Update

Well as you know it has been a few weeks since my last post. My ankle is healing well. I returned to the doctor on Christmas Eve and had my surgery splint removed and my staples removed. I had 7 staples in my knee and 13 in my ankle. I was placed into a new short leg cast for 2 more weeks. So I go back on January 7th to have my short leg cast removed and be placed into my boot. At that point the hope is that I can start doing some partial weight bearing. With the plan being to be full weight bearing in a boot by January 26th at the latest. With the earliest I will be out of a boot and able to walk normally being the middle of February. Meaning no driving for several more weeks...ahhhhhhhhhhhh!Here is a picture of my ankle when I got a brief look at it on 12/23.



This surgery has been stressful in many ways. I am not a person who likes to sit and do nothing...and unfortunately I have had to do a lot of that! I am very independent and I have lost a lot of my independence, that's for sure. And well the financial aspect of it all....you should check out my husband Eric's blog he did a great job posting a testimonial about that aspect of it all. There will be new stresses arise when school starts. I will have to depend on people 4 days a week to get me to and from class and clinicals. I am not worried about class because Vanessa said she would take me and she like me is always early! It's clinicals I am a little nervous about because if we are late it is a really big deal, and well being on someone else's time that puts being late a little out of my control and unfortunately Vanessa and I are in different clinicals so I can't depend on her!!

Well enough about my pity party...let's talk about the holidays! Eric and I had a good but busy Christmas holiday. We spent Christmas Eve in Anderson with my step mom's family after Eric got home form work and then headed to my parents house in Parker to have Christmas with my parents, my brother and my nephew. That was a lot of fun. My nephew is 2 and was really into ripping open presents, but he didn't so much care about what was in the presents! Here are a few pictures from mom and dads on Christmas eve.






Eric and I stayed at his parents house on Christmas Eve. We then had Christmas with his parents, siblings and his Grandmother on Christmas morning. After opening gifts and eating breakfast we headed to Lynn to pick up my cousin then went to Centerville for Christmas with my mom's side of the family. We enjoyed hanging out and having lunch with them. We then headed back to Eric's mom and dad's house to have dinner with his parents, siblings, grandmother, grandparents and his uncle. We ended up staying at his mom and dad's house until Friday. We really enjoyed spending time with family over the holidays.

We went to a wedding on Saturday where Eric was excited to hang out with some buddies from high school. We had a good time and it was good to see old friends.

Well it appears as if we are now back into the normal routine. Eric is back to work and I am back to sitting in the recliner or on the couch not doing a whole lot! I hope everyone had a great holiday!

Trying to relax

Well it's been a few days since my last blog. We went to Wabash this Saturday and came home Sunday for Christmas with Eric's mom's family. We had a really good time. I was still in a lot of pain over the weekend but his family was wonderful. I spent most of the weekend in the recliner as usual! We really enjoyed getting to spend time with Eric's grandparents, his parents, his siblings and his cousins from Ohio. It was nice for Eric to get a little bit of a break from taking care of me, as there were several people who took care of me over the weekend. We had several great meals over the weekend while we were there! Eric's family is blessed with wonderful cooks, so I of course was blessed with wonderful food! After dinner Saturday evening we enjoyed opening gifts from his grandparents and his uncle. We too enjoyed watching them all open our gifts! It was a great time had by all. It was then time to head to bed. Eric's grandparents had gotten us a hotel for the night due to limited space in their home. They offered for me to stay in their recliner (since they knew it had been my bed for the last several days) and let Evan go to the hotel with Eric Saturday night. Eric and I talked about it and I really wanted to spend some time with Eric so I attempted to sleep in a bed. Well that didn't work out to well, neither one of us slept to well! LOL!! So long story short...I think I will be sleeping in the recliner for a while to come! Sorry honey!

We got home Sunday and relaxed. The boys helped me clean up the house before going to bed Sunday night.

Monday morning Vanessa picked me up for my last day of class! We had our med/surg final at 9 am. That went very well. I got an 84 out of 100. So I ended my first semester of nursing school with 4 A's and 2 B's. So not too bad at all! I am very glad that it is over for four weeks, however I am not sure what to do with myself now! After our final she helped me get my tuition paid and get my books for next semester. We then headed to IHOP with Alaina and Deidre for one last girls lunch of the semester. That was a lot of fun. We then headed to Central Indiana Orthopedics to see the doctor. We noticed on Saturday night that my ankle incision had bled through my plaster cast and through 3 layers of ace wrap. I had also rubbed the back of my knee raw and it was chaffed and bleeding, and I had developed a rash all over my leg. I was a bit concerned so we went to get it checked out. The doctor said that the bleeding was normal so not to worry. He then told me take benadryl and put hydrocortisone cream on my rash. And they cut the back of my cast down 2 to 3 inches to help decrease the rubbing! Vanessa thanks for running me around on Monday I really appreciated it! So that was my day on Monday. Oh, and then Monday night Debi Howell from church brought Puerta Vallarta for dinner. It was oh so good and we are very thankful for the thoughtfulness of our church to provide meals for us. Thanks Debi!!

Today I was a little bummed that I would be home by myself all day because Eric had to work and Evan had finals all day. But don't worry, Nikki came and picked me up at 11 today. We went to Target and then grabbed some KFC for lunch before heading back to her house for a few hours. It was so nice to get out of my house and hang out with my best friend for the day. I have really been lacking in that time lately! She took me home a little after 4. On our way home we made a few stops at the bank, Kohls (she ran in and got a gift for my mom! Yay!), Sears, Walgreens and then the gas station before heading to my house! Did I mention we had 6 kids with us on the way home?!? LOL! Don't worry Nikki ran in all the places on the way home and I held down the van with 6 kiddos :) Then tonight Joe and Debbie Frazier brought us dinner from their growth group. Thanks for the meal guys we really appreciated it and it was very good :)

I really just want to thank everyone that has been helping out this last week I really appreciate it a lot! My family, my friends, people from church for bringing us meals and for the prayers! I really truly am blessed to have you all in my life! I would be lost without you all! God Bless and I love you guys!

Police Officer Injured

A gentleman that Eric works with, Neil Dowd, is on the Daleville Police Department. He was badly injured tonight during the pursuit of a drunken driver. If you could please pray for Neil and his family and add him to your prayer lists we would greatly appreciate it. Also if you could pray for the driver of the pickup truck, who just happened to be in the right place at the wrong time (he was not the drunk driver), and pray that he too recovers quickly. A brief article is on the starpress.com website.

Also, our buddy Josh works on the Daleville Police Department with Neil. Josh was coming in on shift just as the accident occurred. They are volunteers who give their time to serve and protect the community. I just want everyone to take a moment and thank the volunteers in your community for serving and protecting you! And pray for their safety.

The best husband in the world!

Yep you read it right, I am lucky to be married to the best husband in the world! Eric has been so selfless since my surgery in helping take care of me and making sure that I have the things I need. And well that in and of itself is no small task, when there isn't much I can do on my own.

Eric gets up early to make sure that I am dressed, have breakfast and have everything else I need before he heads off to work for the day. He then comes home for lunch. When he's home for lunch he again checks to see if I need anything, and if I too am ready for lunch he makes it for me. If I am not quite ready my brother in law Evan makes it for me later. Eric then comes home from an exhausting day at work, to not worry about himself but to worry about me. He takes care of me the rest of the night getting me dinner, helping me take a bath and get ready for bed before he heads to bed, only to start all over the next day.

I don't think either of us realized how unable to do things I was going to be. I have had 2 foot surgeries in the past and was fairly mobile, however this one involved my knee and was a lot more extensive therefore decreasing my mobility. We didn't realize until we got home Tuesday night, how much help I would need. But no worries my wonderful husband was ready and willing to step up to the plate.

I wanted to post this because I think it is very important that Eric realizes how much he is appreciated, and that I think he is the best husband in the world. I can't help but think about other people who may be or may have been in a similar situation where things didn't turn out so well. I can see how it would be very easy to get agitated at one another and cause your relationship to spiral. However, what most people don't realize and hold true to is their wedding vows. I am just grateful that when Eric and I said "for better or for worse" we meant it. Those were not just words and I am thankful for that!

