3 Brooks Girls

I've Raised a Criminal

2012-01-25T20:35:00.003-05:00

After Ila's speech therapy this afternoon, we headed to Target for a little shopping pick-me-up. Not that I have anything to be glum about really... I just wanted to check all the super-cute clearance clothes and pick up a new binder. Ila has been pretty snotty all day, was up at 4am and didn't take a nap. So, I wasn't surprised when half-way through the store, she said she wanted to go home. She looked incredibly tired, so after we walked a bit more and grabbed the things I needed, we headed to the check-out. Being the super-healthy mama that I am, I had given the girls two giant chocolate-chip cookies when we first arrived at Target and they had scarfed them down. When we got in the check-out line, Ila spotted the boxed goldfish and suddenly proclaimed that she was ~~hungry~~ starving again. I laughed at her and told her we weren't going to get any goldfish today and I went back to setting my things on the conveyor belt. As we were waiting for the cashier to finish ringing me up, I glanced over at Ila and noticed that she was slumped over on the side of the cart (she was riding inside the cart, Lorel was in the front). She looked SO freaking tired and I felt a sense of delight as I realized that this probably meant an early bedtime tonight (score!). We finished checking out, Lorel screamed "GOODBYE!!!!!!!" at all the people behind us in line, and we headed to the car.

When we got to our parking spot, I lifted Ila out of the cart first and she literally just collapsed onto my shoulder. For a second, I thought she was passing out in my arms. As I set her into her carseat, something hit the back of my arm and I heard a familiar rattling sound. Then, I spotted Ila's face. She had a sneaky little grin... the kind that say, "Oops! I've been caught! But, I'm so cute that I won't get in trouble...."

MY KID HAD STOLEN THE GOLDFISH CRACKERS!

"But she's only 3," you say. "She didn't know she was stealing," you argue. Ohhhhhh, she knew. She might not have known that it was also called stealing, but she had been slumped over - not because she was tired - but because she was stashing the goldfish crackers behind her in the cart. I had told her she couldn't have them, so she decided she'd just try to sneak them past me anyway.

I grabbed her back out of the carseat, put her back in the cart and told her that taking something without paying for it was called stealing. (She knows all about paying for things. She excitedly adds money to her piggy bank anytime she sees some laying around and she bought her giant aircraft carrier toy with her own money when her piggy bank got full.) I continued on, telling her that when people steal, sometimes stores call the police and have the police take those people to jail. (She also has a rough idea of what jail is. She doesn't want to be "locked up.") I told her that maybe if she went inside, gave the goldfish crackers back, and told them that she had taken them, the store wouldn't call the police.

I was going to go to customer service, but no one was working there and I decided I'd just go back to the cashier that had checked us out in the first place. We stood in line again, and I spent that time telling Ila that what she had done was very bad behavior and I was disappointed that she had made that choice. The old couple behind us was watching intently and I'm sure they figured out what was going on. When it came our turn in line, the cashier looked at me, confused and reached out for the goldfish. Ila furrowed her brow, held out the box and said, "I'm sorry that I took your goldfish." The cashier was great, telling Ila that she was glad she had brought the box back and while it wasn't a good thing to do, she could always come back to Target again and buy them when she had money to pay for them. Ila perked up a bit then and I thanked the cashier for playing along.

The older couple behind us was parked right next to me and as I was putting the girls in the car, they commented on how sweet they both were. They said that parents inevitably feel bad too when their kids do something like that, but they thought I'd handled the situation well.

In the car, I told Ila that I wanted her to always remember that stealing is bad. I told her that I never wanted to see her to go to jail and she said, "Because you love me so much?" That's exactly right, kid. Because I love you so much.

Don't worry Ila. If you ever do time in the slammer, I'll make you a cake with a pickax baked in the middle of it. I've got your back.

Moving to Japan

2012-01-18T17:40:00.002-05:00

I posted just a short message that we were moving to Japan when Tim called his detailer on December 14th and asked to be stationed overseas. We had received a list of possible openings several weeks in advance, so we had a lot of time to discuss where we might want to go. Options included California, Washington St., Virginia, Florida and Japan, among others. So why did we choose to try and move our family 6,956 miles away from where we are now? It wasn't an easy decision.

Tim and I have always loved to travel. I was blessed to travel to Mexico as a teenager, and when I got into college, I was blessed again to be able to travel to Paris. Both Tim and I went to Austria just a couple of months before we were married and we then honeymooned in Puerto Rico. The travel bug bit me hard when I went to Europe and since then, I've compiled a long list of places I'd like to visit before I die. If Tim and I didn't have children, we wouldn't have thought twice about moving overseas for a few years. We aren't scared of a new culture and different language. We're okay with getting lost and being on our own for a while. And the best thing about traveling to new places is that it opens even more doors for MORE travel.

But, we DO have children. And, we have the only grandchildren on either side of our families. The thought of taking the only grandchildren so far away from their grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts and uncles for three or four years was REALLY tough to think about. Even though we've always lived apart from them, our families are very important to us. I want my children to know their grandparents. I want them to know my brother- and sister-in-law. I want them to know my sisters. I don't want them to just put a name with a face. I want them to what wonderful people they are and how lucky we are to have such a close and supportive family.

I miss not having some family around to take my kids when the day has been hard and my husband won't be home for hours. I miss not popping in to my mom's house to say hello. I miss Sunday afternoon dinners with all the family. I miss the opportunities to do things together, whether it's going on a motorcycle ride or helping with some home improvement. And I really, really miss the hugs - especially the ones from Pops (it's like hugging a big bear!). Kids are only little once and I hate that my family will miss out on a lot of the everyday moments. I feel guilty about the fact that my kids will probably be 6 and 8 years old before we move anywhere close to family again. So, why, WHY, did we ask to go to Japan?

I want my kids to see this: Mt. Fuji.

I want my kids to not only learn a new language early in life, but be totally immersed in it.

I want my kids to learn what it's like to be in the minority.

I want my kids to learn about about a culture that is very different than their own.

I want my kids to try new foods.

I want my kids to learn about different religions, up close and personal.

I want my kids to become more confident in who they are by being in situations where they might look different or be different than the other kids.

I want my kids to learn that it's okay to change things up and do things that might be a little scary at first.

I want my kids to travel the world.

And, of course, I want to do all of that too! Thankfully, we live in the age of Skype and instant communication. Time will go by quickly, I'm sure, and we'll be settled back in TN before we know. Until then, I'm going to take advantage of this amazing opportunity for myself and my girls. Afterall, you only live once.

Chomp.

2012-01-04T14:03:00.002-05:00

So, it's been awhile since I humored you all with a story about difficult mothering moments. Have you ever been on a grocery shopping trip with two young kids? It's provides a lot of writing material.

For one thing, I was trying to coupon which usually means that my shopping trip is going to take a little longer than normal. I evaluated which shopping cart would be best because I had to lot to buy and I wasn't exactly sure if one or both of the kids walking with me would be time efficient. I went with the space rocket cart (the cart with two seats and steering wheels on the front) because Ila requested it and I was just wanting to keep the peace. About 5 minutes after both girls were in the cart, the drama began. Lorel was squishing Ila because Lorel wanted to be on Ila's side. Ila was whining about how Lorel was squishing her and then Lorel started trying to climb over Ila. I finally just told Ila she was going to have to get down and walk because the cart was small and Lorel needed to have a time-out.

For a few sweet minutes, all was well. Then, of course, those few sweet minutes were over. Ila was doing alright, but Lorel was dying to get out of the cart. She was pulling things out of the basket and then throwing them back in. She was biting down on the steering wheel in anger. She was throwing herself back against the seat, whining and crying about how she didn't want to sit. When I told her she was going to get in "big, big trouble," she gasped and said, "No big big trouble!" but then went right back to her shenanigans as soon as I turned around.

Unfortunately, near the end of my shopping trip, I reached the point where my cart could hold no other groceries. I pulled Lorel out of the seat and told her that she could walk as long as she stayed with Momma and Ila. To my surprise, she did REALLY well. When we finished shopping, the woman in front of us at the checkout line was taking really long and I have to admit, I was getting a little nervous. I was going to have to get my kids to stand still - in one spot - without shoving lots of chocolate candy in their faces. After 5 minutes of successfully standing in one spot, it was our turn to checkout. The girls helped me put some of the bags into the cart and as the cashier told me my total, I reached into my envelope to get out my grocery cash.

That was when I felt it.

I felt the distinct pinch of several small, pearly-white teeth sink into the back of my thigh.

LOREL BIT ME!

I yanked at the first part of her that my hand touched and ended up grabbing the hood of her coat and jerking the little piranha off of me. It took all of my being not to smack her around a few times as the poor teenage cashier-boy looked at me with a fear in his eyes that I guarantee will keep him practicing safe-sex for years to come. I grabbed Lorel's cheeks and told her that WE DO NOT BITE and then grabbed my cart and headed out the door, kids in tow.

One of my New Years Resolutions (or maybe I should call them jokes because that's what they always turn out to be...) was to stop drinking so much coke, but I couldn't help but stop at Sonic on the way home and self-medicate with a giant Coke Zero. How do you get your kid to stop biting?? Bite back? Sounds appealing at times.... But seriously. I should have taken Tim up on his offer to let me go grocery shopping later this afternoon all by myself.

Note to self: Grocery shopping with two kids will end with teeth marks on my thigh.

Reflecting on 2011

2012-01-04T13:39:00.003-05:00

Today I'm reflecting back on 2011 with the help of Simple Mom. Hop on over and download the free PDF of 20 questions to get you started. I like to do this every year to make sure I keep some perspective on where my life has been and where I'd like it to go. And as usual, I'll be brutally honest.

1. What was the single best thing that happened to you this year?

Feeling like my relationship with my husband is better than it has ever been. We went through some rough patches and I worried that we wouldn't come out of them together. Things between us are in a great place right now and I couldn't be more thankful.

2. What was the single most challenging thing that happened?

On a late-night drive back home from Virginia, we barely missed a couple of tornadoes and squeaked by a third one by less than half a mile. The kids were asleep when we drove into the destruction and we spent 3 hours helping tornado victims that had been tossed around in their vehicles. It was the most terrifying night of my life.

3. What was an unexpected joy this past year?

Finding out that we are going to move to Japan. We didn't think it would be obtained so easily.

4. What was an unexpected obstacle?

We were blessed with a year that makes it hard for me to answer this question. But, for the sake of answering every one, I'll say that my laparoscopy was pretty unexpected. And considering my husband (who nursed me back to health and took charge of the house) lamented that evening that "my job was harder than his," I think it was quite an obstacle for him.

5. Pick three words to describe 2011.

2011 was, for me, renewing. After struggling with post-partum depression for over a year, I felt like I started finding myself again. What a good feeling. The year was... fluid. We moved to a new place and just found out we'll be moving overseas this summer. We'll just go with the flow. It was also a year of the unknown. So many things in our lives were out of our control this year that we had to give up on trying to make the perfect plans. And wouldn't you know, it all worked out splendidly.

6. Pick three words your spouse would use to describe your 2011 (don't ask them; guess based on how you think your spouse sees you).

Challenging. Tim knows I have struggled with the whole "mom" gig.
Petty. I think that sometimes, he thinks that the things I occupy myself with at home are dumb and insignificant. Don't get me wrong, he's a great husband. But, I would put money on my guess.
Restorative. Like I said, I've found myself again after going to a horrible dark place. I think my man would agree.

7. Pick three words your spouse would use to describe their 2011 (again, without asking).

Stressful. As I mentioned earlier, there were a lot of unknowns in our life this year. Stress, at times, oozed from that man.
Fast. We did a lot of things and moved a lot of places this year. I think that there were times when we both felt like we were just hanging on for the ride.
Forgiving. For all the late-nights studying and demanding rotations that plagued the last 4 years of medical school , Tim was able to make up for it with a lot more time at home with family this year. It has been wonderful.

8. What were the best books you read this year?

"Twilight" by Stephenie Meyer. Sometimes, a busy mom just needs a little hit of crack cocaine to make it through a bad day. I could snort a line of Edward every day.
"The Veganist" by Kathy Freston. We went vegan for a month, and this book forever changed my view of food.
"The Help" by Kathryn Stockett. Just a damn good book.

9. With whom were your most valuable relationships?

Jeanne. Of the THE BEST friends I had during medical school. She was a life-saver when I needed some real life-saving. I couldn't have gotten through those last two years without her.
Stephanie. Despite differences in belief and opinion, she is one person who I can talk more openly with than many other people that I've known for years.
Whitney. A new friend in our new town who has been a god-send. She was my go-to family when I needed any sort of help and my girls have fallen in love with her family.
And oh god, just too many more to name.

10. What was your biggest personal change from January to December of this past year?

By outward appearance, my hair. After 13 years of shoulder-length curly hair, I chopped it off. Now, my husband's hair borders on being longer than my own. My most personal change, however, has been becoming more honest, at ease, and open about my beliefs - even if it make cause me some heartache at times.

11. In what ways did you grow emotionally?

About 2 months ago, I weaned off of my anti-depressant that I'd been on since May of 2010. I had tried to come off of it two previous times, but each time, it did not go well. I was beginning to feel like I was stuck on the medicine; I was not a good mother without it. But this summer and fall, I started cutting back on my dosage. I was nervous when I decided to stop taking it in November, and though I did have about a month where things were a little tense, I'm ecstatic to say that I've been off of all my medication since.

12. In what ways did you grow spiritually?

We found a great spiritual community here and since our kids are constantly growing, we've realized that we need to take more responsibility for what we want to teach them about religion and spirituality. For me personally, it's meant that while I don't push my own beliefs in others' faces, I also don't hide who I am for fear of being different or facing conflict. I want to teach my children integrity and the best way to do that is to have some integrity myself.

13. In what ways did you grow physically?

I actually found a workout class that I like! I joined a gym after our move and started going to a class called "Piyo." It's a mix of pilates and yoga and I love the instructor and all the ladies in the class. I have noticed more strength and flexibility in my body and those things have been a welcomed improvement.

14. In what ways did you grow in your relationships with others?

I think I learned to listen a little better this year and instead of trying to fix someone's problem the way I would like it to turn out, I tried to offer help and support in the way that was the most meaningful to that person. I think I did better at this, anyway.

15. What was the most enjoyable part of your work (professionally, at-home or both)?

There is nothing better than seeing your children becoming the kind of individuals you want and hope for them to be. Hearing Ila say, "Lorel! You are making me very angry!" instead of hitting her or hearing Lorel say, "Made me sad!" instead of just screaming, makes me so proud because I know they are actually listening and paying attention to what I'm trying to teach them. I have also really loved blogging this year. It's been such a great way to express myself and keep a record of all things good and bad on this journey through motherhood.

16. What was the most challenging part of your work (professionally, at-home or both)?

Long days filled with screaming, whining, and crying. Hardest part of the job. You can only take so much before you feel like you're going to blow a gasket.

17. What was the single biggest time-waster in your life this past year?

Definitely Pinterest and, basically, the internet in general. I love finding all sorts of new crafts, DIY things, and organizing ideas but I end up looking at them more than I actually do them.

