Weight Loss Mondays

Well I haven't posted any weight loss news for almost two weeks due to our vacation. Just before leaving on vacation I managed to make it down to 129.6 and was thrilled. Of course with vacation brings bad eating habits and no exercise. I wasn't surprised to return home to see my weight had jumped to 132.0 Fortunately through exercise and diet I was able to step on the scale this morning to see 128.8. I was shocked and didn't even believe it at first. I got on the scale two more times just to make sure it was true! I felt soo happy. I have now to date lost 11 pounds! I can't believe it. Now my new problem will be trying to find money in the budget to buy some clothes that fit! ;-)

Disneyland splash mountain

I just had to share this photo we bought from Splash mountain at Disneyland. Aly and I are in the middle of the boat and our friends Amy and Taylor are in the back. While Aly didn't like this ride I was very proud of her for how brave she was and how well she handled herself. The big drop at the end was the only time she screamed and we were done she politely said she didn't want to do that ride again.

Did you know that KK was big enough to ride the Matterhorn? Apparently you only have to be 35 inches and she is just between 35-36 inches tall. She also was tall enough to ride the Mickey Mouse roller coaster. She loved the Mickey Mouse roller coaster and asked to go on it again and again. She rode the matterhorn but we were not too sure if she liked that one or not. She kept her hands over her eyes the whole time.

Aly didn't really like the Mickey Mouse roller coaster and didn't even want to try the Matterhorn. She wanted to stay with the mellow rides. Hopefully next year when we go she will be ready for some more thrill rides, otherwise KK will be passing her up on most of the rides while she stays behind watching ;-)

Previous Family photo pics at Disneyland

I thought it would be fun to go through my pics and find some of our old ones from previous trips to Disneyland.

I am not quite sure on the dates of these pics but my guess would be that Kayla is somewhere near one and Alyssa is near 3 years old with the picture on the left. The picture on the right perhaps Kayla is 4 months old and Alyssa is 2?

The picture on the left was last May just before the girls turned 2 and 4. The picture on the right was this trip.

Can you tell Disneyland is our favorite family vacation? After all it is the happiest place on earth!

Our trip to Disneyland with the Glanville's

On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week we went to Disneyland. We met my best friend Amy and her family. Amy used to live in Pollock Pines but she moved to Montana almost two years ago. We try and meet in Disneyland once a year to see each other. Alyssa and Taylor used to be best friends so it was really fun for them to see each other.

The first ride we had to do was Dumbo and it ended up being one of the favorite rides. The picture on the right is Alyssa and Taylor in Minnie's House.

The picture on the left is Kayla and Mommy in Minnie's house and the picture on the right we are on the teacups ride.

Teacups was definitely a family favorite ride as well. We even got Taylor and Timmy to love this ride.

I think we must have gone on the Merry Go Round 20 times or more. Eventually due to tired feet both Mommy and Daddy started riding on a horse too!

Since Daddy liked spinning so much he took all of the kids on the teacups while Amy and Angela wimped out and went on their own teacup and didn't spin it! Aly is showing off her new hat in the picture on the right.

Our family vacation

This week neither started as planned or ended us planned do to unforeseen circumstances. We did however manage to make it to the San Diego Zoo and Disneyland. We had a great time at the San Diego Zoo. We got there at 9 a.m. and left around 3 p.m. Believe it or not we were able to see all of the zoo except for the petting zoo.

The girls had fun climbing on the hippo statue and climbing in caves.

Daddy's favorite spot was the Bonobo's exhibit. He must have spent a half an hour looking at them!

Mommy's favorite thing was the hippo exhibit. The girls really loved the giraffes and it was the giraffes first day in their new exhibit.

