2015 Goals!

I am going simple this year with the goals.  It seems big, lofty resolutions are just setting people up for failure.  Enthusiasm is high initially, things get stalled, people get tired, resolutions are thrown to the wayside within a few weeks/months.

I often have goals that I am working on anyway so I am just going to make myself accountable here (as long as I actually post about it! Ha!)  My plan is to check in approximately once a month and tweak/change the goals as needed.

These are also going to be quite generic...super specific usually gets me into trouble.

Goal #1:  I will be healthier in one month than I am today.

-Not gonna lie...December was rough on me.  I injured my heel at the end of November (after I had worked my way back up to running regularly and finally running 5 miles again).  Any type of impact exercise caused pain/reinjured it so I did not do much outside of some stretching for the heel.  All of my toned areas are now flabbier than ever :(  On a good note, the heel has felt way better the last 3 mornings than it has in weeks.  It is still a bit off and I am still doing the stretches/wearing the necessary splint, but I am going to attempt walking some distance over the next week.  Still a bit early for running though.

-I would also like to lose at least 5 lbs a month, which could translate into 60 lbs by the end of the year barring any unforeseen situations aka "Baby Don 2.0"  It stills feels odd that any of that even ever happened... 60 lbs would put me in a "healthy weight" range, but seems like such a major feat.   5 lbs a month seems like a much simpler task :)

Goal #2:  I will be more organized in one month than I am today.

Hello, my house. Or life in general :)
-Not sure what exactly this will look like, but surely by the end of the month something somewhere will be more organized in my life even if it is only the silverware drawer!

Goal #3:  I will create laughter to break frustration.

-We have a house filled with a wannabe diva, a 3 year-old, an often annoyed big brother, a little brother who often gets things taken away, a dad easily stressed by any of the above, and a mom often trying to maintain patience with everyone.  So when frustration is riding high as oftentimes happens, then I will try to remember to create laughter instead of caving to the frustration.  This is a successful technique when I have employed it in the past.  Being purposeful about it may help me to employ it more often though.

-If you drive by and see me making silly faces and farting loudly, then just assume that I am working on goal #3 ;)

2012 Resolutions

If you'd like to read about my resolutions from last year, here you go...

http://faithhopepoop.blogspot.com/2011/01/its-that-time-of-year-againresolutions.html

I think that I did really well overall with the first one.  I still have quite a bit of weight that I'd like to lose and I believe that it will eventually come off, but for now I am just satisfied with what an "active" year I was able to accomplish.  I have also developed a taste for eating quite a few more fruits and veggies in my diet which has been a nice bonus!

I didn't quite make it to my 2nd resolution from last year, but you've probably already read about that in my last post :)

And now for this year's resolutions!

In 2012, I am planning on continuing to work on my resolutions from last year to continue bettering my body and my brain, but I am going to focus on two new areas this year.

1)  Organization: I am a person who needs structure (at least most of the time anyway) and I feel like it has been lacking in many areas in recent months.  I am going to be taking classes during most of 2012 and am afraid that this will only become a much bigger problem if left untouched.  So, Scott and I have been discussing and working on plans for organization around the house and with budgetary/household/grocery items.  We've already started implementing a few changes during the past weeks and are excited about jumping into all of it!

2)Gratefulness/Thoughtfulness: I am always grateful for my blessings and am constantly thinking of/praying for others, but I am also not the best at showing this.  A "well wish" that only ever remains a thought is never as good as a "well wish" that is actually delivered either in person, via card, etc.  I am very poor at actually delivering on these things and with a new year comes a chance to be better.

Overall, the goal is to continue working on just being a better person-physically, mentally and emotionally.  Here it goes... :)

Woot! Woot!

Frankly, I normally find that phrase very annoying when I see it used, but it was the only thing that kept popping into my head this morning when I stepped on the scale.

It was only a matter of 2-4 pounds that I had been "waiting" on, but now that they seem to have finally vacated my body...I am proud to say that I am finally back down to the weight I was for most of high school and early college!  Don't get me wrong-I am still absolutely nowhere near my "ideal/dream" weight and I am still a "big lady" (oh how I hate those words!), but it is a step in the right direction. 

