The greatest man...

I will ever know passed away today, surrounded by all of his loving family. He will forever be remembered and loved for the awesome man that he is...and for all of the good that he had accomplished.

Please keep my family in your prayers right now... this is harder than anything I have ever had to do before.... Thank you

Selfish

This picture was taken 3 days before my grandfather's diagnosis.

Today I am selfish...

Today (well actually yesterday) was not a good day for me or my entire family. We learned that my grandfather's cancer has turned terminal and we don't even know how long he has. I can't even begin to put into words what is going through my head and heart right now... I want for him to have peace... I want for him to not be in pain any longer... but I am also selfish. I want my grandfather... I wanted my children's great-grandfather to be here... I want for Brody to continue to be able to run into my grandparents' house yelling "PAPA" and know that Brody's Papa is going to be in that stupid recliner... I want to be able to tell Shelby that "Yes...Papa is all better"... I want for Delainey to not have to 'pretend' to be ok when she is scared beyond belief... I want for Avery to not be afraid to give Papa a kiss because of the scary mask that is on his face. I want to be able to give my grandfather a hug without all the damn tubes and wires. I am selfish... I want to continue to feel the hugs that only my grandfather can give that make the whole world go away and tell you that he loves you so very much. I want for my grandmother to not have to make the choices she will soon have to make. I want for my mom, aunts and uncles to not feel the sense of loss that we all know is coming.

Right now I am selfish... later when I wake up (if I can ever get to sleep) I will wake up and not be selfish... I will put on my brave face and continue to tell everyone that "I am ok"... but for right now... I am so very very selfish.

Mr. Macho

Brody seems to have inheritated his father wonderful ability to sweat buckets when it is barely warm out, so this past Saturday after the poor guy had literally soaked his shirt from the dripping sweat ( I didn't even know that 18 month olds could sweat like that)... I took matters into my own hands... we buzzed him. It looks longer in person, but he feels so much cooler now with less hair.... it is also easier to grease him up with the sunscreen too :) He would look so much more grown up if he would just GROW... or lose the 'super cute chubby baby cheeks... :)

Eat your hearts out girls...

Doesn't he look tough...well except for the purple sippy cup ;)

I did make Chad promise that Brody would have a 'regular' boy hair cut at birthday and Christmas picture time.... I always 'swore' I'd never shave my son's head... but he is just so much cooler...

Shrinking Days of Summer, Weigh-In #4

Today is the 4th weigh in for the team Challenge over at Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans. Last week I had to write about a gain... but this week I get to say GOOD BY to the 250's...and HELLO to the 240's. My weight today was 247, which is a loss of 3.8 pounds since last week, and a total of 9 pounds lost since the challenge. I also have to 'count' the fact that I technically gained 1.8 pounds so TECHNICALLY I have actually already lost 10.8 pounds in this challenge. I am so proud of myself and my entire team. I mean my team has ROCKED at being supportive....even last week when I was beating myself up about my gain, they were there for me and said..."Hey its ok... BUT YOU CAN DO IT"...

So here are my goals to continue on the path to getting myself healthy:

• follow my weight watchers plan. Keep on track and JOURNAL my food.
• Eat more fruits and veggies--- I have not been getting the recommended for my weight watchers plan, but today is a new day and I will accomplish it this week
• Drink my weight (in ounces of course) in water each day... that is 247 oz of water each day...
• Get back on track with my couch to 5K program. I have been slacking here too for a few reasons. 1) we have literally had weeks of rain and I was unable to run outside and since my son HATES the child watch at our local gym I haven't been able to go there either, and 2) apparently the apple products in my house (first my nano, and then my shuffle) have decided to revolt against me... so I have to do my run in my head and let me tell you -- I did it for the first time last night-- it is so much harder when you don't have that voice in your head--well your earbuds anyways-- telling you to keep going. I KNOW I cheated, but I still did the 8 runs and 10 walks, so the 'distance' may not have been there but the time certainly was.

GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!!! And GO TEAM LIME... oh what the heck...GO EVERYONE AT THE SISTERHOOD !!! YOU CAN DO IT!!!

