3 months down, 9 to go!

I guess really a lifetime to go, but it's the end of the month, so I thought I'd better account for my goals for the year.

 1. Read Scriptures and Pray before using computer.
I'm now 1/4 of the way through both the Bible and the Triple Combination (Book of Mormon/Doctrine and Covenants/Pearl of Great Price). I love reading it and I think I get more out of it because I'm reading longer sections of it at a time. I also finished the Relief Society history book "Daughters in My Kingdom". I started it ages ago and I've slowly been chipping away at it. It's a great book about the history of Relief Society and it's role in the building of the LDS Church.

 2. Exercise daily (instead of never).
I walked with my buddy most days this month, but she did have a trip she went on for a week and a half, so that was harder. I went out with Abby in the stroller a few times and two friends and walked a few extra places. My buddy and I are up to four miles per hour at this point and we started walking up and down hills in the last few weeks.  Who wants to walk with me in April?  My buddy is visiting family in Alaska for the month...
This month I also started my 25 in 95 challenge to myself, so I am keeping track of calories and exercise. I've never ever counted calories before, so I really had no idea how much I was eating. This is good for me to learn more self control. I have YET to lose even one pound, but I'm feeling better and I'm in better shape, which is important. I even had to buy a new pair of shoes this month because my other ones wore out. I think that's a pretty good measure of exercise, right?
 I planted my garden today, so I'll have plenty of fresh veggies to eat in another month or two.  I didn't eat treats several times they were offered this month.  I didn't make cookies all month, but I am sure I will in April because I'm in charge of the bake sale for our school carnival.  Good thing I am learning self control and restraint, right?

 3. Only check computer three times a day (morning, noon, and night) instead of constantly.
This one is hard for me. Maybe if I shut my computer down??? I like being connected with family and friends on facebook and blogs and email and everything throughout the day. However, if I did less of this, I'd probably be a little better at #4.

 4. Read more with the kids.
Because I walk at night with my friend (her little girls go to bed at 7pm), it's a little harder to read with the kids. After school is so busy with homework and letting the girls relax and getting dinner on the table that it's hard to sit down and read with them. I did read with Vincent several times during the day and he could sit and listen to books ALL day if I had the voice to do that (I was sick this month). Abby likes to look at books, but she's a speed reader. ;) Elizabeth and I are reading "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing" by Judy Blume for our mother/daughter book group. It's such a fun book. She likes to read it with me and we alternate pages. Olivia likes Princess or Fairy chapter books and we slowly work our way through those. Andy is still reading scriptures and Narnia and other picture books with them at bedtime while I walk.

 5. Temple, Temple, Temple= EVERY month
We were able to go this last Wednesday night. I love going to the Temple. It's such a great place to think about the eternal progression of things and what is really important. Families are important. I sure love my family and extended family too. This time was especially good for me because there were several people that I put on the Temple's prayer roll that whoever goes to a Temple throughout the world will be praying for.

Here's a bonus picture of Andy and I that one of my friends took at the Valentine dance.  I got it awhile ago, but it was in a different file and I forgot about it.

 a. I added the goal of going to bed earlier, but because I was sick, I couldn't breathe at night very well and got into the habit of staying up late and napping during the day again. Andy couldn't go to sleep when I was sleeping loudly (snoring, he says. ;) I am still getting most of the things on my list done though and I'm still sleeping enough, but it would be better if I could go to bed earlier. I'd better start getting ready now since it's 11pm and I still need to read with Andy, do my bedtime routine, and switch the laundry one more time. I'd better hurry!

 Any tips? How are your goals for the year going?

Grocery Preschool Trip

Vincent's preschool group had a little field trip to a local grocery store Thursday. We had four little boys in our group, but since one moved away, we just have three.
Vincent liked the manager immediately and went over to hug him as soon as he introduced himself.

 We got a full tour of all of the departments in the store starting with the bakery.  This lady was making donuts for the next day.  She had an awesome donut cutting tool that had 6-8 cutters attached to a wheel that she just rolled along the dough and it cut out the whole row.  It was cool!

 They watched this lady make frosting roses and then they even got to sample the frosting and they got M&M cookies.

 At the beginning, the manager gave them each a plastic grocery bag to pick up treats along the way.  Here they are in the big fridge.  See the milk and eggs behind them?

 We went over to the seasonal department and this nice lady brought them candy.

