My first week – recap

Well, I made it through my first week back to work. It was nice going back, it’s nice being around adults again, although I miss my kids terribly during the day. I knew I’d miss them but it’s harder than I remember it used to be. Kenna is doing so well being at home (school starts in a week for her) and has been doing the chores on her list. Jay is doing pretty good; he did cry one day this week and said he didn’t want to go to “school” aka daycare. But he bounced right back.

I feel like I’m accomplishing something. Yes I cleaned house and cooked while at home but I never felt like I “contributed” to my family. I know that sounds strange. But it all comes down to money, I guess. I kept the house running with cooking, cleaning, laundry, etc. but that didn’t add any zeros to the bank account. Now I do that and feel like I’m doing something for them that I couldn’t do before. I feel there’s a little more “equality” with Sean and myself. Now, I’ll never make as much as he does, but that fact that we’re both adding money to the account is nice.

So, onto what I did this week. I embarrassed myself and still do daily. Lemme explain.  I set up the voicemail system for new employees or those that have moved offices/jobs/departments. All this entails is clearing out old voicemail messages, changing their phone display and helping set up new voicemail. Easy, right? Well, when I was doing my own on Monday I set up a system-wide “important announcement” that everyone in the district will hear (at least once). It’s my outgoing message. I mean…everyone, including the superintendent and office staff. UGH, we all had a good laugh and no one really seemed to mind but it was embarrassing nonetheless. Mainly I just learned my computer (it’s a Mac and I’m a windows gal at home), started setting up aforementioned voicemail, went to each school in the district a few times, had new employee training and helped my boss with that. At the end of the week the real “work” started and I had to put in every student from 7-12th grade into the computer. It took me a day and a half, which I thought was excessive but my boss and the other guy in the office (who I guess is my boss too but not my direct supervisor?) were thrilled with how quickly I did it. So, yeah me!

There’s a lady in the main central office who was having a few issues and I helped her through them. She told me that I was the right person for my position and she thanked me profusely. She made me cry. In a happy, “OMG, I’m doing something right” way. It just meant so much to me that she took the time out of her crazy schedule to let me know how much I was appreciated and that I was doing good. It felt nice.

I have one more week of getting used to before school starts and it gets a little crazy. I’ll have to re-figure my schedule once I gotta get Kenna up and deal with another person in our one bathroom. And my knee is feeling better so I’m headed back to the gym this week too. Hopefully I won’t lose my mind as I’m trying to come up with a schedule that works for us while trying to learn my new job.

On the diet front, I apparently needed to go to work to jump-start my weight loss. I’ve been losing about 1lb a week for a while now. I’m not complaining because YEAH! a pound a week is good. But this week I lost 3lbs. Not sure why really. I’m not eating an afternoon snack because I’m at work and I haven’t been working out because of the knee. I have been walking at work as much as I can instead of driving to the nearest school. But even then I’m just sitting at a desk for the most part. But, I’m not going to complain! I’m now down 34lbs since early April. Not too bad, I’m right on track to hitting my goal in March/April of next year. I can fit into 14s comfortably and some 12s, depending on the brand. Heck, even last month when getting work clothes I was in a 16 and squeezing into a 14. Not too shabby!

So there’s my update. I don’t know much at work still so I feel a little helpless since I can’t help people like I want but I’m apparently doing a good job. I love the people I work with; they’re super nice, easy to talk with and feel comfortable with and are jokesters. I’m ready to learn more and make them proud.

So many things going on

The past month has been kinda crazy. I guess we always seem to be running around like insane people but the past bit has been crazier than normal. We went to visit family in KC the first of the month. We were there a week and had a great time. The past few years we haven’t seen much of that side of the family because we (at the time) lived 13 hours away and were broke as hell. Now we’re closer and not so poor. We had an amazing time and saw all kinds of KC attractions. On the rare day (1 day out of 7) that we didn’t do anything we stayed home, did laundry and swam in the pool. It was such a great time that it was difficult to leave this time.

Since being hom, I’ve had a couple meetings about my new job, fingerprinting done and a doc appt. Now we’ve got a wedding next week and a short trip to visit Nana and Grandpa (finally!). So, even though summer is winding down, our travels and busy-ness isn’t.

