Head on Over

to A bowl full of Lemons with the fabulous Toni! If you aren't following her you absolutely have to! She is amazing and has great tips for cleaning and organizing. And right now she is hosting an amazing give away for a $149.50 set of Tupperware Rectangular Modular Mates set to help with all of her organizing challenges!

It's Miltary Spouse Weekly Round-up

Head over to Consider the Lillies and link of a post from this week. It's a great way to catch up on some of our favorite bloggers, find new bloggers, and just get our there in the blogging community!

How to make it all work?!

As you all know, my Sailorman and I are currently in escrow on our first home in Maryland. It is an extremely exciting time for us, but it is also extremely stressful! Thankfully we have a wonderful realtor who has really stepped up to the plate and taken care of so many things before I even have to ask! This has been especially important to me because our house in Maryland, I am in Minnesota, and my husband is deployed! Anyways, when my husband got orders to Maryland we decided we wanted to do an individual PCS move so that I could move and live with my family in Minnesota for a while (we are stationed in San Diego currently). When we got orders in August, Sailorman was scheduled to deploy the only thing was that the date kept changing! Sometimes it was November, sometimes it was January, sometimes it was March, and sometimes they didn't know if they were going! (Typical right?) Well, we already knew that they ship was going to be gone all of October and then leave shortly after. For the month of October I was already planning on coming to Minnesota, and then in Jan (the at the time most current guess of departure) I was going to come live in Minnesota. Well when we started working out all the logistics we realized that it would be much easier for me to just come here in October so that while the hubs was away I had some help with the munchkin and only had to focus on her and homework. So little by little we started to pack up our stuff, sell the furniture, and get everything ready for 2 moves, the first one being a partial and temp move to Minnesota, and the second one being further off to our new home Maryland. It was a crazy time, but it all came together pretty nicely. We sold most of our big furniture, only keeping the contents of our house and munchkin's  furniture. We put it all into a big box storage unit where we paid for them to store it and then could pay for them to ship it when the time came.

Well that's where we are currently at, it is almost time to ship our goods from San Diego to Maryland! Which is an easy no brainer task I will call them tell them where I want it when and off it will go! The difficulty now is in how to get my daughter, myself, and all the stuff we have accumulated in the last 6 months! Originally SailorMan was supposed to be coming home in the spring for his PCS date which would make the move easy-peasy (sort-of!) he would fly out of where ever they are, arrive in San Diego then fly to Minnesota, and then we would drive to MD. However, as it would typically be in our military community, that isn't set in stone and the date seems to change everyday. This I have come to terms with and I know that whenever he gets home he gets home, but I have to go to Maryland with the little one and get our house in order within 45 days of closing on the house. So my second dad is going to help make that happen! He is going to drive my car and then a few days later the baby and I will fly in to meet him! He's going to stay a few days to help me get my stuff out of storage and get some things in order with getting furniture etc because as you know from reading above.. we sold every piece of furniture we owned except the baby's stuff! This however is a good thing because none of the furniture we owned would have fit into the house we bought!

Anyways, that's still all the easy stuff and decisions. We still haven't decided how to get all our stuff to MD! Well, actually we have, but it still seems crazy to me! We were planning to have a hitch put on our car and then tow a small u-haul trailer, but after research discovered that our car just isn't built to properly operate with a uhaul even if it could we would run the risk of messing it up. That obviously wasn't an option anymore so we started to look into others things. We shipped 3 boxes here before we moved via UPS and it cost almost 150 dollars so we obviously didn't want to go that route again. What we did discover is that the post office offer freight parcel service that costs about 40 a box for big boxes. It's going to be a little pricey, but still will be cheaper than putting a hitch on the car, renting a trailer, and potentially ruining our transmission or something!

So my task for the next few weeks is to get some boxes, and go down to the storage in the basement and start sorting through all of our storage bins. We have a few of them that whenever my room that my daughter and I are sharing would get too full of stuff we didn't need currently I would load into storage bins. So they are all mixed with random clutter. My job is to sort through them and figure out what can go where and when and see a rough estimate of how many boxes we are going to need. I am looking forward to this because it will help me feel a little more prepared and in control of what's going on!

