Troy Jr - 19 months

I know Troy Jr is almost 20 months but I have some catching up to do on blogging about our little man. He has been developing before our eyes pretty quickly and it's so amazing how fast he's grown. He's loves to play with his big sister but does not like to share yet. He will scream at the top of his lungs until he gets the toy back that he wants. I guess that's an indication to us that we are in for it. He's headstrong and will get what he wants when he sees fit. Lately he's been crunching his hands a lot doing the bye bye motion and pointing at things while he's talking to it. He always says something with the point. It's too precious!!
Just the other day he's started to put some words together and make a little more sense then baby talk. For the past month his favorite word has been, "titer" (sister) or "sissy". He just adores and loves his big sister so much. Our recent amazement was the other day, as we pass the metro station, "Kalasatama", Chloe has always just called out, "Metro", "Metro", her favorite thing and now it's become a habit. When passing the other day Troy Jr says, "metoe" is how it came out but we knew exactly what he meant. It was so awesome and only makes you realize even at that little, they do pay attention, close attention. He's probably been dishing out the usual for the past 8 to 9 months, which usually are "dada", "outtide" (outside), "hi", "CoCo", "duce"(juice) and "tank ou" (thank you). He's just adorable and has blossomed into this little man overnight. I've enjoyed every single minute of it and just watching him grow before my eyes is breathtaking. He's learning so quickly and has such character too. I can't wait to see what's in store for us next. I'm sure it's going to be a whole lot of fun. We are truly blessed to have him in our lives. He's such a joy. 

A Whiny Mommy

Don't take this blog the wrong way. Mommy always needs time for venting and deserves to get it out every now and then and any way she knows how. So I hope not to offend anyone or get anyone upset, but this is the true me and it all comes straight from the heart. What is a blog for anyway?!? It's a place where family & friends can keep up with you & your family from far away, and to know what's going on, on the here & now's. Well here it goes:
I'm a stay-at-home mom but most of you know that already. Just have to say, it's really tough.  I knew it would be and I keep thinking lately, should I go back to work? When do I go back to work? I'm just wondering because lately it's been rather difficult dealing with a little one that is really clingy, going through that stage in his life and then our princess seems to be going through some issues of her own but not sure. When do I get a break? I know I only have two, and others have it a lot worse and have more than I do but like I said before this is my life I'm blogging about it right now and if you are interested in us then you'll continue reading about what's going on in our lives at this very moment in time.
Is it a delayed reaction to leaving the states that she's dealing with. I've had the recent comments & questions lately about Florida and going back. Apparently someone is lonesome and missing her friends. I am too but I have to suck it up and deal. I can only imagine it's probably harder for a 4 year old. Maybe it's the dealing of a baby brother that is now getting into her things and she really doesn't know how to handle it. Acting out is her solution lately. I'm not sure at this point but I am emotionally drained and dealing with my own internal issues of guilt and other things as a mother I don't feel I've done right. I'm good & really couldn't be any better even though I'm venting and I may sound like I'm not happy but I'm not happy because of the things that are going on with my children right now & I just feel like I don't know how to fix it or I worry about too much and then of course; that backfires on me always. I do know lately, I've felt like the maid, entertainer, warden, and just about anything that you could think of. It's just been a little crazier than usual. Is it the weather and this is what the snow does to you or is it that we have been punished to the house because of a little girl's attitude? Whatever the case may be, it's getting old.
I've recently found myself wondering how can I live a life of purpose when it seems like I've taken on more of a role as the housekeeper & playmate. I just want to know because if I remember correctly most mothers (family & friends) that I know just leave the dishes, laundry, and house work alone because they say it will always be there but these precious moments won't be. I guess I just don't feel precious moments around me because I feel like it's been so much of a fight for the last week or so and my fuse is about to go out completely. When I finally realized the answer to my questions, it was so clear to me. I do have a purpose and that purpose is to teach my children about Jesus through my actions & reactions to them and their behaviors that aren't quite right. Teaching them is the key and opening up my heart the most when it's the least time to do so. I have to look at them as the Lord looks at them. All of this makes my heart smile and makes me realize that this is the hardest job I will ever have or know. I don't think worrying about getting out of the house to get a "real" job is my biggest problem. My getting a "Real" job is done, the real problem lies on me dealing with the situation at hand a lot better & I have to give a big thanks to Jesus for that wonderful blessing of the role as mother. The job I was always intended to have or that He always had for me but only when he was ready to give it to me.
Now that I've vented and got all of my feelings out on my blog, I know now or really knew what I've always been meant for in this purpose of life, and that was to be a mother to these two beautiful & gorgeous children that the Good Lord above always intended to grant & bless me with. I am humbled by his generosity, and very thankful to be given this very hard job. AMEN!!!!!!!
 