18. What was the best way you used your time this past year?

To ignore what I was planning on doing and spending my time goofing-off or playing with my girls instead. Also, getting up an hour earlier than the kids in the morning (though it's been a while since I did this...) REALLY helped my productivity levels.

19. What was the biggest thing you learned this past year?

That I am my children's lifeguide. Looking at things - especially the difficult situations - with this perspective drastically changes the way I react to things. It has made tough times much easier to get through.

20. Create a phrase or statement that describes 2011 for you.

2011 was the year that I started finding my way out of some of the hardest years of my life as a young mother. It's so nice to feel like I'm getting to know myself again.

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T21:00:00.000-05:00

Stories and narrations will come later. I'm sick and tired. But I did have a good Christmas!

A Nuttracter!

2011-12-23T23:25:00.001-05:00

The girls opened their ornament gifts this morning. Ila has to touch every Nutcracker she sees, so I found a Nutcracker ornament for her and for Lorel, I got an ice-cream cone with sprinkles and a cherry on top. When Ila started to open her gift, I got a little worried that she was going to be disappointed because she kept saying, "Mom! I think it's a toy!" But when she saw her "nuttrackter," she fell in love. She carried him around all day and kept asking me if he could stay in her room instead of on the tree. Lorel seemed to like her ice-cream cone pretty well too. Instead of pretending to eat it, she was actually licking it all day - sprinkles and all. We should have some really pretty sparkly diapers soon....

And, take a look at our tree. I can't hardly fit any more presents under or around it.

We are truly, TRULY, blessed.

Can't wait to tear all those open!

We are moving to...

2011-12-14T14:07:00.000-05:00

YOKOSUKA, JAPAN!

We will be moving this summer and will be stationed there for around 3 years. We are beyond excited! And a little sad, too, for all the family and friends we'll be leaving behind. We did have some options in the states too, but we just couldn't pass up the opportunity - for ourselves and our children - to live abroad for a few years. We will definitely be settling back down in Tennessee when our Navy commitment is done, so we are excited to spend just a few years in a new and exciting place where we can expose our kids to so many things that they may never see again. It's going to be quite an adventure and I'm going to blog about it the whole way.

A Visit to Christmas Towne!

2011-12-12T13:40:00.002-05:00

Judy has been all over the house - high and low. The other morning, we found her swinging on the chandelier above the dining room table.

One of the best Christmas activities we've done thus far was taking the girls to Christmas Towne at Busch Gardens. It was one of the highlights of my parenting life. The girls LOVED everything there. Their eyes lit up seeing all the lights, the North Pole, Santa Claus, the rides... everything.

Our attempt at a good family picture was just that - an attempt.

Ila was mesmerized by the HUGE Clydesdale horses.

Lorel's face as she rode the carousel was PRICELESS. She just kept laughing and saying, "Yeeeee haw!"

My mini-me.

We got some dinner and the food was GREAT. Lorel ate up some vegetables and loved the photo opportunity.

Ila only wanted to throw some mean faces my way for pictures....

but she couldn't keep a straight face. :)

This is where we ate. It was a Christmas-lover's heaven!

The last thing we did at the park was to take the girls to a Sesame Street Christmas show. When we told them we were going to watch a show, they thought we were talking about a TV show or a movie. They had NO CLUE what was coming. Tim and Ila had some fun tickling Lorel before the show started.

When those characters came out on the stage, both of the girls were shocked! I don't think they blinked for an hour. And yes, that is hot chocolate all over Ila's sweater.

We were third row, center!

Like I said, Ila didn't blink for an hour!

Lorel kept clapping and laughing.

We just had a FANTASTIC night. Seriously - one of the best nights I've had as a mother. We rarely splurge on things like this and it was just awesome to see the girls so happy. It was also surreal to watch Timothy connecting with our daughters that night. I still remember poking him in line for food on the UHON retreat, asking him about his Harley-Davidson shirt and thinking he was kinda cute. Who would have thought that 8 years later, I'd be watching him tickle our daughters as we spent an evening out as a family. It just makes me love him more. And it makes me incredibly thankful for where my life has ended up at the present moment.

Vote for Judy!

2011-12-08T14:34:00.001-05:00

I'm entering Judy's strip poker photo in a contest to win a free iPad2! Go vote for her HERE at BabyRabies.

I think Judy got talked into playing strip-poker by those slutty Disney princesses. Luckily for her, Judy is great at cards.

Day 7.

2011-12-07T21:35:00.001-05:00

Momma was lazy... er... I mean... Judy was not too crazy last night.... and the girls found her here this morning:

In other news, the miracle of all miracles happened today! ILA SAT WITH SANTA CLAUS! She has always been scared of Santa, while Lorel runs up to him like he's part of the family. Last year, Ila cried and wouldn't go near him while Lorel sat peacefully on his lap. Though Ila is a lot more excited about Santa this year, she insisted that if we went to see him, she would sit on the floor BESIDE him instead of sitting in his lap. I told her that we'd just go check out the whole Santa scene and if she wanted to say "hi," she could. If not, Lorel would go see him and Ila could stay with me.

I bought the girls matching outfits (by the way, they are BOTH wearing a size XS/4-6 in LITTLE GIRLS - not toddler clothes) and actually tried to fix their hair. Most of the time, my kids look homeless. So anyway... they looked adorable and as there was not a single person in line when we got to the mall. As as Santa saw us, he waved really big at the girls and both the girls got super excited. Not only did Lorel run up to him, but Ila did too!! They sat with him for several minutes, gave him huge hugs, and even smiled AND looked at the camera for pictures! It was a Christmas miracle!!! Look how awesome their pictures turned out! And he was a darn good looking Santa.

After we had a visit with Santa, we headed to Target to do a little shopping. Ila has been asking about getting money and taking her piggy bank to the bank for cash, so today I decided to let her cash in all her change. We took the piggy to a Coinstar machine and Ila talked excitedly about the toys she was going to buy at the store. I tried to tell her that she probably wasn't going to have that much money, but my mouth dropped open as I watched the total go up on the machine. She had $40 in that piggy bank!! Not only did she buy some presents for our family, but she had enough money leftover to get a toy. A big toy. A toy that her Daddy will be sooooo proud of. My daughter bought THIS:

An aircraft carrier.

I'm not sure if it was a good idea to let her get such a big new toy right before Christmas, but oh well. She was excited to use her own money, pick something out herself, and hand the money to the clerk.

The girls played with it the rest of the evening.

We had a really good day today and I'm soooo happy that the girls took such a great picture with Santa. I'm also pumped that MY HUSBAND COMES HOME TOMORROW NIGHT! It's only been a week, but I'm missing him like crazy. *sigh* Love that man.

Day 6.

2011-12-07T21:33:00.001-05:00

Well, before Judy headed back up to the North Pole to give Santa the Kiddie Behavior Report, she grabbed a cold one. And got a second one for me. I REALLY like having Judy around.

When Judy got back, the girls found her here the next morning:

Judy used the girls' beads to make herself a Christmas necklace. I think Judy went low-key after her late night of strip-poker.

With Tim being gone, my patience is wearing thin and I was on the verge of a melt-down when Lorel woke up from her nap and was crying for me before she even made it out of her room. She wanted me to hold her, but I told her we were going to go to the store. Before I even got any other words out, Lorel was on the floor throwing a fit. All I could do was laugh at her. She was getting so mad and started screaming at me and I just grabbed the camera. She has a lot of spunk in her... that's for sure.

The beginning of a scream. Murray is thinking, "Here we go again...."

Yep. There it is.

Check out those fists.

Sorry, Murray. Hang in there buddy.

Day 5.

2011-12-06T13:43:00.001-05:00

Judy had a late night playing strip poker with those slutty Disney princesses. I think Judy won. I didn't get a picture of the girls finding Judy the next morning. I was asleep when I heard the girls say "cards!" and I heard them get the shot glasses. At that point, I thought I should probably go ahead and get up.

Our activity for Day 5 was making a Christmas ornament. We decided to make some Christmas trees out of popsicle sticks and both the girls seemed to really enjoy it. Ila actually ASKED me to take pictures of her while she painted. I can't remember the last time she WANTED me to take her picture.

I love her big, beautiful, brown eyes!

Our trees turned out pretty well, though Lorel got mad when we were all done. The girls have really really, really liked their activity calendar and with Tim being gone for a while, it's helped our days go by a little more smoothly.

Day 4.

2011-12-04T21:11:00.001-05:00

Ila now looks for Judy as soon as she is out of bed. She loves her Elf! This morning, Judy got into a bit of trouble....

After we cleaned up her mess, Ila pointed out that it was December 4 and we needed to open the next envelope on our Christmas calendar. Since Ila had opened the first three, it was Lorel's turn. She seemed to enjoy it....

Our activity for the day was to write a letter to Santa Claus and take it to a special Santa Claus mailbox at Macy's. (That was an epic fail... Ila cried because she didn't want to put more than one toy on her list and then Lorel just scribbled all over her's and got mad when I tried to put it in an envelope. Maybe next year.)

Lorel got REALLY pissed off when I hung her card back up on the calendar. Good thing it's high enough that she can't reach all of the envelopes.

Stay tuned for Judy's mischief tomorrow...

Day 2.

2011-12-02T20:45:00.001-05:00

Lorel was the one to find Judy this morning - before I had even mentioned looking for her. She pointed to Judy and said, "Santa Claus!" Not quite right... but on the right track I guess. The girls have really taken to that little Elf and I'm glad I decided to add the Elf to my Christmas "to-do" list. Although....

Ila got upset tonight at dinner because she said she was worried about her Daddy who was all alone at work, without his family. I tried to show her when he would be back, pointing to the day on our Christmas Countdown, but she got more upset that it was so many days away. I told her to come over and sit in my lap and as I was trying to calm her down, she asked if Judy was going back to the North Pole to talk to Santa tonight. I assured her that Judy would leave and come back and that's when Ila started the ugly cry. I could barely understand her at that point, but I managed to get something about "Judy talk to Santa an tell him bad dehavior an I never get any presents adain!"

Noooooo! The exact thing that I didn't want to happen, has happened! I didn't want the Elf on the Shelf to be something that made Ila fear getting in trouble because she wouldn't get gifts! I tried to have a conversation with her about how everyone has bad behavior sometimes - even Momma. But no matter what kind of bad behavior she had, she would always be a good girl, with a good heart. I told her that every Christmas, for the rest of her life, she would get presents because someone loved her. My heart just broke for her as she sat there and cried in my lap. She is so tender-hearted. I FINALLY got the subject changed to guessing what our Christmas activity would be tomorrow and she eventually calmed down. Oh, the things that lie ahead for me in her teenage years....

December 1

2011-12-01T17:27:00.001-05:00

Ila caught on to this whole "magic elf" thing quick. I asked her this morning if she remembered if anyone was visiting us and she immediately told me that Judy had gone to the North Pole, come back to our house, and was hiding somewhere waiting for us to find her. We looked all over the house before Ila finally spotted Judy in the bathroom. Judy had gotten into the cotton balls! Ila laughed and scooped her right up. The original Elf on the Shelf isn't supposed to be touched (because, according to the story, he'll lose his magic) and I know that wouldn't go over well in our house. Both the girls love and hug all over Judy.

We also started our Christmas Countdown calendar today. I saw a lot of these types of ideas on Pinterest, so I can't take full credit myself... BUT, I definitely wasn't crafty enough to make my own cute calendar cards, so I just bought a pack of 32 Christmas cards at Target for $3. I already had ribbon, paperclips, and a bulletin board at home so the cards were the only thing I spent money on for this project.

I came up with a festive activity for each day leading up to Christmas, printed them off, laminated them (LOVE my laminating machine), and glued them into each card. Ila helped me glue a number on each envelope. I stapled 4 lines of ribbon across my bulletin board and strung the envelopes across with paperclips (I didn't have enough of those tiny clothespins, or I would have used those). Each day, we open an envelope, do the fun activity, and then hang the card on the outside of the envelope to mark what day it is. Lorel is DYING to get at those presents under the tree, so it's nice for the girls to have a visual of how much longer they have to wait.

Our activities are things like coloring Christmas pages (I got them 2 new Christmas coloring books - that was today's activity), painting Christmas toenails, going to Christmas Towne at Busch Gardens, going to the Christmas Eve service at chuch, and baking treats for our mailman and trash men.

I have the calendar hanging right beside the fireplace (there were already nails there - convenient).

I also figured I would give you a tour of our house all decorated for the holidays.

This is the girls' tree. Notice the odd arrangements of ornaments - the girls are CONSTANTLY taking them on and off. This is also the fake tree we've had since we were married (5 years) and when half the lights went out this year, Tim and I spent 3 hours stripping all the lights off so that we could still use the tree and hang new lights. Call me a sucker for Mother Nature, but I couldn't fathom the idea of putting this perfectly good tree in the landfill. It looks great with the LED color lights that Ila picked out.

And this is my pride and joy. Berto, the real tree. Ila named him Berto - go figure. I have a lot of hand-crocheted snowflakes from two grandmothers and a great-grandmother and I started collecting my own snowflake ornaments years ago. This is not the family tree. This is MY SNOWFLAKE tree! And thank goodness the girls have left it alone. Not only do I want all my snowflakes left along, but I wouldn't be surprised if one of the girls pulled the tree over on top of themselves. I stripped some branches in my backyard to put in vases, along with our own pinecones, and added some decorative red branches from Michaels. And since the girls won't leave our table runner alone, I put it across our console instead.

This is the second year that I haven't used wrapping paper and I LOVE it. We only have 2 presents this year that are wrapped with wrapping paper and it's only because Tim got me something so big that none of my bags would fit it. I made my own fabric bags last year and I save brown paper bags throughout the year to cut and use for wrapping gifts. Buy some pretty ribbon and that's all you'll need to make your presents look amazing.

And, last but not least, the girls got some early presents in the mail from my mom today. Two of the presents were from my sister and have to go under the tree until Christmas morning. Ila was trying her best to figure out what they were.

(Shaking the box)

There was a gift for each of the girls, however, that they could go ahead and open.

Check out the look on Ila's face when she spotted her Cinderella ornament.

Lorel got a Rapunzel ornament and has carried it around with her all afternoon.

Her "cheeeeeeeeeeese" face.

Big sister helped Lorel put her ornament on the tree.

Tim is gone for the next 8 days, so hopefully, we'll be so entertained with Judy and our Christmas activities that the time will fly by. I'll try to post something every day and keep you updated on Judy's whereabouts... key word there: TRY.

Our Magic Elf, Judy.

2011-11-30T21:07:00.001-05:00

While the girls were eating dinner tonight, I snuck out the back door, ran to the front and placed a package on the porch and hit the doorbell on my way back inside. Tim jumped up to get the door since he's totally out of the loop on magical matters like this and I insisted that one of the girls go look to see who was there. Ila grabbed the package and brought it inside.

She was pumped that there was some sort of package, but got even more excited when she saw that her name was on it (along with Lorel's). The excitement level went through the roof when I read who it was from. Santa Claus! I got all giggly inside myself because I saw the spark in her eyes. The same spark I had as a kid when I got excited about Santa.

