Letting It All Hang Out: Family

Showing posts with label Family. Show all posts

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Time with Family

This year for my grandma's Christmas present I wanted to create a book for her including an update on her history and have it contain letters from her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren that they have written to her about their memories and the time they have spend with her.

I was so lucky to be able to sit down with her while she is still alive and kicking. She has so many interesting stories and an incredible memory. I wish more people would take the time to sit down and document their grandparents stories. I now can share them with my grandchildren.

Friday, September 16, 2011

MS WALK

I have recently been feeling the need to learn more about my grandmas and ask them questions that I want to know while they are still healthy enough to answer them. I asked my Grandma if it'd be ok and she was more then happy to do this for me. In fact she'd already started writing about her life and she wrote about my grandpa's life, her mom's life, and her dad's life. I didn't know any of them really. My grandpa died on September 27, 1993 when I was just 10 years old. I remember him being a fun and loving grandpa who gave the best hugs. So I was excited to have the opportunity to read more about him and the person he was.

After reading what my grandma and others wrote about my grandpa I learned that my grandpa was a great man and a selfless man. He spent his life serving those in his ward and in his community. His family although at times probably didn't feel like this were the most important people to him. My grandfather's life was full of hard work, fun, and activities. However, I believe in 1976 he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (not sure if I spelled that right) and it quickly took it's affect on his ability to walk.

After reading about his life I can only imagine how difficult it was for him to have his ability to walk and other functions taken away from him. I read that he wished that they could find a cure for MS and I feel like I now have a new purpose in life besides being a wonderful mom and wife. This purpose is to help this cause. My first step is to participate in the MS Walk on September 24th here in Utah. I am trying to raise $200 for this and I hope I make it happen. I'm excited to go to my first walk like this, I've always wanted to go but I never felt a personal connection, which isn't a good reason but I feel more motivated now to help (it sounds horrible I know!)

I have always felt a strong connection to my grandfather and to have this opportunity to help really gives me something to look forward to. I hope this can become a tradition for me and my family.

Monday, August 22, 2011

Today Marks the Day

Today my husband starts back up in school after a few weeks off, today is also my first Monday as a stay at home mom, it definitely feels official now. This past week just felt like a nice vacation but now that I have my whole week to accomplish things I feel like I truly am going to enjoy this being at home thing. Today marks the day for a few changes that are going to happen in my daily routines.

Change #1: SLEEP TRAINING! That's right I'm going to finally get my little guy used to sleeping in his crib and learning to put himself to sleep by using a mix of the cry it out method and my own method. I am going to try to let him cry for only a few minutes at a time, go in and check on him (without picking him up) then leaving him for a few minutes longer. After 10-15 mins I'll pick him up and calm him down a bit then put him back. After 20 mins I'll just take him out and let him play with his toys to get him even more tired. Once he start fussing more then back to the crib and start the whole process over again...except I won't take him out this time I'll just pat his back for a few minutes to keep him calmed down.

* So this is what I've done for his first nap...I think the first few minutes are heart breaking but then once the 20 minute mark rolls around it's more of him annoying the crap out of me! Why won't he just go to sleep?! I know consistency is going to be important for this situation and know that I have the time I know it will be consistent. I just hope that my lack of patience won't get the best of me because when he reaches that 20-30 minute point it's so easy for him to go to sleep if I just take a few minutes to bounce him and pat his back. It's fast and less annoying...BUT I know that if I want my sanity I have to stick with this. I'm proud to say he is now sleeping calm and in his crib.

Change #2: MY EXERCISE ROUTINE!

My exercise routine has been out of whack with my work schedule and Scout's schedule so now that I have all morning while my husband is at school that means that I get all that time to concentrate on myself while Scout hangs out and tags along with me. A dear friend of mine was nice enough to give me her old elliptical machine and so my goal is to do at least 20-30 mins on that daily and then run right after.

I've been having issues with my shins and hamstring cramping on me cutting off all the circulation to my feet making it uncomfortable and painful to run. It's been very frustrating for me especially trying to lose this baby weight. (check out
LoseThatBellyBump.com to see my progress)

After my morning workout I plan on just doing one more run at night to help me get in my miles so I can get better prepared for this half marathon I have signed up for in 3 weeks.

Change #3: MY DIET!!

