December 18

Something about Wednesdays must bring out the writer in me. Wow, lots to say but I'm at work, so can only write a bit quickly.

DJ went down with Joe to Austin Grand Prix Thursday afternoon, and Larry drove to Austin Friday evening and met him and they stayed until Sunday around noon. DJ had 3 races: Friday 200 breast, Saturday 400 IM, and Sunday 200 IM. He got to warm up with Ryan Lochte and Michael Phelps in the same lane! He was not ready for this to be a championship meet as they are in the middle of their training season, but in spite of that he did ok. He only added a second or two in the IM's and about a half second in the breaststroke. So he was happy not to be completely embarrassed.

Friday night I went to a movie with Carla & Joan and then we went to Applebee's for a late dinner. Carla and I were both on the hcg so had grilled chicken salads, but ended up having cheese on it, so the scale wasn't too pleasant Sat morning. I was down 12 pounds and the past 4 days I've been wavering between xx7 and xx8 as I've done better or worse. Saturday I did laundry, went to Walmart for groceries with Daniel, and then chatted with him a bunch. Saturday night the 3 middle kids and I watched "Tangled" on my new blue ray player and I made taco salads.

I had hoped to accomplish more cleaning, but I did get the laundry done, and worked on DJ's swim scrapbook that has taken on a life of its own. I take his meet results and copy and paste his events to a Word document, make it bold and font size 6 to get more on the page, but still barely be able to read it. Then I look to see if there are any swim pictures from that meet, or pictures of some Fast activity around the time of that meet to include on the page. It's actually quite a fun project, and he absolutely loves it, but setting aside the time to do it is the challenge.

I'm co-leading a group this semester on the Purpose Driven Life. Susan is the co-leader but her mom is dying of cancer, so I'm really the leader, but in order to have the group see her as a leader instead of a core team member, we've given her the title. Joan is a core team member, too, so hopefully we'll have a good group of ladies again. There are ten of us signed up after the first week.

So far this week at work has been a bear....nothing going well and lots to do.

January 11

Wow, I didn't realize nearly a week has passed that I haven't recorded. 14 years ago today my dad passed away. I was 38 years old. Wow, seems so young to have lost both mom and dad, but then my sister had just turned 33. She lost mom when she was only 25 years old. I think it was harder on her than me since I was way down in Texas. It was hard, don't get me wrong....
I remember coming home from a meeting at church and listening to the answering machine and it was Sally all frantic for me to call her. When I called her back she gave me the bad news. Such a shock. They were down in Brownsville, TX for a few weeks and he was on the treadmill just walking. They'd been to church that morning. He apparently had a blood clot come lose and when it hit his heart he went into strokes and heart failure. He'd had that artificial valve since 1967, so he was a ticking time bomb since he didn't get it replaced. Anyway, enough sadness...

It's been very busy at work. This past weekend was pretty filled as well. Saturday morning I helped at the un-deck the halls at Hope and then Saturday night we went over to the Green's to play cards with the Faulkners, Boyts, McDonalds, and Cathy from the GG. We played Dutch Blitz and it was loads of fun. Similar to my childhood game Squeeze, so since I'm pretty fast I did pretty well. Then Sunday morning church, connections table help, lunch with the 3 boys at Chili's, and leader meeting rally thing in the evening.

Then I worked til 7:30 on Monday night, 6 last night, and hopefully leave normally today since I came in early and didn't take a lunch and have gotten quite a lot accomplished. Well, except for the break to write this.... hmmm

It's hard to believe it's the 11th already. I have a lot to do by the 31st. Yikes....

January 5

It's hard not to write that date and remember what happened 21 years ago. It was a Saturday and Larry had left for work and I was nursing Katie when 2 men broke in the front door. It seems like a bad dream or a movie I watched and was particularly engrossed in now that so much time has passed.

Anyway, last night I had my coaches meeting at the A's. I couldn't eat anything due to the diet, so ate beforehand. Worked late and went straight there by 7. Nothing too memorable.

I got on the scale and was down 2 more pounds.... 6 pounds from the heaviest of the load up. I still have 12 more pounds to go to hit my lightest from the last round, however. My plan is to do the 3 weeks of VLCD and then 3 weeks of maintenance (no starches or sugars) and then go to Weight Watchers to keep the weight off. It's easy to be all or nothing sometimes.

