July 31, 2012

Mommy Venting

We are in Las Vegas this week. Just me and the Hubs. We left Zoie with her Nana and Papa and headed off to Sin City for some R&R, visiting, and furniture shopping. Did you know we own a furniture store? More on that later :)

On to my venting...

What in the heck is wrong with these mothers that come to Las Vegas and bring their infants and young children along with them? I am not normally one to swear on this blog, but I'm gonna say it... What the Hell?!?!

Walking back to our hotel after a show last night around 1030, I saw probably a dozen or more babies. Babies! Little, tiny babies in slings and strollers and being held by younger siblings while their parents gambled. I am disgusted to say the least!

Not only were there infants out but the sheer number of children here is astonishing. Now, I am not against bringing older kids here. I am however, against parents that seem to 'forget' to actually parent their children while they are here. Take them out during the day and enjoy what there is to see. These young kids are out until well after midnight because their parents are having far to much fun spending their college education money at the craps tables to go upstairs and put them to bed at a decent time. I am not kidding you when I say that I saw a mother playing slots and yelling at her son to sit at the edge of the carpet until she finished. He was probably 4, maybe 5. I should have called CPS! I should have beat her up... But I was so shocked by her actions I did nothing :(

People wonder what is wrong with kids today... Oi Vey!

Ok. I am done now. And I am happier than ever that my baby girl went to bed on time. Safe and snug in her bed at Nana's house. I love you baby girl! See you tomorrow :)

July 28, 2012

Baby Sleepover

There comes a time when every mom has to do it. That time for me is now. Tomorrow afternoon I will be leaving Miss Z with my parents for four days. FOUR DAYS!!! It's a long time. Longer than the first overnight away from her probably should be. I knew I should have had a practice overnight a few weeks ago. Honestly, I don't even know where the summer went. But we are here, in this moment and I am so mixed with feelings I am having heart palpitations. 

I know she will be fine. She will be better than fine. She will have a wonderful time hanging with Nana and Papa. Zoie loves her Nana and Papa. Her Mama is the one having the hard time with this.

Seriously people... how could I not miss this face?!?


Or this one?


Or even this one?



But...
We will survive.
We both will!

I know it!

Mom, You better send pictures every hour!!!
And if she starts walking when I'm gone... just push her down. (wink)
(I don't want to miss it)


Also my dear friends and readers,
Have you had a chance to enter my giveaway?
Only 6 days left to enter.


July 27, 2012

Dieting... and Breastfeeding

Before I got pregnant, well actually, before I started trying to get pregnant I was in the best shape and lowest weight I had been in years. I had spent several months and lost 35 pounds. Yay Me! I was so proud of myself and felt awesome... I even wore a bikini :)

After that time, I went through massive hormone treatments, got pregnant, and gained 76 pounds over the course of about a year. UGH!  Ugh, is an understatement to how I felt physically and how I am currently feeling about myself and my weight.

When I had Zoie in November I was at the heaviest I had ever been in my life. I am almost ashamed to admit that I weighed in at 226 when I had the little Miss. Well, not completely ashamed though, because of what I have to show for the sacrifice to my body.  Being pregnant was really hard on my body. My hips hurt so badly that some days I couldn't get out of bed or off the couch. I even had physical therapy to try to combat some the pain. Then there were hormones and cravings, all adding to my becoming heavy. 
Since that time though, I have lost 66 pounds. Mostly pregnancy weight and all that. But I really want to get back to my goal weight of where I started before the hormones.

My goal is to get back to 150. Shouldn't be too hard, I am only 20 pounds away. But I can't seem to drop these last pounds. It seems every time I try to diet, my milk supply decreases.



HELP!

Although, I am not completely desperate to lose the weight right now because I have my beautiful baby girl to feed and that is far more important to me than fitting into my skinny jeans. I would, however, like to get at least somewhere close to where I was. But to do that, I need some help. I try to eat right... being summer and all I have indulged in a few Popsicles, but for the most part we eat pretty healthy in our house. I've been sticking to fruits and veggies, lots of salads and proteins. We try not to eat a lot of processed sugars, but occasionally have treats when we are out and about. I've been walking a lot and riding my bike. Not as much as I should, but as much as I have time for. I just feel stuck :(

I could use a little advice and help from other Mama's out there. How did you get back to your goal weight after baby? How long did it take? Did you have my same problem with breastfeeding? What do I do? Will I ever get back to where I was? Should I just wait until I am done breastfeeding?

More than help though, I need encouragement. I went clothes shopping for an upcoming business trip with my husband the other day and spent 10 minutes crying in the dressing room. The clothes didn't fit. The ones that did fit were unflattering. It was very disheartening. It would be so much easier if life was easy.

