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!