Time is flying by...

It has been way too long since my last post. Things are moving along in the Waller household. I finished my Spring semester with all A's a week or two ago. My next set of classes begin next Tuesday so ready or not, here they come! I'm taking two this semester because the college I am going through only allows seven credits over the summer and most classes are three credits. However, this means in the fall I will be going full time in order to finish my associate degree in Decemeber so I can transfer to a university in the Spring. That's right, I'm going to be a stay at home mom and wife full time with two children while taking four classes...yikes. I know it's crazy but this is something that is so important to me and I will persevere. I know that later on when I am a full time college professor it will make every hardship worth it.

Paul is doing great. He is in a funk at work but that can be explained by his terrible students. You know when one of them has the nickname Captain Crash it has nightmare written all over it. He has been through hell with these three guys but he always comes home and switches right into Husband and Dad mode. He is such an amazing man to be able to let go of work problems and focus on his three girls while he is home. We are going to miss him this weekend because he will be gone Fri-Sun to get some night flights in. Luckily, my mom and Dean decided to come stay for the weekend so I will have some help. It will be a fun weekend getting to spend time with them.

Audrey is giving us a run for our money right now! I thought terrible twos were bad....piece of cake compared to the fighting fours. Oh my goodness...I once had a textbook for an english class titled Everything's an Argument. That is Audrey's motto. I ask what she wants for lunch and she says a turkey, cheese and mustard sandwhich. I repeat it directly back and she reprimands me saying no it's mustard, cheese and turkey! Oh, I thought that was the same thing. Silly me. Or, If I ask her to get dressed because it's time to leave for school she will give me this response, "Just chill mom, let me do what I do." That one earns a big sigh from me everytime. There are so many more that I can't even recall at the moment. I should keep a notepad close by to write this stuff down in the future. She turns 4 on Saturday and we are really excited for her to open her present. We decided she is ready for a bicycle so we bought a cute little pink one with training wheels. We aren't sure if she is going to want to ride it or not though. She is the most cautious kid I know and would never enter a pool without testing the water. This is the area where she and Peyton are completely opposites. Audrey is really scared to try new things and Peyton dives in head first. For her birthday party I got a great deal on a having a pony and petting zoo brought to our house. So Paul and I are betting on whether she will even go near the pony or wait to see other kids ride it first. I will definitely be posting pictures of the adorable outfit my Grandma Duthie made for her. It is fabulous!

Peyton is definitely a handful in her own way as well. The girl has no fear whatsoever. Paul makes fun of me everytime we take the girls to the park for being a hovercraft. I can't help it if I'm worried that our daredevil daughter is going to jump off a 15 foot play structure! Paul's theory is that if she does it, she'll learn not to do it again. I can see his wisdom but I can also see the bill from the hospital afterwards. I think it's good though that we are a little opposite in regards to that because I reel him in and he loosens me up.

The girls still fight like crazy. They are learning exactly how to press eachother's buttons and do so nonstop.  I am getting better at fighting my refereee instincts to break them up and try to let them fight it out. All-in-all though, our girls are amazing and they light up our life. When all four of us sit on the couch and cuddle while we read some books together it makes every single temper tantrum and screaming match worth it. We are trying to enjoy the "now" instead of constantly stressing over the future. Although I won't lie, it's always on our minds. I can feel some of our goals so close but its going to take faith and patience to see them through.

The perfect example of their different personalities.



Where did all the unbiased Professors go?!

Goodness gracious! I am so fed up with my left-wing lunatic Professor it makes me sick. For his World Civilizations class we have to participate in discussions every week, which for the record I think is great. It would be even better however, if the discussion questions weren't dripping with conservative disdain. He makes it quite clear how he feels on the subject in the question alone. I thought at the college level we were supposed to have Professors that encourage us to have our own opinions instead of trying to cram their own down our throats. At first I tried to stay neutral during the discussions to preserve my straight A's but I will stay silent no longer. Here are some of the recent questions along with my responses:

Have the lessons of Vietnam been forgotten… and are we learning those lessons again in Iraq? Did America forget the lessons of its own Revolutionary War in Vietnam?


