If you're a mom, you know that...

If you're a mom, you know that...

1. Spray n Wash is da bomb.
2. At any given moment, you might have a rock, a pine cone and a dirty tissue in your pocket.
3. Speaking of which, you also know that it really isn't THAT gross to pick your daughter's nose and wipe it on the inside of your pocket.
4. That really isn't spit-up in your hair.
5. Jean sizes aren't written in stone.
6. Mac N Cheese can be made in 150 different ways and they'll STILL eat it!
7. People who whine about TVs being babysitters don't really have children. Either that, or they have nannies - the rich jerks! :P
8. Poop can fly. So can vomit, urine and boogers.
9. "A night to myself" includes sitting in a bathtub in lukewarm water while your little one pounds on the door and yells, "Are you going poop?!"
10. The house is in an almost constant state of chaos... unless company is expected - then you're Martha Stewart and no one is the wiser.

Loving Preschool!

Anna's first day!

Anna loves preschool. She comes home with stories each day and can't wait to get on the bus. I'm so happy that this transition has been so easy for her. In fact, I'm pretty sure it's been harder on mommy and daddy more than anything! Every step of the way, whenever we were anxious, God has made things work out to make us feel comfortable. The bus driver knows our university and is very kind. Anna just went two days this week, but beginning next week, she'll be going four times a week. :)

PRESCHOOL! And Stuff...

A few items of business:

1. Anna starts preschool on Thursday! It's something new and exciting. I think she'll love it. She's so social and doesn't have a lot of playmates at home (for obvious reasons... only child). Tomorrow we have an orientation thing at the school. That should be a fun taste of preschool life for Ms. Anna!

2. Paul and I have started our last fall semester of our undergrad careers! It's... stressful! One week in and we've argued at least once, if not more (we almost never argue... unless stressed). *sigh* We're stressed and professors, so it seems, tend to be cruel and unusual when it comes to dealing out tests and reading and quizzes and papers and EXPERIMENTS (!?!?) to seniors. *head throbs* I just have to keep saying this will all be worth it in May when we finally walk!

3. My mom has been hanging with us for this semester and she's been such a help! I love her a lot. I'm not sure if I'll get to do anything but read psychology text books and stress between now and December, so... au revoir!

2 1/2 Weeks to Go

In two and a half weeks, Paul and I will be beginning our next to last semester here at NU! I'm honestly very nervous. I'm anxious to get things started and I'm anxious about how crazy I know everything will be. Paul and I will both be going to school full time. Thankfully, my mom said she would come for the semester! What a blessing! My mom is a little loopy, but I love her and I think the help will be a huge weight off from our shoulders. :)

More on Running

So, I'm still running. I try to run 4 times a week. My workout partner unfortunately hurt her leg, so now I'm doing it by my lonesome in the school's gym four times a week after my hubby gets home. I know it's slowing my progress. The day she got hurt, we ran for 2.4 miles and it felt great! Now it's hard to do 1 mile. BUT I am now running that 1 mile without stops and quite quickly, too. I've upped the speed on the treadmill to 6.0 (whatever that means) and up to 6.8 (steps per second maybe?). Anyhow I've also added weight training to my repertoire. I'm doing some weight lifting and leg... lifting? I'm really proud of myself for sticking it out for so long. I haven't stuck any exercise regime out since high school. I can tell a difference in my body, too. My abs are tighter. That little pooch under my belly button is almost gone (there wasn't much to begin with, but IT'S NEARLY GONE!) and my thighs and hips (where I gain and hold my weight) are slimmer, which is the very part of my body I've always wanted to tone. That alone makes me feel great. I'm wearing my spandex jogging pants and spandex tank top quite proudly and not feeling ashamed of my butt at all. :) Still needs some work, but I'm feeling confident! I'm also hoping it helps with stress management in the coming (and hectic!) semester. :)

9 months until graduation...!

Win: $100 Safeway GC

Mom Start is giving away a $100 Safeway Gift Certificate! I'm posting that on here because by blogging about it I'm getting 5 extra entries. I'm not ashamed. Being a college student is not friendly to a budget! We could use that extra money! So.... CLICK HERE if you want to go check out that giveaway. :)

Is it cheating that I don't get that many readers??? Hmm...

