Scandinavian Days

Last Saturday we ventured to Ephraim to enjoy a rainy Scandinavian Days Festival. We started with the parade down Main Street with the Abbeys. This is my kids' idea of a parade! They love that nearly every entry throws candy or Otter Pops to the crowd. Every kid- and a few adults, too- has a bag full of treats by the end.

The princesses are on floats pulled by pick-up trucks, except for the princesses who are just in the back of trucks. There are ample 4-wheelers, rescue vehicles, dance groups, and other small town delights. I don't mean this in a negative way. There is something refreshingly simple about the whole town (or county) coming together at these parades.

This is the first of many in Sanpete County this summer. Many of the entries will be in all the parades and we love it that way. One of my favorites was the four full-time LDS missionaries on their bikes riding as an entry. The announcer introduced each one and told where they were from. They were welcomed with more applause than any other entry!

Next we walked up College Ave to see the booths and ride the carnival rides (and found Lacie and her kids!!). The girls each rode the swing ride twice. It was getting pricey, so I herded them out to look at the crafts and other things to buy. Each girl had a baggie of coins totalling $2 to spend as they chose. Magic wands and fairy crowns were the items of choice.

We also stopped to enjoy the live music and story tellers around campus. There were so many talented people performing! I can't believe this was only the second time we had gone to the festival. We have been in the area over Memorial Day weekend for past 8 years and never went until last year. If you have a chance to go, it is great fun!

Here are two tired, dirty little monkeys getting cleaned up in Grandma Lou's tub after all the fun.

It's a major award!

Jenna won an awesome prize for her hard work in reading this year. They took the student with the highest number of reading minutes from each class and put them in a drawing. (She had accumulated over 7000 minutes of reading this year.) Jenna won one of four $50 scholarships from the UESP- a college savings plan. We were so excited for her!

More than the award, we are so proud of her reading habits and how much she loves to learn. She LOVES to listen to stories on CD when we are in the car, too. She never forgets the minutest detail of the countless stories we have heard. She has an amazing memory! Thanks for letting me brag about my girl for a minute!

This picture is her getting the award. Take my word for it-it is very dark, sorry!

Triple threat

If I haven't already introduced you, I'd like you to meet "The Triplets." I hate "overuse" of "quotation marks" so the reason I used them there is that they are not biologically triplets. These are the terrible two-year-olds that consist of my Lydia (born 3/20/07), Makayla (b 4/23/07), and Emma (b 5/20/07). If only Kat had her c-section on the 20th...

Emma, Lydia, Makayla

Anyway, last Wednesday, Emma officially became a terrible two year old, albeit a sweet one! This was her fun party. These girls are going to be big trouble some day. They think they are as big and capable as their older siblings and there is nothing they won't try twice!

Lydia was "helping" Emma open her present. Aubs and Abs are joining in the fun here. I'm sure Zach was close by!

Playing catch-up

I have been AWOL for a week or so and I thought I'd better record what we've been doing for posterity's sake.

We'll start with Aubrey's graduation. She has had a great year at Jumpstart Preschool. This was our third year of a kid at that school and the girls have LOVED it! Mrs Jackson is a sweetheart and the girls learn so much from her!

Here is most of Aubrey's class as they waited for the ceremony.We curled Aubrey's hair for the ceremony and for dance pictures later that day. (She has a lot of hair, so poor Lydia felt very ignored for hours!)

Aubrey has learned so much this year and can hardly wait for kindergarten! She is already reading a bit, loves to write and draw, memorizes things quickly, loves to sing and dance, and tells great stories to her little sister. She is also a good girl, makes friends so easily, and is a joy in our family! We love you, Aubs!

Pick your hard

Tonight's WW wisdom:

Being overweight is hard. Losing weight is hard. Maintaining weight is hard. Pick your hard.

I'd rather experience the hard things about maintenance every day than the hard things about the other two!

Memorial Day cook out recipe

I have to put this somewhere I can find it again, so today my blog is serving as a recipe box/ file folder. This is a Weight Watcher's potato salad recipe and the picture makes it look so yummy! Here's the info:

POINTS® Value: 2 Servings: 8 Preparation Time: 12 min Cooking Time: 9 min Level of Difficulty: Easy

Works with Simply Filling

Summer’s not complete without this classic side dish. Ours has buttery Yukon Gold potatoes, hard-boiled eggs and a splash of vinegar for extra flavor.