At first this discussion just angered me. Then I sat down and thought about the lessons our nation learned from Vietnam and which ones we might have forgotten. I think we learned that the media has a direct influence on war and some are forgetting that. By showing all the protestors and giving them airtime they are just giving them a louder voice. I personally just ignore them because I try not to be swayed by biased ranting but most people can’t do that. I read an article written by a Marine that served during Vietnam and one thing he mentioned was how offensive it is to hear someone say, “I support our troops but not the war.” If you really feel that way, put down your picket or microphone and take the time to send a care package or letter to the troops you “support”. Our leaders are elected by us, so if you don’t agree with their decisions, get rid of them in four years. It’s what I plan to do in 2012.

The enormous sums that we waste on foreign bases, wars, and weapons do not enable us to respond to smallpox, suitcase nukes, and exploding shoes. Are terrorists a bona-fide enemy… or are they are a symptom of the inequity founded in the economic misery that our foreign policy symbolizes and the insult that it conveys? If the United States wishes to win its war against terrorism, should it redirect its defense budget into global humanitarian endeavors, trusting that as the Third World becomes wealthier, better educated, and more sophisticated, its people will increasingly demand the institutions that grant them the political and economic means to interact with the world as equals?


So are we supposed to take care of the entire world? If we drop our defenses we are all dead. Sure, humanitarian work is great and I’m all for it but killers are breeding everyday. They are giving kids automatic weapons and teaching them to kill mercilessly. I personally wouldn’t want a friend or family member in the military to try and give that kid a book and be rewarded with a bullet. We can only help them so much. In the end they have to want change for themselves, only then can we help them become wealthier, better educated and more sophisticated.

Adolf Hitler is reported to have said, “If you’re going to tell a lie, tell a big lie.” Perhaps this is how he managed to bamboozle so many—with respect to Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Russia--with his false assurances of peaceful intentions; nobody could have imagined that anyone could lie so audaciously. Has George Bush lied to the American people about his reasons for going to war in Iraq, and about the prospects for getting out? Was he re-elected because the American people refuse to believe that their government would lie to them?


Wow, touchy subject. Let me see if I can tread lightly and not step on too many toes. As a supporter of President Bush I think he did what was necessary at the time. Of course as you all know, he couldn’t have just ordered it without Approval! So obviously he wasn’t the only one saying lets get them back. We elected him and therefore put our trust in him. If people didn’t like how he handled our country they wouldn’t have reelected him! That is the beautiful thing about our country, the right to vote for the leader which we believe has our country’s best interests at heart. He did. Getting Saddam Hussein out of power justified the means. Yes our government lies, all governments lie. To say otherwise is ignorant. You just have to hope that in the end something good comes from it. We, the people, put our leaders in office so if we don’t like how they handle it, there is no one to blame but ourselves.

Why, throughout the 20th century, did communism appeal to the poorest people? Are there tenets of socialism and communism that might still hold merit for modern man? Is a purely capitalist system better than a socialist system in which the state manages much of the economy?


A socialist system or big government that manages much of the economy is a huge mistake. Of course a purely capitalist system is better! Look at Obamacare and what a mistake that is. Our insurance was amazing (For example we didn’t even have to pay a premium!) up until his healthcare bill went into effect. The increase in costs which directly correlates to his changes has caused our price to go up substantially. So no, it was not helpful, it was a mistake. People may falsely believe that socialism or communism will be better because of government control but in the end they will realize that it only hurts a society and hinders it from its full potential.

My friends and family, this is just a taste of the biased questions coming from this Professor. The other ones include damning the United States for how we treated the Native Americans and the Hawaiins and pretty much ruined the world.

Well that is my rant for the day. If you didn't know my political thoughts before, you certainly do now!

