This has been an interesting week to say the least. Monday and Tuesday were pretty uneventful. Noah worked out with me Tuesday on the Wii, we did the 2P run and it about killed me. Wednesday evening around 8:00pm I got a call from Drew while I was getting Graeme and Aegwyn ready for baths and bed. Micah had decided that he was ready to get baptized that night. He had been talking about it for a few months, and had said he wanted to wait til after his birthday, so we were all surprised. I am very proud of him for his decision. Thursday was a pretty good day at work. We had put up a dartboard in the conference room last week, and we decided to start a tournament in the office. We are all putting $.50 in each day, $.25 goes into a monthly pot and the other $.25 goes into a project pot. Each month whoever has the most wins get the pot. At the end of the job whoever has the most wins the pot, which we have estimated will be around $550. I am learning the game since I had never played before Monday. Friday is when the bottom fell out of my week. We had 7 degree temps over night Thursday, and we got up to frozen pipes. Then the toilet backed up. Since I was already running late for work, I asked Geoff to handle the toilet. I had gone out about 15 minutes earlier to warm the car up, so I headed out the door with all of my stuff, hopped in the car, backed out of the driveway, put the car in drive, and didn’t go anywhere. It took me several minutes to get the van to coast to the side of the road. I parked it and ran back inside to tell Geoff the transmission was messed up again. On my way back to the house I noticed a huge pink puddle in the driveway, so I looked out at the van and could see transmission fluid pouring from under the car. Geoff went out and somehow managed to get the van back in the yard. When I got off work I ran by the store bought a couple bottles of trans fluid. We filled up the van to almost overflowing, and flew to the repair shop around the corner. By the time we drove the 2 miles to the shop all of the trans fluid was gone. The mechanics said they couldn’t fix it we would have to take it to a specialized shop, which we now have to do sometime Monday. And in the meantime we are down to one car.

I have been very good at sticking to my exercise plan, and have put in at least 1/2 an hour each night and some nights doing as much as 1 1/2 hours. Please see my Weight Loss Journey pages for details of my weight loss progress.

I vowed a long time ago never to make New Year’s resolutions. I am not breaking that vow now, I have however committed to living a healthier life. I have been saying for months that I wanted to stop smoking, I plan on making that a reality. I have tried to quit in the past and something always seems to get in the way. I am not really sure how the best way to approach this is going to be. I have tried the patches and they do help, I have tried chewing gum but don’t really like it, so where do I go from here?

I have also started an exercise program. I got the WiiFit for Christmas and have been doing that pretty regularly over the past couple of weeks. I usually do between 1/2 an hour and an hour every day, and the exercises are getting easier and easier. The new fitness routine should be easy to follow since we are starting a new wellness program at work, and I am on the committee (kind of have to set and example for everyone else). 

And finally, on my road to a healthier life, I have once again started following the Weight Watchers plan I was on several years ago. I have lost 3 pounds over the last 2 weeks, cut my coffee consumption in half (and I am not being a total grouch about it), gotten my soda count down to 1 a day, I have switched to Splenda instead of sugar, and am trying to snack healthier.

I have said all of this to let you know that I plan on writing more regularly and tracking my progress in each of these areas on here. I am planning on posting some before pictures soon, and hopefully can post progress pictures along the way, and eventually post the after photos. I am not shy about my weight, so I will tell you that when I started my exercise on Christmas day I weighed in at about 160, I am now at 157. I am in a size 10 currently. My goals for this are to be in a size 7 and weight around 135. I don’t know how long this will take me but I am committed to this endeavor.

We had a wonderful Christmas. I was able to pull off the best Christmas present for Geoff, and it was actually a surprise. I put together cash to pay for the gift a little at a time so that he did not know how much I was spending, then took the cash to my mom, who ordered the iPod Touch 16g. I had it shipped to my office so that it never entered the house. When he would ask what he was getting for Christmas I told him that it was something electronic, but he probably wouldn’t like it, since I never seem to get the right stuff. He was surprised and thrilled when he opened it, and has not put it down since.

