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.

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.

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.

Friday Pictures

Weigh In

I wish I could report a loss today, actually I wish I could report I stayed the same. However over the last month I have gained 4 pounds. Yikes! Now that the weather is getting nice I hope to get out more often with the kids. So hopefully that will come off rather quickly and I can move on to meeting my next goal.

We are going on vacation this summer and I want to lose 34 lbs before vacation. It can be done and it WILL be done! So here is to reaching my next goal!!

Photos

HAPPY EASTER

We finally got a chance to dye eggs tonight. Of course "baby sister" didn't do much other than try to "gum" an egg but J had a great time. Think we will have a small Easter this year.

Winning Starts with Beginning

WINNING STARTS WITH BEGINNING
...It's impossible to win the race unless you venture to run.
Your only true failure will be in your failure to start.
It's been said that eighty per cent of success is showing up.
Create a definite plan for carrying out your desires and begin at once.
Put your plan into action, whether you are ready or not.
You must take the first step as soon as possible.
The first step will take some effort, perhaps pain.
But after that, everything that has to be done is real - life movement.
If you can get up the courage to begin,
you have the courage to succeed.
To win, you must begin.................

-Unknown author

Tutu

One of my goals for the year was to create something each week..."Create in 2008". HAHAHA. This is mid March and I've only created two things so far-sad.

Here is the second thing I have made this year I made yesterday for baby girl. Very easy and cute. I have a pink one I am working on too but need more tulle. I got the directions from here

First Practice

J had his first soccer practice last night. He did great and had a lot of fun. He is definitely the talker of the team. He was upset when practice was over he wanted to stay longer. So we stayed after practice and played a bit. I cannot wait for his first game. He is going to be so cute!!

Proud Baby Girl

Today while I was on the computer I heard little girl in the other room laughing it up. She has been crawling all over the place and getting into everything. Every now and then I'll check on her and she'll be behind a chair or under my scrapbook table. So I was anxious to see what she had gotten into. And this is where I found here....



She has been watching her big brother play this Smart Cycle and I guess she thought it was her turn. She was so proud to have crawled up next to it and be able to reach the peddles (the bike was turned on its side for some reason) she was sitting on her knees just laughing and bouncing and so excited!!

New Toy

J's new toy. Mommy loves it just as much as he does. It has become a great bargaining tool to get him to behave!! Next I'll try to use it to get the boy potty trained.

OUTRAGED!

I found this video tonight of a Nanny mishandling 7 month old twins. This infuriates me! How someone could treat a child in this manner is beyond me. My baby girl is 7 months old and if anyone treated her in this manner... let's just say the police had better lock them up for their own safety if anything else.



This is absolutely ridiculous. There is no excuse for treating any child in that manner. I don't think I'd let this Nanny care for my cats.

Weigh In

Well I am excited to say I did lose the 4 pounds I had gained since my vacation, plus two! So I can add another pound to my overall weight loss! That brings my total weight loss since September 3rd to 32 pounds. Not where I wanted to be by now but it is still progress. I still need to work on making changes to my diet. I am having a hard time giving up my morning bowl of cereal. I'm not a morning person and it is so much easier to pour my son and I a bowl of cereal each morning instead of preparing something. Also I need to add exercise to my daily routine. I did get out in the yard and run with my son yesterday and it felt GREAT! I look forward to warmer weather so we can spend more time outside.

Good luck to everyone at Tales from the Scales on their weight loss journey

Tiffany vs Keith

This was a survey on myspace.com. I might get in trouble for this one, but thought it was a cute survey.


