Packing Up!

 On Friday afternoon when the boys got home from school I had all the kids help me get them packed up for their overnight stay at Ga & Pa's house.

Zeke was so excited to get to use his new suitcase. He knew exactly what we were doing and he started pointing to it up on the shelf in their closet. 

The boys and their suitcases! I wanted to try to get a picture of all their suitcases sitting upright since you can see the names better. That was a stupid idea thought Zeke!

 

 See total fit throwing in the background? He hates it when the handle is down and he can't push it around. That boy!!!

Jack decided he wanted to sit on his suitcase. 

 

Then of course Ella had to copy him. She was quite angry at Zeke for being in her picture so I had to take another one. 

 

Pretty girl who thinks it's perfectly okay to wear capris in the winter! 

So happy to be pulling his very own suitcase. When we got home on Sunday night and unpacked the suitcases he was of course quite upset when it was time to put his suitcase up. I had to actually have him wave bye-bye to it so he wouldn't completely freak out.

February Date Night!

On Friday night my parents came and picked up the kids so Michael and I could go on our second date night of the year. This time my parents kept the kids overnight so it was more like an entire date day!

Getting ready to head out to dinner. Of course the moment we stepped out of the door Michael's work phone went off. Since he's a field technician now (I'll blog about that later) he has to be on-call every 5 weeks. About 20 minutes later we were off, but we had to make a stop at a customers house so Michael could show him how to turn his water off at the meter. It was only about a 30 minute detour and Michael gets 2 hours of overtime pay for it so that was fine with me!

This time we went out to 13 Coins again. We really enjoyed it the first time! We were actually really surprised when we got there at 6:30 on a Friday night and it wasn't busy at all. Turns out we were the beginning of the dinner rush. We again asked to sit at the bar in front of the grill. It's just so fun to watch the chefs run around and prepare the food. 

 

We had the same server as we did the first time...this nice older gentlemen. Since it was slower our food came out so quickly. In fact we weren't even finished eating our appetizer before our entrees came out. We had the fried zucchini for our appetizer...it's SO wonderful and it's only $5.99. The zucchini aren't mushy at all and the spicy ranch dipping sauce they have is yummy. For dinner Michael got The Believer it's there number one selling entree....chicken parmesan with white sauce. I had one of the specials....prime rib. I was really craving some red meat.

The last time we were here we didn't have dessert, but they had creme brule so Michael couldn't resist. I was having a hard time deciding between the hot fudge sundae and this cookie. I decided I wanted some warm and chewy. It was really good!!! 

After dinner we stopped at the Red Box and got World War Z. It was a really good movie, but I probably shouldn't have watched it late at night. It wasn't that scary, but at the same time it was the most scary zombie movie I've seen. Not because of blood and gore, but the fact that the zombies are FAST! Every other zombie move portrays them as slow and dumb these weren't necessarily smart, but they had instincts. It was definitely a thinker film so of course I laid awake thinking through the whole movie. Here I can finally sleep and sleep since the kids aren't home, but I can't! Figures! 

We did end up sleeping in until 9am which was super nice. After breakfast we went to Lowe's to pick up some spray paint and to price the materials we need to make the tree house. Let's just say it's a LOT more expensive than I thought it was going to be. When we came back home we watched World War Z again since I really felt like I didn't get it all....it helped seeing it again. I don't know about you, but I get really involved in movies like that and I think about how I would survive if something like that happened. Reality and fantasy get blurred together in my mind. 

After the movie we just lounged around playing games on our phones. It was so nice to just BE in an empty house together and not have responsibilities to other people. Around 4pm I headed down to pick the kids up. Michael had to stay home since he was still on-call and has to be able to get to work in 30 minutes. The kids and I stayed at my parents house for dinner and then came home. They of course had the time of their life watching TV shows, eating every treat in sight and getting away with everything!! In fact Zeke was so upset about leaving his Cars toys he picked up both Sally cars and through them on the ground and had a royal meltdown. Dramatic much! 

Thanks for keeping the kids overnight Mom and Dad!

Update On Depression!

Update on my struggle with depression....mainly for my own record. Read if you please! 

I've been taking Welbutrin since September and it has really leveled me out. I can still feel though. I can feel happy, sad, angry and grumpy. It's nice to feel human! It helps me not get overly angry so that's good. I have been struggling with PMS more than I ever have in my life. I even talked with the PA at my OBGYN's office and she suggested taking a vitamin B complex to help with the PMS. I haven't picked any up yet though. 

