Yes I am INSANE!

Ok so I think the whole breast feeding thing has done the best it can with the post baby weight loss. I still have 15 lbs to lose to get back to where I was. I want to be 40 & fabulous on my birthday next year. Gotta bring in that new decade with a BANG! I planned on running every night, but that's kinda hard with the kids, dinner, bed time routine. So I'm gonna try the Insanity 60 day workout. Yes I must be insane to try it, but I'm gonna go for it. I found it more than half price off online so I won't be out too much $ just in case. Hopefully in 60 days I'll be a hot mama. I'm tired of seeing photos of myself & being disappointed. My mirror is a liar, I'm convinced. When I get up & ready in the morning I think to myself "I look pretty good" but if a photo is taken or I take a quick glance in a different mirror at a store, I about scare myself. Nope no more. Time to get into shape. I'll post before & after photos when I'm done. Wish me luck!

Rest In Peace Sweet Taffy

I found out yesterday a friend of mine passed away this past weekend. It was a sudden, accidental death. I found out via facebook. There was an article posted by a friend about the woman down the street who was found dead in her home. I read the article & thought "how sad". The next day the same girl who posted the article said the police released the name of the woman.  Out of curiosity I read the article & as soon as I saw her name I felt a lump in my throat & my stomach felt like someone punched it. I couldn't believe I read her name. She was so beautiful, loving, full of life, had a great laugh & she was my Texas gal. She was also a mother of 4, which really made me sad to think of her children growing up without their mother. I instantly thought of my children & held back the tears. I pray for her & her family members as they grieve & try to get thru this time. I can't seem to get her smiling face out of my mind. I'm grateful to have known her. Thank you Taffy for coming into my life even if it was briefly. You will be missed.

It's my job

Yesterday morning after I dropped off my 5 y/o at preschool I set off to run my errands. I only have 2 hours to get it all done so I cram in as much as I can in that allotted time, but with a 2 y/o & a 6 mo old in tow it's not always easy. My first stop was the post office & I mailed 4 items. An older lady (probably in her 60s) was coming in & saw me rounding up my son & picking up the baby in her carrier. She made the comment "I don't know how you moms do it with the little ones." I just smiled & said "yeah". It got me thinking. Did she ever have children? Maybe she couldn't relate? Maybe she did have children & she never went out with them in tow or maybe she just left them with a sitter. Who knows? What I do know is that I just do it. It's like being on auto pilot. I'm a mom & I if I want to get stuff done then the kids come along & I make do the best way I can. Yes sometimes they act like caged crazy animals hyped up on sugar, but sometimes they are very cooperative & angelic (which makes me wonder when the storm will hit later). I've learned to include them to help (like putting a letter in the mail slot or carrying a package or helping pick grocery items off the shelf) which makes it easier. I may not always be graceful at it, but it gets done whatever it is. It's part of being a mom. All you moms out there know that we are on constant alert. We have to see everything all the time while doing our mom job. We can juggle a dozen things at the same time. We have to have fast reflexes to grab that toddler as they zoom out the store & make a dash for the parking lot while at the same time carrying the groceries & the baby. I never knew being a mom would be so challenging & rewarding at the same time until I became a mom. As many of us have said, "it's the hardest job you'll ever have, but the best job too". Some day I'll get to sit back & relax, but until them I'll be like the Tasmanian Devil from the Bugs Bunny cartoon whirling around like a tornado.

26 DAYS!!!

That's right in 26 days the movers will come to pack us up. Kind of bitter sweet since this will be our last move (that's the plan anyway). I'm ready to hit the road, but will miss this house & what it stood for (just a little, no tears shed on my part). It was this house that we brought 2 babies home to. Dalton & Emry have only known this as home, but they're both too small to ever remember any of it. I'm so glad I'm always taking pictures. I'm ready for our next adventure & our new home. Yay!
To prepare for the movers I've been de-cluttering & packaging things up. I always like to put toys in zippered plastic container bags so the movers aren't handling them all. This morning I separated the items for trash, garage sell, & keepers. I've got all the smaller toys in Dalton's room packed up & ready to go. I also threw other papers & crap away that's just been sitting. Next will be the toys in Annika's room (Lord help me on that one). The play room downstairs will be last since it has the most stuff. Our church is having a parking lot garage sale in a couple weeks so I'll be taking all these toys, clothes & baby items there to sell. I hope to get rid of all of it so I don't have to bring it home. What doesn't get sold will possibly get donated. The next 4 weeks are going to fly by so I have to hunker down & get it all done. Buuuuut today the weather is overcast & dreary so I just want to sit on the couch w/my babies, watch a movie & eat popcorn. I will justify this by thinking of the work I did this morning. Dalton's room is good to go & the guest room barely has anything so really 2 rooms down :-)

Stubborn stubborn man!

