The Time has Come

Well folks, the time has come. I am going to start taking the Alli pills tomorrow. I have been trying to reduce the fat in my diet for the last couple of weeks, except of course for last weekend. I counted that as my last hoorah. Actually the reason I have waited until tomorrow is because I didn't want it to interfere with that special dinner. I didn't want to have any "treatment effects" while traveling out of town.

I hope this will help me by forcing me to reduce the fat and eat healthier so that I don't have adverse "treatment effects." That is such a more pleasant way of saying it. Anyway, I hope to be posting updates and results that will be positive. I hope to add recipes that I find that work well with the plan and other tips that help me stick with it.

It is hard when you have struggled with your weight almost all of your life. I am finally tired of being fat and want to start living a healthier more active life. When you have two small children you need all the energy you can get. Being overweight just zaps that from you. I am wanting this to work so that this summer we will have more fun then ever; more bike rides, more walks, more parks and maybe even some swimming!

If any of my two readers out there have tips, suggestions, inspirations, recipes or anything that you think will help, chime right in. I will take all the help that I can get! Here's to seeing less of me in the future.

Those Rotten Scondrels

Those dirty rotten little scondrels! When we got home form having a fantastic weekend, I was looking forward to seeing my sweet little children. It is not often that we leave our children. In fact I think that to date I have been away from them only overnight twice. So I was really looking forward to having them run and great me at the door and tell me how much they missed me. My daughter will say "Mommy I really missed you!" when I go to the grocery store for 30 minutes. I really expected to see them come running to me as soon as I walked in the door. What a surprise we got when we walked in the door. The children were no where to be found and this is how we found Grandma......





She had been tied up and gagged! When we got her untied she said she had been in that state for over a half hour. Luckly she was okay and we were able to locate the children upstairs watching movies and stuffing themselves with candy!

I guess we have learned our lesson. When we were leaving my husband told the kids "Don't tie Grandma up and put her in the closet while were gone." I chimed in and said "Well just don't put her in the closet."

We really have to give Grandma credit. She not only watched our two, but also my sister's three girls for the weekend. The kids all had a good time and Grandma even said she did too. She just didn't say when she would do it again!

Works for me Wednesday

Easy Lasagna

I love home made lasagna but lets face it, its a lot of work. I came up with an easy way to make home made lasagna without all the work. What works for me is using the Costco/Kirkland Frozen Four Cheese Ravioli.

What I do is:

1st Make a meat sauce out of browned ground beef (or a mix of ground beef and pork sausage) and a bottled pasta sauce.

2nd Take out the frozen four cheese ravioli.

3rd Get out grated cheese. I usually use a cheddar/jack blend also from Costco.

4th Begin to layer. First a little meat, a layer of frozen ravioli, and a little grated cheese. Repeat three times.

Bake at 350 degrees for 60 min. That's it!

The raviolis thaw while cooking. The large raviolis make for easy cutting because they are in squares. You can add any other ingredient you have time for like mushrooms, zucchini or even spinach if you want. The raviolis keep you from having to boil the noodles and prepare a ricotta cheese blend. It also keeps you from having to spread that out, which is always a pain.

This is what works for me. For other great ideas check out Shannon at RocksinmyDryer.

A Fabulous Weekend

This is the great resturant that we went to this weekend. It is called Farallon and it is Union Square in San Francisco. The decore is an underwater theme and the star is the lights that look like giant jellyfish. It is quite beautiful.

The food was out of this world. We had four different courses and then dessert. This was one of my favorites; Seared Maine Diver Scallop - paprika braised octopus, haricots verts, garlic vinaigrette. Each course got better and better.

The wine was paired so well to each course. We went from Italy, to Spain, to France and to California. It was so much fun.

I will be posting more on this great weekend. I am in the process of getting blogging permission to post more pictures.

San Francisco Here We Come!

We are off to my favorite city. We are going to San Francisco to celebrate the 40th Birthdays of two great people. I can't wait to blog about the fun we will have.

Everytime I go to SanFrancisco I think of my Mom. She loved this city too. So I will end this blog with a quote from her. "God be with Us!" I pray for a safe trip for all of us!! Until next time.

