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.

Serve Weekend 2011

Our church started doing serve weekend several years ago and each year has been so special and a fun experience. There are no church services and everyone goes out in the community to do service projects. Various members of the community, code violation homes, homeless shelters, salvation army, food banks, school projects, etc. Over 100 from our church. Now a bunch of other churches are doing their own serve weekend in our community. It was so awesome this year that we all were doing it on the same weekend. Volunteers everywhere. :) Love it!

This was our first project of the weekend. Mulberry Elementary Fun Fair for the whole school district. We were the WACC booth. Telling all of the kids and parents about our awesome kids programs and handing out fliers for them.

This was on Sunday. These were the projects that I was assigned to be the photographer. That was my second project. It was fun taking pictures of everything they were cleaning at the Whittier Community Center. This is the whole group up on stage.

Concert for a Cello...This was a fun concert to go to. It was to raise funds for this kid who is going to high school and would love to have his own Cello. He played for us as well. We all bought dinners to help support. There was a raffle and bake sale for it too. It was a fun night out.

This was a project done by another church near the Whittier Community Center. It was at Joe Miller Field. They were painting all of the bleachers for the softball field.

This is at Scott's Sunday project at Come To Him Ministries. They were installing vanities, medicine cabinets, hardware, electrical, etc. at the resident's homes.

What a fun weekend we had serving our community. And I think it's important to say that while it's fun to post about it and show all of the cool things we did, that's totally not the point. We really are just being the hands and feet of God. Showing love to the people in our community in a tangible way. Not for us to get the credit. I hope God alone can get the credit.

Blogging

I keep thinking about all of the different blog posts I want to do and never get around to doing it. So I'm going to write a little while I'm thinking about it. Nothing special, no topic, just writing. I keep saying to myself that I will blog after that next project is over. Then I will have more time. Then the next project comes that takes over my world and I don't have much time anymore (again).

Life has been fun. We have been consumed by softball. In a good way. Scott is the manager of the girls' team and I am one of the coaches. The Ladybugs are so adorable. It's T-Ball still, but half way into the season they started doing coach pitching to try to hit it that way. They have been doing great. I can't believe the season is almost over. I am not, however looking forward to play offs. Didn't they learn anything from last year? Last year we had play offs for the first time in T-ball. What are they thinking? First of all, there better be an umpire this year. Last year it was a disaster with coaches making their own rules because the coaches were supposed to be the umpires. That totally doesn't work. So, there is one more season game (on April 30th) and then play offs, closing ceremonies, one more fundraiser for our team party, and our team party left to go. Seems like a lot, but it will probably all be within the next 2 weeks or so.

Photography is going great. I photographed 2 weddings now. The second was on a cruise to Mexico. That makes me officially an international destination photographer. hehe :) However, when you are a photographer not only for a wedding, but for a whole cruise, you come home with a TON of photos. I'm still editing them all. :) I am excited to be learning my new photo editing program as well as some actions that I just started using. It's so fun to play around with the pictures. Now once I'm done with these I can work on some of mine. ;)

I have been sick for a long time. I was sick for at least about 2 weeks (on and off) before the cruise. Then I was well for the cruise. Then the day after we got back (3/29) I started this sickness. So, that's over 3 weeks ago now. Thankfully the sinus infection/cold part is pretty much gone now. But I'm still dealing with the Vertigo. I finally went to the doctor last Friday because I looked at my medication label to find that if I had these symptoms I should stop taking it and call a doctor. Oh great...just what I needed. Turns out I was having at least part of my problem was a reaction to the medication (Mucinex D). So I got on new decongestants and stopped taking that med. The Vertigo, however, is still around. It's WAY better than it was for sure. Yesterday was so much better than any day since having it. I even took a walk and it wasn't that bad. (My leg and back were killing me, but I wasn't that dizzy.) Then last night had to sit a few times after feeling the motion again. So, it's getting much better, but I'm still dealing with it.

Due to dealing with the Vertigo, I haven't been able to exercise. The last really good workout I had was the day I got sick this time 3/29. Since then I have only been able to take 2 walks. I'm taking it slow and am planning to slowly increase my workouts to get back to where I was. Weight wise and strength/endurance wise.

