Now A Family of *gulp* Six.

One of my many talents I guess! Long and short of it - I had gas pains and cramping for about 3 days. One of the days I also had fever and nausea. When I had a lightning-strike pain on my right side Monday morning, I decided I better get to the hospital. All signs pointed to appendix but they ordered a CT scan to confirm. Imagine the surprise when the ER doc comes to the room to say - "It's not your appendix. However, there is... something... in there."  Off I went to ultrasound where it was confirmed I had a mass, just smaller than a golf ball, outside of my small intestine. I was admitted. Tuesday I had to wait all day for surgery because I wasn't technically "emergency," so I didn't go under the knife until 6:30 or so that night. A mass was removed and a diverticulum (pouch) was stapled up. Since my blood and urinalysis were fine, and it didn't look like cancer, doctor said it was most likely just a cyst or polyp. I will get definite results thi...

Charlie is in underwear all day now! He has only had one partial accident in 5 days. Awesome.  Roman's neurofeedback is finally showing some success too - we have had 14 sessions now. In tracking some of his behaviors, we have noticed 4 of them, most significantly his anxiety/fear of being alone, have really decreased. We also no longer see the constant interruptions & overtalking; his "boredom" and arguing has gone down as well.  Ro still has trouble regulating himself and keeping on an even keel, and we have noticed his impulsive behavior has ramped up. But, it's all the 3rd month of summer, and who knows what will happen when school starts? We have been pleased with what's happened so far. I have been on Weight Watchers for a month now and have lost a grand total of 13.5 lbs. What's even better though, is the every day things that have changed. I was able to pull 3 shirts out of storage that now fit me again. My belt has gone in one hole. A couple p...

(Proud Lake camping) The halfway mark of summer has passed for us - that's VBS. It's always the last week of July and I dread it and love it at the same time. I taught Roman's class this year which was fun - but Charlie had a real hard time being separated from me every day. We had a very busy weekend a couple weeks ago - camping & the air show - so this past and this coming weekend we're being lazy and sticking around home. I am also excited for and dreading school starting again. Now that my kids & I have a routine down, there's lots we want to do - and we'll have to undo it in a few short weeks! (P51 Mustang at air show) On the losing weight front, I am proud to tell my gentle readers that I have lost an unofficial total of 13.5 lbs in a month (weigh-in is not until tomorrow, but I may have cheated this morning and looked). I have gone down a shirt size and probably a pant size too, except I mostly wear elastic baggy capris in the summer so who kno...

I have mentioned my weight issues before. I may not have mentioned that I am also the queen of "any excuse in the book" not to do something. I have successfully put off going back to Weight Watchers since my previous post (March). First, it was to get through the end of school... then I switched medicine again... then end of June... then 4th of July... but I did it. I rejoined WW Online for the third time on Tuesday. It's a slightly different system than they had before - they reconfigured their Points. This caused me to melt down on day 2 or 3 already, because all the bookmarking & figuring & counting I've ever done - now it's no good. Where a poptart was a good treat at 4 points, now it's 6 points! My favorite bread was 1 point a slice - now it's 2! Granted, you get more points... but everything "costs" more now. So that was frustrating, although I'm getting the hang of it. I dig why they changed it - frankly, I could get away with ...

Ah, the pun intended. I'm revealing some HUGE information here, folks. Yes, another pun. I have struggled with weight since college. When I married I was 185, 190. Pretty pleased with that nowadays! By the time we did paperwork to adopt Roman I was pushing 200, so I started dieting (my first foray into Weight Watchers Online). Got back down to 185 before we went to Russia. Gained it right back the first year with Ro home! Flash-forward to 2007, I'm now pushing 215. Found out I was pregnant with Charlie and so no problem - I'll lose it all after he's born! And I did, with Weight Watchers' help: back down to 185, 190. Pleased again. And then I started some medication in 2009 for anxiety, and guess what - it's one of the worst meds for weight gain! I piled and piled it back on, now at a whopping... I don't even want to say. But the pictures tell all, gentle readers - when I saw a shot of me almost double the size of my cousins at a wedding last summer, I cried....

I am not a fan of birds. But this summer, I was possessed with the desire to own a birdfeeder & attract them. I'm not sure why. And of course, being a beginner, I ended up attracting a squirrel. Not just any squirrel - Jumpy. Jumpy has been hanging around our house since before Charlie was born, hiding his nuts in our yard & basically being a nuisance. Roman is the one who named him. Well, the arrival of the birdfeeders appeared to be the challenge Jumpy was looking for. It doesn't matter what kind of feeder I buy, Jumpy figures out how to get seeds from it. He destroyed the one pictured below within 2 weeks. The thing is, I don't really mind feeding Jumpy. Of course, he's getting quite fat and may not make it up to his nest in the tree across the street eventually, but I like seeing him. But I do miss seeing birds strangely, so yesterday I bought a magazine from Birds & Blooms with tips on what to put in feeders to attract certain kinds of birds. And it daw...

