Last day of school

Today was the last day of school for Tanner, Carter and Garrett. Brody has been out of school for 2 weeks now and could not be happier to have his boys back at home with him. He was getting a little bored without them. I always struggle with the last day of school. It is ALWAYS bittersweet for me. I am always happy to not have to make lunches(times 4). I love not having to make sure all of the homework has been completed and signed. I love the carefree days of Summer vacation that lie ahead. The sleeping in(for the boys). The flip side to all of this is the leaving behind of all the wonderful teachers the boys always seem to get, each year. We have forged new friendships and connections with the teachers and classmates. This year was no exception. Here are some last day of school highlights. The boys meeting up with their friends one last time before the bell rang! There was an all school assembly in the quad. At the end, all of the teachers make a tunnel with their hands and the 5th graders get to run through it and off to middle school. They really just get to run back to their classrooms. It is a fun tradition. I didn't get a picture of wheels, aka Carter. I think I got one of everyone else that we know and his classmates. i am still not sure he passed me without me seeing him??? Once the 5th graders run off, each of the grade levels get to move into the next years grades, spot. Again, another fun tradition. Bordy was so excited to sit in the kindergarten spot. He was all smiles. When I picked the boys up from school, I thought it would be fun to get a picture of Carter with each teacher he had had during his time at CR. There will be a future scrapbook page with a photo of him and each teacher on his 1st day of school with them. Then, these photos with each teacher on his very last day at CR. We will start with Ms. Howder(5th grade). Carter and Ms. Harney(4th grade) Carter and Mrs.Boelens (3rd grade) Carter and Ms. Reid(2nd grade) Carter and Mrs. Stevens (1st grade) We didn't get a photo with Mrs. Moore(kindergarten). She had already left for the day. Trust me, she is just as cute AND awesome as the rest of his teachers. Just looking at these photos makes me smile and weepy. Carter was truly blessed with an awesome team of teachers over the years. We are so grateful for their time, talent, dedication and speciality in the grades that they taught. What a blessing!!!! These boys are so happy to be done with school. Summer vacation, here they come! It is a little harder to capture the middle school-er. This is all I got. A quick photo of Tanner and one of his friends, Jackson. I caught them as they were leaving school. Hey, I will take what I can get! Happy Summer vacation!!!!!

WICKED in the city

The night FINALLY arrived. We have had our tickets to see WICKED for a few months now. I was super excited to see it again(saw it in San Francisco a few years back) and John was looking forward to seeing it for the 1st time. We had a group of 14 going to see it together. Our first stop was dinner at Lucca's, a restaurant just a few blocks away from the theatre. It was a gorgeous night to eat and visit out on the patio.

Our waitress was a little slow to get us our checks. We had to speed walk down to the theatre and made it in time to take a few photos before the show started. John and I even managed to photo bomb one with the Waites :-).

The show was amazing! A week later...and I am still singing the soundtrack! Another fun date night for the books! If you haven't had the chance to see it, I say GO FOR IT!!! You can thank me later!

May by the numbers

ONE a.home run hit by Carter(his 2nd of the season). ONE b. book read this month. TWO new albums purchased. John Mayer and Carrie Underwood. Love them both. THREE Open Houses attended at the boys schools. FIVE candles on Brody's birthday cake. SIX layouts completed. SEVEN little preschoolers/friends graduated from Laugh and Learn preschool. NINE Mother's Day cards were created. I sent them to my Mom, sisters and random friends. TEN baseball games attended. ELEVEN minutes plus 1 second is what I ran my timed 1.5 miles cardio run in. My fastest yet. TWELVE friends got together and played Bunko. It was my month to host. TWENTY FIVE seconds shaved off of my timed 1.5 mile cardio run during assessments. THIRTY THREE new songs added to my play lists(John Mayer, Carrie Underwood, Jermaine Paul(The Voice Winner), new Maroon 5 song,new Kenny Chesney/Tim McGraw song, Luke Bryan)I LOVE music!!!! THIRTY FIVE pieces of art were hung/sold for the art show at the elementary school. SIXTY the # of times I have listened to Phillip Phillips(American Idol winner), We've Got Tonight song. It is one of my new favorites. ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY miles were logged(walked some, ran the rest)

