Feeling accomplished

Today was a very good day. I feel like I accomplished a lot and that always makes me feel great :-) Chris and I were out and about most of the day, towing Elijah along as well. He is still not 100%, but he's doing a lot better which is a huge relief. So we went out and got a new title for my car and Iowa plates (lame) and then we went and got our Iowa drivers licenses (I know, I am not really proud of that fact...). But the cool thing is that in Iowa you get your license on the spot, they make it right there. You don't have to wait 6 weeks for it to come in the mail like in MN. Plus I have to say my picture was pretty good, so I'm excited about that :-P The things that amuse me, I tell ya... Later in the day we also ran over to Toys R Us because we needed some new stuff for Elijah and I wasn't sure if they had baby stuff in there too, and they sure did! So we got what we needed and we also looked through the clearance clothes and got him a little outfit and some little slippers that velcro on the top so we'll actually be able to get them on his fat feet :-)

Then this evening we left the kiddo with grandma and went over to Shawn and Rachel's house for dinner. It was delicious! Rachel is a Pampered Chef consultant so she has lots of their stuff which I am really jealous about. I was just considering doing the Pampered Chef thing a couple months ago, but I don't see that happening any time soon... A girl can dream... Anyway we had a delicious dinner and then some cake and ice cream in honor of my up-coming birthday :-) Then we played some Texas Hold'em, which is always great. Unfortunately we didn't use real money, which isn't quite as fun. However it was fortunate this time since Rachel wiped everybody out...

So it is the weekend which is great, I'm looking forward to not having to do anything tomorrow. Although if it is nice enough out I would like to get out and do something since we've been sick in here all week. Tyler's fiance Stephanie is coming to visit for the weekend tomorrow so that will be fun to have some more company. Then of course Sunday is my birthday which is always exciting. We are going to go bowling Sunday night - Quarter Mania at Westdale - woop, woop!

So I was yawning all night starting at like 8 and now it is nearly midnight and I am WIDE awake and not interested in going to bed at all. But I'm sure I won't get very much sleep since I never do since my baby wakes up several times a night, so I really should go to bed. I tell ya... OK now I think I am tired again... :-P

Well, sorry for the boring post, oh readers of mine... I'll try to make something more interesting happen to me so I can tell more entertaining stories. Toodles!

Hectic week

This week has been pretty crazy so far. Starting off with a very exciting weekend with Darren and Alaina. They came down on Friday and left before the buttcrack of dawn on Sunday morning. They generously took me out to eat for my birthday (which is this coming weekend) at my favorite place - Texas Roadhouse, yum!!! And we did some bowling (which I won) and some laser tag (which I got 2nd in, darn you Chris). We also went ice skating where I discovered I have professional potential... or something of that sort... And of course we played lots of board games and rock band which I love to do :-) So all in all, it was a good weekend with great friends.

However... despite all the fun had there was a big negative to the weekend. My baby boy came down with a nasty cold. It was really sad because he got it the night before they got here so he was miserable all weekend and didn't get to have any fun with his uncle Darren and auntie Alaina. Plus we couldn't take him anywhere since he was so miserable, and I didn't like to leave him for long, so that cancelled some of our entertainment options. I just feel so bad for him, he's so stuffed up and I can tell his throat hurts from trying to cough up all the gunk... Chris and I have a little cold now too, but nothing like Elijah's. He is still feeling pretty cruddy, but I think he's looking a little bit better. We're really praying he gets better soon, it's awful when your baby is sick and there's nothing you can do :-(

So I did the taxes today and I am totally pumped because we are getting back way more than we thought we would! I tell ya, having a baby is a real good tax credit :-P We are really excited about being able to pay off some bills. Chris even mentioned maybe taking a little vacation. We've been wanting to for a long time, but haven't had the money at all. Now that God's blessed us with this unexpected bit we will have to pray and see if there's room there for us to spend some on ourselves.

Well baby needs me, blog ya later! I know, I'm a dork...

