Fabric Eggs

So I am in love with these cute little scrappy fabric eggs I made.  I bought these paper mache eggs from Michael's last year after Easter and they were 70% off.  I've been dying to add to my Easter decor around my house and was rummaging through my decoration stash and rediscovered them.  I didn't know what to do with them when I first bought them but got this bright idea to cover them with some scrap fabric.  I absolutely love how they turned out!  I'm thinking of doing more but just using some plastic eggs since I'm out of the paper mache ones.

I just cut some scrap fabric into strips and then modge podged them to the eggs.  My hands got really messy, but it was well worth it.  I did two layers of fabric to make sure I covered the dark brown of the eggs.  I'm pretty addicted and might just have to find some more fabric in my stash to cut up and cover more eggs.

 All four eggs

 Close up

 Another close up

 Their final resting place in an apothecary jar

The "mantel" display

Spring Break!

So the major benefit of being a teacher is of course the breaks we get.  We get a week off for spring break, which is the only relief we get second semester.  Things get really crazy second semester with all the testing that we have to do because of No Child Left Behind and all the new EOC's thanks to a certain house bill that got signed in to law last year.  Needless to say the students and teachers are going a little crazy by the time spring break rolls around.

I'm not planning on doing anything this year because the kids will be in daycare since we used all our vacation days in December.  I do want to go to Sea World and pick up my teacher pass and the kids' passes and I think my sister and some of her teacher friends want to go.  She will be able to get a fun pass which is the price of admission but you get to go all you want for the entire year.  It pays for itself the first time you use it's totally worth it.

Jerry left for Canada today and won't be home until Tuesday, so it's a good thing that I am on break.  I don't have to shuffle my kids to my mother's house and have either her or my sister drop the kids off at daycare, I can do it myself.  I can also get a lot of cleaning done that usually gets neglected because I am just so exhausted from work.  Maybe I'll even tackle some freezer cooking, shopping for groceries one day and then doing the prep the next.  I'm really looking forward to sleeping in and actually getting a good nights sleep!

Hockey

Last night my parents invited me to go to the Lightening, our local hockey team, game.  I'm not a huge hockey fan, I don't even really like hockey, but I do like to go to live sporting events so I went.  My dad had his company tickets and they were the bomb.  We had seats on the PNC Bank floor and as my sister said last night, "this is where rich people go to die."  It's so true though.  The seats are those nice, comfy, plush, leather seats that feel oh so good on your tushy.  We had an amazing view of the arena.  We only spent about 10 minutes in those seats though.  Why you ask?  Because behind the seating area, there is a massive buffet of food and drinks.  They had Chinese food, sushi, flat bread pizza, philly cheese steaks, beef kabobs, meatballs, crab cakes, a dessert bar with all kinds of cookies, cakes, pies, ice cream etc.  It was also all you can drink beer, house wine, soda and water.  Not too shabby. 

Last night was not my first time in this area.  The first time I was pregnant with Kaitlyn so needless to say I was in heaven.  The running joke of the night was "follow the pregnant woman, she knows where all the good food is."  It's really nice that we get to be spoiled every once in awhile because my dad and husband both for for two different amazing companies.  We would NEVER spend that kind of money on hockey tickets, so it's nice that we get to have those experiences.

I'm super excited for baseball to start because my hubby's company bought a suite so hopefully we get to go to a few games and enjoy them in style and comfort.

Vent

I really want to vent about my job right now, but I can't.  I am just really frustrated at work right now and want to yell and scream and throw a tantrum, but I can't.  I just have to keep doing what I'm doing and hope for the best.

Big Boy Bed

We got a toddler bed for Kaitlyn when she was about 19 months old because we needed the crib for Tyler and I wanted to give her plenty of time to get used to a new bed before he came.  (We just moved into a new rental house too.)  She did very well as I only had to spend a few nights sitting by her until she fell asleep.  She also stayed in bed until we came and got her for the longest time before she finally figured out she could get out of bed herself and play in her room.  (She couldn't open the door to her room and run around the house because she had a pocket door she couldn't open.) 

I don't know when we will transition Tyler to his toddler bed.  He has a lifetime crib that converts to a daybed, then to a full size, so he's not getting a whole new bed.  He doesn't know how to climb out of his crib, and I don't think he could if he knew anyway since his mattress is set to the lowest setting and is almost touching the floor.  He is very capable of opening every door in the house and that makes me nervous to transition him to a toddler bed.  He gets in to everything and I'm afraid that he will get into something and get hurt or even worse, get in the backyard and fall into the pool.  I don't want to get all overprotective and lock him in his room; I think that would kind of traumatize him.  If I felt like he would just come in our room, then I'd be ok with it, but I'm quite positive that he wouldn't do that.  I also don't want to deal with him not wanting to go to sleep and coming out of his room 100 times a night. 

