Friday, March 30, 2012

Spring is here!!

It has been so nice lately especially for March. It was so nice that last weekend we FINALLY bought the kids a swing set.  It took us all weekend to put it together, we still aren't done though because we were missing some bolts. Once we got it to the point where the kids could play on it then the weather turned bad. The next two days it was super windy and then rained. They didn't get to play on the swing set until wednesday. Harper loved it!! She didn't want to get off the swing to go down the slide but then once we got her to go down the slide she didn't want to stop going down and wanted to climb up the slide the wrong way.

Since the weather has been so nice we have been able to get out the jogging stroller out and take Ollie on walks with us. This is part of Colby and I trying to get into shape and losing some weight to look our best at Jamie's wedding. I found this chart on pinterest and it is couch to 5K. I told Colby about it and he thought we should start running. We say an ad for the Brookings Marathon at the chiropractors office and Colby thought we could do the half marathon. I told him no way!! It is in May and there is no way either us of would be able to run that far that soon since neither of us have been running at all. Well I looked it up on the website and their is a 5K the night before so we are signing up for that. I will be the first long distance race I will run since high school when I ran cross country and track. We are doing really well with our chart and keeping up with our running schedule but we are doing a little more running then they suggest which is a good thing. The chart is for 10 weeks to get ready for the 5K but that would put us at the beginning of June and the 5K is May 12!! I am hoping we can get it done and actually run the whole thing.

So right now Austin and Nichole are living with us. Austin wasted his money staying at this crappy hotel for like 3 weeks and then ended up only having like $20 for a whole week. Colby and I were very upset that he blew off our suggestions for saving his money but when he ran out he turned to us to save him. Its very frustrating but now they have found a place to live and can more in on wednesday. I can't wait. I don't mind having Nichole around. It is nice to talk to a female that is about my age and know what it is like to deal with the crazy Seifert family. However, I don't like that Austin is always out in our shop/lean digging around and snooping at stuff. He also "organizes" stuff out there to, in his mind, help Colby out with his tool and shop. He isn't helping that much and the reason the shop looks the way it does is because all their stuff is sitting in there on a trailer. Another thing I don't like/approve of is he is always going out to his car/ the shop and smoking. What I'm not always sure. Colby said last week he was smoking a lot of cigarettes but we also know he is smoking weed a lot, Nichole does too. They just came  back in the house from being out in their car for like half an hour. They went straight into their room, which is right next to the living room, and I could totally smell weed.

Colby told Austin that I do not like that he smokes weed especially on our property. But Austin told Colby that he basically needs to smoke it everyday to help him calm down. He also told Colby that he didn't think I would of known he smoked weed if he didn't talk about it. I think that he is very naive to think people don't know he smokes weed unless he tells them. I know what weed smells like. One of our roommates from Manhattan used to smoke weed in the house all the time.

I guess the point to this whole thing is I'll be glad when they are in their own place and I can have my house back. I just hope once they are on their own they can start spending their money wisely and get their lives together on their own. I know Colby's father expects them to fail in more then one way. He expects them to move back to Kansas and in with them again. He doesn't think he can make it at this job or living on their own. He also told Colby that he doesn't think their marriage is going to last. What the hell!! How can your own father say that about you. He should be supporting them and wanting them to succeed at everything in life not expecting failure in their whole life. Austin thinks his father is the best man/father in the whole entire world so its a good thing he doesn't know what he really says/thinks about Austin.

So the rest of the night I will spend waiting for Colby to get home from working overtime at work. This weekend will be more like summer then spring but we will enjoy it all the same!!

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Three Weeks

Three weeks doesn't seem like that long when you really think about it but in the last three-ish weeks since I last blogged a lot has happened. The biggest of those is Colby got his younger brother a job at the plant he works at. This is his second week working up here. We went down to Kansas two weeks ago and got all his stuff on my parents trailer and brought it back to SD. That was an interesting experience. Their father is so much different than mine. He obviously hasn't had the moving experience that my father has. The move was rough but we made it. Austin, his brother, was staying with us in the playroom. It was working fine as far as we were concerned because with with them working nights I hardly see them. However, when Austin went back to Kansas last weekend, his wife had her gallbladder removed monday, their father told him he should stay at a cheap hotel to get out of our way. No one even asked how we were feeling about him being here and just assumed it was a problem. Well Monday after work he came back to our house with Colby and then grabbed some clothes and stuff and went back into town to stay at a cheap hotel. He didn't tell Colby he was going that night only that their father suggested it. So when I got up he wasn't here and I had no idea where he was. Colby and I were both super pissed that he didn't even say anything to us. It made me feel like he was so ungrateful for us doing everything we have for him. It is pretty irresponsible too. He barely had anything left in his checking account and used all of it to pay for the weeks stay at the hotel. They get paid tomorrow but he still doesn't have anywhere to live. The place he put in an application for isn't available until the end of March. I found a house with the same company but he hasn't heard anything about either place.

