I don't have much time right now, but just wanted to update this about the situation with my mom. Yesterday she was granted a restraining order, a kick out order and an order to get her car back. With a little detective work we figured out that he was staying with his sister. Little more detective work and we found out where she lived. With one quick move by my brother and brother-in-law, my step dad was served and the car was taken back. If he tries to take it again she can report it stolen and he can go to jail. Life is starting to look up again!

I just want things to go back to normal! Especially for my mom, sister, brother-in-law, niece and brother. Things have been so messed up and up in the air since Christmas Eve... I have so much on my mind that I don't even remember what I wrote about in my last post. Just bare with me if I end up repeating myself.

I'm pretty sure I mentioned what happened on Christmas eve. I suppose I'll give a little background info and more details on what's going on.

My mom and step dad have been together for 15 years, married for 12. Right before they got married my mom bought a house. The house is only in her name. (So grateful for that right now!) They didn't have any joint bank accounts. (Because of him really messing up his credit long before they met he can never get a bank account...) For the past several years he has been working far from home. There's really not that much work here in San Diego for a union carpenter. It seems like most of the work is in nearby Las Vegas. So he has been living out there for the past 12+ months. (He had been living in Las Vegas the whole time I was staying at their house when I was going through my divorce.) Every several months my mom would fly there or he would drive home to visit.

On the Saturday before Christmas he drove home because he went on disability for some work related injury. Apparently when he called my mom he said he was coming home on Wednesday. She convinced him to stay there and come home on Saturday. My moms reasoning was that she wanted a chance to clean the house top to bottom before he came home.She didn't have a day off til Friday. Anyone who knows Hans knows that he would have FLIPPED out if the house was a mess when he came home. She knew that he would have been in a bad mood the whole time he was there if he came home and found the house a mess. HE looked at the whole thing with suspicion.

Christmas Eve while we were all out in the front room he was in his room going through cell phone records. He found that my mom and some unknown number had been texting back and forth for about month. It was some guy that she knows at work. After talking to my mom about it I know that she NEVER cheated on my step dad. She's just not that kind of person. She had become friends with this guy at work and they were sending each other stupid messages back and forth. Sure, there was flirting involved, but definitely NO cheating and nothing beyond text messages. He didn't even let my mom explain anything. He assumed she was cheating. There was no changing his mind. She told me that she does feel bad about the texting and she even told this guy that he needed to stop doing it because she didn't think it was right. (That was about 3 weeks ago.)

I still can't believe he flew off the handle over some text messages!

The past few days have been a blur. Is it really Monday today?

The day after Christmas (or maybe it was ON Christmas) my mom brought the cops with her to the house because she needed to get a few things. He had barricaded the doors so no one could get inside the house. He was refusing to let my mom (or anyone else) inside the house. The cops were no help. They said they couldn't do anything without a court order. He had a right to be there... (How about my mom's right to her things?!)

My step dad has continued to harass her all weekend with nasty text messages and phone calls. I told my mom to stop answering her phone! He threatened to have her cell phone shut off. He did for about 12 hours... then he had it turned back on because how else could he continue to harass her? He called her one night and left a creepy voicemail saying, "Just wanted to tell you something... You need to watch yourself so you don't get buuuuurned." I listened to it. It was creepy and I could hear the hatred in his voice.

Oh yeah, prior to her leaving he stole all of her credit cards, debit cards, medical card, driver's license, cash, etc etc... Took it right out of her purse!

On the 26th he ended up calling me... I was sitting at my dad's house getting ready to celebrate Camron's birthday with the family.

He asked me if I knew what was going on. I played dumb. He went on with this sob story about how my mom did him wrong... blah blah blah... I sat and listened. I listened until he told me, "I went to her work with all of my proof because I'm trying to get her fired." Ooooo wow. I felt a jolt of adrenaline rush through me. I was LIVID! I went off on him like I have never done before. I started cussing. F this and F that... and I don't normally cuss. I think I said something along the lines of...

"No! F*** YOU! Listen to me now! I don't care if my mom cheated on you or not! You DO NOT F*** with her job! That is her lifeline and you don't F*** with that just because you have an F***ing broken heart! She needs her job to continue on with the life that YOU are deciding to leave! She didn't F***ing choose this! YOU DID!"

I was practically screaming at my phone. Some where in there he hung up on me so I don't know how much he heard. Oh man, I was so mad. During the phone call everyone in the house dropped their jaws when they saw me walk outside cussing away at him. The only thing that was said when I walked back in was. "Wow, babe. That was hot!" Thank goodness for Josh. LOL.

