Loving the Music!

The theme today is music! I decided that while I was charging full-force on the elliptical this morning. Let me explain. :)

Dylan decided that this morning was going to start very early...5:30am. Despite his training of waking up quietly, this morning wasn't one of the model mornings. Needless to say everyone was out of bed by 6am even though I tried to prolong it. Maxim greeted this morning with a present...argh!!!! We are currently working with Dylan on how to love on Ava gently so that he doesn't knock her over, irritate her or squeeze the life out of her. He did all of these this morning so boy was I glad that today was a school day. :)

The gym was calling my name all morning!

Because of the early rise, I didn't make it to the gym until after Ava's morning nap. It ended up being perfect because she was so happy at Child Watch today. Yippee! The lunges did kick my butt yesterday and I was feeling it this morning. I can't let that stop me though, I'm going to be in a bathing suit in 11 days!

Poipu, Kauai!

So, I hopped on the elliptical,

set it to the random hill workout, hiked up the resistance then hit play on my shuffle. Yes...I charged it this time. :) Ceelo started singing and I found myself smiling. I just felt great that I was there. I was ready to work out the angst and listen to my music friends. I rocked it on the elliptical with a little Ceelo, Lady Gaga, Pink and LMFAO to mention a few! I had so much...umph in me that after the first two songs I had already hit 1 mile. At 15min, I was at 2 miles. Really? Well I guess when my speed is between 8.5 to 9 the whole time...you cover lots of distance. :)

As you may imagine, I felt quite good when I was finished. I then did an upper body workout and found that the energy was still there. I wish I had my watch! I burned so many calories today! I just know it! Rounded off the workout with some fantastic stretching. It reminded me of my dancing days. :) With the endorphins sprinting through me, I decided that today was going to be about music because it just makes me smile. Singing feels good even if it doesn't sound good...in my case anyway. ;) I also decided that I'm in need of a playlist entitled "Kicks A**". This is for those special times where your turbo kicks in and you find energy you didn't know you had. :)

I had 1 1/2 hours left before picking up the boy so I headed to Hobby Lobby for some ribbon.

So many choices! Ok...so it's not Xmas, but I love it. :)

On the way there I decided I wanted to chat with someone that makes me happy. I ended up catching up with my brother Nick

and one of my longtime friends Marissa.

Finished off the 1-child morning with a quick shower

I only had 20 min. and this is what Ava did during that time. :)

then off to pick up Dylan. Sang in the car. Remember...it's music day. :)

Now it's naptime and I'm watching Ellen because her dancing makes me happy. It's the little things. :) So...we'll see if I can convince Dylan to go to Child Watch tomorrow. I may not be walking very well by then because I'm already stiff from this morning. :) Soreness brings results...again, thinking of my dancing days.

What's your favorite workout song?

The Mommy Trap

I was dropping Dylan off at school yesterday morning and had kind of an "ah-ha" moment when I saw my reflection in the window. Now granted, it was about 7:30am but let me just share the mom look I had going on. I was wearing baggy comfy pants, a hoody, flip flops and hair in a pony. I looked lovely. Can you hear the sarcasm? ;)   I was rocking UA Wilcat gear so I should get some points for that one.

It's one thing to just have those days, but it is quite another for that look to become the norm. I always said that kids wouldn't take away my ability to dress myself and look like a normal person. When I was working, I just looked so put together...most days :)

So today I decided that I was taking back control. I dropped Dylan off this morning wearing a ponytail, but also in a cute gym outfit. I figured if I got up and dressed for the gym, I would have more of a chance of actually making it there. :) I came home had breakfast, coffee and got Ava all set to go. Yes...all of this did take about an hour, but I was checking her into child watch at 8:45am. Woohoo! I've been almost dreaming of the gym for the past couple of weeks now.

The funny thing is that along with the relief of finally getting to workout, I was also reminded of how long it has actually been since I showed up. My favorite workout accessory, the polar watch, had a dead battery!

This is obviously an old pic. :(

I'm addicted to that thing and it was not showing up for the workout. I get on the treadmill ready to run and guess what else is dead....my shuffle!

