Amber's Best Life Journal

[lindalinda]

Have fun amber! Hope the weather is perfect for you guys!


linda

 

[Foxfiregrrl]

Hello! We are back from vacation. We've just been taking it easy and are still "on vacation" as far as activities and eating are concerned. We wanted to come back and still have the weekend at home to chill instead of driving back Saturday or Sunday and being tired from the trip.

DH & I agreed that starting Monday we are getting seriously on track and are both going to try to lose 10 pounds before we leave for Disney. We are also going to limit spending and eating out between now and then.

I will most likely post more on that tomorrow to kind of kick off the new start. Until then, I'm gonna enjoy my lazy lounging time

I'll be back in gear soon.

 

[Foxfiregrrl]

Ok, well I'm still goofing off on my last day of vacation, but I'm ready to start thinking about life after vacation I actually got a call from my supervisor earlier today because one of my "kids" (she's actually 18 already) had a "very bad week" and she wanted to talk to me about it because the kid is coming in tomorrow so we can discuss what to do with her She was funny thought because she kept saying it's ok, nothing else went wrong Gee thanks.

Anyway, DH and I sat down and made a menu list to cover the next two weeks. We will cook some days and have leftovers some days. We also are trying to incorporate some sides, etc into our work lunches so that they are not So boring. This week we have chicken salad made from grilled chicken which is always yummy.

So here are our menu items (dinners only):
Red beans and rice (2 meals)
leftover chicken curry w/ brown rice and lentils
beef & veggie stirfry
pork roast w/ potatoes and carrots (2)
bratwurst and potatoes and some other side (for the 4th)
Veggie and pasta dish (vegetarian) (2)
roasted red pepper and mushroop soup (2 dinners? or lunch sides?)
cube steak w/ black eyed peas and some other side

That gives us about 12 dinners which will hopefully get us to the weekend after the 4th.

We made an agreement that will be a tad difficult, but hopefully we can stick to it. It is basically several challenges rolled into one. We will only eat out for dinner Once every other week. I will only eat out for lunch once a week or less. We will not buy anything that is not a necessity i.e. we can buy groceries and that is about it. We will exercise more and try to eat healthier. We are both aiming to lose 10 pounds by the time we go to Disney. The challenge will last until then which gives us 63 days for it. I think that it is not unreasonable.

We have also been buying as many organic items as we can afford. We switched this week to organic milk. It tastes the same and is supposed to be Way better for you. We got organic celery, carrots, eggs, chicken (only for a pack of drumsticks though, we eat to much chicken breast to convert that yet ) We also bought the peaches that came from the Lane packing plant which is less than 100 miles away as opposed to the peaches from south carolina. I do not understand why the store gets them from so far away when Lane is SO close

I have been reading a lot about being more environmentally friendly and watching the new Planet Green channel (I was actually watching a lot of it before it converted over). Anyway, I really want to do what we can to lower our impact but in reasonable steps along the way. We have started composting our food scraps kind of... basically I've just been burying them in a pile of yard scraps inside the edge of the woods for now. We will eventually make an actual compost bin, but I was having a hard time getting DH to commit to it. They do not have a good city recycling program around here, but I need to call and see if they pick up anything curbside or not. They used to but I keep getting mixed answers when I ask people. I have been saving my used wine bottles for the last several months (which means I have a HUGE collection now ) because I had met a lady who said that she melts them down and makes things with them. I didn't realize it until recently, but glass takes Forever to break down in the landfill. I thought it was just plastics and cans that took so long.

We don't drink sodas so that is not a problem for us. Although we do need to be able to recycle the bottles and cans from when the guys come over. They can fill a whole large trash can when they are here

Other than that our big issue has been that we have a lot of wild blackberry vines taking over on one side of the house. We are not really keen on spraying them with pesticides, BUT I haven't been able to find any good alternatives that don't include me pulling them all up by hand So, for now they are just taking over.

I've had a lot of this kind of thing on my mind lately. I want to still work on getting healthy, but just haven't been in that mode as much. I am planning to start back to the gym this week and DH says that he is going to at least start walking with me some.

