Going Green in 2013

As we close up 2012, I am starting to realize we have been moving away from all the gunk we normally clog our life up with.

 Less fast food, more home cooking.

Bigger home, greener heat.

I've been shopping at Trader Joes about once a week for our snacks, wine, beer, milk pasta and sauce. Thats a lot of our "staples" Next week we'll receive our first Organic To You basket. I did a fruit box for our first box for this first order.


 Then we had the big "talk" yesterday. We're trying to Potty Train Carson again (lesigh) I think part of his reluctance to potty train is he is just so damn comfortable in his diapers. I mean, you can pee like 3 times before they really NEED changed. So he's not connecting the dots of going and feeling wet.  When Chris goes back to work, we're going to do cloth training pants that have a water proof shell. Because, well I am not going to run around while carson leaks pee and poo all over my house if I can't get to him fast enough.  I think we're going to do mostly pocket diapers, so we can adjust the absorbency, but keep it as easy and simple as possible.

I'm excited for the New Year and all the exciting things it will bring. I'm competing in a Warrior Challenge in September, I wrote briefly that we are back burnering (is this a word?) any and all plans of a 3rd child until 2014. We might TTC as soon as 2014 rolls around or we might decide that the children we have are simply enough. Right now our world is good and solid and why rock that boat? Also selfishly I want to enjoy some time not being pregnant, or nursing.

I can not wait for 2013 and all the amazing things it will bring! This year I will have a 1 year old and 4 year old. Last year was great but I strive to make every year better than the last.

2013

On the menu for 2013:

 A very good friend is getting married in April. We'll be leaving our children for the first time for an entire weekend at home with my parents.

I have plans of hiking into hot springs with the boys and camping 1-2 nights and hiking out. I am very excited about this!!

September I'm doing Warrior Dash  this is making me crazy excited. I'm working on training now, I figure 9 months of training will make it so much easier. Little bit at a time.


Not on the Menu: Pregnancy. I made my IUD appointment. No more babies for a while.

Tragic.

I sit here in the wake of tragedy. Watching the Grinch with my big boy, while baby boy sleeps upstairs. Tucked away. Safe.

Tuesday there was a shooting at a local mall just up the freeway from us. It was "my" mall when we lived in the city. 2 people died, and the shooter killed himself. Tragic. People out shopping for the holidays. Gunned down. My heart broke for the families missing their mommy/wife/sister/daughter/aunt.

But then, tragedy struck agains.

In an elementary school in Connecticut. Kindergarten. 18 children dead. 6 adults killed. 1 cowardly "man" killed himself after ruining so many families, lives and shattering the world of the surviving child.

For me, its so hard to not be reactionary. To say "Well I think I'll just home school. Put my babies in a bubble and keep them here with me, safe" But the truth is, they aren't safe.

I have always struggled with anxiety. I can almost pinpoint the moment in my childhood that my anxiety issues started. It all started with a movie about baby ducks, the mom and daughter were driving home, in the dark and in the rain and they get hit by a semi truck. Killing the mom. As a child I would flip my lid in the rain.

I still can hardly drive in the dark/rain. The darkness creeps into me and I find myself going to my "dark place"

Having children has made my anxiety harder to control. Tragic events like this, well lets just say I've been a terrible crying mess. My grief for those mommies and daddies that will never hold their babies is unimaginable. I look at my own baby and I can't keep it together.

I will pray for the families affected by these tragedies. We will be lighting a candle for the rest of the year for these children. May they find peace in the arms of the Lord.

Playing Catch Up...

We had a totally lazy bones weekend. I mean, I'm sitting here unwashed from saturday and grossing myself out that I'll probably wait until after my run tonight to shower. Hmmm. Gross.

I'm making crock pot potato soup tonight. I totally snagged the recipe from Beth Anne over at Okay, BA! I seriously love her blog and all her southern wit. Plus this soup is to die for and stupid easy.

I've got four loads of laundry to fold and linens in the wash, The Mama is coming up tonight and tomorrow we are BAKING CHRISTMAS COOKIES! I can't wait. I miss my mama and I love that we are having a bake-athon tomorrow!

I am getting our christmas cards out this week. Its only a year to late since I did not bother with Christmas cards last year and then felt like an asshole when cards rolled in. I really need to keep a spreadsheet of everyones addresses.

We have been in our new house over a month, we've all taken a spill down the stairs and thanked our lucky stars they are carpet. We are finally getting over the "My room is scary" with Carson and he's even going upstairs into his room during the day and playing with out us. Oliver transitioned just fine, not even a bought of fussiness over his new digs. I think he does enjoy having so much more space! Which is just great!

I really need to spend some time taking more pictures of out new home with Christmas up, tomorrow while we make cookies will be the perfect opportunity I think.

I snapped some nice shots of my boys yesterday out playing in the yard and a couple from last weekend when we went to the zoo lights.

Perfect Reality Show Idea

Women in Hardware Stores.

Seriously, one of my favorite things to do is go into Home Depot and see how many times I get asked if I need help. I usually have some hilarious reply like "Yeah, but I don't think getting screws will help"  But today I went in for shelf material, so I can get the fucking microwave off my chest freezer.

So I walk into Home Depot and I'm wearing flip flops, jeans and a t-shirt. Cause its 44 degrees and thats not cold, bitches.

So anyway, not 10 steps into Home Depot  (HD from now on) I'm asked 3 times if I need help. I'm like no I'm good. As I get closer to the wood section an employee stops and asks:

 "What can I help you find, you look a little lost."

Well dude, "Well I need wood."

"Um, Ma'am what kind of wood?"

"Flat wood."

::blank stare::

"like for a shelf."

"okay, right this way"


His face was great at Flat Wood.


Well I got some piece of sanded plywood or someshit like that, and I need it cut. Its 24x38 and I needed a 20x24 so I'm like

"just cut it 20x28"

Then I stand there texting the husband being all like "MOTHAFUCKING HUZZZZAA BITCH! I FOUND FLAT WOOD!"

I notice he cut a skinny strip off my board and I'm all like, "what are you doing?"

"well its 20x28 now."

"NOOOOOO I didn't explain that well. I wanted TWO pieces. One 20x24 and one 28x24"

"Oh okay, well do you mind going and grabbing another board?"


