How fast they grow!
April 28, 2010
April 26, 2010
Kindergarten
I am a little sad today, because in about 11hours, I will be taking my baby to register for Kindergarten 
This little guy:
That was just yesterday! And today I wake up and he is this big guy and he has to go to school!
My stomach is tied in knots and it isn’t even September yet! My goal for the next couple of months is to try to get him excited. Anyone who knows my Adam Bear, knows that this will be a hard transition for him and who am I kidding, it will be for me too!
I think seeing the school today & talk about how much fun it will be, will help him get a little bit more excited than he is right now. Wish us luck!
April 23, 2010
Bumps in the road
April has been an extremely hard month for me. I never thought that this journey would be easy and I never thought I would learn so much about myself.
We all use food to celebrate, to mourn, to take away pain, to ease discomfort, to relieve stress, ease boredom, anxiety, anger and to help with depression. Food doesn’t talk back, it’s always around, it is easy to find and it has immediate gratification. I looked up emotional eating, because I have been doing a lot of it lately. What I found is very interesting and it even has some biological roots as well.
“#1 Your hunger comes on suddenly.
Real physical hunger comes on slowly whereas emotional hunger comes on quickly and suddenly. All of a sudden - with little or no warning - you want to eat.
#2 You crave specific ‘comfort’ foods.
Emotional overeaters will usually crave ‘comfort’ foods like chips, cookies, cakes, chocolate, cheeseburgers, pizza etc. In general they will never crave healthier fare like fruits, veggies, salads, etc.
#3 You need to eat now - you can’t wait.
When you’re eating out of your emotions, you usually feel like you need to eat now. Your hunger won’t wait, whether that means driving to the corner store late at night or dipping into your kids’ candy stash.
#4 Your hunger is often paired with an upsetting emotion.
Maybe you got angry at your spouse and now you need that tub of Ben and Jerry’s. Perhaps your boss yelled at you and now you’re halfway through a box of donuts on the way home from work. Physical hunger is not triggered by emotions.
#5 You find yourself eating unconsciously or on autopilot.
When you’re eating out of physical hunger, you’re usually mindful of what you’re eating. When you’re eating out of emotions you can look down and find the whole container of ice cream is gone and you don’t even remember eating it.
#6 You don’t stop eating in response to being full.
Physical hunger doesn’t need to be stuffed in order to be satisfied. Emotional hunger usually demands more and more food to feel satisfied.
#7 Your hunger isn’t in your belly. You may crave the taste of a certain food in your mouth or can’t stop thinking or a specific food.
Physical hunger is happy to get what it can while emotional hunger usually needs specific tastes and textures.
#8 After you eat, you often feel guilty or bad about yourself.
When you feed physical hunger, there’s nothing to feel guilty about. But if you feel guilty after eating, it may be that part of you knows you’re not eating just to satisfy physical hunger.”
“When you’re stressed/depressed your body may release cortisol - which is a stress hormone that makes you crave sugary, high calorie foods like chocolate, pizza, ice cream,etc.
These foods help to raise the levels of serotonin in your brain. Serotonin in a calming neurotransmitter that makes you feel happier.
So craving these foods may be your body’s way of stopping the release of stress hormones (which can do damage over the long run) and starting the release pleasure hormones.”
I have to really let go of all the stress that has come up in my life lately. I am concentrating on to many things at one time. I have to quit beating myself up every time I fail, because it is a viscous cycle. I eat something I shouldn’t, get very upset, depressed, angry and say screw it! I have already messed up today might as well finish the day with messing up. And in doing this I have managed to go up & down with in 5lbs over the course of April. UGH!!!
I can’t blame this on anyone but myself! I have support coming out my ears, but it is me who is headed for a train wreck if I don’t stop right now. I know I can do it! I have made awesome choices from Jan, through the end of March.
