Kelsey is 17 today!

Holy cow. Kelsey turned 17 today!

Seems like just yesterday I was on my way to the hospital freaking out about a possible c-section, freaking out about who was going to watch Zach while I was at the hospital, freaking about if her dad would make it in time since we were separated and he was living in WI at the time and all that jazz.

I did end up having a c-section, because Kelsey wanted to come out butt first. Zach was taken care of by my old neighbors until my mother in law arrived. My ex didn't make it in time, but arrived shortly after. My mom was with me and got to carry Kelsey to the nursery after the birth. I'm pretty sure that's something she cherishes, right mom?

Kelsey was a beautiful baby, and has grown up to be a beautiful young woman. She is a big help to me with Bree, and is a great big sister. Kels always helps me when I'm on a cookie making spree, which I appreciate big time. Kelsey does well in school, and I'm very proud.

Here are some pics of Kelsey when she was younger.

Some of those are pictures from the daddy/daughter dances. A picture of her with her new glasses when she first got glasses. One of her displaying our banner for the Light the Night Walk. Kelsey even donated her hair to Locks of Love! :)

Here are some various pictures from this past year:

She's probably going to kill me when she sees I put that picture of her with her make up done by Bree into this collage. :) Isn't she beautiful?

Kelsey requested I make her a blanket for her birthday, she picked out the fleece and I made it. She loves peace signs, and has a purse that has them on it, she found fleece to match! I also made her a peace sign birthday cake. She begged me to use fondant on it, so I did...and hated every second of it! I hate fondant, I am not good with it and I get frustrated. Here are pics of her blanket and cake:


Tonight we'll go out to dinner to celebrate Kelsey's birthday. That is our tradition, birthdays mean food out :) I'm hoping she pics a place where I can have them embarrass her for her birthday. If you know Kelsey, please send her birthday wishes on Facebook, or text her, or call her, or comment here for her :) Even if you don't know her, I'm sure she'd love birthday wishes here in the comments!

Toodles!

Discouraged

Dieting is a roller coaster ride.

Have I ever mentioned I don't like roller coasters? Nor do I like dieting.

Did you know that if you weigh at different times of day your weight can vary by a few pounds? That is just wrong... I need to try not to get to discouraged when I step on that stupid wii board and see a gain. Especially when I didn't weigh in around my usual time.

Today it said I gained 2 lbs. After I worked out big time yesterday. I was really disappointed and discouraged. Maybe if I weighed in at my usual time it might not say such a gain, but still...hard to not get down after seeing a gain when I worked so hard!

I've been logging my foods on My Fitness Pal. It keeps track of your calorie intake, tells you what your goal should be etc.. You also log in your exercise time. Did you know that if you work off such and such calories you are supposed to eat back those calories? I don't quite understand it all but that is what you are supposed to do. I've logged my food and exercising time, and it tells me how much calories I've earned back by exercising, and I need to keep my calorie intake within my goal plus those calories I worked off. I've been doing that, and I've been under my calories by a bit each day for the most part, but it doesn't seem to be helping me lose. I'm wondering if that eat back your calories stuff is a bunch of BS. I was doing better before I started following that plan.

I'm just frustrated. I want the weight to come off faster. When I worked so hard yesterday and made big progress by JOGGING for more then 30 seconds I was so proud of myself. I had walked 5, jogged 5, walked 5, jogged 8, walked 5, jogged 5... that was major progress for me. Before I'd walk mostly, do intervals of jogging for 30 seconds at a time here and there but that was it. I was so excited yesterday. I had been pissed off by some things so I used that aggression in my work out and I did good. I was sure I'd have seen a loss when I got on the wii today, but I didn't. All I got out of it was a sore body, and a foot that hurts like hell.

After about a year of being mostly pain free in my feet (heel spurs and stuff), yesterday's jogging ruined that and I've been hurting ever since. Icing my heel right now as we speak and praying my Aleve will kick in soon, the others I've taken since yesterday haven't really touched it. Blah.

