Praise all around

Hayden is doing an AWESOME job on the toilet. So much so that he spoiled me seven nights in a row, waking up in a dry bed and underwear, that I almost forgot we were still "Training" on night eight. He woke me up Sunday morning to tell me he went pee-pee in his bed, and I thought, "That's so last week, Hayden". But it's been nice not to buy pull ups!

Last night, I walked into my bedroom and saw Hayden in my bathroom on the toilet. He went in there all by himself to use the facilities, and I was pretty pumped about it. No suggesting, no wailing, no bribery, just doing what he's supposed to. When he was done, he asked me to pull up his pants for him. I obliged and he gave me the biggest hug and said,

"I SUPER proud of you momma!!"

Apparently praise is for the assistant too!

What a cutie.

More crock pot love

Last night I wanted chicken and dumplings but not. So I modified my crockpot chicken and dumplings to this...

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 can cream of chicken soup
2 cans chicken broth
Salt & pepper

Cook on low 4-5 hours. Pull chicken out and shred with two forks. Add it back to the crock with half a bag of uncooked egg noodles, and water, broth, milk or more soup to taste (depending on how runny or creamy you want it). An hour later, you have delicious chicken-and-noodle-goodness.

Strep. Again.

Hayden has strep throat AGAIN. I noticed his discolored tongue last night, and remembered that on Monday he said his belly hurt. Since we're well-versed in strep (because of the round in September), we made him an appointment today and it was quickly confirmed. One more round of antibiotics and a day home with dad...should fix him right up!

Mixed metaphor

Hayden and I like to practice things while he gets his "five minutes in your bed" with mom before he goes to bed. Bath time and play time and pajamas give way to five minutes in mom's bed watching tv, then two stories, a hefty round of hugs and kisses and tucking in and finally, sleep. But during those five minutes we practice our letters and colors and numbers and whatever else he may have learned lately. For example, he told me the fork in my hand the other day was a dinglehopper. Thank you, Little Mermaid. "Alexander" is still a mouthful for him, but he can say dinglehopper? He has finally gotten to the point where he'll tell me his whole name is Hayden Alexander Rogers and he's three years old (it used to be Hayden Alexander Rogers for the name but when asked how old he was, he would reply "Name Hayden"). We also work on his address and he has it down pretty well. So the other night I decided to practice one he already had a good handle on.

Mom: Hayden, let's do our ABC's.

Hayden: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, A, Y, D, E, N. 
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Seriously. And they call Americans egocentric? Weird.

Tonight we tried again and got "A, B, C, D, E, N." I suppose we'll keep trying!

Crock Pot Vegetable Soup

This is one of my favorite tricks I read about two years ago, and have been doing it ever since! We tend to have just a bit of leftover veggies after meals. Not quite enough to add to a dish for tomorrow's lunch, but silly to throw out. So I drain them, add them to a large Tupperware container and toss it in the freezer. I keep adding and adding until my bowl is full, and then I have the start to veggie soup! I use any kind of beans (lima, black, kidney, etc), corn, peas, green beans, potatoes, carrots, blackeyed peas, etc. When it's full, I take it out of the freezer a day ahead of time.

Add the veggies (even if they're still frozen!) to the crock pot. I add a pound of stew meat (raw is fine) or ground beef (cooked), a ziploc of celery (I chop and freeze the whole stalk when I buy it because we don't use it fast enough), one chopped onion, and then equal amounts of tomato sauce and condensed beef broth. I add a little pepper, but there's usually enough salt between the veggies and the sauce that I don't need to add salt. Cook on low 6-8 hours, checking to make sure there's enough liquid for your liking and dinner is served! I like to serve it with my honey corn muffins (recipe forthcoming) and sometimes a salad. Easy, tasty, and the best part is you've already paid for it!

Crock Pot Mashed Potatoes

Mashed potatoes are my holiday-achilles-heel dish. I never have a problem making them, but they always stress me out because of timing. I try to do them last to make sure they're hot for serving, but the last 15 minutes is the most stressful time of cooking a meal for me. So I hate them. I stumbled upon this recipe thanks to Crockin' Girls on Facebook. It turned out okay, but I think I figured out what I might do differently next time.
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Ingredients:

3 lb red potatoes (I would probably use yellow or white next time)
5 garlic cloves
1 diced onion (I would omit next time for a smoother texture)
2 T olive oil
2/3 c water (I found this to be a bit too much, 1/2 c should be plenty)
1 c cream cheese with chive and onion (I used the Philly Italian cooking creme instead, but had mixed results)
2 T butter
1/2 c milk

1. Dice potatoes (for regular potatoes, I would also peel) and add to crock pot. Add garlic, onion, salt & pepper to taste, water and oil; toss to coat. Cook on high 3-4 hours.

2. Mash potatoes to desired consistency, adding cream cheese, butter and milk. Leave in the crock pot on warm until served!

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Regardless of the recipe itself, I LOVED using the crock pot to cook and serve the potatoes. It made things so much simpler to have one less pot on the stove, one less colander to wash, one less thing to do 10 minutes before serving, and one less trivet to find for the table!

Oatmeal cookies

I needed a quick treat the other night to take to a neighbor's house and always have these ingredients on hand, so I whipped up a quick batch. The fun part? I was out of vanilla extract so I used maple instead...and they turned out great! I also kicked up the cinammon a bit and used dried craisins instead of raisins. It was a fun twist on a old classic!
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Ingredients
3/4 cup butter, softened

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves (optional)

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups rolled oats
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1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add brown sugar, granulated sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and, if desired, cinnamon and cloves. Beat until combined, scraping side of bowl occasionally. Beat in eggs and vanilla until combined. Beat in as much of the flour as you can with the mixer. Using a wooden spoon, stir in any remaining flour. Stir in rolled oats.
2. Drop dough by rounded teaspoons 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until edges are golden. Let stand on cookie sheets for 1 minute. Transfer to wire racks and let cool. Makes about 48 cookies.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had so much to be thankful for this year! For our first thanksgiving in our new house, I decided to cook for our family. We were so excited to be in our own home and able to have family over for dinner. Hayden took an extra long nap to make sure he was ready for his cousins and family.

