I gotta a haircut!

Um, can you guess which is the before and after pic????

I am so happy!!!!

25 Things about me...

1. I have lived in Texas my whole life.
2. I three kiddoes
3. I home school
4. I have been in a boat with piranha's in the water around me
5. I was induced 5 times with my first born- yes she is her own person
6. my hubbie and I went to high school and church together, we didnt date then!
7. I lost my wedding ring and wear a fake one
8. I have never been stung by a bee, wasp or any flying thing (knock on wood)
9. I worked on the Year book in high school and loved it (dh was on staff with me)
10. I am really, really bad at math and science
11. Yes I still home school
12. That is what I have dh for, he is genius!
13. I really love blogging!
14. I gave my wedding dress away ( I want my girls to pick their own)
15. I went on a lake cruise for my graduation/ non prom thing
16. I was married in Galveston at Moody Gardens
17. I have never smoked, done drugs or gotten drunk
18. I LOVE chocolate with nuts of any kind
19. I love kittens and puppies but not cats or dogs
20. I love to watch penguins and could do it for hours
21. My son is the last of the his Thompson line (he better have a boy)
22. I want braces
23. My dh is the first and only guy I've kissed!
24. My favorite fast food is Chick - fil - a
25. I dont really love reading the classics--I do it because I'm supposed to.

Patience...author unknown

Give me patience when little hands,
Tug at me with small demands,
Give me gentle words and smiling eyes
And keep my lips from sharp replies,
So in years to come when my house is still
Beautiful memories it's rooms may fill.

Pumpkin shot, Pumpkin shot, whereforeoutthou pumpkin shot...

Do you share my love of getting kids pictures taken amidst pumpkins lying in a muddy grassy area next to a busy street just so we can desperately feel "fallish". It is just plain silly! I dont know why I do it every year, but every year I am determined to get the perfect pumpkin patch picture. One year I went back twice, when the first batch didnt turn out - this was pre digital camera. I need a good pumpkin patch picture! It is necessary to my well being as a mother! But the why is what bothers me...and I cannot answer that question!

So yesterday we packed up and headed out, all the way across town to the "local" pumpkin patch! I gave my kids the talk- smile, look my way, move how I ask, look at the camera, be cooperative...it goes on. Than I promised them treats! You know cold hard cash if they would just give me my precious pumpkin picture I so coveted.

But alas, no "PERFECT" picture this year, I got some really cute ones. The kids did try pretty hard to be honest- they squinted and held their hands to their eyes as I moved all around in circles to get the sun behind them...do you know the sun doesnt move during the day but my kids insisted it was coming from all directions! We got together pic and some separate ones. I am happy with them and the more I look through them to find a "perfect" one I disappointed with myself... I wish I was content with my pretty good pictures. It was mentioned that it wasnt understood why I dont find my kids beautiful, all their pictures are beautiful. That is not it, nor is it my intent. Of course I feel all three of my kids are absolutely beautiful and they are beautiful in all these pictures but that isnt what I have issue with. I simply wanted that one perfect shot. Sun blazing down but giving me the perfect light, glancing off their blond hair and perfectly highlighting their beautiful angelic faces. their faces slightly turned upward, each with their eyes trained on the camera - you know the kind of pic where you think you can see what they are thinking... hands folded and in the perfect spot so that everything looks right. Just a perfect shot...but that rarely happens. I know they are kids... I know. What no one unless you feel the same way as me seems to understand is how important pictures are to me! I remember because of pictures, they are like my journal. I love all the funny, crazy ones that remind me they are kids and what they are like in that moment! Those are great! I just everyone once in a while -the photographer inside that desperately wants to come out---sees an opportunity for a perfect shot and I try to take it. Do you know a lot of wedding photographers take thousands of shots to get 20 good ones! The perfect shot is hard, it is almost unattainable but once you get it! You have it forever! It is captured. It is unending. It is perfect. But I love my pumpkin patch pictures and will proudly post them...but in the back of my mind and I am still waiting for that perfect picture! Maybe the camping trip, or Christmas or just a day at the park???

