Fun at the pumpkin farm...

We had so much fun at the pumpkin farm last year that we decided to go back to the same one this year! We all had a great time and the weather was gorgeous, minus a steady wind...but hey, that's what you get in late October on the plains of Colorado. (Actually, I think that's what you get year-round out there.)

I realized on the way home that we didn't get a single picture of Mason while we were there, but trust me. All you would have seen was a picture of the stroller with blanket covering it. No one saw him and he didn't see anything but the back of his eyelids, so I don't feel too badly. We have more than enough pictures of him in his carseat by now! (Isn't it funny how many of those sleeping and/or in the carseat, or sleeping in the carseat pictures you end up with, by the way?)

In any case, here's our day in pictures. Well, sort of. I was kind of a slacker with the camera this year. Anyway - I'll put a couple of videos at the end of the haystack jumping, which was noteworthy for two reasons: (1) We were in awe that the little two year old boy who would completely freak out with fear at the thought of going down a little gymboree slide was now a risk-taking almost 6 year old, jumping with glee off of a haystack tower and (2) I didn't have to take my husband to the hospital for another knee surgery after all. (Thank you, Lord!)

I hope you are all enjoying this beautiful season as much as we are! Happy Fall!

Waiting for Daddy to pay for our tickets.

Feeding the ducks and fish is fun!

Proudly emerging from our successful trip through the corn maze! (Which is amazing, considering that I was the navigator.)

Gotta love the good ol' barrel train! Daddy took one for the team while Mommy took pictures. Doesn't he look thrilled? His expression makes me giggle.

And now...for some haystack jumping.

Mini-Me Friday #5

Okay, I skipped a week. Sorry - my husband was gone for almost an entire week, so I passed over a few things. Cleaning the house and blogging were two of them. ANYWAY...

Last week, I lost 1.5 lbs -- which I highly suspect was more than that, since I am betting I had previously gained something -- and this week, I lost another 1.5 lbs. SO...I am down a total of 5 pounds so far. I'm happy about that! Only 15 more to go and I'll have met my goal for this session of our group meetings. I think I figured out I needed to lose about 1.5 per week to make that happen, so I am on my way!

One thing that I've done for myself this week is...I JOINED A GYM!!! Hooray! I am so stinkin' excited about this, I just cannot even TELL you! A woman in our group said that they were having "blowout" prices for memberships right now. I used to belong there - it's an all-women gym, which I absolutely love...so I went to check it out. She was right -- it was a great deal! (For starters, they were taking $100 of the $125 registration fee off, if that tells you anything.) I could have gotten an even better deal if I'd signed up for three years, but I am having some FAITH that we are going to sell our house this spring, so I only signed up for one year and am hoping to have to join a new gym next fall.

As for when I'll be going...well, I'm gonna be back to my crack of dawn workout ways. The gym opens at 5:30 am and I plan to be there waiting for them to turn the key! Chris doesn't leave most days until around 7:00, so that will give me time to workout for at least an hour and run home to get everyone going. On the days that he needs to go in early, he will just come home by 7:30 so that I can work out before they close at 9:00 pm. I think it is going to be just fine, actually. Not only do I want to avoid paying the daycare costs, but ya know - my kids are around enough germs as it is...no need to push our luck.

So. There ya go. Did MUCH better with sticking to my eating plan this week and I exercised 4 times, even before I joined the gym. I feel like I'm starting to turn the corner and am excited about making more progress each week. By the way - if any of you are hoping to downsize yourselves, feel free to join me and do some Mini-Me updates of your own!

Here's my verse for this week...
Ephesians 6:11 "Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes."

If ya don't like poop stories, come back later.

Hey. I warned you. Right up there on top. I mean business.

Last night I made dinner. Yummy dinner. Chicken manicotti, garlic bread, and salad. Even oatmeal raisin cookies for dessert.

By the way - can anyone guess why we had such a well rounded dinner? Yes, MOPS mommies - you probably guessed it. I took dinner to a new mom and made the same thing for us. It's like the only time I include a dessert. Anyone else do that or is it just me?? Anyway...

Chris got tied up (not literally, don't worry) at work so I was had the kids eat early and figured I'd wait and eat with my hubster when he got home from work. Yum, yum - everyone eats and Miss G decides she's done.

So.

