2013 Goals

I know I haven't posted about Christmas yet but I wanted to get into New Years.  I haven't ever been very good at New Year's resolutions. I am more of the goal kind of person.  Last year's goals included things like: find a place to live in MD, manage to drive across the country and not have a baby, have a happy healthy baby and so on.  This year's goals are not so focused on moving & the baby and more focused on our entire family.

Goal #1
- Save $$$$ in our savings account, so that someday we can buy a house.  whether that is here or somewhere else in the U.S.

Goal #2
- Go to New York City for Jackson's 1st birthday. Living so far away from our friends and family means that Jackson doesn't really get a birthday party. We thought this would be a way to make his day/birthday week more special than every other day of the year.  We will also get to do something special for our anniversary since it is 3 days before Jack's birthday. This isn't going to be a long trip just a night or two but none the less it's still a trip.

Goal #3
- Make it back to Wisconsin as a family at least once.  The Man doesn't get much vacation and has school and reserves so this will actually be a little more difficult than people may think.  It is very important to us that Jackson knows his family and our friends.

Goal #4
- Go camping in Ohio (half way between our friends & us) with a bunch of our friends this June. We have been talking about doing a group trip or something for a couple years now.  This year I am really hoping that it actually happens.

Goal #5
- Save an additional $6,000 - $7,000 for a trip to Switzerland in January 2014.  The Man is half Swiss and a Swiss citizen.  He has always wanted to visit Switzerland. Since we don't live near family that would be able to watch Jackson for a week or longer and we do not know when/if we will be living closer to family in the next years to come.  So I proposed to the Man that we try and go in a year since Jackson will be under 2 and will fly for free. If we save up all this extra $$$$ the only way we will not be going is if I am pregnant or just had a baby...which neither is being planned since both of us really want to go to Switzerland!  If we don't go next January it could be another 5-10 years before we will be able to go again, so we look at it as we have to seize this opportunity to take Jackson and make a memory we will tell him about.

So there are our BIG goals for 2013. We also have other goals that probably don't seem so big but are just as important like: raise a super happy healthy little boy, love each other every day more than the day before, be better people and so on.

Out with 2012 and in with 2013

Since it is already 2013 and I have been pretty awful at blogging this past year I thought I would do a little recap of 2012 to send it on its way and bring in 2013

January:

~ the Man came home from being deployed overseas for 5 1/2 months

~ Rented an apartment online without ever looking at it or the neighborhood it was in scary stuff that ended up turning out really well for us!

February:

~ booked a moving truck & packed up all of our stuff to move across the country

~ drove from California to Maryland in 4 days at 34 weeks pregnant

~ the Man became apart of the Navy Reserves instead of reenlisting as active duty Navy

March:

~ Started my job in its new location I kept my same job but transferred from CA to MD, so different people to work with

~ the Man got enrolled in college for the summer

~ We bought a new car

~ the Man found a job

~ the moving truck delivered all of our stuff

April:

~ Celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary well kind of, we had planned on going out to eat and to the movies a couple days later but I decided that our new apartment was a disaster and not ready for a baby to come home to yet so we stayed home that night and then I ended up going into labor

~ Welcomed the most amazing little boy into our lives

~ My mom came out and visited and met Jackson for the first time

May:

~ the Man's parents came out and visited and met Jackson

~ My dad & sister drove out to visit us and deliver a few things from WI

~ the Man started his college classes

June:

~ Celebrated my 27th birthday with a visit from two amazing friends! Still can't believe you pulled off that surprise

~ My maternity leave ended

~ Nicki came out to babysit for a couple weeks until the Man and I were on opposite shifts

July:

~ the Man switched from days to 2nd shift

~ the Man finished up his summer college classes

~ Jackson started to laugh and smile when he thought things were funny not just when he was sleeping

August:

~ Took a vacation to Wisconsin

~ Jackson's first plane ride

~ Jackson was baptized

~ Celebrated the Man's 26th birthday with friends in WI

September:

~ the Man started the fall semester of college

~ the Man switched to working 3rd shift

~ We took Jackson to his first baseball game, the Brewers played the Nationals

October:

~ Jackson and I flew to WI by ourselves

~ Celebrated my Mom & Bill's wedding

~ Jackson turned 6 months

~ Jackson's bottom 2 teeth popped threw

~ Jackson started to eat real food

~ Jackson started to crawl and with that get into EVERYTHING

~ Took Jackson trick-or-treating for the first time

November:

~ Celebrated Thanksgiving with new friends in MD

~ Jackson started pulling up on furniture and moving around it

~ Welcomed our niece Dahlia to the family we cannot wait to meet her!

