Yes!

One day last week I had the day off work and the kids were in school, so I decided to treat myself with a Redbox movie. I rarely ever get to watch a movie without the kids at least until it is after they go to bed. Just after 8 am, I had made several important phone calls and was waiting for the return calls. I was hesitant about leaving homing to grab a movie. Finally at 11 am, I decided to brave it and made a fast run. 

When I returned, I thought maybe I should unload the freshly cleaned dishes from the dishwasher and reload before starting my movie. Then my sister arrived to paint the trim around the sunroom windows, if only I did not have allergies to the paint. Since my sister was rocking it out to her iPhone, I decided to replace the latch on the storm door that broke over the summer. I was very happy that the screw holes matched, but the inside part was too long. I searched for the hacksaw. Sigh, I could not find the hacksaw so I called grandma and she brought a hacksaw over. Grandma, my sister and I hung out, talked, and worked. I had been talking about repainting the front door because the paint was peeling off the metal. When I got the paint for the trim I grabbed a few paint samples. Sis and I looked through the samples and decided on a color- lightening bug. Hubby might be a touch surprised, but he said that I could paint it any color. Wink, wink! 

Looking at the clock it was 1pm, too late to watch a movie before getting the kids. Instead sis and I ran to the hardware store and got some paint rollers and the paint for the front door (this week's project). Then off to school I went to grab the kids. On the drive home I talked them into watching a movie in our bedroom so I could watch my movie on the sunroom tv. I popped a Halloween Scooby Doo in for the kids and Moms' Night Out in for me.  It only took me 3 1/2 hours to finish watching the movie. It got paused quite a few times for the telephone, a drop by visitor, and the kids. 

I am in love with the movie. Wow! Amazing! I could relate to quite a few of the characters. 

Allyson is zany and overwhelmed. I so get that and relate to the hiding from the kids in the closet scene. Life just gets so overwhelming at times and there needs to be a way to vent that build-up. I would love to have a girls night away from the kids. A night to forget homework woos, to forget autism, to forget sibling bickering, to forget chores, to forget cooking, and so much more. My luck, it would probably mirror parts of the movie. Ha ha ha ha!

Sondra is prim, proper, and always feels like everyone else is judging her in the role of a minister's wife. She rarely is given an invitation to just go out and have fun. I feel her too. I have had quite a few people tell me that I am prim and proper especially when they met my dad, who has Harley biker written all over in one glance. I do not see it, but I am more of an introvert. I like to be behind the scenes instead of out in the front. I rarely get invited to do fun things, except for parties where acquaintances are selling things. 

Izzy is struggling with the stress of parenting her twins. Her husband is terrified of being alone with the kids. I am very thankful that my hubby helps out, but there times when he will not do something because he does not know how. My response is let me show you how to do it for the next time. I am positive that he will not break Princess's glasses if he cleans them from time to time. He has learned that elastic bands in the hair of little girls are really not that scary either, just don't use the scissors.

Anway, what an amazing movie! I may have to splurge and add it to the home collection. I think it has made it to my top five list. Wink, wink!

Last but not least, enjoy this picture of yesterday's sunrise. A beautiful gift on the four year anniversary of mom's passing. I love you and miss you mom!

Ten Years

Hubby and I recently celebrated our ten year wedding anniversary. On top of that we dated for five years before getting married, so we have been together for fifteen years. Wow! 

Ten years ago, I was working two part-time jobs. I had a student loan and a car loan. I was living with grandma and grandpa. My baby sister was still in high school. Mom and dad were both healthy. I would not quite envision the life I have now back then.
 

We paid for our wedding mostly out of our own pockets. Grandma made my wedding dress. My wedding ring was my great-grandma's. We got married in my little country church, who doors have since been shut. I made up prairie flower arrangements for the front of the church, complete with rattlesnake master. Dad walked me down the aisle. Mom and step dad #2 made it to the wedding, mine is the only one she attended. We had a simple reception at an outdoor pavilion. We did not have a fancy honeymoon, just one night away.  We had Hawaiian pizza for our first meal. 

We temporarily moved into an apartment and at one time talked about building a home. I dreamed of a home with a creek and pond. We wanted to live in the country. We wanted to have one or two kids after we paid off my student loan. I dreamed of a full time job.