 He showed them the seafood and got some of the little clams to move when he sprayed them.

 This is a trash compactor.  They got to watch as it smashed the boxes flat.  This was Vincent's favorite part.

 One of the flat boxes...

 He asked them what this produce was and Vincent called it a tomato.  No, but close, a Kiwi.  Other than being brown and fuzzy and green on the inside.....

 Vincent called this a tomato too.  Maybe he was really trying to say potato?

 We watched the lady in the deli make a pizza.

 Vincent in front of the Yoke's truck.  When we got up to the front one of our friends came with her little boy who's close to the age of these boys.  It was fun.

 Here the boys are all smiling (even though they aren't looking the same direction.)  These boys are so much fun!  Vincent loves playing with them.

 Afterwards we went to a local garden center so one of my friends could get some gardening things and Vincent actually sat down for a minute.

We had quite a busy Thursday.  We ran home to pick up some boxes of clothes that Olivia has outgrown to take to Shirley so she could take them to Andy's sister this weekend.  Since she has two little girls younger than Olivia and bigger than Abby, it doesn't hurt us at all to share. =)

We got over to Kennewick and Andy's sisters and mom were all going out to lunch so we joined them.  

I kept getting phone calls all day and they were all good news.  A friend called and asked which cross stitch thread I needed at a craft store because she wanted to pick it up for me.  (I posted on facebook the day before that I needed one thread and didn't want to spend the gas to go pick up one thread that costs less than fifty cents to do it.  I have to hurry and finish my cross stitch for the wedding reception we are going to tonight.)  

Another friend called and asked if she could pick up my girls from school because it was raining and that was perfect because Abby was still sleeping.  

Arrangements for the family reunion we are in charge of are starting to firm up.  We now have the park reserved for one of the days.

I took a short nap before Andy got home. 

Laundry was finished.  Abby's special blanket was returned to her.  She has a bigger one with the same material, but it doesn't have the bunny.  She hasn't hardly let go of this since I got it out of the dryer.  (Maybe that's why she was up until 3:30am Wednesday/Thursday night???  I watched a whole movie after I wanted to be in bed.)

My visiting teacher came to see me.  We had a good visit.

Game night was had and I was in a pretty good position in Risk (hardly ever happens!) until I had to leave.  Andy reported that Olivia was the second winner after him. Olivia has been asking all week to play Risk. She loves that game!

I went out with some friends to Applebees for another friend's birthday.  I counted my calories and didn't go over!  I had red beans and rice that's about the healthiest thing on the menu and cheap too at $1.99.  I also had a bowl of Tuscany bean and chicken soup.  It's so much fun to visit with friends.  Most of the ladies there are now in the other ward that split from ours a year and a half ago so it's always nice to catch up.

When I got home from that I read scriptures with Andy and then went to cut coupons and get ready for a shopping trip today.  I'm putting off shopping because Abby is sleeping, it's rainy, and I *had* to do my blog and still need to cross stitch some more before tonight.  

I love that Olivia wants to be like Andy.  She requested a daddy sandwich in her lunch today. Ham and Cheese with mustard.

Andy and I went to the Temple Wednesday night and randomly I got to sit next to a lady I visit teach who didn't have time for my partner and I to come over this week (all that sickness made everything get pushed back).  My walking buddy and her husband watched our kids for us (and their two and one of their nieces). We watched all those (SEVEN) kids the night before so they could go to the Temple.

This weekend is General Conference for our church and I'm excited to hear from our church leaders about things that are current issues in our lives today.  My favorite part is all the encouragement they give, especially to young mothers.  Maybe I'll make bagels again...

Splits!

Olivia has been practicing doing the splits in ballet class.  She's getting pretty good (I guess since I was never able to be that flexible).  She still loves to dance!

Babies are special

Saturday afternoon I took Elizabeth and Olivia with me to another baby shower for cousin Reagan.  I took them to the one at the ballet studio and I also went to one that Shirley did for her, but this one is one that Brad's mom did and I like to go to these sorts of things and it's fun for the girls too.

I had already given gifts, but since I don't like to show up empty handed (and I wanted to do this anyway), I made this coupon book for Torrie.  Some of the coupons were for dinner, a treat, an evening walk, an afternoon of hanging out, a shopping trip, a morning of house cleaning (although Brad is a cleaner, so it's okay with me if she doesn't cash that one in. ;), and babysitting for a date night and a few other things.  It was fun.

