Who Knew

At my yearly vision appointment a little over a year ago my eye doctor said I was a little farsighted and that if I was having trouble reading I could wear a light reading prescription.

Which was fascinating, because I had just been thinking about how my head hurts after I read for a long time, and sometimes my vision goes blurry when I am looking at things close up (not just words… like when I’m making PB&J’s… weird, right?).

Well, I showed up at my yearly eye exam this year and he asked if I ever got that prescription filled for the glasses. Umm… nope. But my vision was definitely not getting any better.

So I finally filled the prescription.

And now I have reading glasses (which I am only 50% good about wearing…)

I need to take a picture of myself in the same position as my late brother, Ross, so you can really see the resemblance. I’ve always thought that I looked like Ross more than I look like anyone else in my family (a female version of him, I’ll say).

What do you think?

P90x

Although I have done P90x videos before (my favorite is the plyometric DVD. Wow, now that’s a good workout) I’m not super into them. But Michelle was working out to one in the morning, and Vince decided that he needed a little bit of a workout, too.

More Good

I’m feeling good and loving how our life is going right now, which is no excuse not to write blog posts. Part of the lack of blog posts might be that I still don’t have our camera (hopefully I remember it get it when we visit the in-laws for Easter).

Why am I so happy? Well, let me tell you what’s on my “happy list” right now:

- I’m getting stronger (I got to a power pump class at the gym on Tues and Thurs, and I can feel the strength and stamina I’m developing. Now I just need to start running again, since the weather is good)

- Russ and I have better gospel discussions and are more unified as parents and spouses. We have Family Home Evening, family prayer, we read scriptures together as a family, and are working on worshipping better on the Sabbath day.

- We are one step away from getting our foster care license! (home study tomorrow!)

- The military (finally!) paid a huge chunk of Russ’ student loans (almost HALF of the loan!!) and will make another payment this fall, and the fall after that.

- The military fixed our address in their system (finally!) and we are now getting paid enough to cover our housing expenses!

- Russ will be coaching Vincente’s T-ball team this spring, which starts next week!

- We’ve been to the eye doctor, I’ve had my first yearly exam (ever!), and the kids are getting caught up on their shots (we’ve been a little lazy about following our alternative schedule – but most of that has to do with moving around so much), and I’m going to the chiropractor regularly again, so my hips are feeling a LOT better.

- We’ve been getting a lot of work done on the yard (I thought that I had posted about how it looked before,  but I can’t find the post – so here are some pics of last fall):

The lawn is getting really green, and we have cleaned up all of the weeds and trees (well, the big ones). My plan for next week is to mow the front lawn, then weed & feed. Then in a month I’ll re-seed the parts of the front lawn that need help. The backyard is being re-seeded, and we expanding the dog run so we don’t feel so bad about keeping them cooped up. Plus, we’ve been taking them out on walks/runs/dog park visits more often so that they can get some much needed exercise. And I’ve also done a few home projects – I replaced the water line to the fridge, so we can finally use the water and ice maker in the fridge. I also replaced a motion sensor light on our back deck. The sensor was defective or something, because it would turn off and on and off and on… sooo annoying. I replaced it with a fixture that didn’t have a motion sensor, since we only want the light to be ON. We’ll hopefully be adding some motion sensor lights to the corners of the house soon. We’re also going to replace the light at the front door (which is completely broken…) and put motion sensor lights on the side of the garage door.

We’re going to replace some light fixtures and fans around the house, and replace the doors and door hardware (these two things will happen in the next few months). And this summer we’ll put in tile in the dining room (which is currently carpeted) and replace the tile in the kitchen.

We have to do things piece by piece because our cash flow is relatively low (some day Russ will be promoted). But we feel blessed because we have very little debt (and we’re paying that off) and some savings (which we’re adding to) and very low expenses, so we’re able to accomplish a lot of the things that we want to, even with our limited income. I’m always astonished with how much we are actually able to do each month with our limited paycheck. It always seems to be more than it really is.

Well, that’s why life is good here. I hope life is good for you, too!

My New Normal v. 5.0

(one of the do’s from here on Joss… yes, this is in Sacrament Meeting. Sue me)

You may remember that I am on a continuous quest to find my new normal. It (my normal) changes as the seasons change – both the literal seasons, and the metaphorical ones.

