Finally

Ok, so I have so much to write about to get all caught up on everything.

First off, why i haven't been writing.

I've been pretty busy with puking and ER visits and such.

Last monday just before dinner, Maddy started puking.

By 2 am we were headed to teh ER because she was screaming and puking and just miserable.

Luckily we didn't have to wait at all.

Unfortunately, the doctors didn't seem to care a whole lot.

Basically, they walked in, look at her ear, said she had an ear infection, and wrote a prescription.

Didn't bother to look at anythign else or ask any questions.

Didn't bother to address the dehydration.

Ugh.

So trhough all of this I started having lower back/kidney pain.

I thought at first I had injured my back/hip by working out but by wednesday, I couldn't get up off the couch without being in excruciating pain.

Then wednesday night I slept on the couch and woke up at 4 am puking. great.

It got so bad i had to call Scott and have him come home early.

He ended up taking me to the ER at noon. 

What a joke.

There I was, having to ride in a wheelchair and nearly puking my guts up, with a husband and two babies dragging along, and they want us to wait for a regularl room instead of taking us in the ER.

So I made Scott take the girls home and I sat there all by my lonesome for 5 hours before they called me.

It got so bad sitting there that I climbed out of the wheelchair, hobbled like a grandma over to a bench, and laid down. It hurt so bad i was willing to get the hospital bench germs just to get some relief.

Finally they called me back and I got 2 whole bags of fluids cause I was so darn dehydrated.

And after a couple more hours of lying there grimacing,  they finally gave me some morphine, and lemme just tell ya, that's some good stuff! 

They turned my lights off and i got the best 2 hours of sleep i have EVER gotten.

Then I got pissed off some more cause at 9pm, the doctor came back and said nothing was wrong with my kidney, sorry, bye.

P.S. try taking Motrin.

anyway here I am feeling fine, but through that whole ordeal I managed to completely fail my pushup challenge, and totally neglect the blog.

UGH.

Now on to more pressing matters.

Mama Laughlin posted on her blog about how to start/write a blog and make it popular.

You should read it for yourself but she said things like "be yourself"(I got that down pretty good), post pictures (who doesn't want to see my kids a million times, right?), and do giveaways(I only have 2 followers, and I know them personally, so I may as well just send them something in the mail. then I don't have to bother with picking a winner).

Anyway, I think she has some good advice on there.

One of the  biggest ways she inspires me, and something  that I really want to work on but haven't fully achieved is writing whatever she wants.

There are some things I just don't write, or am hesitant to talk about, just because I worry that 'so-and-so' might read it and know I'm talking about them.

If you just got paranoid that I'm talking about you, you're probably right.

One last thing before the good stuff.

I want to take Maddy and Lillee to Disney World SO STANKIN BAD.

Scott thinks its dumb but whatever.

My friend from Yes, We Did That On Purpose just took her chirruns last week and I am so jealous of how much fun they had.

Every picture they posted made me wish we were there with them.

Her LibbyJ is the funnest, funniest, most precious little girl and I would almost be afraid of putting Maddy in the same amusement park because they might tear the place down, but I know Maddy would just love it!

Anyway, since I don't have Disney pics to share, I'll just share our "at home" pictures.

Maddy decided to chill on the couch. She just curled up with her blanket.

She has this special tv watching pose.

Lillee is too stinking cute.

I put my FAVORITE bowl on a hot burner like a dumbo.

 Maddy like to wear Daddy's boots.

 Daddy and Chunk

 Scott has been teaching Maddy to growl. She does this face...

 Me and Moo built a fort in the living room. I think I enjoyed it more than Maddy did.

I'm still wishing for Disney.

I Didn't Quit

On Monday Scott and I were supposed to start Insanity.

Well, here's the problem...

I was getting ready to give Lillee a bath, bent over to pick her up off her towel, and almost hit the ground.

I had to lay down right there in the bathroom.

And then I had to wake Scott up with my cries for help.

He had to come pick me up off the floor, get Lillee dressed, and help me hobble/limp/shuffle to the couch.

I don't know if I pulled something or punched a nerve or what.

I was thinking I strained a tendon in my hip area, but the pain is VERY similar to when I had e. coli in my kidney, and that's no joke. 

When that happened, I had to get a stinking horse-size injection in my butt...ugh.

 

Nothing helped the the pain.

Ice made it worse.

A hot bath just couldn't quite get hot enough.

IcyHot didn't go deep enough.

Then I found some crazy yoga stretch.

Something about a pigeon I think.

It's probably called something like "pigeon pecks the sidewalk".

