Archive for May, 2010
Losing It-Back To Square One
Friday, May 28th, 2010
Kathy at House Of Hills has kindly offered to continue the accountability part to the Losing It challenge a bunch of us were participating in several weeks ago.
So, here I am trying to get back on the wagon, so to speak. It’s been a month since the miscarriage and I’m pretty sure I found most of the ten pounds I lost. Which is discouraging. However, I’m not quitting! I’ve lost and gained way too often. I really don’t want to let this drag me down. I’m going to continue my weight loss journey! (Hear me roar!)
I’ll admit to being too chicken to actually weight this morning. I was planning on it just to give you all an update but then I didn’t want to start out the weekend discouraged. I’m going to start out the new week exercising and then I’ll weigh next Friday Most of our commitments wrapped up this past week for the Summer so I’m going to have more time to exercise and get back on track.
So, I’m going to continue doing what I had been doing before. Eating smaller portions (sometimes half of what I was eating before), and doing 30-35 minutes on my elliptical as many days a week as possible. It doesn’t sound like a glamorous weight loss plan but it was working. I was even eating dessert! Just not a lot of it. I already drink a lot of water and we don’t drink soda anymore so I don’t list that as one of my goals.
Oh, did I mention my husband has “accidentally” lost forty pounds since last year? He went for his yearly visit to his sleep doctor (he has sleep apnea and uses a CPAP machine at night) and he weighed forty pounds less than when he went last year. His doctor told him to continue doing whatever he was doing to lose that weight! What’s unfair is that he’s only been eating a little less than he was before. He hasn’t even been exercising! Imagine if he had been exercising too. No fair! All kidding aside, I’m proud of him.
So, I’m slowly getting out of my funk and back into the real world. I was in a blog funk too so I wasn’t blogging nearly as much as I used to.
Hello Mr. Elliptical, I’ve missed you.
If you want to join in with a wonderful group of ladies and stay accountable each Friday link up at House Of Hills and tell us how you’re doing in your weight loss journey. I promise you’ll get lots of praise and encouragement!
Top Favorite Dance Recital Pictures
Tuesday, May 25th, 2010
I’m totally killing two birds with this Top Ten Tuesday. My daughter’s first dance recital was this past Saturday. It was so cute and she did so great. It was very long. Three hours long! I’m being told that that is normal time frame. I had no idea! My two year old cried through half of it which took away the fun a little bit. However, I did get some great pictures. So, in honor of that, my Top Ten today is my favorite 10 pictures from her dance recital and a small recap.
These were taken before we left for the recital.
Madelyn had to copy her big sister
This move is called “twinkling” which I think is so cute!
Sadly, our dance studio allows picture taking only during rehearsal. So these are from the rehearsal.
All of us moms were holding our breath during this move since the girl to the far left had to slowly walk backward into Katelyn’s arms and then both of them were to walk back into the third girls arms and so on down the line of dancers until they were in a little “train” line. We were all waiting for the domino affect to happen but it never did!
These were taken after the recital. Katelyn thought getting flowers was so special. Her nana and papa got her some pretty pink roses and we got her a mixed bouquet. She loved the pink roses but I could tell was somewhat underwhelmed by the mixed bouquet! Since we’ve been really working with Katelyn to be tactful in what she says to others she says to me ” Mom, since I don’t want to hurt your feelings I’m going to tell you that I like your flowers.” Yep, still needs a little more work!
The dancing queen with mommy, daddy and sister.
Me with my dancer
As you can see, Top Ten Tuesday is pretty easy, fun and flexible. Join in at Oh Amanda!
Wordless Wednesday
Wednesday, May 19th, 2010
Caught the girls sharing a pillow and being sweet to each other while watching t.v
Ssshhh! Don’t let them know you noticed!
Top Ten Favorite Memes
Monday, May 17th, 2010
My Top Ten today is a list of my favorite memes and ones I’d like to participate in one day! I know many of you probably already participate in many of these but you might also see a new one you might like.
1. Top Ten Tuesday at Oh Amanda
If you’ve been reading my blog for any length of time you’ve ran into this meme each week!
