Girls & Junk

Why is it that girls collect so much junk? I have 3 girls (9, 7 and 3.5) and they all share a room together. Today I decided it was time to do the clean out the baskets, drawers and stuff under the bed. I dumped everything in the middle of the floor and it was quite overwhelming for my girls but I told them we were sorting, throwing away, giving away and organizing it all. It is amazing to me the things they keep as precious items. So it was a rocky start to the sorting mix but then we put the radio on and reminisced about the stuff they had in their possession. Okay so I guess the bag collection starts at an early age as I think I counted about 12 -15 bags they got from different parties, they bought at different times with their own money - it was crazy. Then the even crazier thing was when I found a back pack filled with candy wrappers. Apparently that is a hot item to collect - I drew the line on that - we simply do not have the room to have a candy wrapper collection - not unless they are going to make some creative items with it and make millions marketing them.

At the end my 9 year old was so excited - she was now ready for school, she had a place for things and felt very organized. That made me smile. So all is good and clean in the Bentley house of girls & junk. (p.s. my son has the disease too - guess that goes with having 3 sisters - that we will save for tom.)

It's Monday Again

Okay so I had a stale mate this week, ended up at the same weight as last week (168.5) However I was so not good about record keeping what I ate and how much water I drank. That seems to make all the world of difference for me. I also had a fun Saturday night with too many Molson Golden's to count - so all and all I can't complain.

With the school year beginning just around the corner and with all 4 of my kids off to school for some potion of the week I am anticipating much more focus on what I eat, when and my exercise routine. I have 13 pounds that would be wonderful to see come off - I don't actually know what I would do if I did reach that goal but it will be my personal challenge to try - maybe I should be a end date for my goal? Kind of like training for a marathon or studying for some big exam, I can set my target -drop dead date - plot my course of action and then dig my heals in and get to it. I think I will do that - have to look at the calendar, and figure out what would be reasonable goal for myself. I will plan to nail that down by next week for those of you who care. (tee hee)

Wordless Wednesday

We havn't rode bikes all season really and these two cutties were still on training wheels until this past weekend. They took them off, tried once, maybe twice and off they went like rockets. They rode around and around and around - there is nothing stopping them now.

A really Cool Give away

Head on over to Musings of a housewife for a really great giveaway from Swede at heart. They have so many beautiful items to choose from - check out them all. I love the heart and soul necklace and so would like to win it.

Olympics & Friendship

While the Olympics are going on over in Bejing China, my kids and I participated in the fun, spirit and competition right here in our own backyard. My very good and special friend Dawn and I put our heads together for a 3 day mini camp for our children and their friends ages 18 months-almost 6. Thank goodness we had help from many of my older daughters friends and brothers (thanks Anne, Dan, Alex, Sarah, Sydney,Nicole, Moira, Conor and Kyle!)

We opened up each day with a song around the "friendship flame" (their own hand made torches of course). We did a craft and learned about the olympic flag (Did you know there are 5 rings on the olympic flag and that each ring represents a continnent? Americas, Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia.) We also learned that the white background on the flag stood for Peace or in our case Friendship.

Here are some of the pictures from our fun week of events. We had so much fun with all of our olympic friends that came out to share the week with us.

Eliza and her buddy Madison at the gymnastic station.

Kyler and all the big kids in the trike race.

Nicole and Dan showing the latest fencing techniques.

Weigh in...

Monday a.m. 168.5 lbs.

Yea a small decrease and I am in the 60's again. The trouble is staying there. Last week I was so busy with a mini Olympics camp (more about that later) I was running everywhere no time to snack. Then I got sick in the middle so I could only eat soup, that helped I am sure. Let's see what this week brings, I am getting back on track with exercising as well and for me that is the kicker. I didn't use to have to work out to stay in shape now, over 40 well it is needed if I want to keep any pounds off. I just need to stay focused and try to remember not to pop any "junk" into my mouth. Speaking of which, today I had what I thought was an innocent marshmallow with the kids, well after swallowing it practically whole I decided to look at the point value - well it is all sugar so I do not know what I expected but it was a whopping 2 points all on its own - bummer and I don't even like marshmallows that much, good thing I had my morning coffee black today huh!! keep focused that's all. Keep focused.

Missing My Angel- my Angel Came Home

Last Sunday a week ago my brother and his 3 boys came up to visit mom and pop. While they were here they decided to take my darling Michel home with them. This was a good thing because I was suppose to be taking her down to VA on Thursday anyway as they were all (my brother, nephew and Michel) going to New York City for a "night at the musuem". I thought no problem that will save me a trip early, I am doing the olympics here with the little guys - great.


BOY OH BOY did I miss her. It was cool having some time with the other three but I really really missed her. The only other time she was away from me for a period of time was a simple overnight at mee mee's, a friends overnight but this was 6 nights we were talking about. We did make do but it was incredibly hard. The cute thing was that while in NY my brother took the kids to the Toys R Us (it is huge) and she was shopping, picking out a purse (cause she needs one of them (she has tons)) and she couldn't decide which one to buy so she asked Uncle Eddie. I guess being a guy and having only boys (who was picking out leggos) he didn't know how to answer her so he sent me a text picture with her holding up each bag. It was so cool cause I got to see her and help to influence her - she needed her mommy.

Starting Over - The Battle of the Bulge

Look at the rap sheets in the grocery aisle and you will see all the latest ways to loss 10 pounds fast. Or maybe some miracle diet that the stars are doing and how you can do it too! In addition to these you will also see the pictures of stars being too thin or too fat and the absolute worst pictures of them.

There is definitely an obsession over weight in our country and fortunately through the years I have not had to seriously worry about it for myself one way or the other. I do worry for my girls and how they will feel about weight or if they will get sucked into what is the "right" weight, I actually do not know how I will handle that. With that being said I am not one to diet and never have been. I like food plain and simple. I have been pretty fortunate to have maintained an average weight all my life, guess because I am active. I also have been fortunate after having kids and gaining a TON of weight 40+ each time I have successfully gone back to at least my starting weight of 161. Now that 161 is still a bit heavier than I would like to see myself but at least I got back to it each time except with baby #4. The last 15 pounds were just hanging on and deciding that that was the new set weight for me - no good. A year and a half ago I did start weight watchers with a friend of mine and it was fantastic! As I said I LOVE food so it was great to be able to eat what ever I wanted but only in set amounts that didn't' allow me to go over my points. I also trained for and ran a marathon so I am guessing that helped a lot as well.

Well friends I am now sad to say my weight has been creeping up on me and I am again frustrated. I am also all inspired by so many of my girlfriends who are currently active in weight watchers and look fantastic. (Shannon, Yvonne, Jenn K.)

So today I am starting over. I do not have the time or the money in my budget to officially "attend" weight watchers but I am going to post here on Monday's my weigh in and progress.

weigh in 8/11/08 171 lbs. a.m.

weight watchers 10% would be 17 lbs

Ultimate goal 154

Wish me luck!