Ex-wife, Ex-mistress, Ex-girlfriend, Girlfriend

My Hubby’s brother was a great guy.  He certainly made some mistakes, but there is no doubt he was a great guy.  One of those mistakes was to destroy his first marriage with an affair.  The wonderful thing that came out of that mistake is a 16 year old daughter who is as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside.  Now, you might say, just how can he have been such a great guy if he had an affair.  I agree that it is a pretty rotten thing to do to someone that you love.  People make mistakes.  What I can tell you is that all of the people in the title to this post were in attendance at his funeral, where there was standing room only.  At the reception following the funeral, people stayed for two hours sharing about My Hubby’s brother.  It was a wonderful time of laughter and tears.

In addition, he lived in a small community, where a celebration was held in his honor, it is my understanding that at least 300 people showed up to celebrate his life.  None of these 300 people were related to him, none of them were obligated by family ties to be there.  All of them loved him.  This celebration was hosted by his Ex-girlfriend and his Girlfriend. This amazes me!

My Hubby’s brother was a great guy, yes he made mistakes while he walked this sod, but don’t we all? 

My Hubby’s Brother

Sunday, January 20th, was a very sad day for my family.  My Hubby’s brother passed away.  He was 43 years old. He has a 20 year old son and a 16 year old daughter.  He was a very loving man.  He was full of life, had a wonderful laugh and loved animals.

He will be missed by all who knew him.  Please pray for his children.

Birth Verse

This is my birth verse:  John 10:29 NIV My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.

                    Check out http://birthverse.com to find yours…

Treadmill at 4:15 AM

As I am sure you are all aware, the key to weight loss is not only to pay attention to what you put in your mouth, but to get moving.  I have been waking up at 3:30 AM and have been unable to get back to sleep, so this morning I gave up.  I got up and I got on the treadmill at 4:15 AM.  Since there is no local news on at o-dawn-thirty, I stole the DVD player from the family room and I watched Say Anything, which happens to be one of my all time favorite movies.  Before I knew it it was 45 minutes later! 

Of course it is 3:30 in the afternoon and I am dragging!  My Stepmom support group meets this evening…I hope I can stay awake!    

Did I really post how much I weigh?

Sometimes I feel incredibly vulnerable when I put my thoughts in this blog.  For instance, when I had a moment of insanity yesterday morning and posted how much I weigh…what was I thinking???

I know that only a few people read what I write, and of those that read what I write most of them attend my church and, I would imagine will only be supportive.  I hope.

For those of you that don’t attend my church, please be kind.

Weight Loss

Today is January 3rd.  I am 37 years old and I have battled my weight for years.  In the spirit of the Biggest Loser TV show, I am going to chronicle my attempt at weight loss on my blog.  If the people on that show can let the whole world see them try to lose weight, I can certainly let the four people who actually read my blog see what I am doing.

Here are my current stats:

Height: 5′ 7″

Weight: 200 lbs

Dress Size: 18

Frame: Large

BMI: 31.3 (according to the CDC)

Ideal Weight: 146-166 (according to Metropolitan Life’s tables)

This morning I spent 45 minutes on our treadmill.  You know, the one that is in the basement that hasn’t been touched in 3 months…and I wasn’t the last one to use it, Hubby was.

My journey begins…

School Update

I passed the state licensing exam today!

God is soooo good!

Questions, Questions, Questions

Son #3 has been on the planet all of 7 years and 6 months and in that short amount of time, he has asked more questions than all of the questions ever asked at Ask.com.  Okay, maybe not that many, I haven’t bothered to check to see how many questions have actually been asked at Ask.com, but you get the picture.  He also has an amazing memory, so you better remember what you told him the last time he asked a question, because if your answer is not the same this time, watch out! 

Hubby and I decided that we are going to take the boys to Disney World.  This trip was the big Christmas gift this year.  We are adding this trip onto a business trip that Hubby will be taking to Orlando at the end of January.  I am so excited that I can hardly wait.  It was awful keeping this secret from them for 3 months however, we considered keeping it a secret until a few days before the trip due to the number of questions Son #3 will be asking between Christmas and the end of January.

In order to head off the daily question of, “When are we going to Disney World?” We bought a calendar for the boys (really for Son #3) and have marked the date we will be leaving and the date we will be returning.  This little trick has worked so far, okay, it has only been 7 days, but at least it is one question that he will be able to answer for himself!  I also printed pictures of the hotel and anything else I could find on the internet to help answer other questions that he will ask.  These pictures are in a photo album that will be replaced by pictures of our trip when we return.

Some of you may be thinking that I am a terrible mother because I do not want to interact with Son #3 by answering his questions.  Really what I am doing is attempting to allow myself time to interact with everyone else in my family and not have all of my time consumed by Son #3.  Also? I am attempting to save my sanity!