Ingredients
2 pound(s) Yukon Gold potato(es), peeled, cut into 1-inch chunks
2 large egg(s), hard-boiled
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup(s) plain fat-free yogurt, Greek-style recommended
1/4 cup(s) fat-free mayonnaise
3 tbsp Vlasic Sweet Relish (No Sugar Added), or similar product
1 1/2 tsp McNeil Nutritionals SPLENDA No Calorie Sweetener
1/2 tsp table salt
1/2 tsp black pepper, freshly ground
1/2 cup(s) celery, diced
1/3 cup(s) red onion(s), chopped
Instructions
Put potatoes in a large saucepan and cover with 2 inches of water; bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, until potatoes are fork-tender, about 7 to 9 minutes; drain and cool slightly.
Meanwhile, in a large bowl, using a fork, mash yolk from 1 of the eggs with vinegar until smooth. Add yogurt, mayonnaise, relish, Splenda, salt and pepper; stir until blended.
Add potatoes, celery and onion; toss to mix and coat. Chop remaining egg white and egg; gently fold into potato salad. Cover and refrigerate until chilled. Yields about 3/4 cup per serving.
Notes
We replaced a large amount of regular mayonnaise with some fat-free mayonnaise and creamy non-fat Greek-style yogurt. Garnish with chopped dill, red onion and/or chives. For a change of pace, substitute 1-inch red potato chunks for the Yukon Gold potatoes.

Pure Joy

I know this isn't my weight-loss blog (that has its own secret place that only I can enter) but I have to share what I have learned lately.

Last night at WW the following quote was on the board from our wonderful leader, Janece.

"Overcoming the thing you struggled with the most (and now realizing it wasn't as hard as you thought)... PURE JOY!"

I have found that to be true this morning! After running for 12 minutes straight on Tuesday, I started wondering how long/far I could run if I had kept going. My friend, Aimi, exercises with me and that same morning had set a distance goal for herself. It honestly never occurred to me that I might be able to run for any distance. *light bulb turning on*

So, this morning I thought I'd see how long I could run. There is a 35 minute time limit on the treadmills- including your warm-up and cool-down time- so I thought I'd see what happened. I warmed up at a steady pace for 4 minutes and then decided to go for it. I set the goal for a one mile run. Part way through that first mile the program I had chosen increased my incline. I didn't think I could keep running at that incline and I tried to decrease it. Because of the program, I COULDN'T decrease it. Then I realized I WAS doing it! Holy crap! I kept going and it got easier after that. Long story short, I ran for 26 minutes straight at 4 mph for most of the time and sprinted at 6.5 for the last two minutes. I ran for 1.75 miles, grand total 2+ miles with my cool-down! It felt so good. It was PURE JOY! Anyone who knows me at all would have never expected me to equate running with joy!

I don't tell you this to brag. I am in no position to do that! The reason I say it is because until today I didn't know I COULD do that. Who knows how long I have been capable of running 26 minutes but never pushed myself to try. How much longer could I go if I had more time? How much faster could I sprint? We'll have to find out!

I have been so inspired by watching The Biggest Loser and watching people overcome their own self-imposed barriers and do things they never thought possible. Watching people heavier than me run half-marathons and build up their endurance has made me re-think my limitations. I will never really know how far I can go until I push myself to the edge.

There are many things for everyone to overcome, no matter what area they struggle in. Giving up sweets for a week has now become three- because I can and because I feel better without them. Exercise is a source of energy and satisfaction. Scripture study is a few quite moments for me to grow and learn and feel the Spirit and feel closer to Heavenly Father.

What ever your struggle, push yourself a little more every day. Pray for help and strength. Find strength and support around you. If the people around you aren't supportive, find new people! You are worth the effort. Time will pass. Days and weeks and years will roll by. I hope to be a better person as the time goes. I will become the sum total of my small choices now and my experiences along the way. I have the power to become what ever I want to be and SO DO YOU!

I feel...great! Oh I feel so great! Uhhh!

...something good about to happen! I'll keep you posted.

UPDATE: (Probably TMI/ boring, so feel free to skip it)

While your ideas in the comments were good, it wasn't anything quite that monumental- close though!

