Say My Name

Thanks Amber.  Now I have that song stuck in my head!!!!

I love the link ups where you get to introduce yourself a little more to readers.  This one is all about blog names.  I'm sure I've done a post about this before but I'm so in love with the direction my blog went that I have to share it again.

Obviously my blog is now titled "Life With My Loves."  It wasn't always titled that.  Before I got into blogging, like REALLY got into it, I used my blog as a way to document our journey of buying a house and our new pregnancy journey.  It was a nice way to document what Noah was up to, how the house hunt was going, and to track my pregnancy with Emmy, aka belly pics.  When I went on bedrest at 28 weeks, it was the best place for me to give updates on my appointments, ultrasounds, and testings.  I would write up a post, link it to facebook, and email it out to the family.  Then it was a place for me to vent when I was bored out of my mind while on bedrest (or stalk my mailman...yes it happened).  At this point, it was titled "A Day in the Life of the Crimella's."  Very informative title I guess.  But then the blog took a turn in a different direction.

I started reading more and more blogs.  I started interacting with some other bloggers via email.  I fell in love with the whole idea of blogging and the blogging community.  The blog morphed into an outlet for me to describe my life, not just a place to update family members.  It wasn't about a day in the life of the Crimella's.  It was more about Jessica's life with the Crimella's. I realized this when a group of Tampa bloggers met up one night and we were sharing our blog names and I totally blanked on what mine was.  It was at that moment I knew I needed a change.  This blog had evolved and I needed to acknowledge that change.  I have to credit Lauren for helping me with the name.  I was a Twitter virgin at that moment and she was helping me navigate the Twitter world and we came up with my Twitter handle @lifewithmyloves (you should follow me....shameless plug!!)  I instantly knew this was my blog's new name.

Life With My Loves

It sums up everything that my blog is about.  It's about my adventures with the loves of my life...the Hubs and the kiddos.  I don't know why I didn't see it a long time before that.  That's where the blog was headed.  It's our life, through my eyes, for me to remember.

It's the book I'm writing.

The story of my Life With My Loves.

The time when I terrified my 3 year old

Who would have thought that 5 minutes of this would scare a 3 year old beyond belief?

Disney has freaked my daughter out more than anything in the entire world.

Noah has been wanting to see this for months so when I saw it available on demand, I bought it for the kiddos.  Within 2 minutes, she was thinking it was creepy.  First off, where was all the color?  Black and white did not sit well with Em. Then she was flat out scared.  So we turned it off.  No big deal.  Then the tears came.  Followed by panic attacks.  Yep. My sweet innocent little girl is having panic attacks every night and at nap time because of Frankenweenie.  This was a week ago.  7 days later, she's still petrified to go to sleep.  She cries hysterically for hours every night.  She has to fall asleep in our arms.  I can't believe this has happened.

Am I a horrible mother for even thinking this would be a cute movie for the kids?  I mean this movie is up for an Oscar.  It has to be a good one, right?

It's my fault that she's scared to go to bed.  My heart breaks every night listening to her cry.  How do I make this up to her?  How do I figure out a way to make the scary thoughts/images disappear from my sweet girl's mind?  How do I bring peace to her precious mind?

  

Sunday Social

It's been far too long since I've sat down in front of the computer.  Life has kinda taken over and I'm just trying to hang on.  I've at least been reading some blogs (or trying to) but I can never seem to get my reader down to 0.  I'm trying to get back in the swing of things while trying to fight the sickness that struck me.  So here goes......



1. Biggest Middle school fashion mistake.  I was in middle/high school before the digital camera era so I don't have pictures of anything.  But when I was in middle school, I hadn't made the switch to contacts and I had the largest, roundest glasses on the face of the planet.  I think Harry Potter stole the look from me. Definitely not one of my finest moments.

2.  Who were your best friends in HS?  I had such a great group of friends in high school.  My besties included Patrick (still to this day), Val, Brian, and Boomer.  Then the group rounded out with some football players, cheerleaders, and some volleyball teammates.

3.  What was a typical weekend for you in HS?  I didn't have the typical HS experience.  I was playing competitive volleyball year round so I spent my weekends at the airport or in cars headed to our next tournament.  I've played at some of the best gyms in the country.  I had the high school experience that I wanted, not the typical experience.
This was my most favorite team that I ever played on!  We may have gotten into a lot of trouble in Austin TX and almost got sent home. I'm #39 in the front

4. Did you have any boyfriends?  I had a few boyfriends in high school.  A few serious ones that didn't pan out and one boyfriend that I always compared any future boyfriends to (until the Hubs).  I had fun.