For a while, I didn’t have a very good grasp of the concept, and was down on myself for not getting enough done each day. (read: not doing the dishes, keeping the house sanitary, reading to my kids, etc). I’m not sure what on earth I was doing, but it most definitely wasn’t being productive.

So I went into “super-structured-productivity” mode where I attempted to write every task I could do on an index card, put them in a box, and tried to go through them in the day. Rarely did I get all of them done, and more often than not, I would end up at noon with 5 cards before the one that said “Lunch.” Obviously, that method wasn’t working.

For a while, I tried paring down the cards, but that just left me frustrated at the end of the day, because I wasn’t doing everything I really wanted to do.

Then I ditched all methods of organization and structure completely. Which basically led to chaos and destruction.

Finally, I read President Uchtdorf’s talk for the millionth time (okay, probably for the 30th – but dude, for a Conference talk, that’s a LOT of reads!) – this time I read it to prepare a talk for Sacrament Meeting. Remember that one I wrote in Portuguese? Well, I guess this time, the talk actually got through to me. And all those other times I thought I had been learning something.

Well, I don’t know if it was the actual words of the talk, or just all the gears the talk got turning, but I finally figured it out.

What did I figure out?

This:

 There has to be a balance between structure and flexibility.

The structure part needs to be those four most important relationships that President Uchtdorf talked about. The flexibility is for all the other stuff (the laundry, the dishes, etc etc).

In my new normal it means this:

- meal times are structured. They happen at (roughly) the same time every day. Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner.

- morning devotional, “preschool”, special play time, reading time, and nap time happen at (roughly) the same time every day.

- everything else goes on a card in the box, and I do the cards as I can throughout the day.

                                          (Vincente doing Warrior 2)

So far this has been leaving me feeling great. I feel good because the most important things are there (I’m taking care of the temporal and spiritual needs of myself and my children), and I can still get a lot of the other things done. You know, the semi-important things like having clean clothes to wear and clean dishes to eat off of, and food in the cupboards.

I’m still tweaking the cards – I think I’m going to start having the ones I have to do every day, and then the “other stuff” that carries over to the next day if I didn’t get to all of it today. Instead of always washing the toilets, and never vacuuming (seriously, I like cleaning toilets probably more than any other chore. Call me weird. Or maybe a veteran BYU custodian. Either one works.)

But at least now I am less stressed, I feel like I’m doing the most important things, and I still feel like a good wife and mother (i.e., the house is – mostly – clean when Russ gets home from work, and dinner is either ready, or getting ready). My kids like me more, and I get to play with them more often, and do the things they want to do, instead of having some system or schedule control me. I can drop what I’m doing and go play with them, and then just come back to the task later, because there is no pressure to “get ‘er done” before lunch. I’ll just stop and do lunch if it gets to be lunch time.

P.S. I left my camera at the in-laws (over 30 miles away) and therefore will only be posting pictures from my iPhone or from forevers ago until further notice. My sincerest apologies. And eventually I will post more birthday stuff for Vince. I do love him, I promise. I just left all his bday pics on the camera in Salem. Sad day.

Casey Jr

Probably one of the kids’ favorite pastimes is playing with the trains. Well, only if we are playing with them.

These wooden tracks are my favorite. Our collection is a mod podge of Ikea tracks and trains, Target tracks and trains, and a few random trains we inherited from friends and family.

Mostly Russ is the one that plays trains with the kids. He’s the one who plays most “pretend” games with the kids, too. I’m just not as exciting. But I do enjoy building train tracks with the kids, and towers. More than that, I enjoy being with them and seeing their personalities, and watching them learn and develop.

I wish I had new exciting things to report about our kids, but mostly they’ve been doing the same old, same old. Joseline tries to talk more, so that’s good. Vincente loves the daycare at the gym, and Joseline finally went yesterday without screaming as I left. Last Thursday I took the kids to the gym daycare, and Joss cried when I left them, and Vince cried when I picked them up. That’s just about how it goes with them.

The pump class is amazing. The instructor is fabulous and upbeat, and the class is at the same time on Tuesday and Thursday, so I get to do pump twice a week and then run the other days (although… I haven’t really been running much because it’s been so cold, and I can only run so long on the track or the treadmill).

