According to My Watch, It's Potty Time!

Today should have been met with a big Saturday breakfast and a sense of humor. Instead, I prepared myself with a sleepless night and herbal tea for our potty adventure. To say I was ill prepared would be an understatement.


Ariel showed some interest in the potty over the summer, so Eric and I borrowed videos and books from the library. Ariel loved watching and reading both, and soon connected the words “pee” and “poo” with the toilet. She wasn’t quite ready for the big leagues, so she had a few hits and way more misses while we waited. This also included some frustration for both of us. Mainly because Eric and I had no idea what we were doing. This potty training stuff isn't the easiest concept to get across.

It wasn’t until recently that Ariel had the dexterity, strength and coordination to pull her pants (and her diaper) on and off. Now we were getting somewhere. Since my mom was kind enough to help ease our potty woes, she bought a watch for Ariel. Every 30, 60, or 90 minute, the timer goes off and plays some cutesy music to let you know its time to potty. Pretty neat and informative.

So this morning began with a front row potty seat to “Toy Story” for 30 minutes before breakfast. Her diaper was warm and full when we pulled it off, so we weren’t expecting anything to come around for awhile. And it didn’t. For three whole hours! Eric and I were mostly passed out when she finally peed ¾ the way through the movie. Ariel looked into the potty and declared, “Candy!” (We reward her with M&M’s. I know its probably bad parenting, but it gets Ariel to go. Everyone has a motivator).

This was awesome. One victory at a time. So before we laid her down for her nap, she went three more times. I know, so cool. She even climbed down from the table during lunch so she could go.

After nap was a challenge, as Ariel decided she wanted to wear her diaper again. Well since we “threw them away,” she was left with bare bottom or Big Girl underpants. Given those choices, she went naked. Two more hits in the potty before dinner. One after dinner. And all day long, she didn’t have a single accident. Yeah, I’m a proud mama.

Right before her bath, Ariel managed to place quite a smelly #2 in the pot. Wow. I didn’t think she’d do that on the first day of training. Lots of song, dance and high-fives for our little slugger. I didn’t expect this adventure to take all day, but it has and I couldn’t tell you what I did other than listen to the potty watch and dole out chocolate candy all day. It's been a long and exhausting day, but full of success.

I’m hoping we can nail this potty thing down before Christmas and then we can spend the diaper money on a date night.

Lucky Number Seven!

This one time, at summer band camp, I met the man who would become my college sweetheart and eventually, my husband.

The first day I met Eric, it was like I had known him all my life. It was strange and kinda cool in my eighteen-year-old mind. I wasn’t looking for a boyfriend, but I wasn’t going to not take a chance on him. With that being said, my college relationship with Eric can be defined by one break up and reconciliation after another. We were young and selfish and not sure if this love thing was the real deal or sparked by infatuation. But over the years, we grew up and realized that if we wanted to be together, that we were going to have to fight for each other.

And fight we have.

No one tells you that you will be asked to compromise or surrender all together to keep your relationship on track. You might be called upon to make a sacrifice for the good of your marriage. We’ve made it seven years and have had to do all of these thing and more. Trial by fire will either strengthen your relationship or burn it to a crispy crunch.

We’ve encountered many challenges and heartbreaks — surviving Hurricane Ivan during our Jamaican honeymoon, joblessness, lean financial times, and fertility issues. It’s easy to see why people don’t want to commit to their marriage when life tries to beat them down. A 60% divorce rate says a whole lot about people’s willingness to honor their marriage vows of “for better or for worse.”

But despite the struggles, we have had some great fun. Road trips to triathlons, an Alaskan cruise, buying a house, having Ariel, and getting the chance to fall in love with each other again and again. There are many more adventures for us to have and many more struggles to endure. But with Eric by my side, we have more than a fighting chance.

Thank you to all of our friends and family who have supported and loved us all these married years. Couldn’t have made it without you all. Above all, we owe the strength and love of our marriage to God, who has held our hands through everything.
I love you, sweetheart! Happy Anniversary.