Surprise Surprise

                                              
On Friday, January 13th, just like any other day we got up, had breakfast and got ourselves ready for our day. Left the house and went over to a friend's house so our children could play, had a great time and then we left in the afternoon to get other things done. Troy and I had plans to go to the Marine House for a function that they were having to celebrate the new snow. Anything to have a party & raise money for the Marine Ball. We almost didn't get to go because our regular babysitter started night classes and wouldn't be able to sit for us. At the last minute we had some good friends let us know that they had a sitter to bring the children to their house. It worked out great and all was well until we got to their house. The sitter was late but on her way, so we just waited & then left when she showed up. When we got there and walked in, I should have known something was up when Troy pushed me in the doorway a little, but I didn't. Clueless!!!! Troy, Jill, Chris & I entered together but as we opened the door, I seemed to be the first to walk in and I stopped because I noticed that everyone was wearing all black. My first thought was, why is everyone wearing black and then it clicked, oh no, I turned right back around and wanted to kill Troy. It was hilarious, and I was a nervous wreck. This is why I don't like surprises, I was a shaky mess. After calming down and being greeted by a great group of friends, it ended up being the best party ever. We had great time. Everyone was told in the invite that they had to wear all black. I was told by my "fake" invite that it was a "snow" party that we had to wear white, so I was the only one to stand out. YAY!! Troy!! You did it, you got me. LOL!! My husband never ceases to amaze me and of course, surprise me. Thank you honey for a very special, memorable 40th birthday. Love you so much, you are the best.

January 13, 2012

A bunch of great people, all dressed in black.

Jill & Chris Willingham

                                            

Goodbye 30's!!

On Tuesday, January 10th, I turned 40 years old. Turning 40 for me wasn't easy. It almost seemed as hard as 30 but even harder. Why is it that turning 40 is a bad thing? I know a lot of women curl up in a fetal position over it, but for me it was mixed emotions. I certainly don't feel 40, and everyone tells me that I don't look like I am. I just didn't know how to take it all in this time. It's definitely been a very busy 40 years. I was a Page, Maid & Queen of the Krewe of Terreanians, I graduated from high school, moved away to New Orleans for a little while, went back home, married the man of my dreams, moved & traveled outside the U.S., had two beautiful children, and now I'm living in Helsinki, Finland. A milestone birthday & it didn't feel any different nor did I. I have become more comfortable in my own skin now. I have many more imperfections than I did when I was a teenager, and in my 20's. Nothing brings those out more than having children and gravity. I am much more aware of how little I know about anything and everything in this world. I don't have a picture perfect life, I can be grumpy, I'm rather opinionated, and to the point. I struggle daily with some sort of clutter/messiness issue and I'd rather play with my children then exercise, which is a good thing... sometimes. I do know one thing, God walks with me every step of the way. There is evidence of him in every single part of my life and I know He will never leave me or forsake me, He loves me no matter what, anyway I am. I love how I use to think 40 was so old but now I don't see it that way. Although, in the back of my mind I secretly wanted a surprise party (never had one) or just a get together with cake & ice cream. I know that is so selfish of me, but I'm just being honest. The only thing, is that everyone who knows me, knows I am not one for surprises. I am just laid back and I like small get togethers where it's just my family & some friends, but you know with my husband there is no getting away with that or so I thought it was going to be just that simple.

Helsinki 1/10/12

On the morning of my birthday, very early, 3:30am to be exact we got up to watch the BCS game starring our LSU Tigers and boy was that a big mistake. I should have stayed in bed and got some more rest. I am still a Tiger fan by all means but I certainly could have used the sleep for the mood I was in. I continued to stay up because there was no going back to sleep after that game, and as any other day, the children got up around 7 and it was off to a rough start. We had breakfast, got dressed and got our day started. Troy had taken the day off, which I thought was really sweet of him to do. We didn't do much in the morning, just were lazy for a while before we decided to walk to the city and explore. We were glad to get out of the house and really had no big plans for my special day but to be together. That's all I wanted anyway. It ended up being a great day and I'm so happy that I got to spend it with my loved ones. 