I’m doing yoga on my own at home with some good yoga videos I found on YouTube.

It’s nice to get back in shape… and boy do I need it!

Monday Musings - Mother’s Day In

Well, the pictures below have almost nothing to do with what I’m writing about, but I need to post pictures, so here you go.

I went to my in-laws house last week and spent the night. Russ was gone, so it was just me and the kids. And today, while I was thinking about how refreshing it was to go there, I realized exactly why (besides the fact that I really like them!).

I love my babies. So much. And I always need their cuddles and love. But I also need a little time to myself.

One solution to this dilemma is to take the kids to a daycare, get a sitter, or otherwise remove them from my presence (or me from theirs). But whenever I do this, one of two things happens:

1.) If I left the kids because I needed to get something done (take a class, run errands, etc) I end up completely focused on the task, and I end up not really having time to myself.
2.) If I left the kids because I “needed time to myself” or went on a date with their Papai, I end up thinking (or talking) about the kids the whole time.

So I’ve discovered what is actually more refreshing for me:

Having the kids where I am (in the same house, but not necessarily climbing all over me, needing me to feed them, wash them, potty them, etc etc) but having someone else be the primary caregiver for them. That means, if they come running to get on me, the other person who is taking care of them comes and gets them and takes care of their needs. But they are still around for me to go give love and kisses to, or play with for a little while. Or if I decide I want to feed them a snack, I can – but all the pressure of caring for the children is removed.

Sometimes Russ does this (takes care of the kids while I’m still around), and I feel great afterward. It’s like just enough of a break without feeling like I’m “getting away” from my kids. I don’t want to get away from them, but knowing that I don’t have to be the one making sure their every need is met at every second is a nice breather for me.

I think that is what makes me feel like a new person. Heck, what makes me feel like a person instead of solely a source of sustenance for two small children and a pillar for a grown man.

(p.s. funny story about that snowman – a few weeks later, Vince was asking, “Let’s go outside and make a Vincente-size snowman so I can put the carrot in his nose. Not a big snowman.” Ha ha. Cute kid.)

Monday Musings – A House of Order

Sometimes this is what my life feels like. Messy with little bits of life strewn all over. I’ve been doing pretty well keeping my life and house in order, but the weekend was pretty crazy (thanks for coming, all you who came to warm our house!) and I felt like I was getting further and further behind on life – leaving little scattered pieces of life lying around for people to step on. It was tragic.

Thanks to my sweet husband, he picked up all the scattered pieces and delicately put them back together for me, while I slept most of the weekend off. It was great.

Then we had an uplifting evening with some new friends on Sunday, and today had Family Home Evening – a beautiful lesson about God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost (the Godhead). We sang the First Article of Faith song (in Portuguese – Regres de Fe) and we’ll sing it every day for the rest of the month, and hopefully Vincente will learn to recite the first article of faith himself. We’re going to make a sticker chart to “pass off” the articles of faith as we learn them (everyone, me, Papai, Vince, and Joss). We’re going to learn one a month, starting with the first this month (since it’s such a short article of faith, and the month is over half done, we figured it was a perfect time to start, instead of waiting until January – “New Years” resolutions can be made at any time of the year, in my book!)

So, now that the house is mostly back in order, and I got 8 full hours of sleep last night (plus a 1 1/2 hour nap! Which I wasn’t planning on taking...) I think I will be able to keep the little bits of my life from getting too scattered.

And Family Home Evening always puts me in a good mood – especially when they are followed with conversations like this:

Me: Vince, does Heavenly Father have a body like ours?
Vince: Yup.
Me: Does Jesus Christ have a body like ours?
Vince: Yep he does.
Me: What about the Holy Ghost? Does he have a body like ours?
Vince: Except, he don’t.

Love it. He soaks stuff up like a sponge (and I’m extra impressed, because FHE was entirely in Portuguese – which means he understands more than we think he does!).

What kinds of things throw your life off track? Do you ever feel like you’re leaving bits of your life strewn around? How to you clean up and get back on track? Do you have a sweet husband (or good friend) who helps pick up after you when you can’t seem to hold it all together?

