339 Days

My oh my, what can change in a year is almost mind boggling.  I actually started this blog last year on, Friday, September 30th. And in those 365 days my entire life changed from amazing to better than I could have ever imagined.

After giving up last September, and realizing that another child was not in our cards I started college online at DeVry University.

By October I was a full-time student finally pursuing my dream of becoming an Architect.

November rolled around and I had started taking amazing care of myself and my body, and started the Insanity workout with Rafal.  I was eating healthy and getting in crazy shape.  I remember one day Rafal came home and said how great I was looking and that was even MORE motivation to keep up the hard work.  Thanksgiving was spent with our dear friends Veronica and her whole family.  We got our Christmas tree and made cookies.

December was full of excitement as we found out we were EXPECTING! I have never been so excited in my entire life.  We traveled to TN and surprised our family with our exciting news. Spent NYE with the Ski family and had a great time!

January and February were full of morning sickness and hormones.  Not exactly fun.

March Dylan turned 4 YEARS OLD! Holy cow I can't believe it!

April Rafal turned 24, I can't believe he is still such a baby, two years younger than me, thats nuts!

May, June and July revolved around packing and moving and nesting.

August our baby girl Maya Riley made her debut.

September I started back up at school.

And, here we are, October, a year later... In 365 days I got pregnant, and had a baby.  How exciting!!

Day 70

...It just hit me that I am a college student, like a REAL college student.  As I sit here and write my final essay on leadership, I can't help but notice the excitement building in me.  I am ready to start an internship and a dinky bartending part time job to get me through the gas prices to and from my internship.  I am excited for Dylan to start big boy school soon.  I will be able to intern and work during the day time while he is at school, and continue my education in the evenings.

God is so good.  I can feel the wheels of change turning and preparing me for my amazing life that is still unraveling.

Notre Dame?  I think so.  One day soon.

Day 66

After finishing up some last minute homework, I started the batch of dough for Dylan's Christmas cookies, they are setting up in the fridge and will be ready about 3pm to roll and cut out!  He is so excited.  I have Christmas music playing on Pandora with my Justin Beiber Holiday station.  I do NOT have Beiber fever, but I DO love this album for Christmas!

We put up our Christmas tree, and she (yes, she) is gorgeous and still standing tall and beautifully.  We added our Angel to the top last night and she is just as fabulous as ever too!  We are so blessed this holiday season.

I still have a big Leadership report due in two weeks that I am going to work on for a little bit this afternoon, but I wanted to mention how proud I am of myself, I am taking 2 classes right now and I am ridding on A's and hopefully will get those to HIGH A's in the next two weeks!! Wish me luck!!

I will be an Architect before we know it!

In other news, about a week ago Rafal brought home a bag of crocheting stuff from a move job he did, it was a hook and 3 big rolls of white yarn.  Heres the thing, I had just been talking to a friend about how I would love to learn how to crochet and make things, well thank you God for helping me to manifest all the things I want.  So last night I finished my first ever scarf.....

How fabulous is that?? Now I am working on a headband with a flower :)  It is so exciting making things that are useable LOL

As well as making your own clothing, making your own money is a plus, and speaking of making money... We bought another storage unit this past Monday afternoon, for $400 and were surprised by ALL the goodies hidden in the way back that we didn't even see when bidding!  So we went to Paul and goto ur own 10x30' Storage Unit to fill with stuff for our store one day :)  I have a workshop now!! To do all my painting and sanding and refinishing!  My first project is a large wooden table, I will be painting in in a pottery barn kind of way, distressed black... It will be amazing!!  I can't wait to start the process, maybe this Tuesday?  Yes!!

Going to go work on my headband and watch Christmas movies with my three and a half year old who will be four years old in only three months and a few days!! HOLY MOLY!!

Day 34

What a GORGEOUS Florida day we are having.. These are the kinds of days worth living in Florida for!  It is 72 Degrees without a cloud in the sky and a nice warm breeze.  Windows and doors are wide open today.  I am still sickly but I am not going to let this cold get me down.

Yesterday was my "off" day with Insanity.  Today is Day 15, which means two things:

1. I am a QUARTER of the way there!!!
2. Fit Test #2!!

So I will get to see not only that I AM improving BUT exactly HOW MUCH I am improving! I can already tell it is quite a difference, not only in my overall physical well being but even mentally, I am much more confident and I can feel that as I walk around places, I don't worry about what I look like anymore.  It is almost like I know I am doing the work I need to to be healthy so I must already BE healthy!  I am healthy, although I do want to get this Shakeology stuff every one keeps talking about.  It has over 70 ingredients and is said to be the most important meal in your day!  I would love to get it, but it isn't cheap.  I know and understand that it replaces a meal a day for 30days so $100 shouldn't seem so steep, but when you use food stamps for a lot of your groceries, $100 is difficult to just come up with.  Now, if they had a pay as you go program where they just send a week at a time like Jenny Craig [haha] ok ok ok I am just kidding about that last part, but I guess in retrospect it would be nice, right?   Do you take Food Stamps??

