Big changes a coming

Maybe......

I'm heading to Pennsylvania in a few days for a big interview. I'm getting really excited and nervous, of course. I haven't met any of the midwives in person yet but just the emails and phone call that I've had with them makes me feel like this could be "the one". I had a phone interview with another practice in Michigan yesterday and while I felt pretty good about it when it was over, I'm not getting my hopes up. They are really looking for a local candidate so will interview a couple of them before they would even consider bringing me out for a face to face interview. Whereas the Pennsylvania practice is flying me out, putting me up in hotel, and have given me a complete itinerary for the day - meeting the providers, then the director of the perinatal unit, lunch with the office staff, docs and midwives, and tour of housing and the community by a local realtor. There are two midwives in the practice, one who wants to pick me up from the airport Sunday night, and the other who wants to pick me up for breakfast at the hotel Monday morning. I feel wanted. :o) But also incredibly worried that I will say something stupid. Or that they will ask me a clinical question and I will have forgotten everything I learned in the last three years. 

Anyway, that leaves me with just a few days to feel good about myself physically and to find something nice and professional to wear. While I plan to stick with Jorge and the BFC, I'm going to give myself a jump start by following the Flat Belly Diets four day anti-bloat menu plan. I just don't want to feel blah when I get to Pennsylvania and I think eliminating some poochy belly foods will help. So that's my plan..... Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Well, that and a trip to Kohl's.

Flight of ideas.... cause that's how my mind works

Aunt Krista had a birthday yesterday. Her last from what I hear. They will no longer be mentioned or celebrated, hence, she will not age after this year.

Yep, she's older than me. Still.

I mentioned going out to eat for her birthday but she is doing pretty well on this fancy shmancy diet of hers so she didn't want to mess it up. (Has to be fit to walk the Great Wall, don't ya know?) Instead she went to look for paint samples. Ooh, the excitement.

I, however, am not doing too hot this 5th week into my diet despite joining back up with ww. Okay, so I did lose a whole 0.8 pounds this week, but aren't you supposed to lose a FEW when you first start following a diet? So far I have gained 0.2 and lost 0.8, so really I'm only down about a half pound. Ugh! I'm not even going over my weekly points, darn it.

To get my mind off that mess, the hubs and I went out for a pre Valentine dinner to this place. Kind of a little hole in the wall stuck in a strip mall so you might never even notice it. It was worth the God forsaken amount of points I ate though. Thank goodness I had only eaten whole grain waffles for breakfast.

Even still, I really bit into my weekly points. And if you ever taste the sinfully delicious coconut shrimp with PINA COLADA sauce, you would totally understand. My ground beef enchiladas rojas were a little greasy and nothing too spectacular but Bobby's carnitas tacos with cilantro and lime were yummo! (And probably a whole lot fewer points, come to think of it.)

I guess it's a good thing I weighed in this morning. :op I have a whole week to make up for it. I think Jillian and I are going to have to start hanging out again. I'm going to try to stick with the 6 week 6 pack abs since I will be heading to Cancun in, count em, 6 weeks and 5 days!! Maybe I really will have a 6 pack by then. Jill says I can.

Got to be on call at work on Saturday so we caught up on a few movies. We watched The Road which is an utterly depressing take on the post apocalyptic world based on the book of the same name. Which I should mention, you should probably not read if the movie was depressing enough for you. While I'm not thinking the world will be all sunshine and roses in the aftermath, I would like to believe in the decency of people. Yep, that's me, the eternal optimistic. What? Stop snickering.

Also watched The Last Exorcism. Sort of the Blair Witch Project for exorcisms. It's a little slow to start, gets a little freaky, yet possibly explainable, then throws in a surprise ending that ends up being expected, if that makes sense. Bobby didn't think it was very good, but I thought it wasn't too bad. Definitely slow to start, but plausible, at least until the very end when the rational explanation kind of went out the window and the freakiness turned into typical horror movie antics. Still, it freaked me out enough that I had to fold clothes while turned sideways in the darkened hallway for fear that a possessed/mentally unstable 16 yr old girl would be standing behind me if I turned my back. 

