Thinking Cap

"Put on your thinking cap...." is a phrase I've used for a long time with the kids and was a phrase I was told many a time back when I was in school. And I try, in my everyday life to keep my thinking cap on. And I try to make the best choices I can, no matter what the circumstances are. Like for instance, when we were reorganizing things in the yard. I was trying to accomplish a nicely laid out backyard. I've never really found a "home" for the trampoline. It constantly gets moves around. Well when Jim told me that the plywood that's been laying just to the left of the sand box (forever) could be used in the attic as flooring...I decided that since the grass was already dead there, that this would be a good home for the trampoline.





I "thought" this was a good place for it. Now take a moment and analyze this picture. Look and see if you notice what I've done. If you're my Mom or Dad...you "might" know where this is going (since they jinxed me after yesterday's phone call...). Look again, if you haven't seen it already.








Now play as if you can look at this arrangement through Matthew's eyes....








Yeah, some of your already saw what I didn't see when I moved the trampoline here. The roof to the sandbox was no longer a "roof", but a launching pad.













Now, mind you...Matt did stop and put the "thinking cap" on....















...but quickly tossed it to the side and said.... "cap, what cap...waaahhhooo"















Yeah, he's fine. He's now attempted this stunt enough times that he's now bored with it. ....until tomorrow, when it's raining...and slick!!!












Now back to the "thinking cap" and MY attemps to use it. Possibly I've once again forgotten to put it on. Because as a mother, wasn't I "supposed" to yell "stop, no.." as I saw Matt throw his leg up onto the roof of the sand box and hoist himself up? But instead...I run to find my camera in hopes to have a good blog topic.... Was the thinking cap being used...I'm thinking NOT!

Yeah...he's 15th months old!

I told him not to...but Brayden went ahead a turned 15 months old today. I took him for his well baby check up today. He's in the 80th percentile for weight and 96th percentile in height and head. As before mentioned...he's a big ole boy :)

The doctor said that we'd waited long enough (to see if he'd out grow his food allergies/intolerances). And now it's time to do allergy testing. I was VERY relieved to hear that he wouldn't have to have all those pricks in his back (like I'd heard about other people having during allergy testing). That was one of the main reasons I was in stand off mode when she's suggested it earlier. We will go Monday to an ENT here in town. I didn't know that this was something an ENT did...but now I do. They will do a single blood draw and should be able to determine exactly what he's allergic/intolerant to and if it's a "full" or "partial" allergy/intolerance. This will be a wonderful thing for my little guys belly! I'll keep you posted.

For now I'll leave you with some cute shots of the 15 month old. I tried to get him to let me take some pictures just now to show off his new "shiner" on his forehead. But he's not up for pictures. Still not too happy with me due to the shots earlier.



This is a shot of him on the way home from Easter. That's one pooped out baby!






This is the first time he tried a powdered donut! This has fast become a favorite :) And he can "tolerate" it, so that's a REAL plus!!






This is shot of him veggin in front of the TV waiting for his favorite show (Oobi) to come on.




Hope you all are having a great week!

84-40-10

84 - That's how much I just paid to fill up my suburban. HELLO! This is bad. What the heck will I (will we) be paying in July?

40 - That's how many pounds I've lost as of this morning. Woo Hoo!

10 - That's the size pants I'm in now! Hee hee :)

(If you missed my Easter post...see below)

Easter Pictures

(If you want to see the pictures better, just click on them and they'll enlarge. Blogger was giving me fits and this was my 4th attempt to post this!)


Brayden has found his first egg, but has no clue what he's supposed to do with it. Until Debbie tells him "get the ball" ...then he knows what to do...and eggs DON'T bounce :)








By this time he's seen a few family members eating these little treasures and he wants to partake also...





The older kids learned this year that instead of hunting on their own, that the buddy system works twice as well. Matt and Tyler were one of the pairs. Being the youngest two boys (not counting Brayden), they still got some pretty good hints thrown their way as far as egg locations.






