2 months! AHHH!

Have gone by and my same old story, I just don't have time to sit down like I want to! I would love to be able to speak in my words/thoughts and have it transmit to my blog, because that's when I think of my things to write about :-)

The boys are in their third week of school and today is picture day! I have them both dressed in red polos and trimmed up their hair last night. They are really enjoying their teacher's and their classmates!
Riordan made friends fast this year and next week we have a playdate set up with a new friend in the park. I pray it's not 110 though! This heat, although coming late this year it seems, it just draining me. I feel like I'm back in Atlanta suffering through the summer the past few weeks.

Caden had a great time at a friend's house Friday night, with a classmate he that he had in 1st grade and now 2nd. Such a sweet boy! He has a sleep over this Friday and is so excited!

Riordan has been convinced by me finally that he can read! He has read little phonics books to me for the past two nights! I am so proud of him! His self confidence has tripled and his anxiety has diminished quickly this year! I'm sure in part to knowing two friends already in his classroom and knowing who his teacher was since she was Caden's Kinder teacher and he has seen her on campus for two years.

Teagan has Meet the Teacher tomorrow and Aislinn's is on Friday and then they both start on Monday! They are pretty excited! We don't know Aislinn's teacher, she's new to the school, however Teagan's we know from last year and she was always so sweet with Teagan even though she didn't teach her. I'm sure this year will be a good one for her as well!

We have a staycation this weekend with our little family and we can't wait! We haven't had one since June. We also decided to use our points and go to the beach Labor Day weekend. We haven't been to the beach for 3 years!! Insane! It will be fun, we haven't explored CA beaches yet and we have a few friends we get to visit with while we are there! The children will miss a few days of school, but it will be well worth it :-)

Not much else going on. Mike is still traveling and always will. The girls are both in dance again, Aislinn is on Tuesday's and Teagan is on Thursday's. Trying to get Aislinn in gymnastics now along with Riordan and Teagan. She gets so sad when I take her and she can't go in. So I don't want to do the parent - tot class and she turns 3 in September, however they said I have to still do a trial Parent-tot to see if she can go ahead and move into the 3's. It's about following direction I'm sure. Of course they had no room this Saturday for us, and I can't sign up until Saturday for the following... I think I will just wait until after our trip, but I'm just typing 'out loud'.

Caden is signed back up for Basketball! He loves it and is really good! A lot of his friends from the team he has been on for 3 years, went on to tackle football. However we didn't know. It was actually really odd how it all happened. I was told offhandedly and not really asked if we were signing up Caden. In the end, this works best for our family and it will be nice to make new friends and parents. Caden still sees the old team at school. He was upset with me asking why I didn't sign him up. I was honest and said no one told me, even though back in Spring I had asked to be told since Caden had taken such an interest in moving up to tackle and at the time it didn't seem anyone else but one family was interested. He's 7 and I hate this for him, but it's a good lesson as well. I know I don't usually vent this kind of thing, but it's been a month and it still is on his mind and my heart... It's hard on him when he sees them going off on play dates after practices and games. Why do I have to tell my 7 year old it's in appropriate to ask to be included? Ugh!

Well and that's all I have for now, we are off to school! And then Boot Camp, and the grocery and then to get our R/O serviced! Busy day and then tonight I get to go out for a bit to a friend's house. Can't wait!

How fast it goes!

The months that is!

I have missed blogging and find myself coming up with blogs in my head, but never finding the time to get them down! It's so frustrating!!

Being a mom of four with a husband who is gone every week, has strengthened me, given me more patience than I can ever imagine and an increased admiration for true single mom and dads.

It is very lonely most days for me and I'm so thankful that I have my group of girls at Boot Camp and the friendships I have formed! I'm thankful, though it's been a tough financial year for us, I can still have help once a week to get out for me and get a break in our routine.

I am, however, by NO MEANS a super mom. And I never ever want to come across that way.

I have never sat still and I have had to sit still for quite a few years now. So I do find myself doing more things and getting out a lot more in the past 6 months, which would explain why blogging is so tough. So not only do I get lonely, but I get bored. I also am envious of those who have husband's who are home every night and able to share the load of child rearing. I am always tired and exhausted, but yet I have to keep moving for I will fall asleep at the wheel!

A nap! What I wouldn't give for a nap most days and sleep through the night? What is that?! Someone is always up in our household!!

I feel like a constant maid and cook and not appreciated by my family. Cinderella would definitely describe how I feel and sometimes I dream of little mice and birds to help me with my day!

