Obsese. Yup. I plugged my numbers into a free calorie counter website and with my BMI...I am in the OBESE region. Yikes. Never have I ever saw that coming. I'm still fighting to stay in the 130's but I guess I need to fight harder.

Now with my skin doing 80% better and my itchiness has gone down quite a bit, I feel like I can tackle this area of my life again...and again. But this one word has sent me in more of a panic mode than when my size 8 jeans refuse to allow me to breathe when wearing them.

Obese. There you have it folks.

As dreadful as I feel when I hear this word associated with me, it doesn't tell the whole story of me and how I got this way.

I've been stress eating myself to this word pretty much all of 2011 when my body ached, shivered, tired out, broke out in oozing rashes that drove me literally unable to stay still because I would itch myself to the point of bleeding. Now, as I crawl out of this health hell-hole, I will fight another fight with the scale and this time, without all the beforementioned, I will keep on working my way to a healthy body.

Just did Jillian Michaels' 30-day shred video...the first workout. It was hard. I used to do all three of the workouts at one time consecutively. But instead of getting sad over my state of health, I kept going and cheered myself on because I'm not itching and two months ago, this would have been impossible. So proud of myself and thank God all the time.

Da bus is da bomb

Okay so I feel so spoiled. This year, our neighborhood got bus service for the kids to and from school. I rode the bus when I was young. I didn't get that this was a priveledge-not a right until S.E. started school last year and there was no bus service in our little vinyl village. The carpooling to and from school for 9 months was mind-numbing-I hated the bottle-neck at school and the dodging kids and bad weather was enough to make this already grumpy personality I have even more grumpy.

I am so thankful for this service because it has allowed me an extra 40 minutes to just do something for myself. Today, I scrumbed and primped my narly feet (TMI I am sure but that's what I did). I would never do this before. I would be ironing lovely husband's work clothes, mending things for people, or just running around doing errands for or with the kids.

So thank you bus drivers for taking on the job of taking my lovies to and from school and for offering your smile to my kids.

The Pokeman phase. The boys can't read yet. Yet, they know the names, numbers, and order of Pokeman cards.

Mama doesn't get it. Mama can't make heads or tails of it. But mama does enjoy listening to them divvy up the cards and battle. The wonders of little boys. I know the ins and outs of girls. I love God's humor because I needed to know more about boys...Thank Heavens.

I need to take a moment to celebrate my progress. Since my skin problems started a little over four years, I have put a halt to any updating to my house that might cause me to further exasterbate my condition.

To with great caution, my husband and I decide since my skin has been looking great and the weather is still nice enough where we can air out our room-we finally painted the last four, white walls in our home (pics will come when we get done).

I haven't broken out. I haven't scratched during sleep. I just want to jump up for joy!! I have to remember moments like this because health is a gift. Sorry to sound so dramatic. I am just so grateful.

Boring lamps to Va-voom lamps

My friend Dee showed me how re-cover my boring Costco lamps. I think it turned out fantastic if I do say so myself.

I had tried in the past to recover lamps but I'd end up with bubbles or it was a sticky mess. Before I would use spray adhesive to stick the fabric to the shade. It was very unforgiving. This method, I used tacky glue (the all-purpose gold-colored bottle kind) and went to work.

To clean-up the underside, I bought roping and glued it on (not shown). I'm so happy to have this done because I've been wanting to do this for over a year now.

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chippers

Warning!!! This recipe is so good and easy, you might have to curse this blogsite for having this recipe on here. I got this recipe off of another website and now I can't find it so I can't give credit where credit is due. Nonetheless, I feel it a duty to re-publish this recipe because it's ooohhh. so. Good. Another reason I love this recipe is it does not require a TON of butter.

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chippers

6 T softened butter
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter

1/3 cup white sugar

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/4 cup all purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup or less chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F. Beat together butter, peanut butter, sugars, and egg until creamy. Add vanilla extract and give it another whirl to incorporate. Stop the mixer and add the dry ingredients except the chocolate chips. Again, blend until fully uniform (~less than 1 minute). Add chippers and blend. Drop teaspoon about 1 inch apart and bake for 10-14 minutes depending on cookie sheet type and oven.

It makes about 2 dozen cookies.