Strange Week

I have had a strange week...I have not felt real well, extremely tired and blah feeling all week. That Kid has been in College Station helping out with a hockey camp so it has just been the 3 of us here. I guess I better get used to that feeling since he'll only be home 19 more days till he moves into the dorms, but I still have almost 3 weeks to deal with those issues...ya know?? He comes home tonight so things will get back to somewhat normal.

I was really looking forward to working out with my new Wii Active game and working out with the new level of the Sculpt DVD, but I have been soooo tired by the time I have gotten That Other Kid in bed all I have wanted to do is sleep, so I have skipped my workouts this week to try to get some extra sleep. It has felt strange to not workout, but I don't think I would have been very productive and effective if I would have tried them. Yesterday afternoon I realized what part of my problem was, because my "visitor" showed up with a vengeance. That explains ALOT!! It explains why I haven't wanted to eat good food, it explains why I have been so tired, it explains my grumpiness, it explains why my face looks like a teenager going through puberty! What is up with that?? Didn't I just turn 44 years old??

Anywho....all this to say, I hope I get over this strange week and get back on track tomorrow...I don't want to lose all my momentum. Yesterday I went to get my hair done and my hairdresser made a comment about how good I am looking. Then she asked how much weight I had lost....23 pounds, thankyouverymuch!! and it feels GOOD!!

Weigh-In Wednesday -- BLAHH!!

Well I guess I really over did it with eating the past few days. I knew I had way overdone it on the calories a couple of days but I thought the increased exercising (I'll tell you about that in a minute) would make up for it. I WAS WRONG!! I went this afternoon to the gym to weigh myself -- I normally go about 10:30 or 11 a.m.; so maybe that made a difference, too -- and ouch!! Those scales were ugly to me --

Last week's weigh in -- 203 EVEN
Today's weigh in -- 204.10 UGH!! That wasn't supposed to happen.

I guess all the ice cream and desserts I've been craving and indulging in the past few days have really hurt me. But...

Last night I bumped my exercising up AGAIN-- I started on the Biggest Loser Body Sculpt Week 3, which is 40 minutes of exercises. Then I also did some Wii Fit. After all that I decided to just try out my new Wii EA Sports game. I set my profile up and tried out some of the exercises, just for fun and see what it would take to do these on a regular basis. It was fun!! But, omg I can really tell I did different stuff last night...I am sore today!! Of course, it hasn't helped that I have not done anything active today so far!All that will change tonight after That Other Kid goes to bed!! I'm going to get back to it and get that weight and MORE off. I obviously didn't meet my goal of being at or below 200 on my birthday, which is a bit depressing and sad considering how close I was/am, but I'm not letting it get me down. I'm just going to press on and get those pounds off!!

Well I'm off to fold some laundry...sound fun, NOT...but at least I'll be moving, right??!! Hope ya'll had a good week.

Today's My Birthday!

and the day started out great! Just as I was getting ready to hop into the shower, a good friend of mine stopped off at my house to surprise me and go out for a quick lunch with our boys. She didn't even realize it was my birthday, but that made it even more special! So I went in and took a shower and prepared to go out for a fast food lunch and let the boys get all hot and sweaty...always fun! After lunch we went back home and let the boys play for a bit.

After they left to go home, dh and That Other Kid and I went to lunch at a nice mexican food place, Blue Goose Cantina. It was about 3 p.m. so we were one of 3 groups in the restaurant so it was nice that we had good service and we didn't have to worry that That Other Kid would disturb anyone. He was not in the mood to sit and be still and quiet, but he did eat 1/4 of a tortilla which was a food first for him (remember he has food allergies, so a lot of "normal" kid foods he doesn't get and hasn't tried). It was so yummy and they had Fried IceCream, the most delicious dessert to ever be created! What could be better, ice cream, cinnamon, whipped cream, and a fried crust??!!

After stuffing myself to the gills, we went over to Target and dh bought me this Wii game which is the only thing I really asked for. See how serious I am about getting back into shape??

After shopping for a few minutes we ran an errand for dh then came home. Since then I have basically done NOTHING!!! I did warm up some dinner for dh and That Other Kid, and I got TOK to bed. I decided I wanted a night off from my exercise routine, since I am pretty much exhausted and wanted to vegg out some.

To top off this wonderful day, it has RAINED the WHOLE day, with temperatures only in the low to mid 80's! How great is that for Texas in late July??!!

Tomorrow it will be back to normal, with loads of laundry to fold, bathrooms to clean,exercising and errands to run! Today was my day off, though and it was fun!

