Bubba & Blue Bear turn 8!

Eight years ago today, November 23, 2003 my first baby boy and his bear were delivered!

Mark Tyler Johnston was my first born boy, the biggest of my babies - weighing in at a whopping 10 lbs., 1 oz. - and had to be delivered via emergency c-section after his chin became stuck on my pelvic bone (poor boy) because he was "sunny side up" (face up instead of face down).  Mark also got a special delivery (though nobody could have known just how special that delivery would be), Mark got "Blue Bear" from Grandma & Grandpa Johnston that day; Blue Bear, who is "Grumpy" from the Care Bears, has become Marks most prized possession!

Mark is the only child of mine who was named after Aerosmith (and if you don't already know this about me, I am obsessed with Aerosmith!), with his middle name being "Tyler" after Steven Tyler!  I pushed for the first name Steven, but Greg would only allow me to take it so far!  Mark got his nickname "Bubba" not long after birth, for no real reason...I just started calling him Bubba and it kinda stuck! 

From the day Mark was born we all thought we had a hockey player on our hands, but we couldn't have been farther from the truth!  Mark has NO desire to play hockey, or any sport for that matter (though I have to say that he does enjoy playing in his House Leagues at school and even scored his very first goal in floor hockey a few weeks ago!) and his teacher wrote in his report card that he is Strong Competitor, and that he is improving in his volleyball and soccer skills!  Marks passion in life is drawing and art!  He is VERY good at drawing and would rather sit and draw than pretty much anything else in this world.  He has asked for an electric pencil sharpener for Christmas so he can sharpen his pencils faster and more often!  He has a sketch book that he draws many of his pictures in and I love to just flip through it and see all the different drawings he has done!

Along with drawing, Mark loves to build things.  With those two things under his belt, he already knows that he wants to be an Architect when he grows up!  Last year he wanted to be a "Home Stayer"- aka stay-at-home-man!  Glad that he has loftier goals in life now!  Mark has designed all of his siblings homes for when they grow up, and he has designed his own house in the field right next to our house!

Mark gets along with all most of his siblings quite well, however he is a bit of an instigator and can get all of them screaming when he wants to!  He always has a sly little smile on his face when someone in our house screams!  Mark is not at all helpful around the house, unless I have asked his sister to do something, then just like magic, Mark jumps up and wants to do that exact thing and it just happens to make his little sister scream with fury!!  Funny how that works!

One curious thing about Mark is that he will ONLY wear short sleeve t-shirts and soft pants with NO buttons or zippers!  The only time Mark has worn a "wedding shirt" as he calls dressy or button down shirts, is for a wedding or very special day like Natalie's graduation or a Christmas concert!  One day that I will never forget was Grace's 6th birthday when Mark came walking out in his "wedding shirt" and said that it was a special day that day; that is how I know he really actually does love his little sister!

Mark is a very special little boy who I look so forward to seeing grow into a young man and I can't wait to see what he becomes when he grows up! 

Before I show you some pictures of my little boy, I will describe him using his name:

M: Mama suck

A: Artist

R: REALLY (competitive)

K: Knowledgeable

Happy Birthday Bubba!

SJ

Mark just a couple of hours old

Our first picture as a family of 4

Going home - 3 days old

Mark's first Aerosmith bib - 2 months

Mark's first Aerosmith shirt - 6 months old

 Happy 1st Birthday!

Mark & Blue Bear!

1 1/2 years old

3rd Birthday

Mark LOVES to bake and decorate cakes!

                                                            
                                                              

Mark just being Mark!

Blue Bear - 8 years old

                                                                                    

Mark in his "wedding shirt" for Grace's birthday!

                                                                                   
                                                                   Happy 8th Birthday!

What goes around comes around!

Here is a little multiple choice quiz for you:

After reading this, my mother will:

A) Laugh her ass off

B) Say "I told you so"

C) Both A & B

My answer is "C"


It's official!  I am my mother!  Today we have a lovely winter storm brewing and my daugther (who is 18, and by all rights and freedoms can do whatever the heck she wants) wanted to go to her friends house this morning.  I told her she could go, but to be careful because the storm was coming.  At about 1:00 p.m. she returned, with her friend in tow and a Future Shop bag in her hand!  Now, if you don't know about the wee little town that I live in (that has only one grocery store), I can tell you this: we DON'T have a Future Shop!!  I lost my mind (this is where I become my mother) because the nearest Future Shop is located 35 minutes down the Trans Canada Highway!!!  If you could have seen my reaction you would know that I was not pleased at all and you know what she said to me??

