Easter updates and MORE!

What an update this will be; I haven’t gotten on here in quite the while! YIKES! I’ll try to cut it short!

Our Easter weekend turned out to be wonderful! Saturday we went to a free festival in Norfolk with a family Brandon works with. They have a little one who is absolutely adorable and is just a tad bit older than Graysen. The festival wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, but it was still fun. It ended up being pretty chilly so I’m glad I didn’t pay for it, we didn’t stay TOO long.  Sunday morning Graysen woke up and got her Easter goodies from the Easter Bunny. She got a lot of Summer time things to play with outdoors and some clothes and stuffed animals. She was overall impressed, or so I would like to think! We then did a little Easter egg hunt outside before we had to leave. She loved it was so excited to find the eggs and pack them into her little basket! We then left and meet another family at Cracker Barrel for a midmorning brunch, and then we all went over to Hunt Club Farm. It’s a little Farm in Virginia Beach and they have tons of fun stuff to do. We were a little iffy on it, but we realized Graysen is at that age now where she is enjoying all those festivities, so it’s fun for us! We went straight into the egg hunt since we wanted to get at least the ten eggs we were promised for the 12 dollars we paid for little miss, but she didn’t want much to do with it. She was too busy staring at the pony’s across the way! So we decided to let her go on a pony ride. I was very skeptical because sometimes she thinks she wants to do something but when she gets there to do it she freaks out!! To my surprise she LOVED it! She barley even wanted to get off the horse! She also went into one of those BIG bounce houses. They had one for little kids and she ran straight to it.. we let her go in and then couldn’t get her out haha! With all that and all the farm animals that she just loved it was a wonderful Easter!

Well, it is that time of year and the yard work is in! We did our first BIG day of yard work the Tuesday before Easter.  I was on a mission to get the yard pretty cleaned up before that fence was supposed to come in, and I think I did very well. I even took the lead in taking our gutter off to find the squirrel’s hole the size of both my hands!! That took a little while to fix, and we still have yet to cover the rest of our house in Metal, but hopefully it’s a temporary fix to keep those things OUT of our attic. Yes they were the noises I was hearing ALL winter long! Wasn’t me going crazy! All the while I was proud of us for spending an entire 11 hours outside doing yard work that Tuesday, Friday I woke up and had a bunch of bumps on my arms. Thought they were bug bites… was scratching and complaining about how “eaten” up I had gotten. Saturday when we went to the festival the “bug bites” got pretty big and seemed to have been spreading, and started to hurt! So when we got home I called the doctor’s office and was able to get in that day.. Come to find out we have Poison sumac, oak and ivy all around this area and I seemed to have gotten one of them! A week later, I am STILL itchy and don’t think yard work is going to be my forte this summer!

The fencing company we’ve hired is really starting to irritate me! They finally started Wednesday, when it was supposed to be Tuesday. They were supposed to finish today, when they didn’t show up and are now saying they are supposed to finish it tomorrow. But with all the rain we had tonight, and the fact they didn’t even FINISH what they were supposed to on Wednesday because of running out of cement, I’m not too confident they will get it done before the weekend is up.  I do hope they pick it up and surprise me, so far I’m disappointed in the company and I’m not afraid to YELP it J I will put pictures up soon of the yard work we’ve been doing though!

School is basically over. I took my lab practical and managed a 100% on it giving me a 101% in the class. My lecture was supposed to have two remaining tests but she ended up giving them both as take homes, and so I’m ending that with a very high A as well. I just turned in my final paper for English, so we’ll see how that goes; and my math class if finished in two weeks but that class is really just a pain in my neck and a pass/fail.. She’s not going to fail anyone! I’m basically ready for summer session to start!

Last but not least we went and checked out the YMCA today. I’ve wanted to get a membership somewhere for a while now the treadmill we have is great but it gets old. Although I didn’t want to go to just a regular gym, if we were going to pay the money I wanted it to be something Graysen could enjoy too! So the Y we visited today isn’t too far from the house. They have very nice equipment, an indoor pool, a big outdoor pool, a rock climbing wall, basketball courts and a bunch more. I guess it’s not “HUGE”, but it’s perfect. They have child care and then from there I can take her to do something! Better yet, monthly membership is what I need. I have NO clue what each semester will bring and I don’t’ want to pay for something we won’t use, so it’s nice to know we can “pause” the membership whenever needed! So I’m thinking of getting Graysen into some swimming classes this summer and taking full advantage of what I can!

Hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday, and hope to update on the yard sooner than later!

Potty Training in Three days.. Day Two

Day Two!

Brandon and I quit!!! Haha I still don’t see today as a fail, just a little procrastination!

