Some Updates

I haven't done a Biggest Loser update lately. That is because all the marvelous results that I envisioned for myself have not come to fruition. Mostly it is because my body has betrayed me. I have lost weight, but it is the same pounds over and over and over again- so mostly I am thinking that it is just water weight.

Here is the way things have gone:
Joined Curves in order to work out. I am really enjoying that and at my first weigh in I had lost 3 pounds. My clothes are fitting looser and so that is also good.

Went to the doctor to have meds adjusted. Found some medical abnormalties. Was sent to a specialist. He is not so sure that the abnormalties exist. Have to do more testing to find out. Waiting for results. And I found out that the new meds are NOT working so I need to go back to have them adjusted again.

I was really hungry this morning at work. I am out of healthy snacks in my work office. I could have had a yogurt or applesauce that I brought with me, but I am really tired of them. So I went to the vending machine. I got a Reeses peanut butter cup. It has peanut butter so it is protein so it was sorta healthy-yes? And it wasn't as good as I remember peanutbutter and chocolate to be, so totally not worth the money or the calories.

I interviewed Friday for a new position. The principal told me that I would know sometime this week.

And the winner is....

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

72

Timestamp: 2008-04-27 17:39:56 UTC

And that would be Marly

Marly said...

Oooh, the White Linen Collection sounds positively relaxing! :)

April 24, 2008 7:33 PM

So, Marly, you now have until Wednesday, April 30th at 8 pm Mountain time to contact me with a mailing address so that I can get your collection sent out to you. Send me an e-mail to sandra@urbanbotanic.com. Remember- Wed. April 30th before 8pm MST.

And thanks for entering to everyone else. You can always head over to my Urban Botanic site and shop if you feel like it.
Feel free to stop back by and see what is going on around here. I try to find reasons to hold a contest every once in awhile, and you just never know when you just might win.

Bits and pieces

So in response to what the doctor told me, Karlene said:

I had no idea you were dealing with that as well. I'm amazed you can do as much as you do! You must be an Amazon Woman.

Ha, that really cracks me up. But this is what I have learned. Red headed women have a higher tolerance for pain than other women do. We just don't feel it the way other women do. However, when we do feel it, we need higher doses of medication to dull it. I guess it is one more reason to thankful to have been born a redhead. But I guess that is the reason that the little piddly meds didn't cut it for me.

It started off spring and warm and happy this morning. As the day has gone on, however, it has grown increasingly windy and cold. I think a storm is coming in.

My mom told me last night that there is going to be a new LDS temple in Gilbert, AZ. Cool. I got an -mail from Deseret News.com saying that there are going to be 2- the one in Gilbert and one in Gila Valley. Click here to read the article.

I know I had more to say when I was thinking about this post this morning, but I did an Urban Botanic workshop and now I am in the midst of laundry and Jess wants me to take her shopping for Sunday Shoes and everything has left my mind. So, I guess I will throw another load in the dryer and one in the washer and head out for shoe shopping.

And the doctor said....

No More Monkeys Jumpin' on the Bed!!!!

Photo taken from www.spectronicsinoz.com

Actually, what the dr. really said was this:

"I think that you are among the small minority that this test gives false positive results. For some reason the test we use to determine kidney disease is wrong for women in your age bracket- 40-50 yrs old. It is a formula and it just is not accurate. So, to be accurate, we need to do a couple more tests and then we will compare them and come up with a correct answer. However, because you have high blood pressure- that is a marker for this disease. You have rhematoid arthritis- that is a marker for this disease. You have ankylosing spondolitis- that is a marker for this disease. You use Enbrel- that is a marker for this disease. Your dad had a kidney disease (though it is a different one) Yep, you guessed it- a marker. So lets do this little 24 hr. collection test and then we'll talk. But I am sure it will all be negative because you have no symptoms, just reasons."

So I am still in the let's wait and see part of knowing, but I feel that it will be fine.

