And then there was 1.....

What a great summer I was blessed with. The kids and I kept busy and had tons of fun. Finally everyone was old enough to enjoy summer activities to the fullest!!! We took advantage of all of the area splash pads and of course utilized the new Jury Pool to its fullest. This was the first summer that I wasn't wishing the days away by the time school rolled around. I was definitely sad to see it go.

August 17th marked the beginning of a new season in my life. For the first time all 4 of my children are away at school from 8:08 am till 4:40 pm. I'm home alone all day. Its the strangest thing ever. I don't know what to do with myself. Nobody asks me to fix them a pb&j. Nobody wants a glass of water. Nobody spills said glass of water. No little feet running through the house. No little mouths yelling my name from the other room. But there are less dirty dishes, dirty clothes, screaming matches, wrestling matches and messes all together. Its been bittersweet really. There have been a lot of tears and prayers. Lots of waiting on The Lord and asking for guidance. I'm hoping to find ways to utilize my new found free in a way that would serve others. My Mom has been an amazing blessing during this time. She can relate to what I'm going through and is helping guide me through this transition. Ive also got some awesome friends to keep me smiling.  Slowly I am getting into a routine. I'm reading 4-5 books a week and getting tons more cleaning done!

On a lighter note......My.Kids.Are.Insane. I love them. I love that Sky is sensitive and loving and has the best sense of humor. I love that Amy can go from being a princess to kicking her brothers butts in 2 secs. I love that Joshua is a ditsy blonde and a mans man all at the same time. I love that Konner keeps me guessing. I never have any idea what he is going to do or say. They rock. I am so thankful to God for entrusting their precious little lives to me during their time on this earth. No matter how much I joke around about them please don't ever think that I count them as anything less than a blessing in my life.

Thank you Lord for this crazy/beautiful/chaotic life you have blessed me with :)

HCG diet info

As most of you know I have been on a weight loss journey for awhile now. After having my 4 kids I gained an insane amount of weight. Definitely no where near my 125 from high school and college years. After years of fad diets and times of giving up, I got serious and went extreme. I had been diagnosed with Type II diabetes (basically my fatness was killing me lol) and never had any energy. I realized that if I didn't pull it together, I wasn't going to see my kids grow up.  I joined the YMCA and hired a personal trainer. (see previous post for details on this humorous adventure). After establishing a decent workout routine, i tackled the nutrition part of it. For me its much easier to follow a specific "diet" than just try to do it myself. A couple of people at our church had done the Hcg diet and had great success. www.mckimslim.com for before and after pictures of them. The first round that I did, I lost 25 lbs in 3 weeks. There is a maintenance phase that you are supposed to do after the low calorie phase but I skipped it and failed miserably. I gained it all back. That was completely my fault. Just a couple months ago I started it again. I lost 40 lbs. I have maintained that except for what I gained on vacation, I have 4 more to lose from that. I just started another round and am looking forward to the results. This is truly a change in lifestyle and not just a "diet". This method of weight loss tends to be very controversial. However, it has worked for me and I think having a heart attack and dying bc of being fat would be far more worse than anything that Hcg could possibly do. This diet was originally created  in the early 1950s, by Dr. ATW Simeons, a British endocrinologist. Further history can be found here http://www.hcgdietcouncil.org/history-of-hcg-for-weight-loss. For me this is what a day-by-day looks like:

Days 1 & 2 : (Phase 1) Gorge. Eat anything you crave and as much of it as you want. This is to fill your fat cells and to help eliminate feeling extremely hungry for the first couple days. Don't worry about the weight gain as it will be lost in the first 24-48 hours of phase 2. During these two days you will begin taking your sublingual hcg drops. 10 drops under the tongue 3x a day.

Days 3+ (phase 2) You can do this phase for anywhere from 3 weeks to 40 days. I usually do 40 days. You run the risk of becoming immune to the drops by doing it that long but so far I havent encountered that problem. A normal day of eating looks like this:

Breakfast: Drops and an apple, orange, handful of strawberries or half a grapefruit (pick 1)
Snack: Lots of water
Lunch: Drops. 100 grams of meat and 1 cup of veggies.
Snack: Water
Dinner repeat lunch but do not have the same veggie
Snack: 1 fruit from the breakfast list.