New Adventure: Running

I've begun to run. I started four days ago - today being the fourth. I've made it up to a mile now, but it's a slow, sad, pathetic, gasping mile. I really had to push myself today. I'm hurting in a lot of new places lol. And I kicked the couch with my pinkie toe and thought I broke it - so that really hurt and made the running a LOT harder to do, but I did it anyway. I'm hoping I pass a point where I stop nearly dying with each run. I'm sure I'll get there. But you know, it really feels good when I'm done running. I haven't run a mile since high school and now I'm doing it again. And I have a goal. What's my goal? I want to be in a shape. And even better than that, I want to be in shape for when we try to have baby #2 next year. I want to be in shape so I can have a better birth. I mean, Anna's was good in some ways. I came in at 3 1/2 cm and didn't feel any contractions. I sometimes wonder if I had gone into labor naturally if things would have been different. I wonder if Anna would have had time to rotate from that posterior position. I wonder if I would have thought, "I'm in labor!" and then when I got to the hospital, I would be like 5 or 6 cm. I would love that for the next one. Plus, I know that being in shape means a better birth. And I want another natural birth - this time no failed epidural - just no epidural at all. I know I can do it now. I have no doubts about what my body can achieve. I actually fear getting an episiotomy more than giving birth. I don't want to take pain meds after birth because of an episiotomy like I did with Anna - the pain meds caused complications that I talked about on this blog once upon a time. I'd like to avoid that altogether. And I'm hoping these changes make that difference. I don't want to be Miss Skinny America. I don't think I even need to lose weight. I was 118 last time I was weighed. I would like to have more muscle and less fat on my tush, though. ;) But really, my goal is to get in shape. If anything else like that happens, well... that's just the cherry on top. I actually have a workout partner now - a college friend. We start together on Sunday. I'm really excited about that! I think it should be fun. :)

Soccer Graduation

Anna graduated from Tot Soccer yesterday! She's done so well! The first couple of weeks she practically refused to kick the ball and hid behind the trees and gave up ten minutes into it. We thought we would have to quit, but she caught on and this last practice she didn't need me to hold her hand at all to keep playing and she dribbled... ACTUALLY DRIBBLED... the ball and participated in all of the games! At the end there's always goal time and she kicked TWO goals. Sometimes getting her to kick ONE is difficult. I'm very proud of her! My big girl! :)

Happy Oceanniversary!

Sandiversary? Oceanniversary? Anniverseary? :) Anyway, Paul and I celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary on the 19th and there was nothing I wanted more than to spend time with my family! We watched Toy Story 3 with Anna on the 18th - her first movie in a theater. We sat on the handicapped-accessible aisle and it was a good thing because Anna kept jumping up and walking around. She did a good job, though! And she loved it! Then on the 19th we went to Lincoln City, OR and spent time at the beach. It was a beautiful day and Anna had a great time running into the waves. Eventually she fell and laughed and then started diving into the waves and running from the waves. We had such a blast! On the 20th there was a Father's Day barbeque at my in-laws' house. It was a lot of fun and a perfect weekend. It went by too quickly, though. I miss living close to family. Paul and I graduate in 11 months and then we'll be able to move back home to Oregon. :)

Cheap Things To Do

I've been thinking of cheap things to do for fun this summer with Anna. Today I walked down to the waterfront with Anna until Paul got off from work. That was about a twenty-ish minute walk downhill with three hours at the beach. Hopefully that means Anna will sleep well tonight. Long story short, how can I entertain Anna this summer on a reallllllllllllllly tight budget? She gets so bored and ought to be in preschool. She's social and needs a lot of that socialization. So I guess we'll spend a lot of time at parks, the beach, and the McDonald's playplace. My mother in law gave me a nice list of things to do, so I might try them out. If you read this post, do you have any ideas? THING CHEAP OR FREE!!! ;)

Photoblog: Beach Day

It's been a while! And for a good reason, too. The semester has been a blur. It's finally summertime. My hubby pulled off straight As this semester. I had all As and a B+ (would've gotten that A if it wasn't for that one test...) Anyhow, today we went to the beach. The forecast says that today was one of the only non-rainy days for a while. Now the forecast predicts two sunny days in ten days. I really need summer already!!! If only we could bargain with God for sunshine. I guess, even if I could, I'd save those bargains for serious things, more important things. So, these are photos of our adventure today. Enjoy! :0)

About Preston

Preston is the little boy I was praying for. His little button is still on the sidebar. The family who was going to adopt him arrived in his home country and discovered that he had already been adopted by a family in his country. I'm still glad he's being adopted and it'll be an easier transition in his own country, I guess. The family will be adopting instead a beautiful little girl named Lizzy, also with dwarfism. I'm happy for that family! :D

New Photos

My beautiful girl! I made her a tutu and a headband for Easter. She danced and danced and modeled and gussied for the camera. She's so silly and sweet! She's excited about preschool next fall. Hopefully she gets in! :)

I won a contest a Fox.com/bones and got this in the mail today: A signed Season 4 DVD (signed by TJ Thyne AKA Dr. Hodgins), a photo, and a pen shaped like a femur. haha It's great! Totally made my day! :)

It's March!

