Happy Birthday to Me!

Yes, in a few short hours, on May 1, I will officially be 36! I am on the downward slide toward 40. I thought it would really bother me, but so far I feel great. Maybe, I am just slap happy because I get to go out of town for two sweet days with my sweet hubby this weekend.

That is what I wanted for my present. I really need the time away to recharge and relax. I love my children more than anything, but I just need some down time. A few hours is not enough after this long year. As I said before I feel like one of those stretch Armstrong dolls. Everyone wants me to do for them, including my mom and I feel pulled apart.

I hope to dance, shop, eat and sleep with my hubby at my side. We are going to be in town that has my favorite place to eat, Jack in the Box. I am saving all my extra WW points to eat all the tacos I can handle. It is really cheap and so yummy!

Ta Ta, Y'all!

Ya Whooo! I've lost 10 Pounds!

Yep, that's right I have officially lost 10 pounds!!! I didn't think I would loose last week because it was my TOM and I was bloated, plus I didn't follow the diet each day. If I would have followed it I would have lost more, but I made it through the week and came out good.

I believe this is my 4th week on Weight Watchers and it has been really easy to do. I tried other ways of loosing weight but couldn't stick to it. This has been easy for me to stick with. I am doing WW online. I don't have time to go to the meetings so this works for me.

Back to school work.

What makes me happy?

A weekend of scrapbooking! That's right I got to scrapbook most of the weekend. I completed 9 pages. I will load the pics of them this week. Part of the time I spent redoing TT's baby book. I wanted to do a more chronological view of his first year. What I came up with worked out really well. I completed his baby room layout and up through his 5th month.

Something else that makes me happy is going to see my favorite movies. This coming month is going to be so awesome. P.S. I Love You comes out on video! Plus, Prince Caspian and Indiana Jones 4 come out at the theaters. I will be like a kid in a candy store;) I mean I get to see Harrison Ford and Shia LaBeouf in the same movie, sigh! I know I sound like a teenager, but I have had a crush on Harrison Ford since I first laid eyes on him when I was six years old in Star Wars. And Shia is just too cute.

I just read as I was checking my favorite blogs that the movie Twilight will be coming out Dec. 18th. Twilight is based on the book by the same name by Stephenie Meyer. I love, love her books and by the way it looks on her web site, here, that Twilight will do the book justice. All three of the books are wonderful!!

Back to reality, it is back to school tomorrow. Poogie is actually excited about it! Maybe I will be in the morning.

Interesting Findings!

Scientist have linked more prehistoric creatures to modern day animals. If you didn't see this story today you may want to check it out. The story can be found here.

I happen to believe that dinosaurs did exist, and that the age of the fossils given are accurate. Take a moment to read the article it is quite interesting, even if you don't believe in dinosaurs.

Spring Break!!

We finally decided to take our spring break this week. When the ps were taking their breaks it was all yucky, rainy and cold out so we decided to press on with our studies and wait for better weather. Well, this week it arrived finally. I have to say I was ready for it.

We missed going to the Y this week. Tuesday I had to stay home and help my hubby fix the roof that the insurance company wouldn't fix (read previous message). Then today Poogie had ballet photos and we wouldn't have made it home and back to ballet for photos. She had to be all dolled up with curls in her hair and makeup.

Other than that we have spent most of the week just taking it easy. I have been fighting the spring time allergies. I hate this feeling of having to sneeze and sneeze. I've been on every type of medicine, took 3 years of allergy shots and I still have the symptoms. It makes it hard to enjoy the spring time.

I hope to scrapbook this weekend and plan for upcoming school weeks. Till later.

I Feel Cheated!!!

Let's just say that we, my hubby and I, had to find out the hard way that you cannot trust insurance companies. We have had our homeowners insurance with the same company for almost 9 years. Only filing one claim when we first moved in our home and it was the builders fault so they fixed it.

We filed the second claim last month after the bad storms of Feb. because of roof and water damage caused by the storm to our daughter's room. After waiting almost 4 weeks to hear from them they called today to tell us that they wouldn't give us a cent. They said the roof leaked due to neglect. Now we check our roof every fall and later in the spring, clean the gutters and such. Our home is well kept. We have spent quite a bit of money updating it. It is a manufactured home, but it is a nice one. We bought the home planning to build a home here in the future. In fact we were beginning to make preparations to build in the next year.

It just makes me sick all the money we have paid this company and they won't fix my daughter's room or the roof. It ruined her carpet, sheet rock and all of the bookshelves in her room. Now we have to pay for all the repairs out of our pocket. This is a large well known insurance company, not a local mom and pop place. It just makes me feel like you cannot trust anyone. It has really bummed me out.

Sushi, YUM!

Today I decided to take the kids for a sushi lunch on our way to the Y. TT and I love the Mexican Rolls at our local sushi restaurant and we have been craving it for a while. So off we went. Poogie loves the white rice and edemame. We had quite the feast. I just can't believe that I never at sushi until last year. If you haven't tried it you should and if you have and didn't like it maybe you should try another kind.

I love to go with my hs girlfriends and we get several different kinds that way I get to try everything. So far the only thing I really don't like is raw tuna. It is too fishy.

Anyway, my hubby met us there after lunch and went to the Y with us. The kids were so happy to have him home and for him to see them swim.

I am still working out everyday to meet my weight loss goal. I am beginning to enjoy it. I can't believe that but I am. I will see if my hard work is paying off Monday when I weigh in. Have a great weekend.

Sleepless Nights + Busy Days =

One tired momma. I don't know what has happened with my children but for the last few weeks they have decided to wake me up several times a night for one thing or another. If they do let me sleep then we have had storm warnings or tornado warnings to keep me up.

