December 22, 2009

One week down...the results are stunning. I weighed in yesterday and I am down 7 pounds!! Holy cow! I do not look different, but I feel like I can really do this now. I have done a really good job at sticking to the diet, even after going through all the craziness of our schedule this past week. I missed my telephone conference because we were doing family things, but I was excused. I feel like I missed out on some valuable tips and suggestions, but family time is more important right now.
I finished up my Christmas shopping, with the exception of the few things I need Jeremy to grab for Ryan, and I am feeling a lot more settled.
We bury my Nanny today...it will be so hard, and I am really worried about my dad. It is never easy to lose someone you love, no matter how ready you think you are. She is no longer suffering and is no doubt partying like a rockstar with my sister...and her daughter...and her husband...and her momma...and all of the other loved ones we have lost over the years.
Happy Tuesday everybody.

Day 3...4...5..oh my.

I am on day 5 of the KU Weight Control and Management Clinical Study. It is not too bad - I have to eat so many shakes and so many of these pre-packaged entrees that they provide for me. Along with that, I must eat a minimum of 5 one cup servings of fruits and vegetables. I also have to drink at least 64 ounces of water a day. It is basically this.. www.hmrproducts.com but the quick start set - I do not get the cereal or the snacks.

I weighed myself this morning - just to see...I am down 5 pound. CRAZINESS. I am super excited about it....

On a less happy note- my grandmother, Nanny, is dying. I pray her passing is peaceful and painless.

I know its been awhile - but this caught my attention, and it is pretty important. Go check it out.

Say hi to my friend Mel while you are there.

I've gotta feeling....

that everything is about to go crazy around here. No real reason, just a feeling. Back in June, our washing machine flooded our house, and we have not had a clean or organized house since. It is really frustrating and I cannot understand why people cannot just come in, do their job and get the hell OUT of my house!! I have about 8 different repairs started, but not a single damn one of them is completed! It is VERY frustrating and extremely depressing to see my house so ....gross.

Way off topic, just to occupy my mind with something other than the destruction of my house:
Braden is obsessed with Barney, Caillou, and Elmo. Thank goodness we have Sprout!
Ryan has been telling his teacher, the principal, and the counselor at school that he never gets to eat breakfast in the mornings because I dont let him, or because we are mean...WTF!?!? The little shit would get his breakfast, if he would get the heck out of bed and get ready to go when he is told, instead of whining, yelling, screaming and fighting with everyone in the mornings. Not even kidding you....I wake him up around 7. He showers at night, so that is not an issue. School starts at 8:10, so in order to have school breakfast, he has to be there by 7:45. He has not made it to school before 8:20 more than 3 days yet. It is SO stinkin old. We have started to just leave, and if he wants to get to school, he starts walking (it is a whole 7 blocks).
Cody is still pretty calm, cool and collected. He has started fibbing a lot, and we are working on it.
Both of the boys are doing really well at school, and Braden is trying to potty train! It is fun, but sad. My babies are growing up way too fast.

Ooops...sorry.

I know I promised to be better at this, but I really suck. The rabbits are all grown, weaned and most are gone to their new homes. We have expanded our breeds, and are now raising New Zealands and min-rex in addition to my little loves, the mini-lops. I cannot help but adore them. They are all so sweet and funny. I have more pictures, but I need to get some new ones today.

Silly Wabbits

Back in March, we bought 2 rabbits- Oliver and Sophie. They are really so sweet and fun to play with. They are cuddly, and litter box trained (awesome! and SO easy!) and we love them. We knew that we had a male and a female - and we were prepared for the inevitable. What we were not prepared for, however, was for OLIVER to give birth. :) So...now we have to get used to either calling them the opposites, or to figure out new names. It is hard to go so long calling a rabbit by a name that is no longer a very good name....I am sure we will survive.

