Being Mommy Archives • Page 3 of 4 • Disney Mom at Home

Dream REALLY Big!

April 25, 2014

My mom always taught me to dream really big. To reach for things that are so far out of reach and make them happen. I’ve practiced this philosophy in a lot of aspects of my life. Sometimes, though, there is no amount of reaching that could get you to your dream.

Until it could.

When people ask me what is my dream job if there were no limitations, I could confidently say air traffic controller. I know, right? So totally not getting there with my journalism degree! For a brief moment in time in 2009 I toured one of our local community colleges that offers a great ATC program. I met with the professors, toured the tower, knew it was what I wanted. And then my mom died. Thoughts of ATC school vanished as I plowed through the estate work and fell into a nice job in Healthcare accounting. Yea, thrilling, right? So now not only am I not working my “dream job,” I’m not even using the degree I worked so hard for! Oh well, it’s paying the bills for now.

And then the FAA randomly opens up ATC trainee positions to persons under the age of 31 (a requirement of the hiring process in general) with a degree and 3 years of work. So, I applied and waited for my rejection. A few of my friends also applied and they got their rejections but my application sat “untouched” in the system with the last update being the day I submitted it. And I kinda forgot that I was waiting for my rejection and went about my life.

And then this happened:

When I finally stopped screaming at work and texting everyone who I told I applied, I jumped online and scheduled my test. I figured it would be similar to the SATs, and while I still think the format might be, the test itself is going to be so hard.

So hard, in fact, that I spent most of my week convincing myself I wasn’t going to take the test. We can’t really afford the trip to NYC and I’m not doing too hot at the math section while studying. However, God has thrown EVERYTHING he has at me until he slapped me in the face enough for me to realize that THIS IS WHERE I’M SUPPOSED TO BE!! My dreams are dead in front of me and it is up to me to make it happen. That crazy, no-way-in-hell-gonna-ever-happen dream is really happening. And it’s freaking scary… but also really excited!! So I am going with faith that this is what I’m supposed to be doing, studying like I’ve never studied for a test in my life, and praying really hard that I can remember everything and that I pass. Because passing means a job, and a job means I will be living out my dreams.

And if I fail, then I will know that I gave it my very best shot and that’s the way it is supposed to happen. Someone once used the analogy that I was “circling the airport” during a transition time in my life. I now look at it as the last few years I have been circling the airport. This is my opportunity to land my plane. Literally!!

Easy Peasy Healthy (Kinda) Cupcakes

April 22, 2014

I always dreamed of baking with Lily. Putting on our matching Disney aprons and making amazing creations in the kitchen. All the things I wanted to do as a child but never got to. I was never allowed in the kitchen at my grandparent’s house while my gram was cooking. At home, my mom’s idea of cooking was pizza so aside from calling in the order, I never got to have that special kitchen bond.

Somehow, though, I learned to cook and I love it. I love making creations in the kitchen and having my family devour them! I am awesome at following recipes and can sometimes even make up my own.

So when Lily had absolutely no interest in being in the kitchen, I was defeated. I quickly realized most of the problem was that she didn’t know what we were going to do. I showed her how to stir and she became obsessed. We stirred, we used the blender, and after I poured the batter in the cups, we licked the spoon. This was clearly her favorite part. Normally I wouldn’t let her go at it with the spoon as raw eggs are less than ideal for you, but I found this recipe that replaces the eggs and oil with Greek yogurt! I took this as a sign that these are not only *healthy* for me, they are also completely batter-licking friendly!

And they could not be easier! I used Funfetti mix, my favorite, but you can substitute any cake mix you want. Mix the powder with one cup of water and one cup of Greek yogurt. Beat it together, fill your cups and bake according to the box! One thing I did notice is that they do not rise as well as regular cupcakes do so you want to put more batter in if you want them bigger. I like little cupcakes so I only filled them up a little more than 1/2 way. Also, depending on your oven, you need to bake them the longest time on the time span given. I normally look at the time span (18-21 minutes on my box) and take the middle number. After this batch I would definitely put them on the full 21 minutes!

They came out amazing moist and delicious! I took them to a cookout with our neighbors and they couldn’t believe how good they were! Besides cooking them a little longer the only change I would make is that Kevin bough vanilla flavored Greek yogurt and next time I think I would use just the plain yogurt. Regardless they were great, just a wee bit sweet!

Best of all, Lily had a great time and brings me her apron every time I go into the kitchen to make dinner! I so look forward to many more days of cooking, baking and creating together!

