Evelyn: 44 Weeks

New this week: 

Learned to clap!

First spaghetti! 

Turned 10 months old

Let's be honest

I haven't been writing much, I struggle each week to get Evey's weekly posts done, I don't have a whole lot else going on, besides her right now. I keep telling myself that her weekly posts are going to be like a baby book, I am going to get them published after I get through the first year, so I need to keep it up. But besides her, and my new Beachbody adventure I don't have much else to say.

I am in a bit of a funk, I am a bit down that we are stuck here another winter.  We will still be headed to Camp Pendleton, just not until April. Deep down part of me really hoped that extending would send us to Okinawa, even though I knew the chances were incredibly slim. But we will be in the sunshine state, so I can't complain too much. It's starting to get pretty cold here, it's in the 20's every morning, frost on everything. This week it has warmed up in the afternoon, but it's still sweater required. I find myself extra tired with the cooler temps, my anxiety has begun to return too. I get anxious when I am away from the house for too long. But I managed to get myself out and get my hair done, I've been wanting to go blonde again for months, but didn't want to spend the money, didn't want to be away from the baby for 3+ hours, excuses, excuses. Once we found out we would be here for the Marine Corps ball in. November, I decided to get my hair done, for me, because I deserve it. 

Two days and one allergic reaction later I am blonde:

The pink is just hair chalk, and there is a bit of pink toner in it to soften the blond, it'll fade in a few days. It was a bit scary though... So I have been seeing this hairdresser for a few months, but she has never colored my hair, so when I was sitting in the chair, after the bleach had been rinsed and toner had been applied, I started to itch in my hands I thought "gee that's weird" assuming it was anxiety because I had been away from baby for almost 2.5 hours now. Then my back started to itch, then my stomach, and my feet. I went to the bathroom and lifted my shirt everywhere I had clothing tight on my body (bra, waist of my pants) was hived and red, then I noticed my face was getting red and puffy. We rinsed the toner from my hair and almost instantly I started to feel better. I was mostly cleared up by the time I got home about 20 min later but still took Benadryl, then proceeded to almost fall asleep in my dinner, but I was hive free! I went back two days later and she finished, using another stylists toner, and all was well. And I am blond again, I feel younger, and more confident. 

I have been working out just about daily, we take a few days off here and there, but I really need to step up the diet portion of working out. It really plays huge part in weight loss, and I know that. I'm not eating like a piglet, but I'm not eating great either. 

Linking up with :

Getting my fit girl on (for reals this time)

How many times have I said that.. "for real this time"? and I never loose the weight, I never commit. Well I just said it again, and I think I mean it. I have been doing a challenge of sorts, a fitness challenge, through Beachbody, The folks that bring you Focus T25 and other workouts and such like P90X and shakeology.
Well things have been going really well. I have still been struggling a bit with the weight loss, but I am sticking to the workout plan this time, Week four and I am about 5 pounds down, not much but considering I am not modifying my diet much that's to be expected. But I have noticed a huge increase in my strength and stamina. I did a legit push-up yesterday. I don't think I have ever done that! And then I did several of the girly modified ones (on your knees) way more than I ever have.
I have been finding a lot of success in T25 and this challenge group, so much so that one of the group creators and my own personal coach Lee Ann asked me if I wanted to be a coach.
I know what you are thinking, "Alana, you're a little chubby still, how you gonna be a fitness coach?" well I asked myself the same thing, but I think that doing this will help drive me to succeed in my fitness goals, like extra accountability.. There are also some great perks, and being a Military Spouse I have no fees. So really, it's a no loose situation. I get to keep doing this workout that I love am seeing progress with, and I don't hate doing, and then I can share my success with the world and bring it into other peoples lives!
If you are interested in Beachbody, let me know. I promise to not push it too much on the blog, but I will keep you updated on my personal fitness success.

www.beachbodycoach.com/AlanaMarie
https://www.facebook.com/AlanasLoosinIt

Evelyn: 43 Weeks

New this week: 

First Steps! 