I start work on the 13th and I’m really looking forward to working again. After seeing my boss a couple times, she seems just as excited and I think we’ll get along well. I just hope I don’t let her or my co-workers down. I’m working in technology yet I have no formal training. I’m one of those people who just open a program and play until I figure it out and my boss knows that and she doesn’t seem worried but I am a little. Guess we’ll find out next month.

I also had to buy some new clothes for work. I haven’t worked in so long and even when I did my past employer let us wear jeans and t-shirts every day since we never saw customers so I have no “work clothes stash”. And even if I did, they wouldn’t fit. It’s exciting to buy new clothes and I don’t mind trying on things like I used to when I was so big but it’s also expensive and frustrating at times. Since I’m still losing weight I don’t want to spend a fortune on clothes now when I will not be able to wear them in a few months and have to buy more. So instead of buying 16’s (instead of the 22’s I used to wear! YEAH ME!) I’m squeezing into 14s because I know that in a month-ish they will fit better. But at the time being the 14s are snug and aren’t as flattering as I’d like. Guess you can call it motivation. LOL

Since we’re on weight loss topic, let’s update y’all. I started at *cough* 222lbs *cough*. I’ve hit a couple smaller, more short-term goals and am now at 28lbs gone. I notice myself wearing tank tops and shorts again. I also feel better about myself already, so I cannot wait till I get even smaller. I had my first non-family member asking me if I’ve lost weight and telling me I look good. It felt wonderful that someone who doesn’t “have” to say I look like I’m losing weight tell me so. I told her that I still had 50-ish lbs to go and she was amazed that I had that much left to lose. I just laughed and told her that I hide it well. According to the BMI charts, I’m still “obese” and I’m still fat, no doubt about that. But I’m almost at the point where I’m unable to shop in the big girl stores and can shop at regular stores again! Oh, it’s the little things people. I saw on Pinterest a neat way to visualize the weight and I’m going to do it when I have more than 5 minutes. It’s two jars; one labeled “left to lose” and the other “pounds lost”. You put a pebble or decorative rock for each pound in the “left to lose” jar and each time you lose a pound you put it in the “pounds lost” jar. I’m totally a visualization and tactile person and this would be perfect for me to see the pounds coming off. I had to cut back on working out, so my weight loss has slowed down a little but I’m still losing a smidge weekly. I do miss working out more though. I was 5-6 days a week for over an hour each day (between cardio and weights). Now I’m about 3-4 days and had to cut back to 30 mins of cardio. I’ve been doing a sit-up app I found for my phone and I love it. I’m pretty impressed with myself on those, however the push-ups…I can’t even do one of those damn things. Maybe in time I can.

I’ll leave you with a couple pics of our KC trip.

Holy crap, does this blog still work?

I mean, it’s only been a year and a half since I wrote anything. Guess that means I don’t have much of a life or a reader base anymore.

Let’s see, in the past 18 months what all has happened;
1. Stuff with kids
2. Stuff with family
3. Stuff with life

That pretty much sums that up. My kids are huge and I continuously tell my daughter to stop growing. The boy got rid of the paci and potty trained all in 6 months. I’m still a SAHM but hopefully not for too much longer. I have a job interview this week and I’d really like this job, mainly to feel like I contribute to the family and so I’m around adults again. Cross your fingers for me.

I’ve started on my weight loss journey again. Yeah, yeah, yeah, again. I KNOW! I tried to do the surgical route but my insurance decided to be assholes, so now I’m doing it the “old fashioned” way. I’ve been on the journey since early-April and I’m down 23lbs. I’m down 3 sizes and already feel better about myself. I work out 6 days a week and actually miss it if I don’t go to the gym. Which is completely 100% strange for me. My sis also now got me hooked on Zumba. I wasn’t sure I’d like it, but we went together at my gym while she was visiting and I’ve been back since (2x a week). I LOVE it. I love dancing (hello, have you read my blog?) and I feel so good/sweaty/accomplished when that hour is done. If I keep up this whole “blogging” thing that I suck at, I’m sure this will turn into a weight loss blog (yeah, another).

