World Country Traveler

I have lots of fun pictures from my trip to the beach, but unfortunately, I have ZERO time to post any of them or talk about my wonderful, relaxing, kid-free week at the beach. Why? Because I am nuts. And I am getting in my van early tomorrow morning with my mom, my younger brother, and both my boys to drive 12+ hours to Texas for only a few days. My older brother, his wife, and their four kids are also going in their car. My mom's family lives there, and we are all very excited for five whirlwind days of family, food, and fun. Sadly, two of those days will be in the car. LOL

So stay tuned for a big picture post sometime next week. When I recover.

:)

My Talented Friends

(This was auto-posted, as I'm relaxing on the beach right now with my husband while my parents are watching both boys back at home!)

I have many talented friends. Three in particular are Stephanie, Diana, and Heather. Besides being wonderful mommies, gifted bloggers, and great friends, they are all extremely talented.

Stephanie has a business called Mango Tree Frames. She spends hours on each frame, and believe me, they are worth every penny. Just go to the website for proof.

Here is a picture of the frame she gave me when Benjamin was born. It is now hanging in his nursery:



Diana has a business called Appleby Mommy Bows. And even though my boys have no use for hair bows, she makes other things, too, like this cute pacifier clip that she made Benjamin:





Heather has an etsy store called Heatherty Featherty. She is a fantastic seamstress and can whip up an outfit for your toddler, a skirt for you, or a crayon roll for your diaper bag before you have even showered for the day. And her fabric is top-notch. Here are lots of pics from things she has graciously sent me:

Her card



The boys' tie shirts





Benjamin's VW campers bermuda shorts. (Please note that Heather did not specifically make these for Benjamin's round-bellied, short-legged frame. They simply did not fit her toddler so she sent them to me.) They are so cute!!







And my personal favorite of hers thus far: My stylish crayon roll.





So the next time you need a frame, a bow, or an outfit, remember my talented friends. Tell them I sent you. Maybe I'll get some more free stuff. :)

Wordless Wednesday

(This was auto-posted, as I'm relaxing on the beach right now with my husband while my parents are watching both boys back at home!)

Angela is patient, Angela is kind...

(This was auto-posted, as I'm relaxing on the beach right now with my husband while my parents are watching both boys back at home!)

I recently read a book called Crazy Love by Francis Chan. It is basically a call to Christians who are living an apathetic Christian life to realize that we are called to have a crazy, relentless, all-powerful love for God because God is love. One of the things that convicted me was in chapter five. Chan states that as Christians, we are supposed to represent to the world what Christ's love looks like. A popular passage about love in the Bible is I Corinthians 13:4-8. Here it is:

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails.

The convicting part is when Chan suggested this exercise: Take the phrase Love is patient and substitute your name for the word love. (For me, "Angela is patient...") Do it for every phrase in the passage.

And even if you're not a Christian or aren't sure where you stand, I'd say these qualities are just good living anyway.

:)

The ABCs of Me

(This was auto-posted, as I'm relaxing on the beach right now with my husband while my parents are watching both boys back at home!)

My friend Anna tagged me last week to do the ABCs of me, and I thought it would be kind of fun. I do love to talk about myself. LOL

A -Age: 32

B - Bed size: queen (Though right now at the beach, it's a king!!)

C - Chore you hate: cleaning floors

D - Dog's name: I had a dog once. His name was Barney. He jumped over the fence and attacked a neighbor girl who was taunting him, so we had to get rid of him. But truth be told, I am not a dog person. (Don't hate me!)

E - Essential start to your day: Matthew bringing both boys into the room where I'm dead asleep and dumping them both on the bed. It's great. :)

F - Favorite color: purple

G - Gold or silver: gold

H - Height: 5'11"

I - Instruments you play(ed): I took violin lessons for five years (2nd grade through 7th grade) and even went to violin camp for three summers. I also took piano lessons for a couple of years in elementary school, too.

