The Creep Factor

Yes, I know, it's been a few since my last entry.  I've been one busy momma! Adjusting to a schedule since Connor started school has been more than interesting, Kenny getting used to Connor not being here has taken up more than a few days of constantly peeling him off my legs, and this exciting new hobby/business as a photographer has kept a lot of weekends and extra time consumed with taking pictures, viewing pictures and editing pictures!

But that's not what I wanted to talk about today.

You know, a lot of people have a lot of advice when you become pregnant, when you have a newborn, pretty much any new stage of childhood, you get all kinds of either unwanted or sought after advice.  I've read all these lists people post about "things they never tell you about being a mom", or "Ten things I wish I had known when I had a baby".  I've read hundreds of these lists before.  I've laughed at some of the things like, "You will never sleep again." True. I've teared up at things like "you will never know love until your son gives you a kiss and says 'I love you' all on his own." Which my two year old has recently taken to doing, and every kiss I get I squeal and tell him how much I love his kisses and his face just lights up.

But there is one thing I have never seen on any of these lists that I'm going to share with you now. No one tells you how creepy your kids will be! Seriously, they can scare the ever living daylights out of you.  I'm not easily scared, okay, I like the jolt of adrenaline I feel with a good scare.  But these toddlers are like combining all the horror movies and horror stories together into one small package.  Stephen King has nothing on my two year old!

Why does he feel the need to come into our bedroom at 2am and just stand there, right beside our faces, for ten minutes without saying a word? Why can't he just crawl in bed with us? That's just what I need in the middle of the night, to roll over and have these huge eyes just starting at me two inches from my face! Once we wake up...with a shout of fear...and ask him what he wants, then he crawls in the bed and covers up, smiling at us.  I heard him one night come into our room and go over to his daddy's side of the bed.  I didn't move, I wanted to see just how long he stood there.  I know I laid there at least five minutes before I felt my husband stir, then he jumped and I heard him ask Kenny what he wanted, which Kenny answered by crawling up into the bed.

Then there's the 'waking up after nap' scare he likes to do.  He'll get up, silently, walk down the hall just a little way, and stand just out of sight.  He'll stand there until I see him and tell him it's okay to be up.  I've been walking through the house and just all of a sudden be aware that I'm being watched from the hallway or catch a glimpse of him out of the corner of my eye.  I have actually started down the hall and he just be there and it makes me give a little shout every time!

He also has a habit of standing right outside the bathroom door, still and quiet, just waiting to scare the crud out of me when I come walking out.  Oh, and when he does this while I'm expecting him to still be asleep is especially scary! One day here recently I had put him down for his nap and gone to take a shower.  I left the bathroom door open so I could hear him if he called.  I got out of the shower, walked past the bathroom door and there was nothing there, I turned around for a second and when I turned back, there he was, just standing there, like he'd been there for a while! It took ten minutes for my heart to beat normally after that one.

Let's not forget the creepy things they can say that makes you just stop cold.  When my five year old was about three, he kept telling me at night he was scared in his room, he didn't want to go to sleep.  I asked him what he was scared of.  He pointed to the corner and said, "the little girl." ......uh...... And there was the time during potty training that, while Connor was sitting on his training toilet and I was sitting on the side of the tub waiting, he suddenly looked up over my head, followed something back and forth with his eyes (me thinking there was a bug or something I looked up ready to swat but saw nothing in the room with us), waved his hand and then said "ok, he's gone."
There have been other creepy things he's said over the years that would make me pause.  And I'm sure once Kenny gets to talking really good he'll have his fair share of creepy statements.


So the next time someone is telling you all about what to expect when having kids, or you're reading all these posts by people who have those cute lists on things they never knew, just remember, kids are also creepy!

Oh April, You Crazy Month

Yes, I know it's been a while since I've wrote anything on here.  April has just been the craziest month for me! I'm exhausted and ready for a little calm.  I was hoping May would be nicer, but it's shaping up to be nearly as busy.  And the year is only going to get more interesting as it progresses......yay me?