Fitness Friday

I didnt forget, I just simply had no time so I am breaking what I am sure is a bloggy rule and I am writing this on Saturday but going to change the post date in my post options so it will show Friday! But I am admitting what I am doing so I am sure I will be forgiven!


Anyhoo...Fitness Friday

I am doing pretty good actually. I did eat something fried, one eggroll one day and a few seasoned curly fries another day but no guilt! I dont like breaking rules so I will from now on refer to them as diet "guidelines"! I stayed on task other than that. I have definitely lost some weight or at least feel like I have in the -how my jeans feel department- so that is awesome! I bought a new pair of jeans at WALMART, so for any fat (I know that word is not politically correct but lets call it what it is) who has shopped at Target or Walmart know that their "fat" sizes are fake out sizes. A 3x is really like a 2x in a real fat store... So needless to say it has been quite awhile since I have shopped in their clothes departments. Well they have since gotten some new sizes that are larger but until recently I could not even fit into those sizes. Well I did yesterday! I got into a pair of blue jeans from Walmart. This feels to me like triumph!!! BTW I felt the need to stated that is not me in the jeans! It is a walmart model!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Okay onto goals for the week and my diet "guidelines"...

approx 45 carbs a day (not counting some carbs if it like an apple or green beans at dinner.
drink water!!!!!!!! (still not doing this! Have to!)
no desserts even sugar free ones ( for first 6 weeks)
exercises ( still need to work on this)
no fried foods ( will try really hard not to do this but will if I can remain in calorie and carb range or close to it)


Okay for my Fitness Friday post...

What I am snacking on...

I am really trying hard to not do much snacking but when I do snack I get fruit, nuts, cheese. Those are the most common. I have tried to warm up real food as a snack if I was really hungry. I dont have some great new idea for a snack... which I did! I am drinking my diet coke now more for a snack/treat than a beverage all day long. Wow I am a boring snacker!!!

Um I couldnt possibly wait for another Wordless Wednesday, it was to good!

Picture credit

How do you like my new look???

Wow I think Shauna at SeeMyDesigns did a great job! Go check out her other blog makeovers! And she does Christmas cards too!

Okay, in honor of my blog makeover I am giving away a popcorn tub from the Big Popper, a company out of Branson, MO! We found it on vacation there and LOVE it! This popcorn is sooo addicting!

So the winner is...............

Heather at the eo

Heather has two rockin blogs Life is a Highway

and The Extraordinary Ordinary

Go check her out.

Thanks for all who played! Contests are fun so I plan to do more!

I won, I won, I won.....

I entered a raffle at Blah Blah Blog , she had a raffle to earn money for a car repair! With impending car repairs myself I paid the dollar raffle price and entered the contest! I figured if I planted seed money than God would bless us with the money to afford our own car repair. Over a few days I entered the raffle I think 4 times. This contest lasted a long time and I did not go check on it again, just the other day I remembered the contest! Well I won! I am the proud owner of a blog makeover by Seemydesigns.com I am so excited!!!! I was supposed to get a blog makeover from my hubbie for my birthday but Ike busted that idea! So not only did we have the dough to pay for our car repair (which was a transmission) but I won the raffle on top of it all! She got hold of me today and asked me for my ideas and already has my new header put together! Did I say I was excited!!!! So very soon in the future I will unveil a brand new blog! Yeah.

In honor of my blog look I have decided to have a give away! Leave me a comment any time between now and the unveiling and I will put you in a drawing (once for EVERY comment).

The give away is.....drum roll.

A popcorn tin from the big popper! Trust me this is a treat to be reckoned with! It is addicting! In fact if my mil is reading this blog, this prize just might possibly be reason enough for her to figure out how to leave a comment! (hint)

On this day in history...