So that's the update! We close in a few weeks and will be moving a few week after that! Lots to get done in the mean time. Here's to hoping it all goes relatively smoothly and that SailorMan gets to come sooner rather then later!

Day 3! Part 2..

Sadly, I didn't make it through day 3 quite as well as I had hoped, but even still I am pretty proud of myself. My family had a potato breakfast skillet type thing for dinner and that's what my daughter was eating and I couldn't help but snack off of it. I never had a plate if my own but definitely stole a few too many potatoes. I guess you win some you loose some. Tonight while playing games with my fam they all had left over meatballs that I LOOOVE and chocolate and I didn't give into temptation either time so I guess I should be happy about that. I didn't make it to the grocery store to get my supplies for my diet, but I plan to go tomorrow morning!

I have lots of topics I wanted to blog about, but as of tonight I am burnt out with everything going on, I have a splitting headache, and my jaw is killing me! I am going to email my husband a few more times because I miss him and then try and get some rest.

Day 3!

Well, I'm on day three and I have to say I am so proud of myself! Yesterday (Day 2 of the Cleanse) was a little tough but I pushed through. While my husband is away I have been living in MN with family and that has made it incredibly hard for me to diet and loose weight! I am the only one dieting so there are still lots of sweets, junk food, and other tempting things for my brothers and sisters. I can truly pat myself on the back because while playing a game yesterday both my sister, her boyfriend, and my youngest sister all ate chocolate peanut butter bananas which happens to be my all time favorite thing! I didn't even have a single bite or taste! So I am pretty proud. I did however had a single bite of meatloaf while I was making my salad. My family had meatloaf, potatoes, and shells with cheese which happens to be one of my favorite meals so I am pretty proud of the fact that I only had a bite of meatloaf! I also had a small handful of chex mix while I was setting up snack for the youth group at church but over all I think I am doing really well and I am very pleased. I also did really good with my water! You're supposed to drink 2-4Liters and I drank about 3!

As of this morning for day 3 I was down 7 pounds from what I weight last week. I know that this will change as I go back to having some regular meals but I am feeling pretty good about it! I decided to hold off on working out until tomorrow when I am done with the cleanse and onto the regular dieting aspect. I am already working towards drinking my second Liter of water, and had my shake and a tangerine. I was going to drink my green tea in a bit. I'm also incredibly proud because Thursday I got to an awesome Bible study and they usually have morning treats like scones, muffins, etc! Well today they had coffee cake that smelled divine, and I didn't eat a single crumb!!! So I feel like I am truly making progress in areas I didn't think I could or would!

I have been some decisions about my diet and I think I am going to limit myself to one grain a week always whole grain whether its a roll, pasta, or rice. I am going to aim for only once a week. And also once a week I will give myself one cheat meal. I think I need to hold myself back as much as possible in the beginning while it's the hardest especially. I plan on going to the grocery store later to get lots of veggies, fruits, and meats for the week!

Wordless Wednesday

Day 2!

Well, Day one went surprisingly well! I drank all 3 shakes, had a tasty salad with shrimp for dinner, and a tangerine as a snack. However, if I'm going to be honest about my journey through weight loss... I had a spooon full of mashed potatoes when I was feeding Kaylee and ate 2 tangerine's instead of one. I also didn't drink nearly enough water so today I am trying to catch up!! That's essential to this whole process.. over all though.. I'm really happy and proud of myself! I didn't work out yesterday which was a downer but I just have had so much going on and a fussy sick baby that I couldn't however I am making plans to take care of business this afternoon when I finish my math homework.

another post to come!

Today's the day!

We got snowed in Sunday and Monday so I wasn't able to get to the store and get the essential foods for my diet so it officially started today and I am so pumped! I decided to do the shakeology cleanse which is 3 days of 3 shakes a day one snack like a fruit, lots of water, one glass of green tea a day, and a dinner salad with a small serving of poultry or seafood. I am feeling good about this I know it's going to be tough as a stay at home mom but I know that I want this and I think it's the perfect way to jump start my new healthy lifestyle! I will post tonight and let you know how I feel!