1) "You don't have to freak out"

2) "I brought you a sausage McMuffin!" 

Number one - I will freak out because if is my God given right as your mother to freak out if I know that you are driving any kind of vehicle, but especially a 1984 Pontiac, down a major highway in the middle of a major winter storm!!!!

Number two - Don't you know I just jumped back on the Weight Watchers wagon and I am NOT going to be tempted by a cold sausage McMuffin (though if it were hot and fresh I would probably fall right off that wagon for a few minutes)!!

I couldn't believe the foolishness of that girl of mine and I couldn't believe that I sounded so much like my mother!!

My mom has said many, many, many, many, many, many, many, etc., times not to go out in "that weather" and just as many times we have said to her: "don't worry", "don't freak out", etc.  I guess what goes around comes around!

SJ

My baby is legal (at least in Alberta!)

**I would just like to say that I realize this sounds a bit like a eulogy, but it is hard not write in past tense when you are going back 18 years!!**

18 years ago today I was in the greatest pain of my life, not a drug to be had (I still think they did on purpose, as a hard lesson for a young girl to learn), with two hours of intense pushing, she arrived... my beautiful, wonderful, lovely little girl!  Natalie Elizabeth was born on October 27, 1993 weighing in at 7lbs 11 oz.  She was the talk of the high school that day! LOL 

I was very young, 16 years old, but I had the incredible support of my amazing family and I knew that with that, we would be just fine! 

Natalie was quite an easy baby, and even though we have had our moments, she has continued to be an easy child all the way through!  Natalie was never a girly-girl, HATING the colour pink and never really playing with dolls; Her favourite toys were dinosaurs and horses and by the age of three, she knew how to pronounce the name of any dinosaur that ever roamed the earth!  Natalie's very favourite dinosaur of all was the big purple kind...Barney!  She was obsessed with him and anything to do with the show!  I can't tell you how many times I had to hear that song..."I love you, you love me, we're a great big family..."!  There was nothing more important in her world than Barney...well, except maybe Pops!!  Pops is the name my step-dad, Pat, acquired when my nephew, Avery, was little.  My children have never called him anything but Pops!  Pat and Natalie have a very special relationship, probably in my opinion the most important to her.  When Natalie was a baby, Pat took the night shift, getting up in the middle of the night with her, feeding, changing, burping, rocking!  He played such an important role in her life and bonded with her like nobody else was able to.  When Natalie graduated, we were asked to have someone important in their life write them a letter, and I never thought twice to ask Pat to write that important letter to her. 

Natalie started kindergarten young, as an October baby, she was only 4 years old going in, and to this day it is the biggest regret of my life.  She struggled through a lot of school, but the one area she never did struggle with was reading! She was reading shortly into Kindergarten and that was always her strongest attribute in school!  In grade five she was tested for her reading level and she was at a University level!  School was not always easy for Natalie, but this past June she graduated from grade 12 and it was such a proud moment in my life!

Dinosaurs were not the only animal she has loved!  Horses have been her biggest passion in life!  She has always loved horses and had the chance to start riding when she was about 8 years old.  She took lessons in Lloydminster at a stable and when she turned 9, she joined the Vermilion Light Horse 4-H Club.  She rode her Grandpa Scott's horse, Drifter, for quite a few years until she had the chance to use a very special horse named Jett.  Jett belongs to my Aunty Barb and Natalie has had the opportunity to ride Jett for a few years now.  Natalie and Jett have a very special connection, as did Drifter and Natalie.  I know horses will always be a part of Natalie's life and I hope that one day in the future she will have the chance to have a horse to call her own!

Today I will watch my daughter blow out the candles on her 18th birthday cake and with that in mind I will send her off into adulthood with a list of 18 things to always remember...

1. Always be kind to others
2. NEVER DRINK AND DRIVE
3. It's never too late at night to call your mother
4. Respect yourself
5. Follow your dreams, but live in reality
6. Always keep a few Aerosmith songs on your playlist
7. Don't give yourself to just any old boy
8. Pay your bills on time
9. It's okay to eat dessert first
10. CLEAN YOUR ROOM
11. Always listen your instincts
12. Do not wear too much make-up
13. Remember that you are beautiful
14. Remember your little sister and brothers are still looking up to you
15. Always use your manners
16. NEVER DO DRUGS
17. Always be yourself
18. Life's a Journey, Not a Destination

We love you so much Natalie, we are here for you every step of your journey!

