JustaBlog

Celebration of Life

A great friend, wonderful lady and amazing Christian woman (honestly she has floored me during the last few weeks with her faith) had her husband pass away suddenly from a heart attack. She is now raising three small children on her own.

This HUGE charity kit is to benefit Laurie Garza. She is a member of the digiscrapping community and her husband passed away last month. She is now raising three small children on her own. Over 25 designers have come together to create this gorgeous Celebration of Life kit to honor her husband and his life. The colors are perfect for boys, girls, summer, birthdays, spring and much more. The kit includes 94 papers, 157 elements, 4 alphas, 8 templates, 6 quick pages and 1 bracket album.

The designers are Gina Miller, Janet Phillips, Nikki Beaudreau, Amanda Heimann, Laura Bratcher, Julie Billinglsey, Jodie McNally, Kim Hill, Danielle Young, Janet Lawrence, MiYon Richardson (scarletheels), Jacque Larsen, cori Gammon, Traci Reed, Kate Hadfield, Jan Crowley, Sherry Ferguson, Julie Bullock, Laura Deacetis, Holly Designs, Sabrina Dupre, Melissa Bennett, Lori Wiley (Diamante), Meredith Cardall, Michele McGraw, Shelly Greninger, Susan Bartolini and previews are completed by Julie Zimmerman. (blinkies by Becca Bonneville). All proceeds (minus paypal fees) will be going directly to Laurie.

We all know the stress and general chaos when something like this happens. I hope that as much money as possible can be raised to help her in the time.

Here's the kit:

 

Please everyone go support Laurie's family and buy the kit if you can. She deserves the best. And this is such a hard time for her. I pray that this can be a huge blessing to her.

BUY THE KIT HERE:
http://www.shabbypickledesigns.com/boutique/product.php?productid=16344&cat=0&page=1

Also, here is a blinkie you can sport, and an ad if you have anywhere you can post an ad. and a banner if you have an advertising space you'd like to give up for this cause.

Little Boy Haircut

Garrison got his first little boy haircut the other day. He still doesn't look like himself to me. Sigh. He looks more little boy than baby now. Sigh again.

So for Cassie's birthday this year she got this beginner's knitting kit from her wonderful great-grandma. When a ways back I tried to teach her to crochet, it didn't go well. She struggled. She eventually said it was to hard and had no desire to do it. BUT I wanted her to start learning these things when she is little so they become second nature to her. And she has said over and over that she wants to learn to knit and sew, and all those kinds of things. So I figured that this kit that says "for 7 years and up" might make her ready again. Little did I know she'd be a knitting natural! She has picked it up and knits really quite fast (when she takes the time to knit - she is 7 after all and sitting and knitting isn't always her first choice of activities)
Here she is all proud of her scarf-to-be.

 

And a close up of her fabulous knitting (now disregard row 1-3 I mean they're her first ones ever) but look how nice and even they are towards the top? She rocks. And also disregard the little frayed piece of yarn towards the top, the wool yarn snapped and I had to tie it in and haven't woven it in totally.

And lastly a little Sunday School happenings. Now honestly we don't normally "do" Sunday School but this church is small enough that we do. Anyways, so Adric's SS teacher was sick on Sunday and didn't leave any materials or anything for SS. I am always in with her and the children (there are only 4 kids lol) SO I decided to go ahead and just make up an impromptu SS lesson. I opened the Bible and there it was "I am the Good Shepherd" We learned all about shepherds, who they are, what they do. We all played sheep and shepherd where one boy had a (yardstick) shepherd's staff and helped guide us little bleating sheep to the sheepfold. We talked about how the Lord is our shepherd and how he takes care of us, how he calls for us, all about it :) AND 95% of all the craft stuff wasn't in the room LOL! SO... this is what we made.

