I'm so proud

My sons make me proud all the time, but this time, I'm proud of myself! I can't remember when the last time was that happened. I wouldn't say that I have low self esteem, but I don't really like to be the center of attention. However, this post is about me.

I'm not lazy, but I haven't been good at taking care of myself. Not until recently. I turned 37 last December and bought some new jeans a couple weeks later. I wasn't happy with how they fit, and refused to buy a bigger size. Years ago after the birth of both boys, I lost the baby weight that I had gained, but then as I got older I put a few pounds back on. I had wanted to lose it for a couple years, but didn't stick with anything I started. But back in January, I became "friends" with Jillian Michaels. I bought a DVD of hers and gave it a try. It was very challenging. The next day every muscle in my body ached. Muscles I didn't even know I had! It felt great. It felt even better a couple weeks later when I noticed that I was getting smaller. I bought a couple more of her DVDs and kept going. I thought Jillian would annoy me, but she did the opposite. She motivated me.

Six months later, I was 14 pounds lighter and wear pants two sizes smaller. I have muscles with definition and much better endurance. Not to mention, I feel so much better mentally and physically. So I started to run. I've never been a runner, but with the new mind-set that I have, I knew I could do it. Jason and I go out together, but he's faster than I am. I'm fine with that. We both have our fast-paced playlists to listen to. And I also have the words of Jillian Michaels going through my head... "You're not going to die"... "Things change when you get uncomfortable", etc.

We've been running three times a week for about a month. We want to run a 5K next month, so we're trying to push ourselves. It's hard because we can stop and walk whenever we want. But the last few times we've been out, both of us have found that we feel better when we don't stop. It's quite a rush, actually. Maybe that's the runner's high.

This morning, we went to a nearby lake that has a paved path around it (I think there are actually three lakes there with three paths). It's a popular spot on a nice day for walkers, runners and bicyclists. That also encourages us since we don't want strangers to see us walking in between running! We ran there last week, but I stopped a lot. Today was different. In my head I had goals for myself. I was going to stop at the first curve, but didn't. Then I was going to stop at the bottom of a hill, but didn't. Then I decided to complete the 1.25 mile loop without walking. I did it! I couldn't wait to meet up with Jason at the end and tell him that I ran the WHOLE way!!! I might have been tired and sweaty, but I couldn't help but smile and be proud.
After that, we went to the car for a Gatorade break and decided to run some more. We only went another quarter mile or so.

I can say for sure that I'll never run a marathon like my brother does. I don't even think I could do a half-marathon. But I'm running that 5K next month! I know I can and it'll feel great!

Hello, again!

Boy, have I neglected my blog! I've given it a new look and hope to post more often.

It's already the end of summer break and my boys are getting ready to go back to school, well, more like dreading it. Justin is back in cross country. They've been practicing for two weeks now. He's had a couple of timed runs around the course. He has really improved since being a 6th grader! He's running the two mile course in 14 minutes 16 seconds! His first meet of the season is on Tuesday.

Justin isn't the only one back to running. Jason and I have started. Yes, I am running! Jason has run off and on the last few years, but it was never really my thing. Earlier this year I began working out and have really built up some strength and endurance (not to mention lost about 14 pounds!). Even though Jason is faster than I am, we go out running together about 3 times a week. I can't see myself running a marathon, but maybe there's a 5K in my future.

I'm happy to say that my three old lady cats are still doing well. Henry turned seven this summer. And Kyle has a new pet betta sharing his room.

I'm hoping I still have some followers out there. As I said about a year ago, I'll try to keep up!

Catching up

I just can't keep up! I said I would post more often and I failed. My last post was exactly three months ago!

Since then, Justin finished his cross country season. He went to Sectionals as an alternate. As a 6th grader, he never ran a 6th grade race (a one mile course). He opted to run with the 7th and 8th graders at every meet (a two mile course). It was fun to cheer him and his team mates on. Justin improved greatly throughout the season. His time at his first meet was 22 minutes and his last was only about 15 and a half minutes! He is now looking forward to running track in the spring.

