The post where I tell y'all how blessed I am.

Thanks for your words of encouragement after my last post about being down in the dumps. I have had several bad weeks that seemed to be a culmination of things.

But.........things are looking up!! My mind seems to be getting back to a more level place. I feel more in control of what is going on inside that scary brain of mine!

Thanks again-this is what blogging buddies are for....you make me realize it is ok to be me! Love You Guys.

...It'll be alright, come Monday I'll be.......

In the gym by daylight??

Probably not but it sounds good with the song.

One of my very good high school buddies has decided to join us for EMME. Please take a minute today to stop over, read her story and welcome her into our group. Click on link to go Tricia's blog.

Thanks my blogger peeps!!! You are the best!

Down in the Dumps

My story is very involved. I will just keep it brief and tell you my older sister died in a motorcycle crash 2 months after her high school graduation. This day was also my 11th birthday. The world as I knew it changed drastically. My mother went C-R-A-Z-Y! Now that I have children I get it. My 11 year old self didn't get it.

Everyday I get up and struggle with depression. Some of it is genetic, I really try not to play that card-it is too easy to slip into my life sucks and nothing is going to make it better mentality.

This week my days have been better. I really wish I were not so emotional. However, this is the life I have....

I want to enjoy it. But I don't.

There is really no good reason.

Except my mind is not right.

Just wanted to put this out there so I can look back and see where I am.

Extreme Makeover Me Edition

Here we are it has been another week. Be sure to visit Mr. Linky at Amber's website to learn more about her EMME!

Yesterday morning I was feeling thinner, I weighed and was down 2 pounds. In my effort to actually keep things real I went ahead and weighed this morning and found yesterdays 2 pounds....yep! I am right back where I was last week. I really am feeling better. Everyday I am trying harder to drink more water. (with the help of my Sonic cup) My arms are feeling smaller, my face looks smaller. This week I am going to embrace that small victory and let myself enjoy the progress hopefully it will emerge in the form of motivation! (let me just get out my ring for the wonder twin activate in the form of positive self talk) If you didn't get that....sorry! If you did-well you know what that means!This weeks question posed to all of us is.......

"Who is your biggest supporter/motivator in your weight loss? Do you have anyone around you that tries to sabotage you by "talking" you in to eating the not so good stuff?"

My husband is supportive, would do anything I asked him to help me out. (I just never ask) He would never make a comment about what I am eating or not eating. Exercising or not. Unless I specifically ask him to. And I don't. I don't like that kind of accountability. It makes me so much more likely to "cheat" when he is not around!

I did say in my last post that my daughter has been all about the exercise! She is very active and really happy to push me into working out...and if I slip into calling myself fat, she is quick to say "your not fat" its nice to hear, even if I know better. (I am just sayin')

That leads to to the biggest sabotager (is that a word?) that would be me. I am too laid back. It shows in my diet! Which also shows in my butt.......

What would this world be like without Daddies?

I want to wish a Happy Father's Day to my 2 favorite Daddy's in the world! It may not be politically correct to mention my own Daddy first, you know since I knew him first! He has been the #1 parent in my life! I blogged about that some time ago...if you are interested in learning more about why I am the way that I am, read here. It touches on how great my dad is!

The next daddy that I must talk about is my wonderful husband Shane click on his name if you want to read the thankful post I wrote about him on Thanksgiving last year. I cannot share with all of you just how great he is! No really, I can't! (: Just trust me he is great! And some (notice I didn't say all) is more than I deserve!

And a shout out to all of you...love your dads, love your husbands. And even when its hard love the father of your children, just remember it is for your children and we all want whats best for the kids!

The way I are....

I am about to share something with you blogger peeps.

I am judgmental!

Why, you ask? Oh, you didn't? Let me tell you anyway....

Really, I have no idea why! I have been trying very hard for the last couple of years to not just make judgements about things I don't know about, or people whether I know them or not. Just thought I would let you know that about myself. I am also very sarcastic. People say that sarcasm is a shield or a defense mechanism, or a crutch. Could be! Could be that I am just a smarta**.

p.s. If you were sitting near the man on the flight from Dallas to Little Rock Friday afternoon that lost his vodka from the night before lunch sorry about that! That man may or may not be my husband.

Go me!

Welcome to another week of EMME! Amber hosts this weekly support group of women trying their best to improve their lifestyle. Be sure to click on the photo below to visit her site and all the other great ladies.





