Life as we know it

A post about where Rob and Sara Plus 1 Plus 1 More have been/are going. I haven't posted in a month. Oopsie whoopsie. 

I think part of my problem with my lack of blogging is that I built this blog because I had a little baby and I needed an outlet to talk about him endlessly. It is no secret (you can look at old blogposts for proof) I was head over heals in mad love with Rylan. Then we got pregnant and joined playgroups and there was all that to blog about. When I had Max, I slacked a little and its just been a progressive decline since. I am still in mad love with my kids, they hung the moon in my opinion. But, times are so different now. There is facebook and instagram and all that jazz and I get soooooo lazy about downloading pics to the computer, uploading them to blogger and writing a post. I'm serious, ever since I got an I-phone, and BIG TIME since instagram came into my life I have gotten lazier and lazier and lazier with the blogging.

We've also entered into a part of our life that is new for me and I have no other way to explain it except that I feel like I'm over the "baby" stuff and I am feeling a little lost at the moment. For five years my life, brain, job, lack of job, EVERYTHING, has been about my kids. And by kids i mean baby kids. And really, a lot of it was spent simply surviving. I went from being on bedrest for two months with Rylan, to having a scarily emergent c-section, to him being hospitalized at 8 weeks old, to him having a crazy first year full of little illnesses (all the dang time), to getting pregnant by surprise and having a really hard second pregancy (oi! the pain!) and then having a 22 month old and a newborn. Max brought the same constant illness that Rylan did, and asthma, ear infections, and crazy infections (salmonella? Conjuctivitis? Herpangina? Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever? anyone? anyone?) ruled our lives. I'm not trying to say we didn't have fun and life has been awful. Its been fabulous and I'm blessed. But, life, in general has provided A LOT of blog feed back then. I have identified myself as a kid mom whose whole life was keeping up with babies. How to keep a 2 year old busy so you can breastfeed? Done. Blogged it. How to feed a toddler vegetables and they don't know? Boom! Nailed it.

Now I'm here, staring at my 5 year old holding a cell phone and my 3 year old wearing a smart polo style shirt and carpenter shorts and telling me "a bull is like a horse and a cow but different cause its a bull, just sayin" and they seem SO. FREAKIN. OLD. What we are going through right now, I wasn't prepared for. I'll take it, over them being sick, and I am lovin the little men they are becoming, but its unchartered territory for me. Rylan has had some trouble with saying wordy derds at school and fibbing and more that I don't even care to talk about because I've talked it into the ground with family and coworkers.It feels like stuff I shouldn't have to worry about for five more years because I AM A BABY MOM FOR CRYING OUT LOUD. But, he's not a baby anymore and Max won't listen when I tell him to stop growing either.   I've given deep consideration to going back to work more. I've given consideration to staying home all the time just for this last little bit. Some days I want to savor their babyness that I have left and love on them constantly and some days I feel like we look ridiculous not going to school and work. Basically, what I'm trying to say, is that I have no idea what I am doing and I kind of feel bat shit crazy at the mo.

And wondering about your place in the world makes for hard times blogging. Because I have 1800 thoughts going on in my brain and none of them seem blog worthy. So, I just haven't.

The crazy thing is: I love blogging. I find it cathartic. When my kids were sick all the time, blogging kept me sane. I had a voice that needed to talk and blogging let me do that. I love other women's blogs. I love the funny ones, the weight loss ones, the money saving ones. And my dream is to do that. Seriously. To do just that. Except I don't. I have follow through issues.

My blog started as a way of showing our babies to family that we don't see much. Its harder to do that with a 5 and 3 year old than it was with babies. They don't stay still for pics. They go to school more often than they used to. I've ventured into blogging about my weight loss, thrifting, other stuff. I feel like if I'm going to keep this blog up, that's where it should go. I apologize to family that just want to look at my cute kids and be updated on their lives. Not saying that's not going to happen, you're just going to get other stuff thrown in. I have been given many compliments on my writing and I truly appreciate them. In order to continue, there might need to be less kids and more other stuff. These boys arent going to love mom writing about their rvery move forever. maybe every other move for now. My hope is to do that without sounding like a selfish, self absorbed pain in the ass that only wants to talk about herself. The blogosphere has enough of that. 

