I got 10 pounds for Christmas

Before I left Texas, I was telling my cousin that I thought I probably gained 10 pounds while I was there and unfortunately I was spot on. When I stepped on the Wii the day after we got back, I had gained 10.1 pounds. Blah. I knew it would happen. I basically ate whenever and whatever I wanted the whole time we were there. Fast food, sweets, late night snacks...everything. Add that in with the 5 that I had gained back over Thanksgiving and that means that I've gained back 15 of the 30 pounds that I had lost.

Well, I've shed 3 of those pounds in just the last few days and I am on a mission to get rid of the rest of it and then some. I'm back to cooking all of my own meals and trying to fit in lots of fresh fruit and veggies. I'm drinking upwards of 10 glasses of water everyday. I'm back to doing Meatless Monday (or, if not Monday, at least one meatless day per week). I've been working out 1-1.5 hours on most days. I'm keeping busy to help keep me from snacking.

My weakness is sweets...it always has been. I love cake, ice cream, brownies, chocolate...basically anything with sugar. My other downfall is that I dont have any accountablity. It's easy for me to slack off because no one is watching. I need someone checking on me, asking me how I'm doing, and giving me encouragement to keep it up. Avery does do some of that. He offered to do the dishes tonight so that I could work out and then told me that I was doing a good job :) But I could use a bit more accountability. So, next time you talk to me...ask me how its going and tell me to get on the ball and get rid of the extra pounds already. I'm sick of being fat!

BUSY(productive) three day weekend!

Friday
went to Avery's basketball game
got my indoor herb garden started
cook a healthy meal for myself
Avery stayed at a friends=peaceful night of rest and relaxation for me
worked out 1.5 hours
read a magazine
wrote letters to a couple of friends

Saturday
morning yoga 1hour
finally put away ALL of the stuff from our christmas trip
errands...post office and grocery store
cook and clean while jamming to music
worked at school for a few hours writing final exam
wine and good conversations with some friends
stayed up really late reading my friends bookSunday
slept in... and it felt good
watched packer game (basically three hours of TORTURE)
yes, I'm still a packer fan
put up new curtains in the living room (they have a special backing that blocks out the COLD and drafts)
Avery made some money giving a friends dog a bath
cleaned the bathroom (it needed it before the dog bath)
laundry and other house cleaning
lasagna dinner, wine, and more good conversation at a friends house
let avery stay up too late watching a movie with meMonday
school was cancelled because of windchill (-40 with windchill)
made phone calls (this is hard to get done on a normal day)
made appt with podiatrist(my big toe hurts) and checked insurance
bought anchorage flights for spring break (going to see podiatrist and Iditarod)
reserved hotel for 4 nights in anchorage over spring break
registered to be a dog handler for the Iditarod in anchorage (see #17 on the birthday list)
also signed up for the K300 finish line here in Bethel next weekend (also #17)
and volunteered to work headquarters during K300 in bethel next weekend
talked to a friend on the phone for a couple of hours
ran a couple of errands
got Avery his meningitis vaccine (he didnt even cry :)
played a round of scrabble with avery
avery cooked meatloaf, corn, and brownies for dinner
got halfway through my friends manuscript
wrote this blog post :)
Now it's time for bed...and hope we will have school tomorrow because everyday that we cancel, we have to add on a day to the end of the year(although I may feel otherwise come morning). On a night like tonight, curling up in my bed is really enticing. Getting out of it in the morning...not so much. Good night!

	Wind Chill Advisory
Statement as of 4:31 AM AKST on January 11, 2010 ... Wind Chill Advisory now in effect until 11 am akst Tuesday... Northeast wind 25 to 40 mph and the combination of decreasing temperatures are resulting in wind chills of 40 to 50 below in some areas through Tuesday morning. Precautionary/preparedness actions... A Wind Chill Advisory means that very cold air and strong winds will combine to generate low wind chills. This will result in frostbite and lead to hypothermia if precautions are not taken.

He scores!

Avery joined JH basketball this year and so far he's has really been enjoying himself. While we were on break down in Texas, we got him new basketball shoes and shorts. His first game was last night. There are enough kids in JH basketball to have two teams. Avery is on the blue team. He scored this three pointer and another two pointer in the first half. The blue team won! Go Avery!

The whole game was like one big bloopers show though. It was pretty funny. There were kids falling down, throwing shots that missed by a mile, fighting over the ball, getting hit in the head. All in all, it was pretty hilarious, but I'm proud of Avery, he seems to be doing well and seems to like it. Watching him play made me think back to when he was in basketball when he was about kindergarten age. He could stand that there was a kid defending him and Avery would just run away from the kid at full speed. He ended up spending the whole game just doing laps around the court to get away from his defender. I dont think he ever touched the ball. Ah...the memories...makes me laugh :)

Wild West

While Avery and I were at the 6 Flags amusement park in Texas, we got these photos done. I've always wanted to get one of these done. I figured what better place than Texas. And since we got into the park for free, I used the extra cash I had to get these pics done.
I am going to try to make a boarder/mat for the bottom pic that says something like...Brother and sister duel. Fun!