While I'll do all the cooking and decorating, Jay was pretty helpful in the cleaning while I was in the kitchen. And of course, he's in charge of the carving!

I was so excited about everyone coming over, I may have overdone it just a bit on the cooking...

But there was plenty of food! I'm a little sad I didn't get pics of all the desserts, but suffice to say no one left hungry!

Thanksgiving is a special holiday for us, I realized it's one of the few that Jay and I have spent most of together! He's never missed one of Hayden's, and that's a pretty tall order considering deployments and whatot. It also marks a full year we've been back in the states and with our families instead of so far away. I'm excited to see what our next Thanksgiving will bring!

He gets it

Hayden: Santa gon' come to my new house?
Mom: Yep, he knows where our new house is.

Hayden: Then the Grinch gon' get my presents?

That kid is smart. Or, watches too much tv.

Hayden's birthday party

Three is an important age! We decided to have Hayden's birthday party at our new house this year, as we could probably get away with at least one more low-key party before we have to go all Bumper Jumpers and Safari Nation and Chuck E. Cheese. This was our extra motivation to get as much of our house done as possible before November 19th!

Hayden is interested in a lot of things, but none so much as Toy Story 3 and balloons! We had no problem finding decor for his party. In fact, the hard part is not buying all of it! But we figured the kids don't pay much attention anyway, and the adults were more excited about seeing our house!

After our quick lunch of 3-year-old friendly foods (Chick Fil A nuggets, chips, sliced cheese, pasta salad) we got down to business. Hayden has gotten much better at opening presents, and even stopped to "read" some cards!

He had a great time seeing his family, especially his cousins Ryan and Zoe, and loved all his toys! He is especially partial to a construction zone with a remote-controlled dump truck, and he sleeps with his new pillow pet. Hard to believe he's 3!

About four hours after the party ended, he decided it was time for cake and he finally dug into his Buzz and Woody cake! What a great day for our sweet little wild man.

Kahlua Cake

This is one of my very favorites, and special thanks to Jaime Boris for sharing it with me!

1 box devil's food cake , without the pudding


1 large box instant vanilla pudding

4 large eggs

16 oz sour cream

3/4 cup oil

2/3 cup kahlua (the recipe calls for 1/3 but i add a little extra)



Mix ingredients until well blended. Stir in 6 oz chocolate chips. Pour into well-greased bundt pan and bake at 350 for 50-55 minutes.

I sprinkle with powdered sugar just before serving. Happy Friday!

Working it

Last week, I attended a conference for Financial Aid at Embassy Suites in Greensboro. I was excited to finally get in a little professional development, and even more excited that it was in my backyard and NOT across the state. I got to see my Sarah, whom we miss dearly, and meet some new friends. I also ran into two Salem alums, as well as the Financial Aid Office staff from Salem. It was fun to have that piece of "home" amongst a ton of new faces!

Myself, Jen Cassels, Dee Dee Carter and Christy Chesnut, in a quick break between sessions.

I learned a lot, brought back some good informations and some swag for my office, and generally had a good time meeting with other financial aid professionals and learning more about my job. This is a tricky business, with regulations changing all the time and it was nice to hear a lot of things in one place instead of piecing them together.

I'll miss out on the spring conference on account of one newborn baby Rogers, but I'm excited to attend another one later!

Well. That's done.

Last weekend we made one last round of trips to the apartment to pick up a few odds and ends, and to clean. Jay and Hayden packed up the car and I stayed behind to scrub and vacuum and whatnot. It was nice to have a few minutes to myself to reflect on our time in the apartment. As I wiped out the fridge and scrubbed the tub, I found myself surprised that I had zero attachment to those walls. I remember standing in our apartment in Germany, closing the door one last time and trying not to cry. THAT place, where I spent almost five years and went from newlywed to mom in what seemed like a blink, where we brought Oscar and Hayden both home to, where we had friends over for good times and bad...I was so sad to leave it and so terrified for what would come next. But I guess this time, I wasn't sad to leave it because I knew I was headed home. Truly home, to a house I own, that we will make a million new memories in with new family members. I'm grateful for our little transition apartment, but I had a much harder time saying goodbye to Hayden's old daycare than I did to Lake Brandt Place apartments! Jay turned in our keys yesterday and we officially only have one residence now!

Happy Birthday, Hayden!

My little man is three years old today. How time flies! This time three years ago, I had no idea that I'd be holding a little boy in my arms by midnight. What a wonderful gift he is!

We will celebrate tonight with a new movie and some brownies that I'm sure he'll be excited to help me make. His family and a few friends will be over Saturday afternoon to help him blow out his three candles!

Happy Halloween!

We were SO excited for Halloween in our new house! We couldn't wait to take Hayden out trick or treating in our new, giant, overly-popular-for-Halloween neighborhood. We were also excited because our cul-de-sac has parties for every holiday, even if it has to be a short one because of work and school the next day. Hayden wore his costume at school for his last day there, and was excited about Halloween! I came home, tossed dinner in the oven, freshened up my own costume (ladybug) and Hayden and I waited impatiently for Jay to eat (we were too excited to eat).

He was the cutest little Woody!

We headed out to our neighborhood and saw tons and TONS of kids. People come from all over Greensboro because Adams Farm is such a concentrated location, so we got to see tons of fun costumes! Hayden got really excited every time he saw another Woody, and I was surprised how few Buzz Lightyears we saw!

After awhile he was tired of the hat so I carried it. At every house that had pumpkins, he made sure to tell me which ones were big, which ones were babies, and that they were our neighbors' pumpkins. He did really well with "thank you" after the candy but "trick or treat" was pretty quiet. I'm always surprised how shy he can be around strangers.

Oscar also loves Halloween because he gets to go with us! One of the neighbors had their dog (and treats) alongside their Halloween candy, and Hayden got really excited to give a treat to Oscar. The good thing about an almost-three-year-old on Halloween is the attention span. After a good 30 minutes, he was ready to go home. Perfect! We checked out his candy, let him have a few pieces and then it was bath and bedtime for our little trick or treater.

Happy Halloween!