Nat and Laura were another pair. And despite being the youngest girl pair, they faired quite well. I think Laura was the spotter and Nat was the runner :)






Our Easter tradition is to beat the snot out of an Easter Bunny pinata once the egg hunting is done. So before he's beat to shreds...we decided to take a "before" picture. This year we went oldest to youngest and this ole bunny didn't last long.







I tried to show Brayden how to hit the bunny like the big kids, but all the loot that was already spilling out to the bunny was just too distracting.








Once Mr. Bunny busted and all the goods were out...the vultures swarmed in and Brayden was right in the middle of it :)







If Brayden had, had it his way he'd have a lot more than this one piece of gum...so he made this sucker last, wrapper and all!








Matt and Tyler had discussed (before the bunny beating) that Tyler wanted the head and Matt said he wanted an ear. So they strung him up again and commenced to beat him MORE!







I consider this picture equivalent to one with the hunter holding up the head of his deer.









Jim and Brayden just sat back and watched as the big boys completely demolish the bunny.







Hope you all had a wonderful Easter!

Stuff....

Well I really didn't want to do another pictureless post, but here it goes. I have finally gonna and bought another battery charger for my camera and so I can finally use it again. I'd planned on taking pictures at yesterday's game...but if you read Jim's post, you'll see why I was too distracted to even remember the dang camera till after we left. Anyway....

Jim is gone today to Lubbock to sit with his Pop in the hospital. He just had surgery to remove 2 tumors, several lymph nodes, and a large section of his colon...Due to colon cancer (stage 3). Jim said they've never said that they "got it all", but that they are to come back in a month and decide what to do for treatment. His Pop also has a pace maker so treatment will have to be tailored quite a bit.

Natalie has been doing FANTASTIC in school and with her decreased meds. We (and she) couldn't be more pleased. We'll just continue to take it day by day. She finished her weasel and MAN, it's awesome...I'll take a picture and post it soon. She's now doing a hog in pen and ink. She (and the rest of the girls from what I can tell) are having a great time with softball...even after last night.

Matthew is Matthew :) He keeps me on my toes....in the "know"...and often causes my eye brow to raise from his current tall tales. His current favorite book is the Guinness (sp?) Book of World Records. So every 5 seconds I hear "Hey Mom, did you know that ______?" And every so often he'll throw in a "Matthew made" fact and there goes my eyebrow :)

Brayden is much more verbal. And he's found different octaves too! And I don't mean the low ones either. He doesn't necessarily scream to be ugly...he just does it to scream...and it's LOUD! He can say "thank you" and "uh-oh" now and it's very cute. When Jim or I call Matthew he tries REALLY hard to say his name and he gets fairly close. Natalie has been and still is Nae-Nae.

I'm still putting along with my weight loss. And I joined Curves and really like it. I recommend it to anyone who's considering it. I have high hopes to still reach my weight loss goal by the time we leave for vacation at the end of June. Jim will post our (and those who continue on the Biggest Loser) weights on Friday. So stay tuned...

Cheryl - we'd love to hear from again.
Wes and Billy - post pictures when you can.
Dad - "Let's Eat" is getting old. Fill us in on some racing :)
Beth - glad you decided no to leave us.
Reagan - Love all the baby picutres!! Shes so sweet!!
Kim - drawing a blank or not..always love to hear from ya :)

Nod your head :)

My sister sent this to me today and I SO nodded my head to all but #6,19,and 33. And as my Mom always told me, fashion goes in 10 year (or less) cycles. I saw girls as the mall a few weekends ago and they had biker shorts/tights under their mini skirts. I was like "I wore that in high school!" I still say #16 when I watch Brayden bumble around and fall. And I say #38 a lot to the guys up at work when I'm pretty sure they've been smokin crack...but most of them are still in their 20's and have no idea what I'm talkin bout! I hope you enjoy :)


You know you grew up in the 80's if......

