It's Weigh In Wednesday!

Well I think I'm on my way to crawling back up onto the healthy / exercise wagon. Granted at this point I'm just hanging on by my fingertips....but it's a start.

I've been exercising a little better and even went running yesterday thanks to two friends that posted on line that they went which gave me the motivation!

I have also been good and had my Lean Cuisines for lunch both days so far this week and have made dinner.

Anyhow, I'm down exactly one pound since last Wed.

It's kind of exciting. I was cleaning out my car the other day an evaluation from the first time I met with a personal trainer at my fitness center last year. It was on March 4th. I weighed 184 pounds. Granted I don't think I'll quite make it by March 4th, but if I can lose just 3.2 pounds I will be down 20 pounds from that date! I know 20 pounds doesn't seem like a lot until you visualize 20 pounds of ground beef stuck to your butt or carrying around 80 sticks of butter. Yup. I'm a whole lot smaller of a person than I was last year. Hopefully one more year and I will reach my final goal of 155 pounds and a size 6!

Time. Will. Tell.

Project 365 Upload #7

Well, here you go....an oh so exciting peek into the world of Lee!

Feb 16th:

We had a moment of weakness wherein we bribed the girls with a Wii Fit if they would not complain about babysitting for us on Valentines evening. We couldn't find the game on Valentines night and after about an hour of calling around on Monday morning we found it at Target in Orem. It's so fun to have a game that even Aaron enjoys playing.




Feb. 17th:

JM was beginning to look like a shaggy little girl, so Tracey took the scissors to his hair. Usually JM doesn't mind too much to have a haircut but this time it was not something he wished to endure! This photo is actually a screen grab from the video that we took. Now we call him "new boy" because it is like having a new boy in the house!



Feb. 18th:

I have to admit, that due to my "extreme dermatitis" in my ear canals I am forever itching my ears with qtips. My ENT gave me drops which help immensely but every so often I can't help it. Obviously I itch a little too much as JM thought that pretzel sticks would do the job for his ears quite nicely!



Feb. 19th:

Today, Aaron started hollering at me from the kitchen to "come quick and see". I went out to see what he was so excited about and he warned me not to "break it". I truly giggled when I saw what he was talking about. He was so amazed by all of the dust particles in the air floating around that he could see through the slit of sunlight creeping in between the curtains. It immediately took me back to being a kid when I was so intrigued by the same thing.



Feb. 20th:

Tracey and I are truly spoiled by his parents that always willingly take all 5 of the kids for sleepovers. We cashed in on our Christmas present weekend, and were planning on eating at Setebello's. On our way there all of the sudden we had the craving for Killer Nachos from The Red Iguana. We hadn't been there in ages, and despite being there at 5:30 we still had to wait nearly an hour for a table. It was worth every minute of waiting cause their nachos are truly killer!



Feb. 21st:

Since we had no kids for the day we rode Trax into Salt Lake and spent the entire day walking around taking photos and making video. This is one of my favorite photos that we took. I love how you can see Tracey's reflection in the glass.



Feb. 22nd:

The girls are so funny. They are entirely addicted to a website called Fantage which their friend Savannah M. introduced them to. I was a "cool mom" and paid a small fee so that they could become "premium members". It's really kind of a fun site with lots of games and fashion shows. You play games to earn points to buy different items for your character. The girls often make me sit down and play the typing game for them so that they can rack up the points! We have had to put limits on their time spent playing as if we didn't they'd sit on the computer all day long.

The Date Video

Tracey doesn't like it, but I think he did a great job!

Click....

All of the sudden I have the Go, Diego, Go! "Click...take a pic" song in my head. Today was truly a wonderful day! Tracey and I took advantage of our no kids for the day and headed into downtown Salt Lake for a day of wandering, photographing and filming.

I have to admit, that after playing around with Tracey's 5D a little bit today, my 20D seems like a piece of doo!

Here are a few photos from our journeyings around town. I suppose we must have walked a good 4 or 5 miles, which is good considering the amount of lovely food that we consumed today!

These photos were from one of our first stops. There's nothing quite like walking aimlesly around downtown, finding all sorts of unique colors and buildings. The only drawback is that sometimes the corners you can find really stink!









