Spiderman & Spiderbaby

So glad to see Benjamin playing today. He wanted to be just like his big brother Jacob. Jacob was also very happy that Benjamin was feeling better so he would have somebody to play with. Needless to say.......Spiderman and Spiderbaby saved the day! In the last picture they are sitting at the kitchen table eating their morning snack of strawberries. I thought it was cute. This was a good day! Thank you Lord.

Light At The End Of The Tunnel

Benjamin is over the stomach virus...Thank You Jesus! ...............now we are dealing with a new illness which I told you about in an earlier post.......Croup. Benjamin had a really bad night with coughing attacks, but we managed through them. The coughing kept me and Benjamin awake from 10:00 p.m. to 3:00 a.m. straight. Needless to say, we all will be taking a long nap today.
The good news is, Benjamin is not coughing alot at all so far today (I read that croup is worse at night) and he is eating and drinking and playing with Jacob. It's a beautiful day in our household today and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Weigh In Results (Week 6), Benjamin update and other stuff

I had a pretty good day today. The center where I weigh in was not seeing clients today but there was a note on their door that said clients could go to the north Knoxville center to be seen. At first I thought "how inconvenient", but then quickly realized that my sister lives over on that side of town.........so off I went. I called my sister and she came and met up with us and went running around with us. When I say "us", I am talking about me and Jacob. Yes, Jacob buddied up with me today and I loved it. He was extremely well behaved and caused me no problems (which is usually the case with Jacob). Benjamin on the other hand, bless his little heart, is another story. LOL!
Anyway, I lost .6 pounds today. Not a whopping amount, but I'll take it after the week I've had. I didn't lose much weight because I didn't eat much food......(No Brandi, I never had a cheeseburger!....LOL!). I know that sounds so weird, but that's the way their plan works. You have to eat ALL of the food they say to eat in order for the metabolic burn to happen. Anyway, with all of the stress I have been under, it's a wonder I ate anything. So, I am at a grand total now of 11.2 pounds lost. I'll take it!
As for Benjamin, he has been very weak for most of the day. All he wants to do is lay down. He won't play at all. He won't even smile. If I try and make him laugh, he gets very agitated and mad and tells me to STOP! He vomited in the middle of the night last night one time and so far that was his last episode. He has eaten more food today than he has for the past couple of days and he has kept it down. Yeah! He has also had alot of pee pee diapers which is a good thing because it tells me that we are not dealing with dehydration. Poor thing, speaking of dehydration, his little lips are peeling from when he was dehydrated on Tuesday and he is constantly picking at them. I hope we don't develop any issues from him picking at his lips. We are already dealing with a raw, sore butt from diarreah (yes, he still has diarreah at least two or three times a day). I gave him a baking soda bath tonight to soothe the burning and I am keeping Vaseline on him at every diaper change. He screams when I change his diaper.......so, all I need now is for his lips to start bleeding and get real sore from picking. There goes my anxiety.....worrying about everything that could happen. Anyway, to add to the drama........ I noticed this morning that he had a persistent cough. Since this whole virus started, the one sure way I knew that he was getting ready to vomit was he would start coughing first and then here he went......but today's cough was different. Yes, it made me nervous a few times this morning when he coughed thinking he was going to vomit, but he never did and his cough just kept getting worse. Well, as the day went on, his cough got worse and wetter sounding and he started sneezing and then his nose started running and here we are with a full blown cold!!!! I KNOW!!! Poor thing can't even get well from a stomach virus without something else hitting him on top of it! I am upset about it, but I can't do anything about nature's course and I hate it! I can say though, that getting out and running around with Jacob and Melissa really picked me up. I also went and visited my Mom after I got back from Knoxville and that helped alot too. My Mom made me laugh alot today (and you know what I'm talking about Mom.....LOL!) and that really helped my attitude. I was able to go back home and face life as it was being dealt to me with a positive attitude. The whole way home I kept reminding myself of the scripture in the Bible that says: "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord which made heaven and earth". Psalm 121:1........ So refreshing. Anyway, I put the boys to bed tonight at 8:45 and they went right to sleep. I pray that Benjamin sleeps all night tonight as his little body needs sleep so badly in order to recover. Please Lord, no more vomiting.
On a positive note......... my darling, wonderful, and awesome husband has agreed to stay home with the boys tomorrow and let me go to church. I am so looking forward to that. That will really, really help me too. My husband is so awesome and I thank God for him everyday. Here on earth, he is my rock and my shelter. I depend on him for so much and I tell him often how much I love him and need him. I hope he realizes that. Thank you sweetie!
Please continue to pray for me and my family as I am praying for you and yours. Love you all!

