Role Play

I always knew I was a pretty busy person.  I have involved myself in so many things.  When I always thought of the roles I played I always put mom, wife, and sister on my list.  I never would have expected my list to look like this:

My Roles

Wife

Mommy

Sister

Aunt

Daughter

Niece

Friend

Director of Christian Education

Nursery Supervisor

VBS (vacation bible school) Chair In Training

Fundraising Board (for Buggy's school)

Soon to be Teacher's Assistant (for her school)

Student

Crafter



Some days I have no idea how I get through my day, or how I even have time for anything.  I'm not sure if I have too much on my plate, but I wouldn't change it or have it any other way.  What's on your list?

A little more waiting....

I'm not sure how many of you are military wives.  It's one of the most unique lifestyles to live.  It's tough not knowing where you will move your life to. 

My hubby is up for orders and we have been in "limbo", but that's about to change.  He has been in the Navy for a little over 11 years.  We have been fortunate enough to have spent most of his Navy career in the same place.  He has been in his "open window" and looking for new orders for months now.  Nothing where we wanted to be, and nothing that sounded fantastic for our family.  Well, I'm happy to say that he finally just found 2 different orders to stay where we are.  He had to pick a first choice and second choice.  The first choice is to go back to his ship that he was previously on.  The second order is to a different carrier in the area.  I really hope we get his old ship!  We won't find out what he gets for sure till June 3!  So, we have just a little more waiting to do.   

I'm just so happy we don't have to pick up our little family and start over some place else while he'd be on deployment(s). 

Battle Against Sippy Cups

Sippy Cup Mystery

Why is it after every weekend we are always missing sippy cups?  I feel like every time I go grocery shopping I am always tossing one in the basket.  This morning I went to do the dishes and I only have 1 sippy cup.  We went from 5/6 to 1 in just a weekend.  I know for a fact we didn't leave one behind anywhere.  I always make sure we have the sippy when we get back in the van.  I know what you are thinking, and I already went to look in my van and......nothing.  I am tired of buying these cups! 

Dear Sippy Fairy,

I have searched high and low for MCO's cups.  We had about 6 when we started the weekend and now are down to 1.  Please return all cups at once!  I'm tired of adding to our collection to only lose them.  It would be greatly appreciated if you'd leave our house and make another place your home. 

Sincerely,

Mom

Wordless Wednesday

Happy Birthday Sister!

Today is my sister's birthday.  Happy Birthday!  She is such an amazing person!  She's strong, independent, loyal, dependable, always up on the latest, beautiful, and just an amazing person. 

Buggy is sad and doesn't understand why we can't go to see her today.  We went shopping for birthday gifts earlier this week, and she wants to go to her party and watch her open them.  Buggy was sad when I explained we couldn't go to Chicago for her Aunt's party. 

Here is how the conversation went:

B- Why can't we go to her party?  It's her birthday!

Me-Sorry Buggy.  We just can't.  It's too far away.

B- But we can go on a plane. 

Me-You have to buy a ticket to go on a plane.  You just can't go. 

B-Well, let's get a ticket mommy.  MCO can come too!  We can go to her party and watch her open her presents. 

Me-Sorry buggy.  It's very expensive to buy a ticket, and we can't just go.  We have to plan when we fly on a plane.

B-Oh.  O.K.  We can call her and tell her happy birthday.  Who will bring her the presents?

Me-The mailman will. 

B-Yeah, that's a good idea!

Priceless.  I wish we could be there to celebrate with you, but I'm sure your hubby and friends have something special planed for you today! 

The Owl Birthday

The 1st birthday came and went.  How fast a year goes by!  My sister and her husband flew in for MCO's birthday.  After lots of thinking and researching, owls would be the theme.  I ended up with too many ideas, but this is what we did.

I ordered her a shirt and pants for her special day from Makmaydesigns .  She did an amazing job, and we were so happy with her outfit!

My sister made this owl cake!  I tried, but my attempt didn't work.  She baked the batter in a bowl.  Once it cooled off, she turned it upside down and frosted it.  For the eyes she used Oreo halves and put more frosting for the eye color.  The ears and nose are Starburst candy cut in half.  The wings are piped on.  Super easy, and super cute!

I made a nest out of shredded brown paper and put chocolate candy eggs in the middle.  Not only did my sister make the cake, but she also dipped pretzels in chocolate and covered them in sprinkles.  They are supposed to represent tree branches. 

                         I also served deviled eggs, veggies, and salad. 

I made a lollipop tree out of a cone, feather boa, and Tootsie pops.  (How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop?  The world may never know!)  I wrapped the boa around and then stuck in the lollipop's.  Yup, that simple!  We also had ham salad sandwich (my mom's recipe) and little pigs in a blanket.  Yummy!

If you know me, you know I love crafts!  I bought 8 different birdhouses for the kids to paint, decorate, and take home.  I wish I would have taken a picture before they started.  I had paints, glitter glue, little chicks, and moss.  Everyone had a great time, and they all turned out so amazingly awesome!