When I have free time, which isn't often, I cruise around the Internet to scrapbooking sites & blogs. There are certain people I like to "drop in" on. The other day I popped over to Ali Edwards' blog. I'm not a big fan of her style, but often she will provide some inspiration that gets me thinking. And so it was this day - her "one little word." The idea - to take a word and embrace it for the year. Let it guide your decisions, let it give you direction. I love this idea. So many words bounced around in my head, but it only took a couple days to settle on the one I will use. TIME. Spend it, squander it, find it, make it, it goes too fast, it goes too slow... so each month I plan to do a little page about how TIME is affecting me but more important, how I am using my TIME. I want to spend more with my kids without thinking of the zillion other things I have to do. I want to carve some out each week so I can be creative. I want to use my TIME better. ...

Tomorrow morning I am going on an overnighter with the ladies from my mom support group through therapy. We all have adopted children who are, at some level, attachment-disturbed. I am excited and nervous about this opportunity. We have been seeing each other practically every other Monday since January and at some level I know them all intimately - and the other, whew, I barely know them at all personally. And I have always hated my initial personality - I am so shy that I think I come off as stand-offish. It's very hard for me to make friends and yet I want to badly. Anyway, so it'll be a fun weekend but I'll have to work hard to try to break out of my reserved shell. Yes, people, those of you who have known me forever may be surprised at that! Cross fingers that things go well.

Being that I have intense moments with my oldest, & the youngest has officially reached "terrible two" age, I realized that this year wasn't the year for resolutions. It was the year for reshifting & remaking priorities. My biggest need - a feeling of calmness. Serenity. Being centered. Content. Balanced. I could go on like a thesaurus, but I'm sure you know what I'm getting at. This actually started last Fall, I guess. At least, it's when I started noticing that I was getting more content. The housing market, or lack of, made me realize that we are here in this house for quite a while yet. And I didn't want to keep thinking stuck here . I just wanted to be here . To get to that point, I had to start looking at the good things about this area. And a funny thing happens... you do it long enough, and you start seeing even the smallest things that are good. Next I realized that since the holidays, I have been going to bed each night feeling very conte...

I have begun my last class, the "action research project" phase of my Master's degree. As such, the next 4 weeks are going to be stress-filled and sometimes tear-filled. Along with, I daresay, curse-filled moments. I also will be muttering things like "action implementation," "triangulation of data," "making the change systemic" alongside these curse words. Therefore, I am not going to be blogging much, unless it's to vent about the above-mentioned mutterings. The mantra in our house currently is "it's only 4 weeks... it's only 4 weeks..." although I suspect it will seem like much longer than that by the time my class ends June 24.

I've been having problems the last couple (few) months letting my mind rest (since school started? Possible). To-do notes work when I get truly overwhelmed, but sometimes it's one or two thoughts niggling away for hours, even days. When I finally admitted this to Doug, I think he thought I was a little crazy. For example, I'm going on a scrapbooking weekend in 2 weeks and I'm taking my computer. I am already trying to plan when to dismantle it, how to do it, how to pack it in the car, what I'll need to use it at the crop, and what night all this should be done, because I'm going to have to have Doug show me.... and I don't have this thought occasionally. I'll think of it 3-4x a day. Another example would be a pancake breakfast at Roman's school this Saturday. I saved the original email from 2 weeks ago, thus thinking of it every time I check my email. Then I started thinking that I'll have to talk to Doug about it. It's in conjunction with th...

I have checked the weather for Florida in April and my goodness, it averages about 80 degrees. So I thought it best to see what, if anything, fit me of my summer clothes. Having lost 25 pounds, the end of last summer was dicey - capris too big, & my mom gave me some old shorts of hers because I had nothing else that fit. Now that I am holding steady and the leftover fat has redistributed (fallen to my hips & thighs, is the better explanation) I tried on 5 different things. Capris? Not so much. I love them, but when you can fit yourself AND your year-old baby into them, it's time to donate. Of the shorts, one receive the comment "They give you a caboose" from Doug. So they're definitely going in the donate pile too. Two more didn't fit, and 2 more are passable. So. Two pairs of shorts (and no swimsuit, by the way, because the one I bought last year had the fastener break) to face vacation and summer. It's looking like I will be haunting JCP, Kohl'...

We've reached that blessed time of year where nothing exciting is happening. Thank goodness. School is rolling along for everyone, no major holidays, a few doctors' appointments, but that's it. And really, there's nothing much to report anywhere. I will anyway, though - an update about nothing to update. Roman: Preliminary report from the consultant showed Roman on task just 30% of the time, *with* teacher redirection. So when left to his own devices, Roman can't even do what he's supposed to 30% of the time. We're still waiting for the full report but we were told they won't formally test him (due to young age); I'm going to demand that they do anyway. We're also trying to find a place that our insurance will cover that will test him as well. A lot of places "treat" but won't actually test. Otherwise he's loving kindergarten. He has a couple friends we hear about a lot, he loves gym & library, and wants to start walking hom...

