Finally Finished

The first step to getting the house ready for Christmas was getting a bunk bed. This was necessary because Angie's Christmas present this year (actually it's kinda for both of the kids) is a toy kitchen set. It's rather large- and we needed to make room for it. By putting the kids in bunk-beds we could open up an entire wall in their bedroom. We found this thing on craigslist. They were asking 250 OBO. We got them down to 180. It's used. It has scratches and dents. But it was cheap. We were worried we were going to have to spend around 400 dollars to get bunkbeds in the house. So this was MUCH better. We were worried how Angie would handle the new bed. I was expecting several long nights involving her getting out of bed. The first night she got out of bed twice. Then....nothing. It's been about a week now, and she has only gotten out of bed in the middle of the night one other time. Most of the time going down to bed hasn't been near as bad as we'd worried either. Once in a while (when she's kinda wired) we have to put her back in bed a couple of times. But for the most part.....she just lies there till she falls asleep.

Last night was the first night of her falling off the bed. I heard her crying pretty hard around 1:00. I went in there, and she had climbed up the ladder and was crying in Caleb's face. HOW DID SHE GET UP THERE? Caleb then sat up and informed me she'd fallen out of the bed, and then climbed the ladder. Good thing he's there to explain things....I would have thought she'd been sleep-walking! Overall- the transition has been VERY smooth. I can't complain too much. Caleb LOVES the top bunk. And he's VERY excited to show everyone who comes over to visit or play.

With the bunkbed in place, the crib came OUT and was moved to the other bedroom. To make room for the crib- the piano had to be taken out of the bedroom and put back into the living room. I must confess- I MUCH prefer having the piano in the living room anyway. First of all it gets played more. And lets face it- a living room ALWAYS looks better with a piano. BUT with the piano back in the living room, something ELSE had to go. The cedar chest is back in my room (which is ok) and the bookshelf had to be moved to make room for the tree in the corner. The bookshelf is in the computer room. And it looks nice there. But OOOH I HATE moving the bookshelf! It's such a royal pain!

Somehow through all this, we managed to NOT move the TV. THANK YOU. So here's what the living room looks like with its new decor:I actually REALLY like it. The tree was ALSO an ordeal this year. Over thanksgiving, my mom decided to get herself a new pre-lit tree. Not that I blame her. Her old tree is 30 years old. It's BEAUTIFUL once it's set-up.....but it's a ROYAL pain getting it there. So. Since mom has a NEW tree....I wanted the old one. We've always gone to the mountains and cut one down.....but I grew up with this tree. And it's just so pretty. I've always loved it. So I told mom I wanted it. Things got sticky though. Over Thanksgiving we drove the CAR to Boise. We didn't even have room for the Christmas presents we'd bought on Black Friday....let alone this christmas tree. Well luckily the following Friday- Parker was going back to Boise for work. So he said he'd pick everything up and bring it home. That Friday was kinda rough on me. I just had a long day. And I was looking forward to doing what I WANTED TO DO (which was put up the tree) that evening....instead of feeding and bathing and cooking and hushing the whining. But. Parker took the CAR AGAIN to boise. (His first thought was, it gets better gas mileage...so I'll take that). So with all the christmas presents, there was no room for the tree. He called me when he was half-way home and said he wasn't bringing the tree. For some reason this ruined my day. And I was actually quite emotional for the rest of the evening. It's just when you plan on something all day, and then at the end of the day you find out your plans are no longer possible. It's just frustrating. And I was less than thrilled.

But a few hours later we got lucky. Derek and Amanda were making a trip to Twin Falls the next day (Saturday) to go to the Temple. They said they'd bring the tree. PHEW! This made things better for me. So Saturday I set up the tree. Now let me show you the diagram on the tree box. It's laughable. I've always found it humorous. HA! It shows a girl drag out the box. Pull out the tree and shake it. Then stand it up and look at it- all pretty and finished. YEAH RIGHT! The tree is in 3 pieces. The branches fold up- but after being in a box for a year, the wired "pine needles" are all SMASHED and need a delicate hand to fan them out properly. Since it's mostly wire, you can imagine what's happened after 30 years of bending. Smashing and un-smashing. I'd say we lose about 5 to 8 wire branches every time the tree goes up. But it's not too bad. Once the tree is up, and shaped the way you like it- you have to put on the lights. To run the lights up and down EACH ARM takes over an hour. Then the ribbon takes me probably 15 minutes. The the decorations (the funnest part, but yes also the FASTEST) takes about 5 minutes. From start-to-finish, this tree takes 2 1/2 to 3 hours to put up. But it SURE is lovely!
When the Christmas stuff came out, Angie's first thing to do was put the stockings on her feet. Caleb saw what she was doing and quickly decided he should do the same (funny- usually it's her copying him....but apparently it goes both ways).It was pretty cute. Of course I can NEVER get thses kids to hold still long enough for a legitimate picture. Here's the best I could get. Anyway. It's finally Christmastime at our house. This weekend I'll be making peppermint bark and I've allready done my 2nd pair of pumpkin pies. :) Watch out if you come visit. I listen to Christmas music non-stop. And believe it or not- my collection is quite good. I REALLY like it.