Eric I love you with all my heart and I am so thankful to call you my husband and my best friend.

Quick Update

Well the last two days have been very long to say the least. You don't realize how independent you are until you lose that independence. I feel so helpless right now. My wonderful husband has been great though. He gets me up in the morning and helps me get dressed before he goes off to work. He makes sure I have breakfast, my ice packs and anything else that I need before he leaves for the day. He has also had to help me in and out of the bathtub and let me tell ya that's no fun. My brother in law has been very helpful as well. He has been staying with us only leaving me alone when he has to go to class.

My pain yesterday was pretty intense to say the least. I was very uncomfortable all day long. And to top it off my catheter pain medication ran out at 2:30 this morning. I had a hard time sleeping after that so I was up from 2:30 to 5:30 studying for my pharmacology final that I had today.

So that brings us to today. I got out today for the first time and boy was that a trip. Vanessa picked me up at 9 and we went to the DMV and got my handicap parking permit. We then got a drink and breakfast sandwich at McDonalds before heading to school. We then went to school and studied a little bit more for our final. We took our final and left school at 12:30. We then went to lunch with some girls from school at Fazoli's. That was a good time. I think it would have been even better if I wasn't in pain. I think I sat in one position at school to long causing my leg to be really sore. We got home around 2 today.

When we got home Vanessa took my catheter out of my leg for me and helped me get situated for the rest of the afternoon since I would be home alone for about 3 hours.

I am just so thankful for the great friends and family that we have. We are so blessed! Thanks guys I really appreciate it.

Home from Surgery

Well we got home from surgery about 5:30 tonight. The doctor said things went well, but I would be in a lot of pain. So much pain that they sent me home with a catheter in the back of my knee that is infusing pain medicine continuously for the next 3 days. I am also taking oral pain medication. I have a feeling that day 4 will be no fun!

Just wanted to do a quick update and thank everyone for your prayers, thoughts and concerns! Eric and I feel so blessed to be part of a church where people truly do care. That means the world to us! We have been so blessed by the outpouring of support from everyone. Thank you and we love you all!

Surgery tomorrow!

What a day today has been! I called my insurance company to find out if my surgery had been precertified! Well, you guessed it and it had not been as of this morning. They were requesting additional information since I had a similar operation done 2 1/2 years ago. My surgery got precertified at 12:45 today thank God! If it had not been precertified by 2:30 today my surgery would have been canceled. Well to say the least my nerves are shot today!

I then called my prescriptions in at the pharmacy and I went to pick them up only to find out that the person I talked to did not put them in the system. Grr! So I had to sit and wait...as patiently as I could.

I have been so shaky and my stomach has been a mess all day! I am sure my blood pressure is through the roof!

Well tomorrow is the day. The day for my surgery. It will be at 1:30. And let me tell you I have tried so hard to be prepared but I am still not done with my list! I am hoping to get most of it done tonight! But my nerves are shot and my stress level is high!

If you could all pray for my stress level and also pray that my surgery goes well tomorrow I would greatly appreciate it.

Tuesday is the day!

Well I went to the doctor today only to find out the news I had been dreading. I will be having ankle surgery on Tuesday December 9th. We looked at my MRI today and there is a chunk missing out of my ankle joint. It kind of looks like someone took a bite out of my ankle! So to fix it they will be taking a cartilage plug out of my right knee via a catheter and placing it in my ankle! I will have a 3 to 4 inch incision on the outer aspect of my ankle. I also found out today that I will have to have my ligaments reconstructed for a second time. I had them reconstructed 2 1/2 years ago. My doctor told us today that this would only be the 2nd time in 7 years of doing this type of surgery that he has ever had to repeat the procedure! I will be unable to drive for 6-8 weeks which will be a big bummer, so you will all have to come and visit me in Muncie, I am sure I will appreciate the company!

Eric and I have concluded that I unfortunately seem to fall into the (there is a 10% chance that this might happen) category. The problem is that I seem to fall into that category more times than not! So it's kind of frustrating. But oh well! Eric and I are thankful that we live in a country where the healthcare that we need is available, however we are unsure of how we are going to fund this operation!! But I know that God is in control and we are faithful so things will work out!

The news of having surgery so soon has stressed me out to say the least. I was ok with the fact that I was having surgery on Tuesday, until I started thinking about everything. After I started thinking I realized a few things: I don't have my Christmas shopping done(and Eric is not a shopper), I am going to need to clean my house top to bottom(and well Eric will do it,but we do things differently), I will have no means of my own transportation for 2 months(and I am very independent), I am not so sure how well cooking is going to work out when I can't be weight bearing for several weeks (and Eric can only cook a few things, he may have to learn!), I am not sure how if I get this new job I am going to start it in January with a cast on my foot! All of these things among several others are running through my mind right now. I know everything will work out, but you must remember I am a planner, and this was far from in my plans! However, I do realize that God has a plan and everything will work out!

On a positive note I got a call from BMH about the SNT position I applied for and I have an interview on 6 North on Friday morning. So please keep your fingers crossed, this will help out on the income side of things!

Well sorry for rambling but I had a lot on my mind tonight!

Great Holiday

Well it's been a while since my last post. I had my MRI done on Wednesday and I should find out the results this Wednesday 12/3. So I will let you know what we find out.

Eric and I had a great Thanksgiving. My brother stayed with us Wednesday and Thursday night. We went to Eric's parents house on Thursday and took my brother with us. Our parents unfortunately had to work Thanksgiving so he spent it with us and Eric's side of the family. We had a great time. We had a huge meal and then spent the afternoon baking. My brother even participated in the baking extravaganza! We made turtles, buckeyes, mexican wedding cakes, fudge, mini pecan pies, cinnamon rolls, carmel rolls and cookies! It was a lot of fun learning to make new things ( I am not much of a cook, let alone a baker!) So his family and my brother enjoyed teaching me to make things. The buckeyes were an experience, I am pretty sure I had quite a bit of powdered sugar on my clothes and on the counter ( I wonder how much actually ended up in the buckeyes?!) Oh well it was fun to say the least!

We then spent Friday and Saturday with my parents, my brother and my nephew. Friday we went to Pizza Hut for dinner and then Dad took Eric, my brother and me bowling! I haven't bowled in a while and I beat my brother both games, which never happens, so that was a lot of fun (although I am not so sure how happy he was to get beat by his little sister not once but twice!) Then Saturday my mom made Thanksgiving dinner. We then took my nephew who is 2 to see Madagascar 2. It was fun to watch him, he had never been to the movies before! He did really well though and seemed to enjoy it!

We had a lot of fun but I am thankful that the holiday is over for now! It is always nice to have a break from school, unfortunately that break was so busy I need a break to recover from my break! But studying awaits me for my test tomorrow! The end is near, just a few more weeks until the semester is over.

I went back on my lifestyle change full force today. I have really been struggling with this for a while now. I have been helping Mindy get started on her new lifestyle change this week, however feeling guilty because I hadn't been doing it myself! So thanks to Mindy, I am back on board! I need to do this for me, but I also need to do this so that I can continue to help others and glorify God. I will continue to update on the progress! I am hoping to start exercising today as well! I will let you know how that goes!

I hope everyone had a great holiday! Talk to you all soon!

Please Pray!

I went to the doctor today for my ankles. I had the ligaments in both of my ankles reconstructed 2 years ago along with having a scope done on my right ankle. I have been doing fairly well until the last couple of months. I have been having a lot of pain. So I called my orthopedic foot doctor and made an appointment. Thinking it was probably just arthritis, because I am at a high risk for it!

So I go in for my appointment today and leave having had x-rays taken and being scheduled for an MRI. I go back in a week and a half to go over the results of the MRI and make some decisions. But at this point it looks like we are leaning towards having to have another scope done or a more invasive procedure that involves removing cartilage from my knee or hip and placing it in my ankle. So we shall see what happens. I will keep you updated.

I don't know how much more bad news I can take medically! I mean, I am already dealing with my eye problems and facing a possible surgery with my eyes next spring. And now this! All this in the midst of nursing school. I would really appreciate your prayers during this tough time.

Prayer and God is the only thing that will pull me through this.

