A summer tradition

We don't have many traditions in my family...we kind of moved around too much for that to really happen. So aside from Christmas there really isn't much the same, except for the last three years my baby sis has spent a week or so of her summer at our house. Now this is a tradition I want to keep! I have two sisters, one is 19 months younger, the other 6 years...funnily enough the one that's 6 yrs younger and I get along better even though our lives are on totally different wave lengths. I love both my sisters equally but the youngest and I have always clicked better than my Irish twin.
This year my sis came out for a full week of fun, met her new nephew and was driven to drink by her 3 yr old niece!

My sis is awesome, at 21 and as someone who never wants kids...a 3 yr old is not really the ideal hang out while on vaycay. But she played puzzles, playdough, colors, ring around the rosey, swimming, tea party, etc, etc, etc.
We played in the water daily and took the boat for a spin, drank some beers and relaxed...I had a great time and despite looking for the ear plugs a few times I think she did too.
This is one tradition I will hold onto as long as I can!

A "start" date...

I have this weird thing...I have to "start" something on a specific day/time/date. The diet will start on Monday, I'll get back to blogging on the 1st of next month, 2011 is going to be the year of exercising daily, etc, etc, etc. Thing is those "start" dates come and go and nothing really ever gets "started". So maybe I need to throw that theory to the wind and just do what I say I'm going to do right then, that instant. Dieting starts now...well after the beer and cookies I have in front of me :P

That's my problem with blogging, I keep saying I'm going to get back into it and well here my blog lies with no new news...

So starting the race full throtle...

I'm off into the blogging world again...since there is too much to catch up on and I'd end up talking in circles I'm just going forward from the most recent event which was my little sister's visit and going from there!
wish me luck bloggers...this is my start date!

Not so dumb!

So I have this, so called "irrational" by my husband, fear...that something will happen to me while I'm living here along 5 days a week and not having any friends or neighbors that I know...Evan's the type that will call and if I don't answer not worry or care if I don't call him back that day. I have a fear that I'll be laying unable to move or pass out or who knows and my kids will be here alone screaming without any help or anyone to check on them...seriously anxiety and fear over this!
Well slight reality check for Evan that this so called irrational fear may not be that irrational...

Tuesday, I went upstairs to change Blake for the day around 10am. Got my sweet little guy dressed and went to walk back down, as I got to the middle of the flight of stairs I saw Kaitlyn's yellow princess dress up shoes and made a mental note to avoid them. Stepped past them and next thing I know I'm on the ground looking up to see Blake on the landing on his back...NO recollection of what happened, how or why I had fallen and when I dropped my sweet little boy :(
I picked up Blake to check him out, felt the top and back of his head, didn't feel anything he started to cry his painful little cry...then I started to cry and panic! WHAT had just happened, how could I have let go of him?
the thought in the back of my head was something Mum had said to me when she was here "If you ever fall you instictively protect your kids" where the heck was my instinct if i had dropped him!
I called the dr. office, after having to sign onto the computer and look it up (now saved in my phone) and they didn't answer. Called Evan, now in full blown freak out mode. He says take him to the hospital...ummm bad mummy doesn't know where the hospital is! Hang up with him, call dr. again finally answer and say well if you think he's okay bring him in.
The worst part is, it was nap time so he was trying very hard to fall asleep...head injuries and sleep are not a good combo...so I'm trying to calm myself down, keep him awake and get Kaitlyn dressed so we can leave and go to the dr.'s.

Long panicked story short...he is FINE! not a bump on him, will never remember the fall and still loves his Mum who tried to chuck him down the stairs at just 6 and a half weeks old!

Mummy has some gnarly bruises on her lower back, above her tail bone and on her forearm...but we're okay and have learned to take the stairs S-L-O-W-L-Y from now on and not wear long pj pants!!

