My New Start for 2011

So in 2011 I really want my business to take off, I am going to put myself to the grind and really get this going! I am going to have a Home Show on January the 8th and would like for anyone who reads this to come, and if you can't then if you would like to purchase something let me know! January 14th and 15th I get to go to Philly for the Regional Rally! Which is so exciting because it will be my first one ever!
I am a shy person by nature, so this new adventure is going to be hard, getting out there to meet new people BUT I feel that WHEN I get out there and do this it will come more naturally and then I will be a pro at it.
Here is to a great 2011 for me and everyone that I am blessed to have in my life.

Our Winter Lessons and Fun

Well, we started with doing an Advent Calendar just a simple one with little candies on it so that Adrian could count down to Christmas, well he quickly lost interest and no longer wants to take the candies off! He lost one of the candles on our Menorah for the Hanukkah lessons too! Well today is St. Nicholas Day, I've got a few things planned we are going to watch Veggie Tales St Nicholas movie, do some crafts, and S for Santa Clause activity (even though he knows his letters) and talk about how St Nick got his start.
Also still to come is National Poinsettia Day I found a lovely Legend of the Poinsettia to tell him and also some science/social studies lessons planned with facts about poinsettias. Fun times...

and so starts.....

Today at sunset begins Hanukkah, obviously I am NOT jewish but we will still be learning about the holiday and even "lighting" a litte menorah. Also we will be doing an advent calendar today so that AJ can count down seeing as how he thinks everytime someone says its Christmas time he thinks we will go to bed and wake up to presents and stockings.
A few other things going on this month will be learning about the TRUE meaning of Christmas, Kwanza, etc...
A list of events this month (if you want to do any of them): National Roof Over your Head Day Dec 3rd, Read a Book Month, National Cookie Day Dec 4th, Saint Nicholas Day Dec 6th, National Poinsettia Day Dec 12th, Wright Brothers Day Dec 17th, Winter Begins Dec 21st, Hanukkah Sunset Dec 1st to Sunset Dec 9th, Christmas Dec 25th, Kwanza Dec 26th to Jan 1st....
And I have things planned for everyday!! Plus a few things in between such as making some decorations!! I just love homeschooling its a lot of fun, and when I went to school for Early Childhood Education we were told that when we taught pre-schoolers NOT to just teach the holidays that we observe but to teach all of them so that we did not offend someone who did not observe etc etc..so I figure that by starting AJ on them this year IF he ever went to a public school he would already know.
I will post some of the things that we have done for FALL and thanksgiving pictures are on FACEBOOK if you really want to see.

Thanksgiving Week

This week is going to be FUN! We started yesterday by making handprint turkeys, the way we all did as kids, tracing your hand and then coloring it in. Except ours are a little different the feathers are made out of beads. Multicolored and brightly colored beads.
Today we are going to be making handprint turkeys again, BUT this time we are going to paint our palms brown, and fingers differnt colors to make the feathers and again i will let him decorate it with beads, sequins, etc..
Tomorrow will be pilgrims, I just need to figure out what to do with that, I am actually thinking I might just use pictures of our faces to make them, I always make one of whatever I am showing him how to make, and maybe wednesday we will make something with Aunt Donna since she will be here visiting us.
Thursday...is Thanksgiving so crafts are over...Friday we might go get a family picture taken and then Saturday is Adrian's birthday party!
Chuck-e-Cheese, wow thats gonna be FUN, tons of screaming kids at 2:30 on a saturday afternoon...lol, no really it will be fun I love being around kids. I would like to have TONS of them in my home!

Cleaning out...

