Month: June 2011

  • To Do

    Today’s post is brought to you by all the stuff I have to do.

    1. Hair Cut
    2. Finish living room
    3. Make list for pet sitters
    4.Mail Netflix movies
    5. Finish packing lists
    6. Wash, dry and put away 2loads of clothes
    7. Charge camera battery
    8. Take out hamburger for supper
    9. Get buns from freezer
    10. Help Emi practice piano
    11. Call MIL to see if she still has a working keyboard
    12. Pick up some groceries for the pet sitters
    13. Dust pictures in the living room
    14. Zumba!

    Thankfully my very appreciated mother’s helper comes today. The little girls love her and she is so great with them. So this means I have no excuse for this list to not get completed.

  • Wednesday WW Check in and a sort of Yarn Along.

    Before I took a break from blogging I was joining Jenny at Small Things for her yarn along. I don’t have a picture so I won’t be adding my name to the list today but I am knitting a pair of slipper socks for Emi’s Christmas Stocking and I am reading a book titled The Remember Box by Patricia Sprinkle. I am only in chapter 3 but it has me hooked.

    While I was on break I joined Weight Watchers. I was slowly falling into a depression because of my weight. I had 2yo baby weight and then some that needed to be gone. So I joined online. I have been checking in weekly on Facebook but I want to track it here as well.

    This week:
    4lbs down
    1″ from my waist
    .75″ from my thighs
    all other measurements stayed the same.

    I have lost a total of 16lbs. 5.25″ from my waist, 3″ from my hips, .5″ from my arms and 3.25″ from my thighs.

    I reached my goal of 15lbs gone before I went on vacation. It is amazing how much better I feel after just a 16lb loss! I still have a least 33lbs to go. I had almost 50 that needed to be gone.

    I am taking Zumba two nights a week. Tonight I hike with some mama friends and I will work abs on my recovery days.

    I will be taking my bike on our vacation and I have found one Zumba class to take while I am there. If I don’t stay going I will get out of my routine. I don’t want to fight to get back just as my metabolism is starting to really pick up.

    I am not alone in my weight loss. My cousin, who is also on of my best friends, is also doing Weight Watchers. We may be miles apart but we talk frequently and text each other encouragements and reminders everyday. I think she has lost 20lbs so far.

    It feels great to be getting fit and working to be healthy again!

  • Yesterday was H-U-M-I-D and reminded me of another reason why I stink at being southern….I can’t handle humidity. When you are doing nothing in the way of physical activity and your clothes are sticking to you it might be time to consider relocating.

    I did endure it for a little bit so that Emi could get some practice learning how to ride her bike with out training wheels! She is doing great and is almost ready to take off without any assistance from anyone else. She did crash into the side of the van but she and her bike were both fine. The van is a 1999 Chrysler, one more ding is just going to add more character.

    Ace has just started copying letters down onto paper. She brought me a piece just the other day and showed me her O and a B. She was super proud and I had a moment of realization that she is really fast approaching 5! She is a snuggler and will not allow anyone to leave the house without a hug and kiss.

    Z is Z. She recently went through a phase of hiding on us and then not answering when we called. She thought it was great fun…..I was almost needing anxiety meds. It only took us 5kids to get the one kid that really keeps you hopping and causes you to have to be uber creative in your parenting.

    SiSi is going to be a teen this year.  I have been calling her one for a year now anyway. She just seems older in a lot of ways. She loves horses and wants to work with them. I am hoping after we get back from a visit to the in laws that we can find a place for her to work in exchange for riding time.

    Aly is now 16! She still loves photography but on her terms. In other words she doesn’t really feel comfortable taking pictures for other people at this stage of life.  I do feel special though because she takes pictures of the littles quite often.

     

    I am blessed beyond words!

  • I have decided that it is time to get back into blogging. A three month break is about all I can handle. To jump back into things I thought I would restart with an entry that is, as the title states, all about me. Not because I am self centered but because as I was thinking about this blog post I realized that who I am today, at this very moment is not who I was 10yrs ago, or 20yrs ago, yet I am who I am because of my life 10yrs ago and 20yrs ago. So if you are here for the first time welcome! If you have been here before thanks for coming back.

    And because I like bullet form listing that is how I will do this.
    WARNING this is going to be very honest with a hopefully somewhat humorous twist. As I approach 40 I realize that I am who I am and that is all I am ever going to be. Yes, I just quoted a country music song…don’t hate.

