Even When You Want To Kick Him

This past Sunday began my string of bridal showers. I had one Sunday, two this coming Sunday and another one in three weeks. Normally I don't like bridal shower games. Feed me, give me a drink of some kind (by drink I obviously mean a spiked one) and let me socialize and watch the bride open gifts. Especially at this one. I lived with this particular bride my sophomore year of college. She. Is. NUTS! But in the best way possible. Never a dull moment with her. Add her family in and you are in for some entertainment, tears and what feels like a new set of abs from laughing.

One of the games had to do with marriage advice for the bride. The bride's sister read one line from each card and then the bride had to guess who wrote it. I thought it was fun! I hadn't played it before and it's always fun to play a game that's new and different that really doesn't require much effort. Although thinking of marriage advice on the fly was a little tough.

Here is what I had to say.

Always... Put your spouse first. I actually wrote talk to each other but if I had a do over I would change this answer to that. Putting my husband first is just better for everyone. If Danny and I aren't on the same page and working right, the family doesn't work right. Our marriage is also setting an example for Tucker and our other future children. It's our job to show him/them what a strong, healthy marriage looks like.

Try not to...  talk bad about him to your family and friends. Sometimes you just have to complain and vent. I definitely stop when I catch myself, or follow up with something great he that he does for me and our family. He is a hard worker and does almost anything he can to help me. I really have nothing to complain about. 

Love him even when... you want to kick him. Even though he works hard and helps out, I still want to kick him in the shins sometimes. But it's always over little thing. Leaving the shower pointing at the shower curtain and soaking the wall outside the shower when I get in. Or washing just a shirt and pair of boxers when there is a large pile of towels and clothes next to the washer that could have went in. It's times like those where I have to remember that I never have to clean the bathroom or mow the yard.

Sometimes... you have to give more than you take.  This is one that I HAD to learn early on. Early as in when we were planning our wedding. Danny was buried in medic school and his job depended on it. When we moved our wedding up 10 months, giving us 5 months to put it all together, most of it fell on me. Even though medic school ended, this part didn't go away. I don't think its just the nature of his job either. There are going to be hard times when you have to lean on each other and even though you both may be giving all you can give, it still might not seem equal.

Never under any circumstances... leave during a fight. This hasn't happened to us in the almost 7 years we've been together. Nothing would piss me off more than if he just left. He can go in another room or out to the garage to get some space. But if he got in his truck and left, I would be fuming!

Love is built on 2 things.... communication and trust.  These are obvious and I didn't really put too much thought into them.

 

We don't have the perfect marriage. It's definitely a "make it up as you go" kind of thing. But there isn't anyone else I'd rather figure it out and go through life with. Even if I do want to kick him sometimes.

Friday Favorites

Yesterday was a good day. Most of these favorites revolve around yesterday.

Tuck and I like to take selfies in the morning while we snuggle, drink our coffee and watch Sesame Street. Well, he used to like them anyways. Now I'm not so sure. His little independent personality is getting stronger and stronger by the day. Though it can be challenging to deal with, it's also one of my favorite parts of him growing up. I also like when he does things that remind me of family members. He's got some traits from both Danny and I, he's very particular about a few things (routine, everything going in a certain place), and every once in a while a little bit of his Uncle Drew comes out.

Drew is notorious for making a face during a picture. It doesn't matter who he is taking the picture with. My mom, me, his girlfriend. Heck I'm sure if he got the chance to take a picture with the Pope he would make a face.

My next favorite moment happened at the doctor. I am allowed to work myself out of the boot now! He sent me home with a brace and instructions to put the boot back on if it starts hurting again. I also left with some therabands and exercises to do.  I wore the brace all day yesterday and no unmanageable pain so far. Do you know how happy I am to be able to 1. wear 2 shoes again, 2. not have to hurry up and put my boot on before I pee my pants at 2am when I wake up to pee and 3. drive with my right foot again? It truly is the little things people.

Being that I was 5 minutes away from the best Target in central Indiana, I decided to practice walking around there. If you've ever had to wear a boot or cast on your leg, you know what I'm talking about. It takes you a bit to figure out how to walk correctly. I'm happy to report that one lap around Target I left walking correctly and with a cart full of stuff. Which brings me to my next few favorites.


1. This bag is awesome and everything I've been looking for to replace my broken down work bag. I wanted a Michael Kors/Kate Spade style bag at a much lower price. I was THISCLOSE to splurging in a month or so and I am so glad I didn't. The $45 price tag at Target was MUCH easier to swallow. This is a perfect work bag and it will work great on the plane to Vancouver for our cruise in June. Love it!