I Can See Your Heart

Needless to say, I have been extremely stressed since Tuesday because Benjamin has been sick. I know it's just a stomach virus, and everybody gets stomach viruses but I don't handle things as well as most people. I have anxiety and little things get me stressed out when I should just take them in stride. I just don't deal with adversity very well and especially if it has anything to do with my children or my children being sick. I hate this about me and I am trying to work on it. Jacob has felt my stress as well and I feel extremely guilty for displaying my emotions so much that he feels it too.

Anyway, Benjamin had another vomiting episode this evening and has been crying ever since. I thought we were out of the woods and on our way to complete recovery, but guess not. He has been crying non stop and asking for foods like pizza. I am very stressed and my insides are just shaking. At times I find myself snapping at Jacob for no reason and I feel bad for that. Jacob has also had to take a backseat since Benji has been sick, which has been almost all week. Jacob has coped well with the situation at hand and has been nothing but cooperative and helpful to me. He is such a sweetheart. I have always said that he was born with a servant's heart. He is always so willing to lend a helping hand anywhere he can, and anywhere he can't. He offers to do things that he couldn't possibly do at his age. So sweet. Anyway, I digress. Back to my story. Keith always gives the boys their baths and then we each pick a kid to dress for bed... but tonight was different. Keith solely dealt with Benji tonight so I wouldn't have to deal with him because he could tell that I was falling apart because Benji was non stop crying (all through his bath too), and when he got Benji out of the tub, he asked me to bathe Jacob while he dressed Benji. I was more than happy to bathe Jacob because it would give me some one-on-one quality time with him that I have not been able to do much at all lately. While I was bathing Jacob I told him how much I loved him and that I was sorry that I hadn't got to spend much time with him this week because Benji was so sick and I thanked him for being so understanding and patient. His response was: "It's okay Mommy, I will help you with anything you want. I will do laundry and the dishes for you". My eyes welled up with huge tears and I said "Jacob I love your heart; it is so beautiful" and he said laughing "you can't see my heart" and I said "oh but I can my dear child" as tears rolled down my face.

Benjamin feeling a bit better

Benjamin is feeling a bit better today. I have increased his food and drink and he is keeping it all down. Yeah!! I think he is on the road to recovery now. He is still weak, but doing much better. He is actually walking around on his own now. I have had to carry him for 3 days. Oh my aching back! I am glad he is feeling better now. I am ready for life to get back to normal for a while (at least until the next things hits). That was a MEAN BUG!!!!! Thanks for checking in on us and praying for Benji. You guys are the best!

Benjamin still feeling bad

Benjamin is still suffering from this stomach virus. He did not vomit yesterday but he did at 8:15 this morning. I started giving him sips of Gatorade at 12:00 noon today and he has managed to keep that down. He is also BEGGING for every single type of food under the sun. Around 3:30 p.m. today I started giving him slow gradual bites of bland foods and he is not happy about it being slow and gradual. He wants a full course meal and he wants it NOW! Poor thing is starving to death. He has cried for a big amount of food since 3:30 p.m. It has been so hard giving my child just a bite of something and then hear him start screaming and crying for more. I just want to give him everything he is asking for (pancakes, jello, yogurt, popsicles, grits, orange juice, etc....) but the repercussion of that would not be pretty. So far, my slow and gradual approach has paid off because he has kept everything down. He got very sleepy a few minutes ago and asked for a nap (imagine that), so I put him in his bed and he fell fast asleep. This will make his 3rd nap for the day. We may be up a little late tonight, but so be it. Thanks for checking in on us and please remember little Benji in your prayers that this bug would leave him.

