Weigh In #1

Well, I had my first weigh in yesterday since I've been on WW for a week. I was a little worried, but I have lost 3 pounds so far! I was pretty happy with that. It was hard not to get on the scales during the week, but I made it. Now to make it to next Tuesday.... I hope to see another 3 gone by then! I've backslid a couple of times, but I haven't been using all of my extra points for the week, so I figured it almost evens out. Going to the gym tonight- M,W,F schedule. Didn't get to go this past Monday night, because Mr. Paranoia caught a softball in the mouth and my hubby met him at the office and cut out part of the inside of his lip and sent him to the ER. He does have a jaw injury and although I know it must hurt I can't seem to help making fun of him anyway! I'm determined to make it to the gym tonight. Now that I've seen some progress it has motivated me. Anyway- the house is coming along really fast. I have to have my paint colors picked out by this weekend. I still have a few to choose, but I am feeling a little burned out on it right now, so I'll get to it later. B and I will celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary this Friday, so I'm saving all of my extra WW points for dinner that night! Can't believe we've been married that long. It just doesn't seem like it's been 10 years. We weren't supposed to get each other anything because of the house, but I found a bag and a wrapped gift that I am assuming is a watch (since that's what the bag said...) in B's truck. He was there when I found it , so he is aware that I know. So, I went out and bought him something I've always wanted to get him and I'll just have to save that for another post since I never know when he will check this. I got him a skydiving trip for his birthday, and he could not be more excited. (Yes, he is crazy.) He is going to do that soon and cannot wait. The company I bought the skydiving trip from described it as follows : "He will watch a video on procedure and safety. Then he will go up in the plane with the instructor. When they get to between 10,000 and 14,000 feet, he will strap himself to the instructor and they will jump out. He will freefall at about 60 mph for about 60 seconds, and then will float the rest of the way down for about 7-8 minutes." I was laughing so hard by the end of the description that the man started laughing, too. After calling our insurance company to make sure we were covered if anything "bad" were to happen, I ordered it for him. I paid extra for a video to be made of his experience so I can laugh some more later. Hey, he wants to do it, so who am I to stop his dream?? ;0) My description would include more things like "after they pry your white-knuckled fingers from the door of the building and force you onto a plane, they will sedate you with a powerful drug and drag you across the plane and strap you to an instructor with something made of steel that you cannot get out of. Then after knocking you unconscious because of the fighting, the instructor will jump from the plane , taking your limp body out with him." I don't even think I could make the drive down there to do it. I would have a heart attack on the way there. Mr. Paranoia is supposed to be going with him- that is if he is healed and mobile by then. Well- off to cook some chicken and dumplings (of which I'll be able to eat about 1/2 a cup....)

Wishing for My Teenage Metabolism.....

So I've been on Weight Watchers for 5 days now. 5 long, long days. I already mentioned that I'm trying to shed my "winter coat" and I decided I needed some help. I went on WW 3 years ago and lost 13 lbs and kept it off for over a year. I remember the first couple of weeks being really rough. I mean I could eat an entire box of Moose Tracks ice cream in one sitting right about now.... I know as Sabrina says, I'm not gonna get my "card" right now, but I weigh more now than I ever have. I am only 8 lbs less than I was when I was 9 months pregnant! So, my goal is to lose 20 pounds and however long it takes me is fine. I am having a tough time right now seeing as I have never struggled with my weight and I have always enjoyed eating whatever whenever. I weigh in on Tuesdays, so we'll see next Tues. - it will either be a happy post or an angry one.....
On a good note- Emmaline and I had a little girl time today. Annelise went to spend the night with a friend after school, and B is at a BMW driving school all day playing in cars we could never purchase, so we had an outing planned for the 2 of us. We went to Ruby Tuesdays for lunch at the Mall and then to Build A Bear. She had never been to BAB and had a hard time falling asleep last night because she was so excited. She made a pink unicorn and named her Sally and bought her a pink sparkly dress. Too cute. Then we went shopping for a little while and she picked out some sundresses for me and some shoes for her. After that we went to Bruster's and had ice cream and then went to the antique stores. (Needless to say after a restaurant lunch and ice cream, I had a very light breakfast and will be having a non-existant dinner. ) B's driving school is all day tomorrow, too, so she has already told me she wants to go to some more antique shops. I can't believe that is what she chose- being just 6 years old. She loves looking at all the old stuff and how decorative stuff was way back when. Tonight it's off to the gym with Sweet Thang. She is my accountability partner in all of this. We've made it to the gym 3 times a week so far and have been working our buns off. (Literally!) Anyway- other than that, nothing new. Still packing, still picking out stuff. Still wanting to go hide in a cave somewhere......