5. Did you have any secret codes with your friends?  Not any secret codes but we did end up making these lists of important things to remember, like rules I guess.  I recently found mine and reading it reminded me how ridiculous we were back then and how awesome we thought we were.

6. If you could relive one day/moment/experience from middle school or high school, what would it be?  I'm not really sure if there is one particular day that I'd relive.  I had a great time in high school but I've never dreamed about going back.  Now college, yeah, I'd go back to that part of my life!!!

Not sure why this blue line is right here....sorry!

I'm not happy at all but I'm glad I did it

I didn't really talk about it much but I ran the Rock N Roll Mini Marathon (aka 5K) this past weekend.  I had grand plans of killing this race big time but unfortunately, I fell very short of killing it.  I'm really disappointed in my results but I'm ready to make this my jumping off point for the rest of the year.

I was feeling pretty good going into the morning. Woke up at 4:45am and didn't feel tired at all.  My brother and his girlfriend (who I should probably just call my sister from now on because that's what she really is to me) ran it with me.  Sharon has been my running buddy since our first Princess Half Marathon a few years ago.  We headed down to the Trop after a slight detour, with plenty of time to get ready.  I ran into my friend from work who was running the half and chatted for a while.  Time was getting closer to the start of the Mini Marathon so we headed into our corral.  We were pretty close to the front.  My other friend found her way to us right before the start.  The gun went off and off we went.

The first mile wasn't bad at all.  I was feeling really good actually.  Then the brick happened.  For some reason it didn't dawn on me that we'd be running on brick roads.  I don't know why I didn't realize this.  I knew the roads down there were bricked but for some reason that slipped my mind. So needless to say, I was pretty much miserable for the last 1.5 miles.  I was concentrating on not tripping on the uneven road (yes, that's something that would happen to me) and trying to figure out when the finish line would magically appear. I'm not really sure why this was such a roadblock for me but it totally was.  Plus it was making my left shin hurt like heck.

But I crossed the finish line.  And that's all that matters.  I'm embarrassed of my time (which is why it won't be publicized here) but I know it wasn't a great run and it's only up from here.  I'm ready to seriously kill my time at Iron Girl Clearwater.  And to make things even better, the Hubs and I have registered for runDisney's Tower of Terror 10 miler in October.  I've got to figure out a training plan, and fast, because I cannot finish after the Hubs.  I just can't!  I'll never hear the end of it!

So here's to pounding the pavement and getting faster!  Oh and being very bright in these bad boys

via

   

That moment when you realize you're done

I always knew I was going to have kids.  I had dreams of being a pediatrician (glad that one didn't work out) but deep down, I always wanted to be a Momma.  I imagined what they'd look like, what we'd do, what their names would be.  But I never really thought of the number of kids I would have. Well I knew I didn't want an only child.  Sorry to all the only children out there but it's not for me and my life.  But other than that, I was open to a reasonable amount of children.  You weren't going to find me on TLC with a reality show about me and my million kiddos.  No way. No how.

Then I fell in love, got married, and ended up preggers a few years too soon.  It's amazing how quickly people start asking you when you're having another baby once you've popped one out.  We purposely waiting until Noah was 2.5yrs old before getting pregnant with Em.  We wanted him to be the baby for a while. But then came the discussion (or debate in our world).  How many kids will we have?  When will be be done?  For the Hubs, he was done with Em (this was all before we found out she was a girl).  He was happy and set on 2 kids.  His rationale was flawed in my mind.  4 is a nice even number.  Rides at Disney are easier with 4.  That's a good number for booking airplane seats. (WTF???  We don't fly anywhere)  I thought he was a crazy person.  I wasn't sure that I was done.  I wasn't sure that 2 was going to be enough.  And there was always the chance that the baby I was carrying wasn't a girl.  I'm not going to lie.  I wanted a daughter.  I wasn't going to keep having kids until I got a girl but I sure wasn't going to give up my dream of a girl after just 2 kids.  So we made a deal (well I think I'm the only one who thought we did).  If we were having a girl, we'd probably be done.  If it was a boy, I got one more shot at a girl.  I did get nightmares of having 3 crazy boys running around the house but I was almost willing to take that risk.

The day of our ultrasound was one of the funniest days.  We told the tech that we wanted to know the sex and when she said "it's a girl" the Hubs jumped up and down in glee.  No for real.  He was jumping up and down like a little girl.  In his mind, he was done.  I was so excited to have a girl and not really thinking about not having any more kids.  But we did come to an agreement that we were pretty much done.  Whenever anyone asked when we were having our next kiddo, we both would answer never.  Every so often I'd get a twinge of baby feelings but they were usually squashed by screaming children, fighting, or all the other fabulous behaviors that usually deter people from having children.  The Hubs almost made it a permanent decision before I had a major meltdown/panic attack.  I didn't want anymore children but I wasn't ready to make that a permanent decision.  God love the Hubs.  He handled my crazy and backed off of the subject.

