Friday, May 22, 2015

Young child safety (anyone with young children should read this)

As a mother of young children 4 months and 3 years old. I like to believe that I am doing everything I can to keep them safe from the many dangers of the world. Just recently, it was in a quite scary way, brought to my attention that this is not completely true.

I had the scare of my lifetime when a very very independent little girl of mine decided that she would be nice and go on her own to the store down the road to get some gummies for breakfast, instead of waking up mom and dad. Although in her mind she was doing us a favor, waking up to an empty bed and no kid to be seen is quite possibly the most heart breaking, jaw dropping, and breathtaking thing you may ever (hopefully not) have to experience. 

My first thoughts were obviously of was she kid napped, and then the fear that she could be somewhere hurt even simply the stairs of our apartment had she fell. Obviously a bit dramatic but that moment is something super horrifying. Luckly my husband has a very level head and threw on some clothes and ran out the door to look for her while I called the cops. 

Lucky for us we live in a pretty safe neighborhood and people look out for one another. A young man out walking his dog came across her across the street in the field that backs up to our house, and called the mps and kept track of her until they came. And even stuck around until they had found us and knew she was in good hands. We didn't catch his name but God bless him!! 

But this whole experience has really got me to thinking about how much quicker the problem could have been resolved or avoided and things our daughter at 3 should obviously know. We were very naive to these things as she hasn't started school and I assumed it's a lot of stuff she would be taught in preschool and kindergarten, but I am writing this blog to tell you, even if you think they are too young you should be making sure they know these things. 






So here is my top 7 safety tips to teach your kids!! And it is never too soon!!

1. This one is a no brainer, but make sure all your doors are locked, unfortunately our house only had a very simple turn knob lock right at eye level that is far too easy to unlock and with the door being made of metal installing any additional lock would have been very difficult. After our incident we have told her that she is not to ever play with the lock it's there to keep people from coming in who don't belong in our house.

2. My next tip is to sit down and explain why leaving the house without an adult is not safe. You may want your children to remain naive to how scary the world can be, and for them to genuinely believe humans are good by nature, but not having a safe amount of fear can lead to bad situations. Children should know that telling their parents where they are going is for their safety not to be controlled even when they are teenager.

3. Another concern for me was what happens if you get outside and want to come back in? Our apartment the door locks automatically and you need a key or to be buzzed in. So we discussed how to get in if you get locked out. On our mailbox there are door bells. Ours happens to be at the top but obviously if your doorbell is rang you are gonna at least press the buzzer and let the door open so we told her it doesn't matter which button she can reach but to start ringing all of them until someone comes to the door and let's her back in. People aren't going to say no to a child that lives in the building needing help.

4. Knowing your neighbors. This is important because if you know them, they know you. I am not saying you have to be best friends but they should be able to recognize you in public places. I say this because had any of my neighbors seen her outside without one of us you can bet they would have known exactly where to take her!! It may be a hassle if you don't live in an apartment building where you constantly see your neighbors in passing, but is very important to go out and introduce yourselves at least once. And make sure you introduce your child to them so your child knows if a situation should arise they need an adult other than their parents these people live close by and can be of assistance.

5.Knowing important names. As a 3 year old she is fully capable of knowing both her first name and her last. We never really required her to know her last name wondering when she would even need it that I wouldn't be a foot away to provide it. But low and behold, when the officer asked for her last name so she could be taken back to her house she didn't know the response. I assumed her last name was something they really began to know in school. Now she knows if and is proud to tell everyone! Also important is to know parents actual names. As awkward as it may seem to have them call you by your full name, it is of vital importance they know it when asked.

5. Who they should go to if they are lost or need help. Our goal within the first couple weeks at our new location is to go to the local police station and introduce her to the cops, and have hem explain to her, that no matter what they are there to help. I think meeting the cops and having them show her they are good people is essential so when they are needed she won't fear them. Also a trip to the police station and to see the cars and stuff is just a fun outing.

7.Road Safety. This is something we have been drilling in her head since she could walk. To hold hands when crossing the street, and to look both ways for cars before crossing. We are extremely lucky that a tiny littler person crossing a road wasn't hit, and lucky that she was out wandering at an early hour when people weren't out and about as much. Make sure they know how to be safe when it comes to roads no matter what.



