: Surprise Visit :

We had a nice surprise last night...Amy, Zach and Lilly came over! I did not know that they were coming in town yesterday until Amy text me and said they were in Tupelo. They are in town for Carey's (Dana's brother) wedding Saturday. I just assumed they were coming on Friday and we would not get to see them until probably Saturday afternoon at the wedding. But, seeing them and hanging out with them last night was just perfect! She called and said they were going to come over about 15 minutes before they actually arrived. Jackson and Chayton were both SO excited as well. The kids played and we chatted. And then we were surprised with a visit from Jack, Sonya, Brennan and Carley also. They came over to hang out too. This was a GREAT start to the weekend!

Jackson and Zach riding the Rzr

Sweet Friends

Amy and me...friends since high school

Amy, me and Sonya

Jackson sure does ♥ Amy

{ All Stressed Out }

This is me...totally. I am stressed out about something every single day. I may have a day or two here and there that slips by without worrying about something but it is very rare. Every day i complain about my weight and the lack of exercise that i have going on. And i have done nothing about it. Nothing! My eating habits are not terrible. We have done much better about eating at home and i usually buy things that are reduced fat/fat free to make the food less caloric. I buy a ton of fruits and vegetables. So i really do not stress out about the way i am eating. Now, yes, i could clean up my diet some but it is not at the top of my stress list right this second. Time, or the lack thereof, is something that i also worry about daily. There are just not enough hours in the day (during the week) to get the things done that i really need to do every day. Illness is also another thing that usually haunts me daily. I am so worried about the possibilities of someone getting hurt/sick/cancer. I know that is crazy but i think about it. All the time. And lastly, my boys. I worry about them daily. I have a huge issue with separation anxiety. I thought this really only happened with babies and their mothers around 6 months + but i still have it with Jackson. It is bad with Jackson but it is worse with Chayton! Chayton has never spent the night away from me...NEVER. Ok. Enough of all of this. Call me crazy. But i really am not crazy. I am just a worrier. I am working on getting over it but it is difficult. I do have a plan though...

* I Need a SPANKIN *

Ok, i think it is time for someone to kick my a$$ (LITERALLY)!! I have all of these things that i am doing and wanting to do and exercising is the main one and i just cannot get motivated to do it!! I got started last week or the week before and decided that i needed to start back running and get in a little better shape before i tackled my new videos...and IT.JUST.HASN'T.HAPPENED!! I truly like running, i really do and it only takes that first time of doing it to get me back into it. But i cannot make myself just do that first run. I don't know if it is the fact that it is 100 degrees outside or the fact that i don't want to do anything when i get off work but all of the "must have's" that i have waiting at home for me after 4:30! Those include spending time with my babies, cooking dinner, picking up everything from everywhere, washing clothes, watering everything in my backyard, and the list goes on. Sometimes i do not sit down until 8 or after and then i just want to do nothing. I could take my lazy tail upstairs and run on the treadmill but it gets SO boring. I used to love just doing that until i started back outside and i just like it better outside. I am telling myself that by Sunday, i have to just do it. That will give me today and tomorrow and some of Sunday to get my other stuff done so i will have no excuse. Please help me find the motivation for exercise!!!

~ Motivated . . . At Least it is Occurring ~

This weekend i had BIG plans of getting things back in order in my house and life. I have been searching for MOTIVATION in the diet/exercise aspect and i think i am almost there but i did find motivation this weekend for other things. Those other things included srubbing my kitchen floor/grout with a scrub brush and a mixture i found on Pinterest and also sprucing up my back patio area. 
Let me start with the floor cleaning ...OH MY GOODNESS, if you use this mixture to clean your floor, you will have amazing results! It took me almost 2 hours to scrub my floor Saturday am. I scrubbed the grout along with all of the tile. It puts a whitish haze to the floor so you have to mop after that. I use Lavender Pine Sol to clean my floor and i mopped regularly three times and then went over the floor again with just water. Let me just tell you, i clean my floors often and when i mopped the first 1/3 of my kitchen floor, the water was black and i had to change the water. From that point, i changed the water 2 more times on the first mop job!! Then when i went over it a second time, same thing! That stuff REALLY got all of the funk off of my floors and i would have never thought it would look like that!! Kinda gross really but i will definitely clean them again with this stuff. Here is the mixture...

