And here is Mark getting ready to go out. Notice the big booties he has on his feet? The weekend before he went out all day on the wave runners with flip flops and burned his feet very badly. They were covered in blisters and very painful. He took precautions this weekend and is still healing. OUCH!!
The kids had fun dumping water into the sand and playing in it. M&C have some friends who live nearby and have 4 kids. Two of their kids were there with us also, which is where I got the wetsuit from. They're not exactly kids. One of them has been on a mission. His name is Jessie. I just have to say here that I was so impressed with him. I've met him twice and have noticed both times how kind he is to our kids. Most guys his age barely notice children and don't have a clue how to be with them. They usually treat them as little things getting underfoot and pay little attention to them. He filled his shoe several times with water to dump in the sand for Paige and Preston. He helped them get on and off the wave runners. There are other great things I noticed both at the lake and when we visited their home a while ago, but my point in discussing him is that he is so eligible. If anyone knows of a great girl around the age of 20 ... I'm sure you know what I'm getting at. He's good looking, kind and easy to talk to. He is a great guy!!
I shouldn't say anything, but what is Carolyn doing? We always laugh and have fun when we're together. I'm sure we were laughing about something here.
And thank you for making me a wife and mother. I love our great little family.
And in true Preston form, daddy received a nice, big tumbleweed. I'm sure Preston won't be forgotten today ... or EVER!!
Obviously Preston is extremely excited. Spiders are cool, you know!
Just for kicks, here's a few extra takes I thought were cute ...
Preston asked me in the morning if I ate a boy baby or a girl baby in my tummy. I told him I didn't eat the baby. It grows in a special place in a mommy's tummy, but not the same place our food goes.
Paige had a dance recital last week to celebrate months of work and practice. Isn't that what recitals are for? This is as close as I could get with our camera. I didn't take the camcorder so there's no zoom feature, sorry. Paige is the second girl in from the right.Unfortunately ... or fortunately, there was a mistake in the program. Paige's class was scheduled to be second on the program and when the lights came on I began recording some other class. Paige's class came on as the fourth number. The fortunate part is that Doug missed her performance because he was out working on our ward activity that began during the time we were at the recital. We weren't informed beforehand when our little princess' number would be. Because of the mix up the two numbers were re-performed at the end of the concert. So Doug got to see Paige perform after all. We were very happy about that. Not only had they mixed up the order, but each whole class performed a dance they hadn't rehearsed to a song they weren't familiar with. I still thought Paige looked so cute. I hadn't seen the dance until the performance. It was fun to see my little girl up on a big stage.
Moving on ... also because of the mix up I was able to get some still shots of the correct dance. And on this one Paige was standing by her cousin, Cortnee, which made the pictures that much better. Cortnee is furthest on the right and Paige is in the center. They both did an excellent job.
In attendance were Delores (Grandma), Kurt, Linda, Kirstie and Austin; Jared, Michelle and Kaislee from Doug's family and Michelle, Christopher, Nicholas, Jonathan and Benjamin from my family. Michelle and Linda had both bought flowers for Cortnee and split the flowers they bought for her with Paige. I thought that was so kind of them. I hadn't thought of giving Paige flowers, but I will next time. I was glad they were so kind to Paige and didn't want her to be left out. She absolutely LOVED her flowers. She cut them and put them in a vase as soon as we got home. It was a fun day.
I asked the woman I ordered tickets with if we didn't have to pay if we didn't ride the train. She said the fee was for all the attractions. I said, "But all the attractions are for the kids." She didn't have a response so I proceeded to order only 3 tickets. And, of course, I stood around the whole time watching my children have fun. I'm sure Doug had more fun than I did since he paid $18 for 'sitting around watching the kids have fun.'
This tent was set up with all kinds of Thomas sets. Preston found a motorized engine named Ben and another one named Salty that he played with for most of the hour he was in this tent. It was difficult having motorized trains because at some point if you're going to enjoy watching it go around the track you have to let it go. It then becomes susceptible to other little kids grabbing it, usually not knowing another kid is playing with it. I didn't want any screaming or fights so I helped Preston watch over his 2 trains. All the adults were understanding of this and were doing the same thing.
Apparently it takes concentration to get the trains moving correctly on the track.
There were at least 12 of the motorized trains and 5 other tables set up with non-motorized trains and tracks. I had a small altercation with a lady who decided it was her son's turn to play with the motorized Thomas Paige had been playing with for a short time. Paige was eagerly watching her train come around the bend and this lady's son picked up the train. I told her my daughter had been playing with that train. She asked if it was our train. I told her no, but that there were several motorized trains over on another table that they could pick from. She said her son had been waiting for a turn with Thomas. I told her my daughter also waited and was now taking her turn. I didn't want a big issue so I took the Thomas and told Paige to play on another table. This woman's son LOST IT!!! He screamed and screamed very LOUDLY. Everyone looked. But we were already at another table so I don't think many people knew what had happened. I know you could be thinking I'm mean, but I didn't feel it was right for this woman to let her son take whatever he wanted at my daughter's expense. So here's Preston and Paige at another table joyfully watching their trains go around. If I really wanted to be mean I could have included the woman in this picture because she was glaring in the corner by Preston. And by the way, her son had a motorized Thomas within 5 minutes that he didn't have to take from anyone. So I guess everyone ended up happy. I hope you enjoyed my little rant ...
