Sophie is potty trained! It took much longer than I thought it would, but probably b/c everyone told me "girls are always potty trained in just a day or two," or "girls potty train in less than a week." Not my Sophie. But that's fine. It's done now. We were so close when it was time to leave on our trip and then the loose poop hit us. We had to go back to diapers. And then we were going to be in the car for 2 days straight and I didn't want any accidents so I made her wear a diaper. But by the time we got to D.C. I had Brandon take us back to panties again and Sophie was happy to be wearing them. (He's always more positive about potty training than I am, but I think it's just b/c he wasn't at home cleaning up the messes.) We had one accident one day and a few tiny leaks, but when we start making it all week with only 1-2 accidents THAT'S when I consider it done. She's been sleeping without a diaper much sooner than Christopher did when we potty trained him and done great with it. It feels so good to know that I'm done with buying diapers. Money in the bank. Well, maybe towards our new cell phone bill. But I thought those were a great reward. Don't you?

we are back. we had fun. we had lots and lots of crazy things happen. i don't have any photos and i'm trying to figure out the fastest way to post about our trip without it taking 3 hours to read about it. i'm working on it. finding time to do it is hard though. kids don't really like you to do things you like to do. i guess it's just payback for all the times we did that to our parents. i'll be back soon!

I was browsing my blog list today and saw another giveaway on there. I sign up for these most of the time, but I never win things. Ever. Ok, I won't something once, but they were trying to get rid of them anyway and didn't know wheat else to do. (If I had a circus-themed room in my house I would have been in luck.)

I feel bad about my last post. Probably b/c a friend that I haven't talked to in over a year called to check on me. I love her for that! She was someone who was always there to listen to you when you were frustrated. Then we moved away from her and it's been hard to stay in touch. Just know (and I'm sure you do) that I just needed to vent. And why I feel like you needed to be on the receiving end of it I'm not sure. Probably b/c there was no other person around except for the two little ones that had driven me to that point. But those little silly heads who later on colored their bodies blue and green with markers and called themselves superheros are now fast asleep in their beds dreaming of playing at the lake. I'm sure they will have me up bright and early begging to leave right now. I decided that I'm just going to lock them out of the kitchen so I can load our stuff up without them running circles around my feet.

They make me crazy, but I'm crazy about them.

I've had more than enough of my kids the last two days. They are making me so crazy!!! They are constantly saying, "Watch this!" and they move a finger. (wow.) "Watch this!" and they pick up a blanket. (seriously.) "Mommy, Sophie said no at me!" "Mommy, I want to sleep with you tonight." "Mommy, I don't want to sleep by myself. I don't like sleeping by myself." "Mommy, Sophie said poo poo." "Mommy, Sophie got two more cookies." "Mommy, if Sophie goes to the potty can I get candy?" All the while Sophie is just yelling, "WAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!" or crying "HOLD ME!!!!!!!!!!!!" and trying to climb on top of me. Not just in my lap. She will sit on my arms when I'm at the computer.

What do you do when your children fight and nag and whine all day, BUT you are potty training one of them and you don't want to take away the reward yet b/c you are afraid they will backtrack? But they fight over the candy. They whine over the candy. I hate candy. This is why I don't give my children candy. And yes, if you ever give/send my children candy, I give them one or two pieces and throw the rest of it away. That is how much I hate the stuff. It turns them into evil, mean, and very loud little people that I start to strongly dislike.

I think that Christopher is finally old enough to pick up on my frustrations b/c he will come and apologize to me and will even be specific about what he did that frustrated me. But it doesn't stop him from talking any less. He's really becoming quite the tattle tale.

My head hurts this afternoon. My ears hurt too.

We went to a birthday party and I was so excited about having some sort of conversation with other adults. Did it happen? No, b/c my kids were the only ones who wanted to go in the water and it wasn't next to the party area. Which I didn't really mind b/c it was there tempting them and it is kind of hot out, but I was the only mom in a swim suit and that's never fun. Nobody else even brought bathing suits for their kids. We were fully prepared with life jackets and all. I finally got them to go back up to the party to have cake and again later to watch the little boy open his presents.

