Lightweight

So my weight loss journey steadily continues. I am actually wondering will it ever be over?? I have made so many changes to my everday life and although they are small when you put them all together you find great results! Here are a few things I have been trying my absolute best at...

*Not eating out! I honestly thought I would NEVER conquer this but I am so proud to say I am slowly but surely doing awesome at this. We eat out on Sundays and for the last couple weeks its pretty much been the ONLY time I have eaten out.

*Go to the grocery store daily or every other day. I know, I know this has to be the biggest waste of time and gas but honestly if I do tons of shopping at once that means so much food in the house at once and if it's there I am going to eat it. So pretty much every day or every other day I go to the grocery store, pick out our dinner and limit the pantry to only a few snack choices that are on hand for Dalen. I also, keep a few cans of soup on hand for lunch in case I can't make it to the store.

*Eliminate snacks. I don't care what weight loss program you have listened to snacking is not good for me. Everyone is different but I have never been a snacker if I get hungry between meals I end up eating an entire meal not a snack so I rarely ever eat between meals.

I still haven't added exercise to my day but I need to so badly! I do swim a lot with Dalen. I have a bridesmaid dress to fit in by the 17th and it's been weeks since I tried it on. The last time I put it on I couldn't even zip it! YIKES! I will hopefully try it on soon...when I am brave enough! I don't own a scale and I refuse to because I will obssess but pretty soon I am going to have to step on one and see where I am. It's been years since I was in the 150s and that is my ultimate goal. I am well on my way!

Hiding Place

Today I found myself asking these questions...

Will I ever leave the mall playground without my two year old having a meltdown?
Will my hands ever be empty?
Will both kids nap at the same time in THEIR own bed or crib?
Will I ever get to sleep in again?
Is it totally overboard to ask for a 14 day vacation on a cruise ship for my birthday?
On days where I do absolutely everything I can, will it EVER be enough?

It's one of those days where you are just mentally exhausted from "doing". Doing laundry, rocking babies, changing diapers, bathing kids...all those things that just catch up with you at the end of the day and then to top it off you realize that smell you have been smelling isn't a dirty diaper its YOU because you haven't even had time to shower! And let me just clarify I NEVER go without a shower but I was honestly so busy today I didn't even remember.

You are going to think I am kidding but I have been taking a pillow into my walk in closet and laying in the floor just to have quiet. I never tell ANYone where I am going I only spell it in fear that Dalen will figure out where "somewhere" is. I have done this about 5 times and its great. I make phone calls, sit, pray, cry and I came to factual realization that my husband wears a whole lot of brown and my side of the closet is in much need of some new additions.

I try to be as selfless as possible but honestly do you really lose your right to peeing in peace or a decent conversation with a friend when you have kids? I think I have. Thank God for my new found Hiding Place.

Early Morning

It's 7:19 a.m. and I have been up for nearly two hours. Because our newest edition is such a good sleeper and Dalen is finally sleeping through the night again (expect to wonder in our room in the middle of the night to sleep near someone) I tend to have a super hard time being woken up. For some reason every morning this week the baby has woken at 5 something am. Today I am trying to have a super good attitude about my lack of sleep but honestly I am tired and that's that. I try to tell myself enjoy some quiet which is impossible over the baby and her newfound voice that has to be at the highest volume a baby can produce, blog, upload pics but until I get a nap Crabby Me it is.

I am partly so grumpy because I stayed out and up too late last night. Which for most of you 11 pm isn't too late but for me it's practically the middle of the night. We went to a worship encounter to hear our music pastorlast night. It was so awesome and Dalen literally experienced a peice of Heaven. Cola forced herself to stay awake the entire time and this tells me she is going to have a love of music just like her brother. When she wants to stay awake she gags herself. Yes, I know it sounds very strange but she does and everytime those blue eyes would get super heavy she would shove her entire hand in the back of her throat jarring herself awake from gagging.

Dalen jumped himself thirsty, attempted to run the aisle (Mario caught him) and laid prostrate on the floor until Mario noticed. I personally don't have a problem with it but I guess you pick and choose your battles. After Mario told Dalen to stand up Dalen came over to us and said, "DAD! I was praying to God!" Too bad God didn't deal with his attitude while he was praying haha! Dalen had two pencils he found which he used as drumsticks and thank God I brought him some Gatorade because the kid was sweating bullets after drumming so long!

