A new house, a new career, a new life!

A new house.
Well, we’re finally here.  We’ve pretty much settled  into our new home in Hillsboro, IL and I have to say that I LOVE IT!  Although I really, really liked my old house in Chatham it doesn’t hold a candle to my new place.   This house is half the size of our old one but it just FEELS like home.  I always felt like the house in Chatham was lacking something and it never felt like home to me.  I love that we can drive across town for family gatherings.  I cannot say it enough….we love it!

A new career.
When I resigned from my full time position as the Director of Development and Communications 19 months ago my goal was to be able to be a full time stay-at-home mom while doing some freelancing on the side.    I am very passionate about publication design, copywriting and graphic design, but as Bob Dylan  once said, “the times they are a-changin.’”

Competition in the land of freelance is fierce and you have to be up-to-date on all the current trends, not to mention make cold sales calls, visits, attend networking functions and constantly “pitch” yourself.  Not that I mind at all doing that (as I love to brag about my talents!), but finding work just isn’t doing it for me anymore.  Don’t get me wrong,  I love the communications field but now I am ready for a new challenge.

I’ve always had an interest in the nursing profession, particularly in labor and delivery.  There is something about childbirth that gives me a thrill. I spent a day job shadowing a LD nurse at Memorial in Springfield and got to sit in on a natural birth. It was fantastic!  So…I’ve decided that starting in January I will enroll in classes to start working on a degree in nursing.  My end goal is to be a registered nurse as well as a certified midwife. I’ve talked with a few nurses in the field and have an advising appointment with a nurse researcher this week. This isn’t something that I am jumping into.

I’ve told a few people here and there and I mostly get a positive reaction although some have laughed at me and said, “it’s another one of your crazy ideas.”   Maybe so, but you know what? I like to take chances.  I love to try new things.  I’m 32 years old and am fortunate enough to be able to try these “adventures.”   I do not want to be 65 and think to myself, “I’ve always wanted to do _______ or try _____.”  It’s going to be quite a long process as the program has a wait list.  The time line is perfect for me and I cannot wait to start my new career.

A new life.
With a new house and a new career in the works I am looking forward to my new life.  A  life as a part-time nursing student and a stay-at-home mom. A new life in a new town.  Life isn’t about waiting for the storms to pass, it’s about learning to dance in the rain!

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin’.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin’.
- Bob Dylan

 

Jonathan Randall is BACK

Eleven months ago I said goodbye to my favorite soap opera – Guiding Light.  I never got used to the new camera work and I felt as if the story lines were bor-ring.  This soap – which is the longest running soap is officially going off of the air September 18.  Even though I gave it up it makes me sad.  Last week I was channel surfing and stopped on CBS and there he was (angels singing in my head hallelujah!) Jonathan Randall (real name – Tom Pelphrey) has returned!

When I let go of the show last year I said that I would come back if he ever returned and he is back my friends! Even though there are only a few weeks left of the show I plan to start back up and watch until the bitter end.

 

Why Exercise Won’t Make You Thin

Ahhhhhh. An answer.  Here is a great article that has been published in the latest issue of Time Magazine. It does give me some answers as to why I am not losing any weight during my new exercise program.  I have set small goals. The goal this week is to cut out any non low fat desserts during the week. I’ve had a couple of slips but have not consumed nearly as much as I usually do.  It’s a start!

 

5-10-15-20-25

My online and real life BFF Carich posted a blog titled 5-10-15-20 which highlights the music she was listening to at various stages of her life. As soon as I read this I knew I had to do a post of my own.

Those who know me know that I love music. All kinds of music. I was the girl who just HAD to buy a tape/cd as soon as it was released. I had to have all the latest releases from all of my favorite artists. Times have changed and I have slipped away from running out to purchase the latest tunes. It was fun to reminisce for this blog and made me realize that I have to make some purchases on iTunes to get these on my Pod.

Age 5 – Little Gypsie
Tom Petty & Stevie Nicks, Stop Dragging My Heart Around

My mom bought me the Stop Dragging My Heart Around 45 record which I played over and over again on my little record player. This was the coolest song I had ever heard to date. I couldn’t get enough. I would pretend that I was Stevie Nicks in my bedroom. Something about this song still gets me today and sometimes I still pretend I am Stevie Nicks. Stevie is my favorite female artist hands down.

