It's been a while

I haven't been blogging lately and I don't know how much more I will. I am always thinking about things that I would love to blog about but when I have the chance to blog the thoughts aren't there. I seem to always have the beginnings of something in my head but I never seem to have the time to follow through. Sometimes I think it is because I read so many other blogs that sound so good and seem like the person has put so much thought into what they are saying and I don't feel like I am that great. I know that shouldn't matter and really who is reading this blog anyway. It's not like I have this huge blog following or anything. I have never really kept up with my blog and had any real theme to it. I guess it really is just random thoughts. That being said now I guess I will move on.
I recently rejoined Weight Watchers. I did this a little over 4 weeks ago. We finally had the money for me to go back. I think for me I just need to accountability and the knowing that I am paying for this and I want to do well. Some background-- In January 2006 I did Weight Watchers (WW) online for 6 months. Now here comes the scary honest part, when I first started then I weighed 267 pounds. This was about 6 months after I had Sophie. I lost a little over 35 pounds in the 6 months and kind of kept trying but didn't loose much more. As I reached the end of 2006 and got through the holidays I was back to 238. That is what finally got me to join WW in February 2007. I was so scared that first meeting, but then I made some friends and started talking more during the meetings. I met Alice who is a 60 something year old single mom of 4. I love Alice. She started out weighing just over 400 pounds. She has lost now over 125 pounds. We attended the Monday night meeting together for over a year. Then last March Justin lost his job and WW was something we had to cut from our budget. My last weigh in was on April 14, 2008 and I was 158.8. I was .2 away from having lost 80 pounds total. I really wanted to continue and thought I could on my own. It was hard and I was under a ton of stress and lots of life changes. In the end I don't think I did too bad. When I went back to WW four weeks ago I weighed in at 164.8. No I wasn't not thrilled with that but it could have been much worse. I have lost 6.6 pounds since going back. I only have 18.2 pounds left to get to my goal. As I look back over the last 3 years I have lost almost 110 pounds. It has taken me a long time but I know that it will not come back. I have changed so much of what I eat, why I eat and have added exercise to my life at least 5 days a week. I feel better about me and that is all that matters. I also thank God each day for His help and strength. I could not have done what I have without my heavenly Father with me each step. In my happiness and my disappointments he has been there for me. He will be with me when I reach my final goal. I hope you will be with me too.
Well this post kind of went in a different direction than I thought oringially but maybe this is what I was supposed to write about tonight. I want to keep this blog up so maybe I will keep trying.

SNOW!

Normally I love snow. I love playing in it with the kids. I enjoy the extra time I get with them because of snow days. The thing I hate about the snow and ice is that we always loose electricity. Usually not for long but we do. This time though I have just had enough. We lost power yesterday around 11am and still have none. The kids and I left and went to my parents aound 5:30 last night. Justin got home from work and hooked up a borrowed generator to our fridge and a space heater we have. He had to unplug it all this morning when he left but it was 56 in the house so I really don't think I will loose much food. Our street was the only one left in the neighborhood without power last night. It wouldn't even be so bad if I had't had to deal with this back in Septmeber when we had a terrible wind storm from hurrican ike. We were without power then for 6 days but it was nice out then. I just want things back to normal. The kids have been off school since tuesday, and we have had a lot of fun together. I can into work today but just for a little while. I just want to be able to go back to my house and enjoy this time in my house with the kids. Get things done around the house and relax. Oh well, I will stop complaining now.

