Doing Something Awesome

Around April of last year, I decided that we needed to go on a real family vacation.  In addition, with my 40th birthday coming in 2016, I wanted to do something awesome.  After doing some looking around, I kept coming back to the same idea...  I wanted to take my family to Walt Disney World.

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Did I Really Do That?

Sometimes you can really surprise yourself when your kid is really counting on it.  I don't really consider myself to be an artsy or creative type of person let alone have the patience to pull anything even remotely Pinterest worthy off.  But, I have to say, I actually accomplished something that I'm pretty damn proud of.

It all started with a picture that a few people posted on my Facebook timeline about a month or so before Halloween...

I can't seem to find who to give credit to for this picture, so if you know, please let me know so I can add it.

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Best. Day. Ever.

Back in October, I had my first experience attending the New York Comic Con (NYCC).  I have been to conventions in the past so I had some idea of what to expect, but experiencing it was a whole different story.

I had always been under the impression these conventions were focused on comic books and that whole world, which I was not at all interested in.  My husband, on the other hand, has a full tote with nothing but comic books that he has collected over the years.  He is a bit like a comic book ninja.  I always seem to find random comic books that he has bought laying around the house.  I don't even know when he buys them!

Over the years, Freddy has always expressed an interest in going to the NYCC but he always had reserve duty during that weekend.  This year?  No reserve duty!  Well, turns out, when you try to buy tickets a month before the event, your options are few and far between.  There were only Thursday tickets left so I had this grand plan for us to take the day off work, take Marshall out of school, and have a fun-filled day in the city getting our nerd on at NYCC.

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You're my favorite...

Ever have those days when you feel like you are not really getting this whole parenting thing?  It seems like they are coming more often then not these days.  There are days when I just sit on the bed and cry for apparently no reason other then sheer frustration.

I have a 4 year old who is still in diapers.  He won't sleep in his own bed... ever.  He is combative.  He doesn't listen... to the point where I will be standing right in front of him saying his name and it is like I'm not even there.  He throws things for no reason.  He is disruptive in school to the point where he has already been kicked out of 1 school.  I have never seen a child his age throw tantrums to the level that he does.  He screams and yells and argues.  He rarely does what you ask to do (or not do) without the need to repeat it 4 or 5 times.  The list goes on...

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Happy New Year!

I hope everyone has a safe, fun, and happy New Year's Eve celebration!

I had to work today and, of course, just as I was getting ready to leave around noon I get hit with an escalation!  It never fails.  I don't think I've ever really been able to take advantage of early release over the past few years.  When I finally left around 1:30pm, I realized I had actually forgotten my driver's license in the jacket I went running in last night...  OOPS!  On top of that, because I could give a Graduate level course in procrastination, it expired today so I had plans to go to the nearest DMV near my workplace and just get it done.  Well, since I had left my license at home, I had to drive all the way back home - 40 minutes - to get it.  Since my day was going awesome when I got home... yep... you guessed it... my license was in my wallet the whole time!

So now it is almost 2:45pm.  After quickly checking to make sure {thankfully!} the DMV was open until 5:30pm today, I ran out to try and get at least one thing accomplished today.  The DMV is only 15 minutes away so I can do this!

BTW... Marshall did not have school today and Freddy currently isn't working.  They were BOTH still in their pajamas when I got home!  At least the dishes were done!  LOL!

At the DMV, the receptionist asks me for my 6 points of ID to check in and get my number.  WHAT???  Being the first time that I've renewed my license in New Jersey, I thought you only had to do that when you got a new license.  Nope!  Every time!  Luckily I had my military ID in my wallet so the combination of that and my current license satisfied the 6 points of ID {whew!}

They were only on number 68.  While waiting, I heard the security guard say that if they don't get to your number by 5:30pm, then you have to come back another day.  That would NOT be cool.  So I sat.  Played a couple games of Soda Crush.  Played a couple games of Cookie Jam.  Checked Facebook.  Played some more Soda Crush.  Finally, after almost an hour, they called my number!  I found out that I received the last number to guarantee service before they closed up for the day.  And, apparently, everyone now gets a new picture when they renew licenses, so after I went to the first counter where all she did was check my IDs again, I had to wait in another line to get my picture taken.  Another 30 minutes later and I walked out the door with a brand new license in hand.  I vowed, like I do every time, not to wait to the last minute next time.  But pretty sure I will!

