Blogging my weight loss journey - Month 9

I am not sure which language "plateau" translates into "just quit trying", but apparently in Lora-ese that is exactly what it means. I get frustrated when I am not making progress, and then I soothe that frustration with food. (Curse you Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Fudge Brownie ice cream!!! You are so good!!) It's a vicious cycle!! I don't feel good and I am tired. I get so fed up with myself, but it always takes SOOOOO much longer to get back on track than it does to get off it. More frustration, so more food.

It was really disheartening to realize that I will not be able to reach my main goal. I thought that my goals were very reasonable, so I am depressed that it looks as though I will not be able to reach it. It took me eight months to lose 40 lbs., I can't imagine that I can safely lose another 40 lbs. in the next 2.5 months. Arg!!

I have to say that it is not as fun to blog about losing weight when you are not actually losing weight. I know I have gained weight, as I am feeling tubby, but I am still fitting into the same clothes, so I know I haven't gained TOO much weight back. Although any weight is too much weight. The worst part is that I absolutely stopped exercizing!! I exercized last Thursday for the first time all month! Not very productive. All out to nothing!

The sad thing is that most of the things I have been eating don't really taste all that great (except for the Ben & Jerry's ice cream), and I don't feel good after eating them. But, unfortunately that doesn't ever seem to stop me.

The thing to focus on is what I have accomplished! I have lost 40 lbs. I am healthier than I was at the beginning of the year. I have to get things back in the right direction. I think I will be blogging a little more often than once a month, as I feel like I try to straighten up right before a blog post, so if I do them more frequently, then I will straighten up more often!

A New Record - 36 finds!

On our trip to LA and back, Kevin and I managed to break our family's previous record of 34 finds in a day! Today we got 36! Awesome!

On Saturday when we were heading down to LA to the concert, we weren't going to do any caches on the way down, we were just going to hustle down there and cache on the way home. As we were heading into Tulare, Kevin suddenly went veering off the freeway onto the offramp to get a cache that he decided at the very last minute that we had to get RIGHT THEN! The cache was in a mobile home park and it was hidden in a cairn in the front of one of the mobile homes. It was really good that we stopped when we did, as the cache owner, California Cash Cow, and his wife, were packing all their belongings into a trailer to move to a new house. We were probably the last ones to find the cache at this location. We ended up being there for an hour, swapping stories and discovering each others geocoins and travel bugs. His dog and his truck are both travel bugs, which we thought was GREAT!!

On Sunday, after we had a nice visit and breakfast at Denny's with Jer and Renee and the twins, we were on our way home - the LOOOONG way! We started with several caches north of Castaic and then we headed out the 138 towards Palmdale to the northern Ridge Route. There were 18 caches on that leg of the route that we hadn't found yet. We love those caches! Great scenery and great history and we even met a few other cachers along the way. We also did a lot of benchmarking. Kevin even found a gravity station, one he has never found before! He was very excited! Out of all the caches we went looking for today we only had 2 DNFs (did not find), and those are pretty great stats! At one cache we saw a bobcat! It was too fast for our camera, but impressive none-the-less. We had a great time!

When we went through Bakersfield we stopped to see Kevin's grandparent's house. Kevin's dad has been down for weeks getting the house ready to be sold, as his grandmother lives in a nursing home in Modesto now. As we walked around the back porch and yard, Kevin was pointing things out to me and telling me memories he had about them from when he was younger. He took a lot of photos, too.

Then we headed back to Kerman to gets our girls. It was a nice weekend to spend together!

See all the Geocaching pics HERE.
See all the CA Cash Cow pics HERE.
See all the Bakersfield pics HERE.

Nightwish - Part 3

Okay! It's official! We are Nightwish groupies!! This is the third concert in a year that we have seen them. (We actually debated about going to the San Francisco show the night before, but we really thought that would be excessive!)

We drove down to LA on Saturday morning and we got to the Wiltern at about 4:20pm. There was already a line forming on the north side of the theater. Since we had seen told that the box office would open at 5:00pm, and there were only six people ahead of us, we figured we would just stay there to pick up our will call tickets. 5:00pm came and went, and the will call line got longer and longer. 5:30pm. Someone comes out and tapes a sign above my head that says this line is for LiveNation.com ticket holders. (We bought our tickets from Enter the Vault.com) 5:45pm. A few people in Wiltern shirts came out and everyone would try to get information out of them, but each time and with each person there would be different and conflicting information. We were told at one point that if we had enterthevault.com will call tickets we were to definitely stay in the line we were in. Ten minutes later, at 6:00pm, the same lady who said that walked by us saying that the enterthevault.com ticket holders were to follow her to the back of the building. Since she was walking from the front of the line to the back, the line kind of reversed itself and we ended up being much farther back in line. Arg! Now we waited at the back of the building for another 45 minutes before they started giving us our tickets. (We got a kick out of the fact that there were signs that made three lines, A-G, I-Q and R-Z. Those of us in line speculated as to what would happen if your last name started with H. Would they not let you in? Was there a separate line behind the dumpsters just for the H's? Too funny and very indicative of the chaos and disorganization we experienced.)

