Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Baby girl's 1st time eating ice cream

While mommy is away...



...the kids will sleep!! Mommy left today to run some errands and left the kids home with Daddy. Daddy took some pictures for me...baby girl fell asleep while Daddy was feeding her. J fell asleep while playing Wii, he has the steering wheel in his hand! Bless his heart.

Saturday, April 26, 2008

photoshop fun



One click in Photoshop created this photo! I think it's cute!!

Day of Fun?! For Who??



Well we went to a local festival for kids today. Yes it rained this morning so I considered it'd be a bit muddy. I also knew the forecast called for more rain during the day but I prepared for it, or so I thought. We arrived, paid our $30 to get into the gate (YIKES), greeted a few children's characters, sat on a few tractors, then J got in line to ride the raggedy carousel. Then came the rain. By the time the ride was over the rain and just about stopped. His next choice for rides was a fun house, which I thought he'd be able to do on his own-wrong. The carny wanted me to go with him-which normally I wouldn't mind but I could tell from where I was standing the thing was absolutely filthy. But I went anyway. We got through the thing and came to the slide at the end-it was covered in mud. So J went down first, slid down to the end, then slipped off-right into the mud. Ick! After that we peeked into a few shows, some kids acting out animals, and then a clown/magic act. Then we skipped out.

We decided it'd be much more fun to pick up a few games at Blockbuster and head home to play the Wii! So glad my sister got a Wii for Christmas!! I don't think she'll be getting it back anytime soon! My husband picked out the games: a Diego game for J-which he absolutely loves!! Some Tom Clancy game for himself-which is full of violence-exactly what he enjoys!! And some kind of soccer game for me. I hope between the two of them I get a chance to try it out-lol!

Friday, April 25, 2008

NILMDTS



One of my goals is to be a member of this fantastic group of photographers that volunteer their time and service to provide lasting memories and keepsakes for grieving families. From the moment I heard about NILMDTS I wanted to join, but I don't feel my photographic abilities are where they need to be to capture these rare and precious moments. During these moments you cannot have equipment failure or operator failure-everything has to be perfect, because these moments you can never get back.

I wish I would have been more informed after my miscarriage. I think I would like to have a photo of our baby girl. I found out months afterwards that we most likely could have gotten our baby girl's footprints-I wish someone at the hospital would have asked me if I wanted her footprints. That is one reason I wanted to start the memory boxes. I want to make sure other parents are more informed than I was.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Wii

Well my sister got a Nintendo Wii for Christmas this past year and since she is a young single business woman, she takes may fun and exciting weekend trips and doesn't have much time to play. So this weekend, when she getting ready for yet another fun filled weekend, I asked her to pack up her Wii and let me have it for the weekend. After 24 hours with the thing in my house, she will most likely have to fight my husband and my 3 year old son to get the thing back (I'd fight for it too but I'm too sweet for that-lol). Anyway, last night me and DH played and just fell in love with it. Something we can do together, at home after the kids go to bed. Besides the usual him at the computer and me at my scrap table and/or in front of the tv. It was fun and we got a great mini workout-until we realize we could play just as well sitting on the couch.

So today my son and I played-he had been bugging me to play since my sister put the thing in my truck-not that he knew what it was, he just knew it was a game. Like father like son, he is really into games, whether it be a video game or a computer game. But I digress, anyway, we played for about 2.5 hours before lunch-and he did exceptionally well for a 3 year old. I've also been using the game as a discipline tool-yes every new toy he gets has come in handy for discipline. "If you don't stop whining you cannot play your new game tonight!" works wonders!!!

So we will be in the market for one real soon. And yes, at my sister's request I will take some photos of J playing the Wii and post them here soon!

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Adobe Photoshop CS3


BEFORE

AFTER
Love it!! I took a course on Photoshop last year but I just cannot afford the full program right now. So today I found a 30 day trial version. Maybe in the next month I can fool around with it enough to make some decent photos, book some shoots, and maybe make enough money to buy the full version!! I can dream can't I?! Anyway, I haven't had much of a chance to play around with it yet, but did try a few things out today. Not sure exactly what I did but I like the results so far.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Pillow Case Dress




Well I finally made a pillow case dress. My mom left one here this weekend and I pulled it out today while the kids were napping and whipped one together. Of course I didn't have any cute ribbon to put into it but I made do with what I had. And yes it is a bit too big for my 8 month old baby girl but I can see potential!! I am very excited. I am not a sewer by any means and the hem lines and such are not straight nor are they pretty but I think it came together nicely for my first attempt. Here are some photos...

summer fun

We went outside again today to play-but we weren't out long and mommy was tired. Where did spring go?? I told J we would have to start getting out in the mornings because it was just too hot for Mommy in the afternoons to get out and run around.