Just can't party like a rock star as much as I used to. Oh, I tried, believe me. But I think the fact that my baby is just starting to sleep through the night and I'm still short sleep (and will be for the next 20 or so years) takes its toll. Bachelorette party was fun, though, and it was great to hang out with my old friends in the city I love... Yes, There Really Is A Kalamazoo! And the mayor partied with us, too. What a cool city. Anyway, I'm back to my "normal" life and I do like it that way. I was so happy to see my boys this morning, gaze upon my husband, & chill out at home. I had a great afternoon yesterday with my mom and grandma too. Because of the wedding I have to cut short our appearance at my grandma's birthday party, so I wanted to spend the afternoon with her to make it up. We three did lunch, a quick shop at the mall, a movie ("Mamma Mia!" for the 2nd time), and oh yeah... spent 40 min. in lockdown at the retirement home because ...

Just a quick and awesome weight update: Doug is down 35 pounds, with 34 more to go to his weight goal... I am down 25.5 pounds, with 10 more to go until my weight goal! Woohoo!

I do know how many more weeks of school are left until mid-June, but only because my principal mentioned it in an email. 38. Not so bad, right? This first week back was great, hectic, crazy, work-intensive, & fun. It's been great to see Roman, especially, get to know names of new friends & get used to his kindergarten routine. Friday he began the afternoon "latchkey" program and as I had heard, he didn't want to come home. He was upset that I arrived right when "the people" (dolls) were going to go camping. He hadn't figured out where they were going to go, but they had a tent in the car & were just setting off. Isn't that awesome?! When I walked in the room he & another little boy were crouched in front of the dollhouse. I found it pretty humorous, until he explained that the people were leaving the house. Of course. :) My classes are going to be fun & challenging. 2 out of the 3 classes have a large majority of boys, which make...

Weight Watchers really makes you obsess *more* over food since you have to count points and pay attention to every little thing that goes in your mouth. I am taking 3 days off from counting points. Today was Roman's and my afternoon together and I wanted to snack right along with him and not say "hmm, Nutri-Grain bar or Twinkies?" I wanted the Twinkies, darn it! (actually I had a Suzy-Q). Tomorrow is our Gen-X meeting of church people, and everyone is bringing a dish of their favorite childhood food. Again, who wants to worry about points when I expect mac & cheese, PB&J, and we're doing s'mores for dessert? Saturday brings a family picnic on my Dad's side: pool party & cookout. I am bringing something very low in points, but if I want a hot dog and a piece of butterscotch pie, darnit, I'm having it. And then I will return to my regularly scheduled weight loss on Sunday. Speaking of, I made my 10% weight loss goal today. I will probably re-ma...

Tomorrow marks the end of my official summer. Next week I report to school for only one afternoon officially; but my mind has been turning more and more to the start of the school year. I am forever stuck believing that the New Year begins in September, not January! I have been taking time in the evenings to do little school related things; I now have a plan book (with first week planned!), my Moodle classroom set up (an "Internet classroom"), & links to the 8th grade online textbook set up as well. Next up will be letters; the parent letter, the Open House letter, and pulling out the sheets for the first few days of activities. In grad class news, I met with the professor who will be overseeing my Independent Study class of "Best Practices." She laid out what work I need to do and then said I was allowed to make my own timeline, as long as it's all done by the end of the semester. I only need to check in with her once more in person to do an oral presentati...

I love the magazine Family Fun , when I have the time to read it. I sometimes wish my kids were older (or liked crafts more) so I could indulge in a lot of their things. I'm still wanting to make their excavator cake . Anyway, I read awhile back about a woman who made a monthly calendar of dinner meals, and corresponding grocery lists for each week. So all she had to do was print off the grocery list, add the incidentals, and done! Well, Doug and I see the chaos that could be our life with school looming, and we've decided... to make a monthly calendar of meals. Is this a stroke of brilliance, or do I need a therapist for too high a need for organization? We took time today to list all our favorite "quick & easy" or "slow-cooker" meals. We came up with 28 of them! Throw in a couple leftover or frozen dinner meals, and we have our month. I'm going to match each main dish up with veggies & carbs, Point it all out for Weight Watchers, and my life wi...

Coming down the home stretch of summer, the summer where I attempt to improve all aspectsof my life, and things are going along quickly...yet slowly. I finally got the go-ahead yesterday to wear contacts again - I haven't since March due to an allergic infection. I have been using eyedrops every day since May. It's a bright summer when you can't wear sunglasses! I also had a tooth prepped for a crown yesterday. I've had 2 others, but they both had had root canals. This one has been a bit more painful! Dentist is not sure whether I will need a root canal in this one too, so we're going to cross fingers my tooth doesn't act up over the next couple weeks. So I'm dutifully taking Tylenol every 4 hours and hoping. Weight loss has stalled again too. I did great last week, but whenever we're "out" for a weekend I have trouble. However, I'm still down about 17 pounds. I took my favorite pair of dress pants to a seamstress to have them taken in. I h...