It's A New Year

I originally started writing this in January. It's now March 3rd. lol Guess I should finish it already.

It's a new near. Time for changes, right? I just joined a Biggest Loser challenge last week (Jan. 12). So far it's going really well. It's amazing when you start a new journey like this how you realize all of those little things you were doing that creaped into a habit. Like picking up a little candy here and there. While small, it's just a habit that needs to be stopped. You don't even know how many times I was at various stores this week getting ready for Skyler's birthday party where I was tempted by all of the treats in the isles. But I didn't give in. Not even once.

So, I eluded to Skyler's birthday. She just turned 9. How did that happen? My baby girl is growing up so fast. She is a girl after my own heart. She wanted a Doctor Who themed birthday party. It was so much fun creating things for her birthday to make it look like her theme. Part of me was thinking, "Why do they always pick themes that you can't buy anything in the stores for?" But she was super excited. She wanted a sleepover but also wanted to invite her best buds (that are boys). So, we ended up doing a party followed by an optional sleepover for girls. It was kinda crazy even though we invited way less than last year. And we made it a drop off party too to have even less people. She invited her soccer team, her brownie troop, a couple kids from school, and a couple kids from church. It was a full house but we had fun. I think I'll add pics to a different post.

The girls are both playing soccer this season. I'm so excited that they are both on the Monarch's. So, they have the same coaches and practice together. But they are different divisions so they will play in their own games on the weekend. In the fall they should be able to be on the same team since Skyler is going to be moved up early. One exciting addition to our team is Mikayla. My friend, Riva's daughter. Riva and I have just had the best time at practices together. Tyler and Skyler used to be on the same team when they were younger and now Mikayla and Courtney are. So fun! I even have a buddy to walk/jog with at practice. :) This season the teams have moved to a "Signature" team. It's one step above Rec and below Club. I'm looking forward to games starting soon. This is Skyler's 3rd season with this team and Courtney's 1st official one. She has been practicing with them on and off before now.

We won't mention how old I turned in early February. hehe But it was fun to keep the Doctor Who stuff up for my birthday. It's really hard to stay on your eating plan while planning all of these parties. I struggled here and there but still managed to pull off some good numbers. There are 5 more weeks left in the challenge and I have lost 24 pounds so far. Woohooo!

Courtney's birthday came quickly. She turned 11 in February. 11!!! That's nuts. She wanted a Frozen theme for her birthday. Since it snuck up on us I felt like I was rushing to get everything done. Thankfully our friend, Laura stepped in to save the day. She helped me make decorations and plan for the whole thing. We were kinda burnt out after Skyler's party that we wanted to do something even smaller for Courtney's. (Courtney wanted to also.) To cutback on the drama that can happen when you have different groups of people at a party (ie: school friends, sports friends, church friends) we just decided to separate them. We had a very small family party first. Then that night we had 3 of her friends from school over for a sleepover. Only 1 stayed for the sleepover part. Talk about an easy party. Then the next weekend we had 3 of her church friends over for a sleepover. Totally easy during party time. Still the same amount of prep. We had fun making decorations. But it was nice having so many pre-made things at the store to get. It was fun and we still have a Frozen Wonderland house. (I'll post pictures on a separate post.)

Scott is starting a challenge for himself that he has titled Fit at 40. or #fitat40  He turns 39 this year but wants to be in great shape by his birthday next year. I think it's a great challenge. We told our trainers about it and they were very supportive. They even offered for us to have the party there. He's going to have mini fitness challenges. Sounds like fun! Seems like a taco guy is in order. I better start saving up now. :)

Happy New Year

It's been a while. Christmas and New Years have gone and here I sit heavier than before they came. BOO!! Just means I have to work even harder.

Things I need to work on:

-Not undoing all of the work in the gym for food.
-Being more careful when going out to dinner.
-Eating way more vegetables
-Drinking more water
-Working out more often (getting back into that habit)
-Limiting my chocolate
-Not eating crap that will just make me sick
-Losing weight BEFORE the next challenge starts.

Etc...

I'm working on the 365 photos this year. One each day. I have a feeling most will be on my phone since we are out and about so much. So, not the best quality or anything but I will be posting them on my facebook page. I have been wanting to do that since I first heard it and thought the new year was perfect to start. I think it's funny that my husband is doing it too. So we can only count pictures we take. :) Or at least that's what I'm doing. He's already stolen a picture. lol

Photography is going really well. I just booked my first wedding!! So exciting!! It's my sister-in-law's sister who is getting married on a cruise in March. Pretty sure I'm doing my first event too in February. A high school reunion. Sounds fun! It's all so new so it makes me nervous. But I know once I'm doing it, it will be a blast and turn out great.

