We're Back!

Well, we made it through an entire week on an island without killing each other (or one of the boys)! We had such a fantastic time at the beach house. We experienced the most perfect combination of sunny and overcast days. We lived on the beach on the sunny days and did our sightseeing on the overcast days. We usually took 2 long walks on the beach every day and included the dogs on our evening stroll. There wasn't much to do on the island itself except soak in the scenery. This suited us just fine. We didn't feel like battling a bunch of tourists and having to search out a small section of the beach for our family every day. We basically had the beach area in front of our house to ourselves. Jason and I started thinking about what a simple and content life the locals lived. Work during the day and fish during free time. It started to sound pretty good, but we had jobs and our life to get back to. We got home Sunday to some slightly cooler temperatures and I woke up Monday morning to find it was only 50 degrees. Brrrr!

But as I was driving into work with the heat on in the truck for the first time this fall, I realized that I love living in Atlanta, I love my hectic-crazy life and I'm ready for summer to end and for fall to begin. I'm excited to see my boys in their Halloween costumes. I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving dinner, watching the parade on TV and drinking too much wine. Ayden is already asking me if he was a good boy this year and if Santa will be stopping by our house. His enthusiasm is contagious and I find myself looking forward to Christmas decorations, baking cookies and searching out those "perfect" gifts.

So, St. George has probably become one of my new favorite vacation destinations, but I think we'll leave it at that. It's a great place to relax and let go for a while, but I wouldn't give up what I have here for the world!

FYI - I downloaded vacation pictures last night and will edit and upload them into Kodak Gallery tonight.

Anticipation...

I'm still reading the 2nd book in Twilight series. Since it's been so hectic lately with the boys and packing for our vacation, I haven't had a lot of down time. I'm about half way through though and thought I'd better stop off at the book store Wednesday night to buy the 3rd book. The lady who checked me out said that Eclipse was by far the best book out of the 3. If that's the case, I'm sure I'll have New Moon and Eclipse finished by the time we get home. I'm tingling with anticipation!!

Scooby Dooby Doo!

I'm so excited! Ayden's costume was just delivered to my office. I had it shipped here because it wasn't supposed to be delivered until next week and I didn't want it sitting outside at home for too long. What a awesome surprise to see it delivered today! Ayden is going to be so excited!!! Ayden's devil costume is totally appropriate for Jameson this year. Unfortunately, Jameson isn't as chubby as this baby so it won't be filled out as much. Can't wait to take a ton of pictures of the boys dressed up in their costumes!

I've Been a Bad Blogger

I'm sorry, but things have been so hectic lately!

1. Jameson still isn't sleeping through the night and it has nothing to do with his ear anymore. He finishes up his antibiotic tomorrow and seems to be doing much better and the Mucinex dried up his sinuses so he's breathing again. He simply doesn't want to sleep in his room. It's almost an every night battle to get him to fall asleep in his crib and then he's up 2-3 times. I've been staying firm on making him fall back asleep in his own room, but most of the time he's crawling out and coming into our room for another snuggle. Most mornings he'll come in around 4:30 and then I let him lay down with us so that I can take my shower without worrying about him roaming the house screaming his head off.

2. Let me just start out by saying that Jameson looks like an angle but acts like the devil. He's into everything, takes things away from Ayden and then starts crying when Ayden doesn't give up easily. He'll randomly come up to Ayden and hit him or pull his hair because he thinks it's funny. I've finally learned that when the boys are playing and Jameson starts crying, I ask what happened instead of assuming that Ayden did something to upset his brother.

This being said, when Marguerite told me Tuesday night that Ayden had been punching his brother so hard in the stomach that it made Jameson cry, I didn't immediately jump to any conclusions. Yes, I was upset that Ayden would hurt his brother but at the same time I was pretty sure that Jameson had done something to provoke him. I wanted to handle this when I got home. As I'm walking out the door, David (Marguerite's husband) informs me that I don't understand the severity of what Ayden is doing and that they're worried that some day Ayden is really going to hurt his brother. I calmly tried to explain to him that it's hard for me to discipline Ayden properly because I wasn't there to witness the altercation and this is not normal behavior at home. Ayden wouldn't dare pound on his brother with me around because I would paddle his butt. David then proceeds to tell me that they spend way more time with my boys so they see more of it. Explosions started going off in my head. I told David that a great solution to the problem would be for me to quit my job and become a SAHM, but unfortunately our household budget doesn't allow for that. I certainly don't need to be reminded that I'm having to rely on someone else to raise my children 10 hours out of the day.

