It's not fair!

I feel like I'm being ripped off. I've been doing Wii Fit faithfully for 2 weeks. We walk the dogs for at least 30 minutes a day, sometimes more.....and I haven't lost an ounce. I'm trying to cut down on portions and really be careful about what I'm putting in my mouth but I haven't seen any progress. Not even one stinking ounce? I'm getting screwed by the Wii. Aunt Flo did come for her visit yesterday so maybe that has something to do with it but good gosh...could the scale throw me a bone?

On the other hand, I got up this morning to get ready for work and I knew I didn't have any clean/pressed slacks. I was just too lazy to get them ready. As I was blow drying my hair, I prayed, "Lord, please let those black slacks fit today. I don't have anything to wear and I need those pants to fit." They haven't fit in quite some time. Well, wouldn't you know it, today they fit. Tight, yes. But they're on and they're buckled and zipped. We'll see if I can breathe later today ;)

Day 9

So I'm on day 9 on Wii Fit. I can't believe that I'm actually sticking to it. I don't have to go very far, just into the living room. I can wear whatever I want, do it whenever I want, and watch TV, talk on the phone or whatever..... My point is, I have total control of my workout. I don't have to drive any where or worry about a place being open early or late. I really love it and I HATE working out! I'm hoping this sticks and I can get into a smaller size!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! We have had such an awesome day. The boys stayed busy playing basketball and their new video games. My husband and I have relaxed in front of the TV all day and even took a nap. We don't get to do that very often so it was a real treat. I love having some time of and actually taking advantage of being at home.

My New Year's resolution is to try to get into better shape. I'm not going to over commit myself because I know what my reality is when it comes to spare time. Between work and school, there's no way I can commit to going to a gym. My husband bought me Wii Fit a few days ago and I've been working out with it for the past 3 days. Today I'm sore but I really look forward to getting on it every day. I'm hoping to lose about 15-20 lbs.

Since I didn't post any pictures from Christmas, here they are. Happy 2009 to all!

Christmas 2008

I'm always glad when Christmas has come and gone. This year was particularly nice. We had our shopping done early and didn't feel to terribly stressed out. My husband helped with the shopping this year which made things much easier for me and since the kids wanted some higher priced items, there wasn't much to wrap! Because the economy is tightening, we decided to forgo buying gifts for our entire family. We only got gifts for our parents and each other. Our treat to everyone was an enormous Christmas day feast. They all came over (12 people) that night and I cooked a 20lb turkey and a ton of casseroles and side dishes. A few people brought food and we had a great time. My husband got the Buzz Quiz game for PS3 and we played it for hours. VERY FUN party game! Anyway...I'm so thankful that we had such a nice, low key, Christmas. I feel so blessed to have such a wonderful family.

Pictures to come....Forgot the battery on my camera died last night so I couldn't download.

Our new doggy

This is our new girl, Ethyl. She's the calm one on the right. Allie's on the left, glaring at me, wondering why there's a dog laying on "her" couch. They are getting along pretty well. Allie has some dominance issues but we're working on it. Ethyl is a terrible digger which is why we think she ended up in the pound. She sticks her nose in the ground and digs everywhere. We have a built up vegetable garden that we're not using right now so we're trying to train her that it's OK to dig there and not in the yard. Other than that, she's a sweetie!

Give me an award....

I am officially the worst blogger ever. I've been about a month between every post. I'd like to say I'm going to get better about it but probably wont.

Anyway, school is over for the Christmas holiday. My grades were all A's for the semester and I'm proud of myself for working full time and taking 12 hours. Three more semesters left and I'm so looking forward to graduating.

We have a new family member. Two weeks ago we adopted a beautiful fox terrier mix from a rescue group in Houston. She had been turned into the city pound which has about a 90% kill rate. The rescue group got to her first and now she's ours. They named her Ethyl because they had pulled her out of the pound with another female dog named Lucy. We didn't like the name but now that we know her personality, it suits her well. She's such a sweet, gentle girl and so pretty.

I promise to get better about blogging. I know it's good for me and I really enjoy going back and seeing what I've been up to. Have a very Merry Christmas everyone!

My new hobby

I had a blast this weekend going to a neighborhood garage sale in a nice, kind of upscale neighborhood. I've never been much for garage sales because I don't like the crowds and I'm never looking for anything in particular. Boy, did I change my mind this weekend!! I bought all of these goodies for way cheap! I want to decorate my house but can't bear to spend full price on things. I am so excited about my finds!

Catching up

So, it's been a while. Things are finally getting back to normal around here. We got the roof fixed, the ceiling patched up and everything is getting somewhat back to normal. We had some money left over from the insurance settlement so we had a patio poured. We've been working on it the past few weekends, getting it landscaped and ready for company. Saturday we are celebrating my husband's birthday with about 15 friends. This will be the first party we're having at our house and I'm a little nervous! I'm sure after a couple of glasses of wine, I'll be having a blast! Everything is relatively back to normal (short of some missing grass in the front yard, 2 tree stumps in the back yard and a broken window) and we're looking forward to having some fun this weekend. I'll post pictures of the patio and our fun weekend later!

Moving on

We're finally getting back to normal and getting cleaned up after the storm. My mom still doesn't have power so she's staying with us. Let's just say I hope her power comes back on soon. She's fine to have here but I want my house back to myself. The trees came off the roof on Saturday and now we're waiting for the insurance company to send us a check to get the roof and window fixed. The school is back open today and I think the routine of going back to work will be healing. I'm praying for a great day back.

