March madness

Mary's  I mean March update.

Mary....this is really for you.  This time my blog has been updated...LOL!

March...really?  Wasn't it just December?

Samuel finished basketball season a week ago and started spring soccer this last week. 

 WHEW...I feel like a chicken with my head cut off some days!

We are also starting science fair projects.  KatieJo is doing how different sodas, juice and water affect the shell of a chicken egg.  And Samuel is doing which bag (biodegradable bags, plastic & paper) & leaves biodegrade in soil the fastest.  I like science projects.  I despise ones we have to document EVERYTHING.  And take pictures of EVERYTHING!  Oh well.  It's always fun to see them learn something.  

Stuart is coaching middle school track this spring.  Thankfully the season is just 6 weeks!

KatieJo had her eye check this last week to see how therapy is working.  She's doing great in therapy, however in the last 6 weeks her eyes have gone from a -1.25 to a -2.  That's a huge difference for 6 weeks!  Apparently getting older and closer to puberty can do that to a person's eyes.  She and I had a chat.  I thought we had an understanding that she wouldn't get any older etc.  But she insists on aging....some people's children!  She's excited though because with the new prescription she got to pick out new glasses.  This time the frames are red....I happen to think they're cute.  But then again I'm partial to both KatieJo and to red.

Phillip also had his eye exam this last week.  He's been going about every 3 months.  At first it was because he was blinking ALL the time.  Like turrets blinking.  So she put him in glasses.  Which helped, but not enough so she upped his prescription.  And now he's getting bifocals because although he isn't blinking like crazy anymore he's not using his focusing system correctly which means he isn't very good at sorting, counting out groups of items, playing memory etc.  It's not that he can't count or sort it's that his eyes don't want to focus on it and so it's hard for him to do.  So, bifocals it is.  Once he gets them we get to use 3M tape or post its when he is doing close up work to remind him to use the bifocal lens.  

As for me and Maija...well we've "joined" a group of moms who get together every morning for an hour at someone's house (we rotate) and help clean or purge or do whatever project needs to be done.  It's amazing what 5 women can get done in an hour that would take one person FOREVER!  

So far we've gone through my kids toys and got rid of 3/4ths of them, cleaned another kids room, 

de-cluttered a back porch, organized and purged a linen closet, cleaned floors, organized a pantry, hung shelves, and cleaned up a back yard.  

It's so much more fun to do these projects with others!  I don't necessarily need the group to get my projects done, but some of the others do and hey....I'm a social person so it makes my day go by super fast.

Phillip's 5!

It doesn't seem quite fair all of my kid are growing too fast!

Phillip turned 5 on Saturday and somehow he seems to have aged over night, and grown a couple of inches. 

He is so excited to be five!

He's been planning his birthday forever.  Every couple of weeks he would tell me which cake he wanted and what presents he wanted for his birthday starting in about June.  

He's finally settled on a red cake.  Thankfully I have a friend who has a superb red velvet cake recipe who is going to make the actual cake (because she won't share the recipe) for me and then I'm going to decorate it like a mushroom with his beloved smurf toys on top.  Well, I'm not sure they are beloved yet those are a surprise for his birthday party.

He is having a combined party with his best friend Lexi who is 3 days older than him at a local gymnastics gym.  They have an awesome array of toys including bounce houses for the kids to play on.  

It's really hard to believe that he's so big!

I'm so grateful that he's ours!

Happy Birthday Phillip!

now....20 questions with Phillip....

1. What is your favorite color? Red

2. What is your favorite toy?  Papa Smurf

3. What is your favorite fruit?  Blueberries

4. What is your favorite tv show?  spiderman

5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch?  biscuits

6. What is your favorite outfit?  Spiderman costume

7. What is your favorite game?  Hungry Hungry Hippos

8. What is your favorite snack?  Grapes

9. What is your favorite animal?  Monkey

10. What is your favorite song?  Love One Another

11. What is your favorite book?  On Monday I was a Monkey

12. Who is your best friend?  Lexi and Jaylen

13. What is your favorite cereal?  Pops

14. What is your favorite thing to do outside?  Play with my scooter

15. What is your favorite drink?  Rootbeer

16. What is your favorite holiday?  He likes "Holly-days" with mom's friend Holly

17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night?  My green toys

18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?  German pancakes

20. What do you want to be when you grow up?  A missionary

Tubes

Maija has had at least one ear infection a month since school started. 