Before the tears could escape, I rushed the boys out to the car and left. I was bawling my eyes out...feeling guilty for being a working mom...feeling guilty because Ayden had hurt his brother and I wasn't there to handle it...feeling guilty because yes, David & Marguerite spend as much time with my children during the week as I do. David called me while I was making dinner to apologize for upsetting me. I know they don't want to see Jameson get hurt, but don't make me feel like an inadequate mom in the process.

So my solution to the problem was to have a heart to heart with Ayden and explain that what he's doing is hurting his brother. If Jameson does something to upset him, he needs to tell an adult and they'll take care of it. All of his "friends" (very cherished stuffed animals) were taken away and for each day that he is a good boy he can have 1 back. If he hits his brother again, they'll all be taken away again. Yesterday was a good day. He got his monster back.

3. So while I'm having an emotional breakdown with the Ayden/Jameson thing, I decided to clean out Ayden's school backpack. There was an envelope with the results from Ayden's hearing/speech/vision screening. I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but we're worried about Ayden not being able to identify colors. He can count, he can say his ABC's and he has a vocabulary that sometimes scares me but he can't tell you if a particular crayon is blue, yellow or red. We've been worried that maybe he's colorblind so I was hoping that this screening would say otherwise. Not the case. Ayden passed with flying colors in every category except pronoun usage and colors. He was only able to identify 2 out of 8. I spoke with the lady who did the screening and she said it's not time to panic. Because Ayden can match colors, he can obviously tell the difference between them. He's simply not able to retain the name of each color. She gave me some exercises to work on with him and if we don't see an improvement in the next 4-6 months then we'll need to take him to a pediatric optomotrist. We're also going to work on his pronoun confusion (her fell, him did it, them crayons) but since he just turned 3 she's not worried that this won't work itself out.

4. I haven't seen Jason since Sunday. He has been working until 10 or 11 each night so that things won't fall apart at work while we're on vacation. It's hard enough taking care of the boys on my own, but I've been cleaning, doing the laundry, dragging things down from the attic, running errands and packing for all of us at the same time. Our goal is to leave for the beach immediately after work on Friday so it's up to me to make sure everything is ready to go. As of this morning, I only have one more bathroom to clean, 2 loads of laundry to fold, grocery shopping and packing to finish. I stripped all the beds this morning so I'll have fresh sheets in the dryer when I get back from nail night. When I leave for work tomorrow morning, it's my goal that everything will be in the truck ready to go. All I'll have to do is pick up the boys and go home to get Jason and the dogs.

All of the craziness this week will be worth it when we're sitting on the beach building sand castles with the boys. And since I woke up with two pimples on my forehead this morning, I'm assuming that "aunt flo" is on her way and the heartburn I've been experiencing is due to stress. I guess I'll have a few Corona's this weekend after all.

Everyone have a fabulous weekend and I'll post again when we get back.

Hmmmmmm

I’ve had heartburn after almost every meal for about a week. All I had for lunch today was broccoli rice casserole – pretty bland stuff. Either the boys have finally aggravated me so much that I've developed an ulcer or….hmmm…could it be possible???

So Very Tired

I feel like I have a newborn all over again. Except with a newborn you can feed them and they go right back to sleep. Not Jameson...we were up from 1:30 to 3 this morning. I finally gave up and brought him into our bed. He slept until 6:15 while I was still up at 4:45 to get ready for work. I feel hungover and I didn't have a drop of alcohol last night.

I'm excited about this weekend. Not anything extremely major going on but it should be a fun/productive weekend. Tomorrow the boys and I are taking a road trip with Mimi to Barnesville (about an hour away) to check out a different scrapbook store. I'm sure daddy will be working so I need to get the boys out of the house. Sunday we're staying home to clean and start packing for St. George. It's supposed to be beautiful all weekend (high 70's) so we can open windows, air out the house and have the kids play outside while we get some serious work done. With all of the exciting new shows on TV and kick ass Stephenie Meyer books to read, I've sort of been neglecting the homestead.

This is what we're having for dinner tonight:

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Ingredients:
3 skinless boneless chicken breasts
1/2 teaspoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
1/4 teaspoon cumin
2 (14.5oz) cans chicken broth
1 cup frozen corn kernels
1 cup chopped onion
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 cup chunky salsa
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
tortilla chips

Directions:
1. Boil the chicken and shred. In a large pot combine chicken, garlic and cumin. Mix well. Then add the broth, corn, onion, chili powder, lime juice and salsa. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 30-45 minutes.

2. Break up some tortilla chips into individual bowls and pour soup over the chips. Top with shredded cheese and sour cream.

