Jello Arms and Evening Workouts

Yesterday since I was too tired to work out in the morning I decided to workout in the evening after everyone else had gone to bed.  I watched "The Closer" while I walked on the treadmill for 3o minutes then did some ab work and exercised my arms a bit despite my achy shoulder.  It was actually nice working out in the evening with everyone in bed, I didn't have to worry about any interruptions from the kids or anything else for that matter!  I even went to sleep rather quickly and slept pretty good.  I always seem to be more tired than energized after a workout, so that worked out too!  After a bit of consideration I think I'm going to stick to the evening workouts.  I had originally planned to workout first thing in the morning.  I was going to get up about 5:30 and do my workout, shower and be dressed before the kids got up in the morning.  However, stuff seems to be getting in the way of getting up early enough to get all that in before the kids get up, so it just isn't working out as well as I'd hoped.  Plus the kids are going to be going to school earlier a couple days a week for before school activities so I'd have to get up even earlier to be ready before they get up.  Evening just seem to be the better compromise!

This morning, I had to get the kids ready early so that I could attend a meeting in the Library for an accelerated Math program that the school wants to place Anna in.  I found out all the criteria that they accessed to select her and what they'll be studying this year.  Basically she's scored high in 3rd and 4th grade on her CSAP tests, had high spring MAPS scores, and passed w/ an A or P in 3rd and 4th grade.  Plus she's been recommended by her teacher and demonstrates a maturity to sustain the program.  It's going to be a challenge, but by the end of the year she'll be ready to move onto Algebra in 6th grade since they'll be covering pre-Algebra during her 5th grade year.  Thank God she has her father to help her out, he's a whizz at math!

As everyone was leaving I took the opportunity to talk to the Principal and Math teacher about Prairie, the Middle School Anna will be going to next year if we don't try and choice into another school.  I told them what I've heard from friends and what my friend have heard from friends.  I told them about my concerns about safety and security especially with gangs, which I've heard is a problem there.  I'm not really concerned about the ethnic diversity there, just that there might be a problem with kids not caring due to financial difficulties or parents not caring, which I've also heard from friends.  They told me that Prairie tested the highest of all the schools in the district in math, they really take it seriously there.  They also said that many families have sent their kids to Prairie and their kids are thriving there.  They recommended that I go and talk to people at the school, observe classes and talk to the school counselor.   So over the course of the next two months that exactly what I'm going to have to do since I can't submit any other paperwork to attend other schools till the 1st of November.

After the meeting I took David and Anna to their school lines.  John and I headed home, but I decided not to far into our trip home that I wanted to talk to my friend Athena about schools so we turned around and headed towards her house.  She was actually just getting to the school to drop her kids off, so we joined up.  (She's debating sending her kids to Prairie as well due to negative feedback from friends.)  Anyway, we had a good talk and also discussed a few different things that were on our minds.  I even cleared up a bit of  frustration, at least on my end, about something that had happened between us recently (unintentionally hurt feelings due to an over sensitive me).  This whole time I had been holding Maggie in my arms, she'd fallen asleep (she's still sick).  I continued to carry her, while John pushed the stroller.  Athena walked us most of the way home and we went our separate ways just down the street from our house.  Back home, I laid Maggie down for a nap in her crib and my arms were so shaky from holding her so long they felt like jello.  They are better now that they've had a chance to rest.

Shoulder Pains, a Sick Little Baby, PLUS

Yesterday before bed I suddenly had trouble using my left shoulder without immense pain.  I thought it was kind of weird because I don't remember hurting it at all, it just really, really hurts whenever I try to move it a certain way, or if I lift it a certain way, or just try to hold something with my left hand that has a little weight to it.  It's so weird and annoying because I have to be really careful or it hurts like crazy.  It almost feels like it wants to fall out like my right shoulder sometimes acts like it wants to...  Hopefully it heals soon because whatever is wrong with it is really going to hinder my activity for awhile till it feels better!  :O(

.....So last night Maggie got ill.  She was up from about 11 to 2 in the morning, she just couldn't get comfortable.  I ended up feeding her a bottle about 1.  She almost drank the whole thing, then decided she wanted to drink a bit of water too, but shortly after taking a couple sips she starts to cough and choke a bit then threw up all over herself, her blanket, me and the chair we were sitting in.  She continued to spew a couple more times till her stomach was completely empty and they she seemed to be all better, she was happy and talking.  I took her to the bathroom and stripped her out of her soaked clothes and washed her down, put a new diaper on her and got her into a new outfit and put her back in her bed.  I had to take her blanket and outfit to the tub to rinse them out since they were caked in puke.  (I really dislike the smell of puke, makes me feel like I want to puke too!  EWWW!!!)  I got the two rinsed out and discovered that Maggie's blanket is super absorbent and gets really, really heavy when completely wet.  That's just good info to know in case she has it around a water source, because unfortunately it could aid in her drowning if she falls in cause it's so darn heavy, it would be hard to get it off if she was tangled in it!   After wringing the blanket and pj out I ran them downstairs and threw 'em in the washer, I also stripped out of my clothes since they were soaked with puke, which I'd been wearing the whole time, yuck!  I got the small puke load started, wrapped up in a towel, and ran upstairs to wash myself off a bit and get into new pjs.  Maggie seemed to be better after her puking episode.  She still didn't get to sleep right away and I let her drink a little water so her tummy wasn't completely empty, that helped settle her stomach and she decided to finally go to sleep.