Graysen woke up really early this morning as well, 5:30, so this could be a good reason why things have just been so thrown off with her. She did NOT want to sit on the potty first thing this morning, so we went on with it. The first pee was a total miss couldn’t get her there in time and she threw a fit when we put her on the potty! Two times today we DID get her on there when she didn’t have to pee to just sit and sing or read a book but that was it. She usually always poos before lunch, so usually around 10:30 and everytime it looked like she was going to today Brandon and I would take her to the potty and she would get so mad and she wouldn’t go!

The last straw for me was when she got into the pantry and was standing there and started to go; I whisked her to the potty and as she sits down she’s starts peeing again and then tries to get up so pee went everywhere. She didn’t even want to sit down to finish peeing like she had been doing before. So right there, I was like its fine lets’ just stop and try again this summer!  I put a pull up on her and within five minutes she went into our room and then came out to tell me she pooped! Poor thing had been holding it in ALL day!

We’ll see what happens.. If she wants to sit on the potty she can, but I’m not going to “make her”. We’ll take it from here and see where she leads us! It’s not a big issue, it’s not like she’s TOO old for diapers or anything at all like that! We’ll try again this summer when I have a little less on my plate school wise!

Little update as a side note:

We should be getting our fence in any day now! I’m super excited! I got the flower beds all done; just have to wait for the fence to come in to do the one on the side of the house since they will be tearing that whole side of the house up. We decided to move the fence line up to in front of the garage that way we can “maybe” put a doggy door out there so Annabelle can just go outside as she pleases.

I’m winding down to the last of the semester! I only have one week of lab left and then we have our Practical. I’m not too nervous this round since I set myself up very well with the two first ones and basically just have to do better than a D on this one to get an A in the class! My lecture is alright but the teacher drives me crazy. We have one more in class test left and then the last four chapters will be on our own and she will give us a take home finale. I just finished my finale research paper in English, and my math class is just.. There!

Brandon’s Knee is doing very well. He still has a little pain, and physical therapy is kicking his butt! He’s getting around great though, and not having to take too much medicine.

That’s it for this one! Thank you for reading, and all the great advice some of you have given me as far as the potty training goes!

Potty training in three days... Day 1

Alright... To start this off I can not say today was a total disaster but it wasn't all golden with happy chants and prizes either!

First thing this morning Graysen woke up in a bad mood, she must have drank a TON before bed last night because she woke up at 5:30 cranky and SOAKED! Head to tail, this child has never been one to wake up in the middle of the night for a diaper change, so sometimes this will happen! I got her out of her crib stripped her down and brought her to the bathroom "explaining" what was in store for her today. I took her diaper off and put her on the potty... And she threw the BIGGGEST fit! Haha NO NO NO NO NOOOO crying and the whole nine yards. So she didn't go. That's okay...

We finished morning routine, some milk and her baby can read and then some cartoons. It hit 7:30, I had just given her some breakfast when she's standing at the coffee table and starts to be so I tell her no no and I rush her to the potty and she finishes on the potty and wants off and wants nothing to do with prizes or anything she was not happy to have gone on the potty. So I still gave her the one M&M since it was a "hit", and continued on.

As we neared the middle of the day Graysen still did not like to be asked if she needed to potty, and if you tried to put her on there (like every thirty minutes) she'd throw a HUGE fit about it. Although if she started to go and you rushed her to the bathroom and she finished on the toilet she started to get more excited about it. She'd say yah! And clap her hands. She had a total of 7 "hits" she got at least half in the toilet, and 2 total misses where she didn't get anything in the potty. And then 2 totally missed poos! That was not fun, and I'm not even going to get into that one!

I stared at Graysen all day, seeing if I could identify something funny she does before she actually goes, but nothing! So there was no way I could tell "before" if she was going to go, until she started. One of the times was in the kitchen and she actually said Potty! Potty! But I did the wrong thing and asked her; You need to potty? And of course she started winning and saying no no no! So I let her be and she squated down said potty really fast and started peeing ha! Then for one of the poos she had brought me into the bathroom she said she wanted to "wash hand" so we go in there but then she doesn't want to wash hands she was just playing around and then she pood and I couldn't catch her in time! Oh mannnn!

She was going about every hour and half.. sometimes two hours. Also before her nap I couldn't get her to go potty so i went ahead and put a pull up on her (was going to do that anyway) and she slept 2 1/2 hours and woke up with a dry pull up, of course she started to pee on the floor as I took the pull up off but hey it was a "Hit"!!

To end the night she caught me very off guard. I took her to the potty but she didn't need to go so she threw a fit. I kept reminding her, "Tell me if you need to go potty okay?" and very sweetly she'd say "tay". I should have known about ten minutes before bed I felt something warm on me and she was peeing!! That was was still a hit to when I jumped up in full force to get her to the potty haha but all day she's been sitting on me and hadn't peed on me yet, so it really caught me off guard!

