Short and Simple Update on Us

Whoa. I am back. It's been way too long! Let's keep it simple- we have 2 kids now. We live in Puyallup in a house we just bought for Christmas in 2015. We have 1 dog, Mike still works for the railroad, I am currently SAHM and my oldest will be starting Kindergarten in the fall. A lot has happened since I last wrote!!

Here is Madilynn.

She will be turning 1 in June. She has 8 teeth, crawls pretty freakin' fast, and she loves to laugh. 

Here is Sean. 

He turned 5 in January and he will be starting Kindergarten in September. If you are a previous follower of my blog, you will see that it is mostly about him ;) I can't believe how big he is now!

I'll leave it at that for now. I will try to stay dedicated and write again soon. I'm trying to take it slow so I will actually stick with blogging this time! 

The end of 2013...

Last time I wrote was 16 months ago. Almost a year and a half ago! Well I can say for sure a lot has happened!

We are still living in Kent with Mike's cousin Tammy and her family. They added one to their family last April, so we live with Tammy, Steve, Gabriel (3 yrs old) and Westley (8 months). Last time I wrote, I was planning on working for a Montessori in Issaquah. Well, a few days before school started I got a different offer- to work in my own classroom (as opposed to associate teaching under another trained Montessori teacher) for the sister school in Kirkland. I decided to take the offer and I've been working there for a year and a half now. I really enjoy it :) 

Mike is still working for BNSF and recently took on a promotion to begin training as a Yardmaster. Basically it's more of a manager type position- instead of actually putting trains together he tells people how to do it. He's enjoying the change of pace, and hopefully soon we will see the difference in income. 

Sean is almost 4 years old now, we are in the midst of planning his birthday party for the end of January. He loves going to the Montessori school, he's learned so much and has made so many friends! He reads books now (and not just Bob books!), he can almost write letters legibly, he's learning about Teens and Tens in school, and he just got a watch from Santa that he is using often throughout the day to tell us what time it is (though I don't think he quite comprehends what it means yet). At home, Sean and Gabriel are best friends and it's nice having someone he can play with who just lives upstairs. 

It's funny to me when I look back at my blog, because I only posted twice in 2012 (once in April and once in August) but I posted often in 2010 and 2011. Only a few posts ago I was writing about potty training, and now we're way past that stage! In fact, we will be expecting to start that baby journey all over again, hence my picking up the blog entries after so long. I'm currently 16 weeks pregnant with baby number two! Our estimated due date is June 14th, 2014 and we're pretty excited :) I was feeling pretty guilty that I'd posted about 10 times by now with my first pregnancy, and this time I haven't blogged at all!

So here you go, update on baby #2: 

Babycenter.com says.... 16 weeks- Get ready for a growth spurt. In the next few weeks, your baby will double his weight and add inches to his length. Right now, he's about the size of an avocado: 4 1/2 inches long (head to rump) and 3 1/2 ounces. His legs are much more developed, his head is more erect than it has been, and his eyes have moved closer to the front of his head. His ears are close to their final position, too. The patterning of his scalp has begun, though his locks aren't recognizable yet. He's even started growing toenails. And there's a lot happening inside as well. For example, his heart is now pumping about 25 quarts of blood each day, and this amount will continue to increase as your baby continues to develop.

And here's a picture of me on Christmas at 15.5 weeks 

So our next appointment is January 7th, and then I'll have an ultrasound scheduled for the end of January, and hopefully we will find out the gender! I am really hoping for a girl, but Mike and I are both pretty sure it's a boy. We have not yet settled on a name, but we are thinking Madison or Madelyn if it's a girl and Max if it's a boy. 

Cross your fingers that I keep up with the updates- it took me about 5 days to finish this entry, I'm hoping to be more efficient next time ;) 

Turn the computer off

It's been a few weeks since I have done much of anything on the computer. Actually, I am typing this as we speak on my iPhone, so excuse any crazy auto correct ;) But for once in my life it has felt good to take a break from most of the screens in my life. I've been using my iPhone to keep up with emails, pay some bills, map stuff for driving directions, and look up the occasional website or peruse FB for 5 minutes.

Since we just moved into a new house, at first I was offline because I was busy packing and cleaning. Then I was off because our internet was not hooked up at the new house yet. Then I was too busy UNpacking to get online. Now I just don't want to get sucked back into the mindless time wasting of social networking, online window shopping, etc. So I've been avoiding our desktop, and only using my iPhone a few times a day.

