Is it already the middle of May?!?!

Wow!! Where has the month gone?? I've spent most of the spring suffering with severe allergies or a cold and I'm sick and tired of it!
A few weeks ago I felt horrible at work and came home with a fever, chills, suffy nose, etc. To make matters worse our A/C was out so it was about 85 degrees in the house. I ended up going to the doctor and had an ear infection. After 5 days on antibiotics and decongestants I finally felt better-not good but better. Now a few weeks later it seems the head cold is back-will it never end-I just want to feel good again!!
Well, Todd has finally decided to take a full time phone job and leave the fire dept with his last day being next Saturday. He will really miss being a fire man but he's tired of the politics, promises of raises that never happened and being in debt. The new job will triple his salary and he'll be working from home and traveling-something he enjoys. So hopefully we'll be able to pay off all our bills, fix up this house and someday move into a bigger one. I may even be able to change jobs or stay home when it's time for Natalia to go to Kindergarten next year.
We've been having some gorgeous weather and a girlfriend of mine gave Natalia her kiddos playhouse so Natalia's been enjoying playing outside in it-it's hard to get her to come inside!

My Parents visit and our marriage is blessed...

My parents flew in last Tuesday from Maine to spend a week with us. Natalia was very excited to have her Mimi & Papa here and kept them busy playing and such! My Dad's 60th birthday was Friday so we took him out to dinner, along with my Aunt Jo-his sister. We left Natalia with a babysitter-it was sooooo nice to have a nice dinner with adults-I even induldged myself with an adult beverage-yum!!

Yesterday-Monday April 16th, 2007-Todd and I had our marriage blessed by the Catholic Church (also known as Convalidation). This was such a huge deal for me and something that I've been praying for-for a long time! Fr. Kelly performed the brief (Natalia wouldn't have been able to handle much longer) but wonderfully perfect ceremony in the chapel, at St. Gabriel the Archangel Catholic Church in McKinney, Tx. I feel so blessed the my parents were able to be here as witnesses. Now I feel that after 7 1/2 years my marriage is finally complete and I can be fully active in my faith-Praise God!!!

After watching Natalia's dance class today my parents headed to the airport for their return flight to Maine. Natalia was very sad but we'll be visiting them this July which will be lots of fun!

Western Day, Weight Loss and Allergies

Wow-have I been a bad blogger! No posts since Valentine's Day-yikes! I'd love to say it's because I've been super busy which would mean super productive-alas, NO! I've been super busy but not so productive!!

I continue on LAWL and have been doing really well-I'm into week 7 and weighed in yesterday and I'm down a total of 13.6 lbs-rock on! They also did my measurements and I've lost 7.75 inches-wooohooo!! I'm a little worried, when I lose 5 more lbs I get bumped down a plan which means a little less food. Of course I want to keep losing but I haven't been hungry on the purple plan and I'm worried I will be on the gold plan-we'll just have to wait and see.

Last week was western week at Natalia's school which ended on Friday with all the kiddos coming dressed up and having Texas Chili for lunch. Well Natalia's cowboy boots from last year don't fit anymore so we headed to Pink's Western Warehouse to get some new ones. She picked some hot pink boots with stars on the side that light up when she walks and absolutely LOVES them. She also just had to have a red cowboy hat like Jessie's from Toy Story-hmmm pink boots and red hat...!??! Whatever makes her happy! Thankfully her western outfit from last year still fits-the result is the picture above-isn't she cute!?!??! This summer's VBS is a western theme so I know the boots, hat and outfit (if she can still fit into it then) will get lots of use!!!

Lastly-I was so ready for the cold weather to be over so I could finally get over my cold-yeah well I should be careful what I wish for! With the warm weather here in the DFW area everything is starting to bloom which means ALLERGIES! Which until last year I didn't have-I mean really after 33 years how do I suddenly develop allergies, severe allergies at that, to spring grasses?? Now this year my eyes are again itching so bad I want to scratch them out and it's too early to be grasses and my meds aren't working-so off to my allergy doc I go. He informs me that I must now be allergic to tree pollens-it's too early for grasses-gee, thanks! He changes my meds all up-I'm now on Allegra in the morning, Zyrtec at night, Optiva eye drops and a nasal spray for sneezing-wow! I hope it all works-we'll see and I hope it doesn't get worse when the grasses to start!!! It all makes the thought of moving back to Maine very inviting....

