Time Travels

Isn't it amazing? Just blink, and 8 months have gone by. Guess that makes me a pretty typical blogger. Life has been crazy. David has been gone for 19 months now. He came home in March for a surprise visit for our 11th anniversary. That was wonderful. He's been trying to get into a new job with the military, and so he extended his time in Korea, as that was supposed to help him get it. Now, it turns out it didn't do anything but make him be gone from us for another 6 months. Sometimes the Army can be very frustrating!

We found out this week that he's supposed to be home in December, and that we're going to El Paso, TX, Fort Bliss. We should be able to get right onto base housing as soon as we get there. We'll be getting a 4 bedroom house. That's the biggest place we've ever had, so it will be nice to have all the room. The debate will be about how to divide up the rooms. Will any of the boys share? Will they all get their own room? If they share, who will get their own room? I'm thinking it will probably be a share situation, and we'll leave one room as an office/play room. Having a playroom sure makes keeping their rooms clean a lot easier.

Oh, I've been accepted into the Hypnobabies Instructor class. I'm so excited! The training is over a long weekend in March. It's in St. Louis, which was nice as it's only 3 hours away. But, now that we're going to be in Texas, it wont be such a short distance away. But, now there's snag...

There is an awesome midwifery school in El Paso called Maternidad La Luz. I've read about this school over 2 years ago, and I thought it would be great! I mean, what are the chances that we'd end up with orders to the same town? Not high. David is still trying to change career fields, so it's highly likely that we'll only be there for about a year or so. Well, the school is a year long, and it starts in March. I feel like I really need to take this opportunity while it's sitting in my lap. I can't do Hypnobabies and Midwife training at the same time. I need to figure out where my priorities are, and what I really want to do.

Hypnobabies training is quick, and I can start teaching soon. I would only have to work for a few hours in the evenings, probably only one night a week. It's not my ideal job (although I would love it), as my ultimate goal is still to be a midwife. My deposits for the class are not refundable. But I wonder if they are delay-able? Maybe they will let me just do another training in a year or two from now? Because, I can be a Hypnobabies instructor and a midwife at the same time. And, I can do Hypnobabies in every state. I can't be a CPM in every state. With us moving around with the military, do I really want to have to sit on my hands for a few years, waiting for us to get stationed somewhere where I can practice again? I think I need to call Kerry and talk with her about all this.

Midwife training is VERY intense for 1 year. We'd have to come up with tuition money, and daycare money. Donovan will have just turned 3, so maybe even a preschool would work. But I'll need someone that can watch kids at crazy hours. Although, David will be around, so he will be there for evenings, nights, and weekends. I don't feel I'm ready to be a midwife, yet. My kids are still young, and I don't need to work. Midwifery is something I want to do, not something I need to do. The hours are not pretty. And, while I can "set" them by controlling how many clients I take each month, the births themselves can last hours. I just didn't think I would be in this place for a few more years.

K is doing great in scouts. He loves it. He has earned his Wolf badge, several arrow points, and a large handful of belt loops. He turns 9 next month, and will be starting towards his Bear. It will be great for him to have Daddy back to do things with. He's been doing it all with me this last year. I had parent/teacher conferences today. His teachers love him, and he's doing very well in school. All A's and B's.

P is loving kindergarten. I know David thought having him repeat K wasn't the best choice, but it truly was. He is growing in leaps and bounds, and his confidence is soaring. He's really close to learning how to read now, too. He continues to be his cute, goofy self, and his teacher adores him.

D has started speech therapy. From the day he was evaluated just over a month ago, to this week, his language skills have boomed. He went from having a vocabulary of about 30 words, to about 60 now. He repeats sounds, is saying 2 word (and sometimes 3) sentences. He even says prayers every night now. It's so cute!!! I love hearing all this talking going on. He still gets quite frustrated when I can't figure out what he's saying, though. While he is talking, not very many people can understand just what he's saying. That is what the therapist is focusing on. D love it when she comes over to "play". He's also potty training...again. It's just sheer laziness on both of our parts that is causing it to not be done. So now, it's diaper only for bed at night. He stays dry during his 2 hour naps. His biggest problem is on drives and running "errands" with me, and when he's outside playing with his brothers.

Well, that's about all for now. Later!

My turn!

Yup, I got to be sick next. I feel so lucky, Not! Oh well, it was short, and not too bad. I had Mom and Dad come and pick up the boys and take them to church. So, they took them, and then fed them lunch. So, I got   4 1/2 hours to rest. It was great!

