Not So Anonymous Confessions

Oh, The Places They Draw! | Messy Artists | Oh Snap Kids Photo Contest | Parents Connect

2012-01-08T18:48:00.002-06:00

Update! Sophie won! Thank you for all of the votes!! http://www.parentsconnect.com/photo-contest/messy-artists/messy-artists-places-draw/8EF6FFFF01AD21B50007017EA164
Please vote for Sophie!
Oh, The Places They Draw! | Messy Artists | Oh Snap Kids Photo Contest | Parents Connect

Photo Book

2011-11-03T09:55:00.001-05:00

Click here to view this photo book larger

Shutterfly photo books offer a variety of layouts and cover options to choose from.

Memorial Weekend

2011-05-31T10:53:00.004-05:00

We had a fantastic Memorial Weekend and now we prepare for Sophie's FIRST birthday party on Saturday! Where has the time gone? And her super big sister Emma...she'll be 6 on the 22nd! I just can hardly believe it every time I look at the girls and remember being Sophie's size, especially seeing Sophie in some of Emma's old clothes and jammies. You never quite grasp the truth in the statement when people say how the time flies and cherish every minute because they grow up so fast!

Mom's photos are here too in a different slideshow:

Carpet tiles

2011-04-12T12:36:00.001-05:00

GO win some funky fun carpet tiles! I love the functionality of these tiles and the great colors and patterns! Especially the road to damascus! http://doesmommyloveit.com/2011/04/12/flor/comment-page-1/#comment-30676

Foot in Mouth

2011-01-04T17:01:00.001-06:00

Why can't we all be this cute when we put our foot in our mouths?

New baby, new hair, new weight watchers membership, new attitude!

2010-09-21T08:58:00.002-05:00

Sophie's almost 4 months old, I've been back to work for over a month now and I was finally ready to get back to Weight Watchers to shed the weight gained over my pregnancy. Those old habits come back way too easily, more easily than they go away. I'm a snacker, it has taken a lot in the couple of days since I rejoined WW to get through each day without all that snacking...or when I did snack, making better choices. I did it before, lost over 65 pounds just before getting pregnant. On the 30th it will be a year since I found out I was pregnant with little Sophie, seems fitting that I'm back to WW now. I'm tackling the food first then will work my way back into zumba eventually. It feels good to be back, I went to the meeting Saturday morning then went to get a new haircut...many layers, just like my personality! haha!

Videos of Sophie in belly!

2010-06-01T09:26:00.002-05:00

Well, Friday we will welcome our little girl to the world via c-section! We cannot wait! This weekend we took some cool videos with our new Flip HD camera of her breathing in my belly and bopping around in there! We also have one of Emma talking about her baby sister! It's so amazing to think we'll be holding her in just a couple of days!

Autumn and a new baby on the way!

2009-10-23T09:08:00.004-05:00

...and at last, baby # 2 is on it's way! I'm due May 25th, 2010! Maybe this one's a boy because with Emma I felt great and this time around nausea and other issues exist! Luckily I haven't actually puked so far, but boy have I come close...especially today when I was brushing my teeth, that darn gag reflex! I'm 9 weeks so in a few more weeks the first trimester will be over and maybe the nausea will head out too!

2009-07-08T13:04:00.001-05:00

2009-07-08T12:57:00.001-05:00

Amish countryside, baby birds and greenhouses

2009-06-01T16:15:00.002-05:00

Photo Adventures of a 3 year old!

2009-05-20T16:36:00.002-05:00

2009-05-18T14:42:00.001-05:00

2009-05-18T14:11:00.001-05:00

Preschool Concert...new video embedded

2009-05-08T16:45:00.005-05:00

We are trying this one again...hopefully the video works now!
This picture with arms crossed pretty much sums up her feelings about the concert...arms crossed and when I asked her later why she didn't sing she simply sweetly said she "didn't feel like it" and when Daddy asked today she simply said "nervous" then he said why and she said "there was a lot of people there"

I've compiled a little video of her evening, hang on till the end, there's even a spot she shocks us all with an undie shot! haha!

Signs of Life

2009-04-29T15:11:00.005-05:00

I've been itching to see some signs of life, a little green, after all the snow and cold and stuff we've had. I got my wish! First of all we planted all of our garden seeds indoors to get ready to go into our garden in a few weeks. We have green and yellow beans, lettuce, celery, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, pumpkins, butternut squash, cauliflower, broccoli...I forget what else! Emma had so much fun helping plant that stuff and now watching it sprout is a blast too!

Day One: Day 7:

Day 17:

Plus, we're starting to get blossoms on our cherry tree and what we think is a weeping mulberry tree in front of our house! If you recognize this as a different variety of tree let me know, I'm clueless! Last year's weather didn't give us any cherries so we're hoping for lots this year!

Picture one is the blossoms on our weeping tree:

Cherry Tree:Weeping tree again:

Here is a picture of our weeping tree with all it's leaves last year:

Wet Weekend

2009-04-20T14:45:00.002-05:00

Emma had some fun bathtimes when Lily decided to join her!
More fun was had Sunday when she started swimming lessons. In 40 minutes time she had learned lots...she did some kicking, learned swimming strokes, floated on her back, jumped in with dunking her head under too and picked a ring up from the floor of the pool! She had a blast!

Puppy Love

2009-04-06T13:54:00.007-05:00

The newest member of our extended family...my new "sister" Lily, my mom's new puppy!! She's a boxador (boxer/lab mix) and SOOOO sweet! She's a great family dog too by all the stuff we've read and so far she's been the sweetest, a good listener and is housebroken. You can expect lots more pictures to come, especially after Emma and I spend this evening visiting her and taking her shopping at Petsmart!

Some Recent Photos!

2009-03-27T11:54:00.000-05:00

Make a Smilebox greeting

The Big 5-0!!

2009-03-15T15:09:00.002-05:00

Finally, after a long plateau, playing around that mark, I've hit it...the big 5-0! I had weigh in at Weight Watchers on Saturday after Zumba and I've officially lost 50 pounds!!!

Trevor was working but I celebrated anyway with a game night and Chinese dinner cooked by me at Mom's house. We had a great time and the food turned out great! Hungry Girl's 3 point recipe for Egg rolls and chicken lo mein ROCK and I'm more motivated than ever to continue my weight loss journey!

Shopping with Emma

2009-03-09T15:25:00.003-05:00

So we were shopping this weekend for easter dresses and other spring clothes for Emma (mom, Emma and I) and Emma was VERY into trying on the frilly easter dresses but apparently something changed about halfway through our day because in the middle of Janie & Jack while shopping in this collection mom and I were commenting on how pretty this outfit was that we were splitting the cost on...the yellow top, white top, yellow skirt and green plaid-patchwork shorts at the link above...when Emma says with 'tude...I want to be funny, not pretty! Oh boy, I think we have Miss Independent on our hands more and more...we go from girly modeling moments of trying on dresses to moments like that one quite often! She is not shy to share if she doesn't like a pair of sandals or shoes we show her but we don't let her run the show either...some things are too cute to pass by and sometimes she's just done shopping for the day! Little miss independent made quite a haul including these funn Little Miss Sunshine shoes, despite my velcro-disklike, she loves being able to put them on herself!

We had a great shopping day since there were some great sales and made it home safely in the fog and rain!

Preschool fun & field trip

2009-03-06T16:00:00.000-06:00

Sometimes the tape measure shows what the scale won't!

2009-02-26T12:48:00.002-06:00

I was starting to really feel frustrated with the weight loss thing. I hit that 50 pound mark one week when I weighed in at Snap Fitness for Biggest Loser but then it never reflected on the Weight Watchers scale...in fact the WW scale seemed to creep up, then go down a bit then creep up...I'm still like 2 pounds from my official 50 pound mark!

So, I started Zumba class 2 weeks ago or so and I've been much more consistent in going to Snap Fitness and busting my butt in the last couple weeks so on Saturday when I was up half a pound I was on the verge of tears (I know it's a little nuts). I talked to my trainer at Snap who is wonderful and said I wanted to come in to be measured because I was still feeling like I was slimming down and sure enough, in one month I've lost 10 inches total between 4 areas of my body! I was beaming last night! I bid a fond farewell to 2 inches on my bustline, 4 inches in the torso area between bust and belly, 2 inches at the naval line and 2 inches on my hips! Buh bye!

I just had to share this and hopefully anyone else who might be fumbling through weight loss hitting plateaus might stumble on this page and see that it's not all about the scale!

Ice Bites!

2009-02-16T08:15:00.002-06:00

This weekend I ended up with a bruise the size of Montana on my butt! I was leaving my dad’s to go visit my newest baby cousin in Oshkosh and dad and grandpa were behind me as we walked out of dad’s house and I said to be careful because the steps looked a little slippery…apparently my feet didn’t hear me and I went down, hit one butt cheek on each of the 4 or 5 steps on the way down. OUCH! By the evening time I had a big red mark going through a large nasty looking bruise across most of the one side of my butt!! Today I woke up pretty stiff and store and my back and butt are hurting now! Oh well, at least it will feel better within a couple of days, not like I broke anything and at least I was not carrying Emma or anything.

If it weren't for embarrassment over it being my butt, I'd post a picture of that nasty bruise, it's the most hideous one I've ever had I think!

Other than that, business as usual around here, busy with school and work and anxiously awaiting news at work about possible layoffs. There's a meeting of the Board of Trustees Wednesday and on Thursday we have a debriefing about that meeting and the buzz is we might hear about layoffs. My husband spoke with some high up people on campus yesterday that were talking to him about 25 staff and 25 faculty being laid off...here's hoping I'm not one of those 25 staff!

Zumba & Ice Skating

2009-02-04T13:05:00.004-06:00

I only have a second but must say you have GOT TO TRY Zumba!! It's an absolute blast, I signed up to do it twice a week after trying it on Saturday. Great workout and so much fun!

In other news, Emma tried ice skating twice last week and LOVED IT! By the 2nd time she wanted to be set free without anyone holding on to her! I'm contemplating getting skates myself but fear falling so much so jury's still out on that purchase! I'm going to try some on at stores and see how I do with my weak ankles!

Check out Em on her skates!

Baby Shawn Patrick...

2009-01-16T12:04:00.002-06:00

My aunt that I've talked about in the past who was expecting a baby in February had her baby yesterday. He was born a few weeks early and weighed 5 pounds, 1 oz. and was 17 inches long, pretty long for his weight I thought! Anyway, my aunt had to go in early because she was having issues with preclampsia and now my Grandpa said the baby had to go to another hospital which was better equipped to help the baby born early to a mother with HELLP syndrome. My aunt is being released today though and we're still going to have her baby shower tomorrow because they didn't have much for little baby Shawn yet and didn't know his sex until he was born.

Anyway, I'm looking for a way to honor my grandma and aunt (my aunt's mother and sister) who passed away this fall within a month of each other. We want to say a little prayer for Shawn to recover well and be released too. Anyone have ideas or poems or prayers? I know it's short notice since the shower is tomorrow but I would love any suggestions anyone has!

I thought maybe we could even say that we pray for my aunt Melissa's mother and sister in heaven to look over Shawn in the coming weeks as he’s cared for at the hospital so he can come home healthy and strong soon. My grandma bought some of the decorations and stuff before she passed away so maybe we could even just mention that? Just looking for additional input, let me know what you think.

