A chance for some free stuff

And it's really cute!

OK, so I have several blogs that I read that give away stuff on a regular basis. Usually I don't even bother to enter because, let's face it, I never win anything. Well, that's not really true. I can think of exactly two times that I have ever won a random drawing/raffle of some sort in my entire 31 (and 1/2) years. But this stuff is too darn adorable to pass up, so I entered. And if I tell you all about the contest, I get another entry, so that's what I'm doing. They are giving away an absolutely beautiful little dress, a play tea set, and a fun cookie set. Man - that's Christmas for Danielle all in one shabang! Here's the link to kiddo.org so you can check out the goodies - go look, and enter - if you don't want them you can send them to me after you win:)
And even though you might think from your first glance that all Kiddio does is give stuff away (hey - it's free!), they also have really cool crafts, DIY stuff, etc... They even have a whole boycraft area.

OK, nothing else real exciting to update you on. I spent most of the day working on presents, but of course I can't show you anything yet, sorry. And I really should be working on a few last papers and projects I have due this week (finals - yah and yuck and the same time). So I guess I'll get to it. 'Night.

Pumpkin Ravioli Retold...at last

I heard that my dear Auntie has the gunk, so for her sake I figured I'd better write something for her to read, and I might as well get on with the pumpkin ravioli story. Though at this point, the stories you all have come up with sound a lot better than the real deal, and I'm not so sure that I want to relive it. I really wish these ravioli had been some deliciously lovely yumminess that involved cheesecake and graham cracker crumbs as suggested by my friend Liz. But alas, they were not. So here we go:

Whatever night it was.... Tuesday, so Monday I decide to do something I never do, try a new, exotic, yummy sounding recipe that I know no one else in the family would appreciate but me. I really thought it was a good idea. In my useless blog wanderings for the day, I had run across a recipe for pumpkin ravioli with brown butter sage sauce - doesn't that sound good to you? I thought it sounded divine. So I went about purchasing the needed items for the meal and talked it up all afternoon. (Though Cameron really thought I was joking when I told him.) I set about to make them, only to find that I had purchased pumpkin pie mix (you know, the pre-sweetened stuff), not plain pumpkin. So sad - though I did make that pumpkin pie mix in to absolutely fabulous pumpkin bread the other day:) Cameron thought he was in the in clear and would no longer have to force his happy face though dinner, but I was smarter than he - I managed to pick up a can of pumpkin while finishing up my Christmas shopping the very next day - haha! So Tuesday night the ravioli were unveiled.

Now I have to be fair here - the reciped did call for fresh pumpkin (which I just don't have the time for) and fresh sage (which my store was all out of), but I really don't think it would have made that much of a difference. And my first bite was WAY too hot, in my haste to get to hula class on time and to taste my divine dish, so I totally burned my tongue. But even after I got dressed for class and actually used a fork to try it, I was sorely disappointed. Pumpkin ravioli were just not meant to be. What cruel person persuaded me to give them a shot? I don't recall, but they liked them. I remember, even their child liked them. Not mine. Cameron either (but we all know that already). It was a bust. Oh well. And at the time of the original post I had a whole plate full in the fridge waiting for some hungry person to give in and try - but I threw them out today. I couldn't stand to look at them any longer, they were just sitting there, teasing me, shaming me, bringing to rememberance my sad experimental cooking. I'm not a cook - baking I can do, but I'm not a cook.

So anyho0 - there you have it. A good home is no longer needed, but if you really feel the urge to try pumpkin ravioli, I think I still have the recipe somewhere in the kitchen....

Happy Thanksgiving!

Just wanted to get on and quickly tell you all HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Though it does seem a little silly since it's no longer Thanksgiving for some of you already, and the rest of you probably won't read this today. Oh well. But I am thankful for many things this year. Here a (very) short list:

Loving Husband
Energetic Children
Chubby Babies
Reynolds Turkey Bags
Plenty to eat
A warm, soft bed
Family all over the world (I'm not thankful that they are spread all over - they just happen to be:)
Friends that don't just leave a mark, but continually shape me for the better
Christmas trips made possible by generous parents
My creativity
That I can actually see the light at the end of my schooling tunnel (June 2010, baby!)

Really, I could go on forever, but I have kiddos being rowdy when they are supposed to be "trying" to sleep. Needless to say, I'm very grateful for the many blessings that I have in my life. And I'm sure there are things that I am blessed with that I'm not even aware of. I hope that you, too, are feeling grateful for the many good things in your life, whatever they may be.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

Wanted: Good Home for Pumpkin Ravioli

Don't you love it when you spend time writing a great blog entry and then seconds before you hit the publish button is just disappears? I don't know why this happens to me - this is the third time. And in my complete astonishment that all my painstaking writing is gone, the autosave takes that moment to save a completely blank post, so I can't even go back and work on the last part that was saved. At least the title is still there...

That's what has happened tonight. And frankly, I don't care to write it all again at the moment. I'm tired. I want to do a crossword, have some cocoa, and go to bed. So for now you'll all just have to wonder what I wrote about. Hope I don't keep any of you up with all that wondering. Maybe I'll tell you tomorrow.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

It's been pretty rainy here the last few days. In fact, that's all it did on Saturday - I wish I had taken a picture of it, it was so gloomy and gray all day, I don't think the sun even peeked through once. And although it was a little chilly (I'm sure it was like 65 or something) and the kiddos had to stay inside all day, it also made for a perfect crafting day! I feel like I've been neglecting my craftiness lately, so this was a nice break from the norm. And it was handy since I have a ton of crafty things to get done.


First up on the list, there's a craft fair at the elementary school on Nov 29th that I decided to sign up for - hoping to drum up some scrapbooking business, I would REALLY like to get back into the CTMH groove. So I've been working on a few things for that, mostly gift card cards (they hold the gift card inside them) and scrapbook page kits. Plus I cleaned out and organized all my old displays and will be selling those items that I won't be using again because either the stamp set or the paper has been retired. It's a pretty good assortment of stuff. And the table was only $25, so I figure I can't lose out. So if you're in Laie on the 29th, come check it out. It's in the elementary cafe from 9am-2pm.
**Edit: I received a call this afternoon (11/24) that the craft fair was cancelled due to lack of interest. However in talking to my friend Ashley I found out that there is another crafty-type dealy in Kahuku, that I'm now delighted I can attend (it sounded cooler anyway). So that's a few things I can cross off my list for now!**


On top of that little project, this year I decided that I would try to make our Christmas gifts. Not to save money (as one my think, because really, I think it will be a wash) but mostly as a good excuse to make stuff. And it's working. I have figured out gifts for all but 2 people on my list (ahem, Mike and Eric), but I'm working on ideas for them - guys are a little harder, the gals were all super easy. And while I don't want to give away too much I did take a few sneak peek photos to share what I've been up to the last couple of weeks whenever I have a few minutes to spare.