First of all, the weather has me all messed up.  This is spring right? April and May are spring months? I live in Tennessee, where April and May are supposed to be nice.  Somebody forgot to tell them that.  April couldn't make up it's mind if it wanted to be spring or winter.  One day we'd have sunny, warm weather, we could wear shorts and flip flops.  The next day it would be in the thirties, threatening snow.  And the next it would be pouring down rain and thunder storms rolling in.  We never knew how to dress going out because it might start out in the 70's, but drop to the 50's in a single afternoon.   Now May is here and it's just wet.  Today is the second day of rain.  Where's spring? When do I get to say "Spring has sprung"? When can I safely go out in my shorts and flip flops and not have to worry about freezing or getting drenched?

This April I turned 29.  I can remember when I was younger, maybe around ten years ago or so, thinking I wasn't going to get weird when I got to 29 and 30 like a lot of women do.  I was going to be proud to be 30, I was going to embrace it.  After all, it's just a number right?  Weeeeellllllll.  Now that I'm here....I'm not going to say I'm getting weird, but 29 will be my last birthday.  Why does 30 sound so different from any other age I've turned? I know I won't reach 30 until next April, but it's closer now than it has ever been.  I don't feel 29.  I still feel like a kid.  I was talking with my cousin, who's five days older than me, and we agree that we still feel like we're just playing house and playing mom.  We don't feel like adults.

Also this April I registered my oldest son for Kindergarten.  Talk about a kick in the gut.  I look at him and still see my baby boy.  He's not big enough to start school.  He's not ready for this.  It doesn't seem like he's been here for almost five years and is now about to go to school.  It doesn't seem fair that I get my babies every day all day for five years of their life, then at five years old, they start school and will be in school 7 hours a day, 5 days a week, 10 months out of the year for the rest of their young life.  What about me? But then again, both my sons together have been amping up the crazy in the house here lately.  When they're together, they seem to be able to find every one of my stress buttons and the push them like a gamer fighting off the bad guys in one of those video games.  My oldest spent most of the day with his grandma the other day and having just my youngest son was a breeze.  It was so much calmer.  And I realized, "this is what it'll be like when the oldest goes to school".  It was like a light turned on at the end of a tunnel.  How soon does August get here?  Although I'm still nervous, and I wish I had more time with him before he starts his school career, I'm excited for him too.  He's going to be okay.....I hope.

And last but not least, the biggest surprise we got towards the end of April.  I'm going to be an Aunt.  My little sister and her husband have been trying for a few months now to get pregnant.  She called me the day before my birthday and told me the exciting news.  Come December, they're having a baby! So now when I'm on the phone with her, all we talk about is baby.  I'm trying not be one of those, "Well when I was pregnant" and "What I did was"  kind of people.  This will be an interesting 7 more months.  My sister is.....well, it's hard to describe her, she's a lot like me in the hard headed and stubborn department.  She's persistent when she sets her mind to something, and she can question you to death as well as any four year old.  I've already been drilled on everything from early pregnancy symptoms (Thank goodness she's not had any morning sickness) to what the epidural felt like and if she should get one.  (Which, based on my last experience with one, I will probably never get another epidural if I should have another baby)  But my sister is also kindhearted, loves kids, and I have no doubt she'll be a loving mother.   If we can all get through her pregnancy with our sanity intact! And I can't wait to meet little Wilson or Wendy!

So April was all over the place for me.  May is looking somewhat better, but I have my first real photo-shoot scheduled, so I'm studying up on what I need to know.  There's a big mud bog event scheduled just down the road from us, it was fun last year and I got some great pictures, so hoping this year will be even better.  There's a couple of movies coming out I have to see in the theater, including the new Star Trek.  Yes.  I am a Trekkie.  Judge me if you want, I don't care.  I take my oldest for his Kindergarten screening and I get to meet with the principle to try and get him in Mrs. Angie's class.  She's not only our cousin, but she was my Kindergarten teacher, and I think that would be awesome! And then we get to prepare for June, which holds our 9th wedding anniversary and our youngest's second birthday.

Wish me luck in this fun filled year!