Enjoy and hope ya'll have a great weekend!

Yet Another Jameson Update

On a hunch (because he is STILL not sleeping through the night and it CAN'T be because he hates me that much) I took Jameson back to the doctor yesterday (3rd time in the last 4 weeks). Dr. Goza lovingly informed me that yes, Jameson's ear infection is still to blame for my sleepless nights. We started pumping him up with his new antibiotic last night along with Mucinex to get rid of the boogies and coughing. I have to get this baby healthy before our vacation!

I'm proud to report that Jameson didn't get up this morning until 5:15. If we can only get back to when he was sleeping until 6:30, I'll be one happy momma...to be continued.

Addict Seeking Help

I have yet another addiction (like I need another one). I'm addicted to the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. I told you that I bought the first book, Twilight, Saturday night. I started reading it Sunday while the boys napped. I almost hyperventilated yesterday when I realized that I only had 40 pages left of the 500 page book. I quickly whipped up some fettuccine alfredo for me and the boys, dropped off a doggy bag for my mom at her house and cruised to Books A Million to by the second book, New Moon. Jason pulled into the driveway right behind us so I hid the book in the truck and had to mask the wild look in my eyes so he wouldn't realize I'd gone over the deep end. Ayden didn't take a nap so I had him in bed at 7:30. Jameson fell asleep during our snuggle time so I was able to slip into bed around 8:30 and finish up Twilight.

This doesn't sound too crazy right? Well, let me admit the worst of it. I brought Twilight with me to work on Monday and Tuesday and when everything was quite down the hall, I would hide the book behind my garbage can and read away. While at a stop light, I'd quickly read a few sentences before my light turned green. Yesterday I flew home as soon as I could and raced through Publix buying just enough for dinner last night and tonight. I had 10 minutes before I had to pick up the boys so I sat in the grocery store parking lot and read my book. I haven't watched Desperate Housewives yet because Twilight took top priority. I think Jason was looking for a little somethin-somethin last night but I claimed my arthritis has been bothering me all day so I could escape to bed. New Moon came with a sheet of temporary tattoos that are beyond adorable. I'm desperately trying to figure out a way I can use them as rub-ons for a scrapbook page. I have New Moon sitting on my desk right now and it's going to take all of my willpower to put it back in my bag so I can transmit payroll today. People need to get paid! I NEED HELP!!

Seriously, people can have their drugs and alcohol...all I need is a good Stephenie Meyer book!

Gay, Vampires & Benedryl

On Saturday Jason had to work all day but it didn't stop me and my parents from packing up the boys and heading down to Gay, Ga for the Cotton Pickin' Fair. Yes, there really is a town in Georgia called Gay...I even took a picture to prove it. It was such a beautiful day! We spent the majority of our visit wandering the grounds checking out the local artists. I bought some cute artwork for Jameson's room and Ayden rode the ponies and climbed around the Spider Man tower. It wasn't long after we left that both of the boys fell asleep in their carseats totally worn out.

A while back on Candice Stringham's blog (totally awesome photographer who works for Creating Keepsakes) I saw that she made reference to a book coming out that she was totally excited about. It was the third book in a series by Stephenie Meyer(http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/) called Eclipse. After reading some of the comments on her blog, I realized that there were a lot of people really into these books. Since there is nothing that I enjoy more during my very limited down time than a good book, I was extremely interested. After dinner on Saturday we took the boys to the bookstore and there in the front of the store was a Stephenie Meyer display. I snatched up the first book in the series called Twilight. This type of story is totally out of my "norm". It's about a young girl who moves to a new town and falls in love with a vampire. I decided to wait and start it yesterday while the boys were napping. Thank goodness that they both took a 2 hour nap...I couldn't put this book down. I couldn't wait until they were both in bed again last night so I could crawl into bed and pick up where I had left off. Jason had to yell at me last night to turn off the lights...I even skipped Desperate Housewives (DVR'd though)!

Onto my last exciting tid bit of info. They boys have been battling a cold for some time now. Ayden handles it much better than Jameson. When Jameson is sick and has a hard time sleeping, mommy has a hard time sleeping. I'm exhausted! Thank goodness for Children's Benedryl though. After two days with a tablespoon every 4-6 hours, I think we're on the road to recovery. I'm happy to report that Jameson slept from 8:30 last night to 5:30 this morning. Way to go goober man!

I've got pictures to download tonight so be on the lookout! Hope everyone had a good weekend!

