2 Years Later, She Blogs Again...

From 2012 to 2014... What a break from blogging that was!

 Social Media gets the best of us. Plus busy lives and mind numbing games like Candy Crush and Bubble Witch :)

It is time to get back to it. I want to leave behind my electronic diary for my kids to read one day.

What has happened in 2 years? I am STILL sober. There have been deaths, births, fights, make-ups, marriages, visitors, visits, vacations, laughter, tears, old school years, new school years, music, concerts, events, plays, beaches, playgrounds, weight loss, weight gain, aging, changes good and bad. new friends, old friends, new ride, Cub Scouts, volunteering, God moments, conversations, warm & fuzzies, new recipes, new shows, skating, skiing, bike riding, hiking, special moments worth blogging about.

 It's good to be back!

New School Year 2012

 I can not believe ALL 3 of my babies are in school now!! I was so worried about the twins' transition from being home all day to going to all day kindergarten, but they are doing great! They really like it. They are each in a different class but the classrooms are right next to eachother.

 

 

 For safety reasons, the school had all the kindergarteners where color coded shirts to match their classrooms for the first week of school. I loved this! Really put my nerves at ease.

 

Look at those happy faces!

 

 

 

Zach returned to school and is in the 8th grade this year. What a nice surprise it was to find our dear friend Ashtyn has moved to our neighborhood and is in one of Zach's classes. These kids grew up together!

 

 

 

 

Everything has fallen into place. I accepted a new job and started 2 weeks after the first day of school. So for 2 weeks I got to experience some alone time. I REALLY enjoyed it. Did a lot of shopping though. I had to be prepared for the new job of course! I am able to work 10 - 6. Not the greatest hours, but I wanted this shift so I can get the twins ready and off to the bus stop every morning. I can make it home close to 7 pm and cook dinner immediately. Today I had dinner cooking in the crock pot all day. I think I will do lots of crock pot meals!

 

It has been 5 months since I have blogged. A lot has happened, and I will try to cover most of the subjects little by little coming up.

 

Much love to all!

Catching Up...

 Time to play catch up. I need to blog more! I love blogging, and sharing is free therapy. I told one of my newest and dearest friends all about blogging so I need to represent :)

We have been pretty busy around here. We had a wonderful Easter. But around 2:30 Scott had to leave on a business trip. He has gone on a couple trips now to train the new people to do our jobs. Having my hubby leave on Easter was upsetting for me, and we really missed him while he was gone. My manager worked with me and let me alter my schedule so I was able to get some rest while alone with the kids, so that was nice.
Scott has to leave again next week. He will be gone for Zach's birthday and the twins' registration to kindergarten. We will make the best out of everything.

 Pictured above was a free soccer class at the nZone (where we attend church). They were having a health fair and had a lot of free demos. It was such a great day! Because of the health fair held on a Sunday afternoon, I talked Scott into attending church with us so we could just go to the health fair after and let the kids play soccer. Scott said he enjoyed the sermon! Zach had a great time at 94.7's booth hoola hooping and trying to win some prizes. Pictures are on their site located here.   I entered a lot of drawings and actually won something! I received a call later that my name was drawn. I won a bag full of Avon bath stuff, nail polish, a candle, decorative soaps and a gift card to Red Robin which I am using for Zach's birthday!

Speaking of gift cards, I still had a gift certificate to a nail salon from Scott for Christmas. It was meant for me for a pedicure and manicure - some alone time. I decided I would take Faith.

The chairs were a bit too big, but they added pillows and Faith still felt pampered. She was able to reach the water and they gave her a real pedicure just like me. She liked it, altho she did say it took a long time. Haha!

Funny thing - Scott tried to buy Faith some socks but he ended up buying MY size. I love my new "little girl" socks! I have owls, pandas, hearts, polka dots... LOL!

My parents are home from Texas. I haven't seen them yet but will see them real soon. I was talking with the kids about maybe camping in their yard in a couple of weeks.We shall see :)

Low Carb Pizza

Doesn't this look delish? I am doing the low Carb thing again. I was very successful years ago and since my eating became so out of control recently, I decided to make a change. This time, instead of just sticking with meat and veggies, I have been trying new things! Making up things on my own and trying new recipes. I must get trim for job hunting! I have lost 10 lbs since I started. Once I stop working 50-60 hrs a week like I have been, I will have time for a good exercise routine. Off to eat my breadless, sauceless pizza! Blog more soon.

