Weight Watchers and Nieces

So the Holidays are over and I am finally able to get my diet back on track. I ate junk food like it was going out of style! I have joined Weight Watchers Online and look forward to getting to a healthy lifestyle. I gained close to 10 pounds over the Holidays... Yep ick! I decided to try Weight Watchers as I have heard and seen success stories from my best friend and most recently my Mother Inlaw. I am confident that I will be able to be yet another success story. On a completely different note keep your eyes open for a blog post in a few days on the Adventure of playing house with my nieces as there mom and dad take a vacation to Turks and Caicos. Thats right, I have my nieces all week and I will be playing mom as I get them to school, pick them up from school, review homework, bedtimes, fun times, and so much more! Til next time! "Live well, laugh often, and love much!

Holiday Shred...No more challenge...

As day 14 comes around I gain 3 pounds for another very disappointing week.

Day 14

Current Weight 202 pounds

In spending another moment reflecting on why... Just over a year ago I was eating healthy,  and going to the gym every morning. My weight was going in the direction I wanted it too. I felt great. So as I look back at what life was like I realize I really didn't have many time constrained goals/challenges. I just did what I needed to do. So with that said. I am giving the Holiday Shred challenge the ax and starting over. There will be one goal for now and that is to work towards a weight ranging from 155-160 pounds. I will continue to strive to find and research what works for me. Challenges are not for me, and even when I did weight loss challenges with friends or co-workers I always seemed to have the mind-set just not the follow through. 

A big part of my inspiration to continue this journey and strive for what works and share my journey is Katie with Girl on a Mission to Lose the Cushion. I strongly urge you to check out her blog! I love it and hope to have the success she has had.

Til next time! "Live well, laugh often, love much"

Holiday Shred Progress... I think not...

Alright... I have to be brutally honest with myself. The past week was complete failure... I was so excited to start this journey and was less than prepared. Lesson learned this week; Plan ahead... Prepare, prepare, prepare... So this week I have planed out meals, gym times, what I am going to do at the gym, and simply every aspect of my life. There are no progress pics this week as well there was no progress. I tried to diet, I thought I would go to the gym but just never got my butt there. So this past weekend I had a heart to heart with myself. I am prayed for the strength to make this next week a success. I really truly want this and I am hopeful that this next week will be just what I need.

Day 7

Weight: 198

Goal Weight on New Years day: 180

For at total of 18 pounds to lose

Holiday Shred Day 1

I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving holiday. I sure did. Tons of great food! With Thanksgiving past we are on the countdown to New Years day (and Christmas too). For my countdown to New Years day I am going to countdown the pounds. Hence my Holiday Shred from Tuesday November 27th to New Years day. Each Tuesday I will blog about my successes, struggles, and of course progress pics! I look forward to the challenge and I am excited to share it with all of you! Yes I will disclose my weight it is something I am not proud of but if I can't be honest with my weight and health than how am I supposed to succeed at this challenge? So below is a picture  and weight of where I start today.

Day 1

Weight: 198

Goal Weight on New Years day: 180

For at total of 18 pounds to lose

My journey won't stop at 180 pounds. I am going to continue with a Post Holiday Shred that starts on the last day of my first shred. My final goal is to be between 155 pounds and 160 pounds. Please feel free to share what works for you I am always open to try new things.

Til next time! "Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much"

Sneaky Sales Girls

Well it never fails when the boss is away the sales girls will play! Most of my pranking I have learned from my co-sales girls Jocelyn and Cindy. Joce and I would prank our boss  J.R. left and right. If he stepped out for so much as a minute boom office chair set at its lowest setting... Which by the way is the most hilarious prank especially when your boss goes to sit down and you hear boom boom crash... Bahahahahaha... Don't worry he was okay and that was the last time we ever did that prank. But needless to say using a black hair binder to tie the phone cords together so when he went to answer the phone it went flying, flipping his computer screen sideways or upside down, or locking him out of the office never got old... The most memorable prank is payback when you ditch your sales girls the day after thanksgiving, and come back to find that your desk magically looks like christmas threw up all over it.

Yes, Jocelyn and I have been pranked... I will never forget when we clued in J.R.'s boss D.K. into what we were doing with J.R.'s computer... D.K. was all for it and even helped us. Unannounced to us we were BETRAYED!!! So D.K. clued in J.R. and set us up. They had taken another computer that no longer worked and managed to make it look like it was thrown against the wall. I remember I was the first one in the office, and J.R. was acting angry that his computer wasn't working (side note: it takes a lot... I mean a lot to make J.R. angry). He would say what a waste of time it was for him to come in early to try to get work done, talk about what a piece of crap his computer is and he broke it because he was so mad... Me being the chicken that I am while trying to remain innocent called Jocelyn and told her to hurry up and get to the office because I was nervous. Of course Jocelyn was laughing me not so much... J.R. and D.K. finally came clean as we came clean on our prank which at the time we thought turned not so good.