 

The white pouch fastens to the inside to you don't have to worry about it getting mashed by anything. It'll be perfect for holding passports and ID's that will need to be easily accessible at the airport.

2. The Whole30 has led me to the greatness that is sparkling water. Specifically, La Croix. They are Whole30 approved and satisfy the need for something fizzy. While I love caffeine in the form of Diet Mountain Dew or Diet Coke, I also enjoy the fizz. These are perfect and provide just enough flavor to break the cycle that is plain water. I've only had the cherry lime(on the left) and yesterday I purchased  the pineapple strawberry (in the middle) and both are delicious. In the regular La Croix, the peach pear is my favorite!

That's all I have time for today. I have to get to a meeting and then play catch up since I was out most of yesterday. Have a good weekend!

Weigh-In Wednesday: 4/22/15

Another week of Whole30 is in the books. We are currently in the middle of our 3rd week with 16 whole days being completed. It's actually gone by pretty quickly. But, now that we are over halfway through, we have some challenges coming up: chicken dinner and a birthday party on Saturday, bridal shower and another birthday party on Sunday, a work lunch next week sometime, then more bridal showers next weekend. All difficult events foodwise with a plethora of non-compliant foods.

Again, I will be going over what we've been eating day by day. My foods are different than Danny's some days since he isn't afraid of eating the wrong thing anymore. He's kind of taken control of his lunches with some guidance. So, here we go.

Day 8:

Breakfast - 2 1/2 egg muffins that had pork, mushrooms and spinach (Tucker ate 1/2 of one), strawberries with almond butter.
Lunch - turkey and cucumber "sandwiches" with mayo, sweet potato chips and grapes. The chips were a rule breaker in terms of it being a "sex with pants on" food(visit the website for info on what sex with pants on foods are), but they were still compliant and I don't feel bad about them. If having a handful of compliant sweet potato chips will help me keep going, then I'm doin it! I also ate a Larabar
Dinner - beef and green bean stir fry over cauliflower rice. Danny cooked the stir fry and just started throwing coconut aminos and spices in the pan. It turned out SO delicious.... and I don't have a picture of the dinner.
Snacks - cashews

Day 9:

Breakfast - same as yesterday, except I took a picture this time.
Lunch - leftover stir fry on a salad with mayo for dressing
Dinner - green beans and potatoes, tilapia. The green beans sucked. No flavor.
Snacks - apple and Larabar

Day 10:

Breakfast - 2 sausage links, 3/4 banana and 3/4 apple with almond butter. Tucker ate the missing parts of the fruit and the 3rd sausage link I made for myself in addition to the sausage link and waffle I made for him.
Lunch - 4 lettuce turkey and tomato wraps/boats/I don't know what to call them, green beans and potatoes, grapes
Dinner - pulled pork sweet potato sliders, broccoli. Now this dinner was delicious and probably my fave.
Snacks - NONE!

Day 11:

Breakfast - 2 1/2 egg muffins, 3/4 banana and almond butter
Lunch - avocado chicken salad with red peppers on lettuce leaves, cucumbers, carrots, and cantaloupe
Dinner - grilled chicken, potato and carrots
Snacks - I don't have any written down

Day 12:

Breakfast - banana and apple with almond butter, 2 slices of turkey
Lunch - salad with turkey, cucumbers, tomatoes with Tessamae's southwest ranch dressing, broccoli, Larabar
Dinner - chicken sausages and potatoes, zucchini and peppers baked in foil
Snacks - NONE!

Day 13:

Breakfast - scrambled eggs with salsa, cantaloupe
Lunch - steak taco salad. I had a slip this meal. We took some family to lunch and I ordered a taco salad. I either missed where the menu said it had refried beans or it just didn't say it. I avoided them as much as possible.
Dinner - honey Dijon pork chops with potatoes
Snack - I had some potatoes from Friday
*This was a slippery day. A reader kindly pointed out that the honey mustard is not compliant. In my mind, Tessamae's automatically meant compliant, but that is not the case. I haven't had any of the honey mustard since. Apparently the mental clarity that people get from Whole30 is going to be a late benefit for me.

Day 14:

Breakfast - Larabar and cantaloupe. It had to be quick since we slept late and had to get ready for church quickly
Lunch - salsa chicken on lettuce, cucumbers
Dinner - leftover pork on a potato (okay so I had a little bit more honey mustard), cucumbers
Snacks - a couple pieces of fruit and a hard boiled egg to see if I actually boiled eggs successfully.

So, this week was a little loosey goosey in terms of rules. One I knew we were breaking/bending, a couple of others were unintentional. This Whole30 isn't perfect and I knew it wouldn't be, but I think we're doing alright with it!

