No pain, no gain.

This was a weekend for the record books.

After spending nearly 3 years planning to have the hardwood floors redone in our current home, at last the task has been accomplished...but not without a bit of hardship and sacrifice on many levels.

As with any task with a family this size comes with, so come major obstacles at times that definitely separate the weak from the strong.

We started preparing for this weekend months ago with anticipation of getting the house ready to be put on the rental market. These floors had to be redone, they were unfinished and a huge eye sore, nothing more needs to be said.

Last week was spent getting as much laundry finished and organizing as much as I could to get ready for this event, we needed 2 rooms done and 2 closets, so all the furniture in those rooms had to come out and go...somewhere else. Space in this house is decent, however, with the amount of people we have stashed away plus other things (like furniture) we are like a bunch of sardines. Everything had to go into the front room. Thankfully our LR is pretty big so it wasn't an issue, but it made the logistics of last week a nightmare. To top it all off the kids did not have school Monday, so my week got off to a late start as it was.

When Friday rolled around, I was still working on packing, had the teen to drop off (she was staying in town for my niece's sweet 16, HBD Catie!! ;) ), plus we had everything to move, and snow to shovel.

Speaking of snow, I don't know why it never occurred to me to actually check the weather map, but I didn't . More than likely it's because like most people I listened to how many inches others said we were getting versus actually looking myself. That inevitably was a HUGE mistake because while the snow was still falling here at 5pm when we left, it was melting as soon as it hit the roads, and I hadn't aticipated it doing anything other than what I could see right in front of me. Well, that was a really big mistake! lol We got about an hour south of Toledo and stopped to fuel up after dinner and the exit ramp was a sheet of ice. That was my first clue that maybe this was worse than we thought. About 15-20 minutes down the road, we went from a decent 65 down to 40 mph, and while some people are comfortable driving that speed to get somewhere LOL, I was not, especially with 7 babies in the (mini church bus) van and with the roads getting worse. Eventually that 40 mph became 30 and the roads had snow sticking to them. I insisted we turn around, ...as much as I wanted to see my Dad and friends, I couldn't see us continuing to drive that far with all our kids in the car risking something bad possibly happening. It wasn't like we HAD to travel. Don't get me wrong, I wanted to see my family and friends, but according to my weather.com linkup on my crackberry, the snow in OH wasn't getting any better over the next 2 days and that's 75% of the journey for us. We made the decision to turn back and head home. Once we got closer to Toledo the roads got better again...it was like this huge patch of super bad road between us and Indianapolis. As as sad it was, in the end it ended up being a blessing in disguise and I truly think where God ultimately wanted us.

As we rolled back to town, I called the local holiday inn exp,...no fresh air rooms room left at that inn. Then I called a nice quiet hotel my mom stayed at when she was here last year and sure enough they had 2 rooms side by side for us and a good rate for both for 2 nights. We got there checked in and got everyone settled in (girls in one room, boys in another, except for my tiger cub, he slept with mama ;) ). We went to sleep at about 10:30 or so...well, it wasn't long before my nice night of rest turned into a full blown nightmare. Lettie got up at 12, 12:30, 1:15, 1:45, 2:30...3:30...you get the picture. Every time she would fuss, and I would try and soother her back to sleep, all the while I was thinking it was just the room being different, I adjusted the temp in the room because she felt kind of warm...well by 4am I was about to lose my mind, I felt her and she was HOT. Poor thing, she had only a diaper on and her temp had jumped majorly. Dean was in the room by then trying to help, I was severely losing patience as I had literally had no sleep, and neither had she so she was fussier than I was LOL. We finally got her to go to sleep at 5am, and she slept till 7:30. In the morning I felt like DEATH. Dean had gotten up with her so Cohen and I could sleep a little more, we went down for bkfst (free bkfst = carb city LOL, I never eat food like that seriously but I didn't care). By 9am Dean suggested I take her in to med check. Sure enough, double ear infec :( And The doc ended up giving us something to cover pneumonia as well, seeing as she had that right before xmas (we had H1N1...she had it too and also got the pneumonia with it as well, poor baby!!).

By last night, things were starting to get better, everyone got baths (the kids got to swim with daddy while i took her in, it worked out great!)...they were TIRED lol, thank you God! By 8:30 everyone was in bed and were either out or on there way. I would like to tell you that at this point we had a great restful night and woke up feeling like a million bucks....but that's not what happened rofl!