30 Days to Transformation..

So here we are.. I haven't blogged in what feels like ages and it's really very depressing to me, but sometimes other things have to take priority. I could talk details of what the last couple of weeks are going to be like.. but instead I'm going to talk about what the next couple weeks are going to look like for me.

When the beginning of the new year came around I came out with a list of things I was going to do and get done.. and while I wanted to accomplish everything.. I'm realizing that realistically I just don't have that kind of time... I have not accomplished all my goals and at first I beat myself up but now I am accepting my faults and trying to move forward in the best way possible.

Two of the things that are most important to me right now are becoming physically healthy and spiritually healthy. While I don't think I am a mess in either department I know there are so many things I could grow in as well. I decided recently that I was going to do the Chalene Johnson's 30-Day Challenge that is all about organization and achieving your goals which are two things that I honestly think having some direction will help me achieve. My goal is to get back on track with my reading to accomplish reading the entire Bible this year as well as doing my Bible study once daily. As far as fitness goes, I adore my baby, but I have never in my life felt worse about my body. And.. don't get me wrong, I know that having a child is a gift and I am so incredibly thankful that God blessed me with my perfect little pint sized princess but it definitely took it's tole on my body and my self-esteem. I've been trying on and off for several months to diet and exercise but I just finally about 2 weeks ago hit my all time low and realized that I can not go on this way.. my body may never be what it was when I was 18 and I am completely okay with that.. but I can't go on being upset when I put on clothes, feeling uncomfortable in anything but a sweatshirt or looking at pictures of others feeling almost depressed. That's not healthy and it's not okay and I shouldn't have to live that way. I know that if I at least feel like I'm eating healthy, good portions, and working out.. thoroughly putting in work and trying I know that I will feel leaps and bounds better.. even just my sporadic workouts the last few weeks have left me feeling really good. So to go along with my 30 days to master organization and accomplishing my goals I bought shakeology (which I will do a post about this week) and the Jillian Michael's 30-day shred and I plan to do both of those for the 30 days of the challenge with the gym 4-5 times a week for treadmill and row machine. I think it's going to be so good for me to start them all at once and I feel like 30 days is an attainable goal.

So.. anyways.. what I need from all you guys is some additional encouragement and support and ideas for healthy snacks, meals, side dishes, whatever the case may be! I will be posting my progress and talking about how it is all going..

Calling All Bloggers -- Milies and All!

Head on over to Marine Parents for the military blog hop! It's a great way to connect with other bloggers both military and not! so head on over!

Our House Hunting Adventure..

This past week was a crazy week to say the least! With 4 days notice.. I bought a plane ticket to Washington DC, reserved a rental car, and booked a hotel. I did homework non-stop to try and get everything done before I left and even got a mild case of the stomach flu the day before flying out! You better believe that anything that could go wrong on this trip did! The flights were fine, my Kaylee is the best flier around no joke I get non-stop compliments on what a good girl she is! The hardest part was that she's 19 pounds of dead weight because she hasn't quite figured out to latch on to you. When it was just her and the carry on it wasn't so bad because I had a spare hand to help keep her in control, but once I got to DC and got my suitcase.. it all went down hill from there.. literally pulling a suitcase, carrying a huge bag that's a mix of a diaper bag, purse, and carry-on essentials, and a 19 pound 8 1/2 month old... well it's virtually impossible.. I don't even want to imagine what it would have been like had I brought my own carseat with me... anyways we finally get to the rental car terminal after massive mis-communications and we get up to Budget's counter and she takes my ID and credit card and starts getting everything checked in... mind you I called the day before to confirm my reservation, confirm my under 25 fee, and confirm my carseat rental.. and I was told no problem.. enjoy your flight see you tomorrow. So back to Sunday night, at 7pm, alone in DC with an 8 1/2 month old.. and literally I don't know a single person who lives around there... The lady is checking me in.. stops and says.. wait you aren't 25... and I'm say no I'm not I explicitly said that in the reservation and yesterday when I called.. her exact words were "well we don't rent to under 25"... QUEUE THE HEART ATTACK HERE... I said "no, you will rent me the car and charge me 20 dollars extra a day because I'm under 25 that's what I was told on multiple occasions" the manager walks over some grumpy old man and says "what's the problem?" the lady explains and he simply says "nope we don't do that in DC we don't rent to anyone under 25..." then he says "actually no one rents to under 25 in DC" ...QUEUE THE TEARS here.. and I'm talking full blown sobbing, shaking, can't breathe kind of tears...and these people don't have ANY sympathy for me standing there, ALONE, with all my stuff, and my baby... NOTHING.. well after like 5 minutes he says "actually I think hertz might at the other end of the terminal" so I walk away pissed and promising to write a complaint letter about their crappy company and their crappy attitudes and service..

