I needed a Time Out!

So life had gotten the better of me for awhile there. It still does sometimes, but what can you do? So here I am, back and writing.

We are all recovering from a nasty stomach bug at the end of a nasty few weeks. We all had it, we feasted on rice for Easter dinner at home because it was so bad. The interesting part to the beginning of this story is that it began as Thing Two hitting her head. She hit her head, and cried, but acted normal, ate lunch, and then napped. It was when she got up from her nap that I discovered vomit all over and suspected that maybe she had a concussion, so I took her to the ER. They did a CT Scan and she was fine. So then they had to rule out a bladder infection, and any obstructions. Several hours later when she exploded her diaper they figured that it must be a stomach bug. The rest of us in the house here was able to confirm that with in hours. They kept her overnight for observation and prevention of dehydration, and she was released. Let's look at some stats here:

Thing One, trips to ER, 0
Thing Two, trips to ER, 3
Thing One, hospital stays, 0
Thing Two, hospital stays, 1
I think we may have our hands full with this one...

I didn't get into my first choice for nursing school. There is one other that I will go for, and if that falls through then I need another plan for the fall. I can't just sit idly. I am thinking if I don't make it that I will just either start taking classes for fun to hep myself active and keep my GPA up, and I have also thought about re-taking some of my classes to see if I can get higher grades. Of course there is always that chance I may get a lower one...

We had tried to get into a house that was rent to own. It was a by chance deal that we found, we thought it was looking really good, but it fell through. So we took that as a sign that maybe we are supposed to stay right here for right now.

Thing One can count to ten now. She is so proud, and she sings, it really is the cutest thing.

Thing Two can say things, but she doesn't hasn't gotten to that little spot where all of a sudden the words start exploding out of her- she is close. For now she can efficiently communicate what she needs so thats less frustrating.

I haven't shredded in I don't know how long. I have gotten to go for a few nice long walks on the few nice days we have had. I had also given up chocolate for lent, between that and just watching how much I eat I have gotten down to 129lbs. My waist is down to 34" and my hips are at 36". Which puts me back to 9lbs - 4lbs oh what I used to be before getting pregnant, and still a lot of inches from where I was. I can deal with that. I just need to loose the little pocket. It's amazing how the weight shifts!

So things in the garden have begun popping up. At first I was so excited to just see anything, now I want to get the show on the road, I want to see blooms! I guess I need to plant some crocuses and daffodils so I get a few early blooms to satisfy me!
The landlord and I have come to an agreement on a vegetable garden. They will dig out a huge garden bed and I will plant the seeds, and as a whole we will all maintain the garden, and we will all harvest from it as well. I have decided to take on some new things to plant that I have never tried before so it should be a fun learning experience. I thought that was a nice agreement.

Well thats all the update for now.

It's been awhile...

It's been about a month since I have written to you all. Shame on me, but I am back in the mess called school. While having that to contend with work has been scheduling me for 3-4 days a week, and as if I don't have enough on my plate we re-enrolled Thing One into dance class.

Needless to say I haven't been shredding, but in keeping with the Lenten spirit I have given up chocolate, and I think that has helped me not to gain back any of the weight I have lost so far.

So I need to re-dive into my work out routine, I need to maintain a sensible diet and I need to get the last of this stubborn weight off my abdomen... Right after I get some studying done, after all I failed my first test..I know, I failed to mention that huh? I got a 59 on the lecture and a 91 on the lab, too bad the lab is only worth 7% of my grade. It's not all lost, I need an 82 or better on the next two tests to pass with a C+ which is completely doable. (If I can find time to study!)

I also had completed my "placement" test for my application to the nursing program, I got a 78.2 on that, which considering the schools average is 73, I will be satisfied with that grade, although I had wanted higher. So now I just sit and wait to see if I am accepted or not.

We got our taxes done, I am happy to say it will ease our financial burdens that we currently have, it won't get rid of them by any means, but it will help ease us up a bit.

We hit a local maple sugar farm a few weekends ago. That was pretty interesting, a little boring for the kids, but the free maple sugar lolly pops were a hit!

This was her first lolly pop!

All in all things are busy as usual. Thing One is completely potty trained and also sleeping in a big girl bed, while Thing Two has almost all of her baby teeth and can run all over the house, and climb just about everything- quite literally!

Thing One proudly sitting on her new bed!

