Potty training fun

And fun it has been. Last week Jeff decided I needed to start Jackson with potty training because someone he works with is starting with his little boy (who is about a month younger than Jackson). Apparently they haven't been having much success at all, and I was sure that Jackson wasn't quite ready for it. I was actually trying to wait until the weather warmed up so I could just strip him down and let him run around naked, but since Jeff thought it was time and Jackson had successfully used the potty before, I decided to make a sticker chart, put on the cloth diapers and try the potty thing hoping it would be a failure so I could wait for my Naked Summer Plan.

Day 1 in the Land of the Potty. Amazing isn't it?

His Potty-tude attire for the week- if you look closely you can see the diaper matches the shirt. Sort of. Yes, I made the diaper myself :)

Jackson has surprised me to no end in that he loves the potty. We are only into the second week, yet he has already filled half of his chart with stickers for going pee, has had only a few accidents and is actually starting to tell us when he has to go.

This is only a week and 3 days and we finally got a poop(that's what the last weird looking sticker is for)!

He has special stickers he gets to use when he goes poop and so far he's only been able to get one. The stickers are cars, trucks, clouds, traffic lights and all other traffic related boy things. He asks for them everytime, but I have to keep explaining to him that he only gets those for going poop. This has caused numerous meltdowns and tantrums, but being the mean mommy I am, I've stuck to my word. Since I know accidents happen and I wasn't expecting him to be doing so well so soon, I haven't really been too hard on him for having an accident. Accidents happen and he gets pretty upset about them as it is. Especially if he is wearing his new 'big boy undies'(Gerber training pants from Walmart). I'm not very pleased with the design of the training pants, so I'm actually planning on making my own pattern for some that I know will be to-die-for cute. I've been trying to find a pattern I like, but so far I haven't been able to find one, hence the desire to make one myself. Hopefully if they are cute enough, I'll be able to sell them too. I've got several projects that need finished before I get too entrenched in that, so I'm trying to hold off for at least a little while. I still have to finish the hat and scarf I was making for my sister for Christmas(don't get me started on the annoyances accopmanied by them) and I really need to finish the never-ending quilt I started for Jackson when I was pregnant with Owen (hopefully I'll finish it by Jackson's 3rd birthday so he can finally use it).

Jackson's Never-Ending Quilt of Shame(mine of course for letting it take so long)

The reason it has taken so long. Hand embroidered monkeys in each square. I'm completely insane.

Elizabeth's hat. Not only is it too big around, it's not long enough, so I've got to add earflaps and take it in a bit. The scarf has been taken apart and restarted for the millionth time, so I refused to take a picture to document my failure.

Those are at the top of my list, followed closely by the training pants and another quilt that I've got all the stuff for but haven't started yet. It seems so hard to find time to sew even though I'm home all day. The boys hate it when I sew and won't leave me alone until I leave it alone. Some day I will finish these things, I'm hoping sooner rather than later. Anyways, I hope you all are having a great week! Till next time :)

Christmas and the New Year

Once again I am late posting, but the last several weeks have been so busy, it's seems I've barely had time to breathe, much less get online. I finally found a spare minute and am taking full advantage of it. For Christmas this year, we went over to Montana to see my family and had a wonderful time spending the entire week with them. They weren't expecting us until the Monday night before Christmas, but our plans changed and and we were able to arrive a day early and surprise them. I wish I could have taken a picture of mom's face when Jackson walked downstairs and said hi. She was so shocked and so flustered and excited it caught up with us as soon as we turned the car off and went inside. It rained like that all night and by the next morning, it was dangerous even to walk on the grass. It was a very good thing we arrived a day early. We went down to Billings on Tuesday night and the road was a solid sheet of ice the entire way there as well. Someone's advice to my dad before we left for Billings was only go as fast as you want to hit the ditch. What a comforting thought. The roads stayed like that until Christmas morning adn then we finally saw the sun. Anyways, we had a wonderful day in Billings, though it was a little rushed, and we were even able to squeeze in a much needed temple session. My sisters were kind enough to watch the boys for us all day as we ran around going to the Dentist(my uncle Cody, who fixed a very sensitive filling for me and to whom I am extremely grateful to), the temple and Walmart for some last minute Christmas shopping. I spent Christmas Eve (the entire day and part of the early early hours of Christmas morning) wrapping all the presents I hadn't had time to wrap before we left and trying to finish the ones that weren't done yet(and still aren't done yet because the store ran out of the yarn I need). We played games and ate food and had a great time. Christmas morning was very relaxed and we didn't open any presents until around noon.

