Favorite Quotes

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  • "I'm so busy.... I don't know if I found a rope... or lost my donkey! - Unknown"
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Tuesday, September 30, 2008

A Moment In Time


Yesterday morning, the kids didn't have school. It was so nice to be able to get ready for work at a leisurely pace instead of having to get four kids ready in addition to myself.

I was in the bathroom and I see a flash of pink heading towards my bed. I couldn't resist climbing back into bed with Carlie for a moment. We cuddled up under the covers and were tickling and giggling. Just a few minutes later Madi joined us. I laid there in bed with their warm little bodies pressed up against me...whispering and giggling. I could have stayed there all day.

But it was a glorious Moment in Time. One that I want to remember.

Monday, September 29, 2008

It's In The Kiss



This weekend, lipstick "kisses" began appearing on the walls of our house. The first one I found was down low on the wall and no one knew a THING about how it got there.

However, the next one I found was kid height. Again, NO ONE, knew how it got there. It was too low for Libby unless she was leaning down. That one was TOO BIG. So next I lined Carlie up next to the kiss. It COULD have been her, if she got up on her tip toes. That one was TOO SMALL. Then I lined up Madi....Hmmm....that one was JUST RIGHT.

So she got to spend the afternoon cleaning lip stick marks off the walls.

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Bob's Weight Loss Site



http://www.solutionsforlifewichita.com/testimonials_bob_pool.php

Bob Pool
Address: Towanda, KS
Surgical Procedure: Laparoscopic Gastric Bypass
Total pounds lost: 150

Body Mass Index before surgery: 53
Body Mass Index after surgery: 33
Percentage of excess body weight lost: 70%
Physical activity before surgery:
Physical activity after surgery:
Triglycerides before surgery:
Triglycerides after surgery:
Blood pressure before surgery: 130/84
Blood pressure after surgery: 120/80



Since I have started planning for having the gastric bypass surgery I have lost over 150 lbs. I have lost large amounts of weight previous to this, but I have always put the weight right back on plus another 25 lbs."

"I am probably different than most people that have this surgery, as I was in pretty good shape for the shape I was in (round). I worked out pretty regularly walking and coaching football. I lifted weights and ate like a horse. I would say that I was a stress eater and would gain 50-60 lbs every football season. Most years I would lose it all, but it was getting more difficult to lose the weight as I got older. I have 4 small children and it seemed to me that keeping up with them was getting tougher."

"I dropped 50 lbs during football season I have more stamina and am able to do more things. I am currently coaching my son's little league basketball team and I am able to buy clothes in a regular store (no more big and tall shops for me, thank you). I really do not miss food; I was not a big sweet eater so I have not had many cravings. I try really hard to stay on schedule with my diet (it is not as easy as I thought it would be). It seemed easier when I was preparing for surgery. I do not eat sweets at all and I keep my water bottle with me all the time. I find it difficult to avoid salty crunchy foods unless I just make a concentrated effort."

"The biggest change I see is that I am satisfied after a few bites of just about anything. I do not like some things that I just loved before. I really pay attention to fat and sugar content. I have been ill from things I have eaten that were not supposed to be bad. I have dumped [dumping syndrome] once or twice it is a great motivator for me (I hate being ill)."

"My wife and I [both had gastric bypass surgery] are both very pleased with the results. I am thankful my wife decided to have the procedure. I would have never had it until I saw the energy it gave her. We have gone from being a basically sedentary couple to an active fit family."

Friday, September 26, 2008

Granny is Retiring


She's spent many years in the school system helping the kids who struggle the most. And now she is retiring.

Posted is this year's school picture. She's lost about 40lbs and is looking great!

They don't pay paraeducators much. Granny always did it because she enjoyed it. When she told her grandkids she was retiring almost everyone them said "But Granny, what will you do for money??? How will you pay your bills???" I guess they don't think Papaw makes enough money to support them!!!

