Busy, busy, busy...

Things have been super busy here. My sister moved in this last week to be our live in nanny for the next year. Yes, a live in nanny, 2 kids is NO JOKE. We go from having no kids and nights of amazing 8 hours of sleep to.... an 8 year old who never stops talking, is always pushing/testing her boundaries, and always keeps us laughing PLUS a 4 month old who eats, poops and seems to rarely sleep which means we rarely sleep. The 2 weeks that Shawn was recently gone and I did the kid thing solo by the end I didnt even know my name or what year it was, I was seriously on auto pilot and didnt even feel human. With Shawn home this past week he has stepped in to take over the kid department in an attempt for me to relaxe but as sweet as it is, its just not realistic. I just now have un-inturrupted time to do laundry, cook, clean, go to school and repeat. I did manage the other night to take a bath, drink a glass of wine and read a book... sadly it only really lasted 20 min cause I couldnt keep my eyes open any longer. I am a very independant person and always up for a challenge but if I was wiped out after 2 weeks I had to be realistic with myself, there was no way I could make it a year without the end result being me locked in a padded room. So, we talked it over and offered my sister the live in nanny position... best decision ever! She has been such a big help and I am glad I admitted right away there was no way I could do this alone.

This brings me to the busy, busy, busy part last week was jam packed with appointments for the girls, Shawn, and me going to school. Even with 3 adults in the house and sharing the responsibility... I still feel like I live in my truck some times being a taxi driver. On top of that we have been playing tetris in the house. My sister took "J's" room so all that furniture was moved into our room and some into "A's" room then ofcourse we had to move my sisters in. We got a new bed, we down sized from king to queen for more room in our bedroom epecially since we now have a crib in there. "J" has grown out of the craddle and is now sleeping in the crib. As I blog I have 2 box spring mattresses in my hallway that need to make it out to the garage... the garage that still needs to be organized. All this before Shawn leaves in a week. I have to say I am doubtful but hopeful in getting it all done. He will be gone for the whole month of September, the same month that I am actually playing Army for 3 weeks Mon-Fri butt crack of dawn till late in the day. Just have to make it through September then things look up for a short while in October. Shawn will be home for the first half of October in which time we are planning a surprise trip to Disneyland for "A" (ok, and for me too :-)) as well as a trip to Vegas with "A" to see Shawn off. Then starts the 365 day count down (well 6 months then he gets 2 weeks of leave in which time we are meeting him in England to visit my extended family that lives there. An 8 year old and a baby on a 14 hour flight should be interesting... good thing the live in nanny is coming with us!) I am trying to look forward to the fun times but at the same time trying to take it one day at a time.

Side, totally of subject note, I hope everyone is fully aware that Christmas is only 117 days away. I started Christmas shopping about 3 weeks ago and officially am 25% done! I know, I know crazy right? Not really, every year I aim to try to be done by Thanksgiving, this year is no different but starting sooner than usually because we have so many things going on and my calendar is starting to bust at the seems. I will be gone part of Oct thru Nov for some Army training, "A" was upset about this cause I am missing Halloween but when I said "do you want me to miss Halloween or Christmas?" she didn't skip a beat with answering back "miss Halloween" shes totally our kid, very sensible!

This week is going to fly by, jam packed with more appointments and the task of trying to get the house back in order before Shawn leaves... it may be a while before I get on to blog again...

Back to reality...

So Vegas was a blast and I am so sad it came to an end Sunday night. We visited several amazing restaurants were I gorged myself with wonderful seafood... my favorite! We saw "O" Cirque show which was "Outstanding" and then we saw Phantom of the Opera which was a dream come true for me... absolutely perfect performance!! We visited Freemont street, Palms Playboy club, and of course on the way out of town we made a pit stop at the outlet malls. (I have officially been to 3 different Coach outlets in 3 different states just this year... I know I have a serious problem) We enjoyed our adult time, even if we did spend most of the time talking about the kids, but by Sunday we were ready to get home to the girls and the pets. We walked through the door and crept up on "A" which was pretty funny, she was excited to see us. My sister had the girls and had made us dinner (mac n cheese). It was 10pm by the time we managed to get into bed, after driving home and then being bombarded with everyday house & kids stuff, we sunk into bed. We barely had enough energy to kiss each other goodnight.