10 Months

Evelyn Likes: 

finger foods

chicken

riding in the stroller

feeding the dogs her snacks

Evelyn Dislikes: 

eggs

naps

grass

Evelyn,

It's so hard to believe that such a short time ago you were this tiny little baby growing inside me, now you are such a big girl, you are all over the place, totally mobile, soon you will be running and jumping. I look at you in awe of how big you have gotten, it's so hard to believe. Each day you discover something new, I love watching you grow. You are the happiest baby I know, and you have so much love to give, you love people and when you meet new friends you almost always greet them with a smile. I hope that you keep your positive outlook through your life. I can't wait to see what tomorrow holds. 

Love, Mommy

Evelyn: 42 Weeks

New This week:

First french toast

9 months

Tamale had her 9 month check up not to long ago. Shes 17 pounds 8oz and 27 3/4 inches long. 

Evelyn Likes: 

doggies kisses

playing outside

"walking" while holding on the the couch

Elmo's World (just the theme song)

People Food (mainly: Toast & Chicken) 

She is also a big fan of pureed baby food

So I guess all kinds of food.

Evelyn Dislikes: 

Being in her car seat

Walmart

When mommy and daddy workout

(we have to bribe her with crackers)

touching the grass

Dear Evelyn, 

You've been out as long as you were growing inside me. It's so hard to believe, looking back pregnancy seemed so quick, but it feels like you have been in our lives for so long. Part of me feels like just yesterday you were this tiny peanut, sleeping in  my lap, but then there is part that feels like you have been here, making us laugh, forever. You are such a big girl now, you are standing unassisted, climbing things, playing with your toys and trying so hard to talk. No real concrete words yet, but you say mum mum and dadada a lot, but we are still not positive you mean us, I'm trying to teach you doggy too. You love the doggies. You are a crawling machine, you get across the  house with such ease now. We have a special "baby jail" made out of baby gates and furniture to barricade you in one area.  Every day is a new adventure for you, you love exploring and finding new things to get into. I really need to get on top of baby proofing since we are going to be here all winter. 

She touched the grass. 

it's okay now

Where now, brown cow?

image has nothing to do with the post, but it goes with my title. 

I started writing this post towards the end of August.

Things have been a bit "hurry up, and wait" around my house.
One thing about the military lifestyle that I really hate is how there is no certainty, until it's happening. Sometimes you don't know if your husband is going somewhere, for sure, until he leaves.

We experienced this three years ago, waiting to see if Paul would be leaving Okinawa for Recruiters School in San Diego. He had been trying to stay on island a few more months so he could complete a course. Well we found out on a Friday that he would in fact be leaving Monday for Recruiters School.
Strangely enough this was almost 3 years ago to the day and we are in a similar situation right now. Currently we are waiting to find out the opposite, will Paul be staying on Recruiting Duty another 6 months? will his follow on assignment change? Are we still going to Camp Pendleton?

As I am writing this I have no answers to any of these questions. But by the time I publish it I will have some answers.

In June Paul requested to extend 6 months here on recruiting duty, until spring, in hopes we could get a duty station we really wanted (Okinawa) we figured at almost a year out, they surely could find a place for us there. Well extending here has been so back and forth since June I had stopped talking about it to family and friends, one week we are extending, the next we are not. About a month ago I decided to keep my mouth shut until his orders actually changed. Part of that is because I am superstitious and I think that because every time I opened my mouth something changed that it would be best to just not say anything, and for the longest time things stayed the same. Then I made a blog post about prepping our move to California again, and everything changed. We were told pretty much that our extension was a possibility and his command wanted us to stay on a few more months to get through the winter, someone was going to make some phone calls and see what they could find out about the status of his extension request. This was about a month ago. Then it was silence again. 

Well today we got our answer. 