I decided to stop doing the weigh loss challenges at my house. It became too much and I'm over it. Tired of the constant calls to have a different weigh in time and sitting here all day weighing in people. And coming home to weigh someone in and having them be late or not show up. I love getting to know everyone and encouraging everyone. But that I can still help do through facebook. The new Biggest Loser Challenge will be hosted by Marlo. She's the woman who won this last challenge. It starts the first Tuesday in May. I believe that's the 3rd. I can get you the info if you are interested. She's adding a men group on if she gets enough men to sign up. (Two separate challenges.)

I'm so thankful that my husband is who he is. He has been such a huge supporter and has helped an encouraged me along the way no matter what I am personally going through. He is still looking for a job. He had a second interview with the Gas Co. but they still haven't called him back. They did say they hadn't made a decision yet. So, I guess that's good. I'm hoping they are deciding to make a second position and this is why they are taking so long to get back to him.

Ok, time to move on to more editing and house cleaning after.

Happy Birthday!

Thursday was my birthday. At one point it hit me that I was a year older. Boo! My birthday was quite a mix of emotions. We had a MOPS Meet Your Table Day. That's where we all get together at the playground and meet the new people who will be at our tables. Scott came suddenly with a plate full of breakfast burritos with candles on top. YUM!! Then Jasmine (chef extraordinaire) brought out a brownie cake platter. What a wonderful surprise. I really was overwhelmed with joy. The fact that they would all conspire to something so incredibly thoughtful for me was amazing. I have the best friends and hubby ever. I even got a couple presents and several cards.

Then my day took a weird turn. I had to go to a funeral. Well, we opted to wait to go until after we got Courtney from school so we could all go. It was in Riverside so it was quite the drive. We missed the graveside part. I was thankful of that since I didn't really want to do that part or have the girls there for that part. So, we were with the family gathering afterward. I'm thankful that it wasn't a big downer. It was actually just a nice gathering with our family on my mom's side for my great aunt's memorial.

Then we headed home but had planned to go out for my birthday for dinner. We knew we had a long drive ahead so we just stopped by McDonalds to let the kids get out some energy before the drive. We played all kinds of fun car games on the way home.

Then I stayed up until just after midnight finishing MOPS folders for the mentor mom brunch the next day. We just came up with the idea on my birthday (to do the folders) and I decided to just go for it and do it. It took a lot of time, but it was worth it. They all really appreciated having the folders with all of that information.

Yesterday (Friday) my parents took me out to dinner (with our family and my aunt) for my birthday. Tonight we are going over to my in laws for a birthday dinner at their house. And tomorrow we are having some family over for superbowl/birthday gathering. :) Quite the fun birthday days, indeed.

Meanwhile, on the weight loss front. I have been doing well. The first week of the challenge I lost 7 pounds. Then .4 the next week. lol I had lost 3 pounds before my birthday and have since gained it back. I'm hoping to get some more of that back off before weigh in on Monday. :)

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.

Scott has a job interview this week with "Varin". It's Wednesday at 10:30am. Oh it would be wonderful if he could get this job. Then we could have some larger sense of peace during this Christmas season.

We have been having a great time celebrating advent. That's like the anticipation or preparation for Christmas. We choose to do an advent calendar and have different things to do together as a family every day. It could be small like writing letters to each other or large like going to Disneyland for the day. We still have current passes so that would be free fun. It's an exciting tradition and my kids get very excited every day to see what we are doing. One of my favorite days so far was making cards, crafts, and presents for Suzen (our World Vision child). They created some awesome crafts and made her bracelets. Then we will send it all to her. Then we cleared out a toy box and set aside some toys to give to the Goodwill, some nicer ones to send to Suzen, and some to throw away. The kids didn't see me do that part. lol

We have been very blessed this Christmas. So many friends, family, and our church surrounding us with love and support. So much so that I am overwhelmed with love. It fills me with joy.

10 on Tuesday

1. Skyler had her first solo audition today. I guess Courtney's agent likes her too. They called me today wondering if she was available for an audition. They were looking for a blonde curly haired little girl. She had to dress in 1950's attire and this is what we came up with. We were trying to think away from the poodle skirt idea. She looked so adorable!! I found those glasses (lenses popped out) and scarf at Savers (thrift store). Everything else we already had. Cutie pie! This audition was for a Charter Satellite national network commercial.