J- Job title: Mommy

K - Kids: Andrew James (3/24/06) and Benjamin Matthew (4/24/08)

L - Living arrangements: Our dream house with a big yard in a small, quiet subdivision at the end of the cul-de-sac with a pond two houses away

M - Mom's name: Paula (and my dad's name is Paul...LOL)

N - Nicknames: I have several nicknames but none from more than one person. Matthew calls me "Babe" or "Sweets." My brother Justin calls me "Babes." My dad has a whole host of goofy nicknames from childhood that he still uses. Sometimes, when I'm in a good mood, I let him. ;)

O - Overnight hospital stay other than birth: Tonsillectomy when I was seven, two C-sections (four days each....I love me some hospital time!!!)

P - Pet Peeve: Incorrect spelling/grammar/punctuation (especially on printed documents or from establishments **cough**cough**Facebook**cough**cough, or from TEACHERS)

Q - Quote from a movie: "Don't you love New York in the fall? It makes me wanna buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address. On the other hand, this not knowing has its charms." Joe Fox, "You've Got Mail"

R - Right- or left-handed: right

S - Siblings: Two brothers: Michael (older by two years) and Justin (younger by 3 1/2 years)

T - Time you wake up: Generally at about 7:00 to 7:15 each day when Matthew dumps the boys on me and then heads to work. But this week?? Hmmm......never.

U - Underwear: clean

V - Vegetable you dislike: MUSHROOMS ARE DISGUSTING

W - Ways you run late: changing B's diaper, waiting for A to poop on the toilet (why do males take so long?), and just general "I-have-two-kids-and-it's-hard-to-get-out-of-the-house" stuff

X - X-rays you've had: arm, finger, teeth

Y - Yummy food you make: I make a mean cake, really yummy cake cookies, a sinfully delicious green bean casserole, addictive sausage balls, and a healthy and tasty Santa Fe Chicken dish.

Z - Zoo favorite: Umm....I don't remember the last time I went to a zoo.

Wanna know how much I weigh?

**EDITED**

My weight-loss journey has ended for now, as of July 23, 2009, for today I took a pregnancy test and discovered that I am expecting Amick Baby #3! My total weight loss from February 26 through July 23 was 23 pounds. But more than losing weight and going down a size was my total self confidence boost. And I have a better concept of eating and drinking. I make wiser choices. Plus now, I know I can do it. And that is worth every penny paid for Weight Watchers. I will definitely be joining again after this baby is born!

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

Before I got pregnant with Andrew (my first child), I was at the *very* top of the "normal" range for my BMI. I am 5'11", and at the time I weighed about 175.

Even though I wasn't "fat," I certainly was not happy. I can't remember a time I have ever been happy about my weight or my body. Even as far back as the third grade, I remember realizing that I had a big stomach and thinking, "I'll always have this."

Probably from college until getting pregnant (about a decade), I was habitually starting and stopping a diet/exercise program. There was always the self-inflicted guilt. The overeating. The promise to "start on Monday." But Monday never came. Or it only lasted four days.

In the fall of 2004, I lost 17 pounds on the Atkins diet. For the first time, I was able to fit into size 12 jeans, as I have been a 14 my entire adult life. But then I got strep throat and started eating bread again. You know, like normal people do.

And so I pretty much just continued with my horrible eating habits. Not caring how many calories or grams of fat anything had. Not paying attention to portion size. Not ever stopping myself before I was stuffed. It was like I was too stupid to realize that there truly is a correlation between what I ate and my weight.

By the next summer I had gained it all back. Here is a picture of how I looked in the summer of 2005, when I was actually already pregnant with Andrew but did not know it yet. (This is a Gap in Hawaii, by the way.) These are my size 12 jeans that were a little snug but fit well enough. My stance is making my left hip stick out a bit weird, but you get the point.



Sigh. Then I got pregnant. And I gained 56 pounds. And after Andrew was born, I had major issues with his feeding, so losing weight was not top priority. Or even bottom priority. And frankly, I have never had much motivation or willpower.

Months passed and I was still wearing maternity clothes because none of my size 14s would fit. So I bit the bullet and bought 16s.