The boys sleeping in. They both decided they needed Christmas morning snuggles with Mommy and Daddy and fell back to sleep together. Good thing Mom and Dad gave us a king size bed!

We did things a little different this year and drew names for who stuffed whose stocking to else the finacial burden on Santa. We had a $7.50 price limit per stocking, but I think most of us went a little overboard and Santa still contributed more than he needed to, but who is complaining :) Mom's stuffer from me was promtly stolen by my little sister Racheal and was broken to bits by the end of the day.

Doesn't she look beautiful?

Her present to me was the best ever and I absolutly love it and can't wait to start sewing on it. I've tested it out, but so far I haven't really done anything with it just because I haven't had the time to yet. I'm so excited though!! Love you Mom!!

Please ignore my hideousness. At least I was clean :)

Jeff got me a digital picture frame!! I love that man :) He also got me a handheld electronic Sudoku game because I like to play but it drives me nuts because I'm terrible at it.

To Jackson and Owen from Mommy and Daddy. They fight over this thing constantly.

Isn't Liz adorable?!

Right before we opened our stockings. Jeff must have been either blinking or sneezing.

Isn't my dad a handsome man?

This is Nathan, can you tell he's a teenager? He was like this the entire week. What a buttmunch.

Racheal, the stocking stuffer thief. Cute though, isnt she?

Unfortunatly I don't have any great pictures of my beautiful older sister Jennifer.

Owen was very sleepy(even though he slept in) and went down for a nap right before we started to open presents, so I don't have any pictures of him playing with his new things.

Here is our tree. The Hospital(were Jeff works) was getting rid of a bunch of things and this was one of them, so we now have a free, though worth $80, 7ft tall artificial tree including some tacky ornaments the boys love. Jackson decorated the bottom half of the tree and I did the top half. Sadly you can't actually see any of my ornaments because it took me a couple days to get around to putting them on. We'll put this tree up when we go to Montana for Christmas and we'll cut our own when we are home.

Right before we left Wenatchee got dumped on, so Jackson and I went out and made good use of the coat, snowpants, boots, gloves and hat he got last year.

This snow is all from just one night and he had a blast!

As for the New Year, I didn't make any resolutions, but I've got some ongoing goals. Once again I've started an excersise program, this one from The Biggest Loser. I've got a weight loss yoga DVD and a Bootcamp DVD with Bob as my 'personal trainer' and they both are kicking my butt. It's a 6 week program, but I think I'm going to drag it out a little longer. For those of you who know me well, you know I am not a morning preson at all and will stay in bed until I absolutly have to get up. Well, starting this week, I've changed that habit and am now getting up at 7am so I can do my workout. The DVD's are supposed to work together, but with 2 little boys who like to interrupt me often, I'm only able to do one a day which is the reason for the 7am alarm clock wakeup call. Ugh. It's working though. The boys wake up anywhere between 7:30 and 8 and because I'm already awake(completely awake and usually dripping in sweat), they don't have to wait as long for me to get them some breakfast. By then I'm usually either all the way done or most of the way done and Jeff hasn't left for work yet so he'll help me out a bit until he has to leave. My body is sore and aching, but like I used to say in High School all the time, no pain no gain. My brother in law(that's you Greg) has the P90X program and has offered to burn me a copy so that when I'm done with my 6 week Biggest Loser program I can do that one and hopefully I'll finally be able to reach my weight loss goal. For those of you who haven't heard of P90X, it's an intense 90 day program designed to slim you down and tone you up in 90 days. I've got some friends doing it and the results are incredible. Google it to see for youself. Hopefully I'll be able to get a before picture up for you all to gag at :). Wish me luck!

A Sale!!(share this with your friends!!)