I think the plan for now is to keep him in his crib until he stops resisting bed time, which is one of his favorite thing to do right now.  Maybe we'll do a trial run this summer when it's not such a big deal if I don't fall asleep by 10.  We can always just put the crib rail back up if it's not working out.

Weight Loss Frustration

I am really frustrated with my weight loss right now.  Granted, I had a not so great weekend with Jerry being away and eating out with the kids, but I have been really good ever since we stopped doing the fat flush and I have only dropped about 5 lbs in a month.  I guess I should preface that loss by saying I am hovering at about a 5 lb loss and seem to lose and gain that same 5lbs. 

I don't know what I am doing wrong.  I track my calories on My Fitness Pal and make sure I am under my calorie goal everyday.  Sometimes I am under by 100-200 calories of my 1300 allottment.  I run everyday on my parents' treadmill using the couch to 5K app on my phone and am on week 4 day 3 and will be starting week 5 on Wednesday.  I have been really good about not eating sugar and I have dumped diet coke pretty much all together.  I try my hardest to get 64 oz of water everyday, and only fall short about 20 oz any given day.  We have switched to whole wheat bread and pasta where we can, and I try not to eat too many carbs.  I get two servings of fruit everyday and at least two servings of veggies.  So what the hell am I doing wrong?

I'm going to try to start taking some vitamin D since I read that that could help with weight loss.  I am also going to start putting benefiber in everything I drink since I seem to have a problem in the regularity department.  I know this summer I'm going to make a commitment to run in the morning before Jerry leaves for work and will do the 30 day shred at night, but I might just start that little bit of craziness next month if I get really desperate.  I guess I really need to buckle down right now and not even give myself one get away day like I have been, although I haven't been going too crazy with that either.  We shall see.

Watch This...Do Something

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Double Standard?

I don't make it a secret that it took us 7 years to have Kaitlyn, but it's also not the first thing I tell people.  (I don't think my family realizes this little fact.)  I never worried about getting pregnant or having a baby.  I was really very ignorant to the fact that many women suffer silently from infertility.  I'm in no way an expert on infertility, but I do know a lot more now than I did a few years ago, mainly from reading blogs. 

I do empathize with women who desperately want to have children and are experiencing major hurdles along their journey to becoming a mother.  I can't imagine, nor do I pretend to understand, what it must feel like to be stuck in that situation.  I love my children dearly and could not imagine a life without them.

I do have one major gripe with the IF community, however.  I've read multiple blogs where the blogger is spewing rage and hate towards "fertile" women who announce their pregnancies on Facebook, twitter or through other social media outlets.  I've also read some IF bloggers state that no fertile woman could love their child(ren) as much as an infertile woman because the "fertile" woman did not have to struggle or fight for their child(ren).  They also spew a lot of rage and hatred when a "fertile" woman slips up and has a human moment and gripes about how how motherhood is, but in the same sentence will gripe about how hard motherhood is!  What kind of BS is that?  It's almost as if they are saying that "fertile" women can't celebrate pregnancy and motherhood and that they are the best mothers in the world.

I get that infertility is a tough road to travel.  It isn't fair that healthy, stable, mature women have to struggle with becoming a mother, while at the same time, MTV slaps us all in the face with 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom.  I wouldn't wish infertility on my worst enemy, but it's also not fair to throw venom in the faces of those of us who don't have to struggle.  It especially enrages me when someone implies that I'm am not as good a mother as they are because I didn't suffer for my children.  Who the hell are you to tell me that I am not as good a mother as you?  I love my children with every fiber of my being and would walk to the very ends of the Earth for them.  Do I get annoyed with them?  Of course I do!  I am a human being and am not infallible.  Yes it gets annoying when I've struggled all day to meet the needs of a two year old and he still wants to fight me on whether or not he wants to go to sleep at night even though he is clearly exhausted.  Do I get to express that?  Abso-freaking-lutely!  Does it mean I love him any less?  HELL NO!

It also peeves me that because some women suffer from infertility, the rest of the world can't celebrate the conception or birth of a child.  I understand that some of your closet friends need to be a bit more sensitive and maybe tell you first and break it to you gently, but they get to celebrate and be happy for crying out loud!  They shouldn't have to walk on eggshells or worry about posting their ultrasound pictures on Facebook without first consulting their IF friends.  I'm sure they are not wishing and praying that you don't get your happy ever after while they get to bask in all the glory of being pregnant. 

I know, I know, I wandered into their world, it's their blog they can do whatever they want, blah, blah, blah, but I think that a different point of view needs to be seen.  (And of course not all IF bloggers are spewing rage and hate all over their blogs, but I really hate when I come across one who does.)