Happy Birthday, Matthew!!!!

Happy 10th Birthday to my wonderful son Matt!  Your birthday was actually yesterday, but since we had such a busy day catching up from vacation, hanging out at the lake, enjoying your birthday cake and playing a never-ending family game of dominos, I haven’t had time to post my birthday wish until this morning. 

You are the sweetest, kindest, most sensitive boy and I love you – I hope you always stay exactly the way you are today.

Summer’s Here!

Seems like I was just posting that spring was here – now it’s summer already.   I can’t believe it! 

I’ve dropped a few more pounds for a total of 37 pounds lost so far – not too shabby!  My original goal was to lose 40 and now that I’m just a few pounds away, I was on the Internet (uh-oh – you know this can’t be good) and found a height-weight chart which told me that for my height, I should actually be about 10 pounds lighter than I am right now.  I guess that 40 pounds ago, where I am now seemed like such an impossible goal, but now that I’m here, 10 more pounds should be easy, right?  So with a minor adjustment, I’ll be at my ultimate (and surprisingly achievable) goal by the fall. 

The kids started a fabulous summer camp program at Rowan University this week called Kids Rule.  It teaches them a new sport every week and has them running, swimming, and playing hard every day – Emily even fell asleep on the couch last night!  It’s good to see them having so much fun – makes me feel less guilty for working all day.

Matt has joined the summer youth Hobo Band playing the clarinet and he’s also taking lessons this summer from a very talented teenage girl as well.  He’s surprisingly good – I think music is going to be his thing.

Emily just had her spring dance recital as well as her gymnastics ‘expo’ too.  And Andrew will be pitching at his last Little League game on Saturday night – he is going to be too old to play Little League next year.

We’re getting ready to go on vacation in a few weeks – back to our favorite campground, FrontierTown in Ocean City, Maryland.  I’m really looking forward to it – I could use some time away to just relax and spend some time with the kids without a hectic schedule…

So now that I’m on Facebook…

I find myself posting less and less here on my blog.  Facebook lets me post quick little updates – just a sentence or two at a time – and I find myself updating my “status” over there once or twice a day.  Plus I love reading everyone else’s updates – I guess that’s the voyeur in me?  And now I’ve also started to get hooked on Twitter too.  I don’t “tweet” much over there – I mostly read tweets from others (especially celebrities – there’s that voyeurism again).

I have started to post longer posts here several times and find myself editing them to the point where I just scrap the whole topic.  I don’t know how people write tell-all books or appear on talk shows to vent their dirty laundry in front of the world.  I find that I have to do a lot of self-editing – and end up saying not much of anything at all sometimes. 

But what I can share with you is an update on my diet – I have now lost 35 pounds!  Not too bad, I think. 

By the way, if you’d like to see my Facebook status updates, they show up in the upper right corner of my blog page here – you’ll also see photos that I post over there.

I’ll try to post here more often – just with a filter…

Catching Up

Working full-time certainly has affected the amount of time I have to update my blog!  Today is my day off, and I have about 5 minutes before I go and try to cram every weekday errand that needs to be done for the next 2 weeks into one day (can you say the DMV, optometrist, bank, etc…), so here’s an abbreviated synopsis of what’s going on with the Torrences (in bullet form – can you tell that I’ve been putting together a lot of presentations at work lately? – but not necessarily in sequential order):

• I turned 41 and had a GREAT birthday which included a massage and a camping trip to Cape May (not at the same time)
• Easter Sunday came and went – we had brunch with my parents at Cracker Barrel this year
• I’ve been keeping up with my diet and exercise ‘plan’ (not really a plan – just trying to eat less and move more) and have lost a total of 26 pounds as of today
• My mystery headaches were diagnosed by a neurologist as an ‘extended migraine’ – they lasted over a month and are being treated with a medication called Topamax.  The medication is helping – and as an added bonus, weight loss is a side effect!

