Let the waters rise

I love, love, LOVE this song!

HAVES AND HAVE NOTS

I HAVE been trying to get to regular blogging.
I HAVE NOT gotten to the gym in 2 weeks. (not for lack of wanting to, just scheduling craziness)
I HAVE been reading Eat, Pray, Love.
I HAVE NOT been missing any of the "stuff" we sold at the yard sale.
I HAVE been enjoying a more clutter-free home.
I HAVE NOT been behaving myself when it comes to sunchips.
I HAVE been able to lose the 3 pounds I gained over last weekend.
I HAVE NOT been counting the days until annoying neighbor kid moves.
I HAVE been enjoying all the rain recently.
I HAVE NOT been good about keeping in touch...with pretty much anyone.
I HAVE been thinking about summer.
I HAVE NOT watched a movie in nearly 2 months.
I HAVE been loving JJ Heller's song "Your hands".
I HAVE NOT been flossing.
I HAVE been meditating.
I HAVE NOT had a haircut in 3 months. I'm a mess.
I HAVE been trying to keep a more positive outlook at work.
I HAVE NOT been that successful.

and how are YOU?

BOYS AND GIRLS: Day 4

GIRL:

BOY:

BOYS AND GIRLS: Day 3

GIRL: Less than one minute after being asked to start on her homework.

BOY: Less than one minute after being asked to start his homework.

....and then 5 minutes after being asked to start his homework. Again.

...and finally, 10 minutes after having been reminded to start his homework.

BOYS AND GIRLS: Day 2

BOY:

GIRL:

BOYS AND GIRLS

Welcome to a new segment I will call: Boys and Girls. Just sharing a bit (in pictures) about the differences I notice between raising a son and a daughter. I am in no way biased towards one or the other, I love having both!! Let's begin todays' comparison. (I will post one every day this week for fun!)

                                                         GIRL:

BOY:

RANDOM THOUGHTS

Every day on my four day weekend I have set my alarm for 6am, so I could have a bit of quiet time before the kids get up. I love my early morning time with my music and coffee. Cole is usually up only a half hour behind me, and once Cole's up, EVERYONE's up. He's noisy. This morning I looked in on him and he had his big stuffed dog on top of his head, with his arm around it. So cute. Miss Gracie is in her not-so-graceful sleeping position which includes being sprawled out all over on her bed and snoring like a sailor. Adorable.

I'm blessed.

It's been a fantastic and very productive weekend. I was so far behind on everything around the house that it was really bothering me. Having the yard sale behind us is a tremendous relief. We still have alot of stuff in the basement to sort through, so I've decided to go down and bring up one box a day, decided what's garbage and what's a keeper. My goal is to get everything back into its place and properly sorted and organized. Yesterday I finally mowed for the first time this Spring. Today I will spend most of the day in the yard and preparing the garden area, then a bit of relaxation before ballet and a cub scout pack meeting. Tomorrow I head back to work. Boo.

My eating this weekend has been horrible. I barely drank water at all, and ate stuff I really shouldn't have.We bought a box of individual Sun Chips bags at Costco, thinking that it would be an easy way to keep track of my servings. I ate THREE bags in a half hour. Not a good strategy, although a yummy one. Curse you, Sun Chips.

 I'm not beating myself up over it, but I will be on my best behavior the rest of this week. Pinky swear.

Our yard sale was a huge success! I am SO glad it's over. I can't beleive how much stuff we got rid of. All of the big stuff is gone. I'd say we sold 80% of what we had out, and the rest I boxed up immediately and took to Goodwill. Such a relief! Now, our garage is clean, and our basement is much emptier. I sold 10 totes worth of baby/kid clothes. I kept one tote of special things for each of the kids. I don't know why I was holding on to everything, it took up so much space! We exceeded our $500.00 goal!! The kids are both buying new bikes with their money and we will buy the pool as a family. Paco and I will have to chip in a little extra but it will be well worth it!

I have cheated alot this weekend. Haven't written down what I'm eating or drank my water. It's unlike me not to get my water in, but for some reason I haven't. I'm back on track today! I'll be working in the yard most of the day so I'll get a little excercise. Looking forward to some time outside with the kiddos after church, and then a movie this evening!!

Hope everyone has a fantastic day!

WEIGH IN AND A YARD SALE

Good morning everyone! I haven't had the opportunity to blog all week, as we have been preparing for our yard sale which begins....today! I've decided to be a brave girl and sell all my baby stuff. Sniff. Expect me to get pregnant within a few months...HA! I forgot just how much work getting ready for a sale is...I'd estimate I've spent 20 hours this week working on it. Let's hope it pays off because this is what we are hoping to raise enough money to buy a new above ground swimming pool! WOOT...summer fun ahead!

I lost 2 more pounds this week!!! Final weigh in for the 2nd Biggest loser contest is 2 weeks from today.

 We will return to regular blogging after I get through the yard sale!!

TA-DA!!

