It's been a while

I haven't been blogging lately and I don't know how much more I will. I am always thinking about things that I would love to blog about but when I have the chance to blog the thoughts aren't there. I seem to always have the beginnings of something in my head but I never seem to have the time to follow through. Sometimes I think it is because I read so many other blogs that sound so good and seem like the person has put so much thought into what they are saying and I don't feel like I am that great. I know that shouldn't matter and really who is reading this blog anyway. It's not like I have this huge blog following or anything. I have never really kept up with my blog and had any real theme to it. I guess it really is just random thoughts. That being said now I guess I will move on.
I recently rejoined Weight Watchers. I did this a little over 4 weeks ago. We finally had the money for me to go back. I think for me I just need to accountability and the knowing that I am paying for this and I want to do well. Some background-- In January 2006 I did Weight Watchers (WW) online for 6 months. Now here comes the scary honest part, when I first started then I weighed 267 pounds. This was about 6 months after I had Sophie. I lost a little over 35 pounds in the 6 months and kind of kept trying but didn't loose much more. As I reached the end of 2006 and got through the holidays I was back to 238. That is what finally got me to join WW in February 2007. I was so scared that first meeting, but then I made some friends and started talking more during the meetings. I met Alice who is a 60 something year old single mom of 4. I love Alice. She started out weighing just over 400 pounds. She has lost now over 125 pounds. We attended the Monday night meeting together for over a year. Then last March Justin lost his job and WW was something we had to cut from our budget. My last weigh in was on April 14, 2008 and I was 158.8. I was .2 away from having lost 80 pounds total. I really wanted to continue and thought I could on my own. It was hard and I was under a ton of stress and lots of life changes. In the end I don't think I did too bad. When I went back to WW four weeks ago I weighed in at 164.8. No I wasn't not thrilled with that but it could have been much worse. I have lost 6.6 pounds since going back. I only have 18.2 pounds left to get to my goal. As I look back over the last 3 years I have lost almost 110 pounds. It has taken me a long time but I know that it will not come back. I have changed so much of what I eat, why I eat and have added exercise to my life at least 5 days a week. I feel better about me and that is all that matters. I also thank God each day for His help and strength. I could not have done what I have without my heavenly Father with me each step. In my happiness and my disappointments he has been there for me. He will be with me when I reach my final goal. I hope you will be with me too.
Well this post kind of went in a different direction than I thought oringially but maybe this is what I was supposed to write about tonight. I want to keep this blog up so maybe I will keep trying.

SNOW!

Normally I love snow. I love playing in it with the kids. I enjoy the extra time I get with them because of snow days. The thing I hate about the snow and ice is that we always loose electricity. Usually not for long but we do. This time though I have just had enough. We lost power yesterday around 11am and still have none. The kids and I left and went to my parents aound 5:30 last night. Justin got home from work and hooked up a borrowed generator to our fridge and a space heater we have. He had to unplug it all this morning when he left but it was 56 in the house so I really don't think I will loose much food. Our street was the only one left in the neighborhood without power last night. It wouldn't even be so bad if I had't had to deal with this back in Septmeber when we had a terrible wind storm from hurrican ike. We were without power then for 6 days but it was nice out then. I just want things back to normal. The kids have been off school since tuesday, and we have had a lot of fun together. I can into work today but just for a little while. I just want to be able to go back to my house and enjoy this time in my house with the kids. Get things done around the house and relax. Oh well, I will stop complaining now.