Here are a few quick photos too:

That’s all I have time for right now…time to move on to the next errand…

Spring is here!

I’m happy that we’re well into the month of April and that winter is behind us.  I always get a spiritual lift in the springtime.  I don’t know if it’s the promise of Easter or the warmer weather or watching things come back to life again…I guess it’s a little bit of all of those things.

It’s also an uplifting time for me because I feel like as I’m shedding my heavy winter clothes, I’m also shedding parts of myself at the same time.  I’ve now lost 23 pounds and have gone down 3 pants sizes since the beginning of the year. 

March was a slow month for me for weight loss and I’m not sure why.  I think when I began seriously working out, I started to build up some muscle and while I continued to lose inches, my weight didn’t drop as fast.  But it still dropped…which is a good thing!  I feel like I’m in a good place and am happy with my exercise routine and diet – I don’t feel deprived at all and am enjoying the feeling of accomplishment that comes after a good workout.

Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to workout as intensely as I’d like lately thanks to some sort of mystery headaches I’ve been having.  They started about 3 weeks ago and will not let up – not even with pain medication.  And I’ve tried everything from Advil, Aleve, Tylenol, Sudafed and Excedrin to prescription migraine medicine, antibiotics, muscle relaxants, nasal spray and most recently, prescription steroids (the steroids are awful – they keep me awake at night and make my heart race – AND I still have the headache!). 

The good news is that I’ve had a CT scan of my head and sinuses that both came back normal.  I’ve started seeing a neurologist who is requesting a few more tests which are scheduled for this week.  Hopefully, they’re able to find the source and provide me some relief.  Or I’d be just as happy to wake up one day with the headache gone and never find the reason – I just want it to stop.

It’s extremely frustrating for me – I’ve found myself unable to focus well at work because of the pain – and I have to force myself to exercise and continue with my other normal everyday life stuff.  But as a mom, you just have to keep going and push through it, you know.  And I don’t want to slide backwards on my weight loss and exercise progress – I’ve just started to get into shape!

And as usual, of course, I’ve been all over the Internet trying to self-diagnose.  There’s some SCARY stuff out there!  I need to just back off, wait for the test results and assume that it’s nothing serious. 

I’ll post an update when I get some relief…hopefully soon.

So enough whining – spring is here!  We’re going to take our first camping trip of the year this month and I’ll be turning 41 in a few weeks.  I booked myself a “Stress Buster” spa treatment at a Red Door salon for my birthday – and also got myself a new pair of running shoes this morning as a gift to myself.

And just look at this cute photo of Emily I took this afternoon:

I can’t help but feel upbeat when spring arrives!

Oh – and we didn’t win the contest with our cupcakes from my last post – we came in second place.  But that’s okay – I thought they were adorable!

A “Me” Day

Yesterday I had a chance to spend some time on myself – a rare thing for a working mother of three!

In the morning, I went to an exercise “bootcamp” with my friends Cheryl and Kim.  It was pretty intense, but surprisingly, after all the exercising I’ve been doing lately (I’ve lost 19 pounds now since Christmas), I kept up pretty well.  I was actually a little bit proud of myself – it’s nice to see my hard work pay off.  A few months ago, I NEVER would have been able to keep up with the class. 

And after the class yesterday, I decided to go do a little bit of shopping for some new work clothes.  I’m down 2 sizes now – yipee!  I went up into the attic a few weeks ago to find some of my smaller sized clothes and found that all I really had in that size were jeans – It seems that the last time I was this size, I was a stay-at-home mom and all I wore were very casual clothes.

But at least the jeans I found fit me – so I started wearing them to work. 

While my workplace is pretty casual, people starting commenting on the fact that I was wearing jeans every day – I blamed it on Mike.  He doesn’t see the point in spending money on clothes that I will (hopefully) not be wearing for very long as I continue to lose weight.

