Salem's 2 Mile Fundraiser

I can't remember if I posted this or not but Salem came up with the idea to do a jog-a-thon to raise money for the Stop The Violence event our church puts on (it's this Saturday). She decided if all the crime victim center needed was money we should give it to them. Don't you love the sweet innocence of a child?

Earlier this year she begged to join a local track team. So we finally did. Well it turns out she hates running. Poor girl. Earlier this summer we talked about how she needed to fulfill her commitment for the summer and then we can find something else to try. But regardless she wants to do her run. So I am excited that my beautiful little girl, so sweet and caring and full of love wants to do something so amazing and that she "gets" it at her age.

But I am a little nervous for her too. She told me tonight she's scared she'll disappoint people and I told her that's impossible. She said what if I can't run 2 miles - I said you run as much as you can, then we'll walk and then we'll run again. Daddy will run too. She laughed and said but daddy hates running more than me. LOL.

Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers. We run at 8 am tomorrow. She's raised $443 so far and somehow she decided her goal was $500. We're hoping some more donations come in. But either way she's raised $443.

I am SO proud of this little girl. She has Noonan Syndrome and a controlled heart condition but doesn't really get what it all means. She's just a regular little girl who loves God and people and feels called to bring peace to people. She has said that.

I will post pics.

The Frugal Novice

This blog is run by a friend of mine. I have just checked it out and I LOVE it. I know there a 100 review sites out there but check this one out. There is a giveaway for a free night at the Hotel Valencia in San Antonio that sounds yummy!

Now I'm off to check out more on the Frugal Novice!

A few fun conversations with my kiddos

Just last night my sister had this conversation with Raina. She was doing her hair and asked her how she wanted it done. Raina quickly replied - I want it long down to my feet like Rapunzel. Amy of course said - well we have to let it grow out for that. I mean right now. And Raina clarified - I said like Rapunzel.

Raina declares I am the most awesome mom ever cause I let her eat an entire pint of blueberries.

Salem says she knows I really love her cause I bought her princess silly bandz. (I need to work on clarifying that).

Raina decided I should call her Princess Baby...then I will be the Princess Mommy, Salem the Princess Sister & Daddy Princess Daddy. When I said what about Prince Daddy...she said no - Princess Daddy! :)

Salem says - mommy do you love me? Of course I do baby...Mommy do you really love me? Of course I do honey. Mommy do you really really love me? Yes baby...I love you forever, I love you for always, as long as we're living my baby you'll be. Thank you mommy.

I told Salem she's prissy even with sparklers and fireworks. Her reply - I love being prissy.

Stop The Violence

Where are you going to be July17th? Come on out - spread the word. It's an event for the entire family.

The event will showcase live bands & will have food vendors, local artists, children activities including air castles, magicians & a ventriloquist as well as speakers & much more.

Local agencies & organizations in our community will provide information, education & resources.

Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa will be speaking and there will be a free concert by Shonlock - choreographer & backup singer for TobyMac among other accomplishments.

Wordless Wednesday (Few Fave Pics From Renewal Ceremony)

Wordless Wednesday Post

My Day Thus Far

I had convinced myself that the girls needed some summer clothes. Then I just spent an hour folding and hanging clothes with another load to wash. Ha!!!! I now know better.

A 2 12 hour visit to tantrum city - not so much fun! Raina has done so much better but once she starts she shuts down and you just can't get through to her. Now she's happily playing at her Sleeping Beauty vanity yet my nerves are severely on edge. I haven't even taken a shower and I have to pick up Salem in 45 minutes. What a morning.

And I want to share a fun organization tip. This is a most amazing way to organize Barbie stuff. Now to get the rest of the Barbie stuff on there. A regular shoe caddy would work but I liked the different size pockets, the fact that it was pink and would go over their door and it didn't hurt that it had Barbie on it. For only $3 more I figured I would make it fun!



Wish me luck through the rest of my day. It's only a little after 11 am, I need to hurry and shower, get Raina read for swim lessons (her first after being sick all week), pick up Salem, get lunch, go to swim, run to the post office and bank, go to speech and hopefully make it to the gym.

I hope I'm not too exhausted to enjoy my girls night out tonight.

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday Post

Our Intentional Summer

For the past two summers I've wanted the girls to have fun, but have us stay structured so we have fun but do the things we want to do and not forget or get sidetracked. Plus it's easy to get bored even with swimming etc. So a friend of mine suggested this which she saw at the Whatever blog.

So Dad, the girls and I just made our own! :) Salem especially was excited. Of course she may bug me daily about what we're going to do. When I asked Raina what she wanted to do all she suggested was to play at Sonic (at the one with the playground). :)

Planning Raina's 5th Birthday

We have a tradition - the girls get their pics taken 3-4 weeks before their birthday and I use them in the invitation. This year we had Tammy Marcelain. In general Raina hasn't been a great picture taker. We get a good shot and we're thankful but this year she has matured and she actually smiled and kept her fingers out of her mouth! They are all wonderful but these are my three favorites. Now to make the invitation and party plan!

