From the Mind of a Mom

The countdown is on!

2010-05-14T12:32:00.000-07:00

17 hours until the big run!

That's right ladies and gentlemen I have made it to the 5k I spoke about here! I know I have been a blog slacker but life has been CRAZY and I promise to fill y'all in soon.

On to the important part... tomorrow at 7am sharp I will be participating in my very first 5k. Now I know a 5k isn't something to go out and celebrate about or anything but for me it is HUGE. I don't run, I just don't but I think I may start to. At first I just wanted to be able to say that I ran a 5k, you know a bucket list type thing but now I actually think I am starting to like it.

I explained to Brett last night that when I run it is about ME. It's not about being a mommy, a wife, an Operations Coordinator, I am just ME. No phone calls, emails, crying baby, I just have ME time to clear my head. I feel refreshed and new after I run, I feel a sense of accomplishment and pride, I FEEL GOOD! We all know a happy Mom makes a happy home so I think this running is a good thing all around.

My personal goal is to run the whole 5k under 30 minutes. I have done a few practice runs and it looks like that should be obtainable. Brett is confident that I will make the top 10 but we shall see, I hate to set myself up for failure. If I do make the top 10 though I think I deserve something special. :)

Wish me luck blog readers!

I apologize!

2010-03-19T07:55:00.000-07:00

Boooo for computer viruses! My home laptop got hit with a NASTY virus and has been out of order for almost a month but no worries we are now back in business!

There have been a lot of new adventures in the Barker household since I last posted so I promise to get the blog caught up ASAP!

Birthday Party pictures

2010-02-19T17:43:00.000-08:00

The KING for the day!

The decor made by yours truly

My little kings throne

The food (my awesome sister in law made the cake!)

Some of the loot

The company

Opening gifts

Little guys first quad! :) Can't wait to take it up to the property this summer!

Cake time

(Chaz wouldn't wear his crown so I figured I would. It compliments my eyes, right?)

Cleaning up with Granny!

An attempt at a family photo! Awwwww

All in all it was a GREAT day! The company was great and I loved seeing Chaz interact with everyone. He was such a HAPPY and BLESSED boy that day.

Thank you to everyone that was able to make it!

Happy Birthday to my baby boy!

2010-02-07T20:24:00.000-08:00

The day I went into labor 5w2ds early

Born February 7th 2009 at 10:01 am 4lbs 9oz and 17in long

February 7th 2010 1 YEAR OLD!

Today was much easier than I had anticipated but I still can't believe that my baby is a year old!

He is truly a dream come true and means more to me than he will ever understand!

Happy Birthday Chaz!

Momma and Papa love you!

(ps more pictures including party pictures coming soon)

From the HEART of a Mother!

2010-02-06T21:23:00.000-08:00

Chaz has become quite the sleep champ recently. Not only does he sleep 9+ hours but he also puts himself to sleep at night. I will usually rock him a bit while I sing or tell him a story and then I lay him in his crib awake and he falls asleep without a peep BUT not tonight. No, tonight I rocked and rocked and rocked him until he was fast asleep... in fact I rocked him long after that. I sat there in the pure quietness listening to him breath, feeling his heart beating on my chest and staring into those beautiful, drowsy, brown eyes.

He stared right back at me, deep into my soul! As we sat there with nothing but each other I wondered what he thinks when he looks at me like that. I wonder if he looks at me and feels the overwhelming feeling of love like I do when I look at him. If he knows who I am and that I will always be at his side.

I sat there looking at this amazing gift from God and thanked him a million times over for sending him to me. I cried tears of happiness and tears of sadness, hell I even laughed a little bit. I whispered to my son that he would always be my baby no matter how old he gets or where life takes him.

This past year has gone by too fast. Oh, what I would give to hit rewind and replay it all over again!

My 'baby' boy will be 1 in a little less than 12 hours and I am honestly not sure how to take it. I want to go back to the first time I held his tiny body in my arms or the first time he smiled at me. I want to go back to the excitement of watching him crawl for the first time and the nervousness of his first wobbly steps. At the same time I want to freeze him right where he is because he is at such a fun point but then I can't wait for the future... teaching him how to ride a bike, drive a car and meeting the woman he will one day call his wife.

