Mom's Birthday Party and the Flu

My mom turned 60 this past week.

As she said, this birthday was hard because you can't pretend that you are young anymore.

 

It's funny, in my mind, my mom is 40. We had a huge party for her when she turned 40. As I was a teenager, she seemed young and old at the same time. While she has aged over the last 20 years, she hasn't aged THAT much. She can't be 60.  But then, I'm closing in on 40, so my math has issues it would seem.

 

Anyway...

 

We had a big party for her Saturday night.

Most of the family was there. I even took my 3 sick kids. We had to go..sorry everyone we exposed. Doug bought me boots for Christmas and gave me a gift card to pick out an outfit... so I got a new dress for the party.

Aren't we cute!!

 

Here are a couple of pictures from the beginning of the party. Lots more people came in, but Lexi was in full meltdown about wanting to go home as she was getting sooo sick, so the camera got put away.  I'm hoping that my sisters got more pictures and a video of my dad singing to my mom! 

 

 

We left just as the party was getting going. I hope everyone had a great time.  And I hope no one gets sick because of us! Sorry!!

By the time we got home, all 3 girls were in sad shape. As of Sunday, Kylie was on the mend after being sick for a week, Maddie is in the beginning stages of getting sick and Lexi has all the flu-like symptoms including the fever. Oh man.

My Main Squeeze

Just in case you thought I was on this weight loss/excerise journey alone, I'm not.

 

My main squeeze, Doug joined me in the quest for good health the week after the picture below was taken. You can see why we needed to do something.

 

This week, he made his goal weight!! Yay Doug!! Doesn't he look great!!

Wow.Between the two of us we have lost 65 pounds since May 28th!

Yes, I am proud.

Cabinet Doors and a Sick Kid

We went back to school after Christmas break yesterday. Today I am at home with Kylie. She's got a nasty cough. I'm hoping this is a short break in the week and not the beginning of a cycle that keeps me out of my classroom for a week.

Since I'm at home, I'm working on the kitchen cabinet doors. We changed the knobs first and liked them so much with the black cabinets, that I am changing out the hinges and calling it good. No painting at this time!! Yippee!! Given that there are 29 doors and 14 drawers, I am thrilled.  I'm not planning on this being a long-term fix, maybe a year or two, so I went with contractor grade hinges. 58 hinges. The difference between contractor grade and the good ones are an easy $3 each!! So, needlesstosay, the less than awesome new brushed nickel hinges are perfect.

What's the difference you ask? Well on the expensive ones, the inset in the middle of it is the same color as the hinge. On the contractor grade ones, the inset is a different color. In our case, it is a brownish/maroonish color. It's noticeable, but not worth the price increase.  In may picture below the hinges are gold, the inset is brown. Our hinges are exactly like this except that they are brushed nickel.

Well, I am off to get Kylie to stop climbing on the couch and to finish the cabinets. I'll post a finished pictures later!!

Disney.. where dreams DO come true!!

We just got back from Disney World. WOW!! 

 

I'm still trying to process the experience, but one thing I know, Disney does it right!! I was worried going into the trip, not sure how Maddie would hold up, and was concerned that we would have spent a fortune and the trip would be miserable. Thankfully, the trip was INCREDIBLE!! Every single worker (cast member or leader) we encountered did their absolute best to make our experience perfect.

 

The adventure began in Magic Kingdom with a show at the castle complete with all of the princesses and Mickey and Minnie and more. Kylie was beside herself!! We could have left immediately following the show and she would have considered it a great trip. It's funny, because in the show Mickey talks about that as long as you believe, dreams do come true and the crowd chants with him and the day is saved from the evil witch.  Well, after our experience at Disney.. I'm ready to believe Mickey!

