Happy Halloween!

It has been a crazy week and half and I will catch-up with that tomorrow

but for now I would like to share some Halloween fun.

This is Sam and the Leadership kids at his school doing a dance mob to "Thriller"

Weigh In Wednesday and Getting Back On Track

So it is that time of the week again and even though I didn't do everything I planned to do last week I started getting my self back on track.

What does that mean?
It means I paid more attention to what I was eating and the amounts but I didn't track them on the computer.
I did a little more for exercise but didn't put my heart into it fully yet.
What does that mean for this week?
Well I went to the pool this morning with a friend and have plans to go again tomorrow.
I have set up a friend to come and be my personal trainer and kick my bum out of the house 3 days a week to get some serious exercise in instead of what I think is serious exercise.
And I will cut back even more on the sugar and actually work harder towards writing what I eat down.
What did last week do for me in terms of weight loss?
Well I am back down to 307.4!!
YEAH!!
Love seeing that I am headed in the right direction again!
If I work hard enough this week I will be back out the 300 club by next Wednesday.
How has your week been?

And to end this post today enjoy a peek at what we made last night in RS.
This picture might be all I have left after Cloe finds them.
She loves these little projects so much that they become part of her play games with her dolls.
I love getting all crafty. Wish I had more time for it at home.

MMMMM Make Your Own Pizza Night

So we have been getting more serious about making our meal plans and I had each of the kids tell me what some of their favorite meals were so we could have something on there that everyone would enjoy.

Well 3 of my kids put down making their own pizzas and using my handy dandy bread maker Mike put on some pizza dough earlier in the day

Oh yes Bread makers make it so that hubby's can join in on the baking fun now with no excuses ;)

Then when the dough was ready I pulled out our little pizza pans and let everyone have at it.

They had so much fun!

Here's a few pictures from our Night.

What do you have planned for dinner tonight?

Just a few Things I want to share

So today I don't have just one big thing to share but a bunch of little things that make me smile or go hmmm.

1. I LOVE bread makers! more specifically the one I got for FREE off of our local freecycle. I can put in my favorite bread recipe or dough and then leave it. It won't make up the 32 loaves I make at one time when I have a day to make bread but I can make enough dough to make a batch of buns for dinner, or say some cinnamon buns for the kids after school snack and it doesn't take much of my time away.

2. I LOVE Freecycle!! I mean hello bread maker for free and I have been using it to clear out all the junk that has been left in my garage over the past 6 years we have lived here. Photo studio here we come!! Plus I posted that I needed a new built in dishwasher and A lady just emailed me she had one and I pick it up this afternoon. How can you be anything but joyful over this?

3. Dejunking feels GREAT! But the mess you create going through it all to find your lost treasures is frustrating. However when I am done everything in my house will have a home and that gives me a light to work towards! (P.S. to those who use to use me as a storage place I am now closed and will no longer be accepting anything)

4. Listening to our morning line-up of songs this morning I finally realized what song best describes my Cloe's attitude towards life. It is Garth Brooks' Standing Outside the Fire. Yep she is not going to be a person who will let life pass her by she will be apart of it all the way no matter what the trials are... now to teach her to be safe about it so she can have a full life to live. I figured I would share the video for the song to end my post today. It makes me teary eyed every time. If someone can get me a better video of it I would be grateful.

Weigh In Wednesday, Birthdays and Thanksgiving

So last week I posted about being ok with not being ok and you know what... I took my advise.

I dropped the calculating and the tracking and everything for the week,

spent a few days letting myself be sad and upset,

and spent the rest enjoying my kids and family.

On Sunday Matthew turned 8 and he is so excited.

He made his appointment with the Bishop that same day for his Baptism interview and we had a great dinner of BBQ'd pulled pork on a bun with veggies and Yummy marshmallow cake made by his siblings for dinner.

He received new clothes and a new cranium game.

We have still to book his birthday party for the year but we are going to do it around his baptism date or Halloween which is his favorite time to celebrate his birthday.

Then on Monday we had our Thanksgiving dinner which was tasty!

I made both a ham and turkey roast with all the fixings including Judy's favorite Yams with a touch of brown sugar.

We ate early because I still had tax class that night, yep on a holiday Monday, but we had it.

I found out I failed my exam with a 75% and I needed 80% but we had a new teacher who is giving us a retest tonight because the last one was not doing a good job.

I have had our new one before and I really like the way she teaches so I am excited and not so scared of whether or not I will be able to understand the material now.

Tuesday we did Cloe's dance, Swimming lessons, and celebrated Judy's, My Mother in Laws, birthday with Chinese food and a yummy cake.

I enjoyed it all.

I taught my lesson on Sunday and felt great afterwards and that really helped.

So today I am ready and feel excited to get back on track.

What did taking a week off mean for my weight loss?

Well as you probably guessed I did not loss anything.

Nope I gained a little but not as much as I thought I would of.

I am back up to 312.2 but I am ok with that. I feel more mentally prepared for this week and I think that will make a big difference.