Show & Tell Tuesday: Names

Today I am joining Andrea @ Momfessionals for Show & Tell Tuesday. This round is about names. Your name, your kids' names, and maybe even how you named your pet!

This is perfect timing really. Exactly 2 years ago today, I was very impatiently waiting for my husband to get home from a weekend fishing trip. I found out Saturday morning that I was pregnant! I sat on this HUGE secret through lunch with girlfriends, dinner with my mom and Drew's girlfriend, and a birthday party for our best friends' daughter. The only "person" I told was Diesel (our dog who was pretty much named after my husbands love for diesel trucks. Sutphen, a fire truck manufacturer, was a close one but seemed too difficult to yell. Being able to easily yell a name is crucial). He finally arrived home at EIGHT O'CLOCK THAT NIGHT. Longest. Weekend. Ever! 37 hours I had to wait to tell a human that could have a reaction.

A little name story. Before we started trying, Danny and I pretty much had our kids' names picked out. We had 4 names: 2 boys and 2 girls. Now I don't think we'll have 4 kids, but we still had 4 names. I'll share them all. I don't care if you take them. We don't live in the same town and it's not like our families will be around each other all the time for any confusion to happen.

The girls: Kendall Lynn and Alexis (Lexi/Lexie for short) Marie. The first names come from TV shows. Kendall is from the soap opera All My Children and Lexi/Lexie comes from Grey's Anatomy. I don't know if Alexis is Little Grey's real first name on the show, but I don't want to name my kid a nickname. The middle names are after our mom's. Lynn is my mom's middle name and Marie is Danny's mom's real name. Danny loves Lexi/Lexie. He doesn't think the name Kendall fits a "chunky blonde girl" which is what he thinks we'll have. Nice, I know.

Now the boys: Daniel Cole (he would go by Cole) and Dayton Paul. And here is where you're thinking, but Tucker is not anywhere in those names. I'll get there. Daniel is Danny's real name and it is also my dad's name. Convenient, I know. Cole is a name that Danny and I just love. Spelled with a C and not a K. However, my second cousins son, who is rarely at family functions because he is usually with his mom, is named Kole. Daniel Cole was at the top of my list. Then we got worried about there potentially being a Cole and Kole at family functions. Now that I think about it, its silly. Now Dayton Paul. I think my great-great grandpa's name was Dayton. It's cool, its different, and its a family name. I love family names and so does Danny. Which is where the Paul comes from. Danny and his dad both have the middle name Paul.

Now for the actual existing living breathing boy that we didn't use either of those first names on. Tucker Paul.

Boy names are hard for us. Or maybe we just make it difficult. We have 10 nephews, a ton of boy cousins, 5 brothers between the two of us, and the fire department has a bunch of boys. And we obviously bring second cousin's step children into the mix too. Because of this, we used Nymbler, a baby name generator to help us. I love this site. You type in a name you like, or pick from a pool of suggestions, and it will give you similar names. How fun, right? Anyways, after typing in like 93 names, Tucker was a suggestions and viola. Tucker Paul went to the top of the list. After we found out we were having a boy, Danny decided he was going to start using names in conversation to test them out. About a week and a half in, I noticed he hadn't tried any other name. I just looked at him and asked "can we just agree that his name is Tucker?" That was pretty much how that happened.

For future children, I see our girl names sticking around. I love them and I'm not letting them go. I also love the name Lily (which is also from All My Children), but Danny's sister (it may have been his brother) had a dog named Lily. Alison is also a great name, Ali for short, but we are friends with an Alison who has a daughter named Hali.  I don't want to name my child after a family pet that has died.  For boys, there are a couple of others that I really like. I am very adamant that Daniel will be part of the name, just not sure if it will be first or middle and it won't be the name that he goes by. I still like Cole, but there are some others that I like too. Levi, Garrett, Hudson(Danny doesn't like it), and Carson (fire department kid), Cooper (nephew's name). We'll see what happens.

I know you're dying to know where my name came from. Erin came from the old TV show the Waltons. My parents had a hard time picking a girl name. Other contenders were: Lindsey, Kristin, Shelby and Katelyn/Caitlin (I don't know how it would have been spelled). Katelyn/Caitlin was my mom's top choice, then my aunt stole it about 3 months before my parents found out they were pregnant. Then one night they were watching TV, saw the name Erin, and here I am. Erin Michelle.

Weekend Recap

This weekend was the calm before the storm. Spring and summer activities begin next weekend and I have a feeling we will be extremely busy from here on out. Let the fun begin!

