My 2012

In 2012 I am going to do a better job of saying my prayers every night and teaching Tateym about God. And we WILL attend church more regularly. This is going to be a challenge since Jc & I are not morning people but we can do it.

I want to do a much better job of making a menu on Sundays, grocery shopping on Sundays or Mondays, and COOKING! No more eating out all the time.. Friday nights only as of right now.

Justin and I started P90X yesterday morning (2 days down, 88 to go). I am hoping for us both to be healthy and in great shape at the end of 90 days! I am tired on not wearing cute shirts.

Be OPTIMISTIC! I can't stand when people that are always complaining and pointing out the bad in every thing. I don't want to be that person.

Be productive, not lazy. I have made a cleaning schedule and a schedule for teaching Tateym. STICK WITH IT DAILY!! Get out there and take T to the park and to do activities when it's a pretty day. A day off to stay inside and be lazy every once in awhile is fine.

Socialize in 2012. We've taken friends dinner, invited friends over for dinner, and have gone out to dinner with friends. We have so many friends that we only see every once in awhile. Get together more often people!

TRY not to spend as much money.... I need to limit myself on wants vs. needs. We need to pay some things off and put a lot in the savings account.

Love my husband. Yes I do love my husband every day but after having kids your attention is always on them and not so much each other. And unfortunately with volleyball and photography we hardly spent any time together last year. I'll make an effort to make time just for us. That's the best thing we can do for T as well.. she needs parents that love each other and I really really love him! I love spending time with him! So now we need to find and make that time!

2012 can be what you want it to be! What you do this year is up to you. You decide on the level of your happiness by choosing your attitude every day. The people that are the happiest don't have everything but they are thankful for everything that they have. Yes I am talking to myself as well. A few months ago the preacher said something simple that really made me think.. It was something along the lines of.. if you're unhappy flowing through life, you don't have to be, get out of the boat and make a change. So that's what I'm trying to do. Something simple my bible study teacher said that stuck with me is that if you don't plug in the lamp it will not shine. You need to plug in with God every day to work as well. She said she knew that sounded corny but it's so true. Having a bad day? Bad week? Plug it in! If I spend a few minutes praying I will have a better day. The days I went to bible study were the best. I hated getting up and going in the mornings (& getting T ready really) but I was in a great mood for the rest of the day. By going there I realized how lucky I am to be a believer & to know I'll be in kingdom of heaven one day & I realized how much I want to raise Tateym & my children to be believers.

2012- you WILL be a great year! Because I WILL make sure of it! :)

2012 will bring us:

- Niece Saylor turns 2

- Justin's 28th bday in April
- a NEW niece in April

- Niece Kelsey's sweet 16

- an exciting, fun-filled spring and summer

- Tateym's 3rd birthday in August

- my 27th bday in September (what?!?! this must be wrong. I literally just checked this with a calculator. That's when you know you're old. I could never understand how my parents forgot how old they were.. I already can't remember my age.)

- our 6th wedding anniversary in September

- a great volleyball season

- the best Christmas ever

- and hopefully, maybe, POSSIBLY baby #2 ;)

Kid + Donuts = Mommy shops - Potty X 2 = Zero (Mommy goes home)

I woke up this morning with one thing on my mind. Target. Despite how my husband probably feels about it I usually head to Target about every 2 days.. sometimes every 3 days.. sometimes twice in one day. Well I hadn't been all week because I'm trying to keep up with the many new changes I'm trying to implement into my daily routine (New Year's resolutions galore) so my Target list has gotten too long.

First thing I must do is stop by Shipley's donuts. Justin and I start P90X on Monday so I need to squeeze in every ounce of sugar (i.e. the cake I'm making later today) I can before I have to actually try to start losing weight next week. And it's two fold actually.. because the donut holes will keep T busy in her seat in the cart so I can shop without hearing, "I NEED out!" I inhale my two glazed donuts and 2-3 of T's holes, arrive at Target, and hand T the bag of the remaining donut holes. She's happy & I'm off. I get the boring stuff on the list like vitamins and body wash, then head to the fun stuff like clothes and decorations. Everything is good. T sees a stuffed Dora (as in the Explorer) and I give it to her to hold while we're there thinking I can put it back before we leave. I go down that aisle later, distract her, and throw the Dora on the shelf without even looking at it. "Mommy wait! My Dora!" Hmm.. Ok didn't work.

Now it's time to see what is left in the Christmas decor. I see 90% off and lots of stuff I'd want. Donuts and this in one day?! I'm a happy girl. Just as I get there and start digging through 20 cent ornaments I hear, "I have to go potty....." "Ok, let me get just a few more ornaments." "I HAVE TO GO POTTY" "Ok, ok" So I walk from the back corner of Target to the front corner of Target only to walk in the restroom door and hear T say, " I don't have to go potty." "What?!" Well I make her try. Someone in the next stall passes a little gas so like lightning I throw my hand on T's mouth knowing she's going to giggle and say TOOT! She got a smirk out and I distracted her. In the end she did NOT potty. So after washing our hands and getting back in the cart we head back to the opposite side of Target to the Christmas spot.

