Our life in Chuck Town!!

Run, Baby Run...

2012-01-26T10:33:00.003-05:00

SO, I have been busy training again for a 10k. I am taking baby steps....baby steps towards being back up to an ideal weight and healthy.
I was never a runner and I have always hated it. ALWAYS. I was always that fat girl to be last to finish the 1 mile run in high school and I cussed and complained the whole way. I HATED TO RUN!
I realized I hated it because it was so damn hard for me! My lungs burned, my legs cramped, and I felt like I was going to die if I didn't stop running every 10 feet. Last year I started running and training my WHOLE body to run, legs, heart, arms, lungs...you name it. I LOVE running now..
I am not a Zumba girl and I only dance when I have had a few glasses of wine in me and then sure, I will awkwardly shake my hips and butt in public. I cannot workout at home. It is way too easy to give up and sit on the couch or to just not do it. I need to be in the gym or out running to stay motivated.
First, I will say that I have become aware of just how awful my stomach and bowels are. I tell you...if you can keep your gallbladder. KEEP IT! Be THANKFUL you have it. I have had so many digestive issues since having it out. Granted, I did absolutely need it taken out BUT it has changed me so much.
I had a pretty big scare a few weeks ago and I will spare you the gory details ( it wasn't pretty, but if you need to know I will answer through email.) I was told by my doctor that I needed to make some changes NOW before anything a lot more serious happened and to stop ignoring the things my body was telling me. So, I am listening. I am finding things that work for ME and I am doing my absolute best to stick to it. I'm pretty over being mentally and physically unhealthy.
Most importantly I am really tired of being mentally unhealthy. It seems like life has taken a huge poop on us lately and thats just life. I have felt so depressed and worthless for almost 6 months now and I'm done! I don't want to feel this way anymore. Even with all the crap thats happened I still have so much to be thankful for, its just been a little hard to see through the fog.

Source: google.com via Kari on Pinterest

Bring in the running. I have been running again for a few weeks now and I have felt so much better!!! Oh MY GOSH...in the past I have taken Zoloft for depression and I do not want to take medication for something I can treat naturally. Running is my ME time. My time to talk to GOD and just let out my fears, worries, and frustrations. I leave it on the pavement and keep moving on. I am so much happier and I am getting so much better at running. I am learning so much and I am so excited to keep going. I stopped telling myself 'I CAN'T' and I am telling myself :
"YOU CAN, KEEP TRYING!!"

Source: nancysfitnessandweightloss.blogspot.com via Kari on Pinterest

Its amazing what you can accomplish when you stop telling yourself you can't and start telling yourself that you CAN. I am so motivated, so ready to try and TRY harder each time. I WILL be happier, healthier and I won't stop trying till I am there.
People on Facebook have noticed my progress and made comments about how they wish they had my motivation. Its almost annoying to hear that because its not motivation really, its a desire to be a healthier person, mentally and physically. It bothers me to hear people complain about their current weight and not make any effort at all to change it. People that are absolutely capable to makes changes and they don't. Drives me nuts. Whats keeping them from trying?! I have a lot on my plate right now. A LOT and yet here I am....making time for me-myself because I DESERVE it and working my ass off! I never regret a workout. NEVER. But I always REGRET NOT doing a workout.

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I'm done feeling sorry for myself. I'm ready to be healthy. Its my time to be HAPPY.

Our Biltmore Estate Trip

2012-01-06T14:56:00.002-05:00

My post on our Biltmore Trip like I promised!

As I mentioned before. I could not take any pictures inside the Biltmore House at all. I was so upset. BUT I found out later on that I can purchase a permit prior to making the trip to Biltmore. It might cost an arm or two and have several restrictions on how I can use the photos but I would be able to take pictures inside the house.

HERE ARE A FEW PICTURES!

This is a balcony on the second or third floor. I didn't ask if I could take this picture. I just took it. I'm just a risk taker that way. No one stopped me so I assumed it was ok.

This is a side view of the Biltmore House standing on the path to the gardens.

Here is another view from the path to the gardens.

This is a side door to the Greenhouse. It was no ordinary green house, let me tell you. It was so beautiful! And everything at Biltmore was decorated for Christmas...I do mean EVERYTHING!

This was the main door to the Green House. So pretty!

We walked the gardens and grounds of Biltmore for hours. There was just so much to take in and there were not even any flowers bloomed! So, I can imagine just how much more beautiful it would be in the Spring time. This is a boat house we came across at the Bass Pond. It was more like a small lake. Hardly a "pond". haha

Here is the complete front view of the Biltmore House. It was a massive structure and so beautiful!! You can't tell from this picture but the detail on the outside was incredible!

Buddy is in the phase where he wants to try to jump off EVERYTHING! He even snuck in a jump off the stair case inside the Biltmore House that scared the crap out of me and then it was quickly followed by embarrassment as everyone around us gasped! He wasn't hurt, and he landed on his feet but some people thought he fell. Oye!! We finally found something acceptable to let him jump on and off of outside while walking the grounds and he was so tickled! He jumped off so many times!!

Here him jumping off the stump!

He was smiles all day and I'm so proud of him! It was really a long day and not much of a kids place but he still managed to have a good time. Love my little Buddy Bear!

Quiet New Years- Ha!

2011-12-31T22:51:00.002-05:00

Have no super special plans. We are all three sitting on the couch. I am typing this post, Buddy has his Innotab and is playing a Mickey Mouse game and Hubby is reading a book about 2012 on his Kindle. The Dick Clarke New years special is on the TV but no one is really watching it...We are a lively bunch aren't we? We have wine and sparkling cider to sip on, lots of snacks and treats to eat all night. Buddy took a long late nap and woke up about 6pm.

Well, at midnight we are busting out the pots and pans and making a whole bunch of noise. Thats something I did every year growing up and I hope to continue it with Buddy. :o)

Happy New Year!!!!

Christmas??

2011-12-27T16:24:00.008-05:00

So how was our Christmas?? Well, Santa brought us Chicken Pox and Buddy Bear was so unimpressed by his bike. I was so upset he didn't get super excited but he is every bit his Dad and is never too impressed by anything. LOL He loves the bike now but I didn't get the reaction on Christmas morning that I was hoping for.

Like I mentioned, Santa brought us Chicken Pox and YES, it is Buddy who has it. I had a slew of people asking if it was me and thankfully I had it when I was in kindergarten and Husband had it when he was 12 or 13.

FYI-

Even though your child gets the chicken pox vaccine they can still get chicken pox!!! It will not be as severe and will be very mild but they can still get it. Don't be fooled!!

Buddy had the first vaccine at his 15 month check up and was due for his booster shot at his 4yr check up this coming March.

You would never know he has chicken pox though. He rarely scratches and doesn't complain a bit. Completely unphased by it. I'm so glad. :o) He only has bumps on his chest and stomach arms and legs and just today started to get some on his face but in total he only has 25 bumps or less. The vaccine really does help keep it mild. AND another tip my doctor told us. Its not a good idea to take them in right away on day 1 or 2 for a diagnosis as Chicken Pox rash takes a few days to fully form and really tell you if its chicken pox or not. they start out as little red pimples then turn into small blisters and then ooze and scab over. The doctor knew right away it was chicken pox because Noah had bumps at all those stages spread through out his body. I have a picture on my phone of Buddy's chicken pox rash that I will try to add. I don't know if it will work though. ** it wont let me add the picture** lame..

Yay us! We have chicken pox. ;o(

Our Biltmore trip was AMAZING! I will do a post later with pictures!!

I was so upset I packed my camera bag and carried that thing around only to find out I could only take pictures outside the house. So for an hour and a half climbing up and down stairs I had my 15lb camera bag on my back for nothing! I got some great shots outside in the garden and of the exterior of the house though so it sorta makes up for none inside the house.

Just being with my boys on vacation was amazing! We all slept in a king size bed and it was so sweet to wake up to both of their happy faces in the morning. Everything at the hotel was "so cool" to Buddy and he was actually pretty blown away that the bathroom had a phone inside it and so did the pool area. He also absolutely insisted we utilize the Safe in our room to keep Mr. Giraffe secure while we were not in the room. He was so worried he would get stolen! Poor guy loves that crusty Giraffe so much!! I'm pretty sure he will be packing him to college!

We also went to the winery at Biltmore and did some wine tasting! Oh I was in HEAVEN and Hubby actually wine tasted with me (he isn't a wine drinker). I fell completely in love with 2 of their wines and Hubby let me buy a bottle of both! Everyone working there complimented us on how well behaved Buddy was during wine tasting and Buddy was talking up the lady serving our wine. He spelled his name for her and she was so impressed he could do that! The wine server loved him and got him crackers and grape juice for him to enjoy while we wine tasted. :o) It was a really great time!

Biltmore House at night was just BEAUTIFUL! I wish I could have just sat in the foyer watching the choir and band play and just take in that Christmas spirit all night! Every room was so meticulously decorated for the holiday and it was just BEAUTIFUL! Giant fireplaces and Christmas trees in every room and lights out the wazoo were just amazing to Buddy. He really liked all the Christmas trees. When we go back next year I think we will just do the Christmas Candle light tour instead of the day tour. The day tour had all the decor but nothing was lit up and there was no music at all. It was really boring for Buddy. It really made a huge difference at night with everything lit up and live music. So amazing!!!

Now that I only have a quarter of my bottle of Merlot left I am on the search for Biltmore wines!! I hear the shoppette on Main base has Biltmore wines so I will have to check it out!

Hope you all had a great holiday too!!

Gingerbread Train and Biltmore Estate.

2011-12-19T15:20:00.002-05:00

WE are so excited for Christmas! The boys finally built their Gingerbread train together. My poor Buddy has been asking to build it for 3 days! Our week was just so crazy putting together the final details for the DET Christmas party that there just wasn't time so we finally did it this Sunday! :o) I love seeing them two together. They are my everything!

We are getting ready for a trip to North Carolina to spend a few days at Biltmore Estate. I am so excited! Last week was just an awful week with the news of my Uncle and not being able to be with my family when we are all hurting so much. I really need some time away with my boys to enjoy the holiday, get into the Christmas spirit more and love them to the fullest!

Merry Christmas!!!

500 days

2011-12-13T16:08:00.004-05:00

500 days till the husbands tour is officially up. I am praying not a day more. Here comes a vent and I apologize for my language...But it needs to come out somewhere...

I hate being in such a small squadron because everyone seems to like to talk crap about everyone else and judge the way they live their lives. I'd really like to just tell that person or persons to

"FUCK OFF AND MIND YOUR BUSINESS".

But I do need to maintain a level of behavior as a lady and not embarrass my husband at his work place. But it really bothers me that I am somehow in the wrong when it comes to my best friend and these above mentioned people talking crap.

FYI- if you speak of my BFF or say something I KNOW for a fact is hurtful or in some way not appreciated I will tell my friend that because they do deserve to know that people near them are assholes and need to avoid them at all costs. I'm not gossiping. I'm not starting drama, I'm being a friend that I know I would appreciate having. If you hear someone trashing me behind my back and don't tell me and I carry on thinking I am cool with them...you are just a big an asshole as they are. True friends tell each other these things.....and stick up for each other when they are being disrespected!!

I know better to associate myself with Military peeps because 85% of them are shit talking drama seekers. Our next station..I will not involve myself with the squadron at all. No thanks...done.

If you come to my door unannounced: this is what happens before I open the door..

2011-12-07T16:49:00.001-05:00

Source: featherweightt.tumblr.com via Kari on Pinterest

found this on Pintrest today. LOL I am totally that 1%. LOL

Pintritis

2011-12-06T19:06:00.002-05:00

Pintrest is the devil! I am so beyond addicted and I just started yesterday. If you haven't started, DON'T. You won't stop and your loved ones will miss you terribly! I literally spent half of today pinning things!

Having said all that,

I LOVE PINTREST!!!

LOL

My weekend

2011-12-05T14:05:00.003-05:00

My weekend was way too much fun!!! Cookies and taking pictures!!!

My SATURDAY was full of making cookies and two different kinds of biscotti with my BFF Emy. Buddy had a blast. Spent the entire day with them and didn't get home till 9:30pm!!

My SUNDAY:

Spent the afternoon and evening photographing the gorgeous Ally with some fellow photogs and at portfolio shooting event I put together. :o)

Cannot wait for Christmas!

2011-12-02T11:33:00.001-05:00

Buddy bear has asked for a real bike since the beginning of Summer.
On Black Friday we took him to look at bikes and he had his heart set on a bright green hot wheels bike. Problem was it was meant for a boy twice his age. :( my poor buddy was crushed! We did our best to distract him and show him a blue spiderman bike. He eventually decided it was really cool and we said ok we will see if we can get it for Christmas( we don't do Santa at our house. He knows of Santa and his story but we don't do the "go to bed, Santa is coming"). I had husband take him to a different side of the store so I could wrangle a store worker to get me a bike. He directed me to lawn and garden where they were all lined up. I went out there to look for the Spiderman bike and it was no where to be found. I was so sad!! As I was walking out I spotted a green and blue hot wheels bike just like the one my Buddy originally wanted!!! But it was the perfect size!! I was so excited!!!! I grabbed it and paid for it and ran out to the car to hide it under the sun shade and blanket in the back of the car so Buddy wouldn't see it.
Buddy has no clue his bike is coming!!! I can't wait!!! He is still asking about his hot wheels bike and I am so glad we are able to get it for him. :)

Thanksgiving break

2011-11-28T10:57:00.004-05:00

We had such an AMAZING Thanksgiving break. :o) We had a friend surprise us, he called the day before Thanksgiving and said he would be flying into ChuckTown on Thanksgiving (He is a commercial airline pilot). We immediately invited him to eat with us! It was so nice to catch up and have his company for dinner.

I got to Skype with my family while they said Grace and it was so nice to see all their faces!! We also did some Black Friday shopping.....

Let me just say. NEVER AGAIN!! The way these wome

n were fighting over the Shark and Bissel steam mops at Walmart was scary!!! We

took Buddy Bear with us for the 10pm deals and I was so scared something bad was going to happen with the way these women were acting. I asked Ryan if I could just go hid in grocery with Buddy Bear while he went to look for all the stuff. But the police broke up the madness...Yes, the POLICE WERE THERE!! Did you hear about the lady in California that used pepper spray to get first dibbs on the pallet?!?! Last I heard she got away. CRAZYNESS. and its so not needed!!

Buddy did so good and was so patient.....honestly, I think he was just so entertained by the madness. BUT we will NEVER do that again.

Ryan went on his own at 4pm to the BX to score a TV, DVD player, and a few other small items. He said that it was mucher calmer there. He did miss out on the Ipod deal but oh well.

I worked Saturday morning and had 2 really great sessions with 2 different families. :o)

The rest of the weekend was spent with my 2 boys and making 100 snowflakes to hang from the living room ceiling. :o) I will get a better picture but I shared this last night on Facebook.

You can't at all tell there is 100 snowflakes and it looks a million times better in person. But you get the idea. :o)

Happy Holidays. :o)

To my Noah...

