grace based parenting

I'm not gonna lie...this has been a rough two days.  Maggie has been sick with a cold or allergies {as I am sure 3/4 of the kids in this area are! Ugh!} and she is a FUSS BUCKET!  Anyone who has talked to me on the phone can attest to this. ;)  She just whines, screams, cries, yells...I believe that pretty much covers it!  I've had to count backwards from 20 about 200 times.  But, I love my daughter.  Wouldn't trade her for anything....except maybe some more Diet Mountain Dew...

Friday night, my parents watched the kids and Eric and I went to a class at church.  It is the first time we have ever taken any kind of parenting class, because let's face it, we are perfect parents. ;)  The class is called PG, which stands for Parental Guidance.  It was incredible.  Pretty much just plain awesome!  The staff of our church offer this class every few months, with a different topic each time.  They do a short video, have a forum talk session and then we break up into groups and see how we can fix our broken children be better parents.  They HIGHLY suggested this book...

...which I am starting today.  Maggie and I were up playing most of the night, so I need extra help with my parenting skillz. ;)

In other news, I am still very sad that Colton was booted off American Idol.  :(  That is all.

3 weeks

As a follow up to my previous post, I am updating about my weight journey! This morning was week three of getting back to counting calories and I am proud to report I have lost another pound! That puts me at 8 pounds, which is what I put on over the holidays. :) Yay!! So excited! Kind of like I'm picking up where I left off last year. ;) Also, this is day THREE of exercising for me. Blah. I don't like it! At all. Listen to this, though...

Monday night, I went to WalMart to pick up a few things. I had the kids in tow. I was wearing flip flops and accidentally kicked the cart with my pinkie toe! I wanted to curse REALLY LOUDLY!! Bless his heart, Levi was really worried about my toe. I trudged on. A few minutes later, back in the sporting goods area, I felt something wet. I looked down and there was blood...everywhere! OMW! My toe was split open and bleeding. I had two choices...sit down on the floor, cry like a baby and call 911. Or, I could wrap it in a baby wipe and finish shopping. I put on my big girl panties and finished getting what I needed.

Back to exercise...the next day, I couldn't put a shoe on. Great excuse NOT to exercise, right?! However, I put on Eric's crocs (Gretchen...I thought of you!) and did the elliptical. My toe did pretty good, but towards the end, started to bleed again. Threw on the crocs again yesterday and my toe did a little better! Should be back to normal soon!

Okay, now that I've gone on and on about me and my bloody toe, I will sign off! Thanks for your great comments and encouraging texts throughout the day. It helps!! Here's to next week!!

school, retirement & one pound at a time!

Well, hello Tuesday. :) Nothing new to report here, but I felt like blogging, so here goes a {quite possibly} random post again! ;)

We got news last week that the state waived the "tornado days" for the kids at Levi's school! I was sooo very thankful for that!! Honestly, the thought of him having to go to school until the end of June made me a little sick. So their last day is less than six weeks away! Woo hoo!!

I don't think I have mentioned this on the blog yet...
One more reason to be excited for the end of school is that my mom is retiring this year! YAY!! She has taught little first graders for 25 years and I know that she is really looking forward to some down time. I honestly don't know a better teacher out there! {No offense to all my teacher blog readers!! I'm sure you guys are fabulous...I'm just biased!} My dad retired several years ago and I am excited for them to do some traveling together. :) Not to mention shopping trips, lunch dates and extra pool time with my mom!

Okay, so here's another random thing. I want to start posting about my "weight journey". I know that most women deal with some type of self esteem issue...usually concerning weight. It stinks, but it is a part of life. Sigh. I thought if I blogged about it, it would help me stay on track, and then all my lovely readers could offer advice and pointers! Yes, that's YOU!! :) So, here goes!

Last year, I counted calories and over the course of a year, lost 17 pounds. It was just basically watching my portions. I would have weeks that I did really well, and weeks that it didn't go so well. Such is life. When the holidays hit in November, I got off track. From November until just a few weeks ago, I put eight of those pounds back on. Boo. Two weeks ago, I started to get back on track with the help of MyFitnessPal.com, which is a program on my phone to help count calories. I started on a Thursday, so that will be my official "weigh day" and I will try to do little blog updates. I have lost SEVEN of the eight pounds I put back on, so I am super excited about that!!! I set a small goal to be down 15 additional pounds by June 1st. That seems like a huge hurdle for me, but I know it is possible. The hardest thing for me is exercise. I don't know why, but it is like my mind has a "block" against it. I hope to turn that around and get in a regular exercise routine. So, there you have it. My biggest struggle in life out there for everyone to see! I would love to hear your words of wisdom...!!! Thanks for hanging in there with my randomness! :)

8 and 5...just shoot me now!

We had a pretty low key weekend, which is always nice! Saturday, my sister had a birthday party for her girls. How is it that my nieces are now EIGHT and FIVE years old?!! It is not possible. I remember the minute they were both born and it seems like yesterday. Sigh...just go ahead and put me in a nursing home now.