In a nut shell, all day yesterday we saw young to middle age adults carrying in coolers into the rooms all up and down our hall (which was pretty vacant the night before). This kind of worried me, but I don't like to not give people the benefit of the doubt in situations. Well, as it turned out, by 9pm they were in full fledge "we've been drinking for 4 hours already" mode and were being loud as all get out, slamming doors, screaming, laughing and running up and down the hallways (these were grown adults mind you). I asked them to knock it off once....they rolled their eyes at me lol. The second time I called the front desk, and then stood outside the door waiting for her to show up and lay the smack down. They were smoking in the hallway too, a NON SMOKING hallway *rollingmyeyes*. As i was standing there, this guy comes out and I can hear him trying to coax this female he's speaking with into the room to *stay* with him. After she got smart (read left) he started down the hall toward me and seriously had the nerve to freaking hit on me! I told him that they needed to be quiet because I had already asked once and there were kids in our room, sick, etc. He started mouthing off to me saying it was a *hotel* and I needed to expect that and just get over it. LMBO! Um............yeah, I don't think so, that's what the BAR is for dude. Well after a few seconds of him running his mouth, out steps my commander in chief ;) he had been woken up and had heard this guy talking to me this way and he was NOT happy! He told the guy to quit talking disrespectfully and go back in his room and shut his mouth. This guy had some serious liquid courage running through his veins because he continued to be an *ss right at Dean, I was DYING laughing!! he had to have been seriously drunk off his butt to be that bold and not scared. I kept thinking, does he have any idea how much my hubby can bench press? LMBO!!

He finally went into his room and slammed the door (lipping all the way, lol) The hotel staff lady was finally up there lecturing people about smoking in the non smoking rooms and hall to all the drunkards. I told her I wasn't trying to crash anyone party, they just needed to keep it in their rooms and stop yelling already.

After that we only heard a few door bangs over the next hour or 2, and I finally fell asleep after that. I got roughly 7 hours worth of sleep, not stellar but enough to where I could more than function this morning.

This morning we took our time packing up and playing with the kids, Lettie looked 150% better already. As Dean was going out to get us coffee, he lokced the keys in the van. I could tell he was pretty much over this weekend from h*ll as when he called he said...don't get mad when I tell you this (lol) but I locked the keys in the van. I said, well,...you've been blessed today because I kid you not, the HS told me friday to stick my spare in my purse (!!) :D How's that for God's providence??

So after alllll that, we did arrive home to find beautiful floors in our home,...
take a look!!













We still have quarter round to put back and trim in the rooms to fix, but that will come later this week.


Thanks J-gina for my awesome floors!! They are beautiful and I'm so sad that I only get to live in them for a few months lol...someone else is going to get to enjoy them ;)

So in the end, it was worth the sacrifice I think. Things are coming along quite nicely, this was a huge house rental/move obstacle for us, and now that its over we can focus on the kitchen next which is a decent sized project as well. Dean asked me if I wanted to stay in this house now that the floors look so pretty...ha, not a chance ;)

Lots to say and no time.

This week is the capital I on *insane* for real.

Not only have we looked at a few new houses this week (which will be the focus of a future funny blog post lol, omg the things you see house hunting!!) but we are prepping to head in Indiana to visit my dad this week. On top of that, we are having the hardwoods refinished in this house while we are gone, so to say I'm am busy is very accurate.

Yesterday I got my grocery shopping done, which still to this day is a monumental task for a family this size (again another post lol), but today I have a dr. appt, plus a DR to gut before this weekend, soooo, while I have lots to say it will have to wait until later.

*sigh* time....this is half of my crazy right now. I swear 3 years ago time management wasn't quite this big of an issue for me, I still feel like I'm adjusting to life with being pg with #8, let alone having her here and the fact that she is now 10 months old. It has by far taken me the longest this time around to get back on my feet. It's ok though...I'll get it, one thing at a time. For now, we need more room and that's what the large majority of the insanity is for right now, getting ready for that huge but necessary step in our life.

On that note, I won't be back until next week, but I am going to enjoy the weekend seeing family and at least one good Indy friend and possibly 2, yay!! Dean and I are really excited. Can't wait for the drive....3.5 hours of not chasing the toddler,...now that's a dream come true.

Till next week! ;)

Snow day #3!!

