First Day of Kindergarten!

Soooo.... apparently I took an unplanned blogging break for the summer. What better reason to start posting again than the first day of school. It's not just any ole school year either... it's the first day of Kindergarten! At the risk of sounding trite.... WHERE HAS THE TIME GONE???

Okay... got that out of my system. On to the barrage of pictures:

J was super excited about his first day of Kindergarten. We met his teachers a couple of weeks ago & got to see his classroom last week at Open House. He was very happy to see that a couple of his friends from years past are in his class.

As usual he went right into class & didn't care one iota that we were leaving. Of course momma had to take pictures, though.

I know he's going to have a great year. His teachers are wonderful and I know he's going to learn so much. I can't believe this is his last year at Bright Beginnings. We're really going to miss it next year.

Now... for the part that makes my heart hurt. First day of school pics of years past:

2 year old class 2009-2010

3 year old class 2010-2011

4 year old class 2011-2012

Kindergarten 2012-2013



Time can stop now....



needing some perspective

I mentioned about a month ago that I started a journey to a new lifestyle at the beginning of 2012. When I posted then, I'd lost a little over 25 pounds.

For some reason, over the past few days, I've been struggling a little with not seeing results. I know I've come a long way from where I was, but sometimes when I look in the mirror, I have a hard time seeing it.

So, in an effort to help me see the changes I've made, I thought it might be a good idea to list the ones that I HAVE noticed...

*** the scale shows I'm down 32 pounds
*** when I first started exercising, I could only do 2 minutes on the Elliptical. Now I can do THIRTY!!!
*** this morning in my Body Pump class I went up on my weight. It was hard, but I did it!
*** I've noticed I don't get winded quite as easily.
*** I can bend over & tie my shoes!!!
*** exercising has become a part of my daily life. I actually love it & don't like it when I can't work out.

Sometimes, when I look at pictures, I can see the difference in my face...

December 31, 2011

April 28, 2012

I know this is going to be a long journey, but sometimes I get a little impatient in wanting to see tangible results. I need to keep in mind that my body, and my life, is changing in ways that I can't see, but it's still changing.

Strawberry Picking Time!

Yesterday J's class took a field trip to pick strawberries. I don't know if I've ever known a person who loves strawberries as much as J does. To say he was excited would be an understatement. In fact, when he saw that the kids were only getting a small container to put their berries in, and not a bucket like he thought, he got pretty upset. LOL

Thankfully the weather was pretty perfect for picking strawberries. It was overcast so it wasn't too hot, though I have to say, it was a bit humid for my taste.

Here are a few pictures...

J and his harem of ladies. :)

Demonstrating perfect berry picking form. "Scissor fingers" over the berry & pull.

So pretty! 

 It doesn't hurt to eat a couple while you're picking. Right?

Showing off his berries, and his personality, perfectly.  

He had most of these eaten before we got home! I promised him that we'd go to the strawberry patch that closer to our house & pick a bucket soon. 



A couple of weeks ago J's school had their annual "Moments for Mom" dinner. It's a great night with no kids & time getting to know other moms. The walls are covered with the kids' artwork which we get to take home at the end of the night. These two questionnaires were my favorite!

I love that he says I don't sing. Those who know me well know this absolutely not true. I sing all. the. time. Quite annoying I'm sure. 

I'm kinda sad that he said my favorite thing to do is "watch t.v.". Hopefully this one was done earlier in the school year before I started going to the gym regularly. ;) 

there's more where this came from

We've had a lot going on lately, so I actually have something to post. Just not tonight. To hold you over, though, I thought I'd post this picture from J's first TBall game of this season. 

Stay tuned....

catching up

There’s no way I’ll ever really be able to catch up, so I’ll just post some pics I’ve taken with my phone over the last little bit. One of these days I’ll get my rear in gear…

A couple of weeks ago I went on a girls weekend with some of my besties. We’ve been able to do this about once a year for the past six or seven years and it’s WONDERFUL! Rebecca’s boss has a house that he lets us use in North Carolina. I’ve never been anywhere more peaceful & relaxing.

Me & the girls. Lisa, Laurel & Rebecca.

