#1 Goal for 2009: No Goal Setting

I'm against goal setting. Just personally. You can set all the goals you want to, but don't think less of me when I don't jump in there with ya in your goal setting madness. I love a routine and I adore the heck out of some structure, but I won't go near the goal setting. Here's why. This happens every time I even think about setting a goal. Promise.

I get a goal in mind. I don't work toward goal at all. I feel like crap for not doing said goal. I lay around on couch feeling sorry for myself because I'm a worthless good for nothing who can't even stick to a goal. It's really bad.

So, I'm just against them. Therefore, I have not set any goals for 2009.

Well, with that in mind I went to the gym today. But I wasn't planning it because 'I don't set any goals'. I was wearing a velour hoodie and pants. Has anyone out there ever tried to workout in velour? Oh, it's bad. Please don't do it. The whole time I was working out all I could think was that the cute little gal working there (in her sports bra and shorty shorts, weighing in at about 95 lbs soakin wet with her spray tan and belly ring) would come over and say,' Ma'am, I'm going to need to ask you to get off of the elliptical machine because we're concerned your thighs may spark a fire.' But I made it. I made it through 45 min. What an accomplishment. I'm so proud of myself.

I'm not planning on going back next week, though. You know, unless I just get the urge. Like say, maybe Mon, Wed and Fri. But really, only if I feel like it. Not making plans, though.

Oops, My Bad...

Okay, so, once you've started the whole potty training thing can you go back and say, 'Nevermind. Forget all that you've learned and just start peeing and pooing in your pants again, thank you very much!'? I'm so happy that we're out of diapers, I'm just tired of the constant struggle. At least Emma Mae has started coming to me to tell me she needs to go. Unfortunately, she gets a little out before she comes to let me know. That's not so bad. The bad part is now that she understands that she is supposed to go in the potty, she doesn't want to go anywhere else and if she goes in her pants she pulls them off to take them to the laundry room. Yesterday, I noticed a smell that I knew meant nothing good was happening and walked down the hall to the playroom. There she was. Really making a good, yet totally disgusting, effort to get all of the poo off of the tile (thank goodness) floor with approximately 3 squares of toilet paper. Oh, there was poo everywhere. On chairs, in her hair, all over coloring books. But wasn't it sweet that she tried to clean it up? Then this morning, I go into her room to get her out of bed and she has pulled her diaper off at some point during the night and peed on the bed.

I'm just stuck. It's not really been that bad the whole time. Like I said, she doesn't have too many accidents anymore but now that she knows all about potty time, there's no going back. She hates having a diaper on and takes it off as soon as she has a moment alone. Overall, I'm happy that she's learning but it ain't easy.

Also, I'm in a quandry. My poor middle child Jackson. I think he hasn't been getting enough attention lately and I'm feeling bad about that. Everytime there is going to be a minute with just mom or dad one of the other attention hoggers (mostly Madi) interrupts on his time. It's like a bad episode of the Bachelor, only Josh and I are not hot young folks who say they want to find 'someone to settle down with' on national tv. Maybe I'll be able to think of something fun we can take just him to do. Although, I will say, in our defense, that he will want Jonathon to go because he doesn't really want to do anything by himself.

And yesterday I got a note from school that said I owed $37 for lunches served for Jackson and $28 for lunches for Jonathon. Really? I guess I didn't take lunch money up there a few months ago, like I thought I did. And do they think that maybe they could let you know when you're over about $5, maybe $10. That would be great. Maybe they could squeeze my kids lunches into the stimulus package.

Then, today, Madi came home and let me know that 'it's not okay to get the scissors out to cut someones butt.' You're right, Madi. That is absolutely not okay. What do you think happenned at school that made that a new rule?

And I have 3 ginormous pictures of my 3 oldest children and still no 4th two years later.

And I still have 8 days to go until the construction paper rings finally make it to Christmas.

Don't feel bad, though, you're laughing with me, not at me.

Potty Diary

If you don't care to hear about the potty habits of a 2 year old, this post is not for you. There will be talk of peeing and pooing, so don't say I didn't warn you...



Jonathon was almost 3 when he finally potty trained. I remember hoping that he would be potty trained for his 3rd birthday party. I think I was just sort of clueless and didn't understand the work that was involved. I thought that potty training was something that the kid would sort of do on their own. Like they would just decide one day that they needed to go to the potty. Jonathon used to go to a not very well traveled room in the house to do his business. I remember thinking it was so cute that he wanted his privacy. Hello, clueless wonder. I should have been snatching him up and running to the bathroom. But that was all back when I only had one child.