I've known my husband now for almost 14 years (married almost 11) and he's a stubborn man. Yes I know I can be just as stubborn, but when it comes to our health he doesn't budge & it drives me crazy! He's always been tall & thin (not fair), but the last couple of years he's fluffed up a bit, but still within his height/weight ratio. His last PT test for the military he scored an excellent, but today he was told he has high cholesterol (he was told this probably a year ago as well). So what does he do/say? Refuse medication. Grrrr....His reason? He scored an excellent on his test. Ugh! Even the lady who gave him his results was frustrated with him, but he doesn't care. I have 4 very good reasons why he should care & do something about it (kids & me). I don't want him to suffer from a stroke or heart attack. I kinda want him to stick around until we are really old :-) So I ended the conversation with "I'm going to tell your mom". I'm pretty sure that won't change his mind on the matter, but if I have someone else on my side to gang up on him then maybe the pestering will get us somewhere. Hey I can dream, right?

Look mom, mom look!

As a parent we hear these words daily "look mom", but it seems like my 5 year old daughter has to say these at the most inappropriate times....like when I'm driving. I've told her "I can't turn around & look at you or else I can wreck, do you want us to wreck?" She smiles & tilts her head with her usual "nooo". I'm thinking that I should glue a bunch of eyes all around my head so that it appears I am looking at her all the time. Maybe then she'll ask me not to look since my eyes are in her direction at all times. Now before I get the negative remarks, I do look at whatever it is she wants me to see, but just not when I'm driving or if I'm in the middle of changing a poopy diaper. I know how many precious & wonderful things they do when they think we are not looking as well as when they ask us to look. I know I could miss out on something great if I never took the time to look up from what I'm doing. Today her "look mom, mom look" while I was driving her to school was this: slowly moving her head & her eyes from her left to her right. Uhhh....yeah not sure what that was about, but the silliness of it did make me laugh. What will her next prompt be?

Changes coming our way

Well here we are on the verge of a new beginning for the Bergmark clan. Hubby is finally retiring from the air force after 24 years. Of course he planned on retiring a couple years ago, but with surprise baby Emry he had to stay in a bit longer. I honestly don't know how I'm going to feel being in one place FOREVER. I'm  used to moving every couple years (& I enjoy it) so this will be different. Being at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois for the last 3.5 yrs has been our longest assignment the last 12 years together (the last 20 years I've been moving every 2.5 yrs or so) so to say I've been itching to move is an understatement. Just for document purposes I have lived in the following places in this order: Texas; Ohio; Columbus Air Force Base, Mississippi; Turkey; Las Vegas, Nevada; The Azores; Vandenberg AFB, California; The Azores (yes again); Scott AFB, Illinois. I love traveling & seeing the world. Thanks to the military life I've been able to visit other countries like Germany, Portugal, Switzerland, Prague (Czech Republic), Cyprus, Italy, Madeira, Lichtenstein, & Austria...I think that's it. I still have so many other places I want to see.
 
So back to where I was going with our move. Hubby has been determined the last 14 years on retiring in Alaska, but then I came along :-) Uhhh no, sorry. I'll go there on vacation & I know it's beautiful, but no. So after much debate we have settled on Colorado Springs area where we'll still have the snow, but we'll get the other seasons as well. Of course Arizona is still a possibility if a job comes a knocking, but CO is our #1 pick. I'm anxious to get on our way & have a home to call our own where I can paint the walls whatever color I want...woop woop! You military spouses know what I mean by this. But there are still several big moments to come before we get into new home mode.

1-Annika graduates from pre-school & I'm going to put on a "end of school/bon voyage Annika" party so she can have all her classmates & other friends come.
2- The movers come to pack us out (yay!).
3- Hubby's retirement ceremony (his official retirement date is Oct 1st, but we're not sticking around).
4- Our cross country vacation summer in our travel trailer (thus one of the reasons for this blog)
5- House hunting (I've always wanted to be on one of HGTV's home buying shows so we'll see)

So if you want to follow us on our journey then I welcome you. I'm sure my "vision" of how I see things happening will turn out the complete opposite of what I intended. Be warned though, I love my children like nothing on this earth so I will talk about them, post pics of them & praise their accomplishments like a cheerleader pumped up on caffeine. So if you don't want to read about kids then skip those parts & just read the other stuff. This blog also serves a purpose as my memories of my babies since Lord knows I can't remember squat these days. So let the good times roll.