Home with two sickies.

Well, I am staying home today with two sick children. Nolan has a horrible cold, earache, cough, mattered eyes, etc. Natalie says she has a stomach ache, but I'm not 100% sure she is sick or if she has sympathy pains. She did have a stomach ache last night at her swim banquet so it isn't totally out of the question. I would hate to have her go to school and get sick while there. I don't mind staying home with sick kids, but when they are both home it is harder to make them rest. Usually by 12:00 they seem totally fine even when they are really sick. This time Nolan is 100% ill so maybe our day will be quiet. 

Natalie had her banquet last night. She got the "courage in competition" award from her coach. Natalie and another girl had to do a swim off to get the last spot on the relay for state and Natalie showed great focus and was able to rise to the challenge. She also got her ribbons, 2nd, 10th, and 12th in the state YMCA meet. We were definitely proud.

I better go attend to my sickies. Poor Nolan is really suffering. I hate when they are sick.

Wow, it's been awhile

Okay, since my last post was titled, "is 2008 over yet?", I realize that it has been a really long time since my last post. It's just that 2009 has been a busy time for our family. 

The kids are doing well with school. Nolan is still a chatter box, but we all know that it is an inherited trait I passed down so I can't get too mad. We talk about being quiet while his teacher is talking. Hopefully he will figure it out eventually. He is going to play tee ball this summer. He is so excited. I'm trying to get him to join the swim team with Natalie. He isn't too sure about that one yet. His birthday is on March 24, he will be six. It just doesn't seem possible. 

Natalie is done with swim team now. She had her last YMCA meet on Saturday. She did very well and made us proud. It has been such a great experience for her. It's hard to believe she hasn't even been doing it a year. Her first meet was at the end of June 2008. She swam the 25 back and free at around 40 seconds. Nine months later, she now swims them at around 25 seconds. She is more competitive than we were aware of too. She had to do a swim off this week to fill the last spot on the free style relay team. She did awesome and got the spot. She had to swim the 100 meter free against another girl. We didn't know she had that in her. In other areas of her life, she would be timid and just bow down to the other child. Not in swimming. She needs this sport to help her get past some of her timidness. 

Nolan continues to make us laugh daily. The last thing was when he had green eggs and ham. He told his teacher he liked it and was so surprised because he was sure it would taste like "wet dog". Not sure how he knows what wet dog tastes like. 

Boji is doing great. He has taken over the house. He still bows down to Bailey once in awhile, but he controls Sadie completely. He is so cute. 

John and I are doing well. He had to have his knee drained a few weeks ago due to inflammation. Since then, he is doing great. I had my methotrexate increased and another cortisone shot in my arse and now am doing pretty well too. We both even made it 7 hours on bleachers and can still move today!! That is amazing. 

I hope to keep up on this a little better. Take care.

Karen

Is 2008 over yet?

This has been a hard year medically for John and I. I'm hoping that 2009 is better. In March I broke my foot and ankle stepping into a hole. Then I was diagnosed with Psoriatic Arthritis (like Rheumatoid, but it also involves the spine), then John started getting really sore and sick. After many blood tests, PT, etc, he was diagnosed with Rheumatoid arthritis. He saw Dr. Amy (my doc too) in August and is doing really well now. Then in September I had my gallbladder removed. Then December 3 I had a hysterectomy. I'm off until we go back to school in January. I'm very sore today, more than yesterday. I'm hoping I get to feeling better soon. 

The kids are doing great. Natalie has a swim meet in Grand Island this saturday. John will take her and Nolan is going to my parents house for the day. I'll have the house to my self to rest. The dogs are very good at taking care of me when everyone is gone. 

I hope 2008 was better for you and that 2009 is better for everyone!!!

It's almost "Turkey Day"

We don't have a lot of news to share. We are trying to stay warm. The kids are keeping us busy with their activities and birthday parties. Nolan had three this weekend. He had so much fun. 

Is it too early to wish for a snow day? I think it is the cold weather making me think about it. Maybe it will happen before December. It's so fun to have a surprise day at home with the kids. 

Weightloss update:  I started limiting my carbs last week and I've lost 6 pounds. My doctor said I had to eliminate the carbs as much as possible. The first few days are horrible, but I'm doing okay now and I'm not having a ton of cravings anymore.

In an earlier post I said I had an upcoming surgery. On December 3 I am having a hysterectomy and bladder suspension. Apparently, my uterus is falling and pressing on my bladder. This causes some issues that will only get worse if we don't fix it. John and I had decided that our family is complete so this isn't a sad thing for us. If we need to add to our family we will just add a four legged friend down the road (after ours are gone of course).

Take care.

Karen

IT'S TIME TO CELEBRATE!!!!

I can't tell you how happy I am right now. This is an amazing event for our country. Either way it was going to be a huge step for our country, first minority or first woman VP. I never thought that I would see either in my lifetime. I really feel like we would have been alright with either candidate. My heart was with Obama though. I think that McCain should have been elected in 2000. I truly feel that our lives would be different if he had been our president. I was even willing to vote outside of my party back in 2000 if he had been the candidate. I respect John McCain. I think this night would be different if he had chosen a stronger VP. 

I don't envy Obama. I wouldn't want to clean up the mess our country is in right now. I do believe that we will see the positive outcome of this election in time. Change can't happen overnight regardless of who gets elected. We will need to be patient for awhile. I think that the task at hand will be handled well by Obama and will support and respect his decisions. Natalie was able to witness this and she is very excited. We have tried very hard to inform our kids about the election and tell them the issues and how each candidate felt about each. We didn't push them to believe what we believe and didn't actually tell them who we were voting for until they had their school vote. They could even feel the excitement he brought to the election. I'm so proud that my kids were able to be so involved in this. I don't care who they voted for, I'm just glad they are into it. 

