go me!

Feeling so much better these days, thanks to losing 20 lbs so far. In January, our work started a weight loss challenge and I decided it was a good time to get myself back in shape. It'd been a couple years or so since I'd been at a good size. When I was diagnosed, it took a year for me to be able to get my balance back and then it was just the 'want to' to get myself back.
I've finally done it this year! I'm finally under 150 (yes, I'll throw that out there and everyone will know about how much I was weighing) and feel so much better!
The things that have helped me? I keep the app My Fitness Pal updated on my phone every day. I can so easily eat way too many calories since I'm an emotional eater. It's really helped me to see what I should be eating as far as portions go. When I go over I can really tell it!
Another thing is cutting out regular sodas. This was a hard one for me since we have them all at hand at work! So I've moved myself to diet drinks if I want a soda (yes, I know diet drinks are bad as well, but I only have one if I get a craving for a soda). I do drink lots of water throughout the day as well.
One of my biggest motivators has been getting myself active though! I did this with the help of Kpop!! Most will probably say "whaaaaaa?" but for me, it's been a great thing! I hook up my ipod or plug in my tablet and bring up youtube and move and groove and weight train to some awesome Kpop sounds! I've gone down 2 sizes and can now move easily, do more than 20 jumping jacks at a time, squats are my friends and my arms no longer look like flags. LOL! I no longer have hip pain, my feet don't bother me at work on my long shifts anymore either. I'm just BETTER! :-)

So I just had to share and also put it down as a reminder for myself. When I get to those times when I don't feel like exercising, or if I'm discouraged with myself, I've come a long way!

Permit test

Katlyn is taking her permit test today! Finally!

Almost done

Been in Vandy since Tuesday for an EMU study. Good news is that none of the spells I've been having are epileptic. This helps them make a better medication choice. I'm positive the keppra I've been on is what has been causing so many issues. Never had these issues before and I've been feeling pretty good without it this week!
I'll be released tomorrow. Kinda wish I'd had a "big one" while here, but I'm not sad I haven't. At least they are in good agreement now that the first grand mals were due to the tumor. Finally. Good enough for me.
Time to start really feeling better!

Another year older

Happy birthday to me! Running errands and stuff. Cake with the kids tonight via mom. Robert will be back for our anniversary!

This will be a great year. Ive typed it so it must be so.  :)

Christmas was great. Happy smiles all over and the usual tussles sometimes. I think all were happy with their gifts tho. Biggest happy petson is garrett tho since he got a starter drum set finally. :)

Baby girl playing with my hair makes me so tired.

Cats and dogs

Can get along.  :)

it does take me a while

to post that is. I really should try to do better. I forget that not everyone follows me on FB these days. ;)
Had follow up appts with all the brain drs this month. the latest MRI scan is "stable" so I wont need another one for a year (yay!). still having what seems to be simple partial focal seizures, so had to do another EEG to see if they could find anything this time (it was much more intense than the last one. maybe due to being at a different facility?). still waiting to hear the findings from that. have had my Keppra upped. moving up to 3K mg a day. this week moving up my night dose and next week (on thursday) will up my morning dose as well. it makes me more tired. I warned Robert beforehand and still warning myself. lol
had to leave church early today cause I stayed too long last week and was way too tired to be driving home. :p tired today, but no nap for me, trying to stay up til bedtime even though I'm worn out.
I have to say I'm very thankful for the migraine meds I have. I dont get them often anymore, but when they are starting up, if I take my meds quick, I can get them to back off before I'm down for the count. yesterday was close. I was already starting to get the shakes (how my body now reacts to pain) but thankfully it kicked in not long after that. dont want to repeat what they felt like before having the meds. awful stuff!
I see a neuro ophthalmologist next month. interestingly enough, he's also the same dr who did Gavin's last eye surgery years ago. maybe a good sign? we'll see what they have to say. the double vision I was having has cleared up most days, but it was a migraine that brought it on last time (my right eye feels like it swells up during those, strange!) so I may get down there and find nothing. but at least we'll have a base to follow up with next time. my previous field tests have already been sent down from february after first finding the tumor, so we'll see if anything has changed, and we'll get his opinion on how the tumor effects my eyes.

