After a good run...

After a good run there is nothing better than hitting the gas station for an early morning Diet Coke. Yeah, yeah...I know, if I'd just give it up, I would probably not hurt as bad running, but it is one of those simple pleasures in life that I'm just not willing to sacrifice. And it's not even the caffeine that is an addiction. 90% of the time I am drinking Caffeine Free Diet Coke...at least whenever it is available.

The boys don't seem to mind when I make my morning stop for a beverage either because they most often score a little treat themselves.








Obviously JM wasn't completely happy with the choice he made as he shortly made a move on brothers treat!





Silly boys.

Project 365 Upload #8

You know I was sitting there thinking the other day that I really need to re-name my blog to "Life Photographed." I can't believe how long it has been since I scrapped anything. In fact I haven't even unpacked from the night I went scrapbooking with Traceys sisters in January. I really need to dig out my new WRMK stuff...maybe that will give me the drive!

Anyhow here is a peek at our lives last week!

Feb 23:

We were lucky to have Grandma and Grandpa Lee over for dinner. Maddison had forgotten her phone charger at their house, and to be a teenager with a dead phone would be nothing short of devestating, so after work they drove it down. We love spending time with them and wish that we lived closer, but are still grateful that we can see each other within an hours drive.



Feb 24: Matthew has proven to be a major "outside" boy. The weather was nice today so we spent the afternoon hanging out in the back yard. The boys played in the sandbox while I sat and finished reading The Giver, which is an excellent book!



Feb 25:

Being a part of the Facebook community has been an absolute blast. It's been SO much fun to hook up with old friends, really get to know some of my neighbors, which I'd never have had the opportunity to do otherwise, and most of all has been great to have daily contact with my brothers whom I love so much! I found a bunch of old photos from our childhood and posted them on my Facebook page for everyone to have a good giggle over.



Feb 26:

Tonight was Maddisons parent teacher conferences. She and I spent 2.5 hours meeting with her teachers. For the most part Maddison is doing great in her classes. Her English class is her favorite, just as mine always was. Her teacher was so impressed with a recent essay that she completed that she asked if she could use it as an example for her students next year.




Feb 27:

Tracey took the day off of work so that he could catch up on his RNG business. All morning long Aaron was talking about the Thomas pieces that he wanted to buy. We kept telling him that we didn't have money to buy him whatever he wanted and he simply asked if we could just "buy more money". We took him to Target and told him he had $10 to spend on something Thomas-y and he chose a 3 car Percy set....mostly because of the log car.



Feb 28:

Tracey's cousin Danny got married today. The kids were SO excited to go to the reception and because it was close we decided to take them. It was a beautiful reception and Tracey's cousin and new wife looked very happy.




March 1:

After church Tracey and Sarah decided to make chocolate chip cookies. We didn't have any chocolate chips, but the big pair of solid chocolate lips that Tracey gave me on Valentines worked quite nicely when chopped up! It's a good thing that I didn't eat them and had them to put in the cookies. Tracey and Sarah did a great job!

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!