What have you got to lose?

Well, the get-fit bug has bitten me again. I am totally pumped up about getting in shape for summer. You do realize that there are only about 2-3 more months until we're back in shorts, don't you? And only about 4-5 months (depending on where you live) till it's time to slip into your swim suit! Just think of what you can do in that amount of time! It's so motivating to me to imagine where I could be physically in 4 months! Summer is going to be here before we know it regardless of what we do in the meantime...so why not give it all you've got for the next 4 months and feel super sexy this summer?
This is what I am thinking...I am going to start watching (not counting every single one) my calories. I am making 1200 my target, give or take a hundred. I am doing aerobics and weight training on Tuesday's, Thursday's & Friday's at the gym and Dancercize on Monday & Thursday nights. On the off days, I am going to make it my goal to walk on the treadmill for a minimum of 20 minutes and do some floor exercises at home. For the first time ever, I am not going to focus on 'losing weight' but rather on getting in shape/being healthy. That is a new concept to me seeing as how in the past...all I really cared about was how skinny I was. I didn't care if I ate all 1200 calories from junk food...just as long as I didn't eat more than 1200. Now I am changing the way I think about this stuff. For it to really last..and change your life..you have to have proper nutrition which will give you the energy you need to follow through with your work outs. Sure you may lose weight JUST watching your calories...but you'll still feel draggy and tired all the time because your body will be lacking. Kind of like filling your gas tank in your car with water versus gas. Your car just wouldn't run properly (if at all). Food is fuel for your body...nothing more. It is not entertainment. It is not your friend. It cannot be your source of happiness.
Don't get me wrong...I am preachin' to myself just as well. I can get all worked up and excited just thinking about certain foods. Queso and tortilla chips....yummmmmm! Bacon Cheddar Burger and fries...........oh yes!! Warm brownie with vanilla ice cream....Uh Huh!!!
But that's the old (unhealthy) me talking. The new me will enjoy those things still occasionally...but hopefully with a little less passion each time. I want the "joy" or "fun" of eating those thngs to be balanced with the knowledge of what I am really putting into my body and how hard I will have to work out to burn those 500 extra calories!
So....who's with me? If you're not, then I will just assume you already have the body you've always dreamed of...right? You already eat the proper amounts of veggies and fruits each day and exercise routinely. You're completely ready for that swimsuit, right? Huh? What's that? You say there are things you'd like to change? Oh, alrighty then. That's what I thought! Ha ha. Okay, now I am just being a dork. But really girls (and guys!) time's tickin'. What have you got to lose?

The Missing Shoe-Part 2

Many of you may remember a while back I posted about a missing shoe of Grants. Well, it still hasn't been found so I have officially given up! I do realize that most likely I WILL find it one day...when he's out grown that size! Ha!
But now one of Brooklyn's new shoes has gone missing and this is really starting to irk me. Both times we "lost" the shoes...we were at home so they HAVE to be in this house somewhere. We all know how rough kids are on shoes anyway...so to have bought them both new shoes and them still not be able to wear them is just downright frustrating! I know there's nothing you guys can do to help me...but I swear...if one more shoe goes missing, I am going to start looking for a shoe thief!

And now to change subjects competely....I was just wanting to ask you all when you think a kid should move from a crib to a bed? I know the answer is, "when they seem ready. Each kid is different." But I just wonder when people generally think a kid is too big for a crib. Grant will be 3 in May but he seems to LOVE his crib. He's getting (physically) big for such a confined space (I think) but I don't want to rush him out of it. I was thinking of buying him a big-boy bed for his birthday in May, but then I wonder if I should just let him stay in his crib as long as he wants...? I've known people whose children have stayed in their crib till they were 4 and then I know people right now who have moved their 1 1/2 year olds out of the crib already. I know a lot of my reason for wanting to get him a new bed is selfish. I am just ready to redecorate his room and I won't let myself do it until he's in a new bed. We are switching "themes" completely from moons and stars (navy and yellow) to the Cowboy look (dark brown & red) and I am just itching to get in there and paint and start decorating his room. So anyway, what do you guys think?

Don't Tell Me What To Do!

This is Grant's new favorite thing to say. He says it ANYtime you talk to him. It's SO frustrating. I end up in a full-fledge argument with a 2-year-old! It goes something like this, "Grant, don't hit your sister." He says, "Don't tell me what to do!" I say, "Yes I will tell you what to do. I am your mommy!" He says, "No it's not. Don't tell me what to do." and on and on...ARGH! I don't know what to do!!? The last day or two I have been threatening to spank him if he says it more than once. He usually says "I'm sorry" so he can get out of the spanking...but then seconds later..he's saying it again! Speaking of spanking...did you guys hear that they are trying to pass a law in California that says it's illegal to spank your kids? Oh BOY! They better just take me to jail now! I'm not saying that I beat them or spank them all the time...but there are definitely times that NOTHING gets their attention like Mr. Buster. (that's the name of our paddle! ha ha) We reserve it for when they've been especially naughty..but here lately that has been a lot more often, especially with Grant. He is just a little over 2 1/2 now and I guess he's going through that "testing" phase where he wants to see if we are really serious or not. It's just hard to know when he's just being two and when he's being disobedient and deserves punishment, you know? Anyway, if any of you have any suggestions...feel free!

