Change...again!

So it has been a while since I last wrote in my blog.  In the past few months things have changed greatly around our household.  I was let go from American Water because I hung up on an abusive customer.  They have a policy that a CSR cannot hang up on a customer no matter what.  I just do not happen to agree with that policy and will not take abuse from anyone so I politely told the customer that I did not appreciate his abuse and would not tolerate it, I then thanked him for calling and ended the call.  That also ended my employment with American Water.  Oh well, I really hated that job anyway. 

The same day that my job ended at AW, my Brother in Laws mother moved in with us.  It has been a challenge for all of us but we are dealing, learning and growing.  We now have a “Sandwich family with a side of chips”.  Lanie and Mom are the slices of bread, Nonnie and John are the inside of the sandwich and I am the side of chips.

Just last week I started a new job and it is a godsend.  I am back to being an administrative assistant and I am loving it so far.  Nine days into it and still loving it.  The people are great, the company seems very good and it has been around for a long time.  I am not as busy as I would like to be but I think that will change when I learn more and people know that I am good at my job.  They seem impressed so far but I think that is because I bring cookies! 

Speaking of cookies, I am totally into Christmas baking.  We have way too many cookies and fudge at our house.  Last year I made a mistake when making peanut butter cookies and added an extra ¼ cup of Crisco to the batter and it makes fluffy cookies.  They are so good that we decided to keep that in the recipe.  Before I made them this year mom told me that her peanut butter cookies are better and that she would make a batch and compare them to mine.  After tasting one of mine she decided that hers was not necessary that she liked mine so much better!  I also found two new recipes this year, gooey butter cookies and ginger snaps.  I love the ginger snaps! 

My nieces, Toni and Onieta, came to St. Louis for Thanksgiving and we all had a great time.  I got some pictures of the little ones helping Toni make homemade noodles.  They had fun and didn’t even get flour all over the place.  They also enjoyed the food for dinner and all the goodies that I had made.  I even made and apple pie, pumpkin pie and pecan pie. 

Well on our way to Christmas now.  I got all my shopping done early this year, good thing because of getting fired!  I also made doll clothes this year.  They are really cute and I am thinking about trying to sell them-well others that I make because the ones already made are for great nieces.

Update on the weight loss.  I have lost 32 pounds since September 3^rd when I had the surgery.  Yes, that is more weight than I have ever lost in that amount of time but the problem is that most of that was lost in the first 2 months.  I have only lost 5 pounds in the last month and a half.  I realize that I should still be happy because at least it is a loss but I have been working my butt off.  I go to the gym 5 days a week.  Cardio is all 5 days and then I do weights 3 days a week.  I am slowing starting to increase the sets and reps but I still have not lost more than 2 pounds since joining the gym just over a month ago.  Last night I increased my reps to 15 per set and then increased it to 4 sets, from 3.  I also added a bit of weight to them.  I probably should not have done it all in one day but I did.  I felt it last night too.  I am doing ok today but I bet I feel it tomorrow.  Good thing it is Saturday-too bad I have to take mom shopping and get a lot of stuff done tomorrow.  But I will endure to the end!  I am determined to not let this $23,000 procedure be a waste of money!  Ok, my insurance paid it-and it was through AW so I don’t really care that it was on them BUT, I am not going to fail!  How much of a loser would I be if I still can’t lose weight after gastric bypass?! 

Took this picture last month.  Not too bad although I will never take a good picture!

Making homemade noodles with the girls...

The week before last Lanie and I made homemade noodles to put in chicken noodle soup and we used my noodle roller thingy.  Lanie had so much fun doing this and when we ate dinner that night, she ate an entire large soup bowl of noodles. I left he noodles really long so she could slurp them!  She thought that was awesome.  She finished her bowl of noodles and said, "this is the best dinner ever, please save some for me for tomorrow."  I felt so bad when I told her, "sorry, we ate them all."  :(  She was really bummed.  So, last Sunday I got off at 4:30 so I decided we would make some more and Nonnie had made a beef gravy that we could put the noodles in.  I got home and we made noodles.  The following are pictures of Lanie and Hannah helping make the noodles.  We had a ball!!

I know there are a lot of pictures but they are so cute and they had so much fun!  They have such looks of concentration.  Both girls love to be in the kitchen helping.  Hannah has been making cookies with me for about 4 years and now Lanie is starting to help to.  Lanie loves the job of taste testing the chips, whatever kind I am using.  She also likes testing the batter by licking the bowl.  Her favorite, and rightly so, is testing the first cookie!  She is very good at her job, and very diligent.  Sometimes she even has to have two or three cookies to make sure they are ok for the rest of us.  Quality Control!



