I'm Hungry

In the past few weeks my hubby and I began a partial South Beach diet. You know the kind...you do really well until there is an event such as July 4th and then you give it up for a day and from then on it seems to go downhill. This pretty much explains how we usually end up on our diet adventures. This time doesn't seem to be as bad.

The 4th got in the way with some not so healthy beverage choices but other then that we have been successfully keeping the carbs down. I've lost 7 lbs total in two weeks and I am excited about it. The fit of some of my clothes is fantastic and not so tight. The one downfall of this diet was week one. There is such a restriction in the type of food you can have that I felt like I was starving. I bypassed goodies at work for carrots and cauliflower. But this also encouraged me to look at what I was eating and how truly bad it was for me.

I currently play softball on Monday nights, which helps with the new training program I am planning to start this week. I have another 5K that I have my eyes set on at the end of July.

Also...kudos to my little brother for finishing 90th out of 235 in the Lakeside Triathlon this past weekend. He very impressive, especially for a first time triathlete.

Where Have We Been?

What a great question. And all I can say is here but very we've been busy. Let's see where can I start....... well my hubby is done with work until August. He does provide AT coverage for summer camps at the high school but that is generally in the morning. Scott has a new sitter for the morning hours and then goes home with daddy in the afternoon.

I turned the big 30 on June 16th. My husband made me a dinner of steak tacos and bought me a pair of Ugg sandals that I had wanted. My co-workers helped me celebrate at work by bringing in yummy treats, decorating my desk and tying balloons to my desk. My husband, brother, sister-in-law and two other friends joined me in Milwaukee on the weekend of June 4th for a brewery boat tour and some night-time fun. It was a lot of fun and I highly recommend the brewery boat tour. It takes you to three microbreweries along the river and you get to tour their facility along with drinking beer.

The morning of June 5th, before taking off to Milwaukee, I completed my first 5k of the year. I did just fine for the fact that I was never able to fully complete the Couch to 5K program. I was slightly off my time from 4 years prior which really just means I have some work to do. Which brings me to my new cell phone. After using a very simple phone for the last two years I got an IPhone. It's not the new IPhone 4, but it works all the same. I am really excited to use some of its features including mapping my run and possibly downloading the Couch to 5K. I plan on signing up for another 5K which is in July very soon.

We ventured down to D-town last weekend to visit my mom and to hang out with my dad for father's day. Scott had a blast as my mom took him around the farm on the golf cart. He thought it was great. In fact my dad came up to visit us this weekend for the first time since we moved. We spent the morning at my brother's house which was nice because he has air conditioning and we don't. However, the AC man is coming next week to install a central air unit for us. We decided when we had the house built that we didn't want to pay $4500.00 for AC. It would have been included in our mortgage but it just seemed really high. So needless to say we are paying significantly less for this unit and I really can't wait.

Scotty is growing like a weed. Running around and talking all the time. He loves being outside, in fact we bought a bike trailer and he has a great time we when go on family bike rides. We bought a little pool for him and he isn't to keen on getting in it quite yet. But it sure is fun getting him to try. He can say dog, ball, yes, and I on a rarity he repeats other words.

I'm sure there is so much more that I have forgotten about. I hopefully will try to keep up a little more on my blogging as being a slacker isn't much fun.

Snow Day!!!

The weather folks had been calling for this big storm for a few days so I had pretty much decided that I was going to stay home today. Needless to say I probably wouldn't have had a problem getting to work, it was the getting home part I didn't want to worry about. Plus spending the day with my hubby and my baby boy seemed so much better anyway. Unfortunately the wind has picked up this evening and my drive in the morning may not be so great but it was well worth it to stay home.


We decided to watch The Tigger Movie, cook out on the grill, play with lots of toys, play in the cabinets, and watch the beagles play in the snow.

Helping MOM

Bless my mom's heart as she is trying to go back to school after 30+ years. My mom is a diploma nurse from the "old days" as she would say, which means that she went to nursing school, graduated and is a Registered Nurse. But she doesn't have a bachelor's degree to go with it. Many nurses have this and I think she always thought about going back to try but she didn't have the confidence to settle in and do it. I also think that she wanted to make sure her three kids were off and on their own.

So recently she decided to attempt to get her bachelor's of science in nursing. The problem: she hasn't take a class in years and she isn't all that familiar with a computer. Don't get me wrong, she can navigate the Internet like a beginner but when you start to incorporate Microsoft Office programs she is completely lost.

She started a few weeks and she is trying. However, she doesn't have anyone around to help her, and those that can she doesn't ask. So she calls me and my husband for help...YIKES. This is something I don't have patience for; I want to I really do. It is just so hard for me to help people over the phone with things (good thing I don't do that for a living). I have however helped her with some of her assignments which I don't mind doing. Bill, the wonderful man that he is, helps her with her computer issues. I have no idea how he does it, but he deals with her very calmly and with great patience.

To her credit she has attempted many things on her own for this course and I hope she continues to do so as it gives her more confidence. She gets really flustered when she gets confused and she needs to be reminded to take a deep breath. I hope she is able to stick this out as she has mentioned trying to go on to get her master's degree as well. I know she can do it and it gives me more of my mom to look up to.

Happy New Year!!

As always, I am a few days late with my well-wishing but I hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable time while celebrating. We spent our time with my mom while she recovered from her carpal tunnel surgery. You don't realize how much you can't do until you only can use one hand. She is doing great now, she gets her stitches out at the end of the week and will wait to see what the doc has to say. However, she still needs to have the other hand done too. You would think she sat typing all day long, but she's a nurse.

I spent the last two days at home trying to clean up from not being home over the holidays. There is still a lot to do in my opinion but the Christmas decorations are put away, which was my main goal. Returning to work today was not what I would call my favorite thing of the day. We are moving to a new location over the course of three weeks and there seems to be a huge push to get things done before we move. My thoughts are that the same complaining students will still be complaining when we get to our new building.

My husband has decided to join my in our weight loss efforts. He is dedicated to starting the Biggest Loser Weight-Loss Yoga DVD with me and counting our points WW style. We are looking for a treadmill, which is boring to some but I tend to enjoy. Of course he always tends to lose his weight super fast which discourages me....but not this time!! Discouragement is for the birds!

Down On the Farm

We spent the weekend down at my mom's house 3 hours away in Central Illinois. It is always a good time and full of suprises. Bill also had a IATA meeting on Sunday, so while he went to that I went to see my Dad too. It had been awhile since my Dad had seen Scott and he was extremely happy about getting the chance.

Sitting with Grandpa.

My dad's friend Helen thought it would be fun to have Scott pose with a pumpkin. He sat there long enough to have this picture taken. Hopefully she got a better one.

This is Uncle Pup (my mom's boyfriend) making juice in the morning with breakfast.

Daddy feeding Scott at 6 am when we thought he would sleep longer.

Moose steaks for dinner! They were tasty.

Chewing on his new teething ring and that's Grandma in the background.

Uncle Mark came to visit too!

Modeling the hat that Grandma and Uncle Pup bought in Canada.