Big Changes

I have no pictures, but there has been a whole big bunch of stuff going on in our household lately. I was going to wait to post all these happenings, but I have a few free minutes now and might not again for a few months, so here goes.

First, Ben has quit his job as a framer. Next week will be his last week. It is bittersweet for him. He has been framing for almost half of his life and enjoys it some of the time (mostly when the weather's nice) and I think he will miss it more than he thinks. But, with the economy the way it is, his job has been unstable the last little while. It has been stressful for him. The company he works for has been great to him and finds him as much work as they can, but lately it hasn't been enough. So, we have decided to work together in the child care business. I will be expanding my business to include transportation to and from school. Ben will be my driver and helper during the day. Which brings us to our next big change:

We will be purchasing a minivan! I am not too excited to own a minivan, but I guess it is necessary. Ben is out of town, so I get to be the lucky one to go car shopping by myself. Then I will be extra lucky and get to sell our car, which in the last two weeks has been making funny noises. I took it in to get looked at and found out that the transmission is going out and will take thousands to get fixed. Yeah! So we won't sell it for as much as we hoped, but hopefully enough to get a decent minivan.

Finally, to add to all this excitement, God decided it was a great time to send us another little angel! We will be having a baby in March. I have been stressing out because I don't have any medical insurance and have to have this baby in the hospital. So, on top of trying to find a minivan to buy, sell my car, and work on getting my daycare up to code to transport kids, I also have to figure out how to pay for a pregnancy and birth. Because, all this has too be done before school starts in 3 1/2 weeks, and Ben is out of town, I have been extra stressed!

At least, I get to go on a trip to Chicago with my some of my favorite friends this week-end. Hopefully, it will help me relax and forget my troubles for a day or two. I'll post again when things settle down in a month or so.

Vacation Bible Camp

The girls were able to attend a vacation bible camp this year. Some church group from Florida travels around and puts these on for kids. They happened to do it at the park that is right out of my back gate, two hours a day for four days.

Mary and Sara had a great time, they had a few cousins and a couple of friends from the neighborhood there with them. Everyday they sang songs and did crafts and played games and had a snack. The people who did it, put it all together for free, which was awesome! I was able to keep an eye on them the whole time, or I probably wouldn't have let them go hang out with strangers for a couple of hours.

With the daycare, the girls don't have a lot of social opportunities outside the home, or without their mother, so I think this was a great way for them to work on some of their social skills (and if they take after me and Ben in that regard, they need all the help they can get).

I took some pictures of them from my back porch. You can't see them in the pictures very well, but Mary is wearing a red shirt and Sara is wearing a pink shirt, and they both have blue skirts.

And this is at the end of the week. They ended up with a sword, shield and crown. Aren't they so cute?

Updates

I have been such a slacker when it comes to blogging lately. I have been busy with the daycare, which is good, but leaves me with little free time.

Also, if I leave the girls unattended for too long, this is what happens:

My goal is to post three blogs in the next three days. That should get me up to date on what has been happening in the Watt household, so stayed tuned. (Don't get too excited, not much has been happening.)

Biggest Loser Results

And the winner is............not me. But I did lose 1 lb., 3% of my body fat, and an inch around my waist. The winner lost 25 lbs. and 10% body fat, so I wasn't even close, but I had fun and picked up some healthy habits along the way.

Biggest Loser Half-Way

I have been doing this thing for 4 weeks and have lost a total of 3 lbs. I'm thinking that I won't win. But I am ok with that because I have made some healthy changes in my life that I can stick with long after this contest is over. I have started an aerobics class. It is every Tuesday and Thursday 9:30pm and Saturday at 8:00am. So far I love it and will continue to go as long as they are offering it and Ben is in town.

I have also read that if you lose weigh too fast, then it is more likely to come back. And my weight is coming off nice and slow. That means that it will never come back (I hope), especially if I keep improving my diet and excercise routine.

I will keep trying to win, and I don't know how all my competitors are doing, so I guess I still have a chance. I'll find out in 4 more weeks.

Biggest Loser Week 2

Week 2 I've done awesome, I have had at least 80 ounces of water everyday this week. I have taken my vitamins and I have worked out at least 30 minutes every day, and although I'm not following a specific diet I have cut down on my sugar intake and have eaten more vegetables than I usually do. Yet, somehow I have managed to gain 3 lbs. since last week! That's not the result I'm looking for, but it might be possible that it is all muscle gain, and that I have loss 2 lbs. of fat gained 5 lbs. of muscle. Actually, I don't know if that is possible, but I'm not going to research and find out. I would rather just assume that it is.

Hopefully, the results next week will be more promising.

Biggest Loser Week 1

One week down, seven more to go. I did pretty well this week. I worked out 5 days and I lost 1 1/2 lbs! I don't know how that compares to my opponents, but I feel like I accomplished something. At the initial weigh-in last week I weighed 158.6 lbs, today I weighed in at 157.0 lbs. My goal is to end the competition 15 lbs lighter than when I began, so hopefully at the final weigh-in the scale will read 143 lbs. That won't be all that I need to lose, but I think it is a reasonable goal.

This first week I didn't change my eating habits, I just added aerobic activity. I was hoping that it would be enough, I really love food, but it looks like I might have to go on a diet of some sort if I want to win this thing. This next week I'll just cut my carbs and continue with the exercise and see if that makes a difference. Does anyone know of a good diet that is easy to stick with and lets me eat a lot of tasty food? I have yet to find one that works for me. Either it helps me lose weight, but is so strict that it is impossible to stick with, or I only get to eat disgusting food, thus, impossible to stick with.

Although, I have to say that I am pretty proud of myself today. I took the girls to three different Easter egg hunts, which resulted in way too much candy, and I didn't even have one piece! It wasn't even that difficult to resist, but it did take some conscious effort to not eat something that was so easily accessible. Maybe that is all it takes, is more observance of what I eat, and how much of it I shove in my mouth.

I will post next week with my progress. I'm hoping for a 2 lb. loss for next week.