I lost 30 pounds!

I'd been a little overweight all my life. When I was 18, 19, 20 I weighed around 140-150 and wore a size 10-12. Even then I wasn't totally happy with that, but it wasn't terrible. I figured I could still lose another 10-20 pounds.

Then I began dating my husband, and immediately put some weight on. I'm still not entirely sure why, I think it was mostly because I just stopped caring as much. I was comfortable with him, so any sense of self control I had when it came to food just went right out the window.

Then I got pregnant for my twins. I was 22 years old. I gained 100 pounds during that pregnancy, and only took off about 50 when they were born. That other 50 continued to stick around.

I tried numerous times through out the years to take that weight off, usually losing up to 15 pounds before giving up and putting 20 pounds back on. So for almost 7 years I hovered around 190 pounds.

This past summer I attempted to quit smoking, and was actually successful for 4 months. However I put on a lot of weight after quitting smoking. I still don't know exactly how much. Anyone who's ever gained unwanted weight knows the scale is an evil demon when you're heavier than you'd like to be, so I avoided it like the plague.

I ended up going back to smoking, partially in hopes to lose that extra weight, which of course was a silly idea. After awhile some of the weight did begin to come off, very slowly, but I was still a lot heavier than I should have been.

Then September rolled around, along with all the new TV shows. My husband and I are big fans of Dancing With The Stars, and watch it every Monday and Tuesday night. The only problem was on Tuesdays we'd sit down at 8pm forgetting the show didn't start until 9. So while flipping channels trying to find something to watch, we came across an episode of The Biggest Loser. For a couple weeks we'd watch the first hour of Biggest Loser before switching over to Dancing With The Stars.

Eventually I decided to go on the Internet and watch all of this season's episodes of Biggest Loser that I'd missed. That was the night it hit me! I'm watching this show, where some of the people only started off at about 250 pounds. During a bathroom break I decided to see how bad I'd let myself go. My scale said 225. How devistating! By the third or fourth week some of the Biggest Loser contestants already weigh less than I do!

The very next morning I started my diet and excersize plan. I stopped drinking soda, and drink nothing but water through out the day (that is after my single cup of coffee in the morning). I began eating breakfast, something I don't normally do. I chose healthier lunch and dinner options, plan a couple healthy snacks throughout the day, and gave up the late night munching, which was my biggest downfall.

Having cable can be a blessing sometimes, because I have access to an Excersize On Demand channel where I can choose a work out anytime I feel like it. There are many work outs available on that channel from Jillian Michaels (a Biggest Loser trainer). I've begun doing one of these work outs each day.

I've been on this diet and excersize plan for about 6 weeks now, which is phenomenal for me, I've never been on a diet longer than a month in my life! And I've lost about 30 pounds, another huge accomplishment, I've never lost more than 20 pounds while dieting. I'm currently down to about 195 and loving it. I'm back to fitting into all of my clothes again, which is a great feeling.

But right now is about the hardest part of my diet. It's been really hard to get much further below my current weight, so I've been comfortable here for 7 years. I do plan to continue on this diet and excersize plan. I'll actually be joining my local YMCA within the next week or so, so then I'll have access to gym equipment, aerobics classes, a pool, and a number of other fitness activities, which is very exciting for me. I just worry (as I've been doing since the day I began this diet) whether or not I'll be able to continue to lose weight and maintain my diet and excersize plan.

Wish me luck!

Poor Javy

Javy's true passion in life is sports. That's always been his passion and it probably always will. He's decided he wants to be a professional football player, and who am I to squash that dream? I do everything I can to support him and help him be successful in sports.

This year he has finally started playing football through school, they call it "modified". He's absolutely loving it, it's his first time playing real football.

Well, two days ago the silly child cuts his hand pretty bad in his locker. I had to go pick him up from school and take him to the doctor, where he ended up getting 3 stitches on his middle finger.

So, then the doctor tells us Javy can't play football or participate in Phys. Ed. for 3 weeks!! I'm thinking "Are you nuts??" It's just a little cut on his finger!

