weight loss reality check time

How goes the weight loss?   Well, I've taken a couple of months off. And have paid the price. Not a big regain...but maintaining the same rollercoaster of lose a li'l, regain it. Soooo, I'm back in the weight loss saddle again. 

During the month of June, went to Tx to visit my mom and sis...while there sis and I decided to challenge each other to lose 20 lbs by Thanksgiving. (she has had a gain this year, but she also has some thyroid issues and her gain could be related to that).. 

We are both under a stressful situation...something related to mom (she is 81, so it is only the beginning of mom issues) ...and I do have a habit of eating my stress. You know, you get that gnawing feeling in your tummy...and I was feeding it. 

Anyways, this is the first week since that challenge that I have seriously made an attempt. 

When I talked to my Jenny's consultant about it we came up with a plan...eat something small every 2 hours...instead of listening to that cue. So, I am fueling my body, not using food to satisfy an  'empty' feeling. 

So it is back to eating something small every 2 hours...and exercising...so far, I have exercised twice this week (why did I give that up for a couple of months? I enjoy it so much) 

And it does feel good. Can I say I've been totally successful? No, I've gone 'over' my calorie allowance...still need to tweak.

So, they short term goal is to lose that 20 lbs by Thanksgiving...I call it "Lose a turkey to have turkey"...gobble gobble! 

Guess I need more of these...(its a smoothie with kale)

And keep my mind on these...

my baby boy is 29 today...

aye, do I feeeeel old!  29!!

But I could not be a prouder mom...I do love my son and the daughter in law he has given me...and of course, the grandbaby!  and soon to be grandbabies!!!  (#2 due end of October)

hey, his bday works with the lo's I was gonna post...from dgd's 3 year old album...well, cuz he is in one of them.

for these thanksgiving layouts I used Pink Paislee's Prairie Hill...LOVE it!  also modified a tag I picked up at Michaels.   My son is the guy in plaid, next to him is my dil, the teen is their foreign exchange student from Germany and of course my dgd.

for this Christmas page I used old Heidi Swap (love the girly 'Christmas' colors) ...and washi tape...my newest addiction, these are Queen and Company.

 While in Texas I did get the chance to scrap, I actually did these when I had everything all spread out on my mom's coffee table.   I really struggled with my Hawaii papers.  I think I've mentioned that when I bought them in Maui, oh, I thought they were gorgeous...then when I tried to work with them...oh, I felt like I was on an ugly pp challenge!  This is one of the ones I liked, I don't think you can tell but the plumeria paper is actually 3 diff colors, pink, a soft coral, and brown.

did do more pages at a crop at Archiver's with my sis (will post those pics later).  I ran out of page protectors in my book...so as I 'book' them I'll take pics.   well, of the ones I kinda like.  Though I'll find one with really difficult pp to show ya'll what I mean by my struggle.  aye yi yi

oooh a couple more, our li'l local scrapbook group decided to do a color inspiration challenge...I got to pic the inspiration, so I chose this tote I got in the Bahamas....

and this is my card I created from the inspiration...used the beach chair die  I got for free at Archivers...one of those spend so much get a free die ... yeah, when I go to Archivers, no problem making any kind of minimum.  With only big box stores out here, when I go to a store that has actual scrapping brands...not just their stuff...yeah, I kinda go nuts.   ESP LOVED the new Jillibean Happy Camper Stew...

though we don't camp.   But figured its good for just about anything outdoorsy.

sooo, Happy Birthday to my J.J...Happy Birthday to youuuuuuuuuuuuuu!!

oh my, do I feel old, my son is almost 30...wowza

My mommy's been visiting..

so no time for scrapping.

Did get a card done yesterday for son in law's grandfather's b-day... used this novel cover for color inspiration.....

And this was my card....I just LOVE that old man stamp, got it at the Pleasanton Expo, from rubbernecker.com booth...I think all the men in my life are getting a card with this stamp.   

Mom returns to Tejas on Monday.  We have enjoyed having her here.  She is 80 (next month she'll be 81) and a kick in the pants.   Tonight we are having a family dinner, hope to get pics of 4 generations tonight.

got my camera back, more lo's from last month

These are inspired from the May Challenge thread on 2 peas...in just a couple of weekends able to get thru most of dgd's 2012 book...just need Oct - Dec.   Not bad!!

This one was a challenge not to use squares, except for pic matting.  so lots of circles and triangles,  I stamped the background using an itty bitty background stamp from Stampin Up.  and being the dork that I am, I counted.  to do one page it was 149 times for the main color...and another 9 of the secondary color.  The diecuts are from the Groovy Times cart by cricut

This one was the Cinco de Mayo challenge, 5 pp, 5 pics, 5 embellies...journaling talks about how at an early age dgd showed signs of preferring the outdoors with grandpa over the indoors...poor me, I'm such an indoor girl.

This is use something old (over a year) and new (less than a month) challenge.  Also inspired by the threads about Pink Paislee warehouse box thread.  the 'old' is from last year's Pink Paislee warehouse box...the new is the bg paper, a Recollections pack dd gave me for my birthday.

This is also Pink Paislee, just using the quieter flip side of the pp....the challenge was to do journaling you don't normally do...I normally don't type my journaling, just cuz its easier to grab a pen, then go to my computer and print.  Plus, I don't have a word program on my home computer...so as it is had to use Notepad to journal this.  