Her doctor finally sent her to an ENT last month and lo and behold they wanted to put tubes in her ears.

I wasn't shocked, and am a little grateful that they wanted to.

She had surgery Monday morning (2-6-12)

To "calm" her down they gave her some liquid medicine.  

Really the medicine was to make it easier to put the mask that the anesthesia went through on her, and to make parting with mom and dad easier.

She was so funny on the medicine!

At one point I covered her legs and she looked down with a shocked expression on her face and said:

"Oh no, my legs are gone!"

She couldn't sit up on her own, not for lack of trying.  However, when she did she'd just start falling over slowly.

Stuart wanted to let her try to walk. As funny as that may have been we were worried she'd hurt herself.  

After a while she just started staring at the ceiling while smiling and giggling.

The surgery itself literally only took about 10 minutes.  

And instead of having to wait for her to completely wake up we got to go right back so that we were there when she woke up.  It was hard watching her be so confused as she was waking up and she kept saying "MOM, MOM I CAN'T HEAR YOU"  

As it turns out between the anesthesia and the cotton balls in her ears she couldn't hear me.

She's doing great and here's hoping no more infections!

I had pictures, but blogger is having issues uploading them...sorry!

The big "reveal"

Have you ever seen the movie Miss. Congeniality?  

You know the scene at the end of the movie where she says that she's vaguely aware that she's proud of her breasts?  

I feel that way....about my entire self.

I have lost approximately 60 pounds.  Truthfully I didn't think it was that much until I realized that KatieJo weighs 63 pounds.  I've LOST my "child"!  

WOW!

And I feel great.

I've discovered I love being a girl.  I have bought new clothes and turned from "frump girl" into a girl who isn't afraid to go into public.  I have nice clothes that I have thoroughly enjoyed shopping for, perhaps a little too much.  However, I am a frugal shopper so they have all been DEEPLY discounted or found at a thrift store. 

I've discovered I really enjoy wearing makeup every day along with jewelry.  Who knew that I was a fashionable girl hiding in a fluffy body?!?!?!

See the smile in the picture below?  I love that smile.  I never thought I'd say that.  But I think in all of my 31 years (shhhhhh...don't tell the kids they think I'm 23) on this earth I've never felt so good.

I can go up stairs and not be out of breath.  I can exercise and not feel like I'm going to die!  That's HUGE in my world!  

Oh, and I've started wearing belts.  I NEVER would have done that before.  But shockingly enough I like them.  GASP!  I think something is on the verge of freezing over.

Even the kids have noticed a difference.  Although Phillip did draw a picture of me and Stuart a few weeks ago and then said "Mom I drew you fat"....I prefer to think that's what he thinks I used to look like.

KatieJo keeps asking me if I've lost weight to be skinny, and really at first I would have said yes that's why I've lost weight.  However, I've now realized that I am a MUCH healthier person and truthfully that is why I have lost weight.

Could I stand to loose some more weight...you betcha.  However, I'm very happy where I am right now!

And what makes it even better is Stuart's reaction to me.  Because I feel good about myself he seems to be OVERJOYED.  He's always seen me the way I now see myself and for that I'm so grateful!

So now for the "before and after" pictures......

 

What do you think?  Can you tell a difference?

3 days and a funeral

Sometimes I really despise medicine!  

On New Years Day I came down with a sinus infection and double ear infection.  

Maija was fighting a double ear infection as well and so we stayed home and tried to get better.  

I eventually made it to the doctor after trying to get better on my own.  

The antibiotic they gave me wasn't working and so they changed it to a stronger one with side affects like...dizziness, nausea and vomiting.  You know, flu like symptoms.  SO lovely when trying to take care of a family!  On top of it Maija's on her 4 or 5th ear infection since school started and so they are sending us to an ENT (tomorrow Wednesday the 18th) because one ear drum is still bulging and the other has fluid behind it. 

We've been a couple of sad girls!  Poor Stuart has been doing such a good job on doing his job AND mine!  I'm so grateful for him!!  Some days I wonder what I did to get so lucky!

This past weekend despite my lack of wanting to move due to the medicine we headed to Seattle for a funeral of my good friend AJ Haddenham's father.  He was an awesome man whom we didn't know too well, but wish we could have.  

