Mink Mink - Goone Goone

Well I am pleased to report the pacifier is now just a memory. Mylieh has done very well without it. She still asks when I put her in the car but I just remind her she's a Big Girl and she say's "Big Girl No mooe Mink Mink" I will say I think it kept her calm. Since she's been without it she has been more of a handful and very busy. But that might just be a coincidence.

Well Christmas is over and the house is a disaster. We are slowly finding places for all the new stuff. We had a great Christmas. Kermit's parents came for a few days. The girls enjoyed that alot. I had a fun Christmas but am glad it's over I must say. I need to get back into my routine and so do the girls. Being off, going to parties and having house guests has killed my diet. So far I think I have went up and down but I am hoping the result Sunday is the same as 2 weeks ago. Pray for me...

Here's a pic of the house after Santa left :o)

Mylieh got a doll bed and high chair! Kashyn a Nintendo DS!

While Christmas was wonderful. I did feel a void knowing we are missing a family member this year. I hope each year that gets easier especially for my cousin and Chloe. I know I wasn't super close to Maddie but she is missed and I know my cousin would do anything to have her back. Please keep Darren and Chloe in your prayers.

I do have some good news to end with though. My brother asked Whitney to marry him while they were on their cruise the week before Christmas. She was totally shocked. She did say YES but she didn't see it coming. Which I think made it ever cooler!!! I hear there will be a wedding in September sometime. I am SO excited. Here's a pic of the proposal.. SO ROMANTIC!!!

Operation Bye-Bye Mink-Mink - FAIL!!!

Last night I tried my first attempt at operation "Bye-Bye Mink-Mink". Mylieh threw a huge fit in the middle of Hobby Lobby yesterday because she wanted her mink-mink, which I didn't have. I mean to tell you it was so bad I ended up just leaving Hobby Lobby with a cart full in the aisle. I told her then and there mink-minks were gone, no more. There is no reason to act that way. She goes all day at school without one she could last another 30 min. So I did really good. I got them all out of her bed and put them away. I made her go to bed without it. She cried but wasn't too bad. She did alot better than I thought she would. She woke up about 1 and Kermit took care of it. Not sure what he did but he didn't give her a mink-mink and she went back to sleep. But at 4:30 she woke up again. This time there was no way to calm her. I tried for over 30 min then finally I gave in and gave her a mink-mink. OPERATION FAILED!!! She is kinda sick maybe now is not the time. So the idea tonight is no mink-mink still but if we can't get her calmed in the middle of the night we will give it to her. I hate this and potty training these are the 2 I dread. I thought it was going to be ok. I even had her telling Kashyn "Sissy I big girl no more mink-mink"

I did it!!! I put in an order at Amazon yesterday for some Visual Basic Programming books and guess what they are to be sent to my correct address!! YEAH ME!!! I am off work next week for 2 weeks and my life would be 100% easier if I came back from my time off knowing VB for Excel. I am lost at work right now without it.

Christmas time is hard when you are on a diet. I know it's only one day, but it just doesn't work that way. For the last 2 weeks every morning when I get here some one has left a gift on my desk and most of the time it's food. GOOD FOOD! So far I have been good but Wednesday it was nuts and I ate them. I guess if I am going to cheat nuts aren't so bad. I can't really blame anyone though my gift this year to all of them was food too. ( Remember all those mini-loaves I told you I made the other night.) Yesterday was snack day at work. I pretty much ate whatever I wanted and paid for it all evening. I felt like total crap last night because my stomach hurt.

On a funny note Mylieh is saying alot more words. Like Santa Clause and Rudolph. Not sure you'd know that's what she's saying if you didn't see her pointing at it too. Last night I asked her what Santa brings and she said "Presents!". I said what do you want Santa to bring and Kashyn coaxed her into saying "Puppy!". It was cute, but no more puppies at our house. :o)

Baby It's Cold Outside!!

