Thankful!

So I have been reflective this Thanksgiving about all of the things that I am thankful for. I am so thankful for the life that I live and the simple joys that I have every day that others are not as fortunate to have. I am thankful for my children, they are amazing and they make me happier each time that I get to spend a moment with them. I only hope that I am always able to make them as happy as they make me.

I am thankful for Shane, he is wonderful and I could not have asked for a more perfect man to share my life with. I am thankful for my family, most of all my 'rents and bro. They are all amazing people whom I can share great things with. I am thankful for the close friends that I have and the aquaintences that I have as well. I am thankful for my job and for the fact that even though my employment is not as good as what I would hope for that I have employment during this time of great economic need in our country.

And lastly but certainly not least, I am thankful for our troops who are risking their lives each and every day and some of them giving up their lives so that I can have the freedoms and liberty which I enjoy. I will be the first to admit that I am antiwar but I do respect those who are following out the orders to which they are given.

Update to my crazy life!!

Hello all...life is good and I am truly blessed and thankful to have the life that I have.

Andrew is growing up so fast. He is starting to read and he is able to tell me things that I thought it would take him years to figure out. I guess he is just getting too big too fast for his momma...I am so bummed that my baby boy is growing up before my eyes and becoming such a big boy! He is starting to read some words and I know that reading books is just around the corner for him and that makes me both happy and sad. One of my favorite things to do with him is to sit and read and be able to spend that time together sharing, it is awesome!! I know though that soon it will not be necessary for mommy to read to him and that he is going to want to go off and read alone and that sucks in some ways!! I am so happy and proud of him though and I feel such a love for him as he gets older and I know that he will just have to grow up but sometimes that is too hard for me to deal with.

Althea is getting big as well. She is learning how to mimick sounds and things that we do. She discovered that she could do the kissing sound with daddy the other day and she was so proud of that one. She is also a huge girly girl as she had her toenails painted by grandma and she is so proud to show them off...we will ask her where her "pretty toes" are and she will hold up her foot and just smile so big. She is also learning to make appropriate expressions for how she is feeling. She has such a timid and sweet personality and she is so easily startled or scared when she hears certain noises.

Work is going well. I am starting to facilitate anger management group in a few weeks and I am hoping to get my stuff together for Self Esteem group to have it start after the holidays. I feel blessed that I get to work a four day week at my job and I am hoping to be able to get on a more set schedule and just have Fridays off in the future as I know that this would work better for leading that second group.

Not much else is going on...we are super busy all of the time and I don't look for that to slow down with all of the holiday happenings.

I am super excited to be surprising Shane this weekend for his birthday. I have such a good surprise planned for him and I can't wait to see how happy it makes him. That is going to be our first night away from little Althea though and I am kind of freaking out over this one. Let's see and then there is the big Christmas surprise...yep I think that I did really good this year and I so proud of what I did...he will love it so much!! I just can't wait to see his face when he opens his gift from me. Other than that I am so excited to see the kids on Christmas...I think that between myself and Shane and Santa Claus and then the family Andrew is going to get all that he asked for so he should be super happy!! Also Althea is getting some things that I think will make her really excited so I am excited about those as well. I am almost done with my xmas shopping, just a few more things overall and some things for the stockings and it is all done for xmas for our house....yay!!

My Crazy Life

Well, I just wish sometimes that things would slow down, I mean slow way down. Things have just been freakin' crazy around me. I am up at 4:00-4:30 am every morning to get ready for work, get the baby ready, drop her off at my mom's and be at work by 6:30 am. On days when I get to sleep in, usually I am still up around 5:00-5:30 am...it is crazy!! Sometimes I feel as though I am so sleep deprived that I simply can not take not being able to get some more sleep sometime.

The kids are great!! Althea is getting bigger each and every day and is growing up so fast that I can not believe that she is already 3 1/2 months old. I love that she "talks" and coos and that she laughs and tries to sing along with you when you are singing to her. She is starting to notice things and she loves when we all sit around and read books every night prior to when Andrew goes to bed. She loves reading and laughs and interacts with the pictures. So far it seems that "Fox In Socks" by Dr Seues is her favorite. She laughs and sometimes you have to read it more than once to her so that she is not crying when you are finished.

Andrew is growing like a weed as well. He is definilty in a size 5 and not a 5T, as those are starting to be too short for him. He is into all of the big boy things now and is no longer my baby. He is so freakin' funny too...I absolutely love it when he giggles and laughs and acts all silly so much of the time. He is super sweet about his baby sister too so that is nice as well.

Shane and I are great...working on the things that average couples work on and learning to lean on each other more and all in all we get along very well, even when we are angry or irritated with each other we are able to talk about things so that is nice as well.

As for work, well I am still at the Human Service Center in Peoria, still working with adults with severe and persistent mental illness...we are no longer considered a CST team but we are still basically doing the same things that a CST team did so it is kind of silly that we are not the same that we once were. I enjoy working in this type of field and have thought about leaving because of the fact that the money sucks and I really would like to feel as though I were working full time for a reason...but I am super excited about the prospect of working for the state in the prison systems as these types of jobs are available there and I would love to be able to work in that capacity and the money is great there as well, almost two times what I now make.

Life is going pretty well all in all..there have been some reccent rough patches but I have kept perservereing through them all and it seems as though all is going to turn out well!!

