Stats...

The girls had their check-ups! I'll post about Christmas soon!

Mariska:
Weight: 35 pounds - 50th percentile
Height: 39.3 inches - 37th percentile

Brynley:
Weight: 24 pounds - 84th percentile
Height: 32 inches - 99th percentile

Brynley's our little giant!!

December Craziness

December is our busiest month! Both our girls have their birthdays in December and Christmas is still yet to come.

Mariska's party was fun. I got sick just before, so I didn't plan anything real nifty and the kids mostly just played, but it was still fun. She loved her cake and decorations, which were all princess. On top of it all, every single gift was a different princess toy! She's in heaven.

Brynley turned 1! Poor thing has been sick all week and on her birthday was basically just a big ball of snot. But I still made a little cake and we got to sing to her. She's so big! She seems so much older just over night. We sure love our girls!

Well the day after I made my new weight loss goal, I got a bad cold. Figures, it seems that I always get sick right when I want to start working out again. But I'm getting better and plan to get started in the next day or two.

Brent is so eager for this week to end. It's his last week of work before two full weeks off for Christmas break. Being a teacher really does have some perks to it!

That's about it for now... 9 days until Christmas!

New Goal

Okay, here I go again. I'm sick of making goals, not reaching them and starting all over again... but it's better than just giving up forever right? Besides, if losing weight were easy we wouldn't be the heaviest country on Earth or have shows like The Biggest Loser. I've been really procrastinating and thinking that I'll just restart all of my efforts at New Year's. But I need to stop making excuses and being lazy.

My awesome sister-in-law got down to business after having her latest baby and lost over 45 pounds! Well her baby is only about 3 months older than Brynley and I have yet to lose anything! And she looks incredible!! So I know it CAN be done.

So, from this coming Sunday to July 4th I have exactly 30 weeks. My goal is to lose just over a pound a week for a total loss of 34 pounds. Right now my BMI (body mass index) is 31.3, anything over 30 is considered obese! I hate that! But I also have a "solid frame", so I'm happy being on the higher end of "normal". Anything under 25 is considered normal weight for my height. Reaching this goal would make my BMI 25.8, which is way awesome sounding.

Well, that's my goal. I especially hope to wear a bunch of new clothes that have yet to fit me on our trip to Utah this March!

COUPONING!!

I've been wanting to get into "couponing" for a while now. When I heard that they were cutting my hours at work, that lit the fire and I decided it was time to stop putting it off. A friend of mine in Cedar Hill is the Couponing Queen, so she had me over to her house for a crash course. When I say she's the queen I mean she's the kind of shopper that can walk away with a full basket and the store giving HER money!

So after leaving her house I was both really eager and overwhelmed, but I knew that it would just take practice. The trick to this whole thing is to use coupons at the same time things are on sale. Although now, a month later, I'm wondering if I'm just about the slowest learner on the planet...

I've come across two issues that are so frustrating! The main one is sticking to the specifics in the fine print on the coupon. Yesterday I could have gotten a 10.3 ounce bottle of Dawn for 75 cents, BUT I grabbed Dawn Botanicals on accident so the coupon wouldn't work. To be fair, the coupon said "any one Dawn"... wouldn't Dawn Botanicals be DAWN!? It didn't say "excluding botanicals"!!! But in any case, it didn't work out that way and ended up costing me a dollar.

Then I keep going into the stores to get these deals and the product is GONE! I know this isn't really something I can control, but it's not any less frustrating!! Last night I wanted to get 2 princess toothbrushes and 2 princess toothpastes... They were on sale 4/$10 and I had a dollar off coupon, plus I would have gotten $5 back in Register Rewards after buying them but they were out of the toothbrushes!! So I just ended up getting the 2 toothpastes for $1.25 each and no Register Rewards. It was irritating. The sale began on Sunday and lasts through Saturday, they shouldn't be out of something on Wednesday night!!

So anyway, those are my thoughts and frustrations on this couponing business. I really want to get good at it and know I just need to keep trying, but it's also very tempting to just say it's not worth the hassle and let it go. But I won't!! I'm determined to stick with this, wish me luck!

