I Learned the Hard Way

I got to thinking after I did my post yesterday about Lexie's attempted suicide. Lexie was a freshman in HS and so I let her keep a bottle of Tylenol in her room so when she needed it she could use it. Lexie knew how many to take and usually told me if she was going to take some. I really wasn't concerned about it. Then I found out the dangers of taking to much Tylenol.

Lexie took like 20 or so Tylenol one night. The next morning I got a call from the school that she wasn't feeling to good and that she admitted to taking a lot of Tylenol. She was rushed to the ER in an ambulance and the hospital was very concerned. Dumbie me, I still wasn't aware of the damage the Tylenol was doing. I figured most of it was probably out of her system by now. I didn't realize that Tylenol overdoses may not affect you for the first day or even two days, but by day three you can drop dead or have irreversible liver damage. Lexie was lucky that her friend told the teacher what she had done and that her school acted immediately. She had to take some really nasty medicine for about 3 days to absorb the Tylenol that was in her system. We were very fortunate that she lived and that her liver wasn't affected.

Acetaminophen affects the liver, which processes Acetaminophen and removes it from the bloodstream. When too much Acetaminophen is taken, it overloads the liver's ability to handle the drug. In the process, it creates a toxin that kills the liver, and a person can die several days later.

What makes Acetaminophen so horribly dangerous, for children, is the difference between a "dose" and a fatal "overdose" is so small. According to some medical reports, twice the normal dose will result in liver damage. Some estimates say as many as 56,000 people end up in the emergency room every year due to overdose.

If you think your child or someone else may have taken a Tylenol overdose, call your poison control center or emergency room immediately.


I just want everyone to be aware that a drug that most of us consider safe and that we use so often on ourselves and our children can be a silent killer. Please always check the dosage chart before giving medications to your children and don't increase the dosage amount. It is for your own safety!
I don't know.......maybe everyone else knew about the dangers of Tylenol, but I didn't. Please use over the counter drugs as directed!!!

Also, many teens take over the counter cough medicines to get high. I found this out when Lexie was in the hospital.

Lexie's HS Graduation and More on My Weight Loss Journey

Yesterday afternoon my beautiful daughter, Alexis, graduated from High School. Lexie's graduating is especially special to me for a couple of reasons. Four years ago in September, Lexie's first year in HS, she tried to commit suicide. Thank God her attempt failed! Secondly, Lexie has finish HS while becoming a mother. Anthony will be 2 yrs old in a month so she completed a year of HS while being pregnant and the last 2 years while being a mom. Lexie could have so easily quit, but she didn't. Instead she strived to get her education and to live her life. She has even been awarded a partial scholarship to a local college. I am so proud of my baby girl and of all of her accomplishments and I'm so glad to have her as my daughter! Okay, I'm bawling my head off now so I have to quit writing about this.

Anthony and the Graduation Cap

A Flip Book in the Making

Congratulations Lexie!!!!

I'm so proud of you!



After I did my embarrassing post yesterday I received several very supportive messages. Thank you Kana, Dianne, my wonderful sisters Cathy & Robyn. My blogger friend Valerie has even volunteered to by my buddy in this. We decided that we would work together on loosing weight and that we would be accountable to each other. We are starting off today with a plan of drinking 6 glasses of water a day and walking 3 times a week for 20 minutes. Next week we'll add something else to our plan. Thanks Val for doing this with me!!! I'm going to be posting my progress on my sidebar so I can make myself be more accountable for actions. Wish me luck and if anyone else would like to join in feel free!

Here is a picture of me with my grandson, Chad,Jr. taken yesterday at Lexie's graduation. Isn't he a cutie?!?!? I decided as part of my new journey I wasn't going to hide from the camera anymore. I actually asked to have pictures taken of me yesterday, which if you know me at all is very unlike me. I'm trying to come out of my shell. So who knows, everyone may be getting sick of seeing so much of me in the future. A newer skinnier me!!