Family is awesome. I’ve never been happier and I love where I/we are right now. We did have a loss though. In January we had to put down our baby, Hopie, the shih-tzu. She helped me get through Avery’s (our first baby) death. Putting her down due to age and illness brought back that pain and it hurt bad. I hadn’t cried like that in a long time. We had gotten a Boston Terrier the summer before, so luckily we have her to love on, but we still miss our Hopie.

Health, eh. I’m healthier than I have been, I think. But the ankles still suck. I fell on Christmas Eve and broke a bone in my ankle and got another 3rd degree sprain. The good thing, the ER was surprisingly slow on Christmas Eve and so my wait time was nil. Saw an orthopod and was in a boot. All is well now. My RSD leg still hurts. Guess it always will. Temperature changes, socks, air, touching still suck too.

Hmpf, I guess that’s all. The way I write I may not be back until January 2014 and by then I’ll weigh 140lbs. Ha!

I need toddler sized safety gear

I swear, this boy is gonna be the death of me. Sure, Kenna fell, tripped and got bumps and bruises but NEVER did she need to be taken to the ER or make me worry if she’s got a concussion.

First off on Halloween, we were trick-or-treating and having a grand old time. Sean was letting Jay run around and Jay tripped. He cried, even when Sean picked him up which is a little unusual. But the fall didn’t look that bad, he did have his hand stuck inside his costume so he couldn’t break his fall. But after a few minutes he stopped crying and went to the next house.

We get home and I get Jay into his PJs and notice something on his tooth. I figured it was a hair or something. NOPE…Jaylon broke his tooth! His front top tooth, all the way in half. I have no clue how it was still attached. So, we loaded up and went to the ER. They did nothing, not even contact the on call dentist. They just referred us to a local pediatric dentist and sent us on our merry way.

As soon as they opened on Monday morning I called and they had us come in, saying we may have to wait for a bit. Luckily we didn’t have to, they got us in in about 10 minutes! They did a quick x-ray and the dentist came in and took a look. Then looked at the xray again, then took another look. Decided that his teeth looked great but that one was broken all the way through horizontally AND broken vertically in the back, so it had to come out. He thought about sedating him if he needed more work done but since this was his only problem decided to just numb him up and pull it.

See, here’s the deal, I don’t do teeth. Let me just say that again…I DON’T DO TEETH! When I was younger my mom pulled a bottom tooth that was NOT supposed to come out yet, thinking it was the super wiggly one. I trace my tooth-aversion to that day, since I was like 6-7 and totally remember everything she said/did!  UGH…

I explained to the doc that I just can’t handle teeth but I’d stay in there if I could. He laughed and said that was fine and walked me through what needed to be done. As soon as the first shot happened and Jay screamed like I’ve never heard him scream and the blood started…I about hurled. The doc looked at me (I’m now white as a sheet, nauseated and tearing up) and laughed and said “why don’t you just wait out there, I don’t want to fix one of your teeth after you pass out”. Then said the nicest thing…”no one will think you’re a bad mom if you leave him with us. He’s in good hands, I will treat him like he’s my son.” UGH, made me cry more.

5 minutes later Jay came out bloodied all to hell. He was laughing and playing with the nurses until he saw me, then he cried! LOL…little shit would not leave the gauze in, so he bled everywhere.

Turns out the tooth was cracked all the way up inside his gums to his nerve. I’m glad the doc decided it needed to be pulled.

Fast forward to today. I leave to go get dinner because I never cook on Saturdays, don’t ask, just something that we always do.  So, Kenna and I leave to get the food. When we get home Jay is pissy, which is normal for him because he hasn’t eaten yet and OMG, it’s already 5:30, where is my dinner woman? He’s pretty fussy through all of dinner time. I see a new bruise on his forehead and Sean tells me he fell outside. Nothing new there. I swear the boy can’t walk 5 steps without tripping over himself. I didn’t really freak out until I was cleaning him up and notice the marble sized bump on his head. UGH…so I pick him up and love on him a little. I get his PJs on and milk and we cuddle. He’s acting fine but now I’ll worry all night that he’s got a concussion! LOL

I’m not sure if I’m just overly paranoid because he’s my boy and he really wasn’t even supposed to be here, or maybe I know that while all children are miracles, he truly is one…I dunno but I freak every time the kid hurts himself, which is usually every 30 minutes or so. Sean is annoyed by it, I’m sure he thinks I’m making Jay a wus and maybe I am…but SERIOUSLY…a head injury! LOL I know, I know, I am being way too protective, hell even with Kenna I’m different (see: Are you bleeding? No. Then you’re fine.)

