Has it really been this long?

I can't believe it was August since I last posted and this year is almost over.  Life got a little crazy for our family when I decided to go back to work in September.  My other work at home job was not longer working out for me and I knew and felt like I needed to make a change.  I had heard that O'Currance in Draper was hiring and that you could be a home agent with this company.  I applied and got hired on. I came home and cried, knowing that things would be a lot different for our family.  They only gave me a couple choices in my schedule, and I decided to do the evening shift Saturday-Wednesday 4-10 PM. With the Holidays it has been very busy so we have been required to put in 40 hours a week.  This has also been very difficult for me.  I feel like I'm running around like a crazy person all the time trying to get everything done that I need to do.  It has made me be a bit more "scheduled" though, I actually find that I am getting more done because my time is much more limited.. What I thought would be a couple weeks working in the office has turned into several months.  I kept getting different answers from everyone as to when I could start working from home.  The desk that I am working on wants you to have a 22% conversion rate on the product that we sell the most.  When I finally got to this rate, I got may paper work signed and then had to wait for a phone, and then also had to wait for IT to call and help me set everything up, by the time I had finally gotten everything set-up my conversion rate had dropped so I was still stuck going in to work.  They are however splitting the desk that I'm on and will be solely selling one product instead of 4 different ones, and should be able to stay at home from then on, this will also give me the chance to change my schedule to work days. Hopefully, this change will give us some sort of normalcy again.  Jeff has been a trooper and helping out a lot.  I couldn't do this without him.

On another note, the kids are doing great!  Morgan started kindergarten (the day I got my job).  I thought I would have a hard time sending her off to kindergarten, but I had more anxiety about Ian being in 8th grade.  I'm so glad that he will still be in middle school next year, I am so not ready to have a kid old enough to be in High School...aye aye aye!!!!

We are enjoying the Christmas season and recently adopted an "Elf" from Santa.  Morgan named her Hart.  She has been very mischievous, we have found a snow angel made out of sugar on our kitchen table,  she got herself a glass of milk and ate a cookie, she has played with Morgan's barbies and her My little Ponies and we've found her hanging on the pull for the ceiling fan.  We are sure having fun finding out where she will be next!

Reaching for Goals

For years and years I've struggled with trying to lose weight.  I always start with good intentions and start strong and then get tired of trying and not seeing results as fast as I think I should.  I realized not too long ago that I always set myself up for failure from the beginning of every weight loss intention.  I would tell myself, I'm going to perfect every single day and exercise hard every single day, but when those sweet cravings came along, and when I didn't feel like exercising, I would beat myself up and stop trying, and then all the weight that I lost would be right back on.

So when I joined Weight Watchers in February, I had those same intentions, to be perfect with my eating and exercising every single day, but something switched in my head this time, and it was during one of the weekly meetings that I feel like I finally "got it".  The leader had passed out a sheet of paper with mantras on them and one of those in particular stuck out so strong with me that day, that I knew for certain that this was going to be the time that I would finally reach the goal that I have longed for for so long.  This was THE mantra, now MY mantra:

"If your driving down the road and get a flat tire, do you get out of your car and slash the other three?  No, you fix it and get back on the road"

So, simple but so true,  We are not expected to be perfect in this life, no matter what we are aiming for, we all stumble and fall, but yet we get back up and try again.  I can't tell you how many times I have faltered, but have remembered my mantra, to get back on the road, and I have this time.  The weight loss hasn't been as fast as I would like, and I've realized that it may take me another year to finally reach my goal, but once I reach that goal, I know that it will be my goal to keep the weight off.

When I reached my 10% goal I got a gold key ring, and when I reached my 25 pounds lost I got a little 25 pound weight that I've attached to my key ring.  This is a constant reminder of the goals that I continue to have.  As of today I've reached 30 pounds lost.  Most of my clothes aren't fitting anymore.  I've cleaned out my closet and given my bigger clothes to D.I.  I don't have a lot of clothes to wear, but I'm more than happy to find my clothes way too baggy than way too tight.  Wal-Mart is my source of clothes for the time being, until I reach my final goal, and then I'll be shopping for a new wardrobe in the regular size clothes section of a department store.

