Snow!!

Well, I promised to put up a new post at least once a week and I noticed I'd already missed posting for over a week...oops! But it can be a good thing...that means nothing very interesting has happened and I didn't have anything to write about :-)

Yesterday something interesting did happen...it snowed...a lot! We probably got about 6 or 7 inches. Colby was super excited. He burst into our room this morning almost in tears because he'd been watching the news and they said the sun was going to come out and melt the snow. I guess he was afraid he wouldn't be able to play in it before it melted :-) But he did get to go outside and play pretty much all morning. It wasn't very good snow for snowballs because it was a bit powdery, but he and Brandon still managed to fling snow at each other :-) and Brandon took Colby to the elementary school down the road to go sledding. There's a huge hill there. They seemed to have a blast!

I on the other hand had to grade papers :-( Today was supposed to be a teacher workday and I SURE had work to do. At this point I'm not sure when grades are due...soon I assume...so even though I couldn't go to school I had to finish grading exams and start planning for next semester. I'm pretty stressed about starting the new semester next week - I haven't even had time to make copies of my syllabus! I might have to go in on Monday, which is supposed to be a day off, and pray that I can get to a copier. If not, I guess I can scramble for one block and get my act together for the others during my planning...I'll think of something! One thing most teachers are good at doing is coming up with a Plan B, C, D, E, or F on the fly!

Oh, and I didn't do super great these past two weeks when it comes to dieting...I lost one pound and was steady on my measurements. That's nothing to sneeze at. I didn't gain! But I guess I was hoping it would go a bit faster :-) I'm just going to blame it on my mom for tempting me with sweet potatoes and chocolate cake (which I didn't eat!) :-) Love you mommy!

Colby's Christmas Presents

So, one of the gifts we got Colby for Christmas was a camera. He loves taking pictures with our camera, but I don't want him to break it so we bought him is own $30 camera. He has been taking pictures like a crazy person the last couple of days. I haven't really looked at them, but he takes pictures of some crazy stuff like the brake light or other cars on the interstate or Carter's blanket. Maybe one day he'll grow up to be a photographer or something!

Another thing we got him for Christmas is Toy Story 3. It has now become his favorite movie and he wants to watch it all the time. Good thing I also like it! But it does make me cry sometimes! He's watching it as I type.

I'm so looking forward to this weekend. I'm going to Hampton for the weekend. One thing I want to do this year is visit every other month. Not that we've been bad about visiting or anything, but I want to be really consistent about it. I think my mom worries about missing the boys grow up or that they won't get to know her, but I hope visiting regularly will help her feel better about living a ways away. It's supposed to be nice this weekend, so maybe we'll get to do some fun stuff!

What Goes On in His Mind?

So lately Colby has been thinking that kindergarten is like boarding school. He thinks that when he goes, he'll no longer live at home and see the same people that he sees now. I am stumped about where he got this. He doesn't read Harry Potter or watch Matilda. He doesn't know anyone that went away for school...I just don't know where he got it! It cracks me up though :-) I try to explain to him that he'll still live at home, but he talks over and over again about how he won't be here and Carter will play with his toys...that boy is silly!

Two things that surprised me today...

1. It's going to be in the 70s this weekend! I know, it's crazy! It's January!
2. I hate putting my laundry away. Ok, this didn't really surprise me, but I was reminded again today that I hate to put my laundry away. Anybody with me?

Summer Project Finished

Today I finished a project that I started over the summer. Back in June or July, Mary Lee, Nick's fiance, gave me about twenty of her old shirts that she didn't wear anymore. I guess she's like most of us and unwilling to part with them because they had some sentimental value. So I cut them up and peiced them together and using a large t-shirt sheet as the backing I made a quilt! It looks pretty good IF I do say so myself! :-)

It's certainly not perfect, but I learned a lot about the process of doing this so if I do this again it'll be even better! I hope you love it Mary Lee!

Back to the Weigh Station!

