Fool's Gold

I love to watch movies, especially funny happy movies. I'm not into scary movies, my mom and I watched too many when I was in high school! I really like movies that I don't have to think about too much. I guess it's my way of having no responsibility for a couple of hours. Keith and I rented Fool's Gold yesterday. Okay, I rented it and Keith agreed to watch it with me because he knows how much I love to watch movies. I was so excited about this movie. It totally let me down. First of all, it's rated PG-13, which I thought was okay, but it had a lot of language. It's hard to find any movies that don't have bad language. Second, the movie was just so slow. It doesn't hold your attention very well. I could have easily gone to sleep. We ended up fast forwarding through the end just to see how it turned out. I really think it was more interesting in fast forward. It was funnier too. I'm saying all this to say that I was so bummed. It wasn't worth the dollar we spent on renting it. Keith says it's now his turn to pick the movie, but I'm not sure I'm ready for that!! It will definitely be a movie that I have to think about.

On a good note, I love dollar movie rentals! We've used Redbox once, and this time we rented from one in Kroger. It's such an awesome idea.

Someone's happy to have her boys home!

Bronchial pneumonia

That's what Chloe has. She's not been feeling well for about a week and a half, but she was starting to sound worse instead of better. Her cough was waking her up at night even with cough medicine. We've been trying to decide whether or not to take her to the doctor for a couple of days. It's hard to decide because nights are always the worst, but then she seems fine during the day, other than the cough. Finally we decided to pay the co-pay just for a little piece of mind. I'm very thankful that I took her today. She really hates going to the doctor. I mean REALLY hates it. I know I'm being paid back with this because I once ran from the doctor over a flu shot. Anyway, she did really great today. We came home with an antibiotic, cough medicine and an inhaler. We have to do the inhaler every six hours, day and night, for a couple of days, so it's going to be like having a baby again. Hopefully she'll be much better in a couple of days. It's such a helpless feeling when you have sick kids.

Alone at the park

We took Chloe to the park yesterday evening. It was the perfect time, or so I thought, because there was almost no one there. I guess it was the perfect time for me, but I don't think Chloe thought so. The only other people there were boys on a baseball team, so there was no one to play with her. I don't think she knew what to do with herself. Keith and I tried to play with her a little bit, but she seemed pretty bored most of the time. I guess she's not used to being by herself. Even when we go to the park with the boys, she usually finds a little girl to play with. I guess maybe next time we'll go when there might be other people there.

Nashville Star

I don't know what bothers me more, Billy Ray Cyrus' hair or the fact that Danity Kane was on there. I'm not a fan of any talent search shows, but I was bored tonight. Keith was watching some terribly fascinating (NOT!) show about Apollo something or other going to the moon. I think next time I'll watch the show about going to the moon.

Wall-E

All together again...for now!

Chloe came home today from her trip with Minima and Bitiba. She had a great time with them and Emma and Tessa. We were all anxious to see her, but I think the boys were the most excited about it. They came home from camp yesterday. They had a great time as well. They forgot that Chloe wouldn't be here when they got home, so they were a little bummed. We had a great week, but it's nice to have everyone home again. It's not for long though. The boys leave tomorrow to go on their trip with Minima and Bitiba. I know they're excited, but I'm not sure they've had much time to really think about it. We've had a fun day with Granny and Pops, Lacey and Craig. Then tonight we had some more family over, so it's been a busy, but fun day. On top of everything I'm trying to get all the boys' clothes clean so we can pack it back up. I think I'll be working on that until tomorrow!! I'll hopefully have some pictures to post soon.

Here you go Mindy.

I have a friend that is tired of looking at Avery's cut, so that's why I'm blogging. I don't have much to blog about with the kids gone. I'm having a good week so far. I'm trying to get some stuff done around the house, and enjoy my time alone. It's working pretty well. I'm planning on going out tomorrow for something other than working out...shopping!! I was planning on getting my hair cut, which is one of my favorite things to do, but the lady who cuts my hair is on vacation this week. Grrrr! She didn't clear that with me! I guess I'll just have to treat myself to lunch to make up for it!! :)
I tried a new exercise class on Monday, and I will not be trying it again any time soon. It wasn't a spinning class, but the first 30 minutes was on the bike. I thought I was going to die. I can handle a class called 'bootcamp', but apparently I can't handle riding a bike. I haven't been this sore since the first time I worked out with Renee. Stairs are not my friend right now. :)
I don't want to constantly update about my weight loss, but last week we did measurements and checked my body fat %. Since the middle of March, I've lost over 14 inches and my body fat has dropped over 5%. Apparently that's a lot. I'll update again when I hit the 30 pound mark.
Okay, Mindy, that's all I can think of that's even remotely interesting. I hope you appreciate this. :) Just kidding!!

It's very quiet around here.

