ANOTHER Snow STORM!

ARG! The kids are home, yet again. In the last two weeks, I have had ONE day with all of the kids at school. This week, school was canceled Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday. Wednesday, Brown Eyes was home sick. Last week, Dimples came home on Monday, Yankee went to the doc Tuesday with strep, was home Wednesday, Thursday all went to school and Friday, Dimples was home because of teacher in-service.

So, today is not so bad with the kids home. I had big plans to go see my BFF, but we figured those would be canceled. But that was all I had planned. There was no stressing about projects or papers that needed to be done. I don't have any appointments that I need to go to with my babysitter being out of town. Oh yeah! My babysitter has been out of town!

I am really excited! There is a really nice feature story being written about me in our local paper for the St. Baldrick's event in less than three weeks! When the story is posted. Also, if anyone would like to donate to my bald head, you can just click on the link and click "Donate Now!" I have a goal to raise $1000 and I am 27% of the way there. You can donate using your debit card with as little as $1. Thanks everyone!

Sleeping With A Monster!

The man is making all kinds of monster noises in his sleep and making it extremely difficult for me to sleep. When I wake him up (as he does me) to let him know he's snoring or whatever, he yells at me! JERK!

The baby (Brown Eyes) was up all night coughing on top of it. The poor kid feels lousy. He has a croupy cough. I gave him a breathing treatment and he feels a little better. The kiddo sat on the chair crying this morning missing his grandmother. I let him call her and he was really pathetic! I was a little teary from the whole ordeal as well.

I stayed at school last night after class to watch Biggest Loser. I walked at 2.3 miles an hour (still really weak!) for an hour. Then I went to the store to get some groceries. I agreed to do this on the condition that hubby would let me sleep in this morning. Here's a big surprise: IT DIDN'T HAPPEN! Now I am trying to do a project that is due tonight in my instructional technology class with the help of a seven year old.

I have knee pain. I am still waiting for the results of my blood test to come back. Apparently, it takes up to two weeks for those to come in!

MIA

We have all been sick sick sick at my house. The oldest had tested positive for strep on Tuesday. Friday night, the youngest got home from school and went right to bed. Then on Saturday, I took him to the doc. While I was there, I started feeling a little scratchy. The doc looked at me and said, "How's Mom?" To that, I whined, "Puny" He felt my glands and prescribed me an antibiotic as well. Then Hubby got home from work. He had been "sick" for two days. So he went to the doc and took Dimples with him, even though he was feeling fine. Hubby tested negative for strep and Dimples tested positive. The poor kid doesn't understand why he feels fine, but has to take nasty drugs to make him "better."

I have not exercised since Friday. I have a bad headache today, but came to school to get away from the group. On top of everyone being sick, we have had another winter weather advisory and the kids have been off of school. I threatened to duct tape them to the school if it got cancelled again today, but decided against it.

The scale has been moving down, mostly because I am sleeping instead of eating. I am hopeful that I will be able to watch Biggest Loser tonight while I walk on the treadmill. I plan to take it really easy. I feel really weak still. When I tried to get into the building, my arm wouldn't make it around the door and I almost fell. If that had happened, I would have gone to the security office to see if I could get a copy of the video!

Sonic KILLS!

Okay, I admit, I tried to sooth myself with food. It didn't work. I feel sick. I went to Sonic. It was right there! In the parking lot! Of THE WAL-MARTS! I couldn't find anything to spend money on that I wanted that would make Hubby angry, so I went to Sonic. So instead, I have made my intestines angry. I mean REALLY angry! Like POMA (peeing out my arse) angry.

I ran for 1/7 of my 35 minute walk/run last night, and was down 2.2 from yesterday's up 3.5.

I am going to school, then I plan to work out on the treadmill until I can't walk again. That way I can get this yucky feeling to go away.

Doctor's Appt. Etc.

I originally had a doctor's appointment set up for this morning, but Yankee woke up on Tuesday with a really sore throat. I called the doc and got in a day early. Turns out, the kiddo has strep. I also talked to the doc about all of my suspicions. He decided against a celiac panel and decided to do an IGE. He also gave me a script for massage therapy for my "hump." I think the Reiki worked wonderfully, though, and a follow up massage with my favorite massage therapist IS in order.