the kids are doing great. cant wait for halloween of course. usually we have our costumes already done and ready by now, but with me working full time at crazy hours, its been hard this year. :( I'm off work today and tomorrow, so I'm hoping I can pull it all together during that time.

having all the kids in school is still something for me to get used to. its so quiet during my days off during the week. LOL! but my brain needs the break, so I usually have no tv on and just a quiet house if I need it.

all the babies

on sunday, all our babies will be another year older this year as we wrap up all the birthdays. Canaan will be 18. doing well in college and loving the baseball team. K is 16 and finally thinking about getting her permit. Gav is 13 and acting like he's already in high school. H is 11 and doing proudly in his classes. G2 is 7 and is having a great school year with a new teacher. S is 5 and loving kindy.
proud mama and daddy to this little clan of kidlets! :)

Realization

So i just realized the other day that its only been 6 months since the UFO was found. Only 6 months. It seems like so much longer. *sigh*

my how time flies

our oldest boy, Canaan, will graduate on the 18th.
seriously.
graduating from high school.
already.
how can that happen so fast and yet it just at times seems to take so long then BAM it's just here and you're going "whaaaaa?!"
we're so proud of him. proud of them all actually. he's set a good example (mostly LOL) for his siblings.
Can't believe graduation is so close. *sniff*

yesterday was my appt with the neurologist. I did like him, which I'm relieved about. he like the neurosurgeon didnt think the size/place of the tumor would cause seizures and the complications like I'm having. so, I had 6 more vials of blood drawn and the paperwork had a lot of Epilepsy terms in them. they'll have the results of that today, but I dont think I'll find anything out til I go back to see him. he's ordered an EEG (brain wave test) and will also do in-depth memory and thinking skills to see how I do with those. I think I failed the balance test yesterday.  so if they cant get me in for those extra tests before 4 weeks, I'll go back in 8 weeks. a whole game of wait. meh.
in the meantime, I'll be reading up on epilepsy to see what I find on it. I've seen it while searching seizures, but have skipped over most of it since they found the tumor. so many questions still.
he did say my keppra dose was almost the lowest possible and since i've not had any more known seizures, we'll keep it at what it is for now.

I, like anyone else, hate the waiting game. I wanted to call today, but I dont think they'd want to give me news over the phone. they didnt call me to say anything either. guess I can call tomorrow morning to see if they got the appts set up for the other tests at least and can maybe slip in a question about the bloodwork. though, IDK if I'd want to know if it was a 'yes' without being at the drs office so I can start rattling off a lot of questions! 
and I did find this on an epilepsy site:

Quote:

When are people most likely to get epilepsy? New cases of epilepsy are most common among children, especially during the first year of life. The rate of new cases gradually declines until about age 10, and then becomes stable. After age 55 or 60, the rate starts to increase, as people develop strokes, brain tumors, or Alzheimer's disease. (All of these disorders can cause epilepsy.)

nice to know i fit in there somewhere. 

and another:

Quote:

There is a fine balance in the brain between factors that begin electrical activity and factors that restrict it, and there are also systems that limit the spread of electrical activity. During a seizure, these limits break down, and abnormal electrical discharges can occur and spread to whole groups of neighboring cells at once. This linkage of electrical discharges creates a "storm" of electrical activity in the brain. This is a seizure. When a person has had at least two of these seizures, that's called epilepsy.

I of course had 2 in one day and a 3rd had begun while in the hospital that night, before they got me laid down and it went away. (is that even possible to stop one? or maybe it was a mini seizure? IDK!)

I'm not going to dwell on it now though. unfortuneatly, I've chewed up the inside of my cheek. I chew on it when I get nervous or aggitated and its kinda sore right now from me doing that over the last day. :p 
note to self: STOP IT!!!!

things I've noticed about the 'new me'...