I was talking to one of my awesome Twitloss buddies @Mamakitty729 on Twitter the other night and she was so proud of herself (and I was profoundly proud of her) because she has lost 40lbs! She sent me some emails, along with photos of herself. She looks amazing! She told me she printed the photo out and has it on her refrigerator. That way it is a reminder to her, not to make bad choices.
I got to thinking and this morning I went searching through my photos. I wanted to find one photo of me at my heaviest weight and put it next to a photo of me taken on 3/29/10. Maybe this will help me too, especially when I am upset and want to sit down with some sort of bad item from the refrigerator.
As I was sitting here making my banner, I was really, really looking at these pictures. I didn’t feel guilty, sad or depressed about the month of April as I was yesterday. I had an overwhelming feeling of pride and accomplishment. Because no matter how I did it, when I started or how long it has taken me to here I have lost 53lbs! There is no reason on this Earth why I should be upset about past choices or actions over the last couple of weeks. So stop it Trish! Stop it right now! Or as Erin would say “ShutupTrish!”
There is so much more I need to work on as far as negative thoughts, putting myself down, guilt and emotional eating. But like I put on my banner (which now will be proudly displayed on my fridge) Quitting in NOT an Option!
April 22, 2010
April 21, 2010
April 19, 2010
It was 9yrs ago..
That Dale & I had our first date! We celebrate this day every year as if it were our wedding anniversary. A lot of people are surprised to learn that we are not married, because I call him my husband and he calls me his wife. We see no reason to rush into marriage, one of these days we will (on this day), but it isn’t a piece of paper that makes us a couple. It is us, our family and most of all the love we share. It is a commitment that can not be broken.
He and I have been through many trying times and have come out stronger and more in love than ever. We know what each other is thinking and we can finish each others sentences. We can not speak at all during the day and sometimes we will send each other and email or a text at the same time, just to say I love you! We tell each other “I love you” everyday (several times a day) and share a kiss every morning before he leaves for work without fail. We still go on dates, hold hands when we walk together, whisper in each other’s ears, give small caresses while we watch TV and a part of our bodies always touch while we sleep. We are a team of one, united by love, determination and happiness.
So, on this day we celebrate the love we share, the hard work that has brought to 9 years of being together. I could love no one as much as I love him!
“ever thine
ever mine
ever ours” ~Beethoven
Photo taken by Melissa-Blue Bug Photography
April 18, 2010
Self Week 12
Tomorrow I have two great celebrations in 1 day! It will be 3 month’s since I started my weight loss journey and it is Dale & my 9th year anniversary!
As of this morning I have lost 28lbs!
Overall, since June 09-54lbs!
I am more that 1/2 way to my first big weight loss goal. If you have not noticed I have a weight loss ticker on the right hand side of my blog.
I have struggled this month because of temptations as a result of Easter and my boys birthdays. I put myself almost more than 2 weeks behind in my weight loss and gained almost 4lbs. The funny thing is, I was still exercising everyday, but eating things I should not have been. Jelly Beans, cake, chocolate, Smartees, Dum Dum Lollipops, spoonfuls of pudding (while making birthday cakes), Reese’s cups, Hershey Kisses…I was sneaking it.
When I came to the realization that I was a Food Addict, I also realized that I was a closet eater, a sneaker of food! And I went right back to it. When Dale left for work or when the boys were playing else where, I would sneak into my room where I had hidden a bag of leftover candy. How pathetic am I? Instead of getting rid of the candy, I hid it from everyone, telling myself, “A treat for myself every now & then won’t hurt!”
Lies, all LIES! One would turn into 2, 3 or 4! ARGHH! What makes it so bad is I knew that if I did this it would be so hard to stop. And it was hard, I had to take the left over candy and throw it in the trash outside, but only after I had eaten over half of it. I would get on the scale and not feel bad, again telling myself, it’s only 2 lbs or 3, until I was almost 4lbs heavier! One morning I yelled, “IDIOT! What the heck is wrong with you?!”