Later that same night I took my mom and brother to go get 2 phone lines on my account. Now he can't hang that over my mom's head any more. I was hoping that he wouldn't be able to find out the new number... but he did. My mom was playing around with her new phone and she sent a text from her new one to her old one.... At 5am the next morning she got a call from Hans on the new phone. He had been monitoring her cell phone usage this whole time! He noticed a new number so he called it trying to find out what she's been doing and who she's been calling! Wow....

If you're still reading this I just want to say thank you. I know I'm kind of all over the place....

Hans is trying everything in his power to make my mom's life absolutely miserable. He has threatened suicide. He had threatened to trash the house. He has threatened to vandalize her car by spray painting the word Whore on it. He called to make a formal complaint against her at her job. Telling them that he plans to sue because he is a victim in all of this. (He says it's her work's fault for letting these 2 people manage to have an affair.) He has threatened to kill the guy that was texting her. He has called and told everyone who will listen what a whore my mom is... including our Bishop at Church!

Yesterday he took things one step further. He stole her car from work! He drove his niece over to her work and gave her the car keys to drive it out of the parking lot. Again, the police were NO help. Since he's the primary owner and my mom is the co-signer on the car and they're married he's allowed to let anyone he wants to drive it.

When she got off work last night her, my brother, Josh and I went over to the house to see if he was still there. No sign of him or the trailer that used to be parked in the driveway. All of the contents of my mom's car was piled up in the driveway. So they have control of the house once again.... Although I doubt it's even close to being over with. I'm still waiting to hear from my mom to see how things went today.

Hopefully I'll get around to posting Christmas pictures tomorrow....

Unfortunately my mom is going through a really hard time right now. I won't post about all the details just yet, but on Christmas Eve my step dad asked my mom for a divorce. He couldn't even wait until after the annual family Christmas party to do it. We were all gathered around their living room. Enjoying the meal that my brother-in-law cooked. Laughing, talking... My mom told everyone that Hans (my step dad) wasn't feeling well so he was in his bedroom the whole time. We were only there for an hour when my mom was called back to her bedroom. A few minutes later she came out and announced to everyone that the party was over and we had to leave because Hans was kicking us out. WHAT??? He told her he wanted a divorce and that she had better pack her bags and leave NOW. Well, he was not only kicking out my mom... but my 19 year old brother who lives there AND my sister, her husband and my 19 month old niece. (The 3 of them had just come up on hard times and moved in there the weekend Josh and I got our apartment.) So on Christmas Eve my family was scattered.

We were all confused as we made our way to the front door that night. The food was left on the dinning room table... all of it (the turkey, the ham, the mashed potatoes) went to waste. The pies were left on the kitchen counter. Hans hasn't let anyone come back to get anything. He has barricaded himself in the house. He has completely lost it. My mom thinks it has something to do with the Percocet he's on right now. (He's not a drinker and has never done drugs... so he has no tolerance for that kind of stuff.)

I'm not sure what's going to happen from this day forward, but I know that Hans has said some pretty unforgivable things to a lot of people in the past 2 days. My whole family has heard about what's going on and no one is going to let him live this down. Especially my brother and sister. My niece is basically homeless right now. We've offered everyone a place to stay here... They're staying with friends though. My mom is with her sister.

I hope this can all be worked out soon. My mom's whole life is up in the air right now. I'm praying that she can stay strong during all of this. My step dad is doing a good job of wearing her down through phone calls and texts. He's offering her ridiculous deals... (Like to let everyone come back, but he still wants to live there while my mom moves in to the office and basically becomes the maid. He's only saying that because the house is in her name!) I tried telling her last night to stop taking his calls.... I just hope she listens. Praying that this is all over with soon.

----------

I should mention that Christmas wasn't all bad. Josh, the boys and I did have a wonderful Christmas together. As soon and I can get a chance to upload the pictures, I'll post about our day. The boys had fun opening all their gifts and I took tons of pictures. Oh and the Chargers won!

Yup, we're all sick over here.... Sooooo NOT fun! If I ever find out who gave this 24 hour flu to us is gonna pay... BIG time! Seriously, this sucks.

It all started very late on Tuesday night with Brady throwing up. Think - baby exorcist. It was that scary. I've never had a vomitting child before so this was all new to me. Welcome to being a mother. At first we thought it could have been from the new can of formula we fed to Brady... but no. Right in the middle of doing a load of laundry and baking cupcakes yesterday I had to drop everything to go lay down on the couch. I was there the rest of the afternoon and evening. By the time I went to bed last night I was slowly starting to feel better. So now I'm thinking that he picked something up when I took my sister to her WIC appointment. Now I'm gonna make sure to carry hand sanitizer everywhere!

At 2AM I woke up to Josh rushing to the bathroom. I think he just barely made it. Unfortunately he has to work a half day today. I'm praying that we're all better by tomorrow so that we can make it over to our families houses. So far we're all doing pretty good today. Poor Camron, never got his cupcakes yesterday...

