This photo is from Erin’s baptism – a sweet moment captured where she was anointing the pastor.
So genuine, so pure.  Love.

So it’s been about a year and a half since Dee and I started on the Dukan Diet – and we have each lost about 65 pounds.  We have been a little relaxed about our eating but in that time we have formed much healthier eating habits that have kept the weight off.
We are both more than happy to talk about this, because it works.  Change your eating, change your life.  Period.

Here are the basics (although there are tips and tricks we have learned along the way):

The Dukan Diet: What You Can Eat

Almost too cool for the pumpkin patch

I love our trips to the pumpkin patch where everyone picks out the perfect pumpkin for their creative masterpieces.

11:21am

So today after a lovely coffee date w some friends, Erin and I went up to Wilkes to pick up some paperwork (NOT changing schools, just getting some evaluations done).  We walked up to the office, down to the counselor’s office and back to the office.  Erin had had enough of the walking thing.  I picked up the paperwork and we were heading out to the parking lot and Erin wanted to be carried.  We weren’t too far away, so I told her she needed to walk. Then all hell broke loose…the tantrum started (click if you want a snippet of it).  Screaming at the top of her lungs and generally hysterical.  At this point, I know it would have been really easy to pick her up and carry her to the car (what she wanted) but in the long run I know that if I did that, it would set a pattern of her knowing she can pitch a fit and I cave.  Not going to work that way.
Anyhow, as I was sitting there waiting out the tantrum, I had a few very different experiences.  One woman came up and said “Oh, I feel your pain.  We were in the same spot doing the same thing for 25 minutes just last

12:08pm

week.  Hang in there.”
Another person (who I know) said, “I wish I had done this when my son was little”
At this point we were going on 25 minutes of screaming, I am filling out the paperwork I was planning on taking home, there was no end in sight.
So then, one by one, came the moms who didn’t say anything but rather gave the disapproving “my kid would never do this in public” look that always makes me furious.  I end up wanting to cave, pick up my girl and take her to the car and end the embarrassment.  But today I stood my ground.  Another came by, again the look.  And yet another.
We were at the 45 minute mark (and keep in mind, this isn’t just a little crying, it’s SCREAMING at the top of her lungs).
I finished up my paperwork and a friend came walking out of the school.  So nice to see a friendly, sympathetic face.  As we talked, Erin came over, climbed up next to me and put her head on my shoulder.  One hour later and the tantrum had ended.  We walked the completed papers back to the office, she asked again to be picked up and I stood firm, told her we could walk together and I would hold her hand.  I braced myself for another hour long tantrum, but miracle of all miracles…she grabbed my hand and walked to the car.  Sigh.  Being a mom is tough business (even tougher with the holier than thou attitudes of those with have perfect kids who seem to hate how I parent).

I think this has to be my favorite wedding post…the pictures of the hugs.
So much love that day!

So I was at a meeting up at Grace the other morning and looked up to see this and had to take a picture.  Carlos had been in this room playing a couple weeks back and apparently left his mark.
(for those not up on “kid spelling” it says “Carlos is a awesome kid”)

So there once was a bunny named Ralph,
who kept pretty much to himself.
When Levi came to visit,
from his cage he’d made exit.
And now we no longer have Ralph.

So….meet Jack and Shredder – our new bunnies!

 It’s Homecoming week at the high school – something I always wondered about when I was a student there.  Do alumni actually come home to go to this game?  Is there much more different about on a bigger level besides the current “homecoming court” “pep assemblies” and “floats” (which they no longer have…fondly remember the hard work put into our infamous sophomore float that had a culinary motif and “Fork the Eagles” as the slogan…we thought we were being very creative!).
As an alumni, it’s exciting to see my kids get so pumped up for the games.  Trey is a die hard Spartan fan and won’t miss a home game.  He truly would go to all the away games if someone would take him.  He LOVES the idea that one day he will be a Spartan.   The football players are so cool to him and the whole game day atmosphere is right up his alley.
I took him to the homecoming pep assembly today and he was in heaven.  Sprayed his hair blue, wore his jersey and soaked it all in. Go Spartans!

Guessing most of you who read my blog don’t know that I used to be a smoker.  Not a  two pack a dayer or anything like that, but it was a part of my life.  I enjoyed it and found it relaxing even.
I was a Camel girl, then turned to Marlboro Reds.  Dee wasn’t a fan, but put up with my habit (truth is, we would be at a bar and I would think I was hiding it…ha, like that’s possible) but I quit for good the day my dear friend was diagnosed with lung cancer.
Still, I have a fondness for Marlboros – even won a trip from them that ended up not working out for whatever reason, but they sent me a $4000 check to compensate.
It’s not often, maybe a time or two when I am out having a drink with friends, but there are times that I miss it.   Don’t get me wrong, I don’t ever want to be a smoker again, but sometimes I think about it.
So on with my story…last week as I was driving to a board meeting in Silverdale, I had that “wow, I really miss smoking” thought run through my mind.  A smile crossed my face and I was lost in the memory until my boys started arguing and brought me back to reality.  I didn’t think another thing of it until we were at the meeting.  Levi had asked to use the restroom in the restaurant and when he came back, he came up to me and said, “found these in the men’s room” and dropped a pack of Marlboro Reds on the table I was sitting at.  You would have thought he dropped a bag of crystal meth on the table by the shocked reactions, but I knew he was just doing the right thing and had no interest in the cigarettes.  He was more curious about them and how they would have ended up there rather than what they were.  His birthmom smokes, so he wanted to give them to her.  Very sweet, but a conversation about how you don’t gift found cigarettes to other people and that it, perhaps, wasn’t really appropriate for him to be giving her cigarettes in the first place.
As I drove home, it made me really think about the world and the brain and how it’s all interconnected, the thoughts and happenings….deep, huh?
(and no – I will not be going out to buy Marlboro Reds anytime soon!)