A weekend of fun and a week of not so much fun

So last Friday was the annual field trip for Head Start to Wildlife Images.  Tanya and I wanted to go, so we made arrangements to be closed for the morning and took the kids that we knew parents needed us for.  We took 2 with us and had our own, also.  Antonio and Allison met us there to help support Eli's trip and it was pouring down rain.  The WHOLE time.  But, we brought umbrellas and had proper clothing on, so it wasn't so bad.  I had fun, I think the kids had fun and we came home to dry out.  The rest of the day went good and it was the weekend to have the girls, so Nick had picked them up on his way home from work.  Saturday we got up and got ready for games.  Allison's was first, so we went to the school to watch most of hers, where Angela had to leave early to go to work and Antonio and I had to leave early to get to Eli's game that was across town.  So, Nick stayed and wrangled the girls and I took Eli to his game.  Antonio met us there and he played.  I was SOOO happy cause he had SUCH a great attitude that day and played really well!!!  The Saturday before, he cried.  The game was at 9am so we were there for warm ups at 8:30 and he was NOT happy.  He cried and threw such a fit that we had to leave.

So, in any case, we got done with Eli's game and ended up missing Emma's.  Antonio took Eli with him for his weekend visit and I went to the bank and met Nick at home.  He heated up leftover pizza for him and the girls and then we went to the new Goodwill in town.  It was pretty nice.  Only found 2 things, though.  The weather was gorgeous for the games and when we went to Goodwill, it had gotten cold and started raining.  Boo.

We went to Wal Mart to grab a few things and then went home.  I made nachos for dinner and we watched How Do You Know.  I wasn't thrilled with the movie...thought it could be a lot better considering the really good people it had in it.

Sunday I decided I was tired of our small, cluttered house and went through everything in the laundry room.  The laundry room was the only room in the house that Nick's parents left stuff in and it was the first time I had touched anything in there since they moved in September.  We tossed everything that we didn't need or didn't know what it was and made a heaping laundry basket of things to give away on freecycle.  We made good progress that day.  Now to move on to a different room in the house! LOL

I spent pretty much all day on the spring cleaning and was pretty well occupied.  Around 2 we decided to load up a cabinet that I had been promising Tanya for awhile and deliver it.  Only, I realized why she hadn't gotten it yet.  Nick dropped the first one and broke it, so we had to load up the one that I was originally gonna keep and give her that one.  That's the day we acquired our "dinosaur".  He's a bearded dragon named Draco and he was Tanya's oldest daughter's but she doesn't have the time or interest to take care of him and we offered to take him and care for him.  So out moved the cabinet and in moved the lizard.

We then decided to go dresser shopping.  Yay.  Dropped Alli off with Antonio, picked up Emma's back pack, went to dinner at Applebee's and picked up Devin and Brandon.  We went home and Nick put the dresser together until 10:00.

Emma chose to stay with us for the week, so I got the kids up and ready for school on Monday.  Dropped them all off, went to work, chatted, Tanya had to take Katie clothes at school on her way to take Paige to the doctor, I made the daycare kids lunch and laid they all down.  I walked into the living room to put Kacen to sleep and doubled over in pain and started crying...I called the OB office and talked to a nurse who told me to go to the ER.  Who are they kidding?  I didn't have time to go to the hospital!  I sat around and tried to let it pass.  I called Nick, called Tanya, Tanya came home, waited some more and finally went around 5.  I was there until 8 and they assume I had a cyst rupture on my left ovary.  It was nearly 4 cm big so they don't know if it just got too big or if it twisted and popped.  Tanya went and picked up Nick and brought him to get me and the car.  I went home in a lot of pain and doped up on 2 percocet.  I went to bed and hardly slept. 

Nick stayed home with me on Tuesday to take care of me and it was hit and miss, but he tried his best. LOL  He ended up weed eating the yard (which I wasn't going to do, anyway) and I ended up making dinner (which he was supposed to do).

Fun times!

A new me?

