How far I've come...

A moment of bragging. I think I have earned the right to do so now that it is four dress sizes and several pounds later.


June 2007 (Thanks to my friend Ren for letting me use this pic!)

















December 2007































April 2008
























I am now happy to report that I've kept the same weight for several weeks. I'm really enjoying the new lease I feel I have, and all the extra energy. It means I can do a better job keeping up with Matthew! ;-)

The Ides of May

Have come and gone. We are now more than 1/2 way through the fifth month of 2008. Work has been work... schedules are crazy, as always. I haven't seen Matthew since Tuesday night. In about 40 minutes I will be done working for the day, and leave to pick him up.

So... you would think all of this "free time" would have been creatively filled. Sadly, while I have kept myself occupied, it hasn't been creatively. Hours away from the house... most of it near the office. But on the bright side, some of it not.

I did manage to keep doing my workouts, and squeeze in a couple visits here and there. I remember looking at the start of these days and wondering how I was going to fill the time. As it turns out, it was filled with a happy hour that lasted for 3, a visit with a cousin, a night of karaoke (bad choice - not enough sleep that night!), and a night of sleep.

Highlights... laughing 'til I was ready to cry, shopping for cake decorations - who knew there were so many choices dealing with fish?!?!?, descriptions using the word "remarkable," and getting comments about my smile, ie: it is indecent that you can be smiling at this time of day (a couple times in the morning and a couple times at night - it was a LONG day). I think maybe I smile too much - anyone out there caring to share their opinion on that topic should feel free to do so.

And that is all the more that my tired brain is willing to compose today. Hope everyone is enjoying Spring... I'll make sure to keep you posted about what Matthew and I do this Summer.

Until next time ~

Oh Happy Day!

So, this morning has been a nice quiet morning. Easy breakfast, enjoying coffee and a book. Sitting on the couch relaxed while my little one eats his Cookie Crisps cereal and watches Loony Toons.

Happy heart... he moves to the couch and cuddles up right next to me. He lets me hug and kiss on him, cause honestly, I have missed him the last couple days, and just needed to have my arms full of my little boy. (Lots of time at the office - not much at home.)

And it hits me... he is growing up so fast, and he still wants to be near his mama. Ahh... smiling!

The things we do...

This we saw on the way to my parents house to pick up Matthew's things. He was finally going to be staying back at our house for a night or two, before the work schedule got really strange. Since it was a Friday afternoon - and I was not in a rush - we took time to stop along the road, roll down the windows, and watch it for a few minutes. Matthew did a call out the window... hoping it would come closer to us. He sounded like the call of the "bird-in-deep-doo-doo" for those of you who remember that in the movie "Robots." I laughed, and wished I had my video camera with me to capture what he was doing.









For the past few days I have been working an afternoon shift (3-11pm). So Matthew and I have been spending the mornings and early afternoons together... muddling our way through various tasks. The lawn was picked up, trash was taken out to the road, Dad helped us get the lawn tractor ready, and we mowed the yard. We even got our clotheslines up! (Just in time to not use them because rain has moved into the neighborhood. Which is okay - because I need to find some line props anyway to keep them from sagging with all of our laundry hanging on them.)



Here, he is helping with the assembly of his bookshelf. We had been using some nice, sturdy boxes to hold all of his books in his bedroom... but as always happens to boxes over time, they started to breakdown from all the books being taken out, and put away again.















We started with him putting the connecting screws into the hidden catches (or whatever they called the plastic round things you stuck into the shelf bottoms) and then placing them on the shelves. I banged those into place, and put the outside of the case together. Finally - with him holding the tape measure so each nail could be 6" apart - I started the nails for the backing.














He got to finish driving the nails into place. He did a very good job... I just made sure I was far enough away that if he missed, he didn't hit me with the hammer. (I happen to like me knees, and don't feel they need to be altered with a blow from a misplaced hammer shot!)






Outside of these activities... we have spent much time outside enjoying the nice weather. I have even started to show a little bit of a tan! Can you believe that??? This next week I am changing work schedules again - and will be opening. It means that Matthew will be sleeping each night at my parents house... be we get to spend the late afternoon and early evenings together. So, I am hoping that the weather clears up by Monday, and we get to keep spending time outside. Now that the area around the house is completely cleaned... he is enjoying riding his tricycle on the extra bit of pavement we have reclaimed from the land of junk!

Ahh... it feels good to be productive, and do something with Matthew that will hopefully stick in his memory banks for a while. He has a new line for guilt-tripping me. (Which, fortunately, hasn't worked yet.) "Mother," he says, "you never let me do anything fun that I want to do!" Yes, you read that correctly... he calls me Mother now!!! Okay - only sometimes - usually it is still Mama. Thank goodness! Even if I did make him look "too old" with his new haircut, he is still my little "big" guy... and I'm not ready to let go of being called Mama just yet.

Maybe... if you see us out and about... you can ask him about what fun things he has done lately. I am sure that my letting him use the hammer will rank right up there with tractor rides from his grandpa!