Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

Hey Everyone! How are you? Yes, I know it's been a while since I've blogged but you all know how the holidays go. Let's see......Christmas was great. My mom came down from Vermont on December 22nd and stayed through December 26th. We were on the go a lot. She wanted to finish her Christmas shopping, so we were out til midnight on Saturday night and at the store by 7:00am Sunday before church. It was fun though. The kids were very pleased this Christmas, thanks to Grandma & Grandpa. They got pretty much everything on their list. Favorites were Miranda - American Girl doll (Julie), Be Bratz computer doll, Pixel Chix, Purse pal and for CJ - Transformers, transformers and more transformers (Bumbleee, Power Ranger,Star Wars) oh and an Avatar Gameboy game that he only stopped playing when Mommy wanted to play Super Mario Bros. We went to my friend Steph's for Christmas Eve dinner and then to church after, then we came home and opened one present (pajamas of course) and watched The Nativity Story. Christmas day my mother-in-law came over and our friends Gaby & Naida and we had a wonderful Christmas Dinner. The food was great and I managed not to overeat. Then mom left the next day and we all got sick!! The kids just for one night...they threw up and that was it they were all better. I on the other hand, didn't throw up but have had a weak & uneasy stomach since Wednesday. I think I'm on the mend now. Chris took the kids to see National Treasure while I was home sleeping and then we went to see Alvin & the Chipmunks with a couple of CJ's friend. It was actually a pretty cute movie. I wasn't looking forward to seeing it, but was pleasantly surprised. We have two more days before we go back to school and we're going to try to make the most of them. Miranda went to Gaby's after church yesterday for a sleepover and CJ went to his Grandma's to sleepover, so Chris and I got a day (and night) of football to ourselves. We watched our Cowboys play sooooo POORLY!!!! It was really discouraging. They better get into shape in this bye week. I made some homemade soup yesterday, the first time I ever did that. I used the ham bone from Christmas. I think it came out really good. I'm by myself today until the kids come home, so I decided to blog. I woke up when Chris left and I'm not really a sleep in kind of gal, so I've been up since then. I read & prayed and now I've blogged, so I think I'm going to head out for a walk. I have a loop that I do around my neighborhood and it ends up being about 4 miles, so I'm going to do that this morning. Then I guess I'll come home and clean and do laundry. I won't weigh in again until Jan. 8th, but I'll let you know how that goes as soon as I do. We're heading to our friend's house for dinner and to ring in the New Year tonight. Can you believe it's 2008 tomorrow? I can't. I pray that this is a BLESSED New Year for all of you. My resolution this year is to serve God better than I did last year. I love you all!!!

Weight Watcher Update

Hey Everyone! I got weighed in last night and lost .6lbs. That brings my weight loss total to 21.2lbs. I'm really excited about that. The next two Tuesdays are Christmas & New Year's Day so my Weight Watcher meeting will not be open. So that means I can either wait 3 weeks to weigh in or I can go to the Thursday meetings. Not sure what I'm going to do yet. I like to get weighed on the same day and on the same scale so I can be consistant on the numbers, but I'm not sure if I want to wait 3 weeks................we'll see! Anyways, Christmas is 6 days away! Can you believe it????? My mom is coming down from Vermont and she will arrive Saturday night and stay through Wednesday. I'm going to pick her up at the train on Saturday evening and then head out for some last minute late night shopping. We're thinking of having an early Christmas dinner on the 25th and then heading into the city to see the tree. I'm thinking it probably won't be too busy on Christmas day!! I have 1 1/2 days more of school and I'm so excited. I think I definitely need the Christmas vacation. I'm hoping for lots of snow so the kids and I can go sledding and build a snowman. Did I mention I love the snow? Oh yeah, I mentioned it in a previous blog...well I do. Sorry for you "snow haters" out there!! Yes, my Cowboys lost last weekend to the Eagles :(. It was so boring and discouraging to watch, they could just not get anything going offensively. I think Tony Romo was too busy thinking about Jessica Simpson in the stands!!!! That's just my opinion. Anyway, we have Carolina this Saturday so I hope we'll be able to do better then. Okay..well I'm off to figure out what to do for dinner....talk to you all later. Love you!!