I don't know.

All I know is it's the only thing that helped and I managed to be mobile today.

Needless to say, I spent two days on the couch and Scott basically did everything for me, including taking care of the girls.

Bad news is that I can't do pushups.

Heck, I can't even get in or out of bed without acting like a drunk.

I'm glad I'm not hurting so bad now, but I'm angry that I can't finish my challenge.

And now we have to postpone our Insanity because Scott wont let me do it until I can measure up to his standards (whatever they are...). I don't know if he'll ever let me work out again.

My Favorite Neon Sign

My sleeping habits are terrible.

Ans on top of that, we didn't get to bed until about 4 this morning.

Maddy started puking at dinner time and didn't stop, so at 2 am she was still awake, crying, and throwing up every 30 minutes or so.

So we got to take a family trip to the ER.

The triage nurse was a guy that Scott sees every time he has to take someone in custody to the ER.

This guy is GOOFY. 

But legitimately good at his job.

I've never had a good experience with a triage nurse, but he was nice and took really good care of Maddy.

Anyway, we were in and out within 30 minutes.

She has an ear infection and a stomach virus.

Luckily, we got medicine for both and all of it was covered by our insurance.

Anyway, we got home and finally got to bed and slept almost until noon.

Then Scott and I spent the day cleaning because Maddy managed to puke on just about everything in the house except the couches.

Then we all loaded up and went to the grocery store.

and to Krispy Kreme.

And y'all, guess what?

HOT NOW.

that's right. that beautiful neon sign was on, and we got a whole dozen.

Those were the BEST hot Krispy Kremes I have ever had.

I ate 2 on the ride back home.

And another after dinner.

And another just now.

Oh my gosh, I think I just gained a few pounds thinking about it.

So. That was our day. briefly, anyway. 

The long version includes things like "livin-with-scott-a-pause", me punching Scott in the sternum through the shower curtain, Maddy dancing, Maddy realizing that the sky exists, Scott teaching Maddy to growl, Lillee getting a bath on the kitchen counter in her little baby tub, seeing Banana-Butt at the grocery store, and so much more. 

But I just don't feel like typing all of those stories out.

275? yikes.

We have 5 months left on our apartment lease.

That's only 5 more months of being stuck here.

That means we get to hopefully move into a house.

And that means we get to start looking :)

I've done 90 pushups today.

I plan on doing more though.

I have a few hours left to do them today.

That puts me at a total of 275   with 1725   left to go to reach my goal.
wow.
With 10 days left, I'm really going to have to work hard to get them.
 

We are starting insanity tomorrow.

The first day is a fit test, where you have to do 10 exercises for a minute each and do as many reps as possible.

I watched part of the video, and it looks crazy hard.
Any pushups I do as part of insanity are definitely counting toward my challenge.

Lillee has been taking her naps in the bassinet since Scott is sleeping during the day right now.

It's so cute to sit here and see just her feet stick up over the edge.

Sometimes she manages to grab them, and that's even cuter.

I have been craving some waffle house.

More for the coffee than the food.

I hope Scott will take me for dinner.

kbye.

Rambling about these great ladies

Our insanity kit should be here in the next few days. I am super excited and a little worried. Since we ordered it, I found one of the videos online and we tried it. The first time we barely finished the warm up segment. I tried it again and managed to get through half of it. Yesterday I made another attempt and still couldnt get past 20 minutes. And now, after 3 days of only halfway finishing, I feel like a zombie. Thank goodness the real insanity kit has other workouts to do.

We are going all out with this. We are going to take pictures and measurements and all. And we are going to count calories and try to stick to an eating plan. I have already done a weeks worth of counting calories and eating healthier. It's not much but I haven't given up yet so that's a good start.

It is so difficult to get fit and lose weight when you have no idea where to start and everyone makes you feel like you have to go all out and never mess up.

Having other blogs is a major factor in trying to get fit. I regularly read Mama laughlin's blog. She is amazing and inspiring. More importantly, I read a blog by one of our close friends, whom I refer to as Miss Cochran(technically Mrs. Cochran). She is awesome. You should read her blog but I'm not sure if she wants it to be shared. I'll find out and share it if she doesn't mind. Otherwise, sucks for you, cause you're missing out big time.

Mama Laughlin made me realize that you do what works for you right now. Maybe one day you want to eat all organic, real foods. But that's a major change and very hard to do. My goal is to eat all organic, whole, real foods. But for now, I'm going to stick with counting my calories and eating the healthier choices, even when it's not necessarily the best thing in the world. The point is to choose what's better.

