Waterblob fun

I came across a blog post for individual waterblobs the other day and since we have yet to find to buy with a pool, I decided to try my hand at a simple DIY project. I used this person's instructions, except I left a small opening for my hose instead of having to cut into the plastic http://www.viralnova.com/homemade-water-blob/.  We debated on making individual blobs, one massive blob 12x25 (the entire box of plastic), or 2 12x12 blobs. After much debate the kids decided to try one 12x12 to see if it would even work, so we still have 12x25 feet of plastic to play with!

Since I already had parchment paper, an iron, and an ironing board at home (funny cause I don't iron!) we only needed to purchase duck tape and plastic!

Day 1 - Turkey sat and played on the blob while the other kids just pushed around the edges to slosh the water. We ended up with quite a few small leaks the first day. I believe I just had a few sections that weren't fused all the way and a few areas where the edge of the seam developed small leaks with the weight of the water.

Day 2 - No pictures, thankfully. I turned on the sprinkler and laid on the blob...all by myself, while the kids stayed inside ALL.DAY.LONG!

Day 3 - We repositioned the blob to a less slanted part of the yard. The kids filled it up WAY TOO full, the recommendations we saw were 8-12 inches of water.  Jayson didn't realize his kicking had punctured huge holes into the top, which oddly enough hardly any water spilled out (you may see white duck tape in the pictures, these were our patch jobs). The kids also tried my sprinkler technique, which they loved!

If you look between Jarom's arms you will see one of our large holes

Water blob plus sprinkler equals a great way to cool off!

Day 4 - 5 Blob pretty much is deflated due to holes/ tears, so now we will take our huge piece of plastic to make a slip-n-slide, after the landscapers come.

Here goes nothing

As much as I don't want or like to disclose my faults, I think my only reality may be to open up just a bit and share. Obviously I am taking the less road traveled and posting here, because as far as I know no one reads this compared to my facebook feeds!

So here it goes...

Surprise pregnancy ended November 2013 and without any effort I was back to my pre-pregnancy weight within a few weeks (2-3). I don't know if I just got the thought in my head I could drop an additional 10 pounds without trying, or that I could eat whatever I wanted to, because so far I had  been, and still lose weight. Or if the true reality was those first few weeks and well into 2 months postpartum, I was so busy with new adjustments and visitors I was actually moving and burning calories. In the past I had always dropped the weight and toned right back up within a short time period, so why would this time be any different.

BUT it is, not only have I gained back some of the weight I am tip toeing, no more like running at full speed towards my heaviest weight. I do know this, once turkey quit sleeping through the night (yep my child is backwards and slept through the night since day 1 until month 4ish) my sleep and eating habits changed dramatically and the weight started coming on. AND I MEAN ON! I gained 10 pounds in almost a month! So it may not be much of a fault, but there it is...I am not only heavier but I have so much 'fluff' I am starting to be extremely self conscious and there is NO WAY I am buying a bigger wardrobe!

What to do, what to do....

Now I am not one to complain about not getting gifts, but I can't tell you the last time I received a Christmas present (except money from my parents that I turn around and spend on the kids), birthday present (again except money I get from my parents, which either goes towards bills or kids....the two things I am not supposed to spend it on...sorry mom!), or a Mother's Day present.  So this year, I bought myself a combined gift for myself and shortly after purchasing it there was the guilt cause lets be honest there is always something that money could be used for...you know like food, bills, oil change for my car (you don't want to know how long I went without one!), but I sucked it up and now my 'present' has been trickling in over the past 2 weeks.

My present to myself is a 13.1, 15 week training program! Heck I haven't ran and the only walking I tend to do revolves around errands so why not just jump into a half marathon training program right!

http://anothermotherrunner.com/

This program offers 3 training options: walk/ run, run, or race it! If you read this before July 7th (start date of training) check out their site for more information, https://motherrunnerstore.com/shop/99/13.fun-half-marathon-challenge.

Here are the goodies I have gotten so far in the mail!

Today, I am one step closer to starting as the training programs were release for us to chose which one we'd complete. I also signed up for Strava, a free tracking (GPS) program, previously I had been using DailyMile, if you'd like to follow me click here or check out my wiget on the right side (hopefully it's working!).

This training will be an interesting one for me because not only have I rarely exercised since our little surprise Turkey arrived 7 months ago, but I will be pushing her in a stroller and Kayla has decided to accompany me on this journey. I am sure we will have a few interesting updates so stay tuned!

Another month older, 7 months of Turkey

6/20/14 7 months old

Slacker mom here, reporting in late...again, you may not notice because I always change the scheduled post date time (yep, it's true, it makes me feel less like a slacker and more like a super mom!)

