It's Official....

Well, not that. No, our family weight-loss competition is NOT over yet. 5 more days.

Chase and Oakli have officially been branded into the 4-wheeling family now. They have been taught to drive the 4-wheeler on their own. Bryce brought it to Doug's attention that He was 3 when he learned to drive the 4-wheeler, so the 2 youngin's should learn. Doug got right on that. It was a nice sunny day yesterday and he got right to work! Chase and Oakli took right to it and didn't crash into anything! (Well, how can you with a back yard like that?) I guess there is the tree, the trampoline, the play set, blueberry plants, and not to mention maybe going into the pond... but they did quite well. They were out again today and had a great time! I'm sure they can't wait until they get to ride the more "sporty" version, but for now, this is the "learning" model.














~ Kari

I've finally gotten my jewelry in a place where I think it can be shown well, at an affordable price, to me and to the consumer. I have tried (a while back ago) to sell it on eB*y, but there were just too many complications with that and I didn't have enough items to make it worth having a store. I have found Etsy, and have opened a shop there. If you are interested in seeing what I have finally got going, and what I spend some of my time doing, please feel free... and feel free to spread the word. (Just click on the link to get to the shop). You can also click on the link to the left, in the side bar.

Ebony and Ivory Designs

If you have any ideas for me, or requests, send them my way!

~ Kari

That 90's Dress

I though more about last night's post and also because I talked to a friend on the phone today about my whole weight loss thing. Well, I guess I'll use "friend" loosely, because she had no idea that I had lost weight, even though I talk to her pretty regularly, and see her weekly at church and at school functions. To me it should be obvious, I guess some people are just oblivious. Anyway, when you are working so hard to loose weight, it really consumes you. It is all you think about, dream about, talk about, work-out for, eat for, sleep for, etc... To me me, the changes have been hard to see, because, well, I see myself every day and the changes have been so gradual it has been very difficult to actually see the changes, and therefore accept them. People have commented on them, but because they have been difficult for me to see, it has been hard for my mind to get wrapped around it. I guess in the end, the clothes don't lie, even when they are lying on the floor, around your ankles because they won't stay around your waist. (That's a good thing, right?) I have had major moments that are starting to nail it all down for me. I think if I have enough of them, the corners will be3 nailed into place. I was helping Chase make enough room on the bonus room floor to set up his train set. There were so many dress up clothes out that you literally couldn't see the floor. As we were cleaning them up, I picked up one of my old dresses from when I first got married. I really liked that dress and never could get rid of it. I didn't get to wear it for long, b3cause the post-married life helped me gain a few extra pounds pretty quickly. It stayed in the back of my closed for the longest time, for that time when I would loose the weight and get to wear the dress again. Well, it made it into the dress-up box and is still there. For old-time's sake, I pulled it out to see if it would fit. I was already dressed for today and so I decided that I'd just throw it on over the clothes and just not do up the buttons. Talk about nailing in the nail, I could even do up the buttons, 3even with my clothes on under the dress! Yippee! Too bad the dress is totally 90's style. It was a cute one too! I always wondered what I weighed when I got married (there were just some things that I forgot). Now I know!

Hmmmm...

I'm not really sure what I'm going to blog about yet, I just figured it has been a long time since I've posted anything, so I'd do a quick post b3efore I head off to bed. 5 words ago spurs a nice opening for this post. I've explained this to a few people, now is as good as any a time to tell the r3est of the world that I seem to have this interesting relationship with the "3" on the keyboard. For some reason many times when I type an "e" I also hit the "3" on the3 keyboard. Usually it takes just as long to explain it once to someone and then move on and leave the 3's in my words than to keep erasing them. So from now on when you see the 3's in certain words next to "e"s, it is not because I love the number 3 so much, or I am just retarded... well, maybe I am retarded, I'm just not sure yet.

Right now my life still mainly consists of walking, A LOT! We have 2 weeks and 1 day left in our family weight loss challenge. At this point I don't really care who knows how I am doing, because if you aren't doing as good as you want to be doing, it is pretty much too late. I feel like I am doing really good. I am proud of myself for how well I have done. Whether I win the money or not, I have worked so hard and I have lost a lot of weight and I have to say, "good job, Kari!". I get up in the morning, weight myself, then de3cide how far I am going to walk that morning, based on the scale. I know it sounds silly, but hey, I'm in it for the money. After my 2 weeks and one day is up, then I'll revert back to probably weighing myself just 3 times a week (which is what I did before this competition starte3d) and walking 5 miles a day, which I did NOT do before this competition started. I have resolved that if I want to keep this new body that I have worked SO hard for, it is going to probably take walking about 5 miles a day to actually keep it, so that is what I am going to do. So anyway, aft3er walking, what seems like forever, e3ach morning (in reality it is only one Raechel Ray show and part of Oprah or American Idol, or part of some other show that gets me through 64 minutes of walking on the treadmill) I feel great that I finished it! The day can b3egin. Now what? It has been nice and sunny here in Oregon? My kids keep asking if it is spring. Chase keeps asking if it is summer and when our birthdays are going to be. Poor kid. I digress. Well, I didn't really have a point to b3egin with. I'll move on.

I've been doing jewelry again. It has been a lot of fun. I've got a shop on etsy. As soon as I have a few more things posted I'll put a link up and send out a mass email for anyone that is interested in seeing what I've been up to.

Other news... Chase and Oakli both broke their glasses in the same day.


I can't think of much else to write about for now. I'll be heading to the Neurologist tomorrow for a follow-up appointmen3t. If anything exciting comes of it, I'll let you know.


Oh, I know, we took the kids to Monster Jam this last weekend. We went with our good friends the Newells. We got tickets several months ago and we had a great time with them. They all loved seeing Grave Digger and we got to go early for the "Pit Party". We got to go down and take pictures with all the trucks up close, that was great. One of the moster trucks even rolled, it was great fun. Did I mention that it was loud? Oh yeah, it was loud.

131 miles in SUNNY January

I'd have to say, it has been a very plesant SUNNY January, here in typically dreary, Oregon. I do have to admit, I was gone for the first part of it (yea for Hawaii) and it was supposed to have flooded during that part of the month, but, hey, I wasn't here to see it, so it doesn't count in my book. Even the weathermen say it has been one of the driest January's on record, even with the early floodinig. I digress. Anyway, my post today is to make two points, one is how sunny and great the month of January was. All you had to do was look out the window, or go outside for that matter. I have to admit, I did most of my walking inside this month, but I did go outside some of the time, so it wasn't totally cold the entire month. I can talk, because I HATE the cold. But the SUN, even now, I am sitting here writing with my sunglasses on (yes, picture it - inside the house) wihle I am writing this post. Part of it is because the computer is right by the window and it truly is so sunny today that my eyes just can't handle all that glorious sunshine!

The second point is that I made it 131 miles in January. I don't know if that is good or not, but it is good for me. I decided to keep track of how many miles I exercise for during 2009. I'll keep you posted!