Weight Loss Goals

Ok of course every year people make new year's resolutions to exercise, eat better and lose weight. I did real well with this when preparing for my wedding a few years ago and our honeymoon cruise, but since having Kyle, I have not really been doing all that well. I weighed myself around Christmas and was terribly disappointed in myself when I saw what that scale was telling me! I was 200 lbs! Jim has gained some of his weight back as well after losing right at 90 lbs when Kyle was born. So we have both started watching what we eat again as well as exercising.

Yesterday was my first day back at the Peabody Athletic Club and I was so scared to get on their scale even though I know I have been watching what I eat and exercising a little bit at home. I was at 190!!!!! that gave me the boost I needed to get out there and really get a good workout going.

I put myself on 20 minutes on the stationary bike and before I knew it I had biked for 7 miles. I then moved to the treadmill and walked for 1 mile and then jogged the 2nd mile. I also did 50 ab crunches on one of the weight machines using 70 lbs of weight. To relax, I took a good hot shower and then headed back to work. Amazingly, I got so much more work done and snacked on some reduced fat wheat thins with fat free cream cheese for my lunch than if I had went out to lunch with my friends and come back full, lazy and sleepy!

Watching the Biggest Loser on NBC is a great motivational tool too. I wish I could afford to have a personal trainer that would really make me have a great workout and be able to really see the results from it so I just have to hope that what I am doing will start paying off and then keep it off!!

Would love to have any comments from others that are also trying to lose weight and get healthy!! Here is my before picture and I will post another picture in a month to see my progress :)

Shelly's First Choir Recital

So Shelly had her first Choir recital last night and it was wonderful!!!!! I am so proud of her and her fellow choir members for a GREAT performance. As you can see in the above photo, she was front and center (red sweater dress with black leggings and black scarf). It was so nice to be in a warm place with all the holiday decorations and music, especially since it was raining cats and dogs last night and bringing in the cooler air. She was very excited to have all of her brothers (well minus baby brother) in attendance as well as her Daddy Jim, her father and her step-mom.


She also landed a solo this year!! She did a great job and also made mommy cry! I could not have been more proud. They worked real hard for this recital and it paid off. I am looking forward to their Spring Recital now :)

Shelly & Miss Kim (Choir Teacher)

Shelly and one of her best friends Bailey

December and Holiday Fun!

Well I know I have not been doing a good job at keeping this thing up-to-date as much as I would like and I am hoping to get me a better schedule laid out real soon that will keep me on track with my daily chores, my web time (updating our WOW page and this Blog) and other neat projects I like to work on.

So what has been keeping me so busy?? Well work has been extremely busy and I am still trying to play catch up there. About 6 weeks ago, I started reading the Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer and was completely sucked into her books! I read the first book Twilight in less than a week. I read the second book New Moon in about a week as well. The third book Eclipse took me roughly 3 weeks to finish because we were so busy even around the house. I am now reading the fourth book Breaking Dawn and I am currently on page 289 of 754.




When I have finished this series, I am hoping to start the Southern Vampire Series by Charlaine Harris. I have been watching the HBO series which is based on these books and it is called True Blood. It was a great first season and I can't wait until it comes on again in the summer of 2009.


Now onto REAL LIFE! lol It seems like after Halloween hit, the days are just flying by! We had a great Thanksgiving Holiday this year. My parents, my two youngest brothers, my other brother, his wife and toddler, and then my aunt, uncle and their toddler were in attendance for the first time at my house. We had the traditional Thanksgiving Feast and watched football on the projector on the wall in the playroom. My mom, my aunt and myself started getting together our game plan for the Black Friday sales.

Black Friday came very early and I left my house at 4:00 am to go and pick up my aunt and then we headed to Walmart. I have not seen that chaotic of a crowd for almost 13 years when the first "Tickle Me Elmo" came out in stores and people were fighting for them. This year, people were fighting over just about anything. I guess we have the economy to blame for that...or people not being raised correctly. lol I found a lot of great deals and once we left Walmart the rest of the day was not so bad. We met up with my mom and my daughter at Cracker Barrel to eat a good hot breakfast and then the 4 of us stayed together going from store to store the rest of the day! We headed for home around 4:00 pm and I took me a quick power nap!

We spent the rest of that weekend getting our Christmas decorations out and I started working on my Advent Calendar scrapbooking project (pictures coming soon!) I also took the kids to see Twilight and my mom met us there for a great time at the movies. We had not done that in a long time and we all enjoyed the movie. Of course, I am the only one that has read the book...and it went pretty much by the book and I am looking forward to the movie based on New Moon.

Last weekend we went to the Germantown Christmas Parade to see Grant march with the Houston Middle School Band. Kyle really enjoyed the parade this year. The photo at the top of this page of Kyle was taken there. When the bands would come by, he would be "drumming" on his legs and his little face just lit up! I can't wait to see how he reacts when we go see the Lights at the Zoo this year. He really loves going by the houses that are all lit up. Houston Middle School Band won 1st place trophies for overall band, auxillary and drum major. They also won 1st place at the Collierville Christmas Parade!


Grant also had his Christmas Concert last week and he had a solo! He did a great job as always and is currently practicing for his All-West tryouts that are coming up this weekend in Jackson.

We are looking forward to the holidays and all the hustle and bustle that it brings and I will be posting more about those upcoming events in the next few days.

Until then...HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!!

The Signs of Fall and I'm still ALIVE!

I know, I know, it's been FOREVER since I posted but with school starting back, it usually takes a good month for me to get back in the swing of things that I enjoy as well as things around the house.

Not only has my blogging and other computer interests taken a back seat, but seems so has my housework! Boy, my house looks like 5 tornadoes hit it and I have got a lot of work to do! Luckily...it's beginning to get to my favorite time of the year!

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This morning Jim got up to get ready for his first big day as the Leader/Sponsor of the Knowledge Bowl Team for Bartlett High School. Munford was hosting a knowledge bowl tournament. At the lunch break they were in Second place and they ended up coming home with the Fourth place trophy out of fourteen teams! I was very proud of him and the students' accomplished.

I got up this morning and got ready and then woke Kyle up to get him ready and then we were out the door not too long after Daddy. Kyle went to my Aunt's house to play with my cousin which I really consider a nephew because my Aunt is only 4 years older than me. Cole and Kyle are only a year apart :) Kyle went there for a few hours while I went to my WOW Circle meeting for our monthly devotional time.

It was great fellowship and devotional time and sometimes, I wish it were longer! We were missing some people that are normally there a lot and hope to see them next week. We are going to have a HUGE scrapbooking day next Saturday at church starting at 2:00 pm and going until we get tired!

type to you soon
luvs
Jenni

School is Back in Session!!!!!

Well today I went and registered Shelly & Ryan for school. Shelly is now in the 5th grade and Ryan is in the 7th grade. They both seem to be real excited and I know I am ready to be back on a normal routine (well as normal as it can be with 5 kids, 2 sports, band and hopefully choir!) LOL

The begin their first full day on Thursday.

I did not get to work until right at lunch time, so when I did I went straight to the kitchen and warmed up my lunch so that I could eat at my desk while getting things accomplished. It was a pretty productive day overall.

I finally got in touch with an old friend of mine to check in with her family and boy it was great to hear her voice and catch up a bit. Hopefully we can keep that up because now I have her blog site saved and she will have mine. Her boys are getting so big, boy does that time fly fast when you have your families!

Got home and worked on our pool, then I got dinner started and now I am here! Jim wont be home until almost 9:00 pm tonight because he had to work Shelby County Schools registration. Well I better go and finish dinner.....

Until then, God Bless and blog to you soon :)
Jenni