Amanda hosts this fun weekly meme where we can list a Top Ten of whatever we want! Top Ten Things You Like To Eat. Top Ten Favorite Shows. Top Ten Things You Love About Your kids. Top Ten Things That Annoy The Heck Out Of You. (I’m currently working on that one…)
Get the idea? It’s fun! Link up!
2. Not Me Monday at MckMama.com
MckMama started this meme a while back. It’s a meme where we can publicly confess the non perfect person/mom/wife/ friend etc we were the past week by some of the things we “hypothetically” might have done.
3. Losing It- at House Of Hills
A continuation of a fun, 10 week weight loss challenge several of us Bloggers participated in a few weeks ago. Kathy has graciously agreed to continue it on her blog as a way for us to keep going with our weight loss goals and to keep each other accountable each Friday by linking up. I was knocked off the proverbial wagon a few weeks ago (so to speak) and I plan on getting back on soon and losing another 10 pounds. Can’t wait to link up again!
4. Wordful Wednesday- At Seven Clown Circus
Many of us love Wordless Wednesday but, well, can’t keep from actually making it wordless! Wordful Wednesday is for you if you fall into this category. You can post a great picture (or two) and write as many words about it as you want!
5. Works For Me Wednesday- We Are THAT Family
Got a tip that has worked wonders for you in your home or personal life?Write about it and link up! You’ll find lots of useful information in this meme and you may be able to make a difference in someone else’s day with your tip.
~Here are some memes I would love to participate in at some point!~
6. Things I love Thursday at The Diaper Diaries
Have something you love to use/eat/read that you can’t stop talking about? Is there a cleaning product that has changed your cleaning routine for the better? A book that has changed your life? Write about it and link up at The Diaper Diaries and share it with everyone else.
7. Feed Me Books Friday- at The Adventure Of Motherhood
I love to read and I love to read to my girls. Adventure Mom Janna has created this meme to share great books she has read to her daughter and invites us to share too. You’ll want to check these books out and read them to your children! What a great book list!
8. Real Clean Wednesday…. at iDream Of Clean
Join Christine as she shares wonderful cleaning tips and tricks on Real Clean Wednesday. Not only will you gain some new tricks from her but from the other Bloggers who link up as well. A plethora (yep. I finally got to use that word!) of cleaning and organizing advice from real, every day women on one page! I guess I don’t have anymore excuses for being a poor housekeeper, huh?
9. Saturday Stumbles- at It’s Come 2 This
Mandi invites us to share some great blog posts that we’ve read the previous week from other bloggers. She graciously Stumbles other people’s blog posts that she finds interesting and/or useful so other people can be blessed by them as well. I haven’t personally Stumbled anything yet but I most definitely read some great blog posts each week. This is a great way to share some bloggy love and give props to inspiring, informative or touching blog posts.
10. Kid-Terview Friday- at Simply Mel!
This is shameless self marketing right here, folks. What is this meme all about you ask? (And poo on you if you didn’t.) This is a meme (is it a meme if there’s no link up?) I created a while back (on my old blog) where moms can submit an interview that they’ve had with their child and I post it on my blog(along with an adorable picture of said child) each Friday. The interview questions can literally be whatever you want. I was able to post several cute and funny ones. It’s amazing how the mind of children work!! It was also fun to see the questions that the moms came up with. Some of them were very creative! It’s a great way to showcase how cute/precocious/funny/brilliant/ adorable your kid is and have all the readers agree with you in the comment section! I’d love to start this meme back up again. So, if you’re interested in submitting an interview with your child let me know! Here’s one that was submitted a while back.
Have a Top Ten list and no where to put it? Write about it and link up at Oh Amanda.
Before And After
Monday, May 17th, 2010
Here’s an idea of what my floors looked like before Mike refinished them:
Bedroom Before:
Bedroom After
Dining Room Before (with floor already sanded. It looked a lot like the Bedroom Before)
Dining Room After
Play Room Before (Again think Bedroom Before in terms of what it looked like before it was sanded)
Playroom After
Girls Bedroom After (I think I deleted the ‘before’ picture but I know I already showed you that one on an older post)
Don’t the floors look great? Those who have been to my house will especially appreciate how different and new they look. The only room that needs to be done now is the living room. We’ll actually have to stay somewhere else for about three days since we won’t be able to use our house at all while the living room is being refinished. It’s the hubbub of our house and you can’t “get there from here” without walking through the living room.