Thank you and please keep my aunt and her new baby in your prayers.

Gran Torino...a must see

2009-01-13T10:23:00.002-06:00

I don't have time for an in-depth review but I gotta say, we saw Gran Torino last night and LOVE LOVE LOVED IT! It was way worth the movie prices and seats that make your butt sore after 2 hours. Clint Eastwood is AWESOME and it was really a pretty unexpected storyline. I laughed, I cried and would pay to see it again! If you're offended by the F-bomb or racial tension then you might want to pass but really, I highly recommend it!

And, we saw previews for what will be our chick-flick date movie on Valentine's Day, He's Just Not That Into You. It looks great with a great cast of people I love like Drew Barrymore Jennifer Aniston, Ginnifer Goodwin, Scarlett Johansson, Ben Affleck, Jennifer Connelly...even if I do think they ripped off the title from a Sex & the City episode...it looks like a funny movie!

A borrowed list and other fun!

2009-01-05T14:08:00.003-06:00

Just a quick update that I was doing so well on my way to lost 50 pounds by my Jan. 11th one year WW anniversary then I gained 3 pounds, DANG HOLIDAYS!! I know I did much better on portions and eating LESS of the sweet stuff than I did other years and I did lose weight the prior three weeks so I'm still lower in weight now than I was before Xmas so I can't complain much. I promptly went from weigh in Saturday to Snap Fitness and kicked my butt into gear, then I went again yesterday and even did a few minutes on the elliptical which is a big pain! I am going again tonight and weighing in there for their Biggest Loser competition which begins this week and I have been making better choices too eating more filling foods first like we've been learning with the new Momentum plan. I still just LOVE WW and know I'll be a lifetime member one day even if it takes a few years. One thing that helps is watching certain shows on TV, I plan to check out the National Body Challenge and I've been watching Ruby on Style Network, she is AWESOME and I could totally see myself being friends with her if we knew each other, that sounds dorky but she's really funny and seems like such a great person!

I totally had to borrow this from Beth!!

Things you’ve already done: bold
Things you want to do: italicizeThings you haven’t done and don’t want to - leave in plain font
1. started your own blog
2. slept under the stars
3. played in a band - only in a video game and I SUCKED
4. visited hawaii
5. watched a meteor shower
6. given more than you can afford to charity
7. go to Disney land/World
8. climbed a mountain
9. held a praying mantis
10. sang a solo
11. bungee jumped
12. visit Paris
13. watched a lightning storm at sea
14. taught yourself an art from scratch
15. adopted a child
16. had food poisoning
17. walked to the top of the statue of liberty - I didn't have time, just saw it from the bottom
18. grown your own vegetables
19. seen the mona lisa in france
20. slept on an overnight train
21. had a pillow fight
22. hitch hiked
23. taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. built a snow fort
25. held a lamb
26. gone skinny dipping
27. run a marathon
28. ridden a gondola in venice
29. seen a total eclipse - I think, hehe
30. watched a sunrise or sunset
31. hit a home run - I'm sure in a video game only!
32. been on a cruise
33. see niagara falls in person
34. visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. seen an amish community
36. taught yourself a new language
37. had enough money to be truly satisfied - not that money is the key to happiness but it helps
38. seen the leaning tower of pisa in person
39. gone rock climbing
40. seen michelangelo’s david in person
41. sung karaoke - I used to do that weekly!
42. seen old faithful geyser erupt
43. bought a stranger a meal in a restaurant
44. visited africa
45. walked on a beach in the moonlight
46. been transported in an ambulance - not like I wanted to do that!
47. had your portrait painted - well does a characature count? hehe
48. gone deep sea fishing
49. seen the sistene chapel in person
50. been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. gone scuba diving or snorkelling
52. kissed in the rain
53. played in the mud
54. gone to a drive-in theatre
55. been in a movie
56. visited the great wall of china
57. started a business
58. taken a martial arts class - cardio kickboxing if that counts, it was a blast and a workout!
59. visited russia
60. served at a soup kitchen
61. sold girl scout cookies
62. gone whale watching
63. gotten flowers for no reason
64. given blood
65. gone sky diving
66. visited a nazi concentration camp
67. bounced a cheque - not proud of that!
68. flown in a helicopter
69. saved a favorite childhood toy - well, my mom did for me
70. visited the lincoln memorial
71. eaten caviar
72. pieced a quilt
73. stood in Times Square
74. toured the everglades
75. been fired from a job - more stuff I'm not proud of! What's with this thing?
76. seen the changing of the guard in London
77. broken a bone
78. been on a speeding motorcycle - one of my dad's friends back when I was like 14 who I thought was hot, haha
79. seen the grand canyon in person
80. published a book
81. visited the vatican
82. bought a brand new car
83. walked in jerusalem
84. had your picture in the newspaper
85. read the entire bible
86. visited the white house
87. killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. had chickenpox - twice!
89. saved someone’s life
90. sat on a jury
91. met someone famous - Maury Povich & Today Show people on Senior Class Trip
92. joined a book club
93. lost a loved one
94. had a baby
95. seen the alamo in person from inside amtrak train
96. swum in the great salt lake
97. been involved in a law suit
98. owned a cell phone
99. been stung by a bee - don't know, stepped on one as a kid but forget if I was actually stung.

Holiday Memories in the Making

2008-12-18T10:33:00.005-06:00

I just had to share a video and some pictures from our first (to be annual) gingerbread man and gingerbread house making adventures! Emma & I made our house this weekend at mom's then last night Trevor, Emma and I made our first gingerbread people and some other things like trees, candy canes, a big star with the last of the dough and gingerbread mommies, daddies and babies. It was so much fun, not nearly as hard as I expected. I made my own recipes based on a Splenda recipe with my own doctorings like using light margarine instead of unsalted butter then skipping the teaspoon of salt, using British treacle instead of molasses and egg beaters instead of eggs. I feared failure doctoring them that way but they turned out great! We're off to mom's house tonight to do the frosting and decorating with what will be my first attempt at royal icing if I can find egg white powder or meringue powder! If you'd like my delightfully light recipe, let me know. You can use molasses and save ordering treacle online! hehe!

*Please excuse the mess in my kitchen and my nasty baking hair and loungwear!

Stocking Stuffers for Men?

2008-12-17T10:38:00.001-06:00

Ok,
Family members are asking for stocking stuffer ideas for my hubby and as I may have mentioned, he's IMPOSSIBLE! It's so hard to get ANY gift ideas from him and after finally getting some from him, now I need little stocking stuffer gift ideas...anyone got any ideas?

A Crazy Fun Giveaway!

2008-12-16T11:45:00.002-06:00

Check out the fantastic DVD Giveaway just in time for Christmas stocking stuffers here! I for one, LOVE Madagascar so hope to win that one!

Thank you!

2008-12-11T14:15:00.005-06:00

A cute little dolly named Emalyne Lilly arrived in our mail the other day much to the delight of Emma from my fabulously talented friend Beth! Thank you so much! Merry Christmas! I'm working on your exchange items in the last couple of nights, something new I have yet to do so I can't wait for you to see it, just takes a little longer unfortunately!

Here's a pic of the dolly and some recent pics of Emma of course must be shared too!

Disco Elves!

2008-12-10T15:51:00.001-06:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Holiday Optimism? Well photos at least!

2008-12-05T15:39:00.003-06:00

I'm trying my hardest to stay optimistic these days. Sometimes all that's going on with the economy and stuff gets you worried. Even work talks about our financial situation and that they are not doing lay-offs (but I wonder if it might come someday) but they ask for people to voluteer to work one less day a week. You get to keep full-time benefits but we could never handle getting paid one less day a week in our household plus my desk is never clean and free from work! Trevor already had his work hours cut, he's only working 16 hours instead of the 32 or even 24 he used to get so he's already talking about selling a vehicle! We are lucky to have no house payment to worry about losing our house like my friend Mary. Keep her in your thoughts and prayers, she's worried about her husband losing his job.

It seems this is a concern for so many people, Trevor has had recent work drama too with a new supervisor and is one step away from losing his job simply because he CANNOT work 3rd shift, which the company has known all along, because he has Emma all day long and could not sleep during the day to do 3rd shift if needed and I work all day too and can't very well call in sick if he got called in for 3rd shift like that! They actually did make that suggestion to him in their meeting this week! He told them that my job has the benefits and full-time hours we rely on so we couldn't possibly put myjob in jeopardy that way! Meanwhile he's looking for other work in case he loses his job or just to get out of that place finally! Probably not a good plan either since most places are likely not hiring. Another family member also lost his job in the automotive industry recently and another self-employed relative who works in construction is finding it hard to get jobs.

Anyway, I try to stay fairly optimistic and remember that everything happens for a reason and what's meant to be will be but I know telling someone that who just lost their job or has a spouse who did is a joke. You never can feel that way too much when you'r the one being affected. I hope for the best and maybe Obama will bring some change to things when he takes office, hard to say.

Meanwhile, I go about my life, spend time with family and plan for things as much as possible and try not to watch too much news or dwell on the negative too much. My husband is the more pessimistic while I'm more optimistic and hopeful so we're a good balance!

Here's our holiday pictures & some recent photos I'm not sure if I shared yet! Enjoy the weekend!

Wordless Wednesday...part deux

2008-11-26T12:17:00.000-06:00

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Wordless Wednesday...What the??

2008-11-26T08:55:00.003-06:00

Barbie Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds Melanie Daniels doll

Positive Thought...

2008-11-24T09:17:00.003-06:00

Since my blogging might be limited this week with Thanksgiving I had to start the week with a positive thought I saw in a weight-loss newsletter I get in email.

Positive Thought

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind."
--Dr. Seuss

I gained a pound this week, I'm officially stuck on a plateau for the last month or two, up and down a pound or two constantly stuck between 42 pounds down, 40 pounds down, 41 pounds, etc. I am on Clomid which I have seen in lots of online discussions here and here has caused people LOTS of weight gain so I'm not beating myself up too badly for fluctuating in my weight since my plateau began when I got on Clomid!

Free earrings!

2008-11-20T10:47:00.003-06:00

Attention Shoppers!

I'm throwing in a free pair of earrings with all orders on my Etsy site from now through the new year! Whatever you order, you will get a coordinating pair of earrings, or if you prefer a different color that's fine too!

If you order the handmade hairclips and not jewelry, I'll throw in a free hairclip of a surprise design/color! I have tons more colors and designs than what's shown!

Shop away, jewelry makes a great gift too!!

I will be trying to post more pictures of new projects in the coming days/weeks. My latest fave is long necklaces so if you have an idea of a color you'd like, I can come up with a great design!

Thursday Thirteen...varied music taste I spoke of

2008-11-13T16:01:00.004-06:00

A selection of the latest CD's I've bought and have in my car for my listening pleasure alongside Emma's kiddo CD's which are quite fun too!