Anyway, a lot of the blog world, especially scrapbookers, is the WORD OF THE YEAR. Well, if I could think of a WORD for 2011 it would be either MERCY or KINDNESS that I was really working on...loving people unconditionally even when they get on my last nerve. Keeping my mouth shut.

But this year? My word is RISK. I am taking a RISK by going to China with my boys. Risk in that it isn't really a vacation to me, but a mission trip. And RISK because I'm missing 6 days of work. RISK because it's costing a chunk of change. I'm looking for other RISKS to think about this year as well. RISKS in sharing with others.

Good thoughts.

Wed Jan 4

Another day. Last night after work I went to get my sister's present for her birthday (late) and then headed to Olive Garden to meet Larry and some friends that were leaving tomorrow to go back to Canada.
Had a conflict with one of my dear friends where she thought I said we were meeting at Chili's and I thought I'd made it clear it was Olive Garden. I felt bad as I really hate conflict but in this case she was in a crowded place when we talked and I was really focused and sitting on my bed at home and immediately texted everyone the time and place. I guess she was distracted and it was noisy, and she didn't hear all of what I said. Also, sometimes my phone cuts out when I'm in our home, so possibly that happened, too.
I tried to explain what may have happened and she was ok with the mix up, but she wanted me to admit I might have been wrong. I don't usually mind admitting I'm wrong (goodness, I've had 5 teenagers!!!) but it was a frustrating situation this time. Anyway. Life goes on. I took the first move toward reconciliation which is what I needed to do and not take responsibility for her overreaction to the situation. One of the things that is hard about this is she's a dear, dear friend, but she does hold grudges. So there's a part of me that is worried that she's thinking I'm too prideful to admit my mistakes.

Anyway, life goes on. I guess I was so upset about this I didn't even take a picture! I try to take pictures at least once a day for my PROJECT LIFE book, but oh well.

Anyway, got home last night to the internet not working. Apparently Larry forgot to pay the bill in time. So that was unusual. Both of us are used to checking emails and facebook and whatnot for an hour or so in the evening. I guess it's a waste of time for part of that, but on the other hand it is relaxing. Usually I am working on some sort of project, and last night's project was gathering statistics from last year's swim meets to put into DJ's ongoing swim book. So couldn't do that, so got into a book I started around Christmas. The Guardians by Jack Cavanaugh. Pretty good, but different than the other 8 books in the American Family Portraits series. Stayed up a little too late and then woke up a couple of times in the night. Ugh.

Got to work finally at 8:30 this morning as I kept forgetting stuff. Larry and DJ both had left early, so it was just me, but anyway. Had lunch with Rhonda & Joan which was productive. Talked to Jon a bunch, and worked on Lubbock.

January 3

Interesting start to the morning.....DJ insisted he could wake up by himself for 5:30 swim practice with his 3 alarms set. At 7 am Larry's alarm went off and of course DJ was still in bed. So instead of getting to quickly take a shower, I waited until DJ was done, and warned him to hurry. As soon as he finished he got dressed and came in to tell me that school was cancelled due to a water main break right outside the school on Randol Mill Rd. So I told him to go back to bed then.

On to Displays....crazy day with Payroll. It's always hard starting the week on a Tuesday, and squeeze in all the stuff that needs to happen in 4 days. And this diet! I lost 1.5 of the 3 pounds I gained during the load up time. So that's good. I'm sure I'll be sick of chicken noon and night this week!

January 2

Today is my sister's 47th birthday. My baby sister. Wow. Where on earth has the time gone? I remember when my mom was the age I am now we were planning my March wedding. It was 1984. None of the 5 of my kids is even seriously dating and heading in that direction yet.

Today I have the house to myself. That is a rare occurance. Larry had to work today as it wasn't a holiday for him. Katie & Kelsey are on their way to Colorado for the Life Impact conference, Daniel is house sitting if he's not working, and DJ has school. With Katie and Kelsey both in Kelsey's car, Katie let DJ borrow his while he's gone. So all week it will be fairly quiet with just Larry, DJ, and me in the evenings. I have plans Tuesday and Wed nights, but hope I can get a lot done today and Thursday night. The girls may be back late late Friday night or early Sat.

It's been a busy weekend: Friday worked, Saturday ran errands and got ready for the NYE party, late night, church yesterday and then out for lunch and got girls off and then Jonathan H's college graduation party that was quite lengthy.

