One Eyed, One Horned, Flying Purple People Eater

Peyton was able to perform today at the Marine Corps Exchange! I'm not sure how much she's practiced this dance but it was so fast paced! I think she did great!

The Rockin Show

The cutest band around!!! LOVE IT!

Airshow Tap Dance

After almost an hour delay for technical difficulties Peyton was able to dance at the MCAS Miramar Airshow this past weekend. She recently moved up to level 2 and the dances are faster with more moves and I'm not 100% sure she's even done the second song in class. I think she did great for how tired she was!

One day I will get married again...

First I have to apologize for the quality of the photos. They are almost 10 years old so they were shot on film, they were super dark when they were printed, and then I scanned them (again 10 years ago with a cheap scanner) and attempted to lighten them. One day I will find the actual photos and negatives (they've been moved like 8 times and they are in a box somewhere...) and hopefully take them to someone who knows what they are doing and get a few decent copies.

But I digress...

Almost 10 years ago I married the man of my dreams, and a decade, three kids, the crazy Marine Corps life, stress, loss, and illness later he is still very much the man of my dreams. 

Our wedding was small, and intimate, and beautiful. I loved my dress. What I did not love was me, I mean I loved me, I just didn't love the way I looked. I see these pictures know and am amazed at the changes in me over the last ten years.

A few weeks ago I volunteered at the annual Bridal and Ball Gown Giveaway aboard MCAS Miramar. The bridal gowns are completely free designer gowns that are donated for military fiances and wives. In order to get one a person has to go through steps to prove they are getting married or renewing vows and get it verified with the service member's command. 

When the day was winding down we were having a little fun and I tried on a dress.

Now, I am 90 lbs smaller than I was on my wedding day and obviously styles have changed but I put on this dress and realized "I WILL GET MARRIED AGAIN!" 

Sean and I always talked about renewing our vows on our 10th anniversary however the Marine Corps has different plans for next summer.  But one day, we will run away to Hawaii and get married again on the beach. 

Until then, I will dream of the perfect day, wearing another beautiful - just much smaller - dress with the man of my dreams already at my side.

A New Year, A Fresh Start

With Peyton requiring a third year of preschool we knew we would have to find her a more challenging program that would more prepare her for kindergarten. I truly believe God led us to Christ the Cornerstone Academy. It is a Lutheran based church school literally IN our neighborhood.  We fell in love with their preschool curriculum and soon were convinced Logan would achieve so much better through there dayschool program as well. God provided the means and we enrolled them both. 

I feel like it was just yesterday that these two were tiny tiny and I was struggling to survive a day. Now they are both out of the house for a large portion of the day and they LOVE their new school!

1st Grade!

Preschool take 3! 

I love the fact that Logan's classroom is capped at 24. Currently there are only 21 students but because there are 21 the teacher gets a full day aide as well! So it's 2:21 versus the 1:25-30 they were anticipating at the public school! He's already made so much progress in the few short weeks he's been attending Christ the Cornerstone!

Good friends of ours heard me raving about this awesome program and also enrolled their daughter. These two have know each other since birth and now get to be in the same class together!

There are so many benefits of both of them attending CTCA. Everyday I hear "I saw you on the playground" or "Did you see me at the flag? I saw you!" and for someone who only had 1 year (and that being Kindergarten) with a sibling in the same school I just think those moments are a treasure! But I would have to say the best part of the kids being Christian school is the Christian education. We now have special prayers, songs, and Bible verses that the kids repeat regularly! The other day I caught Logan singing "We want to see Jesus lifted high" over and over and it brought tears to my eyes.

I have never been big on discussing religion but I will have to say, we listened to the Holy Spirit and now our children are experiencing something fantastic and for that I feel eternally grateful and blessed!

The New Me, Weight Loss, & Color Me Rad

So just on a whim back in January I started using the My Fitness Pal app on my phone (but there is also an online program) to track my diet. I never really intended to lose weight, just being dorky I thought it would be cool to scan the bar codes of everything I ate... Soon it became overly apparent how much I have overeaten my entire life.  

Me (& Peyton) January 2010
about 260lbs

After entering all your information if gives you a limit for calorie intake for the day and as long as you stay at or below that number you will lose weight.  Within the first two weeks I had dropped 7 lbs and I was so amazed! I continued with just counting calories and soon found myself down 20, 25, 30 lbs.  People would ask what I was doing and honestly I felt bad just saying "counting calories" so I felt the need to get back to the gym and start working out.

