Well its been a tough year my dad, who raised me since I was 1, passed away in January. That was so hard and I never thought I could experience anything so awful until August when I lost my mom, my best friend in this whole world. We talked on the phone every day and even though I moved to another state a couple of years ago we stayed just as close. When we lived by each other I saw her almost every day, that was one of the hardest parts about moving, that and leaving my son. I had bariatric surgery on October 11th and found out my real father passed 4 days before. I was in the hospital for 6 days and when I was released I found out my ex- father in law, whom I once cared very much about, my children’s grandfather, had passed. My kids lost 4 grandparents in 10 months. I still can’t believe my mom is gone, I miss her every second, the only thing that keeps me going is my faith in Christ. I know I will see her again as well as my other loved ones.
I am trying to heal and loosing weight which I am truly happy about. No more blood pressure medicine yeah!! My mom wanted me and my sister to continue with our surgery and we are, hers is December 4th and I am so excited for her. I lost 20 pounds before surgery and 13 so far, I plan on posting pictures as my journey continues. 😊

 Well its almost Christmas, which I completely love this holiday, I just miss my family. I wish I could get them all to move to Oregon :-) Oregon is so beautiful and I love the town we live in. I feel my family would love it here too. I am grateful that I have my daughter here and my Aunt and cousins, I have made some wonderful friends so I am very blessed. Our family is only 5 1/2 hours away so that isn't too far.  I do get to visit.

I am just praying for a wonderful new year for everyone and most of all I pray that my dad gets better and healthy, he is still in the hospital after having surgery on his lung. I am sure worried but praying sure helps. I know God always knows what is best for all of us, its just hard when I want him well.
My mom will be having a more minor surgery soon and I pray all goes well with that, I sure hate worrying about parents and kids. :-(

I don't usually do New Years resolutions but this year I am.
1. I am going to get healthy, which includes loosing weight, darn I hate to exercise.
2. Find a church I love and go faithfully.
3. Just be a better person all around.

Well that's my update, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Children's Book Reviews

Llama Llama red pajama is an adorable book that any child afraid of the dark or bedtime would benefit from.  Not only is it a rhyme book, its a books that makes sense so any child can understand what you are reading to them. I can see any young child 3 to 7 years old wanting this read to them over and over as it is very contagious.  A child as well as the adult reading it could easily memorize the words because of the rhyming and it sends out a good and comforting message to the child. I highly recommend this book to any parent and grandparent. Besides who doesn't love Llama's!



Girl's Best Friend, A Maggie Brooklyn Mystery, is a great book and especially for pre-teens. Everyone loves a good mystery and this one is written with boys and girls in mind.  The best part about this book is they use real life experiences; kids who's parents have divorced, kids who have crushes on each other, kids who aren't so noticed. All pre-teens' experience one, if not all of these things in their lives.  I love that the story is based around dogs, something that all kids can relate to and that most love. This is an exciting and adventurous mystery that every child in their pre-teens would enjoy and want to pass on to their friends.

Healthy Eating :-)

Well its been a month of changing our eating habits. We decided after watching my son get into shape, he has lost about 85 lbs., works out, eats healthy and feels better for it, that it was worth trying.

1. First me and my husband watched a show called "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead" by Joe Cross and the we also watched Fork over Knives. What great shows, it will change your life for the better. It shows you how to eat right and still feel good. I was on 12 medications and I was sick of it, I have an autoimmune disease and always felt sick, I am now down to 1 medication and that one used to be 150 mg , which I am now 50 mg. 1 time a day. I feel better than I have ever felt in my life.

2. I have also lost 20 lbs and I plan for that to continue. I just bought a small little stair stepper and plan on using this daily as I now feel I have the energy to exercise which I never had before. Yea!!!

3. I plan to stay eating healthy forever, this is not a diet but a life time change in how I see food. I want to feel good and have energy forever, not just temporary and to just lose weight and get off medications temporary. I want to be around to see grandchildren someday.

4. I have a goal and when I reach it I plan on me and my husband going on a trip as my reward, even though the weight is not the top priority, its up there on the ladder pretty high.  I have been burden by it for so long that I don't remember what it feel like to be thin anymore and I know I will feel better and feel better about myself when I am thinner.

5. Learning to eat healthy is a lot of work from shopping to cooking but I can tell you it is all worth it. My husband is so wonderful and cooks our meals, (what would I do without him) He goes to the grocery store with me too, what a big help, so if you have someone to help you a spouse, a friend, a sibling, a parent, anyone so you can support each other, it will become very routine after a while. We do a lot of juicing, which you will see if you watch Joe Crosses show. I can say having the right equipment is huge and makes life much easier if you do.

