10 on Tuesday

 Wow, it's been a while since I have done one of these.

1. Please pray for my hubby. He has 3 different interviews today with Disney. This would seriously be a dream job to him to go back to Disney. (Only in the corporate side.) He is just so excited to even have the opportunity to interview with them.

2. Speaking of not having a job. At some point this month the bank will be calling about our house. We will have 4 options. (2 if he has a job and 2 if he doesn't). We are really down to the wire on this one. I am so stressed out about the potential of losing our house. Who would have ever thought he would be unemployed so long? Not for a lack of trying though. He is constantly applying to jobs. It's just so stressful thinking of losing our home and what that will mean for us and the kids and all of that. We did hear recently about housing being able to go 1 year without paying the mortgage (when unemployed) and then having to deal with that. Right now it's at 6 months and August is our 6th month. And on top of that, Scott's unemployment checks will end in October. Please God, let him get this job so that we don't have to worry about either thing any longer.

3. MOPS is starting back up on September 22nd!! I'm excited about that. Planning time is under way. I love MOPS and am excited to be getting calls from new moms who want to join us. I hope they actually do. This will be my last year Coordinating MOPS. Originally it was because Skyler would be in kindergarten this year so I would be graduating at the end of the year (and out of MOPS). But we decided to expand our MOPS group to moms of 1st graders. We were going to expand to all of elementary, but we didn't want to put too much on our leadership team who was already on overload. So, we just expanded it one grade to include more moms. (Especially since there is currently no program at our church specifically for elementary school moms.) Maybe next year they could expand it to all of elementary. Or maybe not. Who knows? So, Amy (a fellow member of the steering team) and I will be done after this year but still in MOPS the year after. We can help them but won't be leading it. Hopefully this will make an easier transition so we can answer questions and be there for support.

4. My girls love this VBS (vacation bible school) they are going to right now. It's at Shepherd of the Hills and the theme is "PandaMania". The kids have rave reviews about it. Our church's was last week and they loved that one too. Courtney especially loved "Discovery Days". She picked the casting call (drama class) and water world (water games/play class). I was so excited for her to experience it because I remember doing it when I was her age.

5. Our whole family is trying to be healthier. So you're all on notice. No more pizza runs or letting my kids have 2 servings of ice cream when they're at your house. We are going to try to not reward with food either. We are going to try to be very active and have healthy eating combine with that. This will be interesting considering we are camping this weekend.

6. Yeah...camping is this weekend!! Usually we go to Shaver Lake. But the parental figures decided to do Lake of the Springs instead. Boo!!! It's never better than Shaver when we pick a different place (even if it's free). Let's do Shaver next year. lol Let's remember Bass Lake..lol My family knows what this means.  (1 ambulance ride and 2 trips to the hospital and 2 kidney stones later.)

7. This last year has not been good on my waist line. I have been giving myself too much slack in the eating department and trying to work it off only to stay the same or gain. This is going to change. I want my workouts to be decreasing the number on the scale not evening out what I already did that day. Now that I'm not in a challenge right now I just know I need to do this for me. No other reasons than that. No more excuses.

8. I often wonder why my "friends" don't "like" my photography page. I have more friends on facebook than people who "like" my page. (And some of my fans or people who like it I don't know.) I mean really, it's not like it really matters. I know not everyone will actually like it. Not everyone's work is going to appeal to everyone. Just thought my friends would do me a favor. Supposedly the more likes you have the further up on searches you are. So, it would help the business. I'm not worried about it though. It is what it is. People will like it or not. And my business does not hang on the balance of how many likes I have. Some people I have even invited a couple times. The thing about this is that Facebook doesn't tell you who ignored it or who just hasn't looked at the request that is sitting there in their requests. So, I don't know if you simply want to not have anything to do with it or if you just haven't looked at it. (However, the people who frequent facebook I'm assuming either don't know where their requests are or are ignoring it. boo) The really only reason this matters is when I'm posting pictures. I want to gain more interest so I was posting them on my personal page (simply to reach more people and so their friends can be tagged and make comments). But I would think it would drive more to my business page if I only put them there. That way if friends and family would like to comment on them they have to like the page first. This doesn't always work though because people just look and choose not to comment/like. Then you have no idea if people like what you just posted or not. Just my ramblings of the issues with using facebook to try to gage more interest for your business.