Friday night after we got dinner cooked, we loaded it and cleaning supplies up and headed to the camper to eat and clean. After showing it to many friends and family, it needed a good wipe down. Tucker even helped.

And we took our first camper selfie. Tucker surprisingly didn't want in on the action. 

Saturday was nonstop running around until about 7. Danny had plans to work on getting the tree by the driveway cut down with the help of his brother while Tucker and I woke up with no plans. I didn't want to sit around the house all day, so Tuck and I got ready and took off for Target and Petsmart to get stuff for the camper and a bridal shower gift for a friend.  Plus, the morning started out with Tucker sitting on my neck and pulling my eyelashes out. Staying in the house all day was hazardous to my body.

We had a successful trip! We managed to get a mattress pad, rug, a broom, duster and a camping cup for me along with an extra set of things for Diesel like bowls, small bag of food and a mat for his bowls. Almost immediately after we got back home, we loaded up again to go to lunch with Danny, his brother and his brother's kids. We went to one of the Mexican restaurants. Danny deliberately cheated on his Whole30 while I accidently did. Danny had a few chips and couple bites of tortilla on purpose and deemed it totally worth it. I missed where my salad came with beans and only ate what I couldn't avoid. After lunch Tuck and I headed out to my brother's to deal with some issues regarding property lines with the neighbors. We all came to a compromise. Could have gone worse I guess. After that, we headed home for a quick nap before eating dinner. After dinner we went to check out our friends' new camper. See, we were forced to buy a camper if we wanted to see our friends at all this summer. Tucker was being quite the character.

And when he wasn't being a character, he was walking around like this. 

He's a mess.

We went to my brother's after our friends house to visit with some of my dad's family that was in town. The visit wasn't terrible. Which is saying a lot since I was 100% stone cold sober. I usually have to be intoxicated to be around them and to find it enjoyable most of the time. After we left Danny told me I could go back out and he would deal with Tucker but I didn't want to ruin a good thing.

All of that was just on Saturday. Seriously, nonstop. So, Sunday was much needed. We went to church and the grocery and that was pretty much it. We also did a little Kool-Aid painting. Tucker enjoyed it for about 7 minutes then was over it. 

Check out this outfit though. Long sleeve shirt, sweat pant shorts, and boots. He's got style for sure!

Danny had the first half of his shift off so it was nice to have him home to help with groceries and Tucker. Especially since Tucker head butted me and almost bloodied my lip. This kid was on a mission to kill me this weekend I think. Which must have wore him out since he fell asleep chewing his dinner.

After trying to stay awake for a couple more minutes, he gave up and crashed.

 

Once he started snoring we knew we just needed to put him in bed. Thankfully, he slept until 3 and after an hour of snuggles and milk, he went back to sleep for another 3 hours. I was very, very nervous about what a 6:15 bedtime meant, but it went very well. I was scared for my sanity at 3 when he woke up and started grabbing the tv remotes and various books.

So, that was the weekend. The next 2 weekends are booked solid, then hopefully on Mother's Day weekend the Summers' make their camping debut!

Friday Favorites

I really enjoyed participating in the Friday Favorites link-up when I did it a few weeks ago, so I'm joining the fun again.

Let's start with Tucker first. Here are some of my favorite Tucker moments of the week.  Sunday we were sitting out on the back porch with my mom. He was being a total goofball, which is to be expected after an almost 3 hour nap. He was running in place, making funning noises and laughing his tiny little butt off. Then he did this.

He was completely fine by the way, which is why I have no problem laughing really hard every time I see it. I'm so glad I caught it on camera.

When he is done eating, he thinks Diesel needs to use the tray of his high chair to eat. If one brother eats off of it, then they both should right? He's got some quirks in his personality that are coming out. I love it.

Another favorite moment happened yesterday. Every once in a while I get kind of down about my work situation. I was thrown in the boss's seat and didn't earn it in any way. Business has been kind of sucky and the only way I can remotely describe the last 5 years is that it has been a shitstorm. Growing up, I wanted to do one thing when I was older: Sell insurance with my dad. I'm selling insurance, kind of, but not with my dad. I like what I do, but I think I really just wanted to work with my dad. Knowing that I'll never, ever be able to do that sucks sometimes. Mostly on the days where there is NOTHING going on at work and I'm the only one here. It had me pretty upset yesterday and my mom called at just the right time. She's like that. She just knows when I need to talk. I hope one day I can have mother's intuition like she does. (And now she's probably crying since she's probably reading this)

Danny and I are on Day 12 of our Whole30. On Wednesday I tried on one of my last 2 pairs of pre-Tucker jeans and they fit me! And that meant I had just one more pair of jeans to fit this booty in. I was feeling skinny this morning so I thought what the heck. They fit like a glove and I will probably be wearing them all weekend. Non-scale victories are always a favorite! I mean, putting them on went a little bit like this, but they are on and they don't look bad. (Note: There was never any twerking. I don't twerk. I also feel like grown women feel this struggle more than teenagers. Oh well.)

