***Wordless Wednesday*** We're going home!

All packed up and ready to go to Cali! (Plus the stroller, boppy pillow and baby's car seat not pictured)

Memorial Day~Thank you

Remembering and thanking those who served and passed, thanking those who served and still serve. Thank you, you are remembered and honored daily.

Pictures I took Memorial Day 2011

~Five Questions Friday~

Had to hop on board with this one :) Thanks to Kim at The SAHM Diary!

1. Are you a napper?

Yes Naps are a must especially with the baby!

2. What was your favorite subject in school? Most hated?

Fav was JROTC and PE least fav was drama (it was fun but I'm not one for the spotlight)

3. Did you have the something old new borrowed and blue at your wedding? What were they?

Yep, a necklace my hubby got me, new dress, borrow hair clip, and blue was a sapphire ring and garter. :)

4. What one thing are you determined to do this summer?

Enjoy the beach with the kids as much as possible!

5. Ice cream or Popsicles? 

Ice Cream!!! (I worked at Baskin Robbins when I was younger... Oh the joys of daily free scoops!)

***Funnies Friday*** ~Pregnancy~

***Wordless Wednesday*** Work It Out

True... I hate running unless it is while playing a sport

May 3rd                                      May 13th

May 13th                                       May 23rd

 

Officially a Stay At Home Mom

Yesterday was officially my first day of unemployment..... Well, employment where I was getting paid a nice  salary every 2 weeks.... Now I am employed strictly by a 1 month old, 7 year old, 27 year old (hubby), 2 dogs, and a house that still for the life of me cannot seem to stay clean longer than a day or two. hahaha.... How did I spend my first official day as a SAHM? On the couch with baby Mikey sleeping in my arms, completing a couple loads of laundry (by completing I mean wash, dry AND getting them put away in there designated locations throughout drawers and closets!), making a yummy dinner, dishes, sweeping up a miniature german shepherd (warm weather is here and off comes the dogs coats), and double checking our finances just to make sure I truly did make the right choice when going along with my hubby's request.... The dollar signs have not changed and we're still only losing out on a small sum of money a month by me not working AND not having to pay for any type of child care. Unfortunately, between both of our incomes, the cost of child care was going to be a bit over half of my monthly income, including diapers, formula (because it would have been ridiculously tough to pump every couple hours with my job) oldest kids lunches and before and after school care, and of course the inevitable time off that would occur often from sickness that the baby would encounter being around all the other babies every day. However, had I gone back to work.... Our snuggle time would be close to non-existent.... The daily routines and hussle-and-bussle of it all would cut into all mommy-son time and of course someone else would be caring for him and seeing all of his milestones before me. Yesterday he kept smiling... It was the cutest thing since my first son's first smiles. That, alone, is worth it all.

Well, now... A SAHM.... Hmmm... What to do??? Now I have more time for EVERYTHING!!!! Maybe a little too much time?..... Nah, the list of "things to do" continues to grow almost daily. Between house work, home improvements (which I'm excited about not having to do just on the weekends), working out (which I can do more of now), daily activities with the kidlets, going to school full time instead of part time, being able to go out and about and get more involved in my passion of photography, and traveling.... Oh to be able to travel now and only have to go off of the oldest child's school schedule and hubby's leave.... This will be wonderful. In a week I will be going back home to California for a month. I have not been home in 2 1/2 years...... I have so many ideas of what to do while we're out there, maybe a beach trip or two, go to a real mall, I definitely will have some In-n-Out (that will probably be my dinner the night we fly in), relax in the pool in my old back yard, see friends and their kids, possibly an amusement park or two..... And of course FAMILY! Baby Michael will be close to 2 months old when all the family meets him. My 3rd youngest brother is graduating from high school and we will be there to see this take place. I am so proud of him! He received 2 different scholarships and will be going to college along the coast... I'm sure dad has already given him the speech of staying on track, especially going to college right next to the beach.

I'm a bit nervous being away from "home" for so long, usually a few days away I am ready to come back. This should be a nice relaxing time though. Jacob will get to see all of the family including his dad's side while we are there. He is beyond excited and can't wait to go camping, fishing and gold panning with his dad's parents. He also gets to go to Disney World with his dad this upcoming weekend. It is still a secret to him because we did not want him to lose focus on his class but I know he will be super stoked when his dad calls to tell him tomorrow!

There are so many positives to being able to stay at home with the kids.... As my husband said, there is no way to place a monetary value on being the one to raise our children. And while I may not be bringing in an income and helping support our family in such a manner, I will be able to support us in ways that would have been out of reach with full time, away from the home, employment. I just have to keep telling myself that everything will be okay and not to fear the unknown. If I can do this, everything will be just fine.

