Another Tagarooni

My sister Meghan has tagged me to reveal ten things that you may not know about me.

1. I used to daydream all the time (and still do occasionally), even when I was in college. I’m not sure if that goes along with having a very active imagination and I love for Sci-Fi and Fantasy novels, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it did.

2. I’ve always wanted to have auburn hair like Anne of Green Gables. (I would love it if it was curly as well.)

3. When I was in college I was obsessed (infatuated, enraptured, whatever you want to call it) with a guy I was in band with. When I look back on this it is pretty embarrassing, but I think it turned out to be a very growing experience for me. I still have this fear that I’m going to run into him again someday.

4. When I was five I drew a book about ducks and had my dad write down the words to the story, exactly as I told him.

5. I’ve been skinny dipping several times. (This does not include bathing on the river.) One time I was skinny dipping out at Deer Creek with my friends Amy, Kara, and Katherine and we got caught by a couple of guys. Luckily they took off after we kept yelling at them to leave. We had to call Kara back though, because when they showed up she took off across the reservoir to the other side.

6. When I was in highschool I had a hard time keeping a job. I worked at Western Watts for a total of one day before I quit and only lasted two weeks at Burger King.

7. My favorite book when I was a teenager was “Ender’s Game” by Orson Scott Card. (He’s still my favorite author.) I read this book for the first time when I was a very impressionable 7th grader and it had a huge impact on me. I wouldn’t say that I loved Ender, but he was more than just a character in a book to me. I think that I wanted to be like him or at least meet him, which of course would never happen. Outside of the gospel, he was one of the biggest influences on me and who I became.

8. Two of my favorite classes where geometry in junior high and deductive logic in college. This probably should have been a clue to me that I do really well with very logical, left brain type of stuff.

9. The last talk I gave in church was when I was in high school. All I remember is crying and saying a bunch of nonsense that I don’t think made any coherent sense whatsoever. I think this experiences cemented my terror of talking in church so much that I have turned down every other opportunity I’ve been offered. The last time I was asked to talk in church was right after Jeff and I got engaged. They asked both of us to talk and Jeff was so disappointed in me when I told them no that I promised I would talk in church the next time I was asked. I have never been asked since and am living in dread of when I finally do get asked. I keep trying to tell Jeff that I’m a liar so that he won’t make me keep my promise. We’ll see.

10. When I was young my older sisters liked to torture me. They would tie my pajamas together and spit loogies on my face. Once they told me to get a penny out of the toilet and then give me a swirly. To be fair, I wasn’t the only one that was tortured in our family. We used to pants my brother, Seth, and we would roll my sister Lauren up in a blanket and twirl her around in complete circles while she was kicked and screamed.

Trying my hand at applique

Recently I have stumbled onto some really cute craft blogs that have got my head full of so many fun and unique projects that I want to try out. One of the things I have seen several places is appliquéd onesies for baby gifts. They looked so cute and pretty easy and since I have a friend who is having a baby, and I love it when I can make a gift for someone, I thought I would give it a try. I made this little dinosaur tonight for my neighbor, Olga, and am all ready planning my next one to go with the other pair of pants I got for my other neighbor, Brittney. I am also planning on making some for my cute little Emily. So cute and so easy!! If you are interested in finding out how to make your own, check out this blog for some general instructions.

28 Days Later

This last Friday Jeff and I finished our 28 day sugar detox. Yeah!!! We have done this two or three times before, but only for 14 days and I am usually griping the whole time and can't wait for it to be done. Maybe this time was the charm, because it was easier for me than in the past and I felt like it was a very positive experience on the whole. There was still a lot of times when I craved sugar and wished that we were done already, but mostly I felt really good about how I was doing. I have also looked at this as an opportunity to find some healthier snacks and to add more fruit into our diet. I am loving fruit right now! Max loves fruit, so he's also enjoyed having a lot around.

My friend was asking me if I found this to be effective for weight loss so here are the results that I have had with lowering my sugar intake the last few months. Back in the middle of May, Jeff and I took some "before" measurements and pictures so that we could track our results. We started a 14 day sugar detox the next day and I lost 8 lbs. over that time. In between that sugar detox and the one I just finished I lost another 4 lbs. (I was eating less sugar than normal at this time, but not trying to eliminate sweets completely) and then lost 5 more lbs. in the last four weeks. (17 lbs. total! Yeah again!) I have lost 3 inches from my hips and 3 inches from my waist. My eating habits are the only thing I have changed, unless you count exercising a few times over the last few months, so I would have to say that I definitely feel like it is an effective way to loose weight. (At least if you're like me and eat way too much sugar normally!)

