Buckling Down

Talking about my weight isn't something that I normally discuss, but I decided to share with you some of my adventures in achieving and maintaining a healthy weight. Ever since my little Kevin was born (4 years ago) I have been striving to return to my pre-pregnancy weight. My sister-in-law Tammy and I both began Weight Watchers in May 2006. We both took it very seriously and achieved great accomplishments. Then life happened and we both got pregnant. Our weight loss goals were put on hold until the births of our little boys (Caleb in Aug. 2007 and Kevin Nov. 2007). Ever since then, it has been a struggle to fight the many challenges that have come between me and seeing those numbers on the scale that I had worked so hard to attain for six months back in 2006. I am pleased to report that I am within 9 pounds of my previous weight, and am still losing. This is definately not an easy task considering I am the mother of five children who all love to eat sweets and junk food, and considering my time is limited to eat right and work out. I have learned that these are merely obstacles that I have had to learn to overcome if I want to achieve my goals.Since the end of the summer, I have decided to get serious and buckle down on the diet. I have been exercising regularly at Jazzercise for over a year, but have learned that it takes much more than exercise to see results on the scale for me. Diet for me is about 90% of the weight loss, and exercise is about 10%. I can exercise like crazy and it doesn't do anything for me at the scale unless I'm watching what I eat. I've been a lifetime member at Weight Watchers for 5 years. I have hung onto my lifetime status by a shoe string sometimes, but have never given up. I've been hanging out at the top of my "healthy range" most of the past four years, not really makingany improvements. I'm so glad I didn't give up and let my lifetime membership slip away. I had a leader at Weight Watchers recently explain to me that if I wanted my weight to be lower in my healthy range, then i needed to lower my goal. I had been keeping it at the highest level in my weight range just so that I wouldn't have to pay the monthly fee if I was more than I wanted to be. So I got brave one day and lowered it by 4 pounds. That may not sound like much to some of you, but for my body who likes to be a certain number and not change, this can be a challenge. Since then, I have been sucessful keeping the weight off. I attribute some of the sucess to tracking what I eat better with the help of E-tools. Weekly meetings and weigh ins are excellent motivation too. Tammy and I get together and go to meetings which helps too, and my husband has recently taken his health more serious and is losing weight also. All of these things together have made a difference.

One thing I would say to those who are trying to reach weight loss goals is don't give up! Keep trying until you succeed. I haven't reached my personal goals in this area yet, but plan to keep chugging along. I have learned that enviroment is huge factor in helping control what we eat. If we surround ourselves with healthy alternatives to junk food, we are much more likely to succeed in making good choices. Now, if I can just remember that! Happy Holidays and don't give up this holiday season! You'll be sorry in Januray if you do!

Enjoying the last bit of Summer

I took all 5 of them to play in the fountain at the gateway right before they went back to school. Cool, free fun.

This week we went to Mulligan's. I had bought some discount passes on KSL deals, making this outing affordable and fun. It included miniture golf and the batting cages.

I'm so sad that Summer is over! It went by too fast. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad the kids are back in school, but I'll miss the warm sunny days we had together. Kevin used his club to push the balls in the holes. Here's us having enjoying the last day of 80 degree weather! So long Summer- see you next year!

Back to School! How Sweet it is!

August 29th marked the end of summer as my kids knew it, and marked the beginning of a new school year. I have kids in four different schools this year! I always wondered how this would be. I thought it would be crazier than it is, so that's a good thing. Gabriela is my oldest. She started high school this year at Riverton High. She loves it. She has so much fun going to the social events with friends, and is doing great in academics too. Ask her to speak to you in Spanish. ( She is in Spanish 3 this year.) She leaves at 7:00 with Rick, hence no pictures of her. Sorry.

Braden is on his own at the middle school this year. No big sister to share the school with. He's in 8th grade and doing great. He's my most independent child, which can be a good thing sometimes. He gets himself to school and home without even seeing me usually. He's up and out the door before I even have a chance to get out of bed. No pictures again.

