you may have noticed

that this blog has been pretty silent lately. That is because I had my life turned upside down and then flipped over again.  We found out we were expecting at my last post! It was a miracle and complete surprise. Tests were darker than I have ever had but by the time I saw my doctor (6.4 wks) the ultrasound showed nothing in the uterus. The doctor feared another ectopic even though I had no symtoms. 2 wks of blood work and another ultrasound confirmed a "normal uterine miscarriage" that ended at my 8th week.  We were hurt but ok because it had given us HOPE again. I rejoiced in every minute and I thanked God for that baby even though I held it only a short time in my body. The doctor will be testing me in a couple weeks for possible issues that can cause miscarraiges. Not sure how I feel about that... yes, I want to find "something" and have a plan/cure or no, we don't find anything a miss in my blood work and never know WHY...

It took about 2 wks to start feeling better afterwards and resuming my normal life. Of course then Princess caught pneumonia and we spent many days on steriods and antibiotics to keep her out of the hospital. As soon she she was well my oldest caught some sort of bug last Friday and she is just now feeling good enough to head back to swim team.

So we are back to swim, scouts, church, school, cleaning, being a family and my new adverture of Once A Month Cooking (ahem AGAIN) just the usual chaos.

Princess's first swim meet

Happy Birthday to my Oldest baby :)

14 yrs old already? WHERE has the time gone!?

Happy Birthday Bub!!

the BIG SEVEN!

Grandma called

and she wants her 1986 Country Blue laundry room back! When we moved in it had the country diamond flooring, lace curtains, and NO storage.. not sure if there were ducks... probably moved out with the owners

In true form I don't think I have any real before pics of the whole room. I cover my head in shame with the 2 I did find of the left side of the area. :-(

Don't judge me please

we found out the front loader was leaking so we threw everything to one side trying to get to the back of the machine.

the glare from the window and my lack of a real camera makes the Country Blue look not so grody

the floor was torn up by our first pup when we moved in.

I had ripped out all the plastic baseboards

hubs built the massive storage area, hung shelves, and reused kitchen cabinets for me!

so far I have :

pulled out the old sheet of flooring and added in new vinyl planks

finished painting the room

here you can see the old Country Blue with the new "10% Argos" walls

a bit better shot of the color change



what the paint looks like straight from the can

Of course I couldn't stop painting once I was going....

so right over the old Pumpkin Butter walls in what has become the catch all/dog crate room

I love this color!

We mixed it up for Oldest's room from left over Argos used in Bub's room

and 2 or 3 cans of "whatever white was left in the house including trim paint"

It changes colors based on light and accessories.

It can look --

silvery

blue gray

white

darker metal gray

When I go in for more paint the paint guys think I'm nuts...

"Hey lady, why are we custom matching WHITE?"

I can't wait to finish it off but I'm working on a little something else right now :)

200!

I'm down to 200 lbs!

I've met my first goal for weight loss!

WOO HOOO!!!

I've backed off the med from the Dr the last two weeks mainly because I forgot with everything going on.

Now I have to come up with my next goal...

got to keep it real and attainable

it's just not summer

Without little lizards hatching out inside the house!

We catch these 2 inch long babies almost every day from July to October or so. My porch ceiling is covered in adult lizards at night. One of the adults has lived in a crack in the siding since we moved in and is about 7 inches long now. They're cute but can scare the bee geebers out of ya to see something scurry across the wall/floor/ceiling in the dark!

Weight loss "competion" between Hubby and I

3 wks ago the Dr gave me a med to help get my metabolism to start working again. She also told me of an herbal combo that would help too.

In the first week I lost 9 lbs bringing me down from 214 to 206/205 and I was "stuck". I was very upset but I noticed something that made that "little" amount worth it... my clothes don't fit! My skirts are 38 in waists and USED to be tight in the hips and waist. Now they slide off without unbuttoning! My new size 16 shorts are the same way. I'm now down to 202 and really starting to feel good! I've eating healthy small meals and plan to start riding bikes and walking in the mornings once things settle down a bit.

Hubby started the herbal combo and in two weeks he's dropped 7 lbs. I'm not sharing his weight as that's not my place but he is looking good too!

The Dr thinks I need to drop about 50-60 lbs to be the right size for my 5'10 frame. I think that is too thin (I've btdt and looked like a stick!) so I am aiming for my around 170lbs because I have a lots of muscle.
Hubs thinks he could stand to loose the same amount.

So who will hit the goal first?

My guess is Hubs. Once he has knee surgery and is back to his active self at work he will drop weight like no one's business! But I'm going to try and give him a run for it!


A few pics to show where I've come from...
Please be gentle with me I know I let myself go between having babies, surgeries, and depressions.

My Senior Yr pic.
I was maybe 120lbs

clothes shopping in August
weight 212-215lbs

Sept 18, 2012
202lbs
the 38 in waist of this skirt is barely staying on my hips!

strep, surgery, school, and swimming

What a few weeks its been since I was last on a computer! I tried to blog from my new Kindle Fire but it is giving me trouble with blogger (won't scroll).

To recap-

Bub caught strep throat and was pretty miserable until his antibiotics kicked in. A week later Princess caught it and even on meds she couldn't break her high fever and was getting so sick we had to see the DR for a steroid shot and antibiotic shot. That didn't have much effect for another 48 hrs poor thing. :( Another week later Oldest claimed her throat was hurting. UGH! Call tot he DR and meds kept her from getting too bad.
Whatever strain they had scared us with it spreading to others even on antibiotics, strict quarantines and tons of sanitizing.