 Torrie's so cute.  Olivia took some pictures at the shower for me.

 Elizabeth, Olivia, and I unintentionally matched.  I just wanted to wear my new argyle sweater and I made Elizabeth change out of her Mario t-shirt.

 I didn't get to hold baby Reagan again, but I did get a picture of her.  I'll have to hold her another time.  I think I'll just call Torrie and visit her this week sometime.

She's so cute!  Everyone kept saying "It's so cute!" the whole shower anytime Torrie opened a present, so I leaned over and told Olivia she should count how many times the word CUTE was used.  She didn't really want to, but I think I'll have to change that baby game with the clothespins that you collect anytime someone says "baby" to cute instead.

Reagan was blessed in church on Sunday morning.  Brad did a good job blessing her and our kids were even surprisingly well behaved.  We left after sacrament meeting so Abby could take a nap.  She is so tired at church since ours (and theirs) starts at 11am.

And on to our busy week!

Junior Miss

 I went up to Connell Saturday night to support my youngest girl cousin in their Junior Miss Pageant (now called Distinguished Young Women Scholarship program, but I'm still calling it Junior Miss). The girls who are Juniors in high school compete with their classmates and they win scholarship money and get to go around Eastern Washington (here anyway. It is a National program) and ride on floats in parades and do other fun things. My mom came and we drove up to Connell together and because my Grandma Zora got strep throat, my aunt had an extra ticket and asked if Elizabeth would like to go, so she got to go too. Elizabeth said that she needed to do research for when she designs her own prom dress (years away!) Olivia was pretty sad she couldn't come. I really should have bought my girls tickets, but didn't really think about it.  I'll have to take Olivia to Miss Tri-Cities. Once we got there, we found that our tickets were right in the fourth row in the middle. We had great seats! We looked at our programs while we waited and I picked out the person from the pictures of the girls (other than my cousin, of course!) who I thought would win.  I was right!  You can tell just from pictures how photogenic they are and how put together they are.  She had that look about her.
The theme was Evening in Paris.  They had all kinds of black with glitter and a big Eiffel Tower in the back of the stage.
Here we are waiting.  Elizabeth, me, and my mom.

 Stephanie did a great job in all of the routines they did and her piano piece was  beautiful.  Her fingers were flying over the keys and then she even played a part of the song with one hand and her forearm.  It was a John Schmidt song and he does that.  I told Elizabeth that she had to memorize the song and she looked so shocked.  I asked her how many times she thought Stephanie would have to practice it and she said a thousand times.  I'd guess it could be even more than that! (We couldn't take pictures during the show, but my aunt was the official photographer and took some the night before and gave me the site that they were all at, so I snagged this one from her.)

This is most of the girls who were in the Junior Miss.  There were 14 in all.  Stephanie is contestant number five in the first blue dress on the left.  The winner was number four.

They gave out awards to the girls.  There was the Miss Congeniality award, like normal, but also awards for fitness and some others (about ten in all).  Stephanie nabbed the award for talent and one for scholastic.  She's one smart girl.  I remember most of the Christmas letters from their family have lists of all the awards they won in spelling bees, math competitions, chess tournaments, and church awards.  They are all so smart and talented!  She got two medals for those awards and one other girl got two medals for Miss Congeniality and Spirit (but she wasn't a finalist).  Stephanie's number was called as a finalist and then they determined from those five who the winner was.  Stephanie wasn't THE winner, but she did get THREE medals, which is more than anyone else, so Elizabeth decided that even though the four runners up weren't numbered, that Stephanie got second place.  =)

Elizabeth was so excited to see Stephanie after the program was over.  She kept getting closer and closer to the door of the gym where they had everyone take pictures.  I kept telling her to just wait by my aunt and uncle because Stephanie would probably find them first.  We had to wait awhile because they took some pictures backstage and had to do all that hugging stuff back there too.  By this point it was about 10:30pm.

Elizabeth got a good hug in.

I made Stephanie spread her three medals out (ala Michael Phelps.)

Here's another picture swiped from my aunt of Stephanie with the winner of Miss North Franklin/Connell Junior Miss Sommer.

And here is my mom and Elizabeth and I with Stephanie.  My mom and I both wanted Elizabeth to help cover us, but I kept a hold of her selfishly.