Although I am grateful to Columbus for his mistaken route and inevitable finding of the wrong "continent", this is not who I am going to recognize today! I am giving props to Al Capone! It was on this day in history that Eliot Ness (although this is not proven, there is a possibility that Ness never even met Capone) got Al Capone on TAX EVASION. I love the 20's! I love gangsters, bootleg liquorr, Tommy guns, mistresses, the "Family", Chicago, pin stripped suits, armored cars! I love it all! I have always felt drawn to it! I love reading about the Valentines Day massacre, thinking about Las Vegas back in 'the day'! So I am going to talk about this day, the day the "man" was taken down, by a pencil pusher!

To be fair Eliot was an awesome man in is own right, he had righteous anger! He really didnt take down Capon, Frank Wilson did. Frank Wilson was a member of what is now called the IRS. During a search of a warehouse a desk with papers were found and Frank came up with mail fraud because they could not nail him on any other conviction! Capone served around 7 years in prison most in them at Alcatraz (which I desperately want to visit!)

Before Capone was imprisoned although he was the leader of this ruthless band of gangsters... considered himself an important part of the community, in fact he considered himself a leader of the community! He opened clinics to help ward off Rickets and during the Great Depression he opened up soup kitchens. His club, The Cotton Club, was visited very often by Bing Crosby. As the years passed by with more and more violence becoming known to the citizens, Capone became less of a celebrated figure and more commonly known as Public Enemy Number 1.

You wonder why I would choose this day in history and his life to celebrate, but its not about being proud of him or what he did or how he acted...its just a fascination with a man and this time period just simply amazes me, it was surreal.

Everything is just a choice...

Do you know what takes up most of our day? Choices. Everything is a choice. What we eat. What we drink. What we do. How we react. Who we call. Who we dont call. What TV we watch. How we handle our children. Where we drive. What we get done. It goes ON and ON...


We are just constantly making decisions, choosing. How do we ever know if we are making a good decision or even the right decision. Do you assume you made the right decision if things turn out okay or good? What if you had made a different decision and things could have turned out even better?

I have said before that there is no right or wrong choice, just a choice. But obviously we make wrong choices ALL the time. I have made millions of bad food choices or I wouldn't be so overweight. I have made tons of bad choices in the raising of my children (hey can I still correct that?) and probably will make tons more. I have made bunches of bad financial choices and am constantly paying for it!

But are they just bad choices or mistakes? What is the difference?

I think the difference is heart. I think the difference is intent. I had a discussion with a relative the other day about our decision to not read certain books or see certain shows. I have such a hard time with this! I mean we havent cut out all books and shows and sometimes our decisions to watch one show or read one book contradicts with our choice to not read a certain book or see a certain show. But my heart to make a good choice for my kids is absolutely at the forefront of my decision. I want to make the best choice. I struggle to make the best choice even though I know sometimes it will be the wrong choice.

So bad choices are inevitable.

The real critical moment comes when it turns out that you made a bad choice, that you deal with it and turn it around.

Yeah it is Fitness Friday

Well I have running around like a chicken with my head cut off, we had a garage sale today, Book club at my house and my kids still got some school done so I am feeling good! On top of all that at lunch time my family (except me) ate McDonald's! ( For all those who havent gotten the message the AFA has ended the ban and McDonald's has made some better business choices! So we rewarded them with our money after over 5 months of not doing business with them! But I was good and did not eat McDonald's! So anyway I did pretty well this week, one night I had the "I wanna eats..." but I banished them with a good food choice!

My goals for this week are as follows:

I will continue with my rules which are

no fried food

approx 45 carbs a day (I am deciding to not count all carbs, some items that are naturally high in carbs but God wants me to eat them like apples, banana's and lentils, I will not count)

No desserts even sugar free for the first 6 weeks

water ( I am just Not doing this but I am counting 4 cups of herbal tea day into my water count! Hey that is the best I'm gonna do folks!)

I would really like my goal this coming week to get out of the house and go to a park or for a walk a least three times! On Wednesday we walked to Walgreens (my reward was a diet coke). The kids after we reached our destination thought it was kindof dumb and asked why we didnt just take the car! Oh well I got a diet coke and I walked really far!