I say "Are you ready for me to clean you up so you can get down?"
She says "Ummm, I got some poop."
I say "No problem, let's just change your diaper then."

I walk over and whoooooooooooooo. She sure did have some poop - it was stinkin' to high heaven in that little pink booster seat of hers! So, I put the changing pad on the floor in the living room, grab the wipes and go get her. She starts FREAKING OUT when I'm trying to take her pants off. I'm like what is the deal??? (Oh, and I hear the garage door go up right about this time, so he hears her getting all nuts.) I get her calmed down, assure her everything is okay and she's fine.

So, I lay her down -- looks like a mini-blowout. You know the one. Slightly on the waistband of the pants and a tiny bit on her lower back. No biggie. I've seen worse.

(Ha, ha, ha, ha. I can hear my husband laughing at me right about here.)

Take her diaper off and ohhhh, my word. The stink. VERY stinky. UNUSUALLY stinky. As in gag stinky. My hubby walks around the corner right about now and brilliantly says, "How's it goin'?" Yeah. I think I managed to lock eyes while rolling them at the same time, and possibly may have grunted in his direction as well. Mitchell is a doll and runs upstairs to get her pajamas for me so that after I'm done washing off her back she can just jump in her jammies.

Mitchell comes back downstairs and says "Hey, Mom - is that poop on your shirt?" I look down and see a little spot where I was attacked by my spoon when tasting the sauce for the manicotti. I say "Nope. Just spaghetti sauce." Chris says "It really does look like she pooped on you." I say "Nope. Just sauce." Meanwhile I'm thinking that he's the one who gets pooped on in this house.

Back to the massive cleanup. Luckily it was trash night so Chris was on his way out to the curb with the trash anyway, so I just added the toxic grocery bag to his collection. Georgia is fresh n' clean, in her jammies, so I squirt her hands with the antibacterial stuff that I should buy stock in -- and she gets up to go play. I go toss her clothes into the washer on the soak setting and then head to the kitchen to wash my hands. Wash them up and am drying them when Chris comes back in.

I said to him "You know, I must really have been bothered by that stink because I can still REALLY smell it!" He said "It's fresh in your mind. It'll pass." Two seconds later, as he's helping me clear the table, he says..."Well, I think I know what you're smelling."

Yeah. A nice little pile of poop on her booster seat. DIS-GUS-TING. It was so gross. *By the way, I figured out this is why she was freaking out. She must have felt the poop come out when I picked her up or something.* SOOOOO, he goes to get the lysol for me while I scoop the poop. Together we manage to get all of the straps out of the chair so that they can join her clothes in the washing machine. I remember that there is another set of clothes that could use some soaking so I ask Chris to grab those for me.

He comes into the laundry room and I say "You know, I can STILL smell that poop! It just WON'T leave my nose!" He says "Well, why don't you just toss your clothes in there, too. Maybe that's it?"

Okay, just so you know, I'm literally sitting here giggling as I type this.

I take off my shirt and OH. MY. GOODNESS. There are two HUGE smears of poop on my shirt!! One is under my big ol' left nursing boob and one is on the sleeve of the left arm. My boobs are big enough at this point that they hid the poop from my sight...how sad is that? I started cracking up and said "Oh my gosh! There's poop all over my shirt!!"

Chris says "We tried to tell you that, but you said it was just sauce."
I laugh and point to my tiny little smear of sauce and say "THIS is the sauce. THIS (big, giant smears) is the poop!"
My hubby says "Well, I know you - and being in the position you were in, I wasn't about to argue with you about what spaghetti sauce looks like. I figured you probably wouldn't like that."

Smart man, that Cabana Boy! I hope you got as big of a laugh out of this as we did. I was about crying I was laughing so hard. We both agreed that this was another of life's very bloggable moments.

Not-So-Wordless Wednesday - Gettin' Crafty.

My friend Jenn inspired me to do some crafts with my kiddos yesterday. I had this package of pipe cleaners, pom poms, and googley eyes sitting in the cabinet, so I whipped them out and now we're all decorated! (Seriously - that's all we used...markers, construction paper, glue and scissors. I'm not into very involved crafts.)