Sure no problem, right???  WRONG, That shits heavy and I dropped that fucker right on my foot. So I danced around muttering fuck under my breath and finally got the damn wood in my cart. Only to turn my cart and have that bitch flat wood fall right the fuck out.


I finally got that shit taken care of, then I had to find L brackets.  I found another HD guy and was like "I need brackets. like ones shaped like an L, can you help me?"       ::blank stare:: "Do you mean, L brackets??"

I'm pretty sure he wanted to be like "Bitch are you drunk?"



Awe Home Depot. Good times.

I'm stuck in this fucking chair

Oliver is so ridiculously odd sometimes. I recently discovered he is like those puppies that people train to not leave the hula hoop and when they are adult dogs they physically can't figure out how to get out of the "Hoop"

After the move my parents gave us a couple of leather chairs that they had in their sitting room. Well a few days ago I plopped Oliver in the chair because I had to run after Carson for a second and I discovered, he doesn't realize he can get out of the chair! OHMYZOMG! Its great, I put a few toys and his sippy in the chair with him and he stays put! He doesn't even get fussy in the chair.  Frickin magical force fields!

I'm stuck in this fucking chair! 

Music for Kids

We spent last Saturday with a friend of ours watching the civil war Duck v. Beaver game. (GO DUCKS!) Well he introduced Carson to the world of the electric guitar. ::swoon:: Carson playing a guitar bigger than himself probably was the cutest thing next to kittens, rainbows, and baby narwhals.

So then sunday night rolls around and I'm all like looking for an activity to keep carson interested for more than 5 minutes and I ask him if he wants to write santa a letter. (draw cause well, he's 3)  He drew 5 pages of guitars, he forgot some important features like strings, but thats besides the point.

Then monday rolls around and we made our way to costco. Of course in the toy section is a freaking kid sized guitar, and my fucking darling knows how to get his way child pipes up with "Mama I want a eeetar, play songs for my mama and for my oliber and my doggy" I just about exploded in costco from the adorable sentence he just uttered.

Pretty much after that its been "santa this and eeetar that"

So like any good santa playing mommy, I've been researching guitars and sizes and amps and shizz.  Santa will deliver on a little boys wish for a eeetar. Thats for sure. :-)

Writers block

I've had some serious writers block in the last month or so. I've totally let the blog go as far as writing. Holidays are busy around here. Chris has a 2 week vacation coming up and his mom and sister are coming to visit right before christmas. He won't go back to work till the new year. I think we might try to tackle potty training the week after christmas and before Chris goes back to work.

We'll see how that goes. HA.

I am trying really hard to keep the weight down, and stay focused on my goal. 155 lbs by 12/31 I think that is doable, its only 6 lbs to go.

Even now I still have major writers block, like I have so many scattered thoughts and no way to coherently write them down.

Blaaaaargh

Its been ages since I wrote anything, and even longer since I wrote anything of value. Its been insane here with moving and holidays and life and just.....blargh.

Some things that have been going on though.

Oliver is getting his top four teeth!
Carson learned to put together puzzles all by himself.
We got our fence up in the back yard and our christmas tree is up in the house.
Carson's room is painted a really nice muted grey color, he's getting a SUPER HERO ROOM!!!
I've been holiday shopping and trying to stick to a decent budget for that. Its hard though. But I have to work on reigning it in. Even if I've gone over budget for everyone so far.
We've been working on presents for the grandma's and papa and Gunty.

Decorating the house during the holidays has been stressing me out so I'm just waiting till after the holidays.

Weight loss is working for me right now. I've been running which is really awesome for me. Since most of the time, if I'm running, you should be to cause something is chasing me. I've lost 11 lbs since I added running into my nightly (ish) routine. Hoping to hit my goal of 150 lbs by the new year.

Holiday Post

I'm super jazzed about Christmas, I know....Thanksgiving and all. But with the move and everything being just SO busy in october, we literally did not do anything for halloween besides take our kids trick or treating. I haven't even been a good blogger.  I have some super cute pictures of the boys trick or treating.

After moving to the new house (yeah that happened FRIDAY!! So excited! I'll have some posts coming up about decorating and art) I am so excited to get out my Christmas boxes...first I have to dig them out. No this excitement does NOT mean I'll be putting stuff up before Thanksgiving. But I am lusting over holiday stuff at Target. It also means I am thinking about presents. Chris' job is back up in the air. It always is, but we don't know whats happening in the new year, so we are trying to be a little less lavish with the boys.  We've spent a LOT of money on just Carson the last 3 years, on top of the normal year round "oh you need this" giving.

So that leads me to searching out ways to be creative AND make sure the boys have a fun christmas morning. How do you do it? I'm thinking we might try the Want, Need, Wear, Read. Approach to gifts this year. Plus a a few toys for each of them.

I mean obviously Oliver won't care, and Carson is such a happy go lucky kid he'll just be happy with a couple new toys as long as some of them are new blocks.

I've got awesome crafts for the boys to do for Grandma's and Papa.

So what are some fun holiday traditions? I already have the boys Christmas Jammies, which I think this year our shelf elf will deliver December 1st. It always feels like such a waste to give Christmas jammies the night before Christmas, they are "outdated" in 2 days.  I am very excited to bring out Greg our elf on the shelf.

PNW Holiday Blog Party

First of all I want to say THANK YOU! To The Paper Mama. It was such a well run event and so much fun. Good work!

Second of all, I have a joke. A blogger walks into a hotel room with a Midget, a drunk and a Mormon.....What happens?   Oh wait, this isn't a joke, this fucking happened.


I had the best time last night. The event was run flawlessly in the gorgeous down town PDX West Elm store. When I first got there I was really nervous. Its like, meeting celebrities. I also felt like a total stalker for knowing so much about people, and lets face it walking up to someone and being like "ARE YOU MANDY FROM HARPERS HAPPENINGS!!!!" I had to work myself up to that one, because well she might be my girl crush.

