Man, this is tough!

So this blogging business is so much harder than I ever imagined. I cannot believe my friend Ellen does it DAILY! Granted it sort of goes along with her profession, I still don't see how she finds the time. I value my sleep too much to stay awake and blog at midnight. Man, she is a trooper.
So I made it to the gym today. Lets just say it has been awhile. I climbed on the eliptical and did the fit test. It was great. I spent 25 minutes on it, and I really had to push myself at the end because my body was T.I.R.E.D, but I thought I did wonderful. That is until the stupid machine told me I was in POOR shape. Gee, thanks for the reminder. I hope that in the next month I will move up in the eliptical world from 'poor' status to maybe middle class. Okay, maybe lower middle. I have been planning on getting back to the grind for the past few months, there is no reason I cannot make it there daily. We have a family memebership that includes FREE babysitting. I get an hour for Victoria, and 2 hours for the boys. When Victoria turns 1 I will get to leave her for 2 hours also. No excuse. I am just lazy. The stupid machine says so anyway.

I thought about posting my current weight up here, but decided against it. I will just post as the pounds come off, and maybe at some point do a before and after pic. Thats gutsy!

Victoria has finally cut her first tooth, and is working on a second. I am so excited that I can put her hair in pony tails too! Gosh that girl is cute! Jacob goes to the endochronologist at the end of this month, but he has grown a half inch in a month, so hopefully he has actually decided to start growing on his own. That would be WONDERFUL! Jonathan starts soccer in a few weeks, and I am ridiculously excited for some reason. It may be because the kid is a whiz with his feet, and I can't wait for him to learn how to use this natural talent that he seems to have. It must be the strong English blood he has running through his veins!

I am still trying to adjust to Tonys new schedule. This will take some time. We do however enjoy his 8 days off in a row, and luckily this month they fall on Spring Break. We are looking to take a road trip down to Maryland to see Tony's brother and his family. Jonathan has been talking pretty nonstop about his cousins, so we thought we would try to visit. It should be an interesting trip...a few thousand miles with 3 kids? Are we insane? I am looking forward to visiting D.C. with the kids, Jonathan is quite interested in history and 'Barack Obama' and Jacob thinks "Barack Obamama rocks". I feel like a little kid waiting for this trip, as I have not been in 15 years. I figure if I enjoyed it so much at 15 when I didn't give a shit about the government and history, I will really enjoy it now.

I am done talking about nothing...and will be posting some pics of the kids here soon. So if they aren't here when you are reading this, check back soon!

I am changing the way I blog...

I just have way too much going on in life to be able to blog on a daily basis like I had planned. So now I am going to shoot for once a week...with some adorable shots of the kids, a blurb here and there about what is happening, and that is it. I can't keep up with my peers and their blogs, nor do I feel as though I have much that is interesting to say...I just don't get out much, and life really revolves around my kids. So hopefully this week I will get to posting some pictures, but for now this is what I have for the week. Here is one of my favorite WAHM's though...

www.simplycleanok.com

Jenny's Simply Clean laundry detergent. Simply homemade. And simply lovely. I have never had better smelling laundry, or cleaner. And it is cheap. Check out the site...you can pretty much sent your detergent to anything you want. I personally have tried a few...currently we have Vanilla, and I have Birthday Cake scented diaper pail freshner. Makes me want to eat the powder in the bag...and I have to say that I enjoy doing laundry. Besides...if this can remove what ever grime the boys find, it has to be good!

And just so you know...Jenny has no idea that I have put her on my blog...I get nothing for this besides the fact that I know I have shared an amazing product with you. Here is to good smelling laundry!

Autism vs. Vaccines

So, what is your take?

I was just reading my Mothering magazine (www.mothering.com ) and they have a great article in there about the actual cost of a child having autism. And they always have little blurbs about vaccines containing mercury and the autism link. It is a great magazine...you should really check it out...but anyway...

We selectively vaccinate. We don't do it because of the autism fear, we do it because we think it is asking way too much of a 2 month old baby's body to handle the invasion of 5+ innoculations at one time. And I personally believe there is a link with autism and vaccines, along with a genetic predisposition. Put the two together, bad things happen. We started out with Jonathan wanting him to be fully vaccinated. Here I was, a young mom with a newborn that had all sorts of issues, the last thing I wanted was for him to get sick. And the things they tell you if you choose not to vaccinate...JEEZ! They make it seem like you are abusing your child for not sticking them with hundreds of needles! We were told we couldn't do certain vaccines due to a seizure risk...hhhhhmmmm. Talk about frightening! I just got my newborn to stop seizing, you tell me all the risks and harm that can happen to him if I don't vaccinate, and then you tell me "oh wait, we can't give him that one because it has the possible side effect of seizures" Thanks but no thanks. I started doing a bit more research and vaccinating him slowly.