The Corn Maize

This past weekend we headed to Kersey Valley for some fall family fun! We went with my brother and his family to test out the "Maize Adventure", despite my absolute fear of corn fields. There's just something so creepy about them! But it was daylight and I had my two boys to keep me safe, so I pushed through it.

Ryan, Zoe and Hayden at the Maize.

We started our journey at the beginning after a briefing from the guide. We were to follow the maze to find check points, and to play a corn-themed game of Clue to find out who took Farmer Joe!

We had a good time running around and finding the right way to go...facilitated by Jay's navigational skills (and the picture of the map he took with his cell phone).

Family photo in the Maize!

Ryan being silly with his corn.

After the Maize, we headed over to the "giant pillow" for the kids to jump. Erin took Ryan & Zoe and Jay took Hayden for a round of jumping, and they had a blast! After a few minutes, Hayden felt comfortable enough to jump on his own. Probably my favorite picture of the day is of Jay and Hayden, after Hayden fell down but Jay kept jumping :-)

Carving pumpkins

This year we decided Hayden was old enough to enjoy and appreciate the family art of carving pumpkins. I of course serve as the photographer for events like this since I've a) never ACTUALLY carved a pumpkin myself; b) don't like to get my hands dirty; and c) If I don't serve as the photog, Jay either won't, or he'll take all the pics in "action" mode. No thank you.

He was so excited to help daddy with the tools!

While he was terribly curious about what was in there and what daddy was doing, he had NO interest in helping when he realized he would get his hands dirty. That kid is all boy until he gets his hands dirty and then he turns into his mother. Upside? He LOVES to wash his hands.

Helping daddy "finish" up. Aka, he did a lot of wandering around the deck while Jay carved.

Our spooky jack-o-lantern, lit up and ready for Halloween!

Happy 7th Birthday, Ryan!

I can't believe he's 7! Ryan celebrated his birthday at Safari Nation with friends, family, a zip line, tons of presents and a basketball cake & cupcakes. Hayden had an absolute blast and it was hard to tear him away from the guns that shot the Nerf balls. The grown ups had a pretty good time, too!

This cake was awesome!

He had the best time gathering and shooting.

Make a wish!

I was really surprised at this, because it involved getting his hands dirty but he really enjoyed it!

He was a champ at opening the presents.

What was great about Safari Nation was that after the party, we could still stay and jump. Hayden jumped and played forever, and we only convinced him to leave by telling him we'd go play at Ryan and Zoe's house. He loves his cousins :-)

Crock Pot Macaroni & Cheese

I make two versions of mac 'n cheese in the crock pot, but this is the one I did yesterday. It requires zero maintenance and the other needs a stir here and there so I tossed it in before we left for the corn maze.

16 oz elbows, cooked and drained.

Spray a crock pot (mine is 4.5 qt) with cooking spray. Add cooked macaroni, plus one half stick of butter (chopped) and 2 cups shredded cheddar, and salt and pepper. Mix well.

To the crock pot add (but don't stir) 2 beaten eggs, 1 large can evaporated milk, 2 cups of milk. Don't stir! Sprinkle with 1 more cup of cheese (seriously Val, sorry!) and cook on low for 2 hours. Perfect for a family gathering with kids that won't eat anything else on the table.

Per request...

Some of my friends needs new recipes, so I promised to start posting anything fun, or even not fun but quick-and-easy, to mix it up!

FYI, these recipes go against everything Valerie blogs at "Busy Mom Gets Fit"...maybe my recipes will change after the baby is born and I try to regain some semblance of my old body :-)

Sausage Dip

1 lb sausage (hot for the spicy friends, I like extra sage)
2 8oz blocks cream cheese, softened
1 can Rotel (I use regular, you can adjust the spice for your crowd) (I also drain but leave some of the juice for spice)

Brown, crumble and drain sausage. Add softenened cream cheese and rotel, stir until combined. Serve with tortilla chips!

Book worm

Normally my Hayden posts are about his silly statements and sweet words. Today I'm having a pretty proud momma moment :-)

I usually drop him off at 7:15 at his daycare, in order to give me enough time to get to work. Today, I had a doctor's appointment at 8:45 so I was able to take him in just a bit later. Early time is a little crazy at school, because all the kids are in one room until all the teachers get there to take them to their respective rooms. Some mornings, he has a hard time with mom leaving and needs a few extra snuggles to get adjusted so early. Today, his teacher was there so we walked down to his classroom.

We walked in and it was reading time, so there were several books on the table for the kids to choose from. Hayden saw the books, and immediately dropped my hand and headed to a seat. He calmly picked a book, sat in his seat and opened the book to start "reading". He never even noticed that I was still there! Sometimes it's tricky, signing him in and dropping off his jacket before he can try to escape out the door with me. But today, he was just too excited to read to even notice. Such a great moment, I was always a reader growing up and hoped my kids would be too. Lately, he wants to sleep with a book and I can't find a good reason to discourage it. What a little man he's becoming!

Here comes the bride!

We had two weddings to attend this month, one of which was Hayden's very first! Typically I don't believe in kids under 5 at weddings, but this one was an outdoor event that was casual so we took him along. Sarah and Ben got married on October 1st in a beautiful country setting. It was all of a sudden chilly, but the sun was bright and the air was crisp, and of course the bride was beautiful! Hayden was excited to go to the "special farm" to see Sarah, and got really excited when he saw her walking down the aisle. He was very good during the ceremony and expectedly antsy at the reception but overall he did really well.

                  A quiet moment after the ceremony...so sweet!
The following weekend we traveled to Waynesville, NC sans Hayden for Ashley and Jason's wedding. Ashley (Watts) was one of my Salem friends and got married outside at the Waynesville Inn Country Club on a ceremonial green. We had a blast catching up with old Salem friends and with her family. And since we were childless (minus the one in my belly!) we got to relax and enjoy dinner (the food was great!) and dance and hang out without entertaining our wild toddler. It was a beautiful day in the North Carolina mountains that turned into a rather chilly evening but we had a great time. Jay was a hit on the dance floor and we grabbed a quick brunch with friends before heading back to Greensboro.

 They did it! Ashley and Jason walk back down the aisle as Mr. & Mrs. Bannister.

                               Salem C'04, Lily Godbold and baby-Rogers-to-be-named-later-C'34.

