17 months and one tired mommy

I can hardly believe that Tacy is 17 months already!  It's crazy how fast time has gone.  Brad and I just went through a bunch of old Tacy clothes and seeing all her little 3-9 month clothes was crazy.  I keep looking at her and remembering what was happening a year ago - she couldn't even sit up alone last January.  

Tacy is one cute but crazy kid.  She loves climbing up on everything!  She can get pretty frustrated when she finds a piece of furniture that it so tall for her to climb up.  She is so funny to watch climbing up on things because she uses mostly her arms and belly to pull and wiggle her way up.  She lift a leg up for things that are to tall to just use her arms.  

Tacy continues to love to dance in her little circles.  She will put her arms behind her back and do a little spin.  If it's not that dance move she still does the bouncing squat.  So fun to watch, but still hard to try and get on camera.  

We are really trying to work on animal sounds with her.  Tacy has "meow" down.  Brad taught her cock-a-doodle-doo last Thursday, but since then she struggles to remember to say "doo-doo-do" when we ask what a rooster says.  Last night she was neighing like a horse.  But her go to sound for an animal is ding ding ding...thank you "what does the fox say".  Oh well, we are working on them.  She can Moo really good though even if she doesn't always remember that cows are the ones who moo.  

Tacy is also learning a few more words like cracker.  She also says a few more phrases like 'let's do it'.  She still understands a whole lot more then she speaks (in english anyways).  But she will carry on long conversations in baby gibberish.  

Tacy now will throw things away in the trash, which I love, except when she starts throwing away paper I actually want (like coupons).  However, she still loves to pull things out of the trash.  Brad caught her eating a reeses' wrapper the other day (the paper lining).   

Thank goodness Tacy loves bathes so much!  Sometimes she just will keep on playing when I tell her to come downstairs with me or come to her room, but if I say "lets go take a bath" she will stop what she is doing and hed straight for the bathroom.  She loves bath time!  

My crazy story of being a tired mommy:

So I work nights and during Christmas I was working full time hours.  I worked the 26,27, 29, and 30th.  So a crazy few days.  Well Friday morning (the 27th) I was exhausted.  I had fed Tacy and we had been playing but I fell asleep in a chair.  I don't even remember sitting in the chair.  But the next thing I knew I was awake in the chair and across the room Tacy was standing in the computer chair, dancing, laughing and having so much fun.  Vanilla wafers were all over the computer desk and the floor.  Tacy had chocolate all down her jammies and her face.  So much that was on the shelves around the computer was pulled out on the desk and floor.  Oh my goodness it was a mess.  Tacy had grabbed Brad's toblerone bar and eaten through the foil wrapper.  She ate the tops off almost all the pieces.  The thought in my head was "Oh crap".  I got up, grabbed Tacy and stripped her down, gave her a bath, and laid her down for a nap (because it had been 4 hours since she woke up by this time).  Then I tried to clean up the mess.  During this process Brad came home (he only worked a half day so I could get some sleep before going to work again).  Brad walked into the room and just started laughing.  Then he asked if I had taken a picture.  I hadn't.  Taking a picture was the last thing on my mind.  Brad told me to check my blood sugar and go sleep.  Turns out my BS was 50, so I was running low which on top of my lack of sleeping the night before probably caused my sudden loss of consciousness.  At least Brad was laughing even though the room was a mess and his chocolate was all eaten by Tacy.  Tacy had fun, Brad laughed, and I finally got some sleep and can laugh about it all now.  Now I am very sad I didn't get a picture.

Goodbye 2013

I've been told that the older you get, the faster the years go by.  All I know is that this year did fly by for us.  Here is a look at some of the highlights of 2013:

1. Brad's sister, Kimber, got married to Sam in February

2. My sister, Katie, married Mark in May

3. I finished my first year of nursing school and passed the LPN NCLEX officially becoming a nurse!

4. I started working as a nurse

5. Tacy turned 1!

6. Brad applied for PA schools

7. I started and finished my third semester of nursing school

8. Brad interviewed at Campbell University PA school (fingers crossed)

Trips:

-we went to California twice (Katie and Mark's wedding and early Christmas)

-we went up to Island Park, ID

-spent a weekend in Park City, UT

-Brad flew out to NC

All in all it was a good year.  I'm glad we survived my first year of nursing school.  We have been so blessed.  We love Tacy so much and she makes us so happy.

Here's to hoping for a great 2014!

