Wow really

Ok so I just remembered that I had started this blog a while ago. Honestly, where has the time gone. So we have had quite a few changes in our life since I have updated SeePletcher. Here is the big one drum roll please...... Baby Ella has made us a family of 5. Yup Kearsa who is already completely overwhelmed by life and my own deficiencies decided to have another baby and talked Chris in to it. September of last year we decided to get off BC. Shortly after Christmas I had a minor panic attack and decided that I had lost my mind and another child was not the best option for us. Well.... lets just say God has an amazing sense of humor and awesome timing. I joke about it but really Ella just makes me feel complete. She is truly a blessing and is such a good baby.

So I am at home on maternity leave and have decided to make some changes in my house.

1- one while I am at home and Chris is not, I will slowly start to purge all of his crap. He is such a pack rat.

2- I am making changes to be more "green". Can anyone say worm composting?

3- I am also bound and determined to plan better meals for our family. My first step is having organic produce delivered to my house from Orlando Organics. I get my 1st box on Thursday so we will see how that goes.

Garden

Well no surprise the cost of food along with everything else (got your power bill lately) has gone sky high. so i have decided to do something nuts and since you are dumb enough to be reading this you will be getting updates step by step.

ok take a deep breath. I am going to start a garden. I mean a real garden. My fall crop will be corn, carrots, kale, peas tomatoes and lettuce. i will be planting some other stuff but i don't feel like listing it all out in case it dies and one of you asks about it.

Well i will keep you posted. I am really excited. i included an attachment to a link i found really helpful. Feel free to take a look and start a garden with me.

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/VH/VH02100.pdf

worries

OK so you know all those end of the world shows? Like a huge storm comes and mankind is wiped of the face of the earth. Or super virus attacks millions and only 3 are left... what happens now. Well those shows freak me out. I am not sure if it started when i had kids or what but seriously those shows can bring on a panic attack. Well we just watched the new show "The colony". Why my husband loves these shows i don't know. Well if you did not see it the idea behind the show is super virus kills almost everyone, infrastructure fails, no water, no power etc etc. Well the "reality show" puts a group of people in this situation and they have to figure out how to survive. really well done if you did not watch it as far as the psychological breakdown they force on these people.

2am the next morning i am wide awake. I mean not going to fall back to sleep any time soon, that kind of awake. Well you know what i was thinking about. in the little mini tragedy going on in my head the super virus had gotten almost everyone. The government was breaking down and all in all it was not looking good. Washington shuts down as everyone is left to fend for themselves. So i am in tears at 2am thinking about all the different ways my family will die because i did not now how to provide for them other than by looting Wal-Mart.

So that got me thinking about the environment which caused me to think about a conversion i had with a friend awhile ago. My friend thinks that a few hundred years from now there will be so little water left that the government will start rationing it out. And as the past has taught us with rationing the rich survive and everyone else dies or starts resorting to the black market. So suddenly at 2:45am i am in panic and trying to come up with ways to save the world.

Finally because i do believe in a higher power and i had really worked myself up I prayed. and prayed and did a little more praying.

Does anyone else torture themsleves with horible thoughts when they should be asleep.

Flordia summer storms

There are certain moments you realize will be important moments in your children's lives. Not the ones you think are important but the ones they think are important. Building memories is one way a friend of mine puts it (yes i do have friends)

Any way i think most of us as parents are constantly getting caught up in the take care of /provider for portion of being parents. I mean really who could blame us. most of us have to work just to make ends meet. there are dishes to do, bills to pay, baths to give and tons of other stuff that gets in the way of really being parents.

I know when my kids look back i don't what them to think wow mom worked really hard to keep the house clean or man she really knew how to get my whites whiter. I want them to look back and remember little moments that we shared on hot sunny days. i want them to remember how i always took the time to make sure they were nice and tucked in before i closed the bed room door.

Well one of these moments happened a few weeks ago. It was around 8pm and as it usually happens during summer we had just started a bad thunderstorm. Chris and i are sitting there with the dogs (who are trying to crawl up our butts because they are scared of the storm). Chris asked if i thought we should go upstairs and lay with the kids. my first thought was are you kidding we just put them down and i am exhausted. But i thought about it. I remembered nights that i was scared in my room as a little girl. And my mom would come and lay down with me. i would try to stay up as long as i could but i would slowly drift off to sleep and at some point she would get up and go into her room.

So Chris goes in to Jarrod's room. he is all snuggled under the covers. Chris asked if he was scared Jarrod said yes and Chris laid down. Touching right.

Well I open Hannah's room and she is laying on the floor (apparently the best place to sleep). She looked so sweet so i stood there and watched. Keep in mind i am still expecting this heartfelt moment to occur. So Hannah notices me and asks "what you doin" i explain mommy thought you might be scared "what you doin" was the response i got back. Well Hannah i am going to lay down with you. "what you doin'". At this point i really had to stop myself from saying " For the love of God i am trying to have a moment could you just work with me" But i once again explained. Now i am starting to lay down next to her, and she looks at me with her two year old tiny little face and bright blue eyes and says "NO go away".

not really how i thought that was going to work out.

Moral to this story - just because you maybe having a heart felt moment does not mean they will be.

