One last post before...

...Kayzee turns 1.  That's right, Kayzee will be 1 on Sunday, September 4.  I cannot believe a year has gone by so fast and that a year ago I was teaching, 9 months pregnant, wondering if she was going to arrive earlier than planned and how Memphis was going to handle having a new baby sister.  It all worked out and a year later we are a happy family of four and I can't imagine anything different.

This post is just going to be some random updates of things going on and of course some pictures of my adorable kids.  I seriously LOVE my children and can't get enough of them.  It is really hard to leave them every school day.  I love them even when Kayzee is up all night screaming and Memphis is throwing one of his screaming, hitting, biting, attitude bearing tantrums.  Their kisses and hugs, and smiles make it all worth it:)

 Here is a pic of Kayzee's one and only tooth!

CONCUSSION UPDATE
A lot of you were wondering how Memphis was doing after his mild concussion.  If you don't know what happened you can read about it in my last post.  Memphis is just fine and back to his usual, crazy, self.  It actually has helped our shopping trips because when he starts to stand up in a cart or go crazy I just have to remind him of his "owie" and he sits right down and behaves.

He is communicating a lot better and has started copying everything we say.  He recognizes and can point out colors, numbers, and letters.  He knows opposites like singing high and low.  I noticed that we must say "you're welcome" a lot in our house because Memphis says it after everything.  His favorite food is pizza or "peetzee" according to him.

He is a night owl (like his mommy) which is bad because then I have to wake him up to go to Day Care and he would probably be better if he got more sleep and woke up on his own.  He can reach the light switch in his room so I have to wait till he is asleep and then go turn it off.  We put him in his room and he stays up reading books till he falls asleep.  Seriously just like his mommy.  He loves to have books read to him which I love.  The older he gets the worse his tantrums get.  And he loves to color, play sports (especially baseball), fly a plane on the wii, and he LOVES bubbles.

BACK TO SCHOOL
It is bittersweet when summer is over and a new school year begins.  Summer was great this year especially since I was not 8 months pregnant and miserable.  As proof, our utility bill was $50 less a month this summer than it was last summer when I was pregnant.

This summer I got to play with my children and spend every minute with them.  I was glad Kayzee started walking before school started because I got to witness her first steps and watch her grow and get the hang of walking.  On a side note I tried uploading videos of Kayzee walking and I can't get them to work.  Any suggestions???

Now on to school.  This is my 7th year of teaching (crazy!) and my 5th year teaching PE.  I decided to change how I do the core curriculum this year so I don't get bored doing the same thing every day for a week with every class and I learned a ton of new games so I am excited for this school year.  I have had the 6th graders since they were in 1st grade so basically every grade level has had me since they were in 1st.  They all know me and my rules and they are great kids.  I have over 1,000 students and I see them once a week.  I know all of their names except the first graders and the new kids.  So far I have had a BLAST every day and have had so much fun with the kids.  It really helps having a job I love because I think it would be even harder to leave my kids if I hated it.  It is already hard as it is.

KAYZEE LYNN
Kayzee will not crawl anymore if she can help it and if we try to help her walk or hold her hand she gets mad.  She can say "what's that?" and puppy.  She gives high fives and open mouth kisses;)  She loves to laugh and LOVES her brother.  She is spunky and gets into EVERYTHING.  I forgot about that stage from when Memphis was that age and how frustrating it is cleaning up the same things every day that she should not be getting into.

Kayzee and her sleeping???  Seriously this has been the most sleep deprived year for me.  Kayzee still does not sleep all night.  Some nights she wakes up screaming for HOURS in the middle of the night or she just will not go to bed at all and just screams.  She has tummy and bowel problems and we are going to the dr. about it in a few weeks.  I can count on one hand the number of times she has slept at least 7 hours straight without waking up.  The rest of the nights this year it has only been 4-5 hours.  EXCEPT the past 3 nights she has slept better and I hope she keeps it up.  And by better I mean...
8pm-11pm sleep
11pm-1am scream
1am-7am sleep
At least I get the majority of my sleep before I have to wake up instead of her screaming from 4-6am like she use to.  But I LOVE her and I love having a girl to dress up.

IN-HOME PERSONAL TRAINER
So I have been trying out way too many workout programs and diets and not sticking with them because of too many excuses...too boring, not hard enough, too hard, starving, no self-control, wanting something different, no one to help me, I am addicted to caffeine and chocolate, etc.  We finally got a wii, and I bought yet another workout video but this one is actually a lot different than all the other work-out DVDs I have.

