What we are learning along the way..

I was happy to go out last night with a good friend for dinner and what ended up being the beginning of Christmas shopping for me. I always say I'll start early, but never do, either from time contraints or budgetary, but I always end up waiting til the last minute.

It had been a long day. James spent the day at home sick, napping and resting and getting over a stomach bug that I'm sure had something to do with the fact he ate sardines on Monday! (YUCK!)

I had the distinct joy and pleasure to take Casey to the dentist for some long over due work he needed done. When we had gone to a different pediatric dentist 2 years ago for some work on him, he was given liquid versed and even with that he panicked. They could only do a minimum of the work because he freaked out. Cut to yesterday, and I had hoped against hope that he would handle it better, he's older now, and had done fine at his cleaning and check up, but unfortuntely, it wasn't to be so.

They got half of the work done, and will finish the rest next month, but next time he will be given something. (Why don't they furnish something for the parents?? )

It got me thinking that Casey, and for that matter, any first child, he has become our Guinea pig. He gets things tried out on him first, and while we end up learning loads of stuff from our experiences, I do hate that it works out like this. I keep on reminding myself that the day he was born I apoligized to him in advance for screwing him up! I knew we would learn so much from him and because of him! Have to love him for that!

On a sad note though, the tooth fairy did come last night, the dentist had pulled part of a baby tooth that had not fallen out when the permanent tooth came up under it, so we had that to put under his pillow. This morning when I woke him up, I asked if the tooth fairy had come and he said that Dad had put money under his pillow. Crap, now he's going to figure out about Santa as well! We are done for!

Happy Wednesday!

Out of Body Experiences

So since I've had this life altering surgery and have begun to start to emerge from my shell into the sunlight, I've started having really funny experiences.

I'm down 80 pounds (yea, me!), and recently took the plunge and bought some new clothes. I debated what to buy, what size to buy and how much of any one thing to get. The addage is that what fits today will hang on you tomorrow.

I opted for going 2 sizes smaller. My pre surgery clothes, pants, capris and shorts to be exact were already falling off me as it was, so I knew I could manage 2 smaller sizes. I'm happy to report that my new pants and capris are all fitting well, I even realized this morning that new pants were already starting to feel like the pup-tents my old pants were doing a few weeks ago!

I'm taking baby steps with the shirts, I think the emotional need I have to not feel constrained in my clothes will be an issue I have to deal with for a while. I tried a few shirts on over the weekend when I was out searching for new shoes (Don't get me started on the shoe issue.. my feet have well and truly shrunk!).. Anyway, I digress..

I'm between 2 sizes in shirts, and that is great as well! I tried the smaller size on, it fit, and wowzah! I got to meet my waist again for the first time in a while! I've always loved my waist, the hips I could have done without, but my waist has always been something I've not hated!

So, about the out of body experiences. I find myself walking through the grocery story, humming a tune, feeling absolutely fabulous about my new self! I know people may be looking at me thinking "Hey, look at that big girl".. but since I know how far I've come, and how much I've lost, I feel like I'm just very tiny! I don't remember feeling this light the last time I weighed this much, which I have estimated is about 10 years or so ago.

I find myself looking at my wrists, they seem so very small and delicate these days, and when I put my hand to my collerbone, it feels positively boney! I do love all this.

I love feeling light, and free and giddy.

After all, I am a giddy girl!

Time flies

Well, summer is nearly over, well, the vacation part is over, the heat remains!

Kids are all back in school now, Casey's in 3rd grade and Owen and Spencer are now officially in kinder! Both are doing really well, none of the hysterical drama we envisioned for either of them. If I had had to of guessed, I'd of said the trouble would have been with Spencer, but he has done great.

He and Casey love buying their lunch, where as Owen is steadfastly dedicated to his ham and cheese we make for him every day!

We've been making the rounds lately, trying to get in some fun family adventures in, we've been swimming a few times, and yesterday we ventured to Fun Trackers. We will never go again if we can help it! Very low budget, and way over priced for what we did... live and learn, right??

