I’m not including all of the photos that I took this weekend, that would be too many, but here is a good representation of our little roadtrip to visit our friends Andy & Becky Anderson (and family) in Omaha, Nebraska. Friday, the kids were off from school for parent/teacher conferences. I went to Cameron’s Thursday evening (his teacher still just loves him and thinks he’s just the cutest, oh yeah, and very bright!) and Jacob and Elise’s Friday morning first thing. They also received high reviews from their teachers. Since they each had positive conferences, we picked out a few books from the book fair and then hurried home to get on the road. This was the scene in the van: 
When we got to Omaha we stopped at the Henry Doorly Zoo to watch the Imax film “Dolphins and Whales 3D.” 
The film was kind of dissappointing and the kids were restless. Luckily, it was only an hour long, and not far from our final destination. After completely taking over the Anderson’s home, we went out for dinner at a place called the Millard Roadhouse. The food was okay, but the atmosphere worked well for us and our server was very friendly and efficient. After dinner we put the kids to bed and the adults got to play some games. Well, I guess it was only one game, we sat around talking for a while before we got the game started so by the time Becky wiped the floor with the rest of us it was around 1 am and Josh at least had an early morning planned so we decided to call it a night. Saturday morning Josh went to the LDS temple Winter Quarters, in the celestial room he ran into some old acquaintances from Ames. Andy was supposed to take their dog Dakota to obedience training at 11 but decided not to at the last minute so when Josh got home we packed everyone up again and headed to lunch at a place we’d never heard of called Runza. Elise was the only one of our children adventurous enough to order the signature Runza sandwich. 
It was definately a new fast food experience. And since it was a pretty nice day (comparatively) we let the kids play on the playground for a while. 
I say kids, but honestly, I think I was the only one NOT playing, but someone had to take the pictures! 
The play got a little rough between Josh and the older kids. There were a few tears, and this picture was taken just moments before Josh fell off the top of the play equipment while clutching the children! So they all fell, but only Josh hit hard. We were planning on going bowling in the afternoon, but Josh’s injury along with our preference to just sit around and talk and let the kids play with toys etc. kept us home. It was nice to reconnect with old friends, and make some new ones also. 
This is one of the tamer photos I have of Dakota on Josh’s lap. Unfortunately I missed the shot when Dakota had his “arms” around Josh and was licking his ear! They made fast companions and I’m sure Josh will be missed! 
Archive for February, 2008
Well, I didn’t know there was a contest, and I don’t know if there was really any kind of a vote or if someone just arbitrarily picked us, but Josh and I won “Best-Dressed Couple” at the 80’s party tonight.
Our “prize” is a copy of Uncle Buck on dvd.
Thanks to the Thraps for sending us this picture of Josh from Kindergarten. 
Of course several people commented that it looked like we just used a picture of one of our kids! “The genes are strong with this one.”
As a motivational incentive, and to keep it real, my sister has offered to pledge $2 for every pound that I lose between now and my birthday to go towards celebrating the Sweet Sixteen Party. I know that the idea of a pledge system for weight loss motivation is something that Kate and I have discussed in the past, but didn’t really want to bother anyone with. But, now that my sister has come to me with the same idea as a way for her to offer encouragement and support, I decided to mention it here and open the invitation to anyone who may want to “sponsor” me. The more pledges we get, the more incentive to lose the weight and the bigger the celebration may be. There is no pressure from me to join this pledge, but if you do want to, just decide on an amount that you feel comfortable with and let me know. If I do not reach my pledge size of 16 before my birthday, then you don’t pay anything. In order to help you make an informed decision, I estimate that I will need to lose approximately 40 pounds before May 27th to acheive my goal. Thanks again to all of my supporters, both financial and otherwise, I appreciate you!
I’ve heard of extreme diets, but this is ridiculous. For lunch today I got to pretend I was like an archaeologist on an Antarctic dig. First, I “discovered” the frozen “healthy” meal in the freezer. Then I opened the initial site and “secured” the areas. Next, I got to chisel delicately away at the solid layer of ice to reveal the ancient “food” beneath. After trying to restore the food to its edible nature via microwave what I ended up with really was a skeleton of a meal. I almost took a picture of it for you all to see but I figured I’d let you sleep at night. It is frightening. Of course I have guilt issues about wasting food so I am attempting to eat it but it really is almost physically impossible. I guess I’ll have more soup.
