Dinner

Dinner Tonight.

 It is SO good. I am glad someone gave this recipe, 

I make it at least twice a month.

You can make it spicy or not depending on the heat of the salsa you add.

Such a slow day

Its been going by so slow and i hate that. I got quite a bit done around the house today and found oit i am allergic to the homemade laundry soap and will have to buy something thats clear and free for my stuff only.

Weight loss so far

I had surgery october 11 th and since then i have lost 9 pounds that is not me watching what i take in or workingout. I am going to wait one more week before attempting to workout to heal a little more.

Cleaning Day

Today we are going to be shampooing our carpets, I hate them damn nasty things. I would much rather have wood floors. Our one dog who now sleeps in the kennel use to mark our room, so its nasty carpet.

We have carpet in all kids rooms (bad idea to ever do) and its all nasty from them spilling stuff.

Difficult Child or The Age

Tori is 9 years old and hitting puberty and let me tell you she has the sassy mouth, attitude and acts like she knows it all and is the boss of the house. We tell her that she is losing something due to her attitude and she tries to bargain with us, we tell her to go to bed and she at first ignores us and then keeps saying " hold on"
If this is a peak into how teenage years are going to be then I am in trouble.

My new Man in my life . .

This is Elijah James and after watching him be brought into this world by Candice and Rustie, I have grown a special attachment to this sweet little guy. He is super special to me and love spending time with him.

Friends

Today our friends Candice and Rustie came by around 1 and stayed almost all day, Its so great to have friends to hang out with. I kinda hated it when they left, but I know they need some them time since Rustie is deploying soon.

I was super blessed in August when I met Rustie and Candice, I had the privileged to photograph their first child's birth and we became great friends since. It started out as me being hired to take photos of the most important day in their lives and turned into the best friendship in the world, just when I needed it.

Thanks Candice and Rustie for being our friends!!!!!

Saving Money

I have been trying to find ways to save money when it comes to supporting 5 kids and a total house hold of 7. A year ago I started making my own laundry soap from something I found on Pinterest and so far its saved me tons of money which is good as my washing machine in this house never stops.

I now have found also on pinterest a recipe to make chocolate powder for the kids milk and I also have yet to try it but got a recipe for fabric softener that I will be trying.

Good Morning

We thought since the kids went to bed late (10pm) compared to their normal 7pm due to being at church daycare last night until 945pm for date night, that they would sleep in. My boys for some reason do not understand the value of sleeping in.

Tori wakes up in a cranky mood, the kids all start demanding breakfast, without realizing it take a bit of time to cook it.

Tori is on meds for ADHD and a few other mental issues, when she has not had her meds yet she can be quite the handful and on top of that its getting very, very close to her starting her cycle for the first time. UGH I am NOT ready for that to happen as I know it means she is getting older.

I wanted to go out and hit some yardsales but I just really don't feel like it. I gotta lock myself in my office today and work on school work as the two classes I take on line this term are due tomorrow, plus my class I go to campus for on Tuesdays has a quiz I need to study for.

Date Night

SO my church does date night on Friday nights if you attend service, which I love doing, you can leave your kids in the day care from 6 pm - 945 pm. I am ALWAYS up for that. Its so great to get that little bit of time away for Greg and I to have just adult time either alone or with friends.  Tonight we went with Candice as her husband Rustie is working night shift at the base. We went to a new Thai place and it was SO GOOD but since I have limited space my plate looked as if I didn't even touch it, so sad to think, but its OK  I brought it home for later.

Post Surgery Check Up

Today I had to go to Lubbock, TX which is about 1 1/2 hours away to do my follow up and get my staples removed. Dr. Buschman said it all looked good and to come back in 5 weeks for another follow up and to get my first fill. Fill means they will inject saline into a port that is attached to my muscle wall through my skin to inflate the lap band around the top of my stomach. This makes the hole smaller so that food sits in the pouch longer causing me to be able to eat less.

They put butterfly strips on the 5 incisions and sent me on my way.

Pictures of the family

 Above is my girls, from the left to right its Tori age 9, Arwen age 7 and Lexi age 4 at a pageant they did this year.

 Above is my baby Tanner age 2

Above is my big boy Hayden age 3

The start to a new me...

So to start with for a little background on how I came to this point. I had always been really thin, well skinny, but with tons of built muscles from weight lifting in high school and dancing for 12 years. When I got married, I gained a tad of weight before the wedding and went from 140 to 155. I moved away from home and went from a full busy life to sitting at home doing nothing as a housewife, so the weight began to pile on. By the time I got pregnant with our first child 5 years later I was a whopping 200 pounds. It spiraled out of control from that point. I went on to have 7 pregnancies, 5 babies all in the years 2003-2010. When all said and done I was 235 pounds, but here in the 2 years since my last baby I went up to 240 pounds. I got so sick of not being able to lose weight and doing the yoyo thing. I applied with TriCare (military insurance) to get the lap band surgery as its safer than gastric bypass. I got denied at first and after a year I started to have major health problems, enough for TriCare to approve me. SO just a week ago on October 11, 2012 I had the lap band placed. I have gone from 240 - 233 in a week. Its been great, no major issues so far (knock on wood)

My goal is to go down to about 140 even tho for a 5'3" female that is 33 years old I should be 113-130, I feel that I would look under feed, so I am thinking 140 with little body fat and good built up muscles like when I was younger.

Below is a picture of me this past Summer. I hope to NEVER look like that ever again. I will keep updated pictures as I hit marks like 30 days, 60 days and so on.