I AM FINISHED!!!

After a long time (10 years to be exact) I think I am finished with my schooling career. Now don't totally write off the idea that I won't ever go back to school but not for a while until both kids are out of school. I have been hiding under a rock lately and that meant I needed to stop blogging for a couple of weeks so I could focus on studying. I was able to keep track of my calorie counts the past weeks and I have lost 4 pounds so far. This past weekend has been a rough weekend because my aunt left for a new job in Washington for 15 months. She was a very close to me and inspired me to live a better lifestyle. We will keep in close contact but she won't be able to hop in the car and come over for game night or a swift kick in the tail when I need it. I also took my nursing boards test which is very stressful for someone who does not test well. I am happy to say that I passed with flying colors and after 265 questions I am ready to care for patients and their families. In all of that time I was careful in my eating, however this weekend in Dallas I was out of control! I ate and didn't care what I ate or the amount that I ate which is frustrating but after getting back to reality I am back on board and ready to count again. I am tempted to join weight watchers again with a friend and would like to know opinions. Have a happy day and hope to hear your responses.

Difficult Year but I am back!

I started this blog as an encouragement and a reminder to me that there are people out there in the blogsphere that are having the same problem. My last post was in April and I had to think of what I was doing that prevented me from posting and after a long pause I remembered...I stopped losing weight. I can blame some personal issues that came up, I can certainly blame my last semester for causing me to eat junk but then not eat much for days, I could blame my husband for not being as supportive as I think he should have been and I could blame medical problems, but I will not.  I have a problem, a real problem, I need to lose weight and I need to keep it off! We are taking a trip in July to California and visiting the happiest place on earth (Disneyland) and I want to ride on all the rides with my kids. The reason I say that is my sisters and I took a road trip one day and spent the day at Six Flags riding all of the big roller coasters. When I stood in line for 2.5 hours to ride the Batman ride I had to wait for a "more comfortable" seat so I waited for another seat and watched as my sisters rode without me (except for T).  When I waited in line for the mine train ride I sat in the seat and the bar wouldn't latch.  I was told I could not ride the mine train and I watched my sisters have fun, without me.  Do I want to continue to miss out on memories because of my weight?  I know that losing 50 pounds doesn't sound realistic in 7 months but I think with patience, increased activity, healthy changes in foods we buy and lots of prayer I know I can lose the extra pounds. Thanks for your continued support and I hope to hear some advice, encouragement, what ever you have to offer I will take it.

Today I ate a taco chicken salad, I had salad, chopped tomatoes and bell peppers and cooked chicken in the crockpot from a previous low fat recipe and no dressing. For dinner it was lasagne casserole, which can be made low fat but I needed to use up the italian sausage. Lots of veggies and noodles but I only had one helping and and piece of smart bread.

We The Parents....we are people too...right??

So I started a great debate with a FB post I made last night about my daughter reading a book that had curse words and explored a romantic relationship with two females, who happen to kiss each other later in the book called "Pretty Little Liars". Now I am not the best mother in the world, I have never claimed to be just ask my best friend Melissa and my husband! I have a lot to learn and a lot to go through, but I know when I need to intervene and put my foot down. My daughter is 10 and a half years old and I have not explained gay relationships to my daughter. It is not because I do not like gay people (a member of my family is gay!), I have not explained gay relationships because she is too young. Now I have talked to her extensively about her body and the changes that are occurring and I have explained the different body parts and how they work in the reproductive system. However, I have not explained lifestyle choices that some people make as well as explaining how reproduction takes place between a man and a woman together. Now I want to explain that I am not upset with her at all because she did not know what it meant and she had not gotten very far in the book. I just want to plead with parents to GET INVOLVED! Get involved in what your child is doing, where they are going, what the are READING, what are they watching! I am not perfect and I am still learning about being a good mother BUT I do know that I have to be a mom not necessarily her best friend.

Now to a better topic...I am FINALLY under 280 pounds! I haven't weighed under 280 pounds in a LONG time! PLUS I wore a dress on Easter Sunday that I hadn't worn in almost 2 years. The last time I wore it I couldn't button it up around my chest so the jacket that was over it kept my unbuttoned chest hidden. It was still a little tight BUT it fit and I was a happy gal!

Mom, that is CHILD ABUSE!!

So I normally don't like to talk about my children on the Internet because there are some sick people out there but to keep their anonymity safe I will refer to my children and Jill and Jack. 
    So last week I received a call from the principal of the school where both of my children attend. I was told that my daughter, Jill had sent a spam email to two of her teachers at school that asked if they wanted to increase their sex drive and attempted to sell them Viagra. Now I understand that in this day and age people get hacked but you can imagine my embarrassment when I received a phone call from the principal stating that we ought to look into her email account and figure out how fix it or delete it! So after I picked up my jaw off the floor my husband and I deleted the email account and we spoke with Jill about how to protect her new account and to not open any mail she does not know who it is from.
      Jill was upset earlier this week because I was going to make grilled chicken, green beans and scalloped potatoes. Now I think that this dinner was good and so did my son, Jack. Jill is picky about what food she will eat but usually she at least tries it and then decides whether she likes it or not. Well she was adamant that she would not liked grilled chicken because it is boring tasting! Now I am not a chicken connoisseur but I make a good grilled chicken but not on the grill..it is on the George Foreman grill. I don't like to use the outside gas grill when Dale is not home so I get by on the George Foreman. So I informed my daughter that she could go to bed without eating because I was making grilled chicken and scalloped potatoes. Jill looked at me with a straight face and informed me that if I sent her to bed without food that it would be child abuse! After I bit my lip (because I wanted to laugh) I kindly informed her that she could call her father (who is a police officer) and ask him if it was against the law to send a child to bed without dinner. After Jill thought long and hard about her outburst she decided that she would not interrupt dad at work to ask a silly question. I asked her kindly if she was going to join Jack and I for dinner and she stated that she would eat with us so she would not starve.
     After both fiascoes I thought I would post some funny stories from my funny child. Actually if you knew my children you would know Jill is not my funny child but Jack is hilarious! In case you are wondering how my weight loss is coming along I am happy to inform you that I am FINALLY looking at breaking 280 pounds this week!! I haven't been under 280 pounds in over a year!! I am looking forward to seeing the scale this weekend telling me that I am UNDER 280 pounds!! I have lost almost 18 pounds so far in my weight loss story this year and I am looking forward to the next 20 pounds to come off easily.

