Friday, March 31

WOOHOO!! It's Friday!

Anyone else glad that the weekend is almost here?? I am!!!

Josh was able to work on the Explorer last night and now I have brakes again! I hate not having the option to go anywhere! And ya know, it's not like I go very many places during the day. I hate not having that option though, it makes me feel trapped!! Today is supposta be another gorgeous day so this afternoon I'm heading out to a friends house. We'll go to with her kids to a park!! I can't wait!!

Have an awesome day everyone and enjoy your weekend!!

Wednesday, March 29

100 things

Ok, so I know this idea is not new. I have a friend that did this on her blog and she did it because someone else did it...and chances are, they did it cuz someone else did too! I'm going to continue on with this madness and tell you 100 things about me, you can do the same if you are so inspired! :)

1. By this time next week I'll be 27
2. I have been married for 3 years
3. I have 2 kids (ok, that one was obvious)
4. I grew up in small town Kansas
5. I went to college in Missouri for 2 years
6. My major was Early Childhood Education
7. Ironically, now I plan on homeschooling my kids
8. I moved to St. Louis to be closer to a guy (after dating him for just 6mo)
9. I married that guy 3 years later
10. I love to read
11. I love music
12. I miss performing music
13. The double bass is my instrument of choice
14. I have one tattoo, it's a bass clef
15. I want to teach my kids to play the violin and cello (and maybe someday the bass)
16. By the end of my second pregnancy my feet were severely swollen
17. After having my second baby I had to buy new shoes because my foot "grew" a shoe size
18. I like to lift weights
19. I like to do Pilates (in the comfort of my living room!)
20. I try to do Pilates every morning before the kids wake up
21. I don't miss Kansas, but I do miss people from there
22. I do miss St. Louis and people there too
23. Someday I will own a Dodge Ram
24. I want to take a music theory class...or two...
25. I usually like to cook
26. I can quote most of the lines from Legally Blonde
27. I have read all the Harry Potter books that are out to date
28. My brother is also my uncle (you wanna hear that story, don't ya??)
29. I want to get another tattoo
30. Actually, I want to get 2 more tattoos
31. I don't like cats
32. I belong to one "mommy" group online
33. I sell things on ebay to bring in extra cash
34. Gatorade Rain (Berry flavor) is a favorite
35. Green is my favorite color
36. I want to tour Europe (once with an orchestra and once for pleasure)
37. I can sew (but I'd like to be better at it!)
38. I color my hair
39. I started driving when I was 14
40. I am the youngest of 3 kids
41. I like to shop at Old Navy
42. I'm tall and it's hard to find jeans
43. I hate stretch denim
44. When I have a daughter one of her names will be Alethea (Greek for truth)
45. My favorite place to eat out is Penn Station
46. Both of my boys were preemies (32 and 35 weeks)
47. I love the smell of fresh cut grass
48. My first car was an '89 Pontiac Sunbird, my moms neighbor owns the car now (it still runs)
49. When I sold my first car it had 220K miles on it
50. There was a 6mo period when the odometer didn't work
51. When I met my husband my hair was just under shoulder length
52. When I met my husband his hair was about 3 inches past his shoulders
53. Sunflowers are my favorite
54. Shrek is one of my favorite movies
55. I have helped my husband build cabinets and computers, in the same weekend
56. I have caught a rag w/lacquer thinner on fire while cleaning cabinets
57. I don't mind doing laundry
58. I do not iron. Period.
59. As a kid I ate more venison than beef
60. Today I eat more chicken and fish than venison and beef
61. I dislike cardio workouts
62. I have never seen an episode of Survivor...
63. or Lost...
64. or American Idol
65. I bite my nails
66. I tried to breastfeed Zander, I failed
67. I tried to breastfeed MiKael, it's going good
68. My eyes are brown
69. I have a collection of Coca-Cola stuff
70. I prefer to drink Pepsi
71. I also enjoy Mikes hard lemonaide, but my favorite is the berry flavor
72. In college I was late to my New Testament mid-term because I went to see one of the Scream movies
73. I didn't do very good on the mid-term
74. When MiKael was born I had a doula
75. I didn't have any drugs when MiKael was born
76. I arrived at the hospital at 1:38am and he was born at 3:35am
77. Before the kids I was an Asst.Mgr. at JoAnn Fabrics and Crafts
78. I like to have a very specific meal plan for the week
79. This is the year I was born (79)
80. This is the year that my husband was born (80)
81. I enjoy reading books to my boys
82. I don't know where a library is close to the house we just moved into
83. I met Josh online
84. I sometimes spend too much time on the computer
85. I want to spend the summer outside with the boys
86. I want to have a nice tan this summer too
87. I don't know how to swim
88. I do not like to put my face in the water...Zander does
89. I like my nose
90. I like hot tea
91. I am excited to go to St. Louis this summer
92. I am not excited about the drive
93. Going to St.Louis till be MiKaels first "road trip"
94. I subscribe to 5 magazines, 3 are kid related
95. I am easily amused
96. I drive an Explorer
97. This is the year I graduated HS (97)
98. I almost always need to clean my office
99. My husband is my best friend and I love him dearly
100. I want to learn more about photography

