Please help Riley

This story really touched me, because I lost a cousin of mine(6 years old) to cancer earlier this year, and this little girl is the same age as my daughter

Riley Philpot is a 9 year old that is being sent home with leukemia, the doctors can't do anything else for her. She lives in Winterville, NC and according to the doctors, she has run out of options. Her one wish from Make a Wish Foundation she asked for LOTS of letters/pictures to be sent to her home that she could read/look at. If you would like to be a part of this effort, please send Riley a get well card to the address below. She has been battling cancer since 2006 and went into remission, but the cancer has since come back and there is nothing more they can do. I think it would be SO wonderful if any of my friends from other areas would help out, even if it's just a quick card in the mail. Also, if you have friends and/or neighbors that would like to be involved in this effort, please pass this along to them too. Here's the mailing address:

Riley Philpot

206 Slaney Loop Rd.

Winterville, NC 28590

All it takes is a Get Well Card and it will make a little girl feel good about her life. That is something that we all can do for little girl.

You can view her website by clicking here.

My Happy List

We have been going through alot of crap here recently. No other way to describe it. Mostly financial stuff. So, today I thought it would be fun to make a list of things that make me happy................things that really dont involve money(well, most of them) so here we go:

1. late night Netflix movies with my family
2. the sounds of my daughter playing
3. listening to it
4. writing music
5. performing music
6. playing my piano
7. SWAP-BOT
8. making things
9. journaling/blogging
10. taking pictures
11. going to church
    
12. dancing in the rain
13. laughter(its contagious)
14. the beach
15. listening to my daughter play piano and sing
16. Freecycle
17. learning about other countries and cultures
18. receiving things from other countries
19. compliments
20. a good hair day
21. cool weather
22. warm weather(the sunbathing kind)
23. a good book(although I havent read many lately)
24. positive TV shows like the Biggest Loser
25. making a nice meal for my family that wasnt taken out of a box somewhere
26. SUSHI
27. The Dallas Cowboys(even though I really dont care for Romo)
28. The Texas Longhorns.....hook em baby!
29. the look of a clean house(dont get to experience this too much.....lol)
30. a good cup of Starbucks

So, thats it. Now time for you to go make your happy list. I hope you have fun.

Weighty Issues

So, this past week the new season of Biggest Loser started. I will be following it, it is always inspirational to me to watch. I really got to thinking alot. All the sob stories. Abby who has lost her family, Shay who at 476 pounds, is the biggest contestant ever. The majority of them all had certain events trigger thier food addicition. I do not have an addiction, I just have a lack of discipline. Ill admit it. I started this year out with the highest of expectations............I have fallen soo short. Everything I have set out to do, every goal I had hoped to complete for myself has fallen by the wayside as far as my diet and loosing weight are concerned. I guess i need to look at the bright side, I have lost 20 pounds, and that is more than i have been able to lose in 9 years.............its not alot but it certainly a start. I have reached two conclusions in the past few days:
I have been fat all of my life. Its a part of me that i am afraid to lose. I dont know if I will like the new,physically improved person i may become because i dont know that person..............Now, i dont think i would go getting all self centered and stuff. I have never been that way, its not me. But what if? I like myself just the way i am..............why change?Other than the health aspects of it, why else?
The second conclusion i have come to is that I dont want something drastic to have to happen to make me get my butt in gear. Being a death or some other form of tragedy................and thats about all i can say without crying...............
I set a goal for myself at the beginning of this year, but what i failed to do was set other mini goals to work up to that goal.So here are a few of my mini goals i am setting up for myself the rest of the year:
no more caffeine(it stunts weight loss) and not to mention it depletes your calcium
exercise for at least 15 minutes once a day(will work up to more gradually)
no eating after seven PM. This one will be the most difficult, I think.
I would also like to knock out breads and pastas. I dont eat a whole lot of them, but when i do, they really mess with me.
These are just a few goals. I have attempted these before and failed. i would do them for about 2-3 weeks and then scratch it off my list and then continue back to the same thing as always.
Wish me luck, as i will you in all of you weight loss endeavors. Together we can do it =D