Anyhiggle, I had my blood work done. They took one tube at 3 CCs and one tube at 10 CCs. Then she (the nurse) told me that if Fed Ex couldn't come up to get my blood, then I would have to go back tomorrow (today) and have the blood drawn again. I told her that I would drop it off at Fed Ex on my way home. First it had to sit for 10 minutes then spin for 20. So I went out to eat with my mum and son. We went to a little diner where I ordered biscuits and gravy with bacon. I had it in my head that I was going to be told that I wasn't going to be allowed to eat a whole bunch of yummy stuff that I thought I'd live it up. Then, for dinner, I had a wrap with ham and cheese and cream cheese. I ran for 10 of the 70 minutes on the treadmill and did the elliptical for 8 minutes.

I was up 3.5 today. Oh well, I'll be better tomorrow. I hope to have the results very soon. I wonder if I will have to go in to go over the results or if I can get them over the phone. I'm really excited to see.

I have my car back so I will be staying after class to do the treadmill again.

The Scale!

I hate it. I mean, it's honest and everything, but I wish it would move DOWN! For crying out loud! I find that when school is in, I don't exercise with the Wii as much. If I am home, I am doing stuff that needs to be done, like homework, dishes or laundry. When school is not in, I am doing dishes, laundry or exercise! So, I make it a point to exercise Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, but I need to do something Friday through Monday. When we have a Y membership, things will be better. I will go on Mondays and Fridays with the kiddos.

Okay, so this year's Valentine's Day "fun" involved me telling my husband on Wednesday, "Look in the school supply cabinet and see if you can find Valentines in there. We had 2 extra boxes left over from last year." So, last night at 8:30, he looks in the cabinet and can't find the Valentines. He says, "Well, I guess we shouldn't have waited until the last minute." So he went to the Wal-Marts to get Valentines for the kids. I was really ticked. Everyone was up this morning filling out their Valentines at 6:30. I think I'm going to remember things like that to tell my doc on Wednesday when he tries to tell me to go be done on my meds. I just don't think it would be a good idea when I am married to so much stress. OMGoodness! The screen saver on his computer has LOUD MUSIC! ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Maybe I'll go off the meds if he will prescribe me a tranquilizer.

Howdy!

I thought for sure I updated yesterday, but I guess I didn't.

Yesterday was the day of the big fashion show. I met some really crazy ladies and a fun woman in her 70s. She had me laughing so hard! She is looking for a man no younger than 70 who likes to polka.

I was gone all day yesterday. I ran into some of my CCCN buddies. We talked a little, and we are looking forward to the big St. Baldrick's event! I really can't wait to have no hair again.

I am REALLY considering going gluten-free. I have found some yummy alternatives, but I am going to wait until after Wednesday when I request a celiac test. The more I read about the side effects of untreated celiac, the more I diagnose myself!

I Cheated!

I went to the Y tonight. All alone! Anyway, I was walking to the track and I saw the scale. I thought I would just take a little lookie. It wasn't too bad, but I have no clue where I really am because it is night time, I was fully clothed and shoed. So, I did a walk run mile. There was one woman running who was obviously an experienced runner. I asked her later how long she had been running. All.Her.Life. Seriously! So I decided today that I plan on living to 76 and when someone asks me how long I've been running I'm gonna say, "Half my life!" Hollah!

Then after my walk/run, I went to the pool. I swam for 30 minutes. Well, I was either swimming or treading water in the deep end. I am ready for bed! Swimming wears me out. I cannot wait for summer when we can all go swimming in the same pond I broke my arm ice skating on!

Oh NO!

So I started reading a book by Elisabeth Hasslebeck about gluten free eating. My mother-in-law recently went gluten free to diminish migraines. As I am reading this book and the symptoms of celiac disease, I am thinking of asking the doc to take blood from all of us to see if we have it, especially middle kiddo. UGH!

Is this something that I can do? I know if I had to, I would. I never thought I could get rid of milk, and I did, so what's so different about gluten? Well, it's bread. That's all I got!