Last night my husband kept asking if I was okay.... At first I didn't catch on to why he was asking this. Was I being too quiet? Was I spacing out lost in thought? Then he said, "I love you, thank you for doing this for our family." Sigh.... I am okay with this, while it will take some adjusting, I am okay. We will be great. And all will be worth it. Opening a new chapter of our lives and slowing down a bit from my normal go-go-go life should be interesting. Stay tuned.... :)

Pork Chop Teriyaki & Steamed Sugar Snap Peas

 Tonight's meal was another hit!!! Instead of adding teriyaki to the meal while cooking we marinated them in the sauce in a ziploc bag for 24 hours. Perfect! Cooked the rice in our rice cooker and steamed the fresh local sugar snap peas in the vegetable steamer for 20 min.

Marinate Pork Chops over night in Teriyaki Sauce!!!  

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 4 (4 ounce) boneless pork chops, 3/4-inch thick
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 green onions, chopped
• 1 (10.75 ounce) can Campbell's Condensed Golden Mushroom Soup
• 1 (8 ounce) can pineapple chunks, drained, reserving juice
• Hot cooked rice

Directions

1. Heat the oil in a 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat. Add the pork and cook until well browned on both sides. Remove the pork from the skillet.
2. Add the garlic and onions to the skillet and cook and stir for 1 minute. Stir in the soup, pineapple juice and heat to a boil. Cook for 5 minutes or until the soup mixture is slightly reduced.
3. Return the pork to the skillet. Reduce the heat to low. Stir in the pineapple. Cook for 5 minutes or until the pork is cooked through. Serve the pork and sauce with the rice. Sprinkle with additional sliced green onion, if desired.

Pork Chops & Red Potatoes

Another wonderful hit with the family!!!

Of course the man-child and I picked out the onions. I can't have them because baby tends to get gassy and an irritated bum when I eat them and the oldest just doesn't like them. No worries though, daddy never has a problem with eating anything and everything that is left over. :)

Ingredients:

• 3 pork chops
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 medium onion, sliced
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1/2 cup diced roasted bell pepper (optional)

Directions:

1. Heat Oil in non-stick skillet over medium-high heat.
2. Add chops and cook 10 minutes or until well-browned.
3. Remove chops.
4. Add onion bell pepper and oregano.
5. Cook five minutes or until browned-stirring occasionally.
6. Add chops, chicken broth.
7. Heat to boil.
8. Cover and cook over low heat 5 minutes or until done.
9. Serves 3.

Garlic Red Potatoes

Ingredients

• 2 pounds red potatoes, quartered
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Place potatoes in an 8x8 inch baking dish.
3. In a small bowl combine melted butter, garlic, salt and lemon juice; pour over potatoes and stir to coat. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese over potatoes.
4. Bake, covered, in preheated oven for 50 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 10 minutes, or until golden brown.

 

***~Motivation Monday~***

 

 

Last week was a "bad" week for me. Between me being sick as all hell and caving in to delectable temptations I did not lose any weight. This morning I weighed in at 150 flat. The fatty inside me needed cookies. Yes, chocolate chip cookies were the evil goodness that must have been laced with something addicting because I went through 2 containers of the keebler cookies and another half dozen of bakery made ones!!!! My son wanted oreos for part of his snack at school. I won’t touch oreos so I am safe there! We went grocery shopping this weekend. It took everything in me not to buy another pack! Instead I stocked up on yogurt, nuts, fresh fruits and veggies. I have 2 weeks before I go back home to see family and friends that I have not seen in 2 ½ years and I want to be able to wear my size 9 jeans. My size 9 shorts fit just fine, but my jeans need a little extra suck-in to button (not comfortable and not worth being uncomfortable over). But my size 11’s are falling off. My stomach has gone down a bit. I’d say it is mainly the swelling that has gone down and not the fat, but I’ll take what I can get right now. :)  7 more pounds to pre-prego weight. Hopefully come next week it’ll be only 6 pounds to go! Work outs get to increase this week too!!! 

1st Pic: 3 May 2012~~~ 2nd Pic: 13 May 2012

Goal: Healthy eating and staying on track with water consumption. 

Workout Goal: 90 min of cardio.

I am 5'7 I'd like to get down to 135lbs but will be happy at 143lbs again. I was 123lbs when I first moved out here and that was just TOO skinny!