I was lucky enough to get to go hang out after the event with Jenn @ PDXMAMA she's also an amazing photographer here in Portland, Ashley @ Ashley Everyday, Mandy @ Harpers Happening 

You know you're going to get along great with someone when they walk up to you and are like "YOU'RE WEARING MY FUCKING NECKLACE!"  Yeah that happened too. Shannon @ Glass Cast  noticed right away I was wearing my photo pendant. I LOVE it by the way. Perfect gift for christmas for Grandmas.

After the holiday party a group of us (probably 15?) went out to a bar down town and hung out there. This was after I went to the hotel room with the smiggen, the drunk and the mormon ;)

It was so much fun getting to go out with a big group of girls and just have fun and let loose. After the bar we really let loose. We headed out to a club called Dirty. Well it was. I totally felt like I'd stepped into the jersey shore. Its been AGES since I was in a club. But oh man it was so much fun. Everything from the super loud music and stripper poles. I gotta say I even got up there and shook my ass (after a shot of some blue koolaid drink) I don't normally do shots but that was delish.

The end of the night came around 1240 for me because I met the greatest lady she drove us over the the club so I wouldn't have to walk the 9 blocks in the night. She has these darling little twins that also don't sleep real well so we joked we'd be home for the first middle of the night feeding.

Got lost, got home just in time for Oliver's second wake up. Chris was the greatest. He was such a trooper. He had a great time with the boys and was excited I brought home presents.

Probably the most flameful thing I'll ever write

So its no secret I have a potty mouth. I mean, I have really tried. I've tried saying fiddle sticks. Oopsy daisy. But nothing really sinks in like a good ole, for fuck sake!

Its worse in the car and I'm pretty sure I've heard carson in the back seat yell, you goddamn moron.

But with fantasy football in our home and sunday being the day to worship a little pigskin. Well Reggie Bush sucks sometimes (don't hate me) But I found myself yelling "DO YOU HAVE A SANDY VAG??? COME THE FUCK ON!!!!"

Then it really hit home at costco, someone ran into my ankle (thanks lady shoving christmas shit in your cart so high you probably didn't see me) and Carson asked me, "Mama? you got sand in your agina?"


//DEAD//

Last Night

Tonight is our last night in our apartment. I am so excited and sad all at once. Its crazy to think that 25 months ago we moved here, Carson was just a baby, Oliver was just a glimmer of hope in our eyes.

I'm so over all these boxes every where. I can't wait to get into our new place and get it all set up and decorated.

A sickness has over come our home....

Its called Fantasy Football and oh man, I've got the fever.

If you've never seen The League  you need to go to your netflix queue and ad it, right meow.   ;) Seriously. Go watch it and then get back to me, if it doesn't make you want to ditch your lame friends and find friends with biting humor, and a solid common interest. Well you have better friends than we did.

Chris came home from Philly in August and had watched a few episodes with his friends. I saw maybe 3 or 4 episodes before I stated that we HAD to do Fantasy Football this year. The next morning, I'd created a league and instructed the husband to find me some people to play.

We settled on an 8 man league, small. We have a lot of different skill levels. Me? I know a lot about fantasy, and only really enjoy watching football I don't really "get" it.  Then we have guys that are already in 2-3 leagues, guys who do this multiple years.

Shockingly enough. I'm actually doing pretty well in our league. I read the Fantasy Footballs FOR DUMMIES book. Hilarious and very well written. Easy to follow.

Its crazy how intense it can get and I actually feel like we're getting closer with our friends in the league. Its nice.  We don't have a lot of close friends so its nice to actually learn things and have a "reason" to talk to our friends on the regular.

I get a little intense. I would not be shocked if Carson's favorite new phrase is "Do you have sand in your vagina???"

He's gonna be a cool little dude in kindy.

Happy Mail!

I am so excited for the PNW blogger meet up in a couple weeks. I ordered business cards for meeting all the other wonderful ladies! Is that crazy? I doubt it since we all don't want to be writing down our URLs all night.

In this crazy move, getting something exciting in the mail was great. I ordered from Vistaprint and am very happy with my order. Plus OWLS! So cute! Nice quality too.

Mr. Bubbles

Carson has been asking for a Fish for a while. Probably the last 6 months. Every time we'd go to Grandma and Papa's house he'd ask to bring home one of their pond fish. Well that shit wasn't happening.  Giant goldfish are not exactly a pretty house pet.

So with his BIG (3rd) birthday rolling around the corner. I took him to petsmart and we had a super fun afternoon picking out a tank, and a plant and of course....A FISH! When I asked him what the fishes name was, he proclaimed BUBBLES!

So here is Mr. Bubbles

The 411 on whats happening

We are MOVING! November 2nd is our official "get the keys to our new digs" move in day! AAAH thats like, 25 days away. Yeah I had a mini panic attack thinking about that. We are currently painting like crazy people, and packing weird knick knacks into boxes.

Chris has been awesome, and so supportive of how freaking freaked out I've been. I'm also a little sad. Even though we are so excited to move, this has been Carson's home, and the place we brought Oliver home too. Its been our perfect little apartment. But I am SO ready, we have a YARD! and a garage, 2 levels so we can put the boys to bed and watch TV in our living room for the first time in over 2 years.

I'll have a bunch of update pictures and a bunch of "How to get your deposit back" lol. Even if you paint your entire fucking lovely apartment, dark blue, green, orange, yellow, grey and teal.

I'm seeing just how OCD my hubby is, he is making sure this place is even nicer than when we found it. We put a 1,050$ deposit down. The goal is to get 750$ back.

Lets see how we do! Pictures to come!

Blogging Events

I am so excited since I totally missed the boat for the summer PNW blogger party! But I've been stalking keeping tabs on The Paper Mama waiting for this meetup to go live so I could buy my ticket.

Yeah, I'm super excited! I can't hardly stand it. To actually be in a room with people whose lives I "know" through their words and their photos. I'm hoping to get to actually know them on a more personal level.

Now I have about a month to agonize over what I will wear, how I will do my hair, and if I want to attempt ombre nails (with my luck they will be out of style as soon as I perfect it)

Gotta work on not being so socially awkward though. Thats the first step. I need to work on walking up to people and talking. Not rambling like a crazy person.

Hope to see some of my favorites. Like PDX Jenn! and Mandy from the Haps, and maybe even Ashlet!

Can't wait!

