Give me some money!

Yesterday and today we had a garage sale. I told myself if I made $100 I would be happy. I raked in $320! I was ecstatic!
It's safe to say that I have a LOVE/HATE relationship with money. I love to spend it, I hate when it's gone, and it goes MUCH too quickly. As of thirty minutes ago I have spent all of that money. Pay tithing, allowances, two dollars to each kid to spend at neighbors sales, I had a little I needed to repay Scott and Julia, I had to buy food, had some pictures printed because that's one of their favorite things to look at during sacrament meeting. It was a community garage sale, and I found a chair and a rice cooker at my neighbors that were just too good to pass up! Pay for another week of Ryan and Julia's school lunches, buy some containers, baby oil and baby shampoo to send my sisters their first batch of homemade wipes, and WHAM-O! I am officially broke until Friday :( (Insert the sound of distraught weeping here)

A baby with a baby

I ran across this picture recently, and I was stunned. I look like a little girl--a baby with a baby. Looking back I realize now how young I was. Not just young in terms of age, but young emotionally, young spiritually, young in my own identity. I can see a lot of the reasons why people in the world think it unwise to start a family at such a young age. In some ways I agree with them, but there is definitely something to be said for putting yourself off in such a dramatic way. When you are a parent, you have to sacrifice so much for the good of that baby. The more kids you have, the more you have to focus on putting the needs of others first. You better understand how Heavenly Father must feel when he looks down on us, struggling through this life. Sometimes I want SO badly to step in and take all of life's cruel consequences away from my children, but I know I cannot. I know that they must learn for themselves. I guess I'm really just kind of thinking while I blog. What I really wanted to say was. . .even though I don't act accordingly at times, I am SO grateful to be a mother. I love each of my children so deeply and even though it is often monotonous and never-ending and brain-numbing and utterly frustrating, I wouldn't give it up for anything. Scott and I were watching a minister on TV the other day, Joel Osteen. He is the most positive person I have ever seen. He loves life, he loves good, everything is good and beautiuful. Watching him I decided that is what I want to become, that is what I must become if I want to survive the times in which we live. God is good, God is gracious, my life is full of blessings of which I am not worthy. I want to strive to become worthy of all I have been given. I want to see the beauty in each new day, the miracle that is each person you meet, the blessings that pour down from Heaven.

Handbag Planet.com

My friend Alyson (thanks Aly!) sent me an email about this contest at a new website called handbagplanet.com. On October 15th they are going to give away 24 free handbags, one every hour for 24 hrs. They are darling! You should go check it out and register for the contest!

Tagged #2

Suzanne tagged me. Sorry it took me so long to post it. It has taken me forever to figure out how to post the dumb picture.
1. Not many people know this, but I am a professional snowflake creator!
2. I broke my collar bone when I was four, and my arm when I was six.
3. I wanted to serve a mission. When I went in to see the bishop, he told me to, "fast and pray for my eternal companion." I was peeved. I happened upon Jacob 4:6 which says, "seek not to counsel the Lord, but to take counsel from his hand." I did what the bishop said, four days later Scott called me to, "thank me for something," and felt the spirit tell him to ask me out. The rest is history.
4. I think really my only fear, is the fear of failure.
5. I have loved learning to play the organ in sacrament meeting. I have always loved doing anything that involves music.
6. My mother was a pack-rat when I was growing up, and so to balance things out I'm so anti-clutter sometimes I throw things away I later wish I hadn't.
7. When my family and I were moving from Wyoming to Wisconsin, my dad didn't see a height sign for a bridge, and he crashed into it. The top of our U-haul literally peeled off like the lid on a can of sardines. It was not a good thing, but it was kind of cool because we could hear the police sirens what seemed like seconds later. It was kind of like being on a TV show. An experience I will definitely always remember.

I tag Sarah Ebbert, Kristi Mayer, Janene Fordham, Audrey Petersen, Amy Schmutz, Amelia Carlson, and Nicole Cunningham.

Tagged

As a recipient of this award, there are rules to follow. I have to answer the following questions with one word answers and one word only! Then I must pass it on to seven others! The questions are as follows:

1. Where is your cell phone? place
2. Where is your significant other? couch
3. Your hair color? non-descript
4. Your mother? busy
5. Your father? reader
6. Your favorite thing? family
7. Your dream last night? teaching
8. Your dream/goal? Christ-like
9. The room you're in? kitchen
10. Your hobby? music
11. Your fear? failure
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? here
13. Where were you last night? here
14. What you're not? scheduled
15. One of your wish-list items? clothes
16. Where you grew up? everywhere
17. The last thing you did? family
18. What are you wearing? T-shirt
19. Your TV? old
20. Your pet? none
21. Your computer? Dell
22. Your mood? stressed
23. Missing someone? Always
24. Your car? van
25. Something you're not wearing? Shoes
26. Favorite store? Target
27. Your summer? hard
28. Love someone? many
29. Your favorite color? blue
30. When is the last time you laughed? tonight
31. Last time you cried? ?