Happy Birthday!

SJ




Some of these pictures have been scanned (and I am not very good with technology!), so a few of them seem a little off kilter!

Going home from the hospital

About 6 months old

My very favourite picture of Natalie!

2 years old

Grade 4

Getting ready for a riding competition (about 12 years old)

Natalie & Jett at 4-H Expo



Going for her interview at Boston Pizza

Grad 2011

Grad 2011

Oops, I did it again!

There are those days in my life when I think the day is going well enough to take my children out in public, but then I do it and I remember why I don't do it very often!!  I had absolutely nothing going on today and I even slept in until 8:30 a.m.!!  The first indicator of what was to come was the fact that Grace was up before me...bad sign!  Since I had nothing to do today and Greg was going out of town, I decided it would be a very good day to take my kids to the store to buy the boys new winter boots...and to go to the hardware store to pick out paint colours for their bedrooms.  Since I am one of those mothers who believe it is very important for children to have input and choices in their world (not huge life changing choices, but choices like paint colour), I decided to leave it completely up to them as to what colour their bedrooms become!  We are having a friend of mine sew some curtains for Mark's bedroom, so I have to see what colour they are going to be (because I let my friend pick out the material) before we pick out paint, but the colour Mark really, really wants is called Wasabi and it is VERY, VERY bright green!!  Grace picked out a very lovely shade of purple and Will had a very hard time deciding on the perfect colour...blue, red, orange, brown, red with orange and blue polka dots, orange with red and brown polka dots...oh, to be three again!  In the end he decided he really, really wanted brown and picked out a nice shade (Mark calls it "Chocolate Bar") and once we get it on the walls I plan to buy some red and blue and maybe orange polka dots to add to the room!  I also bought a nice blue for our main bathroom.  I am not even close to being ready to paint any room and after the day you are about to hear about, it is going to be a few weeks until these rooms look any different!

I really should have listened to my gut and left Grace at home with Natalie, because we hadn't even left the driveway when she started screaming!  I think the first time was about the fact that Mark was touching her.  I told her that I would leave her at home if she didn't smarten up...I should have followed through!  We stopped at the hardware store first and ended up staying there far longer than planned because as soon as we started looking at the paint chips it seemed like all of Vermilion had the same idea!  We had one can tinted when natured called and we all had to go and find the bathrooms!  By the time we got back to the paint area there was a slew of people having paint mixed and since we still had three cans to mix, we had to wait in line!  Apparently hardware stores aren't very exciting for kids!  Mark bugged Grace, Grace whined; Grace wanted to play with Will, Mark all of a sudden wanted to play with Will; I gave Mark my phone just to shut him up, they all wanted my phone!!  I tried to trick them into searching the store for garbage cans but they wouldn't fall for it!  I tried everything!  I guess the lady mixing my paint has seen far worse because she gave my kids balloons because they were "so good"!!  It seemed like forever we were in there and I was ready to go!  By the time we left, my kids were starving!  We went over to Subway to get some lunch and when we walked into that building it felt like we just crossed the border to Mexico!  Here is a little tidbit of info you may not know about me - I HATE the heat, no matter if it is natural heat of forced heat!!!  Apparently, the air conditioning is not working, and it was HOT in there!!  My kids all stripped their jackets off and Grace just kept saying to me: "I'm sooooo thirsty"!  We got out of there as fast as humanly possible and found some benches down the street to eat on.  Will took his sweet time eating his sub and chips and after about 20 minutes of sitting on a bench outside I had to tell him to wrap it up so we could keep going on this adventure of ours!  I guess I should have given him a few more minutes because as soon as we got back to the vehicle to wash Doritos and mustard off my children's faces, a guy walks up to me and says: "Excuse me Ma'am, but one of your kids hit my truck with your door"....are you freakin' kidding me???  I went with him as my Dorito faced children stood on the sidewalk and I rubbed and rubbed his truck with the sleeve of my jacket!  I think he could tell that I was about to the boiling point and I might just snap at any moment so he said it didn't look too bad and not to worry about it!  Once I rubbed it, there really wasn't much of a mark on it.  Our next stop was the department store where we had to buy the boys some boots.  I let them pick out their boots, and as Mark was trying his on, Will decided to play a game of hide-and-seek in a small town department store!  After finding him and threatening him with a spanking if he didn't stop hiding, I sent them downstairs to the toy department...and told them very firmly NOT to ask for a single thing down there!  Once I had paid for the boots and got the kids back upstairs, we headed next door to the drug store.  Will was making an old lady laugh as he was dancing and giggling in front of the securtiy camera, because he could see himself on the monitor!  The kids all tried on Halloween masks, I picked out some Halloween candy for the big day and took the kids to the front of the store to pick out their treats; Mark found his quickly and so did Will, but my sweet, sweet Grace just couldn't find what she was looking for!  I finally had to give her a five second warning to pick something fast because there were other customers waiting, so she picked out some chocolate covered raisins.  We all headed out of the store after one more jig in front of the security camera and walked down the street to our vehicle.  All three of the kids had to sit in the same row today because I had the third row put down and of course there was a whole lot of fighting and screaming as Grace tried to get her seatbelt done up with her big brother just inches away from her!  I think she managed to reach a new note today with her high pitched scream!  As we were driving home, just a few seconds after she had buckled in, she let out a blood curdling scream and didn't let up until we pulled into the driveway...she spilled her chocolate raisins!!  It was one of those moments in life that I actually envisioned what it would be like to just pull over and either drop her off on the side of the road or for me to just simply walk away!  Of course I am not insane, just a little touched, but I would never actually do it...just fantasize about it!  When we finally got home I gave her four little Halloween chocolate bars to make up for her spilled raisins, because even though I have no problem with my children eating food off of the floor, I draw the line at my vehicle floor, and Wal-Mart's floors!  The minute we walked into the house I made her climb into my bed with her blanket and chocolate bars and turn the t.v. on, cause mama could take no more of her today!!