Time for a break

Something that our church does and I am sure many do at this time of year is have a congragational meeting with annual reports from many of the different ministries of the church. For the last four years that I have worked here I have put these together. Usually I am frantic come this week because I have to put together 75 booklets with reports from 15 different people. This really isn't that bad but getting the reports from people on time is really hard. Usually I am waiting on a couple till mid week and then have only 2 days to get them finished. This year really isn't too different. I am still waiting on 2 reports but I have all the others. I needed to take a break from looking at all the different reports. I have a couple that I have to retype because some people still don't understand how to use a computer or how to use email. It doesn't really bother me it's just busy work. Honestly I think my problem is that I'm bored. It really isn't that hard and I am getting a little bored with it all. I recently redid our Sunday bulletin/program. I made it into a tri-fold and changed the way some of it looks. The original format I have changed a little over the years but for the most part is the same as when I was a kid growing up in this church. I have to say I have gotten a really good response from everyone. I expected to hear some complaints because it is new and different and smaller. I have to use 81/2 x 11 paper because that is what my folding machine will fold. I can't use and bigger. I still put and insert in because there isn't enough room for the sermon notes. But i have gone from 2 pages on inserts to just one and the look is much better. I feel like I finally created something different and not just changed up some of the format that we had.
Who knows maybe it is just because of the weather and all that I am feeling a little bored with all this. I do love my job and I love interacting with everyone here. The church is slowly changing and more of the older people who have done everything for so long are now allowing younger people to step in and are accepting the changes that are being made.
We are holding a big Women's Ministry event on February 5. We've had a few women who don't understand why we need this but so far most have responded well. I am part of the leadership team for this which has been kind of fun. I am also going to be offering a new study that I will be leading which is a big step for me. It is something that I have really felt called to do for a while now and I am going to give it a try. I will let you know more about this as soon as I see what happens with it.
I hope to find out today if I get to go computer shopping. I mentioned to one of the men in our church who just happends to be a board member that I would love to have a laptop. I don't need one but I have to say that it would be helpful. They talked about it at the meeting last month and I really didn't think I would get a yes answer because of money issues and such. They came back and we talked a little more about why a laptop will be useful to me. Dve, my boss told me to look up what I wanted and how much it would cost and give it to him and he would present it to the board. They met last night so hopefully today I will know what is up.
Well I guess I had a lot more in my head to get out than I thought. I really didn't mean to go on like this. Oh well.

What a mess

Right now we are having the carpet replaced at home. Well atleast I hope that that is what they are doing since I am not there to watch. Last night we moved most of the furniture out of our bedroom and the kids two bedrooms. So right now there is a ton of crap sitting in my living room. Who knew we could fit so much stuff in 3 small bedrooms. Tomorrow they will put new carpet in downstairs. This is something that we have wanted for a very long time. I just never thought about what a mess it would make in the process. For the past two weeks Justin and his brother have also been putting in new laminate wood floor in our livingroom, dinning room and kitchen area. This project has lasted longer than I really had hoped. It too has created a mess. Now with Christmas just a week away I am hoping that things will get finished and the house can get put back together. I will admit I am not always the greatest housekeeper, but I hate for things to be really out of place, especially in the living room. We only have so much space and when too many things are out of place the house feels like its a mess, so I always try hard to atleast keep things picked up. I am hoping to find the time to get everything put back together before I go crazy. We have so much going on and I still have to finish my Christmas cards (actually start them) and find some time to finish up my shopping without having to take the child who I need to get the gifts for with me.

Well now that I have gotten all of that out. I must get back to work. I will post pictures once the floors are all finished.

Family Pictures

This year because of budget limits I thought that I would have my sister-in-law take some pictures of Justin and the kids and me and I would choose one to use for our Chirstmas Cards. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be but we did get a picture we can use. Sophie who is very much a little firecracker and loves to cause trouble was trying to make funny faces during most of the pictures.

I love pictures like this though because you can really see the kids personallities come through. Kaleb is a little more reserved, Abbie is a little goofy and Sophie just likes center stage. I still need to get the Christmas cards together. Hopefully that will happen this week. I have a sick Kaleb with me today at work. He actually seems to be doing much better than he was at 1:45 this morning. He is currently down in one of the classrooms here at the church watching a movie and making a book. He is really such a great little boy. I just hope the rest of today goes as well as it has so far.

When did so much time pass?

Last week Kaleb turned 6. For him this is monumental for me it's a bit of an eye opener. Kaleb was 6 weeks old when Justin and I moved from Las Vegas back to Cincinnati. We lived in Vegas for only 3 years but in that time Justin and I did a lot of growing up. We had Abbie and then we had Kaleb. We have now lived back in Ohio for double the time we lived in Vegas. I don't keep in touch with my friends as much as I wish I would from Vegas but I think about them often. I still talk about when I lived in Vegas and experiences I had. I look at Kaleb though now and think of how much time has really gone by. Our lives have started to get busier with the kids involved in so much more. We always talk about taking a trip back to Vegas to visit with our friends but then life happens and plans don't get made. There are so many people who made Vegas such a wonderful experience for me. I really do miss so many of the friends that I made. They were all part of my extended family. I loved opening my house for house church and miss the fact that we don't have that here. I hope today that all of those who were a part of my life then know how much I love them still and appreciate the friendship that they gave to me. Well I went off what I thougth I was going to type but oh well.

tired

I'm tired today. It's my own fault really but I was reading a book last night and Justin wasn't home to tell me to get to bed. He was working a side job with a friend from work all day yesterday. I can't complain because the money is really good and we just had to put new tires on the van. I really don't have anything wonderful to share. I'm sitting here at working trying really hard to be productive but it's hard to work on a newsletter when you have nothing to put in it. Oh well, maybe i'll just lay my head down and take a short nap. :)

Life is hard.....

