Author: ann marie

Y’all we are in the thick of GA summer here and OMG it’s HOT!!!! My girls have had swim lessons for 6 weeks now and the final day was this last Thursday. Well, they’ve also been allowing family to join in and free swim on the final day.

Because of my ankle troubles I haven’t been able to do any water activities with the girls for 3 weeks. So they of course asked me to join free swim time since I’m in a much simpler brace now. I was super hesitant not due to my ankle, but because I’d have to put on a swimsuit!!!! I’ve been on the couch resting my ankle for almost a month and definitely feeling super fluffy. I didn’t think long about it though because my kids won’t remember the fluff. They’ll remember the time mommy went swimming with them!!!

So for this particular time I found my most modest suit that covered as much “fluff” as I could and went for it! What impressed me more is the amount of parents that got in too. The lessons were 2 week sessions, so this is the 3rd free swim/family swim and the first time I saw more then one parent get in. I honestly wanted to tell them all they rocked! However, I’d had a very excited 2 year old who’d been hyped up by her sisters saying she was gonna get to swim too. So I found a spot for our bag and we all jumped in for our free swim time!

Was anyone else paying attention to my body or my swimsuit? I don’t know because I was focused on my girls and their fun! So my word of wisdom is to stand tall and go have fun with the kids! They won’t be little long and wouldn’t you rather them remember you doing stuff with them, then sitting in the sidelines?!?!?

photo by Heather Ford

Y’all after all the fighting to get any information about what I’ve done to my ankle I’m so happy to find out it’s not the worst case scenario! I tore the two tendons on the outside of my ankle and have tendinitis in the top of my foot. While this still isn’t just a bad sprain, which honestly would have been best case, this is better then a full tear or fracture.

So now I wait for a referral to get physical therapy to help build up the tendons strength again and I get to sport a much less clunky support. They switched me to a ankle brace instead of the boot featured in my funky socks post. I could still use some cute socks so I may just buy some lower cut ones 😉 Overall, I’m glad to have an answer it took 2.5 weeks of fighting to get them though. And I’m so thankful it’s not worse and that I’d have to possibly fight more. So thankful for this small weight on my shoulders to be gone. Answers mean progress and I can move on from my injury!

I also want to mention after all the fighting I switched my care to a whole different team in the clinic I have to use too!!! Had to go for an appointment just to get results of my ankle, but it allowed me to meet the new doc I’ll be working with and her nurse. Hopefully, this will help me get better care in the future!

Keep fighting your fights!!!!

In a continued effort to put myself as a priority I ordered myself some fun and kinda funky socks to wear under this “boot” I’m in until they figure out what’s wrong with my ankle. My husband gave me some of his taller white socks to use under this thing, but man they weren’t comfortable and def not cute. See the below pic, NOT cute!!!

So I hopped on Amazon and found this  6 pack of knee high socks and with 2 day Prime shipping I’m rocking some awesome new socks. These honestly are more comfy and even though I’m the only one who can see they are much cuter and make me feel better!

These awesome socks were only $15 and with free prime shipping I’ve got a cute hidden secret in my boot! Treat yourself to some fun socks if it helps make you feel better! I know it helped me bring a smile to my face while stuck in this boot.

Something that’s been a common thread in discussions I’ve had lately is to be sure and take care of myself, get the care I need and to not lose my voice! Sometimes in our lives we lose ourselves and it’s not always a good thing when it happens.

I recently had some medical issues and while I do have insurance that’s normally good, the care this round hasn’t been. I’ve had to fight just to get test results and then fight to get more tests because the results didn’t tell what’s wrong. Then to make matters worse I had a new completely unrelated incident where the same treatment started. This time being worse because I might have broken a bone or torn the tendons and I still can’t get the clinic to do anything. I had to fight to get an appointment just for them to agree I needed more testing to determine damage. This all after I’d spent hours in ER and was told by them it was possibly fractured and got put in temporary splint and a referral to ortho, but they kicked back the referral without an MRI. They then said they couldn’t request it since I wasn’t a patient yet and ER said they couldn’t because I was already released. And I couldn’t get an appointment til 3 days later and the MRI wasn’t scheduled for another week later. I’m hoping the results come quick once test is done but I won’t hold my breath. I’ll just call and email until someone tells me something.

