Huge accomplishment.

Today I gave in, and I weighed myself. It's been a few weeks since I have done it and I thought that I should check in and see where things stood. I was actually thinking that I had gained a few pounds. But to my surprise, I have lost. I'm almost to my last 10 pound mark. I have 3 more pounds to go before I hit that mark. So I guess that means I have only 13 more pound to go. I have been kinda bad though lately. I know that I have slowed down my progress by drinking the pop again. I know I have. I also know that by cutting out the amount of water that I have cut out, I've not only slowed down my progress but my energy level has slowed down a little bit. The past few days I have cut back on the pop and upped my water intake, just a few days and I can tell the difference.

I listen to people talk about how they can never loose weight. I honestly use to be like that. But one day looking a picture from a friends wedding back a year this past May, kicked me in the face... it was a huge wake up call. I looked disgusting. I was, for my height over weight. It was a very slow process. I started walking. Lots of walking. Not much happened that I could see. Over time I had to really educate myself on how to loose. It's made out to be so complicated when really it isn't. Smaller portions, cut out the seconds, do wheat instead of white, skim instead of vit d or 2%. Low this and low that, fat free here and fat free there really does help. I still eat fast food. Don't think for a second that I gave that up... but I cut back. I eat smaller and I never ever finish my fries.

Being active does help. But I never thought that I could ever do it. And now I can't believe that I have lost 40 pounds.... Determination and not giving up is so important. I learned the hard way that walking just isn't enough, but it's better than nothing. Hardest thing was giving up my iced coffees, milk shakes, and frappes. Every time Jason gets one, I want one so bad.... the other day though I did get a fruit smoothie...super good. I guess my problem was that I expected it to go faster than it was. But, I also want it to stay off. I'm more of a loose slowly but keep it off kinda person now. What sucks though, is that I haven't rewarded myself with any thing yet.... I'm a few over due but oh well. They'll come later some time. I'm just glad that I got to the point that I'm at now. You know you have lost weight when your bra size has gone down two inches and a whole cup size....

Another year....

Well come September I'll be another year older. I have to of course renew my tags, and because the 4 year mark is year, I have to renew my license too. Oh yay me. My tags are a little more due to them being personalized. I don't mind it. Of course I have to renew trailer tags also... They shouldn't be a whole lot this year... hopefully.

I am excited for this month to be over with. I start my new shift starting next month... plus I actually gain half an hour. I can't wait. I will be able to have my afternoons back again. I am so excited. Do I look forward to getting up at 6am??? No... but oh well that's why I make coffee.

Thinking about stuff... this time next year we might be in a much better place... I know I'm getting my hopes up big time.... well no matter what happens we'll be some place better but I really want this to come true.... this is perfect for us. Looking at the pictures I'm pretty happy. If it works out which would be awesome if it does, things would be pretty nice. It's all ready and has things that we would need right from the start coming with it. Thinking about it really makes me smile. We have to wait until next year until anything can happen so there's plenty of time for something to actually happen to where we loose out which would also be ok because then it wasn't meant to be.

I'll post more later, have to get off here and get things cleaned up. Then I'm heading off to bed. I'm so freaking tired...

For real

So where do I start let's see... we went to the fair this past weekend. I wanted to go up north and see my grandma since she was realized finally from having her surgery. She looks 100 times better. I'm sure that she was glad to be home. Since we were up there we went ahead and went to the Miami County Fair. Jason had to go look at Kyle's moms car. The brakes were feeling funny to her so he checked it out for her. My mom watched April and my youngest sister went with us to the fair. It was trying to rain when we first got there so I left my camera in the car. Plus we rode a few rides and it wouldn't have been easy to carry it. It was a bummer leaving it in the car, I could have always walked back and got it, but I really enjoyed not carrying anything lol. Except for my little purple fish I won at a game.

After we got our funnel cakes, we were heading over for the tractor pull and Jason see's this booth. So he goes over and talks to the guys. They were doing helicopter rides. Pretty cheap for a helicopter ride, but it was the first year that they have done them here. So we said what the heck. That was something that I can barely describe... it was just awesome. Jason who gets motion sickness very badly did awesome in it. It was way too cool. We went around the town and I think it was about 6-7 minute ride. It was so worth it. I would love to go up again. Of course I would like for it to be longer, but hey it was so much fun.