You'll just have to guess which things are for which person and what they may end up being.....


I know you're all looking forward to lentils in your stockings:)








Now I'm off to prowl the web for some cute Christmas flannel for PJs....

I've Been Tagged

So my friend Liz decided to tag me (again). But this time I broke the rules. She tagged me for the 6 interesting things about yourself thingy, but since I did that not too long ago, I decided to copy another post of hers. And it was a lot of fun. So fun in fact that I'm going to break my usual rule of not passing on tags and actually pass this one on. So here it is:

Concept:

1. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search. http://www.flickr.com/search/

2. Using only the first page, pick an image.

3. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker. http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/mosaic.php (choose four columns and three rows, also choose individual URL's)

Questions:

1. What is your first name?

2. What is your favorite food?

3. What school did you go to?

4. What is your favorite color?

5. Who is your celebrity crush?

6. Favorite drink?

7. Dream vacation?

8. Favorite dessert?

9. What you want to be when you grow up?

10. What do you love most in life?

11. One word to describe you.

12. Your nickname.

So, I'm tagging Elise, Tonia, Ami, Kerry, Aunt Lynn, and Larisa (who doesn't post often enough, so I'm giving you a reason to).

Photo Credits:
1. Lisa Original, 2. I love cherrios....., 3. 39 more days, 4. Green velvet, 5. Orlando Bloom, 6. Sweet as cinnamon, 7. Designed by shadow, 8. cheesecake for Lianna!, 9. ..Precious Things.., 10. 2 months + 26 days, 11. 54/365 - Pick Your Battles, 12. Babe

HELP - Stephenie, are you out there?

OK, I have a TON of things to blog about this week, but I don't have time! I will try to get on this weekend for full updates. But in the mean time, I promised my hubby that I would post this plea on my blog for him:

In an effort to get his 13-14 yr. old Sunday School students more involved in reading their Book of Mormon he made a promise to them, that he may not be able to keep. For this reason, he is asking for help. You see, at the time of said promise the final book in Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series has just come out. I'm sure you've heard of it, a little book called, Breaking Dawn. Cameron was very frustrated by the fact that most of these teenagers could manage to read the 750 pages of Breaking Dawn in about 4 days, but they couldn't manage to read the few pages of chapters in the Book of Mormon that were assigned for the week. In an instant he had an epiphany and told his class that if they would read the Book of Mormon, in its entirety before Christmas, he would give them a copy of Breaking Dawn. Not just any copy, but a signed copy. And not just any signature, Stephenie Meyer's. Now this is a great thought and has been an excellent motivator for at least one student, but unfortunately Cameron didn't do any research before this moment of "inspiration" and it turns out there were very few book signings for this book. So a signed copy of Breaking Dawn is VERY hard to come by. In fact they are going for about $200 on Ebay. So this is where the plea for help comes in - if anyone knows Stephenie (or anyone close to her) and could somehow help us get into contact with her, that would be fabulous. We're willing to do whatever it takes (even if we do end up buying one online) to fulfill his promise, but we're really hoping that we can plead our case and Stephenie will take mercy on us.

So, long story short:

Know a vampire author? Save us a buck!

Overheard in the Cafeteria this morning

Little friend: Wow, you're baby is getting really big.
Isaac: Yeah, so are you mom.
Mommy (ignoring the implications of the previous statement): Mommies don't grow bigger, they just get more gray hairs.
Isaac: You don't have that many gray hairs.
Mommy: The correct reply to that was 'Mommy, you don't have any gray hairs'.
Abby: Well, your hair is mostly brown.
Mommy: Again, the correct reply was 'Mommy, you don't have any gray hairs'.
Abby and Isaac just look away and go back to eating their breakfast.

So I Married a Vampire?

As a lot of you probably know my children get their teeth in really early. Isaac still holds the record for cutting his first tooth at 10 weeks. Seriously. Abby and Danielle weren't that early, but they both had at least 2 teeth sticking out by 4 months. Well, Juliana seems to be more of an average baby and she got her first two at about 5 1/2 months. But since then there hasn't been any hint of more coming. Don't get me wrong, they are terribly cute teeth, but I've kind of wondered when the rest would follow. I can wonder no more. I spotted these 2 beauties just this morning - one is actually through the gums, the other will be very quickly. Notice my lovely arrows....



Kind of seems like an unusual place for her 3rd and 4th teeth to appear.... And as far as I know both Cameron and I are human. But for some reason this is how I totally picture poor Juliana when those teeth are showing:



Cameron's thinking about calling her Renesme now..... I'm thinking that's a little much, but at least she has the looks to pull it off. (If only she could grow some copper ringlets now.....)

Just a little note

I'm sure I could blog about something fun and exciting, but I'm not going to. I'm tired. And I just want to sit down and watch a little TV (we got more channels through BYU cable now!). So I'm just going to answer a question that inquiring minds (at least some) want to know. I get my cute blog backgrounds from a fabulous website called "the Cutest Blog on the Block". They have tons of choices and it's so easy to do. Just browse through the background section, click on one you like and then follow the super easy directions.

OK, time to veg. 'Night.

A Little Elbow Grease and Some Fun in the Sun

Today was such an amazingly productive day. And it was really a lot of fun. The morning was spent sorting out, organizing, and cleaning a good portion of the apartment - Thanks Lor! It's so much easier and a lot more fun when you have a friend to do it with. I can't believe how much we got acomplished just while the kids were at school this morning. And then when everyone was home and homework completed we headed out to the beach.

We just went down to Temple Beach, as we wanted to be able to walk there. The waves were just perfect - fun to play in, but didn't scare my children to death. (Come on, we've leaved here a year and a half and they're still scare of the waves! What are we doing wrong?) The weather was perfect and a good time was had be all. Especially Lorelei and her son who had just found out that it was freezing rain back home while they were frolicking on the hot sand. So I thought I'd share a few pics of the day for your viewing pleasure.

This first one is the coolest picture of a snail I've ever seen. Lor's son was given the assignment of emailing a pic to his 4th grade class each day that he is missing school while he's here. This was the one that he sent today. He went out this morning and promptly found 3 fat snails in a small palm tree and was absolutely thrilled. Just wait until he sees some the of the massive ones around here - but for now this was plenty of excitement for him.

This I had to include, because although you can't really see it, Abby is actually holding a sand crab. Am I sure this is a picture of my daughter? Why yes, I am - I was there, but I still have a hard time believing it. And she looks so calm and everything. Crazy.

And this is my favorite shot of the day. Easy to see why - she's a cutie.