The bloggers that I'm nominating:
Angela Bowles
Suzanne Graham
Tiffany Hawke
Kristie Yorke
Codee Bell
Stephanie Stout
Stephanie Grimstead

Now, for you recipients of this award, here's the deal:
* Display your award.
* Link back to the person who gave you the award.
* Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
* Put links to those blogs on yours.
* Leave a message on the blogs of the people you've nominated.
* Enjoy your award!

Cuteness, earrings and one dapper boy

I snapped this photo the other day because they looked SO cute happily sitting on the couch together, all ready for bed.
On Friday, Emily, Ben, Hadley and I met Scott at the mall. We got there first and the two little girls got their ears pierced. Now they look SO pretty! Then we had a festive lunch with daddy, ran some errands and made it home by the skin of our teeth in time for the big kids to come home from school. Whew!

I couldn't resist. I just had to take a picture! Ben's Sunday clothes were getting pretty ratty! For special time last month, he and I went to Burlington Coat Factory to pick out some new Sunday clothes for him (you wouldn't believe how hard it is to find dress clothers here, aaahhhh!). He fell in love with these instantly and when he put them on today he just looked so dapper, I had to snap a pic!

Wondering

Okay, here's what I'm wondering. Everytime I look at some of the digital layouts I did first, I feel deeply embarrassed. They are definitely sub-par. I have gone back and redone two of them. My question to y'all, my faithful friends and fellow bloggers, is this: do they look enough better to justify the time spent on re-doing them? I leave it to you. Let the voting commence! Original.
re-do
original
and then re-do

Pack Meeting

Pack Meeting, which usually bores me out of my mind, was fun this week. Mostly because Ryan got a ton of awards! Go Ryan! He received his Wolf Badge, and then he got called back up again to receive six or seven belt loops and two pins. Hooray for Ryan!
Here is Ryan picking a cheer out of the "Cheer" box. He chose the fly snap. Probably the quietest of all the cheers!

Sorry, one more!

I think this is my favorite of the ones I've done in the last couple of days. I love the colors and the "simplicity". I love how the things behind the pictures really make the pictures the focus of the page. I think that's what my pages have lacked in the past--focus! Most of the items were from Miss Mint's Candy Fairway kit. I also took some things from Raspberry Road's Oriental Dreams kit, and some elements from Royal Garden by Amelie Scrap. I also spun this layout, you can see it here.

Yesterday's double page spread

I did this double page layout yesterday. I also spun this one. You can check it out here. The kit I used is called "My First Flowers" by Verena Karolyi.

Here's my newest double page layout. I really liked how they turned out. I used the new free downloadable kit from Shabby Princess called Spontaneous Delight by Carrie Stephens. I also spun this layout done by "Greedz". Here's a link if you want to go check it out:)

Mother. . .SAVE ME!

Haddie's face just screams rescue me. I love the desperation, the drama, the disgust at how I could let such a thing happen to her. We still have a problem with the older kids thinking Haddie is a toy. I try to explain to them that she isn't a doll, she's a person. She's not for their enjoyment pleasure to be carried around, prodded pinched, stuffed into small places. We're still working on it. The other day I left Haddie and Ben upstairs (with the stairs blocked off) so I could shower. I about had a heartattack and died when Ben came marching into the master bath, carrying Haddie, who was practically dragging on the floor. I have told him so many times that he's not big enough to carry her, but he always thinks he's done the good deed by bringing her to me. Aaaahhhh! At least they love her, right?

Scrunchled

It's so funny to me, and I'm still not quite sure how it happens, but by the end of eating time Haddie always ends up scrunchled in the corner. Too funny!

Planning and preparation

I just wanted to add two more things. First of all, I decided I would divulge my beginning weight. It was almost 163 pounds. With every other pregnancy I went back down to around 150, but with Haddie, I was stuck over 160 that's what pushed me over the edge and gave me enough drive to get serious!
Secondly, my mom told me once that experts say the key to weight loss is planning and preparation. You also have to stick to the plan. I have started making a more detailed weekly menu that includes what I am going to eat for lunch each day. Because we all know that kid food like chicken nuggets, mac and cheese and such isn't exactly weight-loss friendly.
Last year, before Haddie was born, I stumbled across this book called The Everything Meals for a Month Cookbook by Linda Larsen. I didn't do much with it because I was preggie and tired. But I have just rediscovered it, and I LOVE it! If you take a Saturday and make a big pot of your favorite (healthy) soup and freeze it in individual portions. Or a big batch of spaghetti sauce, or lasagna, or any healthy foods and freeze them in individual portions, it makes lunch SO much easier.
I have also been using her methods with dinner and breakfast. I made a quadruple batch of pancakes, flash freezed them and put them in a gallon freezer bag. I did the same thing with muffins. You can also do waffles, breakfast burritos, breakfast sandwiches and breakfast is so much easier for the kids in our family who don't like cereal. For dinner I make a normal sized portion, split it in two, freeze each one and then I have two meals from one! Last Saturday I picked 15 different meals, froze them each in two portions and. . .wa-la dinner for a month! It's confusing at first, but I'm getting the hang of it and it certainly helps with weight loss if you are prepared!

