Posted by melissa on Mar 13, 2009 in
family I have a new job with EEI Communications teaching Adobe products, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, etc. See my profile. I love to teach and I’m very excited about this new position. My goal is to teach one workshop per week - most classes are 2 days.
They poured the footers for the house week and we still have a target for the end of June. It’s been a long wait for them to break ground.
Vivi’s birthday is Monday. We are celebrating Sunday with a unicorn pinata and a cake from Costco (where else?). There is a family that lives behind us with 2 kids the same ages as Quinn and Vivs, so they are coming over to join us. More people, but much cheaper than her blowout tea party last year!
I’ll post some photos of the house progress and Vivi’s party next week.
Posted by melissa on Jul 24, 2008 in
Personal,
everything else,
family I found a Wii Fit in Costco a few weeks ago. They are scarce - I’m looking for another one for my mother. I love it! It’s fun and engaging. I hate working out. I need to lose about 60 lbs. If you search my blog, you’ll see where I lost 50 lbs. Yeah, well, I gained back 60.
I do my body test before I start. My Mii starts out looking normal, then it calculates my BMI and the little gauge goes up and up and up and a little voice says “that’s obese” and my Mii plumps up nice and fat like a turkey ready for the oven!
The good news is that I am actually losing weight with it. I’m down a few pounds in since I started around July 4th. I feel it in my body. My back feels great. I was having lots of low back pain - I think the hula hoops have made it much better!
Yoga is hard! I’ve never done it and I have a hard time with the poses on the Wii. I’ve only tried a few and am working my way up. The strength exercises are also difficult. I’ve avoided most of them so far, too. Aerobics is easy and fun and I work up a sweat. The Balance games are just fun. I’m sure they help my balance but it’s a stretch to call them exercise!
It’s worth getting a Wii just for the Wii Fit. It’s more fun than going to the gym and having the feedback while you’re working out makes a difference. Having others in the high score spot motivates you to want to beat them! I highly recommend it and you don’t have to leave home and can toss that gym membership!
Got a Wii? Leave a note about how you like it.
Posted by melissa on May 18, 2008 in
family I found this site tonight, animoto.com. It’s fun, it’s free, you gotta try it! Here’s my first little video.
Posted by melissa on Dec 29, 2006 in
family,
food 
So I always brag about my 20lb lasagne. I decided this sucker was heavy and I wanted to know how much it really weighs… 27lbs! It’s all meat, sauce, meatballs, mozarella and parmesean. No ricotta!No more turkey for us… lasagne on Christmas and Thanksgiving. It freezes great, too. Leave me a comment if you want the recipe. If enough people ask, I’ll post it. I can tell you that no one was interested in the rib-eye roast I had planned for Christmas Day (we ate this Christmas Eve) - they all wanted lasagne again.
Posted by melissa on May 22, 2006 in
family I’ve had many inquiries about how I managed to lose all that weight. It wasn’t from diet and exercise! I actually quit the gym when I started. I hate to exercise. I am under the care of a doctor. She has prescibed Phenteramine. It’s like legal speed. It speeds up you metabolism and makes you not hungry. And, yes, it does make you feel like you’re on speed. Sometimes I’m like the Energizer Bunny on steroids!
There are good things about this, like my house getting clean occassionally and I actually organized everything including the mounds of toys. I’ll sleep when I’m dead, I have too much to do!
If I go to bed too early (like before midnight) there is a potential that I’ll be awake for several hours during the night. This usually only happens if my 2 year old wakes up and I’m required to get out of bed and do something, like check on her, put her back to bed or pee. I couldn’t concentrate for a while. I have 2 monitors on my computer and would have about 5 projects open at once and try to actually work on them all at once accomplishing nothing. I lowered my dosage, then I switched to time-released capsules. They rock. No more crazy running around hyper. It’s an even energy that is productive and feels great.
In addition to the pills, I did a low-carb, high protein diet. I was faithful for about 3.5-4 months. I’m trying to get back into the diet part, but it’s not easy! I’m a carb addict, craving chocolate, Cold Stone Cake batter ice-cream with brownies, bread, etc. Too many carbs and I’m out of control! I want to elimnate the cravings and the only way I can do that is to get back into ketosis.
I am still on the pills. I eat less (I only have a child size ice cream now instead of a med. or large!). I’m hoping when I go off them I will continue to eat less. The carbs are a huge part of the problem.
I’m still not exercising because of some weird pain in my right side when I try and walk (for exercise, not just plain walking). I had a second CT scan today, it could be a kidney stone. I’ve turned to mush, I was in better shape when I was fat! Hopefully we’ll figure out the problem and I’ll be able to start walking soon.
