Life...fires...toes missing....

I am way behind on what I have wanted to post about on here. My FIL was in the hospital for about 10 days and we were all a bit freaked out. He is a diabetic and one of his toes was REALLY bad. As in, he went and saw 2 Drs on 2 consecutive days and each one of them said get to the hospital--NOW. Of course, one was his podiatrist, which pissed us completely off. This guy is a quack. I won't go into that on here, though. All I am going to say is that he let my FIL's toe go for a LONG time. About 5 weeks. Needless to say my FIL had to have IV antibiotics for a few days before they would even consider taking it off. I'd post a pic, but it's pretty graphic and I think people would not be happy. lol.

So he and MIL are in town recooping and their neighbor's house here caught on fire. It also got my FIL's house.










I feel really bad for them. Thank God they got out and got the dogs out, too. Geesh. So much going on. He was talking about having his gallbladder out before he went into the hospital. Then when he gets there, they say definitely his toe. Then he thought he gave himself another hernia (making it number 3) and he actually ripped a muscle in his stomach. He also thought he needed heart surgery again. The Dr supposedly told him that one of his valves doesn't sound right. Apparently that may come later this year. He's had heart surgery (a 7 bipass) about 3 years ago...Can you see why we are all a bit out of whack right now???? lol.

My husband is working 12 plus hour days and the kids are going nuts at home. I am going nuts, too. They don't seem to want to do anything and I NEED them to go outside and play, etc. lol. The temps are heading back up into the 90s this week so I am sure there will be heat warnings. BLECH.

I started painting our bedroom last week....I can't wait to finish the trim so I can post some pictures!!! :) You know how I love doing trim. NOT. lol.

Alright, it's 1:15am and I had better get to bed! 'night.

Oreo Cookie Cake (Ice Cream Cake, really)

Here is one of our FAVORITE recipes EV-ER. It's a great cake, especially in the Summertime. :) One of the best parts is that it ONLY HAS FIVE ingredients. SAH-WEET! *pun intended* Talk about a QUICK dessert to take somewhere. YUMMMMM


1 bag/carton of Oreo cookies or a generic brand
1 stick of melted butter
1 container of Cool Whip
1 carton of plain Vanilla Ice Cream (can be generic)
1 jar of Hershey's Hot Fudge syrup (or your fave brand)

Melt the butter. Crush up the oreos/generic brand of oreos. Pour the butter on top and stir. Spray Pam or a non-stick cooking spray in the pan you are going to use. I used a 13x9 glass one. Press the oreo mixture into the bottom. I then put the pan into the fridge for about 15 mins, while I waited for my half gallon/carton of ice cream to soften a bit.

Take the pan out. Take the ice cream and open up the carton. You are going to cut this SIDEWAYS.

Then you layer the ice cream on top of the oreo crust. Like this....

Once you have the WHOLE carton of ice cream on there, you are going to pour some of the Hershey's Fudge on top. (I warmed mine up for about 20 seconds.)

Then you take this: 

and put that over the top of the fudge and ice cream, etc. Now, I bought the gigantic container because we use it with strawberries and blueberries, etc, too. You can get by with the regular sized one. I only used about half of this container for the cake. :)

 Spreading the Cool Whip......

There we go!!! And now....add some more fudgy deliciousness on top and you are almost good to go. Put it back into the freezer for a few hours and let it all set. I generally take it back out about 15 mins before serving, depending on the temp in your house or outside... My Mom would put this in a metal pan/stainless steel pan and it would be SOLID. You'd need all of the 15 mins for sure in order for it to thaw enough to slice!
ENJOY! Just beware, people are going to LOVE LOVE LOVE this and ask you for the recipe. :) It's SO easy to make and such a crowd pleaser.

Fitting in Online

Do you belong to any online boards or forums? I belong to a few. Some are supportive and some aren't. lol. Some boards are really friendly and others...it seems like they have their "groups". Can I say that? I mean, it's really kind of funny that not just in real life, but on the internet, you can tell who is who and who is in a clique.

When I was young, I mistakenly thought that once you were an adult, the judgments and the "popular crowd" etc would all go away...not true. Of course, being almost 34 (shh it's tomorrow) I don't care as much anymore like I did when I was 14. I've got more important things to worry about than who likes me or whatever else. (Of course, this has NOTHING to do with Blog Envy and how many people are following me or aren't following me. I'm a bit nervous about that. We will talk about that another time though)

I have just noticed on some boards that I frequent, that there are certain people who EVERYONE responds to or "talks to". KWIM? There is a board that I belong to that seemed to be a supportive board, but honestly, I don't feel I get support there anymore. I hardly ever post on it anymore because it seems that I, like a few other people, get skipped over. I think it shocked me at first when I realized it because I thought, really? This happens at my age? Most of these people are older than me, too and they are the ones who are doing it. lol.

