The Biggest Loser - Challenge

I love The Biggest Loser! I won't even apologize for it. (Believe me there are other reality shows that even I can't believe I watch!!) I get so excited to see people challenge themselves and learn what they can do. Watching the show motivates me.

Sooo...since I love Biggest Loser.... and I'm currently on a losing streak... (I'm hoping to reach 15 pounds lost at weigh-in tonight.).... I thought I'd combine my two loves and see if anyone wants to join me.

I'm going to institute - Biggest Loser Fridays here on my blog. Every friday I'll post how the week went, how many days I exercised, my thursday weigh-in results and anything else LOSER oriented. You can join in the fun in the comments section by posting your weekly stats or direct us to a post on your blog.

So come on and let's see... Who is the Biggest LOSER?

So much for dating the posts

Ok so the last post was really from Friday August 31, 2007, even though it says Tuesday September 4, 2007.

I wrote it last week, but had to attach the pictures before I posted it. Blogger has this little place where you can click "post options." I put the right date in. Imagine my surprise when it didn't display it. So much for back-dating some posts to get things caught up. I guess I'll do a quick little update post here.

The weekend was HOT! Not just HOT, but miserable HOT. Have I mentioned that we don't have a/c? Have I mentioned that we usually use a swamp cooler? The only time a swamp cooler doesn't work is when it's too humid....hmmm....me thinks the rain we got on Friday might be a clue as to how humid it was.

I had planned to spend the long holiday weekend cleaning and stamping. My house is a disaster and I need to take control!! Instead of cleaning and stamping, we spent the weekend devising ways to stay cool.

Saturday - We headed to the mall along with the rest of East County and went to the movies. We finally saw the latest Harry Potter movie. I loved it, but I really loved the nice cool movie theater!

Sunday - Church was packed! Even the overflow was full. I guess heat and holidays bring out those who normally would rather stay home :-) I'm not complaining! I love seeing the chapel that full.

After church we went to Candaces and enjoyed the pool and the a/c!! The plan was to stamp, but I just couldn't focus. Even with the a/c on the scrapbook room was a little warm...why not swim instead?

Monday - Ok it's time to focus! I must clean my house!!! After meeting Laura for a walk around the lake at 6:30am, I came home and decided I was going to clean until I just couldn't take it anymore. I got quite a bit done and then hopped in a nice cold shower and then headed off to the a/c at Supercuts for a haircut.

The kids from church had planned to get together, but it started to sound like the plans were going to fall through so we headed to the mall for another movie. As soon as we got there the phone rang and the party was on. I dropped Josh and a couple other boys off at the party and headed back home....to the heat infested house....

I was just a little happy when one of the girls called my cell phone and said I needed to come to the party. Sometimes I just love those girls!!! It's nice to know they enjoy having me around....and there was a/c. :-P

Be Careful What You Wish For

Ok, so I missed the big rain "event" last Sunday, but there was no missing the rain today.

I rushed home from work so I could change clothes, pick up Josh and run him over to cross-country practice. I sat down for a few minutes to try and avoid putting on my gym clothes and all of the sudden it started POURING. At first we thought it would be one of those quick cloud bursts, but it kept coming and coming. The wind whipped up and everything was blowing around. It was crazy!

It finally slowed down a bit so we ventured out. Here are some pictures Josh took during the storm and on our way to practice.

You can see the rain coming down in the top of this picture....

African Safari? Nope, this is a picture from our porch. I'm not sure, but I think he took this when the rain slowed down...

And here are the wet roads.....

This is the only one he retouched. I love how he made everything black and white, but kept the color in the flag.

Stormy Weather

My dear readers from other parts of the country often laugh at what we call "weather," but since I'm a San Diegan, my description is a little different. Today we had "weather" and I completely missed it. I even heard that we had raindrops falling from the sky!

When I walked out of church I could feel the heavy moisture in the air. I could smell wet pavement. I looked around and I saw a few wet spots. Hey, no fair! It rained and I missed it. Rumor has it that there was a huge downpour. That'll teach me to go to class. I think I should've ditched with all the other people that witnessed the "event."