2. Skyler did a great job. She had to recite a line that we memorized while we waited. She answered questions and seemed very proud of herself. I know I was. There were several little blonde curly haired girls there. (IMO Sky's hair was the curliest and cutest. hehe) I'm not biased at all. lol

3. FYI: I don't know how other people feel when I talk about stuff like this and if they are assuming she will get it. I just assume that it's just for fun and good experience. If I thought every time they would get the part, I would be very disappointed. This one at least has a very quick turn around for filming. So we would know fairly quickly if she did or didn't get it.

Kaiser??

4. Scott got his last check today from his job. It's a little scary. He has a good prospect that we are hoping and praying will come through. The last guy who interviewed Scott at Kaiser (and told him they were going with someone internal) called him telling him about a new job opportunity. That's a good sign that the guy was thinking about him. It would be a contractor position (not technically working for Kaiser) and no medical benefits. But it could lead to him getting hired officially for Kaiser down the road. The person he knows who works there got hired the same way and was hired on in 3 months. Scott actually started Chevron that way also, and was an employee in one year. It would be awesome. Especially if he can get hired and start getting paid before we run out of money. Ya, that would be great.

5. Major project going on this week for the soccer team. I need to acquire 4 more paint cans for the project.

6. The Biggest Loser Challenge is coming down to the last 4 weeks. I am doing horribly in comparison to the others. It almost feels like a waste. I need to seriously step it up with the exercise again this week. That worked really well last week when I lost 3.2. (Besides the fact that I gained 1 this week. Too much Halloween candy.)

7. I'm loving that Conan is back on the air. He's cool. When he had that live feed from the stairwell of the offices we were glued to it. They kept coming back doing hilarious things. (We of course had to keep coming back to see what else was going on.) Bring on Coco!!

8. I had my first destination photo shoot this last weekend. My high school friend, Jessica and her family treated us to a wonderful hotel room in Santa Maria. We had so much fun doing the shoots and hanging out with the family. We even did a photo shoot in the rain. (Don't worry. Scott was holding an umbrella over my camera.) I was the driest of them all. :) We ended up going to the beach on the way home and took some photos of the girls. They were so cute. Not matching at all, but still adorable. (They picked their outfits for the day.) hehe Who knew we would end up doing our own photo shoot. Hundreds of pictures were taken over the weekend!

9. I need to get new ZED cards printed for both girls. I have the photos, but need a printer. It's a huge postcard type and very thick. Anyone know a good printer for ZED cards?

10. I did the 30 Day Shred Level 2 yesterday and, of course, Jillian kicked my butt. Almost literally. My butt is killing me from all of those lunges. lol I thought I had been sitting down editing too long then remembered my butt kicking workout.

While I'm at it

So, while I'm at it, I thought I would ask everyone to go over to my photography blog and follow it. (click the link) Help a friend out! :) Love ya guys!

Long time no post

Hey everyone! It has been quite a while since I posted on my blog. Things are going well.

I am keeping up with the weight loss. The challenge is going well. We are in week 7 now. I am stepping it up by exercising a whole lot more. It's working. It is a miracle that I'm weighing the same right now as Monday though because of the influx of masses of candy over here. I am thankful that my favs are gone. No longer does the candy bowl call my name. (Ok, ok....not as much.)

The photography is going great. I'm continuing to constantly learn new things. Trying new things out and wishing I had better equipment to help in that endeavor. It will happen. :) I'm so excited that I'm doing my first destination photo shoot this weekend!!!!! That's right! One of my friends is paying for us to stay in Santa Maria for the night in a hotel so that I can do her photo shoot. I am so excited. I am loving this process of learning. Wishing I could learn more faster. :) I love finding new locations and seeing the beauty in all of the things around us and how wonderful pictures would look all over the place. It's definitely a learning experience. I'm already cringing at some of the early editing things I tried because I have already improved getting a similar look (but better) on a pic. But some of the first ones have yielded some of my favs as well, so I can't complain. I ordered business cards and cards for free photo sessions to give out for raffles and stuff like that. I'm excited to donate a photo session to our MOPS raffle and our Christmas Presence raffle as well. I am loving this business and so excited that I got out of my comfort zone of imagining the dream and just starting living the dream.

