Thursday morning. Kylie is still sleeping, my early bird son was up at 6:30. But at least he sleeps through the night without making a word so I can't complain.
Working on weaning M. Last week was rough but this week is better. He was screaming when I would hold him without nursing him before his naps but now he fusses until I put him to bed. Then he cries for aminute and falls asleep. Not too bad. We'll be finished on his b-day, which will make me said but also very proud for going a full year!
So, some crazy kid killed 32 people at the VT campus on Monday. And 20 some injuried. How does this stuff happen? His teachers knew he was deeply troubled and reported him to the police and counseling services. His classmates called him a shooter, knowing that he could be a school shooter. And now it's found that he mailed a package of videotape, pictures and letters to NBC news - a manifesto. The whole situation is very scary.

So, I started working out. That's right, I joined a gym. And, get this, I like it. Strange, isn't it? It feels good to take that hour to myself. I actually got up this morning, Saturday, at 6:45 to get to the gym when it opened at 7. Amazing. Anyway, the first time I did the elliptical machine, my legs were burning at 2 mins and I was DONE at 10mins. That was Tuesday night. Then on Wednesday morning I tried again for 11 mins. But I was feeling good at 8 mins so I increased it to 12. Then I was still feeling good at 11 mins so I increased it to 13 mins. Long story short, I ended up going 30 minutes!!!! And have done 30 mins, increasing my speed each time since then. This morning I went 2.8 miles in 30 mins. Then I did my abs and legs on the weight machines. I didn't do all the leg exercises because I needed to be back by 8:15 for Brett to leave for wrestling. I'm going to go back tomorrow after church and work out with Ann, who also is a member of Cardinal Fitness.
Last night we had Lynk, Nancy and Alex over. We just hung out for a few hours. Alex doesn't always play good with Kylie because of the age difference. At one point Kylie told me that Alex told her that she didn't want to play with her and that got Kylie upset. Lynk got mad at Alex and told her to apologize. I asked Kylie this morning if Alex did and she said no. Oh well, they seemed to be having fun together after that so maybe they got over their issues. I did shorten Alex's pj's while they were here, they were hanging on her! Only took a minute and looked much better.
Ann and Ted are coming over this evening for pizza and Grey's Anotomy. Brett can't believe that Ted wants to watch it and I think he's going to try to talk him out of it today at wrestling! I don't think so!

So I joined Cardinal Fitness yesterday. They were having a 1/2 off enrollment fee special so I decided to join. I went last night for the first time after the kids went to bed. I was nervous! I didn't want to screw up the machines and get laughed at. How silly is that? Anyways, I started off on dad's favorite machine - the elliptical. It's not easy at all but I did 10 mins! I hope to add 30 seconds each time to work up to 30 mins. Then I did the weight machines. I worked on triceps, biceps and abs. Going back this morning after Matthew's nap. I'll do the elliptical and work on abs and legs. There are two gyms near my house (I can go to any location), one on 10th street by the church and one in Avon by Walmart. I'm going to try out Avon today but if it's busy or the kids area is really busy, then I'll try the 10th street location tomorrow. Maybe they won't be as busy during the day. And it's a smaller gym so they don't offer classes like aerobics, yoga or spinning. But they have probably 25 ellipticals, 20 treadmills, stair-climbers, bikes and some things that I don't know what they are.

Things are going well here. Raining all day. Matthew slept like complete crap last night. He's been waking up about midnight the past few nights. And then he also woke up at 3 something and I refused to go get him. He wasn't crying, just whining every few minutes. Finally, I closed my bedroom door and turned off the monitor. I knew that if he really needed me, I would hear him. I think I feel back asleep about 4:30. And I think Matthew whined until he was ready to wake up at 6:45. Hopefully we won't have a repeat tonight. I'm going to give him some Motrin before bed in case he is teething.

Decided on a poem for M's invite:
A year has gone by
And it's been fun
Come celebrate with us
Because Matthew is one.

Kylie is doing well. She will be done with preschool soon. I think she only have 5 or 6 more weeks to go. She'll miss it but I have other things for her to do this summer. She's enrolled in a summer camp 3 days a week for 2 hours a day. She'll be going to 4 different weeks of it which I think she will really like. She's in gymnastics still, just re-enrolled for summer. And I think we're doing an inexpensive pre-ballet class in Broadripple with J and her daughter.

