Saturday was a big day in our little family…Poncho attended his very first Chess Tournament…he was in the Novice division but I am very proud of him. John has been sick but he was a great dad and with not feeling well he still spent the day with Poncho at the tournament. The boys had to be up bright and early on Saturday and left the house at 740am to drive almost a half hour out to attend the tournament. John took a picture of the room for me of where all the players would rotate

There was not a lot of pictures taken because the floor needed to be clear when tournaments were in session. But he did take a few before the tournament started…Poncho had to play 5 games in total.

This is the only picture of Poncho actually playing a game..and this was Game1…which he won.

The day ran till 4 before the boys were home. The games went as follows:

Game 1 – he won
Game 2 – he lost, but learned how not to use his King
Game 3 – he won and the move he lost to on game 2 he used on his opponent
Game 4 – he lost
Game 5 – was a draw, his opponent couldn’t decide on a move

In the end he overall won 3rd place for Novice Division. We are very proud of him and he did very well considering it was his very first time playing in a tournament.

I put his trophy on our mantel.

While the boys were gone I had the two little kids…they were both nice enough to me that they let me sleep until 930. After breakfast and getting dressed I brought in a kids tent and let them get all set up to have fun. We watched movies, played cards, I made them a big bowl of popcorn and even made them a special lunch. The kids had a blast with mom and I was really proud of them.

Once the boys came home I made Oven-baked BBQ Pork and then we watched Wolverine as a family.

It was a very busy day but I think the kids overall had fun. As for mom and dad, John feels better today and I feel worse…blek, what a way to start the week.

This week has been busy work wise but not a lot has happened. We are getting a whole lot of snow right now and daily have to have everything shoveled but not much else.

My Iodide/Iodine showed up over the weekend and I have taken it everyday since its arrival, and even though it hasn’t been a full week yet I do admit that I definitely have a lot more energy during the day. I am up to eating two meals and snack and drinking only water. Eating two meals is a big deal for me, I still have the goal to add breakfast but I need to get up a little earlier for that to be realistic. As for sleep I am getting a full 8 at night and I think that helps with my days as well. Since I have really gotten back in to the swing of working out I am going to be doing something new but you have to be invited to know what will be going on.

Poncho has been doing fantastic in school since everything has changed and he had a school assignment this week to write a story using some key words…I will get the document and share it with all because it is a great little story. He also has started having to write reports and he is overall doing well with that.

Alex and Maria discovered Power Puff girls and now want to watch the DVD we have all the time. It is cute to hear Alex walk around saying “where is mojojojojo”…lol.

So that is about it for now.

Today was spent downstairs organizing and going through all the kids toys. It has been a while since we have gone through them and we both knew it was time by the state of the closet that houses most of the toys. We have a strict policy that if anything is missing pieces or broken it goes into the trash so some toys met their end. I spent time vacuuming and cleaning under all of the bigger toy items and furniture. I always feel better and feel like the room is cleaner knowing that under the couch has been vacuumed. It took us a good two hours to organize and clean it.

After we were done cleaning John and I got to do something we have not done in a while and played Wii Sport… we played a few games of tennis and baseball and a round of boxing..it was a whole lot of fun  After that I spent some time and got in a little bit of WiiFit to round out my workout. It felt great to get to do some activity with John, it has been too long.

Tonight as a last good job honeybuns we are going to have steak for dinner. It is something this house does not see too often so it will be a real treat for all.

This Friday started off with a lot of happiness and thankfulness in our home. On Thursday night we were notified of some news we were not expecting and on Friday everything became official. We are very happy over the blessing that has been brought to our home. Because of this news suddenly our Friday became way more busy than anticipated. This Friday was the first one in a long time that the kids and John went on the errands. I was happy to not drive because it was snowing heavily and the roads were not yet plowed when we left.

Our first stop was to Target where we upgraded Alex’s car seat (sniff, sniff) he has grown enough that he is now in only a booster, and we ended up choosing this one for him, based on stock and the fact that it was softer than the Graco that we have for Maria and it has lights…that will be a nice feature for when we take a family vacation  While there we also picked him up a new pair of shoes because he needs something than just his slippers and snow boots, and he got big boy underwear. Last night he required us to let him wear them…which we did and he didn’t pee in them though getting him to change to a diaper for bedtime was a battle. So that seems to be a good start to wearing big boy underpants (again sniff, sniff).

After we went there we did a big trip to Sam’s club where I stocked up on meat for the rest of the month and we bought some other bulk items that will last this house for a while. I feel really good about being able to buy bulk staple items because living here with our weather we never know if we will need it.

For a little daddy celebrating we spoiled the little kids and took them to McDonalds so they could play in the tunnels…they were so happy to get to burn off some energy. After that we went to the grocery store to finish off our shopping list and then were just home in time to greet Poncho.

Once we unloaded the car and put stuff away it was time for John to leave us for a little while, in that time I did my workout and was a nice mom and let the kids Wii themselves out.

For dinner we did Chili’s to Go and watched a movie.

Today John and I did something we rarely ever do which is stayed in bed and watched some shows/movies and enjoyed each others company. Downstairs we let the kids watch some movies and play. So Saturday was truly a day of lazing around our house.

