A Prayer Request

This is a time for prayers.  A sweet baby boy is fighting for his life.  A mere 13 months old and he is on very borrowed time.  His parents, who are so sweet and loving, are having to slowly watch their only child fight to even breathe. 

This is when I hate my job. 

ATRT has taken over his small little body.  No matter how much chemo we gave him, no matter how many radiation treatments he had, this horrible cancer is taking over.  His parents have decided to take him to the Hospice House to spend their last hours with him.

From the moment I laid eyes on him, I loved him.  We all tend to find our "boyfriends" (aka favorite patients) and he had me from the first smile.  I took care of him on initial diagnosis.  I told everyone that I would fight anyone who tries to take my boyfriend away from me.  His mom loved it and you know he loved it too!  Even if he was not my patient, I would go out of my way to visit him.  I'm thankful I stopped by to visit him on Tuesday.  Tuesday was the first time I thought he looked small.  It was the first time I thought he looked vulnerable.  It was also the first time I saw in his mom's eyes how scared she was. 

I ask you to pray for this amazing little boy.  While I am devastated by the events that are unfolding, I am comforted to know that he is ultimately winning his battle against cancer.  He will soon be pain-free, able to breathe with ease, and spending the rest of eternity with the angels, watching over us all.

I ask you to pray for his parents.  They have been so strong for the past 5 months.  They have watched their son go through surgeries, chest tubes, chemotherapy, radiation, hoping and praying that they would receive a miracle.  Now they are going through any parent's worst nightmare.  How do you say goodbye to your child?  How do you hold them while they slowly slip away from you?  Please pray for them, that they will find the strength to get them through, that they feel God's love surrounding them.

Lord, I know this is all in your plan.  Thank you for letting me be a small part of Adrian's big life.

NO is the word

First things first.  It's Thursday which means I'm linking up with Lindsey and Rachel it's time for the Jiggle Challenge.  This week was an interesting one for me.  I'm adjusting to my new schedule at work.  Since it's a clinic, the office "closes" for lunch.  We actually eat lunch at a normal time.  At the hospital, I was lucky if I ate a meal by 4pm (and my shift would start at 7am, sometimes 6:30).  I'm home for dinner and we eat at a normal time.  No more dinner at 9pm (I'm sure that didn't help my weight gain).  I did go out to dinner a lot this week and had a couple drinks.  Exercise wasn't as much as I planned.  I did some walking this week, which included pulling Noah (aka 40lbs) in a wagon for 1/2 a mile.  That was quite the workout, let me tell you.  I set my alarm to get up to run before work one day.  I didn't actually get up but the effort was at least present.  With all of this, I am excited to say that I lost another 1.6lbs.  I am not sad to say goodbye to that 0.88% of my body weight. 

So on to other things....I found out that I had a loose stone in my wedding ring.  It desperately needed a cleaning and to have the rhodium redone so I decided to take it in for a tune up.  I picked it up today and it was like putting on my ring for the first time.  The diamonds are so sparkly, the silver (well white gold) is so silver, all in all, I fell in love with it all over again.  I did get a talking to because I guess I should be bringing my ring in for inspection every 6 months.  I've had it for 6.5 years (including the time with my engagement ring) and I think it's been inspected twice.  Believe me, I'll be taking them in all the time just so the diamonds will sparkle like they do now!

I was trying to catch the sparkle at the red lights on the way home...didn't work too well but I'm in LOVE!!!

No is now the new favorite word in our house.  Emmy has decided to use this fabulous word in response to anything.  Want to eat? No.  Want to play? No.  Want to wear shoes? No.  Oh and then throw in some dramatic hand movements and you have my cute, adorable toddler.  I knew she was sassy but oh my.  She is quite the dramatic one. 
Did I mention that I love living in Florida?  Well I do.  You might hear me complain about the heat in a few months but I wouldn't live anywhere else.



I love them!!!

Prayers going out to everyone affected by the horrible storms this week.    

My Style Monday...part 2

It's that time again!  Time to link up with Lindsey for her My Style Monday!  I was a little better this week (and by better I mean I took 2 pictures).  So here we go.....

