True Confessions Tuesday

I think I'm having a pretty good week. I don't have a lot to confess. I feel like I'm repeating myself. Isn't that what I said last week? I like saying it though. Here goes......

1. I ate two fun size candy bars when I was making valentine gifts for my kids at school.

2. I did miss one day of working out.

3. I had some taco dip during the Super Bowl. I did just eat the italian beef and no bun though.

That is truly all I can think of. I did the last chance tworkout and loved it. I'm typing this while I wait for tonights to start. If you haven't tried it, you should. Second hour of Biggest Loser just started, gotta go!

You Capture/Faces

This weeks assignment from Beth was faces. Somehow, I went to a big family birthday party on Sunday without my camera. How did I do that? I was all excited last week when I saw what the assignment was, knowing I had this party. I confess that my faces this week are from my husbands birthday party last week. Sorry, but it was a really busy week and the only real pictures I took were of the full moon.

Lucky for you all, I cropped most of my big butt out of this shot.

That face is just too cute though.

Cutest face number two.

Poppa and his girls.

Our six girls.

Now, it's time to go here and see all the faces.

Week 5 Weigh In

Week 5????? Where is the time going? Didn't we just start this challenge like last week? I swear, the older I get, the faster time goes. Don't take that wrong. I am not complaining. I swear to you, I am not complaining. There is no complaining here this week.

I had a really good week. Finally!! I lost 1.4 pounds and I am very happy with that. I am in a much better frame of mind than I have been the past few weeks. I'm done feeling sorry for myself and I'm done complaining. The only person who can help me in this adventure is me. I love that you all support me in this, but the bottom line is that I have to do the work. I have to put in the time. I have to want to do it and so help me God, I do!

This challenge has been a real eye opener for me. The homework assignments have been awesome. I'm pretty sure I never said that about homework when I was in school. Thank you so much ladies for all the work that you put into these challenges for us. The Sisterhood is an inspiring and supportive place and I am so happy that I found you.

Okay, it's 8:36 p.m. and I still have a treadmill that is calling my name!

p.s. I did the tworkout last night and really loved it. I will definitely be doing that again next week.

True Confessions Tuesday

True confessions and I am happy to report that I don't have a lot to confess. I am in a really good frame of mind and it makes everything else fall into place. I had a couple of really bad weeks and I was a big baby about it. I whined and complained and was a total bitch. I'm sorry about that. I shouldn't have inflicted my sad self on you all.

What I do have to confess is this....

1. We had a big birthday party on Sunday. I come from a large family and we do a monthly birthday party. If your birthday falls in that month, it's your party. Lately though, it seems like we are doing two, three and even four months at a time. This party included my husband, my oldest daughter and myself. Here's the confession part...I had a small spoonful of caramel crunch ice cream and another small spoonful of the Vanilla Wafer banana pudding dessert. I haven't had that since I was a little kid. It was really good. I was good with the rest of the food. We had pulled pork, but I didn't eat it on a bun. We had homemade scalloped potatoes and I passed on them. We had an awesome wild rice salad with fruit in it. I loved that. I made mostly good choices.

2. I did miss a couple days of exercise. I only worked out four days. It has been a really busy week. I even had to work on Sunday morning.

So, that is all I can think of to confess. This was a good week. I was due for one. Believe it or not, I'm looking forward to weigh in tomorrow.

Hey Current Self Meet Future Self!

Dear Current Self,
Hey there you sexy thing. I bet you didn’t think we’d be saying that now, did you? Life is full of good surprises.
We had a rough little start to 2010. January was not our favorite month. Can you say pity party? February came and by then we had picked our self up by our boot straps and were in the thick of good eating and exercise. March brought our second 5k and we kicked ass. Ran the whole stinkin thing and the ankle never hurt once.
April brought springtime and the sweetest little grandson that God ever made to our family. The warmer weather took us outside for some of our exercise and we started going to the state park to do some hiking on the weekends. May brought grill weather and a different style of cooking. June was the end of school for the year. We cheered from afar for our sisters who were running the mini in San Diego. They were smokin hot and totally rocked it. I knew they were going to do good. I never doubted them.
July was the half way point of the year. We were doing well with our eating and exercise. We had lost eight pounds and several inches. August had us feeling like we had finally got it. We were in the zone and knew how to stay there. No more whining or at least very seldom. September we were back in school and rethinking how to keep up the good things we had learned over the summer. And guess what, we figured it out and kept on going.
October brought long hikes in the dunes. That park pass we got in the winter was a great idea. The beautiful colors were good for the soul and the camera. November we ran in the Run Baby Baby Run 5k again and we were even better than in March when we ran the Runnin with the Irish. December was wonderful with the holidays, but we also had to fight all the food and liquor temptations. We didn’t always pass them up, but that was okay too. We just worked a little harder on the exercise.
So, here we are at the start of 2011. We learned so much this past year. Whining and complaining is annoying to everyone and it doesn’t help one little thing. People can coach and cajole, but the only person who can really help you is you. If you really put your mind to it, you can do anything you want. We just kept putting one foot in front of the other, day after day and here we are one year later…..17 pounds lighter and more fit than we have been in too many years. We can run up a sand dune without stopping and we can chase those grandkids all over the place. We are finally in a really good place. A really good place!
With much love,
Your Future Self

This was the Monday project homework for the Sisterhood. I haven't gone stark raving mad.