I have big dreams for this little boy! He has given me a gift that has not monetary value.... THE GIFT OF AMAZINGLY UNCONDITIONAL, EVER LASTING LOVE!

Chaz Christopher you are my heart, my soul, MY EVERYTHING!

Let the training begin!

2010-02-03T21:27:00.000-08:00

I have decided to run in the 1oth Annual Ogden Marathon 5K on May 15th!

I have roughly 100 days, if I calculated correct, so training begins Monday! I plan on easing into it since I am not much of a runner. Sure, I ran a lot when I was a gymnast but heck that was what seems like centuries ago!

I am in the process of convincing Brett to run the 5k with me so we will see how that goes. If any of my local readers are interested in joining me, let me know! I would love to have a training buddy and some one to run with the day of the event!

I feel like by putting it out into 'blogger world' it makes it a real deal, it's like I really can't flake out now or I never will be able to show my face on my blog again, ha!

So wish me luck! I will be sure to update with my training progress! :)

P.S. I blame my good friend Karen for this crazy idea. She is also getting ready to train for one in her area and I gave into diving into the experience with her. Karen if I die a painful death due to this I blame you ::smooches::

One Day at a Time blog

2010-02-03T11:54:00.000-08:00

I recently became a contributor to this blog, One Day at a Time. You can go HERE to read how the blog works.

A wonderful friend of mine came up with the idea and with lots of suggestions from our 'circle of friends' the blog was born.

I love seeing every ones perspective of the topic of the week and learning more and more about photography while being part of this blog.

I thought I would pass this along so that my readers can enjoy our photos as well. So check it out and vote for your favorite picture every week (voting takes place on Thursdays after everyone has shared their pic).

Enjoy!

Oooh Jillian how I have missed thee!

2010-01-19T10:09:00.000-08:00

Some of you may be familiar with my good friend Jillian Michaels of the Biggest Loser! Well I have fallen victim of her pain in the ass yet amazing DVD 'The 30 Day Shred' for the second time. Yup, that's right this isn't my first time on the 30DS bus. Last summer I was a devoted 'shredder' and then winter came and work got busier and busier and I got lazier and lazier. When it came to my 'free' time I really didn't want to spend it watching Jillian and her girls bounce around with their tight asses, toned arms and sculpted abs while I stood on the other side of the TV gasping for air while my postpartum belly jiggled in my spit up covered tank top! NO THANK YOU MA'AM!

For all of you that have not ever tried the 30DS... this DVD is no joke! Ask my husband, you see Brett is (if you're reading this babe I say this with love) a total meat head. When I first purchased the 30DS he thought for sure he could fly through it with me, HA! I will give him credit he did finish it with me but not without some gasping for air of his own! I am warning you now if you plan to try the 30DS, plan to get your ass kicked for the first few days!

I have a regular routine of going to the gym Monday, Wednesday and Friday, ok it hasn't been as regular as I would like since we all got sick but I am back on track now, and I really wanted to ad something in on Tuesdays and Thursdays but I wanted it to be something I could do at home. Hence the reason I put Jillian in today! I figured I can do the 30DS on Tuesdays and then some yoga at home on Thursdays and I should be set!

So today was day 1 back with Jillian and my legs hated her as I climbed the stairs to work but I
love her because damn I feel good, I am sore but I have this overall good feeling about me! Don't count on this being my last post about my good friend Jillian. I have many many more days to go with her and I doubt my posts about it will always be so 'nice'.

Oh and a side note: on the cover it says 'Lose up to 20 pounds in 30 days!' I am in no way planning on doing this and to tell you the truth have no desire to lose 20lbs period! Again, I will only be doing this once a week and mostly as a 'filler' for the days that I am not going to the gym so don't base my results off the promise the DVD makes.

The clean house challenge. Room #1

2010-01-14T21:18:00.000-08:00

I mentioned in my resolutions post that one of my resolutions for 2010 is to spruce up my house a bit. I also mentioned wanting to get better at keeping up with my cleaning in order to make more time to spend with my family.