This last pound or two also means that I am officially the "smallest" that I have ever been since I've been married!  I was at the heaviest I had ever been when I got married (hmmm...guessing stress might have been a factor...) and then I became even heavier during the first year or two of our infertility journey [wedding stress + (wishing you could be pregnant right from the start x watching many of those around you get pregnant/have babies) stress=10 extra lbs that I definitely DID NOT need at the time or ever!]

And now they are gone and here I stand almost 45 lbs lighter than that point I reached several years back!

WOOT! WOOT! (Yes, I still think this phrase is annoying! :)

Under a Rock...

is where it seems I've been living in the last month! Seriously, I've been quite "unplugged" from the computer for most of the last 2-3 weeks, possibly even (dare I say it...) a whole MONTH!

I've, basically, checked my email (just barely) 2-3 times a week and done some "word processing"ish type activities (those don't even require internet! Shocking, I know! :) I seemed to have popped by here about twice since the middle of last month and Facebook has been nonexsistent in my world. The good news (or bad news depending on how you look at it) is that I really haven't missed any of it all that much.

It's like living in the old times :)

If someone hasn't called or texted (well I have still enjoyed this aspect of technology!) or seen me in person (which I haven't been doing a ton of around here either for the last month or so for really no apparent reason) :(, then sorry to say I have no clue as to what is going on in the world with, well, everybody.

Life has pretty well centered on Scott's work schedule (which has been varying tremendously from week to week-last week he was literally not home but a few hours all week & this week he's been home for supper, well at least some of the nights. :)Add in random weekend events that have popped up, Luke's babysitter days/swimming lessons, and trying to fit in training on these same days for an upcoming event in the midst of the lovely July heat and/or trying to train on other days with a 3 year old in tow!

So...I've/we've been fairly "us" focused lately & with that comes much less focus on anything "plugged" in :) It's actually been kind of nice living in our own little world for awhile, but I need to start stepping back out into the world again because I've lost total sense of time! It won't be long now before school is starting again...4 weeks! I need to at least figure out what day it is...it makes it quite difficult to write a check when you actually have NO IDEA what day it is!!! (Which you, my very smart readers, probably have guessed happened today and has happened several times over the last few weeks.) I have tended to do better with knowing the weekend dates (probably because of my training schedule), but I definitely lose track once Monday rolls around!

Since I've been away for awhile, I've also missed some birthdays too! YIKES!
So coming soon to a computer near you, belated birthday greetings! :)

It's nice to be back, well, at least blogging anyway...not sure about "plugging" totally back in just yet! ;)

Official Results!!! :)

I finished my 1/2 marathon in 2 hours 40 minutes 1 second :)

I was very pleased with this & the fact that I was able to finish it on a day that included high humidity & the 1st 90 degree temp of the year (definitely not the conditions all of us had been training under!) I'm also fairly confident that I had a touch of heat stress when it was all over & done with, but am feeling much better now :)

No, I didn't run the whole thing, but I'm sure that I ran at least 90% of it (& did I mention that I finished-that's really all I truly cared about somewhere about mile 6&7 :)

I placed 8,332 overall; 4,590 among females; & 822 in my age group of 30-34. That may not sound that impressive, but I was never more proud to have that medal hanging around my neck! :)

Now...when's the next race? Just kidding...I'm not quite ready for that...yet, anyway! ;)

One week to go...

til the big race day!!!

I'm glad that this last week of training is an "easy" one, but those 13.1 miles are approaching quickly~only 7 more days!

I know I can go the whole distance, my hope is to be able to run all of it, I believe it is quite doable (as long as this crazy, freaking wind stays away!!! It is definitely my downfall-give me cold, hot, rain, whatever, but high winds make for high difficulty in my running attempts! :)

I'll try to update on here as soon as I can next weekend with how it goes!!!

I May Be Crazy!

Remember that goal that I had to run a 5K...remember how I was working on just trying to run 3 miles at a time...remember when I thought I would never run farther than that...remember when I thought people who did (or even those who ran at all) were crazy...well I do & now I am one of them!

You will all be happy to know that I can now run 3 miles at a time without much trouble! It took awhile, but I wouldn't even hesitate at the thought of having to go out and run 3 miles now. Have I done an official 5K yet...no...but I'm sure I will at some point.

