Happy Thanksgiving!

We decided to travel to Salt Lake for Thanksgiving and we will probably come for Christmas too. I am really proud of myself for going on walks while we've been staying with my family. I even went this morning and I didn't pig out at dinner time. I probably could have done better, but I didn't feel overly full and I only ate the equivelant of one piece of pie. My mom said she heard that on average a Thanksgiving meal is somewhere around 4000 calories! Oh my.

Tomorrow I am going to see a good friend (you know who you are) and then on Matt and I are going on a date. Matt's mom offered to keep the kids for a sleepover so we could go out. Thanks Kathie! And then on Saturday we are all going to see BOLT. We will probably head back to St. George on Monday weather permitting. It's been a great virtually stress free holiday. Hope everyone else can say the same.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm a genius! (but everyone knew that, right?)

This morning, a thought occured to me. Spencer's school has a track near the playground. So, I took the kids to the school and ran around the track while they played. Sometimes they would come run with me or just play in the field or the middle of the track and other times they played on the playground. I could keep my eye on them the whole time and there really isn't anywhere for them to escape to anyway. It is the perfect setup. Except when Kia wants me to swing her. I have been trying to teach her how to do it herself. She gets upset when I won't stop and swing her. See when I'm at home, the kids always need something or Wesley is always getting into something so it's really frustrating to workout on the treadmill. I always feel like I'm limite to 15 or 20 minutes because that's as long as they can go without my attention. I see this as a good opportunity for me to run as long as I can without any inturruptions. I will most likely be doing this more often.

Pre-Thanksgiving

This week has been hard for me as far as working out. I have a little cold so some days I couldn't do much without making myself feel worse. This morning I went for a walk/run and feel great. I have to get back in the saddle so I keep going through the holidays. I always pick the worst time of year to start working out and eating healthy. I am going to Salt Lake for Thanksgiving, but that doesn't mean I have to slack off. I can still go for walks/runs and not eat like a pig. I think I'll have to eat pie though ;)

Food Pyramid

I have decided that our whole family needs a makeover when it comes to nutrition. I printed out a copy of the Food Pyramid and explained to the kids what it means. They are really picky so I had them go grocery shopping with me and pick out the fruits and veggies they like. Also, they are going to help with meals on occassion. Tonight they are helping by choosing an item from each food group to plan the meal. I am hoping this encourages them to choose more fruits and veggies with meals. Kia isn't too bad, but Spencer is my carb boy. A typical day for him is cereal for breakfast, bread or crackers for lunch and noodles for dinner. He won't eat all that is fixed with a meal. I know my kids go through phases like these, but I have actually started worrying about him. It's been about two weeks now that he hasn't had much meat or fruits and veggies. Last night after we got home from the store, I started cooking dinner and Spencer was sure to tell me he wanted to have the sugar snap peas he picked out at the store. And he ate them along with some mandarin oranges, but that was it. We still have a ways to go but I am hoping this goes over well for all of us.

Trial of my life

Ok, so, I've had some incredible challenges in my life especially since I've been married, but this by far is the BEST yet to come. I say best because it's so huge that I must really need to learn a lesson. I am really struggling to be a good mother and wife and friend. I am struggling to feel the love of Christ in my life. In return, I am not able to share it. All my children se, hear and feel from me is negativity and contention. I have been praying alot for Heavenly Father to help me. Some days I see his hand in my life, but others I wonder what I'm doing wrong that I can't recognize his hand in my life. I know he's always there, but I struggle to recognize Him. Spencer is going through some hard times right now and I am not handling some situations the way I should and it just makes things worse. He is on this power struggle so he thinks he can do what he wants, when he wants, and how he wants. I try to offer choices, so I still maintain minimal contol, but I've lost the battle. He is totally in control. He thinks he makes the rules and is so disrespectful to his family. The last two days, I have just prayed. I tell him I love him and try to speak with love so he knows I am here for him. I tell him I pray for him and he says "prayers cant help me" Isn't that sad? Is this what I've taught my child? I am trying so hard to just love my kids and not show them that I am torn inside. I just want to let them be kids and not always be on their case about stuff. I want them to feel good at home. Home should be a place of refuge for them.

