Memorial Day

Memorial Day weekend was a success.  Saturday Bill and I went and bought a new grill.  It's gas and charcoal.  He's been super happy with it so far.  We've grilled steaks Sat night and then last night we had a BBQ.  We grilled skewered veggies, and shrimp and steak.  It was super yummy.  It was all so good! 

I am so busy today cleaning house and doing up all our laundry.  Cole had Addyson spend the night last night and now his room needs a MAJOR cleaning today.  He's got to get that done before he can do anything today.  I might take them into moms later to swim, but not if this crap isn't all cleaned up and done. 

I spend the late evening after everyone left cleaning up my kitchen last night and running the dishwasher.  I got it all cleaned except for the floors swept and mopped up.  I need to get that done today. I also need to run the swiffer wet jet on all the wood floors and get up the dust from everywhere.  The last bit of the saw dusty work has been done with the house so I need to get it all whipped into shape once again!  I am forever cleaning up the messes from fixing things up around here.  One screw going into the wall makes a mountain of dust in this house.  I hate it.  I just want it all spotless and keep it that way!

I have a HUGE letter typed up and have to get them printed off.  I haven't written Danny in ages.  I've written him, but not printed them off or sent them.  I am going to print them all off and mail them out to him along with some weight loss pics and pics of my new house before and after for him! 

I need to get to putting my years worth of photos so far into photo books for the boys on snapfish and get them whipped up and started.  I just keep adding to them through the year as I take them, and come November I have them printed up and give them to the boys each year for Christmas.  It's such a neat thing to do.  I also usually do one for Bills parents and my mom and Dennis too.  It makes a really neat gift at the holidays.  A years worth of photos and memories all wrapped into one package.  They all really enjoyed it last year. 

Looks and feels like it's going to be a scorcher out there!  It's so humid already and it's only 8 am.   I'm off to get busy.  Happy Memorial Day everyone.  Hug a soldier today.  Thank the lord for the men and women who fight for our country every day and those whom have put their lives on the line for my freedom.  I am thankful. 

Tattoo?? Maybe??!!!

I had a rough night.  I felt pukey and also had the poops because I ate some pre packaged deli meat.  I will NEVER do that again!  It made me feel awful and I only ate two slices, but I think the grease and fat made me sick.  It was turkey meat too, but now I know better.  I will stick to the fresh deli meat from now on. 

Yesterday I took Rochelles kids and mine to the Jaycee park in Carthage.  We had a picnic lunch and Diana brought LeeVi in to play with us.  We played all afternoon long.  It was such a fun day for them all.  They were all sleepy when we got home.  The boys were asleep and out by 10.  It was a rough night for me and then the darned storms were nuts.  The wind blew like crazy and the rain was coming from every direction possible.  It was LOUD and crazy storms.  This morning I woke up to a wet kitchen floor because I totally forgot the kitchen windows were open.  Oops!

Today I spiffed up the house some and just rested.  I did a couple loads of laundry and cleaned on my kitchen a bit.  I also played with my boys.  Today we got our estimate for our new roof and Bill took me to Macomb to pick out the new color we are getting.   I am excited to see the difference it makes in our house.  It's going to be awesome.  We got home from Macomb and another storm had blown through, speaking of roof... we might have a claim to turn into the insurance company tomorrow because the storm peeled up the shingles that are on the roof now.  What a mess.  Bill just got through saying how he hoped that the big storms stayed away until we got a new roof on.  Now we might have to have this looked at.  Ugh, always something.  I guess we don't want to mess up all the wonderful work we've done to the place though, so might as well get on top of it fast. 

I am cooking some ribeyes for supper.  Those are wonderful for me to eat.  Not too tough and not too thick.  They melt in my mouth.  I also am making some cheesy taters and green beans.  Bill's mom sent home some pasta salad from the graduation party too so the guys will love that. 

I am working my butt off on catching up with my DVR.  It's so hard when I've not been home much and when I am, we are so busy doing things outside and around the house we don't watch much tv anymore.  I have to keep it down though or I will run out of time.  I only have 10 hours left on there to record so I need to get to deleting some things!  Tonights episode is catching up with The biggest loser and seeing who won!  I am excited to see!  Tonight I am taping IDol and can't wait to see who wins that either.  I hope it's Lauren.  I've rooted for her since day one.  She's my fave!!!

