Now I'm a Mimi (grandma) it's time to get it together and get healthy

I let myself balloon up to 282 lbs. Four years ago I got serious (for the millionth time) and lost 55 lbs and had gained it all back and then some since I got married. There's been a lot of stuff going on with David, Lyric, Tiffany, and Kayla and I let it all overwhelm me to the detriment of my health. No more! I'm on a lot of different medications everyday - 9 to be exact - and I think the doctors have finally got them straight (which is a tremendous relief) and without doing anything else I had lost 15 lbs since the middle of December. Starting Feb 19 I started a company sponsered Fitness Camp and then the next day signed up for the "Biggest Loser" that a group of people at work started and I've lost 11 lbs since then. I've been exercising and I also started back with Weight Watcher's Online (which is how I lost the weight before) and I feel I'm finally back on track.

I want to be able to really play with my grandson. I want to be able to run with him, and after him. I don't want him to think, "Oh, I can't ask Mimi that. She won't be able to do it." I can hardly get off the floor once I get down and I have to bend over to see my feet. Besides, I think my husband will like it too.

Here's a before picture from Christmas Eve. The quality is poor but you can still clearly see the rolls under the shirt. I can take these pants off without unbuttoning them now. Yay!

I'd like you to meet Gwendolyn Strong

I'm not sure how I found Gwendolyn's page, but I've been a regular reader ever since. Gwendolyn was born perfectly healthy, but at age 6 months was diagnosed with SMA Type 1. This beautiful little girl and her parents have touched my heart in so many ways. I can't imagine finding out your little girl has a terminal illness and being able to rejoice in her life the way that Bill and Victoria have done. I feel so inadequate to describe how much I admire them and how their courage has strengthened me for the, small in comparison, things that I've had to deal with. Please read about Gwendolyn and sign the petition to end SMA and join their fight. The buttons are to the right. You can also read more about Gwendolyn and the fullness of life that her parents bring to her everyday here.

It's really been a long time this time...

Well, this blogging stuff is not as easy as it looks. First I decided that I wanted to change the name of my blog and then I just spent an hour trying to update the template. I finally found a "Florida-ish" one, so I'll see how this works out.

I meant to put a picture of my new grandson, Tyler, on here; so here it is. I'm a pretty sappy person by nature (I cry at 30 second commercials), but I told my daughter that I thought I loved her and her sister a lot, but the way I love this little guy is heart filling and amazing.



There have been too many things going on to mention all at once, so I'll go about it slowly. First though, I'm going to highlight the blogs that have taught me so much about love, courage and perserverance over the last months. I've "met" so many women that I admire, and so many children that have touched my heart. I just want to share some of them.

Tyler gets here today!

Here's a picture of Me, Kayla and Tiffany.

My grandbaby is getting here today. I'm so excited and so nervous all at the same time. I think the nervous really came out in the red, and I do mean red, highlights I put in my hair last night.
I feel so inadequate to tell my daughter just how much I love her and how excited I am for her as she starts this new journey with Army and Tyler. My baby is having a baby - who'da thunk!? When she was little she told me she was never having babies - she was going to adopt. Isn't it a good thing they don't hold us to all that we say when we're young?

I got a new camera!

I mentioned David got me a new camera. I've been experimenting with the settings. Here is what I have so far.

It's been a long while since I updated this...

There are yet again a lot of changes since my last post - some of them good, some not so good - but that's how it goes for everyone right?

School is out and we aren't witnessing the meltdowns anymore with Lyric. Prayer answered! She still gets in trouble every day, but its nothing like it was before. The medicine changes this time get her to where she can choose to behave if she wants. Unfortunately she often does not, but I think a lot of it is how she grew up before she was in my life. I'm still trying to figure out if I'm up to the challenge. I very admittedly fall down (should be too my knees when I'm that mad) and blow up at her. All I can do is apologize and go and do my best from there. Anyways we're working on it and I think I have impressed how important it is to me to get us all back to church. I know he's not going to go back to the church I've gone to for 36 years, but I think he's getting how important going to a church is. I'm really missing my church family where there are people who have known me since I was 2 years old and still love me :o) I want David and Lyric and Kaitlyn, when she graces us with her presence to be a part of a church family with me - I know it won't happen overnight, but I know how important having that personal relationship with God is to your life. I haven't always been great at it, but I always knew it was there and I had a very good foundation from a very young age. I'll just keep praying.