A couple weeks ago, Jason scored some free tickets to a Chicago Wolves game from work. Turns out that his company has their own private box at Allstate Arena. It's nothing fancy, but you can sit behind glass or out in the arena. There's also a private bathroom which was nice. There was a menu in there as well that we did NOT order from. You could order a $38 cheeseburger or a $95 appetizer tray. We chose to visit the concession stand for nachos and a pretzel.

Wolves games are pretty fun. They have pyrotechnics at the beginning and lots of fun music. Justin and Kyle really seemed to enjoy it and hope to go again!

As for Halloween this year, the costumes chosen were not my idea. My input was not welcome. Justin wanted to dress up, but wanted a mask so no one would recognize him. Kyle won't admit it, but he wanted to do the same thing Justin was doing. He's also very indecisive. Justin wound up going with the character from Scream (which he hasn't seen and wouldn't even watch if I offered to let him!). Kyle went with an unknown phantom. I guess the days of cute little pumpkins and clowns are over.

And before I go, I have some bragging to do... I met with Kyle's teacher today for the annual conference. He may be older, but the review was the same as the past couple years. She said that Kyle is wonderful and a cutie. His behavior is great and he's a good student. She also loves his red hair.

She also went over his report card. Kyle is in 3rd grade, but in the gifted program so he is doing 4th grade work. He received mostly E's, which means that he is exceeding the 4th grade standards of the district. How awesome is that?

Time sure flies

I can't believe it's August! Summer break is over in about three weeks. School registration for Justin is next week and the week after for Kyle. They both start school on August 24th. Justin as a 6th grader and Kyle as a 3rd grader. As I've said before, I'm glad Justin is excited about beginning middle school, cause I'm nervous!

We were at Justin's school today for Cross Country try-outs. It's actually not a sport you officially try-out for since they don't cut anyone. If you want to run distance you can be on the team. Justin has those crazy running genes from his dad and Uncle Tony. Both of them ran track and cross country all through high school. Maybe someday Tony will help Justin train for a marathon!
Today was kind of a cross country orientation, no running. The coaches (two female teachers that look like they're about 15!) expressed that it's important for the kids to run even on days that they don't have practice. So when we left the school Justin told me that he wanted to go running today. He's really serious about this! He's really growing up and this is important to him.

Other than that, two of our three cats have been diagnosed with old cat issues. Emma and Yoda our sister cats that are 14 years old.
Emma was first. She has mass in her liver that is most likely cancerous. It is causing a few of her abdominal lymph nodes to be enlarged and her intestines to be thick. She had lost some weight and suffered from diarrhea. I opted to treat her with steroids and pro-biotics. She's still a happy cat with a good appetite who loves to be pet. Her stools have been normal since starting the pro-biotics. We'll be doing a recheck ultrasound this week to see if her steroids are helping. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!
Yoda was diagnosed with chronic renal failure (kidney failure), which is VERY common in cats. Her current treatment is a prescription diet for kidney patients and subcutaneous fluid therapy twice a week. I'm very familiar with this treatment and she very cooperative about it. She is also going about her normal activities and not letting her illness affect her yet.

I'm going to try to update my blog more frequently once again. I hope I still have some followers! I'm sure I'll have news to share especially with Justin's athletics. Take care and I'll be back soon! :)

My Montage 4/12/10 at OneTrueMedia.com

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

My kitchen makeover

This is really exciting for me! I paint walls, etc. all the time, but I took on something bigger this time. I decided to paint the kitchen cabinets. I knew it would be a major pain, which it was, but I couldn't get the idea out of my head. Our kitchen isn't real big and the dark cabinets made it dreary. I also decided that if the cabinets were off white, that I'd have more options for wall colors. I always have a motive...

This took five days, which I guess isn't too bad. (I had lots of help from my mom as well.) The process consisted of removing the doors, sanding, priming, painting, and varnishing. Not to mention all the time spent waiting for drying of all the different coats. Oh, and the mess! I moved the dining room table out of the way so I had a place to work on the cabinet doors. I will say that it is pretty convenient to work in a kitchen with no doors to open and close.