I got to thinking and it really made sense that I should probably SUPER clean/organize my house before I go about 'sprucing' up anything. I will admit I am not the best at keeping my house perfect and tidy but it really is a hard task with an 11 month old! For the most part the 'lived in' parts of my house stay clean but like anyone I have those dreaded rooms that everything just gets thrown into. One of those rooms is our guest room that I hope to eventually make into a play room for Chaz or possibly a room for a future sibling to Chaz. The other is our basement..... oh our basement, what a disaster! The last time our basement was REALLY clean was the day we closed on the house. Haha the second we moved in the basement became our dumping ground for things we didn't know what to do with and things haven't changed much. I find myself avoiding doing the laundry because I just HATE being in the basement so then not only do I have a disaster area of a basement but I also have piles and piles of laundry which contributes to the mess! Can you see how it is an on going circle?

Back to the point...

In order for me to feel good about dressing up the house I decided to put myself to a challenge...

THE CLEAN HOUSE CHALLENGE!

I am giving myself 2 months (from today) to thoroughly clean and organize every room/area in this house. I don't mean tidy and straighten things up, I mean a full overhaul! I have 9 areas to complete, they include the kitchen/dining area, living room, hall closet, bedroom, bathroom, Chazs room, guest room, basement and garage.

I thought a lot about my plan of action last night and through out the day. At first I thought I would start with the easiest area and slowly work into the harder areas but then I decided that I would start with the largest, most difficult area THE BASEMENT! It is the area that seems to give me the most stress which in return will give me the most relief once finish which will hopefully motivate me to continue with the other areas.

I would like to post a disclaimer. You are going to see some photos that may cause you to shudder immensely! :) Again, I have a very high maintenance 11 month old and until you walk a day in my shoes don't judge. At least I am making the effort to get it all under control right?

Ok so the basement (and small storage closet attached)......

the closet (before) basement from the door (before)

basement from one side (before) basement from the other side (before)

laundry area (before)

My plan:

1st. Fold and put away all clean laundry

2nd. Sort and pile dirty laundry

3rd. Sort everything else into 3 piles: toss, keep or donate

4th. Pick up all trash and take out trash and toss pile

5th. Box up donate stuff and put in car

6th. Put away all keep items

7th. Sweep

8th Organize

I really put my head into it and dove right in. I am actually impressed with how I pushed myself to finish. I thought it would be a pretty hard task with Chaz but he was actually a really good 'helper'. He got a bit bored at one point so we took a break, shared a bowl of Cheerios and he was good as new.

Now for the good part, the AFTER pictures! I will say I am proud of myself! ::pats self on back::

closet (after) from the door (after)

one side (after) other side (after)

laundry area (after)

GREAT RIGHT?!?!

The kicker.... it only took me 2 and a half hours!

I am seriously so happy that I almost cried when I finished!

I have attempted this task a million and one times, or so it seems, only to give up and then for it to get worse. I feel a whole sense of relief lifted off my shoulders! Now I am committed to conquering the laundry since it is actually enjoyable to be in the basement! :)

I hope that if you have a trouble spot in your house or you want to 'over haul' your house that I can be some motivation. I am promising to you my blog readers which I think only may include my mother and husband, ha that I will not give up. I will finish this challenge and I will blog about it the whole way! :)

If you have any tips or helpful info please send it my way. Also if you have done a large organization project and have a blog entry/pics to share please do, I would love to see them.

Good night all and sweet dreams!

Bring it on 2010!

2010-01-12T12:11:00.000-08:00

HAPPY 2010 EVERYBODY!

I never really posted an official 'New Year' post so I am doing it now.

Although we didn't start 2010 off very healthy we are all feeling 110% now so I am very thankful and happy about that.

