Christmas with the Wisley's

Merry Christmas to all my followers, if any of you actually still follow this blog. I haven't written in several weeks so I just wanted to give a quick update on how the Wisley's have been doing.
Joe and I spent a few days apart before Christmas because he worked with his brother in Bedford to make some much needed cash. When we returned on Wednesday afternoon we opened gifts that we got for each other. I got a gun holster for my hand gun, hunting coveralls for next years hunting season, the BigTop cupcake bakeware that you may have seen on infomercials on TV, and a 4 foot frame that Joe and his brother made me to display our A.T stuff. Oh and he got me this really warm and soft blanket that is just like a blanket Jake has, which I love! After opening gifts we packed up the car, loaded the dog, the baby and ourselves and headed to Chicago for Christmas to visit with my parents, sisters, Aunt, Uncle, Cousins and future Brother-in-law. It was a good trip aside from the freak freezing rain storm on the way there. We watched several cars slide off the road in front of us. It took us 4 hours to get to mom and dad's which wasn't bad considering how slow we had to drive until we reached 80-94. Jake is normally a good baby when we travel, but this time he decided to surprise us with a fit. It was probably my fault since I swaddled him in his car seat and when we got to my parents he was soaking in his own sweat! Poor guy! I thought he was throwing a fit because he was overtired. We spent Chrismas day opening a few gifts with my family and then headed to my Aunt's house for a Ham dinner. My cousin had identical twin boys last week and they were able to make it out of the house so we could see the boys! They are so precious and made me miss my little guy when we was a few weeks old.














This is a picture of the Panda blanket my mom made for Jake to go with his black and white room at home.

The frame Joe made for me to display our Appalachian Trail map, pics, and completion certificates and patches.

Jake is now 15 weeks old and grows cuter everyday. He rolled over from his belly to his back for the first time last week! He also giggled a little for me too! The picture above was taken a few weeks ago. His neck is becoming so strong. He is so close to losing the bobble head!

The last picture is of our favorite dog in the whole world Maximus. He has been with us for a year on January 1st. He was a Christmas gift last year and is probably the best gift I have ever gotten! Here he is with his cousin Zeke's santa outfit on that Denise got for him. He wasn't to exciting about wearing it as you can see. The best part are the bells on his cloak that jingle when he walks around!

Well, that is about all for now until I decide to write another blog three weeks from now. Hope you all had a great Christmas!

I'm not complaining, just explaining!

Life is a little boring right now, but I am going to blog about it anyway. I tend to be a pessimist and hate that about myself so I decided I was going to work on reducing the negativity in my life, so if it seems as though I am complaining, I'm not, I am just explaining. I seem to get this way during the months of Dec-March because it's cold out and I love being outside, but not when it is cold and windy. Last winter we adopted our dog Maximus and I took him for walks everyday even if it was 15 degrees out only because we were working on training him to go on walks without pulling on his leash and eventually to walk without the need to be leashed. Now that we have Jake, it is too cold to take him out, so I am stuck in this little house doing my best to keep the television off and workout, clean, read and nap(if possible) instead of sitting in front of the boob toob all day long. Poor Maximus lays around bored to death and day dreams about life before the baby. I have actually enjoyed having the TV off because it has pushed me to do the things that I hate doing, but when they are done I feel so much better about myself. I started to workout out consistantly this week and it feels so good to get back into my normal routine of breathing hard and sweating it out. I feel energized and sleep a little better at night because of it. Joe and I are going to Florida and Puerto Rico in March so we have 3.5 months to get into bathing suit shape again. I was looking at my pictures of what I looked like before we hiked the AT and it depressed me a little because I looked so good! I don't feel that I look terrible now, but I have not had to work this hard to look better in a long time. I am just thankful that I don't need to loose more than 15 pounds, unlike so many Americans today who are 50+ lb overweight.
Thanksgiving was spent in Bedford this year with all of Joe's side of the family. We stayed with Josh(Joe's twin) and his wife Denise. They have a black lab, Zeke, that Maximus loves to play with. I had a total of three thanksgiving meals this year. One with Joe's mom, a second with Joe's Dad, and a third with my sister-in-law's parents. Sadly we did not make the trip up to Chicago to visit with my side. Traveling with a 2.5 month old is tiring and stressful so we have made the shift from visiting boths sides of the family to only one side per holiday.
Being back home from the holidays is nice but the pessimistic side of me wishes we weren't home as much because of how boring life can get being at home doing the same thing everyday. Even though I would have to do the same thing anywhere else it doesn't seem as boring when I am not at home.
Wake up to feed Jake, burb and change him, play until he gets cranking for a nap, get some house work done while Jake naps and then do it all over again four times before it's time for bed. I can't say that I miss the life I had before he came into it, but there are times when I day dreams about my adventure hiking the AT and wish that I could have lived out a couple more dreams before we decided to start a family. Don't get me wrong I love having a son and wouldn't go back and change anything if I had the oppotunity to. I love seeing him grow, smile, jibber/jabber, and suck on his fingers. He is becoming so much more observant over the week. One day Jake will be apart of the dreams we have to put on hold for a few years. I hope he likes hiking!
I thought about training for the mini- marathon in Indy this May and was excited about it until I realized I would have to start training for it out in the cold. Ehhhh, think I will pass on the mini for at least this year.
Christmas is pretty much here and although I love this holiday more than any other I loath Christmas shopping! I really don't care to shop unless I know what I am going for and since I never really know what I want to get people I usually don't end up going. Joe loves getting gifts for others so he does a good job of going into any store, not having any idea what he is going to get someone and coming out with something cool. I have decided the only people I am shopping for this year are Joe and Jake. Gift exchange is not my thing lately. I find it a waste of money to exchange to gift with someone who doesn't need it when there are so many other people who are in need, and I end up with something that I may like, but end up not using it enough.
Well, those are my thoughts in a nutshell. My feet are cold so I am going to put on some socks and drink some tea. If you feel like cheering me up send me a comment that will make me laugh or something. (It may sound like I am in a bad mood, but I am not. It just may sound that way)