Mel's Box of Chocolates

Wishing you and your family a Very Happy Thanksgiving!! Today, I am thankful for Thanksgiving! It is nice to have a reminder to be positive and take the time to be thankful for all the blessings we have, the ones we often take for granted. Here are just a few of the many blessings I am thankful for today... God...for his forgiveness and love! My wonderful husband and our awesome marriage. I'm lucky to be married to my best friend! Two healthy, smart, beautiful, children who make me smile each and every day. Nothing beats a big hug and an "I Love You, Mommy". Definitely one of my biggest blessings! My family. It is nice to be surrounded by people who you know are beside you through all that life throws at you. Friends are one of my most treasured blessings. I am blessed with a group of core girlfriends who I can laugh, cry, be silly, and so much more with. They are my sisters! Hubby and I both have job security with affordable health insurance too. I live in good ol' ...

In my house my daughter is usually the diva, but I suppose deep within there is a bit of a diva in me too. When I read Ami's "diva list " it sounded like a fun blog post that I couldn't pass up. So I dived deep within and behold... "Mel's Diva List" A personal chef to create yummy, healthy meals that will keep me within my Weight Watchers points every day. A personal trainer who will whip my butt into shape. I'd prefer him to be easy on the eyes too cause you can never have too much motivation, right? A maid to keep everything nice and tidy around me, because the neater the area the more relaxed I am...every diva deserves to be stress free. A personal assistant to take care of homework for the children, make food for the parties, schedule the appointments, attend the school meetings, and handle all that stuff that is overcrowding my planner. A wardrobe consultant to dress my pear shape and make it look more like an hourglass. A driver to take me w...

Our house fits our family nicely. We have the open living space that I love, and will always be a must have in our home, with an open kitchen, dining room, and living room. Everybody has their own bedroom, the kids have their own bathroom (not they ever use it), and hubby and I have ours. Then, we also have an extra room that serves as a playroom, guest room, office, and storage room. Gotta love those all purpose rooms. And we can't forget about the garage. We have one of those too and despite its main purpose, it does not house our vehicles, but rather tools, toys, bikes, and other junk essential items that every family must have. It works for us. The other day I was reading one of my magazines about the Spelling mansion and all the rooms that it has in it. When I got over the initial reaction of "Oh my gosh, I would HATE to clean all that" (yes, I realize they hire people, but still I would not even want to be those "people") I was intrigued with the ...

My weigh-ins for Weight Watchers have always been on Saturdays, but I like that the Sisterhood shares their weigh in results on Wednesdays. It is a nice mid-week check up on how I'm doing for the week. So on Saturday, I reported I was down a pound making my loss for the Shrinkaversary Challenge -1. Hoorah! I'm thrilled to report that I'm doing much better at staying within my point range this week. No more counting, and counting, and counting . I decided to divide up my 35 weekly allowance into each day to give me a 5 point wiggle room during the weekdays. It seems to be working so far! I also made a batch of zero point soup which is a big help with my lunches. Then there is the activity points. Being part of the Globetrotter's Challenge has kept me motivated to keep tracking my activity and this week I logged 6.5 miles. Woohoo! Although I have to confess that I only got in two walks/runs this week, which means I need to get moving a lot more often. My acti...

The kids and I took many pictures the other day as we explored the neighborhood to see what Ida left in her path on her way past the coast of Delaware and this is one of my favorites. SUBSCRIBE to never miss a piece of chocolate Be Sweet, Follow Mel on Twitter

I realize that beginning to celebrate Christmas when we are just going back to school is nothing new to retail stores. They want to make all the money they can off the holiday, but I've been surprised to see the amount of houses decorated for Christmas already. Seriously?? Trees in the windows? Reindeers in the yard? Candles in the windows? Where did all the pumpkins, guards, squash, go? The scarecrows? The bales of hay? Why don't we celebrate the bright colors that God has splashed before our eyes? Dylan asked me the other day why people don't care about Thanksgiving? I didn't really know what to say. Some thoughts were... People don't remember that if it wasn't for the actions leading up to the first Thanksgiving we wouldn't have the life we do, here in the "New World"? We live in such a selfish society that is all about getting things and Thanksgiving doesn't come with anything (no tricks or treats, no boxes of chocolates and flowers, no c...

Geesh after going back to counting points, it is easy to see why I had gained 8lbs over the past 5 months. My first week I tracked, I was more than an entire day worth of points over for the week. That includes using every point of every day, plus my 35 weekly allowance, plus a few activity points. YIKES! I had no idea that I had been eating that much. I'm still amazed that I was able to lose that first week. The only thing I can think is that even though I tracked more points than I should have, it was probably still less than I would have had in a normal week, had I not counted at all. Here I was thinking I had been doing ok tracking in my head and then when I really start tracking realize...what the heck was I thinking????!!! Last week was better as I was only 10 points over my weekly allowance, but still...unacceptable. I absolutely MUST stay within those points. After successfully completing the Weight Watchers program, I know this is true. If you stick to the plan, i...