Me (& Belle) March 2012
about 230lbs

Me in May 2012
about 215lbs

A good friend of mine blogged about her running goal of 100 miles in a month and I thought, wow that's crazy! The blog continued with her "reward" for reaching this goal was the Color Me Rad race with her husband and I thought "well now that's cool!" So I checked it out and low and behold there was one in San Diego and I knew I needed to train for it. 

Another friend and I began hitting the Y regularly again, well as regularly as my crazy schedule allowed. Soon after that I started the Couch to 5K program. I am still attempting to get through it but I have definitely made a lot of progress using it!

When Sean's training schedule was released we found out he would be out of town for the Color Me Rad and I was so bummed, I knew if I was going to do it I would need my #1 fan at my side so I kinda put it on the back burner. Out of some whim of luck the Marine Corps changed the schedule and he was set to come home the day before the race!! (It is rare the changes ever happen for the good so I saw this as a sign!) And I knew we HAD to do it!  I registered us for the race, Team HELL IDK (like the answer to "what do you want for dinner?" "where do you want to go?" and "what should our team name be?")!!!

The family July 2012
about 205lbs

And race day has arrived! I was surprisingly calm, I knew I could easily do 2 miles and with Sean by my side the rest would be a piece of cake.  With the exception of the 4:45 wake up I was so excited!

My first bib number! 

So those who don't understand the premise, you go in the whitest shirt (or complete outfit) you can find and the goal is to be a colorful mess at the end of the race!

         

Well according to my running GPS app the race was short at only 2.5 miles not the full 3.2 that make up a 5K but I still feel pretty accomplished! My first mile was done in 13:10 and it was a personal best! Once we started hitting the color stations the times lagged because we actually had to wait in line to be colored. but I crossed the finish line just over 30 minutes after starting so not to bad for my first official race!

My new favorite picture!

   

   

It was a blast and I hope that I can do it next year as well, think I may even let the kids run with me! 

Thank you Ko for the inspiration.  Thank you Angela for being my running buddy.  Thank you all who have sent kind words and all the encouragement throughout the past months and today. And most of all thank you to my awesome husband who could have run that thing three times in the time it took me but stayed at my side the entire time! (and slapped my butt with pink cornstarch!)

Post-race!
August 11, 2012
195 lbs!!!

For the record I'm down 55lbs since January I have another 15+ I'd like to lose but honestly I'm so happy with my progress already! For those of you who are reading this and thinking I could never do it, YES YOU CAN! I was the same way! It was really easy and I am here for you if you need advise or encouragement. Together we can all live a happier, healthier life!!

Daddy surprises the kids!

Sean has been training at the lovely desert resort of 29 Palms, CA for the past three weeks.  Training wrapped up a day early but I didn't tell the kids because well, things can change.  And although as a Marine Spouse I'm very Semper Gumby, kids do not have the ability to understand "no the plan changed". So after a few trips back and forth to 29 Palms to transport all the Marines Sean was finally able to make it home to surprise the kids. Poor Logan was so confused because he had just gone on and on about only having one link on the paper chain left and how he was excited daddy would be home tomorrow. 

Love having him home!!

Belle at the beach

We had a LINKS Family Day this past weekend and we all had a blast! Logan and Peyton spent the entire time we were there playing in the water, while Belle thought it was fun to drive mommy crazy and eat sand! It was such a great day!

You can trust God!

This years Vacation Bible School theme was Sky! And as always they had some great songs the kids loved.  This was their favorite one, You Can Trust God! I love nothing more than my babies praising God through song! 

Kayaking!

It's a rare occasion that Sean and I do anything without the kids and when we do it is usually dinner and a movie or sometimes the exciting shopping trip with no kids.  Our 9th anniversary was coming and I had yet to get him anything (it falls within days of Father's Day so it's always hard to find two decent gifts!) when I checked my email and found an awesome LivingSocial deal for a sunset kayaking tour for two! Now this is totally Sean and so totally NOT me! But since I have lost almost 50 pounds I feel like I have the ability to do these more physical activities.  

If you have ever ventured putting any part of your body into the Pacific Ocean then you can understand the need for the wet suits.  Most of the people on the tour opted not to but for as cold as I was when we did finish I sure am glad we did!!