2011-10-25T13:41:00.002-04:00

I love you so much my Noah!! I'll always be here for you no matter what. You and Daddy are the light of my life!!! My everythings. :o) Everytime I hear this song I think of you two. I always say that as long as I have the two of you I will always be ok. We always have each other to count on. Love you so much!! More than words could ever say. :o)

Easy Yummy Mexican chicken dish

2011-09-27T18:46:00.002-04:00

I was stuck in a chicken dish rut. I wanted to make something we normally don't eat and came up with a dish called Arroz con Pollo. Which means " rice with chicken". (i think it does anyway. Ha!)
Problem was, I did not have the slightest idea how to make the dish. I just knew how it looked and it tasted delicious.
Tonight I made my own version in a way every busy SAHM/WAHM loves. 1 dish, mix, bake and serve. ;)
Here is how: Preheat oven to 375. measure 2 cups instant white rice, 3 chopped chicken breasts (Boneless/skinless), half a small onion- chopped, 1 can mild rotel , 1 can chopped green chiles, 1 heaping tablespoon of chicken bouillian dissolved in 1 cup hot water, 1 small can tomato sauce. Season with garlic powder, onion powder and black pepper lightly or to taste. Do not add salt!!
Mix all ingredients in a 13x9 casserole dish and cover with foil. Bake for 25-30 minutes. Serve with flour tortillas and shredded cheddar cheese!!

Busy week or two..

2011-09-10T23:32:00.001-04:00

Been a busy few weeks. Still juicing and working out. I love juicing but hate cleaning the juicer. It's gotten old. Hubby struggles to make a Yummy juice and I make Yummy juices so I make the juice and he cleans the juicer. :)

Case of the Mondays....

2011-08-29T19:19:00.003-04:00

I am pretty sure I am THE ONLY person on this planet that thought "Office Space" was stupid and so NOT funny. But that aside, I have a big "case of the mondays" today. Arg...

We are still juicing and exercising regularly. I've come to the conclusion I love a splash of lime in just about every juice combo we make. :o) Which is why we bought a 2lb bag of limes. :o)

I saw the bag and immediately thought how cool it would be to photograph them. So I will be putting the buddy down here shortly for bedtime and pulling out the equipment. :o)

Lunch juice

2011-08-21T22:22:00.001-04:00

6-7 kale leaves
12 strawberries
1 large sweet potato
2 roma tomatoes

Weezin the juice

2011-08-21T22:08:00.001-04:00

So how is this juicing going? Well, its going great. I find myself craving my next juice and the junk we used to think was so Yummy no longer tastes Yummy. My taste buds don't like that JUNK anymore.
Are we still doing a strict juice fast? HA! NO.
I don't think its nutrionally complete to provide enough fuel for the day. We would often hit rock bottom with light headedness and shakes. Even drinking 5/ 16-24oz at a time and ample water between. Especially after a workout or even just walking to and from the car in the 90weather at the commissary. Just not enough. We are watching what we eat and still juicing atleast 3 times a day. I think its better to supplement your diet rather than it be your whole diet.

We started with a breakfast blend of oranges, Apple and pear. YUMMY!

Juicing some mean green.

2011-08-20T14:27:00.001-04:00

Mean green juice is mighty tasty. Doesn't sound like it would be but if you like V8 juice and bloody marys you'll like mean green.

6 kale leaves
2 celery stalks
Half a lime
Quarter of a red bell pepper
1 small red delicious Apple
2 handfuls fresh spinach ( not in a bag spinach)

Husband juiced it up for us and its mighty Yummy!

Brunch juice

2011-08-20T14:17:00.001-04:00

2 handfuls spinach
1 red delicious Apple
1 Apple pear
6 strawberries
1 tomato

Yummy breakfast juice!!!

2011-08-19T08:28:00.001-04:00

I never would of thought cucumber juice would go so well with apples and strawberries. It's deliciously wonderful!

1 red delicious Apple
1 small navel Orange peeled
6 strawberries
1 pear
Half a cucumber

Still juicing

2011-08-19T00:04:00.001-04:00

Gosh, its been such a busy day I forgot to blog any of my juices! I didn't even take pictures of any but 1 and it was the night time snack one.
I was eyes deep in editing all afternoon than Buddy Bear had an appt. At MUSC. Talk about stressful!!!
So here is what I juiced tonight as a snack.

2 cups purple grapes
2 peeled oranges
1 red delicious Apple
1 cup blueberries
1 cup raspberries

Super delicious. Husband said it was his favorite so far. Mine too I think. :)

In the last picture you'll notice the epic mess I made. I forgot to put a cup under the spout and started juicing and it dripped everywhere!! Dummy. Like a dummy my instinct was to catch it with my hand ( not both hands just one). Geez. Put me to bed already!!!!

Cheater, cheater, pan dulce eater!!!

2011-08-17T16:14:00.001-04:00

I caved. My friend brought me a bag of pan dulce from CA. The combination of being hungry and homesick made me cave!! I ate a whole piece!!
It brought back memories of my family so I immediately called my Gram. Spent the whole conversation inches away from crying. I miss her so much!!!!!

P/s today while at the commissary I didn't patiently wait for people to move like I always do. I had words flying out of my mouth that I couldn't believe I was saying. Ugh, this girl is cranky!!! Get her another pan dulce!!

Lunch Day3

2011-08-17T13:25:00.001-04:00

2 cups tomatoes
Handful of parsley
2 carrots
Half a lime
Half a cucumber
1 large red bell pepper
2 celery stalks

Some ingredients are missing from the picture since I thought to put the. In after I started juicing.
I also poured it into my to-go cup since I'm running late to see a friend.

Breakfast Day 3

2011-08-17T09:34:00.002-04:00

After doing as much as I did last night you'd think I would have fell right to sleep last night but no such thing. I couldn't shut off my mind. Kept wanting to think. Buddy Bear also woke up from a bad dream and then refused to sleep in his room. So we both crawled into the guest bed and he slept the rest of the night.

Just when I thought it would be time to fall asleep there came a rumble in my tummy. 'Great....I have to poop again' . Did I really have this many toxins in my body??? Geez!!! Give me a break!!
My plan for today is some GTL (minus the T). For those that are not familiar with Jersey Shore, that stands for GYM TANNING AND LAUNDRY. I'll need to stop at the commissary for more produce too.

Day 3 breakfast

1 peeled kiwi
2 red delicious apples
3 medium carrots
3 handfuls of spinach
1 cup raspberries
Half a cucumber

Yum Yum!!

Dinner juice Day 2

2011-08-16T20:28:00.001-04:00

1 peeled kiwi
1 cup purple grapes
3 celery stalks
3 handfuls of spinach leaves
1 nectarine
1 red delicious Apple.

Pretty darn Yummy!

Progress...

2011-08-16T19:24:00.001-04:00

Husband has lost 4lbs already on Day 2. :o)

that's very encouraging!!!
I am waiting till atleast Day 5 to weigh myself. I'd hate to weigh myself and see no progress. I stood backwards on the scale to let the hubby see what I was at and he was good and didn't tell me. ( thanks babe). Bring on day 3!!

Day 2 lunch: DELICIOUS!!!

2011-08-16T15:07:00.002-04:00

I don't know about you but I for sure couldn't have eaten this many veggies.

7Kale leaves

1 cup grape tomatoes

half a cucumber

2 stalks of celery

1 red bell pepper

1 peeled lime

I could certainly drink it though. My goodness!! Super YUMMY

Pump up the JUICE!

2011-08-16T10:40:00.003-04:00

Yes, I am hitting the juice. BIG time. and ALL DAY LONG.

BUT I promise it is 100% all natural fruit and veggie juice.

Delicious?? Most of the time (i dont recommened beets).

How did this juicing business start?

Well, We are avid Netflix watchers. We don't have regular TV (too expensive).My husband LOVES documentaries and he often talks about documentaries with a guy from work. We'll call him Sgt. Croffit.

One day last week they started discussing which documentaries they watched (nerds, I know) and Sgt. Croffit mentioned " Fat, Sick and nearly Dead". Its a documentary about an Australian man who is really sick and over weight and starts on a 60 day juice fast. He at some point meets a trucker who is 300+ pounds and he eventually starts the juice fast too. Their transformation and their journey is very inspiring and its amazing how over all their lives are so much better.

So, Husband comes home and he whines he has caught the cold Buddy Bear and I had.

Its now the weekend and I am booked solid all weekend with sessions . Husband spent the weekend whiping his nose and picking up the house (thanks Babe!) and watching documentaries.

Saturday Night, I crawl into bed and snuggle up next to him to watch some TV with him and he puts on...you guessed it "Fat, Sick and nearly Dead" and says "I want to try this". I roll my eyes because I am not as big of fan on documentaries like he is but I humor him.

We watch the whole thing and at the end I thought 'this could be good to try' . For the most part I saw how badly Husband wanted to try it and I always try my best to support him when it comes to working out or eating better so I knew if I didn't do it with him, it would be a bigger struggle for him to see me cooking and eating such delicious yummy food. I didn't want to make an already tough diet even harder so I hopped on the wagon with him.

We bought a juicer. THIS one to be exact. My MIL has it and we knew how well it worked so it was nothing we struggled over. We went to the grocery store and loaded up on Kale, Spinach, carrots, apples, celery, beets, ginger root, strawberries, blueberries,sweet potatoes, and grapes. We spent over $40 on all that and it only last a day and a half. OUCH! We went to a different store (WALMART) and spent the same amount and got enough for 2 and a half days. The only thing is that Walmart's produce is so hit or miss. Its frustrating.

So how is juicing going?

Well, today is only day 2 but I tell ya Day 1 was a HUGE struggle and I was ready to bust down a wall. I still have a major headache from no caffiene but the urge to steal Buddy Bear's waffles right off his plate isn't as bad. That thought crossed my mind so many times yesterday. I imagined myself like a wild animal getting ready to swipe a fresh kill from a smaller animal. I realized how stupid and silly I was for wanting to steal my sons food from him so it never happened.

Ready for some TMI??

I pooped. A LOT. Holy CRAP did I poop. That is what its supposed to do. Its ridding your body of toxins. Yesterday I was so tired and had no energy.I felt nauseated and cranky all day. I should have drank more water between juices but thats another habit I need to establish all on its own. MORE WATER! MORE WATER!!

Today is starting a whole lot better.For one, I slept like a ROCK. I didn't hear Husband juice his breakfast at all. Slept right through it.

For breakfast, I had a mixture of raspberries, carrots, apples, and spinach. DELICIOUS!!! I almost went back to make a second one. BUT I didn't. Save it for another meal, i told myself.

For lunch I plan on making cucumber, tomato, celery, lime, and kale. I am really looking forward to it. :o) Thats a big improvement from yesterday. Ugh, Beets? the most disgusting thing ever. If you like the flavor of earth and dirt than beet juice is for YOU. I even scrubbed and peeled them and it still tasted like earth and dirt. YUCK!!

Today I feel a lot more energized. I want to go running. Its too hot to run outside so I am considering taking Buddy Bear and I to the base gym and spending some time with the clunker of a treadmill in the Parent/Child room.

I have a lot of editing to do from this weekend but I think an hour at the gym would do me just fine. :o)

I have every intention of sticking to this 10 day juice fast. Will I slip and grabbed a bit of crackers and pastrami? I might but I sure hope not! I'd really like to say I did the full 10 days and I hope by blogging about it, it will help me stay on track. :o)

Running with the fireflies..

2011-06-12T17:07:00.004-04:00

Last night I was determined to get a night run in. It would be my first night run ever. I will be the first to tell you I am a big chicken and am afraid of the dark. Hubby didn't seem to be a fan of me going by myself since he immediately said "We'll go too" (he hates running) and suddenly decided he would take the kids (Buddy Bear and Emma) for a night walk. Buddy's wagon is tricked out with lights so it makes night walks safer.

We also picked up some glowstick bracelets at Target to wear too.

Once we all put our citranella braclets on and our glowsticks we headed outside. My route for my 3 mile run is different than the walk we normally take but it eventually meets up at the end of the neighborhood where its not lighted anymore. So I took off on my route and did my first 1.5miles and met up with Hubby and the kids at the meetup point.

I waved and hollered I was gonna keep going. I turned the corner to run the valley when all of the sudden it was nothing but fireflies in the valley. It was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen!! I have never seen fireflies before. They were beautiful!!!

I kept running and started hollering back at the family "LOOK FIREFLIES!!! FIREFLIES!!!" I just stopped at that point and watched. It was amazing! There was so many of them. It was beautiful!!

I kept going and got to the wooded area and heard something russel in the bushes. Emma was off leash by then and she started to growl. So i quickly turned around and sprinted the heck outta there!! We got back to Hubby and Buddy Bear and Hubby went to pet Emma and realized all her hair on her back was raised. He asked what happened and we told him there was something moving in the bush so we high tailed it back. Emma never does that unless she is ticked and ready to throw it down! So I was freaked out and decided maybe the wooded area was off limits at night. We ended up walking it all together making as much noise as possible to scare anything off. LOL It was a scary/fun adventure and Buddy Bear loved it! Fireflies were buzzing around us. It was really neat!!!

When we walk in the evening we have seen racoons, deer, foxes and possums so we know we have lots of wildlife in that wooded area. I can't and don't want to know or imagine what was in the bushes as we walked through. LOL!!

I think I am now a night runner. it was the coolest thing ever to run with the Fireflies last night. :o) i"ll have to figure out a new running route since I am too chicken to run the wooded area on base by myself. Its not too safe either. I know I need to pick up my pace but I don't want it to be because I have a rabid fox chasing me!!!

Just as it should be...

2011-06-08T22:18:00.003-04:00

You grow up knowing what your dreams are.

Daydreaming what living your dream would be like.

I never saw anything for my life but being a Mother and Wife.

Just like my Mom was.

Thats all I felt in my heart to be.

Today, I am a Wife and I am a Mother.

I'm living my dream.

I am BLESSED beyond what I imagined.

The Fever...

2011-05-23T16:24:00.003-04:00

I havent blogged in a while but I have had this looming "situation" and its worrying me. I have to blog it out I guess...

I've always wanted kids. I love my Buddy Bear so much. He is my reason for everything.

I feel so surrounded my pregnant woman right now. Is it just me? Gah! Everyone is pregnant. I could list at least 20 woman...no joke.

So at the start of all this I got "The Fever"

where I absolutely wanted another...

"get me to the Dr- i Want this IUD out now, lets go Husband..lets make a baby!!" kinda fever.

BUT.

There was no persuading a certain someone to jump on board the baby train and holler "CHOOCHOO!!"

SO...after a long talk (over the course of a few nights)I realized that someone was absolutely right. Its just not our time right now.

No baby for us. So, I was a little bummed for a little while. I kept thinking "why can't it be now?why can't we just make it work?"

I finally accepted it (the most that you can) and I am just waiting patiently...

So like I said I am waiting patiently..and everyone around me is pregnant. and everyone is starting to have their babies...which means I am starting to photograph a lot of newborns.

My first session was a dream. I've never had a newborn just sleep and let me pose her with no fuss. NOT-A-PEEP from this girl...a beautiful dream.

So, you would think I would walk away just aching with envy and wishing even harder it was MY newborn or that I just had a baby. Because, any woman dieing for a baby would. That is totally normal to see and hold a precious blessing and just wanna keep it and love it forever! Why did I feel thankful I wasn't taking it home? Why did I go home feeling ok with the possibility that I might not ever have that again?

I shrugged it off. I must have been tired that day right?? That must have been it....

Newborn sessions 2-3-4 came and went I walked away from each session feeling more and more like I don't want a baby. WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH ME?!

