10% off!

No, I'm not running a sale. I'm trimming down on what's in my packaging. Last Sunday I received my 10% award at Weight Watchers! Since the beginning of August I've lost 31.8 pounds, that's just over 10% of my starting weight! I've got a long way to go to get to a healthy weight, but every bit I lose definitely puts me at a HEALTHIER weight so I'm celebrating all that I can.

But it hasn't always been sunshine and roses. I've tried this weight loss thing a bunch of times. I've done Atkins, I've done Slim Fast, I've calorie counted and I've never stuck with it long. But I refuse to let my weight have the control of my life that it had last summer. Hannah's Brownie troop was going horseback riding and they needed a couple parents to ride with them. We were both so excited to spend this time together. It was such a slap in the face when the horse people basically acted like I was physically disabled and suggested that I book a mother/daughter trail ride so they could give me the "attention that I would need." I was so offended. I knew I was overweight but honestly I was getting around the playground with my kids more than a lot of average weight moms I knew. But I didn't fight it, I shamefully bowed out of the trail ride. Instead of spending $45 for a 1 hour trail ride, I spent $40 to join Weight Watchers. It was definitely a bittersweet moment. I was so upset that I had let myself get to that point but excited that I was doing something positive about it.

I can't tell you how much I LOVE Weight Watchers. I love that I get to eat normal foods, I just had to adjust my portion sizes. Carbs aren't prohibited, but I definitely eat a lot more fruits and vegetables these days. I love that every week I get to hang out with a bunch of people that think just like I do. Heck, even the weekly newsletters feel like they went in to my mind to find subjects to write about. It all just makes sense. For every 5 pounds I lose, I get a star sticker. And while it's sort of silly and childish, I cherish those stars. My 6 stars hang on my fridge at eye level and serve as a reminder to make good choices each time I open it up.

I've slipped up a few times especially through the holidays. But I got back on plan and have continued my journey to the healthy Noelle I want to be. I can't wait for next summer. Sophie will be 5 in March and she's tall enough to ride most of the roller coasters at Cedar Point. I've been too big to fit on the roller coasters for a few years now, but not this summer darn it! I WILL be sitting next to my little girl on her first roller coaster ride! I'm done sitting on the sidelines watching my kids have fun, I want to be in on that action!

The good, the bad and the ugly!

I'm sitting here with my foot propped up, I think I broke my pinky toe. It hurts a lot! I was getting the littles and myself ready for the day and I slipped on a piece of train track and fell hard on my right side. I'll likely have a bruise on my thigh and my wrist is a bit sore. Right after I fell, the pain was so bad I thought a trip to the ER might have been in order. Then I panicked, my house is a disaster, who will I call that won't judge me too badly when they come in to help me with the kids? I realized if that was my biggest concern, I wasn't hurt too badly so I sucked it up and peeled myself off the floor.

Then it hit me. I got so much praise with yesterday's post but that praise isn't entirely deserved. When I choose to share stories on Facebook or this blog I have the ability to choose what is on display, so it's mostly good. Someday my kids may read this and I don't want them to think I tried to portray myself as June Clever. Who am I kidding, they won't know who June Clever was but I can't think of a currently famous Super Suzy Homemaker, so we're sticking with June. I am not super mom and I'm especially not a super house keeper. I often leave the dinner dishes until lunch the next day. Currently there's laundry stacked on the desk that I folded a couple nights ago but didn't put away because all of the kids were asleep and I didn't want to wake them. I have no excuse for the stack of laundry waiting to be put away in my own room nor do I have an excuse for why I've shuffled the kids' laundry around more than once and still haven't put it away. Our Christmas tree is still up. There are Christmas gifts still strewn about the house with no permanent location decided on yet. Let's not forget about the offending train tracks that caused the fall. Yes I have 4 children, but the toys rule the house at the moment more than they ever should. I know from more than one recent incident that when the dummy meter on my van says that my distance until empty is 0 miles I can squeeze a couple more miles out of it. It's cold out for crying out loud and I've got 4 kids in the van most of the time, I shouldn't be living on the edge like that. I've done the crazy mom scream at my kids many more times than I'm willing to count, they're just kids I shouldn't lose my temper so easily.

I read somewhere that people who blog about their weight loss have more success. I'm wondering if this is true about all aspects of life? Maybe if I blog about the good, the bad and the ugly I'll have more overall success. Maybe I'll be able to truly enjoy unexpected company rather than be embarrassed over the state of my home. I know blogging about it won't make it magically better but at least I'll be keeping it real. What do you think? If your mother-in-law stopped by right now would you honestly feel comfortable letting her in the door? Or would you wish she'd have at least given you 5 minutes to do a quick dash and stash?

