Another Fun Weekend

Well another weekend has come and gone. And I didn't win lotto so it's back to work tomorrow. We have had a very busy weekend and this is the first chance I have had to get on the computer to update. Thanks Tania for the reminder!!

Firstly and most importantly I lost another 500g this week. Things are still going very well with my food planner and I feel a sense of freedom that everything is already written down for the week and I don't have to track. I know the points plan works for me but I hate tracking so following my own weekly plan is working well.

As you can see from the photos, the kids spent another weekend in the pool. We sure have got our money's worth this summer. I can't remember a weekend the kids haven't been in it. I thought I would post the other photo to show the view I have when I sit under the pergola and watch the kids. I love our outdoor area and spend lots of time out there, watching the kids or reading the paper in the morning with a cup of coffee.

Today I went for a huge walk with the kids. I walked to the beach, Nikki was on the rollerblades, Ashleigh on her bike and Jarryd was on his scooter. It took us about 20 minutes to walk there and then we met a friend and her girls and we walked another 20 minutes to another playground along the coast. Coincidently, there was a kiosk where Karen and I had a coffee while the kids played on the playground. Then we went down on the beach and the kids had a swim. It was a perfect day but a bit windy so we only stayed down there for about 1/2 hour. Then we had to walk all the way back, but the kids were fantastic. No whinging that they were tired at all so it made it a very enjoyable day.

I am still market shopping every Sunday morning. On average I spend about $20 - $25 and bring home a huge trolley of fresh fruit and vegetables. I love the atmosphere and all the market gardners are very friendly. And I am finding everything keeps for so much longer if the kids don't get to it first.

Jarryd is very excited and counting down the days until his birthday. He turns 6 on March 12th and he is having a Hungry Jacks party this year. We have had home parties every year so far and this is what he asked for this year. It is usually a much cheaper option than the home parties and with no mess for me to clean up so I'm happy too. I can't believe my baby is about to turn 6. I would like to keep him 5 forever. I love that age.

I had a lovely surprise last week when I went to pay for Ashleigh's dancing. She got a trophy last year for dancing and when I went to pay, they told me she is free for this year because the trophy comes with a scholarship. How good is that!! Dancing keeps me poor not only with the fees and the costumes but both girls have grown out of their tap shoes again this year. Lucky we can hand one of them onto the other but new tap shoes are around $60.

It's warming up again here this week. Supposed to be 40 again by Friday but I'm not complaining. I love the hot weather and am dreading winter. The days are already starting to get shorter and we only have 1 month left of daylight saving. I love walking around 7.30pm but that will have to change soon when we run out of daylight at that time of night.

And it's only 32 weeks until we go to Queensland so I guess I can handle a winter because after that it's holiday time - Yahoo!!!!

Tooth Fairy is Visiting Tonight

Yes Jarryd lost his second tooth today. He is getting to be quite an expert. The first one was hanging before it finally came out but this one wasn't that loose during the week. He has been wobbling it for about 3 days and pulled it out all by himself today.

I weighed in this morning and lost another 800g this week. Another good week of tracking and exercising. I also had lunch and dinner out yesterday and made some very good choices.

I went to a thai restaurant for lunch yesterday with one of my bestest friends. I had a yummy thai chicken salad and enjoyed every mouthful. I wish I could replicate the flavours in my own kitchen. Somehow they never taste as good. I could live on thai salads. They are my absolute favourite restaurant meal. Then last night, Steve, myself and the kids went to Fasta Pasta for tea. Nikki and Ashleigh usually have sport on a Friday night but they were both cancelled due to the hot weather. Usually Friday nights are takeaway because we are always running between sports so it was nice to have a family meal together somewhere different to Maccas or KFC.

And today for lunch I caught up with a fellow blogger Tania for lunch at a Tavern on the marina at North Haven. I wish I had taken my camera because it was just the perfect setting looking out over the marina. I had honey prawns in chilli noodles and it was very nice. Tania has a 1 year old son who has similar allergies to Jarryd but her son Lachlan has a wheat allergy as well which would be a hard one. Tania was telling me about the bread she buys that is $6 a loaf with no wheat in it. Hopefully he will grow out of his allergies very soon.

I must remember to take the camera when I eat out because I enjoy looking at everyone else's photos of their food. It's funny I've eaten out 3 times in the last 2 days which is very rare for me apart from our Friday takeaway.