We ended this day with a night of fun and friends at my ward's Enrichment night. And I told my friend Liz that I would blog about it, but I have since decided to use the project I started as a Christmas present, so I can no longer reveal the the crafty adventures of the evening without spoiling a surprise for someone - sorry Liz. But I will say that we had KILLER pumpkin soup, made by Liz herself, as part of the refreshments and as soon as I get my little hands on that recipe I will be posting it. The lemon bars were dang tasty, too - so ditto on that one. Now you have lots of yumminess to look forward to.

Oh, one last thing. Per my Auntie's request, I have added a "follower" gadget over here on the right side of the page. So now you, too, can be a follower of Lisa (and the rest of the Petersons) at only a click of a mouse. Why wait - do it now. You know you want to. Do it. Hurry up, I'm waiting.......

Speaking of muffins...

So my friend, Lorelei, who wrote The Big Cook cookbook is coming out to visit this week. And we've been discussing and planning our very own session of big cooking to stock my freezer full of meals (now that I have a big one again) while she is here. And in the midst of all this she asked me if I had a muffin recipe the family liked because we could mix up and freeze that, too. And while I don't make muffins all that often, ok, like never, it got me thinking about a recipe that I saw on A Feathered Nest a while back and actually tried because it sounded so good. And they were good - except for the bottoms, they got burnt since I still hadn't totally figured out my oven in this apartment. So as my train of thought moved along, I thought I would give it another go. Plus I have a really busy, stressed out friend who tends to not eat when she's stressed, so I figured she could use a nutritous breakfast tomorrow, and I had another friend's plate that I needed to return (and I hate to return dishes empty)....Anyhow, long thought track made short, I made muffins tonight. And this time I changed up the original recipe a bit and came up with something fabulous - not that it wasn't before, but I like them even better now. So I figured I'd share. Here it is, for the lack of a better title:

Yummy Muffins

1 1/2 c sugar
1 c apple sauce (or oil)
3 eggs
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 c grated apple
1 (large) can crushed pineapple, drained
1 c dried cranberries
and then whatever else you want to add
Mix that all together and then add:
2 1/4 c flour
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
3 tsp baking powder

put in the muffin tins - I use cupcake wrappers so I don't really have to wash the pans (lol) and bake at 350 for 10-20 min. Really, I don't know how long it would take in anyone else's oven, but I think I finally got my figured out this time and it took about 15 min. For me the recipe yeilded 29 muffins, filling the cups almost to the top. I know, wierd number.

Oh, and I threw in about 3/4 c of quick oats this time - I think that made them better, so I can't forget to tell you that part!

OK, I'm going to go now. I have to get kiddos in bed and all sort of other stuff, like wash dishes (yah - can you tell I'm excited?) and whatever else I find along the way to bed.

Hope you all have a happy Monday and a great week!

Happy Halloween

Well, the big day has finally arrived - and will now soon depart. It seems silly to do all this work for just a couple hours of enjoyment, but it's worth it. So here's a brief summary of the festive day's events:

The day started out bright and early - no, wait, that doesn't sound right. Oh yes - that's because I never went to sleep last night! As I may have mentioned before, I had a HUGE presentation due today in my Teaching Science Methods class. While I did have a partner, and we have been working on this pretty steadily for the last 4-5 weeks, there was still a LOT to get done last night. Turns out my partner was up all night, too. But we got everything done that we needed to, so that's good. ...Now back to the day.

Got the kids up a little early to get ready for school. Abby and Isaac were dressed in costume for the Halloween parade at school this morning. Danielle didn't wear hers because her class went on a fieldtrip to the Honolulu Zoo. It was nice to have a little extra time to get everything just perfect and still get Danielle to school on time so she wouldn't miss the fieldtrip bus. Needless to say all the kids were excited to get to school.

After dropping them off in their classroom, and making sure that everyone had all the things they needed (treats for parties, costumes all in place, know where to meet Daddy after school, etc) I headed back home to tie up a few loose ends for my presentation, pack it all up for transport to class, and most importantly to feed Miss Juliana - she's not a happy camper when she misses her morning meal. But the again, who would be.

Class started at 10am, and basically my partner, U'i (that's pronounced oo-ee for those non-Hawaiian speakers out there), and I had 3 hours to demonstrate different methods of teaching elementary school children about plants. It was really a lot of fun and everyone seemed to have a great time. We actually ran out of time and missed out on a few of the more fun activities, but it's all good. I think that it went well, but then again, we were both pretty sleep deprived at the moment, so we could have totally bombed and I might not have noticed (though I doubt that's what happened).

After class I came home and put most of the stuff away that I used for our presentation and then started to attempt to make Cameron's costume, the one I hadn't even started yet. But then I had to feed Miss J again and of course I totally dropped into a delirious coma as soon as I was sitting still. Well, I ran out of time for the costume, so poor Cameron wore his devil costume from a couple of years back - not that that was bad, but the rest of us had our Wizard of Oz theme going on. But he was really sweet about it, knowing that I've just had too much going on lately. He told everyone that he was the husband of the wicked witch who doesn't make an appearance in the movie.

Around 4pm we headed over to the party for our apartment complex - of course we won the costume contest (we won last year, too). $20 grocery gift card, not bad. Abby also won best costume in her age group - they really liked her red shoes. Oh, and as a side note, did I mention that we won "most creative" costumes at our ward trunk-or-treat on Wednesday? So cool. Needless to say - we looked good. (I know, I know, you want pictures! Well, if you're that impatient, just scroll down already. Otherwise, hang in there, we're almost done.)

After the party we went out for a little traditional door-to-door mayhem. Only for about 20 min, then we stopped by to say hello to a few friends and show them the costumes before heading home. We got back around 7:30. Then all the candy was poured into a huge bowl, a movie was turned on, and I just let the kids loose! No really, I did. They get 20 min to eat whatever they want and then the candy disappears (you all know it goes in the freezer). This method has worked out really well for us over the years and since we just dump in all in the bowl, that cuts down on the squabbling over whose is whose and what is better. They've actually lucked out tonight - they've had 35 min of candy time since I'm writing this. I'd better go put a stop to that soon:)

Well, that's about it. It was a fun day - and a tiring one. I'm hoping to get everyone in bed before I either collapse from exhaustion or hit my 4th (or is it 5th) wind and become an adrenaline junkie.

Ok, enough prattling on and on - here's the pics. Enjoy!

Well, the chiclets are in bed now and despite the copious amounts of sugar they inhaled all day, they seem to have passed out already. Time for me to be headed in that direction myself. 'Night.

