It's the 11th! Time for an update!
Josh: Super excited for Josh. He's decided to start the process of getting weight loss surgery! This will be expensive but we're willing to pay any amount necessary. His new insurance requires that he does a 6 month diet & exercise program before he can have the surgery. While we were thinking he'd be able to just have the surgery right away I actually like that he has to do the 6 months ahead of time first. This way he has some time to change some eating / exercise habits and loose weight before the surgery. I feel like if he just jumped right into the surgery it'd be like going from eating a whole pizza one day and then only being able to eat 2 oz. of food the next. The whole process is a big life changing process. Total mind game. We're excited to see his progress. I know he'll do great. He'll need all the encouragement and help possible. His first appointment was today. He was weighed and measured, they checked his blood pressure and did an EKG. I'm hoping to go to all of his appointments because I want to be able to help him as much as possible. Today it felt kind of funny to sit and watch him during his appointment because usually he's the one that is sitting and watching me at my appointments. We had waited extra long before his appointment and come to find out the computers didn't register correctly that he was there so BONUS - we got a $20 gift card for the "pre-surgery food store" (He'll have to have their food for 2 weeks prior to the surgery). That will help a lot with the cost of their food!
His appointment went really well! He was actually down 14lbs since we did Medical Weight Loss. His next appointment is next Wed the 19th and that will be with a dietician and exercise physiologist.
His job schedule will work around his appointments and surgery. He'll go each month for the next 6 months and show his food journal and then once that is submitted to his insurance we're thinking his surgery would be at the end of September. Please pray that this process will go well for him. I love you infinity Josh and I'm proud of you for taking the next step to be a healthy daddy for our beautiful girlies. I know God's got a great plan for him!
Abby: Abby has missed 2 days of school this week. She's had a really bad cough and actually missed part of last Friday as well. Friday she had a temp of 99.1 which isn't the 100 they call home for but is higher for her. He went back up a little last night and so to spare the kids and her teacher hearing her cough all day long we kept her home. She'll be going tomorrow with a water bottle. She has done 3 weeks of basketball camp and has one more week to go. She really enjoy basketball. Last year she cried because she didn't want to do crab walks and this year it's like she's a pro ;). She is still a wonderful big sister and helps a ton with Josie. Her conferences are coming up soon so we'll get to check her progress at school at that point. We did get her report card and all was well on their. One thing she needs to work on is just getting her work done in class. I think she tends to pay attention to her surroundings and friends and ends up not finishing her work. Since we're trying to be healthy and exercise as a family I love that the girls are even becoming more active and they ask me to exercise with them. One thing though is that for example the other day she put on a shirt she hasn't worn in a while and since then has gotten taller. So she says to me "Mom, look how much weight I've lost with this shirt!" I know weight has been the talk around here but I really hope that it doesn't "affect her". I just don't want her to be self conscious like her MOM! The girls go to Awana on Wednesday nights at Church and Abby was excited that she's now on her last book. She's been reading her verses and she loves all the songs she learns. Love hearing her sing. She's pretty independent and is getting too old too fast ;). I love you infinity my Abby Lee.
Jasmine: Jasmine hasn't been sick lately so hopefully whatever Abby has doesn't get her. She is anxious to be in flag football and t-ball when it's time because of Abby being in basketball. We will also find out her progress at school at her conference in Feb. They go to American Girl doll club on Monday's after school and she loves that. They do a craft and hang out and talk about their dolls. She has been reading her verses and enjoys singing as well. So sweet to hear my girlies sing about Jesus. Especially when they remember songs from the radio. One awesome thing about Awana that I have to mention is that the other night it was ask a friend to Awana night. She asked her best friend Cailynn. Now Cailynn wants to continue going. She's super excited!! I told her "Jasmine, that is so awesome - you invited her and now she wants to go again. Plus just like you asked Jesus into your heart, maybe you will help lead her where she'll want to ask Jesus into her heart!" <3 Makes my heart happy. She is still got her little sass, is a big help with Josie too and is also getting too old too fast. ;) I love you infinity my Jasmine Charlee.