Got home around 8 or so and put away Christmas stuff: it still needs to go up in the attic, however. So today I slept in until 9 and then started laundry. Lots of laundry. And cooked some chicken in Larry's new grill for lunch. I had a half grapefruit for breakfast and a tomato and chicken for lunch. Delish. I started working on downloading some bank statements to print out for work, and got out some scrapbooking stuff. I'm working on DJ's swim scrapbooks. Then planned where we're meeting to see Dan and Mel one last time tomorrow night before they head back to Canada.

Tomorrow it's back to crazy work. It'll be super busy as it's end of the year time. All the extra payroll end of year stuff for Displays and AATS, and all the financials and end of the year accruals, etc. Plus adding budgets to all the companies, etc. I'm planning on working late every night I'm at Mocap this week. I can't work late at Displays usually as they leave around 5 and I don't want to be alone there and have to set the alarm. :(

A new year

Wow, I really wasn't in the mood to write in 2011 I guess. What a year! Larry and I lost 20 pounds each on the first round of HCG, then tried it again in February, but didn't do well with the maintenance so lost and gained 10 pounds, but kept the 20 pounds off from December. Then we tried it again in June and lost another 10 pounds. We kept that off mostly, but then when we did it again in early October we didn't do the maintenance again and lost and gained the same ten pounds. Then during the holidays we gained a little weight.





So we started the load up New Years Eve and Day and today is the first day of starving. I'm 20 pounds lighter than I was November 2010, so the only weight that was kept off was the original 20. This time we are doing it right again. 3 weeks of starving and 3 weeks of maintenance. It's not the most important thing that happened in 2011, but it was how I ended 2010, so thought I'd mention that first.





Moving on.... Daniel stayed in E Asia another 6 months and came home at the end of July. He's been living with us temporarily and working full time and trying to finish up school by the end of the summer. It's great having him home. He's such a great guy, so encouraging, but it's made it a little tougher on the other kids. He doesn't really have a place, so I cleared out my study/scrapbook room so he could have a spot. He sleeps on the sofa sometimes, and on the floor. he could sleep in DJ's top bunk, but doesn't like the messy room. Sigh.





Larry's been working a fulltime job for an entire year! PTL! What a miracle! Hoping to put him and the kids on his insurance starting Jan 1, but waiting for the confirmation of the paperwork.


So that has been a huge blessing. We're trying to catch up on bills, reduce debt, and take care of business.





I've had a busy year at work with taking over being the controller at Displays. I took over while Tom was in Vietnam all May, and then when he left the end of June I took over doing all the payroll, payables, cash mgt, benefits, HR, etc. and still do most of my work at Mocap, AATS, and LGG. I've delegated Magnolia to Mae, and added to Vicki's responsibilities at AATS. I led a growth group with Kara this summer and then one myself this fall with 22 ladies. Whew, that was busy. Joan and Elizabeth helped as the Core Team. Because Larry had just started his job, I took DJ to all the swim meets in 2011: regional TAPPS, state TAPPS with Katie coming, too, Sectionals in College Station, LC Sectionals in Woodlands, and maybe another one or two. Larry was able to get off to take DJ to the Chesapeake meet in OKC a couple of weeks ago, so that was awesome.





I also took a trip to Vegas with my sister in early May. That was a lot of fun. Lots of ups and downs with the girls this year. Katie started working at Petsmart in the spring and enjoys it for the most part. She didn't take classes this fall but plans to take a couple in the spring. Kelsey is still at Target and now has a boyfriend Bill. She took a few classes in the spring and this fall. They both left yesterday to go to Colorado for Life Impact for college kids. I was happy about that, and it's good for them to spend some time together and get away.





Jordan is still videoing at his job and helps at church as well. DJ is doing well with his swimming. He won TAPPS state in the 200 im again last year and beat the state record for 2A, and hopes to demolish it this year. He's a lot stronger and swam very well at Chesapeake last month. His 200 fly got very good and he finaled in it as well as his 200 breast, 200 im and 400 im. His breaststroke isn't doing as well but managed to stay about the same in the 200 and actually dropped a second and a half in the 100 but it wasn't enough to final. It was the top 24 that finaled.

I'm rambling I guess, but wanted to catch up with 2011 before trying to be faithful with 2012.