Child of God

Happy New Year everyone! I pray that 2010 has started off kindly for all. Ariel and I ushered in the new decade by getting colds. Hooray! We're just now feeling better, so I figured that it was time to update the blog. Ya'll like new stuff, right?

Back in November (shame on me for taking so long to write about this), we had Ariel baptised. As is the funky weather patterns in Colorado, Saturday was warm and sunny and Sunday morning it snowed. All of our guests (about 20 or so) braved the slick conditions to witness the ceremony. My grandfather (who is 80) flew from Ohio to be apart of Ariel's big day. It was a real treat to have him in our house for a few days. We even coerced him to partake of Wii bowling, which he did very well in. I'm pretty sure he beat me!

ariel and all the 'rents

At our church, they perform the baptisms during service. This is nice as the congregation gets to participate and take ownership of their newest Christian brother or sister. Ariel lucked out this week, and was the only baby during the late morning service. Father Pat is good about juggling two babies, but it was nice to have all the attention on our little one.
prepping for the dunk

If I haven't mentioned before, Ariel loves going to church. I think she just enjoys the people. Sometimes, she'll even sing along with the choir. The water in the baptism font is heated, to encourage the babies to smile instead of cry. When Father Pat dunked her in, she smiled and laughed and probably wondered why she was still in a diaper for bath time. The ceremony was short and sweet and Ariel truly enjoyed all the attention. Eric's cousin Kevin is the godfather, and my sister is the godmother. Ariel is one lucky kid.

ariel and godparents

Afterwards, we held a reception at the house with the usual food fare. I found some time to make and decorate Ariel's cake. My skills are bit rusty, but I think it turned out just fine. Here are some pics of the big day. We even took her to Portrait Innovations for her official baptism pics. Auntie Vicki was very gracious to take some pics as well. We don't have the best pictures of the event, as photographer Vicki was in the ceremony. Oh well. Enjoy!

reception lunch (by vicki)

honored guest (by vicki)

can you find the baby? (by vicki)

flirty angel

sweet smile

Five Years of Lovin'

It's hard to believe that Eric and I have been married for five years! Honestly, its feels longer than that, but in a good way.

Originally, we were going to celebrate by going back to Jamaica or head off to the Cayman Islands, but having Ariel post phoned our plans for a few more years. While it would have been nice to sit on the beach with an ice cold beverage, what better way to celebrate our love than with our precious angel?

On the fourth, our actual anniversary, I made a sizzling citrus shrimp with angel hair pasta, crusty bread and garden salad. Since I can drink again, Eric and I are getting reacquainted with our wine. For the occasion, we chose a chenin blanc from Africa. It claimed to have hints of peaches and pineapples, but we found it quite nasty. It could have been that it was dry or that it just wasn't that good. Anyway, it made a great de-glazing sauce when I used it a few days later.

Anniversary weekend, Eric's parents were on babysitting duty, so we ventured out to Dave and Buster' s where we feasted on a late lunch riddled with calories (you know calories don't count on birthdays and anniversaries). We tried burning off some of lunch by playing a bunch of games. Nothing really burns calories like good old fashioned competition, or in our case, Dance, Dance Revolution (we suck by the way). To finish off our calorie splurge, we went to Baskin Robins to seal the deal. We were only away from the house for about four hours. We easily could have been gone a lot longer. Its amazing how fast time flies. We really enjoyed our "adult" time together. Date nights are few and far in between. Here's to many more wonderful years.

20042009

Today's the Day the Teddy Bears have their Picnic

So today was the home shower. There were about 25 friends and family that made it out for our Teddy Bear Picnic. My Mom and my friend, Crystal, flew up from New Mexico to partake in the festivities. I'm not sure why I wanted a teddy bear picnic shower, but it sounded cute and hey, I like cute.

My friend Stephanie headed up the shower organization, while both Grandmas were in charge of the details. We had boxed lunches loaded with sandwiches, chips, and bottled drinks. Teddy bears were strategically posted to ensure the playful ambiance. It was a tight fit, but it just made everything feel more cozy.

