Progress and a new goal

On Friday June 5th I wieghed way waaayyy too much. A total of 236lbs. I started the Couch to 5 K that evening. I am proud to say I have stuck with it. It is now June 29th and Tomorrow I start my 4th week. I weighed 229 this am. I have lost 7 lbs in about 3 wks.

That amount would have been 2 lbs more but I seem to have an issue with weekends. When I am at work and my food is limited I do well but at home I seem to feel the need to "splurge".

I am however feeling great. I am walking/ jogging = wogging lol about 2 miles per session. Saturday was the last day of my 3rd week and I did all of the jogging circuits at 5 miles per hour and I felt great. I am nervous about this week because I go from two sets of (jog 90 sec walk 90 sec jog 3 min walk 3 mins) to 2 sets of ( jog 3 min walk 90 sec jog 5 min walk 2.5 min). It seems like a big leap to me. But so did week 2 to week 3. I feel like if I can just make it through once it is all down hill from there because the rest of the circuits and days I just keep telling myself

"YOU HAVE ALREADY DONE THIS ONCE! THERE IS NO DOUBT YOU HAVE THE ABILITY TO DO IT! SO JUST GO! DO IT ALREADY! AND REMEMBER HOW GREAT YOU FELT WHEN YOU WERE DONE!!!!"


That is the best part is that I feel so awesome after my work out.



SO...my pop is engaged!!! He finally met someone. I hope to meet her in mid August. (yeah it is crazy I have not met her but we live 5 hrs apart and there has been alot going on for them and us) but this brings me to my new goal.

I want to at least weigh 180 by November 21st. Why November 21st? That is their wedding date and I am so tired of being the pudge in all of the photos till I could scream. I will look alright at 180 I think and that is 50 lbs in 5 months so hopefully that is doable if I really work at it. That is not my ending goal but that is a good date and a good challenge.

So there it is. 180 by Nov 21st.

how about a photo update

We rocked the carousel

This was the day before Easter.

Me looking shabby with miss beautiful.


Emma & her GrandPops.

Emma playing in the pool

So that's our update. We have just been enjoying the summer.

1 st day of 3rd week

Today was my first day of the third week of my couch to 5 k. I never thought I would be able to jog 3 mins straight but I did. woot woot

An update

So I know it has been far too long but life took over as it does sometimes and there was no time to blog.

So here goes...

We made it through another tax season. This was our first with Emma. It went fairly smooth. I was exhausted alot but Emma's smile renewed me every night when I got home.

My Papaw passed away after 46 days in the hospital. He went in for a heart bypass surgery and the took on alot of fluid and things went down from there. It was crazy because he had not had a heart attack. YET. He was going in for the surgery because his heart dr. monitored him and said he needed it. Then about 10 days before he passed my Mamaw got pneumonia and was put in the same ICU as him only two rooms apart. He passed while she was still in ICU. This was one of the worst things I have ever been through. NOW, my mamaw is doing ok. She had a lot of rehab to do after being on the vent for so long. She is getting stronger everyday. And my Papaw's hunting dog is now a house dog and is with her every step.

Emma is doing great. Just yesterday she took her first, second, third and fourth steps. Then she went on strike. LOL. It wont be long I know and we will be chasing her. Her first word was "hey/ hi" she says it when ever she sees someone. At first we thought it was not "on purpose" but it is. We are still working on momma and mommy. Her favorite thing to do is take stuff out of any container. She loves to empty her toy box, char's purse, my breifcase, any thing.

Last week we had to put down one of our dogs. I never thought it would come to that but we had had issues with the dog since we got her and it peaked with her trying to bite Emma because she was crawling in her general direction but Emma was still 3 or 4 feet from her. She has had issues with children and visitors in the past so we knew it was a possibility but we thought she would come to love and protect her like she does us. Then while waiting in the vets office a child and his mother came in the door and she growled at him from all the way across the room. I was very upset about it but I believe we did what was the best for our family and our dog. We gave her a great life and we all had great times with her and she with us which is more than she was set up to have when we adopted the malnourished, mangy, 3 legged dog from the pound 5 yrs ago. She came to be a beautiful loving loyal dog that just had issues. Who wouldn't with only 3 legs. I am at peace with it now.

Well I know this is getting long so I will go now. But I hope to do better with this blog now.

Sun and Fun here we come

Last night we bought our tickets to Cancun. I am so very excited. We are going in May. It will be our first vacation in about two years because of all the getting ready for the CPA exam stuff.

Our little Emma will have a passport and everything soon. It makes my heart smile she is really growing up. LOL

5 month report

Emma turned 5 months old yesterday. To celebrate we gave her baby food for the first time. It was homemade with lots of love from her mommy. It was yellow squash and she liked it very much. I think she liked it even more than the cereal we have been feeding her. I can see why though because you know I had to taste it and it tasted like cardboard.

She has started to love playing with the rolly thing on her exersaucer. She has figured out how to promptly roll to her back when we put her down for tummy time. She isn't very fond of tummy time.

She reached out for someone for the first time on new years eve. It was ME!! I was so excited.