We are off to a housewarming party this afternoon in the 40 deg heat. I hope she has air conditioning. I'm sure it was going to be an outside party because she has a huge backyard but I hope we won't be sitting outside in the heat.

Steve has done a fantastic job of vacuming the pool this afternoon so I am really looking forward to getting in the pool and spa when we get home. It's supposed to be 40 again tomorrow and then a cool change?? back to 33 on Monday and staying in the mid to high 30's all week. I guess February is usually the hottest month here in Adelaide.

Look What I Got

Aren't I lucky. I got home from work tonight and my darling husband had bought these gorgeous flowers for me.

The girls at work were all commenting that the couriers must have got lost with all our flowers today because none of us got anything except one of the girls who got a card this morning.

Steve left at 5.30am this morning and I'm afraid I wasn't getting up that early to give him his present. I got him a nice bottle of red wine and some chocolates.

I went for a walk to the beach tonight and there were so many couples there watching the sunset. How romantic!!

It's going to be a very hot weekend here 38 Friday and 40 both Saturday and Sunday. Thank gooodness for the pool. I imagine we are going to be very popular this weekend.

Another Week

This is our newest project. Our gorgeous new built in robes. This photo doesn't do them justice. Because we have an old house and the rooms are so big, these robes are bigger than they look in the photo. Also the ceilings are very high and the robes go nearly to the top. I wish I had taken a before photo of all the clutter in the room to show the difference. So a fair part of today was putting everything into the robes. It's amazing how much room we have and how many old clothes I found that I had forgotten about.

This week sure seems to have flown. The kids are right back into the school routine now with homework each night and trying to fit sport and activities in as well. Ashleigh bought home a note this week. She wants to play the violin!!! And Nikki wants to be in the school choir so I guess that is going to be something else to fit into the schedule. I think these things are done in school hours so they should be able to fit them in.

Bonnie is doing well. She still has the collar on her head which I am glad of because she is doing her best to scratch those stitches. They must be very itchy by now. Her wound is healing nicely and the stitches are coming out on Thursday. She is running around like normal so I'm praying that they have got all the cancer and we don't see any more lumps appear. She has managed to put a tear in the plastic collar so I just hope it stays in one piece for another 5 days.

I weighed in this morning to a 1.2 kg loss. I am totally in control of my eating which I feel great about. I have only managed to exercise about 4 times this week so I hope to improve on that next week. Counting down the weeks until our Qld holiday - 34 weeks to go. I'm going to make sure I give it a huge go at losing 30 kgs before then. I have now lost 3.9 kgs since 1st January. Had one week that set me back, but heading in the right direction now.

I got an email from Virgin today announcing a 3 day sale of certain flights. I jumped straight on the website and booked my weekend to Melbourne in May. I got the lowest fares I have ever had at $48 each way. I just hope I can get some really cheap airfares to Cairns when the October sale comes out. It sure pays to get emails from the airlines because I haven't seen this latest sale advertised anywhere yet. It sure pays to get in early.

I'm getting up very early in the morning because a friend is picking me up at 7.30am (on a Sunday - yuk) to go to the Torrens Island markets. I have never been before but it is a market for fresh fruit and vegetables that are so much cheaper and fresher than the supermarkets. Our food bills have risen so much with all the healthy eating so I'm looking forward to seeing how much I can save by buying from the markets.

Have a great Sunday everyone.

Wedding Photos

The happy couple :)

I don't think we have changed a bit in 12 years. Maybe Steve's hair has a bit!!

Looking back, this photo has so much meaning. Steve is shaking my dad's hand. I love the look on Steve's face. He looks so proud. My dad is no longer with us so this is a very special photo. Steve's dad is on the other side of Steve.



This is my neice on the left who is about to turn 18 and my best friend's daughter who is 20 this year. That makes me feel old.
After discovering our wedding album this afternoon, I thought I would post some photos for fun. Sorry about the numbers on the photos. They are out of the sample album we got. I have no idea what I weighed when I got married but I would have been at least 20 kgs lighter.

Lots of News

I had foils put in my hair today. Silly photo I know but I wanted to show you the colour.

Well my baby lost his first tooth today. Why do I feel sad about that:( It's been loose for about 2 months and it was at the stage where he could put his tongue on it and it would go backwards and forwards. And that's how it came out!! He is so proud. Looks like the tooth fairy will be visiting tonight.