My Baby Is Nineteen Years Old!!

I think I'm going to cry!! What happened to my little, helpless newborn baby?? That Kid was due on July 8, but was in no hurry to be born. My doctor decided 2 weeks late for my first born child was long enough to wait and torture my ribs...he was a kicker and I had bruises on my ribs for a couple of weeks even after he was born. So the doctor told me to come to the hospital in the wee hours of Tuesday, July 24 and we would induce labor and then I would FINALLY get to hold this little baby in my arms. He was born later that afternoon at 5:50 p.m. He shocked us all a little bit by nearly being born before we even knew what hit us! But I was one happy momma at 5:50 p.m. July 24, 1990. And truth be told, I'm still a happy momma 19 years later! I love to look at him and hold him close...but he doesn't like to be close to me anymore, so I just take what I can get!!

I was excited, nervous, and anxious all at the same time. Was I ready to be a mom? Did I have what it would take to raise a baby? Would I be able to nurse him the way I wanted to? The answer to all these questions is a resounding YES! I managed to nurse him till he was 19 months old. I managed to raise him into a (usually) well- adjusted, well-behaved young man. I was definitely ready to be a mom....and I have to say I LOVE being a mom, most days. There have been days when I would rather not have to deal with the trials that this child has sent my way, but I am so glad that God has blessed me with him.

That Kid has taught me how to love unconditionally. He has taught me that I have things in my life I need to work on. He has taught me to put the little things aside and take time for the BIG things...concentrate on the future as well as the here and now. He has also taught me --(maybe not consciencely) to have MORE PATIENCE than I ever thought possible! He has also taught me to "let go and Let God".

I spent all of his childhood trying to teach him things, (since I homeschooled him) and now as it turns out I was probably taught just as much as he was during this time. He is preparing to move out and on -- to college -- at a private Christian college and I think I am ready and I know he is ready!! I pray That Kid will mature and find his way while he is in college there. I also pray that he remembers I will always love him... no matter what troubles or tribulations come his way!

I still owe him a graduation tribute...but things have been crazy this summer and I have struggled to get it into words so I don't have it done yet, but I hope to get it done soon! Did you know it is hard to write something about someone you have literally known their whole life??!!

So I will leave you with my weepy birthday wishes...HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY!! I LOVE YOU!!

You Capture -- Black and White

I just LOVE black and white photos...they remind me of the "olden days" when that's all there were. I used to always look through my mom's photo albums and some of my early pictures and imagine what all the colors were that were missing. It made some interesting color combinations in my head. hehee!

Anyway, this weeks photo meme with Beth was black and white photos. I thought about it alot this week but never got around to taking any pictures of anything this week...I know, I'm bad!! Enter a photo meme and don't take pictures, what is wrong with me, huh? Anyway tonight That Other Kid was goofing off, as usual, and I decided to take a picture of him using my phone, cuz it was next to me and I would have had to get up to find my camera!

Also included in my pictorial display are a couple of pictures that dh took last week while he was driving around West Texas looking at libraries in small towns...ya know there are a lot of small towns in West Texas, right??!!

Enjoy...and don't be dismayed there are a ton of better pictures to be seen over at Beth's so click on over here to see a wide assortment of great and awesome pictures!

Final Weigh In for this Challenge!

Starting weight on March 25: 225.8 pounds

Start weight for this challenge, on June 3: 211.3 pounds

Today's weight (July 22) -- ending this challenge: 203.0 pounds!!

So during this 8 week challenge I have lost 8.3 pounds and overall over the past nearly 4 months I have lost 22.8 pounds! Go ME!!

My birthday (number 44 in case you were wondering) is Monday and I really wanted to be at or below 200 by then, but it doesn't look like it's realistic. I suppose if I starved myself and worked my tail off I could do it but I don't think that would be fair to myself. It would not be a "real" measure of my weight since I would have to do a crash course weight loss thing and I've been there - done that and it doesn't really do what it's supposed to, so I will accept the weight I have lost and move on. I am pleased that I am so close to that 200 breaking point and I know that I will get there soon. After I get to 200 I am going to start setting 10 pound increment goals for my weight loss. I think I'm going to try to go for 10 pounds every month. I realize that I'm going to really have to work hard and REALLY watch what goes into my mouth, but that's ok...I need to do this for my health and for my family! Not to mention I really want to weigh 150 by Christmas time!! What an awesome Christmas present to myself that would be!! Then I'll only have 10 pounds to go to be at my doctor prescribed weight!