So I told Javy to ignore all that and go to football practice anyways. Unfortunatly the school nurse and the coach both told Javy that school rules state he's not allowed to play with stitches!! Ugh!! However, he still has to attend practices even if he can't play or participate!!

So the doctor who stitched Javy's finger said no sports for 3 weeks!! He's going to get the stitches out in 2 weeks... by then he'll have already missed the first game.

He's heartbroken, and so am I. This is such a blow to him. I'm hoping to find a way to shorten his wait time and get him back in football before that first game. I'd hate to see him miss it.

Summer is Over!

Summer has come to an end. The children went back to school yesterday. What an eventful day that was. Javy is now in football through school, they call it "modified" which is basically one step under JV. He has practice immediately after school, and it lasts until 5:15pm... every single day!! School is not walking distance, and of course the buses won't stay that late, so I've got to drag all the kids out during our usual dinner hour to go get him! Thankfully that only lasts through October.

In October Tristan will be starting her dance classes. We signed her up for all 3 classes this year, ballet, jazz, and tap. What were we thinking?? Now we're wondering how we're coming up with all that money!

Last year Tyler was in Soccer which went September and October. We haven't signed him up for that yet this year, although I'm sure he'd love to do it. We just don't seem to have an extra dime to our name these days.. but don't get me started on that!!

I have been trying to get Aydan into Head Start, which was a long, drawn out process. He was finally approved, but their classes are already full. If there's an opening during the school year he may be able to get in, but I'm not holding my breath.

For now I'm just going to enjoy the semi-peaceful days of having just Aydan and Mathieu at home with me. At least I don't have to worry much about the older kids getting bored and needing stimulation. Aydan and Mathieu do pretty well at entertaining themselves, and they don't NEED me to take them somewhere everyday like the older kids did.

Although I must say we did have a decent summer, I still felt it wasn't good enough for the kids. When I was young I remember going camping and swimming at the lake and things like that. I can't really afford to take my kids on trips like that, and we didn't exactly have the perfect weather this year either. We did a few fun things, including going to an amusement park and the State Fair, but I still felt rather bad that their summer wasn't memorable enough.

Perhaps my guilty feelings are due to our current situation, living in this trailer park. For the last 3 years we had a house in a wonderful neighborhood. We had a large yard, and great neighbors who all had kids for mine to play with. No pool, but at least I could hook up a hose or fill up a little wading pool on hot days. It was also very nice to just go for walks through our neighborhood.

Now we live in a small trailer park right off the highway. There's nowhere to walk except for around the trailer park. We have no yard to speak of, and certainly no hook up for a hose on hot days.

Basically this boils down to needing to frequent the local playgrounds to allow the children to let off some steam and get some exercise. On hot days we must visit the pool or beach or something, which costs quite a bit of money for a family this size, and not something I can afford to do as often as needed.

That, along with some of the other downfalls of living in a trailer park are pushing me to think about moving out a lot sooner than we planned. I try very hard to stay upbeat about the situation, knowing we can't really afford much else, and our credit just sucks so owning our own home anytime soon is not an option!! But some days staying up beat about it is far too difficult!!

Surprise Surgery

As I sit here typing this blog I am home, recovering from the surgery I had yesterday morning.

It actually starting on Sunday, 3 days ago. I was having some cramps in my lower abdomen and had begun bleeding although I knew it wasn't that time of the month, that had only been a couple weeks ago.

I let it go that day, dulling the pain with some ibuprofen, but I made an appointment to see my doctor on Monday morning.

My doctor took some blood and urine tests, but "guessed" that my pain was mostly caused by my IUD shifting. I'd had this IUD for over a year already, and never had a problem with it before, but of course there is a first time for everything. So I scheduled an ultra sound and an appointing with an ob/gyn to take a look at my IUD.

Unfortunately the pain became worse that evening, and I forced myself to go to the ER.

After a four and a half hour wait I was finally called back into a room. Then another hour and a half wait and a doctor finally came in to look at me. She did a pelvic exam, noticed the IUD appeared to still be in place, but she too assumed it had probably just shifted and that was causing my pain and bleeding. She gave me some pain pills and told me to just stick with the course of action already planned by my regular doctor.

