Random thoughts

Carleigh announced a few days ago that she wants to be a fire-fighter, a ballerina, and a drummer.
Jonas wants to be a police office and a drummer. As a mom who was a drummer in high school, I'm not sure why I'm not more proud!
Jonas had field day yesterday and brought home a first place ribbon, two second place ribbons, and a participant ribbon. I have no idea what the ribbons are for, as he described races like the hippity hop, the tire jump, and the baton race. What ever happened to the 50 yard dash? Regardless, I am happy for him!
Carleigh sprinted home in front of me from the bus stop this morning, and announced that she's fast because her Croc's are fast. I'll let her believe that.
Craig continues to work hard to impress his boss and build the business. This weekend will be long for him, as he will work his normal 7-6:30 today, then go set up a spinal screening booth at a concert in the park in Pearland. He did these last year and they were effective. But we also know from last year that he won't be home until after 10:30. Then tomorrow starts at 6:30 at the Pear Run- a 5k fun run in Pearland. He'll rush from that over to an elementary school where he will set up a spinal screening booth at their end-of-year carnival. He'll go to the office in time to see patients from 9-12:30, and then go back to the carnival to work until 4:00. It normally isn't this jam-packed, but his co-worker, Dr. Davis, has to go to a funeral tomorrow morning and will not be able to help with any of that stuff. Then Sunday our church has a Mother's Day picnic planned at the park, which will end with the moms leaving and the dads handling the kids. I feel like I should switch the roles this Sunday and let him have some time off. He's worked much harder than me this week!
Weight loss- I lost 2.5 pounds last week! This week has been harder. I want to reach my goal so badly, but I'm beginning to think it won't happen by the 29th.

Weight loss update

I haven't mentioned my weight-loss endeavor recently, but I certainly haven't abandoned it. I have managed to lose .5 pounds each week for the past two. How frustrating! Even though I am 8 pounds from my vacation goal (different than my forever goal, but more about that later) losing half a pound is dissapointing. With only 5 more chances to weigh in before May 29th, the day we start our vacation, I have to do better than that. So I joined Weight Watchers Online. I can't manage to ever get to the meetings (two kids, husband who works past 7 most nights and almost every Saturday...just doesn't work) and I sit in front of a computer every day, so it seems like a good fit. I've done WW before and it works for me. The Points tracker is a fantastic accountability tool. I started this on Sunday, and I think I've had a good week. I'll weigh in tomorrow and know for sure.

Speaking of tomorrow, I can't wait to see how our weekend turns out. We are leaving this afternoon to drive to the DFW area. We will be staying at my cousin's house. Tomorrow morning we are going to get all the cousins together (Jonas, Carleigh, Kelley, Cody, Jake, Jett, and Brooks) and go to the Dallas Arboretum to take some group pictures. Eventually those pictures will be framed and given as a giant collage to my parents. They will love it.

But we aren't just making this drive to snap photos. Craig has a patient whose son is a roadie for the band Newsboys. Newsboys happens to be Jonas' favorite band! I like them too, a lot. At the least, we have free tickets waiting for us at their concert tomorrow night. At the most, and we're still waiting for final confirmation on this, we have backstage VIP passes waiting for us!!!! I haven't said a word to Jonas, in case this falls through. But as we get closer I am getting very excited! I need to rehearse what I might say if we get to meet them, as I do not have a good track record with celebrities.

When we were in Jr High, Sara Penrod and I had gone skiing with my family, and we were souvenir shopping in Taos, NM. I slipped on some ice in front of a store and a man rushed out to make sure I was OK. Other than embarrassed, I was fine. He invited us in for some hot chocolate. He chatted with us for a minute about where we were from and our vacation, then he said good bye and left. We browsed the store and I ended up buying something (no memory of what). There was a flyer next to the cash register advertising a concert that weekend. The artist was Michael Martin Murphy, a country singer. I asked Sara "Doesn't he look familiar?" to which the cashier said "You were just talking to him. He owns this store and he's the guy who just gave you your drinks". So close!

And another brush with fame came when the band Third Day and Micheal W. Smith were signing autographs at an organized meet and greet at a local mall. I stood in line with all the other people and listened to an organizer say 5+ times "Don't try to shoot the breeze with these guys- there are a lot of you and we only have a limited amount of time." I took that to heart. As I quickly got Third Day's authographs and moved down the table to MWS, the guy behind me strikes up a conversation with the drummer of Third Day. MWS glances that way and sees the gap and says "How are you?" to me. Seems we had been given a few extra seconds and he decided to chat with me. Yep- I couldn't get out anything other than "Thank you!" and walked away. I heard MWS say to someone standing behind him "I guess she didn't want to talk to me!". DOH!

I did manage a civil and intelligent conversation with then Texas governor George W. Bush. His first High School graduation speech as governor was at my alma mater the year after I graduated. My dad, who has been in politics, was invited to a reception before the graduation to meet W. I went with him. He was polished and professional, diplomatic to be sure (glanced at my name tag and addressed me by my first name immediately) but very warm. I told him I had graduated the year before and he asked if I was going to college. I said yes, UNT, and he asked if I had made it to a Ranger's game. He was part owner of the baseball club at the time. I said yes, and then he signed a magnetic Ranger game schedule I had brought with me. Who knew I was shaking the hand of the man who would be president when both my children were born? Very cool.

So- tomorrow could go either way. I can't wait to get back and tell you how it goes, and hopefully post some pictures!

Weekend-ing

I'll start with the good stuff... I lost 2 pounds this week! Woo hoo! I am now 9 pounds from my goal. So how did I reward myself this morning after stepping off the scale? With 3 cinnamon rolls, of course. =(
So it's off to the gym this morning to work off that sugar and all those empty (but oh so yummy) carbs. Lunch will have to be lean protein and veggies. Good thing I like those things.

Craig is somewhere between Houston and La Grange right now. They have been on their bikes for about 2 hours. It looks like they will have fantastic weather for the entire ride. I hope he has a good time, and enjoys his time away from us. I mean that in the best way, of course! We all need down time. I was going to take the kids and meet Craig at the finish point in Austin on Sunday, but then I found out the finish point is at UT. Are they crazy? 13K riders, and their families, downtown Austin, which is already a hard part of town to traverse. So I opted out and told Craig he can ride the bus home with his buddies. Besides, it cost $25 for the bus ride. It would have cost me well over a tank of gas ($40) to get to Austin and back. Craig gets a few more hours to himself, we save money, it's all good.

We went to the gym in League City yesterday and I drove past our home site on the way. They've started leveling the land next to our lot, so you can actually see our southern lot line! Very exciting! I plan to pop over there often as the building progresses, and maybe even start to meet some of our future neighbors (as they are out there watching their homes go up). What an exciting time for all of us! The kids are going to love this process!

A weight loss update

I have failed to mention my quest to drop some weight lately. Last week was intentional, as I GAINED a pound. Yuck. But this week I lost 2.5! I have lost 6 pounds since I started trying on 3/1/08. That could be disheartening, except I know that I am not doing anything spectacular to acheive my goal- I am simply eating less and exercising more. Then I watch Biggest Loser and see these people who A)have 20-30 pounds left to lose, B)work out like CRAZY!, and C) have motivated trainers in their faces most days of the week, and two of them gained a pound last week, too. I don't feel bad at all after seeing that. In fact- I am quite proud that I am losing anything at all!
So, with 8 weeks to go, I have 11 pounds yet to lose to reach my goal. I can do it, without a doubt.
Craig has maintained for 3 weeks in a row, but he has the MS150 this weekend. He'll probably lose 5-6 pounds this weekend alone!