She has started reaching for things on the table so we are having to really watch her when we hold her while we eat our food. We try not to do this much anyway so there have been no major mishaps yet.

My boss took us all out for lunch and drinks yesterday and she tricked him into giving her some chocolate cake. He couldn't resist her smiles and sweet noises she is making now. We both kept our mouths shut about the cake. We decided long ago that we didn't want our child to have any "refined" sugar until 1 year old. I know we are crunchy. We also decided we would not be so anal about it that we yelled at someone if they didn't know. And Emma christined him later on in the meal with a pee pee leak through her diaper. LOL

More Pictures

I don't know why but I could not put these in the last post. Is there a limit I don't know about?

PICTURES!!!

I thought I would give a little picture update since we are working a whole half day here on Christmas Eve. The pictures below are one that I took for a calendar we did for our families for Christmas. They turned out pretty good and I thought I would share a few.

Emma ate black eyed peas for the first time last night. Not alot but enough to give her nose a wrinkle. She has started to show more of a personality everyday. Often when Char is holding her and Char and I are talking she watches me and starts laughing. I guess my voice sounds funny. I must admit she is spoiled and wants to be held or played with most of the time. We think we feel the barely beginnings of a tooth. This would also explain some of the clingyness.

I love her more and more everyday.

WOOT WOOT I PASSED ALL 4 PARTS ON THE FIRST TIME

I KNOW THAT IS A LONG TITLE BUT I DIDN'T KNOW WHAT ELSE TO CALL IT. TODAY I GOT MY LAST GRADE FOR THE CPA EXAM AND I HAVE PASSED ALL FOUR PARTS ON MY FIRST TRY!!!

I AM SO STOKED!!!

Great news on the CPA EXAM

I have passed BEC, FAR, AND REG!!! WOO WOO. I took Aud the day before thanksgiving and feel pretty good about it so hopefully since this is an off month I will find out sooner about my grade.

We tried out the bouncer swing. She isn't wuite bouncing yet. She is getting so strong. Char worked this weekend so Emma and I watched lots of movies. We would have went out and enjoyed the weather but I have a pulled muscle in my back. I have been having a hard time standing up straight after I have been sitting. But it is getting better.
My birthday is coming up. I am not very excited. Birthdays and Holidays are such a chore. My folks are divorced and Char's parents don't really understand how hard it is. We feel like we are in the biz of "working people in". Since Emma is here I just want to enjoy all of my time with her. I don't want to spend it on the road. We usually spend more time on the road goin to see people than we do actually seeing people. I told Char I didn't want to do much for my birthday this year because I am kinda stressed enough. I am studying for the last part of the cpa exam and have a big project going on at work. Between work and studying I feel like I am infront of a computer 16 hrs a day. I just want to relax. That is what I want for my bday just to relax.
Lately I have been feeling something pulling at me. I feel the need for something more. I am really feeling drawn to find a church home for my family. I want Emma to grow up knowing and loving God. I want her to feel comfortable in church and comfortable with God. I didn't feel comfortable for whatever reason. I also feared God. I feel the need to pray with Char. I feel the need to become comfortable with God myself.

My daughter is a thief

She stole my heart again. She does it everyday but man this weekend she got me good. Emma and I went to my moms this weekend. I was getting extremely overwhelmed with work and studying and HOA crap. So Char sent us back home. She had to work this weekend. I missed her horribly. It was nice just me and Emma though. Sometimes I let Char do more than I should I am sure. This weekend made me really appreciate everything she does. I loved being there with Emma though and knowing I was going to do everything that had to be done for her this weekend. I don't know why but it was awesome. On the way home from my mom's I didn't even want to put her in the car seat because it was all the way in the back seat. I just wanted her to sit in my lap or at least in a car seat in the front seat. Then once we got to see Char and then come home to one more night alone I fed her again before we went to bed and when it was time to put her in the bassinet I didn't want to. She had been sleeping in the bed with me while at my mom's. I missed her last night. This is all very silly because the bassinet is right beside the bed. I mean they even touch. I have just become a softy.

OH WELL. She is so totally worth it.

More pics

We get the pics we had made back today. But here are some I took she is bloomin cute.

a little bit in pics

She is doing great. Growing like crazy. She is so much more responsive now. I love it to death. Emma and I have been hangin out this weekend just us. Char started back to work.

crazy crazy crazy

I am studying like crazy for the BEC part of the cpa exam this Fri. Emma is doing great she has started sleeping from about 10 to 6:30 and we were very happy to find out it was not a fluke. Last night she didn't have a very good night but that was just one out of a week or two so we are very happy.

This weekend we got pics made and we should get them back around the 10th. I am excited about them. I think they turned out good.

Well I have to get to studying. The weight loss is going great. 7lbs so far woot woot.

Later

WOOT WOOT

EMMA SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT FOR THE FIRST TIME LAST NIGHT!!!!

She is almost 7 weeks old and she slept from 10:30 to 6:30. Which is just perfect for us to get good sleep too.

She has become so responsive to us talking to her. I love that part the most. She smiles alot when I talk to her and that sends me to the moon.