Today was my first appointment at the Weigh Station of the New Year. I'd taken a break and hadn't been since Nov. 8th. I had decided to not worry about ketosis (that's when my body breaks down fat...you have to eat only protein to get to this stage and then you add back some fruits and vegetables and strive to stay in ketosis by staying away from carbs) and stay on diet when I could and not worry about it when I was at a party or get-together. Today I am glad to report that I did not sabatoge myself! I lost 3 pounds since my last appointment! I want to lose another 26 pounds and then I will re-evaluate where I am. If I look at a BMI chart, I need to get below 150 pounds to be considered normal. I think I can get there, but I think I might have a hard time keeping it off. I've read a few articles about how your body is always strivng to get back to your highest weight...I sure hope not! And I REALLY hope those articles aren't talking about pregnancy weight! Anyway...tally ho!

One of My Greatest Accomplishments of 2012

One of my greatest accomplishments of 2012...well to be honest I started it at the end of 2011...was finishing up the Game of Thrones book series. If you've ever seen one of the books, almost all of them are around 1000 pages, you'll understand that this really is an accomplishment. To be honest, I really did like the series, but it was very dark compared to lots of things I normally read. As a matter of fact, I took a long break at the beginning of the year because I got irritated with the series (keep reading to see why) and the darkness can be overwheliming at times and then finished with a flourish over the summer. The characters were unique, which is probably why I kept reading...I wanted to find out what happened to them! I particularly enjoyed the characters of Jon Snow and Tyrion Lannister. One thing I didn't like about the books was the way the author, Martin, kills off beloved characters with the stroke of a pen and those evil one's never really seem to get punished. People who have read the series will recall the Red Wedding as one of the worst/best examples of killing off characters. Some people say the killing off of beloved characters is what makes this series unique - nothing is sacred - but I say that's what makes it so annoying. I also would like to know where this whole thing with Arya is going, I'm really confused as to how her exploits at the moment have anything to do with anything, and if Daenerys finally gets on with this whole being queen thing. Apparently I'll need to wait a while for the next book because Martin is notorious for taking years to write a new book.

To answer your unspoken question, no I have not watched the HBO series. It apparently has a lot of graphic nudity for no good reason, so I've not watched it. Sure there's sex in the books, but I don't consider it graphic compared to some romance novels I've read. I just came to the conclusion a long time ago, that what you put in your head stays there for a long time and I don't want some of the book's exploits in my head like that. Plus I wouldn't want to buy the series and then have teenage Colby and Carter find it and think that's the way you treat women...yeah, that would be bad. Anyway, if you want a good read and enjoy well-crafted characters, try Game of Thrones, but don't expect to get it done any time soon!

Year in Review: 2012

Well, my year didn't get off to that ausipicious of a beginning. I can't even remember if anything interesting happened in January becuase that was, you know, 12 months ago. I remember February better. It started off with Brandon and I going to A Weekend to Remember at Hotel Roanoke. That was awesome because we'd been so stressed with fostering that we hadn't had a lot of time to work on us. We renewed our committments to each other and remembered why we loved each other in the first place. It was quite awesome and I highly recommend every couple do A Weekend to Remember because it is just that. February was the month that the three foster kids went back to their mom. I blogged before about how I felt when all that happened, so no need to relive that. I remember clearly going out to dinner with Brandon and Colby after the foster kids were gone. I remember being able to pay attention to Colby's smile and blue eyes and having a real conversation with Brandon that didn't involve kids. I realized that I while we'd done a good thing by taking in three foster kids, I had lost sight of what was important to me - real interactions with my family.

So for the months of March and April as I got bigger with pregnancy, I spent a lot of time hanging out with my boys. School was pretty decent around this time. I was trying to finish Romeo and Juliet and The Road with my year long kids so that the sub could do The Odyssey with them when I was out on maternity leave. My pregnancy with Carter was a lot like it was with Colby - uneventful!

