allow me to re-introduce myself...

My name is Misti and I've been a bad, bad blogger the last couple of weeks. Let's see... what's been going on...

Rebecca had a big birthday on the 14th (she turned 30!!!) so we had a big bash in her honor. First we went to a great Mexican restaurant, El Matador, and ate entirely too much. Then we headed over to Q-Zar to play laser tag! Oh. my. gosh! I don't remember the last time I've had so much fun! I was a little hesitant to play as I'm not terribly athletic, but it was great! I think the teens who are in there every weekend weren't quite sure what to expect when this group of 30 & 40 somethings descended on their evening. We all played well together though & had a great time! What a workout! I was so sore on Sunday! After laser tag, Rebecca, Laurel, Sandy, Pam, Lisa & I went to Rebecca's apartment for a movie night. We decided to watch Step Up 2: The Streets and by the time we put it on it was already 2:00 am!!! The acting wasn't great, but the movie was entertaining overall. We were all quite tired, and therefore quite silly, by the time it was over. Not ones to let a little thing called exhaustion get in our way we then went to Atlanta Diner for "breakfast"... at 5:00 am! Oddly enough there were actually people out & about at that crazy time. After breakfast the tiredness took over & we all decided to head on home for some sleep. Thank goodness Lisa was driving, I don't think I could've made it otherwise. I got home at about 7:45a & slept until 12:45p. I'm way too old to be staying up all night long. But I'd do it again in a heartbeat to get to hang out with my friends like that. We had a great time!

Today I had my weekly weigh in at Weight Watchers. Quite honestly, I was expecting to have gained like 2 pounds. The past couple of weeks I've really been struggling with snacking after dinner. I would do so good all day then after Jonathan was in bed I'd just start eating random stuff. I was really worried that I was going to get off track & not be able to get back on. It's happened before & I couldn't let it happened again. I asked my mom, dad & Chris to help me by keeping me on track if they see me mindlessly snacking. It seemed that just taking that step really helped alot. I've stayed within my points yesterday & today. Well, actually, today I haven't even had all of them yet. I still have 4.5 left & am not sure what to do with them. Anywho... I go weigh in today and lost 1.6 pounds!!! What? I was absolutely shocked. That puts my total weight loss at 49.8! Dang that .2! I'm so excited that I'll get to celebrate 50 pounds lost next week. That's halfway to my ultimate goal!!! I feel like I've got my focus back and can continue my journey with my goal in sight.

Tomorrow we will be officially joining Lawrenceville Church of God. I feel so blessed that we've finally found a church to call home. The people are great and you can really feel God's presence there. I look forward to getting more involved & building more great relationships.

Well, I guess that's about it for now. I'll try not to fall off the face of the earth again...

hard to comprehend

I'm sitting here watching the Olympics live, and it's blowing my mind that they're on the other side of the world and I'm watching these events as. they. happen. Does anyone else have a hard time wrapping their brain around that one? I've been thoroughly enjoying the games this year. However, the fact that the events are on so late local time is cutting into my sleep time. Like now for example; it's 11:35pm, I should be sleeping, or at least getting ready to sleep. But no, I'm watching the women's gymnastics team final and swimming. (And obviously blogging too.) Last night I tried so hard to stay awake to watch the men's gymnastics team final but I just couldn't do it. I woke up long enough to see the guys celebrating their bronze medal, then turned off the TV. I'll be glad in 2012 when the games are in London. I think they're only 5-6 hours ahead.

Can you believe Michael Phelps? He's amazing!

I've been a complete slacker when it comes to taking pictures lately. So I leave you with a pic from 8/12/07. What a handome fella!

second only to my son...

this is the cutest thing I've ever seen.

Tell me you can watch that & not smile?

If I were rich...

I would totally do Jonathan's room just like this! I mean, seriously, have you ever seen a cuter room for a little boy? Especially one who's obsessed with anything that has wheels.



