A good day!!

Today was one of those days where you think man life is a breeze and I am so glad to have this life I have. I do love my life and I can honestly say I do not want anyone Else's BUT it is hard some days. Billy says to me the other day "Babe, life is happy, life is sad, life is up, and life is down. That is life!" I have this personality where I like serenity and I like order. I hate clutter and chaos! I like certainty and being able to check things off my list when I complete them. Schedules work well but life is emotional and unexpected at times. And parenting definitely is. Yes I plan our menus and know what we have going on for the week, well for the month for that matter. I guess that is why being a mommy is SO scary! I want to set an example for my son. I want him to look up to me. I think the very best discipline for my son is continuing to work on me. I am so grateful to be in a 12 step program because of this I know I am always teachable, I do not have all the answers, and God is in control. I am continuing to work on me and ask God for strength. Today was one of those days that went according to plan. We went to the gym and Tanner got a sticker for being well behaved and I had a great work out! We then had his swim lesson. He is doing amazing with that. We had our snack by the pool and he listened. We sat together and I tickled him and he laughed. We came home and wrote in the driveway with his side walk chalk. He ran around the front yard. He cracks me up! We came in for lunch and then he played for awhile. I have started trying to teach him his letters and new words! Then he napped for three whole hours(so glad he is a good napper) I cleaned entire house, caught up all laundry, and changed sheets. I then cooked dinner for my brother Steve and his daughter Ali who is here visiting from Wisconsin and we watched a movie as a family! All in all a great day! I love being a mommy. Tanner teaches me much about life and love. I like the person I am and grateful to be clean! I am celebrating 7 years in three weeks. I am a true testament that Gods plan was way better than mine!! I am thankful for family! I am grateful to be an aunt, a sister, a wife, a daughter, a daughter-in-law, a granddaughter, a niece, and a friend. Grateful for life! Grateful for a good day! :)

It is a quiet Saturday afternoon. Tristan(my nephew) is staying the weekend with us and we took them to the pool/waterpark at the Y. He is very sweet and I love how the boys play together. Tristan was born on April fools day so he is 14 months old. I love being an aunt. Tristan is funny. He is sensitive and more quiet. I feel Tanner is more loud like his mama. :) I am so amazed at how smart they are. They both are so special and unique. I thought having one is a lot of work. WOW! Two is really hard even with Billy here to help. Well we are off to enjoy the rest of our weekend. I am going to shower before I miss my window of time.

Leaning on GOD!

O.k. so it has been one of those weeks. Monday started out pretty good until that night when we realized our refrigerator was dying! We had to pull out everything and put in coolers and then wait for the repair guy to come the next day. The good news was he was able to fix it and we did not have to go and buy a new one. He fixed it pretty quickly and I was eager to get to the gym. The fridge made a huge mess and I decided to deal with that after I had a good work out. I must have been at the gym for less than an hour before I heard my name being called to child development. Tanner had bitten another child and was being asked to leave for the day. Now this was not his first time mind you we had spent all last week out of the gym as we were suspended. Tanner is 18 months old and already getting suspended. GEEZ!! I guess things like this are expected to happen but it is so frustrating. I used the time to talk to GOD. I took Tanner to the park, a friend's pool, and just spent more time with him. My son does so well with being rewarded and praised for good behavior. We tried the whole spanking thing and I even bit him back once. That seemed to hurt his feelings and confuse him more than anything and he ended up biting again right away. So for us that does not work. I am not saying I am against spanking BUT for this behavior it was not helping. I started asking God for help on this and he revealed to me patience and tolerance is key. I continue to reach out to the Lord. I wish I could say I was this gentle, patient, soft spoken, easy going mommy. I am not! God knows this though because he created me and he created me to be Tanner's mommy. He knows I need his help and he is so quick to give it to me when I ask. I am so thankful for my time with my Savior. I tend to make mountains out of molehills and to God it is all molehills. I know God is taking care of us. Mostly because all those things I am not I usually can be with GOD's help! Tanner loves going to the Y. He LOVES people. He first learned about biting by being bit at the Y in the first place. BUT still that isn't to blame anyone it is just where he learned it. I have watched enough kids to know they ALL have their days. ALL of them.Just like us adults do too. We have a great routine my son and I. I love being a stay at home mommy. I plan on staying home with him for the next few years. He will not start kindergarten until 2015. I know he bites now to get attention. SO I am doing my best as a mommy to give him more one on one full focused attention. My friend gave me a c.d. by Dr. Charles Stanley and it talked exactly about that. Giving your kids your undivided attention. I started doing that. After lunch now we do his letters and I make a point to put my phone away and not have ANY distractions. I was doing that before but realized just cause I am with Tanner everyday did not mean I was always spending quality time with him. It definately makes a huge difference. I know there are days as a wife and mommy that are just plain hard! BUT SO WORTH IT!! I love my son more than anything. He only has one mommy and that is me. God answered my prayer and gave us a child. He is with me in my parenting because I invite him in DAILY! I had a great day today so looks like my week is turning around. He was cracking up at lunch cause I was letting him feed me the rest of his cheese and I was gobbling it down everytime he fed me a bite. That made him crack up. He is a very smart little guy. There is nothing and I mean nothing better than snuggling with him at night. He loves to climb up on my lap and just be with us at night. I am thankful to be his mommy! Most of all I am so thankful to moms who say I know girl I have been there!! Just knowing you are not alone makes all the difference in the world sometimes. I love hearing words of encouragement. Being a stay at home mom is not glamorous and it surely is not what I thought I would be doing BUT so thankful that this is the plan GOD had for Billy, Tanner, and I! I LOVE taking care of my family!