Wowsers of a Christmas

Christmas was so fun this year with a toddler.  After Tacy went to bed on Christmas eve, I set up our little tree and Brad put together 2 of Tacy's big gifts.  I got our stockings hung, the tree all arranged and everything ready for the morning.  Tacy woke up at 7:30 in the morning.  She is pretty good at busting out of her room to get food as soon as her diaper is changed.  I tried to keep her in check since Brad wasn't up yet but she did get a peek of the tree/presents and said "Oh wow!"  Brad then got up and played with Tacy in her room while I got the lights on by the tree.  Then Brad opened the door and out came Tacy.

She was in heaven!  She said "Oh wow" so many times.  Opening all of her presents took 4 hours because she kept wanting to play with her toys instead of unwrapping something else.  But it was so fun.  Tacy even helped me open my new boots.  Tacy had so much fun playing with her ballapalooza and pushing her shopping cart all around.  She also got several toys that make noise and she danced a lot.  After presents were finally all opened, Tacy was pretty tired and took a long nap.

The rest of the day, Brad's whole family came over to skype with his sister Christine, who is on her mission in NJ.  We had a nice big dinner, opened presents with the whole family and played some games (after Tacy was in bed).  It was a fun Christmas and I'm so glad Tacy loved it, even if she was a little spoiled.

Brad's parents did presents differently this year for the kids (not the grandkids).  They decided to play bingo for presents.  All the presents were wrapped and numbered.  If you won bingo you drew an envelope and in the envelope it would have a number (correlating with a present), cash, or a random thing to do.  Interesting way to do it all and not Brad and my favorite.  We did get our own razor to cut Brad's hair.  But we also got a puzzle, jerky, and a tool kit (of tools we already have).  Oh and our $1.  Some couples were luckier then us.

Christmas in California

Wow, so to recap for the last month....I finished my 3rd semester of nursing school with 2 A-s and 1 A (not too shabby!).  Brad flew to NC for his interview at Campbell University.  He kept gloating about how he was going to NC, in NC, or was in NC (yes I am still hearing about it).  Brad  LOVED it out there (no shock to me cause NC is a great state).  He tried some Carolina BBQ and has been craving it ever since.  He found a Guy Fieri Carolina BBQ sauce at a grocery store which is pretty close to the real stuff.  My family was never a big BBQ pork family so I never knew the difference between Carolina and Western style BBQ but apparently Carolina is a vinegar base sauce instead of a tomato base sauce like Western.  Brad is in love.  He really liked Campbell too, his interview went great, and we found out he is on the waiting list (so I guess not great, but good...we are crossing our fingers it works out!)

Brad flew straight from NC to Sacramento (flying to Sac was cheaper then flying to SLC).  Meanwhile my Dad flew from Sac to SLC, Tacy and I picked him up, and we all drove out to Sac (well Rocklin).  I brought Hunger Games to read (per my Dad's request) and got him hooked.  We had a nice week in California with my family.  We went to BJ's!  My absolute favorite restaurant/pizza/pzookies.  My mom told me that she loves when we visit because it means we are going to BJ's.  ha ha.  My best friend Shalise had an inpromtu visit to Rocklin (from Houston) so we got to meet up and her daughter Millie and Tacy got to have a fun play date at a park.  It was funny because Millie was not so good at sharing and Tacy is used to sharing everything with Grant...so it worked out but I laughed a lot.  Brad, Tacy, and I went to my parents ward Christmas party but only stayed for the dinner because Tacy was tired and I was meeting up with some of my friends for a girl's dessert night.  Dessert night was so much fun.  We went to this place called Rick's Dessert Diner in downtown Sac.  Lots of options and I got cheesecake haha.  But it was so fun to catch up with Katie and Tamie.  I love seeing my friends!  

Saturday we went to breakfast with my sister, Katie and her husband Mark.  I love breakfast food.  Katie and I got banana pancakes and Mark and Brad both got omelets.  Tacy had a little of everyone's.  Then Katie and I watched White Christmas while the boys escaped to do christmas shopping because they were bored.  It's a sister movie and both boys aren't big fans of old musicals.  Mark looked up the movie on IMDB and said "everyone in this movie is dead".  I think that pretty much summed up Mark's feelings. Ha ha.  Mark and Katie also gave Tacy a cute teddy bear from Build-a-Bear for christmas.  She has on a cute ballerina dress, bows, and her name is Snuggles.  Tacy takes the bows off all the time but she loves snuggles.  We also went over to Mark and Katie's apartment and watched Rudolph.  Mark won Tacy over by giving her colby jack cheese.  Tacy loved running after their cat "Boo" and saying "meow".  Boo was scared and spent most of the time hiding behind the couch.  Mark and Tacy also bonded over watching college basketball. Tacy loves Aunt Katie and Uncle Mark.

