Home Sweet Home

Here are some pictures from the house. I apologize for the sideways ones...my computer is being stupid so you'll just have to turn your head to look at them.
We did a walk through today to point out anything we wanted the builder to take care of before we move in. The ugly dining room table is not ours so ignore that...I think they were trying to set the house up like a model home but we snatched it up before they had a chance.
Let us know what you think!

Today, we bought our first house

Don't worry...this isn't it. Photos to come.

Almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades

That's what Jason says to me all the time.
I'm not sure about that....
This morning I went to the gym, got paged by the kidz zone cause Caden was being cranky, and then headed to the grocery store to pick up some food. Caden was pretty cranky and vocal the whole time we were there, so I was aggitated and ready to leave by the time we checked out. I loaded the groceries into the car, loaded the cranky boy into the car, and began crossing the parking lot to put my cart away.
Of course I looked both ways...something I learned when I was around 3 or 4, and there was one truck coming towards me but he was rather far away so I began crossing the parking lot. As I got to about the middle, I noticed that the truck was not doing the customary 'slow-down' for a pedestrian crossing...and within seconds I knew that if I didn't jump out of the way, he was going to run me over. It was as if he was accelerating to see how hard he could hit me. He was about a foot from me with no signs of slowing when I frantically pushed my cart ahead of me and jumped out of the way. At this point, he saw me and slammed on the brakes. It was such a close call. He just starred at me after the whole thing. He looked at me so blankly...like he couldn't understand what was happening...like he couldn't figure out where I came from...he looked really confused and disoriented. I think he may have been on something...We just starred at eachother for about 30 seconds and then I walked to my car and drove away, shaking the whole way home.
I called Jay and said, "I almost got hit by a car!"
After I told him about everything he said, "Well, I'm glad you're alright."
It hit me in that moment how if I was 2 seconds slower, that would have been a completely different phone call, probably made by a stranger to let my husband know that I had been hurt. If the 'almost' was removed from that sentence, I could be in serious pain right now...laid up for weeks, unable to take care of Caden...or worse. As freaked out as I was from 'almost' being hit by a car, life is going to be completely different because of that one little word. Thank you God for 'almost'.

Baby Polar Bear

Caden was adamantly protesting a morning nap this morning, so after about 45 minutes of yelling, playing, throwing and being pretty funny in his crib, I decided to take him out and assume that today would be a one nap day.
After a yummy lunch of toast, chicken breast sandwich meat and applesauce, Caden and I decided that it would be a good pool day!
I slathered him up with sunscreen and put on his little swimmers followed by his stylin trunks and we headed down. There were about 4 couples suntanning by the pool when we arrived and I went over to the pool stairs to feel the water. It was pretty darn cold. I put Caden's feet in the water, expecting that he would freak out about the temperature but to my amazement, he wanted to go further in! So I braced myself and got in the pool, leading him one baby step at a time (literally) until we were both fully submerged in the water. He loved it! He splashed and kicked and laughed hysterically, periodically taking a moment to shiver and then resumed the fun. Everyone at the pool was watching us out of the corner of their eyes, until finally
I heard a girl say to her boyfriend, "If a baby can do it, we can do it!"
They came to the edge of the pool, counted off and jumped in. Afterwards they screamed "The water must be sub-zero temperatures."
They jumped out and looked over at Caden and said, "How is he doing that!?!?!"
My assumption would be his part-Canadian blood. I expect that he will be able to endure the best of all seasons due to his mixed-cultured self....The crisp wind of winter, the overwhelming heat of summer and the freezing temperatures of March pool water.
I'm thinking of signing him up for the Polar Bear swim next January.

Crazy Lazy Days

I haven't posted in a while...a while being several days...I have no excuse except that life has been both crazy and lazy lately. I'm getting alot of sleep which makes me happy. Caden has been sleeping in until 8:30 and I have to admit, so have I. So my mornings are pretty lazy but then I get him up, dressed, fed, then I get me fed, showered, dressed and we head out the door to take on the day. We've been walking alot lately. I'm eatting well and think I finally made it through the sugar detox that was slowing me down. Today was my first day back to the gym since Christmas. I had them pause my membership so that I could rest my back and my bank account at the same time so now we're back in the swing of things. I was worried about Caden not wanting to go in the kid zone but he did great! I think it's going to be alot easier now that he is older.
I've gotta give God props for majestically putting $200.00 into our bank account that was not there before. I swear, I checked yesterday and we had a certain, very low amount of money and I check again today and there was $200.00 more. No record of money being deposited or creditted to the account...it was just, there! I prayed as I gave money to our church this week and said, "God, I know you'll take care of us" and I was right to trust. It's not a miraculous story of receiving 10,000 bucks in the mail but it works for me.
I'm not going to question, I'm just going to be thankful. God is so faithful. We've been able to elliminate alot of our debt lately which is a great thing going into summer when Jay's business usually slows down. Steps closer to getting house. Make me happy.
Aside from that I've been cleaning, playing, running errands, selling make-up and feeling pretty accomplished at the end of each day. Then I lay my head down in the evenings and take a nice, 10-hour sleep to prepare me for the following day.
Caden slept like garbage for 7 months, I'm taking advantage of this!

