New Goals and Review

Every year I like to set new goals for the new year and I also like to look back at my goals from last year to see what I've accomplished and what I've failed at.

Goals for 2011 Review
1- Once again, my goal, like every other year, is to lose weight and live a healthier lifestyle. No excuses this year, it just has to happen. This goal I actually accomplished. I had set out to lose 70 pounds, but lost 80 pounds!
2- Be a better Mom. There are things I could do better/ handle better. There's always room for improvement. Yes, and no. I feel like I did somethings better, but there is still more I could have done
3- Keep a better organized house. Things kind of went down hill when I got pregnant with the twins and had to take it easy. Cole tried really hard to keep up with the house but between working and taking care of me and Grace the everyday stuff just kind of took a back seat. I have gotten the downstairs put of the house back in order now, but I really need to reorganize bedrooms, clothes, and the basement. This one I did. I made a house cleaning schedule that list what is to be cleaned each day. 

I figured we should set some goals for the kids to try to reach this year as well. Their goals are more goals for us to try to help them achieve. 

Goals for Grace
1- Become potty trained! Grace is a rock star and accomplished this goal in the first month of 2011
2- Learn her ABC's and counting Grace counts and does her version of the ABC's, they aren't perfect, but she does a great job trying.
3- Start Preschool Yes and she loves it!
Goals for Emma & Carter 
1- Try to loose their adjusted age by 1. I'd love for them to be caught up, or close to caught up,  age wise by 1 to other kids their age. This includes things like rolling, crawling, walking, and talking.We will try our hardest to work through delays. Obviously we will not be upset if they are still delayed at 1, I just want to make sure that Cole and I do our part to do all we can. I am very happy to say that Carter and Emma are right on track and no longer need their adjusted age!


Goals for 2012:

1- Lose another 70 pounds. I hope to continue counting calories and losing weight. I would like to add in some time at the gym, nothing crazy, just 2 days a week. I also want to increase my water intake. I want to start slow and add in 2-3 glasses of water each day. I am hoping the more I drink water, the more my body will crave it, so over time I'll be able to get in more water each day. 

2- I want to read at least 25 books this year. Last March I set out to read 25 books in 2011, I came close at 21 books, but didn't hit my goal. This year I really want to reach my goal!

3- I'm issuing a challenge to myself. I want to go the whole month of January, without cheating on my diet at all. In December I had 5 cheat meals, and I just feel like that it to many, so to make sure I'm back on track, and to start the year off strong, I want to go 31 consecutive days, without a single cheat meal. I know it is impossible to go through life without ever cheating, that's why my challenge is only one month long, but I do need to prove to myself that I can do it. 

I have yet to set goals for the kids yet, but I hope to set some soon. I feel like it's good for everyone to have goals to strive for. 

Updates

Just a few random updates on what's been going on today!


Carter & Emma Update
Carter and Emma had their ultrasounds done today. I mentioned the other day about how they were going to see a GI doctor to help come up with a plan for their reflux, well the doctor wanted them to have an ultrasound before he saw them. They had to fast for 3 hours before their ultrasound, but once you add it wait time and procedure time it ends up being 4 hours at least. This was pure torture! They have been eating between 2-3 hours during the day and going 3-4 hours at night. Emma's ultasound was scheduled for 2:30 and Carter's for 3:15. Emma finished her last bottle at 11am and Carter finished his at 11:30am, both babies were hysterical by 1:30pm and we hadn't even left for the hospital yet! Luckily both babies fell asleep once we got in the car and started moving. Emma woke up as soon as we got to the hospital.

One tech. took Emma and I in one room, while another took Cole and Carter into another room. We were so thankful they managed to do them at the same time, instead of having to wait. Cole took Grace in with him and Carter, have I mentioned how awesome my husband is! Emma absolutely hated having the ultrasound done, they were having a hard time seeing her pancreas so after 20 minutes the doctor agreed to let her eat while they got a picture of her pancreas, thank god! Cole's tech. ended up doing the same thing with Carter, I think they must've had a little dicussion in the hall with the doctor together. Carter handled the ultrasound a little better then Emma did and was even sleeping at the beginning of it!

Everything anatomically looked fine today, so we'll meet with the GI doctor next week and see what he thinks.

Goal Updates

1- One of my goals for 2011 is to lose weight and have a healthier lifestyle, well I decided yesterday that I would start my diet today, and I actually did! I decided that the best thing for me, was to count calories, that always seems to work the best for me. I use FitDay to keep track of all my calories, plus you can set goals, and keep track of your weight loss progress. I've used this site since 2005 (how sad is it that I've been dieting on and off since 2005, and 6 years later I'm still at it!) which is cool cause I'm able to go back and look at my weight gain/loss over the years. Well, the day is almost over and I've stuck within my calorie range, even dispite the stress of the day, which is HUGE for me, because I'm such a stress eater!