A visit from the President

Last week, President Barack Obama visited the GTCC campus. We were allotted a certain number of tickets for staff to be able to attend, and I got to go! Regardless of political views, I think it's important to respect the office of the President, and to be informed on all sides when it comes to politics. He spoke on his plan to create jobs and what it means for the state of North Carolina, and even gave the BBQ a little shout out (as long as we promised not to tell Michelle). I was disappointed that more students weren't able to attend, and surprised he didn't use the platform to speak on the new student loan options, but it was an amazing experience nonetheless!

Some of my coworkers and myself, excited to be there!

President Obama, speaking to the crowd. What an experience! Security was tight, lines were long and the message was short, but well worth the wait. Excited to vote in this year's non-Presidential election! In fact, just yesterday I updated my voter registration to reflect my new address. If you don't vote, don't expect to be heard!

House pics: The Before Edition

Our house has a really interesting layout. The first floor has the living room, eat-in kitchen, dining room, half bath, exit to the deck, entrance from the front door and exit to the garage. Simple. The second floor is actually sort of a floor and a half, thanks to the placement on a hill. The flight up stairs leads you to the master bedroom (with master bath), guest bedroom and laundry nook. Then another small half flight of stairs takes you up to Hayden's room, baby's room and their bathroom, along with a linen closet. This picture is from the baby's room looking down the half flight of stairs, with the master bedroom on the right and one of TOO MANY windows to clean on the left. Hayden LOVES stairs so he's super excited to be at the top of them all so he can boom-boom down them.

I love our guest bedroom. It's actually bigger than the master in some ways, but will double as our office as well. Because of the layout, we have a ton of crawl space upstairs that can be accessed through three small doors (house-elf sized) in the guest room. Our first three nights in the house, we actually slept in the guest room because it was the easiest room to set up. We had the bed, the tv, the end tables over in a flash and Jay set them up so we could sleep. We enjoyed a little tv in bed (which we haven't done since Germany!) and woke up to sun streaming in from that little half-moon window.

Our master bath has a separate tub and shower, which I adore. I am a huge bubble bath fan and though I can't take hot ones right now, I'm excited to use that tub! We also have double sinks, which is AWESOME. Jay and I are rarely getting ready at the same time except on weekends, but it's nice to be putting my makeup on at my sink while he's brushing his teeth at his, and not having to climb all over each other and drip water everywhere. The toilet is actually under repair right now, but I'm pumped to be able to walk a few short lit-by-nightlight feet in the middle of the night thanks to a little lady that loves to sit on my bladder. The walk-in closets are across from each other as you walk into the master, which means for the first time since we've lived together (2006) Jay will have his clothes in the same room as our bedroom!

This picture is from the hallway between the master and guest bedrooms, so you can get a better idea of the split second floor. You can see down into our living room, which has a gas fireplace (that needs to be revamped totally) and a ceiling fan (that currently serves its purpose but will be replaced when we have just a bunch of money sitting around, ha!). I realized I don't have a full-on picture of the living room except maybe on my phone. But you get the idea. We have hardwoods in the living room and the entry way, and mounted the flat screen on the nice long wall perpendicular to the fireplace. True to form, Jay set up the living room first (I think the NFL Pass from Direct TV *may* have been  a contributing factor) with the couches, steam cleaned rug, tv and dvds. We have a place to sit, even though the walls are still mostly bare. And he steamed the floors!

This is my formal dining room. I am so excited to have room for all my furniture! It is currently taped off in blue so Jay can paint it the "Fabulous Red" that he picked out. Monique is passing along a lovely light fixture to remove the 1990's gold and glass that resides there now. And all the furniture is placed smack in the middle of the floor to allow for painting, which makes meal time an adventure! I can't wait to see my new walls, my old Salem plates up on said new walls, and all of my pottery and china where it belongs, stored safely behind antique doors!

Ah, the kitchen. My sanctuary. The house had an oven (though missing the racks) and a dishwasher (ancient, but then again I got my first dishwasher in February) when we bought it. We knew we'd need a fridge and microwave so we shopped around. Lucky for us, Best Buy had a great deal on a whole kitchen worth of appliances (fridge, stove, microwave and dishwasher) and we were planning to replace the old ones so we bought the whole shebang. We eventually want new cabinets and countertops, but for now I'm REALLY enjoying my side-by-side fridge.

The bedrooms are kind of standard, other than the guest room, so I'll post pics when the furniture is in place and we have some things on the wall. Sort of our intermediate-after pictures. But for now, we're still moving (since we don't have to be out of the old place until November 15th) and painting and shuffling and figuring out where everything goes. But we're on our way!

A month of birthdays

In our family, things tend to happen in clusters. This month, it's birthdays!

Eric turned 32 on October 13th; wow, old! This is the six months of the year that he's three years older than me and not two, so I like to give him a hard time.

Jay turned 27 on October 19th. Hayden and I baked him a chocolate cake, picked up a dvd of one of his favorite shows...and oh yeah, I bought him a house. I told him it's only fair, since I get to celebrate my birthday with a newborn baby girl (unless she's late!). We went out to dinner at Village Tavern to celebrate, and he had a Friday night off for the first time since January. Perfect!

Ryan turned 7 years old on October 24th. So strange to me that seven whole years have gone by since I became an aunt. What a fun little guy he's turned out to be. We'll be celebrating his birthday this weekend, but Hayden got REALLY excited to call him and tell him "Happy Birthday" on Monday. He loves his cousins and since Ryan is an older boy that plays football and basketball, I'm pretty sure Hayden idolizes him.

We round out the month with Halloween and have a few minutes to catch our breath before Hayden's birthday and Thanksgiving!

Home sweet home: A marathon, not a sprint

Well. It wasn't an easy road, but we are homeowners! We started this journey in January, when we settled in back in NC and looked at our finances. We didn't want to pay rent when we could be paying a mortgage, but there are a few things that had to fall into place first. We wanted to pay off some debt, and of course, no lender is interested in giving 100k+ to two people that just started two brand new jobs. So we called a lender to find out what kind of timeline we were looking at, crunched the numbers and made some decisions. Despite Jay's veteran status, we weren't going to be able to use the benefit of his VA loan and his job also posed some roadblocks, along with the status of my job (since I was initially hired as a temp and three interviews later I'm finally a full time permanent employee). So we weighed our options.

