School Supply Shopping...

3:46 pm



...it is that time of year again, school starts in 4 weeks! Here in Texas there is always one weekend in August dedicated to TAX-FREE shopping! Unfortunately, the state is waiting until the weekend before school starts to have it! I am not waiting until three days before school begins to make sure my kids have everything just to save 8.25%...



...so today, while Ronan napped with Daddy, I brought the other three boys to Walgreens. Today only at http://www.walgreens.com/ you can print off a 15% off your total purchase coupon. That is saving almost DOUBLE the tax! Also, there are $3/1 backpack coupons in this weeks flier. Luckily, we found a backpack for both Ethan and Tristan on our first try! Regularly $15.99, ended up being around $11 each. Not awesome, but I will take it! This is the first year that I have ever brought the boys with me for their school supplies. So, we bring it home and go through what we have leftover from years past. Let's just say, they were all thrown in a box and going through all of it was not easy! I sweated trying to find it all! One thing I discovered was that I am out of pencils! Have four packages of mechanical pencils but Ethan is still not allowed to have those in third grade! Dang it!



...I did find Washable Crayola Markers for Tristan which I thought I would have to go out and buy so I was happy about that since those are not cheap! I just need more Manila paper for Ethan, dividers with pockets because I only have the ones without pockets and a 1" hardcover binder as I only have the vinyl 1" binders. So, not too bad.



...I just got an email from http://www.cvs.com/ for a $5/$30 purchase so I may check through their flier as well and see if there are any GREAT Extra Bucks deals to be had! Or at least check the preview for Sunday's ad on http://www.hotcouponworld.com/ since the coupon runs through Sunday.



...oh and I did my mile this morning! And I brought one child with me, Coltan, in the Baby Trend stroller and it took me 35 minutes. So far, I am doing better on food but it is Pizza Friday! LOL Well, Coltan is crying, better get at it!!

Day 2 has begun...

12:45 pm

I completed my mile today but not without struggle. I brought the boys with me, Coltan and Ronan and tested out the Zooper stroller. Easy to push but it is heavy with a car seat and Ronan in it. It is three laps around my neighborhood that adds up to a mile. By the first lap, yep I wanted to quit. This is just hard but I know it has to be done. Took me 36 minutes with the stroller to do the three laps.

Breakfast was leftover spaghetti from last night. Figured the heavy carbs in the morning may help my hunger later. Right now, I have a massive headache though and we know it is not from dehydration. I don't think I have ever drank so much water. I know my husband would have liked it if I drank this much water when I was pregnant. I am not sure how I am going to go back to work in a few weeks. I can barely get through the day sometimes. Only chores I have done so far, is take laundry out of the dryer and load and run the dishwasher.

Positive note today: I got my wedding rings back on today! WOOHOO! Not that I have lost weight, I think the swelling has finally started to subside and I was able to squeeze my rings on my finger. I always felt naked without them on and hated being in public with an empty ring finger. So happy that I could get them back on today!

Well I better get the boys some lunch. Be back later.

July 31st, 2009 @ 7:20 am

Well, the headache finally went away but I had to ask Chris to stay home because I could not handle the boys and the headache. Now I am up so early, I will definitely need a nap later. And instead of eating too much, I ate too little. I only had two meals and one of them didn't stay down.

It was very nice to actually get some sleep last night. Chris did an awesome job of getting the kids to bed and taking care of Coltan. So, I am about to get dressed to go walk my mile. No rest for the wicked.

No walk yet. Watched the show "Hung" with the hubby. We DVR'd it to see what it was about...has anyone seen this? It is pretty funny. Not sure it will last though. Trying to see where the plot would actually go but not sure what would happen.

Anyway, making coffee, going to get dressed and then go for my walk. Hubby thinks I should sit today out considering yesterday but I think I should make a go of it. At least try, not going to bring the kids today though and my shins are hurting. Good times...It is Friday though...YAY! That is always a good day...

Day #1....

This was written around 5 pm today:...

...yes, I walked my first mile today. I went as soon as I woke up at 9 am. Though, I did not lay down until 3 am and you know the baby got up at least twice..but I said yesterday: NO EXCUSES!!! I ate a decent breakfast, plain oatmeal with Splenda and non-fat milk and a 1/2 grapefruit. So far, I have downed 3 bottles of water. My goal is to drink a minimum of 64 ozs a day. And yes, I mean water! The only other liquid I have had today is 3/4 c of non-fat milk.

...unfortunately, I am extremely tired so I am VERY happy that my 30 minutes of cardio was completed as soon as I woke up. I know that for myself, if I procrastinate, it will not get done. I did take a nice two-hour nap with the baby this afternoon so I feel a little bit better.


