Conference weekend

We had a great weekend for a couple of different reasons. One reason is because it was General Conference weekend and that is always a spiritually uplifting experience. We enjoyed the conference from home and were able to pack and have fun as a family in between sessions.

We started the weekend by going to the Moose Cafe Friday night with our friends the Vanderhoof's (one of my great friends from Jake's school and my New Kid's concert buddy, Cheryl and her family) and had a really fun time. I of course had my camera but forgot to get a picture of all of us so this is the before and after.
We got up and headed to our friend Carla's neighborhood yard sale. We knew she was selling several pairs of binoculars and Jake has been wanting a pair. He ended up with the binoculars, some random leggos pieces he had been "needing" and a sword that he got for free. After that we headed to IHOP for breakfast and it was yummy! This makes it sound like we go out to eat all the time but the truth is we rarely ever do. We just wanted to enjoy our last weekend in the Mountains...and the kitchen is pretty much packed up.




In between sessions I headed to Walmart to get a few things we needed and Aaron took Jake to his school to shoot some hoops. I went by the school when I was done and snapped some pictures and we played a game of "Pig".




Sunday between Conference sessions, Aaron tried to show us were he buried Daisy, (our Basset Hound we had to put to sleep at the beginning of the year and as my mom calls her my first baby) but the road into Pisgah from Mills River was still closed because of all the rain. We will just have to go next time we come up to Pisgah to go camping. I miss my Daisy. I know a lot of you are rolling your eyes and saying it was just a dog, but she was more than that. She was part of our family for 10 years...That is a post for another day.

Our last weekend in the Mountain was a good one. One to remember!

Week Three Results

Thank you guys so much for your support and ideas so far! I added my results to the side of my blog so I can keep a running tally and I am going to add my minutes exercised a week...after I move. It would be a non-motivator to do it now. Unless I can count carrying boxes as working out...

I am happy to announce that I have stayed the same as last week! I know that sounds crazy, but the head cold I had settled in my chest and I have not been able to work out at all, all week. I have asthma and although it is much better than it used to be I still struggle with it when I get sick. I have spent this week going between the dry cough that is so hard I almost throw up. And then to the wet, raspy, coughing stuff up days. (I know that is too much information...)I spent yesterday in pain because I needed to cough stuff up but couldn't which meant I couldn't breath. (I know too much info. again...) I took my inhaler about a million times and my shoulder and back are aching. For some reason when I can't breath I find myself standing and sitting up really straight. I think it makes me feel like I will get more air in if I do or something.

Also lets face it when you are packing to move there really is no time to cook healthy food especially when every room in the house is partially packed and you can't accomplish more because you a hacking up a lung! I have just been watching my portion size (besides a couple of times...last time going out with good friends before we move...we went to the Moose cafe and the meatloaf is easily two portions and yes I ate it all. I am being honest here people don't judge me too harshly) and that was enough to not see the scale creep back up! More good news is I only coughed for a couple hours last night so I actually slept and I am feeling better today. I still have the cough but I can tell it is easing up and I feel like I can really accomplish something today.

I know these sound like excuses but when you can't breath, you can't breath! I am not giving up. I am rolling with the punches. This is life! Sometimes you just have to maintain and I am so glad I did! I know I will see the scale go down next week. If I was on the Biggest Loser Ranch they would have some how helped me find a way to exercise that didn't require breathing and I would have lost 6 pounds as I powered through the pain! Here in the real world I had to breath to live and I am very happy to not see a gain! I am not discouraged. Things like this in the past would have made me give up completely. Not this time. This time I am taking care of myself. Breathing is important and as soon as I can do it with ease I will set some new Wii Fit records and wear out the road! (Tina that is why I haven't told you what my records are on Wii Fit-I haven't been back on to see what they are to tell you!)

Oh I almost forgot: I can pull my jeans down with out undoing them! They are seriously hard to keep up! Great feeling...except I have no pants to wear the next size down. I have 4 pairs the size under that, so I have just got to push it!!!!

The Rest of September...

I really need to post pictures as I take them. I am going to work on that...I am also going to remember to load the pictures from the bottom up so they don't come out backwards! Here is the rest of September...backwards!

"Wacky Wednesday" is the last Wednesday of the month at Jake's school. Basically that means breakfast for lunch! I took the girls today to eat "wacky" with Jake. This is as we were leaving.

Jake and Bella

Bella's famous picture "smile"!

Jake and Sophia

Jake's classmate, Jake, took this of us. There are 2 Jake's and 1 Jacob in his class. It is strange that they all ended up in one class. There are 4, 3rd grade classes-you think they would spread them around!

Aaron was in charge of the treat for Family Home Evening. M&M popsicles!

Jake's open house at school was last night and I forgot my camera! I took this picture when we got home. We were asked to send in an outfit and when we got to Jake's classroom-there he was sitting in his chair! Very cute idea!

Jake and Bella playing with Play Dooh

The ice cream truck that came many times over the summer. We decided to get it one more time before we moved for the memories. This is the same night Aaron came home with the M&M popsicles. I bet the whole box cost less than 2 things from the ice cream truck. It is expensive!

