Bring it on!

I'm ready for Christmas, and have been for a while! well a week or so anyway. I'm not sure I've ever been this ready this early. It'll be nice to enjoy the week the boys have off before Christmas. I think the time will be hard for them....Matty especially. Mitchell askes every day if they can open a gift.....I'm holding on strong! He says I let them open a gift on Christmas Eve last year.....not sure I remember that but we'll see how clean their rooms are :)

We're going to the boy scout summer camp staff Christmas party this afternoon.

I hope all is well with you and yours.

broken record

These days I feel like each day is a repeat of the one before it....but that's A-OK with me. I like it....I know what to expect :)

Today is no different.....so far today I've gone to the gym, did a little work, laundry, wrapped up more Christmas gifts, got the box ready to ship to B's family, did a month's worth of menus.....and made the shopping list to go with it :D GO ME!!

I'm going to stop at Hobby Lobby on my way to get the shopping done....I need.....yes NEED another storage container......it's an addiciton really...but it being addicted to storage containers really a bad thing??

hoping to end my outside adventures on time to pick the boys up from school (and Mitchell from the bus) and head to Steak n Shake for a yummy (and half off) peppermint chocolate chip shake....and yes I do know how cold it is outside.....they're that good!!

XL

That's right......XL, not XXXXL, not XXXL not even XXL just plain ol XL.

That's the size of the shirt I wore today....just one lonely X.

Never Forget

I miss my rings

It's been a few months now since I haven't been able to wear my wedding rings and I miss them. I wore them as long as I could, the day they flew off my finger while folding laundry was the day I put them up. Since I still have 45lbs to go until my goal I thought I'd hold off on having them sized but man this last leg is taking so long.....I'm thinking that maybe this winter if I haven't made some good progress toward my goal weight I'd go ahead and have them sized. I can always size them down again if needed. My mom gave me a pretty ring to wear in the meantime but it's not the same. My rings sitting in my jewlry box is my picture of the day today.

what a CrAzY busy summer....

this has been. It's been full of summer camps, weekend trips and work. We haven't been together as a family since mid June. Now just as school it getting ready to start back up things seem to be slowing down for us. I'm not sure if this is a good thing or not. Mitchell started going to the gym with me and seems to be toning up nicely, he has some pants that are literally falling off him! Matty's summer has been full of play dates! In fact he's gone right now. He's wanting to have a small get together with some friends before it's time to go back to school. We're trying to decide what we can do that'll be fun and not cost a lot.

I've been working hard all summer, well up until the last few weeks. I'm packing up DVD's for www.tracyandersonmethod.com and answering customer service emails for www.tracyandersonconnect.com and LOVING it :) I get to work from home and earn a little extra $$....that's always good :)

I've slipped a little on myPOTD project, so I'm kinda bummed about that but find it really hard to take a picture of something interesting each day. But since I bought the pages and album I'll keep plugging away as best I can. But I'm not going to stress about it.

Yesterday I went on a little road trip....Amanda and I went to Indianapolis to do the free make & take's at Archivers. We did some shopping then headed to lunch at Olive Garden, more shopping at a Super Joanns then hit Trader Joe's. I had never been to a Trader Joe's and ended up spending more $ there then at Archivers! I was suprised. I had been to a SJ's before but it was a very quick in and out so it was nice to wonder......OH and I found some art bin cases that I love in lime green!!! score me!!

Today I haven't done much but rest and enjoy the family.

This is what Sunday's are are all about

reward!

Mitchell had his retainer stolen out of his backpack on Friday. On a whim I went to the 3 classrooms in his hall and offered a $20 reward for anyone who found it. Low and behold this afternoon 3 kids came to claim the reward, retainer in hand!! WOO HOO!!! I still can't believe it! Yeah I know one of them probably took it, but hey it's better then paying for a new one! Mitchell has had a hard time this weekend, he blames himself for it getting stolen, no matter how many times we've told him it's not his fault, he still can't understand why someone would go thru his stuff. He sure has had some hard lessons to learn this year.

