MIA

Hello world. I stopped blogging really a few years ago and I hope that now that there is an Awesome app for blogging for the iPad that I might try to start getting serious about blogging again.

A look into my past

So I haven't faithfully blogged with blogger since around the time I got pregnant with my son. WOW!!!! That's been about 3 years ago. So let me start there.

Doctors don't know everything.

So as I found I was pregnant the doctors/midwives began running the normal routine tests when your pregnant. For months on end they could not understand how I didn't have gestational diabetes. I may be a big girl but that doesn't mean I don't watch what I eat or have to be labelled like that. I have seen some of the most skinniest people have health issues. I soon found out they thought my son had Down Syndrome which runs on my moms side of the family. Then it was Spina Bifida. Could a pregnant woman go to a doctor so much in one pregnancy. Sometimes I had doctor visits 2-3 times a week. So it was nerve racking so I decided this mama had enough that I was getting my tubes cut, burnt & tied. So that's what I had done. I had a planned C-Section many may not agree with my decision but I felt it was the best thing for me and my family. Especially everything that happen to my emergency c section four years earlier.

The first time I saw his precious face so tiny then:)

Coconut cake :)

Nom Nom Goodness I crave this the whole time. Think this was my birthday cake :))

So Leah's birthday was October 13th she turned 4 that year and I wanted it to be EXTRA special cause I knew hers as well as our life was about to change seeing how a new baby was about to come into our lives. I was soooo miserable. Felt like I couldn't do anything. My scheduled C-Section was set for November 16th. I was there to my remembrance at 5 am. But I was sooo ready to welcome him into our world.

Leah's 4th birthday!!!!

A day with mom & dad @ Chuckles

My Family is COMPLETE

After Devin's circumcision poor baby :(

1st Christmas!!!!

The kids LOVE playing together. Even 3 years later they are each others best friends. Sometimes I wonder why I didn't have another child sooner. I often worried that they would have too much of an age gap. But it's funny how kids adapt well to other kids no matter their age.

Devin LOVES bath time!!!!

He always has and I think he always will. He's ready for a bath clean or dirty.

I <3 my Le Le

His 1st Easter!!!!

Leah's 1st day of school!!!!

1st Halloween

1st Birthday!!!

Mommy + Daddy = Devin Elisha

Mommy + Daddy = Leah Josephine

 

So who looks like who?

 

 

Lost some weight but sadly I've gained back! It's a never ending battle. But I'm back at it so maybe I will start seeing results again.

 

He grew up!!!

Easter 2012

 

Leah's Spring 2012 pictures. Gosh she is a doll.

 

Marty & all our kids we where at the funeral home. In the last 4 years my husband lost all 3 of his brothers. So sad and my husband had to make all the medical decisions on one brother.

 

Rock Island State park

Leah & her BFF Jasmine

 

 

Our Girls

 

 

Christmas 2012

 

My sweet girl telling me goodnight

 

 

So that's us in pictures for the last 3 years!!! Wow have the kids grown. The school year is drawing to a close. At the beginning Leah had no idea how to sound out words and NOW she's reading books on her own. She's came so far in the last 3 years as a child who had a delay. That's another story. By the way. As you can my son is perfect EXCEPT for meanness. He's a boy that to be expected I suppose.

Posted with Blogsy

Old MacDonald Had A Farm EIEIO in HD with Lyrics by eFlashApps

My son loves this app. If you go to their blog you can also enter in to win an iPad mini. http://www.eflashapps.com/

Sisters of the Quilt by Cindy Woodsmall

Sisters of the Quilt by Cindy Woodsmall is not one of my favorites by her and I'll be the first to Admit that. However, this series is still pretty good. This is one of her older series and I guess I'm more used to her newer writing style, but I love everything by her. I received this book as part of the Blogging for Books website, which is a great website to get new books in exchange for reviews. This was the 2nd book of Cindy's I received through this program. Without this program I would not have discovered Cindy at all. In the "Sisters of the Quilt" Trilogy which I received as one book is really three books in one. This books contains "When the Heart Cries", "When the Morning Comes" and "When the Soul Mends". All great books. I do not think you will be disappointed and have really enjoyed being able to see inside Amish lives through her reading. If you haven't please check her out on Facebook.

