The one with the article on pornography

I don't normally put stuff like this up on my blog. I usually just use it for journaling purposes. But I read this article on FB today about pornography by a guy named Matt Walsh. I've read a few articles of his before and most times they are about controversial issues. So I was not surprised that he chose to write about such a topic. When I read his stuff I never read the comments or post a comment myself. But after reading this article I was rather disgusted. Not for the reason you may think though. Let me explain...

Just yesterday I was having a conversation with my sister about pornography because her ward had a special lesson on it at church. I think it's great to bring the topic out into the open. And let me be clear, I DO NOT like, watch, agree or condone pornography. I agree with the article that it in every way hurts your marriage and is damaging to your brain. I also agree that it is a form of adultery. The author makes some good points through out the article, but I do not agree with the way he "shames" the people who view pornography. If you really want to help someone who watches pornography or even just deter a young person from going down that path, calling names is absolutely the wrong way to go about it. In his article he uses words like: "creeps" "psychotic" "utterly despicable" "smaller" "liar" "sneaky" "shameful" and "pervert" to describe those that watch and/or are addicted to porn. But yet in the same article says "I'm not here to castigate you if you've stumbled". Hmmm.....

I've known men that have had a problem with porn. It's very damaging to them and their families. But let me also point out that it is not only a problem for men. So the fact that this article only mentions men, makes it even more disturbing to me. Pornography is a big problem in our society, (along with so many other things) for men AND women of ALL ages. And I do think it's something that needs to be brought to the attention of the parents today to help prevent young kids from getting involved with it. But please don't use such negative language. Here is a great article with tips on how to talk to your young kids. This is the reason I decided to post this on here. I strongly believe in talking to your kids and being open with them about these types of things. I want my kids to feel comfortable coming to me with questions, so they don't have to turn to the internet. Which could lead to them finding numerous amounts of inappropriate things.

The one where I joined the weight loss competition and update on Jon

I was losing my motivation, yet again in my workout/diet. I was eating really good, running 5 or more times a week yet I wasn't losing any lbs or inches. I don't mind if the number on the scale doesn't go down, as long as I'm still losing inches. But I wasn't. :( I hadn't given up completely, but I was getting rather upset and depressed about it.

I have a goal weight that I want to reach before we go back to Utah, which we just found out could be in December instead of January (I'll elaborate in a minute). So now my time table is even shorter. So when a friend of mine announced that she was doing a 6 week weight loss competition, with a $10 buy in and winner takes all, I just new I had to join. That'll be my motivation to eat good, with no cheating. I could exercise all day long and still not lose any weight. I HAVE to diet if I want results. In fact, I've been sick this past week and haven't been able to exercise at all and I've still lost weight. Exercise of course helps me tone my muscles, but to be honest I still feel like I have a lot of weight to lose before the toning process even starts. I still plan on starting up exercising once I'm better (my cough and stuffy/runny nose are still making my life miserable. But at least my sinus pressure and headaches have stopped)

I don't want to announce how much I've lost since I've started the competition, but I will say that I've lost 12lbs since I started dieting on my own in the beginning of Oct! I haven't measured myself yet but hopefully I'm losing inches too.

A few months back I tried the slow carb diet and it was so hard to do while nursing that I only lasted a couple days. I think I'm going to give it another try. This time I don't have to eat to sustain a milk supply, so I'm hoping it'll be easier. I know it's going to be hard, but this time I have different expectations going in, and kind of know what to expect. Plus I have recipes to follow, which will hopefully make things so much easier for me. I hate eating the same thing day in and day out. So getting some variety I'm hoping will make a difference. I have a friend who lost 20lbs and 2 dress sizes in 1 month doing this. So I know it's possible. I start start tomorrow...wish me luck.

As for when we go home. There is rumor going around that they are going to let them graduate before Christmas break. Of course this is just a rumor and nothing has been confirmed yet. But everyone knows that making them come back from Christmas break for literally 4 days of "school" is just ridiculous! And I say "school" because it's not actually school work. It's mainly just waiting and out processing/paperwork. We're hoping they decide to move up graduation, but I personally don't have my hopes up. Jon does though. He's really ready to be done with school. In fact, he starts course 11 Tuesday. Which means he's no longer even in the school house. Both course 11 and 12 are down at the "field site". I'm not quite sure where that is and what they actually do, but he will no longer be sitting in a classroom. Which he of course is so excited about.
I'm just planning on us not leaving until January. And to be honest, it would be way less stressful. That way we have all of Christmas break to get this packed up and Jon can actually help me. If we leave in Dec I'll have to do most of the packing by myself, with 2 kids running around. Not ideal. But if they do ok the bump up in graduation, that means we'll be giving our 30 days notice to out apartment managers in 2 weeks! Thats just so crazy to me! So we'll know probably in the next couple weeks when we'll actually be leaving. I'm 6's on it and don't really know what one I want.
We're actively looking for a job for Jon now. We're applying for everything we can find. We've only found 3 in UT so far. Two of those told Jon to call back closer to his graduation and hopefully they'll have something (they both want/like to hire people from this school, so they're interested in him, they just don't know if they'll be anything available in 2 months from now). The other jobs we've applied for are literally all over the country: Florida, Virginia, New York, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Colorado, Alabama. Just about everything we find that he qualifies for, we apply for it. So hopefully he'll find something before we leave. I just don't want to be job-less when we're done. At least not for too long. I realize it may be a little unrealistic to PLAN on him having a job 100% landed before we leave. but it is possible. A lot of people do it. In fact, if they haven't landed a job by graduation, most people have multiple prospects by the time they graduate and get hired on somewhere shortly after. I'm hoping he'll find something before he graduates :)

