Ahhh the torture

So I went to the commissary today only to find myself drooling over the aisles of Halloween candy. I mean really should they have that junk out already? It wasn't even like you can avoid it there. It is located by the frozen section and the milk/cheese aisle. I know it's their way of getting people to buy it. I was wanting some candy corn so bad (I get it every year) but I refrained. I must remind myself over the next few months to make as few trips to the commissary as I can. I decided that getting some sugar free oatmeal cookies would be a better idea until I read the nutrition facts on it. Apparently sugar free doesn't mean healthy folks! For one cookie was 7 grams of fat and 160 calories. Oh my lord!!! So next time you see something labeled sugar free make sure you read all the facts. I looked at a few other oatmeal cookies and was surprised that they were all full of fat and calories. So does anyone know a good low calorie oatmeal cookie recipe? If so please pass it my way!! I have a weird craving for some. Also do you know of any good low calorie pizzas that don't taste like cardboard ( I am referring to the Southbeach diet ones, YUCK). I am doing my best to stick to eating healthy, but when my cravings kick in I have to indulge and what better way than a low calorie alternative, you know?? I have thought of making pizza on a wheat pita with the fat free cheese. I however am not sure if there is healthy pizza sauce out there I guess I will look next time I go to the commissary, which hopefully is a while away. Darn that freaking Halloween candy.....

Good news, better news, and the best news!!

So the good news is I lost yet another pound this week!! YAHOO! Now I am down to 123, only have 5 pounds to go reach my goal!! I can't believe that I have even lost any weigh, because I still feel like I eat things that are bad for me. Damn those little 100 calorie chocolate cakes. They are so freaking good! I am about to go to the grocery store and am hoping to find some new exciting healthy, low calorie foods!!

The better news is that Kara rolled over for the first time earlier this week! I was so happy that I was clapping and yelling like a fool. I was just so worried about it with all the books I was reading saying she was due to be doing that already. I know, I know all children are different. I was just worried that she hadn't reached that milestone like she had all the other ones. She is usually advanced in most things. Now I know I will be wishing she couldn't roll over, cause she's going to be rolling all over the place.

The best news is that in a little over a week from now my husband should be home. I am so excited to see him. I know that things could still happen and delay this happy reunion but I am keeping my fingers crossed. I really hope Kara remembers him. In my little fantasy world she will see him and smile. I hope to have my camera handy for that moment.

Pictures, pictures, and more pictures.

Cute as a button! This pic is of today.

This is my favorite outfit she has.
Another picture mom, come on!
Waiting on the doctor to come check her out. She was moving like crazy. See the paper all balled up at her feet?
Pretty in purple

She's a happy girl!
Look mom, I can hold it myself.
Yum sweet potatoes!

Talking to her Grandma on the phone.

The Okinawans love to hold her. They love her blue eyes.
She may be big but she's not that fat, SEE!
She fell asleep like this in my lap, too cute!
It almost looks like she's going to pout. My beautiful, beautiful baby! What? I am trying to play here. Happy after her bath.



PS. As of now she is still a brunette. A few people seem to think she's a redhead. Her hair is lighter in some places. For some reason my camera seems to make her hair lighter in the pics. Or maybe she's going to be a redhead after all. As of now she's still a brunette. She could be either of those are blond, since Nick was as a child. I guess we will see.

