Birthday Boy =)

Yesterday was my hubby's birthday. =) Last year he held a halo party, but this year he didn't feel like doing anything but hanging around the house... he's getting old. hehe. When I first met him, he had just turned 17. Yesterday, he turned 26. Goodness. I don't know where the time is going. Anyway here's a few pics of his birthday cake. He chose a Pineapple Upside Down Cake.

Look at all those candles!!! He was a little upset that I had to buy 2 boxes of candles LOL This was taken with my Nikon, then the battery died. The other two pics are of lesser quality. =(

The Birthday Boy and his little helper:
Thank goodness the fire alarms didn't go off with all that smoke! LOL
A funny thing was, when we were getting ready to eat the cake, Tony was pulling the candles out and said, "Uh Sheena..... the cake melted the candles."

"What!?" I didn't think the cake was still hot because I got it out fine, and could touch the pan and the cake and everything, I figured it had cooled off enough. Apparently not in the inside. LOL So to eat the cake, we had to scoop out all the little pieces of melted candle wax. It was too funny. I hope he had a good day. =)

Homesick.....

I don't know what it is..... but homesickness struck really hard today. I think it was the weather. It's cool, fallish, and cloudy. When I looked outside, it looked like Central Texas fall. =( My Texas. Every time I glanced outside I thought I should be able to just drive to my Mom's house. sigh....

It's a good thing I had quilting class today. I would have brooded around the house all day crying about missing home. lol A funny thing was after a few people showed up to the class, someone noticed my t-shirt of my brother's highschool football team, and asked if I was from Texas. I said yeah. Turns out all 4 of us that were there first are all from Texas. So I shared my homesickness, and we talked about Texas for a few minutes, how we all missed it. That helped a little bit. =)

Then I spent the next 3 hours learning how to work my sewing machine (again,) and cutting my first color of fabric for my quilt. I am very excited! I hope to have all my fabric cut before the next class two weeks from now, so that I can start my sewing. =D

My daughter is a little rational adult stuck in a 3 year old's body

Last night, after returning home from Bible study, I told Carlee it was almost time to go to bed, and we needed to get ready. She matter-of-factly looked at me and said, "Oh, well tonight I can sleep in your bed, because Daddy's not here."

"What?" I was speechless for a few seconds! LOL "Well, don't you think you should sleep in your big girl princess bed?" *fingers crossed* {I still haven't been able to write about our whole buying her bed experience... I'll get to it.... eventually. heh}

"No, I'll sleep in my bed tomorrow. Tonight I can sleep in your bed because Daddy's at work and he'll be home tomorrow afternoon. So there's room for me now."

"Well.... I uh... hmmm.... Let me call Daddy and see what he says about this." So I called him, and he just laughed at her rational thinking. We both decided that if she understood the fact that when it was all 3 of us, there is not enough room, that neither one of us minded if she slept with me on Tony's duty days. I really don't want her to feel like she's not wanted in the bed, because that's not it at all, there really is just not enough room. And honestly that is the reason I've been giving her, so how could I tell her no after she realized that there was room last night? lol... I'm going to have to watch how I say everything and what reasons I give... looks like I have a little lawyer on my hands, or something. =)

Sigh....

Another one of my very close friends left the island this morning for good.
=(
I'm bummed.
ugh... the navy life.

The Sleep Situation

Funny that I got this article in my inbox this morning.... :)

So, the sleep issue is getting a little bit better. Okay, a lot better, but only in Carlee's weird little way. We ended up "SuperNanny-ing" it at first. I started it on Thursday (Tony's duty day YAY!) and it was a nightmare. She fought for an hour at first, with me repeatedly picking her up and putting her back in the bed silently. As soon as I laid her down, her feet were already swinging out of bed, and I had to race her to the door to close it and prove I was serious. Every time she opened the door, I'd take her back to bed. My back was killing me! She finally quieted down for a bit around 10 PM. I had time to take a shower (my only break) and as soon as my head hit the pillow, she started up again. That was about 10:30 PM, I did not lay back down until 1 AM when I finally gave up and let her in to bed. I insisted that this was the absolute last night, and crossed my fingers that she at least took a hint from the last 4 hours and would be more cooperative the next night.

Friday was much better. Still a struggle initially to get her bed, but she eventually quieted down but was laying by the door. She got up and fought Tony (I told him that night was cake compared to the night before, so he had Carlee duty) about 3 times max. She ended up sleeping by the door on the floor!

That's where she's been since then. She finally let us know that she thinks the crib (which is in its daybed form) is for the baby, and that she likes our bed. So, I decided to use a chart to track her nights slept in her room. Once she gets 10 stickers, *I guess....* we'll go to base and buy her a twin sized bed. I really had wanted to wait until we got to the states to buy her a bigger bed, with more selection and better prices.... but whatever will work, I am willing to do.

She's been doing much better. Usually only waking up once or twice and going back to sleep fairly easily once I remind her about the stickers. I just find it so weird that she's happy on the floor in a makeshift blanket bed. LOL but whatever.... :) Plus I'm wondering if when we do get the bed, if she's going to actually use it, or stay on the floor..... o_0

My Very First Award!

I was given this award by Loraloo over at Suburbia Las Vegas. I really love her blog too, so go check her out. :)

The Details:
(1) The winner can put the "I :heart: your blog" logo on their blog.
(2) Link the person you received your award from.
(3) Nominate at least 7 other blogs (if you can). **Not Required but please feel free to share the love!**
(4) Put links of those on yours.
(5) Leave a message on the blogs of the girls or boys you’ve nominated.