Yeah those sheep are ripped and crumpled paper towels. That's all I had in the room. Paper, glue sticks and paper towels. Though I did have them all trace the letters in the verse (can't take the homeschooling out of me)> But honestly they had a great time. One of the boys who never talks really got into it and laughed and had a great time. I think maybe my teaching style is more up his alley than the other teacher (who is great by the way). And I put on contemporary Christian radio which we all danced to. And the boy who doesn't usually talk was the one who wanted me to keep it on and danced the most. Go figure.

So off to bed to cuddle with my soon to be one year old and still young husband and go to sleep.

Vintage Cassandra

Do you have the Pioneer Woman's Photoshop actions? They're free and fabulous. I dream of one day being able to afford the Totally Rad Actions but for now I'm trying to accumulate some good free ones and Ree's are great! So today I ran her Vintage Action on a picture of Cassie I took yesterday. WOW it's amazing how vintage the photo looks. Blew my mind. Slap an old frame of Robin Carlton's on there and it looks like I found it in an old box. Go check out her actions. And check out my little baby doll who is growing up way too fast.

Heard here today

So Cassie decided her and Adric would play "family". She grabbed a handful of silk flowers from my scrap stash and they were going to get married.

"WAIT!!" Adric yelled. "We can't get married yet"

"Why?"

"Because I need boots."

"Boots?" Mom asked from the kitchen.

"Yes, cowboy boots. Cause ALL Daddies wear cowboy boots."

Yes Adric. All daddies wear cowboy boots.

The little dude.

So while in theory I should write a little about all the happenings around here as my reemergence into blogland, it's 2 AM, just finishing up design work stuff (hate collections, why do I do them?) and am posting pictures for those of your friends and family that don't care what I say and just want pictures of the little people. You know who you are!

So, here's the little dude in all his glory. Took these outside the other day. He's such a doll. He had been crawling around in the heat outside for 2 hours by this point while his mommy gardened so his cheeks are a bit red (takes after his mom in that regard - you should have seen me after 3 hours working in the garden, red as a beet). SO.. the dude. Garrison, who is growing SOOO fast.

Here's the serious dude:

Hehe, he was trying to crawl up and get the camera. No cameras baby. Naughty.


Giving mommy a big ole grin:


This face just melts my heart:


This one just looks like him, like he does 1,000 times a day. Him.


The wrinkle face. Mom this is for you. It's not the best and he even looks kind of mean, but the nose wrinkle is there, right there:


The carrot. He LOVES to gnaw on big carrots.


HEY give me my carrot back!


And wrapping it up with this cute one:


Nighty night.

Just Do It.

"My suggestion is that in life, you can be one of two things: the man in the arena, or one of the spectators. I think that seminars, books, internet sites, and forums are great opportunities to transfer information, but I am sure that many people leave these devices without ever asking their own questions. In essence, they are just spectators. So remember, where you are is exactly where you are supposed to be in relation to the things you either did or did not do, questions you did or did not ask. As long as you are cool with your current situation it is ok. If you are not and you are blaming it on someone else or because of something you did not find out, accept that it is your fault. Anything less is delusional."

-- Martin Rooney

The umpteenth return

I'm skipping the whole apologizing for not blogging more often. It's all too regular.

So Adric is obsessed with "hair-dos". Every day 10 hairdos at least. Does hair-do have a dash or not? I'm not getting a spell error with either way. Anyways, so sometimes it's spiky. Sometimes combed like Daddy's. We've had to limit it as the water in the bathroom when he wets his hair and makes a huge mess. So now that he's not allowed to do it whenever, he's decided that outside with the hose is the best way to get his hair wet for his hair do. Or hair-do or hairdo. No spell error red underline. Ugh. So here's one of the many "dos". A spiky do obviously and one done outside with the hose (note all the dirt on his face). And like every single photo shoot I do with Adric, I have to take a million just to get one of him smiling. Such is a four year old. Does that have dashes (yeah yeah I know there's some sort of Grammar word for the dash and one day when I teach it to Frankie I will know it but not right now).

So first he comes all serious thinking that he is going to get in trouble for playing with the hose (that's a no-no) and he just wouldn't smile.