Something I don't understand

It seems lately I've had two instances where I have had to think about the following subject and truth is I just don't get why people do what they do(myself included). What I am talking about is why Hollywood (and many other people)choose to make fun of the mentally handicap. They don't chose to be born that way, they can't do ANYTHING to change it so why use them as a target? It all started with the new movie that's out called Tropic Thunder. I had heard about the controversy on the television and just flipped the channel (not wanting to get involved in that mess, thinking I would never see the movie). Then I went to another blogger site and read some of the quotes from the movie. She was rather appalled being that she has a mentally handicap daughter. Who could really blame her for being offended? Her daughter is one of many helpless people that are being hurt by the quotes of the movie. Now I haven't seen the movie, therefore I don't know what exactly it's all about. However I do know someone close to me that saw it and said that it's supposed to be making fun of how Hollywood is, rather than the mentally handicap, and that it was a rather funny movie. My husband and I own quite a few movies like this, that have some inappropriate phrases in them. We of course laugh at them and don't think on how it may effect some people's lives. Some of the one liners from this particular movie however struck me the wrong way. For instance, "Once upon a time there was a R****d" and "you went full R****d, never go full R****d". Although the movie was made to show how silly some actors/actresses can be, I don't believe they should have used these lines. It is just plain disrespectful and aren't what made the movie funny. The person I know that watched it said without these phrases it would have been even funnier. So there you have it, Hollywood made a HUGE mistake. They've done before and sadly they will do it again. Truth is I grew up in the time where calling someone a R****d or saying they were acting R****ded was just an every day occurrence. I will admit that I too joined in on the fun. This is not some thing I am proud of, actually something I am deeply ashamed of. Society has made it to where it is acceptable to use that word as just an everyday word and it's just flat out embarrassing. I try my best not use the word because I had a mentally handicap brother( he died at 15 months, I was 3 years old at the time). My mother would get highly offended when people would say that word. I am surprised she didn't slap the fool out of me when she would hear me say it. Instead she explained to me that it wasn't something I should be saying, because by doing so I was belittling my brother. Talk about a hit in the gut. Who wants to realize that something you've been using in your everyday slander is against your dead brother? To be honest it was a struggle for a long time to remove it from my vocabulary (and occasionally I still slip up). Now you may think I am blaming it all on society, but I know that it was my mouth that used the word. Therefore I have to take responsibility for my own mishaps and be a better person than I was then. I feel by admitting my mistakes to all of you I am saying I am sorry to my brother and to all the other helpless people out there like him. None of you deserve to be belittled or taught so unkindly. Which brings me to the most appalling thing I have come across in a very long time. So the other night I went and rented George Lopez:Why you crying? I have been watching the George Lopez show for a few months ( and even bought seasons 1 & 2 on DVD) now on Nickelodeon at night and it's pretty funny. There's usually a good message at the end of every show kind of thing. So I was pretty excited to find a stand up act from him at the video store. It was going pretty good until he got to talking about how Latinos hide their family members if they are, how did he put it...."special needs." The only descent thing he had to say was that he respects white people for including their "special needs" relatives in the family. He started talking about a friend he had that had a "special needs" brother that they hid in the back room. He happened to walk into the room and saw him and yelled in horror. Then he started making gestures with his hands, feet, and face mocking what the brother looked like. As if that weren't' enough he made fun of the "special needs" people in wheelchairs that can go like 5 miles an hour. I was so APPALLED at this. Why? I mean really why would you do that? Again I am going to blame it on society. I lost every ounce of respect I have for that man. There was no denying it he was flat out making fun of the mentally handicap people of this world. They can't help they way they are and to make fun of the way they look and act was just heartbreaking. Really it was, especially realizing that I had done the same thing in my past. The funny thing about it was he couldn't keep up with the joke because not many people were laughing (good for them). So he changed the subject. It's not funny to do that. It's not funny to make fun of people for something they can't change. I hope that when he goes back and watches his DVD he will realize how wrong he was. I can't say that I will forever hate George Lopez for this. People make mistakes. We do terrible things that we can't take back. I recall in middle school a phrase all the kids used, "dur de dur de dur" while hitting their chest with a down turned hand. Where did we all learn that that was acceptable? Thinking back on it now I know how terrible it was of all of us. If only I could go back and time and undo all those things I did. I just pray that I didn't ever do it in the presence of someone that didn't deserve that kind of treatment and took it to heart. Tonight I am truly truly embarrassed not only for myself but for the generation I grew up with. We were all so very wrong.

Good news and a birthday!

First let me start with telling my wonderful husband HAPPY BIRTHDAY. While it was his birthday here yesterday it's still his birthday in the states. Nick- I wish so badly that we could have been together on your birthday. I hate all the things we have missed together since you've been gone. I just hope and pray that you will be home soon. We miss you so much. When you get home we have so much to celebrate: our anniversary, Kara's milestone, and your birthday. I really hope we get to take advantage of that week you will be getting off of work to have some fun as a family. We love you!!