Yeah, I have a window phobia too. Can't look out the windows in the dark because there will be a possessed/mentally unstable 16 yr old girl looking in..... See how the idea is planted?

Speaking of planting ideas, also watched Inception. That was a good one. Can't even begin to fathom the depths of imagination of the folks who came up with that idea.

How bout you? Seen any good movies lately?

Oh, remember how I complained that The Other Guys was the dumbest movie ever? Not so. It actually had a couple laughable parts. No, "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans" with Nicolas Cage, that's the worst movie ever. I actually had to turn it off. The acting actually got worse the further you got in, if you can believe that. Even Nic Cage sucked, which is too bad cause I liked him in almost every other movie he was in. National Treasure, Face Off, Lord of War, Matchstick Men, The Family Man, THE ANT BULLY, for chrissake........ even Con Air with his horribly bad southern accent was a good one. Please, if you like Nicolas Cage at all, DO NOT WATCH THIS MOVIE.

Oh, and happy Valentine's Day, the official Hallmark holiday.

Is it Spring yet where you are? I could almost believe it yesterday when the thermometer reached up into the 50's, but then I think back to just a few days ago when it was 0, yes, ZERO degrees...... I'm ready for warm. Or at least, not so darn cold.

Week 3

Weighed in yesterday at 171.6, which is sort of a gain, but technically a loss...... if you remember the rude things my scale had to say last week. :op

For those of you adventureous enough to venture out tomorrow, could you bring me some Koolaid and diapers? Forgot to pick those up this morning at the grocery. Probably because the grocery was a MADHOUSE. I got a little flustered. I don't do crowds. Have I mentioned that?

Guess the kids will be drinking water and Tess will be potty trained by the time this storm of historical proportions passes through. Have already gotten the 2 hr delay call for school tomorrow. Pretty sure the kids will be spending the day with me. So much for catching up on some studying.....

Week 2

I've decided to just completely skip my weigh in for this week. That's not to say that I didn't weigh myself, just that I am going to ignore the scale. Cuz I didn't like what it told me. Apparently, having an all night eat and drink fest for your birthday followed by a couple more days of eating and drinking yourself into oblivion might possibly annoy your scale and make it say mean things to you, like "Fat Ass! Get off of me!"
Or something like that.

Hopefully, the scale will have recovered from it's psychotic break by next Sunday.

Week 1 success!

First week weigh in: 171 lbs!
Down 3 pounds this week.
Good thing I don't weight in again until next Sunday, as I sit here with my Starbucks Caramel Macchiato ice cream. What? They gave me a coupon for my birthday. How could I say no?

Snore-a-vision

Too bad it's not or you could hear this sickly little peep sawing logs.

I think she got a wee bit chilled during our camping trip thanks to 40 something degree nights

and now has a bit of a fever......and an attitude.

Here's a sneak peek of our camping trip to Huest0n W00ds.

There will be more to follow but with the mountains of laundry, going back to work tonight, and being solidly entrenched in the last two weeks of the quarter, I don't have time to edit the pics right now.

We did have a great time and ate way too many smores.

I made a point of not weighing in on our day back.

After one day back on my diet, I was actually down to 168. Woowoo!

Slacker

Sorry no update this week. Been busy with work, school, soccer....... you know the deal. Plus, I went o a wedding that may have stricken my short term memory for several days. Congrats to Mr and Mrs Gibson! Thanks for the open bar.

Probably related to that (is rum low carb?), week 5 weigh in was 168.4. I know, the big .6 lb loss there.
This week will probably suck more because we're going camping this afternoon and I won't be weighing in until we get back. Bring on the smores baby!

A few things

Our girls are laying eggs!

They started last week. The boys went out to water them in the morning and there were eggs in the nest box.

