Rumplestiltskin

Here are a couple of pictures from Cait's play...finally! I wish I had more/better pictures. We didn't get tickets in advance (the "green slip" never came home from school...uh hmmm...), so we had to buy tix at the door. By time we got there they only had 11 tickets left so we were stuck pretty close to the back. One of these pictures is Cait in action as the Peddler...she's pushing "magic beans". The other is of her and her good friend Mackayla. Mackayla played Rumplestiltskin and did a fine job! It was such a cute play...a musical even! Not your ordinary "Rumplestiltskin" story, either. It mixed in many many other fairytale characters, from the Three Little Pigs to Mother Goose to Jack and Jill. A great production to say the least! :)

Week 4: -2.0

I'm so very excited today...I've lost another 2 lbs. during this past week! YAY for me! Total to date is -6.8 lbs. A little less than 2 lbs./week average. I've got a long ways to go, but it's pretty encouraging to see the fat falling off. Jason even said my legs look smoother...now THAT'S a compliment! (Thanks, Jas!)

Other than that not much going on around her. It's FREEZING cold. Not sure how much more of this I can take.

I still have to sit down at the computer at home and get some pics on here from Cait's play a couple of weeks ago...

All for now...I'm at work so I should work, but I just had to share my success for the week!

Cheese? I'm not so sure...

Cheese Pizza

Traditional and comforting. You focus on living a quality life. You're not easily impressed with novelty. Yet, you easily impress others.

What's Your Pizza Personality?

Jason works every Saturday from noon until midnight. And almost every Saturday I make a run there with some food or whatever. I went tonight...rang him and said "The ice cream truck is here". He came out to grab his Ben & Jerry's and I asked him a question. I said "Do you know what today is?" And without skipping a beat he said "Our 5 month anniversary?" I laughed and told him I hadn't even thought of that, even though technically it is our 5 mo. anniversary, going by the day and not the date. I was just surprised he had even known that! Anyways, today is actually the SIXTH anniversary of our first date! I had thought of having our wedding on this day, but decided that January weather is so unpredictable that I'd be taking a chance and wouldn't want out-of-towners stuck in a blizzard. And it is COLD today. And I like being married, so I'm glad it was in August. On our first date we met at the mall (woo hoo), went bowling, and back to the mall to eat at Garfield's, and then to my apt. to watch a movie. I totally remember everything about it. He was wearing khaki pants and a wool-type shirt (which has since been sent to Goodwill). I was wearing blue jeans and a brown zip up sweater. I called my friend Lori from the payphone at the mall because I was soooo nervous! I ate chicken noodle soup (that's all...how typical for a girl on a first date to not eat) and he had fish...and they didn't have any tartar sauce! He won the bowling game. We watched "The Green Mile"....ahhhhhh...the memories. :)

Week 2: -2.4 Yippee!

I'm off to a good start so far with Weight Watchers...5 lbs. in two weeks. This is encouraging...hopefully I can keep it up. I'm on a different "plan" than my past attempts. This time I'm doing the Core plan, which means that there are only certain foods that I can eat, but I don't have to count the points for each little thing. I just eat until I am satisfied, but not stuffed. So far so good. I think in the past 2+ weeks I've eaten more apples and applesauce (unsweetened, of course) than I have in years! Funny how certain foods are much more appealing when it's all you can eat. In the past if there were an apple or a chocolate covered granola bar I'd always go for the chocolate. Now I don't even look to the cupboard for a granola bar, of any kind! What do they say? That it takes 3 weeks to form a habit...well I'm almost there. Yay for me!!

Happy Birthday To....

