Blondes Have More Fun

Do you ever put yourself last?  I guess lately I've been neglecting myself a bit.  I got looking at my hair and did the math and realized I hadn't gone to a salon in 9 months.  I needed a cut and highlights desperately.  So I decided to make some time for myself and headed to the salon yesterday. 

It is RIDICULOUS how much it costs but I think it turned out pretty good.  I must say I Hate how they style my hair but once I get my hands on it I hope it will look great.  My only question - did I go a bit to blond with the highlights?

What do you think?

Twilight and Chocolates

Had another busy but great weekend.  It started on Friday.  A good friend of mine offered to pick up my boys from the school bus and I headed out of town early.  Stopped in Champion and picked up Amber and mom then we met up with Rachel and Char and went to the final Twilight movie.  I thought the movie was fun and we had a great time together.  We stuck to tradition and went to Streatside for "turtle cheesecake".  So yummy!!



Mom and Rachel enjoying their desserts!



Amber enjoying her chocolate milk!!



Charmaine enjoyed her dessert too!

After a fun late night we met up again at Amber's to dip chocolates.  We had all made and brought 3 batches of fondant each with a few extras batches - 19 batches in all.  We got off to a bit of a late start as our resident experts attempted to figure out Amber's can opener ...

Thank goodness Amber returned and we got started!

We had fun together as we rolled and dipped chocolates alllllll day!!  We didn't finish up until about 9:30 p.m. but so worth it.

My boys stayed home with Jason and went to Jason's work party at the zoo Saturday morning.  All the kids who were around were a big help and got along so well.  Calum was a constant source of entertainment - either running around the house singing "You Don't Know You're Bootiful" - by One Direction, or walking around the yard in his dad's gum boots and a pair of underwear over his pants.  Such a cute boy!

I love spending time with my mom and sisters.  Chocolate making is so much work, but such a great tradition and I'm grateful mom is passing down her talents to us.

Cousin Love

On Monday Jason's brother Ty and his wife Jill had a baby boy.  Wednesday after cubs we headed over to meet the newest addition.  Bennett James is so sweet - it was love at first sight!

He's a big boy at 9 lbs 11 oz.  Congratulations to Jill, Ty and big brother Dane.  I didn't get any pictures of Dane as he and Bowen were having too much fun playing together.  I guess they miss each other.  I forgot to take a picture of the present we brought for Bennett too.  We got him a little white onesie that had Christmas sweater printed on it, and a brown tigger shirt with cute jeans and a little orange puffy vest.  I can't wait to see him wear them.

Jill looked great for just having a baby too - but I forgot to take a family picture as well.  But I did get one with Ashton and the baby - Ashton loves new babies!!



We are excited to see Bennett and his big brother Dane grow up.  How great it is that we live in the same city!!

Primary, Primary, Primary

My kickoff to the Christmas season happened this weekend.  On Saturday our primary presidency hosted a luncheon for all the primary workers.  I made chicken taco soup and buns, Dyane brought a delicious sausage potato soup, Stephanie brought a great spinach salad and Nancy brought a delicious cheesecake and chocolate roll for dessert.

I packaged up chocolates as gifts and got the table ready.

We had 16 out of 19 people come.  It was a great time.  The food was delicious, and we all had a nice time visiting.

Sunday was the primary sacrament meeting presentation.  I was relieved it went pretty well.  We had a bit of a glitch at the beginning when I learned out our pianist's baby was sick and she wasn't able to come.  So I quickly found up the music I needed, asked one of my counsellor's to sit by the pulpit to prompt the kids and I jumped on the piano.

We only had the mic turned off once, and two little ones were too scared to say their parts.  I was so pleased how it turned out.  The kids knew their parts and sang beautifully.  There was such a sweet spirit throughout.

After the presentation the kids went to class and then came to the primary room.  We watched a living scriptures video and gave them popcorn and rice krispie squares.

Later that evening I had the priesthood preview at the Bishop's house.  I whipped up some rice krispie squares and headed to the Bishop's.  I got home about 9:30 p.m., breathed a sign of relief.  What a great weekend, but I'm grateful it's behind me.  Now to make fondant for the big chocolate making get together at the farm on Saturday.

Round One

November is chocolate making season for me.  This Saturday I am hosting a primary worker appreciation luncheon at my house and wanted to make chocolates to serve and to give as gifts.  Yesterday I made 4 batches of fondant and this morning my friend Shelley and her girls came over to dip them.  It went smoothly and we had them all dipped by noon.

Now to make buns, and soup for the luncheon tomorrow.  I love to entertain, but it makes for a busy life!

Wednesday Weigh In

One week in - it didn't go too badly.  I didn't quite meet all my goals but it was good start.  So this week I lost ...

1 lb

I've got a really busy couple of months ahead so I really need to stay focused.  When I put myself last is when I fall back into bad habits and the weight doesn't come off.  I did better tracking my food and I think that helped, but I didn't exercise as much as I should of.  So the goal this week is to exercise more.

So after my little fall last week I decided I needed some comfort food so I made some delicious homemade buns and beef stew.  I need to share my stew recipe.  It is out of the Better Homes cookbook - it is so easy to make and is delicious!

