Hi! Gosh, time just keeps flying by, it seems! These are pictures from our vacation last year...man I wish we were back there again!!!! I have been really good at “lurking” lately! I am keeping up with all of you – just not commenting very often and not posting. I am not sure what is to blame for this funk I have been in when it comes to journaling – but I thought I would break out of it today! Aren’t you glad? LOL I am sure you have been on the edge of your seats waiting for me to up date you on our very exciting life!
Let’s see…It seems like lots has happened, but then again, it seems like so much is still the same! I have been doing pretty good on my weight loss, although I feel another plateau coming on. I sat at 20 pounds down for a while…but am now up to (or down) 34 pounds lost! I still have 81 more to go to be at my “goal weight”. It feels good, but I just have such a long way to go. However, I am already down sizes (plural) and that is a great thing! I have been down this path before….but I really hope and feel that this will be the last time. This study we are doing at church – “Lose it for Life” is really good and really focuses on replacing your desire for food and immediate gratification with God and deepening your relationship with Him. It addresses the ROOT of the problem and not just my weight issue. My epiphany that I had a few weeks ago is this: I will always struggle with food because I am addicted to food – but just because I will always struggle with food does not necessarily mean that I will always struggle with my weight. The two do not have to go hand-in-hand. So, that part of my life is under control – God’s control – and is going pretty good. There are rough days, but I am on the right path in this journey! I have been going to the gym at least 5 days a week and that just makes me feel so much better about myself. That is what I have really realized in this journey – I have so much emotional baggage associated with my weight and how I have let that define me for so long. It is hard for me to grasp that God loves me and God chose me. That is a hard truth to swallow when you don’t love yourself and you spend most of your day thinking horrible thoughts about yourself. See….I told you that this study was good and really works on all of you – not just your food issues. So, that is what is going on there….sorry to “dump” so much stuff – but it’s been a while! LOL
So, here is my infamous (according to Josy) recap of my family:
Scott is doing really good. He has been trying to eat more healthy and going to the gym pretty faithfully since the first of the year. I have to keep reminding him that it isn’t a diet – but a more healthy lifestyle that we are working on. At any rate, he has lost 18 pounds! They are doing a biggest loser at his job and he is in second place – but only because they are going by # of pounds instead of % lost….I guess that was too hard for them to figure out! LOL But anyways, he is doing good. He has also been playing basketball on Friday nights at the Wilmington Church of Christ. That has been fun for him and good exercise. He did get hurt a few weeks ago when he got elbowed in the ribs. I think he just bruised his ribs really good, but he sure did whine about it forever. Anyways, he is still doing great at his job even though that causes us to be like single parents! He is home with the kids in the morning by himself and I am home with them in the evenings by myself because I work early and he works late. But it is working for now, and we know that there will come a day when we won’t have to sacrifice so much for the kids – sometime far, far, far off in the future! LOL
Isaac is doing great and is just growing up so stinking fast! He is, by far, our sweetest kid. He just has such a tender-heart. Now, don’t get me wrong…he isn’t perfect and he has his moments, but more often than not, he is constantly thinking of others. He must get that from me…LOL….just kidding. He gets it from my Dad, for sure. Anyways, he is doing great at school and with swimming. Between his activities and his homework, he keeps me busy! But he also does a good job with helping out at home with chores and with his sisters. He tolerates quite a bit from them. We have him all signed up for coach pitch baseball that starts in April and for football that starts in late July. I think swimming ends right about the time that baseball starts. I wanted to get him into soccer again this year, but he is too old for the Pee-Wee league and I haven’t really looked into any other programs. So, he might not get to do that…which wouldn’t be so bad, I guess. Last night he called one of his friends from school and talked to him on the phone for about 15 minutes. That was funny….the part that I heard. He ended up going to his room and shutting his door. Then he came out and wanted to call some other friends, but I wouldn’t let him. This growing up thing, kinda bizarre! Well, here is where I need some parental advice…He asked to go over to his friend’s house and I told him no because I don’t know his friend’s parents. How do you set up a meeting so you can meet them and see where they live and stuff like that so that you can allow him to do stuff like that? Does that make sense? I thought of just inviting his friend over and then meeting the parents like that…but then that still doesn’t show me where they live. I was hoping that this problem would just fix itself somehow, but it isn’t going to. So, since this is my first time with this….thoughts?