This week's topic was: What are you doing differently at mealtimes?

Well I am eating different foods, I am eating different amounts, I am aware of the foods I am eating and I am trying to not make food the reward!

Alot of times I just have no idea how much food I consume but here is an example.

What I would eat at Taco Bell

Mexican Pizza 213 calories 46 carbs

taquito's 128 calories 37 carbs

sour cream 43 calories 4 carbs

rice and beans 138 calories 19 carbs

large drink no calories or carbs just death in a bottle

Total= 523 calories and 106 carbs

Or what I would eat at Wendys

Chicken sandwich 330 calories and 34 carbs

large fries 550 calories and 73 carbs

large drink no calories or carbs just death in a bottle

Total= 880 calories 107 carbs

So think about that when I tell you I am basically eating around 15-25 carbs a meal!

Now that is doing something different!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pride and explanations

So there was a great post on the Domestic Accident today. She talked about the media's intention to sensationalize the economic crises. She referred to a story that headlined and there are so many others like it. Men killing themselves over losing a house. I saw this headline yesterday and said to my dh how sad that it was that he would kill himself over losing a house. But it isnt just the house that he lost...he lost his pride and apparently that was worth killing himself over? I know that I am not that prideful but look at the history of America and especially the time of the Great Depression, during the market crash men threw them selves off of buildings downtown. It was pride.

How much pride do we really have...

Who can throw the most expensive birthday party for their kid?
Who drives the most expensive car?
Who has the most square foot in their home?

Now most people that I personally hang a round with are not like that, they dont attempt to keep up with the jones'. For the most part anyway or at least not in the excess of hundreds of thousands of dollars!

But yet they are still prideful, it is just in smaller numbers. If you dont have cable you feel like you need to apologize for it. If you dont have a somewhat new vehicle you explain why to everyone. If you dont go on a vacation and a friend does you feel the need to explain why you arent. Why is this? Pride.

We dont try to out do people neccesarily, we just show them we can do it just as well or here is our reason we dont... Always with the explanations. Why do we always feel the need to explain our situation. I personally always feel the need to explain my choices. I rarely can just say we decided blah, blah, blah and leave it at that. Now sometimes a choice basically requires an explanation or you want to give an explanation to describe something but generally the explaination job is to show why we made"x" choice so people will understand and agree with our choice.

Why when I have cable, do I not feel the need to explain my choice to a person without cable? I mean I dont go on and on about why I need to spend the extra money? Technically in truth they are making the better decision for whatever reason they are making it but I dont explain myself to them.

Now if a person is bragging that they dont have cable because of "x" reason I might feel compelled to explain why I do but its not always about pride, it might be about my repuation--I dont want this person to think i have cable for any reason other than Animal Planet and Fox News, or they will think I watch trash! Nope wait, that is pride too!

We all have pride, it is just a matter of how much pride.

But no matter what we own, no matter what choice we make or how much debt we are in (or how much debt we are NOT in)...we should not feel so much pride that we lose hope. We should know that there is nothing material we could ever lose or do without that is worth life.

Praying for my prideful heart today and for the families already in the midst of their own economical crises and that they find the hope of Jesus Christ.

Wordless Wednesday

picture credit

Choice to be joyful...

I understand fully that it is my choice to be joyful.

My choice.

Why oh why is the choice so difficult. Why does it seem easier for some people to make lemonade from lemons than me? I call that choosing joy. I think not being pessimistic is choosing joy. I think laughing at something your child says instead of feeling indignation is choosing joy??? Is it? Is that the same thing? Yes I think sometimes it has to be. I feel that sometimes when the kids say something---even if it seems disrespectful, we should just laugh. I mean we should break the tension, have a good chuckle but of course calmly explain to the child that while this is funny it is also not the best choice of things to say.