Something exciting happened on Monday. My family was called for an audition for a national commercial for Ford Explorer. They were picked after submitting photos to come to the audition. Courtney, Skyler, my mom, and my in laws were all part of the audition. They wanted real grandparents with their real grandchildren for the commercial. The grandparents were excited and nervous at the thought of it, but went anyway. :)

Here are a few of the kids from Halloween.

Sleeping Beauty

 Ariel

Lots of Updates

Wow, it feels like forever since I have been on this blog. Everything is going great with my photography business and I have been very busy. Traci Steinman Photography is officially up and running and I am so excited to have my first paying photo shoot this weekend!!! The link is to my new business website (blog). I'm still trying to figure out the tabbing section at the top though, so it's not quite all done, but getting there. (If anyone knows how to make the "pages" gadget work like tabs, let me know.) Feel free to come over and "follow me". I also started a facebook page for my business, so you can come like it over there too. The link to the facebook page is in the link above on the blog.

I just did new headshots for Courtney yesterday too so those will go up pretty soon. I also took pictures of both of the girls as well. I had talked to her agent yesterday originally about her Coogan Account, but ended up talking to her about her not being called for auditions. Long story short, she needs new pictures. I just saved us hundreds of dollars (literally) doing them myself.

Speaking of her Coogan Account...oh B of A. How I loath you. She has had her account with them since we started her in her acting school she was in a while ago. I had originally set up the account in the bank branch. It was set up wrong so I went back and asked to have the manager do it. So, they assured me everything was now set up correctly. Then we get statements showing them deducting fees from her account. HELLO! This is a BLOCKED TRUST Account. No one should be able to take any money from it until she is 18. And why the heck would I have her agents deposit the money in the account when it will all just go to the bank. I seriously never would have started this whole process if she wasn't going to eventually get all of her money. So, I have talked to a few agents now on the phone who every time assure me that everything is taken care of and that there will be no more fees until yesterday. This is the first lady to tell me that there is a $300 daily minimum balance for these accounts and I would keep getting fees until there was $300 in there. Thankfully at least they reversed most of the fees but now we still have the same problem down the road. So, we are shopping around for a new bank or credit union that does not have fees. It's looking like the AFTRA-SAG one might be the way to go since they are the experts on this. Oh how I would love for all of this to be taken care of once and for all.

The Biggest Loser Challenge just had our 4th week weigh in and I'm doing ok. Still losing, so that's great. I'm still in 10th (but no ties this time). I have some major work to do. I have been running and going to the gym and doing DVDs lately so I am getting more into the swing of it. But now that I am so busy it's getting harder to fit in the workouts. I will prevail!!

Scott is still looking for a job. He had a phone interview last week so we are waiting to hear back this week about that. We are hoping it can be based out of Pasadena instead of Oakland. Two people told him that they thought it would be able to, but we don't want to get our hopes up too high that he even will get the job. It's for Kaiser so that would mean switching insurances and everything too. But it would all be worth it for the security of a new job. Keep praying.

Photography

Well, I finally did it. Anyone who has been reading for a while knows my many rants about starting a photography business. Well, I finally started seriously getting into it. I posted a status on my facebook about starting (that's what makes it official, right?) and posted to give away 2 freebies to whomever posted first. Danielle and Nancy won! They both are choosing to do their photo shoots this weekend!!!!!!! Ahhh. So, I have been diving into my camera manual, photoshop manual, photography websites, getting advice, business licensing, permits. It's really a lot to cram into your brain in a short amount of time, but it's working. At least a lot of the actual photography part is fun to look through. It's the countless pages of FAQs on business that are cramming my brain.

 Here's one of my favorite pictures I have taken. It was mid stroke. The water detail is so awesome when it's huge. I had it printed in a digital album as a full page.

I will be starting a new blog just for my photography business. I will link that here, of course, when that's ready. And as time goes on, I'll probably change the website to something more sophisticated with better galleries and enhancements.

