Onward, forward, shout a loud hosanna.

Sorry about the title, I started to just write Onward and Upward but the words from an old favorite hymn just found their way to the blank. Today has been one heck of a Monday! I feel like I hit the ground running at work today and never slowed down. We have had some grand moving days at work lately and the final step was to bring the desk out in our open area to the Newton Sr. Center. The guys, being the good guys they are, came up and got the desk all loaded onto the trailer and we left for Newton about 2:30. We left the senior center at 4:15, I had one more errand to run and when we finished that, I had to decide what to do about Weight Watchers. I stepped on the scale real quick and saw it wasn't going to be a good time at weigh-in, if I went. Now mind you, I have been good. I did the treadmill for 20 hard minutes this morning, my activelink recorded 33% of my required movement was done in that 20 minutes. I ate a yogurt and a banana for breakfast and two hard boiled eggs, zucchini sticks, cottage cheese and rice cakes for lunch. It would have been an award winning week if my body was not being pumped full of steroids everyday. Instead, the scales were showing almost 2 lbs up from week before last, when I miraculously lost weight  by cheating myself and the weight watchers program because I quite simply didn't eat. I was miserable and I knew I couldn't keep doing that so I went back to my points and my exercises and faced the fact that my weigh-ins would be tainted for 6 more weeks. So, as I debated about whether or not to go, Robert says, "Mom, just go, you have to keep going". Hmmmm....hearing the same words I have said a million times come out of his mouth made all the difference. So I went, sure enough up 1.8 lbs. BUT, since the hospital ordeal, I have only gained 4 lbs. One good week sans prednisone and I KNOW I will be back on track.

I opened my success notebook during my meeting today and this faced me.

Now, I look at this and I think, in that first one, she is TRYING to make herself look as fat as she can. Sadly, I spoke at the LIHEAP conference last year and they asked for a picture to go with my bio. I had Robert take it one morning and I can guarantee you, I was sucking my gut in. I didn't in the second one, I just had him take it for this book, you keep changing the "during" picture as you see changes. Robert was the funny one because I had handed him the before picture so he could see where to stand to take the during picture. He took the picture and then looked at the other one and said, "Oh wow, Mom". So.....here's to the Onward and Upward part. Today, I dropped from 15 mg of prednisone to 10, I am hoping this is low enough to let me start losing again. I had lost on 15 before but my doctor had to remind me that because I am not having diarrhea, my body is actually absorbing the nutrients it had been starved of because it wasn't having a chance.
I know you have been seeing the commercials for the Weight Watchers 360. After all these years, WW feels like they have the food part down correctly, so we still do points plus values and it works. The 360 has been added to help change your lifestyle and habits. Each month, we have a new habit to learn. I have to tell you, December was "Pack a snack". Learn to take a healthy, plan happy, snack with you anytime you go somewhere. I carry WW minibars with me all the time. So, last Monday, when we went to Springfield, the guys had Auntie Ann's to the tune of 18 points plus a piece. I had a minibar, 2 points--yeah me!

This months habit has been to plan you activity for tomorrow. I have gotten pretty good about that and I am a planaholic, so today, I planned my workout sessions for March. Gina gave me a Bravo for it, and now that will help me stick with it because she WILL ask me at the end of March how that worked.

So, with it being the end of February, I have been going to Weight Watchers for 7 months, 2 of them spinning my wheels because of the UC but I can't imagine what I would look like now if I hadn't went. I KNOW the days in the hospital would have led to me overeating and even more so when I came home. I have a feeling I would now be over 300 lbs. My new goal is to be back on track and down 50 lbs by the first day of April. I CAN do this. I WILL do this!