So yesterday I started on a project that I am now regretting...cleaning out Adrian's toys and clothes again in his room, we did clothes in summer and had to do round 2 for the year. Well his birthday and Christmas are both coming up next month so I thought that maybe we should clean out his old toys that he either does that play with at all anymore OR are broken...well let me tell you having a child old enough to tell you what to get rid of and not is a pain when your trying to do this. Everything he saw me touch he was like I want to keep that!
Well I am still working on it, he also wants his room rearranged now and I originally agreed, BUT, after really thinking of the way he wants it set up there is not going to be ANY play room at all for him in there. So I may just need to set it up the way that he wants and show him that it won't work.
I did get his whole closet cleaned out...which if you saw his closet you'd die! He cleaned his room by himself he makes it look really nice, well what you can see, when I opened his closet to "organize" it he had tons of clothes mixed in with lots of toys just thrown in there. So I got all the clothes out of there, then when i did his dresser he just stuffed clothes where ever they would fit, I keep it organized, socks and under wear in the top, shirts in next drawer, pants etc...
Also I decided to start buying him plastic tubs for things like his legos he is now getting, and train track peices, I have to do 2 for trains because he has Thomas and GeoTrax.
Well enough babbling for today..will post pictures of the room when we get it done.

Reading Lists

Oprah's 2010 Reading Lists Ages 3 to 5

I am not really a huge Oprah fan, but I was searching online for some reading lists for Adrian so that when we go to the Library this week to return the 15 we checked out last time, I have an idea of what to look for instead of blindly searching this place (its pretty good sized Children section) so this is what I found.

All The World by Liz Garton Scanlon
Boo Hoo Bird by Jeremy Tankard
Book Fiesta! A Children's Day/Book Day Celebration by Pat Mora
Bubble Trouble by Magaret Mahy
Duck! Rabbit! by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
My Garden by Kevin Henkes
Opuestos: Mexican Folk Art Opposites in English and Spanish by Cynthia Weill
Wee Little Bunny by Lauren Thompson
What Can You Do With a Paleta? by Carmen Tafolla
Wombat Walkabout by Carol Diggory Shields
The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf (Classic Title)
Frederick by Leo Lionni (Classic Title)
Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell (Classic Title)
The Lion & The Mouse by Jerry Pinkney (Classic Title)
The Mitten by Jim Aylesworth, Reteller (Classic Title)
"More, More, More," Said the Baby by Vera B Williams

Other Classic Titles in same age group:
Harold and The Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson
Go, Dog, Go! by P.D. Eastman
Fortunately by Remy Charlip
Millions of Cats by Wanda Gag
The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter

Like I said I do not really like Oprah BUT I am going to attempt to read everything on this list with Adrian. And then there is also a list for boys I have yet to check out and then there is the ages 6 to 9 list that I am going to check out when that time comes.

Baby Things....

Well, as everyone knows I do not have an infant anymore (although I badly want one!) But I get all sorts of magazines and coupons packages. One in particular is for Gerber, and their Nestle Good Start Formula, after having been through all the formula mess with AJ I vow to never to do it again with any other children I have, so they are just garbage to me. But each pack comes with a mini magazine and I was absently flipping through it and came across an article "The Scoop on choosing a formula" again promoting THEIR formula. And the very next page is an article "Bonding at feeding time" which is an article about breastfeeding, which to me seems right, but just makes their efforts to sell their formula a waste of time!
The breastfeeding article talks about skin to skin contact and the bond that is made between a mother and child during that time, awesome!, I have a wish for any other children that I have (and I feel like a bad mother for not breastfeeding AJ) but I want them to never touch a bottle unless Matthew wants to feed them! In which case it will still be pumped breast milk. If there is anyone with advise out there OR has books they can loan me about attachment parenting OR breastfeeding, please leave a comment!
Love you all.

November schooling

I don't really talk to much about what Adrian and I are doing with his schooling, so I have decided to be more dedicated to it each week, for November we are doing fall and thanksgiving. This thursday, November 11 (Veterans Day) we will be doing some patriotic themed lessons to honor the veterans of our country. This past weekend, while shopping at the commissary, the VFW was handing out American Flags and Buddy Poppies and I thought that maybe Adrian should learn now about that history.



Also this month I mentioned Fall and Thanksgiving themed lessons at kidzone.com I found a great lesson for him about the leaves changing in the fall and it really is awesome going into detail about chlorophyll and xanthrophyll and carotene and what makes red and purple in the fall leaves. I am really excited about it. I am also going to have him doing different fall crafts that we can put up around the house and then after fall is over I will add them to our three ring binder where I keep all of his little craft things so I can save them forever.