I've got another favorite related to the Whole30. You are going to be sick of hearing about Whole30 by the time this is over, but I freaking love this diet/program/challenge/whatever you want to call it. I don't like the word diet so I try to avoid it. Anyways, Danny and I love condiments. I especially love dips. When I was in college, we had a Chik-Fil-A in our food court (which would explain part of the Freshman 20) and I would leave the area with no less than 3 different sauces. Sauces and condiments are going to be what get Danny and I through this. Danny ordered some more Tessamae's products (Whole30 approved), one being their honey mustard. We both went nuts over it and we both think it tastes like Chik-Fil-A honey mustard too! This might become a staple.

My final favorite this week is our first camping weekend has been partially planned, provided Danny can get one of the days off since he is scheduled to work. We've had our Memorial Day site booked since before we even owned the camper, but that seems like forever away. We want to go now. We've decided our first outing will be Mother's Day weekend. I'm hoping that Saturday I can do minimal mom-work. Not likely though. Tucker has taken up an almost permanent residence in my ass wrapped around my leg.

Alright. I'm out. I hope you all have a good Friday and a wonderful weekend!

Weigh-In Wednesday: 4/15/15

This week is flying by and I'm not too thrilled about it. The next couple of weeks are going to be somewhat challenging. Danny's rotations for those weeks have him working Tuesday and Thursday. He is also starting a 4-5 week class that is on Monday and Wednesday nights from 6p-10p. Basically, I'm getting a taste of the single parent life during the week. And I can't drink wine since I'm doing a Whole30. #helpme

As most of you know, if you followed along with Heather and Erin during their Whole30's, you know that you can't weigh yourself. At all. You'll be breaking the rules. And there are lots of rules. So, I'm doing my best to not weigh myself. I may have stepped on the scale about 4 days in out of curiosity since the Easter binge would have disappeared from the number at that point, but hopefully that's it.  I wanted to make sure the starting weight number was accurate, and it was pretty close. I'm not going to report that number because it has no bearing on how I feel about the program thus far.

Since I can't weigh in, I thought I would share what we've been eating. We as in Danny and me both. Tucker eats mostly what we eat as well. The little mooch HAS to have what is on your plate. Forget the tasty waffle. He wants your eggs and spinach. I found it helpful when Heather showed her meals. I feel like she ate "normal" food and that's what I'm striving for during our Whole30. I don't have pictures of every single meal since dinner is usually a rush. I'm trying to improve on that for next week though.

Day 1:

Breakfast - 3 eggs with ham(Applegate, which from everything I've read is compliant), spinach and red pepper and some strawberries
Lunch - avocado chicken salad (I used Tessamae's mayo, which is compliant), carrots and cucumber (I had more than what is pictured
Dinner - hamburger patty on potato and zucchini hashbrown  with tomato and mayo
Snacks - strawberries and cashews

Day 2:

Breakfast - the exact same thing
Lunch - hamburger patty over lettuce and tomato with mayo (mayo was very dressing like), carrots and blackberries
Dinner - pork with carrots and mashed cauliflower
Snacks - Danny and I split a Larabar and I had strawberries and almond butter before bed

Day 3:

Breakfast - 2 fried eggs with spinach(I really wanted them to be over easy but that is difficult apparently) over mashed cauli and some watermelon
Lunch - chicken sausages (Aidells) with peppers and mushrooms over lettuce with mayo (seriously this stuff is great!). Danny had his over a baked potato. I really liked this lunch!
Dinner - spaghetti squash with ground beef, green peppers, mushrooms and spaghetti sauce.
Snacks - cashews and strawberries before bed

Day 4:

Breakfast - 3 eggs with spinach and ham with watermelon. The little plate is Tucker's.
Lunch - leftover spaghetti squash (it was just as good the next day), cucumbers and carrots with Tessamae's Chesapeake mayo for dip to get some fat in
Dinner - steak fajitas with extra lettuce. (these were take out an didn't sit well with me after. I'm sure they weren't 100% compliant, but we did the best we could with our time crunch since we got home late from running around)
Snacks - Larabar, apple, turkey and cashews (I was hungry this day!)

