What a week!

I had quite a week this week. It started out really good. I was excited to have family coming to visit, Austin's birthday was on it's way and we had two great parties planned, I started my gym membership and saw my trainer which went really well. Things were good. Then I started getting sick. Oh well I'll just suffer through a little head cold. How bad could it be? Well the in-laws get here and I break out in a really bad cold and loose my voice. Ok, I can keep going no big deal. We have Austin's first party with the cousins. That went well. Then that evening my knee starts hurting. It must just be arthritis acting up I'll just walk it off no big deal. The next day It's still hurting. I ignore it some more and just keep going. I still have no voice and visitors here. Austin's next party is the next day I have to push through this. That night it's starting to swell so I take some Advil and go to bed with my leg up on a pillow. The next day is Austin's birthday. The swelling is down so I just ignore it and just walk with a slight limp. So much to do for Austin no time to worry about it now. Still not much of a voice but oh well. We do the party and it's a blast. My knee is pretty sore so I put a brace on it then we do dinner with everyone. When we get home I finally get to look at my poor knee. I take the brace off to find it totally swollen! Huge! I take some more Advil. Still don't know what's going on with it but too much going on to think about it right now. I remembered I had a sample from my mom of an aloe product called MSM. It's for sore muscles and joints so I put some of that on it and go hang out with the family. Well about 20 minutes after I put that stuff on it the swelling and stiffness is gone! Wow! So I go to bed with it up. The next day it's so much better but still sore and I'm still sick but the family leave for there ski trip and I just stay home and rest all day. I put more of that stuff on it and it's really helping. I probably shouldn't have ignored it so long but my body just fell apart on the wrong week. I'm just going to take the next few days to rest and recover. I'm hoping I didn't do too much damage to my knee. I need to get back to the gym.

laying down the law

We decided to try out a new reward system with the kids. Grounding and corner wasn't working at all so I came up with a new plan yesterday. so far today it's gone really good. I made a points system where we start the day with 30 points and they can earn more or lose them by doing good things or bad behavior. They use the points to watch their favorite shows or the Wii or computer games. They earn points by doing workbooks, art projects, exercise, reading and writing. They seem to be taking to it well. They'd have to do quite a bit to get the 2 hrs of screen time the doctors say to limit them to. They only earn 1-5 points at a time. Each point is a minute of time. Today was day one and went really well. I'm hoping it continues to go well.

Forever Living

So my mom talked me into signing up to get these aloe products. I started using them again. My mom used them all the time when we were growing up but had stopped when we moved. Well she started back into it and I signed up too. They are wonderful products that I really believe work so I signed up and now can get them at a discount. I don't really feel like getting into selling them necessarily but I could if we needed me to make some money at some point. I used the liquid soap on Sierra's hair today. She's had severe cradle cap since she was tiny and we've been using T-gel on it but it stinks really bad. So I got the aloe soap and it totally worked! I was so happy her hair won't stink like medicine anymore! I've been using the diet plan and I've lost a few inches. I'd been on a plateau for a while trying everything but nothing was working so I'm excited about that. Oh and I scraped my thumb and it was looking pretty bad. I put the aloe jelly on it and over night it looks so much better. I used the heat lotion on my back after hurting it and it totally has been helping it. I'm so excited to have these great products in my home again.

Destructive stage

Brian has reached the destructive stage. He is always breaking and destroying random stuff for no good reason. We can't figure it out. Tony says it's just a boy thing and he'll grow out of it. He remembers going through it too. Fun with boys. I'll never understand them. Austin is back to napping every day. He just needs a nap or around 4 he becomes impossible. I don't care what the doctors say, red-heads do have a hot temper. When I told the kids doctor that he has a red headed temper she got upset and said that the color of hair has nothing to do with temperament. It was then that I realized that she dyes her hair and that it is really red.

paint

Right before I got pregnant with Sierra I started painting my walls. I got done with the first coat downstairs then got pregnant and never finished. I figured I'd start back into it after she was born. Well she's now 18 months and I have yet to start it again. I'm wanting to paint my room now but need to finish the huge project I had started before. This would be easy to finish if I didn't have 3 little "helpers" wanting to play in the paint. I'm thinking I'm going to have to have Tony take them somewhere for the day while I just get it done. Has anyone else tried to paint their house with three little kids running wild? Any advise?

head start on the spring cleaning

So I've been watching a lot of HGTV lately and feeling quite inspired to improve our home. I've been re-arranging everything and organizing. It's amazing how much stuff one can accumulate over the years. We have a lot of stuff in this house! I've done quite a bit but still have so far to go. It's really hard to organize when you're married to someone who can't throw anything out. He's got stuff he's not seen for years but can't part with the boxes. Well I'm working around it and trying to at least keep that stuff out in the garage.

It's been a while

I've not been in here in a while adding anything. I've been so consumed with stuff to write anything. We've had ear infections, sinus infections, and the start of pneumonia mixed with a bout of asthma. All that after two weeks of head colds. We are finally all done with meds and recovered. I started a cleansing program my mom sells from forever living products. It's an intense program but seems to be a good one so far. I'll let you all know how it goes in the end. It's only been since Saturday so not long enough to know the full affect yet.

My sister surprised us by driving up for New Year's. That was great having her back here for a while. It was sad seeing her leave but I'm happy that it looks like she'll be moving back soon! We all miss them so much and really hope that their plans to come back work out.