Never count on a 3 year old

Never count on a 3 year old to be anything but unpredictable.

Since Joseph was a baby, I've been looking forward to when he would be old enough to go to VBS at our church. Finally, the week was here! My favorite day of the week has been Wednesdays when Joseph goes to summer camp in the mornings. I love my oldest son, but it is so nice to have a break from him....and have some James and me time. And now it was time for VBS....a whole weeks worth of mornings with James (well, until we head to TN on Wednesday)! Joseph is very social so I wasn't even worried about him not wanting to go.

Never count on a 3 year old.

He got mad because we weren't going to summer camp (the church where he goes to that is just around the corner from our church). Then he didn't  want to go in the church at all. When i got himminside, he wouldn't sit with the 3 year old group. Then he wanted to go home. I would be lying if I said I wasn't more than a little miffed.

Never count on a 3 year old.

Of course, it's tball night for us and he's already saying that he can't go play baseball.  It's looking like it may storm and you know...I'm ok with that.

Needless to say our first day of daddy's work trip to NYC is starting with a bang.

Oh I almost forgot that I went to to run yesterday evening at Granna and papaw's and Joseph wouldn't stay. I had to walk around with him in a stroller instead....bc something is better than nothing. After about a mile, he was ok with going back and I got a little run in.

3 year olds = highly volatile

Choices, choices...

Hi, My name is Julie, and I am addicted to subscription boxes.

It started out simply enough about six months ago when a friend of mine of facebook mentioned Birchbox. I had never heard of it and went to check it out. A box of beauty samples delivered to my door monthly? I love samples. I frequently (or at least I did before Birchbox) shopped on Sephora.com. I wouldn't get as excited about my purchases as I did about the free samples. So, since I'm not shopping at Sephora, I'm saving money, right? That's how I see it.

Anyway, it wasn't long after that I discovered Bluum boxes for babies and toddlers. I found a discount code and signed my boys up. I have since stopped the boxes for Joseph since he didn't seem to care about the things that they sent him. I think it was a bit young for him. I have found another that is craft based that I'm trying out.

I also have a couple of subscriptions to food boxes. I just started those and am anxious to check them out.

I also found another beauty box called Ipsy Glam Bag. It includes FULL SIZE products for the same price as Birchbox.

I decided that I need to pare it down. This week, I received both my Birchbox and my Glam Bag. I am comparing them and choosing ONE to continue with. Decisions. Decisions. I thought it was going to be easy to choose Glam Bag, but Birchbox threw me a curve this month....in the form of some fabulous day glow green nail polish.

This month's Birchbox. It included nail polish, SPF moisturizer, face wash/exfoliator, lipstick, and body lotion.

This month's Glam Bag. Gel eyeliner, blush, glitter eye shadow, highlighter pencil, lip liner, and cute little cosmetics bag.

After looking at it though...even with the FANTASTIC nail polish, the scales are leaning heavily toward the Glam Bag. I can't wait to try all my stuff out! Well, I've already tried the nail polish...did I mention yet that I LOVE it?

When my food boxes arrive, I will let you know which one I choose...because I really can only keep one. Even though I would love to subscribe to all the boxes. It just makes me happy to get little packages in the mail.

Thursday update

It seems that I update random stuff on my blog every Thursday...so I'm just going to start calling it the Thursday update...

Where to begin...

My weight loss....after 2 weeks of a big goose egg...I lost a pound this week. I am good with that. As long as the numbers go down, I'm a happy girl. Still sticking to the plan of trying to avoid junk, one cheat meal a week, and replacing lunch or supper with a protein shake. I've gotten used to that and I have to say, it's crazy convenient.

I have my first ever 10K this Saturday. I am excited. It will be a challenge, but knowing that I will definitely PR is an awesome feeling. It's the last race of the Frankfort Trifecta and it will be my first time to complete the series.

We have an interview with a prospective preschool for Joseph next week. I just hope he gets in...I know if he doesn't, it will be on us, the parents, because there is no reason to turn down a 3 year old.

James is crawling all over the place...the bathroom is his favorite room...much to Michael's chagrin. He is also pulling up. We've had to lower his crib mattress so he doesn't tumble out.

I'm excited for the weekend. We are going to see the new superman movie tomorrow, then a 5K and a possible cookout on Saturday, and a cookout on Sunday for Father's Day.

Oh, I got the best surprise yesterday when I got a message from a fellow blogger at from ice cream to marathon asking if I wanted to go see Spirit of the Marathon II. Michael graciously agreed to take care of the boys and off I went. It was such a good time.

Garden update

I guess it's been about a month since we planted our little garden. It's coming along nicely. In past years, I've only really done well with herbs and cherry tomatoes. I feel a little more confident that we will get some good stuff this year. I still have lots of herbs...love my herbs. They weathered pretty well over the winter and I really only has to buy parsley, cilantro, and dill.

My Hungarian Black Pepper. It's new this year and I'm pretty excited about it.

Flowers....I let Joseph plant the zinnias.

My volunteer buttercrunch lettuce.