No. Motivation.

So I'm going to do my best to blog more often. I just have no motivation to do anything at all. Our routine consists of getting up around 8. Eat breakfast, run errands if needed, lunch, nap time, housework which most likely involves doing laundry. Usually by then it's well close to 5-6 at night so I try my hardest to get supper prepared. Which is a task in itself with two children. Sometimes, even next to impossible. By then the kids daddy is well on his way home & wants family time. So sometimes it's well after 9 before I get dishes done. Then the kids need to be gotten to sleep. So by the time it's sometimes 11-12 before I'm able to get in bed. This doesn't include me getting my homework assignments done or getting a quick shower, ir even my 18 month old getting up 2-3 times a night. Ugh I just need to reorganize our schedule, maybe that would help. I'm just beyond exhausted. So my son took a short nap so maybe he'll be ready for bed tonight. Maybe I need to begin getting up earlier and get a routine. Hmmm here I thought we had one. I guess we do it's just not working for us.

Shrek & Friends at Gaylord

The Tuckers Take Tennessee is giving away a package of fun filled fun for the whole family. I would really love to win this. The kids would LOVE it and would really like a little Vacation so we can do something fun and enjoy being together. I was looking at all the comments of the blog post and it seemed that there was mainly just adults entering hmmm how sad though This is just my opinion but I wished it had only been open to people who had children, I think that is a little unfair.

nautical inspiration

Catching up on my 31 Day plan

okay I guess I should get with the program haha...not been keeping track. Life just gets busy and I forget to blog. I really need to put the blogger app on my iPod so that I can blog more.


Day 4--
Download a Smartphone app to help you keep track of your goals.
Such as a food journal. The lady who started this challenge stated she had Habit Factor. I have no idea what that is? But there are a few at the Apple app store I need to look into. I think The Spark people app is pretty good and I think you can actually add foods manually if its not in their system . What are you going to use to keep track? I really wished there was an app to keep up with foods, fruits and veggie intake, water intake, and exercise. I have not found anything I like yet.

Day 5--
Start logging your meals daily, it is eye opening!!
I know that when I track my meals it is amazing at how less I will eat cause I actually see what damage I'm doing with my eating. I suggest using an app if you have a mobile device and start tracking your food that way. Or you can track your food using a pen and paper doing it the old fashioned way.

Day 6--
Schedule a 30 minute workout for 5 days a week minimum. 
I have actually decided to do this starting tomorrow. I want to Walk every morning after I get up, then do a workout before my husband gets home at night. I'm thinking of doing Jillian Michaels Shred it dvd. Then on Saturdays after running errands I'd love to come home and double up on how many mins I'm doing throughout the week with my walk. Oprah done something similar a few years ago which was known as her Bootcamp. Always wanted to try it.

Day 7--
Plan your meals for the next week & make out your grocery list. 
This one is a hard one for me because right now with hubby being out of work we are really struggling. So we are just buying the necesities when it comes to grocery shopping. It just seems to be cheaper to eat foods that are higher in fat with a lot of carb content. So this is something I will have to work on.

Day 8--
Fit Step Goal: commit to getting at least 7 hours of sleep a night. 
Okay this is REALLY hard for me to do. My kids do not go to bed till around 11, yeah I know bad mom. But LEah is soooo hyper active and rarely gets in bed before 11 sometimes even later is she's not had her meds. I feel so bad about giving her meds cause she is sooo hyper that she will not go to sleep. But the doctor said to do it that way and even then she won't sleep well but its better than it was 2-3 years ago. I think a lot of it is the siezures she was having in her sleep. Devin it varies for him, he is almost 14 months so I guess he is still learning so sometimes he will get up several times a night. But for the most part he sleeps all night now that he's older and COMPLETELY weaned off the bottle he has done so much better with sleeping at night.

