Believe it or not

I am still here!!! Sorry for that lack of posting. I know you all look for new updates regularly and I have been seriously lacking in the blog department. Hang in there everyone, I will try to do better. I think you have heard that before :) Here is a little update on everyone in the Lier household.

Addy Jo
Still not crawling but oh so close. I want to her to do it just because it is the next logical thing to do - however I know it is going to put the biggest crimp in things. She literally gets into everything and she is not even crawling. She pulls up on things and get stuff off the tables she isn't supposed to. Paige is always mad that she has something of hers. So that should be real fun when she is actually mobile, I am sure I will be hearing a lot of "MOOOMMMM, Addy has my something." This is new for us, with Paige we child proofed the house a little but Paige was not as adventurous as Addy is. We will be looking at our house on a whole new level. Not to mention all the little toys and things that Paige leaves around that are really dangerous for Addy, it should really keep us on our toes.

Addy is pretty much on all chunky food, we are going to graduate out of the graduates soon. Well, she already has simply because it is so much cheaper to buy the regular food out of the "big people section" of the store. The graduates are great for road trips and we seem to need to eat on the run a few days a week. Hmmm, what else is new for Addy. Oh she jabbers up a storm. I have heard that many times the second child does not talk as much or as soon as the first. Not in our house so far. Addy and Paige just jabber away both at the same time. Addy says Da Da, Ma Ma, ba ba and even something that resembles Hi and yeah. I think this is unusal but she actually says Ma Ma all the time and we rarely hear da da. Yeah Addy Jo , that's my girl :)

Paige
Paige is loving the spring time. She would live outside 24/7 if she could, we already eat practically every meal out on the deck. She would sleep out there for sure if we would let her. Her new play set is completely finished. Dave finished putting down all the wood chips, (9 yards and 3 truck loads later). She is so proud of herself because she can swing on the big people swing and push herself. Speaking of doing things herself. Paige is learning so fast how to do things herself. She takes pride in getting her clothes on "all by myself". She is now into getting her own hair combed and you cannot help her. Needless to say it doesn't really get combed but oh well I don't want to take that pride and feeling of self accomplishment from her. This morning she sat in front of her vanity that has a mirror, a brush and blowdryer and "got ready" to go. She was in there just busy as ever running the blow dryer and combing her hair. She comes out of her room and tells me "look mom, I blow dryered my hair and I combed it and now I am all ready to go" I mean who can argue with that. Sure her hair is sticking out in every possible direction but she is just thrilled with herself. Strangers probably think why don't you comb your daughters hair but her and I are just so proud we don't really notice.

Why, why, why why, but why????? This is what you will hear ALL DAY LONG if you spend time with Paige. She is so curious about everything around her. Lately you cannot even read a book without a couple of why's on every page in the book. She is just soaking up all the information you give her and storing it somewhere. Just this morning at Ann's (daycare) we were talking about the rain maybe later today and she had to tell Ann that "it rains from the clouds and that the rain makes the plants rainy and then they feel good". I know that it is important to give her information and that she is learning but man it is hard to last a whole day sometimes. I have found that if you actually give her a legitimate answer she will listen and there might not be another "why" to follow. If you just give her a "because" or "that's the way it is" she is not nearly as satisfied. This at least gives me some relief that she is truely asking why because she really wants to know and not just to drive me crazy. She is a smart little cookie for her age and the level of reasoning she has just blows me away daily.

Dave
Well spring time is here and so that means garage sales and junk to buy and sell. Dave went to the annual Medina Junk Day and was like a kid at a candy store. He is busy working on all his finds and selling some of them. He should make a good profit again this year. Dave has a hard time passing up a garage sale or anything sitting on the side of the road for that matter. It seems to consume him and he has a hard time focusing on other things. He will be moving onto his Jeep real soon because he has a Jeep outing planned for Mem. weekend. Softball season is here and he looks forward to that every year. This year he is starting the season in great shape. For some of you that may not have seen Dave in a while he has lost about 30 pounds and looks great, I think he feels great too. The yard work is still there to get done. It is definetly a work in progress we will get it done. He squeezes in a project here and there between junk and helping friends on their projects. Last weekend he help a friend built a deck, finished the shed he started last fall, finished the woodchips in the play area and all this in between some family functions that we had to attend. May is extremely busy for both Dave and I. There is always June, right?!?

So then there's me...
Busy at work this month, I have 6 seminars to do in this week and next. So that means 6 nights away from my girls. We will get through it one day at a time. Then I have planned a girls weekend away at a cabin in Brainerd. Which means more time away from the girls - which is hard but I do really need some time for ME. It is set up for scrapbooking so I am planning on getting some of the girls memories down on paper. I have been busy trying to prepare, ordering pictures I want to work on, going through my supplies to see what I have and may want. I am so excited to visit and relax with some really good friends that I don't know what I will actually get done but at least it will be organzied for a later date.

I was supposed to be at Weight watchers right now weighing in but I got to typing this and really need to post so I will try to catch the next meeting time. I know many of you are wondering how that is going for me. I have kinda hit a bump in the road since easter. I could definetly be doing better in my efforts which I have mentally put on hold. I have been holding steady and have even lost a few pounds. I am down about 15 pounds, I think I would like to lose about another 20. I am not really all that mad at myself about the hiatus just because I know it is a process and I will get there sometime. I am going to buy myself a new journal and just get back measuring portions and writing it all down. I think that will get me back on the track I need. I did go to a Hypnosis class for weight loss with a friend of mine. I am just not really sure about it. The day after I went I actually was craving really bad food - salt, sugar, chocolate. You are supposed to listen to the CD they give you and get hypnotized for the next 30 days straight. I listened to it for about 5 days and really felt like it was making be eat worse. I don't know if I was just testing myself and the hypnosis or what was going on so I stopped listening and I atually do feel better, like I have more control. I will probably give it another shot and see if the crazy bad cravings come back again. They say sometimes it doesn't work because you could have a certain mindset the day you went and trying it again may work differently.

Looking forward to the Race for the Cure on Sun. It should be a good event. If anyone feels like joining in there is still time to sign up. It seems that I just keep meeting more and more people who are effected by breast cancer. I just found out another friends mom has been diagnosed. The good news is that it seems like people are caughting it sooner and are able to manage it better. So hope for sunshine on Sun. and I will too for all the Mother's out there, Happy Mother's Day!!!