Gingerbread house

I got the boys a gingerbread house kit and had a great time watching them put it together. They really enjoyed the icing :)

slippery day

this is the view from our dinning room.



stay warm!!

Girls Day out

I got to spend a couple hours with my neice today. I wanted to make this a special treat for her, she didn't really know what we were doing just that she got to spend some time with me alone with no one else. When I picked her up I asked her want she wanted to do, she said she thought maybe we were going grocery shopping. I asked her if that would be OK with her, she said yes. I said well what if we do something else like go buy her a book, her smile said it all. Then when we walked into the nail salon I thought the smile was going to jump right off her face!! I wish I had my camera ready for that one!! here are a couple picsture of our day.

Weigh in Wednesday!

I almost forgot. Along with a picture on the first of each month, on Wed I'm posting my losses........so here goes.....another

3lbs down!!! WOO HOO!!!

Mitchells Leaf Project

Mitchell had a big project to work on for the last several weeks. I gave him a few lessons in crafting and this is what he came up with. He was pretty proud of it and wanted to be the first to turn it in. So he took it in yesterday. It's not due until Friday.

Decorating

First picture

I think I'm going to post a picture on the first of each month so I can see my progess. I also thought that going "public" with my weight loss journey would help keep myself on track and add a little more accountibility. Not sure if it'll work but it sure can't hurt. And who knows maybe along the way I'll inspire someone. So as of today my total weight loss is 57lbs....this is from my heaviest recorded weight. With 32lbs lost in the last 8 weeks.

Here's a photo that was taken on 5/26/08


and this is me today.....can you see a difference yet

SNOW!!!

Look what greeted us this morning...



The boys had a great time playing and making a couple snowmen!

stuff

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

I hope all you black friday shoppers got all the deals you were hoping for!

I've decided to run in a marathon!!! OK so I'm not going to do the entire marathon. I thought about half....then I decided on the 5K portion...hey it's a start!! you can get info at www.illinoismarathon.com maybe someone will join me?!?!?

YEA ME!!!

I had a dr's appointment today.....I have lost 32lbs in the last 8 weeks and 55lbs total!! This has been a great day!!

our first Illini game

I don't think we've ever even watched one on T.V. so all you basketball fans will appreciate this story.....

we get there find out seat, the boys want a snack....so they decided a snack before the game and one at half time....OK with me. we go get them ice cream.....the snack stand is making fresh cones!!! it smelled SO good!!! game starts......having a great time!! we're trying to figure out how many periods are in a game.. who know?? not us....Ok a friend from Mitchell's class is sitting nearby and says it's 4 - she says she should know her brother plays in middle school.......still with me?? so Mitchell has to go to the bathroom so it's 3 minutes or so until the end of the 2nd period so I say lets go now and get your snack before the half time crowd......go pee....get snack....sit down.....just in time for the buzzer.....I'm all confused the teams are doing the good game hand slap.....what!?!? announcer says......Thanks for coming out!! OMG we start laughing!!! we just got snacks for the ride home!!! the boys had such a great time!! I even hate to admit I enjoyed the game too

Happy Birthday to me

well I fell off the wagon today! no not that wagon, I did get up early and was at the gym by 8am :) but I had a weak moment this afternoon and needed something sweet bad!! so I had a small bag of m&m's from the boys halloween bucket! one of the tiny ones with maybe 10 m&m's in it so not a hard fall....

now for something fun. Here's a lo I did at a crop a couple weeks ago......total scraplift off my friend Daiva

Take the quiz....

lets see if I can get this to work

forgot about yesterday!

Oops! I forgot to blog yesterday.......I can't even remember what it was going to be about.....LOL oh well.

Today lets talk SURVIVOR!!! do you watch? do you love it? if you don't watch......why not??? Post a reply with your favorite player this round and I'll have a drawing for some blog candy! gotta post today to be in the drawing. Oh and a bouns if you know who my ALL TIME favorite SUVIVOR is :)

I went back to the gym today. My knee didn't hurt at all while I was on the elliptical so that was a bonus. It was a little uncomfortable after but nothing like it has been. Hopefully that means I'm on the mend and will be back to normal soon.

