Angry Bean

So in case you missed the big announcement on Christmas Eve, I'll fill you all in again. Tim and I are expecting baby #2!

Alexis (I think, maybe it was Mal?) lovingly named this little one, Angry Bean. Because from 6 weeks to 13 weeks, I had morning sickness almost every single day and pretty much felt and looked (if I didn't put loads of make-up on) as if the life was being sucked out of me. Since 13ish weeks, I've felt better, but still every now and then I'll wake up not feeling well. This has been a complete 180 from what my pregnancy with Love Bean was like. With her I never got sick and wasn't really that tired. Probably has something to do with the fact I was actually in shape when I got pregnant with Love Bean, and didn't have a 15 month old to chase around.

Other things have been different this time around as well.

Last time around I never had a single craving. I wanted to have one so bad too...I really thought maybe they were made up, and that woman just use them as an excuse to eat whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted.

Well, I'm happy to say I have had ONE craving this pregnancy. It was before the Dairy Queen in Lake O closed for the Winter (thankfully!). I was at home, thinking about what to make for dinner, but all I could think about was a DQ Heath Blizzard made with chocolate ice cream. I made dinner, and tried to eat some of it, but it just didn't taste good, and I couldn't get the blizzard off my mind. I had Tim stop and pick one up for me on his way home. OH. MY. GOSH. when I took the first bite it was like heaven in my mouth. Unfortunately (or fortunately for my waistline), there have been no more ice cream cravings.

I do hope that I actually look more pregnant this time around. The day I delivered Love Bean, I looked like most woman do at 6 months. Although, only gaining 28 pounds was nice, and so was being back in my skinny jeans 6 weeks later. So maybe I don't wanna look more pregnant...

Twenty Six

Jamie is TWENTY SIX today!!

So I had a grand idea of getting some fun memories from a few people of Jamie. So we have a little collection of fun here and maybe embarrassing in some way or another. Hold on for a bit, it is a tad long, but we all got a lot of love for this girl!

LOVE YOU JAMIE!!!

I will start of with a quick story of Jamie and I had together. She was 16, me 14 and we wanted to go to Lansing. Jamie had never driven there before by herself, so this was a big deal. I guess more so the fact mom said YES! Anyway we jumped in the silver Taurus and took off. If I remember correctly we were doing pretty good. Possibly even made a stop or two already. Well Jamie was trying to get back on the road and had to cross 2 lanes of traffic to get to the turn lane, so then we could try to get in the next lane. I don't even remember exactly what we did, ok what she did. But all of the sudden a car flew around us and through milk at us. Luckily I had my window up! We never told my mom until we were out of the house because we wanted to be able to go to Lansing again. haha!

Might as well fit one other driving story in here. We were on our way to Aim High from a lamb show at MSU. Jamie was driving and I was passenger again. Jamie couldn't figure out how to get there and I was trying to tell her what to do. (Was and still am better with directions) She seriously got off an exit and would get back on going the same way. No lie we got off on 5+ times. She kept doing the opposite of what I told her. Big sisters. . . 

The next one is not really an unsual scenario for sisters, I don't think anyway. Jamie and I were fighting (just verbal) and she started to walk away into her bedroom (which was mine too). I obviously couldn't let her just walk away, I had to get the last word in. So she slams the door, I kick it open (yes I was and still am dramatic). What does Jamie do, well of course is waiting there and SUCKER PUNCHES me right in the gut. That is the only time Jamie has ever physically hurt me that I remember. (I am told she did chuck a shovel at my head when I was young. She didn't want to be a big sister)

Alexis will eleaborate on this more later on down but, Jamie loved indians. Therefore we played Pocahontas a lot. And she got to be Pocha and would talk to one of the pine trees and pretend it was Grandmother Willow. Alexis got to be Naomi and of course I had to be John Smith. She was pretty protective over Grandmother Willow. She was the ONLY one who could talk to her. HAHA. 

Love you J:)

I also got Jamie's best friend Mandy to write up something. 

