New Me

So I have started this post several times in the past few months, but today I have come to a realization that there must be a new me. A new me that needs to take care of me first.

You see when I became a wife I focused my life on making sure that the hubby was happy and content, that all his needs are taken care of, that the house is clean, that the time I spent with him was centered around things that he liked to do. Then came the kids, I would not trade them for the world but then they became my world. 2am feedings, dirty diapers, laundry to be done, sitters to find, all while working 40+ hours a week. As they grow there are more and more "jobs" to do. Keep the house clean, keep up on the laundry, make sure lunches are made, homework is done and library books are returned. All while making everyone happy....

Well I think it is time for me, time for me to be able to say that waking up at 4:30 am is "me" time, time for me to take a walk, do the sit ups or just sit on the lappy? But instead I am working on laundry, dishes and other "quiet" things... Is it ok for me to do that or is it selfish? Is it ok to be yourself when you are a wife and mom? Why do I feel guilty for not being able to take the time? So that is why it took me some time to finalize this post, because I have finally realized that it is OK for me to be selfish, to take the time for me. That it is OK that I go to "girls night" when the hubby is home with the girls, that it is OK for me to not feel guilty that I DO take time for me.

Along this journey as a person I have realized that I am a strong person, who can accomplish what goals I set up for myself. I know that the hubby and girls believe in me, that they are my biggest fans, that the signs that the hubby has put around the house 6 months ago will be my saving grace, that I CAN be at goal! In my shower there are 5 goals that were written on the walls with the girls bath crayons, these goals were written almost 3 years ago. These goals one by one have been achieved, one of which was last week. The only one up there now that has not been reached is reaching "goal". Achieving the goal weight that I know deep down that I can meet, but have for some reason or another have sabotaged myself, but NOT any more!

I will reach that final goal, I will reach that it, go shopping with the hubby and enjoy every minute of it! I can do it! I will do it and when I am done I will be there will be a NEW ME!

Counting my blessings

I know that there are times in the past year that many of us have stepped back and counted our blessings. Simply having the good fortune of "having" to go to work everyday is great, but then are those of us that have been dealt the crappy hands, those that are usually in the best of modes yet it would be easily understood if they just told you to cram it. I have to admit that I have had to stop as of late and say "hey silly open your eyes!"

You have a great hubby, 2 wonderful girls thus "2 Sweet Girls Mom" and friends who I know if I needed would drop everything and be there. But let me tell you it is harder to wake up in the am and make a go of it. There are the piddly things that just get under my craw! But oh well what are you going to do?! Right?

"Do the Naked Lady"

There are certain songs that are out there that one really does not know the words to, but being humans we insist on singing along with them. Aeorsmith's Dude Looks like a Lady is one that the hubby always got wrong! Instead it was Do the Naked Lady!

So what is that you find yourself singing to or should I say humming to when you realize that you are singing the wrong songs?
Be truthful!

I had a room mate in college that used to sing "Jason Waterfalls" for "Don't go chasin waterfalls"

I know that most of the songs that I sing are not the right words, but who cares, sing them loud and make fun of the person who actually cares as much to tell the right words!

Life is too precious! Thank you Maddie for Reminding Us!

Life is too precious and goes too fast for to not cherish every second we have with loved ones. Whether that be your parents or your kids or your friends, time fl yes by too fast. I have spent a lot of time in the past couple of days reading what others have endured in their lives. I have to say that I am very grateful for those who have touched me and my family, whether good or bad they have some how made an impact on who I am and what I do, how I teach the girls and what we build our values on.

I know that the pain that some of you in "blogland" have experienced in the past week can only be lightened by the truth and knowledge that Maddie is in heaven with some really great company, she is not only with her family and friends but I know of 2 really great men that I have prayed to since I read the first post asking for prayers (my daddy and hubby's grandpa). Rest assured that these 2 wonderful guys will be watching over her and purple wings! They will see to her like their own granddaughter and great granddaughter. They also have some playmates with them, our little angels.

My father did not meet the girls, something I knew would never happen. You see, Dad was 50 when Mom and he had me, so simple math would put him in his 70's before we got married and IF we had kids right away he may have seen them. But being the selfish person I am we waited, it would not have made a difference even if we had them right away since, he died almost 6 months to the day that we got married. But I know that he is very much a part of what and who they are today. Nicki is his granddaughter through and through, she even has a certain look when she is kidding that Dad had. Not to mention that hubby and I both have dark brown eyes and she has the brightest blue (thanks Dad).

I guess I want you all to know that no matter what may happen in our lives, no matter how bad things we think may be, no matter how dark the night is there is always a dawn and with that dawn comes a new day! So go hug your kids, call your parents, IM your best friend and snuggle with your significant other tonight, for you never know when you may have to say good bye!

God's Newest Angel.