First up was a pic of my sister and me! Hilarious that there are tools as a back drop!! I didn't notice it until I got back home. :)
Bailey...now eight years old. She wanted Taylor Lautner on her cake. Oh my word! ;)

And, I couldn't get Casey to sit still long enough to get her picture. :/ She wanted a cake with a chicken on it and a duck on the chicken's back. This is SO Casey! LOL

Levi was sporting his new t-ball outfit! He is so excited to start playing!! :)

Of course, my sister always has fun stuff for the kids to do!

Her house is like Toys R Us...on steroids!

And Maggie did what she does best...monopolize all the grandparents to play with her. ;)

Bailey showed off her hula hoop talents. I was going to show her up, but since it was her birthday, I refrained!

Hello Cuteness!

Levi had two friends there...his cousin Griffin and a little boy from his class at school, Quinton.

My parents were babysitting Griffin & Emily for the night. Hilarious that they didn't notice Griffin getting seconds...or thirds...a plate full of cheeseballs! ;)

Such a fun night! My sister knows how to throw a good party! Happy birthday, Bailey & Casey!! We love you.

they will give me gorgeous grandbabies!

Ya'll, it has been a really great week! Gretchen has been home for the kids' spring break and I've gotten to see her 829 times! :) We headed to the zoo one day and Brittany and the boys came up from BG. Yes, there were many laughs to be had, stories to be told, and arranged marriages to be made...
Luke and Maggie met for the first time. Luke blew Maggie a kiss and Maggie wiped it off. Hilarious! But, eventually, they rode in the wagon together and started to giggle. After the zoo, we went back to my house to chill {and talk, and laugh...} and they really bonded. Beware: Cuteness ahead...

So sweet! They really would make us some cute grandbabies! ;)

So, back to the zoo...look at these happy kids! New friends, old friends, it didn't matter. We were one big group and the kids were LOVING it!

Levi was so happy to be around Pierce for the day. He adores him. :)

Of course, we needed a pic of the four mommies. I don't know if I am allowed to share this story. I mean, it would forever be out there for the Internet to see. But, since I only have a handful of readers, I will share. ;) There is a reason for Gretchen and her hysterical laughing...

We sat down and snuggled up close. I felt a hand in a weird place. Brittany says, "Oh, I think I just grabbed a boob!" I said, "Nope, that's my love handle..." And from that point on, we died.

Oh, how I love these girls!

Easter weekend

There was a group of us that got together Friday night to celebrate this man's birthday...
Paul!!! Oh how we've missed you! ;) We all met up for dinner and two hours flew by way too quickly. We headed back to our house for some ice cream cake and some seriously good times! I was on the brink of death from laughing too hard! We were trying to get a good group picture, but this is the best we got!

Saturday morning, I was in for more good times! Gretchen, Jami & I went shopping. YAY! I didn't take one single picture...I think I was still in a laughter coma from the night before. Jami spent some moolah and got some really cute stuff! G & I were there for moral support. ;)

I love Easter weekend!! It is such a wonderful time to celebrate Jesus. I love the anticipation of going to church and celebrating the resurrection! I also love getting the kids Easter baskets ready after they have gone to bed. :)

Because I still didn't have much of a voice, I chose not to sing with the choir this year. This was a bittersweet thing for me! I missed singing, but I really loved watching the program from the congregation. I also loved getting the kids ready...usually that is daddy's job on any Sunday that the choir sings.

After church, we headed to my aunt's house. She always has a wonderful food spread...always! And, it has become tradition for the kids to do an egg hunt.

I am loving Maggie's age! She really got into finding her eggs!

We we spent the whole afternoon outside playing and just really enjoyed some family time. I love my little family so much! I want to remember how inquisitive Levi was last night. He had never seen a baptism or the Lord's supper before, so he had lots of questions. We got to explain a lot to him and I just love how his little mind works! I'm so thankful for our fun day and being able to celebrate Jesus together.

what we've been doing

I have so many random shots, so I am putting them all in one post! Those of you with ADD can thank me later. ;) Here's some things we've been up to!

We've been eating lunch (in our PAJAMAS!) at McDonald's with Papa...while mommy was out of town, of course!
We've gotten our toenails painted! First time for Mags...

We've been doing puzzles with Daddy.

We've been gettin' haircuts.

We've been riding in the Jeep (with ugly Chuckie baby doll in tow...).

We've been getting presents from Grammy & Papa's roadtrip to Gatlinburg! A new headlamp!!

And, we've been just looking darn tootin' cute! :-)

Me, I'm feeling better, but haven't had a voice for going on 3 days! Eric loves it when I clap for his attention! ;) I really hope to be back to 100% tomorrow! Eric starts back to school tonight. Boo! We have really enjoyed having him home in the evenings over the last week. Hoping that this semester goes quickly for him!!!