Back to our day of fun ...
Paige has some great bubble success. Good job, Paige!
I had to include this model shot of Paige. She is such a beautiful girl.
Proof I was there. And I'm even wearing a smile.
Doug was there too. Paige is eating the only food I had in my bag. I guess you've figured out by now this was a budget trip for us. We didn't want to buy $5 hot dogs, sorry. We got the kids to leave by promising them McDonalds on the way home. YAY!! Don't worry, I had my veggies and lemon drink.
I hope you don't mind all the stories. We waited in line for about 45 minutes for these balloons. Look at how happy Preston is with his brown monkey with a 'mee-yana' (his word for banana - even though he knows how to say it correctly). He held my hand all the way to the van and was happy and singing. It started raining just as we were getting to the van. I let his hand go shortly before the van so I could go around to my side. He decided to go throw a rock in a little stream, slipped and fell and popped his monkey. You should have seen the absolute devastation written all over his face as his lip poked out and his shoulders shook with his sobbing. He was heartbroken. I couldn't end the day on this note so Doug drove me back to the entrance where I waited in line again (this time for 10 minutes) and got another brown monkey with a 'mee-yana.' This picture is with the first monkey.
It was worth the effort and I'm glad we broke the bank to allow our kids this luxury. Thomas remains Preston's 'best thing' every night.
Today is day 9 and I have lost a total of 11 lbs. I haven't measured myself, but I can tell I've lost several inches as well. Now the real challenge will be to keep exercising and get myself looking and feeling great all the time.And here are many things I passed up these past 10 days:
That's all I can think of. Obviously I missed dinners, but I can't remember one dinner other than the chicken one, sorry. Now if I can get myself to pass up these things more often or eat less I'll be happy ... won't I? Maybe not my mouth, but my mind and body will thank me.
Here's our friends, Ruth and Dylan. Preston and Dylan are the same age and love playing together. We get together almost every evening to talk (Ruth and I) and play (the kids). Preston and Dylan have the same big wheel (different colors) and love to run. All three kids enjoy catching bugs and playing in the dirt.
Paige is being her usual artistic self. I was surprised how much time she spent making this huge picture. She's even being careful not to mess it up by sitting on it. She had difficulty from the 2 boys, but managed to finish her picture despite their efforts to mess it up.
The finished product complete with sun and bunny. BEAUTIFUL work, Paige!!
And here's the paraphernalia:
You drink 6-10 glasses/day of the following mix:Combine in a glass and fill remainder of glass with warm water to make approximately 10 oz. Drink as often as you feel hungry, but at least 6-10 glasses/day.
So that's what I'm eating for 10 days. I usually put in more cayenne than is called for. And there's also the matter of the morning salt water flush and evening laxative tea or prune juice, but I don't think you'll want me to go into detail on that.
I highly recommend this cleanse. I never feel deprived as long as I remember to drink the lemon drink whenever I feel hungry. I'm looking forward to going down a size again. And this time I'm also working out. I'll let you know how it goes. Today is day 2.
10. I'm a WOMAN and I CAN!!!
All-in-all, I feel much better now. I will continue working out and even if it's very slow I know I'll also continue to receive encouragement from those who love me. And hopefully eventually I will look and feel better and better.
And let's not forget gifts from my sweetheart. I won't tell you what he wrote (cause that's personal), but Paige graciously drew and colored this card for dad with her favorite animal. I love when the kids color pictures for me. And I love getting cards from my hubby. He writes nice things about me.
And my gift? Why, these nice carpets, of course. I have never liked having black carpet in the kitchen. These are much more hip and don't show every speck that lands on them. Thanks hot-diggity-Doug. And a big THANK YOU to my beautiful model as well.
You may remember me saying in another post that Paige likes dressing me in something similar to what she's wearing. The other day we were going out and I noticed Paige had tried to dress Preston similar to her. She was in pink pants and a long sleeved pink shirt. She put Preston in blue pants (jeans) and a blue long sleeved shirt. Also, you may or may not know that the yellow blanket Paige is holding is very special to her. It has a silky edge that she rubs on her lip for comfort. She's done this since she was a baby. Her yellow blanket is never left behind. Notice Preston has a blue blanket? He goes along with most things Paige wants to do and is dutifully holding his blanket so he can 'be like Paige.' I thought that was too cute!
With one of the recent storms the kids gathered up their boots, coats and gloves and ran outside to play. Unfortunately, we only found 3 boots and Preston got on the first pair. Paige ran around frantically trying to find the last boot to no avail. Preston ran around having a ball waiting for Paige to come out.
Problem solved. Luckily dad has a pair of boots. And not to worry about gloves. She solved that problem as well. Kids are so adaptable.
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