May highlights

The month of May zipped right on by...still not sure where it went??? Here are some of the highlights from our month. Garrett gets his braces on and so begins the many Ortho appointments. He has been a trooper. Baseball season continues to occupy our lives...we wouldn't have it any other way! Kruppy on the mound We celebrated and appreciated the boys teachers for an entire week. This is what we gave to them on one of the days! Such a fun tradition for the teachers who deserve it ALL! My Mom, Dad, John, Tanner and I had the chance to perform the Temple work for my Dad's parents, Grandparents and Great Grandparents(who weren't members of the church)at the Sacramento Temple. This day has been vividly etched in my mind and will go down as one of the highlights for my 2012. The spirit was so strong. It was an amazing experience and one we have waited to perform for awhile now. Mother's Day was wonderful! I was spoiled from "Son" up to "son" down. I was even able to squeeze in a 3 hour nap...beyond heavenly! The handmade cards, thoughtful presents, flowers and the Icing on the Cupcake were perfect! I loved it ALL! This little man turned 5!!! 5 years old. Can you believe it??? We celebrated by waking up to a decorated bedroom door(filled with surprises), having doughnuts for breakfast, taking treats to school, lunch at Chick Fil A with his best friend(Sam),opening presents, birthday dinner, cake and ice cream, and going around the table sharing what we love about Brody! It was such a fun day! We wrapped up all of the school projects that all seem to be due in May, all at once. Here is Carter with his state report. He learned all about the state of Georgia. We even made a peach cobbler to share with his class, it I had been waiting and waiting for the release of John Mayer's new album. It was supposed to be released back in October 2011(just in time for my 37th birthday). Due to some throat issues/surgery for JM, it was delayed. I am happy to report that for one of my Mother's Day presents, my John, pre-ordered the album for me. I have been listening to it non-stop. It definitely has a different(70's)vibe to it but I LOVE it! Brody graduated from preschool. After 2 years of learning and growing at Laugh and Learn preschool, he is ready to move on and go to kindergarten. Again, we can't believe we have reached this point in life! I am wanting time to slow down, just a bit! I am still working out every morning at Fitness MD. I started attending the cardio class back in January! I added that 30 minute class to the hour class I was already attending on a daily basis. It is hard work but I am seeing and feeling the results. I ran my 1.5 mi. Cardio run at assessments in 11 minutes. My time has improved tremendously over the last year and that make me happy! We attended the boys, back to School nights! Their classrooms were fun and colorful, filled with the things they were super proud to show us! We enjoyed a fun day at Folsom Lake on Memorial Day. We told ourselves last year that we wouldn't find ourselves sitting at home on Memorial Day in 2012! We were true to our word and headed for the lake. We met up with our friends the Waites and had a blast. I think we may have a new tradition. Garrett performed in the 2nd grade Life Cycle play. All he talked about was how they were going to be wearing their sunglasses. He was one of the snakes and did a great job(he is the blondie to the right.) Carter's Major Padres Little League team went 20-0 for the season. WOW!!!!! They took the entire season and dominated. They are now gearing up for TOC's and are super excited about that. Whew!!! I am exhasuted just reliving our month through blogging. It was a busy month, filled with the things and people we love. We can't wait to see what is in store for us during the month of June! I am already hanging on for dear life :-).

April by the Numbers

Oh my!!! Where has the time gone??? Life is moving way too fast! I keep wondering when time will slow down. I have come to the conclusion that it isn't going to happen. I need to learn to enjoy the journey and the fast pace lives we lead. April was another super busy month...nothing new! Here is our month, by the numbers. ZERO casts for Tanner...finally walking on his own two feet again. ONE home run knocked out of the ball park by Carter. It was awesome! TWO phone calls with a producer from the Dr. Oz Show for the Transformation Nation Contest. Exciting! THREE different eggs hunts for the boys. THIRD place in the Green Tangerines Biggest Loser Contest. FIVE days of STAR testing were completed by the boys. SIX scrapbook layouts were created. NINE blog posts for the month. TEN baseball games played/attended. TWELVE new songs from itunes. I am LOVING the new TRAIN album(California 37). FOURTEEN days of Spring Break were enjoyed by the boys. TWENTY ONE a. Fit Club workouts completed. TWENTY ONE b. Cardio Blast Classes completed. THIRTY SIX eggs colored/dyed. Forty Three candles on John's birthday cake. Eighty birthday candles on Grandma Pung's birthday cake. ONE HUNDRED AND NINETEEN miles were logged(lots of running and some walking). ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY SIX cards were completed by the YW for their camp fundraiser-whew! TWO HUNDRED Finalists were contacted by the Dr. Oz show for placing in the top 200 out of 1.3 million contestants and I was one of them! YAY!!! This month was wonderful...lots of celebrating the ones we love. We can't wait to see what fun awaits us in May!

