This and That

Sunday we got to talk to Chad. The boys were actually having a sleep over at my friend B's house, so Chad called there and talked to them then called here and talked to Emma and then we got to talk for about 15 minutes or so. I miss him so much it's hard to put it into words, I just know every day that passes means we're a day closer to being together. Please keep him in your prayers.

Monday we went with B and her kids and went to Palm Beach, an indoor water park. Since Monday's we go to the gym I had called our babysitters and made arrangements for a time change and so we went to the gym at 3:30 after 4 1/2 hrs swimming. Let me just say EXHAUSTED! When we got back from swimming it had started raining, by the time we went to the gym it was pouring. We had dinner together, we had turkey and ham wraps, they were good and light which is what I needed...something light. My throat had started hurting before dinner and by the time we were done eating I was really starting to feel gross, stuffed up, very sore throat, and so tired I was falling asleep on her couch. She offered to let the boys stay the night (again) at her place, so I jumped at the chance of getting extra rest. Emma who'd had a great time at the pool was very tired and was not feeling very good herself, we went home and napped on the couch. I woke up, nursed Emma, and laid her down. I then went and took a long, hot bath. Now Chad is the man who can literally fall asleep in the tub, the water turns cold, and he gets out. I normally can not stay in the bathtub for more than 15 minutes. Well I actually fell asleep in the tub, the water was still very warm when I woke up, but I was just so exhausted. I finished up in the tub and got out and the phone rang, it was Emily, and laid in bed. I was physically in bed by 10 pm. Emma and I slept cuddled up together until 8:50 this morning. I only woke up because B called to see if we were still on for our 10 am walk. There was no way, I could barely walk 10 steps without feeling all light headed. She said she'd drop the boys off on her way to run errands then, and Emma and I napped on the couch until she did, at about 10:30.

Jacob sweetly made lunch (sandwiches) and then Emma and I took another nap! Emma ended up taking 4 naps today, that's huge, because there are days all she takes is one nap. She has diarreah again and she got sick at dinner tonight, after one bite of some fruit. She doesn't have a fever and I think (GROSS alert) it's mostly because of the phlem she has built up in her throat and chest, which she pretty well got out. So lets hope that she feels better in the morning, so I can go to PWOC. If she's not feeling good I'll be staying home. If she is sick, I'm going to call Bobbie and see if she can take the boys, because they have a summer program starting tomorrow and they are so excited.  Please say a prayer that Emma gets better over night. She did get a nice warm bath and perked during her bath, so hopefully she'll feel better in the morning.

Well, I'm off to bed, should have went an hour ago and got "trapped" on here!

 

Weight Loss Update

Well I went and weighed myself tonight, and at 9 PM it showed a 2 lb weight loss, I'll weigh myself in the morning and see what it says. When we go to the gym on Monday I'll weigh myself there, it's the "official" scale I'm using, but I'm thinking I've probably lost about 3 lbs when looking at tonight's time! I'm thrilled. It's coming and will come off.

We will be going to the gym on Monday's and Friday's at 9:30 am and on Wed. at 1:30 pm. Monday's and Friday's will be our cardio and Wed will be our Weights day(s). Tuesday of this week, we'll start serious walking too. Just off post we have some nice walking paths we're going to start walking, we're also going to walk to downtown. I need to get a pedometer. A friend (thanks Cindy) sent me a website for some very nice pedometers, so I need to get one ordered from there, so we know just how far we're walking. I think we're planning at min. to walk at least an hour if not longer. I'm all for walking 2 hours, just not sure how much the kids legs will be able to go. It'll be great for them though, they can ride their bikes, run, and play, just walk as well and burn that energy (another plus for me! LOL). I plan to push Emma in the stroller as well as take my Baby Bjorn, I know she gets tired of being in the stroller and just wants to be close to me at times, I figure either way it's extra weight and that's good, makes me work harder. I bought me some new shoes just to work out in at the gym and while in Czech bought some KSwiss that I'll be using just for our walking.

I will ask for a paritcular prayer request. The heals of my feet have just been killing me. My right one is the one that hurts the most, but the left can and does often hurt quite a bit and quite often. It hurts normally when I've been up and on them for an extended amount of time (walking straight for a couple hours, doing housework, etc). I am going to get a drs apt and just make sure everything is ok. Since moving here I've had some issue's with my feet and have just not went and seen a dr for them. I don't want my feet getting in the way of me losing weight, so if you'd pray that if there is an issue/problem it can be an easy fix. Thank you!