Keeping myself entertained

So I've decided to learn how to play piano. I've never played any sort of instrument, but I've always wished a little bit that I knew how, so I'm doing it. Chris is taking piano lessons right now and so he's got a lesson book and he whipped out his mom's old keyboard and I've been teaching myself the ropes. I've already gone farther than Chris, but I'm skipping over a lot of boring technical stuff... who needs it? But I just realized tonight that I'm not really learning, I'm just sort of memorizing the songs that I've played already... And I'm already getting to the point where it starts getting hard and I'm thinking I might not make it much furthur. But it has been entertaining me so I'm going to stick with it as long as I can. It makes me feel pretty good about myself :-)

Speaking of things to occupy my time... Darren and Alaina are coming this weekend so that means I get to clean. I know I don't NEED to clean for them, but I do really need an excuse to clean since I've been meaning to for a long time. So this is good! The only thing left in the basement of Phil and Kathy's is 2 bookshelves filled with books (obviously) and they just gave me the go-ahead to pack 'em up and put 'em away. So I am stoked for that. It's not like they take up much room, but they take up wall space and I think it will really open things up in here when they are gone. So if I get enough motivation I am going to do that tomorrow so that I can have it done before we have our guests :-P Yay, something to do!

Let's see, update on the munchkin... He can now roll from his back to his belly! He accomplished the belly to back roll waaaaaay long time ago, so this is pretty exciting that he finally figured out how to get back. Although now when you put him on the floor he rolls all over the place, silly kid... Also, he has stopped sleeping through the night. That I am not too thrilled about. He's started waking up at around 2am and 5-6am, which is really bizarre since he used to sleep straight until 6 or 7 or even later! It's been going on for a while now so it's not because of sickness or anything... It's possibly a growth spurt, but again I wouldn't think it would go on this long. I'm really hoping he's not making a habit out of it. I can't get him to go back to sleep unless I nurse him, but I don't see how he could be that hungry since he's been just fine sleeping all night before. Frustrating! Plus when he eats at night he always ends up peeing through his diaper so we have to change him in the middle of the night, which definitely sucks the big one. Thankfully I have the most wonderful husband in the world who gets up to change him every time, thank you honey!!! So yeah, I'm really hoping and praying that this habit breaks soon because it is totally exhausting!

Just want to add on here how much I love my husband. Not just because I know he's going to read this... but seriously he is a great man and I am so thankful for him everyday. I mean, he definitely knows how to push my buttons and he often drives me crazy, but I just don't know what I'd do without him. He is absolutely fantastic. We have been able to have so many more good times together since we've moved. Since he's not getting up at 3am to go to work and coming home for a couple hours just to leave again to go to school... Then constantly stressing about our bills and selling our condo and everything. We still stress about our bills, but they have definitely gone down since we've moved and we certainly don't fear being kicked out on the street anymore. I know this time together won't last long since he will be gone a lot this summer for military stuff and since he will be getting a job eventually so we can continue to pay our bills. But it's been so great being able to recharge our batteries a little bit and have time to spend together as a couple as well as a family with Elijah. God has truly blessed us beyond measure.

I guess that's about all that's new for now. Just livin' it up in good ol' Iowa :-P

Valentine's Day

So this weekend was Valentine's Day and Chris actually did a really good job, I am very impressed with him. He would be the first to admit that he pretty much sucks at being romantic, but he does try so I gotta give him credit for that :-P But this time he really did do a good job.

Chris left early Saturday morning because he had to take a physical test for part of the application process for the Cedar Rapids Police Department. So I slept in until 8 when my munchkin was wide awake and ready to play. I got up and came to the computer to check my stuff and there was a post-it note on the screen from Chris telling me I better be in bed and hungry when he got home around 10ish. Now it was 8 and I was already starving, but I am a good little wifey and I obey my husband :-P So I gave Elijah some breakfast and changed his mega poopy diaper and waited around for Chris. I texted him once to see where he was at and he wrote back and told me not to worry about it. So he finally got home and I was in bed playing with Elijah and waiting for him and he comes downstairs with a tray with french toast, scrambled eggs, sausage, and orange juice from IHOP :-P Delicious!!! He also got me a beautiful red rose and the husband&wife Willow Tree figurine I've been wanting. What a good hubby, I tell ya. Then he told me he was going to take care of the munchkin all day and he promised he wouldn't do any homework all day :-) So after my delicious breakfast we got up and got ready for the day. We ran some errands and then we came home and shoveled the driveway together. One of the neighbors came over with a plow and plowed out our little parking space which was nice, then he got out and talked to us for a while. He's an old guy who apparently has lived on this block forever and built some of the houses and sold some of the houses and his dad used to live in one of the houses, so that was pretty cool. He was a nice old guy. I really like nice old guys.

We kind of skipped lunch since we basically had brunch so we started making dinner around 4 and we made some taco dip, little smokies, veggies and dip, and cut up ham and cheese for crackers - YUM! Then we watched Madagascar 2 with Chris' family and it was really funny, I watched it again on Sunday before we had to return it :-) So that was pretty much it, just a relaxing day, but the best part was that Chris spent the whole day with me and didn't do anything else. He knows the best gift he can give me is quality time (and food, of course).