December:

~ the Man finished the fall semester of college

~ we celebrated our first Christmas as a family of 3

~ the Man's parents came out and visited for Christmas

~ ended up signing a lease at our current apartment for another year
~ Jackson's 3rd tooth popped threw

I know that I probably missed a ton of milestone's and things that have happened this past year.  Overall 2012 was a pretty amazing year filled with tons of ups and a few downs.  I know both Josiah & I are looking forward to see what 2013 has in store for us and our family.

Happy New Year to all of you and your family's. Here's to family, faith, love and new adventures & opportunities in 2013!

Recovering!!

So I have determined that blogging on a regular basis is not my strong suit. Since getting back from our vacation almost a month ago things have been a little on the crazy side.

This is how a typical 'vacation' to WI goes: Spend 2-3 weeks before the trip getting all of our ducks in a row, airport picks/drop offs, the suitcase situation, what days we will spend where & with who, getting everything done for work a head of time, cleaning the house trust me coming home to a super clean house is one of the most amazing things after a vacation! Then comes the actual vacation and that includes seeing and trying to get quality time with about 100 people in a 10 day span all while doing everything in our power to have a relaxing time with people we do not get to spend nearly enough time with.  Once we are back home things are pretty similar to the 2-3 weeks prior to the trip....trying to catch up on work and fix the problems that occurred, catching up on laundry, getting back into a good routine.

Needless to say we are still working on all those things!  Clothes are still in suitcases, our bedroom looks like a washer or dryer threw-up in it, still trying to get back into the swing of things Josiah starting school last week didn't help this any and I have been playing catch-up at work since the first day back!!

I really think that we are finally getting into a pretty solid routine and that I am caught up at work at least as caught up as I will ever be With everything else starting to get back to our 'normal' routine I think blogging will finally be able to come back into it.

So here's to making the rest of the year more productive in the blogging world!

Happy Belated Birthday to The Man!!

I know it's a little late but I just wanted to say Happy Birthday to one of the most amazing people I know.  I am extremely lucky to have him in my life. He really does make me a better person and is a better father to Jackson than I could have ever imagined.  I can only hope that 26 is as good to him as I feel 25 was. I am really glad that the Man was able to celebrate his birthday back home in Wisconsin.  We had an amazing meal at Royal Tokyo with some great friends and then followed that up with a few cocktails & a classic game of darts at the local watering hole.


While in WI we took Jackson swimming at the local hotel's pool...he LOVED it!!

Josiah feeding a camel at Jim Peck's

Green Bay Packers vs. Cleveland Browns

 Josiah & his Dad

 Josiah's Dad, Josiah, me & my Dad

Admiring Jackson when he was born

Just Playin'

Working on the boat, when he was deployed...he is the one with the checkered helmet

Happy Belated Birthday Love! I hope you had an awesome birthday week and that it continues through the entire year.

its time for a VACATION!!!

In case anyone actually reads this or checks this blog on a daily basis I thought I would let you all know that I probably won't get any blog posts done until after I return from our 10 day vacation in Wisconsin!!  And I am sure I will have tons to fill you in about seeing as we will be flying with a 4 month old for the very first time...eeek!!!!


OH just a few random things I should have posted about but haven't had time with getting ready for this trip:

1.) Jackson is 4 months old!!  Crazy, I know.  He is a beast....weighing in at 15 lbs. 12 oz. 25 in. long.  If you couldn't tell by the pictures, the kid has a huge head I mean that in the nicest way possible! It is 42.5 cm!

2.) The new schedule seems to be working pretty well....some days are harder than others.

