OWI

Ladies and Germs, we are down to the last 11 pounds.  If I have my way, I'm hoping for 6 more weeks.  This past week has been pretty good.  I have been having food cravings that tend to overwhelm me at times (like when I open a bag of chips for the kids and I have an internal debate for 20 minutes about no one will know if I have just one).  I'm getting excited for the next phase.  Bread.  Hmmmm.  Fruit.  Hmmmm.  One freebie meal a week.  {yay!}  I would have picked my freebie meal tonight.  The family had chicken fettuccine.  It looked good, it smelled like heaven and once again I found myself arguing with myself about eating one little noodle.  Hmmmm.  Noodles.  So in case I haven't made myself clear, I'm ready for this phase to be over.  This past week I lost 2.1 pounds.  Which leaves 11.4 to go.  And some exciting news?  Yesterday was my 13th wedding anniversary.  I can fit into my wedding dress.  {tear}  I wanted to get a picture of me in it, but I'm done with Mike being my go to photo guy and my bf was busy, so we planned for tonight.  Except a huge storm rolled through a few hours ago and it's still nasty, so sorry peeps, no pics for you.  It fits a bit different (in the sense that I'm bigger busted now than I was back then) and of course I didn't have the 3 kids by c-section ponch.  But it still fit and it made my eyes fill up with tears.  My dress is beautiful.  At least I think so.  I offered it to all of my sisters (who were all smaller than me so they wouldn't have fit them anyway), but they all said no.  But it's nice to know after 13 years I still love it.  And man, was it heavy.  Good grief, I don't know how I wore that all day.

And in other news, we are 3 weeks away from school starting.  For the first time EVER I am sad about it.  Mostly because I've worked all summer and so it hasn't really felt like summer.  That's a total bummer about working.  No summer holidays.  Unless I worked at the school and that didn't happen, so normal work it is.  One of the things I love most about going back to school is that it feels like New Years for me.  Even more so than New Years.  To me, going back to school is a time of renewal.  Time to shake off the old and get things on a schedule and to do better at things I've slacked off in.  Currently my house is driving me crazy.  We live in a small house with minimal storage.  My husband is not a fan of Ikea and all things that can make my life a little simpler.  So I am on the lookout for someone, ANYONE, who can look at my house, see what kind of storage items I need and tell me what to get.  I am so DONE with things not having a place.

That being said I'm losing my "office", which was the official word for junk room.  The girls have spent the summer together and it's made it a long summer.  They fight, they don't go to sleep because they stay up playing in their rooms (or sneaking a flashlight and reading under the covers) and so the girls have just been rotten this summer.  So that is ending now.  I'm cleaning out the office, the desk and computer are headed upstairs to the hallway and everyone will once again have their own space.  Just mine won't be private.  But at least I don't have to share either.  Most of my internet time is at night and I hate either waiting for a child to fall asleep before I can get on, or making them face the wall and try to sleep as they here the click-clacking of keys and the occasional snort of laughter or snippet of a youtube video.

So those are just a few changes that we're making.  I'd love to go crazy and paint and get new carpet and stuff like that, but Mike is a party pooper and says no.  No, no, no, no.  One of these days I'm just going to do it.....like when he's in Quebec in October for a work thing.  He'll come home to a brand new organized house.  SO....I need people to help.  Someone come measure everything and tell me what to do.  Once I have the basics I can organize the things on the organizer itself.  I'm actually quite good at that.  But the whole lack of space thing is really getting annoying.  And I'll be needing a painter.  And someone who will hammer nails in the wall.  And then I'll be needing vinyl from my sister.  It's time to make our house into a home.

So I'll keep you posted as I go, but if you can help, let me know!  ttys, L