Weigh in

Ok, I lost another pound and so did Allen. I see this as nothing less than God's mercy because I am having TOM and we are on vacation. Total of 24 pounds for me :)

Sunday

Saturday continued

After Lambeau Field we got to take the kids to Bay Beach. It is an amusement park where the tickets are only 25 cents a piece. Much fun!!!

Saturday continued

Here are my Packer cheerleaders. This is Hannah and Bumpa (my dad)! Then this is a pictureinside Lambeau Field! Here our family is watching Training Camp '06. Then the last picture is of the Packers tunnel. We got to walk through the tunnel where the players enter the field. Too fun!!! We all had such a good time.

Start of Vacation

We got to go to Lambeau Field on Saturday. We didn't make it to the cabin until 1:30 am on Saturday. We went by the funeral home in Trenton on our way out of town. One of Allen's co-workers from Woolpert was out riding his bike Tuesday and had a heart attack and died!!! He was only 42 years old!

We went to Green Bay because the last open practice of the year was going to be on Saturday morning. My wonderful family got 4 hours of sleep just to get mom there :) It was also important because I believe this will really be Brett Favre's last year playing. So it was awesome to see him in his very last open practice!! It was too cool.

This is Ahman Green's car. He has it signed on the hood and everything. Too funny. For anyone who cares...we found out that Brett Favre drives a white pick up. What else for a boy from Mississippi :)

Awesome!!!! Brett is the one kneeling down. It was so cool to see him. We even saw him throw a touch down pass :)

Enough said :)

"Hey look Monica did get to make it to my last practice. She's the best!"

Getting Outta Dodge

Just an FYI. We are leaving on Friday for our first vacation as a family unit. We are going up to my parents' cabin in Waupaca, WI. I am so excited. Allen is going to be taking a bus back down here on Labor Day because the kids and I are going to stay at my parents' house in Waukesha, WI for another week. Then on Friday he will ride the bus back up to Milwaukee. Saturday the 9th is my grandma's surprise 80th birthday party. So it really works out well for me to be able to have a family vacation, spend time with my family, and then make it to my grandma's party. Isn't my husband absolutely amazing to be willing to do stuff like that with and for me? I seriously don't know how I lucked out getting such a jewel! I am so amazed at God's gift to me in him. Allen, I love you more and more each day! You are best friend, my counselor, my lover, and the dearest person in my life.

I am going to try and post pictures and things during our trip, but that will depend on our internet connections. Case in point about my Allen....he even looked up where there are wireless internet connections in Waupaca for me because my parents don't have a phone at the cabin. Isn't he terrific? :)

Pray for our safety and sanity. The trip up there takes us an average of 10 hours :( That gets a little long for the little ones.

Last pictures Before Vacation

These pictures all showed up in the wrong order from which I selected them. Oh well. I bet you can put the progression together yourself :)

Joseph Harrison(3.5 months): "Maybe if I pretend I am sleeping..." Poor thing was so exhausted from the time on his very own tilt-a-whirl!!!

Daddy's girl through and through. Hannah Morgan(turning 3 on the 29th) just hates when he goes to work. She has to talk herself though it. She will say..."Dad had to go to work. He'll come back. He wants to see me." Too cute. Yesterday she got into his closet and got his hat. Then she found his airplane magazine. She walked around the house like that. Thankfully Allen is so good about sharing his special magazine...that and Trains which is her favorite. Though her personality is just like me, she really has her Dad's interests :)

"Help, are they coming back for more???"

"Mom, do you even know what those girls do to me when you are not around?"

Joseph is just getting strong enough to play in the saucer. Well, he gets no alone time if Hannah and Emily Madison(15.5 months) have anything to say about it. They love to spin him around and around. He actually seems to enjoy it.....well, at least the first 100 rotations :)

Awesome!!!

What a relief. The weight I was worried about had to have been water weight. PRAISE GOD. I really can't stomach going backwards (no pun intended of course :P). I ended up losing the water weight (which at times last week was 5 additional pounds) and then lost 2 more pounds!!! So, I have lost a total of 23 pounds.

Allen lost another two pounds as well. He is up to 35 pounds lost!!!!! He is looking so good :) But then again he always looks yummy to me!!!

Other info

Just thought she looked cute in this picture :0)

Here is an update picture of Allen and me. He has lost 35 pounds approximately here and I have lost 20. Though it is a drop in the bucket, we are grateful for progress!!!

Speed racer. This is Hannah's first time riding her bike. She did awesome. We have a gravel driveway and live on Main Street which is also a state route...so she can't practice here :(

More more pictures

Me me me :) Are we raising an opera singer...eek hope not!