Thanksgiving

November was a good month. Brent's parents were able to come down for a few days around Thanksgiving. We had a great time taking the girls to the zoo. Mariska was even able to feed some birds. They also gave Mariska her 4th birthday present on their visit, a Princess bike! She loves it! She's getting really good at riding it too. Brent made an incredible Thanksgiving dinner! That's right, Brent made it all. He loves it and does a great job, I'm so lucky. We're really glad that his parents were able to come down and be with us. We hope to make it back to Utah in the near future!

Today I'm Thankful For...

My washer and dryer. Today is the dreaded laundry day, linens and all. And as much as everyone hates doing laundry, I am so thankful for these two marvelous machines. They makes our lives SO much easier!

And my Mom. Her birthday is on Wednesday and that's got me thinking about her. I've been watching the clock all morning to see if it's late enough for me to call her yet. I love calling my Mom. I probably annoy her to death with all of my calls. But she truly is one of my best friends. I wish I'd realized earlier in my life just how much this woman knows. She has such a wealth of life knowledge and I can't get enough of her! Thanks Mom for being so wonderful!

Today I'm Thankful For...

GRAPES. I love grapes. I love sweet ones and sour ones. I love the little "pop" that is involved with eating them.

AND PILLOWS. There are so many people on the Earth today who don't have a nice soft bed and pillows to lay on like I do. Even if my pillow is lumpy, it's bliss for me when it's time to rest!

My First Few

Well, November means Thanksgiving. Normally I have a hard time with this holiday. Mostly because I'm a brat and it makes me feel guilty for not being more thankful for all of my blessings. But in the last couple years I've come to be more and more fond of it. My guess is that as so many wise people have said, with age comes maturity. So, I'm putting up a post with the things I am most thankful for.

1) My family. Brent is a wonderful husband. He makes me laugh constantly. Even in my worst of moods, he can make me smile. He has such a strong work ethic and works so hard to do a good job at all that he does. My two girls - while being a Mom is WAY harder than I ever imagined, it's also wonderful. I love to see them grow and learn new things.

2) Our health. I am so thankful that we are all so healthy. There are so many families out there dealing with cancer or birth defects and they have a strength I truly don't think I have inside me.

3) Brent's job. While we knew we'd never be rich going into education, it's also very steady and secure. I'm grateful that he's so good at it and that the demand for teachers is always pretty high.

4) Our home. We were really lucky to get into our house when we did. Our house is perfect for us too!

5) Our church. While doing all we should isn't easy, it also brings a peace that you can't explain to anyone. Everyone has to experience it for themselves.

I'm going to try and put more up through out the month. These are the "biggies" but the little things should get a mention every now and then. But to start off the month, I'll post the ones that come to mind first. I'm so blessed!

October

October has been a busy month for us! Busy but fun!

My parents came to visit, twice! I have to share about the dinner to a local Waxahachie restaurant my Dad took us out to... it was at the 1879 Chisolm Grill and I had the best stake I've ever had!! While eating it I had a hard time not imagining some gigantic guy in the back pounding a side of beef with his fists. I almost wish I'd taken a picture of it. Brent and I are sure going to go back there for an anniversary! I don't know, maybe I'll have to move it up to Christmas! We had a great time visiting with them and we're sure happy they were able to come down for as long as they did.

Ryan and Kylee (Brent's brother and his wife) also came to visit for a few days. We had a lot of fun with them too. The first night they came into town they had a nice introduction to Texas and their insane road systems. We went out with them to a tour of the new Cowboys Stadium. It was big. That's about the extent of my review, if you want a more accurate account of what it's like, you'll have to ask Brent. Afterwards we stopped to see the Fort Worth Stockyards. We didn't go at the time of the cattle run but I enjoyed how uncrowded it was. We had a bbq dinner while there. We were sure glad they could come down as well, it's nice to get to know Brent's family better.

I finished out my Friday and Saturday grave shifts! It just about killed me, but I'm glad I stuck with it... I proved to myself I'm not as much of a wimp as I thought. Though I will admit there was plenty of whining involved. But, as it turns out, now that I'm set up with the schedule I want (Saturdays 3-11) they've changed management and the scheduling along with it. Now you have to be full time and work 4 days and have 2 off and rotate like that OR be PRN status and just cover shifts when people need a day off. In that instance people have to call me and set it up. So I'm not actually on the schedule. In part this change is a little scary but also a bit of a relief at the same time. My goal is to work about 4 shifts a month, more on the months Brent has time off... but we'll see how that goes.

