......sweetest guy....

Party Boy turns 4 today

Happy Birthday, Spidey!

Valentines day 2007....153 to my Chuck!

- 11.0

7 inches and counting...

I know its not very official.....the photos are blurry because it was snowing so much. We're supposed to get 3-5 inches more before before its done.

I shoveled all that....

So much snow....

Its snowing like crazy here today....I didn't have to work today so I've actually been enjoying the blizzard. I've already shoveled twice.....and burned aprox. 754 calories! Altho my back kinda hurts....

Me & my girl Grace

I love sharing new crafts with Gracie-girl.On Monday I taught her how to embroider.We had a nice afternoon together just stitching away.

What's she so happy about?!?!

Her baby boy feels better....that's what!! (See next post)

Little Mister

Little Mister had a rough go this past weekend. He had several allergic reactions on Sunday where he was having a hard time breathing. Amy gave him several saline treatments but he needed more so she ended up in the ER that night. He's doing much better today thank goodness....he's just the sweetest boy ever!

- 9.6

- 8.4

Here's a few things you can do to recycle your plastic grocery dags....

I knew my daily "quiet time" was making me smarter!

Daytime Nap May Boost Memory

Napping May Give the Brain a Chance to Reinforce New Memories, Sleep Experts Say

By Miranda Hitti
WebMD Medical News

Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

Feb. 1, 2008 -- Take a daytime nap, and you might wake up with a sharper memory. That's what happened in a new napping study that involved 33 undergraduate students.

First, the students took three different tests of their short-term memory.

In one test, they had to learn and remember pairs of unrelated words, such as "alligator" and "cigar." In another test, they had to navigate and remember a maze shown on a computer screen. And in the last test, the students had to copy a complex drawing onto a sheet of paper, and then sketch the drawing from memory.

Next, half of the students napped for about 45 minutes, while other students watched TV. Finally, all of the students repeated the three memory tests

Napping boosted scores on the word-pair test, but not the other two tests.

A closer look at the test scores shows that on all three tests, people with the highest scores before napping were the ones with the biggest gains in their post-nap test scores.

Honey

Chuck's in the craft room with me....doing my taxes....153, baby!

Overalls

Jessica & Pure Joy

A couple more LO's dug out of a craft drawer last week.....

Snow Day

Pretty Tree...

OMG it snowed 10 inches....

Lots of snow yesterday....I left work at 4p and got about 2 miles away (which took about 30 minutes) and had to turn around and go back. The streets were horrible and traffic was backed up everywhere. They were reporting a 2 hour and 40 minute trip to go about 15 miles on the expressway. I'm thinking it would have took me 4 hours to get home! Thankfully the twins have an extra bed at their house and I just stayed over night and then worked a half day today. Aunt Ali and I took them outside for a little while this morning. Sydney thought the snow was ice cream and she kept licking her glove.....very cute.

Grace

I found this LO buried in one of my craft drawers....

- 7.2

Finally....I thought the scale at the gym was broke cause it was stuck on the same weight for the last 8 days (it even went up 4 ounces...gads!!!). Thank goodness it moved in the right direction today.......yesterday I was feeling like giving up (just for a few minutes I felt like that) but then I went to bed (without my 45 calorie pudding topped with 40 calories of light cool whip) and woke up feeling much better today....

I like to look at this chart on Calorie Counter....it makes it look like I lost a ton of weight.....

Costa Rica Update

....so, I'm in! I let the coordinator, Laura know that I'll be going to Costa Rica with the Willow Creek team. I'm excited. We'll be having a meeting about the trip on the 24th of Feb and we'll also be having a spaghetti dinner fund raiser at Willow on Friday, March 7. All are welcome for a small $5 fee.

Costa Rica

....So I'm seriously thinking of going on a mission/volunteer trip with a group from Willow Creek in March. Willow helps support a small town about an hour outside of San Jose in Costa Rica. I've wanted to go on a volunteer trip for the longest time but haven't found the right trip or had the $, time, etc til now. I met with the woman putting the trip together and everything she told me sounded really good. I will be making a decision by next Wednesday. I'm feeling really positive about doing it and Chuck is of course being supportive. So, Altho I won't be utilizing my nursing skills, I will be using my new muscles to do light construction in and around the church there.