Happy Valentine's Day

Meg's Blog Prompt today is: How do you celebrate Valentine's Day? (Or do you?)
Todd & I don't have a set way to celebrate V-day-we never know which of is going to be working or we may both be off or both working!! This year though we were both off which a present in of it's self! We took Natalia to daycare so she could participate in their V-day party. I made her valentine's with her picture on them, I also had her write her name on a piece of paper and then scanned it in and added it to the valentine's I printed off-that way she didn't have to sign 24 of them! We attached them to goody bags with these wonderful, individually wrapped fortune cookies dipped in white chocolate with valentine sprinkles-yummy! We also added two red pixy sticks in the bags. Natalia helped me put them together-she was so proud and so very excited for today! After we dropped her off we went together to have our first laser hair removal treatments-Todd had the back of his neck done and I had my armpits and bikini line-this was our V-day present to each other-extremely romantic huh???!! LOL!!
We picked up Natalia in the afternoon and went out to dinner. She was acting tired and kept coughing. When we got home and were going thru her Valentine's from her friends I realized she was really warm to the touch so I took her temp and sure enough she's running a 100.1 fever! So we gave her some Motrin and cough medicine and now she's laying in bed with me watching TV-poor thing-not a fun way to end Valentine's Day!!! Not the most traditional V-day but it works for us!
I hope everyone had/or is having a wonderful Valentine's Day-whether you have a special someone or you are single!!

Monday Blog Prompt and latest weigh in

Meg's prompt for today is: List five things you’d like to change about yourself. Then list five things you wouldn’t change.
Things I'd change:
1. I'd be thinner
2. I'd be more responsible with money
3. I'd have more patience
4. I'd be better at housekeeping/cleaning
5. I'd be a better cook

Thing I wouldn't change:
1. Being a Mom to Natalia
2. Being a Wife to Todd (even though being both can drive me crazy sometime!)
3. Being Catholic-my love of my faith and God
4. Being a nurse and helping others
5. Being creative and crafty


Today at Natalia's dance class at school it was parents day-so I went to watch with my camera in hand of course! They were so cute but I'm not sure how Miss Barbara does it with all those litte girls! I do have to say though that Natalia has learned SO MUCH from her-I'm so glad I didn't send her back to Sheena's-she didn't learn anything there and they cost more!!
After dance class Natalia and I went to LAWL so I could weigh in-I hadn't been in since last Wednesday and wasn't sure I'd lost anything-the home scale was saying I had lost a little but there scale is always different. Also I haven't been to the gym since last Monday since I've been feeling so awful. But I was pleasantly suprised to see that I was down another 1.2 lbs for a total of 6.4 lbs in a little over 2 weeks-waaaahoooo!!
Looks like winter is back here in Texas after some nice days with warmer temps were back down in the 30's with possible flurries tomorrow-although I normally love the winter I'm ready for warmer weather so maybe I can get rid of this cold!!

Daily Blog Prompt

I've decided to join in with Meg's Blog Prompt at DSP. Yesterday's prompt was: List some phrases that you hear your spouse (or other family member) saying a lot. Or, for something different, take note of some of the funny things that come out of the mouths of the kids in your life!
For me right now that word has to be "sure"-it's my husband's favorite and it drives me crazy! He pretty much says it after everything I say-it can be sincere, funny, sarcastic, whatever he wants it to be and like I said it drives me CRAZY!! My new response to him when he says it is "did you just say SURE?" and he calmly says "sure..."-MEN!!!

I've been spending a quiet day at home with Natalia since I'm still feeling horrible and actually scrapbooked a new page for Suzanne's Fandango challenge at DSP-using the Baby HE page kit by Suzanne Walker, Digital Dates-Grungy by Meryl Bartho, Chipboard Bracket Element Set by Suzanne Walker (all available at DSP). Natalia just LOVES to play dress up and her Barbie dress is one of her favorites. One day a few weeks ago she had it on and begged me to take her picture, which I was happy to do. I snapped a bunch of pictures and was just thrilled with the way this photo turned out with her sweet face and chose it do use in this layout for the challenge.

Sick and Tired of being Sick and Tired

I just can't seem to get rid of this head/chest cold-it seems to go away and then a few days later it's back. It's just wearing me out-I have no energy, etc. I haven't been to the gym in days and just one 12 hour shift at work completely wiped me out. I supppose I shouldn't complain-the flu and an intestinal virus are going around so it could be worse but I just want to feel WELL again!!! I need to go to the grocery store today but other than that I'm planning on laying low at home-if I just keep Natalia entertained!!

week 1 weigh in!!

Well after not being able to weigh in on Friday due to the ice, I was able to make it to LAWL for my weigh in after being on the program for 1 week and 2 days and I am down another 2.4 lbs since last Monday. That makes a 5.2 lb total loss since starting and I'm so pumped!!! Natalia and I went to the gym after-finished week 3 of the beginner runner program: run 5 min, walk 2 min X4 and I actually felt really good. I'm just trying to take it day by day and keep on program!!!!