Quick Update

Ok so all of my mandatory tests are done for the semester! I passed 2 and I had to remediate on my pharmacology one! It was ridiculous! There were several cancer drugs and other drugs that I had never heard of on there. Even our professor was shocked when we told her what was on there! But I remediated and I am done with those for this semester! I can't wait till next semester to take more!

I have my last health history due tomorrow and clinicals end on Wednesday! So the little bit of down time through the end of the semester will be welcomed!

I am excited that I am getting a treadmill from my dad this week! So hopefully I can start working out. My energy has been really low lately. I assume from all of the stress, the not so good eating habits and lack of good sleep I have been getting. So hopefully having a treadmill will help me to get moving and lose more weight. I have been at a standstill for a while now! But that is my own fault. I got my infection, school got stressful and the good eating habits went out the window. I am hoping to start them back up soon!

I am really looking forward to Thanksgiving break. I am ready for a break from school and some time with my family!

I will post more later in the week! But that's all for now!

Being faithful pays off!

Ok so I am sure that we are not the only ones who have ever struggled with faith! It seems like forever ago, but it's only been about a year and a half ago since Eric and I started tithing. Before we started tithing, there were always excuses. We didn't know how we could afford it, we were selfish and wanted the money for us, etc. We talked with PK about it and he said that if after 3 months God had not been faithful and we weren't seeing results, the church would give us our money back. We thought well that's a crazy idea but ok PK we trust you, (still not trusting God at that point) we are in. So Eric and I began tithing. Well long story short, we never asked PK for our money back,funny thing, and God was faithful. After we started tithing Eric got a 2 dollar an hour raise at work. That was more than 10% of his current pay! So that money that we didn't know where it would come from....well there it was plus some. God is good.

So a couple of weeks ago we had our building to bless campaign 1 year anniversary at church. Eric and I had not participated in the campaign for the first year for the same excuses that we used when we were not tithing. So when the pledge cards came out this time I told Eric that I felt like we should contribute. Again, he was really on the fence not knowing where the extra money would come from since I am not working and our income is limited. We continued to talk about it and I said, but we couldn't we just do a certain amount of money? Again he was still hesitant but we finally agreed on an amount still not knowing where that money would come from, but knowing it would come from somewhere.

Well fast forward to today. I got home from clinicals and checked the mail as usual. The first thing I opened was from Ivy Tech. I was dreading that it was a bill or something not good (although I had no reason to think either of those things!) Oh the life of a worrier! Anyways, so I open the piece of mail expecting the worst only to find out that I received a nursing scholarship that will cover my tuition for this semester and next!! I was so excited and overwhelmed by God's greatness! I called Eric to share the news.

Then while talking to Eric I continued to open up the rest of the mail to find out that Eric had received a check from his uncle for helping him with computer problems. Again, nothing we were expecting but something we greatly appreciated. We were just overwhelmed with joy about the unexpected funds we received today!

I post this to share you with you that are God is awesome! We have struggled at times with being faithful but God always affirms our faithful decisions! Isn't that awesome? It makes me wonder why it is so hard to be 100% faithful and just let God be in control?!

Great Weekend!

Eric and I had a wonderful weekend away! We spent some much needed time together and did some fun things while we were gone. We headed to Indy Friday night after Eric got off of work and we went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. We had never eaten there before. The food was good but the cheesecake was fabulous! We split a piece of cheesecake that had reeses cups, butterfinger, peanut butter and chocolate swirled throughout it! It was amazing!! If you have never been to Cheesecake Factory I would recommend going just for the experience of the cheesecake! We then did a little bit of shopping, well looking, at the fashion mall. It is to pricey for our tight budget :) We then turned into the hotel for the night and watched a movie and relaxed!

We woke up Saturday morning and headed downtown. We had breakfast at Cinnabon, yummy! We then headed over to the Bodies exhibit! This exhibit was so neat! If you are into learning about the body and things of that nature I would highly recommend you check it out! I wasn't sure if Eric would enjoy it, being that he is not really into that stuff, but he said that he learned a lot and thought it was pretty cool! A very interesting fact that we learned while we were there: You lose 3 hours and 45 minutes of your life for EVERY pack of cigarettes that you smoke! Can you believe that? That's incredibly scary! So if you know someone who smokes share that fun fact with them! Wow! After the bodes exhibit we headed over to Circle Centre to do some shopping! Again, a bust! We didn't but a single thing but jewelry cleaner. We then headed over to Clay Terrace Mall in Carmel. While we were at Clay Terrace we had some Red Robin for lunch! That was a first for us, we figured PK liked it so we would give it a shot! It was very good I must say, we will go back! We then did some shopping! Eric got some new tennis shoes and a toboggan. I got a new Vera Bradley item! Yay! We then left Clay Terrace and headed back to the hotel. I took a nap and Eric and watched TV and played on the internet. Then that evening we headed out to Crackers comedy club for the 8 pm non smoking show, with all of the old people :) This too was a first for us. We had never been to a comedy club, but we had a blast! I haven't laughed so much in a long time! It was a great time! The headliner was Chris Porter, he was a runner up on Last Comic Standing. He was very good and hilarious! We had appetizers at the show(that was dinner) we then headed back to the hotel for the night.

We slept in this morning and packed up and left the hotel around 10:30. We headed to Perkins for breakfast. We then stopped in at Castleton Mall for some shopping. We bought Eric a shirt and then headed home around 1:30!

It was a great weekend. We enjoyed our time with each other and getting to have a break from school. I only wish we could do it more often. But unfortunately we are back home and already back to working on school work :( Here is to a good week and good rest of the semester!! God Bless!!

Did anyone else do anything fun this weekend? If so tell me about it I would love to know what you did this weekend!

Looking forward to the weekend!

It's been a while since I have blogged. School has been school as usual! Busy with tests and lots of studying. I have had a few fun and interesting experiences the past week though! I got to start an IV on my friend Vanessa in class last week! I got it in on the first try and I didn't hurt her or bruise her :) Mission accomplished!! I also got to give flu shots last week(mission accomplished), I got to insert a catheter today (mission not so accomplished), I got to do glucometers (mission accomplished) and next week I get to pass meds and do insulin coverage! I am enjoying getting to experience all of this stuff. But no one can prepare you for how different things are from when you learn and practice things in lab to when you actually do them on a real person! It is so nerve racking!! I hope that as time goes on things become easier and not so nerve racking!

I have had a slight break in studying this week and let me tell you that has been nice and a blessing. I spent 3 hours deep cleaning my house last night, it really needed it! It felt so good to be able to put some time into something other than school!

Eric and I are looking forward to the weekend. We have reserved a hotel in Indianapolis for the entire weekend! We made an agreement that we would not be doing any homework or studying while we are gone. We really need this weekend to spend some quality time with each other. We are looking forward to hanging out and doing some Christmas shopping. We are also planning on attending the Bodies exhibit while we are there! I am really excited about that, it looks so interesting! I hope that we will really get to spend some much needed time together and come back refreshed and ready to push through the end of the semester.

I can't wait until Friday. I have a check off on IV's and central line dressing change tomorrow morning. A Pharmacology test tomorrow afternoon. And then Friday at 5:30 we are out for the weekend and I can't wait! God Bless!!

99 balloons!

So today I happened to catch part of Oprah. Oprah aired this story about baby Eliot. Eliot's story reminded how important it is to live each day like it's your last and live for today, not for tomorrow. I hope this story touches you as it did me. I have to admit. I was in tears after watching this. I also admire and applaud these parents for showing the world how precious a child's life is and should be! God Bless !!

Ready for a break

Well it's been another fun filled week of nursing school and life in general! I had a med/surg test on Monday, that I got a B on! I was totally ok with a B because I didn't have much time to study last weekend since we were babysitting all weekend. Tuesday was a really bad day. I found out that I had been treated horribly by someone who I thought was one of my best friends. I also had clinicals Tuesday. Everytime I go to clinicals it is so hard to think about the care that the residents in the nursing home don't get when my fellow nursing students and I aren't there. Very sad, and heartbreaking! So Tuesday was a very emotional and hard day. But Tuesday night we had dinner with Eric's parents and his brother and that was a good time, and some very much needed family time. Wednesday we didn't have clinicals, but I spent the day at Ivy Tech with Vanessa and Alaina practicing injections and then we grabbed some lunch and headed back to my house to study for pharmacology! Wednesday night was taken up by studying for a math quiz, and preparing for check offs on medication administration and injections. I went to bed at 11:45 that night. Thursday I got up at 5:45 to study some more before class. Only to get to class to find out that all the math chapters they told us to study for our quiz, like 12 of them, were not even covered on quiz! So that was quite frustrating because I could have studied for pharmacology! I then had my checkoff and that went well. I then had lunch with the girls from school. I then took my pharmacology test and to my surprise I only missed one!

