I did it
That’s right.. I didn’t miss a day. I don’t think. *goes to check* Nope.. didn’t miss a single day. I posted at least 30 times in 30 days. It wasn’t TOO bad considering I post almost every day anyway, but there were definitely times I did not have anything good to say. (You all were kind and never let me know if you noticed.) 
At one point I started to post about the aprons I own but never wear that hang in the laundry room just off the kitchen… but I almost fell asleep typing it so I spared you all.
Anyway, short post today. I spent my online time ditching the turkey/fall theme and adding more of a winter/Christmas theme. It’s probably my lamest attempt ever, but I simply don’t have the time right now to do much else. I ditched Blogrush, too. It just wasn’t happening for me. Oh well. Also, for some reason I’m not getting email notifications of comments posted on this site. Sorry about that. I’m going through the posts to see which comments I missed.
Technorati Tags: NaBloPoMo, NaBloPoMo is over finally
Thursday Thirteen #15 – Forgetful
Cody brings home books from school to read to me all the time. Today he had a sly grin on his face as he showed me the book he chose today. It was about a boy who couldn’t find his glasses.
Cody explains his choice to me, “I got this book because you always forget where you put your glasses, Mommy!” ………..
The ending was cute, though. His brother told him to look in the mirror and sure enough, he was wearing his glasses all along. For the record, I’ve NEVER done that. Nope. Not me.
In the spirit of things, I’ve forgotten…
- ok fine, I have forgotten where I put my glasses a few times this week (but I wasn’t wearing them!)
- to make it to the lab to get blood work drawn
- to call the doctor
- to eat breakfast… twice
- to turn off the Christmas lights before bed
- to change the theme on this blog (not that I’ve had time..)
- to buy some replacement headphones since my iPod ones got ruined
- to move the headphones cord out of the way before I slammed the drawer shut
- that a shelf not-yet-hung-up with nails sticking out of it was propped against the wall under the window (and thus scratching my ankle as I peeked out looking for snow this morning)
- that we live in an area where it rarely *really* snows (and yet that never stops me from hoping)
- how much I love Little Smokies sausages
- that I can buy Little Smokies sausages year round and not just during the holiday season
- to fold the laundry… no really, I forgot…
Links to other Thursday Thirteens: Linda | Chris | Noelle | nicholas
Btw, I made the Christmas / Holiday Thursday Thirteen header graphic in this post. I don’t mind if you use it, but I’d appreciate a link back to this post if you do.
Technorati Tags: Thursday Thirteen, Thursday 13, TT13, things forgotten, forgetful, Thursday thirteen header graphic
Fun with photos
Every year I’m told I suck at the photo giving thing. I always order the kids’ school pictures, but I constantly forget to get them to my mom, sister, friends, anyone who want thems. If I do Christmas cards that year, I’ll include the pictures in the cards, otherwise people have to hound me to get them pictures of my kids.
This year I’ve decided to make it easier on myself and have a little fun. I’m doing custom photo gifts for Christmas. There’s no way we have it in our budget to have the photos done professionally and ordering the photo cards and products that way is expensive. We did that once about six years ago and it about broke our bank!
This year I got the software to make the gifts myself with my own digital photos. We have hundreds of digital photos and with this software it’s so easy to make some pretty cool things. I am making a calendar, a mousepad and some photo Christmas cards. I’m not telling who gets what for Christmas, though. I can’t spoil the surprise of which photos I’m using! The photo to the left here is the first one I made to test the software. This took me about 5 seconds to make with the software and I’ve been having a blast framing our photos instead of doing laundry. (shhh!)
I also have a wedding scrapbook I never got around to filling up and with this I’ll be able to scan our wedding photos plus use the digital ones I already have on my computer to make some pretty cool scrap booking pages. I can’t wait to finally get that done. It’s only been… 8 years since we got married… oops!
Note: Click the images for a larger view.