 I've noticed changes in myself over the last few months and I dont know if its the effect of the M on me, or maybe the keppra (I only take two 500mg pills a day). all I know is that I'm not the same person I was before January this year.
my memory is the worst thing that bothers me. I worry sometimes that what if one of these days I dont remember the important things, like my kids or hubby? birthdays, anniversaries, etc. I already forget the simple things. like when my daughter and I were out eating, I forgot that I'd eaten my bread, so when I came back from teh buffet, I was sad the waitress had taken my plate because she'd taken my bread. my daughter tole me I'd already eaten it. it sounds so simple, but it bothers me so bad. one night I couldnt remember if I'd actually washed my body during my shower because I couldnt remember what bath adn body scent I'd used. it's every day things that do this. I try to joke about it, but it really bothers me.
this week we're on vacation. love it as its only my 2nd time to the beach and only our 2nd vacation in our 21 years together. it was so stressful getting everything together for a family of 8 though! one thing I noticed when we got here, we're on the 8th floor and I swear I could feel the building moving when we got off the elevator. I do have vertigo and have trouble going up and down stairs, but dont have issues standing on the balcony. I attribute it to standing still and not trying to navigate my way down the height.
I almost had a breakdown emotionally when we went to walmart to get groceries the other day though. our own walmart I can handle, but this, being bigger and not known to me was like dunking me in a bath of cold water. we made it through getting the food and I still needed to pick up a hair dryer. I didnt know where to go, so hubby was walking and I was trying to follow. I eventually just stopped at an endcap and was kind of lost. he asked me what I was doing adn I wanted to cry and kinda went off a bit saying I didnt know where to go!
I feel silly for these things, being so randomly emotional, not being able to walk without putting a hand out to bounce myself off a wall or table so I dont go sideways. forgetting something 3 seconds afterwards, being off in a daze some days and just not being all there becasue they're my 'bad days'. it's not the me that I've always known. it freaks me out and I'm still coming to terms with it.
I go in for my 2nd MRI in a couple of weeks. I'm nervous and butterflies started last month! how do those who have been on W&W deal with this for years?  
my family has been great. so great. my close friends have been wonderful. I think they probably take it more seriously than I do, or worry more than I do, or perhaps voice their concerns more than myself. I'm a kind of quiet person and dont like to worry others with my 'issues'. my hubby wants me to quit this and open up to him more. I broke down about my memory issues this week and how they bother me. he was glad I talked with him and even cried some himself. but at the same time, he mentioned me dealing with this so I can get back to being the person I used to be. I've read the stories, I've been researching the way things change. *sigh* I konw he'll love me no matter what, but I'm having a hard time learning to love the new person I am so far, even though I know its not been that long yet. and I've not even been through much yet. bleh.
guess this is what happens when you hold stuff in, it just kinda gurgles out. lol!

Another headache moving in. Id been doing so well the last week.
*sigh*

today has been a good day physically. those have been few and far between since Jan 15th, so this is nice! I feel normal today actually. sometimes I wonder if that's good or not. If i feel good, I may tend to forget that I need to take medication to keep me that way. :-p not that I want to feel bad, it's been a booger dealing with that. it's always just an up and down thing. one day I can be great and then *BAM* it's in the crapper.
bleh.
I'll take my good day though! I'm thankful for it! *whew!*

Things have changed

yeah, I know I've been quiet in here.
For those who hang out with me on FB, you'll know (probably) what has made this year be a doozy so far.
On Jan. 15th I was taken to the ER after having 2 seizures. No, I'd never had any type of seizure in my life. After much testing, another 'almost seizure' and many more testings, we found out I am housing in my brain a meningioma tumor. yes, they're benign (supposed to be). the one that is nesting in my head is nestled under my pituitary gland, skull based in the cavernous sinus, about 1" and egg shaped. it's wrapped around my left carotid artery as well and pushing up on my left temporal lobe. that's what caused the seizures. it was messing with my head, literally.
We've recently had our 2nd opinion at Baptist Hospital in Nashville and have decided we've found our neurosurgeon for when the time comes. As of now, I'm under Watch and Wait (W&W) to see how the tumor decides to play.
I go back in mid-April for another MRI to check against the first one I had in Jan.
Right now, no one wants to touch it because the risks definitely outweigh the benefits because of its location and all the sensitive type stuff it's snuggled up and around. Yeah, I do like feeling my face, having the use of my eyes and stuff like that.
I'm on medication for the seizures. It took me a good month to adjust to that. harsh stuff that it is, and I'm on a pretty low dose. I feel for those who have to have a high dose.
I did have symptoms before anything happened, but I wrote it off as "getting older" (I just turned 40 this month!) Now, I know what I've actually got going on. I also find new things that make me wonder "is this part of that, or should I just ignore it?" I hate doubting myself.
Its been a bumpy road already. I have faith that everything will be fine. But still, I'm only human and I've gotten a shake-up. My hubby (of 20 years now) is wonderfully awesome! I cant ask for better. My mom has been by my side almost every day as well. She's my taxi cab too since I cant officially drive til mid-april now.  Dont know what I'd do without her!
The kids are fairing well. the older ones understand better than the younger ones of course. we try to keep things as normal as possible. the best thing I think.
This will likely be a long fight. whatever it turns out to be, I'm wearing my boxing gloves and am ready to fight!