Thanks again to my mom for all her help and to Nat for the advice she gave me!!!

Merry Christmas 2009

Merry Christmas to all my family and friends!!!

Christmas past - the first year Henry was with us (2005) :




Christmas present :




Wishing everyone a safe and happy holiday season!

HAPPY 8TH BIRTHDAY KYLE!!!

Today is my baby's 8th birthday. It's so hard to believe that it's been eight years since I was in the hospital with him. I guess I should just be thankful to have such vivid memories of the experience.

Here he is in the hospital eight years ago, with my swollen hand. I remember saying it looked like he was going to have red hair and one of the nurses disagreed with me.

Kyle is a very genuine, caring, kind boy, not to mention extremely smart. He makes me proud everyday! He's also a comedian, but at the same time is becoming more responsible. I'm so thankful for him and who he is. I can't imagine life without him.

Happy birthday, Kyle! Mom-mom loves you!

It's been a good month...

So far. Things are changing. I usually can't stand change, but this is different.

First of all, three out of four Miners are celebrating birthdays this month. I'm first. My birthday is the 16th and I will be turning 36. (Aaaaah!!!!!) Kyle is next. On the 21st, my baby will be eight years old. Then on the 28th, Jason will be the big 3-9. That's just not right. I met him when he was only 19!

Tomorrow is a big day for Jason. It's his first day at his new job!!! After almost 15 LONG years at his old job, he resigned. I'm pretty sure he would've killed someone if he had stayed there much longer. The company has been going downhill the last few years and Jason was miserable there. I worry a lot, but I'm not worried about this change. I'm happy for my husband and excited for him to get settled into his new job! I wish him the best.

I can't believe the holidays are upon us. I'm almost done shopping. There are two VERY excited children in our house. They can't wait for Santa to come. (Yes, even my almost 11-year old still believes!) Kyle's favorite saying is that holidays are about family. He came up with that himself and he's right!

If I don't get back to my blog before Christmas, I wish everyone Happy Holidays!

Kyle's turkey project

Kyle had to disguise a turkey for school. The object was to chose a disguise to prevent the turkey from being eaten this Thanksgiving (nice thought for 2nd graders!). Kyle decided to turn his turkey into a different bird, a penguin. Penguins are one of Kyle's favorite animals. It was supposed to be a family project so I helped by making the scarf, ear muffs and mittens. Please notice the natural colored feathers to help make it look like there really was a turkey under the disguise! I think it turned out pretty cute and was a creative idea.

There also had to be a little description included from the turkey describing what he's disguised as. Kyle wrote that his is going to the North Pole to take care of his egg, as male emperor penguins do.

Three cats and a collie

My Hen curled up on his bed

Emma in one of favorite spots in our room

Yoda curled up on our bed, showing one of her bald spots


Cole hanging out on the couch

Halloween 2009

Happy Halloween! It's the end of the day. Trick-or-treating is over and the wizards are tired. Justin and Kyle were in their costumes most of the day. They wore them to bowling for the costume contest. Kyle won first place in his division. He received a $20 gift card to Toys R Us. Justin didn't place. Two boys dressed as Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus won.

I have to send out a HUGE thank you to my talented mom for making these awesome costumes! It didn't take her long, but she bought all the material and made them with her own two hands. She made the shirts, pants, belts, cloaks and hats for both of them! Needless to say, the boys got a lot of compliments today while wearing their costumes.

Pumpkin carving

Kyle asked me a couple days ago if we could carve a pumpkin. I love pumpkins and always buy a few every year. However, I don't like to carve them since I like leaving them outside until Thanksgiving. But I told him we could if he helped. He was really excited and said this was going to be the best Halloween ever!

Kyle chose the face he wanted for our jack-o-lantern and the carving began. I didn't get a whole lot of help. Kyle was supposed to scoop out the pumpkin's guts, but gagged at the first handful, so I did the rest.

I'm not a very good pumpkin carver, but Kyle was happy with the end result. Currently, our jack-o-lantern is on the porch with ants on and in it. Yuck.

HE DID IT!!!