Wordless Wednesday

Tackle it Tuesday

I did this tackle a week ago just in time for Spring. I promised Scott that since I love to light fires in the fireplace, I will clean it out every Spring. Each year it gets a little worse! This year, I had black in my fingernails for 3 days after. (I swear I washed and washed my hands)

AFTER

Still looks dirty, but at least you can see the lining of the bricks. And hey, it IS a fireplace after all!!!

Although we have promised not to spend any extra $$ due to our job situation, I did get Scott to agree to me buying candles for the fireplace candelabra. I buy them at the Dollar Tree and spend a whole $9 every two years. :-)

All good things must come to an end....

See that little thumb tack looking pin on top of my work badge? That is my 5 year pin I received for 5 years of service to the Red Cross. After 7 years, I received the news that the company is outsourcing many of their IT departments including mine. Sadly, this also includes the department my husband is in. Yes, we are both left to look for new employment at the same time. This happened before around 8 years ago. Back then the job market was a lot better and we didn't have Brandon and Faith. We do have our jobs until June so we have a little bit of time. I have a feeling time will fly by real fast. It always does! We have both started looking. We can't wait until the last minute. Scary thing is, altho we have started applying for jobs, we are not receiving a lot of calls. (like one call to every 12 jobs applied!) I am going to try not to let that freak me out.

 I have had some health issues and most likely need back surgery. Part of me thinks I should demand the surgery right away while I have insurance, but I am afraid to have surgery! So I am trying all the less invasive treatments such as cervical epidural injections. I have had 2 already, and the pain is not gone. But if I have surgery, I will use the week of pto i have and won't have that as cash when my end date comes. : /

We have all kinds of potential plans for the future. Before school care for Brandon and Faith. Selling our house, renting our house, renting an apartment, moving in with in-laws.... who knows!!
While going through this very stressful time, it seems that many other things will happen that just makes every day a bad day. The cable box broke, the kids moonbounce broke, many neighborhood kids continue to ask for snacks, drinks and invite themselves over for dinner when I am scared of how I am going to feed this family of 5. I am still staying sober and it is especially hard right now. I want to drink so very bad!!! Some days I am so depressed and I just KNOW that a few beers would cheer me up. But I also know the "cheer" would be temporary and a "few" beers would be 12. If I were drinking my husband and I would have terrible fights. It wouldn't be fair to him to have to deal with a drunk wife on top of worrying about how he is going to provide for his family!!
We do still fight though. With both of us losing our jobs, it is almost unavoidable. I don't want to fight. I am trying not to.

Now my husband is going away to help train the new company. Twice. On Easter even.
It is going to be so hard to take care of the kids, work at night and sleep.. when?? I don't know. I won't have anyone to relieve me to sleep. It will be hard.
And NOW is the time that our honor roll son is failing. What happened? I blame myself. I haven't been on him. Haven't been following up with his school work. He is grounded until Spring Break. So I will be able to count on him for help while hubby is away I guess :) I just made him complete a project that is super overdue. He might still get a 0, but I want his teacher to know we mean business and he WILL improve.

Times are a little rough right now, but God has a plan. I am so excited to see it! I am excited to meet my new co-workers. I am excited to go back to being a normal day shifter who sleeps in bed at night with my husband!I am excited for my husband and I to "miss" each other again. We have been working from home together the past 4 years. I am seriously looking forward to those welcome home kisses! Sometimes life has to be a little uncomfortable. But it always gets better! After all, we are to be "reasonably" happy in this life.