Perspective

2 weeks ago

10/1

I might have gained .9 lbs this week, and that was depressing since I've been watching my food, and working out often. But there is a noticeable difference in the last 2 weeks with how I look. 3 weeks till great wolf hopefully I can keep this up and look fab on our trip!

ETA: The Wii is stupid. I was 173 this morning, so I've in total lost 4 lbs since I started.

First outdoor workout

Tonight I did my first outdoor work out. Normally I just go to the gym, do my cardio and some yoga and pilates and head home. Normally about an hour and call it good. I always work up a sweat, and burn some calories but working out, outside is just a different kind of work out. Fresh air pumping through my lungs. I realized that I am in shape, just kind of chubby/fat. Which has got to be better that being skinny and out of shape.

I ran my first mile tonight in 9 minutes. I am not a runner so I have no idea if thats pretty good or not. But gotta start some where
My second mile tonight was 11 minutes. I did run into a spider web and fell off the side walk, flailed and was an over all ninja for a split second.

My play is to go do it again tuesday, again thursday.

Tomorrow morning is my weigh in. Fingers crossed I'm in the 160's tomorrow. Even if its 169.9

Things you don't realize you miss out on

When we lived in Portland we were always fairly active with our social circle. I was always big on not giving up that side of our lives just because we were parents. But then, we moved out to suburbia. Which we LOVE. We wouldn't live anywhere else with young kids. But at the same time, our social circle dropped off. We never see anybody and thats fine with us, we miss our old friends but it was not worth living in a big city with our kiddos. 

For the first time last night, we left the boys with a non family baby sitter. Granted it was our neighbor and she's awesome. We went out on the town for a friends birthday party. We had SO much fun. Things I took for granted before having kids: Hoop earrings, heels, a bra that lifts and separates (Non-nursing bra)  I thoroughly enjoyed wearing high heels last night, drank alcohol with out worry (thank you husband for DDing)  I never realized that I do miss going out and being able to just let loose. I haven't been able to do that for the last 3 1/2 years 

I missed my boys and was happy to snuggle with them this morning. But I am enjoying finding that balance. 

Hilarious Baby Picture!

Wait, your baby doesn't do yoga? What a shame...

Toddler Crafts: week 1

I'm really working on doing more hands on crafts and art with Carson. I realized recently that we do a lot together but he really lacks in getting to do art projects. If he was in Preschool this year he would be doing art a couple times a week. So I'm going to try to at least pick one fun art project a week and do it with him. This week I thought oh we'll do those fun yarn lanterns off pinterest. Well Carson hates being sticky or gross, so I ended up doing them. Its not as easy as it looks on pinterest.

Here is the recipe though for the paper mache glue.

1 cup flower mixed with 1 cup water stir together, then boil 4 cups of water and add to the paste. Stir and let cool. Also if you dip your finger in it to see if its cool enough, do NOT lick it off. It actually does taste like glue.

Here are our pictures, I haven't popped the balloons yet since we did this yesterday.  I'm going to hang these over his bed!

Potty Training

I am in no way a Potty training expert. I haven't even successfully potty trained Carson yet. A little back story, We started potty training Carson after his second birthday. He was mostly pee trained with very few wet accidents. But it wasn't the pee that was the problem. Oh now, Carson had chronic toddler diarrhea. Its a real thing. Nothing is wrong with him. We took him to allergist, we took him to the doctor had poop cultures done. The whole 9-yards. At the end of severally really pain in the ass visits, and a celiac blood draw as a "last resort" I couldn't what the issue with my sweet boy was. What was wrong with him? He was having blasto poop 5 times a day. Thats not exactly easy to get him to go in the potty. 

So now, almost a year later, countless "breaks" a million accidents, and a lot of frustration and me throwing up my hands and saying "We're done with this crap Carson!" and putting a diaper on him. He's finally truly showing some signs of actually being ready. Woah. At first when he'd ask me to take him potty I would say "no way, just go in your diaper." But then I realized, if he wants to go, I should let him go. We started out slow. We finally got his tummy troubles under control. HOORAY!*  

So here it is, he's almost 3. All our friends have potty trained their kids and Carson couldn't even go to preschool this fall because he wasn't potty trained. He couldn't do soccer either. I know that probably by January he will be totally trained. Thats my goal. Before the end of this year I want him going by himself to the potty. 

I asked him a few days ago, do you want to wear undies or diapers? He chose undies. So we are not putting diapers on him again. (with the exception of car rides. The carseat is hard to take apart to scrub) 

*We "fixed" his tummy troubles with a mix of Probiotics, fiber pills and vitamins. 

Weight loss

I'm going to post a picture of myself in the swim suit I  want to take with us to Great Wolf Lodge at the end of October for Carson's 3rd birthday trip. So be warned if you don't want to see a chunky, pastey, lady in a bikini just read the text and keep moving on.

I'm not really setting a weight loss goal. At least not right now. To me its not about the # on the scale but how my clothes look and fit. Soft or tight. I need to tighten it up and really start working towards having a fitter self. Not just for the sake of wearing my super cute new bikini to Great Wolf but also so I have better self image and health, for my boys.

My Start weight: 177 lbs
Problem Areas: Hips, Stomach, Sides

Work out plan of attack? Hitting the Gym ALONE MWF(Saturday) and power walking the other days with the boys in the stoller at least 2 miles.

Giving up? Soda. I think just giving it up completely will really help with the bloating.


I have 6 weeks to get my body into shape. I think thats totally doable!




Me in a swim suit

Moving sucks

I've written a couple times about how we're wanting to move from our apartment to a townhouse within the same complex. We just love living here, its well landscaped, we have a nice pool in the summer and a year round spa. We are close to work and lots of parks, and starbucks. But the people that live beneath us have taken the fun out of living in our apartment. I get kids are noisy and active. But come on, he's 2 years old and doesn't know ya'll exist. I don't actually care to keep him super quiet either, not if it means my happiness is compromised. My happiness > their happiness.

Last month while Chris was gone we got the call on a town house. But I made the executive decision based on what we had talked about that we did not want a deck, we wanted a patio. Whelp. Now looking back I think we made the wrong choice. We should have taken it, and moved. We would have been in it before Carson's 3rd birthday. Now we're looking at (hopefully!) a move around the middle of november. Thats best case scenario. Could be moving middle of December...