This was a good week for me. Remember I didn't weigh last week so the 2 pounds I have lost has been over a two week period. But as I have said before its better than a poke in the eye.


Last week while traveling I pretty much ate fast food. I did make good choices and do my best to cut down the soda consumption. When I have fast food I really like to drink iced tea, I am not a good iced tea maker, but I really do like to drink it.



I have been noticing that my arms and legs are smaller. We switched to AT&T uverse a couple of months ago. We have a channel called FIT TV. My oldest daughter has found this channel and appointed herself my personal trainer. Talk about motivating...she wants to spend that hour with me. Maybe its only so she can laugh at me trying to exercise but sadly she is at an age where I take what I can get.



Amber gives us a question each week to help us learn from each other. This week the question is:

Post a picture of the contents of your fridge so everyone can see how much healthy food is (not) in it.

In my attempt to keep it real I didn't try to neaten or rearrange anything even though I cringe everytime I open it these days.....summer is killing me!! My daughters have best friends that are sisters and they are always at our house or theirs. That gives me not 2 girls but 4 girls! I shouldnt complain, they do not mind fixing their own food! But then I end up with this, things just shoved in! BTW: look hard, not much healthy in there. *hangs my head in shame*

Show us where you live....

It's another show us where you live Friday...that I didn't get to until Sunday. Click on the picture above to visit Kelly's blog and the bathrooms of MANY others.

Welcome to our bath:

this is the entrance from the master bedroom!

The prints are some canvases I bought at Gordmans a couple of years ago. The table is from Pier 1 was labeled as a desk, it has 2 small drawers.

Vanity area. We took the ceiling to top of vanity mirror! It was huge! I really like these that came from Garden Ridge at $99 for each. I wanted to hang them vertically but the sinks are not centered and they looked stupid. They could not hang lower because of electrical outlets. You can tell a man made those decisions. Not a good one. I would have sacrificed those outlets as I have outlets inside the false drawers below the sinks.

Back in 2004 I framed this picture of the girls taken in 2/1998. E was 3 SJ was 5 months old. This was the day before SJ spent 4 days in the hospital with RSV.

The evening I put this picture out SJ wrote this note to E!! I still laugh everytime I see it. I keep it behind the picture in the frame.

The black leather rectangle ottoman came from IO Metro. Most of their stuff is too modern for my taste but a great store.

Our small chandeleir, I love the ceiling medallion! We used a lighting designer from a small local hardware store that didn't charge anything if we bought from him. He spent a couple of hours here at our house helping me to pick fixtures, ceiling fans, and cabinet and door knobs that I ordered as I could.

Both doors are entrances to the L-shaped closets. Our other 2 bathrooms are nothing special and I was too lazy to take pictures and talk about something so uninspiring.

Lynn Needs:

I was over reading some old posts on Connie's blog and she posted some of the thing.s she needs per google.....me being the follower that I am thought this might be fun! Here is what Lynn needs according to google.

Lynn you need to figure out a special way to deal with your stress girl. Another way besides food. Go for a walk, a hot bath, ...
Lynn need some hugs from you!!
Lynn Needs Help With Her Baby Y'all!.
LYNN needs help
(no lie-those were the first 4 things google tells me I need)
Lynn needs a blog {there is one we can take off the list}
Lynn Needs Your Help Again -- Vote for her in Flex Magazine's Bikini Contest! She has posed for Playboy and was on VH1's Most Smartest Model. {I am guessing this is not the same Lynn that needs to find a way to handle stress that is not food}

I am cracking myself up!!!

On the upside....

no scale to weigh myself. :) On the downside....too many mirrors. For some reason I never look at myself in the mirror at home. Maybe I am acclimated to them?? I imagine I divert my eyes when I see them! So staying in a hotel ALL by myself I am running around with mirrors everywhere! This is the week at Cheer camp.....luckily no one expects me to do any cheering-that could get ugly quick!

The girls are staying in a fairly new dorm room at one of the State University campuses. Their room is on the 3rd floor with no elevators. And in true college fashion nothing is close by, everything is a bit of a walk. In case I forget to mention it-I LOVE cheer camp!!! I cannot tell you when I last had so much fun. (sad, I know)

On to business. Its time for another week of Extreme Makeover Me Edition. Amber hosts our weekly support group (click on picture below) please go and support all of my buddies in this attempt to improve our health and our lives.