I know I could do better. I could totally cut out all junk, instead of just cutting back a lot. But I don't want to be totally miserable, for if I am, I'll totally blow all this diet crap. So I am still treating myself to a coke now and then, and a splurge day here and there. I just wish with all the working out and changes I have made I'd see more progress.

I could really go for some comforting chocolate right now... Hmmm where did Bill hide the caramel kisses?

Toodles!

My Mother Taught Me...

My mother taught me, If you don't have anything nice to say don't say anything!

So, right now, given my mood, I'm going to bite my tongue, and sit on my hands to keep from typing.

I had a crappy nights sleep, and I'm in a very bad mood, and everyone around me is adding to it.

I wish I had a punching bag to work out some aggression on. Off to work out...

Toodles

Dear...(2-22-11)

It's that wonderful time of the week, time for my Dear... letters, letters good or bad, to whomever I wish. I look forward to doing these letters each week and linking up to my dear friend Dazee who came up with the lovely Dear... letter idea.




Dear tax refund...I love you. I wish you could stick around a bit longer..

Dear cold weather...make up your mind. Are you coming or going? If you are going to stick around, give me some snow. If ya can't produce the snow, get the hell out of here so spring can move on in.

Dear calories...I don't like you nor do I understand you. According to a thing I read, an orange is like 150 calories...for an ORANGE...a piece of FRUIT, which is supposed to be good for you. If I'm going to take in 150 calories (which is a lot if you ask me), I am going to eat something worthy..like 2 oreos. :) 2 oreos are 140 calories.

Dear water...I still don't like you. Why can't you taste a little more special? So bland and boring you are.

Dear mind...when its late at night, the middle of the night, or early in the wee hours of the morning, please, please PLEASE stop working and let me sleep. I'm really sick of being awake during what should be my sleep time because I'm thinking of stupid bake sales and fund raisers. Those seem to be the things keeping me awake the most lately.

Dear Kelsey & Jilly... Please stop fighting. Some day you'll love each other and enjoy each other. I wish that day would come soon...

Dear Bree... You look so cute with your new haircut.

Dear Bill...please don't put your jeans in the laundry with ink pens in your pocket. If I don't notice it, it ends up going through the washer and dryer. Your ink pen ruined 3 of my clothing items, I don't have many things to wear as it is, and now I had to throw away 2 of those 3 things. Your ink also ruined part of Bree's new dress.

Dear chicken taco soup... I love you, you taste so very scrumptious!

Dear self...you need rhythm. You have Zumba for the wii, and you can't seem to get the hang of it...you suck.

Dear creativity... I'm going to need you this weekend to get Kelsey's cake made and looking cool.

Dear Kelsey...Dang, I can't believe you are going to be 17 on Monday! I'm feeling really old.

Dear blog readers...come to my blog. Follow me. I want to feel loved. I know, I'm boring, but come on, pretty please? Dazee has like 191 followers already and she hasn't been blogging as long as I have, she's just much cooler. I have only 35. I love my 35. I just wish I had more to love :)

Dear body...please wake up 95 lbs lighter in the morning. This dieting sucks.

I guess that is all for now, can't think of anything else at the moment.

Have a spectacular day!

Toodles!

Shop Till We Drop

Our tax refund came Friday.

Its so nice to have extra money around for a while. I just wished it would last longer!

We paid off my Fashion Bug credit card, yay! It's been forever since I bought anything with it, but I've been paying on it for a few years, the damn interest rates were killing me and I never seemed to make any headway with it. I love that store, but no longer get to shop at it much now that they closed the one closest to us.

We stocked up on groceries with some of our refund money. We have 25 boxes of macaroni and cheese...my husband said since its on sale we need to get it. That is a lot of mac & cheese...

We used some money to buy the girls some new clothing. Bree's out growing all her stuff so she got several dresses, she loves dresses. Kels & Jilly both got new swim suits and a few clothing items so far, they still have a bit left to shop with. I was to get things for me too, but after shopping for several hours with the girls things were going downhill fast. We were all tired & cranky, so I just grabbed 2 t-shirts and a pair of capris to work out in. I wish I had more time to look for me, but oh well.