The dog slept with us (which he does off and on sometimes) he was so excited to see us when we got home that I fell for the big eyes when we were climbing into bed and I begged Shawn to let him sleep with us. Well I later ate those words. At 11:30 Fo (the dog) threw up on the comforter on the bed, so there we were at 11:30 at night cleaning up dog vomit and changing the bed sheets. I fall back into bed and 20 minutes later "J" woke up screaming for her bottle. I stumble out of bed and lay the changing pad we have for her on the bed to change her diaper. I failed to have the new diaper ready and waiting so when I pulled the old one off she proceeded to pee. She has become very wiggly lately and was basically taking a pee bath it was all the way up to her neck, I had to give her a wipe bath.  When I finally sat down to feed her I was thinking to myself this is like a really bad dream and I was hoping I would wake up. Then around midnight my little brother who lives in WA calls me and says "are you going to be home in 3 hours cause I will be at your house" wait, what? He had mentioned to me a week ago he was thinking about coming to visit but I never heard a word more, nor did I know he had even departed WA. I told him sure I would be up, I woke up about an hour later from a text from him, telling me he was tired and stopping to sleep for a bit.... I was seriously getting frustrated, was I not meant to sleep at all? Seriously the worst night ever. My brother ended up showing up at 6am at which point I had to make up a bed and tidy the hall bath for him. We currently have a king size bed and its about 500 feet off the ground and I have been complaining since "J" came to live with us that we need a new bed, a queen which is smaller and to set it up at normal height. I have back problems thanks to Uncle Sam so the getting in and out of a bed 500 feet off the ground 10 times a night does not make me a happy camper. So, we spent our first day home mattress shopping. I am now looking around the house thinking I should have been cleaning it all day and not out shopping. We have foster visits tomorrow and my house never truly made it to clean status before the vacation, so now I am pretty far behind. I did manage to get 4 loads of laundry done and we cleaned up and re arranged "A's" room so I cant complain to much. This week will be filled with appointments for the girls and a strict schedule of tackling the every growing to do list and honey do list. Wish us luck.

Will post some Vegas pictures tomorrow, its 9pm and I better attempt this bed thing in a different light tonight. Night all.

What a day.

Sleep... who needs that? Well I do, I am one of those girls who needs at least 8 hours to be working at my full potential. I am learning however to operate with less... not that I really have a choice, when baby calls I move. Today J had her 4 month Dr. appointment and it went really well! She is 9 lbs and 14 oz the Dr said this is probably what her birth weight would have been if she had not been premature. Then they were so kind as to give her 4 shots today. Shawn and I have numbered her levels of crying and she officially peaked at a level 8 today and even turned purple she was soooooo upset. Last time she got shots she slept through the day almost, today she has dozed on and off with some whimpering/crying in between. No temp so thats always good. Laundry, cleaning, emails, phone calls, more emails and phone calls and that pretty much sums up my day. I have recently learned a really great parental trick... I bought J a stuffed animal, the dog Lady from Lady and the Tramp (Disney of course) its perfect for resting her bottle on. She can drink about half and in that time I can do a few things then come back to burp her then back to to do list while she finishes the rest. Its amazing genius!

A got her self grounded again tonight. We have had a couple good days then bam out of no where as usual. I ran out to mow the lawn because it looked like it was going to rain, when I was almost done A yelled my name and was holding my iphone out the back door. Shawn and I have talked to her more times than I can count about doing this same exact thing. She has never answered a phone in her life (except one time when she shouldn't have at my dad's) anyway I have explained to her that phones these days have caller ID and said caller ID will tell you when you have missed a call thus I do not need an 8 year old running with my expensive phone to find me when it rings or yelling my name loudly like the house is on fire for me to come to her to only tell me my phone was ringing. As soon as I looked at her holding my phone out the door and I simply said "grounded" she was pretty upset. I told her the next time she does it grounded again then maybe she will finally get it. I told her that my phone is not a toy and not cheap so if something happens to it, it will take  a years worth of her allowance to pay for it. In typical 8 year old fashion she was more focused on doing the math to figure the money out than the grounded part sinking in, well it will next time, I have no doubt there will be a next time. I told her to tuck her self in for the night... she used a zinger phrase, I told her good night I love you and she said "I don't feel like you love me" I replied with were not having that conversation... her goal was to get me to come talk to her and reassure her and coddle her... not happening. I thought about it later and I should have said I am sorry you feel that way, I will next time, again there will be a next time she is full of zinger lines... some times she pulls me in but I am really working on it. Kids these days. LOL!!

