Nothing lost. Nothing gained. I guess that’s a plus.

Follow my progress and those I’ve teamed up with over at Plus Size Bloggers.

I mean come on already. It’s a good thing Tishia is doing such a great job and keeps me motivated or I would have given up already.

One pound down.

Follow my progress and those I’ve teamed up with over at Plus Size Bloggers.

A new theme, a new header, and a new button!

In my quest for losing weight as well as spending money wisely, I’ve decided to give this Menu Planning thing another try. Come to think of it, I think I wrote it down on paper once or twice, but never got as far as actually putting it on my blog. Why? Likely because putting it on my blog gives me {shudders} accountability. Heaven forbid y’all should come to expect it here every Monday. {And let’s be honest, I’m posting this on Wednesday, but dating it as if I did it Monday. Don’t judge me.}

Here we go…

Monday - Catfish with Potatoes
Tuesday – Take Out
Wednesday - Herb and Garlic Chicken with Stuffing
Thursday - Stroganoff
Friday - Enchiladas
Saturday - Clam Chowder
Sunday - Slow Cooker Stew

FYI Andrew is now dancing around the kitchen in anticipation of Friday.

Speaking of diets, man I hate that word, I wanted to quickly mention that I’ve been also renewing my desire to lose some weight. I’ve always struggled with my weight, but had finally gotten to a point many years ago where I had worked really hard to get it down to something that I was happy with and most of all felt good at. After a pregnancy and car accident, it’s piled back on…and brought friends. I’m done feeling like crap all the time though and ready to do something about it. I have back problems and knee problems, but I’ve done some research and feel like I’ve finally found some things I can do that won’t kill me or have me laid up on the couch for weeks. And to help with incentive and accountability, I’ve joined a contest over at Plus Size Bloggers to keep me on track. The contest is 14 weeks and I have to update weekly on my weight loss efforts. I’m not sure I’m ready to post my weight like my friend Tishia Lee did over at her new blog No More Plus Size, but I’m certainly going to give it my best effort. I want to be able to do more with Andrew without feeling like crap all the time, not to mention be around for him for many more years.

I don’t have a lot of time right now because I’m working on a couple of deadlines, but I’ve got several things in store for the coming weeks. Including a new theme and design to be implemented on this site very soon. I’m almost done with it and ready to show it off, but I had to put it to the side so I could get deadlines finished. (You can get a sneak peek by checking out my button on the Plus Size Bloggers tracking page.)

Talk to you soon…

iCLIPART.com

It’s been about 6 months since I posted over here. I thought virtual cobwebs would be easier to clear than real time cobwebs, but since I sat here just about all day yesterday trying to come up with a spectacular re-entrance into blogging life, I have to say they are just as hard to clear. Silly me.

Where have I been?

Well, that’s a little hard to put into words. I had a rough several months, both emotionally and physically. And somewhere in the midst of it, I kind of got lost. I let a lot of crap get to me, and in the end, I needed to take a break. I needed to get away from everything online that I was involved in on a regular basis.

I’m ready to get back to it though. I’ve missed my online family. And I appreciate those of you who sought me out to make sure everything was ok.

What have I been up to?

Just focusing on keeping the bills paid and spending time with the boy mostly. We did end up taking a four week trip to Georgia to see my mom, siblings, neices and nephews. It was a much needed time away. I feel refreshed and at peace now. I even got a little boost in my faith that I didn’t even know I needed.

We drove three days there and three days back. It was crazy and fun all wrapped into one. On the way there I had my oldest nephew with me. He’s my brother’s son and the only family I still have in Utah. He came along for the ride so he could visit his dad. It was good to have him come along. We were able to bond a little more. And I’m hoping he’ll visit a little more often now.

We only had to stay in a hotel one night because we were able to stay with my friend Crystal the first night. My nephew was cracking me up when he found out this would be the first time Crystal and I had actually met. He was sure we were on our way to our deaths as it must be “a 40-year-old fat guy waiting to rape us and kill us” when we got there. Thankfully he was wrong, and Crystal and her crew were awesome.

I’m sure I’ll post more about our trip later. Like I said, we were there four weeks. This could turn into a book if I try to squeeze it all into one post. For now let me just finish by saying, I’ve missed you. I hope you missed me too. I’ll try to not disappear again.

Blog Action Day is an annual nonprofit event that aims to unite the world’s bloggers, podcasters and videocasters, to post about the same issue on the same day. Our aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion.

I first learned about Blog Action Day about the same time my sister sent me this article. She had a Google Alert set up for the phrase “single parent.” Here’s the excerpt the Google Alert gave her:

DOES EVIL EXIST?
NewsWithViews.com – Merlin,OR,USA
Single parent motherhood is the leading cause of poverty. Fornication leads to single motherhood. A government check will never replace a father. …

She sent it to me livid because of the title and not realizing that the excerpt pertained to her alert, but not necessarily to the article’s message. The article itself is a pretty decent article and to most of it’s points I agree. I’ll readily admit that the act of sex outside of marriage is a sin. I’m also here to tell you however that God can (and did for me) take that sin and turn it for the better. As anybody who has known me longer than 5 minutes knows, Andrew is the single most important thing in my life outside of my relationship with God.