I’ve said all this to show what I’ve fought against just in last two weeks, the trouble before that’s worse. I’ve had to fight for answers and you should fight too! If you know something is wrong do what you have to in order to get an answer. I had to crutch myself down to the clinic with my 3 girls in tow to get my answers. It wasn’t easy but when they wouldn’t respond to the messages I’d left I had no choice. They talk about trying to stay with your primary care doc and keep continuity of care, but when they don’t follow up with patients it’s not possible. So I’m fighting! I saw the patient advocate at the hospital who had me write a formal complaint too. I doubt it’ll fix the problems, but they wanted a formal complaint to be on file that things aren’t right.

So now I sit back and wait to find out what’s going on with both my problems. When the next tests are done though I will continue my fight to find out the answers so I can move forward! This is just one of the fights I’m currently battling, but currently the most important as I need to know what’s wrong to move forward with treatment. This girl can’t be chasing her kids with a possible break for long 😉

So tonight at bedtime I go to tuck in my oldest daughter  and my shirt kept riding up revealing my stomach. Well, after she laughed that there’s still some jiggle going on (like I needed her reminder) she asked me about the white lines around my belly button. Without hesitation I told her they are my tiger stripes. To which she responded “oh because you had 3 cubs!” I giggled and agreed that’s it exactly.

Yes, I’ve had three cubs and they definitely each left their own share of stripes along my belly, sides and thighs, unfortunately. I wouldn’t change it for the world though. I love each one of them dearly and the tiger stripes, while not as awesome as a real tigers, well they’re just part of the story.

I say this to you as a reminder to myself and anyone who needs it, don’t blame the children for the scars! Embrace them as a part of the new you! Being a mom changes us in so many ways, tiger stripes and all. So we should embrace these things and embrace our children and love those little cubs who gave us the stripes of honor!

Every parent of more then one kid has definitely heard the saying “every child is different!” It’s one of those sayings you get told. If not as soon as you’re pregnant with #2, you’ll hear it the moment they do something your first didn’t do.

For me, my first two kids had a lot of similarities as babies. They both started sleeping through the night by 6 weeks, both ended up being bottle fed at some point, both were big babies to start. Well, I thought I hit the jackpot of babies bc especially sleeping through the night most parents don’t get for awhile. BUT number 3 she has been the epitome of being a different child. She still, at a little over 2, doesn’t sleep through the night every night.

It doesn’t end at sleep either, she’s been a climber since she could crawl, she’s wearing clothes in the 3T/4T range (which my first did some at this age), and she’s a stripper!!!! This girl loves to strip down and be naked! She’s stripped everything off in her crib to include poopy diapers for several days in a row! So now we’ve had to get creative to keep from having to do complete crib sanitizing sessions daily.

This doesn’t stop in the crib though. She’s been known to strip her shirt off while watching tv, at an older friends house (this honestly mortified me), and now she’s showing interest in the potty. BUT can we just pull our pants down and take off the diaper to sit on the potty???? Oh NO WE CAN’T!!!!! She gets fully naked to sit on the potty so it’s a huge production! While I want her to start getting potty trained, who has time for their kid to strip naked to sit on the potty?!?

This girl is amazing and hilarious and a light in my life, but she’s giving me a run for my money and is definitely showing us she’s going to be her own little self! So I’m going to keep letting her be herself and pray I don’t lose my mind in the meantime.

I’m not perfect, but I don’t know anyone who truly is. We have moments of perfection, yes, but never always.