This is a list of allowed foods:
FRUIT: one fruit per meal; do not mix
Apple: medium = 95
Grapefruit: ½ = 44
Orange: large = 86
Strawberries: 10 medium: = 40

STARCH:
Melba Toast: 1 = 20
Melba Snack: 2 = 24
Grissini Breadstick: 1 = 20

MEAT: 100 grams - 3 ½ ounces; all visible fat removed; weighed raw; cook with no oil or fat:
Chicken Breast: = 110
Ground Beef: 95% lean = 137
Steak: (round/sirloin tip) = 142
Crab: = 84
Halibut: 110
Cod = 110
Flounder: 91
Tilapia: 96
Lobster: = 90
Shrimp: = 106
Veal: = 112

VEGETABLES: measured raw; one vegetable per meal; do not mix
Asparagus
Beet-Greens
Cabbage
Celery
Chard
Cucumber
Fennel
Lettuce
Onion
Red Radishes
Spinach
Tomatoes

Following phase 2 is phase 3. This is a maintenance phase.  Read here for more info
http://www.hcgfatloss.com/hcg-diet-phase-3.htm

This diet is hard. At times it hurts. You have to push yourself. The only way I have made it is through prayer and scripture. A good friend of mine recommended a book to me that really helped me see my un healthy eating habits in a new way. It is http://www.amazon.com/Love-Eat-Hate-Breaking-Destructive/dp/0736900136. Another good friend of mine sent me a list of scripture that she uses to help her and one that I repeat to myself over and over is John 14:15.

If you are thinking about starting this diet or looking for more details, contact me and I will get you some resources. Dont trust everything you read online and dont buy drops online. CONTACT me. I have a Chiropractor in town that sells the drops and can be trusted.

Nanny 911.

For the love. What the earth? Are you kidding me? What were you thinking? Were you thinking? YOU ARE GROUNDED!!!

These are just a few of the lines that I found my self repeating this past week. When I was a teenager my mother wished all of this chaos upon me. I'm not so sure that she knew it would be so entertaining for her to watch. Well grab your popcorn and have a seat. You have free tickets to the Clark show. Prepare to be amazed, confused, entertained and enlightened.

It was a calm Friday afternoon when I sent a text to my good amiga, Debb. I asked her if she wanted to go to the YMCA with me after the kids were done with school. Sure, she says. She offered her daughter as a babysitter as the child watch program downtown has limited hours. Even better. We can ride in silence to the Y instead of in a mini van full of minions who seem to be out to help us (as if we needed it) lose our minds. So we left Sierra in charge as we headed out. We were probably about 30 mins into our workout when the first text came: Are you almost done? When are you coming home? . That should have been the first hint that things were going terribly wrong. The next sign came in the form of a phone call to Debb. I'm not sure of the exact conversation that took place but I heard her reassure Sierra that we were almost done. When she hung up I asked if there was screaming in the background and she said yes. At that point we stepped up the pace a bit. On our way home Debb gets another text: I'm never having kids. They are going crazy. I'm not kidding. This is not funny. Then the next phone call came. I heard Debb reassure her that we were only a few minutes away. As we pull into the driveway Sierra comes out the door and gets into her moms van with tears in her eyes. I asked her to spill her guts and tell me what they did. Here are the details I gathered:

1. There were kids next door and Joshua had the window open sticking his bottom out and telling the kids to "smell his butt". Amy was yelling other various things.
2. They were running and screaming through the house and wouldnt listen when she asked them to stop.
3. The boys made Amy cry most of the time I was gone by being mean to her.
4. Skylar (the 10 yr old!!!) threw a fit bc she wouldnt let him watch a movie.

I was so mad! They were all sent to their rooms until their father got home. I called him and let him know what he was coming home to. The outcome? Everyone was grounded from something meaningful (different for every kid) for 3 days.

On to Easter. It was a normal, rushed Sunday morning. Upon arriving to church, I signed the kids in and off they went to their classes. I saw Skylar with some candy in his hand. Keep in mind, all the kids had been told to keep all Easter toys and candy in the van. They were NOT supposed to bring it in. So, I asked Skylar to empty his pockets. He had a stretchy snake, tons of candy and a hot wheel car. I figured if he had done it then he probably wasn't the only one. I made my way to the class room and did a shake down on the rest of the kids. I ended up with a gallon Ziploc bag of toys and candy. This was just the beginning of the Sunday morning madness. After prayer, I went out to wait for my parents to arrive for the main service. I saw a teacher coming down the hallway with a handful of something. They were looking at me. I looked away hoping it wasn't me they were coming for. It was me. He had a handful of a torn up Nerf football. Joshua. He ate it. Yup, ate the ball. I then discussed with Joshua that we don't eat Nerf balls, especially not other peoples. His response was "But it was good". I turned and walked away. After church service I went to pickup the kids. After a few minutes I realize that Konner had one shoe missing a shoe string. It was there when I dropped him off. We searched everywhere for it. How do you lose a shoe string and not know it???? We never found it. Then today I was folding laundry and the long lost shoe string fell out of Joshuas pants that he wore to church Sunday.