Here'ssssssss Tara! (applause, applause)

So after all the craziness at my house between my father being in town for Spring Break and me playing hostess with the mostess! I am finally getting back to my routine. We will not discuss that I ate wayyyyyy too much food out and it was NOT healthy food either while my father was here!!!
Now the boy is playing Tball which to me is organized chaos so I am perfectly fine being the bleacher mom who cheers for the team and especially my cute son! Paige is very close to testing for her black belt in karate and I plan on her changing her sport focus when she is finished because she is looking toward junior high sports and there is not a karate team at Brink...is there?? 
Dale is home and all next week he is working in the daytime which means I will have to get kids up and ready in the morning which is not thrilling to me. You see I like to sleep...nothing is better than sleeping through the chaos in my house known as getting ready for school and my husband is home for it 3 times a week and it is the ONLY time he and Paige see each other on Mon, Thur and Fri because he works 4-midnight on those days and she is not out of school until 3:48pm now (grumble). So he doesn't mind getting the kids ready in the morning and he sends them off with a smile and teeth brushed...sometimes their hair is fixed but oh well I can not ask for everything! So I am not looking forward to getting up in the morning BUT I am looking forward to having a husband home at night like normal husbands are home with their prospective families! I see lots of grilling at my house this coming week!
Now on to my weigh in's...there haven't been any! Some things in my family have changed so I must go out and purchase our own family scale and keep track of it ourselves. Now I do not own a scale because that is something we never wanted to know...we knew we were fat we don't need a scale to rub it in our faces about how fat we are! However I know I am still losing weight because I fit into a shirt that is a 2X from Old Navy....that is a MAJOR accomplishment!! I also received the best compliment from an old friend that I was looking good...me looking good all because I had lost 17 pounds so far! Now that is a treat for me so I am getting on the wagon and eating better/healthier and smaller portions!
We also purchased a Wii, we all pooled our money together and the kids helped and we contributed so it is entirely a family purchase! I asked to purchase a Wii fit and we will have to wait to recuperate from purchasing the console before we can spend money on the Wii fit. Does anyone use the Wii fit and does it really look fun as you are working out? I thought about doing it for aerobics/zumba since you will not see me in a class that is in front of other people. Picture seeing me look like a beached whale trying to dance and do step aerobics...well I make a fool of myself plenty without paying for people to see me work out! So please give me some input on this Wii fit thing!
On that note I must make my menu for the week and inform Dale that he is grilling most of the week and get my coupons ready to go shopping. Have a good weekend y'all!!

Coupons, Coupons and more coupons

Well you heard me...I am on the bandwagon that is called couponing! As I have stepped down from my nursing duties we are living on one income thanks to my wonderful hubby but I want to help my family save money. Now I know a lot of people are skeptical and I am one of those people BUT I read a blog by Carrie called www.couponcloset.net and I was hooked. Now I am not a competitive shopper like certain other individuals but I strive to save money. I attended a coupon class and I was excited to shop after I learned some more information about other stores. "How is this going to affect my weight loss?" Now I am trying to be careful with the great savings I am getting by not thinking I have to buy all the prepackaged foods and junk foods I can BUT buying them in moderation AND I am also using my savings to purchase healthier food. I am hoping that I will be productive and artistic enough to start keeping a picture of my food and savings.
On another note PLEASE keep me motivated to exercise because I have not been exercising lately!!

Healthy Fellowship

Now I will say that this weekend I fell off the wagon on Sunday when my family had a big roast beef dinner with mashed potatoes, carrots, green beans, corn, rolls and chocolate cake. This is the same family that is having a competition on who will lose the most weight. With that being said I was very surprised that there was food left over from our feast! Now about 4 months ago I remember a family get together that we literally ate all the food and it was AMAZING how much we ate! Now a days we are trying to make healthier choices and control our portions therefore we had LOTS of potatoes left over, some meat and not many veggies left because we ate most of them. How I fell off the wagon was the cake...it was calling my name...honest! However it was ONE small slice rather than a big piece or even 2 pieces so I feel good about that...as Miss Donna tells me I need to take baby steps!! Tonight we had company over for dinner and we had grilled pork chops and baked potatoes with some tasty green beans! I knew I would be more inclined to eat good tonight so I had a weight watchers microwave meal for lunch because they were on sale for $1 a meal PLUS it is portioned controlled and healthier to eat than a hot dog or pizza for lunch! To be honest I thought I did okay except for the HUGE brownie that Dione MADE me eat...LOL! To let you know I DID workout last week AND I plan on doing it again this week!