I have been thinking about starting just a general blog somewhere to lay out all my ramblings, but I'm undecided. I know that if I do that I will not come here as often and post. I don't want to lose touch with this community because I really like it here and feel like I've gotten a lot of good support here over the last few years. But I just feel like most of the time I'm not really staying true to the WISH journal concept anymore.

We'll see.. gonna think about it. If I do blog I won't leave here, I just won't be here as much. I will also post a link once it is up and running.

Well, enough for me today. Have a great week!

 

[DisDee]

Hey Amber, Don't you just hate the last day of vacation? I hope you had a super time while at the beach and didn't think about anything but relaxing and having a good time.

You seem very organized to have planned out your upcoming meals. Now that's what I call forward thinking. Good for you! I'm lucky if I grab some yogurt on my way out the door in the morning.

I often feel that I don't stick with the "Wish" journal concept either, but I figure if I mention one thing about healthy eating or exercise, I'm good to go. Don't leave us!!!!! I've really gotten away from posting, but still continue to read the journals of my "regulars". I really do enjoy the connection that we all have.

I hope all goes well tomorrow with your girl. My DIL worked with our state adoption agency and now teaches inner city special ed kids at a charter school, so I know a little bit of what you must deal with. Make it a good week!

 

[lindalinda]

Hi Amber! Glad you had a nice vacation. Looks like you have eveything all planned out! I think you do a great job with menus and stuff. I wish I did that as well.

Its really great that you have decided to go "greener". I am a hippie chick from way back. My hybrid civic is getting almost 48 mpg and I am loving it!

I don't think anyone would care if you were off-topic on this board, but if you do decide to blog instead, let us know!

nite

linda

 

[Foxfiregrrl]

Thanks, guys. I have not decided if I want to blog or not yet. Part of me has these grand ideas of having a blog that Lots of people actually read, but that is not very realistic, especially since I don't have any particular topic in mind to blog about. For now I will keep posting here and let you guys know what I decide.

Today has been ok so far. I did not end up exercising though. I also had most of a bottle of wine left from vacation. I decided to finish it off so that it will not be hanging around tempting me. Then I will not be buying anymore.

Food was:
b - kashi w/ soy, coffee
l- chicken salad sandwich, grapes and cherries
s- a tad of misc. candy
d - leftover chicken curry
S? - Wine

I did not have to terrible of a first day back today. The "kid" decided to sign herself out of foster care. I hope she will be ok. For me that means I will have one less case I better enjoy it while it lasts Oh, yeah, one of my other teenagers fell off her bike while I was gone and broke her arm! Poor thing! I knew she was clumsy but Gee whiz!

Oh, I thought I would share some Green living news that I learned over the weekend... Compact Flourescent Light bulbs (CFLs)have small amounts of mercury in them which means that they should not be thrown into your regular garbage and sent to the landfill (this I knew). I was very concerned about what our recycling/disposal options were going to be since our city has not really embraced the recycling thing. Well, Home Depot recently announced that they will take all unbroken CFLs at all of their stores and they will recycle them. That is good news for us because the Home Depot is fairly conveniently located for us. The CFLs last a long time, so hopefully I won't have to take any there for a while. We are replacing our regular bulbs with the CFLs as the regular ones burn out. Anyway, just thought I would share in case that little tidbit could be helpful to any of you

Amber

 

[Foxfiregrrl]

Wow, somehow I didn't realized that I didn't check in here during the week.

Happy 4th of July!!