I helped the girls tear open the package and before they lifted out the tissue paper, we read the letter that came inside the box. It was a letter from Santa explaining the following:

Dear Ila and Lorel,

It is my pleasure to introduce Judy.She is one of my elves from the North Pole. She has been assigned as the MagicElf for your home this Christmas.

She will visit your house every dayuntil Christmas Eve. I have sent her to watch you girls and every night, shewill fly back up to the North Pole and tell me what she saw. Christmas is aboutspreading love and cheer and that’s what I want you to do! Take care of eachother, help people in need, and make sure to let everyone know how much youlove them.

Your elf will roam all over thehouse and sometimes, she may be a bit mischievous at times so watch out! Takegood care of Judy and be sure to leave out a snack for me on Christmas Eve.Cookies are my favorite!

See you soon,

Santa Claus

Ila LOVES her magic Elf, Judy. Within 10 minutes of having Judy at our house, Ila was already talking about how she didn't want Judy to go back to the North Pole on Christmas Eve (I told her Judy would leave to go help with all the toy making for next year). I've got to come up with lots of fun places to hide Judy and mischief for her to get into. So many people are doing "Elf on the Shelf" and while I think it's cute, there are some things I'm not keen on: the $29.99 price tag, the rule that you can't touch the elf or he/she will lose their magic, and the part of the story where the Elf judges your behavior. I figured I would find my own Elf and make up my own story.

And this is the story of how I met Judy. In her own words:

"Kimberly pulled me out of a big heap of Christmas stuff at the thrift store. I couldn't do much because I had a blank book of sheet music glued to my hands. What am I supposed to do with a blank book of music?!"

"Aren't I cute?"

"And can you believe how low I was priced?? I mean, c'mon! A magic elf is at least worth a full $5.00."

"It only took her a few minutes to cut that book out of my hands. Ah, that feels better."

"Freedom!"

"Ya know, I was getting kinda nervous in that thrift store. You never know what kind of sleeze-ball might try to pick you up."

"Hmm... I'm kinda hungry. You got anything good here?"

"Let's see...."

"Ohhhhh yeahhhh."

Welcome to the house Judy! We hope you enjoy your stay.

Day Comes to Visit

2011-11-14T21:59:00.001-05:00

We are so lucky to live in an area that has a direct, cheap flight back home to our families. Almost all of our family members have been able to come visit since we moved here in June and last week was my dad's turn. The girls call him "Day" and it's totally cute. His girlfriend came along too and was another welcomed female in the house (sorry Tim). It was REALLY nice that my dad's visit coincided with Lorel's 2nd birthday. This was one of the first birthdays that our families haven't been able to attend, so it was nice to have a couple of them there.

The girls immediately went for Dad's tablet.

Ila doing her morning yoga. :)

No clue what is going on here.

Taking the girls (and Murray) for a walk.

Lorel at her first movie!! We actually didn't see "Happy Feet 2", but "Puss in Boots." Lorel got a kick out of all the displays though.

Shopping at the NEX.

Birthday party morning!

Tim is squeezing in a workout.

Ila's best friend, Lara, and Lara's little brother, Charlie, drove down from Richmond to visit.

Best friends.

Like mother, like daughter.

My good friend, Stephanie.

Lorel and baby Charlie!

Such a cute kid!

Yes. That's right. I bought REAL floating Lanterns just like in the movie, Tangled. We tried to let one go the night of Lorel's birthday celebration, but it was too freaking windy. The one the next night got caught in the tree. :(

Going to church the next morning.

We took Dad on base to see the ships. And as for the picture, well... I just can't help myself. It's like my picture face is a reflex.

Subs! Too cool!

We went to the Naval Museum afterwards and the girls had some fun.

The girls in a boat.

They did not want to touch the sharks.

Look. I'm the mom that tries to force her kid to touch the crab. Lorel just yelled, "No!!! No touch the crab! No touch the crab!!!"

Look at Lorel's mouth. She's still yelling, "No touch the crab!"

Part of the museum included getting to tour the USS Wisconsin. It was pretty huge.

The two of them just stood like this for a few minutes. Sisters.

We were in Norfolk and right across the water is the complex that is Naval Medical Center Portsmouth. That whole property from the left to the right is where Tim works every day.

Lorel kept trying to turn every wheel she saw.

Ila insisted on this face and I was blinded by the sun.

Another Ila face. Can there be any doubt that she is my child??

Poor kid almost gave herself a hernia.

Yowza.

The girls LOVED having Day here and were sad to see him go. I'm so thankful to have family that wants to be a part of their lives and is willing to fly here to visit. Only a few more years until we move back to Tennessee for good. Can't wait!

Family Music Time with Adele

2011-11-08T16:57:00.003-05:00

After Lorel's birthday celebrations were over, Tim started to play piano and I sat down to sing along. Before we knew it, both girls were sitting with us and Ila started singing Adele along with me. It was a moment which I had lived before in my own childhood and it was a moment I had dreamed about having one day with my own children. Sounds cliche, but dreams do come true, people. So, enjoy the video, excuse any bad notes I hit, and listen to my sweet little girl singing with me.

The Tower Cake

2011-11-08T07:48:00.002-05:00

I am a decent cook. I'm come a long way over the years and I can make some mean vegetarian cuisine. Baking, however.... Baking is not my forte. Unless the cookies have come pre-made and break off of a roll, I usually mess them up. And even the store-bought cookies that only require you to put them in the oven usually get burnt. Instead of making cakes, I prefer to buy them. The kids have always gotten bought birthday cakes, but this year, I decided to make Lorel's cake. I didn't want to spend extra money on a fancy cake and figured she wouldn't care if it looked wonky. As long I didn't burn it and it was covered in frosting, Lorel would be happy.

In all my Pinterest searching, I came across several Tangled Tower cakes and I must have been drinking in the moment I decided, because I actually made up my mind to take a stab at making one. I bought two boxes of cake mix (one for a cake and one for cupcakes), a tube of green icing (for vines), and a can of white icing (that I could dye green). I found instructions to make the cake on www.DisneyFamily.com and though I didn't follow instructions to a "T," I based the cake on this example. I'm going to try to explain, in detail, how I made the cake in case someone else out there wants to make one too.

1) I started off by making one cake in a 9x13 cake pan and I made 12 cupcakes with the other box of cake mix.

2) When everything was cooled, I began cutting the tops off of some of the cupcakes and in the center of the square cake, I stacked the cupcakes one on top of the other with white icing in-between to help bind them together.

3) After a few were stacked, it became clear that I would need something to help keep the tower steady - especially since the base of the tower (the main cake) was squishy and moist. I tried a few strategically-placed toothpicks, but once the tower got to a certain height, the toothpicks weren't cutting it. So, I found a small wooden dowel (a skewer would work well too) and stuck it down the middle. The dowel definitely saved the cake.

4) When I wanted to finish the top of the tower, I left one of the cupcakes intact - with the wrapper still on it - and put it on top. The wrapper separated it from the rest of the tower, making it look like the room at the top that Rapunzel lives in. The original instructions used a waffle cone with purple icing for the cone roof of the tower, but because we don't use waffle cones, I didn't want to buy a pack just for one, and I didn't want to buy purple icing, my dad's girlfriend came up with the fantastic idea of making a cone out of purple construction paper. It was perfect and a lot cheaper!

5) When the tower was assembled, I covered it in white frosting (except for the wrapped cupcake and roof) and purposely kept it from looking perfect because I wanted it to resemble an old tower.

6) I then got out the green frosting and made some vines down the sides of the tower, around the bottom of the tower room and around the bottom of the tower roof (to help seal it on).

7) I added some green drops of food coloring to the rest of the white icing and iced the main cake to make it look like grass under the tower.

8) Remember those cupcake tops that I took off? I placed some of the them (unfrosted) around the tower to look like rocks or boulders (figured I should use them somehow).

9) I think the real kicker of the cake was the 3D Rapunzel that I made to stand in front of the tower. I also found it on the Disney site, here, and though it wasn't perfect, it looked pretty darn good. I highly recommend making this ahead of time. I was a little rushed and it totally stressed me out more than necessary.

I am completely stunned that I actually made this cake. (I'm turning into my mother!) Like I said, I'm lucky just to have a cake that isn't burnt and has frosting on it. The girls L.O.V.E.D. the cake and I was a little sad when it came time to cut it up. I think I've created a bit of trouble for myself by raising the birthday-cake bar for future birthdays. This cake was definitely the best one I've ever made and it's quite possible it was a fluke. I guess we'll see when Ila's birthday gets here in March!

Notice the "3"? It was leftover from Ila's last birthday and without even thinking, I put it on the cake. It was SEVERAL minutes before someone realized that Lorel was turning two.... What can I say? Our kid seems so much older than 2.

Posing beside my beautiful 3 cake.

Thaaaat's more like it. We got a number 2, and I can't resist my "picture face."

Success!

Lorel is TWO!

2011-11-05T22:44:00.000-04:00

Lorel's second birthday was Friday and although we didn't do much to celebrate then, we freakin' knocked the socks off some birthday-celebratin' today. Both of the girls absolutely adore Disney's movie, "Tangled." Since they'll probably be hooked on another movie by Ila's birthday in March, I figured I would use a Tangled theme for Lorel's birthday so that both the girls could enjoy it - even if Lorel probably won't remember it at all. I spent weeks pouring over Pinterest to find inspiration for her party. And because we weren't really having a big party and hardly any out-of-town family would be able to attend, I decided to go all out on decorations for the house to compensate. My dad and his girlfriend, Reina, were able to fly into town for the weekend and with their help (and the hubby's, of course), it took about 2 hours to finish the final decorations the night before our party day. I wanted the girls to wake up and feel like they were walking into the movie, and that's exactly what happened.

If you've seen Tangled, you know that lanterns play a key role in the movie. I wanted to make some lanterns to hang throughout the house, so I just grabbed a pack of brown paper bags at the store, printed and cut a sunburst stencil and painted yellow sunbursts on all the bags. I then punched holes in two sides of the bag, strung some yellow ribbon through the holes and taped the ribbon to the ceiling. Voila! Floating lanterns.

I also made banners from the movie - found all over Pinterest, so I totally can't take credit. I got some purple construction paper packets from Michael's, cut each piece into two triangles and painted the same sunburst on each one. I punched holes in the top corners and strung them on yellow ribbon. I alternated the front and back sides of each flag so that no matter where you stood in the room, you would see the sunburst pattern on the flags.

Like the yellow hair? I also found this on Pinterest. I bought 8 yellow, plastic table covers at the Dollar Tree and hung them room to room so they'd look like Rapunzel's hair draped all over the place. It was quite a nice effect.

Just for extra decor, I bought a bag of balloons at Wal-mart in assorted colors of white, purple and pink - PERFECT for the Tangled theme. BIG thanks to my family for helping blow up at 72 balloons. We tied each balloon to a string and hung them from the ceiling (no helium needed for the balloons to float!). Yep. Got that from Pinterest too.

It looked AWESOME!

And in case you missed it, we videotaped the birthday cake and "Happy Birthday" so that you can relive the moment with us. Enjoy!! **Also, try not to pay attention to the end of the video, where Lorel eats part of the wax candle, I shove my finger in her mouth, she bites me and I yell.... **

Lorel L.O.V.E.D. her Rapunzel gifts, especially the official crown, necklace, and even a purse. I guess I should also mention that Lorel had picked out some of her favorite dress-up clothes to wear for this special occasion That kid loves to be fancy.

Whitney got her some paints that only work on that Crayola Color Wonder paper. A mother's dream!

This was taken in the middle of Lorel yelling around the room to tell everyone, "Look! Paaaaaaints!"

She also got 2 new games for her LeapPad.

My mom got her the complete set of figurines from Tangled. This was also a huge hit with Lorel and every other kid that came to visit during the day.

Look at her face as she gazes at those toys!

Her last gift was one that I got at Target a couple of months ago - a tricycle on clearance for $7.00!

She's a speed demon!

She spent the rest of her evening enjoying her new toys and eating cake. OoooH! The cake! I didn't get any pictures of the cake on my camera, so I'll have to get them from my dad's. Watch for another post about the most amazing cake I've ever made in my life.

Lorel has brought so much joy into my life and has just utterly completed our family. It was the least I could do to make it a special day for her. She is just an amazing person. Amazing.

I love you, sweet baby girl. Happy Birthday.

Trick or Treat!!

2011-11-02T08:47:00.001-04:00

Ila is 3 years old, but this is the first year that our family ever went trick-or-treating. In years past, she was either too little or it was just too cold (we were living in East Tennessee, ya know). But, this year, we actually took both of the girls since they were old enough, I had to put together decent costumes, and we live in a great neighborhood. The girls got their first taste of Trick-or-Treating on the 28th because the Naval Hospital has a harvest festival where all the clinics decorate for Halloween and kids can Trick-or-Treat down the halls in the various clinics. I had to explained to Ila about how you go and get candy and she was stoked when we told her what we were going to do. Unfortunately, Lorel's Rapunzel hair had not been completed as of yet because I'd just spent 4 hours that day at the hospital for my pre-op appointments. Thank goodness Tim wasn't busy and was able to kidnap the kids up to his office while he did computer work and fed them lord knows how much Halloween candy. Tim actually got off of work before I was done and took the kids home early. Anyway...

It took about 1 try before the girls had the whole Trick-or-Treat thing figured out. Ila started running over to every clinic and yelling, at the top of her lungs, "TRICK OR TREEEEEEEEEEAT!" and Lorel... well, Lorel figured out that she didn't need to waste her time saying "Trick or Treat" when she could just reach in the bowl of candy herself. She can totally get away with it too, because everyone says, "Oh, look at the cute 2 year old." But don't let Lorel fool you. She is totally wiser than her years and she was just working that cuteness to get what she wanted. That's my girl.

So, after trick-or-treating at the hospital and going into a slight sugar coma that night, Ila asked me every following day if it was Halloween yet. When the day finally came, she finished her dinner and I told her it was time to go trick-or-treat in our neighborhood. She jumped out of her chair and yelled, "LOREL! WE'RE GOING TRICK-OR-TREATING!" and ran to get her costume. We got Ila dressed as a pirate (she went back and forth for months, but when we found a pirate costume at the thrift store for $4, that sealed the deal) and Lorel dressed as Rapunzel - complete with Rapunzel hair. I saw a Rapunzel hair tutorial on Pinterest and decided to try and make it myself. I used about half a pound of gold yarn and it took me probably 4 hours to cut super long strands, detangle them, fold them, braid them, and START OVER because it got so tangled again. I was up until midnight the night before Halloween, trying to sew the hair onto a pantyhose cap. I have to say, however, that it was totally worth it. Lorel loved it! And I got so many compliments on it when we went house to house.