Well I hope this list has reached someone and brought help somewhere. I know it may all seem like common sense and we all think we are doing right by our children, but it certainly doesn't hurt to make sure your kid no matter their age knows what to do if an emergency situation occurs or they find themselves lost. 


Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Photography plans!! Exciting things coming soon!!

It feels like it has been forever since I was shooting regularly and as of right now I don't know exactly when I will be starting back up. Due to the fact I need to know when our stuff will get here and I will be able to have the computer to do edits! But until then I will be day dreaming and planning all my ideas out.

Another thing that may cause my photography to detour will be finding out whether or not Dustin will be deploying with his unit. If he is that will greatly limit my ability to do photoshoots while he is gone.

But I felt like I was too excited to not tell you what my plans for photography here are. 

Let's start out with prices and what the packages will look like including what you can expect to pay a little bit extra for.

Regular Session: $80

1 hour session
Up to 6 people included*
30 digital images on an online gallery
Permission to print

*Additional people can be included for extra charge.

Mini Session: $50

30 min session
Up to 4 people included
10 digital images on an online gallery
Permission to print.

Additional fees:

Extra people in regular session: $5 per person
Images burned on a cd: $5 per cd


The online gallery I will be using is going to include an option for you to download for free. It also is attached to a printing company that can print your images in very good quality. But of course you are welcome to take your images anywhere you prefer to be printed.

I will still be doing portraits, maternity, and family, kids and couples. And I am open to work with you to get exactly what you are looking for!!


Now the fun stuff I plan to do fun little deals probably once a month including discounts, and also monthly themed mini sessions, so be prepared to see lots more from me in the months to come!!

Working out, what happened?

So a couple months ago I was all inspired and crazy about working out and I was all gung ho. Then you just didn't hear anything again. Well as much of an excuse as it may come off as, life just has been busy. Between getting our orders and everything that comes with moving around the world. And just simply trying to get my body back to itself after the baby things just didn't go as planned.

I personally love working out, but I had some medical situations that needed resolved before I was going to be able to push myself as hard as I would like. Now that I have seen my doctor and I am back on meds I was on during the pregnancy, the are slowly getting back to normal. And I can't wait to get things back on track as far as working out as soon as we are out of hotels. So expect by this time next month a whole new workout update!! I think I am going to start mixing it up more and also have plans for possibly doing a video about working out with kids!! 

So if you enjoy my workout blogs as it appears many people do, stayed tuned more will be coming back soon! 

31 things we are excited about Texas

31 things I'm excited for Texas:

1. Internet that works!!!
2. Target! And maybe secretly Walmart.
3. Chain restaurants
4. Mexican food
5. Country radio stations
6. Closer to family
7. Cowboy boots!!
8. New cities to explore
9. Things open 24/7
10. Going camping
11. Geocaching
12. Speaking English 
13. Mail delivered quickly and to my door
14. Parking
15. Going fishing 
16. Signing Kyra up for classes
17. Free bathrooms
18. A backyard
19. Dirt road driving
20. Bluebells
21. Hunting
22. Pay at the pump
23. Paying with credit cards
24. Music videos!!! (No gema)
25. Decorating a new house
26. Rodeos
27. Sporting events
28. Texas BBQ
29. Swimming in lakes
30. Cheaper car insurance
31. New friends  

The one we arrived in Texas



Monday: We started out first week in Texas at our new Casa de hotel. Is hotel is huge however in comparison to the one in Germany, I guess what they say is true everything is bigger in Texas. Okay sorry had to say that saying once. We woke up after arriving very late, to find that one of Dustin's bags was not with us. After a few phone calls we were able to locate it and go and get it from the airport we flew into. After which we all went down and had breakfast at the awesome breakfast buffet. We decided to swing by the px because we needed water, dog food, and a cell phone to get us by. We grabbed the hotel shuttle and had lunch there too. While waiting for the shuttle we stood outside for a good 20+ mins in the shade but still super hot for what we are used to, and then piled into a van that was equally as hot. Needless to say I don't do well with heat and felt very sick the rest of the evening :( and passed out while nursing Darren before bed.