1. M.I.A-Kala M.I.A. PAPER PLANES.mp3 - Mia LOVE that song!
2. Rehab-Graffiti the Worldhttp://www.imeem.com/rockmusic9/music/_baHJH84/rehab_bartender_song_sittin_at_a_bar/
3. The Verve-Urban Hymns
Bitter Sweet Symphony - The Verve
4. Saving AbelAddicted - Saving Abel
5. Stevie Wonder-#1'sSir Duke - Stevie Wonder
6. The Best of Eric ClaptonCocaine - ERIC CLAPTON http://www.imeem.com/people/B4O-Yo/music/-Ple7l_w/eric_clapton_tears_in_heaven_eric_clapton/
7. WeezerBuddy Holly - Weezer
8. Offspring-Greatest HitsSelf-Esteem - The Offspring
9. Ray LaMontagne-Till the Sun Turns Black & Gossip in the Grain (If you have yet to experience Ray, you GOTTA listen...I have his other CD Trouble and Emma requests it often! Plus, when we popped in the new CD in the car one day, a faster song came on and she recognized his voice and said "trouble trouble trouble!" That song is her favorite and much slower, we were pretty amazed that she recognized his voice like that!Trouble - Ray LaMontagne

As a side note, I pronounce it as Lamontayn but the chic at Barnes & Noble acted like she didn't know who I meant then was like, "oh, Ray "lamontaaj" like all french fancy sounding!
10. Estelle-ShineAmerican Boy (Radio Edit w/ Kanye) - Estelle
11. Adele-19 Daydreamer - Adele
Shake It - Metro Station
12. Metro Station
13. Pink-Funhouse CD and I'm Not Dead CD - Nana na na na nana, I wanna start a fight! heheSo What - P!nk

Wordless Wednesday...Netflix-2 watched or in my queue

2008-11-12T10:16:00.003-06:00

The note you don't want in your child's backpack!

2008-11-11T13:22:00.002-06:00

Upon picking up Emma from preschool today a lovely yellow slip was in all of the kid's folders by their backpacks informing parents that one of the kids in school had lice and our children may have been exposed. It said what to look for and how to treat it if we find lice or eggs! GREAT!

Please pray Emma did not get exposed, I'm all itchy just thinking about it!!

Thursday Thirteen...quotes!

2008-11-06T11:17:00.002-06:00

I was looking for some inspirational and motivational quotes the other day and decided a good TT would be to share my favorite 13 that I found, threeof which are by our new president elect, Barack Obama! The rest are pretty much unknown authors, I just had found them on a website about weight loss.
1. Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek. - Barack Obama

2. If you're walking down the right path and you're willing to keep walking, eventually you'll make progress. - Barack Obama

3. We have to acknowledge the progress we made, but understand that we still have a long way to go. That things are better, but still not good enough. - Barack Obama

4. Never trade what you want the most for what you want at the moment.

5. If you always do what you always did, you'll always get what you always got.

6. If we defend our habits, we have no intentions of quitting them.

7. Nothing tastes as good as being thin feels.

8. Quitting is NOT an option.

9. Never give up on a dream just because of the length of time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway."

10. Take care of your body. It's the only place you have to live.

11. The difference between try and triumph is just a little umph!

12. Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.

13. “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” - Mark Twain

Election and Motivation

2008-11-04T16:08:00.002-06:00

Did you vote yet today?

I'm a big advocate of voting, people fought long and hard for the right to vote so we'd be foolish not to put in our two cents.

The video was sent to me and made me laugh so I had to share! Regardless of who you're voting for I think you'll find it funny!

I'm off to the polls, if you haven't gone yet, what are you waiting for? Get out there!

I leave you with a Mark Twain quote that a substitute Weight Watchers leader shared with us a couple of weeks ago and I really liked.

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

Happy Halloweeen!!

2008-10-31T09:44:00.001-05:00

Happy Halloween, hope you got all the treats you wanted!

Please vote for Emma in this costume pic contest so we can try to win a treat in the form of $500!!

http://www.thecutekid.com/ckgallery/votemypic/email/982

Wordless Wednesday...Door County & Halloween

2008-10-29T09:05:00.001-05:00

Wordless Wednesday...last year vs. this year!

2008-10-22T08:53:00.004-05:00

Last Year...

This Year...
Last Year...

This year...

She's growing up fast!

Apple Pie in a Paper Bag...How Elegant!

2008-10-20T08:38:00.007-05:00

OMG! I'm not even a fan of apple pie but since it's been rated the best apple pie by the Wall Street Journal, Gourmet, the Food Network and millions of other people...I had to try it! We went to Elegant Farmer in Mukwonago yesterday mostly to take Emma on the electric train, which she thought was the coolest thing, and to get my first pie from Elegant Farmer upon the recommendation from my parents who have had it before.

Since I had a fabulous pulled pork sandwich from Elegant Farmer after our train ride then shared a caramel apple with Emma and my parents, I decided to wait to try the pie until after dinner last night. WOW! Had I known it was this fantastic I think I would have splurged on a peice right then and there! We do still have 3/4 of a pie in our fridge of course so we'll have no problem polishing that off and I'll be happy to put some extra time in at the gym to pay for it!

If you can't get to Mukwonago, it's well WELL worth the price you pay to order one through the mail!

Be sure to check out Nov. 20 "Holiday Harvest Thanksgiving Special." on Food Network for a Throwdown with Bobby Flay!

Pictures from our train ride and day at Elegant Farmer...

Emma didn't care if these leaves were just in grandpa's driveway, she was jumping in them!

Thursday Thirteen...random of course!

2008-10-16T14:34:00.007-05:00

1. Eagle Eye - GREAT movie totally worthy of that $8 movie ticket!

2. Did I tell you that Righteous Kill was really good too? That would probably be one you could wait to watch till it hits DVD though.

3. Monday night when Trevor's at work after Emma's in bed has become my time for lounging on the couch with a sappy movie crying my eyes out. I sometimes plan on beading or making hair clips or reading...but fall back on the sappy movies instead. P.S. I Love You 2 weeks ago was fabulous and I TOTALLY didn't mind looking at Gerard Butler and Jeffrey Dean Morgan for 2 hours!

4. This week my movie was 28 Days which I've seen before and loved, if you like Sandra Bullock you'll like it, plus there's eye candy in the form of Viggo Mortensen and Dominic West!

5. Two weeks ago it was my Sex & the City the Movie DVD!!! If you never got into SATC you're seriously missing out and maybe you need to come over and watch the whole series DVD collection I have and the movie...I hear buzz about a 2nd movie & let me tell you I cannot wait! This one's not even about the eye candy and crush I have on Chris Noth!

6. Movies such as these have led me to several CD purchases as well like the SATC Soundtrack, which now I see there's a volume 2 I need, my Duffy CD, & P.S. I Love You Soundtrack!

7. In the last three days I've had mysterious feelings like nausea that lingers but doesn't make me actually puke (maybe if I tried) and now today dizziness that made me even almost stumble a couple of times and maybe it's in my head hoping this is all for a reason that I want it to be but I also feel like I've been going to the bathroom ALL THE TIME! hmmm...I'll keep you posted, I've been wrong before and it's probably in my head!

8. Emma had her first accident at preschool today, luckily we keep a spare pair of jeans and undies in her bag at the request of the school. She said she was too shy to say she had to go potty and I did always suspec that she held it all morning since it never failed she had to go the minute we got to lunch. They were so nice about it, but the poor peanut said something about "some of the other kids knew why she was crying". I gave her a hug and said not to be shy about going potty because it's better to do that than feel yucky having an accident and feeling like crying too. She said she wouldn't be shy anymore about telling her teacher she had to go.

9. I have been feeling so distracted at work again lately! I think because I'm off Thursday and Friday next week when we go to Door County I'm just all wrapped up in being excited to be off and can't focus on getting stuff done before we go! Some of the fun places we're going while we're there is the Hands On Art Studio, Al Johnson's Swedish Restaurant complete with goats on the roof, our usual orchard stop, Seaquist, Made in Britain a great place for the imported goods from Trevor's homeland, and a bead shop either here or the one I've been to before here. We're staying at cheaper winter rates at Landmark Resort where we stayed last year the day after xmas and loved it! I hope the fall colors are still going strong when we're there!

10. I have to stop talking about needing more time for beading and just MAKE time...somehow!

11. Every now and then as I look at the university students here I wish I had done my college time differently so I'd have my degree and not be sitting here as a secretary with no degree...but it is in progress of course and free of charge however I'm strangely still not rushing to graduate! I just enjoy being a student I think, maybe that's why I am where I am right now working at a university with the opportunity of this free tuition for me and my family.

12. I think I've finally made up my mind about voting in 19 days but I'm not one to broadcast my political views or debate about them so I'll keep that one under my hat but you can feel confident in knowing I'm not being hasty and have done much thought about it! I have always felt that it's foolish not to exercise the right to vote especially given all that was done by and done to suffragettes!

13. Did I tell you that last Saturday at WW I was down 3.4 pounds! YAY, hopefully that plateau I was whining about is behind me now! I'll let you know after weigh in this weekend!

Wordless Wednesday...loving fall and tons of geese which Em calls her "honkers"

2008-10-15T15:42:00.004-05:00

Thursday Thirteen...random!

2008-10-09T16:19:00.003-05:00

1. Tomorrow is our 5th anniversary, some days it feels like a few years sometimes feels like an eternity...it's good and bad but as long as the good outweighs the bad it works!

2. That Happy Anniversary song by The Little River Band is stuck in my head now! (and if you know that song I bet it's stuck in yours too now)

3. Emma loves preschool and grammy and I are diggin' dressing her for school...daddy doesn't care so much, it's a girly thing!

4. I'm still in a weight loss plateau...stuck around 40 pounds, teetering between 38, 39, 40, 41...dying to hit the 50 pounds lost mark! Gotta get more gym time!

5. I made one long necklace and got one at my recent Lia Sophia party and now I'm hooked on long necklaces...I need more beading time to make more! Speaking of that I'm looking for more ideas on advertising!

6. I've been on a frenzied music kick lately listening to everything from Eric Clapton and Stevie Wonder to Boys Like Girls, Weezer and Fall Out Boy to 50 Cent, Timbaland and even Emma's CD's! hehe

7. I'm seriously looking forward to our little one night up in Door County and people think we're weird for taking Emma and never doing vacations without her but we love it and miss her if we are away from her for even one night!

8. It's almost springy weather lately, it's supposed to be in the mid-70's this weekend, I can hardly believe it...but I'm not complaining!

9. I have baby fever big time, wanna be pregnant...working on it! Surrounded by babies and pregnancies it seems!

10. Lately I can't get enough of sappy movies and microwave kettle corn...wish I had more time for that too!

11. It's amazing how a little 3 year old can brighten your day like nothing else!

12. Time to go see her now!

13. TGIF!!!

Please Support A Worthy Cause

2008-10-08T12:49:00.001-05:00

My friend Missy's bro is running for autism and looking for sponsors, please help him out! Follow the link on Missy's top right corner of her blog or click here!

The cutest trench evah!

2008-10-07T16:07:00.001-05:00

Wordless Wednesday...Preschool Visit to Little Farmer

2008-10-01T11:15:00.002-05:00

The return of Thursday Thirteen...randomness

2008-09-26T15:40:00.002-05:00

1. Emma starts little tumblers tomorrow morning, a kid's gymnastics class and she's SO excited!

2. For the first time since I started Weight Watchers I am REALLY nervouse about weigh-in tomorrow, I feel SO bloated and icky this week and know I was stress eating lately.