I'll tell ya, when our tour guide Nick was teaching us to paddle and what we needed to do to get past the surf (which was pretty bad at the time) I was ready to chicken out and run but I didn't! And once we were past the surf which really wasn't that hard because someone from the company pushes you out to waist deep and you only have to go a little further, it was SO worth it!

It is June in San Diego and the marine layer was already rolling in so the June Gloom was hanging overhead but it was still beautiful!!

The houses on "Billionaires Row" are amazing, even more when you learn that due to erosion most of those 15+million dollar homes only have about another 20 years before they have to be torn down or face falling into the ocean.  The most unbelievable thing is that because of the erosion issue these houses cannot get home owners insurance and therefore cannot be mortgaged so they are all cash purchases!

The tour guide took this in front of the La Jolla Caves.  It was so much fun, I'm so glad we did it!

The beauty of God's creation could not be ignored that night! Amazing! We were able to be see the Garibaldi - the official saltwater fish of California, the famous La Jolla Sea Lions, and a ton of pelicans. So awesome to be that close to nature!

Since the earthquake two years ago on Easter the tours of the caves have been limited to the exterior of all but one.  This cave the tour guides actually jump into the water and guide you through as you paddle.  It was amazing the strength of the current going in and out of the cave.  And the water in the cave was very clear, you could clearly see the rocky bottom.  

Inside looking out, A-Mazing!

For years we have been going down to Children's Pool in La Jolla to see the sea lions and seals that make their home there. It is an amazing sight, especially during pupping season.  There were a few very large, very loud sea lions on a rock island that we got pretty close to but the darn disposable waterproof camera doesn't do justice to how close we were to them!

On the way back into shore we paddled through a flock of pelicans that apparently don't have much fear of people because they were very content to just sleep as we paddled on by! We also saw three dolphins not to far from us but there was no way I was getting a picture with the camera I had.  

When we were getting ready to paddle out, standing on the beach all I could think is "I DO NOT WANT TO FALL OUT OF THE BOAT!" We were watching boat after boat come back in and just BITE IT in the surf.  As the guides were instructing on how to "kayak surf" I began to doubt my ability to make it through landing the boat without it tipping over, but hey the tour was over and I'd be ok if it happened going in.  So we were the last boat going in, a mother/daughter boat in front of us had just rolled over and we were laughing at that as the wave PICKED us up and started bringing us in, we leaned back and successfully "surfed" the first wave. The guy on shore waiting to help catch us said "that looked professional!" and then I heard him say "I got you!" and the next thing I know I'm looking at the water, turned 90* and knowing - SHIT I'm going in!!!  And then I wasn't, dude righted me and I rode right on in, while Sean was WALKING next to the boat because he apparently did not hold on for dear life as the boat was turning over.  So of course I will NEVER EVER EVER let him live it down - he fell out and I didn't!! NAN NAN A BOO BOO!!!!! 

It was awesome, I loved it! I'm hooked and will totally be doing this again! Can't wait for the kids to get bug enough and get them out of the water! What an awesome experience and it was a great way to celebrate our 9th wedding anniversary!!

Koolaid Playdough!

It's summertime and that means many hours that need to be filled! My kids are Art Attack experts.  I'm not sure how they stumbled upon it, but they watch episode after episode on YouTube.  They love the idea of making things! Logan has watched tutorials on just about everything and he has always wanted to make playdough but every recipe calls for peanut butter and with Peyton's peanut allergy that just isn't anything we can do.  I stumbled across a blog while playing on Pinterest, 100 Things To Do With Kids This Summer. I picked a few to try out and was excited to see that homemade playdough was an option we could do!

There are many Edible Play Dough recipes, but because of Peyton's allergy our choices were limited.  I chose the Koolaid recipe because it seemed pretty easy and allowed the kids to choose the color of their playdough. The kids each picked a flavor/scent of koolaid for their playdough and to no ones surprise we made lemon-lime (green) and cherry (pink)! Now technically this playdough is edible, however it has a half cup of salt in it so it does not taste good at all, but it smells FANTASTIC!

The kids LOVE their playdough and they are excited mom is letting them use her rolling pin and cookie cutters (something not allowed with real playdough).  It stores up to six months and I'm sure they will get many hours of enjoyment out of it!

Peyton's Preschool Graduation 2012

Although Peyton still has another year of preschool before starting Kindergarten she participated in the Part Day Preschool class's graduation ceremony.  She has attended this preschool for nearly two years and has loved it! However, she needs to move up to a more academically based program so we enrolled her at Christ the Cornerstone Academy for next year.  

