Welcome Home Ceremony 2011

Matthew returned home from Afghanistan the beginning of January from a year deployment. We are so happy to have him home safe. The funniest part of the evening was Jacob's reaction to 'finding' dad. As the curtain went up and Jake saw the rows and rows of soldiers, he finally understood what I meant when I kept saying, "We going to find to dad!" The light bulb went off in his head, and he frantically grabbed his shoes he had taken off and put them on his feet as the crowd was screaming and waving signs. "Find dad, Find dad!" He almost escaped diving down the bleachers!! He had a great time when it finally was time to really find dad!

Jump for the Heart fundraiser!

funny story-- Genna and her friend wanted to do a little(in my mind only) carnival type fundraiser for jump rope for the heart at our house. They planned the whole thing, and it was great. The only mistake I made was making them flyers, and giving them a few to hand out at school. Why was it such a big mistake? Cuz Genna's friend took it to her middle school and made copies and had the office announce it over the intercom!! I just found this out about 2 hours before it started. So I freaked out a little and made 4 dozen cupcakes. Nevertheless, only three families showed-- all people we knew. That was a close one for sure.

SKY DIVING!

I put my life on the line and went for an adventure! HAHA! Actually, skying diving is less dangerous than driving, but it sure brings out the natural fear of heights in humans. I couldn't believe I did this. My dad offered to take me about a year after me asking him why he took my brother for his birthday and not mine. I got what I asked for! June 2011, we happen to both be in Utah, and we went skydiving! The weirdest part was after for the next few days when I laid in bed it was hard to sleep because it felt like I was falling!! The funniest part was being strapped to another human. The scariest part is a toss up between seeing the first guy jump out of the plane into the air and being thrown out of the plane screaming being strapped to someone. lol. I just know I saw one guy jump, and I didn't open my eyes till we were free falling. And that was an alright feeling. Still trying to decide if I want to give it another try to see if I want to get my license. My dad would love to jump with his daughter more in the future!

Genna Cheerleading 2011

We had our first taste of competitive sports near the end of summer in 2011 when Genna participated in cheering for the dolphin football team on Fort Knox. She enjoyed it very much, and she is now looking forward to playing softball soon! I remember her telling me at one of the games she wanted to BE a football player next year. That's my girl! She wants right in the middle of the game, and I'm proud that she wants to be.

Boot Camp!

About two months ago I signed up for a boot camp competition at the gym I attend. It involved an intense circuit training I attended at least 3 days a week, sometimes 5! After taking the class, I realized a few things: 1) I was starting to get chubby, chubby; 2) I had no idea what I was doing at the gym; 3) Protein powder is no longer my enemy (as long as a hole isn't burnt in the wallet by it). So, thank you, thank you boot camp and all the trainers involved with helping me learn everything I know. Thank you for all the friends that joined in the fun! And thanks to my wonderful husband for your support! I was so proud of him to hit the gym himself too! And of course thank you for taking all those inches to the trash and shrinking those fat cells!

BEFORE

BEFORE



and six weeks later......

Thumbs up, mom!

Ok, I don't look happy in this pic, but I obsolutely love that it shows less chub under the chin!




All in all I went from 39% body fat down to 25%! I can't remember exactly, but I lost 20-30 pounds of fat. I gained a bunch of muscle; overall I lost 10 pounds!! I celebrated in the middle of boot camp with a new pair of size 4 pants! I bought them a little tight with anticipation of more inches to shed off, and now they are pretty loose. Best of all I feel amazing, and I plan to keep my life as healthy as possible from now on.

Your diet is 80% of the work!!!

Aiden's Fundraiser

The kids and I attended a fundraiser for a four year old little boy who has cancer. The fundraiser was fantasic because this was Jake and Jayden's first professional hair cut! The fade looks so stinkin cute on Jake.

Jayden wasn't so sure at first, but she braved up and got her locks straightened out!

Genna has this down. Her hair was perfect for curling the next day for her cheer pictures.

The kids LOVE going to the gym to play in the daycare area. I hear so much, "Gym! Gym!" So when we went this time they ran right to the daycare (which was closed). It was great to see their confused faces when I said, "We're going this way to get our hair cut!" For the next few trips to the gym Jacob would immediately let me know when pulling up to the gym that he did not want to get his hair cut at the gym.

