New Beginnings - Part 1

Well, it has been a great summer so far. Zach went to Europe for 3 weeks and Hunter has been at Wellspring Adventure Camp in North Carolina for 6 weeks. I am so excited because I am going to pick him up this Saturday!!! He has lost 26 pounds as of this past Sunday...I am so very PROUD of him. In short, Wellspring has been a blessing for Hunter, but also for our entire family.

We found out about Wellspring a little over a year ago. Chuck was up late one night flipping channels and came across a show called Too Fat for Fifteen. The show took place at Wellspring Academy in North Carolina and followed the lives of several teens who were enrolled in Wellspring Academy and their quest to lose weight. Wellspring is not a diet, but a lifestyle change. Both of my boys are overweight to an extent. Zach has never had problems in school that were weight related , but Hunter endured a year of bullying in school this past year because of his weight. Now mid you, neither of my boys are grossly overweight, but they did need to lose some weight. Hunter became very interested in the program and followed their first season. We even checked into sending him to school there. This past December we had the opportunity for Hunter to apply to be on the show. He applied, but was not one of the few that were picked. We were offered a discount to let him attend the academy. It was still just too pricey to be able to afford. In January, we received information about Wellspring Camps. They have camps located all over the United States and in the UK. He decided to attend Wellspring Adventure Camp in the mountains of North Carolina for a 6 week program. Him attending camp, is what has gotten us to this point.

The Wellspring program involves getting active and cutting the fat out of your diet. As a family, we are now all "on program"!! We eat no more than 12 grams of fat a day and we get in a minimum of 10,000 steps a day. On a side note, I am not able to get in all of those steps because of my fused ankles, but I am building up my numbers, and I will get there! To be honest, I was scared of not being able to follow the program. I have been very surprised at how easy this program is to follow...to date I have even lost almost 10 pounds!! The biggest thing I have missed about taking the fat out of our diets is the eating out!! Let's face it..the eating out got us in this position to begin with. That and the lazy lifestyle!!

Overall, we are doing great. This has been an excellent change for our family. We had hoped to be able to send Hunter to the academy for this semester, but once again, I was just not able to make it work. I am a little nervous about bringing him home. The food portion is not the concern. It is the keeping active part that bothers me the most. That and going back to school. We have presented him with a couple of options, and we are looking at putting him in a local private school that will work with him to help keep him "on program". I also think the small class size will be a benefit. He will be in a 6th/7th grade combo class with 12 students. He will be in 7th grade this year. It was a difficult decision to take him out of our local middle school because we have a great school district, and he was placed on a great team for the coming school year. I just did not want to place him back in the environment that had the potential to derail his progress. HIs school was willing to work with us to get the "bullies" under control, but Hunter would not "rat" out the offenders.

That is all for now, but I will do another update soon to keep everyone up to date with how we are doing. What an exciting journey this will be!!

Busy Couple of Days Coming Up...

Well, the next couple of days are going to be busy around here. Zach will be coming home from Europe tomorrow night. His plane gets in at 11:30 pm!! We then have to leave no later than 7 am on Thursday to drive to North Carolina to visit Hunter at camp!!! We will be in North Carolina until Saturday and then drive back home late on Saturday. I am very excited to learn more about the Wellspring Plan!! We have been trying some of the low fat recipes here at home, and so far, everything has been pretty good. We had Camp Stew for dinner tonight and I actually ate cooked carrots!! I know, I know, that is nothing big, but anyone who knows me, knows that I despise cooked veggies!! It is a texture thing and the memory of my grandmother boiling okra...how gross!!

Hunter will have the option of staying at camp for the night or coming back to the hotel with us. I am nervous about him making food decisions on his own so early in the process. I have been talking with a Wellspring mom and have some ideas if we decide to do breakfast on our own before going back to camp. The diet they follow is basically a low-fat diet. He really wants to make a change so we are behind him one hundred percent!!!

That is all for now. Got to go do something I am sure!!! More later.

June 2011

Where has the time gone!! I can not believe it is already July!!! The good news is that I survived Sommer's high school graduation. I was sad, but so happy for her. My brother Chris drove in from Washington, DC to surprise us for the day!! I had NO idea he was coming. He also brought his new girlfriend, and I really do like her...she fits in with our family so nicely!!! Sommer is all registered to start class at Tallahassee Community College the end of August. I can not believe my daughter is a college freshman!!!

Zach is currently in Ireland on his People to People trip. He left June 18 and he will be back home this coming Wednesday. He has had an amazing time. He traveled to Amsterdam, Belgium, England, Wales, France and Ireland!!! Talk about a trip of a lifetime. Can not wait to hear about his fun.

Hunter is in North Carolina at Wellspring Adventure Camp. I hope he is having a great time and learning new things. We leave on Thursday morning to go for Family Weekend. I am excited about learning all there is to know about the Wellspring Plan. I know he would love to go to the Academy for school, but I just do not know if we can afford to do that. It would be great, but we will have to wait and see. We have made several of the recipes here at home, and plan on making the changes here too. We could all stand to lose a few pounds!! Chuck made Spinach Lasagna the other night and it was fabulous!!

I am getting excited about interning this August. I will FINALLY graduate in December!!! I am so excited and relieved all at the same time!!!

Yesterday was my niece Gracie's 5 th birthday...hard to believe she is already 5. Where does the time go!!!

That is all for now. See ya again soon!!!

Sommer's Last Day of School...High school that is!!

Well, I knew it would happen sooner or later. I just did not realize how soon it would happen. How is is possible that it has been 18 years since I gave birth to my beautiful little girl? I remember bringing her home from the hospital like it was yesterday. I remember her first day of kindergarten like it was yesterday. How is it possible that she will be making the graduation walk next Friday night? My girl has grown up and says she is old enough to now fly the nest and live on her own!! Really!!! I'm not sure that I am in agreement with all of these changes!!