I talked with a few friends about raising children and the fact I was learning the lesson of grace in parenting. I have such a hard time with this. I am kindof an all or nothin girl. A rule follower...if you do x, you get x. Why should sometimes they get in trouble and sometimes they see grace? How do you choose? I just know that I want to parent that way, but find it hard to know when I should.

So all this ties in together...I choose joy.

I choose sometimes to simply laugh.
I choose sometimes to discipline.
I choose sometimes to simply use the moment to teach.

I just pray that I will make the right choice with each situation.

How do you parent???

a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day...

I do not know what was wrong today, I know it was equally me and equally the kids though. I yelled the entire school time. I just yelled. I was not angry downstairs, I had a nice lunch and was full. I wasnt generally frustrated or upset, in fact I felt I was slightly cheery. Until we came upstairs.

The second I hit the second floor I could feel it inside of me! The hall was a mess. The kids complained about having to do school (read school like it is the one thing on earth you cant stand!). The school table was not as I left it and that meant I had to find things. The kids brought stuff to the table that wasnt school which meant I had to start the school time with telling them to PUT IT AWAY. On my part, I am trying to use the Homeschool Tracker and you have to set up all these templates, well I didnt do it over the weekend when I should have so I was frustrated with myself. But honestly it was mostly the kids. They just kept doing things we have talked about a 1000 times. Yes I know they were being kids! But I am so tired, I just wish every once in a while they would do NEW things wrong. I mean why the same thing over and over? Be CREATIVE with your disobedience.

Okay sorta flippant there if ya didnt catch on I am not in a good place. I am not blaming this on my diet, I am blaming this on my obvious inability to discipline my children. Something is just not clicking. I dont know what to do but I am tired of yelling, I am tired of feeling like I am yelling, I am tired of repeating myself a million times and I am tired of feeling like such a bad person. I dont want to yell and I am sorry afterward but gee wiz! What's a girl to do!

Of course I just got on to Emily for yelling at Kaitlin, I told her she need to not yell and deal with it differently.

Wow...Kettle. Black. ?????

Okay, so regardless of the kids I yelled and I am responsible for MY reaction. I will pray and do better tomorrow.

Because tomorrow is another day.

Out of the mouth of babes...

So Emily had bag with her stuff in it from a visit with her grandparents. She had it around her neck and this is the conversation...

Dave: Take the bag off your neck, and can I please see it.
Emily: It is my bag.
Dave: I know but there is something of mine and mommies in the bag I need to get out.
Emily: No. It is my stuff.
Dave: Emily hand me the bag so I can get my stuff out.
Emly: No, its my bag.
(scuffle, grabbing for the bag....)
Dave: Emily you need to go upstairs. You cannot act this way.
Emily:(screaming) but its my bag.
Dave: I know but I just wanted to get something out of it and you arent going to act this way.
Emily: I wish I'd never had you.

Laughter errupts.

The agony of relationships...

Who would have thought as a teenager that relationships wouldnt get easier? I mean didnt you think there could be no place on earth or below it that is as bad as ....junior high? I sure did. It.was.agony. I hated it. I finally got to high school and to be honest it wasnt much better. Girls at that age well they suck! and boys well they make better friends but there is the "attraction" thing. Like why can't we just be friends with a boy??? Anyway, middle of tenth grade I packed up my locker, went downstairs to my moms car and told her I was not going back.

I didnt.

Unfortunely I still went to church with all these people so it wasnt like I didnt have to deal with the relationship issue anymore, I did. This problem was slightly compounded by the fact that I missed all the inside stuff. But oh, well, I was satisfied. I eventually started dating my dh and than marriage, babies, etc! I didnt worry about relationships for a while.

So I am now in a place where I feel pretty good about the relationships I have. I have a few really good friends, a lot of people that I love and care about, and people that I deal with and am on friendly terms with. Just the other day I had a friend tell me about a friend problem. So and so was mad or upset at so and so and blah, blah, blah.... I didnt think anything of it at the time but seriously I just didnt realize I would still be doing "this" at my age.

