Annnnd I'm Back.....

Does anyone blog anymore? Is it just Vlogging, InstaStory-ing and TikTok-ing? I know I am guilty of it too.

Today is just a short hello with plans to start writing again soon. I worked on some video editing today and documented Nicholas turning 12 (last year). He just turned 13 a week ago, maybe that video will make an appearance before he is 14. Then again, maybe not. LOL!

Until next time!

RE-Launch 2018

Well, hello again!

It's been awhile.  Years I guess. I decided I want to blog again. Mostly for me, but if anyone wants to follow along, than hello and welcome. I like the idea of a place to record my stories so I can go back and read them later.  

Over the years I have blogged on three different platforms and had four different blogs. It's time to get it all in one place under one host. I transferred my content from my former Life of Carr's site, but the photos came over a bit wonky. Probably because that blog had already combined my other past blogs. I am okay with the wonky-ness, I care more about the words in the posts.  I have the pictures saved on my computer, backed up to the cloud and in some cases documented in a scrapbook, so that is good enough for me.

If I spend too much time getting the old stuff cleaned up I will never focus on moving forward and writing stuff down. I'm not doing this to make money and I have no plans for annoying pop up ads (I won't say never because you never know where life may take you). But I am hoping to check in here at least weekly to document what is happening in my world.

Heidi Swapp Marquee Love Letter Tutorial - Teacher or Mother’s Day Gift Idea

I picked up the Heidi Swapp Marquee Letter’s at Michael’s thinking they could be cute teacher gifts. They turned out to be even easier than I anticipated. I did the first one in less than an hour with about a million kid interruptions. It was also the M which was the hardest of the 3 letters I made. The next two letters were finished in less than 30 minutes each. The J was easier than the L, I’ll explain why below.

Supplies and tools needed:

• Heidi Swapp Marquee Love Letters, (they can be found at Michaels, at scrapbook.com and amazon.com.  If you live in the east valley Phoenix area, you can pick up your order and save on shipping and the letters and other supplies are currently on sale.
• Scrapbook paper - I used the Heidi Swapp Marquee Love Glitter Paper. Anyone that knows me well, would know I didn’t really need to buy the paper but I bought it anyway so I didn’t have to go through my stash and find the perfect paper.
• 2” washi tape or glitter tape – I  used a chevron washi tape I already had (probably from Studio Calico) and Heidi Swapp Marquee Love Glitter Tape
• Craft knife
• pencil
• adhesive
• ruler
• removable tape (or washi) to hold the letter in place for cutting
• 2 AAA batteries

The letter kit comes with the letter, letter template, light bulbs and an LED light strand. They sell extra lights in other colors and light strands, you don’t need them unless you want to change the light color. The light bulbs are plastic so you probably won’t break them.

Tape your letter to the backside of the paper. Make sure the letter template is flipped the opposite way, so the letter is cut the right way on the side of the paper you are using. If you are using a patterned paper you will want to make sure that your letter is lined up properly (or you can cut it on the front side - glitter paper can cut weird or tear due to the texture so I wanted to cut from the back where it was smooth.

I traced the letter first with a pencil, in case I missed a spot when I cut or if the letter moved I could realign it easily. Trace around the letter with the craft knife and remove the excess paper.

Dry fit the cut letter into the marquee letter before you apply the adhesive.  It will give you an idea how the letter should be laid so that you can lay it down smoothly. Remove the letter and then apply the adhesive. I would recommend using an adhesive that gives you a few minutes to move the paper if needed.  My glue gun is permanent immediately, so I knew I did not want to use that since the paper was a lighter weight.  I used Tombow Adhesive, it is permanent adhesive, but it gives you a little time before it becomes permanent.  Lightly press the paper letter into the cardboard letter smoothing out any bubbles.

Lay the letter template on top of the cardboard letter (on top of the paper). Use your craft knife to poke holes where the light bulbs will be inserted later.  I did 2 cuts in each hole, in an X shape. Use the craft knife to lift the letter template out of the letter.

Next use your washi or tape and line it up in an underside area or corner and both edges and SLOWLY adhere the tape.  This is where I tell you I prefered to use the washi tape because it is easier to work with as you are able to lift it up and re-align as you move around the letter. The glitter tape is not moveable once you press it down. I needed to cut it at a few of the inside corners because the marquee letter material is not perfect (and I am not either). I recommend using a ruler along the letter to smooth it out as you go and in the inside corners of the letters to crease the tape in the corner for good adherence.

Now you are ready for adding your bulbs. Find the holes that you previously cut and insert the light bulbs into the holes. They fit snuggly, not difficult at all to place, and it looks to me like they should stay in well over time.

Flip your letter over and figure out where you want the battery box to sit at the bottom of the letter.  Insert your batteries (2 AAA batteries) and place your box inside the letter where you can reach the on/off button. String the lights keeping the cords inside the back of the letter.