3. Candy corn has to be straight from the devil and calls my name from the moment it hits the store shelves. I finally threw away what was left of the bag at home (and at work). I vow to not buy any more! (this year)

4. I'm at the point now I actually look forward to going to the gym and miss it when I don't get to go. I plan on trying to get there 4 days a week now instead of usually 3 and sometimes less.

5. I made a ton of progress on a HUGE project at work today and it was something I never thought I'd finish and didn't know where to begin on!

6. I have to work on my performance evaluation for work this weekend, time to start thinking positively about myself and trying to make myself sound fabulous!

7. I'm in search of ideas for promoting my Etsy site and welcome any suggestions anyone may have!

8. A super fabulous blogger offered to give me some jewelry displays! Thanks Jen!

9. I have a Lia Sophia party next Thursday at my house which is a disaster area so a large part of my weekend will be CLEANING (one of my LEAST favorite activities!)

10. Can you believe it will be October next week??? For some reason I just cannot believe that! However, I cannot wait until the Halloween and Trick or Treating festivities begin because we found TWO CUTE costumes for Emma this year!

11. A shopping bug bit me big time lately and I've just been going nuts getting clothes to fit me now that I'm down 40 pounds since I last wore my fall/winter clothes and buying stuff for jewelry and hair clippy making of course too. I'm reigning myself in! I need to stop!

12. Ooh, I love some of the purses and shoes on Piperlime! They take Old Navy Card! STOP! I will not shop! I will not shop!

13. I told Trevor last night that I want to get back to church, we have not gone in a seriously long time and we need to make time to go to our usual Saturday evening service we used to go to.

The return of Wordless Wednesday in the form of shameless promotion-more hair clips!

2008-09-24T09:16:00.002-05:00

Orders?

New clips & Old photos...

2008-09-23T08:21:00.008-05:00

In case you haven't visited my Etsy shop in awhile, I've added children's hair clips to my site! I only have a few designs shown but plan on taking photos of more I've made in the last few days! I have tons of colors and designs of ribbon which I will be photographing so people can customize their hairclips. I even tried one on myself and it even worked well in my hair!

Check it out here!

Plus, my BFF Mary is setting up her Etsy shop so you better watch her site, it will be up and running soon! She'll even be listing some skull purses which are perfect for this time of year especially with Halloween coming! Check her Positively Delightful site out!

I leave you with some old photos discovered while preparing the photo collages for my grandma's funeral last weekend. Don't laugh too hard at those goofy glasses and hair I sported back in the day! The first few are some of my MOST favorite photos of my grandma (and grandpa).

Rest in Peace

2008-09-17T07:59:00.004-05:00

We had to say goodbye to my grandma this week. She had pulmonary fibrosis the last few years but had been in pretty good health even with that only using her oxygen as needed. I think after she lost her 51 year old daughter Mary to the same disease after complications with pneumonia just one month ago and broke her arm stumbling down the back steps a couple of weeks ago, her spirit really was declining. She got pneumonia about a week and half ago and was hospitalized last Thursday but seemed like she might recover. I think one of the toughest things other than watching her struggle to breathe on her own was seeing my grandpa cry for the first time. In November they would have been married 50 years and I heard him say to his sister-in-law taht he thought they'd have 10 more years. We spent lots of time at the hospital from Friday through Monday night with lots of family and she held on waiting for another daughter and son-in-law to arrive from Texas. Just a couple of hours after they arrived and had gone to get some rest my Grandpa was alone with her and said she went peacefully around 2am Tuesday morning.

Grandma loved spending time with all of her grandkids and the new great grandchildren. She'll definitely be a guardian angel for her newest grandchild that is due in February.

We'll be spending a lot of time with family in the next few days leading up to the funeral on Saturday and working on photo collages that we started working on yesterday. It's been nice looking at photos and sharing happy memories of grandma. Thank you for all of the kind emails I've received from those of you who knew my grandma was in the hospital and had passed away.

We will miss you grandma.

Birthdays, Germs and more

2008-09-04T13:17:00.006-05:00

I had to put a quick note to thank my fabulous BFF Mary for pimping my blog once again with a NEW banner! I love it! Thank you so much for always helping my blog look so pretty!! :)

I cannot believe how big she looks!

Well our household is one filled with germs that I wouldn't try to share with ANYONE! It all started last Wednesday night when Trevor ran to the bathroom and puked followed a little while later and still through this morning with trips to the restroom for frequent diarrhea...yeah, not fun to be losing it from both ends! So, urgent care on Friday night diagnosed him with gastroenteritis and prescribed Cipro. Our nice long weekend was not too enjoyable aside from a really fun birthday dinner over at Mom's house for my stepdad's 50th birthday. But, we braved a little road trip Monday (Labor Day) when Trevor was feeling a bit better. We headed to the beach in the Manitowoc/Two Rivers area and had a nice relaxing day on the beach...until my stomach started rumbling and Emma's nose started running. With a stop for some food (bad idea) and some medicine for Emma's new cold, we headed home and I headed for the nearest gas station restroom twice on the way home. Just great! I too started out with vomiting and diarrhea, the last of which was still with me this morning and while I was home sick with Trevor and Emma the last two days, I GOT HER COLD! Ugh!

So, our household went through countless paper products and soap & water in the last week, let's hope we're all feeling better by the weekend!

Anyway, here are the pictures from the last few days, it's been fun dressing Emma for school two mornings a week and she's having so much fun! Next week is their first Show & Tell and she's going to take pictures from Niagara Falls and her sandals that she got at Cave of the Winds, I can't wait to hear how her first Show & Tell goes!

Don't forget to stop by Tish's blog to see pics of her beautiful baby Emily!

First Day of Preschool!

2008-08-26T10:03:00.001-05:00

First Day of Preschool!

2008-08-26T08:16:00.004-05:00

Not only did the university students at Marian start school today but Emma started preschool on campus today too!

I cannot believe she is getting so big! I didn't know how she would handle it, I knew how I would, true to form, I was choking back tears until I was out of her sight! I got choked up even as we drove to school this morning! My mom, Emma's grammy, came with me to take her to school this morning and Daddy will come at 11:30 to pick her up with me. Grammy & I both were choked up, especially after Emma's initial excitement was over after she showed Grammy where she hangs up her bag and we signed her in and showed Grammy the other playroom that Emma had toured last week. She just knew we'd be leaving her, maybe her first clue was the other three kids playing there without all the parents standing around like they were on Orientation Day last week. Maybe she sensed my feelings too, excited for her new adventure in preschool but amazed how she's growing up so fast and all choked up over it all!

Her teacher introduced the other kids to her and offered to have her play with the little girl playing with dough or the boys in the sandbox and she looked at me and said "uppy", reaching up for me. I picked her up for one more hug and said I was going to work right next door in the other building and that Daddy & I would be back to pick her up for before lunch and put on a brave smile as I peeled her off of me. I saw the lip pucker and held back my own pucker and her teacher took her hand to lead her to some toys, I couldn't look back as I turned to walk out. Mom did and said she was fine and was going with her teacher to play.

From my desk I can see her school, the other kids starting to pile in now for the 9am start. She's one of the 4 kids who come in at 8am or sooner to play for an hour before the other come so that's nice that she doesn't get there with the big group of kids and can settle in before the day really starts.

Our little girl is growing up, I know it's just preschool but it feel so much bigger than that! I can't wait until the first field trip in September to Little Farmer, the local apple & pumpkin orchard, and the school pictures they are having taken in October or the Thanksgiving Feast in November and of course...the Christmas Program! Yes, they actually have a Christmas Program! Being that Marian University is a Catholic university they put right in the parent's handbook for the preschool that they do celebrate such holidays as Christmas and Easter! Yay!

I'll give you the full report this afternoon after we pick up Emma from her first day of preschool!

Confusion...not pregnant

2008-08-19T12:23:00.002-05:00

Well, I think I have to re-read some of my recent posts because a few of you congratulated me on a pregnancy, now unless you know something I don't know, I'm not pregnant yet...we are working on it, hehe! I just had to clear that up! I do hope I will be able to announce that sometime soon but we just started trying this week so I'll let you know! :-)

Watch for a post regarding a road trip! We had a fantastic time, it was a great trip and we would love to visit a few places again including Niagara Falls and Portage, Indiana of all places, they had a great beach that we just briefly checked out. We also didn't have time for Rock N Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland so will go there some other time. I did get to visit 3 bead shops though and got lots of new beads! I'm planning on some new items being posted on my Etsy site soon!

Vacation photos coming soon!

Bethy's Buttons - More Etsy Shopping!

2008-08-08T12:06:00.002-05:00

A great crafty friend of mine, Elizabeth, has opened her Etsy Shop Bethy's Buttons! Be sure to stop for some great handmade shopping!! Her monograms are so fun, very reasonably priced and a fantastic gift idea!! I have an M from her already and it's the prettiest thing on our fridge!

Happy Shopping!

These Wheels Were Made for Rollin'!

2008-08-07T14:38:00.002-05:00

We are off on our next big road trip on Monday! I can hardly wait! I know it has not been that long since our last trip and someone at work even thought it was funny to point out "two vacations in one summer!" then continued on about her taking a half day that day. Whatever, I have the time coming so I'm certainly using it! :)

We're off to Niagar Falls, NY! Trevor has a cousin or aunt that lives in Canada who's coming to meet us for dinner too while we're there. Along the way we'll be stopping one night in Portage, IN which has some beautiful beaches with dunes...we won't be swimming since there's an E. Coli warning but we have a pool at our hotels which will be a fine substitute. Our next two nights before our time at Niagara Falls will be in Cleveland with visits planned to the zoo, Rock N Roll Hall of Fame and a cool amusement park just for kids under 5o inches called Memphis Kiddie Park which is near the Cleveland Zoo! Emma's sure to LOVE that!

When in Niagara Falls we will be trying to do as much as possible that will allow a 3 year old. We plan on buying one of those passes to do it all since it's cheaper than buying seperate tickets everywhere! There's even Top of the Falls Restaurant that we're planning on eating at with the Canadian relatives and we'll be there on a Friday night so we'll be able to see the Fireworks over the Falls!

On the way back home we're stopping in Toledo, OH before we head home and you better believe I'll be hitting every bead shop along the way that I find, especially since I had no luck on our last road trip because there were none near Memphis and the ones I found to check out in St. Louis were all shut down or turned into a pub!

Relay for Life & New hair!

2008-08-04T16:13:00.003-05:00

One look at my hair after I got caught in the rain as we put up our Relay for Life tent was enough to know I was due for a trim! Anyway...Relay for Life...it was my first year and I intend on participating every year! It was so rewarding, such an amazing group of people...survivors, fighters, caregivers, volunteers...it was just amazing. And the stories of those who were speakers, very touching and I'm such a crybaby of course I was all weepy. Who wouldn't be in this case though? Most people have had cancer touch their lives in some way or another so I think it's a cause close to most people's hearts. I took Emma with me and she had lots of fun with all of the kid's activities and seeing all of the people and walking around the track and stuff but someday it will hold greater meaning for her and I plan on keeping her involved with this. Here's some pictures. I won't share our lovely group picture since I didn't ok it with the people in our group.

