Welcome all to a thread full of wonderful women taking on the responsibilty of raising a family and trying to take care of themselves too. We look forward to a new day with members, new and old! Please feel free to jump right in and say hello Here is a little bit about who we are ...

MichelleRae: Michelle sahm to Taylor 8-25-01 & Teagan 10-13-03 Married 2 years to Zhaun. Plan I'm following is a combined WW and South Beach Diet

Spryng: 24 y.o. married 6 years. Kids- Ava 4, Bubba (aka Joseph) 3 & Tanner 1. Currently on ww, hit goal in April.

Mompen: Penny 23 y.o. Happily Married & SAHM Momma to three active boys, Hunter almost 5, Nicholas almost 4 & Andrew 13 mo. Weight Watchers is my way of life


Loveliam: Leigh SAHM to Liam 10.21.03 & happily married for 2 years. Doing the Weight Watchers thing

Sydsmom: Kristin SAHM to Sydney 09-27-01, married almost 2 years to wonderful dh Began Weight watchers mid-July

Cheri: married to Donald for 8.5 years, SAHM/homeschooling momma to Nathan, 5 (9-11-98), Daniel, 3 (8-29-00) & Elijah, 1 (10-16-02) & doing the low carb thing kinda, lol

Angel: SAHM of 4, Ages 8,8,7,&4.

Cindi: Mom to 6 boys & 1 mean girl. Plan.. No diet for me! Portion control, exercise & lots of water (most days)

Chubba: Geri..Mom to two boys, Will (3) & Tony (1)..married for 4 years to a great guy..following Dr Phil most days!

Crystal: 27 yo sahm of 3 almost 4. Alisa 5, Ally 3, & Andrew 20 months. Due Feb 1st. Married almost 9 years, live in Texas & homeschool. Avon & Watkins Sales Rep. My plan when on it counting calories & exercise
Ricci sahm to two boys 4 and 5, married 7 years, doing ww

Jaymi: 2 kids, 20 mo Girl & 6 yo boy. Been married to DH for 2 ½ years. I’m counting calories, eating lowfat foods & exercise. I have no idea what the name of that diet is!!!

Jill: SAHM of 1 daughter, Bayley, born 9/19/03. Currently trying to lose some of the baby weight I gained with her & need some extra support to help me do so.

Melissa: SAHM of 1 girl (4) and 1 boy (<2). Currently counting calories with Tops NutriBase Software.

I am Mindee, and I will be 22 on 8/17. I am married to Tommy, who is 27, and we have been married for 2 years. We have a little boy, Brandon, who is almost 4 months.
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Good Morning Ladies.

Mel, you and I posted about starting a new thread at the same time and I mean both posts went in at 7:12. Isn't that funny. Yours posted first and I figured you were working on starting a new one, so I didn't want to duplicate it. How are you today? Good night I hope?

Geri, so your kids aren't school age yet, next year the oldest will begin pre-K right? I've heard for years that we're suppose to be getting a Target, but nothing yet.

Hello to all, Jaymi, Ginny, Melinda, Penny, Spryng, Julie, Jill, and everyone else out there.

I slept really well, 8 hours with some simple interruptions. I'm hopefully staying home again today, Andrew's cough is still bad and I don't want to get him out, but I will need to go to town later. Milk, bread, school stuff for this week, yadda, yadda, yadda. Do you girls want to know that I've got 4 more payments on my decorating class and then I'll get my diploma. I'm so excited. I haven't quite figured out how I'm gonna use it yet and with small kids and one more on the way, theres not alot of ways I can do it, but just having it is an accomplishment. I thought about registering my name with the county and just starting like a decorating 911 thing. Most people don't have the $ to hire a decorator but want advice so I thought about charging a small fee just to give my advice, I don't know. Any suggestions??? I haven't decided to redo my bathroom yet because I know dh will have a fit, but it would make me feel soo good and I think it just might be worth it. I'll have to wait and see.
Well, you ladies, I've only got ...Drew up right now, so I'm gonna sit back and finish my coffee before the others wake. Btw, we watched The Whole Ten Yards last night, it's cute. I mean of course Bruce Willis makes it worth while, but you have to like those goofy comedy action movies to find the humor, but it's cute.
I'll TTYL

Good Morning Ladies. I hope the name of this thread was ok. I figured many of you thought it was a good idead to start fresh each a.m., I just added the date.

Anyway, my day got better yesterday. We took the kids to the park in the early evening, so that got them out. I am feeling better today and more alert. Thanks again for all your concerns and support. Today is a new day. I am starting it fresh.

Leigh....get back OP you can do it!!!

