Sick

Ok. So I've basically had it with being fat. I'm done. Well, ok. I hope I'm done. I decided a couple of months ago that I was going to try, once again, to lose some weight. So, I've been religious. SO careful with what I eat. And the pay off after all these months, I've lost 2 pounds. Wow. So if I keep that up. in 74 months, I'll be where I need to be. That's just fabulous.
This isn't my first weight loss attempt. In fact, there is a very small portion of my life where I don't remember being on a diet. I can remember being on a diet in second grade.
I started thinking, it has NEVER worked for me. (the whole diet thing) I'm thinking of something drastic like gastric bypass. Right now, we're going through the paperwork etc to see if the insurance will pay for it because I have type 2 diabetes, most likely sleep apnea, and a lot of "fat girl" symptoms, like continuous knee and back pain. All of which will most likely be improved with gastric bypass. I didn't know this until I attended the classes, but type 2 diabetes can be cured simply with the surgery. It's an absorption issue, but without losing a single pound, diabetes can be eliminated with the surgery.
Even if the surgery is covered by insurance, there is a good portion we'll have to pay for ourselves, so we're trying to figure all of that out.
I'm actually really excited about all of this. I've researched the diet you have to eat following the surgery and I think I'm prepared. I have a consultation with Dr. Sherman Smith next week. Dr. Smith did his residency with my Uncle Dean, and I guess is pretty well known for his work as a bariatric surgeon.
Anyways, I feel good about my decision and feel like everything is going to work out.

Ok, I have no life.

Sorry for the generic catch up post, I work graves and basically have no life. Here's what has been happening around here in a nutshell.

In February, Robert and I celebrated our first anniversary. For our reception, I ordered a kind of elaborate wedding cake, The lady that was going to make it never showed up, and never returned my calls. She did so kindly email me and say that she forgot the date. So we didn't have the 1 year old wedding cake top to eat. Not wanting to miss out on two traditions I ordered a little cake from a bakery in Kaysville called "Sugar Daisy Bakery." Rarely, and I mean rarely am I in aw of anything. So often people do the bare minimum for what you pay them. My cake was $30 and I told her to make it pretty. She did a great job. Not only was it pretty, it was one of the most delicious cakes I've ever eaten. The bakery specializes in cupcakes...but oh man, that is some darn good cake!!!

We stayed in a cabin at the Alaskan Inn, and it was lovely. It wasn't "the nicest place I've ever stayed" which was how it was described to me...but nothing as far as bed and breakfasts in Utah will ever compare to Kay Malone's Wolfekrest. I think I am just kind of a snob and I don't really dig the whole "theme" rooms. I much prefer the posh.


It was a great weekend and a fun getaway.
For those of you who are unaware, I am currently working two jobs. I work full time at Delta Airlines (graves) and then part time writing for the Standard-Examiner.

So during my online sabbatical, the boys both celebrated their birthdays.
For Jonah's 3rd Birthday in March, we had a transformers theme. We went and got gourmet cupcakes at the sugar daisy bakery, we went to "How to Train Your Dragon" and we had a party at grandpa and grandma's house complete with transformer pinata.This is my brother David jumping on the tramp with the boys. He got tickled pretty adequately.

For some reason David and Lisa (my siblings) both thought it would be a great idea to put tatoos on my kids. It did emotional damage. Each time you put a sticker on Jonah now he has to make sure it comes off.

We also had Easter. We got each of the boys a new church outfit for Easter. Don't they look cute?
Robert sent me these

For Logan's 5th birthday in April, we had a "How to train your dragon" theme, but there weren't any kid movies playing that they hadn't seen. Logan opted for me to make his cake instead of the gourmet cupcakes. He picked his usual...pink cake with pink frosting. (his favorite color is pink) Again, we had a big party at our house and then at grandma's house too.


OK, you've all witnessed the ghetto-ness of my family. When I was little, we NEVER had wrapping paper. I mean NEVER. My mom always "wrapped" our presents in towels. I promised myself I would never do that. This year I even bought wrapping paper. I just never had a chance to wrap them, so my kids opened presents out of plastic bags. I know. It's awful.