Well I have packing to do for VEGAS in the morning, holler! I am so excited for an adult weekend! Take care see you back her after we get back!

Made it through the weekend.

What a crazy weekend. I had Army drill and it was the first one with two kiddos as well as Shawn being gone. Had to have my Mom come spend the weekend at my house to take care of the kids. I was up at 3 am Saturday and Sunday to be at work by 5 am. We did the usual power point presentations, paper work and we also hauled truck loads of equipment around outside in 111 degree weather... that was fun (insert sarcasm) I did manage however to get some things lined up to map out the next year of my Army career and I am very excited to see it all unfold. I pretty much had to come home each day eat dinner and go to bed, my Mom and kids were troopers! My Mom even stepped forward to become my units FRG leader (Family Readiness Leader) the volunteer position requires some fundraisers to organized and to rally the families together to support the troops. Very excited for her and this task she is taking on, I was appointed the units FRG leas on to help her out, it should be a ton of fun.
Some how I dragged myself out of bed this morning after very little sleep all weekend and back to J's double feedings on my own last night. Got A out the door and to school for her second week, so far she is enjoying 3rd grade. I ran a couple errands and am just catching you all up with what we have been up to. For anyone who is reading this and lives close and would like to come over and clean my house I promise I will stay out of your way and let you get to it... anyone?? Well, it must be done. I plan on taking a nap to be able to make it through the rest of the day then its tackling the house. Wednesday can not get here soon enough, I have gone back and forth about going to Vegas to see Shawn but have finally convinced myself to go. To get some sleep, some alone time with the hubby and to have a break from the kids for a couple days. It should be a blast and I will keep you all updated on the mundane things we are doing while we are there! Hope everyone else had a more enjoyable or at least less tiring weekend than the Adams family did. Today is not over and tomorrow is right around the corner!!

New found love.

I have always had a passion for all things creative. I love scrapbooking, home decor do it your self project and now recently in the past 6 months or so I have fallen in love with photography. I got this AMAZING camera and cant stop clicking. I have been working on building a portfolio to possibly take this passion a little further. My family has been so wonderful in allowing me to use them in these photos. I recently had the honor of taking my step sons senior pictures. They came out just like I imagined they would. I have a few posted on my facebook page but thought I would share a few here. ENJOY!!

T minus 7 days until Vegas... in other news...

Shawn has been gone for almost a week and I am still standing some how. This single parent thing is NO joke. J finally had a better night last night, nothing to brag about just better than the last couple nights. On the other hand though, A had a bad night... I can't win. A got her self grounded for a culmination of things the kicker was the HUGE temper tantrum (screaming and super loud dramatic crying) while in timeout and it was for something pretty small. In stead of just doing her 20 min and moving on she dug a huge hole and ended up getting herself grounded. I sent her to bed early (7:00 pm) and grounded her for tonight too. She is currently serving her time by writing sentences something she can't stand. "I will not argue" "I will work on listening better" etc, etc, etc. She is a very stubborn, determined, strong willed, and the list goes on. She is learning things from a different perspective compared to what she was/wasn't taught in her past 8 years of life. I have a feeling she is going to grow in to a really strong woman and blow this world away with what she will do in this world!