Halloween 2007

So I did a few things with this LO but you can't really tell from the photo....The big pic is "ink sketched" and the girls are cut out and popped up. I also changed the color of the tiger's Halloween bag to better match the whole photo......but I forgot to change it in the top 2 little pix.....oh well...

Right Now

My new printer

I'm loving my new printer that chuck got me for xmas. It's making really great copies. I'm thinking I'll never get photos developed at the store again. I'm really digging scrapping with big pictures too...see above LO's. Now I just need to learn how to better use my camera...

This is a cake....cool.

Check out this site where they made a bunch of stuff out of cake.

Sweetest Baby boy

Here's a pic of Jack from a few years ago to warm you up on this cold day.

- 7.0

.....not bad for 19 days. 28.2 lbs to go. I WILL be the biggest loser!
Calorie Counter says I should be 127 by August 6.

- 6.6

Plastic bags....suck

So over the last year I've been trying to remember to bring my reusable canvas bags into the store wherever I shop. I get so mad at myself when I forget my bags and come home with a ton of plastic bags....just my little way of trying to be green. Mom would be proud......

I hate plastic grocery bags.....

What’s Wrong with Plastic Bags?

“The most ubiquitous consumer item on Earth, the lowly plastic bag is an environmental scourge like none other, sapping the life out of our oceans and thwarting our attempts to recycle it.” – Slate Magazine, August 10, 2007

"All the plastic that has been made is still around in smaller and smaller pieces.” – Stephanie Barger, executive director of the Earth Resource Foundation

• Plastic bags are a petroleum product, the use of which contributes to our dependence on foreign oil
  
  
• Plastic bag production creates greenhouse gases, which contribute to global warming
  
  
• 500 Billion to 1 Trillion plastic bags consumed worldwide annually [1]
  
  
• 100 Billion plastic bags consumed in the United States alone [2]
  
  
• Throwing away 100 billion plastic bags is equivalent to dumping 12 million barrels of oil [3]
  
  
• 9% of waste in landfills is plastic [4]
  
  
• 4.5% of waste in landfills is plastic bags and films *
  
  
• It takes 430,000 gallons of oil to manufacture 100 million bags [5]
  
  
• Only about 2% of plastic bags are recycled in the US, and only 1% worldwide [6]
  
  
• To clean up plastic bag litter, it costs 17 cents per bag in San Francisco [7]
  
  
• More than a million birds and 100,000 marine mammals and sea turtles die every year from eating or getting entangled in plastic [8]
  
  
• There are 46,000 pieces of plastic litter floating in every square mile of ocean [9]

These 3.

Jack

Our Gift

Jess

- 5.2

Little Indian girl

My friend Amy (MFA) with her dad. How cute are those pilgrim shoes. BTW, glad to have you around a little longer, Aim!

Bundle of Joy....Charlotte Joy!

The twins have a new sister!!

-4.6

Dance

This is a LO of Corey's nephew Cal and Jessica from Puerto Vallarta last March. So Sweet.

Cats in Boxes

Lazy blogger...but energetic workout girl!

To all my friends and family: I know you've been wondering where I've been for the last week:) I know some of you can't wait to get up in the morning and check my blog:) Well, I've decided to get serious about losing the weight I've put on over the last several years. I've really enjoyed pigging out on lots of pizza, various junk foods and of course my beloved glass of wine at night. Well, no more. I MUST learn to eat properly AND drop 33 pounds. I joined the Elgin gym last month and have stepped up my workouts in the last week. I also started counting calories using the site Calorie Count Plus. Its free and it has a lot of great nutritional info. You'd of thought with a mom like Pat I'd know all this stuff....and guess what? I do! (Thanks Mom) I just needed a big FAT wake up call. And that call was....here it is.....162lbs. Holy crap...I said it for all the world to see. Hopefully writing this will keep me somewhat accountable....well see. In the last week I've quickly dropped 3.6 lbs, so that feels really good....altho its probably just water. I'm not going to get too excited ....I got a LLLLLOOOOONNNNGGGG way to go. I'm going to try and take it off slow so I can learn to eat better and hopefully stick to this new eating regimen for life. Well, wish me luck....I'll try and keep you updated....have a great day, and check out that site if you're wanting to drop a few pounds!

Her Favorite things......

Snow

It snowed a lot over the New Year.

Happy New Year 2008