Faith Anne is still my darling little DIVA. We had her parent-teacher conference at preschool a few weeks ago and her teacher just had wonderful things to say about her. I asked her if she could send that child home, because I think I am getting a different one at my house. LOL But she went on and on about Faith Anne being the only one in the class who knows just about all her letters and how good she is doing in school. We can definitely see the difference that Preschool has made – academically and socially. She gets to interact with other kids at church and my Aunt’s house, but there is just something different about the social atmosphere at school. I think that Faith Anne needs the structure of the social setting there – if that makes sense. At any rate, she is doing good at school and she still loves her dance class! This Saturday is parent-day, so we get to sit in and watch their class! I am super excited about that! At the end of her next class she will have a recital! Then we might look at putting her in a different program rather than just the rec center…..although they offer a twice-a-week class in the Spring and that might be good for her. We’ll see….but for now, she is doing great and loves it!
Gracie is our little piranha and tazmanian devil all rolled into one…..with a sweet spirit about her occasionally! LOL My grandma was telling one of my uncles all about my kids and she said: “Isaac is into swimming, Faith Anne is into dancing and Gracie, well Gracie is into everything.” How true, how true! She can be so sweet and yet so rotten all at the same time! She is into EVERYTHING. When you come into our house, you will see chairs in front of all our drawers because she gets into whatever she can find to get into. She also bites everything. The other day, she was chasing Isaac and trying to bite his butt! Oh, and just last night, Faith Anne left the bathroom door open….and the toilet seat up and she hadn’t flushed. Yep, guess where Scott found her? Needless to say, she had a bath right away. You can’t help but laugh, but it is also a bit frustrating for this mama with OCD issues. The other night Scott was laughing and he told me that God gave me Gracie to help me get over my OCD issues – or to make them worse….the jury is still out on that one! But I love that little girl and wouldn’t trade her for the world! Jodi was up visiting this weekend and she had Gracie on her lap and was singing Jesus Loves Me and Gracie was signing Jesus over and over again – moments like that just make all the other stuff disappear.
We have been enjoying our tax refund! LOL We bought ourselves a bedroom suite! We had been using the dressers that my parents bought for me when I was in junior high, I think. They were really high quality – 20 years ago – but were starting to fall apart. So, we bought a headboard/footboard and dresser with mirror and chest. I LOVE it! It was delivered last week….and we absolutely love it! We also have all new doors in our house! My dad hung all new six-panel doors for all of our bedrooms, bathrooms and linen closet. They are very nice…we still have to paint them and buy new hardware, but they are so much nicer than the crappy old doors we had. The doors were not expensive at all! I was surprised by that. I guess the expensive part is the hardware….which is why we haven’t bought that yet! But anyways….that is exciting! We are getting our trees trimmed soon – as soon as the weather will permit! Which, speaking of the weather…I am about sick of winter! I love spring, but I am just about ready to skip spring and jump straight to summer! LOL
I guess that is about it for me right now. Hopefully next time won’t be so long! Love ya!!!!
Let’s see…It seems like lots has happened, but then again, it seems like so much is still the same! I have been doing pretty good on my weight loss, although I feel another plateau coming on. I sat at 20 pounds down for a while…but am now up to (or down) 34 pounds lost! I still have 81 more to go to be at my “goal weight”. It feels good, but I just have such a long way to go. However, I am already down sizes (plural) and that is a great thing! I have been down this path before….but I really hope and feel that this will be the last time. This study we are doing at church – “Lose it for Life” is really good and really focuses on replacing your desire for food and immediate gratification with God and deepening your relationship with Him. It addresses the ROOT of the problem and not just my weight issue. My epiphany that I had a few weeks ago is this: I will always struggle with food because I am addicted to food – but just because I will always struggle with food does not necessarily mean that I will always struggle with my weight. The two do not have to go hand-in-hand. So, that part of my life is under control – God’s control – and is going pretty good. There are rough days, but I am on the right path in this journey! I have been going to the gym at least 5 days a week and that just makes me feel so much better about myself. That is what I have really realized in this journey – I have so much emotional baggage associated with my weight and how I have let that define me for so long. It is hard for me to grasp that God loves me and God chose me. That is a hard truth to swallow when you don’t love yourself and you spend most of your day thinking horrible thoughts about yourself. See….I told you that this study was good and really works on all of you – not just your food issues. So, that is what is going on there….sorry to “dump” so much stuff – but it’s been a while! LOL
So, here is my infamous (according to Josy) recap of my family:
