How Time Flies!

It has been just over 10 months since I've blogged last.  I honestly did forget about it for awhile but recently is has been crossing my mind more often.  So very much has went on in the last 10 months.  To start off, I can't say that I've been able to stick to all my New Year Resolutions.  I've definitely ate fast food, although it was quite some time before I broke that one (at least 5 months!) so I feel pretty good about that.  I don't eat it nearly as often as I was eating it last year.  I definitely have not been working out and probably haven't at all in the last 6-8 months.  This is something that is on my mind daily.  I really feel it's hard to fit it into such a hectic schedule.  The custody case has been finalized and the 50/50 schedule is working great.  The kids have come a long way from when we first started it just over a year ago.  There are still struggles with having two completely different life-style homes but that is something that will never change and the children will need to adapt.  Riley is in kindergarten and is excelling academically.  Jaidan is almost 4 and is such a girly girl!  Matt and I are in a good routine for when we have the kids; Friday - Friday every other week.  The most exciting news that has happened in the past 4 months is that I was accepted into the Nursing Program at Anoka-Ramsey and I have finished my first semester with flying colors!  I'm so relieved that it went so well.  I'm a bit worried about second semester but I know what I need to do to stay on track and I will be putting all my time and energy into that.  My neice, Hannah, turned one in October and boy is she a HAM!!!!  She is thee most adorable, happy, funny, outgoing, silly little girl!

With this year soon coming to an end, I am so very thankful for my family & the support that they continue to give me and for Matt who has stood by me through the roughest of rough times and is always willing to help me no matter what it is.

I'm also looking forward to moving on with the nursing program, working and continuing to spend as much time with my family as possible.

Hopefully I can get back on track with blogging as well :)  

Ohh Adam Levine!

To start this off, I LOVE THE VOICE! And not to mention, Adam Levine... :)

Well it sure has been quite some time since I blogged.  I guess I'm not keeping up with my resolution very well.  I feel like it's only been a week.  Time sure is flying and I've been very busy.  I'm working a lot of hours at the center, my last pay check had over 60 hours!!!! I was thrilled to see the money :)  It has seriously been probably close to two years since I've worked this much, and I'm loving it.  It's been great working in all the classrooms with different ages, I like the change of pace.  I'm also getting to work with Angela more which is always so much fun! ;-)  I miss being a co-teacher with her.

School has been going great.  I'm staying on top of all my work.  I have my first exam for pharmacology next Monday, and it's open book, open notes, so I plan on rocking the test.  I'm learning so much, I wish I would have taken it during the program before, I think it would have helped a lot.  Oh well.  Now I'll just be that much more prepared for this time around.  I passed my CPR class with an A and became re-certified, woohoo, now I can save lives again!  Drug, Alcohol and Tobacco is great, I've been getting 10/10 on all things and doing quite well on my quizzes.  

I haven't been doing that well on my workout resolution anymore either...I did however, go 12 times last month so I got my health insurance discount!! I haven't went in a week or so, but my bag is packed to go back at it tomorrow morning!  I'm looking forward to my date with the elliptical, that's for sure!  I have been doing very well with not eating fast food and Matt has been standing by my side and sticking with it as well.

Our recent struggle with Riley taking a shower has done a complete 180 and he now LOVES the shower.  He gets so excited to take one and laughs hysterically because "the water tickles" him.  I'm so relieved that his fear was short lived.  Custody is still an on-going issues.  We now have a "pre-trial hearing" in May as a last attempt to solve this issue before a trial.  This is such a waste of time and money.  We want and need this to be done.

Last week Matt and I booked our vacation to Duluth in June.  We're going to stay at The Inn on Lake Superior. We are definitely excited to spend some quality time just by ourselves, away from our normal routines.  We'll also be spending some time with my mom and D at Cozy Corner :) which is always guaranteed to be a good time!

