Changes

Things around the Winston household are changing. We are working on spending more quality time with the kids. To start, I sit down and do homework with Kaylie every afternoon. We go over it together, I quiz her on her multiplication tables and her social studies study guides for tests. We all sit down for dinner every night and talk about our day. I even signed me and Kaylie up for the Mommy and me Girl Scout camp next month for a weekend. I think that will be awesome mother/daughter bonding time! I'm looking forward to it, yet at the same time I'm nervous because I will know absolutely nobody there. haha My anxiety problems showing through! ;)




With Brandon I have been working on teaching him his colors and matching shapes that I cut out of construction paper. His attention span is short though so we only do that for a few minutes at a time before he is off to the next thing. haha




Overall, I am just working on being a better parent and spending more time with my kids. It's a work in progress and not expecting miracles overnight.

Another thing that is changing is our bank accounts. I am so proud that this month alone we have saved more money than ever!! I have been cooking every single night and I can't even remember the last time we went and ate at a restaurant. Not only is our bank account happier about that, but so are our bodies! I hope to continue that trend. I want to enjoy Hawaii, but yet think of our future and what is really important in the long run. Focus on our long term goals and not the present. Again, this is a work in progress. I love not living paycheck to paycheck and I want to make sure it stays that way in the future. So saving more is crucial.


Speaking of the future, I don't know why I am so rushed to get done with my bachelor's... after thinking about it and talking to my brother and my adviser there is no need to take on more classes than I can handle. I'm not going to stress myself out to try and attempt to get done quicker and by the end of next summer. What is a few more months??? Good, valid points. I mean I can't start my Master's until we leave here anyway, so I will just stick with my two classes at a time that I have done for the past 3 years and just keep it that way. I know I can handle that! No more crazy ideas of doing 3 or 4 classes at a time. It's crazy and added unneeded stress and anxiety to me even thinking about my class load. So Monday I start TWO classes. :)


My mom and stepdad will be here on Monday. I'm excited about that. I'm excited to see them and show them the island. My brother is coming back out in January so that is double exciting. Especially since in January Curt might be going to SLC for two months so it will be nice to have someone here for a week to help me out.

Changes are good, changes are healthy...and I'm glad that I am working towards the goals we have for our future! I see a bright one ahead for us. I'm in a good place and happy and tend to keep it this way!

Working it out

We are working on many things in our family. For starters, we are working on Kaylie. She has been going through a phase where she is lying all the time. She has been grounded for three weeks now for lies she has told. For simple things and big things. I am almost at a loss of what to do. So last night I told Curt we need to start spending more time with her. She is always holed up in her room reading a book. We need to get her out of that shell more and talking to us. I know all kids go through this phase, but it sure is tiring. And then an incident happened the other night that left me devastated. Something Kaylie did. I don't want to get into it for the entire internet world to know, but I truly felt my heart sink and her actions. I made her write a letter to me and Curt about why lying is bad. It's still sitting on the counter and I plan on leaving it there for her to see for awhile. Sigh....its just so disheartening when after you try to be the best parent you can be and then they do stuff like this. So now I am working on being a better parent not only to Kaylie but also to Brandon. I know I have areas I can improve in and that is important to me!

I have also been working on researching colleges for my Master's. I have it narrowed down to the one's I like. If Curt does do this recruiting thing if he doesn't get picked up for E7 in the next two years I wanted to have a good idea of areas to live in with big colleges near by. For Iowa I have picked the University of Iowa in Iowa City, and the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls. In Illinois I have picked Concordia University Chicago, and also Chicago State University, obviously also in the city. I am excited about this. Last night I even felt good about eventually (long time from now) attempting to get into a PhD program for school psychology.  We'll see about that though. I am taking it one step at a time. And I'll start with finishing my BA within the next year. :)

I am really nervous about my three classes starting October 1st. I have already started reading my textbooks to get ahead. I have Research Methods in Psychology, History and Systems of Psychology, and Intro to Child Development. Big work load. It's intimidating. But I am going to do it!!

10 Years!!

Today is mine and Curt's ten year wedding anniversary! I can't believe its been that long already. It seems like yesterday we were 20 and 21 years old. Wow. Time goes so fast. Let me give you a little back story on us. We started dating on June 1, 1999. A few days before I graduated high school. We both worked at McDonald's together but in the year 2000 I decided I needed to move to Iowa to live with my mom again ( I was living at my friend Gena's house with her mom, Gena had already left to join the navy and I felt it was time to move on and I sure couldn't afford my own place that young and working as a shift manager at Mickey D's)...anyway, so I made the tough decision to move to Iowa where I hadn't lived since I was 5! I left the burbs of Chi-town and moved to Manchester, Iowa. A town of 5,000 people. What a change! I started working at Walmart and loved it there. Curt decided he was going to move to live with me after his Junior year ended. And he did! The boy loved me!!

We eventually moved into our own apartment and out of my mom's house (thank God) and in 2002 I found out I was pregnant and Curt decided to join the army. While he was in basic we decided we needed to get married so we started planning our wedding through letters sent back and forth and very few phone calls! Me and my stepdad drove down to Fort Knox, let me add I drove, my stepdad slept! haha. I was so tired because we drove overnight and I drove the entire way until the sun came up, then I finally woke Mario up and told him he needed to finish the trip because I was starting to see double. haha We drove down for family day weekend at the halfway point of his training. I was six months pregnant when we got married on Friday, September 13, 2002. Yes we were married on Friday the 13th and I wore a black maternity dress borrowed from my sister :) I was so happy to finally marry the love of my life! A few months later Kaylie was born and then we moved down to Fort Benning which was our first duty station.