More Homework

For my Technology in the Classroom class we now have to put together a website. It's still in the works, but I've got a few things up (the things due for class tomorrow - hehe). Feel free to check it out:

Lisa's Educational Site

A Sneak Peek and a really cool video

Well, the costumes are coming along slowly but surely. I have completed 3 and have 3 to go. I should be able to get them all done this week. Here's a few pictures for those of you who are anxiously waiting to see the finished products.

This one is of Danielle modeling Juliana's costume head piece as baby was asleep when I needed her to try it on.


Here I am painstakingly ripping off the skirt of Abby's costume, as I somehow managed to sew it on inside out the first time.


So far the costumes are so cute, I can't wait to finish the rest.

Also, I got this video link from my Aunt Leah today. It's meant specifically to encourage Catholics to vote, but I think it's terribly relevant and we can all benefit from watching it.



And check it out, I finally figured out how to get the video in the blog. I'm so proud of myself.

Hope you're all having a fabulous weekend.

Help! I've fallen....

and I can't get out?

Check this out - Cameron is a local celebrity. Probably not in the sense that he would like, but we've sure had a lot of people say they've seen him on the news this week. Really it's kind of funny and I find myself chuckling about it, but it could have been serious, luckily it wasn't.

Here's the link - don't forget to watch the video clip at the top of the page!

I've been tagged - Again

So I totally made fun of my friend Liz's favorite color (come on, white does not count!) and so she officially tagged me to answer these 31 questions with only one word answers. So here we go:

1. Where is your cell phone? pocket
2. Where is your significant other? snoozing
3. Your hair color? dull
4. Your mother? inventive
5. Your father? generous
6. Your favorite thing? scents
7. Your dream last night? none
8. Your dream/goal? happiness
9. The room you're in? messy
10. Your hobby? lots
11. Your fear? hurt
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Kindergarten
13. Where were you last night? out
14. What you're not? alone
15. One of your wish-list items? dishwasher
16. Where you grew up? everywhere
17. The last thing you did? learn
18. What are you wearing? jeans
19. Your TV? huh?
20. Your pet? gone
21. Your computer? Laptop
22. Your mood? pleasant
23. Missing someone? always
24. Your car? sandy
25. Something you're not wearing? earrings
26. Favorite store? Target
27. Your summer? short
28.Love someone? many
29. Your favorite color? green
30. When is the last time you laughed? earlier
31. Last time you cried? When?

As a rule I don't usually hand out tags, but as always feel free to play along - it's harder than you think, only using one word, and lots of fun.

Oh, and I posting my much anticipated video on my Technology in the Classroom blog, so check it out!

My Fellow Favorite Bloggers and a Couple of Great Web Tools

I can't believe that I've been neglecting my blogger links! I had not added some of my great friends, and even my own sister! What was I thinking? I'm glad that my good friend Tonia (jokingly) wanted to know when she would get to be one of my favorites. You know you already are! But it's nice to be listed, isn't it. So take a minute to peruse the links to the right and check out the blogs that I follow.

Speaking of following blogs - have you guys tried GoogleReader? I used to just click through the links on my page, but that became pretty tedious. But then one day my friend Audrey mentioned that she used GoogleReader to keep track of her blog reading, and I think it does news and other feeds as well, but I just use it to read all about you guys! Once you sign up for the service (just a google account, you know you all have one!) and enter in the feeds (blogs and others) that you want to subscribe to it will pull them up. Then everytime you open it it will only show anything that is new. Kind of cool. Check it out. There's only 2 things that I don't like about it, 1. I don't get to see everyone's cutesy blogs unless click in and actually go to the blog, and 2. I have a few private blogs that I read that I can't subscribe to (since they are private, obviously). But it's still a great way to keep up to date all in one place.

And I have to tell you about one other web tool that I absolutely love. It's pandora.com I'm sure some of you out there have heard of it, but I just found out about it a couple of months ago. It's basically a radio station that you set up by telling the site what songs or artists you like and then it picks songs that have similar characteristics. It's been really interesting to see what music it plays for me. And while Cameron has tried it and isn't a big fan, I totally love it. It even plays songs that I used to love to listen to, but haven't heard in years, so as far as I'm concerned it works fantastically. I love to listen to it - especially while I'm doing the dishes or cleaning the house. There are no commercial breaks (since there are web ads on the page), you can pause it, rate the songs (it will move ahead if you click dislike), and you can skip songs, too (though it will only let you do that so many times in one session). Anyway, it's been fun and I feel like I have my own personal mix of songs to listen to.

Well, it's off to bed for me. We've had a busy week here hanging out with some friends from the mainland. Man, the sun just wipes me out and we've been to the beach and the Polynesian Cultural Center twice this week! I don't think my body's going to take much more. But at least the kids have been sleeping really well!

Don't Vote....

For all the funky and cool things that I can do with my blog, I have yet to figure out how to get a youtube video on it. I know, I'm lame. But I've had my allotted technological moments for the day and I just plain don't care to figure it out right now.

So anyway - click here to go to my friend Liz's blog (you know the political maniac I mentioned in an earlier post) and watch the video, in it's entirety. Come on, you know you have a few minutes and besides it's cool, so take a look and pass it on - hurry, needs to get everywhere fast.

Make sure you're registered to vote - the deadlines are soon, I know here in Hawaii its on Monday. Do it now.

Holidays

I swear Christmas starts earlier every year. At some point they are just going to have to leave the Christmas decorations up all year long. Yesterday in one of my classes someone was actually singing a Christmas Carol - in September! I would have just cast it off as a "weird song stuck in your head" type fluke, but when the teacher asked about it she answered "Time to start getting ready." Now come on!


I refuse to let Christmas take over the fall holidays, particularily Halloween, because that's my favorite. No, not because of all the candy, though that is a nice perk, I just like seeing everyone all dressed up. And since we started doing the dressing up as a family thing last year, I'm even more excited for this year. Though I'm getting a late start on the costumes I think I should be able to get them done - provided I don't do anything but necessary homework and sew for the next month! Well, I do have one little birthday party the first week of October (for Danielle) and a big project actually due on Halloween, but I think I'll be able to swing it. I have the party invites almost done and going out on Monday and I have a great partner for my project and we've already been working on it, so it should be smooth sailing for the most part.

Ok, ok, so I know that some of you are probably interested in what we're actually going to be this year, so here's the Peterson family costume unveiling:

The theme this year is The Wizard of Oz
Cameron: the Scarecrow
Lisa: the Wicked Witch of the West
Abby: Dorthy
Isaac: the TinMan
Danielle: Glenda the Good Witch of the North
Juliana: the Lion

We were going to have Juliana be Toto, but Danielle wants to be a witch, but not a bad, spooky one (spooky's her new word). And since I don't see myself pulling off being a lion quite as well as either of the girls could we'll just have to have a stuffed Toto. But seriously, we're going to be awesome. I'm not so stoked about the green makeup, maybe I'll just have my friend make-up my eyes with lots of green shadows and leave it at that. I do have to do a presentation for the project due that day, so I can't go too overboard!

