Happy Monday

Time for new things and new beginnings. I love the beginning of a new year. The hustle and bustle of the holidays in behind us and we can get back to life as we know it. There is a freshness in the air somehow, almost like a second chance. I start my diet back today. I weighed myself yesterday and I am up 7 pounds from the last time I weighed myself in November. I am so mad at myself but I just need to get that 7 pounds plus 10 (or 15) off this year. If I really try hard and put my mind to it I can have that 20 pounds off by Spring. I wish I could do Insanity again but my knees got so torn up last time that I can barely do anything physical without my knees (and sometimes my hip) hurting. So, yeah, I'm getting old. I'll be 33 in February.

I've got lots to do so going to eat my oatmeal and green tea (instead of coffee)

Flashback time!

I transfered all my Myspace blogs that I wanted to keep over! I had a great time reading through them all as I was transfering them. Here are some of my favorites:Want to read about my icecream disaster? Paranoia at it's finest? Would you like to read my version of a rant about baby name choices? Want to live vicariously through a hungry pregnant lady? Want to read my reaction to a childbirth dvd? If you want some whining read here. And to read where I'm ok again read here. And of course my birth story for Henry. I hope that people will actually read some of them. They are short, I promise!

Old MySpace blogs

I want to copy and paste all of my Myspace blogs here. I blogged my whole pregnancy with Henry and I want them to be here instead of there!! It's gonna be a lot of work but I think it will be worth it. I'll let everyone know when I've finished transfering them if anyone is interested in reading my thoughts from 3+ years ago.

Couch Potato no more!

Before having kids, looking good in a bathing suit (or my birthday suit) was my motivation for losing weight. It never kept me going. I'd always burn out after a couple months or once I lost weight I'd take a break and gain it back.

Since having children I really don't like the way my body looks and I would like to feel confident again. Matt thinks I look great and always makes me feel beautiful but I want to think it too. After Henry was born I knew that I would have another baby eventually so I really didn't even think about losing weight or exercising. (what's the point if I'm just gonna blow up like a balloon again and have to do it all over again, right?) Recently Matt and I have decided that we are done having kids. We feel as if our family is complete. I always thought I would have three kids but two just feels right. I can't imagine adding another child into the mix. This decision has motivated me to get into shape so that I can stay that way for the rest of my life. I want to be healthy and strong. Sure I want to look good too but that isn't my main motivation.

Today is the fourth day in a row that I have gotten off my butt to do some exercising. I have been trying to avoid eating junk too. Not a diet but, really, with the way I was eating, it's a true miracle that I don't weigh 300 pounds. I basically would eat whatever I felt like eating.

I'm going to do something that is sort of a faux pas and tell everyone my weight. So few people do it, I'm not sure it is even legal for a full grown woman to tell anyone who is not a medical professional her weight. I am putting myself out there. If it wasn't for my readers I never would have finished cleaning my house back in August. I knew that you all were counting on me to finish it and so I pressed on, even when I didn't feel like it. Now I'm hoping that you, my readers will encourage me to reach my fitness / weight loss goals.

So here it goes:
Starting Weight: 178 pounds
Short term goal (60 days): 165 pounds
Long term goal: 150 pounds

I plan on giving little updates every couple weeks on how it's going. I'll probably do a "weigh in" in a month from now and then at the end of 60 days.

Haiti Relief Winner

Well, my giveaway to Haiti relief didn't go as well as I had hoped! I got 27 comments total. Times that by $.25 and you get $6.75! Well, I can't just donate $6.75 so I've decided to donate $20 to Samaritan's Purse and $20 to the winner's choice. I asked on Facebook for someone to give me a number between 1 and 27 and the number picked was 14. Comment number 14 was Mindi of The Ritchies! She wanted to donate to Savethechildren.org I will be making a donation in your name Mindi. Thanks to everyone that left comments. Let's just pretend I had 80 comments! LOL

I urge everyone to make a donation, no matter how small. These people are in urgent need!

Haiti Relief - repost

Please check out my blog from yesterday. I am donating $.25 for each comment to Haiti relief. I have 5 comments between my blog and where it transfers on Facebook. I have almost 350 friends on Facebook and 31 followers on this blog. I had visions of 100 comments or more! Come on people it only takes a second to leave a comment. I know $.25 doesn't seem like much but it adds up! Sorry, don't mean to be so bossy :)

Haiti Relief

So, I was thinking about the people of Haiti and how I wish that there were something I could do to help out. I was going to make a donation to Samaritan's Purse and I thought I may be able to use my blog to inspire others to give. I am taking a chance and letting you all decide how much I give. Leave a comment of what charity you would give to. For each comment between now and Friday(tomorrow) at 7:00 pm eastern time I will donate $.25 to Samaritan's Purse Haiti Relief. I will also do a drawing of all the comments and donate the same amount to the winner's charity.

