The Music in My Head

Kickboxing has been going great, very hard, but I really do love it. The thing I don't love, but am getting used to, is the music. I really don't understand most of it. It's much more current than I am! It's loud, hard thumping music with lyrics I wouldn't want my children listening to! I mean, what is a "holla back girl"? and why don't I want to be one? And the thing is, this music that I don't like or get, plays in my head all day. But today, there was a song I could totally relate to! The chorus was "I'm bossy, I'm bossy, I know I'm bossy." or something to that effect. That, I get!

My soreness is already gone. They just work it out of us. I have 4 kickboxing and 2 strength classes/week. We never slow down for the full hour we're there and if you want to stretch you have to come early and stay late. Stretching is not included in the hour! When I leave, I am dripping wet from head to toe. This has got to show results.......right?

Introducing Sadie Marie Wayman

This is a link to Micki's new baby girl. She is just so stinkin' cute I have to show her to everyone!

http://guyandmickiwayman.blogspot.com/2009/04/sadie-marie-wayman.html

Even the Geese are Looking for Dry Ground!

Wow, we have had a lot of rain! When I left for kickboxing at 4:45 this morning I could not believe what my headlights exposed as I drove down the drive. The pond, once again, is out of it banks, up past the fire pit and the willows. As I look outside now, there are ducks swimming under the willows, that is not normal! Yesterday, we got to see our new baby geese for the first time. We have a pair of Canadian geese come through every spring and stay long enough to have their babies. What fun it is to watch each year. This morning, even the geese were looking for a dry place. We are very blessed in that the house is dry! Thanks to Daddy and uncle Ben's hard work. Thank you Jesus!

Use for Duct Tape: #5001

Another long day of projects in the Handsaker House. But, we're making progress! This afternoon I decided the lawn needed it's first haircut of the season and I was glad to be the one to do it. It was a long week with Cooper. He would not let me put him down! If I'm out of his sight for one second he cries and screams. So, mowing the lawn sounded like a good escape. But, apparently, Layla didn't want to be without mommy either! Layla insisted that she mow the lawn with me. I thought there is no way she will sit on that mower. It's loud, it's so windy, it's hot and sweaty. But mostly, it's loud. So I went out and started mowing and 10 minutes later there came Daddy and Layla, grinning ear to ear. I smiled at my daughter in her sparkle headband, white sunglasses and big smile. She climbed right up on my lap with no hesitation. Upon further inspection, I saw why she and Daddy were all smiles. Dave had put pair of his foam ear plugs in her ears and DUCT TAPED them in her ears. I am laughing out loud as I type this. But, it worked. She sat on that mower with me for 2 1/2 hours and said she loved it.

"I'm Never Doing this Again!"

These are the words I just uttered to Dave. This was a day that I was not prepared for! It started at 3:30am with Layla wanting to sleep with us. I took her back to her room and she continued to fuss and cry about being scared. I didn't bother going back to sleep since I get up at 4:30am for kickboxing. Keep in mind, this is my first week and I AM SORE.

I got home at 6am to find that Cooper was already awake. I fed him, bathed him, fed Layla, threw the kids in the car to run errands for Dave, who was taking siding off the house today. I got back home at 9am, in time to meet the appliance delivery at our home and then at the rental home. I came home, put Cooper down for a morning nap and went outside to help Dave with siding. SO HARD! I don't know how he did the whole north side of the house by himself. I made lunch, put Cooper down and Layla and I headed to the rental to sand the bathroom walls and paint. With that accomplished by 3pm we headed home, helped dad, made supper and went back into town for Layla's tumbling performance. Got home, put Cooper to bed and now Layla and I are in bed, watching Jon and Kate Plus Eight.

Here is the good thing about doing manual labor all day, my sore muscles from kickboxing aren't really sore anymore!

Slowly Losing Control......