SO MUCH WORK!

Every year it seems like getting the Christmas tree into this house is SO MUCH WORK! Last year in order to bring in the Christmas tree, the piano had to be moved out of the living room and into Angie's room. But there wouldn't be enough room in Angie's room so we put Angie and Caleb together in his room. Well THIS year we want to get the kids on bunk beds. We found the bunk beds on craigslist and got them for 180 dollars (they were asking 250), so we were pretty happy with the deal (even though they're used, and have a few dents and scratches....no biggie). But now this means we need another twin size mattress. So until we get one, Angie is STILL in her crib....which means we can't move it to the other room again, which means we can't move the piano BACK into the living room and the bookshelf will need to go into the other bedroom again. BAH! Parker will be bringing the Christmas tree home tonight.

I really do have a LOT more to blog about. But writing that last paragraph just about took all I've got right now......my house is a DISASTER because we were gone last week for Thanksgiving. I will do more catching up (complete with pictures) once the tree goes up.

This week....

I'm realizing that my blog has been mostly about my diet lately. And although it's kinda a big deal for me right now....since I think about it CONSTANTLY.....I thought you might like to know of some of the OTHER things that have been going on this week: Pictured above is my orchid. It was a gift from my boss for national hygienist's week. It was huge, and beautiful and white. The blossoms lasted about 4 months.....then they fell off and one of the long stems shriveled up. But the other one stayed green. I wondered if it was dead (knowing NOTHING about orchids)....but I kept watering it. Then a few days ago I noticed these green stems coming out of the long tall green stem. YAY! It's growing! I can't tell you how excited I was......it really is a low-maintenance plant. I love it.

And yesterday I decided to make something from PINTEREST. Mostly I spend my time on pinterest just sitting and staring....and laughing. But I won't lie.....I RARELY do much with all the ideas that I see on there. But yesterday I decided to make a Christmas wreath. Every year I see those BEAUTIFUL ones at Costco and I want one SOOO bad. They're only like 40 bucks or something. Yeah. I could never justify it. Last year I got a FRESH wreath for 15 dollars and decided it was a good buy because I wonldn't have to find a place to store it when the season is over. Well. This year it's a ornament bulb wreath. Ten bucks. Five for the gold bulbs. Five for the red. And a wire hanger....which I allready had. And a glue gun.....which I DIDN'T have, but 3 bucks later and now I have the capability to make MORE things from Pinterest right? Yeah....I'll just keep thinking that.

Today I added a big red bow on top as well. It looks awesome. I can't wait for Thanksgiving to be over so I can hang it on my door.

This week I also carved 2 pumpkins, cooked them, skinned them, mashed them and froze them for future use of pumpkin pie, pumpkin cookies, and pumpkin bread. I actually DID take a picture of this too. If you look at the orchid picture, and you look BEYOND the plant, onto the kitchen counter behind it.....you'll see a big orange bowl full of orange pumpkin pieces waiting to cool. Then today Parker begged me to make some pies. This.....gets a little tricky for me. I LOVE pumpkin pie (who doesn't?) but I'm on a STRICT diet right now. I told him I'd make the pies. But he had to promise to take one to work on Monday and the other one must be GONE by Monday night. He agreed.....and I started baking. Aren't I nice? Not even a taste from me. But I am happy my family will enjoy them. And I will enjoy a piece or two on Thanksgiving day.
Then also this Thursday our Relief Society had an enrichment project. They had this group called "Poppy Seed Projects" come and help us make these LARGE temple pictures. Pictures JUST LIKE THIS are going for 150-200 bucks at Costco right now. These were 57.50. But yes, we had to assemble them ourselves. No biggie. It was fun. It took about an hour. Basicly glue the picture to the board, paint the frame, screw on the hardware on the back, and paint some canvas-texture onto the front. It turned out SOOOO good. As soon as I got it home, I regretted only buying one. I should have gotten TWO. or even THREE! My parents or my inlaws don't have a temple picture. But.....it's too late. oh well. I LOVE mine!