But it didn't last for long.

He's such a cutie.

And this is one of the reasons we homeschool. If the weather is great, and the power goes out we can go outside. This was a great day.


Chickens deserve an education as well. We're all for equal opportunity education.

And of course being outside is perfect for things that make a mess like putting brown rice all over the glue on a letter A page.

And as always when I end these posts - I'm off to bed. It's too late. And hey I already resized some pictures on the other computer so I can do a post with some cute little baby pics tomorrow. G'night.

Contest for homeschoolers

I'm posting this and entering this contest because I have ALWAYS wanted Rosetta Stone for my children but it's always stayed on the "school stuff I WISH I had" list and has yet to make it over to my "have the money to buy" list.  If you're a homeschooler enter it! I'd love for one of my readers (um or ME!) win this thing.

Rosetta Stone has been the #1 foreign language curriculum among homeschoolers for a while -- next week they are unleashing a brand new curriculum, and you can WIN the *all new* Rosetta Stone Homeschool Version 3… FOR FREE! 

This is a $219 program (and believe me it's worth every penny!) and the winner gets to pick from any of these 14 languages: Spanish (Spain or Latin America), English (American or British), Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Irish, Hebrew, or Russian.

This will also include a headset with microphone, and students will participate in lifelike conversations and actually produce language to advance through the program.  Rosetta Stone still incorporates listening, reading and writing as well, in addition to speaking.  Many homeschoolers requested grammar and vocabulary exercises, and with Rosetta Stone Homeschool Version 3, they're included!  For parents, the new Parent Administrative Tools are integrated into the program and allow parents to easily enroll students in any of 12 predetermined lesson plans, monitor student progress, and view and print reports.

 

To win this most excellent program -- in the language of your choice -- copy these (blue) paragraphs and post it in (or as) your next blog post -- then to enter the contest, go to the original contest page HERE: http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/JenIG/501132/ and leave a comment with the link showing where you blogged about it.  And please make sure the link works to get back to the original contest page when you post it. And good luck! The winner will be picked randomly on March 26, and will be notified thru the link they left to their blog pg.   And if you have more than one blog, you can post them and enter those separately for more chances to win.   Yay for free stuff!

No pictures or anything of interest

Nothing interesting. It's really late, I just now got to workout and I needed to log my weights since I lost all my log from last week on a notebook somewhere in this house. So I'm logging them now so I don't lose em.

Workout B

Deadlifts
Set 1 - 75# x 15 reps
Set 2 - 75# x 15 reps

Superset 1
Dumbbell Shoulder Press
Set 1 - 17.5# x 15 reps
Set 2 - 17.5# x 11 reps

Pullups on a chair (pullups on the bar with my feet on a chair assisting)
Set 1 - 15 reps
Set 2 - 15 reps

Superset 2
Lunges
Set 1 - 12.5# x 15 reps on each leg
Set 2 - 12.5# x 15 reps each leg

Swiss Ball Crunches
Set 1 - 15 with 10# plate
Set 2 - 15 with 10# plate
(now I note that I had to have my feet against the wall since they slipped on the carpet so it wasn't as challenging hence the weight. Saturday I'll do it on my mat and they will be WAY harder!)

okay off to drink a protein shake, iron, make Clay's breakfast and whatnot and go to SLEEP. I'm exhausted.

Weight and all that jazz

Hmm how long ago was it when I said I was going to "diet naked"?  That was... December right? So much for putting it all out there. Well so the last time I talked weight I weighed in at 201 lbs. Today I weighed in at 193.0 lbs. So slow and steady wins the race. Up until Garrison was 6 months I wasn't really supposed to lose more than a lb a week. I can shoot for 2 lbs a week now. But it still will be around a lb a week.