Well, off to not so excited Saturday activities, meaning cleaning out and sorting upstairs - not fun, but really needs to be done, so I guess that's good. Have a lovely weekend.

Procrastination.....

Yes, I have a paper due tomorrow. Blogging is one of my favorite procrastinating activities. It's easy to do when I'm already on the computer and get bored with whatever I'm working on.

And besides, many people have been asking how Cameron's interview went - I figured this was the easiest way to answer without emailing a ton of people. He said that everything went really well. They asked basic financial aid questions that he was expecting. That's a good sign that they are seriously looking for experienced people. He also said it seemed like somewhere that he would like to work. The commute would be horrendous and of course he would have to get used to seeing students out of dress code (think BYU standards here) as people tend to wear their bathingsuits and tanktops to class - that's just the norm, for any school near a beach I'm sure. But on the plus side that also means that he can have facial hair - while my mother-in-law prefers her son cleanshaven, I prefer a goatee which he could not have working here at BYU. They said that they would be calling everyone back in about 2 weeks, so really about 4 by Hawaii standards - we're a little more laid back around here:)

For those of you that knew I was taking a test last week - I did really well on the parts that I could get my scores on right away. It will be a couple of weeks before I hear back about the last score. The test was the Praxis I - it's an (standardized) education test, I guess to make sure that we're smart enough to be taught to be teachers. It was actually kind of lame, basically like the SATs or ACTs, basic math, reading, and writing. But then upon graduation teachers take the Praxis II in the areas that they want to be certified in, in my case Elementary Education. But upper level teachers can take subject related tests - it's part of the whole No Child Left Behind thing (a HUGE controvertial subject upon educators) and having to have "highly quailfied" teachers. Obviously having qualified teachers is a great thing, however there are other (many) parts of the NCLB program that a lot of people have issue with. Personally I think the ideas involved in the program are great, working towards a great education system in the country, but unfortunately it was written by lawmakers, not necessarily educators, and execution logistics are not as easy as the look on paper. OK, I could talk about this forever, and I'm sure I only know bits and pieces of the much larger picture, so I'll stop now.

Well, I need to get back to work so that I can go to bed sometime in the near (very distant near) future - how's that for an oxymoron?

Obama or McCain?

Election day is ever approaching and seriously, I just don't pay attention to politics at all (except for my friend Liz's blog, because she's a political maniac). I figure I'd better get somewhat informed because I am after all registered, and I would much rather not vote than be an uninformed voter. Anywho - I was reading a post on my neice Ami's blog about the "Match-o-Matic" quiz on ABC's website and checked it out. It was pretty fun - you get quotes on a topic and pick the one you most agree with and in the end it will tally up who your ideas are more matched up with. Obviously I can't base my voting on an internet quiz game, but it's a start, right?

If you're interested click here to play.

I've been Tagged.

I've been a total slacker once again, but school, and PTCO and kids and life, are keeping me busy. And I did add anouther post on my class blog about technology. If you want to check that out see the last post I made (read, I'm too lazy to add a link to this one). Anyway, I haven't posted in a while and I can't even remember the last time I posted totally useless trivia about myself and my friend Teri tagged me; since this is a fun one and definately falls in the the totally useless trivia catagory, I thought I would play along.

Five things I was doing 10 years ago:
1. About to celebrating a 5 month wedding anniversary.
2. Enjoying the sweet life of a dual income and no children yet.
3. Working for a high profile commercial real estate broker.
4. Learning to cope without a dishwasher (this seems to be a reoccuring event in my life)
5. Driving a car with a tape (one of Cameron's) stuck in the deck, so that was all I could listen to (over and over and over again) if I wanted music playing. At least it was a decent mix, but to this day I couldn't list the songs on it, but when I hear one I still have flashbacks of driving that car.

Five things on my to do list today:
1. Send some family pics to my sis-in-law who is patiently waiting for me to find a decent one with Cameron and I in it.
2. "Supervise" my children cleaning their room (read - getting frustrated, giving up, and just doing it myself in the end).
3. Sending up good thoughts and prayers while Cameron goes to his job interview at the University of Hawaii.
4. Dishes, dishes, and then probably some more dishes!
5. LAUNDRY - I know, it sounds like a thrilling day for me!

Five snacks I enjoy:
1. York Peppermit Patties - the little ones, cause the big ones don't have enough chocolate!
2. Otterpops (Walmart has these really tasty ones....)
3. Cherrios with craisens
4. Haagendaaz Mint Chocolate ice cream
5. Haagendaaz Pineapple Coconut ice cream

Five things I would do if I were a millionaire:
1. Buy a house here in Hawaii - oh wait, that would use up all the money (no joke).... but if I still had some left over I would:
2. Built a nice apartment/Suite on that house and persuade my grandma to come live with us in paradise.
3. Pay someone else to cook, clean and do laundry so I can scrapbook all day.
4. OK, maybe I should do something a little more responsible, like add to my kid's college funds.
5. Put some away for a grand rainy day adventure in a few years when the kids are all old enough to enjoy it.

Five places I've lived:
I've live WAY more than 5 places, so I guess I'll choose my favorites.
5. Ann Arbor, Michigan
3.Trumbull, Connecticut
4. Fort Wayne, Indiana
2. Orem, Utah
1. Laie, Hawaii

Five jobs I've had:
1. Custodial Services at the library at BYU-Provo
2. Waitress at the Tiffin Room in ZCMI - when there was still a Tiffin Room and still a ZCMI.
3. Front Dest Manager at Inn on the Creek
4. Accounting at the Utah National Parks Council office of the Boy Scouts of America
5. Mom - my favorite, and the hardest.

OK, so there are rules and I'm supposed to tag other people - I don't really like to do that part, so I'll just so what I've done before and leave it open for anyone who reads that wants to participate. If you do play though, leave me a comment so I know where to look!

Down by the Bay

As I was preparing my Nursery lesson for tomorrow, "I can be kind to animals" I came across some silly animal rhymes that inspired the kids to come up with new verses for the song "Down by the Bay". The first time we heard this song we were in Connecticut visiting Grandma and Grandpa Lambarth. I believe it was in the fall of 2005, because Danielle wasn't quite one yet if I remember corrently. Anyway, Grandma had rented some kids songs CDs from the library to listen to in the car. For those of you who are not familiar with this song, I believe it is on one of the Raffi albums (who turned out to be huge a big favorite with my kids). So here's how it goes:

Down by the bay,
Where the watermelon grows
Back to my home I dare not go
For if I do my mother would say:
Have you ever seen a (fill in the blank)
Down by the bay.

