strangers

I was reading a few blogs that I happened to stumble upon and I read some really good ones but there was one that really stood out to me. I was totally inspired to "Choose Joy" from an inspirational blog by Ashley Hackshaw.  She tells real personal tragedies that happened recently in her life. She stays completely strong through the storm and is a true inspiration to others. I really loved how open and honest she is with everyone. I really wish I could be like that. No matter how hard I try to be so open and honest, I find myself guarded and closed. I hate that. Any way, she is awesome. I love her and I don't really even know her. It's funny how reading someones blog or seeing their pins on Pinterest makes me feel like I know them. I feel like I am somehow a part of their life or like an old friend. When really we are complete strangers.

If you have time check out my new "friend" on her blog: http://www.lilblueboo.com/ and if you don't have time, make some!

I made my first YouTube video and I think it turned out pretty good if I do say so myself.  I do need to get a better camera though. I just used my laptop webcam and it it okay, but not great.  I will soon be buying a new camera and video camera so that problem should be fixed real soon! Check out my video!   How to make a paper flower

$50/lb

okay, so I guess my husband only calculated having enough money to pay himself $100 / lb lost. Once I joined in on the weight loss challenge, he realized he was going to be broke real quick. So he changed the payout to be $50 / lb lost.  Not as much money, but still a lot and I am still very very motivated.  Go me. As of today, I have lost 7lbs. in 3 weeks. and still haven't added exercise yet. I am also trying to get my mom to join me.  She seems a little reluctant though.

I am writing a children's book of songs I made up and sing to my kids when I put them to bed. I am illustrating the pictures too. I would really like to see it published some day. I need to get a move on it. I am hoping by posting this, I will feel the need to get it done sooner rather than later. Go me!

$100 challenge

My husband and I have put on a lot of weight over the years. I have pregnancy weight to loose and my husband does too. haha. so he decided to make it interesting. He said he would pay me and himself $100 for every pound lost. We weigh in every week and for every pound I loose, he hands me a $100 bill. For every pound I gain back, I pay back $100. So far I haven't had to pay any back. I can't spend any of the money until it is officially mine. It becomes officially my money when I reach my goal and stay there for 1 month. I started this on June 9th. My starting weight was 188lbs. (ouch! it hurt to write that--oh well, it is soon to be lost forever) It has been almost 3 weeks. I have lost at least 5.2lbs (weigh-in is in two days). My husband has lost at least 7lbs so far. (so not fair) I can't wait to see the scale on Sat. Show me the money!!

I haven't started exercising yet due to back issues. I am seeing a Chiropractor and right now can only doing special stretches for my back before it is strong enough to really exercise. She calls them exercises, but come on...they are really just strengthening stretches. I can't wait to see how much weight comes off once I add some exercise in. For now I am just eating healthy (going by the book : Eating for Life) I LOVE this book. Easy to make recipes and easy to follow rules (only 4 ) and I get a free day each week to do whatever I want with! It is not a diet plan, it is just a way to eat healthy and happy forever! and I never have to count anything. Love it! I will keep you posted on how it goes.

*pictures soon to come*

HTML tags:

(since Yesterday)

I am teaching myself how to write/read html tags. It is going quite well. I really like it. I wish I could write all the different kinds of codes too, like javascript, and others like it.  It would also be cool to be able to do programming. I don't think I can learn that myself though.

I am writing this post using only HTML. Nothing fancy, but I am just learning. Kinda fun.

Mother's Day

For Mother's Day I made one of those photo books online.  I did this last year too.  I really like them. I take photos from the last year of our lives and put them in the book.  Each person in the family has a page just of them with lots of photos and a small list of highlights from the last year, like their grade in school, a lost tooth, or a part in the school play. After everyone's personal page I add a few pages of pictures of everyone. Some pages have themes like dance or a baseball game and others just have pictures of all the kids on different vacations.  I give a copy to my mother and my mother-in-law.  I then buy an extra copy for myself and put it on our bookshelf at home.  I use Wal-mart's photo book website, but there are lots of other photo books out there.  I don't think Wal-mart is the best, but it is simple, in my price range, and it turns out great. Both my mothers love it and I love that I have a simple photo book capturing things from the past year.  The kids love looking at them too. I can't wait until we have a bigger collection years from now.