It's COLD actually it's FREEZING outside!! I woke up this morning and checked the road conditions. It's slick in spots where I am and slick and hazardous where I am going so I decided today would be a great day to work from home. And it was a good day to do just that. I got some work done. I took my lunch hour and was able to pickup the kitchen, living room and Mylieh's room and wrap some presents for Kashyn's class. I could get used to this, actually it's not bad from time to time but I do like going to work. But the cool thing is I have been really wanting to watch some training videos and feel bad doing it at work because I keep forgetting my headset. So this morning was a great morning to do that. In the afternoon I had a conference call to prepare for and lead.

Last night I made 23 mini loaves for teachers and my co-workers. I found the recipe for Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Pecan Bread on Mommy's Kitchen. It sounded good so that's what everyone is getting. Hope they like it I was in the kitchen for about 2 or 3 hours cooking. The house smelt yummy last night :o) I did some licking when I was done. Probably why the scale is yelling at me today. Oh well I'm entitled from time to time.

Picture Catch Up!!

Kermit & the girl's Gingerbread House! Our Christmas Ornaments (Finally Painted)

Kashyn ready for her school play!
(She plays a dancing princess doll)

My Little Snowman (Snow Girl)!

Tough Week

It's been a tough week in our family.

We lost the wife of my cousin Darren. She was a sweet and beautiful girl. She will be missed. He's doing as well as can be expected. It's going to be a long road for him, but I think he will be ok in the end. He has a great family to support him and more good friends than anyone could imagine. The funeral is tomorrow morning so say a little pray for him and her daughter Chloe.

Last night we welcomed a beautiful baby boy into our family. His name is JC and he's the cutest thing you ever did see. My cousin James and his wife Christina are the parents. He's getting extra care due to some problems with his lungs. But I have got news today one lung is better already. So we are praying he's better soon and that his mom is able to hold him soon!

Kashyn will be performing her school play tonight so that should be fun to watch. She's very excited. She's a princess doll. Should be cute.

Sad Days Ahead

I am very sad today, because we lost a family member yesterday. I don't feel like going into details, but she will be missed and my family needs lots of prayers this week and through the holiday season.

Well it's offical I did lose 40 lbs, 41 to be exact. Yea I get the green bear for Christmas!!! Yea for me and my mini-goal!!

We went to the old house Friday to get our packages. They let us come in and showed us around. They have painted all the rooms except the living room. They got rid of the wall paper in the kitchen and the hall bath (both were past due). They painted all the cabinets in the kitchen cream and them antiqued them and got new hardware. It looks really nice. I mean the kitchen looks totally different with that done. Heck I think now that they are done we can move back :o) Too bad we moved because we needed more room. I think I need to have that girl come decorate my new house. She's good.. :o) She said she was worried I wouldn't like it, but to be honest I didn't see one thing I didn't like. I mean only sad thing was she painted over Kashyn room paint but it was SO needed.

I Don't Believe It!!!

I often wonder does anyone even read this or am I talking to myself. I wish it told ya. Oh well even still it's documenting the girls and I will be glad I did it in a few years. Besides I kinda like talking to myself. :o)

I plan to go pick up my packages tonight from my old house. How fun!! I love going to see people to basically tell them I am an idiot! Oh I found out today one more package is going there. How annoying? They told me they got that one changed in time. Oh well what can I do now?

Oh I had a little happy moment at the doctor's office today. The nurse weighed me and said "This darn scale! It's weighing so off we need a new one". I said "What's it say?" She said "It says you have lost 40lbs, have you?" I said "Yes I have!!" 40lbs can you believe it!!! Ok that's not official, but on Sunday when I really weigh in I hope that's what it says. If it does I have lost 5 lbs this week and I will get the 40 lb bear for Christmas!!!

New Tradition

OK so I am a total sucker for traditions. Although not very good with keeping them up, but I do have a few. I just want my kids to look back on things and say mom did this every Christmas, Birthday or whatever.