Oliver 6 Month Appt!

Oliver had his 6 month check up on Thursday! It was also the first time I've left Carson with someone other than family. He stayed at his best friends house while I took Oliver to the doctor.

Oliver is a health 20.2 pounds and 27 1/4 inches long! Holy smokes! He's a big guy!

I can't believe he's going so much and is just the sweetest baby. He's getting such a great personality. I'm just so in love with him.

Sleep has been going in waves. When we first sleep trained him at 5 months (CIO) he was doing AWESOME. To bed at 8 and up to nurse at 4. That was heaven.

Then teething really kicked in, up at 11, 1, 3, 5 and up for the day at 7. BOO! I was exhausted. So back to sleep training we go. We're now getting 8-230 which is doable. I know CIO isn't for everyone, and I am not endorsing it. But it worked for my child and myself. It breaks my heart hearing him cry, but he sleeps better and longer and is happier when he gets a good night sleep.

Hes up to 3 solid meals a day and loving all the foods!

Can't believe how grown up he is

My August Check list

I think we did pretty  decent. The moving stuff right now isn't happening so I'm not painting, and I'm not freakishly wasting time cleaning since I don't have to as of now. We did get a call on a townhouse, but it has a deck and Carson does not see boundaries he sees challenges. So we turned it down. I want one with a yard so I can put up a tall fence and just let the kids outside to play. If we have to wait for that, thats fine with me. 

Cleaning:

• Pick a hot day and shampoo all the carpets. They desperately need it.  -CHECK!
• Go through and clean up toys and get out wrappers and garbage  -CHECK!
• Pull out the stove and fridge and clean under them and the sides of them (So gross we haven't done this since we moved in. EW.

Kids:

• Take the boys to omsi and watch a super sized movie there -Check!
• Go to the park and blow bubbles
• Get Carson really acclimated for swim lessons -CHECK!
• Go hiking (on not the hottest day of the year) -CHECK!

Moving Prep:

• Paint the Hallway and the living room white
• Hang kitchen blinds back up after painting
• Replace towel and toilet paper holders in bathrooms 
• Fill nail holes before painting
• Take down pictures and artwork 
• Magic erase the "art" on Carson's bedroom door. In fact magic erase all of Carson's "art" 

Bad blogger...

Every once in a while life catches up with me and I'm unable/unwilling to write. I either have nothing funny to say, or I do and I'm so tired I just can't get it out.  I have a couple posts in the works that will be published by the end of this week.

A week with out a partner: Survival Guide

Oliver 6 Month Check up

Football Season! Whoop Whoop!


I'm so excited for these catch up posts. Chris was gone to Philly for a week for a business trip, however, I'm awesome and insisted that he go over the weekend too and hang out with one of his closest friends. I also surprised them with Philadelphia Phillies tix. Which according to his friend "Won MAJOR points" for me! Whoop! WOTY.

Oliver turned 1/2 last week! I can't even believe it. He'll be ONE before I know it! In a way I'm really starting to get excited for that milestone. His 6 month check up is this week and I am so excited to see how huge he is.

We've been so busy this summer I'm hoping with Fall (it starts after labor day here in this house) we will slow down, drink apple cider, eat pumpkin donuts hot from the farm down the road and just, breath.

National Breastfeeding Week

I saw a lot of things recently on facebook about it being national breastfeeding week(month?) but today when I was blog reading (while nursing) I was actually reading another PacNW mama's blog. Jenn @ PDXmama. I love Jenn's blog and I was thrilled to see some baby Oz pics and read a bit about her birth and nursing journey. I always love seeing the side of working mom.

I've had two very different nursing relationships. Especially in the beginning. I do believe part of the hurdle that I had when I gave birth to Carson was lack of skin to skin right away, there was also just not that much support at the hospital and I was kind of left to fend for myself as a new mom.

My milk was slow to come in, 5 days. I never supplemented and I regret that, my baby was probably starving and I was so against formula to do what was best for my baby. (I am NOT against formula feeders at all. Feed yo babies!)

After my milk came in, Carson wasn't latching properly. He had a really shallow latch and was a sleepy eater in the first month or so of life. We used a nipple shield and I pumped around the clock trying to up my supply.

We battled low weight with Carson. He has always been tiny but I think part of it was my low supply.


Recommendation to new nursing mothers

1. It will hurt at the beginning but once you get a good latch, it will get better. 
2. Get a good Lactation consultant. Le Leche League is amazing 
3. Make everyone aware how dedicated you are BEFORE the birth (I swear it was the reason I kept nursing Carson) 
4. Keep in mind that it WILL get better
5. If you need supplement to, just make sure that if you are truly wanting to breastfeed. Pump out that feeding to keep supply up. 

Carson and I had a rough first 12 weeks of nursing, but then when we finally got our groove on. We nursed until he was 16 months old. It was the hardest thing I have had to do was break the breastfeeding relationship. 

Oliver was a tad different. This boy LOVES to eat. My dr joked at his birth that he was the only baby she's ever seen that was latched on and nursing before his placenta was delivered. I'm not joking as soon as he was born he was rooting and ready to eat. Double dipper ;) 

My nursing relationship has been pretty much perfect with Oliver (except he is a biter) I am so happy that he has been such an easy baby to feed. 

If you have a newborn or are pregnant and want to breastfeed, please do not hesitate to contact LLL. Lactation consultants will work on a sliding scale if you can't afford an appointment. 

Le Leche League

I can't believe its August already!

Goodness. Its already the "last" month of summer. Its supposed to *almost* hit 100 this weekend. That will be good for my tomatoes but not so good for my little ones that are true PacNW-ers and wilt under the heat. So does mama.

I am going to start making to do lists I think. Its probably a good idea. Even if I don't do them till the last minute. At least I'll do them. Especially with Chris being gone for almost an entire week and me and the boys staying home. Yikes! We are playing it by ear whether or not we will go spend the time down with my family. I kind of like the idea of taking the nap time and bed time and getting some much needed work done on the apartment in prep for our upcoming move.

