Come on, scales... I thought we were friends?

Well, the title says it all. Week # 11 of the Weight-loss journey resulted in a gain of 1 lb. Yikes!! It's ok, though. I didn't pitch a tantrum, through a fit, or eat an entire pizza when I got home to compensate for my disgust... so that's a step!

Since the weight-loss is obviously nothing to blog about this week, I will divert your attention to a different aspect of this journey that I've yet to mention: Inches-Lost. Since the beginning of this journey (at xxx.2 lbs), I have lost a total of 17.5 inches. Wow. Now that's worth celebrating. Granted, these inches lost are totaled from arms, bust, waist, hips, and thighs and not just from one area. I won't give you all the hairy details here, but I will tell you that I've lost 5 of those inches off of my waist alone. Not quite time for new pants, but we're getting closer.

Ok, enough about me. Let me tell you what else we've been up to these days. GRADUATING!!!! That word deserves more attention. Did you hear me? GRADUATING!!! And I'm not even talking about myself. JB GRADUATED!!!! Hallelujah. After 9 long years of changing majors, changing schools, and changing degrees, he finally FINISHED.

                                                                    I love this man!

I'm not certain of all of the different majors that he's had since most of them were "B.E" (Before Erin) but here's a run-down of the few that I know of:

Pharmacy tech
Engineering
Drafting (at 2 different times and schools, I might add)
Teaching
Physical Education
Mathematics
and finally, Religious Studies (this is the one he finally settled on and graduated with)


Now, he'll probably choose to read this blog and tell me that most of those were wrong, but you get the idea. He's changed his mind... A LOT. Which is why it has taken him 9 years to finish. (And I didn't even mention all the different schools he attended or planned on attending over the years!)

There are many addictions out there. Drugs, Alcohol, Tobacco, Food, etc. Well, my husband suffers from an addiction also... and addiction to SCHOOL. He literally, doesn't remember NOT going to school. He doesn't know what to do with himself these days. No homework, no assigned reading. He picked up his computer the other day and said "I don't even know why I'm on this thing." Last week, I caught him online looking at colleges for his Master's Degree!! Of all the nerve. After 20+ years of school, looks like he'd want to stop.  It was then that I made him promise to take a 1 year sabbatical from higher education. "No school for a whole year, young man!" Trust me, this girl will only walk across that stage ONE time. There will be no MA or DR here.

Speaking of walking across the stage:

                                                                        I'm so proud!

The ceremony started at 9:00am, and we arrived at 8:30 but apparently everyone else got a memo that said to arrive at the crack of dawn because the only places left to sit were in the blazing sun on uncomfortable metal bleachers behind a large tree. Boo. And did I mention that JB was the first one across the stage? So no practice run for pictures. Luckily, I sat on the edge of the bleachers and had options to step around the tree and snap a few photos. At least I got a few pics after too:

(I'm not going to comment on the above picture... we all know I'm going through the Weight-loss so we'll just leave it unsaid)

                      Jonah had to give Daddy a hug. He'd been looking for him for a long time!

 This is Josh's college Advisor and Mentor, Bro Robbie White. Bro Robbie was also Josh's pastor when he lived in Huntsville as a child. It's amazing how things come full circle, huh?

Thank goodness our niece Becca decided to go with us instead of watching her brothers play football. She was a HUGE help with the boys!

I'm sure there's more to be said here, but anything else that has happened has slipped my mind. See you here next time where we'll celebrate Mine and JB's 5 year anniversary!

Mama said there'd be days like this.

Weight-loss week #10.. am I at 10 already? Drum roll please: -2.8lbs! Yay! That brings me to 15lbs and humbling fact that my Mama was right about my gain last week. Well, she should know. After all, she's lost close to 80lbs herself. And because of that, I've decided to make my Mama the subject of this week's blog.

