Surprise

Surprise! I remember I have a blog.
Latest news.  Cole enlisted in the US Army.  He leaves soon.  I am in denial how fast the departure date is.  He told me 15 Jan, but I don't know if that is his report date or the date he leave here.  Questions only anger him, so I gave up on that line of info gathering. 
We're keeping Christmas light this year...or so we thought.  Then the refrigerator died.  While emergency fridge shopping we decided to splurge and get the coordinating dishwasher and then noticed that the range we've had our eye on was about 300 less. So we dusted off the credit card and got all three.  Thankfully the fridge was in stock for delivery the next day.  Have to wait a bit on the other two. 

Ara is working with a trainer and it's starting to show.  He is still off tobacco and sleeping better.  He thinks his abdominal pain may have been a pulled muscle. 
I am also still losing weight, but at a much much slower rate.  I have 5 more pounds to go so I am not sweating it.  Ara and I did a detox from The 7 Principles of Fat Burning book.  We didn't do the whole 2 weeks, just a weekend and are trying now to incorporate more veggies.  I think I may have to buy a giant bottle of Beano---Veggies just don't do so well when they hit my intestinal tract.  I've made Kale chip- love them. Roasted Brussel Sprouts- love them and Roasted Asparagus- love them.  These are our go to snacks now, along with apples.  Kale Chips are super easy to make.  Carefully cut the center stems from the Kale and tear into chip size pieces, toss with olive oil, sprinkle with sea salt and bake until crispy.  Definitely the salty crunch just like potato chips. 
I don't pack Ara lunch or make him breakfast, since he is totally capable of doing those things. But I do try to have dinner ready or at least something easy planned he can make, since I have two jobs now.  He did great making Chili last night.  I really wish he loved cooking, so I could have a break or just so we could have fun cooking together.  Now that the kids are older, I don't worry so much about having 3 squares a day.  Breakfast is a hard boiled egg, or cottage cheese or a protein bar.  Lunch is light and Dinner is big enough to have some left for lunch the next day.  And there is back up peanut butter and tuna in the pantry. 

Valentines, Schmalentines

Wrestling season is over.
It snowed a few days ago.  I hope that is all we get this year.
I bought Cole a car.  2000 Chevy Cavalier.  It runs great.  Took it to our usual Treadquarters to have it looked over and they replaced the CV joint and did a transmission service.  The next day it quit working.  So we took it to American Pride.  They just called and it's ready for pick-up.  Turns out that Treadquarters put something back together wrong and the transmission fluid was too low--so that's why it kept cutting out and shutting down.  So it runs great again.  Hope Cole can squeeze 60,000 miles out of it.
My paycheck from my second job didn't get direct deposited....I had the routing number wrong.  I hope it is not a nightmare to fix with the payroll dept.  The GM seemed to care less. 
I'm exhausted.  And I've ate chocolate all day. 
I didn't get the closet door latched and while I was out Spike went on his usual scrounging mission and ate half a box of GS cookies.  Thankfully he went for the peanut butter and not the Thin Mints. 
I saw some shoes at TJMaxx, but couldn't commit to just one pair so I walked out with 0.  I wanted all four pair! But Ara would have had a heart attack with all the car $$ we just forked over.  So I will scout out TJMaxx until the next payday. 

