Meat and Chips

Guess what!

I have been off of red meat and chips for over a month now! Well, except for two small incidents. One where I was invited to dinner and meatloaf was served-and it was delicious! The other was at a restaurant where they were served with my food and I didn't even think about them being tortilla chips and ate them. When I realized my slip up I was NOT happy.

I did not embark on this adventure on purpose but it ended up being really good for me. Chris and I are going on our first adult vacation in a few weeks and we both decided it would be nice to drop a few pounds before we go. The first thing was for me to quit eating those darn potato chips. Potato chips are my WEAKNESS and they always have been. If they are in the house, I will eat them. I'm proud to report that we have had the same bag of unopened Sunchips in the pantry for the last five weeks. A feat never before accomplished in our house. Before they would have been demolished in a mere three days or so. There have been a few times that I have wanted chips so bad that I had to call Chris and have him talk me off the wall but every time I MADE it!

Red meat was kind of an accident also. We both really love turkey sandwiches so we decided to try eating them for dinner along with a salad at least three or four nights a week. On the other nights we usually have some kind of chicken dish or pasta. The next thing we knew we had been red meat free for over a month. It's not like we eat a lot of red meat but we'd usually have some kind of hamburger at least two nights a week.

I have been working out 5-6 days a week since January 18th doing a mixture of step classes, spinning classes, weight training, and running but hadn't seen much weight loss doing all these things. As soon as I gave up the meat and chips the weight started coming off. It's coming off slowly but at least it's coming off now! Chris on the other hand started doing Wii Fit and is doing the couch potato to 5K program and has lost almost 20 pounds! I'm happy for him but man it makes me crazy because I workout twice as much and the weight is just falling off him. Why oh why is it so easy for men to lose weight, argh!

Now maybe if I could just work on giving up my chocolate...

Q and A

I found this Q&A on another blog and since my cute boys haven't done anything extraordinarily worth mentioning I thought I'd post this.

1. Share one item that has special meaning to you.
Probably a ring of my mother's that was given to her by my dad.

2. How old is the oldest pair of shoes in your closet?
I have some Ugg's that are at least five years old.

3. Did you buy girl scout cookies this year.
I didn't originally order any but they hit me up at the grocery store. I only bought two boxes, way down from the 10 I usually buy.

4. Do you know how to ballroom dance? If not, would you like to?
Absolutely

5. Were you a responsible child/teenager.
Depends on who you ask. I pushed the limits but doesn't every teenager?

6. How many of this year's Oscar nominated movies have you seen?
Up, Precious, Hurt Locker, Up in the Air, 1/2 of Inglorious Bastards

7. If you are going to have a medical procedure done, such as having blood drawn, is it easier to watch someone else have it done or have it done yourself.
Either one, I'm not squeamish unless it's my kids or husband.

8. What is your favorite day of the week and why?
Saturday, duh.

9. Do you miss anyone right now?
Absolutely! Miss my mom and all my family back in Missouri.

10. Do hospitals make you queasy?
You'd have thought they would by the amount of time I spent visiting them, but nope.

11. At what store would you like to max out your credit card.
If I had one it would probably be Pottery Barn/Pottery Barn Kids.

12. Are you true to the brand name of products/items?
Some

Pink Cows

I was informed by Colby today that chocolate milk comes from brown cows and strawberry milk comes from pink cows. Hmm, all these years I've never seen a pink cow. Wonder where they have been hiding.

I love to hear the things my boys come up with. They are very creative little boys!

Museum of Ancient History

Lately the boys have been talking a lot about Dinosaurs so we thought we'd take them to the Museum of Ancient History so they could check them out up close and personal. We went on a Saturday and it was a little crowded but we still had a good time. The boys enjoyed the museum but it seemed like Colby just wanted to move quickly from room to room to see what was next. It was hard to slow him down! Here are a few pictures of our day.

I assume Colby is doing his best impersonation of a fish???

Digging for dinosaur bones. They could have stayed here all day if we would have let them.

We Have Pirates...

...living in our potty!

In talking with Cameron trying to figure out why he is deathly afraid of the potty this is what he told me:

Me: Cameron, are you scared of the potty?

Cameron: Yeeeessss, mommy!

Me: Why? What are you afraid of?

Cameron: There are pirates and poopies in there.

Well, I guess I can't help him with the poopies but we're going to have to do something about those mean pirates living in the potty scarring the daylights out of Cameron. I guess I'm going to have to go to the Pirate Be Gone store and get some pirate potion to rid our toilets of them.

Chinese Immersion or Not

We received some information from Colby's school regarding a new program they are trying to start next year with the first graders, Chinese Immersion Program. What it essentially means that if we decide, Colby will have a half day of English studies and learning and a half day of Chinese studies and learning. He will have this every day for his entire elementary education. They also hope to add programs so when he gets into secondary school he can continue the Chinese studies.

When I first heard about this I didn't really know what to think. I was worried about the small amount of learning he would be doing in English. I feel that if you don't get a strong foundation in the beginning and get behind you will never catch up. I voiced my concern to his teacher and she made me feel very much at ease by telling me that Colby is above grade level in most things and will have no trouble learning the fundamentals. She called him a "deep thinker". My other concern was how in the heck would we be able to help him with his homework. This is still a concern but I will ask that question at a parents meeting they have scheduled in a few weeks.

In taking to Colby about it, he definitely wants to do it. He has said numerous times that we are going to go to China and he is going to tell us what everyone is saying. I have to agree with him that it would be super cool to take him when he's a little older to Hong Kong Disneyland and let him be our interpreter. Sounds like a great vacation to me!

Here are a few tidbits from a paper they sent home to the parents:
The younger a child is the easier it is to acquire a second language. Mastering a second language makes learning a third language even easier. Many students who have participated in immersion programs go on to acquire a third language when they reach high school. There are many studies that show students in immersion programs outperform students in all-English schools on a variety of English languages tests-reading, writing, listening, etc.

So as I mentioned, we plan to attend the parent meeting to hear what else they have to say and to ask our looming questions. We need to decide by the end of March whether or not to sign him up for it. They have to get a minimum of 50 students sign up to be able to offer the program. If you have an opinion on this, I would love to hear your thoughts.

Colby And His BFF

It's a sad day here in the Carpenter household. Colby's very BFF from kindergarten is moving to Denver this weekend. He's known since October that he was going to be moving but now is finally the time. Today we invited him to come play one last time. Even though he has a few other friends in his class, this boy has been his BFF since the first day of school. I know he's only in kindergarten but I kind of feel sorry for Colby because he and this other boy just mesh so well together and always have a ball playing together. His friend keeps telling him that he's going to come back and visit him but we all know that will never happen. I sure hope Colby isn't banking on that. Here is a picture of them taking time out of playing the Wii to pose for a picture.

Doesn't he look sad already.