Day 30 -- Whatever Tickles Your Fancy: Before & After

So, I finally felt good enough to display a before and after picture of myself! I don't know if you remember, but I had previously mentioned wanting to do this but I wasn't ready to post pictures showing the "ahem" bulges until I felt like they had shrunk enough so that there would be a noticeable difference. I feel that there is a difference and I hope it is noticeable! So, here it is, a before and after of my workout journey. I'm happy so far with the after but I plan on having another after (or two) as I continue working out. The difference between these two pictures is about a 15-20 pound weight loss. I feel good that I've made progress and it just motivates me to keep going and hopefully lose another 15 pounds or so! Oh, the "before" was taken right around New years and the "after" was taken this past weekend. So this is a 3 month transformation.





While we are on the topic of change, here is another before and after picture for you. This past weekend Chad and I painted over the old 80's wallpaper. I forgot to take actual before pictures so I found one from KJ's first birthday that has a pretty descent view of the kitchen. What do you guys think? I think it is an improvement, looks a bit more modern. (BTW, it's BLUE! The picture makes it look a little bit purple... (yuck.))

Day 29 — Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days

**Sorry, a VERY busy weekend has kept me from this challenge, so once again I've gotten behind. Ah well!

Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days?? Ok, they all center around my hope for my family to stay safe, healthy and happy. If my family is all of the above then the next 365 days will be more than I can ask for! :) Hopefully a lot of fun will be mixed in there, too.

Day 28 -- This Year in Great Detail

So, I completely forgot to do this yesterday and I think it was my sub conscious telling me something because I really did not want to do it. I've decided that most imporant happenings this past year have already been blogged about; therefore, this is all I'm writing for this particular topic.

Day 27-This Month In Great Detail

This month? You've got to be kidding! This month has pretty much looked like this past week, other than my mom's birthday and alot of family coming in. I'll just summarize into some of the more interesting stuff that has happened this month.

Milestones: Lainee has began taking steps here and there. Yesterday she took four steps! Her personality is starting to show more and more too. She is so determined and she really works hard to learn new things. KJ is getting smarter and funnier day by day! I'm not even sure where he gets some of the things he says, but it makes me smile (usually) nonetheless. My current favorite: Everyday when Chad gets home I usually ask him how his day went, so now KJ asks him everyday too. "How'd your day go, daddy?" So cute!

Trips: A trip to Walla Walla to visit Ashley and see her new place. A trip to Shelton to visit family. A few trips to Moses here and there to get things we need.

Excercise/diet: I'm still working out daily and trying to eat...well... better. Some days I do alright other days I struggle. I think I've lost around 15 pounds or so. Our scale isn't the most accurate and I can't remember how much I went at the beginning of January. I just got some new excercise vidoes that I've been doing and they seem to give me a good workout. I'm excited for more daylight and I'm hoping to start getting a jog or walk in everyday, too.

Projects: Mom and I have been working on getting everything in order for Ashley's baby shower this weekend. This week will be busy finishing up preperations and Thursday and Friday will be spent getting all of the food prepared and any getting any last minute projects done.

Ok, so there is some high points of this month. That is as detailed as I'm getting!

Day 26 -- Your Week in Great Detail

UGH-- I'm not a fan of these "in great detail" topics. For one, I kind of suck at writing and two, I can hardley remember what happened two days ago, let alone a week ago! :P So, here is my attempt:

Monday: Um... Worked out, fed/dressed myself and the kids. Hung out with Mom when she came to visit. Hung out with Chad when he came for lunch. Naptime. Dinner. Went for a long walk with Chad, Mom & the kiddos.

Tuesday: Same morning routine, went to Norwest so that KJ could see a puppy, came back and visited with Mom for a while. Same afternoon routine. Hung out with Chad when he got home.

Wednesday: Blah, blah.. got my haircut. Ash and Eli came over for the day, Elijah went golfing so Ashley came to hang out with us. Had fun visiting with her and mom. Made rice krispie treats, had dinner, hung out.

Thursday: Woke up, worked out. Mom came over and we made her a birthday breakfast. (Yum!) We then spent the rest of the morning hanging out with her. After lunch, KJ didn't want to nap so we went to visit Daddy at work once Lainee was awake, then I took a drive with the kids so they would sleep then we went to Moses Lake for some fatty food. ha

Friday: We babysat my Uncle and his Fiance's puppy. Ashley and Keesha came into town. We had Chicos for dinner and had fun spending time with family!!

Saturday: More spending time with family, went out to eat for Mom's birthday and then had a movie night.

