Thursday, March 24, 2011

It happened this morning.
Taylor hands me a piece of paper from school to sign.
Looks like a standard permission slip for.....WAIT! NOOOOOOOO! NOT YET!!!!!
"We require a parent's permission for your child to watch a gender specific video by Disney and a nurse presentation about puberty and the changes that come with it."

But he's only 11. He's only in 5th grade.
I didn't get that "video" until I was in 6th grade.

I guess it's time for this mama to grow up.

So giggling, I ask Taylor if he knows what the video will be like.  He says no.  I think to myself we can go two ways here: ignore it and not talk about it and be embarassed or just deal with it.  The kid has been watching nature shows since he was 2 years old. So I deal.  I just start talking about what puberty means and being silly but matter of fact about the facial hair, his voice getting deeper and zits (I was keeping with safe ones here).  Wow- were my kids fascinated with zits-what was inside them, what they are, how they get there.  And that is where we left off.  I figure the bigger stuff can come later.

It's begun.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

I know I've more than occasionally talked about my uphill battle with food, exercise and feeling good about myself.  Well, prepare yourself because i just need to chat a bit about my progress, lack of progress and everything in between.

In January I had enough of my negative outlook about myself and knew that I was getting older and needed to step things up to be healthier.  I started working out 5-6 days a week and watching what I ate.  In February I was down 8 lbs and lost several inches and could fit into a size 12!! I felt so good, so in control and just happy I was making changes.  I have only "dieted" a couple times in my life so this was a big deal.

However I am the kind of person that really struggles with doing the same thing all the time. I like change and can't stick to anything. Ask my husband how hard it is for me to remember to take a pill everyday.  I just stink at things like that.  When you are trying to watch what you eat, you have to stick to eating better, everyday. You have to commit to it.
So i went on a vacation and even managed to lose 2 lbs! Woo-hoo I think to myself, things are going great.  Well, I got home.  I had so much work I didnt' have time to prepare food and ate out a lot, and was stressed.  I gained a couple lbs back.  The good news is I continue to work out 5-6 days a week-that part I have down!  I will hold on to that silver lining.  But my eating was not so good. Lots of dessert and fattening foods.  I was starting to get discouraged and thinking I was going to give up.  But I just can't. I know I can lose that last 15 lbs if it takes me a year (i really hope it doesn't take that long). It's not all about how I look, it's knowing I followed something through and completed it!

This week, I came across a website called myfitnessplan.com.  I know spark fit and a million others have been around for awhile.  It tracks your calorie intake and exercise calories burned.  Yes, it takes time to enter in your food and exercise, but for me, I think I've found a tool that is just what I need.  I have tracked everything now for a week and I am consistently over 200-300 calories everyday even with exercising.  So I can start eating less calories....and for some reason,  entering in an oreo shake on there really makes me feel like I am wasting calories and I think twice about eating that shake.

I am hoping this next week,  I can have some calories left over during the day because that is when you start losing weight.   That is my  mini-goal.

So there you go. A little progress as slow as a catapillar but I will take it.  It's better than nothing.

We are leaving for Nevada the following week for spring break vacation.  I hope to eat less and still exercise.  Or at lease exercise while there.  Because I just can't give up.  I CAN do it. Even if it takes a long time.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Mike has his annual review at work today.  He has been busting butt at work really hard-puts in lots of extra hours (he is salaried), being extremely efficient and proving to all those that need his skills they can depend on Mike to do his job efficiently and well.  I am so proud of him!! He got a promotion with a raise and kuddos from the boss.
We are excited to see that debt snowball really start taking off. For the first time since we've had kids we can breath a little easier. 
I'm so glad I have a partner that loves his work, does it well and provides for us.

I'll stop gushing now, I promise.

Love you sweets!

Saturday, March 12, 2011

 Today I am thankful my brother in Japan is okay
I am thankful I am in such a great place in my life
I am grateful to have 2 healthy and happy kids and a husband who loves me
I am grateful to have a job and am able to work from home
I am grateful for running water, a warm home and grocery stores I can get fresh food from
I am grateful I know my Lord
I am grateful to get medical care for my family when I need it at a small price
I am grateful for so many things that I don't say enough
Yes, sometimes life is hard, frustrating, depressing, and I get irritable, impatient, or angry and negative to others around me
but today I am going to celebrate all the things I am grateful for.

and...I am happy I can change my hair when I want to
Here's the new hair-do

BEFORE


AFTER ( I know, BIG change right?)

