Halloween Belt Test

Presenting my Little Blue Belt! This morning we got up bright and early and went to That Other Kid's karate belt test! This was the "Blue Belt" level where he went from a "green belt" to a "blue belt"....and yes, he can kick some serious butt! As long as it's a short butt....I mean come on he's only 44 inches tall!! He can kick past his "belt" which is what their goal is...in fact I believe if you look carefully you can see he is kicking "chest level" on a lot of his kicks! I'd say that is pretty good for someone who's legs are less than 2 feet long!!





Anyway, "Belt Test day" is always a lot of fun and excitement. He only has 3 more levels to through before he gets to go to the "Beginner's Level" Karate class. These classes are designed for ages 7 or older, so he is pretty excited about that possibility coming up.

So this was the excitement of our day! Tonight we will turn all the lights off and sit in the dark and watch a movie and eat UNBUTTERED popcorn together! (Dairy allergies really suck at holiday time or bascally any day of the week time!) After the movie he will go to bed and I will exercise all those popcorn calories away, cuz you gotta know just because he can't have butter doesn't mean I can't!! We are full of excitement at our house, huh??!!

You Capture -- Autumn

Over at Beth's today she is hosting a "Autumn" You Capture. I haven't been over yet but I can hardly wait to see all the different takes on Autumn. Here in North Texas we don't have the traditional kind of autumn where the leaves turn beautiful hues of reds, oranges, and yellows. Instead we celebrate autumn a little differently! We have constant RAIN!or at least we do this year...we've had well over 8 inches of rain this month and guess what?? It's not done yet! UGH....soooo tired of rain! Anywhoooo, since seeing pictures of constant rain usually doesn't excite too many people (unless you are suffering from a severe drought, and if you are I'm sorry) I decided to shoot a different kind of Autumn perspective for you!

Yesterday we (meaning That Other Kid and I) went to the big American Airlines Center facility in downtown Dallas and we were given a tour of the facility and all that goes into preparing for a HOCKEY GAME! and let me tell you for a little boy that lives and breathes hockey he was in HEAVEN! We got to watch the Toronto Maple Leafs practice and stand up against the glass...some of them even banged into the glass for the kids! He was one happy boy!



We got to see the Zamboni up close and personal -- he tried to touch it but they caught him just in time to stop him from doing that!

Here are a few shots of the kids during the tour...of course That Other Kid was being hammy for the camera. His friends were none too excited to have their pictures taken -- oh well at least there is proof that they were there too, right??!!





After the tour we went outside and had a picnic lunch (or at least tried to before it started raining again). While we were getting set up for our picnic the local news station was ending their broadcast and so they took a flash shot of him and some of the others that participated in the tour! My kid was on tv, folks! and my friend caught it in this flash on the 50' Platinum screen out in the AT&T Plaza with her camera!! so this shot is courtesy of my friend. That Other Kid is the little one the far right and her son is right next to him! What a great way to end the morning field trip!



This is what my attempt at getting that same shot got me!! Good thing my friend's camera is better than mine!



Then last night we got to go back to the AAC and watch the Stars play the Maple Leafs. That Other Kid was in HEAVEN again! His friend had never been to a hockey game and was very enthralled by it all! It was even more exciting because the Stars won the game in Overtime --
4-3!! YEAH...Go Stars!! What a great way to end a very exciting day of Autumn Fun!!

Yesterday's Weigh In and New Challenge!

Ok...first of all let me just start by saying over at the Sisterhood we are starting a new challenge to celebrate their 1 year anniversary! I'm so excited about this because this is a challenge that EVERYONE can participate in! All you have to do is WALK, and log your miles and report in everyday! And we can even win prizes!! How cool is that? We win on their anniversary!! Usually the person celebrating the anniversary gets a gift, but not with these girls (and don't forget Brian)....the people participating WINS!! There will be other challenges going on during this time, too so if you get bored with just doing the same thing jump on the bandwagon and do some of the other challenges, too!

Anywhooo, yesterday was a crazy, busy day where I left my house at 9 a.m. and didn't walk back into it until 11 p.m. More about that later today or if I get busy tomorrow. I did manage to squeeze in my weigh in because it's important to me! So...
although it's not what I had hoped I managed to not get disappointed after looking at the numbers, and I logged them into my handy, dandy phone so I wouldn't forget cuz I knew it was gonna be that kind of day!

Weigh in for the beginning of this challenge : 197.9

That's .5 pounds up from last week, but I have been pretty bad and have indulged in a number of cokes! So...back off the cokes, girl and get those numbers down!