I also wanted to share a something that the Keynote speaker, Coach Pete Citrolo, said at Lexie's graduation yesterday. "It's not about how many times you fall in life....it's about how many times you get up". He also told the kids it's "all in the attitude". I think these will not only be encouraging words to the graduates, but to me on my new weight loss journey.

Have a great day!!!

My Confession and New Beginning

Last night Earl and I had to go buy me an outfit to wear to my daughters High School Graduation today. The last several years I absolutely dread shopping for myself. Growing up I always felt fat and even though I was a chubby in my 4-7 years of school I thinned out after that and was always petite. I weighed about 85 lbs and wore a size 0 wedding gown when I was 17. I never weighed over 100 lbs until I had my 4th baby. I got up to 110 then. After my 5th baby was born I got back down to 95 lbs. When I moved to New York 12 years ago I had gotten back up to almost 120 lbs. Progressively over the last few years I have gotten fatter and fatter. I very seldom leave the house and in my little world I feel fine, but when I do leave the house I am very ashamed of myself. Last night was it though!! I am so embarrassed to go to my daughters graduation looking the way I do. I am up to almost 190 lbs. I can't believe I admitted this to everyone. I'm tired of being embarrassed by my own body though, I'm tired of the way I look and the way I feel. Don't get me wrong, I don't dislike overweight people......just myself. I'm so tired of trying to find clothes and nothing fits. I'm only 4'9" so any extra weight definitely shows on me and quite frankly I look like a rolly polly now. So as of today I am going to really get serious about exercising and eating right. I know a couple of you of heard this from me before, but I'm really ready now and I have no excuses.

My fat progression

I remember feeling so fat on this day,

now I only wish I was this fat!

2001

I only have 1 chin in this picture

2005

Now I have 2 chins

Me now. See all of the chins......on working on chin #3.

I'm going to be posting my progress over the next few months in the hopes that now that I've publicly humiliated myself I might actually be motivated to loose some weight. Wish me luck and any support and encouragement will be gladly accepted!!!!

Bunnies and What I've Been Working On

Earl rescued these little bunnies when he was at work one day about 3 weeks ago. A hawk came down and took a couple of their siblings, but Earl managed to save these two. My camera has been being fickle so I missed getting pictures of Ezie feeding the bunnies formula with a syringe the first 2 weeks. Now they are eating a plastic grocery bag full of dandelion greens and stuff every day. They are growing quick and as much as the kids don't want to we'll probably be releasing them in the next week or so. Jace keeps putting his hands in the praying position and saying, "Please, please can we keep them". He's so darn cute!!!


This is a preview of a small afghan I'm making for a friend of mine. I'll be done connecting the rows tonight and then I just have to sew in all of my threads. I HATE sewing in the threads and always put it off until the last. I'll have it done in a week or so though. I can't wait to see it finished and have it on it's way to it's new home!


Have a great day! It's raining here in New York.....again. It's suppose to be super humid too.
Oh well, at least it's not winter!!
Have a great day!

Nice Surprises in the Mail

Yesterday I received 2 unexpected surprises in the mail. I received this candle from Jean of QuiltingRanny. It smells SO good!!! I think it needs to find a place next to my computer so I can breathe in the wonderful aroma while I'm sitting here at my desk. Also, Jean is having a contest to rename her blog so be sure and check it out.

Than I received a package from my niece Emily. I guess my sweet Mom ordered me some MarkKay makeup from Emily. I got some mascara, eye shadow and lip gloss. Thanks Momma! I haven't worn makeup in so long and it felt nice to put some on. Mallory did a little make over on me and I felt so pretty!! I have always loved MaryKay cosmetics and it is nice to have some again. If you want to have some fun and do a virtual makeover go to Emily's site and have some fun!!

Catchin' Up

I am all better now and I feel great! I took all of my antibiotics and hopefully that nasty bacteria I had is gone forever!

Happy Father's Day to Earl!