Aegwyn loved her Handy Manny and Cars toys, but was especially thrilled over her baby doll that took a paci. The boys liked their new games, and all of the other hundreds of gifts that they received. Graeme just liked playing with the paper and boxes.

And as for me, I absolutely love my WiiFit. I am trying to use it daily, whenever I can get the Wii away from the kids that is. I however, never want to see Christmas food and party food again.

Met my old lover in the grocery store
The snow was falling christmas eve
I stole behind her in the frozen foods
And I touched her on the sleeve

She didnt recognize the face at first
But then her eyes flew open wide
She went to hug me and she spilled her purse
And we laughed until we cried.

We took her groceries to the checkout stand
The food was totalled up and bagged
We stood there lost in our embarrassment
As the conversation dragged.

We went to have ourselves a drink or two
But couldnt find an open bar
We bought a six-pack at the liquor store
And we drank it in her car.

We drank a toast to innocence
We drank a toast to now
And tried to reach beyond the emptiness
But neither one knew how.

She said shed married her an architect
Who kept her warm and safe and dry
She would have liked to say she loved the man
But she didnt like to lie.

I said the years had been a friend to her
And that her eyes were still as blue
But in those eyes I wasnt sure if I saw
Doubt or gratitude.

She said she saw me in the record stores
And that I must be doing well
I said the audience was heavenly
But the traveling was hell.

We drank a toast to innocence
We drank a toast to now
And tried to reach beyond the emptiness
But neither one knew how.

We drank a toast to innocence
We drank a toast to time
Reliving in our eloquence
Another auld lang syne…

The beer was empty and our tongues were tired
And running out of things to say
She gave a kiss to me as I got out
And I watched her drive away.

 

Just for a moment I was back at school
And felt that old familiar pain
And as I turned to make my way back home

The snow turned into rain — Dan Fogelberg

This is one of my favorite Christmas time songs. No one ever seems to understand why. For some reason this year, this song hits home much more than usual. I guess I am just hitting an age where you start thinking of past friendships that no longer exist, and wishing to reconnect with old friends. I am sure that some of this comes from being on Facebook recently, and actually getting back in contact with people that I haven’t seen in over 15 years.

This song makes me think of of how great things used to be before I had the responsibilities of work and kids and family. Like staying up all night with the girls watching horror movies, hanging out on the weekends wondering what to do next, lying about your age to see rated R movies, and having some of the best ice cream. It seems as you get older these things lose something. Staying up all night watching movies and talking is harder to do, Disney replaces most other movies, and ice cream just isn’t as good as it once was.

Up until a few days ago, I was really looking forward to Christmas. Now, I am just trying to maintain. Hopefully, by tomorrow morning I will be back into the holiday spirit. 

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

First of all, why do men have to be so stubborn and pigheaded? Geoff is sick, I think it is pneumonia. His symptoms are almost exactly like what I had. He is miserable, but will he go to the doctor? or let anyone help him? NO!

The guys at work heard me on the phone with him today, and they all agreed that this was usualy behavior. Why? If you are sick and miserable why not do what you can to fix it? I just don’t get it.

I never thought that I was one of those people… you know the ones that hire a Nanny to come in take care of the babies. Well, as it turns out, I am one of those people. We officially hired a Nanny today. I have been having some issues with daycare, and Geoff is trying to work, and neither are going well.

Our daycare has always been wonderful, I have known the people that own and run it for years, but lately I have not been happy. Graeme is not getting his breathing treatments like he needs them, and there have been a few days where he has only had 1 bottle all day.

We decided to look into hiring someone to come to the house to watch Graeme and Aegwyn, and I lucked out. I found someone who will work for about the same amount that I am paying daycare, plus she will help with the housework.

