1-28-10 - Dinner & a Photo Session

Earlier this day I called Jeannie and Earl to please come over and take some photos for me for my one year anniversary of my weight loss journey. I made a post here for anyone who hasn't read it yet: A Year Ago Today I...

Grandma Jeannie generously volunteered to throw together dinner so I could totally focus on not looking like a complete dork in the photos and she quickly had dinner on the table where we sat down to eat. Yeah, Grandma to the rescue again because this day in all honesty probably would have ended up in the "needs to be made up" category.

It only took two shots to get something workable this time. Papa Earl always has this "I have no idea what the hell she's doing and why" look on his face but at least he humors me.

1-27-10- Imitating the Spaghetti Factory

Ok so I love the Spaghetti Factory's Creamy Pesto Salad Dressing... Tonight for dinner I made a sort-of version for pasta using a jar of alfredo sauce & some pesto and mixed it up.

Dumped it over the spaghetti noodles & threw some garlic cheese bread in the oven and it was all done in about 20 minutes. Yeah, because tonight I'm just wiped out for some reason.

Maddie set the table, Hunter & Boyce returned from Hunter's girlfriends house just in the nick of time and we sat down to eat.

Again, for some reason between my camera messing up and children taking turns on who's gonna look dorky, we had trouble in the photo area...

1-26-10 - Is There Anything Better Than Memory Foam?

Today I actually was on top of getting dinner cooked and on the table. I had a chicken thawed out in the fridge that needed to be eaten so I popped that into the oven and we had Roast Chicken & Broccoli.

Boyce, the rented neighbor child, set the table. We are still working with him to put the forks on the left side where they belong but he was the only one to step up to the plate (so to speak) and get it done so he gets points for that.

One of these days I'll get all the children at the table to look good in the photo at one time. For now they are taking turns of who looks the best in each frame.

I'm now planted on my bed with my laptop... I'm in heaven to tell you honestly. I sat at my table all day working today so to be horizontal on my memory foam feels so good.

Is there really anything better than memory foam in the world? I have my doubts...

~Jamie

1-24-10-Part 1- I Love It When I Don't Have To Cook

This morning Hunter cooked breakfast of Pancakes & Eggs. I wish I would have been able to record the sounds coming out of my kitchen for all of you but alas I didn't. I wasn't totally sure I wanted to even eat it but overall it turned out ok. Actually it's probably a good thing I didn't record it because I would have had to use the BEEP editor way too much. The pancakes were sticking on him and he was all frustrated. (It was funny to listen to though... )

His Papa John would have been proud because Hunter can make a pancake be about as black as his.... My dad's motto is "When it's smokin' its cookin'... When it's black it's done." All my friends remember my dad's pancakes with a can of corn added... they are legendary (not quite sure it's in a good way).

I also realized that I need to teach him how to use seasonings when cooking but that will come over time.

Madeleine set the table, I got off the phone, took the picture and then we ate (No Miss Molly did not eat at the table with us.. Hunter just wanted her in the picture).

1-23-10 Not According To The Plan But Still A Good Day

So you may remember that as I went to bed last night I had great intentions of waking up early and making breakfast to get a Make-up meal in. We'll that was just a nice thought because it didn't happen. By the time I lounged around etc today I finally got dressed around 2pm.

I left shortly thereafter and met a friend of mine to go to a movie. We saw "The Book of Eli" and spent some time talking afterward. I had a very nice time... I can only describe the afternoon as comfortable for lack of a better word.

Tonights dinner was just Maddie, Dakota & Myself because Hunter went to a movie with Skye & Boyce. We had a pizza. I'm hoping to be able to sleep better tonight so I can possibly get in breakfast tomorrow but I'm not going to promise at this point.

1-21-10 Early Preparation Leads to Success

Around 4pm I all of a sudden realized I was absolutely starving so I went down into my deep freezer and found some ground beef & some veggie pasta mix stuff from Schwans.

I started dinner cooking early and when Maddie & Dakota, plus two rented neighbor children got here after school they quickly set the table and we sat down to eat (Hunter was at wrestling practice.)

This will be a short boring post tonight because I'm not really in the mood tonight to be funny or anything.

1-20-10 - Score!!!

So I only had 2 out of the 3 kids home tonight. Hunter went over to Skye's house to study for finals.

I was in such a state of shock that he's actually caring about his grades (finally) and had what felt like a very long day at work that I didn't want to really eat anything. I decided that I wanted just a cup of soup so the two remaining children went to Chick n Chop for dinner.

I had this Mexican Corn Chowder which was good; Tasted like a taco. Dakota had grilled cheese and Maddie had a Mushroom Swiss Burger. It was worth it, I'm not even sure what food is here at the house and need to make a plan for the rest of the week but I didn't feel like grocery shopping tonight at all.

Right now I just want to find Motrin and lie down horizontal.

~Jamie

1-18-10 - Last Morning & Going Home

So this was the last morning of our trip. We had to be at the airport by 1pm to get the boys so we just had cereal for breakfast.

For all you health nuts out there I normally do not buy sugary cereal except on fun trips when we aren't watching what we eat anyway...

Once again Megan was being the perfect child for the photo and Madeleine was trying her hardest to just get me mad or to look like the biggest dork alive... pick one...

After eating breakfast, getting the car loaded up and the unit cleaned up we set Megan's facebook account up then it was time to go check out and get the boys from the airport. We stopped at a hotel near the airport so I could send out some leads to the sales people and Hunter called me 10 minutes early to tell me they were already waitng on the airport drive.

We went and picked them up and headed to take Megan to her house. Once there I used my friends computer to send out leads again and while I was doing that all the kids broke out the Wii game so we ended up staying a couple hours playing some games. I'm sure my kids had fun because they didn't want to leave but it was a school night after being gone for days so there was stuff to get done at home. It was a fun afternoon and I enjoyed it.

