Christmas 2014

Catch up time!  We had a very lovely Christmas this year.  We were happy to have Scott's parents here for Christmas Eve dinner, where we had a fun little nativity play with the kids and they had a blast.  I also crocheted this fancy peppermint afghan this year, which was a difficult project, but turned out awesome.

College Graduate!

Hey guys!  I've have definitely been neglecting this blog for like a year.  It's not like we don't have anything blog-worthy going on, I'm just too lazy to update it.  But I've decided to update for the cause of praising my awesome husband.

Scott finished his Network Administration Degree form WGU in October and is now the very proud owner of a bachelors degree! 

I'm super-duper proud of this handsome fellow!  He has worked really hard over the past two and a half years to work full time, help raise the family, and go to school full time.  Not to mention since he started school we moved out of state, Ivy had heart surgery and we had a baby, which all complicated things tremendously.  He's like some sort of super hero, and I'm the luckiest girl in the world.  

So next time you see this man of genius be sure to congratulate him on this awesome achievement because he wanted to quit many times, but he stuck with it and got it done! He's da bomb!

Potty training blues

I don't think there is anyone in the world who hates potty training more than me.  I just hate it so much.  

Echo is three.  I have tried potty training her twice before.  Each time we'd try for a couple of days and then I would be completely overwhelmed by cleaning up pee puddles and poopy panties so I'd quit.  

Let me tell you about a little instance we had the last time we tried that really made me weary about trying again.  Echo had FINALLY gone pee in the potty and we had been having a pretty good, accident-free day.  She had broken her glasses a few days earlier so we ran into Walmart to get them fixed.  She wore panties because I didn't expect to be there long, and she was doing pretty good.

 Big mistake.

 It ended up taking forever to get the glasses fixed, and while I was talking to the sales lady (who just happened to be an old high school friend of mine), Echo peed a GIANT puddle in the middle of the floor.  Like, I cannot express how enormous the puddle was.  No wonder she had an accident-free day, she'd stored it all up to make a little urine swimming pool in the middle of Walmart!  She immediately started to take off her clothes (because she hates being wet or dirty), and I stopped her because Walmart nudity is inappropriate.  Well, I should have let her strip because she completely flipped out.  I forced her to keep her clothes on, while I tried to grab paper towels to clean up the mess.  This meant I had to carry her with her wet bottom back and forth from the bathroom with a million paper towels that were always a million too few.  She screamed "HELP ME!  HELP ME!" the entire time I cleaned up the mess.  It was busy in the little glasses place with only two workers, so no one could help me and the other customers just watched me struggle. After at least 75 trips back and forth with paper towels I had cleaned up enough of the mess that I no longer felt as bad, but my face was red with frustration and probably some embarrassment, and I just had to get out of there.  I announced to my friend who worked there how sorry I was and that we'd be back later to pick up the glasses.  As I carried my wet, hysterical child still screaming "HELP ME!" as loud as she could, out of the store, every single person stared at us like I was a kidnapper.  

It was such an awful experience that it ended our potty training attempts abruptly.  I kind of expected her to get married in diapers after that.

Well that was a couple of months ago, so recently I thought we might try again, but I was dragging my feet because I dread it so much.  But about a week and a half ago, after several days of Echo removing her own diaper as soon as she'd pee in it, even if I just put it on her, I got fed up with her constant nudity, and how she was just wasting so many freaking diapers. So I said, that's it, get panties on.  We are doing this!!

That day I made her sit on the potty for forever while I sat on the edge of the tub and chatted with her.  She played with toys, drank some water and acted silly.  All of the sudden she peed in the toilet.  She got this surprised look on her face and I screamed "You did it!" and did a really silly happy dance.  Scott came in and joined the dance, we both gave her high fives and yelled with excitement and then gave her some candy.  Well that was it for her.  She has peed in the toilet every single time since.  The only down side of the whole story is the poop.  She has pooped in the potty twice now, but every other time it has been in her panties and I really despise cleaning that up.  Its so gross and horrible.  But I think we are finally going to beat this.  I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.  As soon as she gets this down I will only have ONE KID LEFT to potty train.  I seriously can't wait for the potty training phase of my life to be over.

Princess Echo sits atop her throne waiting for her number one to come.  It did about five minutes later.