The next day, Saturday, I got my haircut and that picture is my new profile pic with the new doo and 36 1/2 less pounds than my old profile pic!

Don't forget to check out my Etsy shop if you haven't already. My BFF Mary was my first customer! Thanks Mary, your order and bonus items are in process!!

Learning seller!

2008-07-31T14:50:00.002-05:00

Well, I got the shop up and running, I'm still learning but here it goes! To shop my jewelry, click over to my Etsy Shop!

Big News! No, I'm not pregnant!

2008-07-28T08:54:00.001-05:00

Well, I have some big news! At weigh-in on Saturday I was down another 3.6 pounds, making my total loss since February 36 pounds, I met my 10% goal! I can't wait to get to the next goal of losing 50 pounds! I've decided to continue the weight loss I need to start exercising so I'm re-joining Curves now that I know I'm committed!

Watch for my next set of pics later from our visit to the beach on Saturday!

My latest Etsy & Blog find!

2008-07-23T15:10:00.002-05:00

I recently found out that my youngest aunt who is just a few years older than I am is pregnant! She's so excited, just as I am and is due in February! I decided she needed a necklace like one I got when I was pregnant! I bought her one on Etsy at this great little shop!

When Ali emailed me order confirmation we got chatting and exchanged blog addresses so go check her blog out, she's got a two year old little guy that's adorable and baby #2 on the way!

A kid with a memory

2008-07-22T08:52:00.002-05:00

Emma is one girl who has shown time and again what a memory she has!! She has talked about our visit to the zoo with her 2nd cousin Brittany which happened to be 2years ago when she was only just over a year old. She's talked about when we went to Sesame Street Live about 9 months ago, toys that she comes across she will talk about playing with when she was a "little tiny baby"! She's just hilarious when it comes to TV. She'll break out the Gene Simmon's Family Jewels theme song, see a commercial or picture of Dog the Bounty Hunter and say, "that's Dog!"...we have not watched that show in probably a year but a new season just started so she's been seeing commercials. She recognizes the theme song for Hell's Kitchen and photos of Gordon Ramsey in a magazine led her to exclaim, "Hell's Kitchen guy!"

Last night, the newest example of her little memory, which I swear is not all TV related though this example is...some commercial was talking about saving money and she was playing with her toys, not even watching TV but hearing them say something about saving money and she looked at me and said, "save money, live better" and I said what? She said "save money, live better, Wal Mart" haha! Oh yeah, I do remember those commercials now! Needless to say, we were laughing pretty hard at that one...and deciding it was time to turn off the TV for the night!

Emma's latest...

2008-07-17T10:52:00.002-05:00

Emma was getting jammies on with me the other night and noticed my scar from my C-section. She's seen it before but this time it made her more curious. She said "What's that mama?" I said, "that's my scar from where you came out of when you were born." She looked at it a minute then looked up at me with curious eyes and asked "Can I go back in there?"

I was laughing so hard I had tears in my eyes! She never fails at making us laugh!

We had fun...then got sick!

2008-07-13T12:48:00.002-05:00

Wednesday I was off work and we had a great time on our first trip taking Emma to Bay Beach with Grammy. She LOVED all the big rides like Tilt-a-Whirl, the Ferris Wheel, and Scrambler...she loved the pony rides and helicopters as well as the train ride and was bored with the kiddie rides like the boats and cars! After Bay Beach we headed to Chuck E Cheese and she had a blast playing all of the games and picking out prizes at the end!

Unfortunately, our fun ended and her fever set in, the next day she started getting a rash, diarrhea and the day after that I got a terrible cold! We've been miserable the whole weekend. Emma's doctor saw her Friday and yesterday and said it's a viral rash, we can't do anything to treat it, she's got a cough and runny nose with it which is normal for this viral rash but so miserable for her. Hopefully the time it takes to get over her viral rash and for me to get over my cold won't be long!

Check out some pictures of our fun on Wednesday and of her not-so-fun rash!

Water, Weigh-In and Latest Pics

2008-07-07T11:12:00.005-05:00

I'm down 31 1/2 pounds after a slight vacation gain of 4 pounds and loss of 4 1/4 pounds this last week to take it all back off and then some! I only have about 4 1/2pounds to lose to meet my 10% weight loss goal! I'm excited about that little milestone and going strong towards my long-term goals...lots more to lose but I know I can do it!

Our latest addition to our yard...a swimming pool! It's being filled with water by hubby right now...can't wait to take a dip! I just hope the spot we picked has level enough ground to not give us any troubles like some of the stories I have read online! Wish us luck!

Here's the latest pics we had taken for Emma's 3rd Birthday/my 30th/Mother's Day...check it out!

Thank you Beth!!

2008-07-03T13:50:00.002-05:00

I just had to post a quick thank you to my dear friend Beth!! She sent me a fantastic birthday gift/swap package! We are doing a little swap kind of for both of our birthdays and I am making her jewelry and she made me awesome quilted coasters, an M family magnet, some beautiful jewelry gift boxes, cool beads, a really cool pendant that is birds on a branch with a nest, really cool, all kinds of goodies and I probably forgot to mention something! She made the card and it's absolutely beautiful! I took pictures, just left the camera at home so can't load them just yet. If she posts pictures like she thought she would then you can see them here! Plus, her blog is a great read anyway, so get over there! hehe, I'm the boss, despite what my 3 year old might tell you since she thinks she's the boss!

Well, I'm off tomorrow for the holiday so I'm hoping to finally tackle setting up my Etsy shop, I know I've been talking about it long enough I should really get on it but I think I need to create some peices first to post there, I want to do a little bit of customization so people can choose color schemes and stuff but I've had suggestions to at least have some base peices then let people customize those with different colors maybe. So, I do want to do some sort of work on this project tomorrow with my day off and all...I'll keep you posted! I'm now throwing around a few names so I'll be posting a survey with some ideas for voting, watch for it! :)

Famous Budweiser Clydesdales

2008-06-27T08:30:00.002-05:00

As I mentioned in my last post, a favorite stop on or trip was Grant's Farm.

This photo we had taken was with their "famous" clydesdale Matt whos is retired from pulling the carts but is in the commercials. He was so well behaved and a beautiful HUGE horse!

TGIF, it's been a long week back at work after vacation!

Puppies, Bunnies and is this hair a polygadoo?

2008-06-24T10:00:00.002-05:00

Click here if slideshow not showing...
http://s81.photobucket.com/albums/j237/marianmms/?action=view¤t=d1432135.pbw

200th post...30th birthday surprises, flooding & much needed vacation time

2008-06-21T15:06:00.006-05:00

flooded street

sewer backed up = buying lots of bleach and garbage bags
The girls!
Ready to hit the road!
Packed with plenty of extra room!

Yeah there may have been a major flood here the night Thursday June 12th, our street looking more like a river than a road...
Yes, we had sewer backup into our basement that night...
We had cold showers for the next four days prior to leaving for vacation...
I may have needed to take a sick day on Friday the 13th to sort through the remains of the basement with my hubby...

BUT...

That was way way way outdone by what was to come on Saturday, June 14th and the days that followed. Good always outweighs bad and this was a major example of that!

On Saturday, it started out much like most of my Saturdays, Trevor went to work in the morning, mom came over to watch Emma (aka ERM) while I went to Weight Watchers (happily down another 2 pounds for a total of 31.5!) Then we headed to Milwaukee to shop for the day. As the day went on, mom's compaints of stomach problems and just not feeling well increased and she wanted to try to cut our day short. Thinking back, I never knew her to be such a baby like that since she's a migraine sufferer there's not much she can't handle...but, I was clueless! On the way to drop Emma & I at home she said we should stop at her house to pick up some laundry of mine she had and why don't we come in for a minute so Emma could say hi to Grampy. Ok, fine, kind of wanted to get home to start packing for our trip on Monday but no problem!

WOW! So glad I was not a brat about stopping at her house...I walk into the kitchen, then see the Nesco roaster on the dining room table, hmm, why do you have your roaster out, cleaning the basement still? Then, see a big 30 on the dining room table at the same moment I'm met with screams of SURPRISE and flying confetti being shot out of little guns, seriously, six-shooter confetti guns! TOTAL shock and surprise is then met with DOUBLE SURPRISE when I spot my fabulous blogger BFF Mary (Mert), double-take, see her hubs John on the couch, daughters Emma (aka ERK) and Anna next to him, again, double-take...tears immediately! I am telling you, this was the BEST birthday ever, the best surpise ever, I've always envied those who get surprise parties and admittedly was a little disappointed when my 30th birthday came and went with our usual birthday dinner at mom's and dinner out with my dad and nothing too special...yeah, spoiled brat I know...but really, I kind of had hoped for a little more fun for the big 3-0 and this was WAY more than I even could have hoped for!! I don't know how that many people (all of my family, a few friends and especially Mary) could keep that under their hat! I just had said to Mary the day before my actual birthday on the 10th that the only way I'd have a better 30th birthday is if she could be here to share it with me...I bet it was killing her to have to keep that secret and not tell me that in less than a week I would have her and her family here to share it with me! I give her hubs John BIG points for joining in and agreeing to this trip all the way from Iowa to be here for this surprise! I will never ever forget it and totally plan to repay the visit by going to visit them in Iowa sometime. We already have talked about visiting each other each year on our birthdays...maybe we can make it even more often since I was surpised to find out it was only about a 4 hour drive. Considering I've spent much of the last week driving to and from here to St. Louis & Memphis, 4 hours sounds like something I could totally handle doing from time to time!

I LOVE Mary even more in person than I ever imagined and honestly really do love her girls Anna & Emma & hubby John. They are all such fantastic people that my family cannot stop talking about them either. I didn't feel awkward or anything, just felt so filled with happiness and so amazed, like I was in a dream...still can't believe it! We truly enjoyed a wonderful day and another fantastic visit the next morning before Mary, John & the girls headed to the Milwaukee Zoo before they went home.

Mary, John, Anna & Emma THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart, and thank you to all of my family and friends who made my 30th birthday one that will surely never be topped!

After Mary and her family left Sunday I worked on packing for our trip and I am telling, I still felt like I was floating on cloud 9, I know it sounds corny, but really, it was such a special weekend and the timing of it just after that disgusting flooding and just before leaving on our much-needed vacation...it was perfect!

Anyway, we packed up all of our luggage and entertainment for Emma and headed to St. Louis & Memphis Monday after some cold showers (our gas was off after the flooding and just got turned on today now that we were home for the gas-man to pay us a visit)!

We had a great time, I think top 3 favorite things this time around were:

Grant's Farm in St. Louis, MO with the Clydesdales, bottle-feeding the goats and all of the other animals

Memphis Zoo in Memphis, TN...lots of typical zoo animals but seemed to have a good variety of monkey, tons of different exotic birds and a beautiful carousel that Emma loved riding

Neely's in Memphis, TN...the best BBQ! Wow, that food was fantastic! Their little restaurant in Memphis is not what I expected from Food Network stars, I did think it was more "hole in the wall"-ish than I expected but aren't a lot of great restaurants?

