Caffiene Confession

So here's a confession: I enjoy soda, mostly Pepsi and Coke. Mostly I stick to a can a day, but if we go out to eat then I usually have some at the restaurant as well. I wouldn't say I'm addicted (or maybe I'm in denial), but it is more of my treat in the middle of the day while James is doing quiet time.

Now, I've also have dealt with PMS Migraines for years. The type that my vision gets fuzzy and I feel sick and dizzy the whole day, then the headache lasts for 3 days and nothing helps. Pain medication (which I only take when I can't take it any more) does reduce it, but doesn't make it go away. I remember my first one to this day. I was in the middle of my 9th grade history class. Over time they started getting more frequent to where I have them every month and sometimes twice a month.

Now you're probably wondering why I brought these two seemingly unrelated things up. Well, a couple of months ago we, Tracy and I (he likes his soda too) decided to cut back. The funny thing is we both decided separately and didn't talk about it till he got back. So, I cut back to every other day and slowly progressed to every 3rd day and plan to continue slowly cutting back to only having some when going out to eat. You know since going out to eat doesn't happen too often for us.

I've heard stories of people who cut back on drinking soda they start noticing weight loss and more energy and just feel healthier. I didn't notice any such thing. However, I did notice that I didn't get my migraines the past two months. I still got headaches, but I didn't get the blinding migraine. I can't believe that one bad habit has been the reason for my suffering for so many years.

Now I just have to keep up with reducing caffeine intake. I haven't been doing so good this past week, but knowing that I going back to my daily soda will bring on the horrible headache is helping. I just have to keep it in mind.

Hooray for becoming healthier.

My New Baby

Not only did Tracy come home a few days early, he brought me a present, an Anniversary present. Imagine my surprise when I watched him pull up in this, instead of the car I was expecting him to be driving.

At a fruit stand getting oranges. Perfect place for a photo opp.

Of course before he brought it to me, he had to take it out to the wilderness to see what it really was capable of doing. So in reality since it is a Jeep it isn't completely mine, since he'll use it for his off road trips, but it is mine all the other times.

The car didn't even have its license plates yet and he was taking it out on dirt roads.

The tires got pretty muddy.

Here's my new Jeep next to my old car I thought he was bringing back to me.
His little brother is now the proud owner of our old car.

And a picture of it outside his parents' house before he cleaned it all up.

I love my new baby! Nice to be a two car family! Once he gets his car back from his parents' house. He had to leave a car behind, since it just wasn't possible to bring them both. Something about not being able to drive two cars at once and here I thought he was super man...

Well, I'm off to play with my not so baby boy. Thanks for checking out my new baby.

54 Days Down... 6 To Go!

I feel like celebrating a bit. Today was my last day for the summer flying solo in church. Only 5 more days!
James is pretty easy in church for how crazy he is sometimes at home, so I feel pretty lucky about that. I'm also not out numbered, yet, so I can focus fully on making sure he is behaving.

Since I'm sort of bored at the moment, I'm going to through in an extra post for the past 5 days, who knows when I'll get to the last and final post done once Tracy gets here.

I can't believe we have gone from this:

To this:

Such a good feeling to be almost done and have Tracy home soon!

So here's what we've been doing:

DAY 51: Rock Collecting

Took a little walk to collect rocks, 

but ended up with some other things as well.

DAY 52: Movie Night on the Patio

 I think this has become our favorite way to have a movie night. 

Love watching a movie out in nature. 

James originally wanted to watch "Follow That Bird" once again.

But due to his impatience while I updated a program to run the DVD, 

we went to Netflix and watched "The Lorax" instead. We love that movie too!

 DAY 53: Game Night

James loves to pull out the UpWords games and play with the tiles.

I came up with a game awhile ago, where we lay the tiles all out and he has to find the letters I tell him too.

This time he jumped ahead and put Z-A-X on the game board. Then said he made ZAX. (from one of his favorite stories, "The Zax" by Dr. Seuss). It's backwards, but he sure got them in the right order.

DAY 54: Skype

I interrupt this count down with an announcement.

Tracy won't be home in 6 days, more like in 5 hours from when I'm writing this post. That right, he's coming home today! He decided to skip out on education week and do his museum work he wanted to do at another time and come home early. So I'm super, duper excited! I might even go hang out outside and wait for him to get here and possibly break out into this song when I see him:

So that's the end of my countdown. Thanks all for enduring my countdown and reading my posts about it.

Hope you all enjoy the rest of your summer! I know I will!

50 Days Down, 10 to Go

10! 10 Days! I can't wait for the next week and a half to be over with. Tracy spent the last ten days in Capitol Reef and the Circle Cliffs. His brother was with him for the first half than his cousin joined him after that. He is now pretty much finished with his field work. He will spend a day at the Natural History Museum of Utah next week, as well as, go to education week with his family.

James and I have had crazy week. Last week, he removed his diaper and told me he needed to go potty, so I took that as a sign he was ready start potty training again. He's been doing great. Averaging 1 accident a day. A couple of days ago he went potty on his own. Ah, hoping this is finally it and we can officially ditch the diapers. (But trying not to jinks it.)

Here's what we've been doing for our daily activities:

DAY 41: Movie Night

James selected "Follow That Bird", again. 

Can you tell it is his favorite movie?

DAY 42: Game Night

 Played with blocks for game night. James with his house, as he called it.