Anyway I read on a blog about this tradition this lady does in her home at Christmas and I decided to try it. She wraps 25 Christmas type books and puts them under the tree. Each night her kids get to unwrap one and they read it as a family. Well I went through my house and found 11 Christmas type books. Some are baby books some are regular type books. So far the girls are LOVING it they can't wait until they get to open one to read. We have only done it 3 nights now but the girls really love it. The cool thing is once you do it you have 25 books already and don't have to buy every year. I wrapped up The Night Before Christmas and wrote Christmas Eve on it. :o) I thought about wrapping up Christmas movies too and saving them for the weekend but Kashyn loves to watch them I hate to make her wait for them. The first night of this was really funny because I didn't tell Kashyn what it was all about I just told her to pick a present from on the tree and open it (only the books are under there right now). My plan is to not wrap anything else in the paper I have used for the books incase you are wondering how I keep them separate. Anyway she got them all out and sorted them she said one stack was books and the other stack was something else. I laughed and told her they were all books. I think she was a little disappointed at first but she's not now. She already had her book picked out last night before I even got home from work. Last nights book was a pop-up book. I think this was Mylieh's first experience with a pop up book because every time I turned the page she freaked out laughing and hollering. It was so cute Kashyn and I were laughing so hard it took us forever to read the book.

If anyone has any good Christmas book ideas please comment and let me know.

Bear Crazy!

I know I am 31 years old, but I have turned into a sucker for these Nutri-System bears. Every time you lose 10 lbs Nutri-Systems sends you a bear.

10 lb bear 20 lb bear 30 lb bear

When you hit a 10 lb goal you get the bears in your next food shipment. So I am now hoping to get the 40 lb bear for Christmas :o) They all have names and little sayings like Ty bears but not as cute. What do I do with these bears you ask? Well so far they are on my dresser, but my NS friend in South Dakota and I have thought about putting one in each place in the house we go for food. Although we have thought that our husbands might have us committed when they see a NS bear in the freezer :o) Funny thing is everyone I have talked to on the NS site are suckers for these bears (even the guys). They say when they get their shipment the first thing they do is dig for the bear. I have to admit I am guilty!!! I did it just this week when I got my new order. I was SO excited because I was supposed to get 20 & 30!!! I only got 30 they missed it but I emailed them and 20 is on the way to my house right now. See it's like I am 5 again. So if any of you guys want to feel younger join NS! :o)

Crisis Averted

I found the person who bought my old house on MySpace and sent her a message. She was SUPER nice and said she'd get the packages for me. I am such a moron. I didn't sleep very good last night due to all this crap. I really need to be more careful. I went in last night and deleted all addresses from my Amazon account but my current one. Good thing I didn't send it to any of the other addresses they were out of state and old; every one of the people who I had sent to at those addresses has since moved. This whole thing could have been much worse.

Last week was a true test to my weight loss. I went into the week with the goal of maintain and a little hope for a loss of 1 pound. As the week went on the goal seemed to slip away. I ate out 3 times and then had Thanksgiving dinner where I ate whatever I wanted. The end result was a loss of .5 pounds. Hey that's right in the middle of my goal and hope so I am pretty happy about it! I think I was really lucky this week because eating out 3 times is not good especially what I ate.

Happy Birthday to Kermit!! Sunday he had another anniversary of his 29th birthday. He spent the day pretty much doing what I wanted. Poor guy. Maybe for my birthday we will do what he wants. Every year our church has this craft night to kick off the Christmas season. It's my favorite church event of the whole year. So we had to go. I am sure it's not top on his list of birthday activities, but he doesn't hate it. We did let him choose Qudoba Grill for lunch and Logan's for dinner. Kashyn wanted to have a surprise party and invite his friends over to play XBOX and take a nap because that's what he likes to do. :o)

Kashyn is in the church's Children's Choir she sings and plays the hand chimes every Sunday in advent. This past Sunday was her first Sunday, she was SO cute. She has also been practicing for her dance Christmas programs. As well as her school play where she is a ballerina. She has alot to remember this time of year.

