Tampa Bay Ski Team

So, we decided to go to Oldsmar and see the Tampa Bay Ski team practice. It's free! This is what the weather looked like when we got there.



However, it really only sprinkled, and we just sat in our car for that part.







Ryan after the ski show on the way home.



Last night was the lock in with the youth group at church. We did the scavenger hunt and Ryan was so good. It was hilarious - all the things we did around town with the kids (asking a cop to sing "Bad Boys", getting a fireman's autograph and asking if he has seen 101 Dalmatians, get strangers to sing and do the motions to YMCA, etc, etc.). It was fun and our team won! Then we had pizza with them. Then it was off to do laser tag, but Ryan started getting fussy, so we decided just to come home. He had, had a big day and was totally off schedule. During the day we had gone to my friend's daughter's 2nd birthday party. It was really cute. She had baked ladybug cupcakes and hand painted ladybug gift bags for the kiddos. Ryan got one, too. :O) Sean even got to stop by on his lunch break.

Today, while Sean worked, me and Ryan went to the kids consignment store. I got 4 books, a Boppy slipcover and 2 kiddo movies for $10!. Then to BRU to get a new diaper bag, a teether cloth and a monkey picture for his nursery. Ryan got a check from his GREAT GREAT grandmother, so it was a fun little shopping trip and I think I did pretty well money wise.

Now we are back home and watching our first preseason football games - the Bucs on one TV and the Bears on another one (the smaller TV of course!). hee hee

Hey Becca, look, it's a happy Ryan! :) yay lol

Heritage Village and our weekend

Here are some pics from the weekend, and one of my SIL and Ryan when she was here.








We went to Heritage Village on Saturday. It's a free park and it was really interesting. We enjoyed ourselves. It's basically a history of Pinellas County and they had different buildings and homes (the real ones, only a few were replicas) that you could walk through. Only horrible thing is I saw not one, but TWO snakes! I think I handled myself well; Sean does not, well he said I did better than I would have 3 years ago, so improvement has been made! We went for coffee and rented Bride Wars after that. Yesterday we went to church, Ryan slept through service, so we actually got to hear the message. We took Ryan swimming in Dad's pool. We had gone to K-Mart to get him a floatie, but they were 6+ months. He's still not old enough. Aaawwww! We ate dinner at Chili's and rented Transformers. Friday was Capagna's and cat sitting.

Ryan laughed out loud for the first time on Saturday. He has a ton of different noises now. He also is starting to bat at things and he is definitely paying more attention to objects. He will hold onto things much more now, too, especially my hair...ouch!

OMGosh!

So, Friday is cleaning day. I thought I would probably not get much done. I fed Ryan and then put him down for a nap (yes, in the swing), but he only slept like half an hour or so. I tried changing him, walking him, going outside with him, his chair, etc., etc., so I finally decided he was still hungry. After feeding him and changing him again, I tried to put him in some of his different play things, but no. So, then I got out the carrier and he was totally content. Way harder on Mommy to clean with him attached to me, but hey I got a good workout and that's good because I have been feeling super fat lately. God has a sense of humor! Ryan just needed his mommy and that made me feel wonderful. So, we finished up, all I had to do was vacuum the stairs, which I can't do with him in the carrier. I gave him a quick pep talk and some cuddles on our bed and then I put him in his crib. I put him in there to look at his mobile and he loves looking at the patterns on his bumper. He has NEVER fallen asleep in there. We have NEVER even tried. I was NOT trying this time. I was just hoping his mobile and bumper would keep him occupied for 5 minutes so I could finish up cleaning. I walk in his room after I'm done and lo and behold, this is what I find:



He has been in there sleeping since 4 and it is 4:30 now! I am in shock! I am happy, but also a little sad. My little one is turning into a big boy who can sleep in his crib all by himself AND put himself to sleep!

Parenting Tip #385

Long- haired, furry stuffed animals are not safe around unsupervised 3-month-olds. Me and Ryan had some errands to run this afternoon and I thought I would give him a stuffed animal to hang onto while riding in the car. He seemed to really like my idea, as well. Well, when we got to our first stop and I go to get him out of the back seat, he has FUR all over his mouth, in his mouth, in between his clenched fingers, on his legs, etc., etc. !!!!!!!!! AAAHHH! Lesson learned! I was wondering why I didn't hear a peep from him the whole way there! I have the mirror, but I couldn't see what he was doing. Stinker!