ME! :) Yep, it's my birthday today...28. Yikes...I'm feeling a little older this year for some reason. Maybe because I'm really out of shape and such...BUT, we're going to solve that problem! I told Jason that I didn't want anything for my birthday for "me", but I wanted for all of us to get a membership to the YMCA. And so we did. Cait plays basketball there on Saturdays, but that's the extent of our experience with the Y. This evening after I got home from work we went and took the tour and signed up for four months for now. I'm excited to get in there and use the facilities! After we spent an hour at the Y we went to dinner to one of the best places I've ever been. It's nothing fancy--it's called Altoona Family Restaurant. And that's exactly what it is. It's a Perkins type of restaurant, but not as commercialized. We've been there twice. Once on a Friday night during their fish fry when they were swamped and then tonight. Both timew we had fantastic service and the food is delicious and very reasonably priced. I had their grilled chicken breast (it was 2 huge butterfly type pieces) and it came with a salad, a veggie, and a potato (I had rice pilaf)...all of that for $7.19! Jason had a huge plate of ribs with the veggie and potato for $7.59 and Cait had a kids meal for $3.50! With tax and our drinks our bill was $22. Can't beat it. I have the Golden Globes recording on DVR so I'm going to go catch up with all of the action... :)

Wow!

Has is really been almost 2 weeks since my last post? Sheesh...where does the time go?

Here's a quick update:

Cait's been busy at play rehearsal 2-3 nights per week, basketball practice 2 nights a week and games on Saturdays. Add that to homework and being a kid and she's filled to the rim with things to do. The play is this week, so after one more week she'll have a little more spare time, which is needed. She's barely had a chance to dive into all of the scrapbooking goodies she got for Christmas!

Jason has been working somewhat normal hours for the first time in years (literally). On the last day of his internship the county offered him a "temporary" position in their Community Support division. He works there Tues.-Fri. and at Triniteam (halfway house) on Saturdays. He has 2 full days off per week (in a row even!), and he's not working any crazy overnight shifts, so his days and nights are finally in order. Last week he sent out a couple of resumes for permanent positions--hopefully we'll hear from someone soon.

I'm back on the weight loss track...almost 2 weeks now! (See June 2006 post--I didn't make it very far). This is my 3rd or 4th time on Weight Watchers and I really feel good about it this time. (For real.) My head is in it, and a couple of times it just wasn't, which lead to failed attempts. I'm setting "mini-goals" for myself rather than always thinking of the end (which is 90 lbs.). Ten pound increments seem much more attainable--and I get a reward for every 10 lbs. My first 10 will be a trip to JC Penney Salon for a new do. The 1st week I lost 2.6 lbs. I'm anxious to go back Tuesday and see how I did this week. IAnd I feel a million times better, which is a bonus!

Yesterday we lost our sweet little Sparkle. A few weeks ago I had written a post about her. It was really a battle for the last week or so. We called a couple of vets to see if they'd give us any advice, but they of course wanted us to come in and pay for an office visit. I don't want to say that she wasn't worth it, but knowing that she had lived a long life and knowing that by how sick she was she wouldn't suffer long, we decided to let nature run its course, and it did. We were sad to see her go, but relieved for her because she was in Hamster Heaven.

Brrrrr!! It's cold! We've been so spoiled with the warm winter weather that the teens just don't feel too good. It's been mainly in the 40s so far all winter, and there's no snow to insulate from the bitterness, so it's rough. :)

That's all for now...I told Cait I'd watch "Best Gameshow Moments" with her, or whatever it is on GSN.

Have a splendid evening!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! (Cue the bells and whistles)

January 1, 2007. Whew! Crazy.

Cait and I hung out last night--we never usually do too much on New Year's Eve. Jason had to work (hopefully his last 8:00 p.m.-8:00 a.m. shift) so we just ate cheese and crackers and watched GSN. GSN has become one of my favorites--I love Chain Reaction and Lingo. Cait likes the old game shows like Match Game and Password. Silly! We also watched part of the Packers/Bears game...

Cait said she'd pay me $50.00 if I stayed up until midnight with her. I said okay, so she brought me $50 in Monopoly money! At about 11:00 p.m. I went to bed and read for a bit. After a few minutes Caitlin came in and said she lost a tooth. I didn't even know she had any loose! Anyways, she left and came back and said sarcastically "You know Mom, I still believe in the Tooth Fairy." She proceeded to put her tooth under her pillow and when I woke up at 4:00 a.m. I snuck in and took her tooth and left her a dollar...and her $50 Monopoly money. She thought that was a ripoff! :)

That pretty much sums up the excitement of our New Year's Eve. I'd prefer low-key, so it was nice.