I am at 97 lbs lost.  I have 3 more to go to get to my 100 lb goal!  I get a tattoo now!!!  I have worked on Bill for years about wanting one and I made him a "bet" a few years back when I lost 100 lbs I was getting one... he better agree to this too.  We have been discussing where I am going to get one and he said as long as it wasn't visible to others all the time, or on my boobs he didn't really care.  Soooo I really want one on my foot, but am too big of a wussy to get one there.  I think I would pass out and scream about my feet!  Who knows if I will even get one, just the thought that I've earned it is almost enough for me!  I want something in memory of my dad... we'll see??!!

Peoria Weekend and the Zoo

We had such a FUN weekend!  Friday night was relay for life.  It was a nice time!  I won 2nd place in the Karaoke contest and won $50 which was pretty nice!  I bid on a bouncy house for the kids for the hog roast and won it!  Now the kids will have something to play in at the hog roast!  FUN! 

Saturday morning Cole had a mock baseball game to practice with another team.  He really enjoyed that time!  He hit some great balls!  I was proud of him!

After the game we headed to Cassie's and got her and the girls and headed to Peoria for the weekend.  We got to town, and hit the MALL of course!  I wanted to get a gift card for Beth and Anna for graduation and so we stopped into Maurices.  I am not a huge fan of them because I was always too fat to wear their clothes.  Even the fat clothes looked awful on me and never fit right.  Cassie talked me into trying on a pair of Hydrolic jean shorts.  I got a size down from what I am wearing now because what I am wearing now is baggy, and the size down was baggy, so I ended up dropping 2 sizes!!  This made me HAPPY!  They look pretty nice on me too.  I then checked the clearance rack and found a beautiful dress.  I actually don't look too shabby in it either!  Makes me so happy to have dropped 3 pants sizes so far and to be able to wear a nice dress and look okay not like a slob. 

We met up with the family at the McDonalds play center in Morton and had Maddy's birthday party.  It was a blast for the kids.  After that we headed to our hotel and checked in.  We then scoped out the pool and swam with the kids for 2 hours.  They really had a nice time swimming.  They were all soooo tired after swimming they couldn't hardly stay awake to eat the pizza we ordered.  Tiffany and Hannah brought Maddy over to swim and they had a pizza party with us.  It was nice to get to visit them, but boy I felt rude cause I was so flipping tired from the night before and 3 hours sleep and then running all day and then swimming I was in the same sleepy boat as the kids!  We all crashed by 10 and slept till 7 this morning! 

Today we got up, ate breakfast at the hotel and then headed to Gordmans.  We got some great deals there!  I got 2 more pairs of shorts, 2 sizes smaller and some jewelry and the boys got a few toy things.  We then met Tiffany, Chris and Maddy at the Zoo.  The kids ran their little legs off and had a great time running from animal to animal.  Cole learned all about giraffes at school and he LOVED seeing the giraffes!  That was his favorite part!  Brody laughed his butt off at the Lemurs!

We made it home just in time for the graduation party.  It was a nice time visiting with the people and seeing people we haven't seen in awhile.  The boys and I are wiped out tonight.  I am headed to bed.  They are both out like a light already!  It's going to be a busy week.  Next week we are not doing ANYTHING that requires planning or going places!  This week we have Rochelles kids Monday through Thursday.  Ugh... busy busy busy! 

I am bouncing back between 4-6 lbs away from my 100 lbs lost.  Water weight really kills me some days!  I can't wait till I get to that 100 lb mark!  I am down a shoe size, down 3 pants sizes and down 2 shirt sizes (I think as soon as my boobs shrink a bit more I will drop another shirt size soon!)  I am so happy with my progress so far.  It's been such a long road, but well worth it in the end!

Lazy day...

I really really needed a day like today.  I got Bill off to work, Cole off to school and did some housework.  Brody was still sleeping, so I snuck back to bed for an hour until he woke me up!  It felt nice to get some extra sleep.  I did more housework and spent the day catching up on things around here, including my DVR which I've desperately missed.  I had a lot of things to catch up on and still do, but I'm working on it one day at a time!  At least I know I won't get bored.  I will always have stuff to watch when all else fails. 