We have a dozen already. Some of them are pretty small, but they are petite girls.

Just in time for my low carb/low sugar diet.

Yep, that's right. I'm on a diet again.

It's these girls' fault.

Okay, maybe not all their fault, but, this is what happens when I hang out with them.

We eat, drink, and become merry.

After our trip to Alabama, a trip to Cinci with my girls, and eating every sugar laden item of food I could find, I put on almost 10 pounds! So long 165, here's looking at almost 175.

I'm a little burnt out on WW (obviously) so I'm turning to J0rge Cruise and his Belly Fat Cure.

It seems a little similar to Atkins, South Beach, Sugar Busters.....

except for with this, you are only counting carb servings and sugar grams.

My official weigh in on Aug 1 was 174.8.

I know, right?

But, knowing that I was going on a low sugar diet required me to stuff as much cake, candy bars, cookies, and pop into my face as I could handle.

But you know what, I don't even miss them.

Well, maybe the butter pecan cake, just a little.

So far so good though. I'll let you know how it goes Sunday.

Oh and hey, guess what?

The hubby passed his police officer exam.

Yay!!

Now, we just wait to see if he can find a position somewhere. It's slim pickins these days.

Quick update

My kids are really cute. So cute in fact, it makes it almost impossible to pick out pictures.

Remember this dark haired cutie?

She's been replaced with a blond.

I sat through a four hour dance recital tonight.

Some of it was really enjoyable. Some of it was downright torture.

Think of 4 yr olds dancing. In tap shoes.

Tatum is in her 3rd year of ballet and her first year of acrobats, which meant a slightly chaotic costume change with a few minutes to spare in between numbers.

We actually stayed for the entire program this year, all 67 dances.

We are heading off to Alabama in the morning, or should I say, in a few hours, for a mini vacation and a long overdue visit with my SIL and her kids. We haven't seen them since Teagan was a baby.

As for what else has been keeping us busy lately

• Finishing up the Spring quarter for school. Not going to finish early like I always hope to.
• Baseball season is over, or at least the regular season has ended. Now on to tournaments. Oh joy.
• I fell for the 80 degree temps mid April and planted my garden way too early.
• Which meant I had to replant over half of it last week.

• Bobby passed his physical fitness test despite not running AT ALL before the test.
• I don't know why I doubted him.
• He is scheduled to take his Ohio Police Officers yada yada yada test July 20.
• I have to start hanging out with Jillian again.
• Not only am I stuck on this plateau, but now it is starting to grow a hill on top.
• I'm sure our stop by the Whistle Stop cafe for some deep fried southern food is not going to help.

Woo, I'm off to bed now so I can get up with the alarm clock in a few hours and finish packing. :op

First quarter recap

Looking back at the goals for 2010:


•Lose 10 pounds.
Uh, thoroughly sucking at that. Lose one, gain one, and so on, and so forth. Enough said.

•Pay off 2 credit accounts.
Done! Paid off both of my credit cards. And a student loan, and my Invisalign account. Woowoo!

•Stay in school.
Quarter #7 starts Monday. I have apparently lost my mind and decided to take 4 classes this time around. If you never hear from me again, you'll know why.

Another round

Despite the fact that I lost ABSOLUTELY NO WEIGHT my last go round with Jillian, I am giving her another chance to prove that her 30 day shred really does work. I am only on Day 2 and let me tell you, push ups make your boobies hurt. I haven't done Level 1 in awhile so I sort of kind of forgot about the push ups.

I'm trying to be smart this go round. I figured out this new method for losing weight. It's called, get this...... Diet AND exercise. Imagine that. If you put the two together, purportedly, you will lose weight.

Purportedly..... I like that word. It means allegedly for those of you that don't hang out with those hoity toities Merriam and Webster. 

Anyway, supposedly, all you gotta do is diet and exercise to lose weight. Hmmm, we'll see. At this point, I would be happy to lose 5 pounds. While I've enjoyed the 160's for the last several months, I really would like to tell them Sayonara baby, see you in the 150's.
Haven't seen them for what, like, how old is Travis?
A long daggum time, let's just say that.

