February Already?

Can't believe it's been well over a month since my last post. Looking at my header I suppose I should have changed it to a Valentine's theme - however, it is still cold and snowy outside so I'll keep it as is!

2010 is starting off a little rough. Bill still isn't working regularly - however things appear to be starting to turn around-keeping our fingers crossed. After going for blood work I found out that I am glucose intolerant or pre-diabetic. With some hard work and life style changes I am determined to reverse it. Counting carbs and excerise is extremely important and since the day we walked out of the doctor's office Bill and I have walked AT LEAST 1.5 miles everyday (no matter the weather conditions!). I've been keeping a food journal to help determine how well we are doing on carb intake. I started testing my glucose levels twice a day to help determine if all our efforts are paying off. Each reading has shown either in the Target range or below - which means things are going very well.




The school district is offering free blood work on February 22nd and I'm anxious to see how much of an improvment I will see on my A1C test and fasting glucose level. (A1C is the blood work that determines how much sugar has been present in your blood levels for the past 2-3 months. Normal readings should be 6 and under. My levels was 7 which indicates higher than normal levels were present for October/November/December. Bill has been very supportive and has decided to change his lifestyle and eating habits which helps immensely!

Today Ryan turned 15~ can hardly believe it! He just brought home the information for Driver's Ed.! YIKES! He also made the honor roll for the first quarter of Freshman year! WAY TO GO RYAN!!

Check back again for another update........Lisa

CHRISTMAS LEFT OVERS!

Well, Santa made it through the ice and snow to deliver Ryan's gifts! Here is a before picture:

And here is the after photo! If you look closely you'll see many Transformers. Ryan is still a big Transformer fanatic. (This picture also has some gifts that belong to Bill and myself.) Over all Christmas was a complete success. Keep in mind, these are only the "Santa Gifts"!

We then headed over to my brother's house where Ryan received more gifts! The boys were extremely surprised by their final gift that suddenly appeared out of nowhere! A Wii Gaming system from Grandma.

The weather has been very "wintery" lately. Ryan has been making a small fortune this winter with his "new business" of shoveling!

Along with the snow it's been very icy. Everything has been covered in ice, making it difficult to get out and about. Thankfully we haven't had to travel too far!

Bill continues to be "off" work. This week he is painting my brother's house which gets him out of the house! We keep hoping that things will turn around very soon! Anyone looking for a good painter????

It's hard to believe winter break is 1/2 over.........one week from today were back to the old "school routine" again! UGH!

This Year's Christmas Ornaments

Each year, Ryan receives an ornament that represents something significant that happened in his life that year. This year he received two ornaments. I designed an ornament with his high school emblem on one side and the football mascot on the other side.

The other ornament is a Transformer ornament from Hallmark. This entire year Ryan has discovered the wonderful world of YouTube and has been creating "stop motion" videos and uploading them to YouTube. One evening, while on the computer, I located the ornament on sale at Kohls. So at 11:30pm Bill and I headed over to purchase THE LAST one! It was hidden and we nearly left without it - but I spotted it tucked away! Since the store closed at midnight, we didn't have time to search or try to locate it at another store. It was nice to avoid the crowds so late at night - we were in and out in 10 minutes!

Notice the shoveled driveway and sidewalks below??? Ryan has started a little "business" and has been shoveling neighbors driveways and sidewalks. He's been doing very well and has been putting most of his earnings into the bank for his "dream" car! (2010 Mustang) Yesterday, while driving past some million dollar homes - he says: I think I'll start putting 10.00 a month of my allowance in the bank because I was thinking I'd like a house like that someday! I guess he still doesn't realize how much big ticket items cost!

While at the mall this week, Build-A-Bear had elf crowns similiar to the Burger King crowns. I was able to get enough for the entire class and they were very excited to where them all day on Friday!

~Lisa~