In other news, school is.... school.  I am not going to let it get to me, but I am letting it get to me.  I don't want to stress about it, that will only cause MORE stress.  SO I will just tackle it head on... and BAM conquer yet again.  I can do this.

I am smart.
I can do this.

YES I CAN!  :)

Day 28

I just gutted a pumpkin. Eww.
[haha]

I actually don't mind at all, it is one of my favorite things to do this time of year.  I love carving pumpkins.  Going to gut three in the next hour and then tonight after dinner the Ski family will be carving our very own!  I will post before and after pictures for your visual enjoyment! :)

Today was the mark of my first week of college being completed!  I turned in my Memoir last night and finished a test on chapters 2, 3, and 6 too!  It feels good to already have all of this weeks work done already.  I strive to continue such hard work through the rest of my college career.  I don't want to be one of those people that wait until the last minute and then have to study 20hours straight one night.  Time management my friends, it works wonders, and even if you say you can't do it... Your wrong! You can!! Any one can!  In fact, here's an idea.  For the next 2 or 3 days I want you to jot down what you are doing every 15minutes, how did you spend the last 15 minutes?  Then at the end of every day look back over that list and see what you could have done differently, or better even to give you the most for your time.  Time is the only thing we can't get back.  When its spent... thats it, it is gone forever.  Try it out, check it out, my life is changing and so can yours!

For instance, I want to check my Facebook right now, but I know that isn't something that needs to be done right now.  If at the end of the day I have gotten everything done that I set out to do today then, I will make a space for some "free" time.  I try to update my FB a few times a day to let my "fans" know when I have completed an exercise, or a project of some kind.  I didn't realize I had so many readers, and now that you are all beginning to contact me and let me know your reading, I will strive to give you more information!

I have started telling more and more people about my desk at home, and the more people I tell, the more feedback I get about how awesome it is.  SO I want to share it with you guys too!  I have post it notes and index cards all over the place tapped to the wall, the monitor, the lamp and even my notebooks.  Every single one of them states some kind of affirmation, whether its "You are smart!" or "You can do this!!!" and because most of my stay at home work involves the computer and its desk I am sitting here a few hours every day.  Which means I see and read this continuously throughout my every day life.  It has been close to two weeks since I started posting the little notes around, and I feel a huge difference.

I am confident! I am funny! I am stronger than I have ever been and it is truly an amazing feeling!

Day 24

Tonight Rafal, Dylan and I will be carving our pumpkins that we got last week.  I cant wait!!  I love this time of year, and the pumpkins are so fun!!

I pride myself in my creative pumpkins, and this year I am still not sure what I want to carve. Something special that's all I know.

The weather is beautiful today and we will be spending the whole second half of the day outdoors.  Sundays are my favorite days.  Lazy and relaxing.

I am feeling so frustrated today though and it is eating away at my good mood.  I keep saying I won't let it.  BUT I am so quick to snap this morning.  Dylan is making me cooky... I am not sure why though.  He just likes to test us and I am sick of it.  I despise yelling at him, in fact I hate it... I feel horrible when I have to yell at him.  But when I say "Don't touch that" 7 times and he just does it any ways I have to raise my voice to get his attention and I really really don't like doing that.  I would love to hire the perfect parenting nanny to come help us for a week to get us to start being more consistent.  Rafal and I were raised in very different homes and he and I don't see eye to eye on raising Dylan.  Which makes it even more difficult for me.  I feel like we aren't always a "team" which to me is VERY important.  We should always look like a team to Dylan.  Ugh.  Ok enough complaining for today.  If any one has any good advice on parenting a hot headed bad tempered 3.5 year old, please by all  means give us some good words of wisdom.

In other news!  Tomorrow is officially my FIRST DAY OF COLLEGE!!!  Wish me luck!!

Day 21

The cold, 60-degree air, is brushing itself against my back this morning.  I am sitting at the computer with my back facing the sliding glass door, and I have it wide open allowing the crisp autumn air to flow on in.  It is a beautiful morning.  Took Marley out for his AM walk and after we were downstairs I thought to myself that I should've grabbed a scarf!  I love a chilly morning this time of year.

My coffee is smelling so good sitting here next to me on my desk, I can see the aroma swirling out of the cup in the steam and its just making me melt even more.  Perfect day for coffee you ask?  Oh yeah, no day beats a day like today.

I got up early this morning eager with anticipation for doing the Insanity Day 3 workout, but never-the-less something came up and we have decided to postpone it until this evening.  Rafal said I could do it without him if I really wanted to, but I don't want to, he's my partner in this, and if something comes up and he can't do it.. I will wait until he can.