Now I just want to say how much I appreciate the support that has been shown to me from all the ladies at the Sisterhood and my Blue Team members. It has been an awesome support system and I know that I would not have been as successful if I didn't have this support! Thanks ladies!!

So how'd you do this go around?? And if you haven't joined in yet, but want to lose some weight, check in with the Sisterhood. I'm sure they will be starting a new challenge soon and they are a wonderful support system!!

Troubled

Today I have been troubled....extremely troubled by an email that I received this morning. It has been hurting my heart all day and I can't seem to pull out of the funk it has put me in. I don't know what to do. I don't know if there is anything I can do. I want to help but it is out of my hands, really. I want to make someone pay for their mistake, but I don't even know how to approach it. I want to stop time and go back about 2 years and then go forward in a different route, so that I don't have to deal with any of the JUNK going on right now.

Maybe I need to talk to a shrink???!!! More than likely I just need to have a good cry and scream and talk to God...that sounds like the best approach...

What do you do when you get troubling news? I am trying to make sure I don't totally blow it with the food today, and I can hardly wait till 9 p.m. so I can start exercising and burning some of this stress off!!!

Weigh In -- Week 7!!

Last week weigh in -- 205.8
This week weigh in -- 204.0 !!

That's 1 1/2 pounds lost this week! Yeah!! I'm happy to say that I only have 4 more pounds to lose now to get to my short term goal of 200. I want to be at this weight by July 27! So that means I have 12 days to lose 4 pounds....I better get busy! I've started journaling my food intake and have started working out with the Biggest Loser Power Sculpt DVD, so I think if I am very dedicated I can make it! I may even take it up a notch and go to the gym and do some cardio there during the day if I get motivated and have time next week!

That's it for now...I gotta get That Other Kid ready for bed!!

How'd you do this week???

Tiny Talk -- Summer Stuff

Tiny Talk Tuesday celebrates our children and their view of the world. They continually make us laugh and by recording their Tiny Talk we can focus on one of the many JOYS of parenting! If your kiddos made you laugh this week (don't they always), then feel free to share the humor! Check out more Tiny Talks with Mary.


Summer is usually a pretty laid back time for us. We usually don't travel much, we have never taken a "summer vacation" and I usually spend time getting ready for the fall/school and doing things that have been put off during the "school year". This summer is definitely different for me, since I am preparing for That Kid to go off to college (even though it's only 45 minutes away, he's still going to live in the dorms), and I'm also preparing for Kindergarten with That Other Kid. So I have PILES of stuff laying around everywhere to go through and organize, yeah right?!! (there is a point to this rambling I promise).

So the other day, That Other Kid comes up to me while I was going through a bunch of college preparation stuff and he said, "Why do you need all this junk just so "That Kid" can go to big kid school!??!! Where are all "my school things"?

I turned to him and said, "They are here, too. They are just buried under all the college things".

He replied with a pathetic look and said, "Well you need to unbury it, I need my school stuff before he needs his!". This isn't true of course, college starts August 24 and kindergarten starts the Tuesday after Labor Day in my house.)

Um, ya think he's a bit jealous??

I have managed to take some time and do some fun things with That Other Kid and it's involved friends of course, "cuz you can't have fun without friends", in his words!

So here are some pictures of That Other Kid and friends....


Soccer practice!! Gotta love Upwards Soccer and their devotional time!


Chuck E. Cheese "Bubble Car"


Chuck E. Cheese -- Horsey Ride!


Going Bonkers with BFF



So you can see -- we are having fun....just some exotic "vacation location"! Just the Big D, which for some people would be a vacation!!

New Workout!

This weekend I finished my 30 days of the 10 minute Sessions using the Figure 8 resistance bands. I was happy to be done with it....after doing the same workout for a month you kind of burn out with it! It gave me a decent workout, but felt like I needed to work harder. So this weekend I went to Target and bought a new DVD! It was even on SALE!! my favorite 4 letter word!! This DVD is much more to my liking!

I watched it earlier this afternoon because I wanted to know what I was getting myself into! lol The first thing I noticed when I started the movie is that the workouts are done with "REAL PEOPLE" -- and they are FAT!! Everyone needed to be working out and needed to drop some weight! Of course, Jillian Michaels and crew are the ones leading the workouts but the people doing the workouts are regular people trying to lose weight just like me! This made me feel like "if they can do it, so can I" and I could! I was huffing and puffing when it was done and I needed my fan blowing on me to keep me from sweating profusely, but I felt like I had really worked out!! I needed this challenge again!