Truth: I’m a people pleaser

February 21, 2014

I am very inwardly hard on myself. I don’t let it show, it’s all internal, but I am constantly comparing myself to others and measuring my success against those around me. That’s not a good thing at all, and I feel like that is something I got from my mom. I hope I don’t pass that along to Lily. I am very aware of my flaws and my weaknesses, but last night my eyes were opened to one of my biggest weaknesses and probably one of the reasons I am not as successful as I could be (not in my career, just in my life in general!)

Last night we went to the Picture People to get family portraits done. We go there a lot, we are portrait club members and I love getting Lily’s picture taken because she’s so stinking cute (not that I’m biased or anything!) Last night we went specifically for family pictures. I really wanted to get a nice picture of the four of us: me, Kevin, Lily and, of course, Comet, our dog! We all wore jeans and a white top and comet wore his tan fur so we all kind of matched. It was great and Comet didn’t even poop on the floor!

I really wanted a good picture of just Lily and Comet, but that didn’t happen. Comet had a hard time sitting still if he wasn’t on my lap and Lily had a hard time not chasing him around! We got some cute candid shots, but honestly nothing I would have bought.

I wanted to get some pictures of just Lily also so I brought along another cute outfit and was all ready for our session. After we finished all of the family and dog pictures the photographer said “ok that’s it” and the session was abruptly over. I am a pretty roll with the punches kind of girl, so I said ok, even though I really wanted Lily’s pictures in the other outfit! It is what it is and I didn’t buy the outfit special for pictures so I didn’t think it was the end of the world.

As we were picking photos, we got a large framed trilogy for free, another photo sheet for free and a bundled package for $8. I picked everything until our free photo sheet. Truthfully I was having a hard time deciding because I didn’t love any of the pictures that were left, but there were some better than others. The photographer immediately pulled up his favorite and edited it and made it black and white and told me that’s the one we should pick. I said OK and we got 2 5×7 prints.

When we got in the car we looked at the pictures again and I told Kevin I was a little disappointed that I didn’t get the other outfit and that I don’t love the photo sheet I picked. That’s when my husband looked at me and simply stated, “you need to stop letting people make decisions for you. You always do that and you’re decisions are great, you just need to listen to yourself.”

Wow. Number one, Kevin very rarely speaks up, and number two, he was totally right! I constantly let other people make decisions for me because I don’t want to hurt anyone else’s feelings and I have a seriously hard time saying NO. What an eye opener!! I have always had a hard time saying no, but I didn’t realize how much it affects my life!

I’m going to work harder to drive the direction of my own life, but I’m not going to lie, this is going to be hard. I am so programmed to do what others want just to not make waves that I’m sure there will be a lot of uncomfortable moments in my near future!

So how does one say “no”? Any tips are great!!

Valentine’s Day

February 16, 2014

I have never been a lover of Valentine’s Day. To me it was always such a Hallmark holiday where you can never get good reservations and if you don’t get flowers delivered to your office, everyone else feels sorry for you. In fact, a girl at work got such a gorgeous arrangement of flowers and set them on the table, I was sure I was at a wedding reception. Seriously, they looked like a centerpiece!

No flowers at my desk this year, they just aren’t in our budget. But that is seriously OK. Truth be told, we probably wouldn’t even acknowledge the holiday if it wasn’t the day we met… 7 years ago! We usually try to do something little on this day just to remember how lucky we are that we met and turned our conversation into a beautiful life together, but nothing to write home about!

This year was a little different since we had Lily. She was old enough to “celebrate” with us but not really old enough to understand what was going on. I had such high hopes of being mom-of-the-year and making a heart-shaped cake, decorating the house, cooking a big dinner and having a movie night, complete with sleeping bags on the floor and a nice bottle of wine for the adults.

Valentine’s Day Fail for me! Turns out I’m not mom-of-the-year this year. We had a rotisserie chicken Kevin picked up at Giant Eagle and I threw together some side dishes, there was no cake or decorations, except for the wreath I had already made for the front door, and no wine because I didn’t have time to stop and get some and didn’t want to take Lily into the Liquor store with me. Oh and that awesome floor bed I was going to make so we could all snuggle together? Comet pooped on the floor when I got home, and although I cleaned it up, bleached the floor and then swiffered, I still didn’t want to lay on the floor! Something about dog poop just really turns me off!

We did watch a movie together on the couch. We picked the Princess and the Frog, which is one of my favorite Disney movies! I love the message it sends that you have to work hard for what you get, and I like the music. It’s just a good movie! It would have been perfect except that Kevin fell asleep about five minutes into it and just as Lily started to drift off (I thought she would pass out after about half an hour since we were letting her stay up late), Comet jumped on the couch and got her all wound up and she was awake for the whole movie.