Also, it is very very very hard for me to ask for help from my friends. They are in the same boat as I am, most of them! Tired, exhausted, hubby's working late or not at home, financially strapped. Plus I have four children, not 2 to 'dump off' on someone! I'm very envious of friends who have family that lives close by AND wants to be a part of their grand children's life and help out a struggling mother. Babysitting does not come by cheap for four children, while worth every penny to our girls that are like our family. My middle of the night emergency calls are to two very good friends thankfully and we have a pact that it goes both ways. I have only come close, thankfully, to ever needing to use it ;-)

On another note, but related!, I am FINALLY doing something for myself AND asking for help! I am starting a private blog on the journey of Heather Malloy post four babies and getting her body back with the help of a surgeon! If you would like to follow it, just email me and I will happily add you to it!

As you know, I have been kicking my butt, at first with a personal trainer for over a year, running (will hopefully get back there) and Boot Camp! I have practically starved myself, gone the low carb high protein route, eaten clean and whole, eaten everything and etc.

I have lost all my baby weight plus the weight I gained after meeting Mike and our 'honeymoon' phase. I have maintained my weight loss for well over a year now as well, fluctuating 5 lbs here and there. I'm exhausted trying to get to my goal size!!

I am not happy nor at peace with where my body still is! I'm not looking to get into a bikini, I never wore them much before babies. I hate to still see my lower body in pictures. Bathing suits are difficult to find to that flatter my body. I am SOOOO tired of people asking me when my baby is due or if I know what I'm having!

So I finally started to see plastic surgeons about my body. I have the 'muffin top' when I wear jeans. I call it my extra shirt I have to tuck in! It becomes a front butt when I sit down. Not only do I have a pooch that grows as the day wears on I have a tremendous amount of loose skin in my lower abdomen. It's to be expected, I did get up to 220 lbs with each pregnancy! My breast are those of flapjack raisins!

I have seen three surgeons and every single one of them say I am the ideal candidate for a Tummy Tuck and Breast Aug. I hardly have any fat on my tummy. I have a one and a half inch separation on my midline. I can feel this, it is FREAKY! I wake up in the morning with a flat stomach, because my body has rid of the waste. As the day goes on, my abdomen wall is so separated that my organs are falling through and all the fluid 'leaks' out and causes the pooch! Isn't that lovely?!

I have been told by all three surgeons that there is not anything diet or exercise I can do at this point and surgery is the only option for my abdomen. The first time I heard this I literally almost started crying. The second and third time, it just felt great and I couldn't wait to get this show on the road!

I just met the third surgeon yesterday, and I booked with her on the spot! In the first 5 minutes I knew she was my surgeon! She is just simply incredible. She makes the most beautiful belly buttons! But to me that's just a bonus compared to the 1 and 1/2 hours we met, all the work she has done, and all her accreditations!

Surgery won't be until November 1st, when Mike can be home with his insane travel schedule. I'm working on dates that my sister and my mom can come in to help be mom to my children. I will be calling on my friends, who forever have offered, for help with my children as well! Like I said, it is so difficult for me to ask for help, but to do this I have to. I can not be a mom or wife to my family for a good 2 weeks at the least. I can't lift anything or exercise for 8 weeks. I can't make meals, I can't get up in the middle of the night, I can't drive, heck I won't be able to stand up straight for 1-2 weeks. Sounds fun huh? But the end result WILL BE worth it! It's a lot of money and I'm so thankful Mike is behind me 100% so we will finance it. Week three I should be able to start doing a little bit, but extremely tired and so forth.

I will be asking those friends for their help in driving to and from schools. And possibly rides to the doctor's office for follow ups!

My hope is to make this journey as painless for my beautiful family as possible. I know I am the rock in our family. I worry for Mike and his patience with four children day and night AND trying to work. He tells me not to worry, but let's be real here! We moms know it's extremely tough! And it's not like I'm going away for a weekend where the kids don't have much going on. This are school weeks, lunches being made, homework being supervised, bathing, staying on routine so everyone sleeps well at night and wakes up at a decent hour to restart the next day.

I haven't even mentioned keeping the house in decent working order. THIS two things are the part that makes me sick to my stomach and sometimes wanting to back out at times!! Not me going under the knife and not able to function for some time!

Am I weird?!

So November 1st, I will be sitting still for a very long time, against the very fiber of my being and at the mercy of everyone else's help (I hope). Please let it come and go quickly! For those of you who are going to help me, I can't wait for the day to return the favor of help as well!

