the pelicans in the Gulf. The picture below is of him showing me his best pelican face after catching a fish! He's the greatest! H didn't make it to see the pelicans. The second her body hit the car seat she was out.

Wednesday February 25

Today we started our vacation trek. I took the kids to daycare hoping that I would have us packed up and ready to go by noon. That was wishful thinking! I hadn't put a single thing in a suitcase at noon. You know that map that has been passed around through e-mail that shows the woman multi-tasking? That was me on this day. I would go into a room specifically to get something to put into a suitcase and then pick up four other things and clean something else. Ugh! These are the days I wish I could be more like my husband and have a one track mind. Did I just say that out loud?!

I went and picked the kids up from daycare at noon, knowing that Favorite Boy nagging, "Mom are we ready yet, can I get in the car NOW?" would kick it into high gear for me. Finally, I packed three suitcases and we were off to Missouri for a night with the Goddard's. By the time we stopped for dinner and got lost on Route N three times we made it to their house a little after 8pm. The kids of course wanted no part of going straight to bed when we arrived. They were so excited to see Mia and Brooklyn and discover all of their toys. Luckily I think we were all in bed by 10pm so we could be up and off to the St. Louis airport at 6:30am.

Updates

I will start with Favorite Girl's update since it's the best news! She had another check up at the University on Tuesday 2/10 and she grew 1.45 inches and gained 1.54 lbs. Overall the doctor and dietitian are very pleased with her growth however they are not happy that we are hand feeding everything that goes in her mouth. There are still some behavior adaptations we need to encourage. We are going back in May and they said if she does well again we won't have to continue the visits. Aaron and I are very scared to quit feeding her since it has been what's worked but we know we need to make the changes and that she is prefectly capable of feeding herself. She does just fine at daycare so we realize it is us.

June 2008 she was 20 lbs 31.4 in

Sept 2008 she was 20.46 lbs and 32.09 in

Nov 2008 she was 21.56 lbs and 32.17 in

Feb 2009 she is 23.10 lbs and 33.62 in

Hooray I couldn't be happier with that news! On the same day Aaron was called back to work. He was called by name to be the foreman on the job so we have so much to be thankful for. He was 30 something on the list here with no job prospects in sight. And we all know how well I did at the single mom thing last summer.

January 30th my girlfriends came over and we watched the movie Fireproof. The movie itself was a tad bit corney with some low rate acting but the message itself was good. I think all married couples should watch it together. The movie seemed to follow the same storyline as the book Love and Respect which I am (slowly) reading so I'm thinking they have something figured out here about marriage. Of course we enjoyed some yummy snacks, wine and strawberry margaritas. A fun time was had by all.

On Saturday the 31st our Girl's Night Moms got together at my house and we had a shower for Carrie. We had baked potatoes and snacks, a yummy cake to celebrate Baby and lots of nice gifts. We also played the game Apples to Apples. And for the record, Mike I still think "Pulling Weeds" was quite fitting for the word "Sultry"!!

Februay started off extremely busy and it hasn't slowed down one bit! Monday the 2nd I had a recruitment fair in Ottumwa. After that I drove back to B-town to pick up some collegues and we were off to Davenport for three days for an OSHA conference. FUN TIMES! Okay so I throughly enjoyed shopping, all of the yummy food, starbucks and wine but my diet did not!

And by the way I love Biaggis! Anyway, work has been crazy busy but I still manage to squeeze in a workout each day which I am proud of. Since December, I have lost 5 lbs and 1% body fat. I am still hoping to loose 15lbs total but we'll see. I'm feeling a little stuck right now. I need to get back in my groove. I was doing so well waking up early going in before work and then Aaron got called back to work, HALLELUJAH!!! But it is really cutting into my morning routine :) Okay just kidding, of course I want my husband to have a job but I was so much more motivated to go workout before work and now that I have to get the kids up and off to daycare I have to workout in the evening and it is much harder for me. I also feel like I am loosing valuable time in the evening with the kids.

So since I have been working out I have wanted to buy new workout clothes, an ipod, a heart rate monitor, bike shorts (with the padding built in), new bike shoes....and the list goes on. Obviously with our new president in office and Aaron laid off it hasn't seemed responsible to go buy myself anything especially not the list I just rattled off. I did splurge on the bike shorts which has saved my ass literally :) And my charming husband bought me an ipod for Valentine's Day. So my weekend has been consumed with trying to load music onto it. I am so happy that I at least try to live in this century :) I had to call a twelve year old to get me started! Thanks Tanner.

Aaron and I are taking a Dave Ramsey course right now on Tuesday nights and we are learning a ton. I have to thank my employer for offering this to all employees and for offering such a deep discount! It's great and I highly recommend everyone look into this.