Goodbye 2011

WOW this year has FLOWN by, so i was thinking of my year and what all happened and the ups and downs and how it is coming to an end and all the things that i experienced and the wonderful people i have met along the way. So i decided i would blog about all the ups and downs us Rodewald's experienced.

Jan 2011- we spent our last month stationed at Fort Lewis, i enjoyed every chance i got hanging out with Heather and Lainee, going to costco with them, and watching the girls play together cause they were growing up so fast! Jennika was moved into a toddler bed, and she suddenly  became a big girl over night!

Feb 2011- we found out we were having another baby girl! we left WA and started our journey to Fort Campbell KY, we spent a week with John's family in oregon, John went to Chicago to watch his brother graduate navy basic, we picked up my mom and traveled for 3 days to get to KY, got to see so many places i have never seen!

Mar 2011- we moved into our new house and unpacked and organized in 2 days! it was awesome to have my mom there to help and being pregnant it was a relief to have everything done! we went to Atlanta GA for the first time and took Jennika to the zoo aquarium, and to the world of Coke! it was awesome! and so much fun to say "oh I've been there!"

Apr 2011- We got settled into the house, met the neighbors who turned out to be the best neighbors we have ever had, enjoyed BBQs and beer pong in their garage! Mom went back to CA and we were getting back to our routine and starting to feel at home, we then went to SC at the end of Apr to see Josh, Michelle, and Sophee! got to see the beach which was AWESOME i so missed the salt water! and had a blast watching the girls play together!

May 2011- relaxing month didn't do much but enjoyed ourselves and Jennika was growing up way too fast!

June 2011- I met a wonderful family, The Davis' turned out Katelyn and I were only 2 weeks apart in pregnancy and Jack and Jennika are 3 months apart. and talking to her was so easy and watching Jack and Jennika play was like they knew each other their whole life! mom came back to be there for the birth of Ruth. and we did lots of prepping for Ruth's arrival!

July 2011- We welcomed into the world Ruth Marie Rodewald! and getting used to having 2 children under 2 was easier than i expected! Jennika was LOVING having a little sister and had to get used to not being the only child. which she transitioned very well!

Aug 2011- Mom went home and we tried to enjoy the hot weather....Jennika was continuing her Dance and Gymnastic classes and she was talking more and signing a whole lot more!

Sept 2011- Jennika got potty trained!!!!! took 3 days and we went from 4 accidents to none in 5 days! and boy did she LOVE wearing her big girl panties! i turned 23, and enjoyed a dinner with my awesome friends! plus took a shot of grey goose at my birthday dinner and got to almost pee my pants with my neighbor driving me home haha in my car! haha

Oct 2011- the girls and i went on our first plane ride together alone to oregon for Joe's vigil and to have our family meet Ruth. enjoyed super late nights with the family. came home and prepped for another plane trip to take my mom to New York for our first time and her 50th birthday! got to experience the first snow in Times Square! the girls were AWESOME! and again being able to see things that i never thought i would see in my life is amazing! closed the month with a great halloween with family and friends!

Nov 2011- after new york i came to prep for our move in dec only to find out that we would be moving in 12 days and i had to pack up and leave some of the greatest friends i have ever met. it was a sad month and i still miss living next to my neighbors and going to Katelyn's to let the kids play! but we drove out to Fort Bragg NC and thank god we found a home within an hr of being here and got moved in in a day n a half. again if my mom wasn't here to help me i wouldn't have been able to do it at all!

Dec 2011- John turned 26, Jennika turned 2. i got the house mostly unpacked and John helped when he got home from Airborne school, we went to FT Campbell for Jennika's birthday and were thankful to stay at the Davis home while we were there. and i got to spend some time with my friends again! came home and celebrated christmas with Josiah and ended the month meeting new friends!

This year has been a great year over all. and looking back i am proud of myself for getting out and meeting new people and doing good deeds. today i offered my home up to a family i barely knew to have a birthday party for their daughter. a year ago i would have NEVER done that. and i am so glad i did because i had a great day of conversation and watching Jennika make new friends, and wow did she have a blast. I have to say that this year i have changed for the better, i now open myself up more and it may bite me in the butt later on but i won't regret it. I have met some awesome people and if i am going to be moving around so much i need to learn to get myself out of my comfort zone (which is what i did tonight) and meet people that may of may not turn out to be wonderful friends but if i don't take the chance i will never know. its just like how i met Katelyn, she posted on a campbell page to see pictures of 3bdrm homes in our neighborhood. and turns out i know for a fact that her and her family will always be a part of my life. I also could have stayed like a hermit in my house and not met my neighbors and became so close to them, they also will be a big part of my life forever!