I know this isn't the normal topic of conversation for me, but I'm too excited about it not to share. I don't have many followers, but for those of you who do actually read my rantings, thank you. A true friend is one who listens and will read the rantings of a crazy person all the way to the end. I love you and appreciate the time you take out of you day to read my blog. Anyways, as some of you may know, I was raised by a mom who loves to quilt and sew and is always doing all sorts of projects(most of them never get finished, but she does have good intentions) and she taught my sisters and myself from a young age to be as crafty/thrifty/cheap/etc as possible. Now I don't really consider myself to be too crafty, but I do have my moments of brilliance. Whenever I am "online window" shopping, I'm almost always thinking to myself, I bet I could find and modify a pattern for that and make it myself. This thinking became almost an obsession when I became a mom and realised how much baby stuff really costs. In the past year alone, I've experiemented with my own homemade cloth diapers, my own brand of "Hooter Hiders" or nursing covers, baby slings and carriers, cloth baby shoes(still working on the pattern for that one) and most recently, hooded towels. Jeff, being the wonderful husband he is, bought me a brand new sewing machine for my birthday last year and I am so in love with the ease of use it provides me and all my projects. Until recently I haven't been confident enough in any of my designs to sell them, but my hooded towels seem to be a hit. My sister-in-law is due with her first baby next month and so I made her one as a baby shower gift, which is where I got my first customer, 3 towels for $15 each. Up until now, I've been making things for free because I'm a nice person and really don't like asking for money from people even though sometimes it feels as though I'm spending a fortune making things. However, if I am ever going to make any money(which was actually the original plan), I'm going to have to buck up and actually put a price tag on my products. I don't have many pictures yet, but I will do my best to take some more for you and if any of you are interested or you know someone who would be interested, please let me know. So far all I'm selling is towels and the nursing covers (price varies with fabric, but around $8 each, I think), but once I get my shoe pattern the way I like it, I'll be selling them too. I'd like to sell the carriers too, but that makes me a bit nervous because there is a possiblily of failure and I'd never want to put anyone's baby at risk. I doubt that would happen because I'm a bit obsessive about getting the right kinds of fabric and reinforcing all the seams, but accidents happen. If you're still interested, let me know, I make asian or Mei Tai style carriers(similar to BabyHawk), wrap carriers(similar to the Moby Wrap) and sling carriers(like HotSlings), prices vary with the type of material I use. If there is any other style you'd be interested in, I'd be happy to try it out myself and let you know what I think. I test all my products on my children (does that sound bad?), so if I don't feel safe using them on my babies, I won't sell it until I've got it right. I will keep you updated on the shoes because they are going to be absolutely adorable when I get them figured out. Have a great week everyone!!

Mei Tai Style Carrier Prototype

In Stitches!!

So I've gotten some complaints about not posting for a while and was called a slacker(Thanks Greg), so I figured I better get in here and update ya'll on the happenings of the last month. I think the biggest thing that stands out in my mind is that we experienced our first ER trip with Jackson. He was playing in his bedroom with the ottoman that goes with my rocking chair and he had it upside down. Now, no one understands the facination 2 year old have with things flipped upside down, but for some reason, it's fun to play with thing like that, and we are assuming that is exactly what Jackson was doing. We were actually in the living room at the time because *insert gasp* we don't follow him around everywhere he goes to make sure that he's being absolutly as safe and unendagered as possible. That and because he's 2 and even if we tell him not to play with something a million times, he's still going to play with it until he gets hurt and learns not to play with it anymore, which, because he tends to be like me, happens almost often enough to stick. Almost. We're still working on the sticking part. Anyways, so we're assuming he somehow fell on the underside of my ottoman(still trying to figure out exactly where) and ended up with a small gash above his left eye. 1 hour and 3 stitches later, he'd already forgotten about it and I'm pretty sure he was back to playing with the upside-down ottoman the next day. Like I said, the sticking part is yet to come, but I try to remind him of is owie whenever I find him playing with it. Of course as you can see from the pictures (sorry if they are too graphic, but it really could have been worse!!), he was totally hamming it up when we were trying to get a good shot of it. I had to distract him with music and pictures on my phone to get him to even sit still for it.