3.) If the first paragraph didn't fill you in we are going to Wisconsin!! This will be Jackson's first time meeting a ton of people and only his 2nd time seeing all of his Grandparents...that kind of makes me sad


Alright well I have to go get ready for work so I can get back to the house to pack all of our bags since we are out of here in less than 24 hours!!!!

Adios Amigos :)

Our Style....at least for now

Since the little man is sleeping and I have tons of actual work to do I find my self wanting to write a blog post....I really need to learn to stop procrastinating!

Moving out of the great state of Wisconsin has enlightened the Man and I on quite a few different things.  People in other states really don't drink as much as people in WI. There really are way more religions than the typical 3 or 4 you usually come across in WI.  Speaking only 1 language really does make you a minority pretty much every where else in the country!  And this last one is what the whole post is about: There are many different ways to parent and raise your child.

Now Time Magazine recently put out an article about attachment parenting. Now before I moved to California I had NO idea as to what attachment parenting was.  The Man does not like to jump on "bandwagons" or "fads".  And to him that is exactly what attachment parenting is.  But what this "fad" did was open our eyes to a different way than either one of us had ever thought to parent. We thought we owed it to Jackson to at least look into all the options for everything that pertained to him and make the best decision from that.

So far here is where we are at on some of the different issues:
- we formula feed
- we use disposable diapers
- we immunize at the recommended times
- at night he sleeps in a pack-n-play next to our bed (we do not co-sleep)
- I own 2 ring slings and love to wear the baby when its not to warm out
- we didn't let him cry it out at all until he was 3 months old (now we will not let him cry for more than 10 min.)

Now the whole thing that started this post was that the Man and I are now looking into Baby Led Weaning. It is a different way to go about feeding your baby solids than the normal purees. When I first heard about people I knew doing this I found it really odd.  The more I thought about it though the more it made sense. I personally am a VERY picky eater and I do not want my kid to grow up and be a picky eater. Josiah totally agrees with me on this reason and the fact that it will get us eating better and more diverse meals.

Since we didn't know a whole lot about it and what it all entailed we purchased 2 books off of amazon: Baby-Led Weaning: The Essential Guide to Introducing Solid Foods and Helping Your Baby to Grow Up a Happy and Confident Eater and The Baby-Led Weaning Cookbook. We are currently reading the books but from what we have learned from Google & in our reading this is something that we want to try.

Sorry about the super long post just to get to 1 little point.  But look for more posts on how our BLW is coming along and if we stick with it or find out it is not something we want to continue with.

Visit from Friend(s)

A couple weeks back, my birthday week and the little man's 2 month birthday, we were lucky enough to have a couple friends visit us.  Well I should start by saying that we only knew about one of these friends coming out...little did I know that they booked their tickets together and decided to keep a HUGE secret from me by not telling me our other friend was also coming along.  I just have to say good job to both of you on keeping it a secret for so long.  I was completely surprised when I went to pick up Megan from the airport and found out Nadine was also there.  It actually didn't really sink in until we were back at the apartment that she was there....the baby was having a rough morning and might have had me a little frazzled!

It was awesome to get to see both of them again and that they were able to meet Jackson.  We did a lot of fun things while they were here.  The first thing they got to do was go to Jackson's 2-month appointment with me and watch him get 3 shots, ok so maybe that wasn't so much fun.  But after that we walked around Georgetown and grabbed a bite to eat.

The next day was my birthday and we did some touristy site-seeing in downtown D.C.  We saw a few different memorials, the White House and tons & tons of girl scouts...it just so happened they were celebrating 100 years of girls scouts that day. 

On Saturday we got to check out the Smithsonian National Zoo.  It was really awesome, especially since its a free zoo!!  It has been decided that if we are still living in this area Jackson will have his 3rd birthday party there...so everyone better start saving up to come celebrate with us!  After the zoo we went back and had a little pool time at the apartment and just relaxed since we had to get up at 3:30 a.m. to get them to the airport.

Enough with the words and onto a few photos!

 World War II Memorial

 Jackson enjoying site-seeing in downtown D.C.