My Weight-loss Journey

I have finally started to seriously start losing weight and getting healthy.  As a little kid I was what they called a skinny minnie.  I was a picky eater who never sat still.  I can remember so many times my parents trying, begging, threatening, bargaining to try and get me to eat.  When I reached middle school I finally decided to start trying new foods and I liked it.  I started gaining weight and I got a little hefty.  I was never over weight, but I was a little bigger than I probably should've been.  I was not athletic at all, I didn't have an athletic bone in my body.  I hated any kind of physical activity because I wasn't any good at it.  When I reached high school I knew I was heavier than some of the girls, but I wasn't really worried about it.  I had my friends who liked me for me and I didn't try to change myself for anyone.  Until Prom came up.  I started trying to lose a little weight cause I wanted to look good in my prom dress.  I succeeded too! I lost a little and had a sort of flat stomach.  I kept the weight off for two years and then I got married.  In the first four years of my marriage I gained just a little weight, enough that it was starting to show.  In the fourth year I got pregnant with our first son and after that I had that "mom pooch" around my waist that never went away.  After our second son was born it got worse and I weighed the most I've ever weighed in my life.  I'm about 5'4 and I weighed 147lbs.  I was not happy with that.  For two years I would stare at my body in the mirror wishing I looked better.  I didn't like the way clothes looked on me, I didn't like how I felt about my body, and I knew there was only one way to fix it.  But for two years I kept telling myself that I didn't have time for a workout routine, that I wasn't really fat, it would go away on its own, that I couldn't do a workout, I wasn't strong enough or coordinated enough.  Then I started seeing other women my age on Facebook telling about their weightloss.  I wanted that.  I wanted to be able to post before and after pictures and say how many pounds I had lost.

I finally started one day after two years of putting it off.  I started slow.  I own Zumba Fitness 2 for Wii, and I started with that every other day.  Zumba is so much fun and burns so many calories.  After about a month of Zumba every other day I had lost two pounds.  That was good, but I wanted more.  So I borrowed the X-Factor ST workout from my sister in law, I printed out the workout calendar it provided, I stuck the Week 1 DVD in and I began.  I am in Week 6 and have lost five more pounds.  I'm down to 140 and I feel great.

It's been hard.  I've changed some of eating habits, given up a few things and replaced them with healthier choices.  I admit to that I slacked off my workout once one week and once the next week, then my mother took me to Applebees and I stuffed myself.  With the slack off and the extra food, I gained two pounds back.  But I'm working them off extra hard.

I've also started Zumba at my church once a week.  I carry my Wii and my Zumba game and I boogie with a few of my church members! That's a sight, older people doing cha-cha's and salsa!! Even my pastor, his wife and my own parents have joined in.  Everyone who has tried it has loved it.

When I get through with X-Factor in two weeks, I'm starting Les Mills Body Combat that I have ordered and is on it's way.  My husbands cousin who lives in Wisconsin is a coach for BeachBody and she convinced me to get Body Combat and we're going to go through it together.

So if you're like me, thinking you'd like to do a workout and lose weight, but you don't think you can, take it from me.  You can.  I really did not believe I had it in me to do the moves: pushups, squats, lunges, planks.  They seemed so hard and I knew I was not strong.  But I did it.  Some I have to modify so that I can get through them but that's okay.  As long as you're doing as much as you can do, you're getting a good workout.  Even though I'm doing assisted pushups on my knees, it's still a lot better than sitting on the couch watching tv, which is how I used to spend my mornings.  Sometimes during the workout I have to stop and rest, sometimes I'm going slower than the trainer.  But that's better than walking around with a box of Cheez-Its in my hand.

I wanted to share my journey with you.  It's been a little over two months so far, and I plan on it going for a very long time.  My overall goal is to lose the 'pooch' around my stomach and tone up my muscles.  I'm not concerned too much over the number I weigh.  As long as I'm fit and healthy.  I'm not looking for a body like those Hollywood skeletons, I don't want my bones showing through.  I hope my story has encouraged you to consider where you want to be and what you have to do to get there.