For Christmas Tracey's parents gave us a gift certificate to Settebello's. Honest to goodness, it is the BEST and most authentic Italian pizza that we have had since leaving Europe. It was really hard to save the gift certificate for our special date weekend...and I am already wishing to go back. Tracey got a cheese pizza with salami, and I got a "white" pizza with procuitto costo and spinach. Mmmmmm...







After lunch we stumbled upon this German bakery. I told Tracey that we had to go inside to see if they had any chocolate crossiants like we would get so often in Germany. They do make them there but they were out. We settled on a delicious piece of Apfel Streudel. The only thing missing was the vanilla sauce!




We then made our way to the Gateway and these were perhaps some of my favorite photos that we took all day. I wanted Tracey to take a photo making sure that he was showing in the reflection of the window I was standing by. I think he did a great job!





Here are a couple of random shots that Tracey took that I liked. Even though my hands are looking old!





I had never been to the "new" Salt Lake library so after hanging out at the Gateway we walked over to the library. It was amazing. I'd really like to take the kids back there one day as I am sure they would love it. It's really high and there are glass elevators. I couldn't quite convince Tracey to go up with me.



There is a display of hundreds of tiny mechanical butterflies. When you look at it from the right angle it is a persons head. The light wasn't great for capturing what it really is like but I did catch a few photos of the butterflies.



It was such a great day. Thanks Dan and Karen for watching our brood. I know it's a lot of work but it means the world to us to be able to have times like these.

Weigh In Wednesday - Color Me Confused!

You know...I just don't get it.

I have to be honest, that recently I've sort of fallen off of the wagon so to speak. In fact let me lay it out for you.

I've exercised only 2 times in the past month. Once yesterday playing Wii Fit, (and boy do I hurt today), and for about 30 min. a week ago Monday. That's it! No gym. No running. No Billy. No Firm. No nuthin'.

I've sort of thrown the good eating choices out the window...especially over the past week. Maybe it was more of a trying to par-tay before buckling down and getting serious again.

Here's what I can recall that I've eaten, and I'm sure there is more.

Mostly diet coke.
One of those big pink cookies every morning last week after I dropped the kids off at school. The boys and I hit the gas station for drinks and treats.
Yesterday - Apollo Burger and Onion Rings
Monday - A big ol' Whopper with Cheese and onion Rings
The Weekend - No less than 10 sugar cookies with frosting
Valentines Day - Dinner at Rubios - Fish Taco, shrimp burrito, beans and rice
Friday - I'm sure Tracey and I ate somewhere for lunch, Costco Pizza for dinner
Thursday - Lunch with Jana and Tracey at Cafe Rio

Okay...you get the idea.

So I jump on the scale this morning and I've lost yet another pound. Since the beginning of the year I am down just just over 5 pounds.

So what do I do? Keep indulging in all of the pleasures of life and hope that I stay constant in my dropping a pound a week, or get back on the wagon?!?! It's just so frustrating when I work, work, work...and be so dilligent about everything and only lose ever so slightly more than I am losing now or in many weeks just maintain my weight! Oh and get this...my measurements....The same or smaller.

Color me confused!

Project 365 Upload #6

Wow...I can't believe another week has gone by and I have managed to continue to find things to take photos of!

Feburary 10th, Day 41:

Thanks to Facebook, after nearly 20 years a few of the Murray High School girls were able to get together and meet each other for dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. Many of us have not seen each other since the night of graduation, so it was absolutely fantastic to catch up on the happenings of each others lives.



Feb 11th, Day 42:

I promised Tracey that I could bring home a piece of cheesecake for us to share. I TRIED to save it for when he came home from work, but the boys decided to help me eat it at lunch time instead. I mean seriously...how can you say no to such a sweet face that is enjoying cheesecake so much!



Feb 12th Day 43:

Poor JM has had quite the case of diaper rash thanks to the anti-biotics that he's been on for his ear infection. Even though we tried to take preventative measures by giving him a pro-biotic with each dose of medicine, he still ended up with quite the sore tooshey.




Feb 13th Day 44:

I remember how fun it was in Elementary school to participate in the Valentines parties every year. My girls were no less excited than I remembered being. They came home from school eager to share the goodies that they scored from others.



