Currently

I am currently:

Thinking about - Etsy - We just did a bunch of crayons last night and I am stressing because we should have sent them out earlier than we did.

Watching - Grey's Anatomy Season 9, SO GOOD! and Hell on Wheels Season 2, me and Anthony used to watch this and stopped a long time ago because we ran out of episodes to watch, Netflix just added more so now we got back on the wagon. I do say I didn't care for the show all that much before, but now I am really getting into it.

Listening to - Pandora - I swear I have no clue why I never discovered it until now but I am officially addicted! Too bad it's blocked at my job :/

Wanting - A Vacation - Oh what I would give for just 5 days to RELAX. No work, no cooking, no cleaning, no errands, no shopping, no lawyers, and no financing! 

Hoping - I can get everything done that needs to be done.

Wishing - I had more money - Don't get me wrong, I am not broke. But I would like more money to purchase some things I have really been wanting.

Stressing - EVERYTHING!- Etsy orders, launching my Halloween line, being slammed at work, Seth's court date, needing to clean my house, needing to go shopping soon, having enough money, it goes on and on. I feel like I am drowning in stress I really do.

Missing - The 90's - I did not have a good childhood by any means but, fully supporting 3 (hopefully soon to be 4) people and ensuring they have everything they need for survival... is HARD. I know that sounds kinda whiny and that is not what I am after, I would not change it for the world. I just feel like it would be nice to sit back and not worry for a little. Maybe even just a few minutes?

Loving - My Life - Yea I know it sounds like I am contradicting myself here lol. I am stressed and it is hard but I REALLY do love where my life is at and where it is going. I and so thankful for my family and everything we have and continue to be blessed with. Times are great. We are going over some hills right now but I know at the end of the day they are just obstacles and I am not letting anything stand in my way of being happy and enjoying this great life with my family.

Dry Kidneys Part 2

Since the flavored carbonated water was such a fail I decided to move on and try something else in my great search to find a drink that I can ACTUALLY sip on all day to prevent dehydration. This time I went with Gatorade.

I chose Gatorade because it happened to be on sale at Publix lol. That and it only has 80 calories per 12 oz. It is not too sweet like juice, it is supposed to be super hydrating, and there are lots of flavors too.

I am not so happy about all the dyes and the fact that it is not calorie free but hey it's better than soda or high calorie juice.

Day one went ok-ish. I poured about 24 oz and took it with me to work I ended up drinking prolly 18 then Anthony drank the last bit when I got in the car after work lol.

Today is day two and it is going bad. This is only because I have a UTI and I am sort of uneasy about drinking a lot as it will REALLY make me have to pee. I took the medicine for it today and I think that is helping. I poured about the same amount for today maybe a little more and I still have not drank any of it. And it is all ready 12:30 half way through the day. I am hoping that I can down at least half by 5 pm.

I think all in all I can do Gatorade. Do I love it? No. Is is do-able? I think so. Guess we shall see how this pans out and if I can stick to it or not.

Goals: September

My goals for September:

1. Drink more fluids! and stick to it!
2. Start visitation with Seth
3. Reach 100 sales on Etsy
4. Launch a Halloween line on Etsy 
5. Go to church again (at least once)
6. Finish organizing my bedroom and craft area
7. Sell all the stuff I currently have listed on Craigslist
8. Take more pictures of Bear (these last few months I have taken about half as much as I did in past months)
9. Blog, blog, blog! I have been away for so long, I really want to get back into the habit of blogging all the time.
10. Give the master bath and the kitchen a sparkling clean scrub down. (I do spot clean but it has been a while since I actually got down on my hands and knees and SCRUBBED).

Here's to September! :]

Dry Kidneys

I have always had the issue of not drinking enough. I mean I am literally dehydrated 24/7. Some days I really don't consume more than 8oz of liquid. I think I have even gone days where it is less than that. The reason behind this is, because I just don't get thirsty. And since I'm not thirsty.... I don't drink. Makes sense right? I guess I just forget to drink. I know it sounds silly but it's true. 

Well I have come to think that that this is starting to take a toll on my body. So I decided to do something about it. And not to mention, my new co-worker is always going on about how I'm gonna get dry kidneys if I don't drink more lol.

I know I need to drink but I also know that I will not be able to drink water because it is too bland. If I am drinking something with flavor it will be much better and easier for me. The issue with that is the calories. I do not want to DRINK my calories! 

So I decided it would be a great idea to drink this:

And.... I WAS WRONG!

I went to Walmart last night grabbed 3 bottles for a little test run. These are 33 oz so I figured if I drank one a day that would at least help my issue. I remember drinking these as a kid and LOVING them! I do not know if they changed them or if I changed lol. After all that was like 15 years ago. 

I grabbed my first bottle and took it to work today, it was actually White Grape flavor. I do specifically remember liking White Grape flavor as a child and I always felt like it was a treat when my father bought these because it was not something we bought on a normal basis. 

Anyways, I sat down at my desk this morning turned on my computer... did the normal stuff. Then I grabbed the bottle and opened it up. Took a big gulp, and almost died! This stuff is FOWL. It has that nasty fake sugar taste, the same one in diet sodas that lingers in your mouth for 20 minutes after each sip. I still have it in my mouth even after rinsing with water! 

I decided to check the label and see if it had aspartame like the diet sodas, and sure enough it did! I really did not expect that as this is simply flavored carbonated water. These will definitely be going in the trash, or maybe I will return them or give them to someone. 

