New Years Resolutions?

I don't normally make New Year's resolutions because I have a history of not following through with them. I don't even think I last 24 hours.

I do have a lot of things I want to change in my life in 2009 though. So I am going to focus on the top two which mainly have to do with my feeling like my life is out of control . . .

1) I am going to make a schedule for everything I have to do and try to not do so much work during the day so that I can spend more time with my children. Amongst those things are:

- Writing for my blogs (blog posts, memes, reviews, giveaways, sponsored posts, etc . . . )
- Reconnecting with all the great bloggers I have been neglecting
- Being a moderator on the SuperMoms World Forums
- Being part of the MomDot Street Team
- Maintaining the free blog listings on MomDot.com
- Creating new product designs for Sillymonkeez.com
- Creating new blog designs for ABOG Designs
- Custom orders for both Sillymonkeez.com and ABOG Designs
- Household chores

2) Since I had the radioactive iodine treatment in May of 2008, I have started to gain weight because my thryoid is starting to become underactive. I am going to have to make a schedule that includes exercising. I use to just fit it in whenever possible, but my busy life has caused that to dwindle down to almost nothing. I'm still having problems dealing with the way my body is after having carried twins, I don't need extra weight gain because of my thyroid. I remember when I was in college, how traumatic it was for me to break 100lbs. Now I long for that problem. ;P


Will any of you out there be making any resolutions this year and do you think you'll stick to them?

Last Day

Thursday was the last

day of strict isolation

after my treatment.

So I did no work,

but I did take many naps

and blog-hopped for hours.

When I awaken

early on Friday morning

it will all be done.

I wil grab and kiss

my three beautiful children

again and again.

There's just four days more

before I can hold them tight.

I may not let go.

Thanks to all who visited me throughout these past ten days. It really helped to have an outlet to the outside world. (If you're visiting my blog for the first time, I underwent a radioactive iodine treatment eleven days ago, which resulted in my having to remain in my bedroom away from my husband, children and pets for ten days.)

Visit Christina's blog A Mommy Story to read more Friday haikus or to find out how you can join in! Thanks for stopping by!!

Keeping Busy (Day 9 of 10)

Today was the 9th day after my radioactive iodine treatment. I only have one day of isolation left. I am both happy and sad. I'm happy obviously because I miss my children terribly and I am going a little stircrazy. I am sad because I didn't get to accomplish as much as I thought I would and also I can only imagine the state of the house right now. LOL!!

I started off the day with making a prize siggy for the photo contest I run on SuperMoms World. Then I spent quite a while trying to look around in the MommyFest Blog Party. I can't believe it is half over and I've only gotten to visit a small fraction of the participating blogs.

The wonderful thing about today is that my cat Zorro stayed with me on my bed all day. He may have left for 5 minutes for a snack and litter box break, but that was it. I wanted to hug him and squeeze him so badly, but I still cannot hold anyone against the front base of my neck.

"Zorro "

I tried to be extra productive this afternoon and evening. I paid the bills (fun! fun! fun!!) and then I made some new Silly Little Monkey designs plus I started a new maternity line. Hopefully, I will finish them tomorrow and get them up in my store.

Thanks for visiting with me!!

Keeping Busy (Day 8 of 10)

Today is the 8th day following my radioactive iodine treatment. It may sound crazy, but I just realized today that I only have two more days left to get things done that I wouldn't normally have time to do. So I put it into high gear and got my new wedding-wear line up on Sillymonkeez.com. I really like how it came out. The whole line is coordinated so that the entire wedding party will match. Here is a small sample . . .

"ur2l8 . . . I'm taken!"

Cap

"hottie . . . a.k.a. the bride's maid"

Strappy Tank

"bride"

thong panties

"STUD . . . a.k.a. the groom-to-be"

Fitted T-Shirt

"Lil STUD . . . a.k.a. the ring bearer"

Infant Onesie

Enough with business talk! I have to say I was thrilled that since I was able to leave the door to my bedroom open this morning, I have not been alone for more than 5 minutes. There was always at least one dog or a cat with me.

Oh, and I did my fingers and my toes for the first time in over a year. Also, I finally installed some recipe software I had received for Christmas on my laptop. Hopefully, I will be able to enter a recipe here and there after my 10 days is over.

