Suddenly Sandy

But shh, my sister hasn't called the parents or great grandma yet...just the sisters I feel so special. Seriously, I woke up to an e-mail sent at 5 am saying she'd been in labor for 4 hours already. I talked to her at 8 or so and she was JUST heading into the hospital to get checked out. So exciting! I'm waiting for the okay to call and cancel my lunch plans with my aunt, then Scotty is staying home with dad while I head to the hospital. I'm going to be an Auntie!!!

Alright, this is a follow-up to my previous post. I posted on Facebook that I was going to attempt to give up chocolate and my sister said dairy. I have 3 sisters...I know at least the older two are lactose intolerant and don't do dairy. I'm not a HUGE dairy fan, so I was okay with the idea of trying to cut it out. Then I started reading. Yikes.

I've been reading a number of posts by my friend Kristen at Adventures in Mommyhood. She's been giving foods up left and right trying to figure out what her breastfeeding son is having trouble with. I remembered her saying dairy. Heck, I think she's cut out just about everything you could. She gets some big stars from me, I'm having difficulty with just chocolate. BUT I sent an e-mail to both my sister and another to Kristen asking for advice. If there's a chance giving up dairy will help with my eczema, I'm willing to try it. Kristen was the best choice EVER. She has so much information and is so helpful!

Right now? I'm excited to start this adventure. Tomorrow when I have nothing to put in my coffee? I'll probably be in tears and very tempted to give up. BUT if I do this (which I am, I totally am...I swear) and it turns out that my eczema is caused by a dairy allergy or something? I'm totally calling my VERY unhelpful doctor and firing her. Seriously, you don't hand me a prescription for ointment and then run out the door. THEN have your nurse try to send me to a Naturopath when I call back a few months later because I'm going nuts with the itching 3 out of 4 weeks every month!

SO...wish me luck. The first big test? Tomorrow morning with no creamer. AND I have to take Scotty to soccer with no coffee in me (I'm writing this on Tuesday night). This should be interesting...they should be able to find something dairy free and all that for my coffee at a coffee stand, right? Please?

How will I survive? Seriously? I don't even know how this thought got into my head...I was thinking of my allergy issues, I have a bit of an upset tummy...and I've been eating chocolate all week because I'm PMS'ing. I know my Aunt is allergic to chocolate and has the same issues that I do. I never even thought about it. Probably because it's too horrible to contemplate. Unfortunately, my issues have gotten bad enough this month that I'm going to attempt to give up chocolate for a month and see how it goes. I'm REALLY hoping it's the chocolate. Otherwise? I'm giving up chocolate for a month for nothing AND I have a long list of other things to try to cut out before I figure out what the problem is. I refuse to go to a Naturopath or any other doctor when I can attempt to figure out the issue on my own!

Just had to share the horrible news...I'm not even sure which would be better, being allergic to chocolate and finally knowing what the cause is? Or NOT being allergic to chocolate and having to deal with this for an unknown amount of time until I find what is causing it? *sigh* Either way, I'm sad that I'm going to be giving up chocolate for a while.

We started Soccer last week. I signed Scotty up for a Sports Sampler at the community center. He'll do soccer the first 3 weeks, t-ball the next 3 and basketball the last 3. Sounds like fun, right? A bunch of 3-4 year olds running around playing. Awesome! Well, it would have been nice if they didn't have the soccer court setup right next to the open-play at the community center. We walked in the door and he was off, ready to ride in the cars. I was so bummed, I knew it wasn't going to go well.

Let me back up a little bit. Scotty was SO excited that morning to go to soccer and play with some kids. I had him practicing his jumping jacks, running back and forth, using his listening ears. He was PUMPED. We were even cheering and yelling about how excited we were. It was so fun! Then we got to the community center a little early. We parked and walked over to the store to grab a coffee and say Hi to my friend, then walked back over for soccer. That's when I realized the soccer court was right next to the cars/slides/etc. in the open play area. Crap.

It wasn't ALL bad. It started out with him not wanting to participate. He was upset because they were doing stretches and warmups, not playing with the balls yet. He's never done a class or anything without me, so I tried to go and help him. His ears were turned off. He was pouting. He was mad because he wanted the balls now AND the cars. So I made him sit with me for a few minutes against the wall. Then they got the balls out and he was ready to go! It was so darned cute, he listened for a bit! Then he spaced out and missed the directions. They did red-light/green-light and he kept carrying the ball, not kicking it. The teacher kept telling him "don't use your hands" and he got upset. He dropped to the floor and laid there until I went and grabbed him.

By this time I was pretty embarrassed and getting a little pissed. Probably didn't help the situation. I got him calmed down and he was ready to play again...then got distracted by the cars and tried to sneak away. Thankfully the class is only 40 minutes long and this happened at the end. They put all the balls away, went to cool-down and talk about what they'd learned and Scotty just lost it. He didn't want to sit with his friends and teachers, so we left 5 minutes early. It was SUPER fun. *sigh* I KNOW he's only 3, but in my head he knows better and should have behaved a little better. I know it's normal...but I'm still stressed about going again this week. I really hope he does better. I've talked to him about his soccer class and how he needs to listen, we've been practicing kicking the ball across the yard (he's REALLY good, apparently one of his concerns in class is that the other kids get his ball). So hopefully I'll be able to chill out a bit and so will he. And if not? My grandma will be there this week, so at least I'll be on my best behavior

Does anyone have any awesome advice for starting sports and how to deal with a kid that doesn't want to follow directions? If it doesn't get better this week, I'm taking volunteers to take him to the other 7 classes

Alright, so I've put off posting these awards for months now because I'm horrible at following directions. So instead? I'm just going to post my awards and say thank you Otherwise I'll sit on them for a while longer!