Sooo now I'm all caught up with everything. I will try to write again in a few days to hopefully show signs of impovement in some areas I've listed. I'm trying to change my ways but I am usually so tired from where I don't get a lot of rest that I just do not have the energy to eat right or to even want to go for a walk. I know thats bad. But here I am at almost midnight BLOGGING, why??? Because I really do not get much time to do with having to cook, clean, tend to kids and do homework. So now I'm off to work on a little homework before I can even go to sleep. I just feel like I don't have enough time in the day and then HAVE to nap with Devin during the day. Maybe our sleeping is just all outta whack lol... who knows maybe eventually as the kids get older they will straighten out.

Days 2 & 3

I'm running a day behind on the 31 Day Challenge so thought I'd combine yesterdays & Today's to catch up.

Day 2--
Share your goals with at Least 3 people that can hold you accountable. hmm not sure who can hold me accountable. Perhaps maybe someone on facebook can help me with that.

I'll update later when I have successfully done that lol.....


Day 3--
Make a Plan of action for Each of your Goals. Be Specific and include deadlines.


Move more by working out on my treadmill and doing various DVD workouts here at home.

Eat Less, even though there is still food on the plate does NOT mean I have to finish it.

Drink more water--carry more water around with me. Have water next to my desk, bedroom, livingroom and and fridge so that I always have a cold bottle on hand.

Loose at Least 30 lbs by December 2012
Start Body by Vi by March 2012

Goals for 2012

With it being a new year I know it may be cliche but I wanted to begin the New Years right!
I love Pinterest and I've found a lot of really great ideas for getting back in shape, eating right and just all around fitness tips. So I have found this 31 Day Fitness Calendar that I want to do as well
January 1st-- List 10 Goals for 2012

1. Move More. Eat less.
2. Drink more water at least 64 oz/ day
3. Find Healthy recipes especially for dinners at home with my family.
4. Eat out less.
5. Cut down on soda's.
6. Begin Body By Vi Challenge By March. It's an expensive program.
7. Find Healthy Breakfast/lunch options
8. Cut down on unhealthy snacking
9. Eat more fiber watch sugar/sodium content.
10. Walk/run 3-5 days a week. 1-2 x's a week workout DVD or Pilates.

The Christmas Singing by Cindy Woodsmall

The Christmas Singing by Cindy Woodsmall


My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Mattie had finally picked up the pieces of her life, the life she had broken by her first love Gideon. or that is what she's been telling herself. Life is comfortable for Mattie, in which she's just too content too mess with at this point in her life. She moves to Ohio, in which she lives with her brother and his family at first. She gets her business, "Mattie Cakes" off and running, her dreams are coming true. She's doing really well, her business is booming til one day an accident forces her to return home and face her past.

This was my first Amish-Fiction book, I received the ebook version and read it on My Kindle Fire. I received it in exchange of an honest review. I really liked this book was a very easy for me to pick up and read,really light & fun. if it wasn't fir being a busy mom I could if easily finished in a day or so. but instead since I'm a busy mom it took me about a week. I liked this book and hope to read more of Cindy's books among other Amish related fiction.


As I had stated I never read any Amish-Fiction before, but reading Cindy Woodsmalls' book "The Christmas Singing" makes me want to read more. I'm not sure what kind of books she's read in the past but really hope to read all she has to offer. She left me wanting to know more about the characters in this book. I received this book via Blogging for Books, and the only thing I received was an ebook version of the book in exchange of an honest review on my blog. I hope everything I've said will encourage you to look into read Amish-Fiction. Reading has made me more intrigued by the Amish faith, I don't know much about it. However I remember having a friend who came to visit family as a young girl. We got along really well and she moved back to Pennsylvania where she was from, reading this makes me wonder whatever happened to her.

