Life in our house......

Not #6 or #7

Now I threw you all for a loop!!  Huh?  Guess again.
Oh and Jodi you're funny!

Which One?

We are holding our own in the flu house...  Sam is acting like nothing happened after about 2:00 yesterday.  Can't keep the kid down.

I'm feeling a little iffy at the moment and I think I have a low fever, but I'll wait until tomorrow before I decide to go to the doctor or not.

We've canceled my small birthday party.  Boo hoo. :) 

But I'm getting one of these for my birthday!  So I thought I'd give you a quiz..  Which one do you think I'm getting?  If you guess right you get a BIG SURPRISE!  Actually, I'm just kidding.  It's my birthday!!  I get the surprise...  :)  But the one I picked might surprise you....  or maybe not...

#1

#2

#3

#4

okay you know I'm not getting this cheetah one, but I had to post it!!  Hilarious!  Just for Karen.

#5

#6

#7

#8

Okay!!  Aren't they all cute!!?? 

Which one is on it's way to my house?

I'll tell you on Monday sometime...

Flu

Sam has the flu. :(  Type A... Could even be swine flu, but they don't sub type it because of the hysteria.  Apparently all flu's are dangerous to kids because they don't have immunity to most of them. 

Jason just went to get Tamilfu for him, so hopefully he'll feel better soon. 

So please say a prayer for us that it doesn't really kick up his asthma and that we all don't get it...

Hopefully I don't get the flu for my birthday on Sunday... :)

Kelly- Freezer Jam last for up to a year in the freezer and 3 weeks in the fridge... 

Freezer Jam

Hey Kelly-

I just buy the low sugar "sure gel" pectin at the grocery store and use the directions in the box.  It is so super easy it ridiculous! 

Tomorrow we will be on the scout out for raspberries...  I'll try and take my camera along to the farm.

I've got a busy rest of the day, so more tomorrow hopefully.

Sorry for the lame post! :)

My Red White and Blue

For the 4th of July weekend...

Yummy Strawberry Freezer Jam I made on Friday.   I love the flats of berries you can get here this time of the year.  We are probably going to check out the raspberries this week. Yum.

We had a great weekend and last night and went to a fun BBQ with some great friends.  Then we lit fireworks in their driveway...

I don't know if I'll ever get use to the fireworks you can get here in Washington.  Growing up in Oregon we NEVER had what you can get here.  You can basically have your own fireworks show in  your driveway if you spend enough money.  Just like they  have at the "big" shows in Oregon.  It's crazy. 

When I was a kid I was scared of even sparklers and my favorite "fireworks" were those weird lame snake things?  That you lit and then they "grew" into a snake.  I know... so lame...

I tried not to have a heart attack last night with the kids, but it's all I can do to not FREAK OUT!   Anyway, we all survived and had fun. :)

Happy day after everyone, and hope you all had a good weekend celebrating! 

Pics from the trip

I did get some pool photos too.  But my pool photos and Karen's are two different things...  She keeps wanting me to take this random photography course she has some sort of "in" on...  but I keep having a hard time finding the time. :)  I know, I know those of you that know what I'm talking about want to stab me right now.

Anyway... about the trip...  This is Ben (above) and he is just a little fish!  He loves to swim and just picked in right up after our lessons last year.  And unless he wants to be Michael Phelps, he really doesn't need anymore lessons.

Then there is Sam.  The first day we went swimming he needed every type of floatation device invented as seen in the above photo, but by the next day he was down to just water wings.  :)

Karen and Annie.

Coley Woley.

Annie.
She is even cuter in person than in photos... if that is even possible.

Courtney Lee... She is as sweet as they come. 

Here is my mom at the first Estate Sale we hit up on Friday morning.  She is there "guarding" our treasures while I pulled the car around to load up. 

Karen went with us while Ross watched ALL the kids.  When we got back I got the report that Sam was the worst behaved of all of them.  He even started a plum fight with Karen's plums from the backyard tree.  I thought Karen was going to cry about it for a few minutes, but she go over it rather quickly.  

But Sam was the best plum picker upper after the fight... so I guess there is that...  He can be tough one.  Lets hope Jason and I make it through with that one.

Sam's new "hobby" or "collection" ... Bees... 

Bee nests, and dead bees.

So here is Sam and my dad searching for bees. 