I'm never going to be able to sleep tonight. I go from smiling uncontrollably to crying tears of joy. 

I'll be back on Wed to update you on the family. We are all good, I am having another surgery though.

Who wants to join me on my weight loss adventure?!!

Today I joined Weight Watchers. I've done this before, but this time it's different. I can feel the motivation in me. I just know I can do this and will eventually get to my goal weight. I'm not going to set any records for how long it takes, but it will happen.

Did that sound convincing enough? I hope so because I'm not really all that excited about it. I mean I want to lose weight, but I hate the slow process. For my health I have to do this or I will have Diabetes or have a heart attack or something. Also, I can't have this much weight on my joints. I don't want to be in a wheelchair ever, let alone before I'm 40. 

I came to this decision when I found out my insurance doesn't cover Lap Band surgery. Can you believe I was thinking of this? I still wish I could have it because I would have to lose weight then. I hate to throw up so I would never overeat because I would be too scared to throw up. 

So, anyone who wants to join me on my weight loss journey is welcome to comment and keep track of your success. I will blog my good weeks and bad. There will be some bad weeks I'm sure. We are almost to the Holidays. 

My goal is to lose 70 pounds. I don't have a timeline for this. Hopefully, it won't take me 10 years, but if it does then so be it:-)

Tuesday

Did I tell you that my Gallbladder did not weigh 60 pounds like I was hoping? Bummer huh? I guess I'm going to have to lose weight the hard way. I am still not allowed to go back to work since my surgeon hasn't signed the form to be faxed to our risk management office. It isn't because I'm not well enough, it is because he has been too busy. So I still sit and wait. I'm feeling great though. I just wish I could sleep on my right side again. I always sleep on my right. I'm not sure what hurts because my incisions aren't over there. It must be organs moving around. Maybe they are dancing around doing aerobics in there so I can lose weight in my sleep. You'd think that I would be cleaning or doing something else that is constructive since I feel pretty good but can't work. Nope, I'm sleeping. Today I slept until 11:00. I get up with the kids from 7-8 and then crawl right back into bed. 

So, I decided to start weight watchers on Monday. It started off great. I had my Fiber One bar and then a WW meal at Applebees. Then I came home to my homemade choc chip cookies and I had like 10. They were my best batch ever. Why would I bake these on Sunday when I know I'm starting WW on Monday? Good question. It's one of the ways I sabotage myself into being fat. Will I always be fat? I hate that word, but I feel like I have officially earned it at this point. I can be called that. On the BMI charts I am "seriously obese". Isn't that sad? Is it sadder that I would be happy to just be "obese"? I haven't been on the healthy weight range on their chart since a few months after I got married nine and a half years ago. Even when I lost a bunch of weight a few years ago I was still "overweight". Okay, enough about that.

On to some funnier topics. Nolan had a friend over tonight and Nolan asked him what his dad looked like and his friend said, "my dad has big poop!" I bet his dad would be thrilled to know that we now know he has big BMs. The play date went well and the boys were funny. I'm used to girl play dates so this was interesting.  Boys and girls do play differently. John took the boys to the park while I stayed home and did nothing. I should have cleaned, but I sat on the couch and watched part of a TLC show about people who have babies and didn't know they were pregnant. How do you not know? I gained 50 pounds during pregnancy and had a big belly. Maybe if I didn't know I wouldn't have given myself permission to eat for 2. 

Natalie had swimming and cheerleading tonight. She normally loves both but she is so tired this week. I think this warm weather is throwing everyone off. I know I'm ready for cool weather. 

Boji loses some of his manhood on Friday. He goes in on Thursday night and gets fixed on Friday. I hope he recovers alright. He likes his crate so he may be spending some time shut up so he doesn't try to wrestle with the dogs. The other day Sadie (collie) was laying on the floor sleeping and Boji took a running start and pounced on her. It was pretty funny actually. Sadie wasn't sure what hit her. They proceeded to wrestle for another hour or so. Those two are close. Bailey is still the boss though and just barks now when she feels they need to settle down. 

Do you ever feel like you are losing your mind? I dropped something in my room yesterday and I can't find it. I know the area it fell, but it is gone. I'm thinking of it because it is my memory card for my camera. It is a new one. I never delete pictures, I just get new memory cards. I know this is so dumb, but I don't want to lose pictures. Even though sometimes I'll have 5 pictures of the same pose and could easily delete 4. And I still have pictures that need developed from 3 years ago. 

Are you all excited that the new shows are back on? My favorite new one is "worst week". It is so flippin' funny. We watched CSI:Miami last night. I won't say anything to ruin it in case you haven't watched it, but I found myself wondering why I watch such a dumb show. I'll keep watching it because I'm hooked. My mother-in-law has be hooked on House Hunters on HGTV too. I watched one from Boston and this lady was so excited because she found a great 2 bedroom apartment for $480,000. Can you even imagine? I will never even afford a whole house for that and she is excited about an apartment. Grey's Anatomy is the one I'm most looking forward to. I saw the preview though and am already irritated by it. Why can't Derek and Meredith just be happy? I think she is just destined to be one of those unhappy people.

Okay, this post is so scattered and confusing. I'm so tired and it is showing in my writing. I apologize about that. I'll come back soon to write a new one that is easier to read:)