July 26, 2012

Embrace the Camera - July 26




It has been a long time since I participated in one of these! Geez... where does the time go?!?
I've missed checking in with all the lovelies over at The Anderson Crew.

I don't get a lot of pictures with my monkey. I practically have to force the hubs to take pics for me. Either that, or do the hold out the arm shot, which inevitably gives me a huge nose which you can usually see straight up! Ugh...

However... I was recently able to get a few pics of me and my baby girl when we were at the beach. Thank You Hubby!!


He even got a cool shot of me and Ry in the ocean, which I loved.


And of course, an Oregon Coast Vacation isn't complete without a trip to the Tillamook Cheese Factory.

And no trip to Tillamook is complete without a pic in the Tillamook Delivery Van! (Insert big dorky Mama here)

(If you don't live in the Inland Northwest and can't get Tillamook Cheese or Ice Cream - you don't know what you are missing!)

Ok Peeps! Go Link up with Emily and share the Love!





July 25, 2012

Giveaway!!

Hey Y'all!
Do I have your Attention??

I'm curious who is actually reading this silly blog of mine. I started this as a way to document the things going on with me and my family. Then I sort of got side tracked for a while.

But now I am back! (Having the Blogger App on my iPhone is helpful)
I have a very long list of things to write about, aren't you excited?

Until then ... I am going to do a little giveaway for those that are actually reading his thing. Cause I love ya. But mostly cause I am curious who is actually reading.

I am going to giveaway a $25 Target Gift Card to one lucky reader! 
To enter, please be a follower of my blog through Google Friend Connect (GFC) and leave me a comment telling me your favorite family vacation spot. I will pick a winner on Friday, August 3. You only have 9 days to enter, so get those entries in! (One entry per person please.)

Why 9 days? Well, cause 5 days is too short and in 1 week I will be out of town. So... 9 days it is.
You have until next Friday!

Good Luck!!

July 24, 2012

Purple Dinner

My garden is flourishing. I couldn't believe it. I got home from vacation and my veggies have tripled in size.

Tonight I had some steamed veggies for dinner. All from my garden. All planted and grown by Muah 😊
Well... Me and the sun and the soil and the TON of rain we've gotten in the last couple weeks. Oh Man! It wasn't me, was it? Well... at least I can say I pulled the weeds. See?? I knew I did something.

So, long story short. Good dinner. And the beets turned everything purple, which was kinda funny.

July 23, 2012

Looooonnnngggg Day!!!!!

It's another long day at the hospital with Ry today. Ugh... We hate infusion days. BUT we should only have a few months left of this! Fingers Crossed!!

Today we are making the best of it. We've already made one trip to the cafeteria for frozen yogurt and we'll probably go back for another. :) we have movies and magazines and games to play. Shouldn't be to boring.

And... The best part? We have Monica! She's the best nurse we could ever ask to have. So loving and attentive. We ❤ Monica!

Happy Monday My Happy Readers!

July 22, 2012

Baby Girl on the Beach & A Big Nerdy Mama

A year ago we took our annual camping trip to the beach while I was 6 months pregnant with Miss Zoie.
As always, it was a long drive there... about 8 hours! But so worth it once we arrived.

The first thing I did when we pulled up to the sand was take a pic of my baby belly so I could show Zoie where she was on her "1st" trip out there. I ended up with this:
Fort Stevens, Oregon 2011

This year, almost one year exactly later, it was still a long drive.. but I have an 8 month old little monkey that we took with us :)
So... When we first arrived, I took this: 
Fort Stevens, Oregon 2012

I know... I'm a HUGE dork! But WhatEvs!

Seriously Though... She LOVED playing in the sand!
And this Mama loved watching her experience it.

We also ventured back to a few places where we took some family photos last year. 
It's not hard when you go camping in the same place every year. 

2011 ~ 2012
We missed having Ariana with us this year... but a teenagers gotta work if she wants the cash!
And are you seeing what I'm seeing???
Not only do we like the color grey... but look at that little teeny-bopper! Eek! Aged Much?!?

2011 ~ 2012

Are you seeing it??? How big of a nerd I am?? My family thinks so :)

Annnny-whooooo...
The weather was SO MUCH BETTER last year! But at least we didn't get rained on... except for that one morning... but we stayed snug in the trailer until it stopped. I wouldn't want to melt or anything :)

I'm thinking we should visit a new place next year. Still on the Oregon Coast or maybe Northern California?
Any suggestions??

July 18, 2012

Lost my shirt ...

I almost took my shirt off in Fred Meyer the other day. And not in the dressing room. Right smack in he middle of the camping supply aisle.

