Summer Vacations

These pictures are all out of whack, but I guess since I'm FINALLY uploading pictures, you can just deal with it right???
We've had a lot of fun this summer, it was GREAT to see family for Cody's family reunion, and my Dad's 60th birthday (although I don't have any pictures of that.....I suck at taking pictures). We've done quite a bit here around Flagstaff. There is a lot of out door-sey stuff to do that is really fun. We went to the Grand Canyon, hiked around a volcano, saw some ancient ruins gone out for ice cream at least once a week, and went to the fair, and the monster truck rally. It's been busy and fun.
How is it going in general? Well it's alright. Cody got called into the Elder's Quorum presidency, and that has helped a little with bring noticed in the ward. And I have decided that if no one wants to talk to me, then I'll talk to them. Its been difficult, but I'm making progress. I still feel quite lonely a lot. Taking the boys to the park when I know that I can call and invite someone to go with me is a lot more fun than taking them alone. But I got a few phone numbers of sisters in my ward and I plan on calling them this week to go.
I started school again. YIKES! It's been pretty rough, I actually don't like it very much. I'm not very good at tuning out the noises around me so I'm easily distracted, and I can't leave because Cody is helping me out a lot.....So I guess slow and steady for now. I will apply for the Dental Hygiene program in January, so wish me luck.
I'm only a couple of pounds away from my goal weight I set for myself almost a year ago. I think I got this whole eating more healthy thing down. I actually like salad, and crave it frequently....weird. And I discovered this stuff called Kefir, it's a drinkable yogurt that helps with the normal flora in your gut (it make digestion better) and I LOVE it. I make the BEST smoothies. Come over and try one and I will dare you to find a better one.
Carter started pre-school in the beginning of August, and he loves it. I think he has a crush on his teacher Ms Megan he talks about her CONSTANTLY and will always say " I'll have to tell Ms Megan" about whatever it is that he thinks is cool. He had more fun at the Monster Truck rally than I thought was possible. My dad told me to bring earplugs, and I thought he was kidding. It turns out that he wasn't. We had to buy some there, and Carter thought they were awesome. I told him he could use them at home too, when ever I yelled too loud. He thought that was funny. He is a good boy, and so fun most of the time.
Toby is starting the terrible two's. Awesome. He's better than Carter was, a lot easier to discipline. But he gets on my nerves. He talks an awful lot, and is still so funny some times. He has developed a love for the nick-name Carter gave him, "Tobo", and will correct me every time I call him Toby. He yells at the top of his lungs "MAMA LOVE YOU TOO" and expects an immediate response of "TOBO LOVE YOU TOO" if it doesn't happen RIGHT away, he will yell it over and over and over until I say it. Too cute, but not in sacrament meeting, because if I don't yell it, it's not and acceptable answer.
I'm the luckiest mom alive. :)

Cody just found out that the clinic here in Flagstaff, that is associated with the hospital he is working for, is extending their hours and will need another Pharmacist. Needless to say he has already requested to be transferred. Pray for us? It will be SO nice to have him closer, and i will cut 2 hours out of the time he is away from home during the day. Not to mention gas, and paying to ride the shuttle, and this that and the other thing, It'll just be nice to live in the same town he is working in. So keep your fingers crossed. :) Any way, here is what you all have some to see, Pictures, enjoy.El Perro Loco

Terminator (Carter's favorite)

First Day of Preschool He's so big!

Fourth of July

Hiking the Volcano
(PS- Dad, Carter really did get my hiking skills...)


PSS. I had more uploaded, but I stink at blogging and ended up deleting some on accident, and I don't have the patience to re- upload them, I'm posting them all on Face Book if you REALLY want to see pictures.

Keeping an open mind......

is really tough! I was SO excited to move to Flagstaff, I couldn't WAIT to leave Laramie. Now we are here, and Carter is friendless, and so am I.

Our ward SEEMS really nice, but not overly welcoming. There is a "Young Mothers" group that was supposed to meet today at the park and no one showed up. I honestly can't describe how disappointed Carter was. It was depressing because the park was in the ghetto and everyone there was seriously the most white trash I have ever seen. So after waiting about 45 min.s for someone I recognized to show up, we left disappointed.

I am having a hard time adjusting to life here. Some days are GREAT and my kids play well together, and we are happy and I get stuff done, then some days I just want to curl up in my bed and cry (today being one of those days...thus the depressing blog). I don't feel like doing anything, Carter has been on one, and Toby doesn't like anything. I was hoping to meet just one person today. Someone I could call to go to the park with during the week, or maybe have come over, ONE person with ONE kid for Carter to play with. No such luck.