Do you see the common denominator here? Joshua, he seems to be involved in every situation. That being said...... I have a 6 yr old boy for sale. He is potty trained.

Kids....

We had a couple of funny conversations and situations at the Clark house this week. They def need to be documented so I thought, what better place to do it than my blog?

Last night I was making goulash for dinner. I went to get the tomato soup from the pantry and realized that there was a good portion of my canned food missing. Tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, sloppy Jo mix, soups etc. I was puzzled. Then it clicked. Josh. He has a field trip next week and they are supposed to bring ONE canned good item. We had already discussed the fact that we would decide next week what he was going to take. Why not just let him grab one? Well, I do my shopping weekly and generally everything in my pantry is designated for a meal. So, I call Josh into the kitchen:

Me: Josh did you take some cans to school?
Josh: Yes, I had to.
Me: Josh we talked about this already. You were going to take one next week.
Josh: But mom I had to, the poor people are hungry!
Me: Josh, that is very kind of you but you didn't ask...how many did you take?
Josh: 10.

End of conversation. While I appreciate my sons concern for the food bank, he might have gotten a little carried away. I'm not sure how he even carried his bag to school with 10 cans in it....and me not noticing!!

Next. There is usually a radio playing somewhere in our house. It is usually on 88.3 , 90.3 or 95.1 . This morning it was 95.1. The kids know that I don't like Lady Gaga and we change it when she comes on. So Amy hears a song that she believes is by her and panics.

Amy: Mom, lady Gaga is on, ill turn the station!!
Me: ummm...Amy...that's Michael Jackson.
Amy: He sounds like a girl.
Skylar: He sounds like Justin Beiber. Justin Beiber is in puberty. Right mom?
Me: IN puberty? I think he already went through puberty.
Skylar: Well during the 3 days that I go through puberty, I'm going to be a rock star.

I have no idea who his source is but I don't think its reliable. My kids are crazy.

Short blog, but it had to be documented.

Head, shoulders, knees and toes.....

AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN!! It all hurts!!! Last week I had my first lifting session with Anne (trainer). We did legs. She decided that since I have a history with weightlifting (not kids) that instead of machines she would have me doing free weights. I'm OK with that. I have done free weights before with my dad during high school. My problem with this is.....the stinky room and stinky boys that stay in there... These guys grunt, sweat and throw weights around like barbarians. I'm totally out of my element. Actually, just being in a gym is out of my element lol. So, anyways, the first workout went good. We had a few instances in which I was thoroughly embarrassed at how out of shape I have allowed myself to become. The following 3 days were horrible. Our laundry room is downstairs. There are 6 people in our house. I'm the only one that does laundry soooo I was forced to use the stairs a lot. There were a few times that my legs actually gave out and I had to catch myself. Right about the time they got better I had another session with Anne. We did a few leg exercises but spent most of our time on arms. Again, in the stinky room with the stinky boys. She also feels the need to have me look in the mirror every time I do something. Its torture but also very good motivation. So, overall, the fitness regimen is going well. I have lost 5 lbs and dont almost pass out when I try to button my pants.

OK, switch moods. Next subject, Kids. Seriously? Amy and Skylar used to be the best of friends. He was always looking out for her and she would follow him around like a lost puppy. Then...BAM...they hate each other. No, really, they do. It got so bad over the weekend that he actually went in for her neck with his hands and she left TERRIBLE scratch marks down his arms. What has happened? Is this just a preview of my future? What is it going to be like when I have 4 teenagers if its like this now??? I'm not sure Ill be able to handle it. I will probably spend every minute of every day in prayer no matter where I am. Home, work, school, hospital, jail, padded room.....

