Another new downline!!!

I got notice today that I have another new downline with Close To My Heart! I am so excited!!! I haven't checked to see when I get a promotion, but it has to be soon! There are now 9 ladies in my unit (including me) and it is sooooo fun! If I can ever get MSN groups to allow new member invitations I may just open up a unit web board. Hmm.... Come on MSN!!!!

Back to the gym!

Well... I made it! After a 9 day hiatus (which sounds so much better than 9 days of laziness) I made it back to the gym!! And boy oh boy did I love it! It was amazing to push myself.

I did the weight loss course on the elliptical. I missed my goal of 5000 strides in 30 minutes, but only by a few strides. I am not sure how much extra time it took, but it couldn't have been 45 seconds that I had to work extra to get to 5000. I burned about 375 calories and went 3 miles. That was GREAT!

I have known for a long time that I work best with small challenges. I guess if I was a runner I would be a sprinter. So... instead of trying to pace myself for the whole 5000 I broke it up into little segments. Before today I don't think I got up to 200 strides/minute very often, if I did at all. But I am happy to say I stayed between 200 and 220 per minute for a lot of the workout today. And every time I reached one of my little mini goals it just pumped me up more! It was very exciting!!!

Man, oh man... I really want to lose 3 lbs this week, but I haven't been that good. If I stay pretty serious tonight and tomorrow I could do it! We will see on Saturday when I weigh in. I guess I will be happy with a 2 lb. loss, but if lose under two pounds I will be discouraged. Not because life (or the program) isn't fair, but because I didn't focus and work to meet my goal.

The good news is that I made it to the gym today and I feel really good about what I did. So I know that I know that I know that I will meet my weight loss goal next week for sure!! I am back on the horse and I don't have any reason to get back off! I wonder why I got off for 9 days? Hmm... something to ponder.

Church was AWESOME!!!

Church was AWESOME yesterday at Foothills! The topic was Risk. What a great lesson! It is always great to be challenged to drop everything and immediately follow Christ. We had a very New Testament Church kind of service yesterday. They brought a pool in and had spontanious baptisms for people who heard the message, believed and wanted to be baptized. It was so awesome. There were 28 people baptized in our service and 12 in the first service. I haven't heard the numbers from the 3rd and 4th services. I wouldn't be surprised if the total number climbed to 80 by the end of the day. What a blessing it is to go to such an alive church. Thank you God for the opportunity to see you move through that place yesterday!

****Final reports state that 110 people were baptized at Foothills that day!!! There is now a video on the church's website. www.foothillscc.org

I DID IT!!!

I did it!!! I made my 10 pound goal! I didn't make it in the time that I wanted to. I pretty much fell off the "write it down" bandwagon. With Weight Watchers you really need to write down everything you eat during the day in order to make great progress. Well... I haven't written anything down in the last month almost. Reaching this goal motivates me to "write it down" this week. If I do really well in the next 3 weeks I can make my 17 pound, 10 percent goal by May 5th. That will be awesome!!! That puts me right around the lowest I got in my previous two times with WW. Any progress after that will be charting new territory! It will be great to be approaching my goal weight. Like a dream come true... only... I am not dreaming. It really is all about choices. And one of those choices may be to toss out that left over carrot cake!

Fun Pictures

It has been a fun time for candid shots around the house the last few days. I thought I would share them with you.

Pheoby has been eating Uncle Justin's venison sausage like it is going out of style. She really loves it and asked for it for lunch yesterday. She had sausage, grapes and chocolate milk. What more could a girl ask for? And yes... she is still in her pony jammies!

Today L.C. took Pheoby out to try out her new sidewalk paints. They looked like they were having such a great time.

And last but not least... we all forgot that this shirt needs to be unbuttoned before taking it off! She was so cute even before the camera came out. I didn't realize the middle shot caught her looking up at it until I posted it here. Too cute, huh?

Loving my CTMH business all over again!