Today we spent our 4th cleaning, and cleaning, and more cleaning The worst part is that we didn't get done half of what we would have like to have. We have lots of projects that never get done and then all the other maintenance things that we have been neglecting since vacation. So we worked on a couple of projects and some basics. We plan to do some more cleaning tomorrow, but hopefully not spend ALL day. Then maybe we can relax some on Sunday. I can't believe how much cleaning there is to do and we don't even have kids to make a mess yet

This week went ok. I had a touch of the post vacation blahs at work. I just struggled to get motivated. Finally Thursday I started to get into the swing a bit and then it was time to go home

I took my lunch to work everyday, but I did end up going out for a scoop of ice cream with a coworker on Tuesday... so I'm counting that as "eating lunch out" this week. We ate out for dinner on Thursday which means that we can't eat dinner out at all this coming week. That is going to be a tough one

We walked on Tuesday, but my right hip and leg started to hurt REALLY bad and I had to come back home and lay down. I'm not sure what caused it and it hasn't hurt since Other than that I did not get any exercise in this week. I will do better next week though.

I have not bought anything except groceries so far.

The weight that I put on during vacation is starting to slowly melt back off. I am at 196.6 today and to hit my "ten" pounds for the challenge I need to get to 184. That is because we decided that we should lose 10 pounds from what we were before we left for vacation, not from what we weigh after eating bad for a whole week. I am fine with that because I knew that just getting back to eating normally would make that weight slide off. Now, I just have to get the other ten pounds to slide off. THEN, I'll gain them all back again when we go to Disney!!

No wine or alcohol of any kind since Monday. This evening has been a bit tempting, but we don't have anything in the house which is how it needs to stay

Ok, so I decided to fiddle around with a blog. I'm not sure if I will like it or not, but I'm gonna give it a go. I found myself thinking about topics to write about when I was cleaning today. So, if you'd like to come read more of my ramblings feel free to come check it out. www.foxfiregrrl.blogspot.com I am still trying to figure out how it should look and what to put for the description etc. So if you have any suggestions let me know

Hope you guys are having a good 4th!!

 

[Foxfiregrrl]

Well it's been a good weekend so far. We got some more cleaning done yesterday and decided that was enough for one weekend. Our kitchen and living room look SO much better now!!

We took it easy for the rest of the afternoon. Then settled in around 10pm to watch a movie. We had not been watching more than 15 minutes when DH got a phone call. One of his buddies forgot to pay his power bill and they cut off his electricity while he was out of town for a few days So, he asked if he could come spend the night with us. Sure why not. So he came and we finished watching the movie, then he and DH stayed up half the night playing video games.

We were supposed to eat lunch at my Grandma's today, but my parent's weren't going to be there. Well, anyway, we overslept Big time. I usually work up by 10 or 10:30 on my own on Sundays, but I must have been REALLY tired because I slept all the way to Noon! So since we overslept and had company, we decided not to go. Well, then we had to figure out what to do for lunch that included our guest. That ended up meaning that we ate out for lunch. Which is kind of what I wanted to do even though I know that I'm supposed to be doing better.

So, that means that we messed up on our eating out challenge already. BUT we are not going to let that get us off track all together. We decided that we will just stick with the challenge as if this didn't happen. Meaning that we cannot eat out this coming week, but will be able to eat out the week of the 14th. I think we are still doing pretty well considering how often we had been eating out before

I think that is all I have to report for today. No exercise. I am hoping to get a jump on that again starting tomorrow always tomorrow, but I mean it this time

 

[lindalinda]

Hi Amber! I will go check out your blog! You are way too high tech for me, I know nothing about that stuff, wouldnt have a clue where to start.

As for you hip and down your leg pain, that is sciatica. Seriously, that is the exact description of it. Youve pinched a nerve or something. If it doesnt stop you should try a chiropractor of physical therapist. If that doesnt work you can get shots, but it is probably temporary and will go away.


Have a nice week!


linda

 

[lindalinda]

Ok, I love your blog!

And I am teal green, btw.

You Are Teal Green

You are a one of a kind, original person. There's no one even close to being like you.
Expressive and creative, you have a knack for making the impossible possible.
While you are a bit offbeat, you don't scare people away with your quirks.
Your warm personality nicely counteracts and strange habits you may have.

Yeah, well. it says I'm weird.

 

[Foxfiregrrl]

Thanks, Linda! The blog was actually REALLY easy to set up. I just went to blogger.com and signed up. They have templates all done up and you just choose one and start blogging

So, You're Teal... which means your weird... maybe that's why I like you so much

My hip/back pain is gone now. It really only was that one day, so I think maybe I sat wrong or slept wrong or something.