I ran for 5 minutes straight last night! The only discomfort I felt was the sweating. Not a fan of sweating. I also got fitted for running shoes yesterday. I will be getting them at the end of the month.

This has been a long week. I will enjoy my Friday and I hope you all do the same. Still haven't looked to see what I weigh.

No Weigh In?

Okay, Suzi! This is really getting difficult. I have my kids helping me do my daily body test. I stand with my back to the TV. Today, my kid says, "Wow Mom, you went up!" Now he's been saying this every day. So I don't know if I should believe him. Then he says, "What should I give as a reason?" SHOOT! That means I REALLY went up! I blame my husband who made me miss my workout last night! Jerk.

I slept great and the pain at the base of my neck is just a dull soreness as opposed to tight burning. Reiki freaks me out, but at the same time, I LOVE it!

I have class tonight, and I'm trying to get in touch with my BIL to see if we can carpool. Have a good one everyone!

Grumpy Grumpy Grumpy!

Nothing today went as planned. Hubby kept me up all night with his moving and nudging. Then he woke me up after about 4 minutes of sleep saying, "I slept AWESOME last night!" Then it was cold. And by cold, like -10 before windchill. I went to see my Reiki lady and all of the toxins are released and have settled in my attitude. I went to school early today to get my work done since Hubby is really annoying when he is working at home.

So I'm at school, working on the computers. I can't focus at all because there seems to be a LOT of noise in the library. I could hear a whole conversation between two faculty members about the pros and cons of private/public schools. Then, these guys come in and tell everyone to move to a different set of computers so that they can update the printer. Then they tell us that we have to switch and move to the other set of computers since those are fine and they then need to work on the ones we had moved to. Agitated, I went to class.

During class, I get an email from Hubby, "On my way to pick you up" JERK! He wasn't supposed to pick me up until after 8:00 so that I could work out! I had reserved the treadmill for 7:00. Oh, I forgot my cell phone when I left today. So he gets there to pick me up at 7:15 and wonders why I am upset. I SIGNED UP FOR THE TREADMILL FOR 7:00PM WEDNESDAY NIGHT LAST WEEK!

I'm going to take a big pill and go to bed.

Assignment

For my Instructional Technology class, I am required to design a blog. I had no idea how I would do this (not because I don't know how, duh). I wasn't sure I was ready to let my real life cross over into my web life. I was going to make a new blog, under a new name, but then I would have to make a new gmail account. So, I decided to put myself out there, let them merge and see what happened! Afterall, I have the option to not approve posts, right? So welcome (I think) class!

A Wee Bit of Pain

So we had a free pass to the Y. We took the whole circus to town! We get there and hubby takes the boys into the mens family locker room while I went all by myself into the adult only womens locker room. We all got changed and met at the basketball court. That was when I saw that Mr. Brown Eyes didn't bring any shoes with him. He only had his snow boots. He wasn't thrilled about this, but he had to sit on some bleachers while his brothers did some playing. Dimples and I ran walked around the track while Hubby and Yankee played basketball. Then we headed for the pool.

They keep the pool at a comfy 84 degrees. We swam for about an hour. Hubby took the circus back to the family locker room and I hit the sauna. I never realized how awesome a dry sauna could feel. It's like laying in the sun without the squinting and the sunburn. I could live in that thing (if it weren't for dehydration)! Everyone was in bed by 8:30 and asleep by nine last night.

We will be getting a membership towards the end of the month. I am thinking about applying for a scholarship, but that would require working.

Suzi's Challenge is Going to be HARD!

The challenge is to not weigh yourself every day. Now for the last 18 weeks, I have weighed myself every day. I know this, because yesterday, my Wii Fit told me that I hadn't missed a day in 18 weeks! So, as to not ruin my streak, Suzi told me I could do the body test every day with my eyes closed. I decided I would just stand on the board with my back facing the TV and have the kids push the buttons. They are not allowed to tell me anything that it says. So this morning, I did my body test, and i have no idea how I'm doing. I guess I am going to let this work on my psychologically!