I have many memories of my best friend Jaime. One of my favorite one actually happened at-least once a week our Freshman year of College. It was called "futon of love time"...it isn't what you think. We would go over to the other residence hall to get snacks and pop (our snack selection was terrible) and then we would sit on Jamie's futon and watch Boy Meets World before class would start. I am pretty sure we started this tradition because we decided we should talk about Graphic Design stuff in between classes so we were "better students" but that didn't last long! From boys, to clothes, to finding new college friends for our "group", we never ran out of things to say. I think that 35 minutes in between class is what really made our friendship even stronger (Thanks, Cory Mathews). Even after Freshman year, our friendship revolved around corny television shows and vast amount of snacks, and I am not afraid to say that. I love you jobo, pekoshka, james, or whatever nickname I gave through out the week. Happy Birthday Woman!

Then Al chimes in here:) 

Jamie is THE definition of the oldest child to the tee. Urban Dictionary says the oldest child is 

".. usually the child that gets to much responsibility. Can be seen as an automatic babysitter. the oldest child also has much firmer rules then younger siblings. parents often forget what the oldest child was made to do at a certain age for example: at the age of 8 the oldest child is made to start doing the washing up but by the time the second child gets to that age the parent isnt making him do anything yet. the oldest chld gets the least attention as they are seen to be more capable. the oldest child often longs for the only childness they had for a while before there younger sibling was born." We have heard Jamie preach on this over and over and beg for pity for having to be the oldest child. But when it comes down to it Jamie is just so darn good at it!  There are so many crazy memories with J that I have no idea how to share them or how to pick just one. But when I think about what we pick on J about the most it is definitely her love for Indians she had growing up.  She was weirdly obsessed with Indians. She wanted to read about them, paint them, live with them. She wanted to be one of them. When we were on family vacations of course we had to stop and look at every Indian exhibit. I'm thinking Jamie's love for Indians also drove her to her crazy idea of getting trampled by a heard of buffalo. When on a family vacay in Monatana we were driving through a park and began driving through this heard of buffalo. Jamie insisted on getting a picture so continued to climb to the back of our lovely forest green clubwagon van over our luggage and open the back door to get a close up. Well as most people know a van packed full of luggage and opening the back door does not go well together. Jamie then continued to start to fall out of the van and into this massive heard of buffalo. I don't remember how she managed to get back in I just know she did or she probably wouldn't be here today. ;

I also curious of the definition of a Jamie and found it necessary to include Urban Dictionary's definition of Jamie too.

Jamie: Super hot and adorable with an incredibly perfect butt; I wish I had Jamie's butt!

-Love Al

We even got Tim (her hubs) in on the action! 

One of my favorite memories with Jamie is when we had first moved to Chicago and we would go for walk and explore the neighborhood and ultimately the city, we wouldn't have an agenda just walk and talk.

Another of my favorite memories with Jamie is when went to the haunted jail in big rapids, for Halloween. Jamie was so scared to go but we made her go. While we were waiting in line there was a guy that didn't even work for the haunted house that kept scaring her before we even got inside. We finally got inside and she was jumping at every little thing, I tried to get her to go the next year and it was a big fat no. Lol

Probably my favorite memory of Jamie is when I first saw her coming down the isle at our wedding. That moment was the culmination of a bunch of arguments and a lot of stress. At that moment everything was perfect.

We all love you Jamie! You are an intelligent, loving, caring woman!

Babies and Friends

Growing up also means changing friends. Growing up while makin' babies makes that process a little trickier. 

In the meantime hold the babies tighter and step out of your comfort zone a little more. Or hang on to this blog. I am telling you it will get better. 

When I was 18, 3 months after I graduated I found out I was pregnant for Jo. 

At the time when I was pregnant my sisters weren't. We didn't have that in common yet. So it was even hard there. I went from being crazy, spontaneous, free Mal to a Mallorie that couldn't figure out where she belonged. Honestly, my mom is who I called to just talk. My mom helped me transition into adulthood by just treating me as a friend. She made me realize that this is what I want, I didn't want to be off doing what other 18 year olds were doing. And that is and was okay. I was put on this earth to be a mom.