The next bit of news is that Mr Owen Michael is now officially crawling!!! He finally picked it up a couple weeks ago and is now completely unstoppable. The day after he figured out the crawling, he figured out how to pull himself up on things and is starting to walk along the furniture now. As you can see, he is clearly thrilled to be completely mobile. I can't belive how big he's getting! Can you believe he's already 9 months old?! Man time flies fast. I weighed both boys the other day to see how big of a weight difference there is, and let me tell you, there isn't much. Stick Man Jackson weighs in at a scrawny 29lbs and my Mr Chubbs is already 23lbs! That's only a 6lb difference! It's a wonder I'm not skinnier and more buff from having to haul him around everywhere. I took them both to get the H1N1 vaccines today and forgot the stroller, only to miss it intensly when I thought my arm was going to fall off just walking from the car to the clinic. It was completely ridiculous, but I find myself making that same mistake alot because I forget how truely heavy he really is. Never Again. PS I couldn't not post this adorable blackmail picture :) I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!!

Next on my list of things to report on would probably be Thanksgiving. I was actually really looking forward to Thanksgiving, besides being really sad that I wasn't going to be able to be at the family reunion going on at my parent's house. I was going to try and leave on Black Friday so I could at least say Hi to everyone before they went back home, but I didn't have a good feeling about going by myself with the boys and there wasn't any way Jeff could go with me, so we opted to stay home instead. No big deal and I was happy to spend time with Jeff's side of the family, but the day didn't go quite like I hoped it would. My mother in law's family gets together every Thanksgiving and has a huge dinner and such at the Stake Center and everyone is supposed to contribute something. I wasn't told what we were going to be contributing until late afternoon/evening the day before Thanksgiving. You'd think it would be something small like a pie or a salad. Nope. Jeff signed me up to make mashed potatoes. 10lbs of mashed potatoes. Now I hadn't been having a great week anyways thanks to my new birth control, so I was already an emotional wreck, but tacked onto that was the stress of having to first clean my horribly messy kitchen and then peel, cook and mash 10lbs of potatoes, get them to the chuch by 1pm so they would still be at least warm when people started eating and take care of 2 little people who tend to throw fits if mommy isn't paying attention to them every minute of every hour. Unfortunatly, I forgot to peel the potatoes, so while I was cooking up the second batch (I don't yet have a pressure cooker big enough to do up that many potatoes and I'm not a fan of boiling them), I had to individually peel every slice of hot potato before I put it in the bowl to mash them and being as clumsy as I am when I'm a little stressed out, I dropped several peices on my newly mopped floor(thank goodness I decided to mop!). Ugh. Finally I finished all the potatoes and somehow in the middle of it all got Owen to sleep (I think I took a break while the first batch was cooking) and went to get Jackson ready to go. As I was climbing over the gate separating the kitchen from the living room, I realised that my 2 year old and decided that he wanted to play a game, but not just any game, it was several decks of playing cards, yahzee and some other card games all over my living room floor. I couldn't take it and broke down right then and there. At that point, I didn't care anymore about getting the potaotes to the church on time(because it was already 1pm) and all I wanted to do was just curl up in a ball and cry, so I did. I went to my bedroom, layed down on my bed, screamed into my pillow and then beat up my bed to keep from beating my child and sobbed for a few minutes. After I'd composed myself a bit, I went to try and clean up the mess and discovered that he'd only made it bigger. Around this time Jeff called me from work (Oh, I forgot to mention, Jeff worked all morning on Thanksgiving Day, how's that for a cake topper?) More crying, more composing, the mess got cleaned up and I went to the bathroom to clean myself up a bit before we left. When I came back into the living room, there was yet another mess for me to clean up, so this meant more crying, more composing and by this time I didn't feel like going anywhere or doing anything with anyone, but I felt obligated to go because I had a huge bowl of mashed potatoes that I had spent much time making. As we were leaving, I see Jeff coming home, so I turned around and went to pick him up so we wouldn't have to deal with 2 cars and realized that I had forgotten we were also going to make some homemade eggnog(once you've had it you'll never buy the crap at the store again!!) to share with everyone. Jeff was sweet enough to gather all the things we needed for that and even offered to give me the rest of the day off, unless Owen needed the boob. A good thought in theory, but as most men are around friends and family, it didn't really work out that way, but thankfully there were plenty of other people who had heard about my day (and seen my tear streaked face) and were willing to lend me a helping hand when I needed one. When we got to the church and after I had made myself as blotch-free as possible (having the blotchy-faced genes doesn't help one bit), I went to put out the mashed potatoes I had made and found 3 more huge bowls that others had brought. I think by the end of the party, only 3 scoops had been taken from my bowl, I had one and Jeff had 2 and the bowl is now in my fridge, small amounts being served with just about every meal, but I think it will go bad before we are able to finish it. How sad is that, all that work for nothing. All in all, it was not a day full of Thanksgiving for me, but once I was able to get over the need to start crying every 5 minutes, I was able to at least enjoy spending time with family members we don't get to see often. Jackson had a blast running around like a crazy person with newfound freedom and people his own height and age and was completely worn out by the end of the day, much to my relief. Owen too discovered someone his size and decided that she was a fun toy and I think she felt the same about him. Aren't they so cute together? That's my neice Ciara and she's almost 1. I'm hopeful that next year will be much better, but with my record the last few years, I'm not counting on it. Hope you all at least had a good holiday!

