Thinking...

I have been thinking quite a bit the past couple of months about things I miss. The big one? Babies. I miss babies. Having a baby around the house, the smell of babies, tiny clothes, sweet sounds, nursing, even poppy diapers, sleep less nights and the tons of stuff you are forced to lug around with them. We are done having babies. We decided years ago we were done. It was a joint decision and it made sense. But, that doesn't mean I can't miss them, right? I know I am driving my husband nuts with the baby thing. Making him second guess our choices, wonder if we made the right ones. Of course we did. All the reasons we had then still make sense now. I think it's just that my "baby" is growing up. He started school this year. He's not so easy to snuggle with, he's starting to smell like "boy" and not so much like "baby". I tell my boys it's now their job to have babies. Not right this minute, now, but eventually.

Griffin was admiring my wedding ring the other day while he was sitting on my lap. I told him that one day he would find a woman he loved and she would love him. He would ask her to marry him and he could give her a pretty ring. Then they could have babies and she could stay home and take car of their babies like I do for my boys. He could go to work and take care of his family like Dave does for us. He looked up at me with those big brown eyes with a thoughtful look on his face and said " I don't want to do it that way". ROFLOL I asked him what way he wanted to do it, and he said he didn't know, but not that way. One day he will have babies. One day in the future, far from now. :) He will be a great father, just like his brothers will be. He will pick a wonderful woman of God, they will have babies and they will be blessed just like Dave and I have been.

Another thing I have been missing is homeschooling. I home schooled David for a few years and it was so much fun for everyone. It was stressful beyond anything I have ever experienced in my life. However, Lucas was undiagnosed ADHD and David was undiagnosed ADD, and Griffin was little. It was chaotic to say the least. Now, years later with David's ADD and Lucas' ADHD under control I know things would be different. With that being said, I would not pull David out of High School. He likes it and I don't think he would want to go back to being home schooled. However, Lucas and Griffin are a different story. I look at how my boys interact. They are great with each other. David has tremendous patience. Right now he is upstairs playing Nintendo with Griffin, who is 10 years younger than he is. He gets along so much better with them than most 15, almost 16, year old boys do with their younger siblings. I know that the bond they have has a lot to do with the fact that I home schooled him and they were together a lot.

Lucas and Griffin are not quite the same. They still get a long, but they fight a lot. It could be that they are closer in age. I don't know. I do know they don't spend as much time together not fighting as David spent with them when he was younger. They don't have as much experience in dealing with kids of varying ages. They aren't as patient with each other and with younger kids as David was with them. I think it's because they aren't exposed to as many kids of varying age, like David was. I think they are missing out.

My kids are getting a great education. Without the school system here we never would have known about Lucas' ADHD or David's ADD. Lucas probably would not have learned so much Spanish. He definitely would not have learned it as well if I was teaching it. There are some pluses to having them in the school here and I do not regret putting them in at all. However, I am a bit nervous about going back to the States. We don't know where we are going. We don't know what the schools are like. We don't know how well the kids are going to adjust to a new place. That is probably what is making me think so much. The changes we are facing this summer.

So, I will sit here and think some more and I will probably be thinking about different things tomorrow. :) Things like how we are going to ship the cats back. How much they are going to charge us to replace the carpet in this house? Where we are going? Are there any churches there that I will like? How far from family will we be? What's the weather going to be like? Is Dave going to be gone a lot? If he is, where is he going to be? See, I am never at a loss for things to worry about. LOL But, I know God has a plan and things will all work out for His glory. No amount of worrying or thinking will change that.

Sick Kid,Forgetfull Mom, and Cancelled Plans

Griffin has been to school a grand total of 1 1/2 days this week. He's been sick. Monday Dave picked him up early because the nurse called. I would have done it, but I was at the gym. (which happened to be the only day I made it to the gym this week. UGH) He was running a slight fever. Fifth Disease is going around in his class. I figured he might have it. So, I kept him home on Tuesday to recover. All seemed well.

I sent him to school Wednesday. No calls from the school to pick him up early. Whoo Hoo I picked him up from school and he spent the entire walk home crying. His ear hurt. Poor thing. When we got home, I put a drop of tea tree on a q-tip and swabbed his ear. Not a good idea. Apparently it hurts. BAD. I loaded him up with Motrin and re q-tipped his ear to wipe the tea tree residue out of his ear, set him up on the couch with a pillow and a cover, and let the Motrin work it's magic.

He ended up sleeping with Dave and I, which means I didn't get much sleep wedged between the two of them. He was still a little warm this morning, so I kept him home. He slept until I woke him up at 9:30. I had an appt, so Dave dropped the both of us off. After that we went to the commissary and picked up the truck. By the time we got home and he ate lunch, he was totally wiped out and crashed on the couch.

I asked a friend to pick Lucas up from school for me. However, I forgot that he has homework club after school on Thursdays. Yep, there goes my chance at the Mom of the Year award. LOL She came by on her way home with her kid, to tell me he was still at school. Gotta love friends like that. LOL I ended up sending David after him since Griffin was still not feeling well and I didn't want to leave him alone.

With Griffin being sick, and Dave working late, I had to let Lucas know we were not going to the Pack meeting tonight. This is the second month we have missed the pack meeting. I sent an email to his den leader explaining the situation.

So, dinner has been made, the boys and I have eaten and I am on my way out the door to get Dave from work. Just another normal day around here. :)

Family Photos

So, we finally got our family photos done. The last one we had done was when I was preg with Griffin and he will be 6 in May. :) I figured I would share them with you. :)

Here are the boys. Griffin is 5, David is 15 and Lucas is 8.

