Scrapbooking, the journey begins…

My goal is to make scrapbooks of the kids for everyone for Christmas. By everyone I mean the grandparents, my sister, and one for daddy too.

Scrapbooking is new to me, something I have never done before. So it is one of my personal challenges too!

I ordered a tiny scrapbook kit from my daughter through her school fundraiser and played with that first. Here are some pictures of what I did. Just a sample of the pictures. Any and all advice is welcome! I need to know what is good, what sucks, what I can do better. That kind of thing. I’m going to be making bigger ones for everyone else, the 8.5 x 11 size.

The flash got the picture here, but that is not really important. It’s the page I want you all to see.

Notice the difference in the writing here?  I was trying out a calligraphy set that I had on hand. I’m not so good at it, as evidenced by all the other pictures. But this one here was done by  my husband. All these years and I never knew he had a knack for calligraphy. Guess who’s going to be doing the rest?

One step forward…

I joined a gym! YAY for me. It is an awesome set up, with childcare, and not as expensive as I thought it would be. They have classes everyday too. I can’t wait to try out cardio kickboxing.
But I only really got to go once so far.

Day #1 was the consult. Weighed, measured, shown all the equipment, etc. It was getting to be D’s nap time then, so I told the lady I’d be back the next morning to actually get started. We walk into the kid room and D is fast asleep! Standing up with his head on one of those tiny little kid chairs. It was so funny, cause I just told her it was getting close to his nap time. I wished I had remembered my cell so I could snap a pic lol.

Day #2 D cried the whole time, back in the kids room. They finally came out and got me after FORTY minutes. (I didn’t know he’d been crying so long or I would have stopped sooner) I realize later in the day he has a fever, so I figure that is why he was so crabby. Decide to skip next day so we don’t get other kids sick too.

Day #3 stay home cause D has fever and runny nose. That night, Hazy develops an earache and slight fever.

Day #4 stay home so Hazy doesn’t get other kids sick.

Day #5 yep. Momma is sick. Today was kickboxing day too. I just wanted to watch today while I worked out, to see if I’d like to do it next time.

I can’t win lol.

Summer Challenge #2

If you recall from this post my Summer Challenge #2 is to learn to watercolor paint, or at least to have fun trying. So, after a few times of just playing around with the brushes, I attempted a picture today. I only used one color for the whole thing, just with different amounts of water. I don’t know what kind of flower I was going for. It was just kind of in my head. Does it even look like a flower to everyone else?

Here it is with and without flash. I think the no flash pic looks the closest in color.

FOUR pounds!

I have lost 4lbs. I am so excited! I’ve (mostly) been watching what I eat and doing some type of work out every day. I also have a nutrition class right now and that is really helping me be aware of what I am eating. Seeing the scale was the motivation I needed to really stick with this. I ate pretty badly over the weekend, but I did get a Wii Fit! I have been using the steps on it and the hula hoop to get a good aerobic work out.

Well, I have to take all the kiddos to the store this morning for groceries. I went the other day, but stupidly only picked up a few things. So back we go again.

And I don’t even LIKE ice cream!

Yep, you read that right. I really don’t like ice cream all that much. But last night we went to Dairy Queen and I got a turtle sundae, in a waffle bowl, and ate the whole damn thing. I think it is because I’m trying to lose weight and avoiding sweets. My cravings went overboard. According to Spark People, where I have been tracking my food, this is what I ate:

Calories: 820
Carbs: 117
Fat: 35

Holy hell! Why did I eat that!? I didn’t have the best of dinners last night either. At least I have been exercising! I have been doing yoga, aerobics, kick boxing, and bike riding. I want to ride my bike more, then it is exercise + alone time, which just rocks.

Here is my food and exercise log on Sparkpeople, so I can try to stay accountable.

Wow! That felt incredible!

In the hopes of being more active, I recorded a few workouts on the DVR, then never watched them. So this morning I put one on and it was kick boxing. I can not believe how awesome it felt! First of all, it was fun. That’s right, it was fun. I wasn’t that great at it, but I had a blast trying and laughing at myself.

The stretching/yoga at the end made me feel better than I have in a long time. I could really feel my muscles loosening up. I have felt so tight and tense lately.

Afterwards, it was just this rush of endorphins or something. I just felt so damn good. I jumped in the shower and all I could think about was doing it again. I guess I finally found something I like!

I have a few more recorded, and I know one is yoga. I want to try doing the yoga every evening to help me unwind and loosen up my muscles. Then, I am going to do my best to do that kick boxing one every day!

