My 365 Project (& Shadow's disease)

I'm so not in the mood to blog, so I'll just keep this short. ;) I'll be back later with more pictures and the reason why I'm not in the mood.

I'm doing the 365 Project this year. If you've never heard of it, it's taking one photo for every day of the year. I started posting them on my Facebook, but I think I'll also post them here. :) So, let's get caught up!

Day 1 - 1.1.2009 - David actually took this picture, but I'm counting it. ;)We took the boys to God Father's Pizza to celebrate Christmas with the Blues. I dressed the boys in their Pokemon shirts and Ryan wore his too...that wasn't planned, believe it or not! So, we had to take a picture, of course!

Day 2 - 1.2.2009 - Tristin being silly...giving me an "angry face" because I wanted a picture of him. Of course, he wasn't serious...can you tell? :)

Day 3 - 1.3.2009 - Oh...Paxtin. What wonderful, crazy, yummy thing did you cook up for Shadow? Applesauce and Smarties

Day 4 - 1.4.2009 - Tristin had 101 temp (and was resting on the couch watching cartoons). Shadow was trying to steal his blanket from him. I guess he gave up and just decided to watch cartoons with Tristin - at least, long enough for me to snap this photo!

Day 5 - 1.5.2009 - My $1 Spot find at Target! Wouldn't this look cute with one of Shannon's cupcakes in it? See: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1131183056#/photo.php?pid=246778&id=1131183056 My goal is to do this for the kids' teachers for Valentine's Day. ;)

Day 6 - 1.6.2009 - Paxtin and Shadow had a blast with a box of kleenex while Mommy took a shower. They spread them all over the house. The good thing is...that Paxtin loves to help clean up, so he did a great job of cleaning them up!

Later!

Merry Christmas!

Before I forget to do this...I just wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! Here is our Christmas card this year. I hope to get them in the mail tomorrow...lol!

Skull Caps?

Look what I did! I crocheted my first Skull Cap! Whooohoooo! I have wanted to learn to crochet my entire life. My Mom crocheted, but she was right handed and we just couldn't figure out how to teach ME...a lefty. I tried watching her and I tried following, but I just couldn't. Instead, I made up my own. I've crocheted each of the boys a baby blanket and a few others for gifts. Then I started noticing all the cute beanie hats (aka skull caps) and thought...I've got 3 boys. I've got to learn this. So, I searched and searched and didn't find anything on the internet to teach me how to crochet left handed. I needed to SEE it. Then, I stumbled on this blog post: http://crochet-mania.blogspot.com/2008/07/blog-post_11.html Teresa saved the day! Then, another week passed and I started searching for beanie hats, etc. in a left-handed pattern. Guess what I found...Teresa again. She's my new hero. :) So, today I sat down determined to try it...and hour later (I was watching Oprah at the same time), this is what I had:

Anakin LOVES it and the other 2 boys want one NOW. :)

Heavenly Meatballs

Anakin asked me if I knew how to make meatballs tonight (knowing that I was making spaghetti)...so, I made them. I just made it up as I went along...something I learned from my Mom, I'm sure. Try them, you won't be disappointed!

Meatballs

1 1/2 lbs of Turkey burger meat
2 slices of bread, made into bread crumbs (I used my handy dandy Pampered Chef chopper)
1 egg
1 cup Parmesan Cheese (or more, if you like)
4 or 5 shakes of Fajita Seasoning (we get it here http://www.fiestaspices.com/ - I buy the no salt kind)
Couple shakes of Garlic Salt (next time I'll just use real garlic)

Mix up and make into small balls or large...if you want to cook them in the oven - I think that's what you've got to do if they're huge, right? LOL! Anyway, I cooked them in a little bit of olive oil and then when they were done, I let them sit on a paper towel and then moved them to my sauce...which is just a jar store bought kind (without sugar...did you know there is sugar in almost everything? Drives me NUTS!) The best meatballs I've ever had...really!

Who is Miss Mint?