Ch-ch-changes!

Wow, it's been nearly 2 years since my last post. Shall we try this again? New year, new beginnings and all that jazz, right?

So, I guess I need to reintroduce and update on the cast right? Especially since we have a newish addition to the crew.

First of all, we got the house and we LOVE it!

I've made some improvements to myself. I started Weight Watchers back in August and to date I've lost 29pounds and still going after an up and down month of December. I'm glad to have the holiday treats and temptations in the past. I'm also going back to school. My ultimate goal is to be a labor and delivery nurse. When I was younger, I was interested in nursing but got rather icked out by many bodily fluids. 4 kids later, I've gotten passed the easily icked stage so I'm going for it! So I'm headed back to UT and in about 2 years I should have my Clinical Nurse Leader degree.

Oh that's right, at last post we had only 3 kids. Now we've got 4. On December 10th, 2009 Matilda Mei Christ was born. It's very bittersweet to me that my LAST baby is nearly 13 months old! She mastered walking about a week after her first birthday and now she's a dancing fool. She's such a good baby. I said it with Wyatt and I say it with Tilly, if all babies were this good, many more people would have larger families!

Seeing her middle name also brings me to another update. My little brother Dusty passed away unexpectedly from an asthma attack in October of 2009. His death has really shaken my family up in so many ways. He was such a fun uncle to my kids before his death, we decided to give a small nod to him when we named Matilda since she missed out on meeting him on earth. He was a big fan of anime and the Japanese culture so we put a Japanese spelling to Matilda's middle name.

Wyatt is now 2 and a half. He's such a fun little guy. He's definitely a man's man. He loves trains and tools. He's such a great helper, you can often find him with a broom in hand. He was even more excited to play with the broom at the YMCA gym than he was to play with the giant bin of various balls! He's been going to speech therapy since shortly after he turned 2 and he's trying so hard to say more and more. He has an appointment with an oral surgeon on January 19th to see if he needs to have his tongue clipped. He's tongue tied and his speech therapist thinks that this may be causing his speech delay. He's very bright and intelligent, he totally understands what's being said to him but he has a difficult time expressing himself verbally. So, fingers crossed that the tongue clipping helps him catch up.

Sophie will be one whole hand full of fingers old in just 2 and a half months! Time sure does fly when you're having fun. She's my little mother hen. She's such a great big sister, sometimes too helpful if you know what I mean. She's in preschool right now and she loves it. I'm so excited for her because her best friend at preschool will also be going to kindergarten with her next year. She's a lot more interested in letters and writing than Hannah was at this age. It still surprises me how different kids can be even when they're raised in the same home.

Hannah is now 9 and in the third grade. She's so excited to finally be learning cursive and multiplication. That girl is such a math whiz, she loves it and understands it very quickly. She's still on the YMCA swim team and still is just doing it for the fun. She hasn't gotten competitive about it, but that's OK. I'm just thankful she's still doing it. Her practices are up to 4 one hour sessions per week now, it's such great exercise for her! I keep telling her how lucky she is to have a group sport she enjoys, it's a lot more fun than my current exercise regime of walking the elliptical while she swims.

Joe's still Joe, a great husband and father. He took 2 college classes over the fall semester and aced them both! I'm so proud of him. He's really been my inspiration for getting myself back to school. If he can pull off 2 A's while working and playing dad than I should definitely be able to do it while being just a mom, right?

Well, I hope you've enjoyed the update. I really need to maintain this blog. There are so many moments in my life that my kids provide great entertainment. I always mean to write it down and sometimes I do but never in the same place. Facebook has been a good venue to share mini snipits but often times it's hard to summarize our happenings in Facebook's limited character length, we all know I can be a bit wordy. Thanks for reading and please leave a comment so I know that someone is actually "listening" to me.

Pssst....

we're going to sign paperwork tonight, we have a deal. I'm still so nervous that the inspection or appraisal will go poorly. But I have to keep telling myself, if it's meant to be, it will. But it's hard to not get too excited when even my level headed Gram keeps asking me "Are you excited?" "Are you happy?"