Josie: Josie is 10 months old now. (11 months on Feb 26) She crawls really fast and walks around furniture and will walk with walkers but isn't walking yet. One night we had friends over and she walked a short distance between our friend Bill to Josh. We all clapped and yelled! Bill says "What, is that like the first time she's walked?" LOL it was funny. So since then she hasn't walked on her own. She'll stand without support for a little while but that's it. She'll pretty much eat most foods but the only thing so far that she doesn't seem to care for is eggs. It also kind of depends on the texture of food. I'm still breastfeeding most of the time it's before 8am and after 5pm. If I'm home during the day I nurse her before her nap. She.is.still.getting.up.every.2.hours!!!! Most of the time I give in and nurse because it's the only thing that gets her to go back to sleep. We've tried oatmeal before bed among other things and that hasn't helped her sleep longer. While I'd love more sleep I'm just considering it a phase and eventually I'll miss it so I'm not really complaining too much. She has the funniest laugh and "talks" quite a bit. She seems to be independent unless I'm around then she wants me to pick her up - but then when I pick her up she doesn't sit still. I'm glad that when she she's everyone in our family she has no problem being with anyone. I guess she hasn't been around too many strangers but she doesn't seem phased or scared by new people. Overall she's doing great. Her (9) month appointment was postponed until the 24th so I'll post her update on FB. She's cuddly bug. I love you infinity my Josie Suh.
Me: I am really at a loss for the right words to explain how incredibly blessed I am that God has put an absolutely amazing friend in my life. I've only really gotten to know Shannon since November but I'm so thankful for her. Of course I've got my best friend (my husband Josh) and my best friend (my twin sister) - but this is different because she is not family. Although I consider her more of a family member than some family LOL. She has helped me with my weight loss, she is so encouraging, she listens, she lets me vent, she's trustworthy, she tells me things I need to hear! She pushes me, I could really go on and on. She takes time out of her busy day to walk with me so that I can walk (she runs). She is so sweet and we have very similar goals, we like the same things, go to the same church.
She has helped me (like) ME more. I'm still doing weight watchers and in just the past month I feel like I'm a whole new person. I've been tracking my food. I've been doing exercises that I've never done. Including 50 squats a day for almost a week. I also decided I really want to just weigh in once a month so that I focus on tracking and other things rather than the number on the scale. I told myself I was not going to weigh in except on the first of every month. Well the last time I weighed in was Feb 3 and I just couldn't wait. I'm down 6 lbs since then! Now I don't plan on checking again but I might. I know before though I'd weigh in twice in the same week and that's just crazy. I've been trying to walk everyday and I'm excited to be getting a bike/elliptical from a friend this week. I really want to work my butt off (literally). I sometimes think that the only way I'm going to loose 100lbs is if I have weight loss surgery as well but I'm tired of saying being so negative. This time I'm not stopping until I get to my goal. If I can get there without surgery then that's wonderful.
I'm still cleaning homes and hoping to add a couple more. If you know of someone give them my name. =) I love the families I clean for. I'm excited to see my progress when Josh is working on it as well. When we're all working on it together it's going to help me a lot. I know we can do this.
Thank you for your email address. If you'd like to reply I'd love it!
Thanks for reading. Much love to you all.
Amanda
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Saturday, January 11, 2014
Happy 2014!
HELLO again! I haven't posted a blog since October! I've decided I'd like to try to post a blog on the 11th of every month because 11 is my favorite number. I enjoy typing updates but I'm not a great blogger.
Most people that keep up with me on Facebook would probably already know most of what's going on but it's easier to look back at what happened in a blog. I also really need to try and limit Facebook. Most of the time is just causes me extra stress that I don't need.
Let's see where to start?!... I always feel like I have so much on my mind.
We're moved into our "Forever Home" I say forever home because we literally will not be moving ever again. Of course I'm sure things could change but I don't think things will. If you don't know we moved from our house in Kent City (miss the house but not the land) to Bailey. The house we moved into is Josh's parents house. Jill and Jerry remodeled the downstairs and are living downstairs. Josh and I did some updates upstairs and are living upstairs. We live totally separate but live in the same house. We each have our own entrances. Everyone loves Jill and Jerry's new home. They love it and it's perfect.
Our old house is still in our name but will probably go into foreclosure. We still have some things to get from there as well.