 (By the way, she would kill me for making any picture of her available to the public. She never wants her picture made and is very elusive of the camera. Any pictures here are made without her knowing they were made, which is why she is never looking at the camera. It is also why I am having much difficulty finding ANY pictures of her at all!!)

I love my Mama. She is truly my angel in disguise. Every Tuesday, she knocks on the door around 8 and the boys go sprinting to the door saying "Boo Boo, Boo Boo". Not only does she keep my kids for free while I'm a work, but she also gets away with washing every dirty dish, all dirty clothes, and is known to clean the entire kitchen including the counters, sink and stove.Not to mention, help the boys color every page in their new coloring books and read every book on the shelf to them. How in the world does she do that?!? I'm good to do 1 load of dishes, 2 loads of clothes, and maybe read 2 books. The rest of my housework is done during nap time. (It's probably because she doesn't have time wasters like Facebook and this blog to distract her like I do!). On top of all of this, she has put her entire life on hold for the past year to move in with my grandmother and take care of her. She is an amazing mother, grandmother (or Boo-Boo), wife, and daugher-in-law.

I wish I had pictures of her dramatic weight loss, but as I said before... she hate pictures. You'll just have to take my word for it.

                                                              We love you, Boo-Boo!!

Weight Loss Journey: Week #9

Ok, so we've reached the 9 week mark. I wish I could blog about the EXTREME loss of flab this week, but that's not the case. If you've read the previous blogs, you'd know that I've stepped up the exercise routine a bit. In fact, since last weigh-in, I've walked about 8 miles over 4 days. With all this exercise I expected large amounts of body fat to look up at me and say "I give up... With all this exercise, you're not the same person that you were. I'm leaving your hips for someone else's...Someone with... cheesecake and no will power". I wish I could say that's what happened...but it's not.

I gained.. wait... I can say it. I'm a grown up. I. GAINED. Arrrgh.

.8lbs.

Now, I know it's not even a whole pound, but to me it might has well been 10. After all the effort I put in to exercise, my body repays me with the unfortunate gift of poundage?! Really? *Sigh*

I've heard all the reasons, all the excuses, and most of them have a happy ending... that next week all of my hard work will pay off and I'll lose the weight I gained this week. But, right now.. well, honestly... it kinda makes me want to eat a half gallon of  Blue Bell (light, of course).

No, No... don't worry. I didn't give in to the Blue Bell, or the chocolate, or the... well, other bites of goodness. I couldn't let down all 6 of my blog readers. I'm pressing on. To the final goal... and a little red dress.

Oh, that's right. I forgot to tell you about the little red dress, didn't I? Well, it's kind of a long story so I'll condense it:

When Josh and I got engaged and I went shopping for a wedding dress, I told him that I bought a red dress. After all, I love the color red, and it was my wedding, so why not do something different? Of course.. I didn't REALLY buy a red wedding gown (even though now, I kinda wish I would have!), but since Josh didn't see it until our wedding day, he really thought it was red. I even bought red wedding shoes, which I, of course, showed to him to reinforce my "red dress" story. What makes this story special, is that EVERYONE was in on this little secret: My family, his family, even the minister told Josh a few moments before we were married "Man, I never thought she'd pull of that red dress, but she looks amazing!". Anyway, every girl dreams of the day she is walking down the aisle and sees her future husbands face for the first time... smiling in excitement and mesmerized by her beauty. Well, my future husband's face was shaking in disbelief and disappointment. The first thing he said to me when I reached the alter was "It's not red.. You LIED". Yes, while on the stage in front of all our family and friends in what should have been the most precious moment on our lives together.. he calls me a liar. Thankfully, he whispered it and I still got married in a white dress, but I have YET to live this down. 5 years later and he still talks about it.

OK, back to present day. I promised myself and Josh, that whenever I lost all of my weight, I'd buy a red dress. A nice cute little red dress. And he has to promise to never call me a liar ever again!

100lbs, Red dress... 2 promises that have yet to be kept. But.. we have a year, so we'll keep on trucking.