Memorial Day

Thank you!

Chicago - Field Museum day 2

Here Matty is trying to move a block the same size and weight that were used to built the pyramids.......he said he got it to budge just a little :)

Saturday was back to the Field Museum! we were starting our day off with the Real Pirates exhibit. This is a traveling exhibit about the Slave Ship turned Pirate ship Whydah Galley. SOOO cool!! I highley recommend seeing it if it comes to your area. No pictures were allowed but you can get more information here just so happened that evening the special was on tv so we got to learn even more about the Pirates. The boys loved the Egypt exhibit so we went thru that and the Earth Evolution again. Very cool place!!

Chicago - Field Museum day 1

On Friday we spent the day at the Field Museum. Brian was speaking at a conference there so the boys and I had a great day exploring. We had never been before. Sue was uber cool!! We saved the two special exhibits, The Real Pirates and Underground adventure for Saturday. So we went thru Earths Evolution....that was the COOLEST!!! We learned so much!

Chicago-MSI

I had planned to post pictures and blog all about our trip each night while we were still there....well you know what they say about the best laid plans. My card reader didn't work....and not thinking I didn't get another one until we got home. This trip couldn't have come at a better time. The boys have had a rough school year (which makes mama have a rough school year) and things were pretty bad the week we left. The Harry Potter exhibition had just opened at the Museum of Science and Industry and if you love HP (like me), and you're bummed the story is over (like me) and you can't wait until July 15th (like me) and you keep re-reading all the books (like me) you won't want to miss this! They have all kinds of original props from the movies and the setup makes you feel like you've entered Hogwarts and you WON'T want to leave! The boys just love MSI and having the traveling exhibits is such a bonus!

NSD

I went to a NSD crop over the weekend at Creek Bank Creations it was a GREAT time! they had some amazing prizes...but I didn't win....well not a prize anyway but since I got 48 pages done that makes me a huge winner!! here are some of the pages I got done. I worked on a lot of older pictures of the boys it was nice to remember these trips and events.

MS walk

the boys and I participated in the local MS walk. Our PTA raised $930 to present to Helen.....GO PTA!!! it was a gorgeous day and the boys had a lot of fun! here is my POTD for yesterday

Impromptu photo shoot

On Friday as the boys and I were walking out the door going to school I grabbed the camera.....on our backporch I got these...or I should say the boys got them......each taking the others photos. I think they turned out pretty darn good! I hope they always remember how much I love them.

NSV

That's Non Scale Victory for those of you who don't know....I just found out myself when my friend Amanda refered to it .....I had to ask what it meant :)

For a while now people have been commenting on how lose and baggy my clothes are. I just didn't really think they were THAT baggy and sure didn"t want to go out and spend money on new clothes but since I was going to a 2 day NSD (National Scrapbook Day) whew lots of acronyms in this post!! anyway out buying new pants......I went to the local goodwill store and had a hard time finding something in the size I thought maybe I could squeeze into but there weren't any...so going down a size and another and ANOTHER until I found a pair of capri pants, thinking well trying them on will at least give me an idea of how close (or far away) I am to that size still a long way off in my mind......I wish I had a picture of my face when they slid right on!! I had even picked up a pair of button shorts....feeling pretty good I decided to try them on too and OMG!! I got them bottoned!! WOW what a moment I had in that dressing room!! So I bought both pairs! So I'll leave you with the picture of my new capri's on top of my old pants.....this was a happy day!!

MS Walk

On Sunday May 3, I'm joining in to walk for MS. I have two very dear friends that have MS and I'll do my part to help......will you help out too?

http://main.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR/Walk/ILDWalkEvents?team_id=149962&pg=team&fr_id=10955

Project 365

Some of my project 365 photos.

<----Matty is always leaving his guys "hanging" around. I love finding them all over the house....most of the time :)

Here is the bird, sitting, protecting her nest

<---- I wasn't sure the tulips would bloom this year, we had snow after they sprouted. But so far 2 have bloomed.

birds!!