I hate how obsessed I can become with being on the computer, so this is how I stay away I guess. I just wanted to post a short update, so I figured via iPhone while the kiddos watch tv is a good way to go.

We moved into a house in Kent at the beginning of August, with Mike's cousin Tammy, her husband Steve and their 1.5 year old son Gabriel. Today is my last day watching Gage at his house. I'll be a stay at home mom for about 2.5 weeks before I start working for Lakeside Montessori in Issaquah again, and Sean will be starting there in his own classroom at the beginning of September. Mike is still working in the yard at BNSF, but he's getting ready to be a conductor again (temporarily) so his work schedule is about to get wacky for a few months, and sometimes he'll be gone for 1-2 days at a time.

Not sure what else to say, but if you're reading this and want to keep in touch with me, just know that I think I'll still be checking FB occasionally but my goal is not not be on there nearly as much as I used to be. Feel free to call or text me if you want :) Peace!!

PS- here are a few pics just to make this post a little more interesting ;)

I have been doing a little soul searching the last few days. Trying to figure out what is important. The first obvious answer is my family and friends. That is a no brainer, and is not going to change anytime soon!

But after family and friends, what are my priorities? These can vary from person to person, and can change throughout the course of a lifetime.

Lately I somehow came into politics. Don't ask me how- I am not quite sure. All I knew was that I heard about this Ron Paul guy running for president, and the more I read about him, the more I liked him. I rarely read anything "bad" about him, and the things that were "bad" were poorly backed up, and to be expected (all politicians have something that people can say poorly about them, whether it's true or not). His ideals made sense to me- promoting liberty and personal freedom. Less policing of our country, and getting our priorities back in order. So I found myself listening, and doing what I felt I needed to do- get involved. I went to our precinct caucus to cast my vote- when I was 1 of 3 people to show up in our precinct, I volunteered to be a delegate to our legislative district convention, even though I didn't really understand what I was signing up for. At the legislative district convention, I became a delegate that would represent us at our Washington State Convention as well. I would have gladly gone to the National Convention in Florida as well if I had the time, money, or enough votes to do so.

My point is that somehow I found something that was meaningful to me. Something I was (and still am) passionate about, and something I could focus my time and energy into. While I still plan to pursue this passion for making a difference within our government (Ron Paul is about "done" in WA state, but his Liberty Campaign is not), I still find myself trying to figure out what to do next.

I am thinking that a revamp of my general health is a good place to start. I have struggled with my weight since having my son in January 2010. I had managed to maintain a fairly healthy weight just before becoming pregnant, but having a baby changes a lot about your body, and I just can't seem to accept the differences and get used to them. I have a LOT less time to myself, and surprisingly a lot less energy. Either that, or I spend so much TIME channeling all of my ENERGY into my family and housework that I have none left for myself. Either way, it's been difficult for me, to say the least, to get to a point where I could call myself healthy.

The frustrating part is that I do eat pretty healthy- I stopped buying most of the processed crap a long time ago, I always have a house full of fresh fruits and veggies, and I rarely drink any sugary juices or sodas. I have cut back on my sweet tooth indulgences a lot, and I don't count calories but I am pretty aware of what is going into my body. So in order to lose weight, I have to do a lot more than just eat healthier and exercise more- I have to figure out what is causing me to hold on to this baby weight and stop doing it!!!

I am thinking about doing a detox diet next week. Nothing too crazy- I looked into the "master cleanse" and to be honest it scared the crap out of me (no pun intended. If you don't understand what I mean, google "master cleanse" and you will see what I mean about crap LOL). I just checked out a book from the library called The Inside-Out Diet. It was written by a naturopath who has a blog that deals with alternative medicine. Don't get me wrong- I can appreciate modern medicine for what it is worth. But I am a firm believer in trying to fix my minor ailments (fatigue, weight gain, etc.) with diet and exercise first. Hippocrates said, "Let food be thy medicine, and let medicine be thy food."

Working on my diet and starting an exercise routine are only going to go so far, as far as soul searching and such. But for right now I think it's something I am missing. I am hoping to get my body back in order, so I can have lots of energy and keep up with my crazy two year old. Overall I am hoping to feel like I have a little control over myself again. And maybe become a little bit healthier mentally as well. Body, mind, spirit. These things go hand in hand.

In 2012....

Oh goodness, I am always so embarrassed when I realize that it has been months since I last updated my blog. I truly enjoy blogging because it allows me to keep a record of events, as well as my thoughts and emotions associated with them. It's kind of fun to look back on things and remember them as they were. I also like being able to put it all in one place so that my friends and family (the ones I speak to and see often, as well as the ones that are close to my heart despite us not speaking often or spending time together) can see it all in one place. So I am going to do my best to pick up where I left off last time!