Anyway, I will need every sort of insurance you can get on someone. I have a feeling by the time Jay is grown and we’re not responsible for medical bills any more and he will start to pay his own, we’ll have paid enough to actually OWN the hospital!

Here’s Jay now, btw. It’s the best pic I can get of him since it’s impossible to get him to stop and let me take a pic.

A fortnight

Wow, can you believe it’s not a scrapbook related post? LOL

Anyway, I’ve been so consumed with the move lately that I haven’t had much time to blog. Good news is that the house is on the market and the sign is in the front. I really hope it rents before we move. That way I know there’s no “lag” time and the house isn’t empty for long after we’re gone. Plus then we’ll have the money coming in to cover our mortgage/rent. It sucks keeping the house “show ready” though. The house is clean it’s just that Jay is a little tornado. So, no matter how many times a day I clean up his toys it’s always messy. Hopefully the realtor will give me enough notice to run through and pick up toys before a showing (she’s supposed to).

We found our house in the new town. It’s a cute little house. It’s supposed to be bigger than ours now but it just doesn’t seem like it. I’m sure it has to do with the layout of the house and it doesn’t have the great room we do here but it’ll do nicely for us. I will miss our living room here, our fireplace (yeah, even though we haven’t used it) and just the WOW factor you get when you walk into our house now. But the new place is quite cozy. The laundry room is massive and will not only be the laundry room but also our office and homework room too (yes, it’s HUGE).  Another bummer is our room is close to the kids, we don’t have that split floorplan so we’re not on the other side of the house. The reason this kinda sucks is obvious; I’ll have to be quiet now! HA! (Yeah yeah…my parents read the blog but I’m pretty sure they know we have sex)  I’m looking forward to the move, moving is a great way to start fresh. Get rid of all the old crap around the house, old clothes that don’t fit (did I say HELLO 14’s!) and purge it all. I hate packing but love throwing away a bunch of bullshit stuff we’ve kept for a few years. Kenna’s totally excited because she gets a new big bed. She’s been sleeping on the same mattress since we got her a big girl bed so she really needed it, and it just happened that Ma and Chris got a new bed so they have their old queen set. Jaylon just liked running through the new house when it was empty and screaming in every room because of the echo, he’s still clueless as to what’s going to happen in 2 weeks.

All the utilities have been scheduled for turn on or off, moving truck is reserved and help is coming. 2 more weeks!

Lookie who’s blogging!

Excuses, excuses, I know. But I seriously have had lots of stuff going on the past few weeks. First thing is the kids and I have been on a nice little vacay visiting my family in the TX panhandle and in OK. It’s nice, I don’t get to see everyone too often because we’re just too far away. So this trip we’re totally making it count. We’ll be gone for 14 days total and have plenty of time to visit all the people we can. Sure the driving sucks, and Jay’s sleeping has been outta whack but I really don’t care.

I’m at my Sis’ house now and totally enjoying our time together and all the kids are having a blast. See, we had babies like stair steps…the ages we have right now are 1, 5, 6, 8 and 15.  We’ve gone swimming and bowling, they’ve made “dirt cups”, they’ve played their Nintendo DS games and I’m sure there’s been a few fights. But it really is nice that they’re all so close in age, they entertain each other.  Now, the 15 year old entertains me. He’s a hoot. Yes, he’s a teenager and can be an ass sometimes but he’s honestly a good kid. We have this ritual where we watch stupid scary movies and either laugh or make fun of them together.  What 15 year old boy wants to hang out with his Aunt and Mom? Yeah…great kid.

