So What's Up

I'm back to my blog. Influenced by my blog buddy over in Iowa, I decided that these next few months are going to be so memorable that I need a sort of diary to document them in. What's better than an online one? My sweet little baby Cameron is graduating high school in May. Sniff. Sniff. I'm going to have lots and lots to talk about in the next couple of months.

Spring has sprung at my house. We're up to about an inch of pollen over every single outside surface. We're having our house pressure washed, but I think we should wait until all of the pine pollen has fallen.

I got a new iPhone. I held off until Verizon offered it and even then, I waited. Last Friday, I gave in and got it. I love it. It makes such good pictures. I'll be able to put lots of good pictures on my blog. I'm such a techno dumbo, though, so I haven't learned even a fourth about this phone. I probably never will.

Since my last post, I've changed jobs. I still do the same thing, but just with a different firm. It was a very hard thing to do, but I know it was a good decision and I'm happy with my choice. It's kind of weird, though, because Suz still works where I used to work.

I hope you'll notice over in my sidebar the new pictures of my boys. They're sillying it up for me in the pictures, but they've both been working out so hard and I'm so proud of them. I think they're the most handsome things. They bring me so much laughter every day. I can almost say I enjoy them as much now as I did when they were little boys.

Jeff and I have a project list a mile long. You know, the things that we want to do around the house. We had this really ugly tree in the backyard. The top of it was dead and the rest of it was horrible. I asked him to take it down. Well, he started on it last week. As of today, it is gone. I wish I had half of his energy. He cut it down with a chainsaw, then dug around the roots to loosen them. Ross pulled it out of the earth with his truck. I'm going to make a bird sanctuary in its place. I'm looking forward to sharing with y'all our projects. We're gonna be playing in the dirt for sure.

So life has been very good since January 28th and I'm excited to be back in blogland.

Till next time. Stay happy!

Going Hmmmmmmmm.

This is how I have felt ALL day! I have had an awful migraine headache. Nothing has helped, and I've tried everything that's ever been given.

Oh, but don't feel sorry for me too much when you hear what caused the headache. Last night I couldn't sleep. I pulled out my phone and got on Facebook. My phone is practically the only place I look at Facebook, blogs, etc. If I can't look at it on my phone or in 5 minutes on my computer at home, I usually won't see it.

Anyway, I was probably on Facebook for a couple or three hours. Staring at the screen of my phone in the DARK. Probably very bad for your eyes. Obviously very bad for your eyes, because as soon as I turned it off, I was hit immediately with the worst headache.

I think staring at our phone screens, iPods, etc. too much at one time can give you a headache.

Do y'all have that experience?

Till next time.

Getting Prepped

Today and tonight I'm getting myself ready for a big event. Perhaps after you see my picture below, you may be able to guess exactly what the event is.

And certainly, after you see this next picture, you will for sure know what the big event is.

I've never had a colonoscopy before. From all that I've been told, the preparation is way worse than the actual test. I'm on a liquid diet today. It's such a funny thing how you don't pay much attention to hunger because you know that you can satisfy that hunger whenever you want. Maybe you don't get to eat Little Debbie Nuttie Bars, but you know you can have a piece of fruit or SOMETHING. When you know you can't have ANYTHING to eat, it seems impossible to ignore those same hunger pangs.

Tonight at 5 o'clock is when the real fun begins. Hence, the need for the new Southern Living magazine. I'll likely be in a seated position a good bit this evening, so a new magazine to read should help pass the time.

There is no worry about anything being seriously wrong. I've been having some abdominal pain and they want to rule out anything other than a spastic colon. I've had that for years.

So are y'all believers in miracles? I sure am. If you've been keeping up with Joanne, then you too are witnessing a miracle right before your eyes! Her husband has been updating her blog and just a few hours ago he posted that she is breathing on her own for the first time since she came to the hospital!!! The power of prayer never ceases to amaze me! She is an amazing woman, as you can see from her blog, and God obviously has more for her to do here!

And one other thing. I took this picture just a few minutes ago. We still have one little spot in our yard with snow! Two weeks and this snow has been on the ground.

That hardly happens this far south. I've always heard if the snow stays on the ground for more than three days, then you'll get more snow that season. We'll see. Sure hope it doesn't snow when we are supposed to go to the deer land. It did last year, remember?

Okay, gals, that's all I've got for today. Till next time... I leave you with this: Hunger pangs are used to describe the contractions of your empty stomach as it expresses its great upset in being left unfed. Mine is expressing itself big time!

Toot Toot

Yeah, that's right. Toot Toot or Honk Honk. Either way, I'm tooting and honking my own horn!

The gym that I work out at had a Leave a Legacy Challenge through the holidays. They gave you a card, and each time you took one of the classes on the card, the instructor signed off on it. If, at the end of nine weeks, you had taken 33 classes, you got to sign your name on the Legacy Wall.

And look who signed it! A Girl Named Kelly Kelly. I did it. Thirty-three classes in nine weeks! And really, I did more than that, but that was all the card held.