1. Who eats more?
Depends on the menu

2. Who said "I love you" first?
He did..I think

3.How long have you been together?:
Married 6 1/2 years 10 years altogether

4. Who sings better?
Me... but only when the radio is really really loud

5. Who's older?:
Keith by 2 years and 9 days

6. Who's smarter?
book smart? Keith, common sense smart? me

7. Who's temper is worse?
Definitely mine

8. Who does the laundry?
me

9. Who does the dishes?
Me

10. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed?:
me

11. Who snores?
keith

12. Who's hair is longer?:
MINE.

13. Who's better with the computer?:
DEFINITELY HIM

14. Do you have pets?:
two cats-but they go with the house whenever we sell it LOL

15. Who pays the bills?
I pay the few bills that are not set up on auto pay

16. Who cooks dinner?
Me mostly-unless it's grilling. but he likes to cook occasionally also

17. Who drives when you are together?
me-he drives like a grandma

18. Who pays when you go out to dinner?:
keith

19. Who is the most stubborn?
OH DEFINITELY Keith

20. Who is the first one to admit when they're wrong?
Me-keith never admits fault

21. Who's parents do you see more?
It's about equal we probably see his parents more often but for shorter periods of time, and we see my parents for a few days at a time but not as frequent (does that make any sense?)

22. Who named your pet?
me-right after a trip to Phoenix---one is named Sedonna and one Kokapelli

23. Who kissed who first?
He probably leaned in first-but I was sure wanting it!!

24. Who asked who out?:
He asked me out

26. Who's more sensitive?
probably me

27. Who's taller?:
Keith by about 4 inches

29. Who has more siblings?
me-i have a brother and a sister, he has a sister

30. Who wears the pants in the relationship?
Me-of course!!

Now repost as You Vs Your significant other.... It's kinda fun to think about it and reminisce...

Weigh In Day-YIKES!!

Well I weighed in this morning and I am still up 3 pounds! YIKES! With only one more week left in the challenge I had really hoped to be down at least 10 more pounds. Oh well. I just have to readjust my goals.

I have seriously thought about joining a gym for the next month. There is a local gym that you can pay month by month. It will have to come out of my "blow" money but I think I can swing it. Then I can take the kids with me and leave them at the children's center while I workout. I have a Weider machine and a stationary bike but there really isn't a good place to leave either of them out so they will be easy to access but a safe distance away from the kids. So I am not sure what I will do.

Good luck to everyone during this last week of the challenge. I hope I can at least get these three pounds off by next week.

Weigh In Day

I still haven't lost the three pounds I gained during my week of vacation. Actually I haven't changed my eating habits either-so I am glad to not have gained any more weight this past week. I am back at it today, making better choices and trying to get my fruits and veggies in each day. Hopefully I will be able to record a loss next week.

I am banned ...

...from buying anymore scrapbooking stuff!!!

I went to Wal-mart today and had to take a short stroll through the scrapbooking area. I was estatic to find a Colorbok "Complete Scrapbook Kit-Cute and Carefree" (pastel colors) it had a clearance sticker marked $10!! It comes with an album, keepsake box, 16 patterned papers, 8 solid papers, 2-3D embellishments, chipboard alphas, chipboard accents, vellum sentiments, alpha stickers, phrase stickers, accent stickers, alpha punch outs, frame punch outs and accent punch outs!! Over 1,125 pieces!! I also found a "chipboard bucket" made by colorbok with 1,038 pieces of chipboard-this came in a see through paint bucket-so cute!! I was thrilled at my finds. Then I got up to the checkout counter and the scrapbook kit rang up for $4!!! Can you believe it?? I was so excited!!!

I cannot wait to bust into these!

Easy Dinner

Well tonight was such a quick and easy dinner I thought I'd share it with my Menu Plan Monday bloggers (some of them post pictures of their dinners and include recipes-I've never taken the time to do this myself).



We had garlic roasted chicken with steamed broccoli and red potatoes. It was so very very easy. I bought whole chickens on sale a couple of weeks ago and boiled them and split the chicken up into ziplock freezer bags. So the chicken was already cooked. I defrosted it in the fridge over night and then sprinkled the roasted garlic seasoning into the freezer bag and shook it. Then I placed the chicken into a tinfoil pouch and placed in the oven for 30 minutes at 425 degrees. While the chicken was cooking I sliced red potatoes and broccoli and placed in a Ziplock steam bag. I then sprinkled powdered butter seasoning (intended for popcorn) and basil into the bag. I placed this in the microwave for seven minutes just before the chicken was ready. Everything turned out great...except the broccoli. The broccoli was cooked too long and ended up too soft and it soaked up way too much of the basil seasoning. So next time I'll just put the vegetables in individual steamer bags.