And that is where I stayed. Sure, I lost a little bit of weight. At one point in the summer of 2007, when Andrew was about 15 months old, I got down to about 188 briefly. But I stayed at about 195-200.

When I got pregnant with Benjamin, I still had 20 pounds leftover from my first pregnancy. I weighed about 197. Thankfully, with my second pregnancy I only gained 27 pounds.

And I don't have to tell you that with Benjamin's birth came a whole host of things to distract me from losing weight.

But to tell the truth, I just didn't want to.

I didn't think I could. I thought I didn't have it in me.

I loved the idea of losing weight. I loved the idea of being in shape. I drooled at the idea of wearing size 14s (and some 12s) again. I would sit down and write up a workout plan and a healthy menu. And then a few days into it, I would just quit.

I didn't think I could. I thought I didn't have it in me.

After Benjamin was born none of my 16s even fit, even though I quickly lost my pregnancy weight and was back down around 200 again. Girls, you know that having a baby does weird things to your body. You can be the same weight but not the same shape.

I refused to buy 18s so I shamefully headed over to the women's section and bought a few pairs of 16W pants. And a couple of regular 16s that fit.

I was miserable. My body image was controlling me. It consumed my every thought. I hated going into my closet because nothing fit. I hated going places because nothing fit and when I finally found something that kind of fit, I felt like a big, fat cow in it. I hated being in pictures. I hated being in my skin.

I struggled with the idea of losing weight because I knew it was going to be hard work. And I don't like hard work. I like to eat and sit on the couch.

Plus we plan to have two more children (yes, we're nuts) and so what was the point of losing weight just to gain it back?

I would plan for things in the near future like vacations or family birthdays and think, "I'm still going to be fat and miserable then." And although Matthew has never been anything but supportive of me, I am sure he was tired of my crying and whining about my weight and then watching me make poor choices with food.

Then my mom mentioned going to Weight Watchers together. She had joined last year and lost 30 pounds but had quit for various reasons, only having gained back a small portion of what she had lost. At first I was hesitant, not only because of the money, but because of the work of what I thought it would take to do this successfully. Planning meals. Counting calories. Yuck.

But we went to our first meeting on February 26, 2009. My starting weight was (gulp) 206.8. But this time I was determined. I was a woman on a mission. (Putting your weight loss plans on the Internet is good accountability, by the way!)

The first week I lost 4.8 pounds. The "work" of WW was hard at first. But it doesn't take long before you are just used to it. There are tons of resources available to make it easier on you. After the first week, my weight loss ranged from 0.4 to 2.2 lbs a week, but has averaged about 1 to 1.5. (I have only gained once, two weeks ago, and it was only 0.2 lb.)

And because I was losing slowly (the way you're supposed to), it didn't permanently harm me to have a piece of birthday cake or a yummy Italian meal (yes, a whole meal) occasionally. There are extra WW points built in so that you can treat yourself. The motto of WW is, "Stop Dieting. Start Living." And I can honestly say that even though I may have an unhealthy meal or snack every once in awhile, my eating habits have changed. And I will not go back.

I didn't start exercising regularly until 30 days ago, when I started the 30-Day Shred with Matthew. Yes, we did it. Exercised for 30 days straight. It was hard. I could not have done it without him because I still don't have the best willpower. But he does. Wow, does he ever. He is my rock! Out of the 30 days, I was probably only excited to work out about three of the days. I fought it tooth and nail (just ask Matthew) about three days. The other 24 or so days, I did it because it is what you do. Now that the 30 days is over, I plan to exercise (whether it's biking, walking, or shredding) 4-5 times a week. I can definitely tell a huge difference in my body because of the Shred. Especially in my abdomen and my thighs. Nothing gets your thighs in better shape than doing lunges for 30 days. LOL

I have not arrived at my goal weight, but I am about halfway there. I have now lost a total of 19.8 pounds. I know, it's silly, but I just cannot bring myself to say 20! My "official" WW weigh-in weight is now 187, but I have seen as low as 184.5 on my home scale. Do you realize how close that is to my "official" pre-pregnancy weight of 177.5?? But even then, I will not be ready to stop. That is still the very top of my "healthy" range. My goal weight is 160. Will I reach it before we decide to have another baby? Maybe, maybe not. We're not sure yet when we'd like to try to have another baby, but I am just going to keep on trying to fit into those size 12s. I can almost zip them. I can fit into a couple of pairs of my 14 jeans, but there are still several pairs of 14 jeans and pants that are still too tight. Which makes sense because I'm still 10-15 pounds heavier than I was when I wore them comfortably.

