Half way there!

Tim has been gone for a whole week, and will be gone until next Friday, so we are half way there. This week has been great! Joya has been fantastic and Timmy has been sleeping great, which makes me a happy and patient mommy!
Monday we stayed at home for the morning and played at the pool in the afternoon. Then I went to a new class I'm taking called a "mystery quilt class" and then went to workout, my mom watched the kids for me. I love the new class and am very excited to make the quilt. That night Timmy slept until 5 am and then went right back to sleep until 9. It was awesome!
Tuesday we went to the library and then to meet our MOPs friends at Central Park. Joya loves a little girl named Audry, but Joya calls her "Aud-th-ry", its very cute. I took the kids on a run and ended at the pool again! Then Joya and Timmy came with me to a planning meeting I had with three other ladies. We are planning a VBS type week for a low income area of Corvallis. I have planned for two days of the week and took on a little more than I thought I would but its ok and I am excited to put it on. That night Timmy again slept all night until 6 and then was up for 2 hours and then took a hour and a half nap.
Wednesday I took Joya and Timmy to the park and on a walk down by the river, we ended at Nana and Papa's house and played there a little while. I also mowed the lawn with Timmy on my back in the backpack, and Joya playing in the back yard. It went great until Joya swung the see saw and didn't watch it come back and hit her in the face...poor girl she has a nice fat lip now! I got to work out that night too, while Nana watched the kids. We thought Timmy would take a bottle from Nana, because he took a bottle once or twice before, but he wasn't going to have it! Nana called me and I had to come back a little earlier than planned. It was fine though. Timmy slept from 9 to about 1 and then cried until 2:30 when I finally gave in and nursed him.
Thursday we went grocery shopping in the morning, Joya was a great help. She put apples and nectarines in plastic baggies for me and held a box of cake mix through out the whole store. We also picked out new peepee and poopy treats for her...she needs a little more motivation to come in from outside playing to use the potty! We then went for a run and ended at Tia's house. the Kropaniki's are here visiting Christi from North Carolina. Deb said she was meeting Christi for lunch and asked if we wanted to come, so we went with Deb to have lunch with Chrsiti in Lebanon. We had a good time and both kids were tired and took great naps when we got home!
Timmy slept until 6 am again that night, again it was wonderful!!
Friday we woke up and hung around here for the morning, playing outside and watering all of Daddy's plants. Then I went and had a chiropractor appointment and Deb watched Joya for me, I took Timmy with me. While I was out and about the doctor's office called and told me that my insurance had dropped Timmy Jr. So I had to call and straighten all of that out and fax a copy of his birth certificate to them...as if the hospital bills weren't enough proof that he was born! We then went out to the Gradin's Arabian horse farm. We had a blast feeding and watching all of the horses and sheep. Joya also got to ride on little Gradin's (their grandson) four wheeler. We came back took a nice nap and then went for a bike ride after dinner. The day flew by! Timmy slept until 4 am and then was up for an hour and went back down until 8.
Today is Saturday and we went to Home Depo to get a sprinkler head that I ran over with the lawn mower, then we went to the Saturday market. In the car on the way there Joya asked me, "mom, whats there?" I told her there were fruits and vegetables and fun crafts. She asked if there was salad there, I said yes salad makings. Then she asked if Saturday was there. I started laughing and said that Saturday was the day of the week that the market is on, that they can't sell Saturday! I thought it was very cute!!
Tim will be home next Friday and I hope this next week goes by just as fast as this last week went!!