Now that Joce has left my side at the good ol H-I I was lucky enough to have Sassy Cindy join the team (second side note: Jocelyn is good at giving nicknames that stick i.e. Sassy Cindy). Great because Cindy and I  had worked together in the past and I knew what I was getting into. I will say Jocelyn is hands down the most creative, and hilarious prank master I know. So of course Cindy had big shoes to fill. Cindy has been great at coming up with awesome ideas. So essentially her and I paired together would eventually strike. We decided to go after the one person who people would not dare to prank (okay okay slight exaggeration)... Jocelyn... I knew that Joce was going to be away from her home for the day, because of course we still keep in close touch! Jocelyn had collected an abundance of advertisement cards for a magician and it was more than we could hand out at any given time. Cindy and I would always remind her about the over abundance of magician cards and tell her someday she will find them in random places.  Cindy came up with the great idea to write sayings, most of which only Jocelyn, Cindy, and I would understand, and tape it to her front door window (random place number 1) for all to see especially the FedEx man... Of course it wasn't just a few pieces of tape to hold up there. We wanted to make sure it was not exactly easy to remove. We later followed up with Jocelyn to make sure she received our present and had a few good laughs. All said and done we were pleased to have pranked the prank master. More random places for the magician card to come!

Next on the agenda... 12 days of Christmas! Cindy and I may need Jocelyn's pranking expertise for this one.

Til next time! "Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much"

3rd Annual Deer Widows Weekend

Deer opener brings a yearly girls weekend with Lauren. For those of you who don't know Lauren is not only my husbands cousin she is my friend. This is our 3rd annual deer widows weekend together. The first year was in Killeen, Texas. Year number 2 was in Ogden Kansas along with this year which is year number 3.  I note where our annual girls weekends happen as every couple of years Lauren moves. You see Lauren's husband Nate serves in the United States Army full time and the first year they were based in Fort Hood and currently based in Fort Riley. I love being able to travel to the different places to visit Lauren. It gives me the opportunity to visit places people wouldn't normally vacation.

So a little bit about Lauren. She is the same age as myself, is married to Nate, and has the most cute, witty, fun loving little 3 year old boy Torin. Her dad is my father in-laws brother. We became friends through my husband Matt and bonded even closer my first deer widows visit in Texas.

About my trip! Note when taking a road trip with a GPS make sure to check your settings prior to departure. What was suppose to be a eight and a half hour trip turned into a ten hours and fifteen minutes to be exact. Apparently my GPS was set to avoid traffic so it directed me around Des Moines, Iowa and around Kansas City. Also please note that Minnesota is the probably the only state where you can pump your gas before paying... I carried cash only with me on this trip and when I arrived in Missouri to fill my tank I noticed no matter where you went it was pre-pay or pay at the pump. So in I go to pre pay which drives me nuts because I had no clue how much it was going to be. When I asked the lady if this a Missouri thing to do that she looked at me like I was nuts. I explained why I ask because in Minnesota we can pay at the pump or pay after pumping. Again she looked at me like I was nuts. Then 2 men ease dropping on my conversation decide to comment and call me old fashioned... Excuse me by the looks of your cities I would have to say Missouri is old fashioned. Call me crazy but I guess Minnesota trusts people more then other states. So I arrive in Ogden Kansas and was greeted with the biggest hug ever from Torin who promptly reminds me he is 3 years old. We spent 3 days visiting, relaxing, and enjoying the beautiful weather. We visited Fort Riley numerous times, spent some time in Manhattan. Yes thats right Manhattan, Kansas.  Attended church for an awesome sermon on Sunday, and had the opportunity to say hi to Nate via skype as he is currently serving his 4th tour for the Army (in Afghanistan).  Torin kept me laughing all weekend with every dinosaur rawer, and repeating almost everything his mom and I said. Saying goodbye was no fun... I wish they lived in Minnesota so I could see them more often. My trip home is nothing to write about except it was much quicker! Till next time "live well, laugh often, and love much"...

Picture This

I picked up the knack of capturing pictures of some of the most precious and important kiddos in my life. I love to be creative and find different ways to snap ultra cute photos of my nieces and nephew. No way am I a professional. Taking pictures is just one of my hobbies. Below are just a few examples of my photos. Let me know what you think!