Today I hosted a BeautiControl party with Lori.  It was such a blast and we got some really great deals.  I'm looking forward to getting my products and having fresh looking skin and some new make-up.  Thank you to everyone who came, ordered products and/or booked a party!!  I have also booked a party for PURE ROMANCE!!! Margo is a new consultant and I think she'll be doing a more than fabulous job and cannot wait to have her do my parties, which I'll be having plenty of them.  

My goal this week is to get my butt up before work and workout Mon-Fri!!  I can do this!

Another New Start...Which Should Hopefully Stay.

Well this week marked another new schedule for me.  I am no longer a nanny for the wonderful Francis family.  Their other nanny is back from maternity leave which leaves no room for me, and that is a-ok!  I am now going to be working 5 days a week at the center.  I am known as a "float" there and travel from room to room depending on where they need me.  I do like this a lot, since I have already been there for 3 years, the change of pace is very nice (I was mainly an infant teacher prior).  I do have to stick my head into the infant rooms every day though and get some smiles and giggles from the cute peanuts.  My work schedule has been, for the past year and a half at least, all over the place.  I am now making it around my number one priority - my family and, of course, good old school.

School is already stressful and I feel behind.  There are so many chapters to read for my Pharmacology class and 3 assignments/quizzes per week for my Drugs, Alcohol & Tobacco class.  My "easy" class is CPR re-certification and that will be ending Jan. 28th - so that's exciting and will leave me with a little more time to read and do homework.

Working out and taking care of the kids have been exhausting.  I went to bed last night at 7:30PM and slept until about 7 this morning!!  I was still tired the majority of the day.  But don't worry, I'm not giving up on working out.  I've went at least 3 times/week and I plan to stick with it.  It seems easier to workout before work (~6am) instead of after, because that's when I do most of my homework and I'm not missing any family time.

The kids have definitely been challenging Matt and I this past week.  It is a struggle to keep them on our routine and "standards" when we only have them half the time.  We put so much work into teaching them manners and how to be respectful but it all seems to go down the drain by the time they come back to our house.  Our current obstacle is transitioning Riley into taking showers.  How we're going to do this, I'm not sure.  He has so many irrational fears.  He doesn't like the fan on in the bathroom.  He doesn't like the water running from the faucet to fill up the tub.  He doesn't like the shower head on.  Matt tried just putting him in there, but with a relentless, blood-curdling scream, he gave in and had him bathe in the tub.  This scream is nothing new.  He does it on many occasions.  He doesn't like to be put on your shoulders or even lifted in the air - which are the two mistakes most people make with him, but they are soon discovered when this scream is let out.  Any ideas or suggestions on how to tackle this dilemma would be fantastic.  The kids are just too big to be in the bathtub together and with their ages, they don't really need to be taking one together anyways.  It just doesn't make sense to fill the bathtub up twice, every time we want to bathe the kids.  Riley knows how to wash himself, we've been practicing that, so he can do it in the shower...the transition just needs to happen.

Needless to say -I'm definitely looking forward to my "Parents" magazine subscription to come any day now!  I've been getting their e-mails since I subscribed and have already gained many helpful pointers.  I have also been striving to make at least one new meal each week.  This past week I made Turkey Lasagna and Chicken and Corn Chili both which are from the Parents.com website.  Healthy and delicious!

Back to Reality

Today was my first day back to work in 14 days...boy was I rushing to get out of the house this morning.  I would get to the door to leave and then remember I needed to put my make-up on or grab my sweatshirt, open the garage door, grab water, it seemed like it was never ending...and to top it all off, I kept tripping and dropping everything!  I had a feeling it wasn't going to be "my day".  You might be wondering why did I have such a long time off...? Well between Christmas and New Years my work is shut down (only because the company that we're attached to is, bonus!) And then I wasn't scheduled/needed at all earlier this week.  So it was a super duper, extra long, wonderful, lazy, break for me!! I'm not bragging at all...    I was pleasantly surprised when I walked into work and I wasn't even closing! I knew that it was then going to be a good day.  It was a bit boring as I was by myself for a good portion of the day but the comments I hear out of the toddler mouths are priceless, their smiles are heart warming and their hugs (while wiping their snotty nose on my shoulder) make it all worth it! :)

My workout routine is going fabulous! I've worked out everyday since Tuesday and I plan on going both days this weekend.  I'm going to work hard to keep this up.  I've got back to my usual of 30min cardio and 300 crunches and it feels amazing...after I'm done, of course.  I might get a little more ambitious and try to workout before work next week, that way my evenings would be a little more free, not that I ever have anything exciting to do anyways.