Here are comparison pictures.

My very first night of Weight Watchers and then last night.

February 26 to June 11.

Fifteen weeks.

19.8 pounds.

A new me. Not just the body but the habits. The mindset. Ah, the contentment. That is worth the $40 a month for WW anyday.

















My point in all of this, other than just to share my success, is to say yes, you can do this. I have zero willpower. I still hate to exercise. I still LOVE food. But the old saying is 100% accurate: "Nothing tastes as good as thin feels." And though I would not consider myself thin (yet), for the first time in years, I do not dread going into my closet. I do not dread being in front of the camera. And you know what? My skin is not all that bad of a place to be in.

Dilemmas I Face

Dilemma One: I realize halfway through a meal that I don't have the frozen corn I need. I have to get this in the CrockPot for a friend who just had a baby.



Solution: Call my dad and have him bring me a bag from his freezer.

-----------------------------------------------

Dilemma #2: I see consistent inconsistencies (LOL) in books. For instance, take these two books:



The back of this one says that "birds fly."



Yet in the book, the birds don't fly; they sing.



In another book in the same series, the back says "children run."



Yet in the book, the children don't run; they smile.



Solution: Get over it. I already tried to email LeapFrog about the misspelling of Antarctica in the Letter Factory DVD. Evidently being an advocate for accuracy doesn't mean a lot to those who are educating children. It's all about the Benjamins. And not mine.

---------------------------------------------------

Dilemma #3: I realize that while Andrew is playing nicely by himself in my bedroom and I am getting a small break, that he hasn't used the toilet in three hours.



Solution: It's worth a change of clothes for some peace and quiet from a usually loud and demanding three-year-old.

---------------------------------------------------------

Dilemma #4: My brand-new socks at the start of my day:





And my new socks after walking around for about five hours (normal day activities) on my "clean" floors.





Solution: Who cares? No one ever died from dirt on their socks. Or their babies' knees. Good thing.

There's a First Time For Everything

Well, it finally happened.

Andrew threw up.

I know many of you are amazed that he made it almost three months past his third birthday without ever throwing up, but it is true. He's still never had an ear infection. Neither has Benjamin, who, incidentally, has never thrown up either.

So when Andrew did it for the first time, he did it up big.

In the middle of Dick's Sporting Goods. In his daddy's arms. All over himself, his daddy, the merchandise his daddy was holding, and the floor.

I'm kind of glad I wasn't there.

That was on Saturday. Back at home, he threw up twice more that day. His fever was as high as 101.5.

Sunday he was weak and not allowed to eat hardly anything, but he didn't throw up again.

In fact, Sunday night he seemed like he was feeling better. Which was good b/c Matthew had to go back to work.

But then at 5:00 on Monday morning, Andrew woke up and threw up all over his bed.

Sigh...

And then he was SUPER fussy. Matthew was able to work from home in the morning. I took Andrew to the doctor but the strep test was negative. He got some Zofran for vomiting.

Today...well, suffice it to say it has been really "loudy" in my house today because a certain three-year-old is feeling better. And boy is he loud.

My parents picked a great week to go to the beach. (But I'm not bitter.....)

Here is the sick boy on our bed on Saturday:





We made him a bed in our closet for a couple of days. Nancy looooves that red blanket.



He was quarantined to the master bedroom, which was almost always fine b/c I moved the DVD player in there. But there were times when he was really whiny and clingy and I couldn't be in two places at once, nor could I bring Benjamin into the sick room. Needless to say, I. Am. Tired.





