When I was a kid we moved a lot - a lot a lot. I think the final count was eight times, plus the move to Newport News for college. I think this explains why we're still in Newport News. I loved growing up in my family, but I had ZERO interest in ever moving again. Maybe Newport News wasn't the best place to select for raising children, but we're here, Justin has a job, and we have a house. Anyways, that's not the point of this blog post.
The point was to talk about how different it is making friends as a kid verses when you're an adult. As a kid it's so easy to make friends and meet people. You go to school all day and you're constantly around other kids - it's pretty easy to pick up a friend or two. Don't get me wrong, moving still sucks, but the younger you are the quicker you get over it. Besides that, you have no choice but to get over it and move on with life.
As an adult, it's so much harder to meet new people and make new friends. I've been in Newport News NINE years now. I've never lived anywhere that long. Wow. But four of those years were college and the first two or so were a hybrid of work/college life since Justin was still in school. Now Justin and I have found that most of our college friends have moved elsewhere and even though we haven't moved, we're back in the position of trying to making new friends.
I keep trying to think of ways/places for us to meet more young couples/families. Church would be a great place to start, but it's a lot of work to convince Justin to go regulary. Plus he works Saturday and Sunday mornings now. I joined a "mom" group the fall after Jackson was born and met some great ladies there. We joined the YMCA and I've met a few people there and see lots of the moms from the group. I've tried to be better about going to parties and events that I'm invited to - even though by 7pm (when most things start) I'm exhausted and ready to just veg on the couch or finish a cake. I've met lots of women and that's great. But as an adult it's so much harder to make deeper friendships. I don't remember it taking much work as a child, but it takes so much time as an adult. Plus, as an adult there's a whole different set of issues to worry about - we don't have as much money (my hubby is a teacher - but we do great with what we have and we aren't in debt unless you consider a mortgage a debt. Our house is modest. Our cars are older, but paid for! We don't have tons of clothes or stuff or jewelry or any of those other things people with money have.), we have completely different child raising ideas (I'm not a worrier. I REFUSE to use anit-bacterial wipes/lotions/soaps. My kids get dirty and I'm glad they do. I don't gush all over Jackson everytime he falls down - "brush it off" is a more favored technique.) I'm not really a girlie girl (Most of the time shopping just pisses me off. I almost never wear make-up. I never iron my clothes. I hate blow drying my hair.), we're younger than a lot of other parents (We're both 26.), our kids are younger than a lot of other parents (They are 21 months and 6 months). etc. etc. etc.
Anyways, all of this is basically just to say, we're trying to make new friends and it's hard. I get so nervous before I meet new people (I'm that new, nervous, sweety lady), but I know I have to get over it. I feel so awkward in new situations (how do I act? what do I say?), but I know I have to get over it. I worry about what I said or did after I get home (did I talk too much? did I say something weird? did I listen enough? etc), but I know I have to get over it. So, if you're reading this and we've recently met, please be patient with me. I'm trying to make new friends - real friends - but I'm one of those nervous, awkward people sometimes. I'm working on it.
Friday, May 27, 2011
Thursday, May 26, 2011
I need to get better about this
It's only been about nine months since I last posted. Really?! Why am I so bad about blogging? I've made a goal for myself to try to blog at least three times a week. Our family's life isn't that exciting, but my kids are ridiculously cute and growing/changing everyday. I find them fascinating and adorable and I like to assume everyone else does also.
So, for updates since August 15, 2010.
Baby Girl was born on November 5th. That's a pretty major event I probably should have blogged about. I was in labor for a whopping four hours from start to finish. She was long and lean from the beginning - 6lbs 12oz and 21 inches long. She slept through the night by 4 weeks. She was quiet and we worried she would be kind of boring (after all the excitement Jackson has provided us with). She waiting forever before she was interested in eating solids - we thought she might be our picky eater. We were wrong. About EVERYTHING. She is NOT quiet - she's laying on the floor next to me right now screeching at the tops of her lungs. She is OVERFLOWING with personality. She eats EVERYTHING - and this is compared to Little Man who isn't picky, but was pickier than she is. She rolls ALL over the living room. This is no exaggeration. She literally rolls laps around the floor. She's sitting independently. She picks on her big brother ALL THE TIME. She pulls his hair, pokes at him, kicks at him - anything a little sister can do to try and bug a big brother. And we couldn't be more in love with this precious little wild woman.