If you remember, I was worried about what we were going to do with Lyric for the summer - well, we have a solution. Tiffany has moved in for the duration of her pregnancy and is usually home with Lyric during the day. Now if Lyric can behave long enough Tiffany will take her to do things. But Tiff's biggest concern is Lyric's lack of concern about following directions and doing what she's told. You just CAN'T count on her to listen to you. She always wants to do what she wants to do and what ever you ask her to do is always optional as far as she seems to be concerned. She could be having a much better summer - but Tiff is unwilling to take the chance. It's sad really because Tiff was ready to come in here and be Lyric's champion and Lyric alienated her within 3 days. What I'm thankful for now, because I look for something to be thankful for in every stress, is that Tiff is here to be with Lyric so she doesn't get into too much trouble and there is always the chance she'll catch her being good and they'll go swimming or something.

Kaitlyn, who moved back with her mom, turned 13, and we've seen her twice now in the weeks since school got out. I'm not sure what to do with all that. This time she came we gave her the birthday presents we'd gotten for her. I'd gotten her a gift card for getting school clothes and a glitter tattoo kit. Lyric and Kaitlyn like to help me do glitter tattoos, but I've found that they do not take care of my things (which is inconvenient because I use that stuff to make money). So, I got Kaitlyn her own kit and I bet she's used half of it already - well, her present and she can use it anyway she likes. Although, I have to admit I thought she knew not to use it inside a house. Grandma's house has never been so shiny! Hopefully she'll realize how important it is to take care of it. She and Lyric do a great job when they help as far as the quality of their work. It always enables me to offer more services.

Kayla moved to her dads, came over to see me supposedly the next weekend and only wanted to be able to see her boyfriend now that he was closer (at least that's how it felt). Then the next weekend was leaving for church camp in NC, wanted me to buy the supplies she still needed, but didn't want to spend time with her mom who is totally not ready for her to want to live somewhere else to begin with and absolutely misses her. That's my perception anyway - and I know how those are. She's supposed to come stay the night tomorrow night. We'll see how that goes. I'm still at that stage where I cry all the time about when she's going leave instead of focusing on the time I have with her. I'm working on it.

I did have the surgery on my hand and while it was more complicated than we anticipated because he had to detach a muscle to get to the bottom of the tumor, and then suture it back, it has outwardly healed very well. The brace I had to wear stinks (especially when I get sweaty in this Florida weather-haha). I'll probably need some physical therapy to get full movement back. I think my dream of someday going to massage therapy school is in the proverbial toilet.

Things are still hard with David. He's made some poor decisions lately in regards to money and mostly behind my back. The things that I thought we'd agreed to work on aren't really and I tell him over and over again that he needs to get me some new wedding rings. I can't wear one now because my hand is too swollen, but the set I loved, inexpensive at $25 (trying to be thrifty) is the set I had gotten after the first hand surgery (because the others didn't fit anymore) had a flaw, was sent back and never seen again. I just want another one. I loved it. I've told David over and over, but he did spend over $100 on a camera for me today. I was thinking that as much fun as I've had with it already- he probably needs to take it back on Monday. We shouldn't have spent the money. We've invited ourselves to a friends house for the 4th and they graciously agreed to cooked, but had to inform us that they didn't have any food to share right then so I want to Sam's and got a bunch of stuff and they'll have leftovers till what they need gets there.

This is a long one. Maybe if I posted more often they would be shorter :o) I did want to mention that Tiffany's belly is starting to grow. I post some pictures tomorrow probably. I don't know if anyone looks at this anyway, but it has been cathartic for me tonight. It's almost 4 am, I think I can go to sleep now. Good night all and God Bless you each and every one.

Here's a beautiful picture that Tiffany took this morning from our beach 15 minutes away.