Green Beans...I let Joseph plant these too. He planted them all over the yard as well...we have beans everywhere.

 

Jalepenos

Cucumbers. I really thought I lost them when I first put them out, but I think they will be ok.

Early Girl Tomato

I always have volunteer onions...I haven't planted onions since the first year.

Too.Many.Cupcakes & TBall

I suffered this weekend. I suffered from "Too Many Cupcakes" syndrome. It wasn't just cupcakes but also hotdogs...and general unhealthy food. Too much junk, not enough fruit. I crashed at about 8:30 last night and after getting back on track today, feel much better. I wouldn't say that I pigged out or anything, but I guess my body got used to the general healthy stuff I have been eating and rejected the stuff I consumed this weekend. Oh well, it tasted good. I made chocolate cupcakes with salted caramel buttercream for a baby shower. I'd post pics, but they weren't my prettiest cupcakes. Dang if they weren't good though.

James at the baby Shower..he had a blast.

Joseph started t ball tonight. I really didn't know what to expect. I hoped for the best though. I mean, we dropped out of Itty Bitty Sports last year, but I blame that on the instructor. She was horrible. We've been trying to get him excited about it. We got him a glove a couple of weeks ago and have been trying to get him to play catch. But, if you know Joseph, you know that he would rather walk through fire than do anything Michael or I want him to do.

Anyway, practice started off ok.....Joseph seemed to like the coach. Then we broke off in parent/child duos to play catch....and Joseph wanted none of it....

He would play catch with the coach, but the coach had to go and coach the other 6 kids. Then Joseph found a complete stranger and started playing catch with them. And then tried to go climb a tree. It's like herding cats....

Anyway, his real shining moment was running bases....he ran bases with everyone. Every time a kid would run the bases, Joseph went too.

I won't lie...it was a bit frustrating. I mean, all the other kids had some semblance of order...at least they acted like they liked their parents.

Maybe next time.....here's hoping.

A few updates

I realized that I didn't post an update on my weight loss this week. I'm a bit late but I lost a half pound. I'm pretty happy with that since last Friday was our anniversary and we went all out food wise and then there were a few meals that weren't the best over the weekend.

Joseph started summer camp thus week. It's at a local church and is 4 hours every Wednesday until the end of June. Let me tell you, it was 4 hours of bliss thus week. James napped when we got back from dropping jo jo off. The house was so quiet and peaceful. It does the mind good. Joseph had a blast and loves the sunflower he made out of a paper plate. He starts t ball next week. I hope he likes it.

James is no longer exclusively nursing. We weighed him this week and his growth chart has leveled out. The same kind of thing happened to Joseph about this age. I decided to try to give him a bottle of formula...thinking he would refuse it....and he drank that sucker down. He seems happier now as well. I guess even with taking massive amounts of fenugreek and power pumping to increase my supply, it just wasn't enough. I am a bit sad about it...even though I've never been a huge lover of bfeeding. But I also feel free. No more running back home to feed James....someone else can do that.

I discovered during my run today that I still can't wear shorts to run....even with friction block. I had a very painful 4 mile run...was supposed to be longer but I cut it short. I guess I will stick to my capris from now on. Is there anything worse than your clothes holding you back?

Meet Ellie.

We had a really good weekend. I will post more about that later. First, I would like to introduce y'all to Ellie:

Up until yesterday, I drove a VW Passat Sedan. I love Love LOVE that car. It was dark blue with chrome and leather interior. It was a hot car. I got my first VW in 2006 and have considered myself a VW person since.

Michael drove a red Ford F250 Diesel.

He love Love LOVES that truck. It was a standard and just fun for him to drive. The only problem is that since he has a work van, he rarely drives the truck. He had been talking about selling it for a while. I on the other hand, had never considered getting rid of my car. No way no how.

Until Saturday....

We swapped cars with my mother in law who has an Escape. We were just talking about how we could carry both kids and the dogs in something like that and it just clicked with me.  Why were we holding on to these cars that no longer fit our family. My car is fine for just hauling the kids around, but no one else can ride. We can squeeze both dogs in if we let one sit in our lap....not fun.

So, of course, we jump on auto trader and start looking. We narrowed it to 3 makes: the VW Touareg (my choice), the Ford Flex (his choice) and the Ford Explorer (only 2011 and up, both of us were pretty well on board with that). After much talking, he were 90% set on the Touareg. We just needed to see one. So, we looked at one yesterday, it was simply not big enough. It was essentially my car as a hatchback on a 4x4 platform. I was so disappointed. Then we went to look at the Flex and Explorer. The Flex was fine. I really liked it on the inside but I wasn't sold on its looks. The explorer was fantastic though. The only problem was that it was at the very edge of our budget. We really wanted to trade both of our cars and not be out any cash. Well, to make a long story short, we drove away from Peggy the Passat and Frank the F250 and went home in Ellie the Explorer. It's going to be an adjustment for me but I'm pretty happy with it...only 1 insurance payment, only 1 tax payment, and it fits our whole family fur babies and all.

And if Coach Cal drives one, it has to be ok, right?