So far my side effects with Welbutrin have subsided. At first I was taking 2 150mg pills a day...one in the morning and one at night. It was working great for about three weeks and then all of a sudden I couldn't sleep. Not at all! It's was awful! I thought it was Michael's snoring that was keeping me up so I tried sleeping down on the couch for a night just so I could get some rest, but it didn't work. When it dawned on me that it was the meds I thought well maybe I can go down to one pill a day in the morning. That actually did help so I was able to get some sleep, but about 3 days of not taking the pill at night and I was already starting to return to my psychotic self. I knew I would rather be happy than have good sleep. Plus the meds helped me feel awake so even if I was tired in the morning I would take my pill and then get energy. I did make an appointment to see my doctor right after this started so when I went to see her she changed my dose to 1 300mg time release pill. It's wonderful and now I have no troubles sleeping at night...PTL!!! I'm still shaky, but it's hard to tell if it's the medication or if it's from my tremor. It's not impacting my day to day life anymore than my tremor was before so that's what matters. In the beginning I was feeling jittery and that's gone too.

One of the other side effects from taking Welbutrin is weight loss. When I first started taking the meds I literally had no appetite at all. I normally had to have breakfast right away, but once I started the meds I could not eat until 10 in the morning and have no problems. When I do eat I find myself eating less....I just don't feel hungry. I also have lost my taste for certain foods....pizza my all time favorite is now pretty much nauseating to me. I'm sad...Michael's happy! When I first started taking this new pill I weighed 140lbs just a month later I weighed 137lbs. My doctor said we would monitor my weight loss to make sure it doesn't get out of control. I haven't gone back to my primary care doctor in a few months, but like I said previously I did go see the PA at my OBGYN's office and now my weight is 128lbs. This is less than when I got married and I haven't even been trying to lose anything. I'm not super worried just a little concerned. I don't want this to become an issue and then we have to change my meds. 

Because I have lost so much weight is another reason why I have been revamping my wardrobe. So many of my clothes don't fit me anymore. I bought my first pair of skinny jeans on Black Friday in size 6 at Old Navy and now they are so baggy they look awful. The grey slacks I wore in our family Christmas picture are about 2 inches too big in the waist. Losing a little weight is okay and I'm certainly not complaining, but at the same time I'm okay if my body just hangs out at this weight and I don't lose anymore. When I went shopping with Kristen a couple weekends ago I was so shocked to find that I was fitting into small or extra small shirts! I also have a fear that once I do...not that I'm planning on it anytime soon...go off the meds that I'll gain all the weight back and I won't fit into any of the new clothes I bought. I know...stupid fears! 

Another weird side effect is that I can't take any sort of medicine that helps with colds or coughs. We've had a pretty rough fall/winter cold season at our house. I swear I feel like it's been one thing or another since November. At the beginning of November I got a cold with a horrible cough that just wouldn't go away. We spent the night at my parents house on Thanksgiving and my mom gave me some Delsym cough syrup to help me be able to sleep and not cough. I had taken it before with no problems. It worked great to stop my cough, but I was only able to sleep 3 hours that night. I figured it was the mattress...I never sleep good on the bed at their house. The next day was Black Friday so I went shopping with my mom and her friend Barbara. I took more cough syrup before we left since it helped so much the night before. Around 11:30 in the morning I felt awful. Dizzy, nauseous, exhausted...just plain wrong. Mom and I figured it was exhaustion since I didn't sleep well the night before. We went home that night and mom sent me with the cough syrup so at least I wouldn't have to worry about that. I was so exhausted I laid down once we got home and then a little while later took more cough syrup and tried to go to bed. That night I only slept 2 hours. Early in the morning I finally figured out that all this started with the cough syrup! I checked the label and it says to not take it with anti-depressants that are an MAOI inhibitor. Most new anti-depressants aren't MAOI's, but I did some research online and found a lady that described exactly what I was feeling to a tee. Super!!! :P This was Saturday morning and I was supposed to be at the church decorating for Christmas...I am the decorating coordinator after all. I felt so awful I knew I couldn't drive so Michael took me to the church. I was able to get everything done that I needed to, but the effects of the cough syrup didn't wear off until 2pm and I hadn't taken it since the night before. Now I know what's it feels like to have a drug interaction!