I'm in love with this dress.  A coworker bought it and showed it to me and I had to have it.  I love the casual-ness of it and I love the look of separates, without being separates.  I wore this on Wednesday when we drove to Leesburg to visit my grandpa in the hospital.

Dress: Ann Taylor Loft
Shoes: Sperry

Another pic of me at the hospital
Sweater: Gap Outlet
Headband: Sweaty Band....I swear by Sweaty Band!!!

 The next outfit comes straight from Easter Sunday.  Not my dream dress for Easter...that was at Target but not in my size, but it was nice nonetheless.  Only thing I hate is that you can't see my AMAZING blue heels, courtesy of the Hubs (who is awesome....Yes John, I just said you're awesome)

Dress/Belt: Kohls
Shoes: Dillards

I'm going to need to put some of my more casual pictures on here.  Maybe I'll get some this weekend while we're at Disney.  I feel like this is going to be a boring week for us so I'm afraid I might be either boring or not posting too much this week.  We'll see.  Maybe something exciting will happen.

Hope everyone has a great week!!!

Happy Easter

I hope everyone is having a blessed Easter Sunday.  Over here at the Crimella house, we've had quite the day already.  We had a great Easter Mass this morning, followed by an egg hunt and breakfast at our house with all the grandparents, all the aunts and uncles, and our nephew.  It was a blast!  Now its nap time then packing up for Easter dinner at the Hubs Dad/StepMom's house with the same crew! 

What better a day to celebrate with family?!?

Here's a few pics from our egg hunt:

The Easter Bunny was good to us!

Me and the Hubs

So proud of his egg hunting!!!

My Easter Princess!!!  Bonnet and all!!

Our nephew AJ....he didn't really know what to think of the egg hunt

Have a Blessed Easter!!!

Jiggly Jiggly

Well it's that time of the week again.  Time to link up with Lindsey and Rachel! I have been looking forward to this post all day long.  I lost a whopping 1.8lbs.  Yes thats right my friends.  I lost weight this week!  And after calcuating it all, it works out to be 0.98% of my weight.  I'm pretty excited about that. 

I'm looking forward to this weekend.  We're taking the kids up to see my grandparents (who Noah affectionately refers to as Great Papa and Great Grandma).  We haven't had the kids up there in a while and my grandpa should be home from the hospital tomorrow.  Then it's a fun filled Easter Sunday.  Church, egg hunts, breakfasts, dinners, Easter baskets (which will have very little candy this year).  I can't wait!  The kids won't be in matching outfits this year (I blame Children's Place completely....how could they not have color coordinated outfits this year?!?), but they will still be cute.  Noah's going for the laid back look and Emmy will be all girl in her big dress, pink shoes, and Easter hat.  I can't wait!!!  Here's a quick look at the kids last year on Easter:

My two Easter loves (see how I adore color coordination)

Taking the egg hunt VERY seriously

I can't believe this was only a year ago.  Em is so tiny here

I'm also looking forward to going to see my grandparents so I can get some pics of the kids with them.  This is my favorite picture of Emmy and my grandpa (he looks so healthy in this picture too....he's lost so much weight with everything going on now)

Have a great weekend and a very Blessed Easter! 

My Style Monday

I'm so excited to be able to be a part of Lindsey's My Style Monday!!!  Although I was really bad at taking pictures, especially when I feel like I actually looked stylish when I wasn't wearing scrubs or sweatpants (yes I wear sweatpants...on a regular basis...but never out in public!!!). So instead of having 4-5 really cute outfits, you get a whopping 2!

Dress, shoes, and hair accessory all from New York & Company

Please excuse my tired face.  I took this before work this morning. 

Most of my clothes are either from New York & Company, Ann Taylor Loft, or Target.  So don't be surprised (or disappointed) if all you see is me in only those 3 brands and probably outfitted in one brand from head to toe.

This one is for Rachel at Running Backwards in High Heels.  Emmy has her own pink cowgirl boots that she wears all the time.  This is probably my favorite picture of her in the boots and I can't get enough of the face she's making:

Shirt: Target (it used to be a dress), Jeggings: Children's Place, Boots: Target

Hope everyone has a great week!!!  I promise to be better next week with my pictures.  Now it's back to watching TV in the most comfy sweatpants ever.....