Well, I made my final payment for Disney today I still had a few days, but I wanted to do it before I forgot. I put it on our New Disney VISA I finally convinced DH that we should get one. Now I'm just trying to build enough points on it to cash some in when we go

DH & I went for a mile walk today. It was hot so we didn't go any further, but I figure some walking is better than nothing.

Nothing else really exciting going on. I just wanted to add two TV shows that I'm totally in love with are "Jon & Kate plus 8" and "It's not easy being green". The latter is on Sundance Channel and is about a family in Cornwall, England that is trying to become completely self sustaining. They have a water wheel, windmill, and solar panels so far. And they even made a composting toilet, which they actually made seem not half bad Anyway, if you get a chance you should check it out. They are fun to watch if nothing else.

Night!

 

[DisDee]

Hi Amber, what a great feeling to pay off the vacation! What are you dates again? My DD just planned a trip with her in-laws at the end of September and I'm so jealous...LOL! I realized from your ticker that you're just a year older than DD. She'll be 29 on Aug. 5, so I'm old enough to be your mother. Scary!

Good for you on making some attempts to go green. That's not an easy thing to do, but every little change can make a big difference in the long run.

 

[Foxfiregrrl]

Hey, Dee. Yep, I'll be 30 on September 1st. I find that I have a tendency to make friends with people who are somewhat older than I am. In college, the lady that I hung out with and connected with the most had two kids my age. It was funny because we had the same last name and people would ask if we were sisters (even though we looked Nothing alike)

I have not been online a lot this week. It has been somewhat busy and DH was on call which means we don't sleep well at night. So we were hitting the hay early.

Then any time I was online I was working on some T-shirt ideas for an adoption conference we are going to for work in August. We are doing a Finding Nemo theme. So I enlisted the help of the wonderfully creative people over on the DISign board. I have a thread over there and even made a couple of disigns myself (which is really scary by the way!) Here is the link if you want to check it out http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1879865

If you do, let me know what you think We are going to most likely pick 3 or 4 designs and put them on tshirts. I'm excited.

K, well, it's been a long day. I'll write more tomorrow!

 

[lindalinda]

I went and looked. I didnt even know that board existed!

I liked a lot of the designs but that first group the one that said "be a light in their world", with the light shining thru the water, I loved that one the best. I welled up a little on that one.

there were lots of cute ones, I love the turtle guy esp.

nite

linda

 

[Foxfiregrrl]

Hi, Linda. I totally agree about the one with "Be a Light in their world" I say it makes me "all a flutter" I really love that one! However, we are going for a more cartoony theme, so I'm not sure if we will use that one or not. We may end up doing several, so it may get used.... I asked everyone to vote today.

Well, I was away at a Prevent Child Abuse seminar Monday and Tuesday. I thought I would be able to get online at my hotel in the evenings, but their internet was down So, I've been having a bit of withdrawal

We had our family reunion on Saturday and it was fine. We have SO many little children in our family now, I swear they are going to outnumber the adults pretty soon!!

Then we went to a birthday party for DH's BFF's daughter. I swear those people are INSANE!! This was her 7th bday and it was at one of those buffet pizza places. We got there and the mom (yes, this is the crazy lady) was not there yet, but BF was there and the kids. Well, BF forgot his pager for work and needed to run home to get it. The mom shows up w/ balloons, but doesn't have the cake. BF runs home to get his pager and the mom is like "oh, I need to run next door and get the cake". Now, almost all of the kids and other parents were there by this time. The grandma says let me go get it and the mom is like oh no I'll go. Finally the grandma was like "NO, I'll go. You need to be here with your guests". Anyway, I was just like good grief! I cannot understand why in the world she had not already gotten the cake?! The party was at 5pm!

