SHH! Wnat's that sound?

That would be the sound of SILENCE. Sweet sweet silence.

I don't know why I resist alone time at home so much. I fight it though. I always think I'm going to be lonely and bored. And I'm always wrong.

Tonight James and I were invited to a bonfire. I turned them down b/c Corbin is staying with his grandparents tomorrow night and I didn't want to leave him with a sitter two nights in a row. And I didn't want to bring him with and put him to bed over there. Just wasn't feeling it tonight. So I told James he could go. No reason for him to stay home too. He doesn't go out that often and he's really good about making sure that he's spending enough time with me. I like time - it makes me feel loved.

He left about 45 minutes ago. I took a hot shower, put a pizza in the oven, grabbed a coke, and here I sit. Gooey yummy pizza next to me waiting to cool. Life is good. I like this alone stuff. I'm watching what I want on TV. I don't have to worry about neglecting James for the laptop. I'm very happy with this lol. Life is good tonight.

Of course, I'll be super thrilled when the hubby gets home in a couple hours, but for now, I'm gonna enjoy the quiet.

Fave photo friday

So my sister - http://yatesblogspot.blogspot.com/ - does this thing on Fridays where she posts her favorite pics. It's all themed and cutesy. She got the idea from another blog she reads. It's really cute and really fun to see the pictures she uses to go with her theme. My sis is really good at the whole blogging thing.

Anyways, I've decided to sorta borrow the idea, only I'm gonna do it slightly different. At some point over the weekend, I'm going to post my favorite pics from the week before. No themes, b/c I'm not so good with them lol.
So here are my favorite pics from this week:
I like how in this one, Corbin and I are making the same face. He cracks me up. He's my favorite person to take pictures with.
This is our first family photo in a VERY long time. We're not too good at all being together around a camera. James took this one for us. It took 3 tries, but we finally got it right.
This is from last night at our bonfire. These are my friends Kat, Harmony, and Erin. We had a blast last night.

Tag...you're it

This should be interesting...

The RULES:
1.) Go to where you store your digital photos and open the 4Th folder.


2.) Go to the 4Th picture and post it.


3.) Explain the picture.


4.) Tag 4 additional people (I don't have 4 people to tag - IDK who reads this and blogs, but I would say probably 4 people. So if you read this - you're tagged lol)

This is my sweet monkey, Corbin, at around 4 months old. He's hanging out in one of his favorite places - the Boppy. In fact - the Boppy is still in his bed on occasion even now. He's wearing a really cute outfit that James Aunt Karen sent him and his favorite teething toy is hanging out with him. I can't believe how small he was!

10lbs down and other good stuff

I'm sitting here on the couch next to Corbin. He's not feeling 100%, so he's wanting to snuggle more than normal. He keeps reaching over to rub my head the way we rub his. So sweet...

So this morning I jump on the scale. I am down 10lbs since I started dieting 3.5 weeks ago.

Also today, I had a job interview for a home health agency. They're waiting on my background and reference checks to come back, but most likely I have the job. If you could pray that everything will come together there, we would appreciate it.

Tonight we're having friends over for a bonfire. So all in all it's a good Friday at the Murphy's house.

No more naps

It seems that this week Corbin has decided he is too old for naps. He's not, but convincing him of that is nearly impossible. He has not napped since last Saturday. He's currently laying in bed, talking to his blankey and Pooh Bear, not even acting tired.

The good thing is - now he is going to be earlier and sleeping later. That's a nice change from the waking at 6am he was doing 2 weeks ago. Mama can't take the early morning wake up call - I'm so not a morning person.

I'll continue to lay him down after lunch in hopes that he'll nap one day. He's a little grumpy in the evenings when he doesn't sleep. But apart from drugging him, which really I try to avoid lol, there's not much I can do to make him nap. Maybe someday he'll figure out that mama does know what's best for him. Probably not anytime soon though.

Just for kicks - a recent pic of my monkey:

buhgeh buhgeh buhgeh

Corbin can spot a McDonalds from 10 miles away. I swear he can! And the second he sees those arches, he starts yelling "buhgeh buhgeh buhgeh" (his way of saying "burger")
Yesterday on the way home from church, he saw one of those food signs on the highway. It showed several different restaurants, including McDonald's. Corbin goes nuts. Honestly, I don't know when he became so attached to McDonald's.

Corbin has always been a great eater. He'll eat everything. Recently though, he's gotten slightly more picky. Veggies and ketchup belong together. It's difficult to convince him otherwise. But as long as he can dip it, he will eat anything and everything. We've been out of ketchup for a couple days now. He's decided mustard is an acceptable replacement.