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Julie's Weight Loss Anniversary



Today is the two year anniversary of my weight loss surgery. Below is my testimonial from the Solutions for Life Website. The link below contains my commerical I made for them, if you'd like to see it.

http://www.solutionsforlifewichita.com/testimonials_julie_pool.php

Success Stories
Julie Pool
Address: Towanda, KS
Surgical Procedure: Laparoscopic Gastric Bypass
Total pounds lost: 104

Body Mass Index before surgery: 44
Body Mass Index after surgery: 27
Percentage of excess body weight lost: 80%
Physical activity before surgery: 0
Physical activity after surgery: 3 miles, 3 times a week
Triglycerides before surgery: 357
Triglycerides after surgery:
Blood pressure before surgery: 118/86
Blood pressure after surgery: 102/60

"I did not become overweight until my late 20s. Over the course of several years, I put on a large amount of weight. Every year, I’d put on another 10-20 lbs. I’m a Type A personality... a successful career woman and mom to five kids. On the inside I was driven, aggressive, busy, successful... but on the outside I was overweight, tired, slow and dumpy. The way I looked and felt was impacting my life. Since I had surgery a year ago, my life has changed drastically. I have lost 104 lbs. I now jog 3 miles at a time 3 or more times a week. My outsides now match my insides. "

"Because I was so overweight, I had stopped caring completely how I looked. I selected clothing that was comfortable and baggy. I did not bother keeping my hair done or wearing makeup. I was so overweight, I felt like fixing myself up wouldn’t make a difference. After I lost the weight, I had a makeover. I got a stylish hair cut and started wearing make up again. Of course, I had to go shopping, and updated my wardrobe. I remember how exciting it was to be able to shop in the regular section of a store instead of having to shop on the Plus side."

"My husband also had gastric bypass surgery about six months after I had it. Together we have lost 250lbs!!! Our five children also share in the benefits. We are now an active and fit family. We eat healthier food in more appropriate portion sizes. We no longer eat out all the time. My older kids jog with me, and we frequently take walks as a family. People frequently tell me that I look ten years younger, and I definitely FEEL ten years younger."

"Before I had surgery, I was pre-diabetic and was having trouble with high cholesterol and high triglycerides. My resting heart rate was in the 100-120 beats per minute range. All of those issues have now resolved. My resting heart rate is now in the 60s, and my blood pressure was 102/60 the last time I had it checked. I recently went to my endocrinologist whom I hadn’t seen since right before surgery. His comment was “Wow, you look so... so NORMAL."

"I tell my friends that some people look back at their wedding pictures and say “Wow, look how skinny we were. “ My husband and I look back at our wedding picture and say “Wow, look how overweight we were!!!"

"A big “thank you” to Dr. Jonathan Dort and Solutions for Life / Via-Christi."

Football Pictures

Just wanted to post some of my football pictures.








Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Football Boys



Last Thursday we had Bob's Offensive Line over to the house to eat. There were 12 boys who came. Between them and my kids, they managed to eat 32 hamburgers, 24 brauts, four bags of chips and 24 brownies!!!

The boys got a football out and played catch in the back yard. Frank and Libby were right in the middle of them. One of the boys was particularly kind to them and would throw the ball gently to Libby. After they left we were talking about the evening and Bob asked Libby which of the boys she liked best. She named the one who'd thrown her the ball. I told Bob that she just liked him because he was kind to her....and Libby pipes up "No, I liked him because he was PRETTY." Oh, they are too young to be starting this!!!

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Girls Night Out


The girls went to go see High School Musical On Ice this weekend. We got dressed up, put glitter on our faces (even me) and had a great time. The show was good, but I actually got a bigger kick out of watching Carlie watch the show. She danced and she sang all the songs.

At one point basketballs fell down from the top of the building down to the skaters below. The girls thought that was the best part. At another part in the show Troy pulled his shirt off (and he was FINE). Granny and I liked that part the best!!!!




Thursday, September 18, 2008

Teetered or Tottered? I'm not sure.

Frank and Libby have a set of Teeter-Totters on their playground. A few days ago, Bob got a call at the school because Libby had a goose-egg on her forehead.

These kinds of crazy accidents can only happen to Libby, who is extremely accident prone. She was on the teeter-totter up in the air and somehow was jarred while she was up in the air. Her friend Kaseyl was on the other end. She somehow pitched forward and swung around so that she was upside down on the teeter-totter holding on to it with her arms and legs wrapped around it to keep from falling. She said to her friend Kaseyl "Don't get off!!!!" But Kaseyl panicked. When she jumped off, the board came crashing down sending Libby to the ground on her back, and the board came down on top of her and thumped her in the forehead.