So, I got a membership to the YMCA in February, on a scholarship, but there, nonetheless!  Nick and I were dragging the kids every Monday and Wednesday night.  We would drop the older boys in the pool, take Eli to daycare, go work out for our 45 mins to an hour and then get Eli and swim for the last hour.  It was quite a process cause it seemed we were never home.  Then everything changed.  The boys started Kung Fu and the girls started soccer and Eli started T-Ball.  So, when the girls' mom can't get Emma to practice, we are responsible to get her there.  Okay, that's fine and dandy, I'd love to help out, versus seeing her suffer because she missed a practice.

So, here's the new schedule:

Monday:  Boys Kung Fu 415-515
                Emma soccer practice 600-700
                Eli T-Ball Game 500-630
(no YMCA)


Wednesday: Boys Kung Fu 415-515
                     Emma Soccer Practice 600-700
                     Eli T-Ball Practice 600-700
(no YMCA)

Saturday: Allison's Soccer Game 900-1000
                Emma Soccer Game (time varies)
                Eli T-Ball Game 830-1000

(The YMCA is only open 1200-500 on the weekends)

Mind you that Nick and I both work all day.  So, PHEW!  We are having fun doing it, though!

In any case, we can't go to Y much lately, so we are taking whatever time we can to walk at the park when it's not 20 degrees and pouring rain.  Tanya and I walked 2 miles last night and I left with HUGE blisters on my feet (boo!)  But, the point is, I am 14 lbs down...the scale reads in the 200's now, rather than the 300's.  That was my first goal!  The next goal is another 24 lbs away!

I have been suffering a horrible sinus infection for the last few weeks and it is absolutely going to kill me!  I have to get rid of it, and soon! Before the polyps start forming and I have to have surgery again.  So, let's hope it goes away, soon!

I made a different kind of enchiladas last night, they were so yummy!

Okay, I'm done!

Okay, okay

It was brought to my attention that I have not blogged in....well....*counts on fingers*...let's just say "forever".

So, here I am.  I am currently in my sweats and a tank top, sitting at the dining room table (I had just balanced my checkbook...yay me!) all alone.  My two pups are very bad dogs as I turned around to see what they were doing and they are on my brand new couch!  As IF!  My honey has been work-napped to be a slave to Duro-Last for the day.  I hate when he works Saturdays.  I know, I know, I should be thankful he HAS a job...and I am!!  Every day...except Saturdays and Sundays! LOL


So, I woke up super early yesterday morning, startled awake by a bad dream.  I got up and saw Nick for a few minutes before he left for work and went about my day.  It was an unexpected "sick day" for me.  I needed a break from work and I got one and it was WONDERFUL!!  I had all intentions on napping with the children when it came time, I even rescheduled the dog's vet appointment to be earlier, so I didn't have to keep kids up and take them with me during nap time.  We ventured to the vet with the sun at our backs...it was a lovely spring morning.  We stopped at Tanya's to drop off Nick's laptop to her, since hers is being shipped back from California after leaving it at her vacation destination...oops...and it was payday, and I knew she had bills to pay.  Then we went to the vet. Phew, handling to pups under a year old is hard work.  I got Bella's shots and had them check to see if Shanti had been spayed or not.  Turns out she had!! I was sooo excited!  So, I had her shot for Rabies so I can go license them together.  Yay me!

We then got gas and went to the Grange.  I got the pups a bone each (HUGE!) and a kong each (not so huge).  Came home, dropped Bella off to her crate, left her with a bone and left with the kids yet again to pick up lunch so we could accompany Nick at his work and let him say goodbye to the girls.  They had been over for 9 days for Spring Break and it was time for all 3 little kids to go to the opposite house.  So, Taco Bell we went!

Grabbed our lunch, went to Duro-Last, surprised my sweetie, ate with him and brought the kids home for naps.  It was just after 1 when I laid them down and the other parents were due to get off work at 4, so they had plenty of time to nap.  I sat on the couch and pulled up my Netflix on my laptop and watched another episode of an ABC Family show I have been hooked on called The Secret Life of the American Teenager.  Pretty good show.  Needless to say, with the amazing day I was having, I wasn't tired at that exact moment, so I chose to skip my nap.

I woke kids up, got them changed and dropped them off at their destination and went to Tanya's for a little while.  Went to Albertson's to pick up my meds (time to bleed! since I can't seem to do it on my own now), grabbed some already made Chicken Fajita mix and some cheese and came home.

