In My Not Too Distant Future....

I have been asked to help out with Girls' Camp this year with our church. It's next week. Once I found some victims willing participants to watch my kids I actually was excited. Until today. When I thought to look at the weather forecast.

I'm doomed.

Final Weigh-In!

Check my weight loss blog for my final weigh-in!

www.stephisawinner.blogspot.com

Love That Face...

All of them...

Visit to Branson

Our most recent adventure was to Branson with our friends the Ricchetti's... more specifically to Silver Dollar City. We have bought season passes for 3 years now and the kids LOVE it! I love it, too... as long as we go with some people who will ride the roller coasters with me! This time we found the little petting zoo... not sure how we have never seen it before! Here are a few snapshots of our visit!

Start From the Present

"Start from the present and work your way back." That is what a scrapbooking guru told me years ago when I whined to her that I didn't know how I would ever get all my pictures scrapbooked!

If I wait much longer, I'll feel just as overwhelmed with blogging and stop like I did with scrapbooking.

So starts the catch-up!

So Far...

To read some posts about this weight-loss thing click here.

The photo on the left is the photo I sent in to the Slim Chance Competition. The photo on the right is one that Aspen took (therefore, the blurriness) a couple of weeks ago... I'M GETTING THERE!

Never Ask a Bald Man For a Brush

One morning my girls asked their daddy for the brush. He told them, "Never ask a bald man for a brush." He's a regular Confucius!

It's Somebody's Birthday Today...

She's turning 10! I love you, Aspen.

Anyone Still Out There?

I wouldn't blame any of you if you're not! I feel like such a freakin' slacker! Oh well. Can't change it. I feel so obsessed with this diet and facebook that I've let the ole blog go to the wayside. I have plans to improve... we'll see how that goes!

Today officially marks 2 years since I started this blog! Fun, huh? Maybe in the coming days and weeks I can prove myself worthy of such a remarkable event!

I updated my previous post.

Look For Me! April Fool's!

Oh man, this one was good! Admit it, MANY of you were fooled! I love it!! It's the one time a year that I can legally lie!! Love ya guys!

I promise I will not monopolize my personal/family blog with my weight loss efforts. BUTTT, I just HAVE to share with you all this incredibly exciting thing that is happening!!!

Some of you know about the enormous stress that we've been under with our house selling/buying stuff right now (I'll fill everybody in later)... well, in the middle of all this stress, yesterday afternoon I got a phone call from one of Oprah's assistants talking to me about this weight loss competition and the success that I've had! OPRAH! They are wanting to do a show on mini 'Biggest Loser' contests and how successful the contestants have been!! Can you believe it?! I'm on cloud nine!

They want me to come to Chicago in a couple of weeks for the show!! HOLLA! I'm so totally there! Who wants to come with me?! They said something about letting me bring a support person or two!!

DANG! With the stress of all this house stuff I DESERVE this awesome opportunity!!

Feel Like 15 All Over Again

This diet has given me tons of energy! I'm feeling great! Plus, I had to take the written driving test this week!

Last time I even thought about questions for that test I was 15. Oh the the things we'll do to feel young again! Actually, I let my license lapse more than 30 days. Silly me. I should be OCD and looking at my driver's license everyday to make sure it hasn't expired! I don't remember having a problem with this until I moved south! Last time I let it lapse I found out when I got pulled over really late at night on my way home from visiting Shelley in Tulsa! I swear that I've received reminders for the expiration when I've lived in other states! Didn't I? I'm just curious... how do you all find out that your license is expiring?! Regardless, I had to take the test.

I really didn't think too much of it. It was just a pain finding time during the day to go do it. Last week Geoff was home sick for a couple of days so I decided it was time. As I pulled into the State Trooper's Headquarters (driving myself without a valid driver's license and expired license plate) I started thinking that maybe I should have looked over some sample questions or something. It has been 20 years after all! (holy crap... 20 years!) Then I started to get nervous that I might not actually pass it! Oh the disgrace if I didn't pass this! Nervousness really set in as I got out of the car and got in line behind people who had review booklets in their hands! WHY didn't I think to ask them about review material when I called?! I'm an idiot.

So, I sat down to do the test. 25 questions. A friend told me that if I get 6 wrong it automatically turns off the test and fails me. I'm sweating. The first couple of questions weren't too hard. I actually remember them from when I was 15 (believe it or not). Questions like: What does this sign mean?

I started thinking: "Ok, this is going to be easy!"

Then they threw one of these in there: A passenger vehicle is going 55 mph. When stopping, how far before it comes to a complete stop? A. 110-120 feet B. 130-140 feet C. 170-180 feet

I DON'T KNOW!!!!!