Miss Cochran helped me realize that you don't Have to be perfect and just because you count calories doesn't mean you have to live off spinach and wheat straw. What's important is to be honest, with yourself and anyone you share your journey with. Guess what... She eats bacon and donuts and drinks coffee and has chickfila. And she is painfully honest in her food diaries about everything she eats. But guess what else... She is still losing weight, looking awesome, and getting fit. She is the reason I finally had one of those moments where it just clicked and I suddenly felt motivated. Did I mention she has two chirruns and works full time as a teacher AND a coach? I don't want to hear any more excuses.

I know this is a little boring and long and redundant but I want everyone to know just how important these girls are to me. If you don't know Miss Cochran, I hope you have an amazing woman like her in your life. And if you do know her, you are incredibly blessed. Also, you should read Mama Laughlin's blog cause she is as real as it gets.


Update: you can read the blog " yes, we did that on purpose " at www.cdcochran.blogspot.com

fun stuff

Here are some fun pictures I've been saving. I had to whip those egg whites by hand!

Flint Riverquarium

Yesterday we took the girls downtown to the Flint Riverquarium.

It was really neat. We had a lot of fun.

It was small compared to something like the one in Tennessee, but it was perfect for us. It took us about 40 minutes to walk through everything.

It cost $19 total for us to get in. We took Lillee in the stroller...next time I think I'll carry her in the sling.

Maddy was allowed to walk. It would have been chaos if anyone else had been there but we were the only visitors there, so she basically got to run wild.

Chunk mostly slept...

This fish looks bigger than Maddy but it's  not. That glass was about 37 inches thick.

Oh a leaf. This was the outdoor viewing patio.

There were turtles in this tank.

See the little turtle?

Hey!

There were bigger turtles chillin on the rocks.

Full speed ahead

Creepy green tank

This catfish could eat a large dog.

There was this little cave/tunnel playground with windows to the aquarium. I crawled through it with Moo.

Sliding down a tunnel

This was the last slide in the system...she tried to exit head first but I saved her.

This is Moonshine.

He's an albino alligator.

See?

 There was also an aviary, but when I told Scott the birds might land him, he rushed us all back inside

Little Einsteins

On the Little Einsteins show, the kids power their rocket ship by doing different hand motions and saying the word over and over.

One of those motions/words is Pat Pat Pat while they pat their laps.

Maddy is a genius and has figured it out.

Unfortunately, she likes to Pat Pat Pat for 30 minutes straight.

I try not to brag too much about the girls.

Partly because I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, but also because I don't want to embarrass myself by saying that Maddy can do something and have everyone else be like "oh, my kid learned that 6 months ago".

For example, some of our friends' 18 month olds can speak in English.

Maddy hasn't mastered that yet.

She can say "ouch", "dad", "Scott", and "uh-oh".

The rest is foreign.

I'm totally fine with it, because it's the funniest thing I've ever seen. Or heard.

She is a vocal genius, I promise.

She has this complex language that she speaks, with words for everything.Scott and I are just not smart enough to catch on.

So cliche

Today is our anniversary.

I know...lame.

Valentines Day, wedding anniversary...ugh. It almost disgusts me.

That being said, I am very happy to celebrate 3 years with my scooter.

I can't believe it has been that long.

In 3 years we have done a lot:

got married

bought a house

destroyed a car

sold a boat, bought 2 boats, sold those 2 boats, bought a jeep, sold a jeep, bought a wagoneer, sold a wagoneer, bought a VW bug, sold a VW bug, sold a truck, bought a car, traded the car for a truck, destroyed a Mustang, and got a Honda

had multiple jobs, each

had two beautiful little girls

Scooter got his dream job

moved 250 miles

lived in an apartment for the first time

lived off tuna sandwiches

 gotten in fights

once I knocked Scott out (totally by accident..let me just say elbows can ruin romantic moments)

laughed A LOT

embarrassed each other

Some of those things still happen regularly. 

After 3 years, I can say I absolutely did the right thing marrying this turd, but I truly had NO idea what I was getting into.

Pushup Challenge Update

Ok so for 5 days we had some...life events...that prevented me from my pushup challenge.

Not so much that I couldn't  do them.

I just wasn't as motivated.

Anyway, I'm not giving up. I know I am ridiculously far away from my goal but I am still going to try.

Also, as part of my motivation for this challenge was fitness/weight loss, I downloaded the myfitnesspal app. It's pretty neat and it makes me want  to track my food and exercise.

It makes me accountable for everything I eat, drink, and do.

And to make me doubly accountable, I added fitness friends.