Since I haven't blogged since Easter (and let's be honest, the "Easter" post was two weeks late), I'll play catch up. Which basically negates me saying I might talk less about my kids and tht they don't smile for pics anymore. 

T-ball has been ruling our lives lately. I'll do a whole post on this. The very cuteness of these two in their uniforms negates all the bad that crazy schedules and even crazier parents have gotten us.

Max has a hard time going to bed. We never know what we'll find in the hallway when we go to bed. We don't care, as long as he's sleeping.

We are gardening again. This time is at our church's community garden. I've grown 18 broccoli plants. I fear I'll kill everything but for now we've delighted in many meals of roasted broccoli.

Max seriously has trouble sleeping in his bed.

We went strawberry picking. I tried to make freezer jam but it didn't "jam" but its a delicious sauce.

Aunt Tammy came and we took her to the zoo. They love our weekends with Tammy.

These two girls are two of my best friends in the world. Debbie is on my left and she and I roomed together for five years of college. Like, so long our mail started coming with our names hyphenated. Love her. On my right is Amanda. She and I met in chemistry my freshman year at UCA. It's funny that I made a lifetime friend in chemistry class, because I hated that class with the flames of a thousand suns. We bonded over the Bunson burners, I spose. I might be slightly shorter and brunette. When a friend met my friends he said "Sara, where'd you find friends? A Swedish girls basketball team?" Debbie and I see each other all the time and our husbands are brothers from a other mother, but Amanda lives in Dallas now and it had been a sweet forever since I'd seen her last. 

Somehow we ended up at the Electric Cowboy. This was a place where I acted like a drunk hooligan way back when. I hadn't been in at least 9 years. This time I rolled up in my minivan, ordered water, danced o e dance and called it a night. Times have changed.

We met my friend Melissa there. She didn't act like a drunk hooligan back in te day so she wanted to get the full Cowboy feel all in one night, which included riding the mechanical bull.

Playing in the rain

Harper turned 5! And had a swimming party.

They might be old and huge but I'm still shoving them in the double stroller.

Easter

We'll just pretend we don't notice I haven't blogged for a month. I have a little issue, now that instagram and facebook make it easy to upload pics all the time, sometimes I get ready to blog and I'm like "everyone knows all this." I skip a few days, then the habit goes bye bye.

I've mentioned that we joined a new church recently. We really love our church, and the people in it, so I was excited to spend Easter at our church. There is a *slight* chance we may be leaving the Central Arkansas area in the near future, so this might be our only Easter here. The Saturday before Easter, our church hosted an Easter Egg hunt. There was a bounce house, a walk with Jesus (that I forgot to take the kids to, oopsie whoopsie), and copius amounts of candy filled eggs. The kids had a blast. The church does so much to get the youth involved and that is one thing that I love about it.

Easter morning we woke up to baskets that the Easter Bunny had only slightly hidden. Mark my words, Rylan has NO future in detective work. Max has a slightly better chance but still, not good. Their idea of "searching" is standing in front of me saying "where is it?" over and over and over and over again. Rylan's basket was behind the end table I was sitting next to, in direct visual line to where he was standing and Max's was behind his car ramp, a place where he "hides" all of the items that I tell him to put away. They still needed help. Like, "look behind the car ramp" type help.

E.B. was so awesome, he must have known they are dairy free, so he busted out some Peeps, jelly beans and snack cakes. He also gifted them each a Whoopie Cushion. Hours of entertainment. I don't care if I am 29 and holding, fart noises are funny every time.

Our entire church is reading this book and discussing it in Sunday school classes. Even Max's little 3 year old class (in which he is the ONLY member besides the teacher, sad times, we need more kids!) does a lesson on the chapter of the week. It is a seriously good book, it is the Bible, written in novel form, it cuts out a lot of the lineage that gets people cross-eyed when trying to read it.