Hilarious Baby

One Year Old Arrested

I was trying to find educational material for one year olds (ok, I'm a dork) and I ran across this PRICELESS STORY:

"A one-year-old baby was arrested and spent the night in prison in Mexico.

The baby was arrested in Puerto Progresso when his father, Roger Sagundo was caught trying to steal six vodka bottles from a supermarket La Cuarta reports.

Mr Sagundo put the bottles on the baby trolley and tried to leave the supermarket, but was caught by security.

Police spokesperson said: 'The policeman who got there first thought it was the right thing to do to list the baby as an accomplice, because the bottles were in his trolley. Father and son were sent to prison but only in the next morning the policeman on duty at prison realised the son was a baby.'"


From now on when Caden is being naughty I can reassure myself that at least he isn't stealing booze and spending his nights in the clink.

It's 9 O'clock on a Saturday....

Actually it's 11 o'clock on a Wednesday but I can't seem to get that Billy Joel tune out of my head.
Another dissapointing American Idol tonight with the return of Sanjiya (spelling?)
Honestly, who is voting for this guy?
Today wasn't as bad as yesterday. Mostly because I didn't leave my apartment...or take off my pjs for that matter. A very unproductive day in the life of me. With the entire Stock clan home sick today, we pretty much all sat around and did absolutly nothing....this rarely happens so I don't feel too guilty about it. I was wearing my Rod Stewart shirt all day and Caden kept looking at the life size picture of Rod's face and laughing hysterically at him. It was pretty funny.
I'm hoping and praying his little ear infections are better soon. He is not a happy camper when he's sick. Today he threw a fit for about 10 minutes because I took the TV remote from him. Is this the begining of the tantrum phase? It's hard because he understands the word 'no' (and adheres to it 50% of the time) but I feel like he is still too young to truly understand discipline. It frustrates me that I can't have a conversation with him about why his actions are not acceptable. Yesterday I told him I was going to put him in 'time out' and he just looked at me with this goofy look as if to say, "Mama, I don't understand a word you just said." It was pretty funny. I laughed at myself. I guess the only thing I can do now is work with what I've got and not react to his fits so he knows they are pointless. Who knows. I don't think any parent knows exactly what to do in these situations but we just try our best. I don't pretend to be one of those mom's who has all the answers. I certainly am not a baby expert but I can rest in knowing that I'm the best Mom Caden's got.
I have a feeling God is going to get back at me for saying, "My child will never act like that." I also know he's not feeling well and that he doesn't have any words so whining and crying and yelling are his ways of expressing his negative emotions. I can't wait till he is old enough for me to say, "I can't hear you when you're whining." Jay and I have some great oneliners planned for the future.
Well I should go. Sitting at the computer is one of the things that hurts my back the most (who would have guessed?) so I'm needing to pace myself from my blogging addiction. Tomorrow I have to help decorate that genesischurch annex for the St. Patricks Day breakfast on Saturday and I have a lunch date with Kris and her 6 kids, which she homeschools by the way. I marvel at that woman.
Adios Amigos.

What a sucky day

Have you ever had one of those days where it really couldn't have gotten any suckier? That was my today.
Sick baby who screamed/whined/threw little tantrums all day, I have some wierd col-flu like bug, I get all dressed up in the midst of a screaming baby so that we could go out with Jay and his boss for some Bonefish Grill only to wait in the car for an hour and 10 minutes with a screaming, now very smelly baby just to have to turn around and head back home because a 7 O'clock dinner with the fam turned into an 8:30 dinner at which a screaming baby would have been very, VERY tired and cranky. The entire way home I gripe about how thoughtless men can be, to let a woman sit in a car in the parking lot with her child while they 'talk business.' Grrr. I come home, looking absolutly stunning I might add, and go to get Caden ready for bed and he has literally pooped himself silly and it is EVERYWHERE...thus getting it all over my stunning outfit. Why did I even shower today?
I finally calm him down, get him to sleep and sit infront of my computer to dwell on my extremely sucky day.
The only thing good about days like this are that tomorrow probably won't suck as much as today did.
Bring on Wednesday.

