Grandparents

One of my biggest regrets regarding my son is that he won't be growing up around his grandparents or great-grandparents either. I wish I'd gotten more of a chance to know mine growing up and I have many great memories of the set of grandparents I did get to spend time with when I was very young before they died in Houston. Luckily he will get to see his grandparents Mary and Barkley and his grandmother Kym, Josh's parents, since we live near them but I feel guilty about my parents and my grandparents not getting the chance to be around him growing up. I would love to go visit everyone once a year but honestly, financially speaking and also vacation from work speaking, that's just not feasible realistically. However, I have a plan for those long distance relationships. It's not as good as spending time together in person but it'll do I think.

1. Skype - something I just recently started doing with my Mom a couple of weeks ago. It seems to work pretty well and I've set up a plan to do it once a week if possible and definitely at the very least on all holidays for sure.
2. Phone calls - this is something I suck at. I am not a huge phone person and don't really like talking at all and really don't like doing it on the phone for some reason BUT if we can't talk in person it needs to happen.
3. Snail Mail - stamps are so expensive we probably won't be using this very often but for holidays and other special occasions I want to send little homemade gifts that he helps make. For easter I made 2 little cards for Grandma Kym and for Grandma Joey which involved getting his fingerprinting on a piece of paper and turning it into a little chick.
4. Blog - Mom reads this blog I know and she says my grandparents, his great-grandparents, also read it. This way I can share photos and stories and just regular updates to let them know how things are going and see how he's growing.

And it's not just grandparents either I need to focus on. I think being around or knowing his great-grandparents on both sides will do him good as well. Two different generations with different things to teach him as he grows. I need to be better about calling and keeping in touch with my own grandparents and I realized the other day it's good for him to be around Mary and Barkley - Josh's parents/grandparents. They have no TV or electronics at their house, only playthings for him and besides the normal grandparently spoiling they do I watched with a smile as Barkley set Justace on his lap and helped him play a hymn on the old organ in their house. It was so sweet and something I think he will need as he grows up.

Opening Day

I got to watch the opening day of baseball Sunday evening...Astros vs Rangers. It was interesting from the get go because JJ Watt, a Texans player and fave of mine, threw out the first pitch. Plus the first baseball game I ever saw live was Astros vs Rangers but this time it was different because now for the first time the two teams are playing in the same division. Astros did amazing! Nobody, including myself, was expecting that but the first game played at home actually raised my hopes a little for the coming season. I know we aren't going to make the playoffs this season with a whole new team but maybe just maybe we can make it out of last place? Here's hoping. Also...I wore my Astros jersey...could it be good luck? Should I wear it from now on when they are playing if I'm not at work? I think I'll give it a shot and see.

40 Weeks

Justace insists on standing up almost all of the time now. As soon as I put him on the floor he crawls to the nearest piece of furniture to stand up. Josh and I have been working with him on walking...just holding his hands and teaching him how to put one foot in front of the other. He's got it pretty good except he has no balance and can't do it on his own at all yet.

I'm actually finally OK with my body. I've lost all the weight I really wanted to lose and only have a tiny tummy pooch really. I still need to work out of course to be healthy. Kym gave me some really cute clothes while we were visiting this past week and I honestly thought I looked good in them so that's a plus.

9 Months

Justace still stands up a lot and cruises a lot but I haven't seen him stand on his own yet. Josh said he has for a few seconds before but then he falls over. He loves peek a boo but will not play games with me of rolling balls or anything like that. His favorite newest game to play is I give him a toy and he drops it on the floor then I pick up the toy then he drops it on the floor and stares at it until I pick it up again. He also has started trying to get ahold of my purse if I leave it lying around and he loves emptying it of everything and playing with the contents so I have to constantly make sure I put it up somewhere or at least it has nothing dangerous in it. He loves tearing paper towels off the roll as well. Still no teeth yet. He won't be going in yet for his 9 month checkups just yet because he's been sick. If his cough doesn't get better in a few days I'm going to take him in anyways to have him checked out because that'll be a little over a week he's had this cough. It kills me seeing him sick like this.