The Learning Curve

In honor of the first day of school for many children (although, thankfully not mine yet!) I thought that a blog on learning was appropriate. The boys are getting to the age where they LOVE to learn. Jayton is all about books and reading. As much as I would love to say that my 2 year old is reading and that I'm a super-mom... he's not. But, he LOVES to be read to at any given moment of the day. Seriously... cooking supper, using the bathroom, or writing a blog: any of these are apparently prime opportunity for Mama to read a book!


Another favorite pass time of theirs is coloring. We've gone through about 8 coloring books since Spring. At one point I was even giving them my homework to color on! Here's one of Jonah's masterpieces: (Sorry, I can't figure out how to flip them around!)

                                                                          Coloring

Jonah is a very serious artist!

 

His serious Face

 

 

I mentioned earlier about the lack of coloring books at our house. Saturday, we headed to Lifeway because they were having a Kids Day Sale. They had several Veggietale coloring books for 99cents (yes, please!) plus other Veggie sale items. While we were there, they also gave the boys some snacks, capri-sun and they also scored these awesome sunglasses (or "jazz" as the boys call all glasses).

Here's some pics of them in their new "Jazz"

Letters and numbers are also a new play-thing. Especially, if they are of the magnet variety. And, since my deep freeze is located in my kitchen, it offers an entire empty canvas for such magnetic fun!

(Notice the "Jazz" again. We're talking day #2. I'm just glad I convinced him NOT to wear them to church.)

 Jayton is very good at counting... well to ten. Beyond ten is a little shaky. Here's a sample of him counting.

One, do, fee, fo, five, six, ven, A, ni, ten, ven, telve, sixteen, sixteen, sixteen, sixteen, sixteen, sixteen, SIXTEEN.

They can also recognize certain letters and numbers. For instance:
Me: Can you find "M" for Mama?
Jonah: (Finds the letter M) "Eight - Mama!"
Me: No that's an M, not an eight
Jonah: OK, eight, right.
**Oh well. The only letter that they actually pronounce correctly is "P for Pawpaw" the rest of them are eights. But... at least they recognize D for Daddy, B for BooBoo (the name they call my Mama), C for Cisgo, J for Jayton & Jonah, and G for Grandma.

                  Even Charger likes to play with numbers... if only I could train HIM to go potty!

 In 3 more years when I see my babies starting Kindergarten I hope to look back on this blog and smile. Hopefully, Jayton will learn to read by then, and Jonah will learn to color within the lines. But most of all, I hope look back and find that they have lost those pink sunglasses!

Exercise

Week 8 of the Weight-Loss journey was not much to blog about. I only lost .8lbs.... which IS a loss, but not much of one. This brings my grand total to -13.2lbs and my weekly average to 1.6lbs a week. Fearing that I had reached the dreaded "plateau" stage early, I decided that it was time to start exercising. Monday, I walked 1 mile and did 100 crunches. Now, I'm sure that if a trainer came in and saw me doing crunches, he would probably tell me that I'm actually NOT doing a crunch, I'm just wiggling around on the floor. But, after doing a 100 wiggles, it sure feels like 100 crunches to me! I couldn't even laugh or cough on Tuesday. I figure any movement is better than no movement :)

Tuesday, I stepped it up a bit with the walking: 2 miles. After my 1 mile walk on Monday, I just didn't feel as though I had pushed myself to the brink of exhaustion, so I went for the 2 mile loop on Tuesday. Much better, but I could still get out of bed the next day which leads me to believe that I still haven't reached my full potential.  Due to church and choir practice last night, I didn't have time to walk, so tonight, I'm going to try a 2.5 or 3 mil and see if I can at least get a blister or 2 and feel like I'm suffering a bit for my weight-loss!