Fast forward to Jacob...my second baby in the NICU. This trip wasn't nearly as bad as our trip with Jonathan, but I knew that I didn't want him poked and poked and poked some more. But once again, I felt a little bullied. And then with Jacobs GI issues and food allergies, and the fact that he had issues with constantly crying (why am I the only one that ever remembers this???) I was done with multiple shots on one visit. One at a time, that was it. I couldn't stand how hysterical he was after leaving the doctors...and he would draw it out, for weeks.

Fast forward some more...we have Victoria...she thankfully didn't go to the NICU. Healthy. We get to take her home. They want to stick her before we leave the hospital...WHAT??? She is 24 hours old and you want to do what? Oh, and the list for vaccines has increased. They now *need* the roto virus. So needless to say, if you or whomever is taking care of your child has fecal material on your or their hands and you don't wash them before sticking them in your infants mouth, they may get sick. But they have a vaccine to take care of that for you, so thankfully we can now skip hand washing after using the toilet. V is almost 9 months old, and she has had 2 vaccines. Actually, 2 shots in a series of 3. I am supposed to bring her in every few weeks to get all of hers done, but I just can't bring myself to do it.

My pediatrician secretly hates vaccines. He would kill me if I outed him, so I won't (your welcome Dr. D!) but he dislikes the flu vaccine (he doesn't get it for himself and doesn't recommend it) and thinks the chicken pox vaccine and the rotovirus vaccines are for convenience only. Just so your kid doesn't get sick and you have to take a week off work. Nice.

So what is your take on this whole thing? I would be interested to hear what parents that have children with autism think of the vaccines. Do you vaccinate? If you do, do you get them all at one time like the AAP suggests?

Can you say FACEBOOK?

I have to admit...I am a little embarrassed. I just got a facebook account.

The hubby and I were talking yesterday, and he asked if I had people who were in my life that I no longer talk to and if I ever wonder what happened to them. Uh, yes. Who doesn't? So I start Googling! And I find Facebook...so I join. I type in a random name from my past, and who would have thought that person knew a bunch of people that I used to know? We are talking people that shouldn't know eachother...it must be a conspiracy or something. Ex-boyfriends for goodness sake! So there I am now of Facebook...my new obsession!

Ever feel like a single parent?

First off...let me just say that single parents have it tough. I was once once (only because my husband spent almost 18 month in Iraq) with only one child. It isn't an experience I ever want to do again. The above picture is of him in Iraq. Look how skinny he was! But anyway...

Do you ever feel like a single parent although you are not? This is honestly how I generally feel. Not because my husband doesn't ever help me, but because he works, and he works a lot. Long hours, tons of overtime, just so that I can stay home with our children. It has always been a priority for us to have me stay home with our children, especially after Jonathan. Who would take him to all his appointments? What about therapy? That in itself was a full time job. Anyway, Tony does work his fingers to the bone, it is a sacrifice. But one that does have its price. I generally have to do everything alone. Kids appointments, just me. Getting all three kids and myself out the door at 7:30 am Monday thru Friday, all me. Grocery shopping, laundry (although he really isn't allowed to do it...my choice) 90% of the housework, along with all the cooking, bathing, dressing, teaching, butt wiping, diaperchanging duties. It is me. I do feel like a single parent. He tries, but he can only do so much with his schedule. Until now...

HE IS HOME THIS MORNING! His schedule at work has FINALLY changed, and I have a little help. He was telling me this morning what he would like to accomplish today, and it includes heloping me! We are doing some spring cleaning! He is dropping Jonathan off at the bus stop! I will get to go grocery shopping today! I now have a partner in crime again! (he did used to have this schedule...until he changed employers...he is a power plant engineer and had to start over at the bottom...YUCK!)

So this is for all you single parents out there! I feel your pain! Now all you non-singles that feel that way...how do YOU do it???

Milkshake giveaway...

Since there has been such a demand for this (yeah right...whats the problem?) I am bumping this giveaway to the top. Scroll down a few entries and you will see the post. PLEASE ENTER!

This is my big blog post for the day!

See ya tomorrow!

I Heart Faces...BW photography

iheartfaces.blogspot.com/

Man I gotta learn how to do this right...anyway...my friend Ellen (lovethatmax.blogspot.com/) has this iheartfaces.blogspot.com/ on her blog today. I thought it would be fun, especially since I am really interested in photography and I love taking pictures of my kids. I just ordered my new DSLR camera, and I can't wait for it to come so I can start experimenting! There is a little contest I guess that happens every week, so go check it out!