DAY 43: Picnic Lunch

Having a yummy lunch on our patio. 

DAY 44: Bubbles

 Loving the bubbles

DAY 45: Sidewalk Chalk

Thanks to the rain we've had a couple of weeks ago, we had a clean slate.
Of course I had to draw roads for his car and James worked on his new skill of writing the letter Q.

DAY 46: Story Time at Cellar Door Books

3rd times the charm, right? Well, in this case it didn't work. 3rd time this summer I tried to get him to go to Story Time. However, he just loves the river/pond area outside the book store too much.

DAY 47: Make Snicker-doodle Cookies

James loves to help me cook. 

These cookies I think made it to his favorite list, 

because how can you not eat half of the cinnamon and sugar mixture.

DAY 48: Make Smoothies Get Frozen Yogurt

Clearly he's not enjoying a smoothie in the picture. This was the day he went potty on his own and filled up a row on his potty chart, so a celebratory frozen yogurt too place of the smoothie.

DAY 49: Lunch with Friends

This day I had going to the splash pad as the activity. I just changed it for the next day. We got invited to have lunch with a couple of families in our ward. We enjoyed a nice Cafe Rio lunch with friends. (Taco Tuesday, tacos for like $1.75) I just didn't get a picture.

DAY 50: Splash Pad
I didn't get a picture for this day either. He didn't really play in the splash pad,
instead wh played in his new favorite fountain in our awesome shopping center.
Next time I'm down there I'll have to get a picture and
update this post with a picture him one of him playing in the fountain.

Stay tuned for our next and LAST 10 days.

James wrote a Q.

Just a short post about James's new skill. He wrote a Q today.

40 Days Down, 20 Days to Go

We're getting closer to the end! Tracy has spent the last week at his parents. His little brother returned from his mission on the 31st. Today he is heading to Capitol Reef for a few days and then onto the Circle Cliffs for another few days. 

Here's what James and I have been doing for our 60 days of summer fun:

DAY 31: Pioneer Celebration

This day was going to be plant seeds, but we ended up getting a ride to our Stake Pioneer Celebration.

We enjoyed a delicious dinner and James had fun playing with other kids before watching the program they had. James lasted 10 min and then he was ready to go back to playing.

DAY 32: Skype with Family

 Since Daddy was available we Skype with him. 

DAY 33: Game Night

Doing puzzles for game night. 

DAY 34: Bubbles

Bubbles are so fun. Too bad he keeps spilling the bottle and ending our bubble fun early. 

DAY 35: Make Brownies

 James actually ate the brownies this time. 

He's a pretty picky eater and it usually takes some convincing to eat something new.

DAY 36: Watercolors 

DAY 37: Beach

This day was going to be splash pad day,

but a trip to the beach with my brother trumped the splash pad. 

DAY 38: Splash Pad

With a beach day the day before I decided to just move it to the next day, 

instead of doing a water balloon fight. 

James decided he wanted to play by the fish pond instead of getting wet.

DAY 39: Farmer's Market

We went to the Downtown Farmer's Market and then James played in the splash pad near by afterwards. 

DAY 40: Pizza Party

James helped me make the sauce and the dough. 

He ate olives while I cut them. Then, we topped the pizzas.

He snacked so much on the toppings, he didn't want any pizza once it was cooked.

He loves to help me cook.

Stay tuned for our next 10 days of fun.

7th Anniversary

Doesn't seem like we've been married 7 years. What a great 7 years we have had. For the first time, and probably not the last, we are spending it apart. Since we aren't together I came up with a wonderful plan. 7 anniversary gifts for 7 years all sent via email. Well, all but the last one.

For the seven gifts I came up with these idea (with a little help from the world wide web):

#1. This fun video: http://www.jibjab.com/view/7AYHUjApTXGYH5CLL8oUyA

#2. ABC's of Us. Where I listed a memory that goes along with each letter of the alphabet. (Maybe if anyone really wants to read it I'll post it on here.)

#3. I had purchased something Tracy had asked for and instead of telling him or waiting for him to get home to see it I sent him this picture:

Me holding his gift with a I Love You sign.

#4. I created this collage of pictures from our 7 years together.

The top two on the left and the top one on the right
were actually taken on our anniversary.

#5. I created a playlist of songs from our past and posted links to their Youtube videos. (I could also post that list on here if anyone is curious.)

#6. I came across a website called thedatingdivas.com with tons of dating your spouse ideas. One of the ideas on that site is a game night doing Mad Libs. So I sent Tracy a request asking for the missing words and then sent him the Mad Lib complete with his additions.

Here is what we ended up with:

Missing You Madly

When ever I am not with you, my nose aches. It feels as though pi horses were cascading me. 

When you are away- it feels like 245 my. To drown out the sorrow I eat Thai and watch chick flicks like, It's a Wonderful Rock, Gone with the Car, and Legally Heavy. I miss you so much that I stop and often cry out "The present is the key to the past!"

If I had e dollars I would pay for a RTA Bus and meet you in Australia where we would dig and prospect. 

That is how much I slowly miss you. 

(Leave it up to Tracy to give me numbers such as pi and e. The funny part is he would love to go to Australia and dig and prospect.)

#7: Remember on this post one of the days James and I made cards? Well I had mailed the cards to him with instruction not to open until August 3rd. Those cards and a gift card to Cinemark (he loves to go to movies) were his gift #7.