Weight Watchers Weigh - In Tuesday

Hey All!! Sorry I didn't get a chance to write yesterday, the night was kind of busy. I only have a few minutes because I have to get to school, but wanted to let you know how I did at my weigh-in. I lost 1.6lbs, which puts my total at 20.6lbs!!!!
I was so excited!! I'm praying that I can keep it up (actually down :)) over the holidays. I managed to survive Thanksgiving & the buffet at The Manor so I have hope. My Christmas cards came in today, so you should all be getting the cards by the end of the week. Oh...and the cowboys pulled it out this weekend and they are now 12 -1....Super Bowl here we come!!! Anyway, Have a great day!! Love you!

Good Morning!!! It seems like afternoon already because I've been up since about 5:45am. We had a sleepover last night with my friend's 3 children and they like to get up very early. So, we had 5 kids in the house from last night until today. It was pretty smooth I must say. Everyone seemed to have a fun time and I managed to remain pretty calm. LOL. I made pancakes and eggs this morning and they all seemed to have big appetites. I've done the dishes and we should be getting ready for church, but it's still too early, so I decided to write on my blog. I don't really have a lot to say though. We're thinking about getting the Christmas tree today, but not sure. The Cowboys are 11 - 1 and they play today at 1:00pm. The younger kids have there little singing thing at church today. Oh....I know....have you all seen this website called www.elfyourself.com ?? It has to be the funniest thing I've seen in a while. You go to the site and you can insert pictures of yourselves on elf's bodies and then they do a little dance. I thought it was so cool. I'm elfing everyone. Okay well that's about it for now. If anything else exciting happens I will post it, but if not I'll give you my weekly update on Tuesday. God Bless.

Weight Watchers Weigh-In

Well last night was Weight Watcher Weigh-in Tuesday! I lost another pound which puts my total weight loss to 19lbs. I was hoping to hit 20lbs this week, but it didn't happen. I should definitely hit it next week though. It's good though, as long as I keep losing. Tommorrow night Chris and I have a Christmas Party @ The Manor in West Orange. It's fun because we get to get all dressed up and the food is really good too. I'm excited because I can wear a dress that I love, but haven't been able to fit in for some time. We went last year and I wasn't crazy about my outfit, but this year I am. I have pictures from last year so it will be interesting to compare them to this year's pictures. We have 13 official school days until Christmas break (not counting weekends) so we're all counting down. Maybe a snow day in between.....:). Alright, gotta get ready for school. Hope you all have an excellent day!!!

Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow.....

It's SNOWING!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love the snow. We woke up this morning to a beautiful blanket of snow covering the ground. Only about 3 inches, but very exciting. The kids and I headed out early to play. We had so much fun. I took some pictures and you can view them at http://www.pixagogo.com/8781684131. By the time we came in it stopped snowing, but now it's started again and even harder. I don't think I appreciated the snow when I was growing up (except for school closings), but now I just love it. I love to get up and get all bundled up, get the kids all bundled up and go outside. I hope we get a lot of snow this year. I still appreciate the school closings, although I don't think we'll get one tomorrow. Here's hoping though!!! I'm off to my friend's house to bake today. We're continuing our cooking baking and what a great day for it. Hope you all enjoy the snow!!!!!

