Catch-up

So I realize that I haven't been a very good blogger -- I swear there's been stuff to write about over the last 2 months! I just haven't made time for it. So, here's the short version:
1. Disney World in April sans baby girl was awesome! Only took about 3 days of our 7 day vacation to realize she wasn't with us -- kept looking for our blonde-headed rebel running around! And don't even say how horrible we are for not bringing our over-excitable 3 year old with us. She was at Gramma's and that in itself is a theme park - two fort/swingsets, chickens, a puppy, cows up the road, acres of lawn to run around in, a swimming pool and hot tub, movies and snacks unlimited, and cousins to play with.

2. I have passed my INS section! Yes, it is insurance classes and I now have an Associate in Insurance Services according to AICPCU school. Now I'm just waiting on that $225 bonus on my next check -- just in time for Angel's 4th birthday!

3. I've been doing a lot of christian parenting books. I love their advice and am taking some of it to heart and practice already. Being AVAILABLE to your kids, makes them realize that they are important to you. :) So I've been more available, which means less access to the internet.

4. Angel spent another long weekend (i.e. Wednesday through Monday) at Grammas over Memorial weekend while we went to Chicago (disgusting, crime-y, expensive, unfriendly city) for the 23rd Annual Bull-Shooters Tournament. Hubby came out 8th/9th place in Mens' singles 501. Pretty darn good since there were over 500 to start with and also this is a WORLD-CLASS tournament. Seriously. Jason lost to a guy from Portugal. Oh, and at the same hotel, same weekend, was a high school quiz bowl tournament (about 300 geeky, awkward teens) and also -- wait for it -- an S&M festival in the basement. Yes, as in whips, chains, dominatrix, weird sex stuff. No, we did NOT wander down there, but the high schoolers kept trying to catch a glimpse of the action (good thing for the security hahaha)

5. Last weekend in June, my daycare lady, Ms TC was going to be gone the Thurs, Fri and following Monday. So what did Angel do you ask? Why, Gramma came to the rescue again! (yes, she does have a cape hidden under that Christopher Banks sweater) While Angel was gone, I did some loooong overdue housecleaning. I cleaned the master bath, living room, kitchen, laundry room. And had our dumpster/trashcan full plus about 4 trashbags and a busted shelf. No, we didn't really have that much "trash" just laying around, but papers, broken toys, almost empty shampoo bottles, etc. Also "freecycled" a 30-gallon bag of Angels clothes, another one of my clothes, another equivalent of one in toys, cans of juice Angel won't drink, videos. Tell you what, after all that, I felt like I wasn't doing anything when my trashcan this morning was almost empty when I put it by the curb.

6. I have formulated a new game-plan for losing weight. www.myfitnesspal.com is an AWESOME and FREE website that helps you track exercise and calories eaten. It knows Ev.ery.thing. about calories, whether you eat at McDonalds, home-made, or frozen meal. It found my frozen/nuked Tai Pei Pepper Beef I had for lunch and automatically entered the calories, fat, protein, etc so that I DIDN"T HAVE TO!! Same for exercises! Then compares your goal calories, fat, protein with how much you ate/exercised in order to lose weight. Granted, I'm not doing that great yet. But I DID manage to survive 45 minutes of Jillian Micheal's circuit-training exercise video for the first time on Saturday! (Couldn't hardly move on Sunday though.) I've only made it almost half-way before so was super proud of myself.

7. My family survived the 4th of July celebration. Hubby has PTSD from an overseas deployment so booms, smell of gunpowder in the air, and bright flashes of light are NOT the most relaxing for him. But all 3 of us loaded up in the van and went down to Cico Park to watch the cities display. Angel wasn't scared (not really - she'd play it up to "hide" behind one of us) and Jason held it together. Think it helped that Angel needed her daddy to be big and strong and brave when she couldn't be. :) And even though it rained all day on the 4th, Angel and I made some Independence Day crafts that turned out super-cute! Especially the glue/glitter on black construction paper fireworks! With glue, draw fireworks patterns on the black construction paper (night sky). You know, the spider type pattern they make when they first explode? Then you take glitter and shake it onto the glue-fireworks. Super Super Super Cute!!

Well, that's the last couple months in a nutshell. Hopefully be back to normal blogging schedule soon! Enjoy your summer!!!