Addiction to Gum

OK as you know i have a five year old son. It is a constant battle to try and raise him right. As a mom you want to protect them while giving them freedom. Make them eat their veggies while letting them know the joy of a triple hot fudge sundae. Make sure they get enough sleep while staying up late to snuggle on the couch. It is all a balancing act. And i am sure years from now my children's therapist will inform them i did a really crappy job but oh well I tried.

So last week we had our first real lay down the law parenting issue. A couple of weeks ago i bought three packs of gum. i took one with me and there were two unopened packs on my dresser. Well we had just put the kids to bed on Sunday night when my husband came down stairs and asked me where the gum was. We looked but could not find it. We KNEW Jarrod had taken it. Chris walks into Jarrod's room and says "where is the gum, don't try and lie i know you have it." this is when the scary stuff started. Jarrod gets up, his eyes were huge. slowly he tells his daddy to open his closet door, Tucked way in the back behind some boxes is the two now empty packs of gum, along with two of the Listerine tongue tab thingys and a box mints. (my first thought is wow is my son prepping for a marathon of 7 minutes in heaven or what). Well my husband is completely devastated. Now starts the you lied to me, you stole from us and i am so disappointed speech. Of course Jarrod is crying and working himself in to a coughing fit.

Chris comes down stairs still really worked up. His first question to me is who taught him how to steal. My respond is umm really don't think kids need to be taught how to steal. At that point in a cool and calm kind of way i take a step back and realize perhaps i had drove my son to commit this awful crime. Let me explain. Jarrod has a 2 year old sister.

Just in case you need more explanation sometimes it is much easier to say no to both then say yes to one who might be of appropriate age for say gum and no to the other who might just choke to death or put it in her hair. Yes in my effort to keep the peace between siblings i might have pushed my son into a life of crime. i mean come on we all know what is next.... grand theft auto of course.

So after this realization i go upstairs to my still sobbing son. i look him in the eye and here are my words of wisdom. "you know that feeling in your tummy, that sick feeling" Yea... " that is because you stole and lied to mommy and daddy. GOD doesn't like it either, stealing is a sin and makes your tummy hurt. now go to sleep"

So now every time my son gets constipated he is going to think he has committed a sin.

Yea like i said parenting is a balancing act. I will help pay for the therapist.

ouch ouch my aching legs

So in the never ending battle to be healthy and not want to vomit when i look in the mirror i have started to work out. It started a few months ago when I ran my first 5K. yeah i know it is insane I ran a 5K. Well lets be honest I ran, walked, got pissed at myself, ran some more, prayed for a broken leg, then cussed out my hubby at the finish line. Yes i know it was a shining moment in my life. But lets just say having someone 3 times your size and 25 years older than you finish before you is enough of a wake up call.

So we started running a little bit at home. Well as any mom knows there is just not enough time in the day. I don't want to run alone in the dark in the morning and it is so hot in the evening when i get home plus there is dinner to cook and kids to wash and dishes to do.

That form of excising wasn't really working so we bought weights. after a week of serious working out 5 days a week all i can really say is ....

HOLY CRAP MY ACHIN LEGS, ARMS AND BUTT AND BY THE WAY I DID NOT EVEN KNOW THERE WAS A MUSCLE OVER THERE!!!

Yup that is how i feel. everything hurts. A good hurt i am sure but still pain. I have to say it is nice to work out with Chris and the kids get involved too. I am also watching my calories. this is an eye opening experience. I know it is a pain but seriously pick one day to eat normal but just count how many calories is in everything you put in your mouth.

For example I got a salad at Chilies. I mean a SALAD. Guess how many calories 1200 yea i know crazy. Now where the problem comes in is that as a good little dieter you have watched what you ate all day. Then while your husband eats some sizzling fajitas loaded with sour cream and cheese you picked a nice simple salad yea there is some cheese but come on all of those veggies easily off set that. So now you have not only blown the whole day because you ate all cals in one setting as you should have for the whole day but thinking about how wonderful and self sacrificing you have been you decide to order one of those tiny little shot glasses of desert.

now the next time you weigh yourself you will at the very least have not lost any weight and fall in to the depths of depression crawl to the freezer for a half gallon of Edy's ice cream thus the cycle begins again.

OK funny story but completely true at least for me but as Chris says i am a little dramatic and possibly have weight issues ( I know crazy right where does he get this stuff) but if you are interested there is a site called thedailyplate.com that has the calories for everything.

Here I am again

So here I am. I know you have missed me. Things have been so crazy here. Work has been busy as normal. Jarrod's soccer season is finally finished. They gave him a trophy after the last game he has slept with it every night. I swear the stuff kids do, it is just so cute.

OK so here is my revelation for the week. I think I am OK with just two kids. We went to dinner recently and I noticed that my kids are the age that they can kind of entertain themselves and I can actually have an adult conversation. Big words and all. I don't know when it happened but it seems like my life might be entering a new phase.

On that same note we registered Jarrod for kindergarten. I know kindergarten it is insane. We decided to pull him out of private school and put him in public school. Once again another lesson in guilt. I had to make a choice that will forever effect his life. But i have decided that if I am very involved then he will have the same chances for a great education as a private school. OK not really but i was a product of public school and i turned out OK. But then again they did not have the FCAT and weren't cutting teachers jobs left and right. Darn it I might have to rethink my decision. Jeez thanks guys for totally making me doubt myself again.

All in all it has been a great few weeks. We are all healthy, happy and truly blessed. Really what more could I ask for.