Catching up...

113 lbs lost; 3 lbs below goal weight...still flucuating 3 or 4 lbs below goal weight...I can live with that!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY MOM!!! She turns 65 today & is back home after her stroke. She is doing very well & I am so thankful she is still with us...like I said we need another 20 out of her!

I finally got a cute blog background (Thanks Jamie)! Too bad I can't figure out the rest of the stuff to make my blog cuter-est...oh well...one small improvement is better than none!

My baby girl (Tessa - 5 years old) got to celebrate her 1/2 birthday at school last week. Since her actual b-day is in August & she is not in school when it comes around she got to have a 1/2 b-day. She is now adament that she is 5 & 1/2...not just 5 anymore! But now everyday she wants to know how many days it is until her "real" birthday...I just tell her "lots" of days...LOL!

Tessa's cousins got Gecko's for Christmas & Gauge's escaped it's cage so he got a new one...then the new one escaped so his grandma bought him a hamster. So Tessa decided that since we have a dog (who she used to say was hers but now agree's that it's mine) & since Colton got a ferret for Christmas...yep...you guessed it...she decided she needed a hamster; she wanted a pet of her very own. So we went to the pet store & she picked out a dwarf hamster (so cute...but a fast little bugger)! I had asked her before we bought it what she wanted to name it. She said if it was a boy then "John" if it was a girl then "Jessica"...I have no idea where she got these names. Her hamster is a girl so I suggested "Jessie"; she stated that "Jessie is a boy name". I had to point out that on "Toy Story 2", Jessie is indeed a girl & I happen to work with a girl named Jessie so she agreed & we brought Jessie home in her brand new cage to live on top of Tessa's dresser.

We have had Jessie for just over a week. The first night in the middle of the night I realized that the sound I kept hearing that I thought was a broken washing machine was actually Jessie running on the little "wheel" in her cage...gettin' her work out in I guess even though it was 1:00 am! We bought a little ball to put Jessie in & when you put it on the floor she can run around in the ball...very hard to get her out of her cage & into the ball cause she is soooo tiny & so stinkin' FAST!

So 2 nights ago Rio is getting Tessa ready for bed (she has slept with us for YEARS even though we try every now & again to get her to sleep in her own room). He told her to go lay with me in our room so she could go to sleep (at which point we put her into her own bed once she is asleep) & she said no she was going to lay in her own bed & go to sleep...SHOCKER!!!! At 4:45 am (long after she usually shows up in our bed) I hear her in our room with her sippy cup filling it up with a Pepsi (her drink of choice) & then she proceeds to go out of our room, turn on the bathroom light & go back to her own room. I got up to see what she was doing & she informed me that daddy had left the bathroom light on when she went to bed that night so she was turning it back on so she could go back to bed in her room...another SHOCKER!

The next morning when I got her up to get ready for school I made a huge deal out of the fact that she was such a big girl & had slept in her own room all night! She calmly explained that she hadn't wanted Jessie to be alone during the night! LOL!!! She slept in her own room again last night...went to bed without the TV on & fell right to sleep...we are amazed & thinking this is GREAT! I hope she keeps it up! If I had known that all it would take was a hamster I would have bought one a few years ago!

Dot; our yorkie; who slept in Colton's room for the past few years until he got his ferret; has been sleeping on the heater vent on the floor in our room since Christmas (she has a bed but she prefers the heater vent). When I got up this morning Dot didn't follow me out of our room like usual & I realized she wasn't in there...I went into Tessa's room & Dot was curled up on Tessa's bed with her. Tessa thought that was AWESOME too! So...now she has Jessie & Dot in her room with her so I will cross my fingers that she will continue to sleep in her own room! Woot Woot!!!!

The boys have been grounded for just over a week for their naughty behavior (no specific details so that they won't someday hate me for posting their business on the internet)! After a few "fits" of slamming doors & ignoring us they seem to be doing better. I hope it's not too late to make some of the changes we are trying to make...God forbid they head out into the "big bad world" unprepared for life & still relying on mommy & daddy for everything. It's amazing; as a parent; to realize all the things we have done WRONG...*sigh*...we continue to hope for the best.

I love my kids so much & I would do anything for them...which is part of the problem. I have done things for them instead of teaching them to do things for themselves. Have I crippled them? I guess time will tell. I sincerely just want what's best for them & I want them to be happy, healthy, productive, respectful human beings...is that too much to ask?

Thanks for reading (all 3 of you)!