SO I'd like to say thank you to my good friend Annette at Mommy Spirit for the following awards:

Here are the rules for receiving this award, though I'm not going to follow all of them:

In order to receive the award fully, I must
1) Thank the person who gave me the award. Thank you so much Annette!
2) Share seven things about myself.
3) Nominate 15 newly discovered blogs, and let the nominees know about the award. (I'm going to skip this one, I'm horrible I know!)

Seven things about me:

1. My top 2 favorite movies are Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and Dirty Dancing
2. I'm a very loyal person, but I hold a grudge forever if you mess with me (I'm still upset about my 1st teddy bear my mom gave away when I was 2 or 3...I'm 26 now.)
3. I have severe PMS...and no will-power when it comes to chocolate during that time of the month.
4. Because of the above? I don't step on a scale until a week or so after Aunt Flo arrives. If I break this rule, I tend to cry.
5. I have three sisters...I'm not close to any of them and I hate that.
6. I feel guilty a good portion of the time for being so bitchy to the hubby and kiddo during PMS...I'm so lucky to have two such understanding and awesome guys in my life.
7. I read a lot. And by a lot? I mean at any given time I have a pile of at least 15 library books to read. I love the library.

And since I'm not passing the award on to save myself some time and get this done so I don't procrastinate any longer...I would also like to thank Annette for the...

According to Annette's original post, there are no rules for this one. So I'll just say thank you again...it's always nice to hear "foxy mama". Well, unless you're walking on a street by some overweight construction workers...Heck, I'll be honest here. If anyone calls me foxy? I enjoy it BUT I get super embarrassed, turn bright red and try to change the subject I don't know how I managed to get married, but the guy does compliment me on a regular basis. Yay for Foxy Mama's!

Just a little busy and frazzled! I'm going to try to sit down and get something done this week. It's been a bit hectic the last week or so. Lots of things to do, enjoying the last of the nice weather, Scotty started soccer (a post to come about that fiasco!).

And one of the most exciting (and a reason I'm still awake at 11:15) is my sister is due with her first baby on Tuesday! I've been on pins and needles for the last week or so waiting for the phone call. Every time the darn phone rings I jump a foot and look expectantly at the hubby if he answers while holding the car keys! Unfortunately, she'll probably go late. My mom was late with all of us, I was late with Scotty and my grandma was late with her kids. Hopefully she comes on time, we're all ready and super excited.

I'm off to bed now...just wanted to get a quick post explaining the absence. Ooh, AND my laptop has been weird lately. I can't get a signal anywhere in the house when it's overcast (weird, right?) and my battery AND power cord are dying. I've ordered both (last week) and my laptop is now in the bedroom...makes it a little harder to camp out during the day and fiddle around!

There are no words to describe this one...Love it

For more wordless wednesday head over to 5 Minutes for Mom

And now for the pictures...do you see why I'm anxious to go back???

Well, we actually got back on Wednesday night. BUT I took yesterday to catch up and do laundry, unpack, etc.

The cabin was absolutely wonderful! I think this is the first time I've ever stayed as long as I planned. I hadn't been up in a year. In that year? Both BIL's did a ton of work and cleaning out! I rearranged a bit when we arrived. I turned the loft into a play area for Scotty with all the toys, he absolutely loved that!

In the past I've managed maybe one trip to the beach the whole trip. I like to sit up at the cabin and read, look out at the water from the warmth of the cabin while sitting by the fire with a warm cup of tea. With a 3 year old (and my dad's girlfriend) that's just not possible! We went to the beach and explored the island every day. Scotty had a blast, I got close to 500 pictures. I'm a little snap-happy when it comes to the camera, I guess! I did manage to get some good ones.

I saw a few seals/sea lions, I don't really know which. It was from a distance and I didn't get any pictures. I SWEAR that at least two of them were seals and not driftwood. The one that I stood on a rock in the water and stared at for 20 minutes? I admit that was a piece of driftwood. It kept bobbing in the water and I was convinced it was a seal, but no such luck.

This trip I even went out to Spencer Spit! I've known the hubby and have been going to Lopez for 8 years and we've never gone to Spencer Spit! I love it. We walked all the way out to the end (after Scotty ran in mud puddles for a bit and even sat in one). On one side of the spit the beach was rocky and hard...the other side? It was like at the ocean! The sand was soft and lots of driftwood. It was beautiful! I think it's my favorite beach on the island, other than the beach right at our cabin of course

Scotty had his first hotdog and s'more at a campfire while we were there. The stinker kept resting his hotdog in the ashes. Oops. He gave me quite the scare a few times. He managed to pickup a bee/wasp by the very middle and hold it without getting stung. Nice. THEN while on one of the other beaches we were attempting to fly a kite and he stopped and asked "what's this?" while patting something. I looked down and it was a dead jellyfish! They were all over the shore, it was pretty neat, but scared the crap out of me when I saw him touching it!

Overall, the cabin was a blast. It was great to get home though. We do NOT have wi-fi at the cabin. My BIL felt so bad when he got home and talked to his wife and she said we didn't. Apparently he doesn't always listen when she talks, ha ha ha. Oh well, it was nice to get away and ignore the world for a bit. We turned on the TV one night to watch the Rugrats movie with Scotty, otherwise we left it off. He was tuckered out by the end of the day that going to bed was no problem!

And the best part? We're going to go back sometime in November/December! Scotty and I are super excited, we're ready to go back again!

*A picture-heavy post will follow tomorrow! Lots and lots of beautiful beach shots and hilarious 3 year old shots

"Well HELLO there pretty lady..." I am in trouble when this kid starts dating...

Am I supposed to link up somewhere? Or can I just randomly share a picture?