Ten years later, I still love my hubby. We have two beautiful children. Both are special in their own way. One has autism and the other vision problems. Every day is an adventure into the unknown. I am still working part-time. We live in a house that hubby's grandparent's built. Thankfully we do have a creek and pond, even though we are in town. My grandma and sister live near by. Grandpa and mom are gone. Dad has had two bone marrow transplants. I have learned that dreams are just that, dreams. The future never turns out how we envision. I have learned that it is best to just take one day at a time. 

I am thankful for my blessings. I am thankfully for hubby. I am thankful for Pumpkin and Princess. I am thankful for grandma. I am thankful for my dad. I am thankful for my sister. I am thankful for grandma R. I am thankful for hubby's family. I am thankful for a roof over my head. I am thankful for food to eat. I am thankful for freedom of religion. I am thankful for clean fresh air. I am thankful for the beauty of nature. I am thankful for so many things.

I do not know what the future holds, but I hope to have many more years with my wonderful, caring hubby.

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

It has been an interesting week. . . . below are just a few pictures of our week.

Photos by me

Barred Owl in the country

 Big Brown Bat on the house

Northern Shoveler in our pond 

Crawdad (crayfish) from our pond

 Kids and Daddy looking at the crawdad

Princess

Pumpkin

Photos by Daddy

Northern Water Snake in our pond

Painted Turtle in our pond

Mommy

Gray Fox in the yard

To Good Health

A couple of weeks ago I switched to a new doctor's office.  I had been thinking about it for a few years and finally decided that it was past time.  My former physician was okay, but I did not go see him unless I REALLY needed to.  I just did not feel too confident having him as my doctor and sometimes I felt like he just was not listening to me.

So I am assigned to a physicians assistant now in another doctor's office.  I had an initial new patient visit with her two weeks ago.  We went over my family medical history and what my health concerns might include.  It took about an hour to talk through everything.  She is very nice and I am very pleased.

Now my mom hated doctors and going to the doctor for herself.  I do not want to be like that.  If I have a valid medical question, I want to have a doctor that I know and trust. With both parents developing cancer in their 50s, I just don't want to leave anything to chance.  I want to be more pro-active about my health.  I am not going to look for cancer around every corner, but I also want to have a doctor that will be able to catch it at an early stage if it does occur.  

We also have Type II diabetes on both sides of my family- my dad, my paternal grandma, and my maternal grandpa- which puts me at a higher risk.  I already have to watch what I eat to avoid the dreaded capsicum; to watch my sugars too, I am not sure that I would remain sane.  I do know that I should reduce my sugar and starch intake to reduce my chances of developing it sooner than later.  

A person's weight also goes hand and hand with Type II diabetes.  I have know this for a long time and I keep telling myself that I do need to work on reducing my weight.  According to the charts (which I do not quite believe) I am just on the border line of been obese.  Most people that look at me, would probably say no way to obese, maybe overweight, but not obese.  I think that those charts are based on the average person with a medium frame, and skewed on both ends of the height scale.  I am 6'1" and I have a large frame.  It is close to impossible to find a chart for my height and frame, but I think I just found one.  According to it my ideal weight would be 161-182 pounds.  Well I am definitely over that.  

Since I chatted with the physicians assistant, I have managed to drop five pounds in two weeks.  I discussed with her that I wanted to work on managing my weight to reduce my risk of developing diabetes.  Her suggestions were to reduce simple carbs, increase complex carbs, eat more vegetables, eat greek yogurt, eat lean meat, increase protein, drink skim milk and limit starchy foods and white grains.  

Now I haven't drastically changed my diet.  I have been trying to have an omelet in the morning seasoned with cracked black pepper (no I am not allergic to this), garlic powder and dill weed instead of cereal.  I have increased the number of times during the week that I eat a salad and have been trying to forgo the cheese.  Greek yogurt with fruit is actually pretty tasty and is high in protein. I just can't do skim milk, but we did switch over to 1%.  I have also tried to limit my soda intake to occasionally.  

Now typically women do not relieve their weight, so shhhhhhhhhh and be nice. As of yesterday I weighed two hundred twenty four pounds, but I would love to whittle that number away to one hundred ninety pounds over the next few years.  I have no illusions that it will occur quickly, because it did not come quickly but instead increased overtime.  So over time it must go, with tiny baby steps. Which is how it really came, through two pregnancies, the stress of parents battling illnesses, and the heartache of losing a parent.