Some of the money is going to a mini-vacation. It will just be a 2 night stay at Key Lime Cove in Gurnee IL. They have an indoor waterpark and arcade, several eateries, a spa, and shopping things all in a nice hotel. We haven't gone on any vacation in forever, so we are looking forward to it, even if its still in IL, and only for 2 days. That is 2 days I don't have to cook or clean :) The girls are looking forward to the indoor waterpark. Bree keeps asking me if today is the day we are going to the water place.

We'll be using some of the money to board the dog while we are gone. She is also getting caught up on her vaccinations. The cats need to go to the vets for their stuff too, but their appointment hasn't been made yet.

A lot of the refund will be put aside, for stupid real estate taxes. Ugh those taxes are a killer.

I wish our refund was bigger. There are many things that we could use the money for. Like a new TV, the on/off button apparently got pushed one to many times, and it went inside the TV and is no longer usable. We have to use the remote to turn it on and off, if the remote gets lost, we are screwed. There are many repairs around here that need to get done, remodeling that would be nice to do. Of course never ending bills to pay.. But, that is always the case I think, always wishing for more... We'll be sure to enjoy what we have now though.

Toodles!

Dear...(2-15-11)

It's Tuesday.

Guess what that means?

It's time for me to join in with my buddy ole pal Dazee and do Dear... letters! Letters to whomever I want, for good or bad...



Dear Sickies...So long! Don't let the door hit you on the way out! We are all finally feeling better, and on the road to wellness. Bree still coughs a tad, but is doing a ton better.

Dear mind...when I go to bed to sleep, PLEASE turn off so I can sleep. I don't want to think about bake sales, and other fund raising ideas, nor about anything else... I. JUST. WANT. SLEEP.

Dear hot cop neighbor...Your dogs are totally getting on my nerves lately. Every evening for the last several days they are barking up a storm. You are so lucky they aren't doing this at night, or I'd have to call the cops...which would be umm YOU. LOL. Good thing you're hot, and you look extra hot in your cop get up.

Dear Train...Man, when you derail you sure make a mess! Several coal cars on a train over turned here in town Friday.

Dear self...You weigh 11 lbs less today then you did Jan. 1. Good job.

Dear tax refund....you could hurry up a bit couldn't ya? We've got things to pay...and we wanna take a weekend vacation to an indoor water park.

Speaking of the water park...Dear waterpark...I hope when we finally do come for a weekend you are filled with a blind people convention, so no one can see my fatass in a swimsuit.

Dear fundraising idea...I thought of you, and I really hope you can come together and work. I hope it is easy to do and it makes us a ton of money for the Relay for Life. I'm not used to planning stuff like this, not sure what to do so I hope it all works out...if people pay money to come and see something and it fails I'm going to feel horrible.

Dear Sissy (our cat)...While I'm laying in bed around 5:20 a.m. trying to return to sleep, the last thing I want to hear is you sharting in the bathroom..and the last thing I want to see when I go to investigate is your spray paint crap all over the side of the bathtub and on the carpet.

Dear snow... It is so sad to see you departing :( I love you snow...I just wish it didn't have to be cold to have you.

Dear spring...I'll miss the snow, but I'll welcome you, so hurry and get here so the snow haters can stop whining :) LOL

I guess thats all for now...

Toodles!

What do YOU call it?

I'm curious. What do you call your evening meal? Supper? Dinner? I wonder if it depends where you live? Hmmm thinking a lot about this, not sure why LOL.


Please do me a favor, let me know in the comments what you call it, and the state you live in (or country if you are not in USA). I'm going to gather info from here, and other places I ask, and try to figure this out...because you know, inquiring minds wanna know! Right? :)

Supper?

Dinner??

Please share the link to this post, the more answers I get the better! Thanks.

Toodles!

Crazy Dreams

I have always been umm blessed?...or maybe cursed?...with crazy dreams. I think I'm leaning more towards blessed, because most of them are not scary, and are quite humorous and entertaining!