Here he is showing you all his dead bees.  They bee nests are in another box.  Weird, I know.

Oh and see that lovely trunk?  That came from Texas with my Great Great Grandpa and Great Great Grandma when they headed out to the Klamath Falls area to homestead.  That was around 1900 I believe.  Cool huh?

There is my dad and Sam talking about all the bees they found.  Oh and yes in my dads left hand is a cigar.  He started smoking a couple of them a week. 

Bugs me and my mom, but at least he stays outside and helps Sam hunt for bees while he smokes it.  Blech. 

Oh and just so you all know what a great influence this is on Sam, he informed that he is going to smoke a cigar when he is 50, just like Grandpa Bob.  Great.

Ben is so hard to get a photo of...  This was the best one I got,  with the fence pole sticking out the top of his head.

Gotta run and do about 1 bazillion loads of laundry.

Oh and just a little FYI... Just heard through the grapevine (facebook) that The Funky Junk Sisters are going to do another show in the fall!!  WHOOP WHOOP! 

I'm back!

And tired!

If you head over to Karen's blog you'll see some photos of my kids and her kids swimming last Friday and then again on Monday.  I think it's the latest two posts.

Hopefully I'll get my photos downloaded today... but you know how the day after you get back from a little trip is...  Seems like there are a million an 1 things to do.   So I'll probably post tomorrow.

Thanks for all the comments on my running.  I managed to squeeze in two days of running down there... but it was hard and got to 95 degrees at least almost every day I was there!  One day I was running and it was so hot I thought I would die.  The next time I went in the morning, so that worked out a little better...  Oh and I had to use my moms gardening tennis shoes because I forgot my Asics and the running store where I was going to buy new ones at was closed on a Saturday!  I can't believe my legs didn't fall off...

Okay, okay more tomorrow!!

Heading out

I'll be in Oregon for the next week or so...  Probably won't be blogging from there, but you never know...
Hopefully I'll have some fun photos to post when I get back.  Just the boys and I... should be fun!

I'll catch up on my junkin' treasure photos when I get back too. 

Running

Well… been meaning to post this for a few weeks, but wanted to make sure I was REALLY on the right track.  I think I am.  But I need your help…  I think maybe if I post here and let the “world” know then I will be more likely to stay on top of this.

So many of you know that in 2004-2005 or so I was doing Weight Watchers and I ended up losing a whopping 40 lbs!  Yay me…

 However by the end of 2006 and starting 2007 I stopped counting points and for a while I pretty much kept it off, but by the time I started Rose Petal Betty in full force my mind was consumed by that and I let other things slide.. like paying close attention to what I was eating. 

By the end of 2008 I had gained 26 of that back.  Blech, blech, blech.

 In November 2008 I realized that I was going to be one of those people who gained all their weight and then some back if I didn’t get my butt in gear.  I started paying closer attention to what I was eating and I started exercising  about 3 days a week.

 I decided not to do WW again because I just don’t think that for me it is realistic that I will count points my whole life.  I really wanted to make a life change not just a means to an end, which is how I looked at WW.

So by February I had only lost about 3 lbs and I was so frustrated.  I knew something was going on because it was becoming soooo difficult to lose weight.   I heard on a radio show about someone who was diagnosed with PCOS (poly-cystic ovarian syndrome) and I had all the symptoms of it.  I went to the doctor and she said that there is no real test to determine if you have it, it’s kind of a process of elimination.  And the only reason they really go through the process of elimination is for people who want to become pregnant (if you have pcos it is harder to conceive typically). 

I’m for sure not trying to become pregnant, so I decided that it wasn’t worth really trying to get diagnosed.  She just said they tell women to lose weight to help control it because the risk with people who have it is that they can more easily become diabetic.  That scared me a bit.

Guess what the top symptoms are?  Difficulty losing weight and carrying weight the upper half of your body…  Hello Apple?   Just like me.  So I don’t know for 100% if I have PCOS but I have 15 of the 18 symptoms and I have all of the most common symptoms, so I’m just going on like I do.

So over the last couple of months I’ve been trying to read up on losing weight with pcos and I’ve recently discovered that those who are successful have to eat higher protein and lower carbs.  This has been a real light switch for me.  I was eating so many carbs, but keeping my calories down, so I didn’t understand why I wasn’t losing.  I was eating fruit like a crazy person and whole wheat breads and sweet snacks like sherbet for dessert instead of ice cream, thinking that since I was keeping my calories at about 1200 to 1500 calories that I would lose weight. 

