Shame, shame, know your name!

Ok, so i'm a little ashamed to admit this. Ok, a lot ashamed. These pictures happened on Gen. Conference day. We were watching the afternoon session at home, when my sis-in-law came over to hang out. The girls were doing our hair, and Emma wanted me to pick a hair do that she had drawn for her do do in my hair. She asked how we could do one with color, and I said we can use markers to color their hair. So we all started coloring streaks in each other's hair, and then the girls started coloring on skin. Next thing I know, Teanna is drawing on my face, the girls are going to town on Adam's face, and we all look like a bunch of freaks. Thank goodness for washable markers. Adam's sis and bro-in-law stop by also, and Teanna tricked her out also. We were laughing so hard! Needless to say, we didn't get much out of the afternoon session. Good thing we recorded it so we could watch it another time. Just thought it would be fun to share. Have a good belly laugh at our expense!
The girls even colored in Adam's tatoos, and their uncles tats.
Some kind of hippy, man, rudolph kind of freak.
The girls getting in on the action. Their hair actually looked pretty cool. We'll have to color it again.
Cat is gonna kill me for posting this one, but it's classic!

Spring Break in Bend

For spring break, we went to Bend to stay with my aunt and uncle. It was sunny but very cold. We walked everywhere so I was freezing. We had a good time. Aunt Helen showed us the town. The first day she took us to a couple parks so the kids could play, we bought cupcakes, and later that night they took us to a corner italian joint that was a fun environment. We stuffed ourselves and then headed back to put kids down. The next day, Helen took us to this ritzy downtown center. We went to this kid's museum and it was really cool. The kids pretended they were news anchors, shopping at a grocery store and working there. It was fun. They even had this phone system set up that you could call other areas. So someone at the vet's clinic called emma at the grocery store for dog food. Helen ordered a pizza from the construction area to the pizza parlor. I was cracking up.
After that, we headed to this place called Bouncing off the Wall. It is just a big, open wherehouse with tons of big bounce toys. I even played on them with the kids. There was this huge obstacle course and i was knocking Garrett around with these blowup pillars and the girls and I were racing through them. Great workout and so fun. Wish we were lucky enough to have something like that here. If I had the money, I would open one up.
After Ted got off work, we went down to Red Robin and chowed again. After that was really fun because we all sat down to watch Dancing with the Stars and American Idol. I had no idea they were into those shows like me, so it was fun to make comments and watch together. Thanks so much again for letting us stay and for everything, Ted and Helen.




The girls being news anchors.
Garrett dressed as a little amigo.
Aunt Helen and Natalie in Old Mill District
Natalie scurried right up this thing. I was in shock. Emma struggled and didn't care to go to the top.
The girls earning their keep. This was their favorite play spot.

To be (fat) or not to be...

Ok, so I'm going to go on a rant right about now. I am what you call, quite curvy, and what is wrong with that? All my life I've been a bigger girl, even when I worked out like a crazy person. And I was mostly always fine with that. I didn't stress about what I ate, or what my size was. I accepted myself for who I was. Right now is not the case. I've been beating myself up lately for the weight I've put on in the last year. I had lost a lot of weight the year before and felt like I could keep going that way. But then came two moves, a new town, more stress. I just couldn't keep up the constant work outs, and I didn't want to. I got into a funk, and am finding it hard to get out of it. I wouldn't say I'm depressed, but I definitely haven't been as exstatic about my life as of late. I work a lot, Adam is constantly doing homework so I feel like a single parent when I am home, it's just been hard to get back into working out and focusing on myself. And it's not like I'm a sloth or anything, I do workout at least 2-3 times a week, more if the weather is nice. But losing weight? Forget it! I like to eat healthy things, just don't want to only eat them. I don't want to deprive myself of something I want, because that will make me want it more.
I've decided the solution to this problem is to realize that I am a worthwhile, special, talented person, no matter what my size might be at the moment. I need to be happy with my inside self, and not worry about what the outside looks like. And shame on media and society for making us feel this way about ourselves. We are just as great people being big, as others are being small. Our size shouldn't matter, as long as we still are trying to live a healthy life and be a good person, which I am.
So, I'm going to be happy with myself as I am right now. I may lose weight in the near future, but I'm not going to let things affect me as the have before and I'm not going to stress over being pleasantly plump. Because I'm good enough, smart enough, and doggonit, people like me!