OK Cybil, switch moods again. After high school I went on a missions trip to Guatemala. It was an amazing experience that ended up doing more of a work in me than I think I anticipated doing for others while on the trip. On this trip I met an amazingly awesome man. He had such a passion for these people. I remember him not knowing ANY Spanish at all but doing everything he could think of to communicate with these people. We were stopped on a road (for lack of a better word) and he got off the bus to go talk to some truckers. Again, he knew no Spanish at all but his goal was to show and spread Gods love to these people. He used something as small as his watch to start conversations with them. His joy and love and hope for people overflowed onto everyone around him. He was such an inspiration to me. Bernie Grieser is one of the most Godly men I have ever met. This man can start to speak of people he loves and cares about and begin crying out of nowhere. Such a big heart and passion for Gods people. He paved of the way for all of the future missionaries that went forward after us in Guatemala. He learned Spanish so that he could speak it fluently. He has a beautiful wife Sheri. They are the married couple that you look at and say "Wow, I want to be that in love after being married for that long." These two have truly played a big role in my spiritual walk. Last night, in his sleep, Bernie passed away. The Lord finally called him home after a long battle with cancer. The world lost an incredible man, father, husband, grandfather, and friend. I count it an honor to have known him. He has heard those beautiful words "Well done my good and faithful servant" and he is now resting in our Fathers arms.

Thats all.

Ouch!

So yesterday I was on my way to the YMCA when my trainer calls and tells me that he cant make it to my fitness assessment. Trainer 0 Me 1. He proceeded to ask me if I wanted to reschedule or still come in and have a female co worker of his do it. I told him I was already on my way so I wouldn't wait to reschedule with him. Trainer 0 Me 2. (This is a 3 strikes program). It had already taken all the courage and strength I had to make myself get into the van with 4 kids in tow and go face these horrible numbers and tests. So, I arrive and drop my minions off at the child watch center. Skylar was beyond mad that I was leaving him in a room of toddlers. He wanted to go to the "teen" area but I'm the overprotective mom and refused to even consider it without a friend with him. By the way, I'm expecting to be the recipient of the worst mother of the year award this year. Also I generally attend the downtown Y so I was def not used to the setup of the parkview Y. I tried to find my way to the locker rooms and almost went into the mens. Then I had to find the fitness center. I walked up and down every hallway looking for it. Turns out, fitness center = the room with all the excercise contraptions (aka treadmill, weight machines ect) . That in itself tells you how long its been since I was "active". So anyways, this tiny little, tan woman comes and says "oh you must be Brooke". Uh...why, bc im the fattest one in the room sweating from trying to find the fitness center? Ok seriously, I knew what she meant but jeeezzz. She walks me through the fitness center to this little closet looking room in the back. We will refer to it as the dungeon of death. She takes my blood pressure and other random things and tells me that suprisingly (yeah she used that word) Im pretty healthy as far as my stats go. Then she did a body fat test thing...while she was doing it I was sure to tell her that my senior year I had gotten down to 17% body fat and was doing free weights with my dad 2-3x a week. She looked at me like I was trying to tell her that I was a queen or something. She was shocked that I havent always been this way I guess.  So then with a smile she says that we are going to do some fitness tests. HA....thats not what she should have called them. She sat up a stair step thingy it was about 1 ft tall. I had to step up then down. Simple, right? For three minutes. No problem, right? WRONG! By His strength and not mine, I made it through. I almost fell a few times and I couldnt feel my legs BUT I made it. Next was the push up test. Girl push ups for 1 min. If they werent correct form, she didnt count them. This was, suprisingly enough, not a problem. Then came the crunch test. One minute of correct form crunches. This one hurt. My stomach kind of fell forward and tried to strangle me but I made it out alive. Overall she said we have a lot of work to do (really?!?!) but that she was very impressed with my upper body strength. I reminded her that I was pregnant for 4 years and have been carrying children for 10 yrs. Its kind of strange. The chiropractor that I used to go to said the same thing. He couldnt believe how solid my back is. Ok so I have that one thing going for me. On my way home, I got a headache and my eyeballs ached. They actually hurt from straining to do the tests. Im looking forward (in a sick twisted way) to the days and weeks ahead. She asked me my goals and I told her, I just want to be healthy. I have hit a weight that puts me at very high risk for heart problems and other horrible things that run rampid on both sides of my family. I want to watch my kids play sports, graduate. I want to help Amy plan her wedding. I want to watch them grow up (and move out!) and start their own families. I want to spend forever with this crazy man that I love. Im always 100% ready to go be with the Lord but I dont want it to be bc of my health or something traumatic that I could have prevented. Although, when he calls its not going to matter what I try to do...Im going. With a HUGE smile on my face. Ok, so Im getting ahead of myself. Im just saying that I want to see my children grow up but Im not one to say "Im not ready bc I havent...or I want to....". Im ready to be with Jesus. To stand before the Lord and point to Jesus when he asks me what Ive done. I want to fall to my knees and tell him that I have done nothing to deserve to be there but that it is by the grace of His beautiful son that my soul has been saved from eternal seperation. I have no idea how I went from talking about deadly exercise to Jesus. But, thats my life. Im all over the charts. Im unpredictable and chaotic. Im random. Im a work in progress.....