Saturday

A Saturday with no big plans to boot! Which, I'm sorry to say, means housecleaning. The family room is done, the bedroom started and the bath, kitchen and dining room haven't even been touched. The kitchen honestly isn't too bad as Andrew did the dishes and straightened it up yesterday. We went to Parklanes for supper and for breakfast so it hasn't had a chance to get bad. Unfortunately, I haven't put things back together in there since we did the floor. Basically because Andrew still has to do the trim around the bottoms of the walls and cabinets. That was supposed to get done this week but something else took priority. See, every year at AWANA we have a Grand Prix. Think Boy Scout's Pinewood Derby, except this is for AWANA. Andrew and I are in charge of it. Mainly because when we moved home we had been in two other AWANA clubs who both did Grand Prix. We wanted to bring it to our church. We were also heavily involved with Scouts in Olney at the time and had a track available to us. So.......

We went to get the track last Sunday evening, just to check it and get it ready and realized it was in need of a bit more work than we thought. The race is a week from today which put the track #1 on the priority list. I am going to go ahead and put my kitchen back together as Andrew promised me he would move stuff before doing something like pulling the fridge back out. So, I am hoping by the time I get to evening, my house will be nice to look at no matter which room you are in.

One of my blogger friends did a review this week of a "blog planner". It has made me start thinking about what directions I want to go in with my own blog. When I first started this blog, it was mainly to keep family informed of our comings and goings. It seems we used to have a more exciting life than we do right at the moment. Okay, maybe that isn't true, we have some pretty exciting things going on, unfortunately, I am not quite ready to share them with the world. The day will come....

So, for a while I was posting recipes to put on Pinterest, which was kinda neat, and I really need to do again. Every so often I post about my UC, honestly a lot lately and I have been thinking about posting more and advertising on UC sites so that if someone just diagnosed wants some information from someone going through it, I will be here. I have a lot more positive outlook on it now than I did a year ago, heck, even 6 months ago so I may be in a position to be a positive influence instead of a negative. If I did that, I would need to post a couple of articles just about what has happened since the beginning. So, that to is a "thinking about it" thing.

I used to post more on here about my job too, and I have noticed I haven't done that in a while either. Don't know why that is because seriously, my job is still very exciting to me, sometimes frustrating but most of the time, very rewarding.

I also am an organizational freak, which seems to appeal to many people. I know I could probably post some of my tips and tricks, of course, I would stick them on Pinterest too.

I think I am just thinking out loud here, and more than anything, procrastinating on cleaning the house. So, what do you want my blog to be? Please help me out here and comment, because many of you mention things to me that I know you have read it.

Now, back to the stupid housecleaning.......I am looking forward to having it done, fixing supper (Shrimp Alfredo) and relaxing in my tub before this day is over.

Happy Saturday!

To the Doctor we go....

Since it was a holiday, my guys both got to travel to Springfield with me today. We had a great time, I know these days are numbered as Robert will be in his own job one of these days and his world will very seldom mesh with mine and Andrew's, but I will take every chance I get to spend time with both my wonderful guys. We left at 7:30 this morning and made a stop in Effingham at Neimerg's for Breakfast. We have never taken Robert to Neimergs for breakfast, bad parents! I don't know how we did that. Of course, I have ate more breakfasts at Neimergs at 1:00 in the morning, after closing Walmart, or the Refinery than I ever did in the actual morning. Oh well, good breakfast.

We then went on to Springfield, we had some shopping to do, I didn't get much, another instant phone charger and some things I had to have from Wallyworld. Somehow Andrew was the big winner walking away with two new shirts, two ties, a belt, and a coat. I was looking for new clothes but I think I am still in mourning over the ones in the big black bag, you know how right after you lose your favorite pet, the last think you want to think about it getting another one? I think I'm there. The problem with that though is I HAVE to have some clothes. Oh well, I'm picky, probably by the time I have enough to do me, I will be in a smaller size again, I hope anyway.

So, we went on to my doctor's appointment at 3. I had to have blood work and since we got there at 2:30, I had time to get that done before my appointment instead of after. I got to the lobby of my doc's office at a quarter til, they called me in at 10 til and he walked in the room at 5 til. I have to say, I have never once had to wait a long period of time on him.