Speaking of going another round, Vader is on his second round, or should I say, his second life. He is our indoor/outdoor cat. Thursday morning he got hit by a car. I think we might have been in more pain paying the vet bill than he was after the incident. Bobby wasn't too thrilled forking over the dough for "a stray".

Um, yeah, Vader was a stray.
The kids found him in a tree and brought him home,
to be a member of the family,
over a year ago.
I don't really think we can call him a stray anymore.

Apparently (not purportedly), his diaphragm was pushed up into his lungs, with one of his lungs collapsed. The vet couldn't be sure that his liver wasn't also pushed up through his diaphragm. She gave him a cocktail of antibiotics, steriods, and a pain killer, and told us we would just have to wait and see if he improved.

He didn't have any bladder control after he was hit, so we locked him in the bathroom the first night home, where he slept on the rug, panting and barely moving .He's doing a whole lot better today. His breathing has returned to normal, he's eating, using the litter box, and jumping up onto the changing table to sleep.

His new name is "That Damn $400 cat".  

It's Monday

And you know what that means? Absolutely nothing.

Bang, bang, watch out, here come the bullets!

• Took the fam to Dave and Busters for Tanner's birthday.
• The kids had a blast.
• My steak sucked.
• I still ate it, cuz I'm not picky like that.
• I missed a due date and turned in an assignment late.
• I should have gotten a big fat 0.
• My instructor took pity on my stupidity and accepted it anyway.
• Thank you Dr. G.
• Three weeks into the 30 day shred.
• I feel stronger but...
• I have lost NOT. ONE. SINGLE. POUND.
• My slacking off this week probably didn't help.
• Neither did the Girl Scout cookies.
• Or the birthday cake.
• Have you ever had this?

• Oh. My. God.
• I thought butter pecan, not really my thing. Then I ate 4 pieces. Right out of the pan.
• Thank God I didn't buy a 12 pack.
• But you can, from Amaz*n.
• Oh, about the food waste challenge?
• We didn't waste any cake.
• But some old lettuce had to go and a few Valentine cupcakes that practically melted.
• Candy and icing apparently don't mix.

Now onto the rest of the week....

Friday update

Working tonight, having a pj party on Monday with my girls for my bday, and have a couple assignments to work on, so you may not be hearing from me over the weekend.

That said, thought I'd update a few goings on.

The spending freeze: Melted, or at least, thawing.

A big part of the reason is my dear husband's Suburban. AKA The money pit.
As if spending $2000+ in November for a new engine wasn't enough, we put another $150 into it in December for some kind of sensor or something because it wouldn't start (with a brand new engine). That $150 part did not get it to start, because even though Bobby thought that was what was wrong with it, uh it obviously wasn't.
Moving into January, we have put another $200 into the darn thing and it does run, at least until the next thing breaks on it. Thank goodness it is paid for or I might be birthing a cow right now.

Needless to say, by the time we replace every. single. part. on it, it will be brand new.

And paid for. I have to keep telling myself that part of it. There is no car payment, there is no car payment, there is no car payment.......

We took the kids to Toys r US to spend their Christmas gift cards, and while we didn't spend any cash there, manuevering five kids through a toy store can take up a chunk of your evening. By the time we left, everyone had the hunger whines going, we were 30 minutes away from home and I hadn't thawed anything out for dinner. Considering it would take at least an hour to get dinner on the table, their favorite buffet restaurant won out. Still only $47 for a family of 7 for dinner out is not that bad of a deal.

Tate has been growing up and out of her jeans so I made a run for the kids resale store. $25 for 5 pairs of pants and a pair of gym shoes. Not too shabby.

So, I've kind of given up on the spending freeze this month. I think I'm going to postpone it a few months. February is not good because it's a big birthday month for us. Then Teag's bday is in March, so maybe we'll try again in April.