Then we got an apartment. Logically, since we needed a place to live and see how much it cost to be civilians (albeit renters). After a few months, we reevaluated our situation and then gave ourselves a goal to shoot for. I told Jay I wouldn't look at houses a day before August 1st. This of course didn't deter him from looking at them online, driving past them on his way to work, ruling out neighborhoods due to traffic and school district, and staying in touch with our realtor on a weekly basis. August 1st came around, and he had 2 houses for us to look at. Great! We actually really liked some parts of both houses, and it was a good way for us to start figuring out what we "really" wanted versus what we liked on paper.

The next weekend, we had 7 or 9 houses to look at. In the heat of the summer, with a pregnant wife, and most of the houses being unoccupied (and therefore not cooled by central air), I'm pretty sure Jay was crazy. But he was SO determined to find us a house so we looked. We fell in love with one, only to find it to be under contract. It had everything on our list, AND a laundry chute. A laundry chute! I was both discouraged at the idea of losing this perfect house, and empowered to find OUR perfect house and not let it get away next time! We looked at 7-11 houses a weekend, every weekend. We were exhausted. We saw beautiful ones that were out of our price range, one terribly scary house that any realtor should be ashamed to list; we saw perfect houses with no yard for Hayden and Oscar; we saw beautiful yards with not enough bedrooms. We saw huge living rooms but tiny kitchens, move-in ready houses that offered us no first-time buyer woes (and that turned us off). Then one weekend I prepared to ask Jay if we could just take this weekend off, and not look at any houses. Please. For the love of God. Just let me rest on a Sunday! He said no, but at least the list was short and clustered together. I sighed a big sigh, put on my big girl panties and got in the car.

As luck should have it, we found it! Of course we did, because I didn't want to go look at houses. It had the right amount of bedrooms and bathrooms, running room for Oscar and Hayden, great location, good price and struck that balance between it's ready to move in with carpet and paint, but needs enough work to make it our own. We looked at it on Sunday, and after realizing it had just gone back on the market on Thursday, decided to put in our offer on Monday. We were a little hesitant, and wanted to know why it went under contract and then fell through. Our realtor assured us she would investigate, and did remind us 1) some people weren't like us, and hadn't thoroughly checked out their finances BEFORE putting in an offer and 2) we'd have a whole round of inspections to find out if it was a money pit.

I would love to say "fast forward to two weeks and we were all set!" but of course, that was not the case. While we were blessed with a great realtor, lender and favorable funding, we were plagued by an AWFUL listing agent and the ever popular FHA/Fannie Mae debacle, as the house was a foreclosure. Great for the buyer's wallet, but terrible on our sanity! Here came the weeks upon weeks of phone calls, faxes, emails, meetings, doing and re-doing and re-re-doing paperwork with one setback after another. The worst part in all this? There's NOTHING you can do about the selling agent, other than finding another house. That is, until the house is YOURS and then said selling agent can be reported to the state Realtor's board for her ethics, inconsistency, and just plain TERRIBLENESS. Believe it. She wasn't registered with the BBB, she's her own boss so I couldn't call and complain to her boss, but I was not going to let it all slide. She was unprofessional and all around incorrect on most of the things she did, not to mention rude. I have thought about "liking" her terrible page on Facebook just to put her on blast, but I like the sneak attack of a state audit instead.

Despite her best efforts to the contrary, we closed on our house October 12th. Since she had also not sent the deed over to the attorney, that meant it couldn't be registered and we couldn't actually get the keys until Friday, Oct 14th after the deed was registered...but it was ours! We are officially homeowners, in debt for 30 years, and we couldn't be more excited about it :-)

Oh, you wanted a picture of the outside? No can do. Being a foreclosure, the previous owners took everything that wasn't bolted down...or in this case, WAS bolted down...including the shutters. So until Jay puts up my new shutters, ya gets nothin'. It's kind of like that time I saw a Looney Tunes cartoon and Porky Pig was rudely awakened from sleep, only to hop out of bed to put his jacket and bow tie on. When I realized he was sleeping naked, I was disturbed for YEARS. So you shall not see my house naked :-)

Blogging fail

Well. There hasn't been much time for blogging. The short of it...we bought a house, Hayden is more man-child and less toddler every day, Jay is doing great in school and baby girl is healthy and well! Some friends got married, some fun friends visited, and I saw the President.

We cut off our internet in anticipation of the move, so I hope to be back up and blogging with pics soon!

The sweetest boy

This past weekend, I spent most of the latter part in the recliner with a heating pad on my back. When I overdo it, my back is the first part of my body to remind me to wear comfortable shoes and remember I'm pregnant! I love chasing Hayden around but end up paying dearly for it.

Last night, I was laying on the couch watching tv with Hayden when he got up. He walked over to the recliner and stopped. He then walked around it and unplugged my heating pad. He brought it to the couch, made me sit up, placed it under my back and made me lay back down on it.

"Make it feel better mommy, it be okay,"  he said.

What a sweet and generous child I have to want to help, and to want to make sure mommy is okay!

Hoarder in the making

Hayden has taken to sneaking food into his room at odd times of the day and night. Yesterday I went to get him out of bed for school and noticed an inconspicuous spot on his sheets. It baffled me briefly, until I saw a small bowl of baked beans at the foot of his bed. Yes, baked beans. We had them with our hot dogs for lunch on Sunday and I put the leftovers in one of Hayden's bowls since he's a big fan of them. Apparently, since at some point he procured them from the frige and proceeded to eat them whilst he was supposed to be sleeping.

Jay went into his room when he woke up in the middle of the night this weekend, and saw him chewing. He said, "Hayden what do you have?" to which Hayden replied, "Sheese". Sure enough, he hadn't finished his string cheese from earlier and decided to stash it for later.

I *swear* we feed him!

Baby news

Hayden is going to be a big brother...to a little sister! We found out today that Baby Rogers is Baby Girl Rogers! She's is measuring at a wee 12 oz, right on track, but it seems so tiny. Heartbeat is strong, and we both seem to be doing well thus far. Definitely an exciting day in the Rogers' house! To celebrate, Hayden and I went to Babies 'R Us after Jay went to work...Hayden picked out a new toy for himself and I picked out a baby book for our little girl.

