The term is over!

Hallelujah!

 I am a bit surprised (and proud) that I got A's in all 4 classes this term. The last time I attempted this math class (years ago), I got a C+. That should tell you something. haha!

With the move and the pregnancy and the family going bonkers, it has been a very busy 4 months. We are looking forward to settling into a new normal soon. That new normal though ...

As of this post, I'm 32 weeks and 4 days pregnant and I'm having some issues with preterm labor. Not good. I've been told I need to take it very easy, no heavy lifting (sorry Toddler, you're out of luck) and not stress over things. Sure. I'll try that. I am not, however, on strict bed rest.

Yet. 

I have had 2 doses of steroids to help baby's lungs develop, just in case he decides to show up soon. And I've been given a priesthood blessing which was very comforting about that "coming soon" possibility.

The kids are handling all of this well, fortunately. I've rescheduled as many appointments as I can, though I did have to go to two today, one for Kiddo at school and one for the second steroid shot. The contractions picked up on the way home from the hospital, so I'm going to go rest and cuddle my kids for a bit before bedtime.

The house still has boxes everywhere, and it looks like it may stay that way for a while yet. But at the same time, it's cleaner than our apartment was, so I'm taking that as a win.

The kids get out of school on Thursday, and I'm very glad. The Rock will be taking VOD to the bus for the duration of the pregnancy, which also makes me glad. And they have both been much more helpful lately, for which I can only be grateful.

But what I'm most grateful about *right this second* is that finals are over and I don't have to drive to school or worry about another quiz, paper, or test.

Not until next summer anyway.

We had our ultrasound! And we moved.

The last two weeks have been BUSY.

First, the ultrasound.  We're having another boy!  We feel so blessed and Little Mister is so stinking excited to be getting a brother!  Bean is right on dates for growth and everything looks good.  I'll be visiting with perinatology next week since I'm high risk, and we'll get to see Bean again.

And!  We moved!  In addition to my sister and her family, our old neighbors helped clean, pack, and load the truck.  A couple of friends came to help clean the apartment, too.  Some of the new neighbors came and unloaded the truck.  It was a very long but good weekend.  And I can walk normally again ... well, normally for a pregnant lady.  I'm not gimping around, so I'm recovered a bit from all the hard work of packing, moving, and shampooing carpets!

The new house is wonderful -- there is room for the kids to play, room for The Rock to sleep and have a dark, quiet space of his own, room for me to have a craft room, etc.  We're still mostly in boxes since I'm so busy with school and everything else, but it's coming along.  My folks have been helping out and we are so grateful for all the help we've received through this process.

As far as school goes, I got 103% on my first chemistry test.  That made me feel better.  My human growth and development class had a test the other night but I wasn't able to get there, so I emailed the teacher about it.  Just waiting to hear back and hope that I can take a makeup test.  I have half a chapter of math to finish tonight and a few chapters of nutrition so I can take a math test tomorrow and a nutrition test this next week.  Good times!

What's New With Us

I haven't been posting regularly, I know.  It's sort of been not my focus.  I have several others at the moment.

First, in May we found out we are pregnant.  Again.  The baby is due in February but likely will arrive toward the end of January.  We find out gender on Wednesday, if Bean cooperates.

Second, I ended up transferring to a state school to get my nursing prerequisites finished.  This term, I am taking 14 credits.  That will leave me with 2 more classes left to do before I apply for nursing school next fall.

Third ... We found out on August 31 that The Rock qualifies for a great rate on a mortgage.  The next day, we found a house we both love and so do the kids.  We put in an offer and came to a price agreement that day.  Two days later, we changed mortgage companies.  Three weeks to the day after changing companies, he signed the closing paperwork.  The most amazing part of that time frame is that it went through the USDA to qualify for a rural housing loan, and they often take up to 2 weeks to get loans approved.  They had ours for 3 or 4 days.

We move on Saturday!

The house is 2200 square feet, twice the size of the old condo and more than twice the size of our apartment.  It has technically 7 bedrooms, but only 4 will be utilized as such.  One is big enough to be a play/TV room.  Another will be a workout/sewing room.  And the smallest is going to be storage.  Both front and back yards are fully fenced, so that's awesome too!  And I think we're all terribly excited for the fact that there are two full baths!  haha!

Between pregnancy, school, moving, kids, The Rock, gestational diabetes, and trying to still maintain some sense of self, I'm a bit swamped.

I'd better get to class!  Tonight's chemistry class is a study prep for the test Thursday.  Eeep!

Thinking. It's a dangerous thing.

After I went through my divorce a million years ago, I learned a few things that I've shared with friends here and there who are struggling with a marriage or a partner.

First, the #1 cause of divorce is selfishness.  Abuse?  The abuser is selfish.  Infidelity?  The cheater is selfish. Money problems?  One or both partners is being selfish.

Selfishness can be fixed, but only if the selfish one wants to fix it ... and the one who is being walked on wants to stick it out.