Now that we have been back on sugar a couple of days I am trying to maintain a balance with my eating. Hopefully I'll be able to stick to my goals of not making or bringing treats and sweets into our home unless they are for a specific purpose (ward function, family get together, etc.) or to only make small amounts if they are just for us to eat (like one sheet of cookies and then freezing the rest of the dough) and no more often than once a week. I am NOT going to buy candy and hide it in various places around my house for me to snack on throughout the day any more! So here's to a healthier lifestyle (and hopefully a little more weight loss)!!


On a side note: Tonight we made a sheet of Jeff's yummy chocolate chip cookies that have been sitting in our freezer for the last four weeks. Max had two cookies and was sitting in the kitchen by himself laughing hysterically about who knows what. Jeff and I think the sugar may have gone to his head after having his sugar intake limited by default for the last four weeks.

TAG!!

4 Places I visit frequently.
1. craft stores (Roberts, Jo-Anns, Michaels)
2. the library
3. Dicks and Costco
4. the bathroom, ha ha (this one is Jeff's input)

4 People who call/Text/Email me regularly
1. I guess no one likes me because no one calls me or emails me regularly. :) I, however, call
2. my husband
3. my sister Shannan
4. and my sister Erin regularly

4 Favorite food
1. mashed potatoes
2. with chicken gravy - yum!
3. bread
4. Jeff's chocolate chip cookies

4 Places I'd rather be
1. on the river
2. with my family
3. with Jeff's family
4. on vacation to one of the thousand places I'd love to visit someday

4 Movies I'd watch over and over
1. Cars (this one actually isn't MY choice to watch over and over, yet somehow I do anyway. Hmm.)
2. Sense and Sensibility (or any Jane Austin movie much to Jeff's chagrin)
3. It's a Wonderful Life
4. Anne of Green Gables
(I could go on and on with this one.)

4 Bands/Groups I like to listen to...
1. Musicals (South Pacific, Little Shop of Horrors, West Side Story, Annie, The Secret Garden, Moulin Rouge, Into the Woods, Big River, etc.)
2. Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald
3. 80's music
4. oldies in general

The 4 People I am tagging are....
1. Jeff
2. Mom
3. Apreal
4. Heather
If you don't want to that's fine! :)

Catchin' up on crafts

One of my goals lately is to finish all of the craft projects that have built up over the last couple of years. I'm trying to get to the point where I do a project soon after I buy the stuff for it, not years later. One of the things I've been working on is Emily's bedroom. Until the last couple of weeks it still had a few things of Max's in there so I wanted to make it feel like her room. I mod podged some cute paper on some craft letters from Roberts and had so much fun I decided to use the leftover paper to make her some picture frames. I also did a couple of little projects to fill up the shelves in the nursery finally. (I've been meaning to do that since Max was born. I guess better late than never!) I'm not really thrilled with how the star pillow turned out, so it might be a do-over, we'll see.

I've also recently finished the pillows for the window seat in our living room. I finished the seat cushion about six months ago. (This project has also been in the works for a couple of years.) I figured it was time to get all of those pillows sewn and out of my storage room. Now we just need to paint the family room so that there isn't a couch sitting in front of all of that hard work! :)

I also made Max a clock to go with his new bedroom. My next projects are to finally do the touch up painting and finishing work on Max's room, paint the upstairs hall and the family room, paint the baseboards and wainscot in the entry way and kitchen that are finally installed (yeah!), and make the quilt for our bed. Piece of cake!!

Memory Lane...

1. As a comment on my blog, leave a memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you know me a little or a lot, anything you remember. If we're only blogging friends write about a post that is most memorable.
2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll be sure to write one about you....either on your blog, in my comment box, or I will email you one back.
3. If the memory happens to involve my husband, please include him.
4. If you can't say something nice, don't say nothin' at all.

My friend did this on her blog and it was fun to think back to fun times we have had together.