Anyways that is the drama going about that. Waylon is growing so fast. He smiles and laughs and sleeps through the night almost all the time. If he does wake up it is usually about 5am. I am putting him in the bebepod some now to help him get into sitting up. Now that he is 3 1/2 months old we are considering when to start him on cereal and then baby food. With Harper we started her just before 3 months old because she was so small. But Waylon has been growing so well he doesn't need the extra calories.

Harper has been doing ok with the potty. These last few weeks she has had a few day where she will have no accidents and then she will have a couple of really bad days where she has 4 or 5 accidents then back to no accidents. I wish she would just have no accidents but she is getting there I think. The good thing is she doesn't have any accidents when we are in town. She always tells us when she has to go even says it when she doesn't have to go. But I think that is so she can get out of where ever we are like the table or the cart at the store. I don't know how to tell if she needs to go or not so we always take her. Another thing she does that can be super cute is she will repeat things we say. Her vocabulary is really expanding. She will repeat me when I tell her what shapes are what and when I saw "Oh Harper", which is so cute. She can also say uncle, grandpa and Waylon along with the normal words. We think she is super smart but we could be kind of biased.

I know this post has gotten really long!! But I just wanted to share my new obsession…pinterest. I know a lot of people are into it. I have gotten so many good ideas off of it. I will try to post some of the recipes I make and LOVE and some of the other money savers, gift ideas and party ideas I find. I am on almost everyday so I find a lot of GREAT stuff. Stay tuned.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Relocation

Last week we moved Waylon out of our room and into her crib in the room he shares with Harper. He is doing really well in there. He has started sleeping 7-8 hours at a time most nights. I am loving it although I do not get 7-8 in a row since I go to bed about 2 hours after him it is still a nice welcomed change. Since he is only waking up once around 4 or 5am then he will sleep until Harper gets up and usually I can get her started on breakfast and then get him out of his crib while he is still pretty much asleep. The other thing I am really glad about is when he wakes up and is crying Harper doesn't wake up.

Harper has started going in the potty both #1 and #2 in the toilet. She rarely has accidents and has even had a couple of days with no accidents. Now that we are pretty much done day training Harper we are going to start thinking about and considering how we are going to go about night training her. That could take some time and I would prefer if Colby was here at night before we take the diapers away from Harper. It could definitely be hard for me with Waylon and her waking up if she wets her bed. Having help with that would be really nice. Another thing we are trying now that she is pretty much potty trained is getting her to stop sucking her thumb. It is really hard and she cried a lot more the first couple of days. She still doesn't like it but is getting better. We put bandaids on her thumb and tell her she has an owie, which is true because she is getting a blister there. She loves getting the bandaids put on but can get them off when she really tries for a while. I do think we are making progress though because today on our way home from the grocery store she was able to fall asleep without sucking her thumb. And then tonight after her bath she wanted me to put her bandaid on so I did and she was able to go to bed without taking it off and sucking her thumb and she didn't even cry for more then like 15 or 20 minutes.

Colby was able to interview for a day position at the same company he currently works for. He will know by tomorrow if he got the position. It would be GREAT to have him on days and on the same schedule as the kids and I. However, he is trying to get his brother, Austin, a job there but it would be on nights. It would be nice for Austin, if he gets the job, to be on the same shift as Colby. Neither Colby or I would want him to give up that day position just to be on the same shift as Austin. Yes, he would get paid less being on days but he has the opportunity for a pay raise soon at his 1 year and to both of us it is worth losing some income. I might have to get a part time job to help out but that wouldn't be so bad. I could also try to get more Pampered Chef shows going.

We did add another expense. We ended up buying a very nice truck, well to us its really nice. We've had it for a little over a week. It has been nice because it has remote start and plenty of space for everyone. The one down fall is it doesn't get great gas milage. The gas tank is also huge so it takes a lot to fill it up. Gas prices are so high right now too. I am fearing taking the truck to Kansas here in a couple weeks but I know we need the space and we both kind of want to show it off haha.