2- Another one of our goals is to get Grace potty trained, well I'm happy to report that after dinner tonight, Grace asked for the potty to poop. The best part is that she sat down and peed right away, when I asked if she was done, she said "No, poop on potty!" and she did just that! Yay! It's definitely a step in the right direction!

Goal Review & Setting New Ones

Well, it's that time of year again. Here were my goals for 2009 and 2010 , as you can see I have not had much luck at sticking with my goals. I'm really hoping to set and stick with my goals this year.

Goals for 2010 Review

1- Live a healthier lifestyle, no diets, or worrying about pounds lost. Just create healthier habits, smaller portions, more water, more fruits and veggies. Set good examples for Grace. Become more active as a family. Not workouts, but activities. Physical activities. Get moving as a family! Well this started off good but then morning sickness set in and I stopped going to the gym and only ate what I could manage to get down.

2- Get pregnant. Do everything within our means to make this happen. Take whatever medication, treatments needed, just make it happen! Yup! Needed some help, but we did this and got lucky and managed to score 2 for the price of 1!
3- Be tighter with money, less eating out. This should help the whole healthier lifestyle thing as well! Yes and no, we went through phases of being better.

4- Wean Grace from breastfeeding at some point this year. I really don't want to be breastfeeding a 2 year old. Yup, as soon as I found out I was pregnant with the twins I cut out that last nursing session and it was so much easier then I imagined!

So, 2 out of 4, 50%, not bad, but not great!

Goals for 2011 (god that seems weird to type)  
1- Once again, my goal, like every other year, is to lose weight and live a healthier lifestyle. No excuses this year, it just has to happen.
2- Be a better Mom. There are things I could do better/ handle better. There's always room for improvement.
3- Keep a better organized house. Things kind of went down hill when I got pregnant with the twins and had to take it easy. Cole tried really hard to keep up with the house but between working and taking care of me and Grace the everyday stuff just kind of took a back seat. I have gotten the downstairs put of the house back in order now, but I really need to reorganize bedrooms, clothes, and the basement.

I figured we should set some goals for the kids to try to reach this year as well. Their goals are more goals for us to try to help them achieve. 

Goals for Grace
1- Become potty trained!
2- Learn her ABC's and counting
3- Start Preschool 
Goals for Emma & Carter 
1- Try to loose their adjusted age by 1. I'd love for them to be caught up, or close to caught up,  age wise by 1 to other kids their age. This includes things like rolling, crawling, walking, and talking.We will try our hardest to work through delays. Obviously we will not be upset if they are still delayed at 1, I just want to make sure that Cole and I do our part to do all we can. 

Swimming

I mentioned that we joined the gym 2 weeks ago and so far, so good. I've started swimming every day after my cardio workout. Last Saturday I was able to do 5 laps (10 lengths) in the pool. 9 laps is 1/8 of a mile. Well today after I kicked my butt on the bike I hit the pool and did 16 laps (32 lengths). In just 1 week I was able to more than triple the distance I can swim. My goal is to hit 18 tomorrow (1/4 mile.) I've found a new love, and it's the pool! Now, don't get me wrong I look like a fool swimming and am not a great swimmer, but I'll get there!

And to top it off in the 2 weeks since we joined the gym I've only missed 2 days and as of yesterday I am down 16.4 pounds! I'm pretty excited about 16 pounds in 2 weeks. I know I won't continue to lose weight at this pase, but as long as I keep working hard I'll hit my goals!

Bad Blogger

I've been such a bad blogger. Between Cole's crazy hockey schedule and all the time at the gym (say what!) we're hardly ever home. In fact, we're 2 weeks behind on all our DVR'd shows. I'm hoping that with all the impending snow we're supposed to get that we can catch up on some tv!

The gym is going great! I've never been so excited in my life to work out. I've gone everyday since we joined, except for one, and done a full 2 hours everytime...go me! I do a cardio workout for roughly an hour and then I hit the pool for 45 minutes for another workout. I'm loving every minute of it and never knew how hard I could really push myself. It feels great to be working out!

As far as the baby making goes, we're waiting to see if I ovulate this month...the story of my life. So we'll just have to wait and see what this month brings.

I'm hoping to have some time today to put up a few blogs. Look forward to some new pictures!

In Grace news, she's working on getting all 4 of her molars...yikes. She is crying at drop off at the gym, but stops as soon as we are out of site. Grace had her first official babysitters Monday. Cole's Mom and sister watched Grace, while Cole and I were at a wake. It was unfortunate circumstances that led to the babysitting, but Grace had a great time!