On Friday my friend Amanda came over to scrapbook/card make with me. Brian was out of town and I love having her over. Flash back to a week or so ago, one of the boys mentioned a bird nesting around the front of the house and they took the nest down. I didn't really pay much attention to the details. So it's around 10pm and Amanda is leaving, I walk her out and as soon as she is on the front porch a bird is flapping and squawking, hovering right around her head! It was crazy!! So she ducks back into the house and we get the door closed before it can get in the house.......but not before we scared the *crap* outta the bird :( It flies away and Amanda can get safely to her car.......then Mitchell says this is the bird that he was telling me about earlier. I went out and took a couple pictures of the nest. On Saturday we got up early to go to the free movie and there she was sitting in her nest. I don't know much about birds but I'm pretty sure there are eggs in there as she doesn't go far from it and goes right back when the coast is clear. Amanda came back after the movie to craft some more but was very careful to come and go from the back door! Brian got home in the late afternoon and we told him about the great bird adventure.....he said he's taken the nest down twice! Getting back to our craftiness Amanda says oh B just walked by the window with a broom......so I fly up the stairs to rescue the mama!! I dont' want the nest knocked down if there are eggs in there. I tried to look out the upstairs window but couldn't see into the nest. So we left it alone for now.

beautiful days

It's been gorgeous here the last few days....80's sunny...a little windy but who cares when it's this warm :) Brian has been in Indy for the last few days so it was nice to get him home again. He also took us out to dinner...no cooking is always good :) I've been so crafty the last few days. I was lucky to have a good friend over to keep me motivated. Things are going very well here. Matty just finished up a week of swimming for P.E. at school, that didn't go so well for him but the good news is that it's OVER! Brian is going to take the boys swimming tomorrow so that'll make up for the bad swimming. Both boys are having such a rough year, they've already started the count down to the end. I'm really looking forward to summer break.....I see lots of yard work and swimming in our future!!

April showers.....

........bring May flowers.......or so they say. The sun is finally shining! lets hope it sticks around for a while. I weighed into day and am down another pound......slow and steady, that's me! I'm busy packing today for the spring retreat! this time in addition to scrapbooking I'm going to move my pictures over to an external hard drive. Wish me luck that I can get it done, it's long overdue!! I have almost 15,000 pictures slowing down my surfing! I'm still plugging away with my project 365, I'm just too lazy to post the picture each day. I'm hoping to get caught up with my printing and do come journaling in my album. I dont' want to get too far behind with it. It's been fun and stressful, I'm not sure I'll do this again.

I'm so proud!!

Today the boys did the youth run as part of the 1st Illinois Marathon here in town. We've been walking and running to train them for today. They had a really good time and got a nice medal. It's also my project 365 potd :)

my first goal

as excited as I was it's taken me a day to get this posted! I did weigh in on Wed but was bummed, I thought I'd hit this goal and come up a pound short :( but not letting that stop me I weighed again on Thursday and did it!!! I am officially 100 lbs down from my heaviest weight!! GO ME!! :) I've still got a long way to go but I know I'll get there!!! It feels good being on the other side of this hill!!

Photo update

Since I can't really see a difference from month to month it helps me to post a "before" picture......I was using one from May 2008 which was really an after-I-already-lost a good amount....but I just recently came across this picture....YIKES!!

I need to figure out how to put the pictures side by side.

Not much else has been going on with us lately. The boys had spring break last week and we just hung out around the house not doing much of anything. We went to see a couple movies, nothing too exciting. It was hard to get back into the swing of school. Mitchell started texting, he has texted my niece and mom a few times but now he's doing it with friends from school.....I know, not a big deal LOL but he sure is growing up fast. He's in boy scouts now and is getting even more independent.

check this out...