Afternoon in the city 1/10/12

Mommy & Daddy (photo taken by CoCo) 1/10/12

CoCo 1/10/12

CoCo 1/10/12

Mommy & CoCo 1/10/12

Making a snow angel for Mommy 1/10/12

Chloe's Snow angel 1/10/12

Birthday cake my little family made for me 1/10/12

Chloe posing with the cake she made 1/10/12

Mommy & her babies 1/10/12

Troy Jr puts his hands up, Enough with the pictures!! Cake PLEASE!!

Mommy's little princess

My sweet husband & I 

New Year, New Do, New Me!!

I'm catching up a bit on some blogging that I've neglected to do in the last couple of weeks. It's hard to do it on a regular basis with two children and getting out of the house as often as we can, so I am taking some time to do that now. Hope you all enjoy reading about our life adventures.


The last couple of weeks have been rather busy for us. A lot has happened since the new year started and we have so much to look forward to also. We finally got snow for the 1st time this year on January 2nd, the day after we had a get together at our house for New Year's day. It's pretty funny, because we were all talking about how the snow hadn't come and we'd like to see it soon but little did we all know that wish would come true overnight while we slept. Waking up the next morning, Troy was off of work and he called out from the basement to Chloe & I to look outside, and sure enough, we opened the front door and looked out the window to see the snow covered everything and it wasn't just a light dusting, it was at least an inch or two. It was absolutely beautiful and it was something mommy and daddy the children had been waiting for so that they could play in it. It was a great day while it lasted. It started to melt and once it was just about all melted it started snowing again early Saturday morning of the 7th. Since then we've had it stay on the ground because now the temperatures have stayed below freezing and or in the teens. So it's been rather cold but we've managed to stay warm when going out. 

                                             
The 7th was a really big day for me, because my friend Jill & I had an appointment to get our hair done. We both were getting our haircut and Jill was getting a highlight. A haircut for me is a big deal for those who know me well. I usually just get a trim and that usually consists of barely any hair touched. This time it was different because I was taking the leap to get it cut, really!! I had enough of having my hair the same length for almost a decade and I needed wanted a change. Jill & I's appointment was at 9am, so her family came to our house for breakfast, then the husbands watched the children while we took off for our appointment. We got there and were relieved to see that it was a nice place and the women there spoke pretty good English. The woman that took me to her chair to sit was probably in her 30's and the woman that took Jill to sit was probably in her 20's. We both had brought pictures with us of what we wanted and they both seemed to understand. We got started and as Jill is getting her highlight done, the woman doing my hair was cutting and it started to shape up into what the picture looked like and I was getting really excited. She finished cutting and started styling it. It was coming out so well, I really was very happy with my decision. I thanked her & paid for my awesome hair-do. 
Jill, on the other hand didn't have such a great experience. Jill has naturally curly hair and the girl didn't seem to know how to handle that. Obviously she hadn't handle or done anything with curly hair before because she finally finished cutting it and then started to brush it out before Jill said something about her hair ever looking like the picture. The girl then told her it would but Jill & I kept looking at each other knowing it never would. She tried to make an attempt at curling it but with a hair-straightening iron, and that wasn't coming out so well either. I told Jill she might just want to ask the girl to start all over by washing again but by this time Jill was very unhappy, ready to go and get out of this girl's chair. I felt so bad, my happiness was overcome by heartbreak for my friend because I wanted this to be a great experience for both of us but together. As Jill put it, it was a disaster of epic proportions. She ended up getting a discount, thank god.... but I seriously would have raised 10 kinds of hell & not paid a thing. After leaving we went back to my house where the children were playing and the husbands were chatting & fixing lunch. It was really nice to be back home because of course the husbands made light of a bad situation and made Jill smile, laugh and want to kill them too. It was great!! After lunch, everyone left for football in the snow by the Embassy except Chloe, Claire, Troy Jr and I. They watched cartoons while I cleaned house and watched more of the snow come down. It was a great day and ended up being a great night too. The husbands decided at the football field to go out that evening to celebrate my upcoming birthday. It was so nice and we all enjoyed the evening. 