Holy Smokes!!

Yes, I'm back! I haven't blogged since 2009!! Holy Smokes for sure! So much as happened since then! Matt did make it back from Afghanistan shortly after my last post. And he's back in Afghanistan! HA! With his return he plans on signing up for a 3 years stabalization job in the Army. It's gonna be weird having him around all the time!

The kids are doing great --- Genna's in 2nd grade and cheerleading! Jake in preschool and loving the bus ride! And Miss Jayden is 2 and loving the one on one time with mom at home!

As for me, I'm currently pursuing a degree in nursing! (I feel so much more grown up since my last post.) Last semester and this past summer I've taken full-time classes, and I am now only taking two online classes. I am so bored!! I've taken two English/Writing classes since I've started school; with this I've discovered a love of writing!

I am so glad to be back! Just can't believe it's been about two years... and... I'm half way to 50!!!

Sign making

As we await dad and Jaydens first meeting mom is getting very irritable, irrational, the anger issue seem to be arising, annoyed... ok I keep going on and on. But thank goodness I have some great friends going through the same thing, except different family situations of course. We've been staying busy and staying out of the messy house. I go throw phases of not wanting to clean, is this normal? I'm not sure, should I get help? My good friend Heather took this pic, some of the company wives got together at Heather's very clean organized house to make welcome home signs. Kelly helped me get Jayden's foot prints on one of the signs I made. I got one Jakes hands and feet, and the same with Genna. I really can't wait to hang my banner up at the clark gate entrance, you'll have to go see it for yourself. :) Yay! It's soon, but not soon enough. I've been pretty emotional today and last night. I was told and I guess I assume too much for the Army to handle that my husband would be on the first flight. But it's all been changed and they couldn't find anyone else(like someone who doesn't have a daughter they haven't met) to stay behind. So, yay for us I get to wait till the last flight to see him again. I'm trying very hard to see the good in this, but it's hard when you've been so disappointed. You think it wouldn't bother me so much considering his last deployment went from a 12 to 16 month tour 3 days before excepting him home. I am very grateful that he his coming home for sure. Hope I have some great pics up for my next post.

Run, it's the Scream Man!

So my four year old has officially discovered the ice cream man due to the other neighbor kids. This has been a fear of my wallets for quit some time, I've been wondering when the day would come. Someone once told me a story about how they told their child it was the 'scream man.' So they put this fear in this child about the 'scream man' so every time she would hear the 'scream man' coming she'd run to her house and hide until the coast was clear. How did they convince her so? The other kids screaming and running to their houses for money of course. Yelling to their mothers, "Mom the 'scream man' is coming!"

LOL

So, when my daughter came running in the house with a very serious look saying, "I need money cuz the ice cream man is coming." I sat there with a froze look on my face contemplating what to say. Should I give her the joy of the ice cream man, probably one of my best childhood memories, or should I put the fear of the 'scream man' in her.

I tried to put the fear in her, I told her in a not so convincing voice, it's not the ice cream man it's the 'scream man.' She didn't fall for it, she just looked at me like I was dumbed and was like,"No mom, it's the ice cream man."

But with that being said I told her I didn't have any money so I got out of this time, wish me luck for next time.

Surgery...

So I had my 4th surgery on Tuesday, I'm healthy but I'm still falling apart. I had my 4 large kidney stones broke up with Dr. Evil's laser beam. It seems with each surgery I just react worse every time to the anaesthesia. I wasn't able to wake up hardly at all on Tuesday, I slept all day that day and all night and didn't wake up until 10 30 in the morning. I ended up up chucking on the way home. My friend called my dr. he said to come back to the hospital to stay over night for observation. They drugged me with anti nausea meds that I could not stay awake while on. Gave me Motrin and an on demand morphine drip. Whoo, I was pretty drugged. Then they sent me home with viccodin. I've only taken one yesterday I think I could feel some stones moving, that kinda hurt. But luckily, I'm feeling soo much better today. Yay. And I cannot say how grateful I am for my friends who I could not do this without. Thank you so much.