I Adore This Man

I have been having a bad couple of weeks. I have been meaning to blog about some things to share - and get them off of my chest. But honestly, I have been sitting at home wallowing in self pity. Last night, just prior to leaving for Celebrate Recovery, I receive a text message from one of my greatest friends, Sarah, and it is a picture of a stage with a glorious cross in the back ground. "Guess where I am?" Then I remembered - last night Kirk Cameron was in Roanoke, Va doing his 'Love Worth fighting For' marriage event and my friends Sarah and Steve were there. I absolutely LOVE Kirk Cameron. LOVE HIM!!!!! I wanted to go to this event so so bad. But my husband wouldn't go with me for numerous reasons. So what, I would have gone alone. But, it was so far away and I would have had to either stay in a hotel or drive home 4 hrs late at night. My friend Sarah's hubby bought them tickets to go as a Christmas present! She told me on New Years Eve. Boy oh boy was I jealous!! Then when I received that text I was a little jealous again. Then when she sent me this picture of Kirk - and how darn close she was to the stage, was I jealous?? No! Actually I was so excited she sent me this picture! A real live picture of the man I adore is now in my phone. She made me smile and all giddy with excitement. I was excited for my friends to be there. I thought about them all evening and wondered how much fun they were having!!! I sure wish I could have gone, but I am so glad I had a friend there to send me this snap shot and to tell me alllllll about it! (which she better do this weekend :))

Guess what I did this morning?

I am going to get rid of these extra lbs!
Working out with a friend totally rocks!

Trying to find verses that will be good for me to help take the focus off of food. This one tells me that I shouldn't be feeling hungry if my focus is on Jesus! That's not really the meaning, but for the purpose of my weight loss, it is today :)

"And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst" (John 6:35).

New Friendships ~ Bibly Study Group

I absolutely love my Bible study group!! I found them on Meetup.com. If you are in the area and are interested in joining, just look up Manassas Moms Bible Study and Fellowship Group.
I found them at the very start one year ago. I never really used meetup.com but was somehow on a mailing list and received an email from the leader stating she wanted to start this group. It sounded interesting and I had been looking for a group that I could bring my kids to. This was no accident. God brought us all together! The books and studies we have done have really spoke to me. I need this group in my life now while I am going through recovery. These ladies keep me grounded The kids all have a great time getting together to play! Many friendships have been made. We take turns hosting at our homes or we meet at public places. Last week we met at the park since it was so nice out. Can you believe these pictures are from a winter day in the state of Virginia??

Skating

We discovered that our local skating rink is having a pretty good deal on Tuesday mornings for kids. Cheap admission, free rentals, open play in the play area and game tokens! All for $5 a person. Can't beat it! However, I still pay a price - sleep. It's during my sleep time. So we went 2 weeks in a row. I slept on the couch afterwards and it all worked out. I may have been tired when going to the skating rink, but once there I had SO much fun!! I used to skate every weekend when I was 12. What fun it is to skate in the pretty disco lights and listen to loud music. Brandon and Faith had a great time! You can imagine, it is not very busy on a Tuesday morning.

They have these great little helpers for kids learning how to skate. They typically charge $5 an hour to rent them (robbery) but they can be used for free on Tuesday mornings.

Here is a glimpse of our skating experience:

Wordless Wednesday

Thank You Angel and Fam!

We received our Christmas in February package from Angel! I have their package sitting right here in my office. SEE?????? I always seem to send mine out second. I was so close this year tho, I think it can go out tomorrow ! The kids were so excited to get the big box on the door step. They tried on their clothes, stuffed their mouths with candy and played with the monkey and frog pictured above! (Faith named her monkey - polka dot stripes)

All 3 kids got a pair of ear buds! I was especially excited that Zach got a pair. Now he can stop using my good headphones when he is on the laptop. I wasn't sure what Brandon and Faith would do woth theirs, but they quickly showed me! They tried them on their Leapsters, my phone and my ipod.




Brandon loves his ear buds so much, he wanted to wear them even when they were not plugged into anything. The removeable rubber ear piece fell off and he about had an emotional break down thinking they wee broken. I quickly fixed it and he was happy again. He asked to wear them during dinner. Who would have thunk? Not me. I never even thought about buying those. Great idea Angel!






My Boys ♥



They were both thrilled to get a pair of basketball shorts! Zach was happy because he really wanted a new pair and I failed to buy him a pair for Christmas. Brandon was happy because he wants to wear or do anything his big brother does!

I should have waited and posted a picture of Scott and I wearing new shirts too! But I'm always behind the camera and Scott is always in his office. (our room)

He is super excited to go book shopping!

