Being Home

I am getting to see what it is like to be a stay-at-home mom. Boy, it sure is busy stuff. Abbie is constantly on the move and seems like she always needs something or I forget something for her. She is teething and her two top teeth are coming in at the same time and are a bit swollen and the past couple of days she has been a bit cranky. Always fun. I have been giving her meds and teething tablets waiting for them to cut on through. I have thoroughly cleaned my house already including the guest closet. Ooohhh, I hear thunder! Sidetrack...I have the study closet to hit next. Guess I should pace myself since I will be here for a couple of months. I am hoping that by the power of the LORD that I might be able to stay home from here on out...who knows what he has planned? I have been praying God's word out of Jeremiah. He has a plan. For me. Just me. And with that comes a plan to prosper me, not to harm. To give me a hope and a future. Resting in his word is such a delight. I hope to just write his word upon my heart and to pray his promises. He is faithful.

Done

I am done! I have finished school for the summer and am out! I am so excited. Tomorrow is Abbie's dedication at church. I am excited about that and realizing the importance of it and the committment that we are making as a family to keep God the center and focus of our family.

The blog title is mom-in-training and I have learned a lot the past 10 months. I sure don't know it all. I do know that balancing work and home life is a challenge and daily struggle. One or the other got ignored and work was usually it. I look back at my school year and wonder had I spent more time working with kids, or more time tutoring, or more time on planning, would my kids have been more successful? Is success passing the TAKS or 4th grade? I had no one fail any subject on their final grade. Is that success? With this year behind me as a new mom I can look forward to the next year and change things I did not like, find an area to work hard on and excel. Until the LORD lets me stay at home, I need to focus my work on him and his desire and standards of success. Until it is time to think about that, I will enjoy a break, find sanity, hang with Abbie, and just fall in love with the maker of the universe. Praise you LORD for the blessings that abound me daily.

5 Days

I have only 5 school days left. THANK YOU! Then I get to be with my sweet Abbie. Then I will blog more faithfully of course! I think she finally just crawled out of the laundry room where she has been the past 10 minutes just mesmerized. It's the little things that count.

24 lovers: Um, TIVO dumped our episodes! We lost the last two weeks. I now have something bad to say about TIVO. Not JoJo's Circus where we have 40 episodes. Just my 2. Gone. Forever. Deleted. Oh, well. Glad they recap in the beginning of each show!


To me, Happy Last Week of School!!

Catching Up

If you don't watch Young and the Restless, you are missing out on greatness. I got hooked on maternity leave and still TIVo it. I have to watch it or else I might miss something. For Theresa: OH MY! What about Lilly and her dad? Nick calling Sharon out? Nikki getting shot? Victor trying to take things over? Brad: I think he's shady!

Other than Y&R, there is a lot going on. We have 3 weeks left of school and I am grateful for that. I am ready to be done and be home with Abbie. Her little tooth is coming in more and more and I think the one beside it is on its way. She is beginning to sit down a bit more gently now after standing. She pulls up in her crib and when you go to get her in the morning, she is just holding on and bouncing and talking. She is truly a happy child. Smiles in the morning and ready for the day ahead. We have a prayer we pray when I get her that I made up:
Thank you Jesus for today,
Thank you for the sun that's on its way,
Thank you for a good night's rest,
May my day ahead be blessed. Amen.

Brian's company has hit profitability for 3 months now. That is just great news. I hope that in the future, this pays off to get me home. I pray that God has heard my daily cry for him to work this out and for me to be home. I pray that this is his way of doing it and that I remain faithful where I am to be able to lead me to where he wants me to be.


Another TV side note, anyone watch 24? Only 4 episodes left and it so fabulous!

That Long?

I can't believe it has been that long! I have been so busy with life and my selfishness that I forgot to let the world in. Abbie is crawling like crazy, cutting one tooth, another coming, pulling up, laughing, playing, and having such a great time. I love that kiddo. I am still counting school days-18 if you must know. I am still doing my abs and weights and walking. I picked up Walking with Weights again and am hoping to get rid of the underarm wave if you know what I mean.
My battery is running out so I gotta jet. More to come soon.

