Newport Beach trip pics...

I'm going to have to do these pics in two parts, since I want to publish more than five pics.  Anyhoo, here's Deklan's shirt from Uncle Scott and Aunt Donna...too cute!

J-Bo and Ambo's wedding annoucement...congrats, you two lovebirds!  These pics were taken during a very long, cold, windy winter walk on Newport Beach.

Deklan learning to "give some dap" from Uncle Scott...

Donna and the up-cycled t-shirt yarn bag that I made for her.  She also announced during the trip that she is preggo with their first babe!!  Congrats, momma!

 A close-up of the bag.  I loved this one so much, if I could have kept it for myself, I would have.  But I think the bag matches Donna's personality really well, so I couldn't justify keeping it.  Maybe I can find another groovy tie-dye shirt and complimenting colors to make a bag for me!

To be continued in the next post...

More Newport Beach pics...

Here are a few more pics from the Newport Beach trip.  There are many more...I'll put them on my myspace if any family members out there want to see them!

The obligatory in-front-of-the-Christmas-tree pic.  It was the first week of December.  I love my boys!

My silly husband and brothers-in-law, wearing the bags that I crocheted for Amber, Janet, and Donna (respectively) as rasta hats.
This is as close to surfing as Trav got at Huntington Beach.  Scott and J-bo rented boards and tried, but they barely made it out past the break.  The waves were about shoulder-high for the most part, and  there were actually a few that were overhead.  I tried to tell them that the waves were bigger than they seemed, but they didn't listen to the old surfer-chick.  Hey, just because I haven't surfed in ages doesn't mean that I've forgotten everything!  Well, at least they can say that they surfed Huntington Beach...that's one thing I can't say!

I loved this...the look of bliss on Deklan's face, with the remnants of the Pacific sunset in the background...
If Trav wasn't being a total dork and Gavin wasn't sound asleep in the sling, this would have been an awesome family pic.  It's still one of my favs of the bunch.  The chick in the foreground is my new sister-in-law-to-be, Amber.  Welcome to the family, chickadee!

Going back to the Spark...

I went back on Sparkpeople.com for the first time in a long time today.  Trav and I joined Bally's the other day (great deal going on till the end of the month!), and he's been dropping pounds without even trying just by cutting out junk food.  I cut out junk and nothing happens.  *sigh*  I have more weight to lose than he does, and I have to put forth more effort to lose it, so I'd better get a move on!  I was thinking of some things I could do to help me lose weight more efficiently.  In 13 weeks, I could lose approximately 25 lbs., if I try REEEEEALLY hard.  That would put me a a pre-first-pregnancy weight!  Not quite to my goal, but close.  Anyhoo, I was thinking of some things that helped me lose weight.  The first was getting up in the morning and drinking two big glasses of water first thing, and take my vitamins.  That starts me off with a quarter of my water intake already in, plus a full tummy and a balanced start to the day.  The second was to eat a good breakfast.  Even if it's a smoothie on the run, at least I'll be getting protein, fiber, and fruit servings.  The third is working out whenever I can.  This will be easier now that I'm a gym member again, and the gym has kid care.  That makes all the difference in the world to me.  Now that I'm working full-time again, and working day shift to boot, I'm really active during the day...less sitting on the day shift as compared to the night shift.  That should help as well, when coupled with better diet and less intake.  The fourth is meal preparation.  It helps a LOT to have salad fixings all prepared in the fridge so that all I have to do is open a few containers and throw a little bit of this and a little bit of that in a bowl for a salad.  That an having some good stand-bys already made, like chicken and shrimp salad, and cubed cooked chicken to throw on top of salads, hard boiled eggs, that sort of thing...quick, good quality protein for snacks or quick meals.  I need to do this.  I need to do it for me.  I want to be healthy.  I'll probably never be thin, and I don't care.  I just want to be healthy, have some endurance, and look better.  I hate seeing pictures of myself and sighing and wishing I were more fit.  Having said that, I got some pictures of the family from our Newport Beach trip, and they were actually pretty decent.  I'll throw them in on the next post.

I had a dream last night that I was pregnant.  Wishful thinking, I guess.  This cycle is all off anyway...when I got sick with that terrible stomach flu, it came about a week late.  Now my moon cycle is not coinciding with my biological cycle, and everything is just whack.  Oh, well.  Maybe it will get back in synch on its own.  Speaking of pregnancy, Trav talked to Scott yesterday.  Donna and the baby are doing well, and she's showing!  Baby bellies are so awesome, especially when it's your own!  I remember how I felt when I woke up one morning and suddenly I had a little bump.  Then the bump grew and grew, and people started noticing that you're pregnant, and you had to start wearing maternity clothes because nothing else would fit.  I love it!  And I'll bet Donna is the cutest little momma in the world!

I want to grow a patio garden.  Some herbs, some veggies, and some flowers.  I've been looking into the best ways to do it.  I wonder if we should wait until we settle in somewhere long-term?  Well, planting season is pretty much here, although I suppose I could start a little bit late.  I also want a worm farm after we settle in somewhere, for composting and castings for my plants.  

Are some people just more balanced than others?  Why do I almost constantly feel like I'm having a hard time balancing my life?  Is it because I'm a multi-purpose mom?  I just feel like I'm falling a bit short in the wife and mom department from time to time, because of work and all.  Surely there's a way to make it work.  And throwing in school in a few months (hopefully), how is it all going to work?  I know it CAN work, I just don't see it.  Trav is taking on more and more in the cooking and cleaning department, which makes things considerably easier.  That's how it will work.  We will work together, as we always do.  

