Here comes Fall

Fall is a month away. Yet, I find myself getting excited to greet my favorite season.  I'm ready for crisp Fall air.  I'm ready to breathe in the smell of colored leaves and hear the crunch of leaves under foot.  I thought that instead of writing about all the reasons I embrace Fall, I'd post some pictures instead. They speak so much better than I do.

Summer 2011

It's been a busy summer so far.  The first week of vacation was full of Doc. appts.  and car appointments.  We have our last appointment of the summer later today when the kids go for their dentist visit.  Yay! So glad to have our appts out of the way soon!  The week of June 20th, we had our 2 local  nephews come over every day (except Mon). We stayed busy that week!  It was a pretty good week and the cousins enjoyed having lots of cousin time. 
     We did a family camp out in our backyard that weekend, too. It was fun to sleep out in the tent, cook hot dogs over the fire pit and have smores. We stayed up pretty late and were so exhausted the next day!  Eddie worked a lot of OT in June, including weekends.  In fact, he worked 13 days straight before he finally had a day off...and then spent the following day off, fighting a bad migraine.  So, June was good, but long.  We were definitely ready for our trip to Landrum SC to visit Granny come July 1st
   We drove to Landrum and made good time. It only took 10 1/2 hrs to get there. We had a lot of family time while we were there. We got to visit with Granny, Uncle Pat, and Uncle Jim. We would have like to see more family and friends but the trip was just too short and too busy.  It was hard to say goodbye on the 9th when it was time to go. The trip back took slightly longer because we stopped for longer periods and had more traffic but we made it home in 11 hrs.  
  This week, the week of July 11th, we're having our 2 nephews stay again.  Kim drops them off every morning around 7 am and they stay until around 4pm.  It's been a fun week so far. We've been to a local pet store that has sting rays to pet, went to a petting zoo, had an indoor picnic, swam in our neighbors pool, toured the Herr's factory, played outside and had a pretty good time overall.  The cousins get to join us for our dentist visit today but that should be ok. There are lots of toys there.  Tomorrow, Fri, will wrap up our time together and I think we'll probably hit the local park for a  picnic and time in the creek. They can spend hours doing that!!!  
   The last two weeks of July don't have a lot happening. We're looking forward to celebrating Barry (my brother in law) as he rings in 40  years soon.  Kim is throwing a bash for him and it should be lots of fun!  
   August brings in a dear friend from NC to visit. She'll be with us the first week of August.  We're also looking forward to witnessing Kim and Barry get baptized in a local creek the first Sat in August. It's been awesome to see them growing in the Lord and now taking this step.  I'm proud of them. They're an amazing example to me!  We'll be celebrating Amanda and Michaela's birthdays in August as well.  I can't believe that they'll be 7 and 11!  Time flies! 
   There are some other birthdays in the family this summer, too.  Our nephew, Caleb had a birthday in June.  My other nephew, Matthew has a birthday next week!  Our niece, Hannah will have a birthday in August. Also in August, Aiden has a birthday. In September, Kieran will have his birthday. So, lots of birthdays between June and September!!  I'm not sure how everyone will celebrate the birthdays, but it's fun to see everyone growing up!
   Well, that's an update so far. I guess I should mention that my BRACA testing came back negative so that means that I don't carry the gene for breast and ovarian cancer that my Mom carries. It doesn't mean that I won't develop cancer but that I'm not genetically predisposed to it.  Also, my recent mammograms and ultrasounds came back clear.  As long as I'm updating our health, I should mention that Michaela is now wearing glasses and has transitioned into wearing them pretty well.  Hopefully, she'll do fine in MS with them in the Fall.  
  I hope everyone else is having a good Summer!  I hope to update again later but at least you have a glimpse into our Summer now.  

Friendship

My mind has been on friendship for a long time now.  I've been thinking about it a lot and I was ready to start complaining here about friends but I think I'll list the things that I love about my friends, instead.

1. It doesn't matter what time of day or night it is, I know I can count on my friends to be there if I need them.
2. My friends don't care if I'm fat, thin, pretty, ugly, fashionable, mismatched, rich, or poor, they know the real me and accept me as I am.
3. My friends aren't afraid to tell me like it is, in love, and to help steer me toward truth.
4. My friends are willing to be open and honest and share their hurts and let me try to help them through their trials.
5. If I call them, they call me back.
6. If I contact them, through email, FB, or other means, they take the time to get back to me.
7. Even though their lives are hectic, they make time for me.
8. When they say they'll do something, they do it. I can count on them.
9.  If we don't always agree on something, it's ok.  We don't need to agree.
10. They're not afraid to be real and deep. It's ok to show each other that we don't have it all together.