This is huge people! It's finally here! For 3 years (give a take a few months) I have scrapped with Miss Mints products. All I knew about her was that she was sweet (from emails), funny (her blog and emails) and that I LOVED her digi products. Well, guess what...she's finally coming out of the digi closet! Stay tuned to her blog: www.peppermintcreative.com/blog for more details!!!!!!!! I can't wait! :)

Yippppeeeee!!!

I lost 3 lbs this week! That's 11 lbs in 4 weeks! I wish it were 110 lbs, but hey, I've got to do it the healthy way. ;)

Tristin had a great week at school. He had "green days" all week long! I'm sure his teacher is just as happy as we are. LOL! Anakin also is doing really well. He's gotten all A's on his quizzes and tests so far. Got to love that! Paxtin had his Open House for preschool on Thursday. Can you believe I didn't take my camera? Opps! He was soooooooooo happy to see 4 different boys there that he met at summer school! His favorite, "Jimmy" was there too. I wish I could have got a picture of his face when he saw him. His eyes got HUGE and he made a cute "excited" noise. He loved Jimmy at summer school...although he never really played with him. LOL! He must be the "cool kid". ;)

I'll be back later with pics, layouts and more... :)

Down 8.4 lbs in 3 weeks!

Whoooohoooooo!!!

I'm so excited! www.naturallyyoursgrocery.com just opened a store near us! Since starting my "new way of life", I have been visiting our different grocery stores...Walmart, Kroger, Schnucks, Meijer...and have been scouting out things that are healthy. Walmart sucks in this department! You've just got to stick with milk, yogurt, cheese, meat, fruits and veggies...I hardly don't even shop in the middle of Walmart anymore. Kroger...they are better. They actually have a health food section. There are a few things I can get there. Schnucks has a large section and Meijer has stuff spread throughout the store and they have a sign at the top of each section that says "Healthy Living". So, at least I know where to go now. LOL! But, Naturally Yours is ALL health stuff, organic, etc. It's like walking into heaven for me. I'm so ready to try different stuff and get healthy. :) I found Stevia drops there for our tea. I found more "No Pudge" fudge brownie - NO FAT mix...lots of different Soy Crisps that I think are YUMMY and make me not miss my chips. Tofu..tofu hot dogs...gonna try those tonight. :) It is expensive, but I don't care! I feel better eating this stuff!

Quick note about Tristin. He had a "yellow day" and then a "green day" yesterday. He's doing so much better, really. His teacher said they moved him and a few others to make more room at the tables. She said he's doing better being at the end where he doesn't have someone on the sides of him. Not sure what that means, but at least it's working. He is still excited about school and was SUPER excited about the library and computers he got to visit/do. I'd rather deal with the few things he's doing 'wrong' than him not liking school!

That's it for me...I need to get something done around here today! The kitchen is a disaster. I cooked last night and David didn't do dishes. LOL!!! We watched a little Heroes instead. ;)

"I'm going to shoot it out!"

Oh...everyone should have a few boys in their lives. I tell you what...if there's one reason God blessed me with three...it's because he knew that I could handle the burping, farting and the potty talk. It actually cracks me up. Maybe it's because I lived with Amy for so long. (She doesn't read my blog, but you know I'm for sure going to link her up now!) I think she just may have more hot hair than me and that's saying a lot! :)

Okay, so Paxtin was playing outside this morning. Since he's the only one home during the day now, I decided I'd better go check on him and see what he was doing. I walked up to the door and saw his bare butt once again. He has a thing for peeing outside. He's even been known to poop outside (I think he's done it twice over the summer.) So, I asked him to come up to the house and he did. I said, "What are you doing?" He said, "I'm pooping!!!" Me..."Oh, no you're not!" Paxtin laughed and went to the bathroom to sit... I followed him and asked him, "How in the world did you think you were going to poop out there in the middle of the yard?" He said, "I was going to SHOOT it out Mommy!" I really think he thought he was going to shoot it out far away from him...not realizing that it wouldn't go far and probably end up with it in his pants that were down around his ankles. LOL!!! Oh, that child! He does crack me up! I'm pretty sure he's been studying how Shadow poops and he thinks he should be able to do it too!