Halfway There

Well, yesturday Jeff and I passed the halfway mark on our sugar detox. (We decided a few days in to go for four weeks instead of three.) I have done this a few times before with Jeff, but for only two weeks at a time. This time it is actually going easier than before for several reasons. It has been a big help to me to have a support group to go through this with me. It never seems like it's hard for Jeff to go without sugar like it is for me, so he just makes me annoyed when I vent about wanting a treat and he says, "Oh, I haven't really been craving sugar." It's nice to have other women to talk to who are also trying to make it through a long day without any sugar while battling young kids and an often monotonous routine. It also is helping to know that so many people know that I have this goal and will want to know how I did. I love proving that I can do something difficult, so that keeps me going when I lose all other motivation. I've also lost some weight the last couple of months, mostly due to not eating sugar and even had to buy a new pair of shorts this week. This is the first time I've ever gone that direction on the scale unless it involved morning sickness or having a baby. It can be pretty motivating when you are seeing results!

The one thing that I think is the biggest help to me getting through this is my finally coming to grips with my eating habits and the fact that I really needed to do something about it. I have been lying to myself for years saying that I just needed to start exercising and then I could eat however I wanted, or that it didn't matter if I was a little overweight, I just needed to learn to love myself for who I was. I'm not saying that I don't need to love myself for who I am, but I am saying that I was using these as an excuse so that I wouldn't have to face the reality of what I was putting in my body and how it has been affecting me. It has felt very empowering to take control over what I am eating.

The first week was still pretty rough. I was grumpy and had a constant headache for several days but I was determined to meet my goal. The second week I felt like I was more patient with Max, had more energy and wasn't craving the sugar nearly as bad. I have also been enjoying trying out some new recipes. I don't really enjoy cooking dinner, but I love to bake treats, so I've been trying to find some more healthy options for baking and some new snack options for when I really want something to munch on.

I am both anticipating and dreading the end of our sugar detox because I believe the really hard part for me will come when I have to practice moderation with how much sugar I eat. Jeff and I are setting some goals about our sugar intake for after we are done and I am hopeful that this is going to be a lifestyle change for us, not just a few rough weeks of sugar abstinence.

Well, on to the second half of our 28 day sugar detox!


Here's me with my progress chart. I get to stamp a butterfly for every day that I go sugar free. (Jeff has one as well, but he stamps a race car in his.) Kind of silly, but it's nice to have a visual of how far we have come.

Sometimes I wish that I had a camera in my kid's rooms so that I could see how they manage to do some of the things that they do!

[After I pulled her chubby legs out of the bars (how she was able to squeeze them through that far I'll never know!) she gave me the cutest, biggest, sleepiest smile. It made my heart melt, it was so precious!!]

Can Emmy play?

Recently Max has been wanting Emily to play with him. He wants her to ride his tricycle while he rides his car, or he wants her to play with him in his play tunnels and tents. Emily is not to thrilled about that last one, so I have to explain to Max over and over that she doesn't like being in the tunnels so she doesn't have to play in there with him. I don't think he can wrap his little two year old, egocentric mind around that concept. :) I have to keep an eye on him because he thinks that it is great fun to play the game "lay on top of Emily". I have to admit that I think it's pretty cute when he says, "Emmy Boo ride the tricycle!" I'm excited for her to get a little older so that I don't have to prop her up on the tricycle and push her around after Max. (Although this is a good exercise for the backs of my legs!) It will be fun when they can actually play together!

Help!!!!!

What do you do with a toddler who takes off his diaper and shoves it under the door after you put him to bed? (Jeff had even duck taped it on tonight and I don't think it even slowed down the diaper removing process one bit!) For about a week now Max has been routinely taking off his diaper, usually when he gets up in the morning or after nap time, and I am about ready to pull my hair out with frustration. I put him in underwear today after he stripped from the waist down during nap time and peed on one of his play tents in his room and he ended up peeing all over my couch, which is my big fear because I love my couches! (There one of the few nice pieces of furniture we have.) He won't pee on the toilet but has apparently decided that he wants to wear big boy underwear. I just needed to vent a little because with the diaper removing and all of the hitting, slapping, kicking, and hair pulling that he does I feel like I am going to explode. I'm not sure how effective time-outs are being (with the hitting), since he usually runs around laughing when I put him in one. Apparently he thinks time-outs are a pretty fun game. I know that we're going to get past this stage one day, still, I would appreciate any words of wisdom that will hurry that process along.

How does she do it?

Now that Emily is rolling over she usually has an arm and/or leg sticking out of her crib by morning. This is the first time she managed to get both of her legs out at the same time, though!