My little Skyler turns 5 next week. That is so hard to believe. She is getting so old. She starts kindergarten this fall too. She has started reading and I am so proud of her. We are doing a smaller party for her this year. We only invited a few of Skyler's friends (and their families) and our family. We are so incredibly thankful to be having a party at all. 

Courtney will turn 7 next month. AHHH!! She is going to be having a birthday sleepover. Oh help us! I can only imagine several 7 year old girls running around the house. She is amazing at school. She brought home a library chapter book and read the whole thing in 1 hour.

Skyler and Courtney are starting softball soon. This will be Skyler's first season and Courtney's second. This is probably the only year they could be on the same team so we are excited that Skyler finally said she would play. We just wanted her to try it out to see if she likes it. She loves doing it at home so we thought she would like it. Skyler did such an amazing job at soccer. She loves soccer.

I am the sole Coordinator for our MOPS group this semester. (Last semester I was Co-Coordinator with Danielle) So far it's going really well. Our team is amazing!! January (and August) is such a hectic month for MOPS. So many details to get lined up.

The Biggest Loser Challenge starts back up on the 17th. I could not start it before Skyler's birthday party. Too much craziness. And way too much to do before then. This will probably be the last one I run (with people coming over to my house to weigh in). I could see running more with people not coming over, but it's just so much having to be home all of the time during those weigh ins and all of that. It would be nice to just show up to a weigh in instead.

Anyway, that's my little update. I hope to get on here more often.

5 on Friday

I thought I would try 5 on Friday.  I think I have done it like once before on a week where I missed the 10 on Tuesday. lol

1. MOPS yesterday was sooooo awesome. It was more than we could have expected. So many people showed up. We had almost 50 people. That is a HUGE jump from last semester. We had an amazing speaker, Kim Songer. She just has so much experience in so many areas that she was so perfect for our group. She was so joyful and real. It was just the start we needed. Everyone seemed to have a great time. We played a silly dress up game with the mentor moms. So much fun!

2. The food was amazing at MOPS and I even lost from yesterday. MIRACLE! I'm almost down to my lowest weight ever (since losing). Just a few tenths of a pound to go.My stomach feels smaller. Love that feeling.

3. I'm still sick. I wish it would just go away already. I am feeling a little better though. The congestion isn't quite as bad. The aches aren't as bad either. But everything is there still enough to be annoying. Especially the cough when it starts. It sometimes makes me feel like I'm going to throw up. ewww

4. It hasn't happened much yet, but I'm waiting for it. One thing I have learned doing these challenges is that everyone has an excuse. The problem with that is that eventually you could come up with an excuse every week and never show any progress. There will always be a birthday party, a celebration, a holiday, or something else in our lives to challenge us in our weigh loss goals. It's up to us what we are going to do with those challenges. Are we going to succumb to the pressure of the temptation or are we going to rise above it and choose to change. Because after all, it is our choice. We have the power to pick the veggie platter over the chips and cookies. I'm not saying it's not hard. I'm only saying that you do have the power. And once you reclaim your power and start making those little changes, they can add up to big losses.

5. I'm so proud of Courtney's reading. She is doing so well. Learning new words every day. My mom gave her a book to read that she wanted to try to read. It's a chapter book from a High School Musical series. She needs help on lots of words, but she's trying it and not getting frustrated. My mother-in-law told me how I could figure out what grade level the book is at and it's a 5.1 (which means 5th grade reading level). I'm so proud of her for even trying it. With hard words like bureaucratic in it, there is no wonder she needs help on some words. Skyler is doing great too. She is starting to sound out some words and knows some too. I need to start the flash card words with her again.

10 on Tuesday

Ok, so I logged into my blog on Tuesday, and as I'm writing this it is already after midnight. Why am I still up?

1. I went to Disneyland again today. My sorority sister's daughter was celebrating her birthday at the happiest place on earth. I'm so glad that we went. The girls all had a blast together. So compatible as friends. And it was great reconnecting after so long.

2. I let Jillian kick my butt tonight. I did the 30 Day Shred LEVEL 3!!! This was only the second time I have done level 3 and it was easier this time. I was actually able to do the full sit ups. I couldn't even do it last time. I was so excited. I also did a few other moves better/easier than last time too. woho!

3. I am determined to make this week a great week for my weigh in on Friday. Last week I lost 1.8. It's good, but I want to be losing more. I know I can if I just get better on the weekends. A couple friends and I talked about our weekend battles today. We decided that we are going to pretend that we have another weigh in on Monday as well. So, the 3 of us are actually going to weigh in together just to make sure we were good on the weekends. Keeping each other accountable. I'm so excited about this. I think it's just what I need. Motivation to stay the course.