So I just checked, and it has been since NOVEMBER 2011 that I last wrote anything. Time sure does fly fast! Our lives have been busy as usual, so I will try to create a summary of our lives to date.

Mike
Still working at BNSF. His schedule has been far from predictable, up until the last 6-8 weeks. He finally has enough seniority that he is able to hold a "weekend," meaning a scheduled two days off. Currently it is on Wednesdays and Thursdays that he is off work, and then works various jobs throughout the other 5 days. A few weeks ago, he was holding his scheduled days off and was able to hold night shifts. This was not so much fun for us- he was having a difficult time getting enough sleep during the day, so when we did see him he was a little zombie-ish. Also, I missed having a warm body to snuggle at night time. Recently they made some changes that opened up a bunch of daytime slots, so for the last 1.5 weeks he has been able to hold day shifts- woo hoo!! This is so much better for all of us- he gets to see Sean and I every morning and night, and he gets some normal time to himself on his days off (rather than spending it trying to get back on a normal person's sleep schedule, only to have to quickly go back to a graveyard sleep schedule again).

He's also been enjoying the PNW spring weather as much as he can. It's been just warm enough and just dry enough that he has been able to ride his motorcycle to work a few times as  week, as well as out and about on occasion. Other than that, life's been pretty simple. We are still (after 9 months of living in WA) trying to get a feel for a real social life. We were used to a pretty lax way of hanging out with people in LA, so it's still not natural for us to have friends who live more than 10 minutes away, and with work schedules, and their own plans aside from spontaneous Sunday BBQ's ; ) We have a lot of friends and family here that we are so thankful for, and we have been as social as we can be- but on occasion we remember how easy it was to call up 5 people at the last minute, and they would all be at our door within the hour without any obligations to stop partying at a specific time.

Jenn
Still working at being a nanny for Gage, who is now 4 years old. I have also taken on watching his 2 year old cousin Michelle on occasion, I probably care for her 1-2 times a week. I have been so thankful for this job opportunity since I have been able to avoid putting Sean into daycare and instead spend time with him, and keep working on potty training and everything else developmental for him. He loves Gage and Michelle so it's been a great social opportunity for all 3 of them. It's also been a nice transitional job from being a SAHM for so long. In August I will officially be starting back at Lakeside Montessori- the same preschool I worked at from 2001-2006 before we packed up and moved across the country to Louisiana. I am really looking forward to being in the classroom again, and also I think Sean is going to thrive in a Montessori preschool environment. I am definitely going to miss seeing Gage and Michelle everyday, as well as Gage's mom Danielle who has become a good friend of mine. But they are still only 15 minutes away so hopefully after August we will still get together with them often : )

I have also somehow recently gotten myself into politics- what the heck was I thinking?!?! LOL Yep, I am officially a King County 11th district Republican delegate for Ron Paul at the Washington State GOP convention that will be held in Tacoma the first weekend in June. I have NEVER been a political person before, let alone involved in the Republican party, but I guess it was my time! I have a lot to say on the issue, but I am thinking I might try and write a second blog posting where I can focus on that, instead of turing this "summary" post into a 12 page essay ; )

Sean
Oh where do I start with this amazing kiddo of mine? Sean turned two in January, and let me tell you- two has turned out to be the most wonderful and also the most frustrating age that we have experienced yet. One minute he is absolutely mesmerizing- talking and thinking and just being incredible. I look at him and think, "Geez kid when do you get so big and so awesome?" And then the next minute he is an absolute terror and I think, "When did you turn into such a nightmare?!?" But overall being a mom has been such a blessing and I honestly can't wait until we have another one : D

Sean's favorite things right now: Disney characters such as Mickey Mouse, Lightning McQueen, Buzz Lightyear and Woody. He also still loves books, trains and Sesame Street, and over the last few weeks has taken an amazing interest in puzzles. It really surprises me actually, because he is now bored with peg puzzles- he wants to do 24-30 piece puzzles that are usually labeled for ages 3 and up. And after getting some help for the first few times, he can usually start to do them all by himself. I usually only have to remind him to turn all of the pieces right side up and spread them out, and then he takes over. We try to get outside everyday, even when it is raining, and he loves to run and climb and jump and everything else a normal 2 year old boy loves to do. He still only weighs about 28 lbs. (I think he weighed about 25 lbs. this time one year ago) but he has gotten to be pretty tall and lean.