Yesterday Cole and I spent an hour and a half cleaning out the van.  It was AWFUL!  It has been needing cleaned out since we have moved, but I wanted to wait until I was totally finished moving stuff from the old place, and since we are DONE I finally broke down, picked the first nice day and cleaned it out top to bottom.  I scrubbed, polished, and vacuumed every inch of that thing!  We even washed all the windows.  Now I need to swing by the car wash and get the outside looking semi nice too.

I grilled out a ton of food last night.  Steaks, burgers, and brats.  I wanted to have enough cooked up to get me through my crazy week.  I now have it whipped up!  That makes me happy.  No late nights spend scrambling for something to cook. 

We've been sneaking in as much Daddy time as we can get.  Late night trips to the warehouse, trips to the fields, whatever it takes to get these boys time with Dad. 

I am creeping up to the 95 lb weight loss mark.  I am feeling amazing!  I love love love how I feel and look right now.  I am excited to see how much I change throughout the summer. 

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I just realized...

We had an awesome weekend!  Quite the emotional one, but it was all GOOD and most of it was FUN, minus the moving part, but fun to be with the family! 

Friday night my aunt Carla had a purse party at my moms.  We all visited and shopped then we all went out to the Peacock for Karaoke.  I got to see all my girls and sing it up and have a good time!  I also spent time with my mom and Shawn and that's always a good time!

Saturday morning I got up and went to Carthage to get the boys from Jenny's and take them to my moms. She kept them all day long while I went to Anna's graduation.  I headed to Macomb and got into town a bit early so I went to the armory and welcomed home Ryan and the troops.  It was such an emotional time.  There were smiles, and lots of happy tears.  The kids were so excited to see their daddy!  I shed a tear or two! 

Next up off to Anna's Pinning.  When you are a nurse you get "pinned" it's your schools nursing pin, nurses used to wear the white caps that represented the school they graduated from, but now they don't wear caps anymore they have little pins that they wear and it represents their school.  The pinning was held at the Church and they put on a lovely meal for us all.  It was a nice ceremony.  Here is Anna and her Nursing class.

After the pinning ceremony I headed home to get Bill.  He was finishing up work and getting cleaned up for the graduation.  We headed back to Macomb to see her walk that stage and become a NURSE!  It was so emotional.  She's all grown up.  I remember playing Barbies with her when Bill and I started dating.  I can't believe she's a NURSE now!  We are so proud of her for all she's accomplished. 

We all headed to Buffalo Wild Wings for supper.  We had a few drinks, visited and had a good old time!  It was so nice to actually see us all together and get to relax and have some fun.  Bill and I really really enjoyed dinner and drinks!

Bill and I went to Walmart for a few things before getting the boys.  Then we came home to a disaster!  The garage door wasn't opening so we knew something was wrong. Turned out the power was out to the house.  The main breaker box and pole to the house had shorted out and we had to call the electric company to come out to our house at midnight in the freezing cold and pouring rain to fix our breaker and meter pole.  What a mess.  The boys sure didn't like the power outage, and neither did we cause we had a  FULL bed that night with our little chickens smooshed in with us. 

Sunday morning we all slept in a bit.  I was up at 8 and Bill slept till almost 9.  He said it felt good to sleep in awhile for a change.  The boys both slept till 10.  Bev came and got the boys and I and we headed to Macomb to pack up and move Anna to Carthage to Jenny's. We made it all in one trip.  We had Jenny's car packed up, Annas car loaded, Bevs Tahoe loaded and an enclosed trailer full.  We had her loaded, and hauled and unloaded in 3 hours.  That's pretty good and we even stopped for some McDonalds!  Anna is now back in Carthage and beginning her nursing career at Carthage hospital.  She had her orientation today!  She's happy, but sad too.  Leaving her college life behind. 

After helping move Anna we went back to the farm to meet up with Bill.  He had a few seed customers he needed to collect some money from, so we drove around with him while he did that.  Then we went to the old house and loaded up the last of the stuff over there and brought home.  We finally are DONE over there moving out stuff.  The only thing left to haul over here is my wagon wheels.  I am so happy to have that place cleaned out and empty!  Brandon came out and mowed the yard for us and it looks nice.  The guy from the bank came today to do the appraisal.  Hopefully we have our money soon and sign the papers.  I am ready to not own two homes.  I'd just like to have this one and get it totally paid for!  We are ALMOST there!!!  Soooo happy about that!