The top pumkin is Miss G's, the bottom is Mitchell's. He named his "Stinky" as you can see at the bottom of his page. The spiders were fun, too. Mine's on the left, Mitchell's is in the middle, and Miss G's is on the right. She kept knocking everyone's spider head off before the glue dried (shocking, I know), so those took a while to dry before we could hang them up. The kids LOVED it. I think we're going to make some leaf picture placemats today. Anyway - here's how they turned out!

Mini-Me Friday #3

So, I'm not very Mini, I'm guessing. I had to skip my meeting last night because of a stomach "issue" which has since resolved itself, but it was a bad week.

I am working on not eating everything in sight, even if it's not such a bad choice food-wise. Having to write it all down and see the number of exchanges I have allowed for the day go clicking off just well, it stinks, pretty much. I like to eat. I'm hungry a lot. So, now I'm trying to figure out if I'm REALLY hungry a lot or if I'm just bored. Or tired. Or worried. Or sad.

Basically, I'm trying to figure out what is motivating me to be so hungry. (And before you suggest it, I've allowed plenty of breastfeeding calories.)

So. There ya go. I still like food. I still like a lot of it. Sort of a problem in the mini-me category.

Oh, and I worked out twice last week. We dealt with sick kids but that's a whole different Oprah so I'll just leave it at that.

My verse this week was Proverbs 20:4 "May He give you the desires of your heart and make all of your plans succeed."

I have to laugh...this week, the desires of my heart involved macaroni & cheese, chocolate, pizza, etc. Probably a good thing that they weren't given to me in the literal sense. Ha!

A hubby quiz...

A Saturday is a good day to have a post where I don't have to think so I have decided to copy someone. Cheri had a cute hubby quiz and I have decided to take it.


I really wanted to know if I was right on these, so I am going to ask him the same questions. I'll put my answers in blue and his in red, if they were different. Hopefully we'll just see a lot of blue, which will mean he said the exact same thing. By the way, he's downstairs making the kids lunch and I'm up here cleaning the bathroom. (Seriously, that's what I'm "doing".) I just called him on his cell phone to get the answers. I'm sure he'll be really pleased. NOT. Oh, and that smell? Fish sticks. They are sure stinky when you don't know what they are! Anyway, on to the quiz.

1. Sitting in front of the TV, what's on the screen?
Fox News or ESPN.
Either sports or a documentary. Like the history or military channel or something like that.
Oh yeah, I forgot about those.

2. You're out to eat; what kind of dressing does he get on his salad?
Blue Cheese. And lots of it.

3. What's one food he doesn't like?
Tomatoes. And onions. He hates them both.
Sushi.
Me, too.

4. Where did he go to high school?
Machebuef High School

5. What size shoe does he wear?
11 1/2.
He said "Eleven point five."
Nerd alert.


6. If he was to collect anything, what would it be?
Hoodie sweatshirts from different colleges or aircraft carrier hats. He already has a bunch of both.
Either baseball gear or historical memorabilia.
When I read him my answer, he said mine was better.
DUH.


7. What is his favorite type of sandwich?
Pastrami. With LOTS of mustard and LOTS of cheese. (Well, technically I said, "What? No cheese?" after he said pastrami with mustard on sour dough. And he said "Of course. Lots." So, I'm right. Right?)


8. What would he eat everyday if he could?
Peanut butter. (And he totally does.)
My wife's lasagna and my mom's enchiladas.
Yeah, I'd eat those every day, too.


9. What is his favorite cereal?
Frosted Flakes.
Granola or Frosted Flakes.
(By the way, I don't think we've ever bought Frosted Flakes. Ever. That might be a fun Christmas gift.)

10. What would he never wear?
Any sort of NY Yankees gear.
Parachute pants.
And now you know why we laugh a lot.
He then said, "To be serious, anything with a Yankees or Lakers or Raiders logo. Or anything with Obama on it."
Just highlighting that my right answer is first. :-)


11. What is his favorite sports team?
The Boston Red Sox. Or will he say the Broncos? Or the Celtics? Hmmmm. Red Sox.
His answer started with "Ooooohhhhh, that's hard, man." Then he said "I don't have one. It's the Duke Blue Devils, Red Sox, Broncos, Celtics, Air Force Falcons. I can't pick one. If you have to pick one, Red Sox."
Yesssssssssssss, I'm right again. I wish I got paid for this!