Feb 14th, Day 45:

I have to admit that I was pretty excited for Valentines this year because it fell on a Saturday. Tracey and I never do much for each other and always find pleasure in making it a great day for the kids, but this year I decided to treat him with his own personal "heart attack". I made 2 dozen hearts and wrote little reasons why I love him. I placed all of them in a heart shaped pancake for him at breakfast. I think he liked it!




Feb 15th, Day 46:

Today was our turn to host Family Home Evening with my side of the family. I really look forward to the second Sunday of the month when we all get together for a lesson and a treat. We take turns hosting the evening and today happened to be our turn at our home. Grandpa Dahl said he had heard that President Hinkley and his family carried this tradition, and I can say in the past 5+ years since we have been doing this that it has made a great difference in our family and the closeness that we share with each other.

How on Earth can you say no....to this?

Last night I went to The Cheesecake Factory with some of the girls that I went to High School with. Most of us haven't seen each other since graduation day, so it was pure delight to catch up with the happenings of the past ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, 19 years. I honestly don't feel myself aging, yet when I look around and see what we have and where we've been since high school passed, it's only obvious that time has ticked on. I have to say however, that with the exception of Kim's flat ironed hair, none of us look any different...maybe a little softer around the eyes, but that is about it!




So I told Tracey that I would bring home a piece of cheesecake for us to share while watching 24. As the evening happened, we actually ended up going to see a late movie, so I didn't get home until nearly 1AM.

I tried to resist the bag in the fridge. I really and truly did.

I *thought* I had put the cheesecake on the top container in the to-go bag so I purposfully reached for the 2nd container to warm up my lunch.

Oops.

Wrong container.




Sadly enough the cheesecake has been consumed.

But honestly....how can you say no to this?

At least I shared....right?

Project 365 Upload #5

Well, sorry it's not anything more exciting than more photos. I have really enjoyed this project so far....being able to capture little snippets from the life of our family.

Feb 2nd Day 33:

I finally finished the bathroom project that I've been working on for most of January. I really, REALLY love how it turned out...especially the cabinets. I feel like it's such a classy room and I really did it for very cheap! I got all of the decor items at Ross for dollars, and the towels came from clearance at Target for $2.50 each!



Feb 3rd, Day 34:

I am so proud of Sarah. Today she graduated from the Nova program at school. She worked so hard to complete all of the assignments including no television for an entire week over Christmas break. She was one of about 11 students in the entire 6th grade that completed every assignment, earning herself the Super Nova award. I know the things that she learned will help her as difficult choices arise in the next few years.



Feb 4th, Day 35:

I liked the look of my black cabinets in my bathroom so much that I have decided to start in on re-finishing the railing to our downstairs, and then hopefully move onto the kitchen cabinets. I started sanding down the railing today and it really isn't the funnest of jobs, but I am sure the end result will be worth it.



Feb 5th, Day 36:

Tonight we had our parent teacher conferences at the elementary. It's always so nice to go and hear good reports. In fact I was told by Tessas teacher that thanks to her, and her alone, the entire class was able to have an extra party, since she stayed in during a recess and cleaned the entire room. I wish she'd feel that passionate about cleaning her bedroom! Tessa still struggles with math, but her reading has really improved over this year.



Feb 6th, Day 37

After a rough night of screaming and no sleep, I decided to take JM back into the doctor as I suspected that his ear infection had not entirely cleared up. Mothers intuition was right and he started on another round of antibiotics. This time we are faced with the awful side effect of diarreah, so we have had to get a pro-biotic from the health food store to give him before each dosage, which helps, but doesn't eliminate the mess!



Feb 7th, Day 38:

Today we were able to go to Tracey's Grandma's 80th birthday party. It was a surprise party and I am glad that she didn't suffer from a heart attack when she walked into the room! I am so grateful that our kids have the blessing in their lives of knowing not only their grandparents but their great grandparents. I am so happy that we could all be there at the party to give her our love.



Feb 8th, Day 39:

My family issued a challenge for all of us to have the entire Book of Mormon read by the middle of October. We were a little slow on starting up with the challenge but have taken seriously this week to making it happen. Our personal challenge has been to read 6 pages a day. While some days we have been a little short, we haven't missed a day of reading since we began last Sunday and have completed about 37 pages so far! I love the opportunity that it provides us as parents to discuss the happenings of ancient times and relate them to our lives today. Even though it tends to be chaotic with the boys, the spirit that is brought into our home has is unmistakable and I am so grateful for it.