Happy Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day! I'm not a tree-hugger or anything, but I have gotten to be quite the recycle queen as of the past couple of years. It was amazing how much less trash we sent out when we started recycling. Then once I started it became sort of an obsession. I now recycle just about anything I can. All of the kids papers from school , toilet paper rolls, even the paper tags that come on new clothing, not to mention the plastic string things that hold the tags to the clothes. (I know, it's a bit over the top...) But when you think about all of the milk cartons and glass bottles and soda cans that most of us throw out, it can really add up. Anyway- I thought I would dedicate this post to Earth Day and post some interesting recycling facts. Hope this inspires at least one person to start recycling! Here are the facts:
- A recent gov. survey showed that at least 36 states are anticipating statewide water shortages by the year 2013.
-If all US households installed water-efficient appliances, the country would save more than 3 trillion gallons of water and more than $18 billion dollars per year.
-Letting your faucet run (like while brushing your teeth) for 5 minutes uses about as much energy as letting a 60-watt light bulb run for 14 hours.
-If every household replaced it's most often used incandescent light bulbs with CFL's, electricity use for lighting could be cut in half.
-Recycling 1 ton of paper saves 17 mature trees, 7,000 gallons of water, 3 cubic yards of landfill space, 2 barrels of oil, and 4,100 kilowatt-hours of electricity- enough energy to power the average American home for 5 months.
-Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a 100-watt light bulb for 20 hours, a computer for 3 hours, or a large TV for 2 hours.
-Americans throw away enough aluminum every month to rebuild our entire commercial air fleet.
-The 36 billion aluminum cans landfilled last year had a scrap value of more than $600 million dollars. (Makes you want to go dumpster divin'...)
-If every American recycled just one out of every 10 plastic bottles they used, we'd keep 200 million pounds of plastic out of the landfills each year.
-Remember that styrofoam is not recycleable. Do not buy it.....
Hope you find these facts as interesting as I did. Remember this the next time you throw away something that can be re-used! ;0)

Highlight Reel- Long Overdue....

Front of the house- hardie plank is almost done

Back of the house

Kitchen- that's a window seat below the windows. It will have

drawers in the open spaces in a week or so.....

Family room right off the kitchen. There will be a 126 inch projection screen

on the wall on your right. Needless to say- I cannot wait for football season!

Those are built in cabinets below the windows. Doors are on their way....

Steel shell of our pool. Another thing I am sooo excited about.

The natural stone on the trim of our house. I am in love with this stone.

Our hickory floors. We were going to stain them, but I love the

character so much that we decided to just put the clear coat on.

That will be done in the next few weeks.

"Alice"- the newest addition to our family.

As you can see- she is rotten and has fit right in to our family.

She and Annelise are bedmates and they sleep very well together.

*Been gone for way too long. This is like therapy for me so I have missed out.... Hope all my blogworld friends are doing well. Anyway- I'll get detailed later this week- for now, just gonna give a quick rundown of the latest "events":

1.)- The house is coming along very quickly. Very. I am so excited but also nervous about leaving this part of town and the girls starting a new school, etc etc. All normal stuff. Mostly excited, though!

2.)- Emmaline lost her first tooth a couple weeks ago. Screamed the whole time B was pulling it, but was soooo excited when the tooth fairy came.

3.)-I've apparantly opened a free babysitting service in my house and didn't know it. I've had children at my house overnight for the past 3 weekends and several times during the week. I'm losing it. Between trying to pack and cleaning up after extra kids for 2 weeks I am going nuts. B has forbidden me from agreeing to keep anyone's kids until after we move. Fine with me!

4.)-Spring Break was awful. The girls fought the whole time and we didn't do anything fun with them. Too much going on. Having a guilt trip at the present moment.

5.)- Alice- our new doggie - had been an outside dog when we got her from the rescue center, so we had to housetrain her and all that. At 1 year of age, that is tough. She has been accident free for over 2 weeks, now and is so very precious. We have to find someone to keep her when we go to the beach in June. We're going to pay $100.00 bucks for the week to the caretaker, so if anyone knows of anyone trustworthy who is at home most of the day and doesn't mind a sweet bed buddy at night, let me know! We didn't want to board her because I was afraid she would think we were leaving her at another shelter....

6.)-I've bought all kinds of stuff for the new house and am getting so excited about it all coming together. I'll do a decorating post soon! :0)

*I think that is about it for now. I just feel crazy right now. I am exhausted by the end of the day and the girls have been acting out because we haven't been spending much quality time with them. B and I have said that even if we want to move again we wouldn't for a very very very long time because of the strain this has put on our family time. We've been much more involved with the building process this time- which has been fun and interesting, but also time-consuming. So, glad to get back. I plan to catch up with everyone's blogs tonight or tomorrow. I've been thinking about all of you!! Is everyone else as glad as me that school is almost out?