Since I will be home the majority of the day that means I'll have the time to prepare meals ahead of time and to make foods that are healthy for me. I figure if I want Scout to eat all natural and healthy foods to avoid obesity then why shouldn't I do that for myself? Besides I always feel 10x better when I'm eating healthy, junk food tastes delicious but it sure makes me sleepy and lazy. I'm really looking forward to getting better recipes and cooking better food for myself.

Those are my personal goals to accomplish this month I hope I can be consistent and see results!

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Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Lesson #1 Of being a Stay at Home Mom

Image via Wikipedia

Well my first lesson as being a stay at home mom is to pace yourself! I treated yesterday like it was my day off. So I felt like it was my only day to get things done. I tried to clean my entire placei, it's not big so it's doesn't take a lot of time. I also detailed the truck and washed it to make sure it was nice and clean for my husband. He stresses when any of the vehicles are pretty dirty, he feels like we're neglecting them (hahaha). Then on top of it I added laundry and all I wanted was to take a nap.

Little did I know that was asking way too much! My husband was pretty much in his own world the whole day and Scout was taking naps at the worst times so I could never lay down and take a nap at the same time. By the time 8:00pm hit I was so tired that I wanted nothing more but to put my little guy to bed and enjoy some quiet alone time. That didn't happen of course, I ended up screwing up dinner and staying up trying to finish the laundry. Once my husband was asleep I finally had some quiet time. I swear I took advantage of it! I ended up taking a nice relaxing bubble bath and I enjoyed a few drinkings, that definitely helped me calm down and realize that for my next day I needed to take it easy and pace myself. I don't have only one day to finish everything I have an entire week. Today has been much better, I've just chilled the entire day and still had time to accomplish things around the house without feeling rushed, it's a pretty awesome experience so far! I hope the rest of this week will be better.

Monday, August 1, 2011

Messy House or Family Day???

I find myself asking this question a lot. I feel like while I'm trying to balance my crazy life I constently have to choase a perfect house or to really focus on my family. The majority of the time I chose my family, they are my number one priority.

Sunday's are always our famliy days and this weekend we actually switched days Saturday was our family day which means I didn't get a chance to deep clean like I usually do. So instead of taking a day to clean I continued to spend more time with my family and finish up my project that I working on for a wedding present. I took pictures as I did it and I'll post a d.i.y. post in a little while I need to give the present to my friend first before I reveal it to the world.

In the picture below, You can see the project I'm working on hanging on the wall, scissors on the floor (real safe right? Glad Scout's not crawling yet,) all the babies entertainment, and our coffee table is a complete reck with hardly any space to work. Despite this wreck of a living room I had an awesome day with my little guy while my husband studied for his finals. If it means that I get more time with my familiy then I'll take a messy house 1 day out of the week.

I took this picture because I kept having that same question repeat it's self over and over. This mess was driving me crazy and got me thinking. I see so many women who are doing these beautiful crafts in beautiful spaces and is that really how they live? Is there house really that clean and nice all the time?

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

I'm Startin New

My life is a mess! I swear there are days when I feel like everything is going on and I have no room just to chill and relax. Then there are other days where I feel completely content with my life. Today is one where I am on the fence, I'm happy for my life but I am scared of the changes that are going to happen. If I don't make a change I'm going to end up like this donkey,

My husband and I had a plan that when he got out of the Army that he was going to go to school and get his education. It's going to be 2 years since he started school and we just had our first baby 6 months ago. Well at this point our plan is getting a little off course. I've been working full time, taking care Scout while my husband is studying and I was going to school on top of that. At this point my husband, Marc, has been taking care of Scout while I'm at work. It hasn't been working, in fact my husband has been struggling with his school work. Trying to watch our little guy and study is very difficult. So we have decided that I am going to quit work and we are going to risk it all and live off of student loans.

I am terrified to be making this choice because of this economy and the fact that I have a good job. However, I feel that staying at home with my baby is going to be beneficial not only to my son but also to my husband. This will allow him the freedom to study and to succeed at school, which is why we are here in the first place. Not for me to follow this career a career, I don't even like. So here we go this is going to be one hell of a journey! We'll see where life takes me and see how I handle being a stay at home mom trying to find a way to provide for my family.

Letting It All Hang Out