I’m going to have a consult with a plastic surgeon this week. I have lots of yucky skin to get rid off. It’s like a balloon, once you blow it up, it never goes back into shape. Tummy tuck, boob lift (not bigger, just put back where they belong!) and a thigh tuck? My thighs are bad from stretch marks. I gained 87lbs. with my son. It destroyed my body. I don’t know if I want to trade it all for nasty scars. My husband was happy with me fat. He has already told me he won’t pay for it. We’ll just have to wait to see what she has to say.
Thanks for all of your comments and emails of encouragement. Losing weight is not easy. I’ve been battling it throughout my 30’s. I finally understand that I’m a carb addict after being in denial about it for years. Will power, eating less, working out more, it’s all a bunch of crap. Carb addicts are seeking a serotonin release in the brain to signal being full and or satisfied. The serotonin isn’t released like it is for normal people so we scrounge and nibble and eat even when we aren’t hungry. So, for all you carb addicts out there, there is hope!
I’m a new crusade to elimnate corn syrup from my diet. This is not an easy task, everything, including things that seem healthy, has corn syrup.
Posted by melissa on May 17, 2006 in
family I started a crusade to lose weight in Sept. 2005. I am finished having babies and I was tired of being fat. Here are some before and after photos. I have 20lbs more to lose, but I’m not working very hard to get rid of it. I have a closet full of new clothes that I really like!
April 2006 - Easter Sunday
July 2005
May 2006
May 2005
Posted by melissa on Apr 28, 2006 in
Kid Bytes,
family —————
Advanced exams like comptia a+ and itil certification are not possible until basics like ccna and mcdst are covered. Only after an mcsa certification is an mcp worth something.
=======================
Vivi is quite the precocious little thing. She speaks almost as well as her 6 year old brother. She is irrisistable, you just want to grab her and squeeze her. But boy does she have a mouth on her!
Kick Your Butt!
Poop Head (just playing)
You’re a Monkey! (When she’s really mad at you)
You’re a Chipmunk! (The newest derogatory name)
You hurt me!
I didn’t do it
I want chocolate egg
fruit snack, juice box, meat stick, milk, something to drink
knock knock, (who’s there?) poop!
Quinn, you funny
I’m a baby hippo
Bye monkey (when saying good bye to anyone)
watch dinasour movie (she loves the Land Before Time movies)
Green frog shoes (her favorite green crocs)
I do it!
No clean up!
No Monica’s House, go home and watch movie or take a nap (on the way to daycare, which she loves but must give me a hard time about)
No have poop (when she does), have poop, need new diaper (when she doesn’t)
Ride Back (piggy back upstairs to bed)
Read book (any book, all the time)
I read book to you (and it’s very scary, because she can read to me)
Quinnman, Quinn Henry, time out! come here, now!
Chop chop, mom, come on, mom
I show you (as she grabs your finger and drags you to show you)
Mommy Melissa, Daddy Chuck, brother Quinn, I Viviana
Daddy go to work, Quinn go to school
She was telling me about all of Quinn’s friends, Ryan go to school, Marc go to school, Bobbi go to school… I told her Bobbi is Marc’s mommy, she doesn’t go to school, she scrunched up her face and said - “What are you talking about?”.
There are so many more, I’ll keep adding them as I remember and as she comes up with them.
Posted by melissa on Apr 2, 2006 in
family We went to Vail for a little Spring Break get away. Vivi was too little to really enjoy herself. Just an inch too short for tubing! She wanted to go “sliding” like the Teletubbies do. She managed to slide on her butt a few times. Quinn had a blast riding mini snowmobiles. They hold up to 100lbs. He thought they were bumber snowmobiles and insisted on trying to run into everyone. Then he and I went tubing while Dad and Viviana watched.
We stayed down the road in Edwards at the Lodge & Spa at Cordillera. It was a fancy place, nice towels! You can always tell the quality of a hotel by the towels. This one had huge, fluffy, soft bath sheets.
The kids wanted to swim, so we swam inside and outside. This is the outside pool. Vivi kept jumping out to grab some snow and toss it in the pool. The water was very warm. The hot tubs were a little too hot for me. It was in the low 40ºs.I had a “Rocky Mountain Rescue” body wrap. I always though a wrap meant they wrapped you up in something. She basically covered me in a oil, massaged my feet and head, covered me with a warm blanket, then poured hot coconut oil on me. It was nice getting away from the kids and husband for an hour.
Posted by melissa on Mar 15, 2006 in
family I went to see Mama Mia! last night with my mother. It was hysterical. My cheeks hurt from laughing so hard by the end of the night. Here is a silly photo of us with a couple of the cast members.