We’re slowly taking the packed boxes in the garage from our almost move in January and unpacking them. The girls are especially excited for us to find their Zhu Zhu Pets we had packed away after Christmas. It’s kind of sad for me to unpack the stuff that I had excitedly packed away thinking we were moving into a bigger house. I had thought that I wouldn’t be using that stuff again until I was UNpacking it in a new home.
*SIGH*
In unpacking these boxes we’re also taking stock of what we really need and what actually fits in this house. If the item doesn’t fit that category going to our yard sale at the end of May/ beginning of June.
I had planned another part to this post to be about the Before And After of how God has been working in me lately. Especially after the miscarriage. I realized that’s going to need a post of it’s own.
So be waiting for it!
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Katelyn update:
We’ve had several more mini bug episodes since last Wednesday. Nothing like the original one, however. She’s slept through the night a couple of times but has also gotten up several times needing reassurance that there were no bugs in the room and that they were only in her mind.
The direction and steps I’ve taken with her that are working are:
~Praying with her. Reminding her that Jesus is protecting her and He won’t allow any harm to come to her.
~Reminding her that seeing bugs or NOT seeing bugs are in her control. She chooses what she sees and she’s the boss of her bugs. If she’s seeing bugs it’s because she’s choosing to.
~Reminding her that spending the day at the doctor’s was not fun. If she continues to see bugs it means she’s sick. If she has to go to the doctor she misses out on playing with her friends. Is that what she really wants?
~ As a last resort we have also put her in the shower ( at midnight!!! Aye!!) to calm her down and soothe her and then I’ve rubbed my Neutrogena Sesame Body oil on her and told her that would help her skin feel better and smell nice. That has worked wonders. But, I’d prefer not to have to do that in the middle of the night a lot!
~Keeping more lights on.
~She’s woken up coughing which has triggered her to wake up in the middle of the night. I’ve been giving her some honey before bed and kept her humidifier going. That has also made for more restful sleep.
~ One thing I don’t want is to tell her is that certain things will keep the bugs away or any such thing. No showers to “wash the bugs off”, “special lotion that keeps bugs off and keeps them away”, “sprays that will protect her room” or ” a special doll that wards off bugs”. I feel like that is just going to feed into her fear. I don’t want her depending on those things. Once that special lotion doesn’t “work” anymore or the doll is protecting her anymore we’ll have to move on to some different, magical thing. I want her to face the reality that there are NO bugs to “keep away”. It’s all in her mind and that’s where she needs to fight them.
She got up three times last night. The first time she kept telling me ” No, mom, there’s reeeaallly bugs in my room this time. Really!” And kept looking under her pillow and her blankets and on her arms and legs. She screamed when I pulled the blanket away to show her there were no bugs. After (irritably) reminding her that she was choosing to see bugs and that if she kept seeing them we’d end up at the doctor again (which she definitely doesn’t want) she settled down. Only to wake up two more times. Thankfully each episode lasted between ten and twenty minutes. I’d much rather be getting up in the middle of the night with a new infant! That’s what’s supposed to be happening. Not with my four and a half year old daughter who is hallucinating.
I called her pediatrician’s office to day for the result of her Strep test since they haven’t called me yet.
Not getting enough sleep is really messing up my daily routine. I’ve been sleeping in which throws off my Bible reading and exercising (meaning, non existent). It also sets a bad tone for the day because I’m irritable and out of sorts.
Here’s for a restful week and winning the battle of the bugs!
Have a great Monday!
Oh What Night
Wednesday, May 12th, 2010
QUICK UPDATE:
Katelyn is sleeping soundly in her bed right now. Thank God! I”m about to go to bed myself! After a visit to her pediatrician we were sent to Boston’s Children’s Hospital for some tests. Her regular pedi was stumped as to why Katelyn had that huge episode. She was tested for strep and that came back negative. They did another throat culture where the results won’t come back for 48 hours. This test will show whether or not she has a strain of strep that causes hallucinations called PANDAS. She did have a red patch in the back of her throat.