4. I hear Skyler coughing in her room right now. Oh, how I pray that she isn't getting sick. The poor girl seems to be getting sick left and right.

5. Oh the drama with the doctor. I will have to elaborate more. I have a follow up appt. on Monday.

6. The girls and I ditched the BMX bike show tonight. I seriously did not want to go. And I totally forgot about it and had thought we were doing Disneyland. Then I get the illustrious "golden ticket" home from school that Courtney won. This entitles her to get there early for better seating. Still no desire to go other than to make her happy if this is what she wants to go to. So, I gave her the choice. I told her all about the bike show and that her friends would be there or Disneyland where she would meet some new friends. It was such a quick choice. Disneyland it was. Then she kept going back and forth, but ended on Disneyland. :)

7. Oh good. No more coughing sounds from the other room. I hope she can get some good sleep tonight. They both should with all of that fun and exercise tonight at Disneyland.

8. I asked the teacher about the "3rd grade phonics book" because it was hard to believe. She said that she didn't really know for sure if it was 3rd grade for sure, but that it was the 3rd phonics book. So, even if there is one per year, it would be 2nd. Regardless, it's above reading level.

9. I also found out that she started the Accelerated Reader Program at school too. And from the mouth of her grandma (who is the librarian), she didn't think there were any kindergartners in that program. How exciting. Charting new waters. So, she will be reading the book and coming to school and taking a test on it. Then she gets a new book. There are points and prizes and fun stuff like that. We read the book today and she did so well with it. Several new words and she is learning them fast. She could probably test on it tomorrow. I'll have her read it again just to be sure before school. Ya, ya....I'm a bragging mom tonight. So proud of how well she is doing and excited about her eagerness to learn.

10. Only a couple more days until weigh in. More workouts coming my way. :)

Weekend Review & Realizations

The weekend starts with Friday as usual since my hubby has the day off. Weigh ins started off the weekend. We had a play date with some of Courtney's friends from school at a park. We had dinner out with my parents which started the bad eating for the weekend.

We had a fun time hanging out with my brother and Chris who were down from Colorado to take his state test to be an electrician back in California again. My brother, Shawn will be moving back here at the beginning of June!!! We are so excited to see the whole family!!!

Saturday Courtney got to go to her Saturday Academy at school. I'm just bummed it was the last one. She just thrives with extra learning. She just came home today telling me that she is now on the 3rd grade phonics book (she's in kinder). Crazy! I'm so proud of her.

Saturday night was a new experience. I got to run with my hubby. He just started running and has walked up to 1.6. He has run/walked a mile before. He went running with Shauna and I and finished a 5K!!! And on top of that, his first 5K was a hilly one. We kept encouraging him to keep going.

Sunday we headed over to Disneyland with some awesome friends (Ellen, Gracie, Mindy, Kiara, and Alex). Preston couldn't come this time and Scott was feeling the love from all of the kids who couldn't stop hanging all over him. lol Normally the love is shared between the 2. He ended up giving rides to them and making himself even more sore. lol

I have been having trouble on the weekends with eating. I think I need to pretend that weigh in is on Monday so that I don't eat horrible on the weekends. It's like I'm giving myself permission to indulge. I need this to stop!! I can't stand having to make up for the damage I've done on the weekend. I WILL change this behavior!! I will make this a good weight loss week!!

I also need to drink more water. Normally I'm pretty good at this since I really can't drink much else. But I know I'm not getting enough for good weight loss. So, that's another goal I would like to reach for.

Our computer has a bunch of viruses in it. Oh joy. I was going to search for something using Mozilla/Firefox's main home page. It has a google search right there. Don't use it!! Go to google.com and use it there instead. The search results that I got gave me a virus. Immediate. Ug! I just clicked on the search result. No download or anything like that. So, thankfully a friend (Jon YOU ROCK!!) offered to help us out and fix it. So, he has it. Then my parents offered to let us use their laptop to use in the meantime. (My parent's rock too!!) lol Did my apparent NEED for the internet show? lol I actually just went over to their house to send out the weight loss email to the challengers. I have facebook (well most of it..no games) on my phone and can access email through my phone too. So, I was pretty good. haha This is so cool though. Love this laptop. :) So, that's how I'm writing this out today. Hopefully I will still have my word docs because I use them all the time to save everything. I did try to save them on a disk and the computer wouldn't let me. I'll have to do that once it's all better. The biggest thing is all of the pictures that are on there. Thankfully we post tons on facebook so we do have access to a lot of them. I need to get better at backing them up on CDs. This should teach me a lesson.