We are having a fun summer...

This last week my sister and I took Lanie and Hannah to Grants Farm  Neither of us had been in many years and this was the first time for Lanie. 

We had to stand in line for an hour before even getting into the place! 

 This is Nonnie, Hannah and Lanie at the start of the day.  All happy and smiles and Lanie was being so good!


Lanie and Hannah got to feed the goats.  This is Lanie petting the Goat after she fed it.  She was trying so hard to let all the goats have a drink out of the bottle she had but it just would not go very far!

Lanie eating fried chicken.  She just could not sit down even for lunch.

Hannah and Lanie in front of the 250th St. Louis Birthday cake at Grants Farm.

We are going to do another trip but it will probably be in October so we can do Halloween there. 

I have some exciting news.  I have finally been able to get my insurance company to approve my Gastric Bypass Surgery.  I am going in on Wednesday to talk with the surgeon, get my pre op testing done, talk with the dieticians and all that good stuff.  I am shooting for a surgery date of 8/27/2014, just a few weeks down the road.  I am not sure how much of that process I will post, I am still not sure how I feel about it.  On one hand I think of the surgery as a failure for me because I was not able to do it on my own.  But on the other hand, at least I am moving forward and doing what I need to do to assure that I am healthy and at least around for Lanie as she grows up. 

Certainly if you have any questions about it or even comments, please feel free to post or ask.  However, I am going to ask for only positive comments.  I already have enough negative going through my head. 

Anyway, I am looking forward to changing my life...for the better!!

Fun times...

Last week I took Lanie to Purina Farms.  She got to play in the hay mound and go through tunnels in the hay.  Swing on a rope and play with little tractors in boxes of corn instead of sand. 

She also got to pet a pig but I cannot seem to get that photo in here.  We had a great time and she was so excited.  She pet a cow and the cow licked her face from her chin to her forhead.  She did not like that but it brought back great memories for Nonnie and I. 

It was so nice to be able to take her to a fun place because my scheduled lately really prohibits us from doing anything fun as a whole family.  I work weekends and am off Tuesday and Wednesday, John is off weekends and Nonnie is off Sunday and Monday and sometimes Tuesday.

I hope to do a few more of these little activities before school starts again. 

Below are pictures of going to the St. Louis Zoo with Lanie and Hannah.

This is a picture of our Lab Sandy and our Chihuahua Lilly.

So, the other day I bought hair dye to dye my hair.  I had it sitting on the counter in the kitchen.  Lanie asked what it was and I told her "hair dye".  She cried out, "You gonna dead your hair?"  I tried to explain that it was hair color and it would just color my hair.  She kept on about it for a few days saying that my hair would have to be buried in the ground next to Gizzie, or that her mom would have have to take care of my dead hair just as she was taking care of Gizzie and other comments about my dead hair.  On Wednesday, I started coloring my hair and she stood in the the bathroom yelling "don't dead your hair!"  She ran into the living room grabbed her crayons and paper and drew the picture below...

My dead hair!

She then gave me the picture and told me I had to bring it to work with me and hang it on my wall so all my friends could see my dead hair!!

If I have not said this before- This child cracks me up!!

We welcome Lilly to our home.

This is the first picture of Lilly.

 On the ride home. 

This one is a random picture of Lanie.  We went to the grocery store and they had a pony to ride.  Lanie wouldn't take a picture of me on the pony!

So we are now in the midst of getting Lilly aclimated to our home.  She gets along great with the other two dogs Sandy and George.  Sandy is a blonde lab that I think Lilly thinks is her mother!  George is a Beagle and Lilly just jumps around him as he looks as her with a quizzical look on his face.  I know he is thinking, "Way too much energy for me!!"  And I know he is thinking that because I do the same thing with Lanie!  I will have to get some pictures of the three of them posted.

Lanie is doing well with the new puppy.  She can even sit in the chair with her for a few minutes at a time.  I was not going to get a new one so soon but Lilly was given to my brother-in-laws mother and she did not want a puppy so she gave her to me.  I couldn't say no to a free puppy!  

Rough week...