As winter approaches I will get into winter themed lessons and I use Preschool Themes and Lesson for that at First-school.ws I really love this site it has printable templates and links to places for children all sorts of themes from holidays and letter and even animals.

Well that is all for now I will be posting after this week when we are done with the leaves changing. Love all of you!

In the works......

So Matthew and I have been discussing our future, trying to decide if he should re-enlist and stay in the Army or if we should get out and settle down somewhere and he join a civilian police force. Well we came to the conclusion of re-enlisting which means that we will probably (like 98% sure) we will be moving...not a big deal except that I will have to open myself up to things that I am not comfortable with meeting new people and all BUT I did sign up for this when I married my soldier. I will of course keep everyone updated on what we do and our final plans and all.

On a brighter note, the Holidays are in full swing now, my house is all decorated for fall and soon the Christmas Decorations will be coming out and I get to put my tree up and buy gifts and it will be so much fun just like every year.

Also November 27th will be AJs birthday party! We are doing it at Chuck e Cheese this year, invites are addressed and will be in the mail on monday!! And on his birthday I am going to make him whatever he wants for dinner and some cupcakes for us to eat. He will be given his Toy Story 3 DVD which I am sure we will be watching as a family that night.

So I am also trying to decide in this chaos that is my life wether or not to continue to do my business in this move, my year is up in April so I will have to re-new my contract thats $350 which in the long run is not much, but I am just trying to figure out if I will be able to do this on another post. I must pray about this hard and wait and see what happens.

And for everyone who reads this post I love you so much that you care about my pathetic life to read all of this.

my blogging

I totally do not keep up with a blog near as much as I should. I do have tons to write about, I just forget that I have a blog. Anywho, this past weekend (Oct 23rd) I had a home show all set up at my house with plans to make it a mystery hostess meaning I would draw a name from people who ordered at the show to see who won all the free hostess jewelry. Needless to say it was a failure and not one single person showed up I had it all set up TONS of food that I baked and had set out Matthew took AJ and then went off to hang out. I was so upset I actually cried a couple of times, but I got over it. I really need to get some business because I need the money really badly, bills are piling up and Matt just really can't do it alone but I love being home with AJ all the time and love we have freedom to go off and I can teach him.
On a more positive note I get to take AJ to the zoo saturday morning for the zooboo with Aleacia and her kids, I am so excited about this seeing as I do not get enough time to see my old friends and that really upsets me as well. I really miss them all some don't bother and then there is Aleacia and Danielle who still are willing to make plans with me and hang out and I just love that seeing as we all have kids now. AJ is just a bit older then their children but he still thinks that they are his best friends and that works out just fine for me.
November 27th we are having a birthday party for AJ at chuck-e-cheese. It was really cute when I asked him who he wanted to invite Charlotte and Lexi were top on his list, only it came out char and wexi and he has some trouble with L sounds. More to come on party later.

our homeschooling

We have been doing homeschooling most of the summer, AJ has done great. We have workbooks that he uses to write letters and numbers (which he doesn't really need anymore) and we do all sorts of crafts and activities. We all go hiking as a family and I use these as opportunities to teach him about different animals and trees and habitats. Tomorrow is going to be a good day, we are doing some writing activities and he is going to be learning about farm animals. And as our crafting activity we will be making a farm scene. Today we had a little break because we cleaned the house, listened to music and played with some toys.
I can't believe that he will be 5 soon, I just cannot come to terms with it. I still remember finding out that I was pregnant with him. I am in need of some ideas to help with his horrible attitude....he can be down right nasty.. oh well more to come soon.

