Catching Up...again

      Another catch up post.  We moved into the house at the end of July and it's been a good move so far :)  Shortly after we moved I started having a few health problems and that really stinks but that's just life I guess!  I have been diagnosed with gastroparesis (meaning my stomach is paralyzed and causes lots of pain and yuckiness) and just yesterday I found out I have to have a procedure done Monday to remove a kidney stone that won't budge and is causing problems.  Fun fun fun.

      A few weeks before I started getting sick a friend of mine talked me into going running with her.  I didn't do great but I didn't do as bad as I thought I would!  We went a few times but then my health got in the way.  I am determined to jump back in as soon as I get better though!  I am excited!

      Here it is late October already and I feel like Christmas is sneaking up on me way to fast!  I love Christmas so much but I just don't feel ready yet.  I have so much to do!

      I have been making a ton of quilts since the last time I blogged too!  I made this one for a friend.

      This one I made for Noah :)  It's the first full size one I made.  I made it out of his old jeans!  I broke a few needles on it too Lol!

I made this one for Chloe.  It is from old jeans and jean skirts and cute flannel fabric I found.  It fits her twin bed.

I made this one for myself :)  Starr bought the fabric for me and I love it! It's about a full size too I think.

I made this one for my family room.  It's a good size for a throw blanket but I decided to hang it on a quilt rack in the room instead.

I made this one for Chloe's bed because we had decided to get her a full size bed.  Well, I made it nice and big and we changed our mind about getting her a full size bed!  Oh well, it hangs a little big but it still looks good!

I made this one for a cousin's first baby!

And this I made for a different cousin's first baby!

I made this one to sell :)

This one is for sale too :)

I made this one to sell and it sold!

      I am almost done with my last Algebra class!  I am singing and dancing on this one!  I hate algebra and it hates me!  One more week to go and I am done!  Then I have five psychology classes to do (two at a time, each lasting 9 weeks) and I am finished!  I really can't wait to be all done!

      I'm  trying to think if I have more things to catch up with but I can't think of anything right now.  Hopefully (and I know I say this every time) I will get back in the routine of blogging!  I do miss it!  Right now I'm gonna go catch up on reading some blogs!  Until next time.....

Catching Up

On June 23rd, a Saturday, Mark had to go to Mexico for work and stay until July 5th.  On Monday the 25th the kids and I packed up and drove to Kentucky to see my sister and her family.  We had such a good time and it was much needed!  We left on Friday, June 29th, to go back home.  Saturday was nothing but the most wonderful, lazy day!  Church on Sunday and then back to the normal routine on Monday.  Well, other than major cleaning for the rest of the week Lol!

On Wednesday, July 4th, we had a church cookout and then a bunch of us went to the fireworks together.  It was pretty fun but it was the first Fourth of July without Mark since we got married so it felt weird.

On Thursday night Starr, Allen, and the girls came to visit for the weekend!  Mark got home at around 2:30 am Friday morning so we all stayed up and waited for him.

Friday, July 6th, was Noah's 13th birthday!!! I still can't believe I am the mother of a teenager!  Mom and dad arrived at around 3:00 and then we had a party for Noah at 6:00.  It turned out really good!  Mom and dad stayed at a hotel this time since Starr's family was staying here so they went to their room at around 10:00.  Some of our amazingly fun, crazy friends stayed until 3:00 am!  We had a blast though!

Saturday was just a nice day hanging out with all of the family.  All of the kids except for Chloe and Kenzie went out with the church youth for a while in the evening and then brought those crazy friends back with them!  Another loud, crazy, fun night!

Church was on Sunday and then all of my family left on Monday morning :(

I slept off and on all day Monday Lol!  I think I stayed up super late too many nights in a row!

Today we found out that the house will probably close next week and we have to be out of this house by the end of the month.  We are cutting it close and I am panicking a little!  *Breathe in, Breathe out....

So now that we won't be having company for a while I am trying to pack up as much as I can.  I am so ready for this to be over!

School is going pretty good so I am relieved about that.  Not too much more to go!

Oh!  An update on my friend who had the diving accident and broke his neck.  He is doing so much better than the doctors expected!  Everyone is so amazed!  This man who broke his neck and was told that he would most likely never walk again and probably even be completely paralyzed from the neck down got his halo off Monday and took 37 steps with assistance today!!!  That is nothing but a miracle!  So extremely exciting!