Now to start my New Year's Eve celebration!!  Or, as we like to call it, relaxing in the living room doing nothing!  Yep, we're pretty low key so for the past couple of years we have just stayed in and had our own little celebration to welcome in the New Year.

I'm working on some plans for 2015.  We had a pretty crappy 2014 and we have both vowed to make 2015 better and make it our year.  But more on that later.

For now, we wish you health and happiness in 2015!

~AKO

Mommy Fail Alert

So I was getting Marshall ready for bed tonight and he lays on the bed and says "I can't wear those pajamas."  I had pulled out his batman pajamas... one of his favorites.  "Why not?"  I asked.  "Jason says that we need to wear our Christmas pajamas."  Jason is his teacher's helper at school.  He goes on to describe what constitutes "Christmas pajamas"...  ones with Santa Clause or snowflakes or snowmen or presents etc.


Every year that Marshall has been on this planet, I have spent the money on 1 or 2 pairs of Christmas pajamas like all good mommies do. 


Except for this year. 


This year I never got around to buying any Christmas pajamas... they went the way of my Christmas cards that never got sent out.


Christmas cards and buying Christmas pajamas never got added to my daily task list so they never got done!  It seems I need a task to update my task list!


So wish me luck as I leave work early on Christmas Eve to hope against hope that Target or K-Mart might still have Christmas pajamas left!


BTW... Freddy told me that I should buy him oreos.  I told him that if I find Christmas pajamas he will get oreos :)


~AKO

Marshall's First School Winter Show

Yesterday was Marshall's winter show at his school.  I was a little concerned with how he would do since we've been having some behavior issues (more on that later) and he is sometimes difficult and won't follow instructions or do what he is supposed to do.

The show was during the day, so I didn't know how much of a turn out there would be, but I was very happy to see so many parents were able to make the show.  It was a full house.  Freddy and I ended up standing in the back because I couldn't see anything sitting in the back rows.  Short people do not do well sitting in the back :)

I should take a step back and explain that Marshall's school has 3 classes:  The 2 1/2 year olds, the 3 - 4 year olds, and the 5 year olds.  Marshall is in with the 3 - 4 year olds.  I was curious on how they were going to organize 40 toddlers to perform anything but they did it!

Marshall's class was first and they performed the story Tacky the Penguin.  Everyone had lines from the book and most of them remembered what they were supposed to say with little to no prompting.  Marshall was one of the hunters who come out to hunt the penguins.

When they first came out, he was doing his shy thing where he covers his face and turns his back to people.  But he took a minute and scanned the room.  I'm so glad we were standing up in the back because he was able to see us.  As soon as he saw us, the shyness went away and he actively participated in the story.  At that moment, I made a mental promise to him that I would attend as many of his activities as I can.  Just the look on his face when he saw us was priceless.

After the shows, they had holiday treats for everyone.  And each class made a gift for their parents.  Marshall's class made little snowmen with hot chocolate mix and marshmallows.

We may be cracking into that hot chocolate tonight if it stays chilly!

~AKO

Super Bowl Boulevard

In case you haven't heard, the Super Bowl is at Met Life Stadium in New Jersey tomorrow.  That's right folks!  It is in NEW JERSEY!  NOT in NEW YORK!

To celebrate, NYC turned Broadway between 32nd and 47th streets into what they called "Super Bowl Boulevard".  In my never-ending quest for family fun activities as we near Freddy's deployment, I decided it would be fun to head into the city to take a look.  I figured it would also be a once in a lifetime experience as well.

As soon as we got there, I very quickly remembered why I hate even the thought of taking a step into Times Square.  There were about a hundred gazillion people crammed into a 15 block area.  It didn't take us long to see what we had to see and then get the heck out of there!

We thought about taking Marshall on the toboggan ride... until we saw the line!  That is only part of the line that you see going up the left hand side.  So we just snapped a picture and moved on.

They also had the Vince Lombardi trophy on display so we headed over to see if we could get some pictures of it.  Until we heard that it was a 3 hour wait to get inside the building!  SO I snapped a picture from outside and called it a day...  This was the best I could do with the glare from the other buildings on the glass.

And last, but not least, we got a picture in front of the numbers that were set up around 46th street...

There were a lot more Bronco fans then Seahawk fans walking around but the Seahawk fans were louder :)  As crazy as the crowd was, and the fact that I got into a yelling match with the obnoxious security guy from H&M, it was a pretty fun day and probably something we won't see again for a long time.