So heres to a new year and new experiences and getting myself out of my comfort zone! because if i never would have gone out and did things i would have never met the few people that changed my life for the better!

Happy New Year!

Ashley!

Goals

I feel like I need to set some goals for myself, and that way I can be thrilled when I complete those goals. I h e realized my goal is too high for me to even feel like I have accomplished anything. So my new goals I feel like they are manageable. And I don't need to feel like it will never be completed. So at the end of this blog entry my goals will be listed.

On another note we had such a wonderful christmas! It was so awesome to spend time with Josiah (johns youngest brother) his mon surprised John with sending Josiah out here, jennika has had so much fun playing with him and sitting with him, he leaves today and Jennika is going to be so sad! I am so happy he got to come out I know John was feeling a bit home sick since come FEB he hasn't seen any family for a year! And going from seeing them once a month or every other month it is a huge change. But I guess it's something we have to get used to. Since we won't be close to them for awhile. Back to Christmas haha Jennika was overwhelmed with gifts, and she loved it! It was awesome to be here has a family, and enjoy each other. :) now I'm getting ready for the new year and setting goals for me and my family! 2012 is the year for me to finally fully change my life and get all the negative out of my life and live for the positive. No more unhealthy life style and no more rude negative ppl in my life. I will not let anyone walk all over me nor will I let anyone think that they can say hurtful things one day and think that things are perfect the next. SCREW THAT!!! If there are hurtful things to be said about me then I would like to hear them in a "hey can I talk to you about a few things" kinda way. I am also not going to make so much of an effort to make sure ppl are in my life. I will give the same effort they give to me, and if effort stops, guess what?! I am DONE! I feel like the last 2yrs if my life I have bent over backwards to make sure ppl that don't make an effort are involved in my life and that isn't fair to me at all! So no more. I will be nice and respectful but I will tell you how I feel when I feel it. I will not hold my tongue anymore it's just not worth it. And if you don't like it then sucks for you! My first priority is my family and I will do everything I can to protect my girls since they aren't old enough to protect themselves. :)

Here are some of my goals for the new year!

Drop down 10lbs a month.
Exercise everyday at least 20mins but would prefer 90mins.
Drink more water
Eat healthy and no boxed foods
No fast food!
Focus more on my kids
Do a big craft a week with my girls
Make sure to get family pictures every 6m
Be positive!
And keep in good communication with the ones closest to me :)

Have you figured out some goals to change you for the better?

Ashley

Starting to look a lot like Christmas!

What a busy week! Went to Fort Campbell for the weekend, hung out with my wonderful besties! Had Jennikas party and she had a blast! John met us there friday night, and we left Monday morning but didn't get home til 930pm! Longest trip of my life! But now we are home and there are tons of gifts under the tree the kids are going to be overwhelmed with gifts, I want so bad to find something to do on Christmas that we can do as a family to give back, but I think the girls are still a little young and I know for sure once they get older we will be doing things in the community to give back, if John had a unit here and frieds I would invite them over to enjoy Christmas with us. But maybe next year! I am thankful to have my family here and thankful we are in a home. :) loving my life right now and my house is finally getting finished so it's coming together nicely! It helps having John here so he can do all the heavy lifting!

I hope everyone enjoys their christmas and time with their family!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

In a funk.

I hate moving, I always do really good then I get in this funk and feel like I am all alone. Which technically I am since I don't know anyone here and all my friends have lives of their own. I always try to keep my head up and stay positive but it's hard when the only ppl you talk to is your mom maybe your husband and your kids that talk back but not in the way you want haha. I'm stressing about a trip to CA that will be happening and how I am going to work everything out and in stressed about this weekend since I feel like I am a burden on others and I hate that feeling. I hate feeling like I am causing others to stop their life for me. Blah I am done for the day just gunna soak in my funk :/

What a great day!

Wow the girls have been so good all day! Jennika has been a great help and back to her old self. :) Ruth is now eating finger foods! She loves them. We went shopping at hobby lobby this morning and I found a stool and box shelf for our time out area. So while the girls napped I painted and then when jennika woke up she wanted to paint so I let her paint the rest of the letters I had left over, man does she love painting! Then once she was done with that I decided to let her paint my nails :) well my toe nails. She did a dang good job for being almost 2! She got distracted by a commercial on my right foot so my left looks better than my right lol. But she enjoyed doing it and that's all that matters! Now we are going to eat dinner, and send the girls to bed and it's my first double workout tonight! Woohoo 30 day shred and the treadmill. Wish me luck!!! :) enjoy the pictures :)

Getting my Daily Routine down :)

I have been feeling great since I started the treadmill workouts! I am excited to start the 30-day shred tonight :) I finally have energy to do things and get my house looking like a home! I am getting the girls back on their normal routines and getting myself on a new routine! I finally got the play room nice and organized, I cleaned every room but mine and the sunroom. I can't do much with the sunroom until my hubs gets home so he can do what he would like with it cause it's technically his "man cave" lol. I am so happy that everything is coming together.

