Weigh in February 27th

My weigh in was fabulous yesterday. I'm down another 2.2 pounds for a running total of 22.2 pounds lost so far. Just under 8 pounds to where I was a year ago, and then to make progress from there....

What I did different this week - I exercised more, a lot more. I had a bad time with my eating and bingeing that I pretty much had to work out more in order to keep from gaining weight. So far, the past couple of days I have gotten myself back into my regular routine.

Stephen - I miss him. I think I say that every time, but it still holds just as true today as it has every other day. His presence is sensed, and missed. My husband had a break down last night, for me it was the night before. I was working on this week's scrapbooking challenge layout and ran across a picture that really got me. It was from his twelfth birthday. Oh the memories. He got his "stereo". I had also gotten him a couple of Cd's of his own since he didn't have any yet. Well, not having much of a clue, I bought him a South Park CD, thinking that he would really like it. So, when my husband called for me to come upstairs and listen to it, I was shocked to say the least. And it has to be bad for my husband even to think it is inappropriate. So we listened to snippets of it, I explained to Stephen he couldn't have the CD even though I had just given it to him, but I would replace it with two Cd's of his choice just as soon as we went to the store. In the end, he came out better.

Thoughts -  it's too cold. I've been quite tired. I was nervous yesterday about something involving work. Today I found out I was nervous for no reason. Husband and I had a minor spat last night. I'm looking forward to having the entire weekend off.

Here is a sneak preview of the layout I am currently working on, it's definitely a work in progress. The finished layout should be up by tomorrow evening.

She Has THE DRESS

After shopping with my friend, Crystal, and her mother - sister - and soon to be stepdaughter, I can say, she found "The Dress". The dress is quite stunning on her, and to think she almost didn't try it because she didn't like it on the hanger. I convinced her to try it on anyhow, sometimes things look completely different on the hangers than they do on a person. I am glad she listened. She will be a stunning bride. And it really didn't take all that long for her to decide on a dress. It was much quicker than with Kristin.  Next stop - flowers & decorations. This next Sunday we go to conquer that one, at least a bit of it.

My diet just went to heck and back. I'm out of weekly points, I've used some of my activity points. I will have to continue to work out if I'm going t be able to eat. Boy am I tired today. I went to bed relatively early last night. My eyes are so heavy today. I still think grownups should have naptime too!!

Diet Fail

Wow, what an epic "bad" weekend it has been. My eating got out of control Friday, Saturday, and already part of today. Friday I let myself get too hungry, that triggered eating too much, bad choices. Then later I was upset with my husband, again eating and bad choices. Then we went out on Saturday. I was craving Dickey's, so that's where we went. I used up all of my daily points as well as some weekly points on their smallest brisket sandwich and the small potatoes and mac & cheese. Crazy! Then last night I made better choices, but thanks to my earlier meal, everything I ate just compounded the daily disaster. Today, I had breakfast like I should. But I got so very, very tired. And thus I've inhaled a package of Little Debbie Nutty Bars, a Little Debbie Brownie, and a package of Cheez-Its. It's nearly 2 hours yet until lunch time!! Oh good Lord stop me before I fall headfirst into the pit.

One Last One Real Quick Tonight

I'm going to add one last entry before I close out for the night. This layout is of the Rich & Opfer families. Most of the photos were taken in the 80's to early 90's. Many of the people pictured are no longer with us. Enjoy!

Left Page, L-R, Top Row,Herbert Opfer, Edna Wurst Opfer, Ross-Dale-Herbert-Kurt, Louis Rich, Norena Epke Rich. Bottom Row, Edna, Herbert, Stephen-Norena-Louis, Ross-Linda-Kurt-Dawn, Norena, Louis
Right Page, Top photo Edna, Ross, Krisitn, Linda, Stpehen, Norena, Dawn, Dale, Pat, Louis, Kurt. Bottom photo, Jean Opfer Janzen-Herbert-Dale. Top to bottom, Patricia Ann Rich Opfer, Dale, Ross, Dale, Pat

Alea Is Three

While I"m at it, I have two layouts from Alea's birthday party last November. She had a great party - her parents got her a bouncy house, and all her friends and cousins came to share the day and play. It was a lot of fun for all the little kiddos.

