A little life update!!

Hi Friends!!

I must say it has been a really, really long time since I last posted anything here. What can I say… life has been happening and Mom life takes priority over everything else, right. Do ya feel me? Actually It should be more like "Mom life just takes over and nothing else matters."

I just glanced at my blog to see the last time I posted was in April of 2016. Good god I can't believe its really been that long since I last posted. I remember when Blogging was #life. I honestly just do not have the time to sit and blog now days. If someone could just invent a device that recorded and logged the millions of long running thoughts in my head; I’d buy it, and let it do the blogging for me.

Picking up where I left off . . .

Last year when I returned to work from maternity leave, I put in my notice from my job of 11 years and started at a new office job for a small oil and gas company. I immediately knew it was not the right job for me and after a few months my old general manager called and offered me different position at my old company! Yay!! IT WAS THE BEST DECISION. I love my new job, but mostly the hours and the people. It’s nice to have a normal schedule and to not be working 10-12 hours days or working on the weekends. I did that for so long and now I get the weekends off. It is priceless when you have a family or if you want to have any sort of social life. The new job is busy and I don’t really have much time to eff around on the internet, hahaha.

I started working on my health and losing some of the baby weight I’d acquired after both pregnancies. In the first picture I was 215 and about 4 months postpartum with Olivia. I’m happy to say that I’m not at 184 and feeling so much better with my body. I definitely have a lot more work to do, but I’ve made some good progress and that makes me really happy. My overall goal is to between 140-150lbs. I’m proud of myself for the weight I have lost so far and that I have not gained a single pound back.

Last summer we took a trip with the kids and Josh’s parents to Missouri to see my sister-in-law, Jen. Jen and her husband bought a Camp Ground called “Boiling Springs Resort”… We stayed in a cabins and kayaked the Big Piney River. We had a great time for the most part and enjoyed having family time. Josh was dealing with some gallbladder issues, so it wasn’t as enjoyable for him, poor guy. He was scheduled to have surgery for the gallstones when we returned from our trip, but his insurance was so crappy that he wound up waiting the entire summer and most of fall for surgery.

At the end of October, actually the weekend before Halloween, Josh got really sick and had to go to the emergency room. We thought it was his gallbladder acting up because at this point we were still waiting on insurance to approve a hospital to do the actual surgery, but found out that it was kidney stones!! Ahhhhhh. From October until about two weeks from Christmas Josh was in pain every day and very sick. With gallstones and kidney stones. My mom and his mom were coming to the house weekly while I was at work to help take care of the kids. It was awful, he got super skinny and was just in terrible shape for a stay at home dad. I felt so terrible for him. It also put a damper on the end of year holiday time, but he was fixed up just in time for Christmas and we were very grateful for that. He is now in great health and hasn’t had any more issues. My health has been good for the most part. I continue to see a dermatologist every 3 months. Once you've been diagnosed with skin cancer they want you to keep up with skin checks and I have no problem doing that. . . I still feel like my skin is out to get me and always get freaked out the week of my appointments... I stand in front of the mirror scanning every inch of my body like a freak, hahaha.

The kids are great. Olivia turned one in November. We had small party for her at the house, because Josh was still sick at that time. We started potty training the boys last September and by Christmas they were both fully potty trained, Armor was pretty much potty trained after a few weeks. Ronin wore a diaper during nap time for a while and overnight, but neither has worn a diaper in such a long time. It is so nice not having to change three butts every day. We will start potty training Olivia at the end of the year when she turns two. I’m hopeful that we can do it quick and she will catch on, fingers crossed!!  

Josh’s parents decided to move to Missouri to be closer to Jen, Wooky, Miranda and Henry. Jen and Wook really needed a lot of help with the kids while trying to also run their business. We knew that eventually Bart and Sheila would move, but we never thought it would be so soon. They bought a home and were planning a move the first week of May. Well . . . a historic flood happened days before they were to move. Jen and Wook lost everything. Their camp grounds, cabin and home were lost to the flood and washed away. Luckily they were able to go stay in the house that was waiting for Bart and Sheila, but they literally lost everything they had. It’s incredibly sad and heartbreaking. They have worked so hard since buy their business… they have literally put their blood sweat and tears into the resort.

Because Josh’s parents moved… we then moved into their house! The same house that Josh grew up in… I think from about age 6-8 and up. We moved on June 3^rd and love it. It’s a little strange, but the kids totally in love with it. The layout is so different. The size is almost the same square footage as our previous house. The backyard is massssssssssive. It is really the best part about the house. We are starting to settle in and it is feeling more and more like our house. We are also working on our other house and plan to have it on the market by August! We’ve been painting, having work done and we’ll need to have the roof replaced. It’s bittersweet to say goodbye to the house. It was our first home; we had fun adult parties there and then we brought home our babies there. *sigh* I will miss it, but I’m very happy and grateful that we have the opportunity to take over the house that Josh grew up in. It needs a little work here and there, but nothing too crazy.

We are planning a trip to Missouri again this August. We are going to be there for the total solar eclipse and we’ll get to see the ring of fire!! I’m totally excited to see such an amazing sky event. I planned it specifically for this time frame to see it. I'm a space nerd at heart. It will be great to see the family, too. Josh is from Louisiana, so now that this Mom and Dad have moved away... he has no family in Texas and I foresee many road trips in our future. It will be quite interesting to see how this trip goes traveling with three toddlers. Ahhhhhhhh… pray for my soul, haha. It has to better than the last time we drove. Olivia was teething and got in her two top teeth while we were traveling, it was definitely an experience... and I was still nursing her, so yeah. This time will hopefully be less stressful.

Well my friends… I think this is it for now. I’d love to say I’ll post soon, but it might be a while. I work full time and when I get home, its mommy time. I don’t get any computer time until after 9:00 and by that time I’m exhausted and just look at facebook, youtube and instagram on my phone... T hat is about all the mental energy I have left at the end of the day. I haven’t even vlogged *sad face*. Well, I’ve actually been making videos and capturing footage I just have not been able to edit anything. We are working on getting our office area set up at the new house and once that is done I’ll finally be able to hook up my computer and editing again. I miss my having my own little space. Josh's Mom, Sheila is driving down on Monday to get the rest of their stuff. We've had it piled up in one of the back rooms which is actually supposed to be our office, so once she picks up their stuff we'll be able to really get everything else unpacked and set up. We just celebrated the 4th of July and the kids had so much fun seeing the fireworks. This was the first year that Olivia really got experience them. I could feel her little heart pounding away in her chest, and she had huge smile on he face the whole time. <3 a="" all="" and="" be="" between="" blogs="" font="" hopefully="" in="" it="" long="" love="" my="" such="" time="" to="" wont="" you="">