 

Halloween!

Once again, I have procrastinated. I said I was going to do my decorating as soon as possible, but I lied. I didn't do it until the 30th again, but this year was better than last and I'd say it turned out pretty great looking. The spiders were a little rough and I know how to make them better next time, but I think these ones were still pretty cute and will be a reminder of what I did wrong. The ghost ended up being a small ball of Jackson's put into a couple plastic bags and was very much missed, but quickly forgotten until I took it back down. Jackson's costume was one more last minute 'throw together' and not really a costume because he likes to dress like a cowboy often, but he still looked quite handsome. He's already got the Wranglers, boots, hat and horse(neigh included :)), so why not, right? Sorry I don't have a picture of it, he wouldn't stand still for me long enough and I must have erased all the ones I did take. Whoops. Owen wore the monkey costume we got Jackson at Goodwill last year and was darn stinking cute. I was myself with more makeup, fake eyelashes and a fantastic witch's hat that a sweet saleslady at Walmart found for me in a cart at the back of the store. She said it was the last one and that made me feel extra special. I had a blast handing out candy to all the little trick or treaters that came by and was surprised and confused by the occasional teenager without a costume. I thought that was the whole point of Halloween, but I guess they missed the memo. Next year I'll make them do at least something to earn the treats. Can't get something for nothing. This year the 4-ward trunk or treat was on Saturday afternoon(which meant I went by myself with the boys and ended up forgetting the camera) and was over in time for us to go home to trick or treat a bit there. Jackson didn't do much neighborhood trick or treating, just because he's still too young to really enjoy the holiday too much yet. He loved getting candy, and I don't blame him. We bought a bunch to hand out and then went through what Jackson got at the trunk or treat and tossed what we didn't like in the hand out bowl, keeping only a few favorites for ourselves. We really don't eat a lot of candy and had some from last year still in the bowl. I would have cleaned it out but it was out of reach for me and way above eye level, so I forgot about it. Gross I know. All in all it was a success and I think we all enjoyed ourselves and I hope you all did too!

If you look close, you can see Jacks in the window :)

Thankfully, we are finally back in our own apartment with a working bathroom that I'd have to say turned out really nice. They cut our huge mirror down, put a frame around it and put up some shelves in it's empty space. Our sink and cupboard are even more beautiful out of the box and in their proper place and I am so glad the the faucet doesn't scream at me anymore when I turn it on. They also hightened the shower, which makes Jeff happy because he doesn't need to duck even the slightest bit anymore. Of course, the showerhead we have also helps with that. We've also got new linolium, but it's nothing special. Just a plain white marble pattern that will let me know when the floor needs cleaned. I love it an am so happy to be able to shower in comfort now! No more plastic covering a huge moldy window!