1. You've ever ended a sentence with the word "SIKE."

2. You can sing the rap to the "Fresh Prince of Bel
Air" and can do the "Carlton."

3. Girls wore biker shorts under their skirts.

4. Two words: Hammer Pants.

5. You wore a ponytail on the side of your head.

6. You made your mom buy one of those clips that would
hold your shirt in a knot on the side.

7. You wore stone washed Jordache jean jackets and
were proud of it.

8. L.A.Gear....need I say more?

9. You remember reading "Tales of a Fourth Grade
Nothing" and all the Ramona Quimby books.

10. You know the profound meaning of "WAX ON, WAX
OFF."

11. You ever wore fluorescent clothing. (Some of
us...head-to-toe).

12. You can remember what Michael Jackson looked like
before his nose fell off and his cheeks shifted.

13. You still get the urge to say "NOT" after every
sentence.

14. You ever owned a pair of Jelly-Shoes (and probably
in neon colors, too).

15. After you saw "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure" you kept
saying "I know you are, but what am I?

16. You remember "I've fallen and I can't get up."

17. You remember going to the skating rink before
there were inline skates.

18. You ever got seriously injured on a Slip and
Slide.

19. You have played with a Skip-It.

20. You had or attended a birthday party at McDonalds.


21. You've gone through this nodding your head in
agreement.

22. "Don't worry, be happy."

23. You wore, like, EIGHT pairs of socks over tights
with high top Reeboks.

24. You wore socks scrunched down (and sometimes still
do).

25. You remember boom boxes.

26. You remember Alf, the li'l furry brown alien from
Melmac.

27. You remember New Kids on the Block when they were
cool.

28. You know all the words to Bon Jovi's "SHOT THROUGH
THE HEART."

29. (You just sang those words to yourself.)

30. You remember watching Magic vs. Bird. Oh
yeah............it will never be that good again

31. Homemade Levi shorts... (The shorter the better.)

32. You remember when mullets were cool!

33. You had a mullet!

34. You still sing "We are the World."

35. You tight rolled your jeans.

36. You owned a banana clip.

37. You remember "Where's the Beef?

38. You used to (and probably still do)
say "What you talkin' 'bout
Willis?"

39. You had big hair and you knew how to use it.

You're still singing "Shot through the Heart" in your
head, aren't you!!!

Sabotage???

I think I've sabotaged myself! (Heck, that is if I'm using the right term...Jim?) I didn't realize this until this weekend.

As most of you know, our version of The Biggest Loser ended this Sunday. (Jim will post the final results.) It didn't totally dawn on me that this was the end of this competition till yesterday. But the one thing I did keep noticing was my crap attitude towards eating "good" (staying within my Weight Watchers points). On Friday night I did good, but I sure didn't want to. Which I thought was suprising cause I usually don't face this issue. I'll just eat good and feel good about doing that. (Please bear with me...sometimes it's as if there 2 people inside my head. Pretty sure one's the little angel and the other's a little devil) Then on Saturday, after working in the yard and I'd done no snacking...I decided I wanted Thai food again, and of course Jim as all for that! Thing is that I wanted Thai food and not just so I could try to pick something healthy...I wanted to pig out! I did a pretty good job too. But it didn't just end there. Sunday after mowing, I wanted F-O-O-D again. So when Jim and Matt came back from riding 4-wheelers (I will see if Jim will post his adventure with Matt and fill you in on the softball season), and he asked me if I wanted to go eat. I said "YES!" And I wanted Greek food this time. And a lot of it! So that's just what I did...then topped it off with ice cream! Humm...

This is where I think I've sabotaged myself. I think that in the back of my head...where the little devils lives :), I was gonna just be good till this date. Even though the little angel part of my brain know that I want to reach my goal weight, and I want to do it by vacation time at the end of June. So when Jim told me that he has every intention on continuing the Biggest Loser until then, I knew that this MUST be done by me also. Or I can see a very negative trend occurring.

I am starting Curves today and have high hopes (like I did with Weight Watchers) that this will be a positive direction with positive results.

Congrats to all of those who did the competition. I think we all did great and I look forward to continuing this journey with any of you who's wanting to continue (or start).