The much anticipated PICTURE

okay here it is. excuse the fact that my hair is a mess. it's almost 9pm, we just got home from an hour and a half workout and got the kids to bed...BUT you can atleast get an idea of the new haircut and finally see a picture of my current weight!

I will start off with some older pictures so you can see the changes.
The first is me in April of 2007 at my BIL wedding.


next is a HORRIBLE picture of me this summer at the zoo. i only include this so you can see the change. quite embarressing but encouraging to see the difference.


next is me today.




And LASTLY this is also me today (i'd like to mention that i was not aware that this pic was being taken, my husband was a bit camera happy)


so there it is ladies and gentleman! the new me!

Popular Blog

Apparently my blog is quite the hot item to read and steal. maybe i should copyright my blog. hehehe i feel so loved and popular. if only all of the people reading it actually gave a shit, and were here reading because they cared not because they are nosey.
so nonetheless i will take it as a compliment that my blog is so darned popular!
ENJOY my life, I am! :)

BRRRRRRRRRRRR

the other day when i posted that it was negative 28 degrees here won cedar rapids a record. at that moment we were the coldest place in the WHOLE WORLD. that's not the kind of record i'd like to be a part of! It is horrible today as well. We had a whiteout blizzard with horrible winds(35-47mph). it was sooo dang cold. i had to drive home in it. not fun.

school is going well. i'm getting used to it. i'm starting to get homework so that should be fun to fit into my life as well. it's nice to be around other people and to be doing something for myself.

jace had his first piano lesson last night and did really well. the teacher was really impressed at how well he did. he will keep going for a few more weeks and then he can decide if he'd like to continue. emily is doing well and starting to play actual songs and such. she likes that.

brian is enjoying work. he has his first actual project. so that's good. we have been invited by his boss to a super bowl party, for the whole family. we will go for a while and see how the kids do! it will be nice to get out with people for awhile!

on the weight loss end life is good! i'm down to....drumroll...177!!!!! YEAH!!! I'm really starting to lose inches and weight and i'm beyond thrilled about that. my highest starting weight was 255! so i've made huge progress. i'm now in a size 14 jeans and am super happy about that!

i'm finding that i've learned alot about friendships and life in the past few years. i have a whole new appreciation for it all. i've really learned to step back and watch. i've learned the value of keeping my mouth shut and being patient. i've learned that karma is very true and real, and that it happens, no matter what.

off to TV and then bed, as i'm exhausted after our workout tonight!

Date Night

Brian and I had our first date night in Iowa last night. We went to a really nice Italian restaurant for dinner, and had a nice long relaxing time. The food was good, and it was so nice to talk and laugh. We went shoe shopping afterwards! :)

I'm learning right now that what goes around comes back around, and if you aren't careful will bite you in the butt. I'm glad that I just stepped back, and out, as that was the best thing to do, and allowed Karma to work it's magic! :)

Anyways life is good here. It's a SUPER toasty warm 21 degrees here today. Dang near feels like spring!!! Speaking of spring, i've never been so ready for it in my entire life. Supposedly it comes in April, that seems so far away!

We will be in Wichita in less than 2 weeks now and i'm so excited! Not only am I excited that Brian will be in the car with me, making the drive so much easier, but i'm excited to get home and see everyone! Oh and hoping for some nice warm weather so the kids can spend some time outside!

To Quote E..."TGIF"

I am beyond thrilled that Friday has finally rolled around. I have a short day at school today, only 50 minutes from 1:10-2pm! So I'm pretty happy about that.
Ben has therapy this morning and he's in one of his moods. He's hardly even speaking to me so it should be interesting to see how he does.
Ariana was a grump last night and didn't go to bed until 9:30. I think that my milk is drying up. She latches on for seconds and then pulls off and we switch back and forth hundreds of times. We finally gave her a tippy cup of milk and then she was happy and went right to bed. I'm not quite sure yet what I'm going to do about all of that. We shall see.
Other than that life is rolling along, not much new to report.

OH forgot one interesting fact. On Wednesday night the temp got to a NEGATIVE 28 degrees, we broke the record from 1896!! When we woke up Thursday morning to head out the door it was a NEGATIVE 18! and none of that is including windchill. HOLY COW! I have no idea how we are going to get used to this!