Whew!! And there you have it!! Now....go and do the same!! :-P

Monday, March 27

2yr. doctor appointment

Well, it's official! At 30 pounds (65th%) and 36 and 1/4 inches tall (90th%), we have a big boy! Now, we knew that this once preemie would grow up to be big and it's coming true so fast! The peditrician was saying that he's certain that Zander will be taller than Josh!He kept commenting on how solid Zander is and how active he is (you should have seen him in the office!! LOL)!!

Also in this big boys future...we're pretty sure that he'll hafta have at least part of his big toe nails removed. They grow funny and are hard to trim and so far (crossing my fingers it wont' ever happen though!!) he's not gotten any ingrown toe nails but it could happen very easily! His toe nails are also very brittle, which just makes the problem worse. So, I've been told to give him foods with gelatin in them. I guess I'll be making lots of jello! (If anyone has any suggestions on other foods that have gelatin that he'd eat...please share!)

The ped. (let's call him Dr.D) took a quick look at MiKael and was happy to see him looking so good! He was pleased with how big he is getting, especially after losing the weight when he had RSV (and in the hospital for 3 days just over a month ago). He's looking good! :)

Sunday, March 26

Ugh!

Just know that I'm sufficiently annoyed. I don't want to carry on about it, just get over it.

Get over it.

**deep breath**

Getting over it.

Friday, March 24

Happy Birthday Zander!!

The boy is 2 today! I can't believe it's gone by so stinking fast!!

I told everyone in my previous post that today was the day for pictures and I wasn't kidding! I put together a little album on msn spaces cuz there were too many to load into blogger! http://spaces.msn.com/joshandgailandfamily There are about 80 pictures over there of Zander from birth to present!! Thanks for stopping by!!

I hope you guys don't mind pictures...


beacuase today will be full of them!! I took all of these last night, I hope you enjoy! I'll be posting more pictures today so...that's your warning!









Thursday, March 23

Uh oh??

Today while I was fixing lunch Zander was playing in the living room. This is a normal thing and it's usually never quiet! I realized this in the middle of assembeling sandwiches. It was quiet. Too quiet. You know what I'm talking about. It's the kind of quiet where you go and look in to check on things and with some sort of warp speed your toddler has unwound rolls of toilet paper that are now decorating your ENTIRE living room. Or pulling every single wipe out of it's bucket. Or happily splashing duplos in the toilet. You get the idea. I had several things flying through my head as to what my little explorer could be up to.

Anyone care to take a guess??

Well, what he was doing I wish I had a picture to show. Unfortunately, the camera was on a shelf BEHIND him!

At first I didn't see Zander in the living room and was getting ready to make my rounds to the bedrooms and bathroom. Then, there he was. Sitting on the couch with about 5 books stacked around him thumbing through the pages and looking at pictures. I'm sure he was jabbering as if reading aloud (which has been a recent thing of his). And that was the mischief.