I will also be starting a facebook group page for the business so that I can post galleries and get interest going.

I'm trying to learn all I can about my Photoshop Elements 5.0 program. I have already learned a lot by reading the manual. What a concept, huh?! I also have learned several things from the camera manual too so I can't wait to try out a few things. Have any of you shot in RAW before? I know one of my friends has, but so curious how it all works. (Update: I tried it out but it seems my program doesn't support raw. Bummer!)

One thing I have noticed just in these last couple days since making it sorta official. Not everyone is happy for you. Some people, even photographer friends, are so secretive about how it all works. It's like, um, I'm not trying to steal anyone from you. I'm just trying to figure it all out.

I need to give a huge shout out to my friend Lori of Lori Anderson Photographers who has been such a wonderful resource of information and wisdom on all things photography. I love her openness and willingness to spend time responding to me. She is an amazing photographer so check out her website.

The business license application is all filled out. So, now I need to find out how much it is and figure out how to pull all of that together. Next step is to get the sellers permit.

In the meantime, I am still a PartyLite Consultant. However, that has seriously taken a back burner lately. I am revving up to have 2 parties in October. One my mother-in-law is doing for me. The other will be a big open house inventory blow out sale at my house. And yes, this is in the midst of Scott finding a job, starting a new business, coordinating MOPS, running a weight loss challenge at my home, and being a stay-at-home mom. I guess it's time to pull out my Supermom cape. :)

Biggest Loser Challenge Week 2

I'm so excited to report that I am FINALLY at 65 pounds lost!!! I had been meandering at 60-64 pounds for months!! I finally broke through that barrier. I lost 3 pounds this week!! I'm so excited!! There were several temptations this week that I did not indulge in. It felt great to overcome them each time. It feels great to have 2 big losses 2 weeks in a row.

I was so excited to get my new badge (see above) from scalejunkie. I added my new weight in the Weight Loss Progress area in my blog too and decided to add my current loss to that section. So, it won't just be for milestones, but for the current loss I am at.

Since I was achy from being sick most of the week I only exercised twice. I worked out on Friday since that was the first day I felt a tiny bit better. Bad idea. I still did it. I did the 30 Day Shred Level 1 and I have never been so exhausted doing that one before. Even the first time I did that level I didn't think it was bad. This time I was exhausted by the end of the warm up. But I persevered and finished it. Then 2 days later I did the Biggest Loser DVD I have. It was the "Low Intensity Cardio". It's a great workout and harder than the bootcamp on there. (Well, parts of it anyway.)

I am in a 2 way tie for 8th place this week. I was in a 3 way tie for 9th last week. I like moving up!!

I feel so much better. Today marks 4 weeks with this cough. I am just left with the cough, congestion, and my voice sounds funny still.However, the cough and congestion are way better than they have been. Hopefully this means things are looking up.

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.

Biggest Loser Challenge Week 1

The challenge first week with weigh in results started and I lost 5.2 pounds!!!!!!!!

I really am proud of that. However, other people started pulling in 9.2 and 11 pound weigh losses. arg!! Thankfully it's only the first week and anything can happen. As of right now I'm in a 3 way tie for 9th place. Everyone's really close, besides the top 3. Come on people, have a donut. lol I really do want them to do well, but I really want to win this time.

It has been hard to get workouts in because I'm sick. I can't stand excuses so I tried to do a couple workouts anyway. I walked to school a few times last week which was fine. Then I went for a run with my hubby for only 1.55 miles and it was hard. I was so tired. Then I tried to run at the gym one night. I ended up still doing a 5K, but it was rough. I ended up having to walk for the last half mile. That's when the aches started settling in. I was feeling so tired and exhausted and my cough had been there for almost 3 weeks. Monday it hit 3 weeks with this darn cough. I finally went to the doctor. I ended up having a fever when I was there. I have an infection, cough, sore throat occasionally (with a real hard cough), drainage...etc. Eww! Hopefully with all of the drugs he gave me I will get better.

I will try to workout a little this week when the aches are gone. Hopefully that will happen soon. In the meantime, I will keep track of what I eat and attempt to only drink water. (Minus the Sprite Zero that I just had.)

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!