Today I photographed a 7 day old little girl. A BEAUTIFUL Blessing..My goodness was she PERFECT! Just so precious and...PERFECT! I don't know how else to explain her. She was melt your heart ADORABLE...

Today, I came home upset that even that perfect and adorable baby couldn't make me get the fever.

again....

WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH ME!?!?

I want more kids. I'm not ready to be "done".

I guess my heart knows to not get my hopes up. I guess all those prayers of "Please God, give me patience..help me to be still..." really were answered. I guess God is trying to tell me to not dwell on what everyones Blessings are but to sit back and be THANKFUL for the other kind of Blessings I am being given. I really am BLESSED. and.. I am THANKFUL. very Thankful.

Busy, Busy , BUSY!

2011-01-11T14:59:00.004-05:00

I've been so incredibly busy getting editing done and doing work for Op:Love.
I absolutely LOVE being an Op:Love Photographer. I walk away from each session feeling so accomplished and its one of the most rewarding sessions I can ever photograph.
If you are Military PLEASE look into
Operation: Love ReUnited.

If you have never heard of Op:love they are a Non-Profit organization providing FREE Photography services to Military families that have a loved one deploying or is deployed or coming home from a deployment. This is an awesome organization and I am so glad to be apart of it!

Today I am trying to get the house cleaned and I need to start baking some muffins. I am hosting a playdate tomorrow. I am so looking forward to it! I am taking a little break since I feel like its been busy busy BUSY the last few days....in fact I dont think I've eaten yet today! Opps! I better go eat....I will be back again soon.

Busy

2011-01-06T15:00:00.003-05:00

I am busy with "work" right now. Lots of editing to do. I will be back soon to blog. I have lots to talk about!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

2011-01-01T15:59:00.003-05:00

Happy New Year everyone!!! I hope that you all spent the night celebrating, having fun and being safe!. We stayed home and ate party snacks, cookies and all sorts of fruit and dips. ;o)
Growing up as kids we banged pots and pans at midnight and that was something I wanted to teach Buddy Bear so we spent several hours "practicing" for midnight.
He took a really late nap (5:30pm) and woke up at almost 8pm. He was full of energy and I thought for sure by midnight he would be ready for bed since we did so much practicing for midnight, and playing outside on his bike... but...not so much. He wanted to chase Daddy around the house...again, with the Nerf guns.
This morning and afternoon I picked up the house and took all the Christmas decor off the walls. including the Mammoth of a fake Christmas tree we have all by myself- all the while fighting Buddy Bear for my pots and pans back(he wasnt done "ringing in the New Year..". ) and to stay out of the dang fridge!! .... Before I completely lost my mind I sent both boys outside to play in the sandbox. ;o) Not a dirty dish in this house and I'm almost done setting up the new preschool corner!! hooray!!

HAPPY NEW YEARS!!! LETS MAKE IT ROCK!

Merry Christmas Eve-Eve

2010-12-23T10:11:00.003-05:00

I am so excited for Christmas. We wont be going home to be with family and no one is coming to be with us...Flying in and out of Chucktown is ridiculously $$$expensive$$$! We will be going over to my good friend "T" 's house. Her girls and my Buddy Bear are BFFs! I made some Christmas themed games for them to play and we are going to have a yummy feast.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE-EVE!!!

I'm back...its been....a looong time.

2010-12-22T15:27:00.002-05:00

Wow, a long 6 month break. I haven't blogged in a looooong time. Why?? you ask...
Well, it got to the point I was getting my hand smacked for writing about things that someone felt I shouldnt write about or being told "you better not blog about this...."
So i quit...
I will be a little more private this time around. I dont need to keep this blog for family any more since I have nearly everyone on Facebook these days. ;o)
I'm pretty sure i have lost all my "followers" too but thats ok. I blog more for the "therapy" it brings. ;o) HA!
However, I will share what I have been up to this past 6 months. As I am so excited to give a little update.

Well, when I left Blogland, we had just moved into base housing. I LOVE living on base. I have made some really great friends since moving on base . Sadly, a few of them will be PCS'ing starting in February. :o( -PCS'ing means they are moving to a new base- I have never known friendship with other Military people so this is my first experience with saying goodbye to friends who completely 'get you' and your way of life. It really has been a blessing to meet these woman because it makes a HUGE difference in the life of this Military wife. It really helps to have friends that understand the constant change of plans with the military and just the whole Military life thing...its complicated sometimes and its nice to have someone who truly gets that. My family can't/dont/wont always understand...i seem to get a lot of "i dont know how you do that....I couldn't do that." from Family and friends back home.
I honestly, TRULY love my life as HIS Military Wife.
Anyhoodle- so I made some friends...and I also started my Photography Business. This time I am super legit. and by that I mean its a "j-o-b" not just a Hobby this time. Before I did it for fun but now I am doing it to share my passion and make some extra $$$. It has gone so GREAT! I got a HUGE response for the month of October, November and Dec. I actually had to turn a few people away. I was Super busy the entire month of November and early Dec. I gave myself a few weeks off during December to prep for Holiday time.
I absolutely LOVE my "JOB". Its been more GREAT than stressful so far. Only a few high maintenance clients or clients that didnt understand that I am not Walmart. I absolutely love being a Portrait Photographer and have no plans to venture into product,landscape or any commercial work. Portrait Photography is so much more rewarding to me. I'm not looking to be famous or anything...so Portrait Photography suits me well.
You can view my website at www.photographsbykari.com
In the coming months I will be doing many more sessions, including my first session as an OpLove Photographer, my first wedding in South Carolina, and I will be sponsoring a girls Softball team. Lots of exciting stuff to look forward too. ;o)

My Buddy Bear is 2 1/2yrs old now! He is super freakin smart and is completely potty trained. It took only 3 days to potty train this little guy and I am so proud of him. ;o) He repeats absolutely everything we say so I need to work on my sailor mouth...BIG time.
I will be back soon. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

"Evidence of a Child"

2010-06-26T20:23:00.003-04:00

This is my cement floor in my screen porch. I hosted a play date yesterday and there were 12 kiddos running around. Pure madness I tell ya! Had so much fun! The best part of the day was when I brought out the pudding paint and the kids were told they could paint AND eat it too!!! it was a HUGE hit, most of the kids just ate the pudding and didn't finger paint but some painted and ate at the same time. So much fun!

irritated

2010-06-24T23:51:00.002-04:00

You know what I can't stand?? Military wives who complain about being a Military wife!! Why did you marry a man in the military than??!?!?!
I know times can be hard and frustration leads to venting, and its ok to be upset and talk it out BUT I refuse to tolerate whining and complaining all the time from someone who chose that way of life!!!
Yes, it sucks. He is deploying and damn it-- he is gonna miss another holiday/birthday...but that is the military life. I have learned to have my time dwelling on it and then getting over it. You have to try to make the best of every crappy situation.. life still has to go on when you have kids.
Buddy missed out on his Daddy for a lot of his 1st year and it really sucked. I know what thats like. I am thankful Ry was there for the birth, his first birthday party, and all the little milestones in between that he got to be apart of. If you dwell on just the crappy parts, life will just be CRAPPY. Be thankful for what you do get...especially if you are an Air Force wife. We have it a lot easier than an Army and Marine Wife...hats off to you ladies!!

Enough whining already...................

Wordless Wednesday-/ What we've been up to.

2010-06-23T14:52:00.004-04:00

We spent 3 weeks in New Mexico for my BIL's graduation and had a GREAT time. we came home and have been trying to get life back to normal again. Been super busy with Hubby's softball games 3 times a week and playdates several times a week as well. Weekend beach trips and trips to the base pool have been heaven!!!

Pre-Training for the half marathon started and so far its going really well. :) I ran 1.5miles yesterday at 5am on a trail on the base and that was absolutely scary! I don't think I will do that in the dark again. The trail lights would magically go off as I approached them so I ran in pitch black wooded areas sometimes. VERY SCARY. I am told it is a VERY VERY safe trail and you can't get any safer than being on base. I am just a HUGE whimp when it comes to the dark and spider webs and hearing stories of alligators on the trail in the wee hours. In the wooded area I ran at top speed swinging my arms in front of me to swat away any cobb webs because I was scared poopless!!!. Imagine that...lol!!! I have ran that trail when its light out and love it but during the summer it just gets way to hot to run during the day.
Today I waited till 6:30 and just ran in base housing for my 3miles. LOL I am not ready to try the base trail again by myself at 5am.

We toured Buddy Bear's Mother's Day Out program today. I am gonna cry now just thinking about being with out him for 1 day a week. I am so not ready to let him go!! I know I need to because he really needs something like this but it just breaks my heart to be dropping him off at "school" already. Where did my baby go?
So my baby will start "school" next week. :(

I apologize for my absence but you can see we have been busy. The internet at my IL's did not like Blogger at all and I wasn't able to log in. I certainly dont have a fancy cell phone anymore so I can't check it on my phone. I will be around more often now....I swear!!!

baaah geww!

2010-05-16T22:31:00.003-04:00

I know I have been a bad blogger, but I kinda don't miss blogging. I started blogging to keep family back home up to date on what we were doing here in SC and now that I have nearly all of them on FB I don't see the need to blog anymore for them. :/ I really enjoy reading everyone's blogs and I have made some GREAT blog friends over the last year. I really don't want to walk away completely from blogger, so I wont. I will keep reading y'alls blogs and commenting. I will hope to blog myself every few days too.The main reason I have not blogged is because now that Buddy is older, I feel like I really need to spend every waking minute with him playing, reading, or doing something with him. When he was smaller he did so good at keeping himself occupied that I didn't have to keep him so busy but now its.. "Momma cahler" or something like that. and I LOVE it!!! I love that he is so busy and wants me to be apart of it. Before he would just swat me away and only want to do it himself.
I have been really good about staying off the computer while he is awake and keeping him and myself busy with other things. We have become really involved with the Military Moms Group and I am now an Assistant Organizer/Event Coordinator. This group has been such a blessing for us! I am so happy I found them!
We are going on a trip this weekend to visit my IL's. my BIL is graduating from high school! We'll be gone for a few weeks.
When we get back Buddy will start Mother's Morning out and potty training! I could cry! My little boy is growing up!!

oh and here is something random....I have these in my backyard...is this a weed or a real flower? They are not planted in flower beds or anything...just randomly sprouting along the fence line. They are so pretty that if they are a weed I think I will just leave them anyway. But anyone know? Weed or flower?

Mother's Day

2010-05-10T14:56:00.002-04:00

Mother's Day has always been hard for me. It has always just been a painful reminder that I have grown up with out her. I have celebrated every big day in my life with out her. You would think that after 19 years it would be easier but it honestly hurts more the older I get. Realizing she would not be there at my high school graduation, at my wedding, at the birth of my son, my son's first birthday, my first Mother's Day.....It just really hurts still.
I did really well yesterday and I didn't cry about it all day. My husband kept the house quiet all morning and let me sleep in till after 10am! He took care of Buddy and made sure he didn't come and "bug me"...but I honestly would have LOVED a kiss good morning from my little bug!
Hubby got me the PERFECT card.

on the front

"To my Wife, Since its Mother's Day,
you just relax.
I'll take care of EVERYTHING...."

Inside of card

"By the way..where is EVERYTHING?"

hehe Hubby is ALWAYS asking me where stuff is, even though I have told him where I put it or its right in front of his face! Never fails... he leaves stuff out all the time and I will say "I'm putting your hammer in the crap drawer.." and the next day he'll ask "Where did you put my hammer??" So, I have gotten to the point where I just put stuff away and wait for him to ask me where it is...LOL I have accepted the fact that it is up to me and ONLY ME to know where our stuff is and to keep it organized. ;) I once (before accepting my duties..) got really made about always finding his tools in my kitchen...tools he hadn't used in MONTHS and just wont put away...so I decided "FINE! you wont put them away, I will just hide them from you and no more hammer! EVER!" Well, that worked great until he started asking me for them and I started to for the life of me not remember where I hid them!!! We eventually found most of them when we moved and it was quite funny when packing things up.. "Hey, there was a wrench set on the top shelf in the linen closet...I was looking for that.." and some stuff he ended up having to buy again cause I hid them that well. My Hubby has 4 tape measures...4. Why on earth would you need more than 1? We have 4 cause I have hid each one at some point and couldn't remember where....
Anyhoodles....enough about that...so it was the perfect card. I loved it
He also got me the Zac Brown Band CD. I love them!!
and a Farmville gift card because I am a FB addict and LOVE Farmville. ;) LOL
Hubby plays too because I got him addicted. LOL We're Nerds....I know.

I also searched for all my Mom's pictures in the boxes and hung them on the walls. I missed seeing her gorgeous face and put them all up.
By the end of the day I was really missing her and I finally just let it all out on FB.

Dear Momma, I thought of you so much today and I made a point to unpack your pictures today and hang them up in the house. I love and miss you so much, today is a painful reminder I don't have you here in my life. But know that I carry you always in my heart. Thank you for setting such a perfect example of what a wife... and Mother should be! I hope to be more and more like you everyday! ;) Love you Momma-- love,QuiQui

and then family and friends started commenting and the tears just wouldn't stop falling. I cried for a long time. I cried because I still really miss her and it still weighs really heavy on my heart. I don't know that I will ever handle it better but with things like that I don't think it ever gets easier....

I am looking forward to Father's Day. Hubby always says he doesn't want anything on days like that and even his birthday but this year I am getting him something anyway. ;)

Family photo

2010-05-07T22:46:00.003-04:00

Here is our May 2010 Isensee family photo. :)
I LOVE it!!

I used the tripod and timer to capture all 3 of us. Worked out great!

Friends

2010-05-03T16:21:00.001-04:00

Had a great time at the park today. It was so hot and humid but the kids had fun playing in the water. I played in the water too. ;) We will be going back again on Thursday with the rest of the Military Moms Group!

Oh thank heavens!!!

2010-05-02T22:58:00.002-04:00

Hubby and I FINALLY got our backyard fence up. OH.MY.GOSH. was that a pain! Who knew a 4ft chain link fence was such a PAIN! A few of those frustrating moments could have been avoided if someone would just read the written directions all the way and NOT just look at the pictures. I think it was a VERY good think Husband had me as his helper today...it saved him a lot of swearing, kicking, hitting and throwing. ;) Not at me of course LOL but in general...
It was 3 times harder working on the fence with the 2 year olds running loose in the woods behind us. Luckily Buddy was very good at staying close and he even tried to help or take over my jobs. He kept telling me "No wait.." and take the wrench out of my hand...Emma on the other hand went pretty far, would not come back when we called her and she seemed to have discovered a Swamp or sewage pond....needless to say she came back smelling worse then a Honey Bucket in Texas on a HOT day in the middle of July!!!

We celebrated our fence completion by going out to eat at our new favorite place...

FIREHOUSE SUBS.

Oh wow. SO GOOD!! I think my favorite Sub so far (I have tried 4 total) is the Engine Company Sub. My second favorite would be the New York Steamer Sub. But honesly all 4 sandwiches that I have had were DELICIOUS!! Oh...and holy crap...the Captain Sorenson sauce is amazing!!!!
SO my belly is full and happy. I am looking forward to tomorrow. I am meeting my friend Reva and her little one at the park. It will be nice to get out of the house and Buddy really likes this particular park. ;)

OH!!! and how could I possibly forget to mention this??? I am training for a half marathon!!! HA!
me....a girl who HATES to run! My friend Cindy made it seem like such fun so I thought "ok, yea! FUN!" and signed myself up. LOL I immediately went into panic after I signed up and nearly wimped out BUT I reminded myself ...

