Mornings you are slowly becoming my friend

I have never been a morning person. I don't even want to be a morning person. I want to sleep until at least 9 every day of my life. (Funny that used to be noon Before Children!) These past two weeks though, I made it my goal to start going to the gym in the mornings. I know, I know - what the hell was I thinking?!?! Me? Get up in the morning on a regular basis and WORK OUT??!! Say what?

The first few days were pretty difficult. Okay, they sucked - big time. I kept going though, refusing to succumb the "oh I'll go in the afternoons" or the "but it's too cold out to get up" thoughts I usually have. I sucked it up and I forced myself to get out of bed on day 3 despite the nasty sinus issues I had going on. I don't know why, but day 3 is where I always tend to mess things up. Well not this time! I did it. And you know what I did it again on........okay, day 5. I just couldn't do 4 days in a row.

Well that was last week and now here I am on Wednesday and it's getting easier each day that passes. Heck on Tuesday morning I was wide awake before Bryan even & I left the house before he did. Today, I admit I struggled and almost went back to bed but I decided no way, I'm not ruining it. Up, dressed and out. And you know what, I'm looking forward to it again tomorrow. It is really great having my workout completely done by 7:30 and then knowing after work I can come straight home and play with the kids and enjoy the upcoming fantastic weather.

I never thought I might possibly become a morning person. Whoa. We are going out of town tomorrow until Sunday though - let's hope that doesn't ruin it.

Easter Egg Hunt

Hey, you try getting a good pic of NINE kids!


Today I went against every fiber of my type A planner being and threw a rather impromptu Easter Egg hunt for the kids & some of our friends. When I saw the weather forecast on Thursday for the weekend, I just knew I had to plan something. Thanks to that marvelous technology called the internets, I was able to quickly invite some friends and the event was planned. Each family brought at least 10 treat filled eggs per child to share and some type of covered dish and WALLAH - we had ourselves an Easter egg hunt. I had four friends that were able to attend and then I also invited our neighbor's daughter as well. This put the total number of kids at 9 - whew. First we served up some lunch which Bryan and another dad prepared the main course - the ever so delicious and nutricious hot dogs, of course. While the kids were all eating, the dads then busied themselves with hiding all the eggs. Then we let the kids loose. And in case you're wondering, trying to keep nine kids inside the house and letting them all go out in one windfall is not such a good idea. Oh well, regardless, the kids enjoyed themselves and so did the mamas!

The start of the hunt in the backyard (Tyler and Shelby pictured)


Once all the eggs were found in the backyard, the older kids got smart and headed to our side yard. Can't fool them! (Lexi and Haylee pictured)


Tyler, spotting an egg and adding it to his loot


And finally off to the front yard! (Shelby pictured)
Side note: Shelby cracked us all up the rest of the day because she carried that bag of eggs around like it was treasure. She would not let it out of her sight or for that matter, her grasp. It was very funny!


Me putting the kids names on the bags because God forbid anyone pick up the wrong bag. (Tyler and Delana pictured)

Not exactly the big girl room I had in mind

Today I got another project started. Delana is almost 3 and shows no signs of ever leaving her crib. I'm starting to think she may very well have to get matching his & her cribs when she marries to be honest. Okay anyway, yes, that's right - Delana is still in her crib. This crib (and bedding and other decor) have been about the only constant thing in my life in the past 6 years. SIX years the crib has been present, let me say that again - SIX years, SIX! I should have done a new nursery when I was pregnant with Delana I guess. I just never thought she'd still be in her crib at this age. Tyler was out right after he turned 2 as I was pregnant by then but it was actually more because he climbed out of it at around 14 months. We were able to keep him in the crib another 11 months thankfully. I figured we'd have the crib about another 2 years so why waste all that money on a new nursery when I could save it for the BIG GIRL room instead.

Well fast forward to now. My precious baby girl won't even attempt to climb out of the crib. In fact we still put her in timeouts in it and when we go up to get her out, she seriously has one leg up over the rail and is just standing there crying, "want ouuuuuut! Let Nana out!!!" Yeah - like I said, she'll be in this crib until marriage.

I decided yesterday enough was enough - if I didn't get that Pooh bedding & decor out of her room I was going to go nuts. I did the best I could with her crib still present and I have to say I'm pretty proud of how it came out. The comforter (that I've had for a year, as well as all the other decor I might add) folded quite nicely to fit in her crib without looking too goofy. I hung up a shelf we bought last summer at a craft fair and also two butterflies I purchased around the same time as the comforter on one of the walls. My plans are to eventually paint her room when we do the complete BIG GIRL room transition but this will have to suffice for now. I feel better and most importantly Delana loves her "pwetty woom!" and especially her "piw-whoa" - you should have seen her beaming when I put her to bed last night. It was the cutest!