Beauty

One of my goals this year was to focus more on myself and taking care of my looks. I think my biggest problem in this department is mental. I don't think I'm pretty or can be pretty so I don't try. I'm not saying I think I'm ugly. More like a plain jane kind of look and boring. So, first of all, I need to see myself as beautiful and then I can focus on actually doing things like hair and makeup and stuff to enhance that and have fun with it. My little sister is a huge beauty/fashionista girl. She's always dressing so stylish and she always keeps herself looking supermodel gorgeous with hair and makeup and what not. Just because she's a big city single younger gal and I'm almost 30 and a country mom doesn't mean I can't at least put a little effort into my looks. Maybe not as much as she does but at least some. So for this week I'm going to post photos I have of myself where I actually think I look pretty to remind myself of what I have to work with over the next year.

 This was taken quite a long time ago when I used to be skinny - before pregnancy, before the military. I was practicing taking self photos with my camera and I liked this one. I used to like anything dark or gothic which explains the necklace as well as the dress in this photo and of course the teddy bear is cute, much like my personality. I'm super white but I think it actually works for me in this photo instead of against me like usual.

This was taken when I was in tech school in San Angelo in the Air Force. This is one of my classmates during her 21st birthday. We all went out to a local bar to celebrate with her.

This was taken New Years Eve night before Josh and I headed out to a local club in Las Vegas when we were vacationing there. I was actually extremely self conscious about my looks going out to party in a club on New Years Eve in Vegas. I felt I wouldn't fit in at all since I'm just a plain looking girl amongst famous people but I actually think the dress and shoes really worked for me. I couldn't walk in the shoes so I spent most of the night sitting while Josh got me things but hey I'm a girl. Isn't that how it should be? ;-)

This was taken in high school in Texas at the Renaissance Festival. To my left is my future husband Josh. To my right is my high school best friend Sam.

And this one I took on the computer at work one day and then played with effects to make it black and white and kind of blur my face a bit. I think it turned out well.

Work Out

Several excuses are always less convincing than one. - Aldous Huxley

Having failed over and over again at trying to stick to a workout routine I have come to the conclusion that the problem is my goal. I have to change my focus from I must lose weight and get fit to simply I must stick to this. So, at least for right now, I am not going to log my weight or my progress. I am simply going to start making myself go to the gym. Once this becomes second nature perhaps I will set more specific goals.

So for now I plan on only working out at the gym on work days. I figure I'm in town for work 4 days a week and I can do cardio on the treadmill every day I'm here and pick 2 days of the 4 to do strength traning. This will begin on Monday. I'm still recovering from a cold so I am giving myself today off and tomorrow I will be off work so Monday through Thursday of this coming week will be my first week at the gym. I will go after I get off work each morning before I head home.

I have to do something. My job requires me to sit in a chair for 12 hours at a time which is not good. To be fair I'm not eating hardly anything anymore but that's also not good since I'm not getting the nutrition I need.

I am going to pack a gym bag and leave it in my car. It will have a sports bra and tennis shoes and shorts and a tee and pants and a coat to wear over this on my way to the gym since its freezing outside. No more excuses. I will do this! I have to just start and make it a habit.

Photos

For Valentines Day Josh was planning on taking me out to this really nice really beautiful restaurant in Idaho Falls we went to for our anniversary. However, neither of us wanted to drive an hour back late at night and whoever was driving would have to not drink anything as well. So instead, he cooked this amazing meal for me. He really went all out. He made me chocolate martinis. He even went and bought us martini glasses and a cocktail shaker and he melted chocolate to rim the glasses with. They were delicious and of course we all know my favorite thing in the world is chocolate! He also made a raspberry souffle for dessert and for the dinner we had steak and mashed potatoes and asparagus. All were above restaurant quality in my opinion. After this we dropped Justace off his my in-laws who happened to be here that day and we had his uncle drop us off at the local bar. I haven't been out in about 4 years so it was nice to get to go out alone with Josh and no baby and enjoy some beers and a couple of shots at the bar. His uncle picked us up when were ready to come home and we went off to bed. A very nice day I think.

For the celebration of the beginning of Lent Josh cooked this shrimp and sausage po boy sandwich which was delicious. I attempted to cook a mardi gras cake and it turned out OK but didn't look as good as I'd hoped. Not bad for my first time however. Perhaps next year it will turn out better.

No, I did not feed my son chocolate. He put his face on my martini glass and got a big joker smile full on his face. I'm sure that tiny amount won't hurt him but mostly I couldn't stop laughing at how silly he looked and Josh snapped this photo.

This is Justace just before our friend Shay cut all his hair off. We figured since he had so much crazy hair up front and very little in the back we should even things out but seriously this is how long his hair was!

And here is Justace after his haircut. Don't worry. I kept a lock of his hair which will be going in the baby scrapbook I've been working on.