Busy Busy Sickly Bee

So I know it has been over a week since I last updated with words. (I missed my Motivation Monday post because I really wasn't too motivated with 103.9 fever.... YIKES!) Oh where to start! Last week was extremely busy. I went into work and showed the baby off again, caught up on the latest, and attempted to infiltrate my computer. Having been shut down for so long and being run by NMCI, the damn thing did not want to load in the timely manner I needed it to. So I let it be and told it I would be back. Thursday I had my post-op appointment. In all honesty I drove 2 hours for the doc to ask if I was having any postpartum depression..... Really? Couldn't just ask me that shit over the phone or send me the 8 question questioner via email? At least while I was out there I was able to get the baby's birth certificate and some Jimmy John's, (that place was my crack while I was pregnant). Now the littlest man is signed up in DEERS and TriCare. Check that off the never ending to-do-list!!! The husband was busy all week with getting everything arranged for his units static display at the Air Show. He came home one day looking part lobster, part raccoon...... Sunblock anyone??? All I thought with this was it better not look like that next weekend (which is now this weekend coming up) because we have family and baby pictures scheduled with a family friend out in J-Ville. Timeless Photography. I have been wanting to have her do pictures for us for a couple years now and am so excited that she worked with us to have them done on a weekend! Her hubby is a co-worker of mine (per-say) with the VA and their oldest son Chris became a great buddy of ours over the past couple years. Her hubby Rick has been a huge help with my 67 Chevelle and getting it running (now she chirps during take off and sounds f'in aggressive). :))

Daddy and Jake getting some CLEAN drinking water. (Cleaner than city water run through a brita filter!)

This past Friday night we attended the Cherry Point Air Show's night show. That was fun and our 7 yr old Jacob had a blast. He had a slight cough but I really didn't think much of it. He was acting fine. This also happened to be our newborn son's first Air Show (he slept through 90% of it, until of course he was hungry and needed to be changed). Come Saturday though Jake was irritable but still wanted to go to the Air Show. Baby Mikey had been a bit irritable too but I chalked it up to him having a growth spurt and eating every hour to 2 hours. The Air Show went over well with a few breakdowns from both kids. Hubby was able to get tickets to sit in the Blue Angel box seating. That was awesome and our oldest loved it at first. Then it became boring/he wanted to go on the tanks more than watch the show. Sometimes I don't get that kid... Luckily I "convinced" him to hang out there and we'd do all the other activities the next day, because soon after we were invited to meet the pilots and have a picture taken out on the flight line by one of DH's bosses. AWESOME!!!!!

However, after that I took the boys home and that was it. All three of us were sick. Lucky for us it has only been fevers, coughs, stuffy noses and body aches. I have blown through (literally) 2 boxes of tissues already. BLAH. Thanks you to my little 1st grader for bringing home the crud. I hate the fact that I catch colds/bugs so easily! I hate that our newborn caught a bit of it too. :( He does not like having his nose cleared with suction, he screams like I am doing the worst possible thing in the world to him. LOL. Ok, it is a little amusing but having to hold his head still is almost a two man operation! He hasn't had a fever thank goodness. But of course I started questioning breastfeeding him while being as sick as I was. Then I found this article "When a Nursing Mom Gets Sick"  It has some great information throughout it and on Tuesday at his 1 month appointment the doc said not to worry about feeding him, he'll get the antibodies from me and that he is perfectly healthy minus the congestion.
So at his appointment on Tuesday he was 10.5lbs and 23.5in tall!!!! That little booger gained 2lbs in 2 weeks! :)) Even daddy was saying how he is getting heavy while holding him at the Air Show.
Breast milk, it does a baby good! :))

Mikey found his thumb in an attempt for added comfort at the doctor's office

So, since Sunday the boys and I have been home, resting, getting rid of the crud..... It has put a damper on my exercising and being able to sleep while baby sleeps... Then add to the raw, peeling nose I have.... Pictures might have to be put off another week. :-/  

As for deciding on what to do with work..... Yeeaaaaaaaa...... Still a little undecided there. I was heavily leaning toward staying home last week and then this week I just don't know. I do have the opportunity to work from home with another job... I'm looking more into that first. I just know it is going to be a haul to take care of the home front and work full time while the hubby is away, which might be coming up again here very soon for trainings and schooling that he is working toward attending. (This is a fact that he brought up in an attempt to "help" me choose SAHM, which is what he wants). My Pro's & Con's list continues to grow....

***~Wordless Wednesday~ Air Show Weekend~***

Mikey's first Air Show with Big Brother Jake 5-4-12

It's just like a video game mom!

Pedro

Blue Angels VIP passes. This close to them!

They are always an amazing sight to see in action!

Meeting the pilots of the Blue Angels

Come Follow Along

~Wordless Wednesday~ Mother