Had an amazing dinner with my sweetie and then he watched a boy movie that I didn't care for while I messed around on Facebook, took a hot shower, drank some hot cocoa and went in my room to watch TV in where I passed out....only to wake up at 3:30 this morning!

So, now, here I sit waiting for a daycare child on my very last Saturday of doing daycare regularly...

I have a nail appointment at 10 and when the boy gets picked up, I am free until tomorrow night at 7! YAHOO!

TTFN!

The long road to a new me...Day 3

I finally put my foot down last week and decided to start losing some weight, if not inches.

The reason, sadly, isn't because I'm considered morbidly obese...unfortunately, I have become comfortable with myself.  Not happy, but comfortable.  I know my hubby loves me for me, not the weight I have on me.  The reason isn't because every picture I look at, I am reminded of how skinny I once was...I don't really care to be that small again, I was just a bag of bones.  The reason isn't because I can't keep up with my kids...most of the time I can and am very active with them.  The reason I want to lose the weight (and inches!) isn't because it seems to get harder to find cute clothes to fit me when I do have a chance to go shopping...My size has plateaued...I have been the same size for a couple years (clothing-wise), they just don't have a huge abundance of the ones that I can afford.

The reason I want to lose the weight?  I work in a shoe store.  I get tired of the customers coming in and I can't give them an opinion on most of the shoes because I don't wear a regular size 9 shoe anymore...nope, I wear a size 10....wide.  Now, most people are under false pretenses that all shoes come in regular or wide.  They don't.  And even some of the ones marked "wide" aren't wide enough for my feet. I have one pair of shoes that I buy over and over to wear every day of the year to work in.  We have a dress code and it's the only thing that fits right, is dressy enough and comfortable enough for 8-10 hr shifts.  Unfortunately, it's considered a sandal, so it's only sold between March and July-ish.  So, if they don't last very long (which they don't since I wear them every day that I work) I have to try and remember to stock up to last me through the winter! LOL

So, for my records, Day 1 included a walk around our "short circle" in the park, 4 times and the "big circle" once.  It was 10:00 at night and our friends were there with all the kids to let them get some energy out and to celebrate a birthday.

Day 2 was last night and it included 4 big circles in the park.  That was a good walk.

Day 3 (today) and we went on a bike ride.  We started at home, off Redwood Ave. and Dowell Rd. and rode up Dowell to Redwood Hwy, to Allen Creek Rd, to Harbeck Rd, to Williams Hwy.  We made it to Allen Dale Elementary when Nick made me turn back.  It was 94 degrees and I was feeling really sick to my stomach.  The ride home seemed like a breeze.

I WILL do this.  I will.

We are going grocery shopping in a few and I am going to buy a tape measure and start recording measurements on here just so I can see the progress!  I'm so excited!  Even more excited that my hubby is so excited to do this with me!




 

2 months gone by

And not a whole lot has changed! I'm still working my butt off, Nick's still working his off and the kids are all still kids.

We have been struggling in the finance department for about a month now.  I forgot to write something down and it snowballed.  Ended up losing $700 trying to get my bank account back in order.  That was hard.  We still haven't recovered from that and we probably won't for awhile.  Antonio has stopped paying child support for Elijah until we can get him to quit whining about what it is that the state wants him to pay.  They wanted almost $400 a month from him and he's fighting it because basically, it cancels out the $426 that we pay them for the girls.  So, we'll see.  We should be getting papers soon saying we have a telephone hearing coming up.  From losing that $200 a month in support and the $200 a month in food stamps, we are REALLY struggling right now.  We have lost our cell phones due to non-payment, we have our final notices for everything else.  We have to pay our car payments or they take our cars and we can't get to work.  We have to pay our insurance or else the same consequence occurs.  We have to buy food or we all starve (feeding 5-7 people is NOT cheap).  We have to have gas to drive said cars to get to work.  I haven't paid anything to my sitter in who knows how long.  Luckily, she's a good friend and doesn't depend on her daycare earnings for income.  I feel so guilty about it, but I really just can't pay her anything.  I have doctors calling me constantly about my medical bills...I just...I can't.