The diet: haven't weighed myself yet this week, but have been pretty good about sticking to my points.

School: Only two exams to take in reproductive A&P and I'll actually be done with that class. Pretty impressive, eh?
Now just to get busy with the other two courses.

House: I need to decrapify a la The Thrifty Decor Chick. Now I'm not going to go all "it's a new year, I need to totally decluter my entire house this weekend". Although I do. Baby steps, people. I figure if I can commit to decluttering one area of my house per month, I might actually get something accomplished. I'm not going to announce it or set any schedule, because it depends on what I feel like doing. I might share some before pictures or I might not. They might be too scary. But I think Sarah hit the nail on the head. When my house is out of control, I feel out of control. And with five little mess contributors I feel out of control enough as it is. So just keep your eye out for that.

Maybe you can declutter right along with me. You too can be a decrapper.

First week

Looking back on the first week of January, I have to say, how is it already January 9th? Didn't we just have Christmas????

Anyway, school started for me on Monday. Not only did I check in to all my classes online, I touched base with my learning team partners for my research class and finished two tests in my reproductive A&P class. Starting off well, we'll see if I finish early like I always plan. :op

The kids had a snow day on Friday. By dinner time, they were completely on each others' nerves. The roads weren't terribly bad but since we have so many country kids and a limited number of snowplows for this small town, they usually cancel if there are several inches of snow or if it is icy.

Speaking of icy, I cheated a little bit on the spending freeze. Just in the first weekend of January, I spent $5 at work because the girls wanted to order pizza, I bought about $5 worth of 75% Xmas ornaments (how could I resist), and I bought two pairs of clearance gym shoes for two of the peeps who are going to be needing them soon. As any Mom of many can tell you, if you find shoes for cheap, you buy them then. That was up to Jan 3rd. This week, I've done pretty good. Just bought a capucinno on the way to work one day, that's it. And it was only a buck! Now the hubster? Well, I'll have to reiterate the requirements of the spending freeze.

I finally stepped on the scale last weekend. I pretty much avoided it for the month of December because I knew with eating everything in sight, it couldn't be good. I was up 5-6 pounds depending on which scale you believe and depending on how accurate it is to weigh yourself 10 hours into a 12 hour shift and after eating dinner, two desserts, and a grape pop. Yes, two desserts. I couldn't make up my mind and I knew it was my last weekend to indulge.

Anyway, one week back into point counting and I'm only one pound above my ticker weight. Not too bad. Now to incorporate exercise...... trying to decide about a gym membership vs the YMCA vs home DVD's. Any suggestions?

Back on track

I've felt like I'm falling behind lately. Like no matter what I do, I can't get ahead. I'm in my 4th week of this quarter but felt like I have accomplished next to nothing for school. What with working, cleaning, laundry, grocery shopping.....life in general......who has time for anything?

I started off this quarter off kilter anyway, not getting my books until the 2nd week, and I've felt time flying by since then. I feel like I'm getting back on track though. I did finish two of my patho quizzes and finally got around to finishing a rather easy paper that I just put off and put off. I looked at the timelines for my classes and am surprisingly, not that far off.

On the weight loss front, I finally match that weight I have listed down there for July. ;op With a trip to Kentucky in August, then Savannah and Tennessee in September, the numbers on the scale were creeping back up. I have been fighting with the same 4 pounds since July and thankfully, have finally beat them. For now. Needless to say, I am still one pound away from my second goal of 165. I am under my pre Teagan weight though. Woohoo! It's like I only had 3 kids. Sort of.

I went shopping a couple weeks ago because I saw some really cute boots in Kohl's ad, and who couldn't use a new pair of cute boots? While I was there I eyeballed a pair of size 12's and thought what the heck, they can only be too tight. Would you believe they weren't tight? They weren't even a little snug! They fit perfect! Have I mentioned I love Lee's comfort waist band jeans? Love them!