Teagan turns 4!

What a great time we had for Teagan's 4th Birthday party! We had it here at our house with a big pink princess castle, pink cotton candy, pink princess goblets for ice cream sundae's and cake! All of her friend's dressed up as princesses. She had so much fun, as did her friends!

I felt like a spaz the whole 2 hours, running around and wish I got to enjoy her more enjoying her day. Aislinn was screaming at me the whole time, wanting me to hold her and no one else. She's been doing this screaming thing for 6 weeks now and I am officially fried on it ;-)

Teagan scored on gifts as well and more than half still haven't come out of their boxes. We have no place to put them! LOL

More pictures here! Enjoy!

It's paying off!

All my hard work with working out and clean eating!!

I come to you, after 7 weeks as of this past Tuesday 9.25 inches gone and 12 pounds lost as of this morning! 3 of those inches were off my stubborn stomach!! Yee Haw!!

So of course feeling a little crazy this morning, I ate a protein styled In and Out Burger (no cheese) and good night it was so yummy!! Thankfully In and Out uses fresh food, never frozen and fresh cut french fries! Just fried of course which is against my clean eating, but it's a splurge and while I feel a bit guilty it was worth it!

I will of course hit the elliptical since I already did Boot Camp and that will hopefully cancel it all out! HA!

The children lately have been doing a lot of pretend playing. It is so cute! Earlier this week, they were playing with their friends from school, pretending of course, and would let their friends play with their siblings. Hilarious! They have now switched to pretending to be Uncle John, Aunt Amy, Maddy, and Brendan. And they carry Brendan, whether he be a baby doll, Blue's Clue's or a piggy. I could just eat them up, they are so cute!

We have been having tons of fun, playing at home and around town. They are so wonderful and love to go to Boot Camp with me, which is probably more fun for them, because there are so many toys and their friends are so great.

Mike has been in town all week, however he was gone last night for the FBR. We had a weekend away this past weekend and had such a nice time! We ate at True Foods and Modern Steak and just literally hung out. It rained the entire time, and we had wanted to hike Camelback Mountain. No such luck, but we will still do it and soon!

Aislinn has developed bumpy speech the past couple of weeks. Totally like Caden but exactly a year earlier than him! Thankfully we have the tools to work on it with her when the time calls for it.

Hmm what else? We had a Field trip for R and T's school at Jump and Shout. It was a lot of fun, however two of my zoo members got very grouchy with me, it was hunger!, and we left about 1 1/2 hours into it. I am putting my foot down a lot lately and it seems to be paying off, yay!

Tonight I have a girls night at a friends house and tomorrow is Football Playoffs for Caden and cheer for Teagan! Not much else planned, but looking forward to it! We may take the kiddos out to True Foods if we can get away. But lazy days around the homestead sounds so inviting right now :-)

Still trying to keep up!

I sit here while looking at my sweet Riordan who has a fever of 101.8, coughing (he had the croup earlier this week but gone now) and he got sick, most likely from all the coughing.

I feel so awful for him, he's still just so yummy even when he's sick!

Aislinn broke out in the crazy rash the olders got, with full force on Saturday and now it's all over her body. Almost gone off her face. Is it really strep? I keep researching it and I think now it was 5th's disease after all. Teagan still has her rash, where scarlet fever is gone in 10 days, 5th's last up to 3 weeks. Poor Riordan, just can't catch a break!

Mike is constantly traveling and we find we have gotten into a sweet rhythm with daily routines and I for once in my life feel like I can actually do this without cracking all the time. I have never been busier running around every single day. With Boot Camp now in the mid morning, there is absolutely no down time until we get home from the first round of pick ups and only for it to happen again in a couple of hours.

I registered the girls at our preschool (well my friend Trisha did actually, so sweet to me!) I will have Teagan in M-TH from 9 to 1 and Aislinn will go into the 3's class M, W, F from 9-11:30. I have never had alone time with just Teagan with the others in school so Friday's will be our day. And I will get a lot of alone time with Aislinn as well. Will just have to figure out how the boys will work, since they will both be in all day public. GASP! Caden will be a 2nd grader and Riordan a Kindergartner! I can't believe it! I need to get R's paperwork in actually. I have it and it's ready, just can't seem to get it turned in. A friend of mine said maybe it's because I don't want him to go. She may be right ;-)

We have been staying busy at home. Doing lots of writing homework, playing outside and cooking a lot in the kitchen.