At the beginning of May, it'll mark one year until we're OUTTA HERE! One year until Paul and I have our bachelors degrees in hand and one year until we are back in Oregon and amongst family. Visiting Oregon this last time really, I think, made us more homesick. *sigh* Plus, we've had issues with our financial aid--thankfully that looks like it'll be taken care of. It's so difficult with no outside support--no parents to cosign loans--no ability to do those things for ourselves. But we persevere. We want better lives for our kids. :)

Oh, and in case you didn't hear yet... Bones returns April 1st on Fox (Fringe airs directly after). Had to plug my fave show. :)

Well, Anna's napping for the first time IN THREE DAYS, so I'm going to do some ME STUFF. Watch a movie? An episode of SVU? The world is my oyster!

Gorgeous Spring-ish Days Here! ( Pics!)

The weather has been unbelievable here! Absolutely incredible! I'll share some pictures for you to gawk at! It's been in the high fifties (Fahrenheit) over here and so sunny!!! :) We have been to the waterfront and on walks! Gorgeous!

That's Interesting...

My background is all screwy. :/ I guess the photobucket bandwidth has been exceeded. My blog was designed by someone else.

First Ice Skating Adventure!

Today Anna and I went ice skating with my sister Jen's Girl Scout troop! It was a lot of fun, but it was very exhausting for me since Anna could barely stand by herself for more than a half a minute and I had to use all of my bodily strength to keep her upright. She may be three, but she wanted to be one of the big girls and skate across the ice like a pro. I took a three hour nap after coming home! haha :D It was so much fun, though!

My Little Shirley Temple

The cutest thing I saw Anna do today was to copy the first scene of Shirley Temple's Bright Eyes. As cars passed, she stuck her little thumb out to hitch hike. As they passed by, she'd continue to walk with her hands in her pockets. LOL! You can see that first scene a few minutes in here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fq4hnQMjaDM

Preston's Going Home!

Candace just posted on my blog (I wish I knew more about her) that Preston is being adopted by her and her husband! I read the comment on my blog and immediately started crying! Thank you, Jesus! This little sweetie just stole my heart from day one! I'm so glad that he stole someone else's heart! :)

Candace, please keep me updated. If you blog, can I have your URL?

Thanks!!!

Mutterings of a Tired Undergrad

Maybe I should title these posts after I write them. Sometimes I just write and have no real direction to go and I just GO there. We're doing fine. We've had some major hurdles concerning our financial aid that aren't really taken care of yet. :| I think Paul is just as stressed as I am. Today and yesterday we have argued way more often than we usually do. We actually don't argue too often, but I think we're just feeling this awful stress. I wish with all of my heart we could afford some sort of vacation. There are major drawbacks to going to college, sure, but I think that the benefits will outweigh the drawbacks. Right now there are days we just don't believe it. But logically thinking, we'll be able to afford more vacations post-Bachelor's than sans Bachelor's. Plus we'll be getting our MAs. I just need to take a breath. It sure would be nice to have a break, though.

As far as my education is going, I am immensely enjoying the psychology program! I love looking forward to my classes! I'm just afraid that my psych classes will keep having coinciding tests--ugh. The good news on that front is that I got a 98% on one of those tests and the next test I'm not sure yet. We'll get those results back next week. I think I'll be lucky to get a B. I was exhausted and my brain was mush by the time that second test came along and I struggled through it. I'm hoping I'm being my usual self--thinking that I did worse than I actually did. We'll see.

I think I'm going to take this time to sigh and hem and haw until I go to bed at around 3. Good-night.

I'm Back!

Well... let's see how to start today's blog! I'm sitting here just before midnight with class starting tomorrow at 8... STATISTICS! That's not too bad of a class. I just need to get to bed in time to keep from being really tired on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Today was kind of a terrible day emotionally. I'm not even sure why. I guess there are a lot of things stressing me. Money is one of them. We could always use more. Especially when you and your husband are students. I'm hoping to work this summer and at least have some fun with my family over the summer months. I haven't worked since before Anna was born, so that'll be new.

Another one is baby stuff. This is something I haven't been saying out loud too often, but EVERYONE is getting pregnant! I guess my biological clock is ticking away again. Either that, or perhaps I'm just feeling out of the loop. Anna is 3 now and I feel like I can't give her the attention (and fun!) that she desires. For that reason, I can't wait for her to start preschool. That'll be next autumn. We're hoping to get her into a sport this spring. We missed the deadline for Little Tumblers :( so perhaps soccer? Hopefully we'll get our returns soon!