What have I done instead, you may be asking yourself?

Have I mentioned that I may be crazy?

3 miles, no problem, why not go out and try to run 13?!?!

Yeah, that's right, crazy ole me signed up for a 1/2 marathon!

The training has begun...I am proud to report that I have gotten up to 4-5 miles at a time on different occasions, but I still have a long way to go.

2 months from today is the day and I am taking some comfort in the fact that I have a couple of aunts, several cousins and at least 1 sister who are planning on participating in the event too!

At least if I'm crazy (ahem...or all of us for that matter), we'll have plenty of moral support along for the ride (or should I say run/walk)! ;)

Life right now...

is SUPER crazy at the moment!

*Volleyball practices officially started this week. We held tryouts last week (on the one day we didn't have a snow day :) and one day this week.) That is always a tough thing-not enough spaces and too many sad faces-I didn't sleep very well that night :( Unfortunately we have also had to work around remaining basketball seasons at the moment so getting gym time has been a little tough & very unconsistent. We're able to practice everyday, but the time has been different each day...confusing for us as well as the players...it should settle down soon though...

*On top of volleyball, this week has been filled with places that I need to be either almost immediately or immediately after practice. Monday=parish council meeting and Wednesday=teaching PSR so both of these nights were fairly late nights where I wasn't home at all (maybe an hour on Monday) during the course of an entire day, which makes for a looong feeling week...

*I have also officially signed up for an official running event (I will probably have more on this in a future post) this spring so have been attempting to train around all of these different practice times and places to be as well...

*I am definitely going to be in need of some quality time with my little guy (& the big one too I guess :) since we've gone from "Snow day=all day together & lots of them" to maybe a good hour a day spent together in just the past 2 weeks...

*Outside of the lack of family quality time (which I was well aware of when I stepped up for the coaching postition), it has been a good experience & worth it! And, last but not least,
THANK GOD FOR A WONDERFUL BABYSITTER!!!!! :)
We're definitely blessed that she doesn't seem to mind spending some extra quality time with Luke during this time of year!

80's Styles~Thank You! :)

All one has to do is take a quick look around to see that many of the styles from the 80's are back! I myself did not get to take part in many of these styles at the time. I was a mere child & my mother purchased clothes for us that were "sensible" and the "trendier" things didn't always fit this bill :)

One of the styles that I can remember never experiencing were leggings. Oh, we had tights to wear with our pretty dresses & then eventually stirrup pants (ugh! And yes I have seen that these are back in the stores again too. Double UGH!) , but leggings...no. I am an adult now though & am able to purchase my own clothes so I recently bought myself a pair of leggings! I LOVE them! I love wearing them with my tall boots & a skirt/sweater. I love that I can feel dressed up, but still not really be exposing any skin (especially since it is now winter & really cold outside!) They are a great excuse to wear a skirt any time of the year & hide things you don't want people looking at, like those pesky vericose veins behind my knees :)

Another item from the 80's that I may have had, but never used or really had a need for was an exercise sweat/headband. My husband brought this one back into my world. A sweatband was one of my gifts for Christmas from him this year. WHAT? I know, here's the backstory. When I run, especially if there is any wind at all, I can not keep my earbuds for my MP3 player in my ears for the life of me. If one is staying in, then the other is falling out & sometimes both of them give me issues. I began hinting around about needing something to help keep them in or some headphone style ones. I, however, accidently used the term "headband" one time when talking about this so, low & behold, there was my headband for Christmas from him. :) I poked fun of it a bit, but when I tried it today, it was SUPER! It fit snug on my head AND held my earbuds in my ears without one single problem!!! Sweatbands, who knew? :)

So, does anyone know if there is a newfound benefit to leg warmers? Maybe they'll make it back yet too! ;)

It's That Time of Year Again~Resolutions!

My 2011 Resolutions:

1) Be Healthier-this includes exercising more & regularly (I had actually been doing pretty good in general with this one until Christmas week hit!), eating healthier (ditto to the above), finally running that 5 K I've been dreaming about (I was up to 2.7 miles-then came super cold temps, a bad cold that made breathing difficult, & crazy Christmas chaos-I ran this morning, but I hadn't run for 2 weeks & 2.7 hasn't been done for almost 3 so I'm easing back into it & started with somewhere between a 1/2-1 mile! It felt good to run again though!)