We threw the frisbe and played some baseball and that was about all J could handle too. He was ready to go inside for a break. Here are a few shots I snapped while outside today...




STRIKE ONE

STRIKE TWO

GOOD HIT!

Weight Loss

Arg!! I am so stuck with my weight loss right now it is driving me crazy. I did so well yesterday and then had bunco last night and just blew it! So I am back at it today. Trying to lower my carb intake but not depriving myself of carbs. I am really considering joining a gym-but really need one that doesn't require a contract and one that provides daycare. I think it'd be great for me and the kids. I get some alone time to do something great for myself and the kids will get to play.

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Family Hike



We took the kids on a hike today. I carried baby girl in a carrier-which worked out very well. She seemed to enjoy the ride on my back. Of course J loved the hike. Like Keith said "every step is an adventure" for a three year old. After the short hike we then grilled hot dogs and marshmallows. J had a great time helping daddy make the fire and then cooking the hot dogs.

We all had a great time and will surely have to do this more often!!!

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Weigh In Day



Well I am down another pound-but still have two more to lose to be where I was a month ago-before I gained 7 pounds back-YIKES! I so need to get on the ball here before our vacation. The other day I took the kids for a walk into town-about 1.2 miles there and back. It was a good walk and took about 45 minutes. At one point J asked me "Mommy why you not pushing hard?". I had to explain to him it was very difficult for mommy to push the double stroller up the hill so it slowed us down a bit. I'm talking about an incline that is almost straight up-it is ridiculously difficult to push the stroller up. Anyway if I can keep that up daily or even every other day that would be great exercise.

Also I really want to get back to running. I use to love running-although I was never really fast I just enjoyed the quiet time. I don't have a running partner but I'll have to make due. Maybe after a few weeks my DH will join in-but at this time he is not showing any interest.

Sadly Tales from the Scales is closing it's "bloggy doors" on April 17th. I have found great motivation and inspiration from this website and am sad to see it go. I wish everyone that visited good luck in their weight loss journey

Since Tales from the Scales is closing I will start a "Friends of Tales from the Scales" blog roll. I may or may not have added some of these folks under favorite links but not sure. So hopefully we will be able to continue to motivate and inspire each other on our weight loss journey!

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Speedtest-how fast are you?

98 words

Speed test



417 points, so you achieved position 18778 of 1663470 on the ranking list


You type 518 characters per minute
You have 98 correct words and
you have 0 wrong words

Monday, April 7, 2008

Climbing on the tree




A big storm came through this weekend which was strong enough to pull our oak tree out the ground. Luckily it fell toward the street and not our house. Hours after the storm there were kids outside playing on the tree and daring each other to jump off the top of it-which is about 15 feet from the ground-YIKES. Luckily the kid decided not to jump-thank goodness. So after seeing the big kids climbing on the tree, of course J wanted to get out there and climb on it. So yesterday we did. Yes me too!! We climbed up on top and walked from one end to the other. I think baby sister was jealous because she was sitting in the stroller fussing as us. J had fun and I'm sure he'll have plenty of more chances to climb on it because I don't know how long it will be before we get the thing cut down. It is gigantic!

Door Hanger


I saw one of these in Hobby Lobby and just had to make one myself. I thought it turned out alright. Still could use a bit of bling but I think it'll be alright for now.

Friday, April 4, 2008

Storm damage




here is the tree that fell in our yard. luckily it fellaway from the house but it did block the street. It took the city about 3 hours to cut it off the road.

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Weigh-in



Well I am happy to report I am still up 3 lbs but after being up 7 lbs last week I count it as progress. I did very well yesterday with my food choices and stayed at right about 1500 calories. We didn't get out in the yard yesterday due to the weather but I stayed busy all day catching up on laundry and other household duties.

I have a little over 3 months before our beach vacation so I really hope to shed some pounds between now and then. My food logger says I'll reach my goal weight by February 2009-but I sure hope to meet it before then.