Just Had An Epiphany

I realized just a moment ago that I've lost 20 pounds since September. I was thinking about when I hit my 10% goal (198) and bought myself my sparkly new ring. That was only 10 months ago.

I have been waxing philosophic for the last couple of days because I'm back on the wagon. I've been a slacker for the last several weeks and I think that's why I've been so grumpy. So I started up again yesterday with the running and the correct eating. I had to buy a new pair of running pants - old ones were too big - and they came in the mail yesterday. I should go try them on, but I've been a little scared. They're size medium and they look small. Too small. But they're stretchy and they're supposed to be small, so I should just bite the bullet and try them on. Maybe I'll do that now.....

Pretend you're hearing annoying "hold" music....

I'm back. The pants are a tad on the small side, but not uncomfortably or disturbingly so. I'll keep them. I had to keep them - nonreturnable from eBay. Anyway, I need to scoot now. It's past time to get dinner started...pork loin roast. If I get it started NOW it will be ready at a decent time.

Mimi Update

So far so good with no mimis. We haven't needed to break out the emergency reserve pacifier. I had to remind Julie (at naptime Sunday and Monday and at bedtime Sunday) that she sent her mimis to Mimi Land and she was ok with that, but Monday afternoon when I asked why she wanted her mimi, she said she needed something in her mouth. I'm hoping she doesn't discover that her thumb will fit.

Rocks and Mimis

Yes, yes, yes, I know. It's been far too long since I've posted an update. So sue me. I've been busy. And grumpy. Busily grumpy. Grumpily busy. But I'm neither busy nor grumpy today, so I have information for you.

I'm not going to post about Sea World right now. We got to Mom's house last Friday, hung out with my brother & his family (wife and twin boys), saw Steve's brother and his family (wife and 2 kids), then the 5 of us plus my mom and dad drove to San Antonio on Sunday. We spent the night and went to Sea World on Monday. It was a fun time and needs its own entry another time.

When we left Sea World late Monday afternoon, Mom and Dad went back to Bryan and we headed to Sonora, Tx. Caleb told us later that day during dinner at Dairy Queen that he didn't realize the town's name was S-O-N-O-R-A. He thought we had been saying S-N-O-R-A. We had a nice chuckle over that one.

The hotel we stayed in was a total dive. DIVE. Complete with spiders and roaches. Blech. I'll not go into detail because...well...ew.

Anyway, Tuesday dawned bright and cheery, which was a good thing since it was Audrey's 5th birthday. We gave her a few small gifts then headed home.

The only thing that complicated our trip home was The Rock here in town. If you've never been to White Rock, you won't know that The Rock is a large boulder (6-ish feet tall) by one of our two stoplights that people paint with all sorts of messages. I painted it for Caleb's 5th birthday, so I felt a need to keep things symmetrical and paint it for Audrey's 5th b-day. Problem was, I was in a car.

In steps the fabulous McCullough family to solve my problem. I got the paint, left it where they could get to it, and they were putting the finishing touches on this masterpiece as we pulled into town Tuesday evening:




Amazingly enough, it's still pink. And the pictures don't do justice to the utter pink-ness of the rock. It's beautiful! Thanks McC family!

On to the next story. Julie, now 2 1/2, still has pacifiers. She calls them mimis (mee-mees). I have been planning on trying to break her mimi habit in the next few weeks, but had no inspiration or desire. So imagine my enthusiasm when I opened the latest issue of "Parenting" magazine and saw a picture of a pacifier tied to a pink helium balloon. Eureka!

I asked Julie if she wanted to tie her 2 mimis to some balloons and let them fly through the air to Mimi Land. She said, "Yes!" very enthusiastically. So she and I drove to the grocery store, bought a Mylar balloon and 2 latex balloons. I was a bit worried that the Mylar balloon was fresh enough to fly, but I figured the other 2 balloons would give it a little boost.

We get home and I asked Julie, "Are your mimis going to come back from Mimi Land?" She said, "Yes!" and I was a bit worried. Maybe the flash of genius wasn't going to work after all. I told her they weren't going to come back and she didn't seem to concerned.

I got the 2 mimis attached to the balloons and realized that they were too heavy to fly. So at the last minute, after she had blown kisses to both pacifiers, I yanked one off and stuck it in my pocket. It's probably a good idea to have an emergency mimi, right?