I guess to make myself feel even better there isn't much to update. Turkey isn't schedule for another doctors appointment until she's 9 months old, we haven't had any fun outings, and even though school has been out since May, we have been in vacation/ lazy mode so overall we are all pretty boring! But in an attempt to keep these posts slightly uniform, here are somethings that have occurred over the last month along with pictures because I know you like them!

• I love my toes!
• I am fascinated with electronics, especially laptops
• I have fully mastered sitting up
• I am still too lazy to crawl, even though everyone tries to make me do it
• I am becoming fascinated with more toys
• My motor skills are developing nicely, I can manipulate many items especially in my car
• turn the wheel
• press the buttons
• move the levers up and down
• I got to experience my first shopping trip out of my carseat
• Mom lost my turkey on this trip and we haven't been able to get it back, everyone told her they don't have it
• Mom finally bought me some new accessories for getting my shots last month
• I am using bottles now with formula (mom was a little sad to make this transition) and I can even hold them by myself!
• And lastly, I am slowly adding new foods to my diet, besides rice, multigrain cereal, animal cookies, and Cheerios mom makes all my food



Toes!!!



5/22 Mom you are doing it wrong! See you do this, then this!






5/30 Shopping out of my car seat...AND the last time we saw turkey



6/6 Green beans!



6/14 Carrots

6/16 I can hold it all by myself

Look whose 14!

Even though the kids have been on summer break for a few weeks, some longer than others, the kids schedules have not slowed down. Unfortunately (and lucky for us) poor Jordyn injured her knee during cheer leading practice while doing a back handspring. She was fortunate enough to have softball practice right after cheer leading and one of the athletic trainers confirmed she had done a bit of damage to it and was instructed to see an orthopedic the next day. Her diagnosis (thus far - more tests to be ran later this week to fully diagnose her), torn meniscus! So she is not able to cheer or play softball (and here is where the lucky us comes into play) so she was able to make a road trip with her grandma to come and visit us.  Grandma was coming up this weekend to help out as Eric had emergency surgery to remove his appendix on Thursday.

Since Jordyn was able to come this past weekend, Grandma decided to get her a cake and I made her requested birthday dinner of Boston Butt, Mac&Cheese, mashed potatoes, and fresh green beans. Dinner was followed by a cookie, whip cream frosting, chocolate cake, topped with chocolate ganache (sounds and looks gross, but oh my goodness it was delish!) And because we are an obnoxious family the happy birthday song was of course sung 'Reynolds style' (off key, off pitch, different rhythms, and different versions), followed by tons of pictures of everyone stuffing their face! For gifts, Jordyn wasn't sure what she wanted from us, so she decided she'd like to start a savings account, and grandma got her some pink gingham luggage.

Eric made her help light her own cake

Embarrassed by our singing style

Took three tries, but she finally got them all blown out

She really wants to eat cake!

The cake

She wanted the flower, she got the flower

Happy half-birthday Turkey

5/20/2014

Yep, it is true! Turkey is now 6 months old. She had her 6 month well child check up on August 20th and for most things she is slightly ahead of her peers, but she is behind on her speech so we will be focusing more time on reading and talking one-on-one with her in hopes her speech will better at her next appointment in August.

As of today she is 13 pounds and 14 ounces (down from 21 percentile to 11 percentile), which I have to admit I swear that scale was wrong because this kid eats almost non-stop and even wakes at night 1-2 times just to feed for 30-60 minutes. I kid you not, there are some mornings that by 7am she has already fed for 2 hours. On the brighter side she has grown...must be where all that food is going, she is now 25 1/2 inches long and her big ole head is still big at the 75th percentile at 43cm. Even though she has been congested the last few days there are no signs those two stupid teeth we have been watching are going to be making their appearance soon and no signs of illness. So Turkey received 5 vaccines, two of them via injection and the other 3 combined in oral form. Usually shots equal more accessories, but our day was pretty full and we had to rush off to the high school for an award (honors) ceremony.

Some of the things I've been doing over the last month

• I found my toes...and I like to chew on them
• I've slowed down on my rolling over
• But am working on pulling myself up into sitting position. Mom counts to 3 after I get my diaper changed and on 3 I pull up on her fingers and I also work on sitting up from a propped up position, especially if someone is eating food or has something that interests me
• I tend to only talk or babble when I am crying, but occasionally will try to converse when I have something in my mouth
• I do like having my bink now, however I like to chew on the edges or the backside of it. DO NOT put the nipple part in my mouth or I will shoot it like a cannon...quite funny to watch but hasn't been caught on camera...yet
• I don't mind being on my tummy and occasionally when no one is looking I will scoot around, but would rather have someone carry me than try to get from here to there
• Went to watch Jarom and his soccer team play in the first round of playoffs in Daphne, AL
• I decided I want to sit up on my own, while taking a bath
• Took my first trip to the beach, Gulf Shores, AL on May 10th

4/24/14 Turkey and her turkey playing with their toys

5/3 Yep I think I am cute!

