Mel's Box of Chocolates

So I was so excited about getting my Five Point Friday off the ground and running that I completely forgot to post about how I've been doing lately. This week is the first weigh in over at Tales from the Scales for the Look Great in 2008 Challenge! Welcome if you are a newbie to the challenge and coming by to see how I've been doing. I hope throughout this time you will find some helpful tips, be encouraged, and know that you have somebody going through exactly what you are going through! And for all you veteran people it is so nice to see you again for this challenge and I can't wait to keep going from where we left off. I have to say that I am so excited that a new challenge is on because with the last one going over the summer it just didn't quite work out as I would have liked it to. Since this one is taking place while I am in school, hence packing lunches and planning dinners, I feel that the timing will lend itself to better success. Okay so now onto my progre...

During the summer since I am off I don't really ever register the kids for camps because we are always heading to the beach, going on day trips , or I just want to chill (Yes, I am a selfish person when it comes to my summer). However, when it comes to the fall things our schedule inevitably begins to fill up. Right now Zoe is busy doing this... She heads to gymnastics/dance with daddy on Tuesday mornings and then to ballet/tap lessons on Wednesday night with me. Then our Saturday mornings are filled with this... Today was our second week and Dylan is rocking the soccer field! I am so proud to see how aggressive he is being (not mean at all, just not afraid to go take the ball) and he has been running his little tush off during practice and the games. I really love being a soccer mom!! You can bet those people on the farthest field can hear me cheering. So far we won the first game 11-3 and today 5-0 with Dyl scoring one goal at each game. Okay enough bragging...for today anyhow...

I don't know how many have ever seen the Alfred Hitchcock movie "The Birds", but for those of you who have, would you get out of your car to go in this house?? I think NOT!!

It seems like lately I haven't been getting as many comments as before and this is a concern to me. I was thinking maybe my posts have been too far apart or just not as interesting now that I am back to work. But then another thought occurred to me...am I a rude blogger? Do I not talk back to people who leave comments so then they don't want to comment again? Do people feel that I ignore them when they visit? When people leave comments for me I usually do my best to visit their blog and leave some comments for them. By doing this I have actually came across some really great blogs that I now visit regularly. On occasion I respond through email to commenters especially if they asked me a question or if the comment was a conversational starter. The problem with this though is that when I try to email my commenter they usually have an address that is "no-reply comment" or something to that effect so I can't email them. If I am particularly ambitious I may go t...

Pshew ...after the scare that last week was the official ending of the May Day Challenge and my being up pounds, I can now proudly stand up and say I am ending the Challenge with a loss! Today is the last day of the May Day Challenge and I am doing 1 pound from last week, which puts me back in the 140's...HOORAY! I met my goal from last week too with a chocolate free week (or at least chocolate that I didn't have points for!!). So my total loss was 8 pounds while participating in the Challenge . Considering that most of the challenge took place over the summer when I was enjoying ice cream, beach fries, chicken tenders, and bbq's I am pretty darn excited about my results. Now onto the next challenge and this one is going to be from now until January so I can't wait to see how well I do through November, but I gotta admit I am a bit skeptical about December especially with my favorite sugar cookies and butter cream frosting...my belly is already growling at the though...

As were were getting ready for school/work this morning World War 69 was taking place in the living room as Dyl and Zoe picked, teased, hit, screamed, etc. I finally had enough and said, rather loudly, " What is your guys problem ". To which Zoe replied instantaneously , "We are both mean kids!" Guess that answers my question!

Evidently our neighbors have a visitor in their tree...the other morning they saw him sitting on the branch and then watched him crawl in a hole in the tree. Now while everybody loves company now and again, a raccoon isn't exactly what we would like around especially with two dogs and two kids sharing the yard. So there are now some live traps surrounding the tree in hopes of capturing the visitor. They have been set up for two nights now...the first night nothing was caught, but the food inside had mysteriously disappeared. Last night was luckier...we caught a cat! As for Mr. Raccoon he hasn't been spotted the past two days so maybe he has went on to greener pastures or trees that is!!!