...when you are three. You're not really a baby anymore but you can't do the things your old siblings can do yet either. Sophie seems to have this problem everyday. She wants to be able to do everything that Abbie and Kaleb do. She doesn't realize that she is smaller and younger. All she really cares about is getting to what they are doing. At the same time she is the one that causes most of the fights. She is very stubborn and and will argue and fight to get her way. Abbie and Kaleb have always been a lot more passive or just whinny but Sophie just gets mad. Then there are the times when she is just her cute little self. We were in the car the other morning listening to Air 1, they were playing "God of Wonders" by Third Day and Sophie chimed in during the chorus singing "You are holy, holy". She was so cute. Of course the funniest thing is to watch her sing along to Thousand Foot Krutch. She gets her head moving and just starts rockin out. I think we may have the next big rock star :)!

When the phone rings

As many of you know I work as the office manager/secretary at the church I attend. I am the main person in the office pretty much all the time. We only have 2 full time pastors and a couple part-time staff and me. I am the person that answers the phone. It amazes me all the different people who call the church. I get your typical telemarketing calls throughout the day. We have our "criminally insane" friend who likes to call at least once a week and we have many benevolence calls. I get a phone call from an old man on occasion telling me our church is going to hell because we use other versions of the Bible besides the King James. I think the calls that tend to get to me after awhile are the benevolence ones. I listen to their story and most of the time I am a pretty easy sell when it comes to all their problems. I am very limited as to what I can do for them. I basically get their name and a phone number to reach them at and pass it on to the person who is in charge of our benevolence. He then checks them out pretty thoroughly before he will even offer help. What bothers me is the people who call a couple times a day after the first time I've talked with them and ask me if I contacted the person who handles our benevolence, or they will have another family member call. They tell me how they need the money by tomorrow or that by noon today they won't have a place to stay. I don't understand why people wait to the last minute or act as if they are the only ones that have the problems. It was actually interesting after Justin lost his job and people would call and I could say I understand because of what I was going through. That would throw people off. The church finally has caller id which I have to say is my favorite thing. Now I can look at a number and know if I do or don't want to talk to the person on the other line. I still generally answer the phone each time it rings but there are a few numbers now that i know I can ignore.

Finally I am going to Blog

I have wanted to get on here and write for some time but I just haven't taken the time or the time hasn't been there. It has been forever since I have written here and many things have changed and many things are still the same. I think that has been what has held me back from writing because I don't know where to start.

Here goes, Justin is working for a friend of ours from church doing tree work. Which he has been extremely busy with the last week and a half since we had remnants of Hurricane Ike come through in the form of a wind storm. He worked almost nonstop from last sunday afternoon till friday night. Our power was out from Sunday afternoon to late Friday. Luckily for us my parents live just 15 minutes away and only lost power for about 6 hours on Sunday. The kids and I spent a lot of time over there, but slept at home. The kids only missed one day of school which was good too. We lost what food I had in our deep freezer in the garage, but other than that we were able to save most everything. We had a few shingles come off the roof but other than that we were really blessed to not have more problems.

Well I think I will just have to stop there for now. My time is short maybe soon I will write more.

Happier things!

As most of you who may have read any of my blog over the last year know that i have been going to Weight Watchers. A few weeks ago was one year but just this week I got to a big goal. This is not my final goal but it was a major one that I wanted to get too. This week I was down 2.6 pounds which put my total at 76.8 pounds. I wanted to get to 75 pounds and I finally did it. I still have 31.2 pounds to get to my goal but I was very excited to reach this goal. It has been a long hard year at times but I am so much happier with how I look and how I feel. As soon as I can I will post a new picture. Recently the lady who lead the Monday night meeting that I attend had to take a leave of absence because of traveling for her main job. We've had a new lady leading the group who just does not do a very good job. I've had several of the people who I have met while attending the meeting tell me that they would love it if I was the leader. I have to reach my goal first but it is something that I have really been thinking about. It would be extra income, but I would love to be able to help others with their weight loss journey.