We talked, I told him I was doing fantastically, that I was so excited that I sleep through the night, that I am only going to the bathroom between 5 and 8 times a day and that is great with me. His answer, "yeah, that's good, but I want to try to do better". What is it about this guy??? lol, I told the guys, I feel like a little kid running in the house with an A+ on a paper and my mom not being impressed (no, that never happened, my mom was always excited about good grades--but you know what I mean). Robert gave me a speech on the way home that he (my doctor) is just wanting the best for me because I demand the best of myself in every other aspect, yes, the kid made me cry.

Dr. Peterson really believes we can get me down to 2-3 stools a day. Please understand that for the past 2 1/2 years, around 15 was a "normal" day, 20 was an okay day and if I had less than 12, it was a miracle. Couple that with the fact that I CONSTANTLY felt like I needed to go to the bathroom and you have a little picture of what life has been. And when I did go, it was almost always blood and water. In the last month, we have gotten me back to the 5-8 times, no blood and no diarrhea, which truly does seem miraculous to me. On top of everything else, being able to sleep through the entire night gives me the energy to want to do things when I get home from work instead of just wanting to go to sleep. Oh, and the newest sensation, needing to pee. When you go to the bathroom all the time, you just pee when you go, I have not needed to pee in 2 1/2 years so it feels really funny when I realize I need to.

While I was in the hospital, I was getting 500 mg of steroids every 12 hours. When I came home, I was doing 40 mg of prednisone, dropping by 5 mg a week so now, today, I get to start 15 mg. I want off of this so bad. I would love to drop to 10 and then zero, or at least 10 to 5 to done but we have to do it "right", so I get to do a week of 15, then 10, then 7.5, 5, 2.5 and finally zero. Five weeks to being prednisone free!  And then, the medicine that I call my miracle drug got doubled, I start taking double the amount tomorrow morning. I am looking forward to seeing what it does. I think I have mentioned before that it is an immunosuppresent. I had blood test two weeks ago though and they show that my body is handling it well. We have to watch the white blood cell counts, but right now they are good. I will have blood tests once a month for at least the first year.  So, that's where we stand. I am extremely happy even though I can't seem to impress my doctor.....guess I have a new goal for my next appointment on the 20th of May!

Geesh, I about forgot to mention that I finally got my Red Lobster!!  Good end to a great day!

Exciting times!

So, we took the girls to the groomers this morning in Mattoon and headed up to Tuscola to do a little shopping. I knew I was needing some clothes that fit better and I really thought I would need size 20's. When I started losing, I wore a 24 and most of them, my mom and I had taken in and I have still been pulling them up to, well, WAY past my waistline. Have you ever seen the "People of Walmart" where the lady had her chest covered with her pants? Yeah, I can do that.  Anyway, we hit Dress Barn, one of my favorites and I grabbed 18's and 20's of two different kinds of pants. I was at Kohl's earlier in the week and found a pair of 18's but I honestly thought it was just the size was off on that brand. I also bought a pair of 16's that zipped at Kohl's but they are too tight to wear in public, but they were on the clearance rack for $10 and had been $60 so I couldn't see leaving them....ANYWAY, I put on the first 18's, yep, they fit, They sat on my waist where they are supposed to, and not smacked against my butt, they really fit!!  The other pair of 18's did too. I was really in shock, in fact, those of you who know me know I was fighting back tears. Got a new spring blouse and sweater too, a little too cool to wear them yet but they are so cute!  Next stop was the bra shop, success there too, 2 sizes down and 2 sizes down in hose. What a happy, happy day and honestly, probably the kick in the pants I needed to keep going.

Tonight was bittersweet though, I am taking a HUGE bag of clothes to the mission this week. I love my clothes and it is hard saying goodbye to them but on the same note, I'm NEVER going to wear them again so someone else needs to get some use out of them.

And now, back to the fact that we took the girls to Petsmart this morning. Here's the after, Liz had a bow but it's gone already, she throws a royal fit if she doesn't get one though. I know, my "non-dog" friends don't believe that but she tries to take her mom's out if she doesn't have one herself. You can't see Chrissy's in this picture either but this is the best I could do.