Maggie slept in a bit this morning.  She has been rather clingy and cranky today, though it alternates with happiness, curiosity, and the need to run around the house.  Plus her poor little nose is running like a faucet.  I gave her some allergy meds this morning because she's been itching her eyes and nose like crazy, I'm hoping the meds dry up her nose so she isn't sliming everything anymore.  I have to wipe her nose every 5 to 10 minutes and boy does she not like that!  She doesn't act sick really other than being a bit clingy, so I think she'll be better in a day or so.  She might take longer naps than usual.  Hopefully she doesn't slime all her blankets and crib, not sure when I'll be able to get to the laundry since the AAA people haven't shown up yet...

....Maggie is now at that height that she ends up bumping her head on tables if she isn't careful.  She isn't really aware that the tables are there until it's too late.  I'm not sure how long it's going to take her to figure out that she has to watch where she's going so she doesn't keep getting injured.  Fortunately it hasn't been anything serious yet!!!

*Jacob came in at about 5 this morning to give me loves before he went to work.   I had planned to get up at 5:30 to workout, but since I didn't get to sleep till after 9pm, then was up from 11 till 2 in the morning with Maggie I was so tired I turned my alarm off and slept till almost 7.  I'll have to workout later today after AAA comes to clean out the the rest of our drain pipes.  I'm waiting to start a load of dishes in the dishwasher too.  A lady called this morning and said they should be arriving around 9, but now it's almost 10.  I don't have any plans to go anywhere today, but I do really need to get a few chores done and those require the use of the drains, which they are supposed to be cleaning out!  I hate waiting around for things that were supposed to be done earlier, puts a crimp in my whole days activities!!!

Wondering...

My eyes hurt today.  I'm not sure if it's because I can't seem to control my emotions lately and have been crying a lot or that my contacts are saying their ready to be changed out, either way it's no fun!

I've been having this drawn out e-mail conversation with this guy who seemed to be interested in this perfume I am offering on Craigslist.  It was a rather furstrating conversation because he kept asking me questions that were either already clearly stated in my advertisement or that I had already answered in my e-mails to him.  I had to repeat myself over and over again and correct his apparent mis-understanding on the price, which was also clearly stated in my advertisement!  Anyway, this morning, after probably a dozen e-mails between us, I was writing the guy back with my address to come and buy the perfume (he e-mailed me back last night around 10:30 and said he come by after church this afternoon), I received an e-mail while I was typing my e-mail out.  After I sent my message out I checked the new e-mail, it was from the guy.  He said he'd found the perfume elsewhere for $25 new and though he was getting it all for 1/2 price he didn't want to drive down from Thornton since he didn't even know what it smells like.  SMH  Boy was I frustrated and disappointed!!!  I really hate getting the run around from people like that!!!
Afterwards I went upstairs and recapped the whole thing to Jacob and cried a little.  (There is more to the whole situation than just the frustrating person I had dealt with, that's why I was so emotional about it, but I don't want to go into it now...)

We all got up late this morning and since we were running short on time, to leave fore Church, we put our rears in high gear.  We were out the door by 8:40 and made it to Church with 5 minutes to spare.  The kids were all in new classes, which I forgot about, but since I was only dropping Maggie off I didn't find that out till I went to pick the kids up from their classes.  The Sermon was on God being our Shepherd.  We also found out about some of the Fall Bible Studies that were being offered.  I heard two in particular that I wanted to look into, MOPS and a Pathways Class on Expanding your relationship with God.  So after Service I went and picked up the information for the classes.  MOPS is on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of each month and apparently costs about $100 to attend, which isn't something that I hadn't planned on and I definitely don't have the money right now to join.  It doesn't start until the 15th of September, but I've been thinking about joining for years, so I might actually do it this year (when we have some money).  The other class sounded interesting in the Download (our Church's information session), but Jacob thought as I read through the brochure that the class on Connecting sounded more like what we should try out since we are pretty new to this Church and don't know hardly anyone yet.  That start's on the 8th of September, which is also a Wednesday, so Wednesdays might be a very busy, busy day for us through the rest of the year?!?!

After Church we went to WOW! to check out their tent sale.  It wasn't very interesting, unfortunately!  Since there was hardly anything in the tent worth looking at we went inside and looked around.  Their stuff is just too expensive and since we aren't really in the market for any furniture anyway, we probably won't be going back there any time soon!