I have 8 months.

I can totally do this!!

Heck yea I can!!!!!

So I start my training tomorrow. Totally pumped!! Wish me luck. I will probably keep you update on it whether you wanna hear it or not. LOL

Make it a great week y'all!!!
Hope you had a great weekend.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-04-28T14:12:00.000-04:00

Busted...

2010-04-28T00:10:00.002-04:00

My washing machine that is...completely busted. I have heaping laundry baskets full of clothes waiting to be washed. I am down to the last 3 GOOD pairs of undies...it is looking like I will have to resort to the "oldies and barely wearables" by the weekend.... :/(you know the kind you save to wear on 'the time of the month..' so you dont ruin your good and sexy pairs??) It is a year, almost to the day a year ago that the washing machine did the same exact thing. I wonder if replacement parts are made to only work for a year and then poop out again?? I am sure that is the case. BOO!!
I have a few friends in the neighborhood that would let me come over and do laundry but I have some anxiety about taking my dirty underwears to someone elses house...What if I leave one behind?? Or they see my underwear? LOL I am weird...I don't like people seeing my underwear..clean or dirty. Hubby can look at my undies all he wants I dont care but not friends or other family...I don't like other people doing my laundry either..it completely weirds me out. Like that have seen me naked or something....LOL

Hubby found the part from a reputable seller on Ebay..I hope it makes it here by next Monday!!

Show us your life...How you met your Husband....

2010-04-22T22:23:00.005-04:00

A part of me was missing till God led me to this wonderful man...

Read how we met HERE

Thank you God for giving me the Sexiest man alive... ;)

Show us your life at Kelly's Korner..

Normal..thats sounds nice.. warning...TMI

2010-04-22T12:41:00.002-04:00

Well, for a few years now I have been struggling with abnormal PAP's due to an aggressive strain of HPV. You can read a little about it HERE. I went in for another 4 month check up PAP last Friday and got the results yesterday....They called at 8am and I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I was STILL sleeping...(if Buddy is still asleep, I am still asleep!) ;) Hubby was also home taking a quick shower after PT when I got the call... I was half awake when I heard

"your Pap results came back Normal...."

and then like a light bulb

``TING!!``

I was WIDE awake!

I said " normal? I'm normal??

"yes, you are normal (small chuckle)....we still want to see you in 6 months but after a second result of normal you can come back in a year..."

me- "thats awesome! Thank you so much!!"

I was thanking her like she gave me my normal cervix as a gift...I have no idea why but I was just so happy that I was no longer fighting with this HPV strain... even if it is just for this time around.

After I hung up with the nurse I ran to the bathroom and nearly knocked my poor husband clear out on the floor with the bathroom door..I tell him

"My vagina is normal!!"

and he says "yay!!! Did they just call?"

"yup, my vagina is normal...."

"yay!!"

its nice to hear my vagina is normal...

2010-04-21T19:14:00.002-04:00

Of course i find him digging in the dirt...how else would i find him? boys....

Whew!

2010-04-20T15:22:00.003-04:00

Man! We have been B-U-S-Y. We moved into our little house on CAFB. I totally LOVE it! I have quite a few friends from my moms group within the neighborhood and its really nice having them so close. We got our keys on Friday, we got the Uhaul Friday after Hubby got off work, then had it weighed empty..then we went home to load nearly everything in the Uhaul Friday night and Saturday we loaded a few things and then we were off to have the truck weighed FULL. I mean .it .was. FULL.
We still have a few small things and the sandbox to go get but for the most part we are out of the house. We are going this weekend to paint and clean and then turn in our keys beginning of next week. SO excited to almost be done with that house. ;)

The new house is still a bit of a mess. I have already unpacked and set up my kitchen. ;) Our clothes and bedrooms are set up. I am having trouble figuring out what to do with our bathrooms. I dont have drawers or cabinets to put anything in except for the small cabinets underneath the sink..I was thinking to get one of those cabinet things that go over the toilets but there is a HUGE towel rack over the toilet that I am not sure we can remove. I have our bathroom stuff in a laundry basket and a diaper box LOL Hopefully I find a solution soon. I will post pictures soon. I have to pick the house up a little more before I post pictures...LOL

Hope ya'll are doing well!!!! I miss reading about ya'll!!

My Birthday girl EmmaLou!

2010-04-15T11:01:00.003-04:00

Happy 2nd Birthday Sweet girl. We love you so much!!

**add in-

I am making Emma 2 cupcakes made of ground turkey, carrots, and brown rice. ;) For frosting I am using mashed potatoes!! She is in for a treat!

Such an awesome day!

2010-04-13T13:50:00.002-04:00

We got the call today from base housing. ;) We will start moving our stuff this weekend!!! Yay! Other good news is that my new friend Cindy is being induced today! and in just a few short days I will get the chance to take this beautiful new baby's picture. :)

I am just so excited to have all this good news today. I love days like this where its good news and more good news. ;)

What is kind of a bummer is that we were supposed to have a birthday party for Emma on Saturday but it will have to be pushed till probably Sunday or the following weekend. Poor girl always gets the short end of the stick. Exactly one year ago this weekend we left WA to make our LONG journey here to SC. You can read that post here. We completely forgot about her birthday last year and remembered a few days later. POOR GIRL! So we will be making it up to her this year. She doesn't know when the 15th is anyway. ;)

WE will also miss out on the Charleston Harbor Airshow. We were so looking forward to the Airshow on CAFB but it was canceled. I find out last week that they just moved the airshow to the Charleston Harbor! Hubbs said 'Its just the Blue Angels..." like they weren't cool or something but I think he forgets how simple things are SO COOL to Buddy Bear. I think we both forget that he hasn't seen everything we have and everything is still NEW to him and everything can still be COOL to him.

He discovers new things everyday and I love to sit back and watch his little face light up or watch him try to figure things out. He loves to try and figure out how things work... My printer/copier/scanner?? Broken, Buddy Bear tried to figure out how it worked and succeeded at figuring out how to make it NOT work. he shoved a couple paper clips, broken pieces of colored pencils and even a sponge in there.
He is definitely all BOY. He is always the dirtiest kid going home from the park. I don't know how he does it but he manages to get dirtier than the other kids doing the same stuff they do!
Speaking of the park, I must go. I promised to meet some of the other Mom's from the play group to do a walk before the playground play date. ;)

I will update later. :)

busy busy

2010-04-11T21:44:00.003-04:00

I'm sorry. I've been busy packing and hanging out with these cool ladies. LOVE my Military Mom's Group!!

And as you can see a little girl has already claimed him as hers. She is the boss of him...she drags him around the playground and he just lets her. ;)
So glad I found this group of woman. They are so awesome!

Countdown to Potty training...

2010-04-06T23:48:00.003-04:00

We have exactly 56 days till we start potty training the Buddy Bear. We are not starting till June because we have a lot going on in the next few months that I feel would interupt his progress quite a bit. Moving, and a long car ride to NM i think would throw a wrench in it.

I decided that we will not use pull ups or any other form of "diaper" during potty training. I really think pull ups are just fancy named diapers with no velcro- like tabs. I really think Buddy will see pull ups as a diaper and have a harder time grasping the peeing/pooping in the potty if we use them. Its big boy undies only for us.... To start my little bug out I plan to use these.Bumbledoo's Boy style cloth training pants.

Aren't they cute?! I love them. So this is what we will use to start potty training our Bug...then we will move on to the regular Superman and Diego underwears like the real big boys wear. I also plan to do the timer thing and reward him for going potty/poop in the toilet. I don't want to use candy all the time as a reward because they quickly learn they get candy for going potty and if they go potty every half hour they will consume a lot of candy!! I want to do a lot of praising and also a sticker chart or have a treasure chest he can pick out of every night if he has no accidents during the day.
He is showing me signs he is almost ready to potty train. He tells me "ah gah poo" which is "i got poop" and he takes direction very well. I can ask him to pick something up and he will. I will ask him to throw something away and he will. So our communication is very good for potty training.

We had our 2yr check up today. He got 1 shot and he cried for about 30 seconds until the nurse handed him his lollipop. ;) He is 33lbs and 35" tall. Dr says he is in the 50th percentile for his height and 95th percentile for his weight. I asked if that meant he is overweight and he said No. Noah is so active these days, especially with all these play dates at the park we have been going to and the running circles chasing Emma in the back yard he has been doing. ;) He is just a BIG BOY...a big solid growing boy. You see his pictures so you know he isn't overly fat. LOL He wears a size 6 shoe now too. My big boy.... :)

Easter!

2010-04-05T09:51:00.004-04:00

I hope everyone had a GREAT Easter. WE had a yummy Biscuits and Gravy breakfast with Cinnamon rolls. Hubby had to have Cinnamon rolls. LOL Noah spent the day running in and out the back door playing outside and watching his Dad work in the back yard. We went to a friends house in the late afternoon and hung out with them and had a DELICIOUS Easter dinner with them. I had my first taste of Sweet Potatoes with brown sugar and walnuts....OH.MY. GOSH..SO GOOD!!! One of their little girls had Hubby playing paper dolls! It was the cutest thing ever! I got a picture of them playing but I think Hubby would shoot me if I posted that picture on the internet! LOL Hubby was playing with their kids and Buddy Bear got a little jealous. He didn't whine or anything but he would want Ry to put down the other kid and pick him up and any time another kid was with Ry, Buddy would have to be their too. Buddy ended up really liking the little girl with the paper dolls. He kept trying to hug her and he blew her a kiss goodbye. hehe.
In just a few weeks we will live just a few houses away from them so we will get to spend more time with them pretty soon. They just got orders to Guam so Buddy will have to say Goodbye to his first love this summer. Bummer. ;)
It was a really great day and I am so excited for the coming weeks. I have so much to do today so I better get my tail off this computer!!

Have a GREAT week everyone!

P/s in the picture above is Buddy wearing his Daddy's Easter suit when Daddy was 2! You can also see that BUddy wouldn't use the scooper when we dyed eggs and has the same color hands as the Incredible Hulk!!

Easter Egg hunting....

2010-04-01T12:37:00.002-04:00

We had a blast at the CAFB Library Easter Egg hunt. It was Buddy's first time doing an Easter Egg hunt and he loved it.

FB fan page.

2010-03-31T22:38:00.001-04:00

I started a FB fan page for my photography business. You can become a fan if you like. ;)

Kari Isensee Photography

Secret revealed....

2010-03-29T22:14:00.003-04:00

Ok, I did say Monday I would tell what my big secret is. :) I apologize for not writing it sooner but today was my Buddy Bear's birthday so I was busy having a good time with the birthday boy. :)

NOW, my BIG secret that I have been holding in for over a month. ;) Remember.... I told you that you would be disappointed to finally hear what this secret is... so, no mean comments okay? ;)

WE ARE MOVING TO A HOUSE ON CAFB. :)

My hint was AHHHH HERN remember?? Well, the AHRN (said AHHH HERN) is the Automated Housing Referral Network used by the Military to post available housing for rent or for sale on and off base. Most people in the Military know of this website. Oh and CAFB stands for Charleston Air Force Base. ;)

Why are we moving? --warning this may turn into a vent....

Well, we rented our current house site unseen. I found this house on AHRN back when we were still at McChord AFB and from the pictures the house looked really great, well taken care of and I was reassured by the Property Management that the carpet was in really good condition and it really was as nice as the pictures made it seem. SO I ran with it and we signed a 1 yr lease. If we hadn't signed the lease we very well would have ended up driving clear across the U.S.A with NO home to come to. I WAS NOT going to have that. Not with 3 cats, a Great Dane and a toddler. No thanks. We got here and I was very please with my first impression of the neighborhood and the house. Although the carpet is NOT in good condition. For example, in the master bedroom before entering the bathroom there is a chunk of the carpet missing in the doorway with the carpet tacks exposed and in the past year we have all gotten poked SEVERAL times. WE finally threw a throw rug over it. WHy didn't we call and complain to have it fixed? Well, I once called regarding a bug issue and it took them 3 days to call me back and a second phone call to finally get something done about it. You can read that post HERE. The PM company is run out of these peoples fixed up detached garage, they NEVER answer the phone when we have called, do not call back in a timely manner and do not answer emails back in a timely manner if they answer or call back at all! They owed us a $100 deposit so I emailed them asking how they planned to handle it. A week later no email back, Ry calls them, no answer. Leaves a message and no returned call within 3 days. I send another email explaining my frustration and FINALLY get a call back and they give a lame excuse that they were waiting for some final paperwork blah blah blah...OK, fine. I don't mind waiting for some final paperwork BUT a quick 1 line email stating that THAT was the hold up would have been appreciated the FIRST time we contacted them and not 3 weeks later. RIGHT?!?
I have always had a lot of anxiety in this house. Especially at night. From where I lay in bed I can see the front door and the front door is mostly glass. For some reason that really freaks me out. For the longest time I couldn't figure out why I was so anxious until one night I kept catching myself looking at the front door and it HIT me that was part of the reason. The other reason is that Buddy is clear across the other side of the house. Being the Mother Bear that I am I don't like that he is so far away. I am constantly waking up to listen to the monitor or go peek at him.
Another reason?? The neighborhood is constantly getting those "church people" (sorry if that sounds offensive, what should I say?? Mormans? Jehovah Witnesses? I dunno. If this is offensive sorry) knocking on our doors and don't take a polite "no thank you" as an answer. The guy across the street takes EVERY opportunity to invite me to his church. BEFORE you get all crazy on me about this let me explain! I am a Christian I think it is a VERY good thing to talk to others about God and his love but when you get to the point of freaking out your neighbors its not good. If you smother someone about GOd it wont bring them closer to him but really just push them further away!! This guy seriously tries to get us to go to his church every time he sees me. no exaggeration . I once ran into him at the post office and I said something like " I really hope it doesn't snow, I'm saying my prayers it doesn't snow..." and cue church invitation AND a womans bible study group invitation from his wife. >:/ This guy invites us to his church like he gets points or gets paid for every person he brings in or like he is a car salesman on commission. Its just flat out weird. I don't get it. I have had people mention their church to me before but this guy just is non stop 'come to church this sunday'. Ry says it freaks him out because he makes it seem like his church is more like a cult trying to recruit more followers...just creepy....
I am looking forward to base housing because "church people" are not allowed to roam base housing and knock on your doors. and it really isn't that I am against hearing the word of God. I am always wanting to learn more but its the views and beliefs of these certain religious groups that I don't agree with or that I feel are right for me.... PLUS, they always come at the most inconvenient times ever!!!

Living on base will save us a lot of money. This is the biggest reason why we are moving. Remember our Total Money Makeover??? It is FREE housing. No rent or utilities. How awesome is that? That means when everyone living off base in the summer time is setting their thermostat at 78 I will be setting mine at 68 and not have to worry about the electric bill!!! No its not a BIG spacious house with a massive backyard but we really are simple people and don't need a lot of space. I don't need the fancy things in life to be happy. base housing is basic. Some base housing is not so nice at all...but CAFB housing was remodeled 5 years ago and everything is newer and in great shape. I will give you a tour once we are moved in since I bet some of you will be curious. ;)

You may be wondering why we wanted to keep this a secret, well....We wanted to make sure the PM and homeowners had our 30 notice before I started blabbing about it on the internet.

