Ok here I sit and I am going to make a promise I am going to try and post at least once a month. I have been so bad but have had so many things going on these last few months. So an update
Aaron: 2yrs 4 months old and can't stop talking unless he's asleep and doesn't stop moving unless he's asleep or eating but even that is difficult at times. He loves hanging out with his daddy and watch "chug" or "dino train". He has his own language which I have become fluent in although there is still a word or two that I have trouble with. He is extremely high energy and that is ok with me. Recently we had him in swim lessons which he did great and advanced to swim lessons without the parent! Don't know yet when we will start him with that but it will be soon. I have just discovered as well that he has some fall allergies, but he deals with that with some Benadryl or Children's Zyrtec.
Andrew: Just turned 9 months and is "army" crawling and trying to learn to crawl on his hands and knees. Has just recently developed the need to be held and will most often pitch a fit if I try to put him down. Loves to eat and is long and lean. Started transitioning him to more adult table foods and he is adjusting well. Just got 2 teeth in and is working on 2 more. We also have nicknamed him at least for the immediate future Count Andrewla as he looks like a vampire because his fangs came in first before his front two teeth!
Steve: Doing better since seeing the chiropractor. He was having some numbness and loss of function in his arms and all tests have been negative. Thankfully is seeing some improvement with more non conventional medicine. He continues to lose weight and loves telling me when he is able to move his belt hole to the next one down.
Me: I am also doing well now after my own little medical issue. I can say that I have quit smoking after using the medication Chantix however I will not wish my side effects on my worst enemy. Lets just say that although it did it's job it is a horrible drug and will never have a need to take it again. My job is going well too, I have been told to head up our departments education team and have been working hard getting that up and running. I want to go back to school but having some difficulty with the financial aid part. I am determined to go though.
So that's an update on all of us. As a family we are doing great we have reduced our former credit card debt now to less than 3,000$ and we are so close to being paid off that we can taste it. We have been working hard for a long time and have learned many lessons along the way. I have looked for other ways to save money and have really gotten into couponing. Not the extreme type that it takes me 10 hours to plan a trip and all that but I can save quite a bit and most recently I save over 100$ over all with all the items that I got. I will post more later including some recipes lately that I have tried and would like to share as well! Adios for now!!
Saturday, September 15, 2012
Friday, April 13, 2012
updates
As I sit here and realize that I haven't made a post in quite sometime again I am thinking how does my friend who is so much more proficient at getting posts out do it? I seem to never have time to just sit down and type. I'm always either at work or running after one of my boys more specifically Aaron. Well besides the point here I am typing!
First things first Aaron is doing great and talking up a storm as he nears his 2nd birthday! I am trying to plan a party for family and friends to celebrate and I am looking forward to being with him on his birthday. He is my mini me in almost every way! He's always good for a laugh and loves to get into trouble as often as he can. Steve the other day in the midst of another Aaron tantrum looks at me and says "Is this the terrible two's? Because it seems like it's more the hysterical two's!" Ok I had to laugh at that one because he's right when Aaron is having a break down he does make me laugh at what he does. Oh and his favorite word right now is NO!
Next is Andrew and he's doing fantastic as well! He's 4 months old, loving his cereal and just more recently bananas! He also rolled over front to back for the first time the other night. He is such a happy baby and just like his brother always wakes up with a smile. He is also sleeping through the night I don't mind so much that he likes to get up between 530 and 0600 but just wish he might sleep a little longer on some days.
Steve is good as well and loves the time he gets to spend with the boys. Aaron is always wanting to be around dad and loves to play outside with him as much as possible. Andrew of course always has a smile for his daddy as well. For us it's been a little bit of a struggle to find the right balance between adult time and time for kids. We are so tired at the end of the day that it's hard to want to talk instead of going to bed sometimes. We have been able to continue trying to budget as much as possible and really crack down on the amount of money we spend. We are still working towards getting out from under our credit card debt but have a little less than 5,000$ to go. We have been a little more diligent though in trying to get out without kids at least once a month for an adult date! It's definitely nice when we get to sit and enjoy each others company and reconnect even if it's only for a couple hours!