Are you kidding? Besides water, those are my staples for working out and neither are ready. That just showed me it had been too long, but I'm so glad that I'm back on the horse. :)

Now the workout itself was tough! This isn't because I did anything really difficult, it was more that my body got lazy. So after 30 min. on the treadmill and a lower body strength training workout that consisted of lunges holding 5 pound weights (ok, these were not fun), I picked up Ava and off we went to begin our day. It felt so good! I'm going back tomorrow!

We then hit Fry's for an awesome couponing trip where I saved $96...67%. Ava passed out in the bjorn so we were killing two birds with one stone...naptime and groceries. :)

Before picking up Dylan, I needed to get myself showered and looking normal. It felt so good showing up in an actual outfit with makeup on. I haven't used the blow dryer in a while so that should be my next goal. :) I've decided that in order to not fall into the mommy trap, I need to get myself ready in the morning even if I'm spending most of the day at home. I completely understand all those mommies on What Not to Wear.:)

Ava just got up from her nap so it is time to go. The plan tomorrow is similar to today, but instead of groceries, I want to go to Hobby Lobby for some ribbon. It's time for Xmas bows!

It's Been 6 Years!!

Saturday, November 12, 2005 was the day I officially became Erin Krekeler. That day was so much fun; I wish I could do it all over again! I was given advice from friends that your wedding day goes by so fast so try to just take it in and enjoy it. Well said and I did exactly that. So before showing off all sorts of wedding pics, let's jump back a bit on how I met this hubby of mine. :)

In Aug. 2003 I moved into a house on Oliver St. in Pacific Beach with my friend Jennie.

We lived on the right and Randy lived with two friends on the left.

We had no idea that getting this awesome rental was going to change my life. :) Randy lived with 2 guys and all of them were Navy helicopter pilots. The five of us neighbors quickly became really good friends and we hung out everyday.

That is an elephant trunk on my head. The roommate, Ryan, had a chicken beak.

Jennie, Dave, Me and Randy...where's Ryan?

A couple months after moving in, Randy asked me out. Our first date was the Navy Ball...more specifically, just the helicopter pilots. They are a rowdy bunch!

That started our 8 years together. :) Now at this point, Randy already knew he was stationed in Norfolk, VA next so as we continued to date I knew that I was going to have to make a tough choice. Was I really going to move across the country? Yep!

Here's a few pics in the dating years...

Randy proposed February 1, 2005 :) then left March 25th for a deployment. :( While he was gone, I planned our super fun wedding with some help from my mom and my longtime friend, Marissa.

Before our actual wedding day, there is a tradition on my dad's side of the family...a golf tournament, the Nuptial Open 9! The first one was when my parents were married over 30 years ago. So, of course we had to continue the tradition. Our foursome was Randy and I with our dads.

We didn't win, but I did win longest drive for the ladies!

This was the winning team!
Aunt Susan, Uncle Dennis, Murph, and Uncle Bill

November 12th came quick and I was so excited! No tears, no nerves; just a big grin.

 We got married outside overlooking the Torrey Pines Golf Course. Then partied it up!

After partaking in many tequila shots, Randy got on the dance floor!

The guys sang You"ve Lost That Loving Feeling. I think it was the Navy pilot influence.

What a fun day! 

Since then, Randy and I have lived in three states, purchased two houses and have had two kiddos. We have had a lot of fun so far with many more years to come. 

Love you!

A Turning Point

My mindset was ready for a smooth day. It was more like one of those exercise ropes that when give it a tug, it sends a large ripple down the rope.

My mantra today was ...BREATHE. I'd like to say that I did a good job with my "reminders" from yesterday, but I reacted...Dylan is good at getting me to react. It's that redhead Irish in me darn-it. A little Facetime with Grammy on the iPad helped us to reset and we started the afternoon fresh.

Dylan has been napping for almost 2 hours now. Yay! Good nap! What was even better than this nap is that he went down without a fight today. Woohoo! We did talk a lot today about how nap was going to look. He earned his soccer ball back for a great afternoon and will be earning a truck back after this nap. Along with the toys, Dylan LOVES frozen yogurt. I actually think he loves the gummy worms on top more than the yogurt. :)

Since frozen yogurt is one of my favs too, I dangled this little carrot in front of him. So...not only is he getting his truck back, but we get to go to frozen yogurt! I'm hoping this is our turning point and tomorrow will be a day full of earning back toys. :)

Moving on from kiddos, I have really had fun getting the mail the last two days!