On another note Justin has received a job offer from the franchise owner of a couple of Donatos in the area. Just pray for guidance as he looks into this and explores a few other things.

I should be scared

I should be scared about the fact that Justin lost his job on Monday. I should be scared that he has no income at this moment. I should be, but the crazy thing is I'm not. Justin has hated his job for so long and has hated working for Donatos for so long that I feel his getting fired was a blessing. There are a lot of extenuating reasons as to why he was fired. There is the one main reason but then there are other things that we figure made this a great reason to let him go. He has filed for unemployment but we don't know yet if he will qualify. He has sent his resume out to several places and is actively looking for a new job. There is one possibility which is with Donatos but on the franchise side and not corporate. The guy who owns several of the franchise Donatos in the area has called Justin and wants to talk with him and see what he can do for him. Justin likes Don and he would be doing something that he already knows, but he isn't sure that is what he wants to do. I am trying really hard not to push him into anything. I just keep praying that the right door will be opened as he sends out his resume and all that God will guide us as to what to do. We need a lot of prayers as we go through this time and all the changes that may come with this.

A Very Special Lady

Today is a very sad day for me. A very special lady who has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember passed away last night. Her name was Barb and she was an amazing women who loved God and loved children. Barb never married but she had lots of nieces and nephews and lots of kids at church whom she touched. Growing up Barb taught my Jr. Church class, she organized and directed the Children's Christmas program. The thing that I will always associate with Barb is camp. Every summer Barb went down to Camp Begomi in Pike County, Kentucky. You had to drive through a narrow creek to get to the camp. Barb started taking me to camp when I was seven and as I got older I would go for more than just the one week. I would go and stay for several weeks and work. I loved camp and made so many friends there. Barb loved camp too and loved reaching out to kids who needed help. Over the last several years Barb's health hasn't been the best. She had to wear oxygen all the time and often had a hard time getting around. Her health never seemed to keep her down for long. A couple of years ago she started a quizzing program for the kids at camp. She would send them monthly verses to learn and a newsletter with everyones birthdays in it. She would come here to church and I would help her get it together and run them for her. I really enjoyed the time I had with her each month. Last year Barb spent 30 days in the hospital but kept praying that God would let her get out in time to go to camp. Sure enough she was still able to go and had a great time with the kids. She was an amazing women who has left a wonderful legacy of how God can use one person to touch so many. I will miss Barb very much but I now now she is with her Father in Heaven and she is so happy to be there.

It's Almost Christmas

It's the Saturday before Christmas and I have so much to do. Well okay not too much. Today was supposed to begin 6 days in a row off for Justin, but as with being the boss you have to make sacrifices. His Assistant General Manager has pneumonia and can't work today so he has to go in. We can deal with that because he still has 5 days off and we will have Tuesday - Thursday off together. The only problem is we were all going to go out today and get the rest of the food that we need to host his family on Tuesday for brunch and my family for dinner. Now i have to take all three kids out on my own and get the things that we need. I just pray that the kids will not make this too hard for me today. The one I worry about the most is Kaleb. He is get bored and walk away and sit somewhere sometimes and as crowded as places will be today I worry about him getting lost or taken. Trust me when I say that we will be going over in great detail how we will act today and what we will do and of course I will bribe them with some kind of treat if they behave. Well I better go and get ready so we can get this done and over with.

The Weather Outside is..........Confusing!

This morning around 8a.m. the snow started falling and falling fast. Within about 2 hours we had almost 3 inches of snow. Then it started sleeting and then it all turned to rain. Now it has been raining most of the day. The tempeture has been just above freezing hense the rain and not snow. Tonight its supposed to switch back to snow and drop a couple more inches. I don't know I guess I'm glad that it wasn't all snow today but at the same time I would have really liked the snow. We're supposed to have a Live Nativity at our church tomorrow night. It's not just one of those drive by ones either. It is more like a dramatization of the night Christ was born. We have shepherds and Roman guards and live animals and all kinds of things. Now with the weather I'm not so sure how many people will come. I don't particularly want to stand outside in the cold and the snow (the high is only 28 tomorrow) and I don't really want to deal with my kids in the cold and snow either. Luckily this is one of the things that I am not involved in. We'll just have to see how tomorrow is.