He was 8lbs 13oz and 21 inches long. Unfortunately during the labor he devolped a sore on the top of his head which they thought to be a viral infection.. It wasn't. I think the doctor did it when she was turning him. He spent one week in the NICU because of it. My husband was on deployment, I was a new mother and I had to leave the hospital alone. Luckily they were nice enough to move me into a new room the day after I was discharged and Camron was allowed to room with me. We got to go home on New Years Eve.





I was trying to find where I posted my birth story, but I guess I didn't type one out for Camron. The best I could find was what my best friend, Lizz typed out in my Myspace blog the day he was born. She was giving my friends and family the updates as things were progressing:

Well, you all know he was 8lbs 13ounces.. 21inches long. Born sometime after 430 this afternoon. He's got HUGE feet, and looks just like his Daddy. Grandma Rose said that his hair is SO blonde, and his eyebrows are so blonde it doesn't look like he has any.. and even his EYELASHES are bright blonde. He has blue eyes, and a STRONG demeaner.

Camron is, at the moment, in the NICU being monitored. The only thing "wrong" with him was the fact that he had some type of blisters all over his head from being stuck in the birth canal for too long. They're monitoring him for a short time, and maybe doing an ultrasound on his head, then returning him to Mommy.

The hospital staff that was there when I visited said she is SUCH a strong girl! She pushed like a champ for three hours to get that lil bugger out. She was pretty wiped out when I got to see her, so it's kinda good that she gets a lil time to recoop before being a full time Mommy. Not much time, but enough to maybe catch a cat nap. Thanks everyone for your prayers, keep em comin! And she'll be posting her birth story when she gets home, along with a MILLION pictures I'm sure :D Hopefully she'll be home tomorrow afternoon/evening sometime. If not, she'll be coming home on Christmas! What a great present, huh?

and here's CAM!

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f14/artstunique/2.jpg
Like I said, it was taken with my camera phone. And it's not of him, it's a picture of him on the digital camera. He was already gone when I got there.

Happy Birthday my little man! You're growing into a smart and independent little boy. You'll always be my baby boy to me though. Thanks for choosing me as your mommy. I love you!

Every year ever since I can remember my paternal grandparents have thrown a Christmas party the weekend before Christmas. I can remember when I was little the excitement I had leading up to the day. Picking out my special Christmas dress with my Grandma. (Because I was ALWAYS over there during school breaks.) I remember being at the Christmas party with my sister, brother and cousins playing games while the grown-ups stood around talking, laughing and dancing. Our favorite games to play were hide-and-seek and one we called witches. (Not sure why it was called that... it had nothing to do with a witch. The game was to make it from one side of the house to the other without a grown-up seeing you. If they spotted you then you had to freeze until another kid tagged you.) I have the best memories from those parties.

This morning I was woken up WAAAYYY too early. (Thanks Brady for getting me up at 5am.) Normally I loath being up that early, but this morning I quickly got over myself when I came across this blog. If you're in to digital scrapbooking or have just been around the blogosphere at all you've probably seen the button for kevinandamanda.com. I've seen the button around for awhile, but this morning something made me actually click on it. I'm so glad I did! While searching through the site I came across this post. It's her inspiring story about her weight loss. In about 5.5 months she's lost 30lbs. (Check out her before and after pictures! Wow!) She went from a size 10/12 to a size 4/6. (That's the size I'm at now and the size I used to be at 5 years ago.) I've been wanting to lose weight for 5 years now and have never really done anything about it... 2 kids later and I just keep adding to the pounds I need to lose. (I'd love to have more kids, but I'm afraid of gaining more weight without having lost all the weight from my previous pregnancies.) Right now I'd be more than happy to lose about 20lbs... 30 would be even better!  For FIVE YEARS I've been telling myself that THIS is the year. I'm newly remarried and I think my new husband deserves to have a hot wife. (Of course, he loves me the way that I am... and has never seen me as a size 4/6.) I deserve to feel good about myself. It will be such freedom to be skinny again and to wear what I want without worrying about what I look like in certain outfits.

I am going to do this.

I am going to try her method. It's free. It sounds easy to do. Why not? She doesn't deprive herself or starve herself. She just counts calories and she drinks nothing but water. Simple, right? Today I'm going out to buy the Healthy choice meals and the Lean Cuisines. I'm going to do this and I'm going to lose the 30 lbs that I've been wanting to lose. I'm in a size 10/12 right now and I can't wait to be in a 4/6 again! I'll be blogging along the way to keep myself on track... I think by sharing what I plan to do will hold me a little more responsible. Here we go... I start now!