Day 3 - It's a GREEN DAY!!!!

Tristin stayed in the GREEN today! YIPPPPPEEEE!!!! I knew he could do it and I'm so proud of him! Paxtin and I ran to the store this morning and he picked out "special" suckers for him and his brothers (he insisted we get one for them too). I got them out when they got home from school...the green day just made it extra special. ;)

As for me, I didn't get much done today, but I got to spend it with Paxtin...alone and it just felt good! It's so strange to think that we don't get to spend a lot of time together alone (same for Tristin). If I run to the store, I normally pick one of them to go with me...or ask who wants to go. Paxtin almost always wants to go. He's still at that age that ANYWHERE is exciting as long as he gets to go! He just makes things fun. I let him walk in the store where normally he rides in the cart. It's a new, exciting world for him.

Okay, I'm off to peel zucchini (yes, I know I should eat the green part, but we like it better without it), fry it in some Pam with fajita seasoning and garlic...cook up some ground turkey and cous cous, sprinkle it all with a little fresh Parmesan cheese...and enjoy. One of my very favorite meals...David's too. The kids...not so much. ;)

4am Wake Up Call

I'm so not a morning person. I stay up late at night and sleep in as much as the kids will let me. ;) I think this is changing. There's one other thing I don't think I mentioned about Tristin. The day before his first day of school (the 1/2 hour day), he woke up soaked. He had peed in his bed. He hasn't had an accident in at least a year or more. Well, tonight, it happened again. I'm thinking it's because he stopped taking naps before school started and he's just that much more tired that he's having a hard time waking himself up. Does that sound right? Or maybe it is just all the changes of starting school? Seriously though, I couldn't go back to sleep last week when this happened and now... it's a little after 4:30am and I'm still awake. I finally decided to just get on my computer and hopefully, I'll get sleepy again.

Another thing...Saturday night before I hit bed, my eyes started itching REALLY bad. I itched them...and then looked in my mirror. OMG...it was BAD. Totally red, swollen...it looked like someone had beat me up! I went to bed without eye drops (I only found some expired ones) and woke up Sunday morning with horribly puffy and swollen eyes. I also had some crusties, not like Pink Eye crusties, just normal crusties, but more of them. I did end up finding some eye drops that weren't expired and those helped a ton. I could still see that the inside of my eye was swollen though - like the tissue between the eyeball and my face (not sure what that's really called). When I got up with Tristin, I could tell my eyes weren't normal. They aren't as bad as the other night, but still swollen! My guess here is seasonal allergies. It always seems to get worse around school time. It's time to break out the Clariton or maybe I'll just use Zyrtec, since that's what the boys use. (Anakin and Tristin have allergies)