So here is my "to do" list for the Month of August

Cleaning:

• Pick a hot day and shampoo all the carpets. They desperately need it.  -CHECK!
• Go through and clean up toys and get out wrappers and garbage  -CHECK!
• Pull out the stove and fridge and clean under them and the sides of them (So gross we haven't done this since we moved in. EW.

Kids:

• Take the boys to omsi and watch a super sized movie there -Check!
• Go to the park and blow bubbles
• Get Carson really acclimated for swim lessons -CHECK!
• Go hiking (on not the hottest day of the year) -CHECK!

Moving Prep:

• Paint the Hallway and the living room white
• Hang kitchen blinds back up after painting
• Replace towel and toilet paper holders in bathrooms 
• Fill nail holes before painting
• Take down pictures and artwork 
• Magic erase the "art" on Carson's bedroom door. In fact magic erase all of Carson's "art" 

Its a pretty long list. Hmmm. Well we will see. My guess is that I will end up going stir crazy while Chris is gone and I'll bust out like 90% of my list in the 5 days he's gone. I have a love/hate relationship with Chris traveling. Its nice, because I get some solid 1 on 1 time (1 on 2 time) with my boys. We eat lots of take out, and rent movies. Everyone sleeps in the big bed. We watch movies to fall asleep. 

This trip is going to be extra awesome for Chris. Not only is he working towards bettering his career, he is going to be in Philadelphia! Which is where his best friend lives with his Fiance! I "surprised" Chris with two tickets to a Philly's game. But I suck at surprises and told him like 2 seconds after the tickets arrived. 

Instafriday

I haven't done Instafriday in ages. Doesn't mean I'm not snapping pictures! Follow me on IG @salenam

4 of my 5 favorite peeps. I don't give my folks enough love on this blog. But the truly are the greatest parents and grandparents! 

Oliver burst into tears when he realized no one was going to share the icee with him

Riding in the back of a tractor! Oh yeah

Family train picture

I ordered this from GlassCast a couple days ago. I will hopefully have it by my birthday next week. I am so excited to get it though. Its perfect and personal. Something that shows the loves of my life are always present in my heart. Also GlassCast is a local company! So nice to support a local business and artist!

Waiting for the train. My dad hadn't been to the oregon zoo since he was a child! I couldn't believe it. Crazyness

My parents spent the night last weekend and my mom helped chris bottle his beer! While Dad and the boys and I watched the olympics

Awe a good picture of me, my daddy, and my boys! Oliver is wearing his John Deere Tractor hat from his "first" christmas! 

My hubby, the pack horse

If this isn't how picking blue berries with a toddler looks. You're doing it WRONG!

My dad is so happy to have 2 little fishing buddies :) 

Thank you mom for a great picture of my boys!

Favorite baby mile stone

Some of our harvest! SO yummy theres a party in my tummy, so yummy so yummy. 

We got sad and probably good news all at once yesterday

Sad news I called and all the leases that were coming available in August got renewed. No Townhouse move *this* month. By *this* month I mean next month because were waiting for a 30 day move out notice. So most likely from the date we are told that we are getting a Town house its probably 30 days for those people to move out and another 7-14 for them to clean it and fix any damage.

Here is why not getting one this month was good news. Our maintenance guy came to fix my kitchen light. I love being a renter, yo.

Well we have a pretty awesome back and forth banter because he always gives me crap about him having to fix really odd minor things. Not in a rude way just teasing. Well I asked him to walk through our apartment and tell me what needs fixin', lots y'all.

All the walls are painted. While I LOVE it and am so glad we did it, I wish I would have picked less bold colors. Orange and dark blue, green and aqua are gonna be a pain in the ass to cover. So he suggested I go to the front office and buy the 5 gallon white paint for 55$ and at least do one coat over all my beautiful walls. To save the 175$ it will cost per coat.

He told me that while I take down pictures, art work and curtains I should buy some cheap puddy and fill the holes before painting.

Since we will more than likely have 45 days from notice of being able to move, to do repairs and repaint. I am not sure if I will start painting and putting things from the walls away. I just don't know. But my goal is to get back 775$ out of our 1050$ deposit.

We have a few MAJOR things that we know we damaged. Bathroom molding got destroyed by Scout when he had a panic attack and he scratched the shit out of it trying to get out.

We drilled a hole through the sliding glass door frame to get our antenna cord to come inside. That will be easy with some putty.

Tons of pictures on the walls.

I have to put the sliding glass door blinds back up. Hopefully they aren't to banged up sitting out in the pantry. I'm going to hang those back up THIS weekend so they can straighten out a bit before we leave.

So once we get the call (Hopefully Sept 1st!! For mid Oct) We will begin work. I will start documenting all my fixer upper projects to get these place back in top top shape to move out and hopefully leave it as nice (minus normal wear and tear) as possible!

Exciting News Y'all

We're MOVING! I've written briefly that we live in an apartment, we've lived here almost 2 years and its been over all a really great experience. Way better than the house we purchased in the ghetto 3 years ago (up and coming neighborhood my ass)

If you follow me on Pinterest you probably have seen a new board added. New Home. I'm so excited to move. Its another rental in the same complex that we currently live in. So its not a far move. But its bigger, has a YARD! and has a GARAGE! 

The Mr. recently got a surprise raise and we just figured we should take the plunge to having a bigger place to live! Also our down stairs neighbors suck, and I know they feel the same. 

We're just waiting to get the call saying one is opening up. Pinterest has given me the fever, y'all. I just wanna get into my new home and decorate and get settled. I want to move before the holidays, before Carson's birthday.

I don't know if that will happen. I just don't. I don't know when we will get the call saying that a town house opened up and if we are ready to go. I know from now on I won't be letting any call from the management company go to voicemail.


Here is a screen shot of our new floor plan! Can't wait to get moved out! It will be a bitter sweet move, this apartment has some of the happiest moments of our marriage, our childrens lives. No true "bad" memories here.  When we moved out of the property it had so many issues and was such a clusterfuck that when we moved all the happy memories had been replaced by sad, and disappointing memories.

Click to enlarge

Stepping out Saturday!