I am really excited about the new growth in my Close To My Heart business again! (www.hayesydays.myctmh.com) It is funny the ebb and flow I have had with this since I signed up as a consultant three years ago. My pampered chef lady actually convinced me to look into direct sales. Bet she regrets that! ;o) I compared the two companies and decided that I should go with something that I really love and am passionate about. As much as I love my pampered chef stuff... you can only house so many stones and gadgets. Although I hear they have some fabulous cookware..... hmm.....

Oh! I was talking about CTMH, that's right! ;o) Being a consultant for CTMH was just what I needed to get me out of the house, get me focused on something other than being a SAHM. My business took off really quick! Within months I was having $1200 sales months. It was fun and exciting and I was well on track to my goal of paying for our mortgage with my CTMH income. How cool would that be?

Then when we moved to SC I had to start all over again as far as building customers goes. Thankfully I was able to leave my club girls in the hands of two new downline who signed up right before I left MI. I started getting really excited when business started picking up again. I had some more new consultants sign up which was very exciting for me, but that was also during a stressful time so I wasn't really working to keep my sales up.

Last month I got some motivation from somewhere. I am not sure exactly where it came from, but I must say that I am glad that it is here! We have a new Idea Book that goes live in a few weeks, I have girls asking about signing up to be a consultant with this great April Constant Campaign, I have a few parties booked, new girls are joining my Play Groups and I earned a substantial override commission this month! I can't wait to see where the rest of this journey takes me! Close To My Heart has provided me with lots of great opportunities, many new friends and a great reason to reconnect with some old friends. I am loving that I can work and do something that I am passionate about!

I have GOT to get moving!

Well... it is 12:18 and I have so much I want to do today! Pheoby is almost ready for her nap and I am hoping to GO, GO, GO while she is down. I need to do prep work for my Playgroup tonight (some girls are coming over to do some stamping and scrapbooking!) and I need to work on some cards for a swap that are due on Saturday. I am hoping to get them in the mail by tomorrow. I would also like to get this house cleaned completely. We will just see about that! Perhaps I will save my cleaning for when Pheoby is awake. With all that said I will get out of blogger mode and get crackin!

Unwinding

(Is that how you spell un-wine-ding?)

This is my first "normal" day since my company left and my daughter is back to school. I am at home alone and it is lovely! If there is one thing my stay-at-home-mom self loves it is my home all to myself just to unwind. I have always been this way, too. When Pheoby was a baby I didn't long to leave for a Wal*Mart trip on my own, but having L.C. offer to take Pheoby to a ball game for a couple hours was like a DREAM!

Anyway... here I am today, the house to myself, and I am loving the ability to think uninterrupted. I decided it would be a cleaning day since my house is a disaster. My bathroom hasn't been cleaned since before we went to MI in March and I can't tell you the last time my kitchen has been wiped down... oh, wait.... yeah I can. It was Friday before the Levitt's arrived.

So... I started with the cleaning. The bathrooms are done and the towels have been washed. I really wanted to have more done by now, but I have been dealing with other little odds and ends like postponing my haircut another 2 weeks, making a to-do list, calling Close To My Heart hostesses and stuff like that. And any time now I will be getting the call from Fran to head out to the gym. She will call me when she is leaving school and I will meet her there. My time is really limited! I better type fast and then squeeze in a couple more chores before I have to go!!

I wanted to report that I didn't reach my 10 lb weight loss goal yet. BUT!!! I will by Saturday which is my official weigh in day. I didn't go last weekend because things were just too crazy for me to add one more thing to the schedule. I did go today, though, and I have lost a total of 9.2 lbs! I am excited!!! This is going well! I am excited to see the pounds dropping! My next weight loss goal will be to lose X amount (to be determined later) by May 26th. That is the night that I have planned a Stu-Be (college dorm) Reunion Game Night. I figure this is a great goal because it was at the first Stu-Be Reunion that I looked at the pictures and wondered who the fat girl was! After that I decided that it was time to do something about this whole deal. So, Stu-Be Girls!!!! Be ready to compare pics! I am hoping that it will be enough weight to notice a significant change. We shall see!!!