And now here we are! Ten years later, still going strong!! Our song has always been "Still the One" by Shania Twain. We had so many haters who said we would never make it. And I'm sure some even think that today still. But I know we are strong, I know we are making it, regardless of what people think. They only get a sliver of what we are really like behind closed doors. What others think of us doesn't matter anyway, because we know the truth and that is all that really does matter! It doesn't bother me what anyone thinks we are like and not like. That is their opinion, and well...we don't really care how we are perceived by others.  We are the loves of each others lives. I can't imagine being with anyone but him even when he drives me crazy :) We have both grown and changed since we were those two high schoolers falling in love. It's amazing to watch him grow old with me. I look forward to the next ten years with him and seeing where our journey leads us next. :)

Happy anniversary to us!

Ramblings

Curt finally said a few nights ago that he has been thinking about the whole recruiting thing and said he will do it if he does not get picked up for E7 in the next two years. That's awesome! Makes me sort of excited to think about it. I've been looking at real estate in Iowa and Illinois and I lean more towards Iowa. Housing costs are cheaper, cost of living is cheaper, and schools that offer my Master's program are more close by! I know I am totally jumping the gun, since we have two years left here, but I like to look at real estate anyway (and do it at least once a week haha).

I have been trying to think and be more positive over the past week. I've done excellent in it too! I was in such a good mood most of last week. I think my attitude has so much to do with that. I've been avoiding negative thoughts posted on the internet and facebook, avoiding people who tend to always be negative, and just be POSITIVE for a change. When I talked to my sister one day last week I answered the phone all bubbly and laughing. She said "wow, what's wrong with you, you usually aren't so happy on the phone, you're usually bitchy."

Well, if my sister thinks that, who I talk to every day, it must be how I am. So I have been working on that. There are some people who I just instantly, as soon as I get around them or talk to them on the phone, bring my energy down. I don't like that. I want positive, happy energy around me. It won't matter much soon anyway, I will be a hermit in a few more weeks when my full college load starts!!

Aaggh, I am so nervous about it, but am also very determined to stay on top of it and stay positive. I am going to print out that picture of the woman with her diploma and stick it by my computer so I see it everytime I log on. I hope it keeps my motivation high!! I am doing this for myself and I can't wait for the immense sense of pride I will feel accomplishing this goal of mine!!! 

Till next time! :)

So, so motivated!!

Today I became extremely motivated to kick my butt into gear and finish my degree. I was on my school's Facebook page reading people's comments and what-not when I ran across a lady who just got her diploma in the mail. To see that diploma and to see how happy she was, pushed me forward to get this done!!! As you know I have been struggling with this and what to do. I decided a couple weeks ago I was going to not stop now and at least finish my degree ( I am over halfway done). I have 17 classes to go. I dropped down to half time status earlier this year because I was feeling overwhelmed, but I have decided to go back to full time and knock my BA out. At my half time status I wouldn't graduate until June 2014. Whereas, going back to full time will have me graduating next summer in 2013! I am making this my number one priority. I am going to be taking a full class load, but I don't care. I WILL DO THIS. I WILL MAKE MYSELF PROUD FIRST AND FOREMOST!!!!

So  come October 1st, when my classes start, I will pretty much be MIA with sporadic updates here and there. I can't wait to get my own diploma in the mail. I am fully confident in myself to do this. I am a fighter. And I plan on fighting for this with all my heart!

What will our future hold??

Little update on me...I decided to stick it out with AMU and finish there. I have about a year and a half left. I went ahead and signed up for all my fall and winter classes so now I am scheduled through the end of March for school with all of my scholarship money so I won't be paying a dime for any of these classes. That's the good news I guess. I guess I should also just be thankful I will be exiting college with very minimal student loans as compared to most. I still dread that payment though. Ugh....haha

Anyway, so last night me and Curt started talking about his career and his fear of not getting promoted due to his injury. We have a little over two years left in Hawaii. I was googling last night and found the armor E7 promotion board prereq's. Curt needs to start taking advantage of any military school he can. They look at that for promotion to SFC. After the new year he will be going to SLC (formerly called ANCOC) which is the school to get promoted to E7 (or SFC). That is a two month long school back at Fort Benning. I also have been trying to get him to sign up for a specialty position because it looks excellent on your record and pretty much guarantees promotion. For awhile now I have been talking to him about becoming a recruiter and how nice it would be to move home for three years. He is against the idea, because he hates the idea of recruiting, but it would look so good on his record. He can do that or be an instructor back at Benning. So in 2013 he will be working on all the schools he can and then once we have 6-12 months left until our DEROS (date we leave Hawaii, which is Dec 2014) he can put in his packet for either recruiting or instructor.

This is all if he doesn't get picked up for E7 in the next two years. The E7 board only meets once a year in February usually and they release the list around April/May of each year. So by 2014 if he has not been picked up for it, those are our two options. I wouldn't mind either choice. I think being a recruiter would be good for him and it fits within his limited profile. And it would be pretty cool to be back in Illinois or Iowa for awhile. If you volunteer for recruiting instead of being DA selected (the army forces you to be a recruiter) you get to choose three locations to be stationed at and you are pretty much guaranteed one of those three areas for volunteering for recruiting duty. He does have the cadre time on his records from Benning, but I don't think that would look as good as recruiting or instructing.

We shall see. Planning for the future is hard!!!