ClassES

I did a post before about taking a class in Excel. Which is going well. 5 more lessons left and then the big test. The quizzes have been really easy. The lessons are obviously getting more complex. I'm a bit curious/nervous about the final test. There's 2 more classes in Excel after this one to learn all there is to know about Excel.

Well..... I signed up for another class outside of Excel. This one is Teaching Preschool: A Year of Inspiring Lessons. Now I have no plans on teaching preschool.... but I do have a 2 year old who has no desire to learn the basics. I'm hoping that this class will give a few ideas that will help me teach him in a way he'll want to learn. Not just for now, but as he gets older. I can't wait to start it! It has great reviews. Yay! This class hasn't started yet, but I'm obviously super excited lol.

Warmin' Up

Wow, it's been a while since I've been on here. I have to admit the weather got warm and that kept me offline, but then the weather got colder again and that's just depressing so once again I wasn't on. Oh well. I'll try to do better.

I can't wait for the warmer weather to stay! Get out, go on walks, take pictures, play with Seth, shooting hoops, hitting softballs, ..  all things we've been doing on the warm days and I can't wait to get back to it.

We've been having a lot of Milky Way recently. If you've never been to one, you're missing out. Great tenderloins, orange tangerine, vanilla coke, fries, etc. Now if only they'd put up a gate on their outdoor (and only) eating area so the kids can't run out in the lot!

Speaking of Milky Way I met a friend their for lunch on Saturday that I hadn't hung out with in a while. Had a great time getting to sit an talk to her. Honestly didn't feel like a ton had changed... besides the fact that she's engaged and I have a 2 year old.. some pretty major changes, but it just seemed right to hang out together. Can't wait to get together again!

We need to get out with some of the other friends too. It's been far to long. This means going to the park with the kids, basketball for the guys, maybe some softball, lunch, bonfires, cook outs, shopping, and all other kinds of fun. Hopefully this year we'll be better about having these outdoor things at our home and not just waiting for someone else to have them.

Bring on the warm weather!!

Big Hero 6

 If you've never seen Big Hero 6, or as my son calls it 6, you really should see it. But I must warn you your kid may become addicted to it, like mine. Lol.

    It's about this boy Hiro and this inflatable robot Baymax who team up with a group of friends to form a band of high-tech heroes.  There's not much more I can say about it without giving away some of the story.

    It's super cute, has great music, and even has some good lessons in it. If you haven't watched it yet I hope you will soon.

Parenting In The Pew

No, I'm not talking about parenting as a Christian apposed to someone who doesn't attend church. I'm talking about the struggles of parenting a child in a church service.
If you've had a kid(s) and attend church you know the struggle of trying to correct your child and not draw attention to yourself. We hear stories of parents pinching arms, pulling ears, and whispering threats and we laugh, but it isn't so funny when we're the one having to do it. 

Sunday night Seth was in this noisy, not going to listen mood and in the middle of church service I'm not going to give my stern "Seth" So I try The Look and I point (with The Look). I try giving him things to keep him occupied, quiet, and sitting still.. nothing works the way I'm wanting. Well this is where threatening whispering comes in. If you know kids you know if you go to tell them something they don't want to hear or if they feel you're going to take something from them they back away. So instead of being able to simply lean towards him and whisper I'm having to grab his jacket and pull him to me just to simply whisper that he needs to be quiet, sit down, etc.

***Let me take this moment to say I applaud all the parents out there who go to church service after service just them and their kid(s) having no help throughout the services, especially if the kid is active!***

Having a kid and going to church isn't so bad when you have family and friends to help. I normally have 2-3 family members who help me with Seth and I'm SOO thankful. But Sunday night it was just Seth and I. Don't get me wrong I know that going to church is the right thing. I know that Seth and I need to be there, but services like Sunday night I can't help but feel like being there is pointless. All I wanted was for Seth to sit in my lap and be quiet so that I could pay attention to service, but instead I spent all my time focused on him and ended up completely out of touch with the service. I felt like the services lasted hours longer and I ended up feeling more drained than when I first walked in. I left having received nothing. Thank God that isn't typically how services go for me!

Every kid will at some point do something during service that you wish they wouldn't. And what do you do?

Your options are:
A. Correct them, which may force a little attention on you and make you feel like a bad parent because it's your kid being the pain. Correcting may or may not work the first time.
OR
B. Ignore the issue, allowing your child to be a disruption and actually be a bad parent.

I choose A. But with the way people are today you never know what parenting style is going to offend the people around you. Personally I have no problem with timeout, spanking (spanking not beating!), taking away a toy, threatening to take away a toy, dirty looks, or whispering. But the whole time I'm trying to get him to behave I'm wondering, "Do the people around me think I'm handling this ok?", "Do they think I'm a bad parent?", "Are they wishing I'd take him out of the service?", "How loud does he sound from where they're sitting?", etc. I'm sure all parents have felt this way at least once.

Do I have any solutions? No. But.....