I use to go to Gold's gym and I had a personal trainer and I LOVED it.  That was before I got pregnant and started having kids, back when I was in shape and running half marathons.  I am trying to lose my baby fat so I knew I needed the motivation like my trainer was.  I was failing at all the other DVDs because they were the same things over and over and I got bored and they were easy to skip and just not do them.  I just didn't want to pay for an expensive trainer and gym membership so I found "The Biggest Loser Challenge" for the wii.

You put in your measurements and take a fitness evaluation so the program knows what kind of shape you are in.  It then takes that and creates different workout routines that are DIFFERENT every day and lets you decide the time limit you can accomplish that day.  Most days I can work out 30-60 min while my kids nap after school.  Because the routines are different every day I actually want to see what I am going to be working out and it works my whole body so it feels great and I am not bored.  The trainer yells at you and tries to get positive suggestions in your head when you start slacking (the wii remote tracks your movements) so I actually love the kick in the butt motivation.  And yes, sometimes it is easy to come home from school and just want to sit and watch TV or read but I make Danny call me and make sure I start working out and since the program tracks your workout and how well you did I know Danny will come home and make sure I did my workout for the day so I actually feel accountable.

As far as dieting I would say I am not going on a crash diet completely avoiding bad foods, I am just eating BETTER than I was and eating LESS.  I do count calories because DUH you have to eat less than you burn off to be able to lose weight so that is a motivation to watch what I eat.  I eat less junk food because I don't think I would be able to completely stop without pigging out one day.  I have started drinking diet soda because I still crave the bubbles but at least I am not drinking a ton of calories and diet isn't the best tasting so I am letting it help me get off soda completely because I am drinking less!  The biggest loser helps you figure out the number of calories to eat based on how much you work out and it has yummy healthy recipes.  I lost 4 pounds in 3 days so I think I have found a winner and here's to getting down to my pre-wedding weight!  I CAN DO IT:)  

COUPONING and WASHING DISHES
So a few months back I mentioned I was going to try the world of couponing and see how it went.  Well, I have been trying it for 2 months now and I have saved us over $100 a month on our normal grocery budget.  And since I was able to stock up on laundry, cleaning, and health and beauty supplies, I won't have to buy that kind of stuff for over 2 years saving us even more throughout the year.  I am hooked especially when I can get a lot of stuff for free or under a dollar and here is my best shopping trip to date that I saved the most money on...
6 packages of Huggies diapers (worth $60)
10 cans of soup (worth $10)
10 boxes of cereal (worth $25)
2 stainless steel waterbottles (worth $10)
4 cans of almonds (worth $10)
6 boxes of ziploc bags (worth $15)
6 boxes of Kleenex (worth $10)
So a grand total of $140 and guess what my out-of pocket expensive was...drumroll please...$24!!! Seriously I only paid $24 for all of that!

All of this was purchased at Walgreens using register rewards, in-store coupons, and manufacture coupons.  SWEET DEALS!

So who hates washing dishes???  I HATE it.  When we moved into our house we got a home warranty and I am glad we did because after using the dishwasher two times it just stopped working.  Our dishes would come out exactly the same way we put them in and sometimes worse covered in water spots.  So Danny tried a few things like cleaning the drain out but it didn't help so we called the warranty.  They sent a guy out and he replaced the pump.  That still did not help so we called again (I didn't want to pay to get a new one since we had the warranty) so they said a different guy would come look at it.  Well he never showed up, or cancelled, or would not call us back so we tried the warranty place again and they sent a 3rd referral guy to come out.  Meanwhile it's been months of dishes stacking up and Danny and I fighting over who was going to wash them all.

Well, this guy took one look, fixed one thing that was out of place and told me to add 1/4 cup vinegar (because of our hard water) to the water at the beginning of the cycle and POOF it magically cleans our dishes.  It cleans like the dishwasher is brand new.  I don't rinse a single dish, put them in dirty right after we eat, some of the dishes even sit in the dishwasher for days before we fill the washer up and run it and seriously they come out sparkling clean.  No water spots, no stuck on food, the dishes look better than when I bought them.  Isn't it amazing what a little vinegar can do.  And of course I had coupons for vinegar so I stocked up on bottles of vinegar for 12 cents each!!!  Even better.

WOW...long post!  Definitely time to go get ready for bed and hope that Kayzee stays asleep...