Weight of the World

I feel like the weight of the world is on my shoulders right now. Our schedule is packed. Emily has school 5 days a week and piano lessons once a week. Jace has school 5 mornings a week and is starting piano lessons once a week. Ben has school 2 mornings a week, in home therapy 3 mornings a week, in home therapy once a month, in school therapy 4 times a month, and doctors checkins once a month. Ari just nurses constantly! :) Brian works 5 days a week. We are on a 4 day a week workout schedule, and I meet with my personal trainer 2 times a week. I'm in school 5 afternoons a week, taking 7 hrs with 2 labs. One of my classes is ASL (american sign language). Starting today we aren't allowed to speak at all. Our teacher is Deaf and doesn't speak so we are in for complete immersion. I'm nervous that it's going to be super hard. The pressure is on this last bit of school for me as I have to maintain a minimum of a 3.5 GPA and do research and volunteer work to even consider getting into Grad school. The scary part is I can't do anything in the field with a bachelors, a masters is required. So yeah. Oh and don't forget all the other mom, wife, and household duties that I still have to keep up with.
I'm a bit nervous how we are going to keep up with everything. Only time will tell! :)

SNOW

WOW we got alot of snow last night. You could hardly see Brian's van in the driveway! :) The kids school has obviously been cancelled. I'm assuming mine is still on. Today is my first day. I'm excited and a bit nervous all in one.

Ben is supposed to officially start his therapy today. Normally the Autism team would come to our home 5 days a week but since Ben is in preschool 2 mornings a week they will come the other 3 mornings a week. So our life got even more hectic, if that's possible. Our weekly schedule is now so full and so hectic that I had to type up a master schedule and hang it on the fridge next to the extra calendar. I'm unsure if his first therapy will be today with the weather, so we shall see.

Emily is doing well with piano. She is now slowly working her way thru the white keys and is starting to play some basic songs. Jace is going to try out piano for the next few weeks as well to see what he thinks.

Ariana is fast approaching 1. I can't believe how fast the time is going. Too fast! She is starting to slowly jabber more, although "mama" is still not in her vocabulary.

We will be in Wichita for Ariana's birthday, well the weekend right after. I'm excited to see everyone!

Well I had better jump in the shower before all the kids are hollering to get up!

Weekend is almost over already

time is going so fast. This week just pretty much flew by. it was a long but fast week. i got enrolled and i will be taking 7 hrs this semester. i'll be taking american sign language 1 and introduction to speech and hearing processes. I will have to go to school 5 afternoons a week. I've got the daycare lined up so all is good there. Ari should do well as i'll be gone during her naptime so we won't miss many feedings. i was able to get a my books for one of the classes and will be getting the rest of my books next week.

we went to the gym both days this weekend. today we actually had alot of fun. we did things with the balancing balls and with medicine balls. i lost another pound so i'm hoping to keep losing.

i start school on tuesday and i'm definately ready. other than that not much else going on around here.

Tuesday/Wednesday updates

Sorry I'm a bit behind on the updates. Yesterday was such a loooooooong day! Ben and I left for the University of Iowa at 7:45am and didn't get home until 5:15pm. He was beyond exhausted and so was I. We met with sooo many people, and he had so many tests. They finally officially diagnosed him with Autism/PDD which is Pervasive Development Disorder and it's on the Autism Spectrum. He will be put on the waiting list for the Waiver program and will begin all of his therapies in full. I'm so glad that part of the journey is behind us.
We got home and he was so tired and Ari was beyond frantic for me to nurse her and she was tired as well. It was a long night. Brian ended up taking Emily and Jace to the family math night at her school and I stayed home with the younger two.

Today wasn't so eventful. Ari and I went walking this morning while the boys were in school. This evening I got my haircut. I was a bit nervous as this was my first cut here in Iowa. I've always gone to the same person for the last 16 yrs so it was a bit strange! I really liked the stylist though and I like my new cut!

Brian and I are going to watch a bit of TV and head for bed. I'm exhausted! More updates later!

Monday updates

My schedule is constantly changing. Today was actually my plastic surgeon appt. I got the kids to school and Ari and I flew out to Coralville. The surgeon was really nice, and I was really impressed. He thinks I would be a great candidate for the surgery. He wants to see me again in 2 to 3 months. Right now my BMI is 29 and he'd like it to be 27 before doing the surgeries. So my work continues, but I'm so excited that I'm slowly getting closer and closer to the end result.

Benjamin's therapist came to school today for a bit with him. She said he did well. I really like that she goes to school with him sometimes. It gives him some one on one help at school, and also gives me some insight into how he does during the day at school.

Emily only had a half day at school today. Now she needs to get her homework done and do her piano practice for the day before lessons this evening!