What happened to my Babies?

I loaded this disc on my computer of pictures from not that long ago. When I found these it made me very sad. They made me realize how quickly life passes. It reminded me of what my brother told me when my son was eight days old. We were celebrating his oldest's eighteenth birthday. He said, "Whatever you do, don't blink. He will be eighteen before you know it." He is right. My son is now 5 1/2 and my daughter is 3. Where did the last five and half years go?

Here he is with Santa when he was only three. Now his little sister is older than he was in this picture.

Here she is in the backpack that we bought for her brother when he was smaller than she was in this picture.

Here he is with his Mimi. I remember how hard it was to break him of that. He was also still small enough to sleep with us in our bed in our fifth wheel trailer.

Oh how much fun it was to have a baby girl who I could put big bows on! I can't believe that this baby is the same little girl that I tucked in tonight.

This is a good wake up for me. I let my work keep me away from my babies far more than I should. I forget that I have to treasure everyday with them. I need to see them, really see them, each and everyday. Because no matter how hard I try, I have to blink.

The Interrogation

This is a great idea from JMom at Lots of Scots and TNS at The Grasshopper. The idea is to ask your kids some questions each January to see how their answers change as they get older. I typed their answers as they said them. My son answered rather quickly. My daughter started almost each question with an "Um" It will be interesting to see if my son is still Power Ranger crazy next year! They both wanted me to keep asking them questions. I might have to come up with another set of questions.

My Son - age 5

What are you good at doing? I'm good at running fast fast fast.
If you had ten dollars, how would you spend it? I would spend five dollars.
What are you afraid of? Monsters.
Who are you friends? Daylon, Kara, Joshua, Mikie, Alyssa, Cee, Kaye and Jae
What is important to you? My homework.
What is your favorite book? Tag What is your favorite food? Ice cream sandwiches
What is your favorite thing about school? Playing with the Legos.
What is your favorite thing to do? It has to be playing in our fort.
How do you show your family you love them? by helping them do the dishes.
What do you want to be when you grow up? A SPD Power Ranger.

Why? because I love the cartoon of it.

What are you thankful for? I am thankful for power ranger things.

Tell me something about God. God is in my heart.

My daughter Age 3

What are you good at doing? Um, playing with babies.
If you had ten dollars, how would you spend it? Um, to pay someone.
What are you afraid of? Um, um, ghosts and monsters.
Who are you friends? Cee, Jae, Kaye, Uncle Silly Billy, Antee, Grandma

What is important to you? Um, I got the hiccups. (asked again) Michael
What is your favorite book? My first ABC Board Book
What is your favorite food? Um, um, hot dogs.
What is your favorite thing about Miss Sandy's? Ashton. Ashton is my friend.
What is your favorite thing to do? Um, read books.
How do you show your family you love them? I love Ashton.
What do you want to be when you grow up? Um, a Kangaroo

Why? because I want too. I want to ride a horsey just like a cowboy.

What are you thankful for? Um, an airplane in the sky.

Tell me something about God. God is at church.

Works for me Wednesday

My idea is a simple one. It seems that I never can find clips for the bags of food in the house. Instead of buying them I use the clip at the end of plastic pant hangers. You know the plastic ones from the store that they leave on the pants when you buy them. All you have to do is break the end off, the part with the clip, and presto a great chip clip!

I know its not a brilliant idea, but I am just starting out and this is my first Works for Me Wednesday! I am so excited to join the crowd!!

For more ideas check out www.rocksinmydryer.net.

My Husband

This is my husband, my friend and my partner in this crazy life. He tries to keep me balanced but it is a tough job. He loves to go places and camping in the mountains and at the coast are our favorite. He is the one that took me to Yosemite for the first time in my life. He could not believe that I had lived my entire life in California and had never been to Yosemite. A sin, I know. We have been there several times since and is one of our favorite places. This is from last year when we took our daughter for her first time, only thirty-two years earlier than her mother! The floor is the best place to ride your bike and really take in the splendor of it all!!

My husband is a great father. He had never really been around little kids. He was a bachelor until he was 36! When our son came, he got right in and surprised us all. He even did diapers. We were lucky that the first one was very mellow. If our daughter had come first, we would have only had one child. By the time she came, he was an old pro.