I wonder if I am the only one who feels that way? Do you have any really good boards you belong to? Do you have one for mom things or for weight loss or financial issues or decorating or cooking?

I have support out in the real world, too. I have a great husband and therapist! lol. I have a Mom's group that I belong to and a few close friends.

Sometimes it's a lot easier for people to be more "REAL" online than in person... of course, it's easier for people to be meaner hiding behind a computer, too. lol.

I love Blog world. There are SO many things that are interesting to me and so many blogs to read, etc.

Sometimes fitting in online can be just as hard as fitting in in the real world...

Weekend Escapades

Waiting for MeMaw to get here.

So...Friday afternoon, ok, around 5pm, my mom arrived to pick up the kids for an overnight deal. After she picked them up, John and I actually got to go out to dinner!! WOOT. lol. We went to 54th Street Grill since we had never been there before. I didn't choose to wisely and when I got home, my stomach hurt for 3 hours. Can you say, "Please don't eat Gringo dip and that huge Chicken sandwich?"

Saturday morning I got up early (like 4am) and picked my friend up and we went to the race. It was UNBELIEVABLE. It was SO crowded. Our team alone had 7606 people on it. That's the BIGGEST team ever in 5k history. AWESOME!

Here is the crowd IN FRONT of us:

Do you see people ALL the way up there? There's like a good mile or 2 of people in front of us. There were more than 65k people downtown that day, just for the race!!

Here's the finish line:

After the race, we went and got our hair done>>>







Ahhh much better! lol. Hope you all had a great weekend!

It's Friday!

 My parents are taking the kids overnight tonight so that tomorrow I can go to the Race for the Cure. WOOT! John and I have been in this house for 10 months and have yet to have the house to ourselves overnight. I am so excited. I'm sure we will eat dinner and then go lay in bed and fall asleep EARLY. lol. We are adventurous!

Here's a look at the back of the shirt.

Cornbread is a local radio station guy who is AWESOME. We have THE BIGGEST TEAM! It's over 7600 people this year. It's hard to believe when StL started this like 10 years ago that his team was like 1k people. Every year it grows larger and larger.

I have to go get the oil changed today, which I'm not looking forward to because I will have to take all 4 kids with me. YIKES. It's a good thing (and a bad thing) that Walmart does Oil Changes. lol. I'm probably going to end up spending too much money there! Eeek.

The Tooth Fairy visited Troy last night. He let me pull his snaggletooth out yesterday. Yes, I bribed him with a chocolate candy bar...well, his tooth was coming in underneath the baby tooth and it was pushing that one onto his other baby tooth. It was rubbing on it and it looked like there was a cavity there but I think it was from rubbing. It's been months since his tooth has been loose. That trooper of mine let me pull it out yesterday! So he got a candy bar. AND the Tooth Fairy left him TWO dollars. :)

Weigh in #3

Well....somehow I managed to....

LOSE ANOTHER TWO lbs!!!

I about jumped for joy! lol. Despite eating BBQ, cole slaw, baked beans, 2 strawberry daiquiris, and ice cream cake on Saturday! The scale actually went down!! I have lost a total of 11 lbs. ELEVEN. I'm hoping to lose 25 more by the time school starts in 10 weeks. Yes, TEN weeks and YES, 25 lbs. 

I never thought that weighing in would have this effect on me. I almost feel like an addict needing a fix. I thought about not going today because I was worried about the scale, but then I thought, naw, I owe it to myself and I should OWN it. This is all about being honest, right? I knew I didn't track well last week and I knew there had been times where I made bad choices. 

So with this weight loss, I have also lost another daily point. I'm hoping I won't notice it too much. It's just ONE point, right? We'll see.

Good Eats

I've been surprised lately by my choice of foods...One thing I found last week was that I LOVE Brocolli Slaw. LOVE it. It's 0 points plus (pp) with WW. I take a TBL or 2 (whatever the serving size is) of Low Fat Poppyseed dressing and take the bag and dump it in a bowl and stir the slaw up. This morning I put some corn and black beans in with it, too. YUM. That added another 2 pp to it. The dressing I think is 2 pp or 3...can't remember of f the top of my head. lol.

I'm doing the Points Plus system. (the new one) Not the old one. So when I refer to "points" or "pts", I mean Points Plus. I'm so used to writing "pts" that I can't get used to "pp". lol.

