Diet Update/Memorial Day Weekend

So Andy has lost 33 pounds in 6 weeks which is great! I have only lost 6 pounds in 3 weeks...and again I should be exercising but it is just no fun...ha. I am hoping to lose 3 pounds this week and step up my game on exercising.

For Memorial Weekend we were able to go stay in a house on the Red River. We did this last year and we were able to go for 1 night this year. We rented the house with our friends Paul and Cassie and Troy and Leah. It had been since last year since I saw Troy and Leah so it was good to see them again. They guys fished and caught enough for us to make some for dinner...we ate good all weekend, ribs, fish, shrimp, hamburgers plus all the sides...yummy so good. We played board games and I got to read almost 2 books...it was so relaxing so thanks to the grandparents for helping watch the boys! On Monday we got a call from our friend Jason, Andy and Jason have been friends since childhood, who lives in northwest Arkansas we haven't seen Jason and his wife for a couple of years. So they were in LR and stopped by to visit it was so good to see them.

Here are a few pics from this weekend...I didn't take many...

Paul and Troy deboning the fish

Andy and I at the Red River

Andy and Jason

Jason and his wife Courtney (I hope I am not misspelling her name)

A baseball update:

Joshua has had a few games canceled due to rain but he has done very well when he has had a game. He is at least paying attention and not playing in the dirt. I can't wait till next year when he plays pitching machine. Jessie is doing really well at 1st base and has made some awesome catches. We only have 3 to 4 games left and the season will be over...it went by fast.

Jessie only has 3 days left of school and his 2nd grade year will be over...sigh...I can't believe it..it seems like he should just be old enough to start Kindergarten not be going into 3rd grade.

Dieting

So I have lost 5 pounds in 2 weeks...which is good but not great...I need to actually exercise...ha. Andy has lost 25 pounds in 4 weeks which is awesome and he is doing really good at exercising too...I must say I taught him everything he knows about being disciplined....lol.

It has not been to hard for me to stay at a certain amount of calories a day...the hard part is not eating a lot of sugar...which is my weakness. I have been using this site, to track my calories and weight loss and it really helps me to keep track of everything I eat. I know before I started tracking my food intake I would think, "oh I just had a _______ & _______ today and a snack it wasn't a lot of food," but I never realized how many calories a lot of things were...especially drinks like tea, milk, & juice...I just never counted those as calories before.

Also, If I make something homemade and I don't know the nutritional value of it I use this site, to calculate the calories and then make a custom entry in the site I track all my calories in. I can also track inches lost and see a summary report of how I am doing over all. But the amazing thing is I have done this for 2 weeks and I haven't quit, which for me is huge! Now if I can just develop a love for exercising it would be an even bigger accomplishment for me...ha

Mother's Day 2009

This year for Mother's Day we went to Cabot after Joshua's baseball game on Saturday. Which Joshua hit a home run and was promised baseball gloves by daddy so we had to stop and buy them on the way to Cabot. We went to my mom's and had dinner and then went to my cousin Deagan's 5th birthday party. We got to see a lot of family and the boys had a good time playing on all the blow up jump stations. We then went back to my mom's and the boys had popcorn and a movie, Iron Will.

Sunday we got up and went to church at our home church and it was nice to see people we haven't seen in awhile. Then we went to Andy's parents house and Andy cooked pork tenderloin, that he had marinated for 3 days, and chicken breast and shrimp with some sides and yummy dessert...and yes I had some dessert...all 3 of them in fact...Sunday was my cheat day...and fortunately, I didn't gain any weight from what I ate Sunday but I kept off the 2 pounds I lost this week..haha...but Andy did a WONDERFUL job cooking our food....

And because of the rain we played inside for most of the day...Nana and Papa have a game room in the basement so Andy and I played pool for the 1st time in a long time. No need to point out the obvious buy I kicked his tuckus in pool....................WHAT!?..........okay......so everyone that knows me knows that isn't true BUT I did gave him a run for his money!!........that's right you read it right!..................*SIGH*..........okay....that isn't true either...........I got steam rolled.......OK!.........and that is the truth!

Then when the weather cleared up everyone went outside and played some baseball at least the guys did...I observed them playing baseball...geez it is Mother's Day isn't....the day for relaxing! Thanks to the guys we were able to do that so THANK YOU! Overall it was a great Mother's Day and I can't be more thankful to have 2 of the best role models, my mom and mother in law, in the world as my support system and are such a Godly example of the Proverbs 31 woman. And to have the best, sweetest boys that make being a mom such a JOY and a pain...but mostly a JOY....

LOSE WEIGHT = NEW FLOORS

So Andy and Josh have challenged each other to see who can lose the most weight in 8 weeks. The winner gets $100 and it is determined by total body percentage weight lost.

• Andy has lost 20 pounds in 3 weeks by playing basketball a couple nights a week and reducing his calorie intake.
• Josh has lost 16 pounds in 3 weeks by jogging on his treadmill and playing some basketball.
• He and Andy are both eating 5-6 times a day.

Andy wanted me to get in on this but um..$100 wasn't really incentive enough for me. So Sunday night we were talking and we decided if I go down to 135lbs I get to choose any kind of new flooring I want for the living room. I HATE carpet...especially in the living room so I am pumped. The only thing/person standing between me and my new flooring is me...haha. If Andy gets down to 242.5lbs he gets to get a Mac Server or his "version" of a Mac server...the really thing is too expensive.

I started on Monday and have been reducing my calorie intake and exercising. So far it hasn't been to hard and I haven't felt like giving up which for me is good...lol. Andy doesn't want to do a "cheat" day but I am ALL about having a "cheat" day. I am picking Mother's Day as my 1st cheat day.