Our kitties

Ho hum

Very bored at work...

My two middle boys :-)

College

Off to Berea today to meet the baseball coaches again and tour the campus.

17

Our oldest turned 17 this past weekend. He still will kiss his mamma on the head and tell me he loves me, even if his friends are there. He gets comps all the time on his manners. He still drives me crazy with his antics. He still loves messing with his daddy. He still impresses us with his goodness and strengths. He still loves the Lord and he still feels blessed.
We feel more than blessed to have him as ours.

Our kitten Boo

She's pretty easy going to say the least!

Crappy day at work. Bleh.

Off for a girls lunch with April. Olive Garden, makes my heart sing!

Father, Son and Friends playing

Worn out from a weekend at the games.

Caber  toss

The sound

On our way to a Celtic rock concert

The majestic sounds

Of a bagpipe band in full sound.

Off to work

Long day ahead but its all good. This weekend we're going to the Highland Games for Katlyns Birthday. I'm so excited!  I'm hoping her friend gets to come but if not, we'll make it super special for her.

This 'happy birthday ' will b better.

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Birthday bread! Yes, My birthday. :-)

life as we know it

so yeah, it takes me a while to remember to post. maybe I need to look into a quick post feature for my phone? hmmm...

things are trucking along here. working a lot, time with the family, searching for free time to do anything. not much of that these days.

Canaan gets his license next month! the official ones where he can drive by himself! yikes!!! I'm already praying and already worried. LOL! he's a good driver though, I just want him to remember that and not let teen idiocy get in his way. it will be a huge help with us though once he can drive on his own. between his baseball and work and our work and the other kids, having one that can get around on his own will be wonderful. I think he'll be surprised at how much he cant just "go" whenever or wherever he wants though. yeah, he's not making that much money right now only being able to work one or two days a week. ;)

he also goes and gets his 4 wisdom teeth taken out this friday (the 17th). its the 5th time we've had to reschedule the appt, so it better follow through this time. he's worried about it interfering with his Varsity ball practice, but he'll have a long weekend to recover, so NO, we're not going to reschedule!!

Garrett (the 5yo) recently got leg braces. he's a avid tip-toer and has been for years, so we're using those now to help stretch out his tendons in this legs. at first he liked them (they have spiderman on them!) but now he grumbles and complains. he does at least keep them on for the 2 hrs each night. buuuut, he'll be starting to wear them all night soon, so we'll see how THAT goes over with him.

other than that, he's been really good. I've been impressed with him at school. he's staying on blue the last almost month, I guess. he's picking up stuff so quickly now. I can really tell he likes kindergarten much more than he ever liked preschool. and with his tendency to get bored easily, this is very good!

Hunter is going for another perfect attendance school year. this will be his third one if he makes it. he's very proud of it too.  he's staying on honor roll, loves math stuff (GOT to get that from his daddy!! LOL) and is starting to like writing. He left a cute letter on my desk last night about a magazine he found that had super hero articles in it. he also signed it "your sweetheart, Hunter" ;) sweetness, huh?

Sarina is such a little diva. a good one though. LOL! that girl, I tell ya, you can tell she's the baby in the family and that she gets some coddling. Gavin can be the worst one to do it too. maybe that's why he's her favorite brother?? She can bring out the crocodile tears at the blink of an eye if someone does something to her (now this could be anything from sibling hitting to just not letting her have a piece of candy!). sometimes it gets really old. lol! 

she's a sweetie though, loves snuggling and getting loving. hams it up for the camera, loves her baby minnie mouse dolls and hello kitty. bows, frills, girlie things are her life for now, though she will keep her eyeballs glued to a nintendo ds if I let her! pouting ensues when it's taken away...

