Progress

How do I explain how simple progress can means to me? Little things make me estatic! I wish I could make the world understand how we take things for granted. I may whine and complain and fuss, but truly I am very blessed to see some of the things that I have seen in this lifetime! I celebrate accomplishments that many people said I shouldn't be celebrating, but I have a few words for them: WHY NOT?? Life is meant to be celebrated! Below is are a few things that I have been celebrating through progress!







My Weight: Most of my life has been a struggle with the bulge, and I know I'm not alone in that. I don't want to be supermodel skinny, besides that's just gross! I want to be healthy! I want to be around to celebrate my children's children and so on and so forth. Losing weight has been one battle after another. My health is usually not affected, but since my husband deployed, I've been fraught with children being sick and so on. So, it has taken a beating on my body. These last few months have been a major battle that I have not lost. I have slowly began losing weight. My goal weight is not something I will reveal, nor will I tell what my weight is. My goal is just to get to where I need to be. I have lost a few pounds and have been tracking it weekly. So far so good! I may make my goal before my husband comes home!























(Pardon the pedicure people, I'm a single parent!)





My Children: My children have always been the most important thing on the Earth to my! I have learned many things about them from just raising them. My oldest has been a prime example of why I cannot and will not ever take anything for granted. He has been a joy to watch grow into who he will be. Mind you, his development has been one battle after another. Caleb did not speak until he was 4 and he had many physical developmental problems, which he still experiences today. But I choose to celebrate his accomplishments, instead of mourn that he is not like other kids. I celebrate that after months of trying to get him to gain weight, we are up to a whopping 70lbs! I celebrate that after months of struggling to write his name, he finally can do it! I celebrate that he is almost to double digit addition. Sure, other third graders his age are doing things that he is not, but I don't care. My son is doing what many people told me he would not.







Christian has been an interesting child to watch develop into a little man. He is constantly challenging me for authority and reminding me why I do in fact love my kids so much. He has been my fast developer. Between 6 months and 8 months he sat up, crawled and then started walking. At 1 year he was starting full sentences. This child never fails to amaze me with some of the things that come out of his mouth. Some of the funnier things that I have heard are he asking me to move the dark so he can see his mountains. Or if we're shopping in the store, he'll see something and tell me to put it back because we have it at home and we don't need it. He's definitely going to be an onery one. Oh wait he already is! His tenderness for his brothers melts my hearts, and his stubbornnes for causing trouble makes me want to pull out my hair! This one is going to drive me batty!

Cole has been a very cute little monkey to watch develop. He has changed in many ways and I am definitely interested to see how he will continue to grow. He adores his brothers and calls for them when he wants them: Bathers. He likes to scream Mommy whenever he sees me, which is totally cute and annoying at the same time. But I have to remind myself, what if he didn't talk at all? What if he didn't say anything? I am lucky that I have a child who is verbal, after having a baby who was not for a very long time. Just today, he took a tenative step towards walking. He was so excited about it, but not nearly as excited as his big brother Christian who yelled at the top of his lungs MOMMY HE'S WALKING!!!!





My Marriage: So marriage is hard work. It's not some little love story where you fall in love, and everybody lives happily ever after. Marriage is work. I wish someone had told me just how hard marriage was, so I would have been a little more prepared. We were so naive when we were dating. It was fun and games and then after marriage comes the hard work.




Don't get me wrong, I love being married! I love my husband very much! I just wish someone had told me how difficult it would have been. Marriage is about sacrifice and love and sadness and happiness. All sorts of emotions that I never thought I would feel. We have made it almost 10 years and I am definitely looking forward to another 50!

So when you get upset that your not losing weight, take a few steps back and think what could I do to fix it? When you're not making good grades, think about what you could do to improve it? And if your child is not on track, celebrate the person they are, not the person you want them to be!

Did that REALLY happen??? Some days I can't believe it!!!

I had a bad day last week. And when I say bad day, it was truly brutal. I had a bad reaction to medication that caused my hands to swell up so badly that one of my rings, my engagement ring that I had proudly lost weight for, was stuck. I tried EVERYTHING to get it off. And when I say everything, I mean everything. I tried soap, stuck my hands in ice (well, we didn't have ice, so I used snow), I even stooped to using windex. Nothing worked. I tried to ignore it, but the swelling continued.

I did some research to try and find out where I could have it removed without doing the most damage. The jewelers I called all claimed they could have it off in 10 minutes. They lied. My engagement ring has a super thick band, so it wasn't coming off with their cheap blades. They suggested I go to the ER or the Fire Department. I didn't want to spend 4 hours with all three of my children in an emergency room, just to have my ring cut off.

So we had a nice impromptu field trip to the fire department. The kids were excited, except Caleb who didn't want to do anything but sit and read. Christian couldn't even contain his excitement. There is something about 4 year olds and their fire engines. Its pretty cute.

Anyways, we get there and I, already embarressed about what I need to do, asked if they could cut a ring off my finger. The fire man was absolutely polite to the core. He had us come in to the immaculate station and told the boys they could have a tour of the station when we were done. As he went to fetch the blade, a younger, I'm assuming a rookie, fire fighter came up to Caleb and said he was going to cut my finger off. I looked at him in horror. Caleb looked at him with his big blue puppy dog eyes and burst into tears. I didn't know who to comfort first. The poor fireman was beside himself trying to comfort Caleb. I explained to the poor guy that Caleb had Autism and they took things very literally. The fire fighter nodded and looked horrified. He apologized and kept repeating we are not going to cut your mommy's finger off, just the ring.

I finally calmed Caleb down, who became amused with the sticker the fire fighter brought him. The ring cutting was pretty simple and then the kids got their tour of the station.

I am not upset, because the poor guy thought Caleb was just a regular kid who would understand he was joking. I even laugh about it now. Its just one of those moments where you go: Did that really just happen??? I guess someone needs to give the fire fighters some sensitivity training or something...but wow, there is no words to describe THAT situation. It was just NOT my day!