We Did It

If you remember, one of my goals for 2010 was to live a heathier lifestyle. Well we finally got a family membership at a gym. We decided to go with the Weymouth Club. We love it so far. We took advanage of the free child care last night and dropped Grace off. Now this was the first time we'd ever left her with anyone. We've never even had family babysit. To say we were nervous recks is the under statement of the year.

We left and she was fine, no tears or anything. We must've walked by 10 times in the 1hr 20 minutes she was there. We had scheduled to leave her there for 2 hours, but we just were so anxious to get back to her. Cole and I managed to get in some cardio, swam some laps, and then sat in the hot tub together! We could've relaxed longer but we both just wanted to get back to Grace. I'm sure we'll get used to leaving her over time.

We thought she'd be so excited to see us, but when we walked in she just asked me for her milk cup and went back to playing.We're suppose to bring her back tonight, but she caught a cold from the little boy there yesterday, so I think we'll just take her to swim instead, so that she doesn't pass it along to more kids.

I'm scheduled to go to the gym by myself with Grace on Friday. I'm so nervous about leaving her, but know it's good for her and me!

Rough Start

We've had quite the rough start to 2010.

1.Our car broke down in the middle of the snow storm. Poor Cole walked back and forth between our house and car trying to figure everything out multiple times. We ended up signing up for AAA and having it towed. Lucky us it turns out we need to replace the transmission...yeah! (That's sarcasm in case you couldn't tell!)

2. One of our baby gates broke and another one fell out of the wall. Our little adventurer NEEDS to be caged, so we needed to replace the gates immedately! Luckily we only had to buy one new one, we were able to remount the other gate.

3. Grace and I came down with the world's worst stomach bug. Yuck! I happened to start throwing the day I started eating healthy. Let me just say that throwing up salad sucks and now I'm having a hard time forcing myself to eat one again.

4. I came down with this stupid stomach bug in the middle of when I'm supposed to ovulate, so it may have funked up this month for us. So far my monitor is still saying I haven't ovulated. I hoping the bug didn't scare ovulation away. I really want this to be the month it all works out for us!

There is some silver-lining though:

1. Grace didn't get as sick as I did. I was vomiting non-stop every 30 minutes for 24 hours, she only got sick 3 times in 24 hours.

2. Because I was so sick I couldn't sleep with Grace or nurse her at night so she's been sleeping with Cole and doing great. For 3 nights in a row now she's gone to bed without breastfeeding and stayed with Cole all night without breastfeeding. She's been nursing a lot more during the day to make up for the lack of night feeds, but day feeds are better then night feeds in my book!. The other night I slept 8 straight hours for the first time in probable close to a 1 1/2 years!

3. Things can only look up from here!

Goals and Review

So, last year I set some goals for 2009. They were:

Goals for 2009

1- Lose 70 pounds. Okay, so this did NOT happen. No real excuses, it just didn't. It started off good, then just went downhill fast.
2- Take care of some of our debt. This also did not really happen. Money became super tight and we ended up having to move. Hopeful things will get better in 2010.
3- Get pregnant again. Did NOT happen, but we certainly tried as hard as we could.
4- Continue to breastfeed at least until Grace is a year old. Accomplished!
5- Save up to go away in May. Accomplished, we went to Worcester for Cole's sister's graduation. Photos here, here, and here!
6- Exercise 3 times a week. Again, nope!
7-Take more me time. A little, but still not as much as I should.
8-Keep a neater house, not let laundry and dishes pile up, do a little each day. Yes and no.
9-Buy a new car. We bought a new car, but only after our other one died, so we still just have one car. I don't really know if this counts as an accomplishment...hmmm.
10-Continue to stay dairy free...YES!
11-Start journaling all Grace does, got lost along the way, but I'm back to blogging about everything she does, even if I'm the only one who reads it!
12-Follow through with my goals and update my progress on them monthly...not really.

So sorta a 50/50 on accomplishing my goals for 2009. I decided to make less goals for 2010, so that I can focus on them more.
Goals for 2010

1- Live a healthier lifestyle, no diets, or worrying about pounds lost. Just create healthier habits, smaller portions, more water, more fruits and veggies. Set good examples for Grace. Become more active as a family. Not workouts, but activities. Physical activities. Get moving as a family!

2- Get pregnant. Do everything within our means to make this happen. Take whatever medication, treatments needed, just make it happen!

3- Be tighter with money, less eating out. This should help the whole healthier lifestyle thing as well!

4- Wean Grace from breastfeeding at some point this year. I really don't want to be breastfeeding a 2 year old.