9.  I filed my first e-file for taxes for my business to the BOE (Board of Equalization) for the state of CA. It was easier than I thought it would be. Especially since I just had to have all of my numbers ready and wasn't sure which ones I would need. Getting ready for it was more than actually doing it. Glad that's over. I only have to do that fiscal yearly so I'm glad I won't have to do it til next July.

10. If we have funds I'm going to throw a business 1 year birthday party in October. My photography business started last October so I thought it would be fun to throw a 1 year "birthday" party. I'm thinking of inviting all of my past clients and anyone interested in the future. I'm thinking of holding a model search and taking pics of those interested. And I would take pics of everyone who came and give them those pics. And am thinking about doing a photo contest on my facebook page. I just need to figure out the details and get-er-done. So much fun just thinking about it all. :)

Boy, I guess I had a lot to say today.

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

1. Alright, alright. I know. It's Wednesday. Oh well. It's been so crazy here with all of the weigh ins that I didn't have time.

2. The Biggest Loser Challenge started. It has been a little insane with all of the weigh ins. I have 2 more coming right now and that will bring the total participants to 34. More keep calling or emailing me to join. There is still time to join. Just email or call me for rules/info/weigh in time. Feel free to join if you don't live near me. You can be in the no pay/no win group. You don't win anything, but maybe it's extra motivation knowing that someone will know how you did that week.

3. I have been doing really well so far with my eating. I have been walking to pick up Courtney from school so that's an extra mile every day. Other than that I haven't exercised though so I need to pick up that.

4. I have had a cough for over 2 weeks now. It's driving me nuts. I started taking Sudafed yesterday and I'm hoping that will help get rid of it.

5. A great quote from yesterday, "If you have 15 hours to spend on facebook, you can spend 15 minutes with God." One of our pastors, Sherry Mortenson said that yesterday at our bible study. How true. We waste time away like it's nothing on facebook or blogs or whatever else it is you do. So, I did it yesterday. I read the bible yesterday for 15 minutes while Courtney was doing her reading for school. I even kept reading after to finish the rest for the study. We were talking in our group about even 5 minutes. I then said "God will use whatever we have to give."

6. Someone on my facebook put that she thought I was going to say you can find 15 minutes to exercise. I believe that is true too. Most people think they don't have time to fit a workout in. But they usually are wasting time doing things that could be done another time or not at all. Even if you were to fit 10 minutes in here or there, you would still get the benefit of it.

7. We are deciding to not order soccer pictures for Skyler. That seems sad to me, but really, the picture is horrible. We get the team picture and one of the pictures of her already. So we will have a copy of it. But we are refusing to buy more. I got a much better picture of her outside anyway. So, if anyone wants a soccer picture of her I can email it to you and you can print it in whatever size you want. She had her first game last Saturday. She plays at 8am every Saturday if you want to come and watch.

Ok, really bad picture, but I am up there somewhere. This was in 2008.

8. Oh Candlelight. (I could only find the link for the one in Disney World.) For anyone who doesn't know I will explain. Disney does this huge musical presentation one weekend a year. It's pretty much the one time you will hear any kind of religious music or anything like it in Disneyland. It's always the first weekend of December. So, you have to try out to sing in the choir. I got the chance to do this one year with our choir from church. It was an amazing experience. I have the chance to do it again this year but now I can't. I am so bummed. I didn't realize how much I wanted to do it again until I realized I can't. I already have made a commitment on the same day as the performance. Many many choirs audition for it and about half of them don't make it in. You have to record your choir singing their songs and then they pick who gets in without knowing which groups they are when they are picking. There is a massive processional all the way down from Small World down Mainstreet. Until we get to the performance area on the backside of the train station. Oh the memories. I'm going to have to try to do it next year. I also have a blog about it from when I went if you want to read more.

9. The more and more broke we get, the more I think I'm just going to go for the photography business. I think I might ask a couple families to do a setting just for practice first. Then just go for it.

10. I'm so excited for MOPS to start next week. We have our "Meet Your Table" day tomorrow. Let the fun begin!

10 on Tuesday

1. The 1/2 Marathon is only a week and a half away. I did a 5K last night to keep with the training. I'm only doing shorter runs until the actual thing. My right leg especially (and my left heel) is really not appreciating the long runs.

2. The last long run I did was 9 miles. It was so much better doing it with a friend. Thanks Kristin! It made the time seem to go by faster. Plus it probably helped that it was a new route and we were hoping to remember it. The first part of it was the loop I will be doing for the 1/2 marathon. I wanted to try it out so I wasn't doing it and getting lost next week. We had to stop at a friend's house for water. I had some graham cracker with me too so I had a little of that and some nice cold water and we were on our way again. I'm glad our house is the mid way point for next week so I can stop for some much needed energy and hydration. If I need to, a few friend's houses are on the way too.