We drove down to Pikes Place Market before heading up to Snohomish.  However, it was snowing and yucky and I felt worse than the weather so we opted not to get out of the car.  After the funeral we headed down to Vancouver which happens to be right across the river from Portland, OR.  While driving back through Seattle we got to see the Space Needle lit up as well as the Sea hawk's stadium (Samuel was REALLY excited about that).  *Disclaimer*:  We are NOT Sea hawk fans, but Samuel was excited regardless. 

Stuart's brother Mark and his wife Julie and kids live in Vancouver.  We stayed Saturday night and Sunday night with them and had such a great time.  

We had to leave fairly early because Maija came down with a rash which meant a doctors visit yesterday afternoon.  However, I did manage a visit to Ikea before we left Portland.  WOW!  What a place!  I've been there before, but I don't remember it being nearly as awesome!

Having never been to Seattle or Portland, I was pretty excited about this trip even if it was so quick.  I wasn't that thrilled with Seattle.  It felt like we were going to drive into the ocean.  It was also strange how they laid out their highways.  They have byways all over the place.  It was really strange to us!  

Portland on the other hand was still green!  I knew that before we got there but was shocked none the less.  

Belated 3

It occurred to me that I forgot to post anything about Maija's 3rd birthday.  

It's still throwing me off 3 years later to have a birthday right before the holidays.  

She turned three on Friday November 18th and had a great day!

She wore one of her favorite dresses, had her hair done and despite what is in these pictures she did have nice hair and a hairbow in at some point.

Maija LOVES horses and ponies.  

I didn't have a horse cake pan so we went with the second best I could think of (besides having to free hand a horse on the cake)...a horseshoe.  

 I searched and searched Craigslist for this rocking horse.  I bought it at the end of September and stored it at a friends house so Maija wouldn't find it.  She loves it!  She says goodbye to the horse when we leave the house and gives it kisses and comes and says hello whenever we get home.  

 We are a lucky family to have this silly little girl!

New Years.....

It's that time of year again.  

New Years Resolutions.

And much like last year; I still don't like resolutions.

So, how did I do on last year's goals?  Click Here to read that post.

I did pretty good at this.  This fall has been better than before as Phillip has to be picked up from school at 11:35 and so I have to be way more scheduled than before.

I lost 50 pounds this year and am starting to get back to the working out.  I got the Wii Zumba for Christmas and am looking forward to using it more.  We didn't do much better on our dates, although we did date so I'm not going to be too upset about not being more exciting.  And I did succeed (for quite a while) in sending Stuart love notes.  I really enjoyed doing that.  And as for the kids I did a lot better about expressing my love for them.

As for Dave, I really do love Dave!  We haven't done as well as we should have, however we did it and we're learning along the way.

So now, my goals for 2012.....drum roll please......

1.  Maintain my weight loss and lifestyle change.  Learn how to make our food more interesting while reducing sugars and carbs.  I'd like to loose more weight but I'm happy where I'm at right now and so if more weight comes off while changing our eating habits that's great.  If not then I'm still happy.

2. Finally start an Etsy shop.  This one is in the makings.  A few friends and I are going in on the shop and now that Christmas is over we are going to start getting things ready.  I'm excited!

3. Continue to organized and purge my house.  

I got rid of a lot of stuff when we moved in.  However I got sick, had surgery, left for the summer and then started working on Christmas when I got back and so things aren't how they should be.  

4.   Study the scriptures (not just read with Stuart....study them...like with the Seminary manuals) with Stuart and have gospel centered discussions.  I love the conversations we have about the scriptures and want to study them more in depth with him.  

5.  Revamp our budget and debt reduction schedule.  Debt reduction got pushed back a little this last summer when we had to get a new car.  So, the goal is to get back on schedule....love me some budgeting (does that make me weird?)

6.  Continue to "find me". That may sound funny. However with my recent weight loss I've discovered I actually like myself...what a novel concept!  I'm learning to dress better, wear jewelry, and actually wear makeup on a daily basis.  I feel pretty and I'm still working on my self image.  It's not there yet but I'm doing better. 

I think that's about it.  Every single one of these I've listed is attainable, and I'm really excited about all of my goals!

Hope your Resolutions and Goals excite you just as much!