We are staying in Montana until April/May-ish.
We don't know yet if we are going to California then, or if we will be going somewhere else. I have spent the whole day analyzing every possibility. 

I don't know how to feel, we wanted this as a chance to get back to Okinawa, but we don't know if that will happen because it's such short notice again (short notice for overseas move). Perhaps we could go somewhere else like Hawaii? Or we could still go to California, or we could go somewhere we don't want to go. But it's a risk Paul was wiling to take, he has done his time here in the arctic north, and we are taking a risk to try to get what we want. Although it's probable we'll just move to California in May. I was really getting used to the idea of Cali, scouting out the shopping, food, attractions. Making plans with a blogger friend to get together and go to Daiso. When we got our snow last week I was sort of thankful we hadn't heard anything and in my mind was preparing for a sandy SoCal Christmas. I have been going over the layout of the base housing we would be moving into, decorating and placing furniture in my mind. 

But instead of moving, I'll be going to the Marine Corps Ball the week we would shave been leaving here, and then hunkering down for another winter.

Speaking of winter, we are having another winter storm warning tonight, we could wake up to snow again tomorrow.....

An Update on Me and a Link-up

Things have been a little busy here the last few weeks and blogging has obviously taken a back seat.

Our PCS plans have been nothing short of nerve wracking. I'll elaborate more on this, eventually, but now is not a good time. It'll get it's own post, maybe next week.

You may remember my post last week about snow, we ended up with about 4 inches. It has since melted, and warmed up and it's fall again, but I am ready to go somewhere warm, for the rest of my life. I've experienced enough winter to last me for a while.



P and I have been working out quite a bit, You may remember we started Focus T25 about a month and a half ago. Well Paul went on vacation for a month, two weeks after we started, so we ended up taking a two week hiatus. We started up again two weeks ago, and we are sticking to it. It's hard to workout every day when you are as lazy as I am, but it's only 25 minutes. So progress? well Paul is loosing inches, but not so much pounds, and I am loosing pounds but not so much inches. haha, it makes no sense to me, but whatever I am only about 10 pounds from pre-baby weight, So it took me 10 months to loose 20 pounds >.< but I have lost about 10 of those pounds in the last two months. I have really struggled with the baby weight. I think part of that is because I wasn't really fit before I got pregnant. It's discouraging when you see or hear about moms who have the weight just melt off, and you are not loosing anything. I am part of a mom group of first time moms who were all due in December last year (about 80 in the group), and so many of them the weight just came right off, pre-pregnancy weight was achieved in weeks after pregnancy. Not just the ones who were slim before pregnancy either, even some of the ones who have struggled with weight loss were just dropping baby weight. Nursing is supposed to help loose the weight, not for me. I am still Nursing E on demand and I am still struggling, even with eating better and working out daily, it's still a daily battle.

Evey is a little handful. She is crawling, and trying to walk, and getting into everything. Our layout is weird so we have a mess of baby gates and furniture built into a big baby jail, so she has free space in our common living area to play and get into shit. She manages to  escape all the time and we "chase" her through the house, she loves it. She is learning things, we are working on "peek a boo" and she knows "I'm gonna get you" means she is about to get tickled and she screams out laughter. She loves the dogs and they love her.


On one of our road trips while P was on vacation we ran into some car trouble, my 2010 Jeep Patriot had the transmission go out. It's sort of a complicated story but after it cooled down it started working again and we weren't stranded in the middle on no where, but it's been shitty. It's still under warranty, but the transmission is on back-order. I have a special transmission on mine and from what the dealership says mine isn't the first that they have had fail, and I live in a small town. But they let me take it home and I am still driving it, I have been advised to avoid highway driving because it could fail again and not come back to life. So that's it, that's why I've been missing. I'm working on finding more time in my day to be here though, at least a few more times a week.  I know you miss me desperately.

Go link up with Kara, Erin, a Girl, and this weeks special guest Organized Chaos!