An Awesome Tastefully Simple Special--- RETURNING FAVORITES

As many of you know, I am a Tastefully Simple Consultant. For the summer Tastefully Simple has brought back some awesome favorites for a special limited time. You can order these products now until July 31. The Amazing Products are:

Berry Buckle Cake Mix
Cool 'n Creamy Cucumber Dip Mix
Cherry Honey Mustard Sauce
Pink Grapefruit Cheese Ball Mix
Mango Breeze Maragarita

AND if you purchase the whole collection you will get a free mini merlot sauce for free :) The entire collection is $39.99. The items are of course available to purchase seperately. If you are interested please visit my web site www.tastefullysimeple.com/web/kwentz-krumwiede or you can contact me directly kckrumwiede@bis.midco.net .

Also July has an AMAZING hostess special if anyone would be intereted. Again please contact me if you are.

Thank you-

Kristin :)

Please pray...

for our cousins Ryan and Taryn...

Their precious baby girl Ella passed away today. Ella was born in March at 24 weeks gestation and fought hard and strong for 12 weeks. But today her little body could fight no more...

Please pray for Ryan and Taryn (and the rest of our families) at this time of such pain and loss. All of our lives have forever been changed by Precious Princess Ella Jo Krumwiede.

While Ella was only with us for 12 weeks, the love and strength that this amazing little angel showed us is so great. We will all be better for having been blessed by the life of Ella Jo. Our hearts are broken...some day they will mend...but always will Ella have a hold on those mended broken hearts.

Thank you!
The Krumwiede Family

Prayers Please....

I can not go into alot of details right now because I don't have them myself.... but PLEASE pray for my extended family. Today was not a good day. Our hearts are broken and our whole family is in serious need of prayers.

Thank you
Kristin

This is the face.....

This is the face of SPD… Sensory Processing Disorder. If you saw her on a good day you would never know there was anything ‘wrong’ (and I use that term loosely because frankly… I think she is perfect). But if you saw her on an off day… you would write her off as the biggest brat and me (or my husband) as the worst parent on the face of the earth.

I am sad. I am angry. I am ungrateful. I am confused. I mourn. But mostly I am frustrated.

My child has sensory processing disorder. This disorder is not as uncommon as people think (it just seems that no one famous has told us their child suffers from it so therefore it doesn’t exist). There are several tools and therapies that can help a child who suffers from this life altering disorder. The therapies and tools that can help with this disorder are expensive, hard to find and mostly NOT COVERED BY INSURANCE.

I watch my daughter struggle daily because of things that other children pay no attention to. For example…today she was at the park she was able to climb the bars up to the top of the slide…but once she got to the top, she realized that the ‘floor’ that she was standing on was a grate (covered in rubber and posed no real threat to her safety). This grate cause my child who just moments later had the biggest smile radiating the greatest sense of accomplishment --- 6 months ago she would have never been able to pull her body weight up with her arms to climb the rungs of the ladder), now had her paralyzed with fear…because she now knew she wasn’t (in her mind) on solid ground.

She loves to swing high, run fast and spin faster. She wakes up rip raring to go and doesn’t stop until she literally drops exhausted from the way her ‘engine’ has been driving her all day long. Her bones are light and thankfully flexible, her tendons are so loose she sprains her ankles and wrists several times a day – but thankfully does not get injured--, she goes so fast that her little body can just not keep up with her, she falls daily—several times in fact, she CRAVES touch and cannot get close enough but needs to be in control of just who is touching her. She is fearless but is so scared.

Today I crumbled… today I cried… and I mean sobbed in the hospital hallway. You see Shelby had recently had to be ‘re-evaluated’ because SPD isn’t a ‘recognized diagnosis’ with our health insurance or our public school system—side note, if Shelby were to be labeled with her mild CP (yes Shelby does in fact have mild CP caused from a brain bleed prior to birth) or as autistic (which she is not... most children who are autistic do have SPD, but a child/person can have SPD without being on the Autism Spectrum) then our insurance or school system would not be able make us jump through hoops or do the damn dance that we have to, but because we have her ‘only’ labeled as SPD she is screwed—she has to undergo more than average amount of testing to make sure that she still ‘needs’ therapy. Well today I got the call from our AWESOME occupational therapist that our insurance had finally finished evaluating – it took them 3 weeks mind you--- 3 weeks she was not ‘allowed’ to go to therapy session—so that we could come in for therapy today. When I arrived I was given my copy of the report that the OT had sent to our insurance. It was because of this report that I was sobbing in the hallway of the hospital. If you read this report you not knowing my child you would think …. I don’t even know what you would think. It was just so much worse on paper than in real life. And it wasn’t even what was written… it was the fact that a lot of it is true. I won’t go into the specifics because that is obviously her story and since she is 3 she may not want it shared with the entire world… but it made me sad.