2) Read 12,000 pages-I have set a certain number of books in the past, but always feel frustrated if I don't reach the goal or if I choose to read a really long book (1,000+ pages) because I could have read 2-3 other books in the same timeframe & these really long books hurt my "book count". So this year, I decided to aim for a page number goal because I am currently reading one of those 1,000+ page books & I didn't want to start out behind already :) 12,000 is based off a guess that an average book contains 300 pages & I want to read at least 40 books.

These are the two big goals that I want to focus on for 2011. I have a couple of others, but I don't want to make them "official" here-at least not yet anyway, maybe this summer if I need some summertime resolutions. In the meantime, I will most likely focus on them too, just on my own, but as for these two goals...I will do my best to hold myself accountable here for myself & for all of you to follow along with too.

"Voicing" Laryngitis's ups & downs

Since this past Sunday, I have been suffering from laryngitis, which means that my voice comes & goes as it pleases & when it does come, it isn't very well. Here are some pros & cons I have been experiencing...

Con: I either can't talk or if I can, it is very forced & my throat ends up hurting anyway :(

Pro: Students think that they need to whisper because I am whispering :)

Con: I had to attempt working in a school with small children all day long :(

Pro: I only had 2 days of school this week & the schedules for both days were fairly lax due to the holidays :)

Con: My 3 year old does not understand why I can't talk at times or why I won't go along with his bedtime song request to "sing louder Mommy!" :(

Pro: Baking cookies with my 3 year old is one activity that does not require a lot of talking :)

Con: I HATE not being able to talk at will for however long I want :(

Pro: I at least still get to go to bed each night with the hope that my normal voice will have returned by morning~when there is nothing else, there is still always hope left, right?! :)

Here's to hoping it's mostly back to normal by Christmas!

Reasons it's great to be me (well at least for today anyway! :)

1) I woke up & stepped on the scale where I was finally rewarded with seeing the number that means I have lost 10lbs!!! (since I first started 'trying' again in October)
This felt really good, especially since I wasn't quite expecting it to be this morning & because I had been hanging around the same pound or two for the last 2 weeks. The combination of calorie counting & running are finally starting to show their results-Thank Goodness! :)

2) I can easily say too that I'm confident that the changes I have been making are for good this time around & I have developed a phenomenal 'will power' as a result. Yes, that was me last week at the ALL DAY meeting (with the donut holes, M&M's, some sort of delicious looking homemade Mississippi Mud Cake brownie things, & other candies sitting on our tables the entire time) who didn't even have one little nibble of any of these things-ALL DAY LONG.

3) I was reading & discussing a book about the Pilgrims' First Thanksgiving with a group of 2nd graders today. The book mentioned how the Pilgrim children did not "go to school" during their first year in Plymouth, but that the children did learn things like manners. These manners included standing at the table to eat, wearing their hats while eating & not speaking unless an adult had spoken to them first. As one can imagine, my students found all of these quite preposterous ;) I singled out the one who I know has the hardest time "not speaking" & asked him if he would have liked being a Pilgrim child...he said "No, I don't think I would handle that very well. I like to talk!" then he proceeds to say..."But I would like to adopt a child someday so that I could teach it to be a Pilgrim child!" ;)

4) I was walking a kindergartener (who had gotten in trouble during lunch recess) inside to the cafeteria & on our walk (which he wasn't very happy about as you may gather) we had the following conversation...
Me: "Was yelling at the other kid a good choice?"
Kndgter: "No! I'm going to get some fertilizer and spread it all over you!"
Me (thinking how I had never yet been threatened with fertilizer): "Fertilizer, huh? Well what good would that do-fertilizer wouldn't help me any."
Kndgter: "I'm going to get some fertilizer and spread it all over you. You won't like it and it will be bad!"
Me: "Well, I just don't see what good that would do. I don't need any fertilizer & doing that won't help you out any...so that just doesn't seem like a very good idea now does it! Maybe we can come up with a better idea."
-Not sure that he cared about any different/new ideas, but at least he made it into lunch & I was still clean as a whistle! ;)

The Key to Running is...

knowing that you are just about going to die when you start each time...

and will never make it through to your goal for the day...

and that you will need to stop at any moment or you will fall down to die...

and then realizing that you've already put in this much effort...

and that you are so close to your goal that you will be utterly disappointed in yourself if you don't finish...

and then realizing at the end of the run that you have reached that goal so now you can start walking again...

and then being filled with one of the best senses of accomplishment you could ever have imagined because YOU DID IT!