Don't get me wrong I LOVE my kids, and I LOVE to play with them, but I'm pretty sure the bad days are only bad because they can only have so much fun with their boring old mom. Kids need friends AND parents.

Also I got an e-mail today telling me that there was a break-in in a neighboring apartment. A.W.E.S.O.M.E. that's JUST what I need, to be afraid of leaving my house. At least I never leave my kids alone. But still, not something I want to have to worry about, and it's not like I need ANOTHER thing to keep me up at night. I have insomnia for that thanks.


I like our apartment OK. It's small and expensive. We've been looking at houses (not looking to buy, just to see what the housing market is like), but we can BUY and brand new house for $250,000 with 2200 sq ft and our monthly payment would be about 1300 dollars. We are paying $950 for 916 sq ft. This is the first time I've felt like renting is a waste of money........

On a plus side, Cody is working, and he likes his job. I wouldn't say that he LOVES his job. He said that the system they use is annoying, and aggravating, but he said that he could work there for a few years anyway. We are supposedly getting reimbursed for our move this week. It'll be nice to start paying off our credit card debt.

Any way. I keep telling myself that I am going to LOVE it here once we meet some people and get acquainted with the area a little bit. I'm trying to keep an open mind and "unpack my bags" so to speak. As of right now, I still have an open mind, I just hope it stays that way.

I wish people would update more......

So as I joyfully blog stalk all those wonderful people I stalk, I found myself getting REALLY annoyed at all of the people who don't update enough, then it hit me that the last time I posted anything was in January. Oops. I'm annoyed with myself now.

There is news from the Plaisted home. CODY GRADUATED! YEAH! He's now a Dr. of Pharmacy! He has a job offer on the table in Flagstaff AZ. with Walgreens, and on Monday he is flying down there to visit another potential job opportunity (it's his dream job, none of that retail nonsense:)jk). So either way it looks like we have the highest chance of moving to Flagstaff AZ. YAY! So this is our big adventure!!!! :)


I have begun my packing. It's MADNESS! We are going through all of our stuff deciding what we want to sell in our garage sale this coming weekend Friday from 5-8 pm. and Saturday starting at 7am,(Did you like my plug right there??? :)) and what we are going to move. I tell you our apartment is a DISASTER AREA!!!

I've never moved before so this is quite a daunting task. I'm packing boxes as we get them. I think I have about 10-15 boxes and "totes" packed already and besides seeing them all over my apartment you really can't tell that I've done anything. Carter is rather distressed at some of the things I've packed. He "needs" everything that I have packed away. Poor kid!

The boys are doing great! Carter talks about his "new house" a lot and keeps asking when we get to go there. I don't think he QUITE understands what is going on, but he gets bits and pieces of it. Toby is totally oblivious to what is going on. Besides climbing on all of the boxes I don't think he has a clue that anything is different (oh to be 17months again........).

How do I feel about all of this? I'm so excited, nervous, surprisingly melancholy, and SUPER anxious. I'm SO excited to move to Flagstaff. Seriously it sounds like the PERFECT place.....I've never been there, but I've been reading all about it, and tracking the weather on my desktop, and searching for family things to do. I've been really happy with what I've seen and found. I'm nervous to move because I've never done it before. AND we don't have anywhere to move to YET. And I don't know a soul in Flagstaff. I'm melancholy because even though I've never LOVED living in Wyoming, I do LOVE the people here. AND we are going to be SO far away form our close friends, and Cody's family. But I think the strongest emotion I'm feeling is anxious! I just want to be down there already, and all moved in, and meeting a greeting new people. I just want to hold Cody's first pay check in my hand and cry.

So, this is for those of you like me, cursing all the lazy bums out there not posting updates. Here is my update. Maybe I'll post more soon, but then again I'll probably be the slacker.

Until then :)

LOVE YOU

Yep.

It just so happens that right now at 7:15 my children are tucked safely in their beds and are actually asleep. I have the rest of the night to....Do whatever? With Cody gone I try to stay up as late as I can, maybe even fall asleep on the couch before I go to my room. I have this horrible anxiety about the funny noises my apartment makes, and people outside. I just lie in bed and picture someone breaking in and...I dunno killing us all maybe? So I make sure I'm too tired to think before I try to go to sleep. So I'm going to blog, then watch some TV, and enjoy some very nice, very much needed MOMMY TIME!

So I FINALLY uploaded some pictures today. Go me Right? Here they are. We'll Start with some C.U.T.E. ones of my sweet little boys. Followed by some Christmas, and Toby Birthday. Since I missed those 2 very important occasions in my Blogging. I hope you all enjoy.

Here is my lively, and energetic little man doing what he loves, playing with his Trains!