She is so much more than ‘just’ an SPD kid. Shelby has been a fighter from the very beginning of her life—since conception really and will continue to be...with Chad and I at her side. She (we are fairly certain) is the polar body that should have not fertilized. – Ok.. prior to fertilization my egg split in what is considered a polar body twinning, well in 99.5% of cases the polar body is supposed to die off… but in our case we were lucky enough to ‘get’ a Shelby out of the deal—she is the twin that wasn’t growing for awhile, she is the twin who’s placenta keep partially detaching, she is the twin who thought it would be fun to have decreases in heart rates and not respond AT ALL during non-stress tests during our pregnancy. She is the baby who thought it would be fun to not do anything that was expected of her…ever. She is our Shelby… she is a perfect and unique gift from God and she is ours. We are blessed beyond words to have her (and the rest of our children as well) in our lives.

As for my anger… I am angry that others think they can judge her because of an off day. I am angry because I and Chad have known since the very beginning that ‘something’ just wasn’t the way it was with our other children and were ignored--- time and time again. It wasn’t until the amazing Dr. Goldstein entered our lives did things start to click and make sense. Dr. Goldstein has been a godsend for Shelby and for us.

I have made it my mission to make myself SHELBY’S VOICE… and the voice of every other parent and child who is suffering from Sensory Processing Disorder. The treatment that my daughter, and other SPD children receive is NOT RIGHT … it is discrimination. It is my mission to make people aware of SPD and the children and families that it affects...it is my mission to make sure that MY CHILD, and ANY CHILD and FAMILY who is affected by SPD recieves the help they need.... I may not be famous... but I sure am LOUD :)

I AM A SENSATIONAL MOM OF A SENSATIONAL CHILD.... and I am happy that I am!

CHECK IT OUT YALL!!!!!

YEA BABY!!! GO TEAM LIME!!!

and I also want to congraulate EVERYONE who is doing the challenge.... Keep up all your awesome work everyone! Together we can all be healthy!!! ROCK ON SISTERHOOD--oh yea and the 'brothers' too ;)

Shrinking Days of Summer-- Week 2

ALL I CAN SAY IS GOOD BYE 250's and HELLO 240s

Today was weigh in day and all I can say is HELLZ YA!!!! I am down 7.8 lbs, this puts me at 248.2 lbs. YEA YEA YEA!!! * I totally did a goofy little hoe-down dance when I saw the scale*

I have to say that my motivation has been thanks to my Sisterhood...both Team Lime but also my sisters that I see several times during the week. YOU HAVE ALL HELPED MORE THAN YOU KNOW!!!

So I will PROUDLY grab my 5# button and 'wear' it with pride on my blog. Here is to another button being in my future soon. Below are my goals and the plan for my week:

• Stay on my WW plan. Journal food and stay on task


• DRINK WATER!!!


• Keep working on my C25k even if I am repeating weeks... I am sticking with it and that is ALL that matters to me.


• NO SNACKS after 7pm--this is hard...very hard but i am working on it.


• Stay in contact with my TEAM LIME sistas and also my other wonderful support people.

GOOD LUCK to all the sisters!!! YOU CAN DO IT LADIES (and guys)!!!

HELLZ YA!!!

This is what I accomplished tonight while my husband was dealing with our 'delightful' children.... Poor guy...oh wait... I deal with them all day... I TOTALLY ROCKED IT!
1. LONGEST work out yet

2. Fastest mile
Oh yea...and 691 calories burned!!! ROCK ON ME!!! *imagine a healthy Kristin doing the 'go me' dance*

Yes I took a picture... I WANTED PROOF!!!

Delainey and Baseball

Delainey has two different 'sports' this summer. The first being baseball that started this past Tuesday. After Tuesday's session Delainey was less than impressed. The first reason Delainey was not impressed was because I made her late... you see I didn't ask the 'right' people about which ball diamonds I was supposed to go to so I went the wrong place... so Delainey was 5 minutes late getting to the field.

And after we got to the field she joined her group and had even less fun. Delainey sadly had to stand in the outfield for the entire 45 minutes and basically did nothing. The "highlight' of Delainey's baseball day was when this much larger boy tackled her to get the ball that had come her direction. Delainey came home and loudly exclaimed that "BASEBALL SUCKS!" as she threw her mit accross the living room *see she does have her Daddy's temper*.