This weeks question "What's your favorite thing to drink while you're losing weight? We all know how important it is to get that water intake up, especially with summer almost here. What's your favorite way to spice it up?" is easy for me. I am not really a spice it up kind of girl. I have been getting a large water with extra ice from Sonic every morning! Yes it costs $.47 and its so worth it. After I finish that water I have enough ice to refill a couple of more times!!! My water intake has risen in the weeks since school got out and I have been doing it this way!

Let me show you where I live.....the office

Kelly over at Kelly's Korner is hosting show us where you live Friday's. Click on the picture above to visit and see more of where others live.

Below is my computer armoire-it houses the desktop computer aka: the family computer. I use the laptop sitting in my chair. This is the last room in our house we decorated. The walls are a deep olive green. Since this room has been finished it is the most often used room in the house, if all 4 of us are in here we curl up in chairs together or someone is on the floor. The chair was my grandmothers vanity chair from the 1930's. I have her entire bedroom set she and my grandfather met when they married in 1919. Since I do not have a room for it, I keep it at my dad's house.The armoire closed. I bought this 2 houses ago to use for our computer, since then it ws used for a TV when we had a desk for the computer.
Our chairs. The one on the left is my husbands brown leather recliner. All the leather in our house is the same brown leather so we can move things from room to room as needed. I LOVE my chair. It is the first chair in my adult life I have referred to a chair as my chair. We are becoming little old people retiring to our chairs in the evening to watch our "programs". Make sure you see the FABULOUS viny branches hanging from the ceiling. I love them as well. They came from a decorator/antique store here in town, where they were hanging from the ceiling on their covered porch. The furniture for this room had been ordered and I was relaxing on that porch waiting for my friends to finish their shopping after a glass of wine (or 2) I looked up and thought they would be perfect!
The view from "my" chair. Just picture Y&R and you are here with me!!

Hope you enjoyed the visit. I was not going to post but since this is my favorite room in the house I wanted to share. Be sure and visit next Friday to see our master bath. It is my 2nd favorite in the house!!!

And the winner of staying the same is........

....it's me of course!! Cause week after week of EMME-here I am! 10 weeks and I feel like I have not gotten very far! Enough about me!

This weeks question is:

What's your favorite beauty secret?

I have a few.....

• drink plenty of water, I feel like it has lots to do with my clear skin
• Oil of Olay moisturizer with spf 15
• never blow drying my hair, it has stays pretty healthy by washing it at night then in the morning when it is dry I do whatever I need to
• sleeping at least 7 hours (so hard for me to do)

Make sure to visit Ambers blog to read more about

Extreme Makeover Me Edition

Lampapalooza....really!!

So I read the Nester, I love her ideas. Today she is hosting a lamp show-off party. I am sharing with you the ones in my house that are my favorites!! A couple of them need something.....what that is I am unsure.

Below-this floor lamp I found on clearance at Sams it is an indoor/outdoor lamp with a HUGE canvas shade. I felt like it needed something so my neighbor and I added this trim and beads. The beads make it look like it belongs in grandma's parlor.....I would like to take them off and do something different to it, but am unsure as to what.
This lamp is my favorite lamp and it is in my favorite room of the house. I love the shape and style of this lamp. I love the animal print on the inside of the shade. What I do not like about this lamp is, it is not very bright.
In the picture below is the lamp on my husbands nightstand. There is a matching lamp on my side of the bed....red is my favorite color. These lamps are not very bright either but so different and so cool that I really like them.
This lamp is in a corner in my bedroom. Not sure if you can tell in the picture, but it goes with the lamps on our nightstands. This lamp with its red shade is fabulous!!!
Thanks for stopping by to see my lamps. Be sure to visit the Nesting Place to see what others have done with their lamps.

Uh oh--up is the wrong way to go!!!

Welcome to another week of EMME. EMME is hosted by Amber, click here to check out her blog and visit the other participants.

My week....didn't go as well as it has in the past few. I am up .5 lbs. This seems minor, unfortunately even to me. I am not one to beat myself up over such matters, obviously or I wouldn't be where I am today. Its just that I am realistic about such matters. There will be up and down weeks.