We have 5 seemingly healthy, wiggly, bald, pink babies. Oliv....erm, Momma seems to be taking to motherhood quite well. She is in great spirits and does not seem to mind at all when I poke around to snoop on the babies. They are so cute - in a gross kind of way. They are not really gross, just bald - and they've not opened their eyes just yet, so it is hard to really tell what they will be like later on. Based on their skin color, I would say we will probably have one that looks EXACTLY like Momma, and an all grey (Chin - think chinchilla) one, which I am excited about. Looks to be a mostly white, and then another broken black - but not as much black as momma, and a broken chin like daddy. Whatever they look like, they are sure to be freaking adorable. I will have a hard time letting them go if someone wants one. My plan is to keep my favorite one - as long as it loves me a bunch, too. Anyone in the market for a baby mini-lop on or around September 7th? I can totally hook you up! See pictures below...

Daddy 'The rabbit fomerly known as Sophie'...

Momma 'Oliver' ...


The babies...they are covered in the mom's fur - she made this nest about 5 minutes before she gave birth. She pulled all that fur out of her stomach and chest and pulled all of her hay out of her feeder to make it. She also scratched and pulled off as much of the cardboard from the box that she could...

July 13, 2000

Nine years ago, I had just moved back home with my infant - escaping a marriage that would even torture Satan. I had reconnected with my friends, and the livin' was good.... On the 13th of July in 2000 - my world turned upside down. My best friend, George was swimming in Perry Lake, he went under to retrieve some dropped sunglasses for a friend and disappeared. It was probably, at that time, the worst thing I could ever think of experiencing. I remember sitting by the phone - glued to the television- surrounded by people that I grew up with, and that all loved George so very much - praying, waiting...hardly breathing. We all had our own thoughts and hopes - perhaps he was disoriented and swam to shore? He was a certified scuba diver, a strong swimmer - drowning was not even a possibility, right? Wrong. Impossible things happen. They found his body shortly before 9 am the next day. I sit back and reflect on my uni-browed best friend and realize that although life is so devastatingly different and wrong without him, in his death he gave me a lifelong gift. I feel strongly that he made sure there was someone to take care of me and my son. Jeremy and I would not have ever taken the time to connect in the manner that we did had life not taken such a turn. In the two weeks after George's death, I found myself surrounded at home by people that no matter how far we grow apart, I will always hold dear to my heart. You do not endure the loss of your 'brother', your best friend, without the group of people that move along in life holding you up along the way. Life has taken many different turns, but it has taken me in so many wonderful - and some equally horrible - places. My support group dissolved - and all that has been standing through everything has been my rock - otherwise known as my husband. I will forever thank George for bringing us together, all the while cussing him for leaving me....

School's Out for Summer!

I just uploaded my final assignments for the two classes I took this summer....hallelujah! It was excruciating, jamming a semester's worth of work into 7 weeks. Kicked my ass, really. Thank goodness it is over - I will not be voluntarily taking summer classes again! I guess we will have to see if my stress paid off when grades are posted Thursday...

Today

You know, just when I think things cannot get any worse - they do.

Just when I think that I cannot take any more - something bigger is thrown at me and I discover that I can.

As soon as I feel overwhelmed, and am ready to turn my back on the world - a dirty, sticky, slobbery kiss from a two year old makes the world right.

Summer Time

My kids are going to drive me to the nut house. I am serious. I only work Monday, Wednesday and Friday so I am off on Tuesdays and Thursdays with the boys. God help us.

The Time of My Life

Okay, so I suppose there are times I have had more fun, but at the moment, I cannot think of any. My dear dear friend Lydia, whom I met on the internet while pregnant (even though she only recalls me after we gave birth) with my youngest son Braden, and her family drove all the way from their comfort zone in PA to the flint hills of KS. They arrived on Thursday, and stayed through Monday evening. We did not do anything super exciting, but I had a blast. We played with the kids, and went on short day trips. In the evenings, we ate good food and drank wine. I was nervous about them coming and Jeremy being a jerk. I worried for nothing. Jeremy had a wonderful time and impressed me with his instant befriending of Derek. We are hoping to travel East in the Fall/Winter - and it was all Jeremy idea and suggestion! YAY!

If I can remember how, I will upload a few pictures...

Been awhile - AGAIN. I still suck at this.