Wednesday, March 22

Dishwashing and Laundry, Oh my!

For the past week or so Zander has taken an extreme interest of all that goes on in the kitchen. If someone so much as even walks in the direction of the kitchen he is right there to follow along! It's not that he's hungry or wants something to drink, he just wants to see it all. I've really had to watch out for him because he always seems to be underfoot. He loves watching things on the stove. But most of all, he likes to "help" with the dishes. Especially today.

Today Zander got up, had breakfast, took a bath, got dressed and then followed me into the kitchen. I was about to clean up the breakfast mess (and even a pan or two from last night). So, Zander grabs his stool (like this http://www.homedepot.com/prel80/HDUS/EN_US/jsearch/product.jsp?pn=163535 ) and pulls it right up beside me. Now he's standing tall right in front of the side of the sink where I rinse the dishes. I figure if he gets his sleeves wet it's no big deal, we'll just change his shirt.

We changed his shirt. And his undershirt. And his jeans. And his socks!!!

You see, when we got to the end of the dishes my cell phone rang. I dried off my hands real fast and answered it (mind you, I'm still RIGHT THERE). Zander had been playing with the measuring spoons and splashing around a little bit, but nothing to severe. No cause for alarm. Until I put that big mug within his reach!!! Almost as soon as it hit the other side of the sink to be rinsed he grabbed it, filled it with water and dumped it everywhere!! It was the funniest thing I've seen him do in a long time, his face was hilarious! After I took the mug from him and put it on the rack to dry (the measuring spoons too!) he proceeded to splash around in the leftover water. The splashes started out tiny. They didn't stay that way!! Before long he was splashing and laughing so hard! It made me want a video camera!!

I let him splash around for a bit, afterall I already had puddles on the floor to clean up. He couldn't really do any more "damage".

It was a good morning!





After we changed him out of his soggy clothes it wasn't long and it was lunchtime! Today was also the day that Zander decided that cottage cheese is for WEARING and not eating!! So...we changed his shirt again. At this rate he's gonna go through a weeks worth of clothes in one day! :)

10 pounds down, 25 to go!

And that is pretty much self explanatory!

My overall goal at the beginning was to lose 35lbs, eat healthier, workout at least 3 times a week and get my blood pressure back in check. In the last 17 days 10lbs are gone, we are eathing MUCH healthier and my blood pressure is already starting to come down! As for the working out? It went really well the first 10 days. Then it didn't happen for a week! But, this morning put an end to that and I'm back in full action again!

Friday, March 17

The balding baby

bald (bôld)adj. bald·er, bald·est
Lacking hair on the head.

Yes, yes, I know it's a normal thing. Babies go bald, it's what they do. I remember Zander one day had a head full of baby fuzz and the next, he was bald. No mommy trauma involved. It just happend, I honestly didn't notice when it did! It was like **poof** it was never there to begin with! His hair came back rather quickly and by his first birthday he was sporting a rather thick head of hair.

By now you have probably guessed that MiKael is starting to thin out and go bald. **sigh** It is different this time. I don't know if it is because MiKael has darker hair than Zander did but MAN! The thing that gets me the most, you ask? Seeing strands of hair on the shoulders of his shirt and on the sheet to his bassinette where his head rubs. I'm weird, I know. The headline should read MOMMY TRAUMATIZED BY INFANT HAIR LOSS. But, can you blame me? When we give MiKael a bath (until reciently, I might add) his hair would look like a baby chicken, fuzz sticking out EVERYWHERE. It was cute. And I liked it!

Want to hear something funny though? Before I noticed that MiKael was shedding I noticed that he was growing new hairs. Yup, it's cute! His hairline is starting to fill in and thicken up. I'll just hafta focus on that I guess! Here is another interesting piece of information: Josh has passed his hairline on to both Zander and MiKael.

I love all of my boys; the todder with thick hair, the balding baby and the graying hubby.

