Not done with me yet

I think I can safely say that God has great plans for me, and that He's
not through with me yet. This is evidenced by the accident yesterday.
Looking back on it all, I feel there must have been some angel hands
moving my car, guiding it from flipping over, and from hitting the
retaining wall, then stopping us in the median. Plus slowing down the
other cars that were headed for us. I don't see there can be any other
reasoning why we didn't incur some serious damage.

You know the bumper sticker that says "Never drive faster than your
guardian angel can fly."? I wholeheartedly believe in that. That we
were saved for a purpose, that either I or D has a much greater purpose
here on this earth and that God wants us here longer. You come out of
an accident like that supremely grateful for your very breath of life, a
renewed appreciation for your loved ones (most of em, anyway...lol).

D had been driving me NUTS all morning, just hyper, and at the end of a
long weekend, I was needing a break. But after that, a whole new light
shined on him, and I was able to enjoy him the rest of the day. We had
an art contest at my grandmas, and then I took him to a movie to help
our nerves. I don't know if it was the new attitude about him, or if he
really WAS being this good, but he did GREAT through the movie. Not a
peep was heard from him, and he thanked me on the way out for taking him
to a movie. It was just such a Mommy/Son bonding moment that my eyes
welled up.

I'm probably glamorizing a lot of this, but it's also really hard for me
to describe the accident itself, at least how serious it could have
gone, and how terrified I was at the time. I want to downplay it, but
all night as I relived it in my dreams, I thought about all this stuff,
and just needed to get it written out. I thanked God all night that we
had no damage, no injuries. And will continue to count my blessings!

Thanksgiving has come and gone!

And what a whirlwind it was!!! I'll skim through the highlights for ya. Wednesday evening before Thanksgiving, I hosted an MNI at my house. Some of my fave chicks came and we had a great time. We played games and watched a movie, lots of laughter and, well, it was just fun!

Thanksgiving was busy! We did the Turkey Trot with my friend Dina, then joined my family for lunch. After that we met up with my best friend and her family for dinner at Cracker Barrel for dinner, then went back to their house to help put up their Christmas tree. We decided to hit up Toys R Us opening for Black Friday at midnight! So we got there at 11 and the line was wrapped around the building. We didn't get out of there til 3am. But, I got D all set for Christmas, and got some good quality time with my girl, so it was worth it.

On Friday, we slept in, and then got in a bit of mall shopping, and then joined Dina and her girls for a yummy dinner. Then we hit up a Dickens Christmas in Mckinney but it was pretty late and by the time they closed, the kiddos were DONE. (But I did take D by Kohls on the way home...lol)

Saturday, was sleeping in again, and then we hit up the Galleria to see the gorgeous Christmas tree, eat some dinner with friends, and walk the mall a bit.

And finally Sunday. Sunday morning, D and I were in an accident. We're ok and sustained no car damage, praise the LORD, but it rattled us both pretty bad. We were coming off a ramp into downtown dallas, hit a slick spot, careened towards a wall, and finally ended up spinning around and going backwards up over a curb onto the grass median. I still am in just amazement that we didn't hit anything or anyone! The rest of the day passed uneventfully. We had lunch at my grandmas, and then I took D to a movie (Planet 51, which was pretty cute) to try to take his mind off things, he was quite edgy and anxious the rest of the day. Neither of us slept good last night and I'm pretty sore today. D hasn't complained but I gave him some Tylenol anyway.

So that was our weekend in a nutshell. It's back to work today, and I can DEF say I am ready for Christmas! I hope all of you had a wonderful blessed Thanksgiving with your family and friends (and friends who are family...lol)

Busy weekend!

But a fun one. Saturday was THE busiest sat we have had in a while. We were out the house around 8am to head to the Dallas Zoo for the Alzheimers Memory Walk. It was fun! My friend Helen and her family joined us and the boys had a blast! At noon, we headed to Gattitown for a birthday party for my best friends son. I can NOT believe he is 7 now! I remember the day he was born and going to visit Stacy in the hospital. *sniff* The years sure have flown.

After that, we headed to Farmers Branch for Chera pics! I can't wait to see them! And finally after all that, we hit up our first Single Parents Game Night through our new church. It's really hard to enjoy it when D is acting up and you know people don't understand "him" (though I wouldn't expect them to, with us being new). So I ended up leaving after about 1.5 hours, to keep him from going into total meltdown mode, so we could leave on really good terms...lol And NOT have me dragging him out of there screaming. It was great to meet some of the other single parents, I hope to keep being able to join them!

