Pictures!

Here are the pics finally. Not many but what I remembered to take. I was asked how I lost the weight. I followed the Weight Watchers core plan. Nathan's mom lost all of her weight that way and it was easy to follow since you don't have to count points or calories. I also jogged and worked out on an elliptical. It was hard work but so worth it. Now that the bet is over it's even harder to be motivated but I know I can do it. I use my loose fitting clothes as a motivator now:)

I am not the biggest loser...just a loser!

For the past 5 weeks my mom, Melissa, Trisha, Audra, Rose, and me have been doing a biggest loser challenge. We each put up $100 and the person that lost the biggest percentage of body weight by the end of the 5 weeks got all the money. I worked really, really hard to win this competition but Rose snuck in at the end and took it all. Between the 6 of us we lost a total of 72 pounds. Pretty impressive I think. It was very motivating and fun to do with my family. I still have a ways to go to get to my goal weight but this challenge gave me a great head start. Nathan said it's the best $100 I ever spent. I lost 19 pounds in the challenge but had lost 10 pounds before that when I had the flu. So since the end of January I have lost a total of 29 pounds. That's pretty amazing for me. I still would like to lose at least that much more so I have to stay committed.

Saturday morning, the 4th was the Eric M. Lee memorial 5k run. I had gone 4 miles on the treadmill the night before trying to win the biggest loser challenge so when it came time to "run" the 5k I was a little tired and decided to walk it. It was a beautiful day, albeit a little chilly. We ate breakfast after the 5k and it was delicious...especially since it wasn't on my diet:) A little later, the Bunker's, Lee's, and Taylor's, a long with friends met at the church for Logan's baptism. It was such a wonderful baptism. The spirit was so strong and you just knew Eric and others beyond the veil were there. The talks, musical number, and confirmation were so good. It was awesome.

Unfortunately we had to leave for Logandale right after the baptism so we missed the birthday party. We dropped our kids off at Jared & Jenn's to be watched while we attended the graveside service for Tricia & Jason Wickersham's little baby.(Thanks Jenn for lining up the sitter). For those who don't know, Tricia was expecting twins in June but had a rare condition that required surgery and lots of bed rest. On March 30th during an appointment, the doctor couldn't find the heartbeat to Baby A so they had to deliver her at 29 weeks. Unfortunately Baby A was stillborn. Baby B was born healthy but small. He weighed 2 pounds 1 ounce and was 13 inches. The graveside was very nice. There were a lot of people there to support them. It was good to see all of the family and extended family that we haven't seen for awhile. The next day we went to the hospital to see Baby B who they named Darin Jason. They named Baby A Berkley Elwin. Darin is the cutest, tiniest, little guy I've ever seen. He had his blinders on because he had the light on him so I didn't get a good look at his face but it's just amazing that he is thriving and healthy and so, so small. He's truly a miracle.

All in all it was a good weekend. We saw everyone in both families which doesn't happen often. I have pictures but my camera is in Nathan's truck and he's not here. So I will add them soon.

Coming soon....

I just had to post so that I don't look like such a slacker. I'll have much more to post after this weekend. There are several events taking place on Saturday so I will try to post about it sometime next week. The weather is crazy here. It snows one day and the next it's warm and in the 60's. It's teasing us big time. I'm so ready for spring, but with spring comes people to stay in cabins, and with that comes me cleaning the cabins. I'm looking forward to the business and meeting new people but not the cleaning part. At least I get half the year off:)

The kids have spring break next week and I was going to take the kids to Alamo and the fair for the week and Easter weekend. However, we have people coming to stay in the cabins so I guess no vacation for us. I can't believe it's already April. Time flies so fast. Next school will be a repeat of this school year. I decided not to send Ava to Kindergarten yet. I think she would benefit from having one more preschool year. She's in a familiar setting and I think would be more comfortable staying another year. Besides that, the bus picks up at 7am for kindergarten. That's a little early. William still has 3 more years in preschool. His birthday is in late September so he misses the deadline. Melissa will turn 2 in August so she has another year before she can go. I don't know what I will do when they all 3 go to school. It will be so nice to have even a couple of hours to myself.

Well I will post pictures next week with all the weekend happenings. Until then....

Pictures!

I had to change the background since I'm posting pictures of our cruise. Needless to say I didn't take very many pictures. I'm terrible at that.





These are some pictures Nathan took when we went ice fishing with my dad, Lance, Vernon, Josh, and Brent Lewis. This is at Otter Creek. We went to Piute Resivior the next day. It was so much fun. The weather was awesome!

Released, Cruise, & Sick, sick, sick!!!

It has been quite awhile since I posted. I tried to change the background on my blog and lost some of widgets and whatnot. Instead of fixing it, I left it and am now just getting to it. Before we left on our cruise, I got released as the Primary President in our ward. It was a little bit shocking because usually people are left in their callings for 5 years or so. I guess there are a lot more active women in our ward to extend callings to. The funny thing is that the Bishop called my 2nd counselor that had been in the presidency with me the entire time as the new president. She will do great. She is in trouble though because she called me as a teacher and I was looking forward to going to Relief Society. Oh well, such is life.