...the eating better is going to take some getting used to. Ever since I had the baby, I have been having a sort of free for all. In my head, I have been trying to calculate all the calories I have eaten...yeah, that's not a pretty number! Currently, I am using sparkpeople.com to track my eating and cardio. It is a nice little website and it is FREE! My favorite word! Right now, as of 4:45pm, I am at 1585 calories consumed (this includes dinner that I have not eaten yet, but have already portioned out for myself) Supposedly I can have up to 2,000 since I am exclusively breastfeeding. I am going to do a little more research to make sure that I am eating enough, because I definitely do not want my milk supply to go down.

*******************************************************************************

And now it is midnight...how did the rest of my evening go? Food wise, not so good. Went to Sprouts with Tanya, Ronan and Coltan and got some fresh fruits and veggies. But, when we got home around 7:30pm, I started to get hungry. I cut up some watermelon for the kids and had maybe 1/2 cup for myself, not much. Then, we start watching Top Chef: Masters. Probably not the best show to be watching when all you want to do is eat!

So around 8:45pm I make myself 6 Triscuits with cheddar cheese on them. But am I satisfied yet? No....So at 9:30 pm, I almost grabbed my Old Dutch Ketchup Potato Chips that my sister sent me, but I put them back on the shelf and grabbed the cauliflower out of the fridge, cut it up and served it with Kraft Fat Free Ranch. Ethan ate it with me, love that he loves veggies!!!

But one last thing...just before Chris leaves for work at 11pm, the boys would like some of the Honey Roasted Peanuts that have not yet been opened. Man those look good...and yes, they are good! So, needless to say, food wise, not too happy with myself. Goal was to eat between 1,500-2,000 calories. I ate 2,300. Those last 300 calories came from the peanuts! Ah well...

Some positives to take away from today: I drank my goal of 64ozs of water! I completed 30 minutes of cardio and I recorded everything I ate, no matter what!!! I really should not expect my eating habits to change overnight. I know that I need a little leeway. Also, what I can take away from today is that I need to figure out why I get so hungry after 8 pm. I know I do not get much sleep, so it could be that I am just awake so many hours, three meals is not cutting it. Also, guaranteed I was consuming well over 3,000 calories a day for the past six weeks. My body is probably not used to me eating so well after all this time.

Also, yes, I read everyone's comments and we will stretch my weight loss goal through to Christmas. I should be losing 1-2 lbs per week while breastfeeding. That puts me out 20 weeks to reach my goal. I am hoping to at least be a size 8-10 when the Christmas party comes around and back to a size 6 for my next birthday! (Well, maybe that goal will be by Easter! ;-)

These next two weeks are really going to be the test for me. If I can just stick to a schedule for two weeks, then I know I can until I reach my goal. The first two weeks are always the hardest!

Had my six week check up...

...how many women hate going to the OB? There is always a wait time, it is uncomfortable and annoying..and many more unpleasant words...


...today was my six week check up since having Coltan. The appointment was at 9:40am, I wasn't given a room until 11:15 am, was weighed and then I sat in a room waiting until 11:35 am to see the OB for 8 minutes. Good times...

...well that is my vent about the office. Before I left my house though, I stated to my husband that I would be making an appointment to "finalize" that our fourth child was our last child. He says to me, "Are you sure about that?"





...am I sure about that? Let's see, we have been married for 9 years and have four boys. Obviously, he is not able to produce girls (yes I blame him and scientifically I can!) and we only have a four bedroom house and six person vehicle. So, unless he plans on getting a bigger house, which would require us selling the current one (not in this market!!!), getting a new vehicle which would also require getting rid of a current one (I hate car shopping) and can GUARANTEE that we would have girl...this is not happening.





...and it is not like the thought has not crossed my mind. When I graduated from high school 15 years ago (YIKES) I stated in the yearbook that I wanted 5 kids. (I also stated that this would happen before I was 30!) Keep in mind, it was 1994, I was 18 years old and it was pretty easy to make those statements when being a parent was such a foreign concept at the time.





...For the most part, having all boys has made having four kids a bit simpler. The clothes last a long time because they are handed down from kid to kid and they can share a room with no problems. The toys stay the same (cars, balls and legos) and they all like to rough house together. If we had a girl in the mix, I may have a different opinion about having four.





...Also, being pregnant is pretty easy for me. With the exception of the annoyingingly high blood pressure and the gestational diabetes, I have to admit, I like being pregnant. I don't get morning sickness, no weird cravings and the clothes are kind of cute. You get to look good while being curvy. But for financial reasons, plus the fact that I am already 33 years old, I will be doing a permanent procedure so I do not have to think about the possibility of making my yearbook predicition come true.