Let our busy week begin

Monday ~ 3 oldest kids have school. Ari and I need to grocery shop Brian works 10 hrs. Emily has piano lessons.
Tuesday ~ Oldest 2 kids have school. Ben and I spend the day at the University of Iowa Hospital for round 2 of his testing. Ariana goes to the sitter for the first time ever, ALL day even! Brian is in charge of the kids. Family math night at Emily's school including dinner all evening.
Wednesday ~ oldest 3 kids have school. Ben's day to bring homemade snacks for 18 kids. Jace has his doctors recheck for his chicken pox and yeast infection. Brian works 9 hrs. Workout.
Thursday ~ Oldest 2 kids have school. I have my appt with the plastic surgeon at the University of Iowa. Brian works 9 hrs.
Friday ~ Oldest 2 kids have school. Jace has to bring homemade snacks for 24 kids to school. Ben and Ariana go to the sitter for the entire day. Brian is in charge. I spend the ENTIRE day at the University of Iowa in meetings, conferences, paperwork etc. Workout.
Saturday/Sunday ~ Get life organized before school starts on Monday. Workout once.

I'm excited and overwhelmed and a bit nervous about how this whole week will play out. It's going to be a hectic week. It's also going to be an adjustment for Ariana being away from me so much this week.

We got alot of stuff done around the house this weekend which will make things go a bit smoother but there is still alot that we want to get done.
I will update as much as I can!

Constant Sickness

I feel like we just can't win around here. Jace has chicken pox and is still out of school. He has a recheck tomorrow and hopefully can go back to school on monday. I woke up Tuesday with a sore throat and by wednesday i could hardly swallow anything. I went to the doc and I have strep. one of the worst cases he says he's seen, to the point he called me out pain killers. Then this morning as I was drying Emily's hair I noticed what looked like a cut. She told me it itched. Upon further inspection I found that Emily had lice. We spent over 4 hrs today combing that dang itty bitty comb through her hair. It was horrendous. She cried the entire time. Jace was so cute and came in there for over an hour and held her hand and gave her hugs. He kept telling her "take deep breath in, take deep breath out" I couldn't believe that my rowdy 4 yr old boy stood there for so long helping her and comforting her. I was very proud of him! I don't see anything else in her hair but only time will tell if we actually got all of it! They recommend redoing it again in 7 days. UGGGGH! So she can go back to school tomorrow.
i'm just exhausted from it all. We move and everyone has been constantly sick. I'm ready for everyone to be healthy and well and enjoying life!

Our own little island

i feel like we are on our own little island. there are people and things floating on islands around us but we are still alone on our island. I don't know why but I'm feeling really isolated and lonely right now. I'm missing people. It suprises me cause I figured once Brian was here it wouldn't really be loely, but for some reason yesterday a big feeling of complete aloneness just hit me. We have met some people here, but really no friends. If that makes sense. Nobody I'd call up and just chat with on the phone, nobody I'd call and say hey i need away wanna go shopping, you know what I mean. It's just the 6 of us in our own little isolated world. It's a very weird strange feeling. I'm really wanting people. I'm finding it's super hard to meet people around here. i'm not sure why that is, but it is.

Cleaning

We are spending the weekend cleaning and organizing. Super fun, NOT, but definately required sometimes. We are trying to get super organized because life will be VERY busy before this month ends! We've gotten alot done so far today! Tomorrow we are going to take the kids out for a bit to play as they are getting bored with being cooped up in the house!

This week Ben has another in home appt with his therapy team. We will be meeting his behavioral speech pathologist and I'm super excited to hear what all she has to say. Also they will be getting his therapy schedule set so we can get things going. I think it will definately be good for him and for everyone else!

I'm still knitting away. My current project is a pair of ruffle cuffed longies for Ari! They are looking beautiful so far! After that I will be moving onto a pair of longies for Ben! The kids get so many compliments on their wool, especially Ari since she wears longies so much more than soakers. I don't even think most of the time that people realize that it's actually part of the kids diapers! :) I love it, and it always makes me smile!

Anyways other than that not much going on around here. Missing everyone!

Test Results In

The doctor called me early this morning to let me know that Ben's test results were in and that the Fragile X test came back negative. So we are very relieved about that. They will run more tests next month. Ben also goes to his second round at the University of Iowa on the 15th so we will have some more answers then as well.

I have my orientation at the UofI on the 18th and classes start on the 23rd. So life is pretty busy! I'm excited to get started but feeling a bit rushed. I won't get to pick my classes until the 18th so it doesn't give me much time to get daycare organized and such.

The kids started back to school today. It was nice for everyone! They were all happy to get back with their friends and it was nice for me to just have Ariana for a few hours this morning! :)