Day 6 picture challenge

A picture of someone you'd like to trade places with for the day.

I totally want to be a kid again for one more day... in the summer time. :)

I joined!

Weight Watchers that is.  I woke up at 6:30 this morning and went to my first meeting in over 2 years. I'm pretty excited about it.  I have 63 pounds I want to lose and I'm pretty sure I can lose most of that by the end of the year. Jacob is going to do it with me although he only has 20 pounds he wants to lose, which I suppose is a lot but he's so tall.  So anyway, the journey has begun!  Let the pounds melt!

30 Day Picture Challenge Day 5

A picture of your favorite memory.  When I was a kid we would go on road trips every summer with our bestest friends. They had a station wagon with the rear facing seats and my friend Leslie and I would sit back there and wave and make faces at people as we were driving down the road.  I have so many fun memories with Leslie and her family and when I think back on the days of my childhood they are some of my favorite.

Picture Challenge Day 4

A picture of your favorite night:

My favorite night is sitting around a camp fire in the summer time playing games with Jacob. 

Picture Day Challenge Day 3

A picture of my favorite TV Show:

I love this show!

Picture Challenge Day 2

A picture of you and the person you have been closest with the longest.

This is my friend Serena.  We've been friends since 3rd grade!  Even though we don't get to see each other very often we still have fun together when we do!  Love you Serena!

30 Day Picture Challenge Day 1

A couple people I know have done this and I think it's pretty cool.  We'll see how good I am at keeping up with it.  Day one is a picture of you with 10 facts:

1. I love to spend time with my family.
2. I think camping is awesome.
3. I think I may be obsessive compulsive.  Ex.  I had someone over helping me bake and they took the eggs out of the center of the egg carton and it bent me out of shape.
4. I can bend down and touch the ground with my palms.  (Jacob rolls his eyes when I do it... I think deep down he's jealous)
5. I'm ultra competitive
6. I suck at math
7. I love working hard
8. I can't stand lazy people
9. I don't take crap from anyone
10. I really am a sweet person!

Weight...

I was thinking the other day about my weight. (I think a lot about it).  I'm so frustrated!  I used to not be overweight.  In fact I was a thin kid growing up and through high school.  I was athletic and active.  Then I went away to college, gained weight and became less active.  Now 8 years later I'm struggling to get back into shape.  I don't care so much about how much I weigh, I care more about what pant size I wear.  I would LOVE to be a size 8 again.  I used to be a 6 but I will take an 8.  I made it a goal this year to run a triathlon.  I fully intend on doing this and I can register on the first of March for it.  But before I run this race I feel that in order to be more competitive I need to shed some weight.  So I will be joining Weight Watchers at least up to the triathlon and I'm going to set the goal of losing at least 25 pounds before the race (July 3rd I believe).  I lost 20 pounds the last time I was on Weight Watchers and then we moved and I got pregnant with Linnea.  So hopefully in the next week I will be marching myself to Weight Watchers, signing up and dropping some pounds.  I want to look better for this summer.  There are so many things I want to do this summer like going backpacking and going on long hikes and if I can lose some weight then I will be able to carry a backpack full of supplies.  If I get brave I may post my starting weight and post my weight loss every week as I weigh in at the meetings.  I think I might because it will help keep me motivated knowing that a ton of my friends know who much I weigh.  I'll keep you posted!

11 Step Program for those thinking about having kids

 One of my friends posted this on facebook today and I can't stop laughing about it.  It was written by a woman named Amy Lawrence.

Lesson 1

1. Go to the grocery store.
2. Arrange to have your salary paid directly to their head office.
3. Go home.
4. Pick up the paper.
5. Read it for the last time.

Lesson 2

Before you finally go ahead and have children, find a couple who already are parents and berate them about their...
1. Methods of discipline.
2. Lack of patience.
3. Appallingly low tolerance levels.
4. Allowing their children to run wild.
5. Suggest ways in which they might improve their child's breastfeeding, sleep habits, toilet training, table manners, and overall behavior.
Enjoy it because it will be the last time in your life you will have all the answers.

Lesson 3

A really good way to discover how the nights might feel...
1. Get home from work and immediately begin walking around the living room from 5PM to 10PM carrying a wet bag weighing approximately 8-12 pounds, with a radio turned to static (or some other obnoxious sound) playing loudly. (Eat cold food with one hand for dinner)
2. At 10PM, put the bag gently down, set the alarm for midnight, and go to sleep.
3. Get up at 12 and walk around the living room again, with the bag, until 1AM.
4. Set the alarm for 3AM.
5. As you can't get back to sleep, get up at 2AM and make a drink and watch an infomercial.
6. Go to bed at 2:45AM.
7. Get up at 3AM when the alarm goes off.
8. Sing songs quietly in the dark until 4AM.
9. Get up. Make breakfast. Get ready for work and go to work (work hard and be productive)

Repeat steps 1-9 each night. Keep this up for 3-5 years. Look cheerful and together.