In just two days, this has helped me a lot:

1. I see what my friends can do-they're amazing and so motivating!

2. I am more careful with my eating...don't want to embarrass myself by eating a whole bag of M&Ms or putting 1/2 cup of sour cream on one taco.

3. I really want to exercise...so I can put it in my diary that I earned extra calories.

Shout outs to Miss Cochran and Jessky. 

Yall make me want to be like you=]

Scooter, the kid

225 pushups total so far.

(70 for today)

that's not too terrible.

so far that's an average of 45 a day...25 short of what i need to average in order to stay on track.

I'm not quitting though.

My arms weren't as sore today. 

I do think there something out of adjustment in between my neck and shoulder blade area...but i can't afford a chiropractor so I'm hoping it works itself out.

Maybe if i sleep on it wrong it will fix it instead of make it worse.

Today was pretty boring.

Stayed up late with Scott watching TV. He got up early for some insane reason.

Or no reason at all.

So I tried to get up too but ended up taking a nap with Lillee.

Then we just got to hang out all day.

And Scott built a rifle out of Moo's little connect-linky-cube-blocky-things.

 

Stuffs

Only 15 push-ups today.
Womp womp womp.
But , in my defense, I did lots of other stuffs.
Stuff 1: went to the bank. Important because we had a big check to deposit and Scott needed cash.
Stuff 2: drove around paying bills so they would be on time. I ran out of stamps and most of our bills have a local office.
Stuff 3: got lunch for us because Scott was desiring some chick fil a tea.
Stuff a lot: cleaned, cooked, chased, fed, diapered, washed, counted, balanced, read, watched, ate, folded, etc.

See. A lot of stuffs.

Confessions

ok so here is an update for you:
Day 2- 55 push-ups
Day 3- 35 push-ups

Lets just say my arms aren't feeling so lovely.

Anyway, These are my confessions.

I don't spray my pans when I bake. Ever.

I don't separate my laundry when I wash it.

I just ate a cookie BEFORE dinner.

Sometimes I let Maddy run around naked.

 Ok I lied. I do that all the time.

I wear pants ALL the time so I don't have to shave my legs. Scott LOVES it.

Sometimes, in my head, I talk like a pirate.

I know the theme songs to all of the disney junior shows.

We're the Higglytown Heroes, bold and good. 

We help our friends just like we should.

I stalk you on facebook.

I'm sorry that people are so jealous of me... but I can't help it that I'm so popular. 

Let me tell you something about Janis Ian. We were best friends in middle school. I know, right? It's so embarrassing. I don't even... Whatever. So then in eighth grade, I started going out with my first boyfriend Kyle who was totally gorgeous but then he moved to Indiana, and Janis was like, weirdly jealous of him. Like, if I would blow her off to hang out with Kyle, she'd be like, "Why didn't you call me back?" And I'd be like, "Why are you so obsessed with me?"

well, yeah, kinda.

This is a random post...I was just thinking about something Scott told me and I had to share.

It actually happened a week or two ago.

Scott went to a house on a call about a juvenile acting up.

Apparently the kid was trying to run away or some nonsense.

So Scott talked to the kid(I'll call him Darrell). 

Well Darrell still wanted to be a smart mouth and act all tough, so Scott made a big ordeal of putting Darrell in handcuffs and  telling him he was going to the youth detention center.

After a few minutes of talking to the parents and letting Darrell think about his behavior, Scott let Darrell out and asked him if was gonna behave.

Darrell said he would be good blah blah blah and Scott told him to go hug his mama and tell her sorry.

Darrell apologized and got all teary eyed.

Having successfully restored peace and love to the family, Scott stuck around for a few minutes to talk to Darrell and Dad...you know, you're friendly neighborhood cop being a good influence on our youth. yada yada yada.

Ok. So, I know there hasn't been anything even slightly interested of funny yet.

No pain no gain, y'all.

if I'm gonna tell you something funny, I gotta give you all the boring details that I had to listen to.

Back to the story.

Dad says "you always hear about cops eating donuts and drinking coffee all the time. I guess you do real work too."
Darrell says to Scott "do you eat donuts?"

Scott: "Do I look like I eat donuts?"

Darrell: " Well, yeah, kinda."

Day 1: Grand Total 50

50.

That's how many I managed to do today.

But to make myself feel better, I'll tell you that Scott did 0.

None.

nada. 

zip.

zilch.

cero.

I don't know any more words for none so I'll stop now.

50 pushups isn't bad I guess, since today was the first day.

But I have to average 71 per day to meet my goal.

And Scott is a whole day behind now.