Gavin is starting to like middle school finally. he told me this himself last week. always a good sign. the kid talks constantly about drawing and mario. I DO mean constantly. I sure hope he gets a career in the art field because if he doesnt, its a good waste of vocabulary on his part. LMBO!! his grades are good, just a big of struggling with the math and social studies, but we're getting a handle on those too.

Katlyn has been our struggle. her grades go back and forth between in the toilet to doing well. honestly, I'm not sure if she'll pass the 9th grade at this point. we've done all the things we can think of except letting her fail herself and I'm on the verge of letting it happen. I cant do the girls homework for her and the only reason its not been done is her own laziness. yes and I'm sure of that.  might sound harsh to some, but we've been going through this for two grades now and she just bobbles back and forth with it. I love that girl like crazy, but she drives me crazy too. *sigh* she's so smart and has so much talent...

we're trying to get the funds to build on to the house. we thought we had it done this last week, but then that fell through and so I'm going to talk to someone else today to see if they can do anything. This is something we've been wanting to do for years and need SO badly. seems so frustrating that its the MOST difficult thing to get done! praying about it, God can open any door that looks like its padlocked.

in other good news, on spring break this year Robert and I will be going to Myrtle Beach!! ok, Canaan is going with the Varsity team for the Cal Ripkin Tourneys and we get to follow along. the other kids will be staying with their papa for the week. you may ask "why not take them all with you?" well, its a 9 hour drive and the youngest 4 do well to drive to papa's without having a melt down. the last time we went to papas (a 2 hr drive), Garrett informed daddy one hour into the drive, that he was lost and that momma needed to drive to papas. LOL! so we'll save that kind of family trip for when they're older and can handle sitting still so long. I have told Katlyn that she can come if she wants. at any rate, Robert and I have never had a honeymoon or vacation together, so this will be our first! and it'll be the first time I've been to the beach since I was 4 years old. yeah, been a while! so I'm super excited about it and am already planning my wardrobe, eating places and working on my tan. the last one is because I'm petrified of burning! I know I'll still be amped up on the best sunscreen I can use, but I'm hoping that having a base tan will help me out a bit. we'll see. the sun and I dont get along that well, no matter how much I love it. *sigh*

 

so I guess that catches me up on here more or less. 

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!!

The tile ninjas were done at 2am. *yawn* today: grout girl comes on scene! Sans cape per Dody's suggestion. :)

Today: we are tile ninjas!

And once again we are up before the kids on Christmas morning. :)

Merry Christmas!

 the weeks been crazy of course. is tomorrow really Christmas already?? cant believe its come up so fast! work again today 11-close (around 4) and after getting home, we'll take gifts for my parents to their house for our annual Christmas Eve at mom's house.  today is her birthday, so we celebrate (as long as she doesn't have to cook LOL)

the kids are looking forward to it, so am I. she asked waht I'd be bringing, but since I'm working, cant really think of anything. I do have some left over chili... not alot, but maybe over some chips? IDK.
my dad is coming early in the morning! this will be the first Cmas morning he's been with us in a number of years! he's usually here later in the day, but he confessed he doesnt like driving home in the dark. (we ask him to stay the night, but he wants to get home to his own bed) so he'll be here bright and early, which will be a surprise for the kids! weeee!
I did get Cmas cards sent out, but I was only able to buy 20 pic cards, so some wont have a pic this year. I also didnt do a letter. sorry!
but for those who didnt get one and for all of our friends, we wish you a blessed and very happy Christmas!!!!

Not much sadder than seeing a young girl begging her boyfriend not to dump her. Be strong girl, there are better ones!

Yay, seeing Tangled with the boys :)

Yay, got my Christmas cards out! :)

Great day! Cmas play @ church. Kids were a hoot! Even Gpa got to see our rockstars :)

Actually got the tree up and decorated now. Go me! LOL!

Work party tonite, no school tomorrow and i get to sleep in! Woo!

Theres a snow drift as tall as sarina in our back yard! :)

Peanut butter pie for the work party tomorrow! YUM!

It will get better. It will get better... Right? I'm believing that no matter how many times I have to remind myself.

Fixing dinner. Sarina said no to the chicken and ate the green peppers!

