1 down 1 to go

Potty training,  its the hardest part of being a parent of a young child.  David was a hold out and didnt potty train till he was 3 1/2.  BUT when it finally happened it happened completely.  I make sure I had everything I would need for an entire week so I would not have to leave the house and I took all diapers except nap time and bed time away and he went naked for an entire week then on Saturday we made an experimental trip to the store for a treat.  Two weeks later I made a 5 hour drive by myself with both kids down to my parents house and David managed to go the entire trip with out an accident.  While we were there my mom noticed that when she got up (way earlier than I do) his diaper was still dry but by the time I got up about an hour later it was totally full so we took that night time diaper away as well and voila!  Both day and night trained.  I had tried the whole naked thing with him before but he would just go potty where ever he was and not worry about it so for the sake of our carpets and couches we had to take a step back a few times.

Now we are working on Amelia.  She just turned 2 but she is MUCH more independent than David was.  She has started sitting on the little frog potty (fisher price rain-forest themed potty shaped like a frog) and has not had an accidents when running around with out a diaper and even went on the adult potty today for the first time with the help of one of those inserts so she didn't fall in.  The problem I am faced with is that I can not do the whole not leaving the house for an entire week bit like I did David because now that he is potty trained he goes to an enrichment program at the Air Station CDC from 9-12.  That means I leave the house at twice a day.  And because of the times I am the only one who can take him,  Clay can take him once and a while but only when I have other appointments that I cant get at any other time.  So I now need to find another way to get Amelia potty trained. 

So with me luck as I dive in feet first.

Books

I love to read and thank my mother all the time for giving me that gift.  I am currently working my way through a very large body of work that consists of a 24 book series a 10 book series and 2 trilogies.  I have read the first trilogy and am now on book 24 and still looking for the second trilogy and 5 of the 10 book series.  The Author is Dana Fuller Ross and the series is called Wagons West.  It is a historical fiction (which I love since I LOVE history) that starts out with the first wagon train to leave New York for Oregon and it takes you on a journey of over 3000 miles then you follow the lives of the families up until around the time the arm and torch of the Statue of Liberty is delivered to America.  Some of the historical events include the Mexican War, several gold rushes, the Great Chicago fire, and I think Custers Last Stand is in book 24. 

 I have really enjoyed reading these books and of course since it is still a work of fiction I find myself constantly doing research to see exactly how things happened and their true time line.  I also enjoy learning more about life in the mid to late 1800's.  There is a little romance mixed in but not so much that men would not enjoy the books. 

Hopefully by the time I finish reading this large body of work my mom will have finished the Sookie Stackhouse books so I can start on them next.

What types of books do you enjoy reading?

Saving Money

As a single income military family of 4 we are always looking for new ways to save.  One of the ways we are trying to do this is by breaking down the grocery shopping from one large trip every pay day when the grocery stores are often insanely crowded to once a week when it is just me and Amelia since David is now in preschool in the mornings.  By doing this we are able to make a weekly meal plan based on the current sales and take better advantage of coupons and sales.  I also don't have to try to drag 2 kids around a grocery store so it takes me less time since i am not constantly telling them not to hit, no yelling, leave her toy alone..... you get the idea.  I also am able to go earlier so if I am going to the commissary I can get there and do my shopping during the early bird hour then check out once the open the full checkouts at 10am and get back off the Island before the Family Day crowds get to thick.

My husband was not on board with this idea at first because he was afraid that we would buy groceries the first week of the pay period then spend the rest of our money and not have anything to buy groceries the next week.  So in order to make sure this doesnt happen I allow $100 a week (my goal is to eventually be able to do it for even less) and to take the needed amount out at the beginning of the pay period and put it aside.   Another good thing about this method is it curbs those impulse buys because you have to make sure you have enough money to buy everything you NEED for the next week.

We have only done this for 1 pay period and it has worked so far and hopefully we will get even better at it with time.  We are still new to couponing and still learning the ropes and how to take the best advantage of sales and coupons.   

I would love to hear additional ideas on how to save money.   And if you live in the Beaufort,SC area and are interested in couponing I would love to meet up.

crazy life

Life just seems to go by so fast when you have two young children.   This can be a good thing when your spouse is deployed but mine came home at the end of Feb on emergency leave when his mother's husband passed away.  I was glad to have him home early even though it wasn't under ideal circumstances.

Right now I am stuck at the house for the week trying to force David into potty training.  We started Sunday taking away all diapers, pullups and underwear of any sort during the day (still using diapers at night) and have a potty in the living room and one in his bedroom and so far we only had one accident yesterday while he was sitting at the table for lunch.  I am hoping to reintroduce big boy underwear at the end of the week. 

