This past week has been crazy! Between our apartment thermostat going ridiculously insane, having the upstairs neighbors move in, trying to potty train two toddlers, and me starting school this past Monday there has not been that much sleep in our house.
Our apartment thermostat has been really finicky ever since we moved in and after we received our first full month of electricity services for this apartment and finding out that the bill was higher than any other bill we have ever gotten (even higher than our house electric bills in the summer!), we decided to have them come in and change the thermostat. I am not a big fan of the front desk girl for our apartments. Every time I have an interaction with her she gets more and more annoying and rude. Today when I went in to explain our situation about our thermostat she looked at me like, "yeah, it's normal for your electric bill to be that high in these apartments." If this is really the norm, then I hope Christopher does get moved to a bigger store and the company buys out the lease for this apartment. Paying over $200 to live in an apartment was not in my monthly budget. On the other hand, I hope we stay here in Waco for another two and a half years at
least so that I can finish my program (and start it. haha). The way
Christopher keeps bringing up the words "bigger stores" and "moving" my
heart skips a beat though. It makes it sound like we are moving again by March or April. I am soooo excited to finally be in school again. I have a new devotion to doing well and trying my best because I only get one shot to enter my program. If I don't get all "As" this semester then I will have to retake a couple classes again to even have a chance to enter the program. It's not that my grades terrible, it's just that this particular program is getting more and more popular so the criteria for getting accepted has been risen. I did find out that I have to take A&P 2 over summer one and it will be a short 8-week class and I will probably ask Grandma Nila or Nana V to come live with us since Christopher wont be able to take time off work while I go to class. We'll see though. I might have made a friend or two by then and Lilly and Zack can have a playdate with various people over the summer. A&P 2 will be the last class I have to take before entering into the Radiology Technician Program. I have to make sure I turn in my application by June 1st so I will apply before I even finish my last prerequisite class. Anyway, I love my teachers so far and I think I am going to do very well in all of my classes.
Zack sat on the potty this morning with Christopher and I am thinking about potty training him to. I think that it might be easier to do both kids at the same time rather than just one at a time. I will be able to focus on the task at hand rather than trying to keep on kid out of the way while the other kid tries to do their thing on the toilet. I'm all for killing two birds with one stone.
The neighbors that move in above us are soooo loud! I'm not sure if its because its been a while since I've experienced apartment living, but I know they are working out or something whenever I put the kids down for a bed or down for the night. I have seen both of them and they are smaller people than Christopher and I. They are like my sisters husband size but shorter. How in the world could they make that much noise? I swear though that it doesn't matter how small they are, they walk like they are carrying Elephants. I have made the decision that we are moving as soon as our lease ends here though. So January of next year we will be in a different apartment whether we move to a different state or city.
Well, off to do school work before Christopher gets home because I have found that after Christopher gets home it is impossible to do ANYTHING. I'm not just talking about school work. I'm talking about housework too. I wish that we could both have a cleaning spree instead of me trying to do it all on my own. Don't get me wrong. He helps out ONCE in a blue moon and whenever he feels like it, but I wish that I would have a little more help sometimes. Where's a free maid when you need him/her?
Our Family
Christopher, Melanie, Lillian, and Zackary
Friday, January 17, 2014
Thursday, January 2, 2014
Welcome 2014!
HAPPY NEW YEAR! Welcome 2014:The year of greatness! (I hope so anyway.) I realize that this same time last year I wrote a blog post saying that my new years resolution was to write in my blog at least once a week in the year 2013. Since that was the only one that I wrote last year, I will have it be this years New Years resolution as well. First off, what are we all up to?