This has been a big part of my life for the last month and I am very proud to say that I am now running 2 MILES at a time!!! :) (It's a slow 2 miles, but still it's 2 miles!!!)

My ultimate goal is 3 miles & with the plan I've been following, that means about 3 more weeks of training! My only setback has been the past week with the lack of evening daylight hours, but as always my brain is always strategizing for different ways to fit in some 'training' time so I have no doubt that I'll get it figured out soon I'm also not too big of a fan of trying to run while pushing a stroller uphill with a 35+lb kid in it, but can manage when it's necessary, luckily for me though that hasn't happened super often yet, but I guess it does make for a better workout! ;)

3-0!!!

It just sounds sooo "grown-up"!

I'm not usually too bothered by age & I don't really 'feel' any different than I did yesterday, but I can say that this birthday was just a bit different because...

it just sounds so grown-up!

Of course, I have had to be an adult/grownup for quite awhile now so that shouldn't really matter, but now that there is officially a 3 in front of my age...well you get the jist!

To cope/celebrate, [now channel your inner Prince & "Party like its 1999" voice] "last night I partied because I was still 29!" :)

Drinking beer from a bucket (literally)-keep in mind we were at an Okctoberfest like festivity & hanging out with some of my cousins followed by being serenaded at midnight as I became 30 was all very fun, but today because I am a 30 year old "grown-up" (who frankly can't do that 2 nights in a row anymore like I might have once upon a time during my college days), well today, I celebrated like a grown-up with cake & my families-both were good days & will be fondly remembered!

And now, I'm off to be a grown-up, I guess ;)

One Month until...

the big 3-0!

Oh my!

I'm not sure I'm ready to be old... ;)

(Just kidding for all of you 30+r's out there!)
Unless you're my husband of course! hehe ;)

May Tidbits...

I've not been around much lately and I've missed this! I've missed reading up on other peoples' blogs whom I have been following for quite a while now. I've missed sharing bits & pieces of my life here with all of you...but at the same time I have enjoyed my time away (for the most part) too. Very little blogging, very little email and even less Facebook time have been the way of life this month it seems and I'm thankful to have had the break even if I hadn't planned on taking it.

So, here are just a few things that have been happening in my little world, since I last posted...

*Mother's Day-I am so grateful for all of the wonderful women who have helped to shape my life & it was great being able to spend time with many of them on/around Mother's Day. Somehow, though, this holiday is still just not one of my favorites, in fact, if I could skip it completely-I would.
I don't like the "you have to do stuff for me just because I'm a mom" mentality, whether it's deserved or not. I don't like all of the hullabaloo made over this "one day"-shouldn't we celebrate our mothers (& fathers too) every.single.day.
Part of my dislike, obviously, stems from our IF/adoption struggles & just how completely tortuous this holiday was before becoming a mom & how even though I am a mother now-that doesn't mean that part of me doesn't still feel inadequate. The "ease" of other mothers' abilities to build their families/space their children, seemingly, without effort/emotional struggles/having to consider other options is something that I am very aware of on this one particular day of the year and it's just not all that pleasant for me...it's not anyone's fault, just my own need to want to crawl up in a hole on this one day each year & hide/cry, yet instead, being forced out to do just the opposite because I am now (& feel very much blessed to be so even if this makes me sound otherwise) a mother!