Aly brings home Paddy from school

On Monday Aly celebrated her pretend 5th birthday at preschool. Since she has a summer birthday her teacher picked another day for her to celebrate. Last year when she was turning four she was really confused and expected to have a party at home with presents etc....She didn't really get it. This year she understood it better and was excited as she knew she would get to take the class panda bear Paddy home. Here is the letter we had to write for the class about our experience with Paddy:



All year long Aly was anxiously awaiting her turn to take Paddy home. Well, Monday was finally the day! As soon as Paddy got in the car Aly snuggled him close. When they got home Aly and Paddy watched the movie “The Waterhorse” They loved it! KK, Aly’s little sister started to get jealous of the time that Aly and Paddy were spending together so they both began fighting over Paddy. Paddy didn’t like it and felt scared. Aly and KK had to share Paddy and take turns. While it was hard for Alyssa to share Paddy, she did a good job. KK wanted Paddy all the time, including bedtime, so Alyssa slept with Paddy the first night and KK slept with Paddy the second night.

On Tuesday Aly had a dentist appointment. Paddy was a little nervous about going to the dentist so Aly held onto Paddy tight. The dentist counted Aly’s teeth and she even let them polish them. Paddy was so proud of Aly for doing such a good job at the dentist.

Tuesday evening Aly had a friend named Jenna over and they both loved playing with Paddy. They let Paddy play on a boat and they fed him his bamboo.

Aly is happy to bring Paddy back to school today and let him have a turn to visit someone else’s house.

The Plumber: Tortoise VS the Hare

In the past month we have had two different plumbers come over. The first one installed out hot water heater and was so slow it took him three hours to do it! The second plumber we had over today came to fix a copper pipe leak behind the shower. While he was here for two hours he only charged us for one hour of labor.

Let me tell you a bit about the slow plumber first. Ed got the entire job ready for him by finding the leak, cutting the sheet rock near the leak, and removing the bathroom cabinet. After having such a slow plumber when they charge $95 an hour we have learned to do as much as possible ourselves. So all this plumber needed to do was fix the leak. Well, apparently the whole to access the pipe wasn't big enough. Instead of him using a knife to cut more sheet rock he just used his hands and ripped it off--now hubby will have to make a clean cut around the area himself. Here's the big one, instead of cutting the copper pipe with a knife he ripped it out with his hands causing the copper pipe to rip out farther away than it needed to be replaced. Now he was replacing a section past the toilet and ripped out all that sheet rock by hand!

In between all this ripping out he is upstairs cussing and saying he hates plumbing and that he will never do this again. He manages to cut his hand twice and gets blood all over the wall, floor, etc and doesn't clean it up. He is so high stress that he is stressing me out. All that comes out of his mouth is negative. At one point he told me he was 40 and his birthday was at the end of the month and he thinks he is going through a midlife crisis. When he is ready to turn the water back on to check his leak the well doesn't go back on and he is back to pissed. Good thing he was outside so my children didn't have to hear it. I told him that hubby could come home and figure the well problem out and he was so frustrated by it he agreed, I paid him, and he left!

The slow plumber was always quiet and professional. My biggest problem with him was that he added things on on hot water heater without consulting us. Also the fact that he was so slow milking the clock.

So who would you choose? The fast bad mouthed plumber or the slow plumber that milks it for all he can?

I think I will try someone new and forgo both!

Weight Loss Mondays

This past week I was able to loose a pound. I weighed in at 132.4. Total calories burned for the week was 4,853.3 This equals just a bit more than 1 calorie burned which means my daily food intake was not so good.

I have found that if I want to loose 1-2 pounds a week I need to burn 900+ calories a day. If I want to maintain my weight I can probably just stay around 400 calories burned per day. I still have a bit more that I would like to loose as I get ready to wear a swimsuit in just 4-6 more weeks. The good news is I am toning up more and it is nice to see some definition in my legs.

I love sugar way to much to give it up so working out will be a regular part of my life. We all have to compromise somewhere. I know sugar isn't healthy for you but I do love it. I don't over indulge but I do like to have at least one thing sugary a day whether it is a piece of candy or a cookie or a piece of chocolate. It is all about moderation and balance and I am working on that to find out just what is good for my body!

