Goals for this year

It seems like every year I start some sort of diet. Then a couple of weeks into it, I fail miserably. For example, last year I did weight watchers for the....oh I don't know...20th time. Colossal fail!

I ended up starting this year 12 or 13 pounds heavier than I was last year. UGH!

So I decided that I'm not going on a diet. Diets suck, and I suck at diets! But I still need (and want) to lose weight. I've decided to just make small changes. I've formed some seriously bad habits over the last two years. Life with the girls has been super busy and of course stressful. I obviously wouldn't trade it for anything, but I have been eating and drinking (cokes) myself into the biggest pants EVER! 

A couple of weeks ago (okay and still right now) I'm popping out of my fat pants. These aren't the same fat pants I talked about last year. These are new fat pants that I bought a couple of months ago when I busted out of the previous pair. Never buy bigger pants! I refuse to buy bigger pants this time!!!!

So back to my point. I'm making small changes. I'm in week 3 of these changes and I've lost 5 pounds so far. The first week, I gave up cokes. I used to drink 1-2 cokes a day. I'm not talking about diet cokes either. I was drinking 150-300 calories a day in sugar! BAD! I've only had one coke so far this year and that was over the weekend because I REALLY wanted a rum and coke. The second week, I didn't go to Starbucks every day. Yes, there were times when I would go to Starbucks every single day. Now I'm allowing myself three tall non-fat chai tea lattes per week. I'm going to eventually narrow that down to just one or two. 

Here I am in week three, and the goal is to exercise at least five times and eat healthy. I've been doing pretty well for a few days now. I've been jogging on my treadmill when the girls go to bed. Tonight I jogged 2 miles straight without stopping. Go me! 

I haven't decided what my goal for week four will be yet. I originally planned to stop going to the fast food drive-thrus as one of my goals, but with my new mindset, that has just naturally happened. I don't want to eat that crap when I'm working out so hard. 

So I'm hoping that because I'm trying to make small changes and allow myself a treat when I really want it, that I'll be successful. The weight will take a bit longer to come off, but I need to change my lifestyle and not just do a crash type diet. 

I'm going to check in here on my blog each week so that I can be held accountable. I'm already weighing in with a group of friends on Mondays so that's keeping me motivated right now. 

Weight loss isn't the only goal. I want to get this house organized!...... And painted, and actually hang pictures on my walls. We've lived here for over 4 years and I barely have any pictures up. It's pathetic. We're about to have tile put in the downstairs bathroom and kitchen within the next month or so, so I need to paint the bathroom asap. Then when the weather gets a little better, I'm going to finish painting the rest of this house! I'm also in the process of turning the retreat area of our bedroom into a home office so I have a place that is all my own. 

So there ya have it! There's a lot to update about the girls and their therapies, but I'll save that one for the next couple of days. Rachel gets her stitches out on Thursday and I'm hoping Dr. D has the biopsy results for us. I'm going to feel like a huge weight has been lifted when I hear the word, "benign."

This mama is signing off. 

Sad News...

 Our family has been dealing with an incredible loss. Bob's father passed away a few days after Christmas. It's really difficult to write about so I'll just make this short. We're sad the girls will not be able to know their Grandpa. He loved them with his whole heart and lit up every time the girls were around him. He will be greatly missed. 

Rachel is a superstar!

Rachel had her surgery last week. I'm so relieved that it's over and that the tumor is off of my baby. Her pediatric surgeon really is in the right profession. He is so amazing with her. We had to check in at the hospital at 8:40am. The surgery wasn't until a couple of hours later so we had to entertain our hungry almost two year old while we waited. She actually did pretty good for not being aloud to have anything to eat or drink that morning. One of the nurses brought us a tv that had a built in vcr. The only tape they had that I thought she'd actually watch was the Teletubbies. Much to my horror, she LOVED them. Since they are no longer on tv here and I'm not going to be buying any Teletubby dvds, you can bet that she won't be watching that show again. hehehe....

When it was time to get her ready for surgery, a nurse and Bob had to hold my poor baby down to get her to drink some tylenol with a sedative in it. It was really hard to watch. We all know Rachel has issues with eating and drinking almost everything so she had to be given this medication a special way so that she couldn't spit it out. It was awful. However, it kicked in pretty quick and she was almost immediately loopy. It was then time for kisses and hugs and they took her away to the operating room. Oh how I wished I could go with her. I think by that point, she was under the medication pretty good and didn't really know she was being taken away from Mommy anyway. You know I cried though!

She was supposed to be back there for 45 minutes. So when 45 minutes turned into 60 minutes, I was trying not to freak out. Bob and I sat in the waiting room just kind of staring at the walls and tapping our feet with impatience. Dr. D finally came out and brought us back to see our sweet Rachel. She was sound asleep with an oxygen mask over her face. I know it was all normal but I started to shed some tears seeing her like that.

The drama started within seconds of her waking up. She woke up about 20 minutes before they expected her to. We were told that some people metabolize the anesthesia faster than others and will wake up while they are still under the drugs. She started screaming and was completely inconsolable for about 20 minutes. The nurse had to hold her foot to protect her from hurting it because she was thrashing her arms and legs. They even had to tape her IV up because she was trying to rip it out.  I was holding her and she didn't even recognize me. It was heart breaking. They ended up having to put her back to sleep. It freaked me out though because once the nurse gave her the sleepy drugs, her body went limp in my arms and I could feel that her chest wasn't moving. She was only taking a breath about every 10 seconds. The nurse assured me that it was normal and her breathing improved once they put the oxygen back on her.

She slept for maybe 5-10 more minutes. When she woke up the second time, she was as happy as could be and just snuggled with me while she drank some juice. She was so precious. I was so proud of her. After about an hour, she was being released and we were on our way home.