Anyway, that is my secret. Sorry if you are going 'ah man, that was lame' but I did warn you that you would!! ;)

Have a good week ya'll!!!

My little bug is 2!!!

2010-03-29T00:00:00.002-04:00

Here is your virtual birthday announcement card from Buddy Bear!! My little sweet baby turns 2 today!!
We sent out birthday announcement cards since we dont have friends and family here in SC. We are going to have a small party with just the 4 of us. Emma will have her "party" in a few weeks when she turns 2 too. :)

2010-03-28T08:51:00.001-04:00

On our way to Ripley's Aquarium in Myrtle Beach!!

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TGIF!

2010-03-26T13:05:00.003-04:00

Welp, Its Friday! WOOHOO!! That means it is Show us your Life Friday at Kelly's Korner. This weeks topic is "Cleaning Tips". I've found some AWESOME tips going through the links. I don't have any amazing cleaning tips at all myself...LOL SO I am not participating this week. But I definitely encourage you all to go look through everyone elses. There is some really interesting stuff! Including my girl Leslie's post: Stain Removal 101. She shared some incredible tips on stain removal that had me thinking "No freakin way! COOL!" By far the coolest USEFUL information I have learned this whole month. ;) Thanks Lesli!!

Onto another subject. I know I said I would share my big secret with everyone today BUT Hubby and I think it would be best to wait till Monday. I know....DANG ME!! If you are FB friends with me you would already probably know because I accidentally spilled the beans when causally talking with my new friend Tara from the Military Moms Group I joined last week! So far, the person I am keeping it secret from the most hasn't said anything so hopefully he/she didn't see it before I deleted it off my wall!

Speaking of Tara. Buddy and I did join Military Moms Group last week and we attended out first meet up on Wednesday at the local park for a mile walk and some play time for the kids at the playground. It was really neat to meet other military moms, although it was hard to socialize with them since all our kids were running in different directions the whole time! Our next meet up is on Tuesday at the base library. I'm looking forward to it. ;)

WE have BIG plans this weekend. I will be working with Cameron doing portraits at Folly Beach on Saturday and then Sunday we are making the 2hr drive to Myrtle Beach to take Buddy to THIS place. We are so excited! We were just going to take him to the South Carolina Aquarium in Charleston but several people told Hubby that it was really lame and not worth the money SO we decided on the Ripley's Aquarium instead. It is a 2hr drive and if you look at ticket prices it is nearly $20 per adult to get in PER attraction. So in total for what we wanted to do we would have spent well over $120!! Hubby and I thought we couldn't spend that kind of money BUT we heard a rumor that they gave a killer Military discount so I called them and asked about a Military discount and for Active Duty Military and dependents showing a valid Military ID at the gate you recieve 75% off your admission ticket!!!! WHich works out to be about $5 a ticket!!!

HOW AWESOME IS THAT!?!?!?!?

So we are really excited to take Buddy to the Aquarium, and to see the Believe it or not and go through the Mirror Maze. It will be lots of FUN!

Hope you all have a fun weekend too!!!!!

cheese but not that kind...TMI

2010-03-26T11:07:00.005-04:00

I am lactose intolerant...so cheese really isn't my thing...But i do love me some cheese on a tortilla with some grilled chicken, fresh Pico de Gallo and Guacamole! Yum...

The kind of cheese I do not like??? Toe cheese...Buddy just tried to share some Toe cheese with me that was by far the most fowl smelling "cheese" I have ever smelled/tasted!!
He had a shower last night so when Buddy lifted his feet at me this morning I thought I would humor him a bit and pretend to smell them and make a fuss about how terrible they smelled (this game makes him laugh hysterically). He lifts his pointed foot at me and wiggles it to tease me or "entice" me to smell his feet. I lean forward and get within millimeters of his feet, I smell the most fowl feet I have ever smelled and without warning and before I knew it, a toe the size of black olive was in my mouth and I was gagging up my breakfast! That little stink shoved his foot in my mouth!!! YUCK! LOL
His little tootsie must have been a little too warm last night and had been sweating like mad in his socks cause MY OH MY!!! I immediately brushed my teeth and use Listerine mouth wash to get the taste out of my mouth! Blegghh!! Buddy of course thought it was the FUNNIEST thing to watch Momma gag and wiggle in discuss. So glad, I am funny. ;)

I love my son a whole lot but I don't think I will be playing that game for a while since at the age of 2 he already has the worst smelling feet known to man.

DWTS- My take

2010-03-23T14:17:00.004-04:00

Well, I am a HUGE DWTS (Dancing with the Stars)Fan. Last night was the premiere and I was so excited to see everyone! My Hubby is rooting for Buzz Aldrin and I am not sure who I am rooting for quite yet. I really REALLY enjoyed Chad Ochocinco and Niecy Nash. I LOVE Niecy Nash. She cracks me up!! I first saw her on Reno 911 and loved her character and love her sass on The Insider. Last night she made me laugh when she said something like she was there to show the world 'you don't have to be the cute chubby girl standing in the back but the hottie dancing in the front!'

If you missed the show here is a recap!

Pam Anderson was the very last one to dance and I really think she was completely wasted. She danced pretty well but the way she was acting afterward really seemed like she was completely wasted. Or on something. Yikes!
I thought Kate looked gorgeous but yikes, she has 2 left feet! The pussycat doll girl Nicole really can dance and I bet she will be in the top 3. Jake Pavelka did ok for his first dance. He needs a lot of improvement. The Soap star Aiden Turner did good. He grossed me out when at the end of his dance he practically motorboated his partner who is MARRIED! ick! Evan the figure skater did great too but like the judges said he needs to work on connecting with his partner and audience more. Shannon was so sweet. I loved how her Dad was just so overwhelmed with happiness to see his daughter dancing. It was so sweet.
I can't wait for next Monday. I think this season's cast is the best by far!!!

C'mon Friday!!!

2010-03-21T23:40:00.002-04:00

I am so anxious for this Friday to come!

Probably not for the same reasons ya'll are. I have been keeping a secret for over a month now that I am just dieing to BLAB!!! Its not anything super juicy and ya'll will be so disappointed but I cannot wait to have it out in the open and just talk about it!
It is really driving me nuts. I haven't even talked about it on FB with family. Ay! This week will go by so slow...

Anyway, few things I do want to BLAB about are....

I am a pig. Yes, thats right ladies...I am a PIG. I started my you know what on Tuesday and every month around you know what I get a HUGE craving for sweets, more specifically chocolate. So what does my evil you know what tell me to do on Wednesday? Bake a whole 9X13 dish of super yummy fudge brownies and only let my Hubby and son have a few bites each and devour the rest myself.....Yea. I literally ate a whole pan of fudge brownies all by myself. Not in one day, but that's still a lot of CRAP to shovel in my body over the span of 2 days. Here is a piece of TMI....don't eat that much fudge brownies all at once. Makes your poops black. and your stomach hurt...
Hubby came home on Friday and was like "You ate all the brownies?? Already?" to which I replied "yea, you wanted some?" LOL piggie....
SO this weekend he bought another box of brownie mix...GREAT...like I need another pan of delicious chocolate brownies staring at me. My, you know what is gone so my desire for them is no longer present BUT I am addicted to chocolate so I will see how I do with keeping my piggie fingers out of them tomorrow.

Tomorrow is the last day at our Rollie Pollies Gym class. Hubby and I decided we wont be registering Buddy for another one. We felt it was too much money and didn't get our money's worth. I think once we are.....I mean, (i just nearly spilt the beans!) I think we just need to join a play group and Buddy be around kids his age in a more relaxed setting. Rather than a classroom where I am fighting with him for more than half the time we are there. It took 4 weeks to get Buddy comfortable with Rollie Pollies, which is fine and totally to be expected given that he is always just home with Momma. and we did have a few weeks where he did have a little fun BUT we missed one week when he got sick and our first class back it was like Day 1 all over again and every time after that he wanted nothing to do with his teacher or the helpers or any of the kids there. He did NOT like it at all. I tried so hard to get him to want to be there but he flat out just did NOT want to be there. These last 3 weeks of going have just been a chore! I almost just really want to skip class tomorrow because I'm sure the teachers and other Mom's dont want to hear it either! I certainly want him to make friends and explore but I just don't think Rollie Pollies is the right place to start for him now that we have tried it. I am going to look around and on base for a play group so that Buddy can meet kids his age and learn to be social and like it!! He can be so very social when people are just relaxed and hanging out, oh my gosh he will open up like crazy and talk your ear off!! but when there is a teacher trying to make him do something that is so new and scary to him, he just wont!! and I don't know that I am comfortable putting my child in the "scary" place week after week. Know what I mean? So, we are looking for a laid back play group with cool kids and fun Mommas!

Speaking of my laid back social toddler. He is turning 2 next Monday!! I am just heartbroken! HAHA! I love all these milestones we are hitting and I love watching him grow and learn but he just may be my one and only and to know that this may possibly be the only time I get to have it makes me sad. I am loving and treasuring every nano second with him though and trying to capture all the memories I can on video and with pictures. ;)

It supposed to be yucky weather tomorrow so that just may be my excuse to not go to the last class. We'll see.

Hope ya'll had a good weekend and hope ya'll have a GREAT week!!!

gorgeous

2010-03-20T16:25:00.002-04:00

Just spent the early morning and afternoon in downtown Chucktown! It was gorgeous! The Hubby may have a stomach bug or the pizza we ate is jumping around in his belly. He doesn't feel too well. :/ I am off now to go run around in the backyard with my Bug...he is loving this sunny warm weather just like his Momma!! He really enjoyed seeing all the people and the sites this afternoon. :)

Broccoli or sea urchin?

2010-03-19T12:15:00.004-04:00

I was prepping to make some broccoli and cheese for a side dish for dinner last night and was getting ready to throw away this big broccoli stem when suddenly it looked a lot like a sea urchin to me. Instead of throwing it away, I set it on the counter and finished dinner.

After dinner, I took my sea urchin broccoli stem upstairs to photograph in my "Photography Tent" (I don't know if that's what its really called but that's what I call it!). I lit the tent from the right and I also took one of the lights off of the stand and lit the broccoli from below....
I did minor editing. I brightened it just a tad...I did not saturate the colors at all either. i was amazed at how clear the bright green came through! Gorgeous green isn't it?!
Here is my final shot:

I really like it a lot! The green color is just gorgeous to me. I am thinking I want to get a print of it and hang it in my kitchen. LOL does that sound silly? well, maybe for your kitchen it would be silly, but I'd like it for mine! lol

Please pray...

2010-03-18T11:50:00.003-04:00

Please pray for my fellow military wife Rachel and her sweet baby girl Ariana. They are living the nightmare we military wives all hope to never live. My heart is hurting with them.

Thank you Cpl Jonathan Daniel Porto, for being the wonderful Husband and Daddy you were to your girls, and thank you for EVERYTHING you did for your country.

God Bless you Porto family, we are praying for you. God will carry you through!

If you would like, go over to Rachel's blog and read the brave post she wrote of her wonderful husband.

photography/terrible 2's

2010-03-18T00:16:00.003-04:00

Well, I am currently up to my neck in planning my full SC launch this fall for my photography business. I just spent about an hour on VistaPrint.com designing a crap load of stuff. I haven't ordered it all yet because I want to price it all out on a few more websites. I wanna make sure I get a good deal. ;) But man, I am already LOVING VistaPrint.com. I am super close to just ordering the business cards I designed because I love them so much! lol The price is really good too. I posted the design on my FB to get my friends and families opinion and so far everyone really seems to like it. I would post it here too but some of the info on it is private still. and some info is still "pending". I do know the name of my company will be changing due to someone else having a very similar name for their photography business and "Lasting Images Photography" 's web url is shortened to LIphotography so I can't have that either. LAME!! So I am still brainstorming ideas.
My current website is undergoing a lot of changes too. I spend every minute of naptime trying to get it fixed up. LOL I can't wait to upgrade my website too. I also changed printing companies. I said BUH BYE to Printroom.com and Hello to Mpix.com. You can read why I left printroom HERE. I recieved my test prints from Mpix and I am very happy with them. ;)

On a different note.... I am almost afraid to admit that the past 3 days have gone really well with only a few extreme meltdowns (bedtime only, thats been our only fight)from the Buddy Bear. I don't want to jinx it!! lol Those terrible 2's are something else! I tell ya! It is so draining to deal with those! I think I am handling it well though and not losing my cool so, thank you GOD. ;)

2010-03-17T13:07:00.001-04:00

Wearing our GREEN and supporting the IRISH SPRING!!

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2010-03-16T16:46:00.001-04:00

He loves listening to my MP3 player...lol

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"skip....unlike"

2010-03-13T22:43:00.001-05:00

I love Carrie Underwood. She has such an amazing voice. But there is one song that will ruin the day for good if I am forced to listen to it....I can't ever hear this song without crying my eyes out. I have it on my Mp3 player and I cannot for the life of my find the USB cord for the computer so I can take the damn song off. Today I must have hit skip a zillion times...stupid song!!
"Just a Dream"....I cannot even begin to fathom what it would be like to lose my husband. I dont ever want that man in his blues knocking on my door. In the beginning when Ry was deployed a lot I would have nightmares that he was gone....that he died. I would always wake up crying my eyes out and not be able to go back to sleep. I started having them again when we moved here to SC. It would happen every night for a month...to say I had some anxiety is an understatement...It got to the point I started to think..oh my gosh, this isn't a sign is it?? Those kind of high level emotional nightmares wear on you after a while and start making you think terrible things....I finally just really started praying hard about it and asking God for some relief...
I am living in the present. I always greet Ry at the door for a hug and kiss, I try to start each morning with a text message to say "good morning, I love you" (he leaves way too early)and I try to be the SAHW/M that he deserves. I always take the time to make sure he knows and feels that I love him. I don't ever want him to doubt it....We joke that I am a "stage 5 clinger" (jersey shore reference.....) but I am far from being that crazy!

I can't wait!

2010-03-12T13:38:00.002-05:00

Buddy and I met with the Hubby on base to have some lunch before I met with Cameron Leslie, the photographer that I will be working with this spring. I can't tell you enough how excited I am to learn some more about photography!! I will start next weekend. :)

I was browsing Cameron's website yesterday and I remembered Hubby telling me that Cameron just got back from Peru. I looked at some of his Peru pictures and they are just AWESOME. My favorite is probably "Jansport Delux" . I was just blown away by that old mans strength. I don't know that I could have carried that massive load on my back! Amazing.

I encourage you to go look at some of his pictures from Peru. I believe he is still adding more within the next few weeks.

secrets and crossing my fingers-saying my prayers..

2010-03-11T14:18:00.002-05:00

I can keep a secret...oh yea...I dont get the urge to blab at all.....nope...never...My name and "spillin the beans" have never been in the same sentence.....ever. What??? You don't believe me? Apparently neither does the Hubby because he has recently told me a few things and after telling me those few things he said "Don't go blogging about it ok?? I don't want anyone to know...its top secret!"

UGH! Well! You just hope no one starts askin me questions because I don't lie either....HA!

Just kidding husband...I wont talk!!