The doctors at Children’s did a couple of minor tests, asked a bunch of questions and released her with a clean bill of health. They said they didn’t think there was anything really wrong with her and that it was just a freak episode! She had a couple of little freak outs at the hospital but nothing compared to the hysteria of earlier today.
We’re hoping for a peaceful night!
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It’s 7:30 am as I begin writing this post. We’ve all been up since 3:30 am. Is one of us sick?
Nope. Unless you count mentally.
Katelyn has been in her own, pardon my language, personal Hell since 3:30 am. I’m at a loss as to what to do right now. She woke up at 3:30 screaming that there were bugs on her and in her bed. If only turning on the light and showing her there were no bugs had worked. Even with the lights on she was hysterical, hitting herself, trying to tear her pajamas off and screaming bloody murder. We thought maybe she was having night terrors or sleep walking. She was wide awake. Nothing could convince her that there were no bugs on her. She would calm down for a few minutes and then start screaming and hitting herself all over again. She would hit her hands, her feet and flail about, screaming.
Absolutely NOTHING was working. She wouldn’t walk on the floor without “skating” on a blanket because she was terrified the bugs would get on her feet. We had to change her pajamas and underwear because she swore there were ants in them and the were crawling up her butt.
And every few minutes she would start screaming hysterically that they were on her again and begin to hit herself.
It was awful to watch. I almost felt like she was demon possessed! I felt like I was watching something out of a nightmare. If she’d has something sharp she probably would have cut herself with it. I began to cry myself, at one point.
We sprayed Febreze all over her room and on her clothes telling her that it was bug repellent. She believed it for about thirty minutes and then started pointing out that I hadn’t sprayed her butt, her “noo-noo” her neck or the bottom of her feet and bugs were getting on those parts. She begged me to spray all of those parts. Which, of course I wasn’t about to do. She kept asking how long the spray lasted to keep the bugs out. All the while still feeling them crawling all over her. She was super jumpy and constantly freaking out and hitting herself and her clothes. She would scream ” Ack!!… WHAT”S THAT? There’s a bug RIGHT THEEEERRE!” And then we would point out that there was nothing there and she would go ” oooh…”. She saw them all over her bed and in her blankets. She would ask for us to hold parts of her shirt so the ants couldn’t get out. Then begin to tear at her clothes and scream and scream and scream. Nothing could convince her that it was in her mind. If anything touched her whether it be the ruffle on her sleeve, our hand, the tag on her pants or her blanket she would start screaming all over again.
After a while Madelyn started to cry because Katelyn was scaring her.
Mike prayed with her and reminded her that Jesus was watching over her. We read a story. We had some water.We gave her a glow stick so she could look over her body with it.
We finally let her and Madelyn into bed with us. That didn’t help! She saw bugs in our bed too. She would start to kick and scream again. She then peed in our bed from all the crying and screaming. We let her stay naked for a bit because bugs were all over her clothes. She swore they were trying to get up her butt. She then decided to put her nightgown on but didn’t want her underwear. There were bugs in them. I had to throw them into her room before she would stop screaming about them.
This may sound funny but it wasn’t. It was a nightmare. Her tortured screaming was awful. There was nothing we could do!
We all tried settling down and going to sleep but we couldn’t. With Katelyn screaming, crying, flailing and kicking every few minutes no one got any sleep. She sat up curled in a ball moving the glow stick around herself so she could see if there were bugs near her. She laid next to me and asked me to keep my hand on her. But that didn’t help. The bugs were still there and the screaming continued. At one point I was laying on my back and she was laying completely on top 0f me so she wouldn’t be touching the bed.But somehow, the bugs reached her even when she was on top of me.
By this point it was 5 am. Mike had to get up to get ready for work. The girls and I stayed in bed. Every time I thought Katelyn was calming down and about to go to sleep she would start screaming. She started begging me to get the bugs off. Begging and begging. It broke my heart. If there had been anything I could do I would have!! I would pretend to get the ants off her and she would asked to see them. When there was nothing in my hand she would scream ” Nooo. You didn’t get it!! There’s nothing in your hand!!”
Nothing I said helped. Showing her over and over again there were no bugs ANYWHERE didn’t do anything to calm her terror.
