Angie-I used the knudsen's juice . . . .

JM- Glad to hear that her day went pretty good.

No baby news for my sister, we are hoping for labor today. Think wet and painful thoughts for her, won't you?

JM - wobbler room...that's too cute It sounds like you have a well-organized daycare for Josie. They're hard to come by sometimes. The preschool that Emmy is in now is actually the 5th place she's been since she was 3 months old (okay, I'm very particular with who watches my baby).

Joni - you got the stalker story right on!

Hi all,
Just a few comments - there are so many topics floating around.
Amy - about your hunger. I was on gold with lites and I found that with only 2 proteins a day, I had to use my dairy (yogurt) for one of my meals. So I would have usually yogurt and a fruit and sometimes I would add one of my starches (fiber one) to it.

Nicole - I enjoyed seeing the pictures of your family. You are truly blessed. Welcome back.

Welcome back Angie and Juliemarie and anyone else I missed.

On the potty training - I met a Mom a few weeks ago and spent the afternoon with her and her son. He is just 17 months old and is cute as can be. The Mom was telling me that they are teaching him baby sign language and he has learned to sign when he needs to go poop. She said his accuracy rate is about 80% of the time. Can you believe that? He was adopted from Guatemala and was 10 months old when they brought him home. So his first 10 months his language was Spanish, now he is learning English and baby sign language. How precious!!

Julie - I wonder if Josie sleeps so well with all the human baby noises around her because that is the environment she had for the first XX months of her life? If so, I say you need to ask the daycare place to make a tape and sell it to you for those times you really need your rest!

I was reading a WW magazine last night, and on the last page is "MY PAGE PROMISES" (These are directly from the magazine. I thought you may enjoy them as well ...)

"I promise to enjoy the ride. Losing weight has its ups and downs, but I'll try to embrace every moment."

"I promise to laugh more. So what if I try a yoga pose and topple over? It's just another goal to strive for on my journey."

"I promise to ____________________________"

Chiquita and Amy, I was super hungry on Gold with Lites, but then again I was doing a lot of exercise. I ended up promising to do at least 5 hours of cardio a week if they would just put me back on blue. So I've stuck to that for months now and boy, I've surely gotten in amazing shape just to have one extra starch and half a protein a day! I hesitate to consider what I would have been willing to do to get on the feel full plan....

Welcome Amy! if you continue to feel hungry and you are exercising quite a lot, you may need to be on a higher plan. Talk to a counselor (or maybe it will take 2 or 3 of them to finally decide to move you).

Julie Marie, my daughter was tempted by lacy pink panties that I wouldn't let her wear until she started using the potty. I guess you have to find what motivates your own child. Now that she is 18, you can motivate her with designer footware and handbags... so now I'm rather wistful when it only took a 2$ pair of panties!

Dan, My daughter was a little chunky at about your daughter's age. I think it is something hormonal when the girl hormones are getting ready to hit. She is likely to spurt up, thin down and get moody and sensitive sometime soon. My daughter was quite thin between 6th and 9th grade, when she needed to have a serious surgery on her foot and was unable to walk for a couple of months and gained a little weight then that has been hard for her to keep off ever since then.

Katie, loved the article. Since I've gotten to maintenance, some of those old voices are back whispering in my ear... Just when I thought I had them all vanquished for life... but those fat voices can't have me back...

2nd day of TO for me... haven't stepped on a scale in almost a week... Mostly just wanted to start my vacation feeling thin, as that makes me behave a bit better so I keep the weight down. 3 more days of work, and then I'm out for 2 and a half weeks, first week back packing and then a week and a half in Hawaii. I'm so excited to have some time away from work. I promised the DH for years that we would go backpacking when the kid was in college, and somehow got out of it last year... This year I should do OK, even if I carry a 40 pound pack.. I'll still be dragging less weight up the hill than last time I did it. Hope it is fun... I don't think I've been backpacking since the my daughter was born, although he took her with him a time or two...

To all the LAWL 3FC bloggers, hope you are having a POP day!

Hello Everyone!
It sounds like life is back to normal.. I see Katie, Joni, Pearl, NICOLE! I thought you had all deserted ship
Well first off for the update.. I got a note that the mom who's house I was at last week got my wedding band out from under the deck... AND

I just got a call from my hubby Mark.. it seems his dad just called him to inform him that he found Mark's missing wedding band... in HIS SOCK!!!!!
This ring that went missing on June 24 appeared in my father in law's sock!
I would post longer but I am running to the church as I think the big guy is really expecting a thank you from the Duncan family.. back with more later!!!

