I will be gone tonight. Going to mama's house. Trying to get her to teach me how to sew.

Hi there.

We ended up being tourists for the day. We went to one of the souvenier shops at the beach and picked up a few little things, then went and played gooney golf at the beach. After that we went and had dinner. Been on plan all day now.

Tonight we are going to watch Nacho Libre and just sit around and do nothing. Mark goes back to work tomorrow.

Hope you had fun at your mom's. Once you learn to sew, you can teach me. I have a machine that I use for hems and I made Chelsea's halloween costume about 3 years ago. I also made some very basic curtains and valances when we bought this house. I had to teach myself what little I know. My mom's way of hemming a pair of pants was to take it to the taylor's and drop it off.

I got up and was up 2lbs!!!! Then realized TOM was the culprit. I really don't like him. I am going to eat really clean and drink a lot of water and hope for a good number tomorrow.

I just took my sewing machine over there and she had me clean and oil and make sure everything is running smoothly. We aren't officially starting yet. My mom gets all excited at the prospect of things, but she doesn't always like the work part of it. I will have to keep at her to teach me.

Tomorrow is Dave's 50th birthday. We are celebrating it today. Went to church and now I am home making his favorite food to eat. Me waiting on him all day his his dream day....

Happy Birthday! I love birthdays!

I have been good all day. I burned my mouth the other night eating a fried mushroom and now all I've been able to have is protein shakes. It's right behind my front teeth so no mater what I bite, it rubs it and it hurts. I tried some broth and it was too hot. I think it may be gettin infected. My cheek and eye on that side are hurting and swelling. I just keep swooshing with listerene. It'll go away. In the mean time, it's protein shakes for me.

I can tell I'm not as bloated as the other day. My pants fit fine again and my wedding ring is so loose it flew off today when I was talking to Chelsea. I haven't weighed yet though. Too scared to. I'll have no choice but to weigh tomorrow.

I think Chelsea may stay home with me tomorrow. She doesn't have a fever but she has felt bad all day today. I told Mark if she has what I had, I didn't have a fever right away but felt like doodie. Once I started with the fever I felt fine within a day or two.

Our anniversary (23rd) is on Thursday then Mark's b-day is the 14th. Maybe a LC cheesecake for our anniversary dinner and then he can have an ice cream cake like he likes and I just won't have any. What did yall do?

Hope yall had a great day! See ya tomorrow. Good luck on the weigh in!

I am so bloated still today!!! I am afraid to weigh in. I am doing stats again this am, so I will be busy for a while.

His birthday was fine. We didn't do much of anything. We just went to church, watched movies, I cooked his favorite stuff. I just didn't eat any of it. I kinda wasn't hungry because of TOM. My husband is a real homebody. Most of the time I like that, but sometimes...

How is Chelsea? Did you have to keep her home today?

Your 23rd Annniv.?! Congrats. We are coming up on our 12th in Feb. and I thought we were doing good. That is so awsome.

Hey. I still haven't weighed in today. We have until 4 pacific right? I haven't eaten yet today so I'm hoping to lose some.

Mark is pretty much a homebody too. Since he works all day, he wants to stay home and relax. Since I'm home all day, I want to go out.

Chelsea stayed home with me. She could've gone to school but.....we went and ran errands together. I tried to talk her into homeschooling again so we could spend all day everyday together but she said she gets too lonely.

23rd. That makes us sound reaaallllyyy old. Funny though, we don't ever get into any big arguments about anything. We go back and forth sometimes for just a few minutes but never any fights. Not one in 23 years. (btw, I'm 43 and he's 44, for the next couple of weeks anyway) We were together for 3 years before we married.

+3.5 lbs.

I'm sorry. I am up 1.8. I started TOM yesterday. I am trying to eat clean, but am not prepared with any cooked meat and with Halloween coming up I bought some of those dark choc. bars. I am also going to make the forzen kisses because if I don't prepare...TOM and Halloween will come after me and I can't run that fast.

I was really upset and depressed today so I didn't write a lot. I am feeling better tonight and so I am here.

Why were you upset and depressed?

Mark works Wed. nights so Chelsea and I decided not to hand out candy this year. She doesn't want me to eat it. LOL We are just going to turn the lights off and watch TV in the bedroom.