List Update

I accomplished 2 more tasks on my list, number 8 "enter a photo contest". I have entered a few on iheartfaces.com I actually got an honorable mention (Angie and Amy's Pick, they are the founders of i heart faces.)

I am still doing well in the reading books department. I have read, Kiss by Ted Dekker, The Gift by Cecelia Ahern so I'm up to 3 / 5. Right now I'm reading Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind. It is part of The Sword of Truth Series. There is a show on TV called Legend of the Seeker that I started watching online, I really like it so I thought I would check out the books it is based on. So far the book is a lot different from the show but I really like the book too. I've never read fantasy books so this is a first for me. I can't believe how much I love reading now. I used to fall asleep after reading for 10 minutes. Now I can read for longer stretches of time without waking up drooling all over my reading material. It seems as though my brain had to get used to it or something.

I tried something new at a restaurant last weekend. We went to Fatz (yes, that is the name of the restaurant!) and I got grilled shrimp skewers with rice pilaf and grilled veggies, It was yum-o, and as far as I could tell, healthy.

I crossed number 72 "donate blood" off my list. It was very eventful, I threw up and everything! Yay me! luckily, I told the guy taking my blood, "I'm gonna throw up" and he threw a huge hazardous waste bag up on my chest and said "Dude, if you're gonna spew, spew in this" or something to that effect. I'm glad that it happened after he had clamped off the blood so that my blood was still usable. Hmmmm, let's see, anything else?

Oh yeah, number 71, I sent a shoe box with Operation Christmas Child.

Number 77. Get 30 minutes of exercise 3x a week (at least) and 78. Drink 6 glasses of water a day are not going well. Should I say I failed or try again? I think I shall try again!

So, my fellow listers there's my update,

thanks for noticing me
-Eeyore

Yes, I'm alive!!

Since I haven't blogged in a long time I thought I should update my readers on what's going on. It sometimes seems like I had more free time when I worked 40 hours a week!

We had a great Christmas this year despite the fact that I am not working. I have put in Resumes at several places, had 1 interview that went well but, still no job. It seems as though something must be wrong with me because I am not worried at all. I'm just thinking of this time between jobs as a gift from God to spend with my children and husband.

Henry is still not potty trained......ugh! Why?!! Why?!! oh, the horror! That is something I hope I can't say this time next year, no, scratch that, I hope I can't say it by Summer! He is such a smart kid, this is just something he is being stubborn about. He still loves sharks and has added dinosaurs to his list of obsessions.


Zoe just gets cuter and smarter every day. Her latest "thing" is trying to jump. It is so funny to see her try her hardest to lift both feet off the ground. She just smiles and says "jump, jump.." She'll get it one of these days.





I've kind of put the photography business thing on hold. I don't know the first thing about running a business. At the prices I was charging I would have to do about 10 sessions a week to make enough to pay the bills plus buy health insurance. Also, I don't feel like I have the right equipment and know how to be a photographer. I think I still need to improve a lot. I still love taking and editing pictures and I'll probably still take pics for family and friends. Maybe I'll eventually start a business. I'll have one heck of a portfolio by the time I do!

My list progress is another thing entirely. I'll probably do a list update here soon!

Happy New Year!

I made a video montage of our year in review. It is less than 4 minutes long. Please watch if you have the time! Happy New Year!

Decorating a Tree With a Three Year Old

The kids and I decorated our Christmas Tree yesterday. It was a much more pleasant experience than last year. Henry has been talking nonstop about our Christmas tree since Thanksgiving. I didn't have the heart to tell him we wouldn't be getting one this year. I just couldn't justify the cost when we are struggling to get by right now. I have the best family in the world! My mom gave me money to go buy a tree, but I get to give that back to her because my Mother-in-law isn't setting up her big tree this year and let us use it. Henry was so happy.

He just kept saying, "I love you sooo much mommy" and

"Merry Christmas Mommy"
Zoe tried to eat the decorations

she really tried to eat them. (don't worry, I took this bag of Christmas confetti away after I took this picture!)

The Sun was coming through the window so beautifully

I really love this one!

and this one

and this one too!

and the tree. (Henry did most of it, I did the higher branches) I think I might add some more to it.