This leads to my second point:  Forgiveness is an entirely separate issue from trust.  Whether or not you choose not to stick out a relationship, eventually you do have to forgive the other person AND yourself for whatever happened or whatever you did during the relationship.  However, if you've been abused or cheated on or the selfish person will not change, you never have to trust that person again.  Ever.

Selfishness is a sticky thing.  Yes, you should look out for yourself.  But deciding to spend money in a selfish way to the detriment of every person who relies on you is a very bad thing.  Deciding to abuse the trust of the people who love you is selfish.  Cheating on the people who chose to have you in their lives is wrong.

I've been thinking about these things a lot.  And they really apply to our country's political sphere as it is.  Congress as a whole is selfish.  Pay increases, taking payoffs, voting for lobbyists and against their constituents, blocking any measure a president from the opposing party presents just because he's in the opposing party, exempting themselves from the nationwide healthcare system, lifelong retirement income  ... SELFISH.  It's abusing the trust of those who voted them in.  It's cheating them from an honest person taking care of the people of our country.  It's stealing from their constituents.

This has nothing to do with who is president or who might be the next president.  I believe both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are good men who want what's best for our country, even if they might disagree about what that best is.  I think they both know our economy is in the toilet and needs help, but I don't know that either of them (if elected/re-elected) would have the power to do anything to fix it, because Congress is selfish.  Congress is bought and paid for, and not by the people of our nation.

We don't all have to agree on every issue to agree that the system is broken.  How do we fix our now-broken system?  If I had that answer and the power to fulfill it, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

I do believe every long-standing member of Congress should be ousted and lobbying should be illegal.  Taking payoffs for votes is wrong.  Congress no longer represents the people; they represent corporations and special interest groups.  And that is wrong.

We should get rid of selfishness, stupidity, and hate, and see if that helps fix the country.  It doesn't matter what your lobbyists want.  That's not who you swore an oath to.  Who cares if someone from the opposing party presents a bill?  If you agree with a bill and believe it's the right thing and what your constituents want, vote for it!  Quit padding bills with special interests and items that have nothing to do with the bill at hand.  You are wasting OUR time and OUR money.  


Here's my open letter to Congress.


Dear Congress:


Quit being selfish.

Sincerely,

A voter

And my open letter to the next president

Dear Mr. President:

If you want to create jobs, repeal NAFTA.

Sincerely,

A voter whose medical job was offshored and is now done by people who don't speak English

p.s.  that used to say "repeat NAFTA", but that was the opposite of my intent.  HA!  Proofreading: It's a very good thing.

Reduce, reuse, recycle

I know, I know.  A lot of people think we're crazy to use cloth diapers.  But really, it saves money.  It reduces the amount of trash we're throwing away.  They get reused over and over, after a good sanitizing wash.  We recycle as much paper and plastic and metal as possible, and we don't use paper plates or paper towels, so it just makes sense to me to use cloth diapers, too.  Plus?  Look how cute they are!  (made these for a friend's baby a few years ago.)

And another friend made these for us last year!  We use them several times a week.

Why this post today?  http://castleink.com is offering scholarships for posts about reducing, reusing, and recycling!

It's amazing what happens in a couple of weeks

And I'm not talking about the whole eat-better-lose-weight thing.  Because that's pretty much not been my focus the last two weeks.  <bag>

I've really been debating this teaching deal.  I love kids.  But do I love other people's kids enough to teach them and then still come home and be a happy mommy?

So I started reevaluating things.  Talked it all over with the husband and a few other people.

I have applied to nursing school.

Nursing school can be very expensive.

We're looking for any sources to pay for this because I need to be done ASAP.  So if you win the 500 million dollar lotto, send a little love my way, eh?

I'm applying for this (not school sponsored) scholarship, which is based on a popular vote of a web essay.  I hope y'all can vote for my essay HERE.

Not Monday yet, I know

I was getting the kids ready to walk and my fabulous landlady mentioned a great walking route -- up the main road a block away, 9 blocks pretty much uphill, then it's alllllllll downhill down a nice little paved trail, and back through town.  It's about 2-1/2 miles total.  That's the longest I've walked in a long time.  Pushed the stroller most of the way, though VOD helped a bit.  We're both exhausted and the littles are all over the place.  lol

I haven't been on track with my eating as far as eating good stuff, but I haven't gone over my calories today.  And tomorrow is a new day!

Livestrong

I've been tracking my calories and walking every day.  I've only managed to stay within my 1800 calorie goal one day so far this week, but have significantly cut my caloric intake.  It's that time of the month here, so I've had a bit of bloat and lots and lots of cravings, many of which I've given into, though I have avoided chocolate completely.  I have only had one headache this week.  It was last night and wasn't too bad.

Still having a bit of Pepsi every day, but that has been drastically cut back.  I totally ate comfort food for dinner last night -- homemade mac and cheese with bacon and onions.  hello.  I also ate a huge salad and a nectarine.  lol.  Eating more fruits and veggies and less junk overall.