M.I.A

Well I disappeared for almost two months with good reason :) Baby boy arrived (see seperate post for his birth story) just 4 days before his due date and is just amazing! He completed our family and makes me smile everytime I see his sweet little face and bit blue eyes :) We moved! wow what an experience...unfortunately one that I'll have to repeat in under a year. I don't know what I would have done if Mum hadn't come out to help me...seriously she is beyond amazing and phew I want to cry everytime I think about what she did for me and Evan to move us out here. We ended up in Salem, Alabama a teeny tiny town in Eastern Alabama...HUGE change from the metro area of Denver and I was hesitant but I LOVE it...people are nice/helpful the vibe is laid back and it's a slow pace of life. It takes about 20mins to get anywhere which isn't always easy with two kids and I have learned I have to plan my days out to get things done but we're managing!

Can't really complain when this is my backyard for the next few monthhs! The bugs and spiders aren't fun at all and ever since my father in law mentioned water and tree snakes I'm not totally okay with being in the deep water or near the trees...but the heat doesn't bother me like my poor husband and I'm finding things for us to do! So far our schedule is preschool library hour on Wed. mornings and dance for Kaitlyn on Thursday afternoons...I plan to join a church soon so we have that on Sundays!

Evan is working about 2hrs away, but makes it home Friday late afternoon/evenings and leaves late Sunday night or Monday morning. We miss him during the week but it's a sacrifice he and I agreed to while he's working on his career. Kaitlyn definitely misses her friends and stimulation but she loves the water and is making the most of it! We're looking for swim classes :)

Hopefully as we get into more of a routine we'll find ways to keep ourselves entertained!

Monday I start the 30day shred to kick this extra 30lbs...I'll try to blog about my hatred for Jillian Michaels but my love for my new body...hopefully!

The final countdown...

I have a lot of countdowns running through my head at the moment it's hard to know what to concentrate on first...
We finally got a job offer for hubby...after numerous weeks (maybe five, I lost count) of back and forth phone calls the head manager in Georgia asked him to come down for a face to face meeting. We heard some comments about they should foot the bill for him to travel down there, but honestly at the point we're at beggers can't be choosers and we just want him to get the job without making any more demands. It's not the greatest pay, but the benefits are nice and hell in this economy it's a J-O-B! It will give Evan the tools, skills and certifications he needs in order to become more marketable to other companies. We're giving it a year before we decide what our next plan of action is, until then the kids and I will be living in Salem, AL in a house that belongs to his grandparents right on the Chatahoochee rive, it's going to be quite the change of lifestyle but I'm ready for some relaxation and quiet! Coundown to moving is 24 days!

Now that that major stressor has been lifted I can concentrate on the more fun things...such as I only have 14 days until my due date and our family of three becomes a family of four!!
The last few weeks of pregnancy are the toughest, the excitment of being pregnant and getting prepared and all that jazz are gone and the anticipation and anxiety of having the baby and wanting so desperately to see their sweet little face sets in. I think telling women that full term and babies can come after 37weeks is kind of a cruel joke...Because once you hit that 37wk mark in your head it's GAME ON to get baby out! I've been having braxton hicks alot, which are just plain old annoying and lots of pressure lately. My 38 week appointment is tomorrow and I'm hoping for some nice progression! I've been researching "stripping of membranes" and while it does sound a bit painful and I'm a firm believer in babies come when they are good and ready I'm contemplating asking my OB if she'll attempt to do it...just to kind of get things moving...would be nice...especially since Evan leaves on the 15th, I'd like baby to arrive before he departs, though Mum is coming in on the 14th so if baby comes after the 14th I'll have her here to help me! Timing is everything, what would be great is if they BOTH were here but that'd mean a crazy 24hrs for all and not sure Evan would want to leave right away and Mum would be jet lagged...sigh nothing is perfect but what's meant to be shall be :)

My final and shortest countdown is work...and can I just say THANK GOODNESS! I like my job I do, but my boss can be a bit bi-polar and in the last two days I've been told I was wrong twice and not in a nice way. I hate people, but especially bosses who think they are perfect and when others make a mistake can't seem to effectively say "oh you made a mistake shit I make them all the time, lets see how we can fix it" instead you did it wrong let me make you feel like crap for the next 10mins then we'll go over what to do to fix it. SIGH 3 and a half more days...actually only 3 more days as I have my dr. appt tomorrow afternoon and plan to leave as early as I can! Thursday and Friday I'm training the new lady, if baby hasn't arrived ;)

It's the final countdown...