After lunch, we played "Guess the Bees in the Honey Pot." You had to guess the number of black jelly beans amongst a baby bottle full of yellow ones. Then we did "Guess Mommy's Girth." Most women find this game humiliating, as some guests are not as tactful as others and take a HUGE amount of ribbon. Most of my party goers were pretty conservative for me. The winning guess was 41 inches and Steph's mom hit it right on the nose! Then we played Baby Bingo, but things got wonky and we only played one round. There were 6 winners, in case you were wondering.

Shortstop was showered with lots of love and many, many clothes. Let's just say that this child will never be naked!

(left to right: Shortstop's Grandma Pat, Great-Grandma Boyce, Mommy, and Grandma Rita)

It was such a lovely day and I wanted to thank all of you for making my pregnancy so enjoyable. It makes me think that we should do this pregnant thing again sometime.

Me with Crystal (top) and Steph (bottom)

How Many Fingers Are You!

I deeply apologize for the seeming abandonment of the blog. I've been dealing with a lot lately (mainly work related) and haven't had much time for anything else but stress (oh boy).

Anyway, at the end of February, Eric's grandmother celebrated her 90th birthday! The family threw her a big party and all of the family (even those out of state) made the special trip out in honor of such a great lady. Grandma was very happy to have all of her loved ones close.

We also celebrated David's birthday (Eric's younger brother). He turned 26, what a youngin'. It wasn't anything extravagant, just dinner out and the opening of the gifts later. Later at his apartment, we played a ghetto-fied version of Jenga. David and Eric played, Eric won. Then Eric went head-to-head with Jesse. Jesse ended up winning, although Eric swears up and down the boy cheated.

Well, I grew up in a family of board game masters. So I challenged Jesse and despite all of his trash talking, I was the victor (35 minutes later). Even if I would have lost (which was highly unlikely anyway), I certainly played a better game.

Here's to birthday fun. Eric's is coming up in April. How will we celebrate next?

Four Years and Counting . . .

In celebration of our four year anniversary on Thursday, September 4th, I have arranged this music video about our honeymoons (yes, that's two) to Jamaica. Thank you all for your support over the years and we hope you enjoy our vacation in paradise. You will be jamming to UB40's "Looking in Your Big Brown Eyes." Here's to many more anniversaries to come!

Screaming Hallelujah!

So I'm going to borrowing ( modify) lyrics of Paramore for this entry.
"This time I didn't give,
I 'd thought it last forever.
Now screaming hallelujah.
I didn't last forever."

The Paladin of Mariposa is D-O-N-E! Stick a fork in that baby!
So here are my crazy stats.

Date started: 5/7/2007 Date finished: 8/11/2008
Total time on project: 1 year, 3 months, 4 days
Longest chapter: 13,096 words, 49 double spaced pages
Shortest chapter: epilogue- 338 words, 1.5 double spaced pages
Average length of a chapter: 24.2 double spaced pages
Most words written in one day: 3,537 words
POM's total word length: 117, 978 wordsPOM's total length: 435.5 double spaced pages
I ended up with a prologue, an epilogue, and 16 chapters. All these numbers and chapter set ups are subject to change during revisions. Especially since I have an itty-bitty epilogue, I may combine this into the last chapter.

I thought that when I got to that last period, I would give a big sigh of relief, but it was like, "Shoot, I'm done." That means there more in me for the sequel.

What a journey! I have learned so much about writing and reading and the power of one's own mind. There were days I wanted to set my computer on fire and on other days, I stayed up until 2 in the morning because I was having an inspiration surge.

Two things have to happen now. 1) get minor corrects and clarificationst taken care of, 2)let the darn thing simmer for 1-2 months. Hands off completely; it'll be torture I tell you.

Now comes the fun part of trying to get this puppy published, but it can't be as hard as writing a novel. Right?

Here is the Paramore video in case you were interested.