That's just some of the things that I love about my friends.  I am so thankful that God has placed some true friends in my life and I am honored to be their friend. I hope that as my life goes through various stages, that my friendships will grow, too. I hope that I can reach out in love and make new friends and even strengthen the bonds of existing friendships.  If you're a friend of mine as you read this, thank you for being  you and being part of my life.  What a blessing a friendship can be in this world!

Prepared for Betrayal

This is from Dr. Stanley's InTouch daily devotional. Click the link to access the devotion.


Prepared for Betrayal

exercise, etc

Our exercise routine did not get very far. Right after I implemented it, the children became ill and we've been fighting to get well ever since. Hopefully, tomorrow, we'll be starting our new routine again. I am looking forward to getting up and getting moving. Well, maybe not the getting up part but it will be nice to be active.

Speaking of which, I have been thinking about trying to get back into shape. Which, is going to be so very hard for me. I need to lose roughly 50 pounds at this point to get back into a healthy weight range. That seems so impossible for me. I use food to soothe my nerves, my emotions, my stress, my life. I know that is unhealthy and it is going to be really hard to replace those habits. The other thing that will be difficult is getting into a normal exercise routine and sticking with it. I can't tell you the number of things that I have started on and then went strong for a month or two and then gave up. I really want to succeed in this but it is going to be so difficult. It's a whole new way of life. Not a diet fad. A new way of seeing the food I put into my body and a new way of examining what I do with my time and energies.

I've been debating joining Planet Fitness but I hate to do that because I do not want to be seen by the general public huffing and puffing away on some piece of machinery. I am hoping to invest in a recumbent exercise bike and to walk the neighborhood. I enjoy walking so I just need to do it. Ya know, like Nike's slogan, Just do it.

So, those of you who know me, check in with me every now and then and ask me how it's going. I need to be accountable. I know I need to be accountable to God but I need to be accountable to Eddie, too. But, I think it would help if other people held me accountable, as well. I mean, there are times when Eddie will ask if I have exercised and I get angry with him or I feel like he's trying to point out how badly I need the exercise. Which, is not the case at all. That's not a fair reaction to him, especially when I've asked him to help me out in this area!!!

Well, there's more that I wanted to blog about here but I really don't want to spend the emotional energy expounding on it right now. It can wait until another blog. Take care all and have a wonderful week!

My new brainstorm

Rise and Shine!!! I am going to attempt to get the kids and myself, up 1/2 hour earlier in the mornings so that I can get them moving. Literally. I've been thinking about how difficult it has been for all of us to get going in the morning and to focus and have energy throughout our day.
So, I decided that we'd have dance parties in the morning for 15-20 mins (or more, depending on time). I'll put some fun music on and turn it up and we'll just jump up and down, dance, jump rope and just act crazy for awhile. While they are cooling down and getting dressed afterward, I'm going to make sure I fix a nutritious breakfast. Most mornings, my kids do eat breakfast but it is usually just a hurried bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios or something similar. I'm thinking of a cooked breakfast with a side of fresh fruit and glass of milk. Some mornings might consist of cereal and fruit or maybe some whole grain toast with fruit. I'm not exactly sure of all the details, yet. I will get ready for work while they eat.
I'm going to attempt this tomorrow. We'll give it a trial run and see how it goes. I'm hoping it will help us all to get active, and to start the day fresh and alert. We'll see. I know this means more work for me, but if it helps us all start the day off on a good foot, it's worth it.

EAT DIRT!

GO EAT DIRT!!!! Well, okay, not dirt. But, maybe some of this pudding dessert instead? This is a fun treat to make for the kids. If you have never tried it before, give it a whirl! I'm going to try and make it this week with my kids and see what they think! I've had it before at church and at school and all the kids enjoy it!

Dirt Cups

				Prep Time: 15 min Total Time: 1 hr 15 min Makes: 10 servings

Ingredients: 1 pkg. (3.9 oz.) JELL-O Chocolate Instant Pudding 2 cups cold milk 1 tub (8 oz.) COOL WHIP Whipped Topping, thawed 15 OREO Cookies, finely crushed (about 1-1/4 cups), divided 10 worm-shaped chewy fruit snacks Preparation: BEAT pudding mix and milk in large bowl with whisk 2 min. Let stand 5 min. Stir in COOL WHIP and 1/2 cup cookie crumbs. SPOON into 10 (6- to 7-oz.) paper or plastic cups; top with remaining cookie crumbs. REFRIGERATE 1 hour. Top with fruit snacks just before serving.