lessons learned

Well, here we are after week 2. This week was a little less weight loss, total of 13.7 lbs. Bridgette had our best weight loss this week. Still we worked hard. But I did learn a good lesson. Don't wear sweats that are a little big when you plan on running on the treadmill. Yah, not a good idea. I'm sure the man behind me got a good laugh. As a matter of fact, I'm surprised he didn't fall off his machine from laughing so hard. If you didn't figure it out, I about lost my pants. I was walking along at 3.5 mph and doing fine. I decided to crank it up to 6 mph as I had done other days. Suddenly my pants are down under my bum,(it's good I had a long shirt on - but then it made it really hard to get ahold of them without lifting my shirt. So there I was, trying to pull up my pants with one hand and slow down the machine with the other. Didn't work. So I just had to hang on to them until I could get it stopped. I wish I could say I lost so much weight my pants just fell off. Not so, just lesson learned.

Well, we finished our first week of the biggest loser. It didn't go totally smooth for me. I ordered from Whole Sale Foods the last week of Nov. and my order came last Tues. Of course I didn't remember what I ordered that long ago (I am over 50 now). Anyway, one item was a case of Otis Spunkmeyer snicker brownies. 400 calories each. That's all I'll say on the matter. Anyway, our group started the week at 1476.20 lbs. We lost a total of 38.90 lbs. That's a lot of fat. I came in 3rd with a loss of 6.5 lbs. I felt pretty good about that. I really did try hard. Kevin had the biggest percentage loss with his 11.5 lbs. Way to go Kevin. He won a Wal-Mart gift card. Next week's incentive is a movie pass.

New Year/New Me

Well here it is 2010. It's only been 6 months or so since I updated. New Me - I'll do better this year. There's a number of things I want to work on this coming year. One biggy is to lose weight. This is probably one of my favorite pictures of me. Not at when I weighted the least, but probably when I looked the best. I could put in a picture of me at my worst, but why would I do that?

Since a number in our family would like to do the same, we are doing the Biggest Loser competition to help each other. My goal is to look like I did 20 years ago - minus the hair-do.. and with a few more wrinkles...and a little more gray...So here I am now, or at least 3 months ago

Keep up with our blog, give encouragement and see the transformation in me.

Dakota has a new friend

Derek and Tamika brought home a new dog. I guess you can call her a dog, she's almost big enough. As you can see, after a few days of Dakota mostly trying to ignore her, she gave up.

Dakota is so patient. Regan loves to play, Dakota is pretty happy just sitting there...until yesterday. Now Dakota gets into it too. It's almost scary as Dakota opens her big mouth over Regan's tiny body, but Regan loves it.

After a session of rough-housing. They were both ready for a nap. Regan has definitely brought some life back into Dakota. I guess all us older people need a little youth to keep us from aging too fast.

The $53 fish

Fishing license $36
Gas $10
Lost lures $6
Hand sanitizer $1
A perfect day, with a perfect guy -priceless

So after years of being away, I finally put other things aside and spent a great morning with Kevin down at Flaming Gorge Lake.
My first catch of the day besides moss was this great stick.

The 2nd catch of the day, besides more moss was my glove. I tried to leave it on while cleaning off the moss. Not a good idea. I couldn't get the knack of just flipping it off in the water. Kevin said he remembered as a kid watching a couple old drunk guys flip it off their poles without having to touch the yucky stuff. I guess I wasn't drunk enough :)

Ah, but the 3rd catch was a good one.

The time just flew by. Then the wind came up and

it was time to call it a morning. Kevin got more bites than me and got a couple close to the bank before they wriggled off his hook. It reminded me of fishing on the Kenai in Alaska with Bridgette. Got the big one right up close, but couldn't get the net under it.

But there will be more perfect days

A week with grandpa and grandma

We were able to have Michael and Jake spend
a week with us. We took them to Allie's college to see the dinosaur displays and the wildlife museum.

Michael's explanation of why the animals were not moving was

"They're broke, the batteries are dead."

Jake wanted to check out the fish Kevin & Derek caught, but Michael didn't want too close.

The boys got pretty involved when Kevin was opening his birthday presents.

They played together really well.....

Most of the time (Michael must take after Todd in that he can stay calm in tense situations)


They had a couple days at the park.

Brother see...brother do.

No one took a picture of Grandma taking a 3 hour nap after they left , but
we had a great time and look forward to summer when they can come and stay again.

A day of fishing

To celebrate my birthday, Derek took me fishing..sort of. Here's the first fish of the day.

Look at the color

Here's my first catch of the day.

My second one. It felt good to finally outcatch Derek.

We called it a pretty good success