It’s Friday!(spiders, books, and more mentioned)

Not too much to be excited about though. We have a flat tire, so that needs to be fixed. Then maybe we’ll get to do something fun this weekend, besides cut the grass. It does need cut again already, so I’ll get some exercise this weekend. That part of the challenge, being more active, is not going so well. Unless chasing kids who don’t want to be cleaned, changed, or other wise groomed, counts?

I saw a freaky/scary/interesting spider yesterday. Since it was on the other side of the glass, I could look at it all I wanted. Usually I am terrified of spiders, but it was slightly cool watching it work on it’s prey. Only the mouth moved, nothing else. It was white, with black/white striped legs. It also had an hourglass marking on it’s belly, orange not red. It’s abdomen was perfectly round and smooth. I would have sworn it was an albino black widow spider. I could not get pics through the glass and I was too chicken to go outside and get near it so no pictures. Hubby killed it last night after I went to bed. It was kind of funny that I went to look for it this morning. I was kind of curious to see if it was a young black widow and was going to turn black. The kids were looking for it too. It wasn’t any smaller than black widows I have seen before, so I don’t know if it was a baby.

I just read book #2 in the Left Behind Series, Tribulation Force (click me). I was kind of disappointed in it. I enjoyed the first one, Left Behind (click me), more. I think we’re going to get #3 from the library this weekend. I know hubby really wants to read the next. I’m not so sure anymore, but I’ll let him read it first and see what he says.

I’m hoping to release some more books into the wild this weekend. I have a box full of them that still need labeled though and I just haven’t had the time. I do have some with Valentine’s day labels on them that I never got around to releasing then. Maybe I’ll release them now anyway lol.

I have to do something active this weekend! The most I did this week, after cutting the grass, was some freeze tag with the kids. Hazy doesn’t quite get that you have to freeze when you play freeze tag, so it didn’t last long. She wouldn’t freeze and the other’s would get mad.

A double challenge activity!

Something I have never done before AND more than 30 minutes of physical activity. I cut the grass! Yep, that is right, I have NEVER in my 28 years cut grass. I only got the back yard done. It was so hot outside, I was bright red and exhausted. But I did it! Go me! Hubby took a pic for proof, I think he took it more for himself than for me lol.

My Personal Challenges!

I plan to have two major summer challenges, then several smaller challenges. Things I have never done before.

Summer challenge #1 is to do something active every day. For at least 30 minutes. This can be go for a walk, ride my bike, play wii fit(if I ever get it), etc. It may not seem like much, but I have to start somewhere. Also, it is HOT out there, so I’m hoping I can keep my motivation, or find some fun stuff to do indoors. Some of my smaller challenges will fit into this challenge, I think. I actually have something in mind today that is both active and something I have ever done before. I may get dh to take a pic! He’s going to want to want proof anyway lol.

Summer challenge #2 is to learn water color painting. I’m going to start on this next week. I have all the materials I need and I found some great online tutorials. I’ll post links when I post more about this challenge. Hopefully I’ll be brave enough to share pics of my ‘work.’ As far as I know, I have no artistic ability though. It just looks like something fun and I’ve always wanted to try it.

I also have a BookCrossing challenge for the whole year. The goal is to release 366 books into the wild, one for every day of this year. So far I have released 150. You can keep track with me on my bookshelf. I did not set a goal for how many books to read this year because I have been so busy with school. I also know there are a few books I read, but did not list on my bookshelf. I just can’t remember what they are.

Time to get healthy! (help me!)

I’m tired of feeling bad about myself. I want to be more active and get in shape. Basically, I just want to be healthy. I don’t exercise. At all. That needs to change.

I also need to eat better. But I LOVE food. I love to eat. The problem is in what I eat. I have no portion control. I will eat a whole box of crackers, a whole bag of chips, a whole box of brownies, etc. See, the thing is, I used to be super skinny and eat whatever I wanted. I think I still have that mindset, but not the metabolism.

I am not looking to get back to my way-too skinny self of 8 years ago, I just want to lose between 30 and 40 pounds, but I can’t stick to eating healthy. I am such an emotional eater. Yesterday at the store, I grabbed some yummy looking turtle brownies and then I put them back! YAY me! But I did get two 20 oz Mountain Dews(I so needed the caffeine).

What I need is a personal trainer/dietitian. I need someone to tell me what to do, when to do it, what to eat, when to eat. I need every single meal, even snacks, planned out. I can’t control myself, so I need someone else to do it for me! That would probably only work if they were here with me all day though lol.

I also need some good ideas on exercise. It is hard to get ‘me’ time with four kids. I would love to go for a bike ride every day, but it has been so hot lately. (see all my excuses? I have a million, I swear).

So, if anyone reads this, can you leave me some good suggestions? How do you find time to exercise? What do you do to get active? How can I control my eating habits? Good snack ideas? Please help me!