It's funny, I never really paid attention to the fact that my pants were a little loose, probably because those last 4 pounds were teasing me. Now that I have a smaller size, it's really noticeable, the rest of my jeans are loose.

Not quite ready to get rid of them though. Not sure I've seen the last of those last 4 pounds.

Last week in review

I've been busy, busy around here which is why I've been absent from the blog world. To recap, my baby girl is 13 months old and then some. She has turned into a speed demon. Not yet willing to take a step on her own, but not letting it slow her down. She uses this push toy just like a little old lady with a walker. If something gets in her way, she just picks up her walker and moves it.

She has mastered the stairs.

Can't catch me!

Teagan, Tess and I took advantage of one of the sunny days last week to go out to lunch and to the park. Tess ate like a piggy, as usual. She was loving the mandarin oranges from Wendy's.

Enough with the pictures, Mom.

I think you can see her two little toofers in this pic. The two of them showed up about 10 months and we have yet to see any more.

She liked the slide.

But she loves the swing.

This is another of her quirks. She likes to drink water, from the faucet. Doesn't matter how fast the water is coming out. She will still try it.

She is another little fish, just like the rest of them. If she hears water running, she comes crawling, ripping the shower curtain open to try to climb in.

Tatum and Teagan in their "new" jammies. They insisted on wearing the flannel pjs despite it being 74 degrees in the house. I went to Once Upon a Child to find some sleepers for Tess. She is officially too long for her 6-9 month size. And yes, Tatum was giving Teagan a piggy back ride.

Never to be outdone, Travis wanted a pic too. I guess he thought he had to pick someone up to have his pic taken.

So, what else is going on around here?

• Travis joined the boy scouts (Popcorn, anyone?)
• Tatum is now going to ballet AND tumbling
• Bobby made the dean's list for last quarter
• I finished my quarter and am on a short break
• I joined another weight loss challenge at work. Sadly, I was 1/2 pound heavier than when I started the last one. Apparently, going out of town three times in two weeks is not good for the scale.
• Two months and $1250 later, it's confirmed. We are not child endangerers.

What, you say? What am I talking about? Well, many of you already know, but for those that don't, I'll enlighten you. On July 3, Teagan thought he wanted to follow Tanner on his bike. So, he went in the garage, got on his bike, and attempted to follow Tanner up the street. Unfortunately, Tanner nor Bobby or I knew. The police found him in the McD's parking lot. That's about 5 blocks up the street. The officer who brought him back charged Bobby with child endangering.

So, fast forward a few days. We're locking the doors, have a padlock on the gate and tell the big kids to shut the garage door after they get their bikes out. I checked on Teagan playing in the backyard, not even near the garage, then went upstairs to change a poopy diaper. I was gone maybe 6 or 7 minutes. When I came back down, I asked Tatum to go check on him again. She comes back all nonchalantly, "he's not out there" and goes back to watching cartoons, not a care in the world. I ran out the back, through the garage that I noticed was open, out the church parking lot behind us. I checked the creek behind our house, looked up and down the next street over, came back over to our house and looked up and down the street. It was about this time that I realized that I wouldn't find him on foot. All I could think was, I've got to get in the car. I went back into the house to get the girls and my car keys. As I was walking back out, a police car pulled up in front. It was the same officer that we dealt with on Friday.

I asked if he found him. Apparently, Teagan was riding his bike down the middle of the street in the plat behind our house, where we always take our walks. And, he would not get in the police car this time. Probably because he remembered how bad Mom freaked out the last time he came home in a police car. Anyway, I had to go up the street to pick him up. He was in the front yard of one of the houses we always walk by with a Mom and her kids, sipping on a juice pack. So, the officer followed me home to get my statement, and charged me with child endangering.