Absolute Favorite Holiday!!

Blowing kisses!

Look at those blue eyes!

As you can tell by the title, St. Patrick's Day is my favorite day of the year. I know everyone else loves Christmas or Thanksgiving but yesterday is the day I love. I love that Spring is almost here and flowers will start to bloom. There is no stress on St. Patty's day unlike any other holiday. You don't have to cook a giant meal for 30 people. You don't have to make travel plans or stress about which side of the family you will spend it with. It's just a day to relax and be happy. I'm really jealous because my brother-in-law is studying abroad in Ireland right now. Can you imagine being in Dublin walking down Temple Bar yesterday?! I hope he is living it up because some day when the kids are older Paul and I definitely have plans to experience it. I was horrified yesterday morning when I looked in my closet and realized I didn't have any green shirts. For some reason they keep getting ruined from one thing or another. At least the girls looked adorable though.

A lesson taught by my little girls

I want to "write" this down even though it is something I will remember for the rest of my life. From all my other posts you know how busy I am and how exhausting it gets. A couple days ago, I was having a rough afternoon. Paul was working late again, the weather wasn't good enough to send the kids outside so they were going stir crazy, my house was a complete mess from having a play date earlier and to top it all off I had a test to finish that I couldn't get done during nap time because Audrey wouldn't stay in her room for quiet time. All in all I was a run down, unhappy Mommy. I went in the kitchen to figure out what to cook and a couple of minutes later Audrey comes running up saying, "Mommy come look, come look and see what we did." At this point I'm about to cry because I'm thinking oh no, what now?! She takes me into Peyton's room and I burst into tears. Happy tears. She took it upon herself (and a little help from Peyton) with no prompting from me to completely clean Peyton's room spotlessly, down to the last piece of play food put nicely in it's spot in the play kitchen. Moments like these are rare and precious and every time I'm feeling overwhelmed I am going to think about my sweet babies and how they made me feel that night. Paul and I have so many ambitious goals that we want to achieve but I also need to slow down and appreciate the now. I need to balance keeping my eyes on the prize and enjoying my babies while they are still small. I'm going to have to work on not always striving for perfection because I will always be lacking. Who would have thought such a huge life lesson would be taught to me by my almost 4 year old and 16 month old little girls?

Who needs a pool when you have a perfectly good sink?!

Also note the fabulous outfit of the day that Audrey chose-zebra striped pants, pink shirt, 4 different necklaces and a yellow head band.

Princess Handbook

A funny thing Audrey has started doing lately that makes me want to roll my eyes (Who am I kidding? I do roll my eyes.) is referring to herself as princess. For example: "Princess doesn't want to go to bed." or "Beautiful princess wants to go to the park" you get the picture. So we are all sitting at the dinner tables a couple days ago and Audrey says, "Princess doesn't want to eat dinner." Paul without even blinking an eye responds, "Chapter 4 in the 2011 How to be a Princess Handbook says you have to eat all your dinner." The best part about this, she quietly sat and finished her dinner.

Peyton is a little Houdini. Our house looks like a jungle gym right now because we cannot put our chairs near the table. All four chairs are scattered around the dining area because if they are within range of the table Peyton will be up there in no-time. Forgetting to do this the other morning, I turned around after pouring a bowl of cereal and she is smiling at me standing up in the center of the table. Where was my camera?!

Good news for Paul, his lazy student is finally done so he can move on to the next ones. This guy made every excuse in the book not to fly because his check-ride was coming up and he didn't want to do it. Paul is very happy to be switching students after this one. He is studying like crazy for his ATP which he is going to schedule for the end of the month. I'm really excited for him because its such a great accomplishment to add to his resume.