And it wouldn't be a birthday party without a pinata!  I stuffed this little gal with neon feathers, bubbles, necklaces, owl stickers, lollipops, balloons, and parachute men.

Instead of a traditional cake and ice cream, we went with dirt and worms for dessert.  It's from my own recipe I have here on my blog.  We made a white version using vanilla pudding and Oreos. 

The day was perfect!  Overall I think everyone had a great time!  The weather was 62 and sunny!  

12 Things you did in a year

1. Surprised everyone you did by staying in till I was 37 weeks and 1 day.  They told us it would be a miracle if you'd wait till 24 weeks!

2.  Held your head up from the get go, and continue to show everyone how strong and determined you are.

3.  Flew in an airplane twice.

4.  You met and said good-bye to your Grandma Geno.

5.  Rolled over and crawled at an early age. 

6.  Scared mommy by getting Roseola.  I thought you had something far worse!

7.  Came off of the bottle, but not without a fight!

8.  Popped out 2 bottom teeth.

9.  Said "mama", "dada", and "baby".

10.  Learned that waving bye to people is fun.  You love to get a reaction!

11.  Decided that baby food was for babies, and you aren't one of those!

12.  Made people believe in miracles.  And miracles happen every day.  That's why we have you!

Good Bye Fast Food!

As a child, I grew up in a church where you would have to give something up for Lent.  Something that you liked and would be a sacrifice going without for the weeks until Easter.  I came up with some pretty crazy ones, and never really followed through till my young adult life.  I didn't see why we had to do this and what the big deal was.  I always wanted to give up/ go without something that was too hard.  Like when I was in early elementary school I picked chocolate.  This was very hard (and would be for any kid) because my grandpa carried a tin can around in his pocket filled with kisses.  He would give me some every day.  We got to pick out 2 or 3 at a time.  Needless to say, this giving up chocolate thing didn't last more than a few days. 

I'm still a little green to my church.  I didn't grow up in the religion we now practice and joined when we had Buggy baptized.  I love it, but am not sure their views on this.  I am still giving something up regardless.  I wanted to pick something that I could do, but would still be hard to do without.  And what's the most convenient thing around that I take advantage of?  Fast food!  Now I don't have it every day, but those days when we are out and about or nights when I don't want to cook and we just want something fast I buy it.  I told hubby about my grand idea.  I even threw in that I wouldn't be going through any drive-thru.....including Starbucks.  (No more ordering my beloved chai.)  Hubby thought that since we have been trying to get back into the health kick that this was a great idea and is on board.  He even decided to give it up as well! 

Since I knew this is what we were doing, we ate nothing but our favorites on Tuesday.  Eating all of that junk was a little fun, but I felt gross by the end of the day.  So for the next several weeks (till Easter) our family will not be eating any fast food.  Not even ordering from "to go".  I think it will be hard, but a good move in the end.  What are you giving up for Lent?

Wordless Wednesday

Who has time for even-steven?

The differences from having one child, to two children (or more) amazes me.  I consider myself a pretty great mom.  However, MCO's birthday is around the corner, and I still don't have invites to send out.  With Buggy, the invites would have been sent out a month in advance.  I had all of her party plans/ideas finalized by the time invites hit the mailbox.  Tonight I am making them darn it!  At least I have a theme and a special birthday shirt (I'm having made) for her.  Buggy didn't have a custom shirt.

Poor MCO.  This isn't the first time I slacked on stuff for her.  She still doesn't, and will never have birth announcements sent out to family and friends.  I feel I made up for it by sending out baptism invites with her picture on them.  Buggy did have the traditional birth announcement, but no picture with her baptism invites.  Buggy also had everything new.  To babies, this doesn't matter.  It only matters to us parents. 

My feelings on this---
1. If I have it, why waste money for something I already have.
2. I'm not going to junk up my house with more stuff that they will out grow or out use 
3. Sharing is good.  It's a good skill to learn and use.

And you know with the first one, you always get the monthly/special holiday pictures done.  With MCO that isn't the case.  She hasn't even set foot inside a studio.  I can honestly say I didn't have time for this one.  MCO had colic very bad as a baby and wasn't really happy till she was 4 mos.  I'm not going to pay for pics with her crying in all of them.  Then, we had to fly to Illinois to take care of my mother on hospice.  But don't think she doesn't have just as many pictures, if not more, as Buggy.  (I take tons on my camera.)  I do think it's important for her to have her 1st birthday ones done at the studio just like Buggy.  We already have an appt to do so. 

Is it that parents don't have the time like they did with the first?  Maybe I had more focus on just Buggy, and now that I have two my focus has to be split?  It's not a who-do-you-like-more thing because I love both of my girls the same, but different!  Whatever the answer may be, I know my parents didn't do the even-steven thing either.  (Well, sometimes my dad at Christmas would make sure we had the same number of gifts, but never the same things.)  It's great not doing the same things for both of them.  I don't want my girls to grow up having even-steven everything.  I think that events/things should be special to them and shouldn't be even-steven.  And I hope Buggy and MCO won't grow up and compare what I have and haven't done for them. 