I think what is making me panic is that one day Brandon will deploy and I will be by myself for months on end. Right now he's usually gone about twice a year for a week or two at a time. The good thing is, I'm definitely over feeling guilty about not wanting more children. (I used to want 5 and felt bad after having Sophie and decided that I was going to stop at 2 when everyone else was wanting more.) But like I said, that guilt has past and it doesn't bother me one bit.

I love my children. I know that I do. I'm just tired of this right now. Everyone hits this point some time and then you wake up one day and you are loving it. I'll get there. I'm just very thankful my parents are letting us come visit a day early. I'd leave right now, but we'd get there late tonight and I don't want to do that. I am really looking forward to going on a trip with my Mom and seeing my grandpa and finally seeing Brandon. Mom even offered to keep the kids one night so we can have a date night. I talked to Brandon this morning and he was going to a spy museum. I am SO going there!!!!!!!!!! I love anything and everything spy. Go ahead and laugh. But I do. Here's a story for you:

Last summer when our MOPS steering team had their meeting to plan the year we started the day by playing a game to get to know each other a little better. You picked up different pieces of candy and then they told us each piece represented something we had to tell about ourselves. Almost everyone picked up the same piece and the question that went with it was, "What is your dream job?" Of course it took me all of 5 seconds to come up with my answer and I was at the end of the groups and anxious to hear what these women I didn't know had to say. Guess what they all said.... "Well, actually I'm doing my dream job, being a mom is the best job I've ever had." And when it came around to me I said, "I've always wanted to be a spy. But only if I never married or had children b/c then I'd feel torn and I'd want to be totally focused. I'm not smart enough to be one, b/c you have to be really smart to do it, and I'm probably too small too. Has anyone ever seen Burn Notice? Yeah, I'd be Fiona." They all stared at me. I think a few people laughed. But I've actually thought about this a little more lately, now that Burn Notice is back on, and I realized, I wouldn't want any of that in real life, so what I've really dreamed about is just playing one on screen. But the hilarious part is (yeah, in case everything I've just said isn't funny enough) that I have absolutely zero desire to be on screen, on stage or in front of people ever.

Can you tell that I haven't talked to a single adult all week? I'm all over the place with this post! My best friend Tiffany just called me and I feel better. I miss her. I think I'm realizing this year is going to be harder than I thought. Well, maybe just this week. I'm not planning on everyone I know being sick, having company or being out of town all at the same time. I better go before I start digging around for some Zoloft. Talk to you again soon!!!

I don't have any photos to post today b/c I don't have the laptop and my desktop is over 10 years old and can't handle it. I could plug the card in, drive to the beach for the day, come home and it might have all of them downloaded. IF it didn't just lock up from nerves at the thought of having to download anything. It pretty must only works to do emails and the blog. I can't watch videos people post, hulu, youtube, netflix, any of it. Needless to say I've missed the laptop this week.

And more importantly, I've missed Brandon. It's never fun when your spouse has to go away and away he had to go. He's taking a tropical medicine course in D.C. and is really enjoying it. The residents get to pick a course to take during their time here to learn more about an area that they are particularly interested in. He has a passion for mission trips, especially medical mission trips. This course was a no brainer. I'm very glad that he has had this opportunity, even if it means going away to take it.

We've had a pretty good week here at the house. Monday we went to the Storeys' house and had breakfast and let the kids play outside. We've decided to make this a weekly event. Tuesday the kids both had mother's day out and I made myself stay out of the house the whole time. I know to most people this may sound simple, but I keep wanting to go home to sew, get distracted with things that need to be done and end up not finishing anything. I went to Target and just walked around as slow as I wanted. It was fabulous! Then I went to get lunch at Panera Bread and read my book. The mall is right behind there and I decided to go there alone too. It was great! Then it was time to pick up the kids. That night, the kids and I rode our bikes up to the big playground on base. I was so proud of Christopher b/c I wasn't sure if he would be able to do it without complaining, but every time he went over a curb without falling he'd shout as loud as he could, "I just went over that massive bump Mommy!!!" It was precious! We will definitely be doing this again.

