Raising Beach Beauties

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

Maya and I went up to Indiana for a very last minute trip to wish Grandpa a happy birthday earlier this month. I mean...very last minute. I think we bought our tickets on Tuesday and flew out on Friday. I couldn't have been happier to go. I have been craving some stateside time. I get rock fever quiet often, so the trip was definitely needed.

Maya got to go by default. Marley was the last kid to take a solo trip to Indy so it was Maya's turn. Plus, with Marley in school now, real school, not just pre-school or daycare, we didn't want her to miss any school days. Maya did a very good job travelling solo with mommy but she did cry when Stu left us at the airport. She didn't know why daddy and Marley couldn't come. A few tears and she quickly got over it.

Of course, the first thing I wanted to do in Indy was visit Target but Aunt Jennifer & Uncle Ray invited us to the Children's Museum the next day. It was a toss up...Target...Family Time...Target...Family Time...but I figured Target could wait.

The famous carosel at the museum:

Maya loved playing with her cousin Trey.

One of the highlights of the trip for me? Dinner at Pizza King. I love Pizza King pizza. Arni's and Pizza King are a tie for me when it comes to fabulous pizza.

It's not a Pizza King without a Pac-Man or Ms. Pac-Man

We took a long drive up north to see my grandmother. Passing through the Indiana windmills. So very Dutch.

We stopped at my Aunt Gloria's before picking grandma up for lunch. She had this awesome picture of my mom and her siblings...circa 1909? =)

Aunt Gloria's 9 month old Great Dane puppy tried to eat Maya.

When we moved to the islands, I couldn't get over how BIG the sky looked here. I think I forgot out big Indiana's sky is as well...

My grandma's farm:

Maya had an awesome time with her cousins (mainly Trey):

I didn't do so well on my resolutions in Indiana. No working out. I did "ok" on the food front (it's hard to eat healthy when there are so many options there not available here!) and the worst offense? My "no thinking of a new dog" went out the window while I was packing for our trip. I asked Stu, "would you kill me if I brought home a boxer puppy" and his surprising response was no. Boxers are the best and I love my parents dog Bruce:

I insanely drove to Noblesville, bought a 10 weeks old Bruce mini-me, told them I would be back the next day to pick her up and drove 1/2 way back to my parents house, turned around and hung my head in shame and told them I changed my mind. Just not ready yet. I called Stu on the way back to my parents and you could hear the sigh of relief from the other end as he told me he wasn't ready yet either and that he was so glad I had come to that conclusion myself. He didn't want to be the bad guy telling me we couldn't get another dog (he's kind of already put his foot down on the whole third kid thing). So we shall wait...and I'll try a little hard on my resolution.

Maya got to sleep with me every night. Well, me and PopBelly, who I still love to cuddle with whenever I'm home (I think his 30th birthday may be coming up soon...).

It was a great visit and I can't wait to go back again this summer...more family members in tow next time and welcoming a new member of the family when we get there...(my sister's baby, not a puppy...but maybe one or two of those too....)

I rock at Kindergarden.

My kids are going to do well in school with a mother that has some control issues.

Marley came home from school on Tuesday with an assignment. Each kid was to chose an animal and build a diorama. My first thought, YES!, this is my kind of project. Until I saw the due date. FRIDAY. That meant we had three days to build a diorama. WHAT? I told Stu, "you can't order something off etsy.com in three days!".

We had three weddings on Wednesday and I had an appointment from 9am to 1pm on Thursday at the hair salon. You may think my pony tail and no make-up beauty is effortless but no, it takes hours at the salon. By time I got home, did three hours of emails for work and then picked up the kids, it wasn't until 6pm last night that we remembered the diorama...due Friday. CRAP.

I have no idea where the plastic fish bowl came from but it was found in the garage. The little stuffed goldfish was something I got at Target for 47 cents on my recent trip to Indiana (it's filled with catnip) and I used a blue sharpie to add "water" to the bowl. I tried to show Marley how to cut out greenery for the fish to swim around in and when I cut out an example she said, "let's just use yours". Ok.  I found an old cupcake toy and drew a fish on it for fish food.

To really seal the deal on her A, we made a quick poster for it this morning:

The glitter on it wasn't even dry when we got her to school. She wasn't allowed to touch it as I drilled her on fun facts about goldfish to share with her class.

Report cards come out in a few weeks - can't wait to see how I did!

Chugging along...

I thought about titling this post "BUSY" but how overused is that word? Yeah, yeah, we're all busy. But you know what I wish I was right now? Crashed out like this:

My little peanut and I went to Indiana last week. Very last minute trip to celebrate Grandpa's 65th birthday. Pictures of that to come later.

When we returned to St. Thomas, we had a great visit with Grandma Kat & Papa Joel. Pictures of that to come later.

Stu has been slammed with working on the house. Renovations, upgrades. Pictures of that to come later.