So, awhile back the boys asked to join 4H. Sure, no problem. What a better way to teach them responsibility, help build their character, and provide a positive socialization outlet, right? We have been going to meetings, and have chosen our projects for the year. Because Ryan was not 7 by January 1, he has to be a Cloverbud. No big deal, you would think. WRONG. He is pissed. Seriously. It makes me laugh, but really, once he figures out that he can do EVERYTHING Cody is doing, and NOT have to keep a record book, I think he will change his mind. Their projects are poultry (enter chicks and ducks), geology (yay - rocks!) and rabbits. Ryan is only interested in rabbits. Cody wants to do EVERYTHING. It is exhausting, but fun. I have learned to raise baby chicks and ducks, and I have a few that are quite fond of me. And more that hate me. LOL Oh well. I have been the only one taking care of said animals. Cannot say I am surprised....




Summer is coming! SO Excited. I will only work 2-3 days a week this summer, so the boys and I can go do lots of fun stuff...as long as it is cheap! I am excited to spend days at the ool. I love the pool.


I am going to go back to school. I am torn on what to do, but I need to go back and finish what I started. I will just take online classes for awhile, then when I get Braden's schedule all figured out at daycare, I may go on campus ... but I doubt it. I am too old for that shit.

I am turning 30 so very soon....

KELLY ROCKS!, Facebook....and other Randomness

Facebook - I love it. I think I may be addicted. I couldn't really get into the whole twitter thing...it was annoying - always left me asking for more. But, Facebook...I can find ANYBODY on there, and if I want to know more, I ask...SOMEBODY knows! MySpace was good for that for a little while, but it is so INVOLVED...too many clicks to get where I really want to be. I like that I have more contacts on Facebook - it must be where the cool people hang.

Kelly - congratulations you skinny bitch...spend your $50 well. Buy something sinful.

Braden is being referred out to the Children's Mercy Asthma and Allergy specialists. Waiting for them to call me and tell us when...hopefully we can avoid another RSV episode, or worse.

Back to work for me - there are my random sputterings for the day.

Oh Yeah, Happy New Year!

So, we survived Christmas. Everyone was pleased and all is well at our house. Jeremy and I are doing really well - even getting caught up on the bills we put off to afford Christmas. I feel like he is actually "getting" me again. Almost like he actually HEARS me when I talk! Amazing. lol This year was the very first time EVER in our almost 10 years that he has gotten me the one thing I asked for. I only ask for one thing so as not to overload him with ideas, and this year it finally occurred to him to actually get it! Yay! We have had a lot of time off over the holidays - which made for a shit ton of family time - and we are all still alive and well!

I have 2 boys getting ready to turn a year older. Cody is turning 9 - OMG! NINE!! - on Thursday. We are going to go out for dinner and celebrate. It will be all about him - the past few years he has gotten lost in the after - Christmas depression and then the whirlwind of a new baby, and the 'baby's" first birthday, etc..... This year we are doing it better. It is my New Year's Resolution. Braden is turning 2 on the 13th. We are not doing anything too special - just dinner at home and a cake and ice cream party for the grandparents.

I have decided to live a new healthier lifestyle. Cannot call it a diet - I fail diets. I have a goal and a somewhat method to achieve it. Still working on the specifics. For this week, I am drinking more water, adding far less junk to my coffee and walking more - at least 30 minutes 3 times. I am toying with the idea of taking pictures weekly, but I am too embarrassed to post them anywhere until after I actually see some change for the better. For this month, my goal is for my fat pants to not be tight. Please pray for me.......

Emotional Wreck?

Something in me has decided that I am going to feel everything for other people. I find myself crying for other people's losses, changes, triumphs.... Empathy? Compassion? Maybe, but it is pissing me off. Okay - not really, but I am preoccupied worrying about how my friend Cami is doing with her 3 girls, on an island with her husband overseas. I am consumed with what it must be like - how badly it must hurt - to not have your mother or father still alive and on the other end of the phone when it rings. I even find myself in anguish over the death of John Travolta's son Jett. That is a pain so intense, and I find myself worrying about my own children, as they are tramping all over the house sounding like a herd of flippin' elephants. I hear my voice - "Don't do that! Be careful - you will get hurt!" I am such a freak. Must be time to up the meds again...huh?