Finally for me...I am good but utterly exhausted half the time. I never feel like I get enough sleep and work has been increasingly difficult but more about what days I work vs the patients that I take care of. I do feel that they are a bit more trusting of me as I near the one year mark in TCU. Recently however I have been having a little bit of a problem with what days I am scheduled. We do self scheduling and I try not to put myself on for more than two days in a row as I am 12 hrs and don't get to see the boys when I am working. However as much as I try to do that I have seen an increase of 3 days in a row or more recently a possibility of 4. I am a very flexible person but take me away from my kids and I become very upset about it. The nice thing is that all the people that I work with all have kids around the same ages and understand what I am expressing. Oh and last but not least I have no report on my weight as I haven't seen the doc in several weeks but I can tell you that I know I am still losing weight as my clothes are slowly starting to fit better and I am in the market for some new things!
Alright then I think that this is long enough for the moment and will try to update more often and share my stories!
First things first Aaron is doing great and talking up a storm as he nears his 2nd birthday! I am trying to plan a party for family and friends to celebrate and I am looking forward to being with him on his birthday. He is my mini me in almost every way! He's always good for a laugh and loves to get into trouble as often as he can. Steve the other day in the midst of another Aaron tantrum looks at me and says "Is this the terrible two's? Because it seems like it's more the hysterical two's!" Ok I had to laugh at that one because he's right when Aaron is having a break down he does make me laugh at what he does. Oh and his favorite word right now is NO!
Next is Andrew and he's doing fantastic as well! He's 4 months old, loving his cereal and just more recently bananas! He also rolled over front to back for the first time the other night. He is such a happy baby and just like his brother always wakes up with a smile. He is also sleeping through the night I don't mind so much that he likes to get up between 530 and 0600 but just wish he might sleep a little longer on some days.
Steve is good as well and loves the time he gets to spend with the boys. Aaron is always wanting to be around dad and loves to play outside with him as much as possible. Andrew of course always has a smile for his daddy as well. For us it's been a little bit of a struggle to find the right balance between adult time and time for kids. We are so tired at the end of the day that it's hard to want to talk instead of going to bed sometimes. We have been able to continue trying to budget as much as possible and really crack down on the amount of money we spend. We are still working towards getting out from under our credit card debt but have a little less than 5,000$ to go. We have been a little more diligent though in trying to get out without kids at least once a month for an adult date! It's definitely nice when we get to sit and enjoy each others company and reconnect even if it's only for a couple hours!
Finally for me...I am good but utterly exhausted half the time. I never feel like I get enough sleep and work has been increasingly difficult but more about what days I work vs the patients that I take care of. I do feel that they are a bit more trusting of me as I near the one year mark in TCU. Recently however I have been having a little bit of a problem with what days I am scheduled. We do self scheduling and I try not to put myself on for more than two days in a row as I am 12 hrs and don't get to see the boys when I am working. However as much as I try to do that I have seen an increase of 3 days in a row or more recently a possibility of 4. I am a very flexible person but take me away from my kids and I become very upset about it. The nice thing is that all the people that I work with all have kids around the same ages and understand what I am expressing. Oh and last but not least I have no report on my weight as I haven't seen the doc in several weeks but I can tell you that I know I am still losing weight as my clothes are slowly starting to fit better and I am in the market for some new things!
Alright then I think that this is long enough for the moment and will try to update more often and share my stories!
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Budgeting
Ok so I figured I type up another post and let you in on a little secret....I need a budget! I see my one friend being so open and honest about her money and her families budget and I get really jealous. I am so jealous in fact that I have messaged her in regards to her secret of what she does.