This week seems to be a bit less hectic than last week.  We have practice a couple times, but nothing major and then theres the Relay for life event on Friday.  Auction and Karaoke contest.  It will be a fun time!  Saturday Cassie and I are taking the kids on an overnight to Peoria. We have Maddy's party to go to, then we are taking the kids to the Zoo while we are there and we are also staying all night in the hotel so the kids can swim and have some fun.  A little mini vacation since we can't afford a real one!  We are going to do all this and won't even spend $100 per family.  That will be nice.  Cassie and I should each end up spending about $75 each and that includes our hotel room!  I'm up for cheap fun like that.  The kids ought to be wore out and ready to rest up on Sunday. 

Sunday evening is Beth and Anna's graduation party at the Frakes Farms.  We are having burgers, dogs, tater salad, pasta salad, baked beans, chips and cake.  It will be another fun evening!   I am typing this all and realizing that this week is a bit busier than I thought!  Ha.

So busy my head is spinning!

It's been such a nice week!  The weekend was pretty simple actually.  Mothers Day was just the most relaxing day.  I went to church, Bevs for lunch, then Bev, the boys and I loaded up and went to the greenhouse.  We bought garden supplies and flowers for mothers day.  I got herbs!  It was such a nice fun time.  We went to G&G Kost to see Grandma for Mothers Day.  We had a nice visit.  Brody was acting up all day long.  He was so fussy off and on and pretty short tempered with Cole.  He couldn't look at him and Brody would start screeching and screaming.  Poor Cole he puts up with so much crap from him, just because of his little attitude.  Bev and I then went to Dollar General so I could buy some potting soil and planters and garden supplies to plant all my new goodies. 

After we dropped Bev off at home the boys and I came home and started planting.  We spend a couple hours designing up some awesome flower pots and arrangements and planting in my herbs.  I got Rosemary, Chives, Cilantro, mint, basil, and onion sets.  I am having to make a "ghetto garden" as I called it, because Bill has told me he's going to tear up the yard later this summer and try to work on the slope and landscaping.  He wants to pile up the dirt around the house and slope it out in the yard to keep the water running away from the basement walls.  We have an extremely dry basement here and the walls are perfect, he wants to keep it that way!  I decided that it wasn't fair I couldn't have a garden in my new house and we have enough concrete out back I bought a planter and planted a tomato plant and have it all caged up, then I bought some under the bed shallow storage totes and poked some holes in them and planted onion sets in there!  I am excited to get those growing and have fresh ONIONS and MATERS!!!  I hope my tomato plant blooms and makes some good maters.  I would really like to also go back and get a cherry tomato plant.  The boys love cherry tomatoes.  I think those grow better in a pot anyhow! 

Everything is planted now, and it feels good to go out and water and tend to things.  I am going to use some basil in a recipe tomorrow I watched them make on the cooking channel it was Asparagus lasagna and it looks soooo YUMMY!  I can't wait to make it and see how it is!  It has sun dried tomatoes, garlic, basil, onions, ricotta, Parmesan, mozzarella, bacon crumbles, asparagus and noodles.  It looked so good on TV and I can't wait to give it a try! 

This is a busy busy week for us.  Monday was baseball practice, Tuesday was scouts, Wednesday, today, Cole has kidzone and I will have to pick him up at 5 then ball practice at 6:30 in Plymouth, then tomorrow, Thursday it's the Spring Music concert at school.  Friday night is Carla's purse party and then I am meeting up with the girls for a few drinks and some Karaoke for Carla Rodeffers Birthday.  Saturday is ball practice first thing in the morning and then Anna's Pinning is around lunch time, then her graduation that evening and then Buffalo Wild Wings for a little party afterwards.  Its going to be a LONG day Saturday.  I think other than church on Sunday we are pretty free.  If it doesn't rain, I'd like to get our yard mowed.  It sure needs it.  Been two weeks almost since Bill mowed last. 

I am staying home today doing laundry and cleaning my house.  It needs it.  I'm letting Brody sleep in and get rested up too, maybe he will be in a good mood!  I might turn on the air today, my allergies are really kicking in with all these windows open and spending so much time outside with the pollen so high.  I'm taking my allegra, but my throat is so sore and I keep sneezing all day long and my nose is running now too.  Ugh.  I hate allergies.  I wish I didn't have them and neither did the guys.  I enjoy having all the windows open and airing this place out, but we can't do it very long or very often or we all get so sick. 