So I think my baby steps will include trying to increase the healthy foods and decrease (but not eliminate) the not so healthy foods.  I am not really hip on exercising, but maybe this spring we can start up walking in the evenings with the kids around the neighborhood.  We use to do this more often, but the plantar fasciitis on both of my heels usually sidelines my efforts in favor of the non-painful couch where they can be iced instead.  But I am hoping that as I shed some pounds, the pain from the plantar faciitis decreases.  We are possibly looking into how much it might cost to join the Y, but we may not be able to afford it anyway.

Okay back to the appointment.  In the eight years that I had my other doctor, he never ran any blood tests on me to even check if I had diabetes.  I actually had the eye doctor ask me if I had developed it a few years ago because my nearsightedness improved, which apparently can be linked to your blood sugar levels.  So I also discussed this with the physicians assistant and she wrote up orders for me to have three blood tests.  

I went just this past Monday morning.  I wanted to wait until after the Thanksgiving bustle was all over and I had to fast.  They drew three tubes of blood and my results came in the mail today.  They did a comprehensive metabolic panel, complete blood count with differential, glycohemoglobin total, and lipid panel.  All of the results came back within normal limits.  Yay!  Now some might think that this is a waste of time and money, but the way I think of it is that I really know number wise how I am doing and I now have a baseline to refer to in the future.  My glucose level was 92 mg/dl and the glycohemoglobin A1c was 5.1%.  So that translates to the normal range for my blood sugar levels.  Yay!

Well I think I have spewed enough this evening.  I promise that the next posting will lighter in subject.

Our Thankful List

Princess

"I thankful for giving you a hug.  I thankful for my pink shoes.  I thankful for my mommy and my daddy.  I thankful for my Pumpkin. " 

Pumpkin

"I'm thankful for corn.  I'm just thankful for a lot of stuffs.   I'm thankful for mommy, daddy, grandma, and my teacher.  I'm thankful for food.  I'm thankful for our house, but it's a secret that I never told you.  I said everything of the world I'm thankful for."

Mommy

"I am thankful for my faith, family, and friends.  I am thankful for my amazing husband and my energetic kids.  I am thankful for a warm place to live and food on the table.  I am thankful for the beauty of nature.  I am thankful for God.  I am thankful for books and yummy recipes.   I am thankful for my camera.  I am thankful for our freedom and to those whom have served to defend our freedom. I am thankful for my children and my husband.  I am thankful for my health.  And I am thankful to be an American."

Daddy

"I am thankful for me and my family's relative health. I am thankful that we have a nice home and food to eat. I am thankful that my wife is so beautiful.  I am thankful for all those whom have served and died so we have the freedom of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.   I am thankful for when I get to be outdoors in nature.  I am thankful for my wife's grandma who helps us so much with the kids.  I am thankful for the infinite number of other things that I should be thankful for but take for granted."

What are you thankful for today?

Yard Time

We spent part of the holiday 

playing out in the yard.

  Enjoy!

I'm pedaling on my own!!!

Sweet Gum leaf with dew drops.

Playing by the pond.

What a sweetie!

 Mommy & Princess 

with our beautiful glasses.

 Mommy & Pumpkin

standing on the bridge.

Mommy & Daddy

(Definitely A Keeper!)

Pumpkin looking for flowers.

Princess joins Pumpkin looking for flowers.

Love this profile shot!

Pumpkin found a spotted cucumber beetle.

Princess blew dandelion seeds.

Pumpkin has a handful of dandelions.

Pumpkin gave Mommy the flowers.

How sweet!

Movie Time

On Wednesday night we took Pumpkin & Princess to see their very first movie in the theater.  It was quite the adventure!  

Pumpkin (age 4) was excited to see Cars 2 and Lightning McQueen.  Much to his dismay, the movie poster just would not come out of the poster case on the outside of the building.  Although he did try his hardest to open the locked case.  

Pumpkin was assigned to daddy for the evening.  His movie treat of choice was M&Ms.  I'm not quite sure how many seats they sat in.  Pumpkin was seat hopping for most of the movie.  Thankfully, it was a slow night with quite a few available seats.  He really seemed to enjoy the movie.  

The next evening at the library he insisted on getting "spy" books, thankfully the librarian was able to help us out.  They are so cute at this age!

Princess (age 2) was also excited and loved the lights on the outside of the theater.  We arrived a touch early so we explored a nearby flower bed.

