It is working...

So unfortunately the blog seems to be taken over with talk all about me (about time LOL). Hard to believe that tonight will be day# 8 of hooping. (I need to work at getting some of my favorite NEW links up on the side!) Last night (# 7) wasn't too hard. It is amazing how two weeks ago I couldn't even keep it going around and now doing 20-30 minutes is no big deal. I've done pretty good with my eating all week, very little extra snacking and I was down 4 pounds when I weighed in this morning. A total of 7 pounds (in 20 days... I was up a couple last week.

Almost forgot yesterday I did Week# 2 Day# 1 (W2D1). I took the car in for an oil change at the dealership and when he said it would be 45-1hr.. (really that long?) I didn't even hesitate to ask if I could change my clothes first (and put my stuff back in the trunk before they took the car away. That isn't normal for me. I normally would have waited in the waiting room and read a magazine or watched their tv. Off I went and I was very surprised at the fact that yes by the end of the 90 seconds of running/jogging that I was ready to walk again, but I was ready to keep going. I wasn't ready for it to be done...  I am really looking forward to the longer runs and the running class I signed up for at the local athletic/running store. Excited that it is an all woman's class and that it is for beginners and long time runners too... A spot for all of us.  Right now I've really only got one real sore spot. On my left leg on the right of my shin. Hmm I need to read up on how to keep the shins from hurting.

I bought a bunch of magazines yesterday at the grocery store, was looking for a running magazine. (Can you tell I'm completely fascinated with everything that has to do with it right now? Which I personally think is a good thing.) So Andrea if you are reading, would love to hear what some of your favorite magazines are right now.

My parents called this week and asked if they could come play with the kids this weekend and we could go do whatever we wanted. I'm very excited about this.... Ethan has been quite the handful this past week (and more) so looking forward to a little bit of alone time on Saturday. We talked about doing dinner and a movie, but  I think we might head to IKEA. I've been saving money for months now to go buy the storage system I've been eyeing (the trofast system). Then I get to start saving for the new treadmill I want.  =)

Oops no new pictures uploaded right now.... More this weekend. Cross your fingers that we are able to get the new organization system all put together and the toys sorted. My goal is for everything to have a home and that it will be a lot easier to pick up.

Oh I do have a picture to show you... Last night I bought Bella a couple new hats and a headband from this etsy site:  BriarClaire.
Bella is slowly keeping ponytails and headbands in so I thought now might be the time. So here is a picture of one of the hats I got her.

Hope you guys have a great weekend.

Chaos and Fascination . . .

I am seriously thinking our mornings can't get any more chaotic than they were today. E threw one of his all out tantrums this morning because the couldn't find a particular fleece! NICE... I just hate starting our mornings like that. Nothing seems to help it and it just upsets everyone. I think most of the time he is tired, plus once he "gets to that spot" I don't think he really knows how to stop it, how to calm himself down and well I'm not sure how to teach him that lesson either! So hoping we wake up to a happy go lucky boy in the morning!

On a more positive note - - My baby girl got an award at Mass today. She was given the Peacemaker award from her pre-school teacher. She was soo excited for her award; not so excited about the mass part of it. We are working on that. We don't get too much of a fight on Sunday mornings, but she sure likes to complain about Wednesday school mass. Says she doesn't like it and it lasts too long! =) Sorry honey .... it is a part of your school week! Try to enjoy it! I so wish the one picture wasn't soo blurry. . . can you see the smile on her face?

We are really good friends with her teacher... Bella was going in to kiss her on the cheek! =)

     

Talking about me now... Tonight I finished day# 6 of hula hooping. I was able to get 30 minutes in. I did get my "run" in on Tuesday (yesterday) and I am seriously really enjoying myself. I have never been a jogger or runner of any kind, but really proud of myself for setting this goal (running a 5k) and really feeling like I can accomplish my goal. Matter of fact I know I can accomplish it. Isn't that the positive attitude you are supposed to have! I ended up at our local riverfront park and there were only a few people around and a little foggy. It was actually quite pretty jogging along side the river and being able to look out across the water!

Tomorrow (Thursday) is supposed to be the start of Week 2. Todd started one "day" after me, so trying to decide if I will try W2D1 (Week 2 Day 1) or just repeat W1D3 again. I barely felt "comfortable" in the 60second jog (boy does that sound like soo little time) but I'm very anxious to keep moving forward.

It almost sounds pretty silly to say since I haven't only been doing this a little over a week, but this morning I could totally see how people look forward to working out or how they enjoy it. I am very much an emotional eater, depressed, sad, happy, mad, bored....any emotion! Yet on the way to drop off the kids at school this morning I actually thought about how nice it would be to go for a nice run/walk right now. Instead of running thru a drive thru, it was like too bad I can't just drop them off and head to the park! I am really hoping this is a trend that continues and that I can stick with it!

A handful of blogs that I follow do this WORDLESS WEDNESDAY. I definitely am not wordless today or most days either, but thought I would share one more picture! Bella got too close to brother the other night while he was playing his DS and we think he pushed her back when she wouldn't move on her own. One of them most had one of the DS stylus in their hand because it left two little "cuts" on her cheek! So Monday she came home from school with a bandaid across her face! She really wanted to just keep wearing it. How cute is she!!!

Okay way too much to read today ...Sorry folks!

Day 4 (1-25-10)

Last night I finished day 4 of hula hooping. Very excited to be doing it. I mean I don't hate it, it doesn't bother me to stand there and do it and watch my shows on TV. This morning I even got up and did it, but lets just say it is a little harder to do first thing in the morning. I kept dropping it, but did get about another 15 minutes in total . . . Tonight I will be doing Night 5 while watching The Biggest Loser.