I'm cruising along in my classes. Lots to do this week for some of my major assignments coming up. I'm finishing my term paper on In Harm's Way by Doug Stanton. If you haven't read it, I really recommend it. It's an emotional rollercoaster but the journey is worth it. No other novel has haunted my dreams like this one. I'm also finally scheduling my appointment to get my California driver's license. I have put it off for long enough and I need to suck it up and do it. I think part of me doesn't want to give up my last piece of Arizona. Or maybe its because I detest California. Probably the latter of the two. Well my ten minutes of free time is up so until another day....

For those of you that don't have facebook, this is how I have found Audrey during naptime a couple times now. Sleeping in a doll crib does not look very comfortable!

Audrey and her fabulous self. She loves to choose her outfit and accessorize.

Crazy Life!

I just cannot slow down! I feel like life is pulling me along so quickly and I am dragging my feet behind me. The last few months have gone ridiculously fast! I turned 22 in December which is crazy to me. I mean 22 already?! I ended up making a last minute trip to AZ and just met up with old friends and went out to dinner with my brother. Then obviously Christmas came and it was so relaxing and fun! The girls had a great day and the kitchen turned out fabulously! The girls play with it all the time. Then I started classes in January. Talk about kicking into overdrive! Even though the classes are a little more difficult I know I found the perfect major for myself. I never imagined I would find something I am so in love with to study. I have never enjoyed classes before but history makes me giddy. Yes, I know I am a nerd. I came to terms with that a long time ago.

So, January came and went in what felt like 3 days. Then it was February already which meant our 3 year anniversary was coming up. If you know us well, you know Paul and I don't really do gifts for each other for any holiday. Its not that we are against them or anything we are just so innately frugal that we would rather save the money. We aren't really into "stuff" like knicknacks for around the house. We lead a pretty simplistic life. But anyway, I had planned a trip out to Arizona on Feb. 17th for a dentist appointment. I know, its kind of crazy that I still go back "home" to my dentist but I tried one out here and it turned into a horror story. If you are reading this in Tehachapi, DO NOT go to Dr. Walch. I planned on being home that Monday because our anniversary was on Wed the 23rd but things didn't go exactly how I wanted them to. Both the girls and I got really sick out in AZ so my Aunt Mary and Mom were both taking care of us and we couldn't drive home. Peyton ended up having RSV, I had a bad sinus infection and Audrey had a bad cold. So we ended up driving home on my anniversary that Wednesday. Paul and I were going to have a date that weekend to celebrate but our babysitter got sick as well. So as of yet, we still have not celebrated our 3 year anniversary. It really makes me envy all my friends out here that have family close by. To you ladies, DON'T take it for granted. A friend of mine, Christen, offered to watch the girls this Saturday so we can finally have a date night. She is so sweet.

So now we are in March and things are not going to slow down anytime soon. Paul is studying for his ATP written that he scheduled for the end of the month.  Meanwhile, we are kind of battling it out for the laptop. His Dell took a dive a while back and has never recovered so we are down to just my old vaio. Everyone pray it lasts a while longer because we are not ready to purchase a new computer yet. I have tons and tons of schoolwork each week and a huge paper I need to start writing that is due in April. I don't like waiting until the last minute because something is guaranteed to go wrong!

Audrey....oh my moody almost four year old teenager. She is something else! She will be so sweet and loving and then the attitude comes in and wow it is not pretty. She is still obsessed with ballet. She puts on her little dances for me with all her costume jewelery and it is the cutest thing in the world! I cannot wait until we can put her in a ballet class this year. She loves art projects still. I bought her a bunch of Ispy books and they are her favorite. She will sit on the couch for 30 minutes finding all the stuff and watching her concentration warms my heart. She is still a complete Daddy's girl. The look on her face when he walks in the door from work is priceless. She runs at him so fast she squints her eyes. She calls it her "super fast" run. She is such an amazing little girl and she is growing up way too fast.

