Strange things are going on around here

Hi everyone! I hope all of you have had a wonderful holiday. Ours was great, but so incredibly busy. It seems like everytime I sat down to start blogging about some of the fun activities we did it was time to go do something else. Things are finally starting to settle down a bit so I'm hoping to ease back into my old routine again. Fingers crossed.
Anyway, a few months ago I posted about my kids ghost hunting expedition.  I thought their little exploit was kind of funny, but I swear I'm beginning to wonder if the little monkeys may have been onto something. We've had a few odd incidents around here lately that have me scratching my head. 
First we have the missing items. We've always had things go missing around here, I think that's pretty common in most families. Lately though it's just been happening at an insane rate. I'm one of those 'a place for everything, everything in it's place' type people so it's been killing me. This has been annoying, but not too terribly freaky. 
Weird thing number two though? Yeah, it's freaky. The kids all got simple point and shoot cameras for Christmas. Like most kids they have been taking pictures of random, weird stuff. I was looking at Kylie's pictures and ran across this one:

 A picture of the kids coats, big deal right? Uh, yeah it kind of is. These are the kids coats from last year and are not the ones Kylie took a picture of. The one on the far left is Kylie's and is hanging in the back of her closet. The two smaller ones on the right are folded up on a shelf in the laundry room waiting for me to donate them. Now, how did they end up in the picture? I know the kids didn't switch them out because I was in the room when the picture was taken! This is a picture that I took of the coats that are hanging up right now:

 Obviously they are completely different. Oh, and just for the heck of it here's a picture I found on my blog of the old coats (no clue why I had a picture of them) from last year:

See how the coats are in the exact same position? These were taken months apart and with different cameras by different people. FREAKY!

And for weird happening number three. I finally got a new cell phone. Nothing fancy (I promise I'm probably still a good 5-10 years behind you guys on electronics). Last night I was sitting in bed reading a book and Sophie crawled into bed next to me, everyone else in the house was in their bed asleep. I heard a noise and Sophie turned to me and said, "mom, your phone is ringing. Before I got to it, it stopped and then started ringing again. When I got it out of my purse it had already quit ringing so I checked to see who called. Umm, the number both times was (cue twilight music) from my house! Seriously the freakiest thing ever! So there you have it. Weird things going on aplenty.

Six

Today my baby is six years old. Where on earth has the time gone?

 

The 100 workout- a small update

Back in August I posted about the 100 workout. I was wanting to get into shape and this little exercise plan seemed to come along at just the right time. In case you don't know what the 100 workout is, it's basically a calisthenics plan.

 Looks pretty easy right? Umm, not so much. I can't speak for everyone, but I have to say it kicked my butt. The first time I did it I accidentally left out the second set of 60 jumping jacks and almost cried when I realized it. I was out of breath and honestly thought I was going to die. I did change the plan up a bit. Instead of running I ride my bike. I tried running a few years ago and developed a knee inflammation that took me months to get over so I'm a little scared of running now. Hopefully if I lose some more weight I'll get up the courage to give it another go and we'll see what a difference it makes. 
 Now for the question I'm sure is on your mind, how much weight have I lost? The answer is I have no idea. Sorry. I was weighing myself diligently, but then in September I had a few medical scares and when I went to the doctor and was weighed I was very upset to find that I weighed a full ten pounds more on their scales than I did on mine.  I came home and threw mine away. However, I did weigh myself a few weeks ago and at that time I had lost about 16 pounds. I have gone down at least one size in my jeans and in all honesty I think I'm ready to go down one more size. As far as how I feel? Much, much better. I'm also trying to be careful with how I eat. As I mentioned earlier I had some medical issues come up and it kind of opened my eyes to some things. One of them being my diet. I'm not a big junk food eater, but after talking to some friends I realized that some of the foods that I ate that I thought were okay, were really not good for me. I started to read labels and was shocked at some of the things I found. Before if I happened to glance at a label it was to check the calorie content, but now I'm looking at the sodium content, carbs, and fat. I've also recently begun drinking water. I've always really, really hated water so this is a biggie for me. I'm kind of cheating a little in that I am adding some flavor to it in the form of crystal light, but hey it helps. One thing I am not doing however is dieting. Someone recently gave me a diet plan that they are using and I took one look at it and knew that it wouldn't work for me. For one all of my favorite foods were banned from it and two, I know that I might lose a lot of weight with it, but then once I'm off the diet it will all come back. 
I was thinking of adding some pictures of myself to show the difference in my weight, but I'm really not ready for it. I go back to the doctor in March and I'm thinking that when I go I'll have an accurate weight (hopefully far less than last time!) and I'll try to get some pictures to share then. Other than the change in clothing size it's been kind of hard for me to tell a difference. My husband recently snapped a few pictures of me with the girls while I wasn't aware and when he showed them to me I could really tell that I looked different. So there you have it. I'm nowhere near supermodel size and I never will be, but the plan is making a difference and I'm going to keep it up and try to update every so often. So have any of you tried the 100 workout? If so how are you coming along with it?