I sign up for free items all the time and I also email companies whose products I regularly use to hopefully get samples or coupons. This energy earned me these items in the mail! It's just fun to get free stuff!

The other exciting item brewing in our home is our future trip to Kauai!!! My parents purchased a timeshare at the Mariott resort, Waiohai,  on Poipu Beach about 7-8 years ago.

I have been able to go almost every year. Now the years we were living on Oahu were the easiest, but we would only come over for a long weekend instead of the full week. Well, this year the fam is flying out for a 10 day vacation!!! We are so excited! I made the rental car reservation yesterday...we're doing the minivan. :) I've also begun stocking up on airplane goodies for Dylan. I need a bundle for the ride over and the ride back. We do have a direct flight over which is great, but it is still about 7 hours. Yikes! I'm loving the $1 area at Target! :) Overall, Dylan is a really good flyer. Ava has only flown once so we'll see how this one goes. All of the prep is worth 10 days on the beach! We can't wait!

The boy just woke up and he's happy! This is going to be a great afternoon!

Parent Reminders

I said to Randy the other day that I feel like I need to get a bunch of things done so I can get back to my schedule. His response was that no matter what I do, each week will  be hectic for the next 18 years. :) Well...I guess he is right to some degree, although, I feel like I have experienced those weeks that just work out.

He wore this almost everyday for weeks before Halloween!

I don't know where these weeks come from and when I try and recreate a blissful week then something happens to keep me on my toes. :) So what are the lessons or reminders that have kept me on my toes so far this week?

Now for those of you that follow my blog and have been around for the Maxim updates. (He's my FAT cat that doesn't use his box at night.)

Somehow the kitty gods have answered our prayers and Max has behaved himself 5 nights in a row now!!! Is it the cooler weather? Maybe. Is it that I've increased the level of attention to that of a 3rd child? Maybe. Whatever the reason is...I'm thrilled! His vet even called me last night to check in on him. The vet's next suggestion was going to be kitty prozac. Max has no idea that he made the right decision just in time. I'm afraid to say "He's cured!" 
Reminder: Cats will do whatever they want, whenever they want regardless of our preference.

Nap time is one of my favorite times of the day right now because I just get to sit...well that's the idea. ;) The last three days Dylan has forgotten how wonderful it is to nap and how much he loves our routine to get ready for nap time. He is now being retrained to be a good and easy napper. Unfortunately for him, he is so headstrong that it takes a bit of time to fully grasp that nap isn't going away.

Here is a picture of the toys he has lost since Monday. There is another shelf in the back of the house that looks similar. :) Now he did earn two of these toys back before bedtime today so we're making progress with his attitude.
Reminder: When going through the retraining process stay calm, don't react and stay consistent.

So what's up with Ava? Today she is 8 months!!

I can't believe that 8 months have already passed, but when I see all that she can do...she has come a long way. :) Now with Ava, she is getting over being sick. So now she is regularly hitting the kleenex box. She is at the age where she HATES to be on her back! This makes changing her diaper and using the booger balloon rather challenging. So I got creative...I bet if she was standing up she'd let me take care of that nose. Bingo!
Lesson: Occupy Ava with a standing activity and she will let you do almost anything. She even laughed as I was clearing out her nose.

My reminder from last week was to keep the kiddos busy for a successful and happy day.  That is what I intend to do tomorrow which will be the end of my week. Randy has Friday off as well as my dad and cousin, Lizzie, both coming to visit on Friday. The park will be on our schedule

and I'd really love to squeeze in a workout. We'll see, but I feel excited for a smooth day. :)

Friday Fun Day!

Today I woke up and decided that it was going to be a fun day. In order to do this I needed to keep us busy. I started the day with frozen waffles and coffee in order to set the tone. :)

Since Dylan loves to be outside, our first stop today was going to be the park. I tried to get some friends to join us, but Friday is a busy day. We ended up at Falcon Park.