Still remembering... Remembering where I was Remembering what I was doing Remembering the families that were broken Remembering the victims Remembering the survivors Remembering the heroes Remembering the fear Remembering the tears Remembering my brother going to Iraq Remembering the hope I still remember!!

I have been so excited to report in at Tales from the Scales these past two weeks as I got back into my schedule and tracking pointsm, but this week, well not so much! Last week was just an awful week at school and I found myself trying to escape the problems through food. Namely Chocolate! It started on Tuesday with a small Dairy Queen Reese's PB blizzard (yes, that would be 3/4 of my day's point), then on Wednesday was not just one, but two bags of Chips Ahoy mini cookies (trust me the mini does not mean much when it comes to the fat!), and then Thursday and Friday consisted of handfuls of M&M's as we were using them in class for a graphing activity. Needless to say I let my scale down and it showed when I went to get on it for my Saturday weigh in. I was up 1lb. Now I know 1lb doesn't seem much, but I had worked so hard to get into my 140's and darn if I didn't weigh in at 150...YUCK!! Thankfully though it is all good and I started the week with a little...

Especially at 3:30a.m.! We have installed a doggy door insert in our slider so during the day Mako , our rescue mutt, can come and go as he pleases. The door has a slide that you can put over the doggy door so that the dogs cannot let themselves out say in the middle of the night, but it doesn't stop Mako . Our dog is Mr. Smartydog and uses his nose to lift the blocker and let himself out...at 3:30 a.m. I was woken this morning to barking in the front yard and if it annoys me so much and he is my own dog, I can just imagine what the neighbors felt like!! I have been catching on and now close the screen door plus put down the slide on his door to keep him in at night, but I went to bed before hubby did last night so this didn't get done...hence the 3:30 wake up call. I swear he waits until we forget to close up tight to take advantage of sneaking out of the house in the middle of the night...worse than a teenager I tell you. I'm sure in all his doggy smartness that he will...

Last week was a really rough week for me at school! I am not sure what it was...the 4 day week, my special time of the month, the new students, new drop off schedule for my own kids, or a host of other things, but it was a BAD week. I felt that I was coming home so grumpy and that everything was irritating me. I even told Dave one night that I was not meant to be a teacher and didn't think I could do it anymore. Of course he reminded me of the money we had invested in my career including the loan payments we are making for my undergrad, the money we paid for the Master's I just received, and the payments we are making for me to take my Board's this year. Basically, he was saying there wasn't a chance in the world that I was quitting now so I better start sucking it up!! Now I am usually a pretty upbeat person and enjoy getting back to school with new kids and settling in to our routine, but for some reason I just can't get into it this year. Unfortunately I also h...

Today is my blogs 1st year anniversary! This blog and I have really shared some good times as I have tracked my family's adventures on it. Throughout the year I have definitely tasted some great pieces of chocolate out of the box of life, but there have been a few yucky pieces too. I would have to say that my blog started as and still is most definitely a mommy blog as the kids are my biggest ideas for blog fodder. I would like to see my content expand in the coming year although I really don't have a clue where I want to go with it...maybe shoes, Vera Bradley, shopping, chocolate...the possibilities are endless. Then again I kind of like what I have going and could see myself not changing a thing!!! The more I got into the blogging world more I realized that there were some really great blogs out there...blogs that actually had purposes (other than sharing the latest baby pix) with writers that actually, well, entertain. It has been fun getting out and meeting some great blogg...