Boys are......Different

As most of you know, I am mom to two boys.  If you count my husband, three boys! Cause we all know grown men are just boys in big bodies! Sometimes I watch the three of them doing something together I wonder what in the world is going through their heads?! Unfortunately , (so far) I don't have a little girl.  So I really have nothing to measure the difference between little boys and little girls, but I have to think, (maybe hope) that little girls aren't like little boys.  I'm still hoping to have a little girl someday, but that's in God's hands.  God, in His all knowing wisdom, and to my befuddlement, has seen fit to give me two.....boys.  I say that hesitantly because I think my boys aren't all boy.
They're a mixed breed.  I have seen:
1) Monkey: their feet hardly stay on the ground.  They are always climbing on something.  Every time I turn around I'm having to pull my almost two year old off of something.  A chair, the back of the couch, the kitchen table, his table, the breakfast bar, the front of his high chair, etc.  I'm surprised I haven't caught him dangling from the light fixtures yet.

2) Howler Monkey: My ears ring all the time because they think it's so much fun to scream out at the top of their lungs for no reason.  When one starts, the other starts copying.  You know, monkey see, monkey do! I don't know if they're trying to see who can scream the loudest, or the highest pitch, or what, but I'm surprised I can still hear.

3) Octopus:  These boys can have more arms and hands than I do.  It seems no matter how far out of reach I put something, they can still reach it.  If I had a dime for the number of times I've taken things away from them they're not supposed to have, I'd be a billionaire.  I can set down here at my computer to do things and here comes the two year old.  He starts grabbing.  I move things from one end of the table I'm sitting at to the other three or four times.  You'd think all those toys they have would be enough, but no, they only want the things they can't have.

4) Monsters: Some of the sounds that come out of these boys are not human.  They growl and groan and sometimes I think there has to be something other worldly in the house with me.  Then I realize it's just them. The two year old does the most growling, but his older brother holds his own.

I've also noticed several things they have become proficient in.  And I'm afraid that they'll only get better at these things as they get older.  So here's a list of occupations they could be gainfully employed in when they reach adulthood:

1) Demolition Crew: If they go into business together in this, they'll make an absolute fortune and take care of me and their Daddy for the rest of our lives.  I can't count on both hands the number of things I've had to super glue back together, or the things that just wouldn't go back together.  I have a waiting list of my things that are waiting to be glued back together.  There's a little hole in their wall behind their door that mysteriously appeared.  You cannot leave them alone with a roll of toilet paper if you want any toilet paper left on the roll.  And if they can't break it, they'll lose it.

2) Police/Soldier: They're scared of nothing.  They'll try anything.  Even after be threatened with a spanking, they'll go ahead and do what they were just told not to do.  Even if they just got hurt doing something, they'll turn right back around and do it again.  They have bravery just oozing out of them.  Not to mention everything they pick up suddenly becomes a weapon.  Nothing turns on my mom radar more than hearing my oldest say, "Come on, let's fight!"

3) Comedians: They could be a team! The oldest has a witty sense of humor and can say the funniest things at the perfect time.  The youngest has a more physical sense of humor.  Faces and body language is his specialty.

4) Nude Models: Not a profession I will allow them to do, but trying to keep clothes on these kids is near 'bout impossible! I can put pants and a shirt on the oldest and ten minutes later he'll come through the room in his undies! For no reason at all.  And if I don't keep pants on the youngest, then before I know it, he'll come through without a diaper on.

5) Ninjas: For someone who is always making noise they can be sneaky when they want to be.  I've always heard that when the kids get quiet, you better start worrying.  When my kids get quiet I get down right scared! It doesn't take but a blink of an eye for them to get into something they're not supposed to.

You know the saying that boys are just noise with dirt on them.  It's true, just in case you were wondering.  My boys are always making noise, even when they're sleeping.  And they're always covered in some kind of dirt, and usually it's sticky.  The oldest has this one spot on his cheek that always has a black streak.  I can wash it off and five minutes later it's back.  The youngest usually has his dirt around his mouth.  I sometimes wonder if dirt and stickiness grows from the boys, like instead of sweating, they just ooze dirt.

But you know, I wouldn't have it any other way.  I love my boys, all three of them, more than anything on this earth.  It's amazing to me that my husband and I could create something so wondrous and perfect as these two little boys.  They can do something and I think, that is their Daddy in them, then they can do something and I see myself.  My babies are healthy, happy, they have a good nature, smart, funny, and imaginative.  I couldn't ask for anything more.  I know all the things they do right now that annoy me, make me mad or frustrated, will pass.  They'll grow out of it.  I'm so proud of my howler monkey octopus monster comedian, demolition nudist ninjas!