My friend Sasha always gets really great deals......so she started a blog about it. She's giving away a great prize right now so go check it out!! http://www.sharingthedeals.com/2009/03/my-first-giveaway_25.html

and I'll be posting my 1st day of the month photo later today :)

slow and steady

that's how I describe my weight loss. I was excited to weigh in today I'm down another 4lbs! I'm weighing in at 229....down 93lbs!!! I'll save you the math.....I started this journey at a whopping 322lbs!! probably a little more but that's the official highest weight.

weigh

Another great weigh in! 3 more pounds down!!

We've had a crazy busy week here. I really wanted to post some pictures of the great times we had last week......I'll put it on my to-do list for the weekend.

Weigh in Wednesday!

down another 3lbs.....for a total loss of 74lbs!!! I'm still not really seeing it myself but now people are commenting it, so that's good :) Not too shabby for not being at the gym much last week. I think this week I'll go easy on the cardio and hopefully by next week my butt will be able to handle the machines again.

and I'm a little late in posting my picture on the first so here it is now. along with a previous picture...

This is from May 2008

and March 1 2009

Weigh in Wednesday!

I'm down 9 lbs!! woo hoo!!! I did break my coccyx on Sat so my gym time this week is drastically cut! I had to call all over town to find a butt cushion :) I now have my doughnut cushion and it's working well!

Win a custom chipboard book

Creek Bank Creations is giving away a custom cut chipboard album.......check it out here http://creekbankcreations.blogspot.com/

I've bought 2 before and they're a great quality, sturdy chipboard!

We're having such a productive day......

but not by choice :) lets go back a few days. The main drain from the house got clogged or blocked and it backed up into the lower level :( yuck! but since my man is an uber handy man and paid attention the last time this happened and we had to call a plumber, he went right out and got the tools he needed and fixed the problem....or so we thought.....anyway a few hours and lots of adventure I won't go into as of this morning it's all fixed. So I've spend most of today cleaning the laundry room. It looks so good, well as good as a laundry, furnace & hot water heater room can look :) and I've started chipping away at Mt. Laundry.

Right now Brian and the boys are at a cub scout pack swim at the indoor aquatic center. Kinda sad it'll be one of the last events Mitchell does as a cub scout. I'm having such a hard time believing he's old enough to move on to boy scouts, even when I have to look up to look him in the eye!!

Weigh in Wednesday!

slow and steady! that's my new motto! another 4lbs shed. GO ME!!

I hit another milestone!

Today I went 4.6 miles on the elliptical with 800 calories burned!!! I also lost another 1.5 lbs

Red letter day....or should I say Red....

scale day!! as of today I have officially lost 60 lbs!!

Time for a photo

I've only lost about 1.5 pounds since the first of December so this photo isn't much different from the last one.....but here it is anyway.

On Saturday I spent the day at Camp Drake with Mitchell. He is a second year Webelo and got to participate in the Klondike Derby. I always thought of myself as an inside girl.....turns out that if you take away the heat and the bugs I don't mind being outside at all :) here are a couple pictures of the derby. Oh and Mitchells Webelo patrol won the final sled race!!

Project 365

I decided to take part in Project 365 this year.....basically I'm taking a picture each day for the year. So far it's going pretty good. I thought I'd share a few of my favorites so far.

Happy Birthday Matty

Matty turned 9 today. I'm pretty sure he had a great day :) He only asked for one thing, well really one thing with 2 parts. And he asked for this way back in September.......he wanted to stay home from school on his birthday, he AND Mitchell :) what a sweetie, how could I resist. Since Sept anytime he's refered to his birthday he always reminds me that he'll be home. Once we looked at the calendar we found that it was also a 4 day weekend......bonus!! then due to the extreme cold weather we had last week they were out on Wed too......so hello 6 day weekend!! Anyway back to our day. Brian took the day off to spend with us, Matty had it all planned out. We'd watch the inauguration (Ok I added this one!) then off to lunch at Jimmy John's (a local sandwhich shop), a little shopping at target, a movie - Paul Blart Mall Cop (very funny!) then dinner at El Toro (his favorite place! Mexican).