 Almost all of us at the zoo

 Thirsty Nadine getting water from the Tiger at the Zoo

 Zoo

 Megan's obsessed with Smart Cars and got super super happy every time she saw one

 The White House

Nadine & Megan some what near the Washington Monument

I know I didn't do a great job summarizing their trip but free time is limited and I really should be sleeping instead.  I had an amazing time while they were here and I really hope they both come back out to visit again soon :)

All pictures were taken by either Josiah, Megan or Nadine

Godparents

Because the Man and I decided to raise Jackson Catholic, which is what I am, we had the big task of choosing who we wanted to Jackson's godparents.  The Man doesn't have godparents and didn't really know what the purpose was for having them.  So like normal we Googled it...I have my own definition as to the purpose of godparents but we thought we should find the "official" reasoning.

Here is what the all truth telling Wikipedia told us: Traditionally, godparents were informally responsible for ensuring the child's religious education was carried out, and for caring for the child should he/she be orphaned. Today, the word godparent might not have explicitly religious overtones. The modern view of a godparent tends to be an individual chosen by the parents to take an interest in the child's upbringing and personal development.

Now here is my thoughts on godparents...it's similar to Wikipedia's: I think parents should choose people that they feel will help their child grow in ways that they might not be able to fulfill.  I do believe that they should help with the religious aspect.  I also think that godparents are their to help teach your child life lessons and to help them grow and become knowledgeable adults.  

With this in mind there immediately were a few people that came to mind who would be amazing godparents.  Traditionally and religiously you only have 2 godparents, a godmother & a godfather.  Sorry if everybody knows this stuff!  The Man and I debated for probably a good 6 months whether or not to have 2 or 4 godparents.  In the end we decided on 4 :)

The 4 people we choose are my sister Nicki, our friend Megan, my cousin Andy and our friend Kyle.  All 4 of these people bring something different to the table. None of these people are perfect...sorry guys!  But they all have had different experiences, attitudes and thoughts.  The Man and I our sure they will help Jackson grow into a very well-rounded adult.    

Thanks to Nicki, Megan, Andy & Kyle for agreeing to be such a big part of Jackson's life!  We can't wait to have his baptism when we are back in Wisconsin in August.

We are very lucky to have so many amazing people in our lives that will help us raise Jackson...even if its from miles and miles away!      

Etsy Loves & Wants

Since the little man is asleep I was able to do a little online shopping :)  I just had to share the new hat that I just ordered for Jackson to hopefully wear this fall the kid has a big head so who knows! There are also a few other things that I am debating ordering.

Skull on Stripes Hat by craftnikki

I can't wait to get this and see how cute he is going to look in it!!!

This Is My Kegstand Shirt by ShopTheIttyBitty

I think this shirt would be perfect for almost any Halopka event...It might be the next thing ordered!

Wooden Teether Wisconsin by littlesaplingtoys

This will most likely be ordered once the little man starts teething...we will always have a love for WI!!

I'll Be Back...

So today would be the day that I would update you on the pregnancy since we are now at 24 weeks.  Well there really isn't anything new and exciting.  Since I am leaving tomorrow for vacation I have also decided to not blog until I get back home.  I promise that I will make up for the lack of blogs in December with some exiting stuff in January!

I hope everyone has a great Christmas & New Year and hopefully I will see some of you when I get to WI!

Thanks!!

Well Nicki has been gone for almost a week now.  I really do miss her cooking for me!  But soon enough I will be on vacation in WI for the holidays and then the Man will be home.

When Nicki decided to come and live with me for 4 months I wanted to make sure she actually got to do some cool/fun shit.  So now that she is gone I thought I would recap some of the notable things that we did.

August:
- Motley Crue & Poison concert
- She got to meet the baby for the first time

September:
- Went to Las Vegas for a night

October:
- Watched the Blue Angels at the airshow on base
- Dad came to visit
- Went to Yosemite National Park
- Went to Monterey Bay & the Monterey Bay Aquarium
- Saw the Fresno Philharmonic Orchestra perform the Wizard of Oz

November:
- Went to San Diego for the weekend
- Got to experience 2 hours of stand-still traffic on our way to San Diego
- We found out the sex of the baby
- Had our first Black Friday shopping experience

Overall I think we did a lot of fun things.  So I have to say thanks to Nicki for only taking 1 college class this semester so I wouldn't have to live by myself for so long.
  