I took Dalen to the bathroom during the middle of service and he told me he felt God. I asked him what that felt like and he said warm choo choo trains. My heart melted :)

Its been 2 long!

Father's Day

The day Mario came home from out of town.

Sea world. Don't you just love how Dalen would NOT take his eyes off the water?! He was waiting and waiting to catch the 1st glimpse of the whales.

Toy Story 3

I have no idea why I have experienced a lack of desire to blog. It's definitley not because there is nothing to blog about! I have to admit I spend the majority of my days feeling bored but I have learned bored does not mean you aren't busy. Most days consist of me taking the kids to the mall where Dalen plays on the playground, fixing lunch, naps then swimming when Mario is home and can watch the baby.

The month of July is SUPER busy for us. The 1st week my parents will be in FL at their house here. The day after they leave one of my friends is coming to visit! WAHOO! I miss my friends! Then I am off to TN for my one of my best friends wedding. We may possibly have one of my husbands friends staying with us the next few days and then the month ends in tons of family and friends in Orlando for the General Assembly! YAY!

Mario has been to New Jersey, stopped in New York and then to Texas. I was so incredibly determined to not be hopelesly bored that I took the kids to Sea World by myself. It was so hellish hot there were a few times I felt as if I were going to collapse. You must remember you can't take strollers into the shows so I would not only have my body heat but the heat of Dalen wrapped around my legs, C on one hip and our 50 pound diaper bag on my other shoulder. YIKES! It was a great day though. We also saw Toy Story 3 and Marmaduke while he was gone. Isn't it amazing that you can be occupied all day everyday and still be bored?

Father's Day was nice but nothing special. Dalen seemed to have one meltdown after another that prevented us from going to eat at Cheesecake Factory. Oh well, I guess Father's Day is all about fatherhood and that comes with the good, bad and ugly.

Dalen is my entertainment but also my trying patience. Here is a little scenario yesterday while we were at the pool. A young BEAUTIFUL girl caught my eye. She was blond, thin and had on a cute little tuquoise two peice. As she came up from the water and used the steps to get out I realize she had on a thong. I immediately began to pray because Dalen doesn't miss ANYTHING! I saw him watch her a lot and I knew that he definitely had seen her butt. Finally he said quietly (THANK GOD), "Mom, her butt fell out of her pull up!" I responded, "No, that's how her bathing suit fits. It's supposed to look like that but we aren't going to say anything or look anymore, ok?" He takes one last long glance at the girls butt and says, "That's disgusting!" I hope he still says that at 16 and until he gets married.

I can not believe I have gone so long without blogging! In a nutshell here is what has been going on in the lives of the Hoods:

*6 day visit to TN (Mario and Dalen were in a wedding)
*Came back, left two days later to visit my grandparents an hour from here
*Came back just in time to see my parents for a few minutes as they passed through

I know that doesn't sound like a lot but I promise you it was! The kids and I are exhausted! Any of you fellow mamas know just how tough it is to travel with little ones. This blog would be waaaay too long if I wrote it like I normally do so I will just do the highlights.

*Dalen was a ring bearer in my husband's best friend's wedding. He did AMAZING! He used his pillow as an actually pillow and we all thought he was asleep for a moment.

*I got to do lunch and dinner with my great girlfriends and go swimming with them. Dalen nearly drowned but thank God for one of my close friends who jumped in and rescued him because my hands were full with the baby.

*We went to 3 doctor appointments while we were there. Both kids are happy, healthy and GROWING! Dalen's tubes are finally out and C's four month shots didn't seem to bother her too bad.

*My parent's house is officially for sale and in boxes. Their new one is beautiful and I can't wait to stay there in July when I return home for another wedding.

*Speaking of weddings...I finally got to congratulate another best friend on her engagement!

Everything is great on our end. I can't believe we have been in O-town for over a month and haven't gone to one park yet! Soon enough though! because I took the kiddos to visit my grandparents and Mario stayed home we missed celebrating Loving Day so we are celebrating today. I will blog about that soon enough!