AND with all this traveling I’ve been chatting with Sean a lot lately.  See, he’s got lots going too and it’s going to change our lives in the next few months. He got a new job in a wonderful town in East TX. He had nothing but great things to say about it when he went there for the interview and I can’t wait to see it for myself.  It’s a great move for him and we’re really excited to see what it’ll bring for our family.  Kenna is happy about new friends, I’m happy because the school’s dress code is almost the same as her current one. Jay is too young to care but I’m sure he’s happy too! HA! We’ll be moving early October, great time honestly…not too hot but not too cold and rainy. I’ve only driven through that part of Texas once and it was beautiful, I cannot wait to call it home for a long while! Oooh and another awesome part, we’ll finally be closer to family again! I’ll be about 4.5 hrs from my Sissy and Daddio and about 7 hrs from my Ma. I’m totally stoked.

See, we’ve been crazy busy and running around all over Texas and Oklahoma AND my hubby’s been busy changing jobs. I’ll post some pics of our little vacay soon. Wish us luck with the insane-ness!

Overheard at the Pate casa

Having 2 kids, a dog and a husband, you overhear a lot of strange things in our house. It’s funny really, somethings I never thought I’d say come flying from my mouth pretty much every day.

• Be nice to your wee-hee
• Stop throwing shoes at your brother
• You stink, time to clean your tushie-wushie
• Do NOT eat that
• Oh, God, please tell me that’s dirt
• I smell shit, honey, sniff his tush
• Dude, the blob that the spoon made looks exactly like Shakespeare

I’ve added a pic of Shakespeare. OH and no worries, I’ve washed the stove since taking this pic! HA!

Yeah, you just never know what you’re going to hear here!

What’s new pussycat…whoa, whoa, whoa…

Oh yeah sing it with me…

Ok, so not really.  I just figured I haven’t blogged in a while, may as well do it tonight.

Let’s see, I finished the CK Summer Camp and had a blast. I did 5 pages, which is pretty good for me, had lots of fun and got some major positive feedback from some editors at CK! 🙂 Maybe one day they’ll publish me. Well, probably not, but let’s just go with it!

Jay is officially walking and trying to run already. From the moment he’s up he walks all around the living room (we have the other parts of the house gated off). He’s cracking me up, I forgot how funny new walkers look.

Kenna is good. I think she’s enjoying not being on the go all the time with softball and dance and everything. She misses softball more than dance, so I doubt we’ll go back into the dance studio with her. I’m ok with that, I think she wanted to dance more for me and the makeup than anything. She has softball tryouts for a select team next week.

Sean’s been busy. He’s got something coming up next week but I won’t talk about it here yet. For privacy reasons.

I’ve been thoroughly enjoying ballet each week. It’s like my body, although fatter, remembers what to do. I did get a wee-bit injured last week but I’m doing fine now. I’ll keep it up just be very careful with it.  The win biz is just about kaput. I have no leads, no tastings, no interest from it. I’m bummed because I was really enjoying it. I think August will be the end of it for me. I’m down more weight but it’s a teeny bit. I thought dancing again would help shake things up but not so much. I also think my Wii may not weigh correctly, since this week it said I gained .4lbs but then I held a gallon of milk and it said I lost 3lbs…sooooo I’m thinking…no! I’ll just base my weight loss on my clothes and how they are fitting.  My 16s fit well and my 18s are now falling off. I officially showed someone at the dollar store my panties the other day. Luckily it was the dollar store, I’m sure they’re used to white trash, so it wasn’t any big deal. I did almost fall though, they seriously fell that far down! Thankfully I had on clean and pretty panties! I feel better just wish it’d hurry and come off, I’m ready to be sexy again.

Hopie…well, she just needs a bath and go to the beauty shop. I need to get her rabies up to date so I can’t take her for 2wks after her shot…humpf.

I guess that’s all.

What can I rub?

I had a dream about a week ago and it’s stuck with me and got me to thinking.  In my dream I “found” a genie, a hot one too, not like Robin Williams in “Aladdin”. I got the usual 3 wishes from the hot genie. Those wishes were really easy and even now that I’m awake and coherent I would stick by my choices.

My first wish was for $50mil. I even said I wanted the paperwork needed to file taxes on my $50mil…see how honest I am even in dreams?! I figured after taxes were paid that would still leave me with about half of the original wish. I could so use $25 million!