The last week and a half, I have worked myself hard, tried to make sure that the bad things weren’t in house, with the exception of the party food. I was so good at the birthday party! I was super proud of myself. And as I said as of this morning, I am back loosing and am past where I started when I went on my secret eating binge.
That was a really close call and I am going to try to not let this happen again. In reality I know it will, but will use this experience to try and stop it earlier, so it won’t get to far out of hand.
Earlier on in the journey, I started tracking my measurements. I wasn’t to happy when I started this because your size in inches is frightening! So frightening that I didn’t take the measuring tape out again until this morning. I am excited to report, that I have lost:
7 inches off my waist
6 inches off my hips
2 inches off my arms
5 inches off my thighs
1 inch off my calves
I am also down 4 dress sizes!
And…I have lost weight in my feet! Who knew you could loose weight in your feet! My shoes fit so much better! I have slimmer, rather cute smaller feet & ankles!
Since I have been doing some work with my weights, I have some muscles in my arms. My sister made me laugh yesterday because she said, “Look you have guns!” LOL!
Oh and another funny was, last Sunday I was folding laundry in the living room and Dale zoomed past me and headed upstairs, calling for me. He stopped and said, “Oh! There you are, you are getting so skinny, I didn’t even see you sitting there!”
BWAHAHAHA! Great save honey!
I have to say I am so glad that April is almost over. It was such a hard, exhausting month..LOL!
April 17, 2010
Stones, Chalk & Lilacs
Last Sunday (the day after the boys birthday party) Dale & I had a lot of work to do. We had stone dumped in our driveway on Friday and we had to get it spread out, so we could get down the driveway on Monday. It was hard brutal work, but Dale & I are a great team. Shoveling stones all day counted as 2 days worth of exercising for me!
I wish I had remembered to get a photo of the original mound of stones, but you can really see how much work we had already accomplished.
We took a small break and played with Adam and his new 3D color chalk. He was amazed at how his art work just “popped off the page!”
Daddy drew his name and Adam was just in awe of how his name just floated above the sidewalk (with his 3D glasses on).
How cute is he?
Adam & I took a walk around to the Lilac bush, because he just loves flowers. Our Lilacs are really full this year, compared to last year and he just loves to smell them.
We had a wonderful, exhausting day, but with lots of fun! This weekend is a low key weekend. Thank God, we don’t have to shovel stones…LOL! 
April 16, 2010
Elias & Adam’s Birthday Party!
I can’t begin to tell you how much fun we all had last Saturday! Special thanks to Michelle & Brian, thanks for everything you guys did for us! And thanks to all our family for coming out to celebrate with us! Also, kudos to those of you who put on skates and joined in the fun. Me, Suzanne, Elise, Michelle, Brian and Brad, yeah we are not that crazy! LOL!
The boys cakes turned out amazing! Elias had a chocolate cake, with vanilla icing and chocolate pudding inside. Adam decided on Lemon cake, with lemon icing and vanilla pudding inside. I also made a carrot cake, which was delicious, yes I did have a very small piece!
Elias’ Cake
Adam’s Cake
All 3 Cakes
Dale brought his DJ stuff and Uncle Brad-AKA DJ B-RAD rocked out the Chipmunks album!
Skating Fun!
Elias & Devin zooming by…
Limbo Time!
Elias, Noah, Kim & Zach made it through!
Limbo Crashes!
Ouch Devin
Jaden almost made it, with my help.
Sweet Jaden, took a hard fall into the wall, poor thing!
What were they thinking?
Bad ideas in the making!
Dale, are you sure you want to do that? Oh Lord, Chris & Rob, you too?
I won’t say I told you so! Bwahahaha!
Yes, I caught some on video! Daddy & Uncle Rob skating.
Poor Maia, she took cover!
Some great shots of the kids!
Elias & Susan
Classic Adam!
Elias & Brian
Maia, being silly!
Pop-Pop had a great time too, especially watching Daddy skate!