I didn't snag a very good picture of my "outfit" if you can even call it that. We spent Saturday at the GREAT STEAM UP! It was awesome. ACRES and acres of tractors new and old, a fabulous swap meet! You will meet my lovely finds during High on Thrifting Thursday! I scored! Then Chris scored later ;)


We arrived at the Tractor Pull at 9 am, and we stayed until 4. No naps for either child, it was about 85* which I know isn't hot for the rest of y'all, but in the PacNW its hot and we melt like crayons.

This is probably one of my favorite Pictures of Oliver and I. Riding the train!

My husband, rocking fatherhood like a Boss. I had to pee and so he offered to take both boys on the packs. Then he wouldn't give them back! 

Look at that sucker drool string! lol 

And this one is just always drooly

This is probably one of my favorite pictures of me and Carson. So much mama love in his eyes! 

These are 4 of my 5 favorite people! Grandma, Papa, Carson and Oliver! (number 5 was sitting behind me letting me use him as a back rest)

Carson was very very excited to kiss all his favorite tractors this weekend. But if it was dirty it just got a glare no kisses for the unwashed

Good lord cheeky baby!

I'm still recovering from yesterday. My back is killing me, my fair skin is a tad pink. Carson fell asleep in the car around 430 pm yesterday on the way home. He slept solid till 730 this morning. He did come crawl in our bed about 3, but that was fine. When Oliver woke up at 4 we went and stole Carson's bed. LOL. I love having my kiddo in a Twin!

Olympics watching is well underway! So much fun watching it with our boys. Carson really enjoys it so far.

Oh yeah, the outfit.

Myself: Sunglasses: Coach Thrifted, Top:Target Shorts: Target Sneakers: New Balance

The Boys: Tops: John Deere Shorts: Gap

High on Thrifting Thursday!

Ooh I haven't been thrifting in a while. Last time I went thrifting was a couple weeks and there wasn't any good stuff to be had. But last weekend, instead of hitting the deck running for garage sales, myself and a dear friend hosted a garage sale of our own. Man I never realized how many things **I** personally do while out g-saling that are annoying as all get out to the host of said g-sales!

1) Eye judging and not getting out. - Seriously people we had SO much awesome stuff people just passed up because we didn't haul it all out into the open. 

2) Going through personal NOT for sale stuff and asking us to make a price. This happened many times and was highly obnoxious. (I am not guilty of this. I usually err on the side of caution)

3) Throwing clothes that are displayed ON THE GROUND! WTF?

4) The talker - We've all been there but man we got some odd chatty kathies over the weekend. My friend, while awesome and sweet. Is also rather blunt and just got up and left on multiple occasions when randoms would walk in, share their life story and not actually buy anything. OR EVEN LOOK!

5) The Non-haggler - We lost so many sales over the weekend because people were just NOT haggling! What is up with that? At a G-sale you generally mark it up a little high so it gives the wiggle room. 

I hope this was fun! Add your favorite rules of thrifting and g-saling!  

Clean bill of health for Carson!

I got a phone call from the allergist yesterday. Carson is not allergic to gluten, he's not sensitive to it at all on the test. ::sigh of relief::

We have started to get a handle on his squishy poop by filling him with fiber pills twice a day and probiotics. I am so glad to at least be getting it under control.

Thats all I've got today. He's a healthy little bean pole!

Happy 5 month birthday!

I can not believe my sweet baby boy is 5 months old. He's crazy big and full of energy. I have a feeling these boys are going to put me through a lot of obstacle courses when they get bigger! Oliver is already starting to scooch on his tummy. We're working on going to all 4's.

O is the sweetest baby, always willing to give a snuggle and a smile no matter what.

Size wise he's over 19 lbs and 26.5 inches long. HUGE boy! Not fat, just chunky monkey!

Oliver LOVES food, everything about it. I gave him a bite of salad over the weekend, he inhaled the lettuce. He thinks his purees are delish and I'm still making all his baby food! I love knowing what I'm giving him.

I think at 6 months we'll start giving him finger foods too.

I can't believe my baby's are almost 6 months and almost 3. Where is time going??

My 5 month old...

I have a lot to say about this. But I'm short handed ;) nursing sweet O. So enjoy a few pictures!!

This picture is so flipping cute! Its so hard to get him smiling just in time! But I had help ;)

My Photography helper  

The trick is to coochie coochie coo O and then yank C out of the pic as soon as he's smiling!

Oliver blew his first rasberry today! On Carson's chest. Both boys giggled for probably 5 minutes! 

I love this Collage, 1 weeks vs 5 months! 

The allergy testing and other things

We got the results from the scratch test immediately yesterday. Negative. He is not dairy, soy, chicken, or chocolate intolerant. Yes I had him checked for chocolate. He eats MM's like they are going out of style. He picked that bad habit up from his mama. He tested "slight positive" to tropical fruit. Hence the hellacious diaper rashes that occur after he gets into tropical foods.

When those tests came back negative, we decided to just go ahead and have him tested for Gluten Sensitivity. Blood draws + toddlers = one sad mama. I had to hold him down. Why do nurses never offer to hold your kid down for you? Cause I honestly do not enjoy being the one to have to hold my baby to a table while they poke and prod him. I hate getting my blood drawn, I can't imagine being 2 and having it done. We go to the pediatrician tomorrow. I think I will ask the nurses to take charge and I will just hold my face to his face. Give him kisses. Not restraining him.  Yes tomorrow is another blood draw. I want his levels checked to make sure there is no underlying issue. We will discuss running further tests. Trying to figure this out. I almost wish he had an allergy to something, so it would be an "easy" fix.

Its a major conflict going on. I wish it was something easy, and the further I search the more concerned I become that something could truly be wrong with him. It could be nothing. It could just be, he's a kid that always has the shits.

He's starting to get quite the cocktail of pills every day. He takes 1 one a day toddler vitamin, 3 probiotics (1 per meal) and I am starting him on a toddler fiber supplement in hopes that maybe its just because he gets like 0 fiber form his awful diet.

I'm hoping that his levels tomorrow show he is in good health. At the very least, we can deal with diarrhea. I'd rather him have normal poop, but this is doable as long as he is healthy otherwise.

Potty training front? Well we've tabled that until he is having a months worth of solid bowel movements. I don't want to further scar him by trying to force an issue. Since he has no real control over his bowels (who would with constant diarrhea?)