So now for the good news.... yesterday I sold our car!! I've had it up for sale for 3 weeks, which seemed like a long time, but it sold and for our asking price!!! I was so happy about that. I was willing to go lower on the price if we needed to but luckily it didn't come to that. I am about to go cancel the insurance on it and get some refund back from that too. I feel so happy to be able to put the money in our savings. Lord knows it's going to come in handy with our trip back to the states that we have planned for December! I can't wait! And to make yesterday an even better day... I lost a pound. I have been trying to do a whole new way of life thing with our food. I have changed all the pastas over to multi grain or wheat, brown rice. I have been doing my best to eat healthier and with lower fat content. While I don't believe I am fat, I feel that I need to lose a few pounds and be able to maintain that weight. Therefore I am doing this lifestyle change before Nick gets home so we can do it together. I had made it back to my prepregnacy weight of 125 probably two and half months after Kara was born. Before I got pregnant with Conner I was 120 and was pretty happy at that weight. After having him I never got back there. So now I am determined to make it to 120 and would really love to be 118. But even more important I want to look in the mirror and think I look firmer than I am. I know that's going to take working out, which I really hope to do when Nick gets home. I try to do little work outs here at home, but it's hard with a baby. I figure that I need to take the best care of my body that I can. That's why I am starting now before it's too late or too discouraging to do. I hope you all have a nice day. Oh and it you want to get some healthy recipes jump over to my MIL's (Kari http://grannyskywalker.blogspot.com) blog and check out her new post with a few to try. Have a great day!

Answered prayer

As you all know I had a son that I lost at birth. So after having him I prayed and prayed for a healthy baby. I didn't care if it was a girl or a boy, even though I secretly wanted a girl so I could differentiate between the new baby and my son. Hard to explain, maybe some other time. But anyway, I am happy to announce that Kara is just about the healthiest baby out there. She had her 4 month well baby check up today. I can't believe that much time has flown by.... but anyway. She was a whopping 15 pounds and 10 ounces. Yowza!! I weighted her two weeks ago and she was only 14 pounds (not sure about how many ounces). She is now 25 1/2 inches long. What happened to my little baby? She is in the 90% of babies her age. That means she's way bigger than most babies her age. So instead of getting upset that she's so large, I take it as a blessing. God gave me what I have been praying for these last couple of years: a healthy baby. I have been so blessed with her. At three weeks early, she didn't have any problems aside from Jaundice. She is just thriving in this world and I couldn't be happier about that. The doctor said she's doing great in every aspect, except that she doesn't roll over yet. The problem is that she HATES tummy time. I put her on her stomach and 5 minutes later she is screaming her head off. He did some exercises with her and discovered she uses her back rather than her arms to lift her body up while in tummy position. So I am going to have to force the tummy time each day. I didn't even attempt today since she had two shots in her leg, but tomorrow we are going to get on it. He did say that he has noticed that a lot of babies aren't rolling over before 6 months of age here lately. I read somewhere that it's because they are now supposed to sleep on their backs rather than her stomachs like before. Who knows, but I just hope she starts building those muscles soon.

I discussed her eating habits with him and he wants me to start her on baby food at dinner time. Cereal in the morning and a vegetable at night. WHAT? I was planning on waiting another month for that. He said for her it's the right choice. He wants me to start vegetables rather than fruit so she won't only want sweet foods. I was going to buy the banana flavored cereal, which was why I mixed bananas in her cereal this week, but he said just to start the baby food. He also said she can have juice now. I for some reason thought that was after they were 6 months. My baby is growing so fast. Nick is going to hate it. He feels like he's missing so much with being gone. She's just moving right along and I can't seem to slow her down. I must remind myself, she's healthy, that's all that matters.