My friend Sara will be moving back in less then a month! I'm so excited. They haven't sold their house yet and are worried about that. Speaking of house selling, Brett has been talking to a realtor about doing a fair market value evaluation on our house. We're busting at the seams here. It would be good to move but I would want to stay in Avon. Close to church, Brett's work, all our stores (who wants to drive 20 mins to get to Target, which is the drive from Brownsburg??). And I'm very open to an existing home too. There are always some that are open in new neighborhoods. But that's a while off still.

Well, that's about it. Wish me luck at the gym. I would like to be at my target weight by August. That's my goal. So now it's in writing so I'll have to work at it. I think I'll start WW again but not pay for it. I can get the newest books on e-bay for $15. And I have the fancy calculator from before, which I can use as a journal also. But I do need to get closer to weaning Matthew before I start it for sure.
Speaking of weaning M, it didn't go so well last night for our first attempt. I gave him a sippy cup of milk instead of nursing him before his afternoon nap. He scream and wiggled and cryed until I would nurse him. So today I'm going to warm up the milk first and maybe add some breast milk to make it taste more familiar for him. Although he's taking the sippy cup of milk at meals sometimes. Hmmm, he might not be an easy weaner. Which is too bad since I'm ready to be done!

Hello from parkersburg WV. It's nice enough town, from what I saw when we drove it. The kids did very well in the car, Matthew had a rough last 30mins or so but did good other then that. We're staying at the historic Blennerhasset hotel. It's a beautiful old hotel that was recently remodeled. Brett was the "guest of the day" so his name was up on a sign at the front desk and he got a free drink at dinner (which I took since he is at dinner with clients). Matthew napped for an hour so K and I watch some little house and relaxed. After he woke up., we explored the hotel and hung out in the library. Kylie likes the chess pieces but we played Shrek instead of chess with them. Matthew just crawled around exploring things. I think I made the staff a little nervous because they kept asking if we needed anything every 15 mins or so.

We did have dinner, without Brett, at the hotel resturant called Spats. Very fancy, I felt underdressed but that's why I made the reservations for 5:30, it was pretty empty. I had a yummy iceburg lettuce wedge salad and chicken tortiallini entree. Kylie had chicken fingers. Then K had a "parfait" for dessert and I had creme brulee. It was very nice and the waiter and hostess told me several times how cute and well-behaved the kids were. Good thing they did well or I would have had to have room service (it's raining so I can't go to any resturants nearby).

After dinner I wanted to give the kids a bath and there was a huge whirlpool tub in our room so I decided to join them for their bath. The water was only about 5 inches deep but it covered some of the jets so I thought I could push the whirlpool button and have bubbles come out. Well, no. The water shot out of the uncovered jets, which Kylie was sitting in front of and Matthew was looking towards. So the water hit Kylie in the back and side and sprayed Matthew in the face. So both kids start screaming and Matthew didn't settle down for the rest of the bath. Then Kylie got the hotel soap in her eyes, which stung, so she's screaming "I need a washcloth, it stings, it STINGS!", while I'm trying to get her a clean washcloth while holding a crying, slippery baby on my lap. We won't try that again.

The next day we drove Brett to work so I would have the car. We went back to the hotel and had breakfast, then put M down for a nap. He slept 2 1/2 hours while Kylie watched TV and played and I read a maginzine and planned out our day. After Matthew woke up, we went to the next town to a doll museaum. We took the 5 minute museaum tour and Kylie played in the play area. I got her a nice doll that wasn't took expensive and got Matthew a stuffed puppy. Then we left for the Fenton Glass Factory.

I was looking forward to this tour because it was listed as one of the top 10 factory tours in the US. After driving 45 mins to the factory, the lady there told me that kids under the age of 2 aren't allowed. Crap. Now, I had looked this up on the Parkersburg.org website and read their brochure and several write-ups in tourist magizines and NOTHING said anything about age restrictions. I was not happy. So, off to the swiss chocolateir. Well, the kids fell asleep in the car so we didn't stop there. Instead, I parked in a church parking lot, read a book and waited for them to wake up. Which they did so then we found a park to play at until Brett needed to be picked up.

The drive home was long but pretty good. matthew wasn't doing good for about 30 mins but then I nursed him (in the car, while he's straped into his seat, that's a fun thing to do). and he fell asleep. So it was quiet after that. It was a fun time, the hotel was great and it was nice to spend the time with Brett instead of having him be out of town.