Tuesday: Was an uneventful day. Dustin went to his first day of inprocessing and was gone all morning. The kids and I just hung out in the room, grabbed breakfast and hung out some more, oh did I mention we were up at 5 am. Gotta love Jetlag. So after a rather boring a tad bit annoying day of screams whiney kids, I got a chance to go pamper myself. And chopped off most of my hair, it was so needed for the heat here so I don't die. Also while out with Jane (one of our neighbors and friends from Germany) she gave me a little tour of everything around where we are looking for housing, and took me to an amazing burger joint for dinner!!





Wednesday: Well we had a really rough night of sleep and I only ended up sleeping until about 230 between both kids. Then we had to wait until 0600 to eat breakfast. We are the only family down there eating breakfast that early. I really hope we get our sleeping back on track somewhat, ad I feel like an actual zombie right now. Dustin was at work all morning besides lunch and then got home at 1500 and we ran out with his friend to go look at a house off post we were interested in. But by the time we got to the renters office it was signed on, so we just grabbed dinner and went back to the hotel for the night.





Thursday: Well Darren was up up at around 0500 so hopefully that means we are making progress, and kyra came in around 0530, so we once again were the first family down for breakfast, surrounded by soldiers!! Darren and I fell asleep before lunch and slept through all of lunch time. After lunch Dustin went to the renters office again and actually got to see a house and he loved it!! So we put in our application and will hopefully get accepted quickly. And then we went out to dinner at Chilis and our eyes were more hungry than our stomachs so we had plenty of left overs for Friday meals!!




Friday: Would you believe it, Darren was a up a couple times during the night but just ate and went back to sleep. I think it's because he is a pro at rolling belly to back now so when he rolls over it wakes him up!! He is close to to going back the other way then he should sleep through the night again! But he went back to sleep at 0600 and Kyra was up at 0615 so we really are almost back to normal schedule. Darren woke back up at 0830. We grabbed breakfast at a decent time and hung out together until dad got back from work around 10. Then we got ahold of Jane who went with us car shopping. And needless to say we had a long day the rest the day was spent not eating, or drinking much for over 8 hours with both kids at a dealership. Thank heaven Jane helped out with the kids most the day. But by the end of all the pain we had a new car!! I mean BRAND NEW car!! And we really like it!!







Saturday: Started by waking up feeling like death. So while everyone else slept in for a change, I was in the bathroom sick and dying. It eventually began to fade and I was feeling well enough to go look at our new house, and I am in love it's the perfect size for our little family, and has everyone we were looking in for a place to stay!! After we did a little shopping at the dollar tree for toys for Kyra who was an angel at the dealership, and grabbed lunch at Arby's we are all in heaven going back to all the american restaurants!! And after a nice long nap hat had me feeling right back to normal, we went over and had dinner and game night with Jane and her family, and made more fun it was such a fun night!! There is a video floating around somewhere with my reaction to some cards against humanity that I guess was hilarious, so that might show up somewhere!

Sunday: we slept in because the kids were exhausted from game night! Then we headed down to the breakfast buffet :) then we decided to go out make a quick stop by Walmart for a couple things, and then to go look at couches. We spent a couple hours browsing here and there and decided on a tan sectional from Ashley. But then we got home stressed out about the price and having to finance yet another thing and checked online before we finalized the deal. And found he exact same couch used on Craigslist in brand new condition from a house with no kids or pets for litterally half the price so needless to say we cancelled the one from the store and decided to go with the half price one in cash and save us time and hassle. 

Here is to our super busy week coming up between signing for the house, moving in with our suitcases, couch, and waiting until payday to buy a few basics to get us through until our stuff gets here. Probably see if there is some sort of lending closet to get us through the first couple weeks. Man we had no idea what a pain this big of a move with kids would be...going to be broke for a couple months.