Chris just started back with the Zales corporation after about 9 months at a Verizon retailer store called Mobile Destinations (seriously guys, if you ever get offered a job to work there please just turn it down. They are not a very good company to work for. They say they are all about family, but they are just about their own personal family). Needless to stay I am ecstatic that we were able to get out of a very terrible situation. With his return to the company, Chris was transferred to a fairly big store in the mall to Waco, Tx. Waco is about 3 hours West of Nacogdoches. Even though we down-sized to a small two bedroom apartment, I am in love with the city. Everything is so close and I love being able to get everything I need without spending a tank of gas along with it. We love our Ward at church too. The new Stake Center got built. Our first Sunday in Waco was everyone's first Sunday in the new building. It is very nice and big. Complete with a little atrium right in the middle. I had the opportunity to sing at the dedication and was the only one from my ward. Haha! I was also called as a nursery helper, but I am only assigned to help the second Sunday of every month. This concept is really, really great. It gives all those in Nursery the chance to attend regular classes so that we are not all out of the loop all the time. We love our Bishop. He is a very loving, kind man. We have made friends with a couple who lives just down the road (well more like two blocks) away from us. Their names are the "Brown"s. They are an older couple with an empty nest. He is a retired respiratory specialist working at an auto shop and his wife does... something. lol When I find out, I'll let you know. She is the Young Women's President though. Getting back to about Christopher though, he loves his new Boss, James Patton. We're pretty sure his boss likes him as well. It's nice when someone such as a boss is so caring that he says things like, "Go home and get some rest after a busy day of work" or "Be safe driving, it is really cold out". These are things normal, nice people say, but after so much abuse from past bosses we didn't know that such a kind person existed in the retail business beyond the store management position. Thank goodness Heavenly Father showed us where find these people. We hope that Christopher's hard work will pay off really quickly by promotion to a bigger store or becoming a district manager soon.
I am very excited to start back at school. My classes start in 11 days!!! YAHOOO!! I am just finishing up prerequisites to go into the Radiology Technician Program. This is a two year program that will allow me to qualify from anything to taking x-rays to helping with radiation therapy of cancer patients. I met with the program director and I think she likes me. We talked for about an hour and a half. She's a little quirky, but I think we will work really well together. Another one of my new years resolutions is to keep a cleaner house. I always hate when it is dirty, but lets face it; sometimes I let it get too dirty. It should never take me three hours to clean my apartment... even when we are all sick. (Yes, this is what I did last night not including the laundry which I am very glad to say is still in progression with only four loads to go. [whites, darks, and two towel loads]...since I wasn't able to go to Zumba because it was not in session yet.) Speaking of Zumba, my other new years resolution is to loose 30 pounds. I chose to just keep my goal on the small side of my official goal to loose 70 pounds because as much as I would love to loose more than 30 pounds in a year I don't think that it will be really realistic for me. Between school and taking care of two kids and keeping the house (well apartment for now) clean and trying to re-organize it to make my semi-ocd like tendencies happy I just don't think that I will be able to fully focus on my weight loss. I do think 30 pounds will be something to celebrate about though. I am 207 right now so if I loose 30 pounds I will be 177. Although, if I just blow it out of the water and loose 30 pounds before 2015 I will obviously keep going. I want to to get down to my "suggested weight for my height", but more importantly I want my BMI to go down and I want to be healthy. No more soda (we'll see how long that one lasts haha).
This is me right after highschool.(mind you this is only 4-5 years ago)...
I tried to get body shots because I thought I was fat. I went all throughout middle school and high school believing that I was so pudgy. I knew I wasn't fat like a really obese girl who can't run, but I wasn't the most athletic. Looking back at these pictures I feel like I should've felt fantastic in my body. I was 155 when I graduated highschool (so yeah a little bit heavier) but I was NOT fat. I probably could've lost 10 pounds and been just fine. I wish I was that size now.
I'm very embarrassed about my weight and could go on forever talking about it, but instead of talking I am doing.
My last and final new years resolution is for me to become a better scripture reader. I'm sure its a common problem with new(ish) moms because we get so caught up with the hustle and bustle with feeding and diapering kids that we loose all interest for ourselves. I really do want and need to get back into my daily scripture reading. Thank goodness for pinterest and the wonderful people that post good scripture reading schedules that are easy to follow. I am going with this one because this is a Book of Mormon year for me:
http://c586449.r49.cf2.rackcdn.com/365%20Day%20BOM%20reading%20chart.pdf
Anywhoo, let's move on to the kiddos.
Lillian is so big! When did my baby become a two-year-old? She is definitely acting like 2. Sometimes I just don't understand the random temper-tantrums but I know that she is learning a lot and wants to do even more so maybe that's why they might be coming. I get a tantrum when things don't go the way that I want them to go too. She is learning to use the toilet and loves to wash her hands and brush her hair and teeth. She is pretend playing like crazy! I love to watch her when she doesn't think I'm looking. She says and does the cutest things. Everyone who talks to me tells me how impressed they are with her vast amount of vocabulary. I have always believed that you should talk to a baby like a human being and really despise baby talk. I feel like it is degrading. Just because someone can't speak your language doesn't mean you have to "dumb-it-down" for them. I also believe that she will speak with high vocabulary because she loves to be read. (Zack does too and I think that he will love to read in his early years.) Lilly is not into Princess things quite yet, but she'll get there I just know it!