Jesse and Daniel are at the elementary school that their dad went to! Jesse is in 4th grade and Daniel is in first grade. Jesse is a great big brother. He takes good care of Daniel, walking him to and from class. Daniel is adjusting to being gone all day. This was hard for him at first. He faked sick the second day when he realized this was going to be his new life. I decided to let him stay home that morning to observe him. When I walked into the family room about an hour later, he had fixed himself breakfast and was running around the house. I put him in the car and walked him to his classroom a little late, but he was there. A few days later he had a different outlook on it, and looks forward to going everyday now.

The fourth school really isn't a school, but it's something. "Joy School" is where Kevin goes twice a week for two hours. It's a glorious two hours for me, and he loves it too! I haven't had the opportunity to teach joy school yet, but it's coming up. It's a great program that teaches Kevin all about the "joys" in life.

Kevin's happy to use the same backpack that his three older brothers used. I just crossed out the older boy's name, and replaced with the new kid's name. I did this four times. See below.

The great thing about all of this is, that it lasts till the end of May! We are on traditional school schedule after many years of year-round. I'm liking this a lot!

Lagoon- It's what fun is!!!

On Friday Aug. 19th we had a family fun day at Lagoon! The kids had been wanting to go all summer, but we had just gone to Six Flags Magic Mountain in June of this year, so it took this long for Rick and I to feel ready to tackle another amusement park. It was a great day! One of the highlights of the day was having all five kids wearing underwear and not diapers! It was great not having to deal with diapers in the bathrooms at Lagoon!!!

The first ride we got on was Bulgy the Whale. Jesse was a great help to Kevin. He helped him get on all the rides and was a great companion for him this day. This worked out great for Jesse too since he is scared to ride many of the "older kids rides". This will be Jesse's last year of helping Kevin though, because he was measured for almost every ride he got on. The limit was 54 inches, and he measured 53. He will definately grow at least an inch this next year- most likely by Christmas.

One of our family favorites is Rattlesnake Rapids. It felt great to get wet on a hot summer day. Everyone but Kevin loved it. Kevin cried the whole ride.

One of the scariest rides to me is the sky ride. I'm always worried about those cables the ride hangs from. They just don't look at that secure. I try to tell myself that millions of people ride this ride without the cables ever breaking, but it still scares when when I'm up there. I rode with Daniel, Rick held on to Kevin tightly, Braden was on his own, and Gabriela and Jesse were in the first one together.

Looking down at the water fountain.

Rick and Gabriela were the only ones brave enough to ride the Rocket. Braden normally will do this ride, but felt sick after just getting of rock-o-plane.

We brought our own lunch, but by mid-afternoon we were ready for a snack.

Next, there was the train ride. Today they had two trains running, so this decreased the wait time which was nice.

Gabriela had to ride one her favorites- The Tilt-O-Whirl. I used to love this one too, but now it makes me sick. I must be old.

I even stayed off the carousel this year. The round and round motion makes me ill now too.

We had a fun day, and went home with some good memories!

It Wouldn't Be Summer Without Camping

I'll admit I haven't been camping for about 8 years, but my boys go camping every summer. This year, Rick and the boys talked me into going for one night. Grandma and Grandpa Wardle had not been camping for a few years too, so they decided to join us. Jason and his three kids also joined us in the evening.

The preparation time for getting ready to go is pretty intense. Several days before leaving we began shopping, locating items in the garage, and arranging for pet care for the time we would be gone. Gabriela was on pioneer trek this week, and wasn't the least bit sad that she was going to miss the event. I missed having her with us though.

After all the preparation, we set out for Mill Hollow- a campground in the Uintah Mountains. Rick loves the Uintahs. He was happy about this trip. Braden was happy too since he got to fish alot. He and Uncle Jason and Isaac spent catching fish and throwing them back in.

Jesse, Grandma, and I had fun playing Uno. I actually had time to read a book. It was a little weird. I'm so used to the constant hustle and bustle at home, that I had to adjust to having a few spare hours to just relax. The mountain air was cool and fresh and smelled great. The bugs were out in full force. Braden came home with about 60 mosquito bites, but didn't seem to mind. We had tin foil dinners and roasted marshmellows and made Smores. Can you believe I had never had a Smore before? I'd have to say it wasn't impressive. Definately wasn't worth the" Weight Watcher Points". Oh well, it was good to try one. Braden roasted Starburst candy, saying this is what the boys do at his boy scout camps he goes to. These were actually pretty good. That is why he is holding his stick up in the air, to let the starburst candy cool. We all slept good except for Grandpa who said he got too cold. In the morning it was time to work again and take down camp and pack everything back up again. It took us the rest of the day to bring everything home and get it all put away again and do the laundry involved. Overall I would say it was a lot of work, and somewhat fun. I think Rick and the boys enjoyed it more than I did, but that's ok too.