We finally got up about 6:00 am and she begged to put on different underwear and get dressed. So we did and she went downstairs. I thought the daylight and being up would help.
It didn’t. She continued to scream, hit herself and tear at her clothes even wide awake, in morning light and in the living room. She came running up the stairs at one point, screaming, holding her sweat shirt out telling me to get the ants out. I had to pull her away from the top of the stairs because her hysteria was about to send her toppling down. We took off the sweat shirt and she was fine for a bit. Then she began to scream that they were in her underwear so off came the pants and undies.
She’s currently sitting on the couch, naked, wrapped in a blanket and watching t.v. Madelyn is completely asleep next to her. It’s been about thirty minutes and there’s been no screaming. It’s the longest period of quiet we’ve had since 3:30 am. I hope it continues.
She won’t be going to school today. I’m going to give them both a warm bath later this morning. That should help. I may put some of my lotion on her and tell her it’s “special”. I desperately need to go grocery shopping today and I can’t have her ripping her clothes off and screaming in the middle of the store.
I feel terrible for her and hope last night was a one time thing! I’m completely dumbfounded and at a loss as to how to handle this!
We’re all exhausted as well. I’m hoping we can all nap later today.
Please pray for Katelyn if you think about it today.
Mother’s Day Recap
Monday, May 10th, 2010
I had a great Mother’s Day. God has blessed me with a wonderful family and amazing daughters. We made reservations at a local restaurant and had lunch there with my in-laws. After that we went to my in-laws’ for coffee and dessert. Services were great at church and we had a great message about…. wait for it……mothers!!! Mike gave me his newly won iPod Touch as my gift and bought me an armband and clip to be able to wear it since I love to listen to audio books. ( I’m a geek)
Here are some pictures from yesterday-
The food was delicious at this restaurant. I got the fried clam strips dinner.
My Mother’s Day picture with the girls. I thought this came out really good!
We had a little tea part with chocolate milk standing in for the tea.
Since there weren’t enough Princess tea cups we had to improvise….
It takes a man who’s secure in his manhood to drink out of a pink, Princess tea cup!
I really feel as if I’m ready to “get back in the game” this week. The past 2.5 weeks I’ve slept in, let some things go around the house, not exercised, over eaten to the point of making myself sick and not read my Bible or prayed as much as I should have. I’m still grieving but I can do that without doing (or NOT doing, as it were) all of the things listed above.
For my spiritual, physical and mental well being I have to get back in the game.
Phillipians 3:12-14
12 Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. 13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
God is good all the time!!
Dear Mom….
Saturday, May 8th, 2010
To a woman who’s value is far above rubies.
For all your love and care,
AND
I hope you enjoyed this collaboration between all of us to wish you a wonderful day tomorrow. God bless you!
I would also like to wish my sister a Happy First Mother’s Day!!
God has blessed our family with a wonderful mom, wonderful mother in law, wonderful grandmothers , wonderful sister who is a great mom and for making me a mom to some amazing little girls.
Happy Mother’s Day to all of you!
Umbrella
Friday, May 7th, 2010
I got some really good shots this week of the girls playing with their umbrella outside. It was an overcast day and about to rain. While I was watching them play it hit me how God is our umbrella in life.
He shields us from the rains, big and small, of life.
We usually are happy to have God as our umbrella when life is sunny and there’s no rain.
Then life starts to get a little dirty..
And the rain starts to fall and the mud starts to fly
And God sometimes allows us to get a little wet and muddy.
Then we start to complain, worry and cry. Sometimes we lose faith and completely try to get away from His umbrella and do all our own protecting. But God wants the rain to draw us closer to Him. He wants us to gather even tighter under His holy, righteous hand.
No matter how strong the rain and how far away we stray from that perfect umbrella of His hand
He always welcomes us back.
Even if we’re still a little muddy!!
Psalm 84:11
11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield;
the LORD bestows favor and honor;
no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless.
Psalm 37:23-24
The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and He delights in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; for the Lord upholds him with His hand.
Wordless/Wordful Thursday??
Thursday, May 6th, 2010
Pooped Out Unicorn Princess
Precious!
