See? What did I say about being horrible at blogging? Here's proof.

I completed my second year at MMS as one of the art teachers. DH also started in Brookings as the assistant city engineer. So now we are trying to sell our acreage and move there. Just makes no sense for us both to drive, when we love the town, and the only thing keeping us here is our house/land. We don't have family here, and are still close enough to stay in touch with friends. It would also be great to have the kids in the same school system as me! We made an offer on a house, have an offer on ours, but it's contingent on our buyers selling their house. The owners of the house in Brookings couldn't wait any longer, so now the house search is starting over again. NOT my idea of fun. But with the price of gas, we really need to move. We spent over $500 on gas last month. Costs us about $100 a week when we are both driving, and another $25 in gas just to mow our lawn. Now that I am home for the summer, it SHOULD be better, but I still put on lots of miles hauling the kiddos.

Let's see. The kiddos have grown a ton. Caitlyn will be a teen in September, going into 7th grade. Erin just completed 2nd grade, and will be 8 in August. James turned 5 in April, and will be starting kindergarten in the fall. Matthew is three until July, and running fast to keep up with big brother!

Where oh where did the summer go? I can't believe I will be starting the second week of school tomorrow. My girls are on their third.

My new job is going great, I am already starting to feel comfortable, and am so much happier than I've ever been before teaching. It's so strange just having everything laid out for me to teach for the year. What an awesome program. Saturday I got ticked off and finally went through all of my old stuff from school. Took a tote of books and such to school and will have another one tomorrow. It felt SO good to get through it all.

Yesterday we had "the" BBQ of the year. Kind of ticks me off that we NEVER have people over. That is why we LOVE living out here. So last night our friends came out and we had a great time. Of course all the hard house-cleaning we did was pointless, with 9 kids running around, the house is trashed again. We need to do that more often, maybe it would inspire me to KEEP the house cleaner, instead of just letting everything pile up. One of the couples we had over, Jeff and Dana (Jeff has been Thad's best friend since they were about 9 or so) moved back to South Dakota this year. It's great that we can just call them up and they can be here in a couple of hours! I get a kick out of having them here. Jeff and Dana are so much like Thad and I personality wise, but Jeff never gets wild like Thad does, and Dana is wilder than me. It's SO much fun to have them here, I hope it's the start of many visits. Just wish they could have stayed longer. Good food, good friends, margaritas, music, what more could you ask for?

Let's see...otherwise, I'm still on track with my Sparkpeople diet. I don't really follow their food guidelines much anymore, just the calorie count. I am not losing much weight, but with getting ready for school, I did a lot of junk eating, and didn't have time to exercise. Now I'm walking a half hour a day at noon, so hopefully the weight loss will kick in. I know it sure felt DANG good to fit into size 12 jeans again. Maybe I can be down to a 6 by next summer. But I'm more worried about FEELING healthy than the size, and getting down to a healthy weight for me. So far I'm down 24 pounds. About 35 to go.

Ok, I am getting even WORSE at this! Lots of changes happening around here. First, I will be changing jobs in the fall, I got the middle school teaching position at Brookings. Going from teaching 8 classes a day (they always combine classes on me, but TECHNICALLY I am teaching 7 classes per day...no prep, and I am driving during my lunch.) to 6. Not to mention AWESOME benefits, we will save about $300 a month on health insurance, and I should make about $4000 a year more. And I will have life insurance! I am going to take the max there. I am really excited and nervous at the same time! But I know it will be good for my stress level.

Next, I finally went to my doctor about my depression and inability to lose weight. After a ton of labs and two more trips there, I am on Wellbutrin for the depression (and she is hoping it will also give me a weight-loss kick) and modified diet and exercise program for insulin resistance. Thanks to genetics, I have high triglycerides, and insulin levels. Also thanks to genetics though, I have LOW "bad" cholesterol and blood pressure! So, normally by this point, someone with insulin resistance would be starting to develop heart problems. So, I have to watch my diet, especially carbs (I didn't realize just how many carbs are in EVERYTHING!) and exercise at least a half hour a day. I am trying to do my 5 mile walk every night. So far with Thad's summer schedule, that's not working so well. I did go last night. My new pedometer sucks, but I know I walked at LEAST 5 miles...walked around the whole section, and I know that is 5 miles because I drove it before to measure it. Counting our driveway and such, it's actually more than that.

So far, so good. My doctor is hoping that if I lose about 20 pounds, I shouldn't have to worry about developing diabetes. That's the thing that is TOTALLY kicking my brain into gear to really take care of myself. I do not want a life of testing, injections, and other medical issues.

Today we are going to the lake to visit my parents, grandparents, and friends of theirs that live there. I am really NOT looking forward to it, it's just an ORDEAL with the kids, but my Mom is too nice to just say NO WE CAN'T COME. *sigh* this was a one-time thing 7 years ago that has never ended. Next year, we are going to be SURE that we are gone the weekend of the 4th. Thad is a big baby the WHOLE time, just because he doesn't like to swim or fish, or play cards, read, etc. like everyone else does. Bring your guitar and SUCK IT UP! We are going because the KIDS love to go, not because it's OUR dream vacation. What really pisses me off is that it's usually our ONLY summer outing as a family. He can never take vacation time, and we just don't TAKE the time to go camping. Too many projects at home all the time.

Well, I need to go dig out the tent and our sleeping bags, and get the van loaded up. Happy 4th of July everyone!!! God bless America!