My mom made street tacos for dinner.  She and my Dad went to Mexico for 2 weeks and feel in love with street tacos so my mom has been trying different recipes to find one that is similar to the real deal.  They were yummy.  My mom also made tons of treats while we were there like white chocolate cranberry rice crispies, peppermint bark, and lemon white chocolate cookies.  We also ate a lot of local mandarins.  

My brother flew home for Christmas from school in LeGrande, Oregon.  It was fun getting to see him.  Sunday we had a big family breakfast (Dad's waffles = heaven) and dinner.  Then my parents had Brad, Tacy, and I open our gifts from them.  Basically is was Christmas part 1 for Tacy.  She loved it!  Ripping off wrapping paper and opening boxes was so much fun for her, plus my parents spoiled her rotten.  She got a grocery cart with a baby doll to put in it.  She got lots of clothes, a minnie mouse, a princess book, princess puzzle, and a large Sully stuffed animal.  Tacy loves her Sully.  She's never seen Monster's Inc. but she loves caring that huge Sully around (he's almost as tall as she is which makes it entertaining).

I forget how crazy my parent's street can get during christmas.  The neighborhood is pretty famous for setting up lights and disney/WB displays for christmas.  Trying to get in and out of the house at night is a nightmare between all the cars and people walking.  But it was fun to get to walk the street with my Dad one night.  Brad, Tacy, and I did it during the day.  

Monday my mom, Brad, Tacy, Steven (my bro), and I went to the Sacramento zoo.  It was so fun.  Tacy loved seeing all the animals, especially the big cats.  She kept saying "Meow" to all of them.  So cute.  My Dad's work party was Monday night so we all went to dinner at Claim Jumper.  I haven't been there since homecoming my senior year.  The food was good but Tacy was so tired.  She clung to me almost the whole dinner (which made eating hard).  One of the sweet lady's kept trying to win her over but Tacy would not succumb.  It was nice to meet everyone who works with my Dad though, even if Tacy was fussy the whole dinner.

Tuesday we packed up, did a little shopping, and drove home.  We had a great time in California.  I'm so glad we were able to go.  

6 years!

I can't believe Brad and I have been married for 6 years this Sunday!  That's so crazy!  I was just thinking about what has happened to us the past 6 years.  Kinda funny, I guess, how life does not go the way we thought it would.  As much as you can plan, life sure does have a mind of it's own sometimes.

Things we planned on happening:
Both of us graduating from BYU with bachelor's degrees
Nursing School
Having a baby
Moving out of Provo

Things We Didn't Plan on:
Moving in with the in-laws
Having 3 years between my bachelor's degree and starting nursing school
Still living with the in-laws
Waiting on grad schools...hoping to eventually be done with school and begin real careers

Things We (at least I) Hope for in the next 4 years:
E: Finish Nursing school, Pass RN-NCLEX
B: Get into Grad school and finish 2 years later
B: Pass PA boards
E: Get BSN maybe become a CDE by this time
Move out of the in-laws
Get a bigger car
Have another baby (more likely closer to the end of 4 years)

I have lots of hopes and dreams (like a house, backyard, etc) but I'm hoping we are at least all done with school by our 10 year anniversary.

While life may not have gone how we had planned/hoped, I'm glad that Brad has been at my side the whole time.  We keep learning more about each other and are continuing to improve our frugality.

I was thinking about how I have changed since Brad.  I am a very stubborn person, who is picky, procrastinates, and can be very cynical especially of myself.  Brad has always sought to change some of this.
Here is my list so far:

I used to only eat mild cheddar or colby jack cheese, now I have tried all sorts and know that I love muenster and gouda.  I still am not a fan of lots of melted cheese, but I love fresh cheese (just none of the old nasty stuff like blue and brie).

I now eat nuts.  Before Brad I could eat peanuts.  Now I know I like almonds,cashews, and pistachios, pecans are ok, and walnuts are alright.  I even like caramel praline ice cream!

I have tried crab, lobster, crawdads, and some sushi.  I still don't love seafood, I still think fish are disgusting to eat and that sushi makes me want to vomit...but I have tried it.  I can eat crab or lobster.