So here is to a week of hard work and loving it.

I have photos I will share later but for now

I thought I would share the handout I made for my Relief Society lesson this past week to end my post.

My lesson was on the gathering of the Lost Tribes of Israel

I found the photo using google and turned it into this using a quote from President Hinckley during a dedication prayer on the Redlands, California Temple

Opportunities to Do Good

I loved watching this. Better than any feel good movie that could be made. Service is something I hold close and dear to my heart and I hope and pray for the day when it comes first for everyone in this world because that will be the day when we have world peace and true love among all man kind.

MMmmmm YUM!

I have this great friend Lynn who sells the most amazing product for your kitchen ever.

If you have never heard of it go look it up and find someone in your area that sells it

The company name is called Epicure

Now when I first heard it I thought it was medical type stuff, but NOPE

They sell the most amazing spices and other amazing products for your kitchen.

I have been lucky enough to be a part of her Epicure Club these past 3 years and that made it so I could afford to get the quality of product I wanted without having to shell out hundreds of dollars all at once.

Best thing I ever did.

So tonight I made Salmon for dinner.

Half of my kids HATE fish.

Crazy I know but it is true.

Well in comes my hero Epicure

They have these fruit dips that are to die for that I decided to use a different way tonight.

On one fillet of salmon I rubbed the Maple Spice Dip Mix over both sides and placed it on some parchment paper and a cookies sheet.

The second one I rubbed all over with the Tropical Dip Mix one both sides and again placed it on parchment paper and a cookie sheet.

I pre-heated my oven and took that time to let the fish just sit in the rubs and then when it was ready to I ground some of their Onion and Chive Sea Salt lightly over the fish and put them in the oven for 35 min.

Now I have never baked salmon before.. I usually B-B-Que them so I was worried that I would over cook them and such but Guess what!!

They came out PERFECT!

I would of taken a picture but my kids attacked them and ate them all!

Served them up with some rice that I cooked in the rice cooker and a nice quick tossed salad and TA DA a gourmet meal made perfect on one of our busiest days.

The kids enjoyed it so much that Mike, who usually takes left over for his lunches at work, barely had time to grab some fish for his lunch..

The Hero saved the day and fish will be a more featured dish in our home from now on.

Thank-you Lynn and Epicure.



Did You Know?

This is something I learned a while a go but didn't put into practice until these past few days.

As you may have come to realize lately is that we have been suffering from lower than usual amounts of money to buy the food we usually have.

We had food storage that was very helpful but after 3 months of living off it because we had to spend soo much on the problems this past summer I have quickly learned it wasn't even close to being a year supplies worth for our family.

So I have had to get creative when we ran out of stuff like Baking Powder.

Well yesterday we were having oatmeal for breakfast and my kids love it with a little bit of brown sugar but alas we had just ran out.

Well I remembered a while ago watching some show that gave the tip that brown sugar was only white sugar mixed with molasses.

Could it really be that simple?

You control how light and dark it is by the amount that you use.

Well Ben put it into practice right away. He likes Light brown sugar so he made a small batch that had about a cup and a half of sugar to half a tablespoon of molasses in it.

We mixed that one by hand and it took a few minutes but guess what we had light brown sugar.

So next we pulled out the Magic bullet and put some sugar in there with a little more molasses because I like cooking with darker brown sugar and within seconds we had it.

It's fun the things you learn and remember when you need to work with only what you have.

Weigh In Wednesday and What I am learning about me

So Today was that day again.

You know part of me looks forward to Wednesdays and part of me dreads it.

The part of me that looks forward is the one that knows that by doing this I am working towards a healthier me. I have done somethings right this past week and I want to see and share the joy.

The other part of me that doesn't wants to fudge the scale.. hold on to the towel rack while standing on it so that takes a few pounds off. (P.S. the kids did an experiment with this and you can loose 5 pounds instantly by just resting your fingers tips on the towel rack when weighing yourself... tempting isn't it)

I don't want to tell people that I sucked this week.

That is part of the point of this really. I have to be accountable good, or bad for what I did during the week.

Did I do my exercising?

Did I keep on track with my food?

Did I eat too much?

Did I let stress get the best of me?

And the list goes on and on and on. Really when your woman does it ever end?

So today I do my usually, get up and get Ben off to papers and then go into the bathroom and weigh myself. I worked hard this past weekend lifting and moving things for a few hours each day as I helped a friend move..

That should be a good eh..

weight coming off there....

BUT!!!!

I did make a pan of brownies yesterday with the thought in mind that it would be for the kids and then ate half of it!

Seriously I never eat half a pan of anything What the Hey?!?

Then last night I start talking to my Mom and I start going off about something that is really making me upset...

I mean shaking and need to throw something mad.

I have lost my desire to even attend something I love now because of this.

Why in heavens name am I keeping this bottled up?

Well the person I am mad at is someone I am suppose to be respectful of because of the who this person is. And for the most part I do and think this person is great but the few things this person has done are so major in my eyes that it is hard to forget and move on.