Thanks for looking!!

Sailing

Yard-saling that is, My friend Tabitha was going to yardsales Saturday and asked me to go along. I had this as one of the goals on my list so I jumped at the chance. She picked me up at 7:00 and we drove to about six or seven sales. I got a few good buys, an old suitcase, to use as a photo prop, a big stuffed shark for Henry for Christmas, a baby doll and doll stroller for Zoe, some kid bowls, and Glass light shades for the ceiling fan in Henry's room. I got to cross one more thing off my list too.

The Lord Works in Mysterious ways

I had a very surreal experience today. I'm not even sure when it's gonna hit me. I was laid off today by my employer of 6 years. It was very sad, but I'm not worried. I know that God will take care of us. He will get us through this. With the Holidays coming I'm hoping that Matt will be able to get more hours at the Gap and I'll of course get unemployment benefits. The positive side to this is I'll be able to spend some more time with the kids and Matt. I know that God has something in store for me. I am excited to see just what it is. I am thankful that God has kept my job safe for this long. People have been getting laid off for over a year at my company and I avoided the chopping block up til now. I am hoping that I may be able to do something with my photography to earn some extra money.

Warning: this may be boring for you....

I just wanted to write out some thoughts on life and my kiddos, I cannot promise that this post will not be totally self centered and maybe even uninteresting for you.

Henry is getting so big. He went to the Dr. Tuesday for his 3 year well check appt. he is 40" tall and 36 pounds, to all of you who don't have a chart nearby that's pretty big for a child his age. A height predictor online predicted that he will be 6'2" when he is 18. He's going to tower over my 5'3" frame! He surprised me the other day when we walked in the library, they had a little window decoration that said "Happy Fall" on it. Henry pointed at the window and said "that says Happy!" I was shocked. I said "yes, Henry it does say happy, I didn't know you knew that" he surprises me so much every day. We have started a sticker chart to encourage him to be good. He is struggling with trying to gain independence and get attention from me and be good. He sometimes pushes Zoe or takes a toy from her and then runs to tell me that "I pushed Zoe" he tattle tales on himself. He always gets in trouble for it....how much attention can I give him!! I'm only one woman! He can be so sweet too. The other night I let him stay up late and watch "So You Think You Can Dance" with me. He just snuggled on my lap the whole time. On one dance he looked at me and said "maybe I can dance like that girl" I said, Henry you want to dance like the boy not the girl....My favorite thing about Henry is when he looks at me and says "Mommy, I wuv you so much!"

Zoe is so sweet, she is learning to talk. I need to write down her words sometime like I did for Henry. She has no where near the vocabulary that Henry did at her age but she is right on track and smart as a whip! She is so good at figuring out how toys work. She's going to do something mechanical when she grows up. Zoe loves to dance with Henry. We put on the Wiggles and she lights up and starts shakin her booty. She loves the dogs so much. She pets Abner and says "abby, woof woof" We are constantly having to stop her from kissing him because he would lick her face off if we didn't. It's so sweet because I remember the first day we brought Zoe home from the hospital she was sleeping in her carseat and we set her down. Abner stayed as close to her as he could and if Henry came too close he would growl at him. They have been best buds ever since. Buster is our Beagle and he doesn't really know what to think of the kids. We tell Zoe, "leave buster alone, he's a grumpy beagle" He has snapped at Henry and accidentally bit him before so we don't want to take any chances with Zoe. Zoe also has a great imagination. I caught her making a bottle for her baby doll the other day. She held the bottle under the sink in her play kitchen and made a Shhhhh sound like she was running water. She is always bringing me something (pretend) to eat in between her thumb and index finger. She is a clown, always trying to make people laugh. I love her tremendously!

Pumpkin Carving

Last night the kids and I carved pumpkins. I cut off the tops and Henry helped scoop out the guts. Zoe was not interested in carving the pumpkins, she just enjoyed being outside and being a cute model for Daddy. Matt took some pictures of our pumpkin carving (below). Henry proclaimed that Zoe wanted to have a scary pumpkin and he wanted a happy pumpkin. I don't know how he knew that Zoe wanted a scary pumpkin, but to keep the peace I complied the best I could. I am not, you see, a pumpkin carving artist but King Henry declared that they were passable. Now I just need to get some candles, Last year I bought these "fake" candles but I made the mistake of leaving them on the end table in the living room. I should have known by then that anything left at eye level of a 2 year old was free game. Henry somehow managed to break them both and unfortunately birthday candles do not stay lit for very long and that's all I have in the house!

