Stressors and Meals

 

*SIGH*... My poor puppy with her huge abscess (which we didn't know about because of the misdiagnosis).

Haddi has been going through a new stage where she's been rather cranky and non-compliant.

It feels like the house is in a constant state of disarray.

And others just want my constant attention.

However, I am enjoying cooking.  And there are some incredible meals.  This is "potato" soup... and it is just AMAZING!  I've never cooked like this in my entire life.

 

I'VE LOST 9.2 LBS IN TWO WEEKS!!!

Week 2 complete!

I was intending to write each week, but last Friday was so insane, I hardly had a chance to sit down.  Although, that's just been the story of my life lately.  This week was certainly the acid test of whether I was serious about this change of habits or not.  My week started with my 3 year old biting people at school; then coming home to my dog with the severly swollen face.  It was rather grotesque!  Meanwhile, Rick was so sick he took a day off work.  This was all just Monday before 1 p.m!

I took the dog into the usual vet clinic where they diagnosed her with having an allergic reaction.  They gave her a shot and prescribed Benedryl.  I was thinking life was looking up.  Well, over the next couple of days, Zatara's swelling didn't go down.  In fact, by the second day, the huge lump on her head had gotten bigger and spread to the side of her face.  She had started scratching at it and produced a bloody mess.  Now, to be honest, I know that animals tend to have a way to take care of themselves.  But my dog was bleeding!  In my home!  And she was in pain!  It was difficult to just let that be.  I called the vet again and, of course, they said bring her in again.  However, the only car I can transport ZT in is my car, with Rick had taken to work.  I was killing myself trying to come up with a way to solve this!  Fortunately, my husband heard the panic in my voice, came home during lunch, and took the dog in.  This was a relief... until he came home.  Now my doggy needs to take light sensitive pills for the next three weeks.  AND we need to apply heat packing regularly to encourage the drainage from the HUGE gap in her head.  Seriously, she looks awful.

So while all of the is going on, I still have the house to get in order and the kids to take care of.  Those two tasks are grueling on their own.  Being a stress eater, this was not good for me.  I wanted junk food... badly.  Even healthy food, I wanted to eat everything and quickly.  Fortunately, my healthy coach was just a text away and I've plugged into a great community on Facebook.  It's interesting how cooking has become my new hobby to distract me from eating.  So far it's been pretty fun, but I'm accumulating too many meals.  I need to slow down.

Today proved to be just as stressful as Monday, and I needed to go grocery shopping.  I knew there was no way I could come out of the store without some sort of indulgement.  What to do?!  I called my coach an explained my situation.  I just want to let everyone know I have the best health coach ever.  She offered to go shopping with me!  And we did it!  We shopped and I vented, which successfully diminished my self-pity cravings.

Seeing as how I am almost 10 pounds lighter, I can honestly say that all the hard work is worth it!

Journey of the Red Dress-- Pt. 1

Alright, so it's been forever since I've last blogged.  Facebook has been far easier for me to be in contact with everyone.  However, I find myself in need of a source of community.  I'm not even sure who even reads my blog any more.  But just sending my thoughts out into the universe should be me some sense of accountability.
Four pregnancies and years of stress eating have done a number on me.  I'm HUGE!  I've always known that I'm big, but I just watched a recording of me for a masters class that I'm doing and it was horrible!  It's like someone took the mental image I have of myself and put her in a fat suit!  I've already signed up with Stephanie to start the "Take Shape for Life" program, but my medifast meals won't be here until Thursday at the latest.  I am VERY eager to start, mostly because I cannot abide the sight of me.
I know who I am in Christ, and this isn't about low self-esteem.  This is about being the person who God intended me to be.  Someone who can be active enough to truly invest in her children and promote the kingdom of Heaven.  I cannot do these things if I get easily winded, have an aching back, nor hurting knees!  It's time.  It's beyond time!
When first contemplating this program, I needed to set myself a goal.  I have a slinky red dress I bought after highschool.  It probably won't look as good on me as I ever imagined, but just to fit in it is my goal.  That's why I'm deeming this life-style change "The journey for the red dress."  This is a time to reset the system and embrace what awaits me.  I have no intention of posting any fat pictures until I see results.
Rick is doing well.  He's enrolled in a pre-diabetes class (even though he's not diabetic).  He's already lost 12 lbs. in two weeks.  He's not doing the TSFL thing, but he is watching what he eats.  This is a good change for both of us.

