It's me again, Margaret..

:::SIGH:::
It's been over 3 months since I've updated this blog. A lot has been happening around our house. I started babysitting my sweet little nephew, Asa..aka Ace-man back in August, and Maddy started 2nd grade around the same time. Between two kids, school, soccer, piano, and gymnastics, I have little time to update. But I'll try better! Facebook also takes up a lot of my time too. Again, I'll try better!
So, Maddy has moved to another gym for gymnastics and is now going twice a week for 2 hours each time. She is now a level 4 gymnast (10 is the highest) and will probably be competing pretty soon. She was able to land her round-off backhandspring and her chin-up pull over and back hip circle on the bars all in one week. We're very proud of her! Bars has never been her strong point. She used to be terrified of them but decided that they're not *that* scary a couple of years ago, but due to her still being timid and not having the best instruction, she was a little behind in bars. But she did it!! She worked very hard and is now where she needs to be!
She also started piano in August. She is doing GREAT! To me, it seems like her piano teacher may be rushing her a little, but she does have 25 years experience, so who am I to say she's rushing. She obviously knows what she's doing, because Maddy has caught on and is doing so well. She's now playing both hands and both lines (treble and base cleft). I probably just butchered those words, but you get the idea. If she were sitting beside me, she'd probably correct my spelling!
Soccer season has picked back up again. She has about 2 games left. She's been on defense a lot this year. I swear, one day she's going to kick somebody's teeth out! She is so flexible that when she goes to kick the ball, her foot kicks it, but her leg keeps going...and going..and going up into the air until it's over her head. LOL! We're trying to teach her to have some control over the height of her kick, but how can you teach that to someone who is pretty much a human pretzel? =D

Ryan and I started the hcg diet again after being on maintenence for 6 weeks and so far it's going well. We switched doctors and feel really good about our new doc. He goes to church with us, and used to be our Sunday School teacher when we first joined the church. He's actually a hormone replacement doc, and is pretty much a walking encyclopedia. He knows his stuff, and I trust anything he says. We are feeling great on the diet. Not to say we don't have cravings, because we do, but we're feeling much better this time around than last. True hcg medicine helps, I guess. We have to give ourselves shots in the stomach for 40 days, since the diet is for 40 days before going into maintenence. I thought it would hurt so I was worried about it, but the first one I gave myself, I kept wondering when it was going to start hurting and I looked down and the needle was already all the way in! It's actually kind of fun, honestly. If you came to my house, and didn't know we were taking injections, you'd probably think we were druggies! ; ) But we're doing great so far. We've both lost around 17 pounds and this is only day 20! Which means, at midnight tonight, we are officially halfway done with this round!! October 30th will be a great day! It will probably feel like Thanksgiving not to have any limits on anything but starches and sugars! I can live with that!!

Well, there's lots more to report, but that will have to do for now. But I'll leave you with a Maddy funny....

A few weeks ago we were in Dollar Tree and decided to buy some sponges for the bathtub. Ours were getting old. I told Maddy to pick her out a color. I figured she'd go for the pink or purple sure enough. But, she picked the blue and white. I picked the pink. She said, "The reason I picked the blue and white is because I'll use it until it gets old, and then I'll give it to daddy so I can get me a new one. He wouldn't like pink or purple anyhow." Ryan is looking forward to getting an old ratty sponge soon! ; )