Let the insanity begin!

Well as you all know by now it's December which means the holiday season is officially here. In other words; chaos and insanity. This past weekend was so busy I nearly wept when I woke up and realized that today was Monday and I did not have anything I had to do or anywhere I had to be. Sure, my house needs to be cleaned and I'm sure if I thought about it (trust me, I won't) then I could think of a few errands that I need to run, but for the most part today brings pure bliss in the form of doing nothing other than recovering from a loooong (but fun) weekend.
On Friday I chaperoned a field trip with Audrey's class. We had a nice picnic at the park and then went to the theater and see the play A Christmas Carol.  The play was really nice, but I have to say I was completely exhausted by the time we got back to school. I honestly do not see how teachers can deal with the constant talking day in and day out. The kids were wonderful, but oh my goodness, can they talk a lot! Then after I picked the kids up from school they had just enough to time to change and get ready to head downtown for the North Pole Stroll. 
This was kind of a big deal for us for several reasons. One, we've never been. Two I was driving. The driving thing may not seem like a big deal to most but for me, it was a huge thing. I do not drive at night unless I absolutely have to. I don't see well and it makes me extremely nervous. I also do not drive downtown unless I have to. There are lots of one way streets and trying to find parking makes me a nervous wreck. However I was bound and determined that I was going to do this for my kids and I did. The first thing we did when we got there was write letters to santa.

Then we went to the exploreum. They've been having an exhibit on Australia so they had an Australian themed Christmas complete with a surfer santa! My kids of course refused to take pictures with 'that weirdo in a santa suit'. Audrey and Sophie did however get their face painted with an Aborigine sign. Sign of what I have no idea, but they thought it was the coolest thing ever.

 Then we were off to see the snow. That's right, snow. In south Alabama. 

 I didn't claim it was real snow. After playing in the snow we came across this gorgeous Christmas tree and I thought I would get a nice picture of the kids in front of it.

 Awesome isn't it? Something tells me it won't be making the cut for Christmas cards this year. 
 On Saturday we didn't have too much planned. We met up with my parents for a Christmas parade. It was awesome. You know how at the end of most Christmas parades the final float has Santa claus on it? This community decided to end theirs with a van from the jail pulling a flatbed of inmates on it. Sadly I didn't snap a picture to share. 
Sunday we went to the Shriners Christmas party. The kids were excited because they had a little parade and they got to see Santa Claus. This year the Shriners did things a little differently and had drawings for door prizes at the end of the party. My family never, ever wins anything so imagine our surprise when right as we were getting ready to leave we heard Sophie's name called. She won a humongous bicycle. 

It cracks me up because the thing is huge and she is so proud of it. I told her I would try to find her some pink streamers to girl it up a bit. After running home to drop off the bike we took the kids to Bellingrath Gardens to see the Christmas in lights exhibit. I'm not sure why I always insist on taking tons of pictures since they never come out well, but I do.

little drummer girl

copycat has to do everything her sisters do

All in all we had a fantastic weekend, but I have to admit I'm kind of glad to have it behind me. I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Christmas lists

Like most parents every year I ask my kids what they want for Christmas. For some kids this might seem like an awesome opportunity to list every toy they've ever seen on television and in the stores. Not mine. Trying to get a list out of them is like pulling teeth. I do good to get them to give me two, maybe three things. For example I asked Audrey what she wanted and  after much deliberation she finally told me she would like the American girl dog Sugar and her rain gear.

I asked Sophie what she wanted and surprise, surprise she told me she wanted a ginormous Hello Kitty stuffed animal.

 With Kylie I was a bit luckier I suppose. She asked for two things.  A Moshi monsters ds game and a Moshi monster Iggy plush. Please don't ask me what a moshi monster is because I have no idea. 

 

 Now most of this was easy peasy. I bought everything ages ago, but that stupid plush thing Kylie asked for has been sold out everywhere. Trust me, I mean everywhere.  I finally found out that the Moshi Monsters game originates from the U.K so I searched online stores in the U.K. No luck. Every single one was sold out of it. I tried Australia. Nope. Finally as luck would have it someone on Amazon had one and I snagged it. For twice the retail price. Because you know I'm a sucker when it comes to doing things for my kids. 
Do your kids make Christmas lists too? If so did they put anything super hard to find on it? Anything that you would really, really rather they not have?