Mylieh is home this week with one of those childhood illnesses. She's fine just considered contagious. Hope it clears up soon I think she misses her best friend BELLA!!! :o)

Guess What I Did!!!

You will NEVER guess, so I am going to just have to tell you. I decided to be all cool and do some online shopping Friday. Well today I start getting emails from Amazon saying when my orders will arrive. I am SO excited I open the emails to check it out and guess what I see. I see my old address there plain as day. I shipped every single one of them to my old house. And they are already at UPS so I am pretty much stuck. I guess I will be talking to the new owners this week since a box is set to arrive Thursday and Friday. I am SO mad. I really think steam came out of my ears. Good thing is they were nice Christian people so I think it will be ok, but I really hate to bug them. STUPID STUPID!!! ARGH!!! And to think I was thinking to myself "hmm don't really have anything to blog about today". God is really funny isn't he? He's probably just there having a good laugh at this one. :o) Well I am sure once this week is over I will find all this funny too. Moral of this story.... Don't online shop when you got up at 4 am to do Black Friday Shopping and are still tired. I guess I need to go delete my old address out of Amazon so that won't happen again.

Thanksgiving!!

Our family has a lot to be Thankful for this year! We are all in good health, we both have jobs (this is iffy at Thanksgiving last year), and we have wonderful people in our lives that make it full and happy.

We had a great Thanksgiving at mom and dad's yesterday. We ate until we popped and then we played Wii and ate some more. Good Times!!

Here's a pic of My and I before we left the house.

Here is the picture of our 1st Craft the pilgrims and Indian out of toilet paper rolls :o)

Here's a picture of the Turkey Cutting!!!

Hope you guys had a great Thanksgiving!!!

CA Meeting, Here I come!

Hi my name is Tracey and I am addicted to FamilyFun.com. :o) I think I need to go to a CA meeting, as in Crafters Anonymous. hehe.. Last night the girls and I made advent calendars. Well Kashyn, her friend Alyssa and I, Mylieh napped. Kermit thinks I have lost my marbles. I think I have too, but Kashyn is loving a mom with no marbles. :o) She LOVES doing the crafts. Last night she wanted me to show her where I found the ideas online. So I did and we watched about 10 videos on how to make other things. HEHE I am creating a monster. A CRAFT Monster. :o) She already has an idea for Uncle Travis and Gammy. Not sure if we will do the Gammy idea it's a 2 day process. :o) But you never know I am a sucker, she has pink and blue hair remember.

Well I kinda blew my diet today. I was so busy at work I didn't get to eat breakfast so by the time lunch rolled around I was starving. So I emailed Whitney and told her we needed to try the new Sushi place Lin's. Sushi isn't horrible so I thought this would be ok. OH MY GOODNESS it was a Chinese Buffet complete with fresh sushi. I was in Chinese heaven and I was starving. Now I did bad I will tell you that but not as bad as I would have 3 months ago before NS. I am so full and I feel bad about it but we need it every once in awhile right. If you haven't tried Lin's and aren't on a diet I recommend it. YUMMY! Of course remember I was starving and I have been eating out of a cardboard box for 3 months.

Busy Weekend!

I lost only 1 lb this week. Kinda bummed but then I remembered that put me at 35.5 lbs down. That's huge!! Also when I started NS I had only planned to lose 1 to 2 a week so what's all the sadness about?? Oh and I remembered I probably only lost 1 based on a few things I should have done differently. So I am good now. So my ambitious goal this week is to lose 1 lb but with Thanksgiving I will just be happy if I maintain!!!

This weekend was busy!!! Friday Kermit got Lasik so now he can see 20-20 without glasses. He's so happy about it. I am too it's so worth it!! Saturday the girls and I all got new hair-dos. I got a perm and color, Mylieh got a much needed trim, and Kashyn got a trim added red and green highlights. Yep you read it right. They look more like pink and blue to me and I am not too happy about it because we are getting family pictures made this weekend. But she and Jane suckered me into it. Oh well it's her right. The pictures should show our true personalities right!!! As many of you guys know this isn't her first color experience! Good thing is it barley lasts a month. Sunday we went to church and then I Christmas shopped all day. I think we are broke now and I am not done. haha

Saturday night Kashyn and I did crafts. We made a boy and girl pilgrim and an Indian out of toilet paper rolls. I will post a pic of them sometime this week. They are SO cute. Last night the whole family made ornaments. We will get to paint them this week. Some turned out really cute.