The girls couldn't get enough of trick-or-treating, both of them screaming "TRICK OR TREAT!" when they got to a door. Again, Lorel just started helping herself to the bowl of treats rather than waiting on someone to hand it to her. And after EVERY. SINGLE. HOUSE., Ila asked us, "Mom? Dad? Can we trick-or-treat some more?" We pulled the girls through the neighborhood in a wagon and when walking up to the houses, poor Lorel tripped twice and ripped a big hole in her dress. Didn't stop her though. And after about one and a half hours, Ila walked back to the wagon after going to a house and said, "Mom. Dad. I'm done. I want to take off my costume now." If Ila said she was done, then that kid was done. We headed back the house and the girls ate candy until they popped. And although it was great to take them, Tim and I were tired! We must be getting old!

All in all, it was a great first Halloween for our family and it was hard to believe we had two beautiful little girls dressed up for Halloween, going house to house. I don't know how exactly I got to this point in my life, but I'm glad I'm here and apparently doing an okay job with it. When I was a kid, I couldn't imagine having an fun when I was too old to go trick-or-treating myself, but I swear to god, nothing is more awesome than watching your kids glow with excitement and having house after house talk about how adorable your children are. Getting old is totally worth it.

"Trick or Treat!!!!" Check out that hair that I slaved over!

My first attempt at a photo with both of them looking at the camera and smiling.

My second attempt was actually worse.

Riding in their wagon and snacking on candy in-between houses.

Rapunzel appears to be having some hair loss.

My cute little pirate! Arrrr!

My beautiful Rapunzel.

A Conversation with Ila

2011-10-23T08:37:00.001-04:00

A conversation with Ila Elizabeth, age 3 and a half.

My favorite food is: Macaroni and cheese

My favorite game to play is: Candyland!

The best show on television is: Curious George on PBSkids

The coolest person on Earth is: my best friend, Lara

My favorite thing to learn about is: Dinosaurs

The thing I do an awesome job at is: Drawing

If I could go anywhere in the world, it would be: To work, at the hospital (Thanks Tim!)

My favorite color is: Blue

When I grow up, I'm going to be: I'm gonna be a doctor.

My favorite song is: The Cat and the Hat song, "Here we go, go, go, go on an adventure!"

My favorite book is: Goldilocks and the Three Bears

Three words that describe me are: Smart Cookie and I don't know

My favorite season of the year is: Spring cause it's really really full with flowers

The snack I like best is: Chocolate

One food I don't like very much is: Broccoli

My best friend is: Lara!

If I could have one wish, it would be: An ipad!!

WARNING: This post may be TMI.

2011-10-22T21:03:00.004-04:00

We moved to Virginia on the first of June and it was around that time that I started having some unusual pelvic pain. I'd like to say that I didn't think much of it, but when the pain continued on and off for a few weeks, I knew something was off. As soon as we were in our new healthcare system, I made an appointment with my doctor. A few days before my appointment, the pain was so bad one morning that I drove myself to the ER. After a pelvic exam and other tests, they decided that I might have some sort of infection and gave me an antibiotic and told me to follow up with my primary care doctor. When I went to my doctor, she did another exam and told me that she wanted me to go for an ultrasound to check my ovaries. She thought one felt a little bigger than the other and just wanted to take a look at them. Thankfully, all of the ultrasound images came back normal (I was worried about a major diagnosis like ovarian cancer or something) and I thought that maybe I was just having a bad month and didn't need to worry about the pain anymore. I was sure it would go away.

Unfortunately, the pain persisted and has been going on for almost 6 months now. I went back to my PCM a second time and after she basically did the same exam and then told me she wanted me to have an ultrasound to check my ovaries (um... did she even read my chart?!), I asked to go to another doctor. Thankfully, I met with an awesome resident in the Ob/Gyn department. She really listened to me and made me feel like she understood all of my concerns. She did another pelvic exam (I think I've had about 1 per month, ugh) and a few other tests and told me that she had narrowed the possibilities down to Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) or Endometriosis. After she did the exam and consulted her attending physician, she told me she felt pretty confident that I was suffering from Endometriosis. For those of you that don't know, endometriosis is a condition in which endometrial tissue from the uterus implants outside the uterus in other areas of the body like the bladder, ovaries, ligaments, etc. The fluctuating hormone levels during a woman's cycle cause the tissue to become inflamed and aggravated, thus causing pain. Sounds great, right?

"Great!" I thought, "Now I can figure out how to get rid of the pain." I asked my doctor what treatment options I had and when she started to list them, I didn't feel a lot happier. My options were: 1) Oral Contraceptives (which I am not a good candidate for because of my history of blood clots), 2) getting pregnant (um... no!), 3) Lupron Depot (basically a menopause-inducing medication for 6 months), and 4) having a hysterectomy. WHAT?! That's it? My doctor sent me home with a brochure about the Lupron and I went home feeling a little bit depressed. Apparently, endometriosis is a chronic condition. You can treat the pain and get relief for a few months to years, but ultimately, the symptoms come back and you have to treat it again and again. Not cool, body. Not cool.

So, after talking with Tim, we decided we weren't quite ready for the Lupron. Besides the fact that I'd BE IN MENOPAUSE FOR SIX MONTHS, the side-effects aren't too fun. You can have mood swings, increased irritability, depression, and anxiety - all of which I have struggled with at times. It would be a difficult few months for myself and my family if I dealt with those side-effects and without knowing definitively that endometriosis is the cause of the pain, we just didn't feel like the Lupron was a good choice. Instead, I kept a log of all my pain and other symptoms during the past month, did lots of research (yay for a doctor husband!), and went back to see my gynecologist yesterday.

I had made the decision to ask her to perform a laparoscopy to make sure that I did, in fact, have endometriosis before taking a hardcore drug like Lupron. Doing a laparoscopy is the only way to definitively confirm the diagnosis of endometriosis. Since I couldn't try the oral contraceptives, we don't want to have another baby, and Lupron might have some difficult side effects for me, my doctor thought the laparoscopy was actually a good route to take. If they take a peek into my pelvis and see a lot of endometriosis, they can cut or laser it off during that same procedure and if symptoms persist, I can look again at taking the Lupron since it's one of my sole options. If, however, they don't see any endometriosis in there, I will have saved myself from months of bad side-effects and we can look for other answers for the pain.

I now have a laparoscopy tentatively scheduled for November 1st and I also have a referral for a Gastro/Intestinal appointment to rule out other possible causes of the pelvic pain. There's no guarantee that having this procedure will give us any answers, but Tim feels like it's the right direction to go to find a diagnosis. I have two friends who have offered to help with the kids if we need them to and lucky for me, my dad had already planned to fly in for a visit just two days after I will have had the procedure. If I'm still needing to be nursed back to health, I'll have a few extra hands around the house.

Tim asked me tonight if I was nervous about the surgery and I think it's normal to have a little bit of apprehension about it. Anytime someone has a procedure done, there are risks. But, I don't have a lot of other options and I live my life as best I can without worrying what will or will not happen. I can't hide from the "what-ifs." All we have is the here and now, and in this moment, I have a beautiful family and beautiful life. I will go in for my surgery on November 1st and all I'm going to worry about is all the crazy things I'll probably say coming out of anesthesia. [Honey, I apologize in advance if I embarrass you.]

More Wedding Pictures

2011-10-12T20:22:00.003-04:00

My in-laws (only the best in-laws EVER!)

Here comes the bride!

Look at me. Already crying. Sheesh.

The groomsmen.

The whole wedding party. Simply gorgeous.

Kiss the girl!

Mr & Mrs!

Woooo! We did it!

Sweet picture of both sets of parents.

Hannah's family.

Daniel's family.

MY sweet family. (Of course, the kids aren't looking....)

How pathetic am I??

Daniel & Hannah's Wedding

2011-10-11T21:48:00.002-04:00

Tim's brother, Daniel, is like the brother I never had. Since Tim and I got married, I have always referred to Daniel as my brother and not my brother-in-law because I feel like we've always been family. I can talk to him about anything, and to say I love him to death would be an understatement. He is a fantastic uncle to my children and is always there if we ever need him. When he got married on October 1st, I was surprised at how emotional I was. I knew I cared a lot about Daniel, but when the day came, I felt like I was giving away my baby brother. I am so proud of him and the life he is building for himself and his future family. Seeing how handsome he was, standing at the altar with his bride, I was just overcome with happiness for him.

Check out that wedding ring!

I love my brother!

Luckily for me, not only have I gained a brother in my family, but now I have a new sister too. I've known Hannah as long as I've known the whole family because she and Daniel have been together since high school. Hannah is wonderful! She is so easy to talk to and get along with. She also loves my girls and she adores my brother. She is going to take such good care of him. She is incredibly talented and all the personal touches at her wedding were proof. When I saw her in her wedding dress for the first time that afternoon, she was absolutely STUNNING. My heart was pounding fast and she literally took my breath away. I don't think I've ever seen a more beautiful bride.

They are such a beautiful couple and Tim and I were humbled to be a part of their wedding day. The wedding was GORGEOUS and we will never forget it. I am so blessed to have another brother AND sister in my life and I can't wait for all the good family times ahead (and there are definitely good times in THIS family).

And now, the wedding day in pictures:

The rehearsal dinner at Debbie & Roger's. AWESOME.

Gorgeous flowers

We wouldn't have been able to be a part of the wedding if my mom hadn't come to take care of our kids all weekend. Love you momma!

The bride is getting all prettied up!

Wedding hair!

The bride and her bridesmaids

Just wait till you see it on her....

Her Daddy walking her down the aisle. Daniel lost it before she even turned the corner.

The wedding and reception were at Hannah's home. Could it have been more beautiful??

Introducing Mr. & Mrs.!!

The wedding party danced back down the aisle!

GORGEOUS!

Just Married. :)

Married and finally getting to eat.

Like I said... beautiful.

Tim's Best Man Speech ROCKED.

Look how much he loves his brother... awww!

The first dance. (I was a huge blubbering, boo-hooey mess during this.)

The bride and her mama.

Tim and one of his good friends from childhood.

Yummy cake!

Love Daniel's face in this one.

Mother of the groom and father of the bride.

Me and Pops!

Typical. Ha!

Me and the hubs.

Telling the couple goodbye. We had a FABULOUS night. Love you two!

Our Visit with my Dad

2011-10-07T10:57:00.002-04:00

I'm too tired to talk about each picture... so... sharing them is as good as it's gonna get today. Enjoy!

Now THIS is the Ila I know and love.

My sisters and I.

My Great-Uncle Cordell stopped by for a visit. I hadn't seen him since my wedding 5 years ago.

I love this kid.

Story-time is always a favorite time for our family. Look at how Ila is loving on her Aunt Haley.

The girls got up kinda early....

I tweaked this photo a little bit. Love it.

Visiting Lees, Nana, Dai, Haley and Sarah... anyone I'm forgetting??

2011-09-29T15:12:00.000-04:00

The first couple of nights we were in middle TN, we spent the night at my mom's house. It's so nice for the grandparents to have my kids spend the night because there are so many little special, funny, sweet moments when they go to bed at night and wake up in the morning. Even though they don't get to their grandparents much, my kids LOVE them. Ila got to visit my mom's school where she works, my mom's friend Giles took them to the fair one day and they got to spend a little bit of time with my grandmother too.

Ila was excited to show Lees her new LeapPad

Look how Lorel is just sucked right into it

Ila had to show Nana too, of course

Nana was blown away by Ila's "toy"

I was trying to take cute pictures of Nana and Ila and someone else managed to squeez themselves into the picture too....

Poor Nana was getting squished!

After visiting my moms for a couple of days, I took the girls to my Dad's house for a couple of nights too. We didn't do anything special while there, but like I said, it was just nice for my dad to be there with the girls when they went to bed and when they got up every morning... even when they got up SUPER early.... After we left his house and went to Clarksville for the rest of our stay, both he and Sarah said the house was just too quiet with all the little feet gone.

So, we've been in Clarksville for the rest of our time in TN and my brother is getting married in TWO DAYS! Both Tim and I are in the wedding (he's the best man and I'm a bridesmaid - yay!) so my mom is going to drive up and spend the night Friday and Saturday and take care of the girls while Tim and I are busy with wedding rehearsals, bridal luncheons, dinners and the big shindig on wedding day. Should be fun!

Up in the Air

2011-09-29T15:09:00.004-04:00

I scored a big one for single-mommas everywhere! (Not that I'm really a single-momma, but, I do a lot of single-momma things with my husband being a busy intern.) I took both of my kids, on a plane, BY MYSELF. Before we had our flight, I tried to do everything possible to make it a smooth trip for all three of us. I booked a flight early in the morning before the girls would start getting tired or hungry. I also booked a non-stop flight so that I wouldn't have to lug the girls around the airport to catch another flight. The flight was going to be just under two hours and I knew the girls would be entertained by being on an airplane for very long. I had to find something to keep them occupied. Lucky for me, we live in 2011 and you would not believe the gadgets kids have these days. I ended up buying Ila's Christmas present early - a LeapFrog LeapPad. Basically, it's an iPad for kids. I let Ila use it at home a few days before our flight and Ila loved playing the games while Lorel sat parked right beside her, eyes glued to the screen. My hope was that both girls would sit exactly like that on the plane, but I bought Lorel a new book with stickers just in case she needed something else to do.

So, the morning of the flight, I woke the girls up at 5:30am to head to the airport for our 7:30 flight. You never know how the tunnels in Hampton Roads will be moving in the morning, so I wanted to make sure we had plenty of time. They ate poptarts and had milk in the car so I wouldn't have to worry about feeding them breakfast at the airport. When we got there, I had to park our car in the worst long-term parking lot I've ever seen at an airport. We are parked in Aisle 10 in a huge gravel lot and was there a shuttle? NO. You should have seen me carrying our luggage and pushing the stroller. I had a giant duffle bag on one shoulder with that hand steering the stroller and with my other hand, I had an under-hand grip on my rolling suitcase while also holding onto the stroller with my fingertips. I had a backpack on my back and was trying to walk slow enough for Ila to keep up with me while she was wearing a backpack too. We walked through the giant parking lot, across a street, through a smaller parking lot, across another street and then finally got to the building. Unfortunately, the Southwest check-in was on the opposite side of the building so I had to lug the girls around all over the place. Thank god I got to ditch the two big suitcases after we checked in. If it had been raining or if I had tried to ship our carseats instead of buying new ones... it would be have been impossible for me to get there.

I expected both the girls to get a little scared when the plane took off, but they looked like they had lived on airplanes. I videotaped the girls during the takeoff and while Ila thought it was super cool, Lorel just looked up for a second and went back to her book. I had debated on buying Lorel her own LeapPad and mid-flight, I knew I should have done it. The plane was so loud that Ila couldn't even hear the LeapPad on her headphones so she took them off and was just holding it in front of her. Lorel, however, couldn't hear it since she was sitting to the side and her sticker book only keep her entertained so long. When she got tired of the book, she was ALL OVER THE PLACE, wanting to go in the aisle and climb in and out of her seat repeatedly. I basically fed her the whole time to keep her sitting still. Poor kid. All in all, both of the girls did pretty darn good for a two-hour flight and I was able to avoid having "those kids" that get the stink eye from everyone else on the plane.

Since that flight, we ended up buying Lorel her own LeapPad (that's $200 between both the girls... oy) so the flight back should be bit calmer the second time around. Whew!

My Performer

2011-09-17T09:18:00.002-04:00

Our lives in pictures and video....

