Weight loss

So, I went to the doctor today because my back was really hurting from working out. I lost 3 pounds!! I need to work out today and tomorrow and then do my regular weigh in and tape on Monday to see if I've lost any body fat or anything. The doctor said that a good weight for me would be around 145, so, that's what I'm going to shoot for. At that weight I would need to lose a total of 50 pounds. I can do it! I think what I will do is go ahead and look for a part time job for when the kids are in school. We don't exactly NEED the money, but it would make life a little easier with some extra spending cash. I will continue on with my work outs as well. Hopefully I can find a place that will let me work these few hours and not have a problem with it. *fingers crossed*
Today, we're going to a birthday party for one of our friends kids. He turned 1 today! Hooray! They're having a small get together with some hot dogs and such. Just a little bit for today. I have so much to get done! Hopefully I will have time again on Sunday or Monday to do a better blog entry! 

Diet and Exercise

So, yesterday I started a new diet and exercise regime. Frankly, I was petrified to stand on the scales because I knew I weighed almost 200 pounds. I was always skinny when I was younger, and ate pretty much whatever I wanted, and a LOT of it! I remember my older sister coming in the door one day to me eating my after school snack, an entire pizza, and her telling me: "Some day, you're gonna get fat because you eat so much!" I told her that I would never get fat! After my first child I bounced back to within 5 pounds of pre-baby weight in a couple of weeks! By my 3rd child, I weighed right at 200 pounds at 9 months pregnant and quickly lost about 30 pounds. I was 165, and I was pretty happy about it. I didn't really care who thought I was fat, or if I was! Flash forward almost 7 years, and I have yo-yo'd between 165 down to 130 and back up to 195, which was my weight yesterday. So! I popped in my Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred workout video, and 20 minutes later, lay on the floor wishing that every muscle in my body would quit trembling! It may only be 20 minutes, but she REALLY kicks your ass!! This morning I felt pretty good laying in bed, but when I got out I felt like my legs were jello! I went ahead and worked out again today, and it felt pretty good. I'm still really sore, but I imagine in a few days it will feel much better!! Here's to getting healthy and in shape!

Little Words Wednesday

Our 2 Greyhounds Doc (brindle) and Dusty (red) after a walk and a bath. Doing what they do best, sleep!

Thinking back

So, any of you that really know me, know that Sam is pending medical discharge from the military. We're hoping that they will medically retire him, not just discharge him. It's been a very long road to get to this point, and there still isn't a real end in site. He will be 2 years past his EAS date on 1 June. That's 2 years of fighting to get the medical assistance that he needs and should rightfully have because of an injury that the Marine Corps caused, well, at least part of it. The other part we figured out after all of this started. He was also diagnosed with TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) which was caused by a car accident right after he started a long weekend. He wasn't drinking, he had his seat belt on, they were pulling out from a light, and a guy ran a red light and t-boned them on my husbands side doing about 60mph. He was knocked unconscious for a while and was life flighted to the hospital. The insurance company was very surprised that Sam even lived. We figured out that all of the migraines and memory problems were from that, not "failing health." He also has PTSD from being in the worlds two most dangerous cities (at the time). I know other people from the same unit as the one he went out with last. I know some of the things that went on, I don't even have to ask. He does talk about it every now and again, and I just listen. I don't interject, I don't try to tell him that I know how hard it is, because I don't. I've never put my life on the line for the freedoms of our country, couldn't even fathom doing it for another nation a million miles away that I had only heard of in passing before 9/11!

I'm trying to be more understanding, have more patience. This is one of the hardest things for me. I am not a very patient person. I abhor waiting in line. I have the attention span of a gnat, and most of the times I forget why I'm even standing in line, which pisses me off to no end! I know that sometimes I can be very short with Sam and the kids, and that is one of the biggest things that I am trying to change. So far, I have made small baby steps towards my goal of not exploding when something isn't completed in exactly the way I want it to be done, but, any step forward is better than a step back or no step at all! Looking back, 5 years ago I couldn't really say that. Five years ago, I was nowhere near where I am now. I was still sort of small, quite young, even for being 25! I feel more like an adult now, more like I should at the age of 30. (Well, okay, 30 in June, but close enough!) I've come to accept more of my shortcomings, and realize that some of them I can overcome, some of them it's going to be a very long time before I can even scratch the surface.

On a happier note, Bug learned to ride her bike without training wheels this weekend! She did really well! She yelled at me because she didn't think I was supporting her enough when she was doing just great even without me holding her up. Sometimes I feel like I've robbed myself of my children, but really it was for their own good. Bug learning to ride a 2 wheeler is just one more step to her becoming independent and not needing me any more. I can't say that any child really ever grows to the point that they don't need their Mom. I know I still need my Mom! I wouldn't know what to do without my many frequent phone calls to her! "Mom, how do you do this?" "Mom, how do I make this?" "Mom, can you tell me where I can find this?" My Mom is a cornucopia of knowledge that if I could master half of, I will be doing great! I think that is enough for tonight dear readers. Sam is ready to go to bed, and I can't say that I blame him. The past two nights I have been up and down frequently during the night, and up before my alarm with the dogs. Any of you who know me, me without sleep is almost as bad as being stuck in a confined space with a starving bear.

