My Blessings A-Z

So life has been a little rough lately so I thought it was time to focus on the positive...so here is my current list of blessings from A-Z ....

A - Aidan (he is getting so big and is turning into such a little man; I can't believe he is 5 already!)

B - Blessings (I know it sounds cheesy, but I am thankful for my blessings and that I can recognize them in my life)

C - Cora (my little princess, such a cutie)

D - Dear Friends (I know I cheated a little, but I have amazing friends)

E - Energy ( I am blessed to have the energy to do all that I do)

F - Family (I have an awesome family and I am blessed with their support at all times.)

G - Green Thumb (I am blessed to be able to grow things in my garden....well sometimes at least)

H - Haylee (what can I say, she is my baby!!)

I - Increased Health (I am generally healthy and worked to get into better shape)

J - Jesse (all I can say is that he is a great husband and I am blessed to have him in my life)

K - Kindergarten (I am blessed with a great program for my son to attend)

L - Lake (I am blessed to live near a lake, where I can take my family to enjoy it)

M - Mom ( I am blessed to have an awesome Mom and to be a Mom)

N - New Job (I really love my new job at the hospital)

O - Optimism (It is what keeps me going everyday)

P - Pillsbury Rd (I am blessed to own a home in such a great neighborhood)

Q - Quick Wit

R - Roses (I am blessed with roses in my yard that remind me that beautiful things can come from "thorny and painful" times)

S - School ( I am blessed to be able to be in school pursuing my dreams!)

T - Transportation ( I am blessed to have vehicles that work)

U - Unconditional Love (I am blessed to give it and receive it!)

V - Voice (I am blessed to have a voice to share my opinions and blessings)

W - Work ( I am blessed to have 2 jobs at his time to help support my family)

X - eXercise (I cheated, sorry -- but I am blessed with a new found love of exercise)

Y - Yvette (without her to watch my children I would not be able to accomplish my goals)

Z- Zippers (I am blessed that my children can zipper their own clothes....silly, but it works)

I feel better now. Have a great day everyone!!

Long time, no Blog....

So life has been busy lately and I haven't had a chance to update my blog....so sorry.....

So here is an update in a nut shell --
- I started a second job at Merrimack Valley Hospital (I like it so far)
- Aidan is registered for Kindergarten (dang...where does the time go...)
- We have been working hard on the house doing yard work and decorating (we LOVE the house)
- the kids have been playing hard
- Jesse and I were able to go on a double date with my brother and his fiancee to Boston (had a blast!!)
- Finally, we are all waiting for the summer weather to arrive so we can enjoy it more!!

I hope you enjoy the pictures....and I am sorry, but it is long....

Make a Smilebox slideshow

What a month!!

So April was not the best month for me; stress wise, but in the end it was all worth it! Let's see where should we begin....


I guess we can start with the house first...to make a very long story short -- we closed on the house on May 1st. And in the end that is all that matters right? Of course it was a VERY stressful and frusterating situation. We move into the house next weekend!


On the health front...I did OK this month. I know that I could have done much better, but I am an emotional eater, so with the stress of the house I ate alot of crap alot pf the time. So I ended the month at 206.4; I will do better in May! I finished up my time with my personal trainer last week and we re-took the Physical Fitness Evaluation that I had taken back in January and to my surprise I did considerably better. The results are below, so that I can look back on them later and try to beat them again!!

Test: January '09/ April '09

Weight: 229 / 206

Body Composition (this is when they use the little pinchy tool):

Tricep: 36 / 27

Abdomen: 32 / 21

Quadracep: 35 / 32

BMI: 32.85 (Obese) / 29.55 (overweight)

Upper Body Strength: 6 / 10

Grip Strength: Fair / Excellent

Lower Body Strength: 12 / 18

Pushups in 1 min.: 20 / 40

Curl-Ups in 1 min.: 40 / 66

Cardio Fitness: Level Marginal / Good

On the school front... my semester is almost over, and I can't wait! It looks like I will end the semester with a B. Which in the grand scheme of things isn't too bad considering I didn't really study this semester! I will buckle down in the fall and get my A back!!