With A in school all day I have a free 6 hour window to tackle my to do list and get things done. I dropped her off at school today and took a side trip to Starbucks for a little me time. Came home and decided that I was going to paint our front door. Yes, the front door. This inside of it has been a dirty white since we lived here and I have told myself that some day I would paint it black... so, today I did. If a door can look sexy, ours now does!! It came out just as I imagined and I couldn't be happier. I sent text message pictures of before and after to Shawn... I knew he would have something to say, he always does when I pull a "house project out" I have so many plans for this house we call a home and I can't wait to start checking those project off one by one. I bought an old metal file cabinet the other day from one of my favorite stores, Habitat for Humanity, a store where people who are renovating donate things from there homes. I have purchased so many treasures from there re-newing them and giving them a new life in our home. The file cabinet will be a new addition to my scrapbooking corner... after I am done scrubbing it and spray painting it a true red. I am anxious to finish this project before the weekend if its possible. Normally I look forward to the weekend but not this weekend... I have drill which means little sleep (less than I already get), up at the crack of dawn, LOTS of coffee, LONG day... One weekend a month, I can do this. Cant wait till its over though because that means that much closer to a trip to Vegas to see Shawn. We plan on living it up for 4 whole days, kid free and enjoying the adult alone time before  we are separated again for a month and then shortly after the big year long separation. Part of being married to a soldier and I am more than willing to do it since I am a soldier too and understand more than most Army wives.

Still hot and nasty for the weather forecast here. I am looking forward to Sunday there will be a news special with General P. about Afghanistan on Meet the Press. I met him while I was deployed to Iraq in 2007-2008. There is not enough coverage on the TWO wars that are still going on in this world. I daily pray for my fellow soldiers and there families. I know most won't understand but I hope that I get to do a tour in Afghanistan myself before the deployments are no longer. Just gotta get through this long weekend ahead.

Weekend at Nanny's and back to school!

Shawn departed on Thursday night for Vegas (rough life right?) He rode his motorcycle and made it in 5 hours to then get in a van with other soldiers to drive 9 hours to CA for the weekend. He is now back in Vegas and will be for 2 weeks. I saw Tyler off, back to OR on Sunday morning. Was sad to see him go but glad we got to have him for a visit, he has grown up so much and is officially a Senior this year!

Saturday morning I woke up 45 minutes late. When my eyes finally adjusted and looked at the clock I flew out of bed and started waking up the troops to attempt to get out the door in a timely manner. By some miracle I managed to get a teenager, an 8 year old, a 3 month old, myself, and the dog.... up, out of bed, fed and packed for a weekend at Nanny's in a little over an hour. My sister was awesome enough to trek along with us. After an hour drive we arrived safe and sound to unpack and settle in for the weekend. We jumped right into a good old fashion fun time. My Mom, Sister, Tyler and myself played a good game of Scrabble Up Words it was a lot of fun. A played with toys and enjoyed some quite time, while little J took a nap. We all went and wondered around Walmart and ended up having some serious laughs. Tyler found this goopy stuff that makes farting noises and had himself rolling with laughter. He managed to find a second container of the stuff to give my sister who ended up crying she was laughing so hard. I tried to just ignore them but then, my mom said "wow did the pizza mess you guys up that bad" and A said "you guys smell" THEN I was laughing too. They actually thought the 2 were farting, sorry but I gave in and started laughing till I was crying. We went back to Nanny's where I cooked dinner for everyone, we sat at the table and enjoyed a nice family dinner with lots of conversation. After dinner it started raining and I became a little kid again. I asked A to come outside with me to watch the rain... once outside, I took A's hand and said lets run in the rain. So, we did. We ran down the street in our pj's, barefoot through big puddles in the rain, it was so fun we went inside and pulled Tyler, my sister and the dog out into the rain. IT WAS A BLAST! We spent the rest of the night watching Veggie Tales movies and coloring in coloring books... good OLD FASHION fun, who needs video games.

We saw Tyler off Sunday morning (boo), we made a pit stop at Starbucks on the way back to Nanny's, where I was so grateful to her to take J for a while so I could go back to sleep for a bit. Waking up at 11 am was an awesome feeling. We girls went to go see the movie Ramona and Beezuss (A read the book and was so excited) it was a great movie and so awesome to watch with my own kiddo. We did a little back to school shopping after the movie, then packed up to get back home.