Why yes, I HAVE lost 60 pounds, in almost exactly 6 months (okay, 6 months and 2 days). Yes, I AM feeling awfully darn proud of myself. If you remember from a previous post, that IS a weight loss percentage of 21.05%! I KNOW I'm being a bit obnoxious right now, but I deserve it!

I STILL EXIST

Oh my heavens, it has been a busy, busy week around here. We have commitments of one sort or another every night this week. That. is. exhausting. On top of that I've been sick, which just makes everything worse. Miserable, sore throat-stuffy head-why can't I just climb back into bed ickiness. So don't go feeling like I've forgotten about my blog.We have also had one case of the stomach flu 'round these parts a few days ago and another case potentially tonight. We shall see how my evening goes.

 I also should send a shout out to everyone who has left a message on my cell phone within the past few weeks. Somehow I managed to disable the alert on my phone that tells me I have messages. Yup. Turns out that I had, ahem, quite a few messages. Sorry folks.

I haven't forgotten you. I will be back this weekend, when I'm well and life has slowed down just a tad. See? I'm feeling optimistic!

THE FAM

HELLO AGAIN

It's been a busy week, no time for blogging! Maybe later today when things quiet down a bit. This morning we have an early soccer game, followed by errands, dropping the kids off at Grammy's for a sleepover, gym workout, tackling the house which is a disaster, squeeze in a nap, dinner out with hubby, and the "only fools run at midnight" run tonight at....duh...midnight! Can I make it up that late? We'll find out!

I am about 3 pounds away from my short term goal, 225 pounds, which means a 60 pound weight loss!! Percentage wise, that will mean I have lost 21.05%. WOW! I can't believe it! I still have some of my biggest loser winnings socked away, and I'm thinking about how I may reward myself....Maybe new running shoes...like these little beauties:

 or a wild olive tee...like maybe this one: 

Ahhh...decisions, decisions. If you have an opinion on this very important matter, please vote in the poll at the top right corner of my sidebar!

HYC UPDATE

All is well in weight-loss land. I've earned myself a shiny, sparkly new button on my sidebar. Isn't it lovely? I meant to put it on a few days ago but things have been BUSY! I haven't gotten to the gym as much as usual this past week, however I have been walking and running with the kids nearly every day. I snuck out last night at bedtime and had a hot date with the elliptical machine at the gym. Felt great! I have noticed a significant slow-down in my weight loss since I haven't been working on the elliptical as much. This weekend we are doing the "Only fools run at midnight" fun run. I am not a night owl, so this should be interesting! I have a feeling there will be a late night coffee break.

Easter wasn't much of a challenge for me, food wise...given that I don't eat meat, pork or chicken anymore. Paco and the kids had spiral ham, loaded baked potatos and asparagus. I just had a couple small potatoes with greek yogurt and cheese, and a pile of asparagus. SO good.

Sorry, not a very exciting post but better than nothing, eh?

I SHOULD KNOW BETTER

My husband and I are in the same line of work...working for the same company even. We are both in management....although he is working towards higher management, and I have made it clear that I'm not interested in moving up any farther than I am now. I've had the opportunity presented to me, but it just doesn't interest me. Frankly, my entire line of work doesn't interest me.

As you can imagine, working in the same field AND for the same company has it's good and bad sides. The good side is that we understand what the other is dealing with on a daily basis, and can easily commiserate when things go haywire. The bad side? Pretty much the same thing. Where am I going with this?

It is nearly impossible to make any solid family plans due to these jobs...my husband's in particular. His schedule is different every single week, and by different I'm talking drastically different. One day he'll work at 5am, the next day he'll have to be there at 3pm, and the day after that maybe 10am. Yes, he's the one writing the schedule, but he has to be there when he is needed. As you can imagine, this is exhausting...for him in particular. He's on call all hours of the day and night. His sleep patterns are a mess, and it's frustrating for me to have all the last-minute scheduling changes.

For example: This past week was Spring Break, which I had been planning to take off so I could spend some time with the little folks. Alas, this was not in the cards, due to work being very busy due to Easter, and less than sufficient scheduling for it. Throw in the fact that I have inventory Monday, and my fate was sealed. I guess I could have just taken it off anyway and thrown dear Amanda to the wolves, but I'm a kinder boss than that, and apparently I have this desperate need to control things.  My husband was originally off tomorrow (Easter Sunday), and while I really wanted to have that day off together to celebrate Easter with our children, I knew I needed to spend a few hours at work to finish up inventory stuff. So, I planned to go into work early before church. That plan was all set out and then he had to completely turn his schedule upside to accomodate for some issues going on at work. Now, he is working at 5am on Easter, and the rest of the week is mixed up as well. Sigh. See my dilemma? Now, the little Suttons and I will be going to church tomorrow morning without him, and then the darlings will be coming to work with me. Sounds fun, dontcha think? Actually they will enjoy it and I will put them to work and make them earn their keep. HA!