I'll end with the Father's Day card I designed for Sunday School this week...

This was the 3rd incarnation...oh myyyy...I was so frustrated...I started out with something more vintage, trying to use my Tim Holtz embossing ....and some washi tape...but ...nah.

Then switched to something more 'playful' and colorful..with sock monkeys,  noooooo, not right...

I wasted most of my morning,
By this time I am so frustrated...hollering "Why do we HAVE father's day, they don't do ANYthing!!!!"

Sooo, cleaned everything up, went to Walgreens with mom (she had errands)  and bought myself a pepsi and raw cookie dough...well, after the break sat down and came up with this...it is first draft and will probably be fine tuned this week.

aye yi yi

lesson 3

lesson 3 went very fast.

My goal was to have the kids lay on the ground in the sanctuary and draw what they saw.  I wanted them to have a 'limited' perspective so I could point out that while we have a limited perspective, God has an overall perspective.   Okay, I was the only one laying down.  And a couple of the boys finished theirs very quickly.

We adjourned to the kitchen, where we talked a li'l about the 3rd commandment.   A 'guest' knew all 10, so he recited them for us and was rewarded with a candy bar.

I gave them the trivia 'hint' and it was to find out about the Omni's of God.  One of the young men, even brought a list with the Omni's written out...he got his candy bar and we talked a bit about those Omni's.

Then we just talked, about everything and nothing.   I don't know how this started, but one of the young men pointed out that "down south you can say anything about someone as long as you say, 'bless his heart' afterward."  (so true)  So I asked him, a'have you ever lived down south?a'  then another young man said, "I did!!"..."really, where?"..."Camp Pendleton"...tee hee...well, guess that IS southern california...

Before we started I asked if they enjoyed staying for worship, all but one said yes. (he was a little extra onery that morning)...but they said they did not like having to stand up then down...up then down.

So, I am feeling my lack of teaching ability.  People say that is okay - its really about being there and giving them a chance to talk, to 'matter' to someone...but I sure wish I could be a better 'teacher'.

Next week, no children's church - we'll be joining the sanctuary for the missionaries.
 Then the following Sunday we will do something for Father's Day.
  And the following Sunday, Mandy will be teaching as I will be out of town.

More scrapbooking!  Not as much as I would have liked over the (4 day) weekend..but a few things done

Still working on inspiration from the 31May Challenge on 2 peas.

This challenge was to set your timer (the chicken in the back corner) for 5 minutes and pick out everything you are going to use on the layout....

Here is the finished layout....the only thing I wish I had picked was a bit of green paper.  

My touches of green was ribbon in the ribbon pile I had picked out.

This is my all neutral layout, I figured there was enough color in the pics....but gotta admit during the embellishing period, sure would have liked to have grabbed some color.

and this is something old with something brand new...the papers and embellies are from last year's pink paisley warehouse box (my old) ...except the green buttons (bought at wally world last month) and the purple paper was a part of the pack I got for my birthday last month.  (new)

Started another page, also pink paisley stuff...but with softer colors... not quite done...

June is gonna be crazy...mom is visiting, then I'll be in Texas...but can take scrapstuff there...cuz my sis has an AMAZING scraproom!!  

been scrapbooking! oh whatta feeling...!!!

It has been soooooo long, or at least it feel like it.

I've been using the Maychallenge thread on 2 Peas as an inspiration...and been working on dgd's 2012 album.  The first challenge I did was their day 3...take time to try a new technique...well, I've been wanting to try tear bears, and this week got my light pad....so here is my first attempt...ha!!  next time, I'll reduce the pattern.   but gotta figure, cost of light pad, tear tools, mulberry paper, pattern cd...this is an $80 bear!!!
ha!! gotta admit, I've got more respect for the ladies who sell these on Ebay.

So based on their sketch for day 13, I started this one...it was a one page sketch, that I made 2 pages.  This is it unglued...when dgd came over yesterday to do a 'trash the dress' photo session...I asked her, "do I need to add more red and green matts under the pictures?   her answer, "no, pink and purple" .  Of course, she is 4 years old and any color question is answered with 'pink and purple'...then she told me, " pink here, purple here, pink here, purple here...."    I decided, well it's a birtday lo...it can be a li'l colorful and went for it.

 

and here is the finished product.   A really fun birthday layout.   (If you are liking the birthday circle, gotta admit, its not mine, its an Ebay purchase)  

so, dgd and family came over yesterday for dinner.   so she 'helped' me with this lo. I told her "what color should I use with this pic?  Don't say pink".   Of course she said 'pink' ..then I thought of this raspberry pink we picked up at Joann's grand opening.    She decorated the butterfly, it was a gift tag...I gave her some pearly pink paint, stickles and sequins and she went to 'town'.  She also decorated the bottom corner of the multi pic box with pink 'dew drops' (I still love those things!)  Oh, and I can't claim credit for the pics, that was a JC Penney session.

At first she was hesitant about the gooey mess on the butterfly, but I told her, "that is what I keep wipes for" and she went to 'town'.   We also stamped a quick card (don't have a pic).  Her first stamping, a li'l wobbly, but she will learn not to 'rock' the stamp.   

Her mom says she is going to clean up her scrap space, since it looked like dgd was having a good time doing a li'l crafting.   oh, and I guess I just gotta post one of the trash the dress pics....this is after we slipped and slid in the muck to get to the 'back 40'