So, now comes the hard part of choosing blogs when I read so many.... :)
In no particular order....

1. Munchkins and Music - awesome blog by a mommy & music educator to help you include music education in your children's lives from the get go.
2. Vegan Yum Yum - Awesome vegan food and recipes with gorgeous photos!
3. No Time for Flashcards - Great blog by a mommy/teacher with tons of great activities and ideas to use for educating without the use of flashcards. Love it!
4. Crafty Crow - A collection of arts & crafts activities from all over the blogosphere. Love having so many ideas in one place!
5. The Mom with Brownies - Awesome blog by a homeschooling mom with homeschooling resources from pre-k through highschool, and tons of other frugal tips and links.
6. Stamps, Paper, Scissors - I love JanTink's cards.... they are gorgeous. I hope one day, I can be that good. :D
7. Parenting Freedom - This blog pretty much sums up how I feel about parenting... almost every aspect that I have an opinion on is covered. Just add being an ethical vegan to the list, and there you have me.

sooo sleepy

I haven't been able to update any of my blogs lately... Saturday my friends threw me a baby shower!! It was sooo awesome. THEY are sooo awesome. It was kind of weird for me, because I've never had a party thrown for me as an adult, so I kind of kept forgetting the party was for me LOL. I kept finding myself in the kitchen, and my friends would give me looks like, "What are you doing? Go to the living room!" haha. I hope no one was offended, I didn't do it on purpose. =) I will post pics later. I loved everything I got for the baby. I'm so grateful for my good friends I have here. I don't know what I would do without all of them.

So, why am I sleepy? Well, for the past week I've been dealing with Carlee's weird sleep patterns that showed up out of nowhere! Seriously, is there a reason to get up at 3 AM and NOT go back to sleep for the rest of the day!!!???!!! I'm not kidding. I'm 30 weeks preggers and dealing with this. I'd like to enjoy my sleep for the last few weeks I have it, Carlee, thank you. One night when Tony had duty, I fought to get her to sleep for 1.5 hours in the middle of the night, and finally decided to just let her cry it out, and went to bed. Well, she came in to my room and crawled into bed. I was too tired to even say anything... my biggest mistake. Well, I did tell her that when Daddy was home, she would not be able to do that, but she knew better.... LOL The next night, (when Tony was home) she did it again. Came into our room around 1 AM, went straight to my bed and started feeling for my face (since it's so dark in there, heh). "Can I help you?" I asked.

"yeah, you can help me. Pick me up." I had to laugh... little smart butt. We let her into bed. It's a battle for me, because I naturally parent with attachment parenting. I did it even before I knew what it was, just by following my instincts. But now, my brain is telling me that she's going to start taking advantage of it, and I don't need to deal with bad habits after the baby gets here. Anyway, she wanted to sleep on the edge, so I was forced to the middle, which is horrible for someone who can't sleep in their current state if it's higher than 71 degrees. It was so hot between the both of them... ugh. I couldn't move, my back was killing me. After laying there for a few hours, I finally had enough and told Tony to take her to her bed. Just as he was laying her down, she said, "What are you doing with me?" AHHH!!!! She ended up back in our bed.

Last night, I told her she had to sleep in her bed. It took me a while to get her to sleep the first time. As I left her room, I put the baby gate up in the doorframe. Yeah, she was not happy about that at 2 AM this morning, let me tell you. LOL I took her to the bathroom, then back to her room to try to get her back to sleep for over an hour. I didn't want her crying loudly since Tony had to work this morning. After that hour, I gave up. I was exhausted. I left the room, and of course she got out of bed, opened the door and screamed and cried and was pissed. I kept hearing her open and close the door, say Mom!!! (she's been calling me that lately,) turn the light on and eventually quiet down. Turns out she passed out with the light on the rest of the morning lol. sigh.... I don't know.....

I hope this weird phase passes soon. She used to be such a good sleeper. We'll be doing the baby gate again tonight. I hope she gets the point.

Sarah Palin: Mother and First Female VP Link

A friend of mine sent me this link, and I loved the write up. These definitely aren't the pictures of Sarah Palin that the news media wants everyone to see. I love how she is first and foremost a mom, no matter what.

Sarah Palin: Mother and First Female Vice President on Parenting Freedom

enjoy!

Raw Food Update

I forgot to give an update on the whole food issue! Well, about 2 weeks ago, I decided to incorporate more raw foods into our diet. I can't tell you how much better I felt almost immediately! I am now eating raw fruit for breakfast and usually some tea or lemon water. Carlee's been eating more fruit in the morning also since it's available but won't quit her cereal habit. =) Lunch is a loaded salad a few times a week at least. I'm talking all kinds of veggies, nuts, and seeds, awesome awesome awesome. I was surprised how fast I got full on the salads, and believe it or not it lasted me until dinner! We have tried a few raw dinners. One was raw "spaghetti" made of zuchinni cut into noodles, and a raw tomato sauce with dried herbs. Tony added mushrooms to his. He was so skeptical at first! LOL but he said he would definitely eat it again (and trust me, he is SUPER picky!!!) Besides eating more raw, we finally broke the soy meat substitute cycle and started relying on beans and lentils again. Like I said, I feel so much better already. I'm so glad I figured out what was triggering the sluggishness so quickly!

Cartoons, Comedy, and Compassion by Dan Piraro

Cartoons, Comedy, and Compassion by Dan Piraro (creator of Bizarro)
This comedy/lecture is about 1 hour, if you watch it, comment and let me know what you think!