~AKO

Pinterest Inspiration

We've start a little unofficial tradition where Marshall gives family members ornaments for Christmas.  This year I didn't want to just buy ornaments so I turned to Pinterest for some inspiration.  Now, we've all seen the Pinterest fails that have been floating around the Internet so I didn't want to do anything that was going to take a lot of time and be a huge disappointment if it didn't turn out.  Easy, right?

Well, I came across this ornament that looked like it would be pretty easy to do.  Now… to get a crazy 3 year old to cooperate!

I picked up some of the plain $6.00 ornaments from Target.  I thought blue would make a pretty background.  I also picked up some sharpie markers, white poster paint, and sponge paint brushes from Michaels.

As soon as Marshall saw the supplies he got super excited for the pending messiness that was soon to come.

Next steps were to slather on the white paint on his hands and keep him from touching anything! Easier said then done but we managed to complete the whole project with only paint on our hands and the ornaments.

After our hands were good and painty (is that even a word???), the next step was to mark up the ornaments.  We just set the ornament in the palm of his hand and he wrapped his fingers around it.  Since Marshall's 3 and has the attention span of a flea, I had to move quick for each ornament as well as reapplying paint in between.  I only made him hold onto the ball for a few seconds.  We had a few smudged patterns but overall he did pretty well with the whole process.

And here are our drying ornaments waiting for the final touches to be added.

I originally tried to do all of the embellishments with Sharpie markers, but the blue ornament was too dark so the black hats weren't showing up very well so I turned to some adhesive backed felt for the hats.  Otherwise, I used a Sharpie for the eyes, nose, and buttons.  The marker did each through the paint a little bit, but you can really tell.  It is possible that a different type of paint would be better suited for this type of project if you are really particular, but the poster paint worked fine for what we needed it to do.  And here is our finished product!

Not too bad for our first Pinterest project :)

Have you had any successes or fails at Pinterest project attempts?

~AKO

1st Time at the Dentist

Today marked Marshall's 1st dentist visit.  Since Marshall is kind of hit and miss with new people I knew I wanted to find someone who had a good track record with children.  So I hit Google to see what our options were.  As luck would have it, there was a pediatric dentist about 2 miles away from our house.  I read their reviews and followed their Facebook page for a few weeks and saw nothing but positive feedback for the dentists and their staff so I went ahead and made an appointment.

When we first walked in, the first thing you see is a white board where they welcome their new patients.  I thought that was a nice touch.


Of course, what is a children's doctor's office without a play area?  As soon as Marshall saw that, all hesitation about walking into the room went right out the door.

Once we got inside the exam room, Marshall got nervous again with both the dentist and the assistant in the room.  So Freddy got in the chair and let Marshall sit on his lap.  Somehow, with Marshall almost clenching his teeth, the dentist was able to clean his teeth and do an exam.  All the while Marshall was yelling "I don't want to brush my teeth!"  
The diagnosis:  No cavities and four 2-year molars breaking through.
Once the cleaning and exam were done, Marshall was all smiles as soon as he heard "Do you want to pick a prize?"  He even gave the assistant a high-five.  Overall, the whole experience went 100 times better then I expected.
Afterwards, we treated Marshall to lunch at Old McDonald's (aka McDonald's!).


~AKO

Street Fair Fun

Today we ran into (literally) the All About Downtown street fair in Jersey City.  Marshall had his Gymboree class this morning and the street fair was happening right outside so after class we went over to check it out.


There were some nice vendors from the area that we had no idea existed so it was interesting to see the different products displayed.  Marshall, of course, enjoyed the kids area with the bounce houses and slides.


Before we left we stopped by to see the girls at the Gymboree table and Marsh played a few games of beanbag toss.

After our busy day at the street fair, Marshall slept the entire way home :)
~AKO

Milestones

On February 14th, 2011, we dropped Marshall off at his new day care as I had to go back to work 2 days later.  I selected his "1st day of day care" outfit carefully.

When we dropped him off, he had his own crib and cubby for his supplies.  They let us take some pictures of the area.

Of course, as any mommy dropping their baby off at day care for the first time I was a wreck.  And to top it off we had to go to a funeral that day for one of Freddy's Army buddies who had recently passed away.  Anyway, Marshall was perfectly fine when we picked him up...

Fastforward 2 1/2 quick years later and Marshall has finished up his last day at day care.  Friday was his last day and Monday he starts pre-school.  His teachers were kind enough to take some photos of his last day and got pictures of Marshall with all of the teachers that he's had over the past couple of years.