Yesterday a little boy was thrown from the teeter-totters and it knocked him out. They had to call the ambulance for him.

Monday, September 15, 2008

I was brave....well, kind of.

We had to pull Madi's loose tooth this week. Ohhhhh the drama. This was her third tooth. She pulled the first two herself.

She wanted to lay down on the kitchen cabinet, and then told me that I was to use Granny's trick where I got a kleenex and dried the tooth off and it just magically came out.

We tried that, only it didn't magically come out the first time. Then she saw BLOOD on the kleenex. You can't imagine the bawling and squalling. She was instructing me on precisely how to hold the kleenex for my second attempt. Then I had to procure a coffee cup to sit next to her so that she'd have something to place the tooth in after it was pulled. Then I had to have a cup of ice water sitting next to her so she'd have something to drink afterwards.

Finally, I went and got one of those Triaminic things that melts on your tongue. Those things are pure unadulterated magic. They cure all kinds of hurts and woes. So I put one of those on her tongue and told her that would take away the pain. And magically it worked...seconds after dissolving it on her tongue the tooth wasn't hurting any more and I was able to pull it out.

She wanted to put the tooth in an envelope and write a letter to the tooth fairy. This is what she had me write "Dear Tooth Fairy. I love everyone in this town. I love you too. I was brave....well, kind of. Love, Madi."

She got four quarters from the tooth fairy, and she took the money to school with her today to show her teacher.

Saturday, September 13, 2008

A Little Bit of Nervous and A Whole Ton of Happy.

Kindergarten has a program where if the student reads 8 books in a month, they get a certificate for a free Happy Meal. Carlie read her books quickly, and we turned in her paper the other day.

She got to go up in front of her entire school and get her Certificate and paper for a free Happy Meal. She was SO excited. She said she was the only Kindergartener up there. I asked her if it was fun getting her award and she said "Well, it was a little bit of nervous and a WHOOOOOOLE ton of Happy!!!"

On the way home from McDonalds, I bet she said 15 times "My Happy Meal was FREE. You didn't have to pay for mine, but you had to pay for Madi."

She has been taking her AR tests at the end of 1st grade level and has been getting 100s on every one of them.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

First Football Game



Both Bob and Frank won their first football games. Frank's game was 24-0. We stood out in the rain to watch him.

This picture takes my breath away. He looks like he's 16 instead of 10. He really loves football.

My kids are Multi-lingual

Madi has a really neat 1st grade teacher this year. They are learning all kinds of neat things, and its so much fun she doesn't even realize she's learning.

They have been studying China for the last two weeks. She came home and told me all about the Great Wall of China, and the Huns invasion of China.

Last night she informed me that she knows how to count to 10 in Chinese, and she starts rattling it off. Then Libby chimes in "Well I know how to count to ten in Spanish!! Uno, Dose, Trace...." Then Carlie says "Well so what, "I" know how to count to ten in ENGLISH!!! One, two...."

A few minutes later, Madi says "Did you know that if we lived in China, that Frank would be your only child???"

It tickles me that she's learning so much.

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Carlie's Art






This is from her book of colors done in Kindergarten.

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Pinkitis



Madi told me this morning that they had a case of Pinkitis in her class. All I could think of was a little girl wearing tons and tons of pink. Then Madi pulls down her lower eyelids and says "You know pinkitis...where your eyes turn pink"

Ohhhh....pink eye or conjunctivitis. LOL.

Friday, September 5, 2008

Madi's Progress Report



Madi is helpful and well behaved in the classroom. She's improved in not taking so long to socialize on bathroom breaks. Let's work on remembering to keep quiet in line and the hallway.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

If the hat fits....then wear it.


I guess that Libby is descending into those tween years of angst that most girls experience before they hit puberty. She couldn't seem to get along with anybody this morning. She didn't know that I was watching from around the corner. Frank came up to the couch and asked her to move over so he could sit down. Instead of moving over as he asked, she just spread out more. So he promptly sat on her. That made her absolutely furious so she started slapping him as hard as she could. She knows he's not allowed to hit her back. She tried to tell me that she didn't do anything, Frank just came over and jumped on her.