There is a sign as you walk into the gym that reads: Half the battle is showing up. And that is really the truth. Some days I'd rather do most anything but exercise. Some days I'm a quarter of the way through an hour class, and I think well, I'm just going to leave; I don't feel like finishing. But I stay. I stick it out. Since I had two C-sections and never went into labor, I've never really had an endurance challenge. I have learned a lot about my own endurance. I have learned not to quit.

Most days I happily go. I have started to enjoy exercising and sweating. Sometimes when I'm on my spin bike, I count the drops of sweat that fall off me onto the floor. Silly, I know, but it gives me a great feeling and makes me work even harder.

Now if I could just learn to quit craving cookies, chocolate, etcetera. Maybe I'll set a Legacy Challenge against sweets for myself and sign my kitchen wall when I go a week or two without something sweet. Nah, who am I kidding.

Thanks for letting me toot and honk my horn! I really am proud of myself.

Till next time...

Good Monday

You rarely see Good and Monday used together in a sentence. But because of the bad weather last week, I hadn't seen Suz and her family for two weeks!!!!!!! That's a record, and it's one I don't want to break. That was too long.

I gave my mom a break and Jeff and I cooked Sunday night. Suz and her family weren't able to make it due to a church event. Joseph and Ethan were at their dad's, so they couldn't come either. We had a small crowd. We invited Ed and Jean, too. I know that they were glad to get out of the house for a while.

Jeff grilled his awesome chicken. I made baked potatoes in the oven. Aren't they so much better that way? I threw together a salad and Crystal brought green beans. I made Butterfinger Cake for dessert.

Since Suz didn't get to come Sunday, they came yesterday. What a fun way to spend an otherwise dreary Monday.

I spent time with my favorite six-almost-seven-year-old!

We played Mr. Potato Head until the poor tater was exhausted. Then we played Jenga. Fun game until your creation is knocked over. Eli is an outdoorsy kinda kid, so being stuck inside isn't his thing. We made the best of it and actually had fun. There is something a little relaxing about playing a child's game when you're an adult.

We ended the day at Waffle House, which isn't my favorite place to eat in the world, but it's close, convenient and who doesn't love a good waffle? My mom and dad went, too, and Cam rocked the Waffle House jukebox. I sat with Alayna alone at a table and I really enjoyed spending one-on-one time with her. She's such a sweetie.

All in all, it was a good Monday. A very good Monday.

Till next time...

Praying for Joanne

The Internet has made the world a smaller place, at least for me anyway. I have made friends that live across the country. It has also brought to light the many, many prayer needs that are out there.

I follow Kelly over at Kelly's Korner. She is a sweet Christian girl who posts a lot about her life as a young mom. Sometimes, though, Kelly posts about prayer requests that have come her way. She blogged about Joanne yesterday. Joanne is a 38-year-old mom in Colorado who suffered a major stroke and was found by her daughter. Her treadmill was running.

While I may not have a lot of readers, I know without a doubt that my readers are praying women. Prayer is what Joanne needs right now. Her husband is updating her readers periodically from the hospital. Will you pay Joanne's blog a visit? Then will you pray for her and her family?

Also, if you feel led, a friend of hers is making a Prayer Bunting to hang in Joanne's room while she is recovering. If there is a verse of scripture that is on your heart after visiting Joanne's blog and reading about her, I encourage you to go here and post it. She'll make it a part of the beautiful Prayer Bunting.

Till next time...

It Was the Fever

The cabin fever, that is. I hadn't been to the gym since Saturday. I haven't driven since Sunday. I have eaten way too much, while excusing it because of the snow/ice, which at first was like a second Christmas. I was grouchy. I was out of sorts. I was cooped up in the house with two 18-year-olds, a 16-year-old, and Ross. I was cursing the day we bought our big-screen TV for the living room. I was cursing the day I allowed Ross to bring the X-Box into the living room. I was cursing everything.

And then I slept and...

I didn't really sleep, but what I did was ask Jeff to go to Chick-fil-A with me for lunch. Getting out of the house cleared my mind. It also helped that, when we got home, all the male invaders were gone.

Now, please don't misunderstand me. I love my kids. I love my nephew, Joseph, who has been here since Sunday. I love Cam's friends. But I felt like if I didn't get some semblance of normalcy in my house I was going to go postal.

I must say that that Chick-fil-A was one of the best ever. I'm pretty sure it was because I was enjoying being back out in society. I felt the fever breaking.

When we got home, I pulled a dear friend out of the closet.

Within the hour, I felt like a new woman. I vacuumed the whole house, with Jeff's help. He understands -- well, sort of -- my fear of the man cave and the man bathroom. ~Gross~ He was very sweet to clean those rooms for me.

Got my Pledge Multi-Surface Cleaner, my Clorox spray and wiped down every spot in my living room and kitchen. Wiped the leather sofas, fluffed the throw pillows and spritzed them with a little Febreeze.

Shook all the rugs, swept all the floors, and then stood back and admired our efforts.

Ahh, the clean, fresh smell of my house.

I tell ya, it wasn't the OCD this time. It was the fever.

According to Wikipedia: Cabin fever is an idiomatic term for a claustrophobic reaction that takes place when a person or group is isolated and/or shut in, in a small space.

Thank heavens, I'm cured.

Till next time...