Until the end that is...on May 11th I went in for a doctors appointment. My due date was a week away and I was excited to have a natural child-birth this time. But the doctor had other plans. He said my amniotic fluid was low and that he'd like to go ahead and do a c-section. I was sad, but the doc knows best. I called Brandon who was at work. Actually he was supposed to be guarding the Roanoke airport as Michelle Obama flew in to do the commencement address at Virginia Tech. I think he was disappointed to not be able to work since it was like his first real assignment with the Tactical Team, but all of that went away when he was holding Carter around 3:30 that day. So the rest of May was spend on maternity leave. This is probably bad, but I didn't worry one iota about school and didn't miss going to graduation in the least little bit. Carter, as it turns out, also has PKU just like his little brother so we spent a lot of time figuring that whole thing out. Unfortunately the special formula he had to drink made him pretty constipated, so we had to feed him a couple ounces of prune juice every day just to keep him regular. We did finally get him working right, but there was a lot of fussing in the meantime.


In June we went to Nags Head for a week. We went by ourselves (but in the future would love to go with others!). We discovered a new beach on the Sound side of Jockey's Ridge. It was awesome because the waves were pretty much non-existant and you could walk out at least a hundred yards without it going over your head. Colby had a blast playing with other kids and buidling sandcastles with his dad. Carter spent a lot of time sleeping under the umbrella :-) It was great to relax and recharge...I just love the beach! Later in June we went to visit my parents at Hungry Mother State Park as they were on their way back to Hampton from visiting Yellowstone, Mount Rushmore and lots of other places in between.

July and the remainder of August passed by uneventfully. I took Colby to the pool off and on and we got used to having two kids in the house with PKU. I started the weigh station early in July. It was tough, but I had promised myself that after I was done having a second child, I would lose the weight. I had a lot of determination when I started and I stayed determined for a long time! I got a little antsy to start school. I was thinking it seemed like it had been awhile since I was in a classroom and when I thought about it, it had been since early May! So in August we had our teacher workdays and I got two lovely (and large) honors classes and one (small, thank God!) academic class. Its been a good year at school right from the start. We got two lovely new English teachers - I'm helping to mentor one - and things have been pretty quiet. We have a lot of the same gripes, but nothing too crazy. The worst part about going back to school is paying for two daycares. I can't wait for Colby to go to kindergarten next year....wait...I say that, but I really CAN! I don't want my baby to grow up!

In October I turned 30...I know...wow! I can't believe I'm that old! I don't feel that old at all. Half the time I feel like a teenager still wondering how the heck I got to this spot in my life. Also this month I just happened to run into my three former foster kids. They looked good and they seemed to be really happy. I even talked to the mom for a few minutes, but she's not the best conversationalist in the world. It did my heart a world of good to see them and see how well they were doing. It gives me the courage to do it again in 2013!

In November I got to travel to see my family for Thanksgiving. This was special because I didn't get to go for any holidays last year due to having foster kids. Grandaddy made cheesecake...yum! And yeah, I took a break from my diet. I'd lost 33 pounds and was going to enjoy the holidays, but I was determined to not gain any weight.

And last but not least, December. We got out of school a week before Christmas and it's been an awesome season! I got to see Gwen, Jordan and Lindsey the weekend before. That was great because it'd been a while since we'd all seen each other. I just wish Brandon had been off and Jonathan had been in town...then that would have been the whole crew! We had Christmas breakfast at our house and Christmas dinner with Brandon's parents. Colby and Carter got some great gifts! The Friday after Christmas, Brandon and I tried out our presents to each other - .22LR rifle and a 12 gauge shotgun. That was fun! Colby shot Brandons lever action BB gun (zero kick). The .22 we great - I was pretty good sitting and standing if I do say so myself. The 12 gauge had a bit of kick that I was unprepared for, but I didn't come home with any bruises or anything. My parents came to visit too. They brought us a new recycle bin as that we don't have to hang bags off of drawer handles anymore. They also brought some awesome presents from my family who are so generous. After my parents left, I started my diet again. I did all protein until this morning. New Years Eve, as I write this, is pretty uneventful. I'm just hanging with the boys and Brandon is at work.

I only have two new years resolutions...

1. Lose another 30 pounds...I'll keep you posted
2. Blog more...I've been a slacker in this area and want to do at least one post a week. I hope you enjoy reading!