This is currently the view from my couch!!! My husbands due home in an hour and I’ve spent the day going from urgent care to massively cleaning my downstairs. My middle girly has a rash and they think it’s a contact rash, so a reaction to something that her skins being exposed to. The kicker is she’s been home since it started!!!!!

So that leads me to vacuum the crap out of our house, mainly downstairs as that’s where she’s been when the rash pops up. So cue vacuuming, then mopping, and vacuuming the couch she sat on and the other one for good measure. I also gave the dog and our poor cat a bath too.

I did the dishes in there somewhere, took dogs kennel outside to clean it as well and replace her blankets with clean ones. Hoping this crazy clean session helps my lil cutie.

Saying all this to explain that the view of my rug may look like a hot mess, but it’s one of those organized chaos situations. All the baby toys had to be moved to rug to mop and clean off the couches. Next, I really need to go through them as I know this kiddo doesn’t play with all these still.

Here’s hoping the ol ball and chain doesn’t say anything about it lol

I’ve had a lot of ups and downs these last two and a half years while adjusting to having 3 kids. We all have them, but what’s your motivation to keep going?

Currently my motivation is centered around myself and my 3 girls! I’m motivated to get myself healthier and in better shape, because it not only will help me it will help my girls. If your thinking how is my getting healthy going to help my girls I’ll tell you! If they see me making positive choices and healthy choices they are going to follow my lead. Kids are little sponges they soak everything in and apply it to their life.

Because I’ve been in a rut working out at home, I’ve started walking more in mornings. This weekend instead of staying home while I walked my 6yo asked to ride her scooter and pushed me to go further then I normally walk too. Did she get tired? Yes, but she pushed on with some encouragement from me. She’s my biggest cheerleader when it comes to working out and it’s awesome!

Then my 11yo whines that she didn’t get to go with me and she HATES cardio of any kind lol. So she felt like she missed out on something by not going and wanted to join us. Next weekend we plan to all go for the walk instead!

Same goes for healthy eating, if we shove our faces full of Oreos all day, they will too. But if we keep healthy choices and we eat them as well, the kids will follow suit. It’s amazing how simple it is if they just see it and think it’s normal then it becomes normal. I’ll admit my 6yo has started expecting candy every day because we let it slide some during summer. Am I trying to reign that in? Sure, but it’ll take a little time to shift her from expecting it every day.

So find that motivation! Make the choices right for you! Even if you start super small with something like getting all your water in for the day it’s a start!

Hello world……It may have been set at the top because of a template to start this blog, but honestly I love it! Hello, how’s it going? For me it’s a crazy, busy, fun filled, amazing mess!

To me, I feel like I’m just another mom like any other mom! To those closest to me, well, they tell me they see so much more. For that I am eternally grateful! They point out parts of me that I may only see as surviving, but they see as strength and wisdom and maybe even grace. It’s because of these friends that I know I’ve got to be doing something right and to just keep doing what I’m doing. Without them……you know there’s no without them!!! Younger, older and some the same age as me, all my friends are a blessing.

So who am I? What’s my story? Well, I’m a mom to 3 insanely different and amazing girls!!! I’m a crafter, DIY chic, organizer, household CEO, motivator, friend, superstar in my own reality show. I’m whatever I need to be in the moment, but always a go getter, let me help you out kind of person! I have a hard time filtering myself and an even harder time saying no to people. As for my story, the short version is I’ve moved around a lot throughout my life due to the military lifestyle. This I feel like has helped make me who I am though. When you move every few years you learn to adapt and overcome. Just when you get used to a place you pack up and move off to the next adventure. As a kid it was definitely harder to see it this way, but as an adult I’ve been enjoying the ride…..well mostly 😉 

Okay, maybe not a super short version because once I started typing it just kept going. In a nutshell I’m just “another mom” starting a blog hoping someone finds my tutorials helpful and my experiences funny or interesting or just what you needed to read!