Woo Hoo!

Someone actually read my blog! I got my very first comment yesterday from "followthatdog" at http://www.mommyneedsalatte.com/ ! I've been reading her blog for a little while along with a ton of others. The Redneck Mommy, Her Bad Mother, Whiskey in my Sippy cup, sarcasticmom.com, Boobs Injuries and Dr Pepper....and many many more. I try to read most of them every evening when I'm putting the Gabe monster to sleep.
Thanks for the comment! Hope to get more soon!
Hopefully everyone has a great 2009.

Tomorrow is New Years!!

Still can't believe how fast this year has gone! Having fun chasing kids, and working out towards my goal of losing 100+ lbs. Here's some pics of my African grey, Nintendo. She is a 28yo(or around there) bird that was my best breeder, and is the only one of my birds I was able to keep. Also a few pics of my cockatiels.
1st pic: Shorty the dog, currently 4yo, a shepherd and mastiff mix. 2nd pic: Blondie, a lutino pearl female. 3rd pic: Fudgie,cinnamon pearl pied male. Blondie and Fudgie were two of my baby tiels that I hand raised. 4th pic: Emma, she's a emerald female split to whiteface.
5th pic: Parents of Fudgie and Blondie, on left is Spice a cinnamon female, and right is Woody, a pied male split to whiteface, lutino and cinnamon.
And of course, last pic is my baby, Nintendo! She is very sweet, but will bite if she wants down or if she doesnt like you! She was wild caught at about a yr or so old, back in 1980. I bought my breeding pairs (3) about 4 yrs ago, and had to sell them when we got foreclosed on and had to move. Only allowed 1 dog and 1 bird here.

Almost 2009

I can't believe that the year is almost done! How did it go so fast would be the question of the day. This year has been a whole lot of firsts for us as a family, and starting over, trying to do things right this time.
1) We got foreclosed and moved twice
2) I had to sell my parrots (that I used to breed for extra money to pay bills)
3) Gabe got about 70% potty trained! (if I could just get him to wear undies 70% of the time...)
4) We started home schooling the kids. But this time we put thought into it and bought curriculum, and (gasp) we're sticking with our plan!
5) We learned to make due, when Tyson was closed for those 2 months or so, and learned what we can get by without.

I've been a godmom for 19mos. Adrian was born on May 16, 2006. I was there when he was born, and was the first to hold him and gave him his first bath. We have him most weekends, and sometimes during the week. He's walking and trying to talk some now. To him, I am Tee-Tee, and Mike is My-My. LOL. We picked him up earlier today, and will have him until whenever mom and dad want him back.
I'm also adopted auntie to Austyn (7, he's 8mos younger than Gabe, almost to the day), Lilly(4), and Skylar(3). In fact, we go pick up Austyn at 4 today, and he'll spend the rest of the week here more than likely.
And I have blood related nephews and a niece too. Austin is 8, Daniel is 8, David is 7, Christopher is almost 5, and Brianna just turned 2 back in October. Austin, Daniel and David are my sister Jaime's kids(Austin is her stepson), and Christopher and Brianna are my other sister's kids.
I'm trying to plan our New Years get together, it will be us and the kids, and the 2 extra kids, and maybe my adopted brother and his new "friend".

Sad.

Got a phone call this morning that a friend of the family passed away this morning at 5am. He was taken in to the hospital a week ago Saturday and had a heart attack. He was released on the 23rd, and celebrated his 50th birthday on Christmas Eve. He was taken back to the hospital last night, not sure if he had another heart attack or not yet. The call was made at 5am that he went home to heaven this morning.
Now I'm wondering when the funeral and visitation will be. Hope my next post is better than this one.

Man am I sore!

Just started working out recently with the Total Gym, and am doing 45 minutes at a time now. My body is rebelling and telling me where to go! So far I've only lost 2 lbs, but hey 2 is better than none! Been drinking lots of water, about 2-3 liters a day. Plus of course my coffee, because I'm not human without it.
So far the kids are doing well, we have a lot of things that we are working on right now, and James wants to do some Unit Studies. We are planning a unit on the Solar System, and one about Rome and the gladiators. Caitlin wants to do a unit on different types of cats, and Caleb hasn't decided what he wants to do.
On another note, our basement is leaking, so I spent today washing clothes and rearranging the basement to make sure that our stuff wouldn't get ruined or wet. I moved the shelving units from one end of the basement to the other and got Mount Laundry contained. Then Mike wet vac'd it and I mopped. We got 5 loads of laundry done today, and have 2 more loads in right now, so tomorrow is fold it and put it all away time.
We are looking for a place sometime after spring gets here, but are in a lease until July 31. I hope the next place we find has some counter space! Course a first floor laundry would be awesome too! We've decided to look within an hour of where we live now, which opens up a lot of possibilities. That gives us: Janesville, Milton, Fort Atkinson, Johnson Creek, Whitewater, Watertown, and Jefferson, plus probably a few others that I can't think of right now.
Still trying to figure out how to get traffic to my blog, haven't had much time to do much of anything lately though, but I have a few minutes here and there to post. I'm going to try and post every day, hopefully that will keep me motivated.

New Years Goal!

I've decided that my main goal for the new year is to become healthy by losing some of this extra baggage that I've been carrying for the last 11 years (no not the husband lol). I am twice the weight I should be for my height. Not a good thing with a family history of cancer, heart attack, stroke and diabetes.
I bought a glucose meter a while ago, and have been keeping track of my sugar levels. I have pretty much cut out sweets, and pop. I'm relearning what portion sizes are. I want to be happy with my body. I want my husband to be proud to be seen with me in public, and my kids. But most of all, I want to be there to see my kids grow up. I've come to realize that I can't do Gabe or Caleb any good, or Caitlin or James, if I don't take care of myself.

I'm going to stick with it. It's going to get hard, and I'm going to want to quit, but I know I have to do this.

Been AWOL for a while!

LOL, long time no blog! Been very busy, dealing with the kids' school, and the kids themselves. We're all doing fairly well, just some minor bumps in the road of life.

Gabe has developed a real phobia about school, and school has been unwilling to change his placement. He hasn't really progressed in the last few months at school, if anything he's regressed in some areas. We made the decision a few weeks ago to pull the kids from public school and homeschool them. So far, so good. Their last day was the 18th, which was their last day before winter break (the 19th was a snow day!). We're working on phonics and numbers (and alphabet lol) for Gabe, and regular curriculum and phonics for reading for Caleb, and a regular curriculum for the other 2. Caleb is behind in reading (kinder level at 2nd grade), so I think that the extra reading and phonics will do him a world of good.
James is looking forward to learning more and catching up to the grade he should be in, or at least getting closer. His reading is coming along fine, and that is what held him back in public school.
Caitlin is doing fine, with her it's more of a behavior/attitude thing. She doesnt think it's fair that the 2 younger boys are doing different work than her. Her reading is at grade level, just a little behind (public school uses a letter system: she should be at an "H" or "I" level, but is at a "G").

Gabe is learning his letters, slowly, but learning. We have hooked on pre-k, and jumpstart pre-k and a couple other jumpstart cd roms that we are using with him. He knows his colors, shapes, and some numbers. And so far these letters: A,W,R,M,U,C,D,u,x,b,g,a! Thats major for him! The public school has been trying to teach him the alphabet for 2 1/2 yrs, and thats as farther than they've gotten.

More later, trying to get Gabe to fall asleep, it's quarter after 10 and he's still going strong!