...and now reality sets in. No more babies. This is it. This will be the smallest one your boys will ever be. They only get bigger from here. Kind of sad, don't you think? I looked at about 10-12 pregnant women in the office today and was jealous of every one of them. Crazy huh?





...After you have the baby, everything just kind of hangs there. I kept comparing myself to these women in the waiting room. All of them looked so cute. Then there was me. I'm wearing a Nike workout shirt and matching shorts because nothing normal fits. I have rolls in so many places that I lose count and my glow is gone. My official weight according to my dr's scale: 179lbs.... YUCK!





...so here we are, July 28th, 2009 @ 179lbs. One of the main reasons to write about this is so I can actually stick to the goal. I have no excuses. Yes, I have four kids. Yes, I have a full-time job. Yes, I am tired. None of these excuses are reasons not to lose the weight. Do I really want to look like I just had Coltan for the next 10 years? No.





..so hold me to it. Here we go. What will I do? How will I start? Eating better, exercising...YES! YES!





...My goal: 140lbs by Thanksgiving. Completely attainable. Basically 10 lbs a month or 2.5 lbs a week. Anyone joining me?

Baby Boy #4 is 6 weeks old...how did I get here?

...on June 12th, 2009 I gave birth to my fourth beautiful baby boy Coltan. Who knew that I would be a married mother of four boys? For anyone who knew me before I got married, they never would have thought this. Even my parents thought I would probably just have a career, no kids.


....and now, after 9 years of marriage, I have four boys. Ethan turned 8 on July 19th, Tristan turned 5 on June 23rd and Ronan turned 2 on July 9th.


...but let's back up a bit..




...maybe I should start at the beginning...


My life change on May 10th, 1999. That is the day that I found Christopher Charles Cook in the Hotmail Personal Ads. Yes, I will say it. I found him while looking through the personals!


And why was I in there? On the outside, I seemed like an extremely personable, social and happy person. Inside, I was extremely disappointed with where I was in life. I was 23, living at home for the summer to go back to school in the fall, working with a maintenance crew on our local golf course and working as a waitress.


Yet, just two years prior I was working for the newspaper covering the golf course as a recent journalism graduate from SAIT.


Literally, I felt like I was going no where. I had no relationship prospects, most of my friends were married, had kids or were in steady relationships at least. Even my sisters were. How sad is it when you are the oldest and you can't have a decent relationship?


So I started browsing online. It was a joke really. The ads were funny. Even my mom thought so. There were guys looking for short term relationships, long term relationships...just some real weirdos. It was good for a laugh. Then I came across this "hang-out" ad. A guy in Arizona, saying he was new to the area and was looking for someone to hang out with. I was intrigued by his smile and his ad so I sent him an email, even though I was no where near Arizona.


I gave him the cheezy line of "..so I have never done this before but thought I would drop you a line..." Obviously it was true (not that he knew that) and he ended being the first and ONLY ad that I ever responded to!


Within one week, we were emailing eachother five times a day. I would come home for lunch from the golf course just to check my email. At first, it was nothing romantic. It was just intriguing to get to know each other. So different from other people I knew. I felt a connection just emailing him and getting to know him through this non-conventional way.


11 days after the first email was the first phone call and less than a week after the first phone call, he booked a plane ticket to Canada to meet me. For him, this was risky. Me, not so much. Why do I say that considering I am the girl? Well, he was flying to another country to meet a girl he still had not seen a picture of! A little crazy on his part. Luckily, I am not too hard on the eyes, so people tell me.


But, I will never forget why he said he did this. "I have missed out on too many opportunities in my life and I was not about to miss another."


How could I not fall in love with him?


He arrived at the Edmonton International Airport on June 16th, 1999 at 3:15 pm. I had never been more nervous in my life than waiting in that terminal for him to walk through those doors. And don't worry, by then, he had seen a pic of me! I was wearing a light and airy spaghetti strapped sundress with small purple flowers (courtesy of my friend Nicole) and nervously pacing, heart racing as the doors kept opening and still no Chris.


Then, out walks this clean shaven, blond haired, blue-eyed All American guy, wearing jean shorts and a light green polo shirt. We locked eyes and I knew from that moment he was the guy I was going to marry.


One year and one day later on June 17th, 2000 we were married in my hometown of Whitecourt, Alberta.


But that was the past...that was how we started...how are we doing now? That is what this blog is all about. How do we handle four boys? How do we handle two jobs? How do we handle each other's opposing personalities? Let me tell you, it is not easy, but we do it.


Currently, it is July 27th, 2009..nine years later...four kids later...four moves later.... what does our future hold?