Ok, I think I have you all caught up.  If I think of anything else I'll post again :)

More Apologies, More Excuses, and Counting My Blessings

Once again I apologize for my lack of posting lately.  I really have been so busy and my brain has been pretty much a complete mess.  My health has been yucky, which I found that my thyroid has a whole bunch to do with that, my school work has been stressing me out a bit, we have been looking for a house and have had several disappointments with that, and, well my brain is just in a huge fog right now.

Now, about the house situation, we just found out yesterday that we finally got a house!  Not sure when the closing date is yet but we will definitely be in it some time in July.  I can breathe a little easier about that now.  Now I just have to start the packing and moving stuff!  Fun, fun, fun!

Now for a huge "Counting My Blessings" moment...

First of all, a good friend (26 years old, husband and father of two little boys under 2 years old) of ours was swimming last Friday and had a diving accident.  He broke his neck severely.  The doctors said that it is one of the worst breaks that a person can have and still be alive.  He almost drowned but his friend realized that he wasn't coming up and went in to get him.  Thankfully the friend knew better than to try to pull him out of the pool and he just held him as still as he could until the paramedics arrived.  He couldn't feel or move anything from the neck down.  He was life flighted to Birmingham and has been in the ICU since.  Had surgeries and a halo put on and everything.  He has been on a ventilator and has been very critical.  Well, tonight I went to see him and the ventilator is out and a tracheotomy is now in.  He was moving his mouth to communicate and you could even hear a whisper.  He was even joking!  He moved all of his limbs which the doctors thought would not be able to happen!  He still has a very long road ahead of him but he is alive and getting a little better every day!  That is several blessings all together!

It makes you realized how blessed we are every day of our lives.  I can hug my kids and fell them hugging me back.  I can get up and walk around and do whatever I need to do.  I may not like doing laundry but at least I know I am able!  Accidents can happen every single day so make sure you appreciate all of the things in your life, big or small.

I hope to post more often but I am certainly not going to make any promises!

I Just Don't Know

I don't know why I haven't been writing lately.  I guess I just can't seem to find the words.  When I find them again I'll be back.

So Stressed!

I hate that it has taken me so long to post but I have seriously been so busy!  I have been struggling with my classes but thankfully I took my finals last week and have had this week off and I have next week off as well.  I am thrilled to have next week off because we'll be in Florida for the whole week and I would have hated having to do school work every day during vacation.  But, the good  great news is that I got A's in both classes!  My next classes will start the Monday after we get back from vacation.  We have great friends that are going to house sit/pet sit for us so I am extremely thankful for them!

Another dumb stress is looking for a house.  It is not fun at all when you have a deadline and have to find a that I like enough to want to buy, make an offer on the house, have the people accept the offer, start the loan process, and have it close.  When we get back from Disney next Saturday we will only have about 4 weeks to find a house and start the loan process.  I AM SO STRESSED!!!

One more stress is my stupid health junk!  I am so tired of feeling like this.  And I am so frustrated with all the doctors that I have gone to!  The last one just kept pushing me to take Zoloft and saying that nothing was wrong with me and that I was just having panic attacks (I went to him because I have been having trouble breathing and it was starting to hurt my chest when I took a deep breath).  I left almost in tears!  I have still been having the same breathing problems and now have a cough so I went to a different doctor yesterday and she said that it sounded really tight every time I breathed in and she put me on an antibiotic and sent me to have a chest X-ray.  It frustrates me so much when I try to tell a doctor that something is wrong and they ignore me.  I knew something was wrong and it took going to another doctor to find that there was indeed something wrong!  Hopefully this new doctor will figure out what is causing all of this junk that's been going on with me and I can finally start feeling better.

Well, I have to end this post because I have to leave because I have an appointment to see a house.  Wish me luck!

My Wonderful Weekend

I had such a wonderful weekend!  Even with the bad weather on its way we all packed our bags and went to visit my family :)  My sister and her girls had made plans to go to Mississippi to see mom and dad, plus her oldest daughter's "guy friend" was having a birthday party that she desperately wanted to attend.  I haven't been able to be with my mom and dad and my sister and her girls all at once since Christmas so I knew I just had to go!  We left on Friday a little bit before the weather turned horrible but we still ended up driving through some pretty scary stuff.  I am not being over dramatic when I say I was genuinely afraid that we were all going to be taken by a tornado.  Mark and I are pretty sure we saw a funnel cloud forming a little ahead of us at one point and we started trying to plan what in the world we were going to do!  We both just started praying and I literally saw it start to separate right before my eyes.  It was amazing and I thank God so so much!