My goal for this challenge that ends on December 16 (perfect timing if you ask me) is to knock past that 30 pounds lost (2.1 pounds left to get there) and get down below 190! My original goal for Christmas time was 150 pounds, but that obviously was an unrealistic goal! I have to keep reminding myself that I didn't put this weight on overnight and if I want it to truly be gone it won't come off that way either!

I have a lot going on during this challenge -- another moving sale (next weekend if the weather will cooperate!), packing up the house we have lived in for the past 6 years and then moving to another community 30 minutes away! I also have to try to squeeze in some homeschooling for That Other Kid and all the other day to day "stuff" that a mom and wife does. BUT I have to remember I am important too....so I'm going to make sure I exercise every night, too. I really do love that "me" time -- although there are some nights I just want to sit down and "veg out" in front of a movie or a good book, those days will have to wait a while longer. My health needs to come first and that can't happen while watching a movie or reading a book!

Tiny Talk Tuesday

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.


Today is Tuesday and I'm finally getting a chance to sit down at my computer (thanks to dh's monitor) and type out a Tiny Talk dialogue! There have been many discussions going on around here about moving, since we are moving out of the only house That Other Kid has ever known (or lived in) in just a few short weeks. Thanksgiving Week to be exact! Nothing like moving over the holidays to reduce this already stressful time, right?!!

Anywhoooo, first discussion was about packing all our stuff into boxes.

"Mom why do we have to put all our stuff in boxes? Why can't we just put everything in the truck and carry it over to the new house like that?"
Uh, yeah can you just picture that one? Let's just load up all those thousands of little lego pieces and toss them in the truck and see how many we end up with in the new place!

Next funny happened the afternoon we went over to actually look at the apartment unit we are going to live in. We went over to measure some things and just take a look at the actual unit. Of course it's empty right now, so appearances are deceiving! "Mom, this place IS HUGE!!!! We'll have PLENTY OF ROOM FOR ALL MY STUFF and all your stuff too!"

Now the funny thing about this statement is we are moving out of a 1800+ square ft home into a 1300 sq. ft. apartment! Yeah....we'll have lots of room, huh?!! (Thus the reason we are selling most everything we don't use on a regular basis!!

The final thing before leaving the apartment That Other Kid said was the thing that cracked me up and still makes me laugh everytime I think about it. He opened the sliding glass door and said, "Where's the BACKYARD?? Where will I play?"
I told him, there is no backyard but we can set the basketball goal/net up on the patio (about 2" x 6") and play there! I also told him there is a park nearby and a couple of good friends to play with so we will adapt and have close friends!!

That seemed to make him happy! Friends always make a new place seem more special!

True Confessions Again!

Today is True Confessions Day over at the Sisterhood and boy do I have some confessions to make! So I'll just jump right in...

1) Saturday morning I woke up HUNGRY and ate and ate and ate! All day long I felt FAMISHED!! I tried to eat fruit, drink lots of water and stay away from the kitchen! I was totally unsuccessful! I baked myself 8 chocolate chip cookies and ate ALL 8 of them, within a 30 minute time period! They tasted yummy! but my digestive tract did not appreciate all that fat and sugar! I spent some time in the bathroom "paying" for those cookies....so not worth it!

2) I didn't really want to eat after that, though so that's a good thing!

3) In the Big D we are used to sunny, warm weather for most of the year. Sometimes we have periods of "downright HOT" -- like the 4 months of summer! Other times we have periods of rain, and occasionally in the dead of winter (like January or February) we will get a cold, ice storm. But USUALLY we are blessed with "nice" weather. However, over the past 2 months we have had soooooo much rain and cloud cover it's starting to really get "OLD"! How do the people of Seattle deal with this year in and year out?? There is no way I could live like this long term...Anyway, my point is that I'm so stinkin' tired of rain and clouds! we haven't been able to play outside, take walks, or anything requiring the "great outdoors" because of the constant RAIN!! I don't know how much we have had but there is a lake out in my backyard!! UGH!!

4) I NEED SUNSHINE!!! PLEASE!!! and a bit warmer weather than 55 degrees would be 'swell' too! Remember this is Texas??!! It's supposed to be WARM!! I have had to turn the heat on in our house nearly every day for the past week or two and this is not something I am accustomed to doing till mid November! and I can't remember a time when it has had to run periodically throughout the day until DECEMBER!!

5) I'm thinking all this cloudy and rainy weather is causing me to be a hormonal mess! I'm usually pretty even tempered but lately 'I'm a mess'!!