I have to say that I am really excited that my kids are home today, not only because we got to sleep in this morning (which did not happen all weekend, mind you...) but this weekend was so rushed with looking at more houses, and other things that I felt like we hardly got to spend any time as a family. So, here we are , hulled up for the 3rd snow day of 2010 with tons of snow already on the ground and supposeldy more coming. We have to run out here in a few to get Nate some new snowpants since he has grown a ton in the last year. The kids are excited about playing in the snow today :)

But first...I have to go shovel snow out of my driveway lol. I had every intention of buying a snowblower 2 weeks ago when we had this snowfall and never got around to it thanks to the great puke-fest of '10. For the love of God I have never been chucked on that much in my life lol, seriously. It isn't any wonder I got it (and Daddy...he had his fair share of babies ralphing all over him :P ). We spent wednesday in bed, ugh...not fun.

I'm hoping to get some pics of the snow playing,....but you never know how a day with 8 kids is going to turn out so no promises ;)

Mommy got back.

This is my weight loss post. lol

I am just coming off a week long hiatus of sick kids/mommy/daddy so bear with me, I am feeling the need to talk positive thoughts about feeling good and being healthy.

For a long time I've dealt with weight issues, pretty much all my life. I've never been what i would consider heavy, at least not long term. I have had times where I've been overweight, but that's usually following the birth of a baby, which in my mind doesn't count so much as I really don't think not gaining anything in pregnancy is safe. Anyway, I have however managed to put on a little too much weight with some of my babies. They say you should gain between 25-35 lbs , well trust me I have managed to far surpass that with several of my kids lol! I have had some where I only gained 31,..(the least i've ever gained and nearly my biggest baby mind you) and I've had other pregnancies where I packed on a good 50+ lbs.

So, where did that leave me after baby #8? I managed to lose a ton of weight after baby #4, but my last 4 pg's were so close together that while I would start to lose a good portion of it, I never actually reached the point I had after #4. I was well on my way after #7, I was just about 10 lbs over what I am now weight wise, but well, I got pg, the rest if a year of history.

Upon jumping back into the game this time, I knew that I had a long way to go. I gained a ton of weight with this last baby, which is odd because my diet was better than I think any other pg was, anyways, that left me with a good 75lbs' to lose according to the national health standards, I should weigh between 129 and 169lbs. I can tell you, I haven't weighed 129 lbs since...7th grade? lol I'm pretty athletic, and because of that I have always carried a decent amount of muscle. My military days were proof of that as well....I was marching 3-5 miles a day and running 2-4, and I still weighed 165lbs, but wore a size 10 clothes (I could wear hubby's jeans back then ahhhh! lol). I'm never going to be one of those 120lb girls, and it took me a long time to realize that.

My goals. My goal is weight loss is one of several things. First and foremost, it's for health. I have parents (love them they are amazing :) ) that have health issues that I personally do not want for myself. I am already at risk because these things run in my family, so in my mind making sure I don't go down that path is the least I can attempt to do. Second which kind of ties into this as well, I want too feel good well into old age. I plan to live to be 100 anyways (won't I be a blast at 99? lol!) so I figure being able to get up and get fresh air and feeling good physically and emotionally is one of the only ways I will be able to accomplish longetivity , and feeling good at the same time.

Third, I'm not going to lie...I want to look good ;) I like looking good, I love the fact that my hubby likes my body and thinks I'm sexy. I feel more confident, and emotionally I feel better when I don't have excess fat hanging off my body.

With that said...I have always been into exercising. Ever since I learned how to run Army style, I've been hooked. And I have always liked weight lifting, but up until recently I have not really understood the dynamics involved with weight loss. What I don't want, is to lose a bunch of weight and have no muscle to show for it. I like having a sleeky body that has muscle tone, not just *skinny*. The only way to accomplish this is weight lifting. And I'm not talking endless rep's at 10 lbs a piece. I'm talking heart pounding, muscles maxing, throat grunting weight lifting. The tragic part of this is that so many women think this will make you look like a man. Not true...the only way you can look like a man is if you a. take steroids or b. have a serious boy like physique anyway, and most women don't have that. Most women have curves, so a little bit of muscle will look sexy and fit, not man'ish.
The benefit of weight lifting too is that it creates a one person inferno. More muscle= higher fat burn. And hey...who doesn't want that?!?!!