Ok, I know I’ve made you all aware of my weight loss struggles, and I haven’t mentioned it on here much lately because I haven’t been doing so well. I lost my drive. Well, for the last two weeks I’ve been really doing poorly, and the scale has been reflecting it, but I have also been trying really hard to figure out how to get back the motivation and determination I had all Fall and even through the holidays. I had made a lot of progress recently and I do NOT want to give up, so here’s what I came up with: A Sweet Sixteen Birthday Party! Yes, I know I’m way too old for that, but I am not refering to the age of 16, but rather the size of 16. Now, I really don’t like to put out there exactly how much I weigh or what size I’m wearing, because frankly, it’s humiliating. But you all know I’m a big girl and honestly, no matter how much weight I lose, by most peoples standards, I will always be a big girl. But I was a size 16 all through high school and most of college–basically from puberty till marriage (with a very short vacation as a size 12!!!) and there is a BIG difference between being a big girl who’s a size 16 and a girl who has reached my impressive girth. So. Although I always hold onto the dream of one day getting back into the size 12s, I believe that I can be happyish with myself as a size 16. 16 is my first BIG goal, and I realize now, for almost the first time in the last DECADE!!! that it is attainable. From the end of October thru about two weeks ago I had lost approximately 30 pounds and dropped 3 jeans sizes and maintained. My birthday is another 3 and a half months away. If I stay focused and get back into my healthier habits, it is POSSIBLE that I could be a solid size 16 by my birthday. That is my new goal. And if I acheive this goal then I want to celebrate big!!! Hence the idea of a sweet sixteen party. Now, obviously losing weight is not going to earn me unlimited funds etc, so I’m not talking about anything like what you might see on those AWFUL reality shows about spoiled little rich girls who have birthdays or get married and spend enough celebrating that they could have bought me a bigger house, but I do plan to indulge a little to have a truly truly truly outrageous time with my loved ones and biggest supporters. Also, by acheiving this goal before my birthday, turning 31 shouldn’t be able to be very depressing. So, feel free to cheer me on here and absolutely keep me accountable. I plan to start working on an actual specific plan for the party soon so that it is real, and once the plans are in the works I can’t easily just back out, so I will HAVE to lose the weight! These are my thoughts anyway. Please feel free to share ANY ideas that might be at all helpful, either for the party, or the weight loss, or food ideas, or money making/saving opportunities for the party, or staving off the blues, etc.
OK, this post has nothing to do with lawsuits or anything like that. Josh’s church is having an 80’s party this weekend and we are to try to dress authentically etc. So this week I’ve been going through some old clothes and pictures and stuff trying to put together our “rad” looks. I’ve got a few authentic 80’s iconic relics, but of course they are WAY too small for me now. The party is for the whole family though, so I am going to have the kids wear some of my old things. Anyway, one of the things I’ve been working on is putting all of my old buttons back on my old jean jacket! I had a great button collection! I remember the first three buttons that I bought said “So Sue Me!” “Chill Out!” and “Homework Causes Zits!” Unfortunately I was never really that into the New Kids On The Block so I never had one of those obnoxiously huge buttons which would be great to have now for the costume, but whatever. I will tell you what I’ve put together so far. For Elena I’m still trying to decide on a look because I have a few great separate peices but they do not go together–a red corduroy Guess brand skirt complete with triangle logo tag on back pocket, a blue and green halter top, or a striped turtleneck with marroon corduroys. No matter what she wears on top, she has a pair of jelly shoes that she found while I was Goodwilling for some 80’s jeans that she just adores and so she’ll have those on her feet. For Cameron, I have a baseball-style shirt and some fitted black Levi’s jeans, some canvas high tops and a puffy yellow life-preserver-esque vest (channeling the Back-To-The_Future look). Fur Elise (teehee), I found a FABULOUS!!! pair of jeans at the Goodwill that basically fit her. I can’t even remember what the wash of the jean would be called, they’re so pale they’re almost white, but not, and they have slits at the bottom of the tapered leg that you’re supposed to tie together with the attatched strips of dyed denim in pink purple and green! She has pink velcro tennis shoes and on top I have a pink and purple Hypercolor shirt that she will wear. I’m also going to try to convince her to let me put her hair up in a side ponytail. For Jacob, I will probably let him wear a t-shirt, maybe a Star Wars one or one with random advertisement writing on it in a smallish size and I’m still deciding on the pants, but he will get to wear my Guess jean jacket and he has his own friendship keychain (courtesy of his friend Michael) to hang from the jacket. I may put his hair into a mohawk and throw a bandana on one of his pant legs too. Josh and I are going back and forth with our own outfits. I thought it would be easy for him to do the Don Johnson look since he already has white pants and a pink shirt, or he could do the white dress shirt tucked into jeans with suspenders and a pink tie, but he isn’t really into it and would rather just wear his Han Solo t-shirt and call it good. Either way, I think he has several options. I, on the other hand, have the opposite problem. I tried bleaching out an old pair of my jeans but nothing happened to them! And I’m afraid that all my flare and bootcut jeans will have too much material to be able to peg them (or French roll, whatever you called it). I do have some Converse tennies with friendship pins on the laces, some purple rubber bangle bracelets and a Swatch watch. Along with my huge earrings and assortment of hairbow barrettes, I think my accessories are taken care of, it’s just the outfit I need to work on. We’re also supposed to bring pictures of ourselves in the 80’s. Of course I have a ton, but I tried to choose one that seemed to show the 80’s fashion (since I was just a kid in the 80’s I didn’t have too many pictures where I was wearing anything terribly stereotypical). Here’s the one I chose: 
And we don’t have any pictures of Josh in the 80’s, so if any of you have one, would you mind emailing us a copy asap? We’d sure appreciate it! I’ll try to get some good pictures of us at the party and post them here later.