Another one is thinking about our Master's (is there an apostrophe???) Degrees. Paul is looking at school in California... working for NBC Universal and going through their MA program there. That'll be fun, but impossible with a new baby. So... Anna might be eight before she gets a sibling. I guess that isn't too bad. At least eight year olds are self reliant.

Classes are going great. I love and adore my psychology classes. I can't get enough of them. This is the right fit for me!

I'll add a picture of Princess Day. Anna and I played in my wedding dress. She loved it! She said she was a princess! So, it was dubbed Princess Day!

Smiles All Around

Now I know why people invest their hearts into this ministry. Remember my first post about RR? I posted about Lera... and she was adopted! And then my second post was about Aloyna and guess what? She has a family now! They are calling her Aly and you can find her adoptive family's blog (Thanks Renee for the link!) HERE!

Photos: Oldies but Goodies

These were taken when Anna was 11 months old. Let me tell you, it's hard to believe that she's already 3 and we're staring down the barrel of 4! I should probably chat about what's been happening around here. Next week Paul and I start classes. We were wanting to put Anna in Little Tumblers this spring, but surprise, surprise we wont' be able to pay for it on time and she won't be able to participate. :( However, I did find out that Pee-Wee soccer begins in March and we'll have the 54 dollars in time for that. So, not all is lost. I just wanted her to get into Little Tumblers and be a little daredevil in a safely padded arena. ;)

Angels: Corinna and Katie & a Little Rant

KATIE
This week's Angel of the Week is this precious little one, Katie! She has such a gorgeous smile, doesn't she? How she will thrive when she gets home with her forever family! Could you be her family?

CORINNA
Corinna is a beautiful little girl who has spent the last 2 years of her life in a mental institution. She has SO much potential, and is close to walking, but spends much of her days lying in bed for lack of anything else to do. She was sent to this facility from another baby house we work in now, so it is imperative that she be saved!
The thought of this little girl escaping death and then not being adopted? It's just unthinkable! I pray to God that someone steps forward and becomes her mommy or daddy! Please, Father God.

Sometimes the thought of these children... innocent and alone in the world... going to institutions and dying... being tied to their beds... It makes me want to run around screaming like a madwoman! It's so painful. It's heartbreaking and heart-wrenching. But I don't want to give up thinking about and praying for these little ones just because it scares me. It's a reality for these kids. It ought to be for us, too. I hope and pray that Human Rights Advocacy groups are making a fuss about this!

Angel: Berkeley

Berkeley (36)

Girl, Born October 22, 2003

SIGNIFICANT RISK, PLEASE ADOPT ME SOON!!

What a stunning, happy little girl! Berkeley has long blonde hair and beautiful brown eyes. She was born with clubbed feet, but is able to walk holding on to a fence or hands or the wall. She is very determined and tries to do everything on her own. Surgery and therapy could change this little girl's life!

Berkeley does have strabismus (crossed eye), her records indicate hydrocephaly, but she certainly seems to be doing fine and not showing any signs of cognitive difficulty from that. She also has hypoplasia of her right kidney.

Source Page: Reece's Rainbow

I love this little girl's smile and big blue eyes. It just tears my heart out at the thought of her being transferred to an institution just because she can't walk! I pray someone adopts her soon!

I Need...

to write! It's been so long since I've written and I really miss it! I follow a writer (NY Times Best Selling to boot!) on Twitter who was kind enough to write me several times through Direct Messaging who told me to write each day. Even if it's just a paragraph. I think I'll take that advice. I'm going to start another blog connected with this sign in to share bits of what I write. It'll be password protected and I'll share that vaguely through here (such as: "It's my last name" or something like that). I need to get back on the saddle. I really love writing and it brings me so much joy and relaxation!

Something Happy: Snow Pics

I think I need to post something happy to combat the sadness of that last post. It's sad, but necessary, I guess. I should probably go to bed, too.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

I switch between feeling really depressed about these kids and feeling hopeful for them. People are realizing this atrocity is going on and they're starting to do something... I hope! It's just heartbreaking and I tend to let things like this really REALLY get to me, especially now that I'm a mommy. Ugh.

Preston's Prayer Button

I encourage everyone to choose a child from Reece's Rainbow to pray for. I want to help them ALL and take them ALL home, but I can't. So please consider this. If you blog, I don't mind helping you make a button. :)

Grab This Button
<center><a href="http://www.reecesrainbow.com/newsite/angelolderchild.html"><img width="180" src="http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b268/gussiebutt/distressed-layers-boys-will-be-boys.jpg"/></a><br/> <a href="http://mymommyology.blogspot.com/2010/01/prestons-prayer-button.html">Grab This Button</a></center>

Happy New Year!

I must be getting older because I'm ready for bed and I have no interest in staying up any later. Anna on the other hand... she could stay up for hours yet!