Something else I've been doing to work on myself is just recently I've started working out with my neighbor Rachael. We usually only meet once a week...she's pregnant with her third child so we won't be working out for the whole month of March. See back in January I hurt my neck and shoulder really bad so I went to my chiropractor to get all fixed up. My chiropractor is also a massage therapist so I scheduled an appointment for a full massage with her so she could really get a feel for what my muscles were like. During that massage she worked on me so hard, but it was pain with a purpose. She mentioned that I was skinny, but that I had absolutely no muscle mass. Rachael is working with me on building muscle...of course I don't need to lose anymore weight! We are doing TRX out of her house and it's hard, but it feels so good to use my muscles. I remember after about 2 sessions with her I was vacuuming my parents house and I could literally feel my stomach muscles while I was vacuuming! I know that sounds funny, but it's nice to know that I actually have some muscles now! Those 4 babies sure did a number on my body! 

Anyways I feel like I'm really making some head way with my personal goals of bettering myself both physically and mentally!

Ella's 4 Year Old Pictures!

 Ella's 4 year old pictures were taken the day after I had my last gum surgery. Since I wasn't up to going Michael and I used Google Hangout for the first time. He did not want the pressure of picking out the pictures on his own. He's knows I can be pretty picky! Turned out that that wasn't a problem....the lady was really only able to get 3 good pictures of Ella.

At first the photographer was a man and Ella wasn't having it at all. Michael was texting me saying that it was going good at all. He ended up having Jack get his pictures instead since he was wearing a nice shirt. He thought we might as well actually get pictures out of this ordeal. 

 

I think that made Ella get a little jealous and then the female photographer came in and took over. In about 5 minutes she got a few good shots and then it was back to miss grumpy pants! 

 

She is a super cute 4 year old!!!

Refashion!

 There's a blog I've been reading for a while now it's called Refashionista. Jillian is the Refashionista and she takes ugly awful clothes and turns them into awesome fashion statements. Well after checking out the clothes that I had in my closet I realized there were a couple pieces that needed some altering. A few just needed to be taken in on the sides so they would be more fitted, but a couple of pieces I really wanted to alter. Now I've never even hemmed pants before. I've made pillows, hemmed curtains and stitched on appliques, but no major overhauls of clothing. I figured I wasn't wearing the clothes anyway so if I messed them up I wouldn't be worse off. 

Here is my first refashion. A simple white dress... 

yes, but I'm not 13 years old anymore. 

The first thing I did was chop the bottom off the dress. I held it up to me and then pinned where I wanted it to fall. 

Then the stitching began. Now I'm not going to say this was easy. This dress had a lining which added a whole other level of hardness to this project. Plus when I snipping away at the excess hemmed up material I snipped through the lining and had to use a zigzag stitch to fix it. It wasn't pretty, but thankfully it's the lining so it doesn't have to be perfect! 

Here's my dress....now a nice shirt, but I still felt like I could do more. 

Then I saw that chunk that I cut off from the bottom and I noticed that the ruffle was still intact. So I took this and pinned it around the arms and stitched it up.

Instant sleeves...but if you look the sleeves are HUGE! They definitely needed to be taken in. So after doing some pinning, stitching, seam ripping and then re-stitching I was finished. 

Much better! 

So from this...

  

to this! I have to tell you I even amazed myself with this one. Since it was my first refashion I was seriously empowered! This opens up so many doors in regards to clothes. Exciting! 

After finishing this I took 2 shirts in on the sides, but that's not super exciting so let's skip over that. 

Another dress...another chop...more stitching. 

From dress to shirt. This is so fun!

Ella's Birth-Day Party!

 Even though we couldn't have a big party on Ella's birthday we did have a small celebration with just the 6 of us.

Ella had requested a lemon cake with vanilla frosting. 

Happy Birthday Girl!!! 

 

These boys had been asking about cake the entire day! 

 

Zeke man was definitely feeling better, but he wasn't allowed to eat cake yet. 

 

Blow.....don't burn your hair! 

 

The boys helped get the candles out! 

 

Yummy cake! 

 

Poor baby boy! 

 

Time for presents! See Owen's....he wrapped it himself! :) 

 

The sweetest thing happened earlier in the week. Jack wanted Ella's puppy Scout. Ella got it for her first birthday. She told Jack he could have it if he drew her a picture. So Jack did just that and Ella gave him Scout. Then all on his own he decided he wanted to buy Ella the puppy Violet. He used some of his money on his Toys R Us gift card and got it for her. I was so sweet! 