*On a different 'mother' rant, the phrases "I'm a mother of [insert whatever number of chidren you have-it just can't be 1]" and "family is complete" are two phrases that have been annoying the crap out of me lately. First of all, I don't think that most people really care how many children someone has, unless maybe it is 5 or more, okay, maybe 4. 1, 2 or 3 kids seems to be fairly typical, in fact, isn't the average 2.3 or something like that so saying "mother of [2 or 3]" just makes one normal. Some use the phrase to let people know just how 'busy' they are, which is fine & dandy too, but don't we all get busier as we add in more people to our lives (whether they live with us or not and whether or not they happen to be children). This phrase also bugs the crap out of me because I was a "mother of two" for just a few days, but then plans changed & here I sit, almost a year later...still only hoping that maybe someday this phrase can apply to me yet again, but permanently this time...
The other phrase has been used by several different people in real life & in the blog/facebook world. Some are 'super fertiles' as I like to call them :) & some are fellow IFer's with whom I have faced this journey with (& most of whom came face-to-face with it after we had already been in the trenches for a while.) I am thrilled for all of them-that their dreams have come true/are coming true, but yet (& yes, I am going to throw another pity party ;) here we sit feeling like we are only in the "beginnings" of building our family. It is just frustrating always feeling like you are watching everyone else move on, while we're still stuck closer to our starting goal rather than our ending goal...

*On a more positive note, school has been out for almost a whole week...our vacation-very much needed this year!-is approaching quickly (I can hear that ocean calling my name)...& I think my battle with some very pesky 6 legged pests may finally be swinging my way-THANK THE GOOD LORD!!!-not exactly how I planned on spending my first week of summer vacation ;)

Hope your summers are off to great starts & if anyone needs a pity party, just head my direction...I'm sure I could find one if you couldn't tell it from this post, but then again, that has pretty much been what May has been like in my head :)

Randomosity

You like that word...I just made it up :) Anyway, right now headed your way is one completely random post due to my long absense~many thoughts have been storing up inside my brain & you my lucky readers get to share in it!

*It's March-my least favorite month. Why? (I know you were all just thinking that, right?) It has to be the looonnnggggeeeesssttt month of the whole year-you know we teachers hardly ever get a day off in March (my sis the nurse loves to hear me complain about this ;) This year in my school we get a whopping 1 hour early dismissal on the last day of March this year-it might be a long 23 school days this month, especially once spring fever officially sets in over the next few weeks.

*Also, March can be such a tease-it's late enough into the winter season that everyone is hoping for spring, but if it turns nice in March-watch out for April! So just give me a nice cold March, if it means that spring can officially start in April & then stick around until summer.

*I have yet to suffer from 'spring fever' this year. I have heard many of my family & friends' complaints/wishes for winter to be over, but I haven't really felt that way until maybe the last 2-3 days. Up until this point I have actually been hoping for maybe one more good snowfall, now not so sure, unless it will get us a few snow days right in the middle of the week in the middle fo March... ;)

*My 6th graders won their first game last week & we're hoping for a repeat tomorrow evening.

*We only have a few weeks left to this volleyball season (& it feels like it only just started!)-I think I'm "hooked" & have actually been surprised by how much I have enjoyed it!

*It's Lent, which means Fridays=fish/no meat & our "Pizza Fridays" have gone by the wayside here at our house-I really miss them...

*I have had several great blog post ideas, but have not written any of the down or typed any of them to be posted-now I can't remember what they were...

*I realized that if you spell the word "chidren" backwards, the first half of what it spells is the word "nerd"...it makes me wonder if this means anything...

Could that thought have been any more random for all of you? :) Until next time...

Allelulia!

Right before bed last night, I took my temperature once again & almost fell over from shock when I saw a reading of 98.6! Granted I had taken some medicine with "fever reducing" benefits just a few hours before when my temperature was at 101.4, but I had been doing this for a whole week with that same temp & it would only drop to about 100.5 maybe 99.4 if I was lucky. (Yes, I take my temperature constantly when I am sick~I'm slightly obsessive about it ;) I knew it was just a temporary reprieve & that by morning it would be a different story.

Anyway, when I awoke this morning & I took my temperature & then I took it again & then I almost fell over...97.8! I only wanted 98.6, but 97.8-Fantastic! I just prayed that it would stay that way because at the school where I work the rule is 24 hours fever free without medication & I really didn't want to have to drag myself into school this weekend to plan for this coming week still being sick.