So here are the pictures and videos from our little mid-afternoon adventure:



If you look just below and a bit to the right of the whiter spot in the middle of the cloud, you can see the balloons. The stupid Mylar balloon is being dragged by the 2 latex balloons, so it's lower down.

Audrey is asking in the second video, "What if they don't make it to Mimi Land?" Little worrier, that one.

And, as you can see in one of the pictures of the great mimi launching, Audrey is still in her sling and swath. The doctor saw her last Wednesday and said her break is starting to heal. He wants her in full gear for 2 more weeks and he'll do another x-ray then. It's not slowing her down at all, she just needs help getting dressed.

What a week!

I've accomplished a lot of stuff over the last week...

1 - repainted the concrete porch
2 - defrosted the freezer
3 - removed mud from incomplete ceiling repair
4 - re-mudded incomplete ceiling repair
5 - sanded incomplete ceiling repair
6 - repeated 4 and 5 a couple more times
7 - primed incomplete ceiling repair
8 - textured incomplete ceiling repair
9 - painted whole ceiling in living room and kitchen to complete ceiling repair
10 - washed fronts of all kitchen cabinets
11 - touched up paint on all kitchen cabinets
12 - primed wall addition thingies in Caleb's & Audrey's rooms
13 - textured the wall addition thingies
14 - delegated painting the wall addition thingies to Steve while I taught a youth Bible study tonight

I don't think I need to do any more in the kids' rooms on their walls (we closed a French-door-sized opening between C's & A's rooms over a year ago but never finished the project) but I won't know for sure until I can see the rooms in daylight.

So I can spend the day tomorrow putting the house back together, doing a bit of laundry, and packing for me and Steve to leave tomorrow evening.

I'm tired. I've done a lot this week.

Oh, and I turned 35 in the midst of it all. :) I told my dentist at my appointment yesterday that I was celebrating 35 for the first time. I like 35. I think I'll stay here for a while.

Broken Collarbone

Not me or Steve. Audrey. I've always thought that she would have the dubious honor of being the first Nolen kid with a broken bone and she didn't disappoint. Now that I think about it, having none of our kids break a bone wouldn't have been such a huge disappointment.

Anyway - we were in Colorado at my grandmother's house to see her and a couple of my uncles and their families. Mom and Dad were with us, so there were a slew of people there. 16. We were hanging out after dinner. The grownups were chatting and the kids (my 3 and my two teenage cousins) were hanging out in the sunroom (former greenhouse). My cousins Nick and Zach were pushing Audrey and Julie in the swing my grandmother (Gigi) has out there.

Nick had been pushing the girls and was slowing the swing down when Audrey decided to hop out. She made it out of the swing, but landed on her shoulder. After 30 minutes of her in "Full Audrey Drama Mode" complete with tears, screams, hiccups, and lots of indiscernible dialogue, we decided that she was indeed hurt and wasn't going to calm down anytime soon.

Steve and I got her in the car and drove her to the ER in Alamosa. She was the only patient there, so we were seen very quickly. Since it was after her bedtime, she dozed when we got into our room. The doc came in and did a quick exam while she was sleeping. When he touched the spot that she said hurt the most, she woke up. He said it was probably a broken collarbone, but that we'd need x-rays to verify.

A little while later, the x-ray guy came in with a wheelchair and wheeled Steve, holding Audrey, into the x-ray room. After they came back, Audrey was in high spirits and chattered happily for the next twenty minutes. The doc came back, showed us the break on the x-ray and told us Audrey would get a sling.

We waited for twenty or so more minutes, Audrey chattering away, until the nurse came back. He pulled out a size "x-small" sling for Audrey. It's red with little clowns on it. She thinks it's cool. Good thing. We also ended up with copies of the x-rays to show Audrey's doc back here.

We got her in yesterday afternoon and the only thing the doc here did was to add an ace bandage wrap to her sling to keep her arm still. He said that the usual "X" brace they use for older kids and adults doesn't work too well with little kids. She will wear the sling and wrap for 2 weeks until we get back home from Texas and get her back in to see the doctor.

Audrey is doing well with the whole thing. She takes some children's ibuprofen morning and evening and just pretty much does her thing the rest of the day.