 

Eric hasn't learned to submit to my photo taking yet... it's only a matter of time :-)

When we got home I found out that the people who were watching my house scrubbed it down while we were gone go I was in total bliss going to sleep that evening... thinking I should go away more often so I can come home to a nice clean house.

The kids and I got some teriyaki chicken for dinner on the way home since I didn't know what groceries would be available to cook once we got there. The kids were starving and ate on the drive and I didn't eat until I got home so only one meal counts today which was breakfast with the girls.

~Jamie

1/17/10 - Day 3 Part 1 - Lake Coeur d'Alene Trip

So I woke up early early in the morning then went back to bed and woke up a 2nd time around 9am when my sister Kelly called me. She thought the boys were flying out this day and was rushing to wake them up. Once she was on the correct path I got up and made the girls a nice breakfast of Pancakes with real maple syrup, eggs & bacon.

Once it was ready I woke them up around 11am or so to start their day... We set the table and sat down to eat...

After breakfast was done and we threw the dishes into the dishwasher the girls requested Visine for their eyes since the chlorine was getting to them. I headed off to the market and while out I detoured through the salon... got my eyebrows done and had the lady chop off about 2 inches on my hair. I picked up the Visine, a Uno card game and headed back to the resort.

When I got back the girls were once again at the pool so I sent a text message to Megan's phone to let them know I was back. Soon they arrived at the unit where they got the eye drops and we sat down to play Uno.

Madeleine was being in an out of sorts mood so I sent her off to take a nap.. she fell asleep within minutes and I proceeded to get my ass kicked by a 12 year old who outscored me shamelessly.

 

Since this was the first meal of the day it gets marked as a success...

~Jamie

1/16/10 - Day 2 Part 1 - Lake Coeur D'Alene Trip

So on this morning I woke up early and headed out to the market to do some grocery shopping that we didn't have time for the day before. The girls were still fast asleep from staying up so late the night before.

Albertson's had Dungeness Crab on sale cheaper than hamburger so I picked up some to have later today along with ingredients to make "JoAnne's To Die for Macaroni & Cheese" that I posted the recipe for.

By the time I got back the girls had already been to the pool and back so they unloaded the vehicle and I asked Megan if she wanted Crab or the Mac N Cheese for lunch. She chose Crab so we set the table, melted the butter, sat down and gave Megan her first lesson on how to properly break into a Crab.

She struggled a bit so I ended up doing a bunch for her but she did do some by herself and was sufficiently full by the time we got done so she didn't starve trying to break into her meal.

Still trying to hide some...

Also at one point the girls had started to put together a few gingerbread houses I picked up after Christmas... Madeleine's was having trauma while we were eating.

Another successful meal for the books... So far a very fun trip...

~Jamie

1/15/10 - Start of Trip to Lake Coeur d'Alene

So after waking up in the hotel and running to Wal-Mart where Hunter proceeded to give me MAJOR grief about what I thought he should get for a shirt we packed up and dumped the boys at the airport. I watched them go thru security then Madeleine and I made our escape.

We went to the mall and found the girls bathing suits at Sears then proceeded to the salon where I get my nails done because I was in badly need of a fill. I think they turned out decent.

By the time my nails got done we didn't have time to do a few more things I had planned because stuff always takes longer than you expect so we headed out to pick up Megan from her house.

We got to her house just moments before she got off the school bus so I used the opportunity to tap into my friends internet to send a bank wire & do a little bit of work. Then we loaded up and headed south.

Our first stop was dinner at Red Lobster because I had a gift card for there and I was in the mood for Seafood. Madeleine had the Shrimp-Trio, Megan had Lobster Nachos and I had a side of Snow Crab Legs added to Maddie's order. We all had salads & of course, their cheese/herb biscuits... Yum...

Megan also tasted crab for the very first time. She's had a lot of other kinds of seafood but had never had crab before. She liked it...

  

Our next stop was a quick pit stop at K-mart for ice tea & munchies then we hit the road and go to the resort where we checked into our unit. We got a really great one in a close proximity to the pool unlike the last time we stayed there and the kids had to walk a LONG way in negative degree weather. Although, it wasn't as cold this time it was nice that I could see them walking from the balcony.

My Room

 

My Bathroom

Standing in LR toward Kitchen

Kitchen

From Kitchen toward LR

 

Girl's Bathroom

Megan's Room

Maddie's Room

View from Balcony (Building in the Center after the Grass is the Pool House)

After we got settled in, of course the girls went down to the pool for a swim, then the girls got into new jammies I got them and we all piled on my bed to watch the movie "50 First Dates". Maddie was also painting Megan's toe nails at the same time. I was showing Maddie how to put toilet paper between Megan's toes so they wouldn't get messed up and we got to find out that Megan is even more tickelish than I am... it was funny I wouldn't even be touching her and she'd be giggling like I was.

By the end of the weekend Megan found out is was a waste of time to try to hide my picture taking and she just gave in but since this was the first night she was still trying to avoid the camera.

Still trying to hide but it didn't work... I actually think this is a cute picture.

Everyone's multi-tasking, Maddie doing nails & watching movie, Megan Texting on her cell, getting her toes done & watching movie, I was taking photos & watching movie. Us girls are one talented bunch :-)

No one said that this was going to be Maddie's profession :-)

I made it about 1/2 way into the movie before I fell asleep (Par for the course with me... normally I'm out before the credits are over with). The girls left my room and stayed up doing who-knows-what until well after 2:30 according to their report the next morning.

Anyway, that's our first day of the trip and gets logged as successful since I had dinner with the only two children who were with me at the time.

~Jamie