Zack has had a mellow year in comparison to last year. He has gotten majorly sick only three times and the last two were within the last month of 2013 with ear infections, colds, and strep. He is growing so fast though! He weighs two pounds more than his sister at 26 pounds and is just about an 1 1/2 shorter than her at 34 1/2 inches. He still only has the top four and the bottom four teeth but he has been working on the canines for the past 6 months now. I think they are waiting to make their big depute for some reason. I hop they decide to come in by Zack's second birthday. His torticollis has disappeared and he is running and starting to jump. He loves to ride on toys. Zack is the enforcer of mischief in our house at the moment and I think he will continue to be until his adult years (Heaven help me). As far as Zack's larygomalacia, he still has it and occasionally coughs and sounds so congested. I still have people who don't even know me come up and tell me that he has croup. Ugh! Don't get me wrong, it is much better than people just giving me awful stares because at least they learn about his situation, but I wish people would keep their judgement to themselves. I am confident that his condition will be fully non-existent by his birthday though. On October 30th Zack had his surgery to correct his hypospadious and have a circumcision. I was so nervous but the surgery took less than two hours and I had the emotional support from my father-in-law Dan to keep me company while I waited. Chris was watching Lilly since they told me no other children would be allowed to come into the waiting room. (We found out later that she had misinformed me and I wasn't too happy about it and those that know Christopher know that he was furious and more of a nervous wreck because he couldn't be there with us.) All-in-all though Zack is doing so wonderful and we couldn't be happier with his progress.
Well, I think this is all the writing I can muster. Till next time,
Momma Melanie.
Chris just started back with the Zales corporation after about 9 months at a Verizon retailer store called Mobile Destinations (seriously guys, if you ever get offered a job to work there please just turn it down. They are not a very good company to work for. They say they are all about family, but they are just about their own personal family). Needless to stay I am ecstatic that we were able to get out of a very terrible situation. With his return to the company, Chris was transferred to a fairly big store in the mall to Waco, Tx. Waco is about 3 hours West of Nacogdoches. Even though we down-sized to a small two bedroom apartment, I am in love with the city. Everything is so close and I love being able to get everything I need without spending a tank of gas along with it. We love our Ward at church too. The new Stake Center got built. Our first Sunday in Waco was everyone's first Sunday in the new building. It is very nice and big. Complete with a little atrium right in the middle. I had the opportunity to sing at the dedication and was the only one from my ward. Haha! I was also called as a nursery helper, but I am only assigned to help the second Sunday of every month. This concept is really, really great. It gives all those in Nursery the chance to attend regular classes so that we are not all out of the loop all the time. We love our Bishop. He is a very loving, kind man. We have made friends with a couple who lives just down the road (well more like two blocks) away from us. Their names are the "Brown"s. They are an older couple with an empty nest. He is a retired respiratory specialist working at an auto shop and his wife does... something. lol When I find out, I'll let you know. She is the Young Women's President though. Getting back to about Christopher though, he loves his new Boss, James Patton. We're pretty sure his boss likes him as well. It's nice when someone such as a boss is so caring that he says things like, "Go home and get some rest after a busy day of work" or "Be safe driving, it is really cold out". These are things normal, nice people say, but after so much abuse from past bosses we didn't know that such a kind person existed in the retail business beyond the store management position. Thank goodness Heavenly Father showed us where find these people. We hope that Christopher's hard work will pay off really quickly by promotion to a bigger store or becoming a district manager soon.