Monday, March 13

Zander, MiKael, Buddy and GloWorm (nameless thus far)

These first three pictures of Zander sleeping with Buddy. Please excuse the naked pillow...anyone else have kids who take the pillow cases off?!




And here are a few pictures of MiKael and his new lil buddy as well. I couldn't believe how he was grinning!!! I love it!!

In this one you can see the knots (in the hat) that I mentioned in the blog.


I should also say that this last picture here...MiKael has my dads grin in this picture!

Another Monday has come...

and almost gone! Remember time seemed to stand still some days back when you were a kid? What happened to that?!

This weekend was GREAT! Josh helped out so much with EVERYTHING it was amazing. He usually helps out alot but man, this weekend was so nice for me! The weather was cold so we pretty much stayed in the whole time, it was nice to hang out with all 3 of my boys at once. I think Josh checked email a few times but other than that, he didn't do work stuff at all. (Unless you count playing w/his Treo!! :-P)

Friday and Saturday night MiKael decided he was going to get up **literally** every two hours to eat! It was maddening!! It's times like that when I sometimes wonder just why I decided to breastfeed him but that thought usually goes away pretty fast. I must also add that MiKael slept thru the night on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday so him waking up that often on Friday and Saturday was almost like a slap in the face!! :-P Last night was better though, he only got up once so I am hoping that he'll go back to sleeping thru the night.

I mentioned that Josh helped out this weekend, right? We put MiKael in his swing sometime around 7am and we went back to bed. I totally crashed after that! Josh got up with Zander at about 9am Saturday and kept both boys out in the living room until I got up around 11!! I really appreciated the extra bit of sleep that Josh let me get after being up and down with the baby all night. Josh actually woke me up with breakfast, he cooked and it was yummy!! He cooked again Saturday night...and Sunday morning...and Sunday afternoon...and again last night! I didn't cook all weekend, I did do the clean-up in the kitchen but it was well worth it.

Yesterday afternoon I pulled a vanishing act during (downstairs, to the office) Zanders naptime and didn't resurface for hours. What was I doing, you ask? Filing bills. But before I could file everything I had to set-up the file cabinet. Before we moved we were trying to get a handle on organizing all that kind of stuff but it just hadn't happened yet. And all I have to say about it now is this. I. AM. DONE All is organized, now I just gotta stay on top of it.

Zander, the silly nearly-2-year old, got a GloWorm for his birthday last year. He's become rather attached to the thing. He takes it to bed with him every night, as well as for every nap. When he first got the GloWorm (who has since been named Buddy) he only snuggled up to him at sleeping times but here lately Buddy has gotten more use. Buddy now gets snuggle time when Zander first wakes up in the morning, before naptime when Zander starts to get sleepy and the same in the evenings before bedtime. (I'll post pictures in the morning.) I think this is the cutest thing ever! I remember how GloWorms looked as a kid and Buddy has this same clasic look. Now I come to the point for all this and the reason for telling you about Buddy. One of my last trips to Wal-Mart we went walking thru the toy section...wanna guess what I saw?? A GloWorm!! BUT this one didn't look exactly like Buddy. The body was the same, the face was similar, but the hat was different! Instead of the traditional hat, this GloWorm had on a hat which had 2 knots on the sides! (I love these kinds of hats, Josh does not.) Know what else?? I instantly wanted to get it for MiKael!! To make a long story short, I got MiKael the GloWorm last night (yet to be named). This morning when Zander came out of his room he left Buddy behind (knowing nothing of MiKaels "buddy") and promptly ate breakfast. With breakfast over Zander got out of his chair and began to play in the living room and notices the new GloWorm for the first time. Looking confused he wanders over to it and gives it a good hard look, then starts walking in the direction of his bedroom. The closer to his room he gets, the faster he walks! By the time he actually makes it to his room, he's running. He comes out with Buddy in tow and RUNS over to the new GloWorm, grinning from ear to ear. Oh my, how jealous the toddler is when he realizes this new toy is his brothers! (I know, I know...I'm sure he doesn't fully understand it all, but either way he's not happy about it!) All this morning Zander was trying to get at the new GloWorm and take it from MiKael. At least when it was naptime he didn't fuss for the new one, he went and got Buddy and went to sleep. :)

I'm working on getting my ebay stuff up and going. Every time I think I'm ready to just run with it, something happens. My "new" problem now is getting the pictures to look "just right". **sigh** Hopefully this one won't take too long and my auctions will be up and running soon! For those of you who don't know, this is something that I've wanted to do for a while now but it hasn't happened til now. Now I'm almost there and what money I do make from this venture will go to pay off credit card debt!! I'm very excited about that!!