Salem Class of 2034, your class is slowly being born!

Rainy Day

Today it's raining cats and dogs. But when we left at 7am, it was just raining a little bit. Still, I had my rain jacket, rain boots, and umbrella to get us to the car. Hayden is always so excited about the umbrella and giggles and squeals like it is just the most fun thing he's ever done. Today when we got out of the car to walk into school, I decided I didn't need the umbrella to walk the four feet in light drizzle, so I put my hood up and got Hayden unbuckled. He reached down for my umbrella and handed it to me. He said, "Here momma, so you not get wet. Is raining."

How wonderful to be raising such a sweet gentleman already!

Strep throat. Ew.

This past weekend, Hayden was acting a little funny and exhibiting some strange symptoms. He had a dark red tongue and his taste buds were inflamed a bit. He wasn't eating a whole lot and said his belly hurt. We called our favorite medical professional (my sister-in-law, Erin) for her advice and she quickly thought it was strep. We decided to take him to the doc, but not before finding him a new pediatrician. When we first got here, Tricare (Army insurance) assigned us a family care provider and since he hasn't been sick, we haven 't even thought about a new ped since our insurance changed (you know, back in April. Way to be healthy, Hayden!).

Erin recommended the practice they use for their kids, so we decided to check it out yesterday. After 2 years of Army clinics and German hospitals, and one well visit here, I was pleasantly surprised to see a pediatric office that looked like one! Brightly colored, smiling faces, a fish tank and whatnot. We filled out some quick paperwork and headed back to an exam room. The nurse was fantastic, catering to Hayden's every request ("look out window, see lizards"; "mommy's turn"; "let me do it") and making us both feel comfortable. A strep test quickly confirmed Erin's diagnosis and we were soon on our way to the pharmacy to pick up medicine for my happy, sick toddler.

Hayden has never really liked taking medicine. For an ear infection, I used to have to wrap him in a towel, straddle him to keep him down, hold his nose and use the medicine dropper to push the medicine down the side of his cheek. That was when he was 15 months old, Jay was deployed and Hayden was not so cooperative. Luckily now his cognitive reasoning has increased and when I tell him "medicine will make Hayden all better", he understands and is fine taking it as long as he gets to hold it himself. Twice a day for ten days and he should be back to 100%. Luckily for us he's also obsessed with his multivitamin, so he gets that as a reward for taking his medicine. Win-win.

He also got to pick something out for being such a good helper and listener at the doctor's office. Of all the things in Wal-mart, he chose a new toothbrush. Awesome. Last time he got to pick something out, he chose a small wisk with a pig for the handle in Bed, Bath & Beyond. I love this kid.

Today he is at home with Nana and Papaw and I'm sure having the best time. Yet another perk of living in America AND close to family!

Ten years

Ten years ago I watched the world fall down. Ten years ago I hadn't gone through three deployments with the strongest women I would ever have the honor to meet.  Ten years ago I hadn't yet met the men and women that would be this countries heroes, fighting in defense of the freedom we so carelessly guarded. Ten years ago I hadn't sat with a friend the same night she became a widow. Ten years ago I didn't have a son and a baby on the way who would always grow up on a world where terrorism was real. Ten years ago I didn't have to take my shoes off to fly.

Ten years and one day ago I stood and covered my heart every time I heard the national anthem. Ten years and one day ago I still remembered the words to the Pledge of Allegiance. Ten years and one day ago I still teared up every time I heard Lee Greenwood sing "God Bless the USA".

On this day as we pause for remembrance, let us not forget this solemn pride every day of the year. Let us forget the fear we felt ten years ago and only remember the fight we had in us to preserve our nation, our liberty, our freedom. Let us forget our division and remember only the solidarity we felt for the months after the attacks.

I will never forget where I was ten years ago. When I look back in another ten years, I will be proud of where and who I was today, ten years after 9/11.

The skinny on fat

This marks my 300th blog post! A strange milestone, but a milestone nonetheless.

When I got pregnant with Hayden, I was about 125 pounds. I had been working out several days a week to get me through the deployment, and eating for one can be easy, especially when cereal is so tempting over cooking a meal. In my first trimester I cut out a lot of carbs and sugar and fat and caffeine, and was sort of miserable over it. I finally realized the secret to pregnancy was listening to my body, and that a little mac 'n cheese was not going to doom my baby to a life of obesity. I was much happier when I figured it out.

This time around, I am nowhere near the size I was before Hayden. Call it working full time with a husband that works nights and having no time to work out, or call it lazy. Either way, I'm not as active as I was and my eating habits can definitely use a change. Is pregnancy the time to go on a diet? Yes and no. Depriving my body of the junk I don't need? Absolutely. Counting calories and going hungry? Not exactly a recipe for a healthy mom and baby. This time around, I realize a little more that it's weight, and it can be lost. There's something freeing about realizing that while it's harder to lose it than to gain it, it's just weight. I have a plan for what I might do after the baby is born, but for now I'm enjoying my pregnant body and watching my baby grow. And still eating cereal for dinner sometimes.

Fancy pants

Saturday evening, we had a coupon for a free entree at Macaroni Grill that had to be used Labor Day weekend. We decided to wait until later in the evening, since Hayden had a long afternoon nap. We were getting dressed and Hayden was a little confused about where his dinner was!

Hayden: I eat pea-butter jelly on it. Sammich.
Mom: No baby we're going out to eat in just a minute.
Hayden: I eat chicken-french-fries-chockit-milk
Mom: Oh no sweetheart, we're going out for SPECIAL dinner, somewhere fun!
(pause)
Hayden: I eat chicken NUGGETS?? *eyes wide with excitement*

Yeah, he doesn't get out much. At least not out to eat, apparently.

Doctor Appointment

Today I had a quick check-up to see how mom and baby were doing! Quick pee-in-a-cup, weight and blood pressure, then to the exam room. A swift check with the heart rate monitor and baby was strong and steady at 138 BPM. Talked to the doc about a few things, talked about our next appointment and then I was done!