Mylieh Funny!!

I started my morning with prayer today, so we will see how the day goes. I hope good because Kermit is getting Lasik today. He's stressing, but it's normal I did too before mine. He will be SO happy he did it come tomorrow morning.

I have to tell you a funny story that escaped me yesterday. I must confess the outcome might be TMI so you have been warned. Mylieh went to bed at like 6:30 Wednesday night. I fought it, but she was tired so I let her. She then woke up at 5:30 am the next morning. This is strange for her because she can usually sleep until 7:30 am even if she goes to bed early. But I will not say I was surprised in the least I mean 6:30 pm is early. Since I don't usually get up until 6 I tried to get her to go back to sleep by laying her with me. At 6 she hadn't gone back to sleep so I took her in the bathroom with me while I got ready for work. She decided she needed to go potty. This is something she does when she sees her toilet. (We are not potty training yet but we do have it out so when she wants to try we let her.) Anyway I helped her out of her diaper and pj's and she sat on the toilet. She messed around in there a little bit, while I finished getting ready then she ran out. Out of the corner of my eye I saw something on the floor. Yes, You guessed it POO!!! I cleaned it up and and checked her booty yep POO!! I told her to come on she really needed cleaned up. She ran all the way to her room and we got her all cleaned up. When I went back in the bedroom I noticed something on the floor so I looked you guessed it tiny POO!!! So I cleaned that up. The whole time Mylieh is SO proud waking her daddy up yelling "DADDY POOP!! DADDY POOP!!" Over and over. So while she was all excited I sneaked out to work. I got about 3 miles down the road and my cell rang. It was Kermit, he had called to inform me that I hadn't got all the POO!! He just stepped in some. I guess in her running excitement through the house she had some pieces fall :o) Haha.. KIDS!!!

Last night she wanted to use the potty again. So I put her on it and told her I'd be right back. This time I was going to get the diaper no more running through the house dropping POO pieces. When I came back I had to laugh. There she was sitting on her potty with a Better Homes and Garden Magazine open looking intently. I guess while I was gone she decided she needed to read. HAHA. I got a pic of this :o) She's just so darn cute at this age. :o)

How Do You Start Your Day?

If you are anything like me you roll out of bed, jump straight into the shower, and off to your daily routine. Have you ever thought about pausing and praying when you first get up? Well I haven't, not when I am in the thick of it. I have thought about how if I started my morning with God my day might be better but I have never tried it. A good friend of mine has been trying it lately and she's saying it works. So because of her inspiration I think I will try it tomorrow. What better way to start your day?

Praying is important but I can't say I do it as often as I should. I mean some days I don't think I do at all. Yeah maybe a "Please God do this for me", but not truly pray. Why you ask?? I think because I don't know how to pray. I know how to ask what I want and thank Him for what he's given me but it seems like it should be more than that. I decided to google "How to Pray" what I found was quite interesting. I was directed to Matthew 6:5-13.

Here it is for you.
“And now about prayer. When you pray, don't be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them. I assure you, that is all the reward they will ever get. But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father secretly. Then your Father, who knows all secrets, will reward you. "

“When you pray, don't babble on and on as people of other religions do. They think prayers are answered only by repeating words over and over again. Don't be like them, because your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him! Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be honored. May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done here on earth, just as it is in heaven. Give us our food for today, and forgive us our sins, just as we have forgiven those who have sinned against us. And don't let us yield to temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”

Well most of us have been taught that God knows what you need and what you are thinking without even talking, He even knows before you know. So just say the Lord's prayer when other words escape you. This is hard for me because saying the Lord's prayer seems like you are just running through memorized words. But if you really know what you are saying it might help.

Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
TRANSLATION: Jesus says we should give honor to God and His name.

Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
TRANSLATION: We are to pray for His Kingdom to come, and for His will to be done, that there would be a heavenly or godly presence here on earth.

Give us this day our daily bread.
TRANSLATION: We are to pray for daily provision.

And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
TRANSLATION: We are to pray and ask for forgiveness for our sins, and for others who have wronged us.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
TRANSLATION: We are to pray and ask God to keep us from being tempted, and to deliver us from Satan and his power.

Another thing I found interesting was looking up this verse in the different translations and see how they differ. If you want you can do that at... http://bibleresources.bible.com/passagesearch.php

One more thing to add, it seems silly that I think I don't know how to pray when God put it there in the Bible for us it's all we need. I always thought I needed to have list of blessings and wants and needs as well as some other things. All I need is the Lord's prayer and an open heart that means what I am saying. Everything else I need he already knows. Hope this helps you as well.

The Little Things in Life!

Last night I got to do something I haven't got to do in a very long time. I got to rock Mylieh to sleep!!!! It was so nice. She's a put me in my bed and leave me alone type of girl; so for her to let me rock her to sleep last night was a huge treat. She went to bed before 8 though :o( It was kinda nice because Kermit and I got to teach Kashyn a card game. She's been really into learning games lately. So last night we taught her how to play Phase 10. And she kept score! She's getting SO big!! The night before we taught her Yathzee. In the last 2 weeks we have played Disney Monopoly Jr, Gotcha (a game Kermit's mom made us), and we attempted Racko but she didn't like it too much. Next I want to teach her Mexican Dominoes.

Last night I also made another personal break through in my weight loss. I was able to unpack a whole box of clothes (except 2 pairs of pants that were a little too snug, but I will be in them before you know it.). It was like shopping in my closet!!! So what did I do with my old pants you ask. I boxed them up and shipped them to South Dakota to my NS friend. I don't know anyone here who would wear that size. Plus the farther away the better huh!!! Can't have those old pants hanging around or I might be like a hermit crab and try to fit in them again. I did keep my jeans though. I am too cheap to go buy new ones just yet so I am going to wear them baggy a little longer. Plus I plan to keep one pair so I can try them on from time to time to remind myself how far I have come. My NS friend and I were joking about me sending her the pants. She told me I better hurry or they will be too big. Funny she will probably only use these pants maybe a month :o)

34.5lbs DOWN!!!

I weighed in last night and I was SO happy to see I dropped 3 more pounds. So that's a total of 34.5lbs. Yeah!!! You know I am a little worried though. I have been loosing every week pretty steady. I know sooner or later it's going to slow down and get harder. And thats when it's going to be hard to stay on program. But I will not dwell on it now because all is good. Just when I hit that point you guys might need to remind me how far I have come. 34.5lbs is alot ya know. I mean I don't see it much but really that's a lot of weight. So I am starting week 10 now very excited. My new mini-goal is 45 lb by Christmas. Hmm... that averages out to about 2 lbs per week not sure I will make it with Thanksgiving in there but setting the goal a little high might help me through Thanksgiving.

For those of you who don't blog. It's not for everyone that's for sure but I will tell you doing it on my NS page has helped me. So if you have a struggle need a place to get it out it's great. Infact I have a friend I got started who is blogging about her journey to quit smoking. I hope it's helping her, that's a hard struggle. This particular blog here I like to keep my friends and family updated. It's my way to get the word out without calling everyone :o) I am not sure how many people are reading this blog. So if you have comments please leave them. Under this post there is a thing that says a number and then COMMENTS. If you click on it you can leave a message without logging in. I will only know who left it though if you put your name in the comment, so please do :o)

