Basketball / Snow / Cake

It took me a couple of Samuel's basketball games to even get a picture he was IN, so I didn't mind that the quality was low when I finally was able to capture him. The fact that he had the ball in his hand was a huge plus. We will ignore that this was before the game started and no one else was around him, but it did make things much, much easier.

My second shot of Samuel was a great improvement. I can't remember what was actually happening at this point because I am totally incapable of paying attention to the game and taking pictures at the same time. I hope for more basketball pics at future games, but these two are enough for a scrapbook page if I never take another, which is entirely possible.

I was hugely disappointed this morning that school was not canceled due to inclement weather, since I had already informed by boss that I would be staying home if it was. When the schools decided to let out at noon, my excitement was barely contained. I know this doesn't look like a lot of snow, but it's a fairly good amount piling up outside now and it's still coming down.

We have bread, milk, and a lot of junk food should we be snowed/iced in all weekend. This is how Samuel and I celebrated:

We did save a piece for John, in case you were wondering.

Speed Scrapping and Eating (not so) Right

This will have to be a short post because I have another "speed scrap" in about 10 minutes. Or maybe I'm going to watch Fringe. I haven't really decided yet, and I feel like I haven't given my TV viewing priority lately. I would hate to neglect my DVR. It's very important to me and I think I need to let it know that every so often.

Speed scrapping is where you are part of an online chat and instructions are put up one at a time and you do whatever it says: "Pick three pictures. Make one large and two small" "Pick four papers" "Put a flower in one of the corners" and so forth and so on. You never really know what you're going to come up with. I always end up fudging a little bit because sometimes the instructions are just wonky. Since I have a boy not all instructions involving flowers and ribbons really work with him. These are my last two speed scrap pages:

I have a thing for buttons, if you haven't noticed.


John and I are doing well on losing weight in 2010. Last week at my Weight Watchers weigh-in I had lost FIVE, yes FIVE pounds. Of course, that was all weight I had gained during the holidays so I can't rejoice over it too much. I lost another pound this week. Then John bought a bag of mini chocolate chips because Samuel wanted chocolate chip pancakes. They have been my downfall for the past couple of days. I won't be satisfied until I have consumed them all and the bag is empty. It's a sad state of things, but that's just what be. I will get myself under control eventually. If I can just lose .2 of a pound more in January then I will have surpassed my goal for the month. Not too shabby... Now if I can just put down this bag of chocolately goodness.

Samuel is spending the night with his grandparents tomorrow. He looks forward to it because grandma always watches America's Funniest Home Videos with him. This morning he announced to me that he hadn't seen it in awhile and he was so glad he was going to get to because he "couldn't live without comedy!" After a moment more thought he added, "and chocolate milk!" At least he gets plenty of both around here.

I've suddenly become very interested in photography and I want to figure out what all my camera can do. I doubt it's much, but I need to find the manual around this house somewhere. This may turn out to be quite a search, but I'm sure it'll turn up.

A New Year

2010...you are finally here!! I'm not a resolution-maker because those usually fail. However, I do have a goal and it's not an unreasonable one. By the end of 2009 I had lost over 30 pounds. I lost more than 30, but let's face it, December didn't do anyone's waistline a favor so I have to go back a little bit. Since 2010 is the year I turn 40 (yeehaw!) I have made a goal to lose 40 more lbs. by my 40th birthday. I have just under 40 weeks to do it. I'm still a member of Weight Watchers, attending my weekly meetings and counting points so I'm not starting from scratch here. Anyway, my wonderful husband John has agreed to have the same goal. So, here's to losing 40 lbs by October 4th! Whoo hoo! I'm not going to blog specifics about my weight because I'm just not into the TMI, but I will try to put up at least a monthly update on how we are doing.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful start to 2010. Happy New Year!

I Met Danny Gokey

No, I haven't blogged in months. I knew I'd eventually get around to it. I don't know how people blog every single day. OK, so I met Danny Gokey on Monday. For real! My coworker Deb came in around 8:30 am and asked if I had lunch plans. I said, "I've got a Lean Cuisine." Then she tells me that she was one of the first 10 callers into US101 and she was going to meet Danny Gokey at noon and did I want to go? I nearly fell out of my chair. I thought we'd be getting actual food (being lunch and all...) but listening to Danny sing is probably way better than watching him scarf down a sandwich. He sang 3 songs from his upcoming album, and I have to say they were really, really good. I'll be buying his album when it comes out.

God's Chisel

Guitar Recital - May 9, 2009

Samuel's first guitar recital was this weekend. Here is a picture of Samuel with his teacher, Nathan, who is awesome. I was not seated in a place to get a good video of Samuel's face, so you're just going to have to trust me that it's him sitting behind the music stand.

Now presenting, Samuel Riddle playing "Chords in C"

Lazy Saturday

Today has a been a wonderful mix of laying around, eating junk, reading, watching TV and then just doing more of the same. Except for the two times that Jerry (the dog) threw up on the couch, it has been a completely work-free, stress-free day.

This morning Samuel and I mixed up "Chocolate Concoction" in the crockpot, which consists of devil's food cake mix, chocolate pudding mix, chocolate chips, eggs, sour cream and water. We had a very good time licking the bowl for breakfast. Yes, that was our breakfast. I was going to take a picture of the finished product, but after six hours of waiting we essentially threw ourselves at it like ravenous wolves and devoured it all, so no picture. OK, maybe not wolves, and there was the problem of the dead camera battery too, but my point is taking a picture didn't cross my mind when there was so much chocolately goodness to consume.

You'll just have to imagine how awesomely tasty it was. And it was, my friends, yes it was.