a week of activity...

I try and I try and I try, but I just can't seem to stay committed to checking into this blog.  Maybe it's because I feel like I have to have something profound to say.  Maybe it's because I know that no one is reading this but me.  Maybe it's because it's for me to get my thoughts out, and I talk so much on most days that I don't feel the need to write it all out.  But the truth is, I forget things, and I want to keep them in my memories.  I want to look back and say, "oh, yeah!  I remember that!"  Rather than events being completely forgotten.  On that note, here are a few events from the last week.


Daylight savings time ended and we gained an extra hour of sleep.  Is this really worthy to put in a blog?  Maybe not, but I love it that I get that extra hour back because it puts me on time again.  When we "spring forward" into the time change, I lose that hour and I struggle to be on time.  It totally throws my sleep schedule off, and I am not a morning person, so it makes a huge difference.  So, we gained an hour.


Also on Sunday, we celebrated the members of our church who have passed over the last year by lighting a candle for each of them.  It was painstakingly horrible.  I know it was meant as a tribute, but for me it brought back all of those reasons why we miss Myron so terribly.  As his name was read, there were sobs throughout the church.  It's just so crazy that he isn't here anymore.  So, the week was a bit rough dealing with that depression once again.  Not that it has completely left anyway.  


We did try to pull ourselves out of the funk on Sunday evening by going to see Megamind. As I had hoped, laughter was a result.  But how can you not laugh at a movie that features the voice of Will Ferrell.  That reminds me...I need to pull out Elf for the holidays.  :)


On Thursday, while everyone celebrated Veteran's Day (BTW...Thank you to all of you soldiers who are willing to risk your life and fight for our freedoms), we celebrated a very special day.  It was the day that my husband was shoved out of his 20s.  That's right.  My hubby joined me in the thirty something crowd.  He's now 30!  Why do I exclaim it?  You see, he always gives me a hard time about already being there, but now he's here with me.  :)  Of course, he's sure to rub it in that the same thing will happen when I turn 40.  Oh, the joys of marrying a younger man.  The family all met at our house that evening to have an incredible steak dinner to celebrate both Nick and Jerad's birthday, and we topped it off with a giant double doozie cookie and a trip to Rialto to see Secratariat, another incredible movie.


Friday, we ran to the German restaurant for another incredible meal.  Then, Saturday, we had friends over to celebrate Nick and Jerad's birthday.  We must be getting old or boring or maybe both because everyone was out of the house by 10:30.  Although, we had a great time with those who came by.


We ended the weekend with a trip to the city to see Shrek the musical.  The boys thought it was one of the best ones they had ever seen.  We had box seats which gave us a different perspective of the show.  We were able to see a lot of technical things, which for our family is greatly appreciated.  We ate Olive Garden for lunch, and for the first time ever, I didn't order pasta.  I looked at the menu online before we got there so I could try to make a healthy decision, which was much needed after the weekend that revolved around eating since Thursday.  I was surprised that I maintained my weight throughout all of that.  Now for a week of big weight loss!  I have the final weigh in for the Lose 2 Win challenge next Tuesday.  I've got to stay on track this week!

motivation...

Do you ever wake up in the morning and feel totally blah?  How about the opposite?  Do you ever wake up totally motivated and ready to conquer the day?  That's how I feel today.  I'm not sure what it is (maybe it's the time change), but I feel ready to get things done.  There are so many things that I want to accomplish, I'm having a hard time focusing on what I want to do first.  On a normal day, I will wake up and get the kids out of bed do a few things to try and wake myself up while they are getting around.  Solve a few arguments between the two of them.  Tell them to stop messing with the cat so they'll actually get their morning routine finished.  Then dart into town to get them to school, sometimes just barely before the tardy bell rings.  I do all of this while still in my pajamas.  That's right.  I leave the house in my pajamas.  No combed hair.  No bra.  I just hope I never get a flat tire during that time.  I noticed a difference last week.  One day I took the kids to school in my pajamas then came home and had a hard time getting motivated to do anything.  Another day, I put on workout clothes (to which I received this comment from Brickman:  "I thought you didn't wear a bra to take us to school.")  When I came home, I got so much more accomplished.  So, that's one of my goals each day now: to wake up and put on clothes to workout.  At very least, even if I don't work out, I'll get something else accomplished.


I've gotten quite a bit accomplished in the past few weeks as per weight loss.  I finally feel motivated to get that done, and I love seeing the results.  I'm down a pant size and have lost 12 pounds.  I feel so much better with just that amount off of me.  I'm trying to get into exercise.  I'm doing things each day to be more active.  I borrowed my sister's Zumba DVDs, which have been a lot of fun.  I think the biggest thing is that I actually see myself getting it done this time.  I'm changing habits that I can stick to, but am still allowing myself to have some of the things that I love.  Something that I know I'll love is the way that I look once I get more weight off.  I can't wait to see myself two months from now when I go to Arbonne's Global Training Conference.  Or six months from now.  Or a year from now.  I love it that I see myself thin and healthy.  I'm not there yet, but I will be.  I'm motivated.  No more procrastination.  I'm motivated and am taking action.

did you vote?

Today I am thankful that I live in a time and a place where I can vote.  So many people fought for that right, yet so many don't exercise that duty.  Of course, if a person is to go to his/her polling place to cast his/her vote, I certainly hope that he/she takes the time to get educated about the candidates and the issues.  I believe that everyone has the right to their own opinion [even though I may like mine more than yours :)] so I won't tell you that your vote was stupid because of what you voted.  That's something that I see all over the social networking world.  I also believe that you should vote for the best person for the job, not necessarily straight party.  But then again, how can you truly tell who is the best for the job?  The best thing to do is to continue to pray for our leaders, whether they were the ones who we hoped to see put into office or not.  And speaking of elections...here's one other thing I'm thankful for:  no more political mail or phone calls!

a new month...