Beautious Day

What a beautiful day we had here today. I managed to get outside and prune everything that needed pruning and even spotted some green in the garden. I realize spring is still a ways a way, but this is a nice start.
I couldn't stay in the house on such a marvelous day, I took the kids to the park to go for a very long walk. This is the first walk outside that Thing Two would actually be old enough to appreciate. As we walked there were cold pockets and warm pockets, and then finally at the lake a beautifully warm pocket, and a lot of sun! It was so energizing, not to mention good for my health to push around those two up and down hills!
Oh, and I have been doing my shredding, after all with all the cake I have been eating I have to do something to not gain a ton of weight!
The girls are their normal selves this week, see for yourself...

The train wreck that was me...

This week was like a train wreck, slowly happening for all to see in slow motion.

MONDAY- Thing Two came down with a horrible stomach bug on Monday, oh the diaper rash.. Did I mention it was horrible? I had school and work, to which I found out at work we will be getting tested on our untrained knowledge of various things. Lovely, just what I want at my minimum wage job, a friggin test! Oh and my stalker came to visit although he seemed angry with me while my newest stalker was talking to me. Imagine, I have 2 stalkers and they both visit me at the same time. GREAT!

TUESDAY- The 2nd and last DVD player in the house was broken today. I won't name names, but it wasn't me. I told someone not to teach someone else how to push the buttons on it!

WEDNESDAY- I went to school all morning, that was ok. I came home had a nice lunch then the kids and I left to visit John at work.. Then to run some errands. Well amidst running errands Thing Two fell out of a shopping cart onto a nice hard floor, I rushed her to the hospital to be told she was fine. I wasn't- but at least she was!

THURSDAY- John found out the job he went on 2 interviews for at his company was being cut in cutbacks. Just when they were about to make him an offer. Lovely eh?

FRIDAY- My little Thing Two decided to toss my phone into the toilet- a clean toilet but still a problem. Not to mention the diaper rash from the stomach bug is still HORRIBLE, it's less of a rash now and more of scabs, my poor little one. We have had no choice but to let her walk around with out a diaper.

SATURDAY- My phone got fixed, and my whole day went fine- the curse was lifted! lol

I only Shredded on Monday. :( Shame on me, BUT I did manage to squeeze off one more pound. I was feeling overwhelmed by my busy week and the daunting task of level 2. I have resolved that I will shred even if it means I do level 1 because I am too lazy to work my butt off on level 2!

We had the grandparents over tonight for a little pizza and cake, Monday is Thing Two's birthday. Oh the fun she had! She loves cake! I can't believe already, a whole year down and gone. She went from screaming constantly, throwing up every time she ate, and only sleeping in her swing for 45 minutes at a time to walking, babbling, smiling and sleeping soundly 13 hours in a row each night. Bless my little one, I love you!

SHE WALKS... EVERYWHERE!

The day has come when Thing Two realized she could walk and had the confidence to walk. She walked all over the house today, everywhere! I am so excited for her. Most parents dread this day, but I love it. Now when she is upset I am leaving the room she can easily follow. Besides our house was already baby-proofed so it's not like she can get into anything, well accept the drawers that she keeps yanking the clothes out of, over, and over, and over.. lol

YAY for her, and like my second prediction, before her first birthday! I am so proud for her!

In action after dinner- hence her not having a shirt on, she can walk but she surely can't eat with out making a huge mess of herself!

See what I mean? lol

The official update

Eleven days shredding, well minus the 4 days I didn't.. lol SO make that 7 days of shredding and I am at 136lbs. The waist went down to 34" and the hips to 37", and we won't talk about the boobs because we all know I will loose them anyhow! lol So far so good.. To be fair I couldn't find my other pants and shirt as promised, I bet they were in the dryer, and I did eat right before this picture too. Looks like progress to me!

OH!

For those of you out there who care.. I turned in my completed application to the Bridgeport Hospital School of Nursing today. Now I just have to wait on the Nursing School Gods to decide if they will accept me or not, so the wait starts now...

Busy-ness to sicky-ness, to boredy-ness.