Sean now sleeps in a toddler bed every night, he successfully stopped using a pacifier about 3 months ago, and he is what I consider to be daytime potty trained. We have been working on night time potty training, but it has proved itself to be a whole other realm of potty training. I am thinking he is not ready to even think about holding it all night- he is a pretty deep sleeper and has finally (thank the Lord) gone back to sleeping through the night, so it's not likely he will wake up on his own to go potty in the middle of the night either. He really doesn't get out of his toddler bed on his own at all anyways, but I am sure that time is just around the corner. I have been putting him into thick training pants at bedtime, and trying to go in around 10:30 or 11 to take him potty while he is half asleep- that way at least he is keeping his sheets and pajamas dry, and getting a feel for peeing in the middle of the night since I know he still needs to. As he gets a little older we will go back down to light training pants, and work on him either holding it all night or getting up independently, but for now I think this is the best we can get without compromising his sleep and his confidence with daytime potty training.

That's about all I have for now. Stay tuned for my post on getting involved in politics- I am hoping to get some of my thoughts down into my blog so I can organize my own brain a little better : ) Here are a few pics!!

playing in the snow with Dada

My big two year old on his birthday

big boy bed : )

Grammie came to visit from AZ

getting ready to play outside with Michelle and Gage

I love my Momma : )

Sean and his buddy/cousin Gabriel

Easter 2012

Kids say the darndest things.....

I have been wanting to keep a record of some of the cute things Sean is starting to say now, so I can look back on them when he is talking way too much, and remember when it was so amazing to hear him put sentences together for the first time! For the record, he is 22 months now : D

The other day I was helping him brush his teeth, and was probably being a bit too forceful. He said "Stop!" and pulled his face away. This is the first time he vocalized an actual, "stop," to me, so I said, "Did you just tell me to stop??" with a giggle, and then HE replied, "Yes, I did!"

We have a few favorite books, and one of the newest is called Snuggle Puppy by Sandra Boynton. The words are, "Oooooo, snuggle puppy of mine, everything about you is especially fine. I love what you are, I love what you do. Oooooo, I love you!" (Kiss!) Sean has started trying to sing it on his own, so in the other room I will hear, "Ooooooo  Suh puppy MINE, mununumunuh (or other filler sounds) FINE. Ooooooo I wah you. Mwuah!" 

Sean and I were eating breakfast together, and he pushed his water cup right next to my coffee mug, and said, "Water. Coffee. Friends!"

Our dog Jax pulled a bowl full of Sean's snack down from the coffee table the other day and ate it all. I found it and whacked him on the nose with the bowl, and Sean saw me do it. He looked at me and said, "Momma, say Jax sorry."

When I go into Sean's room to get him in the morning, occasionally as I walk into the room, he says, "Momma?? Hooray!!!!!"

In the wee hours of the morning, sometimes Sean will wake up and talk to himself or play before falling back asleep. The other morning I heard him reciting his alphabet, combined with playing our daily hide and seek game. "A.... B.... C.... D..... E..... F........ G? Where are you G? G!!! WHERE ARE YOU???" 

We were outside going for a walk. All of a sudden, Sean looks at me and says, "Su......per Grover!" So I say, "Super Grover, huh?" And then he proceeds to tell me a story, that went something like, "Super Grover and Elmo fly, and Cookie and Elmo and Super Grover are friends." Then we went inside and he got his stuffed Ernie, Elmo, and Cookie Monster and made them all fall down and go "ouch" and said sorry. After they fell down again, he put his hands to his cheeks and said, "Oh no, what are we gonna do?" and as he turned them all over he said "fix it."

I am sure I will be hearing more of these silly stories and sentences coming from him again soon. But it's easy to be amazed by my child daily, and forget to take record so I can look back on these memories later. 

Fall/Winter 2011

Can I just start this post by saying that I really do love the weather here in the Pacific Northwest? I am listening to the rain outside right now, and I can feel that it's somewhere in the low 50's outside, even though I am cozy and warm indoors. And it makes my heart smile. My husband thinks I am crazy, and I know I will be sick of it come March. But for now I am loving it. It's such a nice change of pace from humid, hot, and swampy in South Louisiana. This is crisp, clean, and homey. Yum : D