Keeping Busy (Day 7 of 10)

Today is the 7th day after my radioactive iodine treatment. That means tomorrow, when I wake up, I can open my bedroom door and leave it open. My husband and my dogs and cats can come visit me as long as I don't have them near the base of my neck. You have no idea how excited I am.

Today I finished my new "living green" line of organic t-shirts and reusable tote bags. It was so much fun to design compared to the personalized birthday line I just finished. Here is a small sample . . .

"Eco-Friendly Monkey Tote"

"Living Green Monkey Organic T-Shirt"

"Silly Monkey Toys Reusable Tote"

I must have been on a roll today because this evening I revamped some of our previously popular wedding designs and added some new ones. The whole line is coordinated. Hopefully, I can add them to my store tomorrow. It is so unusual for me to have so much uninterrupted time, I am trying to take advantage of it as much as I can.

Oh, and I said that I would let you all know how I liked my new Nancy Drew pc game. I thought it was interesting. I'm not addicted yet by any means. I think it will take me a while to finish it. I will probably write a review about it when I finish it (or if I decide I do not wish to finish it).

Thanks for visiting with me!

Keeping Busy (Day 6 of 10)

Today is day 6 of my period of isolation after my radioactive iodine treatment. That means on Tuesday, I will be able to leave my bedroom door open. My husband and pets can come visit me, but still not my children just yet.

This morning, as I was visiting the participants of the photo meme Weekly Winners, I stumbled upon a banner for a blog party called MommyFest 2008. The party was kicked off today, but officially runs from May 12th through the 16th. It looks like it's going to be hopping with tons of participants and lots of games and giveaways. You can even find little mini blog parties here and there too. I am so excited to have played a fun game on Itiel's blog "Mmmm, you Smell Good!" YAY for me!!!

I swore I was not going to do any work today, but I did play around with some new designs about living green. Not quite sure if I'm ready to unveil them yet though.

I forgot to mention yesterday that I started into the stack of DVDs on my desk. Yesterday I watched Rush Hour 3 and this evening I watched Pirates of the Carribean 2. Both seemed good, but I will have to watch them again. That's what I get for trying to do work at the same time.

I finally loaded this game onto my laptop which I had bought for myself before I had underwent the treatment. I'm not really the first person shooter type, so this game looked interesting to me. I had never played any of the games in the Nancy Drew series before, but this one seemed to receive high ratings. Maybe I will dabble a little before I ultimately turn in for the night?

Thank you once again for visiting me and keeping me company!

Keeping Busy (Day 5 of 10)

Saturday was the 5th day following the radioactive iodine treatment. Just 2 more days until I can leave my bedroom door open, my husband can sit and have a conversation with me, and the dogs and cats will be allowed to come in to visit me. Can you tell that I'm counting the minutes?

This morning my 4yr old son left to spend the weekend with my cousin and her family. I am so glad for him to have a distraction instead of hanging around here waiting for things to go back to normal. The same thing goes for the twins. They spent the afternoon at my sister's and brother-in-law's house. I am so thankful my husband got a short break, although he spent it going into work. He is doing such a great job, but I bet he was ready to have some time away from the children.

I was finally able to finish the new section in my Cafe Press Shop, which contains personalized Silly Little Monkey birthday t-shirts, onesies, bibs, sweatshirts, and teddy bears available in hundreds of names. I am so relieved that it is done for the moment since I started it months ago. It will never be completely done because there will always be more names to add. I am even going to take requests since there is an endless list of names, not to mention so many spelling variations. As I was finishing up today, I noticed that I had left out some extremely common names, like Mary and Peter. Ooops! That is a project for another day though.

Oh, and how did I celebrate my finally finishing my project? I folded five loads of laundry. LOL!! After I get a few more things done, I will be able to relax a little more.

Keeping Busy (Day 4 of 10)

Okay, I'm not going to gripe about how all day I gave up posting on SuperMoms World, reading more Haikus, making my usual blog rounds, checking in on Twitter, etc . . . only to not finish my Cafe Press project by now. I still have over 170 variations to add to this new section.