As I mentioned before she got two shots today along with an oral medication. She did pretty good until the first shot was done and then she started crying and turning red. I felt so bad. After I calmed her down and put her in her stroller she looked at me like, "why did you let them do that to me?" It was so pitiful I almost cried. She just looked so upset. She was grumpy for the remainder of the day. Who could blame her? I am hoping she will feel better for tomorrow's pictures. Which brings me to a funny story, well not really. Remember my post about the pictures we got taken? How Kara was so mad and all. Well, I got a call two days later from the portrait studio saying they accidentally erased her pictures. I was very nice about it and told them maybe it was a good thing since she was so grumpy that day. However now that I have thought about it, I may be in for a bad time. Being that Kara just got her shots today, I am going to assume she will still be in pain tomorrow. I can only pray that she's happy and we get some good pictures. A girl I was talking to the other day said I should demand a discount. I am not really one for confrontation so we will see how it goes. I do feel a little frustrated that it will be my third trip there. It's not particularly easy to get a 4 month old baby ready for pictures during her normal nap time once let alone three times. The first time wasn't really their fault, you can't really work with paint fumes everywhere. The second time however was their fault. I laughed about it when I got off the phone with them thinking now that's just my luck. I am hoping it's some kind of blessing in disguise. After all I was kind of mad I forgot to put her bracelet and necklace on her last time. I will update you all tomorrow. Have a good day!!

Awards....

Thank you Aunt Sandi and Jana! I love you guys too!
Thank you Donna for this award. I know my site is beautiful because of my two girls and son, thanks for helping me remember that.
Thank you Karen for this award and the kinds words you wrote. How sweet?

Thank you to everyone that has passed on these awards to me the past few weeks (I know I am behind). I feel very blessed to have such wonderful friends out there in blogland. Thank you so much!!! I would love to pass these on, but I just did that and the stupid thing erased. So being that I am frustrated, I will say this.. If you are a reader of mine I am sending these on to you. You know who you are...

It's not funny, but it is

For a while now I have been dealing with Kara being reluctant to go to sleep. Every time she's getting ready for a nap or bed she fights it with all her might. At first I could get her to calm down within a few minutes. Now it's more like half an hour. And let me tell you she can scream very, very LOUD! All I know to do is rock her until she passes out. So tonight was probably the worst time we have had. I would lay her down and she would start screaming like something was killing her. So I thought maybe she was in pain. I picked her up and she started smiling (little booger). I tried everything I could and sure enough the only time she was upset was when I would lay her down. So I thought maybe if I gave her a stern talking to it would help the problem. I kid you not as soon as I started telling her that "night, night time shouldn't be a fight, we would have fun in the morning" she started laughing at me. Not just a little either. A lot, a whole lot. More than she's ever laughed at me before. I had been taking pictures of her earlier and had my camera in arms length. So I took this little video of her. She is so rotten! What am I going to do with this child? I couldn't help but start laughing too. I guess me being stern is quite laughable, but I am working on it. Really I am. As I type she's in her bed crying again. Jeez, I guess I am in for a long night. Hope you all have a happy one.

Bananas for the monkey....

Eating her food, yum, yum!
Crying because it was all gone!
Falling asleep while eating.
And she's out....

Without even thinking about it I picked bananas as Kara's first baby food to try. Kind of funny being that her nickname is Monkey. She has been eating plain rice cereal for a while now.
But the last two nights she didn't want it so my mom suggest adding some flavor to it. It was a huge hit with her. The video shows her first bite, which was pretty funny. It took her a few bites to get used to it, and then I couldn't get it in her mouth quick enough. She cried when it was all gone so I went and made her a second bowl. She ate the entire thing. Well to be honest it wasn't that much the first time because I wanted to make sure she liked it before I made a lot. It was pretty cool seeing how much she enjoyed it. When she was almost done with the second bowl she was falling asleep. It must have been very satisfying for her. I love days of her firsts....

Picture problems

So it seems Kara doesn't like to have her picture taken at professional places. We went today to get her pictures made, the first ones of just her, and she wasn't having it. I had been waiting forever to have some nice pictures taken of her and today was THE day. Actually I had her scheduled for last week, but when we got there we were informed that we would have to reschedule due to some fumes coming into the building. I was more than happy to reschedule being that it smelled to high heaven. I didn't want my baby or myself to be exposed to anything that may be harmful.

