Basketball smile

Tonight we finished another season of young women stake basketball. 

Even though I am running up and down the court all night pretending like I know how to ref the game, the muscles that hurt the most when I get home each night are my smile muscles.

I have a huge smile on my face the whole time. I love watching the girls have fun, motivate each other, include each other, laugh together, and learn together. And, okay, sometimes I'm laughing at them and not always with them, but its a grand ol' time!

Science Fair Winners

Paige and Ashby entered the school science fair today.
Their question was: "Does adding triangle shapes to a structure make it more stable?"

I told the kids we had to do something simple because we didn't have time for anything spectacular.

We looked through some science books and Paige stopped at a picture of marshmallow construction. Well, that's simple enough - marshmallows and spaghetti noodles. We already had all the materials and it would be fun for the kids to build.

It was fun! The kids built lots of squares and cubes, snapped lots of noodles and ate lots of marshmallows. It was simple, but they got the concept. They also liked searching the web for pictures of cool buildings and bridges that incorporated the concept they had just witnessed.

The judging was today (Wed), we did the project Monday night for FHE and made the poster last night. We kept it pretty low-key. I had thought about skipping out on the science fair this year, but I think its important for them to have these extracurricular activities.

Past years I've gotten to help judge projects and stick around for motivational support. This year I had to drop the kids off early, help them set up, pick up Brian and the little kids, take Brian to work for an early meeting, rush back to the school, pick up Ashby (even though he wasn't quite done with the judging), and hurry to the church so I could unlock the door to start aerobics.

I wasn't sure how the science fair would turn out, but the kids came home from school this afternoon all excited. "We got a gold medal! We won!"

Well, what do you know? I guess simple is better.

Good job Paige and Ashby!

Slip up

I was already self conscience about wearing a black slip under my white skirt today (is that a faux pas?). It's that only slip I have and I was just hoping the skirt was not too see-through.

Well, Cody grabbed the sacrament tray of water cups at just the right (or wrong) second and spilled right on my lap. Who knew a little sacrament cup could hold so much water? It seeped straight through to my black slip.

Progress Report: 4 weeks

Its been four weeks and I've lost 7.5 lbs! 

The first two weeks I lost 7 pounds and that was so exciting. I was hoping it would continue to be that easy and I could just skip to the end. 

Thoughts on my weight loss journey:

• I think its weird to call it a "journey".
• Some people say I'm competitive so it will be easy for me to stay motivated, but I don't see it.
• Fruits and Veggies for breakfast and lunch and then a healthy dinner. 
• Don't take seconds!
• I work so hard during the week and try to be diligent, and then sabotage myself on the weekends. Then I have to start all over the next week. I should probably to something about that.  
•  I love roasted zucchinis.
• Drink 64oz of water each day.
• I think about food constantly. What to eat, what to make, searching recipes, what I can't eat, what I want to eat, what's for dinner, what will I eat tomorrow. Its the first thing I think about in the morning and last thing I'm thinking of as I lay in bed at night. What do I do about that? Addiction recovery program?
• No dessert until Saturday.
• Can it be Saturday already?
• It makes me accountable when I write down what I'm eating. But then Cody through the ipod (my journaling device) into the toilet and it hasn't worked for 2 weeks. :(
• Cereal is my downfall. No cereal for me. *sigh*
• I need a goal deadline.
• Someone should pay for Brian to take me on a romantic get-away - oh, and watch our kids. That would be a good motivational deadline.
• Frustration.
• I heard once to ask yourself, "Are you hungry enough to eat an apple?". I've learned to like apples - until Cody hid my apple slicer. Now apples are too much to work to eat. But we have two bags sitting on the counter. *sigh*
• I love air popped popcorn.
• Maybe if I just sleep all day I won't eat too much.
• If I have the right food available, its better. I don't like running out of bananas. 
• Can I just skip to the end?

Valentine's Day

Some highlights from our Valentine's Day Week...

Preschool was at our house for the letter V and a Valentine's Party.

We made cool swirly hearts using shaving cream and food coloring.

I really loved how this project turned out...

And I think the kids did too. 

 

Stamping heart-shaped toilet paper rolls was a big hit too.

Everyone went home with a valentine for their special someone.

I was trying to not spend money on school valentines this year.

We had some left over candy buttons from Paige's birthday party and so I saw this clever idea online.

The thing about making homemade valentine cards is that it sure takes a long time - especially making 60 of them! We all celebrated when it was over.

 

 I think Valentine's Day was the only day that week that I didn't have to fight Ashby to go to school. 

He had a great time showing off his monster box and delivering valentines. Of course he and Paige came home with quite the loot as well.

Our Valentine's date was spent at the stake center playing basketball with over 20 cute young women. I reffed and Brian kept score and wrangled the kids. I was just impressed that enough girls came to play. I asked them if we should cancel, and they were adamant that we should not. So, I gave up my valentine's night to be with them. (but we all had a really fun time together).

The day was filled with lots of goodies. I made homemade heart-shaped cinnamon rolls for breakfast, and heart-shaped pizza for dinner. I also made Valentine cookie bars to hand out at the YW activity and then Brian and I enjoyed some mushroom crepes and bananas foster crepes. Yum!

Silhouettes

One thing I've been trying to do to help with my weight loss is to simply find some things to keep my hands busy. I've been working on some projects to decorate around the house. I have it all visualized, but putting it together takes more work.

I decided to try my hand at family silhouettes. I've loved seeing them in other homes so, at the risk of following a fad, I figured out how to make them. I'm still figuring out the best place and way to use them in my home, but it was fun to make...and easier than I expected.

The silhouettes always remind me of Disneyland and my mom. All of the kids had their silhouettes cut out at Disneyland at one time or another. But I remember when Tasha and I got ours. We were headed to Disneyland with the school choir and my mom gave us some money with specific instructions to find the silhouette shop and get ours done together.We had a mission and we could not disappoint. Soon our silhouettes were sitting on the shelf next to our brother and sisters.

Oh, speaking of me and Tasha. I had her send me a profile pic so I could compare the two of us. Its so interesting how different identical twins can end up.

Somehow I felt that these Disneyland silhouettes must be very important. So, when Brian and I first made it to Disneyland together I made it a priority. Unfortunately it did not go very well because Brian ended up with, what he called, a melon head. They just forget to ever curve his head down before they placed my cutout next to his. It was disappointing and it never did get displayed.

But now we have new silhouettes with a whole bunch of little ones following behind. Should be fun to work with.

So, if any of you readers want some free silhouettes of your family done, just let me know. It will be good to keep my hands busy.