When we got home, Rachel and I snuggled in our bed and watched a little Barney. Then we both fell asleep. That evening, you wouldn't even have known that she had surgery that day. She was walking around just fine and was in a happy mood. She's been doing great ever since!

We do have to go back next Thursday to have her stitches removed. She has a cute little pink and purple bandage protecting the incision. We've been keeping her in zipper/footie pjs all week to keep her from playing with the bandage.

I snapped a cute picture of her after changing her diaper and before getting her dressed again. You can see her sporting the cute bandage. I'm so proud of how well she has done. I was so worried this surgery would set her back, but she's done just fine!

Our next step is to wait about another week for the biopsy results. Dr. D is still 99.9999% sure that it will be benign just like last time. I'll feel a lot better once I know for sure!!!!

This is why I am fat (and Happy New Year!)

I love the "happiness."

Happy New Year Coke. I can't drink you anymore in 2011! 

Where do I begin?

Wow. I don't even know where to begin.  I've wanted to post an update almost every night for two weeks. It's just that by the time I think of it or sit down in front of my computer, I'm too tired to think straight.

We spent an entire week where our whole family was sick. That pretty much sucked. I was most disappointed that we had to cancel the girls' therapy for an entire week. So by the time we start back up in January, the girls will have gone three weeks without therapy. I've still been working with them every day. They are really blossoming. Morgan and Sophia are repeating (or trying to repeat) everything we say. Even Rachel is saying a new word almost every day. It's really fun listening to them talk all day long.

We had a nice and busy Christmas. It was next to impossible to get any pictures of the girls all together. We put them in the cutest little Christmas dresses too. I'll post a few pictures once I get them uploaded off of my camera.

We've had some home ownership excitement/drama. Our oven/microwave unit broke last night. At least it stopped working after Christmas dinner. haha... It has been giving us issues for over a month now so I knew this was coming. The lights in the microwave have been flickering and the oven has been taking twice as long to cook food. Anyway, boring story short.... we had to buy a new one. I was beyond to shocked to see that these oven/microwave insert units are super expensive. We ended up paying $2,400 for the unit and installation. We bought a GE since the current one we had was a GE and it worked for 20 years! It's always something though.  At least we are still able to get the kitchen floor replaced next month as planned. This has been one expensive year! Yikes!

Oh and the new unit won't be installed until January 3rd or 4th. I've got to get by with no oven or microwave until then, which isn't going to be easy since I use both just about every single day. I might have to get a toaster oven since my kids like things in the "stick" variety. You know... fish sticks, french toast sticks......Oh how I wish I could get them to eat real people food!

Not much else going on. The days are busy and my house is almost always a mess, but I wouldn't trade it for anything.  I'll post some Christmas pics in the next couple of days!

The longest 16 weeks

I was going to title this post, "the longest 16 weeks ever." Then I decided to drop the "ever" because my pregnancy was the longest 35 weeks EVER.  It was also the longest 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and so on weeks EVER!

Okay, not that I've cleared that up............ I can move on to the good news!

I finished my semester at school. I know I took two classes and only completed one, but it was the hardest thing for me to just complete the ONE class. It seriously kicked my butt. I've been so stressed and so tired lately. I totally took on too much over the past few months. I'm glad to have this semester behind me. A small part of me would like to take another class next semester and continue taking one class each semester until I'm done. However, the logical part of me says that that would be a bad idea at this point. I'm simply stretched too thin with the girls' schedule right now to even consider it. I'll re-evaluate things and possibly take another class next Fall. For now, the girls' therapy and all the work that comes with it is first on my list of prioritiies!

Speaking of.... Our schedule is about to get even busier. We're going to have either a therapy session or a play gym class going on every single morning of the week, except Thursdays. We've added a food therapy session to our OT and speech each week. We've also started going to what they call "motor gym." It's basically a big play room for the girls to run around in and climb on structures and jump in a ball pit..... everything there is stimulating. They get to feel different textures from slimy to cold to whatever. Then we have circle time where they sing songs followed by a snack. This past week was our first time going and the girls loved it. I'm so proud of them and how well they are doing.

So Rachel's surgery has been scheduled for January 7th. The doctor didn't have any open times before that date since he only does surgery on Fridays. So much for him saying the 10th or 17th of this month. Oh well. I'm glad we get to wait until after Christmas.

Okay.. I can barely hold my eyes open. I finished the final exam for my class a little while ago and just HAD to come and say... I AM DONE! WOO HOO! (and I'm too tired to proof read this so if I rambled OH WELL!)

It's time for Rachel's surgery.....

We had Rachel's check up this morning for the growth on her ankle.  The pediatric surgeon has decided that it's best to remove it now. It kind of freaked me out that he made that decision so quickly, but the growth has doubled in size in the last two months. It's now growing kind of funky to the side too. It looks different than it did the first time before the last biopsy. Last time it would sometimes bleed, but this time it's kind of dry looking.

I wasn't surprised that he made this decision. I knew it was coming. I'm thankful that we don't have to wait another two months wondering when it will be. I'm supposed to hear from the scheduling clerk in the next couple of days. Dr. D said she would likely have the surgery either on the 10th or the 17th. I really wish we didn't have to go through this. I so sad that my baby has to have surgery where they are totally putting her under. It's an outpatient procedure so we don't have to stay overnight. I know she is in good hands, but it's hard not to worry. I just want to get us both through this.

I was so emotional today. The thought of Rachel going through this just breaks my heart. I'm so thankful for my girlfriends tonight. I just got home from a fun night out with three other triplet moms. I really needed them after a day like today!  I will update with more info after I find out when exactly the surgery will take place! Time for me to sleep!