Club Scrap Boot Camp Week 2, Torn Paper

This weeks theme for the challenge is torn paper. I've gotta tell you, the ClubScrap paper is very difficult to tear. It is some really strong paper. In this layout, all of the paper except for the pink is ClubScrap paper. I ended up having to pull some lighter weight paper from my stash to finish the layout. I added the photos before entering only because I thought it would  look stupid with two empty pink circles. The stamps and stencils used are from ClubScrap as well. The papers and stamps came from the Spring 2013 kit. This layout took me longer than last weeks. Tearing paper and making it look good isn't as easy as you might think!!
Wish me luck!!

AWOL this past week

Crazy, but for some reason I always ran out of time before I got here. This week was full of ups and downs. I was a little nervous about weigh in, but did feel that it would go well. Which, it did. I lost 3 pounds as of Thursday's weigh-in. That brings me to a total loss of 19.8. Not quite 20, hopefully next week I'll hit that mark.
One change I did make was exercise. I either walked on the treadmill or rode the stationary bike every night that I went straight home from work. If I have to stop anywhere, I didn't work out. So, that means, tonight it's back on the treadmill!  My knees didn't hurt as bad as I anticipated, which is a good thing.
My treadmill went crazy the last time I used it. All of a sudden the display started doing things, flickering, numbers changing, and the speed of the belt fluctuated (on it's own). I have to say, I honestly have not tried to tackle it since then, I was on the bike the rest of the week. I'm going to give it another try tonight. I hope it behaves.
My eating is in the high point range this weekend. We had biscuits and gravy yesterday (leftover for lunch today, too). I thought the stats would come out better than they did since we used turkey sausage, 1% milk, and low fat biscuits. Even so, the end result was 11 points. Wow. But, it was a delicious 11 points. Today when I have that for lunch, that will be the only leftovers. So back to other foods. We also made a lasagna last night. Kurt found a recipe for "pizza lasagna". From what I can tell, it's lasagna - but with pepperoni (turkey of course) and mushrooms. It was very tasty. Mmmm...........
My husband has lost his first 20 pounds. Yay, way to go Kurt!!
Feelings & emotions: Tired, enthusiastic, I can do this, empowered
Thoughts: Stephen is cheering me on from up above.

Christmas Layout

I finished this layout of the kids' Christmas a couple nights ago. Finally got it photographed today. What do you think?? I want to add the year in white lettering on the left top corner of the right page, but I am unsure of the date. I THINK it was 1999. But I'm not 100%v sure and I don't want to "commit" to it until I am sure. Enjoy!

My Entry

Well, I did it, my very first entry into a scrapbooking contest. I hope my entry at least fits in!! Wish me luck.

My First Entry, Club Scrap ALSB Boot Camp

02/10/14 Scrapbook.com Challenge

I almost have my layout finished for this weeks ClubScrap's ALSB challenge. This week it is featuring metallics. I don't have much as far a metallic papers go, so I am using embossing powders and brads to add the metallic elements. I have the layout finished. All I have left to do is put the brads in, then photograph it. We'll see how good I am :)

Eating is going good so far today, and it was good yesterday. I even cooked for  myself since hubby wasn't home. I tried out the new 9.5" wok. Wowza, that thing really heats up. I got it a little too hot - but considering how rusty I am, my dinner was dang good. I had stir fried chicken and broccoli slaw with some brown rice. Today so far I had my usual egg sandwich (1 egg, 2 pc light bread, 1 tb light butter = 6pts), for lunch I had WW Chicken Quesadilla with 2/3 cup peas - I sprinkled a wee bit of Parmesan on the peas. I attempted to eat my sliced apples for a snack - but I couldn't stop thinking I could taste mold. They weren't spoiled, but I kept getting that weird feeling, so I threw the entire package away. So, to replace it, I ate 2/3 cup peaches canned in water (NS) and 2 T SF Cool Whip. So good! Yummy.

I exercised again last night. Yep, I did that horrid E word. It didn't kill me again, so I guess maybe I could try again when I get home tonight.

Feelings: bored, tired, tired of sitting, I feel like I need to get up and move around more.

Stephen: Missing him, thought about him a lot last night. Today is ok so far though.

I finished one book, "Hush", and have started a new book "Seven Eight, Gonna Stay Up Late". It's off to a good start. The main character is a whack job, that's for sure!!!  Well, I'm going to follow through with what I was saying and get up and move around a little bit.

