A testimony of faith...

This sweet baby has stolen my heart! Read this and be encouraged.

18 Months!

One serious pose, so you can see what she looks like without her cheeks about to pop! Rose is one big, sweet, happy baby. She loves to play inside and especially outside. She is an active, curious little one. Her favorite things:

Daddy (of course)

kitchen stuff, she would much rather go through cabinets than toys

baseballs :)

DeeDee and Dylan (our dog and cat)

shoes, especially her crocs

climbing and running

toy phones and real phones

milk, cheese, eggs, most any food....ice cream too

nursing :)

playing with brothers and sisters, of course!

We are enjoying our sweet Rose. She is such a blessing.

Menu Plan And Low Carb Update

I'm excited to say that I've lost 11 pounds. After the first week or so things really slowed down, but I expected that. The weight is more likely to stay off with a slow and steady loss. That's what I keep reading. I know it's going to take time.

• There have been other good things happening to report with the loss and positive changes in my diet. Here's a list of a few things I've noticed:
• a huge improvement in frequency of headaches
• skin rashes have improved or healed completely
• less aches and pains and general morning stiffness has improved
• stomach issues are much improved
• hypoglycemia (blood sugar highs and lows) are gone
• major sugar/carb cravings are gone (if I "crave a piece of cake" it's because i want to enjoy a piece of cake, not because of a constant physical need for sugar for energy) I enjoy desert. That will never change. It just needs to stay an occasional pleasure!

I have discovered through my low carb dieting that I am gluten intolerant. I notice an instant recurrence of most of my list if I have bread or some other wheat item. I especially notice stomach problems. I need to do a little more research about how to handle this long term, but the proof is in the "pudding" or in this case my symptoms make it very clear.

I have also figured out that sugar substitutes like splenda and whatever they put in diet drinks do not agree with me at all. I just can't tolerate it. I've tried to eat sugar free ice cream and diet soft drinks for an occasional treat only to be left with a headache and tummy ache. They taste really good, but the side effects are not worth the temporary treat.

For now, fruit has become my sweet of choice. Summer is the perfect time to enjoy a great variety of in season fruit! And here's what's for dinner!:

Monday-BLT's, slaw , fresh pineapple (salad for me)

Tuesday- roast in the crockpot, rice, garden veggies, cantaloupe

Wednesday-taco salad, honeydew melon

Thursday-chicken, rice, salad, watermelon

Friday-dinner after VBS at church

Our Garden

Everyone helped plant tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, watermelon, and cantaloupe!

We're still patiently waiting for a constant harvest of tomatoes. We've eaten a few...mmmm.

Abigail and Anna planted sunflowers. They have been the most fun to watch. They are growing like my oldest kids:)

We have a small fenced are in our large back yard. We planted alternating tomato and cucumber plants instead of your traditional row type garden to preserve the grass and limit weeds.

This picture is beautiful! I told Abby we should make cards with prints!

Abigail's container flowers are beautiful!

Anna's sunflower right before the glorious bloom.

Still patiently waiting for the blueberries to ripen too. We can hardly wait for these. We have two large bushes in the bottom of our yard.

Our little Rose is growning and blooming too:)

Wendy and Lil's....my sweet little mud makers and eager gardeners.

A Great Deal...An Understatement!!

you can barely see Rose in the back ground, she was really excited about the cheese and the cheerios too!

This is certainly the best I've ever done bargain shopping. This is the kind of deal coupon shoppers and frugalites dream of. And to think, I wasn't even going to buy any cheese at Kroger this week. The original sale price was ok at $.99 cents per 8 ounce bag, but I can do better at Sam's Club normally. A friend of mine alerted me that a $4 catalina printed for 5 bags of Kraft cheese purchased in one transaction. But, it got even better because this promo overlapped with Sunday's Mega event that gives a $5 bonus for buying 10 participating items which included Kraft cheese! So follow the math with me....

Buy 4 Kraft cheeses, get the 5th one free for a total of $5.08. On my first transaction I had a $1 off coupon and paid $4.08 out of pocket and a $4 off catalina printed out. So, I continued the process using the $4 off coupon each transaction and for every 10 cheeses I bought an additional $5 was deducted from my order allowing me to buy all the cheerios, OJ, milk, eggs, ice cream, and baby wipes! I paid a total of $22 and change. And I have a $4 catalina off my next trip to Kroger. Thankfully cheese freezes well :) It really pays to keep your eyes open to great deals as you go through your local stores. And if you find a great deal don't be afraid to stock up while you can.
I also came across a grocery cart of Pampers at my Kroger this week. There was an employee cleaning off the shelves. They weren't priced yet, so I asked her to scan them for me and tell me what they were to be clearanced at. I ended up with 10 large packs of pampers for $35.00. Getting these kinds of deals leaves a lot more room in the grocery budget week to week!
~~Thank you Heather for the great tip on the cheese sale :)!!

A Birthday AND Free Food...

It doesn't get much better than that. We all enjoyed some delicious combo meals from Chick Fil A today. That's a big treat for a family our size. AND it's Jacob's 16th birthday. It is sooo hard to believe I have a kid that age. We've had a great family day and lots of fun dressing up like cows. You might think I made my older kids dress up. Nope, they were very willing for good free food! I asked Jacob last night if he would mind dressing up to go and he laughed and said he would even dance for food. Like most teenage boys he LIKES to eat and eat he does.

Samuel, as usual had a really unique style for his cow costume. That's a black trash bag and a spot on the rump, just like any good cow :)

Lily may have been the cutest cow we have. She could hardly wait to go to Chick-Uh-Lay as she called it. The afternoon could not come soon enough for her so we could go. The location we went to had an indoor play area which made it even better for the little ones. We will look forward to Cow Appreciation Day 2010.

~~Happy 16th Birthday Jacob~~

We love you very much!!

Is This Day Today?!

Lily runs up to me very excited and says, "Is this day today?! Is it Anna's bank account?!"

Translation: Is it today? Is it Anna's banquet? Tonight is Anna-Kate's softball team's end of season banquet. We're having an ice cream party at the park.

~~picture credit...Anna-Kate~~