Sunday: Sent Keesha off, spent most of the morning and part of the afternoon with Ashley. We made nachos and brownies and ate with Ash, Nic and Dan. Relaxed most of the day.

Monday: Yeah, read the previous blog already had to go into detail on that one.

Tuesday: I'm posting now so I can't tell you what's going to happen today. Besides the usual.

Day 25 -- Your Day In Great Detail

Morning (5:20 --9:30)
Woke up around 5:20 with Lainee to feed her and watched some t.v. while doing so. Put Lainee back to bed around 6:00 and I then did my Turbo Jam cardio party workout. Had some down time, drinking water and playing online before showering and getting ready. After showering, both kids were awake so I went to open blinds and then got a call that KJ's play structure was about to be delivered (Woohoo!). Once that was delivered, we said bye to daddy and then I got the kids some breakfast. After breakfast, I ordered the food for Ash's baby shower and then got the kids ready for bath time.

Mid-Morning (9:30-12:00)
After bath my dad was waiting at the door with a bag of goodies, one of which was a big ziploc of fresh grapes and strawberries. Yum! So, I got Lainee dressed and KJ stayed in his diaper so that he could enjoy some yummy resh fruit. While we snacked on grapes and strawberries, I looked at a Taste of Home magazine and saw some yummy recipes I may have to try sometime. I then got KJ all cleaned up and dressed. I then decided it was time to fold some of the kids' clothes so I did that while the kids played until Lainee decided she needed to eat and nap, so we had some downtime while Lainee ate and then she slept for a little bit while KJ watched some cartoons. Once Lainee woke up, it was time to get some lunch going for KJ. On the menu for lunch today: dino chicken nuggets, fries, cucumbers and carrots. While lunch was in the oven, KJ & Lainee played while waiting for daddy. Once daddy was home, we ate, played and got ready to go to Nana's house for a little while.

Afternoon (12:00-5:00)
After lunch, Chad headed back to work and the kids and I headed down the road to Papa & Nana's house. While there, I copied off some photos for a baby shower project and the kids played in the toy room with nana. Once finished, we headed back home and got ready for naptime. KJ fell asleep pretty quickly, Lainee fussed for a while until she finally got comfortable enough to sleep, I took the opportunity (as I usually do) to rest with them and watch New Moon (again). Once naptime was over, I started up the BBQ for dinner.

Evening (5:00-Bedtime)
Chad arrived home while dinner was cooking, I was feeding Lainee some cereal and KJ was trying to fight me on getting a binky. We ate dinner, I changed Lainee's diaper, took out the garbage and then started working on the baby shower project. Kids played, finished one project for the night and now the kids are fussing so I'm going to have to finish this up.

Day 24 — Whatever tickles your fancy-- Ode to Mom

This weekend was spent with family in celebration of mom's birthday! I always love when my sisters are in town and we are able to hang out and visit with one another. My family means so much to me and my parents and sisters are my best friends (aside from Chad)!

Thursday, which was mom's birthday, we made her a birthday breakfast. Of course, she helped with most of it, like she always does but we had a great time eating yummy food and spending the day with her.

Friday she helped me take care of a little puppy that we were watching along with the kids. I honestly do not know what I would do without her, I don't even want to think about it! Friday night we got together and had Chico's. Yum Yum!

Saturday was spent hanging out with everyone and we went to a yummy dinner! We even were able to surprise mom when our waitress brought out the Baskin Robbins cake we had dropped off earlier in the day. We ended the day with a movie night, watching "New Moon".

It was so much fun getting together to celebrate such a wonderful mom, nana and person. I hope to be a fraction of the mom she has been to me. She is a wonderful mom and an incredible Nana and I'm so fortunate to have her just down the road so that my kids are able to spend time with such an amazing woman. She is one of the strongest, hard working, selfless people I know and I know that any redeeming qualities I might have come from her. We are so lucky to have her in our lives and I thank God every day for my mom, I don't know how I got so lucky to have the best mom in the world! (PS: Dad is a fantastic dad too, but this was more of an Ode to Mom for her birthday.) :)

Day 23 — A YouTube video

How about a little "Boom Boom Pow" by Black Eyed Peas?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4m48GqaOz90

So, I chose this for my YouTube video because we watched a lot, I mean A LOT, of this over the summer. I'm pretty sure it may have been mine and KJ's theme song. And as KJ says "don't copy my swagger, dad."

Day 22-- A Website

Margie Lou Colyar Photography: http://margielou.com/wp/

I've been visiting this site a lot lately seeing as how she took our pictures last month. I highly recommend her. She does a wonderful job and has great prices!