To go back a few years briefly Steve and I have always been bad with money. We get a little and we can't wait to burn it and then when it's all gone we look at each other and say where did it all go? We have gone through a lot recently. We were foreclosed on and yes we lost our home and it was all because we couldn't pay our mortgage and we were so upside down with the property it just didn't seem worth it all anymore. We also going back about 3 yrs had over 30,000$ in debt. That didn't include the house or cars. We decided at that point we were going to try out on of those debt relief companies.
I have to say that over the last couple years they have done a lot for us by settling out over 25,000$ in debt. Currently we have less than 5,000$ owed and only one car payment. I do rent my house so we have that to consider in the mix but I can say that although we have struggled the last few years I am happy that we are almost to a point that we have no credit card debt. We hopefully only have a few months left to settle these final debts. Our car payment will still be 2 yrs off but once we have the credit card debt done maybe we can make extra payments and get the car paid off sooner.
This is very hard for me to write as I am admitting not only to myself but to the world that we have a problem. We don't do very well at handling money. We try and save and "something" always supposedly comes up or we "have" to have something that really we could live without. I have tried to be really open about where the money goes but sometimes it just goes and even I don't remember where.
So from here on out we are going to budget our money! We have a little credit card debt left to repay and we are going to pay it back. We have some medical bills that need to get paid and they will and we will pay back what we owe on the car and that's it. So here's to a new year of financial freedom!!
To go back a few years briefly Steve and I have always been bad with money. We get a little and we can't wait to burn it and then when it's all gone we look at each other and say where did it all go? We have gone through a lot recently. We were foreclosed on and yes we lost our home and it was all because we couldn't pay our mortgage and we were so upside down with the property it just didn't seem worth it all anymore. We also going back about 3 yrs had over 30,000$ in debt. That didn't include the house or cars. We decided at that point we were going to try out on of those debt relief companies.
I have to say that over the last couple years they have done a lot for us by settling out over 25,000$ in debt. Currently we have less than 5,000$ owed and only one car payment. I do rent my house so we have that to consider in the mix but I can say that although we have struggled the last few years I am happy that we are almost to a point that we have no credit card debt. We hopefully only have a few months left to settle these final debts. Our car payment will still be 2 yrs off but once we have the credit card debt done maybe we can make extra payments and get the car paid off sooner.
This is very hard for me to write as I am admitting not only to myself but to the world that we have a problem. We don't do very well at handling money. We try and save and "something" always supposedly comes up or we "have" to have something that really we could live without. I have tried to be really open about where the money goes but sometimes it just goes and even I don't remember where.
So from here on out we are going to budget our money! We have a little credit card debt left to repay and we are going to pay it back. We have some medical bills that need to get paid and they will and we will pay back what we owe on the car and that's it. So here's to a new year of financial freedom!!
Friday, February 3, 2012
Another year
Even though it's February now I can still say Happy New Year. A lot has happened in the last 10 months since I last posted. I have a new baby boy Andrew Jacob. He was born December 8, 2011 weighing in at 8lbs 4oz and was 20 1/4 inches long and a very healthy baby.
The pregnancy itself wasn't as difficult as Aaron's was and for that I was extremely blessed. I didn't have some difficult moments especially at the end of the pregnancy and when I went in for the c-section I was glad to be done. The last 8 weeks have been a lot of ups and downs. First of all healing from the surgery was more difficult this time around and I ended up with a couple of infections. I also had more pain and swelling as well but I think that in some part it was because I had to keep up with a very active toddler. I was very excited at the fact that Steve was able to stay home with me for the first 2 weeks and Aaron enjoyed having daddy home as well. I also noticed that it took longer to bond with Andrew this time around and I think also that is part to not being able to spend as much time with him and having to keep up after Aaron. I also think that in some part I wasn't really ready to have another baby. I have since been able to get over all of that and have I believe bonded with Andrew as much as I have Aaron.