So the fill-in-the-blank part is a silly animal rhyme. Some of the ones in the real song are:
Whale with a polka-dot tail?
Moose kissing a goose?
Fly wearing a tie?
Llama eating pajamas?

So here are some new ones that we've come up with (well, the ones that aren't too crazy to be repeated in print):
giraffe taking a bath
pig wearing a wig
sheep falling asleep
hen counting to ten
cat wearing a hat
mouse sewing a blouse
beetle threading a needle
bear without any hair
bunny eating some honey
fish making a wish
shark playing in the park
cow saying meow

OK, the possibilities really are endless - it doesn't have to be animals. It's really a fun song. I was thinking it would be fun to do with names, but my kid's don't really have easily rhymable names. And as I'm thinking about it I'm only coming up with rhymes for two of my nephews and they aren't so nice (puke and lice). So maybe that ways is not so go to go. But you get the idea.

Oh, and by the way - click on the Raffi link above and it will take you to Rhapsody's website where you can listen to his music for free. There's like 280+ of his songs there.

What ever happened to the PTA?

Well, I'm once again slacking, as my little sis reminded me the other day. Life is starting to get crazy, but seriously, I'm on the computer enough that I should be able to at least give a quick update more than once a week.

This week has been pretty busy.

I attended my first PTCO meeting - that's what they call it here: Parent Teacher Community Organization. It it changing everywhere, or is it just here? I think it's better actually, to include the whole community, but it just doesn't roll off the tongue quite so nicely. Anyway, I went, and through the course of several conversations and meetings ended up being the treasurer. So that's a new adventure to look forward to. We have a HUGE fall festival coming up in a couple of weeks, one of the biggest fund raisers of the year, so it's been a little stressful, but they are so short on vollunteers. So far I'm not doing, or being in charge, of anything stressful, so that's good.

Abby was named as a Super Citizen in her class for the month of August. The ceremony was today - the usual hoop-la, but you have to see it to believe it. Mom and Dad L can atest, it's quite the event as they were here a year and a half ago for Abby's first ceremony when we had no clue what was going on. Here are a couple of pics:

Cameron FINALLY heard back from Univ. of Hawaii and has a job interview there next week on Friday.

Incidentally, I will also be going to UH next week, on Wednesday, to take the Praxis I exam to get into the School of Education here at BYU-Hawaii.

Danielle is giving a talk on Sunday - I forget the topic right this second, but this is her first talk in Primary, so hopefully that will go well.

Isaac is quickly learning to read, and this week as been able to read his homework books to me instead of the other way around.

Poor Juliana has been sick with something most of this last week. She has a fever and a runny nose and always wants to be held. And she hasn't been sleeping real great because of all that. She's been in better spirits today, but she still has a slight fever, but hopefully that means she's on the mend.

Well, I guess that's it for now. Though I was just realizing that I need to get going on Halloween costumes soon. We haven't even figured out what we're going to be. Anyone have any suggestions for 6 related costumes? I would love to hear them.

Speaking of suggestions, the same sister who so nicely mentioned my lack of posts lately, is in the process of potty-training her little boy and she is getting desparate for potty solutions. So if you have some advise, methods, ideas that you could pass on to her, I'm sure she would appreciate it. You can visit her blog here and leave a comment.

Oh, and if anyone is interested, I had to start a blog about technology in the classroom for a class of the same name, so if you're interested in reading more of my mundane thoughts and, like me, wonder if 3 conputers is really enough for one household, check it out here.

Happy weekend everyone:)

What a response!

Apparently I just need to post really gross/creepy things on my blog to get lots of comments! I'm glad to hear from you all - I didn't even know some of you read my blog! I felt so loved this morning when I opened my email.

While the ants haven't made a reapperance in the bathroom, I did find a new line of a completely different type of ant along the kitchen counter this morning. That one was sprayed without documentation. While it was a decent line of many ants, it just paled in comparison to yesterday's discovery.

And I have to say I'm surprised that no one mentioned my particularly lovely cockroach picture that I linked to my post yesterday - it's a good one! If you missed it, you should click on it, if only to get a friendly hello from a gross critter. (Jess, the boys would LOVE it if you haven't already clicked on it!)

Well, I don't really have anything special to post today, but building off of my Distopic Society post - I did actually find a stray dried spaghetti noodle on the wall the other day when I was scrubbing the kitchen floor. (I know, amazing that I was actually cleaning for floor, but it needed to be done.) So here it is in all it's noodle glory.

Have a happy Thursday!

We've been invaded!

I wouldn't normally share video of my bathroom with the general public (not that anyone who doesn't know me ever stops by) but I just had to share this.

Ants are just part of the life here in Hawaii, just as are cockroaches, cane spiders, centipedes, geckos, and other creepy crawlies, good and bad. Doesn't that just make you want to move here? Well, we've always been plagued by these teeny ants, they show up in the weirdest places of the house. And they are super annoying when you get one on you as they are so tiny that they are hard to find, but yet they tickle like crazy. Since we live in an apartment building that is as old as sin I don't think that there is any way to even begin to actually eliminate them, but I do my part to kill off the populations that I come across. As I did to this one shortly after I taped this. This is BY FAR the most ants I've seen in one place - who knows what they were doing?

Luckily my children are not scared off or freaked out by ants, as Isaac went to use the bathroom and found the millions of little critters. He even thought it was pretty cool. What boy wouldn't?

After a little research online I think that I've identified them as ghost ants. Here's a little more info from the Ant Institute (didn't know there was such a place) if you're so inclined.

Putting your best foot forward

One day last month I got a phone call - at 5:15 in the morning! I, of course, was sound asleep when my phone rang. I didn't even look at the screen, I didn't care who was calling that early, if it was an emergency they would call again, right? A couple of hours later, as I was driving the kids to school, I listened to the message. Turns out it was my mom calling. At first I thought - oh maybe it was important, but no. She was calling because she and her friend Barb were at Target and there were a bunch of girls' sandels on clearance and she wanted to know my kids' shoe sizes! So I called her back and let her know the sizes - because what kids can't have too many pairs of sandels, especially here in Hawaii? But I also kindly reminded her that when she is called from Indiana there is a 6 hour time difference and that I would prefer not to be called at 5 in the morning in the future.
A couple of days later she said that she did indeed find some cute sandels and that she would be sending the package from Michigan before she left my Grandma's house. This was over 3 weeks ago.
Well, the package FINALLY arrived. It was mailed on July 29th - hows that for priority mail!?! Usually things shipped priority from anywhere on the mainland take more than the normal 2 or 3 days to get here, but 3 weeks? I was beginning to give up hope. But the wait was worth it. The kids were so excited when they saw I was carrying a package out of the office today after school. They knew what it was.