Dave and I. Aren't we cute? :)

This is one of my favorites. :)

10 Things About Me

10 Things...

Each player starts with 10 random facts or habits about themselves. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their ten things and include these rules. At the end of your blog, you need to choose 10 people to tag and list their names. Don't forget to leave each of the 10 a comment telling them they've been tagged and need to read your blog.

1. I have been married 15yrs. (16 in August)

2. I have 4 bothers and 1 sister.

3. I like rubber stamping and altering items.

4. I have 4 tattoos.

5. I have loved living in England and hate to leave.

6. I am moving back to the States this summer.

7. I spend way too much time online.

8. I have been married longer than my Mom. :)

9. I have 3 great boys.

10. I love Jesus. :)

OK, now I have to choose 10 people to do this next...so...

Erin, Chele, Amber, Laurie, Amy, Lori, Chrissy, Shawn, Mary, Tammy

Gettin' Fit

Well, so far this week I have gotten a workout in every day. :) Yeah Me!!! Yesterday I did 10 min on the eliptical machine and 20 minutes on the treadmill. Today I did 30 minutes on the treadmill and a 1 hour Pilates class. It was a nice class, but I like the one at Mildenhall better, I think. Today's class seemed less intense than the Mildenhall one. We shall see tomorrow. LOL

Tomorrow I'm not working out. I have bible study and other errand type of stuff.

Thursday I have a tour of the commissary after I drop the kids off at school. She's going to show us all the "good stuff". After that tour, I have an appt to set up a meal plan. I am going to try and squeeze in a workout between the two. I should have enough time.

Friday is the Pilates class at Mildenhall. I will be going to that one. I might do some sort of cardio afterward, I'm not sure. We'll see how it goes.

Yep, that's about it. I know that you are just hanging on my every word, but it's time for me to go. I've got a kid marinading in the tub. :)

Checking In

Well, the Largest Loser thing is going well. :) I am down 4.5lbs since the last time I weighed in on my scale. I don't remember the exact day, but it has been within the last week or so. LOL I planned on going to Pilates class today, but I have managed to come down with something. That's not good. So, I am going to recoup this weekend and go to that fit and ready class on Monday.

I have been doing pretty good on the eating part. I have an appt with the dietician next week to put together a meal plan. Until then, I have just been cutting back and eating more fruits and veggies. So, I will continue doing this until I get the meal plan. It seems to be working. :)

My Body Hurts. :)

So, I am doing the Largest Loser thing. It's going well. I have taken 2 exercise classes. The first one I did was Pilates last Friday. It was really nice. No sweating. I hate sweating. LOL It was a great workout and I was sooo sore Saturday morning. By Monday I was recovering, but my lower abs were still a bit sore.

So, Monday Tracee and I went to take a Fit and Ready class. First we walked on the treadmils for 30 minutes. I walked pretty slow. Then it was time for the class. Let me start out by saying I have no coordination whatsoever. NONE. So this class uses a lot of equiptment. We had to drag out steps, hand weights, a jumprope, a mat, and an exercise ball. So we get started with the cardio section, which involves the step. Here is where coordination is needed. Anything other than a basic step up, step down and I was lost. LOL There were times I just had to stop and watch the instructor and try to figure out how to get my brain to tell my feet to move correctly. LOL It was a hard class, but I will go back. Yes, I did sweat. EWWWW

Today my calves hurt. They are tight. I need to do some sort of stretching today to get my muscles relaxed. I don't think I am going to do any exercising today, other than walking the kids to and from school. Tomorrow I won't be exercising either because I have bible study and lunch with the women from bible study. I think there is another class on Thursday and there is Pilates on Friday.:) I should be recovered by then. :)

LIfestyle Changes

So, the base is doing it's own version of The Biggest Loser. It's called Largest Loser. LOL Anyway, it started this week and ends sometime in May.

This week is pretty busy. Monday was registration day. It did say to wear fitness gear(like I own fitness gear) but I had some things to do at the school and I wasn't wearing my ratty sweats there. LOL So, I showed up in jeans, boots and a t-shirt. That was fine for the weigh in and measure part and the briefing. However, they were doing a fitness assessment test. They are going to do another one later on in the program so we can see how we have improved. I wasn't planning it, but it's 15 extra points and you can always use extra points. :)

So, back to this fitness assessment. The first part consisted of running from one set of cones to another set. Fairly simple. When the tape beeps, run to the cones. Easy Peasy. However, the space between the beeps gets shorter and shorter. So, I did alright considering my physical shape and the boots. :) The second part was seeing how many sit-ups and push-ups you can do in 1 minute, I think. I say I think because I managed to crank out 1/2 a push-up and 0 sit-ups. So, I can only get better, right. Now I have to actually attempt to do push-ups and sit-ups. Oh, by the way, they were full sit-ups and standard push-ups, not the girly ones. :)

Tuesday I had a couple of classes. One was a nutrition class (Nutrition 101)and one was called Sensible Weigh. The Sensible Weigh was pretty good. It went over what we should eat, how we should manage our intake and all that jazz. We also got to set up a personal appt with the nutritionist to set up a meal plan. I am doing the personal appt with a friend so that it would be easier for her to fit everyone in. I am really looking forward to that.

Tomorrow there are a couple more classes. One is on emotional eating and the other is a behavior modification class. Before those start, I think we are going to go walking. That should be fun.:) So, since I only have capri's to work out in I need to shave my legs. LOL Well, I do have sweats, but I'm afraid I will be too hot in those.

I hope to keep updating my progress here, so stay tuned for more info. :)