Update

I started!! So no new baby on the way :( I have been trying since Oct 09 so, I am going to the DR Sept 1st. Hopefully they will have some good news for me and maybe I just really have bad timing when it comes to figuring out my cycle. If anyone has some advise for me on a better way to track my cycle. Thanks, Melinda

An Experince to Share

Well as I put in my previous post I found out that I was pregnant with my son Adrian in April of 2005. I was about 10 wks when they did the first ultrasound and I saw a tiny peanut with little legs kicking and his tiny heart fluttering, I cried. We got pictures of "the baby" that day and showed them to everyone!! I had my other appointments at the Naval Hospital where the Tricare OB is and everytime I saw a different DR. Once i swear I even had an Asian DR like the nightmare DR in Knocked Up. LOL. Well along comes July 20th 2005 My next ultrasound, where we were to find out if we were having a boy or girl, it was my grandma Linkers birthday (she died when my mom was 6 months pregnant with me) so if it was a girl I was going to name her Grace Elizabeth (which is still my #1 name if I have a girl) BUT to my dismay (only at the moment) they said its a BOY! I cried and my mom left the room Glen (Adrians dad) was so excited and his mom, who was there as well, was also excited. Well we left and the whole rest of that day I repeated when asked what it was "Stupid little penis" but after that I was actually pretty happy to have a boy on the way. I wrote down every little thing that happened in a scrapbook for him which I constantly update, with pictures of everything from something with him to our family having babies.
Well his due date was December 5th 2005 (Aleacia Hitchcocks birthday!) but he decided that was too long at 2:45am dec 1st my water broke, and then they let me sit for 27 hours before telling me that I was going to have to have a C Section. Couple of reasons, i was pushing with all my might and nothing was happening. He was sunny side up and my pelvic bone did not open up enough for him to get through. :( well he was born at 5: 17 am December 2nd (my Auntie Claire's birthday, R.I.P.) she was so excited her and my dad had a bet going his birthday is the 9th and wanted him to wait until then. Well thats that.
AFTER I could not hold him with the c section pain coming through the meds, I WANTED to breastfeed him and when i asked what to do the nurses said roll on your side, HELLO I just had a csection i couldn't move!! I asked will someone come help me roll over she said NO figure it out yourself..so my poor baby got formula :( I was so upset.....and it just got worse from there....

a little confused

Its been a while, but I am here to post again. Lets go back to July, my period came a week late and then it was not normal for me. This month according to everything I've checked I should have started around the 1st of August and have yet to BUT when I take a HPT it comes back NEG.
Lets go back 5 years to April 2005, when I found out I was having Adrian. I was 3 weeks past my period start date when I finally took a HPT. I want to make a DRs appt to talk to my dr about this but at the same time if my period is just messed up for some reason I do not want to look stupid.
I am going to post the results as I find out more of what is going on.

The Start

Not sure if anyone is really interested in reading a blog about my life, but its nice to have somewhere to put things i would like to remember. I have a son Adrian Hard who was born December 2nd 2005 he is great, a high energy fun loving child who had his bad moments but then he also has his moments where he can just look at you with those bright brown eyes of his and just melt your heart. Really life would not be what it is without him. True I had him young but I would not change it. I am married now to a great guy Matthew Elliott, we met August 29th 2008 and something was just right about it in December 2008 he asked me to marry him and August 22nd 2009 we were married in Chesapeake VA. I gained a brother in law who is about to get married in October to Ashley who is a great friend she also has a son the same age as Adrian. I love my parents so much they have given me a lot in this life and have helped out so much, when I have needed them they are always there. I have 3 sisters Donna who is 23 and in the Air Force she is currently deployed pray for her and all troops deployed to keep this country free. Barbara and Alicia who are both 20 almost 21 yes thats right TWINS. lol, they are as different as can be though, one is girlie and the other a tomboy who now rides a motorcycle and is taking auto mechanics in school. Barb is trying to get into modeling hope it goes well. Now that you know a bit about my family...I'll tell ya a blurb about me. I am 25 went to school for Medical Assisting but am now after 2.5yrs of working in the medical field a stay at home mom who has just started selling Premier Designs Jewelry. I want more children 2 or 3 and really want to home school all of my children.
I will write again soon. Love you Melinda