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday - Check It Out

Bluebonnet Pics

It's that time of year in Texas. The state flower is beautiful and I've always been envious of those whose children willingly took pics in them. I took Salem when she was 2 1/2 and I was a month from delivering Raina and she HATED the stickery patches. I was also stressed cause I didn't know anyone who had bluebonnets so most really nice thick patches were on the side of the highway and in my crazy mind I envisioned cars and semis running off the road at that moment killing us.

Well this year I have a sweet friend who lives in the country and had a ton of them. They were beautiful. I only got two decent pics because I had my camera on the wrong setting. But they are still cute and the girls didn't complain once. If you click on the first pic you can see Raina in the background!

Sweet Salem

She really is my sweet girl. She drives me nuts with her constant questions and barrage of but but but when I tell her something - but she's amazingly empathic and compassionate and just very very sweet. She is a tad bossy but I can't imagine where she got that from.

Raina

And did you notice how short her hair was in the pic I posted? She gave herself a mullet two weeks ago! Seriously - a mullet. Sigh! LOL.She really hated her hair being cut but after a few days decided it was just as princessy as before - especially with a cool headband!

Today I took Raina to see an opthamologist. He thinks she needs to be patched 24/7 for 4 wks. He changed her right eye RX significantly. She has an astigmatism & may need bifocals. Right now we're going to patch the left eye, change right eye RX & go back in 4 weeks to see if she still needs the patch & bifocals. I hope sh...e doesn't HATE it. :( But he says the more I insist on it the better it will help her eye.

And she's doing wonderfully with her speech development and social skills. We do plan to put her at Salem's school in the fall for another year of preK and then go from there. :) I am SO pleased. She's a different kid than last year.

The Wordless Wednesday Pic

I love the pic I posted for two reasons!

1. My girls are truly becoming best friends. I LOVE that. I often tell them they are god-given best friends. I love that Raina put her arm around Salem's waist.

2. I LOVE dressing them alike. :) And so far they love it too so I plan to do it while I can! :)Those dresses I found at a huge savings at Gymboree. I had pulled them out of the closet to pack for next year and then it was unexpectedly cold so I was able to let them wear them again before it was truly hot here.

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Brain Atrophy

Brian bought Salem & Raina the cute Skechers Twinkle Toes but they don't light up. They like them. Well today I get a box in the mail of the Skechers that light up for Raina.

So I go to my email and I order both girls a pair three weeks ago that light up. They were on backorder. Salem's still are. How the heck do I forget that? And the company I ordered from doesn't do free returns. So 4 pairs of Twinkle Toes in a month! ACK!

Then today I install QB on my pc. I've been doing my invoices in a VERY simple system that basically doesn't track anything. All my other accounting is by hand but the invoices are nice. So I spent over 20 minutes creating a new invoice and setting up my company information and NOTHING. I can't get it to work. I used to manage a tech support help desk and was a software support guru. SIGH!

I thought I'd be able to set it up and do my March invoices tonight. NOT. I will do my March invoices the old way and that gives me a little over 2 weeks to figure QB out.

The good news is I found a GREAT payroll processing company that will be doing my payroll starting next week for a VERY inexpensive rate. That's one HUGE tasks off my shoulders.

Taking Jewell For A Walk

Monday I asked the girls if they wanted to go for a walk. It was 80 days and not windy like yesterday. Raina runs to get her tricycle. Salem starts to get her bike then starts yelling wait wait wait.

She runs into the house and comes our with her baby Jewell and her stroller. She wanted to take her baby for a walk. So I walked behind them, Raina biked ahead of us energetically pedaling her trike as fast as it would go. And sweet Salem pushed Jewell in her stroller and talked to her the entire.

What a sweet baby mama she is.

Great week so far!

Great week so far! I am off the wound vac!!! Yee Haw!!!! Monday the RN took me off. My wound is open but covered with a mepliex bandage. She'll come back next Monday to change it and all my restrictions are in place but the vac is gone. AMEN.

Yesterday I saw Dr. T for my yearly. So after talking he decided to down dose my diabetes meds to nothing in the next 3 weeks and then do a glucose tolerance test to see if I still need it. :) I hope I don't!!!! I will take my metformin if I need to but I hate the side effects it has on my tummy and bowels. I also had my mammogram. Easy peasy! DONE.

Tomorrow I see the surgeon who we'll check the wound as well and tomorrow night we're going to Dallas to see Korie and I am going shopping for a new wardrobe!

