Celebrity Match Up

I saw this on 2peas today and thought it looked fun.

You can upload a picture of yourself and they will match it with a celebrity and tell you who they think you look like.

Their first pick for me was Carrie Underwood, then Gywneth Paltrow and then Sophia Loren.

Anyway, as you can tell I was a tad bored today. I also have been on the search for some good crockpot recipes. I decided one reason I failed at sticking with eating healthy after doing South Beach before was because I didn't have enough fast but healthy recipes in my repertoire. So the crockpot sounds like it could become my new fast but healthy friend!

So if you have any good crockpot recipes- I'd love for you to share them with me.

Scrapbook Tag

What scrapbook lines/products, etc. do you dislike?
I have trouble with non letter stickers. Really not into paper piecings anymore either.

What is the hardest thing you have ever had to scrap?
I suppose the page I did after my dog died a few years ago. And then I started a page about my Grandma's funeral/death years ago, but I haven't been able to finish it.

What technique do you use more than anything else?
Well, I am really not in a scrapping mood these days, but I guess one of the things I do the most when I scrap is vary the letter stickers in my title. I almost always use patterned paper.

What is the smallest scrap of paper you save?
Depending how much I like the paper. I have been known to save small 1 inch strips of Chatterbox and KI. But normally it needs to be at least 2 inches by around 5 inches for me to save it.

Have you ever had any scrapbook related injuries?
I have sliced my fingers a few times on a paper trimmer blade.

Finish this sentence, "If I wasn't a scrapbooker/stamper, I would spend my money on..."
This week my attention has been on eating right and doing a lot more cooking. So I suppose when I get in that frame of mind, I'd rather spend money on yummy food to eat than scrapbook supplies. Or the stuff to cook with, that would be real easy to spend $$ on too.

Give us your best storage or organizational idea.
I really don't hae any great tips. I did recently buy this Zip and Flip. And it works really good.

You just won a week long scrapbooking cruise for 5. Who is going with you?
That sounds like so much fun- I'd take my sister Lorilee, my friend Amber, my friend Tami and my friend Cheryl.

When you received your first publication notification, who did you tell?
Sadly, I have never received a call like that. I am sure I would call my sister or friend Amber first.

Diet Tip of the Day

A great way to lose weight is to eat while you are naked and standing in front of a mirror. Restaurants will almost always throw you out before you can eat too much. So Monday, I started a slightly modified version of South Beach's Phase One. This means no carbs from breads or any sort of grain. Also you avoid as much sugar as you possibly can. It is actually going pretty well and I am feling pretty good. My family on the other hand isn't quite feeling the love. In recent weeks, dinners at our house included MaltoMeal & toast, waffles, hot dogs, chicken sandwiches, spaghetti and many other carb infested dinners. So it has been sort of shocking for them to go back to no carbs. This week's menu has included, Garlic Lime Chicken w/ sauteed cabbage, Bacon Cheeseburger Quiche, and White Chicken Chili. So last night when I was preparing for dinner, Jameson asked the all important question, "What's for dinner?" I had a few new recipes to try- Broccoli Cream Cheese Soup and a no lettuce Greek Salad. Of course, the response was not favorable. In fact, I think the exact words used were, "How many gross dinners do we have to have while you are on this diet?" I gently reminded him with a pasted on smile, that I was doing all the cooking in this house and if he would like something else to eat, I would gladly give him a turn preparing a meal or two. Hopefully my family can get used to the "weird" food sooner than later. I do know it is important to eat healthy and even though weight loss is my goal at this point in time, I really would like to make a lifestyle change and not just diet.