6. I am going to blog and keep track here with my goals as a support for me and anyone else who is trying to do the same thing and I wish anyone else luck and so much easier than I ever thought it would be. No sugar, No dairy, No caffeine, No meat (a little seafood) gotta have my shrimp lol. Once I reach my goal weight I will have seafood and chicken and only have red meat as a treat a few times a year in very small amounts. It is a personal choice how you make your healthy eating, I think its all good as long as you are taking advice from the right experts and you feel healthy and follow your doctors advice its all good.

7. I will have my husband do photos even though I hate my picture taken, but right now I will just go with the one that is up at the top and in a month I will post a new one as we are going to do new family pictures.

Have a great weekend. :-) Ronda

Robby's College Graduation

Its been a while since I've posted. Whats new is we have two new goats and four chickens now. Our goats are about a year old and one was born with only three legs but gets around really well. Omar and Bucky and they are the sweetest little guys.  Our chickens, who I name after my nieces are all great egg layers, we get 4-6 eggs a day.

My family is doing great, all the kids are fine and happy. My mom has moved closer, which I am very happy about and she is hopefully going to get an apartment in town. She is in a travel trailer right now but in next on the list for senior housing.

Me and my husband have did a lot of canning this year and its been so fun. This is a wonderful time of year, I love the Holidays, decorating, spending time with family, baking. I plan on making most of my Christmas presents this year and want to start this month. I have lots of ideas and I figure 3 months will give me plenty of time.

Work has been extra busy, we are down 2 people so that has been hard but we have a very good bunch of people that all work well together so at least that helps.

I plan on pumpkin decorating this week. :)

Martha Stewart - Pink

This is one of Martha Stewart's craft ideas and its pink. How cute is this. It can work for so many things, baby shower, bridal shower, birthday party, tea party or just a get together with friends and family. I love anything pink.

2012

Well I started my 2012 out healing from another surgery. I hope this is my last surgery too. I had 4 hernias in my stomach, they had to put in 20 inches of mesh. And I had a small non-cancerous tumor taken off my ankle. I wanted it all done at once, I wasnt coming back. But things are going great, healing slow but I can't complain about being home with my family. I love them. I will get well it's all temporary. I get to scrapbook soon and I can't wait. My sister in law is coming to visit and we have a really fun time. My mom is doing so much better from her accident, broken hip last May, she gets impatient but she is used to being very active and this is hard on her to have to slow down so much. God has sure looked out for all of us, we could not have made it through the last year without Him, I am thankful for my faith and of course my family. This is going to be a wonderful year!

Update

It's so nice out today and I got off work early. I went to go see my friend Jerris's mom. Lelia she turned 92 years old on Sunday, boy is she with it too. She remembers ever photo and every memory. I'm so impressed every time I visit her. She loves to wear jewelry and red polish so that's what I got her. She appreciates any little thing you do for her, she is just like my mom and thats who I went and visited next. My mom, who broke her hip 3 months ago is doing wonderful and getting around so good. She still has such a hard time with anyone helping her do anything. She has been so independent for so long its very hard for her to ask for help of any kind, but she deserves to be helped she would help anyone and has. I have seen my mom give her last dollar to a stranger. She is very kind hearted. God will bless that woman, I'm telling you. So that has been my day. I love that we get a 3 day weekend. I have lots of plans for cleaning my house, every weekend we have been going to birthdays or something and finally I get a weekend to catch up, it will be nice.

Update

Its been a while since I've posted. Work has been so busy, we've had 2 events since I last posted and they both went great. We hired 2 new employee's at work and they are both great to work with, which makes work easier.

Easter was wonderful and we had a great time. My family and my husbands family all got together and had one big dinner, it was so nice. Church service that day was especially great.

Just recently my mom fell and broke her hip, she had to have surgery which was awful. I feel so bad for her, she is normally so active and works and now she is completely laid up. She has to use a wheelchair and a walker and can only use one leg. She is staying at my younger sisters house because she needs help with everything. Its really hard for her to accept help too. I am helping her job, which I already work full time She has never had anything happen to her before so this is really hard for her, I just pray she heals and is able to be active again. We have lots of people praying for her so I know everything will work out.

My brother in law just got a new job so that is something great, he has been looking for a long time now and it is really a blessing to his family.

My daughter is working 2 jobs and I am so proud of her, she is trying to pay off her bills sooner than later. My step daughter just graduated from college and received her Bachelors degree, I am also very proud of her. My son and step son both just finished another year at junior college and are doing good and my youngest step son is about to graduate from high school and he plans on going to college and he gets outstanding grades (usually all A's) How lucky are we as parents. I know its bragging but in this day and age to have 5 kids and they are all doing so wonderful I feel is a huge accomplishment for them and us. We do pray a lot for them and they have great values and morals, they are outstanding adults.

We plan on cleaning our garage, our yard and our sunroom this summer, I can't wait. I love to get things done and see the results. I want to finish painting and finish our tile work inside the house too. We have to get new windows and paint the outside of the house too. Lots of project but all good things. Our house will look wonderful when its all done.