Last night I experienced the first bit of the red headed tantrums that Jennika will be throwing in the future. We had a late dinner and she wasn't eatting so I told her that she was either going to eat or go to bed and WOW she flipped out! I put her in her bed she broke her rail, she almost put a hole in the wall, gave herself a bloody nose, and then I set her in timeout so she could calm herself down, and she threw up. This was all in nearly 2 hours. It was insane! So now I have realized I have to be more on top of things and keep her in a normal routine and not being such a softy when it comes to timeout and bed time. So I see a lot of time outs in our future. :/ I hate doing it but I know that that's how life is and she needs to learn discipline and now that she is getting older she tends not to listen as well as before. So time outs it is :) I hope to never experience another episode like last night again!

Ruth is getting so big! She is eating stage 2 foods and she loves them! She is finally letting me do things without holding her and she is starting to love her entertainment center things. She is moving all over, not fully crawling but scooting herself forward and in circles to get everywhere. She is growing up so fast and now jennika is more interested in her so they play and jennika brings Ruth all her toys haha. Ruth loves Jennika and screams at her when she walks away. I have thought about getting Ruth a walker but I am afraid jennika will run her into walls but I know we will probably get one after christmas. Jennika will learn :)

Here are some pictures of the house :)
The playroom, living room with dining room behind it fire place area and entry. Once everything else is complete I will share more pictures :)

Feeling great!

Today I decided that I will be off Facebook for awhile. I hate all the negativity I see constantly and people being pissed at their significant other and loving them the next min. And complaining or putting them down and letting all their friends do it too, tired of mothers constantly leaving their kids to go party or go out with a new boyfriend. The main reason I am on Facebook daily is to update my family that lives far away. And I know I post pictures a lot but that's the only daily communication I have with family so that's why I do it. But it's always nice to take a break. I typically delete th app from my phone and then leave my phone in my bedroom so I don't have distractions while I'm with my girls. I am also thinking of only using my phone while they are sleeping. When John comes home we will be having family time every weekend and not having our phones with us. That's the only time we get with John and its important for me and the girls to have quality time every week! I am so looking forward to it. I rely a lot on technology, and love my phone since I have everything on it (including this blog...) so this is a big step for me. :)

Anyways back to the reason for this blog! Tomorrow I do my week 1 day 3 of the treadmill workout and I'm stoked! And Thursday I am going to start the 30 day shred. I do believe I will be starting my monthly gift tomorrow so it will be good for me to force myself to work out at a time of the month where all I wanna do is eat chocolate and be lazy! I feel great and am glad that I have got this far. I will be so proud of myself once I get they a week of the 30 day shred! :) I have so many work out DVDs cause I hate having ppl watching me so once I am done with the 30 day shred I will move on to the next work out! I WILL DO THIS AND I CAN DO THIS!!! Plus it helps that I have lost 6lbs since moving out here. :) yay me!

Getting back into the swing of things.

Well Saturday I finally felt good enough to workout. So awhile ago (awhile meaning a year) I got the iFit Jillian Michaels treadmill workout. So I did it. And it starts you out slow so I can ease myself into it and it was pretty much a 20min mile at an incline of 7.0. And wow was it nice to get on the treadmill. I would do the couch to 5k on my treadmill but I feel like I can control when I want to run and I can stop at anytime. So doing the Jillian thing and she moves the speeds and inclines up and it makes it super nice cause I can read or watch a show and not worry about changing anything. That's my kinda workout. Plus she tells at you the whole time do it work out. I am going to be doing this all week and then I head to KY for a week to visit and celebrate Jennika's 2nd birthday!!!! I can't believe she is going to be 2!!! I felt great saturday and yesterday and today I just did day 2. I have to look online I'm not sure if I'm suppose to do it every day or every other. But when I get back from KY I will be doing the 30 day shred. Which will be perfect cause 30 days from when I get back I will be going to CA to see my family!!!! I am so determined and I know as soon as I start doing something for more than 2 wks I will be doing it every day just cause I like to. :) and i am swearing to myself that 2011 is the last year that i will be unfit and unhealthy!!!!! well got lots of stuff to do. So hope you Had a great weekend! What do you want to accomplish for yourself next year?