Red Wine and Sippy Cups

I am considering the perks of downing a bottle of wine tonight. It has been one of those days. I love my daughter, but this two year old bit is getting OLD! It is a good thing she is cute because there were times I might have packaged her up today (not seriously, so don't report me) and fedex'd her to Nana! This was day three without her normal three hour nap. She at least took one today, but only for an hour. She has also refused to eat anything that is not in the shape of a fish or multicolored with chocolate in the middle (meaning M&M's). So on top of being over tired and just plain 2 she has low blood sugar which makes for a grump (which I understand since I get this way too, but not voluntarily). So tonight maybe the apple juice will be replaced with a good Cabernet and Mommy might sit on the couch with a good movie drinking wine out of the sippy cup. Who knows after today her binky might be good too:) Doesn't that make a great mental picture?

You Have Got to be Kidding!

About the time that the movers were moving us into our house I contracted Hand Foot and Mouth disease from my sweet little girl. This was about a month ago now. After a week of painful blisters on my hands and feet and inside my mouth I thought that I was good. Well, little does the online info on this illness tell you that a few weeks later your hands and then feet would start to peel! Yuck, as if the initial onslaught of this thing wasn't enough it had lingering effects! So my peeling just ended a few days ago. I thought I was good. No more peeling hands and feet and then it hit today....the best part of it all...PEELING NAILS!!! Yep, you heard me right, one of my nails is peeling up from the base. It is just gross. I started to notice that the area above the cuticle was getting really light and then a little while ago I noticed what I thought was my cuticle, but to only find out that it was peeling upwards and that it was my nail. Thank goodness there seems to be new nail underneath, but come on this is getting ridiculous! I am freaking out that my nails are going to fall off and that my toenails are next! I just paid almost 50.00 bucks for a pedi last week. I don't want it to peel off from the nail. I am hoping that it will be a one nail event since none of my other nails seem to be discoloring. Hoping and praying! The thought of the whole thing just has me weirded out. Luckily Mary Cate never had any of this peeling business. Good thing, I can't imagine dealing with a toddler whose nails are peeling off. I am hoping that this is the last hoorah for this thing and it will finally GO AWAY! Luckily I haven't been contagious in weeks, but I just want to forget about this experience. It is seriously one of the yuckiest and worst illnesses I have had. So here is to hoping that I keep my nails (and toenails)!

Just Haven't Had Much

Okay, so I am apparently the world's worst blogger. It is just that I haven't had anything lately. Life has been busy though with getting the house together and birthday parties. The house looks great and is about 97 percent put together. The only room we really have left is the fourth bedroom, but that is Doug's room and I am not touching it with a ten foot pole. He has went ahead and hung the deer head and the fish on the wall already. We are in dispute about the bed size to put in there though. We have a twin bed that is in the room put together right now (no sheets or anything else on it though), but Doug wants to put a queen bed in there. The room is 10x11, which to me is NOT big enough for a queen size bed and a desk. I told him that we have a full bed in our son's room and that when we have guests they can stay in his room and we will put him downstairs. He is just not happy with that option. He wants to have a "nice" room for guests. I just want to know when we started to run a hotel. It doesn't make any sense to me to have a room just for guests when we need it for other stuff. If we had a five bedroom house we would have a guest room, but we don't. I am pretty sure I will win this one in the end. Plus, our guests will want TV and cable and the spare room doesn't have it and our son's room does.
We threw a double birthday party for the kids last weekend. I few weeks early for our son, but I am SO happy that we went ahead and got it out of the way. I love to entertain. I love to cook for others and to welcome people into my home, but it is tiring. I can't imagine doing it again in a couple of weeks. Plus, it get expensive to throw a birthday party. Logic tells you that it should be cheaper to have it at home then to out source it, but it isn't! You don't have the initial sticker shock that you would at a bouncy place, but in the end I am pretty sure we spent more. Next year we will out source. The kids had a blast and it was great to see all of our friends. Now if I could just convince myself to clean out all of the excess food out of the refrigerator.
Now on to the weekend, the last one before school starts. I cannot believe my baby boy is starting kindergarten, but I am ready. I love him so much but he thrives in school and mommy needs a break. I love seeing his smiling face when I pick him up from school. I cannot wait to see him learn to read and write. We meed his teacher tomorrow and hopefully the teacher in me will stay away and I won't be too critical. It will be hard, but I can do it.

