Merry Christmas! !

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 today I officially accepted the position for assistant manager at zaxby's! starting monday I'm on salary and all the benefits that are with it. I'm super excited about how much this will help us out with everything and just overall doing a good job. I've got some great team members and its a fun place to be. Nine months ago I'd never thought this would be going on at this time!

such a blessing, thank you Jesus!!

Gina

School year has started. Lots of changes this year. Can't believe I've got a junior, freshman, 6th grader, 4th grader and

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so much to do and so little time. I think I've said that so many times and yet it still means the same thing. is there ever a time when there is so little to do with so much time? :) 

working full time has been a huge change for the family. a good one, but still a work in progress. summer break thrown into the mix makes things even more interesting, as it always does. 

the kids are enjoying their time off. C will be coming back from papa's tomorrow and the two middle boys will be heading back with papa for a couple of weeks. a different kind of quiet is about to erupt with the switch!

we'll be celebrating H's 9th birthday tomorrow before he goes to papa's. cake is bought (one of the big changes since going to work, I have no time to make the cakes myself!), most everything will be ready to be put together quickly so we can enjoy the day. daddy is going to take him and Gav to go see Transformers 3 as part of his bday gift. they will absolutely love that! I think I'll be here at home setting stuff up for them.

super proud of my beautiful 'baby girl'. Last night was her 8th grade promotion, and Lord, it was a struggle to get to that point this year! But she did it and she looked so very pretty. Her own style, easy to spot in a crowd too, LOL! 

She's excited about being a Freshman now and she and her friends want to have a 'fresh meat' party this summer to celebrate it. :)

 its been a good (busy) couple of days and its not stopping til tomorrow. C looks wonderful (you can see his pic on FB). he's still getting used to not having stuff in his mouth now.  he wears a retainer for 1/2 the day (they look like invisalign). we'll be getting his wisdom teeth out this summer per dr.s request before they erupt. so fun summer for him. not. we'll wait til February to start on K's teeth. hers will be a LONG process with a LOT of work in it. I'm dreading it for her, but she REALLY needs it, so I'm also looking forward to it for her. 

Gav loved his limo ride. they got to watch the Incredibles while they rode around. 
Hunter got not only an engraved medal and a tshirt for his 2 yrs perfect attendance, he also got a new bike! I'll go pick it up today for him. he was super happy, wearing his medal all day. 
I'll pick K up an hour before school lets out so she'll have plenty of time to get ready. plus she wants to meet one of her friends up on the square for pics. (our square has a nice gazebo area set up that people usually go before proms, etc. to do pics and such).
the fridge repair guy was here before 7:30 this morning! needless to say I was still in bed and had to have him wait a sec so I could throw on a dress. 

last day of school! gotta start planning VBS days! must also get the tarp out so we can have a slip and slide going very soon! super hot out there and kids are already asking for water!

and in other awesome news:

149 this morning!!!!!!!!!!!!!! that makes 28.5 lbs gone!

Mwahahahaha! The Sales Ninja strikes again!

so I have a funny story. 
if anyone remembers, my Nissan that I got last year has been parked at the car dealers since December because of serious engine/computer issues. I've driven tons of cars (it seems like) but none of them were "it". so finally, FINALLY, he called me friday night to tell me he had another altima in (an 08 model where my old one is an 05). before going in saturday morning to pick it up to drive for the weekend, I'm talking to God and say "ok God, I'll know this is the car for me IF it has two keys with it" (most used cars only come with one cause they tend to forget to turn in both keys. and those darn keyfobs are expensive!). we go in to check it out and pick it up and he gives me one key. ok. no biggie, its not a deal breaker of course, and really I'd said it as a joke in a sense. 
its a great car, awesome MPG (avg of 25 in town!) and I really like the space/ride of the altima. so we decide to go for it and I go to get started on the paperwork today. before going to the bank I ask Doug 'do you know if there is another key for it?' and he says "OH, yeah, I've got it right here for ya" and pulls it out of his desk!  OMGosh!!! I was grinning so big, wanting to laugh my butt off at that one! 
God is so funny! 
so I'll get it all signed over and such tomorrow and finally be back in my own car! 

Easter weekend was good. rain rain rain and all, but we got to egg hunt between rainstorms. we had chinese for dinner after church cause my moms house is getting laminate floors installed and we're working on getting the countertops finished up, so eating out was easier for everyone.
I'm LOVING my new bar counter! its HUGE and awesome! hard to get pics to show the size of it and we've decided to put more cabinets under it on one side cause there's so much room left. means more space to put stuff! woo!!

I started feeling a cold coming on yesterday. :P that scratchy feeling at the back of the throat stuff going on. slept like a LOG last night! I hope it goes away quick!