A New Perspective

Wednesday night I was blogging back and forth on my Nutrisystem site with this NS friend I have made in South Dakota. I swear she's probably my twin. We are SO much alike. Maybe one day when we are both super skinny we will meet at the beach :o) Anyway what I realized when talking to her was that I have lost 31.5 lbs. I mean really to me doesn't sound like much because I still have 94 lbs to go. But that night, it hit me like a ton of bricks, 31.5 lbs is more than Mylieh weighs. I have lost a whole Mylieh and some!!! Heck 19 more pounds and I will have lost a Kashyn. :o) Changes things when you put it in perspective huh?? No wonder I felt like crap all the time. Can't say I am perfect now but much better than I was. I would even say my attitude has even improved but don't ask Kermit he might not agree. hehe...

The time change is killing me. I miss my, Mylieh-Boo! Since the time change she has been going to bed so early. She used to go to bed at 9. I mean 9 o'clock she'd start fussing and if we asked her if she was tired she'd go to her room. Since the time change it's been 8 which makes sense, but Tuesday and Wednesday she went to bed before 7:30. And she sleeps all night. I guess her body thinks if it's dark she must be asleep. Last night I made her stay up until 8. In a way it's nice because I can get some things done but I miss her. I see her a couple hours and then she goes to bed. I know I need to enjoy it while it lasts huh? Kashyn is the exact opposite she would stay up all night every night if I'd let her.

Sunshine Baaa-Beee!

Letterboxing?

I am so excited to tell you about something I found out about today. There is an activity called Letterboxing. Anyone ever heard of it? Here is the website http://www.letterboxing.org/. Sounds like lots of fun, if you like that sort of thing. The website even has a map and you can click on a state and pick and area and see all the boxes in that area and get the clues. There are over 20,000 letterboxes in North America. I think Kermit the girls and I might try it on a nice slow day. I'll post when we finally get to try it. We rarely have a slow day around our house. :o)

Mylieh goes to daycare with a whole group of vampire babies!!! She has been bit so many times lately, I lost count. At least once a week I would say. It's insane! I have talked to the teachers and they said it's all of the kids not just one. She was bit again yesterday. Funny thing is I know she's only 19 months but if I say "Who bit you today Mylieh?" She will say "Georgia Byte!" or "Kason Byte!" I keep waiting for the day she starts biting. I don't want a biter but she might have to do it to survive. :o

It's an amazing thing to watch your child learn. Watching Kashyn learn to read is so fun. And she is picking up on so much lately. She even has thoughts on the election which cracks me up. But be warned if you have a girl, I think age 6 is the chatter-box age. She talks non-stop.

On my weight loss.. Well yesterday I had a planned lunch with friends at a Chinese restaurant. When I say "planned lunch" it means I took necessary measures to not gain weight from going out. Anyway this place I love to go to but rarely get to go. So I am all pumped I get there and start eating and what happens? I found a bug in my drink. I guess I must tell you the last time I went there we found a few bugs on the table. So needless to say I am done with this place. I think God's telling me get on program, Don't you?

Veteran's Day

Well today is Veteran's Day so a special thanks to all the military folks who are serving or have served our country. It's a big job and you give up alot to do it. Well since today is Veteran's Day Kashyn's school is putting on a program. She really wanted Kermit to go to this program because he used to be in the Air Force and that is a big deal to her. She told me the other day that he is supposed to wear his military clothes. I said "I don't think daddy's fit anymore" and she said "Mommy yes they do he has those shorts he has from when he was in the military". It took me a few minutes to figure out what she was talking about. And then it hit me Kermit has a couple pair of camo shorts he got from, I think Target that he wears in the summer. All this time she thought they were from when he was in the Air Force. I had to chuckle hehe... I said "Sweetie those came from Target" She's so cute sometimes with her thoughts. I just love to listen to her perspective of things.