There's something about a new month that makes me feel like I get a fresh start.  I guess it's really just another day, but if it gives me that outlook, I'm going for it.  I'm starting my November with being thankful, since we're in the month of Thanksgiving.  Today, I'm thankful for an awesome camera that helps me capture some incredible memories...most recently Halloween.


With the turn of the month, it makes me realize that I need to get in gear for Christmas shopping.  I've already bought several things, but I need to assess what I have and still need so I'm not doing any last minute shopping.  The new month also makes me realize how quickly time flies.  It really seems that we were just laying out by the pool this summer.  How did it get to be November already?  Before we know it, the new year will be here.  

tuckered out...

After constant Halloween celebrations since Wednesday, we're officially tuckered out.  As I've said before, we really get into Halloween, but I think it was almost too much this year.  Or maybe it was just too much going on and running from one thing to the next.  Jerad was extremely busy running sound on campus all day Saturday and Sunday then coming immediately home both nights to get dressed up and galavant around.  All of our tempers were a bit on edge from one thing or another.  Too much partying?  Too much sugar?  Perhaps.  We normally don't take the kids door to door to trick or treat.  Instead, we hit very particular houses.  Most of them want us to come by so they can see our costumes.  Others, the boys really want to go to.  By the end of the night, we were all ready to get home and get out of costumes.  We are, of course, already talking about what we're going to do next year.  Thank goodness we have a rest until then!


Here's a few pictures:

My little werewolf decided he didn't want to wear a mask because no one knew who we was.  

He preferred the werewolf makeup instead. (So why did I buy the mask? Oh, well!)

I thought Frankenstein looked really creepy here.  :)

And a family picture on Halloween night.  Brickman wore the hat because we ran out of the spray paint for his hair and didn't get the top of his head finished.  I thought the hat went great with it anyway.

And now to rest.  It's just too bad that we have to get up early so the boys can go to school.  I could see myself sleeping in!

my favorite time of year...

Actually, I love all of the seasons.  I love spring because everything is so fresh and new.  I love the relaxing days of summer where we can sleep in and stay up late and hang out by the pool in the afternoon.  But the fall is so beautiful.  The leaves on the trees are changing color.  The weather is simply beautiful.  And to add to all of that, it has all of the great holidays.  Halloween is a great kick-off into the season, although we start planning for it a year in advance.  Seriously...as we're driving home on Halloween night, someone always asks, "So what are we going to be next year?"  Last night was our first Halloween celebration with Trunk or Treat at the church, and I spent the entire day sewing.  Yes, we start planning for Halloween a year in advance, but I tend to wait until the last minute for costumes...at least the ones that I have to make.  And every year, we have a family theme.  This year, we're classic horror film monsters, thanks to our youngest little monster telling us that he didn't want to dress as a family this year.  It about broke my heart to hear it.  He told us that he wanted to be a werewolf, so we decided that we could work with that.  So, we have a werewolf, a mummy, Frankenstein's monster, and the bride of Frankenstein.  Trunk or Treat is always a great way for us to get a trial run with our costumes and work out any kinks that we may have before the big day of Halloween.  With Halloween being on a Sunday this year, we have lots of days to celebrate and wear the costumes.  School parties and trick or treating downtown are on Friday, costume party on Saturday, and Halloween on Sunday.  Love it!  Jerad and I both have theatre degrees, so I think this is a way that we express our inner desire to play another character.  At least for a night, we get to perform again.

Here we are for our first go-round.  

I'm sure the costumes will evolve as we get closer to Halloween night.

four months...

That's how long it's been since I've written anything on here.  I figured I'd write a few things...because writing is therapeutic...not that I feel like I have anything that I need to talk to a therapist about...not right now anyway.

So much has happened in the last four months.  Here's a few pictures (starting from where I left off):

I went to the Miss Oklahoma pageant in June with my best friend Amanda.  We had a blast!

 My main purpose in going was so see my beautiful niece perform in the Outstanding Teen pageant.  Even though she didn't win, she did amazing!

We attended the Music Theatre Wichita throughout the summer with the extended family.

We went to the midnight showing of eclipse.  

Brickman made his shirt just for the occasion.

We celebrated the fourth of July with lots of family and fireworks.

We went to Jerad's best friend's wedding in Texas where he and Nick were groomsmen.

My niece won the Miss Alva pageant which qualified her to compete in the Miss Cinderella pageant during homecoming, where she received 2nd runner up.

And the kids had fun at the homecoming game. (Or at least Brickman did.  Braylon was in a mood most of the day and didn't participate in much.)

So, those are a few of the events from the past few months.  Despite all of this that looks so happy and jovial, we've had extreme sadness that we will, without doubt, continue to fight for a long time.  In July, we lost Jerad's dad in an unexpected accident.  I guess all accidents are unexpected.  This has been something that has not only jarred us, but also affected the entire town.  Myron was an incredible man who would drop anything to help you.  Few could call him a stranger.  Many called him a friend, which was proved by the amazing service celebrating his life.  Knowing the months that lie ahead, normally the most exciting time of the year, I'm sure that we'll face some emotional times being void of his presence.  I rejoice in the memories that we had with him, although we'll always yearn for more.  And I praise God that we'll see him again, though not in this world that we know now.  It's still so hard to wrap my mind around what happened, and it seems like we've been without him for so long yet it seems like we just lost him.  It's crazy.  We continue in our daily lives knowing that there's definitely a piece missing but realizing that this is the new normal.  I praise God for his love and grace and for friends and family that have helped make this transition...not easier (as that can't be done)...more bearable.  What an amazing group of friends and family we have!

Now that I'm up to date, maybe I'll stay that way.  Or maybe not...we'll see.