     

    • I am from the South but I suck at being southern. Translation…I own nothing that is monogrammed, I do not have stationary with my initials on it, I lack the ability to write thank you notes in a timely manner and my girls do not wear bows the size of small dogs in their hair.
    • My dad was in the Navy so I traveled a lot growing up. I have lived in several states and two countries overseas. Scotland was my favorite place to live.
    • I have 5 girls and while I live in what sometimes seems like a state of fluxuating hormones, I will take the daily drama roller coaster ride over boys and all their penis issues any day. ;)
    • I used to be a parent that spanked. Our second child brought us to gentle parenting.
    • Not spanking is easy…NOT yelling is a whole other story. I am working on that daily…..my 6yo reminds be to take deep breaths often.
    • I am the daughter to a recovering alcoholic. When I was a teen I used to say that if you looked up the definition of dysfunctional that you would find a picture of my family. As a 30something adult who has now met a lot of people I realize that while our picture would still be there we are sure as hell not the only ones!
    • I cuss(sorry Grandmother)
    • I don’t cuss in public(hope that makes you feel better Grandmother)
    • I am fiscally conservative….my husband owns a small business.
    • I am socially liberal…..I have friends that are gay.
    • I HATE politics period and somehow I wound up married to a man who likes to discuss this and a teenager who does as well.
    • I love to read and when I walk into a library I am sometimes overcome with a since of sadness at the fact that there are so many books and I only have so much time.
    • I like to sew. I would be a much better seamstress if I had decided to take lessons from my Grandmother when I lived with her rather than trying to obtain her help from thousands of miles away…hind sight is 20/20.
    • All of my girls are home schooled. Since I know my oldest two very well I know they would like me to add that they are in no way sheltered. This can be proven by their ability to quote SNL, Madea, and The Hangover.
    • Our children are allowed to disagree with us on politics, religion, social issues, and the definition of cleanliness.
    • I am a Christian, meaning that I love Jesus and I try to live for Him…I fail often but am grateful for grace.
    • I believe that my kids’ relationship with Jesus is theirs. I do not interfere, push, persuade or judge.
    • I am severely cell phone inept….so of course I have a droid.
    • I often leave the house without my cell phone. It drives my husband crazy.
    • I would like to think I drive him crazy with my vivacious body but I’m pretty sure it’s the cell phone issue that does it most often.
    • Then again we have 5girls so maybe it isn’t the cell phone.
    • Scooby Doo is my favorite cartoon of all time followed by Phineus and Ferb. Someone just needs to put Barney down.
    • I love shrimp….boiled shrimp, fried shrimp, shrimp gumbo, coconut shrimp, you get the idea.
    • I lost my dad to cancer in 2007. Life has not been the same since. I miss him terribly.
    • I have been able to  sing Kenny Rogers’ song “The Gambler” word for word since I was 6yo. My daddy taught me.
    • I fix my hamburger the same way every time I have one. Mustard on the bottom half of the bun, mayo or miracle whip on the top half, top the burger with onion and tomato and add the ketchup to the top of the tomato. Save a change in toppings this is how the condiments are place every single time.
    • I also wet my toothbrush before I add toothpaste and then again after I add the toothpaste.
    • I weaned my last daughter in Feb. of this year. At the conclusion of our breastfeeding relationship I had been nursing for 6yrs and two months. I nursed through two pregnancies and tandem nursed for a year after each baby was born. Her sisters both weaned at 36months.
    • I can be a smart a**……I got it honestly. If you knew my dad you understand.
    • I have given birth in the hospital 3 times, 2 attended by certified nurse midwives and I have had 2 homebirths. I wish I had had 5 homebirths.
    • I love to knit and I have been known to decorate with yarn.
    • I don’t have many nick nacks in my house. I firmly believe this is because I was responsible for dusting all of my Grandmother’s as a teen. I truly believe she had enough to fill the Titanic. ;)
    • I love mystery books, mystery shows, shows like the Closer, Blue Bloods etc.
    • I haven’t peed by myself since late 2004. I don’t forsee that changing until 2017.
    • I am grateful for underwire bras.
    • I am a better person because of my children.
    • I wish someone would invent a self cleaning toilet.
    • I love being organized….my children do not possess this trait.
    • I love to hike, ride my bike and my new fav is Zumba.
    • After trying running as a means for exercise several times in the last few years I have decided that I hate running.
    • Along with running, I hate oatmeal.
    • I don’t go to church. At this point in my life I like God outside of the church a whole lot better than inside the church.

    And I will end there since lightening is striking like crazy outside.