Here's my plan, for this full week, I will live every day like I've had a 2 lb gain. That way, when I weigh in on Sunday, it will have to be down, right? If this gets me under that plateau that I've been farting around with, I will owe Suzi BIG time, and I'll end up keeping this up!

We had a good weekend here. Hubby had to work through the stupid snow storm that we had on Saturday. It was also his birthday. He was all excited about all of the presents he got for his birthday. He got his own EA Active Trainer 2 so that we can do that together and both have our movements tracked. He got an autographed picture of Zach Thomas (former player for the Dolphins) that said, Happy Birthday, Joel! Zach Thomas. He got a couple of books that he has been wanting. We had a party at the in-laws yesterday where they went sledding all day. Hubby's mom made him a chicken and dumplings soup for his birthday and I made a gluten-free (MIL gets migraines from gluten) vegan (FIL doesn't eat meat) potato bean rice soup for everyone else. I had made my own vegetable broth and added no salt. Everyone added their own salt when they ate it. I had used red and white potatoes, kidney beans, black beans and great northern beans, and a rice variety that had black rice, brown and red. It was a very appealing dish! We also had mustard greens. MIL made cakes that had eggs in them (THANK GOODNESS!) so I had none.

OH! I tried something new yesterday! It was Amy's Gluten-Free vegan Mac and Cheese. Now, mind you, I haven't had real mac and cheese for over 4 years. So the review may be a little skewed. OMGoodness! DELICIOUS! I was shocked at how good it was. Even though the noodles were rice noodles, they were pretty good! I felt all warm and comforted inside. I will definitely be getting this again!

This week will be busy, but I plan to keep up with all of my studies. Have a good one everybody!

Oh For Crying Out LOUD!

or silently. This snow is making me crazy! ANOTHER winter weather advisory? If my back wasn't so sore, I'd be out there right now shoveling. ugh

I'm still going down, little by little on the scale. I have spent the last two days working in the kitchen on all kinds of yummy goodness! I made kale yesterday, more vegetable broth today, and Dimples asked me if I would make him some cooked broccoli and put French dressing on it. You betcha!

If I could find the camera, I would take some pics of the snow, but who really wants to see it? It's white, it's everywhere, and I am sick of it.

You Know I'm a Model!

You know what I mean? And I do my little turn on the catwalk. Yeah on the catwalk, yeah on the catwalk... So, I'm going to be modeling in a fashion show next weekend. It should be tons of fun. The best part is I will get 40% off of my clothing that I will be wearing for my TV interview on the day of the St. Baldrick's event. I just found out that the little girl I am honoring has had a relapse. They found leukemia cells in her spinal fluid. Her marrow is clear, which is good news, but this little girl is seven years old! That is WAY too young to have fluid pulled from her spine. UGH!

I have been pretty grumpy the last few days, but I am feeling a little better now. I think I am extra irritable because of this pain at the base of my cervical vertebrae. It has been bothering me for a few weeks now. I have a doctors appt in a week and a half and hope to find out it is a simple fix with a prescribed massage.

Eating has been good, exercise has been good, not as good as last week, but I'm on it!

One Tired Girl!

It stopped snowing around 10:00, so I got on all my snow gear to go and play in the snow. Well, play is a bit of a stretch, I shoveled. For more than 45 minutes. Then I warmed up some soup and had lunch. Hubby and I got in a doozie of an argument, then decided to go to the in-laws to do some snowshoeing. Now I have not worn the snowshoes since 2000 shortly after we bought them. The shoes have a weight limit of 175. I weighed 170 when I got them, then got pregnant with Dimples. There was just a short time that I was under the 175 weight limit, and I don't think it was in the winter.

So 2011 it is! Also, the last time I wore the snowshoes, we were walking on snowshoe trails that had been driven on by vehicles to pack the snow a little. We went down in the bog and then to a creek that wasn't quite frozen, more like a slush. Then we were in some drifts that were as deep as two feet! We went up banks, down banks and across the pond. We only went about 3/4 of a mile, but it felt like 2 or 3! I was sweating so bad and my heart was really pumping! MIL's camera battery was dead so she couldn't get any pics of us in our gear.