We are so happy to have such a talented girl in the family.  I couldn't help but think of myself as a junior.  I would have done SOOO terrible at one of these.  I *thought* I was shy then and I didn't have any real talent I'd display, so it'd probably be one of those lame monologues or something.  I'm so glad we didn't have this, although they are fun.  My mom covered this event and remembered her Junior Miss here.
We got home at 11:30pm, fed Elizabeth a sandwich (and me too!) because she was so hungry, and sent her to bed.  My mom stayed the night and drove home before her church started.  The kids were excited this morning.  I woke up to them yelling, "Grandma's awake!  Grandma's awake!"  They couldn't go and bug her until she was up. =)  Now I really do owe Olivia.  The perks of being the oldest girl, right?

blood and guts

Alright, maybe not guts, but there was quite the crime scene when I got out of the shower on Friday morning.
*No pictures because I was busy making my house safe again.
Here's the story. We got home from taking Elizabeth and Olivia to school and I made myself some oatmeal to eat while I read my scriptures. Vincent was in the family room watching PBS and eating one of his two bowls of cereal and Abby was eating her cereal and playing. After I finished my scriptures, I said my prayers (like normal...at least this year!) and I always bless that my kids will be safe and protected. I then thought about getting Abby ready for the day before I showered since we needed to go grocery shopping, but decided I'd leave her in her warm footie pajamas instead. I did my whole routine and then had to go and get part of my outfit out of the dryer before I got dressed, so I was in my robe and barefoot and walked into the kitchen and saw a bowl broken on the floor and blood smeared everywhere. No one was crying. I quickly made Vincent go get the broom (since I had bare feet and couldn't get past the glass to get the broom easily). I cleaned Abby's hands since they were covered in blood. She just had a few cuts that weren't too deep. Thank goodness! I cleaned the broken glass up and sprayed the smeared blood down and cleaned it up and then vacuumed and made sure I got all the glass. Then I wiped Abby's hands down again and put a bandaid on one that didn't stop right away. She immediately took the bandaid off (shocking behavior for a 14 month old, I'm sure.) I got her changed and dressed and she didn't get cut anywhere except her hands. I'm so glad I was inspired to leave her in her nice thick pajamas. I might have left her socks off and then she'd really be hurt in all that glass. Abby can reach on top of the table about a foot in, so nothing is safe anymore. I'm sure Vincent just left his bowl on the edge and she grabbed it. I think she was probably taking it over to the sink to put it away since she's a cleaner and slipped and fell and it broke. I even found a few big pieces of glass near the TV, so she must have been playing with it a little. YIKES! It was way more exciting than we normally have in a morning and I'm thankful for that! We did our normal grocery shopping and picked up some plastic bowls while we were at it. Friday night was the chili chowder ward adult dinner, so I made some zucchini brownies (and you couldn't tell they had zucchini!) and some corn bread cake pops. They were good, but I didn't win any awards or anything. It was just fun to go out and hang out with the other adults in our ward.

Toasty

We've had a pretty regular week over here so far.  We had some friends over one night to hang out and eat dinner with us while their mom worked and their dad was at school.  

It was taco night and everyone ate their food.  I love that!

Part of our dinner conversation was about Yoshi (Mario's buddy) and so after dinner Andy turned on an old Super Nintendo game that was the first one Yoshi was in.  The kids thought it was fun, especially my friend's son and Olivia.  After this they played with Legos and did other fun things too.

 My friend's daughter likes to play with Abby.  Here she is brushing Abby's hair.  Abby liked it.  These two will be great pals one day.

 I learned a new tip to keep asparagus fresh and posted about it on my food blog along with the way I cook it.

 Two little girls came home from school dripping wet.  It's been rainy over here.  They came in and got right in the shower to warm up.  Then I gave them hot cocoa while they toasted in their robes.

They came in the door with such sad faces and Elizabeth told me that some car drove through a big puddle and it hit them.  I was all sad for them and then Olivia said that they were just splashing in puddles.  Silly kids.  I think Elizabeth thought I'd be mad they were splashing in puddles and made up a story.  Olivia nearly always doesn't let her get away with telling stories though.
I'm trying really hard to not eat junk this week.  I'm also walking a bunch so I can try to get to my goal of losing 25 pounds before my birthday in June.  If you are also working at this, try My Fitness Pal and be my friend.  My user name is NaDellR.  Look me up if you're on there so we can encourage each other.
Time to go and read before bed and listen to the rain.

