A Thursday Afternoon

Here are shots from our afternoon. The boys and Anna had finished their home work and now they were all doing different things. Davis is on the computer.

William eating chocolate coookies and milk while talking on his cell phone and trying to keep his face from being shown on the camera.

This one above is Anna practicing her piano.

Favorite Things

As I began my Weight Watchers journey last September I began to look for things I eat that didn't cost many points. I have found several things, and I will share a few each week.

The two today are Progresso Soup. I haven't found kind I don't like but I do have a few that I really love. One is the Hearty Tomato. It has a rich flavor and has chunks of tomato in each can. The entire can is only 4 points. That is a great soup for lunch or even if you needed a snack.

The other is Laughing Cow Cheese. I use the light. It only has 35 calories per piece and that is not even a point. Great addition to breakfast.

Give these a try, you might find you like them too.

My Christmas present

When we bought this house we went down in square footage. So I have been working on how to make my furniture fit into this house. One of the things I did was take my small dinning room and turn it into our study/office. Before I made this change I had book cases built into the walls of what was our living room/study then I saw that that was not working to I switched the rooms. Now we have a large dinning room and a nice size study. It really works out great. It puts our computer right off the kitchen so I can be on it and still be in the center of things and it puts our boys on the computer right in the center of things too.

So, all that to say - for Christmas I wanted an over head light for Christmas. Since there was no light there in the first place this would be a job for an electrician. And my sister just happens to be married to one. So yesterday Jerry and his worker came out and ran the electricity and installed my light. Now we have a beautiful over head lite.

You might think, "why would she want to do this now," well a few years back when Win and I put in new counter tops in our kitchen we did away with our breakfast room area. So every night we eat in our dinning room. When Spring comes we will eat on our patio outside.

I am so happy to have this light up and shinning. It made such a huge difference in the room. Before we just had lamps to eat by. Now over head lights.

One hard headed dog

This is Ethel. She is a Lab mix. My sister has her father. His name is Red. Davis named her when he was 3 years old. She is his dog. She is now 10 years old and is showing some age.

She has a thing about smelling things. She has taken down a row of bushes in our back yard. We have to put Cayenne pepper out to keep her from pulling the branches off the bushes. Our yard is lined with bushes on two sides to make privacy for our pool. She seems to want to mow them down.

If she wants to do something she will do it, if she doesn't want to do something, you can't make her. She sometimes drives me crazy.

She has started growling at the cats lately. She made Calico fall over the other day and I thought Win was going to come unglued.

Win really has a thing for her though. She charms him with her red eye lashes and he is mush around her.

She loves our dog Prince. I have seen them get into a fight though. Like this past summer when the kids and I came home from North Carolina (your house MK) and they got into it in our den. I had to throw water on them. Prince ended up breaking one of her teeth. Cost a pretty penny to get it repaired and she spent the night at the vet. But I have also seen them not speak to each for several days. Prince will make her mad and then she will have nothing to do with him. At some point they kiss and make up.

I told you all that we are weird....

Inching toward...

the mark of 50 pounds. I only lost 1 pound this past week. So I am now at 49 pounds. I had hoped I would be at 50 today but my body has other plans. So I press on. I walked 5 miles this morning and it felt great. I feel sure I will make the 50 pound and maybe over next week.

Sundays are hard

Sundays are hard to have self control while trying to lose weight. It seems to be a day of snacking and eating at our house. Win is the worst. Of course, he weights about 125 pounds so he can afford to snack all day. I am thinking of changing my official weight in day to Friday so that I don't have to endure Sunday and then weight on Monday morning. I think I am going to chew a piece of gum now so I won't want anything else to eat.

He needs to learn to relax

This is Alton, which means gold in Turkish, and he is the most relaxed cat you will ever meet. Nothing gets him worked up except cutting his nails. He lets Anna carry him around and he and Lucy have a grand time playing.

We are always telling "Alton, relax, don't get so worked up", when we see him in this position.

I found him at gas station in Greenville, Alabama. Someone had put him out and I found him there and brought him back up to our house, about 50 miles away. We have had him about 2 years now. I don't think he likes me that much but that is OK. He loves Anna.

I have to sweep my floors just about every day because he has so much hair and sheds year round, it seems.

She is addicted!

To soft food! Lucy cries about 3 times a day for some soft food. Our cat Calico has lost a great deal of weight and we have put her on soft food so Lucy now thinks she should get some every time as well. We call Lucy a "food head" and she is addicted to the stuff. All of our cats want soft food and if they are given even a little bit they become addicted to it all over again.

So instead of "crack heads" we have "food heads". We are a strange bunch.

Downward I go! 48 pounds

Monday's are weight in day. Since I am not a part of a Weight Watchers class, my partner and I are on the honor system. We both weight at home and then report to each other when we meet at the park in a little while. I am always just as excited about her weight loss as I am about mine.