On our way back home Jacob and I got into a discussion about money.  That always leaves us rather frustrated and wondering why we can't seem to get back on better track financially when God gave us the peace to buy this home.  Unfortunately things keep breaking and as it stands right now it's going to take us over 5 years at our current rate, or possibly 2.5 if we really crack down and try to get the bills paid off.  However, that would mean Jacob would need to take a big chunk of the money I get every month for the family to live on and we would have little to no extra money to live on for the next 2.5 years.  We really don't want to be in debt anymore, but we really aren't getting a break from financial trials!  This year alone, the water heater, furnace, and sewer line broke and needed to be replaced.  That's over $20,000 in expenses that we just don't have the income to pay off very quickly!  Plus our not even 2 yr old dishwasher got recalled and replacing it costs more than the rebate they are giving us by at least $500 dollars.  It's just so frustrating!!!  And though we are making payments on these credit cards, things keep breaking or getting damaged and require larger sums of money than we have at any one time to fix them without going even deeper in debt.  We aren't sure what to do...  It just feels like we did what God gave us peace about to do and now we are suffering more and more every year financially!  SMH  Yet again this is where the wonder comes in and where the sermon today touched on, God does provide for us!  We have a roof over our heads, reliable vehicles to drives, clothes to wear, and food to eat, however there is little room for anything else and I don't necessarily mean the frivolous stuff, though that is rather frustrating as well.  Jacob and I like to be generous people.  We like to help others financially and with gifts to bless their lives, however in our current financial situation we are unable to do so!  There is no extra income to help or bless others because all the extra money we get goes towards paying off these darn credit cards from broken appliances and house repairs!  So until we can get a card or two paid off we are really going to have to take it easy.  Life is going to have to revolve around the house and not getting out for the extracurricular stuff all that much!  I/we really hate being in this position and we apologize for not going to help anyone out all that much financially or with gifts, but it just isn't within our means right now.  We're finding it harder and harder each month just to pay the bills!  So please bare with us as we work to correct this, it may take us a couple years, but we are trying and hopefully when things are better we'll be able to bless all of you all the more!!!

Dancing in the Park

AND OTHER STUFF WE'VE BEEN UP TO LATELY...

Yesterday I stuck around the house most of the day, cleaned a little, and spent some time with John and Maggie.  I also sent out a few cards and realized that I don't seem to have as many people to write since I'm writing most everything here in my Blog.....

The guy in charge of the crew that did all the work for the maintenance on our sewer line, with AAA Plumbing, came by after 2 to make sure that everything was put back to normal.  Everything looks pretty good though there is a divot in the the front lawn that he said if it doesn't grow back in the next couple weeks they'll come out and take care of it.  He scoped out the pipes again, everything looks great, and he went over the paperwork with Jacob, who arrived home just in time to do that.  I paid the bill and scheduled the whole house drainage pipe cleaning for next Monday at 8am (it's included in the package we bought).  So hopefully with the new pipe line and the Home Service Plan that Jacob signed up for with AAA, we won't have any more major problems with our pipes as long as we live and if for some reason we do, it's covered by warranty!

I made chicken curry and vegetables over rice for dinner yesterday.  I really wanted to eat more, but my stomach was telling me not to.  The kids aren't all fans of the curry, but we told them if they ate up we'd have a surprise for them when we went out later that evening.  Our Community had scheduled a DJ and Free Ice Cream Social for 6-8pm.  I'd been thinking about going all week since I'd seen the fliers about it and was still debating, but I got a call from my friend Athena and she wanted to know if we were going to go?  I told her I wasn't sure, that I needed to call Jacob, so after I got off the phone with her I called him at work.  He said it sounded like a good opportunity to get out and do something different!  So, I called my friend Carley and invited her and her family to come;  she accepted.  Then I called Athena back and let her know we'd be going.  Just before 6 we all got ready to leave to the Community Commons for "Dancing in the Park".  The kids got pants, t-shirts, socks, and tennis shoes on, then outside we sprayed everyone down with bug spray just before we left the house.  (Mosquitoes can be killer here, especially to some of us, like David, he must be extra sweet.)

"Dancing  in the Park" was lots of fun!  It was nice to just sit and talk with friends and listen to the music while the kids run around.  I did get up to do the "Hokie-Pokie" with Maggie, she thought that was a riot.  I think we all had a good time, even Maggie got to run around a bit.  She thought it was fun to walk up and down a strip of the sidewalk where we were sitting.  She even got a bit too bold and took off a bit too far from us, Jacob chased after her.  lol  David got a lot of tree climbing in, there are some really good climbing trees in that park of the greenbelt.  Anna got to hang out with a bunch of her friends.  John stuck pretty close to us, he's not very social and was rather bored and cold, so he wrapped up a bit in our picnic blanket and just laid down.  He wanted to leave early, but we stayed till the very last song then headed home.  I hope they do another one of these in the near future.  I think I heard them mention something about doing one in September maybe?  We'll see...