I should say though that we had a great time talking to several of the people that we were standing next to. The two guys who had driven from SLO were the best! It was also fun to people watch all the cars and pedestrians going by. When the cars would pull up to the light we would watch the passenger crane their necks to see the marquee and then you could see them mouth, Nightwish?! Their reactions to the lines around the building were varied and often comical. Most of the people in line were dressed in black and looking very goth (in fact one of the Wiltern staff actually stopped twice and jokingly told Kevin, who was dressed in jeans and a red plaid button-down shirt, that he still had time to go home and change) and one mother and several small children walked by looking a bit fearful. Kevin said he caught the eye of the smallest child and smiled and the kid broke into a big grin! It was funny!

At 7:00pm we finally had tickets with our names on them in our hands and we now had to go around the building and join the line that had been steadily increasing in size since we got there. We first went across the street to a pharmacy, used their restrooms and then bought two granola bars so that we would have something to "eat" before we went into a three hour show. (After standing in line for two and a half hours by now.)

At 8:00pm on the dot (the watch on the arm of the man standing behind us in line beeped at exactly the same moment we started moving forward) we started into the theater. The Wiltern is a gorgeous old Art Nouveau movie theater that has been converted to a music venue. The outside was impressive, but the inside was phenomenal! Our photos do not remotely do it justice! It was beautiful!

We got a spot on the second tier back from the stage and we were behind some people who were standing at the railing. From that vantage point we were level with the people who were on the stage. It was a great spot to be in! There was a screen above the stage that people could text messages to and they would scroll across the screen. It was a great time killer reading all the texts and so the concert seemed to start pretty fast, even though we stood there for about another 45 minutes. (I honestly have to write to Rocket Dog, as this is the second concert I have stood through with their shoes on and this time it was 9 hours!)

The concert started at 9:00pm with Sonata Arctica, another Finnish band. Kevin had played a few of their songs for me before we came, so I had heard them, but I didn't know their music very well. They were great! Apparently though, as the opening act, they didn't rate a spot light so I never really saw what the lead singer looked like, as he stood in front of the stage lights most of the time. The lead singer is very energetic and has great voice quality! He had some power behind those notes he was singing! They played for about 45 minutes and then they were off. Not enough time for them. We wanted to hear more. (YouTube Video Links: Don't Say a Word & Paid in Full)

During the set change Kevin had a funny conversation with a guy who was trying to convince Kevin that he was a bigger Nightwish fan and so we should let him stand in front of us. (He looked a bit like Squiggy from Laverne & Shirley, only with a mowhawk.) First he said he was shorter than me and so we should let him go in front, then he tried see what CD Nightwish had released when we started listening to them. Dude, if you wanted to stand in front of me, you should have been in this spot before me. He tried this ploy out on a couple of other people around us before he gave up and just stood where he was.

At 10:30pm the lights went dark and the crowd went wild! Nightwish came out and even though we had seen posts on blogs about earlier concerts, it was still weird to see Anette with blond hair! She looked great, but different! The concert was great! The sound was great! They have really been putting their own style into things! Marco is actually a classically trained guitarist, so it was nice when he was playing "The Islander" that he added in some great extra riffs to the song! (And, this time, Anette was wearing the tiara again! Cool! Her part in that song doesn't seem right without it.) Jukka was fantastic as usual. With our vantage point we got to see more of him than we have at any other show! The same thing with Tuomas. We were able to see him better than before. We could see his fingers moving as he played the keyboards. It was great! And Empuu was his amazing self! His solos are so impressive!

They started with "Bye, Bye Beautiful" and ended with "Wish I Had An Angel" as they have through all phases of this tour. This series of concerts was actually billed as the North American Tour - The Final Chapter, as they are finishing up their Dark Passion Play tour and heading back to Europe and then to the studio. They won't be back in America in 2009. (:( Sniff!) Where are we going to get our Nightwish fixes now? They sang several songs off the Dark Passion Play CD - Amaranth, The Islander, The Poet and the Pendulum, Whoever Brings The Night, Sahara and 7 Days To The Wolves - and then they also sang The Siren, Dead To The World, Wishmaster, Higher Than Hope and Come Cover Me (this is a really old one that I didn't even remember hearing before!).

We talked about the difference between the three shows we have seen. Back in November Anette had just started and so the songs all sounded very much like they do on the albums. The band was tight and it was mostly the new music. In Vegas Anette had learned more of the older songs and so there was a lot more variety to the set list. This time they are more comfortable and were putting their own spin and sound into the songs we all know and love.