Last night I was able to get enough sleep to actually have a dream. It was odd. I only remember bits and pieces, let me tell you about what I remember. It involved a big old house that was in need of repairs. We moved into this place, and by we, I mean me, and a bunch of people that looked like the Duggar girls. They all had long hair with no style, wore long skirts etc. I don't know if I looked like that because I didn't see my body, I just saw stuff around me. Anyways, this house needed repairs, and there were cracks all over the plaster walls and stuff, some walls had like cracks and had shifted so it was like off kilter even. This house had 2 kitchens, and 2 living rooms, many bedrooms & such. I vaguely remember conversing about rearranging furniture in this house. Before we moved into this house, wild cats took it over because it had been abandoned for a while. These were not just any cats, these cats were like cartoon cats, the kind you see on Halloween things. Cats with arched backs, tails straight up, green eyes. These cats were like cardboard, flat, stiff, no bendable parts. We in the dream, would put rows of rubber bands on our fingers, and then somehow run a finger from our other hand over these rubber bands and it would make them shoot off all over the room. The cats LOVED this and chased the rubber bands. Of course they were like cardboard, so they didn't actually run, they kinda just bounced sorta. That's all I remember. Crazy eh?

I told Bill about this dream this morning. He asked if I was on drugs. I'm not...but maybe it was the combination of the Aleve and the Nyquil cough medicine that caused this craziness. Probably not..I'm just weird.

I've been having a lot of dreams about houses lately! Not long ago I had one that we moved into a big fancy house with 2 business dudes that bought a McDonalds. To get to this house we had to drive through a really bad area, then we turned on a road and it was instant nice with huge houses. We lived on the end of the road in the circle area. This house had a lot of fancy stuff, I loved it. One of the halls had like 4 bathrooms in it. One was for handicapped people and it was like a locker room/bathroom. One bedroom in that hallway had a great room and in the front of that bedroom was a bathroom, shower, sink, toilet, and a half wall separating it from the bedroom part of the room. All my kids wanted that room. Also in that hallway was a strange room...I ventured inside and found an operating table, all kinds of gadgets, a laser thingy, and a bunch of medical stuff. Apparently the previous owner was a brain surgeon, and he did things out of his house. That is all I remember of that dream...so strange.

I've had so many odd dreams I should really write them in a journal, give it to my grand-kids someday, they'd think I should have been in a loony-bin.

One dream I had years ago involved my grandma falling in love with a killer whale at Sea World. She actually stood by the viewing glass and married this whale, and kissed it through the glass.

One dream I had involved Bill going to buy a new car. I was waiting at home. He came down the street in our new car...which was a couch, with wheels under it, and to make it go you used your feet, like Fred Flintstone.

One I had involved my mother posing for a naughty magazine and movie...if you know my mother you'd know this would NEVER EVER EVER HAPPEN. Well anyways, I got a picture on my phone of my mother that was x-rated, I was terrified. LOL.

Gosh I have so many.. I'll stop now though, now that you know how crazy I am.

Toodles!

P.S. I must be somewhat special, I got roses today, not once but twice! My husband brought me some home this morning, and I got a delivery this afternoon from my mom. Thanks Mom & Bill!

Soups On!

I've been on a soup kick lately.

I've made Chicken Taco Soup....twice.

I've made homemade chicken noodle soup...twice.

I've made hamburger veggie soup.

Soup. Soup. Soup!

Yesterday I made my second batch of chicken noodle soup this month, its pretty good. I had it for lunch yesterday. I had it for dinner yesterday. I'm eating it now for breakfast too! Yes, I know I'm weird...I just wasn't in the mood for breakfast foods. Chances are I'll have it for lunch as well.

Tonight's dinner though is different. Fridays are my splurge nights. After I take Kelsey to her dads, the younger girls & I treat ourselves to McD's on the way home. Yeah, its naughty, and bad for me...but it makes me happy, and once a week isn't going to kill me...might explain why the weight isn't coming off super fast but oh well lol.

Do you have any good, easy soup recipes you can share with me? I could use some more.

Yesterday I also made something else...brownies. They aren't for me, unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it lol.) Jilly's class is having a party today and she signed me up to bring brownies. Being a nice mom, I made some, and jazzed them up a tad.



They look so good. I made this picture my desktop picture.