A cute video of Elias & Susan.
Time for cake!
Elias & Adam blowing out the candles.
Presents!
The boys have already put their requests in for another skating party next year. I am so happy they really had a great time! My babies are 8 & 5, where did the time go? *sniff, sniff*
April 14, 2010
Vote for Adam!
I entered Adam’s 1st Birthday Photo in Shutterfly’s Birthday Contest. Please take a moment to vote for him! Just click on his photo below and it will take you to Shutterfly’s voting! Thank you!
April 9, 2010
Easter!
We had such a wonderful day. Elias, Adam & I attended Church with Michelle and it was a really nice service! Afterwards there was a pot luck Easter dinner, in which I made Deviled Eggs. Now why would I mention this, well if you are a Facebook friend or a Twitter follower of mine you would know why….LOL. But for those of you who aren’t let me explain. Two weeks ago, I was making hard boiled eggs and forgot about them. I only realized that I had forgot when sounds from the 4th of July were coming out of my kitchen! Egg was everywhere! I didn’t forget the eggs were cooking this time and they turned out fine. But it is now a long standing joke for me, I will never live that down!
Look at my handsome boys Easter Morning and Adam with his breakfast of champions…AKA a Ring Pop
We sat around the table for our Easter dinner, family style. It was really nice.
As you can see Adam really doesn’t like to have his photo taken, but this is a really nice picture of me and the boys.
And because it was also Elias’ 8th Birthday, Michelle baked him a cake!
After our dinner, the children had a small Egg Hunt around the church, inside and out.
Adam thought if he crouched down he could see the eggs in the grass better. He is just to cute!
He was also checking the dirt, bushes and walls. He was smart!
He couldn’t resist the urge to check out what was inside the eggs, but of course he had to shake it first.
Elias and his official birthday and Egg Hunt pose, so handsome!
The hunt continues inside the church!
The inspection of the loot and showing it off!
And a ewwww photo of Elias. Really, dude we didn’t need to see the candy, that way! LOL!
The day ended with playing on the play ground equipment, while the adults took a break.
But before we go, just one more piece of candy
What a fabulous afternoon! Time spent with my boys and with great friends was just the perfect Easter!
April 8, 2010
Happy 5th Birthday Adam!
When I publish this blog post Adam will officially be 5yrs old! He was born 7:38am, 9lbs and 20 1/2 inches long.
Today, he is such a big boy! He wasn’t an easy baby, was fussy and strong willed and loved to eat and that hasn’t changed. Adam’s nickname still reigns true-Adam Bear! He still loves to eat, but is very picky about what he will eat, he remains very moody and stubborn at times. He is Dale’s mini me. He enjoys being by himself. I don’t think I have ever met a child who can play independently as well as he can. His imagination is beyond what I could ever imagine and he is so smart, that it is scary. He would never admit it but he loves his brothers more than anything in this world. He asks for them every morning when he gets up, but as soon as Elias gets home, the fighting and screaming begin. He is a night owl. Loves to sit in his room and play, watch TV and just stay up all hours. He is a whiz at videos games, even the complicated ones his brothers play. He even plays with them, but cries when they kill him or he dies. It really is comical to sit and listen to. He isn’t overly affectionate and I wouldn’t call him a Momma’s boy, but he would rather be with me than anyone. He will be starting Kindergarten in the fall and I am hoping this will be an easy transition for him. He is my baby and I know I will have a hard time sending him off for his first day.
I can’t believe 5yrs has pasted already. It seems just yesterday he was so tiny. Well as tiny as you can get delivering 2 weeks early and weighing in at 9lbs!
Look at those cheeks!
Happy Birthday, my sweet Adam!
We love you more than you know! Continue being who you are, because there isn’t anyone in this world like you!
April 7, 2010
The Circus
Thursday, April 1st, Dale and I took Elias & Adam to The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Baily Circus! It was sort of an early birthday present to the both of them, because I won tickets from our local news station.