Here's what happened:
Something bit my back. I felt it, so Zach looked down the back of my shirt and didn't see anything. He didn't believe me actually. He thought I was losing it or imagining things.

Then ... it but me again! On the top of my back. By this point I was freaking out a little. But I couldn't just take my shirt off in the middle of the store. So ... I had Zach look again. And again he didn't see anything.

And then ... it bit me again on the middle of my back. So off the shirt went! Okay... Not all the way off. Only about 3/4 of the way. But far enough to get a show. Luckily no one was standing close enough to see anything (phew).

But I wasn't wrong, it was about this time a bug peeked out from near my bra clip and Zach finally saw it. So as I was wriggling in pain and fear (cause I had no idea what it was) and embarrassment; Zach was trying to get the bug off me and ... finally ... he did.

Stupid bug was little. I have no idea what it was. But it hurt! And it left red welts on the my back. I'm sure the security guards watching that got a little show. Oh well! Such is life :)

Shell Searching ... Early

Ryleigh had us up at 530 again this morning looking for shells on the beach. It took us about an hour to find most of the good ones. But we finally found a little stretch of beach that had a TON of sand dollars. In about 5 minutes I found 25! And Ry found more that 30! Insaneness!!

Let's just say, finding sand dollars makes her a little crazy :)

5 Years

Last month Zach and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary. I can't believe it has been 5 years already. Time really does fly when you're having fun. (wink)

This year, we were able to visit the spot where we got married. It was a beautiful vineyard on Underwood Mountain in Underwood,Washington.

It was a really special day to visit that spot again with the live of my life. I can't imagine my life without him. Thanks for taking such good care of us babe! I love you!

July 16, 2012

Beach Monday

It was a little disheartening waking up to the pitter patter of rain on the trailer this morning. This forcing us to miss the early morning low tide and our search for sand dollars. I admit though, it was really nice sleeping in until 7am. After all... That I what you're supposed to do when on vacation.

Lucky for us the skies cleared and it turned into a beautiful day! We spent some time in Long Beach, Wa and ended our day with a walk down the beach at Fort Stevens. We haven't found any sand dollars yet, but Ryleigh is determined to wake up with low tide tomorrow morning so we can go looking again. I think we'll venture north of the Peter Iredale Wreckage on the beach; see some history while we search.

We attempted a camp fire on the beach this afternoon but it was far too windy and even our wind break made of drift wood wasn't working. So we opted to have s'mores and burgers back at camp. I think we'll try for a fire on the beach again tomorrow.

That's all for now. Off to bed.

Have a great night!

July 15, 2012

A blog from the beach

The Beach at Fort Stevens, Oregon! How cool is this?!?

This is probably my most favorite place in the world (from what I've seen of it so far). Spending hours just walking on the beach looking for shells. Spending the day with my family.

The weather isn't perfect today, but tomorrow will be great! So far, Zoie is really enjoying her first trip to the ocean and I love watching her experience it :)

Packing Up

Had a great day in Portland yesterday. We spent the morning downtown. Went for a walk along the river then spent a few hours in the Saturday Morning Market. It was a HUGE farmers market, probably the biggest I have been too. Found some great Indian and African spices to try cooking with. Super spicy, but the samples were SO good. I hope I can duplicate the recipes with what I bought. Then I also found a cute skirt that was hand stitched an made from organic cotton. It is so soft and I just couldn't pass up buying something from the adorable pregnant girl. And then Zach picked up a 4 foot long picture of a Cannon Beach sunset. I sure hope it fits on the wall we didn't measure :)

After that, we headed to the Zoo where we saw so many great animals. Zoie loved the monkeys and Ryleigh and I loved the baby elephant. He was so cute, but already so big! More pics of him later. Zach's favorite was the bats, which we all agreed were incredibly smelly. And we only lost Zach's mom once... :)

This morning we are packing up camp and headed to the beach. We are lucky to have a laundry room in he RV Park. I was able to do a quick load before we headed out this morning. Now we have clean towels for the rest of our trip.

Happy Sunday Everyone!

July 14, 2012

Good morning Portland

Visiting Portland this morning. We got in late last night. Zoie did so good in the car. She didn't cry or get upset at all until the very end. At which point Ryleigh held her hand and she fell right to sleep.
Ryleigh loved that having her close made Zoie feel comforted. I like when ry feels like something she does makes a difference. Makes her a happy girl.

Today we are at an RV park just south of Portland. It is gorgeous here. I get to wake up and see these gorgeous flowers and our gorgeous girls. Could not have a better morning!

Off to the Zoo! They just had a baby elephant arrive... Can't wait!