Dy lan had his 7 year check up last week and things are looking good! He is growing, a lot it seems lately as I keep watching him become more of a big kid rather than my little boy. His height was around the 25 th percentile, which if you know me and Dave isn't really a big surprise. For weight, he is smack in the middle of where he should be. He is a pretty good eater on occasion, but then other times, not so much. I like that he seems to know when he is hungry though and eats then...he is my vegetable eater! So all was going great at the appointment hubby said (he got the honors since I had to be at home to clean for the cleaning ladies who were coming the next day) until the eye test. It would seem that Dyl's eyesight has had a bit of a decline and his doctor suggested that we take him to an eye doctor for an eye test. Inevitably this day was coming because mom, dad, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins...just about our entire family wears glasses or contacts so really w...

With the start of the new school year and with Dylan now having to go to school all day, I thought we needed a new bedtime routine. Dave and I are both pretty relaxed about bed times and during the summer it would sometimes be close to 10 before the kiddos were out. Of course we also didn't have to get up the next morning and I love sleeping in so this really worked well! However, I do know that considering my kids have to get up around 5:45 for school that staying up till 10 is no longer an option, that and also that fact that when I'm in school I rarely stay up past 9 myself!! So our plan is to begin bedtime stuff around 7:45 such as pj's, brushing teeth, and bathroom. I then get in Zoe's little toddler bed with her and read one or two books. Meanwhile Dylan hops in our bed with Dave where they review any papers from school (usually there is a little paper book that Dylan reads) and then Dave reads a chapter from Harry Potter. When I'm finished with Zoe I come jo...

Dylan's First Day of Kindergarten - 2006 Dylan's First Day of 1st Grade - 2007

Another week of sticking to my flex points and another week of reaping great rewards...I am down 2 pounds this week!! Woohoo !! My goal last week was to be in the 140's and I did it, weighing in at 149.5!! I can't begin to explain how much better I feel when I make healthy choices and count my points...of course seeing the loss makes me feel pretty darn good too! I have been pretty careful these past two weeks as I got back into the swings of things, but I can't say that I have really held back on anything. My flex points have not really been touched, which is not good in the program so I am thinking I may just need to treat myself at the end of this week if they are still there. Exercise and I have not been meshing this past week and that is one thing I would like to change this coming week! Due to my loss the past couple of weeks, Weight Watchers suggested I take the point quiz to see if I needed to adjust my points so I did. They ended up taking away 1 point a day!!! ...

After a few weeks of wiggling, Dylan lost his first tooth last night!! It has been really wiggly lately, but I wasn't about to pull and leave my son, or myself, traumatized. It looked like I had nothing to fear though because Dylan happily pulled his own tooth and just thought it was the coolest thing ever. I am not sure what he was more excited about...that he lost a tooth and could show his teacher tomorrow or the thought of the tooth fairy. As I was tucking him in bed last night the idea of how much money the tooth fairy would leave was dancing in his head. I asked him how much he thought she may leave and he said, "Mom, how would I know...this is my first one!" Well then! I did tell him that she left me a quarter when I was a little girl and he thought that was hilarous. The tooth fairy did come overnight and left $1 (talk about inflation) and he was super excited to show it to me this morning. I love having kids!! It is almost like we are given a second chance at li...

Who was I kidding! Yesterday's schedule included: - Drove through town with everybody from PA, MD, and NY who decided to come visit for the long weekend - Visited hubby for lunch at his companies huge Labor Day boat blowout where everybody from PA, MD, and NY who owned a boat was - Hit WalMart where everybody from PA, MD, and NY were stocking up on their weekend supplies - Got Dylan's haircut where, if you can believe it, we were the only ones there - Bought some sushi for dinner from Giant where everybody from PA, MD, and NY were buying their BBQ supplies..and...are you ready for this... - Painted and organized my daughter's room (Shhhh...don't tell Deb, our realtor, but Zoe now has a cute pink room!!!) Today's schedule includes: - Planning this week's lesson for school - Working on my National Boards - Listing items on Ebay - Taking down the swimming pool - Mowing the grass - Weeding the front flower, or should I say weed, garden - Finishing laundry I'll g...