All in all.. WHAT A DAY! I still have hair so I think I did good! We shall see what tomorrow brings!!

Potty Training In.... 3 Days? Introduction

Alright, so this is a potty blog.. I'm sure it will consist of many "parts" so if you don't care to read about little ones and their bodily fluids, you MIGHT want to stop reading right here!!

I’ve been researching and reading a lot on a program called “Potty Training in Three Days.” At first, I said NO WAY! But after reading a lot of stuff on it, it looks promising. Brandon and I talked it over a while ago but since it consists of a LOT of attention and work on both sides we figured the best time to try it out would be when he was still home on leave from his surgery, but well enough to move around and actually help me out in this process. So folks, this weekend is our weekend!

Basically the program is a diaper free program. They believe that putting any kind of pull up or underwear on your child will delay potty training since both still feel like a diaper to them (snug on the tush). Therefore Graysen will be a naked baby for a good while! The first day consists of not leaving the house at all! There are expected to be way more accidents then accomplishments so if we can get through the first day we will be doing well. The second day consists of leaving the house for one hour. When you do this you put them in loose fitting pants, make sure they use the restroom right before you leave and then when you come back home. So just a good walk around the block or something with a ton of extra clothes in your purse I assume! The third day they say to leave the house for two hours. Doing the same as above, but you should have a lot less accidents by this day.

They mention that by day three, if nothing is in progress and you are still having a ton of accidents such as in day one to just stop, give it a good 6 weeks and try again. They might not be ready. Graysen first showed interest in the potty, and even went pee and poop on the potty at 15 months, but has not been consistent at all. I haven’t pushed it, asked her if she wants to go on it here and there but that’s it. They also say you should have a few potty’s spread around the house. They say one in the bathroom and one in every “main” area of the house; for us that would be our living room. I’m not too sure on this one yet. Our house isn’t huge, and she already knows her potty being in the bathroom. Not sure I should mix it up and put one in the living room too!?! I guess I will have to trial and error that one.

Either way we have decided to start this Friday. It was a little difficult trying to find time “so to speak” since I added a Saturday class to my schedule, and I go to open lab for 4-5 hours on Sunday and Monday. This Saturday though I don’t have class, since we are so far ahead I just need to show up put my name down and leave. So it makes for a perfect, schedule clear, three days!

Don’t get me wrong. This isn’t supposed to be a miracle training process. Three days are just the time crunch, labor intended portion, you are supposed to keep them “bare bottomed” around the house for about 3 months, or until they have gone a week without an accident. This is only a day program too. She will still be put in a diaper for bed and we will try to kick that one in the butt in a few months. She’s got to get out of the crib first, and as far as that goes, 12 weeks later and we still don’t have our toddler rails! One step at a time! Wish us luck, I think we might need it, and a few drinks!

~Thirty Down!~

So to start off; In December I decided to start eating right, working out.. Dieting, however you would like to refer to a much needed weight loss! I had family refer me to the My Alli plan. I was hesitant at first since it is a pill based diet, but I’m not good with diets at ALL, and I needed something that would work! Basically I’ve been “heafty” as long as I can remember. I was very active as a child but my eating habits were horrible, basically if I didn’t ever work out as a child I might have qualified for biggest looser at 18 for how much and how bad I have always ate! I’ve tried “diets” before, getting into the gym and working out yada yada yada but would never put a healthy eating habit in play so then I would work my butt of but see no happy result from my strenuous work so I’d quit. Once I got out of High School and didn’t do work outs to be part of a sports team, or credit in school, I just didn’t want to do it!!

Now I could sit here and blame my major weight gain on the baby, but in all reality that’s just not the case! It was me not working out, and not eating healthy at all. So in December I changed that all around, and basically did a 180 on my diet! I was working out really good for three months, but it has slowed down because of school, although the eating is still on tact.

Since December I’ve lost 30 pounds! My ideal goal was 30, though I want to shoot for another 10. That will put me at the lowest end of my “bracket”, and would be great! I’m at that point though where I really really need to do some workouts and learn how to “tone”, but I will get there someday! As of now I’m very excited for how far I’ve come on this. I never knew what counting calories and fat intake could do, it makes a HUGE difference. I also put a food scale in the kitchen so I weigh my meat at every meal and I never realized Brandon and I ate for a family of six! Didn’t think the chicken was 12oz, when it should only be eating 4!!!

I really wish I had taken some pictures from the beginning to the end. But I didn’t think of it. So here is a few pictures from when I left Hawaii, before the weight loss began, but honestly I think I weighed MORE in December when I started then when I lived in Hawaii! So just to compare a little! It’s hard to see it myself someday so it’s always nice to look back at photos!!

Before

Recent

Before

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Before

Recent!

 Thank you for checking! Hopefully I didn't bore you on this one.. it's mostly a personal achievment I'm very proud of!!