Go Rays!!!  My boys are finally starting to play great baseball!!!



A great week needs a great weekend

I survived my first week at my new job.  I went into clinic on Monday not knowing what to expect and with expectations set to the pretty low side.  I came out of Monday feeling excited about my new job change.  Fast forward to Friday (Yes!!!  I can now appreciate the value of Fridays) and I had the best week!  I didn't dread my alarm each morning, came to work with a smile each day, and even had time in the morning to actually do my hair (I usually would jump out of the shower, towel it enough so it's not dripping all over me, and threw it in a ponytail.  I've now worn my hair down for 3 days...monumental feat). 

Everyone has been super nice and super helpful.  I was even invited to Happy Hour on my first day there!  A group of people that work together and hang out together...such a breath of fresh air.  But what makes my new job even better is seeing all of my patients from years ago.  I saw a patient that I took care of a ton when he was not even 2.  Now he's 4, looks absolutely amazing, and has a head ful of curls.  Seeing someone like him makes everything I do worth it.  It makes the hurt we feel when we lose a patient to this horrible beast a little more bearable because of how many kids do so well. 

I'm now enjoying my first real weekend off.  I think I can get used to this.  One of the girls at work reminded me to turn off my alarm last night since I don't need to wake up.  Such a novelty now!!! 

Oh and for everyone wondering, I got all of my laundry folded!  It took me a while but it's done.  Now I just have to put my part of it away.  The Hubs (who surprises me all the time when he talks about what I've written on here...who would have thought he'd actually read this) couldn't believe I would write about my lack of laundry folding skills but why not?  I'm sharing my weight loss with you, my life's journey with you, why not my inability to fold laundry?  :)

Hope y'all have a great weekend!!!

I might jiggle the same amount

My big weigh in revealed....

Nothing.

I didn't lose any weight at all :(  If I knew how to make the sad face bigger, I would.

But I guess maintaining my weight is better than gaining weight.  I was pretty faithful with MFP and got some exercise in.  I was very aware of what I was eating too.  I'm a little bummed by this week but I'm not going to let it get me down.  I was giving MFP a week to see what my results were by using it alone.  This week, I'm headed back to WW with my momma.  With WW and running in my back pocket, I should be unstoppable!!!

My goals for this week are:
1. Actually lose weight
2. Increase the amount of running/exercise
3. Drink more water

My new job (which I love...more on that later) is going to allow me to add more water to my daily intake.  I'm never too far from my water bottle.  I think this is going to be a great help in the long run.  I'm going to attempt to get up and run before work.  And I use the word attempt because I've already tried that one day this week and failed miserably.  I'm not a morning person by any stretch of the word so it's going to be a hard thing to start.  But my goal, once I get used to my new schedule, is to run every morning.  I'm going to need some support with this one. 

I'm so excited to see so many great weeks!  I can't wait to see how everyone does next week!!! Thanks again to Lindsey and Rachel for hosting this challenge!!!
 

This is the reason the Hubs might divorce me........

I only have one job around the house (yes I was blessed with a good husband who does almost everything around the house). My job is laundry.  The 4 of us can sure create a ton of laundry on a daily basis. 

I'm really good at doing it.

Just REALLY bad at folding it. 

Case in point.

This is almost 3 weeks worth of laundry in the garage that the laundry fairy hasn't folded yet.  I guess I'm a bad wifey because we've been digging through these piles every day for weeks now. 

Any suggestions on how to make this task more enjoyable???
 

This is what creeps me out

He may look like a Really Useful Engine but Thomas the Train just freaks me out for some reason. I don't know if its because a moving face on a train is weird or the strange language they use on the show or what.  All I know, it creeps me out. 

Noah LOVES him and has every train/station/accessory available in Thomas the Train.  So being the good Mommy that I am, when we saw this, we made plans to take him. 