 

While we were there we drove into Brevard, NC and went to a cute little theater to see The Hunger Games. LOVED it!

The showing we were planning to go to was sold out, so we had some time to kill. We asked a couple of locals where to eat & they recommended a little restaurant called
The Square Root.


The special on Friday’s is Fish & Chips. Three of us ordered them & they were delicious! If you’re ever in Brevard, I highly recommend that you check them out.


Chris’ dad’s birthday was last weekend, and I decided to make him a pineapple upside-down cake. As you can see, it wasn’t very pretty, but thankfully it tasted good. That’s all that matters, right?

My little Green Lantern on the way home from the gym.

Every evening I read all my favorite blogs. One of them is My Fitspiration which is written by Olivia Ward & Hannah Curlee. Olivia & Hannah were the winner & runner-up of The Biggest Loser, Season 11. They are both such an inspiration to me & I love reading what they have to say.
 

I’ve been a little bored with what I’ve been fixing for dinner lately. It seems like I make the same few meals over, and over, and over again. So, when making the menu for the next couple of weeks I turned to another of my favorite websites, Pinterest, for some inspiration. I found this recipe for Crockpot Chicken Tacos and decided to give a try this week. O.M.G. It was SOOO good. Seriously, you have to try it!


I haven’t talked about it much {at all?} here, but I made the decision at the beginning of the year to really make an effort to change my lifestyle. One of the biggest changes I made is not drinking soda anymore. Amazingly, it wasn’t as hard to give up as I thought it would be. I didn’t have ANY soda from January 1st – March 31st. I drank one Coke on April 1st and, honestly, it wasn’t all that great. It tasted okay, but I had no desire to go crazy & start drinking it again.

The other big change I’ve made is to become more active. Last summer I joined a nearby gym and went pretty regularly. For a few months. But, at the beginning of the year I started going back. The most amazing thing happened…. I LOVE exercising. It’s still so weird for me to say that. One thing I’ve found is that I love taking classes. My two absolute favorites are BodyCombat & BodyPump.

Since making these changes at the beginning of the year, I’ve lost 25.8 pounds! I have a lot left, but I KNOW I’ll do it!


Today Jboy & I went to some friends house to play & chat. This is what happened after.

Well, I guess that’s enough for now. We have a busy weekend planned, so maybe I’ll actually post about that before 2 months passes.

Extra, Extra!

Read all about it!!! I don't know if that is because I'm finally posting after more than a month {gasp!} or the exclusive interview I'm about to post... either way... enjoy.

{I essentially stole this whole interview from Jenny at Stickyfeathers. It was too cute to not share.}

The answers are straight from Jonathan's mouth:

How old are you? five
If you had $100, what would you buy? a Lego bus
Who is your best friend? Porter & Cole
What do you want to be when you grow up? stop sign person {???}
What is your favorite thing to do with mommy? play Legos
What is your favorite thing to do with daddy? play Legos
What is your favorite color? Blue
What do you want to learn to do? Nothing
How do you help mommy and daddy? cleaning up
What is your favorite thing to do with your family? play games
Where is your favorite place to go? the park
Where do you want to go? Grammie's house
What do you like to play at school? play centers
What do you like to play at home? the games
What is your favorite sport to play? Baseball
What is your favorite book? Dr. Suess books -- Hop on Pop
If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go? the beach
What does mommy do while you're at school? Exercise, go shopping
What is your favorite food? corn dog
What is your favorite thing to play outside? tractor
What makes daddy happy? cleaning up, doing what he says
What is your favorite movie? Power Rangers

I can't believe my little stinker will be five and a half in just a couple weeks. Time flies is a cliche for a reason.

just a little something...

Wordless Wednesday :: Snaggletooth

Basketball

So… let’s just pretend it hasn’t been so long since I’ve posted something of “substance”. I’ll get around to catching up. One day.

Let’s move to the present, shall we…

A few months ago, we signed Jboy up to play basketball in a nearby church league. Practices started last week. The first week he kept complaining about how tired he was & saying the practice took too long. Ha ha! He did much better this week & seemed to have a good time. I’m really curious to see how the games go!

Now, on to what everyone {read: the parents} really cares about: the pictures.