challenges and goals

Yup, I'm still here. And I'm still on my "weight loss journey".
I've found a great place to go for a bit more motivation (thank you Kim). I love this place. I like to go there when I'm feeling a bit unmotivated or when i think about giving up and wanting to eat everything in sight. It doesn't stop the cravings but it does help keep me sabotaging myself.

They have a NEW challenge starting today and i'm sooo up for it. I do better when i have something motivating me to do it. Somehow me doing this alone just isn't enough.

So today I'm weighing in (and I will tomarrow too for my "official" weigh in), and hopefully in 3 weeks, i'll be 5lbs lighter. I'm thinking that is a very realistic goal, unlike what i'm thinking deep down hoping it's going to be more like a 10lb loss. I'm not sure i can hit it, considering i've lost only about 2 1/2lbs in the last 3 weeks, but i'm going to give it a really good try.

But one thing is for sure, i WILL be in the 150's!

True Confession Monday...

and even though today is not Monday, it sure feels like it... finally (yes, it's a good thing today).

1. I'm so glad the kids are back in school today
2. Every time i talk to Rianne, she starts into cry mode... it's driving me crazy. See #1.
3. Sam's cold is getting the best of all of us.
4. I've gained almost 2lbs since last week.
5. I love Valentines Day.
6.. This year i hated it...
7. DarRell did something for me this year (and i didn't). A BIG A+ in my book ;-)
8. But the goodies did me in.
9. I went over big time on my points (daily + weekly) on Valentine's Day and i'm having a hard time staying on track now.
10. I weight myself every morning... naked
11. I know i shouldn't weight myself every day, it's terrible for moral
12. I need to go grocery shopping. I am out of olive oil, eggs, yogurt, fruits AND veggies... and dinner ideas.
13. I'm feeling the winter blues pretty bad lately. COME ON SPRING

and one to grow on....
*there's no school again on Thursday *SIGH*

HOLY CRAP!!!!!!!!

a Reece's Peanut Butter Heart is 4 points!!!! (and it so didn't taste THAT good)

even worse: a Whopper Mushroom Swiss Steakhouse burger is 20 points! YES!!! 20 points!!!! Almost my complete daily point worth.

Kiss 10.5 of my weekly points goodbye!

*sigh* I thought i would just vent a bit. I feel better now... sort of.

not a complete loss

Sunday, when we should have been at church (and we REALLY were going to go this sunday) but didn't go because Rianne was still hacking up a lung, i did this: She has so many pants that are too short or have massive holes in the knees but she can't bear to part with them. So I made a compromise with her and told her i'd make skirts out of them. It ended up being a win-win situation because she LOVES skirts.

It took me about 2 1/2 hours to throw this together and she LOVES it. I wish i had a before picture of the jeans so you could see the whole process. I started by cutting the jeans right at the tore knees as a starting point at how long it would be. The cute little flowers on the side panel are from the bottom half of the pants. You use the bottom half of the jeans as the side panels for the skirt if you want it a bit more full.

Good news is that she will be able to wear this skirt for a LONG time. I'm sure she will grow up out of it before she grows too big in the waist for it.

Now to turn the other half dozen hole-y pants into skirts!


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and Kim... yes, i'm talking to you Kim. After we talked Wednesday, I jumped on the treadmill for 50 minutes. I need more of those pep talks ;-)

recent stuff

Here are some of the recent layouts that i've done since the begining of January. I haven't done nearly as many as i want to, and none this month. I've totally slacked off and really need to jump back into it again. My room is getting very lonely.

Birthday Girl

From Rianne's 7th birthday in December. I didn't want to drag it out to several pages so i kept the pictures small and put as many as i could on one page. I absolutely LOVE the sparkly letters (thanks Heather! they are awesome!)

Seeing Santa

a bunch of pictures of the kids seeing Santa while at my family Christmas party. I loved that Santa was so REAL looking this year. Real beard and everything. He was great! Even Daylon got into it this year, which was expecially exciting.

Fall

a few pictures of the kids and cousins in our backyard playing in the falling leaves. Some more of those great alphabets from Heather. And i ended up LOVING this paper. I wasn't too fond of it when i got it but after a year or two, it's grown on me.

Cookies for Santa

This one gave me troubles. I love how it turned out though. I really love the bright colors and it fits Rianne quite well. It felt really good to use up a bit of my stash.

Winter Wonderland

I just HAD to scrap pictures of the first big snowstorm this winter. This is what our mountains/roads looked that morning. I love these gem swirl stickers... i think i really want to get more of them. Used up some more OLD stash

Play Ball

Daylon's first year at playing basketball. I LOVE how this turned out. The pictures are a bit to be desired but man the lighting in a gym is bad! Absolutely love the word stickers... i think they may be my new obsecession.

RANDOM thoughts...

...about my weightloss adventures and being a Weight Watchers girl.

*eating healthy isn't necessarily hard for me, except for the fact that at least once a week i have HORRENDOUS cravings. That's when it gets hard for me.