After the show was over (at midnight) we went out to where the buses were parked to see if we could see the band. We weren't able to get VIP tickets this time, and I had brought the photo of me with Jukka and Marco from Las Vegas and I was hoping to get it signed. We stood there and talked some more with the guys from SLO that we had been in line with earlier. One of them had actually got a copy of the set list off the sound board and was going to try to get it signed.

We didn't have to wait long and Jukka come out! I got right up there and he signed my photo first! I said again how great a drummer we think he is. He said thanks and then I backed up. Kevin said, didn't you want a picture with him? Arg! People were really packing in, so I couldn't get back up there. Then Marco came out! When I held out the photo for him to sign he looked at it for a minute as if he was trying to figure out where it was taken. He said, "I look sober!" He signed it and I got another picture with him , and this time he made sure he didn't look sober! :) I was very glad to have been able to have my photo signed! By this time I was able to get back in to where Jukka was and I got another picture with him as well. Then Tuomas came out and I was able to get a photo with him as well! I shook his hand and told him how much we appreciate his music. We waited until 1:30am but Empuu and Anette never came out, so we got in the van to drive to Jer and Renee's house where we were going to crash for what little of the night was left!

This has been a fun adventure this year heading off to here and there to see this band that we have grown to like so much! It has been neat to see the crowds growing at each show (and the prices of tickets going up with each show) and seeing that Nightwish's fan base is really growing here in the US! Hopefully they will get that new album done soon and be back to the US as early as possible in 2010. Because, when they do get here, you know where we will be!

See all the Nightwish at the Wiltern pics HERE.

Marco, Jukka, & Tuomas!

Lora got more pics with Nightwish!

Never Forget

Lily and Zachary's 2nd Birthday Party!

This morning we left early and drove down to Castaic for Lily and Zachary’s 2nd birthday party. They had the party at Scooter’s Jungle which is like a big, huge bounce house! (We all laughed at the irony that last year when the party was outside it was 107°, but this year, when it is indoors, it is only 85° outside. Go figure!)

There were slides and bouncy houses, games (like ping-pong and air hockey) and a zip line. All the kids were having a great time! When Amanda and Rebecca first climbed to the top of the slide, Amanda stood there nervous for a moment, and then Rebecca went flying by her and down the slide. She must have figured that it couldn’t be that bad, and then after that we could barely keep them off the slide! Katrina went down a few times with Kevin and Lora, but she mainly stayed in a little toy area that she was comfortable in.

There was a lot of food and the kids got pizza for lunch and then there was a yummy cake! We all song Happy Birthday to them (one half of the room sang Zach and Lily and the other half sang Lily and Zach so it would be even!) It was a fun birthday party!

After the party we did a few geocaches (15 of them today!) while Jeremy and Renee got the kids to sleep and then we went over and visited for a while. The twins opened their present from us (we love these books by Leslie Patricelli - Yummy Yucky, Quiet Loud, Big Little, and No no Yes yes) and then our girls opened their gifts from their aunt and uncle. The kids had a great time playing!

We finally had to go and we got a few more caches on the way home. We stopped in Gorman, on the Grapevine, on the way home for dinner. Traffic was pretty light, mostly because we were traveling the opposite direction of the holiday traffic, and believe it or not, we made it home before 10:30pm!

See all the birthday party/road trip pics HERE.

Blogging my weight loss journey - month 8

Because of our schedule tomorrow, I am not going to be able to weigh and measure in the morning, so I am doing it one day early this month.

Can you say PLATEAU?! Arg!! I am exactly the same as last month. I don’t want to discourage myself, but at the same time, my final goal, which seemed so reasonable at the beginning of the year, is now looking less and less reachable. That’s ten pounds a month for four straight months, and that seems fairly unlikely given my track record of the last four months.

My weight is the same and my inches are the same. Nothing has changed. Actually, that is not exactly true. Three days ago I changed my exercise videos. I am hoping that a change to my workouts will jump start me past this plateau. I am using the FIRM workouts, which have been my favorites for nearly twenty years. There is a lot of paraphernalia involved, so when I started again this year I wanted something really easy and simple, so I went with Turbo Jam. Now, that I have been exercising regularly for over six months I can deal with all the extra stuff (weights, boxes, sticks, 2x4s, etc. -- it sounds funky, but you’ve got to see them!) Even with eight months of exercise under my belt, the last three days of FIRM exercises have given me sore muscles, so I know I am working harder and that is a good thing!

Also, my friend Cory and I started walking at night and that lasted about a week before all our schedules got in the way, but I am hoping after this holiday weekend we can get back into that habit, and that may help as well.

Hopefully the next month’s blog post will be much more exciting!