It just occured to me that the people that did this in junior high are now still doing it as grown ups? Some people dont change??? Some people havent matured in their relationships or keep making the same mistake over and over, never learning the lesson.

What relationship lesson have you learned as a grownup?

I am learning one of my greatest lessons which is give the opinion when they ask for it and tread VERY lightly.....be sensitive.

I am a work in progress, but isnt progress the point. Its the journey not destination and all that. I guess I just wish more grownups were on the journey.

Fitness Friday

Okay, a quick recap of how my week went....

To be completely honest, I have to say it was probably my best first week of a diet I have ever had. I had gone to the grocery store, which right off the top is a life saver! I had put down on paper a number of meals I could eat, which right off the top saved me from PANIC. I had determined my *rules* so right off the top I had no excuses! I had let my family know so right off the top I had support. I had posted it on a blog so right off the top I had NO WAY OF BACKING OUT. I mean this isn't just a blog where people are random, I know most of the people who read my blog...they see me! I have to shrink or heads will roll! No really I think it was a good week, I ate all the right foods, in all the right amounts and big drum roll..... I didnt even have a diet coke every day and when I did have one I had...ONE! I am so proud of myself!

My goals were 15 carbs per meal basically which I pretty much stuck to unless the carb was a fruit and actually God made it to go in my body! I had another goal of drinking water which didnt go that great but I sure drank a whole heck of a lot more than usual and less DIET coke! I had another goal of no dessert which surprisingly went fine. I WAS fine! I didnt die without dessert! Yeah. MY last goal was to excersise which did not happen as much as it should have but I am working on it!

So all in all I think I did great!

I am doing a Mr. Linky thing with Brenda at the Family Revised! We are braving the losing weight thing together! So our topic for Fitness Friday is....

I cant wait till.......................

I can walk into ANY store and look at an item of clothing that I could choose to try on!
I can not worry about signing up for the Women of Faith Conference for fear I wont fit in the chairs at the Toyota Center!
I can look at food without it being so important to me!
I can fit into a lower size, at this point one size at a time!
I can walk up a flight of stairs without practically have a seizure (well I dont right now but it is hard!!!!!!!)
I can just plain feel better......

Two bugs...

I think I got a bug, well two actually, one that no one else wants and the other that actually no one else wants!

The first bug, I dont know where I got it and I hope not to pass it on! The second bug I got from Brenda at The Family Revised , she posted a few days ago about passing on a very bad habit to one of her daughters... it was rearranging! I know really bad habit! My husband hates it but I havent done it for a while, well not since the school room a month and a half ago anyway! But today during the course of my bugs I spent time in the restroom and my own room! There isnt much room in my room so rearranging is minimal but I moved the bed. DH probably will not like it but we will find out in about an hour and 12 minutes assuming he is home on time! We are no longer facing the TV. So I am hoping we will watch less of it because we have to turn to watch it... I will let you know how that works, I dont have much hope for it! I cleaned out drawers and my closet. I have a pile of dirty clothes, a pile of garage sale, a very large bag full of trash and a very good idea of how few clothes my hubbie and I really do own!
We shall work on that, but I will wait for a while! hint hint, hoping to drop some pounds!

So the first thing you see when you walk in my room is the bed which I plan to start making EVERYDAY! But it's ugly! I guess I need a bed ruffle? If anyone has any tips on making it stay on please pass it on! I would like to put my pictures on the wall but dont want to bother painting. I know I should but, yuck, I hate painting. I will try to work up to just doing it!

So anyway, I hope I don't pass either bug on but if your room needs a change than I hope you catch the rearranging one!

A relaxed walk...

A few days ago we spontaneously went to the park---if you know me at all that's a big deal! Anyway, we had a lot of fun, the kids ran, picked up sticks, threw stuff in the water, breathed fresh air, and got all dirty!!!! All in all a good day at the park! I walked (trailed after the kids) for 3 quarters of a mile. Which if you know me at all that's a big deal!