Sweet Life in the City

It has been a quick week! I took a half day Monday to spend some time with Megan before she left. The kids and I came home early but Megan was not feeling well, so I let her sleep and I got some things done around the house. Tuesday we went to school and it started snowing around 11:00 and snowed the rest of the day. It was so pretty, but it was a mess getting home! Wednesday the kids had a half day and our students did not have to report, so I got some things organized and cleaned in the classroom. The kids dismissed at 12:15 so we headed home for the day. I was able to work on my math class for a few hours, but my head has been hurting since I started the class :( I feel like I am getting it and then I am lost again. I take my first test for the class on Sunday, so prayers would be greatly appreciated!! It has been a week of deep reflection for me. I actually started to blog 4 different times and decided not to post about it. I mentioned during our juice fast that I was evaluating ma...

It is hard to believe, but 6 months ago today we moved to Chicago. It has been 6 months filled with ups and downs, good days and bad days, and every thing in between. It has been a great 6 months of learning and growing and reminders of God's faithfulness to us. Every day I am excited and scared all at the same time at to what God is up to in our lives :) Well it has been a busy week, so I have not gotten a chance to blog. Although I did not lose any weight this week :( I am feeling really good. I stuck faithfully to WW this week, so I was a little disappointed. Jeremy tried to cheer me up by saying it may be the dreaded 2nd week when I had such a good week last week. I feel smaller today :) so I am going to stick with it. I have also been feeling really good, and I have not said that in a REALLY LONG TIME. The other night I got done exercising and I was in our bedroom watching something on TV and Jeremy came in and asked if I was feeling OK. I was really confused and asked him why...

We had a good rest of the week and a great weekend so far. Jeremy and I went back to eating three meals a day, but I have been following my WW plan and I am feeling really good. This morning was my weight in day and I was nervous about seeing what is said because I was certain I put every pound back on since I started eating again and I added one cup of coffee to my life again :) . I was pleased to see that I had lost another pound since Wednesday with a total of 9 pounds since last Friday! This is just the encouragement that I need to get healthy. I have still been juicing once a day and I think that has helped. Yesterday was Emma's Gotcha Day and it is hard to believe that it has been five years since she came into our lives. I could not help but reflect on all the people who prayed for Emma to come home. I will never forget getting off of the plane in Nashville and our parents and Samuel were waiting for us at the gate. It was a blessing that the airport let them come to meet us...

In 2007 Jeremy and I decided it was time to add a new member to our family of three. In February 2007 we had a meeting with our social worker at our house to start the process of adopting a little girl. We had originally planned on adopting from Guatemala :), but with the talk of some major changes and problems with Guatemala adoptions we changed our mind and changed our country to Korea. We got all of our paper work submitted and then started the LONG wait for referral. Referral using takes up to 9 months and sometimes a year, but we knew once the referral it would only be a few months before we would be bringing our daughter home. It was a June day in 2007. Our youth group was in Bowling Green, KY with several other churches (one being my sister's church) for a mission trip. Kristy and I had headed back to Pleasant View (which was a few hours or less away) to pick up Samuel and take him back to Bowling Green for the rest of the week. While I was picking Sam up from Gran and Papa...

So, this was my supper tonight. In this exact form. I lost 2 more pounds this morning, but Jeremy and I both are growing weary of only drinking juice. We juiced for breakfast and lunch, but by this afternoon our bodies were ready for something different. So tonight we had some chicken broth and I had a bowl of real fruit that I had to chew with my teeth. We still plan to juice tomorrow for breakfast and lunch and start easing back into eating real food again at supper time for the next few days. It is a little disappointing that we did not go the full 10 days, but I  sure did better than I thought :) I did eat the strawberries without a bit of sugar and that is actually a victory for me :) My hope is to use this healthy start and stick to Weight Watchers until I reach my goal. Not much going on today. The kids are excited about the Valentine's Day activities at school. They got a card in the mail (along with a little money) from our dear friends Steve and Bev Parks. We LOVE getting...

So...evidentally making it through day 3 does not necessarily mean smooth sailing. I slept good last night and I actually got to sleep in until 8:30 (Woo Hoo!) I woke up a little cranky. Not quite hungry, just cranky. Jeremy lost 3 more pounds and I lost 1 one more pound. I got a little angry, but I refocused and realized that it is one more pound towards my goal. We had a juice made of oranges, pineapple, and carrots for breakfast. Despite it's very carrot looking appearance, the pineapple and orange flavor outweighed the carrot and it was pleasantly good. Jeremy and Chloe headed off to the laundry mat to do several loads of laundry (SIGH) that I have been putting off for far too long. I stayed home with the other two and got the house cleaned. I also did a mile and half on my Walk Away the Pounds DVD. Jeremy got home and I started to put clothes away while he made us a juice of just oranges and pineapple. Since we had the day off of school Jeremy got me an appointment for a 30 mi...

Well, my nap yesterday really threw me off and I had a hard time falling asleep last night. Night time is really the hardest to fight the urge to go in the kitchen and eat something, anything! I managed to sip on my water and resist the urge to go into the kitchen. When I woke up this morning I felt pretty good. I did not feel hungry, just a little weird. I am sure it has something to do with my caffeine withdrawal :). My weight loss this morning was another 2 pounds :) We all got ready for school and Jeremy made our breakfast of strawberries, oranges, and a banana. The banana only added a little extra flavoring, not much juice in a banana. I will not lie, it was a struggle today at school for both of us. We are in charge of breakfast duty with our classes and most days we grab a cereal or fruit in the morning. When lunch rolled around we were both pretty hungry. Jeremy said he had to resist the urge to grab a chicken sandwich out of a kid's hand :). I drank my juice and just praye...

A few months back Jeremy watched this documentary by a man by the name of Joe Cross on Netflix called  Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead . The movie followed an overweight man with an autoimmune disease that decides to go on a 60 juicing fast. Along his journey he meets another man who has the same disease he has and is extremely overweight, so the movie also follows the life of this gentleman as he follows the juicing diet. Although Joe Cross does the juicing fast for 60 days he challenges people to do a 10 day reboot and commit to juicing for 10 days to see healthy benefits. The idea sounds great, but when Jeremy asked me about doing the 10 day reboot with him I was not exactly on board. The thought of only drinking juice for 10 days did not sound fun to me. Over the past few weeks my fibro has been so bad and I have been miserable. In spite of my efforts to lose weight, the scale would go up and sown each week and was becoming very frustrating. I have felt for several years that my body ne...