Spilled Beans

The word is finally out that my sister is pregnant!  We have known since before Christmas, and it has been so hard to keep it a secret!  Well, to be honest, I did tell a few people, but it's too hard not to when I am so excited about it. Katie and Greg shared the news with us right before Christmas, and haven't told anyone else until this week.  It was so hard especially being around everyone on Christmas day.  It seemed like everyone kept bringing up when there would be another baby in the family. I totally understand wanting to wait a bit to announce it, but I honestly don't know how she kept it from even her best friends.  I can't wait to be an aunt, and I am excited that Kenley will have a cousin.  I will have to spoil Baby Cooney as much as my sister and Greg spoil Kenley. Wishing Katie a healthy, happy pregnancy!

This weekend has been pretty relaxing.  Today, Ray and I both slept in until after 9:00.  I think Kenley was playing around in her crib for a while, but she must have been having a great time because she was all smiles when I went in to get her. We did a lot of playing around the house, reading books, and just chillin. Exactly what I like to do on the weekends.  Then, I helped Ray with the daunting task of cleaning out his closet.  I swear, he has more clothes than me.  I also believe he is somewhat of a horder because he likes to keep these ratty old shirts that remind him of his college days.  I was pretty suprised that he was able to get rid of so much. (5 garbage bags full of stuff)  So, I think we might be having another garage sale this summer just based on how much stuff we could get rid of.  Once we did Ray's closet, I was kind of on a roll and thinking about how all of our closets could be de-cluttered, but I guess that will have to wait for another day. 

Ready to enjoy the rest of the weekend, and I'm hoping Kenley wakes up from her nap soon so I can spend more time with her!

Putting her "lipstick" on.  She is such a girly-girl...wonder where she got that from?

  

Weekend Continued...

Thank goodness the rest of my weekend went much better than Friday.  On Saturday, we went out for my mom's birthday with my family to Limestone for dinner.  It was kind of nice that we had the place to ourselves since they weren't even officially opened yet.  Then, Ray and I went to the Bulls game with Katie and Greg.  It was fun to be at a game, and it has been so long since I've been to one.  Plus, they won. 

Saturday, we went out to eat at Houlihan's with Ray's family for his Grandma's birthday.  Kenley got to show off her walking skills to everyone.  Then, Alison came back to our house for a little while and Kenley walked all the way across our living room/dining room all by herself!  That is the most steps I have seen her take.  It will be no time until she is walking everywhere. 

So, it was a nice weekend, but it did go by really fast.  I didn't realize until just about now that I didn't get done a lot of my weekend "chores." The usual fun stuff of dusting, vaccuming, and cleaning the bathrooms.  Oh well, I think I deserve a little break after Friday.  Here's to praying that this week goes okay at school!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!

The terrible, horrible, no good, VERY bad day

I normally post about the good things going on in life, so please beware that this is NOT one of those posts. 
I just need to decompress.  So, I will write about my horrible day and then it will all go away...right?

So, my morning started out by getting ready for work.  Normall stuff, rushing around trying to get it together to finish out the week.  I grabbed my coffee and got Kenley in the car, and within minutes she started crying.  She is usually pretty good about being in the car, but if she cries she can usually be calmed if I pass her a toy or her sippy cup. Well, not today.  The entire 35 minutes that it takes to drive to her babysitter's house she cried, and screamed, and threw a hissy fit.  Nothing I could do cold make her happy despite my efforts to pass her her sippy cup, snacks, toys, sunglass, my I-pass, and pretty much everything within my reach.  Nevermind that I was trying to drive on I-55. When I dropped her off at Sally's house I thought she would calm down, but she didn't.  So, I had to leave Kenley while she was crying and screaming and then head to work.

Then, I had a horrible day at work.  Without going into too many details, lets just say that I had to have 2 security guards and a dean come down to my class.  These are ongoing issues I've been having with the same students.  Honestly, I don't know what to do about it and I dread having to go back to these classes next week.

Meanwhile, it had begun snowing around 11:00 or so, and I was anxious to get home.  So, I rushed out of school as fast as I could to go pick up Kenley and try to beat the traffic.  Ya, right.  Not only was I stuck on I55 for almost 2 hours, but again, Kenley was NOT a happy passenger.  I spent about 3 hours in my car and about 75% of it Kenley was screaming.  I don't blame her; I wouldn't want to be strapped in a car seat that long either.  I took a little break from it by stopping at my parents house to feed her, but I was determined to get home.  From their house to mine was over an hour because LaGrange was closed down at one spot. Kenley continued to cry the whole way home. I tried so hard to be patient, to block out the screaming, to console her, but at one point I just lost it and yelled, "Stop crying!"  Immediately, I felt terrible.  Luckily, we got home safe, and I think we were both pretty exhaused from the day.  Kenley sat on my lap in our dark living room for about 15 minutes.  She never does that.  I whispered, "I'm sorry, and I love you" a million times to her. 

Now, here I am waiting for Ray.  I can only imagine his day must have been just as bad because he left the city at 3:30, and now it is 8:53.  I feel terrible for him.  And all we have to eat are lean cuisines. 

So, I'm mad at the world today.  Mad that I had to leave Kenley to go to work, mad at my students, mad at my job, mad at the snow, mad at the other drivers, mad at myself for taking out my frustrations on my precious baby girl.