He is Tony. Tony is my brother the marathon runner. Tony qualified for the Boston Marathon this morning!!! He ran a marathon in Cleveland, OH this morning and finished in 3 hours 8 minutes. This is 17 minutes less than his last time! WOW!

I believe Tony's first marathon was Chicago 2004. (I'm sure he'll correct me if I'm wrong.) His time back then was about 4 and a half hours. He has run many marathons since then in many different states, including two ultra-marathons which are 50K. It became his goal to qualify for the ultimate, the Boston Marathon. When running is your sport, you need patience which Tony has. He has the patience that I lack! He used that patience and endurance and reached his goal.

I'm so excited for him and SO very proud of my little brother. Way to go Tone!!!

(The above photo is from marathon in Batavia, IL that Tony ran in September. It's just a proof that he e-mailed to me, but our parents are in the background watching him cross the finish line.)

I'm still here

I didn't fall off the face of the earth, I just found Facebook. I use it to update and don't have to type as much as I do on my blog. This was more fun when I first started it. Now I feel like all I do is talk about what room I painted and my sons' good grades. That's what my life revolves around. However, my mom requested that I post something and no matter how old I am, I have to listen to her.

I'm enjoying autumn. I love the cool weather, my fall decorations, wearing sweatshirts, and the smell of my pumpkin spice candles. I'm listening to the boys running around outside with their friends right now. The weather is beautiful today so they need to be out while they can! Soon after dinner the sun will set and it's homework time.

Justin and Kyle have had another great start to the school year. The lowest grade on Justin's progress report was a 94% and he has the highest reading level in his class. The only downside is that although we're proud of him, we're not surprised. Kyle is coming home with excellent grades on all his papers despite being in the accelerated program.

Hopefully we'll be getting out to one of the state parks this month. We try to do a nature walk this time of the year when the leaves are changing. It's nice that the boys appreciate things like that. My brother, Tony is going to Ohio this weekend for a marathon. He hopes to qualify for Boston this time. I wish him the best!!! Then in November, he's participating in the New York marathon. Pretty cool!

I also need to have a moment of silence. Today is the day the I totalled my car back in 1995. It was my green '95 Mustang. I was fortunate enough to walk away from the accident, but at the time that car was really important to me. It was my first big purchase after college.

That's all for now. In a few weeks it'll be Halloween, so I'll have pictures of the boys in their wizard costumes that my mom is making. Stay tuned.

Back to school

Today was the first day of school for Justin and Kyle. Justin returned as a 5th grader and Kyle as a 2nd grader. I'm such a proud mom, but I can't get over how fast time has gone and how big they're getting!

Justin is already excited that at the end of the year the 5th graders get to go on a big field trip to Navy Pier. The elementary school that Justin attends is attached to a middle school. Because the elementary school is so full, Justin's classroom is IN the middle school. He thinks that's cool.




Kyle started at a different school this year just down the street from Justin's. Kyle was invited to begin the district's challenge program this year which is only available at certain schools. He's not nervous about the accelerated learning (I think he's happy about that), but was a little nervous that he wouldn't know anyone in his class. Fortunately, he already knows a few of his classmates.

Today was a short day for them, but it went well. Hopefully the whole year will go smoothly!

Henry update

Since a lot of people have shown concern for Henry (mostly on Facebook), I thought I'd share some good news...

He walked down the hallway a couple times today!!! I was freaking ecstatic! I'd been trying not to stress out about it too much the last couple days. Since Kyle hadn't been feeling well, that helped me focus on something else. Today, Henry seemed less stressed. He went a little further into the hall than normal so I decided to coax him a little. I almost fell over when he came towards me. The phermone diffuser may be helping already.

As a reward, Henry got to go out in the backyard with Justin and his friends tonight. He ran around like crazy! They were all having a lot of fun. Henry is exhausted and will be getting a terrific night's sleep!

Time flies...

I can't believe it's mid-August. The boys go back to school on August 24th. To me, that's the end of summer.