Today is Josh's birthday and he's not too happy about turning a year older. He keeps joking around that he's officially an old man now. Now don't get offended if you happen to be older... but he turned 26 this year. LOL. I know that's not old, but he's freaking out just a little. For the next two and a half weeks I'm gonna have to tease him about it. (After the 2nd I won't be able to because I'll be the same age.)

I made him some Funfetti cupcakes to enjoy when he gets off of work. Apparently my cupcake pan has ran off somewhere... So I had to put the paper cups in a large baking pan. It all worked out. We just have square cupcakes now instead of round ones. Mmmm... The apartment smells sooo good! ...I ended up eating one, I couldn't help it!

After we eat dinner and enjoy our cupcakes tonight, Josh and I are dropping the boys off at my mom's house and we're going to enjoy a night alone. Ok not really alone alone... We have to finish our Christmas shopping and grocery shopping. So we'll be spending it with the crowds at various stores. At least we'll be able to walk hand-in-hand tonight instead of chasing kids around the store. LOL. Hey, what ever alone time I can get with him is fine by me! :)

For as long as I can remember I've only ever had one really close friend at a time. I've never been one to have a bunch of friends that I hang out with. I think the biggest group I ever hung out with was when I was in high school. Even then I was only close to one or two of them at a time. I can even name each one of my best friends from kindergarten on. Stephanie (kindergarten), Desiree (1st), Natsha and Connie (2nd), Amy (3rd and 4th), Melissa (5th), Anisa (6th and 7th), Teresa (8th, 9th), Alyssa and Jessica (10th, 11th), Melissa, Michelle, Kelly, Cynthia, (11th and 12th).... I stayed good friends with Melissa right after high school. Soon after her and I stopped talking I met Lizz.... We've been best friends ever since. We've been there for each other through pregnancies, our husband's deployments, my first marriage, our kid's firsts, my divorce and me getting remarried.

....Lizz and her family just moved back to Missouri in November....


Of course I do have Josh. He really is my best friend and I love spending time with him. He's a man though. I can't talk to him about stuff without him trying to fix things... I don't want things to be fixed, I just want to talk. I usually have to explain that to him if I've had a difficult day and I just want him to listen. He doesn't mind... But I miss having that girlfriend there to talk to! Ugh.. then there's shopping. Josh likes tolerates shopping with me. He likes to get in and get out. I like to look around. Even if I know that I'm not gonna buy anything else I still like to look.

I do still have a few friends around. I grew up here after all and I do know people... but I'm not close to any of them. We'll talk once and while. Hang out every now and then. It's just not the same as having that one best friend who you know you can tell anything to and she'll probably have a similar story of her own... then you can both sit there and laugh about it til you cry.

Makes me wish we were in Missouri already so her, I and the kids can all hang out again. I'm missing out on so much already! Her youngest is already talking. I'm sure her oldest is doing all kinds of new stuff too. I know Camron misses his best friend too.

I still have nearly a whole year before we'll be able to move out there. I hate to be such a complainer, but I'm lonely here without my BFF....

My oldest son's third birthday is coming up on the 23rd of December.  My youngest will be one on the 12th of January. Our family and a few friends keep asking me what I'm planning to do. When I tell them that we're going to have cake and ice cream at home they sound disappointed and ask me why I'm not throwing either one a party. Well... quite frankly, I don't believe in throwing little kids huge/expensive birthday parties. We don't have the money and I have enough to stress about in my life right now without throwing 2 birthday parties in the mix. Who would the party really be for anyway? In my opinion, the adults. Sure, the kids will have a good time.. unless it's close to nap time... but they most likely won't remember any of it. Do you remember your first, second, third or even fourth birthdays? I sure don't.

Now if you want to deal with the planning and the cost that comes with children's birthday parties... more power to you! If big birthday bashes are something your family does... AWESOME! If I'm invited I will show up and help you celebrate! ...It's just not something we are gonna do in my family.

I think cake, ice cream, singing happy birthday and a present or two to open with just the four of us works just as well... for us. I'm not doing it to try to exclude anyone. (Which is what I think a few of my family is thinking.) If YOU would like to plan a birthday party for my kids... go for it! I'll be sure to get us all there! Just let me know what time and where. ;) I just don't want to deal with it.






I'm not judging anyone who throws a big party for their kids.... Just don't judge me for NOT doing the same.

Before Josh and I got married and moved in together I hadn't lived in an apartment in about 4 years. I forgot how much I hate apartment living! Noisy neighbors. Paper thin walls. People smoking right underneath your window. No hot water when you need it. Electric stoves that don't work right. Awful appliances that look like their from the 80s. I could go on and on... It's definitely not worth the $1,100 a month price tag. (And that's considered cheap for a 2 bedroom out here.)