Now that my children have boots and paint, there is no reason to take them out in public anytime soon...except to trick-or-treat, but at least then they are disguised and me acting like a crazy lunatic is acceptable on Halloween night!!

SJ

Thank you...

It only seems fitting to talk about what I am thankful for this Thanksgiving weekend.  Here is what I am thankful for (in no particular order):

• my family
• my husband
• my children
• my house (the fact that we have one)
• my friends
• Aerosmith
• food
• my flabby body
• my kids school (and teachers)

I am sure I am missing some things to be thankful for (pretty much everything in my life), but I will tell you about the above list.

for some reason I have the next part highlighted...don't know why and don't know how to get rid of it, sorry!

FAMILY...

I got a big one! I am not sure that anyone of my parents or grandparents set out to give me such a large family, but here it is and I love it! I have two sisters, four (half) brothers and three step-sisters; 22 Webb (first) cousins, 14 Duguid (first) cousins (I think my arithmetic is correct on those), don't ask me how many second or third cousins I have! I have a mom, dad, step-mom, step-dad, mom-in-law, dad-in-law; I have two grandmas & one grandpa who I still get to visit with; I have four of the world's most amazing children (of course I am a little biased); I have two other entire families from my step-parents who have made me feel nothing less than part of their families; I have two entire families from my in-laws as well! (Are you still with me?)...plus everywhere I turn in my little town, I am related to someone!! Life is good when you have family around...my life is great because of it!

HUSBAND...

 You couldn't find two people who were more opposite than Greg & me!  We have worked out pretty good though!  I bring the loose, liberal, free-spirit parts to our marriage and he brings the structured, conservative, A-type personality to it!  We are like peanut butter and jelly, the two of us!  He loves me for who I am, what I look like and even for how much of his hard earned money I spend!!  He's a keeper!

CHILDREN...

What more can I say about my children than they are the most wonderul things that ever happened to me!?!?!  I have had children under my roof and in my arms since I was 16 years old and I can't imagine a life any different than that!  There has never been a job I wanted to do more than being a mother!  I will run through what I am most thankful about each one of my children...

Natalie: I am so thankful that even though she is turning 18 in two short weeks, she has not really given us too much grief as parents!  She may have a messy room and a forgetful mind, but we sure got lucky in the teenager stage of her life!  She has been a great kid and I know she will be a great adult!

Mark:  I am so thankful that Mark is a smart, artistic, sentsitive kid!  He loves his momma more than anything and even though he doesn't really like me to give him kisses, he still lets me!  He is almost 8 years old and I am so excited to watch him grow into the wonderful young man I know he will be!

Grace:  I am thankful that even though I call her a "diva", she really isn't one!  Grace is a 6 year old girl with very independent personality!  I know that she will grow up to be someones boss and I am sure that after she gives us a run for our money as a teenager, I will have no problem cutting those apron strings!  She will have no problem leaving the nest either!!