 
They even brought in some munchkins for the kids for his last day.  We couldn't have asked for a better day care experience then what we've had over the past 2 1/2 years.  It is a little bittersweet as Marshall moves on to the next milestone tomorrow for his 1st day of pre-school.
~AKO

Through the Eyes of a Child

So, Marshall, being the crafty 2 year that he is, knows how to use the camera feature on my phone.  Well, a couple weeks ago, he got a hold of it without my knowledge and snapped a few shots.



We're thinking of getting Marshall his own little camera to document what he sees at his level.
What do your little ones see?
~AKO

Family Camp-A-Thon 2013!

Every year during the month of August (sometimes July), my mom's side of the family gets together for what we call the Sargent Family Camp-A-Thon.  We always plan our summer trip home to Michigan to coincide with the camping trip.  You see, I grew up camping and love it... Freddy not so much so I'm working on converting him.  We try to go to a different campground every year and, no matter where we go, have a lot of fun.

Last year was the first year that all of us cousins showed up with our own kids so we decided to go to Jellystone Park this year since it has a lot of activities for kids.  This was Marshall's 3rd year camping so we were all pretty excited to go.  The only sucky part was that Freddy had his Annual Training with the Guard during this week so he missed out on all the fun :(

Day 1

All packed up and ready to go!


And the trek has started.  And don't worry... this was taken before we left.  Marsh was secured in his car seat before we actually pulled out :)


After 2 1/2 hours, and a few wrong turns by Grandma we finally made it!

Day 2
The 2nd day was filled with wagon rides, playgrounds, arts & crafts, swimming and campfires.  Marshall was super excited to decorate his own cowboy hat.  I might add the theme for the weekend was "Wet & Wild West".  Marshall loved riding on the big kids bikes too.  Of course, with some help from Aunt Andrea and Cousin Jacob.

We also went swimming.  They had a little 1 foot deep kiddie pool that was perfect for Marshall.  He LOVES being in the water.  Did I mention he loves being in the water???

 

And, of course, the day ended with a cozy campfire.

 

Day 3

On day 3, we actually did something that I've never done before.  We went on a dune buggy tour.  The campground is near the Silver Lake Sand Dunes, which are between Silver Lake and Lake Michigan.  So we all decided to hit up one of the dune buggy tours.  To be honest, I almost didn't go, but then thought, when will Marsh have the chance to do this again so we tagged along!  The wait was around 45 minutes and every time they called out the last names of the parties to board the dune buggy, Marshall would yell "What about Marshall??"  Since we put the reservation under my brother's last name, which is Marshall, when they did finally call it out, Marsh got so excited because they called him to his dune buggy :)

As we were going over the dunes, Marshall kept raising his hands up like he was on a roller coaster ride.  I see visits to Cedar Point in our future!

 
And what would a trip be without a picture of Marshall running around like a crazy person :)  The picture on the right is a good visual of how high the sand dunes are.  The brown trees that you see poking through the top of the dunes are actually around 50 feet high.  Silver Lake loses 3 - 5 feet every year because of the dunes that are blown in from Lake Michigan.  They have already covered 14 homes and a farm!  We saw one cottage that was already half covered with sand.

During the tour they stopped and let us get out to walk along Lake Michigan for a few minutes.  It was very calm and relaxing.

And this was our failed attempt at getting a decent picture of the two of us sitting by the campfire :)

Day 4
We were scheduled to leave after 3 fun-filled days of family and craziness.  Marshall helped Cousin JR tear down his tent.

And the ride home seemed to take forever, but we finally made it.  Marshall helped Grandma back the truck and camper into the driveway.

I mentioned this was Marshall's 3rd camping trip with the Sargent family.  Look for some posts for Flashback Friday on both trips as they were fairly eventful :)

~AKO

Wake Up and Be Awesome!

That is going to be my new motto from now on...  "Wake Up and Be Awesome!"

As you can probably see I have not done anything with my blog since January :(  Make that I haven't really done much of anything with anything since January.  I went through a bit of a funk that took a loooooooong time to start climbing out of.  I still have a ways to go to get everything in order, but I seem to be on the right track.  This little gem that I got at the last National Guard Yellow Ribbon event we attend has been coming in handy :)  Seriously... a stress ball in the shape of a grenade??  Genius!!