Technorati Tags: photos, photo framing, fun with photos, digital photos, photo gifts
Exercise is cheap
It’s no surprise I struggle with weight issues. Heck, it’s in the tag line in the sidebar under author <----- over there. I know what I need to do to lose weight:
1. Eat regular meals - for me this is the toughest one and likely the second largest reason I struggle with my weight. I tend to not eat enough, therefore putting my body into starvation mode. I am constantly forgetting to eat breakfast. When I finally do eat I overdo it because I'm so hungry.
2. Exercise more - this is the number one reason I struggle with my weight. I have at-home jobs where I'm sitting on my butt all day. I keep telling myself I need to MAKE the time to exercise but I never get around to it.
3. Fear. This may sound strange, but I fear losing weight. I fear that people will look at me differently. I fear I'll lose it then gain it all back. Fear that keeping the weight off will be a life-long commitment for me.
I know I'm not the only one who feels this way. I also know I'm not the only one who knows it just takes some simple common sense to do something about their weight issues: eat right, exercise, have courage. That's it. That's really ALL there is to it. I know this. You know this. And yet... it's so hard.
Today I read on diet blog, 10 Sobering Revelations About Women and Dieting
A survey conducted on 2000 young women (average age 23) revealed that every pound of weight a woman loses will cost them about £807 (approximately $1660 USD). This includes expenditures such as; gym membership, exercise DVDs, supplements and extra fruits and veggies.
Um… $1600 per pound?! OUCH! That is insane. But somehow I bet it’s true. Look at the cost of these Miracle burn diet pills. From $40 – $86 per month. I’ve never been tempted by diet pills. I’m not a pill-taker and it’s enough that I have to take medication twice a day to help manage my diabetes. But many people are. Many want to pop a pill to fix everything..especially fix being overweight and will pay anything to obtain that goal. Not me. However, I have been lured in with gym memberships and exercise DVDs in the past. I even posted a while back that I was looking into buying some DVD’s for walking in your home. My kids ended up needing shoes and school stuff so I never got around to it…. but I also never got around to even starting any sort of exercise program. Right now I simply cannot afford a gym membership and those DVD’s will have to wait until our after the Christmas and Birthday season is over with around here.
But….I don’t need money to lose weight!!! Exercising is FREE! I know this, you know this… everyone knows this. So… after reading that article today money is no longer going to be one of my excuses. If you struggle as I do, don’t let it be your excuse either. As soon as I post this, I’m going to strap on my iPod Nano and go for a walk.
Technorati Tags: weight loss, exercise, eating right
Boys and their toys
I started Christmas shopping in August this year. I’ve been trying to do as much of it online as I can a little at a time. We don’t have the budget we’ve had in years past so it helps to spread it out as much as possible.
Picking out gifts for my boys can be easy but it can also be frustrating. Boys at this age (6 and 9) like lots of stuff, especially things that light up and make lots of noise. The frustrating part is we often pick up stuff we think they will love and they do for a while, but it ends up sitting on a shelf after a while and they go back to the trusty favorites: blocks, Lincoln logs, matchbox cars. This year I decided to try to stick to that theme, something they can build with that’s not just another set of blocks or Lincoln logs. I thought it would also be nice if I could find these type of things that are also educational toys. Last week I picked up a few toys from Learning Resources that I think fits the theme I am looking for perfectly.
The Gears!Gears!Gears!® Lights & Action Building Set is awesome. It lights up, you can build with it, the age is appropriate.. Perfect. So perfect that I want to play with it and I have to hide it from Jack.
They are also getting Alphaball™. It’s an electronic word game that also looks kind of like a guitar. A musical theme is always welcome in this family.
Last but not least… I could not resist this Pretend & Play® Animal Hospital Cody loves carrying around small stuffed animals and constantly role plays with them. I have a feeling every single one of his animals will be going to the vet real soon!
What is on your shopping list?
Technorati Tags: boys, toys, Christmas shopping, educational toys