Seeing Stars

Last week Olivia was the Star of the Week in her first grade class.  That means that I sent some pictures of her to school (she picked them out).  I also sent a letter that I wrote about her and she picked a few special things of hers to share with the class another day.
Thursday she had a lunch buddy.  Andy went to do that with his lunch box.  That part was funny to me because she was asking me what Andy eats in his lunch and then requested that she have the exact same thing even though it's not what she normally eats.  I packed each of them a ham, cheese, mustard sandwich, carrots, fruit leather, and water. She did request no cheese stick like Andy gets. =)
She had a lot of fun with her class last week even though it was early release every day.
On Friday her class made her a star of compliments.  Each student told the teacher something they like about Olivia. I guess she calls on each kid and is standing up next to the teacher too.  The teacher wrote them all down.  This is hanging on our fridge.  She reads it every day.  My favorite one is the one in the bottom left corner from a rambunctious little boy who was sitting next to her desk for the last six weeks.

For the record, she's supposed to ignore his misbehaving.
Here's some of what I said in her little letter:
1. As soon as Olivia learned to walk, she was DANCING all on her own. She now takes ballet classes. 

2. Olivia’s favorite food is chili. Once we were at Costco and one of the samples was chili and she told the lady that chili is her most favorite dinner.

3.  Olivia takes good care of her younger siblings and helps them when they need something or they are sad. She’s a mini mommy.

4.  Olivia learns quickly. She’s even trying to learn cursive handwriting! Her big sister is learning, so I wrote out the letters for Elizabeth and Olivia and Olivia is always practicing.

5. Olivia is such a sweet girl and is always so willing to help her parents. We sure love her!

*In other news, I walked nearly four miles tonight in a tiny bit more than an hour!  I'm feeling good, although my scale says I weigh the same.  Being fit is better than worrying about a number on a scale, right?  I'm keeping up the counting calories and all that and the exercise.  Gotta keep chipping away at this!  I made a new little countdown gadget at the top of my blog today.

*While Olivia was at ballet Monday afternoon Abby was walking around a little and wandered a few feet from where I was to the door of the music lessons.  A guy was in there playing his guitar.  She just stood in the doorway (in her guitar shirt) and watched him until Elizabeth came over (in her guitar shirt!) and picked her up.  I thought it was kind of funny and ironic they were both wearing the one guitar shirt that each of them owns.

*I made Hawaiian Haystacks for dinner tonight and Elizabeth always looks forward to dinner, but especially when it's something she really LOVES!  She loved it tonight and had two and a half plates full (the other half went in the fridge.)

*Abby ate asparagus and liked it nearly as much as Olivia does. Olivia had about ten spears of it along with two plates of Hawaiian Haystacks!  My kids are like little locusts.  They eat everything.

*I learned the best way to store asparagus right after I bought some on Friday.  Standing up in a cup in the fridge with water in the cup and a little plastic loosely covering the top.  They were perfect tonight!  I love asparagus.

*For Family Home Evening Monday night (before my walk) I was in charge of activity and since Vincent was all out of control and in his bed early, he missed it.  I decided that the four of us (Andy, the girls, and I) would go around and say an animal that starts with A, and then B, and so on to Z.  It was fun, except I got stuck a little on U.  Olivia told me unicorn, so I went with that.  Then we went around again and said names of people.  It was fun and really got the girls thinking.

Sick....Ducks

Today I (NaDell) am sick.  I have an awful cold and I'm sneezing and coughing and feeling lousy.  Vincent spent the morning relaxing and watching Bob the Builder (over and over) while I read a book and then napped on the couch while Abby napped.

Meanwhile, Andy took Elizabeth and Olivia to one of our former Cub Scout's Eagle project to help him out. He made duck houses to go at a park nearby. 

Apparently they had donuts afterward they built the 12 duck houses.  Andy took these pictures on his phone.

 Here's Elizabeth doing something with what appears to me to be the pole they put the duck house on.  The houses are so the wood ducks can build nests to keep their baby duckies safe.

After Andy got home he went and bought pizza to eat so I didn't have to cook (which is good since I wasn't planning on it).  I hope I can get over this cold quick!  I've got to get some walking done to achieve my 25 pounds lost in 95 days.  I only have 92 days left!  For now, I'm counting calories and trying to eat better foods.  (Thanks for the great snack ideas in the previous post friends!)