This morning I was really looking forward to a nice hot shower... It's been pretty cold in the mornings here and a hot shower was sounding pretty good. I turned it on and let it run for a little bit to get the water to the right temperature. I get in only to find out that there's NO hot water! On the hottest setting it's luke warm and only gets colder as my shower goes on. Ugh. So much for my shower.

Luckily, the rest of my day is going pretty well. Especially when someone from the electric company came out to give everyone in the apartments (who qualified) a bunch of free stuff. The lady who came gave me several energy efficient light bulbs to replace my old ones along with some night lights. In about 2 weeks a contractor is coming out and we'll be getting weather stripping on door (we need it badly!), a new microwave, new floor lamps and a new shower head. It doesn't quite make up for my cold shower, but it's a good start. :)

My boys are still pretty young, but today we I made a birthday/Christmas chain to count down the days. They made a huge mess helped out as best as a 10 month old and almost 3 year old can. I don't think they really knew what we were doing, but they thought it was fun to play with the strips of red, green and gold paper... along with the markers and glue stick I had out. The chain that we I made has all red & green for the normal days... the gold chains represent Josh's birthday, Camron's birthday and Christmas. Now when Camron asks me, "Where's my berffday mama?" I can show him the chain and we can count the days.



We I also wrote out a quick letter to Santa. (The boys just scribbled on it and kept trying to grab the marker out of my hand..Which is why it's so messy...) Camron keeps asking me for a million different toys OVER AND OVER AGAIN. I figured if we wrote them all down he'll stop asking for the same things. (I thought I still had a few years before he starts asking for specific things...???!) If he does ask again I can point to the letter on our fridge and show him that it's already on the list. Anything to give me some of my sanity back...

ETA: In case you can't read my sloppy writing... Camron's list of toys include:
-A little Batman (as he says this he pretends he's walking around a toy with his fingers.)
-A BIG Transformer (Bumblebee) (he says while throwing his arms in the air)
-Tools ( just like Daddy's of  course)

LOL Kids are too funny.

A few months ago I joined this awesome community of bloggers who know that The Secret is in the Sauce... or rather... the comments. Just wanted to give a shout out to all of my SITStas and wish everyone a Happy Merry SITSmas to all!

Can you believe we only have 2 more weekends to go Christmas shopping?! I know I still have some shopping to do. I keep thinking I have all this time, but I still have so much I need to get done! Christmas cards to fill out. Pictures to print. Presents to buy.... for both Christmas AND birthdays! I still don't have all of our Christmas decorations up. UGH....Can I just say that I'm a tad overwhelmed??

Well, I was hoping to put up our new family picture in this post, but it will have to wait for a future one. (No rush, Alyssa! Lol I know Saturday was only 3 days ago.)

ETA: She sent me 2 of the pictures!! I can't wait to see the rest. :)

We've been so busy all weekend that I haven't had a chance to post anything in about 3 days! The day after the exploding casserole incident we went to Lowes and bought our Christmas tree. While we were there we also picked up this really cute toy tool set for Camron. (He's been following daddy around the house, helping him baby-proof the cabinets... pretending my nail polish is a screw driver.) I think he's gonna love it.

Friday night we went to Sea World's Members Only Night. They closed down the park at about 4:30pm and then re-opened it just for members at 5pm. We got there at about 5:30. I mainly wanted to go because they were handing out Sea World ornaments. Plus we hadn't been in over a month. When we go into the parking lot we were stuck in a long line of cars. Josh decided to follow the car in from of him out of the line, over the orange cones and through a gateway that said, "STOP! Wrong way. Severe tire damage." I was freaking out thinking that we were going to have to call for help because our tires were flat. Luckily his truck tires went over it just fine. We ended up parking right near the entrance.

We were thinking it was going to be really crowded inside, but it wasn't too bad. At around 6:20 everyone in the park seemed to head over to see the Shamu show. After seeing flood of people headed toward the Shamu stadium we decided against going. We pretty much had the park to ourselves after that. We were able to see the sharks, the penguins and the eels with no problem. The boys had a lot of fun... until about 7... then the crying started. Time for bed. So we left.

Saturday afternoon we took a drive to Old Poway Park in North County. We were meeting up with my old high school friend, Alyssa who is now a wedding photographer. She offered to take some family pictures for us as a late wedding present. The location she choose for our pictures was perfect! I had never been to Old Poway Park and I was really impressed. It's located right in the middle of this adorable little community. The boys had fun running around in the grass and playing in the leaves. I think she got some really cute pictures of us and I can't wait to see how they turn out! I'm hoping there's a good one in there of all 4 of us that I can put in our Christmas cards.