Comparative Pictres and Easter Egg Hunts

So I have though hard and long about putting "in progress" pictures up on the blog....but after a lot of thought I figure what can it hurt! I can always use them to push me harder toward reaching my goals right?? So as I was trying to find a "before" picture, I realized that I am almost always the photographer, so finding a picture was VERY difficult, but I did find one from my brother's missionary welcome home..... So here is the before:

And here is the "so far" :

Probably not the best pictures to choose, but I didn't have a tun to choose from....oh, well maybe better ones will come!

Today was also Easter and it was a pretty good day! We went to Church with my parents to the Derry ward...I figured this would be a good dry run for when we move, since we will be moving into this ward. The kids did fairly well so hopefully it will be a smooth transition! After Church we went over to the Ingham's for dinner and an Easter Egg hunt, it was a lot of fun! The we just hung out, which was nice. The kids ate WAY too much candy, but it was Easter after all.....

We found a house!!

So a lot has gone on in March, so I figured it was time to fill everyone in...

First and foremost.....WE FOUND A HOUSE!! We are very excited! And I will post some pictures in a few minutes. It is a three bedroom one bath open concept ranch with a loft. I think it will be perfect for us. There is a lot of storage and a cute little yard for the kids to play in and there is a community beach at the end of the road for the kids to play and swim! Another good part is that it is only 5 miles from where we live now so no one really has a longer commute to school or work.

There is also a two car garage, that you can't see in this picture, which is AWESOME!! We had our home inspection yesterday and didn't find anything that would cancel the sale, but there were a few things that need to be fixed so as long as everything goes well we a re scheduled to close on April 29! YEAH!! Although we all know how good at waiting I am...NOT! But for this I will have to be patient!

Let's see what else has gone on this month....oh, yeah...we battled the flu at the beginning of the month; the only one to make it out unscathed was Haylee...lucky girls.

Aidan and Cora also celebrated birthdays. We didn't do anything exciting, but we did get to go to the playground....

And since it is the end of the month it is time for my March instalment of the weight loss challenge... As of this morning I was at 209.8! I think I may have been heavier than this when I got married!! Oh, how bizarre! I am contemplating having Jesse take a picture of me to post since I am about half way to where I would like to be.....but I am not sold on that yet....we will see what next month brings!

Fun times with my camera and Photoshop...

So I LOVE my new camera and it is really fun to play with high quality photos in Photoshop! I will post other pictures later, but I did want to get a picture of my little man up for his birthday!

My Little Man is 5!!

So today is my little man's 5th birthday...where has the time gone? I still remember the day I found out I was pregnant like it was yesterday! Although it was July 4th, so I guess it would be hard to forget, right?
Anyway, Aidan was so excited this morning. Jesse and the girls opened his bedroom door and yelled "Happy Birthday" and Aidan said, "It's Thursday, Thursday is my Birthday. YEAH, I'm 5!" He is such a little ham! When I wished him Happy Birthday again on the bus before school he made me lean over so that he could give me a hug and a kiss and he told me, "I wuv you mamma!" I know it is his birthday, but he gave me the best present ever with that statement!!
We decided to have his birthday dinner last night since everyone was home. I asked Aidan what he wanted for dinner and he very innocently looked at me and said, "Ketchup." And then went on playing. I mean, how do you respond to that? After a little more prodding he decided that he wanted chicken fingers, french fries, and chocolate ice cream with cones. So we had chicken fingers, french fries with ketchup, and chocolate ice cream with cones.
Then he got to get his birthday present, which was the Wall-E DVD.... so of course we had to watch it that instant at 7pm. They all enjoyed being able to stay up late and watch the movie and everyone went to bed after without incident....which was a nice change!
All in all it was a great night with the family!

**My new camera should arrive in a day or two, so I will but up a picture of him then.