Good Riddance 2011

While this year had some great things happen - I have to say I am not going to miss it too much.  Shawn and I had lots of fun with Fisher, we sold a house, and moved to a much better city for us.  We have really enjoyed living in Knoxville and don't miss much at all about Ashland. 
But I will look back on 2011 as a tiring, rough year.  Moving, adding many job duties (and of course no more pay), the stress of finding Fisher a daycare and then not being happy with it and finding him a new one, had my gallbladder out, Shawn had his tonsils out and had several complications, etc,etc.etc.  Of course the most memorable thing for me personally is getting pregnant and then losing the baby.  That was hard physically and emotionally.  I had some stuff go on at work that was hard and some of it is tied into my pregnancy which has changed my feelings about some work related things and people.  So good riddance 2011. 

I am sending out 2011 on a positive note though!  My little sister Rebecca came in to spend the weekend with us.  We had a great time last night drinking wine and talking.  Today we went and had lunch with my grandmother, Mamadot.  I can't imagine anyone else I would rather spend the last day of 2011 with.  I am so thankful and blessed to have a healthy, amazing grandmother still in my life at 32 years old.  I enjoy every minute I spend with her and don't take any of them for granted.

Lunch date with Mamadot

Here's to a very Happy 2012 for our family and yours.  May this year bring lots of happiness, love, health, and joy!

A relaxing Christmas

It was fun experiencing Christmas with Fisher this year.  He didn't quite understand Santa but he sure understood waking up and having a tree full of presents!  Santa had set up a train table and a wooden train set and Fisher went to town.  We spent the entire day in our pjs - relaxing and playing together.  It was definitely a fun, relaxing day.

I have been thinking off and on about our little baby we lost.  I would be finishing up my 2nd trimester and prior to losing the baby I  was really looking forward to being pregnant at Christmas.  My mom and I had often joked that I missed out getting a pregnant Christmas ornament when I was pregnant with Fisher because I found out I was pregnant right after the first of the year.  I have wished often when looking at our Christmas tree that I had a pregnant Christmas ornament this year.  

Overall, we had a good, relaxing Christmas.  Shawn and I decided not to give each other gifts this year so it was all about watching Fisher enjoy his gifts which is good enough for me. 

Mamavation Monday - Valentine Edition

This week was moderately successful considering I didn't work out much. But I did stick with my plan of eating healthy and not turning to fast food as we prepare for our upcoming move. I lost 1 lb this week.

I am leaving today and will be traveling for 6 nights for work. I have a conference to go to and luckily it is in the town where I will be moving in less than two weeks! So I am going to be able to use the traveling time to do the conference as well as hopefully find a place for us to live and get Fisher on some daycare waiting lists.

So this week I am out of town all week and next week is the big move! I can't believe everything is happening so fast! I am getting super excited about moving to Knoxville. I went to college there and never really thought I would be able to live there as an adult because of the job situation, but after several moves, twists, and turns I have a great job in a town I want to live in! Definitely not something I take for granted in my profession. I am very much looking forward to getting established down there and taking advantage of all the awesome outdoor activities!

I hope everyone has a fantastic Valentine's Day. Since I will be leaving this evening for Knoxville Shawn and I will not be together on Valentine's Day. I don't think we have spent an actual Valentine's Day together since we have been married (almost 6 years). We are going to go to dinner this afternoon before I leave but since we don't have a babysitter lined up it is going to be a family event. Oh well. Maybe next year. lol