Halloween was so fun!! The girls were both Dalmatians, although several people thought Mariska was a cow. She didn't enjoy that, but she loves Halloween. First we had the church party with trunk or treat and then we just did regular Trick or Treating around our street. This took over an hour because Mariska has to talk to everyone!! People are just blown away at her ability to talk to anyone and everyone. She also handled walking into some pretty scary costumes really well! One scary one included Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf... but they had candy so she took her chances. I love that she's getting older and is able to enjoy things more now. I can't wait for Brynley to get older and start having the enthusiasm Mariska does! I love my family!!! I'm so thankful everyday for how healthy we all are and how blessed we are to have each other. I'm so excited for the holidays to come too! We're sad we can't make it back to Utah but are also just thankful that Brent gets the time off he does, so we can all be together. Brent's parents will be here for Thanksgiving and we're making a good dinner. We'll also be joined by our friends Scott and Mary and their ward's missionaries... it'll be good times... here are pictures of my FANTASTIC month!!

Brynley stood up by herself 3 times today!!Mariska fell asleep in the car like this, "Howdy stranger.""What are you in for?" "MANSLAUGHTER! I slaughtered a MAN! What are you in for?""LOITERING! I'm like you man, I live on the edge"

Videos

I meant to put these videos on the last post, but I forgot...

Yes, we have Mariska eat sloppy joes shirtless. But she does have pants.

September

We're doing well. Brent is getting all of his after school activities planned and ready. On Mondays and Wednesdays he's going to have a school newspaper club. Tuesdays he'll have after school tutoring and on Thursdays he'll have a book club. While this will be a lot of extra work, I think it's also going to be fun for him to do, and the extra money is always nice.

We had a lot to think about this week when we received an email advertising a reduced tuition for enrollment in Brent's Educational Administration Master's Degree program. The issue was that he had to enroll for this December's classes!! We know it needs to be a priority, and saving $1800 would be nice, but the rush just didn't feel good to us. We're going to take this year and get more settled and plan things out better. The plan for now, details to come soon, is for him to start the program next fall. It's a 2 year, online program. We're just praying for guidance to know what to do for our family and how to prioritize everything we do!

My job is killing me! I told them back in late August that I need to switch off of the Friday and Saturday grave shifts and move to swing shifts on Saturday and Sundays. But they still have yet to get someone trained to take my place on graves, so I have to stick with it until the November schedule. But I've told them that starting on the November schedule I'm only going to work one shift a week. I don't care if it's the Saturday 3-11 or the grave from 11-7, but I'm only working one. It's a little extra income but not too much extra time away from home, and it'll keep me on the pay roll so I can be full time, if possible, in the summers while Brent is off work.

All of my weight loss is gone and I haven't actually worked out in weeks, thanks to the graves and my weakness of being lazy. I hope to go on walks through October and then when I switch to one shift a week get back into it more. I hate that I've yet again failed at my goals, but that's not an uncommon tale in people with weight problems. Although I really need to work out because it's my miracle anti-depressant. I can't believe the difference in my moods when I'm working out versus not working out!!

Brynley is getting so big! She is still the 95th percentile for height and the 80th for weight. She can clap now! She just started to on her own. She's still obsessed with either putting everything in her mouth or putting her mouth onto everything. I caught her licking the front of the refrigerator the other day. I'm hoping this phase will pass soon!

Mariska is still a lively and independent cutie. We've decided that we needed to prioritize our budget better and to take her out of Mother's Day Out. She loves it, we love it, but there are so many other places to put that money right now. I'm going to take her to the local church play groups and to the story time at the library. She'll be alright, she still won't start kindergarden for another 2 years (fall 2011), so we aren't too worried about permanent damage being done. As much as we hate to admit it and as much as we want to afford it, we just can't justify paying $60 a month to that, considering they nap for almost 2 hours of it. She talks so well! Everyone always thinks she's about 5! We got a good laugh the other night when she called Brent a "blithering boob"... thank you "Horton Hears A Who"!

Anyway, that's about it for us! I've included some baby pictures of Mariska, so you can compare!

She put "medicine on the dog's ear to make it stop itching". She's going to be a vet. Here is Mariska at 9 months...Brynley in her death trap. She loves it.This is Mariska at 10 months (above).

No hair... you tell me. Mariska or Brynley?