It's nice that it's quick, but still a good monthly reminder that baby is growing like he or she is supposed to. In 20 days, we'll go back for another appointment for an ultrasound! Less than three weeks til we (hopefully!) find out if baby Rogers is a boy or a girl!

Refined palate

Tonight, Hayden requested his new favorite, pea-butter jelly-on-it. He can't seem to get enough of the PB&J, and lately can't get enough of whatever mommy may be doing in the kitchen. He is very eager to help, and I encourage it because that's exactly how I learned to cook. He gets frustrated when he can't cook, stir hot things or touch raw meat, but a mom's gotta draw the line somewhere. While making the sandwich...

Hayden, picking up the top to the PB: I wan' lick it! 
Mom , exactly one moment too soon:  Oh no baby we don't...well we aren't SUPPOSED to lick that.
Hayden: Mmmm is tasty! 

I have no idea where he picked up "tasty" but it sure is funny for us!

Getting caught up

These days, we do our best just to get through the days! For two weeks in mid-August our office uproots and moves downstairs so we can serve a larger group of students during open registration. For me, this means getting to work by 730am so I can find parking, get to my desk and be up and running before 8. We work all day, take lunch, and try to get out by 7pm each night. Getting to work by 730am means getting up by 530 am to get myself and Mr. Hayden ready and out the door by 630am. Luckily there's no traffic at 630am so we can get where we're going in good time. For Jay and Hayden, it means dinners together (without mom), baths (without mom) and getting to see mom for about 15-20 minutes before they go to work (Jay) and bed (Hayden). It means little house work is getting done, only the laundry we need, and poor Oscar gets no fun. The weekends rarely slow down, which makes for one tired family!

But our downstairs time ended last week, and even with a busy weekend we're managing to get things back on track. Monday afternoon I got off at 5, was home by 530 and we were eating dinner by 630. Together. As a family. Amazing! After dinner and a bath for Hayden, I GOT TO VACUUM. Before anyone went to bed, at a decent hour so as not to anger the neighbors (because some of us are considerate) and to get up some of the dog hair and daily dirt that accumulates under our feet. Unbelievable! I actually got to do dishes from the meal THE SAME DAY WE ATE IT. Incredible! It's amazing what you can get done when you're not dog tired and ready for bed while the sun is still up.

Nice try

Me: Ok Hayden, it's bed time. I love you.
Hayden: Love you mommy. *pause* Daddy love me.
Me: That's right Hayden, daddy loves you too.
Hayden: (whispering) I not go ni-night.
Me: No, you still have to go to bed. Even though mommy and daddy love you.

Proof!

This is Baby Rogers 2.0. First photo at 7 weeks, 1 day.

Baby #2

Jay and I had the pleasure of announcing that we're expecting another baby, and I think it caught a few people by surprise!

We actually found out in early June that I was pregnant, but decided to wait until I was out of my first trimester until we spilled the beans. So far everything has gone really well, with no morning sickness or feeling yucky. This pregnancy is a lot different than with Hayden, especially since this time around Jay is here for all of it and I work full time! I'm getting my energy back, but that is balanced by working 12-hour days at work and house hunting on the weekend, so it's pretty much the same.

We plan on finding out the sex at my October appointment, and Jay is pretty sure it's a girl. We talk to Hayden about the baby a little bit, but since he can be rather impatient we don't want to talk about it too much since it's still pretty far away. He thinks he has a baby in his belly like mommy, since he also has a belly button. It's pretty cute! For now, we don't have names or much else figure out, just that we're really excited to be a family of four! 

Anatomy lesson

Hayden: (in bathtub) Want take it off. Want take it off, mommy!
Mom: Hayden, that's your wee-wee, we can't take it off.

Who knew bath time was learning time?

Charlotte Weekend

Last weekend, we enjoyed a night away in Charlotte to celebrate the 30th birthdays of two friends, Stephie and Paul. We left Hayden at home with my parents and Jay, Lizard and I headed to the Queen City. Lizard got in Friday night really late but we were so excited to have her here! We checked into our hotel, got ready for the party and headed over to the Godbolds'.

We had a super fun time catching up with friends at the party, but it was SO crazy hot outside. It was 90+ at 9 o'clock so we migrated from outside to the porch to inside to try to cool off. Paul had been cooking all weekend and we enjoyed the fruits of his labor. We made the punch, which most of the girls hadn't had since college. Around midnight it started to POUR down rain, so we made our way inside until we left around 2.

Sunday morning we woke up and checked out. Jay headed home to Hayden while Lizard and I headed to Village Tavern to meet some more Salem girls so we could celebrate Watts' upcoming wedding. We had a blast with mimosas and yummy food and catching up on all things Salem. It was nice to have an all-Salem weekend and see the girls!

Other non-potty news

Hayden is almost a different kid these days. He has turned into a little grown-up sponge, picking up everything and taking it all in while maintaining it. I'm almost shocked on a daily basis by the things he has come up with.

He's getting really good at his ABCs. He likes to practice right before bedtime and the end of the alphabet is definitely his favorite part. One night he counted to five. It's really fun, because he starts off slowly with "one....two....three-four-five". The next night he counted to ten, but would only do it once because "I count 10 for daddy." This week when we started our counting he went to ten for me...but I was excited when he kept going and got to 17. Go Hayden!

We're also working on spelling his name out loud. When we started, it was "H-9-Y-E-E-N". Now he lets me do the "H" but then follows with "E-E-N". We've dropped the 9 but haven't added the A just yet. Not bad little dude, not bad at all.

He picks up new words every single day and is getting really good at whole phrases and sentences. Right now he has Jay's copy of Walden and is holding it upside down, turning pages and pretending to read. I hope he stays a book worm like mom! He loves to be read to, and will repeat the words after me. Green Eggs & Ham, Goodnight Moon, and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone are his current faves.

We practice our colors every day, and on the ride to school he points out everything he sees. On the way into the apartment complex, he likes to count the speed bumps, point out the pond and ducks and look for daddy's truck or bike. He loves to sing songs, and "Row Your Boat" is the best thing EVER with his little hand motions. He really likes to tell us which animal makes which noise, and his "meow" is so so funny. He definitely has some of his mommy's accent!