He went on and on about the seriousness of the incident. Um, hello? Do you think I don't appreciate the seriousness? That I didn't imagine every possible scenario of what could have happened? Anyway, we put his bike in the basement, installed a breaker switch for the garage and waited for a court date. Oh, forgot this part, I assumed Travis must have left the garage open, although he insisted he didn't. When we investigated a little further, Bobby noticed an old popcorn tin and my garden kneeler pad on top right underneath the switch to the door. We asked Teagan how he got out and he said "I pushed the button". Hence, the addition of the breaker switch.

When there are charges of child endangering, Children's Services will come by to make a house call. Of course, we had already installed all the locks and hadn't had anymore incidents, although not because he didn't try. There wasn't much else they could suggest. She listened to my version of the incident. My point was, even though the garage door wasn't closed the first time and the gate wasn't locked, they never were. We had three older kids who never left the yard, so how could we anticipate that he would. The case worker agreed and said she didn't feel the kids were in any danger (why, thank you for that), and closed her case.

With Bobby being in the police academy, we didn't want to take any chances with the judge. So we hired a lawyer. With his fee and court costs, we were out $1250, but the case was dismissed. I didn't mention it here before because my head was somewhere between being embarrassed and being pissed off. I mean who wants to admit they've been charged with child endangering? But then again, who wants someone telling them they are a bad parent and they deserve to be charged with child endangering?

The sad part was, right after that, an 8 month old baby was left in his Mom's car while she went to work, probably intentionally as he was on the floor board, not in his car seat. Then a 3 yr old died after shooting himself with his parents gun he found under the bed. And on top of that, two kids, a toddler and an infant were put in a trashcan by their deadbeat Dad. Just in the last couple days, a man left his 1 yr old in the backseat of the car when he fled the police, and a woman was arrested because her heroin and needles were sitting within reach of her two year old's car seat.

Somehow,on the scale of what's more dangerous for children, I just can't equate my Houdini 4 yr old with these other cases. And yet, we were all charged with child endangering.

Garden fresh goodies

Right now my garden is looking like a jungle. Remind me next year to stake me tomatoes, because uh, I didn't this year. They're not really tomato plants, more like tomato vines. And they're covered in gobs of green goodness. (Was I the only one who thought of greasy, grimey gopher guts to follow gobs of?) Anyway, today's lunch consisted of a salad made with homegrown lettuce, brocolli, and cucumbers! (Plus some other not so homegrown veggies).

And is it just me, or is anyone else a little chilly? I mean seriously, the AC is turned off again, the windows are open and my feet are cold. Beats sweating with the AC chugging so I guess I'll stop complaining.

Welcome beautifully comfortable August. To recap July:

• Nope, didn't make the No Spend Challenge. I am a Democrat after all and went well over budget.

• Almost halfway through my fourth quarter of school. I will be heading back down to Kentucky in a couple weeks to finish up the bridge year. I was pretty nervous the first time I went but am super excited to go this time and can't wait to revisit my classmates.

• My baby girl will be celebrating her first birthday next weekend. :o( I'm really not ready for these little people to grow up. I swear I am not letting Teagan turn 5. He will perpetually be 4.

• Bobby and I will be celebrating our 15th wedding anniversary this Friday with food, family, and friends. I've been busy getting ready for that, just one of the reasons I busted the budget.

• School starts in 18 days!!! The kids are not excited but I am. Hehehe.

• Finally finished painting my office. I'll post pics once I get the pictures back on the walls.

• Down to 166! Only one more pound to hit my second goal of 165!

• I've got two big assignments due this week that I am hoping to finish tonight and tomorrow, so I'll be signing off for now.

Sprinkler fun

I took the little peeps and a couple of their friends to the sprinkler park last week. That's right. Seven kids, all by myself. Seven really wasn't all that hard. The hardest part was ignoring the requests for ice cream from the custard stand conveniently located across the street. Tate, Tess and E
Our neighbors also have 5 kids. Nice, huh? Except for my 4yr old, everyone's got somebody to hang out with.The last pic that Tess halfway cooperated for.

See what I mean?

The big kids were too fast to catch on camera, especially while trying to keep one eye on the crawling girl.