Libby says that she's not ever, ever going to have sex....because if you have sex then you get pregnant. And babies come out your who-ha, so she's not ever, EVER doing that. Good!!!

Frank heard her saying that the other day and goes "Oh, I bet you'll change your mind." I don't know if he meant about the babies or the sex. LOL.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Carlie in Kindergarten

Well starting Carlie in Kindergarten has been interesting, to say the least. They earn stars in her class for good behavior. They can get three a day if they don't get into any trouble. Most days Carlie has been getting 1 out of 3 stars. The first week she said repeatedly that she missed her Mommy. The third day of school she had a complete melt down at bed time. She had gone to bed as usual, but I heard her in there crying so pitifully....I could tell they weren't mad or fake tears. I went in to see what was wrong with her. She was crying because she'd taken her fuzzy purple blanket to school for rest time, and she was missing it.

I told her "Carlie, you'll get to see it tomorrow when you go back to school." And she wailed "But I want it NOW. And it's there, and I'm HERE!!" I knew it wasn't about the blanket, because that wasn't even one of her favorite blankets.

I got in bed with her and cuddled up and we talked. I asked her if she got in trouble at school that day and she said No. But after we talked a while she said "When you throw fits at school, they make you sit out in the hall." I asked her why she threw a fit, and she said she was missing me. She also said that she was upset because I was not there when school got out each day. I told her that it wasn't really any different than last year, because even though she was at our house, I still didn't get to see her until my work was over. And she wailed again "But your work is so far Away...and you are there and I am HERE." I finally got her settled down and she went to sleep.

Then next day she didn't get ANY stars, and I asked her why. She said "Well I was arguing with the teacher. She wanted to tell me how to write my e, and I told her that I didn't want any help writing my e!!!" My Mom and Dad thought that was SO funny for some reason. Hmmmmmm. They said something about "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree???"

So now a couple of weeks have gone by, and Carlie is getting more of her stars. But she hadn't read to the teacher yet at all. So I emailed her teacher yesterday and asked if she could be given some opportunities to read on her level. They are going to set up some activities so that Carlie gets about 30 minutes a day of reading, but still gets to do all the fun things with her class. So they gave Carlie a Star computerized reading test to find out her reading level yesterday. The teacher said she didn't think they got an accurate reading level though because when she went to check on Carlie she was just randomly punching buttons. When the teacher talked to her about trying harder, she did better. So they are going to test her some other ways.

But when I got home that night, I had an interesting talk with Carlie. Carlie said "You emailed my teacher, and because of that I had to stay after class and take a computer test. And I didn't like it!!!" I asked her how she knew that I emailed her teacher and she said "Because Mrs Smith told me you did." She told me that she didn't do very good on the test because she doesn't want to do special reading stuff, she wants to do what everyone else does. So I have a kindergartener who deliberately didn't try hard on a test because she wants to be like everyone else!!!! How do you deal with THAT one???

August Quotes

Every family has a kid who won’t eat. My kid brother had not eaten voluntarily in over three years. - A Christmas Story
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There was a time in my young life that I thought I'd never have children I could keep, and I prayed and prayed to become a mother. Then kids suddenly started coming out of the wood work. And so I began praying "Okay Lord, that's enough!!!" And still they seem to keep finding me!!! - Julie Pool
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Our love isn't the warm and fuzzy kind of love, Its the rough and hairy kind of love - Bob Pool speaking about adopting children out of the Foster Care System
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Kids are like monkeys...what they don't break, they crap on - Bob Pool
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Monday, September 1, 2008

Better Than Breakfast In Bed


I like to sleep in on the weekends, but I try not to be nutty about it. Madi woke me up fairly early on Saturday morning. I was JUST about to snap at her for waking me up so early when she whips out an envelope from behind her back. I open it up and there is a pretty picture inside. She told me "It says To: Mom Fum: Madi. I sounded it out myself Fum F-U-M Fum." Made my morning :0)

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