It's a tragedy

Ok...I know it's been a long time in coming. (almost 2 years). We'd never have gotten to this point if it weren't for the help of my awesome uncle Drew! He did tons of work in the basement. We have finally painted the toy room and I'm making the decorations, curtains and even chairs. We painted the room a bright red and we're going to decorate it in all Disney. Here is where the problem comes in. The accents in the room (except for crown moulding) are going to be painted black. The chairs I am making are black, red polka dot, and I'm looking for the perfect print of disney fabric...sadly all of the ones I have found are just not "it." Then I saw these curtains on line that were home made. They sucked, but I loved the fabric. I have not been able to find any of this fabric since. I have found things on line made from this fabric, which is apparently out of print.



This is the mickey mouse print that I want, no NEED!


These are the chairs I'm making.

At this point...I'll pay a reward if you can find this fabric!!!!
Oh, why does it always have to be hard!!!

I am, however so excited to say that the room is almost done!!!

I'll post pictures soon!

Diary of a fat chick

I went to the gym for the first time....in about ever today. Ok, maybe not ever...but it's been at least a year, probably longer. I've decided that I have GOT to lose some weight. I know I can do it, because I've done it before. It's the sticking with it thingy. But I figure if I post updates on here, then I'll have to be accountable right? Yeah, I know, no more junk food. Suckish. Hopefully that will prevent premature death, heart disease or the other garbage they say is going to happen to me if I don't lose the weight.

Oh, we both have jobs now. Robert starts working at the Census on Wednesday. I can't even start to explain how excited I am to have him back at work. I love him dearly...but oh.my.gosh. there is only so much gaming I can handle, and I've reached max capacity!!!

I landed a job at Delta. I don't start that until the 16th of February but I am also going to keep my writing gigs for the Standard-Examiner and also toptenreviews.com.

I'll be working at Delta full time. I'm so happy for the opportunity to work there! I'll be able to get insurance shortly after going to work there, so that really is a blessing.

Oh my gosh. I'm so hungry. Why is it that working out always makes me so hungry?! I think it's time for bed!!

Christmas Village

Yesterday, we took the kids to the Christmas Village in Ogden. They had such a good time! We waited in line FOREVER to have the kids sit on the lap of the world's grumpiest Santa! (Oh well, the kids didn't seem to mind!)











On Thursday, Logan had a Polar Express Party at school. All the kids got to go to school in their pajamas and they watched the polar express and decorated gingerbread houses. Here are some pictures of Logan's little gingerbread house.







Also here are a few of my favorites from October and November.





Feeding the ducks at the duck pond in Layton.









I took the kids to the Treehouse Children's Museum a few weeks ago. Logan got to take home "Licorice the bear" and he had to draw pictures of everything he did while Licorice was staying with him. He kept drawing pictures of "driving in the car" so I figured the trip was necessary!






This is the typical holiday at the Stephens house! On Thanksgiving, David found a laundry basket, and somehow decided it was a good idea for him and my kids to ride down the steps in it. *sigh*

New calling

Ok, so I got a new calling on Sunday. I am the new activity day leader for the 8-11 year old girls. I'm a little overwhelmed with the calling. I have no information about the program and I don't really know exactly what I'm supposed to do. Inspite of all of that, I'm so excited to have a calling and to have such a fun age group!
Logan got selected to take home "licorice" the black bear puppet. Licorice is supposed to go along with Logan for every activity. Because the first 3 pages of activites logan drew were pictures of us "driving in the car" and "us in a cart at the store" and "driving home from the store" I decided unless we wanted to appear to be amish boring, we had better do something fun this weekend. Logan and Jonah slept at grandma and grandpa's house on friday and they got in the hot tub. So that was a good picture for Logan to draw. On Friday, I went to one of my best friends fathers funeral. After that I took the boys to go to the treehouse museum and out for ice cream. It was overall a pretty fun day. (I'll post some pics of the kids and licorice.)
Just on a side note, the funeral for Donald Holman was a very difficult thing for me to attend. It was hard to see my friend suffer. It was so hard for her sweet little boys, but even more than that...it brought a realization that life is short, we are all mortal, and we can lose our parents or loved ones at any time. I am so thankful for the knowledge that families are forever. I am comforted by the plan of salvation and in knowing that we will all be a family in the life after this one.

Thundercats HO!

Ok, so I just wanted to talk about my favorite thing that Jonah does. Jonah has been fully indoctrinated with a love of Thundercats. Anything that is stick-like becomes the "sword of omens" and he'll pick it up and say "Thundercat, thundercat, thundercat HO!" It is just the cutest thing. I have been trying to get pictures of it for weeks to no avail.