I am up to 89 lbs lost now.  That's ELEVEN pounds away from my 100 lb mark!!!!  I am super HAPPY with how well I feel and how HAPPY I am.  I have more energy than I've had in years and years and I am like the energizer bunny, I just keep going all day long and half way into the night!  I can't sleep very early anymore.  I just lay awake and want to do more things!  I've been keeping things caught up nicely because of all this energy!!!

Itching for Spring

Since getting settled in our new home I have been on a quest to get back to some home cooked meals.  Stop living out of the freezer section and get back to cooking!  I have been doing really good about preparing in advance, making things in the crock pot and most importantly of all we've been eating nightly meals like a family at the table.  It's good for all of us to sit and re connect at the end of the day, makes us stronger and more focused on our family time. 

The boys spend all their times in their rooms playing.  We really don't see much of them around here when we are all home alone.  It's kinda quiet and lonely at times.  Brody will go into Cole's room and play with him at times, or he hides out in his own room playing or watching cartoons.  I have been finishing up little tasks and keeping the house in tip top shape.  I have been trying to get a routine down with cleaning since there are many more hard wood floors to clean and just more space to keep clean.  It's so open here.  It really makes me want to keep things clean and tidy and organized.  Plus moving here and pitching so much junk we accumulated over the years has really gotten me happy about living a bit simpler at times. 

I have been watching that Extreme Couponing show on TLC.  I LOVE it!  I have started clipping coupons again and won't do the whole "stockpile" thing that those people do, but I will be using coupons to buy the things we use on a regular basis.  Diapers, cleaning supplies, toilet paper, laundry soap.  If I can save a buck or two I'd be happy I gave it a try!  I am trying this out.  I hope I can be thrifty and stick with it.  I think I will like it!

Today they got the insulation blowed in the attic and that job is finally finished.  They ran out a couple weeks ago when they started, so today it's DONE.  All that's left now is trimming out the new doors, installing the replacement counter top, we have a temporary one up now because it got dinged when they delivered it, so they ordered us a brand new one, but it's custom built so it will take a while to get here, caulking the windows when it warms up, and a few touch ups here and there.  I am excited to be done working on projects for awhile.  I just want to settle in and get my routine down.  I'm working on it.  I usually get up, load the dishwasher and start a load of laundry, then I cook breakfast for everyone, get Cole up and off to school, then Bill leaves, While Brody is sleeping still I will clean something quiet and then usually catch up on EMail or pay bills or do laundry.  Then it's feeding him, getting him ready, play with him, next thing it's lunch time, Bill's been coming home, doing more laundry and cleaning then nap time for Brody.  I spend time catching up on DVR stuff while he is sleeping or sometimes try to nap myself, but since losing all this weight I just don't get so tired anymore and don't nap much?  Cole gets off the bus, it's homework time.  Then getting supper ready, then baths, then we all relax a bit and then it's bed time for everyone.  6 a.m. comes so early.  I love weekends when I don't have to set my alarm, but I usually wind up waking up at 6 anyhow!

My stuff from my purse party should be here Wednesday or Thursday and I am excited for that!  I hope everyone loves what they ordered!  I can't wait to see mine!

We have a new kitty that's been hanging around outside.  Don't know where the damn thing came from, but I don't want to get a cat farm started here, so if anyone wants a calico cat they can come catch it!  Someone dropped it off I'm sure.  I am not a huge cat lover.  We used to have a cat years ago and when I had to watch it die it broke my heart, so I don't much like them anymore.  Weird I know, but true. 

My hair has been falling out.  Lots of hair comes out with every brush stroke, every time I shower it clogs up the drain 3 or 4 times.  I knew this was a side effect of the surgery, but it's quite shocking to wash your hair or brush it and it just comes out in clumps.  It's sad actually.   I am down 83 lbs.  I've been at a stand still for about 3 days now.  Sticking with the same 2 lbs up and down, I did this a few weeks ago then I just lost 10 lbs almost overnight.  Sometimes we plateau and then the weight loss will start up again.  It's pretty amazing actually.

Cole's started baseball for the season.  His first practice was last night.  He had fun.  He really paid attention and learned a couple things.  He was so proud of himself for how much better he was getting at throwing and catching the ball.  That's all they did last night.  He was pretty tired and wore out after practice so when he had to go to bed there was no complaining from him!  He also loves that all his school friends are on his team!!  Makes it nice to know parents at the games too!