On an unrelated note, THANKS to whomever suggested that I go to vistaprint to check out getting some business cards. I got 250 for "free." (I had to pay $5.45 shipping.) But that is still a great deal!



Now I have a stylish business card to hand out to people I meet. Like when I stalk mothers who have children with Down syndrome. :)

May I Brag For a Moment?

At a recent end-of-the-school year party for my mom's school (where I used to teach and still consider to be "home"), Benjamin was crawling all over the place. My friend Anna watched in utter amazement and said, "YOU DIDN'T POST THIS ON THE BLOG!"

Sorry.

I guess by now it's old hat. LOL

But it truly is wonderful that he is just barely 13 months old and is already crawling very well (albeit still with that left leg out to the side instead of down on his knee). He is also very good at pulling up on things (furniture, my pants legs, the upside-down laundry basket) and he is even starting to cruise on the furniture!

That is the good news. The bad news is that he's into everything. He likes the taste of cat food. Sigh....

Go down to the bottom of this page (hit "end"), pause the music, and then come back up (hit "home") to watch these videos. They are all one minute or less each. Watch them in order! Please excuse the Southern accent (I can't help it), the mismatched clothes (Matthew dresses them most days), and the scratched up couches (darn cats).

Enjoy watching the most precious boy ever!

The Rocking Chair Pictures

When I was pregnant with Andrew, I read an article about a mom who took a picture of her daughter every year, starting at birth (or maybe age one), in the same (adult) bathing suit. Until she was 18. Just to watch the progression.

So I got a similar idea that I would highly recommend to new moms. I decided to take a picture of my children each month during the first year of their lives in the same outfit and in the same chair. The outfit is a 3-month outfit, but thankfully (so far) I have had children that start out kind of big but who don't grow that big. (And, yes, I also have a matching pink one in case we ever get our Katherine Elizabeth.)

First I will show you Andrew's pictures. We lived in our first house during all of these pictures. Matthew and I painted the stripes in Andrew's nursery ourselves. It was super easy and we're not that handy. Seriously. Let me know if you want to know how.

Andrew's Monthly Pictures

One Month Old--April 2006



Two Months Old--May 2006



Three Months Old--June 2006



Four Months Old--July 2006



Five Months Old--August 2006



Six Months Old--September 2006



Seven Months Old--October 2006



Eight Months Old--November 2006



Nine Months Old--December 2006



Ten Months Old--January 2007



Eleven Months Old--February 2007



Twelve Months Old--March 2007



And now to Benjamin's pictures. Let me first say that for many months, I was very sad after doing these pictures. I knew I wanted to do it and I needed to do it. But it made me sad.

They tell you not to compare your children. Even if you have nothing but typically developing children, you're just supposed to take each child for his or her own.

But, come on, we all do it. When you have a child who is developmentally delayed, it is hard. But we still do it.

So every month, I would grow more and more anxious that Benjamin was never going to be able to sit in that chair by himself. It stressed me out that he needed so much assistance. It made my heart hurt that while Andrew could hold himself up in the chair relatively early, it took Benjamin much longer. And I know he has Down syndrome. And I know he had two major surgeries.

Still.

But remember, I didn't really start to accept this whole Down syndrome thing until B was about 9 1/2 months old. So everything that was different was just a slap in the face to me. Now, not so much. (Sometimes, but not all the time...) :)

OKAY! Enough blabbing. Here are the pics.

Benjamin's Monthly Pictures

One Month Old--May 2008



Two Months Old--June 2008



Three Months Old--July 2008



Four Months Old--August 2008



Five Months Old--September 2008



Six Months Old--October 2008 (Three weeks and one day after his open-heart surgery!)



Seven Months Old--November 2008



Eight Months Old--December 2008



Nine Months Old--January 2009 (Exactly two weeks after his intestinal surgery.)



Ten Months Old--February 2009



Eleven Months Old--March 2009



Twelve Months Old--April 2009



Sigh. I love it. Hope you enjoyed!