Love for Wisconsin

In case any of you did not know I happen to LOVE Wisconsin.  Now all the awesomeness happening in WI sports just makes me love it even more.

Let's recap the past couple weeks in WI sports:

- Brewers are in the playoffs and I must say they are doing AMAZING only 1 team stands between them and a trip to the World Series!!!  And to top it off I actually get to watch these games and can see the Crew in BEAST mode!

- Badgers are now ranked #4 after destroying Nebraska last week...another amazing game I was ecstatic to be able to watch!

- The Packers are 4-0 and currently leading Atlanta in the 4th so I am making an early prediction of 5-0 


I hope all of you are excited as I am about how well the state is being represented right now. Just wish I could attend one of these games.  Sorry if that was not as good of a recap as you were hoping for I was distracted by the Packer game and really wanted to finish this post!

Picture Time

It has been awhile since I posted something that had pictures with it, so here is a post with a bunch of different pictures from my trip back to WI in August.

One person I ALWAYS make sure I see when I am home....G-ma and I

We took a trip to our local zoo, not much at the zoo but I did get this picture with my niece and nephew :)

The Bride and I while bar hopping

The Bride & Groom

The In-Laws took some time for a picture at the wedding reception

HUGE downfall

This time of year makes me really happy for a couple reasons: 1.) love the fall weather 2.) getting closer to hunting season & the holidays 3.) football begins

Now living in WI is the reason I fell in love with all of those things and living in CA is making it really difficult to enjoy all of those things!!

 Average high temp where we live is in the 100's with a low in the upper 60's...this does not equal the hoodie weather that I enjoy once 4th of July is over with.  


Now hunting season and the holidays are not even close to the same experience they were just a couple years ago.  No large family get togethers with 10 different Christmas' and 3 different Thanksgiving dinners....just 1 of each and usually with only one or two other people. 


Football season is the reason I wrote this blog entry.  I LOVE to watch Packer & Badger games and now I am stuck watching 3 California teams that I could really care less about.  Which forces me to watch the games online, not exactly the same experience. 

Again....Sorry!!

To anyone...I think there might be a few people that faithfully read my blog....I am super sorry that it has been so long since I have posted a blog of some substance  I am not counting this one


There has been a lot of stuff going on that really needs to be blogged about: a concert, Nicki moving in, a trip to WI and being at my job for a year.


Hopefully I will be able to get all of these blogs and more done this weekend.  So please be patient with my blogging.

Airport Frustrations!

As I promised in the previous post, I am doing a "flashback" post.  To get everyone fully up-to-speed I might repeat a few things already stated.....you will just have to deal with it :)

On to the point...

I traveled back to Wisconsin unexpectedly Sunday June 19th and was to return to California late Thursday June 23. Here is how the trip from FAT to CWA went:
   - First flight departed at 7:00 am, by 7:30 the guy sitting in the isle seat was telling me a little too much about his life and how he was going to party it up in Miami while being there on a business trip.  By 7:45 the same guy bought himself 2 bloody marys and me 1.  8:15 the same guy was now sing and dancing to some great 80's & 90's music  very very funny.  9:00 same guy are you noticing a trend on this flight???? bought my a 2nd bloody mary and himself a 3rd  keep in mind that he proceeded to tell me that it was on his wifes credit card and that since it was father's day it was ok.  By now I am laughing really hard at this guy and personally think he might be going through a mid-life crisis but it doesn't end here.  He ends up passing out by 10 am and sleeping the entire rest of the flight.....I went the opposite direction as he did when we got off the plane even though he offered to buy me lunch


   - My next two flights weren't that interesting so I don't have much to say about them.....they did however arrive on-time and everything was great in Dallas and Chicago that is where my 2 layovers were


Now for the trip from CWA to FAT:
   - Get to CWA to find out that the previous flight from Chicago to LAX was cancelled, so they put me on other flights just in case mine got cancelled as well.  Then find out that my plane is delayed over an hour....panic now is setting in because I realize I will have about a 10 min. window to get off of this plane and run to my board my next flight in Chicago


   - Landed in Chicago, got off the plane super fast but ended up that my carry-on, which was stowed underneath the plane,  was one of the last ones unloaded.  So I ended up missing my connecting flight.  No worries at CWA they already booked me on a totally different route so I am still good to go just postponed about 2 hours  at least that is what I thought!  Get to my new gate and go to get my ticket and then learn that now that plane is delayed by 45 min.  OMG this is getting annoying!!!   I finally board that plane to realize that when I land in Phoenix I once again have about a 25 min window to get to my next flight....Oh wait there is a light bulb out on the plane make that now a 10 min window.  