Penny...hope you had a good day with the boys..I know Dh was working last night.

Michelle...Congrats on getting so much work done. GLad to hear all went well with Dh's procedure.

Deana...sounds like you have had some rough times in your life. I hope we can help you out with the weight loss ones..and maybe support you in other ways too.

Jill....hope you had a great time with your friends. I guess you didn't make my receipi yet...lol

Hey Geri, how was your night?

Angel...that was a nice trade. Cleaning the gutters for a dresser. I saw you are on a tight bugdet. Check out refundcents.com maybe they have some ideas for you.

Lori, congrats on the 2lb loss. Way to go.

Anyway, I have a Bridal Shower to go to today. I bought a beautiful keep sake box and filled it with matching photo albums, address book, picture frame and film. I called it the MEMORY BOX. I wrote a note on it that said. May you fill your hearts and this box with the beautiful memories you will make together.

Oh yeh, btw, I had trouble with my computer loading my pics. It said, my camera wasn't connected or had no pics..which it does. I checked all the connections and still nothing. I will try again later. Thanks again gals.

Crystal, too funny. One day we are gonna do that by accident. We are often posting at the same time. Glad you got some good rest. I guess Andrew is sleeping better now. I would love to take a decorating class. And I would love to see pics of your good work. I do all the work around here. When my husband was away on business, I had my dad cut some chair rails for me ...all week I stained and then I put them up and painted the walls and put up a new window treatment and border. I'll post that. I also did some cool stuff with the kids rooms.

New QOTD: What is one thing you don't like to do with your kids? I HATE BATHTIME: Oh man, my kids get so loud...I love to see them have fun and all, but the tub echos and BUgga fights me so bad when I take him out. It makes me so frustrated.

Oh man, good QOTD. The obvious, taking them anywhere kids don't belong, ie: the doc office. But I hate feeding them. Some of you may not be here yet, but you can never, ever, ever please everyone. You start hearing this one complain about not liking this or this one complaining that this isn't hot enough. I've got one that eats just jelly sandwiches, the other only peanut butter the other, neither. I just hate it. I love to watch my kids eat and enjoy their food, but there's ALWAYS complaining.
I could think of more, but that is the first that came to mind.

These are the pics of my Living room and foyer. My couch is all one sectional. I had to break it up so nothing was in front of the railing. DOes it look bad?




Crystal, here's my dining room.

Sorry, this picture is so dark and on the last one it was so small, but you get the idea.

Morning Girls,

Sorry I missed chat last night But thanks for inviting me Jill and Melissa I took a bath then came back to chat but Hunter and Nicholas wanted me to lay down with them...... How could I say no But I fell asleep.....lol

Melissa,
Anything planned today? Thanks for starting the new thread!

Crystal,
Congrats for being so close to your degree! That is awesome! Can't wait to see your mom's house Glad Andrew slept well. Hope he starts feeling better soon.

Jill,
I wanna go to Target! Glad you got some things done today! I am sorry I haven't been around lately on the chat I have been running like crazy Once school starts, I will be slowed down some, maybe

Geri,
Have you ever tried a little herb garden? I was thinking of doing one. Thanks for the note! Me, a super chick? eh? Yeah, in my dreams

Angel,
It sounds like you had a great day! That is great! I bet the jars are awesome! What day is your bday so we can make a "angel" day on the board

Michelle,
It's good to hear that Zhaun is doing so well! Maybe there is still hope for my little baby, Brad.....lol After he heals, you know you are suppose to have sex as often as you can.... That is the part Brad can't wait for! I am so glad everything is coming out ok with the house! That is awesome! Taylor's package is sitting on my kitchen table but I promise it will go out Monday, maybe priority but it depends I was gonna call you if you didn't post by today!

Deana,
That is so neat about your son. I do it with the kids here that half of the money they gets has to go to savings... Have a great day!!!
Lori,
It sounds like you had a great day! The kids wanna go bowl here Congrats on being down Great job!!!

Not much planned here today..... My best friend from high school emailed today and wants to come visit tomorrow. She only has one child and is a single mom in college. I told her sure but I just don't feel like we have anything in common anymore. The last time I seen her she kindof laughed off the idea that I am "tied down" with "three kids" . But we will see. BTW, it doesn't help that she weighs about 110......lol And we had both weighed the same thing in high school..... sigh.......

Have a great day ladies!!!

Music...I have everything from Yellowcard to Keith Urban and Trace Adkins! I also have a nice collection of Christian music and those good old 80s hair bands.