Yesterday was the last school day for seniors. She was so excited, and I was excited for her. They were told they could NOT come back to campus until next Wednesday for Baccalaurette practice and to pick up their cap and gown. Wow, pick up your cap and gown!!! I need to be sure and take a couple of boxes of Kleenex with me to graduation!!

Life will continue but for now I am sitting here going through old pictures...I better get them picked up before she comes in and finds me a sobbing mess!!

Just a Few Things

Well, I hope that everyone had a fantastic Mother's Day last weekend. I spent mine on the road driving back from Miami!! The boys and I left Friday morning on an impromptu trip to drive to Miami and visit Chuck. We had not seen him since the middle of April and he will not be home until May 25!! He unexpectantly ended up with the weekend off se we loaded up the van and off we went.

We had a great time. We lived down in Pembroke Pines in 2000-2001 and we never ventured to South Beach. Well, we ventured this time and boy did we see some interesting sights!! Some things are just not for public viewing!! We also had the chance to go and see the Norweigan Epic leave port for its Transatlantic repositioning cruise. We are going on the Epic in March so it was great to see the size of the boat we will be on. We typically cruise with Royal Caribbean so going on Norweigan will be a new experience. We have been on one other cruise line and I was NOT impressed.

I finally received my internship placement yesterday. I will be in the 3rd grade at Riversink Elementary, and I am very excited. I love 3rd grade and do a lot of subbing in 3rd grade so I am a little familiar with the curriculum. In no way am I saying I have it down because I still have so much to learn and I have a great teacher to work with.

Sommer's last full week of high school is this week. I am sad, hard to believe she is going to college in a couple of months. She is ready to move out with her friend and is already looking for an apartment!!

In other news of interest, I was totally bummed they voted James off American Idol this week. Really!! I do not care who wins now but I will continue to watch since I have already invested so much time in the show...plus I have to watch Steven Tyler!! I do NOT like Scotty at all. Enough said!!

Hope to have a great weekend and get some homework and hose cleaning out of the way.

See you later!!

Lots of Changes!!!

Well, it is the first part of May already!!! Hard to believe we are already in the 5th month of 2011...where has the time gone? There are lots of changes getting ready to occur in my life around here. In April I finished all of my classes toward my degree. The only thing left is my internship that will take place in August...I am excited. I still do not know at which elementary school I will be placed, but I am looking forward to this next step.

Another big change for me is PTA. After tomorrow, I will be done with PTA. It is a very bittersweet feeling as I have been PTA president for the past several years and was Volunteer Coordinator prior to that. I have been involved in our school since 2005 in some capacity or another. We had a great spring festival this past March and so I am happy that I am going out knowing that I have done my very best. I will now have to figure out what to do with all of my spare time!!

Right now, for the month of May, I am taking a day class. Very strange to be going to class in the morning, but I am finding that I really do like it. Also, I have a pretty terrific teacher.

Another big change is that Sommer will be graduating from high school. That is huge and shocking to me all at the same time. It does not seem possible that she is getting ready to start college. She was accepted at SCAD in Savannah, GA., but has decided that she wants to start at TCC to get her basic and to really try to decide what she wants to do. She has thoughts of being a high school teacher.

Chuck has been out of town since the middle of April. He is down in Miami training on the 767. He will be home the Wednesday before Sommer's graduates. Talk about cutting it close. She all but has her bags packed and is ready to move into her own place!!

Well those are all the changes I can think of that are coming up in the near future. Zach and Hunter will both be leaving in June. Zach will be going to Europe with People to People for 19 days and Hunter will be going to camp in North Carolina for 6 weeks.

The Royal Wedding

Well, how many of you got up to watch the wedding of Price William and Kate Middleton? I did. I remember watching when Prince Charles and Lady Di got married. I was going into the tenth grade, and on the day of the wedding I was traveling from Rogers, Arkansas to Tuleta, Texas, to spend the summer with my aunt and grandmother. I remember I would not get in the car until my Aunt Marcie had her portable television set up so I could watch the wedding. Portable televisions were a new thing in those days!! I remember driving and having to move the antenna all around to keep the channels. I was so in LOVE with Princess Diana and was totally heartbroken when she passed away. I know she was smiling down on Prince William today and would be very proud of the choices he has made in his life. That being said, I LOVED this Royal Wedding too!!! I was a little surprised to read later this morning that Kate would not be receibing the title Princess since she is a commoner...REALLY!! That is so not right...she is already know as Princess Kate!!!

I got up at 4 am to start watching. I also had to get Sommer up because she was leaving on her senior trip this morning. Even Zach got up and was all into the royalness...who would of thought he would be interested! I could go on and on about this mornings activities but I will not. I wish I could have been in London but I have given Zach strict instructions bring me something back from London when he is over there this summer. I wonder if there is a Pandora charm to commemorate the occasion!!

Not much else going on. I finished my last class last night...woo hoo. One of my classmates mother's brought us an adorable cupcake cake to celebrate. Now to get through internship and find a job. I do have a class in May, but it is a piece of cake, a pre-req I never got to take. I still do not know where I am doing my internship, but I do know it is not at Crawfordville Elementary. I am very heartbroken about that, but I will survive. I feel let down because the whole reason I even decided to go back to school was because of the entire community at CES. They have supported me along this entire journey and for that I am forever grateful.

Well, I need to get busy addressing Sommer's graduation announcements while she is sway for the weekend.Hard to believe that graduation is less than a month away. My baby girl has grown up!! Let me go dry my eyes and get busy!!!