Recovering

Wow...this one hit hard. I'll get into more detail later because I really want to journal what happened the night of the storm, more for my own good than anyone elses. We're OK, just got power back yesterday. There are 2 large trees on the back of my house, 1 of which came through the ceiling and left 2 5-inch around holes. God has been so good in that the temperature has dropped to the low 80's making it bearable for the people who still don't have power. We're just waiting for the grocery stores and gas stations to get back to regular operation so we can get rolling again.

The saddest thing that happened to us in all of this is that we lost our beautiful 14 year old dog Charlie yesterday. We had to have her put down because the stress of the storm and the power outage just made her weaken. We know she's in a better place but it's so hard for us because we've had her since she was 6 weeks old (only 2 weeks after we got married.) We'll miss her and there will be a hole in my heart for a long time.

The best part is that we are all safe and relatively comfortable. We're just waiting to see when we'll go back to work and school. We should know more later today. Thanks for all of the prayers for the people of this region of Texas. I think He heard your prayers.

Hurricane Ike

Ike is definitely coming to visit the Houston area and we're getting ready. We plan on staying home because we're so far inland but the forecast says that we're on the dirty side of the storm so we're expecting some pretty bad weather. The only thing that we worry about are the large pine trees that we have in the yard. I'd hate to have one of them fall on my house. I don't know what we're going to do with my mom yet. She says she wants to sit home but I think she'll be scared. My husband is going over there this morning to clean up her yard and put her lawn furniture in the shed. I'd love to have her over here but that comes with another dog in the house and I don't know if I can take it. My dog has such a hard time with storms that adding another one to the mix may push me over the edge. We're going to figure everything out tonight and get our plan made. Wish us all luck! It's going to be a rough couple of days!

Here we go again....

We skirted Gustav without even a drop of rain. Here comes Ike.

Looming

So the new hurricane is brewing out in the Carribean right now and we're all gearing up for another big one. My family from New Orleans are making arrangements to evacuate when the time comes, some of them going to Mississippi and others coming here to Houston. The models are showing about a 300 mile length of the Gulf Coast that could possibly hit and they say we'll know more this weekend. This weekend I will be filling up the car and making sure we have batteries and groceries in the house. We NEVER get prepared for storms but I have a bad feeling about this one. I don't want to be caught off guard.

So far so good

So I'm back to work and school and everything is flowing good so far. The first day of Kinder is such a trip. The kids come in so excited about starting school but terribly nervous and missing their moms. By day 2, they're a little more confident but totally physically exhausted from the day before. We'll see today how day 3 goes. It's such a long day for those little guys and without a nap.

My classes are going good so far. I feel a little overwhelmed but like I said before, if I stay organized, I should do OK. We'll see!

Getting organized

So, I'm back to work and it's not so bad. I've been working really hard to get myself organized and prepared for the school year. Not only am I working full time but I'm taking 12 hours this semester so anything I can do to make my life easier will help to keep me sane. We have decided that we want to try to eat at home every night for at least 2 weeks. We need to save some money and some calories! I made a menu for 2 weeks worth of dinners and so far so good. I've also made a chore list for the kids so they know exactly what to do when they get done with their homework.

There are also a couple of small things I'm going to do to try to save some time and keep myself sane.
1. Have kids pack their own lunch at night (with supervision from a list I put on the fridge about what to pack. What can I say.... I'm a control freak about what they eat!)
2. Make the coffee at night
3. Pick what I'm going to wear the night before
4. Shower and blow dry my hair at night so I don't have to mess with it in the morning, therefore saving some time.
5. Do one chore after school like mop, vacuum, or run a load of laundry. I don't want to wait until the weekend.

I hope that I will be able to manage work and school but since this program is for working aides that want to become teachers, I assume it will be OK.

Want to Laugh?

I have been hysterical, with tears streaming down my face for the last 30 minutes. Check out Cake Wrecks. You'll pee in your pants.

Blah

This is the hardest day about being a teacher. Having to go back to work after 3 months off. Wish me luck!

Sleep Over

We celebrated my youngest son's 9th birthday this weekend and had a relatively manageable sleep over with 3 additional boys. We took them to the pool, had pizza, made their own sundaes, and they spent the rest of the evening playing video games and watching movies. I really enjoy low key parties where I don't have to spend a million dollars to celebrate. Don't they look like they're having fun?

Wow....

I have to be very careful how I choose my words when talking about something that is really bothering me, so forgive me if I'm vague. Last night we went to dinner for my son's birthday and had a bunch of family members meet us. My husband's parents were there and his dad didn't say a word to me (or anyone else for that matter.) He gave the kids the cold shoulder and basically acted like he didn't want to be there. My MIL talked to my husband the whole time and said about 2 words to me. They haven't seen our kids in 3 months but said that they wanted to come back to our house for cake and ice cream so they could see our puppy (they LOVE her), because they haven't seen her in a long time. How can you give a crap about seeing a dog but don't make an effort to see your own grandchildren when they live 4 miles away. I don't want to alienate them from my life because I truly love his parents but I refuse to have people snub my family or give me the cold shoulder and then want to walk into my house to see a fucking dog. I wish they'd come out and tell us what the problem is.

More vacation pics

An active volcano
The Waipi'o Valley. One of the prettiest sights I've ever seen.
Gorgeous flowers everywhere!
Our resort, the Marriott Waikoloa.
Jamie and I sitting on the lava rocks on the beach.