Thursday night Eric and I went and picked up my 13 year old cousin from Lynn. She spent the night with us. We took her to pizza hut and then we went to my parents house to hang out for a while. We then came home and hung out and went to bed. Friday Eric had to work so KyLee and I went to an appointment I had at work one! Which by the way, praise God, I will be getting 1000.00 dollars a semester help with school, my uniforms paid for and my NCLEX exam paid for by Work One! God is so good! KyLee and I then went shopping and out to lunch. We then went to my friends house for a bit. We then went to the movies! We then headed back to my house and took naps! Then Eric came home and picked on us as usual!! We won though ;) She went home about 7 last night.

Eric and I then went to Buffalo Wild Wings for our date night! We enjoyed spending time with each other, but we had horrible service! We waited an hour to get our food! I don't think I will be going there anytime soon!

Today will be consumed by writing a15-20 page health history and studying for my med/surg test on Monday!

But there is an end in sight! Only 8 more days of clinicals. In pharmacology we only have 3 more tests, ATI testing, a final presentation and our final left! In med/surg we have 6 more exams and a final. We only have 8 more labs, one more check off, a midterm and a final left! I know it sounds silly....but this is showing me an end in sight and I am excited about it!!!

The weekend of November 7,8,9 we are going on a mini weekend vacation because I don't have a test on that Monday! We have invited my really good friend from school and her family to go with us! So that should be fun and relaxing! Only one rule.....no school books or studying allowed for the weekend :)

Well there you have it a weeks worth of info crammed into one post! But in all seriousness.....God has been so good to us. We are so thankful for the blessings in our lives and also for the fact that God is faithful and He is taking care of us. I am so glad that we have stepped out in faith and trusted in God! He is so awesome! I hope everyone else is experiencing God's goodness too! If not....you should try completely turning your life over to Him and enjoy the show :) God Bless!!

Crazy Week!

Well where to begin........well with the good news first. I did pass my pharmacology test and with an A at that! So that stressor was over as of Thursday afternoon. On Friday and ran my friends daycare for the day. Well lets just say....she has way to many kids for one person, and I figured out that I am not cut out to be that one person! So Friday was very stressful and I have decided that I will not be the one to volunteer to run her daycare again!!

As far as keeping her foster girls all weekend and her boys on Thursday night and Friday and Sunday afternoon/evening, that went very well. Everytime we are around kids it makes Eric and I feel more and more ready to start our own family! I have always had a fear that when we are ready for a family I won't be able to get pregnant. So this fear started Eric and I talking about adoption a while back, whether we do or don't have our own biological children. Eric and I have both felt it layed very heavily on hearts that we are supposed to be helping children in need. We are not sure in what aspect, but we both have felt that adoption may be that one aspect. So we are not sure where God will lead us or when he will lead us there but we are continuing to seek guidance for what God's will is and how it is supposed to happen. We would love to adopt these two little girls that my best friend has in foster care, if they don't adopt them. We have grown so close and attached to them and we see the needs that they have for a loving family and home. So like I said we are not sure where or when God will lead us but we feel like we are being led the direction of adoption. Maybe it's these two girls that we will end up with, maybe we won't end up adopting at all. Who knows but right now we are just continuing to pray and seeking God's guidance. We just want whatever happens to be God's will and not our want!

I have a big test that I am not prepared for due to having the kids all weekend, and not being used to studying around the schedule of a 1 and 2 year old! So I am going to study and hope for the best tomorrow!

This week will be a little better than last week I hope. I have a test tomorrow. Clinicals on Tuesday. Wednesday we don't have clinicals because all of our instructors have a conference to attend. Thursday I have a pharmacology test. Friday I have a meeting with WorkOne, which is kind of cool, I found out that I can about 700.00 dollars (maybe a little more ) a semester to help with school that I don't have to pay back! Then Friday night my 13 year old cousin is coming to stay with us until Saturday! So we are looking forward to that!

I hope everyone has a great week...I will update when I can! Take Care!

Overwhelmed

Do you ever just feel overwhelmed? That's where I am at right now. I feel like there is so much to do and not near enough time to do it. Clinicals started yesterday, as if I didn't already have enough to do! So now with that added, that took away two days that I used to use for studying. So I am now very stressed having lost those two days of studying, well I only had them for 2 weeks, but it was nice while it lasted and I have a test approaching tomorrow that I feel very unprepared for. I am just to the point that I cannot currently wrap my mind around any more new pieces of information. I had a study group with 3 other girls from school tonight for pharmacology after clinicals and when we were done we felt like we got nothing out of it because we are all so burnt out it just felt like things went in one ear and out the other! I can only hope and pray that when I sit down to take my test at 1 tomorrow something will look familiar, something enough for me to get a 75% and pass my test. When will we find the time to fit in all of this studying on top of these extra 15 page papers they want us to do and turn in every week and a half now? Again, like I didn't already have enough to do? Come on people, I know this is nursing school but aren't we supposed to come out alive? So needless to say if you can't tell I am very stressed out right now and I would greatly appreciate any and all prayers.

And oh yeah on top of being stressed already, I volunteered to keep my best friends foster girls ages 1 and 2 for the weekend so that they can go out of town for their anniversary. So we get these two beautiful girls tomorrow night and have them until Sunday night. Which I don't mind because I love them to death, I just wish I wasn't stressed out already! But oh I am sure come Monday I will be very stressed because oh you guessed another test, and the hardest one of the semester at that, awaits me on Monday! And I have to try to find to study while playing mom for the weekend! Should be fun :)

Sorry for venting but I really needed to tonight! Thanks for listening and thanks for all of your support and prayers in advanced. They really are appreciated.

Colts Game!

Eric and I woke up this morning and headed out to Indy to catch the Colts and Ravens game. On our way out of town we had breakfast at IHOP and then headed on our way. Once we arrived this is what we saw:

Once we got into the stadium we ran into the Cline boys and snapped this picture



Here is a picture from our nose bleed seats...but nonetheless...we were there :)




This is the awesome view out the window at the south end of the stadium:


Here is a picture of Eric and I in our seats:



All in all we had a grand time! It was nice to spend some time with each other. The only down time was when the drunk guy behind us spilled his pop all over my bag. I wasn't too thrilled about it to say the least. But stuff happens!! Thanks for the tickets mom and dad!

Tragic Murder, Family still searching for answers

Throughout life you make a connection with certain people that never goes away, regardless of how often you see them, talk to them etc. Well there is a family that is near and dear to my heart and has been since I was in the 5th grade. This is the Rector family. In 5th grade April moved to Farmland and became friends. We played softball together and her family took me to church with them at Union Chapel. Well that same year, in 5th grade, my mom was killed in a tragic car accident. Well my dad was working nights and every other weekend so my brother and I stayed with different friends and family members while he worked. April's parents, Garth and Angie, were ever so kind as to offer to help my dad out. So I remember spending countless nights at their house while dad worked. I always remember before we went to bed every night they would sing us a song and we would all pray together and I always thought that was so neat! As we got older April and I went our separate ways, but we were always cool with each other and always talked when we saw each other.

In 2003 Garth and Angie were involved in a head on collision. Garth was life lined to Methodist hospital in Indy and Angie was taken to Ball. Garth spent a few weeks, 3 or 4 I think (but not sure) in the hospital, with a broken jaw, pelvis and other critical injuries, but he fully recovered. Angie also was hospitalized and spent several months in the ICU at Ball before making a miraculous recovery (one that the doctors were even assured was only by the grace of God, pretty cool.). So during this time I again reconnected with the family of whom I was so close with growing up. I spent countless hours visiting at the hospital and praying. This reconnection I had with the Rectors seemed liked we had never been a part. They hold such a special place in my heart after all the tragedy our two families had been through. And after all, they had supported my family through our tragedy, it was only fitting to do the same for them.