Adam had never been to the circus and I was really hoping he would like it.
The wire motorcycle act, was really great, the boys that it was “neat”. Dale & I were nauseous, because of how high he was and the fact that he was making the bike flip over several times.
The little tiny horses were cute, but the boys were not interested in them at all.
The ladies who did trick just by hanging from their hair, made them perk up slightly. But Adam told me that it was silly to hang from your hair..hahaha!
They both really, really like the cats! I am not talking about Lions, just little domestic cats. They laughed so hard while the cats were doing their little tricks.
During intermission Adam informed me he was bored and asked if he could play a game on my phone.
I told him that the Lions & Elephants were coming up next. Only then, he was a little more enthusiastic about the rest of the show.
Their eyes got really big when the Lions started to come out of their cages and sit on top of the stools. They didn’t realize just how big they actually were in real life.
I was in awe of the huge male Lion, he was stunning!
Just look how loving he is towards his trainer. I would never get that close, but I would love to have been able to pet him.
Finally, the last part of the show were the Elephants! Adam was tired by this time, but this was his favorite part.
On the way home we stopped to WaWa to get snacks and much needed coffee for Dale & I, I asked them how they liked the circus. They both said they really liked it. Dale and I looked at each other, because you really couldn’t tell while we were there. I said to Adam, “You said it was boring.”
He says, “No, I was bored.”
Elias said, “That’s the same thing A-DAM!”
Adam argued loudly for 5 mins with him that is was not the same thing. Dale & I were in laughing so hard. Until I had to tell them to stop, because Adam was getting really upset about it. LOL!
The next day Elias, reads “The Greatest Show On Earth” from the $10 Cotton Candy bag. YES, $10 for a bag of cotton candy!
He says, “Mom, that was NOT the greatest show on earth.”
Me, “why not?”
Very serious Elias says, “because real circus’ use tents, this one was in a building, so it wasn’t the greatest, but it was nice!”
Bwahahahahahaha!
I am really glad that I didn’t have to pay for those tickets, because the attitude from our boys were, take it or leave it. I don’t think we will be seeing the Circus again, we did have fun, but I was more excited about it than they were.
April 3, 2010
Happy 8th Birthday Elias!
I am posting this a day early, because tomorrow we will be so busy, I wanted to make sure I got my thoughts down. Easter falls on his birthday this year, and it is exciting that I get to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the birth of my son all in the same day!
I can’t even begin to describe how much I love him! He is so different from his 2 other brothers, he is his own person! He loves life, animals and most of all he showers me with love on a daily basis. He has been known to crawl into my lap and just kiss my cheek and tell me he loves me. Come into the kitchen and hug me for no reason. He still tells me he loves me when he gets on the school bus and isn’t bothered if the other children hear him. He holds my hand when we walk together and we can have interesting conversations over just about anything. He is smart, extremely shy, stubborn and fights with his brothers, constantly. But he adores his sister, His Sissy, is what he calls her. It makes me happy because I know when he is older, he will treat any woman with the respect he treats me and his sister. She will be so lucky to have him in her life. Although, I cringe at the thought someday he will become and adult, leave and get married.
Time has flown by so quickly, I think back to when he was this tiny, and how scared I was that I was going to raise a boy.
And now he is 8, and growing up into a handsome young man! And it wasn’t as hard or as scary as I thought!
Happy Birthday, my dear, sweet boy!
We love you so much, we are so blessed, by God, that you are part of this family!
April 2, 2010
Far apart, but doing it TOGETHER!
This morning I was all ready to post our Circus adventure from last night, but going through my blog reader, I read a post from my dearest friend Erin! I was so excited to read it, because I knew what she would be talking about. Little did I know, that I would be in tears afterwards. Take a moment to go read her post and leave her some loving in the comments!