We arrived Friday night and stayed up way to late visiting which was wonderful and very much needed.  Saturday was a pretty busy day that included going to see my mom's new horse.  Someone gave it to her!  Lucky duck!  I had  a really fun day full of family and friends and tons of laughing.  Sunday was church, which was really good, and then it was time to say goodbye.  I hate saying goodbye.  But I am still so thankful for the time that we all had together this weekend.  I am so blessed!

During this quick visit Mark and I both had big assignments due so between the visiting we had to get back in student mode.  We both turned in our assignments on time so Go Us!!

We got home at about 10 pm on Sunday night, rushed the kids into bed, I had to post a few things in my classes, and then bed time!  We were all so tired!  It was worth it though.

Now I'm sitting here catching up on blogs and catching up on my dvr'd shows (I should be doing some of my schoolwork but, well, I just don't feel like it right now).  I have so many blogs to catch up on and plus I added a few more to my list.  I just love to read about other people's lives I guess Hahaha!

So that's what I did this weekend.  Hope everyone else had a good weekend too!!!


Oh wait!! I forgot to add that my son has his first actual girlfriend!  She is a doll!  They have actually been "boyfriend and girlfriend" for a little over a month.  She lives by my mom so Noah got to hang out with her this weekend.  I'm guessing he loved the weekend too!  Here they are, so cute!

He would probably kill me if he knew I put these pics on here!

I think I can, I think I can...

I have been working pretty hard to lose weight and I have to say that I'm not doing too shabby!  I have lost about 15-20 lbs since Christmas but I am far from being done.  I seem to do really good for a little while and then I get all emotional and since I am an emotional eater (excuses, excuses) I cheat, and cheat, and cheat.  I'll lose 3 lbs and gain one back, lose 5 lbs and gain 2-3 back, and so on and so on.  What a bad cycle but at least I am losing more than I'm gaining!  Here's the thing though, I have hit a wall.  I am stuck at this weight ??? lbs (like I'm really gonna tell you how much I weigh) and I can't seem to lose!  Granted, the snack cakes aren't really helping but I have cut back.  Any have any advice they can give me? Anyone?  Helloooo!!! Is anyone out there?  I need help ya'll!  I need some motivation, tips, and maybe a few "You can do it" 's!  Meanwhile, I'll try to muster up the will power to stay away from the snack cakes.  It's just so hard.... They're right in the cabinet... Calling for me!  They're technically supposed to be for my kid's lunches but what can I do when they are calling my name?

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!  I hope everyone had a day filled with love!  I had a very lovely day.  I started the day off by giving my precious loves Valentine treats and then had a normal day like any other day.  After I got home from work I gave my loves another little Valentine treat and then we all went out to eat.  I really enjoyed the time with all four of us.  It was really nice!  Now it's bed time for my two young loves and I'm going to give them one more Valentine treat :)  I have been so blessed and I am really counting those blessings today.  I seem to forget about my blessings and only see the struggles and problems sometimes but today I am just thankful.  Thankful for all of the love that I feel from people every single day and thankful that I can love them right back!
Valentine's Day may usually be about lovers and romantic things but today it is all about everyone I love!  Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Finally Feeling Better