This has been a really, really rough week.  My little dog Gizzie died on Sunday evening.  Gizzie was 8 years old and was just so cute and lovable.  She would get so excited whenever I came home.  She would turn in circles and almost do back flips she was so excited.  And she was that way up until 20 hours before she died.  On Saturday night before mother's day, she seemed to have a bit of trouble breathing.  I called my vet and got the emergency number and they had an 8 hour wait.  I did not think it was that serious so decided I would just take Monday off and take her to see Dr. Harvey.  On Sunday afternoon I was at work and kept feeling very uneasy and then developed a rough case of stomach cramps so decided to go home.  I came home, went into the bedroom and got Gizzie and had her in my arms for no longer than 2 minutes when she died.  I have to tell you that I was devastated.  I loved that dog so much, she was like my baby. 

Since then Lanie has woken up 4 nights crying because she missed Gizzie.  I wake up all the time reaching for her.  In the morning I miss her trying to get my attention as I put my make up on or when I go downstairs and put my shoes on-she would always play with whatever was on the floor to get my attention because she wanted me to feed her before I went to work.  I just really miss her.  Monday night my mom came to me in a dream and told me that she had Gizzie and would take care of her.  It made me very happy to think of my mom taking care of her. 

Lanie asked me if we can get another little dog, "when you're ready" she said.  I told her I would start looking.

Update on us...

Here is a picture of my little Lanie Lou.  She is so cute!  Yesterday she gave me a heart that she made at child watch for Mother's Day.  I need to take a picture and see if I can post it. 

Little Lanie is doing so well.  Her teachers tell us that she is getting so much better and sitting and listening to what the teachers say and following directions.  She just needs a little guidance. 

Last night she about broke my heart.  She asked me if she could call her other mommy.  How do you explain to a four year old that there are no phones in Heaven. 

Today she is spending the day with Grandma.  Pappa went to see his mom for Mothers Day and I am at work so she gets to spend the day with Grandma.  We'll see which one is still sane when I get home.  I betting it will be Lanie! 

School ends in just a couple of weeks.  I don't know what we will do to keep this child busy through the summer.  I am hoping to find a class at the Y that will help.  She needs swim lessons but they may not fall on the right day for me to take her.  I have Tuesdays and Wednesdays off through October so it needs to fall on those days.

No other happenings at this time.  

Who says this child is ADHD?

About a year ago I had a woman tell me that Lanie needed to be tested for ADHD.  Lanie is very active, very Persistent, Very strong willed but she is not ADHD. 

For example, last Friday night (a week ago) I was putting her to bed.  I asked her to please pick up her toys the next morning, before she woke me up.  There was no threat of punishment and no promise of a reward but guess what?  When she woke me up Saturday morning her toys were all picked up and put in her toy box. Then on Tuesday night I told her that her bedding needed to be taken off her bed in the morning because we needed to wash it.  I got up on Wednesday to her bringing her dirty sheets and blankets into my room.  She did as she was told to do, but not only that, she remembered from the night before with no threat of punishment and no promise of reward.  THAT is NOT a ADHD child! 

This child totally amazes me on a daily basis.  Yes, she totally frustrates me on a daily basis but she is an amazing little girl.  Tonya would be so proud of her!  I remember a nanny position I used to have many, many years ago.  When I interviewed for the job I was told that the little boy, Donny, was "all boy". Quite honestly, I did not know what that meant but I soon found out.  Lanie reminds me so much of Donny and I survived him, I can and will survive raising Lanie! 

I have to say that this child still has an obsession with Poop!  The other night when I took her up to take a bath before bed, I walked into the bathroom and the entire bathroom was covered in POOP!  She had finger painted with it on the counter top, the sink top, the floor. I made her clean it.  It took her a very long time to do so, but she cleaned it all up with me standing over her.  I was so angry!  I will not commit my thoughts to writing as I do not want to be judged but suffice it to say, I was angry!  And she was happy, smiling and singing as she was cleaning up the poop!  She thought she was being rewarded!  How do I stop this behaviour?  I was not home during this time, so don't tell me to not leave her unsupervised.  This I already know!  She thinks the bathroom is her personal playground. 

I really need to start getting pictures of things like this.  I need black mail pictures for when she is a teenager. We do have the one picture of when she finger painted herself.  That should be worth something! 

Anyway, as I stated before, she amazes me and frustrates me daily, but I love this child more than life itself.  I love her so much that I am willing to live long enough to raise her.  Let me explain that one.  I used to think that I did not want to live until I was old.  I wanted to die at 50 or so because I did not want to get old, besides the fact that I am fat and ugly and in too much pain to live to be old.  Well, I am now trying to fix all that.  I am wrapping up the preliminary work to get Gastric bypass surgery and am hoping to schedule that for May.  I want to live to not only see her graduate high school, but see her graduate from college, get married and have a baby.  Ok, I will be almost in my 80's by this time, but by golly, I will be healthy and alive to see it!!