Aly Reads to KK

Aly is getting to be such a good reader. She is reading many Dr. Suess books with great fluency. KK is even lucky enough to benefit from Aly's reading skills as Aly is now reading books to KK. One of KK's favorite books right now is Go Dog, Go by Dr. Suess. I was able to get my Flip video camera a record a portion of Aly reading to KK. I didn't record the whole thing as it would have been 3+ minutes long. It makes it much easier for uploading videos to the web if you keep them at 1 1/2 minutes or less.

Our first family skating trip

Today Aly had a school field trip to the skating rink. The girls have never been roller skating and Daddy didn't want to miss this childhood first so he took the day off of work.

The original plan was that Daddy was going to take Aly on her school field trip alone. However, there was a kink in our plans. Just as they were leaving, hubby couldn't start his jeep. So in a rush I had to get dressed and get ready to leave. Now we were all going on this field trip!

The girls both did great. Aly only needed a one time around the rink holding my hand and then she was off all by herself. She eventually even went out into the middle of the rink and didn't rely on the wall in case she fell.

Unfortunately my camera battery was low so the picture quality wasn't great.

Our Gas bill is sky high!

Today I went through our bills to see how much money we spent on gas and groceries for the month. I wasn't shocked to find out that our gas bill was $661.70. With rising gas prices I know this month will hit $700+. With hubby's 100 mile a day commute and Aly's preschool being a 40 mile round trip commute three days a week we use a lot of gas. Hubby drives a jeep which he is absolutely in love with and gets only 17 miles to the gallon. My car to my dismay is getting around 18 miles to the gallon. When I had purchased it I thought I would get closer to 22. Oh well, what can you do.

We do have a Toyota Corolla that gets 30 mpg but it has been broke down for 1 1/2 years now. We have brought it to 4 different mechanics and no one has seemed to find what was wrong. They have replaced things here and there but it hasn't taken care of the problem. We now have it at another mechanic and I hope he will be able to fix it. It seems promising. Wish us luck that it will be fixed in the next few weeks. We could sure use the gas break. Course getting hubby to drive that car will be a whole different problem. He thinks it is a small girly car. Hee, hee....what can you do? At least I know I can drive it on preschool days and cut down on my end.

Our grocery bill was higher than I like. We spent $353.96. I will try harder this month. I like to keep it around 200-250. Before I even started being concerned about our grocery budget we used to spend like $600 so I guess I should be happy we are down to what we are.

Weight Loss Monday

I have to say that my theory on weight loss is definitely turning out to be true. Every other week I am loosing weight and on the weeks I am not it is due to water retention from my period or from ovulating.

Last week I was 133.4 and when I stepped on the scale this morning I was the same exact weight. Earlier in the week I had actually hit 131.8 two days in a row. Then between Saturday and Monday morning I went back up to 133.4. I am definitely ovulating right now!

This makes me really feel like the women on the reality show Biggest Loser are definitely at a disadvantage. Not only do we store fat easily but we also have water retention a few weeks out of the month. So when they have their weekly weigh ins, they may have done a totally excellent job working out and watching what they ate during the week but if it just happens to be that they are ovulating or having their period they could be affected by 2 pounds or more. No wonder Biggest Loser hasn't had a female winner.

Labels

Today I finally decided to take the time and create labels for my blog. That way if you are family and you want to read all about Aly or KK, just click on their name. Perhaps you are one of my frugal pals that only wants to know about good deals on clothing, food, and household items, all you need to do is click on great deals. The list continues so check it out. I have only gotten through half of my blog so I still have around 100 more posts to go through and label. Good start for now and I am sure the girls will appreciate it when they are older. Then they can just go write to their name and read all about themselves!

Aly's inventive spelling

Aly has been enjoying reading and writing now. I hope to get a video up soon of her reading her favorite Dr. Suess books. She loves writing as well and has started to try and spell things on her own.

In this picture she wrote: "To no one except Alyssa"
Pretty good for sounding it out on her own and only being four years old.

It is so much fun to watch her grow and learn. She is even helping me to see in more depth just how children learn to read. I never really knew context clues played as big of a role in learning to read as they do.