In other news, I had my interview this morning and I feel that it went well. There were a couple of times that the principal said, "Wow, good answer. I really like that, hadn't thought about that." so here's hoping. Then they had me write a letter to a parent as if I needed a record that the parent had not provided the school with. The registrar at the school that I am currently at told me that I put in my letter basically what is in the one she sends out. The principal told me that it would probably be towards the end of next week before he made a decision.

And that is the news. Now I am going to go put those monkeys to bed.

News

Good news, bad news, just news. That is what I am all about today.

Good news: I have an interview tomorrow morning for a great, contract, salaried with insurance position at the jr. high that my children attend.
Bad news: I am one of 60+ applicants
Good news: I am the second interview
Bad news: I am the second interview.
So I am keeping my fingers, toes, eyes and hairs all crossed. Maybe you could all do the same for me, huh?

Good news: I took my computer in for a tune up and virus check last week- I only had one teeny, tiny small virus and because I bought my computer at PC Laptops there was no fee.
Bad news: my power cord was shot so I needed a new one- $80
More bad news: Last night my computer started making weird sizziling sounds, like the insides were frying. I shut it off fast.
Good news: this morning I was able to save ALL of my pictures to disks before I left for work, just in case.
Bad news: My computer will have to go back to the shop, so I will only be able to post from work or if I can wrestle the other computer from the boys.
Hopefully the next item will be good news: they fixed my computer and I didn't lose anything. I'll let you know.

Good news: the dr. changed my medicine that had the yucky side effects
Bad news: the new medicine has worse side effects
Even more bad news: When the dr. did blood work to rule out possible problems for my complaints, what he thought was going to be the problem was not (and still no clue for the reason behind my complaints) but he did find out that my kidney GFR (the rate that it filters the guck out of your blood) is too low. Should be at 99 ml/min but is at >60. So tomorrow I see a nephrologist.
Good news: He thinks that it can be reversed before it gets too bad
Bad news: it is a side effect of yet another med. I take and that med. may not be replaceable as it was a last resort medication for the condition.
Good news: I believe in prayer and the healing powers of the Lord.

Great news: tomorrow is Friday and thus the last school day of the week and then there are only 5 more weeks in this school year!!! 24 days, in fact. But who's counting?

Carnivals = Prizes

I love carnivals. I love the smell of the sickining, fattening, not good for you food- popcorn, chili, hamburgers, french fries, snow cones, cotton candy. I love watching the lights on the rides, even though the merry-go-round is about the only one I ever ride. The caucaphony of sounds that come from the rides and their riders, the squeal of the children along with their laughter, the cry of the barkers as they try to get you to spend your money at their booth. I even love the stupid cheesy prizes. My favorite waste of money game? Popping balloons with the darts. I am pretty good at that one.

Karlene let me know that she is hosting a giveaway over at her site as part of a Bloggy Giveaway Carnival. This is an even better kind of carnival because the prizes are not cheesy and if you win one, it is free and you don't end up sick from the food and you don't have snow cone flavoring running all down your arm and no gum stuck to the bottom of your shoe.


I am going to participate in the carnival as well. I am going to give away a 3 oil Urban Botanic Home Scent Collection. 3 Oil Home Collections come with an Oil Warming Plate and three fragrance oils. Each collection will fragrance your home for up to 4,500 hours and are a $50 value.

You have 3 to choose from:

White Linen Collection- Green Tea, Freesia, Water Lily
Apple Pie Collection- Cinnamon, Maple Spice, Green Apple
Lotus Blossom Collection- Lotus Blossom, Asian Spice, China Musk

Leave a comment on this post with which collection you would like. Refer your friends and if they let me know that you sent them, I will enter you both twice. Take the personality test for another entry. Comments will be open until 6 p.m. MST Sunday April 27. I will then choose a winner using random.org. Be sure to leave your e-mail address or blog address so I can contact you. Head over to the bloggy giveaway site to enter many more cool giveaways this week.