I have tried elk and deer.  I have a hard time eating either without lots of A1, but I can eat them.  I'm still a hamburger person though...

I think my procrastination is a little better, nursing school and being a mom has made me have to try and stay ahead.

I have been to mexico twice and on 4 cruises.

I'm not as sarcastic and speak with hardly any spanish (Brad is not really sarcastic like my family and they don't speak spanglish).  I still have to think hard about some words (like leche and lo siento) but at least when I talk with my family I can through in spanglish.

I love Brad.  He is my best friend.  He is a great husband.  He supports my chocolate, ice cream, reeses addiction while also trying to control it a little.  Brad is also a great dad.

Time Flies...

Well life keeps trucking along for us.  School keeps me busy, Brad keeps doing surveys to save up for amazon gifts and is plucking along at work every day, I work 2-3 nights a week so I'm still sleep deprived most of the time, and Tacy is still growing, laughing, and being a crazy kid who keeps us on our toes.

Brad's birthday was November 2nd.  His parents agreed to watch Tacy that night so we could go out to a movie and dinner.  Brad was going to go duck hunting with one of our brother-in-laws that morning too.  However, I unfortunately had to make up a clinical the morning of his birthday cause Tacy and I had been sick the Sunday/Monday before and I missed my regular one.  Brad was a champ though and told me it was fine because he would rather make sure I got everything done I needed to for school.

just walking around outside enjoying Fall

So after me waking up at 3:30am and being at the hospital until 3pm, I came home to start some birthday funness.  Tacy and I had already bought Brad a blackberry pie the day before.  Brad had decided to see Ender's Game.  Brad's birthday is sadly not during a time when the big movies come out (Thor came out 5 days later, and Hunger Games 2 weeks later).  My birthday is at the start of big movie season so there is always something good.  Not that Ender's Game was a bad movie, just not the first movie Brad and I would have loved to see at the theatres (this is only the second movie we have seen at the movie's since Tacy was born).  Oh well, so we went out to Red Lobster where Brad ate his weight in crab legs.  Then we went to Ender's Game.  The movie was good, not my favorite.  I did have fun recognizing all the different actors though (I am good at recognizing faces and remembering what other things actors have been in, which can annoy Brad sometimes when I get so caught up on trying to remember where I have seen that person - thank goodness for IMDB).

Brad said he enjoyed the night out and that was what was important.  We love Tacy but it is always nice for us to be able to go out without her.  Tacy turned 15 months this month.  She now weighs 21.2 pounds.  Her length is debatable because she screamed her head off anytime someone tried to put her on the doctor's table (PTSD from shots) so she didn't lie still very well to get measured.  Most of her examination was done with me holding her.  She has never been so scared before, most doctor visits are great until she gets her shot.  I hope by 18 months she is over it cause that was not too fun.  But anyways, she is growing, is healthy, and now has had her flu shot.

Tacy LOVES to play with leaves

New Tacyisms:

"nana" = food/water   I always used the word when I give her a banana, and I thought she had learned it because one day she ripped off a banana and brought it to me saying "nana" but she says "nana" when she points to any food or her sippy cup

Tacy loves to pull out her clothes from her dresser and brings huge handlefulls of them to us.  Sometimes she is good at putting them back too

Tacy loves books.  When we get her out of her crib the first thing she does is point to her books.

Tacy can reach the counter tops.  So now we have to make sure nothing is on an edge or she can get it.

Tacy has entered a lovely picky faze, she will eat bananas, yogurt, cheese, re-fried/black beans, toast sometimes, teddy grahams, and sometimes quesadillas.  It has become a fun game of trying to give her something and seeing if she will eat it.  She has gotten good at sticking her tongue out to prevent food from getting in her mouth while allowing her to taste it.

Tacy is horrible with first steps.  She used to be good about getting on her tummy and sliding down stairs.  Now she always tries to walk off the first step.  Makes stairs really fun.  She also gets excited and stands up while climbing stairs and can forget she is on the stairs and try to dance/sit whatever which is no good.  Needless to say Tacy is not allowed to climb up/down without mommy or daddy.

Tacy loves to dance.  Brad will put music videos on the tv and Tacy will get right up to the tv to watch them and dance.  She really loves Ok Go, especially their dog music video.

watching an Ok GO music video

Tacy is great at giving big hugs to family (except mom and dad sometimes).  When aunts are over visiting, Tacy will go right up to them and give them big hugs.  It's very cute.  Brad and I only get those kind of hugs rarely.  Brad was laughing cause Tacy and I visited him at work and Tacy was being very shy around all his co-workers and just kept snuggling up to Daddy.  Brad said that was the most snuggles he had gotten in a long time.