This morning I got up about 6:30.  Woke up on my own, Maggie wasn't up yet.  Jacob wasn't in bed so I went downstairs and found him playing a video game.  He was too distracted with his game so I went upstairs and did my regular Saturday weigh in, plus I also did my measurements which I haven't done in about 2 months.  I'm progressing nicely, lost 2 lbs this week.  I think I haven't lost more because I've been doing more strength training and am converting fat to muscle which weighs more.  At least I did lose 2 lbs, that's my goal for ea. week.  My measurements were down in most areas as well, but I haven't done my measurements as regularly and I haven't lost as much as I should have in the last two months.  It's really hard to stick to this WW program and not eat the things you like.  I am working harder now though!!!

Jacob decided to shut his game off when the rest of the family was up.  Anna was the only one that had grabbed cereal for breakfast, so I proposed that we go and get doughnuts, it's been about 2 wks since we last got some.  However, Jacob decided that he wanted to get a couple things done this morning before we left.  He fixed the boys closet door which was off it's hinges and hung this small cast iron 'Welcome' sign with squirrels on it that I've had for quite awhile.  After we were done (I helped hang the sign) we left for the doughnuts, it was almost 9am.  We went to Smart Co. and I let each of the kids pick out 2 doughnuts, Jacob too, and I grabbed 4 cream cheese filled croissants.  On our way out we got a bunch of bananas and a small bag of white peaches, for the healthy part of our meal.  :O)  At the register a lady asked that we come over to her line, she'd just opened it up, so we went over there instead of waiting for our line.  I told the lady I had a dozen doughnuts and she was like, no you have some croissants in there, they aren't the same price as a dozen doughnuts. I was like "I've been getting almost the same thing, almost every Saturday since you guys opened and I've only ever been charged the $3.98 for a dozen doughnuts."  She was like, "I'm sorry, they shouldn't have done that because the croissants, danishs, and other pastries are a different price."  I was like, "So how much is this going to cost me?" I was only prepared to pay the $3.98 for a dozen.  She figured it out and it came to over $7.  I was like, "This is ridiculous!", grabbed my doughnuts and fruit and headed back to the the bakery.  I checked the signs on the door and there was a .79 cent sticker for 'other' pastry items.  Then I asked the people working in the Bakery about the dozen doughnut price and apparently those 'other' pastries are not  included in the $3.98 dozen doughnut price.  I was ticked!!!  I couldn't put the doughnuts back since I'd already grabbed them, so I grab 4 more 'regular' doughnuts to make the full dozen 'doughnuts' and get the $3.98 price and paid the extra for the croissants.  Anyway, I was not a happy camper, not when I'd been coming for over 2 months, possibly 3 and getting the same thing and now all of sudden I have to pay A LOT more than what I used to!!!  I WON'T be getting doughnuts as often as I used to anymore, not when it's gonna cost me so much more!!!  :O(

So I left Smart Co. in a bad mood, probably shouldn't have been driving, and we went home.  At home the kids were excited to get their doughnuts.  I had forgotten, which doughnuts each child had picked (since I was throwing my own little fit) and unfortunately I ended up giving one of John's doughnuts to David and he took a bite.  John started freaking out because David was eating his doughnut and I realized, as I looked at the doughnuts more closely, that I had given David's John's doughnut and he knew it!  I grabbed the doughnut from David and gave it to John, but then he didn't want it because it had a bite taken out of it.  This whole issue went on for awhile, but it eventually resolved and everyone gets THEIR doughnuts.

After doughnuts Jacob let us go to Furniture Row to check out the rocker, recliner I thought I'd be interested in (mine's been busted for awhile now).  Turns out that they one I went for isn't as good of quality as I would have hoped.  The arms of the chair, though very cushy, would go flat pretty quickly due to not so quality materials and the back didn't provide as much support as we would have hoped, so we left.

It was after 11 as we headed back towards home.  I'd already decided that I wanted to get Chinese for lunch so went to LD's Chinese Buffet.  I planned to only spend about $30 for take out, but as we arrived our friend Athena was there w/ her kids, unloading them from her van.  Come to find out our friends the Mikelevicius' were there for their daughters Birthday lunch, that's why Athena and her kids were there, so we decided to eat in too.  It was nice to see everyone and get to spend some time with them, even though it was pretty noisy in there!  AND fortunately the dine-in fee wasn't as expensive as I thought it was going to be!!!

Back home Jacob put Maggie down for a nap, she missed her morning one because we were out.  Then we worked on my chair a bit.  I had him help me fix the cushioning on the arm.  After he'd repositioned it a bit he decided that he'd check and see if he could figure out why/how the back was broken.  After removing the back, which a very hand feature to Lazyboys, he found out that one of the screws that holds the side support in place was completely broken off and was no longer holding the side support in place.  So, he grabbed a large screw from the garage, drilled a pilot hole in a different location, but still providing the same support, and now my chair doesn't fall over to the left anymore when I sit in it, it's completely supported now!  YAY, for my Honey's ingenuity!  Now if only the darn arm cushion would stay in place!!!  ;O)

So, now that the majority of our projects/plans are done for the day I decided to get on here and post an update.  Jacob is playing another video game and all the kids except Maggie are watching.  Not sure what we're going to do for the rest of the day???