Emma Mae was born in Febuary the year that Jackson would turn 3 in July and Madi would turn 2 in June. That meant that when I brought her home from the hospital, I was buying diapers for 3 kids. This is what forced Jackson into potty training. I still didn't really know anything about potty training at this point and then I had a pivotal conversation with my friend Sharon. She explained that kids don't really know when they are wet with a diaper or a pull up on, so you need to just put them in undies and let them figure it out. (I swear that's a secret the disposable diaper companies don't want us to know.) Right around this time, Josh's grandma started bringing me underwear for Jackson and Madi. I thought, 'Ok, I get the hint.' It was like a convergence of all of these people saying, 'Just put them in underwear.' So, I had a newborn baby and I was trying to potty train Jackson. When Jackson would get on the potty and get his treat, Madi wanted to do it, too. I had the underwear from nanny, but I still remember thinking that I wished she didn't want to because I couldn't really handle a newborn and two potty trainers. Then I thought about only having one kid in diapers and changed my mind very quickly.



Emma Mae has been the last kid in diapers. So, I've waited for the cues and read up a little more on potty training. She started taking her diaper off and last week she pointed at her bum and said, 'I peed'. That was it. It's time. I had a few pairs of undies to hand down from Madi but I ran to the store to get some Dora ones that I knew she would love. The idea being if they love the character on the front they won't want to pee on them, right? The first few days she peed and pooed all over the place. But I had her in thick pants, so the mess wasn't too bad. I would try to plan my trips for a time when she had just gone potty and then not give her anything to drink while we were out. I thought I would try the treat trick with her, but it only infuriated her so I ended up giving a lot of treats with no peeing. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.



She has now officially pooed in the potty three times. That seems to be the hard one to convince them to do in the potty. I read somewhere that they feel like they are losing an organ when they do that and her face sure looked scared that first time. She's down to a couple of accidents a day because she or I will get distracted. She's doing great and I couldn't be more proud.



Potty training is definately just about training the parents to watch for signs and be ready to jump and run. It's a ton of work and I am sure happy to be done with it. Forever...

I Bought New Undies

This is not the sort of picture you would normally see on my blog. I'm a fairly modest gal and I am usually totally against nude pictures. I guess when people put up naked shots, at some point it must have seemed like a good idea. But it is never really a good idea, is it? Well, it seems like a good idea, so I'm going to go ahead and do it. Who cares what the future holds or what people will think, right? I mean, I'm not planning on running for political office any time soon, right? I'm doing it, political career be darned.

I bought these new undies at the store yesterday and I just thought they were so cute. And they are a size 2. I'm so proud. I hope you like them as much as I do.

I guess she got a little camera shy.

Biking, Anyone?

You are all aware by now how much I heart Jekyll Island. Well, another thing that Jekyll is known for, apart from Summer Waves, are it's fabulous bike paths. If you have not been biking over there, you are seriously missing out. You can bike the whole island on giant sidewalks that wind all the way around the length of the island. Anyway, I haven't been in a while, what with the having children and all, so, I decided the kids were old enough to give it a shot. And who better to go with than Echo's kids who were also out of school. I think everyone was really excited about it. Until we got there...




Look how cute Madi looks on her tiny little barbie bike. She and those tiny legs rode that tiny bike the entire way. I was so proud of her. (I'm emphasizing how tiny she and her bike are so that you can understand how hard it must be for that little body to keep up with big bodies on big bikes. She was a champ. Although, true to herself, she was a little klutzy.)

Then there were Jackson and Noah, who I don't know if you know this but are not afraid of anything on this earth. They rode really hard and were able to keep up with Jonathon and Christopher the whole time. And let me just say that that Noah has mad biking skillz. You know how everybody has their thing? Biking is MOST DEFINATELY his.

Then there was my sweet Bethany. She was totally hating my guts that day. I took the training wheels off of her bike to fit it in the car and the bikes that had training wheels on them at the rental place were too small for her. So, she had to sink or swim. But I think she just had her mind set that she couldn't do it. She did ride a few times without any help. But mostly she walked and pushed her bike. Bless her heart.

I rented the bikes for 4 hours. I was going to try to make it pretty far around the island. I realized after 1 hour and not a quarter of a mile into it that I wasn't really going to make it very far at all. After Bethany wiped out a few times, I decided to give her a break and just let everyone play on the beach. If you look closely in that picture she is trying to pull sandspurs off of her pants. Bless her heart. Did I mention it was about 75 degrees and breezy?

I guess I needed a break, too.

I don't know why, but I love this angle.

Except for the sun.

And my son. Who will never smile for a picture.

Pretty as a picture.

Do you see what Emma Mae is doing? And that snarky little smile on her face? And does anyone see the irony in the fact that her shirt says, 'S is for sweet'?


She's pondering whether she should do it or not.

I feel sure that if I had not intervened the devilish side of her would have won.

Then they walked to look for shells. See the St. Simons lighthouse over to the left?

What a crew.
I'm just thankful they let me tag along. I hope they want to go back. After I workout a little more, though.