I was supposed to work 5 days this week, and return to school. UGH!
However Thing One and Thing Two are both sick.
Sick enough that I had to miss two days of work, I had already taken a day off telling them that 5 days is too many for me and my family. When I called work to tell them today that again, I can not make it, that again I was at the Dr.s all morning, and that now both kids are sick. I offered to fax my Dr.s notes, and imagine my surprise when my words were met with a very emotionless woman telling me that even if I have notes, my absences will still count as infractions.. OH, nice.. we will see where that goes.
In the midst of all this coughing, sneezing lovely-ness I missed my first day back to school, and it looks not too promising for me to go tomorrow due to impending snow. Awesome, starting the second semester off right, right behind that is!
I am amazed that Thing Two has only been sick 2 other times prior to this, so I shouldn't complain. She has viral croup. It is croup that occured from a virus, making it different from the re-occuring at night time kind of croup. Let me just tell you how awful it is. She sounds like death at times, it's scary, she even was struggling so baddly this morning her skin was pulling through her little ribs. My heart sunk when I saw that, both kids got dragged out the door to go camp out at the Dr's office. To which I was told that it's typical and that it may happen more in the coming days, and to take her outside in the cold when she is like that. Otherwise we have to sit and wait for the steroids to work. So sad.
Thing One has had a cold that manifested into a sinus infection. Amazingly it doesn't seem to bother her much other than the cough from it. Typically she is MISERABLE when she has any kind of cold. Maybe she is letting her sister have a turn.
So tomorrow is my snow day- I am betting on it, even if school isn't canceled chances are really good I won't be driving 30 miles in the snow and ice to go to it anyways.
Then Thursday I have to surrender my sick little babies to my Mom to watch them while I go back to that incredibly un-understanding of a place I call work.
My potentially very busy week turned into a not so busy week, and for that I will shut up and not complain and be thankful. I had hours of time with my kids returned to me, and for that I am always thankful!

Shredding

So week one of shredding is officially done. Not bad. I missed 2 days. The rest of the days I did Level One, and on the 7th day I did level 2. Level one was cake, level two- kicked my butt a bit. Level two amps up the cardio it seems to really get you sweating. Either way I am enjoying my workouts and feeling great doing them. I can visibly notice my body looking a bit more toned, my legs especially, and my stomach is noticeably flatter. However according to the scale not a whole lot has changed. I can not weigh myself at this moment, but my lowest reading in the past week was 136lbs two days ago.. We will see if it continues to come off..

Telling on myself.

Ok, ok, so I was a bad girl. I have missed 2 days of shredding. I did two days, then missed two days. One of those two days I did walk a lot though. It will be even harder next week for me to find the time, Kmart has me scheduled 5 days! Hello? Who do they think they are taking me from my kids, especially the same week I am back to school!? So I don't know how well my 30 day challenge will pan out. I can report I have lost 4 additional pounds since my first day of shredding, whether or not is has anything to do with it I am not sure. So enough is enough, I must go shred now...

A Shredding I went, Day One!

After a bit of a hassle getting my DVD to me I finally have it in my possession. It was like a prized possession when it arrived, I was jumping and screaming yay.. then I realized I had to leave for work in a hour so it would have to wait another day, that brings us to today!
This is a 3-2-1 interval system that mixes cardio, strength, and abs for extreme weight loss, or so it says.. There are also 3 different levels, beginner, intermediate and advanced. All you need is a little floor space, hand weights and a good attitude.
SO I went with Level 1-beginner, no hand weights, the ones I have a 5lbs, and I can only find 1! Tomorrow I will be purchasing a new set. I must say the video went by amazingly fast. You don't do any one thing too long before you are on to something else.
I felt the strength training part of the work out was awesome, right up my alley, I can feel it in my muscles now, the giggly-ness I will call it. LOVE IT!
The cardio was good, I broke a small sweat, but was very winded due to my asthma, but nothing that I won't be able to handle, which is what I was hoping for.
The abs.. I was a bit disappointed, I am the person that can go to the weight room for the first time in YEARS and do 3-5 sets of 60 crunches varying 30lb and 50lb weights added, and not feel a thing the next day.. So I will have to add some of my own crunch-tastic moves to another workout another time in the day.. Or maybe I will start or end my work out with this..
All in all I am very please with my work out, and I can totally see myself doing it every day.
So for Day ONE of the SHRED I weigh in at 139lbs, with 35" of flubber at my waist.. Let's challenge Ms. Michaels clincher: Lose up to 20lbs in 30 days!

The weigh in

So I am waiting for my new work out DVD, I am thrilled, and I can't wait to give it a go. I am telling all few of you about it in hopes of keeping me motivated and on track with it. Its so easy to say I will do it to myself and then never do it, but if I have to report to someone thats another story completely! lol SO we will give me an estimated starting weight of 140lbs-145lbs thats me on average. I naturally fluctuate 5lbs all month long, I always have. My goal is to get back to 120lbs, and to be more toned. My waist around my belly button measures 35", it used to be 26"! I don't look too bad now, just a little round in the middle parts of the body, and not nearly as toned as I would like. Having been a long distance and short distance runner a good portion of my life I am used to nice toned legs, due to my asthma running is difficult for me so lets help the DVD can help get me into better shape all around. My hips are now 38", they were always 32". Then the chest, that was always 36", it's now 40", that can stay the same and I would be ok with it! I will post after my first work out, hopefully I get the DVD by the end of this up coming week! My before photo:

