Day 42

I can't believe that it's been so long since I blogged last. There has been a whirlwind going through my house since the last time I was on here. Last Tuesday I weighed in right before I started a new group through MRC. It's the class/group that is led by a psychotherapist. I'm already loving it after one class.

Anyway, I had started weighing myself at home like Patty had recommended that I do, so I don't have too big of a shocker if there is a minor gain or loss or no change because I'm in a plateau. So I had weighed myself that morning and Patty and I had been emailing before we went for our weigh in and the class. We both were excited that we should both be hitting our next 10 lb. mark. It was great because when I got into the center Patty did weigh in at the next 10 lb. board, and Robin the center manager did her weigh in, then took me. We went over my food diary, talked about some times that I'm feeling hungry and what I can do about it since on the mornings that I work out I'm feeling hungry in between breakfast and lunch. Plus, I'm feeling hungry sometimes in the late afternoons. She helped me to know that I could add in some other drinks with fiber in them to help with the hunger pains. Then on to the scale. This was the most hilarious weigh in I've had. I get on the scale and it shows a loss, but instead of 20 lbs. I still had a 1/2 lb. to go to get to the 20 lb. board. Robin said, hold on get back on there, blow all the air out of your body. Then she whispers, "Do you have to go poop?" LOL!! OMG, I laughed and said, no I already went to the bathroom before I came in. I said, it's ok, I'm not at the 20 lb. board now, but I will be on Friday when I come back for my weigh in. It's going to be ok.

Then I went in to the group room, I shared with Patty, who felt bad, but I was really ok. So we had our group and then Patty and I couldn't wait to leave because we were starving and ready to get home to eat.

So then as the week has progressed, not only am I getting back into the work routine after being off for almost 2 weeks, but I'm helping my step-daughter Danielle plan her wedding. We have to start paying for different things, like her wedding dress, and the reception hall deposit. Making sure that we have a D.J. lined up for the day, and all the other things that go along with a wedding. This I'm having a lot of fun planning with her and feel extremely blessed that Danielle would allow me to help take part in this most precious day that she & Ross are getting ready for.

So I get through the rest of the week, and then on Friday I know I'm going to weigh in again. I had a meeting for work first thing in the morning at the Pine Lake branch. So I get through that and check my phone as I'm getting ready to leave to go back to my branch and see that I have a voicemail and a text message. The voicemail is from our caseworker for foster care and the text message is from Jerry stating that it's important for me to call him because it's about a placement. So I listen to the VM, and the caseworker said that she has a placement for us, emergency care at this point and they are 3 and 4 years old. Don't know the sexes of the children at this point because it's a result of a drug bust. So I start driving and call Jerry. I'm no more than out of the parking lot and he's telling me that he's accepted the placement and the children should be at our house any moment now. So I said, Ok, I'm on my way home. I just need to call and let Denise know that I won't be coming right back now and call Lynette to clock me out. Not knowing how the day would go, I told Jerry I was going to stop at MRC on my way so that I could get my weigh in out of the way for the day. I stopped and this was the fastest weigh in I've ever done. I let them know we were getting a placement and I just needed to get my weigh in done quickly. The scale said that I was down another pound, so now I'm at 20.5 lbs. Yippee!! The 20 lb. board was made.

So on to getting home. I call Jerry on my way out of the center and he said the kids had just pulled up. So I'm racing home talking to Justina about everything that is going on, and I think at this point she's just as excited if not more excited than I was. I get home and am greeted to a couple of smiling children. Dominic is 4 years old and Aallyiah is 3 years old. On top of that Dominic was born on my 30th birthday and Aallyiah was born on my best friend Christine's 31st birthday. So their birthday's will be easy to remember if they are with us for very long. The worker that dropped them off told me that the reason they were removed was completely different than the reason we were given over the phone. He said the children were seen walking close to the highway or on the highway not far from their home which was in a trailer court close to the highway. They weren't dressed for the weather. Someone saw them and called the police. The police picked them up and went back to their home in which they found very unsanitary conditions. Social Services were called to come and pick up the children so that the police could arrest the mom. They don't arrest parents in front of children in the town that they are from. So we are told that mom at a minimum will have to bond out of jail and after that we aren't sure what has to be done.

Tomorrow we have a meeting with our caseworker in which she will bring out more paperwork and hopefully will have more answers for us on the time frame we are looking at having these children in our home. While I was extremely excited, I have to say that Jerry and I have forgotten what it's like to have preschoolers around. I ended up taking the rest of Friday off because we had to get more things for the kids because we weren't prepared. Since I had said that we could take a baby and another child that could be under the age of 7 or 5, I had a crib and a twin size bed. Well we needed to go out and get a toddler bed because another twin size bed isn't going to fit in the bedroom that we have set up. Plus, I didn't feel like the clothes that mom packed were warm enough for the kids going into colder weather. So off Jerry and I went to Wal-Mart and then we ran to Ashland to p/u kids because they had plans that required a p/u instead of riding home on the bus. We thought it would be a great way to surprise them. Jimmy gets in the van and just says "Hi", but Jessica's eyes about bug out of her head when she gets in. It was quite funny. We let our kids have friends spend the night, I figured that would help Jimmy with the transition since he's been struggling the most with adding children to our home, even though he was just as excited in the beginning when we started the process.