Benjamin very sick with stomach virus

Hello everyone. I am requesting prayers for Benjamin. He woke up Tuesday morning at 7:30 a.m. with a stomach virus. It got worse as the day went on. He had vomiting and diarreah non stop all day long. By 10:00 that night, Keith and I felt that he was dehydrated and decided that he needed medical attention. We took him to Children's Hospital ER. It was packed, and it took us forever to get called back. When we first got there, they assessed him and gave him some anti-nausea medication by mouth. He vomited that medicine up within 15 minutes. They finally got him in a room and hooked him up to an IV of fluids and gave him some more anti-nausea medicine by the IV so he couldn't throw it up. Benjamin was so sick when he got his IV that he did not even cry when they put it in his hand. I couldn't believe that. He didn't protest anything they did to him. About halfway through his bag of fluids he started feeling a bit better. One of the ways I could tell that he was feeling better was that he started complaining about the cartoons we had turned on for him to watch on the TV. LOL! You know Benjamin is himself when he is complaining about something. LOL! After everything was all said and done, we finally made it home around 3:45 a.m.
Anyway, he has only drank sips of Gatorade today up until now. He just ate a cracker and a popsicle. I hope it sits well on his stomach. I hate it when my babies are sick. Please keep us in your prayers. We love you all!

Weigh In Results (Week 5)

I have great news! I lost 3.4 pounds this week!! Yippee!! This makes a grand total of 10.6 pounds! I am so excited! I did exactly what my counselor told me last week to do with my foods and it worked! Wow! Who would have thought that your body could be so picky about the combinations of food you eat and at what times you eat them. So complex!

Thank you to all of my cheerleaders out there. Your encouragement helps so much. I have 14.4 more pounds to go. I can do this!

Weigh In Results (Week 4)

Another pound gone! I am stuck in a "one pound a week" rut right now. I am pretty discouraged by it because I would like to see at least two pounds a week or more. That is also what my counselors would like to see me lose too. The counselor I had today showed me where I could tweak my eating to help give my metabolism a good kick in the butt. I am discouraged because I have stuck exactly to my plan this week. One thing I did wrong is I ate out almost everyday. Even though I chose foods from my restraunt guide, she said that eating out often is not good because of all the sodium in restraunt food. So I am going to back off of that and try to get this weightloss off the ground. Even though I am discouraged, I am not giving up! It may possibly take me 25 weeks to lose 25 pounds, but so be it.....I am going to lose this 25 pounds one way or the other.

I am at a grand total now of 7.2 pounds lost. I have to keep telling myself that 7.2 pounds lost is good because it could very well be 7.2 pounds gained.

Until next time.......................................

Weigh In Results (Week 3)

I lost 1 pound this week for a total weight loss of 6.2 pounds. That's all I have to say.

Kids Say The Darndest Things

I saw this questionnaire while I was blog stalking and thought I would do it too. It's so cute. You are supposed to ask your child these questions and write down exactly what their answer is. Jacob's answers were sweet and I wanted to share them with you all.

By: Jacob age 5


1. What is something mom always says to you? She loves me
2. What makes mom happy? Loving me
3. What makes mom sad? Me telling lies
4. How does your mom make you laugh? Tell funny jokes
5. What was your mom like as a child? Shared her toys
6. How old is your mom? 10
7. How tall is your mom? big
8. What is her favorite thing to do? Play with us
9. What does your mom do when you're not around? cleans
10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for? What does famous mean?
11. What is your mom really good at? Playing with me
12. What is your mom not very good at? I don’t like it when she hurts my feelings sometimes.
13. What does your mom do for a job? Work at my school
14.What is your mom's favorite food? Vegetables (ha!)
15.What makes you proud of your mom? Giving me hugs and kisses
16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be? Shaggy
17. What do you and your mom do together? play
18. How are you and your mom the same? We love each other
19. How are you and your mom different? Not the same skin color
20. How do you know your mom loves you? Because she loves me and she is happy about me when I do good things.
21. What does your mom like most about your dad? He helps clean up the house
22. Where is your mom's favorite place to go? LA Weightloss ..LOL!!!!!!!!!

After the questions were over, he said: “I also love Mommy…now type that in”

My Bat"men"

I couldn't resist getting my camera out to get a picture of my Batmen saving the day. They were so serious while playing with their masks on in the living room. They weren't very thrilled about me stopping them for yet another picture....but I couldn't resist. They looked so cute. Benjamin insists on calling his mask an Iron Man mask, no matter how many times I correct him. I just go along with it now. Benji is making his silly face in the second picture. He's a mess. Jacob is making his "you better not mess with the Batman" face in the first picture.

Gotta love em'!

Jacob and Benjamin the Artists

Hard at work

Benjamin's Masterpiece

Jacob's Masterpiece

I got the paints out for the boys this morning to break up the monotony of the day. They were so excited when I told them they were going to paint dinosaurs. They had alot of fun....and believe it or not.....they did not make a huge mess!!