Park Day

It’s kind of weird being a mom in the ward I grew up in.

Thankfully, Wednesday was playgroup for the Relief Society, so I took the kids. We’ve been going stir crazy in the house. What, with me moping around all day … every day (not to mention the heat). But I just had to get them out yesterday.

So we went to Lake Willestein park in Maumelle. It’s about a mile or so away from my parents house – we could have walked, except it is entirely too hot to walk anywhere in Arkansas. Not sure how I did it as a kid. More carefree back then, I guess.

  Joseline was looking particularly adorable yesterday (if I do say so myself). Any she loved those graham crackers! She was also walking a lot more. I think she’s started to realize that walking is much more fixe than crawling (fixe – cool in Portuguese, pronounced like “fish” but with more of a long e sound than a short i sound).

Vince had a great time with a lot of new playmates. See the flush in his cheeks? I think he rarely got flushed in Monterey. It seems like every time we move here, we get flushed. Even if we’re just getting in the car! I can’t believe how hot it is. This weekend is supposed to be a little cooler, thankfully. Highs in the upper 80s. How’s that for “cool”?

(but don’t you love how green it is! And all the tall trees! Arkansas puts Monterey to shame – as far as green-ness. Although the beach sure beats the pool. Hmm… now that I think of it, the pool water is warmer than the ocean in Monterey, so maybe the pool still beats the beach. At least the beach in Monterey)

A Cold in Strep’s Clothing (or my immune system is really, really good)

So it wasn’t strep after all. That or it went away on it’s own, thanks to my amazing immune system (or the fact that I was downing 100x the recommended dose of every immune boosting supplement known to man. Like seriously, I think I was taking 4000%DV Vitamin C 3x a day for the past two days. I probably peed most of it out, but if it had anything to do with the fact that I don’t have strep anymore, bring on the Vit C pee!!)

The New Do

Before my hair met Christopher:

(this photo was actually about a month and a half ago, so my hair was probably a good 1/2” to 1” longer than this – yes, my hair grows that fast)

After my hair met Christopher:

  (the tan is from the 5K + 1K I ran yesterday. I didn’t even realize I got so much sun. I’m just grateful the kiddos didn’t burn, because we totally forgot sunscreen! I can’t wait to see my skin at the end of the summer! Basically I’m going to be hott! ;)  )

So there it is. Becca with a short “do.” It’s bee, I dunno, 12-13 years since my hair was this short. I just don’t really care for the short do’s. It’s still just long enough to pull back into a pony, too! A very very short pony, but a pony, so pulling it back to run and workout won’t be a pain.

Bring on summer!

My Wonderful, Fabulous, Amazing, Very-Good Day!

Today I woke up at 5am.

Did some stretches (i.e. Yoga… it felt great) (did I tell you that my quads feel as if they have been mauled? More about that later… ),  studied the scriptures, blogged a bit, went for a three mile run, did some laundry, took the kids to story time, checked out books from the library, ate lunch, played with the kids outside, went to the chiropractor (really needed that!), ate Coldstone ice cream with my sweetheart (the best part was being with my sweetheart), did some more laundry, made dinner, had FHE with the babies, tutored for an hour, and now… I am going to get in my jammies and snuggle with my sweetie again while we watch a movie.

What a great day!

What did you do today?

My New Normal v 2.1

My new normal includes how our eating habits are changing - we're doing a not-very-strenuous cleanse for the next two weeks. Mostly it is simply no salt, no sugar, no dairy and no carbs/grains (besides veggies and fruits). We eat a lot of white meat (chicken and turkey), beans, and veggies, with some fruits. Lots and LOTS of water. In two weeks when we do go back to eating carbs, they will all be whole grain (well, most of them... I like white pitas better than whole wheat ones, and it may take us a while to get back into the whole grain pasta thing. For a while we were eating whole grain pasta... we'll see). And when we do start eating carbs, it will be like 1-2 servings a day. Once I'm back to my pre-pregnancy weight, I'll do more servings of whole grains.