 

 

They love going to the salon, they are spoiled rotten.

We came home and I started getting things ready for dinner tomorrow. Beef and Noodles and an apple pie. Ok, some of you are already saying that can't be on my "diet". Guess what, it is. Everything is on my plan. I have stayed on plan well this week which means I have 35 weekly points left. Apple Pie is 11 for a piece and see that's the thing, the first piece isn't what gets you in trouble, it's the 2nd, and the 3rd and so on and so forth. I will be perfectly happy with the 1 piece, especially if I am wearing my new slacks! And it won't hurt anything that I will do my Leslie Sansone tomorrow morning just like I have done every day this week. See, small reward for a good week and I stay on plan. I won't get to weigh in Monday night because I am going to be in Springfield at the doctor's but I still know I am doing well, especially for still taking 20 mg of prednisone a day.

Oh and look at how great the pie turned out, they never look that good when I need to take it somewhere!

So, it's Saturday evening, Robert is still at work, Andrew is watching Walking Tall, I have had my bath and am ready to hit the hay. It's been a good day and a beautiful start to a long weekend.

Happy Saturday!

It's a Wonderful Life

I still cannot express how much better I am feeling. I realize it more by the things I want to do and can do than anything else. Today is Lincoln's Birthday so I have the day off and it has been great! I made Andrew' chocolate caramels for Valentine's Day, cleaned the laundry room and the family room, made several new recipe cards--which I have been drastically behind on and moved some things around in the family room and living room and the best part? It's not even noon!

I still need to make rolls for the guys to take for men's fellowship tonight, clean out my van, clean up the kitchen and then I get to do fun stuff. I'm going to take some time cleaning up and getting ready to go out with my mom tonight. I think, other than going to a funeral or two, this will be the first time since my uncle Junior died that we are getting to go out. Her and Robert sold the rest of the hogs last Thursday which frees up more of her time. She is still incredibly busy trying to get everything cleaned up at his house but at least she has time to go out with me. I have missed her, a lot. We usually didn't let two months go by that we didn't at least go get some groceries together and I talked to her EVERY morning on the phone, it hasn't been that way since November so I am hoping we are starting to find her a new normal, one that includes some time for us
On the weight front, I didn't post last week because I had a setback from the prednisone, I was up a little over 3 lbs, 30 mg of prednisone can do that to the best of us. I am on 20 as if yesterday and so I am hoping to see even better results. Yesterday I was down 1.2 lbs. My main goal is to just focus on what I want long term and stay on the plan just get through these weeks with the high prednisone levels and be ready to take off like a race car when we are off of it. I am looking so forward to being totally off of it. On top of everything else, that is when the new medicine will kick in, doggone it at all, one of the side effects of it is feeling full quickly--bring it on!

The kitchen project is getting closer to the finish line every day. Andrew put up the moulding around the ceiling yesterday, we have had this ever since I painted but he had never got it up. Today he is staining the floor trim so I am hoping by next week we can call it finished. My Hoosier cabinet is the next project, I can't wait to have it in my kitchen. On top of everything else, most of my stuff that was in the other cabinet are lying on the front room bed, kinda unhanding when you want to bake something. At the same time, this is going to give me more cabinet space than I have ever had. My kitchen is small so that will be great.

We had talked since 2009 that in 2019, we would build on and make me a huge kitchen. I am so in love with what we are doing to this one, I'm not sure that is even still in the plans, I may change my mind but I am thinking a new fan, new countertops and backsplash and a new sink and I may be set for life. On top of everything else, it's not like there is a huge family living here.

I may still want the bigger pantry, laundry room and mudroom Andrew was talking about so we may build on to the garage and not do the big expansion here in the kitchen itself. We will just have to wait and see.

So, that's it in a nutshell, life is good, God is better. He is taking such amazing care of us!

Happy Birthday Lincoln, and Happy Tuesday!