You Capture/Color

You Capture this week is all about color.

This is some of my granddaughters artwork.

This is the border in my kitchen.

This is my table runner.

Check out the colorful submissions at Beth's

I Am Happy

My wonderful friends Melissa and Christy gave me this award the other day. It says that I am supposed to list ten things that make me happy. I think I can do that. Here goes........

1. My grandkids
2. My daughters
3. My husband
4. My wii exercise games
5. The Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans
6. Pulling myself out of a funk and being back on track with my fitness goals
7. My job
8. My mom
9. My friends, both in real life and in the blogging world
10. My camera

Now, I am supposed to pass this on to ten friends. How about if you want to play along, you just grab the award and put it on your blog and list your ten things. Does that work for you?

The Monday Project/I Rock..........

This is week three of Rethink Your Shrink. Week one we dug deep into ourselves to do some soul searching. Week two we made Walls of Motivation to inspire ourselves. This week is tough and I mean really tough. We are supposed to give five reasons why we rock. We are given license to tell why we are awesome. Tooting my own horn is something I just don't usually do. I'm not really comfortable with it. Like I said, this is going to be hard. I am going to do my best though. That's just how I roll when it comes to homework.

1. I rock because I am an awesome grandma. I love my two little sweeties with all my heart. They are the lights of my life and I can't wait till April to add a grandson to the family.

2. I rock because I finally had that "aha" moment and got serious about my weight loss and fitness goals. It took years to get to this point and it took the Sisterhood, but I finally got there.

3. I rock because I am doing my best to become a decent photographer. I use the term loosely but I love taking pictures with my new camera. I think I am getting better at it all the time.

4. I rock because I love my job. There is nothing like working with preschoolers. They are so funny and they love you unconditionally. What other job gives you that?

5. I rock because I signed up for another 5k. My first attempt in November didn't go too well. My ankle has been feeling pretty good, so I am hoping for a much better time and to be able to run the whole race.

Okay, so that was a little weird, but not as bad as I thought. Maybe I do rock!

You Capture/Love Around My House

This weeks You Capture assignment was to find love around my house. I admit that I totally forgot about You Capture this week with everything else going on around me. God intervened this morning with a two hour weather delay at school. I was able to take a few minutes to capture some of my favorite things around my house. There are so many more, but this will have to do for now.....

I do love my computer. I guess not so much my computer, but the people in my computer. One of my very favorite sites is the Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans. These women are awesome and inspiring and have helped me beyond measure. I've lost 14 pounds since I met them last March and I'm still going strong. I have my slips and stumbles, but they are always there to pick me up and get me back on track. These women rock and I love them.My crazy squirrels at the bird feeder are a hoot.

My Waterford bisquit jar. When my husband's best friends mom died, I was given this as a rememberance. She was one of the sweetest people you could ever meet and I am so honored to have this. We loved her like a true member of our family.

My favorite pillow and blanket for curling up in my chair.

This is a three in one. My framed pictures, my photo albums and my Longaberger baskets. The two lttle sweeties in the framed pictures are two of my favorite things in the world that just happen to bless me with their presence in my house sometimes.

I guess for throwing this together in minutes, it wasn't too bad. I'm sure you will find really great captures at Beth's. Go check it out.

True Confessions

It's Tuesday, so that means it's time for true confessions. I have lots to confess. But, I won't make excuses. It's been a rough couple of weeks. I've said that before. It's time to move on from there. Here's the bad news.......

1. Workouts were almost nonexistant. I can remember only doing two.

2. My food was almost all eaten in restaraunts. I admit that some of it was really good and I enjoyed it. Who wouldn't enjoy homemade Polish food?

3. Alcohol was not my friend. No wait, I think it was my friend, way too much.

4. I totally screwed up on the diet coke/water ratio.

Here is the good news......the pity party is over. I can feel the funk lifting. I am back on track and it starts at 5:30 a.m. tomorrow morning with the Biggest Loser wii game. I just got done watching the Biggest Loser and it inspired me. I am the only person who can do this for me. Just me and I can do this. Yay Me!