We are packing and it is so fun!...I love it when the house looks like this...Actually it totally DRIVES ME CRAZY!!!

We packed the garage on Saturday. Aaron found an old pair of safety/sunglasses and gave them to Jake. Nice look for you Jake!

Emily was actually sleeping like this as I was on the computer. I woke her up when I got the camera. How is that comfortable? She is actually sleeping about 3 feet a way right now with her tongue sticking out...

Jake and Bella. They really are great friends...

Jake packing himself! There is no chance we would forget him!

A couple attempts at a picture of the 3 amigos.


Jake is a great helper and Sophia loves him!

Week Two Results

The week two curse was nonexistent on the Biggest Loser Ranch last week. Combined they lost over 150 pounds! I guess I shouldn't have started with that...It makes my 2 POUNDS (!!!!!) seem small. I just passed the mental hurdle that is week two. I am very happy with 2. It is actually my favorite number! Larry Johnson's (my favorite basketball player-he is retired, but he was a Charlotte Hornet, back in the day) number was 2. It is week 2 and I lost 2 pounds. If I lose 2 pounds a week for the rest of the year I would have lost a total of 31 pounds. I am not a big fan of odd numbers, so lets make is 30. So I think that is my goal for the year...Dare I say that out loud? (or type it...) AAAHHHH! Setting goals for me is like jinxing myself. Self sabotage usually sets in very quickly after I make a goal like that. But that is just another mental hurdle I will have to jump over! I am 7 pounds into my 30 pounds by New Years Eve goal. Not bad! I can do this.

Oh and by the way-new record on Advance Step (I actually hold all 10 top spots now), the one were you hit the soccer balls with your head, and Advance Hula Hoop on our Wii Fit. BOOYAH Aaron! You know you can't touch my Step record...

A few projects I have done this year

A friend of mine inspires me every time I go to her blog because of her talents! She is exactly what HGTV looks for in their designers and I love it when she posts updates on her latest projects. She can take a plain dress and turn it into the latest fashion. She can completely change the look of a room on a tight budget. Seeing her latest project motivated me to share some of the little art projects I have done too. I am not a professional in any way, shape, or form, but I do enjoy to paint on occasion. I am more of a copy cat than an artist. I am not a perfectionist so don't judge me to harshly! If I can do it any one can! You should try to paint-you might realize a wonderful new stress reliever!

Keep in mind I broke my wonderful camera a few months ago and I am working with a sad one right now...The light is horrible! I have one I will post later because the picture just didn't come out!

Jake's bathroom is pretty small so we didn't want to darken the walls at all and I wanted something easy to clean. So we painted the walls glossy white and brought in the color with this awesome shower curtain and painting that Jake and I did. (I will post a picture of his bathroom sometime soon, I can't find them on the computer right now) I just drew the same style rocket ship on the canvas as there is on the shower curtain and Jake decided on the colors and background. I loved how creative Jake got with the fire from the space ship blasting off!


I love Southern Living at Home and have several of the Gail Pittman hand painted pottery pieces. It is pretty expensive so I hosted a party and got it all for free, except for one piece my mom bought me for Christmas. It makes me happy to just look at it! So happy, that I pretty much decorated my house so I could have it in all the living areas! I needed a large piece to bring it all together for when we put the house on the market so I decided to paint a large canvas with the same pattern. I would never copy an artist and sell it, but I have no problem doing it for myself! (I have the bowl and pitcher too!)


Another friend of mine is the Activity Day Girls Leader and she was having the girls make bean bags to give to the nursery at church. She asked me to paint a clown on a piece of plywood that was to be the thing you toss the bean bags through. The holes were put in the balloon, hat, and the clown nose (that is why I didn't paint that part in that great-a lot of it was going to be cut out any way).

You should try to paint something! It is easy, fun, and an amazing stress reliever Try it you might like it!..And you might surprise yourself with a new talent you can share!

Rain, rain, go away!

Luckily it seems to have given up a break and it is a beautiful day!!! I mentioned that is has been raining like crazy for the past week and a half and the pictures below are what we woke up to today. We live right across the street from Tap Root Dairy Farm and I love to see the cows! The smell we get on occassion, not so much. But any way,they have two very large fields on either side of the road our neighborhood is off. These field are now lakes! The road was partially covered yesterday now it is under water. Our two minute drive to school is now an almost 20 minute drive!

Bella and Sophia waiting patiently as I took a few quick pictures!


See how the road reappears? Right up that hill is Jake's school.


Our nice new lake!


The news happened to be leaving when I got there.

I wonder how long the road will be closed...And wouldn't you know that today was picture day and I forgot to put the form and check in Jake's folder! Luckily I realized that before making it all the way back home!

Aaron is 33!

We celebrated Aaron's birthday on Friday night even though his birthday wasn't until Saturday because we were headed to Columbia to go to the temple for his cousins sealing. He liked Jake's cookie cake so much we got one for him too. Unfortunately we forgot to tell him happy birthday that Saturday morning...My excuse is that I had to get up at 6:15, on my only day I have to sleep in and my brain wasn't functioning. Not that any excuse is a good one...Sorry Aaron! We love you!