I am very excited to start back at school. My classes start in 11 days!!! YAHOOO!! I am just finishing up prerequisites to go into the Radiology Technician Program. This is a two year program that will allow me to qualify from anything to taking x-rays to helping with radiation therapy of cancer patients. I met with the program director and I think she likes me. We talked for about an hour and a half. She's a little quirky, but I think we will work really well together. Another one of my new years resolutions is to keep a cleaner house. I always hate when it is dirty, but lets face it; sometimes I let it get too dirty. It should never take me three hours to clean my apartment... even when we are all sick. (Yes, this is what I did last night not including the laundry which I am very glad to say is still in progression with only four loads to go. [whites, darks, and two towel loads]...since I wasn't able to go to Zumba because it was not in session yet.) Speaking of Zumba, my other new years resolution is to loose 30 pounds. I chose to just keep my goal on the small side of my official goal to loose 70 pounds because as much as I would love to loose more than 30 pounds in a year I don't think that it will be really realistic for me. Between school and taking care of two kids and keeping the house (well apartment for now) clean and trying to re-organize it to make my semi-ocd like tendencies happy I just don't think that I will be able to fully focus on my weight loss. I do think 30 pounds will be something to celebrate about though. I am 207 right now so if I loose 30 pounds I will be 177. Although, if I just blow it out of the water and loose 30 pounds before 2015 I will obviously keep going. I want to to get down to my "suggested weight for my height", but more importantly I want my BMI to go down and I want to be healthy. No more soda (we'll see how long that one lasts haha).
This is me right after highschool.(mind you this is only 4-5 years ago)...
 |
| This is me and Prince Phillip at the premier of Disney's "Enchanted" at the El Capitan Theater |
 |
| At a Single Adult volley ball event in Bakersfield. I spent the night at Brandon Meng's sister's house in her daughter's bed. |
 |
| Taking pictures at the Bountiful Temple in Utah about a month before I met Christopher. |
I'm very embarrassed about my weight and could go on forever talking about it, but instead of talking I am doing.
My last and final new years resolution is for me to become a better scripture reader. I'm sure its a common problem with new(ish) moms because we get so caught up with the hustle and bustle with feeding and diapering kids that we loose all interest for ourselves. I really do want and need to get back into my daily scripture reading. Thank goodness for pinterest and the wonderful people that post good scripture reading schedules that are easy to follow. I am going with this one because this is a Book of Mormon year for me:
http://c586449.r49.cf2.rackcdn.com/365%20Day%20BOM%20reading%20chart.pdf
Anywhoo, let's move on to the kiddos.
Lillian is so big! When did my baby become a two-year-old? She is definitely acting like 2. Sometimes I just don't understand the random temper-tantrums but I know that she is learning a lot and wants to do even more so maybe that's why they might be coming. I get a tantrum when things don't go the way that I want them to go too. She is learning to use the toilet and loves to wash her hands and brush her hair and teeth. She is pretend playing like crazy! I love to watch her when she doesn't think I'm looking. She says and does the cutest things. Everyone who talks to me tells me how impressed they are with her vast amount of vocabulary. I have always believed that you should talk to a baby like a human being and really despise baby talk. I feel like it is degrading. Just because someone can't speak your language doesn't mean you have to "dumb-it-down" for them. I also believe that she will speak with high vocabulary because she loves to be read. (Zack does too and I think that he will love to read in his early years.) Lilly is not into Princess things quite yet, but she'll get there I just know it!
 |
| This last one about kills me! |
Zack has had a mellow year in comparison to last year. He has gotten majorly sick only three times and the last two were within the last month of 2013 with ear infections, colds, and strep. He is growing so fast though! He weighs two pounds more than his sister at 26 pounds and is just about an 1 1/2 shorter than her at 34 1/2 inches. He still only has the top four and the bottom four teeth but he has been working on the canines for the past 6 months now. I think they are waiting to make their big depute for some reason. I hop they decide to come in by Zack's second birthday. His torticollis has disappeared and he is running and starting to jump. He loves to ride on toys. Zack is the enforcer of mischief in our house at the moment and I think he will continue to be until his adult years (Heaven help me). As far as Zack's larygomalacia, he still has it and occasionally coughs and sounds so congested. I still have people who don't even know me come up and tell me that he has croup. Ugh! Don't get me wrong, it is much better than people just giving me awful stares because at least they learn about his situation, but I wish people would keep their judgement to themselves. I am confident that his condition will be fully non-existent by his birthday though. On October 30th Zack had his surgery to correct his hypospadious and have a circumcision. I was so nervous but the surgery took less than two hours and I had the emotional support from my father-in-law Dan to keep me company while I waited. Chris was watching Lilly since they told me no other children would be allowed to come into the waiting room. (We found out later that she had misinformed me and I wasn't too happy about it and those that know Christopher know that he was furious and more of a nervous wreck because he couldn't be there with us.) All-in-all though Zack is doing so wonderful and we couldn't be happier with his progress.
Well, I think this is all the writing I can muster. Till next time,
Momma Melanie.
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