Medical Updates

Wednesday was the busiest freaking day of my life.  Ara has been having abdominal pain for about a month now so after he saw his primary care doctor he was referred to a gastro doc.  So Wednesday was the colonoscopy. And since I encouraged him to check the box that he has difficulty swallowing (his entire life, apparently) they did an endoscopy as well.  His colon checks out perfect so we don't know what is causing the abdominal pain, but he's insisting that after super laxative Tuesday that his system is all cleaned out including the pain.  The endoscopy revealed that his esophagus is inflamed so they did a procedure to stretch it and also discovered that he has a hiatal hernia most likely congenital.  I'm thinking that the swallowing was actually a regurgitation thing from the hiatal hernia.  He's does have heartburn after eating pepperoni and other pork products.  But other than that he is not symptomatic.  I must admit that I did choke back a tear when I saw him laid out on the bed in a hospital gown with an iv.  I've never seen my dh like that and it started to choke me up even though it was a routine in/out procedure.  Then after I got him home and settled I had to run to Target to get printer ink so Andi could finish a school project and print it out. And then I had my weigh in with my weight loss doctor.  I am down another 1.5 pound of fat and up in muscle mass so the scale didn't move.  It's getting easier to eat right, kind of.  It's just easier to get back on the wagon when I slip off.  Still scared it will all come back so I scheduled another weigh in 2 months from now.  I am still about 10 from my goal.  And then I had to meet Cole at urgent care to get the antibiotics for his face rash.  And then he headed back to wrestling practice while I went back to Target and  waited for his Rx to be filled.  I am dead tired at this point because I have worked two long days (yes I signed up for that when I took the second job).  And then I headed to work where I ended up having to mop the freaking floors at closing (after 10 pm).  The mop was so freaking heavy and the floor was so freaking dirty since twenty-somethings usually mop.  I took forever.  That manager probably won't ask me to do it again...he thought is should take 5 minutes but I took 30.  And then I stopped to get gas since I was driving Ara's car and he is still avoiding gas stations (because he quit tobacco and that was his routine---buy gas buy tobacco).   Thursday was only slightly less busy.  Day job, nap time, then Walmart for Andi's new glasses, McDonald's for supper (i had a hot fudge sundae) and groceries...home by 8pm.  So today I have only moved from bed to change laundry.  It's 3pm and I'm still in my pajamas. 

Not sure if Cole is still number 2 in the district. He's hoping to hold that spot. He has Impetigo again, hoping it clears up by the next district meet. Ram Rumble this weekend at Lafayette. He's wrestling up a weight class and not happy about it. the Rumble is a tournament and not a district meet. Doc cleared him to wrestle with his oozing face rash since he's had a 24 hr round of antibiotics. Last time doc said no wrestle until the rash completely cleared. I thought it was odd to get two different orders. The attendance sub gave me a hard time yesterday when I turned in a long note to excuse the kids tardies/absence....I am terrible about writing notes because the morning is such a mad house here (literally and figuratively). I had no idea that we had to fill out a special form for college visits...so all of Cole's visits are marked as unlawful field trips. She said its in the handbook that I signed off on. I said no one reads every word of the handbook when they have to sign 28 papers for each child on the first day of school. She glared at me. Customer service at JHS sucks.

Enigma of Teen Boys

Just had to take a moment to document that the teenage boy still living at home does love me even if he ruined my Christmas.  Every night that I work my night job and get home around 11ish he is waiting up and constantly coming out of his room to make sure I get home.  As soon as I'm in and he makes a point to check in and say goodnight his light is out.  And he even ended a phone call with the magical 'I love you' words that every mother of teens craves. 

And Gasp! today I got what little of the Christmas decorations I put out, shoved back in a box.  Next step, carrying it upstairs and shoving it in the attic.  One thing at a time.  The organized me is only a little bothered that it didn't go back in the specially marked plastic totes designated for Christmas instead of the convenient cardboard box it got quickly shoved in today.  Only a little bothered. 

I hate bad hair days.  So I bought different shampoo today.  Impulsive and Desperate always solves bad hair, right?  Hey at least I didn't chop it off. 

So Far So Good

I survived my first week of working two jobs.  Pre-planning the meals, errands, and laundry along with other house stuff is definitely a help.  Yesterday Ara and I hit the grocery.  Haven't found a perfect system that I use 100%.  I just kind of roll with it, but overall I am naturally efficient and organized anyway. 

After Cole's district match this week, he is now 2nd in the district in his weight class.  He's hoping he can hold that and compete at districts this year.