Today the kids and I walked down to the Commissary to pick up a few items for lunch and dinner. I am also proud to say that I skipped the desire to just go and get fast food today for lunch and ended up making it. It was definately not the "healthiest" thing I could have made, but it sounded good and I made it as healthy as I know how to. We had BLT's for lunch. I bought turkey bacon. It was my first time at trying it and it was really good! I had a GREAT tomato and cut them nice and thick and added a lot of lettuce, used whole wheat bread, so although the bacon was still fried, there was a SIGNIFICANTLY less amount of grease, I was honestly stunned at just how little grease there was. I made sure to dab off the grease as the bacon finished, so there wasn't any "extra" grease just sitting on it. I made chili for dinner. Had a medium size scoop of it, it was good and hit the spot. Drank a lot of water. I had 4 pepsi's today, definately my worst day with Pepsi. I found myself drinking 2 of them out of stress (just normal aggrevation with the boys cleaning up their room and me just grabbing the pepsi). I'd had a Pepsi with lunch and then one sitting here too. Tomorrow I'm back to my goal of 2. I did that already and can say I was very proud of myself for that and plan to get back to it. I can't fix what I did today, so I just have to do better tomorrow. I also have been up front with my friend who's working out with me on the Pepsi front, she's been very encouraging to me on the days I only had 2. I haven't talked to her today, but will see her at church tomorrow, so I'll tell her there.

Monday we actually have to make an adjustment to our gym time because we're going to an indoor water park and are supposed to leave post at 9 am. The group we'll be with their bus is heading back to post at 2 pm, so if that's the case we could go the gym at 3:30. I know this is completely uninteresting, it's more of me thinking outloud in my typing so I know what I need to do, etc.

Ok, so I'll let you know what my real weight is tomorrow! Oh I did eat breakfast today, and I'm planning on making breakfast in the morning for us before church. Breakfast has been something I've not done well with, and know how important it is. So I'm working and really making an effort to eat something at least for breakfast. I need to get some banana's, because at least on those mornings when I just simply don't feel like making breakfast and/or am short on time a banana is easy for me! I'm going to go to the Farmer's Market this week and get some more fresh fruits and veggies too, so we have plenty of foods to snack on.

Oh! Here's a big one too. We have a cabinet that's pretty well always been our "snack cabinet". It's always been FULL of various snacks. It's almost empty! I've made the effort to simply NOT refill it! I went through it and threw out a lot of stuff. I set stuff out to mail to Chad, then some things have just simply  been ate, but not replaced! I'm in no denial that we will have snacks here, moderation is absolutely key, but to not have 20 items to choose from and now have 3 or 4 things instead, is so awesome and just simply amazing to me! That's really been a big thing for me. At this point part of the cabinet has hot chocolate, popcorn (we do use the air popper, so it's not microwave junk) and there's also cake mixes and pudding mixes. The cake mixes are not ones I'd just make up, they're ones I have for special occasions so they're not ones I really "count" you could say. I do plan to make up pudding so when I  have a chocolate craving I can get a small bowl and satisfy it. When I go to the farmer's market, I plan to make up a fruit salad too, so I can just go the fridge and get a bowl of fruits and satisfy that sweet tooth in a much healthier way!

So, we're making changes!

Well I'm exhausted, it's time for bed.

 

Oh please keep Emma in your thoughts. She has a horrible rash down below. She's been dealing with diarreah today. She got her first two teeth in and I am sure the diarreah is from the excess drooling she's been doing. I let her nap today without a diaper and that helped a lot and I also used a natural remedy of breast milk (it really is a cure all!). I sprayed a little milk on her and with in 15 minutes there was a huge difference! But, she's still very red. Over all she has not been cranky consdiering, so I'm thankful for that. I just want HER to feel as good as she can!

Ok, I'm really off! Good night and GOD Bless

Tornado's, Flooding, and Shopping

I'm going to try to tackle all 3. For those who may or may not know, I'm from a small town in Kansas. Tornados are just something you get used to, well warnings and watches that is. I've heard tornado's and I am here to tell you they are absolutely frightening. Sadly the town where 3 of my cousins went to school and friends of mine live, a great deal of it was destroyed. Chapman, KS. Please be in prayer for the all who live there who've lost their homes, livelihood, and the one individual who was killed in this small Kansas town. Then even closer to my hometown, Soldier. It's not even on many maps, it's a blink of an eye kind of town. My dad's parents owned a farm outside of Soldier, so many friends who I grew up with live in or in the surrounding area of Soldier. One woman was killed in Soldier as well. Then my college, Kansas State. I saw the dorms I lived in on a website, tree's fallen all around. There were buildings damaged on the campus as well. The Kansas State University campus is one of the most beautiful, thankfully no one was killed. They were in another tornado watch or warning last night. It's Kansas, bad weather is just part of living there, but it doesn't mean it's any easier when you have to live through it, so please be in prayer for all who were effected in one way or another.

