Finished Family Room

I finally feel like our family room is finished. 

This was designed for me by Lisa from Uppercase Living and 

I LOVE IT!

She came and installed it since I was terrified of all those pieces. 

Thanks Lisa!

Happy Anniversary

Happy Anniversary! 

12 years down

4 kids

1 house

Happy as can be!

Yard

Now that it is getting hot again, we decided to work in our yard over the Memorial holiday weekend. Brent had Saturday and Monday off, so we took advantage of him and put him to work. We tore out three trees, two bushes, 10 years of pine needles and garbage, and took two loads to the dump.

 How war did we get?

About 1/3 of the way around our yard.

Yes, we have much more to do, but the fact that there is something starting to happen is very exciting!

Peach tree from side yard we tore out.

Hannah caring out tree trimmings

Side yard after ripping everything out.

Trying to take out trees. Notice the piles of crap still on the ground.

Aubree's favorite place to sit, right in the way.

Cool Dude!

Ben got a new look. 

Rock on Dude!

Update

Quick update: - 18 lbs down. 5% loss. Doing water aerobics with miss Bekka 3 times a week in MY freezing, cold pool.  


Next goal - Hit 10% = 29 lbs. Sign up and begin training for a 5k. Anyone want to join me???

Wait! Wait! Wait!

During Annie there were many photos taken of us. Naturally we wanted to document that we had been a real play and how much fun we had doing it. But it brought to my attention the hard cold facts. As I looked at pictures of myself on stage there was no denying it, I was BIG.

Now, I know that I'm overweight. I have ALWAYS been overweight or heavier than your average bear. But I was still rolling around on the floor with my kids, coaching softball, teaching, in ANNIE for goodness sake. I can still do stuff. I'm hip. I'm with it.

Seeing the facts in black and white of me on stage, twice the size of anyone else on stage was pretty harsh. I cried. I got depressed. I felt awful the second Friday show and was really self conscience. At some point though, I realized that everyone had been seeing me this way for months. It was just me that had changed their perspective of what I looked liked. I relaxed and had a great show Saturday to finish off our performances.

I guess the hardest part of all this is that I like where I am in life. We finally have our own home. Brent's business is doing well. I've been working regularly. The kids are at a great school. I have AWESOME friends in every avenue that pick me up and help me get through those rough days. I like the inside of me pretty well.

So how do I fix the outside?

I went back to weight watchers this week. I'm down 13 lbs since I started back in February. I reached out to some Annie friends who are behind me 100% and we are starting to exercise together on a regular basis. I also REALLY want to do a 5k this fall. I think I'm going to just sign up and then if I walk the whole thing, who cares! At least I started somewhere right!  No matter the slip ups and slides back, I'm going to continue to move forward on this journey and eventually will match the inside with the out. 

Annie!

Opening Weekend of Annie was AWESOME!

The show was a HUGE hit. Everyone who saw it, loved it. 

Here are a few behind the scene shots.

Hannah and some of the orphans

Lexi and Traci (Grace)

Me (Mrs. Greer) and Hannah (Kate)

Hannah and her buddy Katie (the other Kate)

Cousins

Riddles represented!

The orphans! 

Female servants
Aya, Lizzie, Marissa, Arianna, Samantha, and Me!

Becka (Music Director), Cheryl (Hannigan), and Traci

The men!

They had do something in between scenes!

The stage crew. 

Lexi and Katie (Lilly)

My experience with Annie was full of emotions. Since being married, having kids, growing up, nothing has taken this much of my personal time. We had rehearsals usually 3-4 days a week from 6-9 and then the final two weeks until 10 or 11. I had to completely step out of my comfort zone to sing and dance in front of 400+ people 5 times.

We only heard rave reviews though. Everyone who saw it, loved. I'm so happy it all turned out!!!

Blessings

So I decided the other night that Heavenly Father must like me. I must be doing something right for I have been blessed so much recently I can't believe it. Here are a few things that have happened so far the last few weeks.

• Received half day kinder job through the end of the year. Yippee!!! So excited for I have NO work for 3, yes 3 months out of the year. All though it is not full day, it will also get me up to the highest pay level for the beginning of next year, and it puts me with good graces with Tracy Unified since it was a harder job to find a sub for. 
• Working on Annie has been so fun. I have met some amazing people and I hope to keep them in my life. I don't get a rush from being on stage like some people. In fact if I didn't love the individuals I was working with every night it would be hard to stay motivated to keep going. But I do have a blast with them and it has made this experience so rewarding. 
• On the flip side, I know this has been a hardship for my family. Bree cries every night as Hannah and I walk out the door. Brent has been so great during "Hell" week and I can't imagine having a more loving and supportive husband. 
• I'm grateful to Danielle. While being gone she has helped Brent so much. She has emptied and filled the dishwasher every night, helped shower with Bree, picked up after her siblings, helped her dad make sandwiches for lunches, read stories with Ben, etc. She has been AMAZING this week and I'm so proud of her. 
• I'm grateful to be building my relationship with Traci again. Traci and I don't get to hang out just the two of us much (or ever) and I've enjoyed doing this with her. I'm grateful that she is apart of my family. She made me a tougher person in high school, showing me that I was more than I thought I was. She helped me to stick up for myself. I have missed our friendship over the years as we have moved from friends to sister-in-laws. I'll miss this once Annie is over, but grateful to have laughed and goofed off with her again so much. 
• I'm grateful to have met so many Latter Day Saints during this process. A good handful of the cast is Mormon and I love that. It's so easy to talk about everyday life when the person across from you understands you and your beliefs. 

I'm sure there are many more things, but I'm grateful to my Heavenly Father for putting me in this position and for listening to his gentle pushes.