The one with Halloween

Halloween 2013 was a lot of fun for me since I decided to take on the task of making Ellie's costume. I got the idea online and I just knew I had to do it. I think it turned out great and I'm so proud of myself. And Taegen just loved his Iron man costume. I tried to get him to wear his other full face mask, instead of this Nacho Libre 1/2 mask version, but he insisted on this one.

 trick or treating

 Taegs shooting the bad guys. He's my nacho libre, cowboy Iron Man :)

 They got her first piece of Halloween candy at the store earlier in the day and they LOVED it. 

 In fact, Ellie freaked out when I had to take it away for a second. I think someone has a sweet tooth!

 Then I had to get a little festive for dinner, so we had some mummy dogs. Which were a big hit :)

the one with another update on the kids

I'm selling some stuff I make on an etsy shop (heysmukke) with my sister (enter shameless plug here :) Go check it out) One of the things I make is a car seat blanket, so I have our infant seat out and Ellie just loves sitting in it 

 She also loves playing in the bath tub (with no water in it). Her favorite is the plug. 

Taegen got a little black eye. He was running around the couches and ran smack dab into the corner. :(

 Such a silly little boy he is. 

 we were on a walk and he decided he needed to crawl like this because this way "he wouldn't get all itchy from the bushes" 

Taegen age 3 1/2:

- " Dogs don't eat popcorn, they eat dog things..like poop!"

- "MMMM....tastey"

- while eating some celery for snack time, "our celery talks, and it's really annoying"

- He came to me in the middle of the night and normally he's carrying his monkey with him. This time he wasn't, so I asked him where he was (I was a little tired and thought he had dropped him on the floor right by my bed) his response was "On my bed, I didn't want to wake him up" 

Ellie age 13 months:

- Her first official word that is associated with something (besides mama and dada, which to me don't count) was ball. She also says done, mama, dada and hi. She tries to mimic the things we say, and sometimes they're audible, but most times it's just a babble.

- She talks in her sleep. She wakes me up cause I think she's awake, but when I check the monitor she's fast asleep.

- She's walking with assistance. She loves to walk along the furniture and walls. She's at the point where that's her preferred method if she's not in a hurry. But she still won't do it by herself. She has taken some steps (see video in previous post) and she stands by herself unassisted, so problem. But she hasn't ventured into walking alone yet. 

- Loves bath time now. I just have to keep a little trickle of water going for her to play with and she's completely content.

- Bedtime story time is also a favorite. But only if we're reading hard cardboard type books. The regular books with paper pages she doesn't like. She needs to be able to turn the pages herself. Her favorite right now is "I love you through and through"

- She plays ball with Taegen. He'll roll the ball to her and she'll pick it up and actually roll/throw it back. 

- She has 4 top teeth, 2 bottom and all 4 first molars. 

- Shes pretty much down to taking only 1 nap a day. there are times when she still takes 2, but those days are few and far in between. For the most part she wake up and 7 ish, takes a nap around 12 for 2 hours or so, then goes to bed between 7:30 and 8. Some days we stray from the schedule, which is not set in stone, but she most definitely does better on the days where she has a routine going. Plus it makes us all a little less stressed out.

I'm really loving this stage with Ellie. She for the most part really easy and content. The main struggles I've had with her have been sleep or sick related, so now that her sleep under control and she's not sick at the moment, we're having a lot of fun. Now she just needs to learn to walk :)

I'm having a little bit of a hard time with Taegen. I still love the stage he's in too, but he's more defiant now. Intentionally not listening/ignoring us, learning to lie, etc.. I know it's for the most part just the age and part of getting older. But combine that with his already rather difficult personality and we've had some tough times. But we have just as many good/fun times that life is still really wonderful, for both my kids. 

The one with all the videos

Ellie's first steps

This girl has so much personality! She does this all the time. She doesn't do it for very long in this video, but its the best I could get. She also loves to flutter her lips and spit. (Taegen has def been an influence in that one)

Like I said, so much personality!