But I love the idea of getting fit so we can keep up with our kids and hopefully stay on earth longer and be able to raise our boys and some day very far from now we can see our grandchildren, even our great grandchildren...assuming the Lord isn't coming back first...ha

Kindergarten

So Andy and I registered Joshua for Kindergarten today. Most of you know that Andy and I have not agreed on when Joshua should start Kindergarten. I wanted him to go next school year. He would be over 5.5 years old. Andy wanted him to wait another year and he would start at 6.5 years old. He thinks Joshua being another year older would be an advantage to him in his education and in sports..I don't completely disagree with that. My opinion was he is already one of the older kids going into Kindergarten. And I wanted to be able to hold him back if the NEED should ever arise in the future and if we held him back at the beginning that would not be an option for us later on. Also, I think he is very ready for Kindergarten and he has a desire to learn.

So I had been praying that what was best for Joshua would be the decision we make for him as to when he should start. And it so happens that because Joshua needs speech therapy it was recommended by his therapist that he would greatly benefit from being in preschool or kindergarten. But none of the preschools but one will take him since he is old enough to be in Kindergarten and we would have to pay out of pocket for his speech therapy and for preschool. So Andy conceded to let him go...He will be able to get speech therapy at school for free and him being in Kindergarten and learning his sounds will be a big help in him learning to say his words correctly.

So, Andy, I am extremely thankful to you for letting Joshua go ahead and go to Kindergarten even though you would rather he wait another year...you are a good daddy!

Noahness Turns 3!

Noah turned 3 on April 24, 2009...he shares the same birthday as my dad. I think at midnight the terrible 3's set in b/c he was such a toot on his birthday and even had to get a spanking...haha

We had cupcakes and presents with him on his actually birthday with just the 5 of us. And then Sunday we went to Andy's parents and had a dinner birthday party...with the same menu we had for Easter...roast has been on sale...ha...and the rolls rose this time. Then the boys all got hair cuts and played outside with Bayliss and their grandparents. Andy came to eat and had to leave and go back to work at a side job he has had for almost 10 years in Cabot. Here is a slide show of the party. I have more pics but they are on Andy's iphone.

Baseball Pics

So Joshua is doing so much better in T-ball this year. He is actually paying attention and playing the game unlike last year when we paid for him to play in the dirt. They don't keep score in T-ball which is probably a good thing. I forgot my camera for Joshua's game so hopefully I will remember it for his next game and get some pictures.

Jessie's AA team is 4-1. Which is a shock to Andy and I considering what they looked like when the season started. We have 2 kids on the team that have never even played before and have actually come a long way since the 1st practice. Last year Jessie was a 7 year old on an AA 8 year old team and he played center field and was good at it...he can catch some pop flies..haha.. This year the 8 year olds moved up to the AAA 9 year old team and he plays up sometimes but he plays 1st base on the AA team this year. He surprisingly is good at 1st base and I say that b/c in the past when they put him in the infield he looked scared to death. So he has gotten comfortable in the infield now but he doesn't like playing up on the AAA team which is live pitch...and looks like he is going to mess his pants every time he plays....haha. But with everything the more you do it the more at ease you feel. So I hope by the time the season is over he will be okay with live pitch since he is talking about not playing baseball next year b/c he doesn't like it. Here are a few pics of his teams photo shoot and the game afterwards.

Easter Sunday

The weather was really nice on Saturday before Easter but Sunday morning...the bottom fell out and it poured and poured...even driving home from church my car was going all over the place because there was just so much rain. We decided to have an Easter party at our house and we cooked roast, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, some veggies, and homemade rolls [that didn't rise :(...], broccoli salad and some yummy dessert.

Andy's parents, sister, and his nephew Bayliss came....as well as our friends Josh and April and their kids and Mekelle and Jason and their kiddos. After we ate we had a scavenger egg hunt (which is a tradition Andy kept from when he was little) and then just a regular egg hunt. The boys got play doh, moon sand, kites, baseball bat (Joshua), Lightening McQueen glove and ball (Noah), and a first basemen glove (Jessie) in their Easter Baskets. We had a lot of fun but I was TIRED when it was over.

A funny side note: I was writing a clue to put in the egg that would lead Joshua to his Easter basket that was in my bathtub and at the same time Mekelle and I where talking about coupons. So when Joshua opened his egg for the final clue it said, "Where do you take a coupon"...instead of "Where do you take a bath"...haha. Apparently, I can't talk and write at the same time...

Nana and Papa have video and pictures as do April and Josh...my camera's battery was dead...so if I can get a copy from them I may post a video or pics later.

Kids Easter Egg Hunt

So my mom's group had an Easter egg hunt for the kids at the park. It was really windy and cool that day. They were having a picnic and dessert after the egg hunt but the kids where going all over the place and trying to keep up with 4 kids at the park is not my idea of fun. I stayed long enough for them to all get some eggs.....where they had the egg hunt was a section of grass with a circle drive around it and a parking lot so I was worried someone would get hit by a car and decided we would just go home. Below is a slide show of the egg hunt and some pics of Harmony and Seth in there Easter outfits on Sunday.

Bryant Preseason Baseball Tournament

Jessie is the 1st one on the 2nd row...on the left

So on April 9, 2009 Jessie's AAA Baseball Team won the Bryant Preseason Baseball Tournament. It was funny b/c Jessie apparantly never gets the signs right and he bunts the ball with 2 strikes against him. And we happened to be standing by 3rd base and his coach looked at us and said, "People are going to think I'm stupid for "signaling" him to bunt." He told us in the 2 years Jessie has played for them he always get the signs wrong...haha. Which is odd for Jessie b/c he is really good at paying attention and has a good memory so I don't know what is going on there...lol. But it worked and he got on base...