Ahh.....the weekend

We made it through this marathon week and I am so glad it is over!  It hasn't been a bad week, just busy. We got our offices moved last Tuesday night, I am settled in except for hanging my picture and certificates back up. I was so proud of all our guys, they are real troopers and did a good job of being supportive of their wives. We had a really nice time to top it all off.

This week Andrew has been getting the walls in the kitchen finished and tomorrow we are laying the new floor. I have a love/hate relationship with projects. I hate starting them, I hate doing them, I love it when they are finished. I am looking so very forward to my tile floor though that I haven't even started hating the idea of having to do it yet. We have the original hardwood floors throughout our house except in the kitchen and baths. Andrew did vinyl tile in the front bath several years ago *and will probably do natural tile in there over the summer) and we did real tile in our big bath remodel but our kitchen floor has been white linoleum, I hate it, first off because it is linoleum, second because it is white. White floors in kitchens are not much different than carpet in kitchens, real cooks can't deal with them. My new floor is gray and brown. I think it will tie in the black appliances with the red, green, brown and ivory in my kitchen.

Now, on to something that has been on my mind. Prompted by a conversation brought up on facebook, I have to add my 2 cents. The topic: stay-at-home moms vs working-away-from-home moms. This is a bone of contention with me and has been for a long time. I have been both and loved being both and at certain times in my life have been criticized for being either one or the other.

People, get over it! No two people are alike and certainly no two families are alike. What is perfect for you IS NOT necessarily perfect for someone else.

I stayed home from 6 weeks before Robert was born until he was 6. My original intentions were to NOT stay home, however Andrew was transferred to Gettysburg PA just 6 weeks before Robert was born. Andrew and I had discussed before we ever got married that I liked working, I liked being around people and that I would more than likely work even when we had kids. He had different ideas before we got married but he realized my personality and knew I would be better around people than couped up at home. Then we moved and I didn't know anybody and I realized I would not leave my baby with a stranger, thus, I stayed home. I wouldn't have replaced the first couple of years for anything. However, if I had it to do all over again, I would probably have went back to work when Robert was 3. In our family, I think it would have been better for me and him both. He could have handled being with other kids more and I could have handled being with other adults more. I love the bond we have but I seriously believe we would still have it even if we were apart a few hours a day.

I really get upset with people who think their way is the only way. It is not. I love it when I have clients who call me and say, "I stay at home with our three kids, I know I shouldn't but I am not educated enough to have a job that would pay more than I would have to pay a sitter and I like taking care of my kids". I tell them I understand perfectly and I stayed home when my son was little and I totally think it's great if that is what they want to do--and believe me, I understand the not making enough to pay the sitter-- (I have also been known to write their names down on a post it and stick it in my cabinet because someday they will decide they want to go back to work and they are the kind of people I would like to have around.)

There are pros and cons of each side, I hate the lame ones like "my kids eat better because I stay home"-- I didn't lose my cooking skills when I went back to work, I still came home and fixed supper, honestly, I probably did a better job of feeding everyone after I went to work because I had to do a bit more planning before I left of a morning. Life still goes on.

When I went back to work, the guys had to learn to pick up after themselves a bit more, to pitch in and help with the house --Andrew ONCE said, "I did the dishes for you". I said, "nope, you live here too, you did the dishes for US".  Nowadays, whoever is home does the dishes and if you are home at 4:00 and nobody else is, you know it's you fixing supper and the other two will appreciate it when they get home.

Let's face it, in today's economy, there are a lot of moms that have no choice but to work outside the home, it takes two incomes a lot of the time just to make ends meet. I am glad that Robert learned that it is okay for both parents to work outside the home and both parents to take care of the home and family.

So, if you have ever judged somebody for not staying home with their kids, try again, it isn't a sin to not stay home. If you have ever judged somebody for staying home--you need to try again too. On top of everything else, IT'S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!!

My two cents for the day.......glad I am through those years and very, very thankful that I had a job where I could pull off things like going on field trips and being a room mom because I enjoyed getting to do them, but just because I did it doesn't mean everyone has to.

Hello Weekend.