Success is a Choice

 

Today I will make many choices,
And each will have a consequence.

Today I will choose to tell myself that I am worth the efforts,
Or I can tell myself it doesn't matter, I'll do it tomorrow.

Today I can choose to journal,
Or I can choose not to.

Today I can choose to drink my water,
Or I can choose to be dehydrated.

Today I can choose to stay in my points range,
Or I can choose to hinder my goals.

Today I can choose to be more active,
Or I can choose to take the easy way.

Today I can choose to be motivated,
Or I can choose to tell myself "I can't.

Today I can choose success.
IT IS MY CHOICE.

 

Remember, it's choice not chance that determines your destiny!

 

I joined Weight Watchers three weeks ago and I have lost 10 pounds so far!  I am so excited.  I hope to stick with it for the rest of the 14 weeks that I am signed up for and if I lose 2 pounds per week, I can lose another 28 pounds.  That would absolutely be wonderful.  I will most likely rejoin so I can keep going to my goal weight.  Just one step at a time!  Last week I didn't exercise and I lost 2.6 pounds so I will start exercising again next week and see what happens.  Wish me luck!

Can you believe that Allison is 9 months old?  We took her to her 9 month appointment today and she weighs 17 pounds and is 27.5 inches long.  She went from 22nd percentile to 19th.  Doctor gave us some goals for how much formula to make sure she gets everyday and also gave us the ok to give her more finger food.  Allison would much rather feed herself than eat baby food so she gave us some great ideas on what to give her.  The doctor said she has a hyper-vigilant personality...what does that mean?  Great question!  It is the hyper sensitivity to things happening around them.  This causes her to be aware of everything going on around her.  It causes distraction when trying to feed and doesn't let her rest very much unless it is very quiet.  The bad part...she is hard to feed, sensitive to things going in her mouth, more protective and pretty tired little girl due to lack of sleep!  The good part...she is soaking everything in and is a smart little girl! 

It is strange how she has more of my personality and Michael has more of Kraig's personality.  If only it was hard to feed me!!!!

Anyways, on the way home from the appointment, Kraig stopped at Jack In The Box and picked up chicken strips and french fries.  He said that Allison ate a pretty good amount of chicken and french fries!  Yay!!  Good for her!  We just have to make sure we make it small pieces and she will be fine.  We have to keep an eye on her.  If we give her big pieces she shoves it right in her mouth and gags on it.  We used to be able to give her whole french fries and she would just chew it down but can't anymore...

I can't believe our kids are getting so much older.  Michael will be 5 at the end of March.  He is such a big boy!  We bought him a Nintendo Wii for his birthday and, of course, gave it to him early!  He loves it...the funny thing is that he keeps beating Kraig at the racing game...it's killing him!  I think it is so funny!  The expert being beat by his son!

Well tomorrow I get to weigh for weight watchers...so far I've lost 4.2 pounds, hopefully tomorrow will go good too!  Everyone have a great rest of the week.

Allison is on the move today!  She is interested in everything...I picked up a printer and sat it on the floor and she wanted to touch it so bad.  Everytime she reached for it we would tell her no and she would look up at us with such a frown!  She is adorable and just a joy to watch!  Michael did an awesome job sharing his toys with her today.  He got to go play at McDonalds yesterday because he was a good boy!! 

We bought Allison a bath seat too, her and Michael took a bath tonight and Michael kept her quite entertained while I sat there and read a book.  It is really neat and she absolutely loved it!  Typical weekend here.  I seem to be doing pretty good with eating right.  Only problem is I had a lean pocket for lunch today and it made me sick.  Must have had too much fat in it because my stomach got really upset...

Nice week to everyone!!

Wow, what a busy week.  So a couple of things happened this week.

#1 On Thursday, I attended an introduction to a Weight Watchers program.  I have never done Weight Watches meetings before.  I have joined on-line, but I have never had support of friends.  I weighed myself even though next week will be my first meeting.  I was relieved to find out that I was not the only one there with weight problems.  Of course I wasn't!!  Losing weight really wouldn't be such a problem for me if I just didn't love to eat.  It is constantly on my mind.  What am I going to have for lunch?  What am I going to have for dinner?  The worst part of it is I don't like to be told that I can't eat something.  I truely believe that I am addicted to food.  I will munch on something even if I am not hungry.  My favorite thing to do is to go out to eat with my friends.  But I have decided, this is something I must do.  My knees are hurting too much.  I can't walk up and down stairs without having difficulties so it is time.  I am also hoping to learn a little more about cooking healthy for my family.  My hubby has to lose weight also so wish us luck!

#2  Allison started crawling on Friday!  Wow, it is so fun to watch her!  She loves it, she moves from one pile of toys to the other.  The greatest thing to watch is to see her inch towards the dogs.  She loves Buffy and you can just hear her talking to herself as she starts shuffling towards her.  Once I find my camera, I will have to upload pictures here.

Hope everyone has a wonderful evening.

My favorite gift is books.  At Christmas time every year there is never a question on what I want; books or music.  I have been reading Patricia Cornwell.  She is an author that is an actual Forensic Pathologist in real life.  She writes fictional stories about Kay Scarpetta a Forensic Pathologist from Richmond, Virginia.  Dr. Scarpetta, along with her partner against crime Pete Marino, join forces to solve mysterious homicides.  The unique thing about Patricia Cornwell is she writes about her own forensic experiences.  So, while you read for enjoyment you are also learning about a very unique field.