Wedneday I had just Sophie and we went back to Target to return something that wasn't working from the day before and ended up buying more stuff. How's that? We stopped by a little water park and she played for a while, still in her clothes. Went home for lunch and I ordered iphones for Brandon and I (not the new ones) then went to pick up Christopher. We had Keenan and Moriah come over to play while their parents went to dinner with their aunt and uncle that were in town. We also had Chico come over and play for a little while with Brick. He's the adorable retriever puppy that lives behind us.

Thursday the kids had their last day of mom's day out for the summer. And I ran a few errands before going home to fold clothes. It would have been better if I actually put them away, but I didn't feel like it. We went to the big playground (drove) and let the kids play around for a while. It was perfect b/c it was overcast and they actually got a little cold. We took Christopher to get his haircut and Sophie somehow was cute enough to not get us in trouble b/c she was into EVERYTHING! I was just praying that she wouldn't break the chair as she tried to pump it up and down. I never know what to say when she's misbehaving and people tell me how cute she is. I usually just say she a real handful or has a mind of her own or something like that so they know that I'm aware of how bad she's ignoring every command I give her and not just a mom that doesn't care. What do you do? My children flat out ignore me and she's always done whatever she wanted to in places she knows that you can't spank her. That's why I like walmart b/c nobody there will look funny at you.

Today we were going to go to the beach with some friends but Sophie has a little bit of a funny poop and the beach is not a place you want to go with that. Sand only makes changing diapers more difficult and the potty is always too far away when you have to walk across sand to get there. I will say that she has made HUGE progress with potty training. If it wasn't for this funny poop thing we wouldn't have had accidents this week. She doesn't want anything to do with a diaper, even at night. I'm so proud of her! Whoever said that girls were easy to potty train never had a daughter like mine. She was a little faster than Christopher, but it was definitely more than the "day" or "week" that I'd been told. Now, if I'd only not bought that pack of pullups last week I was afraid I'd need. Oh well! I have people I can pass them on to. (Correction, since writing this post we have used almost the whole bag of pullups b/c she keeps having little accidents and I wasn't about to go through that many panties. It took some SERIOUS convincing, but she caved.)

Hope you had a great week at your house and have an even better weekend!

A year ago today was when we brought Brick home from the pound. He has been a wonderful addition to our family. Here is a photo from the day we brought him home.

He's wearing a cone b/c he just had his manhood taken away. Overall he's been a very good dog. We've had our moments of serious clean ups around the house, chasing him down the street b/c he ran away and finally got him to quit jumping on the sliding door. But just like children, those moments have been overshadowed by so many good ones that eventually the bad ones just slide away.

Today is also my niece, Anne Morgan's first birthday. She is so precious and we love her so much!! Just look at the posts below for photos of her. (I'm without a laptop right now and that's where all the photos are. I had to copy and paste the one above.)

Happy 1st birthday guys!!!

Today I found out that a couple in our S.S. class got some really hard news over the weekend. The husband has Stage 4 cancer. They moved to Michigan several weeks ago to be closer to family and right around moving time he wasn't feeling great and had to go to the hospital. The doctors thought it was one thing, but by the time he settled in at their new home he still wasn't feeling well. Then Friday they got the news. This is a young couple, I think he's only about 30 years old, and they had their first baby several months ago. I do not know them personally, but knew who they were. I do not know too many details so I'm trying to keep it simple so I don't say something that isn't true. But what I do know is that they could use lots of prayer right now. I can't imagine going through this with Brandon, especially at this point in our lives and I'm sure you feel the same way. So I ask you to please lift this family up in your prayers today and whenever you remember them.