Well… this is like a killer for someone like me.  Keeps me nice and chubby!  I was so happy to learn this, but it has been very difficult to adjust.  I’ve only been trying to get more protein and less carbs for about a month and some days I slip and eat way to many carbs.  I’m supposed to keep it at about 40% which seems like a lot but trust me it is hard,  for a carb girl like me.

I also knew I would have to really step up the exercise.  When I lost that 40 lbs on WW, I didn’t really exercise at all.  I knew I wouldn’t be able to lose and keep anything off without working out this time.  So in April I decided to start jogging…  I know!!  Crazy!  I’ve NEVER jogged, never wanted to jog, never thought I would jog, but I now jog.

When I started I could only jog about .4 to .5 miles without stopping and walking, but I just kept trying.  I’m ecstatic to report I jogged 2 miles today!!  Without stopping once!  Yay me again. 

There are times when I’ve not done very well (like getting ready for the Funky Junk Show and right after it) where I’ve gone more than a week without jogging at all, but I’m just going to keep trying.  In the past when I’ve done bad at eating or working out I’ve gone into a spiral and stopped altogether.  But I’m determined that this is my new life, so even if I go a week or two and I only eat bread and cereal, I’m going to get back to focusing and start again. 

The thought of having diabetes scares the bejeebers out of me.  So now when I eat carbs without protein I feel differently than I use to.  It would have never even occurred to me before, but now I realize what I’m doing and at least try and get some protein.

So in the last month I’ve lost 4 lbs, instead of 3 lbs in 4 months!  This last weekend I ate WAY too much, but starting yesterday I just got back on the wagon without too much beating myself up like before. 

It is what it is and this is life.  I’ll get busy, I’ll go on vacation, I’ll eat too much with Karen… ☺  I’m not going to give that up, but when I can I’m going to jog and when I’m at home I’m going to pay attention to what I eat. 

Most of all I’m going to TRY and not focus on the scale.  This last 7-8 months has been torturous not losing much weight yet feeling like I was trying…  But I think I’ve got some good new information and I plan on sticking to it!

So the reason to post all this is…. I need your help!  ACK!  I would love advice, things that worked or not worked for you any higher protein healthy recipes that you love.  But now that it is “out there” maybe it will be just one more reason to not give up!  Plus I know losing weight is a struggle that many of us have, so maybe I can give someone a reason to keep trying and going for it!

I'll probably always be an apple... but I'd love to be a smaller one someday!

Oh and when I'm in Oregon I'm going to get new running shoes...  I'll go to a specialty store to get the right shoes for my feet.  Hey...a girl has to be excited about running and all the positives of running...  and new shoes always make me happy.

Ball

Here are some shots of our last day of T-ball and Baseball for the spring.  They were taken a couple of weeks ago and I forgot to post them!

Here is Ben in the outfield.

Here he is hitting.  He REALLY improved throughout this ear with hitting.  The last couple of games he was really getting the hang of swinging whereas before he was trying to make contact with the ball, almost kinda bunting.  But this one he really smacked and it was so nice to see his confidence improve with hitting. 

Playing the field he really hasn't gotten the hang of much yet.  He is soooo not aggressive and prefers for anyone but him to get the ball. :)  We'll work on it this year and see if we can't get him some more confidence in that area.

Here is Sam hitting as a lefty.  Someone asked me at the game if he hit right or left and I said that it depended on the day and that is so true!  The last couple of games he hit left... the middle of the season he hit right and at the beginning he hit left as well.  And believe it or not he can hit equally good on both sides.   Lets hope this trend continues.... :)

He and his brother are so different... Sam will run after a ball hit to the pitcher if he is playing right field. :)  He just LOVES it. 

By the end of the season he was so confident and he said he was going to get every ball...  I told him to go for it.  Normally I tried to explain how we have to play our own position.. etc, etc. But the last game of the season I just let him be.  Luckily he played pitcher, first base and short stop... So going after every ball in the infield didn't look as crazy as if he was playing right field!

I'm so proud of both of them and it was fun to watch... Although I do have to admit that I was glad it was over for awhile...  :)  2 kids in sports had us running every which way, I seriously don't know how people with more than 2 do it!