Day 21 -- A Recipe

Hershey's ® 'Perfectly Chocolate' Chocolate Cake

**Today is my mom's birthday and put me in the mood for cake, so here is a yummy cake recipe!

Ingredients:
2 cups white sugar
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup HERSHEY®'S Cocoa Powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water

1/2 cup butter
2/3 cup HERSHEY®'S Cocoa Powder
3 cups confectioners' sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions:
1.
Heat oven to 350 F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans.
2.
Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.
3.
Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost with "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Frosting.
4.
To make "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Frosting: Melt butter. Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency. Add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla.
5.
One Pan Cake: Grease and flour 13x9x2-inch baking pan. Heat oven to 350 F. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 35 to 40 minutes. Cool completely. Frost.
6.
Three Layer Cake: Grease and flour three 8-inch round baking pans. Heat oven to 350 F. Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake 30 to 35 minutes. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost.
7.
Bundt Cake: Grease and flour 12-cup Bundt pan. Heat oven to 350 F. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 50 to 55 minutes. Cool 15 minutes; remove from pan to wire rack. Cool completely. Frost
8.
Cupcakes: Line muffin cups (2-1/2 inches in diameter) with paper bake cups. Heat oven to 350 F. Fill cups 2/3 full with batter. Bake 22 to 25 minutes. Cool completely

Day 20 -- A Hobby of Mine

D'OH!!! I completely forgot to blog yesterday, I really wanted to stay on track, oh well.

I think it was "19 Kids and Counting" where Michelle said that Jim Bob always says that his kids are his hobby. So totally true! My hobby is truly my kids or any hobbies I have seem to revolve around them, ie...

• photography: usually photos of them


• scrapbooking: usually their books


• baking/cooking: to include KJ or for him (and Chad and I too, of course)

Also, any activity we do or new things we like to experience we have to consider the kids and what they would like to do. Therefore, I'm going with Jim Bob's answer and calling my hobby my kids, and it's a pretty fantastic one at that!

Day 19 -- A Talent of Mine

Creating invitations, cards, announcements, etc... or at least I'd like to hope I'm talented in it! I really enjoy creating invitations for my kids' birthday or their birth announcements and I also really love doing it for others. So far, I've made many announcements for moms that were in an online birth club and I make occasional invitations or announcements for friends. So far, everything I've done has been for free but I'm really considering starting a business. Here are some samples of some things I've created:

1. All headers for this blog! Here is a header for another blog I created:

2. Last year's Valentine's Day Card:

3. Ashley's baby shower invitation (As you can see, some information has been removed):

4. Here is KJ's 1st birthday invitation:

5. Here is Lainee's birth announcement:

So, do you think I could have my own business?

Day 18 -- Whatever Tickles Your Fancy

So, I was thinking it might be fun to create my own 30 day challenge or maybe a series of 10 day challenges about certain aspects of one's life! This one is cool, but I feel like many of the topics were repetitive and it would be neat to come up with some topics that are kind of off the wall or more fun! Here are some ideas I have, please feel free to chip in, it would be neat if my 30 day challenge was something others used for their blog!

A 10 day challenge for moms:

• How many kids do you have? Describe them in some detail.
• Favorite baby name: boy/girl
• How many kids do you hope to have/why?
• What is your child's favorite activity?
• What is your favorite activity to do with your child?
• What is your best advice to give to other moms?
• Did you plan out your pregnancy so that you would have a baby a certain time of year?

A 10 day challenge about life:

• Your dream job
• Describe your dream house
• How do you save money
• Tips for successful budgeting
• Did you go to college? Where?
• Are you in a job that you love? Is it what you thought you'd be doing?

A 10 day challenge about love:

• Are you in a relationship?
• How did you and your significat other meet?
• Describe your dream wedding, if you are married, did you have your dream wedding?
• Give your secret to relationship success.

A 10 day challenge about random topics:

• When is the last time you went to the doctor/why?
• Your favorite food
• The craziest place you've ever done a somersault (off the wall, right?)
• If you were invisible for the day, what would you do? where would you go?
• If you could switch places with someone for the day, who would it be? why?

Yeah, I know many of these are questions we used to see in those surveys that were always floating around through e-mails or myspace bulletins, but I thought it would be fun to give the questions another go. What do you, my readers, think? Would you want to be inolved or maybe give some more ideas of questions?

Day 17 -- An Art Piece

So, I'm going to take this opportunity to tell you about my student teaching experiences. As a student teacher you are to put together a curriculum for so many weeks, as an art teacher I chose to do an ongoing community art project.