So, I accepted my spot into the nursing program and sent in my letter. 4 1/2 months until school starts........again! And a special thanks to my darling husband who is going to put off going back to school for the time being so that I can go back.......again. He is such a wonderful support system. We had decided that it would not be good for us to have Ry, both in school and him working full-time. It would just be too much for our baby and our marriage and everything else we have going on. He will get his degree after I am done. I guess my AS was not enough....and my 270 credits! Sheesh!

R.N.!?

I got accepted into the nursing program. I received the acceptance letter today. Classes start in January. It is REALLY hard to get into the program at SPC. I am not sure what to do, but I have to decide fairly quickly (by August 15th). I am super scared to do it. I dropped out of nursing school when I was 21 because it was too hard. I also don't want to leave Ryan. I LOVE being a SAHM. I also have ALWAYS wanted to be a nurse. It has been a lifelong dream. I don't know what God has planned for us. I am not totally sure if He wants me to do this. I do know before I opened the letter I knew I would be disappointed if it had not been an acceptance letter and that I would be excited and confused if it was. If I could map out my life I would have two dozen kids, a big house with a lot of land in the country, I would home school our kids, they would love the Lord with all their hearts, my marriage would be strong (it is now), we would travel and I would be near all of our family and friends. So, does nursing fit into this if I could plan my life? Well yes and no. If I ever had to go back to work, I would only want to be a nurse. If I had to go back to some other job, I would, but it would not ever be exactly the job I would want. Could I see myself with a ton of kids and working two days a week or something and still being a SAHM, home schooling and having the best of both worlds? Yes, I think so. If we did have a ton of kids, we would probably need some extra income any way and RNs make GREAT money. Maybe God will bless us with Ryan and no other kids and I will be a full-time nurse or maybe not. Maybe we will have just one more kid and I will still just work part-time. I guess I could come up with a million scenarios, but I just don't know what will happen....along with the rest of the world! I am scared to death to pursue this dream. Nursing school is HARD! BUT I envy every RN out there. How do I come up with a decision? I really need the Lord to tell me what to do, and I definitely need the "yes, do it" or "no, don't" literally spelled out for me and maybe smack me in the face with the answer, because my own feelings are getting in the way from hearing what He has to say. But, yah, I should maybe celebrate getting into something that is really hard to get into......

Miami

We were so worried how Ryan would do in the car down to Miami and back in one one day - that's 10 hours!!!! Well, he did great on the way down and great on the way back, however, he did not do so well at the baseball game. O yah, let me back up. My FIL and SIL Hillary are visiting us from CO and CA. They got here on Friday. Yesterday we went to Miami to see the Cubs play. They are die hard fans. Any way, we got to the stadium early and walked around and Ryan was doing great. He got hungry and it took a while for me to find a place where I felt comfortable nursing him, but God opened up a table for me to feed him. Then we got back to our seats and the game started. Ryan started screaming. Every time fans started yelling and cheering, a look of terror would come over his face because all the noise was scaring him so bad and then he would start screaming. I let this go on for about 5 minutes before I walked him up to the concession area and tried to find some quiet places to calm him down. I went into a store for a bit and then stood out by an information desk. They said I could go into the first aid room and sit on the couches in the AC. The paramedics in there said I could go into another room, keep the lights turned off and lay down on the stretchers with Ryan. I said no thanks. Ryan calmed down and fell asleep and then I got back up and walked in front of the info desk again to stand in front of the fans and look at the game on TV. I was feeling so horrible for Ryan and resigned myself to the fact that I would probably be standing there for the next 3 hours because no way was I going to subject him to that frightening experience again. Well, the guy behind the info desk said he could take me up to the club level and I could sit in a big comfy chair in the AC and watch the game on the big screen. I quickly got Sean from his seat and the guy took us up a service elevator and into the club level seating. My FIL and SIL decided to stay in the seats we paid for. So for the rest of the game we got to stay in nice chairs and watch the game out of the heat and noise and Ryan was so much better. He ate and took a very long nap. Unfortunately, we couldn't be with the rest of the family and Sean had to watch the game on a TV instead of outside live, but anything for our son and it definitely was a hookup! Gosh, I started crying I felt so bad for my little man. It sounds like such a little thing, but if you could have seen how scared he was and the looks on his face, it was heart breaking! O and on the way up to the club level, we ran into one of the real Village People (the Indian) because they were performing after the show - ha! Too funny!

I just have to say God was really looking out for us because I was feeling so hopeless not knowing what to do for my son and he just opened a door for us and took care of us!

Here are the pics before going up to the club level.






We got back around 3:30 this morning and we are all just trying to wake up now!