The second wish was a little harder. I wanted to make sure all my family and friends were taken care of, so I wished that all of their debt was gone…wiped clean and their credit scores were GREAT. This would include mortgages paid off, credit card debt, student loans, cars paid for in full, everything. But see, I’d still have my cool $25m so I’d go to every family member and give them some too. I’d need to find out how much I could gift them without THEM having to pay taxes but I had it all figured in my dream! LOL

And the third was pretty damn selfish (well, I know the first was too). I wished to be 135lbs and never be able to go over 145lbs again.  This way I could eat what I wanted but still only be as high as 145lbs.  I was going to wish for a tummy tuck and boob job but I figured that would be overkill since I did have my $25 million to play with now that all my debt was paid off, so I could at least pay for my plastic surgery.

You should sense a theme in my wishes…money. Sean and I have been really re-thinking our finances lately. It’s so frustrating because he makes really pretty good money and I bring home a little from disability each month.  But for some reason we’re struggling more now than ever. I’m sure it has to do with having a 2nd child to feed/clothe/diaper but that’s not all. We’re really bad about spending what we make and living paycheck to paycheck because of it.  I’m also super spoiled; when I see something I want, I usually get it. So to fix all this we’re changing the way we do things around here.  Starting with this next paycheck we’re paying all bills with our debit cards (which is what we always do anyway) but then we’re taking them out of our wallets and putting them up.  Credit cards have already been cut up too.  We will have an “allowance” each week in cash.  Once that cash is gone, it’s gone. No grabbing the ATM card and getting more, no using the debit card for this and that…we’re done.  My “allowance” each week is a little more than Sean’s but that’s only because I go grocery shopping with mine, so after spending over $150/2wks I’ll have less play money than Sean does.  Also, extras are going bye-bye.  Including my Wine Biz…if I don’t get at least 2 tastings this month that make over $300 then I’m done as of August 1st. I’m kind of bummed about that but I’ve spent more money than I made and it’s not worth it right now.  I think it’s the area we live in but wine is not a “priority” here and if it is then those people can just go to the grocery store and buy a $10 bottle and get it right then than spend $20 and wait 7-10 days.  I can’t blame them, even though this is the best wine I’ve had, but some days I feel the same way about running to the store.

I do have a scrapbook retreat planned and I’m using my  weekly allowance to pay that off and save to go in October. I figure if I cut everything else out, I freakin’ deserve it! Plus I never get to spend time with my sis, just the two of us doing something we totally enjoy, so this will be something special for us. Annnd, if you remember I was going to upgrade my website and make it all “me”.  Well, that was gonna cost me about $200 plus what I’d have to spend at WP to upgrade.  That ain’t gonna happen. I’ll just deal with the templates that WP has, plus it’s not like I make money from this site so it doesn’t need to look professional.

There’s always a possibility of us moving because of Sean’s job and he’s been applying to places all over this state and Oklahoma.  It’d be so much better if we’d have more than our usual cushion in case we need to move.  I want the kids to have a great Christmas. I want Kenna to have new school clothes this year, she needs uniform shorts and pants since she’s gotten taller and a wee-bit bigger.  Jaylon is growing like a weed so he always needs new clothes. I’m tired of not being able to provide for my family and having to figure out if we can afford clothes this week or wait until next week.  Hopefully after even just a month of this we’ll have doubled our “cushion” and just keep adding to it.

All this budgeting sucks but I know how much better it’ll be. But in the meantime, where’s a bottle I can rub?

* edited to add: For my family members reading this, don’t worry! We’re ok financially and can pay all the bills and feed everyone we just don’t have any extra income that we’re used to and don’t have the cash to play with anymore. LOL

I’m walkin

Well, he’s not really walking just yet.  He’s close and he’s loving walking behind a toy that Aunt Shell got him for Christmas. And so what if I was bored and feeling “crafty” the other night, this is what happens when I do (turn on your speakers, yo!):

I’M WALKIN’

And again, because WP is mean and won’t let us upload a video without paying an arm and a leg, you gotta go to Flickr and watch it there. Enjoy, watch it a few times, laugh because I do when I watch…I’m not sure if it’s the fact that he’s so proud of himself or it’s the music I chose but it just makes me giggle!