(I am vendor/booth holder/offer giver awayer #653)

Fine print- contest open to US residents only. Contest is limited to the three oil collections, value of $50.

One year old

It's Hunter's birthday today. (April is full of them around here!) To celebrate his first birthday, we went to the zoo on Saturday. Here are a few pictures from our day. The first thing we saw was the white alligator. Sorry you can't read the sign very well, click on it to enlarge it and read about this amazing and rare animal. Donovan thinks he looks carved out of soap.

Never smile at a crocodile

Hunter and Kristina as we get ready to eat cupcakes before touring the zoo

Happy Birthday to Hunter

Ok, I've had enough

I'm ready to go see the animals

First we need a face wash

Opening a few presents

Brandi on the elephant statue outside the elephant enclosure

In all the years I have been going to the zoo, this is the first time I have seen the penguins out

Seeing the sites from the pack on daddy's back

totally tuckered out

At home opening the present from Grandma

My favorite train! Thomas the Tank Engine

Happy Birthday Hunter!!!!!

This next year is going to be even more fun.

Another Celebration

Today is Ethan's birthday. He is a great old whoppin' 15. With him I can share my love of, indulgence in and oveall obsession with all things Stargate SG1. I used to make wonderful cakes for the kids' birthdays. They would start planning what they wanted me to make the next year as soon as they were done eating this years' cake. I have made trains, planes, dinosaurs, Tigger, Thomas the Tank enigine, rabbits, trains on a track, a swimming pool complete with swimming teddy grahm bears, dolls and I can't remember what else. Brandi is the only one that asks me for something special any more. So mostly it is just a 9x13 with the appropriate number of candles and we all call it good. That is what I did for Matthew 2 days ago (except it was a bundt).

Then Friday night Ethan asks if I can make a Stargate cake. I did a quick brainstorm and though that yes I could do something that might resemble it. It would have to be simple since we were going to be gone all day Saturday and I would have to do it after church.

For those of you that don't watch Stargate or know what I am talking about, I will post couple of pictures of what a stargate looks like and then I'll show you what I came up with on short notice. There are things I will do differently if I ever do one again- stand it up for starters, but hey, I think it looks pretty good anyway.

Happy Birthday Ethan!!

Candylishious

Today is Matthew's birthday. His 17th birthday to be exact. Of all of my children, he is the one that is most like me. We just "get" each other. Something about Matt? He has straight "A's" since he was in kindergarten. And it comes easily. He has calculus and some AP classes this year and he has actually had to spend time doing homework. He did get a "B" on his report card once this year. But I still love him.

I started this thing when Donovan was a teenager. My kids ate way too many sweets. I told them that if they didn't eat any candy from the time they were 13 until they were 17 I would give them $1000. Donovan did it. Jess and Trevor chose to not take the challenge. Matt, the overachiever that he is started when he was 11 or 12. Today was the magic day. (I don't have all the money saved up yet, I am working on it).

His friends bought him 7 pounds of candy for his birthday.

Choosing what to try first

Here goes

Not too bad

A little sweeter than I remember

I think I'll stick with the no candy thing.

Happy Birthday

Extravaganza time

I am not sure what it is like in the rest of the country, but here asking a girl to prom is a big production. I don't really understand the why's of it, but it is what it is, I guess.

Matt called me the other day as I was leaving work wanting to know where I purchase my large quantities of balloons and how much would a room full cost and could he borrow my electric balloon pump. It seems that he wanted to ask his choice for prom date by filling her room full of balloons, inside one would be the invitation so she would have to pop them until she found the question.

Being the nice wonderful mom that I am, I told him to just go into my stash of balloons and take what he wanted. I haven't done party decorating for a couple of years and they were just sitting there, so he just as well use them. So he did.