Here's a few pics:

Actual happening in our house

Tonight after the kids were done with their bath (yes I still bathe them together - they love it!) I took Delana to get her jammies on and Tyler headed to his room to do his jammies. Tyler likes to use his little heater we have in there to warm him up after his bath and usually Delana joins him in his room for the same reason. Tonight was no different. I went into our bedroom to finish putting away Bryan's work clothes & Tyler and Delana were in Tyler's room. The door was closed, of course so that the room would stay warmer. I was probably in our bedroom for about 10 minutes. I then went into Tyler's room. I opened the door and Tyler is still unclothed, sitting in front of the heater and Delana is right next to him. They're both looking down at something.

I then asked a completely innocent question:
"Tyler what are you guys looking at?"

This was NOT the answer I expected:
"Oh I'm just showing Delana how peebugs grow."

It took me a moment to compose myself mainly because I was fighting an internal battle over whether I should freak out or laugh out loud at the innocent-ness of this event. I took a deep breath, collected myself, and calmly said: "Tyler we don't show others how our peebugs grow. We do that in private."

Add THAT to the list of things I never thought I'd say in my life.

It's Spring, it really is!

Thank you GOD for this wonderful week we've had! Our family needed this week more than you will ever know. As you can tell, we've had the best week so far this year. Wonderful! Bryan worked Monday & Tuesday which put a small damper on the otherwise wonderful week BUT Wednesday and Thursday more than made up for it. We played ball, we rode bikes, we grilled out, we played frisbee. WONDERFUL! I know, I know it's too early to be this excited but I really don't care what you think or say - nothing is ruining this great mood I'm in right now. NOTHING. You hear me?? And the best part is that they're calling for great weather most of the weekend too!

Here's some pics from the past few days:

Busy weekend!

First thing yesterday morning, I had a hair appt & I do mean FIRST thing. 7 am - yikes! It was either that or 2:00 and I didn't want to wait that long for the appointment since yesterday was also my big celebratory dinner for all the hard work I've put into losing weight. I know this seems counter productive but oh well. I don't even know that you can consider dinner at Greco's a big celebratory dinner though. It's hard to believe that when I worked at WJU, I ate there once a week and now it's my special treat instead. It was worth every calorie too - the pepperoni rolls are heaven & so is the dessert pizza. Before we ate dinner, we hit the Highlands for some serious shopping. I put a hurting on Kohl's let me tell you. The biggest score of the day for me was a dress marked down to $9.60. My sister Kenna wins the prize though - she found a dress marked down to $4.80. Both were originally $48 so she got the biggest deal. Still though I do love my new dress and I've shared it on FB so I assume you've all seen it by now.

This morning I slept in just a little later than yesterday and when I woke up, I did my regular morning routine of making breakfast for everyone. On the weekends Bryan is off, we like to have big breakfasts at least once and this morning it was banana fosters french toast. It's one of our favorites & I think we have it at least twice a month now. The recipe:

Banana Fosters French Toast

Ingredients

2 eggs
1/2 cup cream (I just use milk)
1 tsp cinnamon
8 slices bread

2 bananas
1/2 cup light brown sugar
3 tbsp butter


Procedure

Beat eggs, and add cream and cinnamon. Dip bread in mixture and fry in a skillet with butter flavored cooking spray. After all breadis done, melt butter in skillet. Slice bananas and add to butter. Add brown sugar and saute' for a few minutes until it thickens a little. Pour over french toast.


Anyway, after breakfast was over & cleaned up, I spent a little time goofing off online but decided today was the day to put away the rest of my Christmas stuff (snowmen and yes, a few Santas still) and get out my Easter stuff. And I don't know if you're like me but if you are, just one project just isn't enough. I then decided to really light a fire up under my ass and wound up FINALLY putting out some stuff I've had in storage for a while from Celebrating Home. I've had it for almost a year but just never had the motivation to actually do anything with it. Today was the day. I decorated my entryway, my dining room wall and then I even finally put up some pics in a wall collage type thing I've had in my head for a while. Obviously Bryan helped with this. You should have seen him hanging the sign above the window as it was a very comical routine involving a tape measure even. He's such a perfectionist!

I am very pleased with the results. Hope you like!
Our entryway - it came out even better than I had pictured in my head


Our dining room - the shelves are the new addition:


My new wall collage - I'd like to do more with this but it's all I got right now. Yes, Delana's frame still needs a one year picture. Yes, she's going to be three. I know how sad this is.



