Resolutions

Now I'm not one to do New Years Resolutions because honestly I just never ever stick to them.  However there are some things I would like to change in my life for 2011.

1. Yes, like everyone else in the beginning of the new year I want to change my eating habits and lose weight
2. Have more patience with my children
3. Get my finance's better organized
4. Start running, I really really want to get up every morning before work and run.  I've never been much of a runner, however the last time I really put effort into exercising it made me feel so good.  The problem is that I would have to get up around 5am to go run.  At 5am it is still very dark outside, and my lovely father (who is a cop) has me scared senseless about being outside by myself in the dark.  UGH

 What are your resolutions?

Hello Again

Just a brief update.  I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Years!  We sure did!  We left on Christmas Eve to go to my mom's (she lives 2 hours away).  We loaded up all the kids stuff from "Santa" and took it with us.  The kids were spoiled beyond belief and had a great time.  We stayed at mom's for 2 days before coming back home.

Currently M has bronchitis, and that just sucks!  Poor little Monkey.  Have a great weekend!

BRRRRRR

Well it's official winter is here.  We had snow on Thanksgiving and right now it's 28 degrees here in the miserable Midwest.  I'm cold!  I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  We had a great day.  My mom's side of the family all met at my Aunt and Uncles house around 12.  Our first holiday without gramps was a little rough but we made it of course.  It was great to hang out with everyone all day.  I really <3 my family.

Marcus is going through a clothing/diaper's are optional phase.  It sucks!  Several times now I have gone to bed only to find him a) completely butt naked, b) no clothes but diaper still on, or c) playing in his own feces that is a now all over the place.  Toddlers are nasty!!!!!  I think  for Christmas I'm going to buy him one of those training seats that sits on the big toilet.  He has a real nice potty chair that makes noises, but honestly I think he's scared of it.  He knows when he has to pee/poop and will tell us but will not sit on the potty. *sigh*

Jaylin is doing great!  Counting down the days til Christmas and driving herself nuts trying to guess what her already wrapped gifts are.  Bhahaha I'm an evil mama.

Have a great day!

I hate this time of the year

Marcus is sick, AGAIN!  I swear it's been like a never ending battle the last 2 months.  Poor thing barely gets a week or two to re-coup before he is sick again.  The runny nose hasn't stopped in weeks, and his cough came back again yesterday.  We were up half the dang night coughing.  Some friends told me about giving him honey before bed to help with the coughing, so I'm gonna give that a try tonight.  Here's hoping!

Other then that the weekend was pretty uneventful, except I started my Christmas shopping and I'm about half way done.  WOOHOO!  Thursday we had conference with Jay's teacher and received her report card.  She did wonderful all of her grades were in the mid-upper 90's except for one, she got a 78% in social studies.  She doesn't care much for history, but no doubt she will be bringing it up.  I'm a very proud mama!

Wedding plans

Oh that's right after 11 years together Orlando and I are tying the knot.  He "finally" proposed to me back in February.  I started right away looking into planning, setting a date, picking colors, choosing MOH and bridesmaids.  It's been 9 months since he put a ring on it and I have done nothing.  We still don't have a date, I kinda have colors and flowers picked out, no venue, I haven't been dress shopping, NADA!  Looks like he'll get that long engagement he wanted.  LOL

So if you have any wedding tips I would love to hear them, this will be a big DIY wedding since we are not very financially blessed.  I'm going with some shade of blue for the colors, and I love love love Calla Lilies.  I also want a spring May/June wedding.  I had set a date for this May but it's my little sisters high school graduation and she was unsure (and still is) of graduation date.  I would hate to have scheduled my wedding for the same weekend as her graduation.

Vanilla latte, and a pumpkin pie latte

A half a pot of regular coffee, a venti vanilla latte, then 2 hours later a tall pumpkin pie latte this is what it has taken to wake me up today.  The kids are great!  M is finally getting over his cold, coughing is no longer leading to vomiting and no sleep, and he is eating again!  Of course now Jay has a runny nose, and my throat feels like crap.  Such is life.  Tomorrow is a half day for Jay and our conference with her teacher is at 3.  Jaylin is a very smart little girl (and no I'm not just saying that because I'm her mom), she always has amazing grades and her teachers all love her so I'm excited as always for her conference.  Friday she is off school, so she will be spending the day with her bff, then when I get off work both girls will stay at my house.  Her bff's mom is going out and I'm keeping her daughter.  Fun times, I've always enjoyed having kids over.

A different post

The kids are fine and doing nothing different so I thought maybe a different kind of post was in order today.  Let's talk about parenting.  Parenting by far is one of the hardest jobs you will ever come across.  Every decision we make for or with our kids has an impact on their lives.  From breastfeeding/formula feeding, cloth diapers/disposable diapers, to vaccinate or not, to circumcise or not, to co-sleep or not, to let them cry it out or not, everything we do from day 1 of their little lives has an impact.  Now everyone has their own personal opinions on all the things I mentioned above, and that's ok, that is exactly what makes the world go round.  All I ask of every parent in this world is to take the time and make an effort to know exactly why you are making the decision you are.  Hopefully you'll have a better answer then because so and so did it and their kid is fine. :-)

My parenting: When I had Jaylin I was 19 years old.  I co-slept a little for the first month or so, did not breastfeed, and didn't sleep train til close to 9 months and it was 1 night.  She was fully vaccinated from day 1, and I honestly never read a book about parenting in my life.  I was 28 when I had Marcus.  Lots of time, maturing and growing up had taken place between kid 1 and kid 2.  I am a completely different mother now then I was even 3 years ago.  I have made it my mission in life to be educated about things like vaccines, and food preservatives.  I guess it helps that M is an extremely "difficult different" child then Jay was.  Different in a good way of course.  M was breastfeed for about 7 weeks, co-slept for a good while, I wear him even now at 30lbs, and I would love to have some cloth diapers, but being as he is over 2 it would be stupid to buy some now.  When you know better, hopefully you do better.  More then likely a 3rd child is not in the cards for myself and I'm at peace with that.  However if I do have a 3rd child I can tell you a few things right now.  I will have a med free natural labor (maybe even at home), that child will not be circumcised or vaccinated (at least for a long time if at all) I will make it a goal to make sure that child is breastfeed for at least a year, and I will for sure be purchasing some cute little cloth diapers.  In fact I have a friend who was a store selling cloth diapers, slings, and much more.  If you don't know about Cloth and Carry check it out here.