I can't think of anything I hate to do with the kids...Hmmmm. Somethings are not as fun for me as they are them, but that's a sacrifice worth making to see the kids happy. If I think of anything I'll post it later. Taking them all swimming is really stressful, but still fun for them and me as long as no one has to be rescued that day. (Yes, rescuing a ppotential drowning victim is routine when you take 6 or 7 kids swimming, they thinkthey are invinsible)

I only have 2 appts this week that I know of so far, so I am happy about that. My house is getting neglected and I am exhausted. If I am not home, I never get my water in. Nor do I eat as well as I can at home.

I am up for some daytime chats whenever you all decide on what you want to do. I need some challenge chats to get my house in order, so hurry up!

Menu planning now, so I will be back soon to get more personal. this planning is a job with this big bunch!!

Love to all.

Good morning all!
It's taken me 30 min just to catch up! LOL
Sorry I didn't post again last night. Just got distracted and then tired. I watched Big Brother (of course) and I'm beginning to think the twin thing isn't a good idea. I mean I like those twins but it gives them an unfair advantage over the rest of the house. I also watched Secret Window yesterday... not sure if I liked it. It started off good and had me interested to know what the heck was going on, but I started figuring it out and it had such a typical steven king ending. Not a big fan of his.
But anyway, my eating went way downhill after dinner last night. As I said, I consumed 51 pts for dinner (had some flex left but not enough to cover all of that) then I had chocolate pudding which just fed my chocolate craving so I drove down to dairy queen and got a brownie batter blizzard!! So yesterday was a bust. What I really need to do this week, to counteract what I did yesterday is to get some good exercise in!! Please someone motivate me to exercise!!
Anyway, after I put the kids to bed I grabbed a shower and then called dh and then I was so tired so I crashed. And here I am now!! LOL... I hope today is a good and productive day. One of the emails I got from flylady today talked about a 2 week stretch of the flylady olympics!!! I am so excited to find out what that is!! But I think I will re-o my daily flylady journal (and start keeping a daily one again) and include exercise and me time in it. What do you think? Maybe I'd be more apt to exercise if I had to write it down daily.

OK, enough about me.. lets get personal-

Oh QOTD- I have to agree with the dinner thing. Sometimes it is such a fight to get my kids to TRY something I know they will like and to eat well, it can easily turn into a shouting match. But the very worst thing I hate to do with my kids is make them clean when they don't want to. I have to stand over them with all my menacing power (lol) until it's done, and several spanking and shouts later it gets done but with two tear soaked kids. It always makes me feel bad but I know they are old enough to pick up after themselves and it is their stuff. I do help on occasion if it's really bad or too much for them, but mostly they have to do it themselves. I know they can do it because when they want something really bad, like a new toy or something, I can say first you have to clean your room and they will get it done so fast and done right, so I know they know what they are doing and sometimes they are just plain lazy.

Mel, that railing does seem hard to fix. Can you just rearrange your living room so he can't topple over it from the couch? Putting up a wall seems like a very big task and will make that room feel very tiny and you may regret it later when he knows about gravity and all that. Have fun at the bridal shower! I have treasured memories of mine... and I still have all that beautiful lingerie that was bought for me. And I can fit into most of it again!

Crystal, I would do both. I would be a decorator for those who could afford it and also have a plan for those who don't to just give advice and such. Was this an online course you took? Sounds like fun. And I too think re-doing your bathroom is a great idea. Since you arent going to live there much longer maybe you should paint it a color that would be easy to sell, the new owner won't have to re-do, you know?

Leigh, my fav thing about the new computer would have to be it's speed!! My internet is finally running like it should! (I have cable internet) and my old computer was too slow to really keep up so it ran very slow at times. But now my pages are loading fast and keeping my temper down, lol. And your shopping trip at the mall sounded like fun! I can lose myself in a mall if given the chance, I LOVE to window shop. And don't wait to get back OP until next week! That is one huge mistake people make.. they go off plan and say well, I'll start again monday.And then monday comes and they try and fail and it just goes on and on. And don't give yourself evenings off either! I'm scared for you! You have to just keep going... if you screw up at lunch then be back OP at dinner... keep plugging along and it will all make sense. But I'm only saying this because I've been there and I know what our minds can do to us and our cravings can do. And I love ya and want to see you succeed!! WW is so adaptable, don't give up!!

Penny, hey! I will post that recipe soon but i'm not endorsing it as a low pts one, lol... because it is technically healthy (24 g of fiber per serving) and it's with turkey sausage and all that but it's not low cals for sure.

Geri, how are you doing today?

Angel, did you get much damage from that hurricane?