Of course, since this set comes from Pottery Barn Kids, it costs an arm and a leg, which I can't part with right now. I think I need to some searching around to see if I can find something similar that won't involve losing body parts. This bedding set is enough to make me want to re-do Jonathan's room. The only problem is I can't decide if we should leave him in his current room or move him to the other spare room. We don't know if we're going to use his crib as it's designed; it's convertible, meaning it will change to a toddler bed then to a full bed, or if we'll use it for baby #2 whenever he/she comes along. So many decisions that are completely unneccesary right now. We're no where near ready to move Jonathan to a "big boy" bed, and probably won't be unless he decides to start scaling his crib sometime soon. (Knocking on wood so that won't happen!) Until then, I guess I'll just dream about this adorable bedding!

Who are you...

and what have you done with my baby? If you look at these two pictures, taken almost exactly a year apart, you'll understand my question. There is no doubt that my baby isn't a baby anymore. He's stuck somewhere between toddler & kid. Every day he speaks more & more clearly and I'm constantly amazed at how smart he is. We have a book with pictures of various things; animals, food, toys, clothes, household items, etc., and he can identify nearly all of them! And somehow, he knows the letter "W". ??? What a strange letter to start with! He speaks in 2-3 word sentences and can most of the time get the point across for what he wants. Where, oh where, has my baby gone? I'm totally loving this stage; he's so much fun to play with, and he loves to give kisses & hugs. What more could you want?

Oh! And the best thing ever???? He's started saying "I love you"! It sounds kind of like "I Ya You", but it could sound like "pumpernickel" and it would still be the sweetest sound I've ever heard.



In another of my Skribit suggestions I was asked... "When and if you are planning on another munchkin?!?"

We definitely want another child. The time frame hasn't exactly been decided yet. I definitely know I'm not ready right now. I think Chris would be okay with having another baby now, but thankfully he understands how I feel. One of my main reasons for waiting is my weight. I really want to be at my goal weight for at least a few months before we start trying. I'd love to know what it feels like to go through pregnancy without being overweight. The obvious reason being that I want to be healthy & not have as much weight to lose once the baby comes... the frivolous reason is there are much cuter choices for maternity clothes if you're not heavy! LOL

The other reason is that I've learned alot about myself since becoming a mother. I always thought that I'd want my children close in age, maybe about 2 years. However, I've come to realize that I don't think I could handle having two kids so close together. I want Jonathan to be more self sufficient, hopefully potty-trained (please, God!) and be able to understand what's happening when a new baby joins our family. I really don't have any idea when I'll be ready, but I trust God will lay it on my heart when it's time.

Question... do you plan your meals out for the week? I'm trying to find ways to help us save money and thinking a weekly menu might be a good place to start. We've always been ones who spent too much on eating out. Finances are tight right now so we really have to cut back where we can, and eating out is certainly a luxury we can do without so much of. The problem is my "cooking repitoire" is quite limited. I'm a very picky eater & therefore have a hard time coming up with new meals to cook. My poor husband is probably so sick of baked chicken, grilled pork chops and Hamburger Helper that he's ready to jump off a bridge. If you make a weekly menu, where do you come up with meal ideas? Do you have a list of main dishes, side dishes, etc.? Care to share some of them? I'm at a loss.

One day this week I caught a few minutes of the new show on TLC, Take Home Nanny. Generally I don't watch these "nanny" shows, but I happened to stop there while it was on. During this particular episode Nanny Emma suggested that the parents take the TVs out of their children's rooms. (A great suggestion in my opinion, it's not neccessary, especially when they're young. I think the oldest may have been around 7.) Anyhoo... the dad was upset by this & made the comment (I'm paraphrasing) that they were good because it was like a talking book! I was shocked by this and I believe I spoke out loud to the television & said that he should be reading to the kids. What are your thoughts? Does your child(ren) have a TV in his/her room? I can't say too much about it as I had a TV in my room at one point, but if I'm not mistaken I was a teenager & bought it myself. (Mom/Dad, can you verify?)