Speaking of work, I’m finding that people are starting to notice my weight loss.  And for some reason, it makes me extremely uncomfortable – not sure why.  I guess I don’t like to think that I’m the subject of conversations – I’d rather not be noticed at all, I suppose.  Mike thinks it’s a control issue – since I’m not present during the conversations, I can’t control where they go.  I may need to examine that a little further…

Anyway, I finally broke Mike down on the spending-money-on-smaller-sized-clothes issue and I went out in search of a few pairs of black pants to get me through the next few months.  After trying on MANY pairs of pants at Gap and Macy’s, I found the perfect pair – the new pants from Dana Buchman at Kohls.  They fit me so well, I bought two pair!  While the tops in her line are a bit too colorful (and a little too wide) for me, the pants seem to be made to actually fit a woman’s body – no gap at the waist, just the right amount of stretch…love ‘em!

So while I’m holding off in buying a whole new wardrobe, at least I have some jeans and black pants – what more can a girl want?  A new pair of shoes, maybe…

Back from Florida

The kids and I are back from our trip to sunny Florida – and have been welcomed back with a snow day!  I am SO not a winter person – I just don’t understand why anyone would enjoy being cold.  When the colonists decided to settle in America, why didn’t they go further south so they wouldn’t have had to worry about those severe winters anyway?

At least for a few days, we enjoyed some gorgeous weather and great company.  We stayed with my dear friend Linda, her husband Tom and their children Kylee and Zachary.  My kids were excited to be able to swim outside in February. 

And yes – I took all three kids to Florida by myself – Mike stayed home with the dogs.  Getting through security at the airport was interesting – we had to take out all of our electronics, remove our shoes and put all the bags, coats and liquids on the belt – not nearly as easy as it sounds.  With three of us, it was quite the project.  To make it easier on the way home, I pulled out all of the iPods, Gameboys, cameras and cell phones ahead of time – plus, we were able to go through the faster “employee” line after I showed my FAA badge (it doesn’t come with many perks, but that’s one of them).

This was Matt’s first time flying and I was afraid that with his AS, he might have an anxiety attack.  He did, at first, but I was able to distract him by letting him play on my laptop (something he is not normally allowed to do).  Mid-flight, he looked over and said, “I don’t even feel like I’m on a plane – I feel like I’m at home.”  I was happy he had a good flying experience on the way there, because on the way back, we flew through a front that caused some moderate turbulence during the ENTIRE flight (even I was stressed – FAA perks don’t help you there).  But he handled it okay – I told him it was just like going over bumps in the road.

While we were visiting, we spent a day at Epcot which was a GREAT choice for Matt (he doesn’t like rides at all) and the other kids as well.

Epcot was a great combination of hands-on science stuff and cultural displays which was perfect for the kids.  They also had a new scavenger hunt program using a Kim Possible theme.  You’re given a Kimmunicator (aka cell phone) that gives you clues and activates special features throughout the park – even Andrew thought it was really cool!

We also visited the beach while we were there:

I wish I would have pushed my hair out of my eyes for that photo!  And I’d also like to point out how tall my son Andrew is (although he was standing on a little sand dune).

The kids enjoyed staying with their friends and had so much fun playing and swimming – we also visited Linda’s friend Judi who was kind enough to warm her pool for our stay.  My kids were in the pool for hours – the last time they’ll be able to swim until Lake Kandle opens on Memorial Day weekend.

Oh – and we also attended a ‘Puppy Shower’ – the Brandons got a new Westie puppy after we left and the neighbors threw her a party to celebrate while we were there. It was actually really cute – there were games like ‘pass the rawhide’ and a little agility course for the kids to maneuver while acting as puppies.  Their new puppy Molly will join Geddy’s brother Buddy who was more than happy to attend the party:

It was so nice to be in the sunshine – even if only for a few days.  But now it’s back to reality – and about 8 inches of snow.  Even the FAA Technical Center is closed today – and no one can remember the last time that happened!