Come to my house and see it for yourself!! I feel like it TOTALLY changes the way my living room looks!

Eight

I just thought I'd announce for anybody who cares to know......
I've lost 8 pounds and 3 inches.

Back in July before I started exercising, I weighed 167.2 lbs (DANG I can't believe I ever let it get that high!) and when I quit exercising I was at 159.2.

THEN I started this diet almost 3 weeks ago. Weight STILL at 159.2 and this morning the scale was at 151.2.

I'M ALMOST IN THE 140's!!!!!!!!!

So that means I've lost 8 lbs on this diet......and 16 pounds since last summer! YAY!! Feels great!

Family Pictures

I'm sure everybody's seen these on Facebook allready- since they're only about 2 weeks old. But here's our family pictures. Or at least a few of my favorites. Incase you were wondering (as I'm sure none of you care or noticed except me)....these were taken 3 days before I started my diet. :) I was a miserable emotional wreck before these pictures. I was so worried that I was gonna hate them. So worried I was gonna look.....well for lack of a better word: fat. But honestly they didn't turn out too bad. And I have to give props to our photographer: Tasha Thompson. Angie was a royal pain. We're lucky we got ANYTHING good of her.

Well....here they are!

12 days

I really don't know how many people care about this, but it's SURE a huge part of my life right now. I'm 12 days into this diet. I haven't slipped up, and this morning the scale read 154.2 lbs! I can't even express how much I want to rejoice. I've also lost 2 inches on my waist....and maybe more everywhere else. I can tell. There's.......less to look at if you know what I mean. My pants are DEFINATELY loose. That's 5 lbs down. I started at 159.

No bread is hard. No potatoes.....that makes it hard when I'm trying to make soups that are "legal" for me to eat. But it's paying off. I'm not about to quit yet!

Diet through the Holidays?

AM I CRAZY?!! After my failed exercise attempt I was feeling pretty down on myself. And last week we got family pictures done. Every day leading up to that Saturday, I WAS A MESS. I was emotional about EVERYTHING. I think I cried every day. And I was so nervous about those stupid family pictures. I just knew I was gonna hate them. Because as lame as it is, that we're all so vain that we look at ONLY OURSELVES in pictures........it's DEFINATELY the case for me. And I was just worrying myself to death that I was gonna look fat in those pictures. Once again, I want to explain that I know I'm not like super over-weight. But I'm not as skinny as I used to be, AND not the size or shape that I WANT to be. I HATE being the biggest of my sisters. I know I'm the tallest and it'll always be that way. But.....I know there are things I can do to make it not as obvious. So I'm starting a DIET this time.

I DO KNOW that the best way to lose weight is DIET AND EXERCISE. But I am NOT in a place where I can exercise right now. BUT. I CAN practice a little self-control at each meal and we'll see if that doesn't improve my waistline.

Now. My husband thinks this diet is extreme. But....I really don't thinks so. Here's what it is.
*No sugar. Natural sugars from fruit yes. No treats, candies, or FOODS WITH ADDED SUGAR.
*No bread.
*No foods with white flour (which for me, since I currently do not have a wheat grinder, means no flour). It's ok. I can handle it.
*Low-fat or non-fat wherever else you can manage (milk, butter, salad dressings, etc.)
*AND HERE'S THE KICKER: 1200 calories a day.

In all honesty. It's not that hard. 1200 calories keeps me full. The hard part is facing the CRAVINGS. The snacks and halloween candy is ALL AROUND. And it takes so much control to not snatch them and eat them at first sight. And I don't feel near as desparate for those foods after I've eaten.

I've read that abs are 75% diet and 25% exercise. If that is true, then this diet should make a big difference for me. I started on Tuesday. November 1st. So it hasn't even been a week yet. Counting calories gets pretty easy once you get used to it. And telling myself "NO. You don't NEED that".......is definately the hardest part. Why am I doing it through the Holidays? Because it's the most important time. AND.....because it's now. And I'm ready now.

Thanksgiving is in 3 weeks. I will have pie on thanksgiving. But not before, and not after. I'll have sweet potatoes instead of mashed potatoes. I'll make good decisions where I can. But maybe some jell-o salad if I wish. And then it's back to business. Thanksgiving lasts a day. Not a week. :)

You come to the point where you just can't hate yourself. And although I really don't want to say that's how I feel.....there were TIMES.....when I felt disgusted. And when that happens, motivation is just around the corner. And although it's only been 6 days.....do I detect? Are my pants a little loose? ;)