Stuck At Home

AAA Plumbing arrived this morning to replace the sewer/drainage pipes for our house earlier than expected, shortly after 8 am.  I was told they weren't coming till 9, but earlier is always better for me and I was ready for them.  The inspector came in and marked all the different power and water lines.  Then after another scope of the pipe line they found out that the pipes are clay all the way up to the house so instead of putting the accessible drain out out in the yard, they now need to put it in exactly the same place Jacob had dug the 4  foot deep, 6 foot long hole on Monday and filled back in because the first company we talked to said they couldn't put the drain out there for "safety reasons".  It was pretty annoying!  They started digging about 9:30 this morning and are finally starting to put everything back the way it was before, it is now after 5pm, though the grass is going to be a bit flat in places and there will be a lot of loose dirt around for awhile, but hopefully this will take care of our pipes backing up anymore!

They've been blocking the driveway all day so John, Maggie and I have been stuck at home.  It's a good thing I didn't want to go anywhere today, well earlier today anyway.  However, I was hoping that this evening after dinner we could take a trip to Furniture Row to check out this recliner that they have on sale right now, but since they are still blocking the driveway and may be for another hour or two, depending on how long it takes them to fill everything back in and put things back in their places, we probably won't be going today.  We'll see?!

Anyway, John and I played a couple games today.  I opened a Lego Memory Game, but John found it too frustrating and we only did one game.  Then we played 2 games of Connect 4 and he beat me both times, which he was really excited about, he's not a very gracious loser just yet.  Later after a few of his movies and after I'd started one of mine he asked if we could read a book.  I told him to grab the Muppet Babies books that we have on the shelf and I read him the two that he picked of the lot.  He really liked them and wanted me to read them all, but I told him we'd read some more tomorrow, we have about 5 or 6 more of those books we'll read them in the next few days.

I played a bit with Maggie today as well.  She tried to just sit on my lap while I played with this Fisher Price game she has that you put these ball into and they take different courses to the outside depending on which hole you put them in. I had to show her several times how to put the balls in the slots, but she finally figured it out and decided to do it on her own.  She doesn't have a very long attention span just yet though and she soon tired of the game, started rubbing her eyes and ended up going down for a nap.  Her first nap was interrupted by our very annoying doorbell buzzer, but she took a decent afternoon nap.  I think she'll go to bed tonight without any problems, she hardly ever fusses when it's time to go to bed especially if I give her a bottle before she's laid down.

Anna came home all excited from school today!  She was jumping up and down and handed us a letter from the school.  Apparently they took a test in the last few days and due to her scores she's been selected to join an advanced Math program during regular school hours.  We need to attend a meeting next Tuesday morning that will tell us all about the program.  Anyway, she's very excited about it and Jacob seemed rather impressed!  I'm glad that she takes after her father on the Math front because I'm sure not any good at it!  :O)

As for David, well he tried the pizza at school today.  He said that he liked and didn't like it, so not a top favorite.  I'm not sure what he did today though, he doesn't really talk much when he gets home, he likes to go and play immediately upon arriving home.  I guess I should check his backpack to see if he has any homework today.

I wasn't able to accomplish a whole lot today.  Got the dining room cleaned up after our tea yesterday, did a bit of vacuuming and bit of organizing, but since I haven't been able to use any running water today it's really limited what I've been able to do cleaning and constructive wise.  That's okay, it was a nice down day.  Now I'm going to check and see what every one else are up to and hopefully if the driveway is clear we can head out for a short trip to the furniture store...

A Bit Emotional When it Comes to Weight Loss Discussions

**DISCLAIMER**  Sorry all, this is just a vent to make me feel better!  So please don't read on unless you wish to read my little vent fit...  Sometimes you just got to get it out cause keeping it all bottled up inside could cause an emotional explosion!!!
 

...I'm always trying to teach the kids that they need to think before they open their mouths and say something that they will later regret!  I think everyone needs to be more careful with their words and conversations because you may not realize that  you're talking about something that can be an emotionally sensitive subject for the person(s) you're talking to!  

I mentioned the above because, I was talking with a friend the other day and she started talking about one of her friends who has lost 30 lbs since joining Weight Watcher's and saying that she looks really good!  She kept going on and on about it and my friend was even talking about joining Weight Watcher's herself since her friend was doing so well.  (I've been trying to get her to join since I mentioned it earlier this year and she even said she was going to join once she wasn't pregnant anymore.)  It made me feel kind of bad since I'd already been talking about this with her, but she hadn't done it and now that her other friend was doing so well she wanted to join too.  Plus I felt bad because she was praising her other friend for a 30lbs weight loss, when I've been doing WW also and have lost almost 40 lbs.  (I'm just shy of the 40 lb mark, may even reach it by Saturday if I keep up the good work this week.  AND This weight loss has me over 5lbs under pre-pregnancy weight!)  The whole conversation just made me feel like I don't look as good as her other friend or that my friend just hasn't noticed the change in me, I don't know maybe it isn't that noticeable?!  