But all is not lost. Joshua had a fireside to attend tonight so I decided to go for a walk at the nearby lake instead of driving back and forth all night. It was windy and stormy so I got my little weather "fix."

Finally!

As promised, I really did find my stamp table and actually stamp something. Of course you may notice that I did not say I cleaned my stamp table. I keep hoping that the unbearable heat around here will dissipate and leave me with energy and time to clean. Ha!

So here is the card I created for our Stamp of the Month swap. All products featured are Close To My Heart and the stamp set is the September SOTM.

Today was the first day of school for Josh and for me! Yep, that's right. I'm back in school. I'm testing the waters with an online accounting course. Online means I don't have to be somewhere at a specific time and accounting should mean that it's somewhat easy for me. It looks do-able so far.

And since it was back to school day, it means it was also back to walking! Woo Hoo! I have a new walking partner this year and we definately picked up the pace a bit. I loved my walk and felt awesome when it was done.....of course I've been popping the ibuprofen and icing my foot ever since, but hey it was fun at the time! (I have plantar fasciitis. I've had it before and it eventually went away...but I'm not a patient person and I don't want to "rest." I'm hoping ice, ibuprofen and stretches will do the trick.)

Surprise, Surprise!

Still no stamping, scrapbooking, knitting or any crafting to report. We have had something to do every night this week, but tonight's the night. Tonight I will be stamping. I have to. I have a class tomorrow and I'm pretty sure they'll be expecting me to have something to share.

But just because I have not been crafting, does not mean I have nothing to share. I lost 1.6 lbs. Woo Hoo!! When I jumped on the ww scale, I thought I'd either hold steady or show a little gain. I hoped I'd lose 4 ounces (to get my next 5 lb star! It's all about the stars you know.) I think the lady weighing me in had fun surprising me.... because I was seriously shocked! I guess drinking all that water the last few days really did work!

So since I have no stamping to share, here's some weightloss stuff instead.... (I know, I know, you'd rather see stamping!)

Western Bagel's Alternative Onion Bagel - One point of bagel goodness!

Costco Eggs/Egg Beaters - Yummy protein in the morning. I add whatever I have in the house to give them a bit of flavor (mushrooms, red pepper, salt-free spicy seasoning, feta cheese, jalapenos)

Boca Burgers - Yum, yum, yum... I sprinkle some of the spicy seasoning on them and enjoy!

Use two pieces of whole wheat bread, some liquid eggs and a boca burger and you have 5-6 points of a super filling breakfast!!!

Pickles - Yummy dill pickles are the perfect snack!

Frozen Non-Fat Yogurt - Tastes yummy and I don't have to drink milk!

And... I personally have to stay away from all those 100 calorie snacks. Yes, the are good. Yes, they are yummy... but they are still empty calories for me. They don't fill me up. They make me want more junk.

I'd love to hear some of your favorite low-cal ww friendly snacks!

I'm Back....

Sorry for the long blogging break. We had a little family emergency that kind of sidetracked me and then I went away to girls camp. But I'm back. I've done my laundry. Took a couple of naps and I'm slowly putting my house back in order. Hopefully I'll be stamping and crafting by the end of the week.

Girls camp was amazing! We had a wonderful time. I had so much fun with all of our girls. It's amazing to take girls ages 12-18 with completely different personalities and interests and thow them together for 5 days/nights. You learn how to get along, find common interests and you stretch yourselves farther than you thought possible.

I am so incredibly proud of all of our girls. Each one of them made great progress throughout the week.

But now I'm home and I'm trying to adjust to....

Gaining four pounds while I was gone! What the heck? It doesn't seem physically possible. I did not pig out. I walked up and down the hill so many times that my quad's were sore for the first few days. Dear sweet hubby is positive that it's water weight and it will disappear soon. I hope he's right. I'm feeling a bit skeptical though. I dropped two pounds right away... the other two appear to be hanging on. Soooo not fair!!!!

The heat! It was gorgeous and sunny and comfortable in the mountains. It's hot and muggy here. Makes it hard to get back into working out at home. It's also hard to find time to work out when hubby is here. I just want to play and hang out at home with him. School and seminary start next week, so I'll be back on track with my walking 5 days a week. I guess I can slack off a little this week.