Two is such a fun age. I love the little quirks that Corbin is developing. I love watching his little personality come out. He's testing boundaries and pushing limits as well, so it's also a very challenging age. But everyday brings new joys with him and I certainly wouldn't trade him for anything - even on the worst days.

Corbin's tummy troubles and more stuff

In November, Corbin had blood in his poop. Of course, being a typical worrying mother, I had him in the pediatrician's office that afternoon. They ordered an x-ray and did some tests on his poop. The tests all came back clear, the x-ray showed a "large amount of stool in the intestines" Since Corbin has always gone 2-4 days b/t bowel movements and b/c he had just had one the morning of the xray, they started him on a laxative. It helped for a week and then he was back to every 3 days. So the pediatrician decided Corbin is quite literally anal retentive. It hurt a couple times to go poop, so now he doesn't go until he absolutely can't wait any longer.
He had 2 more incidents of blood in his stool, so I asked for a gastroenterologist referral. Today was our appointment with him. He thinks that Corbin is anal retentive also. He thinks that Corbin is only pooping as little at a time as he can, so everything's not getting cleaned out of him. He also thinks he has some internal hemmoroids.
He decided to start Corbin on a new stool softner - miralax. We're gonna try that for several weeks and then in 8-12 weeks, we follow up with the GI. If he has blood in his stool again or things don't get better, we'll do additional testing.
I'll keep you guys updated as we deal with Corbin's tummy.

On another note - Corbin's GI is in St. Petersburg, about 2 hours from us. Today, on the way home, our car started making a funky noise. I checked the oil and it was way low. Corbin and I found a Wal*mart and bought some oil. I filled in back up and we were on our way. Well the noise got worse and then the car started letting off some awful scent. So our car is broken in some way. Tomorrow we're taking it to the shop, hopefully it's nothing serious.

One last thing - tomorrow I have an interview at the hospital. This job would really help us out, so keep your finger's crossed and say a prayer that I get it :)

Thanks for reading!

For my sister lol

As I've mentioned before, we are potty training. This is Corbin enjoying sometime on his potty. We recently decided to watch less tv, as Corbin was getting way too into it. So, now, one of the only times he gets to have TV on is when he's on the potty. Hence the distracted face.

And here is Corbin enjoying making Christmas cookies. More frosting got on my counter and chairs and him than on the cookies, but he enjoyed it.

Here is Corbin hanging out in a laundry basket. This is one of his favorite places to sit. He was actually eating lunch in there that day.

Corbin all ready to be shipped off.

Corbin's Christmas gifts. The trucks are his favorite, with puzzles being a close second.

And Corbin learning to skate.

Cute Corbin stuff

- Over Christmas, Corbin called lights and trees and all other Christmas decorations, "pwitties"

- When Corbin is doing something worthy of a spanking and I call him over and ask him to stop, I say "Corbin, you need to stop _______ or mommy will have to spank you." His eyes get huge and he grabs his tushy and says "on my bottom?"

- He also calls belly buttons "butts". We were in Publix the other day checking out and he saw the magazine's with the half naked people on them and started yelling "butt! butt!".

- When I took him into Victoria's Secret on Black Friday, he saw all the belly buttons on the posters and spent the entire time we were in there showing everyone his "butt".

- James was worried about Corbin's speech - like when some kids say "truck" it sounds like the "f" word. So he taught Corbin that trucks start with the letter "T". Now every time Corbin sees a truck, he says "T - truck!!"

- The other night I was cooking dinner and it was late, so he was hungry. He was standing under my feet yelling "hungee!! Hungee!!!" I told him dinner would be ready soon and he said "Hungee!! I dying!!" I should probably be a little less dramatic around him.

national body challenge week 2

James and I both were slack about the gym last week. As in, we didn't go at all lol. We're lame, we know. This week we're gonna try to get on track and work out.
That said we both did very well with our eating, and while I don't know what James lost b/c I forgot to ask him, I did quite well. As of this morning, I was down 5lbs. Yay me!!

Also this week, James is starting classes at Florida Gulf Coast University. I am so proud of him for going back to school. Although it won't be easy for him to be in school and working, with a family at home, I know he can do it.