10 on Tuesday

Yes, a little late again. Yesterday was insane.

1. I just sponsored another consultant for PartyLite. Woho! That's like the 6th or 7th person. Too bad they aren't all still in it or I would be a unit leader.

2. I'm going to have my own party in April to hopefully sorta restart my own business. I need to get some bookings on my calendar so I can make some money for our family.

3. Bible study is always so wonderful. It was enlightening this week. I'm going to post a separate blog about that.

4. I'm excited for Saturday night. I'm going to have a "Stampin' Up!" party. My fellow card makers are going to learn and make a few projects and look through the catalog. So fun. I need to make more cards. My card stash is getting low.

5. The "Baby Item Exchange" madness has begun. Last year was the first time I ran it and had all of the donations at my house. Taking up room in my garage and all over my house. The donations are starting to come in. I have a nice pile in the front room and the garage. Guess I will have to move it out of the front room for the party though. lol Then after the Baby Item Exchange is the yard sale. That is on May 1st if you want to come shop. We are taking donations from anyone. So, if you want to get rid of some junk in your house (no electronics), bring it on by.

6. I'm getting excited for my race that is only a week and a half away (the 27th). I've decided to do the 10K instead of the 5K. 10K will be more of a challenge. And since I just did one, I know I can do it. Even if I have to walk some of it. A bunch of people in my family will be running and walking it. I'm just a little sad that my girls and Scott might not be able to see me cross the finish line. Courtney has a game and we have snacks that day for her game. So, they have to be there. Unless the race starts super early. Her game is at 9 and has to be there at 8:30.

7. I'm so proud of how Courtney is doing at school. She is done with all of the requirements for the "Reach for the Gold" award that happens in May. She has moved on to the 2nd grade reading books. She's almost done with her other phonics books, and is almost done with all of the spelling words. She didn't even need to do any of them, but the teacher is challenging her. She also got invited to go to a special Academy at school to challenge advanced learners.

8. Skyler has now informed me that she wants a red car. She keeps telling me she wants her own red car, now. I had to remind her that she can't drive yet. Then she insists she means when she grows up that she wants a red car. And she also wants to know how come we don't have a red car. lol

10. We just had a Mommy and Me Circus Safari at her school. At first we were like, how do you combine Safari and Circus? When we got there it really was a circus. But the different booths were about the animals. It was cute.

10 on Tuesday

haha A picture of my last Whittier Girls Softball League team.


1. Courtney LOVES playing softball. As soon as she was done she wanted to do it some more. She even has one friend from her class at school on her team. They did some awesome drills. I saw improvement already in Courtney and some of the other players. There were so many parent helpers that they were able to work in groups on different drills so each child would get specific help.

2. Mental note: Don't EVER wear flip flops to softball practice. No, I didn't get hit with a ball on my foot (which could happen). My feet were FREEZING!!! And everywhere else too. Man is that field cold. Brrrr.... Skyler had 2 jackets on and was still cold.

3. I lost another 1.6 this last week. I'm at 46 lb. lost now!!! I'm getting so close to my lowest weight after having Skyler. Just 3 pounds to go. I'm hoping to hit that this week.

4. I have been running more lately on a challenge from some friends. I am up to 18 minutes running at a 5.0 without stopping. This is HUGE for me. My last highest was 15.

5. Oh ya, I never did a blog about my birthday or Skyler's. I've been meaning to do that.

6. Bible study was amazing today. It always is.

7. I'm so tired today. I was up until 1:30am making invitations for Courtney's birthday party for her friends at school. I didn't have most of their email addresses to just send the e-vite to them. They turned out cute. I'll have to post a pic.

8. I'm sitting her looking at this High School Musical stage that I'm about to throw away. It won't stay up anymore and the girls were getting so frustrated with it so it's a gonner. It lasted over a year so I thought that was pretty good. It was cute while it lasted.

9. I'm in 3rd place in the challenge this week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Woho!! I moved up one place. I'll be lucky if I can stay in that spot though. 3 people are only .1% behind me. (And one didn't weigh in this week, so who knows how much more she lost.) I'll just keep doing what I'm doing.

10. It's raining pretty hard right now. I'm so glad that we don't have to go anywhere right now. I'm looking forward to step class tonight and watching "The Biggest Loser". LOVE that show!!!

O Magazine

For Courtney's first modeling job, she is going to be in O Magazine (Oprah's Magazine). Not in an ad, but for the magazine itself. I'm assuming it's an article of some sort. I thought we would get more info than we did when we were there, but we didn't. So, I'll tell you what I know.