Tacy loves water, she loves to make messes (like dumping bags upside down), and she loves to try and put her clothes on.  It's cute watching her put her onsies over her head (so they all go behind her neck like a scarf).  She knows that socks and shoes go on her feet and will try to put them on.  She is better at leaving necklaces on now.  Now if we could just get her to like headbands again...

Halloween - kitty cat and nerdy mom

Milestones

I'm a numbers person so I always remember dates.  Tuesday, 10/15, my grandmother turned 99!  That is so amazing.  I love my grandma and have good memories with her eating grilled cheese sandwiches, green beans, hot chocolate and playing card games.  We got Tacy's middle name partly from my Grandma Cramer.  However, I know that as neat as it is that she is 99, she would much rather be with my grandpa.

The other big milestone of this week is that today marks 10 years since I was diagnosed with diabetes.  I didn't even realize it until I was driving home from school today (that's how long it took me to remember that today is 10/17).  Part of me is amazed that it has really been that long and the other part of me is still sad.  Diabetes changed my life, no doubt about it.  Before I was diagnosed I wanted to be a teacher and teach math, specifically algebra.  I was a skinny little kid who could eat anything and never gain a pound, which was frustrating to me because I wanted to be able to donate blood and was tired of people thinking I was anorexic or bulimic.  I remember that the week before I was diagnosed I had bought a brand new pair of jeans that were size 3.  I ate a lot of food and drank a lot of water.  My mom started to become concerned and took me to the doctors.

That was a traumatic doctor appointment for me because they ran every imaginable test on me (including a pap smear).  The last thing they did was check my blood sugar.  I was 593 (normal is 80-120).  I remember that I had eaten a poptart and drank a lemonade before going to the doctors and tried to tell the nurse that that was why I was probably so high.  The nurse told my mom and I that I most likely had diabetes.  My mom looked like she was in shock.  I was actually a little relieved because I was worried I had a tumor or something (some people thought my stomach looked distended).  We were then told that I needed to go to the hospital for testing to see if I really was diabetic.  I was upset about this because I had a student council slumber party that night (it was a Friday).  We went home and got a few things and my mom called some men over to give me a blessing.  Then we stopped by Carl's Jr because I was starving.  We got to the hospital and I was told immediately that I couldn't eat anything until my blood sugar dropped (my blood sugar was now 619).  I thought that was the worst news ever!  I was told I would be there all night and that a doctor would talk to me in the morning about diabetes.  I had to call my friend Ashley to let her know I would be at the slumber party.  My mom left to go home and I had a night with little sleep in the Special Care Unit (step down from ICU) as I got poked every 1-2 hours for new blood tests.  Morning finally came and my blood sugar was under 200 so I got to eat.  The nurse explained how many carbs I could have so I ordered as many non carb food items I could because I was starving.  I believe I had cheerios, sausage, eggs, toast, and bacon.  My dad was so surprised to walk in and see me eating eggs (I wasn't a big egg person).

The endocrinologist came and talked to me about diabetes and the first thing he told me was that there was no surgery that could fix me.  I don't remember all he told me specifically but I remember asking him if I could still eat and he laughed and told me that I could eat what I wanted but that I just had to take insulin for it now.  I was relieved.  Then I spent a boring weekend in the hospital being taught, watching videos, etc.  I was finally discharged Monday and was so happy to be outside again.  My dad took the whole family out to dinner and I was so happy until I realized that I had no idea how many carbs were in everything and did not have insulin with me.  I had a panic attack.  I think I went back to school on Wednesday after I saw the endocrinologist again and he gave me a novolog pen that was easy to carry and use at school.

In 2.5 weeks I gained 25 pounds.  I couldn't fit into those new jeans anymore.  Not easy to handle when you are 16.  Now I can laugh at it all but I will always remember how hard it all was.  It still is hard sometimes now.  Diabetes never makes life easy or cheap.  Diabetes is what made me want to become a nurse.  Diabetes helps me to be more empathic to patients I work with.  I love being a nurse now and being able to help people and look forward to the day when I am a certified diabetic educator and can help teach other diabetics and get them through the hard times.

For a quick Tacy update: She is 14 months old as of 10/8, she walks around everywhere and has 5 teeth now.  She is a busy kid who makes me laugh all the time even when she is throwing tantrums.