 I've been so dang tired today! ugh ugh and ugh! seems like S never sleeps in anymore, she's up with the others at school time. *yawn*

today I took her to the peds cause she's had some large bumps to come up under her skin under her chin. they bother her and she's been scratching at the one that came up last week. this morning she came to me pointing to it and after checking it out, I seen a 2nd one had come up behind the first. she's not been sick, isnt sick and neither is anyone else in the house, so I was worried since it was at her glands and took her in.
she's on strong antibiotics twice a day for the next 9-10 days. the dr wasnt absolute what it was, but since the 2nd came up she wanted to treat it. (otherwise it'd have been warm compresses to try to just bring a large bump up). its not bumps, no pimple sites and such. they're not like the mailia that she deals with either. it does bother her cause she points it out to us. I'd not worried over just one, but since another came up behind the first, I did worry.
the dr said that there has been staff going around the area (though she did NOT call this that), but just so I'd know the possibles and of course it could just be a couple of very bad infected skin pores. she doesnt think its her glands since they shift when felt of. 
no ear infections, no fever, nothing. :p

and FTR, her 3yo measures!
38 lbs, 39.75", HC 20"

and for the heck of it, to compare her to her siblings at 3 yrs:

Canaan: 39 lbs, 40.25"
Katlyn: ? lbs, 38"
Gavin: ? lbs, 38"
Hunter: 35 lbs, 39.75"
Garrett: 34 lbs, 38" HC 20 1/8"

so yeah, she's right on up there! LOL!!

dh is in MN for now, coming home wednesday. *pout* I work the rest of the week and off on Easter.

still cleaning up the house from the weekend. bleh. not to mention, I WAS TIRED TODAY and couldnt get a nap. *whine pout whine* so I didnt do much of anything more than I had to.

Thank you Jesus!

Mom just saved my baby girl from choking on a piece of candy! I'm so glad she's in safe hands while I'm at work.

Officially 153 today!!!!! Getting closer to my goal of 150!

Red

I like red. :)

Happiness is...

Putting on a pair of size 8's and having them be comfortable. Been a long time waiting in that one.

did I mention that C only has 2 more appts til his braces come off?!! when May 16th gets here, he'll be braces free! I'm excited for him as is he as you can imagine! we'll be getting K in braces once school is out. figured that'd be the easiest way to do hers since its so close to the end of school anyway.

I'll probably be getting a couple of baby teeth pulled soon. (yes, baby teeth LOL). the one on my right is finally loose enough that it's bothering me when I eat or it'll shift positions during sleep and will cause my teeth not to mesh right when I close my jaw. I guess I'll be getting an implant put in afterwards (there is no adult tooth under them) and it freaks me out!!! its the teeth right behind my bottom canines, so I have to have something put in. freaky stuff for someone who's only ever had to have a few cavities filled 

I was cleaning up the house today for FIL's arrival and got to inspecting in our bathroom. we've been having ant problems in there the last month and its driving me crazy!!! seems no matter what we've done they were still coming. well, today I got to noticing quite a few of them at the bottom of one of our sink counter doors (one that's close to the wall) so I open it up and look in. omgosh! they were all over the place!!!  they'd been setting up a little home RIGHT there!! even worse they were right on the inside DOOR with little eggs!!! now we are IN this cabinet like every few days!!! (its where the hair dryer is kept along with some other stuff) and they were NOT there before! of course I Raided them really good and had to pull everything out ( *sigh* why do I get stuck with all the 'fun' stuff?) and I think they'd originally had their nesting area farther back in the cabinet under some stuff and were moving it to the door area. I found a lot more back in there. needless to say almost a whole can of Raid later, its all cleaned up and this weekend, dh will be pulling it all up to check under it for holes and stuff. which we know there will be cause this cheap ol' house was made like that. but it'll get taken care of!! ugh, I HATE ants!!

the kids have been "eh" this week. Sarina is being sassified lately, so she's gotten in trouble a lot (for her) this week. Garrett progressively got worse at school and today came home with only one star. :P tomorrow is the last day of school before spring break. I really hope we have nice weather so they can play outside!

been suckish on my eating and exercise this week. bad me. gotta make up for it!

welcome Jaden!!

 in awesome news, my little sister had her baby boy yesterday!!! he was 4 weeks early due to high BP and gestational diabetes, weighed 6.7 lbs. Jaden Thomas. they'd been trying for almost 9 years to have a baby and their miracle is here! cant wait to see and snuggle him 

but of course many prayers are wanted. being 4 weeks early can be hard on a tiny one. please keep them in your thoughts!

dh didnt get to be home last night, but will be back today. which is good. I feel bad for the kids since I work every night this week (except friday), so I like having him home. we'll be having reuben sandwiches tonight. I hope its good, I used a crockpot recipe for them.

i'm super tired today. could NOT get to sleep last night. guess I'll go back to using my melatonin tonight. I hate not being able to drift off to sleep like a normal person. :P

only done about 10 minutes of zumba this week. I suck. I hope I get some energy today to get it done before work. darn DST has totally thrown off my days.
at least today none of the kids missed the bus! she's been on time all week (where she has been running about 10 minutes late all year up til now) and so every day this week, someone has missed the bus!  I kicked tail today to get them all out the door 

think I'm going to get a breakfast snack for me and S and take a catnap on the couch with her. need my energy for the day and its not coming to me.

weight loss stuff

  in good news .... and probably a way TMI good news but for anyone who cares (my WL buddies!) I'm going to start getting the next size smaller panties!  I'm having serious panty dropping issues these days LMBO!! quite embarrassing to keep having to yank your drawers up in your pants during the day!!! so it finally dawned on me today "gosh, maybe I need a smaller size now?" duuuuuuuh! so I'll go in search of some size 5's tomorrow (maybe in the clearance section LOL!!) to see how they fit.