Taking off today means a very busy Sunday for us, but spending Saturday as if we had nothing to do was totally worth it, we needed some time like that and now I will be ready to get back to house, family, chores and life.

Right now I am still working an almost full day but there is light at the end of that tunnel…I know that because I get my Friday’s back  This week I finally finished reconciling and closing December for work which means employees will be happy because their tax stuff should be on the way soon.

Poncho has had a fantastic week all around… new therapy changes meant getting back on task and able to focus more…also some of the aggression he was starting to show has disappeared. We are very happy with the week;s progress and he has finally been earning back privileges. The biggest thing with him is that he has also started taking on new chores. Last week I bought a white board for right outside his bedroom door since we wanted to re-work how he did his chores and homework. So far the board has worked very well, as in location and actually getting things done. This week he even did his laundry all by himself…from sorting to folding…I am so happy that he is able to do it on his own, this is an important life skill that John and I wanted him to learn and master and I think he has got it. So we agreed that for now on he is responsible for his own clothes. Hopefully he will keep it up. With school he has a lot of school projects he is working on and we can tell that we are coming close to Spring as more projects show up. In a few weeks Poncho will be attending in his first Chess Tournament and John has agreed to take him. I am really proud of Poncho that he is sticking to his after-school projects and that he really likes them.

I owe an update with Maria because we haven’t done one in a while, she is still dealing with leg pain during the day but not as frequent as she was, all test so far have been negative but she definitely has something going on still. Just don’t know what it is. She is having an imagination explosion and right now is living in her imaginary world…she is very into her “teacher” and her school that only girls go to, everyday I come home to a new adventure. So storytelling has been mastered which is a very good thing for her age, now for us to teach her to separate fiction from real life. She also has mastered the computer all by herself and can turn it on, open a browser window and play her games for the web sites that we have picked for her. The when she is done she knows how to correctly shutdown the computer. We are really proud of her that she has mastered those skills because she will need them in school next year. Maria is also becoming very good at writing though she is still writing right to left. I am trying to work with her on direction but I think with her being left-handed it is still going to take some work (knowing that from my own personal experience). I don’t think she is dyslexic because she writes everything the correct way as in Rs face the correct direction but instead of writing MARIA…she writes AIRAM…so I have been talking to some neighbors that are teachers and have degrees specializing in children with learning disabilities to kind of help me learn what direction to take her and help identify if she may have a problem.

Lil Al is also going through a learning explosion and he is really getting into letter, and numbers. We have him counting to 15 and sometimes 20 and he understands basic math (as he understands to that 1+2 is 3). He can identify all the letters of the alphabet and can spell out words. We are really proud of our little guy. He also is interested in colors…I think like his brother he may be missing his greens because he is dead set on a shirt that is a light brown that it is green and those that are missing those colors from the spectrum will see those shades as the same. So we are working right now a lot with him on color to see if its a learning curve or if he might be slightly color blind.  He also has really gotten into his trains even more than before and now by himself he can build a very elaborate track…it really is impressive. Other skills he has finally mastered is getting undressed without help…that one took us a while. He also is getting better at dressing himself, but that will be some time still. He also is showing more and more interest in being toilet trained so we are finally going to take the plunge and get him some underwear. If he loses his diaper he doesn’t pee in his clothes (his diaper tabs keep getting caught on his pajamas so the diaper goes down one of his legs…it really is annoying…especially if it happens with a fully loaded diaper) he holds it. So we know he knows what is happening…now to get him to take that information and apply it to the toilet and we may get to be out of diapers by his 3^rd birthday. Wouldn’t that be amazing…lol.

So that is what is going on here. Oh and I have still been able to keep up with the house and I am still continuing to exercise. Since I started back up I lost 2 pounds…its not a lot and I didn’t monitor my inches like I should because its obvious that even if not a lot of weight came off, inches certainly did. Beginning in February I am going to add Iodide to my diet to see if that gives me any sort of boost and yes I said Iodide not Iodine. The biggest accomplishment that has come out of all of this is I am now eating lunch…one of the hardest meals for me to eat. That’s the update for now.

This weekend marks 6 years since John and I decided to start dating. So since a lot happened this past week and we knew we couldn’t go on a date outside the house we had a date-in weekend. It was really nice to get to cuddle up together on the couch and watch a few really good movies. We had fun going down memory lane together and laughing about all the good times and really seeing how much things have changed. It truly was a nice relaxing weekend with John.

This weekend we also started Poncho on his new therapy regiment and so far so good. He is definitely more focused and acting a whole lot better. By Tuesday when he goes back to school everything should be nearly in full effect and we should really start seeing how this is going to work.

The only things we worked on this weekend was steam vacuuming downstairs because it needed it and going to the library. Other than that it has been a nice weekend and now I am ready to get back to work and life on Monday.