I also am in LOVE with fresh spinach, RF or FF feta, onion and FF Kraft Italian dressing. That's what's going to be for lunch today, maybe with a boiled egg. That's low in pts, too, so I can have something else with it. I think it's about 4 pts. I try to keep lunches at about 7 or 8 pts. My bigger meal is generally dinner.

What are you eating today? What have you found that's "new" or something that you like now that wasn't something you'd normally eat? I'll add some pics later so you can see what I'm talking about. You will want to try it!! :)

Saturday Family Fun

Today we are going to a graduation party/welcome back party. I'm excited to be around some of these family members as we ALWAYS have a good time with them. I can't wait just to relax and have a beer or glass of wine while the kids are playing...and the best part is....Hubby gets to leave work ON TIME!!!

:::::::::::::::::insert clapping::::::::::::::::::::::

Yesterday he worked 17 hrs. Yes, you read that right. SEVENTEEN HOURS. He came home, ate dinner and literally was in bed 22 mins later and got 6 hrs of sleep before he had to be up again. I couldn't sleep for some reason last night so when 2am hit, I woke him up and I went to sleep around 3:15 am. Only to be up again at 7:15am. BLECH. I'm exhausted. YAWN.

 I'm sure I will be back later and post a pic or 2 of the shindig. It's going to be a hot one here. 97 degrees. What the heck? I'm praying no one's AC gives out. This whole week is a week of 90 degree plus temps. YIKES. I'm glad I bought sunscreen the other day. Thankfully it seems that my 5 year old has grown out of his sunscreen allergy, too!

Catching up on everything

Wow! I just read about 2 weeks worth of blogs... well, skimmed most of them. lol.

I forgot to mention in my last post, Troy had his first ever ear infection. It hit him on Saturday. AFTER the Dr's office was closed, of course. Poor guy was crying in his sleep that night, even after numbing drops and a shot of the antibiotic. :( 

THEN on Monday, Hunter says his throat hurts...he just had this look on his face and I KNEW what was coming next. Sure enough, we go to the Dr on Tuesday and guess what??? STREP. This child of mine MUST be a carrier for it. I'm glad I took him in though because it gave me a chance to talk to the Pede about his "episodes". We call them "episodes", for lack of a better term. He gets dehydrated really easily and on Friday he had Field Day. It was 70 degrees out and he almost fainted. He said he started to see blurry colors, etc. I don't know if I blogged about this a few weeks back during his soccer game he did this as well. This also happened last year at a picnic. The Dr said to make sure he drinks, drinks and drinks some more TWO HOURS BEFORE he goes outside and then while he is outside, too. He said to give him something salty to eat as well, or let him drink Gatorade, since that has salt in it. Yeah, did you know that? That's why some people swell when they drink too much of it. (eh hem, pregnant women--what? yes, this happened to me.) He said that if he STILL looks like he's going to faint or says he can't see, to call him. This scares me to death. Heat exhaustion is nothing to mess around with.

Did I mention it's going to be in the 90s for the next few days? Oh yes, we went from somewhat "chilly" weather straight to hot as hell summer weather. CAH RAZINESS.

Am I the only mom who feels as if sometimes the kids are always sick? lol. Right now the older 2 are on antibiotics and I am grateful that the younger 2 did NOT get the strep. ::wiping sweat off my brow::.

Alright, it's midnight and I had better hit the sheets. Here's to a peaceful weekend.

Weigh in #2

Alright, so I weighed in on Tuesday morning.....drumroll please...... down 3.8 lbs!!!! Not too shabby!!! I am thrilled! Of course, I think I probably ruined it all today so I have to be really careful for the rest of the week. It's too bad because Saturday we have a graduation party to go to and I KNOW there's going to be tons of food.

I'm really happy with the WL though, so I need to keep this momentum going.

The kids last day of school was today! Unreal how fast it flew by. I think Troy is a bit nervous about being on break for so long. Who knew? lol. He's come quite a ways since the beginning of school. He's definitely matured. He was so loving and full of hugs today. It's so nice when they are like that. lol.

I'm signed up for the Race for the Cure for St. Louis (on June 11th). I am VERY excited to actually be able to go this year instead of like the last 3 where I paid and wasn't able to go. :( My mom and dad are taking the kids the night before and I plan on going on a "date" with my husband that night. Early the next morning when he goes to work, I'm going to go pick my BFF up and we are going to head downtown for the race. I'm not running this year though. Maybe next. That's a goal, for sure. :)