Nothing

I have always wondered how some people can go without blogging for weeks and say, "I haven't had anything to blog about." But here I am and that's exactly how I feel. I have nothing. Nothing interesting anyway. Yesterday we went to the park and fed birds old bread and threw pennies in the fountain and went swimming. Yeah, I'd agree that's nothing. Maybe I wasn't meant to be a writer after all. I feel like a good writer always writes at least something but even though I am writing something it feels all like nothing. I don't think that made sense but, oh well.

So here goes a lame blog post just to keep my page up to date.

Things I want to do this summer.

-Go to Disney World, Sea World and Animal Kingdom.

-Host at least ONE friend in our new place.

-See Eat. Pray. Love.

-Lose ten pounds.

-Brave it out and leave the kids with a sitter so my husband and I can go on a date. (This is SOOOO hard! Even though I have met some totally amazing people I feel like I am just not ready to leave my kiddos with anyone yet.)

-Finish the book I want to give Mario for Father's Day.

Chosen

Yesterday was a beautiful day with our new church family and the babies. It was also pentecost Sunday and I can assure you our church celebrated being pentecostal and proud. In the early service until the late service I couldn't help but to look around at the amazing congregation God has allowed us to be a part of. It's a moving thought for some reason God has chosen us to be a part of such a powerful move happening here in Orlando. Mario had the awesome priveledge to lead a 12 year old boy to Christ and the altar was full of people speaking in a Heavenly language for the first time.

After church we went to eat with our Pastor and his wife and more of their family. God has so blessed us with a family away from family. They always let us tag along and treat us like we are one of their own! I am absolutely loving it here.

Hope you enjoy the pics above of little miss in her new bathing suit and the picture of the three reasons I love my life.

A Whirlwind of Firsts

I can't really explain the last week in our home. The best words I could come up with is that it's been a whirlwind of firsts.

1. As you can see in the video above, Dalen learned his very 1st memory verse. 1 John 4:8. He has called my dad and told him several times he will be speaking at The Cleveland Church for Pastor Rony (Maloney). When I get his appearance date I'll be sure to let you guys know ;)

2. Cola laughed for the very first time! I don't know why it happened this way BUT Dalen was doing something outregeous (are you surprised?) and she began to laugh so hard. Leave it to the one who constantly tortures her to bring her a little comic relief. I have it on video and will post it soon.

3. I spoke to our brand new youth group last week. The first week we had 22, the 2nd we had 40! Our kids are to die for-I REALLY mean that. They are a diverse group of excited and passionate souls ready to embrace transformation only God can bring. I just LOVED the one girl who told Mario "Yeah, I'll definitley be back because you black people, ya'll just have so much fun!" HAHAHAHA! What can you do but laugh?! I am so convinced that I need to contact all of my friends in youth ministry and have an open site where we can ananamously post funnies from week to week. I am so sure it would TOTALLY be worth reading!

4. If you are looking at my post time you will find it's 3:19 am! Little Miss C slept upstairs, in a room and crib all alone for the very first time. She has slept by my bed in a playpin for the last 3, nearly 4 months. I must say, there is a totally different feel about my baby girl sleeping all alone than when Dalen did. I can't explain it. Besides her waking up one time for a feed she has done exceptionally well, I would know I think I have watched her all night on our TV monitor (which is a MUST HAVE for you ladies who have a two story house!).

So, as you can read we are adjusting well. God has blessed us with good health, a great church and two entertaining babies. Here are a few funnies from this week.

I don't know if you remember reading about my insane moment when I took Dalen to the eye doctor with me around May of last year. I think I vowed to NEVER do that again BUT considering...I had no choice. New town, new people-no babysitters.

So I went to a walk in place and had BOTH kids with me. Yes, I know-it wasn't an act of bravery it was a total display of stupidity. Within the first 15 minutes Dalen had knocked over a whole display of glasses, torn down the sign in the window and made two friends who I am sure went home to tell their wives of a young girl who had no idea what she was doing.