one for the books

I wasn't sure if I was going to blog/post about this. After thinking it over, I have decided that it IS part of my story, part of my journey. Each day(except Sundays)I spend some time on my treadmill. I either walk or run intervals. To help with the "boringness" of treadmill time, I like to watch TV shows that I have recorded during the week. One of those shows that I like to watch is the Dr. Oz Show. I have learned many things while watching his show. Back in September 2011, Dr. Oz announced a new contest that he was going to launch with Sharecare. The name of the contest was/is The Million Dollar You Contest. The person who transformed their life/health in the biggest way would be awarded 1 million dollars and a trip to the the Dr. Oz show in New York. I figured, what the heck? I was in the middle of losing my 100 lbs. and needed that extra motivation, that extra push if you will. You had to get your initial weigh in recorded at your local Weight Watchers. I figured it would be easy because I was already weighing in, once a week at my local WW. Along with that initial weigh in, you had to complete 6 other steps to even qualify for the Million Dollars. I had to tell fiends about the contest, make an appt. with my Primary Care Physician, find out my family health history, find out what my BMI was and a few other things. I am happy to report that during the contest, I completed all of the 7 required steps, the last one being my FINAL weigh in on April 9th. The 9th was the last possible day to get your weight verified by Weight Watchers. After weighing in, I came home on that Monday and logged my current weight on my Sharecare page and sent my #'s off to the show for the contest. I was feeling pretty proud of myself, my total wight loss was 113 lbs.. Half of that weight was lost during the Million Dollar You Contest. So I went about my day, wondering if I even had a chance at this. The next morning, I went to the gym, like I do each day. I came home from the gym and logged onto my computer, wondering if there would be any news from the contest. This is what showed up in my inbox.

I was in shock and so very excited. Out of the 1.3 million people who had registered for this contest, I had made it to the Final 200. WOW! I quickly forwarded the email off to my little support group of family and friends who have cheered me on and then I tried to calm my nerves.

The next phase was to wait for one of the Dr. Oz Producers to contact me. On Tuesday(April 10), I received my 1st phone call from Annie, at the Dr. Oz show. She was super nice and wanted to hear all about my journey and how the contest/Dr. Oz had inspired me to transform myself. That phone call lasted about 45 minutes. I was so excited and was talking a mile a minute. She had to ask me to slow down because she had to type all of my responses :-). Again, she was super sweet. We said goodbye and I hung up the phone and wondered what my chances were?

Annie called me back on Thursday and we chatted a little bit more about my health and how it had changed with my weight loss. I told her that I had considered myself a healthy(happy) fat person. Even with the extra weight, I did not have high blood pressure. I did not have high cholesterol. I did not suffer from heart disease. I was simply a young Mom to 4 boys who wanted to live/lead a healthier life. I want to be around to watch my boys grow up and do amazing things. In order to do that, I knew I had to make some changes in my world and I did. I want to inspire others to find a healthier version of themselves. I want others to be happy. After a 25 minute phone conversation, I hung up the phone. Again, wondering what my chances were.

I am not gonna lie. It was longest weekend and the longest 5 days of my life. I hadn't heard anything and it was driving me crazy. It was Tuesday(April 17th) afternoon and we were on our way out the door to a baseball game. I hit the refresh button my laptop one last time to see if there was a new emails. It was there! In my inbox! There it was! Another email from Dr Oz/Sharecare. This email notified me that I did not make it to the next round/the TOP 50. My heart sunk. I'm not gonna lie, I was so disappointed. I began to replay the conversations that I had had with Annie, wondering if I had said something wrong. I am only human. As I sit here today and share my story via my blog, I am nothing but proud of what I have accomplished. I have worked hard. I have replaced bad habits with good ones. I have found an exercise routine/gym that I LOVE. I am happy and healthy and I feel great! I know I lost all of my weight in a very healthy way! I didn't take any short cuts. I worked hard for every single pound I lost.

At this point in the Million Dollar You Contest, they should have it narrowed down to the top 10 finalists. I am so anxious and excited to see who actually wins the Million Dollars and the trip to New York(what I was most excited about). I will be cheering that winner on simply for the fact that I know, first hand, how hard it is to make big changes.

Within a weeks time, I learned that I was the 3rd place winner in the Green Tangerines Biggest Loser contest and that I had placed in the Top 200 for the Million Dollar You Contest. Those two contests kept me moving towards some BIG goals. I am thankful for the push and challenge both of the contests gave me.
Many people have asked what I will be working towards next. My new goal is to have Michelle Obama arms :-). I saw her on the Biggest Loser working out with those contestants and was in awe of her very defined arms. I have decided that will be my new goal/challenge :-). With some hard work, I am convinced that I can check that goal off of my list in the near future!

Doing what he LOVES

Carter is thrilled to be back out on the field! Baseball season is here and we FINALLY have sunshine and blue skies...perfect baseball weather. Carter is still playing on the Padres with Coach Nick. He loves it! He has secured his position as short stop and is now on the pitching roster. It sure is fun to watch him to do his thing, what he LOVES!