Last Weekend

Last weekend was the first time I left Timmy Jr. for a long time. We had a couple of busy days. It started with Tim taking Fri. off and spending the day with us because he left Sunday morning for two full weeks of training in Boston. So we spent Friday with him, not doing anything special, but it was just nice to have a family day knowing he is going to be gone a long time! Friday night was a horrible night with Timmy Jr. waking up every hour and by the morning I was exhausted!! So Tim gave me a nap in the morning and I woke up to the lovely tantrum of Joya Mae! Who knows what set her off this time, but she was screaming at my door and I woke up with a head ache! Tim had to pack for two weeks in two bags, which is challenging for a guy who's clothes are huge! I can do all my laundry for the week in one load, but it takes 2-3 loads for his clothes because they are so big. Anyway he got everything packed up and we went down to Eugene. We had lunch with Tim's folks and then left the kids with them while we went out to the Veneta house to clean it and get it ready for the next renters. I really like this next family that's moving in, they are moving from Idaho and seem like genuine people. On a side note, its hard renting out your house, its a true leap of faith in that family for them to keep the house in the condition I would keep it in!! Anyway we were out there for almost 3 hours doing yard work and I cleaned out the fish tank, which took me an hour, and washed all the base boards and walls...you never know how dirty something is until you start cleaning! Anyway then we went back to the In-Laws house to clean up for Tim's High School Reunion. We had a great time, it was fun to see everyone, and I would post pictures but Tim took the camera to Boston with him, so I will post them later! It was amazing to me how many people never left Eugene, are still single, and are very similar to how they were in high school.
Anyway we got home at 11ish and Tim had to fly out the next morning at 5am. It was a short night of sleep, we woke up at 3:50, and Tim woke everyone in the house up with showering and he dropped everything he had in his hands!!haha We got him off and Joya couldn't go back to sleep, so she was up from 5:30 on and so was I!
We are now on our own with out Tim until the 31st! It's a long time with out daddy, but we will manage. Joya misses him, she is mad at him for leaving and won't talk to him on the phone. I'm working on that everyday! We also thought we would be able to see each other over the web cam's but Tim is going to school from the time we wake up until after the kids nap time and then he goes to dinner and then to study sessions, he has very long intense days. But I hope that on Saturday or Sunday we can get the web cam's going and Joya will have a better attitude towards her daddy being gone!! I'm sure it doesn't make Tim feel good!

Here is a picture of Tim at training. He is working on a shoulder

Confessions of a Tired Mom!

I am sitting here with a wide awake Timmy at 6:31am after being up with him every hour last night starting at 12:50am. He wasn't up with anything serious except that he kept loosing his pubby and needed it to get back to sleep. It was a hard night that followed two hard days of Joya and Timmy having fits. Timmy's fits were gas related and Joya has started having little tantrums! They are wearing and not fun in public as she displayed yesterday. So I have decided if the tantrum is small to just ignore it, as I do not want to give her any positive or negative feedback, if it escalates then I send her to her room until she cans stop crying and come out with a better attitude. She usually goes in there and lays on her bed with her pubby and does come back out with a better attitude for a while! If it is so out of control and she is being dangerous to herself or me, as she has started hitting then I have no other choice than to spank her and then put her in her room until she calms down. This has only happened once, but it has stuck with me and has been hard for me to forget. I know this is just a stage, but it is wearing on me and makes me sad that she acts like this. We were on a hike yesterday and I had both kids in the double jogger for a while and then I let Joya walk for a while too. While she was walking she went too far ahead of me and I called her back, she turned looked at me and then started running the opposite was of me. I had to run after her to catch her. It was so disobedient and so defiant that I was so mad at her. I told her because I could not trust her to walk with me that she had to get back in the buggy. She got back in, with a fight, I fed her a snack and then she acted as if nothing had happened. The day was perfect for her! Its amazing to me how fast she can turn her attitudes from defiant to compliant, its like she's bi-polar! I had to take her cue and let it go too, it was hard and I am glad we had a drive home from the hike so that I could cool down! Anyway its been two days in a row of all of that attitude and then I am not sleeping at night because of Timmy...I am tired, emotionally and physically. I wish that Tim would wake up early and refreshed and say, "you go back to bed for an hour, I'll take the kids." No such luck though! I am praying hard for myself and Joya today!Here are pictures from the wedding in Boise that we went to, we had a great time!
Timmy's first shoulder ride!

Joya and her cousin Josh loved playing together. Josh is 5 and did a great job of playing with Joya and keeping her in the boundaries I had set for her and keeping her out of the pond water...good job Josh!!

Here are the red heads together!! Jeff didn't know that Timmy has red hair and was joyfully surprised!! Evidently we forgot to tell him!