Snow in Texas

I meant to post on Thursday while it was snowing again here in Texas-but time got away from me! Todd was on shift but he and the guys didn't miss out on the fun and headed outside to make a snowman and the result is in the picture above! (Todd's in the back, 2nd from the left with the red hat) Natalia took a nap during the snow and missed all fun-hopefully next time. The next morning the roads were icey so we all stayed home-didn't even make it to the gym-I decided since it was gloomy out and we were stuck inside to clean out our master closet-WOW! That was a job-many hours later and 6 trash bags full of clothes and shoes-I have a VERY neat and organized closet and I'm very impressed with myself. Later that evening when I headed to church for 1st Friday Eucharisit Adoration I stopped at the attended donation drop at the local vet and dropped off those 6 bags-job well done!! Yesterday I worked and had a very nice 2 baby assignment-Todd & Natalia had a great day just spending time together while I was gone.
Today I took on a different adventure-taking Natalia to Mass with me. The last time I took her with me was in July and she was just awful! So I haven't tried again since. But I didn't have anyone to watch her today and figuring she was 6 months older I could give it a shot. Our church has a new Mass at 9:15am which is a children's Mass. Natalia promised she'd be good and was excited to wear her pretty dress and shoes. I was nervous. When we got there I signed Natalia up for Children's Liturgy of Word-the children go into the other room with the teachers during the readings, gospel, and homily and come back after the prayers of the faithful. I was kind of worried Natalia wouldn't want to go but she ran right up front with the other kids to get their blessing from Father and then out to their class-thankfully she had a large bow in her hair so I could find her. She came back after with her lesson papers just as excited as she could be that she had been with her "friends". I just have to say "Praise the Lord" because she did SO well! She wasn't perfect but she really was so good! We'll definately try it again next week!

Tonight's the Super Bowl-I can't wait to watch-just for the commercials!!

American Laser

I filled out an entry for a drawing for American Laser while I was at the gym last week and don't you know I actually won the 3rd place gift certificate-$300! Wow-I don't usually win things that I enter so I was pretty shocked. So I went in today for my consultation and see just what $300 could get me-not a lot come to find out! What I really wanted-my laser of my bikini area-was close to $2000-yikes!!!!! But I was able to get some microderm abrasion so that should help with the age spot on my right cheek. I've decided I'm going to get my bikini area done when I make my goal weight!!! I did ask how much it would be to have Todd's neck done (so he won't have to constantly have to shave it-that's $1550 so I'll be saving for that one for him...

I'm still going strong with LAWL-I'm going to go weigh in on Friday so we'll see what a week on program has done for me. Natalia LOVES the chocolate LA Lites that I have right now and it's hard to explain to a 3 1/2 year old that Mommy needs them for her weight loss program and that they are very expensive ($29 a week!) so I've been sharing a small portion of them with her but geez.....

1st weigh in

So today I had my very first weigh in at LAWL after starting the program on Saturday and I am happy to report that I'm down 2.8 lbs!!! That's even with Aunt Flow showing up today-woohooo!! Very exciting! I then headed to the gym, unfortunately I wasn't feeling 100% and didn't run as long as I would have liked to-but I did get 1/2 hour (2 miles) in on the treadmill. Plus 20 minutes of weights (arms, back & chest). So I feel like today was a really good day!!
Todd's in Chicago today and tomorrow for a phone job-should be crazy up there-with the Bears in the Superbowl this coming weekend!

I'm going to try and get back into scrapbooking my weight loss journey-here's one from when I was doing JC 2 years ago that I just revised to starting over with LAWL-it's still applies today-lol!!

My very own blog

Well I did it! I'm starting my own blog! I never saw much reason to before-I mean what did little 'ol me have to blog about?? I'm not famous, not a designer, etc. but I finally feel it's a good idea to "journal" about my everyday "normal" life and since I'm always on the computer why not do it here??
I didn't really make any New Year's resolutions this year but have instead felt like I've made some plans inside of me. I've been going to the gym on a regular basis, 3-4 times a week, working on running especially. I have a goal to run the Big D 5K in April and the Plano Race for the Cure in June-these are things I REALLY, REALLY want to do. I joined LA Weight Loss this week, this hit the pocket book harder than I had hoped, but I am truly feel this is the plan for me to help me eat healthier and in turn teach my 3 1/2 year old daughter, Natalia, healthy eating habits for life. I do have one event coming up this summer that is additional motivation for these changes-the July 28th wedding of my little brother (little B for short), Josh in New Hampshire. I very, very much want to show my family that I can do this (I'm not going to tell them that I 've joined LAWL).
I also want to be a better wife & mother. We had to fire our housekeeper as she wasn't doing a good job at all-so now it's up to me to clean-ha! That's a good one! Something I'm terrible at is housecleaning and I can admit it!!! But I am vowing to learn and get better at this. Also as of next month we'll have been in this house for 7 years and we've acquired and retained a LOT of STUFF! I want to go thru everything and only keep what we REALLY need. I also want to put more structure into Natalia's day when she's not at school-working on reading, writing, etc.
Whew! I'm tired just writing it all down but it feels good to actually have it "written" down. Now to get started....