I am so amazed at how much his little brain comprehends. He is so observant and I can't believe his retention. He is also in a hugging phase right now, and wants all his toys to give each other hugs because "friends hug". He is such a sweet boy and we are so lucky to be his parents!

Yep, more potty training

Hayden had a 100% day at school on Friday! I decided when we woke up on Saturday morning that our focus for the whole weekend would be on the potty. We try to be consistent but this weekend I decided overbearing was more appropriate. Luckily for me, it paid off! Hayden used the potty all weekend with only one accident. Please keep in mind his cousins were over here all day Saturday and into the late evening, and then on Sunday his Nana and Papaw watched him while we went to lunch and a movie. So it was awesome for him to do so well through the distractions.

So far this week he's 100% at school and at home! I'm really proud of him and think he's really just starting to get it. Something clicked in his little toddler brain this weekend it seems and I'm really excited about it!!

Happy Birthday Zoe!

Happy 5th Birthday Zoe!

Her party was at Pump It Up, and the kids had a blast jumping and bouncing in the dark with their glow necklaces on. Hayden didn't want to leave the room for snacks, cake and presents, so we had to explain to him that it was someone else's turn to jump.

It's so hard to believe she's 5 already! When she was born, we had just moved to Germany and didn't even to get to see her in person for almost 10 months. Now she's starting kindergarten in the fall!

Happy 4th of July!

This year we had quite a big event scheduled to celebrate America's birthday. Long before we left Germany, we thought about getting together with some of our Benning-bound Army friends for Independence Day. That's a four-day we knew they'd be getting, and South Carolina seemed like a good place to "meet in the middle". When we mapped it, we realized it was a 3.5 hour drive for us but an 8 hour drive for our friends. That was a lot for a four-day, so we accepted that it might not happen. But Liz and Matt go down to SC for the 4th every year, so we decided we'd head down for the holiday weekend. We were excited to see our friends, the boys were excited to have the bikes where they can ride sans helmet, and Hayden is always excited about something new.

A few weeks before the 4th, we found out that one of our very good friends was going to be at Ft. Bragg for some training and that his family was driving up for the 4th to see him. Ft. Bragg is much closer to Myrtle Beach than Ft. Benning in, so a plan emerged. We were SO excited to be able to spend the weekend with TWO of our favorite families! Hayden, Oscar and I loaded up while Jay slept in a little on Friday and we got on the road. About 90 minutes into the ride I realized I left the keys to the beach house at home. Doh! I called Jay to let him know we didn't have the keys with us, and we just kept going on our way and hoped he'd catch up!

Hayden, Oscar and I arrived with no keys and Jay was at least an hour behind us, so we headed to the park to stretch our legs. We walked to the swings and slides for a few minutes, but then Hayden wanted to take Oscar down to the water. There's a pond with a fountain at the bottom of the park so we headed that way. Hayden loves to hold Oscar's leash, but I don't usually let him when we're around a bunch of people so I held the reigns. Which was moot, because once Oscar saw the ducks in the water, he pulled out of his collar and dashed into the water after them. I couldn't believe it! Oscar usually has to be coaxed into the water but he jumped right in! The ducks scurried away but Oscar stayed in and swam a bit. Jay and I joked how things like this NEVER happen when I have an extra set of hands, so naturally it was bound to happen while I was on my own.

We got back into the truck and grabbed a little lunch. Jay and the Pollards arrived soon after, keys in hand, so we were able to get in and get settled. The boys did some grocery shopping while Amber and the little boys and I hung around in the A/C and talked about how big our kids had gotten in the six months it had been since we'd seen each other. That night we decided to grill out, and Matt and Liz joined us for burgers and hot dogs. We went to play mini-golf at a really fun place with a train! It took you to the top and you played your way down. Hayden had a great time playing putt-putt for the first time, and loved all the water and waved every time the train went by us. After golf we got some ice cream before heading home. Not a bad way to start our vacation!

Saturday the boys had an early morning tee-time so they were out of the house before 8am. We got the boys up and ready to hit the beach. They were so excited! The Pollard boys had never seen the ocean and we couldn't wait to get them there. Gabe and Logan had a great time playing in the water but Hayden was still not interested. We hung out in the sand and tried a few times to get Hayden in the water but he just wouldn't budge. The boys finished up their golf game and came out to join us and build a few sand castles. After we cleaned up from the beach, we headed to the Hard Rock Cafe, one of our favorite haunts we tried to hit in every city we could while we were traveling in Europe. Always a good time!

Sunday we went back to the beach for a bit, and then headed to Alligator Adventure. What a fun place! We saw alligators and crocodiles, white alligators and the world's largest alligator, one with no tail and babies not yet in the water with their big brothers; we saw bats and lemurs, lizards and frogs, turtles and tortoises; even birds and a few cats! Hayden loved seeing all the gators and got to touch a baby one! His favorite part was petting the giant tortoises and it was really hard to tear him away from them! After the gators we headed to Grandma Pam and Grandpa Don's house, Matt's grandparents, for a BBQ and some swimming. Hayden had a BLAST in the pool and it was almost an act of Congress to get him out of the water! The boys took turns throwing him up in the air, and he even did a little swimming on his own in his life jacket. Logan took a liking to the little pool, which he dubbed "Logan's pool", but told us he would share his pool with us. We enjoyed chicken wings and burgers and dogs, and Lizard's cucumber salad didn't last long of course! We were SO stuffed but managed to make room for some of Grandma Pam's brownies. Yum!

We could tell Hayden was getting tired because he kept tripping over his feet. He ran into the gate and got a nice goose egg on his forehead, and after he fell two more times we decided it was just time to go. Hayden fell asleep immediately in the car, and we headed to pick up some fireworks while he napped in the truck. We headed to Barefoot Landing, where we thought they were doing fireworks. We walked around, got ice cream, did some shopping and waited. Then we checked again and found out the fireworks weren't until Monday night! Bummer. We headed back home and I think we all were ready for bed as soon as we walked in.

Monday morning came and we made breakfast and started packing up. The last day of vacation is never any fun. We were sad to see the Pollard go and even sadder to head back to reality, but we were so glad that we got to spend the weekend with some of our favorite people!