Goodbye 2010, Hello 2011

Another year in the books (almost) and along with most of the other folks I know I am looking back at the good, the bad, and the ugly of 2010 and looking forward to 2011 and hoping and praying that it will be a great year for my family.
Some of my highlights of 2010 -
Fisher had no nose surgeries in 2010. He was scheduled to have several but I struggled with deciding to do more or not. He had four nose surgeries in 2009 which opened his nose up enough to breathe, and then the ENT totally it up to me to decide if we should do more. He said I was the one that was around Fisher all the time and understand his breathing more than anyone else. So I brought in 2010 by canceling a nose surgery and then sitting on pins and needles for weeks wondering if I did the right thing. I am glad to say, I did! Though he will likely need more surgery in the future, he did awesome without it this year and is a truly happy, healthy, thriving, little boy. I think going with my gut and making this decision helped me get my parenting wings and I am a more confident, more self assured mom now going into 2011.
Shawn also came into his own as a dad. He matured and grew throughout the year and learned a lot in the process. Shawn had his first experience being alone for multiple days with Fisher early in 2010 and he did great. Since then I have taken many, many work trips and came home to two happy guys each time.
We also found out this year that we will be moving to Knoxville for my job. We are excited about living in Knoxville but have been busy and stressed getting our house in Kentucky ready for the market. I am happy to say that it is now officially listed but I will be even happier in 2011 when I can say it is officially sold.
In 2010 I also said goodbye to my Nana, I still have a hard time thinking about living in Knoxville without her there. I know we will miss her a lot in the coming year as we can established down there.
So what does 2011 hold for me and my family? I pray 2011 brings good health for me and my entire family. 2010 we have dealt with miscarriages, leukemia, heart problems, and multiple other ailments in my family. I hope that 2011 is a much healthier year all around! And I hope that sometime in 2011 Shawn and I will have things stable enough to try for our second son or daughter. We hope to have two children (though I seriously want three, but we can't really afford it) and would like them to be close together in age. Plus we aren't getting any younger :) So we will see. We have to get this move behind us and Shawn needs to get a teaching job in Knoxville. I guess that is why people like the New Year - there is always the hope that this year will be a great year. A year of health, happiness, and fruitfulness. I hope all of my friends and family have exactly that and even more.
Happy New Year everyone!

Randomness

I am in the mood to write. Probably just a last ditch effort to procrastinate on working on the house, but whatever I am going to roll with it for a few minutes.
Speaking of the house. Oh my goodness, I feel like getting this darn house on the market has been drug out for years. In reality it has been drug out for about a month and a half thanks to our neighbors and their junk. The good news is, the junk is cleaned up! The bad news - our house is not ready - we need to put all the Christmas stuff away, super clean again, clean the carpets and the sun room. Which we can hopefully get finished today....if I get off the computer and get my butt to work!
But first -
We had a nice Christmas. It was definitely different doing Christmas at my own house and not at the farm with my parents and sisters. Having a toddler this Christmas as compared to a 3 month old last Christmas is about one million times more fun! Even though he doesn't really understand all the Christmas happenings he does understand opening presents and he did get excited about each one. He also ripped into a few of his presents early, which of course we just thought was cute. Fisher did get sick on Christmas day. Actually, he started getting sick a few days before Christmas. I noticed on Christmas Eve,Eve he was pulling at his right ear. I called my sister (a nurse practitioner) and she said that even it if was an ear infection it was probably viral and we probably needed to wait it out. Fast forward to Christmas day. We noticed after lunch he was a little warm and started giving him some tylenol. By five he was even warmer and I decided I better run to the only drugstore that was open and get him some ibuprofen too, just in case. I am glad I did because we battled a 102 - 103 fever all night long. It was a really rough night, he was up every hour or two screaming inconsolably. He slept with us for a couple of hours and then woke up burning up. I monitored his temperature all night, telling myself that as long as he didn't get to 104 then he was ok. Thankfully, he didn't. On Sunday I called my sister and she said that having a temperature that high was not normal for a virus and it was probably bacterial and I needed to get him checked out. So we went to urgent care and sure enough, he has an ear infection in his right ear. This is his first ear infection and I have to say - I am surprised how sick it made him!
I guess my random time wasting should come to an end. I hope everyone had a great Christmas and an even better New Year!

Healthy Holidays to you!