To be honest I'm still at the I (like) our new home stage. There still something to me that still doesn't make it feel quite like home yet. I like that we have no neighbors. I like the laminate flooring, I like our new toilets, I like that we have more square footage, I like that we have a bigger laundry room, I like that the girls like it. I like that it seems cleaner than at our old house.
The things I "don't like" or just things that need to be done to make things complete.- We need more home décor to make it feel more cozy. We need some blinds and curtains for the windows. We have mice in our kitchen. I have to get use to the dryer - sometimes I have to dry clothes 3 times. We haven't figured out the perfect temperature for the heat. Our bedroom always gets too hot if it's too high or some of the rooms in the house are too cold if it's too low. We need to get a new knob thingy for our master bath tub before we can use it and it's a big tub that we'd really like to be using. I think it's a cheap fix but not sure how easy the part would be to find. Our master shower is pretty small so we've been using the girls bathroom for showers. We are using Josie's room as storage until we can get the downstairs storage opened up. We have 2 living rooms, one that we're calling our living room and one we're calling the girls living room. I wish the set up was a touch more "company friendly" so it didn't feel so separated. I'd like our living room to feel more cozy but not sure how to "correct" the layout. So nothing major just still don't feel quite at home yet.
I'd really like to have some sort of open house but I just don't feel like the house is ready yet.
Josh - Josh is loving his job at Auto Value on 14 Mile in Rockford /Cedar Springs-ish. I am so glad he is happy there. He has worked there long enough to be able to get insurance now. I'm thankful for that but that takes a huge chunk out of his paychecks. I know God will provide and I'd much rather him be happy than worry about money but I just wish insurance wasn't so expensive. Pretty soon he's going to be checking with his insurance to see if they would cover any type of Weight Loss Surgery (I'll get into that when I share my update). He has a great boss. Like yesterday I got stuck in a long driveway in Howard City. She let him drive her vehicle to try and help me and he still got paid for the entire time he was gone. He works hard for us. I love him infinity.
Abby (7) - Abby continues to improve at school. They've had such a long break but her reading is improving. I made a chore chart on their new dry erase board from Christmas so I wrote Daily: Read - to remind us all that they need to read daily. I'm not much of a reader myself so I often forget. Most of her chores include cleaning her bedroom, doing laundry, dusting, vacuuming, and cleaning their bathroom and living room, and making her bed. She is doing a great job with the chores. She did great on break now we just have to figure out a better schedule for after school. She has free time then homework with Grammy at 4:30 - then I'm hoping chore time until Josh gets home and before we eat dinner. Then bath, read, bed at 8 or 8:30. She is the best sister to Josie. She is a huge help. She's a second Mom and is a great babysitter. She loves her so much. The other day she was holding Josie while she was sleeping and she said Mom, I feel like I love her so much I just want to squeeze her. =) She lost another tooth last night. I swear it seems like that's her 15th tooth she's lost. She already has all of her permanent front teeth so this one was on the side. (I posted a pic to fb).
She got a bean bag chair for Christmas so she enjoys sitting in it and watching TV. We also just got her hair cut shorter. It's so thick and gets snarls easily so it's the perfect length. She has an American Girl doll baby that she enjoys dressing - plus she goes to an American Girl doll club at school. I love her infinity.
Jasmine (6) - Jasmine is reading faster everyday. She enjoys learning new words and try's sounding them out by herself before she asks what the word is. When she gets homework on Friday nights she likes to do it immediately when she gets home. She loves the new dry erase board. She likes to act like a teacher and play school. She also has the same chores as Abby and does very well with them also. She's a great cleaner. I keep telling her one day she'll be my sidekick on my cleaning jobs. =)
She is also a great big sister to Josie. Josie is a touch heavy for her so some times it's cute to see her kind of dragging her in her arms to get to the next room because she really wants to bring her. She has only lost 2 bottom teeth so far and one of her top teeth is loose. She was pouting this morning because Abby got a dollar from the tooth fairy. She's also been constantly wiggling the top one in hopes it will soon come out so she can get a dollar. She has an American Girl doll too and goes to the American Girl doll club at school. She's always been into playing with dolls. One of her favorite Christmas presents was her Bible from Grammy. I love her infinity.