It was a good day overall though, despite D having had blue dye in the birthday cake, and you could DEF tell at the Chera pics. Oy vey.

Today was pretty good. We spent some time at my grandma's for lunch, and then headed to go spend some time with my friend Beth and her family. It wasn't near as busy, but it was just as good of a day, and good to reconnect for a bit. We haven't seen them in awhile and have missed them!

Yay for a Blue Day...or two...

Ok so D didn't have to get pitched out a window. He got a blue day yesterday and today. Whew! I don't have a clue what all that was about, but at least it seems to be over, for now.

It hasn't been the greatest two days food-wise, but I'm trying. But there was a cookie in there yesterday. And a brownie in there today, and uhhh well...yeah.

On a good note, last night, while D was in Awanas, Teresa and I got in an hour walk at the mall. And this evening, D and I got in a 20 min walk at The Walmarts this evening before doing our shopping. We have Chera pics this weekend so having to get prepared for that. I can't wait! And since Saturday morning is the Alzheimers Memory Walk, we'll have our 3rd hour long day for this week.

Turbulent Tuesday

I'm gonna need you guys to pray for my child. Because he has now had 3 red days at school in a row, and I'm fixin to pitch him out a window. :( His school is on a color behavior system (blue, green, yellow and red...you can guess which one is badddddd). I'm not sure WHY he's acting out this much, we've had no med changes, no major changes at home, he's been getting his sleep, he already got his 6 year molars. I just am clueless. I did talk to his neuro's nurse yesterday about his meds. We've been on a waitlist for a neurobehavioralist for awhile now, and she's going to see about referring us to one outside of Children's. We'll see how that goes.

Food was a bit crappy today. I ended up not eating breakfast, and had a doughnut that was at work. Blah. That kind of set the pattern for the whole day. I had two tacos and a pintos and cheese for lunch. Then in the afternoon, dill pickle chips. Dinner was ok. I had chicken with ketchup, steamed carrots, and mashed potatoes. And then later in the evening, I had some chips and salsa. Not a "great" day, but definitely could have been worse.

I had wanted to go on a walk again this evening, but with D's red days, I needed to get him home and in the bed. I did get in a 20 min WATP workout in the evening though.

And so, training begins...

50.5 weeks until I walk the 3 Day. Yes I'm counting down. I need to, I won't be able to do this otherwise, or at least not do it very WELL. And while I have no problem needing to take the sweep van for a few miles of it if absolutely need be, I really would prefer to keep that to a minimum.

So, that said, training begins today, which includes, getting in more walks! On the blog itself, I changed my ticker on the right side here to log miles walked in training for this. I'm also going to take off the weight loss ticker, clean some of my blog lists up, and you'll see a few other minor improvements over the next few weeks to the blog (plus some cute pink stuff show up to be able to donate to the 3Day *grin*)

Food today has been good. I had a cereal bar and some sugarfree hot chocolate (with a shot of coffee in it) for breakfast. I had some pickle chips for a midmorning snack and then a Weight Watchers ziti meal for lunch, and a bottle of Vitamin Water. My afternoon snack is a fat free yogurt. We have to go to the mall tonite so dinner will likely be a CFA chicken strip salad with light italian. Then I think we'll stop by Braums for a kids size orange sherbet to end my day at 1275 calories.

Output: since we'll be at the mall tonite, I'm going to make it an hour workout day with a good walk, after we do the shopping we need to for a picture session this weekend.

Weekend of possibilities and social strides

Anyone who knows me well at ALL, knows that I do not like social situations. I love them but I don't like them. I get very anxious and nervous. Well, on Friday, I took a leap of faith and put myself out there for a big social encounter, and while I want to hyperventilate about it, I'm actually looking forward to it next weekend. I know I'm gonna be a nervous wreck all week about it, but I'm trusting God that He gave me the courage to step up and step out, that it will be worth it.