                Boo!!
3. A very stressful update for you today. My hubby did not get one of the 7 positions (out of 12 people trying to keep their jobs). So he only has a job until the end of September. There are several other locations of his company that he is applying to but all of those other locations we would have to move. No fun. I do not want to move. But I guess you do what you have to do, right? He is applying for a lot of jobs not at Chevron too (and has been since he first found out about the possibility).

This was taken on the day of her photo shoot.

4. We have a beach ball that is deflated. It must have a hole in it. But it's sentimental because it was the one that the director gave to Courtney on her photo shoot for Oprah Magazine. She gave it to her because she did so well. So, I normally would just trash the thing, but it's sentimental. So, I keep blowing it back up. lol

This picture was taken when Skyler was 2. She figure out how to dribble a ball all by herself. All over the yard.

5. Skyler starts soccer this weekend. This is her first organized sport (with a team). She's done gymnastics before so I don't want to forget about that, but this is her first team. She is on a green team with no name so far. Her daddy and cousin will be her coaches. It's so fun knowing so many people on the team.

6. Be prepared for cute water pictures. We are going to Splash on Friday. We are so excited. This is our first time going. The girls have been saving up for this and the tooth fairy made it finally hit enough to go. Splash is a small, overpriced, waterpark near our house. (Assuming Skyler is feeling better by then.)

The first one was taken after her front top 2 came out. The bottom one is after one on the bottom came out. (Sorry so blurry. It was with my phone.) So, now it looks like she has 4 out. One of them is starting to peek through on the bottom. She has lost 6 teeth all together now.

7. Courtney lost 3 teeth last week!!! So insane. She lost her front top 2 last Thursday when her daddy was playing a game with her and her sister. They got scared and ran into each other and they fell out. Thankfully they were already loose. One was practically falling out (she just needed to pull) and the other wasn't as loose. The third came out when we were at a birthday party on Sunday. What's the going rate on your tooth fairy? All I want for Christmas is my 4 front teeth!

8. Tonight is Skyler's "Read-To-Me" Reading Club party. Sadly, she will not be going. She's just too sick. Poor thing. She was up all night coughing last night and she looks sick right now. I hope she sleeps tonight. For all all of our sanity. We stayed home and mommy did face painting just like they wanted to do at the party.

9. I am reading the last book in the Twilight Saga, "Breaking Dawn". Ahh...so fun. It's my favorite book of the series. Finally things start happening that you seem to be waiting for the whole time. It's been fun re-reading the whole series.

10. We have some pretty awesome table names this year for MOPS. They are some of my favorite words. What are some of your favorite words? I'm thinking I shouldn't give it away just yet. Suspense and all. :)

10 on Tuesday

A little late. Who cares? lol

1. I have been so busy these past few days getting stuff done for MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers). Especially yesterday and today. It's a good thing. A little stressful at times, but overall good. Since I am coordinating it with Danielle we have had so many things to do lately. A massive check off list of sorts. :) Thankfully, I am very organized when it comes to this stuff. That's just in my nature to do that. It's awesome seeing it all come together and getting together with all of my friends. I love those women.

2. Ok, well I already confessed my gain from last week (.4)..but look out everyone. This week is going to be awesome. I'm not going to spill the beans yet. But I have already been doing great. This writing down everything you eat is really working. What a concept! lol

3. I ran a 5K last night. I'm happy to report that my foot/heel feels fine. It definitely likes the shorter distances better. First of all I can't believe I'm calling a 5K a short distance. I said the same thing about a 10K the other day. Because compared to the longer ones I have been doing, those feel short now. I caught myself saying it too. Weird. I am so thankful it's ok today. My leg on the other hand is hurting. It started giving me a tiny bit of trouble on my 10K last Saturday but got better and I didn't think anything of it. Then almost the whole 5K last night it was hurting. Especially at the end. It's at the top of my leg like around it. I wonder if that is the hip flexors. I'll be resting tonight and tomorrow for my long run on Friday. 9 miles this week. EEEK!!

4. How does my house become a mess so fast. Oh wait! I can tell you. 2 kids who run around taking things out and not putting them back. ahh At least their rooms are still clean.