At some point today I need to do another day of my C25K and get the oil changed in the car! Still lucking out and haven't had to do it in the pouring rain. Even showed Todd how to run my iPod last night so he can still do it this morning too!

So nothing amazing this morning, but did find this nice little treat on one of the blogs I read. So if you are a digital scrapper this is a great little template. It can be found (and downloaded) HERE at the SSD  blog.

Well that is it for this morning off to get myself and the kids ready for the day!

Where to start?

So again I have abandoned my blog.... seems like life speeds up and it gets forgotten (Plus it is super easy to put tiny updates on Facebook)! I'm hoping to at least be able to update a couple times a week. I love reading everyone else's, but so not sure how Melissa keeps up with her blog so well! Since it has been so long I'm hoping it doesn't get too long tonight. Just hoping to touch on a few things!

So over time I will add a few good holiday and favorites from the last couple months. Lets' see it is mid January... Thanksgiving and Christmas and Ethan's birthday have all passed. OMG my first born is 7! Guess what... We are bad parents. He has talked about a a birthday party, but hasn't gone on and on about it so well we haven't planned one. It is just so hard right after Christmas and well I like to procrastinate. He hasn't brought in up at all this past week so I think I am going to push for a 1/2 birthday party in late spring or first thing after school gets out! He didn't really want to go out somewhere and have it and well the idea of having a bunch of boys (plus some girls and most likely some parents too) running around our house... just didn't sound that great!

I did get two pages scrapbooked the other night. It has literally been months since I had done any scrapping. (It really hasn't stopped my digital scrapping though). I did just buy this great HUGE KIT called ONE LOVE to benefit Haiti. I think I might have bought it for the premade pages alone. They look great!

I guess Boys will always be Boys... I want to be better about setting up the tripod and getting more family pictures. I got a few of all the grandkids with my parents, but not everyone that was at my parents house (that will be the next step) I did manage to get one at the in-laws...I tell myself it was because there were "lots" more people at my parents house LOL... it was just us four and the in-laws =) See now it is my written goal! Okay enough jabber onto the layout. Both of the boys had to "show off" and flash their mugs right in front of the camera!

Credits: Janet Phillips Collection# 10, LO# 2, Lauren Grier Shawna Clingerman Own It

Yeah for me it is still January and I got my first layout of 2010 done!! I sure love this boy, but man the last month or two he has been in super fine form and the temper flares and the crying and tantrums come! Slowly ever so slowly we are working through them. Trying to keep our cool and trying to "hold" him as much as possible. Enough of that... Here is my boy on his birthday in his new Tony Hawk hat (his newest fascination--Tony Hawk that is!)  

credits: Janet Phillips Keep it Simple 1-1, Melissa Bennett Love Actually, Font: DJB Gimme SPace

So have you made your news year resolutions? Well I finally did . . . yes the standard lose weight and get in better shape. It is something that I have been thinking about for a while. Love my parents and they were super  generous and bought me an iPod Touch for Christmas and lets just say I am loving it! So last week I finally put it to "real" use (I've been using it like crazy, already read a few books on it, played with my email and facebook on it.... just need to see about getting wi-fi at home =), but finally used it for the music part of it. Over the last couple of weeks I bought some new "workout" clothes, bought an arm bad for the ipod, downloaded a Couch to 5k (c25k) program. Here is the "actual" program: Couch to 5K and here is the download I am using right now. I might look into a different one, where I can use my own music. His music is okay and pretty upbeat...plus I do like right now how he is like YOU ARE DOING GOOD, 20 more seconds LOL....  =)

So this C25K program is only 9 weeks, but I think I will end up stretching it out a little bit longer. Actually I did some looking back through my pictures and realized that the 5k my family (my parents, older sister and her oldest daughter) walked last year I am thinking I will have to run it this year.... Thankfully it is in June, so I have plenty of time to be ready.... I remember last year we walked it and pretty much came in next to last...Not this year! Plus I think I have the hubby involved too (I think he is even borrowing the iPod on Tuesday so he can run and stay w/ the program too!)

So right now trying to eat healthier, making myself stick to my C25K program and after reading an online friend talk about her weighted hula-hoop ... I bought myself one too. Andrea said she lost INCHES after a short period of time! I bought it a couple months ago and just this past week I finally GOT IT... meaning I can finally keep the hula hoop moving with out dropping. Earlier last week it was 3 minutes, then Saturday night I got it going for 7 minutes a couple times and then just tonight I had it going for 21 minutes with out dropping it to the ground! So very excited about that! I could definitely tell that I did it for 20 minutes. I wasn't sure what to really expect at first. It did hurt at first (never any bruising though) ... it no longer hurts to physically do it, but I can feel the leg and stomach muscles working as I'm doing it though. My goal is to do it for 20 minutes a day thru February (if not for longer)!

Speaking of Andrea...I know her from the adoption message board I frequent and then from facebook. Lets just say she is a HUGE inspiration to anyone trying to get healthier and lose weight. Oh and she is beyond brave... check out her blog... start back at the "end" so you can read her whole story! ANDREA'S BLOG!
So be warned.... there might be a lot of life style change posts, excercise updates and fun goodies like that! Now I don't think I am as brave as Andrea and don't worry... no pictures! Heck I don't even know if I am brave enough to post my weight yet... Just know there is LOTS to lose!

I think this got long enough for a new updated post!