First of all we showed up and I was surprised that Courtney was the only child. Then 2 came after. One teen and one 4 1/2 year old. It felt awesome knowing that only 2 little ones got picked for this and Courtney was one of them. It felt even more special.

We were at the beach in Santa Monica. At first Courtney just was sitting around waiting. So she had some preschool writing books to try and her Leapster and various other things in my "bag of tricks". I had all sorts of things just incase. (I was not at all impressed with the site teacher. She welcomed us and looked at her work permit and that's it. She didn't do anything.) At first Courtney was very bored. She did have the last call time of anyone, but still. She probably could have had a call time of 3 instead of 1:45. It started getting very cold. Note to self to bring a sweater/jacket for her even if it's 80 or higher in Whittier. I wrapped her up in a towel to keep her warm. Then we just went in the trailer and that got her all warm. She wasn't so bored either cuz they had cartoons on for the couple kids who were there.

They had called us the night before asking us if we could bring some of her own clothes that went with the color scheme. They had a bunch, but still wanted us to bring some just incase. The outfit they ended up chosing for her was one we brought. It was a good excuse to go to Target and get something specifically the right colors. :) She needed some summery stuff anyway. The color scheme was neutrals (khaki, white, brown, etc.), purple, and orange. Which surprisingly looked good together.

Everyone was finally done with hair, makeup, and wardrobe and it was time to go to the beach. They didn't do anything to Courtney. They didn't even brush her hair. lol They thought it looked just beautiful how it was. I was all proud since I kept brushing her hair and trying to keep it nice. lol We went down to the water where the shoot was. We waited for everyone to get placed.
What the shoot was for is they are recreating an art piece by Seurat. (See picture below) But instead of a garden setting, it's a beach setting. All of the garden things were replaced by beach things. It was pretty cool.

Courtney was supposed to be the little girl in the far with long blonde hair dancing (in the art). But in the beach, she was going to be building a sand castle (but standing near it to be similar). She was doing so good even with it being cold. They kept taking breaks for them to get warm. Then the other little girl started not cooperating. She just wasn't having it and didn't want to do it. So, they replaced her with Courtney. She got moved to a spot that was closer to the front (so you'll be able to see her better). Plus, she's one of the only people actually looking at the camera. Most of the others are looking out to the water. They were going to continue the photo shoot without the other little girl but she finally came around at the end. So, they put her back in the shot, but put her in the back with the sand castle. So Courtney got to stay in the closer shot. They had to hurry up and get the final shots because the tide was coming in. And the blankets (props) were almost getting wet.

They were so proud of Courtney. They kept saying "Smile Courtney" (since she was in the front and looking at the camera). The producer said she was getting everyone else to smile too. I couldn't see her face from where I was sitting. They gave her the beach ball from the photo because she did so well. She also told her that she was the star and did so well changing parts and just doing whatever she needed to do.

We were going to stay at the beach a little to play but it was so cold. Courtney was going to put her feet in the water, but they were taking the shots of the dog (to add it in later since he wasn't cooperating either). So we didn't want to get in the shot. So we headed back to the trailer. She didn't even have to change because all of the clothes were hers. (We'll have to do a beach day soon to make up for not getting to play.)

We found the pictures she had drawn for them in the car when we got there so she wanted to go back to give it to them. The producer was so exited. She thought it was so cute that she did that. She said it was a first for her. Then we headed home and she got a good nap coming back too.

I asked her what she thought of the whole experience and she said it was a lot of fun. And no, I don't know what issue of O Magazine it will be in. As soon as we find it, I will tell you. I asked someone and they didn't know. I should have asked the producer. Oh well.

The set up of the shoot at the beach from the trailer.

The trailers. The production one on the right and the hair and makeup on the left. Catered food infront with tables. But even with all that food she wanted granola bars (that I had).

Courtney's hair just looked so nice after getting blow dried. I had to take a pic of her in the outfit she came in. I told her to smile and she posed for me. Ready to work. lol

This is the cold Courtney picture.

This is where Courtney ended up being. See the lady standing with the umbrella? She is right next to her with a hat on.

This is where she was with the sand castle and towel.

Here she is playing while they are situating everyone.

This is the lighting and film crew set up.

Some of the models. What I loved is that not all of the models were tiny. They were normal. So refreshing.

A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, 1884Georges Seurat (French 1859–1891)

This is the painting they were replicating. See the little girl dancing in the back? That was supposed to be Courtney. Now she is the one facing front in the center (in a white dress) next to the lady with the umbrella.