Little Stinker

The other night, the kids were going to play a card game. The hubby had the TV on some kind of off-road show with vehicles the boy sees as "Monster Trucks" so the Princess was having a hard time getting him to pay enough attention to play cards with her. Getting his undivided attention is a challenge, but that show just about had it.

Well, we finally talked him in to playing cards with her if he could watch the show too. So he gets down on the floor with her and is waiting for her to be ready. He's watching the show with his daddy and I look down and see the Princess laying the cards out. I asked her what in the world she was doing.

"This is how I shuffle the cards," she says.

I couldn't help but laugh! I told the hubby it looks more like she's stacking the deck to me!

Kids

The kids crack me up sometimes.

I set up a little computer desk for them here in our family room. That way they can have access to the computer and I can easily keep an eye on what they're doing. I have a rule, though. Before they can go to any websites that are strictly for fun, they have to do "Study Island" through their school website and practice their math. Study Island has a game setting, though, so they can still have fun while they're practicing.

After they played on Study Island for a while, the boy asked if they could play on Cartoon Network's site. Told him sure, no problem. But they have to take turns...he plays a game, then when his is over, she plays one. Well, she just finished a game, and was arguing with him that it wasn't his turn yet because his game lasted longer than hers did. Guess she got "game over" before she made it to the next level. I told her that they needed to switch after each game, and she gave HIM a dirty look, which of course prompted him to say "why are you looking mean at ME?" So I reminded them that if they were going to fight over the computer, they were going to be through playing for the night. Promptly put an end to the fussing.

And now the princess is happily knitting.

Couple New Tickers

As I'm sure you've already noticed, I've added a couple new tickers to my page.

I mentioned that I might add a weight loss ticker in an attempt to help keep me honest. So I did. I sure do hate seeing that big number for the amount of weight I still have to lose, but at least I've gotten a start. And I might end up changing my ultimate goal. We'll just have to see. I've actually lost a bit more since I created the ticker, but I'm only going to update my weight once a week, on the same day I record my weight with Weight Watchers.

Also, the hubby and I are so ready for this Recruiting assignment to be over that it's not even funny. It has definitely been a test for us in so many ways. In some ways, it's been more difficult than previous deployments have been. I know that probably sounds crazy, but it's the way it is. I don't know what the exact date of the end of this tour is yet, so for right now I'm going with the two year date after he assumed command. I'll change it once I get a definite date. We're also pretty clueless as to what is in store for us next. But as always, we'll just wait to see what the Army has planned and drive on.

Locks of Love

The Princess decided a few weeks ago that she wanted to have her hair cut and donate to Locks of Love. I finally took her to have it done today. I just love the way it came out, and she seems really happy with it too.

Here are a couple of pictures from last weekend so you can see what it looked like before. It was nearly down to her waist.

And after:

I have the hair here that I need to take care of sending in to Locks of Love. Just gotta get the info off the website and take care of it. I'm so proud of her!

So Far So Good!

Well, today I finished my third week of going to the gym five mornings a week. I really didn't feel like going this morning, and thought about making excuses. Was feeling kinda crampy. I had a hair appointment at 10:45, and with going to the gym about 9 or 9:30, I really would be pushing it to make my appointment on time. But I talked myself out of my excuses. After all, exercising may help with the crampiness. And there was no reason I couldn't just go to the gym earlier so that I'd be able to make my appointment on time with no problem. So that's exactly what I did. Took the kiddos to the bus stop, and left straight from there.

And between the working out and doing Weight Watchers, I lost three and a half pounds this week. I have a long way to go, but that was definitely encouraging!

Patti, I like the idea of a workout partner. I'll have to see if I can find one. I have a tendency to make excuses too.

But so far, I'm pretty proud of myself!

Weight Loss

So yet again I've decided to renew my weight loss attempts. I'm tired of being overweight, and I finally decided that I'm gonna do something about it. I'm pretty determined right now, and motivated. I just hope I can keep up my motivation.

I've had a gym membership since shortly after we moved here. It's mostly been a waste of money, though, because I haven't used it much. I made up my mind two weeks ago to stop wasting that money, and to use that gym membership. Yes, I have equipment to work out here at home, but working out in a gym or in a group motivates me much more than working out here at home. So I'm now into my third week of working out five days a week. I'm starting to see some subtle differences. Nothing significant yet, but hopefully that will come soon.