I'm waiting impatiently for Twilight to come out in theaters next friday! my mom and I are plannign dinner and a movie to so see it. I can't wait!

Things I'm thinking about today

I hurt my knee over the weekend.....so I couldn't go to the gym today. I'm laid up on the couch resting it and watching massive amounts of tv. I read a message board post this morning and it got me thinking about something......clothes.....I've always been partial to white shirts, I have a closet full of them, but what I've never had is a fitted shirt! so I know have 2 things for when I hit my goal weight......first is I'm not going to cut my hair (no matter how crazy it's driving me!) and I'm going to order this shirt! I might even order every color they have!!

Thank you

I DID IT!!!

I made my weight goal!!! another 7lbs down!! Join me in a

~*~*~*HAPPY DANCE!~*~*~*

bad morning......very bad morning.

don't go for a walk in the country alone......

maybe more later.

another 2lbs gone!! I am SO gonna make my goal on Monday!!

I'm all packed and ready to head out to a weekend scrapbook retreat. Just waiting on Chris to get here, then we'll go pick up Leah.....man I hope all our stuff fits in the van!

I'm excited and have been looking forward to this for a while. I get to see lots of great friends I've made over the years.

This is a page I did 2 weekends ago at an all day crop. It was also a challenge here

BLOG CANDY!!

My friend Alecia has some blog candy up for grabs! she has put together an aweome package....go check it out here

WOW!!

So I had a really rough day yesterday. I just wanted to eat something. I'm not sure what was going on, I wasn't hungry. I just kept telling myself that I was doing so good.....don't blow it now! After driving past countless fast food places giving it everything I had not to pull in I made a deal with myself. I'd weigh in this morning and if I hadn't lost anything from my last weigh in I'd have a hamburger for lunch today........well guess what...........NO HAMBURGER FOR ME!!! I've lost another 2lbs!! I'm so close to my goal (I needed to lose 20lbs by Nov 10) so that leaves me with 6 lbs to go.........I CAN DO THIS!!!

So today I went out and did the most American thing possible........I VOTED!!! I hope you do too.

I started my day out as usual today.....I have this goal weight and date looming over my head so I decided to kick up the workout a bit today and spent 60 minutes on the elptical!!! YIKES what was I thinking! it kicked my butt! I had to take a cat nap on the couch this afternoon.





Here's a picture of me taken 8/29/07






and this one taken 8/27/2008





I can't reallly tell but there's about a 25 loss during this year.

oh and btw I weighed in today and lost another 4lbs!!

Yesterday while reading a friends blog I found out it's NaBloPoMo or National Blog Posting Month, you're supposed to write a blog entry every day for the month. So I thought I'd give it a try and see how much random usless stuff I can come up with :)

Today the boys and I are going to see Kung-Fu Panda. This is the last weekend for the free movies offered by one of the local theaters. The show the free movies on Sat and Sun mornings. We went to see it yesterday, Mitchell has this awesome deep from the belly laugh and it came out full on! So I told them we'd go back to day if they got their chores done.....which they did =o)

healthy living

I'm getting a bit obsessive about this...I'm going to the gym every day and really controlling the portions I make and serve. It's amazing once you start to really see results. I keep finding dents!! you know where it used to be filled in!! I think I'm going to start posting every Monday with my progress then taper off to the first of each month. Just in the last 2 weeks I've gotten my blood sugar under control, I went from mid to high 200's down to under 100.....I've been able to start decreassing come of my medicine!! GO ME!! :) I'm not sure what the final straw was for me but I'm glad it finally broke. There's even talk of me participating in the Turkey Trot!! I'm going to post some pictures tomorrow then will post one on the first of each month.

Halloween

Here are my scary guys! Mitchell wanted to look in the attic for Brian's old masks.....as soon as he found this he didn't want to look any further....look out Jason here comes Mitchell!!



While Brian and Mitchell were looking at the masks Matty came across this one :( my cute little Mattyana Jones was out the window.....in comes the Devils Apprentice (Matty's made that up!)