Ouch

My trainer had to postpone and ended up coming up to school to go over some stuff with. Boy, she makes it look easy! She is very toned and should be...she does this all the time. She put together a program for me mainly my abs, arms, and thighs. And ouch! I can only get through the program once without dying! I hope to be able to get through the program twice some day.
I also have begun to run. A little bit. More walk/run. I am trying though. I hope to get up to being able to run 3 miles some day. I think I want to begin to run little 5K's or something someday.
I will keep you posted on this new endeavor.

Ouch

My trainer had to postpone and ended up coming up to school to go over some stuff with. Boy, she makes it look easy! She is very toned and should be...she does this all the time. She put together a program for me mainly my abs, arms, and thighs. And ouch! I can only get through the program once without dying! I hope to be able to get through the program twice some day.
I also have begun to run. A little bit. More walk/run. I am trying though. I hope to get up to being able to run 3 miles some day. I think I want to begin to run little 5K's or something someday.
I will keep you posted on this new endeavor.

Getting Personal

I am going to get personal with you and tell you something. I have a personal trainer coming this weekend. My husband's response: how much? She is the parent of one of my students and I was asking her a couple of questions about how to work out different parts. She said she wanted to come over and show me personally. I am actually excited about it. My own trainer. Even if it is for just one day.

Preparations

We are getting ready for the big event. Getting things cleaned, organized, and moved. Crawling. It's coming, I just know it. We have rearranged our furniture to eliminate lots of free crawling room (try to contain her). Brian is currently child proofing by covering the light sockets and putting locks on the kitchen cabinets.
For you parents: did you baby proof all your cabinets in the kitchen or just under the sink where the cleaning stuff is?
Today we get ready for her. Now, we just wait.

Losing It

A long time back I began to blog about weight loss after a baby. One side note before I begin: when I was pregnant, I was told to eat all the time. I don't hear that anymore. Ok. Back to weight loss. I joined a group of Biggest Losers at school and over 10 weeks lost 9.5 pounds and since then, have lost more. I will tell you what has helped the most. I do a daily log on Sparkpeople of my food and it keeps track of my calories and my calories burned in working out. Plus you can set tons of goals etc on it. Another thing is working out. Yes, what they say is true. My biggest help has been Walk Away the Pounds by Leslie Sansome. She is a christian lady who does walking videos. Pop in the video and walk in your own home. Plus she does some upper body work too. All in one in 15 minutes!
If you are trying to be healthy, these two things have been a huge part. Another, has been prayer that I could have some self-control when it comes to food and not letting it control me. I have added another prayer and that is a super-natural change of my tastebuds to like veggies and eat more of them and to not enjoy the fast-food, fried food type of life style I enjoy. With healthy eating (staying within my alloted calories) and exercise, it works!!

Table Cover

As I have mentioned, Abbie is beginning to rock which means crawling is coming. I know she will begin to pull up on stuff including the coffee table. That will lead to her banging, drooling, and throwing things on it. I created a table cover to prevent that. I bought one of the flannel backed table covers (used for outdoors), cut it in half and sewed it together. Then I bought this really cute yellow print fabric with bugs on it and sewed it over the table cover and added little ties on the corners to tie it around the legs. Now she will be able to bang and nothing gets messed up and we can take it off when company comes. I like the idea!

Sad Times

I am entering a time of sadness. Spring break is over and I have to go back to work. I thought that being home with Abbie would be fun then I would get bored and like to go back to work. Nope. I have just loved being home with her. I say it all the time, but she is just so much fun! She is beginning to push up and rock on her hands and knees. I think crawling is coming soon.
So, to you stay at home moms, praise God daily that you get to see it all. Every smile, every tear, every temper-tantrum-calgon-take-me-away-I-want-to-go-back-to-work moment is so worth it.
I need to find the blessing in that I have 10 weeks left till summer!!