Ah, there goes MiKael. He's hungry again so I best be gettin along for the night. I did have more to post but that can be done later! :)

Thursday, March 9

Sky: overcast and icky

But it has been the best day!

I woke up this morning for the second day in a row at a quarter to six! I was so excited!! MiKael has slept through the last two nights! Needless to say I've had way more energy today since I didn't get up for a 3 am feeding. Of course, that also could have something to do with the fact that for the past week and a half I've excercised consistently and been eating better than I have...oh, I'd say EVER! And the vitamins!! Since I first posted on here about my struggle in that area I have remembered, not just once, but every single day.



Zander and I had a good time this morning playing in his room. He found it really funny when I made his little frog toy "ribbit", he's even picking up on making different animal noises now. He has a Little People cat and likes to make it "meow"! Then there are his stuffed animals. He LOVES his stuffed animals (or anything with "stuffing"). Pillows, stuffed animals, blankets, even a kitchen towel...he hugs them all, it's so cute!!

Right now I am so in awe of my little boys. They are both growing up so fast it's UNREAL! MiKael is starting to stay awake so much more during the day, watching everything. I love watching him watch things...and his smile!! It makes me melt. Last night at the store MiKael looked up and me and grinned and I smiled back, his grin got bigger...and so did mine. He looked away for just a second and looked back and when he saw me he smiled big again. As silly as I think this sounds, I'm so in love with my kids!

I just tried to post a picture of MiKael but for some reason it didn't work. Ahhh well, perhaps tomorrow!!

Tuesday, March 7

MiKael


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And this is the baby, he'll be 3months in a week and a half. Time is flying by with him too! Crazy, crazy...this lil guy was 5 weeks early but he was big for being early. He weighed in at 6lbs5oz!!

Zander


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This is Zander, he's my 2yo. Well, to be honest his birthday is at the end of the month so he'll be 2 on the 24th! I can't believe how big he is getting to be already.

Well, here it is a few days later and things are going great!

The weekend took it's usual turn for being unpredictable which drives me crazy. It seems that I'm married to a guy who can't always make up his mind! (this is all supposta sound lighthearted, just for the record) For as long as I have known him he has not been a fan of making plans. If you don't have plans, you can't break them and noone gets upset. BUT, he is also very big on something has to be done otherwise it's a wasted day. So, needless to say sometimes things get interesting in this area. Like Saturday. We had planned on going to the zoo, but we got up late. Everything happened late that day as a result. By the time Zander (our 2yo) got up from his late nap we would have had 2 hours to get to the zoo and check out the animals. This shouldn't have been a problem considering that we live about 5 minutes from the zoo. But then the "normal" drive-me-crazy thing happened. We sat around. Turns out Josh was waiting on me (for what and why I'm not sure) and I was waiting on him!! Now, I know why I was waiting on him. He had his laptop out and had been checking work emails, trying to stay caught up over the weekend so he'd not hafta work late during the week. So, I figured once he was done we'd get up and leave for the zoo. Mabye in a normal world! :-P Ya see, what I didn't know is that he was done with the emailing thing and he was looking up things for his cell phone. By the time we got out the door we only would have had about a half our at the zoo, so we opted to go to a nearby park instead. Sunday we went to the zoo. Right after we went to church...right after we went to church ONLINE. **sigh** (this is a whole other post! LOL)