Food was not good this weekend. I treated D to IHOP since he was apparently needing pancakes from there. Its hilarious, he's been CRAVIN them apparently. Asked for em all week, then Sat morning while eating his cereal bar, said "raise your hand if you want to go eat pancakes somewhere!" then while at the store that evening (not knowing I had plans to take us there) he goes "so I guess we have to go to ihop"...the boy was seriously feignin!!! lol He ate his eggs, his sausage, all 5 of his silverdollar pancakes AND one of mine (I got the 2x2x2 (2 eggs, 2 bacon strips and 2 pancakes, but gave D one of mine)! And he got offended when I left half of my ONE pancake on the plate. Silly kid. Then, I hosted an MNI at my house last night, some friends came over and we ate pizza, chips and dip, brownies, and watched Tyler Perry movies. We had a great time and they were over til about 3am. Late night! But totally worth it! It was great having people hanging out to chat with.

Today we went by my aunts house for lunch with the family. We had beef stew, cornbread, and cake for dessert. I was quite full!! D and I stopped by KFC on the way home. I got a grilled chicken meal with mashed tatoes and green beans. Then I had the piece of cake that I brought home this evening and some chips and dip later.

So now its Sunday night, and I'm preparing for a long week. Expect to see some good workouts coming! We're coming up on the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving Day, which I'm looking forward to! I'm still hanging on to this challenge with Teresa (barely but doing it!). I do need to stop the WATP and biking, and get more of my workouts done as WALKS. I can definitely feel that there's a difference and with having gained weight back, walking should be TOP priority right now, or I'm really going to struggle at the Trot. Here's to a great week! AF is coming to an end slowly but surely so I should be able to get moving around pretty nicely. I've been relegated to the bike the last few days.

Two big decisions

One...I decided to withdraw from doing the relay team at the White Rock race in a month. With the way its looking, it will be the worst day of AF, and with others depending on me, I don't want to chance that. If I had signed up for the half itself and ready for it, I'd be more inclined to chance it. That was a tough decision, and it was really hard to write that email. But I'd rather have done it now than a week before WR.

Two...I might be crazy. I decided to sign up for the Susan G Komen 3 Day next November. It's 60 miles in 3 days to raise money for breast cancer research and programs. My aunt is a breast cancer survivor and I do this in honor of her. As part of this though, in order to participate, I have to raise $2300 over the next year. If anyone reading this feels led to give to that, even just $10, here is my fundraising link: Donate Here. I greatly appreciate any and every donation!

Happy Veteran's Day!

Today is a day to remember those who have served our country, fought for our freedom, and preserved our rights. Today I think a lot about my grandad and the price he paid for his country. I have nothing but pride for our troops, those who have served and those who continue to serve.

Last night I found out that D was one of 5 kinder kiddos picked to get up at the school assembly this morning and lead the Pledge of Allegiance. I'm so proud of him! I went into work late so that I could be there to see it. And yes I got it on video. Senator Florence Shapiro was there as well as a lot of veterans and active duty military. It really made my heart swell to see that, and I'm so glad I made it a point to go. But I wouldn't have missed D doing that for the world! You could tell he was overwhelmed as he got quiet, and didn't say much, but he stuck it out. He even kept sneaking glances at me to make sure I was still watching, so cute!

Tonite, D went to Awanas for the first time at our new church. He absolutely loved it and mommy loved having 1.5 hours of Out Of The House Mommy Time. I'm still getting used to this church and didn't quite want to start in the middle of one of their classes, nor did I want to go to the bible study yet. I thought about going to Target or Starbucks, but wanted to stick close to the church tonite, so I ended up in their cafeteria. I ate some dinner, read my book, listened to music and just relaxed til it was time to go get him. I am loving this church, still trying to find my place in it, but their special needs ministry has welcomed D with open arms.

Food today was not the greatest. Due to schedule change for this morning and not planning for this evening, it threw my whole day off. I did have a cereal bar for breakfast. But I forgot to bring my lunch, so I ended up ordering in with coworkers. I had sweet n sour chicken, but didn't eat but half of my rice, and none of the sauce. I had a fat free yogurt for snack. Then this evening, I didn't plan well for eating at home since we had to rush straight to church, so I grabbed D something on the way. I ate at church, a slice of pizza and then a romaine/tomato salad from the salad bar there with some ranch. No snack tonite.

Output: right after I got D in bed tonite, I did a quick WATP, which is about 20 minutes with the stretching you do.

Tuesday

Not too much to say for today, as it was a typical day, though I have lots more to say about Wednesday so keeping this one short.

