Nolan's GRAND Achievement

Nolan is 9 years old. He has spent the past S*I*X years in speech therapy. The first three years it was 3x a week, the 3rd-5th year it was 2x a week, this year it's been once a week.

His therapist has said that he has all the sounds now, except for "R". We'll work on that. He still has some processing issues....but we can work on that as well. This is a huge step for us. SIX years is a long time to have speech. I'm relieved to be able to school without the pressure of breaking to run to appointments.....I'm excited that he can usually be understood these days. It's all good.

EXCEPT - Nolan has always gotten very attached to his therapists. It was hard to say goodbye in Alaska and move here. It was hard to say goodbye today to Miss Natalie. She is moving to San Antonio so I explained that he wouldn't see her even if we DID go to therapy next year. LOL

He wanted to get Miss Natalie a gift. I had several choices for him. He said, "I'd like to do flowers and chocolate". FLOWERS AND CHOCOLATE. I was rather proud at having raised such a thoughtful and insightful young man.

He didn't really love any of the ones that the florist had made up. He told them he thought Miss Natalie would like sunflowers and daisies. What a sweetheart. They made up this and he agreed that they were perfect.

We didn't get the chocolates. We delivered the card and flowers....and everyone ooed and ahed over the sweet boy.

On the way out I told Nolan, "Wow, I've taught you how to treat women WELL. You did that just right."

He replied, "Actually, Mom, I've been watching what Dad gives you all the time and flowers and chocolate are what you like."

Score - Mike was gloating over this one. He deserves to gloat. His young son has learned how to treat a special woman in his life. Way to go Mike and Nolan.

When we got home the other kids had decorated the house with signs and streamers...and a giant blanket fort that they will sleep in tonight.

When Nolan walked in they all yelled SURPRISE!

Great kids one and all! I love the care they have for each other. We weren't able to use the celebrate plate or do a special dinner as I was out tonight...and will be tomorrow...but WEDNESDAY we'll celebrate.

They're all out and about watching the Spurs game tonight....I think I'll give up on crunching numbers and sleep on it.

MONDAY

I worked out - that was "good".

We did not do school - that was not good.

I took Nolan to speech.

I visited with a friend who stopped by.

I visited with a friend on the phone.

I raced to Mom's Night Out - last one of the year. We spent our time together sharing things we were thankful for this year. It was great. Encouraging. Meaningful.

I spent most of my day crunching numbers for a PWOC budget, checking out costs online, well....doing PWOC stuff both local and regional. Tomorrow night is our PWOC planning meeting - to plan the upcoming year....and then things are shutting down for the summer and we'll be able to get some quality school done! Yippee!

Weekly Fitness Goals (click button for more info)

Weekly Goal - 240 Minutes (40 minutes most days)
Total Weekly Minutes - 360 minutes
Annual Goal - 11,700 minutes
Minutes to Date - 4, 812 minutes

Weeeellllllllll, it happened again. Someone excitedly congratulated me on my new pregnancy. I am not pregnant. I have a churlish, hypothyroid, middle-aged body that is fluffy!!!!!! ::snort:: I guess I simply have to continue food journaling, the workouts the trainer mapped out, and add more ab work......I AM getting stronger. Why did the weight melt off at 2 lbs a week last year and refuse to budge this year?

I feel good about getting the whole weight thing in 3x this week. I feel good about maintaining 40 - 60 min of cardio while adding the weights. I feel good about spreading the time out over 5 days (which barely meets the most days of the week goal). ::snort::

I don't feel so good about the stubborn scale or the excited folks commenting on my false pregnancies.


Monday - 65 Minutes (45 minbike, 20 min lower body weights)

Tuesday - 85 Minutes (40 min ARC, 25 min bike, 20 min upper body weights)

Wed - 40 Minutes (35 min elliptical, 5 min abs & obliques)

Thursday - 80 minutes (40 min ARC, 40 min weights - all)

Saturday - 90 minutes (30 min ARC, 20 min bike, 40 min weights - all)

To read accounts from more participants - click here. To join us, click the icon above.....

Promotion Sunday

The day began with a promotion party for our Protestant RE department. This is the last Sunday until fall that we'll have Sunday School. I know that seems strange to civilians. It was strange to me when we entered the Air Force too. Now I get it. We have huge sections of our parish leave every summer. Most of us are in new areas and so want to explore our new area and visit family during the summer. It makes sense to ease the load for volunteers, to adapt to the lower numbers and shifting population in the summer by having most programs take a break. We continue PWOC by having a few outings and Project Nights....but our Bible Study is on hold until September.

All that to say that TODAY was the last Sunday School of the year. Mike had planned a fun time for all. I have great photos - but I only have permission from Steve and Debbie to use their children's photos. (BTW I appreciate my friends who allow me to exploit them on my blog - Deja and Debbie who have said I can use their children's photos - makes the blog a bit less ego-centric; though I totally understand those who do not want their images on line). ::snort::

Here are a few photos of our children and Steve and Debbie's. That's Steve with the hoola hoop. The balloons are always a hit.