Age 10 – Hard Rocker
Bon Jovi, Slippery When Wet

Ahhhhhhh fifth grade. Bon Jovi was the newest and most hip rock band around. When I saw him on MTV during the “You Give Love a Bad Name” video I fell in love. I got the cassette tape and wore it out. Everyone of my friends had it. I listened to Wanted Dead or Alive at least 10,000 times and wanted a boyfriend who wore leather pants.

Age 15 – Hood Rat
Dr. Dre, The Chronic

During these years I was gangsta. I fell into the hip-hop culture. I wore baggie clothes and learned Ebonics. I listened to hard core rap. It had to have the “parental advisory” sticker on the package in order for me to buy it. Although there were a few mainstream tunes that I did enjoy (i.e. Back to the Hotel -N2Deep, Baby Got Back – Sir-Mix-Alot, Jump – Kriss Kross) I preferred the hard stuff. The cuts with hard core lyrics where women were referred to as “bitches” and drug references in every track.  The Chronic has been labeled as the best rap album of all time and is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential albums of the 1990s. It was the beginning of the east coast/west coast rap phenomenon. I would ride around in Brian Neverman’s car (I didn’t have my license yet) and we would blast this cd over and over. I knew (and still know) all the lyrics to every song. Ain’t Nutthin But a G-thang was the hit of that summer.

Age 20 – Chill
The Verve – Urban Hymns; Sarah Mclachlan – Surfacing; Portishead – Portishead; Erykah Badu – Baduizm

At this stage I was smoking a lot of grass and spent most of my time in a “chilled” state of mind.  I slowly climbed out of the rap phase and started paying more attention to song lyrics. I took them to heart. They were deep, very deep.

Age 25 – Frolicking Hippie
Grateful Dead – AOXOMOXOA

Carbondale is hippie country. That hippie smell is everywhere.  Patchwork pants, glass blowers, twirl dancing and hair with dreads are the norm here.  Although I’ve never considered myself an actual hippie I do like hippie music.  In fact, “jam” is my favorite genre.  When I was 25 I was still in Carbondale.  I attended hippie parties where the Grateful Dead was always being played.  I was immediately turned on by the improvisational tunes  (and still smoking lots of grass).  It always put me in a good mood and I could listen to it at anytime and in any situation.  I attended Dead shows and made friends with lots of Deadheads.  I still listen to the Dead today and bands who have followed their lead.

There you have it! My tastes have changed over the years but deep down I  still like all of my old favorite music.  What are your tastes?

 

A frustrated weight loss update

Here I am nine weeks into this exercise thing. I’ve been exercising religiously five days a week. Intense cardio workouts and I’m still attending the Rock Your Body class (see previous post). Are you wondering how much weight I’ve lost…..hold onto your seats folks….because I’ve GAINED 8 lbs! Now, when I started gaining weight I did some research and found that it is fairly common at the start of a weight loss program/exercise program. As frustrated as I was that this was happening I knew that it was normal and thought that if I kept up my routine eventually I would start to see some results. Not the case.

Granted – I do not have the best eating habits and this is something that I need to focus on (it is my biggest challenge) BUT my habits also have not changed. I can understand staying at my starting weight…but gaining?

As you can imagine I have become super frustrated about not losing any weight. I have been doing loads of research and have come to the conclusion that the reason I’m not losing any weight is due partly because of the method of birth control I am taking. Currently, I take the Depo shot every three months. I read that this method is not recommended for women who are wanting to lose weight (just great!), and in fact, not only do 70% of women gain weight while taking it, but an average of 7lbs a shot. I’ve had five shots! I won’t go into further detail on Depo as I’m saving it for its own posting, but I will say that if I had known these long term side effects I would have never agreed to take it.

I’m going to continue my exercise routine and work on my eating habits. I’m going to stop taking the Depo shot (next one is due at the end of Aug) and hopefully I will start to see results. My three month gym membership expires at the end of next month. I plan to renew. When I signed up I had hoped that when the time came for me to renew that I would have lost at least 10 lbs. A girl can dream can’t she?