Fam in Purple

Weekly Winners- My first postings

The end result of a long Easter Saturday

Nicki on the "jumpoline" static galore

Woke up one morning to the computers all set up!

Nicki waiting for the Wii Fit

Emmi hulaing with the Wii Fit

Happy Easter everyone! Hope your week was as great as mine, crazy but great! Take care and check out all the great weekly winners at Sarcastic Mom( http://sarcasticmom.com/ )

All in 1 day!

You could say that at times I may procrastinate.... Well maybe not too much, or maybe not as much as I would tend to think but today is the epitome of procrastination. It is 5:35pm and the eggs that I boiled this am are still not colored or decorated, the girls did not get their hair cut and they have nothing to wear to church in 2 hours! Oh, well right?! Dinner is on the stove and instead of finishing one of 5000 things I am writing a post! Be right back the water is boiling...

Ok, back! Pasta is in the pot with the sauce warming up. Thank God for Mom's who purposely make too much food.

So like I was saying today was the day of procrastination, we have a birthday party tomorrow along with Easter that I thought I had all the gifts for. Think again, we gave those away last month when the little guy came to visit,soooooo that means a trip to the store on a day that I would have rather stayed home and RELAXED. But what is that word? You are a mom, Carre so just live with it and get your butt in the car with 2 girls who just want you put up their jumpoline and leave them alone..... Have to stir the sauce and pasta, be right back.

Pasta is still hard and the sauce is on simmer. Dishes are ready to be done but why do them now when there will be more in about 15 minutes. The girls need clothes for tonight, actually not really clothes since they want to wear their Christmas dresses, they only need tights. That could be an issue! Ok so I digress.....

Why does that pasta pot sound so weird? Be right back!

Sorry I have to take a im from facebook, brb (be right back) Back! Oh my God, speaking of God I really need to get the butt going on these clothes for Church tonight (fb brb, seriously people leave me alone) Where was I. Oh, yeah Church!

Ok so the EB (Easter Bunny) is bringing the girls their dresses and tights but I think I am going to have to steal the tights for church tonight. It is going to be a long night I can tell it already. BRB actually it will be awhile dinner is ready!

Hey, I am back! SO dinner was interrupted by Chris (selling candy bars) so that threw us off even more than we first thought! Well with spaghetti sauce all over the table and the girls off they go to the shower for church, one down one to go, but NOOOO Nicki is outside on the tramp! (trampoline) Get in here! I am serious are you kidding where is your dad? Oh yeah he is on the tramp with you!

Just a mention of not going to church and hubbsters takes it as gospel! (pardon the pun) So he starts gaming! Girls dressed, hair done and I get a peek into the bathroom, Hubby wants to know if I was seriously thinking of going to church, the look he gets is are you seriously thinking you are not going?! At this point the sarcastic not caring person in me comes out and I say "I really do not care! It is up to you! Whatever!"

He truly was not planning on church! What a day! My God (seriously)! See you in about 3 hours.

Good evening everyone, church was amazing! The smells were wonderful, I love Easter lillies, the sounds were great, Easter music brings back great memories. The girls were wonderful, they sat up the whole time, Nicki sang with the choir (actually just hummed really loud) and both girls were able to hold candles during the service. Now that is is 10:30pm we are going to decorate the eggs. I know I am crazy!

Total of 18 eggs decorated and the girls are set off to bed. This should be a treat tomorrow, since it is now 11:30pm! Oh, boy what a great day tomorrow will be, rememories of Christmas Eve or should I say nightmares.....

Oh, well off to make EB look good! Complete with notes and hiding of the baskets.

I don't know (a guest post by Nicki & Emmi)

"I don't know what you want me to say mommy!" Nicki

"I want to write in your blog!"
Here is what Emmi told me to write:
"Thank you and thank you to you. That you are nice.
I want to tell a story:
Once upon a time there was a bear, and then he was mad at his-self and I am very happy now. And now I see a fairy princess looking at me. And one more question, I love you!"

Nicki:
"I am trying to think. Still trying to think.
Oh once upon a time a princess was stuck in the castle. And the prince on his horse (the prince was on his horse) and then the prince was climbing up her hair, like Dora. And then she haded a ladder then that's it"

That is about all when you get the girls to tell you what to write!

Dreams do come true!

There are times in your life that you can not believe that Dreams come true. Today was one of those days...
About a year ago I took one of the kids bath crayons and wrote some goals on the shower wall. There was hitting my goal weight (about 30 pounds off from that but lost 40 already) still waiting on that one.
There is being married to a successful man (done deal)
There is being a great mom (still working on that if you ask me, but hubby says I am there)
Then there is the goal of all goals, something that since I took my job in hospitality I have been dreaming of, a corporate position.