*I've decided that i like to keep track of what I'm eating. But after eating out with DarRell for lunch, I've decided that it's so much harder to track WW points that way.

*my food bill has gone up due to the fact that i need to keep going to the store for fresh fruits and vegetables every few days.

*I've finally found a multi-vitamin that i can take that doesn't make me sick and really tastes good. You ready for this? Children's gummy vitamins.

*I've found i drink way more water than what i "need" without any trouble at all. 64oz a day is nothing for me to get down.

*I'd much rather spend my WW points on meat and vegetables than on sweets. But it's the white breads and fried foods I'm really missing.

*I love eating breakfast. Who would've thought.

*I'm a bit disappointed in the amount of weight I've lost so far. I think i may be setting my expectations a bit too high (amount of lbs i want to loose a week/month) but on the other hand, my final goal seems very reasonable.

*I wish my mom was still on WW. She'd be a great buddy to compare notes with.

*some of the ladies on the WW message boards are VERY snarky and VERY mean. BLECK! I thought the message boards were all about support, not a place to pick apart the way someone accidentally miss-spelled something.

*it's hard to loose weight when everyone you live with is on the skinny side and need all the calories they can get.

*Daylon is my best support. He's a healthy eater and keeps me motivated by asking if we have certain things in the house for snacks. His favorite is Dannon Light & Fit vanilla yogurt with strawberries and blueberries. It happens to be one of my favorites too.

*DarRell bought(OK, traded work for product) me a great pair of walking/running shoes. I love them.

*I've never wanted to go work out in a gym so much in my life as i do now. What's stopping me? I don't want to go alone. For now I'll stick with my treadmill and the open road but i have some serious issues with motivation right now.

*my cravings hit me hardest in the afternoon. From about 1:00pm-4:30pm. It is then, that i want to sit down with a big bag of Cheetos and a Mt. Dew and pig out.

*I'm completely off Mt. Dew

*Thursday is my weigh-in day. (but as of today, i am down 7.8lbs since the first of January with almost 2 full weeks on WW).

*I WILL be at my goal weight by my 35th birthday

Friday night = family movie night

Not too long ago we came up with idea of spending Friday night with the kids watching a movie of their choice... or at least a movie they would like. Actually, idea came when we got our new couches. The one couch has a pull out bed in it and just for kicks we decided to pull it out one night and watch a movie. Since then, we've decided that every Friday night would be a good night to just veg out, pull out the hide-away bed, stay up late and watch a movie. It's been a success so far. And instead of having to wake up the kids to get them to their beds, we just let them crash on the couch for the night. It's something they look forward to every Friday night.



This Friday night we watched Igor. It was certainly not what i had expected and a bit disturbing in almost a comical way in some parts. My favorite part? Hands down, the music! The kids enjoyed it. Especially Sam, who has this thing for the name Eva (who happens to be one of the main characters in Igor, and of course, Walle).



Anyways, my point is. It's nice to just hang out with the kids. Definately something we look forward to every week.



Friday night movies coming up:
*City of Ember
*Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa
*Open Season 2
*Zoom: Acadamy for Superheroes
*Cheaper by the Dozen 1&2
*Hoot
*Jump In
*Yours Mine & Ours
*Flicka
*Everyone's Hero
*Sky High
*The Last Mimzy


... and well, the list goes on.

WE CAN'T WAIT!!!

and from my favorite song in Igor:

I've got a woman as big as a house yes sir

She's as big as a two family house with a porch and a fence

You won't believe what you see when you look at her

She's enormous collosal tremendous gigantic immense

Why try to deny it

She's just what I like

If she goes on a diet

I'll go on strike

The bigger the figure the better I like her

The better I like her the better I feed her

The better I feed her the bigger the figure

The bigger the figure the more I can love

SUCCESS!!!!!!!!!

YES!!!!!!!!!!
We are now potty trained!
COMPLETELY!
Dry nights, dry naps, no accidents!

Sam Rules!

It was a combination of new underware, hershey kisses, and nightly trips to the firehouse. I forgot how much fun the diaper switch to underware is! We took a trip to Wal-Mart and got some he really like (the Cars ones), ones that i thought were cute (rocketship ones) and then some like Daylon's (boxer briefs). Sam prefers the Cars ones over any of the others unless Daylon is around, then he has to look like his big brother. It's just too cute.

Today we took our first trip to town diaperless. I've been scared to death to take him anywhere without him being in a diaper. I just haven't been wanting to deal with the accidents. But since he's been dry consistenly for the last few days, i thought i'd give it a go. He's a champ!

Rewards were/are Hershey kisses every time he goes potty. It works like a charm since the kid is addicted to them. He knows that if he wants a HK then he'll have to go potty. It turns out its a perfect incentive.

If we've had a REALLY good day, DarRell takes him down to the firehouse after dinner to see the "weeoo's". He gets so pumped up with the whole thing.

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on the weight loss front, things are going well. I am down a complete 6lbs! It's been one full month since i started getting serious. I'm kinda looking forward to working out and eating right to see it all come off. I can't really see much a difference in myself but the scales say they do, so i'll take their word on it!