I can't find the remote!

So, for the past 2 days, I have been looking for the television remote, so I can change the channel. I know what you're thinking, just walk up and change the channel on the TV! Not that easy my friend, and I'll explain why.

Usually it's not that big of a deal! We don't have cable, but we do have a converter box, but the converter box only picks up one station, so we rarely watch TV any more. I do like to occasionally watch the news, but every Sunday I HAVE to would really like to watch Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Tho, it does seem like every time I watch it, I am overcome with happiness and I have Houdini tears. Well, since we only have one channel on TV, most of the time we play games on the Wii, which requires that we have it on a component channel. So, the TV is happily sitting on Component 2 (for the Wii) until I decided yesterday that I would really like to watch the tail end of GMA and catch The Ellen Show. I really like the Ellen show! She is always giving stuff away, helping people, trying to be a better person in this world of cut-throats and heart breakers. Well, here comes my dilemma, I can't find the remote, and the only way to change it from a component channel back to a regular channel is to press a button on the remote, which I can't find.  I have looked everywhere that I could think that a TV remote should be. In the couch, under the couch, in the dogs bed (She likes to carry random stuff to it, just to have it there), in the kids rooms, our room. Can't find it! I guess I'm going to have to get down on my hands and knees with a fine tooth comb and search for it.

Bug had Girl Scouts last night. I used to have alot of fun in Girl Scouts when I was younger. Got to send my cookie sheet to work with mom, who always got alot of orders for me. We would go to camp, sit around the fire and tell scary stories and roast marshmallows. Then there were the occasional times where we would steal the troop leaders underwear and sneak out and run them up the flag pole where everyone met in the morning for morning meeting and she would get back at us by hanging all of our bras, panties and socks from holes in the ceiling. (We usually stayed in the old time hand made log cabin.) Thinking back on trekking to  the middle of the camp wasn't all that good of an idea for a small group of young girls (think, all less than 13) to go walking thru the woods, in the middle of the night, all alone, with nothing but the moonlight to guide us. Don't get me wrong! I always had a BLAST doing it, and then watching our troop leader have to sing God Bless My Underwear to get them back, but that was a very reckless thing that we did. We were out in the middle of the woods, alone! What if something would have happened to us? Nobody would have been there to help us. Well, I guess that's just something that you don't think about when you're young and invincible!

Well, I think it's back to the hunt for the elusive TV remote. That, and I have more laundry, more dishes, and more house cleaning to do! I'm not sure what I'm going to make for dinner tonight. It's getting close to pay day, so, we're getting down to the bare bones in the kitchen! Maybe I will make some potato soup, or some chicken soup. Fresh, homemade chicken soup sounds rather good actually! It's supposed to be a chilly day today. I hope that I have all the stuff to make it!

Life, and other things

So, I came upon one of the other blogs that had written "back in the day." It was before I had moved to North Carolina, and it was basically about my day to day life as I tried to piece it back together from a bad break up that I had with a man that I was very much in love with. Back then I wrote a whole lot more. (Maybe because I had more time?) I wrote about things that had meaning to me, and to others. I'm not exactly sure what happened to that old me, but, I think it's high time I got back to it (at least the writing part!)!! So.... here we go!

Monkey was put on a new medication on Monday. It's called Intuniv. So far, so good!! I went to pick them up from Boys & Girls club last night and the director said that they were on the playground (his problem area) and that he sat in the sand with 2 other kids and made sandcastles. He was then playing with some dinosaurs that he had gotten from the school store and she asked if she could have them because he wasn't supposed to have toys. He gladly gave them to her, and even volunteered the ones in his pocket she didn't know about, and asked politely if he could have them back when they got inside so he could put them in his back pack. I was really surprised! I asked him if he thought the new medication was working, and he said yes, he thought it was. I just hope that since we have found another medication that works so well, that it doesn't have the same side effects as the last medication that worked so well. I don't think I could handle another round of high blood pressure readings like the last time! He is normally a very polite child anyways, but last night he was extraordinarily so. He offered to help me make dinner, which is normal, and help set the table, which is normal, but he also offered to carry all the plates to the table (even his sisters!) which is not normal! Normally, I get all the plates lined up on the counter, take them to the table, get everyones' drink requests, pour them, set them on the table, and by this time I get requests from both Monkey and Bug to start eating, and when everybody gets everything that they need, I finally sit down and everyone eats.

