Wordless Wednesday - Janna's Wedding

My handsome boy in a tux!

Mr. and Mrs. Thornhill

Ethan had a blast with the flower girl

Shakin' it on the dance floor

Janna with the cute kids

Presenting the rings for a blessing

Coming over the bridge

I got the rings!

Janna and her dad

Y3W - Wedding This Weekend

This is a picture of my beautiful cousin Janna. This weekend is her wedding and I am so excited to see her get married. Janna and I were like sisters growing up. I am seven years older than she is and before she was born I was the only granddaughter. Needless to say, I did not like her when she was born. I liked being the only girl and getting all that type of attention. I used to walk past her in the playpen and push her down if she was standing up. I am not saying I am proud of this action I took but that was life when we were little. Since I was older than she was I babysat her a lot. We did all kinds of things together. I taught her to swim. I dressed her up with big hair and make-up (hey, it was the 80's) and took her to the mall with my friends. All of my memories of us growing up are good, I am not sure if her memories are as good since I was a bossy older cousin babysitter. Now that we are adults, I am so glad she is my cousin. She is a wonderful person. She was the Maid of Honor in my wedding and I am glad she was by my

side. 

Janna & Chris at her graduation

 This year has been big for Janna. In May she graduated from college with her degree in Psychology, thank goodness cause our family is CRAZY and we need all the free help we can get!! This weekend, she is getting married to a wonderful man named Chris. This Sunday Janna and Chris will be getting married and our whole family is so excited for them. I am excited that they picked my son to be the ring bearer in their wedding. Ethan adores Janna and Chris and is excited to be part of their big day. Love you both and can't wait to see you begin your new life!!

What are Your 3 Words?

Wordless Wednesday - Fall Must Haves!!

Every Season Needs A Great Purse

Must Have These Boots!!

I Adore This Outfit!!

I Am Always Excited For These To Come Back!!!

If you like what I do....check out these great blogs!!

Weekend Craziness!!

I know we all have difficult days with our children, but this past weekend was especially hard for my son and I. Saturday he had a birthday party, which is always a difficult day for more than one reason, and he was a bit hopped up on sugar and had a hard time controlling is behavior. When days like that happen, we tend to fight a lot. Mostly we fight because he decides he does not need to listen and that is never acceptable in our house. Sunday was also difficult, starting with church. Usually during our church services the children go to their own program called Worship and Wonder and during the month of August this program takes a break (mostly to give the leaders of that program a much needed break) and our children are left to be in church service with us. Since my son is not used to this and does not always do well with changes in his routine (he has often been called Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory show, check it out and see how my son will be when he is older) he has a hard time controlling his behavior in church. The rest of the day kind of went down hill from there until bedtime. 

On days like this I often sit back and try to figure out where I went wrong during the day. This is very hard for me since in my mind I am NEVER wrong. These days I often feel as if I have failed my son somewhere in the day.  I know that rationally this is not all my fault, but I also know that part of the issue is how I react to my child's behavior. I have read books, articles and other people's blogs looking for answers to my woes. There is one thing that is true everyday, it is not easy to change anyone's behavior, especially my own. I will be the first person to tell you that I am not a perfect parent and I often get very frustrated with my child. I also wear my emotions on my sleeve and he knows exactly how I am feeling at any given time. I think he often sees that and plays me. This will then make the frustration worse. I am still working on this and when we are by ourselves life is much easier, when we are around other people he really amps it up a notch and knows how to throw me into a tailspin.  

Thank goodness I love him dearly!! I am sure that is why God makes babies so cute and makes us instantly fall in love with them. Children as such a blessing and such a pain in the ass all wrapped in a cute, cuddly, loving package. 

McFatty Monday Update

The last two weeks has been quite a journey. Not only am I still working on my weight loss journey, but life has gotten in my way! Most of you know that my son has started Kindergarten, if you missed that post you can read it here. We are now adjusting to a new schedule and the things that suffered the most were my eating habits and my workouts. So here is how it has gone down: Workouts have all but gone out the door for the last two weeks but I now have a plan to get them back in the schedule. The eating habits have suffered because I have not been planning my meals out very well, especially at night. During the summer, Ethan was able to go to bed later than now so I had more time for dinner and did not have to plan out so much. Now I will have to put just as much time into planning my dinners as I do for my lunches. 

Last week I did not lose or gain weight so I am considering that a good week with all the stress I had in my schedule. I am actually looking forward to adding back in my workout time because there is a lot of stress I need to get out of my body and I might as well pour it all into the workout. You have just witnessed history......that was the first time in my life I expressed an interest in working out....hence the weight problem!!

I hope everyone has a wonderful week and be sure to take the advice that is at the top of this post.

