Halfway there!!

It's official...I'm halfway to my weight loss goal. As of today, I've lost 27 pounds. My goal is 50-55 pounds. I started this post back at the beginning of July. I guess it took me longer than I had hoped to get to the halfway point. Oh well, as long as I got here, that's all that matters to me. I've been a little frustrated lately about the whole thing. I'm getting tired of trying so hard. I know that sounds silly, but I think it's my first plateau. Renee has been warning me that at some point the weight loss would slow down. I know it's normal, and I should have expected it, but it doesn't make it any easier. Renee suggested that I take a couple of weeks and just try to maintain. It sounded like what I needed, so that's what I've been doing for a little over a week. I've only worked out twice a week for an hour, but I've continued watching what I eat. I'm really kind of surprised that I lost any weight because I even made cookies!! Another thing I'm changing is how often I weigh. When I met with Renee every week, I would only weigh every couple of weeks. Well, this summer we haven't been able to meet much at all, so I've been taking classes at the rec center on campus. I've enjoyed the classes, but I started weighing every time I went, which was twice a week. That was not a good idea. I'm definitely going back to every couple of weeks. I thought of something a while ago that has really helped motivate me. I realized that I won't always have to work this hard. Once I reach my goal, it will be easier and I can just maintain. I got very excited once that occurred to me. So, there it is. That's the update for now.

Who's having more fun?

Out of the mouth's of babes

Things heard in my house tonight while watching old home videos.

• you guys look weird.
• ah, his head's starting to take shape!
• dad, what are you wearing?
• daddy, you have a lot of hair!
• am i there?
• where am i?
• what am i wearing? AHHHH!
• who's that?
• he looks like a kid!
• i remember that.
• oh, i don't remember that, i wish i could.
• this is boring.
  

We have had so much fun watching home videos the past couple of days. The kids all enjoy seeing themselves as babies, even if Chloe doesn't quite understand it. For me watching these videos just reminds me how quickly time goes by. It also reminds me to enjoy them right now.

Guess how much I spent?

I got all of these school supplies for only 29 cents!! Seriously! I was so excited. (at their regular prices, it would have cost me about $15) I went to Office Depot because they had five items for only a penny. (They were out of the rulers.) The protractors were the only thing that I wasn't absolutely sure we needed, but for two cents I decided it would be nice to get them anyway. We're always hunting down these folders, and the best part is that I didn't have to go to Wal-Mart to get them. I'm sure I'll still end up there when I finish their school supply shopping, but at least I got to wait a little bit. Even though it's not my ideal stuff to shop for, a good deal is always fun.

Sharks??

This is how Chloe sleeps every night. She refuses to lay on any other part of her bed, except the very edge. Of course, it's not the edge against the wall where she won't fall off. She says that she doesn't want to sleep on the other side because she thinks there are sharks on that side. I'm not sure where she got that, but she's convinced. Right after taking a picture, we tried to move her to the middle of the bed, but even in her sleep she just moved herself right back.

Mommy, what are we doing tomorrow?

What are we doing after breakfast?
What are we doing after playing?
What are we doing after lunch?
What are we doing after rest?
What are we doing after supper?
What are we doing after VBS?
What are we doing after _____?

This is what happens when the kids spend a couple of weeks with grandparents. The get used to going and doing fun stuff, and the normal every day stuff is very boring. Believe it or not, I don't have every minute of every day scheduled. We'll be heading home from one thing, and the kids all want to know what's happening next.

Full house

Well, we're all back home. The kids have been in Florida with Keith's parents for the past week. We drove down this weekend to get them and bring them home. It's been such a crazy summer so far. The boys have been gone three out of the past four weeks, and Chloe has been gone two of those! I'm not sure what it's like to have three kids anymore. I'm finding out pretty quickly this morning because the boys have already been arguing, as usual.
We had a great weekend in Florida. We had an interesting boat ride on Sat. Pops got a pontoon boat for the day and we went out to Crab Island. Since I'm not from there, it's funny to me that Crab Island isn't an island at all, but a sand bar. It's huge and you can just walk around on it. It's a great place to go and hang out, and even the kids can walk around. The boys loved it as usual, and Chloe loved it too once we made her get in. Sometimes you have to show her that she can do something before she believes you. Anyway, the weather was great while we were there, but it went from good to bad pretty quickly once we headed back. We knew before we ever went out that there was a pretty good chance of rain, but I think we got more than we bargained for. It was raining so hard, we couldn't see just a few feet in front of us. Then the water got so choppy that the boat was rocking really big. We finally had to beach the boat and get off on the beach. It was pretty scary. We hung out there until the storm blew over a little, and then headed back in. Oh, I forgot to mention that it wasn't just raining, but lightning all around us. Anyway, we finally made it back, and decided not to go back out. We were planning on staying out all day, but we were all ready to be on land after that. It rained and stormed for the rest of the day, so I was very thankful that we were safely on land. It was quite an experience.

What do you think?

Thanks to Keith and this site, my blog has a new look. I came across someone's blog (I have absolutely no idea who's) that had a template that I really liked. I've checked out some other free templates, but there were none I liked enough to change it. I definitely could not have done this on my own. If you're looking for a new look, you should check out the website. She has lots of really cool designs. She even has a tutorial for changing the template, although it wasn't enough to help me. Thankfully Keith deals with computer stuff like HTML code all the time, so it was a piece of cake for him!!

Fourth of July

We had a great holiday weekend. Friday we just hung around the house and did our own fireworks that evening. The boys loved it as usual, but Chloe actually enjoyed it this year. She was ready to be done pretty quickly though. I guess I've passed on my opinion of fireworks to Chloe. This was our first 4th of July in this house, so I wasn't sure how bad it would be around here. It wasn't as bad as our other neighborhood, but there was one house that was still doing fireworks when I fell asleep. Thankfully it didn't bother any of the kids. Chloe said that they helped her go to sleep. This from the girl who used to be scared because she could hear dogs barking at night.
We went to my cousin's house on Sat. It has become one of our favorite get-togethers. We get to hang out with family we don't see very often, there is always tons of yummy food, and my dad brings the go kart. The go kart is always fun, but it's like riding a roller coaster there because of some huge hills in their yard. I took my first ride this year, and Avery was driving!! It was a pretty crazy ride. Brady wanted to drive me too, but I wasn't ready for that!! I'm already scared for that kid to drive a car. We had so much fun. I didn't get as many pictures as I wanted. It's much harder to get pictures of the boys because I don't see them much while we're there.

Waiting to ride the go kart



Don't they look excited!

We're still here

I haven't posted in a while because we haven't had anything too interesting happen around here. We've had a good week though. I've tried to focus on the kids a little more this week, and do some stuff with them instead of just hanging around the house. We went to the park one day and went on a hike. We've been to the pool twice and had a blast. We went outside right after breakfast one day to enjoy how cool it was in the morning. The weather this week has been great, not too hot or humid. I realize it's not going to stay that way, but I'll enjoy it while it lasts. We've had fun together this week, but it's amazing to me how quickly the house falls apart. I can either focus on the house and getting it clean, or I can focus on the kids. I can't do both apparently. It doesn't seem like it would be that hard to do a little of both, but it just doesn't seem to happen that way. I did catch up on laundry yesterday since the kids are headed to Florida next week. I figured I should send them with clean clothes. :) Today we're looking forward to hanging out with Keith since he has the day off. Hope you all have a great fourth of July!!