On the DQ swimming front. Her coach gave her a very great compliment yesterday. She told her she's probably one of the most improved swimmers on the team and that her times are proving that. She also mentioned that they might move her up to practice with the older kids because the younger group is slowing her down a bit because they all chat and goof around. She's 7 and she's afraid to swim with the older kids because "they're too fast mama!" So even if they offer, she'll continue to practice with the younger kids because we want her to enjoy swim team and have fun, not just work. But it's still exciting that the coach thinks she's doing so well. I was very proud of her before, but now, wow!

Also, we received a note from her art teacher yesterday. A piece of her artwork will be on display at the local heritage museum! She's so excited and couldn't help but tell the world (OK, maybe not the world but everyone in her path at the YMCA) that her artwork was in the museum. Due to her level of excitement, many people thought she meant THE museum in "the big city" near where we live. She even said "I always knew my art work would be in the museum, but I didn't think it would happen when I was in first grade!" Now do you see why I love that girl so much? She definitely keeps me on my toes.

We did it!

It's for real, we put an offer in on a house on Friday and the sellers have already countered our offer and we are now countering their counter offer. Did ya get all that? This is all going much faster than I had played it out a million times in my head. We haven't physically walked through a ton of houses, but for the price range that we're looking in, the school districts we're willing to send our kids to, and our need for at least 3 bedrooms we can't expect perfection. This house I believe is as close to perfection as we're going to get.

So, here's the rundown....
-3 bedroom ranch
-1.5 bathrooms
-1479 sq ft (the current house we're renting has barely 900 sq ft)
-almost 3/4 of an acre
-easy highway access for hubby going to work
-the same school district that we're in now, although Drama Queen would have to switch elementary schools
-lots of living space (the bedrooms are on the smaller side, but currently the girls have a large bedroom and they're always on top of us in our small living room
-quiet neighborhood with lots of swingsets in backyards

So, fingers crossed they bank accepts our counter offer today and we'll be busy with the inspection process very soon. I'm so nervous and excited all at once!

Daydreaming about the house...

we haven't even put an offer on yet. We saw an awesome house on Friday. It needs a lot of help, but it doesn't appear to be anything Hubby can't handle.

We've been looking at window and cabinet websites and there's a lot of fun stuff out there! Someday I will have a garden window over my kitchen sink like this....






Wouldn't that be awesome to grow my own herbs in and when recipe calls for fresh rosemary, I could trim a bit from my cute little pots like these...



There was also an awesome pull out that had skinny shelves to put things like bottles of cooking oils, spices, and the sorts. I can't remember what it was called, so I can't get a picture to share, but it was pretty neat.

Well, I'm off to daydream up some ideas for the kids' play room. There was a walk in attic area that we immediately both agreed would be the perfect play space for the kids. The ceiling is sloped a lot, so I'm thinking bean bag chairs and lots of throw pillows would be the perfect way to furnish that space. And just so you don't think I'm going to make my kids play in a dark attic, there are windows in this attic and it would probably be the only room in the house with full carpeting since there would be lots of crawling and play wrestling going on in there. Think Hubby would agree to something like this to cover the floor?



This space is obviously bigger than the area I've got to work with, but it'd be fun to make a tumble gym sorta space... I wouldn't really do this, but it's fun to day dream

Drama Queen Phelps?

My oldest daughter is a swimmer. I signed her up for the local YMCA swim team in October not expecting her to take it seriously, just hoping that more regular physical activity would help trim her down a bit with out having to do the ugly "D" word. She LOVES it. She gets to practice 3 times a week and begs for more. A lot of weeks she talks her Daddy into taking her to practice some more because Daddy was a swimmer in high school and helps her polish up her skills. She had a swim meet yesterday and she did AWESOME! She shaved off 20 seconds off her 25 meter freestyle! Seriously, TWENTY seconds!!! She also swam her first 50 meter race, which required swimming 2 lengths of pool so she had to do her first flip turn outside of practice....it was cute. Definitely a skill that needs polishing, but she's 7 she has time on her side to improve. Will she be an Olympic gold medalist like Phelps someday? Probably not, but for the time being it makes my heart swell with pride watching my little girl do a sport she loves. It was so awesome to see her excited little body jumping up and down when Daddy told her how fast she was.

By the way, slimming down...it's working. Between August and December she got almost a full inch taller and lost 3 pounds! Clothes that she was outgrowing in the tummy area fit her better than they ever did now. I'm so glad we got her into something that helps her to be healthier that she has so much fun with.

She had her little video camera there yesterday ready to interview all of her friends. Unfortunately the "electronics" batteries my hubby bought for it wouldn't work. *sigh* But, she has another meet in 2 weeks, so I'll be sure to get the right batteries for that one.