Admitting your problem is the first step,Right MONTH 2

FEBRUARY 2011

Well, here we are again.  Brandi and I have been working hard on making lots of veggie soup, eating lots of fruits and veggies, and exercising.  You know the regular stuff we are all suppose to do.  Here are our photos for our first month success. 

Emily - total weight loss-15 pounds

EDITED POST:  Thought I would add a front pic as well.  I hate how uptight I look.  Oh well, it's the pic I have.

Brandi - total weight loss-18 pounds

Smooth Music

Tonight, I turned off the TV and just listened to some smooth tunes.  Here are a few of my favorite I thought I would share. 


There is nothing better than Jewel LIVE...her voice just gets inside you.  Love her!


Such a sexy and touching song!


Seriously, who doesn't LOVE The Notebook!


I first heard this song in the movie "Griffin and Phoenix".  Such a sad movie, but I really like it alot.


My nephew, Luke, introduced this song (John Mayer's version anyway) to me just recently. Can't stop listening to it.

Admitting your problem is the first step, RIGHT!!

I am writing this post with my hands shaking, my brow sweating, and my stomach turning (that might be because I am just hungry).  What is the big deal, you may ask?  I am making something public (as if it wasn't obvious) which is much, much easier for me to pretend is non-existent.

I AM OVERWEIGHT! 

Yes, I am using all caps.  This usually means I am shouting, however, I am not shouting to be heard by all of you.  Rather, I am shouting to hear myself.  My weight has been a issue for quite a while and I really need to overcome the difficulty of losing it when it is way more yummy to gain.  Several years ago I lost close to 50 pounds and felt good (although I had another 40 I could have lost).  Well, that was all gained back and then some. 

I have been feeling depressed regarding my weight, and more importantly, my health.  I have been having internal struggles with what I needed to do.  (The solution seems obvious, though) Note the verb used, needed.  My weight is not an issue of looking good anymore, it is about needing to feel good, needing to be healthy, needing to make MY HEALTH a priority.

I have been thinking about going back to Weight Watchers (the support I had when I initially lost 50 pounds), but I just didn't want to pay up to $40 a month.  Honestly, I am too embarrassed to return to my local WW branch and admit I gained all the weight back.  You name it, I had an excuse.

UNTIL...

My sister called and asked if I wanted to start Weight Watchers on-line with her.  We could be each others support system.  I felt this was the final sign and I needed to just go for it.  Brandi and I both find more success when we are held accountable.  WW on-line doesn't always give this because you are having to monitor yourself more than standing in front of someone to weigh you and admit your gain or loss.

So, Brandi and I decided to also use this blog as a way to hold us accountable. We will post a picture of ourselves each month to monitor progress.  This blog is open to all our family and friends and we look forward to their support through this journey.  So, here are the first pictures.  God give us strength (We both cry and laugh when we see these pictures).  This honesty business is a killer.

January 2011- Emily (an intentional frumpy picture, so when I lose weight people can say "WOW!!!  YOU LOOK AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!).  I am looking forward to losing the face weight more than anything else.

 January 2011 - Brandi

Pay It Forward

The rules:

"I promise to send something handmade

to the first 3 people who leave a comment here.

To be eligible, you must also post this in your blog,

or make the same offer to 3 other people.

The rules are that it must be handmade by you and it must be sent to your 3 people

*sometime* in 2011."

Name Photography

About 6 months ago, I saw a blog where someone collected photos throughout the year which included letters of their family name.  They were each framed and hung on the wall.  I really liked the idea and thought I would work on it over Summer/Fall vacation.  Here are the letters I photographed and their locations.

 D from Alamosa, Colorado brewery where we had dinner on our family road trip to Breckenridge, Colorado

 E from Meteor Crater in Winslow, Colorado

 V from Bentonville, Arkansas...Home of Wal-Mart.  Brad's parents live near Bentonville now.  We took a trip to their place for Thanksgiving break.

 O also from Alamosa, Colorado

 R from Breckenridge, Colorado

And the final project framed, hung, and complete........

PS I will be re-developing the O.  I don't like how it was cropped too much.  Also, I may change the r someday.  All the letters are uppercase except the "r".  Just the itty bitty details.