The flooding in Cedar Rapids is heartbreaking as well. One of my best friends from my childhood/high school, went to Mount Mercy College in Cedar Rapids. She now lives in Hawaii, but has so many, many friends who live there and a few of them have lost their homes because of the flooding. Let us be in prayer for all in Cedar Rapids.

Now onto "happier" things. We went to Czech today. We went to city of Czeb. It was fabulous! We managed to miss one of our exits, but still go there and once we did I started haggeling immediately! I got a pair of KSwiss tennis shoes for about $7.00! I bought 8 bags and 5 wallets, I paid no more than $35.00 for any, less than $20.00 for many, and almost all the wallets less than $5.00! I got 3 coach bags, 2 Louis Viottons, 1 Channel, 1 bag that I'll be using as a diaper bag, and one large over night bag (didn't take a picture of that one yet). I got one LV wallet and the rest were Coach. Coach was definately the most "common" bag there, they were honestly in all the booths that were selling bags. When I go back I'm going to get a Coach overnight bag, they were beautiful. We had a lot of fun. Lunch was great and CHEAP!!!!! We are looking forward to going back.

The kids had a great time with my friend. Just the boys and my friend B's son stayed with her, the girls went with us. The boys had so much fun. They walked about 5 miles today going to a farm, to a lake, down by the river, climbing the mountain, climbing dirt mounds, playing with her dogs, riding her dogs, etc. They just had a fabulous day and were very well behaved! (Thank you, Lord!!!) So it was truly a good day for all of us. Oh I also got my dad and my grandpa each a bird feeder, for the two of them total less than $40.00! They're really beautiful, so I'm excited for them to get them!!!

I'm adding pictures of the purses. We were not allowed to take pictures of the actual flea market, so no pictures of it but here's the link so go take a look! It was huge and we did not get to cover the whole market in the 3 hours we were there. But we were/are absolutely EXHAUSTED! I'm going to bed in a few minutes!!!

ASIA DRAGON BAZAR | Bargain Shopping Centre Cheb

 

God Bless

 

Czech here I come!!!

In the morning my friend B and I and our girls are going to Czech Republic to do some shopping!! It's about 1 1/2 hrs to Cheb (the city) that we're going to and will be hitting the Dragon Market! We're both so excited!!! I'm going to be buying purses and matching wallets for friends and a few family members and of course for myself! I can not wait!!!! Just 9 hours and we'll be leaving here, dropping our 3 boys off at another friends house, and then we're off for the day!

I had a good day. Founds some bargains at the thrift shop, Jacob got a new pair of jeans and jean shorts, I let the boys spend their allowance. Jack got a clay making machine, Jacob got a game, and I got Emma a Fisher Price toy that she can stand and play with or sit with, and I know I got a couple other things but I'm just drawing a blank right now. I also bought me some new tennis shoes, for me to work out in.

I'm definately feeling the results from the weight room today. Just a little soreness, I feel great though! Did good with the pepsi and snacking! I did have 3 pepsi's, so I went over by one, and hardly snacked at all. Had a healthy wrap for lunch today, and had a taco salad for dinner with B, it was home made.

The boys are spending the night with our downstairs neighbors again. It has been so quiet the last two nights. I do miss them and will miss them tomorrow. B's son wants Jacob to spend the night tomorrow, but it all depends on how they are tomorrow while at our friends. We'll just see.

Well, I'm off to bed once I update our deployment journal! (Link is on the left side).

I'll be taking my camera and taking pictures, will post them soon! :)

Update on Jacob

I'm so exhuasted, so I hope this makes sense, if not I'll edit it tomorrow. Jacob's knee is better. The swelling is completely gone and he's having no pain what so ever! God is good and gracious.

Today was a busy day. I had PWOC this morning, came home, fed the kids lunch, got my friends daughter down for a nap, who I have just one more day and then B is done working for the summer and if she returns to work, she'll be going to FCC.

B and I then went to the gym. We went to the weight room today. That was great. I LOVE the weight room. Years ago when I was in high school, one of the classes offered was weights. I was very althletic so it was really a great class for me in that deparment, plus kept me very fit. It felt so good to be in there and truly feeling like I was doing something for my body. Cardio just doesn't make me feel that way, well not the same way anyways. Monday we did the eliptical. The plan right now is this: Monday's and Friday's we do cardio and Wed. we do weights. To increase your metabolism and build muscle you have to lift weights, cardio will not cut it. I think this will really make a huge difference for both of us. I've done really well on my snacking the last few days. Today I've had 3 Pepsi's, that's a lot better than normal. Tomorrow my goal is 2.