So Blog Action Day is about poverty. This article makes a blanket statement:

Poverty is a consequence of sin, often associated with fornication. Single parent motherhood is the leading cause of poverty. Fornication leads to single motherhood. A government check will never replace a father.

I’d like to disagree. First let’s find out what is considered poverty level? According to The 2008 United States Health & Human Services Poverty Guidelines I am not poverty level. While I agree that many single parents are often poverty level, and single parents often have to fight harder than married parents to stay out of poverty, I do not see how Mr. Daubenmire comes up with his statement. He provides no facts to back up his statement. Maybe it’s an opinion-based statement rather than fact.

Some days I feel poverty level. The days when the only reason we have food in the cupboard is because of a local church food bank. The days when I go to the store to buy butter, but don’t have the $2.97. The days when I have to tell my son no once again because I don’t have enough money for the 99 cent Hot Wheel he wants. It sucks. But I have to remember there are so many worse off than me. I haven’t had enough money to buy him Christmas presents the last two years. But you know what? He had a decent Christmas. God sent angels in the form of friends who knew I was struggling and wanted to make sure Andrew didn’t notice.

According to an article that ran in the Deseret News in Salt Lake City, Utah on February 19, 2003, the single leading cause of poverty is self-destructive behavior. Of course he also points out that a large percentage of poverty is found in female-headed households. He also states:

According to a NPR/Kaiser/Kennedy School Poll, the leading cause of poverty identified by both the poor (75 percent) and non-poor (65 percent) was drug abuse.

So one article states that the leading cause of poverty is single motherhood and another article states it is drug abuse. Who is right? I tend to think neither. I tend to agree more with this article which states:

There is no single cause of poverty. Poverty is too complex an issue to be the result of just one problem. There are, however, many interrelated factors that contribute to poverty in developing nations.

I think if you’re going to narrow down poverty to one single factor, you should be sure you can back it up with facts and not opinions. My point? Just because one is a single parent does not mean they are poverty level or living off the government. And if you see a single parent that needs a little extra help, would it hurt you to give it to them? I think the problem is many assume that we want a hand out, when really we’d love a hand up.

You can find more facts and statistics on poverty on the Global Issues website.

Cecile, Angelina and I were best friends when I lived in Georgia. We worked together at Software Etc, a computer store in the mall. We partied on the weekend and danced till morning. I moved away in 2001. We all kept touch via email for a while, but eventually lost touch.

On December 24, 2007, Angelina found me on MySpace. I was so excited to reconnect with her. I was checking out her friends list to see if there was anybody on there I knew. I saw Cecile and was equally excited to reconnect with her. I went to her page and immediately sensed something was horribly wrong. Her comments list was filled with “I miss you” type comments. And these weren’t “I miss you cuz you moved” comments. These were painful, hurting comments.

It took me a good hour of searching her comments to piece together what had happened, but eventually I figured it out. You can read about Flight 5191 here. Cecile was on the flight on her way to deliver supplies to the still-recovering Hurricane Katrina area. I spent the next couple hours laying in bed crying. Andrew laid next to me and just stroked my hair. Here I thought I was going to reconnect with a friend, and instead I find out she was taken from this life way too early. I could tell by the sign in date, that somebody was keeping up with her page, so I sent a friends request. Later that day, I got the approval and a message from her mom.

I visit her page regularly, just to remember. As I sit here now, I’m crying. This post has probably taken longer to write than any other just because I have to keep stopping to clear my eyes.

To Cecile: I wish we hadn’t lost touch. I wish I had found you again before this happened. I wish I had known you were in Colorado a few short months before. I could have met up with you there. Of course, I wouldn’t have been climbing no mountains, but I would have been happily waiting for you at the bottom to chat. LOL I love you, and I miss you, and I look forward to seeing you again someday.

To “Mom”, “Dad”, Brian and all those who loved her: I think about you all the time. I know how hard this must be. I hope if you’re ever in Utah, you’ll let me know so we can visit.

Please read this newspaper story of the memorial that was just put up in memory of Cecile and the other people who lost their lives that day.
The Richmond Register – Families, friends pay tribute to crash victims.

So today is the second day of school. I had some things I needed to do. So here’s my day.

1. Stop at Sam’s Club for Pee Pee Pads
2. Stop at Comcast to pay cable bill (and clear up account they messed up)
3. Stop at Library to drop off books
4. Stop at Grocery Store to pick up a few things

Timeline? Just over an hour.

Timeline if Andrew has been with me? At least 3 or 4 hours easily. Plus would have cost me at least another $5-10 at the store.