Still Thanksgiving Here

I'm cleaning off my desk (again, sigh), and found Sam and Sariah's masterpieces from Thanksgiving, and now they will be documented here forever, haha. I love these two little ones!

by Sam

by Sam

by Sariah

by Sariah

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Day Before Thanksgiving

Today was cooking and reading and sleeping. And a few games of MarioKart because Sam earned it by actually eating everything on his plate. Crazy, right?

Weighing In

It's been awhile since I've blogged about my weight-loss adventure.  That's because it's not going particularly well.  It's not going particularly bad either.  It's just ... not going.  I'm still holding steady at a 15 pound loss, which is nothing to sniff at.  I am down a pants size, down 2 dress sizes.

I tell myself that I've hit a plateau, which might be true.  Or it could be that I haven't really been tracking what I eat.  I do still weight in at WW each week, which keeps me in line, but I need to get back in the habit of attending the meetings.  There are always lots of ideas and help and support at those.

The good news is that I am still exercising--walking the dogs a couple of miles in the morning (or whenever I get around to it) and using the Wii 3 times a week.

I have been doing a lot of emotional eating because of stress.  I need to get a handle on that.  I have an especially hard time during the fall and winter because I start craving comfort foods like sweets (when don't I crave those?), creamy soups, and bread, bread, bread.  They aren't bad in moderation ... but I'm not good at moderating.

My goal for the holiday season is to not gain weight.  Maintain or lose, but not gain.  Somebody told me the average American gains from 5-15 lbs between Halloween and New Year's.  I thought that sounded like a bit much; I don't think I've ever gained more than 5 pounds at the holidays (just 30 over the course of a year, lol).  But I don't want to join the crowd.  And my secret perfectionist self really, really wants to lose.  But I don't want to give up the yummy holiday food.  Anyone else see a problem here?

Still, I am planning what I eat on Thanksgiving Day.  I have been really good the last few years about not eating until I'm gorged.  Still, I want to stay within my points this year.  Fortunately, I'm in charge of the relish tray, which means I can stack it with dill pickles and veggies and low-fat dip, which I can eat to my heart's content.

I think I need to go on a hunt for my self-discipline, though.

Help in the Kitchen

Thanksgiving at our house was good this year.

How could it not be with this kind of help in the kitchen?

Today I'm Thankful That...

• My husband is still employed.
• My children have good teachers.
• Sariah is feeling much better.
• Jonah's leg is healing.

Thanksgiving '08, Part 3

And last, but not least, our family picture. It'll probably go in the Christmas cards this year.

But it was really hard not to choose the more ... realistic family photo....

Thanksgiving '08, Part 2

And now for the kiddos.

This is the only good picture I got of Caleb. He's up in the tree looking for that silly whiffle ball.
You'll notice in most of these pictures that Sariah was kind of all over the place. This was one of her few sitting-down moments. Go figure!
There are no pictures of Hannah by herself. She runs from the camera. Shocking, I know.
But here's my happy, willing model, Mr. Rex. He'll pose anyway I tell him to.
Elisabeth was too busy running around with Kenadie to pose for any pics, hence, the in-motion picture.
But wait, there are more pics to come. You have to see our family pics. Getting a family of 7 in a beautiful picture is ... possible ... but not probable. :)

Thanksgiving '08, Part 1

This year, we spent Thanksgiving with my family at my brother's house down in Plano. We had a lot of fun, and Grandma got her heart's desire in family pictures. Here we all are, lookin' fine!

This is me and my sister-in-law, Tricia. She makes really good cornbread stuffing, and she even cleaned her house for us all (wink!). She doesn't have zits, either, unlike me--I thought you were supposed to outgrow that in college, darn it.

This is my favorite Thanksgiving picture. It's my two favorite people!

And my fabulous parents. Aren't they gracious? The didn't want to have their pictures taken (after subjecting all of us to it), but they posed anyway. Ok, well, they didn't have a choice because Chad and I just started snapping away.

And this is what we spent a good portion of the afternoon doing. Caleb was playing baseball with a whiffle ball, and hit a pop fly up into Uncle Chad's Bradford pear tree. It apparently caught on a branch, and despite our best efforts (see below), it didn't come down until a cold front came through the next week, bringing with it 40 mph winds. Personally, I think my dad was the smartest of us, and probably got the most entertainment value out of the whole affair--don't you see him there, sitting on the porch, watching everyone else work away?