Hmmm...what else. Oh, Anakin and Tristin got their Pokemon cards taken away Sunday morning. David gets so annoyed with the boys...they argue about what card is whose and which card has more "power" and blah blah blah blah blah. Well, I stayed home from church, mainly because of my eyes...and the hunt for Pokemon cards made me decide to clean out the boys' room. They've been sharing a room since the beginning of summer. We've got 2 twin beds, a toddler bed, a big dresser, bookshelf and a small desk in there. There's a bit of space in the middle of all that and it's always full of junk! Stuffed animals, books, toys, papers... The boys don't pick up after themselves as well as they should. I guess you could say that's my fault. ;) So, I gutted their room. Took out all the toys, garbage, put the books on their shelves (now if Paxtin would just get over having to pull them all out to look at 1 or 2), cleaned out under their beds and swept the floor. Wow, what a difference! So, my goal on Monday is to work on the "playroom" aka the "baby room". Get all the toys downstairs...and move Anakin in there. Hopefully, that will result in having him be more responsible for HIS room. Having Paxtin and Tristin be more responsible for their messes. We're also going to try to get back to the rule of "no toys upstairs". Now, I say that lightly because I'm not going to freak out if something is brought upstairs. BUT...I'm so sick of the dog chewing Legos, stuffed animals and paper. It's a game to him! Every morning, he goes and gets something he's not suppose to have and then lets the boys chase him around the circle in our living room/kitchen (it's connected and they can go in a circle through them. He does this so he can get a treat out of it. Again, blame me. It has just been easier to have the boys get him a treat, he drops whatever he has and then it's over. Bad habit...we're trying to break it. I think having less toys upstairs will help. Also, rule #2, the dog won't be in the basement. That way, the boys can go down there and play and not have to worry about the dog getting something and running. LOL!!!! That sounds so funny. Anyway, I'm thinking maybe this will make me feel like I have my house back?!? It won't be so overrun with toys that I don't feel like I can open my front door and let a friend in. There have been so many times this summer where I've run to the front yard to greet friends that are dropping Anakin off...or just stopping by...just so they don't step into my front door. How sad is that? The first thing you walk into is the living room...there's no foyer, no entry way. It's just BAM...couches, TV, etc. This is our main living area. Where the boys play, I scrap, we watch TV...play games, eat pizza on Friday nights and have movie nights. We have an area in the basement to watch TV, but it's just not the same. To make things worse, since our kitchen is connected, you can see our kitchen table when you first walk in. That's just wrong in my opinion. I wasn't blessed with the OCD of having to pick up and clean all the time. Sometimes I wish I were!

Okay, it's almost 5am and my eyes are, once again, very heavy. I think I rambled on enough! Have a great day!

2nd Day of School

Well, Tristin's 2nd Day of school went a little better than the first. He still ended up in the "Yellow" box (Green is good, Yellow when they have done something and Red when they've been really bad.) and still did the opposite of what was asked of him, but at least it was 'better'. I've driven myself nuts the past few days...almost to the point of making myself sick. Worrying. Thinking. Wondering. Worrying some more. Ugh! Anyway...

Here is a photo from the first day of school. We always take pictures with the neighbor kids on the first day. This one was too cute, I just had to scrap it. I was so happy to see the colors of this kit...perfect. I'm sure Paige will be happy with the pink! ;)

You can see the credits here: http://www.sweetshoppedesigns.com/inspiration/showphoto.php?photo=54517&ppuser=289

Tonight wasn't a good eating night. I was hungry for pizza and the boys have been begging to get Pizza Hut. We never get it because David doesn't like it. So, he gave in and we just ordered the cheese sticks. Oh man, they tasted so good. I know I ate too much and didn't have one ounce of veggies (oh, well, I guess you could almost cound the marinara sauce, but I'm sure it was full of sugar...LOL!) We ate at 6ish and it's now almost 1am and I'm just now feeling a little twinge that I'm hungry. I pulled out a few soy nuts. :) Like that's going to soak up the fat I just consumed. LOL! Oh well, one of the famous quotes from my buddy, my therapist, is "sometimes you've just got to go nuts". I'll talk to him next week when I see him. ;)

A sweet email from Tristin's teacher...

I received this last night...

Hi Keela,

I just wanted to make sure that you are feeling ok about today. I know the report I gave today is never something that you want to hear from a teacher on the first day, but I know we will make it through and see lots of progress this year. Sometimes it is as simple as just a brief adjustment phase. If we work together I know it will all work out well.

I will see you tomorrow and please try not to stress too much about today, tomorrow is a new day, and I think it will be a good one.