Mustard fan

I found out something new about myself over this holiday season. I like mustard. I never used to like mustard very much, but I think that is because I had never really tried the different kinds of good mustards. I was stuck in a yellow mustard rut. I still needed to experience all of the opportunities the mustard world had to offer. I had to broaden my mustard horizons.

For Christmas, my grandmother sent me a meat and cheese basket. It has like 10 different cheeses and about 5 different kinds of sausage. It was very good and we are still working on eating it all. But the thing that I liked the MOST about the basket? There were two small jars of mustard. One was champagne mustard and the other was called Sweet 'n Hot mustard. And they were sooooooo good. Tonight I made sandwiches on our panini grill and put some of the mustard on them. Oh, so good!

HOME!

We made it home last night on the evening flight. It was nice to be home, but I had so much to do that it never occurred to me to sit down and blog to let you all know.

Sorry to keep you in suspense :)

Gotta go get ready for those kiddos (Can you ever really be ready?)

Wonderful Discovery!

We are stuck at the Anchorage Airport. Our afternoon flight to Bethel was cancelled due to mechanical issues. We have been here in this airport since 2am...it is now 2pm. Our new flight is scheduled to leave at 6pm. Ugh!
I need a shower so bad, I could scream. There is a good chance that our flight tonight could be cancelled as well because there is a big storm coming in to Bethel as I type this. They are supposed to get freezing rain. If we get stuck in Anchorage, then we will both miss the first day back to school tomorrow. I dont know how that works for me. I've never missed school because of a cancelled flight. I think I would have to take a personal day. Hopefully I wont find out how it works. I want to be home sooooooo bad.
A friend of mine from one of the villages is staying at my place tonight because he is stuck in Bethel because all of the village flights are cancelled as well. So, he is there, warming the place back up and getting my truck plugged in.
Looking on the bright side, at least the Anchorage airport has a great view. And as I was walking around a part of the airport that I've never been in before, I made a great discovery....a martini bar! Who knew?
On a funnier note, I woke up in the middle of the night last night at about 5am and in my deliriousness, walked right into the men's bathroom instead of the women's. Thankfully, no one was in there.

The birds

The only thing I can think of is that Arlington must be an in between stop for the migration of these birds from the north to the south.
They were everywhere on this one corner. They would fly as a group from one side of the road to the other whenever they got startled.
It was like a big black cloud. It was pretty freaky.
You can click on the pictures to make them bigger if you want to see how many there are.

Avery and I are in Seattle. We were able to get our flight changed so that we are going to fly straight from Seattle to Anchorage with no stop in Juneau, which is great. I was not too thrilled about spending the night in Juneau, because the airport closes and a room was crazy expensive and we were only going to be there long enough to sleep for like 5 hours and that's it. I love Alaska Air. They are so great about accommodating peoples needs. They didnt charge me a change fee or baggage fees or anything. Awesome! So now we have a direct flight, but we still wont be home for about 20 hours. blah. We've got a 5 hour layover here and then a 10 hour layover in Anchorage. Too bad I dont have a car, I could go grocery shopping.

Titan

Number 20 on my birthday list in complete. Avery and I went to Six Flags Over Texas today. We rode many roller coasters, but this one was my favorite. It was the tallest and the smoothest that we rode. We had a great time and could have spent several more hours riding and walking around. Our day started out pretty good when we were given free tickets to get in! I was standing in line for tickets and this lady comes up to me and gives me two tickets. She said that they had bought group tickets and that two people in their group could not make it, so she gave them to me. Awesome! I do things like that all the time...give people extra tickets or discount coupons if I cant use them.

My good deeds came back to me, in a big way. Those tickets would have cost me $70. I used the money that I saved to have one of those wild west photos done of Avery and I. You know, the ones wear you dress up in old time clothes and they do the black and white photo with the props and the "WANTED" border. It was fun. I've already got the photos packed for our trip home tomorrow, but as soon as I get a chance I'll post the pics.

I dont know how much access to internet I'll have in the next couple days. We're on our way home tomorrow. Also, this is my 600th blog post. wow! That's alot of blogging.

Happy New Year! Texas style

I dont know how many of you remember, but I have a collection of photos of (animal) crossing signs. I have ducks, Spanish bulls, snowmachine, tractor, moose, mule, etc. And now I have a Texas bull crossing sign. It's fun to have this weird little hobby.

Avery and I went to the rodeo on New Year's Eve! It was fun. I'll post pics and video later because there is actually quite alot that I want to say about the rodeo. For right now, I just wanted to say Happy New Year and Happy New Decade to everyone. Right now I'm exhausted and am headed to bed. We've got a fun filled day of roller coaster riding planned for tomorrow.