Anyway, the point of this is, i've been on the weight loss/exercise train since Sept. '09, and so far i've seen a 37lb loss. I would say *only* and while that is a significant amount of weight lost, the even bigger difference is the fact that i'm wearing clothes that used to fit me only when I was 15 lbs lighter on the scale. That in and of itself screams volumes to me about the benefits of weight lifting and exercise.

It has not been easy though, I'll tell you. Losing weight for me isn't easy, but mentally when I get focused,...I go for it and I don't stop until I get some kind of result somewhere. I've had things that I've tried that did not work (Acai berry, that was a waste of $40! :P ) and I've had other things that worked wonders...for example a few weeks ago I was having severe body aches after my workouts, and massive fatigue before during and after. After doing some research on bb.com I realized that I needed to supplement, so I've been using Scivation's Xtend (watermelon, yum!) and it is helping me big time. I never realized how old I was getting until this issue, but this has helped me make it through and not feel totally wiped out the next day. it was getting bad enough that I could hardly get out of bed, and didn't want to hit the gym again for 2-3 days...that's not conducive to weight loss.

As of right now i am a little over half way to my goal. Weight wise I'm not really sure that I have a goal because as I said I am at a higher weight now but in smaller clothes because of muscle gains, so the scale is a little skewed in my mind. I'm thinking right now I probably have roughly 15-25 lbs at the most left to lose weight wise (fat weight mind you). I've had to bump up the motivation too because I'm nearing that last 10-20 lbs of fat that takes much longer to get off...so my progress has slowed, albeit not entirely.

If you want to follow my progress, here is the link to my body blog:

http://bodyspace.bodybuilding.com/babymama7/

I am not on there often, and don't have before and after pics up yet, I'm working up the nerve to post them still lol. I'm hoping to take some current pics soon, I've actually wanted too for a few weeks but it seems every time i plan too (I need Dean's help, it requires both of us...) something happens. I guess I'm busy, no? lol

i'll do it myself.

Since I have had no one ask questions, that means open forum....hope you like hearing me rant about various things, I have quite the bloggers mouth ya know LOL or if you don't know your about to find out ;) I'll be back tomorrow with something saucy to say...

What do you want to know?

This is the first of many times I will post an open invite to those who read here to ask any question you would like to ask me about me, my family, my views,...the sky is the limit. Tomorrow is an automatic snow day, so I'll have sometime on my hands (I can't exactly paint with all 8 kids home now can I? lol!).

So ask away....I know we have some curious minds out there, and don't be shy I'll answer anything you've got, AND I'll dedicate a special post to each question, or if you would like to see pictures of specific things, I'll entertain that as well. Anonymous welcome too,...have fun!! :)

Tuesday randomness...

Here comes the snow!
Man, they weren't kidding when they said we were getting it,...when I got up this morning it hadn't started falling yet and here it is only 4 ours later and the roads are already getting a bit scary. I was wondering if they would release the kids early from school, I got a call saying that the HS was letting out early but no word on the Elem's yet.

Anyways, here I am in the mood to blog, but not a lot of concrete thought to put into it lol.

This morning started off with me sleeping in and totally blowing off my workout, this has been a pattern for me lately, one I hope to break quickly, however I have found that geting out of my warm bed in the morning hasn't been easy, maybe I need to stop turning the temp down so much at night lol. It's going to start affecting my workout time because I really need to go to bed early and can't be at the gym until 10:30pm, so ...something's gotta give. So, status for today = slacker.

We are in full throttle redo the house mode. This weekend we spent getting things in tubs/boxes, etc. The kids' rooms are pretty much done, we have 1 room to fully paint (including taking down the border thats up, yikes) and another to spot touch up. We also have several things going on downstairs, today I will start painting the DR this gorgeous shade of pale sage green, its beeeeautiful. I can't wait to see it. I'm trying to stay in the neutral pallette for the new renters but still put some color in places. We have the kitchen floor to totally redo, including the tiles I laid a few weeks back, they are coming up, ...all new floor, new counter, backsplash...yeah you get the idea. On occassion I'll take my lazy afternoons and hit the gym but that will not be happening for a long while, hence why I've got to start getting up, no excuses.

