The grad!

This weekend Morgan's boyfriend graduated from Berean High school. This was definitely something to celebrate, except for the fact that I reeeeeally cheated on the whole diet thing. If you are reading this and you got to experience the spread that Owen's mom had at the after party, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Don't get me wrong, it was well worth it, but did I really need to go back for seconds! We are soooooo proud of Owen and very excited to see what God has planned for him next. He is such a follower of Christ and we feel blessed he has been part of our family these last 10 months.

On a different note, mom is weighing in today and looking forward to how she did this last week. She is doing so good! I'm in my second week of boot camp and know that is what I needed to get jump started. Cam and I are going to start our workout program tomorrow since school is now out. I will keep you all posted (I say this as if anyone really reads this :) I know I have a few followers and with that I am very grateful!!!!!!

Sore!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm posting these pics because I want to have before photos so that maybe when I lose this weight you will see a difference in how I look. Scratch that...... WHEN I lose the weight!

I will put up a pic of mom soon. She has lost 11 lbs and doing great. She was frusturated because she just lost 3 lbs but I thought that was great. I'm still at a stand still but am not defeated. I started boot camp on Monday and am very glad I sighned up. It's kicking my butt, literally but that's what I need. There are a lot of people doing this crazy workout, at 5:30 in the morning, but the support is great!

Mom 8, Chele 0

This is what I had for dinner tonight in honor of tomorrows celebration of Cinco de Mayo. While my mom probably drank a shake and ate a small, low calorie, meal! That's why she has lost 8 pounds and I have lost NOTHING. Now I'm not trying to be negative, but really!!!!!!!!!!! She has done such an amazing job of sticking to her diet. I must step up my game. My goal is not to beat her, but to at least be neck and neck. Tomorrow I eat....... WATER! Ha ha just joking. I do intend to make this a wake up call though. As I write this I'm thinking of how nice it would be to have elastic pants on. Now if that's not sad! Stay posted I will be delivering good news about me soon. I start boot camp on Monday, now that should be real interesting:)

Organic

The top pic is of a strawberry growing in our strawberry patch. They are June bearing so we should be getting them very soon. There will be hundreds of strawberries. The second pic is a rough pic of another part of our garden. This is the early stages. In about 4 weeks all we will see is green!!! The bottom pic is a yummy meal with spinach and tomatoes. I can't wait until I can make this meal with my own veggies. I'm not much of a veggie eater but when it grows out of my garden I just can't help myself. Once we get some good sized green tomatoes, we will have a fried green tomato night! So that will be a "little" cheat. But other than that I will be free to eat all the fruits and veggies I want!

These pics were taken of me when I was 50 lbs. thinner. We went on a trip to the Keys and my sister and mother-in-law went on a huge diet with me! Then I only had to lose 20 lbs to get to this weight. Now I have to lose 50! When we left for this trip I still wanted to lose about 5 more lbs. I remember how good I felt at this weight and told myself to never gain it back. Seven years later...... But it's pointless to dwell on would uh could uh should uh. I'm not ready to post my actual weight, I don't know why, it just seems so embarrassing. But I will say this.....I was 145 in these pics. So yeah do the math and there you have it!

Mom and I have decided to put 5 dollars in a money bag for every lb. we lose. Once we get to 100 lbs. total lost we will have a nice little nest egg for our trip to see my brother. Both him and his wife are very active and do not own a car. It will be nice to go to Portland and be able to walk around or bike and feel healthy!

Mom got her food today and she weighed in. She is doing solutions for life and they put her on a strict diet. She can have around 800 calories a day. She can only eat the food and shakes in their program. Mom weighs 217 and wants to get down to around 140. So keep posted, this will be a crazy hard journey, but will be so worth it in the end.

Day 1

Well our first day is done! So much to say. I woke up early and should of went for a walk but didn't. Went to my friend Ranee's and had coffee. Skipped breakfast, not good, then had mcnuggets for lunch. Okay and maybe a few fries. Had grilled chicken for dinner and wanted to exercise but my son had already went for his walk. Good job Cam! Not so good for my first day. But knew this was going to take baby steps. I will exercise tom. :)

Mom did not have her weight loss class today. She is going to Via Christi and they are putting her on a program. She is type 2 diabetic and this program could help her hugely!!!!!!! Talked to her tonight and guess her day was about like mine. Some good choices, like eating oatmeal for breakfast, but ruined it by eating fast food hamburger and corndog for super. She threw in an apple and banana during the day so that's good.

Wow writing this all day makes it so real. If anyone has scripture that can encourage me, I would love to hear it!

I'll start on Monday!

Starting Monday April 19th, My mom, son and I are going to start getting healthy. We took a picture today and hope to publish it tomorrow. I'm going to blog about it to keep me accountable. This is going to be real hard because I will have to be real and honest about the horrible habits I have developed the last 5 years. My mom and I have over a 100 lbs. to lose and I'm hoping Cam can start feeling better about himself and his body. With school sports starting next year, we want to help him get faster and stronger. I know I don't have a lot of followers, but I hope if you peek at the blog you can either give us words of encouragement, or suggest a challenge for us. Whether it's a new healthy recipe or an exercise challenge. I will be posting pictures and be revealing our day to day struggles and accomplishments. I'm not quite ready to reveal my mom and my weight, but I know this is an important part of the process, so in due time I will have to swallow my pride. It's just a number, right? So keep posted!