6 Week Pure Workout Challenge

As many of you already know, for the past 6 weeks I was involved in a weight loss challenge at a gym in Murray.  It is called Pure Workout and the challenge was to workout with them 5 days a week (and twice on my own), eat what they told me, and to lose 20 lbs in 6 weeks.  The catch was that it cost $500 to sign up, but if I followed the rules and met the goal I would get all $500 back.  I practically had an anxiety attack when I signed up, but I thought, what better motivator than money, so I did it.  

Anyway, it was the hardest 6 weeks of my life.  I woke up at 4:20 every morning to work out at the gym for an hour (which was no ordinary workout, it was like cross-fit, trying to kill me type of stuff).  I ate lots of proteins and vegetables, a few carbs and fruits and NO sugar (which ended up equaling less than 800 calories a day).  The last 4 weeks I also worked out on my elliptical for 30 minutes a day and walked 3 miles a day.  I was pretty much always working out, and hungry A LOT for 6 LONG weeks.  It was a little rough and VERY stressful at times, but I survived the 6 weeks.

I weighed in for the last time on Saturday.  I did it.  I lost a total 23.2 lbs in 6 weeks.  If you add that to the 10 lbs I lost before the challenge that is a total of 33.2 lbs in about 3 months. I still have more weight to lose and I am far from where I'd like to be, but I am so happy to have come this far.  I hope I can keep it up.

Here are my before and after pictures. They are not great, and hard to see a difference, but let me tell you, there is a definite difference.  Especially in my stomach.  I don't look pregnant anymore!

BEFORE

 AFTER

Back to school

So I've been a huge loser the past few months and haven't blogged.  I don't know why.  It just never seems to happen. I haven't read anyone else's blogs in months either. I apologize.

Summer is already over.  August has been such a rainy, stormy month that it feels like Summer ended way early.  It also makes me afraid for what Winter will bring.  We did tons of stuff this Summer, like many Bear Lake trips, bowling, hiking, playing outside, being with family etc, but I don't know if I will ever get around to blogging about them.  I just don't have the energy.  Just know that Summer was great, we were sad about it being time to go back to school, but I'm happy to be back in that routine again.

 School started last week for the boys. They were excited to go back, although in their words, "It felt like Summer just started!"  They both got really good teachers and have friends in their class.  So life is good for them.  They really thrive on the routine of school, homework, and chores.  They watched way too much Fairly Odd Parents over the summer, so its good for them to not have time for it anymore.

Here are the boys on their first day back.

 Dexter started 2nd grade and has Mrs. Petersen

 Corbin started 4th grade and has Mrs. Berg

Ivy started Kindergarten on Monday.  I had a really hard time with the idea of sending her to school 3 hours a day 5 days a week.  I seriously cried every time I'd talk about it.  I guess I'm not ready for her to grow up.  It feels like once they are in school you never see them anymore and they grow up too fast.  Anyway, the first day came and I felt so sick to my stomach about her going, but I was being tough.  We waited for the bus to come and I tried not to cry.  We waited and waited and the bus never showed.  I called the school to find out what was going on and they didn't know, so I drove her in and she ended up being about 5 minutes late for her first day. I was SUPER annoyed. For any of you that really know me, you should know that I HATE being late.  It drives me crazy when others are late, and so I try REALLY hard to always be on time.  It felt like a bad start to something I wasn't thrilled about in the first place.  I was pretty grumpy the rest of the afternoon because of it, but I got over it fast when I saw Ivy's beaming smile when she came home on the bus with her big brothers.  She had a great first day and made 3 new friends and loved her teacher.  It made me feel so much better about everything.

On a side note: The next day the bus showed up, although 7 minutes late, and all I thought was, "At least it came!"

Here is Ivy on her first day of Kindergarten.

My Lithotripsy Procedure

I had my lithotripsy procedure done two days ago (the kidney stone blaster thing).  The procedure itself wasn't so bad, well, I can't remember any of it.  The doctors claim I was awake and talking, but I have no recollection of that due to the sedatives I was on.

Day one:  I was only in the surgical center a little over 3 hours start to finish before they sent me home, so it really wasn't bad at all.  I was in some pain when I got home, but mostly I was just out of it and needed to sleep it off, so I went to bed while Malcolm napped, and Echo eventually came and napped in my bed with me, and Ivy watched a movie.  I slept the afternoon away.  When Echo and Malcolm got up, I got up too, but felt pretty crappy.  I was kind of like a zombie for the rest of the day.  I made sure the kids stayed alive as they mostly watched tv and ate fruit snacks while I sat dazed on the couch in and out of consciousness.  Scott cooked up a frozen lasagna for dinner and I barely had to move. I went to bed at 10pm, which almost never happens around here. We made it through day 1 with little to no problems.