Mary (Mrs. Anderson)

I edited it to take out a few parts that were more personal. ;)

Tristin's First Day of Kindergarten...

went horrible!!!!!!!! I knew it would either be perfect or really, really bad. Tristin likes to test his limits with teachers. He did the same thing in preschool. I tried to warn his new teacher, nicely, but I couldn't have warned her that it might be this bad. He refused to do what was asked of him, refused to throw the flowers away that he found on the playground, etc. etc. the list goes on and on. The teacher said he was 'sorry' and understood why he couldn't act this way, but he just kept it up. I told her to be harder on him. UGH! I cried the entire time I talked to her. You see...she is good friends with Anakin's old kindergarten teacher. He told Mrs. Anderson about Anakin and Tristin. She picked Tristin to be in her class! I feel so bad about all of this! Anyway, she was expecting Tristin to be like Anakin...opps! I just got done talking to Tristin about it all. I told him that tomorrow he needed to show Mrs. Anderson what a sweet boy he really is and that he needs to show her he knows how to act the right way and obey. Let's hope it sticks...or I'll be visiting the principle's office. :(

3rd Grade, Kindergarten, and Just hanging out!

Today is the BIG day! The first full day of 3rd day and Kindergarten! Here is a photo from yesterday (Anakin had a 1/2 day and Tristin only went for 1/2 HOUR.) Tristin was sooooooo excited this morning. We didn't even have to ask him to get dressed (like normal). He was ready! I can't wait for 3pm, so I can find out how he did today. Oh, and today he gets to eat a 'hot lunch', which he was excited about too. Hot dogs. So many fun new things to discover!

I really thought Paxtin would be sad today. He and Tristin are such good buddies, they tease and play with each other all day long. Paxtin has been in heaven all day! LOL! He's been "reading" books, watching cartoons...even made his own lunch of a bologna, cheese and ranch dressing sandwich, an apple and mini grapes. He told me he's eating the apple to be healthy. ;) Now...if I can just get a nap! I didn't sleep well at all last night. Paxtin has been having sleeping issues the past few days. We think that may be from all the changes going on. I was too tired to deal with trying to keep him in bed (he shares a room with Anakin and Tristin)...so, I let him sleep with us. Not a good idea, I know. BUT...he slept, David slept and I didn't. LOL! I got maybe 3 hours last night. So, I've got to come up with a reward system for Paxtin and get him back to sleeping in his bed!

Until later...I'll blog about their first full day tonight. :)

Being Transparent

I married the kindest, honest, God-loving man 10 years ago.
I've given birth to three amazing, healthy, adorable boys.
I have the dog of my 'dreams'.
I may not live in the best, biggest house...
or drive the best, hottest mini van (LOL!)...
or go to Disney World every year...
BUT...

It is time for me. Period.

I've put my health on hold, so to speak. After giving birth to Anakin, I was diagnosed with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS), had infertility problems, weigh problems (on top of my already bad eating habits) and depression.

I'm done having kids. It's time to face the facts that I am waaaaay overweight and my health, although good - my doctor even went as far as saying that "you are healthy", I feel like crap!

So, I did something about it.

I started looking at what I was eating and drinking. I know what's bad/good, but I was choosing to do what 'felt good' because it made me feel better. Whatever. That's not true. I was feeding my depression...making me feel even more depressed and eating more. I know that's insane, but so many of us do it!

So, I just stopped.

I stopped drinking Coke. I stopped using regular sugar (which I use Splenda when I drink/cook, but didn't watch what HAD sugar in it), we have almost stopped using Splenda and we're switching to Stevia and Isomalt. We're eating Soy products, more veggies (we were good about it, but now we're even better), eating FISH (I cooked and ate my first piece of fish last night - well, David grilled it, and it was amazing), watching butter and bread products closely. We're eating more organic, more whole foods...

We're changing. We're not perfect. We aren't trying to change anyone else...and yes, we'll still eat out, eat popcorn at the movies and take the kids to get donuts (I took Tristin and Paxtin this morning, I got coffee, they got the donuts and everyone was happy!) and good Lord above, we'll still get Tobin's pizza! Our favorite.

This week, without exercising (which will start this next week), I lost 4.2 lbs. Whooohoooo! I am ready for "me" to come back. To shed this extra person I've been carrying around for the past 4 years.

