The deck......

So here are the pics I promised a few days ago. My comp is finally cooperating with me to get them on here. :) Sorry about the bottom pic - no matter what I do on my comp or in photobucket it just won't stay up the right way. I appologize for the cricks in your necks when you have to tilt sideways to see it right. :) ~Hugs~Jen

Weekend......

So this weekend we built a new deck for our house. When I say we I mean I organized the food and my hubby, his friend from work, dad-in-law and mom-in-law (once friend from work left) worked on getting deck built on Saturday. Sunday was hubby and dad-in-law and Monday was me and hubby. We had gone to Home Depot with hubby's drawings of what he would like the deck to look like. They gave us a plan with required materials. This was done a year ago. So we went back this year after getting the stimulus check and asked them to update it if needed. They said it was fine as is but prices were lower on some things. Well for starters hubby had to go back for the stair stringers that were left off the materials list and a few other pieces. About 5 extra trips were made to HD over the weekend. Some for missing parts, some for broken parts, some because estimated materials was less than what was actually needed. So the supposed final cost of roughly $450 was sooooooo off. I think it ended up costing around $600 total for the deck. About $100 more than anticipated on our end as I'd allowed $100 extra to begin with from the cost on the HD printout for stain that we are holding off a year of (and extras). So Monday I was helping and got a bad sunburn on my neck. I can't wear shirts with tags or regular t-shirts because they make it feel worse. I was wearing a scoop neck shirt outside that day....and didn't think of sunblock even with it being 80 degrees and about 9 to 1 that we were outside. OOPS!

I'll post the pics I took of the deck later when my comp is cooperating with me better.

Weigh in this week is on Thursday. Monday class was cancelled due to the holiday and Wednesday night had to be pushed back a day because it worked better for everyone's schedule. My oldest daughter is bridging up in Girl Scouts that night so I'd be late and since it's at my house (and they didn't feel comfy sitting with my hubby until I got here LOL) we postponed it to the next day. :)

Well I'm off to have dinner soon. ~Hugs~Jen

Tired and allergies......

It's that time of year again. What time of year is that you ask? The time of year when I have coughing and sneezing fits, major headaches and feel like crap most days. Thats right it's allergy season. My oldest - poor kid - seems to have picked up on my allergies too. I guess that's better than having her dad's food allergies. So I have been coughing, she has been coughing, we both have been looking like we get no sleep. Although on Tuesday that really was because I didn't get enough sleep.

Anyone else out there with me buying a Wii Fit at 12:01 am? The store closest to me (Meijer) was only getting 20 in stock. While WalMart had them for $0.27 cheaper - I'd most likely use more than that in driving there and back to get it. Glad I was there at 12:01 am because they sold 10 of their 20 right then. If I had waited until I woke up at 6:30 am I might have got one. But we don't know that for sure so I was out at midnight. Let me tell you something though - I'm pretty sure the scale on the darn thing is off. It weighed me at 248 - now as much as I'd like to think I lost that much already I know it's not true. What I find funny is I have two scales by the same company - both electronic and the older of the two weighs me at about 7 lbs. lighter than the newer one. How is this possible? I guess every scale is different even from the same maker. Go figure.

So this afternoon when I should be grocery shopping I am going to try out the Wii Fit. Shhhhh I'll go out later.....not sure when but later I'll get groceries. But whatever I do I have to stay away from the chocolates. TOM is coming soon and sweets are all I can think about these days. It's so annoying that we have this one (well 2 really if you count pms week) week were we are pissy and only sweets seem to "cure" it temporarily that is.

So I think weigh in day may be moving back to Monday. I know I know - pick a date. Well it moved to Wednesday because I was hosting a weight loss challenge at my house but we only had one lady show up last week. Another stopped by asked where to park and never came back. But the one who was here didn't show up this week. Possible reason could be that her sister who was with her had her baby or that she figured it wasn't for her. We'll see next week I guess. But I am down another 2 lbs. this past week for a total of 5.5 lbs lost roughly. I'm not sure of inches I'll have to find out from the Monday challenge. I'm still going in case the Wednesday one doesn't work out then I can still get involved and keep on track.

Well I should probably get working on the fitness challenge. It wasn't too bad - my fitness age or whatever they called it was only 29 - 1 year older than I am. Have a great day J-land! ~Hugs~Jen

Motivation

I thought this was an interesting read on SparkPeople.com (well really an email I got from them) on not giving up.

LISAHAS2CATS wrote "If you forgot to brush your teeth last night, did you decide this morning to throw in the towel and never brush your teeth again? Since you're obviously a slob who doesn't have enough self- discipline to remember to brush your teeth, why bother brushing them at all if you forgot to last night?

Of course not.

So if you had ice cream for dinner last night, or didn't exercise yesterday, or gained a pound this week, don't throw in the towel! Make a healthier choice for dinner tonight by eating something lean. Go for a short walk. Weigh in again next week.

Just do NOT give up."