I have big dreams for 2010! I have never been one to set 'resolutions', mainly because I just didn't have the motivation to stick to them so why even bother right? Well this year is a bit different. This may sound a bit strange but this year I feel like I have a bit more to live for. Not that last year Brett wasn't enough or before Brett that my parents and family weren't enough but it is just that Chaz has put a whole new spin on life as a whole. Brett is a grown man and if needed could fend and provide for himself, same with my parents but Chaz on the other hand at this point cannot. His whole life is in the hands of Brett and I (and God of course but that is a given) and knowing that gives me the motivation and determination to set goals that will better our life as a family. Some are personal goals/resolutions and you may think that they have no play on the well being of Chaz or our family as a whole but I have this motto that.... A happy Mom is a happy home, so therefor I feel that setting some goals for myself will absolutely have an impact on my family.

Well enough chit chat, lets get down to the nitty gritty and discuss my plans for 2010!

#1 BE A BETTER WIFE AND MOTHER - I hate to toot my own horn but I do think I do a pretty damn good job at this as is but I know that there is room for improvement. I often get so caught up in the hussel and bussel of the day that I put family time on the back burner in order to clean the house, pay the bills, etc. Brett said something to me the other day that really stuck with me, he said 'family time is time you can never get back, once it is gone it is gone' (I married a smart man) he is completely right! I am guilty of plopping Chaz down in a pile of toys while I try to clean the house or getting frustrated when he whines and hangs on my leg while I am trying to finish a project and I really want to work on not doing those things. I know that my husband and my son know that I love them but I don't think they know exactly to what extent I truly love them and it is about time I work harder in showing them.

#2 PAY OFF OUR DEBT - This is something that Brett and I have had many conversations about and feel it is really important to the both of us. We do not have a HUGE amount of debt but we have enough that it sometimes gets in the way of living the way we would like to. Our goal is to have no bills besides our house, both cars, utilities and possibly one CC that we will pay off each month. I know that is isn't something that will happen over night, it will take time and it will take devotion but I feel we are both on board and can definitely make this happen. I will blog more about this including our debt, our plan and our progress I promise.

#3 GET IN SHAPE - I have already started this and have recently got addicted to cycling. I am not putting a size or a weight on it I just want to be 'bikini ready' meaning I want to be able to confidently wear a bikini this summer. I don't hate the way my body looks now to be honest, I feel pretty good about the way I look I would just love to tone up and get rid of the 'pregnant belly skin' from when I was pregnant with Chaz. Again, I will post progress on this as I go. I do have before pictures but I refuse to post those until I have better looking after pictures. LOL

#4 SPRUCE UP THE HOUSE - This August will be 3 years that Brett and I have been in our house! Go us! When we bought it it was brand new which was a good and bad thing. The upstairs was completely finished but that basement was not, the basement is not a large space just an area for a family type room and then an area that will eventually be the laundry room. Right now it is just insulated walls and concrete floors with a washer and dryer and too much junk. The yard was also unfinished, we pretty much lived on a dirt lot. We thought this would all be great because we could finish it and make it 'our own' but we are starting to regret our decision... finishing a house BLOWS. So far we have only put in the front lawn and fenced our backyard. The basement is still unfinished but for now that is ok because our family is still small and we have enough room with the 3 bedrooms upstairs. My goal this year is to 'spruce' it up a bit. I know that finishing it will be a big project financially and right now our main goal is paying off our debt so I don't have big expectations on finishing the unfinished parts but more just doing some small decor changes and what not to the finished/lived in parts. I follow a lot of DIY blogs and have compiled a great list of decor projects and the best part about it is that they are all for people on a budget and wont get in the way of our goal to pay off our debt! Talk about having our cake and eating it too! :)

So there you have it. My big goals/expectations/resolutions for 2010!

I do have a few smaller, easier to do goals that I thought I would share with you as well.

- Visit our Grandparents more.

- Get better at playing with Turbo or taking him on walks.

- Read to Chaz at least once a day ( I love to read and I really want to pass that on to him at an early age).

- Keep a dinner menu plan and stick to it.

- Keep up with my daily cleaning so that cleaning the house isn't a whole day project.

I am sure I will come up with some more small goals for myself and will be sure to share them with you as I work towards reaching them.

I want to hear your resolutions!

