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!