I have started a weight loss blog. It is listed over there to the right "Creating a New Leigh". Check it out if you want to. So far I am kicking but and taking names and feeling awsome!!!

Well I really have to get some studying in so I am going to go for now.

holding her head up

She is on my desk in my office doing some tummy time. LOL!!! I am putting her to work already...yeah right.

She has started to definitely smile in response to being talked to. I talked to her for about five to ten minutes straight with her sitting on the desk in front of me and she just smiled and looked at me.

Last night we had her in the tub and she looked over at the silver tub drain thing and saw her reflection in it and reached for the lever sticking out of it. I really think this was a coincident but it was pretty cool.

We started trying to use a pacifier here and there. We read that they reduce the risk of SID immensely but she spits it out after a bit so I don't know. We aren't really thrilled about using it anyway. I guess we will just see how it all goes.

She has had this rash on her face, under her chin, on the side of her neck and upper chest for almost 2 weeks now. We took her to the doc and he said for Char to lay off dairy for 1 week and gave us a can of stuff to rub on her rash it is in a can and comes out like mouse. So we did this for tues, wed, thurs, and fri and it really did NOT look much better. So then Char recalls patients getting a similar reaction to medication and thinks the rash started about the same time we started giving the prescription gas meds. So Friday we stopped those and her cheeks look somewhat better but it is still on her neck. To me it looks almost like welts. This is breaking my heart because I keep thinking they have to be irritating to her. A few days she ran a very low grade temp but even thought it was a low grade one she was still so clingy and poopy. She even whimpered. I thought I was going to cry one day when her and Char came to eat lunch with me so they promptly left after we finished eating.

Hopefully it is a reaction to the meds and it will go away soon because we were going to get photos made and she has the crazy looking stuff on her face.

Well back to work I guess.

Sept 7th one month old

Yesterday Emma turned 1 month old. I can not in my wildest dreams believe she is already a whole month old. On one hand it feels like she was just born yesterday and on the other it feels like she has been with us forever.

She is growing more and more everyday. She is so strong. She lifts her head and kind of pushes off your chest sometimes. She is smiling more and more. I know some of these are probably gas but they are becoming more animated. Big open mouthed smiles that leave you thinking any moment a beautiful laugh will escape. She also has started making more noise when she is awake. She will coo and "talk" some sound that isn't a coo but a sound.

She has taken to sleeping closer to 5 and 6 hrs a night between the time we put her down and the first time she wakes to nurse. Then she will go about 4 more. Char likes the sleep but has been pretty sore by the time she wakes up for the first feeding.

Emma had her first bottle last night. On a scale of 1 being horrible and 10 being champion we give her a 4. She was a little fussy before we even gave it to her so I don't think that really helped but she at about 1.5 ounces by the time it was over. We have these breast flow bottles from first year and I think they just piss her off. They are made to mimic breast flow but Char's milk is like a dripping faucet when she nurses so I think the bottles are actually harder to get milk from than Char is. So we are going to try again when she isn't already fussy and work our way into it because we have to be ready when Char goes back to work.

This morning I got up for work and Char and Emma were still asleep. When I went into the bathroom to brush my teeth and start the shower I thought I heard Emma start to wake and fuss so I went back in the bedroom and looked and she was just occasionally making the kind of higher pitched sigh like she was so relaxed and resting so well. It was the cutest thing ever. I wanted to skip work and just sit by her bassinet and watch her sleep.

Well speaking of work I have to get to it now.

Not the best news ever

Yesterday we had to take Emma for an Echo on her heart. Today our Pediatrician's nurse called and said per the pediatric Cardiologist's notes Emma has an ASD (atrial septal defect). This news pretty much just threw me over the I think I won't be able to stop crying all stinking day edge.

The pediatrician told us he believed it was just a PDA which should close on its own and that he wasn't worried about it at all because Emma is in the 75th percentile on both her weight and height. He believed if something was really wrong she would not be gaining weight like she is and would not look as good as she does and would not be as alert as she is. But it isn't a PDA it is an ASD neither of which I know a darn thing about so I have been pretty scared and upset all day. If the problem were HEY she is a genius and we need to fund college right now so she can start this semester I could handle that but I hear heart problems and all I see and hear in my head immediately is all of the stuff my family has been through already with my grandparents.

On the lighter side I have been of course googling this all day since I found out and the hole in her heart (ASD) can also sometimes close naturally on its own. If not she may have to have open heart surgery to patch it or have an procedure done through a heart cath were the patch/plug the hole. So it sounds like it can be fixed. I am just a wreck.

I just want to hold her so tight and never let her go.

On top of this when I called to tell my mom she tells me that my granddaddy is having a heart cath next weekend. About 14 years ago he had a quadruple by pass and last 4th of July he had open heart surgery again and had 6 by passes done. He is having chest pains much more frequently so they did a stress test and didn't see anything and so this is the next step. He is 77 years old this year and the cornerstone of our family. He is my compass in life. He is my role model to this day. He is the person I look up to most in my life. My head knows he can not live forever but my heart just isn't getting it.

Today hasn't been the best day.

Emma's first boat trip