Well then comes March of 2008. I open up the news paper to see that Garth had been murdered! MURDERED?! I think, "how could this happen to such a great guy?" I attended Garth's calling and funeral and I think it was the most heart breaking thing I have ever been to in my life. There were people lined up waiting for over an hour to get in to the viewing. And the line remained that steady all night long. You see, Garth was our softball coach growing up, he coached wrestling at Muncie Central and he also coached his nephews in freestyle wrestling. So over the years Garth touched the lives of many young people. Garth was also actively involved in his church, Union Chapel, where again he had impacted many people. It is so hard to not understand why these things happen to good people. I again reconnected with the Rector family during their time of grief and happiness because they knew that Garth was with the Lord.

Since Garth's murder, Garth's family has believed to know who the killer is, however 6 months later no one has been arrested due to detectives still not having enough information to make an arrest. Garth's family is holding a fund raiser event called "Garth Fest" at 1 p.m. Saturday October 12 at Springwater Park, 5000 E. Centennial Ave. Bands, including Cook and Belle, will play at the hog roast. Money will be raised to offer a reward to arrest the suspect. The money from the event, which costs $5 for admission to the concert, and an additional $5 for the hog roast, will be added to money already donated to a fund at Old National Bank, The Garth G. Rector Reward Fund, which has already accumulated $1,700. If you don't have any plans on Saturday and would like to help this family put a murderer behind bars please come out and support this event!

The starpress reported today that the police have narrowed it down to two suspects but they still need more information to put someone behind bars. Investigators will be on hand Saturday to talk to anyone who might have information to lead to an arrest.

Please pray for this family that the person who murdered their loved one will be brought to justice so that their hearts may begin to rest and heal.

Do you know people who don't believe God is real? Show them this testimony and then see what they say!

Our friend from church, Brian, recently shared on his blog an awesome testimony about the healing power of our God. If you haven't read this testimony, I strongly encourage you to hop on over to his blog and check it out! I would also encourage you to use this story as a tool to reach out to non-believers! It's pretty awesome!

http://high-tek-red-nek.blogspot.com/

Thanks for sharing your testimony Brian!

I wish there were more hours in a day!

If you follow my blog please let me know by clicking on my new gadget to the right and adding yourself as a follower! Thanks!

Do you ever wish there were more hours in a day? I know I do. I feel like I study and then I look at the clock and its time for bed.

I spent most of the weekend working on my drug cards for my pharmacology class. I finally finished them for the entire semester on Sunday afternoon! So that is one project that is done and out of the way! I also completed my presentation for pharmacology. Having those two things done will help to alleviate some of my stress as clinicals start next week!

I already feel as if I don't have enough time to spend with God, my family, my friends and my self, and with clinicals starting next Tuesday I really wish that there were more hours in a day. I wish that there were more hours so that I could do all that I need to do for school and still have time to spend with God, my family, my friends and my self. Honestly, I already feel like I spend entirely to much time for school and not near enough time anywhere else and it is only about to get worse.

Eric and I are discussing joining a growth group again, but when? When do we have time for it? I know that sounds awful but I feel like we have no time for anything now let alone adding something else to our schedule. But we feel like we need to be in a growth group so that we stay connected and so that we don't get sucked away by our busy life and leave God hanging out on the side lines which is so easy to do. We are just concerned about when and how we would work this in.

Weight loss continues to go well. I have another 15 pounds to go and I will no longer be over 200 pounds for the first time since....I don't really know...but sometime in early high school or junior high. So I am really looking forward to hitting that mark.

I hope all is going well in your lives! I will post soon!

Wow! Almost 2 weeks!

So with school being so crazy busy, I am realizing that the time between blogs is getting longer and longer! I do apologize! However, I will update you on what has been going on.

I finished my Fundamentals Class and Lab on the 26th of September. I got an A in both classes. So 4 credit hours down, 9 credit hours left for the semester. I began my Medical/Surgical I class on the 29th. I am a bit nervous about it. The morning class gained 5 people who had previous not passed the class. So.....note to self......pay attention........and study lots for this class.....apparently it's tough! My clinicals start October 14th. I am looking forward to them, but that will mean I am in class from 8-5 on Mondays,Clinicals from 7-3:30 on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and Class from 8-5 on Thursdays. And oh yeah, a test every Monday and Thursday....and don't forget time to read the bazillion and one chapters a week....complete homework...do care plans....prepare for skills check offs....go to church....have time with God....have time with my family...and oh yeah....have a life! We'll see how that all works out!

Life in general is going well. It is just very busy right now. We spent last weekend in Pennsylvania visiting with some family. I had a follow up appointment with my eye specialist in Indianapolis yesterday and I received prism on my glasses to help correct my double vision. The prism is very hard to get used too. I have had it twice before, with each time preceding surgery and I just remember it being a pain! I had a horrible headache yesterday, so we are just praying that my eyes continue to adjust and do well with it. The next step is surgery. I have already had 2 surgeries done for this very problem. But due to my age the surgery unworks it self about every 5 years. So we are right on track unfortunately. I go back in 3 months and we will see what happens.

Weight loss is still going well! Do to lack of time I have not been following my weight as closely. I will update on weight loss next week! I will also update with some healthy recipes for the cold weather!

I hope life is going well for everyone else! Thanks for following my blog and I apologize if you thought I got lost! I am still here, just very busy. I will try to update more often. Take care and drop me an email if you ever wanna get a hold of me.

ericncasey@yahoo.com

Sorry it's been so long!

This last week has been very busy! I will start by updating you on my leg. The infection appears to have cleared up. I currently am just left with a hole in my leg that continues to heal from the inside out ( kind of funny...being the name of my blog!) The doctor said it would take about another week for the main hole to heal up, so I still have to go to the doctor every M, W and F to get the hole packed until then and then it would have to undergo the normal scabbing process etc. to complete it's healing. So we are looking at about another 2 weeks and should be completely healed! I am looking forward to being able to wear jeans and real pants again in 2 weeks, and being healed of course!

School has been very busy. Our semester is split up kind of funny, so I actually have a final tomorrow and I end 2 classes tomorrow, and I start 2 new classes on Monday. So needless to say this last week has been very busy with winding down for the end of my Fundamentals classes. It has also been extra stressful due to the fact that my doctor is Winchester, school is in Muncie and I have school from 8-5 on Mondays and Wednesdays, so I have been having to rush around and work with my professors to get stuff done quickly and then leave early to go to the doctor and be back in time for the second half of our day. So a lot of rushing around has been going on. We have had several tests in the last week and I am really looking forward to the "2 week" break that we have coming up. We will only have class on M and R for two weeks, although I am sure I will spend a lot of that time getting ahead on other stuff for when clinicals start, so it won't truly be a break ,but hopefully it will be a bit of one in comparison to the last 5 weeks.

The weight loss continues to go well. I have currently lost 35.5 pounds since 7/28/08. so things are going well. I was not on my diet at all last week due to not feeling well and not having much of an appetite. But I am back on it now and I surprisingly did not gain any weight last week, I just maintained! So things are back on track and heading in the right direction!

Everything else is going well. I am just ready to be done with going to the doctor every other day and that will help alleviate some of my stress. Thanks for the prayers, they have been greatly appreciated!

Update

Well the infection seems to have gone down today. I made the third trip to the doctor in four days today! Yay! He looked at it and said the antibiotics are working just not as fast as I (being me) would like for them too! He said it appears to be healing for the most part. He said it could take up to 10 days or more for the hole in my leg, that is about the size of a nickel and quite deep, to heal and close up. He has to let it heal from the inside out. He can't suture it because if he does it will fill back up with infection, which would be bad. So we just have to wait until it heals! He is however keeping an eye on another nodule that showed up yesterday. It is not very big right now and we hope it stays that way! I have to go back to the doctor every 2-3 days to get the hole repacked until it closes up. So lets keep praying that this moves in the right direction and heals up! Thanks for all the prayers!