His mood seems to be improving, his behavior seems better. I think we  will keep him off milk, not other cheese products though. I'm really hoping that we find the answer soon. I hate that my baby is in so much tummy pain.

More updates after his doctor appointment tomorrow

Allergy Specialist

I'm taking Carson to an allergist today. I'm nervous but excited, once we know what bothers him, maybe we can start working on fixing his stomach issues. He's so small it shouldn't take much to fix his digestive system once we know what to eliminate.

I hope its only allergies to stuff he will grow out of. Milk allergy scares me, if its life long, he'll never get to experience an ice cream social after swim lessons. Or go grab a pizza with his friends. Of course these are all down the road and I would always try to make sure he is able to do those things. But it is still nerve wracking.

We are seeing an allergist that not only specializes in digestive allergies, but also has a strong focus on celiac. Fingers crossed thats not a problem for C.

I must say I am incredibly thankful for the fact that we have kick ass insurance and I don't have to take him to only certain doctors. I'm basically able to take him where ever I feel will give him the best treatment.

I plan on keeping our appointment on Thursday with our Pediatrician mostly because I also want to address how to deal with his picky eating, and having his blood levels checked because I think he is anemic. He was "slightlly anemic" at his 2 year check up, but all they told me was I needed to get him to eat better. Obviously they haven't experienced an extremely picky kid. I try my hardest and its still not good enough.


Enough ramblings. I will be back later today with results. I've been a bit MIA recently because of family being here (SO much fun! Post to come!)

High On Thrifting Thursday

I feel like its been ages since I wrote a thrifting post, I missed it. But I sure haven't been missing out on thrifting. 

Over the holiday my mom and I went out to buy chickens. Not chicken meat, or eggs. Live chickens. Chris cleared out their coop and we wanted some chicks for Carson. No luck finding baby chickens, normal sized chickens, or roosters (keep the roosters!)  But I did have some awesome furniture finds this week. 

We swung by a couple garages sales and I found this 

amazing roll top desk. 

Its got amazing little cabinets and really awesome old brass handles. I just love it. I bought it for 20$ and when I got home, I sold my old desk for 40$! So on this, I made 20$!! Granted we met the people in Costco's parking lot and that store is DANGEROUS!  We do have plans on painting it. But I would LOVE some opinions (leave a comment!) on what color. I'm always drawn to teal. But I also love the idea of a green, or maybe even a yellow (teal accents?) 

20$!! but really I made 20$$

Then over the holiday I was browsing Craigslist for Twin beds for Carson. We'd been talking about getting him a "Big kid bed" for his THIRD birthday (if you follow me on Pinterest) you'll know that I am starting to have a minor mental break and am PLANNING a party. Woah. 

But anyway, last week I came across this cute wooden bed frame + mattress on craigslist. I texted the woman if she could send me a picture and why she was getting rid of it. She was on vacation as well and couldn't get a pic to me until today.  I spent a whopping total of 48$ on a twin sized bed, mattress, sheets, frame! Target had Sean White sheets for 7.50! I was really excited to get him a big set of big boy sheets. He threw a pretty giant fit over an 80$ quilt set. That was....well....parenthood

48$

Happy thrifting! Hopefully as summer rolls on we should be able to find more good stuff! 

Lego's helping my friends all around the country!

A wonderful, and far away (tear) friend of mine, Beth Anne over at the Heir to Blair wrote recently about how Lego and Blogher contacted her about doing a lego promotion. She tweeted excitedly about how much Duplos have helped her adorable son Harry! I was so excited to finally read her blog post about their speech therapy and the wonderful work the therapist and the legos are doing for Harry.

In our own home we use Legos for many things, we use them for play mostly. However, I'm always trying to work with Carson on counting, colors, naming animals and building his own creations.

My brother and I always played with legos, my husband and his sister played with legos growing up. Legos are timeless. They are eternally fun, no matter your age. The best part of legos is they don't have walls, everyone enjoys them. They encourage play time, learning together and playing together as a family.

Please read more about Harry's speech therapy over at The Heir to Blair

Carson's Food Allergies (gross poop post!)

So at the end of June I sort of threw a tantrum over the fact that Carson has been potty training for over 6 months and was still constantly shitting his pants. 3-5 times a day cleaning shit off your kid wears you a bit thin. Honestly.

I was mid tantrum when I really started to think about it. If I had diarrhea 3-5 times a day, I'd probably shit my pants at some point too.

So I was left to figure it out. I do not believe its just his body's "way" I think thats bullshit excuse to not do tests and figure it out. He never exhibited any allergy symptoms as an infant and I never eliminated anything from my diet.

I wonder though, in hindsight if maybe he had an allergy that we didn't catch because he was seeing a family practice doctor and not a real pediatrician till he was 15 months old. He's always been tiny. like 10-25% which isn't ridiculously small or anything. Its pretty normal and no red flags ever went up.

But after over 2 years of cleaning up diarrhea I knew we had to figure out something was wrong. I always brushed his gross digestive habits on his piss poor diet. He's a picky eater and when all you will eat is mac and cheese and chicken nuggets, apples and bananas. Of course your shit is going to be gross.


My mom is a huge advocate for going gluten free. Now I don't honestly believe in going GF unless you have a true sensitivity or intolerance or celiac. I am a firm believer in everything in moderation.  This could just be my love of pasta and love of home made bread talking. I want to exhaust all options before we try going GF, mostly because giving up gluten will be an entire family change. Not just a change in diet for Carson.

We are 10 days into dairy free toddler diet. Its been weird and I forgot the other day when I ordered him a hot choc at starbucks and with in 45 minutes of drinking this milk based drink, he had extreme diarrhea. He's been having the most solid poops ever, which is great.

I have a feeling its going to be a hard full transition since we are attempting to take him off milk, cheese, and yogurt. Three of his main food groups. But with foods like Almond milk, soy cheese (I am not a fan of soy and am searching out better options) and Almond cheese (bottom right squares!) hopefully we can make this commitment to his health.

I will update at the end of the month of dairy free toddler. If you know any great dairy free boxed mac and cheese dinners please share because thats C's favorite food and major suck, he can't have it.