A Big Hole

I am not just talking about the dug out earth for the basement of the house that will someday be next to ours. I am feeling very sad over the fact that we really wanted to buy this lot for ourselves, to extend our yard. It is completely our fault for not doing anything about it sooner. But 2 1/2 weeks ago when they came and put a realtor's sign in the yard, we did start to get serious about trying to purchase it. We weren't fast enough though, and 2 days before we called about it, it was sold. That was just last week. They dug out the basement yesterday and they are pouring the footings today. It probably is silly, but everytime I hear the hum of the big equipment next door, I ache just a little. I will eventually grow used to the fact that the lot where my children have played ball for the past 2 summers won't ever be ours. It just would have been so perfect. I told Troy that with that extra lot, I would be content to live here for a long, long time. He would love to get out on an acreage someday. Since we have a field behind our house, a lot across the street that is not likely to be built upon, as it is one of our neighbor's 6 lots that he has planted trees on, and our street is currently a dead end just past our one neighbor's house, it sort of feels like the country a little and I love where we are at. So like I said, it would have been just perfect to have that extra lot for more space that we could put a trampoline on or a little shed. But there is no chance of that now. Sorry for all the melodrama, like I said, I know in time, I will be able to let it go. In the meantime, I asked the kids what they thought and their response was sheer excitement. "Mom, there is a huge mound of dirt over there that we can climb on." I am going to try and learn from their example. But it's going to take baby steps for me to be happy about this new situation. It's gonna take me a few weeks before I am ready to scale any mountains of earth that could have been mine. 

Sportsmanship

We all had a lesson this weekend about sportsmanship. Jameson had his 3rd grade Basketball Tournament. They had their first game at 1:00 and won easily. The next game was not so cut and dried. It was a close game and one of their players was playing sort of dirty and so for the last 4 minutes of the game, when Jameson would have normally went back in, he sat on the bench. The good news is that we won- even if it was by 1 point. The bad news was that Jameson was disappointed. We had a talk about being a good sport, like we have at many other events that the boys have participated in. Unfortunately, this made Jameson feel even worse that he wasn't being a good sport. It really made me stop and think about how this first season of basketball is about learning so much more than passing, dribbling and shooting skills. It is about learning to be a team player and also about learning good sportsmanship whether you win or you lose. I know that Jameson had a lot of fun this year. We had great coaches and I know he is already looking forward to basketball camp this summer. Me, I am just glad that basketball is over with and I don't have to chase my daughter, who can't sit still for more than 30 seconds, around the gym anymore. 

Valentine's Day Diversions

February 14th, was a gorgeous day here in Syracuse, Nebraska. Genna and I went to the school and helped run Connor's 2nd Grade Class Party. It was a little wild & crazy at times, but I think the kids had fun and I am happy to check another thing off my list to do. After school it was about 65 degrees and so we went outside and played for a while- we just couldn't resist the warm weather.
I then worked on getting dinner ready for our special Valentine's Dinner. The downstairs was off limits for the kids until they were called for dinner. Their hostess(me) seated them in our downstairs dining room and we all enjoyed parmesan chicken, parmesan oven sweet potato fries, salad and rolls. For a treat, I made the aforementioned dirt cup dessert in my fun parfait dishes. We then opened our valentine presents from each other and then played charades. We had a fun time giggling and just being together. After we got the kids to bed, Troy and I watched the movie Fever Pitch- which was a cute show! It was a very sweet day.

Golden Valentine's Day

When I was younger, I never knew about the Golden Birthday thing- you know when your actual birthdate and age coincide. My 18th birthday came and went without me giving that notion a second thought. So this year, I taking it upon myself to commemorate our Golden Valentine Day.

It was 14 years ago that we shared our first Valentine's Day together. We were so young then. Only a year and a half had passed since my golden birthday. We were both working at Nebraska Book Company in Lincoln, trying to save up money for our wedding and honeymoon. I was living at home and Troy was staying at his Aunt's house. I wanted to do something special since we hadn't had much of a Christmas- being the broke college students that we were. I decided to make Troy dinner. I made grilled marinated chicken, parmesan potato wedges and dirt cup dessert for dinner. I made the dirt cup stuff in an old ice cream pail and had Troy go get it out of the garage. I don't think I fooled him too much. Anyway, I am not sure the food tasted real great, but it night will always stand out in my mind. It is funny to think of how at 19 years old I thought I loved this man, compared to how I know I love him now. In the past 14 years we have shared so much- there have been tears and laughter, joys and sorrows. We have welcomed 3 beautiful children into our family. I know that I truly loved Troy that night 14 years ago, but I am so thankful for the richness and depth that our love has grown to today.