Jon and Kate plus 8

I have been a follower for the shows Jon and Kate plus 8 and 18 kids and counting for years. Due to recent events, Ive stopped watching them however. I guess they just got old after a while. By now everyone knows about the very public break up of Jon and Kate Gosselin. Its very sad. But,its reality. It happens to people everyday. I, for one saw it coming years ago. Im not taking sides,but Kate, shame on you. The way you publicly treated Jon on TV was horrible. If you treat him like that in public, I hate to see how you treated him in private. Not that i am taking sides. But there were weeks I would watch and literally want to throw something at you because of the way you treated him. That is not how a wife is supposed to treat a husband.............granted, we dont know what goes on behind closed doors, and he may have deserved it at times,but still. In my years of watching, I never saw him demean you or disrespect you in front of the camera. I know life was stressful for the two of you. It shouldnt have been all ways about the kids. Somwhere along the way, the marriage became about the kids and not about Jon and Kate. Your husband should always come before your kids. God first, husband second, kids third, and then yourself. Everyone knows that.Marriage is hard work, and you have to invest time in it, go on dates,put one another before yourselves,etc. I heard , or actually read somewhere that Jon wanted to throw the series out the window years ago, and that you wanted to continue. Ride it for all that it was worth. If it werent for those little blessings, you wouldnt have been able to live it up and go on all those book tours,and eat steak and lobster dinners, and leave Jon at home with the kids for weeks at a time.Shame on you. and shame on you for continuing the series after the seperation. I dont know if that was your doing, but Im guessing it was. Thats pretty pathetic..............I for one think its sad and will no longer be watching.
And Jon, I am getting to you. What are you thinking having a relationship with a 23 yr old girl? Jon, you are still married, can you at least wait until the divorce is final? Sheesh. Would you like any of your girls parading around with a married man at 23 years of age?
So, those are my current annoyances as far as that whole saga is concerned. Im anxious to see Jons interview on tuesday on abc with Chris Cuomo.
I was going to touch on the Duggars, but will save that for another day.

Where I been

I honestly cannot believe it has been that long since I posted. The past two months have been extremely busy. Went to camp with my daughter(see pic above. This is the first time that I recall ever wearing a lifejacket, its not because I didnt care to wear one, just havent ever done anything that required one......lol),went to the very first cowboys game in their new stadium(which they won by the way). That has probably got to be the most fun I have had in a long time.....................it was just like one big, huge tailgate party. People playing frisbee and other games in the parking lot,taking pics in a tricked out suburban(wish I could find pics of it, it was dallas Cowboy everything, right down to the seatbelts),it was just like one big, Dallas Cowboy happy family.
We also got a puppy last month. He was one of those you see people trying to get rid of in the Wal-Mart parking lot. This couple lived in the country, and someone dumped off a batch of puppies right in front of their house..................so we took one. he was the first one who looked at us, and now he is ours. We named him Boomer,which at first didnt seem appropriate,but now that hes getting older, the name fits


Other than that,not much else going on. I should be on here more blogging since things have calmed down a bit.................

Veggie Quest Week 2

So, I am well into my second week of no meat. Did I mention I am not having any caffeine or bread eiether? I have lost about 6 pounds. Not bad in one week......I feel like crap. But "they" say thats a sign that toxins are leaving your body. The tiredness, the achyness, the headaches......suprisingly enough i have not been very cranky. Which usually goes hand in hand with being tired and hungry. Fruits and veggies are pretty filling, who knew?lol.
So, a suprising side effect I have had is smoother skin. My skin is not as dry. I am not sure if this is due to the extra veggies or what, but I like it. It has also been clearer. i have rosacea,which is a reddening skin condition. Here lately, it has been horrible,I tend to look like I have constant sunburn.Even with make-up on, I still get the "oh, we got some sun today" comments. No red skin this week. Not even a little bit. Its weird.Im thinking it was the caffeine.
Can I just say how much i hate scales? Not for the obvious reasons,they just seem very tempermental to me....lol. Mine seems to have a mind of its own lately. Why yes, rachel, I will weigh you today. Then the next day its "nope, dont feel like it today, sorry. You'll have to come back at a more conveneint time".
So, that it for now, I will try to check in weekly and post about my progress(or lack therof). Hubby and i are going on a mini-cation next month(its like a vacation only shorter....lol) and I am trying to lose at least 15 pounds before then, so we will see.

Giraffes for Ola

Ola Helland is a guy from Norway who is trying to collect one million images of "hand made" giraffes by 2011. Besides of a bet with a friend, he's got a deeper reason for this project: "The giraffes cannot be drawn on a computer since the whole point of this project is to give the digital world a break and let humans be humans for just a little while. People spend too much time in front of their TVs and computers. It's time to create something with your hands! Something you can feel, touch and hold! I don't care how you make you giraffe(s) as long as it's not on a computer. Try being old fashioned for once, it actually is a lot of fun." "Getting one million giraffes in such a short timeframe is impossible. Or is it? That's what I'm trying to find out. Yes. I know it means that I need about one giraffe a minute. And that I'm not even close to making it at this pace. But at this point it really doesn't matter if I make it to a million. It would be mindblowingly cool if I did, but consider this for a second: There are people all over the world drawing giraffes right now. Isn't that cool? I think it's really, really cool. I think it's very interesting to see how many giraffes I will get, but it's even more interesting and fun to just sit back and look at all the amazing giraffes that are pouring in. Have you looked in the gallery? There's some really amazing stuff in there. So. If you think this is only about reaching a million you've kinda missed the point of the project. It doesn't matter if I make to a million. I really, really want to and I'm still working towards that goal, but at this point it's just fun to see people all over the world turning off their TVs, putting their computers away and sitting down and drawing giraffes. Old school style. People spend too much time being digital. They should try be analog, being human, creating something real (not 0's and 1's) for a change. Most people love it when they try it. This would be a great summer project for your kids, or even for yourself. Click Here: One Million Giraffes Good luck with your project