So she comes over while we are eating and says that the girls just Had to wear their Hannah Montana outfits today, so she had to do 2 loads of laundry before she could take her shower and that is why she was running behind

Then an hour and a half later they cut the cake. Everyone has eaten pizza and the kids have played in the arcade. When everyone is about done with the pizza, the mom looks around and goes "do we do presents now? I don't know how this works?" HOW do you get to having a child who is 7 years old and NOT know the basics of a birthday party? Anyway, I tried REALLY hard not to be critical, but she is just WAY too nutso for me!

Anyway. Sunday we had lunch at my grandma's as usual and then I went to Atlanta for my conference. It was nice and I guess I learned a few things. The best part was that there were two ladies there that I used to work with in Baldwin County (the Horrible place I was at before Bibb). They were probably the two people I was closest to and hung out with the most when I was in Baldwin. So we got to hang out the whole time. It was good to catch up with them. I wish they didn't live 45 minutes away. I know that isn't That far, but it is far enough that it makes it difficult to hang out easily.

So, my eating was very bad all weekend and for the last two days. I am not back on track yet, but I am going to work on it. I haven't been working out either. I REALLY want to get back into that, but just have not gathered the energy. I will though!!

Well, have a great evening!

 

[lindalinda]

Amber amber amber. I want you to flag this post (I mean yours up above). In a few years, after you have a couple of urchins running around and your brain has turned to mush and you notice you have been wearing a shirt with spit-up stain for 3 days straight, re-read that one and you will understand exactly where that woman is coming from! Oh, you dont think it will happen to you, but it will.

I had a birthday party for Kevin once when he was maybe 9? anyway, it was for the opening of a Harry Potter movie, and around 10 kids were at the theater watching the movie. It was the first day so the movie was on a bunch of screens, like 30 minutes apart. One of the little girls got up to go to the bathroom during the movie and I didnt notice. When she came back she went into the wrong theater and couldnt find us. After the movie is over one of the other girls told me she was gone! I freaked, grab the other kids and go out into the lobby. There she crying her eyes out, with a cop waiting in the lobby. Yep , and her parents are walking up! ARGHH Her mom was cool with it, said she will know next time to tell an adult before she gets up and leaves, but her dad looked like he was gonna kill me! I was mortified.

I am rambling. But you do lose lots of brain cells as a parent. So its not my fault.


nite

linda

 

[Foxfiregrrl]

Well, I've been wanting to tell my news for almost a week now and had to wait. We wanted to tell our families first. But then we ran into some problems. So here it is... it's long, so bear with me.

I didn't start last weekend like I was supposed to, so by Tuesday I knew something was up. I did the hpt and it was positive... very light but definitely a whole line there. I was excited but somewhat cautious. Tony and I decided that I would make an appointment with the doctor and then we would tell everyone, but not until it was confirmed.

Well, I called Thursday and they said that since it was So early in the pregnancy they would not see me yet. They set my appointment for 8/7. Well, I called Tony and we agreed that we were too excited to wait that long to tell people. So, I told my supervisor at work and he told like Everyone that he works with. We made the plan to tell his mom on Friday night, then tell his dad and my parents on Sunday. My parents were out of town until then anyway. So, we told his mom and she was happy. (Tony wouldn't let me tell anyone online until we told our family)

Friday and Saturday I had some minor discomfort in my abdominal region. Nothing major, but some aches here and there. Sunday I got up and seemed to be fine. Then after awhile, I started bleeding, followed by cramping. So, of course I was terribly upset and cried and cried. That ended up giving me a major headache. I took some tylenol and took a nap. When I woke up I wasn't as crampy, but the headache lingered off and on all day and into the night. The bleeding continued, but was not heavy or steady even.

Monday morning, I called the doctor's office. They told me to come on in. They did a sonagram and didn't see anything. The doctor said that it could be too early to see anything. He said the bleeding could be nothing or could be a miscarriage. They drew blood and he said that he wanted me to come back on Wednesday for more blood to be drawn. He said that if my hormone levels double that would be good and if they drop that would be bad. He also said that if they are higher than 2500 then there could be problems because there should be something showing on the sonagram at that point.