I just had the most delicious OMM I have ever made. I used one scoop from the VAT of grahm cracker protein powder. Mmmmmm. I could eat these all day long and nothing else if I could stay out of the bathroom. I ate 1/2 with butter on it and the other 1/2 w/cream cheese. I might have to make anther before I go to bed. I was thinking I could throw in just about 1/2 a handful of blueberries and make a blueberry muffin for less than 1 carb.

See, that is why I was eating them all the time. I ran out of the graham cracker protein .. There are so many things to do with it. I would add a scoop to the instone vanilla pudding with some PB and then put it in the freezer until almost frozen..YUM. All sorts of protein shakes. Anything with chocolate.

For Halloween we go to my mom's house and she makes dinner and then we trick or treat in her neighborhood. It is better than ours..gated and my parents like seeing the kids in their costumes. My kids peter out pretty quick, so we are home by 8:30 or so. Emma is going to be princess Leia and Ben is going to be an Army guy. I will try and post a picture when we are done.

Did you see the poll Patti put up to see if we only want to got to 6 weeks for the Biggest Loser challenge? I thought that was really insightful of her. I always feel so bad because I am not losing.

Hey Hilary and Boo...just poking my head in here to say hi to you both.

Hey Vickie! I said I would stop by your journal more often and I haven't done it yet. Shame on me.

I wrote you this long note. I just took it off here and PM'd it to you.

BOO!! You are such a nerd! I just got a 500 L-C recipes in the mail and I am crying my eyes out. Darn TOM. That was so nice of you and you have no idea how needed it was. Dave is gettting sick of the same ole' dinners.

Thank you. Now, I have a reason to stay in bed today and read. Just joking. I have actually been praying a lot about my focus in life and have decided to start simplifying things. I cleaned out my closet last night (insomnia..) and am tackling the kitchen at some point today. Good Will, here I come. It seems like there is so much junk that I never use that I keep "just in case". Duct tape (keep), black stilleto heels (not so much), ...

I am making the fried Mush on Pg 120. It sounded so good and I had some Ricotta that I didnt know what to do with that has been sitting in my fridge for awhile. I just baked it an am now waiting for it to cool before I fry it.

Yea, me too about the challenge. I want to lose slowly and have no stress doing it. Maybe I will weigh in and be accountable to you on every monday or friday. I need to stop weighing everyday.

Fried Mush tastes like a pumkin french toast with a "eggy" center. I really like them. I am eating them with no topping, but I bet SF pancake syrup would be good. This is so fun..thanks again. I am going to eat all 4 of them.

cool, glad you like it. I have that recipe marked to try next time I get to the store to get some ricotta. ETA: I just found a thread in the recipe section for cookbook reviews. They have one going for this book. You can go and say what recipe you tried and if you liked it or what you would change etc.

Hey, I'm thinking of doing those "gifts in a jar" this year for CHRISTmas for everyone. Have you ever done that or gotten any? I'm looking for books but only 1 of the libraries has any books on it and they only have 2 and it's like a 20 min drive each way.

They have all sorts of those ideas online. We did movie night in basket for my stepson one year. You buy the dollar movie candy, popcorn, licorice, and then a gift certificate to blockbuster or a move. Fun for the whole family.

http://www.stretcher.com/index.cfm

Look on this site for Christmas ideas.

Hi there.

Thanks for the link. I used to have that in my favorites before my comp. crashed and I lost everything.

Chelsea is home again today. No fever but a bad headache and sore throat. I feel sorry for her. I know how she feels. That is what I had. Mark just looks at us. I think he knows that she doesn't feel well though. She keeps using the thermometer waiting for a fever to show up. LOL Last night they were carving the pumpkin and she just got up and went to bed in the middle of it. Didn't say a word. Mark went looking for her after about 15 min and she was ditched!

I'm searching through my cookbook looking for something to make for dinner for us. I really want pizza. That is usually what we do on Halloween.