The Mac is good!  I'm still figuring it all out, but I'm comfortable on the internet now, anyway.  I was using the PC for mostly everything up till a couple of days ago.  

We're watching Matthew today.  A nurse that I work with was having a hard time finding childcare for her 4-year-old on weekends, so I figured a little "mad money" for Trav and  a friend for Deklan would be good.  It's working out well so far, and it's a load off for Maria, so it's all good.  

Computers and kiddos...

Well, here I am, typing my first blog on our brand new Mac!  Yup, we've made the switch from PC to Mac...a difficult transition, I'll tell you.  Not because I LIKE our PC, mind you, just the switch in operating systems, and this little Mac keyboard.  We still have our old faithful Gateway, we're just sick to death of the bugs that have come along with Vista.  Vista is the devil.  Really.  It has its perks, but they're not perky enough to make us stay with PC!  Right now Trav has both computers set up on the desk while he continues to overhaul his Revelation project...he calls it his "command center".  Then the Mac will be our day-to-day computer and the PC will be my school computer.  We're going to keep it, de-buggify it, and upgrade it so Trav can do his PC gaming and all, and I won't have to worry about the computer spontaneously shutting down every few minutes because of a bug that we're currently fighting.  So, I'm going to spend part of the night tinkering around in Mac-world, trying to get familiar with it.

So, I ended up having to take Deklan to an urgent care Sunday.  He's been sick for a couple of weeks, and while the rest of the family got over the flu after a couple of weeks, Deklan just never got better.  So he ran a fever for two days Friday and Saturday, then Sunday was his first day without a fever.  I thought we were seeing the light at the end of the tunnel when he broke out in a rash.  I had seen this rash before...it was scarlet fever.  My poor little man had strep!  So, off to the Doc, a super nice guy, who took one look at his throat and tonsils and pronounced my diagnosis correct, looked at the rash and confirmed scarlet fever, gave him a shot of Rocephin and a prescription for Amoxicillin and we were on our way.  Deklan is already so much better, back to his rambunctious self.  I missed him!  Gavin is almost well, his cough has turned dry and his nose is drying up nicely.  

I spent a few hours this morning at a spa!  My wonderful husband had scheduled a massage for me behind my back!  It was really heaven, so relaxing and refreshing.  The massage therapist asked about the degree of pressure that I liked for the deep-tissue massage...I replied that I like it as hard as she can do it without breaking bones, which made her chuckle.  Almost 40 minutes of hands, forearms, and elbows in my back and shoulders later, I was free of the knots that plague me!  Then I got a not-so-deep rest of the body massage.  Then I sat for a while in the sauna, then the steam room till I looked red like a lobster.  It was so nice!  Trav and I are determined to start taking better care of ourselves.  We've been doing a lot better as far as eating well and eating less, and have been losing weight just from that alone.  But we're going to the local Bally's this afternoon to take a tour of the gym and childcare center to see if we want to join up.  They're having a pretty rockin' special right now, and there's a gym about a mile from our house.  We'll see how it goes.  I'd love to start working out again.  I love how I feel when I'm working out.  I just feel better about myself, plus I feel relaxed, and I sleep better.  I'd like to get in shape before I get pregnant again.  Since it looks like we'll be trying again around July, it looks like I've got about 3-4 months to lose some weight and establish a routine so I won't fall out of it when I do conceive.  They have awesome classes and yoga (joy!!), and aqua classes at a different location that would be great for the later months of pregnancy.  When I got pregnant with Gavin, I was in a good schedule as far as working out.  Then morning sickness kicked my butt and I didn't go to the gym anymore after that.  I would love to try to have a healthy pregnancy, one that would also be conducive to an easier labor...or at least more endurance, anyway.  I plan on drinking my teas and taking my vitamins religiously and continuing to work out even if I don't want to.  Might help my back pain, too.  I suppose if I really worked out and watched my diet, I could lose about 20-25 lbs before we start trying.

Time to clean the house.  Blah.

What a busy month!

I can't believe it's been a month since I last posted! We've all been sick and busy, so I suppose that's why this month has flown.

I decided to stay on at Community. They're offering me a good rate of pay, a relocation bonus, and a sign-on bonus, all of which will help our end cause of getting out of debt. I sure didn't see this coming! We came out here with the intent to travel, hopefully get to Redding so Travis could go back to school, be out here for a couple of years, then leave. Now, we find that all of our plans changed, which is fine. We've learned a lot in these last couple of years about flexibility!! Now I am the one going back to school, we never made it to Redding, and we're staying in Fresno for two years! Talk about a complete 180! Strangely enough, though, Trav and I are both fine with it. We just figure this is the direction God's leading us into, and that's good. We both have a real peace about this path. We're hoping to be able to find a house to live in, instead of an apartment. We like this apartment, but it's upstairs (we drive our downstair neighbors bananas, I'm sure), and we'd love to have a yard for the kids and Ziggy.

The whole family has been sick. Sick, sick, sick! I'm pretty sure it's the flu, as severe as it's been. Thankfully, the stomach affliction part is over with us all, but we're all still battling the respiratory side. Deklan is taking the worst of it, as he often does. Ever since he had RSV as a baby, any cold or bug that he gets hits his lungs so hard, and it's difficult for him to shake it. I'm a bit worried at this point that he could develop pneumonia. We don't have insurance right now, as my benefits don't start until 30 days after my date of hire. If he's not improving over the weekend, we're going to take him to a walk-in clinic. I'm pumping him full of fluids, giving him steam showers and expectorants, and he's resting plenty. I just hope that he's going to be O.K. without having to go to the doctor.

I guess that's about it for now. Gavin is yelling and Deklan is puny, so I must tend to them.