1/2 cup of baking soda

1/3 cup of ammonia

1/4 cup of vinegar

7 cups of warm water

* i put the water in my bucket first and then added the other things. Stir really, really good and i filled up a spray bottle with the mixture. AND DO NOT PUT NEAR BLEACH...not sure what will happen but it said not to do that.
I am really happy that i have found motivation to do good things but i have got to get exercise back at the top of the list!!! I am searching for it and i will find it!!

< CANCER is Everywhere CONT'D >

Please, please add Shirley McReynolds to your prayer list as well! This is Jonathan's (Kayla's husband) mother. She has been diagnosed with breast cancer that has spread to her lymph nodes. This will require her to have a double mastectomy, along with chemotherapy. That is all the information that she has been given at this time. She would really appreciate all the prayers that she can get. THANKS a MILLION!!

< CANCER is Everywhere >

We all hate the "C" word...CANCER!! And it just seems to me that it is everywhere these days. There are so many people affected by this nasty illness. There is no age too young to have it. It terrifies me so much just thinking about it. I don't want it and i don't want anyone else to have it either...meaning my kids, my husband, any of my family members and any stranger for that matter. There is so much more research and studies being done on diseases these days that the treatments are far better than years ago. That is a positive thing but it is still an ugly illness!

Having said that, as i sit here my heart just absolutely breaks for Little Lucy Krull (brain cancer) and also for Trey Erwin (adult pancreatic cancer as a teen). These are two very young kids that are having to endure such terrible diagnoses. Both of these kids have fought their illness so hard and have so much life left to live. There are so many people praying for a miracle for these two sweet families! 

Here is Lucy's mother's blog...  http://erikandkatekrull.blogspot.com/

Here is Trey Erwin's Caring Bridge... http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/treyerwin

My uncle Bud also found out that his esophageal cancer has recurred. Just not the doctor's visit that any of us want to ever have. Please pray for him and his family as well as he begins treatments for a second go round.

: Farmer Williams :

Well, after much watering, fertilizing, worrying and crying... i have a GARDEN that is growing and producing. WOO HOO!! I really never thought it was possible that i would be able to eat things that i have grown in my backyard. When i had the thought of wanting to build a raised bed garden, i honestly never really thought that it may actually work. I had absolutely no clue what i was doing but that sure did not deter me from wanting to plant different fruits and vegetables. Everything that i read did say... "don't plant a big garden your first time or it will overwhelm you." I tried to remember that when i was figuring out what i wanted to plant. However, that thought escaped me every time i looked at plants. I planted 12 different things and it has been tolerable. There are a few things that i would change next year though. I planted onions (and maybe once i eat one of them, i will change my mind) and they took up space that i could have used and the bulb you plant only produces 1 onion and then it is done. I planted about 15 and they will all pretty much be ready at the same time. I will also probably not plant strawberries again because birds are eating every one of them!! The only way i will do these again are if i can make a contraption to go over them where the birds cannot get to them. I planted butter crunch lettuce and i may try lettuce again but will probably see if i can find leafy green lettuce. And i am still contemplating the broccoli. That is the only thing that has not produced anything so far but it took forever for the actual plant to get bigger. I am hoping any day now there will be broccoli. There are so many other things that i would love to try so i may have space if i eliminate a few from this year! I have learned this will be a trial and error project. But i can deal with that. Here are a few close up pictures...

 I have 7 Roma tomato plants, 7 Big boy tomato plants, about 15 onions and 4 cucumber plants.

 Here, i have 8 regular Bell pepper plants, 4 red Bell pepper plants, 2 Cayenne pepper plants, 2 Banana pepper plants, 8 Broccoli plants, 4 Butter crunch lettuce plants, and 4 Mammoth jalapeno plants.

And i also have 2 regular Jalapeno plants, a pot of Strawberries and 1 Roma tomato plant.

In addition to all of these plants, i also have 2 Cherry tomato plants (not pictured).