That's it for now! Happy New Year. May you all reach the goals you set for yourself!

She's Right

Today the Pioneer Woman (if you don't know who she is then you must read her blog, it's amazing!) wrote this blog, and it spoke to me. For those to lazy to go read the blog, which I'll kindly link here again, PW says this:

"Today I want to urge you to get over your shyness and pride and get in the picture!
I wish, wish, wish I had more pictures of me with our children. It is one of my few regrets.

So here’s the deal…
1. In five years you will look five years older….you WILL look young in the pictures you take today!
2. Ten years ago I thought I was fat. Oh my goodness….I should have taken pictures THEN.
3. Your children look at you all day long. THEY know what you look like. They won’t care how you look in the picture.

I really don’t like how I look in pictures. It pains me. I still want to look like I did when I was 25 years old. And really I’m shocked that I don’t.

But seriously. My children love me just the way I am. Chins and all.

Consider this your call to action!

You can do it. I know you can. If I can, you can!

Let your light shine. You will never regret it!

Encourage one another"

The PW is right! I need to get over myself and allow Cole to take my picture. I always avoid full length shots, as well as close ups. I hate the way I photograph and I'm always discouraged with how fat I am, but I'm depriving Grace of memories. I think about how much I treasure pictures of all our deceased relatives and then think about how when I die Grace and our future children will only have pictures of my face with them...usually with half of us cut off...because I took the picture myself.

So after all the babble, basically I'm saying I'm adding a new goal, to take more pictures ( I know I take plenty of Grace) but more of me, of us, as a family. Thanks Ree, I do need to snap out of it!

Goal Review

As you may remember for New Years I set a bunch of goals for 2009. You can see the original post here. I'm trying to do a goal review monthly to see that I'm working toward my goals.

Goals for 2009
1- Lose 70 pounds working very hard toward this, so far I've lost 13.2 pounds
2- Take care of some of our debt we are in the process of getting this taken care of, but so far no outcomes
3- Get pregnant again (not until the end of 2009 though) nope not yet
4- Continue to breastfeed at least until Grace is a year old still going well
5- Save up to go away in May we have been putting aside $25 every week
6- Exercise 3 times a week (I'm going to have to start this goal slow, like 1 day a week, than 2, than eventually 3) have not been doing a good job with this at all. In fact, I didn't exercise once in January. We decided we're going to buy a treadmill, so hopefully this will help this goal.
7-Take more me time I can't say that I've been working hard at this. Hopefully as Grace gets older, this will get easier.
8-Keep a neater house, not let laundry and dishes pile up, do a little each day we've actually done a good job at this, except for the last week while we've all been sick.
9-Buy a new car nope, not yet
10-Continue to stay dairy free yes!
11-Start journaling all Grace does I'm doing this and loving it!
12-Follow through with my goals and update my progress on them monthly well, I've been working toward some of them, but probably could work a little hard. Hopefully next month will be even better!

Goals and Accomplishments

I had blogged the other day about how at New Years' Eve we had to list our accomplishments for 2008 and our goals for 2009, so I thought I would share them here!

Accomplishments for 2008
1-Having Grace: just everything involved in having a baby, getting pregnant, dealing with morning sickness EVERY single day from 5 weeks until delivery, being on bedrest, the induction, my high blood pressure, pre-eclampsia, laboring, having a c-section, recovering, all that is a huge accomplishment for me
2- Breastfeeding: man it is so much harder than I ever thought, but I am happy we are still breastfeeding and have never needed to supplement
3- I am in such a better mind set in 2008 then I was in 2007, I went through a really rough patch of depression and anxiety for quite a while
4- I lost weight: a month after delivering Grace I weighed less than I did before I got pregnant ( I think all the morning sickness helped with this one)
5- I went dairy free (for Grace's sake) and have remained that way for 2 months now
6- We started budgeting and eating out less
7- I finally admitted that I hated my career and that I think I made the wrong decision becoming a nurse


Goals for 2009
1- Lose 70 pounds (which sounds like a lot, but is only roughly 8 pounds a month, 2 pounds a week)
2- Take care of some of our debt
3- Get pregnant again (not until the end of 2009 though)
4- Continue to breastfeed at least until Grace is a year old
5- Save up to go away in May
6- Exercise 3 times a week (I'm going to have to start this goal slow, like 1 day a week, than 2, than eventually 3)
7-Take more me time
8-Keep a neater house, not let laundry and dishes pile up, do a little each day
9-Buy a new car
10-Continue to stay dairy free
11-Start journaling all Grace does ( I actually started this yesterday!)
12-Follow through with my goals and update my progress on them monthly