Anyway, I've been thinking about it a lot since (which isn't the best thing in the world to do) and the whole conversation just makes me feel bad, you know those kinds of conversations that you have with someone where you feel like to you need to defend yourself or compete with what their saying because you've done even better than who they're talking about???  I've even almost cried a couple times this morning!  I know that feeling bad is my fault and my friend didn't mean anything by praising her other friends progress, I guess she didn't realize how sensitive a subject weight loss is for me, but it has rather hurt my feelings because I've been trying really hard to lose weight...  

With my weight loss I am feeling pretty good.  My body isn't where I want it to be just yet, but I am working on it and I think I'm seeing pretty good results in the time frame I have been working on it!

...Even as I type this and read back through I'm realizing that I'm a bit jealous that my friend was praising her other friend and didn't say a darn thing about me when I've achieved more doing WW than her other friend has, well at least I've lost more weight!  I guess I just have really low self-esteem right now and am extremely prone to emotional breakdowns when weight loss discussions are involved, so this conversation didn't help!

SO, if you did decide to read this, I know you may not always know what's going on in someone's life, BUT IF YOU CAN think a bit before you say something or strike up a conversation anyway.  You might just save at least one persons emotional state for the time being!

~*~ Tea at My House ~*~

Yesterday (August 25th) I hosted a Tea for a couple of my girlfriends.  I spent the whole morning cleaning, cleaning, and doing more cleaning to get ready.  The house looked lovely by the time it was time for everyone to arrive and I already had some of the items ready for everyone to enjoy.  I made cucumber sandwiches, which John tried and then kept coming back for more and more, I'd bought pirouettes, chessmen cookies, and some oatmeal, dark chocolate, cherry almond cookies (which I never did try).  My friends arrived one by one.  Cindy brought a platter for meat, cheese, and crackers and an Asian dish that we never even brought out (she took it back home for dinner).  Carley brought some baklava, cream tarts, and coconut mount cookies with the bottoms dipped in chocolate.  Athena brought several bags of various different cookies, one was a sampler pack of Pepperidge Farm cookies, yum!  We had three different teas:  Irish breakfast, a strawberry one, and a Honey Vanilla Chai.  We all had a good visit and got a bit overloaded on sugar again, at least I did!  

We are planning on doing a tea at least once a month from now on and from what I gather the girls would like to invite more friends to join us, so this could get pretty big.  I'll take pictures in the future, but for now I don't have any to post.  I need to get a few things for our tea too, like a table cloth.  When the kids got home they ate up the rest of the goodies and I made them two new pots of tea, which they drank a bunch of, however they kept pulling the bed sheet, which I used for a table cloth, off the table.  They should have some really pretty fall ones available pretty soon if not now, I just haven't been looking.  I should also pick up some washable place mats, or make them?!  We'll see...  So over all it was a good time.  A chance to relax and visit with the girls!

Maggie tried to break her nose yesterday...

she pulled the wooden barstool down on her face. :O(

School, plus New Pipe System Required...

Anna and David had a good day at school yesterday for their first day. Anna said she was pretty excited about the whole day until the last hour or two when she was pretty bored. David said his favorite part was lunch! He had his first school lunch, a sub sandwich, and he mentioned a couple other things, but they weren't as interesting to him as lunch. :O) Anna had a bit of homework, pretty much just a paper on herself that I think they will all be going over in class today to introduce themselves to each other. David only had a daily notebook to review, it will be coming home every day and must be gone through and sent back next day. Both kids brought home manila envelopes stuffed with lots of paperwork for us parents to fill out about the kids, contact info, insurance stuff, and lots and lots of other forms for various other school related areas that needed to be reviewed, then initialed and/or signed that we'd reviewed them. So that took a bit of time!

Today Anna and David both got off pretty easily, no major problems this morning! Anna wanted to just walk with David to school by themselves, but since I hadn't shown Anna where David needed to be dropped off yesterday, I just found out myself yesterday, I walked them again and this time showed her so they can walk on their own tomorrow. We'll have to wait and see how school goes today?!

As for the pipes, yesterday after much investigation by two different companies, we discovered that our drainage pipes have several root systems running through them and there is even a Y crack in the pipes about 68 feet out that threatens the integrity of the whole line! So, our best option for the long run will be that on Thursday, the second company that came out... AAA Plumbing, is going to install a whole new break through line, the pipes have a 50 yr life expectancy and a 20 year warranty. Unfortunately that option is going to set us back a little over 11 grand! SMH ...We don't seem to be catching much of a break on house stuff cause everything keeps breaking around here! We had to install a new water heater at the beginning of the year, a new furnace a couple months ago, now the new sewer/drainage line. At this rate we're never going to get out of debt or be able to actually fix anything on the house that we want to for other reasons than it's broken!!! SMH ...Anyway, I guess the bright side of this is that we won't have to worry about the pipes backing up anymore and if anything does go wrong with it, it's under warranty for 20 yrs!