I am slowly losing control in Layla's life. Here is a cutey picture of brother on Easter morning. Where is sissy? Off doing her own thing, refusing to be in a picture. This is not the only thing that I've had to let go of in her life. She is mostly picking her own clothes, and, for the most part, I'm letting her have creative control. Even if it makes me half insane. I'm tired of bringing clothes home that she refuses to wear, so I've now let her pick her own clothes out at the store. I actually let her get a pair of character shoes. They're flip flops so I figured I would only have to look at them for a few months out of the year. Little did I know they would come back to taunt me on Easter morning. There she was, in her beautiful Easter dress, her ratty Strawberry Shortcake flip-flops and her brown hoodie. Yes, brown, play, Gap hoodie. Even though she had a beautiful cardigan to wear with her dress. The reason it really bothered me? Because of what people would think of me and how I dress my daughter!

For the past several months she has been asking me if she can grow her bangs out. The original request was to cut them all off, but through further conversation I discovered what she really meant was to grow them out like mine. This is a request I've been avoiding....until now. Recently, I told her she was beautiful, she told me,"Mommy, I don't think all of me is beautiful." When I asked her what she meant she told me that she really did not like her bangs, that she wanted them like mommy's. Of course, I gave her the talk about how all of her is beautiful because God made her. And then I thought, you know, they're her bangs. Is this really something I need to have control over? So today we're going to Ashley for a haircut and the instructions will be to cut the bottom off and let the bangs grow.

A Weekend at Home

What a great weekend to be home! There was nothing scheduled this weekend and because of the rain, we couldn't work on many of our outdoor projects. Although that will end up putting us behind a bit, it was a great excuse to have downtime. We played, we napped and even got to have an adult night out with friends last night. We'll take it! Friday night marked Cooper's last bottle, WAHOOO!

Tomorrow starts a new chapter in my life. Now that we are done having kids, and my youngest is a year old, I think it's finally time for this terribly out of shape mom to get it together. Tomorrow, at 4:45am, I start cardio kickboxing. We meet 6 times/week for the first 10 weeks. We did a 10 min arm workout on Wednesday night at our orientation meeting and I was sore for 2 days. My-oh-my, what have I gotten myself into?!?!?

Happy Easter

What a good day we had. It was beautiful and the kids just ran and ran.......and ran. We did it all...fishing, ball, swings and kites. Happy Easter! Matthew 28:6

First Set of Wheels

One of Cooper's birthday gifts was a set of wheels from my mom. We put his Little Tykes car together today and he loves it. He can only scoot it backwards, which is hilarious because he looks like a little old man. He hangs his elbow out the window, looks backwards and scoots at a snail's pace. What a big boy. Karen has posted some of his party pix on her blog, so check it out http://www.smidts.blogspot.com/

SURPRISE Daddy!

We just returned from Florida and we are all exhausted (G&G Handsaker included as they kept Cooper)! Going to Florida with our friends, the Paneks, was no surprise to Dave. But, mommy snuck one in on him......Friday morning Jerry and Jaime flew in and spent the rest of the trip with us. We did it all, with Layla in tow! The first day was Disney, where Layla met the princesses, the next day was Cirque du Soleil, Saturday was pool and tennis, Sunday was the beach (90 degrees and gorgeous, this was the same day that it snowed 5 inches in Iowa) and Monday was shopping. My favorite moments were when Layla got to meet the princesses and spending the day at the beach with her. She was so excited to play in the sand, but didn't know what to think of the waves. I just let her do her thing and before I knew it she was running into the ocean.........without me. What fun we had running in and out of the waves. She took one hard shot to the face and turned to me and said, "Hmm, that wasn't fun at all mom." But then was back into the water.

We are so happy to be home and all back together. Of course, Cooper looks like he grew a foot while we were gone. I'm hoping that being home, getting some sleep and being back with her brother will help Layla. She has been so moody and so sassy the last two weeks. But that's a whole other post and problem! Right now, I'm going to bed!