Check out these Beautiful Dolls!!!

 

Christine has opened up for business!  Here’s the link.

These dolls are the cutest dolls I have ever seen and she customizes them for you too!!  So go check them out!!

Worst Mom in the world!

 

Yesterday started out being a great day!  I went to lunch with my sister Becky at Cafe Rio at around noon.  And we had a great time, talking till I had to leave for my appt. at the Gym with my trainer.  The workout was good too.  I was pretty tired and ready for a  shower and then a nap!  On the way home though I  read a text from my husband who had written that Joseph and Emma’s kindergarten graduation was IN PROGRESS!!  That was a half an hour ago!!  I have NEVER missed a kindergarten graduation!  And I also didn’t have their costumes ready either!  I thought graduation was next week!!  Oh my gosh, seriously, I thought I was gonna have a nervous breakdown.  I was fighting tears the whole time when I got there.  I had missed the ENTIRE thing.  They were just leaving the stage area when I arrived.  If you could’ve seen Emma’s face when she saw me…it was just so sad. I tried to pretend that I’d been there the whole time, but I just couldn’t.  Joseph didn’t realize I’d been gone, but Emma knew.  So on the way to the car I ‘fessed up.  And, of course, I lost it.  I just started bawling!  They kept telling me, “It’s ok Mommy.”  But it wasn’t ok.  I missed something special.  Something REALLY special!  They were looking forward to it so much and they made me promise to be there.  They were the only ones there without their costumes!!  I’m not over it…I don’t think I will EVER get over missing that.  I’m still crying about it as we speak.  I cried, I sobbed and I mourned all day yesterday.

Today is a new day, so I decided to take pictures again and you can tell me if you see any improvements.  I don’t really see any, but I’m biased.  I’ve lost 50 lbs. now.  I’m really proud of myself.  I know we’re not supposed to proud, but I can’t help it.  I feel like I have done something HUGE.

I know the photo on the top looks a little weird but I was playing with it and I like how I look like that. Ha Ha!! It brings out my eyes...lol.
60lbs. to go...

Oh my goodness, I am really hurting….

 

I haven’t said a lot about this, but I’ve been trying to lose the weight that I’ve packed on in the last 20 years.  And I actually did it without any aids/pills/surgery.  Just good old-fashioned hard work.  I’ve lost 35 lbs. so far and I feel SO much better.  I can move around so much better.  My body doesn’t hurt near as much as it did before.  I’ve actually been really worried about myself since I could see myself ending up like my mother whose health is not the best.  Her body hurts her everyday.  She doesn’t have much energy and is really tired.  And that was me.

So, even though it’s a little bit embarrassing to put pictures on here, I’m going to do it every month.  I would like to journal my journey.  I still have 75 lbs. to go. ( I know, I can’t believe it either.)  I never had a weight problem growing up.  I just became sedentary while I was having kids.  WHAT WAS I THINKING!?  This has actually been the hardest thing I have EVER done.  I am counting calories and working out.  Neither of which, I like to do.  Bleh!  But I DO realize that if I don’t do this, my later years will just be a lot of pain.  I want to have some fun when all the kiddos leave the house!  Do some traveling, hike some mountains, ski, take long walks and spend some time at the beach!  I can’t do that if I feel like crap!! So I hope you don’t mind hearing about my little journey of rediscovering “Julia”.  I kind of forgot to take care of myself and got a little bit lazy.  So here’s my picture at 30 lbs. lighter.

It’s so funny how you think to yourself, “Wow, I look pretty dang good!  I’m gonna take a picture”   And then you take the picture and realize that you look pretty dang bad!  Oh well, I’m 35 lbs. lighter and I’m still working at it.  I’m taking it 1 month at a time.  I tell myself that I will lose 10 lbs. a month.  I can do this!  Only 10 lbs. a month.  But holy crap!  I worked out too hard yesterday and today my body hurts SO much.  So I told myself to go back to the gym and walk the treadmill and stretch out those muscles by doing the incline higher.   NOT a good idea.  I pretty much want to die right now.  Try sitting on the toilet when your legs are so sore that you have to hold on to the wall and ease down!  I wish I had those handicap bars…

Should I be laughing?

Well, I don’t know, but I thought this was hysterical!

Last night, Kelvin and I were lying in bed (No this isn’t a TMI) and my little Joseph (age 6) came out of our bathroom and announced “Mommy, when I go pee I feel Jesus.”  

Ummmm….Okkaaaaaay…where do I go with this one.  Because for just a moment I thought “That’s a little freaky”  Not gonna lie…why would you feel Jesus when you’re peeing? 

But that was just a split moment of thinking.  And so I asked, “Why do you feel Jesus when you pee?”

And he says, “You know. When you go like this (insert whole body shiver) when you pee.

Me: “Oh yeah, sometimes you get the shivers or goosebumps when you feel Jesus, huh?”

Joseph: “Yeah!”

Me:  “Oh yeah, sometimes I  get  goosebumps when I feel the spirit too. Ok, goodnight Joseph.  Love you sweetheart.”

Joseph: “Night Mommy!”

(Oh my gosh please leave quick before I start guffawing in front of my sweet boy!)

I want this!!

So to get another chance at winning this awesome quilter's cookbook, I’m blogging about it.  But honestly, I really don’t think that you want this.  I don’t think you should go and enter.  Because I WANT IT!  And I never win…

But if you are like me, and love cookbooks, then…well…I guess you can.  But if you win, don’t tell me about it!