I get over to Hertz and the funny thing is.. she knew right away I had come from budget and said it happens all the time.. she ensured me they would rent to me, they had a car, and a carseat.. so I get all checked out... but little do I know... it's going to cost me almost 100 dollars a day!!! before I was paying 200 total for 4 days! oh well though at least I had a car and a carseat and I was on my way...

We hop in the car and finally are on our way for the 30 min drive down to our city we are searching in.. turn on the GPS, punch in the address, get Kay a bottle and we were off.. the first thing the GPS does it lead you out of the airport on this ramp that goes up and around and drops you on the freeway.. it's night time and right as it puts me on the freeway the national monument was RIGHT THERE lit up and looking gorgeous.. It took my breath away and I was swelling with pride.. just driving through DC I was so in awe of everything.. I'd only been there once before in 9th grade for a marching band thing.. and it was so jam packed that a lot of it is  blur really.. so anyways.. driving through DC was a special treat.. just thinking about all the history and everything this nation stands for.. everything my husband and all my friends and their husbands fight for.. I was more proud in that moment than I'd been in a long time!!

The drive down was beautiful even at night.. I couldn't help but notice all the trees and just how everything felt peaceful.. when we got to our hotel we went up and checked in and my girl and I just enjoyed the night relaxing after a long emotional day and getting some much needed rest in our King size bed!

The next two days were a whirlwind of exciting and upsetting news, houses we loved, houses that were terrible, houses with potential, houses I could vision our family in, and houses that made me want to run and hide, houses that I didn't even want to touch they were so gross, and houses that left me going.. seriously? On Tuesday, at our very last stop, we found THEE house... Thinking about it now I couldn't be happier and it makes me laugh because I almost didn't go see it.. the pictures aren't as flattering as the amazing little house is! It has everything and more that we could have wanted... it's 27 years old but literally the only thing that shows the age on that house.. is the age.. basically every component has been redone in the last year, from roof, windows, and fencing.. to water heater, furnace and HVAC, to flooring, paint, and light fixtures! It has a two car garage which is virtually unheard of in this old city, kitchen, breakfast nook, dinning room, living room, family room, it has 4 bedrooms, and 2 1/2 baths, and HUGE closets and the perfect back yard, it's walking distance to the neighborhood center with the pool, tennis courts, and playgrounds, and across the main road from a cute little pond and jogging trail! Here is a sneak peak of the outside.

We put in our offer Tuesday evening, and within 2 hours, he accepted and we were in contract!! We are so excited and now everything is riding on the home inspection this upcoming Tuesday! If all goes well we should be closing by mid March and my family will HOPEFULLY be moving there mid April depending on the my sailorman's deployment schedule!

Kay and I were supposed to leave Wednesday morning bright and early but with all the craziness in the midwest our flights were changed up.. that's a story for a-whole-nother post because that was craziness but anyways after a long day of travel we got home safely Thursday night and have been enjoying being home with family! So that's our big news.. we put in an offer for our house.. and we are so excited!

Lots more fun posts to come.. just wanted to share this happy news with you!

stay tuned

For a big special blog post.. coming soon! I have had some crazy adventures in the last two weeks and cannot wait to share!! But first much catch up on homework after my big trip!