There's 4-5 other people there now so I feel like I'm at a garage sale and I need to get in there and get the good stuff before it's gone. I grab about 3 things when I hear, "I need to poop." AHHHH!! "Why didn't you go when we were there? Ok, just a sec." "I need to poop, I need to poop, I need to poop, I need to poop, I need to poop." Everyone looks at me and smiles. I give a little half smile/giggle smirk and get out of there. Needless to say I didn't get to finish shopping today. If you go there and see the pinecone cluster balls with glitter on them THEY ARE MINE. IF there are any left. I'm going back for them Monday when T is at Mother's Day Out! I head to check out to realize my card is on the console in the car. I forgot to put it back in my wallet when I got the donuts. I ask the sales guys Ben if I can run and get it from my car. That dang Dora doll is on the pile of stuff to be checked out (Yes I can say no at times to T getting toys at the store but today is NOT the day for that fight). T realizes we're leaving without it and starts crying bloody murder. I'm running out the store pushing her in the cart to go get my card. I'm sure to people in the parking lot I looked like a crazed shop lifter running out and frightening her toddler. I get the card and go back inside to pay.

Ben scans Dora and gives it to T so that madness is over. I ask Ben how much the pine cone cluster is and he points out that it's missing a pine cone or two. I explained that I didn't care, it was the only one I could find at the time. It's only 1.50, I'll take it. Ben says, "Wow this Christmas stuff is going to go fast now that it's 90% off." Thanks for the reminder Ben. I said, "I know, I would have looked through it longer if I didn't have my daughter with me." He says, "You know how to solve that? You get a slurpie and some popcorn when you come through the door." He doesn't think I know that & haven't done that a dozen times?? I have a 2 year old. I've figured that out already. Poor guy is just trying to be nice though. I answer, "Yeah well she already went through a bag of donut holes." I pay and start to head home. A lady walks up behind me and Ben looks at her cart and then me and says, "Oh look, more of the pinecones!" She had about 6 of MY pine cone clusters in her cart. Gee thanks for pointing that out Ben. We head home and T still has yet to actually poop.

Tateym & Mommy's 1st week of "homeschool preschool"

I feel that Tateym (now almost 2 1/2 years old) needs some structured instruction throughout the day. She's not at the baby stage anymore where I constantly have to be hands-on with her but at the same time she needs something more than just play all day. She becomes bored and wants to snack and watch tv. So I've decided to do a small, short, no pressure curriculum with her daily. It starts tomorrow so we will see how it goes. Each "lesson" is only up to 15 minutes to keep her attention- after all she is 2! I am curious to see if this is enough time or too much time for what I have planned. This is definitely going to be trial and error, but I can make needed changes for the following week. I am hoping she sees this time as fun time with Mommy but she'll also be learning. :) I am putting that expensive Early Childhood Education degree to use! Below is our first week's curriculum. This by no means meets any TEKS criteria.. I decided on a theme for each week and went with it.. The first week's theme is "FARM ANIMALS" and the bible theme is "God Made it All".

Monday, Jan. 2
READING TIME: (9-9:15am)
Read books-
1. Farmer Duck
2. F is for Farm
3. Moo, Baa, La La La
LITERACY TIME: (9:15-9:30)
Sing ABC Song
Letter A- Recognize and Find A's (She already knows A but we're going thru all the letters)
Practice writing a T
MATH TIME: (9:30-9:45)
Count the farm animals. Put numbered animals in order of 1-9. Then feed the animals that number of beans.
SOC. ST./SCIENCE: (9:45-10)
Discuss what is a farm, barn, farmer, and what animals are on a farm. Look at the Search and Find Book Farm Page to see what we find on the farm. Do (draw/decorate) page 1 of our book: Pigs like mud.
LANGUAGES: (10-10:15)
Pig- Learn the ASL sign for pig. Act like a pig.
BIBLE: (10:15-10:30)
God Made All Things. Read Page 1-3 in her Bible Book. Prayers. Discuss what God made the first 7 days. Draw a picture showing these things.
MUSIC & ART: (10:30-10:45)
Sing Old McDonald Had a Farm & Wiggle Those Piggies (on toes).
Color the Barn and Animals.

Then we'll do outside play, inside play, lunch, nap, snack, tv time, dinner, outside play, etc. (9-10:45am is the only structured time.)

This is our first day's plan.. other fun highlights for the week include:
- Counting using magnetic ducks.
- Finishing our book with these pages: Cows give milk. Sheep give wool. Chickens eat corn. Ducks like water.
- Signs for cow, sheep, horse, duck, and chicken as well as pig.
- Finishing 7 coloring pages of what God created.
- Working on verse: In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. Genesis 1:1
- Lots of fun songs such as Animals Around the Farm (sung to Wheels on the Bus), Five Little Ducks, etc.
- Art projects such as painting a pink paper plate pig face, making a sheep from cotton balls, painting a chicken using stamps, etc.