I never thought I'd have a biter, but Lorel has been put on this Earth to shatter all my expectations of motherhood. She has started biting Ila at times and Ila got so mad that she finally bit back. You can't see it that well, but Ila bit Lorel so hard (through a tent!) that it left two hefty looking bite marks. Oy.

Not only does Ila like to paint, but Lorel has REALLY taken to it. She will paint twice as long as Ila and likes to make lines all over her papers. She looks very intense when she paints.

Ila has started putting Lorel to bed in the living room when they're playing. She'll sing her a song, tuck her in, and pull the curtains closed. Lorel lays there "sleeping," as you can see.

I never put this dress on Ila and I figured I should probably put it on one of my kids before they both grow out of it. My mom MADE this dress when my sisters and I were little. What's creepy is that Lorel looks JUST LIKE ME in it.

There can no longer be any doubt that Ila got more of my genes when you see all these "posing" pictures. I would say that I don't know what's gotten into her, but... my childhood pictures explain it all.

The girls had a lot of fun at the park we went to the other day. It was a farther drive, but totally worth it.

If someone can explain how my kids end up sleeping like this, I'd be really interested to know.

As many of you know, my husband lost my wedding rings. To his credit, he was trying to save my rings from being cut off of my finger in case my finger was broken after slamming it in the door. Sadly, however, we haven't seen them since. When I saw this pretty "manufactured" pair on sale at Kolh's for $15000... I mean, $15.000... I couldn't help myself.

And this is a super-old picture, but I just happened upon it online and don't think I ever included it on the blog. It's a picture of Ila (probably around 9 months old) with my dad and two sisters. I think it is one of the best pictures I've seen in a while.

And now for some videos....

Lorel's favorite Pocahontas song.

My... ballerina?

Ila puts Lorel to bed.

Ila performs the famous "ABC" song!

School was... disappointing.

2011-09-13T15:45:00.001-04:00

We had our meeting at the local preschool today. We met with the principal, school psychologist, speech pathologist, and... some other lady... never caught her title.... Their conclusion is that because Ila is not quite 3.5 years old (even though by my calculations, she'll be 3 years and 6 months on the 22nd of this month...), she is on the borderline for needing speech therapy. Apparently, some of the sounds she was tested on at the Naval Hospital are for children just a tad bit older than her so she shouldn't make the sounds perfectly anyway. We were told that we had two options: 1) send Ila's report for a speech eligibility review where several people, including one or more speech pathologists would look over her evaluation, while taking into consideration subjective information from myself and Timothy, and decide if she would benefit from/qualify for speech therapy from the public school system, OR 2) wait about six months and do another evaluation when she turns 4 years old. I wasn't particularly happy with either of these options, but sending her for a review was better than doing nothing. I told them that I really didn't want to wait to do anything because she is starting to become frustrated as she realizes we can't understand her. And, like any parent, I feel like Ila might be quite smart for her age and I don't want her speech to hinder her early literacy skills.

Since she isn't old enough to start attending public preschool (they have to be 4 by September) and she wouldn't be admitted even if she needed speech therapy (I would just take her to the speech therapist at the school a couple of times per week), I asked the school psychologist if she thought we'd need to think about sending her to private preschool. The school psychologist said that Ila's social abilities are fantastic. She plays well, shares well, understands how to take turns with play and with conversation and she is VERY competent in skills that educators typically teach 4 year olds in preschool. She knows all her letters (and most of their sounds), numbers, colors and the psychologist pointed out that when she asked Ila how many toys she was holding, Ila glanced down and said, "3" without having to count them individually. She said that Ila is very bright and would probably fit right in a 4 year old classroom without being too far behind. The speech pathologist added that it wouldn't hurt her to be around other children and hear them say words more correctly; that it would help her own speech development. Plus, they both added, she would probably love it.

When we first got to the school today, Ila told me that she'd forgotten her backpack, lunchbox and special pet (she thinks she needs to bring a hamster to school - thanks, Target commercials!) and when she got a visitor pass, she exclaimed, "Now I can go to school?!" I know that she would just adore going to preschool, but from a financial perspective, it would be a big chunk of money to send her to private preschool. I think I do a decent job of providing her with stimulation at home, but she is learning so quickly and has such a desire to learn that I'm afraid I won't be able to keep up with her well enough. After all, I also have Lorel to take care of and educate (though Lorel isn't far behind her sister....). Tim and I are eager to pay down our debt from school loans and such and had wanted to get it all paid in about 3 years. If we were to send Ila to preschool, our debt-payoff plans would have to be put on the back-burner. So, I've got some things to think about. I'm sure she'll be fine with whatever we end up doing, but any parent can understand that we just want to put her in whatever environment will help her thrive.

We should be having that speech eligibility review in October, so I'll update when we get to this next phase in the speech therapy process. Thanks for reading all of this! :)

The Official Report

2011-09-12T21:23:00.000-04:00

Tim went by the speech pathologist's office today to pick up her official report so that we can take a copy to our meeting at the nearby preschool tomorrow afternoon. I won't copy the whole report, but I thought I'd share some of the more interesting sections.

Standardized Test Assessments:

"Ila was able to produce the/p/ and /k/ sounds in isolation and syllables given a visual/verbal/tactile cue for correct placement of articulators and use of voice. She was able to reproduce correct production in syllable pairs with reduced cues over time. She was not able to produce the /p/ and /k/ sound at the word level during this session. Her initial production of /p/ was "explosive" (audible air burst) with voice on, but given verbal/visual/tactile cues she was able to produce the /p/ correctly over time. Ila was able to produce both these sounds at the syllable level for her mother upon request."

Summary, Impressions, and Diagnosis:

"Ila presented as a delightful little girl who is having significant difficulty with articulation and phonological processing skills. Based on informal measures, her receptive and expressive language skills appear to be within the average range for her age.

Given the severity of her sound production difficulties, she is a definite candidate for intensive speech therapy. Finally, given her difficulty with multiple sounds and isolated speech motor movements, she may benefit from strategies used for children with phonological disorders and oral motor practice.

Diagnosis: Articulation and Phonological Processing Disorder"

Recommendations:

"1. Mrs. Brooks was instructed to contact her local school system to begin the eligibility process for special education/speech-language services.
2. In addition to speech services through the school system, Ila would benefit from private speech therapy through the TRICARE system two times per week.
3. Mrs. Brooks will want to contact Ila's PCM for a referral for speech therapy. In addition, the PCM may also provide the necessary prescription for speech therapy.
4. Ila is a candidate for the Exceptional Family Member Program. Enrollment may also be discussed with Ila's PCM.
5. Recommend Ila return to this clinic for a follow-up evaluation in one year or at her 5th birthday to determine need for further services."

So... what the heck is Phonological Processing Disorder? Google to the rescue!

"Developmental Phonological Disorders (also called "phonological impairments" or "phonological disorders") are a group of language disorders that affect children’s ability to develop easily understood speech by the time they are four years old, and, in some cases, their ability to learn to read and spell. Phonological disorders involve a difficulty in learning and organizing all the sounds needed for clear speech, reading and spelling. They are disorders that tend to run in families. Developmental phonological disorders may occur in conjunction with other communication disorders such as stuttering, specific language impairment, or childhood apraxia of speech.

Children with phonological impairments do not necessarily go on to experience literacy problems, but children who still have phonological disability in the form of speech errors (especially those at the severe end of the scale) when they start school, are very much at risk for difficulties learning to read and spell. This is one reason for wanting to treat them early, at three or four years of age. The other main reasons for treating children with phonological disorders early are that it can be frustrating, socially isolating, detrimental to self-esteem and confidence, and unpleasant generally, to have speech that is difficult to understand compared with the majority of children of similar age." http://speech-language-therapy.com/parentinfo.html

Apparently, my kid really does have a serious speech issue. And the fact that it could cause her literacy problems make me VERY happy that we're starting speech therapy as early as possible for this type of problem. We have our meeting with the preschool tomorrow and Tim is hoping to be able to come as well. We will be meeting with the Child Study Committee Chair, School Liason, School Counselor, School Social Worker, Regular Education Teacher, Special Education Teacher and Speech Pathologist. Whew! And don't worry, I will most definitely be blogging about our meeting as soon as I get a chance. Stay tuned!

Ila's Speech Evaluation

2011-09-06T12:27:00.000-04:00

Anyone who knows us and talks with Ila regularly knows that she has some trouble with her speech. To give you a brief history, she started talking a little late, but nothing completely abnormal. She began saying some one-syllable words around 18 months and by the age of 2, was starting to put some words together. Around 2.5 to 3 years old, we noticed her having trouble with some of her consonants, but figured it was a phase that she would probably grow out of. When she turned 3, she was very clearly leaving out some letter sounds. Take this phrase for example: "Mom, I want to coER with my marERs on some paER." Translation: "Mom, I want to color with my markers on some paper." Thankfully, that "ER" phase went away, but she still has a lot of trouble. At her 3-year appointment with her pediatrician, we were told that we definitely needed a speech evaluation but since we'd be moving a couple of months, we were probably better off waiting until after we were settled in our new place.

So, we FINALLY got our speech evaluation this morning at the Naval Medical Center. We had the very first appointment of the morning, so we went straight in with no waiting. Our speech pathologist was AWESOME. She was so nice and welcoming, and fantastic with Ila. Ila wasn't very excited about going, but once she got to color and realized she would be able to show off and play games, she warmed right up. The pathologist had me fill out some paperwork and asked me some general questions before evaluating Ila. I *tried* to read my book and not pay any attention, but it's kind of hard when your child is right there, performing. :) Ila was asked to look at a lot of different pictures and identify the images. Then, she had to make a lot of motions with her mouth and some funny noises too. The speech pathologist kept saying how impressed she was that Ila knew so much at just 3.5 years old. I couldn't have been more proud! Every parent sees their child as a brilliant and witty little being and it made my heart warm to hear those words come from someone else. Ila talked with the pathologist like she'd known her for years and her outgoing, sociable personality was just shining through the entire time.

So... now the report. Bear with me because it might be lengthy.

Ila's oral motor skills are not that great. The pathologist said that her lip and tongue muscles are weak (which totally explains her weird smiles!) and contribute to her trouble with letter sounds. She noted that, while Ila was playing on the floor, she had her knees tucked under her with her legs out to each side (kind of like the letter M) and that she may just be a kid that's very flexible and loose. She may have a natural disposition to be that way, and her mouth muscles are not any different. So, oral motor exercises will be important to help her.

She has a HUGE vocabulary and "is already in the pre-literacy, if not literacy stage of development." Proud mama over here! Anyway... she says a lot of words that have sounds she can't pronounce, but at the same time, there are some sounds that 3 year olds simply shouldn't be able to say yet. Those are of no concern. But, she does have a lot of trouble with sounds that she should have mastered thus far. The pathologist said that if we were parents who had waited until Kindergarten to seek help, her trouble could have greatly hindered her potential to read and spell - especially since she's already doing so well with language and reading.

By age 3, a child should be able to make the sounds of letters h, w, m, n, b, p, and f. Ila has a habit of switching up, or replacing the ones that give her trouble, with other sounds that are similar and thus make her words better understood by others. Example: "Cookie" with "Tookie." When the pathologist worked on sounds independent of one another, rather than paired with something else ("puh" sound independently vs. "puh-tuh"), Ila was able to pick up on it really quickly which is promising for her ability to master all of the sounds. However, putting those same sounds together just proves a little tricky for her. Apparently, part of her problem is also that she has such a great vocabulary and so much to say, that she jumbles up her words because she's talking so fast. The pathologist said she could already tell that one of the hardest things about speech therapy for Ila will be having to slooooow down her speech.

The pathologist will be writing up a report to send to Tim and I, along with our primary care provider and the school system that will be working with Ila. She explained the scores to me and I will try to explain them to you as well.

Standard score: 78
This is Ila's overall testing score. It's higher than the pathologist thought it would be because Ila is so expressive and knows so many words. However, the pathologist assumed it would come in lower because of Ila's trouble with speech.

Percentile: 14th
Ouch. As most of you know, this means that Ila did better than only 14 kids out of 100.

Test Age Equivalent: < 2 years old
Double Ouch. The pathologist explained that she really doesn't like this score because it is often not very representative of the child's overall development and it often scares parents. She said Ila was very bright and was ahead of most 3 year olds in some areas. It's simply her ability to make some sounds that puts her test age down so far. Apparently, this will be a good thing, however, because it will help to get Ila into speech therapy more quickly.

Where do we go from here? Well, I have to contact the local elementary school and give them her testing information. They will then get her involved with the preschool and speech therapy. I am really quite excited about this because Ila is dying to go to school. We have chosen not to enroll her in preschool because we just can't justify spending the money when I'm staying home with the girls. Depending on what the school thinks she needs, however, may mean that she gets to go to preschool afterall. The pathologist will also be sending a report to our PCP and I am supposed to contact them at the end of the week. We will then be able to get private speech therapy through Tricare (our Navy health insurance) and she will be enrolled in the Exceptional Family Member Program. With her in that program, the Navy will guarantee us that we'll never be asked to move somewhere where the appropriate services would not be available for Ila (how awesome is that?!).

The speech pathologist assured me that Ila was so smart that she would probably pick up on new sounds very quickly and we'd see a lot of improvement in a short amount of time. She thought that preschool would be a wonderful thing for Ila, not only for the speech therapy, but just for social interaction because Ila was such an outgoing kid. I couldn't be happier with how the evaluation went and I'm very excited about getting everything set up for Ila. She is such a witty, talkative, funny kid and I hate that people around her can't understand her all the time. Speech therapy is going to make a world of difference for her and I'm sure she'll make a difference in the world as she begins talking more clearly. (Corny, but totally true!)

Irene was NOT a home-wrecker.

2011-09-01T21:21:00.000-04:00

Thank goodness Irene had a lot more bark than her bite. Now don't get me wrong, she was definitely a rough storm. There were several people killed - including two children - by falling trees, there was some major flooding, and almost 900,000 people lost power in NC and VA alone. Thankfully, though, most places made it through the storm fine. Tim worked until 10:00pm Friday night and went home to sleep in our bed before going back to the hospital on Saturday morning and riding out the storm. The next morning, Hurricane Irene made her way closer to Hampton Roads and the Naval Medical Center Portsmouth (and a whole lot more places) lost power around 10am. Luckily, the hospital was up and running on generators really quickly. The hospital was right on the river across from Norfolk, so Tim had a good view of the weather moving in. He took these pictures while in the Emergency Waiting Room:

Norfolk is across the river and usually is completely visible.

During Hurricane Isabel a few years ago, the first floor of the hospital flooded because the hospital is located RIGHT on the river. This time around, they were prepared.

From Tim's position in the hospital, he didn't think the Hurricane was that awful. He said the wind did get pretty fierce at some times, but he was never worried about his safety or anything. The next morning, he was able to go back to our house and check on everything. We knew that most of the area was without power, but we were really concerned about flooding. Because the storm stalled for an hour or so, the tidal flooding estimates went up higher than expected. Thankfully, our house - nor our neighborhood - was under water. We did lose power, however. And there were quite a few limbs down in the yard. Tim snapped some pictures and sent them to me so that I could be reassured that I'd have a home to come back to.

