Holy Crap!

It's Monday and we all know what that means! It's weekly weigh in time!

Today: 134 pounds.

I lost 4 pounds in the last week!!! I kid you not, and I have no idea how. I think my metabolism must be speeding up because I'm not putting as much crap into my body as I used to. Don't get me wrong, I'm still eating treats but nowhere near as much as I did before. Now it's time to start the crunches because I've still got the jiggly tummy...but my butt looks FANTASTIC if I do say so myself!!

I got my stroller on Saturday, and I ended up buying used because all the stores in the city were sold out. I'm excited about it, but a little bummed too. It's a tad bit more banged up than I would like, and the previous owner did not take as much care with it as she should have, knowing the resale value on these puppies. I'll be able to clean it up pretty good, get the juice stains out of the fabric and use some tire cleaner on the tires and frame. It also smells like it lived in her trunk for the past 2 years. ICK. So I'm hoping cleaning the fabric takes care of that little issue. She threw in about $80 worth of accessories too so it makes it a little better :) Now I'm wondering if I should shell out the $35 for a car seat adaptor so I can still have Josh in his bucket. It's probably worth it...

When something goes well, it only follows that something else will go wrong. Right? Well for us it would be our van. We bought it used almost 2 years ago and we've shelled out far too much on it than what it's worth for us. We've been looking around and we're likely going to trade it in for a Flex. My brother in law is a manager at Ford so he's been keeping an eye out and found one that should work for us. It's got the captain chairs in the middle row just like the minivan so it's perfect. Our payments will go up a bit but we have wiggle room with Jeff at his new job, and we'll be in a vehicle that is a whole 5 years newer than our van. It's worth it.

I need to start updating more than once a week, then I wouldn't be all over the place with 5 different things I'm talking about!

Bunches and bunches of randomness

-Weigh in: 138 pounds!! Still workin it!

-Liam split his lip goofing off on the ice at school on Friday. 3 stitches later and he's been very VERY careful about how he moves around now. Which is a welcome change from the accident-prone child he's always been. And, it's good to know that they stitch things up at the MediCenter. That's only a 10 minute walk from our house.

-We've started time-out's with Nicholas. Or Shreaky, as I like to call him. He does quite well in time-out, sits there still as a stone and looks down at his hand for the full 2 minutes and then listens attentively while I explain why he had one. Then he gives me a hug. And then he goes back to doing whatever it was that put him in time-out. Usually it's shreaking at the snack cabinet and throwing himself on the floor while I ignore him.

-We had our banking info stolen sometime over the weekend and spent a stressful 24 hours getting it figured out. The bank actually put the money back into account right when Jeff went in to get a new bank card. RELIEF. We were expecting to have to wait at least a few weeks for them to do it and we have a mortgage payment coming out next Thursday. Damn criminals.

-Hm, what else...we're getting a sweet tax return this year so I'm going to be able to get my Phil & Teds stroller that I've been drooling over! Jeff is going to get a laptop and this works to my advantage too. He'll be able to turf the monstrosity that is sitting on the desk downstairs and then I get that space to do my crafting. Love it when things work out in my favor!

-Speaking of crafting, I've been spending far too much time on deal-a-day sites. There's one in particular that has bajillions of deals per day and the ability to put product in your shopping cart that can sit there for up to 2 months while you accumulate more stuff, in order to get free shipping. I haven't actually bought anything yet but I have LOTS of stuff in my cart. We'll see if Jeff will let me spend that much on scrap stuff. Fingers crossed.

-Josh is thisclose to crawling. He's getting up on all fours and the other day he got one knee forward, didn't know what to do with the rest of his body, and then face-planted into the carpet. He'll be a much happier baby once he can get around himself, I just know it.

-We are over the worst of this cold. Nicky only has a lingering bit of cough and Josh has the cough and a runny nose. This kid's nose is like a faucet that just keeps going. His poor little nosie is getting pretty chapped and red from getting wiped and the minute he sees me with the kleenex he starts freaking. I try to let it just sit and then do one big one but it's no better for the poor little dude.