Halloween Week-and memories of Halloween

Saturday is Halloween and I'm really looking forward to bringing the kids trick or treating. Last year I brought Henry but Zoe was too small (she was 5 months old). This year I think she is big enough to enjoy it. They are both dressing up like pirates. I am debating whether I should paint a mustache on Zoe or let her be a girl pirate. I think mustache would be funnier and could be used as blackmail later. Tonight I plan on carving jack-o-lanterns with the kids so stay tuned for pictures tomorrow.

I loved Halloween as a child. Every year I told my mom what I wanted to be and she would create wonderful costumes! I was so lucky to have a mom that could sew and was willing to take the time to! She could have just bought a cheap plastic mask. Two of my favorites were a poodle skirt, and another year a long red southern belle dress. Those two costumes got used several times by my little sisters.

My elementary school was in a small town in the Catskills called Phoenicia. When I say small town I mean don't blink or you may miss it!

Every year on Halloween all the kids in the school dressed up in their costumes after lunch and we had a big parade through the town. The old people would sit out on their porches and watch the parade go by. There would be fire trucks leading the way and the percussionists in the band would play a drum beat the whole way for us. It was truly one of the highlights every year. That night we would go trick or treating through the town. Some kids would just cause mischief; shaving cream, throwing eggs etc.. I never participated in that although it did look fun. You would drive down main street and see dozens of kids covered in shaving cream from head to toe. (and your car would be covered in it too, they showed no mercy!) One year my dad filled a fire extinguisher with water and we squirted the kids as we drove down the street. It was hilarious!

Henry is Three! Happy Birthday Henry

Henry Patrick Hawkins was born 3 years ago today. I love him more than I ever knew I could love something or someone. I thank God for him every day. Here is a video montage I made for him. He loves watching it over and over again. I hope you will enjoy it too!

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

A perfect party

Henry's birthday party is Saturday and I am still without a present for him and I have yet to figure out what I am going to serve our guests for dinner. At Henry's 1st birthday Matt smoked a pork butt (sounds weird, right?!) last year at his 2nd birthday I served pick up type things instead of a meal. I am thinking of doing Hamburgers and hotdogs on the grill but haven't decided yet.



Last year we got Henry a fishtank which needs some serious attention, it looks more like a breeding ground for algae than a fishtank.

Busy Week

Now that August is behind us and I have a plan for keeping my house clean, I have a birthday party to plan / get ready for. At least my house is clean, last year at this time I was scrambling to do in 5 days what I just did in 30. I am scrambling this year trying to finish Henry's video / picture montage that I traditonally do every year. I had my heart set on using the Dixie Chicks' song Godspeed (Sweet dreams) but I just could not get it to work. I think it was not meant to be. That song makes me break down in tears every time I hear it and I'm not talking getting misty eyed, I'm talking full on sobbing so it probably would be embarrassing for that to happen while everyone is gathered around the tv on Saturday.

So anyway I found a substitute song, which I won't reveal at this time. I think it will be cute. I can't wait to share it with you all on Saturday.

Of course I'm a perfectionist and need the timing of the photos to go perfectly with the music so I foresee late nights this week. I should be a zombie by Friday for sure.

Someone else's sandwich

There is an older man I work with, we'll call him G(I'm not sure how old he is because he won't tell me...) G is always bringing me food. About once a week I'll come into work and there will be a Hardee's bag sitting on my desk with a Bacon, Egg, and cheese biscuit inside. I love those mornings. A few weeks ago he brought me a bag of cucumbers from his garden I didn't think I would eat them all...but I did.

Today he got a foot long sandwich from Subway and offered me the other half. Since I had just eaten lunch I declined but since he insisted, I put it in the refrigerator to eat for a snack later (I know, I like to eat, so sue me). I ate it and it was delicious, different than anything I would have ordered from Subway.

I usually have the tried and true, Mayo, Yellow mustard, lettuce, tomato on a turkey sandwich. Once in a while I might go crazy and put some green peppers on there.

The Sandwich that G shared with me today had chicken, bacon, cucumbers, lettuce, onions, pickles, olives, tomato and probably something else that I didn't even know was on there. It was delicious, but nothing I would have ordered for myself in a hundred years.

Sometimes you get stuck in a rut, not just with food but with where you go, what you do with your time, the type of movies you watch, the type of friends you make. So, I urge you to live dangerously, do something different. Why don't you start with having someone else make you a sandwich how they like it and split it with you!