She has been my biggest cheerleader in my weight loss journey, her encouraging words and cyber hugs have been amazing for me. Making this change in my life was so unbelievably hard, I am not even sure how much she realizes how she has been there for me. How, sometimes I am ready to give up and I will read something from her and I am right back on tract. She makes me smile and laugh when I just want to cry. Now I need to be there for her.
I am glad that I am not finished my journey yet, because it makes me happy that we can do this together. And my other wonderful friend Angie is doing this with us too! Both of these ladies totally ROCK! As the 3 musketeers, we can work out together, complain together, talk about recipes, temptations, cry out in pain together when we need to and keep each other accountable.
Erin & I have are teaming up with our fellow Scrappy friends-Spring 2010 Biggest Loser, headed up by our friend Katie! I am so excited to do this with her, it gives me that extra humph I need!
It’s funny because when Erin & I chose our One Little Word for 2010, who would have thought that she and I would really take to heart what we set out to do.
So, Erin, I love you Momma and I am so proud of you! Even though we are far apart, we WILL do this TOGETHER!
And look our words match up perfectly!
We ARE going to:
When you go through a journey like this, people say a support system is key. I have to tell you that my support system is off the charts amazing! Erin & Angie you have played a huge part in that, so from the bottom of my heart, I thank you!
April 1, 2010
Cookware heaven!
About 2 weeks ago I discovered an awesome site that had so much to offer for just about anything you need! At first I was browsing the site for my 2 youngest boys birthday coming up next week. To my delight, I found All Children’s Furniture.com-which is primarily a Kids Furniture Store-but it is loaded with wonderful kids toys!
I know my oldest boy would love to have something like this:
K'NEX Roller Coaster Building Set
And I know that my youngest would love to have this (or maybe me, because I remember playing with these when I was younger )
Lincoln Logs
After ohhing and ahhing over all the toys for the kids, I decided to click on over to the CookWare Store and oh my was I in Cookeware heaven! Cookeware.com is just another one of the 200+ stores the CSNStores has. Talk about a window shopping indulgence! They have everything from Bakeware, Kitchen tools, Utensil sets, Skillets and complete cookware sets. Some of the tops brands are Rachel Ray, Paula Dean, FaberWare, All Clad & Hamilton Beach!
Rachel Ray
Paula Dean
Hamilton Beach
There is so much on my wish list as far as kitchen stuff is concerned, it occurred to me to check out their selection of Crockpots/Slowcookers, because my slow cooker’s removable stoneware center has a crack in it. I have been babying it for a while and have not used it as much as I want too. Browsing through CSN Cookeware site, I saw a really nice Crockpot that would go perfect in my kitchen!
Hamilton Beach 4 Quart Slow Cooker
Isn’t it lovely? *Swoon*
Since I have been on my weight loss journey, I have been cooking fresh, home made recipes more and more lately. I have some really great low carb slow cooker recipes that I want to try!
Especially this one: Texas Style Low Carb Chili
1 cup fresh onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 tbsp olive oil
2 lb of lean beef, chopped small (Not ground beef!!)
2 cups tomatoes, undrained (fresh is best, but one 14 oz can diced tomatoes works too)
2 cups of beef broth (one 14 oz can)
2 tsp salt
2 tsp black pepper
2 bay leaves
1 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp crushed whole cumin
2 1/2 tbsp chili powder
In a pan, cook the garlic, chopped onions, olive oil, and beef together over medium heat for about 10 to 15 minutes or until all the red in the beef has turned gray or brown (no red showing as you stir it)
Next turn crock pot on low add the above, and tomatoes, beef stock and stir in all the seasonings. Cook for about 2 hours or until the beef is very tender. (Also be sure you don’t drain the beef or chili at any time - the juices are sooo yummy and make it so flavorful!) Remove the two bay leaves. Serve and Enjoy!
Makes 9 servings at only 5 carbs per serving.
Keep an eye on my blog, look for an upcoming giveway for the Hamilton Beach 4 Quart Slow Cooker pictured above, from the great people at CSN’s Store CookWare.com!