This weekend Mike and I have a much needed night away planned with Grammy and Papa coming to stay with the zoo. I hope we are able to still go and Riordan gets better so he can have fun with them and we can breath easy know he will be feeling fine.

We hope to climb Camelbak mountain! We have never done it and so looking forward to the challenge! Then a late dinner at True Foods and then maybe another hike the next morning, if our muscles aren't too fatigued.

We also just booked a trip home, all of us, in April. My dad has not seen his grandchildren in 1 1/2 years!! Way too long. It's such a HUGE expense for us all 6 to fly out, hotel, and car. So we are forfeiting any major vacation and hope that we can do some fun family outings while we are there. I can't wait to get ALL the cousins together! The children haven't met their new cousin Carson, who just turned ONE, yet. It should be fun!

Speaking of new cousins! We finally met Brendan and he is just absolutely yummy!! I can't wait for Aunt Amy to send over the pictures, because we left our camera at home that day :(

Nothing major has gone on in the past few weeks.

We did have a fun Valentine's Week at the schools. The zoo was really into making Valentine's for their teachers and were so sweet handing them out! Mike and I had a fun date night at The Living Room. A wine bar with lots of ambience. And then we hit Fleming's for our delicious Lava Cake and glass of wine!! We seem to end our date nights on that note. This time however I only had TWO bites and that was painful ;-)

I am so determined to finish this weight loss journey. Two years ago I began. I have had 4 months of SI Dysfunction that prevent me from doing cardio. Healed, then 4 months later began the nightmare of stress fractures. Twice I was out of commission, the first time 3 months, the second time 4 months. So now I am DONE with running, my back still has it's moments, but it's manageable and I am working out really hard and reaping the rewards. Now if I could just still control my serious cravings for all things bad!! My goal every day is to eat clean. Nothing boxed with preservatives. Fresh as best can be, which means a lot of time in the kitchen cooking and prepping. I have made a soup every week for 3 weeks now and they are so yummy! I am really enjoying being back in the kitchen and the zoo loves getting in there and helping as well! So I'm getting SERIOUS, what I am calling it this year. I initially lost 40lbs, but couldn't hold it and teetered with 10 lbs off and on all last year. I have 4 more to go to get back to 150 and then those bonus 10, remember them? Well it's not bonus anymore, it's SERIOUS time. So 14 more to go, let's do it! Who's with me?!

I have a good excuse!

I was sick and trying to catch up to life! ;-)

December was 3 1/2 hellish weeks of vertigo after an ear infection and sinus infection. I can't believe how rough December was and thought my body couldn't go through anything else like that! Boy was I wrong!

Christmas for the children was absolutely fantastic! They were spoiled beyond belief and very thankful and grateful!! Christmas Eve we went to Uncle John and Aunt Amy's and had the yummiest Chinese food and the best family time. Finally the week after Christmas, I felt healed and like myself and treated myself to a week of movies. It was so nice and relaxing!

New Year's Eve was uneventful and I was asleep at 10 pm ;-) Nice and rested to start the New Year off on the right foot!

I got back to Boot Camp for three weeks, busy with the children, organizing the house like crazy and getting my health in check. Time to see the dentist after 3 long years. Lots of work to be done and had an abscess in an already root canaled tooth because it wasn't completely root canal'ed. This I knew, and always had sensitivity, which my previous dentist always said it was referred pain from another tooth. Really? I mean come on, I have had so much dental work and I'm really in tune to my body? So I'm referred out to an Endo. Long story short, something went wrong during the procedure.

I had a searing shooting pain go through my jaw half way through my 1 1/2 hour long procedure! It hurt the entire rest of the time. Being I was still numb, we went out to dinner with Mike's parents. In the middle of the night I woke up in excruciating pain and couldn't sleep the remainder of the night. I chalked it up to maybe the new abscess giving me issues and my body was healing. All day Friday I popped Tylenol with no relief and Friday night I took the hydrocodone.

It didn't work and I didn't sleep. Saturday I was taking my sister in law out for lunch and a pedicure, she was having a baby on Monday, so I wasn't going to cancel. At this point, my mouth can't even be touch it hurts so bad from my lower jaw to my ear. I can't chew, I can't open my mouth very much and I just want to cry. So I drink some wine at lunch to curb the pain. We had a nice time and even Mike's mom joined us for a girls afternoon out! So much fun!