The one we moved into the hotel







Monday: We woke up and looked up what time Starbucks opens, we are both coffee junkies and since our coffee pot has been gone a while that has been something we have to go get now!! Luckily we didn't leave right away so we didn't get there at like 8 because due to the holiday they didn't open until 9 which is fair, but jeez let people know before hand!! There was tons of people disappointed. We got there at 845 so just sucked it up and waited 15 mins. And on our mile walk home we even got some more fresh strawberries!! Yummo!! The rest of the day after nap that is, was spent cleaning more of the house!! Ugh all we do anymore is clean ;)


Tuesday: So pretty stinking uneventfully. Me and the kids were home all day cleaning, Kyra even helped me. I spent little time doing much of anything else. Dustin was out and about finishing clearing everything he could. And than taking stuff to the thrift store, and the dog to the vet for her under 10 days to flight health inspection. Then we cleaned some more, until Eva came to give us a nice little break and chat and have dinner!! She helped us get rid of a lot of excess stuff and was nice spending some more time together gonna miss her lots!! After she left Dustin bought some champagne to sip while we packed suitcases. We are allowed like 20 checked bags lol only taking 8 haha we are traveling light. Then when we were all done and tired, we headed to bed where low and behold some super cute blue eyes were wide awake. So mommy had someone to hang out with for a little while, and took the only picture of the day lol!


Wednesday: So before you judge Dustin wanted it this way. I would have been more than willing to stay most the day to help, but he litterally like pushed us out the door! So after making sure nothing was getting left behind we headed to the hotel, had lunch with Dustin and then he headed to the house to begin cleaning. I spent the day with the kids, we watched tv, which we haven't in well over a week pretty much. Played at the playground by the hotel. And then tried to get Kyra to take a nap which was a fail. But I am thinking now in retrospect that was a good thing because she was exhausted by bed time and went to sleep pretty easily. Dustin was up most the night cleaning and was grumpy. And we had company at dinner a la food court with Jennifer!! 





Thursday: We had our meeting with housing to inspect the house. Unfortunately the house wasn't clean enough and we were told what needed fixed before they would come back and sign he paperwork to get us out of the house. They scheduled it for Friday at 1300 which gave us way more time than was needed. But Kyra went with Daddy to go clean most the day. And Darren and I went on a couple errands with Jennifer to get out of the house. We had lunch together and then Dustin went to work to clear some of the last things he could. And was back later to head to the PX for dinner. Only been a couple days and I am so over fast food. After babies were in bed I ran over to the bar located across the parking lot to enjoy a couple drinks with Jenn and Eva!! It was a blast they are alway so much fun to hang out with!




Friday: Our last week day in Germany!! And we started it out early to spend some time with all our dear friends here. We met up with our friends Elizabeth and Kelsey for coffee and let our girls play at the playground. And at 9 met up with Megan at the Entertainment Center for breakfast! And even got to see Jennifer again (I forgot my toothpaste in her car) and talked her into hanging out for a while :) after breakfast Kyra was getting cranky so we came back to the hotel to hang out. And just ended up watching tv, wrestling around and just hanging out at the hotel because it rained all afternoon!! We cleared housing and ended up paying around 700 dollars for stupid things but mostly the floor :/ after Dustin finished clearing post he came back and we went out to our favorite little german restaurant for dinner. We love the place and enjoyed a great meal. The waitress even took Darren and walked around with him for a while so we could eat! 





Saturday: Our last day in Germany! We started out playing with friends at the park to say "see you later". Kyra had made some awesome friend while we were here in Germany so hopefully we will be able to make just as many in Texas! We went to lunch and got some delicious Spaghetti Eis and Dustin got Baileys Eis! We chilled and did laundry the rest of the afternoon before heading to dinner with some friends!! It was so great to see everyone before our trip! 

Sunday: Well today is the big day, we are packing up and rolling out!! Gonna be a long stressful day and no doubt an even longer night!! But looks out Texas here we come!!







The one with the last mops meeting in Germany





Monday: So after a long weekend of Shade not feeling well with Diarrhea, I woke up to even more messes, along with a dog who kept throwing up every 5 mins and something other than just bile. Not sure what it was but yeah...so I called Dustin who was busy clearing things on base and told him to contact the vet she needed to be seen. So we got ahold of a German vet who got us in right away...Shade who has major anxiety, was not thrilled about the trip. She spent most the day with the vet on an iv and took some medicines, and stuff and didn't continue to get sick so hopefully it was just something she got into and all will be good to go! 

