It's Valentine's day? Oh, no, it's just another day in the life of....

A couple weeks of the evil swing shift. The only good thing about Valentine's day is that this is the last day Andy has to work this evil shift.

Let me paint you a picture: I wake up with the kids, feed them breakfast, change clothes (at some point) entertain them, try to drink a cup of coffee, catch up on the internet, sometimes have to make or answer phone calls, (which is no easy thing with two munchkins hanging around) at some point before lunchtime, Callie will be extra crazy, and have a crazy two year old meltdown over something, with shrieking, and causes Andy to get woken up. Normally earlier than he would like. He tries to distract children, while I get lunch ready, brush my teeth, and put my contacts in. (If I haven't been able to yet. Which sometimes happens) 

They eat lunch, (hopefully) and do some more playing, and then I get them ready for quiet/nap time. Quiet time for Wilson in his room, with his ipad and snack and drink, and Callie, changed, with her milk, in her crib.

Finally! Now I can eat lunch, shower, dress, relax, until it's time for Andy to go work, where I then, help him pack his lunch, kiss him goodbye at 3:30.

I'm then alone with the kids, until I can finally manage to get them to bed. Sometimes I even cook dinner in there!
So let see, there's dinner, attempt to clean up mess from dinner, referee the two, because at this point, they are full of energy and terrorizing each other, and myself. Try to get them to calm down, I either try to get them to watch a movie, or we take a bath first, and then watch a movie. Either way, they are getting in their pjs.

And I have to watch them like a hawk in the bath, or else water ends up all over the floor, or I find my two year old perched up on the sink, chewing the tooth paste container. Sometimes, both of those things happen in the same night.

 Did I mention the screamfest because Callie was ready to take a bath, but the movie wasn't over? I didn't? Well there's pretty much always a screamfest before bathtime.

Finally, I manage to get them in their rooms, and now I will  pile up my dishes, because the thought of actually doing them, would literally send me over the edge. Sweep up all the crumbs that happened between dinner to bedtime. Shove all the toys into the corner. Start a load of laundry, and take the clean clothes out the dryer.

Did I ever tell you about the time I pinned some crazy cleaning schedule? Umm, yeah, that cleaning schedule can kiss my behind. I mean, maybe if you were a stay at home wife, with no children. Sure, it totally seems do-able. But right now? Folks, I'm lucky if I REMEMBER to wipe down my baseboards once a year, let alone once a week. 

I'm sure one day, many, many years from now I will miss these toddler years. I miss lots of things, I miss being young, I miss being carefree, I miss all that time I spent reading, playing my video games I used to like playing. I miss having a job, with my coworker friends, and we'd go out and get drinks after work. Will I get that back? Maybe, maybe not. There will be moments missed of these years, little hands holding mine, hearing a little voice saying "You wecome." Snuggling, the sound of them laughing.

But there are things I won't miss, like the messes, the tantrums, the frustration, the monotony of the day in, day out routine. Just like there are things I don't miss about before I had children, like the time I wasted on relationships, decisions I made, getting a belly ring. Not educating myself more.

Phew, well now that I have whined and cried enough, I feel so much better. I hope one day, I'll come back to this post, and maybe be able to be like "Oh, it wasn't that bad."

(I doubt it.) 

Middle of winter, let's go check out the beach!

Because we probably won't make it out a lot once tourist season starts. Look at me, whining about tourist season already! 

We went and checked out Henderson Beach State Park. 

I thought it might be a little warmer, but it was a very cold breeze blowing all day, so we didn't stay too long. 

The water though! Holy smokes! This is even on an overcast, cold day. And the water looked beautiful. 

Definitely can't wait to come back in warmer weather!! 

That post where you go to brag, and you end up eating your words.

That's what this post will be here, any minute now. 

A Facebook friend of mine posted about how her daughter was doing really well potty training. Our daughters, along with another Facebook friend all had baby girls around the same time, all having had boys first, who are also close in age. (Funny is I've never met either in person, but thanks to Facebook, feels like I know them!) 

Anyhoo, we have had little signs here and there maybe, I could try to start Callie potty training. She's very verbal, interested in the potty, and even sat a couple times on her brother's potty and did a pee pee. 

I was definitely not ready before, even though I could've tried. Wilson's barely been potty trained, and had a couple hard core regressions. 

So today Callie got her own potty. We got her to go pee pee in it. Annnddd she's been wearing her undies for about a half hour now and they are still dry. *cue dramatic music* 

Anyhow, I know as soon as I hit post on this baby, she is going to totally just soak those adorable cupcake training panties up! So enjoy! 

Wordy Wednesday

Well, I thought it might be wordy, but now my mind is drawing a blank. 

There are a couple things on my mind. Mostly, what's in the future for us all. 

Wilson has an appointment tomorrow to hopefully get a referral for more services. 

He is still behind on his speech, and I think he needs occupational therapy. 

He's been telling us sometimes that stuff is "too loud" and I'm wondering if he has some sensory issues. 

So hopefully tomorrow we can get the referrals started for all that. 

I would really love to put him in a part time enrichment program, so he could be with other kids his age, but I'm having a hard time finding anything that could work for him. 