I've been working away non-stop at the computer. Weddings, weddings, weddings. You don't even care to see pictures of that. (although if you do - check us out at www.islandblissweddings.blogspot.com - my other blog that gets neglected on a weekly basis).

Hoping to post some pictures tomorrow. Or the day after. Definitely not on Wednesday. Maybe Thursday.

Oh...and if you are friends with me on Facebook. No, I'm not moving to London. Crazyville...maybe.

New Year's Resolutions 2012

I'm only writing these down as they say your chances of success are much higher if you write down your goals. And making them public creates more pressure to stick to them. Last year, I really didn't have any resolutions. I didn't want to do the normal "eat healthier, lose some weight" cliches and I didn't really put a lot of thought into what I wanted to change in 2011. It felt kind of freeing not to have any pressure to do any certain thing. But this year, there are changes I want to make, in quite a few areas, so I decided this year would be a big year for resolutions.

And if you're not one to sit around and ready about resolutions...enjoy some pictures I took of the kids at the Yacht Haven Grande Old Year's Night celebration for families on Saturday.

1) Probably the most simple of my resolutions is to cut back on grocery bags. I have a good supply of the reusable grocery bags but they always get left at home or in the car. For the past two weeks, I've been making a concentrated effort to always keep them with me (I have two that fold down very small that I keep in my purse now at all times) and larger ones in the back of the car for groceries. I have forgotten them recently though and on those occasions, I was only purchasing one or two items, so I told the clerk to forget bagging the items and I threw them in my purse. Living so close to the ocean and paper never being an option at the stores down here, I want to do my small part for the environment.

2) My plans to go to Haiti have been put on a very back burner. Sad. But I have found a small way to help Haiti that I will announce hopefully before the end of the month. It's not a huge help but you know that any help is welcomed and needed. If you have the ability to positively change the life of one person, you would do that right? My involvement is not going to change Haiti, it won't make Haiti a better place, but it could make the lives of some Haitian people a little bit easier for a day, a week or a month. And I know everyone reading this will be happy to help, right? Right?? =)

3) Total New Year's Resolution Cliche Alert: Yes...one resolution is to eat healthier & exercise more. A group of friends and I are committed to supporting each other through grueling workouts. Exercise is something I have avoided for the last....10 years? Enough is enough. Time to get back into shape. My goal really isn't weight loss. If I stayed the same weight until the day I died, I'd be happy. But I want to be healthier and feel better. A better diet and exercise is the only way to do that. I've given it all a lot of thought, I have a plan of action for both. Yet one thing I have decided NOT to deny myself is carbs and chocolate. I am a total pain in the @ss without carbs. I love me my breads & pastas and will not deny myself them. And I don't go overboard with my chocolates and seeing that I don't, I see no reason to cut them out of my life. I'm not on a diet, I'm on a course for a lifestyle change. And I don't want a life without carbs & chocolate.

4) Second Total New Year's Resolution Cliche Alert: Save more, spend less. One goal I have set for myself is to not do ANY online shopping the entire month of January. My online shopping is borderlineout of control (ok...I'm in denial...it's out of control but if I say "borderline" it gives me hope that not all is lost). We have enough STUFF we don't need and that's all it really is. STUFF that eventually gets thrown out or donated. Spending less will allow for saving more, which a plan has been established to make saving an easy & mindless effort (thank you auto-debit).

5) Drink less. Stu and I are both committed to drinking less alcohol this year. A friend of his quit drinking 10 months ago and lost 70 pounds. 70 pounds! Again, for me, weight loss would just be a nice bonus, but a healthier liver and lifestyle is the goal.

6) Permission to stop fretting about a new dog. No one in the house seems to worry about this at all. But truthfully, I'm restless without a dog in house. I spend hours thinking "when, where, who?" When will we get a new dog? Will it be a puppy or full grown? Will we get it from the local humane society? A breeder? A stateside rescue service? What kind of dog will it be? A boy? A girl? I kid you not, I'm restless. Thing is, I'm not even ready for another dog. No one in the house is. But I'm a planner and I hate not knowing any of the answers. So I'm taking a year off from thinking about it. MAYBE we'll get one for the girls for Christmas next year. MAYBE. I'm just putting this disclaimer in because it's a possibility and not an indication that my resolution failed. Resolutions need exit clauses, right?

7) Let little things go. By nature, I can be argumentative. I'm keeping the wise-old marriage advice in mind going forward, "do you want to be right or do you want to be happy?". As I get older (and wiser) I realize that some of the things that I would argue about in the past is just "small stuff" and you're not supposed to sweat that stuff, right? I'm choosing to be happier.

And that's that...doing what I can to help locally & globally and taking better care of ourselves physically, mentally & financially. I'm excited for 2012, I think it's going to be a great year and I can't wait to see where we will be this time next year.