Well, this turned out to be quite the rambling post. If you stuck around for the whole thing... thanks! I hope I didn't bore you to death.

it starts early

We bought Jonathan a potty yesterday to start introducing him to the process. We're no where near ready to actually begin, but at least he'll know what it is. He tells us when he's gone poopy so I think it's just a matter of time. So now, any time I use the restroom he sits on the potty too. Well, today he decides to look at a magazine while sitting there. It was too funny not to get a picture.


What do you think? Blackmail material when he's 16?

by request

As requested in my handy Skribit suggestion box:

"write about your weightloss journey and how it all started and where you are at now! Successes!"

Hmmm. What to say about my weight loss journey. I was not heavy throughout most of my childhood & my teen years, in fact, I went through a stage in about the 8th grade where I was too skinny. However, as happens to a lot of people, once I settled down & got married the pounds started piling on. By the time we'd been married 8 years or so I'd put on about 100 pounds. Not good. I was 100 pounds overweight when I got pregnant with Jonathan, but thankfully didn't experience any weight related complications. (I had plenty of those without them being weight related.)

I had tried several different methods over the years, some successfully, but never stuck with any of them long term. I even joined Weight Watchers at one point in 2001 (I think) and lost about 40 pounds. Unfortunately I got comfortable with where I was & went back to my old ways. Those 40 pounds came back and they each brought a friend.

I kept waiting for a "defining moment" or some grand epiphany to happen so I would be ready to lose the weight. One never came. Finally I decided that I had to do something about it whether or not some life changing event occurred. Jonathan was getting to the age where he was more & more mobile and I wanted to be able to keep up with him. I had joined a mom's group and met another mother who had recently joined Weight Watchers so I decided to re-join & attend meetings with her. I don't know how to explain it, but for some reason it just really clicked this time.

I joined in November 2007 and have not once even thought about quitting. Sure, I have days where I don't do as well as I should, but I know that "tomorrow is a new day" and I can get right back on plan. I can actually see myself reaching my goal weight & maintaining it. I'm certainly not saying that I think it will be easy, I know it's something I'll struggle with for the rest of my life. But thankfully, Weight Watchers isn't a diet, it's a lifestyle change. It's something you can do forever. The basic principle is portion control. I love that I can eat anything I want.... within moderation. If I want to have a hamburger from Wendy's, then by golly I have one. But I've learned to cut my portions back significantly by ordering off the kids menu.

Goodness... it feels like I'm rambling. Well, here are a couple of pictures.

The first one was taken on Halloween 2007, just a couple of weeks before I joined WW.

The next one is the most recent picture I have of me. It was taken at my birthday party on 7/5/08. As of the date of this picture I had lost 43.6 pounds. I've lost another 3.4 since then so that puts my total at 47 pounds lost. I'm almost halfway there!!!

I still have a lot of work to do, but I know I can succeed. Chris & the rest of my family & friends have been so supportive during this journey and I'm eternally grateful to them. I couldn't do it without y'all.

Well, that turned out to be a novel. I have a couple of more suggestions in my box; I'll try to get to them over the next day or so. Stay tuned!!!

Cheese!!!

Here is Jonathan's new reaction when I pull out the camera. Cheese! Will I ever get another "normal" picture again?



My wonderful hubby has taken the plunge into this wonderful world we sometimes call Blogland. Check him out at Mann of the House & show him some love with comments!!!

bath time!?

Somehow I forgot to post these pictures from last week. We were cleaning out the laundry room & Chris put Jonathan in the washing machine. Ha!






I have a few suggestions in my Skribit box. I plan on sitting down sometime this weekend & posting about them. Tonight Haley & I are going to a "Breaking Dawn" book release party at Barnes & Noble. It's the fourth book in the "Twilight" series by Stephenie Meyer and we've been anxiously awaiting it's release. It should be interesting.

A note from Jonathan: jnm mbup
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