As for me, I had the surgery, and have done very well. Lost a total of 73 lbs so far, and feeling really good. It took a bit to get on course, but now I feel great and am so glad I did it!!

Wil try to post some pics..

We'll see!

End of May..

So I haven't been here in a while.. busy busy with everything going 100 mph every day!

Now summer's just about here, although this is South Texas, it's summer here in April if you go by the heat!

Casey finishes up 2nd grade next week, then summer camp, and then a week at sleep away camp in August. His first time. I hope he'll do ok. He can be such a noodle!

So, my big news is that in 6 days I'll be having gastric bypass surgery. It's been a long time coming, have thought about it for a while now, and now the ducks are all in a row, and I'm just about there.
I think I'll handle the operation itself well, I've had numerous laparoscopic surgeries, so I'm not afraid of that. I worry about post op, getting used to a new schedule and routine. Totally do-able, but change is change and it can be difficult even in the best of circumstances.

I've been doing the pre-op diet for 2 weeks now, lost 15 lbs and feel good. 6 days to go.

I'm having these weird out of body surreal experiences lately. I was in HEB the other day, and started realizing that soon people will be looking at me for me, not my back end.. wow, she's tall, that's me..

I'm hopeful that I'll do well, and excited about the changes to come.

Boys are well, Owen lost his first tooth this weekend, have no idea where it went to.. he didn't even notice it was gone! He's lisping a bit now!

More later...

Birthday Month

March is a big month for us with birthday's.. my sister and I are 2 years and one day apart on March 12th and 13th, James is on the 20th, and our niece Olivia is on the 29th.

Plus we seem to have several friends who are pisces as well!

This year was good, James and I got to have a grown up date night, this past weekend.

My mom took the boys for the night, so we were able to enjoy a late dinner, (8pm is late for us!), and then home to watch 3 hours of recorded stuff on the dvr. It was wonderful to be able to sleep in until 8am on Sunday morning!

We worked in the yard yesterday, rather James did, but we replanted around the base of our big Ash tree out front, new dirt, flowers, and mulch. It looks so nice. I'll have to remember to take a picture!

Kids are good, although Spencer accidentally (I know, accidentally??) hit James in the head with a heavy metal mallet while he was working on the tree. He's suffering a headache today!

Random Thoughts

It's been one thing or another, and now I'm about to walk out the door, so I guess this will be brief.

Owen's finger continues to heal, about a week or so left of splinting it, I'm worried though about once we stop, is that it? Do we just let him go back out there and go forth, and then worry about the next injury??

Gosh, 3 boys.. gotta love them!

Casey continues on his quest to get to visit Auntie Jill and Uncle Steve and the girls this summer. Grandma has promised him a ticket, but he has to maintain his A/B grade status.
I can see the pressure building in the kids eyes... we keep telling him to act like we were standing there and what would we say about what he's about to do??

Spencer continues to be Spencer, he's so cute, funny, witty, silly, charming and adorable, I just want to eat him!

I'm off to help James look for a laptop, heaven help me! The man can barley type, it's like getting a cat to bark! Ah, technology Gods, have pity on him and help him on his quest to become computer savvy!!

Ta for now..

The Big Cheese

This is what has come of my life, 3 young boys, and well, you can imagine the silly jokes that come out of the 3 of them.

This is one such funny story, it's short.. not so sweet though!

We were sitting down to dinner on Saturday night. My mom had come over for dinner before taking Casey to spend the night with her.

As Owen walks past me to get to his seat, he, well, he lets one go... (the kid is tooting all the time, it's kinda funny how gassy he can be..)

As he does it, and Thing One and Thing Three hear it, the laughs and giggles start.

Casey pipes in with "He cut the cheese!!".. Spencer adds, completely dead on..

wait for it..


"No, he cut the cheese in Half!".



We all about died laughing, it was so Spencer that he said it..


Too funny!