Sunday was spent going to church and trying to get the boys to behave during sacrament. Right now our ward starts at 11am... which is right before nap time for both of them. (Not a good combination... Church + Cranky Kids = Most of our time is spent walking the hallways.) I can't wait til the beginning of the year when it will change to 9am. I think they'll be in much better moods at that time.

Now it back to the regular work week. Only 17 more days til Christmas!

I completely ruined dinner last night, almost severely injured myself in the process and messed up our other plans for the evening.

Josh was on his way home when he called me. My wedding ring was back from being sized and he said we should go pick it up... and maybe get a Christmas tree while we were out. I was excited about doing both. I've been waiting for a couple weeks for my ring and I can't wait any longer to start decorating for Christmas!

The boys were ready and dinner was cooling on the stove when Josh walked in the door. He wanted to shower, eat and take the dog out before we left....

So this is how I ruined everything:
I baked this yummy dinner in the oven and when it was done I took it out and put it on top of the stove to cool off. Well what I didn't know was that I accidentally left on a burner (Can't believe I did that!)... and put the casserole dish on top of it. When I finally noticed it, I shut the burner off and looked underneath the dish and saw that it was badly burned. No biggie... only half was ruined. I walk away. Just as I turn the corner I hear the biggest POP! The ENTIRE casserole dish shattered in to a million pieces... scorching hot food and glass EVERYWHERE. Oh My Gosh! I wanted to cry. Thank goodness the boys and I weren't in there when it happened!

Josh watched the boys as I took Bella outside and then while I picked up glass off the floor. He asked if he should bother getting dressed to go out. I told him not to bother.... I didn't mean it! I wanted him to say something like, "It's ok Babe, we can still go out. We can pick up some dinner while we're out!" I was in a really bad mood after all this happened. I was really looking forward to that dinner. I was also mad at myself for being so careless! I wanted him to read my mind! I'm laughing at myself now for not just saying what I wanted... Josh would have gladly continued on with our night... I don't know why I do that to both of us. I need to work on that.

The rest of the night was spent with me sulking and Josh asking what was wrong. After the boys were in bed I went out alone... I had to pick up some formula and diapers for the baby. I listened to Christmas music on the way to the store and it got me out of the funk I was in. I came home and explained to Josh why I was being such a you-know-what. He just laughed at me. I love that man for being so loving and supportive.

Josh - I know you can't read my mind and I promise to work on saying what I mean and meaning what I say! Love you!

It seems like our family has been non-stop since we got married. As of right now, I don't see any signs of it slowing down. I'm not complaining really... It keeps life interesting. The month of December and January is no different.

• December 4th - Sea World's members only night. We want to go get the special ornament that they're passing out that night.
  
• December 5th - Family pictures! An old friend from high school is a photographer and offered to do pictures for us as a wedding gift. :) She's awesome!
• December 15th - Josh's Birthday
• December 23rd - Camron's Birthday
• December 24th - Christmas Eve and my Dad's Birthday
• December 25th - Christmas
• December 31st - New Years Eve
• January 3rd - My Birthday
• January 12th - Brady's Birthday

Mixed in there we have Christmas shopping, grocery shopping, doctor's appointments for Camron's 3 year check up and Brady's one year (that I still have to make), getting our Christmas tree and decorations up, wrapping presents, making cookies, making cakes, visiting family, putting together the gifts I'm making... not to mention doing our daily routines. Oh yeah and Josh's friends want him to install heating ducts on their addition to their house as soon as he can...

There's lots to celebrate this month and lots of fun to be had... but I'm not gonna lie, I'm looking forward to when I can stop stressing about all this and finally breath again!

It's been a long standing tradition of mine to head out in the wee hours of the cold... and I mean COLD!... morning to fight the crowds on the day known as Black Friday. This year was not really different. I was determined to get out there yet again and see what kind of good deals I could score. The difference this year is that I have 2 kids to shop for now. In the past I was all about the DVDs and electronics. This year I had my eyes on toys.

Toys R Us opened their stores at midnight on Thursday night. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I had no idea what I was dragging Josh into. He didn't want to go and I practically begged him until he gave in. Now I feel really bad...

