So in love

Once again, extra things found their way into our Costco cart tonight, and when I saw these little lovelies, there was no holding me back.
I've been wanting new dishes for a while now, the white Corelle we got when we first got married are still in good shape, but they're plain white Corelle. This is the 4-piece set, the large plate, the salad plate, bowl, and goblet.

Here's a close-up view of the plates and bowl.
And just the plate. I can't wait to eat dinner on this tomorrow night!The best part? IT'S PLASTIC!!!!! So it's kid friendly, WOOHOO!!! So in love.

Tagged

Our house was tagged today. Not by bored teenagers or angry gangsters, but by a happy little 4-year-old who LOVES to mark everything his. No question about who lives at our house, right?I love how it is correct (left to right) on the door, but backwards on the stucco. While I'm not super happy about him writing on the house, I think it's cute that he labeled the house as his. Let's just hope that it all washes off!

Introductions

I'd like to introduce you to someone. She's a nice enough girl, but she has a problem. She likes to eat. A little too much. She's never been a skinny girl, but not super fat either. Since she got married almost 10 years ago, her weight has fluctuated quite a bit, but she's stayed in a size bracket that was teetering on the plus size scale. She got to the point where she was out-growing even her "fat clothes" and she knew that she had to make a change.

This is me a few years ago at about the same weight I was when I joined Weight Watchers back in September. It's hard to see some of these pictures and see how big I was. I don't think I realized how bad it had gotten because I was in denial. I couldn't be that fat, right? I didn't have much direction for myself and I didn't know where to start.
Jump ahead a few months and let me tell you about this lady. She has worked hard on putting herself first. She is eating healthier food (and a lot less of it!) and is exercising and getting more active. She has a wonderful support system including the most supportive husband a wife could ever hope for and a group of fabulous ladies in her WW group. Her energy level has increased tremendously, her cholesterol levels are back in the healthy range, and her back doesn't hurt anymore. I just hit my goal weight three weeks ago and am now in the maintenance phase, which that alone is proving to be a tougher mental challenge than I anticipated. To reach my goal weight, I lost 37 lbs. and have gone down 6 sizes. It's amazing to try on new clothes in my new size and see how they actually fit! Jarom challenged me to try on my wedding dress a few weeks ago and it actually fit! Shortly after getting married, I started putting on weight and haven't been this size since then. That feels pretty darn good.
A large portion of my weight loss journey has been in my head as I've tried to understand what behaviors and habits put me in this situation in the first place, and I still struggle with emotional eating, but it's getting better. I think I would still like to lose a few more pounds eventually, but for now I am enjoying my new body.

Free cruise, anyone?

My friend just sent me an email about a contest to win a free cruise! Just head on over to Voyager Travel and sign up! Just don't be too lucky, I really want to win!

Fins, Bones, and Fries

During the cold winter months, it's nice to have fun indoor places to go play! Here's some recent pics from visits to the aquarium and the dinosaur museum:

Logan, Lincoln, Isaac, and Emilie in front of the huge spiders and cockroaches.
Try as I might, I couldn't get a pic of everyone (and I mostly mean Isaac!) to all smile at the same time, but this is the best one I could get of the cute boys.
The kids just loved playing in the sand and water at the dino museum and ended up playing there for almost a half hour! Isaac probably would have stayed longer if I would have let him!Isaac, Michaela, and Emilie digging for dino bones. I think Emilie was trying to see how many brushes she could use at once! Michaela and Emmie climbing up a dinosaur. What cute little cousins!Emilie, evidently, is not a fan of the big dinosaur bones. When we came to one that especially large, she would get this face:Few things in life can compare with our new-found joy of having an In-n-Out burger just a few miles away from our house.The kids don't mind too much either.

Growing up!

Isaac worked pretty hard yesterday wiggling his loose tooth. His ham and cheese sandwich at lunch helped, as well as constantly moving it back and forth with his finger. We thought for sure that it would come out last night, but when he went to bed it was still hanging on.
Then this morning, he kept working on it and it was all detached except for one little corner, so we tried the dental floss and door knob routine, but it kept slipping off his tooth. So I just wrapped the floss around his tooth and gave it a little tug, and the tooth came right out! As you can imagine, he is pretty darn excited to have his tooth come out! We made him a little tooth pillow so the tooth fairy knows where to find it when she comes tonight. I'm so proud of my little man, he's just getting so big!

To celebrate, we're going to take him to see the Tooth Fairy movie this afternoon.

I'm with Coco

I am so upset that tonight is Conan's last Tonight Show! I think NBC is making a HUGE mistake of letting him go and giving Leno back his old show that HE ALREADY RETIRED FROM. What is going to happen in another year when he decides to retire again? I think the whole reason Conan's show was getting lower ratings was because Leno was turning people off with his show that had no place in prime time. I just hope that another network picks him up soon. While it won't matter, I will NOT be watching Leno's show ever again, it just makes me too mad.