Excited!

The Letters to the Editor only allow you 200 words, so I thought I would post about this! I am not one to wear my politics on my sleeve, but often that is what a blog is for, right?!

I feel very strongly about my right and responsibility to vote! Yet I have had little to be excited about in the political process for a long time. For many years I feel that our choice for president has been a vote for the lesser of two evils. I was feeling that way about this election as well. . . until today!

I am so excited that Senator McCain has chosen Alaska's Governor Sarah Palin to be his running mate!

For the first time in this and many elections I am excited and wanting to talk to people about what is happening. I called my mother, who lives in Alaska, this morning and we had a great talk about Sarah Palin. I have not lived in Alaska since before Palin was elected, so I am not familiar with her as a politician. My mother said that she is sad that Palin could be the VP only because that would mean that Alaska would lose her as it's governor. She really likes Governor Palin and all that she has done for the state of Alaska and it's citizens. Governor Palin has an 88% approval rating in her state!

Now, I am not so naive as to believe that there were not some powerful politically strategic reasons that McCain chose her -- the fact that she is female may draw voters who are still upset that Hillary didn't win, the fact that she is pro-drilling fits with his energy plan, to name two -- but the fact that he chose her makes me happy in two ways. One, McCain had the gumption to put a woman on the ticket and not play it safe with more of the usual. Two, she is really a great person. When I heard that she was the choice, I was excited just because she was from Alaska, and how cool is that! Then I heard her speak! She is genuine and sincere and that is missing from so many of our politicians today and it has made most of us very cynical about what we hear coming out of their mouths. So far, from what I have seen and heard, all that she says about herself can be backed up with reality. I like that! Her acceptance speech blew me away and I am excited to see where she can go from here!

For the first time in a long time, I can't wait for November 4th!!!

-Lora

Read an article about Sarah Palin HERE.

Butterflies!

Two weeks ago we were given a Butterfly Treehouse by a friend of ours. She had ordered it for her grandson, but it arrived too early and the larvae would die before he got there. So, we took it home and the girls were excited to watch the lifecycle of the butterflies.

The larvae had their own food stuff in a small cup and they would feed off that for several days before they went on to become butterflies. The girls took a close look at them and decided to name them (although I am not sure how they thought they were able to tell them apart). They called them Climber, Eater, Hanger, Small and Cat Deeley (caterpillar - cat - Cat Deeley, from So You Think You Can Dance). Anyway, we watched them grow, pretty much doubling their size each day.

After a few days the caterpillars crawled to the top of the cup and attached themselves and formed their chrysalises. The chrysalises were attached to a paper disc in the top of the lid of the cup and so we opened the cup and took out the paper disc and attached it to the mesh side of the Butterfly Treehouse.

And then we waited. And waited. And waited. For the girls seven to ten days is an eternity. One morning the girls woke up and were so excited that four of the butterflies had come out of their chrysalises. We put some flowers and a slice of orange on a plate with some sugar water sprinkled on top and we put it in the bottom of the enclosure. There was one more that hadn't come out yet and I was hoping to take a few pictures as it emerged, but in the five minutes it took to run to the post office and back, the last one came out of it's chrysalis.

We fed them for a few days and then today we released them. We figured they were anxious to go, as there were several of them that would flutter madly around the enclosure, but when we opened the enclosure we actually had to pretty much chase them out. They stopped long enough to perch on the girls fingers for a moment, but then they were gone. It was fun! Rebecca is already asking when we will be doing it again!

To see all the day by day photos of these butterflies CLICK HERE. .

Back to School

This morning the girls went back to school. Amanda was nervous and excited! She was up nearly the whole night with a nervous stomach. Rebecca was pretty even keeled. It’s just another day for her.

Kevin went in late to work and we all took Rebecca to Sun Empire (which was extensively more chaos than usual!) and got her to her third grade class with Mrs. Sutherland. When she walked into the classroom there were several kids who called out, “Rebecca! Over here! Your desk is over here!” I was glad to hear that, as ever since Kindergarten, Rebecca has been in classes where she had only one other student from the class year before. This year there are quite a few kids in her class from last year, from church, and, ironically, from Kindergarten. Wonderful! When I have told anyone about who Rebecca’s teacher is this year they have all told me what a great teacher she is! I am glad to hear that as well!

Next we took Amanda over to Liberty Intermediate. Much less chaos there. That campus has pretty well got it together. (It’s the parents that cause issues.) Amanda’s class is in the new building that was completed just before the end of last year. Her teacher is the 6th grade GATE teacher, Mr. Kismet. Most of the kids from last year are in her class again, so no worries about friends there!

They are going to do well! Both of them did very well on their STAR tests last year and they have done a lot of reading during the summer. We are very proud of our girls and how much they love school! Now Katrina and I get some time together!