So I thought I would share a few photos I took of my silly children and their new shoes.

First, Abby and Danielle, they're both girls and can appreciate a good thing when they see it. They promptly put on the pair they fancied most and wore them for the rest of the day. This is quite a feat for Danelle as she usually plays outside without any shoes on.


Isaac had the regular boy reaction - he got really excited, put them on, but then they were cast off again as soon as something cooler came along, in this case back to back episodes of Phenius and Ferb on the Disney Channel.


But Juliana's reaction was by far the best - shoes, I don't need no stinkin' shoes! But I love these new toys you bought me.


Thanks Grandma for the new toys, er - shoes that you sent. Maybe someday soon Juliana will actually let me put them on her feet.

Living is a Distopic Society

Well, I spent a good portion of the day doing 2 activites.

First, I finished reading the last book in the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer, Breaking Dawn. I was really good - in fact it's my favorite of the whole series - I was not disappointed. I may just have to read it again! OK, so we all know that I will anyway. I won't give anything away, because that's just lame to spoil a good read for someone else, but I do have to say that there was much I wasn't expecting, meaning I was pleasantly surprised by the storyline, and she somehow managed to end it without feeling like you needed more. I don't think JK Rowling was even able to do that with Harry Potter - she resolved the story, but peronally I still wanted more of Harry. Here Stephenie Meyer was able to resolve the story - or stories, as the case may be - and even though there could be more story (and hopefully someday will be), you fell like it was a good place to end. At least I did. Needless to say - I loved it.

The other thing I did today was actually get stuff put away! It's amazing that I actually did it. I kept telling myself each night - tomorrow's the day, I'm going to get to work - and yet I never do. But today I did. And the living room actually looks put together, like we really live here, not like our lives just happened to explode here and no one's bothered to pick up the rubble yet.
In my D&C class this summer one of our lectures was spent on the subject of Zion and living in a Utopic Society. We were trying to define what that might be from the early saints' point of view. First our teacher, Bro. Williams (visiting from BYU-Idaho, great teacher) read us the dictionary definition of utopic. And while I don't remember most of what he read, I do remember that he said the opposite of utopic is distopic. And I said to my friend sitting next to me - that's what I live in, a distopic society! Well, it's true, our lives are usually in some form of chaos, not that that's even a bad thing. We are a young family and I know that life is going to be crazy. And we're even lucky to be the family that we are. I have so many friends that have had parts of their family taken from this life, or that wish they had more parts to share this life with. So really I'm blessed to live in such a distopic society and I need to remember to be grateful for it everyday. Someday I will have a house that looks how I imagine "Holly Homemaker" or "Molly Mormons" house to be, but until then I will settle for lots of loud pounding feet (pitter-patter, yeah right), dirty dishes piling up by the ton, stray spaghetti noodles stuck to the walls, sopping wet bathroom mats, and bedroom floors covered in microscopic lego pieces. That's what life is all about, right?

I'm such a Hypocrite

So last week I gave my sister, Kerry, a hard time because she wasn't posting on her blog. Her excuse was that she didn't have any pictures to put up, so I told her too bad, write something anyway - which she did. And now here I am, haven't posted in a week! What a hypocrite I am! In all fairness I did have 2 finals and an 8 page research paper to take care of this week - ok, so I was done with all of that on Thursday. Oh well.


So I thought I would mention a little about what's going on with all the kids - I haven't been blogging about them a whole lot lately. Plus they like to see themselves on the computer screen. In fact Abby just asked me if she could start her own blog - to which I said "No!" and she replied, "Why not?" And I didn't really know what to say, so I said, "You're too little." And thought in my mind 'Because I said so, and I'm the Mommy!'


Abigail: Abby started second grade this year - hard tobelieve that she's so grown up. The first day of school here was July 29 - crazy, huh! We have modified year-round school here. Abby seems to be enjoying her new teacher and is making some new friends. Her favorite things to do right now are roller skating and riding her bike. She's also gaga for Polly Pocket, but since we moved, I haven't brought the Polly Pocket stuff downstairs yet as there's really no where for her to put it that the other kids can't get into all the tiny, tiny pieces. She's getting really good at reading and will read entire chapter books on her own and then tell me what they were all about. She's also always been pretty good at math and it excited to be good enough to go to another class room for math time. And she's even got 100% of both of her spelling tests so far (she gets a new list of words each week).


Isaac: Isaac is attending Kindergarten again this year. He only turned 5 at Christmas time, but because of the way the schools are here he quailified, so last year he went as a Jr. Kindergartener and we choose to have him repeat this year. He just wasn't ready socially and maturity wise to go to first grade yet. Besides, we figured better to hold him back now, when he doesn't care, then later when he (and other kids) will notice and make a big deal out of it. His teacher this year is much more structured, which I don't think he would have done well with last year, but I think it will do him wonders this year. She was really good about talking to him about helping the other kids that don't know all the rules and might be scared, since he already knew what he was doing. He started going to half days of school last week, but today was his actual first full day (finally!) and he seemed to like it. He and Abby are walking home now that he's there all day, too, so that's really nice for me. And they would rather walk home anyway - it's only 5-10 min, depending on how much they chat, pick flowers, whatever. And there are no buses to the school here, everyone walks, so they usually have friends to talk with on the way. It really is a blessing to live in a nice small, and safe community. Oh, Isaac loves to draw now, and is pretty good, and he loves to make things with Legos. Sometimes he makes them up, sometimes he follows the directions that came in the sets. And I can't fail to mention that he now rides a two-wheeler - totally taught himself - and he can blow bubbles with his gum, something that he's so proud he has to show us everytime - hopefully that part will wear off soon!


Danielle: Danielle is once again attending preschool through the Headstart program here. She's in the same classroom, with the same teachers as last year. She really likes that she's the Big Girl in class now and do everything herself. She's gotten really good at coloring and can use scissors better than either of her older siblings. He teachers are always trying to find something harder for her to practice her cutting skills on. That girl is destined to be a scrapbooker already. Danielle started school on August 1, from 7:30 to 11:30. Just me and the little babe in the morning.


Juliana: Little Baby girl will be six months old - tomorrow. Man how time flies. She got her first tooth in a few weeks ago, and can now sit up on her own pretty reliably. She LOVES applesauce, and will tolerate whatever other foods I give her, just because she's so anxious to be eating what everyone else eats. If anyone is eating something in front of her, she will just STARE at you until you relent and give her a little bit. I'm not sure that I would call her stubborn yet, but she diffinately has will power. She also loves to eat biter biscuits and these things called Mum-mums, they are like giant flatten rice crispy pieces (not treats, just one piece of rice crispy cereal blown up a few hundred times). They are about 3 inches tall and look like little rice surf boards that disolve when she chews on them. Here are a few pics I took while feeding her carrots this morning. Good thing she hasn't figured out that she can spit the food out of her mouth yet - for now, if I can get it in her mouth she will swallow it down whether she likes it or not.