Monday, March 7, 2011

It's official, I am so done with winter.  I LOVE fall and winter. I burrow and nest like a squirrel, baking and drinking hot drinks and reading and snuggling with my kids and hubbie.  But enough already.  I don't really love the hot weather but I am ready to get outside.  Today it snowed.  Beautiful, big fat snowflakes that I enjoyed for about 60 seconds.  It's March!! Enough with the winter already.  It got up to a blazing 50 degrees the other day and Hannah wanted to do two things: change into shorts and go on a family hike.  She cracks me up.  The kids have spring break in a couple weeks and how nice it would be to get outside!! I don't mind exercising inside with the DVD's and the elliptical but playing tennis, hiking and walking is much better ways of breaking a sweat. Our dogs are fat and need walking!
The kids and I going to do a hotel stay over spring break, our once yearly tradition when everyone is about to go bonkers from the winter weather.  We can pretend, as we are in the indoor swimming pool, that summer is close. Ha.



On another note, I made some delicious pasta last night that had prosciutto and peas in a light creamy parmesan sauce-yum. That dish is going to get made again.  Tonight I roasted carrots and parsnips in the oven. It was really good. I also made a pot roast that I added some herbs to, it had a great flavor. I am hoping to plant an herb garden. I've already got books from the library to help me. I am not a gardener.

What else?  Taylor is still up to his shenanigans of not handing in assignments and we had to take his treasured Bionicles and Nintendo DS away.  Sometimes being the heavy is tough.  He got really mad, yelled at us, slammed his door and sweetly joined us for dinner 30 minutes later.  I guess I can call him a "tween" now.  An almost-always-sweet tween.  We got out scattegories last night (my favorite game) and he loved it.  It's too hard for Hannah but he and I played before dinner today and I'm so happy there is someone else in this house that appreciates Scattegories.

We took the kids to Tangled and had dinner afterwards.  The movie was cute and I was the only one that appreciated the singing. I really love family nights.



And last but not least, I am embarrased to say, I got caught up in the Real Housewives of New Jersey and had to watch all of Season 2 via Amazon's TV on demand.  Not pretty. To my defense, I was on the elliptical working out and needed something to watch that would keep my attention and they had Season 1 re-runs.  So naturally, I needed to see what happened to those ladies next and since i don't get Bravo, Amazon helped me out.  They are Italian families, I love it.

BTW: Celine Dion is in Vegas and her concerts start March 15.  Yes, I would even travel to Las Vegas to see her!

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Look at this chip I found in my Lay's bag  (let's not talk about the fact I'm eating those fat loaded yummies) while at Quizno's with the kids...see the heart in the middle?  The kids thought it was pretty great.  :-)

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Things were really great, and then I got to go to Hawaii for a week ( I know not really a problem) and since then...wellllll.  It's been hard to focus and be motivated.  I have been working hard with exercising and healthier eating since January and am down a whole dress size-I feel really good about that (my pants are really baggy!).  While my eating has a lot of room for improvement, I have been hitting the exercise HARD.  And it's finally paying off.  Inches are going down and I am starting to see muscles.  It feels great, but I have a whole other size to be down to reach my goal.  I have been trying to exercise at least 5-6 days a week, and I'm doing it.  The problem is that pesky food.  I wish I could lose my appetite.  When I'm working out a lot I'm hungry, and I just love those desserts...and fattening foods like doughnuts and chicken nuggets.  So I have to snap out of it and eat those fruits and veggies and drink water, and find my groove again.   I would just like to be at the maintainence stage, which will be easy once I get rid of all my big sized clothing.  Nothing motivates you like not having any clothes to fit into if you gain weight :-)

On the work front, I have had a ton of new clients. This week I have two logos, two brochures, a technical manual and some dishware mock-ups to complete.  There's that motivation problem..I feel overwhelmed and need to crunch some work out but I am a little in the mood to go eat a doughnut and browse Facebook.
  I am getting lots of contacts from the magazine I work with and...big news.  The magazine I have a contract for is licensing  another city and I am taking that on every month.  So, two 68- page magazines in two weeks every month, plus all these new clients.  I am going to have to find someone to sub contract work out to and that is a whole new ball game.  All these wonderful companies I work with have only used me and I have to go find someone to basically do my work.  Yikes.  This is a new thing for me.  But it's also really exciting.  It will be a big change to be increasing my work hours, there are going to be things I can't do anymore (dropping the kids off at school and going back to bed...shhh don't tell anyone I actually do that sometimes!), and things I'll have to rely on my family for help (the kids are going to be excellent house cleaners).

Well, there we go.  I've whined a lot. I think I better go do some P90x-Tony might be able to snap me out of it.