A new approach...

So my blog is going to take a little turn...I am going to be using my blog more like a journal of taking my life back...than just sewing and projects. Although part of taking my life back will be hopefully getting back to sewing and projects...the main focus will be tracking not my weight loss...but how I am improving myself, 1 day at a time.

With my continual weight gain, it has been more difficult to walk. I noticed it has been increasingly worse since the beginning of school. Slowly but surely I am noticing getting out of breath more walking shorter distances...doing daily activities just in my home. I am not sleeping well at night...continually tossing and turning. My heart hates me.

I have to do something now.

So tonight, I am working on my grocery list...tomorrow...we start :) Wish me luck!

New Year...New Job

My husband started the new year out by starting a new job. He's still doing steel erecting, just with a new company. This past year has been a rough year with him being laid off so much. While sometimes I was glad to have him home more, I also enjoy having my schedule and like being able to do what I want to do without being questioned on a regular basis. My brother sent my husband an ad that he found in the paper about a company that was looking for work, so my husband applied. He went back and forth about the decision, but all of the negatives seemed to be outweighed by the positives. He did take a pay cut, but with the other benefits and the idea of him actually working regularly, we would be making out better.

His old boss did not take kindly to the news, they know that he is an asset to the company, so to lose him, hurts his business. There are not too many people like my husband anymore in the business...he is one that when he is at work...he's there to work. He doesn't like the extra nonsense that happens, he just wants to work. Young kids just see a good paying job, but don't want to work for it.

The company he started to work for is an Amish company. They have been in business for about 11 years. They have 4 crews of 5 working. The good thing about the building is that they will be adding insulated panels inside, so even if it rains-they have 2 months of work just on the inside to do. This excites me as this past year we were lucky for my husband to be working for a month before being laid off again. The added bonus of the company is-he's learning all about the Amish. My husband didn't have the privilege of having Amish neighbors growing up like I did. So this is a new experience for him. The great thing is...my husband comes home happy knowing he worked a full day, not out of town, and still gets a full day of work in. I am excited for him to feel good. Often times when he was just sitting at home with nothing to do, he would feel bad about himself and think he wasn't fulfilling his responsibility he promised my dad when he asked to marry me. He already managed to get a travel coffee mug out the deal...he was very excited :)

Christmas Pneumonia Anyone?

Over the weekend I had some chest congestion...so I took some over the counter cold medicine which seemed to help. Monday night we have 3 hours of dance for the girls, so I sit there watching and waiting. All of a sudden during hour 3, I started to get really, really, really, cold, even with my coat on. I thought, "oh boy." So I quickly got the girls home after their classes, handed them over to my husband and I went to bed under 3 blankets. I was still cold. I did have a low grade fever. Sometime during the night the fever broke. I woke up the next morning with the worst chest pain ever. I went to the bathroom and started coughing up blood. I never did that before and that freaked me out. I called my doctor and he said to either make an appt. with them (it's an hour away close to where I grew up) or go to urgent care. I decided since there was an urgent care place close by, I would go there. My oxygen level was low, and my white blood count was high. My chest x-ray showed an "area of concern" so the doctor is treating me with clinical pneumonia. She said that if I didn't hear from the radiologist today, then they agreed with the diagnosis. She said often times it is tricky to tell the difference between the 2 just with her looking at it. I am on an antibiotic and an inflammatory med. I was amazed when I woke up how much better I felt. I of course pushed too hard today and of course now feel just plain awful.

Just what I need with a week til Christmas!! Oh my life!

Christmas Cookies

My sister, mom, and I got together yesterday to bake lots of Christmas cookies. We made peanut butter blossoms, chocolate chip, m&m, some jello cookies, oatmeal raisin, honey chocolate bits, snickerdoodles, sugar cookies, and rolled out sugar cookies. The kids had fun decorating the rolled out sugar cookies. Dad even had to get in the action to supervise the sprinkle and sugar placement! It was a fun day...the 3 younger cousins had fun playing together. Here are a couple of pics...they aren't the best as they are from my cell phone...

Travis my nephew decorating!

                                                              Mmmm...M&M Cookies

                                  Sprinkles much? LOL! They kids were having a good time!!

Pappy helping too!

Foster Parent Christmas Party

Every year the Foster Parent Association has a Christmas party...this year they had it a local country club. The asked everyone to dress up...which the girl's loved-Shawn-not so much :) Mrs. Claus read a Christmas Story...then the kids sang some Christmas carols. Santa came out and each family got to get a nice family picture with him in front of the huge Christmas tree. They printed the picture out right there and gave us a frame to go with. Such a neat memory. Aleah was so excited...she was screaming to "let's go-Santa's here". Since a professional took the pic with Santa-I won't post that picture-but here is a picture I took of the kids...

Christmas Tree

We went and picked out our Christmas Tree Saturday...it didn't take long to find "the perfect tree" however, it did take a long time to get a decent picture with the kids in front of the tree :)

Baby Shower

My husband's niece is having a baby in January, so we had the shower on Sunday. It was a fun time. They had it in a Mexican restaurant...the food was amazing and I almost had to be rolled out of the restaurant I ate so much. We had a delicious tortilla soup that I wish my family would eat, but I don't know if they would or not. Then we each got chicken or beef fajitas....it was soooo good!!! The cake was amazing as well...mmmmm....

I decided to make a baby quilt for her...(sorry...not the best pictures-taken with my cell phone).