Couch Potato

I really don't consider myself a couch potato, because I'm actually one of those people that doesn't like just sitting around. I just liked the title for my post. On my days off, I usually spend it playing with the girls, cooking, laundry, dishes, swiffering, etc. If anything kills my activity level it's my love of reading. I could sit and read all day.

My mom had heart issues until she became a vegan, and my dad has already had a heart attack. My grandpa died after his second major heart attack. I know that I have heart disease in my family, and my poor girls have it from both sides as well. Kasey's dads side of the family is full of heart disease. That could be because of lifestyle choices, but it's still there. Plus, my work friend Lauren was saying the other day that she got her cholesterol level checked and it was only one point below "High" so it was in the borderline high category. Thats scary! We eat and live like we're invincible but we really aren't. I want to be around a long time and watch my kids grow up. I want to watch my grandkids get married and have their own kids.

  Kasey has always been a health nut, so its no hard transition for him but I've always struggled with my love of chocolate and greasy food. Hes easier to be around when hes been working out on a regular basis anyway. Haha. My mom always cooked with flaxseeds, olive oil, etc and never kept cokes in the house so when I got old enough to buy my own food I didn't make very good choices. Its easy for me to cook healthy suppers, because I know thats what kasey wants but lunch I struggle with whether I'm home or not.

  In 2009, I agreed to start working out regularly with kasey, and for about 7 months we worked out together at the simmons center about 4-5 days a week. I looked and felt better than before. We gave ourselves one cheat day where we ate what we wanted and still worked out, and then a second cheat day where we ate clean but relaxed and didn't exercise. Then he deployed and HE kept working out but I struggled with balancing nursing school, karmen, and taking care of the house so I fell off the wagon. I didn't like picking karmen up from daycare and then dropping her off at the simmons center daycare so I just quit.

Yesterday, I told kasey that I would start working out with him again at least 3 days a week. Theres no way I could work out after work on my work days, so 3-4 days will have to do for now. We went to Ft Sill to the commissary and loaded up on healthy food. For our meals yesterday we had oatmeal and fruit, then went out to lunch and he had a chef salad and I had a chicken salad, and for supper last night I made homemade tomato basil soup.

 Today so far I ate oatmeal with peaches and brown sugar that I had in the crockpot overnight, an herbalife shake for lunch which was pretty good I'll admit, and for supper I'm making vegetable fajitas. Its marinating as I type :) I know that exercise is useless without eating healthy, so I don't want to "waste" my time at the gym. When I eat crap I don't even have the energy for the gym so it doesn't matter. I even went to Big 5 and bought myself one new workout outfit. If I stick with it I can buy more but I'll do one for now.

Here's to a healthier family!

My secret

I have a few secrets that only my close friends know, but I'll let you in on one. It's one I'm very ashamed of (especially being an L&D nurse) and I think it helped shape who I am today. Being pregnant at 17 was not something that I was proud of by any means. I was embarrassed, ashamed, and didn't want anyone to know. I'll backtrack first. In high school, I was pretty popular. I don't say that to brag, because really, what does it matter? I see that now. I hung out with all the right people, dated the popular guys (aka the jerks) and went to all the parties I was supposed to. I really didn't enjoy parties much, because I rarely drank so it wasn't much fun on my end. I mostly went because my best friend was a social butterfly and I was the "hair-holder" at the end of the night when she was puking her guts up. I made sure she got home and didn't leave with some random stranger..which she would've. I never made anything less than an A. I was the teacher's pet even though I didn't really want to be that either. I was on the "scholastic team" and went around to all the local colleges taking dumb tests and the one who got the highest score won. I was always in charge of the history and psychology tests. I was in the national honor society, made a 27 on my ACT which i was pretty proud of considering I was so young when I took it. My mom was a saint, and my brother was even better. He had a 4.0 also and was always home studying while I was partying. Hold onto your hats, ladies, because I wanted to go to YALE. I wanted to move, and take Kasey with me. I think I might've actually if I hadn't gotten pregnant and they had actually accepted me. I highly doubt I would've made the cut, but I would've gone. I don't really attach to places or homes, so I think it would've been fairly easy for me to pack up and move to Yankee territory. As a senior in HS with all of these hopes and dreams in front of me, I got pregnant. Unlike most teenagers, I wasn't afraid or scared of how I was going to do it. I knew that you just DID it. There would be a learning curve, but we'd survive. On to the secret. I didn't tell anyone besides Kasey of course that I was pregnant until I was 26 weeks!!! I was too ashamed, too worried about the image that I had of being miss smart and sweet. I'll admit that it was a little "fun" having the secret all to ourselves for that long. My mom eventually asked me..in the middle of a restaurant. I started crying and said, "you're going to hate me." Who knows when I would've gotten the courage to tell her. I was afraid she would be disappointed. That was what it boiled down to. And I'm sure she was, though thankfully she never said it. A couple days later I made a doctor's appointment and we found out that she was a girl at the first ultrasound! Kasey's parents were more disappointed I think than my mom, because he didn't get up the courage to tell them until November. She was born in January. It was one of those things were the longer the secret goes on, the harder it is to tell because by then he was like, "oh lindsey and i are having a baby. In 2 months. And it's a girl. Her names Karmen." He already had twins in KY already that were 3 so they weren't happy at all. How did I keep it a secret for 6 months? I don't know. I didn't restrict my food intake or anything of course. I actually ate a ton, so I'm not sure how I didn't gain more than 19 lbs. Most of it went to my chest, butt and hips as opposed to my stomach. Until about 6 months you couldn't really tell I was pregnant, so that is how my mom finally figured it out. Anyway, I'm a labor nurse so I actually enjoy taking care of the younger patients, because I've been there and know how embarrassing it can be. I like telling them I had a baby at 17 and I turned out ok. Their moms especially seem to like to hear that. I hear other people say, "I can't believe she didn't get prenatal care until such and such time" and I don't comment because little do they know I've also been there too. I'm too ashamed to say it outloud though. I joke about alternative school because it is actually pretty funny, but at the time I was horribly embarrassed. Instead of going, I did all my homework at home that christmas break so I would'nt have to actually attend. I picked my work up, took it home, and took it back to turn it in. So thats one of my secrets. I don't have many, and thats the "biggest" one so there ya go. Now you know.