Little Man turned one on August 20th. He had two birthday parties - one at the beach with family and one in September with friends. He has learned how to walk, run, and play basketball. He wants to play golf, hockey, football, anything athletic. I say "want" because he tries to do what Hubby does, but he hasn't quite mastered the hand-eye coordination yet to master them. He is obsessed with his tools and basketball goal. He will entertain himself for hours with these toys. No joke. He usually takes a tool or two to bed with him at night, along with all the construction books he can find. We have to read EVERY SINGLE construction book every night before putting him to bed. It's cute and I'm so glad he loves books as much as he does. Anytime we see a truck, train, plane, construction machine, bus, etc he grunts and points them out. When we are on runs he also points out EVERY SINGLE basketball goal (and truck) along the way. He is incredibly smart and mechanical. He doesn't talk. He has about 15 words (truck, ball, cheese, choochoo, plane, Bob Bob, etc - all "boy" things of interest to him). That's it. We finally got him to say "please". That's about it. I guess he takes after his dad, grandfather, great grandfather. Maybe it's a requirement of men in Hubby's family - you have to be a man of few words. Regardless, he is a perfect and ALL boy.
Hubby is still teaching. He's finishing up his teaching license classes this summer. He finally had surgery on his wrist (old pole vaulting injury from college). Hopefully it's healing. We'll find out more next week.
I'm still making cakes. Lots of them. Most days I love it. Some days I dread it, but it's what I do so I can stay home with my babies. That's motivation enough for me. I'm running again. I registered for the Richmond Marathon in November. Then the weather got hot. I HATE running in the heat and humidity. I guess I better suck it up though.
So, there's 9 months in a nutshell.
So, for updates since August 15, 2010.
Baby Girl was born on November 5th. That's a pretty major event I probably should have blogged about. I was in labor for a whopping four hours from start to finish. She was long and lean from the beginning - 6lbs 12oz and 21 inches long. She slept through the night by 4 weeks. She was quiet and we worried she would be kind of boring (after all the excitement Jackson has provided us with). She waiting forever before she was interested in eating solids - we thought she might be our picky eater. We were wrong. About EVERYTHING. She is NOT quiet - she's laying on the floor next to me right now screeching at the tops of her lungs. She is OVERFLOWING with personality. She eats EVERYTHING - and this is compared to Little Man who isn't picky, but was pickier than she is. She rolls ALL over the living room. This is no exaggeration. She literally rolls laps around the floor. She's sitting independently. She picks on her big brother ALL THE TIME. She pulls his hair, pokes at him, kicks at him - anything a little sister can do to try and bug a big brother. And we couldn't be more in love with this precious little wild woman.
Little Man turned one on August 20th. He had two birthday parties - one at the beach with family and one in September with friends. He has learned how to walk, run, and play basketball. He wants to play golf, hockey, football, anything athletic. I say "want" because he tries to do what Hubby does, but he hasn't quite mastered the hand-eye coordination yet to master them. He is obsessed with his tools and basketball goal. He will entertain himself for hours with these toys. No joke. He usually takes a tool or two to bed with him at night, along with all the construction books he can find. We have to read EVERY SINGLE construction book every night before putting him to bed. It's cute and I'm so glad he loves books as much as he does. Anytime we see a truck, train, plane, construction machine, bus, etc he grunts and points them out. When we are on runs he also points out EVERY SINGLE basketball goal (and truck) along the way. He is incredibly smart and mechanical. He doesn't talk. He has about 15 words (truck, ball, cheese, choochoo, plane, Bob Bob, etc - all "boy" things of interest to him). That's it. We finally got him to say "please". That's about it. I guess he takes after his dad, grandfather, great grandfather. Maybe it's a requirement of men in Hubby's family - you have to be a man of few words. Regardless, he is a perfect and ALL boy.
Hubby is still teaching. He's finishing up his teaching license classes this summer. He finally had surgery on his wrist (old pole vaulting injury from college). Hopefully it's healing. We'll find out more next week.
I'm still making cakes. Lots of them. Most days I love it. Some days I dread it, but it's what I do so I can stay home with my babies. That's motivation enough for me. I'm running again. I registered for the Richmond Marathon in November. Then the weather got hot. I HATE running in the heat and humidity. I guess I better suck it up though.
So, there's 9 months in a nutshell.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Life happens fast
It seems like time keeps getting away from me these days! It's already the middle of August, Little Man turns ONE in only five days, Hubby goes back to work in a week and a half, and Baby #2 will be here in approximately 12 weeks! For the longest time it seemed like our family vacation to the beach was months away, but now it's over! We intended to move Little Man into his "big boy" room upstairs by his birthday...but all I've managed to do is prime the trim, doors, and windows. I guess we'll be a little late on that one.
So, the question is, what do I do with all my time?! Cakes, chase Little Man, clean, laundry, lay on my heating pad (a gift from heaven to my aching lower back), and go to the grocery store. Every once in a while, when Little Man is napping I get a spurt of energy and get something extra done...such as the two coats of primer upstairs. It's been a blast having Hubby home for the summer and I thought it would mean I would get more done around the house, but the truth is I just enjoy spending time with my boys more than anything else!
