Every New Beginning...

     We call it Thanksgiving but what is Thanksgiving really? It started out as a dinner shared by the Pilgrims and the  Wampanoag Indians to celebrate the first successful harvest they had. " The English colonists we call Pilgrims celebrated days of thanksgiving as part of their religion. But these were days of prayer, not days of feasting" (Scholastic.com). The last time I checked, only 2% of the nation actually farms. There are plenty of gardens but I bet most of the Thanksgiving feast one eats on Thanksgiving comes from a grocery store and not one's own farm.         As a tradition now, we get together with family and/or friends to share a feast. When I say feast I mean more food on one table than most people eat in a week. Then sometimes, some people go around the table and say one thing they are grateful for. Then there might be a prayer and after that we gluttonously consume food for hours. There are usually leftovers ...

As promised, here is the weight update. It does have some background story to cover so bare with me. Once upon a time, Megan and Randy got married in November 2009. She weighed 146 lbs. That was almost 5 years ago. Megan got pregnant with her first child in November 2010. That was three and a half years ago. When she went to her first OB appointment she weighed in at 158 lbs. Which was a little embarrassing but she was pregnant so it didn't really matter because she knew the baby had to gain weight so she hunkered down for the long hall of weight gain. Full term pregnancy weight with the first ended up being 178 lbs.  After she has her first child, she drop back down to 163 lbs before suddenly jumping back up to 174 lbs.  This was discovered when she went to her first OB appointment with her second child only four months later. The first month after her first child was great. She felt human and alive and did some silly things she probably shouldn't have like yoga. But ther...

Good grief where did June go and don't even mention that it is the middle of July. Well, I will tell you where it went. We said goodbye in June, a lot. Our van was scrapped, so we had to say goodbye to it. The family that moved us to Price decided it was time to buy the farm. I did not put that in quotes like I was going to because that is was literally happened. If I had put it in quotes it would have been referencing the book Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein (my favorite book) and would have more dark connotations to it. It was a sad dark couple of weeks saying goodbye to some of our best friends, but it isn't forever and although you are buying the farm, you haven't "bought the farm," so cheers and good luck. We also said goodbye to frivolous spending. Randy has been creating a new budgeting program through access to keep us in check and on track. I already feel the rope burn from tightening the belt. It is a good thing and if I want a new vehicle, necessa...

We borrowed out our van to a friend. She drove it to Salt Lake where it broke down. It is still there. We had to call a tow company to take it to a repair shop but our insurance only covered 5 miles and the nearest place is 7. So we will be getting an over-charge bill from Geico. We have never made a claim with Geico. The automatic online claim application denied us. So we had to call Geico and talk to a live warm body to get coverage on 5 miles. Keeping in mind that we have been Geico customers for 9 years and never made a claim, I think it would have been nice had they just covered those two extra miles. (Randy has been a customer for a really long time I was added to his policy almost 5 years ago.) The tow company never called to confirm that they had dropped off the van, the mechanic didn't call to tell us they had got the van. When we called during lunch today the mechanic said they had it, run diagnostic on it and don't know what is wrong with it but it is most likely the...

So, yeah, I have been attempting to lose weight. It wasn't a New Years resolution or anything but I am happy to say that since the beginning of the year I have lost 20 lbs. I started out at 190 and I am down to 169. I was proud this morning to step on the scale and finally be below 170. That hasn't happened since before I got pregnant with Gabe. Its kind of a big deal to me. The trouble is, I don't fit into any of my smaller clothing but my fat pants fall off. I am losing weight in all the wrong places and so my legs are getting skinny but my love-handles still remain. I have tried cutting back my carbs but then I fall off the band wagon because I start craving them and then give in and binge.   Also, 20 pounds should be a big deal right? I showed up to a graduation last week 18 lbs down and no one said anything. Even my own spouse hasn't said anything. I am getting discouraged. I had to get on tonight just to whine and hope the bad feelings go away. Anyone else out th...

I was sitting in a room filled with women last Friday night. Please tell me what feelings that sentence invokes in you...I'm curious. For me, it feels me with some dread. I myself am a woman but I find the company of many women, overwhelming. All of these women are good people and generally are looking out for my best interests. But then, I opened my mouth. When asked how I was doing I expressed that I was feeling a little crazy and frustrated with my kids. And that's when the advice started. There was good advice, bad advice and stories told about why it is ok to be feeling that way towards my children. There was also the advice; "The worst thing you could possibly do is put a movie on for your kids." Well, I disagree. All of this advice being given within a three minute period. (There were a lot of women). Everyone wanted to share sage advice and wisdom. I understand, I guess. Most of these women are moms and need to get out of the house too. We all need our opinion...

I decided to try blogging again. In the middle of the night, I start to write long political arguments that maybe sometimes start to be interesting enough to put out on the web. Scary right? Facebook just doesn't offer the right medium to put my ideas out there. In the beginning Facebook was the shiz! and then they started letting 13-year olds sign up and that was the end of a good thing. Facebook was a way to help people stay connected, and now it is a place to put your suped up emoticons and pictures of things that we really don't need or want to see in the first place. We do it because its there and its easy. Click the like button, click the share button. Sometimes I think there needs to be a "justify your reason for liking this <blank>" pop up just so that we actually have to think about what we are doing. Initially we see a something that was funny, or true so we share it only to discover the next day that it really wasn't that funny or true and in fact...