Jennifer Jones Won't Leave Me Alone!

For those of you who know mine and Matt's "story", you will find this especially humerous! When I found this book at the Library today, I knew right away it was going to be special. When Matt and I were dating...I wouldn't leave him alone. I would sign all my love notes to him "your girlfriend, if that's okay with you". Pathetic, I know. But I was in love and I wouldn't go away. My persistance paid off eventually and he finally realized he wanted me too. Now, in 2 months, we will celebrate our 9 year anniversary!

Jennifer Jones won't leave me alone. She sits by my side. She shouts in my ear. She tells me she loves me. She calls me her "dear".

She writes me love poems full of words like "adore". Then she sticks on red hearts that she bought at the store.

"I'll miss you," she said with a tear in her eye. Then she gave me a kiss and whispered "Goodbye." (Doesn't this just look like me and Matt? HoW fUnNy!)

These are the pages I got completed on Friday night. I like them...but it will take time to master the "art" as well as my friends. Thanks SO much guys for letting me into your little group. It is such an honor!!

Here is a scrapbook page I did of Grant.

Here I am with my first finished page.

Me and the girls at Scrapbooks Galore admiring my "first page". Thanks Guru for taking the picture!

Our party group...most of them anyway.

Brooklyn blowing the candels out on her Roller Skate cake.

Our little party-ier...having some cake.

Karlie, Belle & Brooklyn at Brooklyn's Bowling Party.

The Party Girl!

My guys were pooped after a long day!

ARGH! pictures...

well, I have about 10 new pictures to share with you all...but I can't get them to post. The program "Hello" that I used to use has shut down now and Blogger won't upload my photos..so if anyone knows a way for me to post pictures...please let me know! Until then.....:o)

Do a little Dance...make a little love...get down tonight!