On the house front, no word, but thats to be expected. I have not gone into too much detail yet but its taking so long because this house is a short sale, meaning its not a foreclosure but is priced cheaper than a normal house sale. Because it is a shortsale, we can get a nice house for a lot less, this to me is fabulous because if you don't know this about me, you will quickly learn that I am cheap. I like being cheap, I actually pride myself a bit on being cheap because cheap people end up rich LOL. It's true. I love saving a penny if I can,...within reason of course. There are times where I can't afford to be cheap, and I am still learning at times that I could be cheaper in other areas of life, but I am not the kind of person to spend all I can afford on a house and then be house poor. That does not compute in my mind. So, this house is well within the budget we had set for ourselves, our payments would be slightly higher than I had hhoped only because the taxes in this new area will be slightly higher, however the schools are better, it is a great location, closer to Dean's work, etc. In the end these are good things to kind of look past. So back to the shortsale....we gave them a date of March
30th...thats another...hmmm... 49 days roughly?! yeah, looong wait. I feel like I'm pregnant and we are being induced that day ROFL!! And to make matters worse, Dean seriously says every (other) day...has it been 60 days yet?

You can kind of see the reason for my madness here, we have to wait all this time, AND there is still a chance we might not even get it. Such as, their bank might want more than we are offering (we put in a very fair offer so I would think it wouldn't be an issue), or OUR bank might say its not worth what we offered. This very well could happen because the value's have dropped so dramatically in that area (and its a VERY nice area, but a lot of foreclosure's have brought down and continue to bring down value's etc...) so this could also be the case in which we would need to renegotiate. My thoughts as always is, it's in God's hands. He knows our need, and I fully trust that if this is the one, He will make a way and it will all fall into place. As I was saying though , I have to prepare as if it WILL happen, even though I am not guaranteed anything. Ah, such fn, living on the cuff of moving a family of 10 at any moment lol. AND then to sit and think about what will go where, what we will need for the new house between closing and moving in, etc....adds even more to the equation.

Things are moving right along though where this house is concerend. We have projects rolling and we should have most of it done mid March, which is perfect. And if this other house falls through, rest assured we will be heavily seeking a new candidate asap, I cannot tell you how ready we are for this. I need my LAUNDROMAT! lol (I'm getting a mini laundromat in whatever new house we get, which will be 2 washers and 2 dryers, but hey, i've got 8 kids, this is a NEED people! lol).

So today with the falling snow, I can't help but feel excited about some indoor projects. I loooooooooooooove painting, this painting is more functional than anything, but I think the DR is going to look fabulous once it's done. While this house is way too small, this house is precious and very happy and cozy, it has had good people living in it for a long time (before us is what I am referring too ;) ) so my heart is still here even though we have outgrown it majorly.

Also, get ready for some shock value , but I've been using sposies for 3 weeks now *oh the shock and horror*
Yes...I love my beloved cloth, but I had to get a break, and I tend to take a break at this time each year so... here it is. The odd thing is, at this time next year I will have 1 only in diapers, and the year after that, possibly none or close to be done FOREVER. That is exciting and weird all in the same sentence.

Time to go get some stuff done :) I spent the morning having coffee with a new friend I have made whom I already dearly cherish so I'm feeling refreshed and ready to break out the brushes and rollers. I'm ready for the snow day too, I stocked up on food for the kids yesterday, and we are hitting the library later this afternoon to get some movies/books and whatnot to help keep kids happy tomorrow :)

And, I want a snowblower, hmmm.....wondering if I should splurge and go get one?

I love you but I can't commit.

I would just like to take a moment to express how difficult this house buying process is. I am trying so hard not to get attached to this house, I can't...I have at least 55 days left give or take until we know one way or the other. I have no feelings one way, or the other...so while I have spent lots of time seeing us (and our stuff) in that house, in the back of the mind I know full well we might not get it. Then again,...we might LOL. I keep thinking one of two ways, first....if we don't get it, the timing would be good because we would be packed and ready to find THE house immediately which is good because that was a huge concern of mine when we started hunting last month. I have a lot to accomplish here at this house to get it ready for the new peeps, and tat combined with the amount of time I have available everyday was a serious mind meld. Now though, either way I have adequate time to prepare. If we do get it, the timing would also be perfect because the kids would be a few weeks away from school being done when we moved. I'd have to drive them those last few weeks but thats no biggie honestly.

The more I think about the house the more right it feels, even though it needs some paint like there is no tomorrow. How do you fall in love, yet not commit? That's really not in my realm of logical thinking!