Well dang, I didn’t even win…

 

Oh well, I shouldn’t cry over not winning the cool little sewing clutch should I?  I have terrible luck when it comes to these things.  I never win anything.

I guess since I’m here I should catch you up with all the happenings here in Spendlove land.

First off, we moved.  And I’m so happy we did!  It’s so much bigger than the last house we were in.  We lived in the last house for over 17 years.  It was 1652 sq. ft.  With 12 people in it.  Whew!  That was a squeeze!

This house is almost twice the size and the kitchen is beautiful.  (You know how important the kitchen is!)  I need one that would inspire me to cook in it.  (Because I hated the last one!  It cut me off from the rest of the world. )  This one is open to the Family Room and is pretty large so I’m loving it.  And the second most important thing, a large bedroom and bathroom with a walk in closet!  LOOOOOOVE  IT!!!

I can’t believe what a difference it makes to have a larger home with my kids. They don’t fight near as much.  And the house doesn’t get near as messy as the other one did.  I’m pretty much loving the area too.  We have a park right through a little walkway.  How awesome is that! 

The moving was part of the stressful things going on because it was moving 17 years of CRAP!  I felt like that show about hoarders!  And I didn’t want to move it all either!  I have so much scrapbooking stuff!  I’m selling it off.  Not all of it, (because I just can’t do it..) but  a lot of it.  Oh wow, I really don’t want to do this again anytime soon.  I hate moving.  I wish I could’ve just hired someone to do it all for me.

And here’s the other stressful thing.  They found a small something in Kelvin’s lung a while ago.  So every 3 mo. they have been doing a CAT scan or CT scan or whatever kind of scan to see if it’s gotten bigger.  They told us that if it got bigger than it was probably cancer.  Well…that’s just great!  I thought we were done with that business!  But no, we’re not.  So the last scan it showed a little bit bigger.  So the doctor said that it was cancer and he referred Kelvin to a surgeon.  They said that the surgeon could just cut it out.  Cool.  Just cut it out.  1 week of recovery.  Cool, we can handle that.  The surgeon has a different take on it.  He says, “Well, I’m not entirely sure that IS cancer. (Hmmm…what else could a lump in your lung be?)  We’ll just wait ANOTHER month and see if it’s growing more.  And THEN we’ll take it out. (What the hec?!  Just take it out already!  It shouldn’t be there anyway!!)  So Kelvin is SO stressed about this, that he’s a big, grouchy bear. (Saying in a totally nice way…) And me?  I just want the whole thing over with.  It took since Feb. to even find out this much.  Way too long for me.

So I guess I’ve been in a busy kind of funk.  You know, kind of feeling sorry for myself and all…(aww, grow up already!)

But I have some good news!  I’ve lost 19 lbs.  19 nasty little pounds.  I am loving this!  Exercising and calorie watching.  Well, not really exercising.  I’m just walking.  Not every day yet.  But I’m getting better at it.  I love that I’m losing the weight.  I’m not depriving myself at all.  But I have been looking at something and saying to myself, “Do I want to waste my calories on that?  No, I’d rather do it on something better!!  (And no, I don’t mean on something better for me. I mean on something I like better!  Ha Ha!)  So I don’t eat NEARLY as much junk as I was!  I’m hoping to be done by the end of this year.   Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful!  I really hope and pray that I can do this.  I can’t tell you how much gaining all this weight has cost me in the confidence department.  Bleh!

So, there it is.  Just a little bit of what’s going on.  Others have WAY more stress than I do, but I still had to whine a little…

It’s been a while…

 

I haven’t been blogging much lately, I know.   In fact the only reason I am even doing this is for the chance to win this beautiful clutch!  (But I promise that I will tell you every stressful thing that’s been going on.)  And if you REALLY feel like it, then I guess you can enter to win it too.  (Although I’m kind of hoping you don’t, because it’ll give me a better chance!)

Hasta!

I loved this SO much!!

 

I saw this on Camille's Blog and shamelessly stole it!  Seriously!  I was totally shameless!!  I had a HUGE smile on my face the ENTIRE time this was playing.  It brought back such GOOD memories!( And I'm not gonna lie, I was crying too! Don't exactly know why...) 

 

I really hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

My 2010 Word for the Year

 

Well, my word is more a phrase than a word but I’m still using it. But before I do, let me tell you why I’m using it. 

Since the birth of my twins, who are 6 now, I’ve been feeling like I’m not in control.  When I was on bedrest for those long months, the house with 7 kids, was really horrible.  And for me, that meant chaos in my mind.  It threw me into a depression.  One that I’ve been struggling with for the last 6 years.  I still don’t feel like things are back to normal, but now I feel the need to get things back to normal.   But I feel SO overwhelmed.  Like, where do I start?  My sister used to live with me back when I had only 6 kids and I had everything under control.  The house was decent.  My kids were decent.  My mind WASN’T chaotic.  I really think that that time in my life when I was forced to let go of control threw me into a tailspin that I’m finally able to stop. 

So, since I’m still feeling a little bit overwhelmed and unsure of where to start to get everything under control and where it should be, my new phrase is going to help remind me of what I need to do this year.

“Lift Where You Stand”- President Uchtdorf

I know I’ve mentioned it for others, but I really think it’s for me. I know I can get through anything if I just “Lift Where I Stand”  So, there you go!  My new 2010 word/phrase!  Wish me luck!!….