Super Clean and Scaly Child

Caleb has to miss both swimming classes this week, so sad. On Saturday morning I noticed he had some sort of rash on his face. It was actually covering his entire upper body and has since moved all the way down to his feet. It was caused by some kind of viral infection and he's confined until Thursday at the earliest. However, because I was stuck at home with him yesterday and we seem to never be able to escape illness in our house, I decided to give their room a complete cleaning (he shares a room with Brettley). Their walls, baseboards, light fixture and furniture were all washed, windows cleaned, carpets steamed. We took out all of the baby stuff that needs to go into storage, organzied everything and rearranged the furniture. I also made them new curtains, as Ty had found some safety scissors and decided to give their old ones a bit of flair.

I've also cleaned and organized my linen closet, which I've been meaning to do pretty much since we moved in. Now we're tackling even more of the house today. It's nice to feel so productive. I've gone a week without any vertigo symptoms, which is really nice. Now I'm just trying to deal with a scaly child, getting my house in order and getting ready for B's first birthday, which is the 11th. Well, I think that's about all for now.

My Little Fish

Caleb started another swimming class yesterday. He's in the 4 and 5 Beginners class, because I didn't know if he was ready for Advanced/Enriched. Magrath organizes their pre-Swim Kids classes different so I didn't know the equivalent here of what he took in the summer. He is the only kid registered in his class and has a male instructor. I'm very happy about both of those things. Caleb LOVES attention and does a lot better with a male as his teacher.

I'm already looking at when he will take his next class, and hopefully we can get Ty in the pool somehow for a class as well. I'll be taking him to the pool once in a while over the next couple of months and hopefully he'll build enough confidence to go in Super 3s. Swimming is the only thing that Ty's timid about.

That's about it for today though, because I need to get ready to pick Caleb up from school. Have a good one!

Attitude of Gratitude Day

I know that I normally do this on a Thursday, but there's only 1 left this month and I'm thinking about it today, so I decided to just go for it.

I am grateful that I'm actually able to do housework today. I never thought I'd hear myself say that. After being super dizzy for over a week, I'm just so thankful to be able to contribute to a clean house again. I feel so much better in a clean home:)

I am grateful that the boys love their new chore charts that I made them. Each week day they are responsible for 2 chores. I was originally just going to start with Ty since he's with me all day, but Caleb got so excited about the idea that I made a second set. Their favorite chore is putting the clean silverware away. I love seeing them so excited about responsibility.

I am grateful that my TV died. It has been very nice having the boys focusing more on physical play and reality than wanting to watch movies all of the time. That being said, I'm also grateful that my dad is buying us a new TV for the times that I need Ty to be occupied for 30 mins. Either way, I'm good:)

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Vertigo...Again

I woke up this morning for the fifth morning in a row with dizziness. We took a day without pay (ouch!) and John took me to the Medicentre. I have vertigo that could take anywhere from 1 to 4 weeks to go away. I did get some pills to help with the dizziness though that have kicked in now. I've spent a lot of time over the past 5 days on Netflix (love it) and pinterest (absolutely adore it). I've been trying to find my fashion style, as I'll be needing a lot of new clothes by the end of the year. Pinterest has been a huge help with that.

I have had a realization in the last couple of weeks. L is turning 8 this year. What an amazing thing! I am ever so grateful for her and her amazing parents. They are such a positive force in my life and I'm so blessed to have this connection with them.

2012 is going to be such an amazing year. I'm excited to get to a healthy weight, for L to get baptized, for Caleb to start grade 1 and whatever else the year may bring us. Life is good. Life is very good.

Yeah, I'm Still Here

I promise, I'm still alive. I just haven't had a lot to post about. Other than having vertigo yesterday and my TV giving up the ghost (it was younger than Ty).

My weight loss basically stalled in the last week. For a personal and very good reason, I decided to take a break from counting my calories and being super focused on what I was going to do that day to shed weight. Long story short without all of the details, I was becoming too obsessed and weight loss is NOT something I want to become obsessed with. In the next week or two I will pick it back up a a slower pace.

I am (mostly) enjoying my new calling. It's teaching me patience and forcing me to use my new phrase ("not my problem") a lot more. I was getting stressed out if I didn't have every little detail I needed on Saturday morning until John finally told me "Just do what you can with what you have. You send out weekly reminders, so if they don't get it to you then it's their fault."

Brettley is still in glasses and is slowly learning to sit on his own. He does things at a slow rate and it's hard to know how much of it is him being a preemie and how much is his personality, as he is a very laid back child (usually).

Ty has, for the most part, mastered day time toilet training. He gets to go for a ride on the bus and LRT with Daddy tomorrow as a reward. He also gets a juice box every day that Caleb has school. He started Sunbeams this month and it will take a while for him to get used to it as he's always on the go and never wants to stop for anything.

Caleb is now in CTR 5 with a male teacher who is preparing for a mission. He isn't in the same primary class as his cousin, which I think will be great for them as they don't behave well together a lot and they are in the same Kindergarten class at school. He is learning how to read and loves it.

So yeah, I don't think too much else is new here. We're working on a plan to replace our TV. For now we'll just enjoy Netflix on our computer and phones. My vertigo is not as bad today, I'm at least functional again. So things are good.

The Real Me, 2011 and Goals For 2012

Last night we went out to friends/family's house to ring in the new year after a nice supper at home. It was a great day all around and we really enjoyed getting out of the house without kids. On the way home John made a comment that really stuck with me. He said that other than briefly during our engagement and maybe the first month of our marriage, these past couple of months have been the first time he's really seen the real me. It made sense. As soon as I got pregnant with Caleb I got sick and since then we've been shuffling between sick and in severe pain during pregnancy, postpartum depression and bipolar. It wasn't an easy thing to go through, so I'm sure it wasn't easy for John to live with, but he stuck by my side through it all. So many people have told me how much of a difference my losing weight has made for me. I'm really enjoying how much better I feel.

I have mixed feelings about 2011. It didn't get off to the best start. I was having a very tough time with my pregnancy and bipolar and ended up having Brettley 7 weeks early. I had to leave a hospital without a baby for a second time and wasn't allowed to be left without another adult for over a week after that because it was so hard on me. My heart was torn for weeks between home and the NICU.

Most of the year was just kind of there. I'm pretty indifferent to a lot of it. However, the past few months have been wonderful. Losing weight and having that be such a huge load off of my disorder has been amazing. Finding out that there's still a baby girl waiting to come to us in a few years meant more to me than I'll ever be able to express.

So there have been some really hard things that I went through in 2011, but some really wonderful things have happened as well. I guess the main thing is that I'm looking forward to getting even healthier in 2012 and trying to become an even better person. I'm also looking forward to my only sibling getting married.

I accomplished 6 of my 11 goals for 2011 that I set early in the year, which is technically a pass. I also came close to accomplishing another. So here are my 12 goals for 2012:

1) Reach my goal weight and maintain it.

2) Take the kids to the park at least once every other week during the summer.

3) Go to Wainmo for a visit (I haven't been there in over 18 months).

4) Teach Brettley to sit on his own.

5) Go to the temple every month.

6) Hold FHE every week.

7) Buy all of Caleb's school supplies before the end of July.

8) Read the New Testament and the Book of Mormon all the way through.

9) Make it through the year without having a relapse.

10) Take more care with my appearance.

11) Start saving to go to Utah again.

12) Put more effort into exercising.