Bunnies, birthdays, and exercise

Count down to the Easter Bunny! Lots of excitement at our house. Tonight the Easter Bunny will be filling eggs, hiding them and setting out the presents. Thankfully EB did his shopping this afternoon. Whew! Cutting it close this year.

Mom is all signed up for The Biggest Loser which starts in a few weeks. I have an appointment to meet with the trainer and get up to speed on all the equipment at the gym. I'm super excited. Sounds like we will be doing lots of running, which would be awesome. It would be fun to keep up with Jeff and Jessica (my sister) and we could go on runs together. It's time for momma to get back into shape, strong and healthy.

Larson had a birthday party this afternoon. He was SO excited. On the way to the party he requested to listen to music so he could "get ready for the party." Guess he needed a little mental prep time. Yes, my boy is growing up.

Yep, it's an ear infection

Momma's right, Ty has an ear infection. Both ears actually. Yesterday evening we were at Urgent Care for a positive diagnosis and Walmart's pharmacy for antibiotics. Last night was rough. Jeff and I were up most of the night with him. Pour little guy. This morning continued to be rough, but by the time I got home from work and a hair cut, he was looking/acting like himself again.

Now that the little monkey is taken care of, mom's going to do some up-keep too. I've made great strides in getting the pregnancy weight off. One clothes' size and 10 pounds is nothing to sneeze at, but a great opportunity came up. I really want to get back into the summer clothes. I bought a whole new awesome wardrobe 2 summers ago and I'm determined to wear them again (last summer I had Ty, so I took a summer off). Anyway, the opportunity is The Biggest Looser through one of our local fitness programs. Now, I am no where near the weight of the famous "Biggest Looser" contestants on the TV show. However, a little time to get away and work on myself will be energizing. I'll keep my progress posted. This should be interesting.

"First time" parenting moment...Anyone else??

You'd think we've never had kids before. It took FOREVER to install the convertible seat for Ty (backwards facing of course). I'm excited that he's made the big move to the bigger seat. He seems to want to sit straighter versus laying in a reclined position in the infant car seat. I thought I would be able to install the darn thing myself. After all, I've done it a zillion times. Nope. It took two of us way longer than it should have. Needless to say, that sucker isn't going anywhere.

I'm wondering, any ones else? Any good "d'oh!" stories out there??

Not what I planned, but good anyway...

OK, so today didn't go like I had thought. The little monkey has goop in his eyes when I get back from lab. All afternoon Ty didn't want to nap. I hope he doesn't have an ear infection. He's been fighting a cold and teething.

We have a busy night. Larson has soccer and I have a Couponing class; both at 6:30. We have it all planned. I'll go to the class and Jeff will take the kids to soccer. I take advantage of the tax deal at Papa Murphys and pick up a $5 pizza for dinner. As the world of a mother turns, Ty needs to go to bed early and it wouldn't be right for us to take him to soccer. So, I'm missing Coupon class. I'm SO bummed! (For more information about Couponing class go to www.tidytightwads.com. Another good source for frugalness is www.confessionsofamom.com. Follow their blogs or catch them on FB.)

The good news: I'm sitting at home alone for about a hour while Ty is sleeping and Jeff and the kids are in town. Another set of good news, there's a "Stretching the Family Dollar" webcast on www.247moms.com tomorrow night. I can still get something out of this week. Yay!!

Despite Ty's little cold, we managed to get some fun stuff done today. Ali had a friend over for a few hours after preschool. Ironically, I find it easier to have one more child in the house because it keeps everyone entertained. Instead of hearing the whiney "mom, mom, mom", there's giggling, running, and playing. The girls and I made cookies while we waited for Larson to come home. The kids sat nice while we had pizza for dinner. They chatted and giggled the whole time. Everyone had a great time.

Another positive, we picked an exchange student to stay with us for 5 months this fall! I'm very excited that the process is almost over. The student and his family should be receiving our family profile to (hopefully) accept us. I'll post more info as I know more. Our whole family is super excited!

Weird day so far

Ty fell asleep last night at 5:30pm. The good news is that he slept for 12 hours. The bad news is he slept for 12 hours. It was a little early for this momma, but he quickly took a nap and I was able to sleep a little more too...thanks to daddy. Today our schedule is all goofed up, but I'm sure it'll get on track tonight. He's a happy little guys today though. Smiles and giggles a plenty. He almost got up on his hands and knees in a crawling position. Soon enough he'll be mobile.

To complete this bizarre afternoon, a bird flew into the dining room window. It happens about a dozen times a year, but still scares the living daylights out of me each time. Silly birds. I hope this one rebounded OK.

Ty and I visited my mom and dad this afternoon. Dad's finally recovering well from knee surgery. He's actually doing better off the pain medication and is taking regular Tylenol and Ibuprofen. He even went to work for a while, and mom visited her work to figured out the timing of her return from "vacation." Things are really looking up.

Loved MOPS summit!

Spent the day today with other MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) leaders at Summit. Got a lot of great ideas for next year, and I've been refreshed for my family. The theme for Summit this year was Same Difference, and we explored how we're all the same but different and that's how God wants it. We need to celebrate each other's similarities and differences.

I will be spending tomorrow morning with my dad while mom is at church. Dad had knee surgery and is doing OK, but still needs someone at home just in case. Hopefully in a week he'll be able to trust himself to be home alone for a while. The really good news is that I'm bring work with me and will have a few hours of quite time to get something done. Yay!

Long time no see!

Wow! That New Year's resolution didn't work out....I haven't been on the blog for MONTHS! To update, we did get a new car (a mini van, which I love), Jeff is still loving his new job and the kids are growing. Ty is sitting up and babbling. He's almost ready to crawl. Larson still loves school and Ali still can't wait to go to Kindergarden. Larson has made a good friend and I look forward to watching that friendship grow. I'm working part-time at the local college and enjoy the challenge.


I've also been working as a coordinator for CETUSA which is an organization that places foreign exchange students with fantastic fun families in the US. I'm currently the coordinator for two beautiful fun girls placed in another family. We have fun each time we're together. We're hoping to go shopping at the MOA soon. Yay! If anyone is interested in learning more about CETUSA and the opportunity to invite a student into their home, check out the website at http://www.cetusa.org/ and give me a call. We have over 150 students waiting to be placed. We have some 5 month students and a bunch of 10 month students. I'm hoping to bring home a 5 month student in September, so we'll see what happens.


Lots of exciting things coming up for this family, and I promise to keep up on the blog. This time I really really promise. :-)