I'm also worried that come preschool  time in the fall, he might not like it, or be overwhelmed, or they will tell me he's really behind... :-/

Guess we will cross that bridge when we come to it....

If he does end up being delayed, the elementary school actually has a special needs preschool, so I may look more into that.

It's a little frustrating though, because it's going to involve a lot more appointments, and a lot more evaluations. Which can be challenging for us, when Andy's schedule changes a lot, we are a one car family, and I have to figure out what to do with the little miss. 

Ahhh, life. You sure keep us on our toes, don't you? 

Anyhoo. It's getting to be bathtime, but I'm trying to wait as long as possible, because Andy's sleeping and I'm worried they will wake him up, since the bathroom is next to our room.... 

All settled in the house.

My in laws were able to get so much done for us. Everything is hung up, boxes broken down and dragged out to the street, all our miscellaneous stuff put out in our storage shed. 

I snapped a couple pictures of our main area of the house. 

None of the bedrooms yet, but everything is hung up, although I think I need some curtains. At least for our bedroom. 

We still have small things here and there we need to work on. But basically it's all done! 

A couple weeks in.

Since getting here to Florida, finding the time to blog has been very scarce. Who am I kidding, before I barely would make the time, but when you are in the middle of a move, and two demanding children, well.... You end up blogging like me. Very, very sporadically.

We were able to have all our things in our house for Christmas, and I even got a tree up and some decorations. The kids got their presents, and that was something I was really worried about. I was worried their presents would get "lost", but luckily, that didn't happen. 

Our best present was picking up my in laws on Christmas Eve. They are such loving, warm people. I admire them for so many different reasons. But mostly, because they came down to help us with everything. From doing yardwork, hanging up all our pictures and knick-knacks, folding the never ending laundry, getting up with children and letting us (ME) sleep in an extra hour or two, to doing dishes, cooking dinner, playing with their grandchildren, taking out the trash, baby sitting so we can snag a couple dates and just getaway just the two of us.

Seriously, I LOVE them! We have such a great relationship, and not only are they my in-laws, they are my friends. So I feel like I get the best of both worlds.

Whoops, did I make this a post about how much I love my in laws? Well, they definitely deserve it!!

Also, did I mention we have 10 more days with them here? I might have a different blog post up after they leave. Just kidding. We will miss them a lot and be grateful for the time we got to spend together as a family. I got really lucky when I married Andy, because I picked up some really awesome in laws. 

Recapping some of our move.

Our last night at Barksdale. 

The house is empty!

Snuggling on the couch at the TLF.

Taking a walk outside because we are bored of being cooped inside all day!

How I'm feeling about moving.

This upcoming Friday, we will be moved in our house officially, with all of our stuff! It will be 2 weeks of living on fast food, sleeping a little uncomfortably, going from a completely empty house, to a small little hotel room. Saying our goodbyes to friends, getting ready to see family VERY SOON! (SO EXCITED) Stressing out over money,  checking out the new area we are living at, getting familiar with the new base.

So many things going on, so many emotions! Totally TMI but I thought I would enjoy not having to cook for these past couple weeks, but with all the stress, it really just upsets my stomach. A couple of us have been having some really uncomfortable times with the #2. (Don't even care that this is too much! I want to remind myself of this next time, to get some Immodium AD and all that other stuff.)

Wilson has been having some major regression on his potty training. It was to be expected, he's been having a lot of melt downs too, and since he can't verbally express himself all that well, he just will have a meltdown and then have an accident.

I feel so bad that his most favorite security toy, his My Pal Scout, got packed up. The first couple days, he spent looking and looking for him. Luckily, they didn't pack his blankets, or seriously, I don't know how we would have survived.


Andy started in processing this Monday, so with one car, we have been stuck here in the TLF. We went on a walk and saw there was a beach very close by. The kids LOVED it, even though it was chilly. Poor Callie stepped on a DEAD BEE! I had to pull the stinger out her foot. Thank goodness she didn't have an allergic reaction. I would've flipped out.

Met a very nice gentleman, who had a little boy, who started telling me about all the fun places to take the kids. I'm super excited about all the things we can do out here. Hopefully during the summer, I can manage it, without dying of heat stroke. But the nice thing about winter here is, we can still do it all, (minus the water activities) and just dress more warmly.

We apparently brought the cold with us though, the temps dropped into the 60s the week we got here, right before we came it was in the mid 70s! Still though, I'll take it! It's like nice Fall weather.

Our house is cute and tiny, I feel bad saying I'm not IN LOVE with it yet. But, it's going to be a huge adjustment space wise for us. I don't even know if our bedroom furniture is going to fit! The backyard is nice and fenced in though, we can't wait to get it cleaned up so the kids can have a nice outside space to play.

Truth be told, it doesn't feel very much like Christmas to me though. We see the christmas lights and watch the christmas movies on tv, but something just doesn't feel right. I guess since we are in the middle of this move, and have no decorations, or tree, or presents. Hopefully,  I can find that Christmas spirit before Christmas.

Hopefully I can find more to blog about here soon.