Our Home Away From Home

I still can't believe that we are going on our very first "family" vacation. No other family, no friends...just me, Jason, the boys and the dogs. It feels so strange! So Rob confirmed the reservation yesterday and so I immediately had to look up our beach house on the internet. The house sleeps 10-12 people with 5 bedrooms (1 king, 3 queens and 2 twins) and 4 bathrooms. We have Gulf views and breezes from the 76ft veranda, pool and 6 person hot tub. There's a footpath to the beach just across the road. Holy crap! We're never going to want to go home!

Main View of House

KitchenDining Area

Living Room

Master Bedroom w/KingPrivate PoolView From House

My Life List

I've mentioned how I've been struggling to be a better person lately. Sometimes I feel like I'm on track and sometimes I feel like I'm failing miserably. I've been reading lately about how people are creating "Life Lists" to keep themselves on the right path. As somthing is accomplished on their list it gets crossed off and new things can be added. It really made me step back and think of what I want to accomplish during my lifetime. I think of things I want to do or see all of the time, but will I ever do anything about it? Maybe if I just have it written down, I'll be more likely to take action. So I've started my Life List. I only planned on putting down 25 things, but had a hard time stopping once I got started....

1. learn to have patience with my children
2. stop feeling like I have to compete with Jason’s hectic schedule
3. take a hot air balloon ride
4. visit Italy
5. take a family vacation with just Jason and the boys
6. visit all 50 states
7. learn how to use my camera
8. take a photography class
9. pass the APA exam
10. make $75,000/ year
11. get my degree in human resource management
12. convince Jason that it’s okay to have 3 kids
13. make something creative every week
14. consistently do the laundry every Saturday (and put it away)
15. be thankful for something new every day
16. never go to bed without giving Jason a kiss and telling him that I love him
17. plant a garden
18. visit Africa
19. make smores with the boys in the backyard
20. tile the laundry room
21. have my own scrap studio (with a door)
22. take the boys to church at least every other week
23. light candles every night after work
24. tell my grandma my true feelings about our relationship (or lack of)
25. learn photoshop elements in and out
26. tell Jason every day that he’s a good daddy
27. call my dad and mother-in-law at least once a week
28. renew our vows after 20 years of marriage
29. finally get down to 150 lbs
30. dance with the vacuum cleaner
31. tickle the boys every night before bed
32. post more photos on my blog
33. pay off both of our credit cards
34. move into a 4 bedroom house
35. talk to my sister every month (not via email)
36. find time to get a haircut more than once a year
37. finish painting Ayden's room

I figure it's a lot easier to write it all down than it is to actually do it. I'll let you know how it goes!

OMG!

Okay, for those of you NOT watching Private Practice...start watching! I was laughing my butt off during the first 15 minutes and bawling my eyes out during the last 15 minutes. As soon as Jason saw me walk into the bedroom with my puffy eyes, all he could say was "Can't you find a show that doesn't make you cry?". Whatever...I can't wait to see if Sam and Naomi can repair their marriage, if Addison and Peter will finally "hook up" or if Violet will ever realize that Cooper is the one for her. As if Private Practice, Greys Anatomy and Desperate Housewives aren't enough, I also DVR'd Dirty Sexy Money last night and Big Shots. I heard from so many people that they were really good last week so I thought I'd give them a try. Besides, I love Donald Southerland!So if you've already watched Dirty Sexy Money or Big Shots, let me know what you thought!

Look Out St. George...Here Come The Paynes!

It's been over a year since since Jason has been on a vacation. That's a long time considering our last vacation was flying to Wisconsin with a newborn, a 2 year old, mass quantities of luggage, 2 carseats and a breast pump. Let's not forget the lovely waterskiing "accident" I had which landed me in the hospital right smack dab in the middle of our precious 9 days off from work. I had my trip to Hawaii in February, but Jason has been faithfully working his butt off for the past 15 months with only a few random deep sea fishing trips provided by his wonderful boss, Rob.

Well, to reward all of Jason's hard work Rob is providing us with a beach house on St. George Island for a full week. We are sooooo excited! We can drive there in about 5 hours so we don't need to purchase airline tickets. The dogs are allowed at the house and on the beaches so we don't need to pay Sami to housesit and we can buy grocieries and mostly eat in like we do any other week...except we'll be waking up to the sound of the ocean and spending our days relaxing on the beach while our babies play in the sand.

I think the plan is that we'll leave Friday (10/19) after work so the boys can sleep most of the way there and we'll come back on Sunday (10/28). This also means that Jason and I get to spend our 6 year wedding anniversary at a beach house!

So look out St. George! Here come the Paynes!!!

BTW: This is an actual picture taken from the St. George website...how freakin beautiful is that beach???