We spent a lot of time on the road and I insisted on driving all of the way because that's just how I am, I would have nagged my husband too much had I let him drive! But it wsa great, in between all of the driving we had SO MUCH FUN! Thinking back to the last few days, it just all seems a lot like a dream, starting with the flood and the surprise and ending with the vacation...now as I finish this post, I'm off to finish the planning for Emma's 3rd birthday party tomorrow! I'm sure we'll have fun and we're hoping for nice weather to grill out and sit outside a bit! It will be VERY difficult to go back to the piles of work sitting at my desk at work. I'm not looking forward to it, wouldn't life be grand if we could just party and vacation all the while?

You can check out all of the pictures in my Picasa web albums but I've posted just a few here, enjoy!

Here's slideshows...

Back from Vacation and lots of photos to share...

2008-06-21T15:04:00.001-05:00

Just killing a post so I can have a super-fabulous 200th post!!

But really, I have SO much to share...some good, like a super 30th birthday surprise and vacation, some bad, like flooding and sewage...ick!

Enjoy my 200th post later today!

30 pounds for my 30th birthday...almost!

2008-06-10T08:44:00.003-05:00

Well, I ALMOST did it! I was trying to lose 30 pounds by my 30th birthday and when I weighed in on Saturday I was down a total of 29.2 pounds! Darn, missed it by that little bit, although I may have lost .8 pounds since then...hehe!

Anyway, I have to post pics of the house now that our siding is done, Trevor's finishing painting some trim though so I'll wait until that's done so you get the full effect!

Here are a few of the latest pictures though!

SPIN SPIN!!

2008-05-08T12:45:00.001-05:00

Wordless Wednesday - Hanging with Family

2008-05-07T14:33:00.003-05:00

Mama's cousin Brittany & Aunt Linda visited Grammy's house!
We loved visiting since we only see each other a couple of times a year.
Lots of hugs and kisses and looks of love...

Hanging at the park!

25 pounds and other updates

2008-04-29T12:26:00.003-05:00

You probably thought I dropped off the face of the earth or gained all my weight back and hid in a corner not wanting to post an update here...wrong, I'm still here just increasingly busy lately! I will be glad when both of my classes are finished and summer approaches, these last two classes kept me SO busy!! I've been trying to bead more often, even making rings now. However, stuff for myself and some family members (paying for their items) has kept me busy so I have still not gotten my store up yet on Etsy! I'll keep you posted though. Be sure to sign up for Revolution Money using the link in my sidebar, seriously, I've done and got my free $25 within a day or two after they did their test deposit of some pocket change. It's worth it even if I never use the service again.

In house news we are getting vinyl siding in the next couple of weeks. We had a couple of estimates, Sears and Window World and Window World definitely won our business after we learned about some problems withe Sears upolding warranties and Window World gave us a better site and a house we could see that they actually did the siding for, something Sears wouldn't do which left us scratching our heads. Plus, when we told Sears about getting a better price they offered to drop their price by $5000! What the??? You mean you were ripping us off by THAT MUCH with your previous estiate or you're going to cut corners by that much now...hmm, no thanks! So, we got a free upgrade from Window World on the insulation in the end too and they are doing some extra trim and stuff that Sears wasn't doing. I'll be posting before and after pics and can't wait to see the final product. We are not having them side our garage since that's next to be updated...knocked down and replaced along with a resurfaced driveway in a year or two. So, that's it for house news.

In Emma news, she's become quite the opinionated shopper when out shopping with Grammy and mama...she'll tell ya if she doesn't like a pair of shoes or a bracelet that she's trying on. We'll have to be sure that opinion doesn't slip out during gift opening at her birthday party in June,that wouldn't be good! She's all excited because we've been telling her after her next birthday (by a couple of months, but anyway) she'll be starting pre-school at mommy and daddy's work so she's all excited about that! She's totally potty trained so that's really nice, but she insists on checking out the bathrooms everywhere we go, sometimes twice! The next hurdle will be losing that "sucker" pacifier on he rext birthday. We told her in adavnce, we've been warning her for awhile now. She only has it for bedtime and naps and on long car rides but I'm sure it will be tough to ditch that habit!

As for the Weight Watchers, it's going well! I'm down 25 pounds now and still haven't really started regular exercise yet, but I'll have more time and better weather in the coming weeks so plan on walking regularly and trying to get back into swimming or water aerobics at the local Aquatic Center. I know I need to get moving to keep the weight cming off.

Watch for the slideshow of recent pics...I hope I still have readers!!

Free MONEY!

2008-04-11T10:28:00.000-05:00

Who doesn't want free money! I just signed up for Revolution Money Exchange, it's like Paypal and they deposit $25 in your account for free just for joining and $10 for every friend you refer so hey, let's make some free money!! Click the link below to join! When you get your money deposited it's free to transfer it to your own bank account!

21 pounds, less eating, more beading!

2008-03-22T10:52:00.007-05:00

A few new creations I made this week...a great week, my 11th week of Weight Watchers and I am THRILLED to report I've now lost 21 pounds! It's going great and honestly, I have not even really exercised yet so as soon as I get going with that it will be even better! Just when things were warming up and the snow was melting, first day of spring and BAM...it snowed, we got maybe 6 inches or so and we're supposed to have more tomorrow...oh well! Happy Easter!!

Wordless Wednesday...shop-a-holism runs in the family

2008-03-12T15:19:00.002-05:00

In other news, I weighed in at work on Monday and was down another 2.5 pounds from where I was at at Weight Watchers on Saturday (which was 3/4 of a pound from my 20 pound mark)...so, do the math, I've now surpassed my first 20 pounds lost mark!! :) I'm SO excited! Five more announcements like this and I'll be EXCITEDLY announcing 100 pounds lost, which I'm setting as a goal for next New Years!!

Tag...I'm it!

2008-03-05T11:24:00.002-06:00

Ash, who hates being tagged for these things tagged me...it's not too long so I don't mind doing it. I won't tag anyone but just say, if you want to copy the little survey for your blog, feel free. :-)

In other news, I was down 3 more pounds on Monday at Biggest Loser weigh-in! I'll see what Weight Watchers says next Saturday though because two days earlier, on Saturday the 1st, I had stayed the same as last week but then spent all day walking around the mall shopping with mom and Emma and didn't use all of my Weight Watchers points Saturday or Sunday so who knows. If it's accurate, I'm down 19 pounds! I can't wait to hit the 20 pound mark and start shooting for the next 20!! :)

1. I can’t believe I’ve never…
...had a major injury or surgery other than my c-section when I had Emma...this is so unbelievable because I'm such a clod!

2. Every time I think about … I still cringe.
...the nasal irrigation article I just read...

3. I wish I’d …when I had the chance.
...gone to the top of the Statue of Liberty and on the London Eye...

4. I’ve never felt so out of place as when I…
...visited an "adult" toy store with friends once we were 18.

5. … is my guiltiest pleasure.
..."reality" tv like all the shows on Bravo (Project Runway, Millionaire Matchmaker, Top Chef, etc.) and even Girls Next Door on E! (I hate to admit that!)

6. I hope … knows how grateful I am for …
...my family...making me who I am today and loving me unconditionally.

7. In my darkest hours, I secretly blame … for my dysfunction.
...my family (who doesn't!)...

8. … changed my life forever.
Being a mom... (and I have a 2nd answer for this one...joining Weight Watchers).

Thursday Thirteen: Randomness

2008-02-28T15:51:00.003-06:00

1. Keep me outta Target! That dollar section in the front and the $5.99 sunglasses and good-smelling (and tasting) Starbucks in the front...bad news for the pocketbook! At least mom bought the starbucks, that place is a rip-off but it is delicious and it was kinda fun walking around Target drinking a latte! hehe

2. I've been wracking my brain trying to come up with a team name for my Biggest Loser team at work. Our first names and last initials are: Michelle M, Karen R, Julie D, and Kerry S...I got nothing! We're two blondes, two brunettes...3 work in nursing, 1 in career development...I still got nothing! The only stuff that came to mind (don't laugh too hard)...Downsizing Divas, Bubble Butt Busters, I saw something similar to that one online...other than that I'm at a loss! Any ideas?

3. I'm still loving Weight Watchers and now that we started Biggest Loser on Monday I have been trying to drink more water and stay away from "whites"...bread, pasta, etc. as assigned for the week and I'm trying wheat pasta tonight, I'll let you know how it is.

4. Part of our weigh-in/registration for our Biggest Loser contest involved a blood pressure check, mine was 147/100 so they wanted to check it again Tuesday and it was 164/112 on one arm and 158/100 the other arm so they wanted to monitor it more (we have the school health nurse doing this and an NP I work with has kind of taken me under her wing now). Well, today it was 158/100 again so the NP is sending me for lab work in the morning (CBC, Lipid Panel and Metabolic Comprehensive) whatever that all means. So, ok, further proof that I'm doing the right thing by finally getting healthy!

5. I still have not exercised, I'm going strong on the eating better and stuff but the weather/winter has me out of exercising mode because I can't walk outside and don't want to do water aerobics only to come out into this winter weather all wet afterwards and I have no excuse for not walking on mom's treadmill when I'm over there twice a week. Maybe it's best though not to get too gung ho on all of the healthier eating PLUS exercise right away anyhow. It will come in time, I'm just really proud of the progress I've made already with no exercise. Being down just over 16 pounds in 6 weeks is pretty darn good!

6. We're still working on the potty training with Emma and instead of pull-ups we moved her into undies yesterday and she proceeded to pee in them at lunch after holding it all morning and refusing to go on the potty. Today, kind of similar, peed in them mid-morning pooped in them at lunchtime...maybe we're rushing it a little but she was doing pretty good in the pullups and we felt we should take the next step, especially since she has to be fully trained by Fall when she starts preschool!

7. Preschool...she got her little acceptance letter the other day and I made her appointment for her check-up with her doctor for Monday afternoon since the paperwork is due Wednesday. Of course, I've already started shopping and found a cute little lunchbag and water bottle at Target and started looking for a backpack. My mom is equally excited to start her "school wardrobe"! haha

8. This week went so slow at work, seemed like a really long week so I am glad Friday is coming tomorrow! Maybe it's because I forced myself to work harder and avoid the blogging/browsing ebay and etsy, etc. most of each day. I got tons of work done it seems! Hmmm, isn't that interesting? hehe

9. We got the check today from the insurance company and the call from the body shop yesterday saying he'd order the parts for the Vue's repair. However, with all of the accidents recently they are about a week and half behind so who knows when I'll get in for that repair. Hopefully soon, I want a carwash to get all the nasty salt washed away but I'm afraid to with the cracked up bumper!

10. I've been beading quite a bit, made a bunch of keychains that were in my Wordless Wednesday so I'm trying to build up a little collection of stuff and photos of said stuff so I can get my Etsy site up and running.

11. My History Goes to the Movies class is proving to be interesting and I'm really enjoying the movies. Spartacus was a good one, I liked the version of Cleopatra we watched this week, it was from maybe 1991 and a little racy actually for a movie we were watching in school, the saucy scenes were a little awkward to watch in a roomfull of students all probably 10 years younger than me! I also loved the HBO Mini-series Rome that we watched a few episodes of and promptly went online and found copies of the first two seasons of that. That's one I'll have to watch alone when Emma's napping since it's pretty violent and also a bit saucy.