This week John and I both had very busy schedules which is nothing really new except one of his tasks this week was a job he was doing for my company. That meant that he was gone every evening last weekend and the beginning of the week and he was at my office every single morning bright at 7am. That meant for me getting to work around noonish and working till at least 530. So my mornings were with the kids tending to them, keeping up with the house, getting ready for work then having lunch. To get home make dinner, do nighttime routine (or prepare to go to any evening appointments I had this week) just in time for John and I to be ready to hit the bed by 10pm. Tonight will most likely be no exception.

Having the week like this made me happy that we are fortunate enough to be busy with work and still able to do what we needed for our children. The kids did very well with having a change in their daily schedule, though at night it was rough on them to not have their daddy kiss them goodnight.

About the only person who had a difficult week was Poncho, but I am solely blaming the pharmacy for their idiotic short comings. I am actually really pissed at the pharmacy (a different one but still did stupid shit, again) because they F#$%ed up his medications and while they said it would make no difference… it very clearly did. So much so that we have to change around things, and I today had a phone conference call with Poncho’s teacher, because she was concerned with his behavior and said he was not the child she knows. Going to generics has never worked with Poncho and this past week has reminded us that formulation changes are exactly one thing we do not need with his regiment. Generic is the same as brand my ass. He is a completely different child and not one that anyone wants to really know, complete attitude, personality change type stuff happened this week. A few times I thought I might cry because it has been difficult with him. But this weekend we start fresh and new and I hope that we can find the little boy we all know and love.

I am still currently working a whole lot more and I thought with the extra hours at work I wouldn’t find time to keep up on the house…but instead I find I am more determined.

The last few days John has been gone doing an on-site project for my work, which has left me to tend the kids. While having the kids all day I have still managed to do all that a mom must do to care for her children, including playing with them. But I also have gotten the house in complete clean order. I have been able to keep up on all the cleaning of the upstairs and downstairs, keep up with the laundry, dishes, vacuuming, etc. I also have had enough energy to dedicate a minimum of 45 minutes to exercise and even get in a little night reading.

Right now I am definitely doing it all, holding a career, keeping up with myself, my children and my home. Today I did the one thing I hate to do the most and took down all the Christmas decorations (yes I know its the 10th but I hate the part of taking down everything less than two weeks after I put it up so I wait…lol).

I know that my mom is going to worry that I am doing too much, but I promise that right now I have more than enough energy and with being so busy I am actually sleeping better at night. Also all the cleaning keeps me occupied while my hubby is gone.

I plan on keeping this momentum going because I know my husband enjoys coming home to the house in order and I also like having our home in order…it keeps a very positive vibe going.

As part of my exercise regiment for the new year I have added weights. A few months ago John got a weight bench and weights…so with that I am now doing curls, better tricep extensions, and doing bench presses. My plan is to build muscle mass on the target areas I want to definitely see some inches gone from, because building muscle means cutting fat and I am ok with that…lol. The next item we plan on adding is a bike but that is something we are still looking at because we know what we want to spend and what type we want…we just need an opportunity.

Since going back to our regular work week the kids have been antsy, whiney and just plain out of control…I think we had them off their schedules too long. The news I got at work is that there has been some policy changes to some of our government contracts which effects my job and means more hours for me. The longer I am at this job the more hours I seem to add each year. I am not complaining because I am happy to have a job. But that means seeing less of the kids, getting up earlier and having a longer day, hopefully I can get back in the groove of that again, because my house is going to suffer….lol.

Besides my work being busy John has a few projects lined up that is also keeping him busy, but we are thankful for them. To add it is also the beginning of tax season for both of us and we have to get that under-control with everything else. I say if we survive this season we will be due a date
(hint,hint). I always enjoy the holiday season but know that it also means right after I am the most busy I will be until Spring.

Poncho is also going to be busy and school projects that need to be done have started there slow trickle in and he will have to balance those along with his regular homework. He has a lot more responsibilities this school year and I think he is really digging it. This Thursday will be his very first meeting with the Chess club and I know he can’t wait to get started with that.

Last night and tonight after I was off work I did all the errands I was not able to get done when it snowed and I took an opportunity to have an early shopping trip and stock us up on the things we depleted while being home. I feel better getting our staple items all stocked up because you never know when we will need them.

Today is the last day of the long winter vacation, tomorrow everyone will be busy again with school, work, appointment, errands, etc. It was really nice to get to take some time to slow down and enjoy the weather and some family time. But I can already feel the anxiety of what the next week will hold and happy to get to go back to my office and get some work done because while taking this vacation was nice, I left it with my desk buried.

This past weekend we spent the time trapped in the house…lol….literally. The snow we usually get for Christmas didn’t come this year till New Years, so in a few days we got over a foot of snow and it made it very difficult to drive, we actually didn’t even attempt to leave because we watched plenty of cars and 4X4s get stuck right at a turn that leads to the road to leave the neighborhood. I know better then to take my car if even a big truck or SUV with 4wheel drive can’t drive through the snow and are spinning out and getting stuck. So we spent the time shoveling the driveway and playing with the kids outside. We had snowball fights, helped Maria make a snowman and had a nice time talking to neighbors and kids.

Today we are lucky and are getting a break from the weather but starting Tuesday the snowfall returns. Hopefully it won’t bury us, and hopefully the city will come and plow the roads a little quicker this time.