The only I am not sure of in celebrating our golden valentine's day is where do we go from here? As far as wedding anniveraries go, Golden is for your 50th. The Hallmark website says that after Golden, comes Emerald for your 55th and 60th is Diamond. Hmmm... I think I like the sound of that. Happy Valentine's Day to you all!

Accountable

Well, don't faint, but yes, it is another post from me this week. And there aren't any pictures this time.

I am posting today about my new resolve to get in shape and eat healthier. Yes, I know, I set this goal at the beginning of the year and promptly fell off the wagon within a few weeks. I think it was Connor's birthday when I toppled off. But I am hoping by posting, I will feel accountable to the few who might be reading this.

I recognize, I eat when I am bored and I eat for comfort- both bad habits. I have been working this week on the eating after dinner habit. I am typically a night owl and so at about 9:30 after the kids are settled in bed finally, I relax with something to snack on. The problem is that it is never carrot sticks or anything else that is remotely healthy and then I usually play the sweet and salty balancing game. You know, you have popcorn and then you have to have something sweet to cut all the salt and then it starts a vicious circle. So anyway, I have been good all week. Ok, so that means only 3 nights, Monday through Wednesday, and I have went to bed pretty early most nights, but still, it's some progress.

I have cut out sweets since Monday and I have exercised every morning before scripture study this week as well. I know it is early in the game to really be tooting my own horn. But I have to make a little noise, otherwise, I might be tempted to go back to my old wicked ways.

It's amazing how better you feel about yourself after even just a little hard work. I know I haven't lost any weight yet, but I just don't have the guilt that goes along with all the sweet eating and lack of exercising that I had previously felt.

There, I feel much more committed to what I am doing. I am not expecting praise for my small accomplishments this week. It just helps knowing that someone out there knows what I am up to.

Besides blogging I have been busy with...

Things have been a little busy around here lately. I apologize for the lack of consistent blogging. I think things are on an upswing towards slowing down a bit. Here are a few highlights from the past few weeks:


Genna had her last tumbling class.









Genna is exercising her independence over her hair these days. No pretties for this 3 year old. Her new nickname is the Shaggy Dog.










The Blue & Gold Banquet for Pack 337 was on Sunday, January 29th. Jameson received his bear badge and Connor his wolf badge. As a family we are very involved in scouting and I am so proud of all the hard work that the boys put into meeting their goals.







Friday night, we had a fun family outing. We ate dinner at Fazoli's- they have the best warm breadsticks and then headed over to Chuck E. Cheese. We had $10 worth of tokens, which amazingly, added up to a lot of fun!









Saturday, my sorority went to Paint Yourself Silly, in Lincoln. It was just a ton of fun! I didn't anticipate that I would enjoy myself as much as I did. I made a colorful birthday plate.







Saturday afternoon, we attended a Cub Scout Skating Party. Genna donner her first pair of skates and made it around the large rink a few times. In true 3 year old fashion, she did not want any help with this, hence it took a half an hour for the twice around. It was pretty crowded, but nonetheless, we all had a fun time doing the hokey pokey, the number game and I even got to partner skate with my 2 cute boys!





Last but not least, we had the Pinewood Derby on Sunday. The boys and their Dad put a lot of work into building what they hoped to be a fast car. They both fared really well. Jameson came in 2nd place for his Den and Connor came in 1st place in his Den. Troy was just relieved that they both made it down the track without the wheels coming off or any other minor mishaps. All in all, a fun event!




I don't have any photographic evidence, but I subbed a few days last week also and started working on the 2nd Grade Class Valentine Party, which I am chairing next week. Well, I think that covers pretty much what I have been up to lately. I am looking forward to a much quieter week.