Our street

My driveway and front yard

Our deck behind the house. It looks like that big limb is ON the deck, but it actually missed it.

THIS is what we were pretty worried about. It's normally a mosquito-infested pile of mud, but apparently, it floods pretty badly. It got within about 20 feet from the house.

The girls and I stayed in Strasburg until Monday evening and we made it back to our house around 9:20 Monday night. Thankfully the weather was wonderful because we still didn't have power. Our electricity didn't come back on until around 10:00am on Wednesday morning. Apparently, our neighborhood was one of the last in the area to get service. I was REALLY thankful to get my washing machine and refrigerator back (don't ask me how much food I had to throw out), but honestly, not having the TV or computer was kinda nice. The girls played SO well on Tuesday. Ila only asked to watch TV once the entire day, they played with a gazillion toys, and I got a lot of cleaning done! When Tim got home from work that night, we had dinner around the table (which we usually do anyway), then did a giant puzzle on the floor with Ila, and took a family walk around the neighborhood before putting the girls to bed. It was just... nice.

So... we probably could have weathered Irene at our house, but since the power was out so long, I'm glad that the girls and I were staying with family for a couple of days. Hopefully that was the only hurricane we'll deal with this season, but there's apparently another storm brewing the Atlantic - Hurricane Katia - that we've got to keep an eye on. Oh boy.

Greetings from Strasburg!

2011-08-27T08:51:00.000-04:00

I will be honest. I was excited about a hurricane coming to Hampton Roads. When I found out we were moving to the Coast, I told lots of people, "Wouldn't it be awesome to ride out a hurricane?!" Unfortunately, I have kids. And being a storm-chaser AND a mom don't mix well. Darn kids.

Originally, Hurricane Irene was supposed to brush the Outer Banks in NC and then just follow the Eastern shoreline, but then forecasters changed her path to make landfall in Atlantic City, NC and then head straight up and over Hampton Roads. Even after the change in path, we were preparing to ride the storm out. We had flashlights, batteries, 9 gallons+ of water, diapers, toilet paper, and lots of non-perishable food to last a few days if need be. We were told to expect around 3 days without power and honestly, I thought it might do my kids some good to go without TV for three days.

Then, on Thursday evening, the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth started ordering voluntary evacuations for people living in low-lying areas and flood zones. Since we're new to the area, we had no idea what kind of area we live in, so we looked up some storm surge maps online.

In the map above, we live in the circled area. Our neighborhood is located on one of the inlets of the river. Unfortunately, that makes us Category 1 hurricane flood zones. Not cool. Our house is not directly on the water and we have a raised foundation. Tim and I talked about the possibility of flooding, but overall, felt pretty good about our house being safe from flood waters based on the estimated storm surge from the hurricane (about 7 feet). We watched the late-night news to make sure the evacuations hadn't change and then went to bed, still planning to ride it out.

Tim went in to work the next morning at 7:00 and as I sat with the girls watching the morning news, my phone rang at 7:30. Tim had been talking to people at the hospital and had decided that he wanted me and the girls to evacuate. He was concerned about not being able to get back home and ride out the storm with us. Apparently, during hurricane Isabel a few years ago, the entire first floor of the hospital was flooded and water at the hospital gates made it impossible for people to get in or out. Tim was supposed to get off of work at 10pm Friday night, but by that point, they expected us to be getting heavy rain. Then, it was quite possible that even if Tim was able to be at home with us, he would get called back to the hospital if they needed extra personnel. The worst concern, however, was about our neighborhood. A doctor working with Tim lives in our neighborhood and told him that when hurricane Isabel hit, our neighborhood was cut off by flood waters - no one in or out - for four days and had no electricity for eight days. It was that information that made Tim change his mind about evacuating. As much as I didn't want to leave, the thought of being trapped in my house for days without electricity and two young children was enough to change my mind.

I packed up our things and got on the road at 9am. With Tim working late that night, we had to leave him behind. Needless to say, I was not in a great mood yesterday. I had to leave my husband behind for Irene the homewrecker. I had to leave my home, all of my things, hoping that it would all be fine. I had to leave not knowing when I'd be able to come back and selfishly, I had to run away from the hurricane that I kinda wanted to see. I hate not being with my home and being able to know what's going on. It's just a lot of unknowns.

Thankfully, though, we had some family to go stay with. Ila was already getting nervous about the hurricane because of things she was seeing on tv. She was sad to leave her house, but was super excited about having a swimming pool where we're staying. (Unfortunately, we are getting rain from the hurricane today, so swimming is out.) Tim is going to stay at the hospital all weekend so that he can help if needed, and he can have running water, electricity and food if the hurricane really messes things up. Depending on when the hurricane moves out of the area, he's going to try to go by the house Sunday night and see if 1) he can even get to the house, and 2) if there's been any damage done. The forecasters have really been painting a bleak picture and I've already thought about what we'd do if our house had major damage. It's a little scary to think about, but at least I know my family will be safe. If I hear any updates from my husband, I'll be sure to post them. Stay tuned!

We Evacuated

2011-08-26T22:19:00.001-04:00

Hurricane Irene is coming and while we initially planned to hunker down and ride it out, we made a last-minute decision to evacuate and stay with family in Strasburg, VA. And when I say "we," I mean myself and the girls. Tim had to work until 10pm tonight and has decided to go back to the hospital for the duration of the worst weather tomorrow. I had a pretty crabby day - leaving your husband, possessions and home behind can kinda suck - so I'm not going to make a major blog post tonight. However, since my kids get up earlier than a rooster, I think I may try to write more in the morning. I will definitely try to keep the ol' blog updated as the storm moves through. I'm counting on Timothy to let me know what's going on from ground zero. For now, I'm headed to bed. Night folks!

Singing... er... Screaming in the Rain

2011-08-21T20:30:00.000-04:00

Ila has been asking for a while now to go out and play in the rain. She always says she has a great idea, and that we should put on rainboots and get umbrellas and stand in the rain. Unfortunately, it hasn't rained here in quite a while. Today, however... today it rained! The girls were in their witching hour - arguing over everything, yelling at each other, crying like a teenager that's going through puberty.... It was bad. So when those clouds opened up and that rain started pouring down, I grabbed some umbrellas and threw the girls out the door. Lorel freaking LOVED it. She pretty much just held the umbrella beside her inside of over her, but she didn't mind getting wet at all. I had to video tape her squeals to share with you. Toooo freaking cute.

And a few more videos and pictures to delight you.

This video is nothing special, but was taken on a family trip to Outdoor World. I've got two cute cowgirls. Lorel needs to work on her riding skills though....

Lorel LOVES dress-up. Check out her latest outfit. As Ila would say, "She's stywish!"

Me and my mini-me.

Ila loving her umbrella.

Struggles

2011-08-20T14:13:00.003-04:00

Does anyone else struggle with being a SAHM? I feel like it's a recurring battle I have with myself. I will have month-long periods where I feel like I've finally gotten into the swing of things - we've developed a daily routine, the girls have fun activities to do, and all of us are enjoying being together. Then, it seems like things will go downhill - our daily routine will fall apart, I will struggle to keep the girls engaged and entertained every day, tantrums will start getting the best of me, and I'll wonder if my girls would be better off in daycare.

I can't help but think that I'm the odd-mom-out. Things seem to fall into place so easily for other moms. Why is it so hard sometimes for me? I really feel like the best place for me - where I'm needed the most - is at home with my children. We're going to be moving a lot with my husband being in the military, so it makes it hard for me to use my Masters degree in Counseling and get a state license. I'm not really sure what I would do if I worked outside the home. And, besides daycare being expensive, I also want to stay at home because my kids are growing up quickly. When they start elementary school, they'll be in school 8 hours a day for most of the years they have left living at home. I see what my husband misses while at work every day and I don't want to miss all those little moments too.

OWL (hoot hoot!)

2011-08-15T09:55:00.003-04:00

We haven't been going to our church for very long (I mean, we only moved here June 1), but as many of you know, I kinda like to jump into things. So, when I saw an OWL training opportunity mentioned in our church newsletter, I didn't hesitate to find out more information. Before I talk about my fantastic opportunity to participate in OWL training, I want to explain exactly what "OWL" is for those of you who may not have heard about it.

"Our Whole Lives," or OWL, is a sex-ed curriculum that was developed by the Unitarian Universalist Church and United Churches of Christ. From The Unitarian Universalist Association's website:

"Our Whole Lives is a series of sexuality education curricula for six age groups: grades K-1, grades 4-6, grades 7-9, grades 10-12, young adults (ages 18-35), and adults. Our Whole Lives helps participants make informed and responsible decisions about their sexual health and behavior. It equips participants with accurate, age-appropriate information in six subject areas: human development, relationships, personal skills, sexual behavior, sexual health, and society and culture. Grounded in a holistic view of sexuality, Our Whole Lives not only provides facts about human anatomy and development, but also helps participants clarify their values, build interpersonal skills, and understand the spiritual, emotional, and social aspects of sexuality."

Sounds pretty awesome, right? Well I thought so too. I have a Master's degree in Marriage and Family therapy and have always some interest in sex and sexual education (I was a Slumber Parties consultant for two years too!), so this kind of training was right up my alley. I talked to our church's Director of Religious Education (a.k.a. our Sunday School director) and he said that if I wanted to to, the church would pay for my registration and even my lodging. The only problem was that my husband would be on-call during the training and wouldn't be able to watch my kids. I completely lucked out because training was being held in Richmond, VA, where one of my good friends is living! She graciously offered to watch my kids (along with her own two small ones) Friday-Sunday so that I could attend the training. We also stayed with her so that we wouldn't have any need for a hotel. It couldn't have worked out better.

Selfishly, I was excited that I would be attending the elementary-age training (grades K-1 and 4-6) because Ila is not too far from attending Kindergarten herself and she is already starting to ask interesting questions about her body. I arrived in Richmond on Friday evening and headed straight to training. My group was fairly small (8 people) and we bonded really quickly. Our trainers were AWESOME and had been teaching OWL classes for seven years. The focus of the training wasn't the curricula as much as it was the process of teaching. Obviously, teaching elementary-aged children is a little different than high-school-aged, but OWL puts a large emphasis on being facilitators rather than lecturers. It is important for us to present material in a clear and concise manor without a lot of influence from our own values. The values that build the foundation for OWL are simply Respect, Responsibility, and Relationship.

One of the most important aspects of the OWL classes, in my opinion, is the holistic view of sexuality. Check out the chart below to see what this view encompasses:

It makes me so appreciative that my children will be able to receive this kind of education. After attending the training, I'm going to be able to co-lead an OWL class at our church for grades 4-6 and I am soooooo excited about it! I can't think of a better way for me to contribute to our church community and I think that sexual education should be part of every church's responsibility. Churches are supposed to lead and influence our lives, right? What better way is there to do it than in the physical, emotional and spiritual development of its children?

A Tour of the Base

2011-08-07T19:56:00.000-04:00

Tim's parents are in town visiting and we decided it was a perfect opportunity to take a boat tour of the Naval Base. Tim made a reservation for the 11:00 cruise and we were hoping the girls would really like their first trip on a boat. Unfortunately, the girls were hungry, ready for a nap, and getting overheated. Needless to say, it wasn't exactly the BEST boat trip with kids. It was still pretty darn cool to see all the big ships at the base, however. Two Super Carriers - the USS Eisenhower and the USS Enterprise - were docked there and are some of the largest ships in the world. There is no way in hell I could remember the names or types of all the ships that we saw, but the pictures are pretty cool anyway. The size of some of them is just amazing and if you don't have two tired, hungry kids tagging along, it's a GREAT tour.

Ila thought the tour guide was too loud.

This ship was one of the ships that could deploy land/water vehicles straight off the back of the ship.

Me and my girl - and look! I'm tan!!

The USS Eisenhower - it could hold 4 football fields on top WITH room to spare.

The USS Enterprise - the other super carrier.

Huuuuuuuuuuge.

Look how tiny the two guys are that are standing on the edge.

At the tour boats dock, there were also 3 Japanese training ships that had come to visit. They were open for people to tour. Kinda cool.

Lorel's favorite place to ride. I think she enjoyed it more than the boat.

Oh, and if you're planning on coming to visit us here in Portsmouth, be warned that this is what will happen to you at 6:00 in the morning...

Some pictures from Portsmouth

2011-07-31T22:03:00.000-04:00

Sisters reading books together.

The special dinosaur lunch I made for Ila. She liked it at first, and then said, "Mom! We don't play with our food!"

Lorel's gotta do whatever her sister does.

First time on a carousel!

Ila sure was enjoying herself.

Ila had some fun with her markers....

Can't believe we live so close to the beach!

The girls love playing in the sand with their daddy.

Enjoying the pool at our new gym.

Thaaaat's my girl.

The girls playing their "fish game." The fish have magnets on them, along with both uppercase and lowercase letters of the alphabet. I give Ila a consonant or vowel sound and she fishes for the right letter. The first time we played this, she only got about 4 sounds wrong! I couldn't believe it! She LOVES this game.

We have started going on "breakfast walks" in the morning since my kids wake up at the butt-crack of dawn. They actually really like it, and so does Murray.

Here is our walk another morning with our shades on. Ila has started holding Murray's leash and likes to say that she's walking her dog. :)

I've begun incorporating some Montessori-type activities into our days and one of Ila's new-found favorites is flower arranging (it's a practical life activity). Don't you like her pretty bouquet?

Home Improvements

2011-07-30T12:35:00.000-04:00

Moving into a new house means that I have to figure out how to make the new house work for us. When we first moved in, we had two twin beds for the girls. The beds had a little bit of sentimental value because my sister and I had used them, but they took up quite a bit of space in the girls' room. We don't have a playroom in this house, so their room was packed full with their furniture AND toys. The idea of bunkbeds had been mentioned occasionally, but we hadn't really thought seriously about it... until our trip to IKEA. Ila loved IKEA's Kura bed (a reversible bed that can be used as a twin OR a bunk bed) and kept telling me she wanted a bed "with a ladder" for weeks after we went on that shopping trip. I decided to browse around on Craigslist and it wasn't long before I found a local seller with a Kura bed. Brand new, that bed is $200 plus mattresses and I got a great used one for $75 and two mattresses from Wal-mart. I also ordered a canopy for the top bunk off of ebay. The girls LOVE the new bed and I cannot believe how much more room they have to play. I was a little apprehensive about selling my old twin beds, but they just didn't work the best for our needs. It was totally worth it now that we see how much the girls enjoy their room.

I also needed some more color in our kitchen. The cabinets are a dark brown stain and the walls around the kitchen are painted Navy blue. I originally had a black wall decal above my stove, but I decided to switch it out for some wood letters I got at Michaels that I painted red. It's a nice pop of color right above my stove top where I spend a good amount of time.