I'm going to try to not eat out at all for a week. That is my goal. I also need to use all the food in the freezers and pantry. Most of it is not LC though. I used to spend like $200 a week on groceries when my neice and nephew lived with us so we have a bunch of food still. I also just bought the Angel Food box in August so we have all that food too. Not LC for the most part. I wish the challenge was over so I could just clean everything out and start clean like Dec. 1 or something. I literally don't have room in the freezers to go buy a weeks worth of meats and freeze them. Too much junk in there. There is probably a month's worth of food for the three of us. 3 meals a day. If Alex and Hayley were still here, it would be about 2 weeks worth.



Wow, that is a book!

Hope you're having a good day!

I was down 1lb today.

I ended up making the Meatza recipe on page 312. It was good. I only used the meat, sauce and cheese since that is what I had on hand that wasn't frozen. I think I'll try it with ground chicken or turkey, an alfredo sauce and spinach next time.

Hope yall are having a good time Trick-or-Treating. Here is a pic from before Chelsea went to her Halloween dance last week.

We had a lot of fun last night. As soon as my son starts to feel the weight of the candy in his bag all he wants to do it go home and eat it. I have some pictures and as soon as my husband reinstalls paint shop back in my computer I will re-size and post them.

Chelsea is adorable. I hope Emma and I get to do as much together as you guys do. I always wanted a daughter and now when I get one her personality is more like her dad.

I had an egg and some hamburger for lunch. Then my mom made some fried(in butter and garlic) chicken and broccoli. I also had an endangered chocolate bar and made some of Amy's frozen kisses to bring. It is always an eat fest at my mom's house on any halloween and they don't understand why I can't "cheat" just a little. So, I brought those things and said I was cheating and they left me alone.

I'm glad yall had a good time. I used to take along a grocery bag and poured her candy into it when her bag/bucket started getting heavy for her. I would usually take most of the candy to work with me or Mark would take it with him.

I found a fully smoked/cooked brisket in the freezer yesterday. I pulled it out and that is what we are having for dinner tonight. Just going to heat it in the oven.

Tomorrow I'm going to the dollar store to get some "popcorn buckets" to make the Movie Night Baskets for everyone for Christmas. Tht was such a good idea. I figure, one box of popcorn, a bag of dried fruit and a bag of yogurt pretzels with a $10 Blockbuster gift card all in a popcorn bucket/bowl for each family (that'll be 4 of them). Little Benjamin will get a Veggie Tales bucket (songs DVD and toy)

We have already done Mark's parents (we get them a James Avery ornament each year) so now all we have to do is his Auntie Lynn and Chelsea.

We know what we are doing for Chelsea already. Just need to do it. Jesus got 3 presents. So will she. Frankincense - "F" - fun gift (iPod), Myrrh - "M" - mind (books, drawing supplies) and Gold - "G" - Gold jewlery (small) or a savings bond. One of our homeschooling families does this. I think we are going to start doing it too.

Yea! we are up and running again. I so missed this forum.

Man, didn't know what else to do so I took a nap today. My eyes hurt from so much book reading. I have GOT to go and pick up some new contacts tomorrow.

Here are my halloween cuties..Princess Leia and a soldier..

They are so cute. I love the way Emma is posing! Your little soldier is very handsome.

Well, I totally have Christmas figured out. I have all my lists made and in my ipaq so when I'm out I can look and grab what I need from the different places. I have everyone covered from family to teachers to neighbors. All I will need to do kind of last minute is the Angel Tree kid from church.

I asked Mark today for a solar heater for the pool since the water is already too cold to swim but the weather is not. He looked at me and said "uh, YOU want to spend money on that NOW? How about one next year?". Now that he 'gets it', he's gonna be watching me. It actually would be a good investment. We will get more out of it when we sell the house than we paid for it. Or, we could get a portable on and take it with us when we move.

I ordered that book today. Thanks again. I have been wanting to do this for over a month now but didn't think I had the discipline to do it by myself.

Christmas?! I am still trying to decide what LC meals to serve my family this Thanksgiving. I am going to try and go LC the whole thing. Have you tried the cauliflower "mashed taters"?

I do brown bags with everyone's name on them and then when I see stuff for stockings I put them in there. I am doing pretty good there. I am still not sure if my Step-son and his family are coming or not, so that is still in the air.

Dave is copying the study for you. I will try and get it sent out in the next few days. Speaking of, did you send the box with the books? I haven't seen it yet.