Then another person is telling to cut my passion for something I am doing down and just do it their way.

WHAT!!?!!

I am not suppose to love what I am doing and put my all into it?

I keep these bottled up.

I eat them away.

I don't feel like I have the right to tell these people who are seniors and such over me that what they are doing is makes me feel like crap or is wrong.

They should know it is wrong by the position they hold right?

Service to others is what I have been taught is the first over everything we do in this life.

Did Brigham Young not stop conference in the middle to help the saints caught by the winter?

Is this not the example we should be following?

So yes I missed conference this past weekend to help a 65 year old lady move from one run down, unsafe, unhealthy apartment into a much better one that will improve her life a 1000 times over.

Is this not why we have conference on the web now to watch when needed?

So that if a person in need of service comes up we can still watch later and receive those blessings?

Hmmm maybe I am still upset...

not sure that is going away anytime soon actually.

So instead of really facing this I ate a half pan of fatty, sugary, brownies.

Yeah, I need to really learn to face what I am feeling more directly than sabotaging myself like this.

So all that hard work and keeping on track last week went to waste over this one moment.

Now I am not saying it was a complete lost cause but I feel it is close in a way.

So down to the big number...

my weight this week is...

309.8

hmmmmm 1.2 lbs from last week.

How can I take that instant 5 lbs off again?

Like I said this is really starting to make me face my demons that I keep tucked away inside.

When I am done this journey not only will I look HOT,

but I will just a beautiful on this inside and I will glow with the love I have for myself.

So my total weight loss since starting this way back when is 15.8lbs

Hmmm I think I am going to really focus on things better this week.. even with Thanksgiving.

Oh and I read somewhere that if I start jogging just 5 minutes a day for the next little while that I will eventually be able to go longer. Now I have never been a runner of ANY kind because I have let asthma get in my way.

Hmm More excuses... not this week I will walk slow for 5 min then brisk for 5 then jog for 5 then brisk for 5 then slow for 10.

That gives me half an hour I am setting aside to make myself better than I ever was.

Feels good to schedule me time in there.

Oh and lets not forget to add a picture in ;)

I did not take this one so I take no credit for it but I love and have it as my background on my laptop.

It was passed around facebook and now I am sharing it here.

Enjoy.

The First Dance Class

So Today Cloe started her Ballet classes.

It is a year long program that follows the school year.

She was soo excited!

Last week we went shopping for her new outfit, which was so awesome according to her because it was shopping involving shoes and new clothes and they are soo very, very pretty.

Hmm think I might have let Jenny create a monster way back when she was a Baby.... Thanks Jenn.

She tried on so many different skirts it was so cute.

I am buying her a second outfit this week so we have 2 and she can't wait to do it all over again.

Then this morning we gave her a Rose scented bubble bath because that's what princesses, especially dancing princesses, put in their bath.

We did her hair up supper cute and got her all dressed and ready to go.

We grabbed her bag that we bought especially for her to keep her dancing supplies like clothes in and off we went.
She met one of her new dance friends and played shy for about 2 minutes and they they played a run and dance pose game.
They had soo much fun.

 So 1 other girl showed  before class began and they all had a blast running and playing. Their teacher showed up and took us all to their room where she began some fun games with them that also taught them the basics to dance and warming up. Cloe's favorite warm up game was smelling her stinky feet.

It was so cool seeing how well the girls listened to their teacher. They did the best they could; everything they were told.

Shortly after class started the last class member arrived and joined in the fun.

Cloe did struggle with the "mermaid feet" a little difficult but her teacher had no problem showing her the proper way. Cloe had a few more struggles after that but by the end of the class she had it down.

It was so cute how when the teacher would tell the girls to do something Cloe always took the lead. But then we always knew she was a natural born leader.

Learning to jump as a ballerina was another one of  Cloe's favorite things she learned today

There were two free dances that the girls had fun with. The first dance Cloe practiced her spins.

The second was with some pretty Scarves... This is actually my favorite picture of the day because it showed how beautiful and fast the girls looked.

Out of Baking Powder!?!

Yep. This morning we ran out of baking powder in the middle of making pancakes for breakfast.

The kids were sure they were going to have to go to school without any.

BUT!!

Google and Ask.com to the rescue!

If you did not know before but would like to know now.. you can MAKE your OWN baking powder!

You can not make baking soda, but baking powder you can!

We were saved!!

So I decided to share the recipe with all my blogging friends out there that I discovered this morning so that if you ever find your self running short you can make your own too.

Ingredients:

• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
• 1 teaspoon corn starch (optional)

Preparation:

Mix the baking soda and cream of tartar together until well combined. Use immediately.

Happy Baking everyone!!

P.S. Wish me Good Luck on my first exam for Level 2 taxes tonight. :S



Recommended by My Young Men

My husband and boys have been raving about this Talk by our Prophet, President Monson. They said I really needed to share it with everyone and having watched it myself I agree.

Enjoy