Ohhhhhhhhh now that is good - right? But not brushing.....the teeth fall out....they have to be worth a pound or two right? ;)

I have switched weigh in days - from Monday to Wednesday. Why? Because I swiched weight loss challenge nights. I sort of jumped into the middle of the one on Mondays because I (and Angela my fellow Herbalife friend who is running these things) knew I needed to get right on track or I never would. So I started week 7 of 12 on Monday. Well the Wednesday group is finally starting and its at my house. Not a problem right?!?! Well that meant I had to clean and keep it clean and if it is going to be at my house I better stay on the ball and lose. :D I've also taken to posting this picture on my fridge :

This would be me and my hubby waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back in 1998 - Senior year fall homecoming. About 175 lbs. I still have this dress - I loved this dress - I want to wear it again and look this great someday. Well it is practice time for me so I have to dash........they are trying to fatten me back up with pizza and salad tonight >.< I will take my pills, I will take my pills, I will take my pills........ and be good and not eat a ton! ~Hugs~Jen

I'm still here.....

So I have been in this weight loss challenge for two going on three weeks now. Eating my Herbalife shakes twice a day (most days) and taking my pills. I lost 2.2 lbs the first week and 1.3 lbs this week. For a total of 3.5 lbs lost in the past 2 weeks - yay me!

And now its my bed time. Nite J-land! ~Hugs~Jen

Intersting tidbit

I learned last night that 1 bagel = 12 slices of bread. ACK!!!!!! I can't remember if it was in carbs or calories but man that has put me off bagels fro a long time now. Good thing too because at the volunteer appreciation breakfast at my kids school this morning they had the good ones.....the Einstien Bros. ones.......the ones I LOVE to eat whenever I can get them. But I was good and left them alone. Yay me! Back to cleaning :)

I'm back.......

Chicago (actually Schaumburg, IL) was a blast. I went for a children's ministry conference at Willow Creek Church (which is huge!!!!) with the group of ladies who run our kids programs at my church. We stopped for dinner on Tuesday evening and then went to an outlet mall to walk off dinner in Michigan City, IN. The first day (Wednesday) was awesome listening to all the speakers that they brought in for us. The music was AWESOME too, can't forget about how it felt like I was at a big concert front row. :) The last set was Glen Keane, Rick Dempsey and Aaron Reynolds. Glen and Rick work for Disney - Rick is in charge of maintaining voice talent for animated movies and Glen is an animator (30 yrs. now) who drew Ariel, Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas, and Tarzan. His dad draws "The Family Circus". Aaron Reynolds wrote a book on his creative approach to children's ministry and is hilarious. Needless to say the story behind Ariel and Beast were worth being there and shed a whole new light on the movies that are coming from Disney. Rick had a huge hand in bringing Narnia to Disney. Then on Thursday we had breakout where we sat in different sessions and learned different things relevant to our area in children’s ministry. I got a broad overview but had some music ones too. It was fun but seeing as how my first session of the day (music and motions) taught us 6 songs that were high motion/movement songs I was sore, tired and sweaty by the time I got to my second session. Where I got to be a third grader in a typical Sunday session at Willow. I was falling asleep by the end of it - not because it was boring but because I needed to eat something and we had been rushed out of the hotel that morning so I missed breakfast. :( I ate lunch and was fine but moving around and up and down the many stairs there and such made my legs hurt all the way to Sunday morning. Friday was that small day with only two main sessions the last being Phil Vischer - of VeggieTales fame. I was super excited to hear him talk and to start reading his book. But I got a ton of exercise as we walked all over that place and if I would have thought about it I would have put on my pedometer to see how far I was walking each day.

But the biggest thing to come out of the conference was the fact that I hooked up with another Herbalife distributor that is local! For me that is huge and she is running weight loss challenges so I joined one because I hate being this big. I went to my first meeting last night and the first thing I learned was that my scale is actually about 6 lbs. less than the Dr. scale and what the WLC scale is. T<spanclass=correction id="">he WLCscale and my Dr. scale are in agreement on my weight - 258.6 lbs. ugh! So Sunday I got back on the wagon fulltime with Herbalife products and will be held accountable with the WLC to any gains as 1 lb = $1 in the pot and the biggest loser wins the pot at the end. This is what I needed to get on track but I didn't know of anyone in my area, let alone the fact that I could have started one scared the crap out of me. Who would take weight loss advice from someone who is overweight herself and not working on losing it? See my dilemma? But the big thing is that by doing this and starting to exercise</spanclass=correction> (yes starting I suck at everything and keeping with it........) will get me into better shape and maybe I can jump around on stage and actually sing the songs without losing my breath halfway through like I do now. :)

So here I am with this wonderful opportunity to learn about kid's ministry things and it could be that God had me go on that whole trip to give me a big kick in the butt on my weight loss. LOL The way things work sometimes amaze me. So Monday night was my weigh in but I think I am switching to the Wednesday meeting next week. Well its back to unoacking, cleaning and reading for me plus my walking video before lunch. Hope everyone has a great day in J-land. ~Hugs~Jen