So I am proud to announce that I have finally hit that mark & am now 24 hours fever free! (And the snot is starting to slow down & breathing has become much easier too-all in such a short span of time!)

(I was going to end with a video here, but my husband is still working on our new hard drive so you'll just have to wait too I guess! :)

Sick & Tired...

of being sick & tired!!!

(Beware bodily functions will be mentioned-if that makes you nervous/sick/uneasy, turn around NOW!)

When I first thought of the title of this post, it was going to be more about how each & every time I have had "time" off this year someone in this house has been sick, which doesn't make for much of a vacation.
Last week of Christmas vacation: Luke
MLK Jr. Day: Me

Unfortunately, I thought I would be well by the time I would be writing this post, but that has yet to happen. I apologize for my lack of posting & commenting, but trying to keep hydrated has been just a bit more of a priority.

Did I mention that this is Day 5 of 100+ fever?!!! You know it's starting to get sad when both me & my husband are confident that I feel "cooler" each morning and the d*#@ thermometer always comes back with something like 100.4 or 100.5, which I guess relatively speaking-it is.

I am hoping that things are starting to turn around, since I finally caved & went to the doctor's office yesterday-I couldn't breathe through my nose at all, which was making it very hard to sleep at night because I would wake up & have literally NO SPIT in my mouth because I had been breathing through it all night. I walked out of the pharmacy with a whole bag of medical goodies (feeling only slightly like a druggie :) & started putting all of that stuff to work.

Changes I have seen today:

*My first bowel movements in several days!!! (You do not know how excited I was & I think Scott truly appreciated me sharing this info with him this morning ;)

*Snot is now free flowing like a river-I still can't breathe through my nose for very long periods of time, but oh how sweet it is when I can!

*I am actually having a few more bursts of peppiness & actually reminded myself to eat food today, which has also been a tough task to do, since I've had absolutely NO desire to eat-no nausea, just nothing telling my brain "hey, you're hungry-eat!"

Changes that I have yet to see:

*That d#@* thermometer reading of 98.6!

And on that note, I'm tired now-I think I'll go lie down-take care of yourselves out there!

Happenings around Home

Over the past week...

*I have somehow managed to be near the computer like 2 days of the whole week(Sunday & yesterday), unfortunately, it seemed to be quite a busy email week for me (which is a bit unusual) & I found out about several different important things all at once so...

*I have several emails to follow up on now & several people to write back too-sorry if I have not responded yet :)

*For one afternoon, I thought I was coming down with the flu again :( Luckily, taking the afternoon off of school/sleeping & relaxing that evening, helped me to feel much better, but the back aches (like I had with the flu last month) that came along with it still took a few days to go away. [This would also be part of the reason I was "unplugged" for a few days.]

*We are all still crying all of the time here at the Faith, Hope & Poop household, but not for the reasons you might be thinking...Luke has finally become aware of this lovely phase called "I DO IT BY MYSELF!" It is sooo handy when you are in a hurry or trying to do something like fill up his cup. Somehow over the past 2 weeks, he seems to have come to the conclusion that he is quite capable of (along with many, many other things) taking a FULL gallon milk jug & filling up his own cup. We beg to differ thus the crying on the parts of both sides due to several close calls :)

*Along with this, I am soo happy that he can undress himself, but I just wish that he would stop yelling "PEE" & pulling his "undies" down before we get to him (he's a quick one alright!) Acting like the carpet is all one big potty is NOT cool!
[On a side note though, he is beginning to tell us quite a bit more regularly, which is a major plus-I'm hoping to have a few days at Christmas to work on this a bit more consistently with him, but he has come a long way over the past few months!]

*Lucky for me [stated with only a hint of sarcasm], Luke is in a very big "mommy" phase right now, which is okay at many different times, but please son, when dad is home with us too-he is quite capable of playing the same games/toys that I play with you & even if he is not-it really is OKAY for me to have at least 2 minutes of "me time" when I need to use the bathroom. As soon as I disappear, all I hear is Luke saying to Scott "Mommy? Mommy? Mommy?" Hmmmm...I guess I'll enjoy it while it lasts because I'm sure that before too long he may not want to spend quite as much of his quality time with me & then I might be left feeling left out ;)