We got the boys off to church camp this afternoon, and Chloe is with Minima and Bitiba for the week. It's very quiet here, except for golf, which is why I'm on the computer. :) I've been looking forward to this week for quite a while now. It almost didn't happen because Chloe had a fever yesterday. Thankfully it's just a cold, and the fever never came back. I'm not sure who would have been more upset, me or Chloe, if she wasn't able to go!!
Baseball is finally over, for us at least. Avery's team was playing for the county championship on Sat. when it started pouring. They had to reschedule it for tomorrow night, so he won't be there. Brady's tournament is this week also, so he'll miss the whole thing. I hate for them to miss it, but I didn't know the season would go this long. Avery's been talking about going to camp since the day he got home from it last year, and Brady has been beyond excited about going his first year.
Avery is going this year with an injured finger. He cut it on the shower drain Friday, and had to have it glued shut. I think the cut was too jagged to be stitched, thankfully!! He did have to get a tetanus shot though. I'm putting a picture of his cut on here, so sorry if it's too graphic. It's a pretty nasty cut. Who knew that a shower drain would cut you? There are many things that I worry about, but one of my kids getting hurt on the drain was not one of them.

Busy summer

We have had a busy summer so far. Baseball is still going for a couple of more weeks. It seems like it's never ending. After Brady's game on Saturday, we got out the slip 'n slide to cool off. The kids all really enjoyed that. The also got new water guns recently, so they had to show me how cool they were.
The last picture is Keith playing soccer with Craig, Lacey's boyfriend, and some of his friends. They needed an extra person, so Lacey asked him to fill in. The boys and I were really excited about getting to see him play, but he wasn't as thrilled! It's been quite a while(I won't say just how long) since he played, but he did great. I think he had fun, because now he's interested in playing in a league. So, that's our summer so far. We're enjoying it, but I hope that it's not all this busy.

Isn't it ironic?

Keith picked up the van yesterday, after it being in the shop for a week to repair the damage from hitting the tire on interstate. On the way home, he went through a hail storm. That's pretty ironic to me. He saw a few dents on the top of the van, but I don't think it messed up the half of the van that is newly painted. Oh well, what can you do?!
On another note, I'm VERY excited about having the van back. Three kids in the back of our rental car was not much fun. I'm ready to have them where they can't reach each other. Chloe can do some damage when she can reach the boys. I know that not everyone is a fan of vans, but I really don't care how cool, or not cool, they are. If it allows me to maintain a bit of sanity, then I'm all for it.

Weight loss update

It's been a while since I first posted about losing weight. I didn't want this blog to become all about that, so I've been waiting until I hit my goal. I set a goal of losing 20 pounds by the end of May. I weighed yesterday, and my total so far is....drumroll please...22 pounds!! I was really shocked when I saw the number on the scale yesterday. I really don't remember the last time I weighed anywhere close to this. It's very exciting to see the number go down. It's definitely more work taking the weight off then it was putting it on, but it's also a lot more fun! I've been really anxious to get to 20 pounds. I guess it's because I've lost 10-15 before, but always ended up putting it back on. I've never lost this much, and this time I'm not worried about putting it back on. I still have moments that I worry that I'll slip back into my old ways of eating, but then I realize that's just not going to happen. I'm already feeling so much better, and I can't wait to reach my final goal. And to top it all off, I found a box of clothes I haven't been able to wear in quite awhile(as in 4-6 years!), and I can now wear some of them!!

I also have a question for you all. Since I started eating chicken a few months ago, I've been discovering what I like and don't like. I've had some really good grilled chicken, and I want to be able to grill some at home. We don't usually grill chicken, so I need some good recipes. One thing I don't like, is when the chicken isn't seasoned much. I like it with a lot of flavor. So, do any of you have a favorite seasoning rub or marinade that we could try?

Birthday celebration!

We had a birthday celebration this weekend at my parents' house. Actually, it was birthday, anniversary, Mother's day and Father's day celebration. That's a lot of stuff to cram into one day. Chloe had so much fun opening presents, and eating her cake, (all two bites). She even told everyone thank you for the presents! After each one she opened, she asked if there were more!! Her only specification on the cake was that she wanted pink, so that was pretty easy.
As you can see, she's not the only one who enjoyed her new cash register. Sam and Avery had fun with it too!! The kids all had a great time with each other. The dads and kids, except for Chloe, camped outside in the yard. I think it went pretty well, except for the thunderstorm most of the night. Ethan was so worn out on Sunday, that they headed out before the pinata, so I don't have a picture with all of them. He did so good keeping up with everyone, but he was ready to crash by Sunday afternoon.
One of the biggest things we had to celebrate was Mom and Dad's 40th anniversary!! Happy Anniversary! This would have worked better had I posted yesterday, on their actually anniversary. Oh well, better late then never, right?!

My attempt at artsy!

These are some more pictures I took while we were in Georgia. I was having fun playing around with the camera, and I thought these turned out pretty cool. The one of Chloe is a new favorite. I love getting profile shots, but they don't always turn out like I hoped, so I was glad that I actually captured it this time. The last picture is of a hummingbird, just in case you don't see it. I stood there for a while waiting for it to come, and then just started snapping without really looking. I was so excited that it focused on the hummingbird.