So we get through the first night, barely. I couldn't believe how much energy they had, and I even got help from Jessica and Grace. Poor Jessica is even tired from helping out with them. I didn't realize how bear my cupboards were because we've been buying food that's mostly for my diet and the kids and Jerry have been eating somewhat the same as I've been. So I've got 2 foster kids, my 2 kids and 3 kids spending the night. I don't have enough food for 7 kids, and decide to run to the Waverly McDonald's in the middle of a snow storm with Jerry to feed everyone but me. I have come to realize how much harder it is to keep up this life change this weekend. The biggest thing that I'm having a hard time with is the time frames that I need to stay within to eat, and Saturday night I understood truly why I need to stay within the time frames that Metabolic states. I felt like once Saturday started all I was doing was cleaning, cooking, feeding, cleaning, cleaning, cleaning, cooking.......... Holy cow, how much cleaning do I have to do to keep up with these kids. We also had Jimmy's basketball game first thing Saturday morning and then church at 5:15 on Saturday night. Generally we grab either go home after church to eat or go to Hy-Vee for their salad bar. I'm pretty good about taking my supplement at church so that if we are going to get past the time that I need to have eaten, I've got that in me to keep me going. Well, I didn't get that done, so by the time we got out of church and got over to the Hy-Vee on 48th & O, so we could go to Paul & Justina's after that to visit and p/u 2 car seats that Justina said we could have the salad bar was closed and it was over 5 hours since I had last eaten. I didn't really care what we got, I just wanted to eat. So Jerry drives over to Perkins, and the kids are having a melt down about where they are wanting to eat. Jerry finally said that it didn't matter what they wanted, we need to go somewhere that mommy can eat.

So we are at Perkins and I'm having a hard time figuring out what I can eat within my plan and I'm not really caring. I'm ready to order whatever I want to eat and going with it. Jerry found the top sirloin on the menu and it came with 2 side dishes. Well I did good and ordered the steamed broccoli w/o butter as one side, but I told Jerry I'm ordering mashed potatoes and gravy and I'm going to eat them and I don't really care. I had the rest of the items that I needed for the meal, so I had gotten everything that I needed, the potatoes were just extra. So I get my meal and I eat everything else, and then try the potatoes. They were so salty!! I couldn't believe how much salt was in the potatoes and the gravy. On top of that I forgot to ask how they seasoned the steak, so I'm pretty sure there was salt on that too. Oh well, at that point I was so tired I didn't really care. Jerry did though, by the time I got to eating my potatoes, he's looking at me saying, "Does that really taste good." I said, not really, it's pretty salty and I'm going to probably pay for it tomorrow. So I stopped eating them and then as I'm sitting there I find myself picking at them and eating more. So Jerry grabs the last bite with his fork and then asks the waiter to take my plate. He asks if he overstepped his boundaries and I said, no you are just trying to take care of me. After that we ran over to Paul and Justina's, it's 9:30 at night and we should have been going home and going to bed. It was a quick 30 minute visit, and Paul was giving me a hard time about how I complimented their addition. I said, I'm so tired, that I really need you all to just love me where I'm at. Then a little later Paul said, actually Missy you do look completely worn out.

So we got going home and put everyone to bed (they actually all fell asleep on the way home). Thankfully Jessica, Jimmy and Dominic woke up well enough to walk inside. Not only that but Jessica woke up well enough to take Aallyiah in for me too. Today I was awakened at 8:00 to my new sweet lil angels and we had breakfast together, then I took them downstairs to watch tv while I did my workout. I needed it after not getting one on Friday or Saturday. This was the first time we had sat them in front of the tv. Dominic I discovered really likes lil einsteins and he had already told us he likes sponge bob. Aallyiah on the other hand doesn't really care one way or the other about the tv and had more fun playing with different toys that were downstairs while I worked out.

After my workout I got things ready to go so Jimmy and I could have some mommy/son time going to Sam's Club and Wal-Mart. After getting lunch and putting the lil ones down for a nap he and I headed in and spent too much money but now have Jerry set for breakfasts, lunches and some family suppers along with getting more clothes, dishes, coloring books and colors for the kids. I couldn't believe how much I ended up having to get today, especially since we had already made a trip on Friday to get things.

So now I'm ready to get into bed and get some good sleep before I get up in the morning to try and get to work early because I've got to take my lunch a little later in order to come home and meet with our caseworker to find out what the plan is going to be and how long they think we will have our little joys with us. Along with that I'll be addressing several issues that have come up through the weekend. It'll be interesting to see how this new spin on our lives goes. Please keep us in your prayers as we are adjusting to this new change in our lives. Pray especially for Jerry as he's going to have a scheduled routine now Monday thru Friday. Hopefully I've helped to get it started for him because I tried to make sure I was feeding the kids and laying them down for naps at the same time the last two days. I figure that will help him keep things going. I asked if he needed me to make a menu up for him for lunches so he doesn't forget that they'll need a fruit and a veggie with whatever else he decides to feed them. LOL!! He thinks he'll do fine. I'm sure he will.

I'll try and blog more next Friday or Saturday after the next two weigh ins. Have a great week!!