Good job Berean boys and girls!

The girls had a great season. Morgan played both j.v. and varsity. She was high scorer in j.v. and got voted m.v.p. by her teammates. As the season went on she was able to play quite a bit of varsity and joined her teammates in winning sub-state. As a result they went on to play state, where they took 4th! I love watching them play and look forward to another season next year. Good job Mo!




The boys also had a great season! Well.... that's putting mildly. They took STATE!!!!!!!!! It was great being able to follow the whole season with the girls and guys. I didn't download any of my state pics so both team pics are of guys and girls winning sub-state. I'm going to miss seeing Owen play next year, but soooooo glad I was able to watch him end the season with a 1st place state metal.
Good job O!

Favorite cake!

I'm really not a cake eater, but I found this recipe a couple years ago and I can't stop making it!
This one pictured is actually the first time I used chocolate cake. Usually I use white and make
a pistachio cake. I'm sharing my recipe and would love to hear what you think!

Super moist cake mix (white)
3 eggs
1 cup oil
12 ounces of sprite
1 box pistachio pudding

mix all these ingredients and separate into two round pans (spray pans, place wax paper down
and spray again) you can also change it up by using different cake mixes, pudding and pop
bake at 350 for 32 minutes.

Frosting
Whipped cream (I make my own) small whipping cream, vanilla, sugar
Box of pistachio pudding mixed with cup and a half of milk
mix all together and frost

pistachio pudding, white cake mix and sprite
cheesecake pudding, white cake mix and sprite
chocolate fudge pudding, chocolate cake mix and pepsi

HAPPY BAKING

THE AMAZING RACE (kinda)

We started off scooping poop at one of my clients farms, but not realizing how crazy and fast everyone was, I was unable to get pics. There were 4 teams of 4 competing in 8 different challenges. These are pics from the second challenge. After shoveling 16 cow pies, the teams race to the rec where they had to play a game of M.O.R.G.A.N. Each person had to make 6 shots from different spots. This challenge got CRAZY!

Next the team had to pick one person to attempt a fear challenge. Now this one did not go as expected! The person chosen was suppose to hold a muuuuuch larger snake. Needless to say I was a little disappointed when this is what they got. How Scary!







This was the 4th challenge. After getting the clue they went to Pastor Dave's house, where they had to recite the Ten Commandments. Now remember half of these people went to christian schools(one in particular) and it was real "funny" how they got a little stumped on this challenge. I don't know if it had to do with Dave being in charge or the fact alllllll they could concentrate on was finishing and getting the next clue. I love the pic where Matt and Aaron are deep in concentration. FYI, they got stumped on Honor your mother and father!!!!!!
Unfortunately I did not get pics of challenge 5. The clue led them to one of fav places to eat, Hannah Cafe. Here they had to eat squid, octopus, and eel sushi. Well...... this one back fired on me too! How was I to know most everyone loves sushi. I have to admit normally I would have never touched this kind of sushi, but it did look kinda tasty.
This was my favorite challenge. The group pictured here was actually first pretty much the whole race. When they got to the mall they had to find a photo booth and take these pics. Every team called ahead to ask where the booth was. Unknown to me there where 2....ooops.
The first place team pictured here went to the wrong one, which wouldn't have been a problem except that it was broken. They figured out there was another one(which everyone had beat them to) and they were last:( But they did win best pictures. They were by far the most creative.
On the 7th challenge they got led to the Alley where they got to sit down and eat. It was so much fun sitting around with everyone talking about the game.
When done eating everyone got there shoes and we bowled a little. The twist to this one was there were only 2 balls. A 16 lb ball and an 8lb ball. They also had the pressure of getting strikes to earn 30 seconds or gutter, losing 30 seconds. This was entertaining!
Now done with bowling the teams got there last clue, which just led them back to Sandy's for cake and ice cream. The teams left very close after the other which resulted in an interesting "race" to the end. The first 2 teams pulled in to the house at the same time and Anne beat everyone to the door, ending our Amazing Race.

Congratulations Owen, Morgan, Loren and Anne for winning! See them sporting the lovely metals.


Family and friends celebrating together!

I had so much fun and am already thinking about the next Race. This time it's going to much more difficult and your all eating crickets!!!!!!!!!!!!

February 6th my daughter had her school banquet at the Petroleum club. These are some pics before she left. Her and her boyfriend had a great time! The last pic is her and her dad....at least he got one pic with her. After taking the pics Chris and I headed out to eat for our 17th anniversary. All Chris could say was...."our little girl is growing up." It really hasn't been hard for me at all, I truly enjoy all the stages Morgan has gone through and looking forward to the next few years. Now her dad on the other hand.......don't get me wrong he is sooooo proud, but it has to be hard for a daddy!

My daughter Morgan is turning 16 in 18 days! We have always done big birthdays on special years, 5, 10, 13 and now 16. This year I'm having a surprise "Amazing Race" party. I would post all the details but it's top secret! Check back to view all the pics.

Sixteen years is crazy to wrap my head around. Sometimes I wish I could still hold her on my hip and smother her with kisses. So for not to many parental regrets, but something tells me the next two years will be the most challenging. Slowly I will have to start loosening the strings and teaching her how to be on her own. Wow..... 2 years is really not that much time. One day you wake up and throw them out into this world, just hoping and praying they are ready.

Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he
will not turn from it. Proverbs 22:6