I was having a difficult time capturing the location of the frames to those not familiar with our home.  But, I love how you see the letters as you are walking up the stairs.  They are also a focal point when you walk into the front door. 

ON ANOTHER NOTE

Work returns tomorrow, January 3rd.  I look forward to starting another great calendar year with a great teaching staff and amazing students.  :-)

My life of blogging, however,  may be less frequent but I will see what happens.  

Black Swan

Today, I was engaged in two hours of excellence. 

This came from watching Black Swan starring Natalie Portman.  This was a great movie which was able to create a balance of good and evil, purity and temptation, and strength and weakness centered around the classic ballet tale of Swan's Lake.  I am not a ballet connoisseur in anyway, but the story kept me mesmerized every second.  I am comfortable with and confident some will disagree with my review of this movie.  I just found it to be really amazing and so has the Screen Actors Guild providing it 12 Golden Globe Nominations.  Just saying!!

Now, keep in mind this movie had what some would consider controversial scenes and was "dark" in nature.  Do not go to this movie expecting a upbeat and/or postive beginning, middle, or end.  A young lady left the theatre telling her mom, "I didn't really understand what was going on half of the time."  This movie does require some level of abstract intellect I am afraid.  So, consider yourself warned.



2011 RESOLUTION

I am not a big believer in resolutions because it generally has to do with something I can't seem to stick with like lose weight or exercise. 

BORING!!

For 2011, however, I have created a resolution which forces me to have some me time.  I am going to commit to going to the movies once per month by myself.  I am a bit strange to really enjoy this process.  I am able to sit wherever I want, have popcorn all to myself, and form my own opinion on a movie I want to see.  I will do my best in providing monthly reviews of what I see on this blog.  This way, I am holding myself accountable to at least blogging once per month, right!

Feel free to send any movie suggestions my way.

Happy New Year!!  Welcome 2011!

Holiday Break Field Trip

Juan and I are still off for Holiday Break this week.  We thought we would use one of our days to go to Universal Studios.  However, there was a 100% chance of rain, so we went with Plan B.  We went to the Getty Museum in Los Angeles.  Before that, however, we spent the night at Brandi's.  Here is a synopsis of our evening and day at Getty.

First, we stopped in Burbank to watch Luke play basketball with his Simi Valley High School team.  Go Pioneers!  I haven't seen him play in a while, so it was fun to see him again.  Except this time he is 6'2"...what happen to our little Lukey "Captain Underpants"?

Later in the day we went and picked up Brandi from work and then headed to the Town Center for a bite to eat and shopping.

Brandi and I LOVE Anthropologie!! We had the most fun in this store.  Here is what is sounded like.
Brandi:  I love this.  Isn't it cute.
Emily:  Oh, that is cute...I love this...what do you think?
Brandi:  Love it!  We really should stop saying how much we love things, because I love everything.
Emily:  Right.  Me too!  But this is so cute.
Brandi:  AWWW...I love it!

Most of the conversations continued in this manner, no matter how many times we told each other to stop saying how much we loved something.  But the store is so stinkin' cute.

Here is a particular item we are both fond of in the event any of my blog readers are interested in purchasing a special gift for a special someone in California. 

Measuring cups...We would be fine with either collection.

Simply click on the picture above  for a direct link to the webpage - MOM!!

Once we got home it was 9 p.m., so DUH...it was time to go to bed.

Juan and I woke up the next morning to find rain, just as predicted.  We are glad we went with Plan B.  We drove up to the Getty and saw some great paintings, sculptures, decorative art, etc.  It really is a great museum.  What I enjoyed the most was watching Juan enjoy the art.

This is what I thought he was going to look like:

But instead he was interested, excited, and impressed.  He looked like this for the majority of the day:

Here are a few of our favorite pieces (Juan wanted to take a picture of just about every piece, but I tried to select just a sampling):

 Yes, it the real LILLIES by Van Gough

 Renoir

 Thought to be the first African-American bust

 In case you were confused, Juan is on the right.

 Watched a short film on how the artist might have made this piece---so AWESOME

So now we are home just taking in the last few days of Holiday break.  I hope everyone has a GREAT New Year.  May 2011 continue with many joys and memories.