 

Let’s get physical…physical…

I did it. I convinced Jared that I really would put a gym membership to good use.

For the past three weeks I have gotten up at 6:00 am to drag myself into the gym. Three days a week I do an intense cardio routine. I alternate between three miles of running/walking on the treadmill followed by five miles on the stationary bike or 40 min on the elliptical machine. Then I hit the weights. The other two days a week I attend an intense exercise class. “Rock Your Body” is designed to tone muscles through muscular endurance training while raising your metabolic rate for rapid fat burning.

I have two goals in mind. One: finally lose all this extra weight – for good. I would like to lose 50 pounds. Twenty-five pounds by Christmas. Two: enter and complete a running race by the end of summer. There is no doubt in my mind that if I keep up what I’m doing now I will be ready for a race.

Now, I know that losing weight will not be an easy task. I have struggled with my weight for my entire life. It has never has been an easy task for me, especially now that I still have some baby weight to lose. It’s been three weeks, I’ve worked out religiously, but when I step on the scale not only have I not lost ANY weight but I’ve actually gained four pounds! Deep down I know this is a good thing. After doing some research I found that this is an “initial weight gain.” My body is building muscle. I have a good friend who recently had great success with losing weight. He assured me that this weight gain is good and if I keep up my routine in due time it will pay off. Scotty you had better be right!

Until then I’m going to keep at it and hope these pounds start to melt away. This is something that is long overdue. It is not going to be an easy battle for me and I know it will be a lifelong struggle. I will be attending my high school reunion this summer and a college reunion this fall. I want to be able to buy new clothes in a size that I am happy with. I want to be able to feel comfortable and proud of all of this hard work!

I am going to do my best to track my progress for any of you who give a rats ass and who are actually reading this. I think if I put myself out there I will be forced to be held accountable. I have no desire to turn this into a weight loss blog, but hope that all of my internet readers can offer some encouragement and advice from their own experiences.

Now, if I could only put down the candy……….

Cooper in his new workout outfit.

 

SOLD!

After only four short months of being on the market and over 60 showings, the house of my dreams sold last week.  We accepted an offer on the contingency that the buyers sell their house which hadn’t even been put on the market yet.  Then to our surprise two more buyers wanted to place offers.  Two short days later we received the call that the couple’s house had already sold! We will be out of our house and living in Hillsboro by Memorial Day weekend.  We’ll be staying with Jared’s parents until we can find a house that best suits our needs. Although I loved that house in Chatham, I love being able to stay at home with Cooper even more. It is yet another sacrifice I will make and not look back!  Now – onto packing and moving….

 

My baby is 1 year old!

Can you believe it? Cooper turned one year old last week. We celebrated last weekend by inviting family out to the house for chili, vegetable soup and ice cream cake. Cooper had his very own cake and he didn’t waste any time eating the cake with no hands by digging in face first!

Man, the time has flown right by us! It has been an amazing year! I have put together a slideshow with pictures from the last year. I’m having some copyright issues with the songs and posting on the Web. As soon as I can get that figured out I will post for all to see!

Cooper got his first pair of shoes this week! Poor thing had to wait because we could not find any to fit his enormous feet! Those of you who know me well, know that I myself have struggled with finding shoes my entire life. Big feet run in my family! But low and behold, I was able to get him fitted and he is now strutting his stuff in a pair of 5 1/2 extra wide white Stride Rite walkers!

Coop's new car

 

Pandy Sue, I love you!

Most of you already know this because I included you on an email that I sent out a month or so ago about my dog, Pandy. Pandy Sue is my first real pet. Sure, I had a couple of dogs while growing up as a kid but my parents didn’t let them inside. They were outside dogs. I loved them but didn’t get attached to them like Pandy.

When Jared and I first started dating I told him I wanted a lab puppy. He rolled his eyes and said, “ok”. So we found an ad in the Southern Illinoisan advertising free lab mix pups. When we pulled up to the trailer park I knew we were in for a treat. We walked in and there were seven black puppies running around like crazy and one shy yellow one. The little black pups were nipping at our feet and trying to bite us, while the yellow one just stared at us. Jared immediately picked up the yellow one and said, “this one.” We had our Pandy Sue. I took her home to our little rented house in Carbondale.