The Ramages left for Texas last night. Or early, early this morning depending on how you want to look at it. It was a great two years and we talk about how fun it would be if we ended up at the same base again in the future. They have been hanging out at our house a lot over the last two weeks trying to stay out of the way of movers, cleaning ladies and the tiny little TLF they were staying in on base. Tiffany and I laughed b/c she said you know you are really good friends when you let them bring their dirty laundry to your house and watch you fold your husband's underwear. We fixed a big going away meal Wednesday night and then had them over for leftovers Thursday night when they realized they couldn't get everything done that day. We didn't mind having them back.

I learned that if it's hard to tell someone goodbye, just have them spend a majority of the day/night at your house for a week and then you won't watch them leave and wish you'd had more time to hang out. (and I don't mean that in a bad way) It just makes it easier to say "see you later" b/c you couldn't have spent more time together than you just did. It's the perfect way to see friends go.

The kids were very dirty and sweaty from playing outside on the trucks and u-hauls so we gave them baths. And let me just say, I have never seen water this dirty before. We almost showered them off just to rinse off the dirty water, but we really didn't care. We had to snap a few pics of the gang before they parted ways and of course they did it their way.... silly!!









On a completely different note, I found this video on the Slagley's blog and just had to put a link to it on ours in case you didn't read theirs. It is A-W-E-S-O-M-E!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (please say that in a high pitched voice while throwing your hands in the air, it sounds way better that way!)

Click here to watch it.

And then show it to your husband when he gets home and see if he laughs as hard as you did!

We just got home from our weekend away at the lake for the 4th of July. We had a great time with my family and also got to visit some friends while we were there. I'll post the photos later this week when I get a chance, so please check back later. They are downloaded, but just need to wait until everyone is out of the house so I can go through them all without potty, snack or drink breaks. Until then, check out my sister's blog here for the photos she posted.

I don't like to promote myself (not that I have anything to promote), but a blogging friend asked me to write a post for a blog that she and her friend started for moms. In case anyone feels like reading it, click here. It's more so I can have a record of the fact that someone outside of my friends and family found me just slightly interesting.

I hope everyone had a great and safe weekend and I look forward to seeing what all of you were up to as well!! : )

Sophie has decided that this week she doesn't want to wear diapers anymore. Sunday night I was just complaining about how much I dislike potty training. She did great on Monday, no accidents, and even napped in her big girl underwear. Tuesday she had Mom's day out and didn't want a diaper. Had one accident while there. Wednesday she was with me and I think was getting more comfortable with it and had a couple accidents, including one in her carseat. No fun for me, but am still proud of her. I think we might be done with diapers very soon!

Now, on the other hand, I went to pick her up from mom's day out and got some very bad news. She was not good today. She was very, very bad today. So bad that her teacher told her that she was going to have to tell her mommy. The teacher still didn't look happy when she was talking about it. I have been waiting for a day like this. I knew it would happen. Today was the day. Even Brandon wasn't surprised. Our little girl has attitude. Lots of it.

So, it's been a great and a bad week/day for us/her. She went straight to bed when she got home. What do you do? She was up very early yesterday and barely napped, so I'm not surprised she wasn't her fun little self.

But I had a great day. I got to spend the day with Tiffany in Destin. We went to Destin Commons to get me some new flip flops (need some with some actual support and no longer for cuteness). It started pouring while we were there. We went to Target to grab a few things. Went to have lunch at McAlister's Deli. It was P O U R I N G outside the whole time. But it was a great way for me to spend my time without the kids. We have done this numerous times together over the last two years and it was a great way to end our time together. Our families had dinner together last night and will tonight (love friends close enough to make these plans at 6:00 at night) and will have a big meal together the night before they leave. Gotta go out right, huh?

Hope you are having a good week wherever you are and have a great and safe Fourth of July too!