On another note... This morning with John and Maggie has been pretty quite. Maggie went down for her morning nap as soon as we got back from dropping off Anna and David. John came downstairs and helped me get some loads of laundry going, he likes to push the buttons on the machines. Now he's playing Legos downstairs. Once I'm done with my update here, I'm going to try and watch one of my shows then when Maggie gets up we're all going to King Soopers to pick up a few groceries and a few items that I need for the Tea that I'm hosting tomorrow for myself and a couple of my girlfriends! Later this afternoon/early evening I'm taking my friend Carley with me to the Cinema Grill to meet Cindy and we're going to enjoy dinner and watch "The Last Airbender". Not sure what else we'll do just yet, but I'll write about it later...

We had a very early start to our morning. I couldn't sleep very well last night because of some health issues and Jacob got up with his alarm at 4:30 and decided to call the Rescue Rooter place cause our pipes have backed up again. Well, my alarm was set for 5:30, but I decided that I'd change it to 6 since I was still pretty tired at about 5:15 this morning. However, I couldn't really sleep so I got up at 5:45. Up and dressed in workout clothes, I found Jacob downstairs dressed in civvies and getting ready to start digging a big 'ol hole out front, the part of the bill that costs the most for the sewer repair. Anyway, I headed downstairs to start my workout, did my 12 min. ab vid, then decided that I'd go out and help Jacob with the big hole. So for about 3o min, maybe a little more we alternated using a pick axe to loosen up the dirt and then shovel it out. I was sweating like crazy. Well, 7am rolled around and I needed to go help the kids get ready for school. Anna needed help picking out a different shirt and so did David. I found him a new "How to Train Your Dragon" shirt and Anna opted for a white tank under her new brown and copper sparkly shrug (very nice, check out the pictures below).

Since the kids have a whole extra hour in the morning before they need to head to school I decided that at 8am I'd read a devotional and maybe a Bible story, then we'd sing some songs and then pray together. The stories went well, but the songs didn't go over all that great, I was having a good 'ol time and so was Maggie! :O) Jacob joined us for the last two songs then prayed for everyone, then the kids gathered the rest of their school stuff and John, Maggie, and I walked Anna and David to school. Anna's line was easy to find at the back of the school, but where I thought David was supposed to line up, there wasn't anybody there, so we continued around the school to the front and apparently that's where they are suppose to line up. So after getting him to his line, putting some itch creme on a mosquito bite, and giving the creme to his teacher to use throughout the day, if need be, then we headed back around the back to try and catch some of my friends. I was able to say "Hi!" to, Carley and her husband, then a lady I met while walking with Athena once, named Danielle, Athena, her sister-in-law, and Lina. We all had a nice visit before heading off into our separate directions.

Back home the Rescue Rooter people were here. They snaked out the pipe, which they were originally trying to charge us $300 to do, but Jacob had called another place and they quoted us $100, so they offered to do it for the $100. They checked the pipes out and gave us an estimate on getting some of the work done, over $3400 I believe. So Jacob's waiting on AAA to come in and give us their estimate before we give anyone the go ahead. AND unfortunately after their estimate for the work they told us that the place Jacob and I had been digging wasn't where they were going to do the work, even though on their previous visit that's exactly where they told us the work would be done, so Jacob and John have been filling the hole back in and Jacob isn't too happy about the 3 1/2 hrs he spent working on it this morning when he didn't need to do it!!! Humph!!!

Just after we got back home today and I sat down to start this Maggie had a little accident, she pulled the wooden bar stool over on her face and has a pretty good bruise next to her nose. She was freaking out pretty good and I just held her while she cried. I had completely spaced that I needed to put her down for a nap too and her eyes were really fighting staying open so I took her upstairs to her bed and she fell right to sleep. I'll check her face again when she gets up, but she's been fighting a cold lately and been so tired, she's been taking longer than usual naps.

Well, John and I are heading out to grab some lunch. I'll post more soon and let yall know how school went for the kids...

First Day of School 2010

Anna & David 8.23.10

John & Maggie

August 22, 2010

Gonna Start Posting More Updates Here...

.....Well, I thought I'd try something a bit different... I'm going to start posting more updates on here instead of the few short ones that I post on Facebook regularly. Why you ask? Well, I'm rather frustrated with the lack of responses to my posts on FB (I comment on my families/friends posts quite regularly and write on their walls too) and since I'd rather write longer and more detailed updates anyway, I think this will work better! So if you want to know what I've been up to, you're going to have to start reading my blog!!!

So here's whats been going on for the summer and more specifically for the last few days...

...My brother arrived on the 15th of May and from then until the kids got out of school and for the whole summer we stayed pretty busy. Shopping trips, garage saleing, got a membership to the Downtown Aquarium w/ the garage sale money from my first garage sale this year and used 3 of our 4 free passes we got w/ the membership to go, taking Josh with us. We won't be getting another membership any time in the near future since the membership fee went way up and it costs $25 extra bucks for over 4 members, since we have 5 people in our family, it was $170 total, YIKES!!! (The Zoo and Denver Nature and Science Museum are just over $100 for 2 adults and unlimited immediate family members, plus if you wait for the renewal letters they send that usually include discounts, their memberships go down to around $90 for their biggest package.) We've also gone bowling, miniature golfing, and to many, many movies. Josh took the kids to pool several times, Anna and David were the ones that ended up going the most since John didn't care to be in the kiddie pool for more than 10/15 min. He also babysat the kids for us several times so that Jacob and I could go out a couple dates, YAY!