Anyone seen a Wii

Justin and I had decided a couple weeks ago that we would get the kids one family gift this year. Are plan is to get them a Wii. One it looks like fun and two we have a game cube and all the games we have for that can be played on the Wii. Now what we should have done is bought what we saw when we made this decision but we didn't. So for the last two days I have been checking ebay and bidding on several but I am just not will to pay what some are asking for. A couple weeks ago the price wasn't too different than in the store. Now that there are none anywhere but ebay they are going for at least double the store price. I guess we'll see if this is what we actually get the kids now.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I just wanted to wish everyone out there a Happy Thanksgiving! I hope everyone is getting to enjoy this day with friends and family. I will be spending it at Justin's families for the first half of the day and mine for the second. My goal is to not stuff myself today.

House For Sale well maybe Not

After much whinning and complaining from me we finally put our house up for sale at the end of August. At the beginning of the year I told Justin I wanted to move and this was going to be the year we did. I was tired of living with his brother and wanted our own place. We've been in our house for 4 1/2 years which is much longer than we've lived anywhere else in the 10 years we've been married. In the few months the house has been on the market we have shown it twice. I knew it would be hard to sell our house just because of how the housing market is right now. A couple of weeks after we put the house on the market and I finally started listening to what God was trying to tell me and not just making it what I wanted it to be, I started feeling like maybe we shouldn't be trying to sell our house right now. That maybe I was pushing what I wanted more than what was in God's plan. Also after looking at our budget we realized that right now we are in the best place for us. I know that I have complained about living with Justin's brother basically since we have started living together and I have finally grown up enough to stop complaining about it and start making the best of the situation. There was another time this summer when Abbie looked at me and said mommy you don't like uncle Jimmy very much do you and that really hit me. It hurt that my kids had heard so much of my complaining and thought that I didn't like Jimmy, that Abbie could see that and had picked up on it. I had to explain to her that I love uncle Jimmy but at times he gets on my nerves. She thought about that for a second and was ok with it. I knew then that I needed to get over myself and stop complaining all the time. In all honesty it wasn't as hard as I thought it would. I just stopped letting everything bug me. I have to say things are better in our house and we all get along. Jimmy didn't mind taking the house off the market either. He hadn't really looked at anything yet and again it is probably the best situation for him too.

5 Years Old

Today Kaleb turns 5. He has been so excited about turing 5 and being old like his dad. He thinks turning 5 means that all the things we said he was too young to do when he was 4 he is now allowed to do. Kaleb is very much a loving sweet soul who often asks, "who am I going to marry mom?" He loves to give hugs and cuddle, which would be easier if he wasn't so big. Kaleb has such big thoughts sometimes but can still be a little boy. This weekend he had his first basketball game. He was a little shy at first but by the end he was doing really well. He's playing in the Upward program that one of the Baptist churches in our area is part of. This is a great program if you want your kids in athletics but in a good teaching atmosphere. It is a Christian program and they do a devotion and prayer before each game. For Kaleb's age they don't keep score they are just teaching them the game. It is such a good thing for a child like Kaleb who has such a sensitive heart. That is one of the worries I have about him playing football. His dad and I have had a few talks about that, we'll see were we go with that.

Happy Birthday to my sweet boy!

changing

Back in February I said that I was joining Weight Watchers again and really trying to lose weight. Well it is just over 8 months later and I have lost 53.6 pounds. At this time I weigh less than I have in over 8 1/2 years. I have my good days and my bad but I have really changed a lot of what I eat but still enjoy some of my favorite foods but in moderation. I get up and exercise every morning at 5:00a.m. I feel great and have enjoyed going to my weight watchers meetings. I have met some great people and have reconnected with some old friends. It really is amazing who you will see at a weight watchers meeting. I love the lady who leads my meeting. She lost 140 pounds 11 years ago and has kept it off. She makes the meeting exciting and for someone who needed to loose 105 pounds to get into the right place for her BMI she is also an inspiration.

Justin and I recently went to a wedding of a friend who I grew up going to church with. I knew I was going to see some people I haven't seen in a long time. It was great to actually feel a little more confident in myself when I went.

So I still have a ways to go but I feel great and I have loved getting to buy new clothes. I loved the day that I went from shopping in the plus size section to the misses section. Like the night I went shopping for the dress I really dindn't wamt to go shopping. I had just had one of my teeth pulled and my mouth was a little sore. I had to shop though because there was no other time that week to go without three kids and how am I going to try things on with three kids around. I ended up having a great time buying 2 dresses and several shirts that I can wear to work. I have to say it helps me to keep working hard to get to my goal being able to see how much I have changed and how great I feel.