My friend Jen and I went to Ha Ha Tonka castle yesterday. www.mostateparks.com/park/ha-ha-tonka-state-park We had a great time exploring the castle ruins and taking photos. This castle was completed in the 1920's, but burned down in 1942. The state of Missouri purchased it and turned it into a State Park. The water tower didn't burn down in 1942, but it did get burned by vandals in 1976.
The kids had a snow day (well actually 2) on Valentine's day and the day before.
This was their first time being able to play in the snow at our new house. They had a ton of fun!!
I only have a couple of good ones from Christmas though.
These were when the kids opened their favorite gifts at Grandma's house.
This is when Orin opened his Skylanders Wii game.
And this is when Morgan opened her first ever really real cell phone.
Love the look of excitement on their faces. :)
Does anyone read my blog anymore? Has anyone even noticed that it's been nearly 4 months since my last post?
So, we LOVE our house!! We've been here for almost 10 months. Had our first Christmas in a real house. And Santa even had a chimney to come down. No more leaving a key on the front door knob.
We had a wonderful Christmas with so many blessings.
My brother Ben and his wife Stephanie had their 3rd daughter on Dec 7th. Abbigail was born on her sister Jillian's 2nd birthday. I am so proud of Ben and the family that he has.
How about this weather?? We didn't even get a real winter this year. My trees are already budding, and my flowers are blooming. I hope we don't get bad weather now.
Well, that's all I've got for now. I'll post pics next time. I'll try to do that within the next week.
I'm gonna make a bunch of these. :)
http://www.bakerella.com/mix-things-up/
Cowgirl Cookies
1 1/3 cup all purpose flour, spooned into measuring cup & leveled
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup cooking oats
3/4 cup m&ms
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup white sugar
1/3 – 1/2 cup chopped pecans
Stir all the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
Add
1 slightly beaten egg
1/2 cup butter (melted slightly in the microwave)
1 teaspoon vanilla
Mix wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Use the back of a large spoon to work it all together. You may even need to use your hands to get everything incorporated.
Then roll the cookie dough into 1 1/2 inch balls, place on a parchment covered baking sheet and bake for about 10 minutes in a preheated 350 degree oven. I got about 26-28 cookies out of these.
Today is my wonderful husband's 37th birthday. We celebrated yesterday with football, good food, cake and presents. His Chief's didn't win the game, but they did play a good game.
It's been a long time since I've updated my blog. And every time I do, I have good intentions of doing it more often. All I can say is, I'll do my best.
We've been in our house for 5 1/2 months now. It's definitely "home".
The kids are growing like crazy. Morgan is 4' 9.3/4". Orin is 3' 9.3/4".
Morgan is only 4.1/4" shorter than me. And speaking of her crazy growth, she is also wearing size 9 women's shoes. I'll be getting her hand me downs now. lol
I also want to brag a little on myself. :)
I started losing weight. Between July 2010 & Sept 2011, I've lost 33.5#.
I've only got 6.5 to go before I reach my target weight!
Here I am....4 months later. Spring is here and I thought I'd give this blogging thing a fresh start.
Lot's of things going on lately. Almost all good.
The blue house didn't happen. But the white one that is just two doors down from the blue one did! We close on it on the 31st of this month and we will take possession April 7th. Moving will hopefully start the 9th.
Click on the collage for bigger pics.
My dad will be moving into our trailer when we move out. So he will be saving some money each month, and after 10 months, he won't have to pay anything except lot rent to the owner of the trailer park.
The kids are both doing good in school. They're getting taller and smarter.
They're both sick right now with sinus/respitory junk. But they're both on meds for it. Hopefully they'll both be better soon.
I know my posts are few and far between, but that is a reflection of how busy things have been recently. In a good way. :D
We got approaved for a home loan through the USDA!! We've looked at roughly 10 houses, and finally found one that is perfect. We're going tomorrow for our 2nd walk-through of this house. If everything looks good, we're going to put down an offer!!
Front of house
Newly remodeled kitchen
Living room and dining room
My scrapbooking room!!!
Please keep your fingers crossed for us.
July 27th was my first day of getting up at 5am. (I get up at 4 on sundays because I have to go to work early.) I've gotten up that early every single day (except for 2 where I was feeling sick, like this morning. But I still did my morning routine when I finally got up.)
I was 180 lbs when I started. I'm down to 165.3 now! I've lost 14.7 lbs!!!
I've gone down 2 pants sizes and I've lost 7 1/2 inches off of my hips!
According to my wii, I have 83 more days to go to my December goal. And I only need to lose 1 1/2 lbs by then.
I completely stopped eating dairy because of digestive issues.
I quit drinking soda.
And yesterday was my first day of drinking only water. I'm shooting for a month of this.
I may be signing up at a fitness center. I really want to. And it's right across the street from my work, so I could stop in there after work and get in 1/2 hour to 45 minutes before going home. It's a 24 hour place.
I'm just so excited about all of this! I've been a steady 180 since a couple of weeks after Orin was born. I never thought I'd see 165 again.
Where did the time go? We've already finished with the first quarter at school.
Morgan did awesome! She got 4 A's and a B+. She's reading at a 5th grade level (5th grade/7th month to be exact). Her teacher said Morgan is an absolute doll and she'd give anything to have a class full of Morgan's.
Orin's teacher said that he is so smart and polite. And she's sure that he is smarter than she is. lol
Fall pics...
I took Orin to the park after school on tuesday to have a picnic and play. He really hammed it up for the camera.
And he had a great time playing. He'd never been to this park before. All of the equipment looked like dinosaurs.
Life has been busy for us.
Both kids are in school now. Morgan is in 3rd grade and doing excellent. Orin started preschool. He goes on tuesdays and thursdays for 2 1/2 hours a day. He LOVES it. And he was so upset when he had to miss yesterday because he was sick. He had a fever monday night and then tuesday the fever got even higher.
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I've been getting up at 5am every single day for the last 8 weeks to exercise before the kids wake up.(except for 1 day where I decided I needed to sleep in, but I exercised when I got up.) Makes it easier to do without them arguing. I've lost 7.4 pounds in these 8 weeks. I've also lost 5 inches off of my hips in the last year!
Only 32.6 pounds to go till I'm at my goal weight.
Wow, can't believe I didn't blog in July.
The kid's and I took a trip to IL on saturday to see my grandpa. We had a great visit and also got to see my Aunt Mary, Uncle Rick, Laura and Aunt Iris..jpg)
After that, we went out the the cemetary where mom is at.
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Then we went to the big rock again @ the Lewis & Clark memorial site.
We also discovered that there is a museum down there too. Awesome! http://www.greatriverroad.com/lewclark/campriverdubois.htm
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My GPS is so funny. I asked it to give me the fastest route from Granite City to Rolla, and it took me THROUGH the residential areas of St. Louis. Interesting drive though. Once we got to Sullivan, we HAD to stop for spicy tacos at Jack in the box.
We had a great time. And believe it or not, I've never made the trip to IL without another adult in the car to guide me. I did it all by myself (with the help of my handy-dandy GPS system). We'll have to do this again soon. I want more tacos. lol