Thursday Thoughts

Ok, so my son started kindergarten last week and while looking over his school calendar I am dumbfounded by the amount of days off of school kids these days get. I am not here today to boast about how hard I had it as a kid, you know all the stories....When I was a kid I had to walk to school, up hill both ways in two feet of snow. But, I must say, I did have to be at school way more than kids today. 

So next week my son has two days off after being in school for all of eight days. This creates a huge burden for families like our that have two working parents. We have enrolled Ethan in the after school program at his school and they have child care on most days when school is out, BUT you have to pay A LOT of money to send your kid there all day. I know he will have a blast and he is looking forward to being there but I am having heart palpitations thinking about the cost. 

The other beef I am having with the school right now also has to do with money. The first week of school Ethan was sent home with three requests for money. They are all legitimate requests but it seems they are all needed within a week. Maybe next year on the school supply list they should put, be sure to take out a loan to pay for all the stuff you will be asked for the first week of school and the childcare for all the days your child will NOT be in school!!!

Wordless Wednesday - Why I Live In Colorado

He Loves the Mountains

Great Mountain Lakes

Beautiful Vista

Trail Ridge Road

Love this spot

Great Sunset

Rocky Mountain National Park

Cute and Snuggly

 

Best Part of Colorado!!

No Recess For Some

There was an article on MSNBC this weekend about how some school districts are cutting down or even cutting out recess for kids in school. You can read the full article here. It is so sad to think that schools are under so much pressure to perform that they are forgetting their main focus....the kids! I for one am a huge believer in recess for children in elementary school. My son who just started kindergarten would not be a happy camper if he was in class all day with no outdoor play. Since we live in Colorado, the kids play outside most days. In fact at his school, the temp has to be below 20 degrees before they play inside. I love this policy! My son is a kid that really needs to get outside each day and run off some energy. I can't imagine our drive home, even when he was in preschool and at the babysitter's house, and not asking him what games he played outside that day. This is a huge place for him to play out his imagination. He comes home with so many stories about what he and his friends played that day, along with what he did in class too. 

I have to say that this year Ethan is blessed to be in a school that values play time outside. Each day he gets a morning recess, some recess time after lunch and an afternoon recess. He does go to after school care at his school but the first thing they do when the begin that time is have some free play time, most of the time in the gym since there are still other kids milling around the playground. I am sure this is helpful for not only the kids to get the wiggles out but for the teachers running the classes and programs to help focus the kids on the tasks they need to accomplish. Ethan's school also makes sure that all the classes get to go to P.E. twice a week and I am so grateful for that as well. With the fact that my hubby and I both have to work full time and Ethan has care after school, there are some days with very little time to play outside when we get home. I can only hope that this policy at his school remains in effect through his tenure because I would be so sad to see the schools cut things like this since they have already had to cut other programs. One great website you can also go to and get great ideas on how to make sure your kids grow up healthy is Michele Obama's Let's Move that can be found here. 

McFatty Monday Update

It seems that my tag word "Cake" from last week carried over into this week. I think I am officially done with cake until my cousin's wedding at the end of this month. What a relief, Cake is my biggest weakness in life. With all the cake I have consumed lately, I still managed to lose weight this week. I lost 1/2 pound which I was proud of due to my food intake. I have to say that I do so much better when I am at work. I only pack the food I am allowing myself that day and I don't take cash with me, this way I stay away from the vending machine. When I am at home, especially with Ethan, I tend to snack much more. Ethan loves to snack and there are so many more choices in our house than I actually allow myself at work. I used to stock my desk with whole boxes of snacks  and now I leave them at home and only take the ones I will eat that day. 

The website I posted above is a new one from the USDA. This is the new way they want people to think about their food instead of the food pyramid. This is a new fantastic way for everyone to visualize their plate when fixing a meal. I have admit, my plate does not look like this each meal. I doubt there are many people out there who can say they make their plate look like this each time. I do have to say I am proud that the one thing I am sure to get in each day are my whole grains and my fruits and veggies. I never have a problem getting in the grains because that is my favorite food group. 

Hi my name is Jennifer, and I am addicted to BREAD!!

Fruits and veggies are another one of my favorite groups and lucky for me, a lot of the fruit and veggies on the Weight Watchers plan are zero points plus. This is one of the ways I fill my meals and my belly up each day. Protein and dairy are the ones I have to work on fitting into my points better each day. It is not that I don't like these groups, there is not a group I don't like hence the extra weight, but they take up so much more of my daily points plus and there are days I don't always fit them in the way I need to. I do have to say, if any one of you are looking for a wonderful program to help lose weight, Weight Watchers happens to be great! I don't feel hungry or dis-satisfied, most days. There are the days I am dis-satisfied because I only want to eat crap food that day and I force myself to stay on program. Those days I am not dis-satisfied with the program but with myself. 

This weight loss journey continues to be difficult. But each time I have a victory, no matter how large or small, I feel so much better about myself. I am proud of each and every pound, half pound and even quarter pound I have lost. I am glad I can share this journey with each of you who read every Monday. Have a happy and healthy week!!