Symphony

This last Sunday, we took Hannah and Lanie to the St. Louis Symphony. We stopped and picked up the tickets, Lanie had to climb on the St. Louis 250th birthday cake.

We then went for lunch at the City Diner-Oh so good. Very bad on the diet though! 

The girls then had the opportunity to try different instruments.

Lanie tried the Violin first.  She really enjoyed the attention from the professionals.   Hannah did not want to try the Violin.

 Lanie really liked the trumpet.  She definetly has the right embouchure. 

Hannah did not have as much luck with the trumpet...but did great on the flute!

Lanie had a hard time with the flute and the clarinet.   

But Hannah did well on the Clarinet...definitely a woodwinds girl!

We all had a lot of fun even though I had to take Lanie out because it just got too long for her.  What can you expect from a 4 year old!  We will definetly do it again.

So Lanies fourth birthday was yesterday and she had a blast.  We took her and her sister to Chuck E. Cheese.  There were supposed to be three other kids there but they were unable to come so Hannah and Lanie had all the attention.  Here is a picture of Hannah, Lanie, Pappa and Grandma at Chuck E Cheese.

We then went to lunch at Home Town Country Buffet, which is Lanie's favorite.  It also happens to be all our favorites so everyone was happy.  After that we went home for cake and presents.  Here is her cake with a Jake and The Never land Pirates theme.  She was thrilled with this cake. 

She then blew out the candles...

 and then it was time to unwrap presents...

She received Duplo legos from her sister, a race track, scooter, tea set and Doc McStuffins "Cuddle Hut" from Grandma and Grandpa.

A V-tech InnoTab Tablet a Doc McStufffins coloring book, a Jake and the Neverland Pirates Coloring book, a set of Doc McStuffins character toys from me and a Jake and the Neverland Pirates  shirt from a friend of mine at work.  She was truely a happy camper. 

She had about 4 peices of cake yesterday and enjoyed every bite and then decided to sleep in her cuddle hut. 

I cannot believe she is alread 4 years old but then on the other hand, I am amazed that she is only 4 years old.  She is so smart and funny and witty.  I cannot imagine my life without my lovey dovey, boobie butt, my little princess buttercup! 

Lanie is turning 4!

This Sunday is Lanie's fourth birthday.  We are going to celebrate with her sister and a few friends at Chuck E. Cheese!  She is very excited.  So are we.  I was able to get her a VTech Innotab and I have been playing with it so I know how to use it to show her and I think she will really like it.  When I was registering it, I thought I hid it behind the computer well enough that if she came in she wouldn't see it but she saw a little bit of it and said, "Why you got that tablet?"  I didn't even know she knew what a tablet was!!

I was also able to get a few other gifts and order her cake last week.  Her cake is going to be a Jake and the Never land Pirates cake.  She is very excited.  But the other night she sat in her closet and picked on the plaster and created a hole about 2 feet in diameter in the plaster.  Pappa made her clean it up but the way the door is on the closet, was not able to fix it so she could not get in so when I put her to bed I told her that if she even stepped one foot into that closet or even put a toy in it her birthday would not happen.  The thing is, she knows that if I threaten I will follow through so she stayed out of the closet!  Pappa fixed it yesterday so she cannot get in it at all.  Now she does not have a "night light", so last night I put one in her room that plugs into the wall.  I am only going to put it in at night and then take it out during the day so she does not play with it and hurt herself. 

I will put pictures up after the birthday party.

Just a few pictures...

T

This is a beautiful fountain that we found at an Antique shop in our area.  It graces our frount foyer!

Lanie on her first day of pre-school.  Doesn't she look adorable?

This is my brother Ray with Lanie this summer.  He tried to get her to ride the "Noisy Cycle" as she calls it, but she would only sit on it.  Probably because he told her if she touched a button a Big Purple Gorilla would come out! 

And this is our new dining room table.  It was originally $2800 and we found it at a thrift store for $300!  We are very proud of this find. We have never had a table that looks like this, there is not one flaw on this table or the 6 chairs that came with it.  Now we just have to get a fancy set of china to do it justice.

In the past few weeks I have been so sick.  I had the Flu and Pneumonia.  Nothing like multi-tasking.  Loads of fun.  Lanie was also sick.  She ran a fever for a couple of days but now still has the runny nose and cough that we just can't get her over.