Josie (9 months) - Josie is still our smiley sweet girlie. Our schedules change daily so she hasn't really been on that great of a schedule. As I said before her room is being used as storage so right now even though I've tried putting her in her crib we've stopped until we can clear out her room. When she was a newborn she slept great sometimes up to 6 hours straight. She slept in a co-sleeper or her rock n play. Then as she got older she got up about every 3-4 hours. She then moved into her pack n play to sleep. We never used her crib at out old home. Now she gets up every 2 hours and the only thing that puts her back to sleep is if I nurse her. I know she can not be hungry. I've been so tired some nights I end up just letting her nurse while I'm laying down. Of course I'm sure most of you are saying - this is why she nurses is because every time she gets up you nurse her back to sleep. Could be - I don't know. Sometimes she sleeps better if she's sleeping with us. So some nights I just say forget it, put her in our bed. I feel like hey if we're all sleeping who cares where is it?! I don't really like that though. I'd love to say I put her in her crib at such n such a time and then she only wakes up once. I know Abby and Jasmine both use to sleep with us and now they don't unless we let them have a sleepover. But even sleepovers now, they sleep on the floor. Another thing about getting up every 2 hours -- If I'm cleaning she'll go the entire day up to 10 hours without nursing and she's totally fine. Or like the other day Josh watched her and she wasn't fussy once. She's not really fussy with me but I can't get anything done without her wanting me. I'm sure all this will pass and she'll be sleeping in her own room and I'll miss it like crazy. I'm not sure how much longer nursing will last so again I'll miss that too. I know things could be much worse so I'm thankful to have my 3 healthy beautiful girlies. Josie crawls really well and she walks near furniture but she's not walking yet. I remember Jasmine walked at 9 months. I just got my tattoos updated with Josie. My wrist I had a heart symbol with 4 heads to represent Josh, Me, Abby, and Jasmine so I added a head. Then I tell the girlies I love them infinity so I wanted to add an infinity sign. Then on my leg I added a teal heart, daffodils because those are the March flower, and her name. I'm going to get her name fixed to look more likes Jasmines name. (posted pics on fb). Josie will drink out of a straw sippy cup but that's it. She says a lot of ba ba ma ma and mostly daddy dada etc. =) I love her infinity.
Me - Can I just leave me off? ;)
First off I want to say I feel extremely blessed to cleaning for wonderful families. I am now to the point of thinking that cleaning is what God wants me to be doing. It's going very well and I enjoy cleaning for people. I'm cleaning for 5 families and one business. The families are all so generous, caring, kind, the list goes on. I love them.
I'm also trying to loose weight. AGAIN. I don't think there's ever been a time when I haven't wanted to loose weight. Josh and I are going to go to a weight loss surgery seminar on Jan 23 and see if we'd qualify for surgery so we'll have to see where that leads. I have a new very special friend who means the world to me. Her name is Shannon. I knew her before I went on a ladies retreat with Church but we walked together and since then have kept in touch regularly. She has been a huge encouragement to me. She is helping me loose weight. I'm down 19lbs since Sept. I haven't had any pop except Vernors when I was sick. I still have my bad days but she helps me during the tough times too. I'm so thankful for her friendship and help. Its means a lot to me that someone is so willing to help ME... some times I think WHY ME!?
Speaking of why me?! Some days I feel so depressed. Maybe it's the weather, maybe it's the house stuff, could be our finances are horrible. I don't know. Maybe all combined.
God is Awesome and He loves Me and I fail him daily - I don't want to be depressed. I have everything I could possibly need. He always provides and always will. I still worry too much, think too much, etc. I do feel loved most days though and I love love. =) <3
This is pretty long and I've reached my - I don't know what else to say point.
Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and Christmas. HAPPY NEW YEAR. Anxious to see what God does for us in 2014. I'm sure it's going to be great.
Most people that keep up with me on Facebook would probably already know most of what's going on but it's easier to look back at what happened in a blog. I also really need to try and limit Facebook. Most of the time is just causes me extra stress that I don't need.
Let's see where to start?!... I always feel like I have so much on my mind.