Thursday night we dropped the boys off with my mom and then went home to sleep for a few hours. I think I only managed to get in 45 minutes of sleep. At 11pm Josh and I dragged our butts out of bed and went to the toy store. We should have been more prepared. At first glance the line didn't look that bad. What we didn't realize was that it wrapped around the building before getting to the front entrance. We were at the end of the line. At midnight they opened their doors and let in about 30 people at a time. It took us 90 minutes to get to the front of the line. When we finally got in there I spotted what I wanted! It was a Home Depot work bench that was regularly $49.99 marked down to $19.99. I grabbed it and started heading towards the checkout line. That's when all my high hopes were thrown to the floor and stomped on! A man standing next to us told me that the one in my hand was NOT the one that was on sale. This one was $59.99... not the $49.99 one. WHAT?! The other one was sold out. Okaaaaay.... So we headed to the next item on the list... A train table for $79.99. If you bought that you got an $80 train set for free. Of course they were all sold out too. We overheard a store clerk saying that it was sold out in the first 10 minutes of opening. We left. Toys R Us left us very disappointed and we promised ourselves we would NEVER shop there again. They should really take a page from Walmart's book and have plenty in stock of their sale items. TRU knew that they would have a huge crowd. They're the only one around for miles of where we live. I had planned to spend at least $200 there... as I'm sure many other people there were going to do. I have a feeling they lost out on a lot of sales...

So we pulled out of the parking lot. I was apologizing to Josh for dragging him out there for nothing. Just as we turned the corner to get on to the freeway a cop flashes their lights at us. Great. Let's just add to our fabulous night. She was pulling us over because Josh was wearing his seat belt under his arm and not over his shoulder. She was a total you-know-what... she gave him a ticket. Josh was pissed. As she was writing it up he says, "Is that why you work nights? Because you can't sleep?" Argh... That didn't help.

I dropped Josh at home. He was done after that ticket. I was still determined to get something good out of that night. It was about 1:45 am so I headed over to Old Navy. The line was short and they opened at 3am. They passed out wristbands to the first 50 (or so) people in line to get the Lego Rock Band Wii game for free if you spent $20. I got one! They stopped passing them out 2 people behind me. That was close.... I picked up some cute hoodies for the boys along with a few shirts for them and I got myself some awesome fitting $15 jeans. I was in and out within 10 minutes of them opening. Success.

I was done after that. I went home and slept until 7:30am... I had to pick the boys up from my moms. I was dead tired and I don't think staying up all night was worth all the trouble we went through. I still plan to shop Black Friday next year, but I'll be staying far, FAR away from any toy stores!

Thanksgiving is tomorrow! I'm pretty excited because we get to spend time with family that we don't get to see everyday.

It's always been a family... ok MY... tradition to go over to my Grandparent's house for the holidays. Ever since I was a child we spent every year doing the same thing. When I was married to Ron he never argued with me about where to go because his family is spread out over several states. It worked for us at that time. Now I'm married to someone who has family here in town... Things are going to be a little different.

This year and next there's going to be a lot of firsts for both Josh and I. We just spent our first Halloween together... not really a big deal to us or our families. Next is Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. We're going to have to figure out and establish our own traditions. New traditions. I think it's important for Josh, the kids and I to come up with our own. Next year we're planning to move to Missouri and we won't have our families around...

Maybe next year we'll figure out our own family holiday traditions. I think this year we'll just spread ourselves thin and try to visit everyone who wants to see us. We won't have the option next year so I think it will be worth it.

First stop for Thanksgiving will be Josh's parents house at noon. We'll eat just enough to hold us over for the next meal. After we finish up there we'll head to my grandparent's house around 2pm where we'll eat a little bit more and probably have dessert.

Next we'll head over to my mom's house for a quick hello and to drop the boys off with her. They're going to be spending the night with her so I can do some Black Friday shopping in the wee hours of the morning. (Wish me luck on that...) I'm still trying to convince Josh to come with me. He hates crowds and he hates shopping. Black Friday is not a good mix for him...

Now I'm off to make some pumpkin pies for tomorrow's feast!

You can now read the rest of this over on my old blog: The Divorced Mom. I will not be posting anything about my previous marriage in this one.

I've been doing some reading over at the blog, The Quest For T. Lately she's been writing about the affair that she had during her marriage to her ex-husband. Reading her words has really made me think about my own situation and what I went through during my marriage to Ron. There's a lot of stuff that I've never told anyone about. There's a lot that even my ex-husband doesn't know about. I'm sure he could say the same thing about me. Our marriage was pretty much doomed from the start. Looking back I can see that now.

At the time I was a naive 18 year old girl who had just graduated high school. He was a 21 year old United States Marine stationed here in San Diego. He had his own apartment... that he shared with his brother and his co-worker. Back then I thought the world of him. He had me fooled. He had us all fooled. I wasn't completely innocent though. That year I had made plenty of mistakes. Mistakes that would truly hurt my mother if she knew about everything I've done in my life.

When I was 17 I joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. That's a pretty hard time in any persons life to decide to change religions and join a church. It didn't last very long. I still believed in the church doctrine, but I just wasn't ready to fully commit myself to it. So yes, I'm Mormon. I'm very active in the Church now, but during my whole relationship with Ron I wasn't going to church... it was the furthest thing from my mind.