   -  Got to Phoenix and didn't get off the plane as fast as I would have liked or needed too.  So I end up missing that connecting flight by about 10 min too.  So now I go to the terminal that I need to be in and they kindly inform me that there are 5 daily flights from Phoenix to Fresno  I was extremely excited for about a second  but the earliest one they could get me on was at 8 pm on Friday, mind you it is about 11:30 pm on Thursday....that is a long frickin time to spend in one airport!  They do inform me that I should be able to fly stand-by and get on one of the 3 earlier flights and that I should be able to go back to the terminal I came from and get a free hotel room from the airline that brought me to Phoenix.  So I went back to the other terminal by the way this is not that easy of a process, just for the record and just as my luck would have it there was not a single person working and I was told that the earliest anyone would be in was around 4 am  CAN I CATCH A BREAK YET!!!!  So I go back to the terminal that I will be flying out of sometime in the next 24 hours to sleep on the floor like a bum.  Got up at 4 am and got in line to get my stand-by ticket, went to go to my gate to realize that even thought I have not left the airport at all I had to go through security again.  Went to my gate to find out they switched the gate to the other side of the terminal....not cool!  First flight to FAT is boarding.....my stand-by ticket got me on the flight!!  YAY!!!


   -  Finally landed in Fresno at 11:30 Friday morning


Sorry that this was so long and maybe even boring for you.  It was extremely frustrating for me.  Moral of the story always bring a blanket/pillow or even both! Sleeping on an airport floor by yourself is not comfy at all.

cra·zi·ness

the only word to describe the last month: CRAZINESS!!

Let's quickly recap the last month  I might have to do a few "flashback" blogs to get completely caught up


1.) Made an unexpected trip back to Wisconsin to celebrate the life of my Grandma Halopka, she was an amazing person and is missed by many!!

2.) Had the worst travel experience on my way back to California to-date

3.) Home for 4 days before packing up and headed to San Jose to fly back to WI

4.) Had an incredible trip home: 4th of July in Phillips & at the Eau Plaine, Brother-In-Law's wedding the following weekend, and was able to see tons of family and friends that I don't talk to enough.  there were many people I did not get to see that I really really wanted to, SORRY!!


5.) Flew back to CA after 12 days in WI

So now here I am trying to get back into the swing of things...

It's My Birthday!!!! The start of being closer to 30 than 20!

Today is my birthday! The day I look forward to the most every year. 

2 years old

Before we look at what 26 has to offer, lets see what happened at 25! 

Highlights of being 25:

• Started a new job (that I love)
• Took 2 trips back to Wisconsin
• Had visits from Megan, Josiah's Parents, my Mom & Bill, Nicki, and Chad & Carrie
• Went to see the Badgers play in Vegas, where I saw more friends from WI
• Went to see the Badgers play in the Rose Bowl, also met up with Kyle and his family
• Took another trip to Vegas to see Carrie
• Took a trip to San Francisco with the Man
• Met some awesome friends!
• Celebrated being married for a year (it went by really fast!) 

Overall 25 was a pretty good year for me. It defiantly had its downs but judging from the list above there were ALOT of highlights!

This years birthday cupcake

The start of 26

This years birthday was pretty good.  I brought cupcakes to the people I work with on almost a daily basis....they were AMAZING!!  I received tons of birthday wishes on facebook and in text messages, thanks again to everyone that wished me a Happy Birthday, and I even got a few phone calls :)  I ended the night with a birthday dinner at La Fiesta with two friends, Coleta & Kat.  

Lets hope the rest of 26 goes as well as today, if not better!  

I probably should have just made this two posts but oh well!