Peyton is certainly one-of-a-kind! Even our pediatrician is baffled by her. "I have never seen a child as stubborn and strong-willed as Peyton"-quote straight out of Dr. Rao's mouth. The girl would rather starve to death than eat or drink something she doesn't like. Honestly, back when we were trying to get her on formula she would have ended up in the hospital from her stubbornness. She is only 16 months and already in her terrible twos. She is incredibly smart and knows everything I say to her but deliberately does not obey. Although, she already enjoys the potty and will go pee on it a few times per day so that is great. If she potty trains as early as Audrey did I will be a very happy Momma! She isn't always a trouble maker though. She is still a mommy's girl and we enjoy our cuddle time together and our little games we play while giggling like crazy.

Life is crazy but I love it. I love my husband and our kids are happy and healthy. What more could I ask for? Well maybe a pause button...that could be useful.

Crazy day for Dad?

Those two are so silly together

Valentine's Day party at Audrey's school

Audrey loves the dress up box as you can tell.

Peyton is loves going to big sister's school and hanging out with the big kids.

Audrey and Klayton-they have so much fun and get into a lot of trouble together.

Winter Blues

Every member in my hosuehold has severe cabin fever! Audrey hasn't had school in two weeks and most of our friends are still out of town. It has been cold and windy with lots of snow on the ground which equals no parks/outside time. All-in-all we are going a little crazy in the Waller household. We bundled the girls up yesterday because it was a little over 30 degrees which is warmer than it has been and took them outside. They lasted a whopping 20 minutes before tears came. Audrey fell in some mud and Peyton was just cold so back into the house we went. Thank God, literally, that we had church today and all got out of the house. There could have been a blizzard outside and we still would have gone. Its our first winter in Tehachapi and I knew it would be rough but, WOW. I will say one nice thing about Bakersfield-because of the heat they have some awesome indoor play stuff for kids. Tehachapi has NOTHING for children indoors. I would pay a lot of money to have a Pump It Up or a Wild Child up here. If I knew I was going to be here for a long time I would consider starting one of my own.

I guess enough of my whining...Christmas was really nice. It was just the four of us and we stayed home relaxing. The kitchen turned out BEYOND amazing. The girls love it. Both the grandparents bought little kitchen stuff for it and it all came together so nicely.

Paul has been working a lot lately. I mean don't get me wrong his job is still great compared to the hours he would work anywhere else but with the commute he is gone a lot longer. Add that to the girls and I being couped up all day and the minute Paul walks in the door the poor guy gets bombarded for attention. We decided in February I am going out to AZ with the girls. I am going to head down to Phoenix one day for some much needed "me" time which includes some shopping and a mani/pedi while my mom watches the girls. Meanwhile Paul is going to have a guys weekend in Tehachapi and invite some of his college buddies up. Hopefully the house will still be standing when we get home!

I start school again in two weeks and I'm pretty nervous. Three classes is going to be very challenging. I originally planned on a Child Development course but I'm still number 7 on the wait list so I might add another history requirement instead. It would be really hard taking two history classes at the same time along with the music class I have to take but I'm doing as much as I can to be finished with BC so I can transfer.

Peyton is starting to use a lot more words. She also loves talking on the phone already. Everytime I'm on the phone with my mom (which is usually at least once a day) Peyton has to hold the phone and listen to her talk while repeating "hi" over and over. Its pretty cute. We are officially getting rid of the changing table because she has outgrown in along with the high chair. Hopefully she will potty train as early as Audrey did! 20 months is pretty amazing so I don't know if she will or not but its worth a try.

Audrey's favorite thing in the world right now is to press my buttons. Seriously she knows exactly what to do to really set me off. It sounds rediculous because she is not even 4 yet but she has a real talent for it. I am really working on just letting some things go but at the same time I want her to be a well behaved, well mannered kid. She can be such a sweet heart sometimes though. She loves to take care of her babydoll and her stuffed cat. She loves to help me cook. Her art projects and coloring are getting more and more detailed. I find it hard to believe she is going to be four in four months. Where has the time gone?

Audrey pretending she has a mustache and goatee