One of my favorite additions to the house is the curtain I made for my kitchen window. I found some cute, colorful fabric at Jo-Anne that matched my red "EAT" letters and the navy blue walls. I just took some measurements, hemmed the edges and used clips to hang it from the cheapo curtain rod already installed. It cost me about $7 to make and makes a WORLD of difference. I opted to use clips instead of sewing tabs or a rod pocket because it was quick, easy, and... doesn't exceed my level of skill on the sewing machine. I'm still a beginner!

It even matches the blue pendant light above the sink!

I'm working on some other organization and decor projects around the house and

hope to have more updates soon!

All about Lorel

2011-07-23T21:29:00.000-04:00

Lorel is growing like a weed and I wanted to write down some of the little day-to-day developments before I forget all about them. So, here we go.

- She runs like Elvis, swinging her hips and twisting with every step.

- Her speech is AMAZING - far better than what Ila's was at that age, and in some ways, better than Ila's is even now. For instance, I put her in time-out yesterday for tearing a page from a book and when a minute had passed, I knelt in front of her and said, "Lorel, why did you have to go to time-out?" I never ask her that because she's still too young, but I guess it popped out of my mouth out of habit from putting Ila in time-out. Lorel looked up at me and said, "Cause, I hurt book." My mouth dropped open! I couldn't believe that she understood what I was asking her AND put it into words!

- Lorel is already pretend-playing. I guess she's been exposed to it a lot from her big sister, but it's still hard to believe how imaginative she is at such a young age. One of her favorite things to do is make "cupcakes" out of legos and then pretend to eat them while saying, "Yum, yum, yum!"

- She ADORES her sister. Lorel wakes up SUPER early every morning, so when Ila finally gets up, Lorel yells, "ILA!!!!" and runs for her to give her a big bear hug and kiss. When Lorel wakes up from her nap, she does the same thing then too.

- While riding in the car, Lorel almost always sticks her hand out to the side and says, "Hand!" She wants Ila to hold her hand while they ride and most of the time, Ila is happy to oblige.

- Lorel is also quite the singer. She loves to copy me and how I sing and can sing most of the songs that are in our repertoire.

Lorel's gonna be two years old in November. It's hard to believe. It's especially hard because it seems like she's flying through her toddler years much faster than Ila ever did. I guess that's how it goes though. They always say the second one grows up faster than the first....

Excuse me? FIVE YEARS?!

2011-07-22T18:30:00.000-04:00

Let me present the first 5 years of our marriage in five simple pictures.

YEAR ONE.

YEAR TWO.

YEAR THREE.

YEAR FOUR.

YEAR FIVE.

I think our fourth year of marriage is the only year in which nothing MAJOR happened. We got married in 2006, graduated college in 2007, had Ila in 2008, had Lorel in 2009 and also got a masters degree in 2009, kept ourselves from having another baby or doing anything drastic in 2010, and got Tim to the end of medical school in 2011. Whew. Is anyone else tired?

When I was dancing with Tim on my wedding night, I would have died laughing had someone told me that before my 5-year anniversary, I'd have two kids, have a sailor/doctor husband, and have a master's degree. But life never goes the way you think it will and you just have to go with the flow. My daughters are amazing little beings, and my husband and I have only grown closer because of everything we've been through in such a short amount of time. Makes me wonder what the heck life has in store for us in the NEXT five years....

I love you husband! Happy 5th Anniversary!!

Life with a Transitional Intern and Lieutenant in the US Navy

2011-07-20T21:42:00.001-04:00

It's kinda like having a baby. Labor hurts like hell, but you know that, eventually, something good is coming out.

The "something good" at the end of Internship year is more time with family and a pay increase (woot!), but the actual Internship year is supposed to be so painful that you'll want an epidural. So, I thought I'd update you on how the year has started for us. Tim is doing a transitional year which basically means that he is going to do a little bit of everything. His first rotation is Emergency Medicine and he's been at it for almost three weeks now. He seems to like most everything about the rotation - minus one thing: the damage its doing to his circadian rhythm. He will have a couple of night shifts, then back to days, then back to night, then a few days, then a night in-between. And let me tell you, a tired husband is a cranky husband (even worse than normal!). If he's not at home sleeping, he's trying to study for Step 3 (Part 3 of his board examinations). Because he's got to devote so much time studying for his test in September, and because his sleep schedule is so messed up, I am left taking care of just about everything else in our lives.

To be perfectly honest, I'm somewhat used to it. The last two years of medical school were composed of various rotations, some of which kept Tim away from home and/or studying all the time. It's hard to be here by myself sometimes, and most days, I feel like I'm running from one thing to next, sun-up to sun-down. Unlike our last city, however, I have already started building a good support-system after only being here one month. We have found a Unitarian, super-liberal, hippie-loving church, I've joined the YMCA so I can exercise and the girls get some childcare, I've joined a local MOMS group, and I joined the Oakleaf club (a club for spouses of the US Naval Medical Corps).

I know that there are going to be some difficult times ahead. There will be times that Tim will have to be gone (like, Combat Training in December), times when he has hard, demanding rotations, and times when the girls have driven me nuts all day and Tim doesn't get home until late at night. However, this is where we are right now. Tim has chosen a profession that asks a lot of him and to get where we want in life, we've got to go through whatever bumps there are along the way. I've always wanted a career and family and though they say you can have both, for me, it doesn't seem like I can have both at the same time. I'm okay with that. I already feel like being a mother, wife, and partner is a full-time job and I can't imagine being able give my best if I also had a full-time job outside the home. Besides, my husband's career is also my career and it takes both of us working hard to succeed. At some point, I won't be needed as much in the home - my girls will be in school most of the day and Tim will be working normal hours and a normal job (no more "bottom rung on the ladder") - and I will be able to focus on my own profession. You just gotta go with the flow.

Okay. I am done being all sentimental and philosophical. All in all, I'm just trying to enjoy life no matter what stage it's in and how hard it gets.

One Month in One Post

2011-07-16T22:15:00.000-04:00

Oy vey. I can't believe I've let the blog go this long. In my defense, my computer is dying on me and chooses when it wants to read my SD card from my camera. What about my camera USB cord, you ask? Well, it's lost. A victim of the move. It seems like every time I sat down to add some photos and write a blog post, my computer didn't want to give up the pictures. So, time went on... and on... and on. And now I've got almost a whole month to update you about. Might as well get started....

I've been trying to find some educational/preschool-y things for the girls to do and a big hit around here has been the alphabet board I made. We were learning about dinosaurs at the time, so I made dinosaur ABC cards and put card holders for each letter of the alphabet on a tri-fold poster board. The girls are supposed to match a card with with the right letter and put the card in the holder. Not only does Ila love the game, but Lorel freaking adores it. She actually likes it so much that when all the cards have been matched, she gets mad that there aren't any more left. The only problem is that Lorel is not at all gentle with the card holders and some of them are about to fall off. I've got to find some sort of solution because we're definitely keeping the board around. I'm going to make all sorts of ABC cards for whatever we're studying at the time - the beach, outer space, the body, etc.

Yes, that would be Ila doing a happy dance because she matched a card.

We have been lucky enough to have moved only 1.5 hours away from one of my best friends, Stephanie and her daughter - Ila's best friend - Lara even though BOTH of our families relocated for residency. And Stephanie was lucky enough to move only 1.5 hours from an IKEA store (my love!). So... the girls and I took a road trip to visit our best friends and introduce them to one of the best stores ever! We really didn't do anything fancy besides driving to IKEA (which took WAY too long because we didn't realize we were traveling in July 4th traffic), but I think those are the best visits anyway. We just hung around and enjoyed our friends. :)

The girls eating lunch at IKEA (super cheap and super good). They love each other so much it makes my heart feel all warm and squishy. (Actually... it probably really does feel warm and squishy... note to self: ask hubby what a heart feels like).

Ila is actually smiling! And she doesn't look weird! If only Lorel had been looking....

Now this is more like it. Ila is all cute and sly; Lorel is a wild child (and cute too!)

The bunk bed from IKEA that I've always thought was cool, but Ila now loves it and wants one! Woo!

We had our first visitor since moving to Portsmouth... MY MOMMA! Four days was definitely not long enough, but we enjoyed the time we had together. I'm sure her favorite part was when my kids woke her up every morning at the butt-crack of dawn. Anyway... we went sight-seeing while she was here and drove about an hour up to Colonial Williamsburg. The kids weren't too keen on guided tours and old buildings, so I think it might have been better had we been a childless group. Nonetheless, it was a cool place to visit. After we left Williamsburg, we went to Historic Jamestown and Jamestown Settlement. We basically just poked around the gift shops because we didn't want to spend more money on guided tours and Tim was driving around with the girls asleep in the car. We headed back home and stopped in Virginia Beach for genuwine seafood (that was said with a southern accent - I'm not that bad at spelling!) at Bubba's. Mom and I got lobster that was TO.DIE.FOR - seriously, I could have killed my shellfish-allergy-harboring husband.

Reenactors!

The view from the lawn of the Governor's Palace.

The George Wythe House - he taught law to Thomas Jefferson and the house was used by George Washington during the Revolution.

Yes, that would be my daughter walking up the same stairs that George Wythe, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington once used.

Ila running through a maze behind the Governor's Palace.

Lorel passed out as we were leaving

Mom and I eating at Bubba's

Though he was not a pigeon, I wish Rousle had been here to save me from this food-stealing bird.

I promise to stay on top of the blog and not get so behind again. Hopefully I will either find my computer cord OR get a new laptop. I have to convince the hubby though... a friend suggested that I make Tim angry and make sure my laptop is nearby when he goes to throw something. Then, he'd HAVE to get me a new one. Pretty good idea, huh?

Fun in the Sun

2011-06-21T21:57:00.002-04:00

Ila and Lorel have been LOVING their new backyard. Ila tells everyone (cashiers at Wal-mart, old ladies at the grocery store, the librarian, some random dude at Chik-fil-A) about her new house and her new "playdround!" We've got a nice big deck, a swingset with what Ila call her "treehouse," a ladder, rock wall, slide and a sandbox underneath. There is also a big shade tree right beside the deck with a swing hanging on it and that is Ila's favorite because she like to spin in the swing. Lorel has developed an obsession with the swing. She would swing for two hour if you let her. Ask her if she's ready to get off and her answer is repeatedly, "No!"

See how happy she is in that swing?!

We been having a dinosaur-themed month here at the Brooks house and one of our more recent activities was giving the dinosaurs a bath. It was a HIT with both the girls, but particularly Ila because she's OCD like her momma. Lorel just liked putting her washcloth in the water and then on her head while Ila meticulously washed each dinosaur and then set them out to dry on the deck.

I told her to smile... who could not love that kid?!

Check Out the Crib!

2011-06-21T21:51:00.000-04:00

So, it's finally time to show you some pictures of our new rental home. I haven't just been procrastinating - my computer decided to stop reading my SD card and I'm unable to find the cord to my camera. So, I'm stuck using the hubby's computer. Ugh.

Anyway... Welcome to the tour! It' gonna be a long post because I'm including pictures of the house before we moved in. Enjoy!

Living Room BEFORE

Living Room AFTER

Wall with fireplace separating living room and den/dining room/kitchen

Horribly fuzzy picture of den/dining room/kitchen BEFORE

Den/dining room/kitchen AFTER

I was going to donate the girls' old colorful rug, but we REALLY like using it in here.

Girls' bathroom BEFORE (and yes, that's Lorel - we were visiting the house to check it out)

Another BEFORE

The girls' bathroom AFTER (I made Ila's old IKEA duvet - the one we were using before TWO twin beds - into their shower curtain because I loved it so much!

The girls' bedroom BEFORE (Ila was super excited about a purple room)

Another BEFORE (Ila was playing with our landlord's kids)

Another BEFORE (It took Ila a long time to understand that the little girls and their toys DID NOT come with our new house....)

The girls' room AFTER

Their toys look SUPER cluttered, but I swear it's not that bad in person!

The girl's closet BEFORE. (I was worried.)

The girls' closet. It's a bit smaller than our last one, but we made it work. For one thing, I don't keep much more than a week or two's worth of clothes for each of them.

The only way I could figure to sort and store their shoes.

The master BEFORE

Another BEFORE

The master AFTER. I'd like to get some new curtains for the big window to the left of the bed and I think I'm going to make my own headboard at some point....

See that uniform hanging on the closet? That's TIM'S closet. Yep, the big one.

Another view of our master. ...Wait? What's that small white door behind the wooden door?

That would be MY closet. The tiny one. I guess I'll work on being a minimalist.

The master bath BEFORE. It was SMALL.

The master bathroom AFTER. Despite the loss of space compared to our last one, it is working well for us.

You might notice that there weren't any pictures of our kitchen, garage or guest room.... The guest room is still a work-in-progress so I'll post pictures of it when it's not so scary. The kitchen hasn't really changed at all, so it still looks like this (for the most part):

And the garage is... well... the garage. In some ways, the house is smaller than our last one but in some ways, it's bigger (better closets!) and we LOVE LOVE LOVE that it's all one level. We're settling in and we couldn't be happier with where we are. Thanks for popping in!

Sand was in My Belly-Button

2011-06-08T13:09:00.002-04:00

We had yet to go to the beach since moving here and I wasn't about to trek down there with the girls all by myself. Lucky for me, some of our friends from Clarksville happened to come into town for a conference the last few days. Nicole called me said that if I was going to the beach with the girls, she'd be happy to come along and help with them. I jumped at the chance for some extra hands, sand, and sun. True to fashion, however, my beach trip was anything but relaxing. (When will I learn??)

The first mishap of the day was while I was putting sunscreen on the girls before we left. Everything was going well until I thought that maybe I had gotten the sunscreen too close to Lorel's eyes. Next thing I know, she was rubbing her hand (which had JUST been slathered in sunscreen) on her eyes. "Uh oh..." I thought to myself. Sure enough, I sat there for a second and watched as she looked like a 90-year old near-sighted librarian trying to watch Dora on tv. Her eyes were just overflowing with tears and I wasn't sure what to do. I tired to use a cloth and wipe her eyes and besides not being able to see, she didn't seem to be in any pain. I walked into the kitchen and a couple of minutes later, Lorel came in, crying, and saying, "Eyes! Eyes!" I knew it wasn't about to go over very well, but I held her up, put her head under the faucet and turned on the water (on low pressure!) to try to rinse her eyes. She must have thought I was drowning her. She seemed a lot better after I dried her off, but by the time we picked up Nicole at her hotel, Lorel looked like a crack baby. Her eyes were all blood-shot and puffy and she had red splotches covering her forehead. I was afraid that I had not only blinded my baby, but that she was going to have a horrible allergic reaction to the sunscreen on top of everything else. I texted Dr. Husband and he said she'd be fine and just to wait it out. Thankfully, her eyes got better and the splotches went away. And because she can still spot me a mile away and attach to my leg like velcro, I think her sight is juuuust fine.

Our drive to the beach didn't go much better either. Nicole and I drove across half of Virginia trying to find the beach after we took a wrong turn. What should have been a 15 minute trip, ended up taking about an hour. When we finally got there, we found a parking spot and scraped up some change to put in the meter. I think it was the most expensive meter I've ever seen in my life. I probably put around $3.00-$3.50 in that thing and it only got us 1.5 hours. While I was putting coins in, Ila asked, "Mom, what is that?" and I simply answered, "This is something that people use to take your money." She didn't seem to like the meter after that.