Chad and I discussed the way the 'event' went and we contacted the group that runs the baseball and asked if that was how it was supposed to go and we were told no. So we tried it again on Thursday with a MUCH better response. Maybe it was because she had 3 friends on her 'team' (it was great getting to watch D, D, A and B all together--- I am afraid for us in their high school years though)... or maybe it was because she actually got to bat :) But here are the pictures that my AMAZING personal photographer (ok so maybe she isn't MY personal photographer but she is amazing) and wonderful friend Melissa took when I realized that I had forgotten my camera.

Unlike me she can actually hit the ball... (didn't Lissa take an amazing picture)

RUN BABY GIRL RUN!!!...

Shrinking Days of Summer- Week 1

Today is the first day of the new 7 week challenge over at the Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans it isn't to late to join up if you would like :)

This challenge the group is doing something different in the fact that we have been assigned teams. You will see in my side bar that I am a member of Team Lime, you will also see the blogs of my Team Sisters :)

I have given my weight to my team captain for the week already but I may as well post it here as well... even in a weight loss team challenge I am the 'fatty'. When I weighed in the scale told me that I weigh 256lbs, so I guess I have to believe this :( BUT I have an awesome team and I know that they will help me to stay motivated and help me through this. I have been so blessed to have "met" all the wonderful people over at the Sisterhood... and I am even more blessed to actually know some of them IRL and be able to call them my friends, and even though they are not on my team I know that they are here to support me.

So here are my goals for the week:

• Complete week 1 of the couch to 5k program
• Follow my Weight Watchers Program (making sure to journal/track)
• Exercise and track it but NOT use the activity points that I earn--- Oh...did you know that my fat ass earns 6 activity points for doing my C25K....heck yea... and I burn like 500 calories doing it too....tonight is supposed to be my second 'set' of running....Chad better let me do it or there will be heck to pay!!!
• DRINK WATER!!! it is summer and with all the running and activites that we have going on it is far to easy to run through the Starbucks drive thru and grab a coffee--- THOSE THINGS ARE EVIL...even when you are trying to be good they are bad... LOL
• NO EATING AFTER 7PM!!!!

So ladies (and guys if you are reading) that is my plan.... Good luck to all my friends over at the Sisterhood... and to my fellow team LIME LADIES.... LETS GETERDONE!!!!

Tag your it:

My dear friend Megan at Life with the Rostens tagged me and since I haven’t done one of these in awhile I thought I’d give it a whirl.

8 things I am looking forward to:
1. Spending this special summer with Delainey….it is her last summer before she is corrupted by kindergarten (although preschool already did a number on her)
2.Spending this special summer with Shelby and Avery… it is their last summer before they too are corrupted by preschool.
3. Getting my house in order
4. The AWESOME summer challenge over at The Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans—with TEAM LIME OF COURSE!!
5. Finishing up my summer classes so that I can enjoy the whole summer
6. Completing the Couch to 5K program that I started
7. Losing weight and getting healthy…
8. Shelby’s continued success at OT for her SPD.

8 things I did yesterday:
1. Took Delainey to baseball
2. Watched a friend’s child
3. Laundry
4. Cleaned the living room
5. Finished Lesson 2 for one of my classes
6. Worked on homework from another class
7. Watched the kids play outside for over 2 hours
8. Stayed up way to late….

8 things I wish I could do:
1. Keep my life/home organized as well as my plan in my head is
2. Concentrate on my kids more (less interruptions like clubs, school, learn to saying no etc)
3. Keep myself on track with my weight loss and exercising for longer than a week.
4. Find the floor of my laundry room
5. Try to not focus on the negative so much--- I am truly blessed and I need to remember that when I am down.
6. See the qualities in myself that others do
7. Let go of the past…
8. Believe

8 shows that I watch * I don’t often get to watch them, but I do DVR them and the last four are what the kids watch, since they seem to control the TV when it is actually on *
1. Jon and Kate Plus 8
2. 18 kids and counting
3.Tori and Dean in Hollywood
4.Rachel Ray
5. Hannah Montana
6. Jonas
7. Suite Life of Zack and Cody
8.Special Agent Oso

There was also supposed to be a section for 8 people I tagged but Megan seems to have taken most of the people I know that MAY actually do it, so if you read this and want to do it please do :) but make sure you comment that you did it so I can read yours :)

Lesson learned: ask sports people where the place u need to be is