Weight Watcher Weigh-in Tuesday

Hey Everyone!!!! Well, once again it's a Weight Watcher Weigh-In Day!!! This was a scary one leading up to today.....with all the eating I did over the Thanksgiving weekend. Especially since with our family and our extended family, Thanksgiving is not just one day but actually the whole weekend. LOL. Not to help matters, my friend and I started our holiday cookie baking on Sunday. We started off with two kinds of cookies, and we'll do a little bit each week, so by Christmas we'll have a nice variety. I've already taken a few out of the freezer though, so hopefully I'll have some left by Christmas. Anyway, I went tonight to get weighed in and I lost another 1.2lbs. That puts my grand total today at exactly 18lbs!!! I was so surprised. I did do a couple of 3 to 4 mile walks over the weekend, but I was still pleasantly surprised to have lost weight. I'm hoping I can get 2 more off this week then I'll be at 20lbs....that will be great. I don't really have a goal weight yet, but I think I'd like to lose a total of about 35lbs. Hey, that means I'm half way there!! Cool!! I just took down the Christmas decorations from the attic. I never start putting up the decorations yet, but I'm thinking I might start a little earlier this year. It's so pretty with the lights and the garland up. I'll let you know next time if I did it or not. Right now I'm off to do dishes...........pretty exciting huh? The kids are bathed and in their pajamas and Chris is out helping a friend....so that means I can catch up on some DVR TV. I have "Desperate Housewives" and "October Road" recorded and I can't wait to watch them. Somehow I think that's going to take precedent over the Christmas decorations. Let's see......straining and stretching to put up the decorations or sitting on the couch watching some guilty TV....hmm, what would you choose?? Have a great night everyone!! Barb if you read this, thanks for dropping off my Bible :). Love to you all!!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!!

Well, it's Thanksgiving morning and I am up this early waiting to put the turkey in the oven. I got up a little earlier than expected, so I have to wait til about 6:30am to put the turkey in the oven. We have had fried turkey for about the past 5 years, which only takes 3 min per pound to cook, but this year I wanted to bake a turkey. It's been so long since I baked one and I really wanted to have stuffing from in the bird....so we decided to bake this year. We will be going over to our friends' (who really are like family) house later for dinner & football. My Cowboys play the Jets today at 4:00 and you know we have to watch that. They are 9 - 1 baby!!!!! So we will be watching enthusiastically today to see if they can make it 10 - 1. Of course this day is about more than turkey & football, so I need to take a minute to give thanks to our Father in heaven. Thank you, God for all my many blessings...for a wonderful husband, beautiful children, loving family & friends, and for your provision for my family. Thank you, for loving me and calling me to you, for gently speaking to my heart and encouraging me. Thank you, for allowing your son to die on the cross, so that I (and everyone who chooses) can have eternal life with you!! I pray this day for those who do not know you, that you would speak to there hearts Lord and invite them to a relationship with you. You are an amazing God and I love you! Amen! Have a wonderful & blessed Thanksgiving everyone.

Weight Watcher Weigh-In Tuesday

Hey Everyone! Well, the weekly weigh in was tonight. I didn't lose any weight, but I did stay exactly the same as last week. I was a little discouraged about that, but I should be thankful with all the eating out I did this weekend. On Saturday we had Panera Bread for lunch and P F Chang's for dinner....that alone took about all my extra weekly points. Anyway, that's it for today. It snowed yesterday, didn't last but it did snow for half the day so I'm getting excited. I love the snow. Bye for now!!!

Beyond Measure

"Everything that I have has been given so unselfishly and shown that even when I don't deserve you always show the fullness of your love......I know that I've been given more than beyond measure". These are the lyrics to a Jeremy Camp song "Beyond Measure" off his latest CD. I just had to start with them, because I (We) have been truly blessed WAY Beyond Measure. As most of you know, Chris and I attended the "Weekend To Remember" Marriage Conference this weekend and we had a wonderful time. The speakers were fabulous and we learned some really helpful things to apply to our marriage. #1 thing we took away "Your Spouse is not your enemy!!", there are outside forces that are at work here trying to destroy your marriage (Ephesians 6:12). #2 "We must choose to receive our spouse as God's perfect provision for us". #3 "Receiving your spouse is NOT based on our spouse's performance". There were many good points and a lot of information that we hope to apply in our marriage. We were able to talk and spend quality time together which is always needed and we were able to focus on us! It was truly a blessing. But, I need to bring you back to before we left on Friday and let you know about another amazing way God blessed us. We have been struggling for awhile now with our finances, without going in to detail we were way behind in our bills. The cable had just been turned off on Wednesday, our Electric bill was a week past the shut off date (and it was still on - thank you God),our car insurance had just expired, our rent was overdue and we were supposed to go away this weekend and we had no money for gas or food.............that can kind of get you down :(. Chris and I were both down about that all week and we really could not think or figure out a way to get any money to take care of these bills. Chris has money owed to him from customers, but they have 90 days to pay so you never know when that is going to come in. Well, we both were just kind of on edge, praying and trying to trust God, but really discouraged. Friday morning I woke up and I just started my morning prayer and I said "Lord, I don't know how you are going to do it, but I believe you are going to make a way for us to go to this conference" , I believed it when I prayed and just went about my day. I got off work at 12:30, went to pick Chris up at work, and came home to get ready to leave (how we were going to eat over the weekend, I didn't know), Chris went to the garage to get his clothes out of the dryer, I grabbed the mail and came upstairs. I passed through the junk mail, and the overdue bills, and then a letter addressed to Chris was there. I opened it (of course, because I'm nosy) and it was a Check for the amount of exactly what we needed to pay for all our past due bills, with a little extra to spend this weekend. I could not believe it, I kept checking it over & over to see if it was real, I called Chris on his cell phone and said you have to come up here right now! It was real!! We had gotten a letter a few months back about someone suing a company that we had previously worked with and they needed us to be on the name for the lawsuit, we didn't have to do anything but if they won we would get a settlement. Well, this was a settlement check for that!! We were able to pay all our past due bills before we left for our weekend. And, we were able to go away this weekend and focus on us, God, and our marriage without the weight of 'how are we going to pay the bills'.....I know that I've been given more than Beyond Measure!!!! I love you all.