Finding your way in this "grown up" world, with friends away at college can be hard. Or maybe you are still in college and have a little one or two at home. From experience I can tell you that the first year after I was out of high school was so hard for me emotionally. Luckily I had a few friends that would come see me or would still include me no matter what. Even when they were at school, I would get a text here or there.

This is where you separate your "real" friends from the rest. A real friend is perfectly ok just coming to your house and enjoying/tolerating your kids for awhile. A real friend understands that budgets are tight when you got wee ones and is ok with Big Boy;) Most of all a real friend will figure out a time to meet with you because you need a girls day/night. 

The problem was not just them though, it was me too. I couldn't, well really, just didn't know how to make the transition. The transition from being irresponsible to completely responsible for another life. I took it to the extreme. I didn't do much of anything but be a mom. 

REAL TALK, I was uncomfortable being a mom. Actually I was a SELF CONSCIOUS wife/mom/woman. What kind of mom was I going to be? What kind of mom did I want to be? What do I have in common with my friends? I can't even fit in my old clothes! They wouldn't even understand anything I am going through. Which that translated into me just kind of closing the door on friends. I wanted to do what they were doing, but knew I had different priorities and responsibilities to attend too.

I have been struggling with this for sometime, as I am sure some of you have or are. 

You still like to have a good time, but you can't just randomly pack up your kid at 9 o'clock at night to go to somewhere for some drinks or to hang. You can't pack up your kid at 9 at night for anything. My kids have been in bed for almost 2 hours at that point. You have to set dates and find a babysitter. 

Even harder for me was the "mommy guilt". It used to be really hard for me to be away from Jess and Jo. Well have one more kid and ask me how hard it was. Now that I have 3 it is like get me the heck out of here! haha! 

I had some of that right. But in the end I had to still do me. You adjust to being a mom and your friends adjust to it as well. I had to realize that it was OKAY for me to have fun. It was alright for me to leave Jo for a little bit. When I finally did this I realized I was a better mom when I got time to do what I wanted. 

Then once you get out, you have to let the "mom" in you go. And just have fun. Although I am awful at letting the mom in me go, I still can have a good time. I think anyone that has seen me out at any event, kid free, knows I can have a good time. That was hard for me to learn though.

Now when you see me out and about kid free I try to let go of the "mom" in me and just relax. Just go with the flow. Obviously my kids come up and I make the occasional (probably too many) mom jokes. Like when you go to a party and someone is like, "Just one more drink!" and you reply, "I have to wake up and be a mom tomorrow;)". I am a more confident mom. I know what I do is hard and I take pride in it. I now understand it is okay and people aren't judging me. 

I feel like social media is just a pain when it comes to being a young mom. You can sit there and get so caught up in the fact what other people your age are doing. 

If you are reading this and are the friend of a young mom, just a text would make their day. But even better don't think you have to have two lives. Mix them together;) Invite the mama out. Being a mom is tough! And when they say no the first 3 times keeping asking!!

2013 Personal Goals

Happy New Year! We all spent the night celebrating one last Christmas and ringing in 2013 with my parents. I think three drinks were spilled, one chair was broken, and one minor elbow injury was suffered by Andi when she was knocked to the floor during a battle for a spoon between Nanner and Uncle Tim.

My usual new year's resolution is to send birthday cards to all my friends and family, but I never even make it past Jan. 14, my dad's birthday. So, I'm giving up on that this year. I've came up with two new goals for 2013.

1. Memorize 24 Bible Verses; I think I'm pretty knowledgeable about the Bible, and I can give you paraphrased versions of many Bible stories and biblical principles, but I don't have very many verses memorized word for word. 24 seems like a pretty attainable number for me, that's two verses a month. To help me stay on track, I'll be sharing the verses here on the blog as I'm committing them to memory.

2. Do one load of laundry per day; I hate doing laundry, so much so that I put it off until Tim runs out of socks or underwear and then I spend like two whole days doing laundry, which makes me hate it even more because it seems never ending. So, I'm going to try to do one load a day in hopes that making it a small daily task, makes it feel more manageable.