Feb 9th, Day 40:

Yesterday afternoon I landed myself an awful headache and at some point during the night it turned into a full fledged migrane. I woke up wondering how I would take care of the kids. I popped into Facebook for a moment to update my status and jokingly asked if anyone wanted to take my boys for the day. I was absolutely touched as 2 wonderful neighbors both showed no hesitation in wanting to help me out, and another drove my kids to school. I am so blessed to live in a great area with great people. Thanks Jen and Amy! Luckily I was rescued shortly thereafter by Tracey who came home early and I then slept the entire afternoon, waking up feeling much better.

WHATEVER!

My husbands attempt to sabotage my blog!

Just another movie...

The other day we made JM some "Easy Mac" since he was asleep when the family ate dinner. He obviously didn't wake up on the right side of the crib cause he wasn't happy about his food offering. Or at leat it took him a few minutes to warm up to the idea!

Weigh In Wednesday #4

Nothing too exciting to report. I'm exactly where I was 2 weeks ago which kind of surprises me since I haven't exercised but only once over the past 2 weeks and yesterday I had Arctic Circle for lunch, and a nasty gas station bratwurst and donut for dinner last night.

Aside from feeling like I have food poisoning from the brat, I guess life is good!

Stay tuned for the bathroom photos!

Project 365 Upload #4

Wow! I guess it's a good thing that I've got this little project going or I may have fallen off of the blogging bandwagon!

Actually I've been so busy making my bathroom pretty over the past couple of weeks that I haven't really had time for much else. I'll be putting the finishing touches on what I can today and then I will take some photos.

Just a little piece of advice to you all however....DON'T MAKE CURTAINS. Buy them. Your life will be much better! However, I am a girl that isn't going to give up, so before this day is done, I WILL have them looking decent. I hope. :)

Jan 26th:

Tracey has a great job in the fact that he is able to travel on occasion. Surely I don't love being on the single mom status, but his trips are always quick. It's nice that he has the opportunity to see a little bit of the country even though filming dentists doesn't exactly fall into the "wow that was exciting" category. However on his trip to Minnesota, he was able to spend a bit of time at the Mall of America.



Jan 27th:

Today we went as a family to the Draper Temple open house. How grateful I am that I am sealed to my family for eternity. I hope that my children will always remember the peace that they felt in the temple and strive to make the choice of having an eternal family for themselves one day. I am so grateful for my best friend, and my husband who is such a pillar of strength and an example to our family. I'm also happy that he doesn't seem to mind that he's stuck with me....forever!



Jan 28th:

I can't believe that Sarah will be heading off to Young Womens this year. Tonight was New Beginnings. She's so excited to be moving on and to be going to activities with Maddi. They both made a commitment to pray morning and night, read their scriptures for 5 minutes daily, and smile every day. I really hope that they both realize the importance of these simple things and how building a testimony while they are young will carry them through times of doubt as they grow older.




Jan 29th:

As part of one of our new years goals Tracey and I decided that we would make a better effort to take the kids out one on one for "dates". Even though this week wasn't exactly one on one, (because we got started a little late and had to double up), we sure had fun. Maddi, Sarah, Aunt Jana and I hit the local roller rink for a little skating fun. I have to say roller skating is a whole lot harder than I remember it being. However it was a great evening and we were able to have some good chats with the girls over a shake at Iceberg, about the difficulties of growing up and the importance of making good choices. More than anything I want my girls to know that I was a real teenager too, and that whatever they are going through I truly understand!




Jan 30th:

I get the biggest kick out of my boys. Never did my girls get a thrill out of watching the garbage being hauled away. Both Aaron and JM can hear the engine of the garbage truck from a block away and scurry to their bedroom window to watch for the truck to come. Every other week is a double treat when 2 days row they get to watch the show as the recycling man makes his rounds.



Jan 31:

There is never a dull moment with JM in the house. In fact, if it is ever quiet you know there is trouble going on. After a few too many moments of peace this is what we found. And the walls and floors and couches decorated quite nicely. Thank heavens it was washable!




Feb 1st (Day 32):

As much as we try to be conscious about eating right, Sunday afternoons always seem to be a time for indulging in a little "not so good for you" food. We often make brownies as an after church treat and eat them while playing games or watching a movie. This particular day we played Scrabble Upwords.