When you work for a company for 14 years you start to feel like part of it, a permanent structure in the facility. And with the economy the way it is, I have to say I am very grateful that I still feel this way. Well today all the stars aligned and I was given more responsibility on a corporate level. We have 3 hotels in our portfolio, for a total of 560 rooms. I know this may sound kind of dumb but it is huge! To have a hand on the forming of the revenue for 560 rooms makes my head spin but it is a welcome challenge one that I have been dreaming of for about a year and a half! Thank my lucky stars!

Fun Day Saturday

So yesterday started like any other Saturday with a 4:45am alarm reminding me that the night before should have been a lot shorter than what I had planned. But then again Plasma was waiting....

After 3 strikes of items going wrong with plasma, I was worried what the rest of the day would entail. Well it actually went well. Hubby and I (with kids in tow) made our way to Sam's (with a budget). Well we went over by a little only because Hubby went in search of the perfect present for the lady of the house.... A Wii Fit! Yes, I am very happy that we have it and that we have been able to use it (another post). When we got home we decided to let the girls play outside, something that they have been bugging us to do so since February. The weather was in the fifty's yesterday so off they went. After about 20 minutes outside I realized they had no socks on, yest 50 degrees is nice but not enough for no socks, so in they came gripping all the way (like mother like daughters). Fresh air is good for them right? No matter how much mud and dirt they track in the house, right? Oh well, right?

While playing outside for most of the day they were dirty, tired and stinky but they were not going down (for a nap) without a fight or a bath for that matter. (Yes they still nap at 5 &4 something that mommy insists on, on the weekends) They were not going down before they played on the Wii, after setting up their profiles they hula hooped, skied and dodged soccer balls for about 30 minutes. They were TIRED, but you could not tell them that! So we compromised, got lay down and you can watch your movie. 10 minutes into it they were out.

So since the theme of outdoors was strong among us all, the thought of camping came to mind! Yes, camping in the living room... you bet the best kind, it is warm, the bathroom is right there and no need for bug spray! So the night was great, the tent was set up, including the air mattress and "fake" out door sounds.

The kids had a blast, and since it was an early night they were up at the crack of dawn.... Oh well we had fun! Thank God it is Sunday and there is nothing to do, time to catch up on doing more nothing, you have to enjoy these kinds of weekends!

Like Father like Daughter

The joy on hubby's face tonight is close to the look on his face when Emmer's was born. I kid you not the look on his face was one of purest enjoyment.

Emmi has become a gamer... I hate to admit it but she is a great little gamer but at 4 1/2 should she be able to manipulate a game? Should I say that she should not be gaming? Should I be as proud as her dad? Well there will probably be worse things in life that we will not agree on, right?

Well here are some pictures of what the little one has been up to.... She is so proud that she has accomplished level 6 that I had to take pictures. And you can't tell me that Dad is not proud!

Dinner Time!!

Yes it is that time of night again, time for dinner and what to have?
Don't get me wrong, I enjoy making dinner, food I can do, but baking is another story! But I have to admit that thinking about what to make drives me crazy! Not sure if anyone else has an issue with this, but when I ask my hubbster what he wants the usual "I don't care" comes out. That is why we have the monthly calendar of what meals to make and what we will be eating. Needless to say that the month on the calendar is on February, March had many of the same meals as Feb did since the fist 28 days were the same, it was the last 3 that were take out!
Now onto April, last night we did take out AGAIN... I hate take out, it is not only bad for you but expensive and the hubby does not eat left overs.

So I had to dig deep today to come up with something good to make. Something that would hit the spot, and since I was feeling sentimental from reading Mommy Always Wins last post, I thought of childhood and somethings that would make me feel happy. So after talking with one of the guys that hubby works with I came up with cabbage roll casserole. Something I have never made but if my 12 year old nephew could make it so could I. Well after the usual call to mom (because no new meal can be made without a call to her) I was given the recipe for one of the easiest and most heart and tummy warming meals. Here it is some pictures of the meal, sorry no step by step pics but the final results look great and trust me it was tasty!

What you will need:
1 small head of cabbage
2lbs of ground beef
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup of rice
1 tsp of salt
1/2 tsp of pepper
2 1/2 cans of tomato soup
3 cups of water

Pre-heat oven to 350
Chop the cabbage into pieces and spread onto the bottom of a greased roaster pan or casserole dish
Brown the ground beef with the pepper and salt set aside
Par-cook rice while you are browning the rice
Once rice is par-cooked (still a little crunchy not fully cooked)add to the beef and add onion set aside
Mix soup and water together, simmer until mixed well.
Spoon mixture onto the cabbage and then add soup mixture
Put into oven and bake for 1 1/2 hours (if you don't par-cook the rice bake for 2 hours)
Check at 1 hour if cabbage and rice are tender then all set.

Enjoy!!!!

One word for Today!

SUNNY!!!!!! YEAH! (ok so that was 2 words)

Here is to the wish that it is sunny where ever you are!