Princess was assigned to mommy for the evening.  Her movie treat of choice was popcorn and she ate two small bags full.  But I think it is more fun to say that she ate her weight in popcorn.  
 
We initially placed her in one of the theater seats, but the seat kept folding up with her. So, she snuggled into my lap and watched the movie like a champ.  She turned around and hug me about three times, which was so cute!  

It was a good evening overall and we all went home happy.  We are definitely looking forward to seeing another movie sometime this year.

The Two Sides of Easter

Today is Easter.  Pumpkin was the first child to wake up and of course he wanted to rush to his Easter Basket.  I told him that he would need to wake princess and daddy up first, so we could all enjoy the baskets together. 

Princess & Pumpkin's Easter Baskets

He immediately went to his sister’s door and started yelling “GET UP!!  GET UP!!”  Thankful, she was not upset by this and crawled out of her bed with her beloved puppy.  Then I ushered them into our bedroom and they both climbed up on the bed and pounced on daddy.  Daddy pretended to be asleep for a while, and then they were able to rouse him up. 

Discovering the full baskets!

Everyone headed for the sunroom next and pumpkin looked at both the baskets, then with a puzzled look he asked “Which one is mine?”  I asked, “Which one did you pick out yesterday?”  He said “This one!”  I agreed and he swooped up his basket and sat on the floor.  Princess was a bit slower on the uptake and joined him a few minutes later. 

Princess's little puppy

 

The Easter Bunny was good this year.  He must have been impressed that pumpkin had cleaned his room and the sunroom the day before (which is a miracle in itself).  They both received one DVD, one small animal figurine, a toy, and fourteen Easter eggs. 

The breakfast of champions!

Once princess figured out how to open the eggs, she started chowing down on some mini Oreos for breakfast.  She was enjoying her treasures so much that we had a bit of difficulty getting into the highchair for breakfast.

Pumpkin is excited about his goodies!

Pumpkin on the other hand, started sorting through his eggs.  He kept the eggs with chocolate, gave princess the eggs with colored marshmallow bunnies and chicks, and gave me all of the eggs with mini Oreos and mini teddy grahams. 

After breakfast, we were off to church.   Before the service pumpkin, princess, daddy, and I explored the flowers on the altar.  There were white Easter lilies and orange, yellow, red and purple tulips.  It was really breath taking.  We talked about the colors and names of the different flowers with the kids.

During the children’s time, pastor talked about the special visitor that came to everyone’s houses and then talked about Jesus.  Every child left the altar with an Easter book and of course a pouch of snacks then headed off to the toddler room.  We read our new books before nap time.  

Open mommy!

After we got up we went over the grandma’s house for Easter supper and an Easter egg hunt.  This year for Easter are numbers are small just grandma, my sister, and my family.  We had poor boys, potato salad, carrots, rolls, and strawberry shortcake for supper.  It sure was delicious!  After supper, we went outside for the egg hunt.  Pumpkin had the upper hand, so I helped princess out.  I would pick her up and jogging to the next egg before brother took them all. 

A very happy camper!

My mom loved all of the holidays.  Last year, even though she knew it maybe her last holiday, she tried to go all out.  We were all together at grandma’s house: grandma and grandpa, mom and my step-dad, my brother and his family, my sister and her husband, and my family.  It was a several day celebration.  We had an Easter egg hunt in the backyard, a wonderful Saturday supper and an Easter brunch.  Mom had treats, crafts, Easter bonnets for the girls, and so much more.  My only regret of that weekend is that we never thought about having a family picture with everyone together.

Easter is amazing and joyful, but at the same time sad.  It is amazing that God loves us so much that He gave the ultimate sacrifice of His son, Jesus.  And because of this sacrifice we will receive everlasting life.  This year that promise means so much more to me.  This is the first Easter without grandpa and mom, but through that promise it means that I will see them again some day.  I am sad because I still miss them both so much, but it is amazing that through their memories and our family bonds that my step-dad was baptized and joined the church today on Easter Sunday.

My Little Picasso's

Pumpkin and princes love to color.  So the three of us colored some pictures this morning.  Enjoy!   

Pumpkin likes to use one color and gets easily bored with just one picture. 

Princess loves to use many colors and just scribbles the tar out of the picture.  

Mommy of course used different colors, altered pressure and tried to stay in the lines.