I also started Weight Watchers again. I've noticed that I always have the most success with the WW plan, as long as I follow the plan and pay attention to everything I eat. I have to be really strict with myself, and the hubby makes fun of me, but it works. At this point, I'm just doing the online version. My first weigh-in will be Friday. I just might have to put a ticker up on here or something to keep me honest.

I hope to lose weight and be in pretty good shape in time for this spring and summer riding season. I figure I'm well on my way!

Pictures

One thing I think we can all say for digital photography is that it is so much more convenient, in so many ways. After all, you can instantly see your picture, delete it if it sucks, or keep it if it's good. Then you can save it on your computer, print it on your own printer if you choose, or if you're like me, upload it to a third party to have prints made for a scrapbook. Because my printer doesn't print great pictures. But the NICE thing is you can pick and choose which ones you want printed. It's not like taking a roll of film to the photo shop and having the whole thing developed, only to end up with a handful of pictures that are any good.

The problem I'm finding with digital, though, and it's not REALLY a problem when I think about it, is that I have pictures scattered all over the place. Over the last few weeks I've been trying to consolidate and organize my pictures into one general place. I have SOOO many pictures, and I've spent the better part of today going through some old ones. The good news is I've gotten quite a few organized. The bad news is, I have a LOT more to go. I'm trying to organize them chronologically, too, which isn't always easy, since I can't always remember when they were taken. Oh well...I'll just have to make an educated guess on the ones I can't remember. Today I was going through pictures from when the hubby's parents came to visit us in Europe, back in the summer of 2005. Our trips were fairly easy to organize within a couple days there, because I KNOW we were in Paris for the baby girl's birthday that year (which is also my mother-in-law's birthday). So by trying to remember how many days we spent on each leg of the trip, I've been able to get the dates pretty close.

A boring tidbit, I know, but I'm trying to get back into the swing of blogging again. I lost my blogging motivation some time ago, and I really need to find it again. It was always fun and therapeutic for me. I also need to get back into keeping up with my friends' blogs. I've missed you all!

More updates to come!

Have I Ever Mentioned...

That I LOVE the South?

Here it is the 3rd of February, and the high today was about 69 degrees. So, of course, we took advantage of the weather. We needed to go and visit with the hubby's parents for a bit anyway, so we bundled the kids up (since the wind is still a bit cool), hopped on the bikes, and took off. It's almost an hour to get up there, so we had a nice ride. Visited with them, and rode home. We got up there a little later than we intended, and stayed a little longer than planned, so it was about dusk when we left to come home. By the time we got to the house, it was completely dark. The kids were excited since it was their first time riding at night. They both said they were plenty warm enough, and totally enjoyed the ride.

Yesterday my dad's sister and her husband came down to visit. They stayed at my sister's house, so the kids and I went over a bit before 11 to spend the day with her and her family. Even though we live so close now, we don't get to spend nearly enough time with her. My aunt and uncle got there between 1 and 1:30. I hadn't seen them in over four years, since my dad's funeral, so it was wonderful to be able to see them. They enjoyed visiting with their great nieces and nephew, and I enjoyed catching up with them.

We spent the whole day over there. My sister had called me a couple days before to let me know for sure when they were coming. I had told her earlier to let me know if she needed me to help with cooking dinner for their visit. She told me Wednesday that she had decided that she was going to cook a roast, and asked if I could cook one too, to make sure we had enough for everybody. So I had a pot roast in my crock pot that I took to her house yesterday. My mom made apple pie for dessert and brought it. So we had a delicious homemade dinner. Pot roast is one of my favorite things to make. It's easy, and almost always comes out delicious.

Yesterday also made me realize even more how badly I need to make a trip to West Virginia to visit my dad's family, as well as my extended family on my mom's side. The hubby also has family in WV, so we can visit them as well. Maybe I'll be able to manage a trip up there when the kids have their next school break beginning in March.

When I was a kid, my dad's family always said how much I looked like my aunt. As I get older, I think I look more like my mom, but there are definitely things about my dad's sister that I think I share. And I learned something yesterday when my sister pulled out her wedding album to look at. My daughter was not quite two when my sister got married, and there are a couple of pictures in her wedding album that look to me just like my niece. Before yesterday, I never had really been able to see a resemblance between my daughter and my sister's daughter, although I had been able to see a strong resemblance between my son and my niece from the day she was born. Genetics are a funny thing.

Here is a picture of me and my dad's sister.