So anyway, I should have known the pics weren't going to go well when Kara decided to skip her morning nap. She always naps between 9:30 and 10:00am. This morning notsomuch!!! She took a little cat nap around lunch time, which proved to be not nearly enough for my little sweetheart. When I got there she was asleep in her car seat. They told me to just let her sleep until they got everything set up. She woke up about 5 minutes later so I went and changed her clothes. Things were going great. The first pictures were going to be her on her stomach with a black background. Really beautiful. I laid her down, she smiled a few times before the lady had a chance to click and then she started pouting. The lady got a few of this face. It was adorable, but then she started crying. Needless to say throughout the hour and a half time period they had set aside for us she wasn't happy. She would get posed, smile a few times and start wailing. It was pretty sad. Come to find out she was exhausted (which I kind of figured). Poor baby. She fell asleep while getting her picture done. So we got a few different shots of her sleeping. The last one is of me holding her with her sleeping on my shoulder in just her diaper cover. I had no intention of being in the pics. I didn't even have make up on, YUCK! But the photographer convinced me that only part of my face would be in the photo and she would make it either sepia or black and white so it wouldn't matter that I had no make up on. She showed me one of the pics and I was impressed. It looked pretty good, even in color. I was so very impressed with the portrait studio. It was probably the most PROFESSIONAL place I had ever been. A hundred times nicer than Sears. They specially do the lighting for each pose. It was pretty neat to see. I was very impressed and well I should be at the prices. I was kind of disappointed that I won't get to see the pics until next Tuesday. They take time to edit and touch up everything before you decide what you want to buy. I am just so excited to see what she comes up with. I bet she took 50-60 pics. I think we did about 10 different poses, so it should be interesting. It takes 3-5 weeks for delivery of the pics so when I get them in I will have to scan them for all to see. I am already planning Kara's next visit there, that is AFTER she's had a nice nap. lol

I just wanted to add this pic for her daddy to see. Nick, I think she's looks like you in this pic a little. What do you think? We miss you so very much. We love you bunches!

Suzie Q's Survey

FAVORITE
Sport: to watch- Football, to play- Volleyball
Yatzee Color: red
Movie: The Notebook
Broadway Play I've Seen: 12th night, but only because it's the only one I ever saw.
Song: Far Away-Nickelback
Favorite City Visited: Orlando, so much to do!!!
Favorite Foreign City Visited: Nago, Japan
Book: The Wedding (it's the sequel to The Notebook)
Children's Book: Love You Forever
TV Show: Dawson's Creek is my ALL time fav.
Recent TV Show: Army Wives, somehow I got into it.
Actor: Will Ferrell
Actress: Jessica Alba
Perfume: Fantasy by Brittney Spears ( I know shameful)
Food: There are so many... Chicken Parmigiana is the BEST! ( I can't wait to try the healthier version soon!)
Dessert: Chocolate Cake
Chain Restaurant: Olive Garden
Local Restaurant: Mike's Tex Mex
Car: It's been so long since I cared about a car, I will let you know when I get back to the states....
Condiment: Butter, but I gotta cut back
Kitchen Appliance: dish washer
Home Appliance: Dryer I guess???
Beauty Product: Chap stick or lip gloss, can't live without it.
Favorite Clothing: Jeans
HGTV Show: Property ladder
Food Network show: I don't watch that, they always make stuff that I don't like.
Author: Nicholas Sparks
Songwriter: ???
Female Songwriter: Carrie Underwood?
Holiday: Christmas
Christmas Ballet: The Nutcracker
Disney Character: Tinkerbell
Alcoholic Drink: Fuzzy Navel
Non Alcoholic Drink: Water
Magazine: Glamour
Animated Movie: Sleeping Beauty
Mini Series: none
Season: FALL
Male Vocalist: Tim McGraw
Female Vocalist: Martina McBride
Day of Week: Sunday
Household Chore: Folding clothes
Ice Cream: Love Potion #31 from Baskin Robbins
Candy: Milky Way
Artist:Van Gogh
Quotation: "Dance like no one is watching, Sing as if no one is listening, and Live like each day was your last." Irish Proverb

At play...

My animals at play. Chloe is obviously going to win this one.
Kara playing on her play mat. She just adores it. That blue thing is a little monkey.
This is my husband playing with one of Maddy's classmates at her birthday party last year. He's just a big kid at heart.

It's that time again. Brenda's photo challenge was "play" this week. I actually didn't have a hard time at all for once. I know it's not terribly creative, but I tried to capture different sources of play. I can't wait to see what everyone has for this week. If I knew how to add the list of participants I would, my apologies. Happy blogging!

New Do

Not my best picture, but my husband requested a pic. I was about to go to bed (I'm in my PJs and all) so forgive my tired look. You can kind of see the layers.