Something else I do have is this video:

Flowers from My Guy

The other day, Scott said he was going to run to the store for some milk. I immediately thought:

Oooh! A trip to the store! What do I want??

Then I told Scott that I felt like I wanted something, but can't have anything I really wanted. Can't have beer and can't have cupcakes. (or I choose not to) So I said, never mind! Guess there is nothing I can have from Giant!

Scott came home with tulips :)

They showed me he loves me, he cares about me, he is proud of me - and they had with them a lesson that there are other things in this world that can bring me happiness without damaging my body! I bet he didn't know all these messages came with a small bouquet of tulips.

The other night we found ourselves awake at 2 am having a serious conversation about myself and my recovery and all the things that are surfacing in my mind. How I can't believe I lived so dangerously for so long, how lucky I am to be alive and how lucky I am for Scott to have stayed by my side! He spoke so seriously and told me how happy he was that I chose to quit drinking. It was a good moment. One of those moments that you have to steal at 2 am because there is no other time to have a serious conversation with little kids in the house :)

Wordless Wednesday - it's everywhere

Love Those Personalities!!

Brandon and Faith have such different personalities - and they are both just darling to the core! Pictured here they are doing a "Wonder Twins Powers Activate" action which they learned from a Super Friends DVD they have. (That show ran from 1973 to 1986)

Brandon says and does so many funny things. I can't possible remember everything, but here are a few cute recent quotes.

• In Starbucks drive thru yesterday when the lady asked if I wanted anything else, Brandon shouted "a cheeseburger"!


• At Church Sunday morning, Brandon went up to my good friend Sarah and said "hello beautiful"!


• The other day, as I was sore from a recent work out, I said something like "I am walking upstairs like an old lady" and Brandon said: "You can say that again"!

Faith has a new fascination with dancing. A fascination that may cost us money as I think I need to enroll her in a dance class. She loves music! (especially "girl" music) She has a little plastic baton with a ribbon at the end and dances all around, swirling her ribbon like in the Olympics. She has rhythm too! She shakes her butt and has a cat walk. She sings to the songs. She has her own ballet type movements - we have no idea where she gets it? But I don't want it wasted. I must look into a class. She loves to play hard, get dirty, play ball, run fast - but she is also such a girly girly girl. So much into purple and pink, butterflies, flowers, hearts and sparkle! Princess dresses, tiaras and wands. She loves to wear jewelry. She has her own "fancy" bottle of Avon cologne and she sprays it on every day. Oh, she LOVES pegasus's and unicorns and believes them to be real. She likes the same ol movies I liked as a young girl. Pete's Dragon, The Last Unicorn, Annie, Mary Poppins....

Oh and she loves her daddy as much as I love my daddy. I am second to him :) I don't mind, because watching that love warms my heart ♥

Brandon and Faith made up a sweet little game. It is the cutest thing ever, It's called "waddle".

They change their voices like little squeaky cartoon mice and they say "WADDLE"! And they actually waddle to eachother, then hug and say "i love you waddle" and kiss eachother on the cheek. They like to play this game in public stores for some reason - and it makes me proud that they are so loving in public.

I can blog a big ol post about my young handsome Zach too, but I will save that for another day :)

Thrifty Shopping

My dad and I talked about shopping at local thrift stores today and I thought I would post pictures of my "treasures". My dad is in Texas and I guess their local thrift store or Goodwill I think it was - has 50% off Wednesdays. Well, my Salvation Army has 25% off Wednesdays. Not as good as 50%, but still good. I bought the 3 shirts pictured above for myself. I generally never even look in the adult section :)

My little Faith made out like a bandit. 4 pairs of jeans, 7 shirts, 3 nightgowns and a pair of silver blingy converse.

Blingy shoes- on a sad little Faith. Her friends were playing with older kids and not her. All the kids are older than Brandon and Faith. This happens sometimes.




Brandon got 4 shirts and a pair of converse.

Wearing his new converse hightops and a VT tshirt because Daddy went there :)

Poor Zach wasn't with me and I never find anything for him because he wears adult sizes now and nothing in the mens section looks cool enough.

I think the kids have enough clothes until spring and summer shopping time!

Valentine's Wordless Wednesday

Then

Now

Happy Valentine's Day!