So yeah, overall it was a good weekend. But we are excited for next weekend because Darren and Alaina are coming to visit! Yay! :-D I'm not sure what all we are going to do but I am excited just to have visitors :-) I think we are going to go bowling even though Darren will probably whine about it... He's just going to have to deal with that. And I'm sure we will play lots of games and eat lots of food and have a jolly good time :-D

Well Chris just got home and baby just woke up, so it's time to go back to the real world. Ta-ta!

Nothing in particular

Bloggity blog blog - Here I am to blog some more. Baby is napping and the other Baby is doing homework - practicing piano to be exact. So, alas, I'm back at the computer. I can see out the window straight in front me and it is snowing... giant white flakes of misery. Apparently we are supposed to get 3-6 inches. Not cool.

So let's see, what kind of exciting things have happened lately? Well I finally caught Elijah in the act of sucking on his toe and snapped a quick picture which is on facebook, kid's so stinkin cute I can't hardly stand it! He started this new thing today where he kind of chews/sucks on his lower lip and makes funny noises. Not sure why, but it kinda makes him look like a turtle...

Chris doesn't have school today so he's been doing a lot of homework, fun, fun. We actually got out of the house today though, headed to the always exciting Walmart to pick up some generic diapers - oh yeah. Plus I got to pick out a treat because I cut Chris' hair today and he knows how much I hate doing it. I do it because it's worth it to save the money and, not to brag or anything, but I have perfected the military "high and tight" haircut. But it drives me nuts because his hair gets everywhere and it sticks to me and it's just a big ol' mess. So yeah, he allowed me to get myself a treat at Walmart. I have such a wonderful husband :-P So I got a box of chocolate fudge cookies from the bakery - yum! We also made a run to the bank because - praise the LORD! - we got a check in the mail from school yesterday. So now we can pay our bills this month which is fantastic :-)

So I've started going tanning because I have heard this will help my hands, which are covered in what I've always thought was eczema but I'm not entirely sure because it has gotten so bad in the past month that I wonder if it's something more serious... beside the point. Anyway, I've only gone a couple times so far so I haven't seen any results yet. But funny story about this tanning salon... I go in and I sign all the health stuff and give them my info and pay for my package and everything and then the lady tells me that they will ask for my last name when I come in each time to look me up in the computer, and then, get this, they will have me give them my fingerprint - yes, my fingerprint - to make sure I am who I say I am. In a tanning salon! Isn't that weird? In retrospect I sort of wish I would have said no and seen if she still would have let me go there. Just really bizarre I think to have to give your fingerprint for a tan...

Oh and I just realized this morning that it's my birthday in a little over 2 weeks and I'm going to be 23, which is so weird to me! Well I'm going to go bother Chris until he pays attention to me...

Blogging

So I've decided to start a blog (obviously). I don't know if anyone will ever read it, but I'm going to do it anyway for my own personal enjoyment. I keep telling myself I want to start journaling, especially since I want to keep record of all of Elijah's new accomplishments, but I just never get around to picking up a pen and paper. It's so much easier to type, plus I sit at the computer for a good portion of my days, so it all works out. So here's to the beginning of a new blog - yay!

So Chris is up north today and I'm missing him pretty bad. He's actually in Moorhead getting his head shrunk - he has to do some psych evaluation in order to become a sniper for the guard. So we are finally going to have proof that he is, in fact, a whacko. But ya gotta love him! :-) So he's only up for the day and it was just too much driving to bring Elijah along so we stayed here in Iowa and so far it's been pretty boring. I'm doing laundry today, yippee. It was a little embarrassing because I'm in men's pajama pants that are covered with Pepsi logos and a green tank top that doesn't match in any sort of way and of course a delivery guy had to come to the door... *sigh*

Elijah has been really irritable lately and taking lots of naps today so I'm hoping that he is finally gonna cut some teeth already! I brought out some new toys for him today, some blocks and stuff and he was very excited about those this morning. This week he had peas and pears for the first time and really liked them both. I also gave him some little chunks of cooked carrot last night from my dinner and he worked really hard at trying to pick them up. He would get it and then go to put it in his mouth and completely miss and then it would be stuck to his face or his hand... poor kid.

Well I am pretty hungry so I'm going to go find some lunch, ciao!