One more thing – I managed to stay on my diet and exercise plan (for the most part) while we were away and I’ve now lost a total of 18 pounds since the holidays.  Unfortunately, I’ve still got a long way to go (I was pretty discouraged after seeing the photos of myself), but at least I’m making progress…

A quick update…

I haven’t been able to post as much since I’ve started this full time work schedule, so I thought I’d give you a quick update on what’s been going on around here…

First, I have continued to stick to my New Year’s resolution and have lost 2 more pounds for a total of 14 pounds lost so far.  This particular week I didn’t make as much progress as I’d hoped – my weight pretty much stayed the same.  But I am happy to report that I am seeing a definite change in the flab vs. muscle ratio – especially in my ‘core’ (a word – along with the word ‘powerhouse’ – that is WAY overused in yoga and Pilates, in my opinion).  I have been exercising every day, even getting up at 5am some days to work out before going to work.  Once you get into an exercise routine, it becomes more and more enjoyable – even addictive (not that I have an addictive personality or anything…).

On the work front, I am happy to report that the Alaska Flight Service Modernization (AFSM) Screening Information Request (SIR) package has FINALLY been released!  This is the package that we have all been working on for the last year.  What does this mean to me?  It means that work on this project can start moving forward again – things have been pretty slow the last few months which drives me CRAZY – I’d much rather be busy (it makes the work days go by faster).  Of course with the timing of things, I’ll probably have to go up to Alaska in the winter next year…

I am adjusting to the new full time schedule – having every other Friday off helps quite a bit.  But working 9 hour days is hard – especially with an hour commute each way.  I did move into a new cubicle with a window view though – which caused QUITE the controversy since I am a contractor and not a federal employee.  Apparently, window cubicles are prime real estate at the FAA Technical Center…

I’m off today and am trying to catch up on some things around the house – whatever I can do to make the weekdays easier!

Feeling a little bit better…

So now that I’ve had time to adjust to the idea of going back to work full time (and have recovered from a bad bout of either food poisoning or the stomach flu that I had earlier this week), I feel better about my decision.

Mike and I worked out an ‘alternate work schedule’ where I will have every other Friday off and he will have the opposite Fridays off – which means that one of us will always be home every Friday.  That gives us the flexibility to schedule things that can only be done on weekdays (cable guy, home repairs, doctor appointments, etc). 

For some reason, the idea of never having a weekday off again (other than vacations and holidays) felt stifling to me.  I was so stressed the other day that I had a complete meltdown on the way to work.  Maybe I just needed that release…I don’t know. 

Plus I met with the owner of the company I work for and she offered me a very nice full-time package – I was quite happy (and a little surprised) with the result.  And since I was only working part-time before, I didn’t receive paid holidays, vacation or sick time – now I will receive all those plus all of the other benefits too.  What a great concept – getting paid for not working!  I love it! 

I also realized that since Emily is now in first grade and is in school all day, I really don’t need to have those weekdays off.  On my days off while she is in school, I usually spend my time just relaxing and catching up on silly stuff (like my favorite reality TV shows on Bravo – what do you think of how mean the other OC housewives are to Gretchen on The Real Housewives of Orange County this season!!!).  I have to admit, that time could be much better spent earning extra money for the family.

I will be starting my new schedule on Monday.  Looking ahead, February shouldn’t be too tough – there’s a government holiday (President’s Day) plus I’ll have some time off when we go to Florida at the end of the month.  Not a bad start…

In Loving Memory of Helen Torrence

Mike’s grandmother, Nan, passed away peacefully at home last weekend – her funeral service was today in Allentown, PA.

I posted last summer about how she gave Emily a bracelet that belonged to her mother.

I also posted about our recent visit with Nan over Thanksgiving. 

Nan was a lovely woman who was as sharp as a tack until the very end.  She lived a full life, full of love and surrounded by her family. 

She will be sorely missed…