At Last

Well, we are all settled into our new home and I LOVE it!!!! It is nice and big and only a few years old so it even has that new smell to it, which is something you don't usually get in Army housing. The move was not without its glitches. The movers in El Paso were HORRIBLE! My poor husband was left to deal with them on his own as the kids and I frolicked on the beach in Amelia Island, FL (so sad for him). I am pretty sure he is blacklisted from moving companies in El Paso, but they were late and unreliable. What can you do other then complain? Then I rushed up here with a feverish child in tow because I thought I had to meet the movers here. WRONG! It took them over a week to make it to VA from El Paso! How is this possible??? So I had my sick child, my mother and my antsy child all with me for over a week. Although we did make a detour through Hickory, NC along the way and my mother found a new dining room set so we detoured my husband through Atlanta to pick up a UHaul and to bring her old set with him. So score for me since I was in DESPERATE need of a nice table. We also bought a new couch before the movers got here since sitting on the floor is NOT fun.
The day the moving truck pulled up to my new house was the day my mother was leaving, which defeated the point of her being up her for a week. She was supposed to help with the move. Oh well, luckily my sister stepped in to save the day and took my kids that day. In the end everything got here in good shape. We only had a few minor things break, which is a change from the norm. I have told my husband I don't plan to move for awhile and that he better find a way to make that happen. We will see though, you just never know.
I am slowly getting to know the area and learning that I REALLY hate traffic. It is horrible at ALL hours of the day here. I am just going to have to learn alternate routes, because sitting still on the interstate is not my idea of fun. I can't wait to really get out and see the sights around here. I love the fact that I have so much right at my fingertips.
I registered John for kindergarten this past week. School unfortunately doesn't start until September. Flah! I am very ready for full day kindergarten. Don't get me wrong I love my son, but we will all be happier with a break. Plus, he loves school and needs the outlet to get rid of his energy. I started the school shopping today, which felt really good.
So onto my new life in a new city and actually having friends and family around.

I've Done My Time

Today is my last full day in El Paso. I am always excited to move no matter where we are living at the time, but this time it is at a whole new level. Even when I am excited to move I am usually a little sad to be leaving something behind, whether it be friends or memories. I just don't have that here. I haven't attached to anything here. I really feel like I have been in a kind of prison over the past year. I know that sounds horrible, but that is really how I feel. I have found no redeeming qualities to this city at all. The school system is horrible, the people are rude and not very welcoming (and have NO meaning of personal space which drives me insane), not to mention you really do feel like you are in a whole other country since I am pretty sure that English is not most peoples first language. We just didn't bond. Maybe if I would have had a house that I liked...nope not that. I have cursed these "school" tile floors more times then you could even imagine. I am just ready to break free. I will be saying Adios to El Paso as my plane takes off in the morning and not looking back.

Now of course I am VERY excited to be moving to the DC area. I am not only excited to be moving the a city that has nice stuff and a ton of stuff to do, but more then that I can't wait to be near my friends and family. I love the fact that I am not even there yet and I already have things planned. It will be so great for the kids to have their friends back and to be near their cousins. This is such a great move for us and I am going to be baking LOTS of stuff for all the people who made it possible for us to leave El Paso a year early. I hope they like sweets:)

So ADIOS El Paso! I would say it has been nice knowing you, but it hasn't!

Yes, that is me in jeans I haven't worn in two years!

I have lost 15 pounds and counting! I have decided that there really isn't a better feeling then putting on a pair of pants that you couldn't even button a couple of months ago. My mother in law asked if I was going to buy new clothes. Not yet, right now I am enjoying the ones that used to fit me.

I would like to say that I have been so good and have exercised it all off, but I haven't. My wonderful broken toe has put a hold on cardio. I have just been dieting. Now I would LOVE a big juicy cheeseburger and some fries, but I just keep on telling myself that the numbers on the scale taste much better. I still want to lose about 10 more pounds, but that really isn't that many anymore. I can do that. I just feel so good right now that I don't want to stop. I think that once you get over the first few pounds and really start to notice a difference it is easier to continue.

Now I just have to make myself exercise (once my toe feels better....it still hurts) to tone up my new smaller body. That is the hard part, since that is the part I HATE!

No! I am not ready for this yet!

My daughter is convinced she wants to potty train. Here is the problem

1. She is not even 2!

2. I AM NOT READY!!!!

Potty training is a lot of work and messy work at that. I don't like the messy part at all. My son caught on to this the first time he pooped in underwear and never did it again. It is just gross and luckily he realized that quickly.

My daughter has been pulling me into the bathroom for the past few days to "pee pee". She really does go and is so proud of herself, but I am just not ready for this step yet. Diapers are easy. Yes, you heard me right...easy. I hate it when you are in the middle of a meal in a restaurant and you get to hear to six little words, "Mommy, I have to go potty." When they are first training you can't tell them to hold it either. It is go or deal with the messy consequence. There is a reason that my son wore a pull up for all outings for the first couple months after he potty trained. I don't like to clean up messes!!

I don't know where this sudden eagerness of hers to use the potty is coming from. I am not encouraging it by any means. Yes, I praise her after she goes, but I am not asking her if she has to go. My husband thinks this is absolutely wonderful and that she will be potty trained before she is 2...yeah...I don't think so. It would be great if he was the one home all the time with the kids, but it is me who deals with the brunt of all things kid. He really thinks that he had something to do with our son potty training...right. He was working late at the library on his MBA!!! Nothing wrong with that, but I do deserve the credit on that one and am not willing to share. He did his job and I did mine.

potty break....

Back from the baby going "pee pee". This is really getting old!!!

Maybe I should just rejoice that she has an interest, but I really don't mind another year of diapers. Trust me there are worse things. Like...wet clothes in the middle of a restaurant. Just saying.