Good Girl

Today we went to Freebirds in Addison to eat and then over to the Uptown area to look around. Our little Abbie did such a fantastic job. She ate her lunch when we did, took a brief nap in the car, and hung out in her stroller as we walked around the uptown area and shopped. She laughed, looked around, and never once got fussy. She is such a good baby. She is easy to take care of and I don't have to worry too much about going out in public with her. If she does begin to fret, she is easy to calm down (or distract). We have been completely blessed with her. God answered my prayer before she was born: allow us to have a content baby. Thank you God for answering my prayer.

What We Do

As parents we do things to our children that we think are so cute but one day, your child will grow up, look at the picture and ask you, "Why?" Stay with me here. I am working on some sewing stuff and I took a piece of material and tied it around her head as she was playing with her wooden spoon. She was none other than Rambo. Well, she kinda looked like Aunt Jemima too. You take your pick. I thought it was cute and took a picture of her and laughed and laughed. I think one day I will get the why question from her. My repsonse, "You just looked so cute!"

Abacus

Brian has been working a lot at work and his boss noticed that. He told Brian to take me out on a date and he would pay for it. OK. His boss recommended we go to Abacus in Dallas. So, off we went and since his boss was paying I thought I would try some new things.
First off, I am a hot dogs and spaghetti kind of girl and don't like anything new or any of my food touching. I went out on a limb and tried a lobster shooter. Of course, I will exaggerate but, that was the biggest piece of lobster I have ever had to chew. I took a bite of my husbands buffalo. Yes, I thought they were endangered or something, but apparently not. I ordered some Australian fish. It was ok. I just kept telling myself it was healthy and had Omega-3 and -6 in it. To top it off, the mashed potatoes were wonderful. To my surprise, they turned out to be purity cauliflower. I am shocked too.
This was a night of firsts and lasts. Next time, I will stick with wontons and order a salad to go with it.
If you are looking for a great date night though, I can't completely knock Abacus. It has a pleasant atmosphere and the waiters are really nice and don't make you feel dumb for not knowing what half the stuff is. (ps. shortbreads aren't bread at all...pancreas! ewwwww!)
Go, have fun, and enjoy!

Shiny White

Little monster is getting a tooth. Well, I don't actually know how long it takes to "get" the tooth, but there is a shiny, little white dot beginning to show through. It's on top and cute. I am going to miss her little gummy smile though because she flashes us the biggest, cutest, grins you can imagine. Oh, what a joy she is!

Balanced Literacy

I went to a conference today and an Aussie taught it (ahhh...Australia!) It was pretty good. His whole thing was over guided reading, which I already do, but not good enough. He focused on the different types of learning for a student and how you have to meet the student where they are, then move them up. You have to develop strategies that work for them, don't fit the kid into a strategy that does not work. You need to set expectations that are high, but obtainable. It made me think-I need to focus on asking more questions, getting my students to think, process, and learn for themselves. I hope to get that going by next week.

Computer Genius

My daughter is a computer genius. She knows how to type (baby language of course). She knows how to open files and programs. I am not sure though if Brian would agree since I let her use the laptop for whatever reason she desires. He might not like it if she does something that can't be fixed. Until the computer breaks, I will continue to let her pound on the keys and open programs. Who knows, I might have the next Bill Gates in training!

Enjoyment

I never knew the joy that a kid can bring to your life and that is exactly what Abbie has done for me. She is just growing and growing (in a size 12 month pajamas for length!). She smiles and laughs and loves to play. She rolls over both ways and is beginning to try to push up a bit so crawling is in the near future! Brian and her play a lot too! He holds her facing out and chases the dogs and she just laughs and laughs. She loves her two puppies. She is a delight in every sense of the word. I pray daily over her that God will protect her and that she will come to know the Lord and not stray from the path. I pray that God keeps her all the days of her life. I pray for Brian and I to be an example where God is modeled and where we raise her by the principles God has laid out. With all this enjoyment comes responsibility and each day is a learning experience. I thank God for giving me such a wonderful gift to take care of. May it be to his glory!

New Trick

Abbie can now do zurbuts(sp?) with her mouth. It is very cute and slobbery. I am sure I won't think it's cute when she is eating and doing it.