However, it's only 12 weeks until my due date and we have a crazy to-do list to complete before then! We need to finish painting Little Man's room and move him upstairs. We also need to finish taping, sanding, and painting the new railing Hubby built upstairs in the playroom. He and his dad tore down the old and incredibly unsafe one and replaced it with a knee wall. Now we can put up a gate at the top of the stairs and we don't have to worry about Little Man crawling through the posts of the railing. Hubby and his dad are perfectionists when it comes to home improvements, so the new railing/wall is very sturdy. I need to make curtains for all the windows upstairs - I've bought the fabric, just need to get around to sewing. We also intend to kill all the grass/weeds growing in our front yard at the end of this month. Then we'll till everything up and plant all new grass. We have been fighting our lawn for almost three years now and have finally decided we just need to start over from scratch. We also gave up on growing grass under the large tree in our front yard. This summer we mulched a large bed under it and plan to plant a shade garden in September. (We considered a kitchen remodel for this summer also, but Hubby ended up not teaching summer school so we put that project on hold due to lack of funding.) So yes, LOTS to do. Time to kick it into high gear I suppose.
Little Man is starting to walk more. Today he repeatedly walked to Hubby (taking a good 10 or more steps!) and between a few other things. I'm not kidding when I say I think he was practicing and trying to perfect his abilities before showing them off publicly. There were MULTIPLE times we caught him walking when he thought we weren't looking. He's a sneaky little fellow. I guess today was the day when he felt confident enough to really show off. I'm excited for him to really start walking. I plan to spend a lot more time outside letting him run around in the yard. It was so hot and dry this summer that all our grass died. Everytime Little Man would crawl in the yard, he ended up with scrapes on his knees and legs. I figured once he's walking, this problem will mostly go away.
Our beach trip was a blast. All the grandparents, some great-grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins...the whole gang! Little Man loved the ocean, pool, baby pool we set up with our tents on the beach, and the sand. In fact, he loved it and all the company so much, he thought he'd wake up between 5 and 5:30 every morning to squeeze in as much of it as he could. We weren't the biggest fans, but he wakes up so cute and happy that it's hard to be too cranky. (And thank goodness for coffee.)
So, the question is, what do I do with all my time?! Cakes, chase Little Man, clean, laundry, lay on my heating pad (a gift from heaven to my aching lower back), and go to the grocery store. Every once in a while, when Little Man is napping I get a spurt of energy and get something extra done...such as the two coats of primer upstairs. It's been a blast having Hubby home for the summer and I thought it would mean I would get more done around the house, but the truth is I just enjoy spending time with my boys more than anything else!
However, it's only 12 weeks until my due date and we have a crazy to-do list to complete before then! We need to finish painting Little Man's room and move him upstairs. We also need to finish taping, sanding, and painting the new railing Hubby built upstairs in the playroom. He and his dad tore down the old and incredibly unsafe one and replaced it with a knee wall. Now we can put up a gate at the top of the stairs and we don't have to worry about Little Man crawling through the posts of the railing. Hubby and his dad are perfectionists when it comes to home improvements, so the new railing/wall is very sturdy. I need to make curtains for all the windows upstairs - I've bought the fabric, just need to get around to sewing. We also intend to kill all the grass/weeds growing in our front yard at the end of this month. Then we'll till everything up and plant all new grass. We have been fighting our lawn for almost three years now and have finally decided we just need to start over from scratch. We also gave up on growing grass under the large tree in our front yard. This summer we mulched a large bed under it and plan to plant a shade garden in September. (We considered a kitchen remodel for this summer also, but Hubby ended up not teaching summer school so we put that project on hold due to lack of funding.) So yes, LOTS to do. Time to kick it into high gear I suppose.
Little Man is starting to walk more. Today he repeatedly walked to Hubby (taking a good 10 or more steps!) and between a few other things. I'm not kidding when I say I think he was practicing and trying to perfect his abilities before showing them off publicly. There were MULTIPLE times we caught him walking when he thought we weren't looking. He's a sneaky little fellow. I guess today was the day when he felt confident enough to really show off. I'm excited for him to really start walking. I plan to spend a lot more time outside letting him run around in the yard. It was so hot and dry this summer that all our grass died. Everytime Little Man would crawl in the yard, he ended up with scrapes on his knees and legs. I figured once he's walking, this problem will mostly go away.
Our beach trip was a blast. All the grandparents, some great-grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins...the whole gang! Little Man loved the ocean, pool, baby pool we set up with our tents on the beach, and the sand. In fact, he loved it and all the company so much, he thought he'd wake up between 5 and 5:30 every morning to squeeze in as much of it as he could. We weren't the biggest fans, but he wakes up so cute and happy that it's hard to be too cranky. (And thank goodness for coffee.)
Life is good around here. We are so thankful for our beautiful baby boy (who isn't much of a baby anymore) and all our blessings in life. We can't wait to meet our second child in a few months (Boy or girl?! Who knows and I love that excitement!) We are thankful for our families. We are thankful Hubby has a steady job - and he is excited to be teaching Probability and Statistics instead of Algebra this year! We are thankful for each other and the love we share. Life is so much better when you're able to share it with your best friend!
Sorry this was a bit of a rambling post, but I figured it might be the best way to catch you up on our lives!
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