If I'm going to be honest, Sunday mornings get a little hectic because Rob and I have a Sunday school class ready to discuss the current chapter and we are both.....what's the word?????? Procrastinators. Big time. So Sunday mornings have their usual craziness of "can I have waffles, can I watch Mickey Mouse, can I have juice, brother hit me!, Max stuck his fingers up my nose." all while Rob and I try to mad read a book about the Bible. So, Easter added in baskets and copious amounts of candy and whoopie cushion toots with the mad rush to look pretty/dapper and get our chapter read.

It was an awesome day. We churched, we rested, we played outside. We went on a bike ride and we made dinner and had our good friend Charles and his dog, Lola's bestie, Rusty over for ham, pineapple casserole and roasted broccoli. And bunny cake. Yummy bunny cake.

There, Easter in a nutshell. I love a blog post that talks about the bible and whoopie cushions all in one kitten kaboodle.

Staying accountable Monday

Every diet/exercise/life change starts on a Monday.  Someday there will be a Monday when mine won't restart. Not because there will be a day when I don't have to eat healthy and exercise, there will just be a Monday when I'll wake up and won't remember the weekend's eating extravaganza.

This is why I've chosen Monday as my day to recap the week. Recapping on a Friday will just make me pat myself on the back and then dive into a vat of frozen yogurt.

I ate like a princess all week, until Friday. I logged my calories and stayed within 100 cals of my goal everyday.
Monday-aerobics/dance in my living room***
Tuesday-aerobics/dance in my living room
Wednesday-rest day
Thursday-aerobics/dance (I swear, I'm going to be a zumba instructor in my next life, except to Pink and rap songs, not Espanol)
Friday-walk/run at the park, 35 minutes, 2.3 miles

Looks awesome doesn't it? I lost 0.5 pounds, which I'll take any loss. Any loss. Any. Then Friday night happened. I co-hosted a 31 Party and the other host and I made all the essentials: dips involving cream cheese, dips involving cheddar cheese, bread involving cheese and pepperoni, brownies, cookies, cake. And I ate it all. And then I brought my leftovers home. And ate some more. And some more. I put the brownies in the freezer to get them out of my face. And then I discovered that frozen brownies are delicious.

I should be shot. I'd ooze brownies and Diet Coke.

So, here we are. On a Monday. And its a new start. Here's to a better week, with a better choice weekend to follow.

***A description of this aerobics/dance. I started doing these Zumba videos a while back. I don't love them. The only one I love is the Zumba Rush. But its only 20 minutes and I need more like 30 most days. Plus, the same video again and again and again gets old. I found on You Tube that people have uploaded videos of their own zumba routines and I've done a lot of those. I discovered that instead of the typical Zumba songs (not hating on all the Spanish music, but its not my favorite for errrr song, errrr day, errrr workout), they do a lot of routines to songs I like. You can pretty much plug in any song you like with zumba after it and there will probably be a zumba video out there.

So, sometimes I do my Zumba video. Sometimes I do the youtube videos. And somedays I put my own music on and do whatever moves I feel like until I've reached 30 minutes. I've found I burn the most calories doing my own moves. No lie. Its like 300 in 30 minutes, which is more than run/walking.  I haven't told Rob I'm teaching zumba classes to no one in our living room when he isn't here. Let's see how long it takes him to find out. Since I think he gave up reading the blog back in 2011, my guess is he'll never know!!!!

Max and Mommy Day: Bless it.

I've blogged about this before. I work on Thursdays and Fridays now and the kids go to school those days. Rylan goes a 3rd day to prepare him for kindergarten (just threw up a little) and Max stays home with me on Tuesdays. We call it Max and Mommy day. He never got alone time with me like Ry did for 2 years. Now is his time and I love it. Except, its easiest to do appointments and such when I only have one child, and poor Max has been due for some appointments lately. So here is what Max and Mommy Day has looked like lately.