Sick on a Sunday

Well, I finaaly caught what all the kids have. A stuffy head and mild cough. Wesley is so bad, it looks like his brain is oozing out of his nose. Kia is just a little stuffy and Spencer just has a cough. Well, today I decided to stay home with Wesley considering he shouldn't be in nursery. Spencer automatically thinks he can stay home if someone else does. So, needlless to say, he is home with me and Wesley. I told him we are taking naps not playing and watching movies. What do you think he chose to do? I'll give you a hint; he isn't taking a nap ;)

Also, I colored my hair. Last year I colored it a dark brown with red tone and it has grown out like 3 inches, so I thought it was time to do it again. I decided to go back to my original color so I bought this really dark brown and it turned out so cute. It's darker than I thought it would be, but I love it. Now the house smells like developer.

It's Friday, Yah!

I am proud to say that after a bummer week of not really working out, I did 2 miles this morning. I went for one mile and then came home to get Spencer to walk him to school and that was the other mile. I feel great. It's amazing how I can not really be motivated to workout but after it's over, I'm sure glad that I did.

Yesterday was a really hard day for me. I was really depressed and emotional. I'm sure it was, you know, that time of the month, but that is no excuse. Anyway, I feel better today and I'm sure some of that reason is because I am going shopping today. I get paid today from my babysitting job which gives us some cash. Sure, most of it will go for bills, but I'm gonna use some of it to spend freely.

Spencer's pinkeye is gone, but he still has a really bad cough. Kia has come down with a stuffy head and soar throat and so has Wesley. Wesley was really restles last night so Matt and I took turns taking care of him. So, since I was up at 5 am, I made cinnamon rolls for everyone for breakfast and they turned out great, just like always.

Well, nothing new about a job. Matt has prayed alot and says he keeps coming back to the feeling that we are just suppose to stay where we are and a job will be provided. Great, right? Well, the Lord works in mysterious ways doesn't He. Ok, we'll stay here, but could He let us know some of the details? I guess we are just suppose to wait and let the Lord do his job. That is really hard sometimes when things don't happen according to our will. This is one of the many lessons we are learning right now.

Week #3

So today I did a weigh in and no change from last week. I was terrible and didn't workout over the weekend and I didn't eat that great either. But, I did try on my wedding ring last night that I haven't been able to wear in almost 4 years and I got it over my knuckle. Yah!

Conjunctivitis

Yes, that's right, Spencer has "pinkeye" Poor guy feels miserable. Last night we thought he was having an allergy attack. I saw the gouping, but wasn't too worried. Well, this morning he had fever and the gouping was worse. I took him to Instacare tonight and got him an antibiotic eye drop. And let me tell ya, he doesn't like that. Iv'e got a trick to giving him the eyedrops, though. I have him close his eyes and put the drops in the corner of his eye and then have him open his eyes. He still didn't like it, but I can imagine it would be worse to try it open eyed. Hopefuly it will be gone in a few days. I am not sending him to school tomorrow and the SEP's are on Tues. and Wed. so there is no school those days. I guess this was a good time for this to happen, if it had to.

Call Back

Matt just got a call back from Sacramento. They are extending their decision making time until next week. We are excited that Matt is till in the running. I'll keep you posted.

Public Humiliation

Ok, no one ever told me that running on the road is different than running on a treadmill! There is something wrong with my treadmill. The speed fluctuates while in use, so I haven't been able to use it. This morning I went running in the neighborhood and I felt like I was gonna die! I don't think I even ran .5 mile. It was a good run, but I guess I need to run on the road more often to get used to it. It feels like I was working harder, so that is good.

Picture This

This morning I was running on the teadmill with it set on the 5.0 speed. I was running as fast as I could and then.... fump,,, whoa... what the.... All power was lost and I went backwards off the treadmill. Not the first time that has happened. The last time was about a year ago. It's kind of a surprise when that happens.

Tonight we played a "board" game that is found in the new issue of the Friend. It was really fun to see my kids display the knowledge they have of the gospel. If you haven't played it yet with your kids, I highly recommend it.

Still don't know anything about the interview. Hopefully we know by Friday.

President Obama

I just knew that Barack was gonna win. I mean, he just looks like a president. President Obama, it has a ring to it, doesn't it?

New Email

I have been really disappointed with my hotmail account lately so I set up a yahoo account. I still have my hotmail account, so I can still receive emails and I will still check it frequently, but the new account is mandy_woodruff@yahoo.com.

Week 2

Ok, so today I did a week weigh in today. I lost 2 lbs, which isnt great, but it's a loss not a gain. Also, today I added some weights and other exercises besides running on the treadmill, which by the way, I ran 1 mile in 14 min.