Our Anniversary

Three years ago today, James and I eloped.
I'm not too good at sappy, lovey stuff, so we're gonna skip all that.
Things have not always been easy, but we love each other. We're working through things, we're learning about ourselves and each other, and we're becoming stronger as a couple every day. Even with the hard times, I wouldn't trade him for anything.
Love you baby!

uh-oh

So last night James and I experienced one of the most horrible things you can experience as a parent. Corbin's special blankey was lost at bedtime.
Corbin has slept with this blanket almost every night since he came home from the hospital. In recent months he has become quite attached - to the point he asks to take it places and has to have it at night. Blankey is not allowed to leave the house except if Corbin will be away for a nap or bedtime. You see, blankey is irreplaceable. I can't go to the store and stock up on more in case we lose it. There is only one blankey.
When I was nearing the end of my pregnancy, my bff showed up one night with this cute blanket. She had made it for Corbin. To make it even more special, she had asked James to go to the fabric store and pick out all the fabric she used to make the blanket. It was my favorite blanket, so I used it for Corbin all the time. Eventually, he became attached to it and that leads us back to last night.
James was laying him down, when Corbin asked for blankey. And that was when we realized we had no clue where blankey was. I started tearing the house apart looking for it, while James began showing Corbin all his other blankets. James would hold one up and Corbin would say "no! blankey?" Clearly, no substitutes would be accepted.
Finally, after about 5 minutes of searching, I found blankey on our bed. Corbin was so happy to have it back and went to sleep with no problems. And James and I were very relieved to have found it.
You know you're parents when a missing blanket can send your entire house into a panic.

National Body Challenge

Tomorrow, James and I are starting The Discovery Health National Body Challenge. It doesn't officially start until Jan 5, but we're starting a week early.

Our goals are as follows:
1. Exercise at least 30 minutes a day.
2. Eat healthy and stay within our calorie range for the day.
3. Drink at least 64oz of water a day.
4. Lose 10-15lbs each.

Since Corbin was born, I have lost 55lbs. I would like to lose 30 more. James also has 25-30lbs he would like to lose. So hopefully doing this challenge together will motivate us to start getting healthy and we'll continue with our goals after the 8 weeks is up.
I'll check in every Sunday with our stats for the previous week.

Potty Training

Corbin is now 2 years old. Apparently this is the age when we are supposed to start potty training. So for his birthday, we bought him a little blue potty. He really likes this thing. About a week before his second birthday, I started putting him on the potty every 2-2.5 hours. I don't push it, I ask if he wants to sit on his potty. Most of the time, he says yes. Sometimes, he says no. When he says no, I wait 10-15 minutes and ask again. Usually he's ready to sit at that point.
Corbin has to be completely naked when he sits on the potty. Most of the time, if he has a shirt on, he will tug at it and say "off! Off! Shirt off!" until we take it off. I'm not sure why he likes to potty naked, but if it gets him on the potty, well, it's fine with me.
We have been doing this for 12 days now. On Monday, after a bath, I put him on the potty. He usually has to tinkle after a bath, so I thought we might get lucky. And I was right. Not a minute after he sat down, he tinkled. We did the potty dance, he got an M&M, I updated facebook with the wonderful news, and we called everyone. Corbin had tinkled in the potty for the first time.
Personally I was hoping this was a major breakthrough and Corbin would never need another diaper. Yeah, right, but a mama can dream right?
This morning, I put him on the potty before he left to go out with James for the day. He was completely dry, but he often is at his 10am potty break. I wasn't getting my hopes up for a morning tinkle in the potty. Corbin surprised us though. James looked at me like I had 6 heads, when mid-sentence I started cheering for Corbin. He has tinkled in the potty again - this time with no help from an earlier bath. We were so proud.
Obviously, we still have a lot of work before he's totally potty trained, but I'm not worried about that. I'm just proud that, every once in a while, he's tinkling where he's supposed to tinkle. The look on his face when we're so excited for him and the way he yells "I pottied" is totally adorable and worth the hassle of putting him on the potty every 2 hours all day long.

Charmer

Lately Corbin has become quite the charmer. A good example of this is an exchange that takes me between him and I or him and James at least 10 times a day.
Corbin: "Mama" (or daddy)
Us: "yes?"
Corbin: "I love you"
Us: "I love you too buddy"
Corbin: "you too"

Tonight, we were sitting on the couch, watching cartoons, and winding down for bed. I looked over and he was sticking a straw in his ear. Never a good idea. I flipped the tv off and told him to look at me. Once I had his attention, I started to tell him (for the 700th time today) not to put things in his ears anymore. I got about 2 words in, when Corbin leaned up and kissed me square on the mouth. It was so cute and so funny, I almost forgot that I was supposed to be scolding him.
I'm pretty sure that was his goal.

hello

Since my sister started blogging last year, she has been on me to start a blog also. After putting it off for several months, I've decided to go ahead and start one. Since my family and most of my friends live 1000 miles away, I figure it will be a good way for everyone to keep up with our life.
We'll see how well I keep up with this.