It is true.
I was a smoker.
For 19 years of my life I was a smoker.
It is definitely NOT something I am proud of.
I started smoking when I was 13 (the age my oldest child is now) just so I could fit in.
I regret it.
After 19 years of smoking, I am paying for it.
When I quit smoking cold turkey on December 24th, 2010 I replaced my cravings for nicotine with food.
So, needless to say….I’ve gained *ahem* some weight
Another problem I have faced over the years in the dreaded smokers cough.
Although I don’t truly suffer from smokers cough or asthma anymore, I do have breathing problems from time to time and have been told that it is directly related to my having been a smoker for so long.
Over the past year since I quit, I can see the different and I don’t have as many breathing problems as I did but from time to time I do require the assistance of an inhaler.
I have always gone to the ER to be treated and requested a prescription for an inhaler but have recently learned that I can buy albuterol online without a prescription which for me is very handy! This is great because sometimes during certain seasons I require the use of my inhaler more than usual and find that it doesn’t last as long, this gives me the opportunity to purchase an inhaler before my insurance will allow a refill!

Every day when I look at my children, I can’t help but be happy. I am truly amazed that I created these four beautiful people and the impact they have had on my life.
When I first became a mom, back in 1999 at the ripe old age of 20, I didn’t picture myself 13 years later with 4 children and a husband.
My oh my how things change.
Now as I get older I think about how awesome it has been to have these four beautiful creatures in my life and don’t know where I would be if they didn’t exist. Also, after spending the last 6 years with the Alex (5 of them married) I can’t picture my life without any of them.
I now have the opportunity to watch them grow and become amazing adults.
They get to watch me age as I learn about menopause and weight gain.
I get to watch them graduate, get married and become parents.
It’s amazing how life changes as we grow older.
Here I am, 33 years old, a mother of 4 and closer to menopause every day. Before I know it, I will be popping some natural menopause supplements, doing Yoga and learning how to oil paint.
Oh well, at least I will be that old lady in menopause with the hot ass younger husband!

As we get closer to buying a home of our own, I keep thinking about all of the awesome things I want our new home to have.  Not only do I want enough space for the entire family, an open kitchen where we can cook as a family and a basement that we can convert into a rec room/bedroom/office and laundry space I also want a HUGE backyard.

When we finally have our house and our backyard to do whatever we want with, I will be putting in a vegetable garden, a patio, a firepit, a sandbox and a big playset for Ellie and Alexander.  I want out backyard to be a place the whole family can enjoy.

Of all of these wants, I find myself constantly ogling different playsets online.  What I have in mind for our backyard playset is a wooden playset like the playsets in Hickory, north carolina that I found online.

I don’t want a huge playset made of plastic.  I want a huge, wooden structure with a clubhouse, 2 slides, a climbing wall, swings, and more.  I want my kids to have the opportunity to go on an awesome adventure in our own backyard.  I want them to want to play in our yard and not run off to the park or a friends house every day.  I want our yard to be the place children gather.