Anger

I know that yesterday was Veteran's Day and I have super horrible timing but I'm going to post this anyway. I'm so angry at the my husband today. We had a big fight yesterday because he has told me for the last 3 years that he was for SURE getting out in spring 2014. Now he's trying to change his mind. Maybe it's not my decision, maybe I should support whatever decision he makes but it makes me fighting mad to think about almost 10 more years! How many deployments is that? When kasey deployed in 2010, karmen was 2. She was close to 4 when he got home and missed almost half her life if you include the 6 months of training he had to be away for from january-august. He was home for my FIRST semester of nursing school and missed the next 3. He thinks he can be in a non-deployable unit and things will be happy go lucky like they've been for the last year since he got home but I just don't trust the military. period. I don't trust them saying that he's not deployable. What happens when he deploys and doesn't come home? What happens when he deploys again when he PROMISED karmen he wouldn't ever leave like that again? She has the memory of an elephant so I know that she won't forget that. He thinks that I hate the military and that I always have/always will. He thinks I don't support his career decisions and that's not true. I want him to get out of the military because I love him. I want him to get out of the military because it's dangerous and it requires years away from your family. Rant over.

time slips away

Isnt it funny how quickly time passes? The last post i wrote was when blakely was brand spankin new and now shes 6months old. Im very content at this point in my life and i am trying to savor it because i know this life isnt supposed to be this wonderful and this wont last forever. Kaseys home (aka not deployed), our marriage is healthy, our kids are beautiful and funny and sweet and precious, we both have good jobs we enjoy, good friends, good families. I feel like our new home is actually home, unlike the other one where i never felt too attached. Maybe because karmen and i were always there alone...i know, poor me. I wish i could bottle the kids up and keep them this way forever. They love each other so much and i know that eventually they will fight, swear they hate each other at times, tattle on each other, etc etc.. its 2 am and kaseys in okc for more army stuff so karmen is asleep next to me and i just put blakely back in her crib. Ive mostly only posted about the sour aspects of motherhood on here so far so jot this one down in thesweet category. :) Hopefully Blakely wont be 1 before my next post.

It's been a while..

Now that I "quit" my deployment blogging, I haven't been on blogspot in a while. Hubby got home from afghanistan the first week of august and it's been a wild ride since! I found out I was pregnant august 28th. :))

Baby number TWO was born May 3, that may have something to do with my lack of free time ;) Her name is Blakely Reese and she is perfect (high maintenance maybe) but perfect anyway. I don't remember Karmen crying this much, but she seems to be (tmi) gassier than her older sister was. On a very, very bright note though she sleeps much better at 17 days old than karmen slept at 6 months old so thats a blessing. 

I'm on maternity leave, which will last until late July and although I'm having a rough time adjusting to being home all.the.time I'm loving the time with the girls and hubby. I work 3 12 hour shifts a week, so I leave the house at 6 am on the days I work and don't get home until almost 8 pm, so its nice to have so much more time with everyone. Karmen is definitely loving it.

We moved to a new home on December 1st. We started house hunting as soon as hubby got home from deployment during his month of leave he got afterwards. We found the PERFECT home after only looking at a couple and we still love it. 3 bedrooms, 2 full baths, swimming POOL!, hardwood floors, etc. We love the neighborhood and so far have no complaints. We have renters in our old home and thats going good so far.

Anyway, that's about all the updates I have for this first post back. I will hopefully have many funny stories to share this summer staying home with a 4.5 year old funny, silly girl and a newborn.

Sixlets...potential hazards.

Sixlets are the perfect size for a child's nostril. Yes, I got it out, and yes I had to have a picture first.

Victories and...err.. Mistakes

Parenthood is all about little victories and big mistakes. Soooo, here are a few of my own parenting bloopers:


Victory = Karmen has yet to learn a curse word from me.

Mistake = I said she never learned one from me, but I made the mistake of watching Daniel Tosh comedy with her in the next room (apparently listening). "Damn snapple" were the words.

Victory = She never really got into Dora the Explorer, mostly because I can't stand it and would turn on anything but that.

Mistake = Instead of the usual Dora obsession, she is now obsessed with Blue's Clues. Makes the Dora victory a little less of a win.

Victory = When potty training, she never had an accident in a public place.

Mistake = I made the mistake of trying the "go diaperless at home as much as possible" method, and well, she decided to poop on the carpet. As if that wasn't bad enough, when I walked up to her (freaking out a little) she accidently stepped in it. Then as it's stuck to her foot, she is jumping around and screaming and so instead of poop on the carpet, I got poop ALL over the living room carpet. Not to mention, I also stepped in some trying to get her to be still.

Victory = Karmen hasn't made many inappropriate comments to people in public, other than, "Tell her to stop looking at me."

Mistake = Karmen loves the movie Tangled, but a few days ago she walked up to me, patted me on the chin, and said, "You're gettin' kinda chubby." Thanks Rapunzel's mom.