Let me start with saying this shirt was a shirt I used to wear all the time, and it was a little loose on me. In my defense I literally just finished eating dinner when I decided to take this photo! HAHA!I will try to wear this outfit for each weigh in and photo.. I suppose I will go with monthly weigh ins, unless the weight just pours off me! *Hoping-Praying* lol

My little Things

So last I reported about my "little things" (Thing One and Thing Two), I reported that Thing One was on the verge of walking. Well she still is! It's the most frustrating thing to watch. She took her first steps on December 19, well she is up to 3 steps now before falling. Part of the issue is she lacks balance. She has TINY feet for her cute little rolly polly frame, the other problem is she seems to lack confidence. She pulls up onto everything now, and will walk as much as she can holding on to things. She also gave me a wonderful birthday gift, as we ate breakfast she crawled over to me, got into a squatting position and just stood up. That was a first for her, I was so happy for her, I could see the happiness and excitement in her little eyes, it really was nice for me. So I move her projected walking date, I now say that by her birthday she will be walking, and if she isn't? God help me! lolGood timing with the camera, I was trying to just get her to stand, she decided she wanted the camera!

Thing One is getting more vocal, she said her first "word/words" which were "Uh oh".. Interesting isn't it? I guess we say that a lot these days. We are working with her to get her to label her basic things, baba, eat, etc. She yells aplenty these days, but not in a language that any of us understand!

Thing Two is into doing her own thing these days. She wanders off plays, only to come back in a few minutes to say, Look Mommy, Look, come here Mommy. It's cute, but tiring, especially when she proudly shows me the same things over and over. I am trying hard to remember these days are short, and to appreciate the little things.

She can tell you the names of at least 15 different animals (if not more) and the noises they all make. She can also name every pony she has (20ish), every pony in her books, and on her DVD movies of them! On most days she can correctly identify all the basic colors. She counts to 3, skips 4 & 5 and then sometimes resumes at 6. She has dropped the alphabet completely. We were getting up to E, and she just stopped. So I guess we will wait to see.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

So here we are in the new year, new promises, new everything, including goals.

Goal one, I have decided to take a more proactive role in my baby fat weight loss. I was trying dieting, thats really not for me. I have always been active (I still am), but I am less active now than I was pre-babies. So when a friend of mine told me about a program called Jillian Michaels - 30 Day Shred and told me she lost 20 lbs and 5 1/2 inches in 20 minutes a day I thought, hey I could do that! I know that my body will never look the same, my Dr. already told me that the skin damage was so bad that the only thing that would correct it is a tummy tuck. However if I can get the rest of my body toned and firm again and rid of excess fat I would be happy. Until I become wealthy I will just have to go buy a piggy bank for my Nip/Tuck fund. I have noticed that since my weight gain my self esteem isn't what it once was or ought to be, and I need to get that back. Maybe I will start a weight loss journal on here for those of you to follow, a little pressure never hurts, right?

Goal two is to work on getting into nursing school. At this point my application is half completed and I have a deadline of January 30th to get it in. Now just because I get all my stuff in order doesn't guarantee me a spot in a program, thats the scary part, but I am giving it my best shot. If I don't get in I will continue taking classes in an attempt to raise my GPA. It's not bad now, but the higher the better especially when the competition is so stiff to get into a program.

Goal three is to get my financial affairs in order. Somehow this ends up a priority every year. Enough said.

Goal four is to live a healthier lifestyle in terms of diet. I am working to cut out soda (I wasn't a huge fan to begin with). I also want to cut out juice, it's so easy to buy a little canister of lemonade or something and then make juice, and lord knows all those Crystal Lights and stuff are bad for you so I need to drink more water. I also need to cut back on caffeine, a little birdie told me that caffeine increases cellulite in women, when I think about the physiology of the human body, this makes sense to me so I will work on that. I also ingest entirely too much sugar, and not enough raw vegetables and fruits. I need to be a good role model for my children and this one is an important one for me.

Goal five is to complete goals one through four!

Good luck on whatever goals you may have made for yourself this year!

Christmastime again

Not too much can be said about Christmas this year. It came, it went, it was a success and the man in the red suit got all the credit again! I wanted to share a few photos for you though.

Thing Two with a gift from Santa.

Thing One tearing open a gift from her Great Aunt.