The Thought of Houston

Reality is setting in more and more every day.  This evening, Kale and Kayla flew to Houston for the weekend to find a home.  In 29 days, they will be married, and another month after that, they will be moving to Houston…which seems like worlds away to me.

Even though my heart is somewhat sad, it’s also so excited and happy for them and their future together.  There are so many exciting things going on in their lives right now.  David and I know that Houston is a great opportunity for Kale and his future and we also know he worked very hard to get where he is. But, I’m SO going to miss them when they move.

About four years ago, I watched him graduate from high school.  Shortly after I walked away from a college dorm room leaving my precious baby alone in a big, bad world, two hours away from home.  But he did well (and so did I, I might add).

And now, we’re about to see him graduate and leave again. Only this time, it’s 11 or 12 hours away. To this momma, that’s a LONG way. But, we’re confident he will do well there, too. And I’m certain I will, too.

Until that time comes, I’m going to look forward to their wedding and the holidays and cross that other bridge when I come to it.

A Bridal Shower

You know it’s getting close when the bridal showers begin.  Our church family had Kayla’s first shower today and it was so nice!

The table was beautiful.Kayla and her cute, cute Maid of Honor, Jessica My mom, Kayla and me

L-R My sister, Valerie #4, Mom, Kayla, me, and my sister, Suzanne #3

David’s sister, Carla and our great-niece, Rylee (what a cutie!) My BFF, Jodi.  It hit us today how our children should still be in grade school…not getting married!! (She’ll be where I am in short order.)

Rylee got sleepy. Thank you to our wonderful church family for being so good to us.  We are blessed!

Look at all that hair!

I’ve marked a few things off my “To Do” list today.

• Got my yearly mammogram
• Finished with my Monday workload
• Paid a few bills
• Read and commented on several blogs (I’ve been so behind since my computer was among the missing).
• Successfully convinced Dave to run to the grocery store since I had to train tonight and go to a meeting – score!

Saturday marked my 15 year anniversary of working at our church. Tyler was just starting Kindergarten and Kale was in the 2nd grade when I changed jobs.  My church family has always been so good to me.  Yesterday in church, Steve embarrassed me by calling me down to the front to give me a card and a trip for two to Houston (to be taken AFTER Kale and Kayla move there at the end of December, of course).  What a great gift!! I’m so blessed to have a job I love and to be able to work with and for some amazing people.

This afternoon, I got a few more photos of my new niece.  She looks a lot like my little sister when she was a baby.

 

Check out all Sophia’s hair!

Hope you had a great Monday!

A Lazy Weekend

Kale and Kayla came in for the weekend.  It’s muzzleloading season here in our “neck of the woods” so Kale was excited to come home for a man-camp this weekend.  Kayla and I decided to have a quiet girl’s weekend.

It’s been pretty chilly here, so we built a fire and did a lot of this…

and this…

It was good to just relax and get some rest.

Tyler hunted for a while Saturday morning, but he came home for the rest of the weekend.  He, Kayla and I all went to church this morning… kinda funny that he and Kayla walked in to Sunday School together without Kale…and then the three of us ate lunch at our favorite Mexican restaurant.

The kids will be back next weekend for Kayla’s bridal shower at our church.  The wedding is less than 6 weeks away!!

In big family news… my baby sister (Kristin #11) had her second baby today!! A precious little girl, Sophia Rose.  Isn’t she precious?

 

Oh, and welcome back my laptop!!! (Can you hear me humming a little “Peaches and Herb”.)

Missing My Laptop

Kale has my laptop at his house.  She has had the required “surgery” and seems to have recovered nicely as per the reports I’ve received.  She’s still recuperating and is being monitored very closely and will be coming home to momma next weekend when my other “precious” makes the trip back for the weekend.

We are only seven weeks away from Thanksgiving AND the wedding.  Time is going by so fast and 2009 is almost one for the record books. I STILL haven’t found a thing to wear to the wedding.  I’m starting to get a little nervous.  I’m a big online shopper and have checked every store I can think of and have found nothing, notta, zip! I could really use some help in this department. I am leaning toward chocolate brown…so if y’all happen across something you think would work, let me know.

On another note, y’all know how much I LOVE “The Biggest Loser”.  As much as I love it, there are some things I truly have problems with:

• First of all, the past couple of seasons, we’ve seen the trainers behave in ways I believe (as a trainer) are not necessary to motivate people. This is and should be a family program, so NBC, please note that we don’t need the f-word bleeped out a million times a show to realize your trainers are intense.
• I also don’t care for the game play.  I think the show would do just as well, if not better, if it revolved totally around the health and fitness aspect and the emotional journey the contestants find themselves on.  Having experienced some form of it myself, I can tell you, that losing weight and getting fit is VERY empowering and it brings out some things in you that you don’t realize you have within you…whether that be purging negative self-talk or discovering strength and endurance you never knew you had.
• It’s awesome to see such amazing weight loss results at each weigh-in, but the show needs to remind the audience that these contestants are being watched with every morsel that touches their lips and are spending hours, 6-8-10 hours, in the gym each and every day.  Doing so can result in extreme weight loss, especially when they have so much to lose.
• The other thing that I have problems with is…the first rattle out of the box these contestants are expected to walk, jog, run a mile.  They are extremely overweight, out of shape, and obese…and from the shows own words… “very sick” .  From our perspective, it appears that these contestants take off in a run to try to reach that dangling carrot (immunity) first.  What we are not seeing, I’m sure, is that there are doctors, trainers, etc on the sidelines observing for safety (and legal) reasons.  But, the message is that the typical obese person can and should get up off their easy chairs and run a mile.  NOT! I would never do that to one of my clients.
• I do love the show, and I love how the contestants develop relationships and have a desire to get healthy for their loved ones and themselves.  I bawled over Abbey’s story of losing her husband and two young children tragically in 2006, or hearing how Shay has never felt loved.  I cheer each week for Rebecca and Amanda to do well.  I absolutely LOVE watching the changes occur both in the contestant’s bodies as well as their hearts and minds.

Well, now that I got that off my chest. As for me…I am happy to report that after 3 years of struggling on the scale, I have reached my goal weight and have lost almost 20 pounds since June.  And I did it without a trainer screaming obscenities in my ear!!  Although, there are a few times that I want to cuss myself for the workouts I put us through. Ha!

Hope y’all have a great weekend… we’ve got the Turkey Trot festival here.  We miss you, Mousie!