Another year in the books!

In many ways the contest finals are getting easier each year.  I know what to expect, and I can head off problems and issues a little sooner, or just easier because I’ve dealt with it before.  We’ve been working on streamlining the process to catch up with the times (technologically) so where we used to have all paper forms, we’ve been able to move to emails and other advancements.  We are no where near being an all tech event, but there are dreams of the future… being able to walk up and scan your QR code, then walk to the judging room and have the dookeeper scan your code again to check in and walk in and have the judge write the critique on a laptop and then be able to directly email those critiques to the teachers……… all dreams at this point.  But who knows.

It also helps that the kids are getting older, so me being away for 3 days isn’t as traumatic as it once was.  Tim, of course, is amazing and can handle it all in stride.  The only hiccup this year was him being on worship team.  It proved to be a little tricky getting all 4 kids to church for rehearsal and church and then he had to be onstage… but again, it wasn’t anything that he couldn’t handle.  They really needed him to play this week, so he made it work. I so appreciate how he doesn’t complain about me being gone all weekend.

Chloe surprised me this year with a note each morning in my van.  It was precious.  I couldn’t believe it when I opened my door to leave (ridiculously early) and there was a note attached to my steering wheel.

And then second morning there was a note to go back and look in the fridge… and in there I found a plate of whoopie pies (that she and Jen had made the day before) for me to take with me.

I just love her and her sweet, generous heart.

For those of you tracking my progress (which I can’t imagine is very many of you… ha!) I have finished the 21 day fix!  My last day was officially Sunday, but since we had our date on Saturday, I let loose and ate whatever I wanted on the date and then the next day I had all the leftovers from our date…. so I carried it over another day or two to make up for that.  I lost 8.5 pounds, which is not a ton, but definitely a good start.  I worked much harder on changing my mental shift that it’s really more about what I eat rather than how much I exercise, which is hard for me.  So, I didn’t push the exercise quite as hard this time around which is probably why I didn’t see an extreme loss.  But it’s still a loss and that, combined with my previous weight loss this year brings my total to 15 pounds down so far.  Boo yah!

Now if I can just make it through this weekend (contest weekend) without stress eating everything in sight, I’ll be golden.  😉

I love that they still think it’s fun to match.

For those waiting to hear if we did or didn’t get to go on our date on Saturday night– we DID!  It rained for the first part of the afternoon into the early evening, so we were able to go out to supper.  By the time we left the restaurant (The Cheesecake Factory!) it had changed to a wintry mix, but we were able to make it to the theater fine.  After the show it was definitely slow driving home, since it had changed over to snow, but nothing too terrible.

The show itself was so much fun.  I actually got tired of laughing.  Did you know that could happen?  My cheeks and throat hurt from laughing by the end.  It was so good.  Although I did end up sitting in front of a lady that had an annoying high pitched laugh that was too loud for such a close environment… tee hee.  But otherwise it was great.

Don’t worry–it’s not like a middle school dance.  It’s more like a carnival at school, with games, music, photo booth, snacks, the school store is open to buy fun pencils and erasers and stuff.  But Chloe was very excited to go.  She even figure out a way to ask her friend if she could come along with her because I was teaching and Tim had all the other kids (it’s not a drop off event).  So she got all decked out in green for the St. Patty’s Dance!

Isn’t she just the cutest?!

She’s in bed now (she got back while I was teaching) so I’m excited to hear all about the fun stuff she did with her friends in the morning.  I’m sure she’ll have A LOT to say–she’s great at retelling every detail.  I wonder where she gets that from… tee hee!

Yup.  We are officially into March.  That means piano contest!

Things have been pretty low key so far, but I expect it to pick up next week.  The contest is next weekend (16 & 17th) which is amazing for two reasons:  1) it doesn’t fall on daylight saving this year!  and 2) we’re supposed to get a another major snowstorm this weekend.

Um…. I’m not sure where we’re going to put more snow!  Tim really hit the nail on the head when he said (I’m paraphrasing), “It’s not so much that I mind more snow–but just if it would start to go away too.”  You see, we keep getting more and more (and more!) snow, but it’s not warming up AT ALL, so nothing is melting.  It’s a little crazy.

I’m REALLY hoping that the snowstorm isn’t as bad as they are predicting, because Tim and I are going on an actual date this Saturday night.  (Boo yeah!)  For Christmas, I bought him tickets to see the comedian Jim Gaffigan.  He’s clean and hilarious and I’m stoked because I’ve never gone to a show like this.  So, we have to drive downtown…and it would help my already rising stress level tremendously, if the roads weren’t horrible.  😀

In other news, I’m on day 18 of the 21 day Fix.  Hooray!

Ah, yes!  My favorite date!  The only day that is a command!  I did march around the main floor (much to Tim’s embarrassment) in honor of the day.

Tee Hee!

Bwhahaha!

Well, it’s snowing again.  It’s a lovely, slow, straight-down kind of snow.  The kind of snow they always film in holiday movies.  So pretty.  I heard it’s supposed to snow all day… and at this rate I expect to get 4-5 inches.  I guess March didn’t want to be outdone by February…

In other news, my 21 Day Fix is going very well.  I’m on day 12. Having suppers prepped ahead of time is a life saver for me.  I can still make dinner ahead of time for everyone else, but then not be disappointed I’m not eating it because I have something yummy already made in the fridge for myself.  Plus since I’m the only one eating it, I can make it stretch out for several days.  I’ll have to find another yummy recipe to try this weekend for my suppers this coming week.

And in random other news, the big kids worked all week on extra chores to earn a new how to train your dragon toy (the small girl dragon and Hiccup).  They had to do a bunch of stuff around the house and outside.  It took them all week, but they finally finished last night!   It was the perfect incentive to get some extra things done around the house and keep them busy.

This weekend Chloe is going to a sleepover at Kailynn’s house.  Should be fun!

I just thought this was the cutest.  No, I did not stage them like this.  He was VERY insistent to have his paper and crayon and sit on my chair and watch Maddie play the piano.

So.  Cute.