It's a Weight Watchers Weigh-in Day

Yes, today is Tuesday my weekly weigh in day at weight watchers. I have lost another 1.6lbs, bringing my total this week to 16.8lbs!!! I am so happy. It's so exciting to see the weight come off. I mean I do notice it in my clothes and stuff, but to see the actual numbers makes me feel really good. I'm so glad my mother-in-law asked me to join with her. She's lost 18lbs by the way. I'm also very excited because I am going away with my husband this weekend. Family Life is doing a "Weekend to Remember" Marriage Conference in Pennsylvania and we are going. Our wonderful friends, so graciously blessed us by paying for us to go this weekend. What a blessing that will be for us. I know you read this blog, so thank you so much, we are really looking forward to it. We love you guys a lot. We will leave Friday around lunch time and come home Sunday around dinner time. It's a pretty intense schedule, but we do get to have a "date night" on Saturday night. I think we are going to P. F. Chang's for dinner. I found out there is one about 20 minutes from our hotel. I went there a few weekends ago with some of my girlfriends from work and it was so much fun. We had such a good time and the food was great!! I think Chris will love the food there (Chinese) so I thought it'd be a nice place to go for our date night. Just being away for the weekend by ourselves would be a blessing, but to add the teaching that we are going to receive, we could not be more blessed. I've heard it's a wonderful conference and we're both really looking forward to it. Chris is even missing his playoff game to go, so he must be really looking forward to it as well. Things have been really tight for us financially lately and I've been a little discouraged, but God really has been faithful. There's so many things that I want to do and get done with our bills and we just don't have the money to do them, but God is sustaining us. It's like in the Lord's prayer when we say "give us this day our daily bread"...God is really giving us each day our daily bread. Whatever needs to be done at the moment, God is making sure we have enough to get it done. Now me, I'd rather get everything done at once and have all the bills paid on time and in full, but I know there's something that God is teaching us through this time and he is providing for our daily needs. That doesn't mean I don't get discouraged or depressed a bit, but our blessings far out way my discomfort. I pray that this dry period in our lives will allow us to hear God's direction more clearly and teach us to be obedient to his prompting in our lives. It's like we tell the children in my class "Obedience brings blessings, Disobedience brings consequences"....it's that simple!!! I'm sure God is saying the same thing to us! Anyway, I'm going to go start packing. Yes it's only Tuesday, but I like to pack early. Have a great week. Love you all.