Thanks for all the positive comments about my weight loss. :) I am VERY happy! Now I just want the next 4-6 weeks to pass so I can work out again.

Weight Loss Update

So the exciting thing is I am now down an even 100 pounds. :) I am about 5 pounds under my goal which is nice because it gives me some room. I am wearing between a size 6-8 jeans and a medium top usually (a few smalls).

When I started my weight loss journey I weighed 232.6 and was a size 22 (tight) and a 2x shirt. My diabetes is fully under control and my high cholesterol and triglycerides normal. :)

If it weren't for this wound vac I'd be running and working out but that is off the charts for a while. We'll see.

If you look close down on the left you'll see the cord to my wound vac!

A Note To Marti

You left me a comment asking questions about my tummy tuck. I'd love to talk to you but didn't see a way to contact you in your profile. Send me your email or something. Thanks.

A long awaited update

So I had my tummy tuck on December 30th. It went well. I eventually developed a seroma and had it aspirated on January 25th. I ended up having an infection (enterococcus) and ended up having surgery and IV antibiotics. The surgery was March 2. I was on vancomycin and zolstyn for 8 days. After surgery I was put on a wound vac. I went home with a PICC line, 2 more weeks of IV antibiotics (just the vancomycin) and the wound vac and homehealth care to facilitate it all. My husband and sister had to learn how to administer my IV antibiotics. It's now almost 7 weeks later and I still have the wound vac. I am doing well and I am praying to be off the wound vac in 2-3 weeks. The infection is gone and I am more mobile. I can drive and get of the house and am more active mentally and physically.

So that brings me to today...I am better and hope to have life resume to some sense my normal. The girls are good. Their lives were turned upside down but they are doing well. Brian had to cancel his mission trip to Brazil (he was supposed to leave 2-8 when I was getting out of the hospital) and he rescheduled it and went March 8th.

It's been a long and arduous recovery. Something I didn't expect and wasn't prepared for. But I am thankful God has allowed me to still be here with my family. I am humbled and feel loved by god and my family and friends who literally had to step in and do everything from giving me IV meds to helping me bathe, dress, do my hair, wash my dishes, clean my home, handle getting the girls to school etc...you get the point.

But I am here. Thank you Lord.

10 for 2010

I actually do like to do resolutions but they are usually more detailed and emotionally, physically and spiritually significant. I saw this on another blog and thought I'd it here and strive for some more light hearted goals that while important are not as crucial if I screw up.

1. Continue to read my bible and pray daily. It really changes my life significantly.

2. Quit procrastinating. Waiting til the last minute to do things is ridiculously stressful.

3. Do more one on one things with the kiddos daily. Play games with them (which I tend to hate) or the Wii.

4. Spend less time online and watching TV. This is better than it was but I want it to be even better.

5. Get back into exercise on a regular basis when I get past my 6 week recovery. I feel better emotionally, physically and spiritually when I work out.

6. Get our family into a family devotional routine. We've tried several ideas but nothing has stuck. I want this a lot.

7. Love my husband and children fully and become very intentional with decisions I make and words that I use that effect them.

8. Start writing more. I used to write a lot of poetry. I wonder if that could transcend into praise and worship?

9. Have regular date nights with Brian.

10. To see each day as a gift and be determined to make the best out of it as possible.

It's been a busy few weeks

We had a really nice Christmas. The snow and ice kept us from going to Snyder and while we missed seeing Brian's dad it was nice to be at home. The girls played in the snow and we just relaxed.

I am now in Mexico recovering from an abdominoplasty. After losing 90 pounds my skin was a mess. I have battled skin infections all year and basically spent hundreds of dollars trying to find something that would keep the infections at bay. It made running and exercise hard. The sound of your skin flapping against you is intensely embarrassing in a gym environment.

I have become a fairly transparent person in 2009 but I really struggled with talking about this as I do look good in clothes - after I found 6 pounds of skin into spanx everyday. But it got to the point where the skin infections were intense. So Brian and I prayed about it and found an excellent plastic surgeon and I began the process of reconstructing my skin.

I actually have had a few looks from people so I can tell people must think it's for vanity's sake. And exercise won't return the elastically to my skin. I am almost 42. I've fluctuated from 190-262 for 7 years and had 2 pregnancies and 2 csections. The elasticity was gone. And I worked out hard in 2009. I consulted with 2 plastic surgeons and talked to trainers - that kind of skin doesn't retract.

Anyway - I've thought about posting a picture and I am not sure I want to do that. But if anyone wants to see the before and after pic they can email. My surgery was last Wednesday and they took off 6 pounds of skin and 2 liters of fat. The average tummy tuck removes about 2 pounds of skin. So I had a lot. I am recovering well and will be home on Thursday. If you pray please pray that I will heal well and that the girls are doing well. They are with their beloved daddy but its hard to be away from home.