This is one of my favorites because the bathroom is right by the playground, there is a large grass area and the tables are covered...not to mention it is 5 min. away. Dylan was so excited to go that he walked around with his backpack for about 1/2 hour before we left. Inside the backpack was a soccer ball, Cars bouncy ball, and mini-basket ball. We spent 2 hours there and he ran off all of that energy...woohoo! Ava slept for part of it then just hung out...Ava style. :) We also met some nice mommies there that we may see again. First part of the day...success!

Next stop...CVS. This wasn't as much fun as normal because I forgot my list. I'm usually an uber-planner when it comes to CVS. I love the extra bucks! Well, I got a few items and saved 88% which is great, but I planned on leaving with more product. My biggest deal was two Lumene facial products for $5. :)

Oh well...I guess I'll have to go back tomorrow. :) We were able to use a cart that looked like a car which is wonderful for us! Everytime I stopped to look at something, Dylan would jump out and "fix" the car. Somehow he got grease on his face so it looked quite authentic. :)

***Side bar: I searched for a picture of this cart and found this ridiculous discussion about how many kids you need to bring with you in order to use it otherwise you're considered rude. Seriously...it's a shopping cart. Here's the link http://community.babycenter.com/post/a21534923/cool_car_grocery_carts

Both kiddos napped at the same time! Enough said. :)

Dylan and I enjoyed some time together while Ava slept until 5pm...yes that late. All in all, everything just fell into place today. It was wonderful. Randy had a late night at work so by the time he got home I had two happy kids fed, pj's on, house cleaned and ready for daddy. A few helicopter videos on the iPad with Randy

and Dylan was ready for bed. Ava crashed at 7pm...right on time.

Today felt like a normal day as well as a very good day. I guess you have to hit your absolute peak of patience to be rewarded. :) I hope all of you had a good Friday too!

Climbing Out of the Mush Pot

Many of you may remember the "mush pot" being the place where trouble-makers went in school when you were growing up. Well, I'm expanding the "mush pot" to mean a place where everything comes together in a pile of...well...mush. So my "mush pot" is the sickness that has taken over my house! It started with Dylan last week getting croup.

Then Randy followed shortly after with a few symptoms which exploded on Tuesday and have kept him in bed every since. Lastly, Ava woke up on Tuesday with the beginnings of croup. We have made 4 doctors' appointments in the last week. My house is infested, but thankfully I have been lucky so far...no sickness. :)

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy that I'm not sick; however I feel like this last week has been so draining! I was ready to start fresh this week by going to the gym and just getting some needed organization done. I guess I will be saving that for next week. :) I think the last 24 hours have just been the culmination of everything. I've slept on the couch 2 nights in a row in order to get some sleep. Ava puked all over me in the middle of the night last night. I believe the coughing is what caused it, but it is still no fun having a combination of formula, sweet potatoes and chicken all over me, her and the floor. I broke out the Green Machine today

to thoroughly clean up the floor. Ava has been quite whiny, which isn't her normal mood. I know...this is to be expected, but it's still draining.

So...how is Dylan might you ask. Well, he has a slight lingering cough, but other than that he is feeling good. He is definitely in the throws of 2 1/2! I keep reminding myself that this is a stage and it will end. I don't want to rush through him growing up, but I'm REALLY over the difficult part of 2! Now that Dylan is feeling so good, he has decided that he needs to be in charge of everyone in the house. He feels it is his job to tell me what to do. He tells me where to sit, stand, what to eat, how to eat, how to act and anything else he has an opinion about. If I play the quiet card then he repeats himself 50 times!!!

Now, I am a positive person that can usually spin most situations. So in order to lighten the rant I decided to think about all of happy highlights that have occurred the past few days no matter how small. Ready?

* Great Halloween!

* Weather cooled down
* Ava slept from 12am - 6pm last night!

* Halloween candy and lots of it!!
* WINE!!!
* Bought a family iPad and love it! We got a $40 Target gift card for buying it!

Watching helicopter videos

* Dylan cuddles...the iPad and cuddles go together right now. :)
* Got a deal on Halo Sleep Sacks for Ava from Woot! Two for $20.

* Painted my toe nails
* Blueberries

This week is ending and a wonderful weekend is about to start. No plans yet, but if the house can stay healthy than it has to be good. : )