"Skinny" me

I told Scott I didn't really want to, but I couldn't disappoint my blogging public, so here's the picture y'all requested. It's newly "skinny" me! How I did it you ask? Good ole' fashioned exercise and diet. For exercise I do Leslie Sandsone's two mile brisk walk (it's a DVD) three times a week. I like it because I can do it at home, it only takes 30 minutes and it's much easier on my back than running. She's the cheesiest person in history, and I spend the whole half an hour mocking her, but I feel great when I'm done. I also have a DVD called Yoga and Pilates done by some Australian chick. Louise Solomon. She's also fun to mock. I try to do one of the two half an hour workouts on her DVD three times a week as well. I like hers a lot because it really helps with my back. I don't think it really matters what you do as long as you are consistently exercising. I have also stopped drinking all carbonated drinks, again mostly to help my back, but there are definitely other health benefits.
Okay, diet. As many of you know, Scott let me purchase three months of NutriSystem. But looking back I wouldn't do it. I have some guilt over this puchase, but it was good in a lot of ways. My food was ready to eat in perfect portion sizes with all the right calories, protein and fiber. I can tell you the secret. For breakfast you have an entree (simply meaning main course. Something like a whole grain muffin, bagel, pancakes, eggs, protein bar, cereal etc.) a fruit serving, and a protein serving. For lunch you have an entree (tuna, chicken or egg salad, soup, pasta, lean pocket, etc) a salad serving, and a protein serving. In the afternoon, you have a snack of a fruit serving and a protein serving. Then for dinner you stuff yourself. Honestly, I have NEVER been so full in my life. I'm eating more food than I ever have, it's just the right food. You have your entree, TWO vegetable servings, a salad or a fruit serving and then some kind of snack.
A couple of tips. You can have what you want, you just can't have everything you want. If you wake up thinking, "I really need to have a brownie today!" By all means, have the brownie, but only have one brownie and then that is your treat for the day. I try to save it for after the kids go to bed when I can really enjoy it! It seems to me like fruit and vegetables should constitute about half of what you eat in the day. Remember also that typically a serving size is the size of your fist. Remember too that you are fueling your body you don't want to eat less because your body will think there's a famine. Try to eat whole grains, try to pick foods with low carbs, make the best choices you can and try to keep everything you eat in a day under 1,200 calories. I also, one of the first weeks I started, did a detox. I drank this totally gross seaweed stuff, but I really think it was a good jump start to kick my body out of it's homeostasis. Your body gets used to how things are running and is very resistent to change. Something to force it out of that homeostasis is always helpful! I have also started taking a fiber supplement which really helps to keep your body free of toxins and moving regularly. If you want more information on what constitutes a serving, what the salad, dairy or vegetable servings on leave a comment and I'll email you some things.

Sweet Success!

I just have to take a moment to share with y'all my success. This morning I weighed myself, and the scale said 145. 145!!! I haven't seen that number, in all honesty, in EIGHT years! It feels pretty good to know that I am making strides at taking care of my body so I can be around for my husband and children for a long time! And I feel better than I have in a long time. I don't get the burst of energy that some people seem to get when they exercise, but instead of a hopeless and depressed, head spinning, body nauseous tired, I'm a worn out, blood is pumping, head and body feel healthy tired which I much prefer to the first option!

Dinnertime Occupation

This is how I found Hadley entertaining herself during dinner preparation today. She was fixing the pantry for me :)

More hidden pictures

Crawling baby alert! This is how Haddie attempts to entertain herself while I make dinner. It doesn't usually work. She usually ends up looking like this. . .
All wet and snotty.
She really has gotten to be a good crawler in a short period of time. She now thinks it is my one and only duty to help her walk around the house. It's killing my back!
This is a classic Haddie face. She's such a funny "piece of peanut butter" to use one of my mom's favorite expressions.

Forgotten Gems

Somehow these pictures ended up on my camera's internal memory instead of my memory card. I had forgotten all about them. Julia decided she wanted rollers for her birthday so she could have beautiful curls. We spent that evening rolling up the girls. They were very excited about the whole thing. I think they look absolutely adorable!
All I can say is. . .vogue.