I think I'm ready to talk about everything that's happened. I think it will help me process everything and allow me to really move on with my life. I'm going to be writing about everything from the good times (which were few and far between), sex, our affairs, drugs, drinking... If that's something that you're not comfortable reading about then please don't read. I won't be writing about this stuff every day, but there will be a large portion of my blog that will talk about my past. It's not who I am today, but my past has helped shape me into the person I am now.

I'll type up a few drafts and when I'm ready to share I'll post them... I just thought I should give a fair warning of what may lie ahead.

Sunday mornings in our household are the craziest!

Temper tantrums. Crying. Fighting. Complete Chaos.

I don't even know how they end up that way. We all get up at the same time we do every other day of the week... Ok, with the exception of Josh. We go through the same morning routine that we always do. Breakfast. Take the dog out to potty. Showers. Baths. Get ready for the day. The difference is that we actually have some where to be on Sundays! Church starts at 11am. I swear my kids are testing me. Any other day it will take us less than 2 hours to get our morning routine done. On Sundays it takes us 4+ hours!

I blame it on Josh being home. ;)

Ok that's not totally fair... He actually helped me out today. He put the dishes in the dishwasher, made me breakfast AND installed the baby proof stuff for the kitchen cabinets... that I have been asking him to do for about a month now.

I think next Saturday I'll just have to change my bedtime routine... Baths that night and lay out their clothes for the morning. Here's hoping that next Sunday goes a LOT smoother!

Last night I wasn't sure what to make for dinner. It's getting close to grocery shopping day and I'm running out of food. I have to make a lot of what ever I cook because Josh eats a lot and we're also having my best friend's husband stay with us for a few weeks.

I remembered a recipe from this book I have called, 5 Ingredients or Less. It's called Asian Beef and Noodle. It's pretty good when you're on a tight budget and need to be able to feed a big family. It's also super easy to throw together at the last minute.

• 1 pound ground beef
• 2 (3-ounce) packages Oriental-flavored instant ramen noodles, broken up
• 2 cups frozen vegetable mixture, such as broccoli, carrots, red peppers, water chestnuts
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 2 tablespoons thinly sliced green onion

1. Brown ground beef in large nonstick skillet over medium heat 8 to 10 minutes or until beef is not pink, breaking up into 3/4-inch crumbles. Remove beef with slotted spoon; season with one seasoning packet from noodles. Pour off drippings.
   
2. Place noodles in skillet. Add vegetable mixture, 2 cups water, ginger and remaining seasoning packet; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer 3 minutes or until noodles are tender, stirring occasionally.
   
3. Return beef to skillet; heat through. Stir in green onion.
   
   Makes 4 servings.

Recipe and photograph provided courtesy of the Beef Industry Council.

Josh and I broke down and adopted a dog about a week and a half ago. Her name is Bella and she's a 2-3 year old Chihuahua mix. We don't know much about her past other than her previous owner adopted her from the Santa Ana SPCA. She only had Bella since February 2009. She says she just didn't have time to spend with her any more and felt bad for keeping her locked up in the house alone all day. (Should have thought about that before adopting a dog!) Anyway, Bella is here to stay! Poor thing... doesn't know what it's like to stay in a home for more than a year.

Josh didn't like her at first because he wanted a big dog... a dog that we can't have living in an apartment. He was wanting a Boxer or a Rhodesian Ridgeback. Hmm... I think not. I think she's growing on him though. C & B absolutely love her! We got lucky because she's awesome with kids and she's well trained.

When we first got her our routine was messed up because now we had to fit in potty breaks during the day. I think we have a pretty good routine going now. B wakes me up at 5:30am (really hoping that ends soon!). I feed him a bottle and we all go back to sleep til about 6:30 when C wakes us up. By 7am we're all up. I make Josh's lunch. Give the boys breakfast. By 7:30 Josh is out the door on his way to work and the boys and I take Bella outside to go potty. It's been working for us on most mornings. Occasionally C will throw a fit because he doesn't want to wear a jacket outside. He gets over that quickly when he feels how cold it is.

I'm just looking forward to the day when I can sleep in again.... at least on weekends. It's going on about 3 years of getting up before 7am. I bet around the time that happens Josh and I will be expecting another baby. That's how it usually works, right?

I was formally known as the Divorced Mom. Since I'm no longer a divorced mommy (as of October 16th, 2009.) I felt like it was time to change blog names. I plan to leave up my old blog, but it will no longer be updated. From now on I'll be posting everything in here.

I chose the name Happily At Home because I'm a stay at home wife & mommy and this is where I'm happiest. Being at home, spending time with my husband, raising my kids, cooking dinner and cleaning. Just call me a modern day homemaker!

Now if only I can find the time to type out a whole post. SOOOOO much has happened in the past month.

More to come!