We're moved into our "Forever Home" I say forever home because we literally will not be moving ever again. Of course I'm sure things could change but I don't think things will. If you don't know we moved from our house in Kent City (miss the house but not the land) to Bailey. The house we moved into is Josh's parents house. Jill and Jerry remodeled the downstairs and are living downstairs. Josh and I did some updates upstairs and are living upstairs. We live totally separate but live in the same house. We each have our own entrances. Everyone loves Jill and Jerry's new home. They love it and it's perfect.
Our old house is still in our name but will probably go into foreclosure. We still have some things to get from there as well.
To be honest I'm still at the I (like) our new home stage. There still something to me that still doesn't make it feel quite like home yet. I like that we have no neighbors. I like the laminate flooring, I like our new toilets, I like that we have more square footage, I like that we have a bigger laundry room, I like that the girls like it. I like that it seems cleaner than at our old house.
The things I "don't like" or just things that need to be done to make things complete.- We need more home décor to make it feel more cozy. We need some blinds and curtains for the windows. We have mice in our kitchen. I have to get use to the dryer - sometimes I have to dry clothes 3 times. We haven't figured out the perfect temperature for the heat. Our bedroom always gets too hot if it's too high or some of the rooms in the house are too cold if it's too low. We need to get a new knob thingy for our master bath tub before we can use it and it's a big tub that we'd really like to be using. I think it's a cheap fix but not sure how easy the part would be to find. Our master shower is pretty small so we've been using the girls bathroom for showers. We are using Josie's room as storage until we can get the downstairs storage opened up. We have 2 living rooms, one that we're calling our living room and one we're calling the girls living room. I wish the set up was a touch more "company friendly" so it didn't feel so separated. I'd like our living room to feel more cozy but not sure how to "correct" the layout. So nothing major just still don't feel quite at home yet.
I'd really like to have some sort of open house but I just don't feel like the house is ready yet.
Josh - Josh is loving his job at Auto Value on 14 Mile in Rockford /Cedar Springs-ish. I am so glad he is happy there. He has worked there long enough to be able to get insurance now. I'm thankful for that but that takes a huge chunk out of his paychecks. I know God will provide and I'd much rather him be happy than worry about money but I just wish insurance wasn't so expensive. Pretty soon he's going to be checking with his insurance to see if they would cover any type of Weight Loss Surgery (I'll get into that when I share my update). He has a great boss. Like yesterday I got stuck in a long driveway in Howard City. She let him drive her vehicle to try and help me and he still got paid for the entire time he was gone. He works hard for us. I love him infinity.
Abby (7) - Abby continues to improve at school. They've had such a long break but her reading is improving. I made a chore chart on their new dry erase board from Christmas so I wrote Daily: Read - to remind us all that they need to read daily. I'm not much of a reader myself so I often forget. Most of her chores include cleaning her bedroom, doing laundry, dusting, vacuuming, and cleaning their bathroom and living room, and making her bed. She is doing a great job with the chores. She did great on break now we just have to figure out a better schedule for after school. She has free time then homework with Grammy at 4:30 - then I'm hoping chore time until Josh gets home and before we eat dinner. Then bath, read, bed at 8 or 8:30. She is the best sister to Josie. She is a huge help. She's a second Mom and is a great babysitter. She loves her so much. The other day she was holding Josie while she was sleeping and she said Mom, I feel like I love her so much I just want to squeeze her. =) She lost another tooth last night. I swear it seems like that's her 15th tooth she's lost. She already has all of her permanent front teeth so this one was on the side. (I posted a pic to fb).
She got a bean bag chair for Christmas so she enjoys sitting in it and watching TV. We also just got her hair cut shorter. It's so thick and gets snarls easily so it's the perfect length. She has an American Girl doll baby that she enjoys dressing - plus she goes to an American Girl doll club at school. I love her infinity.
Jasmine (6) - Jasmine is reading faster everyday. She enjoys learning new words and try's sounding them out by herself before she asks what the word is. When she gets homework on Friday nights she likes to do it immediately when she gets home. She loves the new dry erase board. She likes to act like a teacher and play school. She also has the same chores as Abby and does very well with them also. She's a great cleaner. I keep telling her one day she'll be my sidekick on my cleaning jobs. =)
She is also a great big sister to Josie. Josie is a touch heavy for her so some times it's cute to see her kind of dragging her in her arms to get to the next room because she really wants to bring her. She has only lost 2 bottom teeth so far and one of her top teeth is loose. She was pouting this morning because Abby got a dollar from the tooth fairy. She's also been constantly wiggling the top one in hopes it will soon come out so she can get a dollar. She has an American Girl doll too and goes to the American Girl doll club at school. She's always been into playing with dolls. One of her favorite Christmas presents was her Bible from Grammy. I love her infinity.