Another up and down with these last 8 weeks is keeping up a relationship and marriage with Steve. There have been days that I have felt that we were just two people who happened to sleep in the same bed at night but were otherwise just 2 separate people living in the same house. I have had to become creative at when we can spend time together and really make the effort to do so. I am so tired at the end of the day when he comes home that all I want to do is hand over the boys and go to bed. I can say now that Andrew is sleeping through the night that being able to sit down and have dinner and talk with Steve has become a little bit easier.
The last thing that has been bothering me is I think that my body is rebelling against me now. I have been having such pain in my hips and legs and I was talking to Steve last night and told him that somehow I think it's related to the massive weight swings in the last 3 years. I gained almost 80 lbs this time around with Andrew and in the last 8 weeks have lost almost 50lbs. I did get my band adjusted back to around where I was when I had the fluid taken out but it's been fun getting used to eating differently again. Since we don't plan on having more children at the current moment and if we decide we are it won't be for a couple of years I am hoping that I can lose the weight again and stay consistent for a while and really allow my body to get used to what it should weigh.
Oh and one more thing....I go back to work in 4 weeks and I am really looking forward to it. That doesn't mean that I don't like spending my days with my boys I am just not the stay at home mom type. I think stay at home mom's rock but that is just not me. I enjoy being a nurse too much to give it up completely. Also I having jokingly been saying that because Aaron is hooked on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Chuggington that I have been getting "dumber" as the weeks have gone by. :)
Final thought: I plan on being a little more current in my blogging as I really do enjoy it but now in addition to keeping up to date on my weight loss I am going to talk about other things like my boys and my marriage and my finances and all that life entails.....so here's to next time!
The pregnancy itself wasn't as difficult as Aaron's was and for that I was extremely blessed. I didn't have some difficult moments especially at the end of the pregnancy and when I went in for the c-section I was glad to be done. The last 8 weeks have been a lot of ups and downs. First of all healing from the surgery was more difficult this time around and I ended up with a couple of infections. I also had more pain and swelling as well but I think that in some part it was because I had to keep up with a very active toddler. I was very excited at the fact that Steve was able to stay home with me for the first 2 weeks and Aaron enjoyed having daddy home as well. I also noticed that it took longer to bond with Andrew this time around and I think also that is part to not being able to spend as much time with him and having to keep up after Aaron. I also think that in some part I wasn't really ready to have another baby. I have since been able to get over all of that and have I believe bonded with Andrew as much as I have Aaron.
Another up and down with these last 8 weeks is keeping up a relationship and marriage with Steve. There have been days that I have felt that we were just two people who happened to sleep in the same bed at night but were otherwise just 2 separate people living in the same house. I have had to become creative at when we can spend time together and really make the effort to do so. I am so tired at the end of the day when he comes home that all I want to do is hand over the boys and go to bed. I can say now that Andrew is sleeping through the night that being able to sit down and have dinner and talk with Steve has become a little bit easier.
The last thing that has been bothering me is I think that my body is rebelling against me now. I have been having such pain in my hips and legs and I was talking to Steve last night and told him that somehow I think it's related to the massive weight swings in the last 3 years. I gained almost 80 lbs this time around with Andrew and in the last 8 weeks have lost almost 50lbs. I did get my band adjusted back to around where I was when I had the fluid taken out but it's been fun getting used to eating differently again. Since we don't plan on having more children at the current moment and if we decide we are it won't be for a couple of years I am hoping that I can lose the weight again and stay consistent for a while and really allow my body to get used to what it should weigh.
Oh and one more thing....I go back to work in 4 weeks and I am really looking forward to it. That doesn't mean that I don't like spending my days with my boys I am just not the stay at home mom type. I think stay at home mom's rock but that is just not me. I enjoy being a nurse too much to give it up completely. Also I having jokingly been saying that because Aaron is hooked on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Chuggington that I have been getting "dumber" as the weeks have gone by. :)
Final thought: I plan on being a little more current in my blogging as I really do enjoy it but now in addition to keeping up to date on my weight loss I am going to talk about other things like my boys and my marriage and my finances and all that life entails.....so here's to next time!
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