Father's Day 2011

Well today we are having a quiet day at home. Tanner is napping and Billy went to the store. I am going to make fajitas tonight for his father's day meal. YUM! We went out last night to Orlando. It was fun BUT I am so drained today. A day of rest. I am chilling and enjoying the quiet. Tanner stayed at his Grampy's and Meme's last night. I know he had a ball. I am glad that he has so much family that cares about him. They played in the pool and went for walks. Meme said he slept great. So glad about that. I took full advantage of him being gone. I deep cleaned the house, bathed the dog, took a bubble bath, talked on the phone, and went out with my hubby. Now being a mommy I am so appreciative of the little things. I look forward to the rest of the summer. Disney this Thursday! Yay!! Just us three. I love my family. God has truly blessed me. I need to make this one short today as our little busy bee will be up soon.

Running

Running for me lately is something I enjoy. I actually got up this morning at 4:45 and ran 6 miles. I was suppose to meet up with Ashlee and Darren but they canceled and I ended up running and swimming by myself. I ran from the Y downtown and back and then swam 11 laps in the pool. I loved seeing the full moon and feeling the cool breeze. It rained last night so it was pretty nice out for being the middle of June. I love how exercising energizes me. It also relieves stress. I feel like I am better able to deal with life and be a better mommy to Tanner.
Tanner is 19 months old now. He is talking a lot and starting to put words together. He is so active, so my running comes in handy as I feel like I am constantly chasing after him. I love it! He is all boy and I enjoy spending my days with him. Today after we got home from his swim lesson we played and had lunch. I could not get him to finish his turkey, bread, and cheese but every time I turned around he is chomping down on Nani's food. He cracks up cause I chase him and say "TANNER, are you eating Nani's food?" He is a little wild child. He just runs and laughs. I can not get mad at him. He really thinks it is just a game we play, which at this point it is. :) I love him so much. He cracks me up.
He says DAD DEE! MAMA! He loves Mickey Mouse and we are hoping to have a day at Disney next week. It is so fun doing things with him this year. We all were at Disney for four nights in February when I did the Princess Half Marathon. (my first half) He did so well. We had the best time. We went to magic kingdom, Animal Kingdom, and enjoyed the hotel. It was so nice having my boys there to support me on my big day. Billy gave me a rose when I crossed the finished line. I never imagined I could run 13.1 miles without stopping.
Billy has been at all my races and in the last 9 months I have done two half marathons and several 5ks. Including Expedition Everest Challenge. Billy and I did that one together. What a way to celebrate his 40Th birthday. It was a 5k run complete with obstacle course and scavenger hunt. It was at night and then a huge party afterwards. SO FUN!!
Billy and I are doing the Wine and Dine at Disney in Sept./Oct. Billy's first Half. I am super excited. It should be a fun weekend for him and I. Disney races are so fun. It is something I have enjoyed for myself and so grateful my husband is enjoying it too. The more I read about being heart healthy, the more I know how important doing cardiovascular exercises are for us. It isn't just about being thin, although I do feel better since I have lost weight BUT running for me is so much more than that.