It's so hard knowing I am working my arse off and there isn't anything I can show for it.  I have dreams.  I have hopes.  I mean, we really *hope* to pay off the cars with next year's taxes, so we don't have to pay the car payments anymore.  I really *hope* that child support is going to come through soon.  We really ARE going to pay our tv off in 2 more months.  I can't give it back now, it's ours in 2 months! 

We can't do anything about Boatnik this year.  We are taking Eli to the parade on Saturday, my only day off for the whole Memorial Day weekend.  I work open to close on Sunday and open to close on Monday, which is when Nick will be at home, all day, by himself.  Well, Sunday he will be...Monday the oldest 2 will be home with him and the baby will come home around 5:30 that day.

The kids transferred to Redwood Elementary when we moved here and we are having soooo many problems with them that I just want to scream.  I don't want to go into too many details, but he was sent home from school Monday for ripping a page out of a book.  They got mad and sent him home saying he was vandalizing intentionally.  After I heard the story, I disagree.  So, yeah.

Well, it's about time for me to start getting ready for work.

To the most wonderful husband in the world!!

"Smile"

You're better than the best
I'm lucky just to linger in your light
Cooler than the flip-side of my pillow (that's right)
Completely unaware
Nothing can compare to where you send me
Let's me know that it's okay (yea, it's okay)
And the moments when my good times start to fade

[Chorus:]
You make me smile like a sun, Fall outta bed
Sing like a bird, Dizzy in my head
Spin like a record, Crazy on a Sunday night
You make me dance like fool, Forget how to breathe
Shine like gold, Buzz like a bee
Just the thought of you can drive me wild
Oh, you make me smile

Even when you're gone
Somehow you come along just like a flower pokin through the sidewalk crack
And just like that
You steal away the rain
And just like that

[Chorus]

Don't know how I lived without you
'Cuz everytime that I get around you
I see the best of me inside your eyes
You make me smile
You make me dance like fool, Forget how to breathe
Shine like gold, Buzz like a bee
Just the thought of you can drive me wild
Oh, you make me smile

[Chorus]

(Oh, you make me smile)
Oh you make me smille
(Oh, you make me smile)
Oh you make me smille

One of "those" days

It's not a bad day, really. Just a kick-back-around-the-house kinda day, until I have to go to work at 1:45. Anyone who knows me, knows I am NOT a lazy person, but I have learned that I cannot work when my back flares up, so when it did last night, I came home, iced it, lounged around all night (except when I had to tend to the little one's demands), watched a movie with the hubs, went to bed and woke up in excruciating pain. Even after everything I did, it was still very sore. So, I took a pain pill and I'm STILL lounging around! I have to get this under control before work because if my boss knows, she will freak out, since I still haven't really kissed and made up with her totally. She hurt me, and I'm holdin on to it!

It's Friday! Normally that doesn't mean much, but it actually does start my weekend. From Payless, at least. I have Pampered Chef parties to throw this weekend. Saturday, Sunday and Monday, but at least that isn't 8.5 hrs on my feet dealing with customers and shoes. I normally have my house in order every other Friday (well, any day, really...stupid neat freak in me), because the girls come over today, but like I said, my back is healing, so the dishes are piled up, the laundry is un-folded (but at least washed!) and we're still in our PJ's!

Elijah has eaten 4 bowls of cereal in the 4 hours he has been up, now. We ran out of milk after the 2nd bowl and he's been eating it dry the last 2 bowls. A convo we had about said milk:

Me: "We need to get some milk."

E: "We don't have any milk. It's all gone."

Me: "I know, we need to go BUY some."

E: "Wal Mart has milk!"

Me: "Yes, I know Wal Mart has milk."

LOL!

So, we may have to venture out to the store, because now we have no juice, either and that's just not gonna work. Water is the devil to Elijah, unless it comes out of my water bottle, when he wants to drink it.

I have a 2 hour lunch today during my shift. I don't know why, she's never done that before, but it will either change, or just be a really long lunch!

Well, guess I didn't have much to say. Wish I could enjoy this BEAUTIFUL weather we are having! But, the meds I just started say no long exposure to sunlight...*sigh* We will have more spring weather, soon enough.

Ta-ta!