So, anyway..now that my lips are sealed from speaking of anything top secret...I will share some things that I am pretty darn- hooplah- excited about! Well, 1) my camera and a lens are being looked at today...bad news is my lens is broken- good news its the lens and not the camera! 2) I may have found a photographer to work with for the next few months. I have been dieing to shadow a photographer that has done it all! I feel like I have so much more to learn by shadowing a photographer then if I tried to learn it in the classroom. I am a hands on/visual learner and learn a lot better that way. ;) I am hoping it all works out and I will have my weekends all filled up till June/July learning more about photography. 3) It looks like I will be going back to WA in August for almost the entire month to photograph a clients wedding and to visit family. I am not going to jam pack my schedule like I did the last few trips. this trip is just going to be for the wedding and being with the family. :)

In other not so great news....we have hit the TERRIBLE TWO's head on-full force. I wish I could share the voice clip I took with my phone this afternoon of Buddy demanding a Banana. I told him yesterday when he finished his Banana that he ate all the bananas. But ha! Like that matters MOM!! All morning long and all afternoon long "Ha nana, HA NANA Momma!!" and when I tell him they are all gone...full force tantrum at my feet. OY! Lord help me....This rain needs to stop so I can run and get this angry monkey his bananas!!!

Emma to a T...

2010-03-11T00:03:00.004-05:00

I was looking at Great Dane t-shirts and bumper stickers and I came across so many that was Emma to a T!! I only picked one to share with you because I literally had 32 in my shopping cart...HA! Can you imagine what the back of my Sante Fe would look like with 32 bumper stickers on it?! Yikes....

It is so true about Great Danes. If it's in their mind that its theirs...its THEIRS!! GOod luck telling them different. ;)

I did Emma's pictures the other day too. They are not quite her 2 year pictures but she is just such a pretty girl I had to take her picture too. I can't believe both my babies will be 2 so soon!!!

Wishful Wednesday-wedding gown

2010-03-10T11:19:00.004-05:00

I wish I could have worn _______________on my wedding day!

Well, I love that I was able to alter my Mom's wedding dress from the 70's to something pretty gorgeous and modern for my wedding. In fact, I don't think I would change it, if I got the chance to re-do my wedding. One thing I would change, would be to look a lot skinnier in the dress!! My Mom looked so beautiful and thin in the dress when she wore it and I really just wanted to look as beautiful as she did. I have for a long time felt so uncomfortable in my own skin because I have been so overweight most of my life. I went from being 167lbs to 112lbs (i'm only 5'0"). I feel so much better about myself!! I feel bad that I look at my wedding pictures and just hate them because I was so FAT!
I hate that I feel that way about my wedding pictures because that is a day you are suppose to cherish FOREVER, and I do but I just don't want to look at the pictures of me!!

I have been thinking to ask Ry to have our wedding pictures re-done. Maybe next October for our 3 year wedding anniversary. I would LOVE to have some wedding pictures that I actually liked looking at! I tried my dress on a few months ago and I look a million times better in it now!!
I've been searching for a local photographer and it turns out even one of Ry's co-workers is a photographer, so we will see what the Hubby says when I ask him. He better say YES....

Hair in the AIR!!

2010-03-09T15:02:00.002-05:00

I cant get these stupid hairs to lay down! I have been dealing with these little baby hairs for a few weeks now. They stick straight up and will not lay down at all! No amount of hair spray, gel, or whatever else will make them lay down. If I pull my hair back....the baby hairs on the sides of my forehead stick straight out too!!!

I posted this on FB and my Cousin's "L" and "S" started singing "kari's hair in the air, betcha wanna now how she got her hair in the air!!" (like the pants on the ground song...) Cracked me up!!!!!

So anyway, This is what I looked like when I took BUddy to his Dr appointment....As I walked up to the counter the young receptionist asks (without looking up at me) "patients name?" and I tell her. She then says (without looking up again..) "Data first?" to which I reply "What?his what?" and she looks at me and sorta smirks....and I could tell she was trying not to smile too big...and says "Date of birth" I could tell she was still looking at my baby hairs sticking straight up... I say "I dont think there is a hairspray that could hold these bad boys down" and I point to my baby hairs... She laughs and says "its awesome..." and then tells us to have a seat they will call us back shortly..I then went to WalMart to turn in my new glasses that I got a few months ago because my super curious toddler has broke them already. I guess I will learn one day not to leave them on my night stand. :/ Fortunately for my pocketbook, I bought the 1 year warranty and I am able to have them repaired for free. But looks like Buddy did a number on my glasses and it can't just be repaired so they are ordering me a whole new frame. ANYWAY...the nice lady at the vision center in Good Ol' WalMart told me I had a fabulous static electricity going in my hair...I told her "I know, my beauty is just electrifying today!" and she laughed.
Ry says he never even notices my baby hairs standing up till I point them out...he says guys dont notice those things...BUt yea...I'm pretty sure they do. I know my brothers would...

I can't wait for these stubborn little baby hairs to grow longer and maybe then they will lay down!!!

ABC's of me!!

2010-03-08T23:49:00.002-05:00

A. AGE: 25
B. BED SIZE: Queen and it is not big enough!!!
C. CHORE YOU HATE: WAshing the dishes....hands down. I will do laundry all day and vacuum but please dont make me do the dishes!!!
D. DOG'S NAME: Emma Lou
E. ESSENTIAL "START THE DAY!" ITEM: Tazo Awake black tea
F. FAVORITE COLOR: pink
G. GOLD OR SILVER: white gold
H. HEIGHT: 5'0
I. INSTRUMENTS YOU PLAY: I used to play the trumpet growing up but haven't in years
J. JOB TITLE: SAHM/W
K. KIDS: Just 1 uber handsome, fun toddler!! Hoping for more!
L. LIVING ARRANGEMENTS: Living in South Carolina, lovin life~
M. MOM'S NAME: Lynn
N. NICKNAME: My dad calls me Bogita, My family calls me Karebear and my husband calls me Hunny Bear or Babe
O. OVERNIGHT HOSPITAL STAY: Just 1 when I gave birth...
P. PET PEEVE:eating utensils in the sink with globbs of peanut butter still on them!!...Husband...
Q. QUOTE FROM A MOVIE: "You shut your mouth when your talkin to me!!"
R. RIGHTY OR LEFTY?: Righty
S. SIBLINGS: 4 brothers, 1 sister
T. TIME YOU WAKE UP: Whenever my Buddy wakes me. Normally around 9am
U. UNDERWEAR: I wear them all the time...
V. VEGGIE YOU DISLIKE: brussel sprouts
W. WAYS /REASONS YOU ARE LATE: I am always early or ontime. I hate to be late!!! Everyone in my family is always running late. Drives me crazy.
X. XRAYS YOU'VE HAD: several of my teeth, my foot, my chest, and my stomach region..
Y. YUMMY FOOD YOU MAKE:Talapia in a creamy basil peppercorn sauce topped with sauteed Onions..
Z. ZOO ANIMALS YOU LIKE: Gorillas or Elephants

madness!!

2010-03-07T15:26:00.002-05:00

I have been M.I.A due to having a toddler who has a terrible ear infection. I took him to the dr a few weeks ago and found out he had one and he was on Amoxicillan 3 times a day for 10 days. We finished the antibiotic (which gave him the worst trots ever!!-- so I thought..) this past Wednesday.
Thursday afternoon, Buddy is absolutely grumpy and full force fighting with me on taking a nap. I mean...FULL FORCE. Turns out he has a killer right hook, and his fist said 'hello' to my ear...OUCH. I kept my cool, placed him in 'time out'. he sat in time out hollering and giving a big production on how he was NOT taking a "nigh night!!" I payed no attention to this fit (well, pretended not to pay attention) and washed the dishes. When he calmed down a few minutes later I told him to come over to me, he listened and came to where I was in the kitchen. I got down to his level and was eye to eye with him...I said in my "Stern" voice "Dont EVER hit your Momma again. You hurt your Momma very much, That was VERY bad" to which he replied with a frown and bottom lip quiver and eyes welling up with big fat tears...and suddenly broke out in tears. He hugged me and said "hhhhhhuuuuh Eyyee Momma, Hhhiii..." Which I am telling myself means he was trying to say I'm sorry in some sorta way.." I then said "ok, I love you but you still have to take a nap" Which than triggered Round 2 of previous fit...he took off into the living room tripping on something and WHAM!!! Forehead kissed the living room floor. It was the hardest hit I have ever seen him take!!! He Instantly wails in pain and I run over to pick him up.....after a few minutes he brushed it off. and we layed down for a nap. Well, he did not sleep....and from then on he did not eat...that night?? He did sleep...WE did not sleep. He would randomly start screaming and crying as if he was in such pain but yet he wouldn't give me any clues as to what hurt!! He also had a fever. He was shivering and had an upset tummy. I gave him some tylenol but his fever didn't break all night!
Friday morning he slept a few hours and when he woke up he was really off balance and dizzy. Hubbs and I are really really worried at this point. We are worried he may have a concussion from his fall. I told Hubby that it could be his ear too, maybe it didn't heal all the way...Hubby goes to work and I call the DR only to find out their office is closed for the day....UGH!!! I took Buddy to MedCare Express right down the road. The receptionist tells me that I need a referral from the clinic on base since we are TriCare. I told her no I dont because we are TriCare Standard not PRime. She insists that I still need a referral, so at this point I am ready to lose it all. I am so tired from being up all night, I am worried sick about my baby who is still having his crying fits, and I am just so stressed over all that I call my Hubby almost in tears telling him how the stupid receptionist says we need a referral from the clinic on base. He tells me the same thing I told the receptionist! I said I know!! So he calls the clinic for me on base and they tell him the same thing he told me...the same thing I told the receptionist! So I go back into the clinic and told her the clinic said I dont need a referral because I am TriCare Standard. and it was like suddenly she knew what she was doing and got us checked in. AHHHHH!! --insert swear word here--!!
The rest of the experience at MedCare was AWESOME. Every one of the nurses were so incredibly nice and did so well with Buddy. The Dr was so nice and she was so thorough which really made me feel good. They did a nose and throat swab and a head x-ray. Thankfully, the x-ray showed no trauma at all, and the dr said she didn't feel any trauma where he hit his head. BUddy also didn't care that she was rubbing it or pressing it so that was a good sign too. They gave Buddy Tylenol for his fever and then re-checked his ears. Ha! Surprise! his ear infection did not heal a bit!! There was our answer....The Dr gave us a new prescription. I asked for Zithromax because its once a day dosing for 5 days and it is a different class of antibiotic than Amoxicillan so I figured it should work better over all for us. So far, his trots are worse, and he is still not eating normal but he is snacking and he is drinking his fluids really well. And thank you Jesus he is sleeping through the night again! We have a follow up appointment on Tuesday with his normal Dr. I hope to see some improvement by then! :)

Learning and having fun!

2010-03-02T11:48:00.000-05:00

I always worry that I am not doing enough as a parent to help Buddy learn and grow. I don't like to sit around too much because that is just a waste of time and I could be doing fun, educational things with Buddy. I made a few charts(i know I am no artist...but he's 23 months. I am pretty sure he isn't judging my artistic abilities just yet) to just show and help teach Buddy his colors, numbers, and the alphabet. I don't expect him to get this right away and some days I can't get him to sit still for longer than 2 seconds because he wants to chase the dog with his popper toy.....BUT I always try and sometimes he will sit and talk about colors with me and the 1 thing he always likes to do is count the dots on his number chart. He says the dots are "coooool" lol.

I know that if I keep trying and just keep showing them to him it will stick and he'll eventually get it. ;) I KNOW it will because he has already picked up black,blue yellow, and pink since we started doing the color chart. ;) and will at random times point things out and tell me the colors. He mostly does it with blue and black and just started yesterday with pointing out yellow during gym class. I'm wearing a black hoodie with a hot pink skull on it and Buddy pointed to my hot pink skull and said "peeeeek".

Reading books to Buddy is a big thing in our house. Buddy LOVES to have books read to him and sometimes he'll even "read" them to himself! He will sit on the floor with a book and babble and do all the hand motions that the page is talking about! He has a lot of his books memorized and the 3 books below are just a few that he has memorized and that he will "read" to himself. ;)

I love reading this book to him during the day and before bed. I like this book a lot because it also helps teach baby different body parts... it says " i love your fingers, and toes....your ears..and nose.. I love your hair...and eyes...." and with every part we point to each one and most of the time he will start doing the next page before we are even there!! It also talks about emotions..."I love your happy side....your sad side...your silly side and your MAD side...your giggles...and cries!!!!" When I read each emotion I read it as if I'm happy, sad, mad...etc and he gets a big kick out of it.

This book is so cute! Ry picked this book out when we were out shopping one day when I was still pregnant with Buddy. When he handed me this book I was completely surprised since it was a book you didn't read..but you sang it! At the time I couldn't picture my Ry singing this book to our baby. LOL But now, its one of my favorite things to hear.....its that kind of thing you see or hear a man do and it just makes you love them more....

When I sing it to Buddy I sing it with a little jazzy tone to it. He loves how much I get into the little song. Thats something I really try and make an effort to do when I read to him. I always try to add emotion, physical gestures, and give each character a real "voice". I think thats what makes reading time a lot more fun and it holds his attention a lot stronger and a lot longer than if I had just sat there reading it...
We sing songs a lot and his favorites are "if your happy and you know" , "head, shoulders, knees and toes" and "Wheels on the bus" . We have "dance party" in the kitchen when I play THIS cd. He loves that cd and I think we got it at Wal-Mart in the baby section for like $10.

Speaking of "Dance party"..its lunch time. I can't believe I got through that whole post with out Buddy "helping me". He sat contently playing with his books, blocks, markers and paper. :)

buh bye printroom...

2010-03-01T12:14:00.003-05:00

Well, up until last month I have been very happy with working with Printroom.com. But it seems all of the sudden their right hand has no clue what their left hand is doing and have yet to mail me my Jan AND Feb profit check.... I sent them an email and only got an automatic response message from them saying they are working on it....its been a week and only recieved a second email saying they are still working on it and have handed my issue off to a different part of customer service.... Whats there to work on? Go look and see if I was issued a check, if I was...was the check cashed?? If not...stop payment on those checks and issue me another!!!!!

To top it all off they sent one of my clients the completely wrong order....they sent my client someone else's 11x14 instead of her 8x10....than continued to charge me for a "pro" account when I downgraded my account to a classic since I am rarely using the account now....

I found a few other printing companies that offer the same online ordering for my clients so I think I may be switching now to either MeridianPro, WHCC, or Mpix....I haven't decided yet.

I'm just frustrated with PR....I don't know what their deal is....they have never messed up with me like this and have always provided a smooth quality transactions until now.
I better get an email or a phone call today regarding my profit check...if not I am calling them tomorrow and they will have some explaining to do!!

hello Sunday...

2010-02-28T13:42:00.003-05:00

First off I am sad that the winter Olympics are over this weekend. :( No more Apolo Anton Ohno...

