I'm awake!

I have emerged from my month long blogging nap, and I feel so.......so......here. That's about all I got right now. My blogging sabbatical was not an intentional one, and several times I thought 'well, I just need to write my feelings out', but then-- someone cried, someone pooped, someone needed milk, someone spilled milk, someone threw up, someone, something, needed me.

So, this morning, as Jack is quietly playing with Legos and Evie is crawling all around the living room, the quiet (albeit temporary) peace has afforded me some blog time.

Since I blogged last, each of my kiddos has experienced some type of sickness that was fought with antibiotics. In a couple cases, the antibiotics lost the battle and the kids had to be re-dosed-- Jack and Evie. Evie is still on medicine, but I definitely feel like we have turned a corner after over a month of worry.

We are approaching the half way point of this deployment and I have been practicing my happy dance every night. Do you want to see it? I cannot wait to be on the down hill slope of this. He's been gone 3 and a half months which equates to about 13.7832 years to this woman! The halfway slump is always a rough spot, and this time is no different. This is just so. DANG. long. Army wives who have to share their husbands for a year-- they deserve an 8 foot medal made entirely of chocolate.

And speaking of chocolate, I threw it away almost a month ago. I threw away the chocolate, the cookies, the candy, the soda. I got rid of 90% of the bad-for-you treats and snacks in an attempt to get healthier. I started watching my calories closely and making better choices about what I put in my mouth. I also started exercising daily. First, on the exercise bike, I was squeezing in an hour a day. The bike became boring a couple weeks in and not nearly as challenging as I wanted, so I got on the elliptical (that I am borrowing thanks to Al and Wendy!!), and OH MY GOODNESS. That thing is NOOOO joke. Son of a gun, at like ten minutes in I am dripping sweat from my eyeballs. Did you know that eyeballs can sweat? I'm learning so much :) Between monitoring my calories and exercising for at least 30 minutes every day, I have worked off 16.8 pounds since March 18th. That definitely puts me well on my way to achieving my 'little' goal. My big goal I'm still a ways off from. It's so hard though, because some days I feel like I should have lost 5 lbs overnight based on how hard I worked the day before. Literally, I look at the scale and think 'WHAT?!?!?! I DIDN'T LOSE 11-TEEN POUNDS SINCE YESTERDAY?!?! WHAT THE HECK!' I shared this with my husband and he suggested I hide the scale for a bit :)  I am sharing this with you because I want to be accountable. For me, if I say it out loud, I am in. So you won't be seeing pictures of me shoving cupcakes in my mouth.....(those I've burned. I kid.)

On to more exciting things.....

Jack is talking up a storm these days. He makes me laugh with the stuff he comes up with. He thinks he is so big! And Evie-- she started crawling and then standing on her own. Not ready for this sweet girl to be walking but I feel like she is getting close. Kaiti's reading has blown me away- not only does she enjoy it, but she really likes to read books a little above her level. Love to see my girl challenging herself! And Tyler continues to soak up everything he reads. It's embarrassing how often I turn to google or say 'well, let's figure that out together' to him.

And now, pictures.....

our life in photobooth. I PROMISE, I'm not a narcissist- I take these for my husband :)

Deployment pictures:

this was his '2000 hours' picture!! Yea for my husband!

The 2000 hour celebration!

boys are weird

oh boy. the stache.

not minding it here AT ALL

Det wives!

a recent picture of us together. hey, I gotta get it where I can :)

Swim Call in the Med

Looks like fun

cell phone pictures...any day now, I will use my real camera!

and that is our month in pictures!!! 

Okay, I am off to go read up on all of the other blogs I've been missing out on! Happy Tax Day to all of you! I'll be back soon!! I have some sweet little things I wanted to share with you all!

* I also thought you'd like to know that in the process of writing this, Jack grew tired of Legos, wandered into the kitchen and came out 4 different times. The first time, he shoved a box of mini pancakes and a bottle of maple syrup in my face, the second time a packet of hot dogs and the bottle of ketchup, the third time a box of cheerios and a bowl, and just now a block of cheddar cheese. I think he got the snack thing from me ;)