4th of July

This last weekend for the 4th we went with my parents and aunt/uncle to the beach. The first night, like Bend, was horrible for Joya to fall asleep. Which inturn makes the next day so long and not really fun for anyone. That day was Saturday the 4th. and we got some good outlet shopping in, and some fun beach time in, and Joya fell asleep on the way to the outlet mall so Tim stayed in the car with her and I took Timmy shopping with me. She was asleep for a good 30 min, and then she woke up and they came in to join me. We shopped quick and then went home for lunch. We ate lunch and Joya tried going down for a nap and I did too, I fell asleep several times and was woke up several times by little Miss Mae waking me up. Anyway she didn't get a nap so by the time fireworks came she was a handful! We went to watch them on the beach and we had taken our chairs and some sand toys for Joya down earlier that day to reserve our seats. Its a good thing we did because by the time we got there at 9 the beach was packed. We stayed there until dark and then came home because we could not see any of the fireworks, it was so foggy. It was fun to watch other kids set off their fireworks both Timmy and Joya were just mesmerized by the lights of the fireworks. It was fun and a bust at the same time. We brought Joya home and washed her hands and feet and put her to bed. She fell asleep before we even finished praying! Timmy was up for just a little bit longer and then we all got a good night sleep! It was well needed. We went home the next day and after nap time on that day we all went for a nice long bike ride with Tia and our family and ended at the pool. We came home and BBQed and went to bed...another excellent night of sleep. Monday both kids were sick and we stayed home all day and rested. I caught up on laundry and cleaning!!
The last couple of weekends have been fun, but the first night is brutal with Joya not sleeping. I hope she gets better at sleeping in motel rooms!

A lot has happened...

A lot has happened since the last time I blogged. Joya has done excellent at her potty training. She loves wearing her big girl panties and loves to have a nuddie bottom when shes at home. I have dressed her in dresses because its easier to get to the toilet and go, and she loves wearing dresses! Shes such a girly girl!! Last Thursday the whole family drove to Eugene, Tim did some business there and once him and Paul were done with we drove to Bend. We got in around dinner time and went to Red Robin...one of our favorite places. Then back to the motel, which we had a suite room with Paul and Marilee. Needless to say Joya was too excited to go to bed, so she tormented us all until midnight when Tim took her out to the car and put her in her car seat and then drove around until she fell asleep!! It was a short night of sleep for me because 30 minutes after Tim got back with her, Timmy woke up! I slept very lightly because I didn't want Timmy to wake everyone up after Joya kept us all awake!

The next day Tim did business in Bend and then we drove to Boise. We got to Uncle Alan and Aunt Marie's house, in Kuna ID, for dinner and for Joya to play with cousin Josh, who flew in with Uncle Dan from Houston, TX. J So that night was a late night for Joya again. This time she tried pulling the same stunts as the night before but I told her I couldn't do it again and she had to lay down and go to sleep, or else... She did so and slept until 8 the next morning! It is so nice that Timmy is still small enough to cart him around anywhere and he can take a nap or sleep anywhere. Praise the Lord for that!
The next day we played with cousin Josh in the pool and then went to lunch with everyone which included Uncle Jeffrey, who evidently no one had told him that Timmy had red hair so he was pumped up for that! Sorry we forgot to tell you, I guess next time Uncle Jeffrey will have to come visit after the baby's born and not wait so long!!haha. The wedding was at 5pm at a local vineyard, it was a beautiful setting. There were a ton more kids Joya and Josh's age to play with there, most of them were from the Willis side of the family (Marilee's side), so it was fun for them to meet each other and get to play and run all evening. We finally left at 9ish when Josh and Joya were starting to loose it, both of them complained that their feet hurt from wearing their boots all day, I had taken my heals off, but Tim's feet hurt from his boots too! We went right to sleep that night after saying goodbye to Uncle Dan and Cousin Josh, and woke up the next morning to go have one last family time at Allan and Marie's house for breakfast. We hit the road by 10am and got into Eugene at 8pm. We stopped several times for Joya and Grandpa to use the bathroom, but the last hull was from Bend to Eugene and it was a long one. Timmy had decided he was done sitting in his car seat and let us all know that the whole way home (about 2.5hrs) That's when Joya wet her panties too. She had very minimal accidents with the potty training the whole weekend. The few accidents she had were while she slept in the car, and while playing with cousins, it was just too much fun to leave and go to the bathroom!
Anyway we had a wonderful weekend and now both kids are sick with head colds, so I know they had a great time too!
I will add pictures when I get them. We had everyone else take pictures for us and then they will give us copies soon.