I know a lot of people don't like Jillian Michaels but she really seems to motivate me and push me to a higher, more difficult level of workout! This DVD works similar to the 30 Day Shred DVD. You workout for 1-2 weeks per level, and then move on to the next higher level. This DVD is designed for a 6 week workout. If I workout with this DVD for the entire 6 weeks that will take me to August 24, which is 1 day shy of 5 months from when I started working out. I'm excited to see where I will be after working out with this for 6 weeks. I can almost guarantee there will be a significant change in my appearance after working out with this for 6 weeks. The only thing that would keep me from losing significant weight and inches would be if I didn't do it and I really blow it with the food!

Something I'm going to add to the workout is journaling my food! I think I'm eating more than I think I am....cuz I should be losing more weight...so that is something I'm going to do daily using the nifty I-Pod application called "LoseIt", so that should help me!

Tell me --- what is helping you watch your food intake?? What cool new workouts have you found?? I'm curious, and want to keep it fresh so I don't burnout and want to quit, ya know?

Another Picture Post

These pictures were taken on May 11, after working out for 30 days with the Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred DVD. When these pictures were taken I had been working about 5 or 6 weeks. They are my starting point pictures....although they are not really my starting point, but I didn't bother to take pictures when I really started working out.



































These pictures were taken last month on June 11. At this point I had worked out for 2- 30 Day Sessions of the 30 Day Shred DVD.




































These pictures were taken tonight before I worked out. Tonight was day 30 of using the DVD 10 Minute Sessions using the Figure 8 resistance tubes. This DVD was mostly a toning DVD. I worked out with it for 30 minutes a night, and only missed working out on the 4th of July.




































Over the past 30 days I don't see much difference in the way I look and the numbers on the scale are not much different either so although I do think the toning DVD helped some I don't think I'm ready for that yet. I think I need to work some more of the flab and blubber off! So I'm taking tomorrow night off from exercising and WATCHING A MOVIE!! YEAH!! I'm looking forward to the night off, and I think it will help me with my bad attitude I have had over the past few days. I plan to start really watching the food intake again starting Monday and I'm going to look for new ways to combat the stress that has been going on in my life the past few weeks.

Weekly Weigh-in -- Week 6

Well this week has not been a very good week for me, but despite all the bad choices I made God looked downed on me and had mercy and allowed me to lose .2 pounds! I know it had to be HIM that allowed me to lose this weight this week because other than exercising I didn't really contribute much to the cause....Instead I ate ice cream numerous times, drank several cokes over the week, and ate WAY TOO much food during meal times! I did manage to eat fruit most every day -- a couple of times that is all I ate for a meal, but then my next meal was high calorie, high salt content food!

What is my problem?? I'm so close to my goal for this challenge, (200 pounds) and here I am sabotaging my efforts. Every night when I'm exercising on the WiiFit and the little balance board guy is asking me why I keep gaining weight I keep saying I'm stressed out so I'm eating just like normal....of course that's not really a choice, but that's what I keep saying in my head....I gotta get over this "emotional eating thing" I've got going. This is what got me so obesely overweight in the first place!

So that's where I am right now....

Last week with a gain to 205.10
This week with a minimal loss to 205.8

Weight loss this week .2

I guess I'll take it and thank God for HIS MERCY!!

How'd you do???

Week 5 Weigh In....

Can't I just skip this weigh in? No, I guess not. That wouldn't be very fair to my team Blue team mates or to myself. I haven't had a great week (too much snacking and not enough sleep) so I wasn't looking forward to getting onto the scales, but I did it anyway.

Last week's weigh-in -- 205.2
This week's weigh-in -- 205.10

UGH!! That's UP half a pound!! And I'm not a happy camper about it, but have no one to blame but myself. I haven't been getting enough sleep at night and I have been giving in to the snack cravings. I'm a bit frustrated, but I'm not going to let it get me down. I'm just going to exercise harder and start really watching the snacks....if I feel like I MUST have a snack I'm going to choose a piece of fruit or some cheese instead of the pudding snack cups I bought or the ice cream that has been calling my name from the freezer. I don't think I need the snacks, I think I have just been bored with my routine life so I've caved into the snacks.

So enough of that....EVERYONE else on the BLUE TEAM did great this week and I'm having a great time getting encouragement from all of these great ladies! It's so nice to have others going through this battle with me, especially when we have ups and downs! This week will be better and I WILL lose weight this week.