Rough night last night with J, she has been cranky for 3 days straight. She woke up almost every hour on the hour last night... it was ROUGH. I ended up crying a little begging her to sleep longer than an hour. Shawn has been joking that she misses him. I finally took her to the doctor today and they said she looks fine... talk about frustrating. I am hoping tonight is better. On a more exciting note, A started 3rd grade today! She had the cutest first day of school outfit and she let me walk her all the way to her class holding her hand! (I think that means she thinks I am a cool mom, lol!) I had planned on starting on my to do list with a free 8 hours but I ended up taking J to the doctors, and my sister convinced me to go see Eclipse with her. It was a bearable Monday... Tomorrow is another day...

Props to all single parents out there!

Today was day one of single parenthood for me. Shawn is off in CA for the weekend playing Army and then to Vegas for a week or two for more Army time. A 17 year old, an 8 year old, and a 3 month old.... crazy is one of the first words that comes to mind. Tyler has actually been a really big help and I will be sad to see him go home on Sunday. Lucky for me school starts on Monday. I never understood why my parents got so excited for school to start every year... I get it 100% now and am counting down the hours. I have a huge to do list waiting for me and the 8 hours a day A is in school I plan on tackling it. I did the midnight feeding and the 4 am feeding last night and just did the midnight this evening. I am missing Shawn terribly if only for him to take one of those feedings. I have no idea how single parents do this. I love my sleep and function so much better on 8 hours, they say to sleep when the baby sleeps but laundry, etc does not do its self. I managed to take a 1 hour nap today but I still don't feel like my self, I feel more like a zombie. This 2 weeks is a trial run then later were doing a three week trial run before I become a single parent for a year. This is sure to be an adventure for me and I have a feeling I might be able to write a book after its all over... we will see if its comical, an advice book or who knows... we will find out in a year.

Foster Parents

So many people ask us why foster care? We like to say why not? There are so many kids out there who have parents who don't know how to be parents, these kids desperately need parental role models and someone to love them and guide them. What better two people than us. We are both college educated, combat veterans, independent and motivated. So many people are having kids these days, who says thats what you HAVE to do. We both like to be different and not follow the norm. For example, I refuse to drive a mini van or a station wagon... my Mom drove both. I don't want to conform to the fact that if I have kids this is what I have to drive because thats what the masses are driving. So why not do foster care? People who are having kids are also complaining about the cost of having and raising those kids.  Doing foster care the state provides for the kids that come into our home and gives them practically everything they need, at no cost to us. All we have to do is love, protect and guide these kiddos. I like to think that we are almost like protective custody for these kids, there own personal body guards. We have 2 kids right now, 2 girls not related to each other. For there safety I will refer to them as A and J, A is 8 years old and J is almost 4 months. I cant talk about there back ground but I can say they are both improving with us. J being only 4 months our biggest complaint is the interrupted sleep other wise she is pleasant in every way. A is what I will call a little spit fire, she may be 8 but she at times acts like she is 16... we are in for a long journey with her. She knows how to behave... when she wants to, to the rest of the world she looks and can act like a cute little 8 year old girl. At home she battles us daily desperately fighting us for control, she in her past 8 years has had to be a little more grown up than needed and we are now trying to teach her how to just be an 8 year old. To sum her up... A wants, what she wants when she wants it.... NOT IN THIS HOUSE! She's having a hard time accepting this but is slowly but surely getting it. As I type she is currently grounded... grounded in our house is in your room doing school worksheets all day... what kid wants to do that? She does NOT like it but for some reason still struggles with the rules and ends up being grounded several times a week. Consistency is what these kids need and that is what we are giving them. Everyday is a new adventure, we tell our 8 year old every day that each and every day is a new day. I chose my blog title based on this, Today. Tomorrow. Forever. Today we try to make a difference in hopes that it will be used tomorrow and forever.

Joining the BLOG world.

I have been considering joining the blogging world for a LONG time. I am known to be a procrastinator, it might also have something to do with the fact I have a million and one things going on in my life at any given time. I finally decided it's now or never. I am excited to share all the Adams family doings with family and friends. This might even be my ticket out of our yearly Christmas letter as well as monthly calls to family to update them on all we have been up to. So stay tuned for more....