"I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review"


View all my reviews

Gossip Girl Reading Challenge

You Know you Love me-- XOXO, Gossip Girl

I love the show Gossip Girl, I got hooked about two years ago. But never got to watch when it was on so I usually just watch it on The CW's Website, well about 4 months ago they came out with an app that has all of The CW's tv shows, full episodes!! YEAH baby!! lol So I'll clean and watch it at the same time now. hehe. I'm such an addict of this show, and it makes me miss New York City soooo badly sometimes. So I've decided to do this challenge and see how much different it really is. I've heard That Chance Crawford's character in the show is really different from what it is in the book. I've read in spoilers that he was more of a druggie and pothead. So he is much more than that. I think with the show the writers can have a chance to really make the characters grow as they have with him. My favorite Character by far is Chuck Bass I £££ him! I think his character has really changed from what it was as a spoiled rich kid, although he still has his moments. He reminds me of Today's Generation of Clark Gable, perhaps I'm wrong but he could be my Clark Gable any day. He just seems dark and debonair like Clark Gable was in his time. I'm such a Clark Gable fan too ahhh how dreamy. okay enough about that, here's the details on the book challenge and if your reading I hope You'll join in.

1. Gossip Girl
2. You Know You Love Me
3. All I Want Is Everything
4. Because I'm Worth It
5. I Like It Like That
6. You're the One That I Want
7. Nobody Does It Better
8. Nothing Can Keep Us Together
9. Only In Your Dreams
10. Would I Lie to You?
11. Don't You Forget About Me
12. It Had To Be You
13. I Will Always Love You (prequel)

Rules:

• Challenge will run January 1, 2012 to December 31, 2012. Participants can join at any time throughout the challenge.
• Create an intro post, linking back to this post.
• Sign up using the Linky below. Make sure to add your post about this challenge, not your blog home page.
• All forms of books acceptable (audiobooks, eBooks, etc.), rereads are allowed and these books and be used for other challenges.
• You don't need a blog to participate. Just ignore the Linky and sign up in the comments. Leave any thoughts about the books on the challenge's review linky post.
• Reviews, while always appreciated, are not mandatory.

Happy Feet Two

Leah before Watching Happy Feet Two in 3D

     So we decided we'd take Leah to her first movie EVER! Granted we watch movies all the time at home so it was a completely different experience for her. She has been begging me for weeks to take her to the movies. At first she wanted To see the movie Puss in Boots, but we've seen the Trailors repeated over the last few weeks and I think that had something with her decision in the end. I really loved Pink's role in the movie. It depicts a mother's true role in every sense of the word "mother".  She plays Gloria whose son, Eric wants to find his place in this world when he gets upset with his father and goes off with his two best buddies to another area. His father finds him, but getting back home is a journey in more ways than one. Getting back isn't so easy and Mumble who is played by Elijah Wood must find a way to reunite his family once again. Its a very heartwarming story, but I do not think it is for everyone. My husband had said that if not for the singing and dancing it would be a very boring movie. But I guess it just depends on what you like. I think this movie truly depicts how our world is being impacted by Global Warming and its effects. About two months ago I took a Science class, in which I didn't think I'd like very much but it had became one of my favorite classes I've ever taken. I always said that animals and other living organisms adapt to their environments and this is really true in this case. However, they did not just want to adapt, their survival could not handle that. They not only adapted but they had to find a new way of surviving. So they go on a journey of finding a new way of surviving. I liked how they showed that everything in colder climates aren't covered completely with snow anymore that in fact there is grassy areas, in addition to areas of puddles and little ponds of water that was once frozen with ice and snow. It really opened my eyes what is really happening in places like this especially after taking this science class a few months ago. I've always felt that we have the power to make a difference, but I know not many people feel this way too. I thought I would include the song that Pink sung that I fell in love with. Enjoy! I really love this song, its so moving. A great message as well. I also wanted to say I loved Brad Pitt's and Matt Damon's role in the movie, they made it even more fun.