Auntie Sandy & Cousin Sami

Auntie Karen and Joseph

More Bday Pictures

MawMaw and Joseph. It looks like he is singing to Hannah :)

Gamma Vella and Emily

Hannah's 3rd Birthday party in IL

Emily loves the ice cream
Hannah and Papa

Notice she was not trusted to blow out candles on the big duck cake :)

Gampa Bob and cousin Sami

Emily stealing Hannah's suitcase present when she wasn't looking! Doesn't she look innocent?

GRRRRR

I have been hungry all week! I have been trying my hardest not to binge and fall off the wagon. Though I haven't been bad I was up 3 pounds today :*( But...guess what time of the month is coming up.

Please pray for me that I won't give up at this tougher, discouraging time.

Time With Auntie Karen

Today my friend Karen came over and watched the kids so I could take Allen's jeep in (CHAching) to get new tires, front end alignment and oil change. Then I had my cardiologist appointment. My blood pressure still isn't where he wants it, so I get yet another higher dosage of medicine. I don't have to see him for six months though. He will then do another echocardiogram. That will really tell us how my heart is doing. Pray that it will be normal and healed so that a year from now we may try for our fourth and final baby. I still have that as my heart's desire.

Let me just say here how very grateful I am for Karen. She is such a faithful sweet and servant hearted friend! I can always count on her for help, encouragement or just a listening ear! You are awesome, Karen!!!! My family just loves you :)


Ha ha ha! Note to self: Don't tell Hannah to say chheeeeese!

Giddyup :)

Day at the Park

Today we got to go to the park and have lunch at McDonald's with Tammy, Caleb and Audrey. I had a really cute picture of Audrey but got the cord of my camera in the way. Duhhhh!!!
My awesome friend and kindred spirit (plus cousin by marriage :P), Tammy, and my 2 year old nephew Caleb. He is such a cutie pie. What a little man!
Aren't they just too cute. I can tell they are related! They were such good kids at the park. Don't you love Miss Hollywood's sunglasses?
This is Emily sleeping in the bottom bunk. She decided last night that she didn't want to sleep in her toddler bed in the other room she shares with Joseph. She wanted to sleep in with Hannah on the big girl bunk :) She slept there the whole night with no incident. In fact, she is there again tonight. She is growing up so fast!

TaDah!!!!

The Lord is so good to encourage me. I had my weigh in today. I have lost another 4 pounds. So, I have a grand total of 21 pounds lost in 7 weeks. That is the most I have ever lost in my life even more than the 20 pounds I losts when I had my tonsils out ;0) God gave me a really easy week last week. You guys must have been praying for me!

Allen lost 5 last week. That gives him a total of 33 pounds gone. What an amazing man!!!!

Sunday

Here is our family picture that was taken for our church directory. Allen said this is our "before" picture :)
Gampa Bob and Emily taking a break from bike riding.

What a handsome little passenger!!!!!

Hannah and Sami sharing the trailer. What cutie pies!!!

Today we went to Sunday School and then church. Afterwards, we picked up Karen and met Allen's parents at the Chinese buffet. Wow! Now that was hard to stay in control. It was so amazingly good. I could have eaten 5 plates....well, maybe not, but I wanted to. I only let myself have one helping. Now that is a huge accomplishment. I will have to say that I am terribly proud of myself. Then we went on a 9 mile bike ride with Karen, Sandy, Sami, Bob, and Vella. It was fun but a little on the warm side. Plus it worked out that we were going uphill the whole way back.

Saturday

Today we went to get the kids picture taken for the third try at Walmart. Whoa, that wasn't easy. Suddenly Emily (who usually is my big smiler) hates getting her picture taken. After that Allen took us to Scott Air Force Base to see the air show. We got to see the Thunderbirds for about 40 minutes. They were so amazing!!!!

Emily

She crawled into Joseph's swing by herself and ended up falling asleep in there!


Friday Emily had her appointment with the urologist. He said she has level 3 kidney reflux. Her ureters backwash back into her kidney given her UTIs and making her really sick. Level 3 could go either way. Some just grow out of it, but some need surgery. Pray that she will just grow out of it. We have to keep her on a low dose of antibiotics for a year and then she will get reevaluated. She was such a good girl in the office! I was so proud of her. She and I got to share a personal pan pizza while watching the fish in Children's Hospital :) She has really been slimming down. She was only 23.5 pounds. I am surprised that Hannah has 6 pounds on her.