5. Not sure how healthy this is, but everyone asks for my meatball recipe. It's really not a recipe at all. Just putting a couple things together. It's totally cheating, but everyone thinks they are divine. 2 packages of frozen meatballs (Italian is the best....yes totally cheating), one bottle of Masterpiece BBQ sauce, Dr. Pepper That's it folks. You put the meatballs in the crock pot. Then pour in the bbq sauce until you cover all of them. You'll have to stir it around a little. Then pour in the Dr. Pepper until it reaches the height of the meatballs. Put on low for several hours or on high for a few.

6. I want to get one of these SpiBelts. So awesome. That way I can carry my phone with me and my key without worrying about needing a phone on my runs or my key coming off my shoe.

7. I just changed my picture for the header for my blog. I kept wanting to change it since I look so different. The last one was from Easter.

8. As of right now Skyler wants to be a black kitty cat for Halloween. (She got the idea from Dora's Halloween DVD). Courtney wants to be Jack Skellington (from Nightmare Before Christmas). Why she wants to be Jack and not Sally? I don't know. lol I'm sure they will change their minds before then. I'm really surprised how long they have said they want to be these 2 things. Quite a while.

9. Wow, it's hot here. We didn't have to have our ac on for a week and now I had to put it on. It's on 80 degrees and still the ac can't keep up with it. Actually, right now I'll go turn it off again and open the windows again. We get a good cross breeze here.

10. I've been trying to drink a lot more water lately. And since that's really all I drink, that's an even better thing. Occasionally I'll have a Sprite Zero, but I can't have too much of it or it will make me sick. Speaking of water....gulp

I Feel Like A New Woman!!

I got my hair cut! Here are the pics. I made a comparison shot between the last time I got my hair cut (Nov. 08) and today.

What a difference 2 years makes.

I always take pictures of my hair cuts right after they are done. Not always at the salon, but right away so I can remember how exactly it looked when they cut it. I can bring the pics back the next time and tell them what I didn't like and what I did.

I got this hair cut for FREE!!! We had a raffle at MOPS and 2 of the prizes were hair cut baskets (filled with product and a free hair cut gift certificate). My fabulous friend, Amy won both of them!! She's such a sweetheart and gave me one of them. I could not have been more ecstatic. I can not believe it took until August to do it though. I got it in May. lol It was awesome. My friend April works at the salon and that's how we got the donations. Her friend, Joy, is the one that did my hair. I thanked her for donating to MOPS.

I feel awesome. I feel like a hot sexy mama. :) And since I have been keeping on track these last 2 weeks I have been losing again. Now some of my clothes are bigger than the last time I wore them. :) Ahhh....I need to remember this feeling. Thank you God!

Weekend Review

We have had a fun packed summer! That is for sure. I really am trying to do something fun with the girls once a day so that they have a variety to their summer days.

Yes, that's me in a bathing suit. HAHA I'm mostly in the water. The suit does fit better though.

The girls had their last day at vbs (which was a water day) on Friday. Then we headed over to my friend, Tamara's house to swim. We had a great time hanging out with her. Then we went home to get our stuff and head to the beach. It was an insane day and I was pretty tired by the end of it. Tons of fun though. :) There were about 40 of us there.

Saturday I had a MOPS meeting in the morning. This was my first meeting to help run as Co-Coordinator. I was excited. We had about 12 people show up for it. We had a fun meal while we met and planned the next semester. We got so much accomplished. I'm so excited for the coming MOPS semester. After was a pool party. Since only 3 of us MOPS moms were left, we decided to call the families in to come over to swim. We seriously were there all day. :) Thanks Candice!!

Mothers of Preschoolers

Sunday we had church and got to hear Todd speak. I love it when he speaks. He needs to be up there more often! We went to Sunday school too. Then we headed over to my parent's house to have a BBQ and swim (yes, again). I only swam for a tiny bit. Then we BBQed and my brother and family came over too. It was fun. Then we came home and cleaned our house! Woho! How exciting, right?! lol Well, it felt good doing it. :) Get r done. Then I went for a run with Shauna. I felt so out of shape during the run and felt like I was running slowly. I haven't run much in the last week, so that's part of it. Plus, I am still getting over being sick. I couldn't believe when I got back home (at the finish) and saw my time. 35 min. 17 seconds (for a 5K). It felt like I was running much slower than that, so that's really good. I'll take it. This week in my training schedule I need to do a 7 mile run. ahh this will be fun.