However, because I've only managed to stay within my calories once, I don't think I'm adding a new change next week.  I really don't want to sabotage myself because I want and expect these changes to stick.  If I stay in my calories the rest of the week, I may change my mind by Monday.  The one I will be adding is "no eating after 8 p.m." which may actually help stay within the calories.  HA!


Even on my worst cycle day with cramps and backache, we still walked about half a mile yesterday.  I'm pretty proud of myself for that.  It's been so awesome to have Little Mister ask me every day to go for a walk and run in the stroller and play outside.  He's loving having a more involved and active mommy, and I know VOD is, too.  She got really upset with me yesterday when she got in trouble, because I told her she got to stay home from the walk and clean her room.  I relented and she picked up her dirty laundry when we got home.

As of right now, I'm down 7 pounds from my high weight this week with the pre-period bloat, which is down 4 pounds from my high last week.  I know that will slow down eventually, but I'm loving seeing some results so quickly!  I feel less bloated and have more energy for the most part.  Can't wait to see what happens in the coming weeks and months!

p.s.  I have no idea why some of the words in this post have hyperlinks.  Bizarre-o.

I'm disgusted

I haven't actually tracked my food intake since like October.  I know I've been eating too much.  My body tells me so in many ways, but gaining weight to the point my fat clothes are snug is a very.bad.thing.

So, the last few days, I've written down every single thing I've put in my mouth.

I'm just appalled.

This week's change is to drastically cut my calories and track everything I eat on Livestron.  Now, I'll still be eating around 1800 calories a day.  That's the number my trainers came up with when I wasn't working out hard.  Since I'm not working out hard yet, just walking still, I'm starting there.

This change will affect other things.  How much Pepsi or sugar I can ingest.  The type of grains I eat.  Fruits, veggies, proteins.  Those sorts of things will be affected.  I intend to cut WAY back on Pepsi this week.

I'm willing to bet, though, that at the end of the week, I'll be feeling just that much better and proud of myself for sticking to it.  Like last week.  I walked Monday and Tuesday with the husband, and Wednesday through Sunday with the kids.  Even on days I felt not so great, we still got out and walked.  And that is a change I am proud of.

These shoes were made for walking

It's Thursday.  I decided this week would be the beginning of the changes.

I made a list of things I know I need to do to get healthy.  Some are smaller changes than others.  Quitting Pepsi is probably going to be the biggest challenge.

I'm not ready for that yet.

This week, I've walked 4 days.  Two with the husband, two with the kids.  It's pretty cool when I've decided, "oh, I'll walk tomorrow," to have my kids all come and ask to go for a walk with me.  That's motivation.  Maybe I can get the kids on board with keeping me on track the week I quit Pepsi.  

Anyway. I have two more days to go and intend to walk both of them, no matter who decides to come with me.

The crazy part is that I've been craving more fruits and veggies while implementing just this one change.  Still drinking Pepsi.  Still eating sugar.  Those are other things on my list.  There are a lot of them.

After successfully completing this week with walking, I'm going to choose another change to make next week.    By the end of the summer, I should be pretty far into my list and feeling much better, whether the scale reflects the changes or not.  The number on the scale isn't what's driving me.  My health sure is though.

I'm going to try and post twice a week from here on out:  Once to post the change I've chosen for the week and the other post as an update.  Wish me luck.

Good *bleary eyed* morning

I haven't been doing so well with my resolutions for the year.  I own that.

Life often isn't kind.  We've had a lot of struggles this year already.  It's only March 5.

I asked my husband a few weeks ago if he would walk with me every day.  He sort of blew it off.  Then last night, he asked me, "So when are we going to start walking?"  Um.  Tomorrow.

So we woke up at 6 this morning.  We left the littles asleep in the capable care of their older sister (who got ready for school on time!) and went for a walk.

In the cold.

Before we'd even gone a couple of blocks, my back started hurting.  I know this extra weight is what's doing it.  It's not a good feeling.

But we walked for about a mile.

Did I mention it was cold?

Came home and I got in the shower.  Nice and warm.  I'm all clean and feeling fine now, and my back feels happy after getting warmed up again.

There are other changes afoot today, this week, this year.  This sentence keeps replaying in my head:

If I want to see drastic changes, I must first make drastic changes.

And that's pushing me to do the things I want and need to do.

Even early in the morning, when it's cold.

More ME

These are my resolutions for this year:  Laugh more.  Play more.  Enjoy more.  Worship more.

All of those things?  Involve these things.

1.  Get current on bills and then pay off half of our consumer debt (anything except student loans -- medical, credit cards, HOA stuff, car, etc.).
2.  Shed 50 pounds by Thanksgiving with a combination of eating healthy and exercising.
3.  Control the crafting chaos -- only get out what I can accomplish during that session of crafting, and put away everything I didn't do when finished with that session.
4.  Keep up with my housework routines.
5.  Get back to the temple with The Rock (or without him if he's not ready), and take VOD when she's able.

And that's really as complicated as I'm getting this year.