Last night was the meeting for the Relay For Life. We have our team all signed up. Kelsey picked the name Forever Fighters, but she might be changing it if she can. I personally hate that name, to boring... I like something with more character and coolness. :) I'm having a little bit of trouble setting up my 2 different Relay web pages, they seem to be going together, instead of being separate...gotta figure out how to fix the problem. Once I do, be prepared, I'm gonna mention them in hopes of getting some donations! :P Its for a good cause, something near and dear to me, I've seen to many friends & family suffer from cancer, research needs to be done, a cure needs to be found.

Anyone got any home remedies for coughing? I'm so sick of coughing, sick of the girls coughing too! I'm also sick of puke that comes when a little one coughs to hard. Jilly & I have been using Delsym, but its not doing crap for us. Bree isn't supposed to take over the counter medicines. My other kids did and were fine, but things have changed apparently and they don't want kids under 6 taking them, supposedly all dangerous now. I did get her some natural cough syrup made just for toddlers last night...doesn't seem to do a whole heck of a lot though.

I hope you all have a great Friday & weekend.

QOTD: Do you ever eat odd things for breakfast?

Toodles!

I need YOU. :)

This summer I am participating in not one, but TWO, yes 2, Relay For Life walks.

The first one is in June I believe, and we are on a team called Elliott's Luek Troop. Elliott is my friend Dan & Cindy's son, who passed away in April, and we will walk to honor him & his memory.

The second one will be in July, right here in my town. My daughter Kelsey has decided that her Grandpa needs a team. He is battling cancer, and doesn't have a whole lot of time left the doctors say. He might prove them wrong...we are hoping. Anyways, his name is Terry Hebert. We are trying to come up with a team name. I suggested Grandpa's Groupies...Kels isn't to sure on that one yet. SO, I'm asking YOU...Can you give us some name suggestions for this team? Something fun & catchy would be great. Terry is a big Mustang car fan, so maybe something to do with that? I kind of need a name by TONIGHT. There is a meeting tonight and we went to get the team registered. So, HELP :) Please. Thank you. Leave your team name suggestions in the comment area.

Toodles!

Dear...(2-8-11)

Happy Tuesday.

Its time for my weekly Dear... letters. I'm actually going to be on time with them this week...usually I end up doing it few days after Dazee posts hers. I'm really on the ball this week. Actually, its purely luck...I came on here to whine, and what better way to do it than with the Dear... letters which can be good or bad. Feel free to join in on the fun, and go over to Dazee's and link up...She'd love you for it, as would I.



Dear Fast Care at Walmart...You were not fast at all! But...I'm thankful for you, I was able to get Bree checked, and some medicine for her to hopefully make her finally feel better.

Dear Bree's tonsils...shrink up, you mean things, you've caused my little stinker enough pain & suffering already.

Dear Vomit...why oh why must you smell so disgusting and be so hard to clean up?

Dear idiot who put carpet in my bathroom...WTF were you thinking? Did you not realize that toilets over flow, that there is a lot of moisture in bathrooms, and that people vomit in there and might not make it all into the toilet...therefore getting it on the stupid carpet??

Dear Hoover Steamvac...Thank you for being here in my time of need.

Dear Bree...Please, no barfing today. I'm proud of you for running to the bathroom to try to get your barf into the potty. I'm not mad you didn't quite get there, making puke get all over the side of the toilet,the seat, the wall, the trash can, and the carpet. Grossed out that I had to clean it,yes, but mad, no. I hope you start feeling better.

Dear fever...You can go away now and stay away from Bree, its time.

Dear glasses place...I wish you would have called me early yesterday, before I went to Peru and back. But..I'm glad you finally called, took ya long enough.

Dear glasses...I've waited for you for so long...only to find I hate you. LOL. I need to go back and get you readjusted, you slide around to much and drive me nuts. You are going to take a lot of getting used to...damn bifocals. Looking out the top is nice, but I still see everything under and its all like blurry, I had to take you off after a few hours last night because you made me feel dizzy.