I hope your New Year is a prosperous one.

Sparkle Harple

Meet Sparkle. Sparkle is our little hamster...isn't she cute? She doesn't come out of her igloo much anymore so when I saw her out filling up her cheeks tonight I thought I'd snap a few pictures. Caitlin got Sparkle in Oct. 2004 from Grandma Nut (Jason's mom). She is such a sweet little thing. Never once thought to bite what's not meant to be bitten. Never escaped (except once, when I left the cage open--oops!). She doesn't know any tricks--it's enough for her to be cute as a button.

Merry Merry Christmas...

The hustle and bustle of Christmas has come and gone and this is one of the few pictures we captured. This is the three of us at Jason's mom's house on Christmas day. I don't realize how tall Caitlin is until I see her standing next to me in a picture. Sheesh! Not sure why we all look cross-eyed in the pic. :) Cait is wearing her new sweatshirt from Grandpa and Grandma Metcalf. She cherishes that shirt! Her Grandpa has worked on or near the LSU campus several times and he couldn't just pick up any old LSU shirt--it had to be the real deal, straight from the LSU store. She loves it.

Merry Christmas!

Well, much to my dismay, no snow for Christmas. :( With just the little sprinkling on Friday and 45 degree temps today, it's not looking good for my white Christmas. Oh well...we can still spread holiday cheer without snow.

It's been kind of a quiet weekend. We did a little shopping Friday evening and yesterday morning, but not Christmas shopping. I was actually done with that last week! Amazing! It's crazy out there, so I've stayed home most of the weekend. I did some cleaning yesterday and a little baking today. Caitlin is in Hayward at her Grandpa and Grandma Carlson's until tomorrow morning. We usually head up north on Christmas Eve, but my parents are in Louisiana so no visit with them and Jason has to work 8:00 p.m. tonight until 8:00 a.m. tomorrow (BOOOOOO!!!). As soon as he gets home we'll hit the road to pick up Cait and then go to my brother's house for breakfast with his family. After that we'll move on to Hayward to go to Jason's mom's house and then his Grandma's for Christmas dinner. We haven't decided yet if we're going to spend tomorrow night or just come back home tomorrow evening. It's nice to spend the night, but it's also nice to be home in your own bed. I have to work Tuesday some time too. I don't need to be there until after noon, but I should probably go in earlier.

I hope all is well with you and yours and that you have a very merry Christmas!

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

It's snowing! YAY! I was dreading another brown Christmas...we have had very little snow this year so far, and what we did get didn't last for more than a couple of days because it's been so warm. I'm not one who plays in the snow (snowmobiling, skiing, etc.) so I can certainly do without, but when it comes to Christmas it just doesn't seem like Christmas without the white stuff. This would have only been the 3rd Christmas that I can remember that we didn't have snow. When I was a kid there were always piles of snow everywhere at Christmastime. It's been raining here for the past 36 hrs. so I was a little worried. Now we have some heavy, wet snow falling. Hopefully it will get cold enough tonight and snow some more and stay cold so that we have a white Christmas.

Happy Holidays Everyone!

HALLELUJAH!

At 1:00 p.m. today Jason stepped into the classroom at UWEC for the last time! YAAAHOOOOO!!!! I am extremely excited about this (just in case you were wondering). It has been an unbelievably long journey and I am so proud of him for sticking it out and getting to this day. The graduation ceremony will be on Saturday morning, and next week is finals week. SO...there won't be a diploma in the diploma cover, but it will follow shortly by mail. He has one paper to finish up and then he's DONE. No finals...this semester was his internship. All of the hard work, long hours, and patience (on my part) has finally paid off. Way to go Jas!

p.s. BLINKING AGAIN!

Still not blinking... :)

Update

LOL...

I plugged the lights on the tree in this afternoon and they're not blinking anymore! What a fun game this will be...or not! :)

Every Year!

It happened again! I don't know why I think it won't happen each year. I guess I just HOPE that it won't. Here's what happened...

