The McMillins

Gretchen is back on her "fat smash" diet to try to lose weight. She wants to be able to wear all of her pre-pregnancy clothes. Corey keeps telling her that she needs to be patient since it hasn't even been 2 months yet since she's had a baby. Her doctor even said that she was skinny at her 6 week check-up. She told her doctor that she was dieting and exercising and her doctor said that was fine as long as she drank plenty of water since she's nursing. Of course, nursing should help her get back into shape also. She wants to lose 15 lbs.

Corey, on the other hand, doesn't care about his weight. lol He just bought a "big green egg" grill and is LOVING it. Last weekend he cooked a boston butt, steaks and pork chops. Tonight he's going to make a homemade pizza on it. He's also looking forward to grilling veggies and even cookies on it!! Yes.... you read that right.... cookies! This grill is like a grill, smoker and oven all in one. Gretchen likes it because she doesn't have to cook as much! :)

Leah had her 15 month check-up last week. She weights 25 1/2 lbs and is 33 inches long. She is 85th percentile for weight and 98.6 for height. We didn't realize how tall she is!!

Gretchen has made it a New Year's Resolution to save as much money on everything that she can this year. One of those ways is to get better at "couponing" and sales. There is a website that she goes to everyday called, http://www.southernsavers.com/ . This website shows all the sales ads of grocery stores, drugstores, all kinds of different stores (including Internet sites) and then coupons that you can use on top of those sales (both manufacturer and store coupons). There have been several things that she's been able to get for free by doing this. They also have a link to a coupon if it is available to print online. It's been VERY helpful.

It is very time consuming but she has fun doing it. Plus, it gives her something to do late at night when she can't go to sleep and everyone else is in bed. :)

Leah has a personality similar to Zach's. She's so funny and loves to make you laugh. Gretchen was giving her a bath and she kept tilting her head and smiling. It was too cute.

Within the past month, Gretchen has gotten a pretty bad skin rash from scratching so much. She has scratched so much that she has scabs all over her. It started on the back of her neck and the elbow of her left arm along with part of her forearm. It has now spread to her chest and is starting to go to her shoulders. The doctor thinks she's allergic to the new hormones going into her body from the pregnancy. The doctor told her to take benadryl or zyrtec, as long as it isn't a de-congestant, and to put hydrocortizone on the areas 3 times a day.

The benadryl seems to make her drowsy and the zyrtec doesn't seem to work as well as the benadryl. She bought the strongest hydro-cortizone cream possible but it makes the areas sting b/c of the open wounds from scratching and it seems to make her itch even more after it's dried. She bought some Gold Bond medicated anti-itch cream that seems to be giving her some relief so far. She goes back to the doctor next week to see how the rash is doing. If it's not better, the doctor plans on sending her to the dermatologist.

Please pray that this will go away. She is miserable and we don't want to spend more money going to a dermatologist if we don't have to.

Gretchen just found out from a friend who is also homeschooling that she doesn't HAVE to teach for 4.5 hours per day. You only have to do that if you are going through the public school system to homeschool. Since we're apart of a homeschool association, we're apart of the "third option" which means as long as we have 180 days of school and certain subjects (which we're doing all of them) then we don't have any stipulation as to how long or short school has to be. Gretchen was so relieved of that.

So far, she likes homeschooling. We're thinking of putting Zach into school next year since we'll have 2 little ones but Gretchen doesn't want to make that decision until she has to. As of now, she wants to homeschool next year too and already has most of the curriculum anyway. So, it only makes sense.