So, I didn't get my results yesterday because the lab crashed. They called me this morning while I was in the middle of a meeting with one of my teenagers. The nurse said that my hormone level was like 10.8 which was way too low. She said that the doctor thinks that I have already miscarried. She said that they still want me to come in tomorrow for more blood work, just to be certain that it continues to go down.

What is weird is that I woke up today and felt a lot better. I was in a good mood and felt more hopeful. The bleeding has almost completely stopped and never really did get very steady. So, I really thought it would probably be ok.

I have cried and cried and cried since Sunday. I know that we just started and we still have plenty of chances, blah, blah. but it doesn't change how excited and happy I had been about this one.

I did tell my mom and dad last night, but told them what all was going on. So now I have to call and tell them that I'm not pregnant after all. It is not a call that I want to make.

DH has been very supportive, but he just keeps giving me the logical side. It's early, we just started trying, it happens to a lot of people, we'll just try again, etc. I know all of that and when I look at the logical side I know it will all be ok, but the emotional side is still reeling from it all.

I took the rest of today off of work so that I can just let it all out.

Sorry for the downer news, but I just needed to "talk".

 

[DisDee]

Amber, I'm just so sorry to hear your news. I'm sending you a virtual hug. This is such a sad time for you and DH, and you really do need to allow yourself to mourn your loss. There's nothing I can say to make it "better" for you except to let you know that you are in my thoughts and prayers. Please allow yourself to write about your feelings, and know that I always read your posts even if I don't always comment. Hang in there kid, and surround yourself with the people you love to help you get through this.

 

[lindalinda]

Amber, I am so sorry. I know it doesnt help, but you will feel better soon. It happened to me a couple of times and there isnt anything I can say to make you feel better now, except that it does get better. Your DH is right about it too.

One positive point : You know you can get pregnant. And it didnt take very long either. I know it doesnt matter right now, but you can try again right away.

I suck at writing this stuff down so I will just say feel better soon girl! It will be okay.

linda

 

[Foxfiregrrl]

Thanks for the support guys! I really appreciate it. I have really had a lot of good support this week and I think it has really helped me a lot. I am doing a lot better I think. I still have my moments, but for the most part I'm dealing with it.

Several people have made the same point that you made, Linda. That at least I know that I can get pregnant, which is a major hurdle for many women. The nurse even said it.

I also am taking some consolation in the fact that I won't have to be pregnant while we are at Disney. I know that seems selfish, but I'm kind of glad about that. I was perfectly willing to do the whole thing pregnant, but not being pregnant will make it all so much less worrisome. I can ride what I want, eat what I want, drink what I want , AND I won't be exceptionally pooped out each day

I was told that we should wait one full cycle before trying again. That is not too bad. I can live with that. I will be glad to get back to trying and hopefully we will be successful quickly and stay pregnant next time

I am also trying to view this as an opportunity to get my act together. I was not exercising at all and only marginally eating right. I also had not actually met with the midwife I want to use. So now I figure I have a month or two to get moving in the right direction. I have an appointment scheduled with the midwife in late August. I went to the practice that I will be using earlier this week, but the midwife was not there when I first went. So, I saw the OB who was on call. He was really nice and didn't make me feel like an idiot. I was told when I made my original appointment with the midwife that I could use her for the pregnancy, but that I will have to meet all 5 of the doctors in the practice just in case there are complications. I think that is reasonable. I have heard good things about both the doctors and the midwife. I was pleased with all of the staff that I met this week. They were all really nice and sensitive to what was going on.


So, this weekend, DH and I would really enjoy staying at home and doing mostly nothing, BUT we have another reunion. This one is in North Georgia on Sunday. It is for my mom's side of the family. We skipped it last year because it was on Labor Day weekend, but they moved it this year so I feel like we really should go. My parent's went up tonight and are camping. DH and I will go up tomorrow morning/early afternoon and will camp with them. I think it should be nice. It has been quite awhile since we have been camping. I am looking forward to some S'mores! I have been craving them for a few weeks now, so that will be fun

I'll probably stop in Sunday to report how it goes. See ya then. Have a good weekend!!