Hi everyone! So..I did it..I took the plunge and switched over to the "new" Blogger. Have all the rest of you switched too? This is my first post since 'converting' so hopefully I won't be sorry. I know my friend, Kandy, warned me to hang onto the old blogger for as long as possible..and I did. But then all of a sudden for some odd reason, I couldn't view my blog anymore and the only thing I could think to do was switch over and then maybe it would fix the problem. But, as of yet..I still can't view my blog. Hopefully you guys can though..?? Would the first person who reads this leave me a comment so I'll know that you can still get to my blog? Thanks!
Anyway, the reason this is titled "Do a little dance..." is because I am SO excited about this new form of exercise I have started! I found out last week that there is something in my little town called "Dancercize" at the Methodist Church. It is on Monday & Thursday nights from 6-7:15. I went tonight for the first time and I loved it. It's about 90% dance and 10% exercise...but I worked up a major sweat. The girl teaching it is GREAT! She's probably an awesome dancer. We learned several routines (one latin, one hip-hop and a couple others) and did them to songs like "Dontcha wish your girlfriend was hot like me?" and "Fergilicious" and "She bangs" and lots more. I knew all the songs which made it even more fun. Did you guys know I am a hip-hop addict? It started about 2 years ago and I've been hooked ever since. (Of course...there are some songs I DON'T listen to---the nasty ones) but it really boosts my moods and energizes me. Anyway...I am really thrilled to have found something like this in my own town. The gym I go to for my aerobics classes is about 20 minutes away so I only go twice a week. Now I will be able to work out 4 times a week (outside of home). I am doing my treadmill a lot more now at home..hooray! Time to start getting in shape for summer! Bathing suit season is just around the corner!
In other news....Grant got a big boo-boo today that I thought was going to require stitches! He was behind Brooklyn's bed and knocked down a big, heavy mirror. Apparently the corner of it hit him right on the head because when I ran in there (I was in the other room mopping at the time) there was blood running from his head all the way down to his hands. I nearly passed out! Once I got everything cleaned up, I could see that there was really only one gash that was about 1/4 inch long. It looked pretty deep though so I called the doctors office. They told me as long as it stops bleeding within 20 minutes, he wouldn't need a stitch--no matter how deep it was. It did stop bleeding finally...thank God! There's nothing like seeing blood on your children to make your heart drop right out of your chest into your stomach!
Well, I could chatter on and on but Brooklyn is waiting on me to read her a bedtime story. I do want to mention that my friends, Teya, Amos and Guru took me for my initiation into scrapbooking Friday night and much to my delight...I loved it! At first it was totally intimidating but I just made myself jump right in and start doing a page (even though I knew it wouldn't measure up to theirs) and I ended up getting 3 done while I was there that night. I'll post a picture of them for you all to see. Now I have a mile-long list of all the things I want to buy for my scrapbook collection. I probably won't be able to do it quite as "religiously" as they do...but I will strive to scrapbook at least once every month or two. (It's been over a year since I've done any!) Wish you could have been there Logzie...it just seemed like you should have been! Hope to meet you someday though!! Okay...Brooklyn's getting impatient...mumbling something about the fact that I am always too busy....hmmm?? Wonder why she thinks that? Ha Ha. Goodnight all!
Well....I'm back. I decided to just read her the book and then come back and write some more since I remembered I have another story to tell you guys. I'll call it The Birthday Party Disaster. It starts like this: Last Saturday, Jan. 13th was supposed to be Brooklyn's birthday party. Since we got a major ice storm, everything shut down so I had to cancel her party. I called all the parents and told them that I'd send notes to school with Brooklyn to send home with each of them telling them when the party had been rescheduled for. I called the skating rink and rescheduled the party for Sunday, Jan. 21st. I made up really cute little notes and wrote each child's name on one and set them on the counter to send to school with Brooklyn...BUT...school ended up being cancelled ALL WEEK LONG! On Saturday it dawned on me that those cute little notes were still sitting on my counter and that none of her friends knew that her party was the next day. So..I got busy on the phone again calling everyone. (of course, I should add that we also were forcasted to get 6-8 inches of snow that night!) Anyway...I spent the better part of Saturday evening making a roller skate cake to go along with her skating party. Her party was sheduled for 2 pm but since I had to teach the Kindergarten class at church Sunday, I just took everything with me that morning and figured I'd just go on over to the skating rink right from church. Well, after church I had a message on my cell phone from the skating rink telling me that they are having to shut down because they have leaks in their ceiling and the skate floor is all wet! I looked at my watch and it was 12:30...just an hour and a half before the party! I called Matt and we decided to just move the party to the bowling ally down the road. I had him call for me to make sure it was open and it was so I got my mom to cover the class for me for a minute so I could call all the parents YET again...but after the first call...my cell phone went dead! By the time I got to leave church...it was 1:15! I had totally thought I'd have enough time to each lunch before the party..but not now. So, my mom dropped me off at the bowling ally with the kids and she ran down to the skating rink to wait for all the kids to show up so she could tell them to go down to the bowling ally instead. So I go in and stand in line to get some lanes and the lady tells me that they are all booked up and don't have any open lanes!!! I am like NO WAY! I put my name on a waiting list and decide to just order some food from their snack bar and maybe by the time we are done eating...there will be some open lanes. So I go over to order some food (which is WAY over-priced by the way) and they tell me that they have SO many orders already...that it might be a long time and they actually decided to shut the snack bar down after my order! Anyway...all in all...it turned out fine. We got our pizza and french fries eventually and the kids had roller-skate cake and capri-sun's. (man a bowling ball cake would have been so much easier!!) Just in time...2 lanes opened up and they all got to bowl and had lots of fun doing it. I ended up spending a small fortune on it all though. We thought we'd be saving money since we could rent a lane for an hour for $15...but what they didn't tell me was that I had to pay $3 per child for shoes!!! So 2 lanes plus 10 pair of shoes added up. All in all...I think the kids probably had a great time and I'm sure they didn't even notice all the chaos. The poor moms though!! I had every last one of them doing something. Someone had to hand out the drinks, find the plates, get the forks, pass out the napkins oh and somebody please grab my camera and take some pictures! Ha Ha! Whew! What an ordeal! Glad it's over.
Okay, well, I think I've probably taken up enough of your time for one day! Goodnight!

making progress...

Well, FINALLY...I am pleased to say that I am feeling so much better. Today was the first day in nearly 2 weeks that I have felt good enough to do much of anything. No headache all day! Praise the Lord!! I still have all that disgusting sinus stuff going on..but I can deal with that as long as the headache doesn't accompany it! So anyway, I know this is really short...but I SO appreciate all your prayers and sweet comments and scriptures and I wanted to let you know. You guys love me so much...and I don't know how that happened...but I am SO grateful for you all! I know I haven't posted a whole lot this week...but I sure have been enjoying reading everyone else's blogs! Goodnight for now!

Brooklyn saw a squirrel digging for nuts out in our front yard so she ran out and took a picture. She did a pretty good job! 

The trees alongside the road in our town. 

The view leaving my house and going into town. 

You guys are the BEST!