Pulled a double yesterday. Recouping a bit before going in tonite.

OMG! Just had to call in a 911 call for a house fire! No, not ours thank God!

Hoping tonite goes well...

Garrett is not happy that I'm going to work today. :(

That was fun :)

Munchin donuts with katlyn

I REALLY hate Wildblue right now!

I'm so pooped today. not from work, but from work. Orientation was fine, kinda fun even. took about an hour. I was on the go all day yesterday it seemed. all kinds of errands to run before going to pick up C from my moms. then taking him in town for B-ball and having to stay in town since dh was getting home late. in the midst of all this, I totally rearranged my dining area shelves. it needed it anyway cause once we start putting in the new cabinets, the shelf unit there would have to move. now its done and just the small kids bookshelf is there. I'll get some pics to share today. I've got most everything put up, but a lot of stuff still out. we're getting rid of two of the shelves, so I dont have enough room for everything now. I've goodwilled a bunch of stuff, a few things I'm going to see if a friend wants, some other stuff trashed.
once I get the rest of my kitchen cabinets in, I'll have a lot more room for things, so may be able to put the rest of this stuff up. 
also considering using the old kitchen cabinets for my office space.  they are smaller cabinets (only 24" where the new ones are 30", and not quite as deep) and still match the new cabinets in color. I could have a pretty sweet system set up over here if we do use them. I'll talk to dh about it.

my car is still in the shop.  I'm driving dh's escape til its done. I'm glad I've got it, but I'll be SO glad when my car is done!

several of us have been chasing our noses this week. LOL! runny noses and watery eyes were about my undoing yesterday! GAH! doing better so far today. the dust that I kicked up by taking everything out of the shelves yesterday was terrible! kinda embarrassing really. LOL

I never even got OL yesterday, unless I sent a text in. dont even remember if I did that. 

Sarina has taken to wearing her hair in pigtails lately. so cute. its in a ponytail right now cause she only found one band. 

taking k to get her hair cut today. its going to be short and super layered. she wants to be able to spike it. plus then coloring it blue/black. interesting. she's lucky I'm cool with this stuff.

Sitting at a mcds with S, G and G while the 2 tots play in the playplace :)

Woot!

We have food for another week!

Just feel so dang alone sometimes...

Sarina is feeling better this evening, though she's still a bit coughy. tomorrow is the last day of school for the kids then they get a week of vacation from school for thanksgiving. a whole week. we never got that! :P I hope the weather is good so they can at least get outside during that time.

Got my schedule for next week, not a lot of hours yet, but its a start at least. I was told it'd be slow at first, so I'm ok with it. Robert has already asked if it's worth it. *sigh* yeah, its still more money than I'd have had before. Not like anyone else is hiring part time for what I need in this town. :P I think he's expecting me to bring in a load of $ the first week or something. sheesh. 

Having lunch with Hunter today :)

Garrett just farted in front of a group of people, then made sure they knew by saying "i farted!" Lol!

Back in the working force later this week!

Made scones for breakfast. They were awesome with butter and strawberry jam!

had a good time with my sis today. always do! they ended up calling her in at 4 so we had to cut it a bit short, but I got home in time to get dinner anyway, so it worked out.
garrett showed his butt the whole time, of course, but she's a trooper and we made it through. LOL!
I did find C two polo shirts for $10 at one of the mall stores. they were having a Veterans weekend sale.  he's been wanting some for church, so that was an awesome deal. did find the converse all star boots that K wants, but those things are expensive :P I think we'll just stick with getting her a couple more pairs of converse knock offs and make her happy with that 

I'm looking for a used Nintendo DS on ebay for Gavin. Does anyone here have one they want to sell that's in good condition? 

found out dh's check wont deposit in the bank account til monday.  yeah. that's just awesome.  I made a partial house payment today, I REALLY hope it doesnt clear the bank til monday. *sigh*

dh gets to work tomorrow. K has a bday party to go to. there's a moms GTG tomorrow evening, we're goign to see the Cmas open house in town. its always so pretty!

S and G both got a finger stick today and you'd have thought they had a limb cut off! :p

WOOOOOOO!!! MY LITTLE SIS IS HAVING A BOY!

Sometimes things are soooooooooo frustrating!!!!!

Yes, I voted! :)