Well, dragged my butt out of bed this morning and hit the scale.. LOL.. I jumped up and down for joy and yelled for Patrick. 302! God I can't wait till that first 25 lbs. comes off and am not too far from it... around half way there... am figuring that will be one whole size... wanna fit into my shorts. 10 lbs in like 2-3 weeks is pretty good. yay.

Funny thing is I didn't get to do my workout yesterday morning cause I had two essays to write before 5 and I was working on them until 4:15 when I had to leave the house. Been sooooo sore from the weights that hubby said, "Natalie you gotta give it a rest or you are going to hurt yourself." So skipped both work outs yesterday, but felt guilty. I did my morning one this morning and you know... I think that taking a day off helped cause I felt more energetic this morning and my muscles weren't screaming at me.  I think I'm getting a bit obsessed. LOL.

But in this case I don't think my obsession is a bad thing. When I dedicate myself to something, that's it, I'm like a dog with a bone. LOL. I have to apologize if I'm driving everyone nuts, though. Seems like this is all I talk about anymore.

So to change the subject.. School is over for me accept for one final on Monday. Final is in one of my Lit classes. Should be pretty easy. I'm almost positive I'm going to come out of this semester with a 4.0, so grandma can add another dean's list letter to her collection. LOL. She's been griping at me cause she doesn't want to babysit on Thursdays anymore. Don't know what I'm going to do cause all the damn English classes are on Wednesday and Thursday. Told her that yesterday and she said, "We'll be like Scarlett O'Hara and think about it tomorrow." Which as you know drives me nuts, I like to have plans in place. It's just too hard to find someone to babysit at night. Especially someone you trust, cause I'm freaking paranoid about my kids and mine aren't old enough to tell me if something happens, you know?

I have other good news. Grandma lent me the money to pay Patrick's lawyer and we sent the check this week. I know it's too much to hope that all his old legal crap gets cleared up before the new semester, but I'm still crossing my fingers. Some days I wish I could go back in time and kick him in the butt. He's really changed his life, but damn when he was younger he was really dumb. I mean who stops going to see their probation officer? His excuse was that he didn't have a ride... what did he figure was going to happen? that they'd just say that's ok and let it slide? So instead MO reports it to Indiana and Indy issues a subpeona. Subpeona is signed for by his bro's roommate.. Patrick never sees it.. fast forward 4 years and he finds out he has a warrant for failure to appear. I pay all his court costs for this 2 years ago and we beg the po in Indiana to help us out. She says it's a no go and he needs to throw himself on the mercy of the court and possibly finish out a year dui conviction. He did 4 mos of that way back when it first happened and he got probation... 8 mos in jail would ruin his life. It would ruin my life. My kids would not understand what happened to daddy. They are nuts about him. Not to mention out of school six months or drop out and student loans come due. Patrick is sole income provider for his family, so I'd have to go back to work. Would have to move cause there's no way in hell I'd leave him in jail in Indy without being able to see him.. that would mess up my school... Would be bad all the way around. We're hoping the lawyer can work it out, get warrant pulled, and have the conviction dropped to a misdameaner (sp?). If that happens he can get his liscence back and pass the back ground checks for teaching. With that felony warrant he can't take some of the classes he needs. He's been completely sober for 2 years... went to AA Wednesday and got his 2 year chip. He's going to make the dean's list this semester. He's married with two children. Has a house. His life is different. The law just doesn't allow for people to turn their lives around. And damn Indiana is strict on the Dui stuff.. Mo is no where near as strict. Getting Patrick's 2 dui convictions in Indiana and one in Mo has cost us like 4 grand so far (and all of that was in Indy) and it keeps climbing. I know someone who has 9 dui convictions.. half of which are in MO and the other half are in Illinois. Never done any kind of time. Patrick has 3 and a year sentence hanging over his head. The amount of justice you get is directly related to how much money and influence you have in this country. The guy with 9 is Rita Williams son (owner of the Hub).  Hell even Rita has one. Patrick hasn't had a liscence since 1996. I realize that the law is in place to protect people.. but it doesn't work... it only works on people who change their lives and then those people are overly punished. Patrick was never in an accident or anything like that. JR is another story. sigh. just isn't fair.

But anyway, am not going to be negative about this. We've got a lawyer now, and Patrick's dad is friendly with the prosecuting attourney... Patrick looks really good on paper these days.. it'll work out right? Light some candles just in case. LOL.

On an even lighter note.. Patrick is going to have four days over Memorial day that sun-wed. We were thinking about going camping at the lake or branson.. Anyone interested in going? Would be fun. Both places will probably be crowded but it would still be fun. Branson has lots of stuff to do (but costs money everywhere) and Lake has lots of free stuff to do (but will probably be packed). There's a cheap campground at branson near silver dollar city (10$ a night w/ electric), that has a shuttle that runs to the city. Celebration city is open now and tickets are only 20$ for adults. The lake has a real nice public park campground with a beach that is also cheap (7$ a night). Can cook out, swim, etc. Either place would be fun.. anyone interested?

blessings,

Natalie