Old Fashioned Beef Stew



2 tbsp all-purpose flour

1 pound beef stew meat, cut into 3/4 inch cubes

2 tbsp cooking oil

2 cups vegetable juice (I use original V8 juice)

1 cup water

1 medium onion, cut into thin wedges

1 tsp instant beef bouillon granules

1 tsp worcestershire sauce

1/2 tsp dried marjoram

1/2 tsp dried oregano

2 1/2 cups cubed potatoes (about 3 medium)

1 cup frozen cut green beans

1 cup frozen whole kernel corn

1 cup sliced carrots (2 medium)

Place flour in a plastic bag.  Add meat cubes shaking to coat.  In a large pan brown meat, half at a time in hot oil.  (I sometimes skip this step and haven't really noticed the difference.)  Put meat in crock pot.  Layer onion, potatoes, green beans, corn and carrots on top.  Combine vegetable juice, water, bouillon granules, worcestershire sauce, marjoram, oregano, and 1/4 tsp pepper.  Pour over meat and vegetables in crock pot.  Cover and cook on low-heat setting for 6 - 8 hours or till meat and vegetables are tender.

I'm going to go jump on my treadmill now and then it is time to start making fondant to make chocolates for Saturday.  Til I report back next Wednesday!!

Lest We Forget

This morning I went to the Remembrance Day assembly at the boy's school.  I'm embarrassed to say I had never attended before.  The Grade 3s were hosting so I promised Ashton I would come.  It was absolutely beautiful!  We sang O Canada, several of the children shared stories of Great Grandfathers who had been in the war, the kids sang a beautiful song with the words to the poem In Flanders Field.  I didn't expect it to touch me so deeply, I even found myself teary eyed.

I love that the school is teaching our children to be grateful for their freedoms and to remember and show respect towards those who fought and those that lost their lives for us.



Ashton in his cub shirt.



Ashton had a speaking part today and did an awesome job!

On a completely different subject - I fell today!  It hurt!  You know how little kids can fall and jump right back up and feel nothing - me - not so much.  My arm hurts, I have a big bruise on my elbow, have a headache and ache all over.  I was coming out of the bank this morning and walked down the little ramp for wheelchair access and at the very bottom of it my feet just completely went out from under me and I went down hard.  Can I sue the bank - just kidding - sort of.  Plus it was really embarrassing, luckily I don't think anyone saw me.  I think I'll have an early night after a nice soak in the tub!

Wednesday Weigh In - New Goals

Remember awhile back when I said I was going to report once a month on my weight loss efforts, and I was going to still weigh in once a week, and I was going to exercise and put loonies in my cute little jar I made .... Well that was a colossal failure!!

I need a fresh start.  I need to go back to what I was doing when I first started posting my weightloss efforts.  It was going so well - what went wrong!  I do kinda know what went wrong.  LIFE!!  I'm busy - but everyone is busy so that is no excuse.  I've had some stress - but everyone has worries so that shouldn't be an excuse either.  I just need better tools to deal with these things.

I'm back on the wagon today (does that expression work for my addition too!).  Most of the halloween candy is gone - that should help abit.  I weighed this morning.  Egad!!  I'm .5 lbs heavier than when I first started posting my weightloss journey.  But if I don't start now who knows where I'll be after Christmas.

So new goals ...

It is 7 weeks until Christmas, I want to be realistic so my goal is to lose 8 to 10 pounds by then.

I will exercise 4 to 5 times per week (various methods).

Track my food intake 5 days per week.

Drink 8 glasses of water per day.

Report to my blog every Wednesday morning.  We'll call it Wednesday Weigh In. (I realize today is only Tuesday and I weighed today, but Wednesday Weigh In sounds better than Tuesday Weigh In)

ps.  This is not a diet.  Diets don't work.  I need to change my brain.  I need to change how I think about food, how I feel about my body.  I want to be healthy - that really is the goal and if I end up looking hot that's okay too!

I'm headed off to exercise - see you next Wednesday!

Halloween 2012

Halloween was a busy and fun day.  It started with an assembly at the school with little class parties afterwards.  I volunteered to bring some snacks for the parties.

Snacks ready to go!

The kids paraded into the gym in their costumes.


Ashton was Darth Maul - in the red mask.

Bowen was a storm trooper.

Bowen's class sang a song.  This was Bowen right before the song started.

This was Bowen through the entire song ...

Here's Bowen as soon as the song was over.

I think he sang the song!!  I made him sing it for me when he got home from school so I could SEE him sing it.

Once the boys were home it was time to get ready for trick or treating.  Jason and Ashton thought his Darth Maul mask looked too jovial so Jason decided to paint Ashton's face instead.  The perks of having an artist for a dad.  It turned out awesome!!

Ready for Trick or Treating

Dane and his dad joined the boys to go trick or treating.  He made a pretty cute little monkey!

Off they go!  I stayed home to hand out candy.  We had 39 kids this year, I thought that was pretty good.

The boys pumpkins - they each carved their own this year!

My only halloween decorations - looooove them!  Next year I want put all the skulls on different levels with a black cloth underneath.

The Loot!



HAPPY HALLOWEEN!