So I have this kitten, Caleb, who will be one on Sunday, but anyways, he eats everything in site.  It doesn't matter what it is. Plastic bags. Paper. Kleenex. Shoe laces. Hair binders. Headbands. Jewelry. Shower curtains. Food.  Barbies.  Puzzle pieces. Raw meat.  You name it, he eats it.  But the thing that baffled me the most was last night, I put my two hair binders and a headband on the coffee table and watched TV.  When I got up to pick my stuff up to bring to the bedroom and go to bed, my hair binders were gone.  Did he really eat them that quickly and without me even seeing?  Ugh.  Does anyone have any suggestions for a vacuum cat like Caleb?? 

This is unedited. I found him like this one day
when I went to check on him in Jaidan's room.

Monday I start my spring semester.  Not exactly looking forward to it, but at least I can defer my loans, right?! Just taking a few, hopefully, easy classes.  Pharmacology is my only on campus class on Monday nights for 2 hours.  I'm also taking Drugs, Alcohol and Tobacco online and a CPR refresher course that is 3 weeks online and one day of on campus testing and then I'm done with it. So that one will be a breeze.  I applied to the nursing program again at ARCC on Tuesday, so in a couple months I should know the results of that...I'm crossing my fingers...

A Brand New Year

Well, I'm going to try this whole blog thing and see how well I can stick with it.  It's a new year so I think there are some changes I should make in my life as well as many new things I want to do, including blogging :)  

I always make resolutions that seem too far fetched and I end up forgetting about them by the end of January anyways.  This year, I want to pick a few that I truly want to achieve and stick to them.

#1. Work out 3 times a week.  I've had a gym membership for a long time and haven't been going, mainly because of school, but I really want to get back into shape and make working out part of my routine.  I have a great work out buddy too so there is no excuse not to go.

#2.  No fast food.  Enough said.

#3. Be more patient with the kids.  I've always thought of myself as a very patient person but lately my patience has been running short and it really needs to improve.

#4. Not everything needs to be done my way.  Matt is helping me tremendously with this one.  I need to realize that things work out even if they aren't done in the same order/way I would do it.  I'm so thankful that Matt has been so patient with me on this one.

#5. Blog once a week! :)

I think implementing all these will make me a happier person and feel better about myself.

I can't be more excited for this new year.  Last year was extremely overwhelming and it ended with much disappointment.  I was unable to pass my exams in my final semester of the nursing program so I failed and now I need to start all over. This was such a huge failure for me.  I had worked so hard, but fell too short.  I plan on applying again to start in the fall of 2012.  I'm not going to give up my dream of being a nurse just because I failed some tests.  Just last night, I was on the phone with a triage nurse and she had no background information about me, but by the end of the conversation she said, "We have a shortage of nurses so if you ever think about going into nursing, I think you would be a great one".  That made me feel pretty darn good!

Matt & I are also very very very much looking forward to the custody issue being resolved.  As usual, we are currently unaware of what the current status of the case is.  We are waiting to hear if the case can be closed OR if we need to have a full trial in front of the judge.  The day things get finalized in the courts will be such a big weight lifted off our shoulders.  The current 50/50 schedule we have is working great and we couldn't be happier to spend so much time with the kids.

New Years Hats

The newest addition to our family is my niece, Hannah Jean, thee most adorable, precious baby that I have ever seen.  I am going to be a proud Godmother on January 9th to this beautiful baby!

Hannah Jean <3

So here, I hope to keep everyone up-to-date and entertained with my crazy, beautiful life.