I crapped out on logging my food so I don't know cals on some of it, but here it is: breakfast was a cereal bar. Lunch was a Lean Cuisine pizza. In the afternoon, I was CRAVING chocolate and ended up having a Hersheys bar with almonds. Then I had my yogurt. Dinner was the rest of the porkchops plus spaghetti, green beans, oranges. Then in the evening, I made some iced tea, but ran out of sweet n low. I had a bad caffeine headache so I ended up making sweet tea with actual sugar, and then had a 100 cal bag of popcorn to go with it. Not all great choices, but I did promise to write it all down, I think that kept it from getting worse.

Output: I got up early to work out, did the 30 minute WATP. Then in the evening, I did 30 min on the bike to finish up my hour.

Manic Monday

Ok not so Manic, but still a Monday. And I went to bed too late last night to catch up on sleep from my night out. My own fault, totally...lol

Otherwise, it's been a decent day. I've been making some changes lately: spiritually, emotionally, mentally, and part of that, is that I'm now committing to posting EVERYTHING I eat on here. I don't want to allow myself the leeway to think that its ok to not post a day and just say "it was a bad day". I think that has made it easier and easier to slide. So, I don't want to be able to get away with it anymore. If I eat crap, I HAVE to post it now, even if I just don't post the calories (if it was something awful at a restaurant where it'd be tough to calculate cals). But the food itself must be written on here.

Like I said yesterday, I went to the store and got prepped for eating this week. I have my food mapped out for the day and should be fine. Breakfast was a cereal bar and about 6 oz of Gatorade (was finishing up a bottle from yesterday). Lunch was a Weight Watchers ziti and a side of green beans. My afternoon snack was a fat free yogurt, and then dinner was broiled porkchops, mashed potatoes and romaine salad with zesty italian light dressing. This put me at 1105 calories. That's room for a small evening snack if I choose to have it, but I'll come back and update this tomorrow if I did.

Output: I was active a LOT this weekend (1 hour walk, night out standing up, 20 min brisk walk at zoo, and then walking ALL over the zoo) so today is not an hour day. I'll be doing a 2 mile WATP this evening to get my 20 min in.

A much needed weekend

It started out Friday evening. My sweet boy had 4 blue days and one green day this week (blue being the best, then green, yellow and red). I was so proud of him! That's HARD for him. So he got 5 crisp dolla bills to do with what he wanted at Toys R Us. We met our friends Teresa and her lil man J for dinner and then the 4 of us headed to the toy store! D got a math lesson, though I'm not sure how much it sunk in. We talked about how much things are, how much he had, etc. I left taxes out of it for now and just threw his purchase (a big claw pick-up hand) in with mine and had him give the cashier his moolah. I still need to figure out how I want to move on with this, how much for him to save of it, etc, so I kept that night SIMPLE.

Saturday morning, we were HONORED to be able to hit up the Heels and Hills cheering station for the Susan G Komen Breast Cancer 3 Day Walk. Two of my fellow Dam'ers, Jackie and Kandi, were walking it, and if you don't know, this walk is 60 miles in 3 days, 20 miles a day. I am just in awe of them. But the whole experience of cheering just had me weepy. D was in rare form, highfiving people, tripping a few of them with his clumsiness...lol But he was definitely charming. Eventually I tossed him up on my shoulders and he was able to highfive (and high ten) with no clumsiness. He kept accumulating stuff from the walkers: bunny ears, undereye stickers, a bracelet, beads. They were all so sweet! People kept thanking us for being there, but all I could say was "thank YOU for DOING this". My aunt is a breast cancer survivor so its near to my heart. And all of these people put in a huge commitment to help keep it from happening to anyone else. Gives a new meaning to the word "hero". *heart*

After that (plus a nap for D and then a 3.5 mile walk for us to get my hour in), it was time to start getting ready for my night out! A week ago or so, my best friend Stacy offered to baby sit overnight for me, and after half a MILLISECOND of contemplating it, I took her up on her offer. The original plan was to hit up a hip hop club and maybe some karaoke. Well, plans soon did a complete 360 as my friends sister is in town and is only into country. So...the plan changed to Billy Bobs. But first, we met up with friends for dinner, before D went with Stacy and we headed to Ft Worth. The 4 of us had a great time at Billy Bobs! Travis Tritt was performing there and while I can't say I totally LOVE country music, I do really like it, and am a fan of quite a few of his songs, so I enjoyed it. Just being around other chicks was really enough for me. lol A night out of the house is ALWAYS a plus.