I want to talk about something that made me so happy today. When I came out of the bathroom this afternoon, my daughter was awake from her nap. She was standing in her crib inside her bedroom grinning from ear to ear and seemed so happy to see me. The bathroom is at least 10 ft away from her crib, so I was able to stay there for a little while talking to her. We danced, made funny faces, and giggled. I even taught her how to blow a kiss. I little dose of my sweet baby girl was just what I needed to help take the edge off missing my children so much.

Keeping Busy (Day 3 of 10)

After the rain and clouds cleared away, it turned out to be a nice afternoon. My husband took the kids outside for some fresh air. I was able to wave to them from the window and watch them for a bit. My husband snapped some pictures for me, so I could see my children up close.

Since I stopped taking my medication in April, my symptoms have been reappearing . . . heart palpatation (even though I'm on heart medication), muscle weakness, trembling limbs, heat intolerance, etc . . . Now we can add insomnia to the list. To distract myself, I plugged away at my project for my Cafe Press shop all afternoon and evening. Sadly I did not finish it. I have no doubt that I will definitely finish it by tomorrow afternoon though. Who knows, maybe I'll have trouble sleeping again and I'll decide to work through the night? We'll see . . .

Keeping Busy (Day 2 of 10)

This is the second day of my ten day period of isolation after my radioactive iodine treatment. I woke up at 5am this morning and what kills me is that I didn't have to. Since I could not get back to sleep, I worked on a prize siggy for a photo contest that I run on SuperMoms World. Then I threw this one together for myself:

The rest of the day was pretty productive. Since I had all this uninterrupted time, I spent the whole second half of the day (from lunchtime until now) working on a huge project for Sillymonkeez.com that has been hanging over my head for months now. I am working on a section of birthday shirts, onesies, bibs, teddy bears, etc . . . for children with names on them. They are an extension of our signature Silly Little Monkey line. I will still take custom orders, but in a society that likes drive-thru service, I wanted to include as many names as possible for "quick" sales. Today, I was able to finish the few remaining graphics and then I uploaded the hundreds of graphics into my Cafe Press media basket. I'm not sure if I will be able to finish setting up the entire section in my store tomorrow, but I am sure going to try. I want it over and done with so I can move onto some more fun and creative ideas I have for new products.

At this time, I need to get away from the computer. My eyes are going to start giving me the silent treatment if I don't give them a break. Thanks for taking the time to read about my day!!

Keeping Busy (Day 1 of 10)

This is day one of my time of isolation after my radioactive iodine treatment. I will make a post at the end of each of the ten days to document my experience. Hopefully, by day ten, I will still be sane.

Here I am this morning, trying to get in one last big hug before my husband dropped me off at the hospital on the way to bringing Jake to school.

Aside from blogging, posting on SuperMoms World, and Twitter, I tried something new . . . a meme called "Cats on Tuesday."(See the post below.) I figured what the heck . . . I had the extra time, right?

This is what I looked like after we got home from the hospital. Remember this. By the end of the 10 days, I will likely not look as together as this. Plus I will probably be ten pounds heavier from eating my stash of junk food and not having to chase after the kids for so many days. Since I had the camera and nobody was looking, I tried to take some self-portraits.

I spent hours trying to get the video messaging to work. My attempt to set up Comcast Messaging was a huge failure. We ended up going with SightSpeed that came with my webcam. It took me forever to realize that the software was not a current version and that was the reason why I could not get any audio from the other end. I was so happy that we were finally able to get it to work. I think it will really help me to be able to see and talk to my children.

My husband had to take the twins along to Jake's taekwon do class. His instructor surprised him with a black stripe. Now he has one yellow and one black. If I'm not mistaken, I believe he only needs one more black stripe to be ready to test for his yellow belt. I'm so proud!! He doesn't know it, but I have a belt rack with his name engraved in it waiting for him to retire his white belt.

My husband took these pictures for me to cheer me up and it worked!! There were so many, but these are my favorite because Jake is showing off his moves and being his silly self too.

Thanks for taking the time to read about my day! So far there does not seem to be any side-effects except for the fact that for most of the day I was salivating more than normal and had to pee once every 20 minutes (or at least it seemed like it). Oops!! Was that TMI?

(Oh, I almost forgot! I changed the photo at the bottom of the main page.)