They had so much fun trick or treating!! we spent the entire 2 hours out walking the streets, they had the most fun trying to scare people. Mitchell would ask people if they had ever been camp councelors!! after getting the candy of course =o)



Brian and I got up to go to the gym this morning. I went upstairs to leave them a note and this is what I found......both of then in our bed watching Saturday morning cartoons.......life just doesn't get better than this!!

I hope you had a Spooktacular Halloween!!

WINNER!!

ACK! I'm so sorry I forgot to post the winner(s)!! that's right 2 winners!! let me explain.....

At the 2 day crop I got 26 pages done!! WOO HOO for me =o) but......when I got up Sunday and Brian and the boys left for an all day scout event I started scrapping again and got another 4 pages done.......so I thought I'd also include them!

The 26 guess winner is Jen
the 30 guess winner is Karen!!

If you can send your address to me at LaurieB323@aol.com I'll get your prizes out ASAP!!

Thanks so much for playing!! I think I'll do this again for the retreat next weekend!!

Page Guessing Contest

After I drop the boys off at school I'm heading to a 2 day crop! I'll be cropping from 9a-11p today and tomorrow. If you can guess how many pages I complete I'll send you a nice little suprise!! The person closest will win and if you guess exactly I'll add a bonus!! I'll be scrapping 12x12 and just a reminder that I do double page lo's. Post a comment with your guess by noon on Sunday =o)

I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend!!

Batman + Saturday = Baturday

That's right! Yesterday was our official Baturday......Lego Batman came out on Tuesday....I know this because the boys have been counting down the days for months now. They are such great kids that we decided to get it for them as an end of summer back to school kind of gift. I've also resisted letting them so see The Dark Knight all summer long. After reading many reviews I thought it might be just a little dark for them. So Brian decided he was going to take them and made an entire day around Batman.....right down to the (bat) WINGS at Buffalo Wild Wings. He can be so creative when he sets his mind to it. I still haven't figured out a way to tie in Batman to Matty's new hair cut.....if you figure it out be sure to let me know. Here are a couple pictures of his new doo! OH and we picked up his new glasses too!!

Peter Parker update

Well it seems that word got out we're some kind of spider santuary!! Meet Venom...

Venom toxicity - the bite of the St Andrews Cross is of low risk (non-toxic) to humans. They are a non-aggressive group of spiders.
Spider Identification - adult 1/4" to 1/2" in body length - abdomen striped yellow and brown - as illustrated. The St Andrews Cross Spider usually sits, upside down, in the middle of its web forming a cross - as illustrated.
Habitat - this spider is a web-weaver usually found in summer in garden areas around the home. It is considered beneficial as it spins a large web to snare flying insects, such as flies and mosquitoes.

But they must've scared off all the tasty bugs, as of today we haven't been able to find either one....I'm actually a little bit sad. Just a little bit!!

I've been MIA

In the begining of September to help out a friend I've been watching her 2 kids on Monday and Tuesday, at her house. It wasn't really working for my family so I told her I can only do in for September......so as if the boys weren't messed up enough, I started helping a friend with her business, packaging up orders. It's been crazy around here with me gone so much. My last day to package is sat and I might be babysitting on Mon & Tues. They're talking with the new person to see if she can start next week. But either way next week I get my life back!! Mitchell's had a hard time these last few days. This has really stopped the feelings I had for needing to get a job outside the house.

More later because I have a Peter Parker update I've been wanting to post!

Never forget

Peter Parker update

OK I have to admit that it's been a little bit fascinating watching him, or her actually according to Brian. Tonight I was watching him fix his new web.....wow all those arms and legs going at the same time...makes me wish I had an extra set!! Anyway I took a nap today since I was out stamping until 5am!! and got up by 9 this morning. I made some super cute cards and atc's for the about.com swap. I'll be sure to post them when I finish them up. Anyway back to Peter. So I'm up a little late watching Air Force One....who doesn't love watching Han Solo save the day!! I just wanted to let you know how honkin big this spider is..........every time the motion light goes off he sets it right back on again!! this spider is setting off the motion light!! I tried taking some pictures but they didn't turn out as good as I wanted. I'll try again tomorrow.

who am I and where is the real Laurie!?!?