Rain Rain...

stay please!!
I just LOVE the rain and thunder storms, I'm not sure why. I know when I was little thunderstorms used to scare me alot. I remmeber one night in particular living in Groote Eylant and Mum and Dad had gone out for dinner or something and we had a babysitter and a HUGE storm. One of those awesome, light up the sky, huge storms! I was petrified and in tears and our babysitter had me stand on the front porch in our house on stilts and watch the sky with her...it was magical! Haven't been afraid since in fact quite the opposite, I live for a great storm and pelting rain!

I think some of it must come from growing up in the tropics, where you can wear your swim suit and run up and down the hot drive way with the rain pelting down on you! Or dress up in the rarely used raincoats and gum boots and stomp around in puddles. Maybe it all stems from fun childhood memories?  Maybe it has to do with me being born on the coldest, dreariest day in Melbourne where I think Mum said it got dark by 3pm...who knows other than I really love a good storm!

Nothing more beautiful than a rain storm cleaning everything off, bringing new life into the earth...very magical. I could fall asleep to rain every night.

In true Colorado fashion, April showers have arrived...it's currently storming and pelting rain outside my office window making the skies dark and grey (a rarity around here). Of course we also get the awful tornado warning sirens but if you can drown those out it really is peaceful to just sit and watch the rain.

This is my view at the moment taken by my cell phone inside a window and still captures such beauty in the sky!

We are supposed to move in the next month, hopefully to the great state of Georgia and I really need to look up the local weather and see if they get rain as often as I'd like. We will be living on the river and I can't think of anything cooler than watching the rain come down on the water and splash up!

I could sit here all day and watch, but as I only have 2 weeks left here I should probably do my work and leave a good impression with my boss instead of a blank stare shadowed by rain clouds!

What I hope I'm meant to do...

I've never been fully happy with working, I don't know what it is laziness, comfort, ability...I really couldn't tell you but in each of my jobs I've had I've never felt like I was in the right place or doing what I was supposed to...the alarm going off in the morning was a drag and going into work was just what I had to do. I always have questioned how I'm going to do this for the rest of my life and keep trying to change jobs and paths and look into programs to try and find what I will love...I want to be one of those people that wake up in the morning excited to go to work, loves work and feels like they are fulfilled/content with what they do every day. I don't want to waste life in a job I hate.

When I became a Mummy on July 29th, 2007 my hatred and boredom with work became even more intense, didn't help that I had a crappy, crappy, crappy boss for most of Kaitlyn's first year. I really struggled and looked at MANY different options, nursing school, teaching, respiratory therapy, surgical tech, etc. Respirtory therapy sounded fantastic but the schooling didnt' work out so I looked at teaching again, but decided I wasn't cut out to be a teacher yet still wanted a job that made a difference in something and not just a phone answering, client serving mundane position. So Teaching and Learning it is with a hope to get into curriculum development working with the school districts to make a differnce in kids lives in what they learn in the classroom and how it's applied to life instead of just learning to test! I'm a week away from finishing my first year of grad school with CSU Global Campus, it's 100% online and works out great for my life at the moment...and can definitely say I enjoy it, the classes aren't difficult, I like what I'm learning and think that it's going to be a better career for me hopefully one that I can actually enjoy and wake up everyday at least semi excited about going too.

HOWEVER as of May 7th I am going to be a SAHM for a good 2 years, I'll get to finish my degree and spend time with baby boy and Kaitlyn being a Mummy. My real love in life, raising my kids, playing playdough, doing puzzles, colouring, dressing baby dolls, singing songs, dancing, playing in the water, running around at the park and cooking plastic food.

So even if this whole curriculum development thing doesn't work out, I still have a great purpose and that is raising my kids :)