Well, my baby turns 2 years old tomorrow. I can't believe it's been that long! Where does the time go, huh? Mom came over and helped me get the house picked up. She was here for 2 hours. We sure got a lot done. I'm having a little party for him tomorrow during the day. So, big brothers wont be here. My friend from up North is coming down (I assume she's still coming, as it's been snowing but I haven't heard otherwise), and he's having 3 other friends over. It's going to be a ball theme. I got 25 mini assorted beach balls and 1 dozen regular beach balls from Oriental Trading Co. I think I spent $15. I'll have them all blown up, and all over the living room. They will play, we'll have cupcakes, and then they'll go home. Simple, easy, fun!

Sick Baby

Okay, I probably need to stop calling him a baby. He will be 2 years old on Tuesday. But, he was sick all last night. From 5pm to 11pm he threw up about 8 times. It was so distressing to him. He didn't understand what was going on. He didn't want dinner, of course. And when I asked him if he wanted to go to bed, he indicated that he did. But, he kept waking up to throw up. By the time it was all done, we had gone through 5 pairs of pj's, 4 sheets, and 7 blankets. Oh, and let's not forget my clothes that got soaked with the last one. I got a load of laundry in before I went to bed, so that I'd have more if I needed it. Luckily, he didn't wake back up. He still wanted his cup of water, and he went right back to sleep after he was cleaned up.

I called Mom, as I was worried about giving him more water, as that was all he was throwing up at that point. She was concerned about electrolytes. I texted my friend, as I couldn't leave the house with sleeping kids, and asked if she would run to Casey's and pick up some Gatorade. When she heard that he threw up 8 times, she was walking out the door. I have such good friends! He woke up one more time after the Gatorade showed up (that would be the time he soaked me), and so I filled his cup with the drink rather than water.

When he woke up this morning, he was happy! That is very unusual, as he always wakes up crying. But, so far, he's been doing great! Back to his normal happy self!

Kyron was doing the same thing 3 nights ago. I wonder who's next...

Weight Loss

My friend came up to me 2 weeks ago and told me that she was going to help me lose my extra weight before my husband came home. While some might be offended by such a comment, I wasn't. I was excited. If anyone could keep me motivated and on track, it was her.

After I had Donovan, almost 2 years ago, I started Weight Watchers. I was a nursing mom, and therefore I had a LOT of points every day. So many, that by the end of the day I would have so many left over, that I would eat ice cream and candy because I had the points for it. Not the best way to lose weight! I kept at it, though. I didn't really follow the point system, though. What I did was eat smarter and make my portions smaller. In fact, I started using the kids' plates. My plate looked fuller, and I found that I wasn't hungry at the end of the meal. I didn't eat so much that I was overfull, either. Using that system, I lost 47 pounds. I didn't exercise, just watched my food. I got down to a stretchy-jean size 6!!!

Then the next year arrived, and I gain 23 pounds back. I was back in a size 12. Boo!!! How? I stopped caring what I put in my body. That, and stress/emotional eating. That's when I found out that David was going to Korea. I knew I needed to get control again, but I lost the desire and motivation to do so.

So my friend coming to help was so great! We met later that week to talk about our issues with food and exercise, and made a plan. My plan was to make a green smoothie every day for breakfast and/or lunch. A healthy dinner with minimal meat, and a salad. The salad was to be the main course, and the meal the side dish. My boys LOVE salad, so there are very excited about this. We were going to get together Monday through Friday to work out. Her house on M-W-F for trampoline and treadmill for the cardio, my house on T-R to do "weights" on my Wii using EA Active. Upper body one day, lower body the next.

We started on Wed last week, and it is now Thur. I am happy to say that I have worked out every day! Well, not everyday. I don't work out on the weekend, and it wasn't in the plans to do so. In fact, yesterday Kyron was sick so he was home from school. I didn't want her to get sick, so we didn't get together. Yet I was good, and I worked out here by myself! I'm so proud of me! I rarely actually follow through on working out on my own.

As for the eating, I'm not doing quite as well. I made the green smoothie the first day, but I found that most of my ingredients have been infested with bugs (yeah, it's been a long time since I've been in that pantry). I need to do some shopping for chia seeds, almonds, and more frozen fruit. The salads for dinner, eh. The boys are doing better at eating them than I am! I don't know. I like salad, I really do. But for some reason, I can't bring myself to eat it. I am doing better at not eating the junk food, though.

So, a week has gone by. How have I done? I've lost 1 pound. Yay! I hope to keep it up and do the same, if not a little bit better, next week.

Introduction

I don't know how many people are going to know about this blog. For now, it's mostly a journal. But I thought I'd find a place to record the things that are happening in my life. So, things will be pretty random. I'll talk about my kids, my effort to lose weight, my journey to become a HypnoBabies instructor, my aspirations to become a midwife, my VBAC and natural childbirth "soap box" issues, the struggle of single parenting while my husband is deployed, life in my town, my family, and friends.

So, I hope to stay on top of things, and keep posting!