The best feeling in the world...

Loving on your niece for the first time! Yep that is right. Abby and Christy are in town. They came in pretty late last night but Larry brought them by on their way from the airport so that Travis and I could hold our niece. She is precious! 14lbs of precious! She loves to smile and always has her tongue out!

Today Christy asked if the boys could stay home with her, Abby and Grandpa to play, for some special cousin bonding time. The boys were so excited to meet their little baby cousin for the first time. Oh how I hope Christy is taking lots of pics!

After they left Travis says see I told you she would like me the best. He is so in love!! And it is true, she just gazed and him and was in awe! Then he says isn't it so nice loving on them, seeing them laugh and then sending them home. And I have to agree, it was pretty darn nice!!

Coincidences?!?!

Seriously all events that have happened lately just seem strange. Last week I wrote on my purpose in life then I spent a weekend with a bunch of my friends from Sunday School and one of our first topics we discussed was Our Purposes in Life...

Then yesterday I posted about paying it forward or Random Acts of Kindness (RAK)ing. Not only am I having to read a book on it for a retreat I am going on for work next week call the Fred Factor. But it actually happened to us last night while we were waiting to get the boys hair cut.

This gentleman was paying and I guess he ended up having two coupons. And realized that the one he had left was going to expire at the end of the week and he wouldn't need it before it expired. We already had one coupon with us and were only going to get Logan's hair cut yesterday. Cole's really didn't NEED it, but could certainly USE the cut. But after the man hand us the other coupon which happen to be for considerably less than the amount for which I had a coupon for, I was completely grateful. Now I could get both boys a haircut.

That man didn't have to do that RAK, he could have just taken that coupon and thrown it away, but he didn't he gave it to us and made it possible for us to get both boys a haircut.

Remember you just never know what people are going through or how much one little coupon might change them!! Thank sir for that Great Clips coupon!!!

Paying it Forward

I am stealing this from my friend Cate's blog... She gave me a challenge in a comment and I was too lazy to type it out so I am copying and pasting. But the challenge has been accepted!!

It is time to pay it forward!!!
Hopefully it will bring some blog lurkers out to say hello as well. Make a comment with your email address or contact me at mine and I will send you something really cool. You have to be willing to give me an address to mail it to you, however.
Don't get your hopes up, it isn't a million dollars or a crockpot. But it might have something to do with music. And that is all I am going to say lest I get sued. Or art, or who knows. You will just have to wait and see! :)
So, contact me and get your free stuff. First ten people to respond to this post get something. I don't even think I have 10 people reading this blog but we will see, won't we.

Kids Say the Darndest Things...

Ok so we all know we are working on the whole pottytraining Cole thing. Well in the morning we are slackers (with a capital S) and leave Cole in his nightime pull-up (this boy is up between 5-6 every morning) my alarm goes off at 6:10, I need that extra hour. All parents know the need for sleep! Well in that hour he manages to poop. I am about to get them dressed and Logan just happens to be laying on the floor playing cars right next to Cole's stinky butt and he goes,"Cole your poop stinks!" Cole looks and him and says, "Sorry Logan." and turns back to the tv. I just busted out laughing. It was so funny.

What is the purpose of life?

So this question was posed to me today and I tried to answer the best I could.

But I am a realist, plan and simple and I am going to tell you like it is. Now I am not sure I am actually doing what my true purpose in life is.

1) Because. What is my purpose? I know every humans' purpose is to procreate and make more humans. Well mark that off the list. I have achieved that goal. How well? You decide. There are times I don't think I have done that great of a job. Others I step back and think. Heck I did AWESOME!

2) If this were my purpose would I be writing this? I think if you were truly content in your life you wouldn't be questioning it. I for one know I am not content in any aspect of my life and that stinks. I don't have that happy go lucky life that everyone dreams of. It may look like it from the outside but I am one heck of a faker!

But me being the realist here I am laying it all out for you. If my life had taken a different path, would I have had a different purpose? Would I be doing a different daily deed? Who knows? But really who cares? I can't go back and take a different path, although there are many times I wish I could (I am sure there are many people that wish they could) but this is the reality we have made for ourselves that we must live in everyday. The road we have to take is paved in stone and we may stumble but we have to get up and figure out our purpose. Stupid, crazy and useless and it may feel someone out there sees it as smart, intelligent and helpful (or so I sure hope they do!) Or I am just wasting breath (really my energy typing this long thing!)

3 times in a hour???

Cole did great at school today with potty training. They even got him in undies after nap. It was when he got home things when downhill. As soon as we got home I had him go potty.