I am doing something for me now too. I am really concentrated on losing this baby weight. The majority of my weight is from Harper. I have lost all the weight plus some that I gained with Waylon. I want to be back down to my pre harper pregnancy weight before the wedding in September. I have been counting calories with a tracker on my phone which is really helpful. I have also been doing my Just Dance Wii game. Harper loves to do it with me too. I like doing my zumba too but I don't do it as much. I want to do it more. I have been thinking that I need to start doing more toning exercises too. I want to loose the stomach flab. I want to lose weight but I also want to loose inches. I want to feel good about how I look and think I look good when I look in the mirror. I know this will come and I have been loosing weight and staying there instead of going down and then back up a couple pounds. I really hope I can keep this up. Colby is trying to do it with me so that helps to have someone to almost keep you on track. I want us to both be the best we can be and this is a huge step in that.

Friday, February 10, 2012

Proud Momma

Today I really felt like a proud mommy. First Harper. I think she is about 90% potty trained. She will tell us almost all the time when she has to go #1 but we are still working on #2. She has been having several days in a row now with no accidents or just one, most of those are pooping in her pant. Last night she got up in the middle of the night, still dry, and told me she needed to go potty and went! She was still wet when she woke up but the night training is suppose to take longer but last night was a good start. Another big accomplishment tonight happened tonight for her. We were in town bringing Colby supper during his overtime shift and she said she had to go potty. Well the easiest was to just go home and hope she didn't pee her pants before me got there. I was very concerned because she kept saying "potty, potty, potty" and I would tell her we were going there right now and to hold it. Sure enough by the time we got home, which is like 20 minutes, she was still dry and went in the potty. Along with doing super well with potty training she is also developing her language. She will say 2 word sentences, says please and thank you and will repeat what you say a lot. She is miss independent and attitude though. She will tell me no when I tell her to do something and doesn't listen very well most of the time. But hey she is only 18 months so we should only expect so much.

Waylon is 2 months now. Man where has those two months gone!! He is lifting his head up with pretty good control. He loves to smile and coo at us, which is so adorable. We had his 2 month check today. He is a chunky monkey. He is 13 lbs and in the 82nd percentile. He is short though and has a small head. He had his shots today too which he handled very well. The one thing I hope he gets soon is a schedule. He doesn't really have a schedule especially at night. Some nights he sleeps really well for 4-5 hours and then others he will be up every 2 hours. He will fall asleep on his own though if you put him in his crib a little bit awake. Tomorrow night we are going to try moving him out of our room. Harper slept longer once we moved her into her own room so I am hoping he will do the same. I am concerned though because he will be in the same room as Harper. I hope Waylon doesn't wake Harper up or the other way. We will just have to see how it goes.

Another huge change for us is we are trying to buy a house. We have a lot of student loans so getting a house loan has proven to be challenging. We are also debating whether to buy a different house with some land or putting a new house on the land we already live on. We are thinking it might take a while to get a loan or at least until we either bring in more money or take out some of our debt. Colby has also been really wanted a truck. We found we that is really nice. We are thinking about trading in our SUV and then using most of our tax refund to pay for a truck. I really hope this will work out in the end. I would like to take some of our refund and put it into savings and some towards students loans.  Things will work out and hopefully we can get both a new house and a truck.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Single Mom?!?

So obviously I am not a single mother.  I have a husband that lives in the same house as me…or at least is suppose to. Now a days it seems like I spend more time alone then with him. This whole night shift thing is really getting to both of us. Besides that he is also taking online classes to get his bachelors degree.  So basically our day looks like this. Colby get home about 5am bed by 5:30, I'm up with Harp between 7 and 7:30 and then we have breakfast. I spend the morning taking care of the kids getting them fed and dressed. Then maybe some dishes, laundry, cleaning, bills…whatever needs to be done. Colby gets up about 11-11:30 and check his homework. I make lunch for us. After which the kids go down for a nap, Colby does homework and I do more housework. The kids wake up basically in time to see Colby leave for work. Then its playtime, supper, bath, and bedtime. Not only do we not get to spend time together, he doesn't get to see the kids much or help with them. Even if he is awake I don't feel like I can ask him to help because he is working on school. Hopefully this changes soon with a job or position switch but for now I will put up with it because it mean I get to stay home and raise the kids which is what both of us want.

We are still working on the whole potty training thing. She isn't there yet but I do feel like we are getting closer, I hope. Today we only had 3 accidents, two of were while she was eating in a high chair. The other time she wet her pants a little but then peed and pooped in the potty.  What makes we think we are getting somewhere is when I ask her if she has to go potty she will tell me yes when she has to go and no when she doesn't. Next we have to work on her telling me she has to go so I don't have to constantly ask her. The one thing about doing potty training the way we are, no diapers just underwear, is there is a lot of laundry. I have to do at least one load everyday to wash her underwear to make sure she has enough for the day.