It hasn't been easy. Not insanely hard but not easy by any means. Losing weight is hard. Period. It takes sacrifice, self-control and just downright hard work. I have put in many hours of cardio, tracked way too many meals, given up in my mind more than once, and yeah, worked hard. I wish I could blink and have it all gone. I hate that it is going to take so long to get all this weight off. I do. I still have around 50 lbs to go. And that can be SO overwhelming for me. But I realized yesterday that I have lost 30 lbs. Well 29 but still... and hey, I weighed in at 191.4 yesterday so in the weight fluctuation I have lost 30 lbs. We often get so caught up in what we still need to lose that we forget to give ourselves credit for what we've done. Whether it's 5 lbs or 50 lbs it's OURS. WE made the changes to lose that weight and we need to embrace it. Hey and even if it's NO weight, if you've made positive changes in the way you treat your body that is something. It's better than Joe Schmoe is doing. You rock. I rock. I've lost 30 lbs. So there. Eat that you 50 lbs. I'm coming for YOU~! And I'm coming with a vengeance.

Ever feel like you're doing all this work but it doesn't seem to be enough? Or the right work? I know that I don't have a personal trainer. Am I doing it right? Am I doing enough? I have read SO much, done so many different types of workouts and cardio and it never seems right. Well I have found it. For ME anyways. It's called the New Rules of Lifting for Women: Lift like a man, look like a goddess. Yeah Lift like a man. Love it. I'll call it NROL4W from now on.

See that physique? That comes from lifting in the way everyone's told you will bulk you up and not tone. Um.... she's not all bulked out. She rocks. Lou and Alwyn debunk the myth that lifting heavy weights will bulk a woman up. We aren't built to bulk. And don't ask about female bodybuilders. LOTS goes into making a woman's body do THAT. And you and I aren't going to be doing those things. The book explains in detail the science behind why lifting and heavy lifting at that is the best and most important exercise for both losing weight and general health. (you did know that lifting IS a cardio activity right?? No? See,what information have been feeding  you?)  So Clay has the men's version of this book and from the second I started reading his version (which is the New Rules of Lifting )  I have been hooked. Everything about what he says, the program, everything just speaks to me. I don't just want to be thin. I don't want a weak, thin body. I want a fit musclular body. I want to be cut and STRONG. I have a growing family. I want strength. I want to be fit. You know what the Bible says about that Proverbs 31 woman right?

"She girdeth her loins with strength, and strengtheneth her arms" (Proverbs 31:17)

So here I am girding my loins with strength and strengthening my arms. Yep. So I started officially this week. I have done some Alwyn workouts the last couple weeks but my official start week was this week. I do three workouts a week, alternating workouts. A, B, A one week. B, A, B the next week. There are multiple stages to work through and challenge yourself as you get stronger. And of course, not being afraid to add weight! I'm already looking forward to the next workouts to add more weight. It admittedly was hard figuring out where my baseline on different exercises was. I underestimated most of them. Here's an example of one of the workouts to get an idea of it.
2 sets of squats (15 reps each) I did 45 lbs and will move to 55 lbs next time.
2 supersets of :
15 pushups, 15 seated rows
2 supersets of:
Step-ups and prone jackknives.

I am still sore from that workout and it was Tuesday. But I did Thursday's B workout and it was the perfect muscles to compliment the A workout. Alwyn is SO about balance and I really love it already and I just started. I can feel muscles working that I may have never used. HEHE you should see Clay. Now he has been lifting weights for a long time now but he used muscles he NEVER uses and has been WAY more sore than I am (and used the same weights as I did hehehehe lol! Love that. Of course, being a man he will pass me before I know it but still. I can enjoy it for now)

I won't go into cardio but I am looking at that in an entirely different way as well. Let me see if I can find an article Alwyn did not too long ago. While I do, go look here at the NROLW forum at JPfitness. It's the best and has the presence of the authors:

NROL4W Board Link

Okay I found the article, but the site has some risque pictures of bodybuilders so I won't post it. But if you want to read an awesome life changing article about exercise for fat loss, email me or comment and I will copy the text into Word and send it to you.

Okay baby's crying. Later!