One morning on my drive to work (at the intersection of Park and 49th St) I had this major epiphany.  I am totally done having children.  Yes. I said it.  I'm not having any more children.  Why God decided to use that time and that location to show me this, I have no idea.  He truly does work in mysterious ways.  But in that moment, I became completely at peace with the decision that our family is complete.  I can now hold babies and not feel that pull at my heart, that it's not complete.  I look at my family and feel proud of what we are.  Plus I can't even begin to imagine how to share my love with another child.  I am absolutely, head over heels, in love with my kids. They are my everything.

So to everyone who has been praying that I'll be giving this world another blonde hair, blue eyed cutie, I'm sorry to disappoint.  But I am truly happy with my decision, our decision.  The Hubs got to this point really quickly. I just had to take the scenic route to get there.

I know how blessed I am.  I am so blessed my heart spills over.

Love my Mini Me

My loves

My amazing family

  

I'm an IronGirl

10^th Annual Athleta Iron Girl Clearwater ½ Marathon and 5K

Iron Girl’s Mission is to Empower Women Toward a Healthy Lifestyle!

I am so excited to be participating in the Iron Girl Event Series again this year.  I wasn't able to run in it last year but I did the year before and had a great time!  It was actually my friend's first race and I was thrilled to support and encourage her to reaching her goal of running the entire thing without stopping!    She totally rocked it and I couldn't have been prouder to be a part of the day for her.

Jess and I with some of our Chi O sisters

Check out the awesome gear!

That's what Iron Girl is all about.  The mission of Iron Girl is to empower women toward a healthy lifestyle.  I'm excited for this event because it's just another reminder of the decision I'm making towards a better lifestyle for me and my family.  I've said time and time again that I want to be a good role model for my kiddos and what better way to do so than to make exercise a part of my life.  I've been fortunate to find amazing women in the Tampa area through blogging who are just as excited about fitness and running (well probably a lot more excited than me).  The Tampa Bay Bloggers have teamed up with Iron Girl this year.  In the spirit of Iron Girl, it's important to empower, encourage, and support women of all athletic abilities.  The women of the Tampa Bay Bloggers share that belief.  We're excited to share our journey with all of our readers.  (Want to follow all the TBB runners?  Check out Caroline's post to see who's running)  

So here's the exciting part!  You can join me and the Tampa Bay Bloggers for the Iron Girl Clearwater 5K or Half Marathon!

Date:                           Sunday, April 14, 2013

Location:                     Coachman Park

Entry fees:                   1/2 Marathon Race
Women's Individual
$95.00 until April 10
$105.00 race week and expo
(you must be 14 years old to participate in the 1/2 marathon)

5K Race
Women's Individual
$35.00 until April 10
$45.00 race week and expo

5K Race Team
Mother Daughter 2-person teams
$70.00 until April 10
$90.00 race week and expo

If that's not enough to make you run out and sign up, here's something to sweeten the deal a little:  10% off registration using the code TBBLOGGERS13 until February 28th.  Just click here to register.

Don't forget to like Iron Girl's facebook page and follow them on Twitter @TheIronGirl.  We'll be using the hash tag #IronGirlTBB if you want to keep tabs on our training and race talk!

Come out and run with me!

Germs, Germs all around

I have my latest victim of the horrible sickness that's going around like crazy.  Poor sweet Em is miserable.  She's had fevers, she's congested, coughing, sneezing, and has some weird eye thing going on (not pink eye though) and guess who's been the only person she's wanted?  Yep.  Me.  I'm constantly dodging sneezes and coughs.  She can't sleep unless she's propped up and the best way she sleeps is in between my legs, propped up on my hips.  It works for us but it really makes for a boring night for me.  I went to bed at 8:30 last night just so I could get her comfortable.  I mean I did end up on Pinterest and watching TV since I was not tired at that time but it still wasn't the way I planned my evening. Oh and I really haven't had a full night's sleep since Sunday.

But you know what? I'd do it all over again.  Every single time.  It's a funny thing that happens when you become a mom.  It doesn't matter how miserable you are, how sleep deprived you are, you'd do anything to make sure your sweet child is comfortable. You'd sacrifice anything to make sure your kids have what they need.  And it's a sacrifice you'll make time and time again, no matter how old your children get.  So here I am, missing work so I can take my lil sickie to the doctor (because I don't really trust anyone else to take them....the Hubs knows this is true), tired beyond belief, and ready to snuggle my germ infested the minute she needs me.

Now where's the bleach?