6) Instead of packing boxes and preparing for our move that occurs in 4 weeks I'm sitting in here reading blog posts, and typing up my own.

7) I also just sat down to a 'healthy' lunch of chips and queso! That outta help me meet my goal of only weighing 195.8 this Wednesday, dontcha think?? But at least I didn't drink the coke sitting in the cabinet, right? I drank water!!

8) Well I can't think of anything else...just didn't want to be "odd" and stop at 7!!

Go check out the other "Confessions" over at the Sisterhood! You'll be glad you did!

Updating My Life

That's what I feel like I'm doing today, so that's my title!

Here is what's going on with me and mine ---

1) I took my computer into the "geek squad" and they told me that my backlight is definitely out on my laptop. All I have to do is backup all my stuff on an external hard drive (which I don't have) bring it in and they will send it in to Dell who will charge me a small fee of $300 to $400 to fix my backlight! HELLO!! Oh and btw, I would need to buy a external hard drive and they would be happy to download it all for me...that will only cost me $100 and the hard drive thingy will be about $70 to $100 depending on the size! HELLO..that's $500 to $600 to fix a 2 1/2 year old computer...If I had that kind of money laying around I could go buy myself a brand new laptop with a bigger hard drive! Instead I had dh hook my laptop up to his monitor (who knew you could do that?? Not me!) Only problem is -- his monitor is big and heavy and in the bedroom/office...not the living room where That Other Kid lives and breathes....this limits my time on the computer, which I'm not liking one little bit, but at least I can use my computer again!! YEAH!!

2) We are preparing to move out of this house (the one we have lived in since 1 month before That Other Kid was born) and into a smaller place. The main problem with this move is that we have TONS of stuff that we need to get rid of to make room for "what we have to have"! Did you know that most Americans have WAY TOO MUCH STUFF?? I am definitely included in this group of people. I went and looked at a storage unit facility today to figure out how big of a space we will need to rent to store all out "extra stuff" -- you know the sentimental stuff that I'm not parting with under any circumstance?? While I was there I saw some people and they had two 20' x 20' storage units and for the most part they were FULL! That's a lot of "extra" stuff! It made me think...do we really need this much "stuff"? As Americans we waste an amazing amount and we also tend to accumulate an amazing amount of "things" that we either don't need or don't really have a reason for. We just get them because we CAN!

Deep stuff for "just a move", right??!!

3) Yesterday I spent the day cleaning and preparing for our landlords to come over to show the house to a potential renter they have for after we move out next month. Now granted I'm not the best housekeeper in the universe, but I'm not the worse either. I would say I'm somewhere in the middle. On the surface, things are pretty clean, but when you get right down to it I should spend more time doing some "deep cleaning" more often than "when someone 'important' is coming over. Anyway, I was on my hands and knees scrubbing the tile floor when That Kid came home from working a game and he sees me and says, "Why are you cleaning the floor?" It made me think do I clean so infrequently that he thinks there is something going on before I will clean the floor? Apparently so! It's made me think ever since...that maybe I should spend more time cleaning!

4) I have been working out most every night for 40 minutes with my WiiFit! I am absolutely in 'luv' with my WiiFit! It's so much fun and before I know it I have been exercising for 40 minutes! I have been trying out new exercises and perfecting some that I had only tried a time or two previously. Go me!!

5) This past Tuesday I went shopping with a friend and tried on a pair of size 14 jeans with elastic waist. I didn't buy them cuz I didn't want to spend $20 for a pair of pants I wasn't crazy about. BUT...I have 2 pair of size 14 jeans sitting in my closet, THAT DON'T have elastic waistbands. TODAY I am wearing 1 of them!!! YEAH!! They are tight, I had to squish my flabby tummy into them, but I AM WEARING THEM!! and I can breathe in them....I can hardly believe that I am finally losing enough weight to be in "regular" size clothes again! This just motivates me even more to watch what I am eating and to make sure I exercise every night. I know that while I am busy preparing for this move it will be hard to stay consistent but being able to squeeze into these 14's is a great motivator!!

6) I guess that's really all I have...just wanted to fill you in on the happenings of my life! Thanks for playing along! You know it's always an adventure here!

Picture of "My Cans"!!

Ok...I finally have my computer up and running (sort of) so her is my picture that I took for the last challenge for the "Lose For Good" Campaign. This is really 10 pounds of food....which in my estimation what I should have lost in the time period alloted so...instead of only donating my little more than 5 pounds of food the food banks will get 2 times that!

Just wanted to get that out there...