After this we came home, had a bit of time to talk, then Mike and I headed back for the Gospel Service. We had 2 hours between services and so I holed up in an office with my laptop and worked on PWOC stuff. I worked on a proposed budget, pulled together inputs and compiles a proposed calendar, typed up a few "recent events" for use on the national website, and began to try to figure out how many $ a few events are going to cost to take ladies to. It was productive.

Josiah brought all the kids in for the Contemporary Service. I got to run the laptop for the worship slides. I think I learned a new useful trick. ::snort:: The service went well. It is the coolest thing to see God move. Dare I say the "r" word? Yes, pray for our student service. We are seeing the stirrings of revival and it is exciting. Some of these students will be here 3 months, be assigned to a post and sent overseas. We so want them to know Jesus. Many responded tonight to the message. Seriously, we covet your prayers for this service. The worship leader resigned as of tonight. The service time is changing...and yet God is on the move....and we desire to see lives transformed during their time at this "training base".

Mike, Jared, Jamin, Arille and Nolan are at the movie theater again. I guess Mike didn't think it was a terrible movie afterall.

Tim Hawkins Clip Disclaimer

I changed the clip - I think I'll do that weekly for a bit of time. The thing is Tim does parodies and in context of the whole DVD - it flows. Taken individually I think it could be offensive.

I chose this one and am not sure I care for the first bit....but if you grab the ff button and slide it about 1/2 way you get the "prayer for nourishment" and this one cracks us up and has become a family standby. At various inoportune moments I will belt out "Spirit of Low Carb Rain DOWN ON ME NOW!" A mom should be allowed to embarass young adults from time to time.

After watching this I told the family that the next time I was asked to pray at a chapel food function......I was going to launch into this. Sure enough - I was asked to pray for PWOC dinner before our project night. I shocked them all by praying and then going into prayers for nourishment, changing molecular structure, spirit of low carb. I thought it was hilarious - they were taken aback. I've been trying to find the clip to share since then....so they can see the whole thing. GAFB PWOC members - ff about 1/2 way and enjoy the real thing. ::snort::

Unfortunately, it's tacked on to the end of this one...but there you go.

Military Appreciation Day

What a hoot! Our town has been getting better and better at throwing these shindigs. It was out at the lake. They had all sorts of things to do.....rock walls, bouncy things, pony rides, playgrounds, free food everywhere.....

The weather was great for this. IT WAS OVERCAST! YES! In previous years it has been so hot that it was hard to enjoy oneself. ::snort::

I didn't get a lot of photos....but Mike snapped these. We did more than horses...but the horses were a hit!








Stacia actually went first. She was a bit unsure when I had to lift her so HIGH....see the tongue sticking out as she settles in?

The day began early with me taking Jamin to his ACT test. I headed to the gym and opened the place for the day. LOL While there I finally saw someone I KNOW - but then I called her Sandy instead of Yvonne (which is her name). I'm so BAD with names. Decriptude.

Mike had to go into the office and work on "thangs". He came home and we headed to the picnic.

Josiah and Jamin were both working. NEWSFLASH - Chick Fil A is changing their menu on Monday. It sounds like some nice new options coming - like my FAVORITE - a CHICKEN SALAD SANDWHICH on the menu. They always make it for me but now it will be on the menu - and they are getting some whole wheat/multigrain bread for it. Yum. I'm hoping they keep the Southwestern salad.

Jared was able to touch base with several friends today. It was a good day for all. Mike headed back to the office at about 3:00 and just got home......gotta go.

Restructuring Produce Co-op

Today was our first day of produce co-op with the new pricing. It went well. We had lots of new members....and lots of new things for the children and I to consider when sorting. We ended up not having enough of the single shares set aside.....but I had ordered 4 shares so went down to 3. A lot of new variables to learn. LOL

Here is a $15 share from today

Here is a $28 share from today

I've realized a few things. I have to get enough for the single shares, but not too much for the double shares..... 2 pineapples every week or 2 bunches of celery every week won't go well for our doubles - those will be every other week.....2 heads of lettuce on the other hand is fine with our doubles so we can get those weekly.....and other cases we've been avoiding because of the large shares may now be options (tomatoes, cucumbers)....because there are more folks getting little amounts....but that means the case would be split more ways and more manageable.....

Anyway - that's what I did today. ::Snort:: The broccoli we were given was awful. I took it back and asked for our fresh box off the truck. They gave me a case of strawberries because they gave us the wrong box....that works for me. ::snort:: It wasn't enough to split with co-op and since it was free and not paid for by co-op $, and since I don't get paid for my gas, I kept it. Yeah - more smoothie fruit in the freezer. LOL