Update on my leg

Well today the ring of infection has gotten larger. I called the doctor and I am monitoring it and I had to mark it off again. If the area gets any bigger or if it gets violently red or extremely hot I am to call him immediately and I will have to go the hospital to be admitted so I can receive IV antibiotics. If you could please say a prayer that the oral antibiotics work and I don't have to go to the hospital it would be greatly appreciated! Thanks a bunch!!

When unexpected things arise!

I hate how our schedules are planned out to the last minute that we don't have "time" for unexpected things to happen. On Thursday I started to develop a small, what I thought was a boil, on my inner thigh. Well it would appear that as the weekend went on this we'll call it a "boil" for now, continued to get larger. As of last night it had gotten to about 3 or 4 inches in diameter and had formed a rather large red ring of infection around it. It got to the point where I could hardly walk, I could hardly sit or do anything without being in extreme pain. So we decided at 8:30 last night to go to the ER. We were thankful that we went. They said I had something called cellulitis where the cellular tissue gets inflamed and infected. They gave me a shot of antibiotic, a pill antibiotic and 2 pain pills and sent me home and told me to follow up with my family doctor. I called my family doctor today and he wanted to see me today. So I took a doctor's note into school and was excused from school for the day, thankfully because I could not have sat in those hard plastic chairs! The doctor ended up cutting the cellulitis open, draining it and packing it leaving it open to heal. I go back on Thursday to get it rechecked. Let's hope and pray that the antibiotics take care of it and that it goes away so I don't have to have anything else done.

Sorry the blog updates have been so sparce, school has been super busy and I have not had much down time. I will update more about everything else hopefully later this week! Thank you all for your continued prayers!

Life has been so busy!!

Life has been so busy this past week! I feel like I am running in circles with no end in sight! They joked around in our information meeting for nursing school that we might as well tell our husbands we wouldn't see them for the next two years and I am only 3 weeks in and I now realize that they weren't joking! It saddens me to realize that Eric and I's time together consists of waking up together to an alarm clock every morning, eating breakfast together some mornings, having lunch together a few days a week when I don't have class during lunch time, eating dinner together every night (which is our saving grace, because we eat at our table together and we have time of fellowship to talk about our days and spend time together), we then do homework and study in the same room but not really "together", we then go to bed and spend time talking before bed and then it all starts over again. The weekends are spent about the same with the exception of church and Sunday dinners if we have enough studying done to take out a couple extra hours of our day to spend with family, which is important but sometimes it just doesn't happen no matter how hard we try, stuff comes up and we just can't.

I have had my normal of two tests and a quiz weekly and we a had a small homework assignment due this week also. I feel like all I do is study and take tests! Woo hoo!! I guess I should be pretty knowledgeable by the time I get done! LOL...at least I hope I retain something! My tests continue to go well. Just a lot of information for each one!

When PK was talking about addictions last week Eric and I jokingly said that I was addicted to school. It at times feels that way though. If I sit back and think about it: my life is scheduled around it, I spend time doing things for it everyday of the week, I can't go without for a day let alone a week, so I guess I am addicted to school. How do you separate yourself from something that demands so much of your time? I mean I do incorporate time for God and my family but I just don't feel like there is enough time and I definitely feel like school gets way more of my time than anything else. But I feel like if I don't devote that much time to it I will fail out. Then what? I guess I am really torn on how to effectively balance God,school, my family, my friends and life in general. Any suggestions? Can you be addicted to school? Because I know I and others definitely feel like we are! Thanks for your prayers regarding this issue! Prayer is the only thing that keeps me sane!

On a side note I have to say one thing that is helping me get through nursing school and stay sane is that I am becoming good friends with someone from our church with whom I didn't really know before starting school this semester. I knew of this person and I see them at church and Eric knew them but I never really "knew" them. I am now developing a great friendship and it is awesome to know I have a sister in Christ going through the same struggles with me! This person started talking to me about church and how she hadn't seen me on the worship team for a long time the first day of class and then I made the connection of who she was and we have been talking at school daily since! Pretty awesome how God works and puts people in our lives. I am really excited to develop this friendship and see what happens! Funny how God works!

More birthday dinners!

Since we were out of town for my birthday I had two more birthday dinners this week. My brother treated us to dinner Wednesday night at Chili's. We had a good time getting to visit with him and eat dinner. I then spent yesterday morning cramming for my pharmacology test that I had at 1 yesterday afternoon. I ended up getting an 87.5% on it, which is a B. I can't complain since I didn't really study until yesterday morning, my brain was too fried to study Wednesday night. Then last night my two best friends made dinner for us at Nikki's house. They were so funny. I received several phone calls yesterday double checking on ingredients that I could or couldn't have. It was so nice of them to take the time to make a dinner that I could eat, desert included! They made me a marinated chicken, veggies with cheese, salad and sugar free peach pie that was made with splenda for desert! It was very good and I really enjoyed being able to eat an entire piece of pie! I think birthday fun is finally over a week later. But I have wonderful friends and family who turned a crappy birthday into a good one after all :) I will be spending the weekend studying for my next round of nursing tests. I have a test and a quiz on Monday in my fundamentals class and another pharmacology test on Thursday! Have a great weekend!

First Test is done and over!

Well my first test of nursing school is officially over! I feel like I studied way more than I needed to but hey I got an A so I can't complain! I also got an A on my quiz we took today in lab. So I am off to a good start. Hopefully this is an indicator to the rest of the semester. It is always better to start out ahead than to start out in a hole (which I have done before and it is no fun!) I think I have finally conquered my test anxiety. So today ended my first test but started the marathon of tests that I will be taking over the next two years. It appears that there will be about 2 tests and a quiz every week, so I should get quite good at test taking :) Thanks for the prayers I will continue to keep you updated on how things go.

I get to have dinner with my brother tonight. We don't get to see him very often because he doesn't have a license. So we are driving to Richmond to go to dinner with him. I will be taking my study materials along for the car ride, lol! I am looking forward to getting to spend some quality time with him and catch up! It should be fun! I hope everyone has a great day!

Weekly Weight Loss Update and Studying

Well I have officially lost 29 pounds! I am so excited. The pounds just continue to fall off! I hope that when I go back to the doctor on September 23rd he is just blown away by how much weight I have lost! This lifestyle change has been wonderful for me. I am adding in the exercise beginning today so hopefully the pounds will continue to melt away! Yippee!!!! My husband now has a bike. So we have bicycle's, rollerblades, and plenty of DVD workouts that I can do to get my self moving. Continued prayer for me to exercise would be appreciated! Much love and thanks to everyone for their continued prayers and support!

Today will be spent continuing to study for my first set of nursing school tests. It is always nerve racking to take the first test. It is like playing a guessing a game, you never know what to study and of course everything is fair game. Hopefully they aren't too terrible and hopefully I retain the right information! I will let you know how they turn out. I have a quiz and a test on Wednesday in my Fundamentals class and a Pharmacology test on Thursday. Have a great day!

Birthday Cookout!

Today we had my sister-in-law Leslie and I's birthday cookout! It was a lot of fun with Eric's side of the family. His grandparents were there, his aunt and uncle, his other uncle, his mom and dad and his siblings. We made homemade ice cream, had birthday cake, grilled out steaks and chicken, had potatoes and a huge buffet of food! It was all delicious and it was a lot of fun to be able to hang out with everyone and celebrate our birthdays. I did partake in a small spoonful of homemade ice cream and very small piece of cake, I mean it was my birthday cake I had to have some :)Below are some pictures from today.

1. My brother-in-law Evan, my sister-in-law Leslie, my husband Eric and myself.
2. Leslie and I's cake.
3. Leslie and I being silly cutting the cake like a husband and wife would at a wedding, LOL!
4. Eric and I.
5. A family picture with Evan, Leslie, Eric, me, and their parents Marvin and Elaine.

Memories of a great day :)

Long Weekend!

Well Friday was my birthday! I usually really enjoy my birthday but we went out of town on Friday for a wedding and it just didn't feel like my birthday. I have to say that compared to all of my other birthdays this one really was no fun! I am officially 25 and it was officially the worst birthday ever, this growing up thing stinks! Anyways, enough of me crying over my not so great birthday, lol!