We are sitting at the dinner table and he says I went teetee and yep he did. That was #1. I get him changed into a new pair of undies. About 20 minutes later he on the living room floor playing cars and pees again. It was a huge puddle this time. That was #2. I get him changed and the pee soaked out of our new carpet. Then I get him settled on the couch on top of a towel and his 3rd set of undies. He then says I need to go poop. (At least he tells us that!) Travis takes him to the potty and we realize that he has peed again. This is about 30 min after the 2nd pee. It was not a little puddle either. Thank goodness I had put down a towel!

Seriously who knew someone could pee so much!! I think it was the sippy of milk he had as soon as he got home from school. Gotta remember not to give him one of those while potty training. Easier said than done since this kid LOVES milk!!

So he went the majority of the day dry. Now my question is, does he get a stamp on the progress chart or not? I mean he did go most of the day, it was just the last 2 hours that were bad...

Does this seem right?

We are strapped for cash... I mean the rising gas prices. Travis changing branches and just my crappy salary make for us tight every month. But I really wanted the two of us to have a nice getaway weekend in San Antonio. He has never been and I found a great deal and booked it. Well it hit our credit card this last month Travis went crazy.

We can't pay that, you better call and cancel. Blah, blah, blah. I refused and said if we are so broke you do it. He never did, then we discussed the fact that we still had a gym membership that neither of us used and how that was going to waste and he should call and cancel that.

Well he was off work today because he will have to work this Saturday and I get an email from the hotel showing our trip in August has been cancelled. Totally disappointing. I talked to him once during the day and his sitting on his butt watching a movie.

Just I am getting the boys dressed for bed and he comes in his workout clothes and I ask him. Where are you going? He says to work out... I say you have all day to do that and you decide to do it now? I mean really?

Not only am I mad about the fact that he decides to go work out right now when he had literally ALL day to do it, but that is something we talked about cancelling because we are so freaking broke.

I am just so sick of this. If it something he wants then we have enough money, but anything I want, we are just to poor. Such a double standard!

Making the bribe even easier!!

So I have been telling the Chuckee Cheese bribe story to absolutely EVERYONE and I get and email that is going to make this bribe to potty training a snap!

Potty Training Chart

They have all sort of reward charts. If you are trying to get your kid to do something or not do something (my next bribe will be getting Cole to stop sucking his thumb, they have that too!) You should check this out!!

Bribery and Potty Training a Perfect Combination...

What does it take to get Cole to use the potty all day? Bribing him with Chuckee Cheeses! Yep yesterday morning he asked when they were going to get to go and I said when you start using the potty all day and wearing underwear. Well I took him to school and told his teacher the deal. He used the potty all day.

He came home last night and his report said can put in underwear tomorrow. We called Gimmie and told her the good news. She of course told Daddo.

Well this morning I went to put underwear on him and he says, I don't like underwear, I like pull-ups and I told him the deal is to go to Chuckee Cheeses you have to be in underwear and dry not pull-ups. So I took 2 pair of underwear with him to school today to see if his teachers can get him in them.

But we are taking some major steps in the right direction! Who knew bribery to Chuckee Cheeses was what it would take??

It was a great day!

4th of July...

We had a blast! We went to Lake Leon for the day... We rode the JetSki and on my first trip around the lake I guess I decided I knew what I was doing and tried to take a turn going 50 mph and went flying. I hit the water head first and it felt like I was hitting glass. Not fun! I am now finding bruises, I never knew you could have! I ended up going to the dr. yesterday because my ear wouldn't quit hurting. I have a hole in my ear drum! Nice huh... He wants to see me back in 2 weeks to make sure it is healing like it should... I lost my sunglasses in the lake on that stupid ride too...

Didn't stop me from riding it a couple more times. Had a blast in fact... I was just a little more cautious when it came to turning and after seeing me fall there was no way in heck the boys were getting on that thing. We had been trying to convince them that it was safe and not scary. Well they saw me fall and they were NOT getting on it at all after that.

They did enjoy the boat and just getting in the water! In fact they LOVED the water and if we lived anywhere near the water I don't think I would ever be able to get them of it!

They both got to see their first real firework show except Cole was so exhausted that he fell asleep before they really started! He also had his ears all tucked up inside themselves because he said they were too loud. It was so cute.

We got home a little before midnight... It was a great day!

So pissed...

Anyways I am super pissed at Travis he is making me cancel our romantical trip to San Antonio at the beginning of August because we got our credit card bill the other day and it was high and then I went and had that stupid wreck which will make this months high. He is so mean. I know we are broke and he hates his job but I know him getting away would be the best thing for him but he is being a dumb ass..

I still haven't done it... I don't want to, if I have to cancel I am not going to talk to him the whole weekend we were supposed to be out of town. JERK...

When I am stressed I shop, who doesn't...

The boys have been holy terrors lately and I know it is because they can feel the stress in the house...

We are headed to the lake tomorrow, hopefully that will make him feel better...