Uh, yeah, back to my point! I sat out on my "cardio" stuff on Saturday but then Sunday night Josh got the treadmill re-assembled in the basement. Sunday I went for a walk on the treadmill (which I've never used consistently) and I'm finding it so much harder to use (meaning it's more of a challenge to keep the same pace) than walking outside. But, I'm sticking with it! I used it yesterday and will be on it later this afternoon as well. Ya see, while I'd rather be oustside pushing the kids in the stroller a cold front is on it's way. Tomorrow we'll be getting snow, again. This last week has just been a teaser of wonderful spring weather! Oh well, long story short...I'm sticking with the treadmill for working out and then any walks outside can simply be enjoyed. I'd rather have a fun time with the boys than worry about how fast I'm NOT walking. I think I mentioned before that eventually my goal is to be walking a full hour every day but after that I'm hoping to actually start...dare I say it...jogging. I've never been a jogger/runner but I'm going to give it a shot. I'm told it's good for you but right now I beg to differ. :-P Yesterday I also did my pilates and a few other strength training excercises. I. AM. SORE. But I love it!! I feel like I'm actually taking baby steps toward my goal!!

And last, I took my blood pressure last night and was pleasantly surprised. It was 122/72. It's not been that low in MONTHS. Not since it shot up to 150something/115 at the end of my pregnancy. Yes, you read that right 150something/115. That blood pressure reading sent me straight to Labor and Delivery at the hospital for observation. Instant bed rest, for two hole days. MiKael decided it was time for him to make his appearance early!

I also hafta add that I love my husband! He is constantly supportive of what I am doing and it never fails to amaze me! In this journey of eating better and becoming more active, he's started to take part. For the first time EVER we're getting up and having breakfast in the morning and I'm packing his lunch. At first he said that he'd just take part in eating a healthy dinner with the family and not to worry bout him for breakfast and lunch. But that was also hard for grocery shopping. He thought it would be easier that way but it wasn't. We both got on the same page this weekend. I love those few minutes with him in the morning, they are precious to me! And as far as packing his lunch goes, I don't mind! For some strange reason it makes it easier. I actually feel like he is being more supportive than he already is (I dont' know if that makes sense to anyone but me, but I do feel loved).

Friday, March 3

Answers.com defines tabula rasa as

1a. The mind before it receives the impressions gained from experience.
1b. The unformed, featureless mind in the philosophy of John Locke and

2. A need or an opportunity to start from the beginning.

I love and wholeheartadly agree with all of the definitions. And here we are, taking an opportunity to start over from the beginning. Well, as far as my blog goes anyway! Welcome to my journey!

This week has been one to definetly hit the reset button and start over again. So far, I've started doing pilates and crunches again. Since my youngest boy will be 3mo on the 17th I decided I was past due in the getting back into shape department. I don't so much have a weight goal in mind but just want to look and feel better overall. I do know what my "starting weight" is in this quest, but I don't think I'll share that one just yet! I have also started taking my boys on daily walks, starting out slow and in 12 (hopefully) short weeks we'll be crusing along for a full hour. And last for the new beginnings this week, I have started taking my vitamins again. Vitamins have been a struggle for me since being pregnant with my second child. Call it what you want but I just kept forgetting to take the dang things!

I've got a huge motivator to lose the baby weight (or should I say jiggle since technically I've already lost the baby weight?). With my second pregnancy my blood pressure skyrocketed the last week before going into labor. While my blood pressure has gone down from where it was it's still not back to my "normal" prepregnancy range. Having slightly elevated blood pressure has been making me nervous and been the cause for more excercise and a new, more nutritious meal plan for the whole family. It has been a year and 4 months since my father died of a heart attack, which was his second in 4 years. At 5'10'' and 350+ he was in major need of a lifestyle change that he just was not willing to make. The doctors had been telling him for years that if he didn't start to eat right, excercise a little, shed some pounds and get his blood pressure in check that it would all kill him. This time the doctors were right. He was 59.

I refuse to live a life like that. So, here I am at (almost) 27 making the choice to eat better and excercise and keep my blood pressure in check....but for now I must depart and give a fussy toddler his lunch...a nap wouldn't hurt either.