It's been awhile....

It's been awhile since I've visited this space.  Frankly, I was a little depressed, then a little cranky, then super vacation busy, and now crazed from our move. I was pretty sure that if I blogged, cranky posts would have ruled. So I just avoided it.

The month of depression was January. The combination of freezing temperatures and dark dark days slapped me upside the head after the holidays. Seriously, having about five hours of lackluster sunlight per a day messes with my mind. While I love Alaska, I will not miss the month of January! The event that catupulted me into the depression was finding out that if we sold our house, we would be paying for all of the realtor fees and selling costs out of pocket. That was not in my master plan.

After I finally dug myself out of my dark hole and started looking for property managers to rent out my house, we were already into February. The estimates of what we could rent our house out for and the terrible terms of most of the property managers made me incredibly cranky. At the same time, I was looking for weeks to see if I could get a Space-A* flight out of Alaska to somewhere in California. While usually flight would run every week, there was a dry spell where nothing was going to the right side of the country. I was miserable and desperately hoping to get home for a little love from my family.

Finally a flight to SoCal hit the rotation and I was elated. I packed my bags, loaded E up, made it on the flight, and settled onto the C-17 only to have my son scream bloody murder for the hour we were delayed on the runway. We got off before it departed. The lesson I learned? Practice using earplugs before the trip or invest in some heavy duty noise canceling headphones. :D

With Space-A firmly relegated to something we should do when E is older, I bit the bullet and booked two tickets to spend three weeks in California.

By then it was March. While I was eagerly waiting for my trip, I got a call that my mom fell while substituting and broke her hip. Although she's 65, my mom is NOT old enough for something like that to happen! Thankfully, she's a trooper and dealt with her surgery, subsequent infection and jumped right into her PT.

The same night that I found out about my mom, E made his own trip to the ER when he tumbled out of a shopping cart. When it happened, I was horribly upset with myself. However, now that I know he's fine, it's simmered down to out-right mortification.

Finally in late March, we flew to California where we played in the sun, hit lots of parks, got together with old friends, hit Disneyland and spent lots n' lots of time soaking up time with the fam. I can't even tell you how much the trip just rejuvenated me. At the same time, the time with my family and friends made me miss being around people with whom I have deep connections.

When we got home in April, we immediately started getting ready for our big move to Kansas. Since the snow stuck around so long this year, we've been really busting through the outdoor maintenance we needed to do before our new tenants move in. Time has passed so quickly and now the movers are coming tomorrow. I can't believe it's already here!

Anyway, thanks for hanging around and being patient with my lack of posts.

xoxo

*For those not familiar with military-speak, Space-A is one of the privileged perks to military families where we hop on the extra space of flights that the Air Force is running a mission on. It's not super easy or comfy, but it can get you places for almost nothing!

Vegetable confusion.

So, no one ever tells you about this type of toddler conundrum...

Tonight we were sitting at my parent's dining table in California after dishing up some deeeelish Chinese food (of which I can't get in Alaska).  The much spoiled grandchild was sitting at the head of the table flanked by Granny and Papa.

While he was busy tasting all of the dishes, I noticed that he was enjoying his veggies. So I speared a piece of sautéed squash and passed it to Granny to give to E. He took it, and papa said, "mmmmh a cucumber." I didn't want him to be surprised when he tasted it, so I explained that it was a piece of squash.

E looked at it, grabbed it off his fork and squeezed it.

As the liquid dripped out of it, I exclaimed at him, "Oh, don't do that!"

He said, "squash."

And then I got it. Squash.

My son squashed the squash.

That's toddler logic for you!!!

xoxo

Happy blogger news....!

Such happy news for SIF...check it out! 

xoxo

A New Day

It's blowing my mind that we are in 2013.

Although I initially planned to dedicate December to extolling my love of E, I couldn't do it after Sandy Hook. Once the dedications to each victim started appearing all over social media, I just felt gutted. As a mother, I just kept picturing losing E. Logically I know that none of that should stop me from celebrating my child, but I couldn't write it.

As December moved along, I went through a bevy of emotions after a seriously long cycle and then a crappy period. I'm pretty sure I was a rotten witch to my husband most of the time. With my mom here from Thanksgiving to Christmas, I indulged in some fabulous cookies, chocolate laced banana bread and cinnamon rolls. I'm pretty sure my bum is still spreading from those, but it was worth it. 

Christmas itself was a picture perfect day. Scheduling a late Christmas Day dinner around E's nap time made him a happy and cheerful little boy. 

More than anything, I loved how excited he was about opening presents this year, making our gingerbread house, and having guests over for dinner. Hearing him say "cistmis" and "santa" in his little voice was something I hope I never forget. 

Before I knew it, Christmas was over, the tree was down and my mom was back in California. That gave me some serious blues for day or two. I regrouped though and started reflecting on the year and making some new plans. Typically I don't make New Year's resolutions because they don't typically work. Yet this year, I have some distinct efforts that deserve to be amped up.

1. To eat less processed foods.

2. To increase my sporadic exercising to consistent activity.

3. To be okay with whatever happens on our last FET. 

4. To put down my iphone more.

I hope that 2013 is an amazing year for all of us. Happy New Year!

xoxo

E Love Day 7: My little helper

E cracks me up in so many ways. However, one of the things that I adore is that E loves to jump in and help around the house. Check it out...

Baking cookies with Granny. Notice the amount of flour on his shirt and the fact that his little man is also on the counter. 

Helping Daddy with the lawn mower.

Giving the hint that mommy should vacuum.

Look ma no hands (while) I mash!

Watering flowers in California.

Shredding with daddy (of course under supervision)

Turning on the lights.

Feeding Sweetpea...although it looks like she's helping herself. He can get the food out of the pantry, scoop the food, take it to her bowl, dump it, and return.

With his little yellow shovel (which matches daddy) he loves shoveling snow!!!

Besides these wonderful things, he's really a little fanatical about dusting. He has very specific ideas about which duster he should get to use too.  He also adores grabbing baby wipes from my bag or the kitchen and wiping down the walls and our coffee table. 

Sap, I tell ya! But, I love it!

xoxo

Ruler done!

Pinterest made me do it.

Really.

I had to make this cute ruler for E's growth chart. Since we move so much, I needed something that I could bring with me as we traverse across the country. I adored this one because it reminds me of marking my height on my grandparents door trim every summer. 

The ruler is super easy to make, but it took me awhile in between getting the board stained (thank you hubby) and actually getting the measurements marks done. It's been languishing in my laundry room for the last month mocking me when I actually washed our clothes. :)

If you want to make one, head on over to 517 creations for a quick tutorial.

xoxo

E Lovefest Day 6

In celebration of day six of my lovefest, I have to share with you that my boy is a CUDDLER.

After he wakes up in the morning, he grabs onto me like a monkey and generally refuses to walk to the living room. We sit down with his milk, pop on some 'toons, and snuggle. Rinse and repeat after nap time.

Before I put him down to sleep for nap and night-nights, I sit with him in a chair in his room and do more snuggling. I gather the necessary supplies of: a binky, two blankies, a sippy cup, and my iphone and put him in the crook of my arm. When daddy is around, he wraps the blankets around him like a taco. "Taco!" E will exclaim. We'll sit there together until a) E falls asleep, b) Mommy wakes up from falling asleep, or c) when I'm done at 30 min to an hour. The purpose is not necessarily for him to go to sleep but to calm down and go into sleep mode.

I love the warmth of him all snuggled up with me. Whether or not it is a quiet snuggle or a babbling snuggle, it's one of my favorite times of the day.

xoxo