Tooting my Own Horn...

Since January 2nd I have been tracking my food and exercise again. 

I think I have done well so far, I have lost 37 lb.  My hips are narrower now than my waist was when I started and I am feeling like me.  It is wonderful!

Here are some before and after pictures.

(I

t was hard to find any before body shots.)

Happy me. 

Where have you been?

That is what people should be asking me.  No posts for almost 3 months, and when I had been doing so well too.  Ok I hadn't been doing well for several months, but at least there were some posts.

This cute little guy is the reason.  

Indie keeping me busy, and up late at night, which should mean that I could write posts, but I discovered Amazon Prime Instant Videos and so I watch "Poirot" episodes instead.  

Here are some updates...

Rez became a Star Scout and finally finished his Law merit badge.  He has awesome hair at the moment and can do 15 pull ups in a row.  He is almost as tall as me.

Ocean decided to go back to blond.  I had to bleach all the red out and then tone it to the right color.  (Every time I look at his hair I think what a great hairdresser I am and then I remember that I don't do it alone.  Then, I think how grateful I am to God for his help in getting the right colors and having it all turn out good.  I wouldn't be as great of a hairdresser without him.  He is my secret weapon in all that I do.) 

He will be getting his braces off soon.  He is excited to be able to whistle again.

Daphne is growing up and getting more gorgeous.  She is sick at the moment with a fever, headache and sore throat.  She is learning to play the trumpet and the piano.  

Zelda, where do we start with her.  Her hair is much curlier than this, I had straightened the front this day.  It normally is in cute ringlets with frizz in the back.  She has decided that she doesn't like to be in a wet or dirty diaper and takes it off as soon as she does anything in it.  She got training pants for Christmas and wore them for the first time today.  We had several times of sitting on the potty with nothing happening followed by little puddles on the floor.  She is learning though.  She loves Indie and can often be seen leaning over him making him smile and occasionally  cry.

Mo, how can you not love that face?  There are some things I learned about him a long time ago.  He thinks of something and does it.  He cannot not talk.  He speaks really fast, and it is hard to understand him.  He doesn't sit still for very long.  He plays really well with younger kids.  But recently I have learned that those things add up to ADHD.  And that helped us learn some other things about him.  Like, he is paying attention when he is moving.  And his mind is moving so fast it can't be bothered with little details like how to spell correctly or write all of his numbers the right direction.

I have been trying to get our life back in some semblance of order after having a baby and Thanksgiving, Christmas, new year and having everyone out of school and Trip home for the holidays. I am still trying to get the Christmas tree down, find homes for new things and recently we had dining room benches delivered that I have to find time to finish.

Harvey is loving school.  It turns out that he is thriving with the structure and schedule of school life, not to mention he is very smart.

Julius.  He is my little buddy at home every day.  He and I play Uno together.  He will do yoga with me and loves to play computer games when I have a client.   And in the afternoons, he will watch a "move-move" and take a nap on the couch.

Trip is busy at work, home and church.  He switched to the research department last year and loves it.  Work is much less stressful when you can't accidentally loose millions of dollars.  He is working with the young men at church, which is great since we have 2 of them.  And he is the #1 kid putter to bedder.  While I am sitting nursing the baby in the evenings, he is reading stories and singing songs and leading by example:)

Bleach Is My Friend

Ahh, bleach it has so many uses.

It salvages many clothes at our house.  My kids are not dainty eaters or players, especially not when they are babies.  They regularly trash their clothes with chocolate pudding, mud, or anything else dark and staining. 

 I put their clothes in the wash with bleach and out they come, no more stains. 

 Now, you do have to be careful what you bleach, not all colors are color fast and so some of their clothes started out a different color, but what good is a brightly colored outfit that is so stained that they cannot wear it?  I wash it with bleach and they have a slightly different colored outfit with new life.

This romper used to be about the same color as the ribbon on it.  Now it it a light green, but I like it, you can see the flowers more.

Living in the pacific northwest mold happens.  In our window sills, 

in the shower,

 in the closets 

on the walls and ceiling.  

It is just a part of life.

Here I think some food got splattered on the ceiling above the front door.  No one noticed until it started to grow.

But spray that mold with bleach and water and magically the mold disappears (be sure your room is well ventilated).

We sprayed it with a bleach solution and after a few minutes it is starting to work. 

Look at that magic!

Here are some more results, 

the shower,

And the closet.

Then there is the bleach you use on your hair.  Put a few highlights in and drab boring hair, gains life and vibrancy!

I love bleach.

Scouts, Scouts Everywhere.

I think it is inevitable, when you have boys and are a member of the LDS church,  you will be involved in scouting.  Scouting takes up a lot or our lives.
Rez was a cub scout and is now a boy scout.
Ocean was a cub scout and is now a boy scout.
Mo is anxiously awaiting his 8th birthday, so he can become a cub scout.
Trip was a Cub Scout Den leader and is now on the scout committee, plus he is an Eagle scout.
Even Lily could not avoid it forever.  She is now the Cub Scout Committee Chairman as part of her calling in the Stake Primary.
We send (or take) our boys on camping trips and plan our summers around scout camp.  Right now we are preparing for the Klondike Derby next in a week and Rez and Trip going snow camping on Mt Rainer at the end of the month.  Lots of cold weather gear needed.

Even more amazing are all the people who have been involved in scouting through their lives and how they still support it.

The Chief Seattle Council and Seattle Mariners had a Friends of Scouting fundraiser luncheon today.  They wanted to have some actual scouts there sitting at each table, so Rez got to leave school for most of the day and go.

Some of the baseball players from the Mariners were helping to put it on, and from what I could glean from Rez, they were auctioning off tickets, they must have been really nice ticket and some other nice things because they raised $275,000

Here they are saying Thanks.

Chief Seattle Council's Facebook paige.

I want to add my thanks to all the community for supporting our boys in scouting.

Who Is That? or Fun With Hair Color

I tried out brown for a few weeks, but it just didn't look like me.  So, I had to bleach it out and add some high lights.