When he was in kindergarten, picture day happened to be on the same day that Matt's uncle got married. Matt was the ring bearer for the wedding and the rehersal was that morning. So we got Matt dressed in his tux, went to the rehersal and than ran over to the school for pictures. For his prom invitation, he took a copy of that picture of him in his tux and wrote something like this:
Now that you have seen me in a tux in kindergarten, how about seeing me in a tux at prom? Put it in one of the ballloons. Jess and her friend went over to the girl's house while they were out and filled the balloons and put them all in her room.

Friday night, the girl still had not answered Matt yes or no. Friday night she called me with a crazy idea. Matt has a hot pink room. He and Trevor, a few years ago went crazy and decided they wanted to paint their room Flamingo Pink. It was their room and who am I to argue. I have always hated that flourecent color. Lately Matt has been asking if he could paint his room. I was so happy about that. So when "W" called me Friday and said,
"You know how Matt has been wanting to paint his room? And tomorrow is the ACT and he will be gone all morning? Well we just finished painting our house and if it is ok with you, can I come over when he leaves, with my dad, and paint his room leaving a big pink 'YES' on one of the walls?"
I agreed.

W and Brandi prepping the room

The answer

I wasn't home when Matt got home, but I hear that his response was, Who was in my room? Where is all my stuff? Wait, SHE PAINTED MY ROOM?!!! This is way better than balloons, where's the phone"

I fear that they have set a high standard for anything else. What's next, sky writing?

I forgot to add that when she left, she shut his door and taped a picture of her taken while she was in kindergarten, all dressed up in a cute sunday/fancy dress. It said- "Now that you have seen me all dolled up in kindergarten, you get to see me all dolled up for prom".

Bread Sticks

Dissolve:
1 TBSP yeast into
1 1/2 cup warm water

Mix into it:
2 TBSP sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
3 Cup flour (possibly more)

Knead for 3 minutes. Let rest for 10 minutes. Melt 1/3 cube butter on cookie sheet. Roll dough onto it. Spread out and cut into sticks. Let rise about 10 minutes. You can add garlic salt, parmesan cheese or other toppings now. Bake at 350*F for 20 minutes.

I think this was originally my sister's recipe. I love it because it is a yeast bread, but you can make it- start to finish- in 45 minutes!

2008 Blog Tour

J. Scott Savage, author of the Shandra Covington series, is doing a blog tour this summer in order to promote his new book, Farworld-Water. He is inviting bloggers to join his tour and help promote his book. Instructions are on his website. If you want to be a part of his blog tour, you can sign up Friday, April 11. The great thing, if you don't want to be a part of the tour is, I will be giving away a book when it is my turn to host the tour. The tour is in the summer, so I have plenty of time to decide what great and awsome questions I would like to ask. If you have anything you would like me to ask, be sure and let me know.

This is a YA fantasy series and I am very excited to be able to share it with my children. Ethan, Brandi and I have very much enjoyed the Fablehaven series. We also loved the Jimmy Fitcher series. And now we will have Farworld to delve into and love. I can hardly wait!

Wheat Grass Juice

Ok, I watched a couple episodes of Celebrity Apprentice. I watched the last two episodes in full. I enjoyed watching Trace Adkins and Piers put together an auction to raise funds for their respective charities. However, the following clips just crack me up, every. single. time. Especially the first one.
(sorry you have to leave and go somewhere else to see them, but I couldn't get them to embed in the blog)


http://www.nbc.com/The_Celebrity_Apprentice/video/#mea=233604

http://www.nbc.com/The_Celebrity_Apprentice/video/#mea=233508

http://www.nbc.com/The_Celebrity_Apprentice/video/#mea=233729

And later one of the BSB forgot HIS black nail polish and Trace had to go purchase some so that they would be happy and go on stage! What a bunch of prima donnas! Wheat Grass Juice.

It got me to thinking about if I was to be doing a show what exactly would I need included in my rider? I honestly cannot think of anything that I would not be able to bring myself. The standard deli tray and fruit and maybe some bottled water, but really, Wheat Grass Juice? Even when I choreographed plays there were some prima donnas, but nothing like this!

What would your inner Prima Donna request?