My own personal trainer...

So, as the new year has started and the holidays have surpassed I am once again back at my goal of losing weight and becoming more healthy. I have looked into gym memberships but they are either too much money or child care isn't offered or just too much of a hassle. So, I have purchased a DVD by Jillian Michaels from Biggest Loser. I have been doing this for about three or four days...not all in a row because it is quite a work out. It combines strength training with cardio and is supposed to be one of the best ways to burn fat and gain muscle. ( I guess we'll see right?) Anyway, Marquis was watching me work out one day and he wanted to do the workout along side me. Unfortunately, he wanted to use my weights which is not safe of course so I had to disappoint him and tell him no. He cried and I promised to find some weights for him. The next day I found his tinker toys and made him pretend weights and he loved it. He begged all day to work out. He was relentless constantly asking if I was ready to work out. Certainly a great motivation for me. But it gets better. I finally was ready to work out so we got our weights and started the work out. Like I said earlier this thing is really difficult especially for someone like me who is FAR from being in shape. So, I was having a tough time. I expressed my concerns with being able to do the work out aloud and Marquis was quick to respond. He said, "Mommy, you just have to try harder...here I'll show you....he got his weights and mimicked what they were doing and of course I kept on working out. Man, what a great little guy! He reminded me to do my work out and he gave me that extra push to keep going....I hope he keeps this up!! :)

Fun Finds...

I went shopping last night. I found this adorable orange tablecloth and the autumn leaves at Yankee Candle for DIRT cheap. I had to buy them and of course had to see what it looked like. I love them! I love getting great deals on things. :) Oh, and Kaitlyn thought I was taking her picture so she was saying cheese! Also really cute! Love my little girl!!

Savings...

So here is a picture of my first "real" coupon shopping trip. I think I did pretty good I saved over 60%. And I have enough toilet paper for just about a year! You can't tell in the picture but there are 42 4pks of toilet paper.

My first Kroger Coupon Trip

I'm still learning how things work so I know I could have saved even more than I did today...but I think for a first time this was pretty good. I combined coupons I had for the Cottonelle Toilet Paper, Kroger's sale on Special K cereal/bars, and Proctor and Gambles deal on buy $25 worth of their product and get $5 back on your bill. Together I spent about $110 for everything in the picture. I saved about $120. I think that's pretty darn good! I am proud of myself and very thankful for all of those who have taught me how to do it. I forgot to mention that all of the toilet paper was FREE!!

Amazing Pictures

So I have a brother in law, R-Jay Ruiz, who is fantastic at drawing. When Marquis was between 18 months and 2yrs he drew a sketch of him and gave it to us for Christmas. This year he did it again, only this time of Kaitlyn. They are amazing and this picture just doesn't do them justice. Thank you R-Jay for all of your hard work. We think you are awesome!!

Full Heart

Please beware that right now I am completely full of emotions so this post is going to be intense. I just got a swift kick in the pants emotionally. I'm wasting precious time with my children worrying about getting my house in order and the things that I need to do. I've forgotten how to take a day and just spend it entirely with my children. I recently came across a blog of a mother who lost her child. How humbling. I am so incredibly thankful to, at least not yet and hopefully never, have not been faced with such a challenge and unbelievable struggle. I'm still crying now writing this entry. I feel ashamed at how much time I have wasted. My children are my world and there is nothing wrong with that. It's okay for me to spend all day with them and neglect other things once in a while. I've had this perfect housewife scenario in my head and since I haven't been able to accomplish it I've felt as though I have failed so miserably. Yet I look into my children's eyes and I know I haven't failed. I love them so much. My time is best spent with them. They won't be small very much longer and I want to just cherish every minute with them. I will not allow distractions to the most important part of my life, my family.

Cookin' with Rachel...

When I was growing up my parent's had a really sensitive smoke detector. That thing went off with heat not just smoke.We always teased that the smoke detector was our "dinner's ready" call. Well, apparently I'm trying to keep that tradition. (Only my smoke detector isn't that sensitive:) ) Tonight, while I was broiling steak for our delicious steak sandwiches, our smoke detector went off. If you could have seen the craziness that was happening at that moment you would have been laughing along with me. It's not unusual for the smoke detector to go off when I make this meal because it does smoke a lot but this time when I opened the oven I saw flames...yeah, for future reference don't put aluminum foil on the bottom of the pan...not a good idea....but I was just trying to save clean up time later...anyway, my first thought was get water...but then of course I remembered that it was grease on fire and water would be VERY bad...so I grabbed the baking soda and shook a bunch on the flames...and incidentally our meat too...:(....that worked....now imagine in the background Marquis holding two pillows up to his ears screaming "Mommy, turn it off! Turn it off!! Kaitlyn is screaming because Marquis is screaming and somehow Mike is still napping through this whole mess. I tried to run out to the garage to grab our floor fan I'm yelling to Marquis to please turn on the living room fan...but his pillows are blocking the sound and he will not put them down for a second to turn the switch. (He is incredibly sensitive to sounds.) Anyway, I was able to salvage the meat and our sandwiches turned out fine. Thank goodness!! All's under control in the Zobell kitchen....for now! :)