3 weeks ago-ENT told him he needed new ear tubes.
2 weeks ago-He had to have a cavity filled
1 week ago-Max had to go to the doctor for a sinus infection

I was starting to think he was going to say "Mom, thanks and all, but can I just go to school????" So this Tuesday, we had to enjoy our day. He's still not 100% after his sinus infection/allergy issues caused by sub-zero temps followed by 70 degree days. So, we stayed home and played. We got dirty in the sandbox and I attempted to teach him how to make drip castles. You can't make drip castles with a 3 year old in a sandbox, it turns out. We played on the swings, we kicked a ball, we built puzzles.

We snuggled and watched movies

We ate lunch in the beautiful weather on our porch

And the whole family went to t-ball practice.  

Simple day, but when you compare it to the Max and Mommy Days of yesterweek, it was awesome!

Have I mentioned that this kid won't sleep in a bed to save his life?

Big fan of Daylight Savings

"Really, severely dislike daylight savings time!"

This was all up in my Facebook feed on Sunday. And, I feel your pain. You lose an hour of sleep, its not fun. As for me, in my house, we don't sleep much anyway. Saturday, Max woke up at 3am. No reason. Needed a cuddle or a snack or to go potty, I can't even remember. I laid back down and dozed, but I was basically up from 3am on. So, waking up and having one less hour of sleep is kind of something we are used to. Really, when I woke up at 6:30 on Sunday, I was pretty jazzed about the situation. 6:30 (5:30 in DLST land) is much later than 3am!!!

Here's something I am used to. Like, since the last time we had Daylight Savings time when we FELL BACK. I have a very large covered front porch, and only one window in the front, so at about 3pm, it starts darkening in my house. By the time Rob gets home, its dark as can be. No outside time, no walks, nothing. Other thing? In my tired mind DARK=SLEEEEEEPY.  So, about 6-7pm, I'm in pajama pants. About 8pm we put the kids down and I'm laying in my bed. Not sleeping but, reading or watching TV.

Sunday night, Rob took the kids outside while I did the dishes. Looking out my window above my sink and watching them swinging while I wash dishes is the best in the world. Then, last night Rob got home and we went on a bike ride before dinner. The kids both got bikes a year ago but weren't really interested in them at first. They ride bikes at school now in their gym, especially over the winter when they couldn't have outside recess, so now they love bikes. Riding outside with hills and ditches and speed bumps has had its own learning curve, and I have trouble making sure they both down DIE when I try to take them in our neighborhood by myself, so we've been restricted to good weather weekends and holidays. We have them up to a mile now, I'm excited to get them to where I can buy a bike and ride with them instead of walking/stopping/running/sprinting/stopping next to them.

Ok, his eyes are slits, he was so tired from no nap and Daylight Savings time, but whatevs!!!!

Lets get errrr done

I've posted before when I've felt the umph of needing to get serious about diet and exercise. Like here, here, and here. I've started and restarted and yet, I started 2014 at my highest non pregnant weight. I decided there was not going to be any resolutions. There is no number attached to my goals. I was ready to make lots of changes, but be calmer about it.  I had realized certain things I do that have been my downfall. Like too much, too soon. I start with such an amazing vigor that the only place I can go is downhill. I set myself up for failure every time. I start working out, sometimes twice a day, cut all bad foods out of my diet, drown myself in water, and then I fall off the wagon, usually I fall straight into a large cheese dip with a side of Chinese buffet.

On the way home from Disney I wrote down small things to adopt towards a healthy lifestyle. Getting up on a Monday morning and doing burpees till I was sure I was going to die and then eating kale smoothies and drinking 2 liters of water is what I usually did when I started over. I'd go balls out and then fail miserably. I didn't mean to set myself for failure, I just wanted change fast. This time I've accepted that this is going to take time and consistent effort and changes in habits. Like, for good things to be my habits. So, little by little, over the last two months I've started doing the things I wrote down on that list.

-First, I came home and started religiously keeping my food journal at myfitnesspal.com. (Be my friend, my names quallsy).