Joshua and I also worked on our Weight Watchers program through out the summer. We didn't lose as much weight as we wanted to originally, but I did get back down to pre-pragnancy weight before Maggie (12 lbs in 3 months) and Josh achieved a 25+ lb weight loss while he was here for a little over 3 months. We're going to keep to the program and have set a new goal for the next 6 months. I've started counting points again and am going to workout at least 5 days a week in the mornings before the kids head to school.

My girlfriends, Cindy, Carley and I got to go out a couple time to the movies and even on a day trip to Boulder to check out the Celestial Seasonings Tea Factory and Dushanbe Tea House. It was fun, but we were all running on too much sugar and not enough protein. That combo gave me a killer headache, which made the whole day suck, plus I got a parking ticket because I accidentally covered up the paid permit w/ my sunshade and didn't notice before we left to go shopping. (I appealed the ticket and finally, 2 1/2 wks later, got the response that said they were waiving the fee due to the evidence that I provided, yay!)

This last Tuesday (17th) was our last day with my brother. We got Chinese Food for lunch/dinner, watched Wipeout, then went and played tennis that evening.

Wednesday morning I woke early to say goodbye to my brother before he left. I was going to go back to bed after, but Maggie woke up and after feeding her a bottle and putting her back down I ended up working out instead. Wednesday was a down day for us since we were waiting for payday Thursday and money is always tight the Sunday-Wednesday before payday, if not earlier???

Thursday was busy, busy what with it being payday and all and us needing groceries and to do the kids school shopping. We went to Kohls to make a payment on my CC, Target to get some diapers, wipies, and a few other items. We also went to 2 different Walmarts to look for school supplies and the Commissary to get groceries. The kids were sick and tired of shopping afterwards and we still didn't get all their school supplies. I made sloppy joes for dinner cause it was quick and I was tired too!

Friday after Jacob got home from work we had spaghetti for dinner and then went to a couple different stores to try and get the last supplies for the kids for school, which starts tomorrow. After stopping at a 3rd Walmart and a stop at Staples we still didn't have everything, but I decided that we'd get the last thing on David's list later in the year. We also went to Lowe's and Home Depot to check prices on some home improvement items that we've been needing. Finally ended up deciding to get what we wanted at Home Depot and that we'll probably end up getting our water filter for the fridge at Lowe's cause it's $5 cheaper than at Sears. Anyway...

Saturday we decided to lunch at Olive Garden, we enjoyed Never Ending Pasta Bowls and All-You-Can-Eat Soup, Salad, and Breadsticks. After lunch we went to check out the Lego Games Tour that was being exhibited at the Denver Pavilions. The whole thing wasn't as interesting as we hoped, but they did have a bunch of plexi-glass display cases of all the Lego games that they have now. It was a great opportunity to see all the pieces ea. set has so we know which ones we eventually might want to get. Those games were: Ramses Pyramid, Race 3000, and Creationary. All the other Lego Game sets we could pretty much build from parts we already own, we just need the Lego Dice. We stopped by a Bakery as we left and picked up a couple treats... a raspberry bar, M&M cookies, and fudge brownie. Back at the van we headed to the Denver Aquarium. We didn't bring in a stroller for Maggie, we ended up handing her back and forth between Jacob, Anna, and myself and letting her walk around. It was slower going than usual, but she had fun getting up close to the exhibits.

Today we went to morning service at Church. After we headed to Walmart to pick up some items that I realized we needed over the last couple days that weren't on my grocery list. I was also able to get the last of the kids school supplies and pick up a whole box of composition notebooks for 25¢ ea. On the way home I had Jacob cut across traffic to make it over to Old Navy. I picked up two pair of flip-flops for $5 and with my receipt we were able to go and get Buy One Get One Free ice creams as Cold Stone, so we had desert before lunch. Back home we hurried to make burgers and get the house cleaned up a bit before the LeBleu's arrived for a RPG at 1pm. We played with them till almost 5. This evening we've been hanging out and just finished "Lake Placid 3", not such a good show, but it did have the sheriff from Eureka in it, that was a plus; I like that guy! :O)

Now it's almost time to do our nightly reading before the kids head to bed. Tomorrow is Anna and David's first day of school. They're school hours are different now, 9-3:30 instead of 8-2:30, not sure I'm going to like it ?!?! Our test week has the morning feeling like they last forever before the kids would need to head off to school; I guess we'll see how it really is starting tomorrow?!?! Anna will be starting 5th grade and David will be in 1st, so two kids in all day school. I'll write later about what I plan to do with John and Maggie while the older two are at school all day...

...But for now I'm going to sign off. Hope you enjoy my longer, more detailed post, just want to keep you updated on what we are up to!!! Talk to you all soon!!!!! :O)