A Little Bit of Livi

Did this picture crack you up?

 I'm still laughing.

I was asked this week who The DeShazo is....so....here she is!😁😁 She sure loves her snapchat filters.

Hopefully your week has gone well.  I can tell you that I would love a super long nap on Saturday and I am already planning it....which means it won't happen at all.

On Monday, Livi received the student of the month award for her class.
She was so excited!

Liv's teacher emailed Martinez and I Friday to let us know that she would be getting this award....and that it would be a surprise.
After she received her award and I was able to chat with her, she said " I totally knew I was getting that award!"  When I asked her how she knew, her response was so matter of fact...... "A girl in my class saw it on Mrs. Moore's desk and told me."

This girl brings such a smile to our faces.  She's funny, feisty, and full of love.
She's the perfect car singing partner.  You better hold on to your hat if Dirt on my Boots or Fishin' in the Dark comes on. 

She's also full of sarcasm !
As you guys already know, I'm excellent at exercising.  So much so, that Livi saw me doing some squats and told me she had some other exercises I should try out because the squats I was doing "are not right".  She showed me "scissors" and some other things .The moment I tried to mimic the moves -she gave me this look.....

And to add to her less than impressed perception of her mom exercising (and I do mean exercising in the lightest sense of the word), she's asked me to practice "her moves" every day since.

Exercise class

I love having this little girl in my life.  She's amazing.  I hope she always keeps that big smile and wit.

I do however, hope she lowers her expectations in life just a tad, as she told me this morning that she's asking Santa to go back to Disney World.

Speaking of Disney World, here are a few photos:

Kevin's face is so great-sheer terror.  Meanwhile, I'm having maybe one of the best moments of my life, and the little fella in the back is practicing for his possible stripping career

 

 Maybe I'll ask Santa for a trip back to Disney World too.

2018 Goals

I’ve realized that I did not post my new goals for 2018.  It's taken a few days of writing a sentence or two here and there, so here goes, in no particular order:

1) Do me.   This may seem selfish, but I don’t mean for it to. I just mean that I’m gonna stop worrying about what someone else thinks about how I parent/dress/wear my makeup, etc.  I’m getting to old to keep worrying about this stuff.

2) Simplify/Change Routine.  I really need to stop stressing about routine down to the minute. It’s taken me all of Liv's kindergarten and half of first grade year to realize that I don't have to be in the drop off line before school opens.
I've also realized that it's OK to not have the dishwasher loaded within fifteen minutes of being home. I know, it's ridiculous. I'm working on it.
This also means that we may not make every birthday party or event and that will have to be ok.

Oh yea, and I'm buying uncrustables for my kids' lunches now too. My kids get a pbj sandwich in their lunch every Monday.  I never can get that peanut butter to jelly ratio right and just tear the bread or it runs out. I'm over that! It’s gross anyway.

3) Only cook a couple major meals a week.  I'm from a family where you ate home-cooked meals and eating out was a big deal.  Our little family operates similarly, but that may change.  I need more time in the evenings to just talk to my little ones.  So, Martinez, be prepared!  I'm planning for 2, maybe 3 home-cooked meals a week.  It'll be cereal, fend for yourself, or find something in the freezer otherwise.

4)  More intentional time with my family.  This goes in line with #3.  I still need to focus on intentional, deliberate time with my family.  Less social media when I am with them, less texting, reading or whatever.  I need to limit distractions.

5) Read scripture/pray more.  I have to do this.  I'm going to work harder on making time and focusing on this.

6) Embrace my lip dip💄💄.  When The DeShazo reads this, she's going to laugh.
It's no secret... I LOVE lipstick.   Because The Deshazo and I discuss nearly everything, my lips and lipstick have been a topic many times.  I have the thinnest lips ever.  It breaks my heart that have the tiniest of lips in which to spread my precious Ruby Woo lipstick.  Further, I have a strange lip dip (assuming it's called a lip dip). It's too deep.

This was the look I was going for:

 You may recognize this actress from the show Quantico.  I discussed my wishes for having lips like these to The DeShazo, who quickly let me know that I'd need botox for this situation.

My MAC lipstick is my favorite piece of makeup.  So naturally, in an effort to provide more surface area to smear that lipstick, I took matters into my own hands and made a new lip dip.

As you can see, it didn't quite work.

Thus, I'm gonna embrace the lip dip I have and leave well enough alone.