Now I just can't make a blog post with out sharing some photos of the the adorable ball of cuteness I call my son, sorry! So here you go!

Lots to blog about!

2010-01-01T09:02:00.001-08:00

ASK AND YOU SHALL RECEIVE!

If you read my last post you will remember that I said that I would give anything to take what Chaz was going through and give it to me full force if that meant he didn't have to suffer anymore. Well.... I asked and I sure in the hell received!

An hour or so after Wednesdays blog entry I started feeling a bit 'blah'. I figured it was due to the fact that I was up with my sick son the night before and got a whole 3 hours of sleep. Chazs Grandma Joyce called and asked if he could have a sleep over. Since he seemed to be feeling better, he had been his good ol' cheerful self all day, we agreed. I figured I would take advantage of it and make dinner and go straight to bed. Well some where between dinner and bed my plan took a sharp left turn and I found myself hugging the toilet instead of my pillow! I spent the rest of the night having a face off with the toilet. I seriously think I broke some sort of record, I lost count at 15, yup that's right 15! I won't go into details but my night/morning was not a pretty site.

I am feeling a bit better today, my body feels as though I ran a 15k, swam the length of the Pacific and hiked Mount Everest but at least I emptied my stomach and possibly lost 5 pounds!

Brett seemed to get a bit of the bug too but luckily he didn't get the worst of it and is feeling much better today!

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CHRISTMAS '09

Awww what a great Christmas, Christmas of '09 was!

Chaz gave the word spoiled whole new meaning! Between Santa, his Grandmas and Grandpas and all of his Aunts and Uncles Chaz will not need another gift until he is 18! I will say that every single gift he received was something I would have bought him myself and there wasn't one thing that he received that I wish I could return. Everyone did a wonderful job! He got a ton of clothes which is GREAT since he is growing like a weed, he also got some toys that even I am excited to play with!

I will say that Momma was spoiled as well. You see Brett and I had this deal that this Christmas would be about Chaz and not each other. We agreed to one gift, Christmas Eve pjs and a stocking. Well lets just say that someone broke the rules and it sure in the heck wasn't me! I had been expecting a mystic fire topaz ring because that was the only thing I asked for and Brett had dropped a few not so subtle hints. Well I got my ring, it was more beautiful than I ever had imagined, Brett had it custom made and it screams 'ME'. I got my Christmas Eve pjs, I got an awesome, stuffed to the brim stocking, the This Is It CD (rule breaker #1), a new point and shoot camera (rule breaker #2) and oooooh and what a big 'and' it is.... the most beautiful (next to my wedding ring) diamond ring on earth (rule breaker #3)! A 2 3/4 carat, white gold, diamond ring to be exact! It is seriously GORGEOUS! Of course Brett had an excuse for every gift that went above the 1. The CD was meant to go in the stocking but didn't fit, the camera wasn't from him and was from Chaz and there were no rules as to how many gifts Chaz could give ::eyeroll:: and then Brett was given an offer he just couldn't resist on the diamond ring.

I should have known better really, my husband is a sneaky little bugger and in the back of my mind I knew that there was no way that he would stick to the rules. I really am so lucky to have a man that would give me the world and beyond without me even asking for it.

Breakfast was DELICIOUS! If you missed the post you can find the recipe HERE.

We spent some much needed time with ALL of our family. I will say that we were truly blessed with the greatest family and I am so thankful for all of them.

Now on to my favorite part about blogs, the pictures......

(the adorable sock monkey pjs we found for Chaz)

(who doesn't love a good old pic of some baby feet)

(Brett clearly didn't want his picture taken)

(Chaz opening and playing with some of his gifts from Santa)

(the rings)

(Chazs awesome new football chair) (Papa and Chaz checking out his new dino)

(Chaz and Grandma Joyce)

(classic bath time pictures)

(Chaz with Granny C)

(Chaz with Uncle Andrew and Aunt Veronica)

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!!!

I realized during the middle of doing this post that a handful of the pictures from Christmas are on my Mom camera so I will just have to AW them some other time.

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HAPPPPPPPY NEW YEAR!