I am ready to show my kids the real Keela. They only know the Mom who is sad, tired and depressed. Well, that's not totally true. They see a happy, fun Mom too, just not as much as I'd like them to. KWIM? Also, I'm ready to face having to change the things I feed my kids. Anakin has always been interested in the info on the boxes of stuff he eats. As soon as he could read, he was reading them. The other day he asked for fishies (Goldfish Crackers) and wanted to fill a huge cup full. I got the scale out and we measured a serving size. He was SHOCKED! It was about 1/4 th of what he wanted! You know what...he was happy with the serving size. That's my goal now, is just to make them aware of what the size is and then go from there. I've already taken Pop Tarts away (on a daily basis) and the sugar filled snacks (you know, the stuff they grab whenever they are hungry - Ding Dongs, etc.) and they only have cheese crackers, fruit snacks (which will be switched to something else soon), Fishies, cheese sticks, apples and other fruit.

So, if you've made it this far through my post, thank you. ;) I'll be back with updates and more layouts soon. Have a great weekend!

A Quiz

I saw this on Carrie Stephen's blog and thought I'd do it since it's just one word answers. ;) Tag whomever you'd like...;) So, do it!

1. Where is your cell phone? purse
2. Your significant other? sleeping
3. Your hair? up
4. Your mother? bed
5. Your father? bed
6. Your favorite thing? God
7. Your dream last night? crazy
8. Your favorite drink? coke
9. Your dream/goal? weightloss
10. The room you're in? livingroom
11. Your hobby? scrapping
12. Your fear? accidents
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? here
14. What you're not? skinny :)
15. Muffins? CHOCOLATE!
16. One of your wish list items? kit
17. Where you grew up? Hopedale
18. The last thing you did? scrapped
19. What are you wearing? shirt :)
20. Favorite gadget? camera
21. Your pets? sleeping
22. Your computer? huge
23. Your mood? sleepy
24. Missing someone? Grandma
25. Your car? brown
26. Something you're not wearing? pants (LOL!)
27. Favorite store? Target
28. Like someone? Yes
29. Your favorite color? Green
30. When is the last time you laughed? Today
31. Last time you cried? Yesterday (wedding!)

Just a quick post...

A few new layouts...I know I missed a few, so you can see the rest (and the credits) here: http://www.digishoptalk.com/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=24

Not much else to report...we did send Anakin off yesterday for his first week of church camp by himself (5 days really). He was nervous, but fine. I was just nervous. I miss him terribly already.

My First Hybrid Project

For my non-digi friends...Hybrid is basically printing a digital paper or element and then creating something traditionally with it. In this case, there was a challenge for the Creative Team at Little Dreamer Designs to make t-shirts. I decided it was about time I try it. I'm soooo glad I did! Here is a link to the LDD Blog and the instructions: http://www.littledreamerdesigns.typepad.com/

And finally...the boys sporting the shirts they helped me design!

Hi! I can't believe it's been almost a month (again) since I last wrote on my blog. Anakin finished up 2nd grade last week with all "A's". Tristin is done with preschool and is already talking about when he goes to Kindergarten. So...we have one week "free" until the summer activities start. Really, it all starts on Friday when Anakin goes to Royal Ranger camp with David. We will also be celebrating David turning 40 on Friday and all 3 boys start day camp/summer school next week. As crazy as it all sounds, it's fun and we're looking forward to not doing much else. ;)

Here are a few new layouts. As always, the credits can be found in my gallery here: http://www.digishoptalk.com/gallery/showgallery.php?ppuser=24&cat=500

Happy {Inter}National Scrapbook Day!

It was raining here today. Paxtin has croup and David and I just felt like doing nothing today. So, that's what we did...NOTHING! I actually got to scrap and shop a little (I hit www.amyhutchinsonsdesigns.com) hard! I love her stuff and haven't bought much, so her sale ROCKED! The stuff I scrapped today is for my Creative Teams though. You can see the credits here: http://www.sweetshoppedesigns.com/inspiration/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=289 Otherwise, enjoy the photos below.





I also scrapped one that will be on a blog later this month, so I can't share it. ;)

Sorry this is short, I'm beat and heading to bed!