This dinner was super easy and quick and no clean up! You just toss the tin foil and steamer bag when you are done cooking!!

I got this "Tone's" roasted garlic seasoning at Sam's years ago and just LOVE it! It is super easy, especially since I have "texture issues" with sliced peppers and onions (I like the flavor just don't care for the texture).

What a cutie

While going through my piles and piles of kids/baby clothes I came across this outfit that J had when he was a baby. It was sooo cute! So I decided to pull it out for baby girl, even though it is baby blue-it is just so cute! And with it being "baby blue" it can be gender neutral...right? Well she was just too cute! I did put white and pink socks on her-but that didn't stop people from commenting on my "two boys" or "little boy". I know some people really take offense to people confusing the sexes of their children-but not me. J has such beautiful, long hair that people tell me all the time "she" is so beautiful. There are much more "important" things to get bent out of shape about. Anyway, here is a photo of my sweet baby girl in one of her big brother's outfits...

Scrapbooking Goodies

Well I left the kids at home with their daddy this afternoon and went piddling. My first stop was my favorite scrapbook store for some goodies...

I picked up some Prima flowers-just loving flowers these days! Also a "FRIEND" chipboard album by Bo bunny-saw some similar albums online this morning and fell in love-was excited to see them at the store and just had to pick one up to try. Also saw "In Stitch'z" by Bazzill, cute little templates for creating a stitching design-how cute!!! And last a sheet of "flower child" paper by KI memories-more flowers-so lovely!!

..then to my second favorite store, Hobby Lobby for even more goodies...

Picked up some Kaleidoscope die cuts-yes I know these are a bit old and maybe outdated-but I just fell in love with these papers and still have tons of them. Also picked up Bohemia "blossom" die cuts-love love these colors and they will be perfect for the baby girl pages I'm doing!! Found a few packs of sequence on sale-only picked up three packs so I was able to restrain myself there-was hard to do but it had to be done!! Then picked up MORE flowers by Petaloo- in three different colors. Also nabbed some black flowered felt by Queen & Co-have I mentioned I am on a flower kick?! Found metallic sheets-not sure what I'll do with those but I've seen several projects using them so I cannot wait to try my hands with them.

Hopefully I'll get to use some of these items soon. I hope to visit my friend next week-it will be here last week on bedrest-and take some of my new items to show off (and share of course!)

Just goes t show....

...my baby girl can make any old thing look cute! (my parents are LSU fans and my in-laws are state fans-I am going to be in sooo much trouble with them!) And by the way, I would never buy such an outfit. It was in a bag of clothes someone gave to me.




Baby girl standing up at the train table-she is getting so big!!




The kids taking a nap (they were home with daddy today)



My little man playing trains

Tales from the Scales Weigh In

Well after a week of vacation I knew the scale would not be kind this morning. I gained three pounds this past week-YIKES! I am sure I'll get it off this next week but I sure wanted to drop ten more pounds before the end of the challenge which is only three weeks away. This extra three pounds will probably make that goal unreachable, but we will see.

Weekly Weigh In

Well technically I am up .2-but I weighed first thing this morning and that weigh in is usually a little higher than mid morning. So even though technically I am up I am not considering it a gain since it is only .2 pounds.

This week is going to be a challenge as we are on vacation now and won't return until Monday. So along with that goes a ton of junk food. Although I packed apples yesterday I also made chocolate chip cookies to bring along (my chocolate chip cookies NEVER turn out right....this time they did and they are delish). So needless to say I have already eaten too many of them. Our hotel does have a fitness room maybe I'll take advantage of that while we are there and burn the extra calories I'll be eating. So when we get home next week I'll have no gain to report. Hmmm, we will see how it goes.