Dalen's first friend was a man named Nicholas. He had white hair, fair skin but spoke with a Spanish accent. Luckily, Dalen didn't comment on how he spoke. The man tried his best to ignore Dalen. I mean Dalen would go straight up to him yapping away and he would look right passed him like he didn't exsist. Finally, Dalen stood about a foot away from him and began to recite the pledge. This man was SO not impressed and continued reading his pamphlet without even looking up. Finally, Dalen thrust his hand at him and said, "You so im-shure (immature)." Even though he was being so annoying, I couldn't have agreed more. He also told the doctor, "You for-thetic (pathetic)." Luckily, he thought Dalen said, "Just forget it." His vocabulary is out of this word! He is picking up more words than I count!

And I'll leave you with my favorite. Tonight we all went swimming as a family. After all bathing and getting ready for bed Dalen and I sang Healer together. After a few lines I let him sing solo, "You walk with me through the forest and heal my ding-a-ling!" Oh wow, it will forever be a mystery where that word came from! I promise we do NOT say it here!

Much love and thanks to all my readers-unless of course you are the freak that keeps sending me porn links. Oh yeah, and on that note my computer was almost completely destroyed for clicking on one of the links before I knew what it was. Too bad I had one tech savvy hubby!

Friends

If you could attatch background music to individual blogs I would so be blaring the Friends theme song or possibly Michael W. Smith's Friends Are Friends Forever. My sister came to visit with Livi and left yesterday. For three days my apartment had three kids the age of 2 or under. To say life was interesting would totally be an understatement. How I even have a voice left, I do not know!

I am soooo mad at myself for only taking one picture of the kids at the pool on Sunday. After my dad picked my sister up Dalen had a complete meltdown begging to go with "Dad" (my dad). Then he began begging to just leave period.

D: I want to leave!
Me: We have nowhere to go.
D: YES! I want to go!
Me: Where? We are going to church in a few hours!
D: To the friends! Your friends!
Me: I DON'T HAVE ANY FRIENDS HERE!
The look on his face was priceless! He tilted his head, completely calmed and said, "Aw, that's so sad!" Yeah, tell me about it I thought.

So I was finally convinced to leave. I know how to get to three places-Publix, the mall and church. The mall has an indoor playground so off I went. While getting the entourage loaded in the car a lady walking a dog strolled by. Of course Dalen said hi and asked the dog's name. We get in the car and pass the lady again and Dalen waves. He then says, "His name is Stooter (Scooter). He's our friend." So, I then began thinking, which is sadder-The fact that I have no friends or the fact that our only friend is a dog named Scooter? Oh and I have to add that when Dalen asked me what kind he was the only response I could think of was "Not sure, but he looks like part ugly and part mange."

We get in the mall where 6 moms sat with their kids. It's amazing how some people just have the gift of yacking away to a complete stranger. Honestly at that point I would conversed but there was a slight problem-All of them were speaking Spanish and two women were speaking something I don't know. Boo, on communication barriers! Apparently saying we had no friends REALLY got to Dalen. He was practically dragging the kids on the playground over to me saying, "This is my friend!"

To make a VERY long story short-I get to church, Dalen refuses to go to class, after an hour of Cola crying in the nursery I take her out, force Dalen into his class and try everything known to man to calm her. There I stood in the foyer of our church spinning in circles. I had nowhere to go, no one turn to. I didn't know where to sit with a crying baby. I found a side room with a bathroom and decided to try another bottle. A woman I met at the young adults get together came and helped. She rocked and sang and prayed and there I stood believing that I had just made my first friend. You can meet 1,000 people and nothing ever flourish but then there's that one who instantly connects in a time when you need them.

Eventually I left church early, got lost for a entire hour, both kids were screaming in the back. It was so dark, my husband was in Miami, I could barely read the signs and just couldn't remember if I took the East or West ramp. Finally I just tried both and eventually made it home. I had to park two buildings way and carry both kids in alone. How I am not Kelly Ripa buff is a mystery I will never know!

Friends are NOT to be taken for granted. The lifelong ones that will do anything for you are God given treasures that just don't ever get old. I miss mine! And I miss my husband who should be home by noon-FINGERS CROSSED!