After getting back to their house, I am really hurting. We finally leave and all I want to do is cry going home. No sleeping of course and by midnight, I am now getting sick the pain is so intense.

At 7 am I call the Endo, they had given me his cell number. He blames it on not being able to take ibuprofen and prescribes a stronger antibiotic. I am violently sick all day long, nothing stays done and I had to be strategic in taking my meds. Monday comes, still no relief from pain and still sick, so Mike stayed home from work. My regular dentist calls and said to call the Endo on Tuesday if the pain doesn't cease and then the Endo called and said the same. Well it didn't. However, Tuesday was hectic and crazy and I had all my children and couldn't take them in with me.

Wednesday still pain, still taking drugs and still no relief from them. I take Aislinn to her Milk Challenge, which she passes! YAY! and get home and tell the Endo's office I need to be seen that day.

They get me in and the dentist says I'm stuck in a vicious cycle because he NEVER shaved down my crown the did the root canal on! It had been hit all the time by my bite and I clench my teeth when I sleep so it wasn't getting a chance to 'calm down' And he said that I was having a joint dysfunction in my jaw or other wise known as TMJ. TMJ, really, I never knew it was that painful, but when I looked it up it described my pain exactly.

Now, when he shaved down the tooth that is already excruciating without numbing it, I wanted to scream! And it sent my TMJ back to excruciating nausea pain!

He had changed my meds to percocet and took me off the antibiotics, I learned they are extremely dangerous of a certain kind. I take the percocet and finally after a week, I sleep! With NO PAIN! FINALLY! All morning Thursday I took percocet and then I needed to care for the children, so it was Tylenol for the rest of the day.

So here I am, Sunday and just taking Tylenol. I have tingling in my jaw still and pain in my tooth, but it's manageable. Friday I got out for the day with Mike and we had such a nice time!! I had such horrible cabin fever! Mike was beyond wonderful taken care of me!! So grateful!

In the meantime, Brendan Malloy was born on Monday weighing 6 lbs 15 oz! We have yet to meet him because of my health and then Aislinn got croup on Friday. Fever, throwing up, coughing, green nose. THEN Saturday morning Caden woke up covered in a rash except on his head. An hour later Teagan has the same rash on her body. We go to cheer and football and Riordan starts to get it on his face. Then Teagan starts to get it on her face! What is going on!

We convinced ourselves after an hour it was going away so we gave them benadryl and I went to the movies with a friend. I get home and it is not better. Off to Urgent care we goooooo!

One look and the doctor declared them with the strep bacteria, just like Aunt Jen said! No fever, no sore throat, no stomach ache, just Scarlet Fever

So that about catches us up since Christmas!

Mike is traveling pretty much ever week and we miss him so much when he's gone.

We have a new small group on Wednesday nights, but Mike hasn't been able to go yet, and I've made it 1 out of 2 times.

Riordan is learning to spell his last name now and just loves school so much. He's really interested in Tennis and my plan is to take him out and work with him and see where we go with it.

Teagan is hopping beautifully on one leg now, part of her dance and absolutely loves cheerleading! She is so amazing at remembering her dance and cheers and really gets loud! So adorable! I have a video, just trying to figure how to get them on here.

Aislinn is a mess, a big wonderful mess ;-) She jumps all over the place and constantly tells us how much she loves each and every one of us. She's a cuddler lately and always wants to watch Yo Gabba Gabba! She's really into puzzles and doesn't give up when trying to piece them together with a little help!

Caden! I finally sat down with him and worked with him on his handwriting and it has greatly improved! It's beautiful when he takes his time and have found that doing one homework journal a day instead of 3 in a day has helped with his improvement. We just enrolled him in a tennis class, but he doesn't know anyone so he is anxious about going. He also sprained his thumb pretty badly on Friday (which we x-rayed on the visit for strep). He wore a bandage and still played football! He's so tough! It is nice and swollen and very bruised! I have no idea where he gets his determination ;-) Play through an injury? Unheard of!

Mike is gone this week and we will stay busy with our routines. This next weekend Caden has a double header for football as do the girls for cheerleading I think? So we have from 9 am -3 pm I think for games and cheer? Teagan also has two birthday parties on Saturday afternoon at the same time! YIKES! We have a super bowl party to attend somewhere too on Sunday! I just hope everyone gets well so we can have a fun filled weekend! And somewhere work in a quick visit to visit our newest cousin!

My goal is to get on here twice a week to stay updated! I have tons of pictures and videos, I hope I can get them on here!