Before 

After

                                               

A Celebrity Among Us

Any given day if there isn't anything planned or to do around the house, we'll just take a walk outdoors to get some fresh air. Usually that is the case, but Chloe had been giving us some trouble for a couple of days so we had to stay indoors to take a few privileges away from her and teach her some hard lessons. She must have learned because she became an angel later in the afternoon on the 28th so I decided we could go out and just walk around the island. We did just that, but when we got to the end of our street the local bus was coming so I decided to just get on it and I knew it would take us to the city so that way we could just walk all over, then I'd have no excuses not to walk more and get some much needed exercise. I wasn't close to home anymore, so we had to walk, or should I say, "I" had to walk & stroll my lovely children all over. It was ok because we went up and down the city streets and just enjoyed being outside. We definitely had a great time & it was nice to be out after being cooped up in the house for two days. 
We ended up staying out in town much later so we called Troy at work to see if we'd be able to meet up and go back home together. He'd plan on taking the tram to one of the stops closest to where he was at the Embassy so we could catch the next available bus to go back home. We started our couple of blocks walk to near his location. While we were walking two girls passed us up and one of them looked so familiar and as she was passing the whole time I thought to myself, that's Kat Von D. OMG!!! THAT'S KAT VON D. I said nothing as they passed but I certainly couldn't get my phone & dial fast enough. Troy answered the phone, I screamed of course, in his ear and said, OMG KAT VON D just passed us on the street. He tells me, NO WAY!! I said yes, and he says, did you get a picture? PICTURE? OMG!!! No one is going to believe me. He said, you big dummy.... and boy did I feel like one after that. I couldn't believe it, me of all people, the talker of the universe didn't speak. Someone actually left me speechless. WOW.... It was definitely going to... (well I can't say Snow) because it will definitely do that in Helsinki, eventually... but you know what I mean. I told Troy that I was going to get this picture no matter what it took, and I certainly did do that. Let's just say, "STALKER"... that's me. My poor children who were involved in their mother's shenanigans, those innocent precious angels. I truly felt sorry for them, well not Troy Jr as much as I did Chloe who at the time was walking instead of riding in the stroller. Poor baby, she was just about running with her crazy mother to get this picture. It was hilarious, well to me it was on the inside, that I, a grown woman older then this girl I'm following is doing this only because we've seen her on t.v. and did enjoy her show but that no one would believe me without this proof or even myself for that matter. It was just crazy to fathom what I was doing or about to do. We all ended up at the street corner opposite of each other. We did stare and saw that she was staring at Chloe, of course, and smiling. As we are passing each other up, I froze in a different way. I said, Kat Von D and she said, "yes, I was just telling my friend how cute your daughter is." I said thank you of course, but all of this is being said as she's walking away from us and going into the craft store behind us. While at the same time, I'm mortified to see that my sweet angel cross the road without me and I'm just sitting there in the middle of the street looking back at her like she really is this big deal. What is going on with me? Have I really lost it, is this what the life of a celebrity is really all about. Crazy people like myself stalking them just as I did. Good LORD!! Please help me. I wasn't finished, I went got Chloe and decided to go into the store and finally ask her if she could take a picture with Chloe. 
We went into the store, and as I approached her I got very nervous, nervous like I've never been before. It was ridiculous if you ask me. I just couldn't believe it but I said, "Kat Von D I'm sorry to disturb you, but I was wondering if you could take a picture with my daughter." She said, "Sure no problem" and got down on Chloe's level. Sweet, down to earth and so nice to us. What was I worried about?? I'm still not sure about that. She was very cool and meeting her was the highlight of our day on the 28th of December, 2011. Chloe was looking at me like I was a little out there, as if to say, "Why is my mother making me take a picture with this stranger." She was pretty funny afterwards and feeding off of my adrenaline rush because she was screaming outside at the top of her lungs, "We just met Kat Von D, Kat Von D." She was hilarious and so cute about it. For those who don't know her, she is a tattoo artist that's stardom started back when she was on the TLC program, "Miami Ink", then went out on her own and went back home to California, and started, "LA Ink". Troy and I use to watch her and really enjoyed it. Her art, her work is amazing and she's so talented. So it was a very nice treat to meet her in person. When we met up with Troy finally, we had so much to tell him. We showed him the pictures, and all Chloe kept telling him was the same thing she had repeated all night long, "We met Kat Von D, Kat Von D." She was so excited and I bet she didn't even know why. I must say it was awesome and time for us to go home and have supper and put a very happy girl to bed. We did just that, and that was a day in the life of a stalker, paparazzi and living in a place that celebrities might actually come to visit. :)

Chloe enjoyed meeting Kat Von D

She even gave her a kiss!!

                                              

Our Thanks to them all. The very well decorated.

                                     
Can't help but think of those serving in the military around this holiday season. How lonely it has to be for them not to be with their loved ones at this special time. Lots of love, and special prayers go out to all of those who put on the uniform everyday to fight another day for our freedom, protecting and serving. I'm honored to know & have known such great men & women like this in my life so far. Thank you Thank you Thank you!! It is much appreciated.