Do you ever get depressed when you think about all the work you've done and you still don't see any results? I certainly do. It's so frustrating and try as I may, I just can't seem to get past the point I'm at now. I don't weigh myself often(maybe like once every few months) and you'd think that with everything I do on a day to day basis the numbers would be decreasing, but they stay the same. By the time Jackson was Owen's age, I was back at my prepregnancy weight and so excited about it(though I gained 20lbs back after he was weaned), but I'm just not seeing the same results this time and I'm doing twice as much breastfeeding as I did with Jackson and I thought that was supposed to help. He was fully weaned by 8 months and Owen is still just starting on solid food. I still am not able to fit into any of my prepreg pants and the ones I'm wearing, though they do seem a bit loose, it's only after I've been wearing them for a few hours that they feel that way. I think the problem is that I'm not getting the cardio that my body needs to really burn fat, and when I complained to Jeff about not seeing results, that is what he said too. I'm taking those tips I found to heart and am really trying to apply them even when it means irritating my stomach with too much acidity from fruits and veggies. My body naturally can't handle highly fatty, greasy or acidic foods and I regret it almost instantly when I do eat them, so you'd think that would help too, but mostly it just cleans me out really good about once or twice a week or whenever I eat something I shouldn't. Who needs Alli or a colon cleanse when you've got a system like mine?! Anyways, hopefully I'll figure out something that will work and help me with the results I am looking for, but for now, I have to get back to real life. Til next time.

Halloween is almost here!

And I am so excited to get trick-or-treaters for the first time! Growing up we always lived way out in the boonies, so we never had anyone come trick-or-treating at our house and the last 3 years we've had church activities at the time when kids normally trick or treat, but this year our ward Trunk-or-Treat ends at 6:30, which leaves pleanty of time for the kiddos to come a callin! I'm so excited! Last year I waited until the day before Halloween to put up decorations, but this year I'm going to do it as soon as possible! I know, time is already running short, but I still have to make some egg carton spiders and get some nails for hanging my bats. Hopefully I'll be able to whip up a ghost of some kind too, just for fun :) Oh and I need to make sure I've got a ton of candy because one of my neighbors(who has become a sort-of "surrogate grandma" for the boys) said there are a lot of trick-or-treaters in our neighborhood, which makes sense because it's fairly nice and very quiet. She informed me that the only candy she'll be getting this year is animal cookies for my boys and no one else! What a sweetheart!

So this week we've been 'kicked' out of our apartment while they finally fix our falling apart bathroom. We moved out Sunday night with the bare nessesities(TV, laptop, toys, etc :)) and haven't been allowed in there again until this afternoon. They tore out the entire outside wall because of the mold, took out the sink, the mirror and I think our manager said they are taking the toilet too, so although we are allowed to go back in, we are out of a bathroom until next week. So, were are we staying you may ask? We are staying 2 doors down in a unit that was fixed several weeks ago and is now being used for a 'transition unit' until people like us have mold free and beautiful bathrooms of their own. I went inside to check out the work today and was disgusted by what they uncovered behind the mirror. Poor patch jobs and awful paint  that I hope will be fixed. As well as a new shower wall(the old tub is staying even though I'm sure it's been here since the apartements were built in the 40's or 50's), we are getting a beautiful new sink(which is currently sitting in out living room, still in the box), a new medicine cabinent, new linolium and mold resistant paint. I'm still not sure about the toilet, it seems fine to me, but you never know what the professionals will find. They said something about making the mirror smaller too(right now it takes up almost the whole wall from door to shower),though I have no idea how much smaller. I have to admit, I kind of like the size it is now, so I guess we'll see what happens. I'm pretty excited to see the finished job and not have to worry about peeping toms watching me while I'm showering. Did I mention that the reason there was mold in the first place was the big window in the shower? It was frosted, but still, if I could see the shower curtain from outside, I know people could see me showering, especially since the only time I have to shower is late at night. I can't tell you how many times I got freaked out just thinking about it. It was either go without a shower or hope and pray there wasn't acutally some sicko out there watching me. Lets just say I'm not the most pleasant person to be around when I haven't showered. Ick.