Weekend in Lakeland

I just arrived home from a long weekend in Lakeland. Tanner and I had so much fun. Billy was down in Miami for work and he did an awesome job on a project he had been working on for 6 months. I am so proud of him.
I stayed with my dad and my sister. My sister and I have become a lot closer over the years and now we have boys so close in age. Boy are we both busy chasing after them. Tanner is 19 months old and Tristan is 14 months old. So cute together.
My sister got a projector this weekend and showed a movie on the side of the barn at my dad's; tiki torches and all. We watched Tangled. My aunt Leah, aunt Brenda, Kelsey, Holly, Vanessa, Lauren, Alson, Austin, dad, Scott, and everyone was there. It was super cool and can not wait to do that again. I love that most of my family all lives on one street and we can ride the bike visiting the family. We also went to church today with my mom and Grannie Elsie. My Grannie Elsie has always been special to me. I thought about things she has always said to me. Like "I love you a bushel and a peck and a hug around your neck." and she use to say " the hurrier I go the behinder I get" stuff like that. I am named after her. She is Elsie Mae and I am Melinda Mae. She taught me how to cross stitch when I was 8 or 9 and I use to love to go out to eat with her after church on Sundays. We always went to her house on Christmas day. When I was a kid she made the best cornbread in the world. I did not realize how much I missed her cooking until just now as I type this. Man could she cook. Well she now lives in an assisted living facility and will be 92 in October. I love her and loved holding her tiny hand in church today. I loved that when I stroked her hair she told me how it was a mess and she needed to get it done this week. For some reason that made me smile. I love that I come from her blood and the good things she has passed down to me and my siblings. I am blessed to know her and one of the best parts of my weekend was seeing my 19 month old son feed her bugles. Yeah I would say this was a pretty good weekend.

Writing and reading

I will start by saying I have always had a love for books. ALWAYS! I am passing that love on to my son. I use to be able to get through a book pretty quickly but now as you moms know not as quick, but I still get the job done. Books are awesome because unlike the internet, magazines, phones ect I feel when I am reading a good book I can not multitask NOR do I want to. I have to force my mind to quiet and focus on what I am reading. I try and read the Bible everyday. I am also reading Born to Run by Christopher Mcdougall. An awesome read about super athletes and insane runners. I like to read fiction, non fiction, or just about anything. I guess my love for reading comes naturally because most of the women in my life share this same love. Especially my mom. My mom is so knowledgeable about books and authors and has ALWAYS shared books with me. My sister, grandmother, aunts, and cousins love books too. I remember borrowing books from my grandmother growing up.
I read to Tanner every night. Every night! Unless I am phsyically not here then I read to him and pray with him. WE talk to God every night and I do not care how tired I am or even if I do not feel like it we do it!! I look forward to it most nights and I believe he does too. We will finish one book and he points to another. Some nights we read four or five and then follow with a Bible story and prayer. I am committed to do this until he moves out of our house and gets married. I hope he lets me. He is a bright child; quick, sensitive, tough, and very active! He is testing his independence and I would not expect anything less. He is my child after all. I am pretty tough myself so I am up for the challenge. But even more importantly God is and has been at the center of our parenting because we invite him in daily. He will not give us more than we can handle with his help. His WORD tells me "I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me" ( including a toddler who is testing his limits) :)

My First Post

I guess I will start by explaining the title of my blog. Mos is my nickname from Billy. He has called me that for years and says it in his cards, letters, notes, and voicemails. It came about first as Most Beautiful and then went to Most and finally down to Mos. It fits well in my family as everyone has weird nick names. I am Mimi Mae in my family which is short for Mendy mae. My neices and nephews even call me Aunt mimi which I love and my mom has called me Mimi Mae since I was a baby. I love nicknames. They just add so much depth and kinship in our family unit and among those closest to us.
Now Mos Dos is Tanner. Also given to him by his daddy It just means he is Most Beautiful the second. I love it!! Billy first said it when we were home from the hospital and all a new family of three. It fits.
I am so happy to be starting a new blog. I had one before that Billy and I tried to keep up with when I was pregnant but it has since faded. So now a new chapter of my life has begun and thus a new blog with it.
I am learning a lot by staying home with Tanner and I am so grateful to be able to do so. A few moms from my Mops group also blog and some even have theirs printed out into journals which I feel is a great idea. I look forward to this new outlet and expressing myself here.