Lesson 4

Can you stand the mess children make? T o find out...
1. Smear peanut butter onto the sofa and jam onto the curtains.
2. Hide a piece of raw chicken behind the stereo and leave it there all summer.
3. Stick your fingers in the flower bed.
4. Then rub them on the clean walls.
5. Take your favorite book, photo album, etc. Wreck it.
6. Spill milk on your new pillows. Cover the stains with crayons. How does that look?

Lesson 5

Dressing small children is not as easy as it seems.
1. Buy an octopus and a small bag made out of loose mesh.
2. Attempt to put the octopus into the bag so that none of the arms hang out.

Time allowed for this - all morning.

Lesson 6

Forget the BMW and buy a mini-van. And don't think that you can leave it out in the driveway spotless and shining. Family cars don't look like that.
1. Buy a chocolate ice cream cone and put it in the glove compartment.
Leave it there.
2. Get a dime. Stick it in the CD player.
3. Take a family size package of chocolate cookies. Mash them into the back seat. Sprinkle cheerios all over the floor, then smash them with your foot.
4. Run a garden rake along both sides of the car.

Lesson 7

Go to the local grocery store. Take with you the closest thing you can find to a pre-school child. (A full-grown goat is an excellent choice). If you intend to have more than one child, then definitely take more than one goat. Buy your week's groceries without letting the goats out of your sight. Pay for everything the goat eats or destroys. Until you can easily accomplish this, do not even contemplate having children.

Lesson 8

1. Hollow out a melon.
2. Make a small hole in the side.
3. Suspend it from the ceiling and swing it from side to side.
4. Now get a bowl of soggy Cheerios and attempt to spoon them into the swaying melon by pretending to be an airplane.
5. Continue until half the Cheerios are gone.
6. Tip half into your lap. The other half, just throw up in the air.

You are now ready to feed a nine- month-old baby.

Lesson 9

Learn the names of every character from Sesame Street , Barney, Disney, the Teletubbies, and Pokemon. Watch nothing else on TV but PBS, the Disney channel or Noggin for at least five years. (I know, you're thinking What's 'Noggin'?) Exactly the point.

Lesson 10

Make a recording of Fran Drescher saying 'mommy' repeatedly. (Important: no more than a four second delay between each 'mommy'; occasional crescendo to the level of a supersonic jet is required). Play this tape in your car everywhere you go for the next four years. You are now ready to take a long trip with a toddler.

Lesson 11

Start talking to an adult of your choice. Have someone else continually tug on your skirt hem, shirt- sleeve, or elbow while playing the 'mommy' tape made from Lesson 10 above. You are now ready to have a conversation with an adult while there is a child in the room.

This is all very tongue in cheek; anyone who is parent will say 'it's all worth it!' Share it with your friends, both those who do and don't have kids. I guarantee they'll get a chuckle out of it. Remember, a sense of humor is one of the most important things you'll need when you become a parent!

Thoughts for 2011

I never make New Years Resolutions.  Ever.  Because I don't like to set a goal and then not do it.  The thought of falling through on something I said I'd do is just too much for me.  But this year will be different.  This year I have a few goals that I want to accomplish and I believe they are within reason and not too far fetched for me.  So here you have it, my goals for the year 2011:

• Go at least one month without any junk food. (I'm working on being healthier and I hope that this will help curb my appetite for those things)
• Run a triathlon  (I'm also working on being more fit.  I wanted to do this last year but didn't get to)
• Run a 5k in under 38 minutes (my 5k last year was run in 44 minutes... I was out of shape and had shin splints)
• Read the Book of Mormon in its entirety.  (I suck at reading my scriptures but KNOW that I need to in order to become the better person I want to be) 
• Keep up with the house work for one month (It seriously makes me sick to have a dirty house)*Edited:  I will actively clean the house for an hour per day.  Thanks for the idea Roxanne!
• Learn a new skill (Maybe knitting, or something else, I don't know yet what exactly I will learn)
• Drop 2 pant sizes (Who doesn't want to do that??)
• And finally again thanks to Roxanne I will also work on having a date night every week.

 Today I start my no junk food month.  Well... I'm going for a week and then going further.  What are your goals for this year?