Good Morning! We got school pictures the other day, so I'm enclosing the kids school pictures. Again, Miranda is in 4th grade & CJ is in Kindergarten. Not crazy about the background, but the smiles are priceless. Well, it's Sunday Morning here and we'll be getting ready for church in a few minutes. I was almost not going to go today because I'm feeling a little down, but then I was like what am I thinking.....That's even more of a reason to go. Church is the place I need to be when I'm feeling like this. It was a pretty relaxing weekend. The weather ended up being pretty nice. Miranda had guitar lessons which she loves, so she was happy about that. The expander thing seems to be going alright...so far I've been pretty successful turning it everyday. We had two movie nights with the kids this weekend, both Friday & Saturday night. We haven't done that in a while but it was fun. I of course have trouble staying awake during movie night, not sure if it's the movie or just me being tired...but I did pretty good this weekend. Today is the big day in our house...The Giants are playing the Cowboys at 4:00pm!!!!!! Should be a really good game....my prediction Cowboys 21 - Giants 7!!! We'll see how close I am tomorrow.....I just hope we get the win!!!!!! Have a blessed day!

What an awesome God we Serve

So, I'm having fun playing around with the web page. I've added some songs that really speak to me these days and I wanted to share them with you all. I can not sing a note and I have absolutely no rhythm, but God really ministers to me through song. When I hear a song that speaks to my heart I just listen to it over and over. This one by Jeremy Camp "Give me Jesus" is just simply him and the guitar, and the words are so simple but it's very soothing.Here is the link... http://jeremycamp.com/tunes.html. I hope you can get the link from here. Let me know what you think. Okay, enough about the music.

I was so blessed today to hear that a friend of mine who had a stroke just this past Saturday was up and walking today. Our God is so awesome!!!!! I continue to be amazed by what He does and how He answers prayer. Even in my own life, He's answered my prayers so many times, but it still amazes me every time. I love it!!! Thank you God, for loving me and calling me to you!!!! Have a blessed evening everyone!!

My Second Day as a blogger

So, it's my second day on the blog and so far so good. I'm still playing around with the set-up, but it's fun. Thanks to those of you who have commented...it's fun to read them. Today was a 12:00pm dismissal from school, so we were all happy about that. Miranda had her Orthodontist appt at 1:00....she was not too happy about that. For those of you who don't know, Miranda is starting the steps toward getting braces. Today she had to get her palat expander in. This is a lovely device that they brace in her mouth to expand her upper jaw. She was really nervous, but we prayed and she prayed while they were putting it in and it went very quickly and she said it was not painful...so praise God for that!! Now, the painful part for me, well not really painful, just annoying. The palat expander has this tiny little hole in the center of it and I'm supposed to take this tiny little sharp pointed key and put it in the hole (without putting it in too far, so as not to puncture her)and then push down on it to turn it and I get the pleasure of doing this twice a day. What a joy!!!!! It's actually not that bad...they even put the key on a string so if I drop it in her mouth it won't go down her throat...........isn't that funny? This is probably really gross for some of you...Sorry!!! Just to fill you in from yesterday, I went to Weight watchers and I had lost .8lbs, which brings my total to 15.4lbs and yes I got my third gold star. Very encouraging. That's it for today my friends....love you!!

My First Day as a Blogger

Well, this is my first official day doing this family blog. I guess it will be a good thing if I can keep it updated. I came home from school and checked my email and somehow ended up starting a blog page....not sure how that happened but it did. So, not much happening today...I'm getting ready to go to Weight Watchers for my weekly weigh in and hopefully I'll officially hit 15lbs (how much weight I've lost so far), I was at 14.5lbs last week and if I get to 15lbs today I get my third star. You get a gold star for every 5lbs you lose. I started on Sept 11th, so this week will be my 9th week...not going to tell you my weight, but I am happy (and I'm down one size in clothes). Cj just finished his homework...he's getting so mature now he doesn't even need my help. He just comes home and does it and then brings it to me to check. My big boy!! Miranda is finishing up her homework, she does need help every now and then.....that's if I can help her!! The way they learn things is so different now, but so far we're doing pretty good. Marking period ends this week and they get report cards next week, so we're excited to see the results. Chris is still at work. It's voting day in Bloomfield, not exactly sure what we're supposed to vote for, but he's been at the polls all day ( he had to open the building and stay there)....I guess I should go vote!! Well, I better get some work done before I have to leave, so this is it for now. I think this is pretty cool. Have an awesome and blessed day!!!