5/4 Turkey decided it was time to sit up

5/8 Tummy time isn't so bad...at least today

5/10 Getting my picture taken for a future photoshop moment!

5/10 First time at the beach, just hanging out in my tent! Gulf Shores, AL

5/11 Mom I want some ice cream too!

5/19 half-birthday nap

5/18 Getting all 'dolled-up' to go to Jarom's Baccalaureate Ceremony

Posts to come...I hope!

It's been a crazy few weeks in which I really needed at least two of me, but since that isn't possible we have been pretty much a split family for several days. Here is what has been going on in our lives and hopefully I can work in some time to provide more details and pictures...assuming I actually get them off phones and cameras. For reference, and in case you didn't know, we live in Dothan and Eric's kids live 3 hours away in Loxley/ Robertsdale.

May 10th - we went to Gulf Shores to meet up with my aunt, uncle, cousins, and their kids
May 11th - we stayed the night in a hotel in order to spend some of Mother's Day with Eric's mom before making our 3 hour drive home
May 12th - Jarom had his soccer banquet
May 13-15th - Joey Destin FL trip to be awarded scholarship(s)
May 15th, 6pm - Joey Senior Awards Night, Robertsdale
May 16th, 8:30am - Jarom's senior breakfast
May 18th, 3pm - Jarom had his Baccalaureate Ceremony in Dothan, Joey had his in Robertsdale and of course they were at the exact same time
May 18th, 6pm - Joey also had his baseball banquet in Robertsdale
May 19th, 10am - Jayson had an award ceremony at school in Loxley
May 19th, 6:30pm - Breanna had her Miracle League banquet in Dothan
May 19th, 7pm - Joey's graduation
May 20th, 9am - Turkey (aka Kylie) had her 6 month well child check
May 20th, 10am - Jarom had his Honors (Senior) awards ceremony

and now we get a bit of a break until Jarom's graduation stuff starts up again next week! Although I do feel like I have forgotten quite a few things from our hectic schedule, but I think you get the point that I have tons of posts to make (including about 2 months of posts I am already behind on)!

Soccer

Well sign me up for bad mom of the year. Soccer season has come and gone, and thanks to Turkey, not only was I not able to attend many games but when we did we were pretty much stuck in the car. Thankfully our home games have a great view from the parking lot and Bre's handicap parking permit came in handy for ALL those games.

Jarom made the high school varsity soccer team and was eventually elected honorary co-captain, due to his hard work, determination, positive attitude, and dedication. Jarom moved to Dothan at the end of September and although it took months (yep months) to get him all set up and registered with school, he was able to attend and participate in school events. Although we had been trying to get the soccer teams tryout information since day one, we both found out the day of tryouts on the FIRST day of tryouts. Lucky for him I don't work and was able to run to the school with all of his stuff, and we had prepped ahead of time for him to try out so he had plenty of clothing, shin guards, soccer shoes, and lots of water!

The week before the season was to start, Jarom got injured! He had rolled his ankle and heard a pop. His ankle instantly swelled up so that night he propped it up, iced it on and off all night, and because I am a slight hoarder on medical supplies I had an unisex, adjustable ankle brace that we placed on him to try and help him sleep. Although we had hoped that it was just a bad sprain and he'd feel better in the morning, he actually felt worse and his ankle was almost twice the size. Off to the walk-in clinic for an evaluation and xrays, which revealed it wasn't broken! But the doctor didn't feel comfortable with diagnosing him, so off to the orthopedic we went. Jarom was given three options, brace and physical therapy, boot and physical therapy, or a cast for 6-8 weeks. He chose the brace and PT, he also showed up every day to practice, assisted any way he could, attended PT 2-3 times a week, worked with the school's training, who he met at his second PT visit, and encouraged and tried to help motivate his team members, because of all this his teammates asked the coaches to give him a captains band and the coaches agreed.

During the soccer season the team participated in out of state soccer tournaments, which is funny to even say as Dothan is about 30 minutes from Georgia and Florida, which they won 1st place, they also ended their season ranked #9 in the state, and made it to the state finals but were eliminated first round due to scoring on their own goal. This was an amazing accomplishment as, from my understanding, this was Northviews second year of having a soccer team, the first year for boys and girls JV team and both girls and boys Varsity teams making it to state!

The season ended with a soccer banquet, which I now feel bad for choosing to sit in the back of the room in case I had to step out with Turkey, because Jarom received awards, acknowledgments, praise, and gifts. He spent a good amount of the evening walking from our table to the front of the room...we were soooo proud!

So my apologies in advance the few pictures and video I took are not the greatest, so if you look for either bright yellow shoes or the #21 you will find Jarom!

The shoes

State playoffs in Daphne, AL

Soccer Banquet

Hustler award

Senior gift from the team

Some of the items inside the Nike soccer bag