Brooke Lynn

Pudding Pops.....

Wow! What a weekend!!! Friday night, in preparation for my death on Monday, Daniel brought Chipotle home and we relaxed. I know, we are old and boring. Saturday was the day I had been waiting on for 4 months. It was Bill Cosby day!!!! First I had to go to work and put in a longggggg 2.5 hrs. I'm pretty sure that everyone that worked that day and all customers were aware of the fact that I was on a Cosby countdown. Why, bc I was telling everyone! You may be wondering why I am Cosby crazy. Growing up I can remember sitting with my mom and watching it. That's saying a lot because I really don't remember most of my childhood. (Maybe Ill touch on this in another post) I felt like it was something we bonded over. Then recently I discovered that EVERY season is on Netflix. Now the kids and I watch it almost everyday. Its good clean, family centered television. They love it. Anyways, it was a great night. This was a business meeting. Daniel and his partner were using this event to take some potential customers out. We met at Granite City and had some awesome appetizers and some disgusting ravioli. Oh and I forgot to mention that one of the customers couldn't make it so my awesome friend Debb got to come along. So at this point we all head to the Embassy and wait, not so patiently for Dr. Huxtable to make his appearance. He walked out after about 15 mins of waiting and....I almost cried. We all stood and clapped. I love this man!!!! His show is entitled "Hello Friend." Its a very appropriate title as the whole time he was either sitting in a chair, on the edge of the stage or laying on the floor trying to get up. He called a man up after his cell phone started beeping....this young man got busted watching that Butler game on his phone. It was great. You truly felt like you were sitting watching an old friend (literally, he is 73) share his stories and jokes. I laughed so hard that I cried at times. Ill say it one more time, ahhhhhmazing show!! OK moving on. After the Cosby experience was over Daniel and I decided that while we had a sitter we might as well make the most of the night. We went to Rave to try out the new IMAX theatre. We saw Sucker Punch. It was a strange, hard to follow, but good movie. I would give it 3.5 almost 4 out of 5 stars. The IMAX however did NOT impress me at all. Its just a bigger screen that hurts my eyes and neck to try to look at. Its also louder, as if those movies need to be any louder. Oh well, the popcorn was good. Even better was the moment when Daniel reached over to hold my hand. We had gotten into a bit of a tiff on the way there and neither one of us wanted to admit we were wrong. He even speed walked to the theatre from the parking lot, leaving me in the dust. Yeah we are both stubborn. We have, however, hit that point in our marriage where we fight fairly instead of screaming and sometimes physically fighting. We just walk away or shut our mouths. I shut my mouth and eventually find my way to prayer. I should probably work on being the first to apologize. I'm a work in progress though, eventually i will get there.

Sunday included prayer before church, worship and then a wonderful sermon delivered by God through the lips of Eric Wood. It was a very moving sermon and call to be a "Samaritan".  It started with these verses:

Hebrews 13:15 Through Jesus, therefore , let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise-the fruit of the lips that confess his name. 16 And do not forget to do good to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.

WOW

To me this goes well with Hebrews 13:2 Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it.

Also Hosea 14:2 was a verse given to look at. "Take words with you and return to the Lord. Say to him: Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously, that we may offer the fruit of our lips.

Ephesians 2:10 For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

What did I take from this? That I am called to spread Gods word. That when people look at me they will not see my works but Gods works through me. I want to be a sweet aroma to those around me and not an awful stench. Gods love should shine through me and, especially in my marriage, sometimes that means keeping my mouth shut, taming my tongue and/or humbling myself and being the first to apologize. Very convicting after the situation on Saturday night.

So moving forward this week, my eyes are focused on Him. He is my anchor, He is my strength, the source of my joy and the one who paid the price for my sins..past, present and future. As Jesus hung on that cross, all of my sins were in the future. THANK YOU LORD!!!! We are so undeserving of His love but he graciously pours it out upon us. I am blessed and hope that moving forward you are as well.

OK so this wasn't a funny haha post BUT tonight is my first meeting with the personal trainer so I'm sure I will have plenty to say about my near death experience!! I hope everyone enjoyed it and maybe took something from it. Be blessed this week and please let me know how I can be praying for you!!

Brooke