New Laptop Means...

NEW POSTS!!!! YAY! I know you are all excited. Right? RIGHT?!

My wonderful husband got me a new laptop. How awesome is that? I had no idea he was getting it. He asked what I wanted just for me, I brushed it off with a "oh I don't need anything".  Then a few days later, we were talking and I mentioned a laptop would be awesome so I could blog more and have more pictures on it. He was paying attention, and BAM brought it home last night. I guess that earns him brownie points.


I have an u/s on my gallbladder, which I will be having surgery on. I will spare the details. But afterward, I will work on getting a new look on my blog and work on my first (second if you count this one) post back! No more sporadic posting! Three cheers!!!! No? Well, one cheer, at least?  Ahem. At least be looking for a new fresh look and new posts daily. Until I get bored and find some other excuse not to blog. Just kidding. Kind of.









Oh, and please forgive any typos for a while, it is hard to get use to typing on an actual keyboard again. I have always hated touch screen keyboard, but apparently, I was use to it.

Little Chicks

Our Valentine's Day present to both of us were 9 new baby chicks.

3 buff orpingtons, which is what our mama bird is, 3 americaunas, which is what mama bird's babies are mixed with, and 3 barred rock, which are beautiful chickens when grown. All hens.

When these chicks are grown we will have an even 12 hens and one rooster, Harold. Our other roosters went to the butcher block.

The chicks are living in a rubbermaid tote with a wire cloth and wood top. We have a heating lamp on them as well. They are in our dining room for a month or so, then we will move them into a bigger tote in the garage.

They are so cute and chirpy and are starting to tame. This morning they woke up when I was taking their lid off to give them food and water and instead of cowering in the corner, they ran around my hand, not scared at all.

Three of the yellow ones are the buff orpingtons, the 2 brown ones and one yellow are the americaunas, and the black ones are the barred rocks.

Good Bye!

To my blog? Nope. To 17 pounds lost this week! Go me! I am doing it this time. This is the longest I've gone. I have faith in myself. I have said it before, but it's true this time.

My kids are more important than food. I say this myself hundreds of times a day. Everytime I want to go eat everything in the kitchen. Everytime I have a headache from craving my Pepsi.

And it's true, they are so much more important. I will not die at 65. Being fat is not my fate.

I have been pretty strict with 1200 calories a day. I have gone over, in fact, I had Chinese last night for dinner. But I worked out a little extra, and more importantly, I didn't drink the liter of Pepsi with it. I drank water. In fact, that's all I have drank the last week. With the exception of 2 coke zeros. And I have been drinking lots of it. 100oz-120oz a day. I have also been logging minutes on my elliptical.  I am sure most of my loss was water weight. And I'm sure this week will not be as good. But that's okay. A loss is a loss and I will get there. We are going to Disney World this June and I will be 50 pounds or more lighter. That's my first goal. And I will hit it.

Head Stones and Other Things

Today we are all going to pick out mom's head stone. I am also going to stop by her grave and collect her Christmas wreath to save for next year. Then afterwards, my brother in law and nephews and perhaps, brother, are bringing the rest of mom's things here, where my sister and I will sort through them. It is going to be a rough day.

In kid news, we have all been sick with something or another since the end of November. Ugh. Passing it around, and then someone else gets sick with something new. Great. Yesterday we scrubbed the whole house and hopefully that helps stop the sickness cycle.

Alta has a GI appointment on Feb 27, that is the soonest they could get us in. Hopefully she will have gained some weight. At her lasy doctor appointment, she weighed 19 pounds even. She is also somewhere around 29 inches. My little petite princess. Please keep her and us in your prayers.

My computer is junk, so I have to blog on my phone completely now, which leaves pictures crappy. But I will add some at the end, since I can't figure out how to add them between the texts on my phone. I has pictures from Christmas to post for you to see as well as some other places we have gone to and done the last month or so.

Dear Mom

Dear Mom,

Can you read this in Heaven? Do you check in on us? We all miss you. It is almost Christmas, it is next week. I am having everyone over for finger foods and to watch the kids open presents, just like you always did. The kids are getting so big. Well the boys are, Alta is getting taller. Parker is starting to forget you, but every once in a while he remembers and says something about you. And when I'm sad, he asks if I still miss you. I answer that I will always miss you. Landon doesn't talk about you much either, but he remembers you. It doesn't seem right that our world keeps moving without you. I saw a lady yesterday at the grocery store, she was built just like you and had the same hair color and cut, and since I only saw her from behind, for a second I got excited and thought it was you. I was so happyy that I finally found you. And then, I remembered. It couldn't be you. I wonder if I will ever stop searching for you, if I will ever stop getting butterflies everytime the phone rings. It doesn't feel like you are gone. Just away. And that you will be back. And how I wish that were true. It will be 4 months this month. It seems like yesterday. But at the same time, an eternity. I hope you are having fun up there. I hope we will meet again someday, but not very soon. I still have a lot to do down here. So, Merry Christmas, Mom. Have a great time celebrating up there with family and friends that have gone before or maybe after you.

Update on Alta

Alta has been seeing a GI for her reflux and poor weight gain since August. On October 18, she weighed in at 19 pounds 1 ounce. At her appointment on Thursday she weighed 18 pounds 10 ounces. So at that point, her GI decided to run a few more tests. So this coming Thursday, she will have a sweat test to see if she has cystic fibrosis. If that is negative, she will have an endoscopy done with a biopsy of her esophagus to see if she may have eosinophilic esophagitis. If that is negative we are going to try and find food allergies that cause her not to gain. We are also taking her off of dairy and soy to see if that helps. Prayers would be appreciated.