Building a Garden

We love our new house(still new to me even though it's been almost two years since we moved in). Our home came with many extras that our old one lacked. A new garden was not one of them. Rick and Braden are big on gardens in our family. Braden has so much fun growing his own produce and caring for a garden, so building one from scratch has been high on our list of things to accomplish since we moved in. After 4 months from startingt build, I am happy to say it is ready to plant!

Our first step was to rent a sod cutter and remove the grass that was in the spot that we wanted our garden to be. The sod was heavy and there was alot of it! We placed an ad on KSL classifieds and got rid of most of it for free. We were happy to have people come and haul it away at no expense to us. We also filled our extra garbage can for a few weeks to get rid of the scraps. Once that was done, the next step was to order the bricks and have those delivered. We bought over 600 bricks and they arrived on big pallets, and sat until we had the time to move them to where we wanted them. Time has definately been an issue in completeing the garden. With my work schedule, I am only home half the weekends each month. Slowly but surely, we completed this task too.

Once that was done, the next thing we did was begin to dig up some of the clay soil we are so blessed with here in Riverton. Rick borrowed his dad's tiller and the hard job was started. Next, we had 14 yards of top soil delivered and dumped in our driveway. We had Braden's boy scout group help us shovel it to the backyard. This was done in just a few hours time. After that, we had the fun task of leveling the bricks. This entails moving each one and adjusting the amount of dirt under the bricks to make it all look even and neat. We used a string to help guide us. Then, Rick and Braden went to the land fill and filled our trailer with compost. We shoveled the compost onto the top soil, and Rick tilled it in again. Below is our finished product. Braden will be planting very soon, and then we will have fresh produce once again.

Summer...Swimming and Town Days

Two of the things we look forward to in the summer are swim lessons and going to the Riverton Town Days celebration over the 4th of July weekend.

The kids have always done their swim lessons at the Riverton pool outdoors. This year it was extra nice because there were very few participants, making the class sizes small. Daniel and Jesse took the same level class and had their own private teacher. They learned how to float on their backs and tread water.

Kevin was also signed up, but he decided he wasn't ready to be a swimmer yet, and refused to go in the water. He will try it again next summer when he's 4.

On Friday July 1st we enjoyed the Riverton Parade. We sat in a great spot and had fun watching our youngsters collect candy and coupons. Thanks to Grandpa Wardle for making friends with the owner of the house, who gave us some room in front of his home to set up our chairs and reserve a spot.

Other highlights of the weekend included the haystack dive, BBQ at Grandma Wardle's, and going to the fireworks.

Gabriela made a flag cake. It was really good. We are having a fun summer, and hope you are too!

The Rest of the Trip

The remainder of our trip to California was slow paced. We relaxed and didn't feel like we needed to rush around. My dad recommended going to the Ronald Reagen Library, which we did. In the picture below you can see the kids standing in front of one of the cars that were in the procession when Ronald Reagen was shot. It was worth the money to walk through the different rooms and learn more about his life.

We spent time on the beach relaxing and playing in the sand. I forget how nice the sand is at the beach. It is so soft and warm. The kids had a blast.

We rented this family bike car and rode it up and down a beach in Santa Barbara. It was fun!

We visited with my California cousins and Aunt Jan. It was great to see everyone again. It had been 18 years since we last saw some of them.

Everything was going great, and then I started to get sick. It began with a sore throat on the second day of the trip. By the time we got home I couldn't stop coughing and felt very run down. As soon as we got home, Rick started getting sick. Gabriela had it the week prior to the trip. This is classic of our family. We always seem to have some illness or major car breakdown on every vacation. I'm not sure why it is that way, but no matter how hard we try not to be sick, at least one of us is ill.

I had fun seeing my old elementary school that I attended more than 30 years ago, and seeing the old houses my family used to live in. It was a good trip, but we were glad to come home again.