Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Lenten Hiatus

Originally during Lent I had planned to continue with blog posts, but I have since decided that I will take a hiatus from blog posts as well. This will hopefully help keep me focused on what I am doing with my prayer life and better living out of my vocation as wife and mother.

I hope that you all have a fruitful Lent!

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Wordless Wednesday

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Monday, February 13, 2012

Monday Memories

So, since this is my blog and I can be the boss of it, I've decided that sometimes I will do "Monday Memories" of things we have done and other times I will do stuff based on what we are currently doing. :)

So, today, my focus is on memories we are making. And it's mostly pictures, because, hey pictures are fun.

[caption id="attachment_519" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Christopher finally got the upper hand! Trapped Dominic in his cabinet. :)"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_520" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Christopher is not excited by the flash on the camera."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_521" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Dominic especially likes to push the shifter to go faster and then slow it down. And change the radio station. Good thing he can't reach it in the car."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_523" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="He really likes having his picture taken right now. "][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_524" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="I told him to go sit by his brother. "][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_525" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Rare time that they are playing together!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_526" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Sitting up and playing! :)"][/caption]

Thursday, February 9, 2012

The Day After the Night SpongeBob Went Dark at the Spano Home

OK, so, since Christopher has been born I have been using DVDs way too much as a crutch to keep Dominic entertained when doing things like nursing Christopher/trying to get him down for a nap, hopping in for a quick shower, going to the bathroom, cooking dinner. I'm mostly OK with having used TV because I think that it has it's place. We like watching movies and we like SpongeBob. (I know, I have now lost all credibility with you. ;-)) But, lately we've been doing it more than I'd like. Part of it is that I like to have background noise. We don't have TV service, but the last time I did it was more for the noise then because I was "sucked in".

We have a ridiculously long living room. The way we have our furniture allowed us to use the ottoman kind of diagonally between the chair and the entertainment center thus keeping a "safe" area for Dominic and keeping him away from buttons he so desperately wanted to push. But, he climbs now.  Like this: And into things like this: So, I knew it was inevitable that he would start climbing onto the ottoman. I mean he can already climb onto the furniture, why he hasn't figured out that he can get onto the ottoman, I'm not sure, but it's only a matter of time. Also, the button pushing. Oh, the button pushing. How it pushes my buttons.

And that brings me to the entire point of this post (took a while didn't it? Well, at least there are cute pictures), we flipped the switch on the (unreachable to Dominic) power strip taking all power away from the entertainment center, but allowing us parents the ability to flip it back on when we want to have family movie night. So today has been fun. I haven't even wanted to turn it on. In the (rare) quiet moments, I've been reading out loud from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory or Alice in Wonderland.

SpongeBob is not out forever, I do not think that TV is evil, but it was becoming too much of a crutch, so I'm glad to have done this. I'm excited to have a good excuse to read more. :)

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Preparing for Lent

So, it's just a couple of weeks until Lent. I have given a lot of thought to what I will give up this year, I have mostly given up food-related things in the past because I love food so it's hard for me. However, this year I have decided to give up social media. I have been spending an inordinate amount of time between Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ and it has been cutting into my spiritual life as well as my domestic life. I often spend too much time checking out what's happening else where and neglect playing w/ the boys or putting off the dishes. So, this Lent I am giving up something that will make a serious change in my life. After 40 days I might find that I don't need to be as connected as I have been recently.

What are you giving up for Lent?

Monday, February 6, 2012

Monday Memories

This post isn't going to be as picture heavy as my past memory posts (read: there are no pictures), because I didn't necessarily picture document this time.

When Jason and I were engaged I was working for a Rehab company called Synertx, and I was getting less than 20 hours of work at the site they had me at. There are lots of reasons for this, but primarily it was because the COTA (Certified Occupational Therapist Assistant) was in charge of the time, and she didn't think that the patients could handle much therapy. Never mind that is what they are there for. But, I digress. Because I was getting so little time there, some traveling jobs opened up so I went for it. I did a one week stint in Cortez, CO covering a vacation, and then they needed me in a couple of places in NM.

My first place was in Alamagourdo, NM and the one thing I take from that was that it was way hot and they don't like bike riders. The facility was a Good Samaritan nursing home and it was awesome. The second place was in Truth or Consequence, NM and it was horrible. The facility was like stepping into every bad thing you hear about nursing homes. The PT and PTA that I was covering for (and everyone else) was doing inappropriate treatments and they were milking the time clock. They were lying about everything they were doing. When I wasn't working at the same level (because seeing 7 patients at one time is inappropriate care), I was singled out, and when I tried to explain why, they didn't want to hear it. It was extremely frustrating.

I was supposed to work 5 weeks, come home for one week and back for 5 weeks. It was 17 hours away from home, so I couldn't really just come back for the weekend to see Jason or our families. So when I came home, Jason's mom and sister and I went to Garden City, KS because I wanted to go to the thrift store there. While we were there I popped in to see my old boss. She offered me my old job back. When I got home to talk to Jason about it, we thought it would be so great so that we didn't have to be separated for quite so much distance at the beginning of our marriage. So, I accepted the position and put in my 30 days notice with Synertx. It was hard because that position was fun in that it was a lot of home health which I really enjoyed. But, I did not like the mentality of the facility's employees. Plus 2 hours from my husband was much better than 17 hours.

Friday, February 3, 2012

7 Quick Takes (Vol. 2)


--- 1 ---


My diet change of eating habits is going well. I am maintaining my calorie count for the most part. Random chocolate chips eaten do not count. Right?

--- 2 ---


My fabric is washed and ironed. Hopefully I will have time this weekend to cut out the fabric for my pattern and next week I will get to start sewing. Excited, excited!

--- 3 ---


Christopher's erratic sleeping behaviors are going to drive me to an early grave. OK, probably not, but seriously. He is so random. One day he naps beautifully and then at night we have 3 1/2-4 hours at a time of sleep; the next day he naps for maybe 30-45 minutes at a time and then the night of sleep is awful. :( I have a close group of friends who tell me that this is standard, but boy is it rough.

--- 4 ---


I don't say enough how thankful I am for my awesome husband. Jason works really, REALLY hard to provide for our family. He's had a very stressful couple of weeks months and it doesn't seem to be going to slow down any time soon. And when he gets home he does baths with the boys and then plays hard with Dominic. It is so wonderful to feel so taken cared of. <3

--- 5 ---


Dominic is gaining new words every day. We started going for walks in the morning and afternoon and I get his socks and shoes on and put his jacket on and say "alright let's go". And he runs/dances to the door and says "awiiiiite". I am so excited for him to keep learning new words.

--- 6 ---


I feel that we've been through an emotional roller coaster this week with regards to the Planned Parenthood/Susan G. Komen situation. The excitement that they had decided to stop funding them was a high, though I remained cynical. And this morning they announced that they will, in fact, continue funding them. It is a sad day for the pro-life cause.

--- 7 ---


Christopher will be crawling soon. I feel certain about that. He is really trying to push himself forward and it is so cute. He wants to chase Dominic so bad, and he lights up when Dominic pays attention to him. Watching them smile and giggle at each other is awesome. While having kids so close together is kind of hard, I wouldn't have it any other way.


For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!