12. I wrote my first letter of recommendation today for my history instructor who was nominated for Adjunct Professor of the Year...it's much deserved so I was glad to have my mom's help with that letter, I don't always feel like I'm good at writing that kind of thing!

13. I think I'm almost down a full pant and shirt size! I am now able to zip a vest I wear that I was previously unable to zip and I keep having to hike up my pants...the bras and undies are feeling a little different too and it's tempting to shop but I might as well wait a little since I'm planning on losing LOTS more! :)

TGIF tomorrow!

Wordless Wednesday...bling and new bedroom

2008-02-27T08:18:00.002-06:00

We finally finished decorating Emma's room and I've created my first beaded keychains I plan on selling when I get my Etsy site up and running! I'll be linking there from my blog so keep an eye out for that and a new service allowing you to call my blog and leave me voicemail! FUN!

TT: Live daringly, boldly, fearlessly

2008-02-21T16:41:00.003-06:00

I'm not sure if this is more than 13 lines but, doesn't matter, it was a reflection at a meeting I was at today and as I head home today witha day off work tomorrow to refresh for next week I liked it, it even was inspirational to me in terms of my weight loss erfforts so I share it with you here! ENJOY and TGIF a little early!

Live daringly, boldly, fearlessly.

Henry J. Kaiser

The only way to gain the upper hand in any undertaking is to take charge. That means taking charge of our emotions, taking charge of our actions and taking charge of the moment at hand. And that starts by taking charge of ourselves from the inside out.
Instead of tearing ourselves down, why not choose to build ourselves up? Rather than harboring doubts and feelings of insecurity, why not fervently believe - with every ounce of strength we can muster - that we can do it. God has blessed us with more ability than we'll ever need; way more than enough to prevail against any outside competition we'll ever face.
The minute we dare to live our lives the way they were meant to be lived - daringly, boldly, fearlessly - life's obstacles almost magically come tumbling down to the ground. By winning within, we can absolutely meet, beat and defeat any competition we'll ever face.
When it counts, where it counts, why not make it count? Throw your entire heart into everything you do and you will.

The Bottom Line:
Prevail on the inside and you’ll triumph on the outside.

Traffic-induced tears and reasons to smile

2008-02-19T12:28:00.012-06:00

My morning started horribly, I hit someone on my way to work. Not a pedestrian or anything, I just realized how that sounded. Anyway, just a few blocks from home I was pulling up to a stop light behind about 4 cars and the first person tried stopping (probably should have gone) and the rest of us were not having luck stopping, the guy in front of me turned his wheel to the right to avoid hitting the guy in front of him and hit a snowbank and I turned my wheel left thinking I could escape in the turn lane but the ice under my tires had other plans and skidded my card further left, hitting the side of a vehicle passing in the oncoming lane. Thank God it was just us two vehicles involved, after waiting about 25 minutes for an officer and spending another half an hour waiting for him to do his report we parted ways, quite shaken, and I went home to make the necessary phone calls. I am still shaken 4 hours later, I'm SO sick of winter I cannot even express myself using clean language. I'm sure you can guess where I'd like to tell Mother Nature to stick her ice and snow!

I was already a couple of hours late to work so took the morning off and went for my two estimates that insurance requested. Damage on my vehicle, about $2000-$2100. I have a deductible of $250 at least so it's not as painful, no one was hurt and I'm hoping our insurance premiums don't go up. It was my first accident ever so maybe that will work in our favor. We'll soon find out as our insurance is up for renewal in 2 weeks.

I was greeted with lots of smiling faces and looks of sympathy at work and in emails as I notified friends and family of my bad morning. My friend Mary said the purse she made me was just mailed out so that made me smile and Emma was the Cool Kid of the Day over here! That was reason to smile.

I don't like driving anymore, I'm all shaky and drive overly cautiously now. I witnessed some very VERY close calls too after my accident while waiting or the police (he said they had 20 accidents in 9 hours so I'm not alone)...and there were lots of close calls while I drove across town to get my estimates too, people are not slowing down enough and soon enough at stop lights. I know I am now if I wasn't before. I thought I was being so careful, I honestly was going slow this morning and leaving more distance than I usually do between me and the next car in front of me but it wasn't enough.

Be careful out there, especially if you're located somewhere like where I am, covered in ice and snow that never seems to stop and has no end in sight.

Manic Monday...two

2008-02-18T15:52:00.002-06:00

Nothing is ever going to beat Neila's post at Blog that Mommy today! She's surrounded by 2's!

I haven't done a Manic Monday in awhile so thought I would take this one on! Other than my daughter being 2 years and 2 months old on the 22nd, I can't think of many other two's in my life.

My current weight, down another 2.6 pounds does end in a .2 now. I weighed in 2 days ago and I've lost a total of 15 pounds in 5 weeks on Weight Watchers and I'm feeling great so far! I have not even exercised yet so wait until I do that! We start weigh-in on Monday for Biggest Loser at work so I am pretty excited for that and hoping to gain some exercise-inspiration through my association with that group of losers. We'll see! :)

Anyone else a fan of Prison Break? Oh how we LOVE this show, it is driving us a bit crazy, can't seem to see how they can make it go on much longer but they have surprised us before so we'll see. Tonight is the season finale and the commercials are making it look like a great one!

The final 2 I will leave with you today is the fabulous eye candy provided by the 2 male leads in Prison Break, Dominic Purcell and Wentworth Miller. Yummy!

Sparking snow, Emma-speak and jewels

2008-02-14T14:58:00.005-06:00

Update since I did this post yesterday...Emma has been queen of repeating things lately and queen of bad table manners, kind of terrible-two stuff, etc. At mom's the other day while they were having dinner she burped, giggled, farted, announced it "I barted, hee hee", giggled and decided it was worth repeating a couple of times as Grammy & Grampy worked on reminder her we say "excuse me" when we do such things and we also do not do them at the dinner table.

Later that evening, Mom was putting stainstick on a shirt, while she was wearing it, Emma giggles, points and says "on you boob"! Mom, surprised, says, "on where?", Emma says, "boob". Mom teaches her that this is her breast and asks where she heard "boob" and Emma correctly replies with "Daddy!". Emma decides the next night while we're cuddling on the couch to quiz me and pokes my breast and says "what's that?" I managed to think a second and say, "that's my breast"...apparently that bored her that I didn't use the word boob because she looked at me, slightly annoyed looking, and ran off to play.

Well, last night was the topper and we're such terrible parents that we just HAD to laugh! I was changing her poopy pull-up and daddy was standing by with the wipes when Emma looks down at her poo then at daddy and says, "you looking at my poop daddy?" He says, "I see it" and she wrinkles her little nose and says..."bloody hell"...and this was pronounced pretty darn good too I must say, we just cracked up, we couldn't contain it! She, of course, said it again and laughed her head off! We'll have to be more careful...I say "we", meaning "daddy"! It might be she heard him say it, in fact I'm sure she did, but we do also watch some British sitcoms on DVD and BBCAmerica and bloody hell is not that offnsive of an utterance in the UK, really probably not here either, but when it comes out of the mouths of 2 1/2 year olds...maybe slightly more offensive!

10 inches by 9pm? I swear we have 10 inches already last time I trudged through the snow to go home for lunch! I almost did not come back to work! Why are we not closed yet? IT was no worse than this the other days the college closed! Just over my lunch hour at home my car was covered with a couple more inches of snow!

In happier news, I decided to start selling my jewelry so look for more information on that soon as I get a store set up on Ebay or Etsy or something.

Meanwhile, here are some snowy pics for you!

Mostly Wordless Wednesday

2008-02-13T09:28:00.002-06:00

I saved the pictures from my mom's birthday over the weekend just for today and had to share the funniest thing Emma said that day. Mom was in the process of opening her cards and you'll see in the pictures Emma was guarding her gift. Mom said to all of us that the cards and having everyone over was the best gift and my grandma, sitting on the other side of Emma said: "In that case, I'll take this..." and reached out to pretend to take mom's gift. Emma whipped her head around and looked at my grandma with her little hands gripping mom's gift and said ever so sweetly scolding "It's grammie's birthday, not yours". She always provides the entertainment at family gatherings! I think she had more fun helping carry in the cake and sing happy birthday and everything than even the birthday girl had eating her cake and getting gifts!

Blog-love, weight loss and good hair!

2008-02-11T11:52:00.000-06:00

I'm just feeling really chipper today! Here's why!

I read a wonderful blog post today from my friend Beth and it made me all teary-eyed!

I lost another 2.4 pounds lat week making my month total 12.4 pounds without any exercising yet!

I found out that my workplace is having a Biggest Loser contest with teams of 4 people costing about $12/each. It's 10 week challenge that includes:
· Weekly Weight
· BP
· Waist circumference
· Body fat
· Weekly diet counseling
· Weekly exercise motivation and counseling
· Weekly health coaching and email updates
At the end of the challenge winning team with the greatest amount of weight loss will be calculated and the third place team will be rewarded with 10% of the total prize money second place team will be rewarded with 20% of the total prize money
The winning team will be rewarded with 70% of the total prize money and declared the Biggest Marian Loser!
How pumped am I that I chose to start my new lifestyle with perfect timing!! I totally want my team to win!!
A faculty member that's planning on being on our Biggest Loser team is working on setting up dance lessons for us to learn salsa and other dances, great for weight loss! I'm SO EXCITED!

I just got some more of the fun beads/charms in the mail that I ordered for my jewelry making! :)

I was feeling all lovey and ordered a surprise for my sweetie & mini-sweetie to be delivered to them at our house on Valentine's Day, which also marks 5 years since hubby & I tied the knot at the local courthouse to start his immigration process.

A new faculty member I've been helping out with some computer set-up (who I thought didn't really like/appreciate me) brought in a little bag of Jelly Belly Deluxe Valentine Mix today! :) I'll fit some points in for that considering it's only 3 points per 1/4 cup and I know I'd eat less than 1/4 cup at a time!
I had a lunch meeting in our cafeteria and stuck to my plan of a big 0 point salad with some 1 point dressing and small serving of rice with turkey and lots of carrots. I did not even have a brownie or peice of cake despite everyone at the table having one. :) Instead, I had a 1 point Weight Watcher Peanut Butter Bliss Bar, if you ask me, better in every way!
And to top it all off I'm having a good hair day! Check that out along with my latest earrings and necklace I made over the weekend! (ignore the pimples...apparently this better eating is wreaking havoc on my pores or something!)

Weigh-In and Weekend Photo Fun!

2008-02-04T09:26:00.000-06:00

I attended the Saturday 8am Weight Watchers meeting and that was the first time I went to the early morning one and it was packed more than the 9:30 one! I ran into the parents of a friend I lost touch with a couple of years ago and hope to re-connect with her now. Her dad lost 100 pounds and her mom lost 50 since December of 2006! I was really inspired by that and hope that a year from now I'm reporting a similar total for myself!

I'm happy to report that when I weighed in on Saturday I lost 1.8 pounds for the week bringing my 3 week weight loss total to exactly 10 pounds! I feel great even just losing 10 pounds and can't wait to celebrate the next 10 pound milestone in a few more weeks!!

Mom and I took Emma to Picture People later that morning and had some Valentine's photos taken and she was little miss photogenic this time, not that she's not photogenic other times but normally she's not really into the sessions the last couple times we've gone. So, it was great to see her getting into a few different poses and smiling for all of them!