Good news parents!!!! This stage doesn't last forever! Every parent before us has gone through exactly what we're going through and look, they made it! So choose A. Correct that adorable, little pain in the rear. Ignore the things going through your head about what other people think because you know that correcting them is better than ignoring the problem. And remember this stage will be over before you know it... and amazingly one day you will miss it.

So take a moment with me to cry about your baby growing up ....................................................You done?.............................................................

Keep calm and parent from the pew!

"Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." -Proverbs 22:6

Excited, it's soon!

I was one of those women who didn't want to make my whole blog about my pregnancy, but then I realized after getting pregnant that my pregnancy is pretty much my whole life right now. And hey aren't you supposed to blog about what you know and about your life?

It's kind of hard to believe that in around 5 weeks my baby will be considered a full term baby. So I can literally have a baby in anywhere from 5-10 weeks! Which is exciting and a relief! I'm so excited to be able to "see" the end of this pregnancy near.

I'm grateful that God has blessed me with the chance to be pregnant and have a child of my own, but I sure haven't enjoyed being pregnant like a lot of ladies have. I've been ready to have this baby pretty much from day 1.

I'm very excited to start the next chapter of motherhood. I can't wait to get his "routine" down and dress him in all the cute little baby clothes. I can't wait to go shopping with him and show him off... hopefully people won't be to touchy. Germs yuck! I can't wait to rock him to sleep, see him smile, hear him laugh. I can't wait to watch him grow, which is something I don't hear many people say. But I realize that I am blessed with around 18 years to teach him as much as I can about God, life, etc. and then it will be up to him to live his life. I can't wait to see who he has his first crush on. I want him to grow and mature so that when the time comes I'll know he's ready.. so begin the growing up because I can't wait to see what God has in store. I'm sure I'll be sad when he can't fit into his NB clothes, when he graduates preschool, when he graduates middle school, first date, first girlfriend, graduates high school, etc., but I take comfort in knowing that, that's the way it's supposed to be.

My husband is excited as well. I know he's ready for me to not be pregnant anymore so I won't be so sore and complaining about being sore, etc. But he also can't wait to meet Seth and just be a dad. I know he'll make a great dad, he loves kids and kids love him. I also know he'll be a loving father. And by that I mean he won't be afraid to discipline him when it's necessary, even if it hurts him to do it (Like God does with his children). There are to many guys becoming fathers that don't know how to be a father, they want to be the fun guy that has no real attachments and doesn't have to enforce the rules, but that's just not the way it works. I'm thankful to be married to such a wonderful man!

Not to much longer!

Events

I know that some events are necessary. BUT there are WAY to many events! Holidays, birthdays, baby showers, bridal showers, going away, welcome back, etc. There's just to much!
I have no problem spending my birthday at home or going out to eat with my husband (of course I like to see my mom and Mike on my birthday, but honestly that's all I need)
The only reason I'm having a Baby Shower is for my baby.
The only reason I had a Bridal Shower is because well, to be perfectly honest we needed things.
Holidays all feel like just an ordinary day to me so I would prefer to just stay at home or maybe go out to eat then go back home.

You getting the picture? I like to stay home. I'm a homebody. It's really nothing personal. I have very few people that I absolutely NEED to see, not that I don't like anyone outside of that list I just don't feel the need to see them all the time (or hardly at all) Except maybe friends.. friends I like to go hang out with.

My way of looking at it is I got married so I could have my own little family, which currently consists of Hubby and myself.  And soon (11 weeks give or take) a newborn baby!
This may sound wrong, but some of us get married well, one because we are in love and two to escape certain things, such as events, but all getting married has done (in the case of events) is doubled the events that I so desperately wanted to get away from. I see no need to see family every holiday, birthday, etc. That doesn't mean I don't love my family, I just don't see the point in it.
Plus when your family is as big as mine it's a little much to take. I go to 2 dinners just for my side of the family so I can see all of my family and then have to go to my husband's side of the family. I'm glad my dad and Mari weren't real big on throwing things and having everyone over before they moved because 3 Christmas' and 3 Thanksgivings is already more than I can take! To many kids running around, it's big enough with just the adults. I don't like crowds or crowded places and going to holiday dinner is like going to Walmart when the parking lot is full.. some of the not so well behaved kids screaming, crying, telling on each other, bullying each other, etc. The more well behaved ones aren't bad you know the ones where you tell them to stop and they listen, you say calm down and they do, etc. Of the well behaved kids in the family you typically don't even have to tell them to stop doing anything because they're just that great. It's all in the parenting (period).

I'm hoping that this doesn't come across like I'm some witch (with a B lol), but just that I'm telling the truth about how I feel. If being pregnant has done anything it has made me very opinionated and not all that scared to say how I feel about something. Now I may not always say how I feel just to keep the peace between me and certain family members, but trust me it hasn't been easy.

Felt the need to kind of vent on the subject of events and now I have. Hope I haven't offended anyone, but if I have well this is just the way I feel and I'm not going to be sorry about how I feel. But I am sorry if you take offense to how I feel and to be perfectly honest I guess you'll just have to get over it :P