Triumph!

Last night at game night I only ate ONE OREO!  

It wasn't even the good Double Stuf kind (which is probably why I could resist).

And I still had extra calories on my food diary.

Things are looking good over here!

Puppies and Playing

We went over to my brother's house on Wednesday night so we could play with the NINE puppies his dog had.  They are all so cute and cuddly.  We aren't dog people, but we do like to play with them when they are so little.  If you like puppies, let me know.  I'm fairly certain that they are giving eight of the puppies away.  There are five black ones and four brown ones.  They appear to be full Labs.

Our kids all enjoyed holding the dogs and playing with them.
There were plenty of puppies to go around.
Olivia's here picking a puppy up.

 Elizabeth really loves pets (but we aren't getting any.  Andy and I don't like pets that much-Andy had his face bit when he was small and I used to be scared of dogs and my dad's allergic.)

 Elizabeth told us that she'd like a robot dog for Christmas since we won't let her have one of these.  Robot dogs only eat batteries after all.
Vincent in his cozy fleece outfit and slippers that we didn't notice until we were outside liked the puppies too.

 Abby really wanted to get the puppies when I was trying to get a picture of all of them.  She likes to "arf" like a dog.  I think she's saying sentences about them.  I am not the only one who heard sentences out of her either!

 Don't you want one???

 Thursday night Elizabeth had her Jujitsu class and I walked her over there with Abby in the stroller stopping by a ward friend's house to take them some French Bread to go with the dinner some other ward members were making because their grandpa passed away.  I've been arranging some meals due to that this week too.
I dropped Elizabeth off and then Abby and I continued on a nice long walk and happened to stroll into a lady who used to be in our ward before our ward split.  We were able to chat for a little while which was nice.
We got back to Elizabeth's class with about ten minutes to spare and just in time to see her sparring with another girl in her class.

They do everything in slow motion so no one gets hurt, but you can see Elizabeth's foot off the ground here.  She loves it!
Thursday morning I taught our preschool mommy swap group.  The letter was V and after I prepared all the lesson plans and was going to bed it finally dawned on me that Vincent starts with V.  How silly.  We made paper bag vests, drove vehicles, counted and colored vegetables (the numbers were review of 6-10), ate some vegetables and Blueberry Zucchini Bread (super yummy and I traded one cup of regular flour for one of whole wheat.)
The girls have been getting home early this week because of parent-teacher conferences, so when they get home they take our collection of polly pockets into their room and play until about the normal time they get home from school.  I had big plans of playdates with friends, but decided to be simple and let them play.  It has worked out well.  Elizabeth demanded that I take a nap on Monday when she came home, so I'm reaping the benefits.  She even took care of everything for me.  She's such a nice helper.
Tuesday Andy and I went to the parent-teacher conferences for both girls (our school arranges siblings first so parents only have to come in once which is awesome!)  They are both doing well and their teachers like them.  I love those kinds of reports.  They are both pretty much right at where they need to be or above in everything for the end of the school year.
I started using a site to track my calories and exercise a few days ago.  It is helping me cut down on snacks that aren't good for me.  I've never really dieted before, so this is a great site for me.  I'm trying to keep up the good fast walking and water and fruits and veggies too.  I normally eat fruits and veggies and drink water, but I normally add too many sweets in with them. =)  I'd love some snack ideas (that don't include hummus, avocado, or fish.)

My announcement

Without too much further ado, since I'm being a little silly with my announcing that I'm announcing something, I wondered who would comment or what they'd say...
By my (false) calculations, today was supposed to be 100 days until my 30th birthday and so I wanted to announce my plan 100 days before, only to double check that using an online calculator and discovering that it's really 95 days.  (I'm not a mathematician!)  Apparently counting the squares on the wall calendar in the kitchen with the kids milling about isn't the best way to do it.  I think Abby was going to sleep at the time and I wanted to know right then.
I have decided that in the next 96 days, I will lose 25 pounds.  I'd go for 50, since I have that much to lose, but I want this to be attainable.  I want to be in better shape when I turn 30.  I should be.  I need to be.  Enough of this extra weight.

Here's what I need from whoever reads this:
*Encouragement and checking in.
*Many delicious healthy recipes
*Snack ideas
*Walking buddies if you live close.
*People to come to a party when I turn 30. =)

Your thoughts?