Day 5:

Breakfast - 3 eggs with spinach, 2 slices of turkey, 3/4 of an apple (Tucker ate the other 1/4)
Lunch - salsa chicken w/ cauliflower rice. Danny had his over lettuce at work.
Dinner - shrimp, sweet potato rounds and zucchini for me. Danny had a T-bone, sweet potatoes and broccoli.
Snacks - Larabar

Day 6:

Breakfast - 3 eggs with spinach, sweet potato rounds, turkey, strawberries
Lunch - cucumber slices, apple, Larabar (that time of the month so I felt sick)
Dinner - chicken and bell pepper burger (these were great!) over lettuce and potato

Day 7:

Breakfast - 3 eggs with spinach and hot sauce (Tessamae's again), 2 slices of turkey, strawberries
Lunch - chicken over a potato with salsa, carrots
Dinner - sausage and sweet potato soup in the crock pot. (this was great!)
Snacks - apple with almond butter, Larabar


Overall it was a pretty good week I think! I obviously depend on the Tessamae's sauces a lot, but they are compliant so I don't feel guilty about it. We ordered the sample pack and it has been worth every penny. Larabars are another staple. I limit myself to 1 per day, if I even have one, and I try to have it after dinner. Drinks are the same every single day. Coffee with breakfast, La Croix at lunch, tea at night (peppermint or blueberry), and water all day in between. I've made a few things that I wouldn't mind eating once this is over, so that's a definite plus! Mashed cauliflower is actually really good and could easily satisfy a craving.

That was it for this week. Hopefully I'll have more photo evidence for you next week!

Prom Time

Prom season is upon us. Memories come back to me every year about it since my 2 prom dresses are hanging from a curtain rod in our spare bedroom. Along with my wedding dress. I've been meaning to donate the prom dresses for the last couple of years, but just haven't. Not because I can't let go, but because I just don't make the effort. I've got plans for the wedding dress though. The cleaners wouldn't clean it since it needed to be hand washed, and I rarely hand wash dishes. So I came up with an alternative use. Its a secret right now though.

Anyways. Prom. I had a bad prom and then I had a great prom. The great prom made up for the bad prom.

Prom 2007. I was a junior and never got asked by an upper classman, so it was my first one. I was pretty excited. My mom and I went dress shopping with a good friend of mine and I didn't really find anything I like. I found a beautiful dress online and we ordered it from a bridal shop that could order the gown.  I was dating someone from another school. When we started dating he already had a prom date lined up so I didn't go to his prom. He, along with 2 other guys that were going in our group, had baseball games that day, so we didn't get to go to dinner together and didn't do pictures before. We get to prom, he was an as all night long and I think he danced with me one time. He also left post prom after like 30 minutes because he was going to Kings Island (amusement park in Ohio) the next day. The Toolbag broke up with me 2 days later. But, at least I had a pretty, and expensive, dress. (sorry for that one mom and dad!).

Prom 2008 was a whole different experience and one of the highlights of my senior year. But I'll be honest, all of my senior year of high school was a blast.

My best friend Andrea and I started the fun a few days before. Every year our high school would have someone come talk about drunk driving. After the talk, we snuck out to the parking lot with the help of her boyfriend at the time and put flyers that my dad had printed for us on everyone's cars. We were basically campaigning for our 2 friends that we wanted to win Prom Queen and Prom King.

Prom day came and I was pretty tired. I had been up all night talking to Danny on the phone. We were hiding our getting back together from the world at this point. But I was also excited. I was going with a BUNCH of friends, like I think there were 8 or 10 people in our group. My date was Andrea's little brother who was a freshman. This had been the plan for like 4 years. I told him if I didn't have a boyfriend at my senior year prom, then he would be my date. We had a blast! The whole night was so much fun. Out of everyone that was friends with each other, all grades combined, I don't think anyone danced with the same person twice. Even the couples. Danny and I managed to dance with each other once, and I think he got caught giving me a kiss on the head, so our secret was no longer a secret.

Though a little revealing, my parents probably preferred the $50 that was spent on this dress vs. the $300ish that I think was spent on the dress the year before

 

 

Andrea, the bff

 

Post prom was at the bowling alley in town. The group I went with, which happened to include Andrea (bff), her brother (my date), her sister (her date was my brother's bff), and her cousin (whose date was my brother's bff's cousin), and Andrea's date was my brother's other bff's brother. Are you lost yet?

Anyways, we made shirts for post prom. Do you remember the Pussycat Doll's song Don'cha? Well, Andrea was mildly obsessed with it when it was popular, and probably still is today, so our shirts came from that song. The guys shirts said, "Don'tcha wish your date was hot like mine?" and the girls shirts said "Don'tcha wish your date was hot like me?" Then everyone's initials, or nickname if it was short enough, got put on the sleeve. Each couple (or set of dates since the little brother and me were not an item) had their own color of shirts.