Our New Year celebration wasn't much to talk about. Since we were all still feeling a bit under the weather it was a lazy night in. All that mattered to me was that I was with my boys!

I hope that everyone had a HAPPY and safe New Year.

I hope that 2010 brings you happiness, health, wealth and anything that you dream of!

Sick baby

2009-12-30T17:07:00.000-08:00

My poor baby has had a nasty little cold for about a week now. I will say he has handled it well and hasn't been too much of a hassle. As much as I hate being sick, I would give anything to take what he is going through and give it all to me. :(

Last night was a long night for everyone in the Barker house. I won't go in to details but it involves vomit... lots and lots of it. He seems to be feeling better today and has kept everything down so we are hoping it was just something he ate.

I have lots of pictures and details to post from Christmas but between taking care of a sick baby and cleaning a Christmas tornado in my living room I haven't had much time to upload them. I will get to that tomorrow, in addition to details of my champs very first hair cut. For now here are a few pics of my little man during nap time. Don't you just love him?

Merry Christmas Eve!

2009-12-24T09:55:00.000-08:00

Leave it to my son not to give a hoot about Santa. I am glad he wasn't scared (he has no stranger danger what so ever, which scares me) but really wasn't amused either. My kid is one if the happiest kids I know, he has a smile that would melt your heart but nothing and I mean NOTHING would get him to smile when we went to see Santa! Not even Mom doing the crazy woman jig in the corner, hence the reason he isn't looking at the camera. Oh well he is cute as heck smiling or not!

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'Santa' aka Momma got all the Christmas gifts wrapped and ready last night (with the help of my little elf Aunt Whit). My big boy is going to love his gifts.... or the boxes they come in, either way he is going to be one happy camper tomorrow morning!

I am going to make Baked Frenchtoast Casserole in the morning, you can find the recipe HERE. My friend Miranda suggested it and she says that it is GREAT!

We have a busy day of visiting family and I can't wait! I love getting together for the holidays!

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas! I will be sure to post pictures that I take with my new camera (not so 'secret' gift from Brett) soon!

Be safe and have fun!

I am baaaaack!

2009-12-19T23:17:00.000-08:00

Yup, that's right I am back on the blogging bandwagon!

In an effort to motivate myself to be a better blogger I decided to start a new blog. If you are not familiar with my old blog or just need a refresher you can find my old blog HERE.

You may have been asking yourself... 'what has good old Rachel been up to for the last 5 months?' Or maybe you just don't give a hoot where I have been, what I have been doing, or if I was even still alive for that matter. Well either way I am going to give an update of this sweet thing I call my life.

The Mr. and myself are still as happy as can be! :) In October we celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary! You may or may not remember but for our first Anniversary we went down to Denver to see the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (Bretts team, booo) play the Broncos (even bigger booo), well this year the Dallas Cowboys (best team in the NFL, my team) played the Broncos the same weekend so we decided to journey down there again. My Cowboys let me down and lost in the last few seconds of the game, I was heart broken. The same thing happened the year before with the Bucs so Brett and I decided it is probably a good idea we don't go see either of our teams play in Denver anymore, we are clearly not good luck! Next year I am thinking a nice cabin in the middle of the woods with nothing but each other, fresh air and wine..... lots and lots of wine!

Chaz, awww my sweet little boy! Well little isn't really the way to describe him anymore. Our little man is almost 11 months old.... did you read that?!? 11 MONTHS as in a month away from a year! Where oh where has the time gone?

Chaz has given the 'premature' thing the bird and has gone above and beyond what we had expected. He has hit all of his milestones right on time, if not early. We now have ourselves a little walker, eek watch out the next thing you know he will be yelling 'hike, hike' as he sprints down the hall and using Turbo as a defender of all objects keeping him from making a touchdown! He has a few words in his vocabulary... Momma, Poppa, baba (bottle) and his newest one, baby!

I will post pictures soon, I recently FAILED and lost my camera memory card!

I hope you have all missed me as much as I have missed you and that you enjoy following my blog. I can't promise I will blog as often as I would like but I can promise that I will make more of an effort than I have been.

:)