Portions & Weigh In!

2008-02-01T15:57:00.000-06:00

I have my next weigh-in tomorrow morning and can't believe it, but I can't wait! I look forward to facing the scale each week so we'll see if I can hit my first 10 pound mark tomorrow! I lost 6.6 pounds that first week then 1.6 the next so just 1.8 to go for my 10 pounds! Wish me luck!

As I continue on with my healthier living journey I have found certain things to really be helpful and effective. Portion control is one of the most important things to pay attention to and I found this email I got today had a nice illustration of how your meals should look. I've started having a salad with almost every meal (not breakfast of course) and started making the veggies on my plate outweigh the meat. Here's a little illustration of how to fill your plate. If you're looking to eat healthier, lose weight, or maintain weight, this is probably a good tool for you too!

I don't know how your week shaped up but I've had a sinus type headache off and on all week! We had more snow and bitter cold this week including a day so cold that they closed many schools in the area including my workplace which did allow for a nice day at home with Emma & Trevor! I'm glad it's Friday though, even with that day off, the week felt long and like it dragged on! Tomorrow we're off to get Emma's pictures taken for the Valentine's special at Picture People so watch for photos to appear here on Monday!

Have a great weekend!

If it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown flush it down?

2008-01-29T08:48:00.000-06:00

I'm sure that title is an attention grabber huh? Well, Island Girl's title of "Do You Flush?" caught my eye today too! You will have to head over to that post and read through all of the comments people left, it's quite an interesting discusson really. I was surprised at how many people followed the mantra: "If it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown flush it down." I think I was in the minority in my response that I flush regardless of whether it's pee or poo. Especially being in the midst of potty training, part of the fun for Emma is getting to flush when she's done. I had to chuckle last night, only the third time she's poo'd on the potty and when we flushed it she watched it go down and said "bye bye poo poo!" with a giggle.

Has anyone ever watched that Discovery or TLC show? This family had twin girls then sextuplets, well when they were potty training, Kate (the mom) insisted on taking a photo of the kids with their first poo. That I found a bit disturbing!

Off the poo topic for a bit, I had to share the most recent Emma-speak that keeps us entertained:
As I got her dressed in her room the other day, she was digging around in her toy box and pulled out a rattle that she had gotten actually before she was born, it was a shower gift. Anyway, she pulled it out, held it high and said, "Mama! This toy! I have this for years!" I found that completely hilarious, when we told Daddy he laughed and asked her how old she thought she was, 90?

Her latest way of leaving me in amazement though...singing her ABC's...it's a little jumbled at parts but she hits those main letters and parts like "LMNOP", "TUV has become "T an V" for her and sometimes she will just stop at H and skip to "now I know my ABCs, won't you sing with me"

On a bit sassier, yet funny note. Daddy tried to cuddle up to say goodnight one night and she said, "Daddy, don't touch me" (wonder where she got that from?) and on his 2nd attempt she said, "Daddy, leave me alone!" Of course, after a little muffled chuckling, I made her apologize to Daddy and give him a hug and kiss goodnight and all was well.

I just can't imagine what life would be without her, all the little "terrible 2 moments" seem so insignificant when you think about all of the silly moments, giggles, amazing moments where you can't believe how smart she is or all of the cuddles and cuteness. Who in their right mind wouldn't want children? That may sound harsh, I don't mean offense to anyone, but personally I cannot imagine life without the experience of being a parent. I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Thursday Thirteen...new favorite foods

2008-01-24T15:24:00.000-06:00

Weight Watchers is still going well, I weigh in again on Saturday and I'm anxious to see how this week went! I thought a Thursday Thirteen with my recent favorite foods would be appropriate this week! You'll notice a few Weight Watchers products on my list but the nice part about the Flex Plan is that you don't have to buy special products, you can eat anything, in moderation, in appropriate portion sizes. I've not yet felt deprived for a single minute! I just happen to love the eTools too which are included with a Monthly Pass membership! The Recipe Builder is awesome, you can put any recipe in there to calculate the points and even get suggestions on lightening up the recipe! It's just so easy!

1. Yoplait Light Yogurt, 2 points...with such tasty flavors as Boston Cream Pie, Banana Cream Pie and Strawberry White Chocolate, it is easy to eat one of these for breakfast along with a banana and cereal bar...which brings me to #2.

2. Nature Valley Strawberry Yogurt Cereal Bars, 3 points...chewy, tasty and a nice addition to my yogurt.

3. Weight Watchers Double Chocolate Muffins, 3 points...chocolate craving? No problem! SO FABULOUS!! You would never expect to find it's only 3 decadant points!

4. Weight Watchers Peanut Butter Bliss Mini Bars, 1 point...let me tell you, it is BLISS! I cannot believe it's one point for this little bit of heaven that tastes like a candy bar!

5. Weight Watchers Sweet & Salty bars, 2 points...the best of both worlds, little salty, little sweet, LOT yummy!

6. Pop Secret 100 Calorie Pack Microwave Popcorn, 2 points...FANTASTIC butter or kettlecorn flavor microwave popcorn in a perfectly sized snack size bag, one of my most favorite snacks!

7. McDonald's Grilled Chicken Bacon Ranch Salad, 6 points or Side Salad, 0 points...I'm lovin' it! Seriously, I never used to eat salads and thought I had better give it a try since most salads are 0 points a nice way to fill up on healthier choices. The Chicken one is fantastic so on nights we have pizza I have half of one of those with one slice of pizza and have a nice 10 point meal! It's fantastic, I don't even use dressing most of the time! If I decide on dressing, the Kraft Fat Free Ranch or Catalina are both delicious and only usually 1 point!

8. Coke Zero and Sprite Zero, 0 points...both taste great, not so much like a diet soda and it counts as one of my servings of water for the day too!

9. Weight Watchers Fruities, 1 point for a whole pack! These are great little fruity chewy candies that I keep at my desk for the sweet cravings. It's only one point for a whole pack and a pack lasted me all week this week!

10. Again a great cereal bar, only 2 point and come in great flavors like chocolate and vanilla drizzle! YUM!

11. Water...yes, just plain old water, I'm trying to drink more of it and I'm ok with that too! I sometimes add a point if I add one of those crystal light mix-ins even though they don't count as a whole point I like to round up just to be sure!

12. Gum...I chew sugarless gums like Eclipse or Orbit, I love how a nice mint gum after lunch makes my mouth feel fresh and makes me not want to snack for most of the afternoon!

13. Chai Tea from the coffeehouse on campus, 3 points and SO GOOD on these freezing cold days!

Down 6.6 Pounds & Other reasons to smile

2008-01-21T12:53:00.000-06:00

Well, first week of Weight Watchers under my belt and I'm happy to report I've lost 6.6 pounds! I was so happy to see that sticking to the plan and tracking my points worked! The only exercise I was able to squeeze in all week was 10 minutes on mom's treadmill so I was happy to see the great results and can't wait to see how it goes when I get more exercise!

Make a postcard - it's easy!

Silly Emma!

2008-01-15T16:35:00.000-06:00

I had to share the most recent picture of Emma taken Monday night when she decided the Build-A-Bear accessories on Daddy's monkey would fit her well...hmm, not so much! Little goofball! Her smile was cuter in the one picture but there was a glare off the glasses!

8 Random Things About Emma

2008-01-11T14:40:00.000-06:00

Emma was tagged by my another sweet girl named Emma to do a meme regarding 8 random things about her life. Emma's mama is the fabulous Mary at Almost Somewhat Positive.
That Emma is going on three years old the end of March and our Emma will be 3 years old towards the end of June. Our Emma was a gracious interviewee (if that's a word) when I was home at lunch today so here's what she had to say and some other random facts about our peanut!

1. My name is Emma Wose Mowif and one of my favorite things to do when Mama and Daddy are trying to go to sleep is say "What's your name mama", "What's your name daddy?", "What's Commo & Coco'th name?" (our cat cosmo and cat coco, as I every so often remember and say randomly "Coco died"), Mama always answers my naming questions with the question, "What do you think?" and I say: "Mama name a-shell", "Daddy name tevor", "Commo and Coco name Commo & Coco" and I go on to go say "gammy, gampy, gampa, gamma, gamma shuf, gamma gaydee, amanda, luke (cousin), baby keerah (cousin)" and anyone else I think of.

2. I love to go to the pimmin pool when we go to a otel or pimmin cass or the beach.

3. My favorite toys are paydoh, mr. tatohead, the dolly house from danta, new elephant from gammy and gampy, his name is elbis (Elvis) the elephant, my new lady and horsey from day and katie (barbie with horse & carriage from Uncle Jay and Aunt Katie). Oh, (another favorite word lately) I like to "help" mama with her beads (jewelry making) too so gampa and gamma got me my own beads too!

4. I love to count and mama says I always miss 4 and 6. My favorite numbers to say are 7,8,9,10,11!

5. I love Elmo, Elmo is red like gammy's car. Geen means go when we are in the car, but sometimes mama gets geen and lellow mixed up I tink.

6. When I home wit Daddy we wath cai-yu (Caillou), Elmo, aboomaboo (Zoboomafoo) and other cartoons and when Mama is home for dupper (lunch) we watch the lady make dupper (30 Minute Meals).

7. I like a lot of good pood (food) like turkey (ham gets called turkey), teez (cheese), parties (smarties candy), ding teez (string cheese), carwots (carrots), apples, gapes, pears...I not too picky.

8. When I go to pimmin cass (swimming class) we ting the Wheels on the Bus song and I always ask mama to ting it now, mostly at bedtime, I call it the puppy dog song cuz mama tings about the puppies on the bus tay wuf wuf wuf and kitties on the bus tay mew mew mew and about birdies, mouseys, emma on the bus and everyfing. When we go to bed we say to nite nite bof, love you bof, tee you in da mornin! Mama and Daddy love it when I jump on their lap randomly and hug dem and say love you mama or love you daddy.

Tank you Emma Wose for taggin me, I like tag, I always ask gammy to tase me when we leave her house. I have to go nap now but first I will tag some other babies cuz I LOVE babies!

I tag mama's friend Bef's boys, Miffy's son I never met yet who is not a baby anymore and Georgia at Blog That Mommy.

Later awagator, while crocadile!

Lurkers, Fat and Babies

2008-01-10T15:12:00.000-06:00

Hey, I found out from Ash that today is De-Lurker Day so go on, read some prior posts and leave a comment! Positive or negative, I can take it, come on!

In other news...I'm finally at that point, something finally clicked in me and I'm ready to get serious about a healthier lifestyle. I found some inspiration from my friend Mary who has recently become more health-conscious. Plus, I've been thinking a lot about it for quite some time and talking to some people but just wasn't motivated and now I am so I'm joining Weight Watchers which has worked for me in the past and looking into the schedule at the local indoor pool, swimming or water aerobics always worked well for me before in weight loss efforts so wish me luck!

Furthermore, my sister had her baby on Tuesday! Keira Jade was 8 pounds 1 ounce and 19 inches long with a lot of dark hair! She's beautiful and looks so much like my sister! Emma was of course completely loving it! She got to hold her and never left her side even when someone else was holding her.