Bug got her room redecorated. We're still working on the paint tho. She got her butterfly net hung around the head of her bed, hopefully this time it stays up! She also got her name spelled out on the wall with big foam letters in blue, green, and pink! I still need to make her some curtains, and apparently replace her blinds, as they are slowly but surely getting broken. She's been doing a pretty good job of keeping her room clean! We had to move the bed to the other wall so she had more room to maneuver around and pick things up. I really think she likes this layout a little better, I know I do! I believe that we have made plans to paint her room a light pink color. It pretty much matches everything that she has. My wonderful mother bought her a bedroom suite that is just absolutely adorable! It was all painted an antique white, and decorated with pastel pink, blue, green, and yellow. It came with a headboard, dresser, and a chest! She keeps all of her bedclothes in the chest currently. She has cute little rugs in her room too. She has a butterfly that stays in front of her dirty clothes hamper, a pink oblong one that is on one side of her bed, and a pink and purple flower with a bug on it on the other side. She's just too cute when you peek in there and she's dressed up in one of her princess dresses talking to her dolls.

I had come up with an idea for the rest of the house as well. For our bedroom, I would like to paint the walls and off white color and repaint our dressers a distressed off white as well. I want to get new bedding that is black and tan. We really like the color combo of the two in there. I also want to build an addition to the kitchen, and make it a dinning room. Maybe more like a sun room/dinning room with some big windows to let in light. Then I would like to take what is currently the dinning room, and turn it into a den/office type spot, take out the sliding glass door, and put that in the new dinning room. From there I would like to put a big corner desk in the "den" with some bookshelves for all of the books that we have lying about, and possibly a spot for me to do my sewing. Off of the new dinning room, I would like to build a deck that would go to the corner of the house and out into the back yard. Now I know that this isn't something that we are going to be able to do right away, but it would be nice! I also want to replace the front door and the storm door with something a little bit nicer, or at least something that won't fly open if a stiff wind hits it! I also want to put a bigger front porch on the house as well, and cover it. It will help keep the heat from beaming inside the living room windows in the summer time and making the house hotter. Sam and I have settle the color dispute for the living room as well. Instead of the horrible red and brown that it currently is (which doesn't match our style, nor our furniture) we want to paint the walls a cream color. We already have the black couches and the sage-green accents!

Oh yes! My sewing! I had forgot to mention that Sam bought me a new sewing machine for our anniversary! It's something that I have been wanting for a while. I remember, growing up, my mom making this beautiful creations on her sewing machine! I thought that she was magic and the best "sewer" in the world! One Halloween, I think I was 9, she made me a pilgrim costume, complete with a white apron and bonnet! I will never forget that costume! I think it was my favorite, looking back at all the Halloween costumes I had growing up. I wanted to be able to make beautiful garments like my mom, and had expressed this to Sam a few times. He went to Wal-Mart and got me a pretty nice sewing machine. Granted, it's not the best sewing machine, but it works, and I'm thankful. I am just a beginner, and I think if I had some complicated, expensive machine with more gadgets and do-dads that I might be overwhelmed and not be inclined to want to even try it! I did make a dog coat already. It was quite the experience! I learned alot more than I thought I would! I have plans on making Bug some summer clothes, and I would like to make her a dress, me a top, and the boys a polo shirt for us to have some spring pictures done. (We still haven't redeemed our Christmas present from J!) I found a really cute fabric online that I want to order, and some coordinating fabric on the same site. Now I just need to find some patterns to make them! I wish that I was more creative, so I could make my own patterns. Never know, someday I might just be the next Alexander McQueen, without the whole hanging myself thing.

Anyways! I should probably go. I have laundry to do, dishes to put away, dishwasher to load, and I have to take back the pants that I bought Sam and Monkey! Monkey's new pants were too big, and Sam hated the color of his new pants!

It's been a while!

I apologize to my on follower for the lack of updates lately. Things have been a lil crazy around here!

Monkey's birthday was really fun! He had his friend over and we had cake and ice cream and open some presents. He got a helicopter from my mom, which he has played with a few times, but since it takes quite a few batteries, he doesn't play with it that much. He still loves it though! He got a few more presents, but, I think that one was his favorite!

We're still doing okay in school! Bug has started going to the "gifted children" classes. She is in 1st grade, and reads on a 3rd grade level. She's really far ahead! She LOVES going to school! Monkey on the other hand, some days it's a struggle to get him motivated to go to school and do his homework. We're currently reading Charlottes' Web and have plans to watch the cartoon at the halfway point, and when we're done reading the book, we're going to throw a party and have popcorn, candy, and soda, and watch the movie! He's really excited about this and has been trying to read as much as he can. Usually in the evening we trade off reading pages for at least a chapter a night.

Sam and I are doing well. We had a pretty low key Valentine's Day, and just spent time with each other after the kids went to bed. Bug had a Valentine's dance at school, and she got a new dress. We tried on LOTS of dresses at the mall, and she finally settled on a pink and black polka dot one with some strappy black sparkly heels (They were only maybe an inch high) She looked very cute!

Not an extreme amount has been happening lately. I'm seriously going to try and blog more! But now, I have to get back to doing laundry!