The only thing constant is change...

Wow. There are a lot of changes happening since my last post.

Lyric, who is now 12, and seems to have added puberty to all her other challenges, has been having almost daily meltdowns. She’s 75% impossible at home and taking it with her to school too. Since her birthday, she’s been to the counselor 3 times, the psychiatrist 3 times, and I talk frequently to the receptionist at the office. They’ve raised one medicine twice and changed another, and she is still so hard to deal with. She was suspended last week for 2 days, and they didn’t even do that until the 3rd referral in 4 days (with a weekend in between). Everyday I find more patience than I ever thought I could ever have. I know there’s not a magic pill – but something to help her make better choices for her behavior would be GREAT! I don’t know what we’re going to do with her this summer. As she is now, there is no way I can enroll her in any summer program – it just wouldn’t be fair to any one else – she would be in constant conflict and miserable and so would the teachers and other kids.

Kaitlyn, who is also 12 right now (she and her sister are 10 ½ months apart – I think they call that Irish twins), has moved back with her mom. She just got back from her trip on Saturday and asked to go to her mom’s that night (she would have went right after I picked her up but her mom wasn’t home). She didn’t tell me about her trip – and I had been the one to make the commitment to get her to Washington DC with her 6th grade class – her mom wouldn’t help her with the fund raiser’s she needed to do – and she didn’t say good-bye. I’ve know she was going to her mom’s for awhile now, but it’s hard not to get a good-bye or a thank you. It was her idea to come to our house because over Christmas her mother never even called for 2 weeks to say hi, and she felt like her mom was always making her do all the chores and taking care of her 2 year old brother, but she’s had enough distance and enough of the rules at our house that mom’s sounds better. She and Lyric rarely get along, and with the challenges right now with Lyric, it’s probably better that we’ll be able to focus on Lyric, but I’m going to miss her. I tried so hard, and I know someday she’ll probably say I wasn’t so bad, but boy, oh boy, being a step mom is hard!

On top of that, my daughter Kayla, who is 16, is going to live with her dad after school gets out. I can hardly stand to think about it. I love her dad and his wife, and we all get along so well and I know I’ll get to see her, but frankly, she doesn’t want to be at home because she can’t get along with Lyric or David. I don’t know what to do most of the time. I can’t make them like each other. Believe me, I’ve tried! She told my mom that 3 months wasn’t enough time away from Lyric so she’s planning on staying the whole next school year too, and maybe even her senior year. I’m not ready to let go yet, and I cry every time I try to talk to her about it, but I can’t make her stay, she’s miserable.

And, even more than that, my daughter Tiffany, who is 21 and pregnant, is moving in at the end of June to save up money for her and her boyfriend to move in together. She’s sick all the time, and probably won’t be able to work much. I’m so worried about her, and especially what effect the chaos in my house could have on her and the baby.

My husband also has ADD and is not taking his medicine and I have trouble getting him to follow through on things. We just had our 1st anniversary and I didn’t even get a card. Not even an eCard. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised though, I didn’t get one for my birthday, Valentine’s day, or Mother’s day either.
My parents, who are my rock, left for their summer trip the day before my anniversary and I miss them terribly, and June 5th I will have the third surgery on my left hand. Luckily, I’m right handed, but geez, I’ve had a hemangioma removed, carpal tunnel surgery, and I’m part of the 20% who with have the hemangioma grow back, lucky me. It hurts all the time so I’m going to get this one removed and hope I don’t ever get one again!

So, all that sounds pretty miserable, and these days, I feel that way most of the time, but I am getting brand new furniture next week so I’m excited about that, but mostly I just go moment by moment. A really great thing is the friends that I have that always listen even though it must seem to them all I do is complain. I’m not the same person right now, but I’m in there – and like I tell myself ALL the time, I am a BLESSED child of God – Even with all the stuff going on, God always provides us with what we need – money, patience, peace. God does not give us more than we can handle.

PS. Leah, I saw my blog on your list and you provided me the impetuous to make this entry. Thanks :o) I visit your blog every day too to see how you and your family are doing.