Two weeks later Pandy started throwing up, became very lethargic and couldn’t keep anything in her system. She started to lose weight and was frail. I took her to the vet on a Friday, who then diagnosed her with parvo. It was going to cost $500 to give her treatment and even then there was no guarantee that she would come out of it. In fact, 80% of puppies who contract parvo die.

I took her back home and decided that I would have to have her put down on Monday. I was devastated. How could this puppy that I got only two weeks prior be so sick? She continued to vomit the rest of the weekend. But on Sunday something happened. I was making breakfast and I popped open a can of gravy. I put the lid down in front of Pandy and she started to lick it. I couldn’t believe it! She was eating!!! Later that evening I put out some wet dog food. This time when she ate it she was able to kept it down.

The next morning she was eating and drinking water again. I decided to wait and see what happened and it’s a good thing I did because she fully recovered on her own with no treatment! Of course I was happy! I didn’t have to put down Pandy Sue.

The next few months were great with Pandy. She was a pretty good dog, but she hated walking on a leash. Ever since the parvo she was scared of loud noises and walking in the streets was full of loud noises. She also hated riding in the car. She would get car sick in a matter of seconds. Over time these two things got better and now walking is one of her most favorite things to do! She used to be pretty wild and spazzy, that Pandy Sue.

We moved to Springfield about four years ago. Pandy had a nice backyard to roam around in. But something terrible was happening. I would catch the neighbor kids teasing her and trying to poke at her through the fence. That’s when she started barking at them excessively and the hair on her back would stand straight up. I took her to the Dog Training Center for evaluation by the local “Dog Whisperer”. Since the kids had teased her so badly it had scared her and she would need some intense training that costs big bucks. Again, even with the training there is no guarantee it would work.

Pandy Sue has been a major part our lives for the last six years. She gets walked every day, sleeps in bed with us (even though we try not to let her, she sneaks up there in the middle of the night), and loves to snuggle. I can’t imagine life without her.

I always knew the day would come when Jared & I would have children of our own and thought that that was the treatment Pandy would need. She just needs to be around kids in our environment and she will learn to love them again. She had been great around Cooper for the first 11 months. She does not like to be moved when she is sleeping and twice now while she has been sleeping on the couch Cooper has pulled up next to her. She got scared and her first reaction was to nip. Both times it has gotten him right around the eye, and this last time it broke the skin.

After 24 hours of arguing back and forth between Jared & I, I finally accepted the fact that she is going to have to go to another loving home. One that doesn’t have kids around. I am devastated, but know that it is the best decision for everyone, including Pandy. It is not fair to her to have Cooper around scaring her. She is getting older and deserves to live the rest of her years happy.

It’s been about a month since the last bite and since I agreed to let her go. I haven’t had any real interest in her. I’m not going to let her go to just anyone off the street. I have contacted APL as well as the Illinois Humane Society asking for help with an adoption. Neither one has gotten back to me. I will hold onto her until the right home comes along. I just hope that she doesn’t bite again before that happens or I may have to do the unthinkable…and that is put her down.

Here are a couple of my favorite pictures of Miss Pandy Sue Fackler. If anyone out there who is reading this would like to meet Pandy, leave a comment and I will contact you.

Pandy, 6 mos old at the lake in Hillsboro

 

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it’s off to work I go….

I received a call last week from a previous employer at the SIU School of Medicine asking me if I would be interested in returning to work part-time. Of course I said yes! The opportunity could not have come at a better time for us. So I will be returning back in two weeks. I will continue to run the banquet chair covering business as it is a great source for extra income and only requires me to do hands-on work on weekends.

Returning to work also means that I am back on the hunt for daycare for Cooper. I have been home with Cooper everyday for an entire year! He is now starting to walk and I think interaction with other children will be great for him. I feel much better about leaving him at this age than at 8 weeks, which is when I would have had to had I returned to work last May. I am going to start off working three days a week which will ease the transition into daycare.

I have done some research and have will be interviewing a potential in-home provider tomorrow evening. I have a good feeling about all of this. Wish me luck!