Guess that's it for now!

He's ba-aack. Sorta.

I think Nicky is on his way to feeling better. He's not quite so droopy today and is much more active and, well, Nicky. These are the perfect pictures to illustrate:



I had it sitting next to me on the end table, full, and he grabbed it and tried to shove it under his shirt. GAHH that's liquid gold kid! Once I dumped it into a bottle and rinsed out the horn and bottle I gave it back to him. He knew how to put the tube back in and turn it on himself so I just let him. Poor little gaffer needs a little fun, even if it is pumping his "beebies".

Sickness in the house.

Weekly weigh in: still 140 pounds. Actually, I did lose 3.5 ounces but that hardly counts. Damn hot wings and Subway.

In other exciting news, both of my younger children have colds. It's been a tough weekend to be sure, but nothing compared to last night from 1-7 am when I finally got up for the day.

First off, Josh took for-freaking-ever to settle down. Tried laying in bed with him and he thought it was party time, so I came out to the living room to feed him and then rock him to sleep. About 11-ish he was out but that only lasted till 1 and then he was up and crying. He couldn't eat because he was so congested, and he couldn't lay down because he was just miserable. I set up the pillows so I could sit up and have him on my chest but that only kinda worked and I was paranoid about him falling out of my arms and off the bed.

So we moved out to the couch at 3 and it was no better, but at least Jeff could get rest. I know he would have moved had I asked him to but he's the one going to work and he's gotta be more on the ball there than I have to be. I think I slept for a max of 15-20 minutes at a time but more often 10 minutes. It really sucked.

In between trying to comfort Josh I had to tend to Nicky a couple times too. Nothing dramatic, just reassuring him he was okay and laying him back down and turning on his fishies. Thank God.

This morning I had an awful outlook for the day. Nicky was whiney as all heck and Josh was coughing up a storm. Poor kiddo's, it's not their fault they feel like crap, but I was really discouraged from the lack of sleep and having snotty children hanging off of me for the past 2 days. I was starting to get a headache and had no faith in the magical powers of coffee.

Then, as if the skies opened up and a ray of light started shining down, they decided that life wasn't so awful after all. They gobbled up their tylenol, their fevers went down, they had a chill-out period watching Cars, and all was good. They're still sick, yes, but Nicky at least is on the mend and playing. He doesn't have that drugged up glassy look in his eyes anymore, and Josh is smiling and laughing between his coughing fits. I'm sure tonight will suck balls again but I'm much more prepared for it.

I have a problem

That is, besides using grammer check to make sure my sentences make sense. Especially my post titles.

No, this particular problem involves me rearranging rooms. Yesterday I started with cleaning under my couches and 2 hours later had a new living room layout. Granted it opened up the space 150%, but come on! Jeff just shook his head when he came home last night. He must be used to me by now.

I'm diggin it though, having the sectional really limits how we can set up the room so I decided to split up the two couches so they're facing each other. Now I don't have to move the coffee table around to accomodate small children being able to play. Ahhhhhh.

Yay!!!

Well after my cranky post this morning I thought I'd share my latest weigh-in:

140 POUNDS!!!!!!!

So far I've lost 19 pounds on this journey. I'm well on my way to the ideal 125 that I want to be and it's the best news I've gotten all day. What with cranky teething babies, toddlers that insist on climbing out of their cribs, and pre-teens who are over dramatic.

I think that when I reach 130 pounds I deserve to go shopping! GOOOO Chantel!

Getting a little ticked off here.

To preface, my oldest son is a bit of a hypochondriac. Always has been.

Last week, Tuesday to be exact, I got a call in the afternoon from Liam's school secretary saying that she had him in the office and that he was saying he felt sick. Ugh. So I talked to him, he said he really didn't think he could stay at school, and I grudgingly gave the permission for him to come home. During the next 15 minutes waiting for him to walk in the door I was ranting and raving about children who will do anything to get out of school and schools that have no hesitation about picking up the phone and calling parents at the drop of a hat. Trust me, I have dealt and dealt and dealt and DEALT with this issue for years.