Master's class exemplar! Please help out!

Hey!
Again, I don't know if anyone is still readin this, but I'll just put it out there. I'm taking grad classes to get my Master's degree and I need to come up with an example of a lesson I would do in my class using technology. If you could please help me out with some postings, I would very much appreciate it (and for some reason, I am having trouble posting on my own blog site. Anyway, here's the site. Enjoy!


http://classycommunity.blogspot.com/

BLOGGING!!!

So... since the emergence of my facebook account, I have not blogged at all. I'm glad to see that others are keeping the course. I'm currently taking a grad school course that is trying to revolutionize school teaching by incorporating technology. I figure blogging is a great way to increase social networking, creative writing, and professional discussion. Anyways... we'll see how things go. And I curious to see if I can keep two things up at once. See ya!

Happy Birthday, Haddi Jo!!!

Well, we made it! One year down. Whoot! I wanted to make sure that Haddi's first birthday was something awesome. We had spagetti, bubbles, balloons, bounce houses and bub-bub-bub-bub's (I still don't know what that is, but that's what Haddi says). I'm finding that my daughter is quite fearless. She was running about the bounce house with the big kids and getting launched every which way. She also figured out how to crawl out onto the slide on her own and go down head first. She just assumed someone would be there to catch her.

It was a great turn out! The Cooke babies (as Krista calls them) made their wild appearance. Brenan has a huge fan in Haddi. The Spokely's came with Aria beautifully dressed in her party gown. And Carla and Jo-jo galavanted around.



Haddi INSISTED on riding on the scooter train. She actually rode pretty good on her own.

The two one-year-olds having a "ball."

Mmmmm... birthday spagetti!

It's my party, I can be nude if I want to!

Haddy's photo shoot!

Alright, so I'm realizing I may just very well have one of the cutest children in all the world (spoken like a true parent, right?). But just look at her!

Carla asked if she could do a photo session with Haddy for some advertising. Rick and was very excited, so he coordinated all of her outfits, we grabbed some SUPER huge chai teas from Refiner's Roast and headed out.

I had no idea how much work it was for Mommy and Daddy, but it was great! We had a lot of fun and Haddy did such a great job! I was amazed that she didn't really fuss too much, even though she was getting pretty tired. A lot of pictures were taken, but these are the ones that Carla thought were the best. Yay!

Bible hero Christmas party!

Today was the last day of school before Christmas break and we were allowed to dress up as "Heroes of the Bible." They kids actually did a really great job (I'm so proud!). Here's some of what occurred:

This was one of my favorites. Douglas was Samson. He always really gets into his characters.

Sarah looking very sweet as Moses' mom. She kept trying to send the baby up the river to Savannah's desk. (Savannah was supposed to be Pharoah's daughter. You can't really see her tiara).

I was Deborah. I held court under "The Tree of Deborah," as you can see. I kind of like it. Maybe I'll keep the tree there, although I think Pastor Mike might start wondering were the it went.

Brian (missing his hat) as the Vizier of Egypt, Joseph, with his mulit-colored T-shirt. He's sporting a nice hot chocolate mustache. Mrs. Henrick treated us to hot chocolate and peppermint ice cream. She's so grand!

EAT SAMSON JERKY! (It'll put hair on your chest!)

The kids opening up presents from their "secret santas." I use the term Santa because we later watched Veggie Tales "Saint Nicholas" which explains where St. Nick came from and how we should give because God first gave to us. It's really good. Check it out.

Sarah parenting classes. Learn to keep your kids afloat.