So I got dressed and I'm sitting in the ER room awaiting my discharge papers seriously cursing myself out for wasting nearly 7 hours for absolutely nothing!! Then the doctor comes back in and says "I have bad news." According to my urine test, I'm pregnant!!

Of course this came as a huge shock and nothing she said afterwards even registered with my brain. I had the IUD for almost a year and a half and never before had I had a problem. Obviously I hadn't gotten pregnant so I'd thought it had been doing it's job.

Plus I just have to mention here that Jay did get a vasectomy while I was pregnant with Aydan. Of course well over a year after that we found out we were pregnant with Mathieu. So it just seems to me that no matter what I do I'm cursed (or blessed) to just continue getting pregnant.

So they called in the ultra sound technician and sent me off to do that. Believe it or not my IUD had not moved or shifted, it was exactly where it was supposed to be. So how on earth did I get pregnant? Well that's the million dollar question, isn't it?

Unfortunately (or fortunately, however you want to look at it) the pregnancy was not in my uterus... it was in my fallopian tubes, otherwise known as an Ectopic Pregnancy.

So, I had to undergo surgery to remove the pregnancy. They also removed my IUD, which obviously wasn't working; did a D&C, which is standard procedure after a lost pregnancy; and since the doctor had trouble finding which side the pregnancy was on, I lost both of my fallopian tubes, which is just fine by me because obviously I have no intentions of attempting another pregnancy!

However, with the luck my husband and I seem to have, I'm still figuring it's only a matter of time before I wind up pregnant again.

Kids Bowl Free

If you live in the U.S. you can go to www.kidsbowlfree.com, find a participating bowling center near you, and register your children under 15 for free bowling! You'll be able to print coupons good for 2 free games per day until the end of August!

I registered a couple days ago and went today for the first time. Bowling is not something we do very often, but it was free, so why not?

The kids had a great time, and we're all looking forward to going again!

Just A Walk In The Woods...

Sundays are typically our family day. We do our best to find some sort of family activity to do together. Sometimes it's going to the zoo, or just playing at a playground.

This week we decided to go to Beaver Lake Nature Center. We'd never been there before, and I'm surprised it took us so long to try it. It only cost $2 to visit. Mostly it's just a bunch of nature trails, one of them completely looping the lake! There was an actual nature center building with a bit of information about some of the wildlife we may see along the trails, which we found quite interesting.

After browsing the center we decided to walk the Bog Trail, which was only supposed to be a little over half a mile one way, but with Mathieu walking and us taking our time to look at things and point things out to the kids, it ended up taking us a good 2 hours to complete!

This is certainly something we'll be doing again! I feel an enormous sense of pride getting my children in touch with nature and teaching them bits and pieces about the Earth and environment while we're hiking!

If you have a nature center near you, I suggest planning a visit with your whole family.

So it continues...

My difficult situation only continues to get worse. It honestly has not let up at all in about a month!

We'd finally gotten Jay's car fixed, and killed ourselves to do it. We had to buy the parts and pay the mechanic which meant putting off bills again and playing catch up again. My van... still not fixed, and we'll somehow have to come up with the money for that.

Our bank account has been negative for a month already, and the car repairs just made that drag on even longer.

So this week we had to pay our rent, and we didn't even have enough to do that. Basically we purposely overdrew the bank account in order to pay rent, and if you ask me, that's pretty darn low!

So we've gone all week with no money, which we're not at all used to doing. We've also been running out of everything as we go. We have no milk now, no eggs, we're almost out of bread, we used our last stick of butter last night. So basically we have nothing to eat and I don't even have the means to make something.

We just kept thinking we'd only have to make it until Thursday. On Thursday I can write a check at the store which won't cash until Friday (can you tell we've done this before?). I also planned on visiting the food pantry again on Thursday to help with our groceries this week so we can hopefully finish playing catch up and be okay.

So, here it is Wednesday morning. Jay gets up and gets ready for work, comes back in the house a minute later... his car won't start!!! He thinks it's an ignition coil this time.

Certainly not something we wanted to deal with! We're already stressed and worn out...

*sigh*