January Recap

You would think because I spent all of December and most of January laying in bed that I would have found time to blog.  But when you are feeling miserable coming up with things to write just aren't at the top of my list.  Towards the end of January I finally started to feel like life was going to return to normal.  I am feeling much better and am very grateful for that.  So here are some of the fun things that actually happened in January

For part of Christmas the kids received a gift certificate for Pirate Island.  It is a new theme based restaurant and arcade.  So we ventured out one Monday night for Family Home Evening.

The food was good and the kids had a blast.  We were all ready for some fun as a family again.

Jessica and Ashley had their first official Dance Competition of the year.  They had a parent from every school help with organizing and helping with it.  I sent Mark to the meeting and he came home with the assignment to help with the Gift Baskets for the Judges and other Professionals that help with the event.  Luckily the other parent helping was great about asking for a lot of the donations.  Though we did pull our own and got some good things for the baskets.  Then Mark, Jessica and I spent a Friday night assembling 11 of them.  Mark even cut out vinyl for the boxes.  They looked really good.

The next day the girls performed and they both did amazing.  

Ashley danced the Foxtrot and Tango.  And Jessica was chosen as the All Around Dancer for level 2.  That meant she didn't know which dance she would perform until she was on the dance floor and they pulled it out of a hat.  She ended up dancing the Cha Cha and the Merengue.  

I'm so impressed my girls are learning to ballroom dance and they both love it and do it well.

The surprise of the month was when we woke up to a winter wonderland.  We live in Utah, we get snow all the time.  But it doesn't look like this all the time.

Every thing was flocked in snow.  It was beautiful!

And we finished the month out by going to the Circus!  They come every year and we have gone in the past, but it had been a few years.  John really wanted to go, so when we found a great coupon in the newspaper I agreed we could all go.

We got there early enough to get some good seats.  We saw the elephants and tigers.

And some of the performers practiced right by where we were sitting so we got a front row view.

But John's favorite was definitely the motorcycles in the cage.

It was a fun night and all the kids really enjoyed it.

Bag of Flour

I don't know about you, but I always buy my flour and sugar in 25 pound bags.

Well, today I lost a bag of flour.  Okay, not literally . . . but the scale finally clicked over and I have officially lost 25.6 pounds off my body (again).  YEA!!!!!  I joined Weight Watchers (again) on Oct 17, 2009.  And after a little bit of a plateau in December with my 2 hernia surgeries, I'm back on track and losing again.

When I joined I wrote down several reasons why I was joining this time so when it got hard I could remember my motivation.  One of which was to wear my wedding ring again and I've been wearing it for about a month now.  The next goal I hope to see happen is having no more foot pain.  Even after my heel spur surgery in August I've had a lot of pain.  Standing or walking for more than 5 minutes makes my foot hurt a lot.  So I figure every pound I can take off my foot it will stop hurting that much sooner (cross your fingers).

I've found a few new foods that have helped me get to this point.  I thought I'd share for anyone else out there trying to cut calories.

• Sandwich Thins -- they look like smashed hamburger buns, but with the top and bottom they are only 1 point and they taste really good.
• Fiber One granola bars -- lots of fiber so they fill you up and have enough chocolate in them to satisfy my cravings.
• VitaTops from vitalicious -- Once again I have to have something chocolaty and these do the trick and add fiber so they are filling
• JollyTime Healthy Pop popcorn -- The kettle corn is really good and I love the small bags with just 1 serving in them.
• Yoplait Smoothie -- found in the freezer section.  I lived on these when I was on the liquid diet before the hernia surgery.  Great for breakfast and it gives you a fruit and milk serving for the day.

Now that I have publicly announced I'm dieting, I guess I'm going to have to stick with it!

Webcam

This is what happens when he finds out how to use the webcam when I'm not around.
It gets funnier the longer he goes.  Don't miss Sponge Bob Square Head and kissy kissy is just for you, Melissa C!