Day two:  Started out fine, it just didn't stay that way.  I was still in pain around my left kidney, but Ivy had preschool at 10am so I was determined to not take any pain meds so I could drive.  I showered, did my hair, even put on make-up.  I got the kids all ready to go, all while being tough with no medication to numb my kidney pain.  I drove Ivy to school, but I was hurting so when I got home I took a Norco and told Scott he'd have to drive to pick her up at noon.  He agreed.  I actually cleaned the kitchen and living room, but as soon as I held still for 5 seconds I was once again in and out of consciousness on the couch until it was time to pick Ivy up.  Scott drove and I felt nauseous. When we got home Scott got to work making the kids and himself some lunch while I fell into a deep sleep on the couch.  I didn't wake up for almost 2 hours.  When I did, the kids were all downstairs, fed and happy watching Despicable Me.  I was grateful for Scott and his patience.  I felt awful for pretty much the rest of the day.  I finally felt a little better after we ate some dinner (which I could barely eat), and the kids were in bed.  I was able to stay up until 10:30, but then gave in and went to bed.  We made it through day two, but it was rough!

Day three:  I'm sick of feeling crappy.  I'm not taking any more pain meds, since they just make me feel so out of it.  I still have some pain around my kidney, especially if I lean back on it, or it gets bumped, but for the most part I think its getting better.  I went shopping for Gecko's birthday today with minimal regrets for leaving the house, and I actually made my kids their lunch.  We are still spending a lot of time on the couch since I'm still really tired, and not ready to head out to the park or anything, but today has been a huge improvement on yesterday.  I think I should ready to get back to my regular life by the weekend, maybe even sooner.  Yay!

Ps, Maybe this is too much information, but just for those who are curious. I had 2000 shots of energy (or whatever that lithotripsy machine does) blasted at my kidney stone for about 45 minutes to break it up. I have been urinating into a strainer thing, and catching the little pieces of kidney stone about the size of a grain of sand, which aren't painful at all, and saving them for the doctor (although, I might not give them to the Dr because they are so small I don't see how they could run any tests on them).  I wonder how long they'll keep coming out?

Well, its been a while...

I don't know whats happening to me.  I guess I'm just getting too lazy to blog anymore.  I keep thinking I need to, but I just never get around to it.  Well here goes....

Not a whole lot has happened since I last blogged, but here are a few things.

~We went to Bear Lake twice, once in March, and once in April, and had a blast both times.  We just love it there.  Even when there isn't running water and everybody is dirtier and stinkier, its still fun and WAY better than camping!!  And its so nice to only be 2 hours away!  Can't wait to go again for Memorial day!

~ Corbin did his second Pinewood derby.  He didn't win any races (we were just happy his slow car actually finished each race), but he won the Judges choice award for his car and walked away a happy kid! (For some reason I can't find my picture of the car.  I have it somewhere, but you'll just have to take my word for its cuteness)

 ~As far as the plumbing problems go...there are still problems, but I think the number of times the basement has flooded in the last month has dramatically decreased from where it was before.  Our walkway is fixed, and we are now just working to get the grass looking nice again.  We're hoping the plumbing situation just keeps getting better, but kind of live in fear of the next flood.

~I "ran" a 5k with Marde and my friend Lisa.  It wasn't really running, it was mostly walking with a teeny bit of jogging thrown in throughout the route but still an accomplishment for this chubby girl.  Marde and Lisa were super nice and patiently stayed with me even though they could have ditched me and got a much better time.  I'm glad we did it, and am actually thinking of doing the one in July too, but we'll see....

~I got kidney stones.  Well ONE kidney stone.  One GIANT kidney stone.  It reared its ugly head early Tuesday morning and rocked my world.  I thought I was going to die, it was so awful. This isn't my first kidney stone, so that amount of pain caught me off guard because it was way worse than the first time. After a CT scan they told me that its too big to pass myself.  Its 5 x 8 mm which I guess is like a really big pea or lima bean.....It's still there.  I'm having it zapped into teeny bits on Monday morning.  I'm not looking forward to it.  I haven't heard good things about this procedure, but I don't really have many options at this point.  At least I get to have a nap while they zap it.  Its always good to look at the positives in life, right?

Well, that's it for now.  Hopefully I can get back on top of this blog thing...