So anyone that *knows* me.....know's my fear of spiders (and pretty much anything that has more then 2 legs.....{most} cats and dogs excluded!) so this will come as a HUGE suprise.......let me start from the begining.....Matty is sitting at the dinning room table and I'm on the couch, he's starting to tell me a story about a dream he had. I'm looking at him when my vision starts to focus on something behind him...something BIG.......my eyes got huge!! he whips around to see what I'm looking at.....it's this...

Orb-Weaving Spiders

Venom toxicity - the bite of Orb-Weaving Spiders is of low risk (not toxic) to humans. They are a non-aggressive group of spiders. Seldom bite. Be careful not to walk into their webs at night - the fright of this spider crawling over one's face can be terrifying and may cause a heart attack, particularly to the susceptible over 40 year olds.

Spider Identification - an adult is about 2/3 to more than 1 inch in body length - has a bulbous abdomen - often colorful - dark to light brown pattern. The common Golden Orb-Weaver Spider has a purplish bulbous abdomen with fine hairs.

Habitat - often found in summer in garden areas around the home - they spin a large circular web of 6 feet or more, often between buildings and shrubs, to snare flying insects, such as, flies and mosquitoes.

That's right....this DEADLY spider living outside of our big window. Do you need to go back and re-read the part I highlighted above!?!?

My first reaction was to call 911!! Ok not really but it's HUGE and I thought for sure I needed to call someone!! THEN while the boys and I were standing there not really knowing what to do a fly landed in his web (I say he becaue I named him Peter Parker) and just as fast as it landed in the web Peter ran as fast as his little 8 legs would carry him and started spinning it around!!! It was facinating!! we really couldn't take our eyes off it. I bet we watched him for an hour!! he also got a nother big bug but we couldnt figure out what kind it was. Mitchell thought it was a bee. So Brian got home later that night and we had to reenact the segment where we first saw it. He knew all about Peter and it seems he's been living all over the side of our house!?!? WHAT!!

So Peter is safe for now, until he either gets closer to the back door or OMG actually comes into contact with me.....then he'll be a giant splat!!!

No 20/20's here

Today the boys and I went for our annual eye exams....each year Matty is so sad that he doesn't get to pick out a pair of frames......until NOW!!! I knew it was only a matter of time since the dr told me about 2 years ago he'd need them soon. We had a lot of fun trying on different pairs. He was a little upset when he found out the logo's and information WOULD'NT be on the lens' when he got his "real" glasses....the tech got a kick out that that!! Here is the little guy with the pair we picked out. I splurged and got him the transition lens' (they get dark in the sunlight)

recent stuff

I've been on such a roll doing the challenges at Two Spotted Dogs check it out here maybe there's something there to inspire you too!

This first lo is from last summer when Brian's mom and sister came to visit. It was our fist time meeting his newphew Anthony.

Mattyana Jones and the Night at the Museum

Indian Jones (Scott Croft of Rantoul) tells young Indiana Jones (Matthew Brauer, aka Mattyana of Urbana) some of the adventures that lay in store for him and he toured the Chanute Air Museum, which hosted it's Night at the Museum Saturday. Children were given a list of things to do and places to see in the museum...

Matty also ended up winning the grand prize of the evening! A dvd of the Ben Stiller movie "Night at the Museum" the book the movie was based on along with an assortment of movie candy. He was pretty excited!!

Meet Mattyana

A few weeks before the new Indy movie came out Matty started playing Indiana Jones, I started calling him Mattyana.....he didn't like it.....until he thought it up himself!! so this is his official Mattyana garb. He wouldn't trade his rope whip in for a more realistic version. He taped up the end of his rope whip with electrical tape!! he's been wanting his picture taken for a LONG time to put in his journal......"The adventures of Mattyana Jones" look for it at a book store near you!!!