I did wear a pair of my DDs jeans today. they're 7/8's, but I think they were made a bit big? they werent 10's in size though, so maybe they were right. they were comfy all day though! most of my 10's now start out fitting comfortably, but after about an hour I'm having to yank them up constantly or wear a tight belt to keep them up. I cant wear all size 8's though. I hate in-between sizes!
but I can honestly say, even though I have gotten down to 149 after having Hunter (my lowest weight I'd gotten to since before having kids), this is the smallest I've been. I didnt exercise before, so never got back into 8's back then. I remember getting 10's and I kept those for a few years before giving up on them. so this is really huge (or small?) for me. LOL

  I set my ticker with my new goal of 150 now. WOO! I started on my zumba officially today! I got to go through the intro a couple days ago, but today was the first time I got to actually do anything. I did the 20 minute express and started about half of the cardio party. I had to go get Garrett at that point.

my hips are sore. I obviously dont swish my hips like a latin woman LOL!

tomorrow G will start riding the bus home from school. it'll be a big change for us! his teacher said he wants to ride the bus each day though, so hopefully it'll be an easy change for him. 
it'll save me gas for one, which is really a good one. a couple times this week I have to be at work at 4, so I have to go pick up K at school so she'll be here when I have to leave. so if I still picked up G, that'd have been 3 trips in town in one day. :p not good. this will keep me at 2 trips at least. 

C's baseball tryouts are tomorrow! he's excited but nervous.  he's already been assigned to left field and pitcher, so not sure what he's nervous about. 

got our taxes done this past weekend. it'll be a couple of weeks before the $ gets here, but I'm excited for when it is, we'll be getting more stuff paid OFF!! relief is on the way! (I say this each year and each year it gets better)

we had the power go out in the county last night for over an hour. seems some power lines caught on fire. 

dh installed my kitchen faucet for me this weekend!  my countertops arent in yet. its supposed to be wednesday when they come in finally. but dh went ahead and put in my water at the sink. makes it SO much easier! its hard to keep a kitchen clean when all you have is the water in the fridge. :P I got it all sparkling today!

Had a good talk with K this weekend about choices that effect your future (where I've been stressed about this one friend of hers and things it can lead to). it went really well and she even gave us both big hugs afterwards.  I love my girl! I'll keep up with her to keep her on course. I want her to succeed!

A very lazy morning with my baby girl. :)

Awesome day

The 2nd fridge is here!

In line at walmart. Guess I'll hang out here for an hour or so. :p

Going to miss my neighbors of 13 yrs, the Beachys. I hope they get very blessed for moving to PA! Good luck, love and miss u already!

School out at 130. Im sure theyll be off tomorrow too.

Because of my tooth my eyeball hurts. How is that fair?

Dental checks not as bad as i feared for the boys.

Working on the kitchen resumes :)

My man is home for the weekend!

My fridge is heeeeeeere!!!

First fridge delivered tomorrow morning!

got to work today and got paid! my paycheck was $100 better than I thought it'd be too, awesome! forgot it included the week of Cmas where we were real busy cause this week has been so slow. I'm sure I'll get the expected next time. oh well. I'm super happy this week! 
this is what I want to get. every since we started recycling a couple of years ago, we just hang 2 walmart bags on the water heater closet door and sort our paper/plastic into those. very tacky since its right at the entry door! so I want to get a set of these to go into the cabinet that's by my stove! the one I'll get is actually the size smaller than these (couldnt find the ones I'm eyeing) and its $10 less, plus we'll get dh's military discount. I'm excited about this as well as it'll keep from looking so messy when you first walk in the house!

I wanted to get this for my backsplash cause I seen it on DIY. WELL, dont guess I will cause the price they didnt want to tell you!  woah! I'll be doing it the hard way and save a lot of $. 

I moved a couple of loose cabinets around tonight and got my couch back together. that was bugging the CRAP out of me! so both of those cabinets are where they'll eventually be anyway and now I just need to get the old round dining table out of my LR. if C gets home tomorrow he can help me do that. I want my house back in a semblance of order! ugh! 

kids likely wont be in school again tomorrow. more snow tonight through wednesday morning. wow. its going to be another short summer for them. LOL

gavin is getting over some crud. its the same stuff G, S and K all have gone through. fever and tiredness, no appetite. he's on the upswing now, fever is just low-grade. we've been hitting the Vitamins! me too since every since I started working out there, its like SOMEone has a cold/flu/etc they're dealing with. EW!! stay away from me!!!! 

Today: Dishwasher getting hooked up and countertops being put in!!