Will:  I am thankful that he LOVES being my baby!  I am sooooooo thankful that this little boy of mine is so perfectly perfect after all the issues he went through as a baby (you will read all about these issues on November 30, when I blog about his birthday).  I am so thankful for the funny things that come out of his mouth.  I am so thankful for the idea that he will never want to leave the nest...but I am sure if you ask me in twenty years I will be ready to push him right out of the tree...but for right now, as a three year old boy, I am so thankful!


HOUSE:  We live in a big, warm, not-even-close-to-being-paid-for house and I am so thankful for that!


FRIENDS:  I have the world's greatest friends!  You know who you are, and I thank you for being my friend! 

AEROSMITH:  Thank you Steven, Joe, Tom, Brad & Joey for coming together long before I was even born and creating America's greatest rock and roll band (and if you are laughing at me right now for typing that, just Google it...it's right there in black & white!); Thank you for making me the crazy fan who knows every little detail of your life; Thank you for my first born sons middle name (Tyler); Thank you for making my 30th birthday the best a girl could ever have; Thank you Joey for the drum sticks that now hang in my craft Aerosmith room that you passed to me and Amy at the very first concert I was ever at; Thank you Steven for doing American Idol so that the whole wide world can see why I have been so crazy for you for the past 23 years!!

I will take this moment to say sorry if any of my friends are offended that Aerosmith got a much longer blurb than they did...you know I love you too!!

FOOD: do I really need to elaborate?

FLABBY BODY:  I am thankful for this flabby body of mine because I means I have lots of food to eat! 

KIDS SCHOOL:  My kids (the two who are in school) attend Vermilion Elementery School (V.E.S.) and that is the school that I attended from grade 1 - 3 when I lived here.  It is a great school with wonderful teachers - one who just happens to fall into that "Duguid first cousin" category I mentioned earlier!  My kids teacher this year are Sandy Birch and Rebecca McCullough.  Ms. Birch is Grace's teacher (and was Mark's last year) and I don't think I could ask for a better grade one teacher!  She teaches the way that I think - no extra pressure on these little people...I love it!  Mrs. McCullough is the teacher who Mark wanted and got this year!  She is a lovely woman who is very artistic and that is exactly what Mark needs!  He came home from school with 4 thanksgiving crafts!!  She is right up his alley!  Mrs. Bonnie Bauer is the music teacher at V.E.S. and she has been teaching music there since i was in school there!!  She might just be the most wonderful human being on earth!  She is lovely, kind, sweet, wonderful!  I can't go on about the entire staff, so I will just say that my kids are so lucky to have such a wonderul school to call their own!

So many things in my life and this world that I am thankful for...those are just a few!

Happy Thanksgiving!

SJ

P.S. Thank you for reading my blog!  I am thankful to know that people actually like what I have to say!

My grandma and your grandma

My grandma and your grandma
Were sittin' by the fire.
My grandma told your grandma
"I'm gonna set your flag on fire"

[Chorus:]
Hey now! Hey now!
Iko, Iko, unday
Jockamo feeno ai nan?
Jockamo fee nan?

I have had this song in my head today because I have been thinking about grandma's and being a grandma (don't worry, I am not going to be a grandma right now!!) and what grandma's do.  When I think about grandma's I think about cinnamon buns...not sure why, it just seems like a grandmotherly thing to do!  I can't sew, can't knit, can't bake bread (well, I guess I can make sweet breads now!), can't crochet, can't keep my house clean worth a darn...just can't seem to do those grandma things!  I am a little worried that one day when I am a grandma I will not be able to offer my grandkids these wonderful memories and keepsakes like my own grandmothers did...so I decided to start making cinnamon buns!  Today Will and I put on our aprons and pulled out the Purity cookbook and made cinnamon buns!  I told Will that this will be our special thing to do (I guess it's a motherly thing to do too) each week - and I better start giving away some of these sweet treats or my weight loss dreams will be once again be put on hold!  I figure if I start learning how to make these buns now, by the time I am a grandma, I will have them perfected! 

Maybe I will take on knitting next!

SJ

It has been a while...

Hello Stranger!  It has been a while since my fingers have hit the keyboard for anything more than checking Facebook!  I had a very sweet message for me on Facebook from my big sister - she said she missed my blog!!  So, I decided to sit down right now, with five children running amok (and one of them has a very strong aroma to them!) to let you know what's been happening in my life lately!