Well, God got me back on that one. Not to offend anyone who believes in God, I believe in him too....and I believe he did get me back for not believing my son. 10 minutes after he got home he puked all over the bathroom door trying to get there in time, and spent the next 12 hours alternating between puking and sleeping. Seriously though, it's probably the first time in ALL the times that I've been called to give permission for him to come home that he's been honest-to-betsy sick.

Cut to today. I get a call 15 minutes after school starts from Marianne (ya we're on a first name basis) and Liam was monkeying around on the playground and fell off a platform. He winded himself and his back was sore. OF COURSE his back was sore, but it would wear off in no time at all and he had already missed a day and a half last week. He needed to stay at school. If the pain got uncontrollable then they could call me back and we'd go from there.

So...I of course got a call and he couldn't breathe easily and at this point in order to keep my status as a 'good mother' I had to give the okay for him to come home. Wouldn't want anyone to think I didn't care about any injuries my children might sustain from being...um...children? Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't every single person on the face of this earth wind themselves as a child AT LEAST once if not many more times?! Did you get to go home if that happened? Or did you get up, catch your breath, dust your pants off, and go back to playing and tell yourself you really hoped that never happened again because MAN that sucked? When did children become such pansies?

He's NOT seriously hurt, I checked him over. He told me his upper back hurt and in the next moment windmilled his arms as he was taking of his sweater. No grimace of pain. Of course, he wouldn't know that windmilling your arms should hurt if you really really hurt your upper back.

And the schools!!! They just perpetuate this in my opinion. I GET it that there are rules and policies in place for a reason. But come ON. All a situation like this is teaching them is that there is no accountability for behaving like a jackass and hurting yourself. You get to go home, just tell the teacher that you can't breath. Not serious enough to call an ambulance because nooooo you didn't break a bone or puncture a lung, but ya it's no big deal to miss another day of school. Where, tell me, is the logic in that?

He seemed pretty disappointed when I told him he could rest for the morning but he was headed back to school after lunch. It's not a free day buddy.

Bit of this, bit of that.

Oh ya, yesterday's weigh in was 143. Take that bitches!!

And I'm going to be putting it all back on tonight at Tony Roma's while celebrating my besties 30th birthday. Granted, in an effort to save my weight watchers points for the yummy delicious ribs meal I'm anticipating, I've eaten next to nothing today. But that'll only take me so far...guess I better squeeze in some extra exercising this week.

I've discovered another way to lose weight too! It's called the 'Get Fucked Over On Your Last Paycheck' plan. Basically, you quit your job, start a new one, and on your last paycheck at your old job make sure they combine 3 weeks of pay into one paycheck. This insures that you get bumped up to the next tax level and then you'll make a whopping $100 for that last week of work. Woo! So, you won't have any extra money left over to buy groceries, so you won't be able to eat, so you'll lose even more weight!

*I kid, I kid. I was raised mormon so I've got canned food coming out the ying-yang. We won't starve. We'll just be very bitchy. Or, I will be, because I'll have to give up my creamer till next month. Stupid mother-effing Gescan.

**And in light of the recent money problems I tried to back out of dinner tonight. The dinner that I planned. Thankfully I have a wonderful friend who is taking me along as the poor relation. But I'd do the same for her in a heartbeat :))

38 minutes, 35 seconds.

That's how long it took me to:

-fold 2 loads of laundry
-switch a load to the dryer and put another one in the washer.
(while being super extra quiet since there was a sleeping baby in the same room)
-dust the living room
-pick up toys scattered all around the house
-unload and reload the dishwasher
-sweep and spot mop the kitchen
-tackle a couple of the messier, stickier, toddler hand sized spots on various walls, cabinets, windowsills, and doors.

Thanks to the stopwatch on my new iphone I can now officially be called a loser. I wonder how long it'll take me to clean the bathroom...