{ FULL MOON }

I am not sure what the deal was with yesterday but from the time i left to go to work until the time that Chayton fell asleep...it was CRAZY!! I do not want to go into detail but work yesterday was like a day that you thought was never imaginable. Then, when i get home, Chayton is crying and whiny and that literally lasted until he fell asleep at 7:00pm. He obviously was exhausted (hence the time that he went to bed) and was just irritable from being tired. I wanted to do my workout but by the time Chayton was in bed, i had a splitting headache and only wanted peace and quiet. So i snuggled with Jackson in the chair as we watched some of the Celtics vs Heat game 6. About 8:30, i decided that i was going to lay down with Chayton. Here came Jackson also and we were probably asleep before 9:00pm. I slept well and felt good this morning!

I Took the Plunge!

...This is exactly what i told myself yesterday...

FINALLY, i got off my tail and started back working out. It usually only takes me getting started to do it but just doing it that first time is the hardest step! I made it past the first day and i have done well with my eating. I actually took before pictures (NO...i will not put them on here) and also did my weight and measurements. I started Monday but didn't do any of the stats or workout until yesterday; so i am making 6/5/12 my official start date. I have a ways to go but i am going to do it. I plan on blogging about my weight loss as well as inches lost. I am sure i will tell my weight loss progress here and there but i am only going to document my inches lost weekly. I am going to try to take photos of myself every 10 lbs that i lose but that will be a HUGE accomplishment if i ever put them on here. So... here goes EVERYTHING!!!

Workout 1: TurboFire Fire Starter + Stretch 10 class

The workout series that i am doing is 6 days a week. You only have 1 rest day a week. I REALLY want to incorporate running back into my workouts but i cannot commit to a certain number of days at this point because i have to sit down and figure out how long each workout takes daily and go from there. I am hoping to be able to run on the weekends for sure. I am attempting to "schedule" my workouts in to my calendar so maybe that will help incorporate them into my daily routine.

TODAY is the Day!

After a weekend of eating whatever i wanted (carbs and all), today is the day that i chose to change a few things. I have said it before and did not make a habit of it but i am going to do it. It is the summer and Jackson is not playing sports right now and i have got to get myself back in check!! JJ does have summer baseball right now but there will never be the "perfect" time to start when we always have stuff that i will have to work around. So i thought this would be the best time. It is a Monday and we do have have any events planned this week that will interfere or make me want to push the date back. I though last week was going to be the week but we had too much going on. But... THIS.IS.IT. I have decided that i am going to cut my carb intake down by eliminating potatoes, pasta, rice and fruits (with the exception of tomatoes). I am just going to eat like this temporarily to jump start things. I will be doing my new TurboFire videos and i hope to start back to running as well. I am also going to track my weight and also measurements so i can see the changes that are being made. I know this is same song/different verse but i have got to do this for sure now!!

~ SLACKER ~

Ok, so i blogged on Friday about how i was going to get this blog back up to date. Well, guess what?? I FAILED!! And i am ok with that. This was the first weekend that we did not have anything with sports (for Jackson), etc. So... i took advantage of that. My plan was to get everything back in order from a chaotic Spring but that did not really happen. I decided that i was going to clean and de-clutter and get rid of things that are collecting dust and i had such great intentions. I had both boys by myself for the first part of Saturday because JJ had a baseball game so i just picked things up and sold a few games that i had listed and was waiting on JJ to get home to begin the cleaning. Well, the de-clutter cleaning never happened. I decided i was going to cook some things for Saturday night so i made jalapeno and bacon stuffed mushrooms, bacon wrapped stuffed jalapenos, tomato & feta appetizer and got some burgers out to cook. Mom came over for dinner and Sonya, Jack and Carley also ended up coming over also. We had a good time hanging out. We ended up just doing the usual on Sunday... grocery store, playing outside with the kids, picking things up and cooking out. Still didn't get my house totally back in order but oh well; there is always next weekend!!

Back In Touch

Hopefully by tomorrow, i can update my blog with Birthdays, Going Away Parties and other things that we have been up to. I was doing so well and then just have not had much time to sit down and do it. We have MAJOR de-cluttering going on at my house this weekend so during the breaks from that, i will try to update!! Hope everyone has a GREAT weekend!!