I took this one so you could see the highlights. Looks natural huh? That was the idea!

I had such a great day today! I went and got my hair done (highlights and cut) and it was wonderful. I had the same Japanese lady, Mika, as I did last time. She is AWESOME. I love when I find a hair dresser that I can trust. She always does exactly what I ask for. I took Kara along, praying that she would be good, and she was the BEST little baby ever! She spent about 45 minutes singing. She loves to listen to herself squeal and scream. It's her new thing these days. I will try to post a video of it soon. It's just too cute. Anyway, she sat there for almost 3 hours just entertaining herself. (She slept for about 20 mins.) Only at the very end did she fuss a little, but it wasn't too much. I was a very proud mama, so I went to the shoppette and bought her the Curious George movie as a reward. Okay so I really wanted to buy it and they had it so I had to convince myself that was the reason why. lol

Anyway, I have to tell you that when I got my hair washed I was in HEAVEN! She really took her time and scrubbed my head. She also massaged it. WOW! I can't tell you how great it was. The Japanese are known for giving men shoulder/head massages after they cut their hair (I have always been jealous that I don't get the same treatment). So today was a special treat. It felt great. I was about to fall asleep (she washed/massaged for 20 mins). When I was done I almost couldn't stand up because I was in a trance. It was so wonderful and the color is just incredible. I love, love, love it! The picture really doesn't do it justice. If it didn't cost almost $100, I would probably go more often. Just had to share my wonderful day with you all. Have a great one yourself!!!

Before I go here's Kara's new do. I couldn't resist myself from doing it. Nick, I know you hate it but it's just too cute. Don't worry I didn't bring her in public like that. Doesn't she look sweet? Awww!

Stuffed animal obsession?

Now that's what I call a real "bear hug"! She has just started the whole hugging thing and I absolutely adore it. I can't get enough of her hugs.

They are just "monkeying around"
Giving Monnie Monkey kisses! She loves that monkey!!!
Her new dog, Petey, thank you Grandma!!! She loves this little stuffed dog and chewing on him too! She had some of his hair in her mouth the other day, Ewwww!
Sleeping with her baby doll. She did that all on her own. Notice her other hand is holding her hair. She always sleeps like that. She must have gotten that from me, I have a thing with playing with my own hair too!
Her newest love, snuggle bunny. We got her the other day from the BX. I realized she was still in the stroller when we were walking out and hadn't paid for her so I gave her back to the lady that checks IDs. Kara was not happy at all, crying and everything. So we we went back later with my neighbor, I bought it. She didn't let "snuggle bunny" go for hours afterwards. I usually wouldn't be that kind of a parent giving in to buying something that my child threw a fit for, but I was already intending to buy it, so it was my mistake and I felt bad...

My silly girl

What did you say??
About to make her pouty face....
She must have disliked something I did or said.

Not sure why she did that face but it was funny!
She was laughing and looks so happy here!
I had just pulled her hand out of her mouth and before I could snap the picture she had it back in there.
Look at that monkey face!! Her hair is just so crazy.
This is her look when she's about done with picture taking, much like her father. LOL

It was another day that I decided to take a bunch of pictures. (Mini photo shoots is what I call them.)Kara was being silly and doing all kinds of funny faces. She's going to be quite the entertainer when she gets older. I just love all her different faces. She cracks me up. She was squealing and laughing in some of the pics and chewing her hands. I am pretty sure she's started(or about to) early teething. She is always chewing her hands and drooling everywhere. She's been kind of clingy the last few days so we will see. I can't believe how fast my baby is growing up. I gave her cereal out of a spoon tonight for the 2nd time. The first time didn't go so well. She ended up spitting it all up. This time she did great with it. It was like I couldn't give it to her fast enough. She ate it all!!! So I guess I will feed her cereal every evening from now on. I am assuming that's what you are suppose to do??? It will be a new adventure for us, but I am up for the fun of it!!!

Kara's first friend, Chardae....

They are too funny in this pic. They are 2 months and 2 days apart. Kara of course is the older one. She looks so big compared to Chardae.
They were way too cute together!
Here's Chardae with her mommy, Britteny and Kara with me. Britteny and I have been friends for about 2 years now. We were pregnant together. We are hoping to have play dates for the girls as they grow.