I'm going to do my darndest to salvage the rest of the day for my family. Holidays will always be a struggle for us because it's a busy time in our line of work. I SHOULD KNOW BETTER than to try and make any plans at all with my husband's crazy schedules. My boss reminded me of that yesterday. While my job isn't quite as complicated schedule-wise, there are only two of us to do it all, and cover every day. We do what we can with what we're given. We bitch about it alot....but I think we're also glad to at least be in it together....we're a good match that way. I'm mean to her and she throws me attitude right back. I share my peanut butter and she brings good magazines. We meet for martinis and really let it all fly. You get it, right?

My goal for the coming months is to hammer out solid family time every week...especially for my kids' sakes. They are so used to being with one parent at a time...on the days when we are all together those little eyes light up like its Christmas. That breaks my heart every time. They deserve both of us together, more often. Right now, there isn't much we can realistically change...but we hope that my husband will get a promotion soon (company movement is pretty much stagnant right now, who wants to retire in this economy?), and that will at least offer him a more consistent schedule on a regular basis. Of course, we are both so thankful to have jobs that can afford us a safe home, transportation, food, insurance and retirement. We know we are lucky. We just want a little more time together to enjoy it all!

18.25

18.25....that's my current weight loss percentage....so far! When I hit the high end of my goal weight range...my percentage will be 43.86! Yowza!

OH-SO-CUTE

Cole and I stumbled upon this house this evening when we were a bit lost on our way to a new field for soccer practice. I won't even let myself look at it because we are no where near ready yet, but I can still dream! Love it!

NOODLES, NOODLES, NOODLES

Tofu Shirataki noodles. My  husband and I have heard all sorts of great things about them, and wanted to judge for ourselves. They rock!! They are also a much better alternative to regular pasta, especially if you eat white pasta, which is basically just refined white flour. In case you've been living under a rock since...well forever...white flour is BAD. Naughty white flour has no love to give you.

The following is an excerpt from Hungry Girl, who is pretty much divine in all ways. In my humble opinion. You may remember that I adore her cookbooks, and there are many recipes in them that call for these.

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There are two schools of thought regarding Tofu Shirataki. There are the LOVERS and the HATERS. Very few people are on the fence about this. (It's kind of like cilantro in that sense, but that's another story.) We're convinced that people who don't love Tofu Shirataki noodles simply don't know how to use them. Here's EVERYTHING you need to know for prepping these noodley pals of ours. (Pssst... look for them with the Asian items in the fridge section of the grocery store.)

1. An entire 8-oz. bag has just 40 calories. An 8-oz. package of regular pasta has TWENTY times as many calories. You can eat SO MUCH MORE Tofu Shirataki than regular pasta for the same number of calories! Please consider this when preparing (and chewing) them.

2. These noodles need to be rinsed thoroughly and dried well... very well. Dry them INSANELY well. Blot them with paper towels (repeatedly!) or stir-fry 'em over medium heat until they are completely dry. Get all the moisture out. ALL of it.

3. They're CRAZY-long and unwieldy. They should be cut up a bit (with kitchen shears, or carefully with a knife), no matter how you wind up using them.

4. They work best with thick, creamy (guilt-free!) sauces -- The Laughing Cow Light cheese wedges are a fantastic sauce ingredient for these noodles. Red sauces -- especially thin ones -- don't work quite as well. Tofu Shirataki's also great in soups, casseroles, and stir-frys.

ENJOY!!!!!

COOL BLOG

I came across Amanda's blog today when I was looking for a tutorial to add some cool fonts to my blog. Turns out what I want to do is a total pain in the rear to do and I don't have time for it this morning. Sooooo, as I was browsing her blog I found that I love her decorating style and organization. Oh I LOVE organization, but with my family it's nearly impossible as they only work against me. Frustrating beyond belief!

Check out her whole site...it rocks! I have earmarked a bunch of ideas. Hopefully within 3-4 years we will be out of this house and into something that is more our style. Since we live next door to the kids' school, it makes sense to stay until they move on to Jr. High.  We had the opportunity to buy our current house 12 years ago at a great price, and it was a smart move for us at the time, but it's never really felt like MY home. We bought the house from my parents, and I had lived here for many years, but it's just not "me", ya know? The neighborhood has also deteriorated alot since 1998. We have a few areas in mind for our new house, with 2 areas of importance....a better-kept neighborhood and a completely updated house, with a yard that is as low-maintenance as possible. I would also prefer that we don't have any more pets at that time. Been there, done that. We'll see about that battle though, as I am the only one that's not an animal lover in the family!! I may lose that one! I would even be okay with a smaller house than this one, as long as it  feels not like a house where I'm stuck living, but my "home"!

The only possible change in plans would be if Paco gets offered a promotion with a transfer. We have already agreed we will go wherever he's needed. We always tell the kids that the most important thing is that we are all together, and very lucky to have a home to live in, no matter what!!

Anyway, this was not at all what I planned on blogging about, but now I'm out of time!