She was so cute in her little cap and gown (as was her brother last year)!  And she was so proud to have her teacher gifts to give to all of her teachers. A simple flowering plant with a sign that said "Thanks for helping me grow!"  

Peyton was very lucky to have 4 different preschool teachers this year but I would have to say Miss Monique was her favorite! She got the special flowers (because they were purple).  

This little backdrop was awesome! Peyton will be the CO 2026 but she still needed to have her picture taken!! 

I love this cake! They took the group photo and had it put on the cake! And then they painstakingly cut out every kids photo and they got to eat their piece of the cake! The kids LOVED it!

Here she comes! My BIG girl!! 

What a beautiful girl! I love watching her grow! 

Peyton and her bestie "Big" Peyton! The Peytons have known each other since age 2 and 8months! The Marine Corps split them up for a bit but we love the fact that they are together again and hopefully will be for a few more years!

Proud daddy and momma! Logan still had school and Belle was playing with her bestie - Pixi (Big Peyton's baby sister).  

Peyton and some of her buddies! Sweet girls!

I'm sad to be saying goodbye to the Miramar Part Day Preschool, they have been a special part of our lives for the last two years but am so excited to be starting our new journey with Christ the Cornerstone Academy! But most of all I'm so proud of my baby girl! She has grown so very much and is blossoming into such a beautiful little lady! I cannot wait to see what the future has in store for her!

Wrapping up Kindergarten!

Well, my baby, my first born, is officially a 1st grader!! He has grown and learned so much this year.  I just cannot believe how fast this year sped by! 

The last few days of Kindergarten was probably the most action packed of the year - a field trip to Sea World, a grade level wide singing performance, a full day of fun in the park with parents, siblings, and all the kinders, and finally a small, but sweet promotion ceremony with the 24 other kids that have been his classmates throughout the year.

Logan on his first day! Wow, he's grown so much!!

Last week I was able to chaperone Logan's field trip to Sea World.  I was assigned Logan and three of his classmates and we were allowed to go anywhere and do anything we wanted, and it was great! We did the Polar Bear helicopter ride, a first for all the kids, the new Turtle Reef exhibit, the sharks, dolphins, and finished off by walking by and saying hi to Shamu! I had the most awesome day with Logan and his friends and I truly feel blessed I was able to have this experience with my son.

I took this at the new Turtle Reef exhibit, I love seeing him explore the world and  all of God's creations!

The last full week of school was wrapped up with the Kindergarten Summer Performance, a Hage Elementary tradition.  The entire Kindergarten class sang 4 songs to us and it was so great! I have video, expect a blog on that as soon as I figure out how to get it from my video camera to the computer!

He is such a BIG kid now!

Nothing says summer like a Hawaiian shirt, baseball cap, and sunglasses!
(He's doing the hand movements that went with the song)

What a cool dude!
(The kid on the left is Logan's BFF, Kevin - they are gonna be Power Rangers when they grow up!)

They sang a song to the Addams Family Theme called "The Kindergarten Class" - so cute!!

The last full day of school the whole grade level took off and spent the entire day in the park! They invited all the parents and siblings and had a pot luck, game filled, awesome fun day! Sadly I didn't get any pictures at the park, but when we walked back the kids all went in and began working on an assignment, Logan and his friend Elijah were sharing a desk because Elijah gave up his desk for Peyton! She totally just jumped in and participated and even did the assignment! The teachers love her and welcomed her in just like every other student!

Which brings me to the last day of Kindergarten...The teachers once again opened their classroom to the families to watch the little promotion ceremony they planned.  They even made the cutest little graduation caps out of black plastic cereal bowls, construction paper, and a piece of yarn for the tassel! TOO CUTE!

Logan's teachers job shared, one was there Monday through Wednesday and the other finished up Thursday and Friday. They were both great and were truly awesome in smoothing the bumps we found in the road! They will be missed!

 Man, I thought getting three kids to look at a camera was hard...24 is IM-possible! They are all so cute in their little graduation caps!

 And since they were good and took a good picture, we had to do silly!!  

Logan's silly, I enjoy the others as well!!

It's official! He's a big kid! Gosh it just seems like yesterday we were bringing him home, or that he was starting preschool, or kindergarten! And to top off the celebration of graduating from Kindergarten today, he got his first LOOSE TOOTH!