Well I have been one sick girl lately!  It all started with a stupid little stye.  I have gotten styes before and it was never a problem.  I just had to put a hot wash cloth on it a few times a day and then it would go away,  no big deal.  Well, for some reason this stye decided to go crazy!  My eye became infected and it swelled up all the way down my cheek.  I looked scary!  I went to the doctor and she said that it was pretty bad and that it might be a staph infection so she put me on a really strong antibiotic and an antibiotic eye cream and told me to call her if it wasn't better by Friday (This was all on Wednesday 2/1/12).  Friday came and my eye was worse so  I called the doctor's office and got the answering service who told me that they had decided to close the office for the day.  Ummm, ok.... I asked them to page my doctor because she had told me to call her.  About four hours later she called me back and said I should go to the emergency room.  Not what I wanted to hear.  I went to the er and when the nurse was checking me in she said that I had a fever and my blood pressure was up.  When the doctor finally came in he didn't even look at my eye.  He told me it's just a stye and to put a warm wash cloth on it and it would get better.  Then he asked me "You're on an antibiotic, right?"  I said yes and he tells me "try poking it with a needle"!!! Can you even believe it?!?!  I just stood there looking at him like you have got to be kidding me!  He left the room and then a few minutes came back in and said "I'm just a P.A. so I asked the pharmacist and he suggested that I prescribe you a different eye cream".  Ok, whatever.  So I started on the new eye cream all the while still taking the oral antibiotic from my doctor.  Well, Friday night I started feeling really sick.  I started throwing up and just feeling really horrible all over.  I had a temperature of 102 degrees and it would only go down to 99.7 on Tylenol.  This went on all weekend.  I couldn't keep anything down and my face looked like I had a sunburn.  I called my doctor's office on Monday morning and the nurse told me I just had a virus.  I tried to explain to her that I was turning red and it looked like I had a sunburn and she said it was probably just from the fever.  I wanted to cry!  I knew something was wrong but no one would help me.  I wasn't sleeping at night because I was throwing up all night.  I was absolutely miserable!  I called again on Tuesday and told the nurse that my whole body was starting to look red.  Once again she said that it was probably a virus.  By Wednesday morning my whole body looked like I had a horrible sunburn.  It itched but I couldn't scratch it because it hurt so much!  Mark was even so worried and said that if the doctors didn't do something this time he was going to take me to Birmingham to the emergency room.  I called my doctor and she finally got on the phone.  I told her what all was happening and she got really worried and said that she thought I was having an allergic reaction to the antibiotic.  She had me come in to her office and when she saw me she was amazed that I wasn't having any breathing problems!  I had to have a steroid shot in the office and then she put me on a 6 day steroid treatment.  I knew something was wrong and that I didn't have a virus.  If I hadn't been throwing up and all of the medicine had been staying in me I would have ended up in the hospital.  So, I am finally feeling better.  I still get tired easy but my energy is coming back slowly.  It has been quite an adventure!  I now know that I can't have any sulfa drugs and, trust me, I will be sure to let all doctors that I may have in the future know this!

I have to go back to work tomorrow though.  Besides the fact that I was so sick it was so nice getting to stay home every day!  I am seriously considering quitting my job.  I don't really need it and, once I started getting better, I enjoyed having the time and energy to get my house back in order.  I know that once I'm back at work I won't feel like cleaning or anything when I get home.  I'll wait and see how I feel after a few days of working before I just quit.  It's just a thought, I don't want to rush into anything.

I will try to post more often (I know I've said that before).  I just never seem to have time between school, work, church, and all my mommy duties.  And then when I do have time I just get lazy and don't feel like it Lol!  I'll work on it, I promise!

Ahhhh!

I will be so glad when I am finally done with school!  The stress is killing me!  I think my emotions are to far on the edge anyways so everything the least bit stressful is magnified.  I feel like I either need to only have school to deal with or just work to deal with but not both.  I am just not emotionally capable of handling both at the same time.  That is just sad.  I feel like crying constantly, actually I do cry pretty much every day.  This is just sad.  I have got to get a grip!  I think I need to sleep for about a week too.  I wake up and feel tired, I go to work and yawn all day, I come home and fall asleep if I sit down at all, and I have no motivation at all.  :(  Man, this is such a depressing post! I'm sorry!  I'm hoping that if I get this out maybe I'll feel a little better.  If not, I'm going to quit my job.  Although, if I quit my job I'll probably end up sleeping all day long so that might not be the best answer.  Hmmm.....

On a better note, I got to go see my parents this past weekend.  It was a really wonderful visit :)  Mark, Noah, and dad got to hunt and Noah shot his first deer.  He hit it but must not have killed it because they never found it.  My dad shot one though so Noah got to experience the joys of cleaning the deer and all that nastiness!  We are actually going back there in about three weeks for my cousins wedding so I think they are planning on hunting again.  I am just excited to get to go there again!  I can't wait!

Also, Noah got a girlfriend...yep I am old.  She is adorable and they have actually known each other for quite a while but now it is official.  Actually, it is even Facebook official! Hahaha!  He is super excited and I just love seeing him smile like this.  I am so thankful that he isn't embarrassed to tell me all about it.  He told me that she is going to be his date for the the wedding :) So cute!

Well, I am supposed to be doing my school work right now but clearly I am a procrastinator.  I would much rather write about what I want to write rather than what I am told to write.  Oh well.....