After the helicopter ride, we went and watched the truck and tractor pull. They had a pretty good one this year. Had some really good pulls. There were a few pulls where I thought they were going to loose control and go off the track. Over all it was a pretty good day.

After the fair we headed back to my moms to pick up April and while I was there I got to go through a bunch of clothes from sisters from a long time ago and take what I could wear. The biggest shocker was that I tried on a dress, and my new bra size... I use to be a 38 c I'm now in a 34 b... I could not get over it... I still am in shock. It fits so much better.... my other bra was like way to big.... That's when ya know you have lost some weight lol. I brought home a ton of clothes. Some are in really good condition still which is even more cool. I got a really cute skirt. Lot's of shirts. I'm pretty happy since I was not looking forward to going shopping and this saves me money lol. I like being able to wear smaller shirts.

What else.... my other sister is engaged. Found out the other day. Saw the ring Sunday and it's pretty cute. They make such a cute couple. He's very nice and kind to her. So I for sure approve. The wedding should be interesting....

What else... April has really started to like the camera. She wants to take pictures all the time. I keep it hidden as much as I can... she'll just walk about and take pictures of who knows what... I think it's time that we get her own little camera. She knows how to push the button and look at the screen to see what it looks like. She tried to change the channel on the tv too. She knows where the adapter for my mouse goes on the side. She always tries to put it in the usb slot. She can put the key in the ignition lol. Now, if it's the right key way to go, it's usually the other car key, but she has the general idea. She unloads the dish washer for me. She'll hand the dishes up to me and I'll put them in the cabinet. She helps put a new trash bag in the trash can. She even helps me with feeding the cat. She loves feeding the cat. She will try and scoop the litter box if you let her, so we try and stop that. Little too gross for her to be doing that. Yeah, if we let her in the bath room alone she will either start cleaning the toilet or climb up into the sink. Have to be super careful because she has figured out the child safety caps on medication. She will even help prepare her own bath water.

The newest and biggest thing I guess would be the new dog. Brought her home yesterday, and so far she's awesome. She's pure German Shep. She's about 6-7 months we think. She is awesome with April. She passed the food test right away. Not a bit food aggressive, or toy aggressive. She'll let me pull her tail and her ears while she's eating and I can grab the bowl with no problem. She does great with the cat. Great in the car, great on the trailers. the tractors don't scare her, the horses make her bark but that's about it. She doesn't try and play with them or anything. Over all she is great. She loves the pond. They are almost positive that she has been spayed, found what appears the be the spay line. Little scar tissue not a whole lot, but a little. But, if for some reason she hasn't been and does go into heat then we will be getting her spayed but good thing is, we won't have to pay for it.

She knows some basic commands. The only thing that we haven't done is the boundary test which won't be for awhile, until we trust her a little more. She's mostly house broken too which is even better. She stays off the furniture and hopefully we can keep it that way... over all we really like her. She's going to be a very active dog. She loves running so that right there will make sure I keep my butt moving. I can't wait to take her to the dog park and let her run. She will hopefully make a good camping and hiking dog too.

Over all that's about it. Talking to some older friends again... not sure how it's going to go but we'll see. I guess the one thing that people don't understand with me is that I am not the type of person who feels like they have to talk to their friends every single day. You do that with me and I'll get annoyed super quick. Sorry but I run out of things to say and talk about when I talk to the same people every day.... I guess that's why I get along better with some people than others... the ones I get along with best, are the ones I don't talk to every day... some of my friends I don't talk to for days... but it's ok. The world won't come to an end. No I don't rush over and grab my phone first thing in the morning and start texting people. I don't even know where my phone is half the time.