12. Who is his best friend?
Me!!!!!
(Yay, he agrees.)

13. What is something you do that he wishes you wouldn't do?
Leave my shoes around the house.
He said "Where do I start?" He SAYS he was kidding.
Ha. Ha. Very funny.
His real answer is that I never finish the entire cup of whatever drink I'm drinking.
Well, yeah. That.

14. How many states has he lived in?
2.


15. What is his heritage?
I believe his ancestors are from Mexico. BUT - I bet he'll say American.
If I have to check a box, it's American. If I have to choose an ethnicity, it's hispanic. He now wants to know if we're ever going to get to important things, like beer and foreign policy. Whoooo. That Cabana Boy is something, isn't he?


16. You bake him a cake for his birthday, what kind of cake?
If it's cake, I'll say German Chocolate. But he'd probably rather have pie -- either pecan or key lime.
He said carrot.
I said "Really?"
He said "Nooooooooooo!" He asked what I said
and I read him my answer.
He said "Yep."

17. Did he play sports in high school?
Yep, baseball, basketball (not his best) and soccer.
He is now all miffed that I tattled on him and would like you to know that while basketball was not his best, he was All-State in soccer and All-Conference in baseball.

18. What could he spend hours doing?
Playing soccer, watching nascar or any sport, really -- sleeping, and talking politics.
Flying my F-16 simulator, golfing (oooh - I forgot that one!) and building models.
I totally didn't see those answers coming.

I love you, Cabana Boy. *smooch*

Mini-Me Friday #2

Well, this week I neither gained, nor lost. To me, that is a victory because mid-week, I was a cheese eatin' fool! Seriously - I went on, of all things, a cheese eating streak. It was strange. I also know that I didn't eat my snacks that day, so it was right before dinner and I just snarfed it down. I'm sure that's what did it, but I truly was relieved when I saw that I didn't gain anything back.

As far as exercise goes, I did better this week. I exercised 4/7 days, which felt great to get back into. I'm not having to totally kick myself to get it done and I totally thought I would be. I'd like to improve the pace that I'm able to walk at, but I know that will come with time.

In thinking about my week, I can tell you that I did LOTS better eating-wise on the days when I kept my little food journal thing WITH me and was able to write down exactly what and how much I had eaten right away. The days that I didn't have it or remember to do it at all until the next day pretty much got away from me. (Cheese night is a good example. If I would have known how well I'd stuck to my plan at that point -- I probably would have figured out how much I *should* have, cut it up and put the rest back. Instead, I just kept that big ol' brick of cheese right next to me while I made dinner and snacked away. Oh - and got some grapes while I was at it -- one of my fave combos to eat together, grapes and cheese.) Anyway - I have noticed that one, so a goal this week is to keep my CR (food journal) with me all the time.

One thing I've done that's been absolutely fantastic for me is the meal planning. Seriously - that has been amazing. It has saved me a bunch of time at night, a bunch of food has been saved from being wasted, and we've saved in our food budget BIG TIME.

I'm about halfway done with my meal planning for the rest of this month, so I'll put that on the sidebar again when I finish. It's actually been kind of fun...I always talk about trying new recipes or making ones we've enjoyed again but then I get into the middle of a hectic weeknight and just make the same ol' stuff because it's there. Now I can actually TRY those recipes and make those things again that I've only made once but that we really enjoyed.

Yesterday I picked out two cookbooks and two magazines that I knew had a bunch of recipes I'd been wanting to try. I needed 27 more meals for October, so I made a list of 6 chicken/turkey, 6 seafood, 5 pork, 5 beef, and 5 vegetarian dishes. What I now need to finish is actually putting them onto the calendar and making a shopping list for each week from the recipes, based on what we already have in the freezer/pantry and what I'll need to pick up for those meals. Then, I'll be all set. LOVE it. Absolutely love it. The other thing I still need to do and will probably just do in batches is figure out the food exchanges for each recipe. If I know how many are in each serving, it will really help me during the day and stick to my eating plan better.

So, there ya go. My weight loss week in a nutshell. Goals for this week: keep my CR with me and add in some different exercise, not just walking. Even if I don't get a DVD or something in there, I want to make sure I add some easy strength training and stretching in every evening.

My memory verse for this week was Proverbs 29:18 - "Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint."

Yes, and some do it with cheese!

Wordless Wednesday

Here's the face that gets me all melty.