The hubs tore his meniscus and patella tendons somehow about 7 wks ago and due to many issues beyond our control he is still awaiting surgery. He is scheduled for a week Friday which will make it over 8 wks to be walking around on ripped tendons and a knee swelled up like a watermelon.

I had my thyroid scan done for the year and PRAISE GOD they couldn't find one of the lumps and the other lump shrank from 9 to 7/8mm!  I haven't seen the Endo for the official word because of dealing with Hubby's injury but my PCP upped my thyroid med because it seems to be working.

We started back to school after a very short summer break. Oldest daughter is doing 8th grade English, History and Geography, Science and Bible with 9th grade Math. Princess is doing 5th grade English, History and Geography, Science and Bible with 6th grade Math. Bub is doing first grade Math but refusing to show us how much he can read so he will be starting tutoring 2 days a week.  I didn't teach the girls to read and the way I learned (sight words) isn't the method used now days. I really don't get phonics leaving us both frustrated. SIGH.

And because we don't have enough going on the girls are on the USA swim team 3 days a week. Princess started ballet on Mondays. Bub joined Boy Scouts. Hubs and I joined a marriage class at church. Hubby teaches two nights a week. And of course church on Sundays. Sounds like a ton of work but thankfully all activities are within blocks of each other and only a couple hours at evening.

What was that about home schooled kids aren't socialized!?

LOL

my new Tiger Scout!

summer hair styles my girls are sporting

Both girls have 2 pig tails of fishbone braids that were then crossed over each other and pinned up. Amazing how different they look!

before- twin caned wingback chairs

Another FB buy/sell/trade find!

Are you seeing a trend here? LOL

Hubby is seeing our budget going to things not in the budget.

I said it was my gift to myself for my birthday and hey they were only $30 TOTAL!

He agrees with my that they do look nice in our room and the quality is great.

BEFORE- spring metal seats, faded blue velvet, and sloppy rick rack trim

I can't wait to get these started. I wanted to do something like Miss Mustard Seed did with her wing backs...

source- Miss Mustard Seed

Isn't is fabulous!? My only trouble is spending $45-90 a YARD for the grain sack and each chair needs around 3 yards.  FAINT. Not happening!

I'll try my hand at painting drop clothes like MMS did on these beauties.

dresser turned media cabinet

Having 3 kids down with strep for 2 weeks and me down with a rib injury including hospital time had me going nuts. I needed to be creative. But my projects in varying stages of completion at the house didn't interest me.

Enter FB buy and sell group cruising on my new Kindle Fire.

At midnight...

isn't that when the best  stuff is posted?!

and bought it seems. 

I spotted this dresser as part of a 3 piece bedroom set.

The seller wanted to not split the group but thankfully I know her sister and we have traded several times in the past. At 9am in the ending rain I snapped up the dresser and rushed home determined to have it DONE before my love came home to another unfinished project.

BEFORE- opps, I always forget a true before pic.
here it is cleaned and lightly sanded on some water damaged areas

I mixed up a charcoal gray homemade "chalk" paint and in under 2 hours we had down 2 coats of paint.

basically DONE. I have to find some crystal knobs, glaze, and wax it.
we cut holes in the back to accomadate the wires and hooked up the satellite, vcr, and Uverse

the twist matches my coffee table! BONUS!

For some reason in my living room this charcoal gray turns into a beautiful blue that totally matches my new suitcase "side table".  I painted the back of Bub's door with this color and when I take my stir stick from whipping up the "chalk" paint it still matches the dark gray in there. WEIRD. Guess it is the pumpkin butter walls.  Hoping to repaint the walls and add board and batten this fall!

master bedroom progress

So far---
 I have found 2 new vintage night stands, hung curtains on 2 of the 3 windows, bought 2 caned chairs, bought a new bedspread, finished my plank wall, and cleared out way too much junk!

I really need a camera instead of my Iphone for pics

and I need to take more pics of what I've done

I still have to pick a paint color, buy last set of curtains for window, hang curtain rod, replace baseboards, new flooring, fix up the "school" area and the girls' desks we moved into our nook for the kids to have quiet during school, and remodel the bathroom.

We have made the decision to update this house up and rent it out so that changes my "staying here forever make this my cozy nest" list into a "get it done under budget fast as I can and as neutral as possible" list.  We are in the process of refi'ing the house to a fixed 15 yr mortgage and prioritizing the long list of fixes we need to do to get out of here in the next year.  That means my decorating ADD and procrastination issues have got to go so I should have plenty of projects to blog about soon!

church family fun day and a decision

A couple weeks ago our church finished up their "taking VBS to the streets" program. To welcome the nearly 200 new comers and get the excitement going for the HUGE baptism service that night we had a Family Fun Day.



Princess waiting for her face painting



and after :)

my goofy family!



Hubs and my beautiful oldest daughter

Mom, I'm too old for this!

Bub sporting a pirate sword on his cheek

There was donuts, ice cream, drinks, balloons, face painting, games, bible story telling, and much more. As we left church that day bub announced HE was getting baptised at the service that night. We were a bit shocked to say the least. We've talked with him about "having Jesus in his heart" and being Christian but have not pushed baptism since he is just 6.  We questioned him when we got home and knew he fully understood his choice and was ready to make his public declaration of faith.

That night his Sunday school teacher Mr Trent baptised him and a few dozen other children as our senior pastors baptised a few HUNDRED people! PRAISE GOD! I wish I had pics but I didn't bring my phone in as we were at a public pool (only place big enough to hold everyone!)  A friend did video it but she doesn't have internet to email it to me. :-(