02/07/14 Post Weigh IN

Well, as predicted, my weigh in did not go well. I gained 0.4 pounds. I was really bummed out during the meeting. I just kind of sat there and pouted the whole time. Went home, ate dinner, and decided to put it behind me. Today is a new day, and I cannot change the past. Pull up my britches and move on.

Feelings: defeated, ueless, hopefull, tired
Thoughts: just remember why I started, it's do or die

02/06/14 Weigh in day & Who Am I?

Today is my weekly weigh in. I sound just like I did last week. I hope I lost something. No matter how small, I just want a loss! The scale at home shows no loss, maybe even a little bit of a gain. I exercised for the first time since before Stephen's death. Behold - it did NOT kill me! I lived to blog about it. I need to make a habit out of it again, though. For some reason, I fear the scale today. I feel good. My clothes fit great. I feel thinner than I look - I am still stunned when I see my reflection. I don't always know who that is. Which is a good impression of how I feel about myself a lot of the time. Who am I? When I meet someone new, it seems that I am the kids' mom, or the babies' grandma, Kurt's wife, the dispatcher, the jailer, always something. But who am I really?? I remember trying to answer that question in therapy a few years back. It's really a hard question. I love to create. Greeting cards, scrap-booking, painting, drawing, "coloring" (stamping), riding atv's. I'd love to get to a place that I could go hiking. But, my husband is not a hiking fan. Riding atv's is very rewarding. You can go out in the back-country and see things you never would otherwise. Like eavesdropping on animals in their natural habitat, doing the things that they do while not feeling threatened. Camping is also good, thankfully my husband does like to camp. Especially if we are near electricity (hey - what do you expect, he's not a mountain man type). Who else am I?? I am responsible, honest, reliable, lazy (yep, I'm lazy). I am not good at domestic chores such as housekeeping, laundry, dishes. I enjoy reading, playing games on my phone or Kindle. I spend too much time on Facebook. Hmm.. All of that put together is a part of me. I am shy, almost to a fault. I come across as a real "B", but I'm not really. It's just so hard for me to get to know people.
So, back to it being weigh in day. It is so nerve wracking. The moment of truth..... So until after weigh in, fingers crossed!!!

Brr...... It's definitely cold outside!

It's supposed to snow, 4-5 inches are predicted. And for that I am grateful, since areas around here a looking at much, much more,. I happen to be one of the few people who really likes snow. Winter is my favorite season. It stems from having serious allergy problems my entire life. Winter is the time I breathe the best, feel the best. I'm at work, watching the snow roll in from the south, it's made it up here already, but what is yet to come?
Yesterday my daughter sent me an audio clip. It was a song off of a CD I had given Stephen for his 12th birthday. South Park. The song made me laugh so hard, then I started crying. The memories just do that to me. Even happy memories can make me cry. I miss him so very much. Most of the time I fake it fine, but actually, I am OK. I'm not whole - I never will be having lost one of my children, but I am OK. I'm alright with losing Stephen, but I'm at peace with myself with it at the moment.
We are getting all of his W2's for taxes. I wonder what we are supposed to do with them. Is he supposed to file? Kind of messed up. It's some of the strange unexpected things we deal with. Things that you never give another thought to.
I ate a bit too much Sunday & Monday. Sunday, I just couldn't stay out of the Queso dip Kristin made. It was so, so good. Plus the brisket Kurt made was out of this world. And of course, birthday cake. What kind of Grandma would pass up birthday cake?? Thye is now 5. Those boys are growing so danged fast. This fall they will be starting school already. Crazy! Yesterday I watched my points rather well, but I decided to use a couple of my weekly points to have some ice cream. I must say, 1/2 a cup isn't very much, but it was surprisingly fulfilling. It hit that sweet spot, and it was enough. Of course, it does help that it was Haagen Daz.
The scale at home is showing no weight loss at all. It was the same way last week, and the WW meeting scale sure did surprise me!!
Thoughts & Feelings: Excited, happy, sad, eager, and a little bit lonely.
Diet: Not the best week so far, but I'm still pleased with how I am doing overall.
Exercise: Still not doing it. I know, I know, for maximum effect, and good health I need to get to it. How does "tomorrow" sound??