First Day of Kindergarten

Looking nervous on first day

Today was a HUGE day in our household. It was Ethan's first day of Kindergarten. Last year he went to Preschool and I did really well sending him there. However, this morning was hard for me. I think the difference for me was at his Preschool it was only preschool kids. There did not seem to be much of a threat from 3-5 year-old kids. But this year is different, he is in Elementary School. His school is K-6th and I think that made me realize he is really in a big kid school! 

He was so ready to start school. We have spent several weeks shopping for the perfect backpack, lunchbox and all the required school supplies. Yesterday we went to his school for an orientation with his teacher and walked around to see where some of the things in the school are located.  Last night he had a hard time going to sleep because he was just so excited to begin school.

This morning he woke up with the first bit of light that came into his room. Usually I have to remind him to go use the potty, but this morning he went right there and also decided he wanted to also brush his teeth while in there. I got up just in time to tell him that he needed to eat breakfast before he brushed his teeth. Once we got to the school, we took the pictures that all parents take on first day of school and went down to line up for his class. Once his teacher came out to get his class, he began to walk away, with out hugging or kissing us. We had to call to him and ask for hugs and kisses and he obliged. He could not understand why I had tears in my eyes. There he went, off to "big kid" school. I cried all the way back to the car, my hubby kept snickering at me while I was crying.  This has been such a big milestone in our family and now we are just praying we all get acclimated to the new schedule quickly, for all of our sanity! 

Full Outfit in front of Kindergarten Playground

The backpack - it took so long to find this!

McFatty Monday Update

This week can be summed up by one word....CAKE!!!! Here is how it all went down.....Monday - I had cake at work for a celebration of co-workers's birthdays. The rest of the work week I did pretty good. Saturday - went to WW and weighed in, lost 1.4 pounds - YAY!! Then had a birthday party for a friend that night, had party food and cake. Sunday - went to my cousin's bridal shower - had party food and cake. WOW - 3 days of cake in one 7-day period is the most I have had since I began WW. 

I am still on track with my Jillian Michael's workout. I did take the weekend off because my body hurt and I needed a break. I will begin this workout again today and continue it through the week. At the end of the week I will see how my body feels and decide then whether I will do this on the weekend. The great thing is, I don't have any parties this week or any reason to celebrate with CAKE! I hope you all have a wonderful week!!

Thursday Thoughts...

I don't usually like to come on here and bash others or their lifestyles....BUT...yesterday I was very disturbed by a few blogs I read. They are not blogs I usually read, one was emailed to me by another shocked friend and the others were linked to this blog. The basic topic of these blogs yesterday was....."How women can make themselves more attractive to keep their man happy."  They were talking about how they should not wear what is comfortable to them while in bed because their husband may not find it attractive. And they were not talking about times when they would be having relations with their husband; they were talking about every night sleeping. Another blog was talking about how her husband was making comments about how she does not shave her legs as much anymore and she was going to try harder to make sure her legs were smooth for her husband.

Now I am not a huge Women's Liberation person but I have to page homage to those women who paved the way for me.  I am not trying to say we should all wear horrible clothes to bed and run around with hairy legs, but shouldn't these be things we do for ourselves? When I do great things for myself, like shave my legs, paint my nails or wear cute clothes, it makes me feel cute and sexy and that makes me more attractive to my husband. 

I also think the door has to swing both ways.  Men have to remember to do the same things. They have to remember that when they feel good they look good to us! I think my point is that a couple has to be sure to have mutual respect for the other. Marriage is hard work but has to be done equally on both ends. One person can’t carry the load while the other reaps the rewards. My husband and I have a great balance in our marriage. There are times when one person is having a weak time in life and the other picks up to be the strong one and vice versa. Let’s not revert back to the “Leave it to Beaver” age where the woman was just there to please her husband. That way of life does not benefit anyone in the end.

Respect yourself and others will respect you!!

 

McFatty Monday Update - Late Entry

So, I was not going to blog today because I have not been the best WW person lately. I ended up skipping the meeting on Saturday because my schedule lately has made me exhausted and I really needed to sleep for fear of becoming a zombie! I realized that I can't skip weeks, I allowed myself to basically slack off. Now that I have slacked off enough I am going to challenge myself to complete the 30-day Shred DVD by Jillian Michaels. I am going to do this DVD every day on level 1 for 30-days. I hope that I like the results so much that I will continue on to 30-days of each level 2 and 3. I am not going to lie, this DVD kicked my ass tonight. I know that it will probably kick my ass the rest of this week but I am willing to blast through it because I will never change my body if I don't move it. 

I want to leave everyone with a little saying that is getting me through this hard journey and hope that it also speaks to you in some way. I hope everyone has a great week!!