I lost 4 pounds last week. I am down 48 pounds. I had made it my goal right before Christmas to be at 50 pounds on this Monday (today) but I realized I would not make it so I am hoping that comes next week. Actually if I can keep up my 3 pound loss a week I will go over my goal.

Even though I have lost a lot of weight, I still have to fight discouragement. I have as far to go as I have come. My goal is 100 pounds. Today starts week 18. Our goal date is September 9, 2009. So pray I don't become discouraged. I won't give up, I can't, my partner won't let. Neither would my Menagerie. They are all cheering me on.

So, on this cold morning, I press on to walk in the park, teach a bible study at my church this morning and walk in self control.

Relaxing on a Saturday Afternoon

Here is Lucy and Alton relaxing on the couch. Alton is so sweet. He lets Lucy get close and he will play with her for hours on end. Polly Kate will have nothing to do with Lucy and even has let Lucy know that she can't come into mine and Win's bedroom. Lucy won't even come close to the door of our room.

Polly Kate

This is our cat Polly Kate. She is a unique cat. We call her "cat dog" because she will lick us like a dog. I got her from an older lady who had a bunch stray cats that lived at her house. I thought I would get an orange cat from her but we couldn't catch the orange one. We saw this little ball of fur on the porch and the lady said "that cat is feisty, she is serious about her food". Polly Kate had an eye infection and we looked at her, put her down and went home.

When we got home I found some old antibotic in our refrigerator. I was going to take it to the lady because Polly Kate would lose her vision if this infection was not stopped. Win said, "that lady won't give that kitten that medicine, you either have to go by there every day and give it to her or go and bring that kitten home." So, I went back to Mrs. Jones house and got that kitten.

She would growl when we fed her because she was so hungry and she was so used to being hungry. But she soon stopped doing this because I think she realized that food was always around for her.

She loves me and I really love her. Anna named her. I affectionately call myself "momma cat" to her and I refer to Win as "Tom Cat" to her. She acts like she understands. She will let William hold her in very strange positions. Only he can hold her like this.

She doesn't like for me to raise my voice. If I am yelling at the kids, she will come to me and stretch up and touch my hand to get my attention. If I am raising my voice at Win she will do the same thing. Sometimes she will lick my face if she can reach it. If Anna is yelling or crying, she will bit Anna. I think the Lord uses Polly Kate to help me control myself and stop yelling. Something I am always working on in my life.

Polly Kate has gray, orange and white. Our other calico has black, orange and white. After we had had her for a few months we took her back by Mrs. Jones house and Mrs. Jones said to Polly Kate "you are a rich cat now". So sometimes we will remind her of this.

Stalled

That is how I feel right now. I am stalled at 44 pounds. I gained about 1 1/2 pounds the week of Christmas and then lost them back last week so I remain at 44 pounds. So, I press on. Walked 5 miles yesterday, stayed under the points allotted and today is a new day. I had hoped to be at 50 pounds by next week but hopefully that will have to wait a week.

So, I head to the park to meet my partner and walk our 5 miles. I just pray the rain has left the area and we can get the miles in. We hate to make up miles but we do because we are committed to walking off these pounds.

Calico

This is our oldest cat, Calico. We found her on the streets of Izmir, Turkey. She is almost 18 years old. It is hard to believe that it has been that long. She was just a few weeks old when we took her into our apartment. We had to feed her from the bottle. We are all she knows.

She is a really sweet cat. She likes to sleep in between Win and I. She will come when you call her and she loves for company to come to our house. She is frail and has lost weight lately. She also seems to be going blind. She really favors Win. When he comes home from work, she insist he speak to her and give her attention. It will be a sad day when she is no longer with us.

Lucy

This is our youngest cat Lucy. She loves to sit on our necks. She is sitting on William's neck as he is doing homework.

Back to the Grind

Well, school starts back tomorrow and all the activities that are around school start as well. All the back and forth and here and there begin again. The break was nice.

I have a busy week ahead. My walking partner and I will be back at our regular days of walking this coming week. We walked during the holidays but not as much as normal. This past week we got in 15 miles and I think about 15 miles the week before. That seems like a life time ago so I am not sure about the mileage. She lost weight during the holidays and I gained a pound but have lost it already.

Win's father is having his hernia repaired this week and I will need to help with all that goes with that. He is now 92 years old and in frail health. Of course Win will be out of town while all this is going on.

It will be good to have our regular schedule going but I do love the breaks.

Oldest child - youngest animal

Here is our youngest cat with our oldest child. Lucy is her name and she is about 3 months old. My brother found her at his body shop and we took her. She is a typical kitten - plays hard and then naps just as hard. She is fun and feisty.