Perverted Comments

To say that I am infuriated would be an understatement. I LOVE blogging but I am sick and tired of getting comments on my blogs that aren't even in English and have links to pornographic sites.

First of all, if you (Asian commenter) can actually read English QUIT GETTING ON MY BLOG AND LEAVING DISGUSTING AND PERVERTED COMMENTS! You are sickening and you make me want to puke.

Second of all if anyone out there knows how to make this problem stop please let me know because if it doesn't stop I will totally delete my blog and go to journaling...don't think I won't because I will.

These comments are unacceptable and disgusting. It makes me livid that someone who is involved in this behavior reads my blog and it's mainly about my children. Isn't it such a shame that literally we can't do ANYTHING enjoyable these days without having to put up with crap like this.

20th Century

Well, after a week without a phone I got a new one! WAHOO! I was so excited and then realized, "Oh crap! I don't know anyone's phone numbers by heart so, I can't call anyone!" Slowly but surely my contact list is beginning to build itself back up. We currently have two cars because Mario has a rental for the church trip this weekend. YAY! It's a van and Dalen thinks it's soooo cool. We are also getting cable right now as I type. I still don't have contacts, so let me just tell you how stylish I am rockin' my glasses. Besides that I feel totally 20th century again.

I bought a new bathing suit today. It's a one piece. Yeah, I am soooo super Hollywood cool in my glasses and one piece. The one cool thing about a one piece is that it's kind of like a girdle too. Which we all know I totally need. This morning I saw Letters To Juliet. This movie is a gorgeous, hopeful, creative story that is a sure reminder movies can be GREAT without profanity, nudity, sex or horror. I absolutely LOVE this movie! It's so beautiful and uniquely written. Cola loved it too. At one point we had to stand in the hallway because she kept squealing at the pictures.

I am super excited to see my family this weekend. I spent the last two days cleaning and making everything perfect so that my mom would be impressed and she called this morning to inform me she wasn't coming anymore. I learned a major lesson-don't clean for company, clean because you should.

Eternity

I was a little disturbed by a lot of Facebook statuses that were talking about the death of a young Cleveland girl. I wasn't sure what happened to her but I knew one thing-as a senior in high school I don't think anyone expected her to die so soon. I googled the story through the Cleveland Daily Banner and come to find out she was tragically killed in a car accident and was buried this week. This story is so sad and has been on my mind since the beginning of the week.

It's sad because a beautiful girl should have had her whole entire life ahead of her. This is a saying we have all heard a million times, "You have your whole entire life ahead of you!" The saying is so untrue and so bothersome to me. The truth is the only thing we can be certain of is that we have all of eternity ahead of us. You never know when you will take your last breath and therefore today should be your greatest opportunity yet. You know more than you did yesterday and today you can do something with that knowledge.

I am so speaking to myself. There are things in life I want to do and I am so guilty of saying I will do it tomorrow. Really the truth is I don't know if tomorrow is an opportunity or if tomorrow is my death. There are a few things I'd like to do more everyday.

1. Write, write and write some more.
2. Take time out to admire my growing babies.
3. Be intentional about spending time with my husband.
4. Share Jesus more and lead more souls to the kingdom.

Today I had a moment. I'm not sure if it was because of this story being so fresh or if was just a coencidence but it was a moment I won't forget. When I was pregnant with Cola Leese I was a Case Manager. I had so much paperwork to do all the time and there was a lot of sitting. I would allow a cheap pair of headphones to hug my belly for a better part of the day and it played Celine Dion's Miracle album. I would play A Mother's Prayer and Have You Ever Been In Love over and over to her through Playlist.com.

Yesterday, she was really fussy at her naptime and I played A Mother's Prayer and she calmed almost instantly. Today she was really fussy again. I nearly ran to the computer to play those two songs again. It was so amazing that it moved me to tears. As soon as she heard the beginning notes of Have You Ever Been In Love she exhaled deeply and drifted off to sleep. Isn't that amazing? In my womb she learned these songs and months later they comfort her greatly.

This moment made me realize we can miss so many amazing moments when we aren't paying attention. We don't pay attention because we think moments will come again. We must start stopping to cherish life today because tomorrow-it could be gone.