It's Been A While

Well, it has been forever sine I have written. Let's see, we had our beautiful baby girl!! Althea Raelea Walton was born on July 15, 2008 and weighed 8 lbs 8 oz and was 20" long. She is amazing!! I love her with all of my heart and can now remember how I felt when Andrew was born. Andrew is doing awesome at being a big brother and he really loves his baby sister a lot!! He is not nearly as jealous or as crazy as I would have thought that he was going to be.

Weight loss is coming, very slowly to say the least but coming all the same!! I can't believe how much slower it seems to be happening after baby #2. I don't know if I am being realistic or not though b/c in 15 lbs I will be the weight that I most often was after having Andrew, at least for the first 4 years of his life so I don't know that I really had that much more of a hard time this time or if I am just wanting to lose too much too fast!!

Been a While

Well, it has been a while since I last wrote and so much has been happening and going on. First off, I am off of work and on bedrest until the baby comes...that has been both difficult and interesting, difficult b/c I hate to sit around and do nothing and interesting b/c I have found out a lot about bad television and been playing a lot of video games and such! Also trying to care for Andrew has been interesting b/c of course he needs a lot of help with things and wants his mommy to help him.

I am home now after a busy and long week. I went to my mom and dad's last Saturday to go to the Farmer's Market and such and ended up not coming home until yesturday, it was weird being away from home for so long but I do have to say that I enjoyed being in a place where the air conditioning was readily available. It has been a little hot since I have gotten home. Andrew went to Darren's yesturday and is not supposed to be back until the 18th which seems like such a long time. I know that I am really going to miss him a ton.

There is so much to do and plan for and so much work to get done in the next 7 days before the baby is born. I am being induced at 12:01 am on the 15th so the baby will be here in a week.

So Much Going On...Busy Next Few Weeks!

Well a lot has happened in the past few weeks since I have wrote. There are changes being made at work...yay! More stuff to do in the same amount of time!! I have great news on the four day work week as I am going to start having Fridays off after this week! I am so excited to be moving on to a four day work week. I can't wait to get to spend that extra day with Andrew, the move has been hard on him as he was used to be having a four day week when I lived in Indiana and he has had to go without that since I have moved here.

The baby is doing well, she is getting big and she remains so active. She actually causes pain at time and most of the time I am uncomfortable now. The main thing that I have learned is that I need to continuously eat and have food around me and I feel better, except the fact that I am balooning to some huge proportions. And with that in mind I have developed a small workout routine that I am going to make myself do every afternoon when I get home from work or in the mornings when I wake up super early! I am going to be doing three sets of 10 repetitions of a few butt and thigh toning moved and some basic stuff for my arms which are more fat than I think that they have ever been. I even made myself a work out spreadsheet to remind myself to do them. I am still not worrying about what I eat as I usually just eat what I am craving and figure that the baby wants those foods for a reason and so therefore I give them to her!

I go to my 32 week appointment next week!! Then I have my 34 week appointment at which they will do another sonogram and then they will take the stiches out of my cervix...I am a bit worried about this and how painful it might be!! Then just a few short weeks after this Miss Delilah will finally grace us with her presense. There is so much that I want to have done before she gets here!! I am hoping to use my Fridays off work to get some of the housework done during Andrew's play times and then to work on things that he is not doing other times. Anyways I can't believe that in just 5 weeks she could be here and be healthy...I need to carry her until at least week 36 as that is when she can be born healthy but I am hoping to have her at 36 or 37 weeks! So just a few more weeks and I am done, thank God!! I love knowing that she is growing and that my body is nourishing her health but I also would like to feel good and not so crappy anymore!

Andrew's first t-ball game is tonight! I can't wait to watch him as I think that those types of things are so darn cute!

The next few weeks are going to be busy ones....this weekend we are going camping in Kansas with Andrew, the following week is my baby shower here in IL. We are excpecting some family in from out of town as well. Then the following week, we are going to Wakarusa Music Festival for one or two days (depends on how the camping goes this weekend). Andrew starts summer camp the first week in June! Then he is at his dad's for a week, while at his dad's Shane and I and my parents are going to see Phil Lesh and Friends in Chicago! Hmm...let's see then there is the Universal Rhythm Assembly coming up at the end of June in Peoria on the riverfront. Not much else for the month of June except hopefully having this baby! LOL!

Mommy Things!

It's the day before Mother's Day! Things here are going well! I am just getting ready to run and pick up two hanging baskets (one for my grandma and one for my aunt) for mom's day! Depending on prices and what they have, I might also be picking up one for myself! I wouldn't mind seeing a few flowers on my front porch, it would make our house a bit homey. For my mom, well she is getting a digital photo keychain...yep something that I want that is not too expensive that I have yet to purchase for myself.

I've been doing the house cleaning thing as the family is coming over for dinner tomorrow night! We are doing a whole Mexican thing. I got all of the dusting done and still need to finish up the kitchen this evening as well as finish sweeping floors! I want to wait on the bathrooms until tomorrow morning so that they smell super clean! I am kind of a bathroom freak!

Anyways what types of mom day plans do my readers have? Anything interesting planned! Not much going on here. We are just going to be getting up and relaxing, possibly going out to a late breakfast if Andrew is cool with that. I know that it sounds odd to say it that way but it is always easier to do breakfast when you know that the kid is going to behave. I guess I will probably try bribing him as he wanted a laser toy that was in some stupid quarter machine at this one little place here in Canton and I guess that I will probably tell him if he goes and sits nicely through breakfast that we will get that laser toy! That should make it where we can go and get some good eats and he will be cooperative!