Earl is such a great dad and I am so glad I picked him

out to be the father to my kids.

Thanks hon!!

and now for some more news I learned the other day. I found out last week that Grandbaby #10 was on it's way and then on Friday, much to everyone's surprise I found out that #11 is coming too! Jeremy and Amanda are having twins in January. They already have Sabrina who is 11 1/2 and Austin who is only 7 months. Bless you guys! You are going to be SO busy!!

Grandbaby #10 & #11

I'm Sick of Being Sick!

I haven't been ignoring anyone or their comments I've just been sick since last Wed. night and haven't had the energy to get out of bed and only a few minutes last night and now to check my emails. I thought I was just having one of my stupid sinus infections so I went Wed. night to Friday pretty much treating it that way. Then came the weekend (I refuse to spend hours in the ER) so I stayed home and progressively got worse. Spells of teeth chattering freezing to sweating with the fan blowing on me, sleeping nonstop and my back killing me. Finally on Tuesday morning I got into the Dr.'s and I had a temp of 103 and a severe UTI. I never had the usual UTI symptoms. I have been on antibiotics for a couple of days now and am very slowly recovering. Anyway, thats where I've been.

A Fairy House

At our old house we had a fairy house across the street and when it got nice enough to go outside here at the new house the kids and I found 2 fairy houses. We have one in the backyard and one out front. I planted some miniature pansies outside of the door of the fairy houses. Earl thinks I'm nuts......but you never know......making these little fairies happy may bring us some good luck!

Or at least some wonderful fireflies this summer!

You never know!!!

A Busy Weekend

We had a pretty busy weekend. Earl and I watched our grand daughters from Thursday night until yesterday afternoon. All of the kids were so good! Here are some pictures I thought I'd share of our weekend.

My son Jeremy and his girlfriend Amanda took me to the hospital to see little Jesse. This is a picture of Jesse and his momma, Fatima.

Here is me with Jesse
(You won't see many pictures of me on my blog, don't laugh!)

My two grand daughters and my three having fun in the sprinkler.

Papa being sneaky with the hose

He's so onrey!

Little Austin had fun in the little pool.

and finally the toads that the kids played with all weekend.

They finally did set them free yesterday afternoon.

We had a busy, but fun weekend! It was nice to have the grand daughters, but just as nice when they left! It seems like I had dirty cups and freeze pop wrappers everywhere. After the girls left Mallory was back over the neighbors house, Ezie had a friend over, Earl had to work and I did some weeding in my flower gardens.

I hope everyone else had a great weekend!

Annie Dolls and a Picture of Our New Little Doll

I've never made a doll before, but I have always wanted to, so when I saw Aunt Pitty Pat's Sugar and Spice Annie Doll Swap I thought I'd give it a shot. I'm so glad I did! I found out that Marcel (Aunt Pitty Pat) is from my home town, Wichita, Kansas and I met a wonderful new friend through this swap, my partner, Valerie. Valerie had never made a doll before either so this was a tense but exciting swap for both of us!

This is the cute little doll that Valerie made for me. She is so cute!!! Her dress has beehives on it and then the little apron has a dragonfly button sewn on. Her red hair is pulled back on the top and tied with a ribbon. She is so cute!! I love her big eyes too!



Val also sent me a kit to make a different doll and a pincushion out of my all time favorite cowboy fabric. Val's 14 year old grand daughter has caught the Annie bug and is making her own doll. I can't wait to see it when she's done!

This is the doll that I made for Val. I wasn't to sure about the hair so I decided to put it up in rag curls and then made a nightie and a robe for her. I tea stained her and decided she was to dark so I put her in the washing machine (not really the best idea on retrospect!) and then I had to redo some of the paint on her face and all of her rag curls. Her neck got a little crease in it from washing her, but all in all I was happy with her.