This distraction made Dustin miss out on getting much else work wise done. But we did get groceries, a trip to the post office, and my prescription filled. So all in all fairly successful day!! Oh and being slightly creative we had my moms taco salad just in a tortilla and although I was concerned it would be odd it turned out fantastic maybe I'll post a recipe blog soon about it!!











Tuesday: Poor Shade was still not feeling too great and took all day to just lay around and recover. By the end of the day she had at least gotten her appetite back and was eating some foods and begging for human food again. Dustin continued to work on clearing base, and the. Headed to the Dagger for hopefully the last time to recieve his PCS awards!! And a pretty sweet coin. I was feeling a little anxious but the above quote helped me get myself back on track!! And then after i refocused I spent the evening playing with the kids and watching them play together!!




Wednesday: Was the last MOPS meeting of the school year, and our last one here!! I am going to really miss going to the meetings with all the awesome ladies!! I really can't believe that I missed out the first 2 years I was here. I took a quiet moment today while watching all the lovely women interacting and enjoying conversation to kind of reflect. It's amazing looking at this group of people and realizing we are all at any given time of day just moms all in the same boat of simply trying to survive the crazyness that is having children who are preschool age!! We may all look like we have it together every other week when we meet up, but if you really sat down at one of our tables and just listend you would hear horror stories, proud moments, gross events, and sweet times that all come with the roller coaster of parenthood. We all are on different paths but right now we are all lucky enough to have these little people in our lives teaching us how to be great moms!! This year we learned how to be more brave in our everyday lives and to strive to live our lives without things holding us back. It has been incredible!!

The rest of the day Dustin finished clearing almost all the rest of base so we can focus next week on cleaning cleaning cleaning!! Meanwhile I seperated out and managed to list all the baby clothes that don't currently fit our kids and sold it all :) Woot still have a few things in the basement to sell or it's getting donated!!

Oh and Dustin found me and Melanie's names on the coke bottles!! Woot!!



Thursday: Was spring cleaning day on base. Which means each housing unit is responsible for maki sure their buildings look nice both inside and out. Seeing as our building is still currently covered in scaffolding there wasn't much that could really even be done. The stairwells got swept and some weeds were pulled from the sidewalk all basic stuff. But with the day of cleaning upon us it meant Friday would be a bulk pickup day for garbage, and so our couches had to go...but not without one last nap!! The rest of the day after the pre-inspection which took all of like 10 mins, was spent hanging out and getting all our unaccompanied baggage in one place to ship it. And had some pizza for dinner with Eva!







Friday: Our Friday started out with an earth shaking boom. When we woke up early to Kyra and put her back to bed, but then didn't hear anything more from her until the alarm went off. Fortunately I found this odd and went to check on her. Just to find an empty bed and a front door a jar. She was out on an adventure alone to go buy gummy bears. Needless to say no caffine was needed to get our day started! Unaccompanied pick up came bright and early and with it went the remainder of Kyras toys and the TV. So finding a way to entertain her was essential. Meaning Dustin built a fort!! It is pretty banging if I do say so myself!! And than he managed to get himself stuck in it also!! Seeing as we are quickly running out of food around the house we decided to walk to the px for lunch, and coffee!! Which is quite a feat. And on our way home for a change of scenery went on the trail that led by a strawberry field so of course we had to stop and pick a few along with some wine :) by the time we got home we were all worn out and just relaxed on our couch cushion chairs :)



Saturday: Okay the pictures make it look like I was home all day but one is the before picture and he other is he after from our super fun and eventful day!! We walked to the train station and went to Rudesheim to ride a boat for lunch! And than walked home, boy were we exhausted by the time we got home. More in a blog in the future!! With pictures from the camera!!

Sunday: The kids made our day start off very early, but it made the morning seem super efficient seeing as we managed to clean the whole master bedroom and bathroom and Dustin got the main bathroom toilet cleaned too!! Than we finished the bathroom and our bedroom after nap so 1/3 of the house is done!! 3 more days of cleaning to go!! Last commissary trip done, and now we just gotta cruise through this last week coming up!!