Tess was not too keen on the water but she sure enjoyed sticking the pebbles in her mouth.

All the kids tried to evade the camera.

See what I mean?

Update on the diet, I have been sticking to my points and am 3 workouts into the 30 day shred. Let me just say, ow. It's going to be more than a 30 day shred for me. Since I work 3 nights in a row, I will not be working out on those in between days. I prefer sleep. I've been doing pretty good except for that trip to Pizza Hut last night,which will probably screw up my weigh in for this week.

Yep, Pizza Hut. If you've been paying attention, that means I crashed my own budget challenge. So far, I'm at $267 and I still have 10 more days to go. I'm going to need gas before then. Yeah, Pizza Hut should have been skipped, but I over spent at the grocery store too. I have a problem. When I go to the store, even if I know what we are short on, I feel like if xyz is on sale and I have a coupon and I know we will eat it, I should buy it then. Factor in the 40 minute round trip drive and that only makes sense.

Oh well, I guess my brother was right. Democrats can't not spend money.

First Half update

Moving into the second half of the year, I thought I would revisit my goals for the year.

I will lose 10 pounds. CHECK

I have actually lost 20 pounds. So double check. :o) I have started counting pounts again this week, because apparently, I have to. I have climbed out of the rut I was in through June and have made it into the 160's. Just barely at 169, but it's a start. Yay!!!

We will work harder at paying down our debt by paying off at least 2 credit cards. CHECK

Just paid off the second one and am working on the third. Of course,we acquired some new debt in the form of orthodontics. But, you got to get rid of the old to make room for the new, right?

Stay in school.

That's the easy one. I just started my 4th quarter on Monday. That's right, my 4th! Which means I'm pretty close to completing my first year. A three year program sounded really long last Fall. Now? Not so much. And thankfully, this quarter is a pretty light one. Good thing too, since I think Fall quarter is going to be a killer.

Other goings on around here, someone has been moved to a high chair with a harness.

Wonder why?

The garden is really coming up. Those are sunflowers along the back with broccoli, lettuce, carrots, peppers, tomatoes, onions, green beans and potatoes from left to right. The huge thing in the foreground is a vicious zuchinni plant that wants to take over the whole garden, me thinks. We've already munched on some fried green tomatoes and broccoli and lettuce.

We have a new addition. Travis AKA Dr Doolittle brought home another foundling. At least this time it wasn't another baby duck. This is Vader. He joins Chewie. Get it? Chewie and (Darth) Vader? Hahaha
The boys came up with that one. He's a cute, playful little kitty who doesn't seem to mind being carried around constantly or being tugged on by a toddler.

I may not be posting too much for awhile. With school starting for me, Bobby's classes, work, and the busyness of taking care of a house and 5 little chicks, I'll be a bit preoccupied. We also have some issues right now due to a Houdini of a 4 yr old who has escaped our yard only to be found by the police. I don't think I want to share too much until I know that it's resolved. Let's just say, it's an unwelcome stress we're having to deal with.

Stuck in a rut

June has been a total bust. I looked at my weight loss tracker and noticed that I am hovering at the same weight I was on May 28. And while losing 20 pounds from my pre Tess weight feels really good, another 20 pounds would feel even better, especially considering that I haven't even hit my second goal of 165.

Wendy talked about this on her blog too, about how we get complacent because we feel better and people are telling us we look better. I think we fall back into that "I'm fine with where I am" stage, when really, we're not.

Before a night out with the girls

I celebrated the first twenty pounds with a shopping trip, to Good*will. Yep, I'm cheap. Plus, these are just transitional clothes right? It felt good to try on clothes that fit, in a smaller size. And if you've never tried Lee's comfort fit waistband jeans, you're missing out. I LOVE them. They are super comfy and don't leave me with the huge gap at the back of the waist band that I usually get.

So, I'll be jumping back on the wagon. I plan to start tracking points and am looking at some different options for working out. I'll keep you posted.