Taegen is teaching her to dance. Sorry about the no clothes, he still prefers to just be in his underwear and it can be a bit of a battle to keep him dressed all day. He'll use any excuse to take off his clothes ("I spilled a drop of liquid on my shirt"," I peed [only 1 drop] on my pants/shirt", "I'm itchy" etc..) And if he takes his shirt off, he thinks he needs to take off his pants too.

The one with another park visit

I needed to get the kids out of the house, so we went to a park on base. Both kids had a lot of fun. Ellie loved this lady bug. 

 T had fun on the slide, although when he went down this way he did hurt his elbows. :(

 This is my new favorite pics of my kids together. Taegs really is so cute with Ellie. He's so concerned for her well being. 

 She didn't like this one as much. The lady bug has a bench instead of a seat to straddle. 

 She learning to walk. Still won't do it without holding on to something, but she's getting there. 

The one with the McQueen face

Taegen has lost one of his Lightening McQueen cars and he came up to me saying he's looking for the car that makes this face...

Or is it this face

Or this one

What about this one

Nope, it's this one. This is the face he finally decided is the one McQueen is making

Silly boy. 

The one where it's been 7 years

Today, it's been 7 years since my mother passed away. I've had a really hard time today. I don't really know why. Other than the first year anniversary I haven't really had a hard time on either her birthday or death day. I'm of course sad and think about her a lot, especially on those specific dates. But not normally in tears most of the day, like I've been today.

Maybe it's because I'm away from family.
Maybe because I can't go visit her grave, like I would normally do.
Maybe because I missed her birthday and now her death date and it's been so long since I've been able to visit her grave.

Honestly, I really don't know. But listening to these songs have made me feel better. I still cry, but I feel peaceful while they're playing.

To where you are
The Prayer

Both of these songs were played at my moms funeral during a slide show. I can't help but think of her whenever I hear these beautiful songs. These are songs are obvious why I would like them so they don't need any explanation. The next two songs do.

Hotel California by the Eagles. That was my parents song. I remember numerous times my dad would blast this song on the stereo and run and grab my mom and just dance with her around the house. I loved it. I use to always say I wanted my husband to do that me when I get married. haha. thats only funny if you know Jon...the man HATES dance. Then my dad would switch off between us 5 girls and dance with us too. It was a wonderful memory I have of not only my parents, but of me and my dad.

I'll build you a rainbow. I don't know who sings it, but my aunts changed the words to it and sang it at the funeral. The song is a lot of talking, with a chorus that is sung. It sounds a little weird. And the original was done in like the 80's so it sounds a little corny. But, like I said, we changed the words to fit our situation and it turned out beautiful. I can't seem to find my copy of it on the computer or else I would have been listening to that one all day too.

I miss you mom!

The one where I try again...

When we first moved here to SA I started going to the gym and dieting to help me lose weight. I lost 10 lbs and did a post about my success after 1 month. Shortly after I plateaued, which I figured I might do. I knew that while I breastfeed I don't lose weight. I guess I had more weight to lose this time so I was still able to lose some, but not all of my weight. My point, well I'm officially done breastfeeding!! Woohoo!!! So here I am, once again trying to lose weight. Me and 2 of my sisters, Kristel and Stacie, have decided to run a half marathon. Well, I should say, they have decided and I'm still on the fence about the whole idea. I really don't like running. So I want to see how I do with the training before I commit. Today I did day 1. And man... I couldn't even complete the whole thing. I was supposed to do 8 reps of run 2 mins walk 1 min. I could only do it 3 times. haha. Hopefully I'll get better. I figure this is a great way to help me lose weight and get in shape.

I've also decided I want to try Garcinia Cambogia as well. It's a flower that is grown in south east Asia. If you take the pure form of it, it has proven to help with weight loss. There's no chemicals, additives, preservatives, nothing like that. Just the flower extract. They say you can take it, not change your diet or exercise at all and still lose weight. I, howeve,r don't want to use if like that. I don't want a miracle cure. I think I just need something to help boost my body into gear. My baby weight doesn't just fall off, I have to work hard at it. Last time (after I had Taegen) I did weight watchers and Insanity and still couldn't get down to my pre-pregnancy weight. So I'm hoping this'll help me this time around. My goal is to be skinnier (preferably 30lbs lighter from when we left, which means -20lbs from my weight now) when we go back to UT in January. Plus once we get back, the marathon is 1 week later. So thats extra incentive to get healthy.

Hopefully I can do it. I'm sick and tired of being over weight!!

The one with the bedtime story

Both of the kids normally can't calm down enough to want to sit on either of our laps for long enough to read a story. But last night, they both did. And Jon took advantage. It was just too cute, I had to take a pic. 

And last night we went outside while Jon was working on his truck. Ellie thought I was pretty funny.