Dear Self...I'm very disappointed in you. (Hang on readers, this is going to be a long one) After 37 consecutive days of working you, you took a break. Shame on you. Granted, it was for a good reason, you were gone most of the day, you didn't feel well, and by evening when you were going to do it Bree got sick throwing up and you needed to stay with her. (long sentence, sorry) You were worried she'd throw up while you were downstairs and you'd not hear her when she needed you. You did the good mom thing and stayed by her side, even slept with her so you could hand her the puke bucket if needed. But, still...you missed a day. Now you don't want to return to working out. I know you feel like crap today, weak, achy, tight throat/chest, hacking up a lung or two...and I suppose if you skipped today no one would really hold it against you. You are your worst enemy. You feel disgusted with yourself, you feel like you FAILED, you feel disappointed and discouraged, you feel like giving up. Try not to let those feelings get to you. I know you'd feel much better if you were able to sleep several hours, uninterrupted, you'd probably be raring to go after that. Sleep is good for the sickies and the soul...and for weight loss too I hear...I guess if your sleeping you aren't eating :) I hope you can get better soon, quit hacking up a lung, so you can get back on track with the working out program.

Dear cough...leave me alone.

Dear lungs...I need you IN my body, don't let the cough evict you.

Dear Bree & Jilly and me... Lets kick some sickie ass and get these germs out of here!

Dear readers...I hope some of this actually made sense. I don't know anymore LOL.

Toodles!

Anniversary

Wednesday was our wedding anniversary! Feb. 2, 2007, Bill & I were married at the courthouse with the kids present with us. My mom was there, my brother and his future wife, and Bill's brother & sister in law, and his mom were there too.

Here is a picture from that day.



We've all grown since that picture LOL.

We couldn't go out to celebrate on our anniversary, due to the blizzard, so we went out last night. Just went to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner, and did a little shopping at Target, Menards, and Hobby Lobby. It was nice to get out alone for a bit.

Toodles!

Blizzard Feb. 1 & 2, 2011

We got some awesome snow this past week!

Monday we got a little bit.

Tuesday the big stuff came, it started in the afternoon and went on until Wednesday. Lots of snow, and lots of high winds. We even had THUNDER SNOW. Very cool. I'm going to try to post a video of that at the bottom of this post, I hope it works. I've been trying to post it all night and its giving me issues!

Here are some pictures of the blizzard, and of the girls on their snow ramp they made to sled on in our front yard. Enjoy!










Ok, gonna try one more time to get this damn video up...If it works, just skip to about 1:25 on the video I think it is...the first part is just me waiting and waiting..boring.

Toodles!

Thunder Snow:

Dear...(2-4-11)

I'm such a slacker! I'm so late with this. I just haven't been in a bloggy mood lately for some reason. Time to get with the program Renee and snap to it! LOL. Its time for the weekly Dear... letters. These are letters to whoever, good or bad...to vent or praise.. Join in if you'd like!



Dear back...please stop hurting.

Dear cough...GO AWAY!

Dear bladder...Toughen up will ya? I'm tired of leaking when I cough.

Dear Jilly & Bree...Feel better!

Dear Kelsey...If you & your friend keep me up all night I'm not going to be happy.

Dear blizzard...You were very cool. I like all the snow!

Dear laundry...enough already. I folded 8 loads today.

Dear Bree...Stop changing your clothes every 10 minutes.

Dear self...No missed days of work outs since starting this on Jan. 1. You worked out even when feeling crappy/sick. Good job.

Dear weight...come off already will ya? Haven't I been suffering enough?

Dear Bill...Thanks for the date night last night.

Dear Mother in law...Thanks for babysitting so we could have a date night. Actually, thank you Kelsey for babysitting Bree, and MIL for supervising so Jilly & Kelsey didn't kill eachother while we were gone.

Dear brownies...stop calling my name.

Dear Monday...Can you hurry and get here? :)

Thats all for now...

QOTD: Do you suffer from back pain?

Toodles!

Wow, I'm behind!

Just realized I haven't blogged since Sunday...Oops.

To tired to coherently blog now, I will do it tomorrow :) Stay tuned. I'll probably talk about a blizzard, an anniversary, working out, and I need to do my weekly Dear.. letters!

Until tomorrow...

Toodles!