Then my next challenge will be figuring out how to get Amelia to go on the potty.  She will hold it for several hours if she does not have a diaper on and waits for that nap time and bed time diaper (we cant get her diapers locally so we try to leave her naked as much as possible).  She hasn't figured out how to get down of her bed yet so I cant just leave her with out a diaper at nap time with a potty in her room like I have been with David.  If you have any ideas please leave them in the comment section as I can use all the help I can get on this.

In my last post I mentioned that David would start Basketball at the YMCA,  well that was interesting and it will be a while before we try to do another sport.  He mainly ran around the gym while we were there.  They had 4 teams all in the same gym so there was lots of ciaos and confusion for the younger ones and David still doesnt have the focus needed.  He would usually do ok during the first half which was the  practice but when it came to the second half which is when they had games he was done and just wanted to run around and do his own thing.

I really should get better at keeping this up but some times life just moves a little to fast.  I hope everyone is having a wonderful Tuesday.

Good Bye 2009, Hello 2010!

Wow this is only my 3rd post of 2009 and the last. In 2 hours it will be January 1st 2010. This year has gone by so fast and so much has happened.

Clay left for the sand box back in Sept and who knows how much longer he will be there. Clay's mom got remarried earlier this year. David has started talking really well and is no longer in speech therapy. Amelia is walking and talking. Thats just a few of the things that have went on in 2009.

I am really looking forward to 2010. Clay will pick up a promotion, reenlist and come home at some point in 2010. David will start playing sports at the YMCA now that he is old enough (he starts Basketball on Jan 5th)

The only problem for me is what to call it. Yeah I know silly but think about it, all my life I have mainly called the year by the last two digits (IE: 1999 was '99) but its sounds kinda strange to say yeah ten is going to be a good year. So I guess I am stuck with twenty-ten or two thousand ten. Yes I am strange, not really a huge surprise I'm sure.

I am also really excited for a few of the goals (resolutions just sounds so cliche). One of them is to eat less fast food. Since Clay has been deployed fast food has been my best friend but it hasn't been kind to my rear end. I figure that by doing this I can also accomplish a few other goals such as loosing weight and cutting some of the fat out of the budget (seeing as I STILL have two kids in diapers). Another goal is to get David out of diapers but thats a whole other story. I also would like keep up with this blog and post a little more regularly.


HappyNewYear

diapers are breaking the bank

Why do they have to be so expensive? With 2 kids in diapers we spend about $100 a month on diapers. I cant wait to get David out of them. Unfortunatly at 2 1/2 he doesnt seem to have to much interest in ditching the diapers. He will get really excited about the potty one day then will not want anything to do with it for a couple weeks. I know its not a huge deal until he is 4 then its considered a delay but my wallet cant handle this strain for too much longer. And dont get me started on the cost of wipes. Not when David keeps pulling them all out of the box and squeezing the liquid out all over the place. I am open to any tips you may have for potty training.

Long time no post!

I havent posted in over a year and a LOT has changed since then. The last time I posted I was pregnant with Amelia who was born on July 16th 2008. She was a healthy full term baby who was 9lbs 12oz at birth and was delivered via c-section. We have decided that she is our last child. She is now crawling and eating finger foods and growing like a weed. she is wearing 12 months and some 18 month clothing. She has 4 teeth and is trying to talk and loves to sing and listen to music. Its so fun to see her personality develop.

We know that Clay will be deploying some time closer to the end of this year but not sure of exactly when. While this isnt our first deployment it will be a whole new ball game with kids involved (for those of you who dont know, Clay and I got married the day before he deployed and he was gone for 6 months).

Clay's mom got remarried a couple of weeks ago and will be having the ceremony and reception at the end of May so we will be heading down to Valdosta,ga for that. And while we are there we are going to take the kids to Wild Adventures.

Our cat Toby had to go live with my parents because he doesnt like the kids. He was never crazy about David and would pee on his stuff every now and then but once Amelia was born he got even worse so we decided to send him to live with grandma and grandpa where he would be a happy kitty with no kids around.

I have started to make cakes. I started with the cake for Davids first birthday and had so much fun that I decided to learn more and keep going.

This is a cake I made for Easter and sent to work with Clay

David also has had to say goodbye to the first of many friends. It was sad but its a part of this military life. I grew up in a college town and many of my friends were there because their parents were students and as soon as they graduated they moved away and it was hard but it taught me the meaning of true friendship and I think it prepaired me for this gypsy lifestyle we lead in the military.

I think that covers all the major events that have happened in the past year.