Despite not getting home til 345am or so, getting in bed at 445am, and then waking up at 830am to go get the D-man, no nap for mommy either, it was still a good Sunday. I made a last minute decision to take D to the zoo, so after lunch at my grandma's, we headed there. D was ECSTATIC to see the elephants, the giraffe, and the gorillas. Those were his top picks today. We had a great time. There are a few pics over at D and I's Adventure blog. We started out our zoo trip with a brisk 20 minute walk to get in my output for the day, before browsing the animals. After that, we hit up some yummy mexican food (I was good for once), then a grocery store trip and finally, blissfully, home.

And while food this weekend aside from dinner tonite was less than stellar, after my grocery store trip today, I am fully prepared for a great week. There is absolutely no good reason, other than meeting up with friends for something healthyish, that I should be eating fast food this week or eating any kind of crap food, at all. I'm PREPPED.

ARD meeting from...well you know...

So apparently I called an ARD meeting yesterday at D's school, from a simple question I asked via email. Since this is a public blog, I won't go into details, but I will say one thing. It was awful and very unprofessional. At least on the part of one person there. The only reason I'm not protesting it or fighting it, is because the end result was the answer to my simple question. I got what I wanted. But it left a very sour taste in my mouth.

However, on a good note, in talking with a coworker who has been dealing with this with her daughter for 21 years, it has now opened lots of resources for me for figuring this special ed route out, AND I now have someone who is willing to go to future ARD meetings with me who has been navigating the system for YEARS, someone whose ONLY job is helping parents with this stuff). I won't be ambushed again. So there *insert juvenile thhppptttttt*.

Food is still sucking pretty good. I had a decent dinner last night but then succumbed to the rest of the candy corn in my house. Not good.

Output: I got in a 20 minute walk with D yesterday evening as soon as we got home since due to the ARD meeting, I was a little early picking him up. This morning, I got up early (my mind was restless all night and all over the place, so I didn't sleep much) and did the 30 minute WATP. I will likely get in another 30 tonite to complete an hour, which will leave me with only having to do an hour one day this weekend. That's a good thing because I actually get a night out, I'm so excited!!

Halfway through this rough week

So I skipped posting here on Monday and Tuesday. Food has not been pretty this week thus far, as it's been a rough week for me. Well, I say that, so far today has not been bad, but its not daytime that's getting to me. It's the nights that suck. I HAVE been getting in my output, though just barely. Monday and Tuesday both, I squeaked by with the bare minimum 20 minutes. Today is going to be an hour day (and well, it HAS to be...lol). I got in 30 minutes at lunchtime, a walk at the Galleria with my friend Teresa. And tonite I doubt we'll get home in time to walk this evening, but maybe if traffic (HAHAHA!) is decent, I can swing it. Otherwise, it will likely be a 2 mile WATP once the D-man is in bed.

Monday was a rough day overall. On Friday, I found out D had failed his hearing test TWICE at school. So we had to go see the ENT. When I called the ENT, they acted like it was urgent that he come in asap this week. The audiologist did a hearing test and PTL, everything came out fine. He passed it, a bit low but definitely within normal ranges. She tends to think its because, since he failed on the higher decibels, that its just his inattention especially with other noises. They do theirs in a soundproof booth, which helps. So...whew. The way the school nurse and the ENT office acted, there was something wrong with the tubes or some kind of blockage. I don't like to fret like that! That was one worry I was able to set aside. Now to deal with the rest of em...

One crazy kid...

Gosh, my child was nuts today. I kept wondering if I really gave him his ADHD meds, sheeshh. He only had 3 pieces of candy last night. And while he did have sugar today, he woke up crazy. I was glad to get him in the bed this evening, at 6pm. Whew!

It wasn't a bad day overall. Just tiring due to him and emotional from some other things going on. We met up with my aunt and bro at PF Changs for a yummy lunch, and then headed over to my grandmas. D wanted to wear his pirate costume again to show her, and I was fine with that, so he got to dress up another day.

Output: I barely got in my hour today. I hate that I let it wait til the LAST day of the week to do it because it meant I HAD to. So we did a 30 minute light walk this afternoon, and then I did 30 minutes on the bike this evening. I'm pretty sore from yesterday so nothing was at a brisk pace...lol but its done.