Since I've cut back on that I feel closer with April and even Jason. Also, I have limited text... why am I going to waste all my messages having the same conversation every day? One word answers kill me too.... But I'm guilty of it too some times. With limited messaging you would think you would try to combine messages but no.... we can't do that for some reason... ugh oh well the world isn't coming to an end so it's not that big of a deal. I'm not big on being super close to people... I don't like it. Does that mean I don't like you?? No, it just means that I don't really want you that close to me lol. That's just who I am. I've gone months with out talking to people and then we start talking again, but that's from people who know me and understand.

Wow ok, I think this is long enough for now lol.... didn't realize I was writing a book...

Excited

Well Jason is one step closer to us getting a dog. It's something that we've talked about since we got together. We've had strays in the past who weren't for us, and were crazy and too old... or too hyper... since I started working at CT I've wanted to have the chance to at least foster one of our dogs. Never really put too much thought into it. But, the more we talk the closer we're getting.

Jason wants one, he's admitted that he wants one and with me working at CT we have the opportunity of fostering the dog for awhile before we decide if we want to adopt it or not. Good thing, is that as long as we're fostering we don't have to pay anything. I get food from work and everything that we need until we adopt. Plus, the dog will already have been fixed, and have shots. That's one good thing. If we want, we can also micro chip.

Right now we have a german shep. at work. She's new for us. She's about 7-8 months. Her canines are in I guess. She's so cute. I'm pretty sure she's a mix, but mostly gsd. Her name is Shaw. Not too sure if we would keep the name or not... Haven't really used her name with her yet because she just got a name the other day. So she doesn't know it yet. But during the training we would be using it and I don't want to confuse her later if we change it.

I'm glad about one thing, she's mostly potty trained I think. She sleeps in a crate at night and I'm pretty sure it's dry in the morning. We want a puppy but not a young puppy. I do not look forward to cleaning the crate all the time, plus taking it out as often as a young puppy needs to be taken out. She's at a good training stage right now. Her attention isn't all over the place. She can direct it more closely to the person who is with her at that moment in time. Plus, I want to do remote training. Remote training on a puppy isn't very good though. I would still wait until Shaw is a little older until I started her on it. It would mostly be used for hiking purposes and out at the farm.

I am so excited. He asked me when we could start. We have to wait for new dogs to go through an isolation period I guess you could call it. Some of the dogs that we bring in have kennel cough which is so common from the pound. We actually have a pregnant dog fight now who tested positive for heart worm and it's so sad. After her puppies are born, if she makes it through labor because the heart worm is so bad, she'll be humanly euthanized. She's old. It's so bad that they have serious doubts that she will even make it through labor. She looks so sad...

But anyways... brighter note, hopefully next week we have a dog. Even if we don't adopt her we'll still be working with her to make her more adoptable for the right people. Heck, we just brought back 9 puppies from the prison... there is always another one... we just want to make sure that we have the one who is right for us...

Apri's check up

Went back to the hospital today for her one week check up. they took another chest x-ray and they said that it looked good. There is still some bruising on her lung but it looks good and is going away. Her entry point from were the chest tube was looks excellent they said. Over all she is back to normal. She still wants to be carried and held way more than she ever has. They told me to start trying to get back to normal. Which means to cut down on the baby stuff. Anytime a child suffers trauma they can resort back to baby like tendencies. Her independence is very slowly coming back. She's waking up much better in the morning now. For the first days she would wake up crying in the morning. Even if she woke up on her own.

Things are getting back to normal slowly. The other thing that we have to work on is her fear of being around the horses. the other day when we took her she was afraid of the big horses. That's good to a degree. She has recognized that she was hurt by one of them. But she also has to over come the fear at some point and just be cautious rather than afraid. We don't want her taking that fear with her as she grows up and becoming worse rather than better.

I would prefer that she becomes cautious instead of staying afraid. She needs to develop that cautious attitude at some point. With most animals she's not afraid. That's how kids get injured and this is the prime example. With dogs and cats she's not afraid to put her face in their personal space and that's how kids get bit... or the not being aware of causing the animal pain or discomfort. I went to school with some one who was bit by a family pet who turned on her because she wasn't aware. She was pretty young but much older than April.

Over all things are going good. Let's hope that they stay good...