New wall hanging above our living room window:

Further proof my children are ready for summer

Today as I was taking down the Christmas/winter decorations, Delana questioned me asking what I was doing. I explained: "I'm taking down the Christmas stuff." Delana looks outside, says, "No more no?" "That's right Delana, no more snow." She then says with extreme delight, "Ohhhhhhh! It's camping time!"

Delana on the death of Corey Haim

This was an actual conversation that took place in the Jenkins home today:

This morning, I said to Bryan during breakfast, "Man I can't believe Corey Haim died." Of course, this means Tyler has to ask a zillion questions about why he died, how old he was...and so on. So I explained it the best I could that he "did a lot of drugs & drank a lot of beer all the time and it was too much so it made him sick." Delana must have been listening more intently than I realized b/c she pipes up, "Yeah mom, he was THIRSTY!"

Then they both had a conversation about how mommy & daddy drink beer but not that much only on "girls night out or boys night or Jamboree in the Hills" as Tyler put it.

I have some pretty observant kids I guess.

Sassy and funny girl

Delana has really been just full of it lately. She really has a great sense of humor and loves showing it off. Tonight she found it quite hilarious to play with her pull up. First she put it between her legs and pranced around the house saying something about her "pee bug" (yes I know, she doesn't have one but she thinks she does) and then she was quite insistent that I get it to fit on her head. And again she strutted herself all over the place very happy with her new hat. That girl!

She also made us laugh the other day until we realized it was sass rather than humor. LOL! I was hounding her to make sure she went potty (she had a few accidents that day) and she said to me, "Iiiiiiiii miiiiiight!" Bryan and I were both confused, "I might? You will!" She said it again, "Iiiiiiiiiii miiiiight!" complete with hands on hips. Then it hit me, she was saying: "Alllllll riiiiiight!"

Fantastic.
Just what our house needs - another smart ass.

Mid year resolutions

So it's March. 3 months into the year. Time for me to look back on my resolutions and see how I'm doing. On Dec 28, I had the following as my New Year's Resolutions:

1. I swear this is THE year that I get photos in books and on walls.........
Okay so this is not looking like THE year yet again. I did get a Disney photo book done but I'm not doing too great otherwise.

2. be healthier - want to be at gym 5x a week
Just about everyone knows how I'm doing on this one - kicking butt thankyouverymuch. For the past at least 3-4 weeks I've worked out 6 days out of every week. I have been really great at changing things up so I don't get bored and also I HAVE LOST NINE POUNDS!

3. get my damn yard landscaped finally!
To be determined - but I really hope to have this done. I keep changing my mind about what I want....

4. save $500 a mo. through June to pay for said landscaping
It hasn't quite been $500 due to a "new" car purchased end of December but we are saving & that's a good thing


AND while I'm talking resolutions I have decided to add a few more in. I'll update on the progress when I feel it necessary

5. Stop being so rushed in the mornings - this means I am going to have to start waking up earlier. I am so tired of ruining my day with a hurried morning

6. Cut back on internet usage - this one gets easier as the weather gets warmer. This will hopefully help with #7 and also lead to me being more productive at work. I've had a pretty quiet few months in the office but we're about to pick back up again so no better time than NOW to get this one started!

7. Better use of the time I have with my kids. Again this is another one that gets easier as the weather warms up. I am just not that hands on kind of mom inside the house. I'm much better outside playing on the swings, pitching balls to Tyler, riding bikes/taking walks - you know that kind of stuff.


So there ya go - updates on my original resolutions and some new ones to boot!

Could it really be true?

I'm almost afraid to even talk about the possibility of this BUT it appears that Tyler will get a full week of school in this week. I know, I know, hard to believe but believe it. It will happen! I was beginning to think we'd never get back on our routine. It appears we have done so - three days in a row this week. Of course this was the exact same situation last week when we made it to Wednesday and then WHAMMO more snow.

So I'll just hope for the best but something tells me this WILL be a full week!

The heck with Mario...we like WARIO!

Bryan has had his eye on this one game ever since he read about it on some website called Nintendo Life or something like that. The game got great reviews and so I told him just buy it if you want it that badly. Well the problem was that the game came out about the same time the Wii came out and it couldn't be found anywhere for retail. It was close to double the price most of the places we were finding it.

Last Thursday Bryan was at good old Wall grocery shopping and he found THE game. Did he buy it? Of course not. Silly man. Well I just happened to be in Wally again on Saturday and it was still there - just one copy, all by its lonesome. I picked it right up and on Sunday we started playing. We have been addicted ever since - it is SO MUCH FUN! We have been having a blast playing it.

It's called Wario Ware: Smooth Moves and if you're lucky enough to find it, pick it up!