These days Mylieh's favorite things are the following. She LOVES the song "You Are My Sunshine". She says "Son-chine Baa-bee" When you sing it to her she sings the "Sunshine" part. She loves Elmo or "Mel-mo" not sure why I just recently had her watch him. Kashyn watched alot more videos at this age than Mylieh does probably because she can just play with her sister. She loves to holler "Maa Maa", "Daa Dee" or "Sis-C" constantly for no apparent reason. I think her best friend at school is probably Bella. Because she is constantly hollering "Bel-lalala" through the house as well. She loves to lock herself in the pantry and giggle. She is also addicted to her "Mink Mink" which is her pacifier for all of you who don't speak fluent Mylieh. This I plan to work on removing during Thanksgiving break. She LOVES bananas or as she calls them "ba-nuh-lala". Anything that has an "A" ending or a "ly" ending she just sticks her tongue out and says them by making a "la" or "ly" sound and moving her toung all around. It's the funniest thing ever.

Ok so enough for today I have talked your ear off. :o)

Nutrisystems

Below it what I have had on my Nutrisystem site for the reasons and motivations as to why I need and want to lose weight. It might help some of you and it might be comedy for some of you (if it's comedy you probably aren't one of my GOOD friends hehe). Either way here it is if you are interested. Some the stuff I know you are going to think "Oh Tracey" about but it's true I did feel this way and I have found on NS I am not the only person who feels this way. But I will tell you with 30 lbs down some of these feelings have gone away or are fading.

Here's what's on my NS site!
I have always had weight issues, but I have been battling my weight since I was a teen. I joined Nutrisystem when I was 15 and lost to my goal by the time I was 16. It was the best time of my life weight wise. I kept it off until I was about 18 but then I started college and slowly started gaining back. I then went into a yo-yo of dieting with different programs each time gaining back more than I had lost. Finally here I am 15 years later at 31 with 2 kids and carrying an extra person around with me daily. It’s time to get rid of the monkey on my back. :o)

One of my turning point moments was when not long ago I was going to fill up the sandbox with sand for my girls and as I was carrying that very heavy (really too heavy) 60lb bag of sand; that it occurred to me that I am carrying around 2 of those daily that I shouldn't. I thought no wonder my back hurts, I‘m tried and cranky. This is it I need to get rid of a bag of sand. So here I am 2 months after that getting started.

I also had another turning point moment when I was turned down for an increase in life insurance. Even though I am perfectly healthy my weight kicked me out. That hurt bad!!!

This is a turning point in my life. I have 2 girls and we are pretty sure we are finished building our family. I have been forced in to a job change due to outsourcing and have started a new job. Interviewing and starting a new job was hard for me because I have low self-esteem when it comes to my looks because of my weight. Plus being over-weight I was in a comfort zone at my old job and now I was going to have to go out there and wow people, meet new people, and make new friends. That’s a hard thing to do for someone who’s over-weight and ashamed of how they look. I’d really rather not leave the house at all much less meet new people.

I have found my weight to be crippling in a way. Although I go a lot, I don’t want to go places for fear I will see someone from the past and they will think “Wow! She got fat”. I also feel ashamed of myself and bad for my family. When I look in the mirror I don’t like who I see and I kind of feel bad for everyone who has to look at me. I know all of this is in my head. My friends and family are great and they see past what I can’t.

My motivation is taking my kids to Disney World next year (we hope). No I will not be at my goal weight. I know that takes time, but I know I will be a smaller me and have more energy. We went to Silver Dollar City last November and there were a couple rides I came close to not fitting on. I do not want that to happen at Disney World.

Why Blog??

Why start a blog?? Hmm good question. I started getting it ready to document my weight loss journey. I thought blogging about it might help someone struggling out there. As well as help me get my feelings out of my head. However while getting the blog ready I decided I also needed to be keeping track of what the girls were doing somewhere so I have it later. They are growing so fast I can't keep up. So that's what you will see here some about my journey to drop some sand (explanation to come later) and some about what's going on in our house mainly with the girls. I have made this site public so anyone can see it and not have to sign up. I plan to use our first names only and don't plan to add any location information. In case there are crazy people out there looking. So if you comment don't put any of that information in your comment please. I know I am a paranoid freak but you love me anyway right!!!