Jason was on vacation last week. He'd like to sit around and play video games the whole time, and fire up the grill, but we did get out to the Museum of Science and Industry mainly to see the temporary Harry Potter Exhibition. A lot of the museum is under construction (much like Brookfield Zoo when we were there), but they still charge full admission. I'm not a big Harry Potter fan, but the exhibit was enjoyable, maybe because Justin was so intrigued.


This past weekend, Jason and I had a wedding to attend ( a co-worker of mine) and on Sunday I took the boys to their first Kane County Cougars game. It was a work outing. The weather was HOT and it started to rain in the 7th inning, but Justin and Kyle seemed to enjoy it. I think Kyle enjoyed his funnel cake more than the game, but Justin was interested.

As for this week, I think I should've stayed in bed. On Monday morning I spent about two hours on the phone trying to get things straightened out with the hospital and insurance companies from an incident with Kyle back in March. He was pushed down on the playground on accident, but hit the back of his head on the pavement pretty hard. As a precaution, I took him to his doctor and a cat scan was performed. All was normal, but everyone at the hospital seems to be confused that the school's insurance is taking care of the charges, despite the fact that Jason has faxed the papers to them about three times and we've both made several phone calls in the last few months regarding the matter! Ridiculous. I'm pretty sure I was in the middle of a nervous breakdown when I finally talked to someone with a brain that had the answer.


Then there's my bigger and hairier problem named Henry. He's pushing me over the edge. For some unknown reason he will no longer walk down the short hallway on the first floor of our house. There is a wood laminate floor in the hallway that leads into the kitchen. This is the same floor we've had the entire time he has lived with us (four years!). He only wants to walk on carpeted areas. And yes, I tried putting throw rugs down for him. It's gradually gotten worse. We used to be able to call him a couple times and he'd get up enough nerve to walk on it, but now he'll just stand at the edge of the carpet and whine. This morning I actually picked him up and carried him down the hall to the back door so he could go outside. He weighs 85 pounds. He's calm unless he's trying to get up the nerve to walk on the floor. He's never had any behavior problems and part of the existing problem is that I don't know the cause.

I am a veterinary professional and constantly give advice to people about their pets. But here I am in the middle of this odd situation with my own pet and it's beyond frustrating!!! I just want to help him, but I think all I can do is be patient (which I suck at). Hopefully in time he'll regain his confidence. And in the meantime I should just be thankful that he hasn't become aggressive or destructive instead. I love my dog and want him to be normal again.

*I did purchase a plug-in device for Henry. It's called DAP, dog appeasing phermone. It's supposed to mimic the comforting phermone that his mother once secreted. However it can take four weeks to see improvement. I just bought it yesterday. I actually used a device similiar to this for cats a couple years ago and it seemed to help.

Backyard work

I've been wanting to get rid of these ugly bushes for years! (I'm talking about the ugly ones with the yellow flowers.) They were here when we moved in almost 7 years ago. I hated the alternating pattern around the deck (not my landscaping style). They grow like crazy and I trim them down every year. I decided to do that earlier this week, but found that I couldn't cut much off without showing dead branches underneath. I figured this was a good excuse to dig them out. Now they're gone and our yard looks bigger and better! It looks great without them, like they were never there.

A visit from Becky and Bob

Becky is Jason's cousin from Los Angeles. Bob is her husband. Becky's 25-year high school reunion was this weekend in Indianapolis. Since Bob had never been to Chicago, they decided to head up this way for a couple days after her reunion. (Bob is not sheltered - he has lived in many states, just never stopped in Chicago.) So we got to spend a few hours visiting with them yesterday at Jason's parents' house. It wasn't long enough, but nice to get to know them a little better. I had only met Becky once before at our wedding. Obviously I didn't get to spend much time with her that day. We've been communicating on Facebook the last few months, so I feel I've gotten more familiar with her that way.

Jason's family is all over the country. Some are in the Washington D.C. area, Ohio, New York, and California. Fortunately, we're kind of in the middle of all of them and near a big city, so we get visits from an uncle, aunt, or cousin now and then. Becky's mom and dad are headed out here in the fall so now we're looking forward to that!