Pre-School Graduation

Morgan finished her 2nd year at Leap Ahead Learning Pre-school.  She had the best teacher Ms. Jennae.  It's always sad for me to see a good chapter end and this was one of those times. She has learned so much, overcome some of her shyness, and really blossomed overall.  My baby will be heading to big school in August for Kindergarten.

Hiking the Y

 A couple of Saturday's ago we decided to hike up to the Y in Provo.  This is my first time and the kids first time too.  Jeff had hiked it before when he was a student at BYU.  After our hike we ate at the  creamery on 9th...YUM

The Prophet said to plant a garden...

This year our ward has encouraged all families to plant a garden.  We have planted a garden most years, but haven't been very good about making it a good garden.  We don't prep our soil well, we are not good at weeding, we only plant a couple of things.  This year I decided that for my Mother's day gift that I wanted a garden that was planted properly and tended to on a regular basis.  So, for Family Home Evening  a couple weeks ago we spent the night pulling weeds and turning the soil.  The following Monday for Family Home Evening we spread fertilizer onto the soil and tilled it, and the we planted our seeds. My mother in law said to soak the seeds for a day or 2 before you plant them.  We have corn, zuchinni, cantalope, carrots, tomatoes & pumpkins.  We even made a small area for Morgan to plant her own garden, she says she wants to be a farmer someday.  We are excited to watch our garden grow and have fresh veggies to eat this summer.

Tilling

Raking

Our seeds ready to be planted

Morgan's own garden

Dirty hands

All finished and waiting to grow

My Oh My Look Who Turned 5

Morgan turned 5 last week and had a very fun filled day!  She chose cinnamon rolls for her birthday breakfast and was excited about going to pre-school to share her day with her friends.  After pre-school we went to lunch with her friend to her favorite place "Old McDonalds".  After lunch her friend came home with her to have a play date.  Later that afternoon we ventured to Build A Bear.  When I asked her what she wanted for her birthday, she told me she wanted a puppy.  So, I quickly had to come up with something that would steer her mind away from that much wanted dog.  I mentioned Build A Bear to her and explained to her that she would get to pick out her own bear, watch it get stuffed, give it a bath, pick out new clothes and then name her bear. She was so excited and I never heard the mention of a new puppy again.  Here she is at Build A Bear creating her new bear named "Butterfly"

 On Saturday she had her friend party and chose a "Garden/Fairy" theme.  I made the tissue paper pom poms in the back and Morgan wanted to keep them up for a few days longer, so they are still adorning our nook.

Butterfly Pinata

 

We played a "hot potato" game to open presents.  We played music while passing around her stuffed frog, when the music stopped the person who was holding the frog got to give Morgan their present from the pile.  It was a bit confusing to them, but it all worked out and everyone was happy.

Blowing out her 5 candles on her butterfly cupcake cake

 We LOVE Morgan to death and we couldn't imagine our lives without her. It's hard to imagine that 5 years have flown by so quickly.  As her birthday was approaching we would tell her that she had to stay 4 forever, but she promised us that she would stay 5 forever :)!  There are so many things about Morgan that I LOVE

She is my "girls night out" companion when the boys are camping - oh yea, we are looking forward to a whole week of "girls nights out" in June when the boys will be at scout camp!!! She makes me laugh and appreciate the simple things in life.

Morgans Likes:

Spaghetti

Reading, Reading and Reading - did I mention Reading

Coloring

Creating

swimming

taking baths

being outside & riding her bike

painting her fingers and toes

sleeping in

story time

pre-school

Morgan's Dislikes:

broccoli

Grilled cheese sandwiches & Quesadillas - she said she doesn't like the melty cheese part, but she will still eat pizza.

going to bed

getting up in the morning (sometimes I think she must be 15 not 5)

spiders & bugs

 

This is how much she LOVES her books - they are all over her room most nights when I go to kiss her goodnight on my way to bed.  She has to have a stack of books in her bed with her before I leave the room.

 I Love the broken glasses I caught her wearing a few nights ago.  She is always making me laugh!

A New obsession

My friend Karen introduced me to The Wood Connection back in December when I saw some of the cute crafts she was making for her coworkers. I immediately knew I had to jump on the bandwagon and start doing some serious crafting. Karen and I got together to do our "Winter" craft, I knew after displaying it that I was going to have to do something for every month. So here is what I've done so far:






And I seriously can't wait to start my spring/Easter Crafts, I'm heading to The Wood Connection on Friday!