Yesterday I had my first epidural injection to treat my back pain. I am very optimistic about it helping, hard to say if it is....there seems to be discomfort at the injection site. I go back on the 15th for another injection. I do intend to get outside and walk with the intent to call it exercise. Starting late this week. There is a long list of things I am not supposed to do, cleaning is on that list. Today I intend to enjoy it!!! My kids last day of school was Friday and we have not been able to spend one day at home. I have decided today will be THE day we spend at home. shhhhh.....I haven't told the kids yet!!

Every week Amber asks a question of all of us......but not this week!! Lucky for you, this post has gotten way to long anyway!!

Several things...

On Monday we went to see Night at the Museum! I thought it was really cute. I have not seen the first one, and yet I still enjoyed the second one.

About half-way through the movie I needed to visit the ladies room. While there I made the mistake of looking into the mirror, I have shared with you all how I do not see a fat person in the mirror.....imagine my horror when I looked up while washing my hands and my upper arms look HUGE! (surely its not b/c they are)!!!! Ugh-thats motivation.

Not sure if I remembered to tell you last week after my visit with the spine doctor I have arthritis. In other news Tuesday afternoon I am having an epidural injection in my back to try and help isolate the pain. If it helps the next step is singeing the nerves in that lower area. Please feel free to give me your support. If you only have a horror story about please keep it to yourself. Of course I have tried many other things before this step and something has to give. The pain that I have in my lower back daily is almost debilitating, and has really affected my lifestyle. Later if I am not too loopy I will let you all know how I am.

So remember....I want your love and support! And if you dont have anything nice to say...dont say anything.

I am a Twit!!

So I have given in to the pressure...if you are signed up on twitter find me my username is: seriouslyreal or leave me a comment with yours, and I will come stalk or follow if you would prefer.

Dirty Word

This sign was for sale in a store I stopped in today. I had not seen it before, maybe you guys have. It is too funny too not share in case you haven't seen it!!

Another week of work!

Click on photo above to visit EMME over at Amber's blog.She has organized a support group to help us to get more healthy. First the details, I lost .5 this week. Still moving in the right direction. I know that half the battle is having the right mindset so I have been trying my best to be thinking that way. My own my mind seems to be my biggest enemy as I have said before. Amber's question this week is: Name your guilty pleasure. Think of a healthier choice you could use as a substitute.My guilty pleasure these days seems to be laziness. This laziness is being driven by the back pain. For which I finally have diagnosed as arthritis in 3 joints in my lower back including my SI joint. Basically what it means it far too much pain. My doctor now has a plan of treatment. I am thinking positive thoughts about making the treatment work and rejoining my life that has been on pause toooo long. Ready to hit play! Don't forget to leave a comment if you have any suggestions for me-I need all the help I can get. And be sure to visit Amber's blog and leave some feedback for everyone struggling with self-improvement.

Cranky...and other stuff!!

I am cranky.....more about that in a few days when I am less cranky!!

On a more positive note Saturday night my husband and I will be going (with a group of friends) to see Kenny Chesney. Whom I think is precious and I love his music, my husband could be his biggest fan!! He finds the tropical sounds relaxing. So like every girl with somewhere to go, now I am in a delima over what to wear, any suggestions? I am a little upset that my cute cowboy boots no longer fit. They are from my college days, and for some reason my freakin feet grew a half size with each of my 2 pregnancies. Another very good reason for stopping at 2 kids.

Now if only my butt had grown only 2 sizes.

Not a pretty picture......

Why is it that every week I am surprised I have not lost more than I have that week. Considering you get out as much as you put in, and evidently I am not putting enough in! (enough whining) Welcome to another edition of Extreme Makeover Me Edition hosted by Amber be sure and go over and visit the inspirational Amber and Mr. Linky to give encouragement, something everyone can use!!

Every week Amber gives us a question to help us and others think about where we are, and where we are going and how to best get there. This weeks question is...........

Show us your inspiration picture. Of yourself skinny, of yourself fat, of a celebrity that inspires you to keep going.

See that doorway to the left of the mirror? That is my master bedroom, I wish I could count the number of times in a day I walk by here. Recently I have made and effort to actually slow down and look in the mirror, and really see myself. Not just the person my brain thinks I am. (in my mind I am 117 lb) In actuality I am not! That would be my unpretty picture.

What keeps you going?

Moving in the right direction, and if its working be sure to share!