On Friday the 23rd of January we dropped our kids off at my mom's. She, Melissa & Trisha so kindly watched them while we went on our cruise. We set sail out of the San Diego port on the 24th. It was us, Jared & Jenn, and Justin & Kerrie. We had a day at sea Sunday, ported in Cabo San Lucas Monday, a day at sea Tuesday, and ported in Ensenada on Wednesday. It was our 3rd time in Ensenada so we knew exactly where we wanted to go to shop; so we did that and then tried a new restaurant. We didn't do much in Cabo except go to the Cabo Wabo and eat. It was good entertainment and food. We cruised Carnival for our first time. I think I was so used to Royal Caribbean that it was hard to get a feel for the Carnival ship. I didn't like the color scheme as well and it wasn't as open feeling as RC. Also, the food wasn't as good to me. The one thing I did like better was the rooms were much bigger, namely the bathrooms, and the beds were more comfortable. All in all, it was a very fun cruise. Good food, good company, good times. I just have to put a thank you shout out to the Wickersham's for letting us take their brand new Expedition so we could all travel together.

Now the worst part of the past few weeks is that when we got to Alamo to pick up the kids, I wasn't feeling so well. I just had a blah feeling. I slept all the way home in the truck and by the time we got in the house I just had to lay down and sleep. The next day, Saturday, only got worse. My head was pounding and I had the chills. By nighttime my head was throbbing...worse than a migraine and I was freezing. I made Nathan take me to the ER because there is nowhere else to go on the weekend. I had a fever of 105 when I got there. They did a bunch of labs on me and finally told me I had Influenza A. I guess it's the worst strain of the flu you can get. They were just going to give me 2 extra strength Tylenol for my head and send me home with some prescriptions. I told them I wasn't leaving without something strong to take away my headache. So they gave me a shot of pain medicine that knocks you out. It didn't knock me out because I could still feel the pain. So they gave me another one. Finally it knocked me out. I was really sick for about 5 days and Nathan caught it midway into me having it. So we took turns taking care of the kids. It was really pathetic and my house really suffered. But now we're all healthy and life is back to as normal as it was before.

Not much else is going on. My kids have been out of school for two weeks so I look forward to sending them back on Monday. Nathan turns 39 on the 17th. Ava just turned 5 on the last day of January. We still haven't celebrated because of all of the sickness so maybe I'll make a cake for her tomorrow and have a little party. Until next time....

Do they make locks for lazy susan's???

I have a lot to post about but I thought I would start with this "little" incident that happened a couple of weeks ago. I was out doing laundry in the garage and when I came in I found my kids like this!



My first reaction was to yell but then I thought it would be good to get the camera and take pictures to remember it...although I don't think I would have forgotten:) Anyhow, I threw them in the tub but didn't get the flour out of their hair good enough before washing it. I had to wash Melissa's hair several times before it all came out. So now I need to know how to lock a lazy susan.

I know it's Christmas time but I had to post this picture of Ava at halloween. Her physical therapist happened to be at school on the day of the party and he got her to stand on her own for this picture.


Since I'm not likely to post again until after christmas...I hope you all have the best christmas yet and a very happy new year. My goal for next year is to post at least once a month:) Hopefully I'll be able to do it.

Slacker!

I feel like such a loser. I haven't posted in a long, long time. I feel like I might be getting as bad as Trisha...well, that's not possible since she hasn't posted in over 2 months! Anyhow, I'm posting now. I wanted to post some halloween pictures but I didn't take any. My sisters took some but I'm still waiting to get them. So maybe by Christmas, I will post halloween pics. We went to Alamo for halloween. My entire family was there. It was so much fun. Ava was a ragdoll, William was Thomas the train, and Melissa was a pumpkin. They were all so cute. It rained but it didn't keep us from trick-or-treating. The kids got so much candy. I still have a huge bowl in my cupboard. I have to hide it or William will eat it until it's gone. He has such a sweet tooth. Our primary program was this past Sunday, the 9th. We had a practice on Friday and by the way it went I was so nervous about Sunday. We had about 24 kids. Only one didn't show up for the program. I don't know what I did to deserve them doing so well on Sunday, but it went perfect. It truly was a miracle. So we rewarded the kids by taking the church's microwave from the kitchen and popping popcorn during sharing time. I also made a cooler of homemade rootbeer. We watched The Legend of Johnny Lingo (well half of it). It was a lot of fun and such a relief to be over. Nathan was called to be the young mens president. He was the first counselor but they released the whole presidency. So now he is the president, the scout master, and the sunday school secretary. He's pretty busy. They also called a new young womens presidency. They took two of my teachers and my activity day leader. So I had to come up with a few names to replace them. Our ward is not your typical ward. There aren't very many active people to choose from and if you don't choose wisely whoever you choose probably won't come. If you do come and do your calling, you never get released. I'm not complaining. I really like my calling.


My friend here gave me a box of apples so I have been bottling apple pie filling. Here's what it looks like. It is so yummy! I was up until 3:30 am finishing it!


Melissa is into making happy faces then sad faces. I took this video on my phone and thought it was pretty funny.