Anyway, so as far as schedule goes, it hasn't changed a lot. I think we're getting pretty well into a routine:

6:30am - wake up, fix Russ and me breakfast, fix Russ' lunch, go back to sleep if babies are still sleeping

when Vince wakes up - feed him breakfast

If we're running errands that day, we usually leave after I've nursed Joseline and Vince has had breakfast. If we're staying home, then as soon as Joseline goes to sleep for her morning nap, I straighten up the house, and then Vince and I play - if it's a good day, I try to get us outside, otherwise we just play inside with his toys.

12:30 or 1ish - lunch for me and Vince

2pm - Naptime for both babies

5:30 - start dinner

6:30 - eat dinner

After dinner - family time!

8:30pm - Vincente's bedtime

9:30pm - Joseline's bedtime

11pm - our bedtime

So there it is. I think this is the final version of My New Normal for now. But in a few months, Joseline will start going to bed earlier, and I'm sure shortly after that Vincente may start giving up his nap, but we'll see. Hopefully he's going to be one of those kids who naps until they're 5... HA. Only if i strap him to his bed.

My New Normal v 2.0

I realized that I haven't been updating you on my new normal lately - and I think it's because thing are moving more smoothly for us these days. And on top of that, I'm crazy busy with two kids all the all the Dr's appointments and play dates and grocery shopping! Whoo! It's enough to make you feel crazy.

Anyway, here is the normal lately:

7:00 - Russ leaves for work, Vince is up, I hopefully sleep a little longer while Vince watches a show that Papai lovingly started for him

eventually - I get out of bed, get breakfast for me and Vince

Around 9ish - try to take a shower and get ready

10ish - run errands while Joseline sleeps peacefully in her infant carrier

12:30-1ish - lunch with Vince

2pm - nap time for BOTH babies, maybe a quick snooze for me, and then chores or something

6pm - Russ gets home from work - DINNER and FAMILY time! That has been the highlight of our day for the past little while - having family time after dinner. On Wednesday we jumped on the trampoline, then gave the babies baths. Yesterday we all worked out - Russ did push ups and sit ups, I did arms and crunches. Vincente danced to the workout music, and he and Joseline attempted to mimick our jumping jacks. It was hilarious. I should have taken a video. Joseline was the best - sitting in her little bouncey seat and when we would do jumping jacks, she would start waving her arms and kicking her little legs like she was doing them, too! It was adorable.

8:30pm - Vincente gets ready for bed

9:00pm - Vincente should be sleeping, or laying in his bed trying to sleep, but lately he's been coming out of his room, since he just realized he knows how to open his door and it works ANY time of the day, not just when he wakes up in the morning... unfortunately he likes trying out his newfound skill at bedtime, so he won't stay in his room. We're working on it, using the silent return to sleep. Poor little guy just wants to open his door.

after Vince is in bed, Russ studies, I watch an episode of Bones or House or Without a Trace (if Russ has no HW and doesn't want to study, we watch Bones together)

11pm - our bedtime, as long as Joseline is already alseep or is ready to go to sleep with us. 

So there it is, the NEW new normal. Joseline's sleep schedule still isn't completely normal, so that throws things off. Give it a few more months and things will settle down.

I think I'm going to start a food blog. Next week Russ and I are going to do a cleanse (mine will be somewhat modified, since I'm still breastfeeding) so having a meal blog will be a good way to keep track of what we're eating.

The new normal is looking very very good :)

Finals, Moving, and all that Jazz

The Rowleys move on to a new chapter in their lives. Okay, so really just a new section in the same chapter... Spring term!! And moving in with the in-laws. I know, we always swore we would NEVER live with our parents. We always felt that we wanted to be self-sufficient. But then, there comes a time when sanity takes over your pride, thank goodness.


Russ will leave for Basic Traning in August, and since Vincente and I were going to move in with the in-laws then anyway, and they're raising our rent, we decided it would be more intelligent to move in now instead of moving and then moving again.

Finals are finished this week, and then it's moving time! Hopefully we'll be able to get everything done that we need to. We have to get a storage unit and decide what stuff we'll take with us, what stuff we'll put in storage, and what stuff we'll give away/sell/whatever. We hope to get rid of a lot of stuff, and just buy some new furniture when we move to California in December. That way we won't have to store a lot of ugly newly-wed furniture. There's nothing wrong with ugly furniture at first, but after a while you crave a coordinated look for your house to replace the DI showroom look.