-I started doing better about my budget. Nothing makes you want to binge eat like being out of money and your dishwasher breaking right before Christmas right as you realize your car tags need to be renewed and you need to pay your property tax AND your husband informs you he needs new glasses and contacts.

-I started spending 5-10 minutes a day reading my Bible, a religious book or simply sitting quietly praying. I don't want to get ultra religious on my blog, but I'm getting sorta kinda more religious in my life (you know, besides saying things like balls out and listening to HORRIBLE rap music and cussing comedians while I drive or exercise without little ears near me). I've just gone a long time without being an active participant in something I believe in and I am now, so I am trying to do my homework.

-I started working out. Slower. Before Christmas/New Years I was trying out T25 and trying to do the regular moves and not the beginner. I was trying to jump in a train for a 5k or, if I let my imagination really run wild a half marathon. I was sprinting and doing burpees and getting ridiculous with what I was trying to force on my body very fast. My knees and post tick fever arthritic feet told me otherwise and I'd get sidelined. This time I followed the modifier. I WALKED more and jogged a little. I found old workout videos that I did religiously when I was thinner. I turned up the non cussing music and danced with my kids. I put on Just Dance on the wii and danced some more.  The very best thing I did was join an accountability group on Instagram where you work out for 30 days straight, for thirty minutes. It can be a rock star t25 workout with some situps and pushups after or it can be a rest day slow walk with your five year old. Just to get moving everyday for 30 days. People following me on instgram were treated to many workout selfies.

Dance party with the kids

Post walk/run. I always have the BEST workout hair

Walk/run at the Big Damn Bridge. It is always windy as can be up at the top.

Rylan did a mile with me one day. He stopped liking the run part of the walk/run after about two rounds, but still did a great job.

Another good workout hair day

I tried to do morning walk/runs. This was the only one I've braved so far. Dang I look good. 

I made it 12 days in a row before I missed a day. That feeling of "I can't miss a day, I've logged so many in a row" was so wonderful. Once I missed a day, I missed another. I got sick and missed a few more but have stayed consistent with 3-4 days a week which is still an improvement. Keep improving. Be better today than you were yesterday. Those are my goals. 

I've lost 5 pounds. It feels good to type that. For over a year, I have played the 'lose a pound, gain two back, lose two, gain one" game, essentially staying at the same number. This past Thursday, I went lower than I have in a year and that is awesome. Not where I want to be, but not where I used to be.

Disney

Wayyyyyy back when, like beginning of January, me and the fam went to Disney. I came home so behind, with life, money, my blog updates (hello, still no Thanksgiving and it was JANUARY!) Life is good, we are lucky people. I just neglect my blog when I get busy. I'm also crazy enough, to feel like I can't blog about other stuff until I cover certain things. Like, I can't blog about Christmas, because I haven't blogged about Thanksgiving and so on. Its a vicious cycle of crazy.

So, anyway, back to Disney. I'm trying to do a video that I'll post on the blog that has way more pics. Otherwise, you could scroll for four days and not hit all the awesomeness that our trip entailed. Here are the highlights.

This vacay involved my side of the family, my mom and dad, sister Tammy and sister Angie and Angie's husband Clay and kids Zoe and Anthony.

Day 1: we left Little Rock and got to Orlando. We rented our cars (or, if you are van obsessed like Rob and I have become, you up it to a van, because you can) and found our rental house. All 6 bedrooms and four baths of it! It was amazing!!! We had our own pool and hot tub! LOVED IT!

Day 2: Animal Kingdom

It was still Christmas at Disney, which is why Goofy is dressed like Santa. It was crazy cold and I was ill prepared, which is why Rylan is wearing his 11 year old cousin's extra sweatshirt.  This moment pretty much cemented my theory that Max will one day work at Disney, possibly as Goofy. There is a certain love.

Rylan really isn't INTO Mickey, Minnie and such. He is into superhereoes and using his Visa gift card from Grandma and Grandpa to get his face painted!
Day 3: Epcot

Another amazing experience for Max, and just oooookkkkkaaaayyyyy for Rylan. I am with Max, I about peed myself everytime I saw a character and I'm pretty sure I forgot there was people in there.