I suppose now would be a good time to tell you that I appeared at work a few times with some strange outlines around my lips for enlargement purposes.  The DeShazo and I shared many laughs about that.

If you would like an update to the 25lb bag of flour I accidentally ordered on the Walmart Grocery App...

I stripped out the gears or something like that in my mixer attempting to do some baking and I need a new one!  I'll also confess now that I wasn't even out of flour to begin with. 

 But hey, that buttercream icing was finished and that's what counts.

Update on Goals

And once again, the blog returns.

The DeShazo thought that the two of us should update the world, a/k/a our loyal few readers, on our new year goals......from 2016.

I'm a tad behind, so here goes:

GOALS (from 2016)

1) I want to lose 15 more pounds.  Let's be real- I need to lose another 30, but I'm not gonna work out to do it.  I'd rather clean toilets that don't belong to me than to do that.

 I totally did this !  I ended up losing 23 pounds! Of course now, I want to lose 23 more.

But then there's cake.

2) Quit the skipping of church service. After I had B and was bf, it became a habit to leave church after SS so that I could pump.....but it stayed around.  That extra hour was so nice that we just sort of let it happen too much.  We've been trying to rectify the error of our ways, but we could get better.  There's no excuse. We know better.  I don't want to put a number on it....but I'm saying no more than 10 skips this year.  I can see some of ya'll's eyes  are popping out of your heads because you can't fathom how we can even miss that much.  Keep your judgments to yourselves! Vacations, sick days with kids- it can add up quickly.  This goal is to keep us from lazily skipping service.

We did it ! We are back in the swing of things.  
I'm gonna take a minute to throw a shout out to our church.  Country Estates Baptist Church is awesome.   We have some of the best people at our church.  They love the Lord and they love people.  I have made such sweet friends here.  If you need a place to feel loved, to worship, and to learn, check us out.  You won't regret it.

3) Daily Bible Reading - The DeShazo and I are going to read Jesus Is Calling this year.  I've seen posts about how this is a bad devotional book- and I've seen posts raving about it. We shall see.

Fat Failure.  In the beginning.....
I started out ok.  I think I made it maybe 3 weeks.  I couldn't focus on the Jesus is Calling devotional.  I know so many people that love it. I felt like it was basically saying the same thing everyday...and maybe that's the point?  I don't know.  The DeShazo would ask me what I thought about a specific day's devotional and all I could tell her was something about the valley, paths, and the mountains.  I don't even know if I read those words?!!!  

I need a different way...feel free to throw out suggestions.


4) The DeShazo and I have talked for a few years about copying Mix and Match Mama's Holiday Party.  We are making that party happen December 2017.

Failed ! We bailed on that so fast!!
We went for coffee instead.

5) I never remember in time to do Christmas cards.  I'll also confess that sometimes I just haven't wanted too- but 2017- I'm making the effort.

Failed.  I'm cracking up right now at the thought that I might actually get around to this.  I must have been feeling inspired and motivated when I said that.

6) Spend less money on material things for my kids and more on experiences for them.

Definitely improved on this!

7) Manage my time a little more efficiently at home- which means phone time needs to cease.

Made some improvements- but a long way to go.

8) Clean out the attic.  It's scary up there.

Success, thanks to CEBC's mission Orlando fundraiser!

9) Potty train Beckham. I've been warned by many that the little fellas aren't as easy to potty train as girls- so I'm trying to prepare myself that I may not make it before age two like Livi- but I'm still going to make the effort.

BIGGEST FAILURE EVER !!!!!!!! EVER!!!! IT'S ON MY LAST RESERVED NERVE! 

That is all.

10)  Work out 10 minutes a week.  This is from The Deshazo.  I tried to convince her to do 10 minutes a month- but I failed. She also advised that cleaning house didn't count- because we used to text each other early in the morning to get up and work out- and while she was exercising I was mopping floors.

Yeah right.  This girl ain't working out 10 minutes anytime.

Although, The DeShazo is making me do 30 squats a day.
I'm currently struggling to sit on the toilet properly, as I tried to be an over-achiever the last 2 days and do 50 a day.  I'm forced to fall back on the toilet at the moment because it hurts to sit. 
You are welcome for that visual, folks.

I decided that I could do these squats while my food is being microwaved at work. That would give me incentive.  Do squats... then eat.....do more squats.... then eat. It's perfect.


That's enough of my rambling. You can check out The DeShazo's update here.