Josie (9 months) - Josie is still our smiley sweet girlie. Our schedules change daily so she hasn't really been on that great of a schedule. As I said before her room is being used as storage so right now even though I've tried putting her in her crib we've stopped until we can clear out her room. When she was a newborn she slept great sometimes up to 6 hours straight. She slept in a co-sleeper or her rock n play. Then as she got older she got up about every 3-4 hours. She then moved into her pack n play to sleep. We never used her crib at out old home. Now she gets up every 2 hours and the only thing that puts her back to sleep is if I nurse her. I know she can not be hungry. I've been so tired some nights I end up just letting her nurse while I'm laying down. Of course I'm sure most of you are saying - this is why she nurses is because every time she gets up you nurse her back to sleep. Could be - I don't know. Sometimes she sleeps better if she's sleeping with us. So some nights I just say forget it, put her in our bed. I feel like hey if we're all sleeping who cares where is it?! I don't really like that though. I'd love to say I put her in her crib at such n such a time and then she only wakes up once. I know Abby and Jasmine both use to sleep with us and now they don't unless we let them have a sleepover. But even sleepovers now, they sleep on the floor. Another thing about getting up every 2 hours -- If I'm cleaning she'll go the entire day up to 10 hours without nursing and she's totally fine. Or like the other day Josh watched her and she wasn't fussy once. She's not really fussy with me but I can't get anything done without her wanting me. I'm sure all this will pass and she'll be sleeping in her own room and I'll miss it like crazy. I'm not sure how much longer nursing will last so again I'll miss that too. I know things could be much worse so I'm thankful to have my 3 healthy beautiful girlies. Josie crawls really well and she walks near furniture but she's not walking yet. I remember Jasmine walked at 9 months. I just got my tattoos updated with Josie. My wrist I had a heart symbol with 4 heads to represent Josh, Me, Abby, and Jasmine so I added a head. Then I tell the girlies I love them infinity so I wanted to add an infinity sign. Then on my leg I added a teal heart, daffodils because those are the March flower, and her name. I'm going to get her name fixed to look more likes Jasmines name. (posted pics on fb). Josie will drink out of a straw sippy cup but that's it. She says a lot of ba ba ma ma and mostly daddy dada etc. =) I love her infinity.
Me - Can I just leave me off? ;)
First off I want to say I feel extremely blessed to cleaning for wonderful families. I am now to the point of thinking that cleaning is what God wants me to be doing. It's going very well and I enjoy cleaning for people. I'm cleaning for 5 families and one business. The families are all so generous, caring, kind, the list goes on. I love them.
I'm also trying to loose weight. AGAIN. I don't think there's ever been a time when I haven't wanted to loose weight. Josh and I are going to go to a weight loss surgery seminar on Jan 23 and see if we'd qualify for surgery so we'll have to see where that leads. I have a new very special friend who means the world to me. Her name is Shannon. I knew her before I went on a ladies retreat with Church but we walked together and since then have kept in touch regularly. She has been a huge encouragement to me. She is helping me loose weight. I'm down 19lbs since Sept. I haven't had any pop except Vernors when I was sick. I still have my bad days but she helps me during the tough times too. I'm so thankful for her friendship and help. Its means a lot to me that someone is so willing to help ME... some times I think WHY ME!?
Speaking of why me?! Some days I feel so depressed. Maybe it's the weather, maybe it's the house stuff, could be our finances are horrible. I don't know. Maybe all combined.
God is Awesome and He loves Me and I fail him daily - I don't want to be depressed. I have everything I could possibly need. He always provides and always will. I still worry too much, think too much, etc. I do feel loved most days though and I love love. =) <3
This is pretty long and I've reached my - I don't know what else to say point.
Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and Christmas. HAPPY NEW YEAR. Anxious to see what God does for us in 2014. I'm sure it's going to be great.
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