It was a nice, but VERY hot day on Sunday.  After my 5k, we headed down to Parrish to the Florida Railroad Museum where Day Out With Thomas was being held.  Now, I'm not going to lie, it was a pretty cool event.  There were carnival food, carnival games, bounce houses, a mini train ride, a story telling tent, train tables a plenty, Sir Topham Hat, and of course, a real Thomas engine pulling the train.  Our train ride was scheduled for noon so we had about 45 minutes to play around.  We hit up the train tables first then boarded the train.  It was a 20 minute ride and Noah loved every minute of it.  Once it was done, we said goodbye to Uncle Jimmy, Aunt Michele, and AJ (the Hubs's brother, sister in law, and nephew) as well as Gama and Grandfather Hobson (Hubs's mom and step dad).  We hung around for about another hour, taking in the entire Thomas experience.

All decked out in Thomas gear

Playing with the trains. And yes, Emmy is sitting in the track.  Silly girl!

Super excited to be riding Thomas the Train!!! This face made it all worth it!

Me and Emmy

Em with Gama and Grandfather Hobson

Our obligatory trip to the gift shop tent

Mini golfing.....see how white my kids are?!?!?

As much as I can't stand him, it was a really great event.  I just wish it wasn't so hot and that there was more shaded areas.  My kids are white as anything, no matter how hard I try to make them tan.  And no, I'm not the crazy mom that wants tan kids.  I put sunscreen on them all the time.  I just want them to get a little color so they don't look like moon beams in people form.  I'm really glad we got to do this with Noah.  Things like this is what I was missing working my other schedule at the hospital.  We decided to go last minute and you can't exactly make spontaneous weekend plans when you have to work 4 weekend shifts a month.  Yet another reason why I think I'm going to love working in the clinic!!!

I really wanted to link up with Lindsey today for her My Style Monday link up but I didn't take pics of my outfits this past week.  I could post a pic of me in my work scrubs but that's not cute.  I can't wait to show off some of my style!!!

You can call me Iron Girl

Today was my 5K.  My girlfriend (who happens to be my Chi O Grand Lil) and I decided to run the Iron Girl 5K down at Clearwater Beach.  I contemplated running the half marathon but didn't want to run over 2 bridges so I opted for the 5K.  Plus Jess had never done a 5K so I thought this was a great opportunity.  I decided that I wasn't going to run it for time.  I need to start running for time but I wanted to support Jess in her goal to run the whole 3.1.  She tried to tell me I could run at my usual pace but what kind of friend would I be if I left her during her first race???

5AM came too quickly since I only went to sleep 4 hours earlier.  I got my gear together and Jess came and picked us up.  After trying to find a parking spot in two of the designated lots we ended up finding the best parking in one of the garages.  The trolley came right to us.  There was not a 2 mile line for the trolley like the other lots.  All in all, a blessing in disguise. 

Looking good for 6AM...on the Jolly Trolley

Once we got down to the beach, we found bag check, dropped off our stuff, and headed toward the starting line. Once we got down there, we met up with another sister and her friend.  It was great to have a few more friends on the road!

Our crew

Team Jessica

I.Heart.Her!

 I've never done an Iron Girl event before but it is so empowering to see so many women gathered together in one place.  There were women of all ages....little girls (who were really fast) all the way to a 70 year old woman.  It was just unbelievable.

Just some of the 5K women in front of us

The Starting Line

 All in all it was a good run.  It was exciting to be there to support Jess, who finished her first 5K without stopping at all to walk!  I'm so proud of her!!!  Obviously, it wasn't a good representation of my normal running pace but that didn't matter today.  I'm just excited that we did it, had fun, and got really cute medals and shirts!  Here are some more pics from the race (it was my first time running with a camera too)

If it's blurry, we must be running really fast!!!

Keep it up!!!

Return of the crazy eyes....I don't know what my problem is lately

Can't complain about this backdrop to the race and a beautiful sunrise

We did it!

My very pretty Iron Girl gear

I'm really glad I participated!  My knee hates me right now (which makes me a little worried....any tips/suggestions for intense outer knee pain...it started 6 miles into my half marathon in Feb and has bothered me ever since) but I'm loving being active again.  And to be honest with you, I actually found myself enjoying the run.  Cue the gasps of disbelief.  I actually liked running today!!!

I made it home just in time to shower so we could move on to our next adventure of the day....Day Out with Thomas!!!  Stay tuned for a Thomas the Train-filled update!!!