Today is what we call at my house "Weight Watchers Wednesday" so my big something happened there. I lost 2 lbs this week and broke the 35 lb mark! I am at 36.6 lbs lost now!!! I let out a yell (ala Felipe) and scared some of the old ladies that are there in the morning.
This is monumental for me because for months I have barely moved the scale at all. The last three weeks, for example, I lost .2 lbs each week. Now that I check, my weight loss for the previous 5 weeks adds up to what I lost this week. DON'T STOP TRYING! IT IS WORTH THE EFFORT!
KEYS:
-I feel like the no-sugar (ok, hardly any sugar) weeks are finally paying off.
-Chicken tenders and spinach salad with fresh cut strawberries & FF Italian dressing- my fam is probably sick of that, but I like it.
-I think I have also found my exercise balance where my body responds well to my hard work. YEAH!!!

Speaking of exercise, I had another personal milestone yesterday on the treadmill. I ran for 3 minutes early on in my workout and then ran the last 12 minutes straight (undoubtedly a first for me)- and felt like I could have kept going if my 35 min limit wasn't up. Tomorrow...oh yeah...

So if the Biggest Loser inspired you last night, let's keep going.

Things I meant to share...

These two thoughts came from my WW meeting last week, I just didn't get to the computer much since then.

"We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about!"
-Charles Kinsley

Did you ever wonder why the rear view mirror is so small and the windshield so big?
Quit looking back, move ahead!

One last yard sale thing-

I forgot to post the link to my ksl ad for your viewing pleasure. Hope to see you there!

Yard Sale week

As a friendly reminder, this coming Saturday (May 9) is our big yard sale. We invite YOU to participate, as a seller, shopper, or both. We have 11 families coming for sure and a few others that might come. In other words, we'll have plenty of good junk!

If you want to see info about our past results, click here.

If you to sell any items, let me know you're planning on it.
If you want to come, please let me know and I will give you my address, just not here.

When it's ready, I will post a link to my ksl.com ad so you can see some of the thing we'll have for sale.

One for the record books-

That makes it sound interesting, anyway.

I let a whole week fly by and don't know where the time went. It was Jenna's last week off track for the year (mercifully) and we tried to do something fun, per her request. (Like we sat and stared at the wall for the previous three weeks)

So here's a re-cap for journaling purposes. I will not be offended if you stop reading now.

Sunday- New calling as gospel doctrine teacher. Note to self- don't slack off on my scripture study and then pray for help to study more diligently. Bad combination, prayer answered. I just feel bad for the class members who have to listen to me now. Ü

Monday- a fore mentioned FHE on 9th Article of Faith

Tuesday-Jenna fulfilled her lifelong dream of going to Kid's Club at the fitness center with Jaclyn Tues & Wed. In the afternoon, she came with me to the U, where I met with my {very young} academic advisor to map out my remaining college career. Not as bad a I thought. Jenna also enjoyed her first parking meter experience as well as a walk around President's Circle to examine the cool old buildings. She may have committed a crime when she came away with part of the James E. Talmage building, but I didn't see exactly how she got it, so I can't say for sure.

The girls also watched their new favorite show with me: The Biggest Loser. We were all sad that Filipe got voted off, but hey- the all kept Ron through the whole season, they have no one to blame but themselves!

Wednesday- I lost .2 pounds at WW. Barely a loss, but a loss none the less!

Thursday- Church History Museum downtown with Hillary and her girls. The kids LOVE the I am a Child of God exhibit. I thought it was closed, but no. I enjoyed a chuckle when we ran into our bishop outside the museum. He saw Jenna first and said hi to her. I was back a ways with the stroller and heard Hill ask in a concerned voice, "Jenna, do you know him?" No stranger danger, only our sweet bishop. We braved Smith's Marketplace with 5 little girls and on our way home we tracked down the Odd Fellow's Hall building that is being moved. Jenna LOVES the news and had been following the story, so we had to see it for ourselves. Ask her, she'll tell you all about it!

Thurs evening we have dance for 2 hours, followed by pizza night since Daddy was out of town!

Friday- Backyard Adventures with the Arvy cousins. Fun and exhausting!
Dinner with the missionaries and the Coates family- thanks for coming guys!

Saturday- girls went to G & G Lloyd's while mom and dad went to the Draper temple. Oh so lovely! Thanks G & G for tending!

Now we are all going to collapse in exhaustion before we start again tomorrow!