Sherry... Good catch.. I meant to mention that I bought them at Walgreens, in the snack area, but forgot to do so.

They made a great accompanyment to my low sodium (50mg) roast beef sandwich on double fiber bread with a slice of all natural jalepeno jack cheese (with an additional sprinkle of jalepenos). I wish I could eat a sandwich like that every day.. It was dang good!

Kristen - Might I suggest just getting wedding bands tattoo'd on your fingers? That story's just weird!

OK Dan still not getting the cheese thing. Where do you get "all natural" cheese?

Hi everybody,

JM - I made it priority to keep it kind of noisy when the kids were napping because it would get them used to the noise and not wake them up. The down part of that now, I guess, is that my DD doesn't even wake up to the most annoying alarm clock ever. We can hear it and we are across the house.

Barbara - Wow a 2 1/2 week vacation? That sounds so wonderful.I hope you have a great time and kiss the sand for us in Hawaii.

As far as the potty training, both of our kids were potty trained by the age of 3. I kind of let them take control of that. We had started to train DD at about 1 or so and she did really good, but then digressed so I figured she wasn't quite ready.

Nicole - Glad to see you back. Also glad to hear that DS's surgery went well. Give him lots of love from us and we hope for a quick recovery.

Well better get back to work. Joni, Katie, Katy, Dan, Sherry, Amy, Tina and everyone else that I forgot to mention, have a great POP day.

Liz
XOXOXO

Well, ok.. I'll try...

Hello Everyone,

Just thought I would check back in after my weigh in and let you know that it turns out that my walks with my daughter are counted as exercise! I thought they were just fun outings with my little girl but I do them about 3 times/week and it turns out to be about 45 minutes every time. I thought exercise had to be a formal visit to a gym with endless hours on some machine.

So, long story short they put me on the blue plan and I am hoping that will go a little better for me! Thanks for all of the advice, I really do appreciate it and have a renewed spirit!

Kristen..........WTF is with the wedding bands and you and DH? LOL. It's just too weird. Is this the first you have heard of your FIL being a clepto??? LOL. Regardless, I am happy you have them, as I know they are blended family heirlooms.

JM.......have you ever seen one of those homedics sound machines? I used one for both of my boys, still do, actually, and it is like a God send. It is this cute little machine that makes nice even consistent noise to keep your little one undistracted during sleepy time. I set mine of crickets (not what the setting is called, but whatever), and my boys can sleep though just about anything. I was quite annoyed by it at first, but after watching some of my girlfriends have great success, I decided to bear with it, and now I actually find it soothing. We turn it up quite loud so we don't constantly have to be shhhhing the other kids. Works for us. Oh, and I travel with mine too.......it either plugs into the wall or takes batteries.

Also, in my experience, kids sleep more at daycare than at home. I think they are super smart, and figure, "why waste time sleeping when I am with mom/grandma..........and while this daycare gig is fun and all......I think I will take really good naps while I am here so I can spend more time with mom when I get home." I used to have mom's tell me all the time that their kids "rarely napped at home, so why do they sleep so good at your house." I truly think that is why........so don't beat yourself up about it, or grandma........just be flattered

Well, today I am painting my plywood floors (you remember, the remodel job that will never be finished). I am really tired of trying to clean up messes off of bare plywood. I bought really cheap porch paint, and am trying all kinds of crazy tricks to keep my boys busy while I am trying to paint. I am about half way finihsed, and I think I am nuts for trying this. Actually, my dog is being more of a pain than the kids....go figure.

Thank you for all the compliments on my kids. Emily and Natalie were not featured in this last batch of pictures, but they will be soon, and I now have my very own digital camera.

Oh, and Joni, don't be too jealous...........while DH is quite wonderful, he still is a young man (30 yrs.), and sometimes that can be frustrating in itself......however, it does have it's benefits.......LOL.

Where is Kim? Both of them? And Wendy and Wendy?


K, back to painting.......I hope
XOXO

Amy-

How interesting, considering I was told my marathon training couldn't be counted towards the 5 hours a week because it was JUST WALKING!

Gee-that was like, a year ago. Think I'm still bitter?