The next big news is that I lost 2.2 kgs this week!!!

I'm a bit surprised it was that much after last weeks good loss, but I'm not complaining. I have been totally on track this week and it shows. I am so into the natural eating thanks to Kate and Lisa Jane. I don't know why it's taken this long to click but it feels good. I am going to stick to the points plan because it works for me but if I have a blow out, I don't intend to beat myself up over it.

Steve and I have just finished cleaning out 2 old wardrobes in our bedroom because we are having built in robes put in on Friday. I was dreading doing it but it wasn't as bad as I thought. Between us we have 4 huge bags of clothes for goodwill. I had clothes in there from 20 years ago ranging in sizes. So alot of it has gone. I figure when I get to goal there will be a spending spree anyway. The girls found a couple of pairs of high heel shoes and have claimed them for the dress ups. I never wear heels anymore. I also found our wedding album, so I might just scan a couple of the photos and put them on the blog later. Nikki laughed and said how different Steve looked. She didn't mention me but I have put on about 20 kgs since our wedding.

Now for my whinge of the week!!!!

Friday night is takeaway in our house because Nikki plays netball and Ashleigh plays cricket so we decided to go to Maccas. Nothing wrong with that. Plenty of healthy options there. Well they have introduced a healthy kids meal. Has anyone tried it?? It's 10 small pieces of shaped pasta with vegetable filling (if you can find it) and a small sachet of pasta sauce with a mill drink and a sippa (straw with little beads of flavouring) So tell me why it cost $5.95 instead of the usual $3.95 for the chips, nuggets and softdrink option. And it didn't fill any of my kids up. They were still hungry when we got home. Why is healthy food so expensive???????]
I had a tandoori deli choice roll which was very nice but that was $5.95 as well.

I was reading Erin's blog last night and she had a post about Subway. I have been very disappointed with Subway the last few times I have gone there. I have to ask for more salad because they have got so scabby with the fillings. Give me sushi or cold rolls anyday.

Off my soapbox now!!

Our Sad Doggie

Bonnie had her operation today and she came through very well. I'm sure she coped better than we did. The vet said the lump is 99% likely to be cancer unfortunately but they are hopeful they got it all. We were given the option to get it analysed but we had already spent nearly $400 and it was going to be another $100 to get it tested. There really is no point because like the vet has told us she is a 13 year old dog and if it has spread, they won't do anything anyway. And we wouldn't put her through it. She is still very active and has come through the operation with flying colours. She's walking ok and is eating so she'll be fine. We just have to keep a close watch on her and pray no more lumps appear.

As you can see from the photo, Nikki has set up camp on the family room floor and is sleeping with her tonight. There was no way I could talk her out of it. She is normally an outside dog, but the vet wants her inside for a few days so the wound doesn't get infected.

In other news, Jarryd had his first swimming lesson on Tuesday. He has been using a floatie ring in our pool and is quite confident in that, but the time had come for swimming lessons. Don't you get slack with each child. Both the girls had swimming lessons before they were 5 but Jarryd has been very scared of the water until now and I wasn't going to waste my money until he was ready. Anyway, he got out of the pool after the lesson and asked if he could come again the next day. So I guess he enjoyed it.

I am on track for a good weigh in on Saturday. My food has been on track and I have exercised 3 days out of 5 this week. I feel very positive about how things are going. I am eating heaps of fresh fruit instead of processed snacks which I feel passionate about. There is lots of talk in blogland about this subject and I am enjoying reading a few blogs who are eating this way so I can get some ideas. Lisa Jane, I am going to pinch some of your recipies so keep them coming.

Out of my 3 children, Nikki has always been my worst eater. She only used to eat apple until I got her to try mango which she loved. She also only eats potato, carrots and corn and refused to try anything else. My other 2 eat heaps of fruit and vegetables, but I guess you always get 1 in a family that is a fussy eater. She takes after her father. I have been talking a lot to my kids about healthy eating and I think it is slowly starting to sink in. I made a fruit platter the other day and I asked Nikki to pick something on it that she would try. She has tried watermelon and strawberries and hates them. Can you believe that???? Anyway she reluctantly tried a grape and guess what - she loved it. So much so that she has been packing grapes in her lunchbox every day this week. I think it's starting to sink in at last. Though I wasn't very impressed that our food bill was $250 this week!!! Healthy eating does come at a cost, but hey I'm not complaining. Much!!!