So, as it turns out, I am one of those people that I used to make fun of. But as I see it, having the kids at home keeps them from being around all of the sick kids that parents insist on bringing to daycare, lets Geoff and I monitor more closely what the kids are doing, gives us some help on keeping the house up, will help us run errands, and isn’t costing us anything extra.

The new Nanny came by this afternoon to meet the kids, and I was mildly surprised that Aegwyn liked her from the very begining. I think she will work out very well for us.

We went to our Sunday School Christmas party tonight and had a wonderful time. We ended up bringing home the best present from the Dirty Santa game.

Things have been so crazy lately. I started a new job, which I LOVE!!!! The company is fantastic, the people are great, and the job itself is amazing. It has been so long since I actually enjoyed going to work, and had fun while I was there. What is the job you ask, I am the Office Manager for a major governmental construction company beginning a new project on the arsenal. We have just started with the construction phase, and I am so excited.

We have also begun basketball season, which unfortunately with Graeme and Aegwyn, we have only been to one game.

I am very proud of myself, I have almost completed my Christmas shopping. I have had my tree up since last Sunday, and all of my presents are wrapped. We, as in Micah, Noah and I, are getting ready to start baking cookies. Noah has requested sugar cookies and snickerdoodles, Geoff has requested white chocolate macadamia and mint chocolate, and I want peanut butter and chocolate. Who wins? Everyone, by the time we are through making cookies I will probably have 10 dozen cookies… hopefully those will last us until next weekend:)

These past few weeks have been nothing but pure and utter madness. Ends up that my crud from a few weeks ago was pneumonia, cough still hasn’t completely gone away but otherwise feeling much better. I had to send Geoff and the kids to B’ham last week while they came and replaced our floors. They look fabulous now. I just wish the house was put back together after having to clear the living room and Aegwyn’s room. I still have stuff stacked up in the laundry room, computer room, and in the boys room waiting to find a permanent home.

On a brighter note, I got a job and start next Monday. The problem is the paper work I am having to go through for the job, and the fact that my first 3 days on the job are going to be spent traveling. I have to go to Ft. Benning to train, which means sending Geoff and kids back to B’ham for 3 days. The company is flying me down there (why I don’t know). My flight leaves out of B’ham Monday at 6:30, goes to  Atlanta, and then to Columbus, GA. I am set to arrive at 11:00am. The bad part of this is that I could drive to Columbus in 2 hours, but instead I am flying which is going to take 3 1/2 hours. They are putting me up in a nice hotel though and getting me a rental car.

With me going back to work, Graeme is going back in daycare. Aegwyn will be staying home, I am afraid to chance it with her. When she was in daycare before she was sick constantly. The docs say she has bad allergies which compromise her immune system. So she will be staying home with Daddy, and hopefully she is old enough now to keep herself occupied so that he can actually get some work done during the day.

We took the kids trick-or-treating Friday night, and Aegwyn had a blast. She was alittle scared at first but by half way through she was running to the doors yelling “twick-r-tweat” and grabbing handfulls of candy from any bowl that was in her reach. She wanted to walk the entire time too, and would allow no help carrying her little pumpkin. When we got back to our street and were headed home she was so tired she just got down and started crawling, dragging her pumpkin alongside. She still wanted to go to the houses though, and was very upset when we told her no, and picked her up to carry her the rest of the way home. Since then she goes to where I have the candy in a big bowl, and asks for her “tweat”.

It has finally gotten to me. I thought that after all of these months avoiding the plague that the rest of my family has had I was in the clear. It started a little over a week ago with my asthma acting up. I figured it was the change in the weather causing this so I started using my inhaler again, bought me some cough drops, and continued on as usual. This treatment has been helping, I was feeling better so I didn’t go to the doctors on Tuesday like I was supposed to. (I mean why waste a doctors visit and all of that money when it was only asthma right?) Well last night this stuff hit me full force. I was up all night coughing, my nose started running and now I have so much sinus congestion I can’t breathe. Can this screwed up horrible 2 weeks I have had get much worse?