I have also started working out some. I have gotten a workout game for Zumba plus the Just Dance video game. I try to do those in the morning right away or during nap time. This will hopefully help me lose the weight I want but man am I tired. Once Waylon starts sleeping through the night or just longer periods of time at night should help. I really am looking forward to sleeping more then just 3-4 hours at a time.

Speaking of sleep…off I go.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Frustrations

Lately I have found myself getting very frustrated. It really came to the fore front today. First off I get frustrated that Colby isn't around that much and that he can't help out then and the little time he is here and awake it doesn't seem like he helps me out. The dog is suppose to be his responsibility. I don't want the dog, especially in the house, and I don't have time to take care of him when I am trying to take care of the kids.

The dog is another HUGE frustration for me.  He is super needy. He is always on me or Harper and standing right in front of us while we are trying to walk. He thinks he is more important then the kids and is always trying to get between us and the kids and never watches out for the kids. The other day he even stepped on Waylon trying to get to where Colby was. Today he kept chewing on everything like crayons, Harper's toys, and shoes. His tooth got caught on Colby's ear today and made it bleed. Some days I don't even know why we have him. The only person that really wanted to get him or have him doesn't even like him sometimes. Our "free" puppy has definitely been costing us a lot of money and time.

The things that really adds extra frustration that isn't normally there is with Harper. We are trying to potty train her. We have been casually trying for a few months but this week we started to really hit it hard. The method we are trying is just cutting out diaper all together expect at night. This has led to a lot of accidents and peeing in her underwear/pants. This is only the second day of doing this and I am getting frustrated. She has been peeing in her pants right after we get done "going" potty. Sometimes I just want to yell at her but I know I can't. Its not that she is going in her pants on purpose. She does go in the potty sometimes and to help her want to go in the potty we made a little chart and every time she goes in the potty she gets a sticker to put on it. Once the chart is full she can get something special from the store. I know she likes getting the stickers so hopefully she starts understanding their purpose a little more. Another plus is she told me she had to go tonight. We had just left the bathroom and were going to play in the playroom. As soon as we got into the room she said "potty potty" but by the time I put Waylon in the swing right next to me and grabbed her she had already started to pee and it got all over my hand. That was frustrating but I tried to look at it in a positive why like she actually told me she had to go potty instead of me asking her or just taking her.

Hopefully tomorrow goes better.  It is another day and the more we do this potty training with Harper the more she is suppose to understand what is going on. I just hope it doesn't take too long for her to understand/get it figured out. I'm definitely looking forward to the weekend and Colby being here to help out more.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

1 Month Already?!?

My baby boy is 1 month old!! It is crazy how fast that month went by. We were busy for a lot of his first month of life. Colby had his wisdom teeth taken out right before Christmas so he was in a lot of pain for a few days and not able to really eat anything.  Then of course we had Christmas. On Christmas day, we did presents at home, then church followed by presents at my parents house and ended the day with the Vostad Christmas at my cousin's house. The next day we left at 4:30am to head to Kansas. As soon as we got there we did presents with Colby's parents then headed to his Grandma Sherry's house then to his Grandma Judy and Grandpa Rudy's house. The next day we visited Colby's great grandfather and then had a very long lunch with Colby's best friend after which we headed home. A very busy and exhausting couple of days. We had a couple of nice days at home until at dog was hit by our neighbor on New Years Eve breaking his back leg. It is costing us a lot to get it fixed and Im not sure it would be worth it but Colby thought it would. I am still not convinced. He can be a huge pain when I already have to deal with two children. Life is just going going going.

All that going did not hinder Waylon's growth one bit. At his check up he was already up to 10lbs 13oz which put him into the 75th percentile. This is crazy to us since Harper was always in the low percentiles always around the 10th or 20th. They are so different already. Harper is trying to show us how independent she can be. She does not like to listen to us and when she doesn't get what she wants when she wants she throws a tantrum. It can be very frustrating but she is also a really good and really smart little girl too. We are just working through it day by day. We are also trying the whole potty training thing. She will go sometimes if we take her just sit and if I ask if she has to go sometimes she says yes but rarely actually goes. She won't tell us when she has to go but we are working on it.

Another big potential change for us is Colby's employment. He wants (along with me) to have a day job so badly. He is having some problems at his current job with  people above him complaining to others, besides him, about the work he is doing. However, no one will tell him what he needs to change which is very frustrating to him. He wants to go to day so badly that we have started to look for jobs for him in other cities and with other companies. There is position available with the same company he currently works for in the city my sister and brother both live in. A move like that would be a big deal for us. We also want to have buying a house in our near future. If we are going to buy a house we need to be brining in more money and be more financially stable.

I am hoping our future will turn out even better then we can imagine right now. We just need to have the faith that everything happens for a reason and everything will work its self out.