Thank you all for your sweet words regarding the sickness that has plagued my house. I am digusted to say that after 3 days of Penicillin..I am still feeling NO better...maybe worse. When I blow my nose...it's almost straight blood. I have a horrible headache that I can't get rid of no matter how much Tylenol or Ibuprofen I take and I am so weak..it's work just to get up and do anything. The kids have laid hands on me and I know my healing is coming...but I wish it'd hurry UP! Anyway...I better go. We are fixing to brave the roads and run into town to get some milk. When we were in town on Monday...they were out of milk...so hopefully today they'll have some. My sister-in-law just totalled her car this morning and my brother (her husband) totalled his truck and 5th wheel trailer on Friday...so now they are both without a vehicle! I'm usually not worried about driving in this kind of weather...but this time...I am a little nervous. Thank God that His Angles are watching over me!

still ill...

Well, we went back to the doctor today (Grant and I) and we both still have strep throat. No wonder we haven't felt any better! The doctor said we must have a "resistant strain of strep" since the antibiotics she gave us last Tuesday didn't even touch it. Ugh! So now have started round 2 of some new antibiotics. Hopefully these will do the trick. It's going to be a trial just remembering to take them all. I have to give Grant his twice a day for 10 days and I have to take mine 3 times a day for 10 days. That is 50 doses of medicine to remember! Whew! Plus...apparently Grant's is really nasty tasting because he makes the sour-lemon face when he takes it. He is SUCH a good medicine taker---but I feel sorry for him with this one because I know for him to put up a fight...it must be bad.
As for the "cabin fever"...since we had to get out and go to the doctor today..we went ahead and went out for lunch and to Wal-Mart. We live in a tiny little town..so everything is within half-a-mile of each other. It was nice to get out but by the time we got back home, I was feeling pretty weak and exhausted. It's awful what a toll sickness takes on your body and your energy!
About a week and a half ago I drug my treadmill into the house from the back patio so I could start walking every day on it again. Of course..the very next day is when I got sick..so I've only walked on it twice so far. It stinks because I was SO motivated and ready to go. As a matter of fact, last Tuesday was the last time I walked on it and that was the day I was REALLY feeling sick but I was determined not to "give up" already...but after 20 minutes, I thought I might pass out. My body was completely drained. I told myself I need to just put it aside for now until I get well. Just keeping the house semi-cleaned and playing with the kids 16-18 hours a day is work-out enough until I am well.
Well, Matt just got home from another LONG day of work (17 hours) and I am going to be the sweet, good little wifey that I am and go give him a back massage. He said they spent some time today just knocking ice off of the power lines (from the ground) and that his neck and shoulders are really tight and tense. I figure it's the least I can do. Hope you all have a good night!

Olive Garden's Zuppa Tuscana soup. YUM!!! This is what we are having for dinner tonight. Go to www.recipedivas.blogspot.com to get the recipe! 

This is one of the little trees in my front yard. I thought it might make a pretty picture....but notice all the ice! Poor little tree!  

This is a picture of the landscaping in front of my house. IT is totally iced over. I know it looks like snow...but it's not. It is SOLID ice. You can walk on it and there is NO crunching...just sliding! 

Winter Wonder Land!! This is the view from my front door. 

Help! I'm drowning in boredom...

Alright, I know I am being a whiny baby but it's just how I feel right now. I am SO sick of being cooped up in this house! I have baked cookies, made gormet meals, cleaned, did ALL the laundry, played play dough with the kids several times, colored, watched 3 movies, napped, read everyone I know's blog and now I am just BORED!!! I can't think of anything to do and I know I have at LEAST another 2 full days of being stuck in this house ahead of me! It wouldn't be SO bad if at least Matt was home with me...but he's out working of course to get other people's electric back on...so it's just me and the kids. Boy, I really shouldn't be complaining now that I think about it. He's out there in the freezing cold sleet and ice working while I am lazy-ing around the house. I need some ideas of something to do to help pass the time. If I were all alone, I could think of tons of things...catch up on my reading, work-out, pay bills, do my work but mainly I could get some scrapbooking done...but with the kids there is NO way I would even attempt it. They'd be ALL up in my stuff--which would completely stress me out. Maybe I'll spend a few minutes at familyfun.com or something looking for some craft ideas. I don't know. I just know that I am going to get fat if I have to just keep sitting around the house. Okay...enough whining...I think I'll go eat dinner now! (ha ha)

On Thursday (Brooklyn's actual birthday) I took her to The Picture People to have her pictures done. They turned out so cute they asked me to sign a release so they can use her pictures in their store as displays. Obviously they are copyrighted so I can't put the actual pictures on here...but I took pictures of our pictures so you can at least see them. 

I LOVED this one. The picture I took (of the picture) is kind of dark, but in real life...it is really cute! 

I know this is really blurry...but I am taking a picture of a picture and I can't figure out how to get it any better. It gives you an idea anyway of how cute they were. 

Brooklyn and Grant on the merry-go-round at Incredible Pizza. Grant wanted to be sure and be in this picture! ha ha