So, shortly after I blogged last time, I found a job- hooray! It's a pretty sweet deal for me. I am watching a 3.5 year old at his house, while his mom works from home. I get to bring Sean with me (bonus!) and the latest I get off work is 2:30pm. Some days I have to be there as early as 6am, but most days I am there around 8 or so, and some days (when his dad is working later in the day or not at all) then I randomly won't have to come in to work at all. I get weekends off, as well as the major holidays. She is paying me weekly, the same rate regardless of what hours I work, so I get some reliability out of that as well. Overall I think it's exactly what I needed at this point- I was reluctant to get a "real" job and have to think about putting Sean into daycare and commuting and all that junk. This is about 15 minutes from our apartment (25 in traffic) and it's been rare that I have to put in the regular 40 hours a week. Not to mention, I get to play with a 20 month old and a 3 year old all day- fun!! The little boy's name is Gage, and Sean is fascinated by him. They play pretty well together, although Sean is still doing what experts call "parallel play" for the most part. Which is great- he's always been fairly independent, so he plays well that way, and I get to devote some one on one with Gage, since he likes some games that Sean isn't quite ready for yet, like Memory and pretend. But it's nice to be able to tell Gage that Sean is watching and wants to be like him, so he needs to show him the right things. He is a good kid, I lucked out with watching him. In my preschool teaching experience, he is one of the easier ones LOL!

The other benefit of taking a job like this is that I have been able to keep up with potty training! Sean is doing pretty well- it's not unrealistic to go an entire day without accidents at all, as long as I take him to the potty every hour-ish. He rarely tells me he needs to go pee on his own though, but I figure that will come with time. He will tell me about 1/2 of the time when he needs to poop. The last 2 days though, he hasn't told me he needed to go at all, but since he usually goes right before or right after naptime, I have been encouraging him to use the toilet. He has been resisting, and then going in his diaper right before he goes to sleep or right after he wakes up. If he does happen to go before he falls asleep, he won't sleep until I change him, which is a good thing. But it's been several weeks since he has resisted anything having to do with the potty, so this bums me out a little. Oh well, one day at a time, right? At least I am usually only going through 2 diapers a day now- naptime and bedtime. And an occasional pair of wet underwear here and there.

Right now the biggest thing we have going on is deciding what we are going to do with our house in Louisiana. Our renters have been far from reliable (aside from Dan, of course, who was always an awesome roommate, and tenant after we left!) so I am starting to freak out several times a month, wondering if we can afford to pay the mortgage or not. Property management is expensive, but it is something we need to look into again. I am not emotionally ready to sell the house yet- we didn't get a chance to put much work into it, and I think a part of me still thinks I can go back for a visit/extended stay and live there for a while. Ha! I think I am a bit delusional! But honestly, the housing market is crap right now, and we have owned it for less than 3 years, and have not put any money into it (aside from the A/C), so it wouldn't be the best idea to sell unless we absolutely cannot get renters in there because there is a chance we would not break even, let alone make anything. Right now we have 2 new renters, our supposed to be 3rd one bailed on us at the last minute. There were 2 previous to this that had to get out of their leases due to financial issues. We need at least 3 tenants (but have room for a total of 4) in order to pay the mortgage on rent money alone. Not to mention the pest control and landscaping. *Sigh* I hate money. I wish we could have stuck with the dive industry and Louisiana for another 2-3 years, long enough to get some equity built up and a chance for me to feel like we gave being homeowners a true chance. But, it is what it is. My current motto is "This too, shall pass" and I need to keep reminding myself. Things will happen, whether we want them to or not. Worrying doesn't do anything productive for the situation.

Well, I figured I needed to write out a wishlist- We have all of our birthdays coming up in the winter (Mine is November, Sean's is January, and Mike's is February) plus Christmas coming up. For our own sake I made a list, but figured it would be a good idea to post it on our blog as well, since our family is always asking what we want for Christmas anyways. Feel free to ignore it, but here it is LOL


Mike
Handgun
12 gauge ammo
My two front teeth (it's all I want for christmas)
A gift card (if they do it) to these guys   www.bigjoesbikerrings.com
Dress shoes
Thick blue jeans (33-32 straight cut)
Books or book store gift card

Jenn
Raincoat/fleece coat combo (like my old Columbia jacket)
New running shoes (10.5ish?)
Value Village gift card (do they even make those?)
Eclipse DVD
Muffin top pan
Mini muffin pan

Sean
Winter Coat (2T)
Trains/Tracks set (Brio, or Thomas?)
Dr. Suess books
Super Why! Doll
Word World DVD
Slippers

I'm looking forward to this weekend- both of my parents are coming to visit, and we are talking about going to Anthony's Homeport for dinner on Saturday- yum!! It's my absolute favorite restaurant, yipee!!

Well, that's all for now. I'm signing off.

And now for the pictures!!!!!