Tonight B and her kids came over for dinner and she helped me with working on the boys room. It's a mess, so ALL of us cleaned. B noticed a little, inexpensive entertainment center just sitting out, so I went and checked it out, it was in decent shape so we grabbed it and I put it in the boys room. They were given a little tv with a built in dvd player, although I have yet to get movies to actually play on it, so I'm not sure if it'll play American dvd's or not. Anyways, the boys will be allowed to watch ONE movie in there when they have company. I'm actually very anti tv in my kids room, but since we only have the tv in the living room and we're in an apartment we're limited when friends are here and the kids are all friends and want to watch a movie, so this will be nice. It's also just a 13 inch tv, so it's VERY easy for me to remove it. I've told them they will not be allowed to keep the dvd's in their room. Tomorrow I'm planning on cleaning the boys room the rest of the way, so that'll be a nice change.

Ok, well I can't keep my eyes open any longer.

 

God Bless, thank you for the prayers for Jacob, and good night

Oh What a Day!

The day was going along, then came lunch and I determined that without a doubt the dishwasher was down for the count. I called and got a work order. Of course because the works must have a 5 hr window to come and I already have things planned for tomorrow, they can't come until Thursday. I now have to empty the stinky dishes, wash them, and wait.

Then we're off with my friend B to walk up to the school and pick up her son. We were just about to cross the street (about a half a block from home) when I see a running Jacob drop. He manages to cross the street and tells me that it hurts with every step. I ask him how bad it hurts and he says "it's the worst pain I've EVER felt". So I tell B I'm taking Jacob to the clinic, she keeps Jack with her and off Jacob, Emma, and I go to the clinic. We amazing were able to get in, and Jacob sprained his knee. It was very swollen (twice the size at least). He wrapped it, put ice on it, and told him to stay off of it and keep it elevated...not an easy task for an ACTIVE 7 yr old boy or his Mom! It was accomplished though. While in the room with the NP, he says "so you know Jacob has a heart murmur, right". I said "no". (When he was born he had a slight one, did the normal tests and came back that it'd closed). He feels it's an innocent murmur and I personally can say I have complete peace about it. He did say that he does want to make SURE it's innocent and since no one has ever said anything in the last 7 yrs, we got a referral to a Pediatric Cardiologists and Jacob will have an ultrasound done on his heart to check things out and make sure all is ok.

While in there he asked if he had any issue's with his allergies and I told him he was, so he changed his allergy medicine and we're hoping this works. His teeth/gums had started hurting even with the meds he'd been on, so a change was necessary. One of his meds is a nasal spray, the other is a pill, and he said if they're really bothering him I can give him sudafed and also benedryl at night if necessary. I don't see me needing those last two, but knowing it's ok with the meds he's on to give him the others is nice to know we have more options in keeping him comfortable and pain free.

Oh and....Emma got her first tooth! It popped through. Top right (if looking at her) finally popped through. I'm trying to get as many gummy pictures in as possible since I know in the next few days that tooth will be shining through and more will come to follow. She's almost 10 1/2 months old, she is my oldest to get a tooth through. I will say she's not been that cranky and I'm VERY thankful for that for her most of all as well as me and well everyone else who has to be around her!

Jack's doing good. He's definately having the hardest time with Chad being gone. He's almost 5, understands just enough that his sweet little world has turned upside down and there's nothing he can do about it,  but cry and get mad and whine, pout, through temper tantrums that he isn't allowed to get away with (no matter what).

I did get to chat with Chad this evening, so he's all caught up in our family drama! Poor guy is over in Iraq sweating buckets and I know he feels totally helpless.

Any and all prayers are appreciated.

 

God Bless

Here I go!

Well my friend and I went to the gym today! We hired two sisters to watch between the two of us our 5 children and off to the gym we went! We worked out on the eliptical machine for 20 minutes with an additional 5 minutes of cool down, then went and did crunches, leg lifts, and various stretches. Then we walked home. We felt great, a little tired, really sweaty, but great because we both did it and together which was soooo much better than alone! We'll be going to the gym Monday's, Wednesday's, and Friday's for an  hour and then the other days we'll be going for at least 1 hour walks, if not longer! We're also going to be eating together a few times a week to help keep us on track.

I'm here to say that I'm a Pepsi drinker and it is absolutely my vice. I'm working on cutting back to eventually not be drinking it at all except on the RARE occasions we go out to eat. That's the goal, I'm not there yet, but will be hopefully by the time I go back to KS! So please pray for that one right now, it IS a struggle and a strong hold for me.

So here I go. I'm on the way to lose weight. I'm on the way to get healthy again. I had thought about writing about this in my old weight loss journal, but I just don't have it in me to keep track of another journal, so it'll be written here!