Our weekend, and looooottttts of pix!

I just have to tell you, I wrote out a loooog blog last night, and hit submit, and something went wrong, and it didn't save any of it. I screamed. Loudly.

Hopefully I don't make the same mistake again, and I'm going to copy and paste this all to notepad before I hit submit, and hopefully never do that again.

The weekend was good. It was nice to have Tim home with us. He may be coming home early some days this week, because if they get enough of the jobs done, they'll shut down the shop for the week, paid.

I may have mentioned that he finally was able to pick up his helmet (the one I got for him for Father's Day) and he also got a pair of matching gloves.

So that was exciting for him. It has this antifog thing on it, which is pretty cool, so that his helmet doesn't steam up from his breath.

We also had our picnic with the kids at our house. The kids had a lot of fun sprinkler action.

They had a great time being "sprinkled". It was a pretty hot day, and they'd never been in a sprinkler before, so this was a totally new thing to them.

Because it was so hot, I even got my suit on. But I didn't run through the sprinkler. It was a two piece that I haven't worn in a long time. It was really nice to be in it again. :n)

My belly was even showing a little bit. It was only us, so I didn't mind. :n)

When Tim wasn't grilling our dinner, even he took some time out to just relax and watch the kids having some fun. It was a great day.

I did have the music playing pretty loud, and the kids loved it. Brooke was shaking her booty. I took pictures, but it just doesn't capture it the same as being there.

Here's our little "fire pit". It's lit with fire, but you can't really see it in the picture. It was great, though. I' glad we have it.

We had the kids' tent set up outdoors, and they had a good time climbing around in it. It had to be hot in there, though! But I guess they didn't mind...

Roasting "weenies" was the most exciting part of the evening for the kids, I think. That's what made it "real camping" for them.

 

This next picture is probably my favorite of the day; because of the memory attached to it. I took it just after Corbin leaned back, spread his toes out, gave a big, contented sigh, and said, "Ahh. It's good when you're camping."

We also spent some time with Tim's extended family, although I didn't really get any pictures. We went to his uncle's sister's house, and had a barbecue. It was a nice time. The kids got to play in the sprinkler there, too, which was fun for them. Not so much for me, since I had nothing to change them into. Corbin got soaked again just as we were about to leave, so I happened to find a pair of underpants and one of Tim's T shirts in the car for him to wear. It was good enough just for driving home in.

I've gone down to the next number on the scale, but it's taking forever for that thing to move. Today I decided to do some interval cardio. It's basically alternating walking and jogging. From all I've read, it seems to be much more effective for weight loss than just walking at the same pace forever. I only did 17 minutes of that today, but I was really sweating hard, and my heart rate was really high. Something had to be done, and anyway, this is good, because it gives me more time with the kids in the morning. Which I'll get more into momentarily, but while I'm on the topic of weight loss, I'm going to share these pictures, too.

The first is my progression pics.. at the start, at 20 lbs lost, and at 32 lbs lost:

The next picture is interesting, because as I was unloading pictures, I happened to see the picture of myself in NYC with Keri. I looked at how chubby I was, and I realized that I was wearing the very same shirt yesterday as I was in that picture. So I had Tim take a shot of me in it. Here's the comparison pics:

You can see it more when the picture is larger, but my face has definitely lost weight. Also, it's funny how I was as dolled up as I could be in the first picture, and I still look "better" in the second picture, just because I was thinner. And the second picture was no makeup, and after a day of swimming, so my hair is a mess. Notice how tight the shirt fits my shoulders in the first picture, whereas it's really baggy on me in the second picture. Just kind of interesting to see the difference in my face alone.

Finally, I wanted to share this third picture. It's.... well it's of me in a bikini. Yes, I have stretch marks on my belly because I have kids. And I realize that I've got my hands posed like a Barbie doll for some weird reason lol. But I'm pretty excited that I can wear that at home and look in a mirror and not think that I look horrible, so I'm willing to share it.

It's not the greatest, but it is proof to myself that I can definitely be wearing a bikini next year (out of my house) which is one of my goals.

As for the kids, Corbin wrote a little book, which was really cute. He did this all on his own. Someone got him a little notebook a while back, and he found it the other day, and drew and wrote in it. Here's some of the more interesting things that he's got in it:

At the top, it says, "Mom in Corbin" (meaning, "Mom and Corbin"). The picture is of himself. What is interesting about his self portraits is that he always draws his belly button. It's something that he's had a fascination with for years. He can twist his bellybutton all the way out and tuck it back in again. lol It's gross. Anyway, he has himself circled. I do have a book about interpreting children's drawings, but it's kind of difficult to get to the nitty gritty of it, so I haven't read it in depth. But he's smiling in the picture, so that's a good sign, right? And he circled himself, which I think denotes importance.. whenever you circle something on a page, instructionally, it's the "right" answer, or it's because it's the most "important" thing on the page. So hopefully this is a high self-esteem thing.

Next he drew a picture of... can you guess? Me! :n) Doesn't it look just like me? lol I'm smiling, which is nice. He took the time to draw my eyebrow piercing, and also drew my eyebrows (which I hope aren't actually as thick as he sees them lol). He also drew some hair on me. I'm stunning. ;n)

Next, he drew a picture of his dad, which I have to say I'm pretty impressed with the likeness. The shape of the head is pretty spot-on, and the nose is pretty good, too. He drew his beard, and his eyebrows as well. And, of course, daddy is smiling.

This is, of course a picture of Brooke. I love that he drew her appley little cheeks. He also drew some freckles on her cheek, which was the recent topic of discussion. Brooke is starting to get freckles on the tops of her cheeks.

This one is a clock. Notice the twelve digits.

And this one is "a very long tunnel", he said. I love the use of perspective. He's noticed that there's a vanishing point, and already knows how to draw it. I find that incredibly impressive.

That's all I have scanned; the rest of them are mostly shapes and a few words that he wrote. I'm glad that he's interested in drawing and writing so much, since this is a crucial part of what he'll be doing in Kindergarten.

This morning I worked with both kids on homeschool stuff. Corbin's workbook had him working on the words "a" and "go". He did a great job with the activities. Brooke worked on the letter "M", and I think she really did learn from this lesson. The first thing, she got wrong. After we went over the next couple, she got them right, and changed her answer for the first one. I'm very excited about that! I love that she's learning, and that I can see it happening. She's such a smartie-pants. :n)

So yesterday, we went to the tree nursery, and looked at fruit trees. Very exciting! I'm planning on having a couple of each: apple trees, pear trees, peach trees, cherry trees and maybe a couple plum trees, just because. :n) It was fun to go see them. If you buy 3 or more fruit trees, each tree is $40. It's not "cheap", but not super expensive, considering how much you (hopefully) get back from it. (That's why I'm buying a couple of each one; so that they cross-polinate and bear more fruit).

After we went there, we went to my parent's house, had a good swim, and some great dinner. It was a really nice and tiring day.