Family update:
The boys and I went to PawPaws yesterday for an oil change. I just love having a mechanic for a daddy! I wish I had taken some pictures, but I left my phone in the car, which was 7 feet up in the air on the lift. The boys had a blast playing in the dirt with some little tractors that Daddy had bought them. They also loved walking around and looking at all of PawPaws tractors and junk. Today, after breakfast, Jonah picked up his toy keys and said "Bye Mama".
I said "Where are you going?"
Jonah "Paw Paw's house"
Me: "What are you going to do at Paw Paw's?"
Jonah: "Fix Budn Budns (cars) and Dig dumps (tractors)"

What can I say? He's got Jordan in his blood.

PS: JB finally read The Blog and guess which one (and only) post he read? You guessed it!

The Blog: A Husband Free Zone

I've had this blog for several weeks now, but there's someone who still, apparently, has no interest in reading it. Who? You guessed it: He's the subject of this post. Oh.. I've told him about it several times, and you'd think that he'd at least take a glance. I mean, if I knew someone was talking about me online for millions of (OK, just 4) followers to read, that I'd be there in a heart beat!

The Blog had been up about a day when I told him. The conversation went something like this:
Me: "I started us a blog today"
JB: "You started US a blog or you started YOU a blog?"
Me: "Well.. me and us, I guess"
JB: "OK"

End of Conversation. Really?? No more comments or questions? (I married a man of few words in case you can't tell. )

Let's fast forward a few weeks. This conversation happened Sunday.
Me: Have you read my blog
JB: Nope. What do you talk about on there anyway?
Me: Oh, lots of things. Weight-loss, Kids, personal things about you, your health and well-being, etc.
JB: OK

End of Converstaion. Really?? (haha) Are you even listening?

Later on, another Blog Convo:
Me: My blog has been viewed over 100 times! (I'm very excited, here)
JB: OK (Ahh... You...Man of few words!!)
Me: Have you read it yet?
JB: Nope. I don't know where it is?
Me: It's on my Facebook
JB: I don't look at your Facebook.... you're my wife. I should already know what's happening on your facebook. (Obviously......He doesn't. Exhibit A: The Blog)

So, currently JB has yet to read The Blog. My luck... He'll probably choose to read this one.

Just to leave off on a high note here, I would like to say that I love my husband. He's a great Christian man, excellent provider, loving husband and awesome father. I wouldn't change anything about him.

Except maybe.. that he read my blog :)

Weight-loss Journey: Week #7

Another week, another pound! At this week's weigh-in, I'm down to a total loss of -12.4lbs.

Another pound and a half down the... er.... well.... drain? That brings me to my very next point: Where DOES the weight actually go? I mean, 12lbs is a considerable amount of poundage to just disappear. I now the actual term is that it "is burned off as energy".... but that definition is just not acceptable to me. I would physically like to see it fall off in chucks :}. I just keep picturing in my mind 2 bags of sugar that just disappeared out of thin air (and hard work of course!)

When I first started this weight-loss journey 7 weeks ago, I took a picture of myself for reference sake. Due to the horrible appearance of these pictures, I won't disclose these pictures until I lose a little more weight. Then, I'll let you see the before and after. I have been meaning to take one every month, but I forgot (oops.). I say all that to say, that I took another one today, and I have to tell you.... I can't see much of a difference. Now, my Mom and JB both say that they can tell... but seriously... that's my Mama and my husband. Aren't they supposed to say things like that? I called JB on it though, and I asked him "HOW" he could tell that I'd lost weight. His response: "I can tell when I hug you". Aww. That was nice.

 Now, onto a little family time. The boys insisted on taking pictures at home the other day.

                                                                   They're best friends!

                                        Jonah posed with his dog (named, so affectionately "dog")

                                                 Jayton's prop of choice was a plastic shovel.

Another side note here..I love my little Jayton, but he takes the WORST pictures. Please see the following exhibit "A". Believe me, these are only a sample. Jayton's eyes are closed in almost all pictures of him! I secretly think he does it on purpose just to annoy his Mommy ;)
                                                                       Exhibit "A"

   
I love my boys and all their crazy habits!