Aly makes dragons

Aly has been getting quite creative with the legos lately. She made a bunch of dragons. Check it out:

She made a bunch of flowers too but I didn't get to take a picture of them. She built so many dragons and flowers that she used up two buckets of legos. She was so proud of her dragons. She asked me to get the camera and take a picture. She even shared a dragon with KK. I was so surprised considering KK usually breaks the legos in a matter of seconds.

KK dresses herself

KK can be quite the independent little girl at times. The other day while I was downstairs, KK got herself dressed. I didn't even know she was doing it. She just came downstairs and had her new outfit on.

Do you see her shirt? It is a hooded T-shirt and she has the hood upside down. I thought it was so cute. She is not even a teenager and already she is showing her belly. ;-)

Check out the hood over her bottom! She is just so cute!

Aly builds a fort

The other night Aly came up to me and told me she wanted to build a fort. So I went and grabbed a comforter off of our guest bed and helped her make a fort. She was so excited that she decided she wanted to sleep in her fort all night. I was a little shocked considering the fort was downstairs and we all sleep upstairs, but I thought that we might as well give it a try. So Aly went and collected her favorite stuffed animal, her frog lantern, a glow stick, a drink, and her favorite book. It was the easiest bedtime we have ever had. She said she was going to read to herself in her fort and put herself to bed. And that is exactly what she did!

Do you know she actually slept all night there and never woke up till morning? What is even more shocking is that she slept in her fort two nights in a row. I guess my little girl may be ready for a sleep over at someone Else's house sooner than I thought.

Nosy Neighbor--How much can I take????

Six years ago we moved from the Bay Area up here to the middle of nowhere on purpose. Yes, we wanted some isolation and some privacy. We bought a house on two acres in an area where most of the houses have from 2-7 acres. We can not see another house from our house, that is how private it is.

Shortly after moving in we met a few of the neighbors. They all seemed nice and most of them wanted their privacy as well. After 6 months or so of living here the nosy neighbor told us that he noticed we had done a lot with the place--put in sheet rock, had a refrigerator delivered, new furniture, etc.... I have to admit I was a little irritated that someone who lives two houses down--about 4 acres away would know so much about our house when he can't even see it from his own.

Things have only gotten worse. Everyday he drives by our house and will just park out in front of it and stare at us. One time I ran out and asked him if he wanted something. He was embarrassed and said no while quickly driving away. For the few months that followed he didn't park in front of our house again.

Well he has been back at it and now whenever I have company he sits out there and writes the car license plate down? Who does that? What the heck? I was appalled the first time I realized it. He continues to do it and is now freaking out my friends.

I brought it up with hubby and he seems to think it is no big deal. His point of view is at least someone on the road would know if something every happened to us.

What do you think? Would you put up with it? Would it make you feel good to know that a neighbor knows so much about you? Comment and tell me!

Now what am I to do?????

Lately I have been contemplating going back to work. I have applied for a few jobs here and there but have never really pursued anything. Well yesterday I was pursued and had to make a quick decision. About 5 p.m. last night the principal from the elementary school Aly will be going to next year called me. They got my name from the county office of education. They needed an immediate long term sub for the remainder of the school year.

My head was spinning, what was I to do? This would be the perfect opporutnity to get in with the school and let them see that they want me as a permanent teacher. This would also be a great outlet for me to meet new people and make some new friends. I had to think quick on my feet so I took the job!

I asked them to please give me until Monday so I could find childcare for both of my girls. Now the real work will start. Since I couldn't find anything last night I waited till this morning. I called Aly's preschool to see if they had two full time openings. To my dismay they only had one. So that is not an option. So now what am I to do? I guess I will be spending the rest of the week observing childcare and trying to find one with two openings. This is going to be one heck of a week!

Do you know what today is? Today just happens to be Tuesday, April 1st. So in the spirit of April fools day this entire post is just a joke. Ha, ha, April Fools. Hope you all enjoy the day and get a few good laughs at some of the jokes people will be pulling on eachother.