Here is my sweet Toby just swingin' I think this picture was taken in October. AWESOME weather for Laramie. AWESOME.

Oh Christmas Morning, how I LOVE it! :) They were S.P.O.I.L.E.D. They way children should be on Christmas. Toby's Birthday Cake. Made by me. I rock.....Toby after "playing" in his cake. I've always wanted a black baby! :)Well I hope you've enjoyed these pictures. I'm not guaranteeing any more any time soon. I hate uploading pictures on here.

New Hair Cut....

Do I go short, like this??Keep it longer, like this?

With these bangs?? (Both the short and long cuts, I really like these bangs.)

My haircut appointment is next Saturday....yikes!

Venting from a Stay at Home Mom

Ok, this is for everyone who was following me during my Insanity Challenge. As most of you know Cody and I did about 6 of the 9 weeks with out a hiccup. Then Christmas Break happened, we all got sick, we got stuck, and we dropped the ball. Last week was Cody's first week of his new rotation, and I tried to pick the ball up again. Every time I tried to work out one of my Children needed to be held, fed, cleaned, or played with. Now as you can see, here I sit blogging, but I can honestly tell you that if I quit blogging right now, and went to put on my shoes, ONE of my boys would need something, and then some thing else, and so on and so forth for the next 45 minutes or so. Then as soon as I give up and turn my video off, having only been at it hard for about 15 minutes, they would be perfectly content, until I tried to turn my video back on. I tried working out at night, but honestly with Cody gone I'm completely wiped out and in desperate need of a Diet Coke, and a candy bar and defiantly not feeling up to an intense work out. ALSO, I only lost 3 pounds with it and I was working out 6 days a week, and I was sore and tired and hungry... I want to LOSE weight, NOT gain a whole lot of muscle. Toned maybe, but I still want the numbers to go down on the scale. So here is a question I'm posing to all of you......Do you think a rec.-center membership (where they will watch me kids for the time I'm exercising) is worth it? We are EXTREMELY poor. We live off of student loans and public assistance and I have never been able to justify giving myself that little perk, but I still have 15lbs to go (ok really only 10lbs. to my goal, but 15lbs. to my ideal weight, the weight I want to be before I get pregnant again). I'm thinking that it could be my anniversary/birthday present? I just don't know if I can justify it. It'll be SUPER expensive.

Onto the other things I wanted to say. Last week, having Cody gone was miserable. This week, I'm going to MAKE it be great, and fun for my boys. Carter talks about his daddy almost all day while he is gone. So I'm going to try and keep us SUPER busy. Any ideas on fun activities, mostly indoor activities because it's -11 degrees Fahrenheit outside right now. I'm hoping that there are some women in my ward that want to do a play group a couple more times a week than just Wednesday (if you are one of those women let me know).

Sorry for no pictures again. Cody is getting frustrated with my lack of computer skills and wants me to learn how to put the pictures up myself...and I just don't want to. Maybe that will be my project for this week. Thanks for reading.

P.U.K.E.

So the Christmas break was like every other one. We saw Family. We played games. We ate food. We opened presents. We got snowed in, in Ogden (because Cody didn't listen to me when I told him we needed to head home. Not the point I'm making, but note worthy). We got sick. Yep. My M.I.L got the flu two days before we FINALLY left Utah, and as a result I now have two puking, pooping, crying, grumpy, aching, sad, irritable children. AND Cody left for rotations yesterday. All of that aside let me tell you about my day:

Both of my kids were up all night long. HORRAY.....So I slept in until a whopping 7:30 just to get up, feed my kids get showered and ready to take Toby to get his shots, go to Wal-Mart where Carter puked in the isle, and to the DFS where the lady snapped at me and made me fell about 2 inches tall. Thanks for that ma'am my day hadn't sucked enough yet... Then I had to carry 2 crying kids up three flights of stairs, and unload groceries. Meanwhile Toby (I was thinking he was watching cartoons with Carter...) gets into my bedroom and pulls down my Precious Moments wedding cake topper and throws it in the toilet where it shatters. All of this by 11:00 am. I'm ready for bed. I need a diet coke, and a chocolate bar. Neither of which I got to on the shopping list because Carter PUKED IN THE ISLE before I was done. All of this could have been avoided if we had left Utah when I said, but no one listens to me. What do I know, I'm just the mom........

Alright I can't really be too mad at Cody, I understand. It's not his fault, I'm just really bitter about what my day has been like and my poor kids are breaking my heart. I'm sorry I being a downer, but I don't have any one to call, my mom is in Africa and all of my sister work. So I'm venting on my blog. Thanks for listening.