We spent the weekend in Ottawa, IL with our close family friends the Friedles. Their daughter Megan got married on Saturday. It was a great outdoor wedding at their home. They couldn't have asked for a better day! The down side to outdoor weddings however, happens when there are no clouds in the sky and at 3 pm the sun is directly beating down on your back as enjoy the wonderful ceremony. When the ceremony was over we later noticed that I had enjoyed a free sunburn during the wedding! Needless to say I am glad it wasn't a Catholic wedding or I could of been in some major trouble, because the ceremony only lasted 20 to 30 minutes tops! Thank goodness for the short ceremony!

Anyways, we did some shopping while we were there and I spent my birthday money to buy my self new clothes that were 1 and 2 sizes smaller! Yay! So that was a lot of fun. We are hoping to slide by until Christmas with the clothing that was purchased, so we don't have to spend money on more clothes! However, if the weight loss continues at this rate we could be shopping again before Christmas! I must say I did thoroughly enjoy this shopping trip! It was so much fun being able to wear a smaller size. My options are so much more when I don't have to buy all plus size clothes!

The downside to the weekend was the eating of course! It is so hard to eat healthy when you are out of town with other people. I just feel like now that I am on this diet every time we eat out it revolves around me. I have told everyone the types of places I can eat at and the types of food I can have but it always comes down to us stopping at places that have food I can't eat. The end result ends up being, "well I wish you would have told us you couldn't eat here, we would have gone else where." I am really struggling with this because I feel like I could tell them 1,000,000 times and they would still seem like they had no clue I couldn't eat at that place or eat that food. So if you could please pray for guidance and patience on my part when dealing with others and this issue I would greatly appreciate it.

I hope everyone has a great holiday weekend! We have a family birthday cookout to go to tomorrow for my sister-in-law and me so I will update on that with pictures hopefully(if I can figure it out) tomorrow!

Roll Call

I know a lot of you read my blog. I am interested in knowing who all is reading my blog and I am also interested in knowing what your thoughts are about it. Have you learned anything from it? Do you have any suggestions or helpful hints for me about weight loss ? I would also love to hear what has worked for you because maybe it will be helpful for me or someone else! I would love to hear from you so please let me know who you are :) Hope everyone is having a great day and I look forward to reading your comments!

Officially 25 pounds lost!

Well, today is a big milestone ,I have officially lost 25 pounds since July 28, 2008 and I feel wonderful! I am one fourth of the way to my goal of losing 100 pounds. I feel like I finally have the eating part down I just need to get the exercising part down. I have always struggled in this area. I need to be exercising a couple of times a week for at least 20 minutes and doing toning exercises so that I don't have a lot of loose skin as I lose weight. So my focus for the next month now that I have my eating under control is to get my exercise habits under control! So if you could please pray for the same inner strength that helped me to finally bring my eating under control to do the same for my exercise I would appreciate it! Thanks for the continued prayers and support :)

Nursing School Journey Begins

Well my my nursing school journey began today! Today was a pretty laid back day. But I am sure that the semester ahead will be far from laid back! I packed my lunch today and even went for a walk on my lunch between classes! I am still not fully recovered from the flu this weekend. My stomach is still not back to normal but, hopefully it will return to normal soon! Good night all.

The flu bug strikes again!

It never fails wherever the flu goes it finds me. My friends in home daycare had it earlier this week and I stayed away until after it was gone and the house was disinfected etc. but go figure I wake up with the flu this morning! It's been a yucky day. For some reason when I get the flu, I really get the flu. So bad that a year and a half ago it put me in the hospital for 3 days so I am very nervous and scared when I get the flu trying to avoid a repeat of history. Anyways, so to top it all off I had to go to a mandatory cpr/aed class today that I had to have completed before Monday. So go figure my roll of toilet paper and I made our way to ivy tech for what was supposed to be a four hour class and it turned it into a five hour class! Go figure! Oh well ! So I have had to have some Gatorade G2 today which is not on the diet because it has high fructose corn syrup in it, but you can't drink water when you are throwing up. Sprite would have been better, but I can't drink it with my medicine so G2 was the next best option. Hopefully it is just a 24 hour bug and I will feel better tomorrow when I wake up! But at this point I can't keep saltines and G2 down so we shall see! Night all!

Discovering new foods

I realized today that I haven't really told you what the basis of my lifestyle change is about. So here is a quick synopsis of the doctors orders. I am not allowed to eat any fried food, I am not allowed to have anything that has more than 5 grams of sugar in it per serving, no hydrogenated oil, no partially hydrogenated oil, no high fructose corn syrup, nothing that has sugar listed in the first 3 ingredients, I am to limit my intake of breads/grains to 2 pieces of whole grain bread a day, I am not allowed any more than 25 grams of saturated fat per day, I was not allowed any sugar/sweets/fruit for 2 weeks, now I can have 2 servings of fruit per day and those are the only sweets I am allowed to have, I am to only drink water, decaffeinated unsweetened tea, decaffeinated black coffee(which I hate tea and coffee so I can have Water!) and I am to only have 3 to 4 servings of red meat per week! Whew! So there you have a lot of rules of guidelines to live by eh? Oh and I am to eat 5 small meals a day. A small breakfast, a mid morning snack, a small lunch, an afternoon snack and dinner with appropriate single servings. Oh yeah and don't forget, don't eat within 3 hours of bedtime and do crunches daily and walk twice a week! Ok so there you have my life for the last 3 weeks, lots of adjustments! But becoming more and more normal everyday!

If you are trying to lose weight but you are a carb junkie you should try the whole wheat and whole grain products. Although I can't eat things like whole grain waffles and pancakes I can eat different things. The following products don't contain high fructose corn syrup or hydrogenated oils and they don't have sugar listed in the first 3 ingredients so I can eat them: barilla whole grain spaghetti, barilla whole grain penne noodles, mama mary's premade whole wheat pizza crust (I can only find this at meijer), aunt millies light whole grain bread, aunt millies hearth deluxe whole grain hamburger and hot dog buns and kix cereal. These are things that I can have occasionally. I am trying to make a pizza or pasta dish once a week as a treat! The kix I am alternating in and out of my breakfast routine in place of my bread for the day! I am very limited on the amount of grains I can have in one day so I have to choose carefully!

Even if you aren't dieting, these foods are healthy alternatives for you and your family! With the pizza you can put turkey sausage and turkey pepperoni and load it up with veggies and enjoy a great pizza while cutting the fat and calories! Happy eating!

A bump in the road

Just when you think things are going well you always have to hit a bump in the road! Well today I hit my bump. I have been doing really well avoiding all the things that I really want to eat. Like cookies, ice cream etc. However, I ran across oreos today and I just couldn't resist anymore. I just had to have some. I have been watching Eric eat cookies and funnel cakes and other sweets for days now! So, I allowed myself to have some. But the good news is I stopped at 3 and didn't eat anymore. I then sent the remaining cookies home with my brother-in-law and assured my husband that there would be no more of those in the house! LOL!! I figured I have been sharing all of the good things that have been happening with the lifestyle change, but I decided I should also share the struggles! The reality is that no matter how well things go and how much self discipline you have, you WILL hit bumps in the road. The issue will be how you choose to handle those bumps in the road. Like I choose to stop at 3 cookies when I really wanted to eat the entire bag, although the better option would have been to not eat any!! So I am now back on track. I have had my sugar fix for the time being and I hope that there is at least 3 weeks before the next bump in the road! And hopefully next time I am strong enough to say NO! We shall see! God Bless!!

Fun times with good friends!

This weekend Eric and I had the pleasure of getting hang out with 2 of our good friends whom we haven't seen for a while. We shared dinner at the Roadhouse with them last night. In which on my lifestyle change endeavors I was able to enjoy a 6 oz sirloin, a baked potato, a side salad and of course my new favorite drink of choice WATER!!!

Today we headed down to Noblesville to the new Hamilton Town Center Mall. It was pretty neat. We really enjoyed just walking around and checking things out, while of course just window shopping on our new found budget! We then met back up with our friends and went to the Indiana State Fair for the afternoon. While there Eric and our friends enjoyed some great fair food while I of course salivated but was not tempted! We stopped at Steak and Shake after we left and I had a partial cup of chili, cottage cheese and half of a steakburger with no bun (I brought my own of course!)