Tomorrow Is the Last Day

Tomorrow is the last day I will have with my children before I receive the radioactive iodine treatment. Then it's 10 days without going within 8ft of them.

I'm particularly worried about how my 4yr old son is going to handle this. I've explained to him several times exactly what is going to happen and showed him how many days on the calendar. He seems to understand the logistics of everything. I have pointed out all the perks of the 10 days to him. His father is going to bunk with him in his bed for 10 nights, he gets to have his father home from work for 10 whole days, he gets to sleep over his favorite cousins house for one weekend, we will get to talk to each other through the cool webcam, etc . . .

He was acting a little clingy before bed tonight though. I told him that we will play anything he wants after breakfast tomorrow. Plus I stayed up and built this to surprise him.

I hope he likes it and enjoys adding the final touches himself. Perhaps it will create a happy memory for him before this difficult time begins.

Thanks for taking the time to read this!

Weekend Plans

Just four days to go
before my treatment and then
isolation starts.

Trying to prepare
the best we possibly can
for the ten long days.

Making to-do lists,
buying tons of prepared foods,
and scheduling help.

As I had mentioned in this previous post, I am going to undergo radioactive iodine treatment for my Grave's disease (hyperthyroidism). So starting on Tuesday, May 6th, I will not be able to go within 8ft of my children for 10 days and then I will not be able to hold them to me for another 4 days after that. I will not be able to be near my husband or our pets for more than just a brief moment for the first 7 days.

I admit that I am a little nervous that I will go stir crazy. I know I'll love not having diapers to change and dishes to do for the first few days, but what happens after that? To help us get through this strange time, we have set up webcams so that I can see my husband and children, and they in turn will be able to see me. I have made a looooooooooooong list of things to do to keep myself busy . . . both productive things and leisurely things. When you think about it, this may be the only vacation I'll get for a few years. I might as well make the best of it, right?

Thanks for reading my first Haiku Friday post! Stop by A Mommy Story to meet all the Haiku Friday participants.

The Sunny Side of Radiation?

On May 6th, 2008, I will be undergoing a radioactive iodine treatment for my Grave's Disease. If you have never heard of such a treatment, here is a description from the CNN Health/Library:

"Radioactive iodine treatment. To make thyroid hormone, your body needs iodine and will use whatever form of iodine is available in your blood. If you take radioactive iodine, the iodine collects in your thyroid gland, and over time the radioactivity destroys the overactive thyroid cells. This causes the thyroid gland to shrink, and problems lessen gradually, usually over several weeks to several months. Because this treatment causes thyroid activity to decline, you likely will later need thyroxine treatment to supply your body with normal amounts of thyroid hormones. Treatment doesn't require a hospital stay. Radioactive iodine treatment may increase your risk of new or worsened symptoms of Graves' ophthalmopathy. This side effect is usually mild and temporary, but radioactive iodine therapy may not be recommended if you already have moderate to severe eye problems. After radioactive iodine treatment, any iodine not taken up into the thyroid gland is excreted in your urine and saliva. This is the most common therapy used for adults with hyperthyroidism in the United States. "

Anyways, after I have this treatment, I cannot go within 8ft of my children for 10 whole days. I am pretty much to be confined to my bedroom. I am going to miss them terribly and hope they will not be too confused by my absense. At first I wanted to wait until my three children (currently 4 and 15months) were older, but we had come to realize that there would never be a convenient time for me to have this treatment.

Instead of sulking, I decided to make a list of the positive things that would result from my 10 days of isolation:

1. The most obvious benefit is that I would no longer suffer from Grave's Disease.


2. I will have 10 days of unlimited computer time.


3. I will have much extra time to work on Sillymonkeez.com, which I have been neglecting.


4. I can watch television that is not G-rated.


5. My husband gets to make my meals and serve them to me in bed.


6. I will have lots of time to post on SuperMoms World.


7. I can take a shower everyday for 10 days without having to schedule it around the children.


8. I can watch all those DVDs we've purchased over the past two years but are still factory-sealed.


9. I can catch up on the ABC Daytime Soaps.


10. I can read all the magazines that have been thrown into a basket unopened.


11. Best of all, I can TAKE A NAP anytime I want during those 10 days, instead of just once every month or two.

If you got this far, thanks for taking the time to read this.