Wednesday afternoon Jason and Caitlin went to get a Christmas tree. Cait didn't have school and Jason was home early. I couldn't get away from work so they just went. It was fine with me--it was COLD! :)

Wednesday night I hauled all of the Christmas lights and decorations and ornaments up from the basement and pulled out everything I wanted to use this year. I plugged all of the lights in to make sure they worked. We got as far as putting the lights on the tree and then it was bed time.

Thursday evening Cait and I decorated the tree. I love having a real tree! For the past few years we've had an artificial tree, but nothing beats a real Christmas pine.

Okay, so that was Thursday. We had the lights on Thursday. We had the lights on Friday morning before work and school. We had the lights on all of Friday afternoon/evening. We had the lights on this morning. The lights came on this evening and one string started BLINKING. UGH. It never fails. I plug those stupid lights in every year before putting them on the tree JUST TO MAKE SURE. And every year a couple of days after the lights have been on the tree at least one string starts blinking. This year it's the string on the bottom. Last year it was the string on the top. But really, it doesn't matter where it is. It's still frustrating and look silly! I don't know why I think "maybe they'll all work right this year". This year I think I will throw out the lights and buy all new next year.

Happy decorating!

Kinda Fun...

I used my name, Vicki Jean Lynn, female, of course, and put friendly as a main trait. It gave me Scout Lee Lynn as my new name...hmmm...it's okay, kind of boyish though. And no...there's no specific reason for being on babynames.com... ;)

Weekend Update

I guess it's not the weekend anymore, is it? It sure was nice to have 4 days off from work last week (Wed.-Sun.). And it was hard to get back in to the swing of things Monday morning!

Last Wednesday evening we went to Waupaca to visit with my mom's family. It's always nice to see them. We don't get over there too often, even though it's only 2.5 hours away. We had a delicious dinner Thursday evening and then drove home with our bellies busting out from all of the good food.

Friday morning Critter and Brandy did the "crazy shopping" while Cait and I (mostly Cait) watched their kids. I would rather watch 10 kids than shop on Black Friday! (No, they don't have 10 kids...I'm just saying.)They left Saturday afternoon just as I was getting a migraine. :( That kept me down all of Saturday and most of Sunday morning. Saturday night Jason and Cait went to the Blugold women's basketball game while I rested. It was quite peaceful.

Sunday we just hung out at home...did laundry and a little house work. Caitlin went to see Deck the Halls with a friend Sunday evening. Late Sunday night, actually it was early Monday a.m. Cait woke up ill. She puked a lot then went back to sleep. :) She felt okay Monday morning and wanted to go to school so she went on her merry way.

Yesterday Cait had rehearsal for the school play after school but after I picked her up from that we were home and after dinner we planted our butts on the couch. I was so tired!! I don't think I moved in my sleep last night, not a once.

This week at work I'm filling in for a girl who is on vacation in Hilton Head, SC. I'd rather be there...but I'm here, and it's been pretty busy at work being that it's the last week of the month. The last week of any month is busy, even November.

Tonight Cait had rehearsal after school, then basketball practice. After b-ball we went to the grocery store...and now I'm tired again. :)

Off to bed!

The "New Version"

I think I need to try the new version of Blogger. I'm really unhappy with this blog. The template, the layout, etc. It was okay before, and then last week I was messing around and changed the template but now I've decided I don't like it. I'm getting a little picky about my blog's appearnce and this just isn't doing it for me. :) I looked into MySpace, but it looks like those pages have a bunch of ads and such on them. I don't like that either. So anyways, if my blog and templates and everything changes every other day, you'll know why. I'm just going to keep playing with it until I find what I like. :)

Good (or not so) Morning!

This is what we woke up to yesterday morning!! At least it was Friday...and not Monday. Unfortunately there were many many accidents and the highways and interstate were backed up for hours. I took this picture at around 7:30 a.m. and it continued snowing until about 2:00 p.m., so this was just the beginning! Funny thing is that it was 70 degrees on Wednesday afternoon. I guess that's what we get here in WI. I'm not ready for winter, that's for sure.