Notice the ghetto bib - I haven't found where I stashed the bibs before the move....

I was trying to get the look on her face when she tasted the carrots, but she is too mesmerized be the camera (as usual). But it still turned out cute.



Well, if you've read this far, you probably want to hear about Cameron and me as well, right?

Cameron just applied for a job at the University of Hawaii in their financial aid department. They are hiring counselors right now, which is the part he likes to do the best. So keep him in your prayers. It would be about an hour commute (we'd still live up here), but worth it if he can get a good job that he enjoys. In the mean time he's been hanging out with the kids while I go to class - nice that I don't have to find a babysitter for now.


I'm out of school for a week and a half. I still don't have my fall classes figured out, but I will soon. I just need a few school-free days to recover. I did manage to finish my research paper titled 'Women Who Followed Christ'. It was about the important role of women in early Christianity that is often overlooked and/or forgotten. Pretty interesting topic, but again, sick of it at the moment. If anyone is interested I would be more than happy to share my paper, but really, it's not my best piece of writing by far. Wrote most of it in a hurry. It could have been so much better if I had taken the time earlier in the term. You know, with all the free time I have everyday:) I'm also trying to work on my scrapbooking/stamping business. I've still a Close to my Heart consultant, and I love it, but again, haven't had a lot of time. But I really want to get restarted. I have absolutely NO competition here, I could do really well. And now we have a little more room, so maybe it's possible.



Well, this was way longer than I was planning. And Juliana has passed out in my lap, so I should put her down and do something more productive with my time:)

Living in the Age of the Blogger

So I'm in the kids' room, tonight, with all 4 children, getting ready for bed. The older 3 have all been fed, bathed, pajama-ed, even had their finger- and toe-nails trimmed. They're all being a little bit silly and between the 4 of us, we manage to get Juliana laughing pretty hard. Now she giggles a little here and there and has recently begun screaming in delight (which is cute, but gets old real fast), but she doesn't get to laughing real hard a whole lot. So we're all enjoying her laugh and laughing with her, which of course makes her laugh harder.

All of the sudden Abby says, "Mom, we have to put this on your blog!"
And Isaac says, "Yeah, on your blog."

PS - Though Cameron wasn't there in the moment, we did a fairly decent reenactment for him shortly after the incident, but of course Juliana wouldn't laugh for us.... sigh. Oh well.

Round and Round we go and the downside to losing weight

Can you all tell that I have a research paper due? It seems that when I have school assignments that need to get done, I also tend to blog a lot - I think it's called procrastination. At least it helps me to catch up on my entries.

So round and round we go - as some of you know, I've been taking a jogging class here at BYU Hawaii. Actually I've taken it a number of times. This summer is my 5th time taking it. Last spring, when I took it for the first time, I wasn't really excited about it - you see the class in 4 days a week, Mon thru Thurs, at 6am! Yep, you heard right. And to add to all that - it's only worth one stinkin' credit! And while I wasn't too excited to be running, I was excited to have time to exercise that I couldn't put off. I had to show up for class.

And I was still trying to reach my weight loss goal of losing 20 pounds from Jan 2007 to June 2007 - one new year's resolution I was determined to make. And I did it. I'm not ashamed to admit that I had reach the unbelievable weight of 187 lbs - that's where I was in Jan 2007. I'm not sure how that happened, and some of you will say, but you're tall, you didn't look like you weighed that much, but the truth is that I did. And I didn't like it - I really didn't like to see pictures of myself. So I decided to try to do better. By June I had done it - I was at 170 lbs and lovin' how my clothes were fitting me much better, but I still wanted to lose more - wanting to get down to pre-children weight would be fabulous.

So I signed up to take that jogging class again in the summer that year. Unfortunately I didn't lose anymore weight, but it wasn't because I wasn't exercising, it was because I found out I was pregnant! When I was about 14 weeks along, I finally realized that while I didn't really miss my little monthly friend, she hadn't come a-knockin' for a few months! Oops! While I wasn't losing anymore weight, I wasn't gaining either - a nice little equilibrium, the baby could gain and I could lose. This was my "skinniest" pregnancy yet and I love every minute of it.

Of course, towards the end of the pregnancy I did start gaining weight, it was inevitable - and when I hit Jan 2008, guess where my weight was? Yep, right back where I started - actually about 192. While I was happy that both the baby and I were very healthy, it was a little bit of a bummer to be right back where I had started last year. But I tried not to let it bother me (well, too much) and just concentrated on having a healthy baby.

And so I did have a healthy baby - and I even let myself heal (something I'm not so well known for doing) and when I hit the 8 week, post birth, mark I started up jogging class again. And by the time Juliana was 12 weeks old, I was back to 170! Even with Abby I don't think I lost the weight that fast. And I feel good. I've been hovering right at 165 for now, but I can tell that the running is still doing me good. I think I've just reach that point where the good muscle development and the bad fat being lost are equaling out for the moment. While it's a little disheartening to not see the scale dropping like it has been, I have reached a few milestones that have been keeping me motivated lately:

1. For the first time in as long as I can clearly remember - my thighs do not rub together when I walk - or run as the case may be. True, I am usually clothed with I'm doing these activities, but when I'm wear BYU issue shorts it's easy to tell what is and what is not rubbing together any longer.

2. I can now run 1.5 mile in under 15 minutes. This was my goal for this spring/summer in my jogging class. I've been right about 16 minutes, so I wanted to bring it down. 3 weeks ago I ran it in 14 min 51 sec, but that was by my watch time, so I wasn't totally convinced that it was accurate. But just this week in class we ran it and I did it in 14 min 14 sec! So there's no doubt about it - I've finally reached my goal there and can work on getting even faster.

3. And now for the only downside I've found to losing the weight - my clothes DO NOT fit me! Now, I know that sounds funny, it's a great thing that my clothes are all getting to be too big for me, but I don't have anything to wear! I could even go out and buy a few new things, but I don't want to invest in a new (albeit small) wardrobe just to have it not fit again in a few months. But wouldn't that be nice! So I'm going to wear my too big pants - and invest in a belt - until I can't stand it any longer and then maybe I'll buy a few things.

Maybe if you're lucky I'll post some before and after pics - I haven't taken any afters yet, I need too. And I'm not sure I really want to share the before pics. So we'll see. But it's been a fun, and very cyclical, adventure over the last year and a half - I'm just hoping the cycle part of it is over.