Time for a break

Something that our church does and I am sure many do at this time of year is have a congragational meeting with annual reports from many of the different ministries of the church. For the last four years that I have worked here I have put these together. Usually I am frantic come this week because I have to put together 75 booklets with reports from 15 different people. This really isn't that bad but getting the reports from people on time is really hard. Usually I am waiting on a couple till mid week and then have only 2 days to get them finished. This year really isn't too different. I am still waiting on 2 reports but I have all the others. I needed to take a break from looking at all the different reports. I have a couple that I have to retype because some people still don't understand how to use a computer or how to use email. It doesn't really bother me it's just busy work. Honestly I think my problem is that I'm bored. It really isn't that hard and I am getting a little bored with it all. I recently redid our Sunday bulletin/program. I made it into a tri-fold and changed the way some of it looks. The original format I have changed a little over the years but for the most part is the same as when I was a kid growing up in this church. I have to say I have gotten a really good response from everyone. I expected to hear some complaints because it is new and different and smaller. I have to use 81/2 x 11 paper because that is what my folding machine will fold. I can't use and bigger. I still put and insert in because there isn't enough room for the sermon notes. But i have gone from 2 pages on inserts to just one and the look is much better. I feel like I finally created something different and not just changed up some of the format that we had.
Who knows maybe it is just because of the weather and all that I am feeling a little bored with all this. I do love my job and I love interacting with everyone here. The church is slowly changing and more of the older people who have done everything for so long are now allowing younger people to step in and are accepting the changes that are being made.
We are holding a big Women's Ministry event on February 5. We've had a few women who don't understand why we need this but so far most have responded well. I am part of the leadership team for this which has been kind of fun. I am also going to be offering a new study that I will be leading which is a big step for me. It is something that I have really felt called to do for a while now and I am going to give it a try. I will let you know more about this as soon as I see what happens with it.
I hope to find out today if I get to go computer shopping. I mentioned to one of the men in our church who just happends to be a board member that I would love to have a laptop. I don't need one but I have to say that it would be helpful. They talked about it at the meeting last month and I really didn't think I would get a yes answer because of money issues and such. They came back and we talked a little more about why a laptop will be useful to me. Dve, my boss told me to look up what I wanted and how much it would cost and give it to him and he would present it to the board. They met last night so hopefully today I will know what is up.
Well I guess I had a lot more in my head to get out than I thought. I really didn't mean to go on like this. Oh well.

What a mess

Right now we are having the carpet replaced at home. Well atleast I hope that that is what they are doing since I am not there to watch. Last night we moved most of the furniture out of our bedroom and the kids two bedrooms. So right now there is a ton of crap sitting in my living room. Who knew we could fit so much stuff in 3 small bedrooms. Tomorrow they will put new carpet in downstairs. This is something that we have wanted for a very long time. I just never thought about what a mess it would make in the process. For the past two weeks Justin and his brother have also been putting in new laminate wood floor in our livingroom, dinning room and kitchen area. This project has lasted longer than I really had hoped. It too has created a mess. Now with Christmas just a week away I am hoping that things will get finished and the house can get put back together. I will admit I am not always the greatest housekeeper, but I hate for things to be really out of place, especially in the living room. We only have so much space and when too many things are out of place the house feels like its a mess, so I always try hard to atleast keep things picked up. I am hoping to find the time to get everything put back together before I go crazy. We have so much going on and I still have to finish my Christmas cards (actually start them) and find some time to finish up my shopping without having to take the child who I need to get the gifts for with me.

Well now that I have gotten all of that out. I must get back to work. I will post pictures once the floors are all finished.

Family Pictures

This year because of budget limits I thought that I would have my sister-in-law take some pictures of Justin and the kids and me and I would choose one to use for our Chirstmas Cards. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be but we did get a picture we can use. Sophie who is very much a little firecracker and loves to cause trouble was trying to make funny faces during most of the pictures.

I love pictures like this though because you can really see the kids personallities come through. Kaleb is a little more reserved, Abbie is a little goofy and Sophie just likes center stage. I still need to get the Christmas cards together. Hopefully that will happen this week. I have a sick Kaleb with me today at work. He actually seems to be doing much better than he was at 1:45 this morning. He is currently down in one of the classrooms here at the church watching a movie and making a book. He is really such a great little boy. I just hope the rest of today goes as well as it has so far.