Oh...I'll just Hulu his DWTS season...lol and in case your wondering..Hubby does know Apolo is my celebrity crush...I have replaced Jake Pavelka with Apolo....lol Nothing wrong with having a celebrity crush...I know for a fact Hubby has a few too! lol
Anyway...we did our weekly grocery shopping at the commissary today. We will be under budget even after we get the last few things from Wal-Mart.
I am so surprised how well we are doing with this Total Money Makeover. Our way of thinking and our way of spending has completely changed for the better. I can't imagine doing things any other way now and when I think of how we used to do things, I'm like "that makes no sense!" When we look at our budget now, and see how much "blow" money we have, we think back to just last month and the previous months when we had NO money...what the hell were we buying??? We don't have luxuries (cable TV, high speed Internet, nice furniture--i dont even have a couch!!)...we don't go shopping for clothes or shoes or anything like that...what the hell were we buying?? WE finally realized that it was those trips to Wal-Mart every other day to just "get a few things" here and "a few things" there, and Ry buying lunch almost everyday at the commissary that totally ate up our money!
I wish everyone in the U.S.A would do this Total Money Makeover....even if you don't have tons of debt....you could still benefit from this program. We've learned so much about managing our money better and how to save money better. I wish I had the words to express to you all how much STRESS has been lifted these past few weeks since we started....I feel so much better now! By next week we will have crossed off the first 3 things off our debt snowball list!! Oh I am so excited to write those checks to pay those dang bills off!! Its going to feel so good!! :)
************************************************
In other good news. I found out I will be having another nephew!!! I am so excited for my brother and my soon to be sis-in-law!!!

It is currently naptime so I am checking FB and writing my blog post. I am excited for Buddy to wake up because Ry and I are taking both the kids (yes, Emma is one of our kids... ;) ) to the park. Emma has been bugging to go see her friends at the dog park and I am going to do the second mini photo session using the the beautiful setting sun with Buddy. I should get even more good pictures because Ry can help me get smiles out of Buddy too. I'll be posting a sneak peek of today's mini photo session tonight or tomorrow. ;) I am off to go watch the Olympics with the Hubby.

Hope ya'll had a great weekend!!

super mini session

2010-02-25T23:04:00.003-05:00

I have a hard time photographing my own family as well as I photograph other families...I don't know why..lol ANYwaaay... Buddy will be turning 2 next month and I know I have to get his pictures done to send out in his birthday annoucement cards and get pictures ordered. The freak that I am, I want to make sure they are out just in time for his birthday SO i started his mini sessions today. Today was literally a 5 minute session and I just followed him around the backyard. I find that "technique" works well with most toddlers in location sessions. Sorta just let them lead the way and pull the "you wanna come stand here for me? Look how cool this is..." every now and then when I find a good spot. I even let Buddy take a few pictures of his own. He loves the sound of the camera and giggles in excitement every time. :)

Within 5 minutes I managed to get 6 really cute shots. I was excited. The kid is so used to having a camera shoved in his face and Momma telling him "Smile for me bug..." that he pretty much just goes with it. ;)

Here is a sneak peek from todays mini session..

I know I am his Momma but I can't help but just think that is the cutest little face EVER!!! LOL

spillin the beans...

2010-02-25T14:31:00.002-05:00

I have a secret...

NO, i wont tell you..

I cannot tell you till the end of March. Hopefully everything will be set in place by then and everyone who needs to know first will know and I can announce our latest news to the rest of the world. ;)

What??

am i pregnant?!?!

I wish!!

It is not really anything for you to get excited about..I am really excited because it will bring so much peace to my mind and I really think we will be happier by making this change. We've been so back and forth on this since we found out we were moving to SC and just in the past month have really made the decision to go for it. It will be hard work getting it done and a lot of sacrifices but I think Ry and I make a good team and know how to support each other well.

I made a list of pros and cons and the pros really outweighed the cons so woohoo! Its a good decision financially too which was a huge deciding factor for us. ;)

Would you like a clue?????

Clue:

AHHHHHH HERN.

You might not get it if you aren't military BUT if you are military you SHOULD get it.

Squawk at me one more time!!! I dare you!

2010-02-24T23:04:00.006-05:00

Above and below, you will find pictured the worlds most annoying cat. Yes, ladies and gentlemen I own the worlds most annoying cat....God help me!!

This would be "KeyKey". Ry adopted him from the Pierce County Humane Society about 6 years or so ago...Ry chose KeyKey because he was this little ball of white fur sleeping in its litter box...Ry thought for sure no one else would want a cat that slept in its litter box so he thought he would give this litter box kittie a better home and a better life.

Little did he know he was really adopting this nagging, pig of a cat that feels he NEEDS to be in your lap or arms 24/7....

if this cat isn't squawking for a treat, he is squawking for you to let him lay in your lap...if he's not squawking at you, its because he is stuffing his face because oh.my.gosh he hasn't eaten in 10 minutes. We have to keep a separate bowl of food in the bathroom for the other cats because KeyKey hogs the one in the kitchen....and we STILL find KeyKey eating out of the bowl in the bathroom.

you may think I am exaggerating on this whole squawking thing...I am NOT. ALL.DAY.LONG. I tell you..... and I say squawk and not meow because this cat is not a meow-er....no no no...he sounds like he has been smoking cigarettes for 45 years and has a bit of the laryngitis. It is a squawk...if I had to type it out it would be.. "reeeeyOW!...reeeyOW!" all day long...all day long. Aren't you annoyed just reading this post about it?? GOSH, I am annoyed just typing it out!! and this whole time guess who is snuggled up between my back and the back of the dang chair?!?!? KEYKEY!!!

Buddy has picked up the word "cookie" the past few months and guess what?? That triggers more squawking from the KeyKey monster! Today...I got it from BOTH Buddy and KeyKey...Buddy would say "hah cookie??" (have cookie?) and keykey not missing a beat "reeeyOW!"..I tell ya, if I had a nickel for every time Buddy asked me for a cookie today I would have well over $500...you can imagine the amount of squawks I got from the smoker pig of a cat I own.....I am ready to rip my hair out.....and not because my toddler keeps asking for a cookie..oh no no no...I'll take "hah cookie??" all day every day over "The Squawk"...

CAT FOR SALE-- FREE!! WILL BRING TO YOU!!

Cootie Queen...

2010-02-21T22:35:00.003-05:00

Hey ya'll nothing too exciting to blog about...I spent the day yesterday grumpy and feeling like a pile of llama doodoo...I haven't been sleeping well lately and it all just sorta caught up with me right when Aunt Flo came to visit (wish she would never visit...) so I was EXTRA grumpy and just felt so awful with a bad headache and upset stomach. My feet felt like cement and walking around was a chore....luckily Ry took Emma and Noah to the park in the early afternoon and I had some peace and quiet....but again..my body wouldn't let me sleep so I just rolled around in bed ticked off at...myself I guess cause I couldn't sleep. So I watched the Olympics. I have actually never watched the Olympics and this year I am and I am totally hooked. I love it.

Anywhoo....
I was watching TV and I saw one of my favorite commercials ever. I cannot tell you why I laugh so hard at this commercial but the "lint linker" lady cracks me up the hardest...

Hubbs and I like the new Old Spice Swagger commercials too. We watched them over and over on the old spice website. LOL Hubbs really likes the karate one.

What is your favorite TV commercial??

Live like no one else now, so that you can LIVE like no one else later..-Dave Ramsey.

2010-02-15T11:45:00.004-05:00

Show us your life Friday!!! Stop in at Kelly's Korner for more money saving tips.
I had this post written up a few months ago so it may be a repeat to some of you..sorry, BUT this book changed our lives and I want everyone to know about it!

More about Dave today... We have officially started our Total Money Makeover. We sat down to write our budget, cut up our credit cards and started our envelope system. It was so scary cutting up the credit cards that sometimes keeps up "floating" but in all reality its whats causing us to nearly drown every month.

I can't tell you how excited I am for this! We are so ready to work hard and attack this debt with "gazelle intensity"!! (read the book you'll get the gazelle part better...) Debt is so burdening and so stressful. I can't even begin to think how long the stress on money and making the payments has kept me from wearing my true smile-my full face grin!! Just like Dave says- 'I am sick and tired of being sick and tired' ....Hubbs and i are just DONE... D-O-N-E ..DONE!!

We know it will be hard work..we know we will have to go without a lot of things we love. We know a lot of people around us will call us crazy but we also know that they will be the same ones to pull us aside and ask us for advice on how to get out of debt too!! We have already been told by 1 family member that not having a credit card to fall on is crazy and that we really do need a credit card. BUT I AM FIRMLY believing in that we DONT! Thats what you build a savings for....for those times when it does rain.

I am currently looking into a few places to work evenings after the Hubbs gets home from work and we are also looking into some other options to maybe open up some more money to put towards our "Debt Snowball"(again read the book..you"ll get it..) every month.
I am telling you..we are "gazelle intense!
We budgeted $100 a week for food and this week we spent under budget with all the necessities(plus a few xtras) by $4.50! Which means we will put that $4.50 intoour Debt Snowball!! The envelope system does work better for us because it really helps us limit all the extras we put in the grocery cart...with the debit card we know there is money in the account so we throw in the cart whatever looks good!
I am so tempted to call Dave on his radio show and tell him thank you for showing us we DONT have to live like the typical American to get the good things in life.
You know what else I like about Dave? He is a Christian and quotes the bible in his books! HAHA! I have prayed a lot about money and I really think Dave Ramsey's book was my answer...So...Thank you GOD!

To read the post where I first found out about Dave Ramsey...read HERE.

I hope you will borrow this book. It brought so much more happiness to my marriage, and myself. Not to mention a HUGE amount of stress has been lifted away.

EMERGENCY SURGERY!Needle and thread! STAT!

2010-02-13T20:04:00.005-05:00

No worries, everyone is ok...well, everyone except for Mr. Giraffe.... Who is Mr. Giraffe? You can read all about Mr. Giraffe HERE.

Well, now that we all know Mr. Giraffe is a MUST have item in this house and his attendance is required at all nap times and bedtimes and at everything in between....
I am sad to report...Mr. Giraffe has developed a hole in his chest that is life threatening and has a broken neck....Today he underwent emergency open heart surgery and reconstructive surgery to fix his neck....

He is fully recovered and is happily resting in the arms on his BFF Buddy..

Buddy was very upset once he discovered Momma was "hurting" his beloved Mr. Giraffe. But was very happy to hear his beloved friend's heart beat once again(their is a rattle that goes inside Mr Giraffe that was fixed during todays surgery)when surgery was over.

All is well in this house again...

p/s we got 6 inches of snow here last night!! but it was all gone by 2pm today. No big deal we didnt want snow anyway! Emma had fun running figure 8's in the snow and eating it too!!!

Rambles...

2010-02-11T10:23:00.002-05:00

Welp, since we have no Gym class today, Buddy and I are headed to base to meet Dadda for lunch and also check out the library on base. Ry says they have a good section on photography. We'll see if I can find anything good to read!
Ry brought home this book and I will admit I rolled my eyes a little when he suggested I read it. Its called "Financial Peace" By Dave Ramsey . The name sounded so familiar..."how do I know this name????" ,I thought....... 'Oh my gosh...this is the same guy Hubbs listens to on the radio that drives me up the wall! ' Now, Dave's radio show only drives me up the wall because it is all about money and financial issues and blah blah blah...people call in and tell Dave their situation and want advice on how to get out of the hole they dug themselves.......ya know...stuff Kari has no interest in hearing/listening to over the radio on a 40 minute car ride to the beach.... I'm more of a country music or upbeat music of some kind, kinda girl on long car rides (any drive more than 15 minutes is a long car ride for me, I get car sick!).
ANYway..now that I know who wrote this book that can't possibly be any good I really didn't have any interest in reading it.....BUT I humored the Hubby and laid in bed reading it....Well, wouldn't ya know 6 chapters later I was hooked on what this guy had to say in this book that I thought for sure would be the lamest read I would ever encounter!!
When I read his words I hear his voice talking to me and he really does write with a "voice" if you know what I mean. Another thing I really like is that he uses normal words and not fancy jibberish lingo that I have to look up to understand.
I recommend this book to everyone! Most of his steps are common sense like "saying NO to spending" but the American society is so hopped up on spending spending spending and keeping up with the Joneses that all we care about is having the nicest things, the newest things, and its always "I want...." and almost never "I need..". Thats how our nation got into so much debt...(and by nation I mean, average joes, you and me....lets not even talk about government)
Sometimes we can be so oblivious by how our society lives and how we feel we have to live up to it all. Dave really made me think..oh my gosh we are as a society very materialistic!! Now, at first I had all these defensive thoughts in my head like "I am not materialistic!!" or "whats wrong with wanting nice things?" I think there is nothing wrong with wanting nice things...whats wrong is the way we go about it to aquire these nice things...we selfishly borrow money and struggle to pay it back all to save face or look 'good' in front of the neighbors....

Anyway...I am rambling... if you are having any kind of financial issues...want to know how to manage your money better, get out of debt...I would check this book out. You can borrow it from your local library like the Hubbs did for me.

I am off to get dressed, paint my face, comb my hair so that I dont embarrass the Hubby when I stroll into this office. I'd hate for his co-workers to think he was married to a troll.....

I don't know who loves it more!

2010-02-10T14:48:00.003-05:00

I don't know who loves Gym class more...me or Buddy! LOL We both excitedly went to gym class today and had so much fun!!! We even jumped inside Mr Moonbounce!!! No tears!!!

His favorite thing at Gym is the rollercoaster car. I think its a lot of the kids' favorite! Buddy did very good about taking turns with all his friends and waited so patiently for his turn. I am really surprised since he has never had to share, I expected him to be all "mine mine mine!" but he wasn't that way at all!

I am actually a little embarrassed about how excited and anxious I was to go to Gym class. I was so excited like it was MY class and I was going to go play with MY friends. LOL and I am totally looking forward to Friday! lol I dont really play myself I just watched Buddy play and help him through obstacles and talk with other Moms a little. I just really like seeing him having fun and learning and growing, making friends. He needs that.

I find myself thinking about tomorrow and how boring it will be because..bummer, no gym class.

Cornelia Marie wont be the same...

2010-02-10T11:05:00.002-05:00

Do any of you watch The Deadliest Catch on the Discovery Channel?
I haven't watched the show in about a year because we no longer have cable. BUT it was my absolute favorite show and the Cornelia Marie was my Favorite ship. Captain Phil is a big time harda** and incredibly honest-tell it like it is chain smoking kinda guy. Everytime he would yell or holler I would worry he was straining himself too hard and just wanted to tell him through the TV to calm down....
Captain Phil Harris has passed away just 3 short weeks after suffering a stroke.

RIP Captain Phil, My prayers are with your family and friends.

FWD:

2010-02-09T15:28:00.001-05:00

So i have been looking for this green sippy cup for the past week. i knew it was somewhere with the contents just rotting away...i couldnt find it anywhere... i found it today. see it sitting in the farm's silo? oy, this kid....

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If your going to do it, do it with a bang!!!

2010-02-09T14:31:00.002-05:00

Cleaning the floors that is...I loathe cleaning the kitchen floor....only because it stays clean for a whooping 5 minutes or possibly a little longer depending how close it is to a meal. I try to clean up after every meal but some days I just get so irritated that I spend more time wiping up crumbs than I do spending time with my son so I leave it till the end of the day.

Today I don't want to see another crumb on my floor. I hate seeing it messy! So I charged up my Mp3 player and I have it up really loud...I'm going to dance my way around the kitchen sweeping and mopping to some girly upbeat tunes....I may hate cleaning it up 3 times today but dang it, I'm gonna have some fun with it!!

C'mon, Gretchen, C'mon, Carrie...you too Lady Gaga..your a freak but your songs make me wanna move!

Anywho!! Off I go...

What did he just say?!!

2010-02-06T20:01:00.003-05:00

Well, there I was worried my Buddy would never want to talk and that he was only saying half as much as other kids his age..HA! and here I am today exploding with laughter at all the new things this kid picks up! Why do I ever worry? SO WHAT if he doesn't talk as much as YOUR kid...he is still well within the norm and he is trying and he is learning every day...Silly momma's we worry so much!