My husband is one of the best parts of this Crazy Little Life of Mine! It wouldn't be half the fun without him!!!!!

Dreams

In recognition of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, I am thinking of the Dreams that I have for me and my family.

Dream #1 That God grants me all the time I need on this earth to make sure my children know and love him. Getting my children to heaven is my most important job as a mother.

Dream #2 That my husband knows that I love him and I thank God everyday that he brought him into my life.

Dream #3 That I slow down and enjoy life everyday, because we are not guaranteed tomorrow.

Dream #4 That I impart kindness to everyone I meet.

And last but not least,
Dream #5 That I finally get this Diet thing worked out! Yes, I am again starting a new diet plan. I need to do this so that I do my part to help Dream #1 happen.

I hope to be able to incorporate my success and struggles in regards to this in the coming weeks. If I am then it means that I am actually doing it!!!

My Daughter

This is my daughter. She is sweet, loving and has an opinion. On the day she was born, we knew that we were in trouble. She was born by c-section and she was not happy about being disturbed. Her displeasure was heard by family members several rooms away. She has mellowed slightly from that first day, but not much. She is a pistol.

She loves to get dressed up and wear her "pretty dresses". She has a closet full, and I do mean full of clothes thanks to a great consignment store in our town and also three girl cousins just a little bit older than her. She likes to dress herself at times with some of her accessories. We are not sure what this one was...

We will just call it the "Morning After" look. Not pictured are the matching purple high heel shoes. This might be in the running for her eighth grade yearbook.

This is how we see her, our little princess. She has been a joy to our family. She is very kind and loves her brother. She also loves all of her babies. Whenever we are saying prayers she always prays for "all the babies." I am blessed that God chose me to raise these two beautiful children that I love so very much.

My Son

This is my son. He is a very smart and intelligent little boy. He has amazed us from a very early age. He has always been very verbal. He loves to build things and use his imagination. He created this contraption one afternoon. He had his snow sled, desk chair, pillow, toy box top, and of course his toy radio. At first it was his sled, next it became his train. He added umbrella "wheels" and it became his car. A little bit later he added knexs and it became his.......

helicopter. When he was two he called it a hoppacopter. This contraption entertained him for quite sometime. I like how he used the handles for his feet! His imagination never ceases to amaze us. We just aren't exactly sure what this was ........

The only thing that I am sure of is that this picture will surely come back to haunt him when he is older, like his eighth grade year book!

Friday

Today is Friday. The last day of the week. The day I am suppose to be off work and enjoying the day to day things that I never have time for because I have my own business. Well, it just never seems to work that way.

Take today for example. I got up at 5:30am so that I could "clean" the house before the housekeeper came! It has been three weeks since she has been here. With all the new toys that the kids got at Christmas, we had a major disaster. My DH and I had warned the kids since Monday, that any toys on the floor Thursday night would be taken away and they would not see them for a week. We should have saved our breath. I picked up two large black trash bags full of toys!

I also had to do at least five loads of laundry last night (so the housekeeper wouldn't see it overflowing both laundry baskets) and I had to get it all put away. This is not my favorite job. Doing the laundry; washing, drying and folding doesn't bother me that much. It's the putting away! I hate it.

And of course I had to go to the office just for a few minutes to get a few things done. I forgot to take in consideration that I had a 3 year old to help me! Two hours later, I have post it notes all over the front desk with highlighter on them and half of them have a staple in the middle. All the paperclips are out of the holder and the stapler is out of staples. I don't know what happened to the pen holder and the business card holder that I just filled is now empty. If I had been by myself it would have only taken me about 20 minutes. It will take me at least that long to straighten things out when I go back!

Then it was off to get the 5 year old at school, go grocery shopping, put everything away and then do dinner! I love Fridays because I don't have to work!!!!!!

Starting Out

I don't have enough craziness in my life so I guess I will add a blog to the mix. The Grasshopper has turned me on to Blogs and has convinced me that it is easy. I will give it a go so that I can document and preserve for my family our life. I hope it will be here to share for years to come.
I hope that we will all enjoy the craziness of it all!