The cousin of the 3 siblings and the cousin of one of the siblings' date, who were dating each other, are missing. You can't make these connections up. This is what you get in a small town. Anyways, my dad took this picture. I'm sure he was super comfortable taking a picture of some boy putting his hand on my ass. We wanted a picture of the "Ooh Yeah!" on the back of our shirts. I don't know where the "Ooh Yeah!" came from, but all I know is we were yelling that little phrase every chance we got.

 

Can you see why we had so much fun? This kid was (and still is) a goof ball!

I seriously had so much fun. I want to go to this exact prom again. I'll even let my husband be my date.

Now that I've wasted more than enough time traveling down memory lane, I need to get some serious work done!

The Weekend

We had a pretty busy weekend around our house.

Friday night when I got home from work, I entered an hour whirlwind of prepping dinner and playing outside. Seriously, the 5pm hour was crazy. But, I got dinner made, played outside, and delivered dinner to Danny before I finally ate dinner myself. My lucky husband had a T-bone, sweet potatoes and broccoli delivered to him. What's not to love about the Whole30? After Tucker went to bed, I took a bath to fight off yet another cyst on my tailbone then lounged before going to bed. I was one tired mama! I even left the sink looking like this.

#Whole30problems

Saturday was pretty productive. Danny took Tuck outside to work while I stayed inside and cleaned the kitchen. Tuck had the perfect working outside outfit. Overalls and boots. I died at the cuteness when I put everything on him.

This has become a Saturday morning tradition. I enjoy my hour or two of cleaning time. Though, with  my cyst, I just cleaned the kitchen then sat on my butt. After a quick shower and phone call to my mom, Tuck and I headed to get my mom so we could do some quick shopping while Danny went to the fire department's open house and did some mowing. We hit up Bed, Bath and Beyond, Old Navy for some clothes for Tuck then Earth Fare (like Whole Foods) for some buy one, get one deals. We went back to my mom's so Tuck could run around and not be trapped in his stroller anymore. He never sat still for more than 3 seconds. The proof is in this picture.

 

We made a quick trip through the grocery store on the way home then another whirlwind cooking spree before Danny got home. I had every intention of folding laundry Saturday night after I got Danny's food for work ready to go, but I just couldn't. Saturday wore me out!

Sunday was long day. Danny had to work and I had lots of cleaning and food prepping to do. I put all of it off until my mom came up around 4 though. Tuck and I slept through my niece's birthday party. I felt bad, but the days when I get to enjoy an hour and a half long nap snuggled up with my boy are numbered. Once my mom got to our house, I made egg muffins, finished dinner, and cleaned the bathroom. After her, Tuck and I ate dinner, I ran Danny's dinner up to him. Once I got home, Tucker and I started bedtime. After that grueling 90 minutes, I showered, folded laundry while I watched House of Cards (I'm late to the party and still on Season 1) then finally went to bed.

So basically, it's Monday and I don't feel refreshed from the weekend at all. Good thing we've got a pretty relaxing week coming up!

Bedtime Battles

We all know that social media is the place where everyone shows the rainbows and sunshine in their life. I love seeing happy things. But I love seeing the "real" things just as much. It makes me feel more normal. Which normal is different for everyone. That's the main thing that I've learned in the last year and a half. Normal for you is completely ass backwards for someone else. What is right for you is completely wrong for someone else.

For the last few weeks, maybe even a month or so, bedtime with Tucker has resembled a lot like what I imagine World War III to be, except it lasts 2 hours instead of years. But in the moment, the moment when my hair has been pulled out of my bed, my arm has been scratched and I'm raising my white flag with tears running down my face as Danny comes to my rescue, it feels like war.

I want to blame Daylight Savings time, but the first week of it being light out longer went like a dream. I thought we were in the clear. Nope. We had been doing everything the same. Dinner, bath, play, books, teeth, then off to his room with a bottle of milk to go to sleep. He would finish the milk, then start fighting for an hour. Then the house turned into an hour and a half. Then an hour and a half turned into 2 hours. In those long hours, we would get Tylenol (because teething does. not. stop!), rub Peace & Calming oil on his feet, read more books(by read I really mean grab them on the shelf, read a page, then throw it on the floor), get more milk (does the kid really need 12 ounces of milk before bed? Negative!).  This went on for a week. I dreaded bedtime. I thought about it almost all day and would get anxious just thinking about it.

