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.

Careful what you wish for - Prayers needed!

Thursday night I wrote that I wish Aaron would start working out. Well Friday he was laid off from work so it looks as though he will have plenty of spare time on his hands to begin that work out regimen. Damn! This came as a shock. Everyone got it on the crew except the foreman. With this economy it appears it may be quite awhile before anyone has any work. Please pray that he goes back to work soon. I am most upset that I just purchased our tickets to FL and planned a week vacation. Oh well. We really do want to go see my brother but if I had to choose between food on the table in a few months or a nice leisurely visit with Tony I suppose food would win. Please pray for our family.

N was invited to his best friends birthday party last night. The celebrated with a pool party at a local hotel, stayed overnight in the bunk bed room with three other little buddies. This morning they ate breakfast, took another swim, and then played arcade games until their hair dried. He had a great time but he's a little sleepy right now from staying up way past bedtime so I am trying to convince him to lay down with me for a little nap. I am afraid of lying down because I got up and went to spin class and boot camp this morning. I'm thinking my legs may be really sore if I sit in one place too long. Wish me luck!

Frigid Cold

Well today seems like a very appropriate day to show our appreciation for our upcoming family vacation!! I think it felt like -40 below yesterday, YIKES! We leave for Florida to visit my little brother in 40 days! We are so excited. N and I made a calendar similar to the advent one(Santa's beard that was posted earlier). We place a jack-o-lantern sticker in one of the squares on the calendar each night after supper. I don't know how we ended up with an abundance of Halloween stickers but since they are in great supply that's what we are using. I wanted to post a picture of it but my usb cable is missing ????? Not sure how that went missing exactly but it is MIA. Anyway, we are counting down the days until we take our first airplane ride as a family to visit uncle Tony as well as the days until N's 5th birthday! We will be in Florida the last week of February - the first week in March, we will return and then N turns 5 on the 14th. It is so hard to believe that my little baby will turn 5 and will be going off to Kindergarten this year!

Besides staying warm nothing too exciting is going on. I started a spinning class last Friday during lunch, I did it again Saturday morning and again Tuesday during lunch and my bottom is sore!! If this continues I will definitely be purchasing shorts with padding built in. :) I am trying to get Aaron to the gym...I'm hoping that all of the exercise will cause him to begin hacking up disgusting yellow and green stuff so he will quit smoking. He would KILL me if he knew I wrote that but oh well, it's still my wish.

Uneventful week

We have had a pretty uneventful week other than hearing the news about baby Taylor and Sally Mae. Please keep both of these dear little girls in your heart, thoughts, and prayers.

We took the kids out to eat Friday night on a gift card we received at Christmas from uncle Chris! Yea! Always nice when fun is free! We rented a few movies (Eagle Eye, Fool's Gold, The Happening and Diego). N had a friend from preschool spend the night Saturday night. This was the first sleep over he has had and it was great. They played so well. I didn't sleep very sound, I kept waking up...listening to make sure our friend didn't wake up scared. But no need to worry. The boys went to bed about a half hour after normal bedtime and slept in a little this morning.

N has to take treats to school tomorrow. He is taking carrots with ranch, cheese cubes and crackers...nothing to creative but at least it's healthy. In addition it's his sharing day so he has to choose something that begins with the 'sound of the week' to take to school and show his classmates. I better go find his newsletter to figure out what the 'sound of the week' is.

Please Pray for Taylor

Taylor is the 4 month old daughter of Jeff and Tammy, she needs everyone praying for her. I went to school with her father and I am friends with Tim (Jeff's younger brother) and his wife Jaime. Please click over and read Taylor's story and pray for her. PLEASE pass this along to all of your prayer circles.

Finishing up December

The kids enjoy going outside for five minutes while mom or dad shovels the driveways. This is N teaching H how to make snow angels. And N sitting on the sled (probably pushing sister off).

We have gone to the "Lighted Holiday" parade the last two years. We enjoy dinner afterwards with Grandma and Grandpa, Aunt Alaina, "George", and Great Grandma and Grandpa! It's always an enjoyable evening.

Here's H sporting her favorite gift! A PUPLE princess dress from Uncle Tony! She received it in the mail right before we had to leave for N's Preschool Christmas program. I had to pry it off of her.

For New Year's Eve Aaron and I went to dinner at La Tavola, a little Italian restaurant, here in B-town and then had a few friends over to play games. New Year's Day we watched the Iowa game! What a game! I hope Ferentz does not leave. I also enjoyed text message pictures from my brother who was at the game. Overall we lounged around, played games and took naps. Later in the evening we went to visit the Stimpson's and little M, ordered pizza, and played Wii. A great start to a New Year!

We enjoyed a very happy, healthy, and safe year. We are extremely blessed with wonderful, family and friends. Not to mention our absolutely adorable children. They light up our day. I love the great snuggles, kisses, and funny things they say! They are becoming little buddies which brings tears to my eyes every time I catch them playing nicely together or snuggling. I hope this lasts a lifetime! This year I hope for more of the same. I pray for our HEALTH, I pray that H continues to eat well and grow, with those two things life couldn't be any better.

Well except I do strongly pray that we get more on track with Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover so we can live debt free! Watch out student loans, you should be afraid! It is a lot of fun to have so many friend's and family members that are Ramsey fans too. Oh yea, and just one more thing...15 lbs. lighter too!