On Friday we went to open gym and we saw our friends from class and also LOTS of other kiddos from other classes. For the first 15 minutes of open gym it was DISASTER! HE cried and clung to me and cried so hard! I finally resorted to sitting in the corner where he couldn't see big bad beastly Mr Moonbounce and we played with the foam blocks again...I would build a tower and he would knock them down...and sneaky little Momma that I am, every time he knocked it down I would build it about a foot further and further till we were out in the middle of the gym no longer hiding in the corner and he didn't even realize it!!! haha!!! From then on it was smooth and nothing but laughs and lots of jumping, climbing, balancing and good times!
An older little girl(3yrs) came up to Buddy and said "Hi" and Buddy replied in the sweetest little boy voice I have ever heard "Hi baby!" LOL I burst out laughing and the little girl's Dad cracked up too. I was so surprised he said that and I KNOW he got it from me cause I always greet him or Ry with "Hi baby"... LOL Oy...am I in for some trouble when he is older! Definetly going to treat him how to respect the ladies...and that means not calling every single one you meet "baby". Only the dumb ones fall for that one...and he doesn't need any dumb girls...
Anywhooo..............
Today we had our normal class and not one single tear...NOT ONE! ;) When they started to blow MR Moonbounce up he sorta got a whine going but NO meltdown and no crying. I then kicked it into high gear sillyness and sang the songs louder (and so did the other Moms and the teacher) and did the hand motions bigger and it was then 'Who's Mr. Moonbounce? WHat about him?' and we continued to have a really good time! Cutesy little Landon (Buddy's classmate) has taken a liken to me and has made me his new BFF. He came over to me several times during class to grab ahold of my hand to help him do one of the obstacles and at the very end he took my hand and wanted me to go in Mr Moonbounce...OY! I thought to myself "Buddy will FREAK OUT if he sees Momma go inside that beast!!!" but than I thought it would be good for him to see Landon and I playing and having a good time and it would make him realize its ok and MR Moonbounce will not hurt us. So off I went to jump inside Mr Moonbounce while Maggie's Mom held Buddy....surprisingly Buddy did not cry. HE sure was worried and had this look on his face like he was waiting for something to happen any second and he even reached through the netting on the side and told me "Momma out...." and I told him back "Its ok, we are having so much fun! Momma's ok!" and he watched Landon and I go down Mr Moonbounce's slide and he had such a look of relief when I was out of that thing...haha! But Thank you Jesus not one single tear!!! SUCH an improvement!! I am so excited to go back on Wed for open gym.

So like I said, Buddy is learning new words or phrases all the time..every week he has a new favorite thing to say...this weekend it was 'Ahhh dunnnn' which is "All done". and "Baaaa geeewwww!!!" which is "BAD GIRL!!!" and he yells this to Emma whenever he feels he needs to! He picked this one up from me too. Poor girl Emma will be chewing her bone and he yells and points his finger (just like momma!)at her 'Baaaa gewwww!!' because MOST of the time she IS chewing something (cup, shoes, toy, etc..) she isn't supposed to. Or he'll just say in a threatening tone 'Emmmmmmuh!!!" and another one I LOVE because its so stinkin cute (yet he rarely does it) is "HAAA BAHHH!!!" which is 'High five!!" and he'll hold up his little hand to give him a high five. LOL I love it!
I love watching him grow and learn! It just feels my heart with happiness! It just makes you feel like a good Momma seeing your Baby grow and learn and become so dang smart!!
I'M so thankful.... God really has blessed me...

**************************************************
On a completely different subject....Ry has been studying for the past several weeks to test for promotion. He tested today and for the first time he felt like he may just make promotion this year. He said he felt real good about it and this could be his year.
The past few years he has tested for promotion and has not felt very good about it at all....when scores came out in June he saw he missed promotion by 4 points and its just so frustrating for him. Last year he felt like he really let us down and I felt bad cause I could see he was just..disappointed and frustrated. He deserves this promotion, he is so good at his job and he is so dang smart...he flat out deserves it but military doesn't work that way.... SO we wait in suspense till June to find out if he made promotion this year. Say your prayers for us...;)

Have a good week everyone. I got some catch up to do on my blog reading. ;)

SHow us your life- Beauty secrets and tips!

2010-02-04T11:13:00.005-05:00

Well, Its another Show us your life Friday! Head on over to Kelly's Korner to check some more beauty tips, favorite hair and make up products!!

I have always been obsessed with keeping my hair healthy and moisturized. I am by far not a beauty queen and know all these fabulous styling tips and secrets and I surely DO NOT style my hair fancy and gorgeous every day! HA! I wish I had that kind of motivation!

I feel the most comfortable with my hair up but I think I look the prettiest with my hair down. I have an odd shaped head...ANyhoodles... How do I keep my hair split end free, healthy and gorgeous????

Believe it or not I have NOT had my hair cut in over a year....I refuse to try just anyone here in Chuck Town. I have this ridiculous fear of someone cutting too much and I am stuck with icky short hair and my husband finds me unattractive....he calls short hair "lesbian haircuts"...turd..

I had a hair stylist named Carmen back in WA that was just FABULOUS!! I loved her. She always cut my hair perfectly and she even did my hair and the maid of Honor's hair for my wedding. and remember??..my hair looked gorgeous for 2 days!!! She was awesome and I miss her! So yea, I have not had my hair cut in over a year and I have not 1 split end~ not one!!

How do I keep it split end free??

Rule #1: during the winter I wash my hair every other day. Summer it is too hot and humid to not wash my hair everyday...

Rule#2 I spritz Aussie hair insurance on just the bottom 3 inches of my hair and let is air dry till its about halfway dry then blow dry it the rest of the way to prevent the frizzies getting too crazy!!

The reason I use it on JUST the bottom 3 inches is because thats where my hair is the weakest and needs the most protection from the curling iron/blowdryer. Every now and then I will spritz it on all my hair and it leaves my hair so smooth and silky...I love it!

Rule #3 I switch my shampoo every 3 months. I alternate between 3 different kinds and just recently kicked out Pantene for Suave professionals. I can not justify spending more than $5 on a bottle of shampoo and conditioner ...I just can't. So I've never used salon brands... If I didn't have to worry about money than maybe I would think about it but I really doubt it since I know what I do now with a $2 bottle works just the same! SO the 3 brands I alternate with are:

Tressemme- the moisturizing one

Suave Professionals- its in the bright green bottle

Dove

The new commercial for the Suave professionals shampoo is NOT lieing. It really did make my hair look and feel like the girls in the commercial. The husband even was like "wow...thats nice.." and kept petting my hair...lol

I was recently givin a gift from the bride and groom whos wedding I just photographed back in december. It was Philosophy Amazing Grace body wash/shampoo and conditioner, Shave gel and a couple samples. I have not used it as shampoo but just as a body wash and I love how smooth and soft my skin feels afterwards. The shave gel is amazing...I dont know that I could go back to using Skintimate after this tube of Philosophy is out! haha So I was really impressed with the products and I thought I would try one of the samples.... "Hope in a jar"....I am so skeptical about any facial moisturizer...I cannot stand greasy facial moisturizers! Yuck!!! and if they aren't greasy they are not really moisturizing! SO, to my greatest surprise "Hope in a Jar" was AMAZING!!! I have never felt a facial moisturizer so light~ it was so comfortable on my face. I did not feel like I had Crisco on my face or vaseline at all. I did feel like my face was moisturized too!!...I love it. and will somehow have to justify paying $38 for 2oz when this little packet sample runs out!

My normal face regimen that keeps the icky zits away is St. Ives Apricot Scrub. I have been using this stuff for so long I don't remember how I even found it or anything. All I know is that it works so good for me!

For Make up I use Bare Minerals...Would never touch anything else...I cannot stand looking like I am wearing paint or spackle on my face. The Husband doesn't like makeup either but completely approves on the Bare Minerals. ;) I was introduced to this make up by my super wonderful gorgeous cousin "N" who means the world to me. I wont talk for days about this make up but all I know is..I could sleep in this makeup and still look like one hot momma in the morning!!! and NO pimples to show for it!

Hope you liked my beauty tips....Now I am off to read and find some more!!

Gussy pouch for me please??

2010-02-02T17:10:00.002-05:00

Thanks to Kelsey over at Seattle Smith's I am in LOVE with these Gussy pouches. I think they are just so stinkin cute! And pretty darn affordable...I am dropping hints left and right for the Hubby....I even went as far as posting it on his FB wall...LOL

I just LOVE ETSY...so much neat handmade items!!

Freak out!

2010-02-01T14:44:00.004-05:00

Well, todays gym class did not go so good. :/ Buddy remembered the terrible, TERRIBLE, beast named Mr Moon Bounce that rose up from the ground at the end of the class last week and had a meltdown the whole time we were at class today and only quieted down for about 10 minutes towards the end when Miss Marka was building a "castle" with foam blocks and had Noah knock them down....I can see why this thing pictured below would be scary to a little one, especially if they have never seen one before. And can you imagine seeing this thing going from flat on the ground like a blanket to this GIANT MONSTEROUS thing?! Not to mention the loud noise it makes when the machine blows it up!!Ugh!! My poor Buddy Bear is so terrified of it! The teachers all said that every new kid is scared of it for the first few weeks but then they realize that its really a good thing and a whole lot of fun!! SO I sure hope they are right and I am not tormenting my child for life with this....

If he wasn't waiting by the exit.....

He was clinging to either Momma or Dadda.....poor guy....

I am going to keep taking him. He is afraid of ANYTHING new and I think he will start to really warm up in a few weeks, like he does with everything else. I am going to start taking him to open gym on Wed. and Fridays too so he will get used to it even more. Its rough on a Mommy too though...breaks your heart when they are so frightened like that. I did my best to try and tell him that Mr Moonbounce was our friend and that he wasn't gonna get him, yadda yadda yadda....But the poor kid has in his mind that Mr Moonbounce is an awful mean beast!!!

::sigh:: wish me luck....

sad...

2010-01-30T12:59:00.002-05:00

I have 1 friend here is SC (other than Ry) and she is leaving in 90 days! UGH! She is here on a work visa and she now has to go back to Germany. She is devastated and not taking it well.
Boo...I'll be spending the next 90 days helping her prepare to go back. :(

geeezzzz

2010-01-28T16:57:00.001-05:00

Buddy Bear is sick and Ryan is sick with the same thing. PLUS, BUddy is still working on those stupid 2 yr molars. ARG!!!

Happiness is this right here...

2010-01-25T16:40:00.002-05:00

So today we took Buddy to his first official Bumblebees gym class at Rolly Pollies. It went a little better then his free trial class. He was still overwhelmed a bit by the big gym and the new faces but it was better. There was only one other little one and she is a lot more advanced than Noah. She has been doing the gym class for almost 8 months now. She was the cutest little girl with curly curly brown hair named Maggie. She even gave Buddy 2 kisses on the top of his head bye when class was over. It was so sweet! There are 2 teachers. One who teaches and one who helps. and guess what...I can't remember either of their names! Ha!
Buddy really likes the tumbling track. Its like a really long trampoline that they practice galloping, and jumping on. Today we learned how to "Summersault" Buddy has been doing it for a good 2 months now on his own at home but today he got to do it on incline mats and land on soft foam pads (which made Momma feel so much easier about those summersaults, I'm always afraid he'll hurt his little neck.) at the free trial class, Buddy had a melt down at the end and I thought it was cause we didn't sing the songs over and over but It turns out he is afraid of the Bounce House!! they have it flat when you walk in and during most of the class, then blow it up at the end while we sing songs and it FREAKS him out!!! He had a melt down again today and I had to sit him in the corner where he couldn't really see it till he calmed down. Once it was up he was sorta ok with it. He did ok once we sang songs and did all the hand and feet motions. It took his attention off the big bad Bounce House and we left class in a good mood again.
At the end of class they give stamps on the hands and feet and Buddy LOVES stamps. Ry got him hooked on stamps. He calls them "tattoos" and makes a "sizzle" noise then he stamps them on Buddy and Buddy just laughs and smiles. WE dont have kid friendly stamps so Buddy runs around with 'RECEIVED ' 'PAID' 'THANK YOU' and 'RYAN' stamped on his arms and hands. He once stamped his own forehead with the 'RECIEVED' stamp and it was the funniest thing ever to see it there!! WE couldn't look at him without chuckling a little bit.
Today as the helper teacher gave Buddy his stamps, Buddy made the "sizzle" noise that Dadda normally makes and Ry and I cracked up laughing. It was too cute!!

My heart is so happy. There is nothing else like being a Momma and watching your baby laugh and smile. Its such a beautiful day today, although a little windy. It makes me think of all the exciting things Ry and I have planned for our little family this spring and summer. Camping trips, weekend beach trips, visiting family....It just makes me so happy and so excited and I am really looking forward to our new adventures now that we really are settled in SC. I hated it here when we first got here back in April. It was so stinkin hot....but now...I love it and I don't know that I would ever want to go back. We do so much outside together and I feel like I have fallen more in love with my husband here... I wonder if I would say that about the next place. I doubt anyplace could top this.......Happiness is this right here.....

I don't know what to say...

2010-01-22T14:49:00.003-05:00

Sorry ya'll. I haven't blogged in a while cause I have no idea what to tell ya. We are in such a routine that I would hate to say the same thing over and over. and I am really trying my hardest to stay off the computer while Noah is awake.
However, I am completely addicted to that darn Facebook! (I mostly check it on my phone and update and what not from there so that cuts back on computer time) I have recently found a LOT of family I wouldn't normally get to talk to IRL so I am just having a blast being able to keep in touch with all of them. I have such a HUGE family on my Dads side, lots of aunts and uncles and a zillions cousins....and some of them have tons more kids since I last talked to them. :) Its amazing. I love it.
The weather has warmed up a bit. Thank heavens!!! We have been anxiously waiting for it to start getting warmer. We have had Buddy's sandbox in our living since Christmas (no sand) and he has been playing in it everyday and loves it (even with no sand). and we finally got to put it outside WITH sand. He has been asking everyday since to go outside so he can dig in the sand and destroy the castles that Momma or Dadda builds. He LOVES it!!

We are still working out and eating healthy. Its becoming so second nature now. Junk food sounds SO disgusting to me and I hardly ever crave sweets. The only thing I crave is chocolate and lets face it ladies....I will NEVER EVER give up on chocolate!!! and....I can't give up my 1 coke a day. I can't. I get headaches if I don't have some caffeine. It's only 1 a day which is a HUGE improvement from what I was having. So, I still get a pat on the back.
Hubby was hugging me today and said to me, "your back feels so muscular" lol......um, do I want to feel muscular???? I want to feel toned....muscular is masculine and not the least bit feminine. I hope he just meant toned. I don't want to look masculine from behind. LOL

My hiney is still as flat as ever.....I am doing squats and such to help plump it up but I have a feeling there is nothing to "plump" ...I may have to resort to the following product...

LOL totally kidding....maybe... Would you ever try one of these products? And you can't honestly say you wouldn't ever try anything like it if you wear padded bras or push up bras because its the exact same concept! Its funny though right? I laughed when I saw it and then laughed harder when I realized I wanted one....oh, you ladies with it packed in the back have no idea how lucky you are!