Caden's Jams

Caden has recently fallen in love with "The Wiggles."
I guess a trip to the video store is in order.

You can't change what you don't acknowledge

Breakfast @ 7:30am: Slice of whole wheat toast with tsp of peanut butter
Snack @ 11:00am: Banana
Lunch @ 12:30pm: Can of tuna on one piece of whole wheat toast, bottle of water
Snack @ 4:00pm: After ramshacking my kitchen cupboards I find a half a bag of milk chocolate chips and eat them...all.

I am seriously addicted to sugar. Up until 4pm I felt like absolute poo poo, craving sugar. After my fix, I felt a million times better physically but very guilty mentally.

I think I have an addictive personality. Too bad there's no rehab for people like me.

I am about to go for a walk...for dinner I will have salmon, brocolli and brown rice ...tomorrow I will try again.

Starting Over...again and again and again....

Tomorrow I attempt to begin a weightloss regimine. Today I purge my cabinets of sugary foods. Tonight we go grocery shopping for fat-free this and multi-grain that. I love food. I love sweets. Chocolate, caramel, icing...these are my friends.
I think breaking a junk food addiction is similar to stopping smoking or any other devastating habit. I do really well up until Caden's afternoon nap. As soon as I put him down I go on the food rampage. This is what Satan uses to tempt me and make me feel bad about myself. Not cool.
My back is at the point now where I can begin working out again. My gym membership starts up again on March 23rd and if Caden will behave himself in the kidz zone, I am all set.
If you go back and scan my blogs you will see about 20 entries like this over the past 3 years. Ugh.
I just hope I can stick it out this time. I'm not very trustworthy in this department, constantly making promises to myself that I never keep, but as I was bathing suit shopping this week I realized that I am never going to be comfortable in my own skin until I can loose some of it.
Ugh...wish me luck.

Get to know me...piece by piece

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

Check this out.

I've been having a few conversations with different people about choices and how to know which moves God wants you to make.
Pastor Brian Hunter just wrote a blog that I think everyone should read if they are dealing with this same confusion.
Click here to get there.

"You Give Me Fever"

Caden had four shots yesterday so he is a feverish little bug today. He was crawling around with his head sliding on the carpet so I thought maybe he should lie down. Poor little guy. We were going to go buy some little swimmers and go to the pool but we'll have to put that off for a little while. It's been so beautiful outside for the past few days. A nagging little reminder that I need to loose weight if I am going to be comfortable this summer....ugh...is there a magic pill somewhere?
I've been having some crazy dreams lately...dreaming about people that I haven't seen in like 10 years. I've also been dreaming and then experiencing elements of what I dreamed the day after. Nothin major, but it's been pretty consistant this week. Maybe this is the begining of my prophetic gift! Here's to hoping. The thing I hate most about my dreams is how vivid they are. Last night I was climbing a mountain ALL night long and I woke up exhausted. I wish that some night I could just go to sleep and wake up and not remember dreaming anything. I think I'd feel more rested.
This is what I'm talkin about:

Turf War

Bring it on!
I put my Mary Kay business card on the bulletin board at our apartment complex and within 48 hours another woman had put her Mary Kay card right beneath mine. I contemplated removing it, but I remembered God was watching and left it alone.
The following day I notice that my card was gone and she has three cards on the board!
I snatched her cards off and stomped to my car...feeling convicted I immediatly turned around and put her cards back up. I still have a tendency to picture God as an angry old man with a stick and I really didn't want to be struck from the heavens.
My husband however removed the business cards and ripped them up, all the while stiffleing an evil laugh.
So I decided that instead of putting my cards on that particular bulletin board, I would put some on the bulletin board on the other side of the complex. So far so good...but I'm still looking over my shoulder and sleeping with one eye open.

The Big Birthday Bash

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This is for Lance

OK, here's my list...
1. The perfect song to hear while you randomly walk into a venue with your best friend while an unknown band is playing: "Don't Know Why"- Nora Jones
2.The perfect song to hate because you listened to it so many times while studying during exam week that it brings back horrible memories: "Tiny Dancer" - Elton John
3.The perfect song to drift into while the world slowly fades away: "WatchTower" - Dave Matthews Band.
4.The perfect song to totally rip-off and turn into an Outback Steakhouse commercial soundtrack: I have NO idea.
And last but not least...
5.The perfect song for the worship band at Genesis to sound check to: I agree with Lance..."Come As You Are" by Nirvana. We rocked that one out!