Back to the drawing board. Anyone have any ideas? They would be greatly appreciated. I have seen the beverage called "Ice" and I am thinking about giving that a try. Has anyone tried it?

Is that a CATERPILLAR?!

Quick little post today because I am SUPER busy and won't even have time to sit down and eat until about 11 pm tonight. Ugggg. Life has got me stressed out to the max! It's gonna be go, go, goooooooooo! for the next two weeks. Never the less...

The other day Anthony and I were eating dinner and in the pot of broccoli (this was frozen before we cooked it) we found a dead chopped in half CATERPILLAR! Like seriously..... Dear Walmart, I am NEVER buying produce from you again! EVER.

It was not but two months ago that we found a cluster of bugs in the fresh produce from there but that is to be expected in fresh. I just can't believe there was actually a whole caterpillar in the bag of frozen broccoli! Yikes.

The prices of frozen and canned produce at Publix is too much for us so we will still buy from Walmart but we will no longer be getting Walmart brand. I think we will stick to Green Giant or something of the sort. As for the fresh, we will just go to Publix for that even though it cost almost two times as much as Walmart.

I really am starting to dislike Walmart more and more everyday. If they didn't have the lowest prices and everything I need all in one place, I swear I would NEVER go in there again!

I'm back!!!!

No seriously... this time I really am back!

I have been away for just about 2 months (crazy!)... WOW have I really been THAT busy?!... the answer to that question is: YES!

So many things have happened while I was away! So many good, good, good things!

Here is a brief update on what has been going on, I will be posting more in depth posts about each subject as time goes by but for now here is a quick summary. 

Work:

I got a new job! This is what caused me to stop blogging in the first place. I am now working more hours and days. I still work for the School Board and I even still do the same thing. The only difference is they added in a few new things (more on that later), I work more hours, I moved offices, I now have full benefits including insurance and retirement (WOOT!) and my salary doubled! So we are no longer have financial issues. Praise the Lord.

Etsy:

Etsy has really taken off! We are now making about $550 to $600 a month selling our crayons! We have had many long nights and even sleepless ones but at the end of the day it's worth it and I do say I love making these cute little crayons! This month has been a little slow, these past few days, we have been lounging around and enjoying a much needed break. We have lots of new products that are about to be going up and I will soon start to make those (more on that later as well)!

Bear:

Bear... my sweet Bear. He has grown so much! I will do an update on him on Thursday so stay tuned for that!

My Family:

Things have changed with my family. It is odd, one day they just decided they were going to accept me and Anthony too! AND my sister's BF Steve as well! So now we are having family dinners every now and again. It is the oddest thing ever. I never would have thought I would see this day in a million years! Now I can actually look forward to my dad being at my wedding! 

Charlie:

Unfortunately, we had to get rid of Charlie :/ he went to live with some very nice people that even have a lady dog friend for him to play with. He was getting to be just way too much to handle. We drew our last straw when he started pooping on the carpet in front of us literately 5 minutes after coming in (like we had JUST taken him out to poop) he was choosing to use our carpet instead of the grass. He also started pooping in his cage. We love Charlie but enough was enough and we ran out of patients. I really hope he enjoys his new home. :[

Diet:

I am now about 120 lbs. I came off my diet at 122. I was wanting to lose 11 more but decided 122 was a good place to be. A few weeks ago I was planning to go back on it for a little bit to try and lose the last 11 lbs but ultimately decided not to. I have been skipping lunch most days (there is a reason behind this, it's not to lose weight) so my calorie consumption is already quite low as it is. Maybe like 500 to 700 calories a day because I only eat one time a day. Don't get me wrong some days I eat more than others and I consume about 900 to 1000 calories but for the most part it stays under 800 and my diet calls for 828 a day so I think technically I am still dieting? lol who knows. All I know is that I am satisfied with my body now and that is all that maters.

Church:

Me and my sister started going to a non-denominational church. We have been about 3 times so far but these past 3 weeks we have skipped it. I am not sure if we will be going back or not. To be honest I really want to go to Church I do, but the thing is I feel like I am being forced and I can not worship God like that. It has to come naturally. When I am good and ready I feel I will get up and go to church all on my own. The times that I did go with my sister I went mainly for her, because she was too shy to go alone but I did feel like she was forcing it upon me and this made me unable to really open up and worship God. I may decide to try a new church because I feel that the one we were going to gave week services. We shall see how this goes in the weeks to come.

Seth:

And the BIG thing that has been going on in my life... I am now fighting for full custody of Seth. I am not going to go into detail with what is going on with this case until after it is over. The reason behind this is, just in case the wrong person were to get a hold of my blog, I wouldn't want the other party to be reading what I am doing on my end in attempt to win the case. I do assure you that I will be posting updates about it every step of the way (just not publishing them) and once the case is over I will post them in parts. In the mean time I will finish up the "Losing Seth" series of posts where I explain how I lost custody in the first place.

I believe that about sums it up for now!

I'm Still Here!

The last time I blogged was on June 9. I am still here I promise! :]

I have been really super busy with my job and my Etsy shop as it is starting to take off.

I will be back to blogging very soon. I promise. And I will probably get my bento blog going again full blast pretty soon as well! I am super exited for that :]

All of us are doing great, just chugging along. Diet is going so-so, Bear is hitting more and more milestones, and Anthony is doing great too.

Hope everyone is doing great as well. I will be back full force sometime with in the next few weeks and I will explain why I have been away so long as well as provide lots of updates on Bear (and cute pics too!).

-Rose