April's check up

We take April back to the hospital tomorrow to have her follow up apt. They will do a x-ray and see how everything looks. They will also look at the entry point where her chest tube was. It looks pretty good. She doesn't really act like she's in pain at all. She is very active, and doesn't cry or whimper at all. She even wants to jump on the couch and the bed... It's hard keeping up with her.. with in a matter of seconds she's up and jumping... Her appetite has returned completely. Over all I think things are going great. I'll update after her appointment tomorrow...

Other than that things are going really well as best as they can... I've got my car back Jason is getting lots of hours and enjoying his job... I'm looking forward to having this coming weekend off. We get to spend the whole weekend together. It's hopefully going to be great. There is a fair coming up... Maybe we can get to that one since we couldn't do Clermont County. There is a Wild West one coming up in September also that looks pretty fun. Plus, the W.E.B.N fireworks are in September... yay can't wait for those either... April had such a blast last year at them.

Well that is about it for now...

One relief...

Well good thing, I got my car back in working order. Well Jason did along with Chris's help I think. I know Chris cleaned my head lights but I'm not sure if he helped Jason... well in a way he did because he ;ets us use the garage and the tools lol. It was a stupid little wire.... it singed or fried off or something like that... so it wasn't recognizing the alty to charge it I guess. Of course every time you look at that car something needs to be added to the fix list.... Majority of the stuff is stuff that Jason and Chris can do. I have to get tires soon.... real soon.

Another relief is that my grandma should be coming home this week. After having her surgery she had to do physical rehab for a few weeks. Hopefully if everything goes right this week she will be coming home. I'm sure that she is missing home and wants to get out of there asap. Hoping that we can get up there and see her soon.

I have really enjoyed being home with April in the afternoons. I realized after going back to work for two days, that the week I've spent with her I've missed it. One more good thing about me going to mornings come September. Plus the weekends that Jason doesn't work we'll be able to get out and do some things together. I want to try and do some fall things this year. Go to the hay rides, and the pumpkin patches and things like that. It's only August and I really don't want to be thinking about that stuff yet lol but I want to be able to do it this year. Last fall Jason wasn't home enough to do anything.

April will be going to his moms house this week so I can go to work... I wish we had more notice for him going on second shift, but oh well. She really likes going over there. She has different toys for her to play with. Different house, and a different yard. It does her good to have different surroundings.

Well that's about it for now.... I'm sure I'll be doing more blogging since I'm with out Jason in the evenings to hog the computer lol.

End of the summer...

Well we're in August already. That is just crazy. This summer has flown by so far. So many things going on. Last few weeks we had been busy work on the farm. Well, we haven't been out there for over a week to work. April was kicked by a horse and was hospitalized for a few days. She's ok. She's out now and walking around and doing great. She has 4 fractured ribs and had a collapsed lung. Like I said though she's ok now. It was pretty freaky to go through that trauma with her. But I"m so tired of talking about it and explaining what happened...

Moving on... Jason loves his new job. He is starting to drive the forklift now. He comes home happy and he is happy through out the day and looks forward to going to work. He's making decent money too which is even better. Things will be even better I think when I switch to mornings at work. I can't wait. I look forward to having my afternoons free to spend with April and being able to do things... like this weekend there was a really cool fair going on down at Newport and we couldn't go because I work and by the time I get off work and home it's too late to do anything by the time we get there. Plus there is a lot of stress of working a shift alone that sometimes needs two people when we are super busy.

My poor car. It's sitting in the parking lot now. Just sitting. We have to take the alty off and switch it out. We're thinking that the voltage regulator has gone out. It's running completely off the battery now. With everything that goes wrong I'm one step closer to making the decision to get rid of the car. My next car though will be an upgrade in size. I drive Jason's truck and I love it... I'm tired of little cars. I never have enough room it seems. Now, don't get me wrong I love my car I just don't feel as secure in it as I should.

Last night we tried some new food. I tried some new cooking for sure... we had crawfish and fried plantains and steamed artichoke. It was super good. Then to top things off, I made a fresh blueberry pie. I didn't make the crust. I'm not ready for that yet lol. But picked the blueberries and made the filling that goes in with it. It turned out really good I think.