My little infected monster (MCO has Roseola)

Yes, MCO has it.  And I feel like I have infected all of the state.  Last weekend she had a very high temp (104.3).  She woke up in the middle of the night (or could have been early morning...I was too tired at the time) and was so hot to the touch.  It was like she was burning me.  I gave her some meds and got her down to her diaper.  Could this be the result of teething?  Where was this coming from?  She was find just a little bit ago.  I scrambled to find the thermometer in the dark so I could find out how high this thing was.  Half way through taking her temp the battery died.  Awesome!  I waited forever (45 min feels like forever with a sick little one) to see if the meds would bring it down.  She was still in her diaper and nothing seemed to work.  I packed her up to make the dreaded ER trip.  By the time I got there she had started to cool off.  It was 2:30 a.m. and I did not want to get back into bed after 5:30 only to have buggy up and ready for school at 7.  So we headed home.  On the way I bought a new thermometer.  Since I have my new van with tons of room, I took her temp in the parking lot of the store.  Down to 101.3.  Great!  This next day would be a rough one.

Her temp was up and down for the next 2 days.  After not being able to control it anymore we made a trip to the ER on Valentines day before any of us ate dinner.  Even the meds they gave us in the ER check in didn't seem to help much.  Temp was still in the 104's.  They ran a flu test and took some urine.  (That was one of the most horrible things to do to her and she hated every min.)  Everything came back negative.  She was good to go after spending 5 hours of our night in that stupid, small room.  Only thing they said was to watch it, and if it got higher to come back.  Otherwise we were to wait till Friday (today) to call her docs if she had no change.

Tuesday came and went with not much of a change.  She slept all day and was only awake for 2.5 hrs of the day.  Long enough to eat twice.  Poor thing just wanted to sleep, so I let her.  Wednesday morning and the high temp had finally come down.  99 was a great number to see!  She made up for only eating twice the day before and was more tired than usual.  Whatever it was was leaving her system.  WRONG!  After picking Buggy up from school, I noticed a rash had started on her belly.  No big deal---maybe something agitated it.  MCO went down for a nap and woke up with a rash from head to toe.  She looked like a little infectious thing.  I felt so bad for her, and for me.  What was this all over her body?  Chicken pox?  No, it was Roseola.  It's a rash that is viral.  It comes to be after a high temp (the reason the ER docs couldn't find anything wrong) and can hang out for a couple of hours to several days.  It's pretty common in children and only infects children under the age of 4.  Needless to say I have contacted Buggy's school and we won't be going to church on Sunday.  We are quarantined until this silly thing passes.  I am happy to report that the rash is already clearing up.  I don't see it lasting more than a day or two more. 

Oatmeal, Oatmeal, Oatmeal

Every morning is the same here.  I can expect Buggy to wake up between 6:30-7:15.  She climbs out of bed and makes her way to my room.  "Good morning mommy!  My tummy is so hungry for oatmeal."  Every morning the same request.  :)  I'm happy that she is not requesting pop-tarts (not that she even knows what those are), or some kind of breakfast that requires a lot of time preparing.  Every morning it's oatmeal with sprinkles.  She loves it, and it's so easy to make.  Instead of regular old sugar I use the crystal sugar (sprinkles) to make it more fun.  And she just loves it.  On rainy days I use all of the colors and make a rainbow.  Most days it's a request for pink. 

After eating oatmeal for a few days I try and mix things up by making eggs in a basket, toast and yogurt, or pancakes.  Buggy just looks at me and says "I don't want junky eggs" or "My tummy doesn't like that!".  Since when are eggs junky?  I would have been thrilled if my mom would have made me eggs in the morning.  I would have been jumping up and down over the sight of pancakes.  But not my Buggy.  Oatmeal it is.  Oatmeal every morning. 

MIA

I have been MIA for months now.  I had to fly home in October to take care of my mom (who was going on hospice).  My sister came home to help too.  My mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in August.  She had 2/3 chemo treatments and was waiting for the tumor to shrink so she could have whipple surgery.  Unfortunately, there was a hole in her stomach and she had to stop treatment.  Because we had to stop the treatment she could no longer get the surgery.  She needed the surgery to prolong her life.  In early October the doctors gave her till Thanksgiving time to live.  I took my girls and flew home leaving my life, hubby, and everything behind to take care of my mom with my sister.  My mom was such a fighter!  She never complained once.  Pancreatic cancer is very aggressive and very painful.  After a month and a few weeks (from coming home from the hospital) she passed away. 

It was the hardest thing I have ever been through.  I can't even begin to describe what my sister and I went through, saw, and experienced.  I would go through it all again for my mom.  I would do it in a heart beat.  She was the most amazing person I have ever known.  Strong, brave, and a fighter.  I miss her a ton and am taking things day by day.  We were very close and it's hard not having her around. 

I've been back home for a little over a month.  Things are getting a little easier.  The girls keep me very busy.  It's time to get back into my life as it was before I left.  I need to get back on here and get back into the swing of things.  Just letting all of you know where I have been and that I am back.