Scott is doing really good. He has been trying to eat more healthy and going to the gym pretty faithfully since the first of the year. I have to keep reminding him that it isn’t a diet – but a more healthy lifestyle that we are working on. At any rate, he has lost 18 pounds! They are doing a biggest loser at his job and he is in second place – but only because they are going by # of pounds instead of % lost….I guess that was too hard for them to figure out! LOL But anyways, he is doing good. He has also been playing basketball on Friday nights at the Wilmington Church of Christ. That has been fun for him and good exercise. He did get hurt a few weeks ago when he got elbowed in the ribs. I think he just bruised his ribs really good, but he sure did whine about it forever. Anyways, he is still doing great at his job even though that causes us to be like single parents! He is home with the kids in the morning by himself and I am home with them in the evenings by myself because I work early and he works late. But it is working for now, and we know that there will come a day when we won’t have to sacrifice so much for the kids – sometime far, far, far off in the future! LOL
Isaac is doing great and is just growing up so stinking fast! He is, by far, our sweetest kid. He just has such a tender-heart. Now, don’t get me wrong…he isn’t perfect and he has his moments, but more often than not, he is constantly thinking of others. He must get that from me…LOL….just kidding. He gets it from my Dad, for sure. Anyways, he is doing great at school and with swimming. Between his activities and his homework, he keeps me busy! But he also does a good job with helping out at home with chores and with his sisters. He tolerates quite a bit from them. We have him all signed up for coach pitch baseball that starts in April and for football that starts in late July. I think swimming ends right about the time that baseball starts. I wanted to get him into soccer again this year, but he is too old for the Pee-Wee league and I haven’t really looked into any other programs. So, he might not get to do that…which wouldn’t be so bad, I guess. Last night he called one of his friends from school and talked to him on the phone for about 15 minutes. That was funny….the part that I heard. He ended up going to his room and shutting his door. Then he came out and wanted to call some other friends, but I wouldn’t let him. This growing up thing, kinda bizarre! Well, here is where I need some parental advice…He asked to go over to his friend’s house and I told him no because I don’t know his friend’s parents. How do you set up a meeting so you can meet them and see where they live and stuff like that so that you can allow him to do stuff like that? Does that make sense? I thought of just inviting his friend over and then meeting the parents like that…but then that still doesn’t show me where they live. I was hoping that this problem would just fix itself somehow, but it isn’t going to. So, since this is my first time with this….thoughts?
Faith Anne is still my darling little DIVA. We had her parent-teacher conference at preschool a few weeks ago and her teacher just had wonderful things to say about her. I asked her if she could send that child home, because I think I am getting a different one at my house. LOL But she went on and on about Faith Anne being the only one in the class who knows just about all her letters and how good she is doing in school. We can definitely see the difference that Preschool has made – academically and socially. She gets to interact with other kids at church and my Aunt’s house, but there is just something different about the social atmosphere at school. I think that Faith Anne needs the structure of the social setting there – if that makes sense. At any rate, she is doing good at school and she still loves her dance class! This Saturday is parent-day, so we get to sit in and watch their class! I am super excited about that! At the end of her next class she will have a recital! Then we might look at putting her in a different program rather than just the rec center…..although they offer a twice-a-week class in the Spring and that might be good for her. We’ll see….but for now, she is doing great and loves it!
Gracie is our little piranha and tazmanian devil all rolled into one…..with a sweet spirit about her occasionally! LOL My grandma was telling one of my uncles all about my kids and she said: “Isaac is into swimming, Faith Anne is into dancing and Gracie, well Gracie is into everything.” How true, how true! She can be so sweet and yet so rotten all at the same time! She is into EVERYTHING. When you come into our house, you will see chairs in front of all our drawers because she gets into whatever she can find to get into. She also bites everything. The other day, she was chasing Isaac and trying to bite his butt! Oh, and just last night, Faith Anne left the bathroom door open….and the toilet seat up and she hadn’t flushed. Yep, guess where Scott found her? Needless to say, she had a bath right away. You can’t help but laugh, but it is also a bit frustrating for this mama with OCD issues. The other night Scott was laughing and he told me that God gave me Gracie to help me get over my OCD issues – or to make them worse….the jury is still out on that one! But I love that little girl and wouldn’t trade her for the world! Jodi was up visiting this weekend and she had Gracie on her lap and was singing Jesus Loves Me and Gracie was signing Jesus over and over again – moments like that just make all the other stuff disappear.
We have been enjoying our tax refund! LOL We bought ourselves a bedroom suite! We had been using the dressers that my parents bought for me when I was in junior high, I think. They were really high quality – 20 years ago – but were starting to fall apart. So, we bought a headboard/footboard and dresser with mirror and chest. I LOVE it! It was delivered last week….and we absolutely love it! We also have all new doors in our house! My dad hung all new six-panel doors for all of our bedrooms, bathrooms and linen closet. They are very nice…we still have to paint them and buy new hardware, but they are so much nicer than the crappy old doors we had. The doors were not expensive at all! I was surprised by that. I guess the expensive part is the hardware….which is why we haven’t bought that yet! But anyways….that is exciting! We are getting our trees trimmed soon – as soon as the weather will permit! Which, speaking of the weather…I am about sick of winter! I love spring, but I am just about ready to skip spring and jump straight to summer! LOL
I guess that is about it for me right now. Hopefully next time won’t be so long! Love ya!!!!