Then Ella opened her present from us. 

 

I got her candy flavored lip gloss and yummy candy. 

 

Trying out her lip gloss! 

 

Owen gave Ella some of his work books that he got at his birthday, but the cutest thing was the letter he wrote to her. 

 

It says..."Deer Ella, I Luv You. You are my best Sestr Ever!"

So even though Ella didn't get her big birthday party on her actual birthday she still had a nice time celebrating! 

Zeke's ER Visit!

 Last Friday afternoon I got Zeke up from his nap so we could go to the elementary school for Ella's screening. I set Zeke on the dining room table and then ran upstairs to get him a coat. When I came back downstairs he had this funny look on his face and was almost crying. As I got closer I could tell there was stuff all over him and the table. Poor baby boy had thrown up....for the first time ever! He was so scared! 

On Saturday we did the whole BRAT diet, but he just kept puking. So on Sunday morning when he puked up his toast while sitting in his highchair it was enough. I knew I was going to take him to the ER. At first Michael and I decided I should just take him to St. Francis since it's closer and it's not necessarily a pediatric issues....it's puking! After I took a shower and got ready to take him I had decided that it was just worth the extra drive to take him to Mary Bridge.

When I came downstairs to get Zeke in the van this is where I found him. This cute boy hasn't fallen asleep on our laps since he was about 6 months old. He was so lethargic! 

When we got to MB I used the complimentary valet parking and then walked into the ER. I got right up to the desk, signed a consent to treat form, sad in the triage chair with Zeke for all of 30 seconds and then it was back to the room we went. Seriously these are the reason it's worth it to drive to Tacoma! That an the hospital staff is so wonderful and it's so clean...not even dust bunnies in the corners of the rooms.

The nurse gave Zeke anti-nausea meds and then waited 15 minutes. Then he was able to start Pedialyte. He chugged it down. Then he waited another 15 minutes and then chugged more Pedialyte. The doctor had come in around this time and checked Zeke. He had 3 signs of dehydration...sunken in eyes, dried, cracked lips and wrinkles on his tummy. He was concerned that they might have to put an IV in, but thankfully after the second cup of Pedialyte he started perking up. After another 45 minutes or so he had drank more Pedialyte and eaten some Teddy Grahams so we were released. The doctor did give me a prescription for more anti-nausea meds just in case.

 

Zeke was still so tuckered out so on the way home he fell asleep. 

 

After a nap he was able to eat some cereal...happy boy! 

 

He didn't really want to eat all that much though. He just wanted to drink and drink and drink. 

 

Seriously that tummy of his was super full! I was worried he might just puke from drinking too much too fast. Thankfully he didn't! Unfortunately on Sunday night he started the other symptom of the stomach flu....which meant lots of laundry for us. Poor guy just got put through the wringer! On Tuesday is when he finally started to feel and act like himself again.

New Outfits!

 Before going shopping with Kristen I found a bunch of inspiration on Pinterest. I wasn't able to get the outfits exactly the same as the inspiration pieces, but I got pretty close. I used my new clothes and mixed them with some of the clothes that I already had. 

 Here's my first inspiration piece.

 I brought out my black jean leggings and paired an old shirt with my new sweater.

This is probably my most favorite outfit. I love how it has an equestrian feel about it. 

 

I wore my new skinny jeans (Levi's for $18!!!), a new shirt I bought on clearance at Fred Meyer's for $5 and an old red sweater that I've had for years. I don't have a blue jacket, but I'm going to be on the look out for one. I love how the jacket in the picture looks for tailored than the sweater. But it's pretty close! 

I love this plaid look. A lot of plaid can be icky, but I really liked this one. 

I don't have a red plaid shirt, but I had this nice brown one. I think it looks nice with one exception....

 

This shirt is a bit big on me so I had to clip it in the back to make the shirt more fitted. Don't think that will look very good walking around during the day. I'm going to try my hand at taking in this shirt so it will fit better. I've never done this so it ought to be interesting! 

I love how casual and comfy this outfit looks. 

 

I didn't have a striped sweater, but I did have a striped shirt so I paired it with one of my new sweaters and my new brown ballet flats. 

As for my personal goal of updating my look I think I'm on the right track. I can't wait to save up a bit more money over the next couple months and then go out and get some more awesome finds!