All I know is that this weekend can only get better.  I'm going to go to sleep and try to forget about today.
Thanks for letting me vent!

A few firsts

Kenley was able to experience a few more "firsts" the last week or so.  We attended a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese, and it was our first time bringing Kenley there. I'm sure it's not the last either.  She had fun, and she was actually able to go on a few of the little rides they had.  She also got up close and personal with Chuck E. and wasn't even afraid.  Next stop, Great America!
 

Last Friday, we got a few inches of snow, so I bundled her up in her snowsuit and took her in the backyard in her sled. She couldn't even move in her snowsuit, but she liked being outside. It was her first time playing in the snow, and she seemed to like being pulled in her little sled until  tipped over and she got a face full of snow.  I felt terrible, but she recovered after a minute.

Ray and I also took her to Gymboree this weekend for their "open gym." Kenley loved crawling around and exploring everything, and she especially loved the slides.  Ray was a good sport considering there was only one other dad there.  He joked about how I fit right in socializing with the other moms.  It was nice to meet a few other people with children right around Kenley's age.  Kenley loved being a social butterfly, and seemed to make friends with a four year old boy.  We better keep an eye on this girl already!  It will be a lot of fun to take her there over the summer once she is really running around like crazy.  She is taking more and more steps, so I'm sure she isn't far from it.

We also spent a good part of Sunday at IKEA picking out a new TV stand and coffee table. I think we walked around the entire place at least 3 times.  Should I mention that it was because Ray insisted that we would be able to remember what we liked, and it would be on display again where you actually pick up the furniture- wrong!  But, we got what we wanted and Ray worked for a few hours on Monday putting everything together.  

This week was the start of the 2nd semester at school.  The bad news is that I got back all of the students that were dropped.  We can drop students that have 10 or more absences if they are failing and have behavior problems. The good news is that half of the school year is over! 

 I stopped by my friend, Megan's house one day last week.  We worked together, and her daughter, Abby, is one month younger than Kenley. The girls loved each other and spent the first five minutes just laughing and looking at one another.  It was precious!

Just call me a Loser

Yes, I've joined the "Biggest Loser" competition at work.  Anyone that knows me knows that I have had my share of weight issues since high school.  I was never a skinny girl but never really worried about my weight until my sophomore year of college when I had to face the fact that I had put on more than the freshmen fifteen.  So, that year I started Weight-Watchers with my mom and also started running.  After losing about 35 pounds, I vowed I would NEVER go back to that weight.  And, I haven't.  Well, except for the obvious of being pregnant.  But, every year I struggle between 10 pounds up and down.  It was a bit scarry during my pregnancy to see my weight go up so much, but I honestly didn't mind too much.  I gained a lot of weight during my pregnancy,about 45 pounds!  (I have to justify-I was at one of my lowest weights when I got pregnant, we were remodeling out kitchen, so we ate out every meal for 2 months, and I was restricted from running, oh ya, and then there were times when I would eat Reese's Peanut Butter Cups for breakfast....)

Anyway, I had great motivation to lose my pregnancy weight for my sister's wedding this summer, and I was pretty happy with my progress.  Unfortunatley, like every year, I have gained back a few pounds this winter. It is so much harder for me to eat healthy and work out! In the summer, I run outside almost every day and it is so much more motivating to me. I know I am making excuses, but when I get home and it is already dark out the last thing I want to do is go on the treadmill.  I also have a hard time getting on there because I cherish the 2-3 hours I actually get to spend with my little girl before bed time and I feel like I would be taking that time away from her.  And, when I don't work out, it's always leads to making bad choices with food.  Vicious cycle....

So, enough with these excuses!! I have my first weigh-in tomorrow, so we will see how it goes.  I am just doing it to motivate myself and hold myself accountable in some way.  I have already had a few healthy days of eating, and today will be my 3rd day of working out.  I got some new cardio work-out videos so that I can work out in the living room while Kenley plays.  Plus, she laughs at me when she sees me jumping around like a fool.  I am also using myfittnesspal.com to log my daily caloric intake.  Total, I would love to lose about 10 pounds.

Anyone else trying to shed a few pounds?

Hello 2012!

Happy New Year!  We celebrated New Year's Eve by having our friends Jim, Melissa, and their son, Caden over.  It was our second New Year's spent with them, and once again, it was a good time.  It was fun for the kids to play together for a while until Caden was picked up by his grandparents and Kenley went to sleep.  Then, it was nice to have some time with just the 4 of us, since we always get together with the kids. We are so excited for them because they are expecting their second child in June!  Kenley will have another friend! We also had our parents over for New Year's Day.

I had to go back to work this week, but it was an easy week since we only had to work 3 days.  I was also happy because the night before I had to go to work Kenley took 3 steps!  Ray and I were so excited that we got to share this moment as a family and have been trying to encourage her to walk more and more the last few days.  This morning she got up to 5! 

I'm excited that tonight is our annual "Girl's night" with all of my friends from high school.  I don't get to see many of these girls very often, but it is funny that when we all get together it seems like no time has passed.  It will be fun to see everyone and catch up.

Here were some pictures that I took of Kenley in the bath. She absolutely loves her baths, and now she gets mad when I take her out!