One day I was on a quest to get every book in the series.  I had started in the middle and wanted to know how everything started in the series.  Well…I went to the book store and spent $40 on four books.  Yikes!  That was expensive and I had over 11 more books to get.  Then a friend told me about a web site where you can trade books, music and games.  What a great idea.  This site has become my favorite site to visit.  All you have to do is enter the books that you have and are willing to trade and then enter the books you want to add to your collection.  The swaptree.com website will match you automatically with other members to setup trades.  The user looks at their want list and if you have a match it shows “Get It.”  The user views what you have in your list and then they offer you a trade.  You have the option to accept or reject the trade.

 The best part about this website is you only trade items.  All you pay is shipping to send your trade to your trade partner; no other costs are involved.  In a matter of two weeks I have traded 11 books.  So when I paid $7.99 to $9.99 per book, I now pay $2.61 in shipping costs to trade books with people.  The website will even print the postage for you so all you have to do is find an envelope to send the item. 

 One thing to keep in mind, the condition of the books must be rated.  Other’s opinions of very good may be different from your own.  Make sure you follow the guidelines set on this website on rating the condition of your books.  If you receive a book in a different condition than described and it is unacceptable, the website will intervene to resolve the issue. 

This website is not just good for books but for Music and Games as well.   Choose your favorite Play Station or WII game and trade with a member of the site. 

I am almost out of books to trade so I better get reading so I can trade more!! 

 This site is a must see www.swaptree.com

I thought about things today and how I feel like things are always going so horrible.  I fail to step back and look at how blessed I am.  At age 36 I am a Manager of my own group, have been for about six years and I make really good money.  I am blessed by two wonderful children, Michael and Allison and I have a wonderful husband Kraig.  Since I can remember I've always wanted to have children, it was the one thing I wanted to accomplish in life besides being successful in my career.  When I found out I was pregnant with my son, I knew it was a blessing from God.  My husband was very hesitant about becoming a father because he didn't have the best childhood.  He quickly got used to the idea and you should have seen him smile when Michael was born.  It changed our life like we never thought it would.  All the worries and joys all wrapped up in an unexpected package!  It has been a great journey and almost 5 years later Allison was born.  You can imagine how Mom and Dad cried when Michael offered his favorite blanket to keep Allison warm right after she was born.  Another precious package with so many unexpected joys!!

They are truly the light of my life.  They always have their challenges, but watching them grow far outweights the problems we face everyday.

Lots of love to my little ones and my dear husband!!

Wish everyone a blessed evening...sweet dreams!

I didn't think this would ever happen...today my son punched me in the face.  We were on our way home from visiting our property and my son wanted us to stop at McDonalds to get food.  We told him we would pick it up and take it home.  When we got to McDonalds, he looked over at me and said, "where are my friends to play with?"  I told him he had been playing all day and that we were going to pick up our food and take it home.  Next thing I know, I see his arm reaching over with a clenched fist and he hit me in the mouth.  The first thought through my mind was to slap him in the face, but I quickly thought that it is not the proper response because, what would I be teaching him?  Instead I took his hand and slapped it.  I then told my husband to pull through the drive and go home.  Then the wailing began.  My son didn't understand why he couldn't get his food.  He cried all the way home and we told him that as soon as we got inside he was to go straight to his room.  As my husband was opening the door my son said, "you made me sad, you need to say your sorry."  I could not believe my ears.  I made him sad...Of all the selfish things someone could say.  I was beside myself so I just told him to grab his blanket and go to his room.

I made his dinner and gave it to him in his room and then I went into my room, into my bathroom and then into my closet and cried.  What have I done to fail so miserably as a mother.  Why is my child so negative, spoiled and hateful.  I feel as though I have failed somehow.  Many thoughts rushed through my head as I sat there.  I just didn't know what to think.  The worst part of it, was that my husband really didn't think that he did it on purpose.  Maybe he was flipping his hand and accidently hit me.  I just could risk this incident to be seen as an accident.  After a while my son brought his plate down and he then got the lecture of his life from his father.  He was talked to about hitting people in general, never to hit girls and most of all to never ever hit his mother.  He said if he ever hears of him hitting someone again he will really be in big trouble.

I know this happens sometimes in families and that he is struggling to find his way...but here is my problem.  Every week my son goes to his Mother's Day Out program, he comes home with something new everytime.  Several times my husband has walked into the classroom and has seen boys hitting each other, even punching each other in the face.  How am I going to send my soon to be 5 year old son out into the world with all these bad things.  How do I teach him to be his own person and make his own decisions?  How will I know he is going to be a good person?  How do we teach him that he doesn't need to be like everybody else?  I don't want to send him out into the world to be hurt over and over again by these awful people.  At the same time, I don't want to shelter him so he doesn't know what to expect.  It is so hard being a mother.  These little ones are under your protective wing for so long and then you have to send them out into the unknown.  Does every mother feel that way?  So  many times you watch parents walk by with their children running all around.  Aren't they worried about their children getting snatched up by a stranger?  Aren't they worried that their children are acting inappropriately? 

Please tell me I am not alone in my fears for our young ones...this world is not as it once was.

God please protect our loved ones from harm.  Please help them be the people you intended them to be, allow them to walk in your light and feel your everlasting love.  Amen