Or how about this one: How many hours does it take to get alcohol out of a person's system? A. 3 drinks per hour B. 2 drinks per hour C. 1 drink per hour

YOU'RE KIDDING ME!!! Had no clue.

I must have guessed right enough because I made it through all 25 questions and the computer didn't blow up or tell me I failed! Thank goodness. I left the building with a permit. I could only drive with a licensed adult 21 or older until I could make it to a different building to actually have the license printed. I hope they didn't watch me leave.

Slim Chance Updates

If I haven't told you, you haven't noticed, or you haven't read it on my Facebook.... I have a new blog that that I will be updating with progress reports on the competition that I'm in to lose weight. A link to it is on the sidebar on the right... feel free to follow along and give me any positive encouragement that you deem fit!

Time to Potty-Train?

Is it time to potty-train my 2 year old when she crawls over to her daddy in bed, sits on his head, and produces a toot? She did it on purpose... not an accident. She busted out laughing as well as her parents. Add that to my list of things to do!

Slim Chance

Well, some of you might have a hard time believing that I've won something again. I don't blame you after my little April Fool's Joke last year! I can hardly believe it myself! But I did! I'm sure that my luck will change someday!

So, here's the low down:

When we first moved here to New City I found a really great website for moms in the area and it had tons of information on things to do and places to go. I get an email update from it probably once a week. A couple of weeks ago I skimmed over the email and it described a weight loss competition that it wanted to start with one of the moms from the website and were asking for women to submit entries to be in this little competition. There would be two moms chosen to receive 3 months free membership to a local gym and 3 months free with Metabolic Research Center (weight loss program similar to LA Weight Loss or Weight Watchers). This is huge in and of itself! A local radio personality got in on the action too ~ even though he's a guy. So... I had this page open on my computer for about a week and a half. I didn't even turn off my computer! This is something that could change my life if I was ready for it! But I was hesitant. I even drafted a couple of emails with my entry but deleted it. I was worried about how public it would make my life. My issues. But, on the other hand, I knew that I needed to do something. On the last day before the deadline I wrote out my little 'essay' and submitted it. You guessed it! They picked me!!! There were two women chosen out of about 30 entries and I was one of them!!! So what does this mean, you are asking? It's kind of like Biggest Loser but on a much smaller scale. We are all four battling to be the one person with the most weight loss at the end of the 3 months as well as a 'grand prize' (that hasn't really been described yet). The lady from the website and the radio personality do not qualify for the prize at the end so it's just between me and the other mom chosen. During the 3 months we are going to working out together, supporting each other, and blogging about it on their site (right up my alley)! I'm sooo happy for this opportunity! I need this. I need my health back. I need my self-esteem back. This is just the motivation that I needed!

Woohoo!!! Wish me luck!

PS If any of you want to track it on the website email me and I will send you the link. Because my blog is open to the public, I'm not comfortable publicizing where I live and the link has my hometown in the address. I will be posting some if not all of my posts on here as well but not any of the other contestants! (if you're so inclined to read theirs)

Fine. Is This Better?

Girl Scout Cookies Are In

I Realize...

... that I've been a slacker blogger about the important things in life. For example, I have yet to explain under what unfortunate circumstances this happened:

Because I just know that you are all just DYING to know about it!

Or what went terribly wrong here:

Or what the heck this was doing on my couch:

And though I'm sure that you can figure out what this next one is about... it's only part of the story!

So, in the meantime, until I can get my act together you'll get more pictures like this:

Break It Down

As I looked closer to the picture in my previous post, I noticed a couple of things that I thought were interesting. Now, you may not find these interesting. But I did. And this is my blog and I can do what I want. So there.

Because it's a little hard to read I thought that I would blow them up for you:

Anyone who uses Google Chat will know what that is. If you don't you should. And now, I'm going to let you in on a little secret.... I ALWAYS have mine set to invisible. Basically, this means that I can see anyone who gets on to chat but they can't tell that I'm really there! Clever, huh? I realize that I will have to probably change this way of living now that I've told you but that's okay.

I realize that I have a problem with letting go. Over 2300 emails in my inbox. At least I've read them. But for one reason or another I've kept them. Fortunately, Gmail just made it possible to have folders. So, maybe I can get a little more organized and start filing away all those critical emails that I'm sure I will need later!

With the click of a button I can invite anyone I'm emailing to start chatting. The email above was from Google Calendar. I should just try it and see.... k. I did it. Now I'm just waiting to hear back!

Feel free to note any other quirky things about this screen shot!

I Love Days Like This