I definitely am learning to be more prepared as we go out and about. Today I took a little lunch bag with an ice pack, spray butter(the only kind I can have), light ranch, and string cheese for snacks. It worked out very well! However, I should have packed water because it was 2 and 3 dollars a bottle at the fair! So I opted for the free cups of ice! Anyways, hope you all have a good evening!

P.S. This lifestyle change gets easier everyday!!!

Trusting God

Eric and I have recently made the decision for me to quit my job. This is a really difficult decision for us to make because financially we can't afford to do this. But we have prayed about it a lot and we feel like this is what we are supposed to do. So we are taking a major leap of faith and trusting that God will pull us through the next two years, although we know He won't make it easy! You may be wondering why we made this decision?! Well the decision was made after we found out that I will be starting nursing school on August 25th. This will be take up a large amount of my time and will not allow for normal working hours. I was only going to be able to work 1 day a week at the job I currently had and wouldn't be making much. I would then only have 1 entire day a week where I didn't have other obligations. Well, to put it simply I don't handle stress very well and I end up making myself physically sick if I am not careful. So after praying about it we decided that the best option for my stress level to be as low as possible and for me to be able to get through nursing school was for me to not work. Because I cannot miss class or clinicals, if I miss more than 1 day I fail the class! We hope that we made the right decision. We would appreciate prayer as we adjust to living on a tighter budget and cutting some things out.

The lifestyle change continues to go well. It gets easier everyday and I feel better each and everyday! Praise God! If you ever need any help or if you are struggling with weight yourself and you just want to chat feel free to email me at ericncasey@yahoo.com ! God Bless!!

Comcast is Annoying!

Sorry for the delay in blogging but a comcast employee cut our cable/internet line last Thursday while burying our neighbors new line. So needless to say we haven't had cable/internet until today because it takes a thousand years, or so it seems, to get someone out to your house when there is a problem!

So now that I am connected to the real world again here we go! Last week went really well. I am continuing to adjust to the lifestyle change more and more everyday. I ran into some difficulty this weekend however when we were in Wisconsin for the weekend. I thought for sure it would be fairly easy to stick to my eating habits while we were gone because you can get plain grilled chicken or unseasoned meat everywhere, right?! WRONG!! I had a horrible time finding something to eat. We went to cracker barrel and I ordered plain grilled chicken tenders with no seasoning, a side salad and cottage cheese. The waitress returns moments later and states that she can't get the chicken without seasoning because it comes pre-seasoned. So I proceeded to ask about the other meat on the menu only to find out that all of their meat pork chops, steak, chicken etc. all had some kind of seasoning on it. So needless to say I finally found a hamburger that didn't have any seasoning added to the meat and was finally able to eat dinner after spending a good 20 or more minutes scouring the menu for something other than a plain salad.

Overall, I have lost 16 pounds since I started my lifestyle change on July 28th. I am very excited about the weight loss. I am also excited about how I have never been able to anything like this before and now I know that I CAN do all things through my God if I just trust and believe! If you are trying to lose weight or just be healthier, lean on God and believe, he truly can work miracles! God Bless!

Great Weekend

Well Eric and I had a good weekend. We spent the weekend together hanging out with friends and relaxing for a change. I found that sticking to the diet over the weekend wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. I was definitely dreading Sunday dinner today as it is a big to do in Eric's family with a big meal and of course desert. However, I spoke with Eric's mom ahead of time and informed her I would be bringing my own lunch so I wouldn't be tempted so much and it worked out nicely. I heated up my food and ate with everyone else and I was able to enjoy dinner without thinking "What can I eat?!" So my ability to control food instead of letting food control me is absolutely getting easier to say the least.

I did some shopping this weekend and found some other things that I could eat. I was telling my husband that food tastes so bland without high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated oils in it. I kept saying I wanted some spice. So this evening we headed to buffalo wild wings and found out that a lot of their sauces don't contain those things and most of them don't contain any grams of sugar on the nutrient label either, SCORE! So we bought some to spice up our chicken at home so I am way looking forward to eating some chicken with a kick. We also found individual serving size packs of light ranch dressing that I can carry in my purse so that wherever we end up at I will always have dressing I can eat! Needless to say it was a good weekend !!

P.S. I have lost 11 pounds!! Yippee!!

~Casey~

Update on the week

Since my last blog lots of things have gone on. I realized that I forgot to tell you one small but important tid bit of information on my initial blog, so I will tell you that information now. At my doctors visit on Monday my doctor also placed me on a new regulator medication for my migraines. This medication has made me sick in the past but my doctor was very persistent about putting me on it for several reasons the main one being the prevention of migraines but this medicine also has some side effects that would be beneficial for me such as appetite loss, taste change (mainly unable to drink carbonated beverages, so no soda) and a few other related things. I reminded him that it made me sick last time we tried but he persisted. Ok now that we have the background begins my update.....

I began taking this medication last Wednesday and I have been oh so very nauseated with it. To the point that I have done pretty much nothing for a 9 days but go to work and sleep, so therefore also slacking with the blog. I have even missed 2 days of work because of being so nauseous. So yesterday (Thursday) I finally called the doctor and told him I couldn't take it anymore. I had been so awfully ill feeling and uncharacteristically lazy I couldn't take it. So he called me back and he decided to lower my dosage for now so that I only take it once a day at bedtime because I was feeling more nauseous in the mornings. So today I have felt much better!! Praise Jesus! He is going to slowly increase the dose as my body tolerates it.

The diet in the meantime has been going well amidst the nausea! I haven't varied from it at all and I am adjusting to eating MUCH smaller portions! I am drinking lots of water and I haven't had anything sweet in almost a week! It's a miracle! Haha because I love sweets!

As far as exercising well that is still coming along. I have done my two 20 minute walks that the doctor and I agreec to for the week. However, me and those crunches haven't quite became friends yet with the nausea hanging around! So there is still lots of room for improvement but I am heading in the right direction!

My husband has been a wonderful support with all of the new changes and I really appreciate it! Thanks honey for the encouragement! It means a lot! Love ya

~Casey~

The journey begins

Today has been a hard day. I began my new diet/lifestyle change. I felt like I ate like a rabbit today. I say that because I feel like I didn't eat much of anything however I know in comparison to most of the world I ate like a king. Isn't it amazing the simple things that we take for granted everyday like food. Who would of thought I was so selfish about food until today? I should be thankful that I was able to eat 3 meals and 2 snacks today. But instead it was hard to not focus on the fact that I ate so little in comparison to normal. Shame on me for being so selfish instead of being so thankful. Thank you Jesus for making see today how blessed I am to be an American and to be able to have an option of what food I eat and how many meals I eat each and every day. I will continue to work on being thankful and not selfish.

I also exercised today. I walked 2 miles today. I didn't want to do it at all. I made the excuse that it was too hot outside to walk. But thankfully my good friends laughed at me and didn't let it slide! Good for them for encouraging me! It is nice to be surrounded by people who care about me and love me! Off to relax a little before bed and spend some time with my husband! I hope you all have a great night!

~~ Casey~~

Through Christ all things are possible!

I have been contemplating starting a blog for months now but I wasn't sure of what to write about. After a trip to the doctor this week and church service today I decided that I would use this blog to discuss my battle with weight. and how God is using it to draw me closer to Him.

It was very fitting that PK talked about Philippians 4:13 today. I have struggled with my weight my entire my life and this week my doctor informed me that I had no choice but to make a life style change. Like everyone else who has struggled with weight my first thought was, "yeah right here we go again, another diet, another failed attempt where I end up heavier than I started." That thought quickly left my mind though when I stopped and realized that I have a wonderful doctor who is a man of God who cares enough about me to want to help make me healthier so I can live a better and longer life.


So tomorrow I start a new lifestyle. I will be changing my eating habits sticking strictly to the doctors orders and exercising on a regular basis again sticking to the doctors orders. I will be keeping track of my progress and my journey with God along the way. I really excited to see what God is going to do in my life and in the lives of those around me. I have attempted to lose weight several times and have failed. However, I am determined to lose weight with the support of my family and friends and the strength of my God! I hope you will embark upon the journey with me and pray for me as I go along and I look forward to seeing what God has store!

I realized today that I can and I will do this through Christ who strengthens me!

~~In Him~~ Casey