Moving on. I've been trying to figure out how to diet without actually having to diet and I'm not sure if I'm going about it the right way, but at least I'm trying. I hate the thought of counting calories and keeping a food journal, just because that seems like too much work, so I've done a bit of research(I think I may be a bit of a research addict) and found some tips for losing weight without actually dieting. Not surprisingly most of it is, or at least should be, common sense things like making sure you eat your fruits and veggies(one site suggested having at least half your plate at lunch and dinner be fruits and/or veggies), drinking lots of water, making sure you get at least 30 min of exersise per day, and turning off the TV so you can focus on and savor your food. How brilliant is that? This was the article I found that was the most helpful, it's called "100 Smartest Diet Tips Ever." I think I'm going to have to print it out and frame it. I've been trying to keep up with my pilates and my yoga, especially since I found out that doing an hour of yoga burns more calories that I thought it did. I still don't get the whole calorie thing, but I know it's important so I'm going to keep it in mind. There are days when I do slack(today was actually the first time in about a week that I actually did my yoga, but I've been doing extra pilates to make up for it) so I make an effort to do better the next day. I still haven't really seen any results, but I know that could still be a while before I do. I know I'm more energized and am willing to do more with Jackson, but having free cable for the week(a convenience for the inconvenience of not having a bathroom) has made that more difficult because I'm prone to veg and lose track of time. Well, it's late, I'm tired and my husband needs to come to bed, so it is time for me to say toodaloo. Til next time, remember "I am a work in progress."

Sweater weather is here to stay!

Brrr! And I thought it was cold when the weather was in the low 70's! For the last week it has dramatically dropped and we are now lucky if the thermometer reads over 50 with the sun shining. Thank goodness for central heating and lots of blankets!

The last few weeks seem to have flown by and so far I'd say I'm doing pretty good on my 'total body makeover,' if that's what you want to call it. I know I still need to do more, but I know even with what I am currently doing it will help at least a little bit. For the last 3 weeks I've been diligent with doing my yoga for an hour every morning after breakfast and usually while Owen is taking his morning nap. I've tried to get Jackson to do it with me but, like any 2 year old, he usually gives up after about 2 seconds and then decide to climb on me when ever I get into a 'climbable' position such as cat pose. I guess he thinks I'm a horse or something. Neigh :) After lunch I've also been doing pretty good with doing some pilates workouts with a resistance band and I am definatly feeling it working. My body is usually a little sore, just to the point that I know it's working even the next day. None of that I'm so sore I can't move stuff, it's much more gentle than I thought it would be, but it's still working. I'm not really seeing results yet, but I think it's probably because I've only been doing it for a week and I'm not nearly as diligent as I should be. That and I have a hard time with a lot of the moves because I'm either not flexible or as strong as I need to be to do them right. I was lazy on Saturday and didn't do either of my DVD's but made up for it by letting Jackson sit on my feet and gave him a ride. I think it was more of a workout than my DVD's are! This morning I skipped my yoga and did extra pilates and I think I liked that better. The pilates workouts are each 10 minutes long, so I can stop between workouts and make sure the boys aren't getting into things I'd rather they stayed out of, like the milk that I stupidly left on the table and in reach of a curious and thirsty 2 year old. Luckily, there wasn't a whole lot left in the jug and he somehow managed to get it all into the glass I also left within reach. He then decided to dip the halloween egg carton bats in the milk to get his drink. Yuck! Needless to say, the milk got thrown out. Good thing we bought new milk last night! Oh the things that boy does.

Anyways, last week Owen discovered the deliciousness of Kix and can't get enough of them! Jackson dumped his bowl of dry cereal all over the floor last Thursday morning and then threw a fit when he discovered that Owen had made his way over to the mess and was promptly eating everything within reach. He was told to pick them up and put them back in his bowl several times but would instead pick up a handful and shove them into his own mouth while still whining about Owen eating the ones still scattered all over. Owen has now decided that anything and everything left on the floor must be eatible and he is the man to eat it. I definatly need to vacuum more often! He is so close to crawling that I say he's crawling anyways. I mean, any forward motion counts doesn't it? He's not on all fours yet, but he's getting pretty quick at the army crawl(pulling with his fore-arms and pushing with his toes and knees) and even managed to make it all the way down the hall and almost into his bedroom yesterday. That's much farther than he's ever tried to go before and I was so proud of him for it. Before I know it he's going to be pulling himself up on stuff and walking! Man time flies so fast. Anyways, once again he's found stuff to eat, so I better go make sure it's eatible. Till next time :)