Announcement

I'll tell you the big news tomorrow!

(NOTE: Not pregnant, not moving, and our family is doing great.)

Dinners

Andy's birthday dinner at Famous Dave's was delicous!  I ordered the same thing I got the last time because nothing else sounded better and I knew I liked it.  I try to order different things, but it just didn't happen.  I love the Cajun Chicken Sandwich.  I know it's not the fancy smoked meat, but it's yummy and spicy and has onion ring straws.  The kids stayed at home with a babysitter and it was so nice to be able to just eat our food and talk.  It was relaxing.  Nice!  Andy's parents stopped in for a pop and to bring Andy's birthday present to him.  It was great to visit with them for a bit too.  Andy had a very nice birthday.  We came home, put the kids to bed, and watched "A Big Year" which was worth watching.  It's just PG, which is surprising because Steve Martin, Jack Black, and Owen Wilson are the stars, but it was GOOD.  We probably won't buy it, but it was worth watching.  I think there were two lesser swear words, but the plot is that they are all on a quest to see as many species of birds as they can in a year and beat the previous record.  I liked seeing the footage of so many different birds and at the end about 550 pictures of birds are shown next to the credits.  Interesting and educational, but still probably best for 10+.

Saturday Andy did a bunch of car maintenance and went to Costco for me before we went to a party for the ballet studio's 25th anniversary.  (We were invited because Andy's a party dad in Nutcracker.)  We sat next to George and Shirley and Torrie and Brad with sleeping baby Reagan (one week old!)  It was great because everyone who came past our table was super excited to peek at Reagan and say hi to everyone.  The fresh fruits and veggies were yummy and so was the chocolate selection.  Our three older kids were at the ballet studio being babysat by the older ballerinas as a fundraiser and we ened up hired a sitter for Abby (the babysitting at the  ballet studio was for 3 and up.)  I had a friend all arranged to watch Abby, but she called this morning and told me they have the flu at their house, so obviously we made other arrangements.
It was nice to get all fancied up and go to some nice places with Andy this weekend.

 Saturday morning I fixed Abby's hair in pigtails because Elizabeth said I should try that.  It worked.

 Barely.

Abby left them in all day.

Abby likes to play with dryer sheets.  If I'm folding clothes, I give them to her and she leave the rest of the clean clothes alone and will play with one dryer sheet for minutes!

Elizabeth, Olivia, and Vincent each had three chore sticks to do this morning because they didn't go to bed very well this week and so the house is fresh and clean.  I love that.  Vincent even had a nap this afternoon because he was tired and I figured he'd be cranky at the ballet studio tonight if he didn't have one and tomorrow at church because of daylight savings time tonight too (spring forward!)
Sunday night we get to sing to Andy with the family and have some Oreo banana cream pie.  I guess I'd better go make that...

Bugs and Dirt

Andy opened his birthday present from us this morning.  It's a set of binoculars that have a digital camera inside so you can take pictures of what you are looking at through the binoculars.  Andy likes to look at old bridges and trains and things so I thought he'd enjoy these.  He took them to work to try them out and I haven't downloaded the pictures yet.

The girls made him a card too.

 While Andy was at work and the girls were at school Vincent and Abby went grocery shopping with me, so when we got home it was time to play in the beautiful sunshine!  Abby loves the swing and the extra sibling attention.

 She hung out in the swing for a good thirty minutes.

 Then she was off pushing things with wheels (with Olivia's supervision so she wouldn't fall fast.)

 Elizabeth was finding ladybugs everywhere!  I'm so glad because I need them for my garden in another month or two.  Abby is looking at Elizabeth's ladybug here while Olivia holds her hand.

 Abby had a turn to hold a ladybug.

 Ladybug crawling on Abby.  She liked it.

 Until she tried to eat it.... (The black on her nail is from a few weeks ago when it got caught in Vincent's drawer as he closed it.)

 Poor ladybug!  And that was the end of that!

 Olivia and Abby dancing.

 Elizabeth found two ladybugs who were "giving each other piggyback rides!"  She made everyone come and see. (It wasn't crazy hair day...)

 See?  

I hope to have many more ladybugs around here this summer!

Vincent played in the dirt a lot.  Abby joined him.  

And then the three littles had a bath.  Almost time for Andy and I to go out to dinner!  Yea!