For those of you who have been following my blog for awhile, you know I have always struggled with my weight and, as a result, self esteem.  Back in April, I found Adventure Health and Fitness along with fitness instructors Mike & Laura.  They focus on small group training for women, most of who are busy moms with crazy schedules.  I was a little apprehensive since I had never really done small group or one on one training and, of course, didn't want to look silly while exercising or *gasp* not be able to finish a session.  In addition, I had hurt my heel last year when I started training for a 5K and hadn't done any exercise since.  I finally got up the nerve to go in for my introductory session.  What I found during my first class was what I needed to start moving forward again.  Mike was fantastic.  There are women of all fitness levels in the classes and because there are no more than 6 - 8 in a class, it gives the trainers the opportunity to work with people to ensure our form is right and we're doing what we're supposed to be doing.  As I had suspected, I couldn't finish the class :(  But, I did get through about 75% before I had to stop and take a break.  But, I felt good enough to continue!  By class #4, I was able to get through the entire 40 minute class without the need to take a break other then the water breaks.  On July 29th, 3 months later, I did 5 real push-ups (NOT on the knees) and a 20 second plank (NOT on the knees)!  First time ever in my life to do this.  Oh, and by the way, be a part of one of Laura's classes is a little like working out with Jillian Michaels... except without the yelling :)  BTW... my new motto came from a Facebook post from AHF!


Another change that I've made is regarding my eating habits.  In January, I tried the Sonoma diet for a couple of weeks.  The food was great, but it was A LOT of prep and cooking.  Most nights we wouldn't eat dinner until after 8:00 PM since we usually don't get home in the evenings until almost 6:30 PM.  So it didn't really work with our lifestyle.  We need something that can be thrown together in 30 minutes or less.  I gave Weight Watchers another go, but this time online since it has been difficult to get to the meetings.  Not enough accountability for me and too many choices.  In March, I tried Jenny Craig for 30 days.  Now this was something I could do since most things were prepackaged so I didn't really have to think about what to make.  And a lot of it was pretty good.  In 30 days I lost 8 lbs so it definitely works.  The only problem is that it is so expensive.  You still have to buy your veggies and stuff to go with the meals.

Towards the end of June, one of my co-workers introduced me to Isagenix, which is a nutritional cleanse program.  It cuts out caffeine, sugar, gluten, and loads of other toxins that you put into your body everyday.  I was intrigued since I needed to do something to get myself back on track.  So, being who I am, I did a bunch of research.  A lot of the stuff they had in the program, my trainers also recommended.  So, Freddy and I decided to give the 30 day cleanse program a go.  We started on July 7th.  The program consisted of 5 days of 2 shakes, 2 snacks, and a meal and then 2 deep cleanse days where you are drinking a cleansing liquid 4 times during the day.  No food on the cleans days except for some small wafers in between drinks.  The cleanse days were surprisingly easy and I ended up losing 10 lbs on the program.  Freddy also ended up losing some weight as well.  We also ate much healthier for our dinners since we had a list of foods to choose from.  In addition, we started shopping at our Whole Foods store and ate more organic foods.  It is a little more expensive, but the combination of Isagenix AND my training classes was the same price as 30 days of Jenny Craig so I figure it all evens out in the end.  We are starting another 30 day cleanse tomorrow so I'm looking forward to reporting our progress.


AND, with all this motivation, I finally start moving forward on our house and making it a home.  We moved in last September, and then Superstorm Sandy happened, and then my motivation was gone.  Over the past 2 months, I've been making steps to get things organized and put together. I have big plans for our front yard next summer!


Oh yeah... this little guy is my main driving force for getting my behind in gear...


So... for the rest of 2013 I'm going to strive to wake up in the morning and BE AWESOME!

~AKO

Marshall's First New Year's Eve

When I say his first New Year's Eve, I really mean the first New Year's Eve where Marsh was semi-aware that something was happening.  I never followed up on how our New Year's Eve celebration went after our lovely day at the ER!  We had decided to let Marshall stay up as long as he could.  I was surprised he actually made it to midnight!  Since my roast plans were a bust, we just ordered a couple pizza and ate the chips and salsa for snacks.

We ended up watching a mixture of Nick Jr. and the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit marathon most of the evening.  I know... wild and crazy!!  At 10:00pm we turned it over to Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve and had many conversations about the fact that we had no idea who most of the people were.  I guess that's a sign we're getting old!  Although I thought it was a great touch to have MC Hammer out on stage for us oldies.  I wish I would have had my video camera out because Marshall went crazy during the Gangham Style performance.

A few shots from the evening....

You can obviously see in the background of every shot why we call Marshall "destructor"!  When we got close to midnight, Marshall helped us count down from 10 and shouted "Happy New Year!"

~AKO