Did you know the average person eats crap during the holiday season? Cakes, pies, chocolates, fudge, gravy, and candied yams sure taste amazing but don't give your body much nutrition. Did you know that the average person has less time to work out during the holiday season? All of the shopping, parties, presents, and eating can really put a dent into the gym routine. This contributes to the average person gaining weight during the holidays and starting out the new year with a little extra pudge and a little lack of cardiovascular ability. Of course when I say the average person I really mean....ME! Not this year my friends! I.will.not.do.it. I will not take the next four weeks as my eat-anything-and-everything-I-see-total-free-for-all. Because you know what? I have done it before...actually 3o times before, and where did it get me? I ended up having sugar crashes, starving all the time, and oh yeah - a little post holiday pudge. So, no I am not doing it this year because I have been there, done that, so what is the use of pretending like I have never met a chocolate cookie before or that I never will again? I don't plan on abstaining from all Christmasy goodness I do plan on being smart about it and keep myself well these five ways....
1. It is ok to eat Christmas food and goodies ON SPECIAL OCCASIONS. These special occasions include our big family Christmas dinner and maybe an office party. Special occasions are not every night between now and Jan 2nd. The temperature dropping below 30 degrees is not a special occasion and therefore does not call for baking cakes, cookies, and hot chocolate. Other than the true special occasions I will proceed as normal - eating clean, low sugar, and lots of protein. I will remind myself that this is how I feel the best and feeling good is very important to me. Almost as important as that homemade cinnamon roll that tastes awesome but makes me nauseous after I have a sugar crash.
2. To combat the We-are-so-busy-with-Holidays-there-is-no-time-to-cook-so-I-will-grab-a-pizza disease I will preplan meals and most of those meals will involve a crockpot. It is super easy to throw something in the crockpot in the morning, work all day, pick up Fisher at daycare, and then chow down. It is almost as easy as stopping and getting a Hot N Ready from Little Caesars, and actually tastes much better!
3. Before holiday get togethers or going places where I will be assaulted by holiday goodies, I will make sure I eat a snack and I am not starving. Hunger makes me do insane things, like down a whole loaf of banana bread. So hunger will not be allowed to the parties and dinners. When I am not hungry, I can make informed decisions and if I chose to eat something super processed (pigs in blanket anyone?) or super sugary, I will be able to eat a reasonable amount.
4. To combat the We-are-so-busy-with-Holidays_there-is-no-time-to-work-out disease, I will do a 30 minute exercise routine every day from my computer. I have already started actually! I am doing 30 days of Shred (Jillian Michael's DVD) and I am on day 2. Since it is on my computer and I take my computer everywhere I will have the workout with me on the go. And 30 minutes? I spend more time facebooking every day than that :)
5) And finally - my fifth way to ensure a healthy holidays- is to laugh. Laugh, laugh, laugh. Laughing is a great way to workout the body and the mind and is guaranteed to counteract the stress and the frustration that can come with the holidays. When stuck in a traffic jam on the way to my parents house - I am going to turn up the radio and sing and dance with Fisher - it never fails to end in laughter. When great aunt Grace starts giving me a lecture on what is wrong with the young people of the world today - I will laugh it off. I will take the holidays as a time to hang out with my family, laugh about old stories, and create new memories.

What do you do to stay healthy during the holidays and counteract the stress?
Whatever it is, I hope you have a very happy, healthy holiday season to you and yours!

"I wrote this blog post while participating in the Bookieboo and Earth Footwear "All's Well That Ends Well" blogging program, making me eligible to win a pair of Earth Footwear boots. For more information on how you can participate, click here."

Happy Independence Day!

We are spending the weekend home, just the three of us. It is so nice to have a nice relaxing three day weekend at home!
Tomorrow we are going to cook out and let Fisher play in his baby pool.
I have a diaper for the occasion - it is a FuzziBunz diap that is personalized with "God bless the USA" on the back. I bought a huge lot of diapers from a friend when Fisher was first born and this was in the lot. I never really imagined planning what DIAPER Fisher would be wearing! But I do just that. And when I am shopping I will notice a t-shirt and think "that would match so-and-so diaper perfectly." I think it kind of makes up for the fact that there is so much less boy clothes and gear than girls - I might not match hairbows, but I make sure his diapers look good!
Anyway - hope everyone has a happy 4th of July weekend!