With the help of the teacher I worked with, we decided to get the students to create different art pieces to display around the community. It went really well and I had some really dedicated students that did a really good job. The students ended up creating:

• 2 billboards
• street signs
• carpet mosaic
• seems like there was something else, but I can't remember

It was really great to be in charge of such a great project. I chose different projects for each class block. The carpet mosiac was, by far, the most work and that which I was most proud of. I remember the students really made it tough at the beginning but eventually did such a great job. The mosaic was created for the Mattawa Clinic and it's still up on the wall!

Day 16-- A Song That Makes You Cry

There have been many songs that have made me cry; however, the first one that came to mind when I read the title is "What Hurts the Most" by Rascall Flatts. Anothe real tear jerker is "Probably Wouldn't Be This Way" by Leann Rhimes. Sad, sad, sad.

Day 15 -- Fanfic

If I was in high school I would probably have a blog entry for this, but I'm not so I don't.

Day 14 -- A Non-fiction Book

I havn't read many non-fiction books but this is one that really stands out to me. I read it in high school and I still remember the way it made me feel. How anyone can do that to a child is beyond me.

Day 13 -- A Fictional Book

Ok, so we already talked about favorite books and I was feeling a little uninspired when I saw today's topic but then I decided I'd choose a children's book, and this is what I chose. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this book! It's so sweet and I get a little teary every time I read this, especially now that I'm a mommy.

Day 12 -- Whatever Tickles Your Fancy -- The Attack of the 2 Year Old With the Marker!

So, the title pretty much says it all. It could have been MUCH worse. The sad thing is that they were both just playing at my feet when this happened. (I'll admit I was distracted working on this very blog or the picture for it.) At least it wasn't permanent!







Another thing that isn't really tickling my fancy but that is very much on my mind is my behind! Chad and I went on an adventure the other day in the woods behind his mom's house. We ended up getting a little lost and having to trek though deer (not people) made paths. It was great excercise seeing as how we started off with a nice long jog, not knowing we were going to be out there for almost two hours! The result is a very unhappy butt! I'm pretty sure it's my sciatic nerve, it reminds me of being pregnant with Lainee; however, it is much more painful this time. OW! OW! OW! I'm hoping it clears up in the next day or two so I can get back to working out. I just got Turbo Jam in the mail and I'm excited to get started on it!

Day 11 -- A Photo Take Recently

Here is the most recent photo taken of me (I think). It was in Walla Walla while we were visitng my sister, Ashley. KJ and I had just slid down the slide.

Day 10 -- A Photo Taken Over 10 Years Ago

This is one of the most recent, over 10 years ago pictures I could find. I'm currently at my mother in law's for the weekend so I had to go on a photo hunt on myspace. This is a picture of my sisters and I holding our cousin. If you can't tell, I'm the one in the middle, in the blue.

Day 09 -- A Photo You Took

This picture was taken in Ocean Shores. This had washed up on the shore. I thought it was so cool and of course it was one of the main pictures spots on the beach so I was lucky to get a picture of it without random people standing around. It was this or a winter picture and I decided to go for beach, besides it would be nice to be there right now, huh?

Day 08-- A Picture That Makes You Sad/Angry

There is one type of photo that I find the most heart wrenching and it is one of a child who has lost his/her life. I have two examples, neither of which I'm going to show the actual photo of.

1. There is a photo of a father holding his baby girl who lost her life due to the Haiti earthquake. I believe this particular photo was on the cover of a NY magazine. It was one of the most awful things I've ever seen and I felt so terribly bad for the father and for every other parent who was suffering like he was.

2. There is an organization called Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep Photography, if you look them up their site will come up. It is a group of volunteer photographers who take pictures of newborns who have passed away due to health problems, because they were stillborn, etc... I unfortunately found out about the site because I knew of a woman who had pictures done by one of the photographers. Just going to the site brings me to tears. So, so sad.


I couldn't imagine the pain and suffering parents go through after losing a child and I hope and pray that I don't ever have to know that pain.

Day 07 -- A Picture That Makes You Smile

Do I really need to explain why this is the picture that I chose?

Day 06 -- Whatever Tickes Your Fancy

Today we went to Walla Walla to visit Ashley, we then headed over to Tri-Cities and hung out with Nicole too. It was a fun (but long) day so I'm tired and I'm not going to write much. I had an idea for this post yesterday and I completely forgot. So, I did post... it's just not a lot. I will make up for it later! :)

Day 05 -- Your Favorite Quote

"A day without laughter is a day wasted."

--Charlie Chaplin