Michelle, so glad your dh is recovering well!! I'll have to let my dh know too.. he wants to do that in the years to come. I've been the one holding him back, lol. And I can't wait to see those pics!! (of the rooms, not your dh, lol, just wanted to clarify... lol)

Lori, congrats on the 2#'s !! That is great! Just be careful rewarding yourself with food, ok? So how did you like 13 going on 30?

Hi Deanna!

Ok, I think I am officially caught up! Got to get off here, ds is begging for food, lol. TTYL!

Penny, you should see your friend with confidence. Look at what you have that she doesn't. A family, including 3 beautiful kids and a hubby. A dream job. She may be thin, but she doesn't have a full family and having your 3 kids I'm sure is more complete than her one and college. I commend her for continuing college with a child. But I'd be happy and confident when I see her if I were you.
TTYL

Hey gals- a very quick post. My internet connection is down and I ran down to the business center in our building to check email, etc. But Liam's having a tantrum. I'll post when I can - just wanted to check in

Confessions first: LOL I caved, it's TOM and the chocolate was calling. So last night when I did a walmart run and per hubbys request (LOL) I got snacky stuff...namely stuff to make our own brownie batter blizzards (the boys had those last week from DQ, so did DH) Anyway, so here I sit this morning drinking my coffee and I hate two brownies. But I still plan to exercise today and will add a bit to my walk, to counteract that brownies.

Let's seem QOTD's I listend to CCM most always (contemporary christian). I have pretty varied taste though. I'm not crazy about R&B or rap or metal though. Most of the time in the van we listen to talk radio (Beck/Hannity/ORielly/Rush/Savage). As far as activity's I don't enjoy with the kids? Nothing is coming to mind. My parenting frustrations usually stem from disobedance. My oldest is very logical and wants to argue his point, it's not always disrespectful, mostly he just wants to know you've heard him. But you know sometimes you just want them to do it, and shaddup about it. LOL Let's see the other day was the book question. I love the cadance of Good Night Moon and have such sweet memories of a wee Nathan saying ''hush'' as we read. I also love the message of "Just in Case You Ever Wonder" and "No Matter What"

Mel--that sounds like a lovely bridal shower gift.

Leigh--hope you enjoy your trip. Sounds like fun. And you will get back on points. Don't let a few bad choices determine _the rest of your life_ (see how it sounds when you put it in that perspective) I think modifying it while on your road trip is a good thing...it still keeps your responsible for being aware of what you are eating but doesn't make you preoccupied with diet or feeling guilty when you do enjoy a treat here or there while you are gone. Try to work in some exercise and you can counterbalance those extra points.

Geri--I'm LOL at your comment to Leigh about shopping and remembering that before #2.

Spryng--that recipe sounds really good. So you are revamping your flylady huh? I need to rejoin and pull out my control journal. Once I get in the groove I don't like getting all the emails and such. So I've been trolling right along but with the inlawas coming in and with school starting week after next I think I need to join back up and do a few of Kelly's missions. I love my control journal though...I put mine together and customized it for me and it is just awesome.

Lori--Congrats on the loss. woo hoo

Michelle--can't wait to see pictures of all your hard work. Now, when your done, how's about you hope in your car and take a road trip down here and fix my place up? I mean you'd get to see the US on your way down...you'd get to deocrate my house and then I'd take you to Mexico for some knock off purses and cheap silver and GREAT pottery. Fun, no?

Ok. Girls my boys are currently inventing some game involving their bean bags and the stiars and that just can't be good. I think I shall have some more instant human juice (coffee) and check on them.

Oh and for those following WW. Do any of you do it without going to the meetings? There is just no way currently I could go to meetings. (hubby works 12 hr days...constantly rotating schedule and we have one vehicle) I love the idea of WW and how it adapts to ''life'' but was just wondering waht was outthere and how practical it might be without the actual meetings etc.

Ok...off to save the world...or at least my kids from the destructing of th world.

Hello again, guess I missed a couple posts while I was writing mine earlier, lol.

Cindi, let me know when you'd like to do a flylady challenge today! I'm there!

Penny, I hope you have a nice visit with that old friend. I have the same kind of relationship with the cousin that lives by me. I only have one family member near me and it's her... so if we get together (which is rare) we mostly talk about old stuff because we don't have much in common. She is single mom of 2 boys and is on the dating scene and works full time and I am not into any of that. So it's hard to find common ground besides being related.

Cheri, sounds like we both had those brownie batter blizzards last night, lol. They are good huh? And yes, I've been doing ww for almost a year now and I've never been to one meeting. You can do ww online or at home... you can buy your stuff on ebay and do it on you own. I think Ginny was the only one that went to meetings.

Leigh, hope your internet is up and running soon!

Ok, I'm going to get off here and start on my morning routine and then write out my new control journal. TTYL!