I stink at blogging

I am a religious blog follower.  It is my favorite thing to do in the morning.  My first alarm goes off and after I snooze once, I press the Feedly Icon and peruse my favorite blogs.  How all these women find the time to write these daily posts is beyond me.  However, it also occurs to me that if I were a little more regular in updating my blog, it might be a little more organized and have a lot less random ramblings of my over-worked, over-stressed, over-tired brain.  :)  Seriously though, for those that do read and follow my progress, thank you for continuing to hold me accountable and ask for updates because it helps motivate me and keep "Post to blog" on my to-do list no matter how many times it gets bumped down because something more immediate comes up.  For the past couple of months, there have been so many things happening and changing as we adjust to a new commute, new schools, a new job, new friends, old friends, purging old stuff and generally trying to streamline as many things as possible so that the chaotic things we cannot control do not take over.

First off, let me say that I love my new job.  However, it is so much more stressful than I imagined it to be!  There is so much to keep organized and once you get one thing down there pop up 10 things more to do and its never ending!  Its fun though.  It is challenging and a juggling act or organizing, scheduling and coordinating while trying to stay within federal, state and local laws and policies which sometimes say 3 different things.  Holy Moly, what have I gotten myself into!  I miss the kids, but let me say this, it is absolute loveliness to be able to walk in a classroom and read a book with a child and then walk back out and go back to work.  No meltdowns, no snot, no back talk, no preteen drama (although that was entertaining in its own way).

Second, Gibson and I could use some prayer people.  I think we have turned a corner and I do not want to put the whole story out on the internet for the world to see, but we had a rough start to pre-K.  Let's just go with the statement that our first pre-K school was not a good fit for Gibson.  We are on our third week in a new school and it is like I have a brand new child.  Thank you!  I was really beginning to worry about him and I do think there are somethings going on that need to be addressed, but our daily situation has greatly improved since moving from the first school to his current school.  Poor child doesn't know whether we are coming or going.  He told me yesterday he wanted our other car back because we weren't in it as much!  Which brings me to my next subject, our house hunt.

Oh my goodness.  One of the things I like about Denton is that it is a college town.  There is just something different about the feeling you get from a college town.  Even when they are bigger cities, they feel small.  There are walkable neighborhoods and there is always something to do that is usually cheap or free.  There are parks and plays, football and recreation.... I could go on, but I will not bore you because that is apparently why everyone else and there dog wants to live here too!  IT IS SO COMPETITIVE!  And Expensive!  Oh and all these places have turned to income restriction housing so they can be "luxury" and qualify students.  Fantastic!  Super!  I'm so glad that 21 year old frat boy can have his keg party in a luxury apartment while I get told that I make too much money at place after place.  Don't get me wrong, there are affordable places to live here.  And they are tiny or just plain old, or there are 15 people who qualify and I am always next in line.  Its frustrating.  And for the most part, the commute isn't bad.  Especially since Gibson likes his school now, it isn't so much of a battle.  But for instance, last night, he had a great day at school and because I had gone to see about a sublease on a duplex (fingers crossed, prayers sent, whatever voodoo you subscribe to please send good thoughts our way!), anyway, we got a late start home.  This puts us in more traffic and puts Gibson in the sun the entire way home.  And then there was a wreck on 35.  He screamed bloody murder with big old crocodile tears from the Lewisville Lake bridge until we pulled into our driveway at 7:45.  And then I had to cook dinner.  So it was another late night and he still hadn't gotten the direct attention from me that he is so desperate for these days.  Mommy fail.  Those days are hard.  Other days, my work load is lighter, I can pick him up, we get home around 5, we can walk, play, then cook dinner and do all the chores.  The hardest part is the day to day being so out of my control and yet ultimately on my shoulders because I decided to make this move.  I decided that this was what is best for us and it hasn't worked out as smoothly or easily as the plan in my head.  I truly feel in my gut though that this is the right move for us and that everything will fall into place when it is supposed to.

Finally, for those of you wondering how I am doing on the weight loss front.  I am still losing weight.  For lack of a better way to describe it, I'm becoming lighter but not necessarily smaller these days as I need to do ALOT of toning.  I am one squishy mess right now!  However, I am super happy to report that I found a fabulous foundation garment at Dillards on clearance that holds all the "extra" in (I call it my leftovers cause its not really fat, its just kinda there).  Y'all- I bought a pair of skinny jeans AND I look pretty good in them if I do say so myself.  I am now buying in the regular sections and no longer am in the plus sizes.  Last week,  I wore my hot pink pencil skirt, a denim shirt and heels.  I thought it was just a casual little outfit but I have gotten more complements and one girl told me she wishes she had legs like mine to pull it off!  Y'all I bout fell out of my chair.  I have never been told I have good legs in my life!  EVER!  I literally laughed out loud!  She asked why I laughed and I showed her a pic of me a year ago.  She didn't believe me :)  I love that!

I am currently down to 183 pounds and a BMI of 32.4.  Still obese.  So close though... I want to be in the just "overweight" category so badly.  So, with the exception of a couple of weekends ago where I completely blew the the whole don't consume sugar thing and had cookies, brownies and alcohol.  (yes- I drank a margarita sitting at the ballgame on my 33rd birthday 10 rows behind home plate thank you very much :))  Today, I'm wearing an outfit I would have never been able to pull off in the past because I have never been able to buy boots that fit.  I had thick ankles and huge calves.  Even extended calf boots weren't an option because my ankles were so thick I could not begin to zip them up.  Today, I'm wearing my new boots with leggings, a long tank and my denim shirt.  While I feel naked because I'm not technically wearing pants, I've been told I look great several times today and even more people tell me they love my boots!  I do too!  

Me on my birthday before I decided to change clothes!

Ranger game--- awesome seats thanks to Ashley!

Boots, leggings!

Our new duplex hopefully, we are supposed to sign the lease on Friday!

Gibbs doing homework... seriously brand new kiddo!

I feel so trendy!

Birthday outfit--- what's up, I'm wearing skinny jeans!

Overall, we are good!

I've tried to insert these pictures into the sections and put them in an order that makes sense and it just isn't working so if you made it this far... thanks!  I'm going to try to be more regular about updates so hopefully, you will be seeing more of us (less of me) soon!