I had really hoped to be ten pounds lighter for this vacation but I cannot beat myself up about it. Can't change it now. Will just have to work hard on my next goal.

Good luck to all you out there trying to lose. Have a great week.

Menu Plan Monday 1/29

Well I only have two nights to plan for this week. We will be leaving Wednesday on vacation and I won't have to plan menus for the rest of the week. But I did sit down last week and planned a menu for the month of February! Made out the grocery list for each week too, now if I actually stick to the menu we will be doing great!

So for this week it will be easy. I have pork chops marinating in the fridge for tonight and tomorrow I am thinking salad and sandwiches. Something easy, quick and won't require much cleaning.

Hope everyone has a great week!

Some of my latest Layouts

I have finally been scrapbooking!! I have a friend on bedrest and I've made a few visits to her house to scrapbook. I've also organized my scrap area so hopefully I'll be able to get to scrapping again. Here are my latest layouts. I copies most of the designs from Scrapbooks Etc magazine.

Tales from the Scales Weigh In Day

OK so I am a day late blogging about my weight loss but not my fault-the boys ruled the computer yesterday. I am (somewhat) happy to report no gain and no loss! You'd think I'd be upset about that (and I am a bit disappointed) but considering the week I had I am thrilled that I did not gain any weight. I ate whatever I wanted this past week. I didn't go overboard but if I wanted it, I ate it.

So I won't reach my goal by the end of this month, but I have myself to blame. I am glad to say I am back on track so hopefully I'll see a loss next week. I cannot wait to get a few minutes to go back and visit all the other "losers" blogs and read about their success. Unfortunately my 3 year old is nagging me to get back on the computer. And frankly-while he is occupied on the computer I can get so many other things done. So I will gladly get off so he can play a bit.

Good luck to everyone-hope you have a great week!

We got SNOW!!!

Baby sister with the snowman

baby sister in her first snow


Mommy and J


J throwing a snowball

Yeah! We got snow!! Haven't had snow in about 7 years! Woke up this morning to a little bit of snow on the ground. As I was getting dressed and getting J ready to play outside it began to snow again. It was coming down heavily! It was so much fun. J and I left baby sister upstairs playing and Daddy in the bed. We made a snowman, threw snowballs and slid down the hill. We had so much fun! After we had been outside a while Daddy stuck his head out the front door and we asked him to snap a picture of us. Daddy was obviously not as excited about the snow as Mommy. After playing I got baby sister dressed and took her outside for a few quick photos. This was baby sister's and J's first snow, so we had to take lots of photos.

Here is a video of J throwing a snowball. The snow is really coming down!!



Here is a video of J sledding down the hill. I am behind him trying to give him a good push and video at the same time-didn't work too well.

Little Photo Shoot

I got the camera out today and took a few pictures of baby girl. She wouldn't smile for me but I think I got some really cute ones. Of course I am a little biased!

No More Excuses

Someone had this listed on Calorie count Plus. Thought it was a good eye opener. Hopefully it will get me motivated to stop making excuses and start exercising.

weigh in day!

Woohoo! I lost two more pounds!!! That makes a total of 30 pounds!!!!

I'll have to blog more later after I get baby girl to sleep....

Ok so I had to wait another day to finish blogging about my weight loss, but better late than never. So I lost another 2 pounds!! HIP HIP HOORAY! I still have ten more pounds to lose to get me to where I was "pre kids" which was my goal for the end of 2007 and I didn't meet it. Again better late than never! I still have a ways to go to get to my ultimate goal but I will get there. I seriously need to get into an exercise routine though-that would so help my weight loss. I do plan on taking up tennis soon, just have to coordinate with hubby on watching the kids on nights that my sister is off work so we can play. Also need to get my stationary bike back to the house so I can ride it. Where to put it? I have no idea. I hate it being where the kids can get to it so I will have to come up with some way to keep J off of it.

Well good luck to everyone at Tales from the Scales on the journey to better health. And congrats to all the losers this week!