 

Our most important stop, was the first stop... it was at Guest Relations and we picked up a crucial "guest assistance" card for Maddie. This card was like a super fast pass and opened doors for us that made us feel special, without feeling "special." If you have never felt the sting of life limiting your child, then you can't imagine how feeling "special" is not the thing you want on vacation. As Maddie said, they took us through the VIP entrance!! (yes, one of the rides did have VIP on the door for the alternate entrance!) This little card made a long day full of walking and rides and people possible, because it took out the waiting in lines.

 

Here we are on "It's a small world." Yes, I had us all wear matching shirts. 

We ate an awesome (yes, expensive..) lunch and while we were finishing up one of the manager seeming guys asked if we had been on the Winnie the Pooh ride yet. Nope. So he gave us passes to get on Winnie right then!! It was great! And this kind of kindness happened everywhere, even without our guest assistance card in view!

Dumbo was awesome.  A 2 hour wait for most.. maybe 10 minutes max for us.

The only line that we had to wait in was for the brand new Belle experience. It was a 2 hour posted wait.. and no fastpass no quick entry.  So for us, they let me stand in the line for our family and then the rest of the family joined me as we were going into see Belle. In the end, it only took a little over an hour to wait. Not too bad for me, but Maddie would have never made it. I am sooo thankful we waited though as Kylie and Lexi got to play "Chip" in the reenactment of Belle's dinner with the Beast. Kylie LOVED it. She repeated over and over that Belle touched her check with her yellow glove.  It was adorable.

 

The next pictures are from Universal Studios. Glad I got a decent picture. Overall it was a bust. Crazy busy. Way, way too many people. Little accommodation for special needs. Maddie got to see Hogwarts and we rode the Hogwarts ride. Other than that, it was a very, very expensive day!

Day 3 was back with Disney. We went to Epcot. Oh boy. It was nice to be back with Disney. Starting with parking at Disney. We flashed our card and parked in the 4th row!! The day was cold and rain drizzled all day. We were wet all day, but we loved every moment of Epcot.

Within moments of arriving we were on a ride and then enjoying the innovation stations. We then had pictures with Mickey, Minnie and Pluto. I love having good pictures taken at the venues, even though the overall cost is outrageous, it's worth it as a scrapbooker to have pictures of my family in focus!

One of the most poignant moments of the trip came at the France destination. It was mid-afternoon and we were wet and cold and Maddie was super pale and worn out. There is very little indoor seating at Epcot (one of the few negatives) and we were desperately trying to find a place for her to rest. I went into the gift shop next to the theater and asked if they had anywhere to sit and flashed my Guest Assistance card. The shop worker immediately went into action. He apologized that they had no where for Maddie to rest, but he got a role of paper towels, went outside and got a chair, dried it off and placed it in a quiet spot in his store!! Maddie was able to sit in the dry/warm spot for a minutes and it made all the difference!

And that is the quick and much abbreviated story of our Disney trip. If you have a child with a special need, Disney has to be the absolutely hands down place to visit.

2012. The year of ME!

I've named 2012 as the year of ME. That sound very selfish, but it's not.  The reality of it is that I made myself a priority in 2012.  Instead of continuing to push me to the bottom of the priority list, I found that I could be on the list and that there would still be enough of me for the rest of the family.

The quick recap...

1. I started Weight Watchers on May 28th.
2. I spent the summer exercising. I learned that I love to run. I'm good at bootcamp and that water aerobics feels like more fun than work...until you get out of the pool.
3. I hit my goal weight of 140 on October 16th.
4. I ran my first 10k on October 27th with a time that was better than I dreamed possible.
5. I took 2nd place in my age group in a 5k Thanksgiving weekend. This truly opened my eyes to what could be possible.
6. I've started training for a marathon.
7. I've decided that 130 would be a better goal weight and I've been flirting with 135 for the last few weeks.
8. Over the holidays I've eaten way, way too much bad food. I'll be starting Weight Watchers again when school starts. It keeps me in check.
9. I ran 12 miles yesterday.
10. I like this me better.

Here Doug and I are celebrating our 14th Anniversary this week. Don't we look fabulous!!