When the movie was over, Kevin woke up and took Lily up to bed and I thought we could watch something else since it was early, but he ended up falling back to sleep right away so I went to bed. Good thing because Lily peed through her diaper, all of her clothes and the sheets at about 1 am and was then up until 4. We hung out and watched Cinderella on the couch before she finally passed out again and I got about 4 hours of sleep total that night.

Did I mention I am not a lover of Valentine’s Day? This is precisely why!

My Journey to 13.1

January 14, 2014

It’s my 100th post! And what a great one it is! My journey to my first half marathon and now that I can feel my legs again, it was awesome! RunDisney puts on one heck of a great race and I can imagine that no other race is half as amazing!

I should start out by mentioning my training. Oh, that’s right, I didn’t train. Like, AT ALL! I literally ran 3 miles maybe two or three times leading up to the race. My friends thought for sure I was going to back out. Nope, not here! I used the couch to half marathon approach. Not the really good training program like C25K. Nope, one day I was happy on the couch, the next half marathon finisher. As awesome as it was, I totally do NOT recommend running it without training. Especially if you want to enjoy the rest of your WDW vacation! I was in some serious pain and was pretty much out of commission for the day of the race!

The morning of the race was nice and warm, in the high 60’s, which was amazing, but with 100% humidity, less than amazing! We were at the bus stop at 3:30 a.m. at the Boardwalk resort. I was surprisingly calm and focused without too many nerves. Mainly just anticipation for the unknown. Luckily we only had to wait a few minutes before the bus came to take us to the starting line.

My awesome friend Katie, who was so sick before the race, designed these awesome shirts for us all to wear! It was great having friends to hang out with in the pre-race area. We stretched, looked around, had pictures taken and then started the walk to our corrals! One thing they totally don’t tell you is that you are really moving your body for about 15 miles by the time you even get to the starting line. We took the hike to our corrals and this is the part that I got the most nervous for. All of my friends were in corral P and I was in N. Not sure how that happened, I think it was a miracle. P is the last corral, where the balloon ladies (aka sweepers) are and I was so nervous about being swept! I could have started back with them, but I felt it was safer for my race to start in N and give myself the extra 15 or so minutes.

I am pretty outgoing and friendly, so I made friends with some people in my corral and even found two running buddies, an older couple who seemed to be targeting the pace I was (slow). I also was hanging out with a few locals who were running the Dopey Challenge. Seriously a good name for it, as they were running the 5K Thursday, 10K Friday, Half Saturday and Full Marathon Sunday. They are seriously crazy! Before I knew it (or a few hours later) it was time to start. There at the starting line was my main man, Donald, ready to count it down!

Annnnd we were off! It turns out my older couple friends were much slower than I anticipated I would be, so I ran off ahead! I ran the first mile and it was seriously awful. I thought multiple times that I was just going to be done and that I tried and failed and it’s my own fault because I didn’t train. I turned my headphones up hoping for a miracle when I heard a girl in front of me yell “3-2-1 walk” and her group of 4 started walking. After a minute or so, she yelled “3-2-1 run.” Someone on the other side of me asked what their pace was and the girl said they were walking 60 seconds, running 30. I looked at the girl on the end and said “mind if I pace with you” since I knew that I could do that. And those 4 girls got me through the race.

Turns out they are part of the running club Running Of the Ears (which I am now a member of too!) and Janice, Angie, Ashley and Sarah were amazing to run with. One thing I never thought I would do was to pull out my headphones and run the entire thing (minus 2 miles) with no music. I didn’t need it. We talked, we laughed, we ran, we walked and we enjoyed every magical mile as much as we could!

Sorry for some of the blurry pictures, I was running of course! I ended up running about 6 miles and walking the other 7 which was amazing for my first run and also because Angie was nursing an injury we hung back and walked the last 3 miles (which I was more than thankful for as I was hurting by then!)

The course itself was magical and they do a great job of on course entertainment, from characters to DJs to the spectators. It was great. The downside was that it was very narrow at parts and there were some parts that were so congested you couldn’t run.

I also struggled pretty bad from miles 7-10 coming out of the Magic Kingdom and knowing the rest of the course was highway. But I made it and we had a great time! Lily and Kevin were at the finish line cheering me on as I crossed and I met up with my friends immediately following (they all finished before me!)

All in all, I may run another one…. someday!