Since I've written this same post about 3 times now I've decided to give up trying to think of a catchy title. You may have figured out through this post and that recipe that I'm back on Weight Watchers...for the third time now! My hope is that the 3rd time will be the charm and I will finally reach my ultimate weight goal. I hope you all will forgive me for repeating this weight loss journey over and over again. I personally get annoyed with people like me. The ones who consistently talk about losing weight, start out all gung ho, and then after a few weeks fizzle out only to start the cycle again later. I've become one of those people!! But, I'm determined not to stay this way. I'm breaking the cycle. Two weeks ago, after taking 5 months off , I signed back up for Weight Watchers online program. I haven't shared this with all of you until now because the honest truth was I was embarrassed. I was ashamed to come and tell the bloggy world about my l...

For the past few days we have been getting the remnants of Ida here at the coast of Delaware. The kids and I had early dismissal yesterday due to high winds and flooding and today were given the whole day off. We decided to explore the area to see what we could see. This is what we found... First we had to find a way to get out of our neighborhood as this is the road (Fred Hudson for my local readers) we usually use. Notice the "water on the road" sign in the right of the photo. Yeah, the one that is almost under water!! So we turned around and headed down Route 26, you the know...the evacuation route! Here we find the canal overflowing, and trucks creating tidal waves. Finally we make it out, Welcome to Bethany Beach! Forget biking around Bethany today, You will have to resort to swimming to drop off your mail. Thinking we will not be having lunch or dinner here for a couple of days. The low lying neighborhoods or the ones next to the canals seem to be wor...

I have a post in the works spilling all the details about my weightloss journey including where I currently am, but today is the day for Sisterhoods Weigh In and I don't want to wait one more minute to go back to the 'hood. I've been part of many of the Sisterhood's Challenges, but for different reasons I didn't join the last one. But, I'm here now and ready to jump back in. They recently started their new challenge... and today is Weigh In, Week 2 . Since I'm late joining in, this week will be my week 1 so here is my starting weight... 147lb. Oh and I'll also be participing in the Sisterhoods Globetrotters Challenge where we all track how far we are walking/running throughout the week. This actually started on Monday so I'm not too far behind!! So far this week I've walked about 4 miles and that was on Sunday and Monday. I usually use my Nike+ to track all my miles, but when I went to walk on Sunday my Ipod was dead so I couldn't use it ...

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My Ipod is charged. The running playlist programmed. Nike+ ready to record my distance and speed. I even got some new running sneakers. Yep, all that's left for me is to put it all together and get out there and run!! Hmm, maybe I need to get some cheerleaders?? or butt kickers? Any volunteers?? SUBSCRIBE to never miss a piece of chocolate Be Sweet, Follow Mel on Twitter

Work on Monday and Tuesday, then off on Wednesday in honor of Veteran's Day. Back to work for Thursday and Friday, then off for the weekend. I have a good feeling about this week... SUBSCRIBE to never miss a piece of chocolate Be Sweet, Follow Mel on Twitter

Becoming a teacher was always a goal of mine. I knew that I wanted to have some type of career, but I also knew that I wanted children too so being a teacher always seemed to be the perfect compromise. Of course my love of learning and kids made teaching even more enticing, not to mention the summer vacation! Then there was the bossy side of me too who couldn't wait to have the attention of my minions, I know could I really have been that naive?? Growing up, there was all the practicing I did of grading papers. Red marks here, red marks there, red marks everywhere. I loved correcting my little brothers papers or just correcting make up work. I couldn't wait to be a real teacher when I could grade real papers and assign real grades. Skip a few years to today. I have a huge bag sitting next to me overflowing with papers that need to be corrected! YUCK. I think that grading may just be my least favorite part of being a teacher. I have become a master at avoiding grading t...

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The only good thing about last week is that it came to an end! Never to be lived again. I knew it was going to be a tough one when I looked at my planner and didn't see anything except appointment, after appointment, after appointment. Along with, you know, my real job of teaching, I had a Board meeting Monday night, PTO Tuesday night, and an Aspiring Administrators meeting Wednesday night. Plus I had a special education training Wednesday morning and a behavior training Thursday afternoon. Did I mention writing many substitute plans??? Oh and in case you forgot, last week was also Halloween week, which at school means C-R-A-Z-Y kids! As if trick or treating wasn't enough to excite them we also had two assemblies and a fall party on Friday afternoon. Like I said, I knew it was NOT going to be a pretty week. And that was BEFORE germs infested my children! Saturday night Zoe spent the night at a friend's house and on her way home vomited in my friend's car ( Thank God...