Woot! On My Way Down

I weighed in this morning at 160.6. I am very happy about that as I have been farting around between 159,4 and 163.4. I am making sure I am getting plenty of fruits and vegetables, I have decided not to have any pasta for at least a week, and I have been trying to move for at least 30 minutes a day.

All school has been canceled, mine and the kids'.

Oh! I forgot to tell you! Last week, I started noticing my right knee was swelling. Let me tell you about my right knee. In 1987, I had surgery to remove a benign tumor from the posterior of my patella. They drilled a hole through the top of my patella, scraped out the tumor, and replaced it with bone from my hip. I was almost 15 at the time this took place. The physical therapist told me to continue the exercises for a while. To a young teen, a while means a couple of weeks, not six months to a year. Well, the muscles in my right leg atrophied terribly and I had issues of dislocation for years! After Yankee was born, I had joined Curves. Immediately, my right knee swelled up a ton and made it difficult to wear my knit pants that made me look so hot! This was 1999-2000. The doctor drained the fluid off of my knee (I still hate him for it). The next day, it was just as swollen. He also had given me a cortisone shot, which I will never have again. I went on Vioxx, which has since been taken off the market. I was also told to not do squats as that was aggravating my knee.

So anyway, last week, my knee started getting swollen. This has not occurred since 2000. I had stopped the squat challenge around the time of my arm injury because it was too difficult to put my arm the way it needed to be. So the swelling wasn't from that. My knee didn't hurt, it just felt tight, prolly because of the swelling. I was mentioning this to Lanie and she asked, "Have you been getting your omega 3s?" Since I don't do animals, I get my omega 3s from walnuts, and we had been out for about a week! So I went to the store, got some walnuts, have been having between 1/4 and 1/2 a cup a day, and the swelling is gone!

Word to the walnuts!

I am NOT going snowshoeing!

This is what it looked like when I thought I might go for a walk in the snowshoes! Not so bad, kind of pretty!


Look at all the pretty snow! Kind of like a snow globe! Pretty!


ACK! What the heck! I'm NOT going out there!

Soup's ON!

I got the call at 3:09 telling me classes were canceled! WOOT! WOOT! Earlier today I cut the florets off of the broccoli and had these huge stalks left over. I decided to throw them in a pot with some water to make some vegetable broth/stock. I also added an onion, some really wilted celery, a couple of cloves of garlic, and half a bag of spinach that has maybe another day. I simmered it all day covered. When the call came in, I decided to make soup. I had about 6 sweet potatoes that needed to be used.

I sauteed some onion and garlic in a very small amount of olive oil. Then I added the potatoes. I strained the vegetables, adding all of the broth to the potatoes. Then I added 16 oz of tomato sauce. I added a bag of frozen corn, some frozen snap peas, a 16 oz can of garbanzo beans, can of black beans and a can of butter beans. SNOWmyGOODness was it delicious! Sweet, yet savory. The only "spice" I added was a tablespoon of black pepper and a teaspoon of kosher sea salt. That is it for the entire pot! It didn't need anything else. The flavors were distinct and popped!

It is really coming down right now. I might get all of my gear on in a little bit, put on the snowshoes and have hubby get a picture for Polar's Mom. (I think she digs me!)

SnowMyGoodness!

This snowmaggedon garbage is snow ridiculous. I am getting snow tired of hearing how we are going to be buried in snow and ice. I know Patrick is calling it "Snowmagator" because he likes alligators. "Snowmapuppy" doesn't have the same ring to it, but I do love me puppy! Snowmechaun? I like little bald leprechauns. I think this may be getting out of hand. We can't just go around making up our own names to storms! We are not qualified to do that!

We only have a few inches of snow here so far. The blizzard is supposed to start around 1:00 and be making our lives miserable until tomorrow night at 7:00. My hope is that they actually cancel classes for me so that I don't have to deal with it. We shall see.

We did an hour of Just Dance 2 last night. I am really itching to do some running on a treadmill, but I won't be getting to one anytime soon. Hubby did break out the snowshoes, so I might walk to my mother's in this crazy snowmapuppy storm we get.