Angie's fam having a moment at the Boneyard in Animal Kingdom


Day 4: Cocoa Beach

This is me and my friend Rose. Rose and I worked together at the hospital. We are very very different and there is probably a 20 year age difference between us, but it doesn't matter.  We found mutual ground and became friends. We've walked a half marathon together, worked our fingers to the bone together, she got me through two pregnancies and still wanted to be my friend, and her daughter babysat the boys. I love her so u. I miss her so much. In 2012, she lost her husband to cancer. She decided to start life over and packed up and moved to Cocoa Beach, FL. Did I mention I miss her??? I was within 2 hours of her and could not let that go without seeing her. It just happened to be unseasonably warm that day and we took the kids to the beach and had a great day. I got to see my friend, the kids got to swim in the ocean, the whole place was a sandbox, so that was awesome for Max. It was such a great day.


Day 5: Magic Kingdom

Is that a smile? He found his person. Stitch is kind of superhero/bad guy combo and this is Rylan's kind of guy.

Holy pretty Christmas lit castle!!!! So gorgeous!!!!

Day 6 Universal Studios

Does anybody remember Rylan's love of Buzz and Woody? I kind of miss it. Buzz and Woody are so much more awesome than the Hulk.

Day 7 Magic Kingdom part 2

It was awesome. We did everything we didn't hit the first day. Magic Kingdom was our little family's favorite. The rest of my clan did another day at Epcot this day, but we felt we still had a lot to do at Magic Kingdom. We were able to relax and do things like this awesome street parade where Max danced with Donald Duck until Donald practically had to get a restraining order.

Like I said, I have a million more pics.  I hope to do a video soon and very soon. We had a great time and I'm already ready to go back!!!

Ahhhhh! For two months almost, I have had tons of stuff to blog about, like a 30 minutes a day for 30 day workout challenge I'm in the middle of, the fact that a character on Sheriff Callie uses Forrest Gump's exact voice, and the Blueberry Cheesecake smoothie that is making my world a better place. Now that I have blogged about Disney I can go back to our regular blog adventures!

Christmas 2013

I don't care if it is February 3!!! Tardy to the party, still at the party!

Sorry about the quality of the next couple of pics, but they had to be included nonetheleass. Rylan was Joseph at our church's nativity play. It was all preshy presh until Joseph and Mary fought over the baby Jesus and then Joseph and a cow fought over the 3 Wisemen's gifts. Kids.

Max was a sheep. A sad sheep. Somber. At one point he pulled cotton off his outfit and wiped his nose. 

Jesus and Mary, very serious biz

Max and the other sheep got tired. The other one passed out on stage. 

Rob's mom and dad, sister and her family, niece and her husband and his aunt all met us at church to see this and then we went to our house to open gifts.

My mother in law speaks fluently in Hallmark ornaments. She found out I liked this one from the catelog and got it for me. It plays Holiday Road by Lyndsey Buckingham. Its my favorite.

There MIGHT have been 3 boxes of wine and I MIGHT have had my first weekend

 off call in a long long time.

Our niece Marley trying out her hair markers on Rylan

Marley and Max nannering it

Rob had to work on Christmas Eve. Whomp Whomp Whomp. So, the boys and I went to the local elementary school. Until Max went down a slide that was damp and I thought he peed his pants. 

On Christmas day, things were kind of anti-climactic. We had already had Christmas with Rob's family and they had already left. We skimped on presents because we were about to go to Disney, so present opening took 4 seconds.
 My side of the family was doing Christmas on New Years Day, right before leaving for Disney.  The boys wanted to show Rob the playground from the day before so we went and took their bikes and ate whatever food we had left from the weekend of visitors. 

We cuddled on the couch and watched The Christmas Story so many times we got hungry for Chinese food! So we went to Fantastic China for our Christmas dinner. Fararara-ra ra ra ra