Another thing I wanted to ramble about as I unwind is how much I LOVE my Bible Study group at Foothills! (www.foothillscc.org) It is amazing to be learning so many wonderful things about myself and about healthy living from this study and from my "classmates." It is amazing to see the relationships building amongst the group members. This is definately a HUGE answer to my prayers over the last several years! God has shepherded me through a lot of mountain tops and valleys and it is a wonderful thing to be sharing my life with such a great group! Growing pains feel so good!!!

Phew!!! Time for a nap!

What a wonderful weekend! My brother Andy, his wife Anna and their kids, Abigail & Miles, came in on Friday morning and left today. It was GREAT to have them come to stay with us, to catch up, to share our lives with them, to play some Nintendo Wii, to learn about how cool GPS units are, and to watch these CRAZY kids play with one another. It was a busy, fun filled weekend. We had a blast and can't wait for it to happen again!!!

We normally don't fru-fru up Miss Pheoby, but she got a beautiful dress from her Aunt Jabecca for her birthday that turned into an Easter dress. Pheoby LOVED it! And she looked soooo pretty. Here is proof!

You are NEVER gonna believe this!

Ok... so keep reading and I will give you ONE guess as to what I just did!!!

One more thing...

I really need to get to sleep! I am exhausted, but I just read a friend's blog where he referred to 23 years ago (he is my age) and I remembered something that happened to me yesterday that was pretty crazy.

I had to fill out a volunteer survey to work in the nursery at church. One of the questions on the form was when did you become a Christian. That was pretty easy. I was in ninth grade. I started going to the youth group first semester and that was when my life was changed. The CRAZINESS happened when I decided that I also wanted to document how many years I have been in this relationship with God. Well... it was 1990. I know that right off because I went with the youth group to Impact 90 and felt called to go on my first mission trip while there. So then it was time to do the math which you have probably already done.

SEVENTEEN YEARS AGO I was in 9th grade!!!! How CRAZY is that!

I am sure it wasn't really that long ago!!! I am sure of it!!!!!!!!

We are DONE!!!!

I haven't wanted to brag too much because I am a little scared, but I think we are finally done potty training! That was the LONGEST process of my life and probably Pheoby's, too! I am documenting this in blog-fashion partly to share this wonderful news with you, but also because one day way into my future I hope to have another child of potty-training age and I would like to pass along some perspective.

I once thought that Pheoby showing interest in potty training meant that she was ready to potty train. Um.... NO!

I once thought that if Pheoby could go 3-4 days with out an accident then we were nearing the end of the road. Um... NO!

I once thought that if you "train" a child using one of the gazillion methods of "training" that are out there that a child would "learn" the proper place for potty and put it there. Um... NO!

I once thought that consistency is key to dealing with ALL parenting issues. Um... NO! Consistency doesn't change a will/genetic predisposition.

I once thought that stickers could convince a child to do anything. Um... NO!

So to the Sarah-mom of the future I say this.....

DON"T POTTY "TRAIN" until you near the 3rd birthday. Oh... it may be fun for a 20 month old to sit on the potty and experience the sweet freedom of not having to sit in filth, but just because something is fun doesn't mean we want to/will choose to do it 8 times a day!!! My theory is that "training" is for goofballs who like to feel like failures! (Ok, so maybe I am a little emotionally extreme at 3 AM as I type this, but come on! It has been a long journey!)

Congratulations to my Sweet Pheoby for being such a responsible big girl who has not had an accident in weeks!!! I am sooooo proud of you! (And so thankful I can be a tad lazy in the name of helping you be independent and responsible since you can now handle the whole bathroom process all by your self!)

Darn it!

I had a long story all typed out the other day about an infestation of our home while we were in Michigan. Unfortunately when I tried to upload the pics I lost it. Sorry bout your luck... nothing fun to read here today!!! ;o)

~S