Then my Ezie was home sick one day and I was working on Val's doll. He wanted me to make him a doll and I told him later after I finished this one I would try to make a boy doll. Then Ezie comes out of my craft room with some WWE fabric that I had bought to make him a pillowcase and had an idea for me to make a boy doll for him. He said he would stuff it if I would sew it for him. How could I resist?? So this is not the cutest doll, but Ezie loves it and who am I to discourage creativity?!?!?

I hope Triple H doesn't mind being made into a rag doll!

This is the newest Grand baby, Jesse II with my son, Jesse

I've had my grand daughters since Thursday night. Last night at 9:00 my two, the neighbor girl and my grand daughters had a picnic in the driveway. They were outside or on the computer playing all day yesterday and we only had one or two little spats. Not to bad!

Thanks Marcel for hosting the Annie Swap and encouraging me to join and thanks Val for the cutest little Annie doll!! I really love her!

Sweet Tweet Swap

Grandbaby #9 is HERE!

Jesse weighed 8lbs. 2 oz

Both baby and Momma are doing Great!

I participated in Ele's Sweet Tweet Swap and today everyone is posting their swap goodies. Stop by Ele's blog to see all of the participants and what they made.

I had a wonderful partner, Shirl. Here's the beautiful things that Shirl made for me.

She is so talented!!

You'll love Ele's blog and Shirl's too if you've never visited them before!

Shirl made this beautiful nest.

It has flower petals, feathers, ribbon, glittery eggs and other special touches.

It is so pretty!!

Next is this pretty card and a bonnet sachet. Shirl makes these ribbon roses

and she made some of my stuff in yellow which is my favorite color!

The detail in her work is amazing!!

(She has similar items for sale in her Etsy shop)

This beautiful cone is actually hanging in my china cabinet

because of all of the little fingers around my house.

It is so pretty!!


here's a close up view.



and if the swap package couldn't get any sweeter

here is some yummy white chocolates.
I didn't even share these with the kids.
I felt a little guilty......but the guilt left me in a hurry!

Thanks Ele for a fun swap and Shirl for such a gorgeous swap package!!
It was fun to make new friends!

Tomorrow I am going to post the cutest little Annie doll that I received from Valerie. I'm so frustrated, I mailed her package priority on Monday morning and she still hasn't received it. Come on Mr. Mailman!! I can't wait to see if Valerie likes the doll!!!

Yay! We Have Our Own Little Playground Now!!

Over the weekend the daycare next door was selling some of their old equipment so they could buy some new equipment. So for $50.00 we got this stuff for the kids.

The kids got a play house, rocket ship and a spin toy.

We got this one for the older kids. It has the monkey bars and slide.

It's so nice to have some toys for our kids to play on. During the day when I'm babysitting our kids watch the daycare kids play on their equipment while they just had little riding toys to play on. In the evenings Jace can play on the daycare equipment, but it's hard for the kids during the day when we're not allowed over there. Now everyone can play and hopefully be happy!!

A Variety of Things Today

This is a Sneak Peak of my first ever Annie doll that is going to Valerie. Valerie should get her tomorrow and I'm so excited to see if she likes her. I was pretty happy with how she turned out and think that Annie's could easily become an addiction. I've already got a couple more started.


This is my tag that I made for Jenny of Fated Follies Majestic Feathers Tag Swap. Stop by Jenny's blog to see all of the other tags. They are all so beautiful and yet so different. Thanks for all of your work Jenny!


I won this cute little key chain and little card holder from Denise of Polka Dot Moon a couple of weeks ago during her blogiversary week. Karen from Venzie Bags let me pick out the fabric and then I had this cute little set in just a couple of days. Thanks Denise and Karen so much!!

Today is Earl's Birthday and he is playing hookie from work. Yay Earl!!! The poor guy works so hard he deserves a day off. Of course he is catching up on his odd jobs and still working his second job. I guess there's "No rest for the wicked!" Ha! Ha! Earl. He also made this yummy salsa today. It's so good and nothing beats Earl's fresh salsa! Thanks hon!!