My hubby is out of town for work and it makes for a very long day when I get about 3 and a half hours sleep. Plus today was the Y and I had to take my mom with me so she could go to the grocery store after. So I spent my afternoon walking around Kroger with her.

She doesn't shop as she goes down each isle she likes to walk from one side of the store to the other and then gripe about how tired she is. (I'll just let that go)

I did walk on the elliptical trainer today for 20 minutes. I was so sore from doing my Firm workout yesterday but I wanted to keep at it. I stepped on the scales this morning and I am down to 142! It is amazing how much difference 8 pounds can make in how you feel and how you look.

I guess I will look through my scrapbook magazines I got today in the mail and turn in early. Maybe I will sleep the whole night through, here's hoping!

Try'n something new!

We finally gave in and changed the English curriculum TT has been using all year. I purchased Easy Grammar 4 and 5 grade used from a friend and hope it makes English a little more enjoyable. We will start the first lesson tomorrow. I am hoping for the best.

I spent the day planning for this week. Poogie is moving along in her Math U See. I had her decimal street sheet laminated last week and colored and laminated her numbers for the number game today. She loves using the blocks and playing the games. I am so glad I decided to finish out the year with Math U See.

I am constantly making changes to fit the needs of my kids and I love that I can do it. I am sending off this week for our butterfly larvae. I know we will enjoy watching them change and grow.

Hope you all have a great week.

Friendship, what does it mean?

I used to laugh at people who told me that the friendships I had when I was a kid would be the longest lasting and truest friendships of my life. If I could I would apologize for my "know it all attitude" and tell them how right they are.

Since high school I have had several acquaintances, but as of now few true friends. You see as I get older I now realize what true friendship means. It means that you do not have to agree on every subject, think alike, dress alike, worship the same, nor discipline and raise your children the same way. You could be complete opposites. What matters is that you respect those differences, and you truly care about that persons feelings and well being.

Now this is were I have to say that the friendships I have made during my adulthood differ than those formed during my youth. My best friend in the world and I do not agree on every aspect of life, but she still cares about me. We know we are different but that doesn't hurt our friendship. I have always thought it is what makes it better because we balance each other out.

Why is it then as be become adults that people become so judgemental. They feel that you must think like them to be their friend. I thought for years that my solitude has been because I am not from here and people in this area are very cliquish. But I now wonder if it doesn't matter where you live. It is just a fact of life that as you get older you realize that you have few true friends and the rest are just people you know.

Please don't take offense to this if you are a friend or acquaintance. This is just something that has really been on my heart as of late and today a situation occurred that brought it to a head. My husband overheard a "friend" saying a very unkind comment about me to other "friends". He had to just get up and leave. It really angered him because he knows how much I just want to be accepted for who I am. Yet, he knew that I would not want him to say what he so much wanted to say. I would rather just let it go. Whether he said something or not the words still hurt the same.

Lazy days

Yes, I admit it I have been lazy this week. We started out with a not so good beginning and we haven't improved much. TT has his usual spring time sneezing mess. He has been on every kind of allergy meds, like I have and not much works. Needless to say we haven't felt like doing much, but we have put in a good effort.

Since the medicine makes us all groggy in the morning we have been having to wait until late morning to do most of our school work. But it has worked out pretty good. We have been stopping earlier than usual to enjoy some of the nice weather before it starts raining again. That's what I love about homeschooling it works for our lifestyle not our life having to work around it like public school.

Anywho, the kids are still enjoying the Y. They have both surprised me with their swimming skills. TT is now swimming the whole length of the pool. It has really improved his confidence. We have one more session until summer. I am so glad we decided to give the Y a try.

Well, Jane Austen calls. Have a great week.

We have SUNSHINE!

Or at least we did today. It was the first time in days and days since we have seen the sun. It has rained here for so long I can't remember the last sunny day.

We spent the week working and watching it rain. The rain effected our sleep due to late night storm warnings and Poogie didn't get to swim at the Y Thursday because it was storming. Her class got to do tumbling in the gym so she was happy anyway.

We didn't get as much done as I would have liked in science and social studies but we will catch up this week, I hope.

I did get some time to myself Friday, even in the pouring down rain. I had a doctors appointment so I left a few hours early to just enjoy myself. I may have enjoyed myself too much. I ended up buying myself a new digital camera. I have been debating the last few weeks on getting a new one. The one I have still works but the quality of the pictures have not been very good as of late. I really thought I wanted a new DSLR but after a lot of thought I decided to just get a good digital. I already have a great Nikon SLR my hubby got me a few years ago and I never want to part with it. Since my hubby bought it for me it means a lot to me and it takes beautiful photos, but it is too big to take everywhere. Plus I am not so good about getting film developed and I develop most of my digital stuff at home.

So I decided to get a Sony Cybershot H7. I am very happy with my purchase. I now have 2 times the mega pixels and 5X more zoom than my last camera. I love my hubby's Cybershot he uses for work but it doesn't have much zoom. The software that comes with the Sonys are great too. So now we both have a great camera.

We also went to see Nim's Island last night. I went for the obvious reason (Gerard Butler is in it), the kids wanted to see the animals. It was a delightful movie, even my hubby liked it. Jodi Foster was hilarious. If you get a chance do see it.

Finally as of last Monday I had lost 4 pounds on my diet. I am hoping for more this Monday when I weight in. I don't think I have lost as much this week because I didn't work our hardly any. I need to get on the ball this week and just do. Yet, that is easier said than done when it comes to finding time. I guess I will see Monday.