My three year old son is a Playschool drop-out after only four classes!  I signed him up for playschool this year (with the intention of him going for two years), two mornings a week.  The very first day he told me that the "Blue Circle Boy" was bugging him - they all have a coloured shape on a pin to help them identify their lockers and such - and I thought it was just a one time thing, so I didn't make a big fuss about it.  For the next three classes he complained that this boy (who shall remain un-named) was being very mean and he didn't want to go to playschool anymore.  I thought about just putting him in on the other two days they run, but then I found out the real reason for this change of heart - Zachary!!  Zachary is one of my day home boys, who has been with us for almost two years!  Will has grown up with Zachary and they are attatched at the hip!  I don't think Will knows how to function Monday through Friday without Zachary...so I decided that it was not worth the fight to take him to playschool for this "bonus" year, and we will enroll him in plasychool next year, with Zachary!  (and if he really doesn't want to go then, well that's okay too...playschool itself is really just a bonus in life!).

Speaking of signing kids up for things, let me tell you about last weekend!! 

Saturday morning we went to our towns "registration day" at the mall - the day when all the different organizations get together in one central place for registrations. Grace had told me a few weeks ago that she wanted to take skating this year and I figured that would be the perfect thing for all three of the little kids to do - kill three birds with one stone, I figured! The boys were up for it, which actually surprised me a little since Mark is terrified of even touching ice with any kind of footwear other than sturdy winter boots - so I was eager to enroll them! We got to the mall and I felt like my head was about to explode because of a lovely head cold I had and Grace wouldn't let go of my hand the entire time, even when I was trying to fill out the forms and my boys only wanted to go to the pet store and to get icecream...oh, what I great time it was! Once I finally was able to get Grace to stand on her own I started to fill out the forms but as soon as I had put her name on one page she burst into tears and started saying she no longer wanted to skate!! She asked me what days skating was on, and I said Monday & Wednesday - she cried even more (I think because she is a worry wart and thought it was going to cut into her playdate with her best friend that coming Monday, after school!!). I did not have it in me to try to calm her down and all I could see was my future Mondays & Wednesdays: I would drag anywhere between 3 and 6 kids (depending on my day home kids) to the rink, clad in snowsuits and mitts...each carrying their skates (more like me carrying three pairs of skates)...and me, sweating with my glasses falling down my nose as I try to wedge my childrens feet into their brand spanking new, stiff as a board, skates...then I would have to tie all three pairs, as my children have only ever been exposed to velcro, and I haven't tied a pair of skates in many, many years! Did I mention I will only have 15 minutes to do this all in? Skating starts at 4:15 p.m., my kids bus pulls up to our house at 3:50 p.m. and by the time we actually get to the rink it will be 4:00! The one good thing about this early start time is that we would be back home, finished all three skating lessons and making supper by 5:30 p.m.!!  Even with the early supper start, I have decided to forgo skating lessons and just take my kids (and my husband) to public skating instead!  No pressure, no fundraising, no worries!

One of the reasons I have been away from my blog for so long is because I had to catch up on my t.v. shows from last year before this week when all the shows started up again!  In just one week I managed to watch last season (the entire season) of "Parenthood", "Grey's Anatomy" and "The Good Wife"!!  As you can imagine I did NOTHING in my spare time but watch t.v.!  We don't have PVR at my house (not for lack of wanting or trying...it just has to do with our location), so if I miss a show, there is no catching up!  I am all caught up now though and last night I watched Grey's and on Sunday I will watch The Good Wife...I am sooooooooo excited!  I saw a commercial for "The Amazing Race" last night, so that will be on my list of shows, plus Criminal Minds has started up this week too!!  My t.v. plate is starting to overflow - I might have to dust off my VCR and watch my missed episodes the old fashioned way!

One wonderful thing has happened to me in the last week or so - I have started to lose weight!  I quit Weight Watchers (for about the 6th time), cancelled my Curves membership - they were both making boat loads of money off of me, without me using them at all - and I have begun to lose weight - go figure!!  I am not dieting, starving or on any plan - I have just stopped all the mindless eating!  I am still eating the same crappy way I have always eaten - no broccoli or grapefruit for me, just not so much of the same crappy stuff!  I have realized that I don't have to deprive myself of anything, I just have to know when to stop!!  If I keep this up I should be a back to my pre-Will weight by early 2012!!

Well, I have five very grumpy little children in my house and three of them are going to have naps (ah, I love the sound of that!)...so off I go to change diapers, tuck kids in and clean my oh, so messy house!!

SJ

P.S. just incase you are wondering, I did change the very fragrant child a few paragraphs ago!!!