Last night we laid in bed talking about dreams, not the kind you have in your sleep... the waking one's where you think about your future.  That was interesting and always is these days.  We are so different and yet so the same its amazing to me.  We spoke of our dreams of having land and a large home with a larger family.  Let me rephrase that, I spoke of MY dreams of having land and a large home with a larger family and he just kind of agreed.  I wonder what that says?  He says he wants a farm and to be self-sufficient with his family.  He wants to get all Rambo and get a ton of bad ass guns and archery supplies and just live off the land in the mountains.  That sounds like fun to me.  We're weird aren't we?  Most 20-something's are planning parties and things like that and were planning... a farm?  [haha]

Yesterday was Day 2 of school, and I worked on my first assignment in my Composition class, it went very well I might add.  Today going to start Chapter 2 in Critical Thinking and see how that goes.  School doesn't actually start until next week, but I am an overachiever, and I have my books and the syllabus so why not get some of it done while I can so I am not in such a big rush.

Mmmm... coffee.. you are so strong.  I love you.

One more thing world- I wanted to share with you that Rafal did not have a single cigarette yesterday.   When I asked him about it he said "I could go get some if I wanted to, but I don't want to, I wonder how long I can go before I need another smoke?"  I too wonder, will this be a permanent change?  And.... how amazing if he was just able to quit cold turkey eh?  I am proud of him for trying and thats what counts.

Enjoy your day!

Day 20

Last night I started college... I started my Problem Solving and Critical Thinking class by reading Chapter 1 and answering the end of chapter questions.  It was 33 pages, and I was not expecting so much reading.  Even though it seemed like a lot, I got it finished.

Rafal and I did our body test when I started getting stressed with homework, yes it was late, but who cares.  We kicked its butt, and it kicked our butts too!  We both felt really good after wards and then Rafal and I laid in bed for about an hour just talking about all kinds of fun stuff.  He remembered through the workout when he used to workout for Judo and how much fun he used to have doing Judo.  I love hearing his stories, he has so many amazing ones!  I think we were asleep by about 2am...

Then up at 5:30am, I got up, turned the alarm off and as I was brushing my teeth I heard a Dylan voice in my bedroom.  Sure enough Dylan had woken up, what was he doing up so early?  It was like maybe he felt us getting up too? Who knows!  I made a healthy shake for Rafal and I and woke him up.  He got up and we got started on the Day 2 workout.  The Plyometric Cardio Cicuit.  HOLY SHIT.  Excuse my language.  It was tough.  But we did it!!  And now that I am already done with my hardcore workout for the day I feel so energized and ready for the day.  Going to try to write an article today, not sure what about, maybe the fact that ALL these children keep going missing... Ugh its disgusting.

Going to start a pot of coffee, Rafal is at work all day today for the first day in over a week and a half.  Dylan and I will miss him today, we have gotten so used to his humor and company throughout the days.  I love you Rafal <3

Coffee, School Work, Examiner and then an appointment with a Daycare at 10am... cross your fingers, he would only go for short days, but it would be just enough for me to get school work done!

Here are our hysterical BEFORE pictures:

Don't judge me! haha

Day 15

Looking over school stuff.  This semester starts on October 24th and will last 8 weeks with my next semester starting on January 2nd.

A lot of people keep asking me why I choose DeVry University since some of its course work isn't accredited.  I wanted to assure the worriers, that the program I am studying IS accredited.  I am studying for my Bachelors Degree in Multimedia Design and Development with a concentration in Web Design and Development. I couldn't be happier OR more excited.

Now that I have explained that I want to tell you why I chose them instead of say, SPC or HCC.  I found out while continuing my education in Massage Therapy that my brain learns differently than most.  As we all know, every single one of us learns differently, but to feel accomplished my brain works overtime for a few weeks and then slacks for a few weeks and continues on a cycle.  I found while attending Sun State Academy that the Two-Weeks on and Two-Weeks off theory that they put into affect is exactly what my brain needs to stay focused.  So instead of going to school at SPC and studying English 101 from August-December and having a few mental breakdowns in that time frame, I chose DeVry because they are on an 8-Week semester program.  So every 8-Weeks I will start 2 new classes.  And I personally love that idea.  

On October 24th I will begin English & Critical Thinking/Problem Solving.  Then in January I will begin Intro to Business &  Computer Applications for Business.  With 8-week courses I am able to fit 5-6 "Semesters" in to just one year, rather than only 2-Semesters a year.  That is how I will be able to graduate so much quicker than most attempting their Bachelors.

***

In other news, today is the first day Rafal has had work all week, since Saturday of last week.  Having him home has been nice, but I missed my routine more than anything.  When he is home I slack off because I want to spend time with him.  But then the dishes pile up, laundry starts getting out of control, and my articles/blog get neglected.

So here I sit drinking my coffee... Thinking about how I will get Dylan enrolled in Head Start this up coming week so that he can be in school while I too am in school.  Wow, what a huge help that would be.

Last night I was expressing my concerns that I don't know if we will be able to go to my best friends wedding in November, I am so sad.  Rafal saw how upset I was about it and started looking for cheap tickets, he said he really wants me to be able to go even if he can't because of work.  That made me so happy to know he knows how happy I would be to go.  She lives in NC and I could take a Greyhound for about $100 which isn't too bad.  I really want Rafal to be able to go with me, we used to go on adventures all the time in our early days, and lately... not so much.  I mean we have a 3.5yr old son, not too many adventures we can go on with a little guy.  

Gonna try to come up with an article today...