I finally said Screw it! If he's going to fight be after his bottle anyway, then I'm going to switch things up and get rid of the bottle. New routine went like this. Dinner, bath, play, books and sippy with milk, then off to his room for another book and bed. First night took 30 minutes. Second night took 45ish. Next night I lasted an hour and a half before we ended up in the living room falling asleep to Elmo. I had replaced one bad habit (bottle before bed, which had him falling asleep with a bottle leaving milk on his teeth and him dependent on a bottle to go to sleep) with another bad habit. His eyes might get messed up, but at least he'll sleep with healthy teeth! I'd come to terms with it. It wasn't going to make me a terrible mom. It worked for 2 nights. Saturday night he was up until 11:30. Monday night bedtime took 2.5 hours. Danny ended up coming in to deal with it because I was a mess. What would it take to get this kid to go to bed?! Once he got in bed, he slept all night. We just had to get to that point!

We tried something new Tuesday night. We had never messed with the bath. It was always dinner then straight to the bath since he had food all over him so it just "made sense" and was easier. Tuesday we did dinner, play, Tylenol (to stop the constant chewing and prevent him from becoming a vampire) bath, books & milk, brush teeth, Peace & Calming oil, then off to bed with Danny. He had ear plugs and was prepared to camp out in Tucker's room while he screamed and they negotiated bedtime for hours. And Danny wasn't going to rock him. He was going to sit next to the crib while Tucker screamed. About 15 minutes in, I hear the song Soft Kitty coming from Tucker's room. Danny just started singing, and after about 5 times through, the screaming and negotiating came to a halt. Another 15 minute went by and Danny made is escape. Tucker just went to bed in 30 minutes. Totally acceptable in our house!

Last night was my turn. I was nervous. Tucker is more attached to me and I was afraid I would give it. I made a cup of tea, since I just knew I'd be in there for an hour and my throat would start hurting from singing Soft Kitty so loud so he could hear it over the screams. So, I sang. I picked him up to soothe him, only for about 30 seconds every few minutes. The last time I picked him up, I could tell he was ready to sleep. I laid him down and rubbed his back while still singing. He was asleep. I made it out in 20 minutes with a full cup of tea, no tears and my sanity in check.

Now, it's only been 2 nights, but I'm feeling confident that we are making progress.

Weigh-In Wednesday:4/8/15

Some exciting stuff happened yesterday. Our new home away from home on wheels officially became ours! We brought it home long enough to put a few things in there, then took it to Danny's dad's to store until our driveway is big enough. It literally takes up the entire driveway as it is right now. We LOVE it and are so excited for this summer! Once it is back home, cleaned up a bit and ready to go for the year, I will do a tour.

Anywho, Weigh-In Wednesday.  Since Danny and I are working on our Whole30, weigh-ins are out for the time being. But, I figured I could use these posts as a journal of sorts and to share what our (mostly mine) experience has been like. Maybe I can talk Danny into sharing what its like from a man's perspective. He's very hostile about it right now though. I've "taken away everything he loves" and he's just sad.

So far, things have been pretty good. We are right on track with this little timeline.

As with most things, Day 1 is pretty easy. Luckily I had seen this timeline before, so I knew to expect some confidence on Day 1 and a hangover the next 2 days. I was very much hungover yesterday. I woke up at 3am with a headache. I ate a Larabar, took some Tylenol, requested that Danny get out of bed and get me a wet rag and went back to sleep. I woke up with a lingering headache that wasn't as strong. Danny had a headache for most of yesterday. The jury is out as to whether or not my headache was caused by Tucker trying to knock me out Monday, the weather, or Whole30.

Hunger wise, I've felt okay. I haven't felt starved by any means, but I can tell when it's meal time. I've only felt the urge to snack after dinner. Last night was strawberries and almond butter with a cup of tea. The night before was strawberries and cashews. Danny on the otherhand has been starving. Depsite my writing down suggested meals and snacks, he's been eating way too little and not the right things. He was afraid the first 2 days to eat something against the rules. I gave  him some things to look over from the Whole30 website, which can be found HERE that have been helpful to me. 

Now the food. I'm enjoying the food much more than Danny. In my opinion, Danny is focusing too much on the things that he can't have (milk, bread and cheese) and not the things that he can have. The man ate 3 small hamburger patties with mayo for dinner Monday night and was sad he couldn't drink milk with it. I think if I can find some drinks for him, things will get better. So, I'm off to the store this afternoon while I run errands for work.

Would you all be interested in the food? I'm thinking about posting most of my meals for the week once every week is over. So, next Tuesday I would start. I know when I first decided to do this, which was over a month ago, I poured over Pinterest and the Internet for food ideas. The sources that were the most helpful were blogs that showed what they ate day to day.

That's all for now. Now its time to power through my day with this "hangover" I've got going on.