After making a quick potty break, we walked on down to the beach and set up our spot with our towels. The first thing I wanted to do was feed the girls some lunch before they got too sandy. I turned around to get our food out of our cooler and when I looked back at the towel, the girls already had sand all over it. I tried to clear it off and the girls sat down to eat. Lorel kept throwing pieces of food into the sand and then wondered why her mom was grabbing it out of her hand before she could put the food back in her mouth. They hardly ate anything before Ila wanted to play in the sand and Lorel wanted to ~~play in the sand~~ sit in my lap.

Unfortunately, it was 90 degrees that day and Ila wouldn't stand in more than two small spots because she said the sand was too hot. Since it was so hot, I thought it might be good to walk Ila down to the water and let her see the waves and put her feet in. She. Was. Terrified. She wouldn't go near the waves and was willing to stand in burning hot sand to avoid the water. I tried to carry her and let her put her feet in, but the second the water touched her, she started crying and holding up her legs. It was an epic failure. So, we were back to the towels and the molten lava sand.

Ila was pretty content to sit and play while Lorel, myself, and Nicole just sat on the towels and soaked up the sun. Lorel finally started playing the sand, but that ended up being not-so-good for me and Nicole. The ONLY thing Lorel wanted to do was stick her shovel in the ground and then quickly pull it up, tossing sand in the air. She was standing right in front of us, and because we were so sticky with sweat, we were covered in sand in just a couple of minutes. It was so bad that I started chewing on sand. After a sand lunch and sand bath, we were ready to go home. I asked Ila if she was ready to leave (knowing that she'd protest this awesomely-giant sandbox) and she said, "Yeah... I'm ready to go." What?! We knew she had to be hot to actually WANT to leave.

We tried to rinse ourselves off at one of those little shower-areas before getting in the car because the girls legs looked like they had been paper-mached in sand. Of course, after I rinsed off Lorel and was rinsing Ila, I turned around to Lorel throwing wet sand all over her and I had to rinse her again. Typical. We stopped at Sonic to get ourselves some lunch (we got meals for the girls since they had hardly eaten the other food and they scarfed it down) and while waiting for our food, I took Ila to the bathroom. I happened to glance at the mirror and was in shock at my appearance. I looked like I had brought half of the beach home with me! I had sand in places I didn't know I had! It was all over my chest, my stomach, and even in my belly-button. I looked niiiiiice. And what's worse, when Ila bent over so I could wipe her, I couldn't even see her butt-crack because it was so covered in sand. Poor kid.

At least the beach tired out out the kids because they slept for almost 3 hours when we got home. I don't think my girls are beach lovers just yet, so we'll stick to our backyard pool for now. The girls can play in the water, I can lay out on the deck and we don't have to deal with sand everywhere. Thank god.

We Made It and We've Settled In!

2011-06-06T21:11:00.000-04:00

Oh boy. We will NEVER move ourselves again when the Navy offered to it. HUGE thanks to the Waldrop family who watched both of our girls on the morning we loaded our truck. We got the moving van loaded and hit the road by 1:00pm. Tim and Murray took the truck and I had both the girls with me. The girls did exceptionally well in the car, sleeping for about the half the time. We stopped in Charlottesville, VA (about 2.5 hours from our final destination) and spent the night in a hotel. We decided to split up the trip because we didn't want the girls to have to be in the car for 7 hours and we REALLY didn't want to have to unload that truck after 7 hours in the car. We were on the road at 7:45am the next morning and were excited to get to our new place, unload the truck and get the girls' beds out in time to get them down for a nap that afternoon. That was the plan anyway....

Two hours before we even hit it, there had been a multiple-car accident on the interstate that morning. What should have been a 2.5 drive, ended up taking two EXTRA hours! Thank the sweet lord that I had bought a 198 minute Dora dvd because that sucker played the entire time and the girls didn't even seem to notice how long we were stuck in traffic. When we DID finally get the house, Lorel was ready for her nap and they hadn't even had lunch yet. And even worse, Lorel couldn't take a nap because it was up to just Tim and myself to unload everything on the truck. Lorel definitely had some crying spells, but for the most part, the girls did really well despite being in a new place with mom and dad constantly carrying things in and out. By 5:00pm, the girls were beat and we ALL slept good that night. Oh, and I forgot to mention that we moved on the hottest day of the year thus far - 95 degrees. Tim just kept muttering, "Never again..." and we will GLADLY let the Navy pack up and ship all our things the next time we move.

After just two days, we had everything unpacked and we only have a few more things to hang up and put in their place. We weren't sure how Ila would handle everything and though she seemed to be doing well, she started crying the second night we were here. I could hardly understand her because she was crying so hard and finally, I realized she was saying, "But mom, we have to go back to our old house!" I tried to explain to her that we couldn't go back because Daddy had a new job; we can't let Daddy go somewhere without us; we moved all of her toys and her bed to the new house with us; and most importantly, that a house is just walls and windows but her family is her home. For another day or so, she still had times where she got really sad and asked to go back to her "house made of bricks" (this one is brick too, however) and you can tell Tim never took any Child Psychology classes because he answered her once by saying, "Someone else lives there now." Ila definitely ugly cried after that line.

Now that we've been here for a few days, I'm really beginning to feel more at home. We REALLY like our house - despite the navy-colored den with brown carpet - and absolutely LOVE our neighborhood, and the girls have really enjoyed playing in their backyard with a swing-set. We live pretty close to everything we need and Tim is only a 5 mile drive from the Naval Hospital. We went to the Unitarian church on Sunday and loved it and I even went a got a library card at the library that's not 1 full mile from my house. Yep, I think this place is gonna be good.

I will be posting some pictures of the house at some point, but not until I feel like it's completely done. Hmm... actually, I'll probably do it anyway. Who am I kidding?

Our Last Night in JC

2011-05-30T21:46:00.000-04:00

I can't believe that tonight is our last night in Tennessee. We've been in Clarksville for the past 2 weeks and just got back home last evening. We had yesterday evening and today to pack before we load up everything in a moving truck tomorrow and hit the road. Luckily, Tim had already packed the basement room and garage before we even left for Clarksville so all we had left to do was the upstairs - which consisted of the bedrooms, playroom, bathrooms, kitchen and living room. Over the last few months, I had gone through every room, closet and drawer, getting rid of anything that we didn't need anymore or didn't use. I'm SO glad I did it a while ago because it really decreased the amount of things we had to pack. Almost every single one of our friends in JC have already moved so we didn't think we'd have any help packing today. However, one of my old college buddies drove 1.5 hours with her 2 year old daughter to help us wrangle our kids and pitch in where she could. I CANNOT thank her enough. We were able to pack the entire house before dinner rolled around!

We still have a few odds and ends to pack up (our overnight bags for the hotel half-way through our trip tomorrow, toiletries, cold food, etc) but everything is ready to go. Tim is going to go pick up our truck first thing in the morning, my best friend Stephanie is keeping the girls, and her husband is going to help Tim and I pack everything in the truck. We're going to drive at least half-way before stopping to spend the night in a hotel and then we'll only have a short amount of time to drive the next morning before getting to our new place.

Lorel is still too small to know what is going on, but Ila is doing remarkably well. She packed a few toys in a box by herself last night and asked me all day today if we were going to pack the rest of her toys and take them to her new house. She seems to be really excited about her new purple room and backyard (with a "playdround!") and the only thing I'm really worried about her having trouble with is leaving her friend Lara. Those two fight like cats and dogs when they are attempting to share and play together, but they absolutely adore each other. Ila calls Lara her best friend and asks to go see her all the time - even when we're out of town. Lara is moving about 1.5 hours from our new house so we're hoping we can get in a couple of visits every now and then. We also are blessed to live in the age of Skype, so maybe they'll get to chat often.

We've experienced in a lot of things in Johnson City - the birth of our two babies, my graduation, Tim's graduation - but, I have to admit, I'm looking forward to a new start. Tim is finally going to be a doctor, not just a student anymore. We're going to be meeting other Navy families and hopefully, finding a good group of friends that are also married with kids (something we have not been privy to in our current locale). I really have no idea what to expect in the next year, but I'm completely optimistic that it's going to be good.

Graduations and Celebrations

2011-05-26T11:37:00.001-04:00

I have slacked a little bit in writing about our whirlwind weekend we just had, but I'm finally getting to it. A huge, momentous occasion in my family was my sister's graduation from high school on Friday evening. Sarah was diagnosed at the age of 6 with Pervasive Developmental Disorder - Not Otherwise Specified and has always kinda been lumped in on the autism spectrum. We weren't ever really sure what she would be able to learn and accomplish and she stayed in school until she was 21 so that she could work on passing her exit exams and earn her diploma. It's been a long, hard road for all of us, but she stuck it through till the end.

My dad planned a graduation party for a couple of hours before her graduation ceremony and we got to see my parents, my grandparents, and some family friends. The graduation ceremony was supposed to start at 7:00pm and since that's usually when we put our kids to bed, we knew we were taking a gamble when it came to their behavior. Thank god my dad decided to have a graduation party before the graduation because when we arrived at the ceremony site, we knew we were committing parental suicide. The ceremony was being held at Middle TN State University's basketball stadium, there were a couple thousand people there AND the graduating class included 480 students! We tried sitting in the bleachers with the girls and while Ila did okay, Lorel was a mess like usual. She was crawling over everyone and wouldn't sit still for anything. I knew I was going to either be fighting with the girls in the bleachers the whole time or missing the ceremony entirely by taking the girls outside the stadium to run around. It took about 15 minutes for all of the students to walk in and be seated and during the time, Lorel hit her limit. She started crying, rubbing her eyes, and laying her head on her daddy. I apologized to my dad and told him we were just gonna have to leave. There would be NO way the girls would last another 1.5-2 hours. I hated not to see Sarah walk the stage or get pictures with her wearing her cap and gown, but I was at least glad that we could be in town to celebrate with her for a little while. Both of the girls fell asleep for most of the car ride and passed out when we laid them in bed.

My sister and mom

My grandparents (dad's side)

My aunt and cousin

Both of my kids absolutely adore my dad, who they call "Day"

I think this picture has so much love in it

My dad and his girlfriend, Reina, with the graduate

Both of my sisters with dad

BEST. PICTURE. EVER.

Try not to pay too much attention to the fact that Ila is pulling a Britney Spears

My sister and grandmother

Look at me trying to wrangle two kids in these bleachers. NO WAY it was gonna happen.

My $2 fan that I bought from World Market has come in handy many times!

WE ARE SO PROUD OF YOU SARAH!

On Saturday, we headed down to Nashville to go to a wedding for one of our closest friends. I posted about that a few days, so we'll move on to Sunday.

Sunday evening, Tim and Donna's neighbors (Debbie & Roger) threw us a graduation/going-away/birthday party at their house across the street. They have a beautiful house, awesome pool, and horses that Ila loves to go feed. They invited a lot of friends in Clarksville and told us to invite anyone we wanted. My dad and Reina came up and a couple of my college friends from Nashville drove up too. Debbie and Roger fixed a ton of good food and even had cake for my birthday. Before we started eating, Debbie called everyone together and made a speech about how proud they were of Timothy graduating from medical school. Most meaningful to me, Debbie also talked about how the graduation party was for me as well because I had worked "behind the scenes" to get Timothy through school. Everyone also sang "Happy Birthday" to me because I was turning 26 (gulp) the next day. Not only did Debbie and Roger go above and beyond for us, they gave Timothy some graduation money and gave me some money for my birthday. We also collected graduation and birthday cards from a multitude of people there, making us feel so loved and blessed. It was our last chance to see a lot of those people before we move to Virginia and I just can't thank Debbie and Roger enough for their generosity. They are truly amazing people.

I couldn't help myself.

This explains SO much about my husband.

I looooove this picture.

Mazel Tov!

2011-05-22T10:38:00.000-04:00

We spent yesterday evenings at one of the sweetest weddings we've ever been to. We were invited to the wedding of one of our closest friends from college, Charles Phillips, and his amazing bride, Lara Hershcovitch. It was a Jewish ceremony - only the second I've ever been to, and the first for Tim. I have to say, the ceremony was just beautiful. Along with the program, we were given an explanation of many of the traditions and rituals in the ceremony and I really loved all of it. Charles and Lara were wed under the chuppah, which is meant to symbolize the house that they will build together, open on all sides so that they can build the walls with their love and friendship and so that friends and family will be welcome at any time. When they first stood together under the chuppah, they each circled each other to symbolize their being the center of each other's lives. There was a ring ceremony and a blessing of the marriage. At the end of the ceremony, Charles was asked to step on a glass and break it, symbolizing the fragility of their marriage and the need to always work to keep it strong. After the glass was broken, everyone yelled, "Mazel Tov!" (meaning congratulations or best wishes) and Charles got to kiss his beautiful bride.

We rode to the wedding with our friends from college, Katie B, Bethany, Michelle and Ashley and enjoyed some delicious beverages on the way there and to the reception.

A wonderful picture of the complete UHON crew, Charles included! What a handsome groom.

Dr. Brooks and Dr. Phillips.

Since we never get all gussied up, I was trying to get a lot of pictures with my husband. I made him take a kissing picture and started to fall (I was wearing heels for pete's sake!) and made him take a second one. You'd think any man would love to stand and kiss a super hot mama like me, but noooooo. My husband decided that a kissing picture meant I needed to be cut off from my wine. My ONE glass of wine. Yes, my husband is Dr. Debbie Downer.

Lara and Charles were completely overtaken with guests wanting to speak to them, but I managed to grab her for a picture! She was BEAUTIFUL and her dress was absolutely amazing.

And then, I managed to steal BOTH of them away to come grab some pictures with the UHON crew! They look so happy together and have had a lot of changes this month. Not only did they get married, but they BOTH graduated from Vanderbilt's medical school. Charles will be going into Pediatric Hematology/Oncology and Lara will be going into Emergency Medicine.

I hate that my camera didn't take better pictures, but we did manage to get a picture with the lovely couple and every single one of us from UHON. Oh how I love opportunities for UHON reunions!

I cannot get over how amazing Lara looked.

Because Tim apparently didn't like taking pictures with his wife, Bethany tricked him by telling him that she wanted another picture of us on her camera (it was my camera though! mwa hahahahaha!). Thanks Bema!

It was such a fancy shindig that we actually had place-cards! And when we found ours, look at what it said!

Charles and Lara's first dance.

And my personal favorite part of the night, Katie Barger dancing!

I cannot put into words how special it was to spend such a great evening with my closest friends to celebrate a beautiful union. Charles and Lara couldn't have had a better wedding and I wish them all the best. I love each and every one of my college friends and wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere else last night.

That's LIEUTENANT Brooks to you.

2011-05-17T10:51:00.000-04:00

Not only did my husband graduate medical school, but he's gone up a rank in the Navy too. He drove down to Knoxville yesterday morning to take a new oath, get pinned, and become Lieutenant Timothy Brooks, M.D., of the US Navy. Wooo hoooo! Yep, I like to brag.