Poundage

So, awhile ago Dan and I did RESET through USANA. It was really good for us, but so so hard. We absolutely love food. We love watching food on TV, making food and eating food. I especially love to bake cookies, cakes, pies and other treats. After RESET we both lost about 5 pounds. We have changed our lifestyle and we don't buy ice cream, anything with white flour, candy, cookies, fast food, etc. Dan gets the award for sticking to the plan and losing weigh. He has lost almost 15 pounds!!! I am so so proud of him. I am still at 5 pounds, but I blame work. My work is evil! Since I work with a bunch of overworked and stressed women we always have chocolate, candy, chocolate, cookies and more chocolate lying around. Since I love chocolate I always eat it. I have no self-control.
I guess what I really need to do is exercise more. I read other peoples blog's and read that they love to exercise. Oh how I wish I loved to exercise. I absolutely hate it. I need to find some form of exercise that I enjoy so that I will do it more often. (I am open to suggestions...)Dan has been running almost everyday and he is awesome! My goal is to lose weight this summer so when I go back to work in the fall people won't even recognize me :) (yeah right)

My Kids

So, It is almost the end of the school year (only 11 work days and 6 school days!) and I am swamped with progress reports, Kindergarten transition stuff, IFSP meetings, home visits, parties, field trips and other assorted Head Start stuff. It is such a busy time of year, but this is when I start to really appreciate the kids and think about how much I will miss them. Even though it is not always easy to be in charge of 19 young children I really grow to LOVE all of them. You get used to their issues and behaviors and you all learn to work together. I love my class. I feel like we are a little family at school. Last year I did get a little teary eyed when the buses drove away. I will probably never see most of these kids again and I just hope that they can succeed in life with the many problems and issues that they face. The other day I was talking to one of my kids on the playground and we were talking about all the people in his family. I told him I just had two people in my family and no children. This is what he said to me, "Teacher Holly you have us kids at school. We are your kids." It was very cute. I say the same thing all the time. I do have 19 kids and I love them. So, even though I religiously count down the days until summer I will miss the kids and I will miss my co-workers.

Sultry Spring

I feel like Jimmy Stewart! No, I'm not having hallucinations at Christmas time, but I am baking in the sweltering spring heat and I get to listen and watch the interesting things that happen in NE Portland. Luckily we haven't seen any potential murder mysteries, but we have heard and seen some other curious happenings. In a matter of a week we have gone from a cool 50 degrees to the mid 90's!! It feels like the middle of July. We have all the windows open, fans blowing and it is still very hot. Last night we were watching the Jazz game and we had the sliding door open. Every time Kobe was fouled or the Lakers made a shot we could hear some people cheering. It got really annoying because the Jazz were sucking it up. It reminded me of Rear Window, the greatest Hitchcock movie ever. It's funny how in the summer we can suddenly see into our neighbors apartments and over hear their conversations. Another exciting event happened last night at midnight. We were baking on the couch and we both started to smell smoke. We went out on the deck and we could see smoke to the east. So, we got our clothes and camera and ran to the car. We drove down the street and sure enough one of the industrial building close to us was on fire! We didn't get any pictures and we didn't see any flames, but it was a fun adventure. The heat also reminded me of Rear Window, but luckily neither of us are in a full leg cast! I feel so bad for Jimmy Stewart when he has to sit in that apartment when it is 100 degrees in NYC! I hope that people are not looking into our house and over hearing our conversations, but I'm sure they are. It is now 10:30 pm and we have all the blinds open and the fans are going. Maybe I should sit at the window with my binoculars and I could potentially solve a murder mystery!

TWILIGHT TRAILER!!! :)

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all Mom's, but especially to my mom. It's kind of sad to be far away from your mother on mother's day. I don't feel like I can make her day very special. So, I thought the next best thing would be to do a post about my mom.
I am SO grateful to have a wonderful mother. I don't know what I would do without her. I am so grateful that my mom was able to stay home with her children and teach us and guide us. I know that being a mom is the hardest job in the world. I admire all moms, young and old, for the hard work that they do. It is such valuable work and it makes the BIGGEST difference in the lives of their children.
My mom likes to pretend she thinks that she is stupid, but she is so smart and wise and she has taught me oh so very much. My mom has done so much for me in my 25 years. How can you possibly show your full gratitude to someone who carried you inside their body for nine months, potty trained you, played with you, put up with you and laughed and loved with you. I don't think that mother's get enough praise and recognition for all their hard work. I would like to thank my mother for all of her hard work. For EVERYTHING she has or ever will do for me. I am eternally and overwhelmingly grateful.

THANK YOU FOR:

• Changing my diapers
• Waking up with me in the night
• Saying prayers with me
• Teaching me how to read, write and count
• Making me breakfast everyday for MANY years
• Sending me cards, packages and notes in the mail
• Teaching me to love the Lord
• Making me practice the piano
• Helping me with homework and other school projects
• Doing my laundry
• Teaching me how to cook and bake
• Making holidays and birthdays special
• Bringing stuff to school for me when I forgot it
• Being my taxi until I was 16
• Always praying for me
• Helping me with many sewing projects that I didn't have the skill or patience for
• Reading with me when I was young
• Helping me plan the most beautiful and wonderful wedding
• Talking on the phone with me
• Being so charitable and kind to your family and others
• Being the best mom you could be
• EVERYTHING you have done, do now and will do for me
  

I love you mom. I'm sorry I couldn't be with you today. We had a beautiful sacrament meeting and Sunday school based on Mother's day. I'm grateful that I can say I have been born of goodly parents. HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!!

Dreams really do come true…

So, I have been dreaming for months about going to Disneyland, actually years. I have planned SO many trips to Disneyland that I can’t even count them. I love to get online and price it all out and then I reluctantly close the browser and realize I can’t go for one reason or another. We finally decided that we need to stimulate the economy with our economic stimulus check and we will be doing so in southern California at Disneyland!!!! I am so freakin excited, I can’t stand it. This is, I assume, going to be our last trip before we have kids. It is actually the only real trip, besides trips home, we have had since our honeymoon. We are going to spend 5 days in California.

Day 1: Arrive, Check-in, Angels Game (just for Dan)

(Sorry Heath, we wanted to go to a padres game, but they aren’t at home that day.)

Day 2: Disneyland (we have 1 hour early entrance this day)

Day 3: Disneyland: California Adventure, which neither of us have ever been to.

Day 4: Disneyland (Early entrance)

Day 5: Checkout, Beach and home at midnight!

I am so excited to go with Dan. He went when he was in fifth grade, but he got sick and Prates of the Caribbean was closed and he was very disappointed. The only ride that is closed while we are there is Small World. I think we can live without it.

So, we are accepting advice about Disneyland vacations and we are also accepting rides to and from the airport. Only 37 days!!!!!

Thanks for the advice

Thanks to everyone who voted and left advice. I have decided that I am going to go to the Stephenie Meyer event. Now I just have to tell my boss I am not coming to the parent meeting.