Here is another letter I did using washi tape.  It took about 10 minutes to do the glitter tape on the “L” letter and less than 5 to use washi tape on the “J” letter.  I also used the washi tape on the “M” letter, that one took a little longer being my first attempt and also the inside of the letter was harder to get lined up. When finishing up the tape, it is best to be on the bottom or on the underside of part of the letter. I measured out what I needed on the last section and did a straight cut on the tape and then had a small overlap that isn’t noticeable on the underside of the J.

Easy peasy! And so fun!

It’s a coincidence that the L & J for the teachers also happen to be my initials with my maiden name. Now I may go back and get more letters to make another L and J for me.

It was a fun easy project. Perfect for teacher gifts and mother’s day. And the just make me happy!  You can also paint these (although I would wonder how it would hold up without warping since it is just made out of cardboard). You could use glitter or any other type of medium you could imagine.

Now if I could just find more of that washi tape.

Just Do One Thing

What happens when you are well on your way to achieving your weight loss and health goals and your life turns upside down in ways you would have never predicted?

If You Are Me

Well if you are me, it apparently means that one by one you let all those bad habits that you worked so hard to change creep back into your life one by one.

If you are me, you start skipping workouts with your trainer because he isn’t a good fit and you are being too nice to cut it off.

If you are me, you start eating out more often.

If you are me, you stop ordering something healthy and deserving a treat becomes a common occurrence that you deserve because life is crazy right now.

If you are me, you stop bring your lunch and hit the café in the office building.

If you are me, you stop training  and don’t show up for both your first and then second  (that is now supposed to be the first) half marathon.

If you are me you start having a glass of wine or 2 or 3 at night. (This is the habit that was hardest to break)

If you are me, you stop running and going to the gym.

If you are me, you say you will get back after Christmas is over.

If you are me you get sick 3 times in a short period of time so that your whole and then half hearted attempts at getting back at it gets derailed again.

Oh yeah, and if you are me, you gained back over 30 of the 84 pounds you worked so hard to lose.

Ouch. That hurts to put that out there, to see it in print.

But yes, this is what happened to me after several things happened in my life in a very short period of time.

“It” happens to a lot of people. What is “it”?  It’s called life.  And for me it all started about a year ago.

Life Was

Life was my son being diagnosed with autism and we began the long and stressful process to get him the help he needs.

Life was deciding Mike should stay home with the kids indefinitely.

Life was an innocent visit to a model home that turned into signing a contract to build a new home by the end of the weekend.

Life was selling the house we thought we would live in forever.

Life was downsizing our stuff for said new (smaller) home.

Life was living in a temporary rental after our house sold and the new one wasn’t ready.

Life was moving again 2 months later.

Life was new schools for the kids.

Life was the most demanding audit (at work) that I have experienced in several years.

Life was the holidays were approaching.

Life was the whole family taking turn being sick from October - February - over and over and over.

Life was not sleeping well, staying up too late and not getting up early enough.

Life was feeling too overwhelmed by the thought of planning and tracking food.

The Reality

The reality was there was so much going on for so long that something was going to give. And for me, it was first the food and then the exercise.

I can’t do it all. No one can. Priorities for work, family and health can get out so far out of balance that it is easy to give up the ones where the only person you have to be accountable to is yourself.

A Plan

But, I had a plan. Or so I thought.

After the new year I was ready to go.  I was going to go to the gym at 5:00 am everyday,  track my food and eat perfectly. And I was going to get back to running.

I was going from 0 to 100 on day one.

And most people that have tried to lose weight that way know what happened next.

EPIC FAIL!

After a few weeks I was exhausted. And just didn’t have the energy to do it and by the end of January I was losing steam.

In February I joined a Facebook group to do 50 miles in February. I was on track the first week. And then I got sick again with a cough so bad that I was down for days and couldn’t walk a mile without coughing like a smoker for the rest of the day (and I don’t smoke).

Starting Over

So here I am now. The beginning of March ready to start again.  This time I am trying to take it one step at a time. I’m going back to the basics. I’m tackling one thing at a time.

What is my plan?

Walk 10,000 steps every day for a month. One step at a time.

Starting today.

That is how I started last time. Focusing on one thing.

And I lost 83 pounds in less than a year.

It’s really that simple.

Just pick one thing and do it for 30 days.

It can be the start of something good.

I promise.

Catching Up on Project Life

I am actually doing pretty well on staying caught up on my Project Life album this year.  I am more appropriately behind in sharing any pages.  Today I thought I would finish off sharing January 2013 with a look back at 2012.  January’s are pretty busy for us normally with getting back into the swing of real life and celebrating Nicholas’s birthday. Because of the holidays, we seem to scramble to get ready for his party every year. 2013 Week 3

Nicholas started getting interested in Lego’s after receiving some for his birthday. I had my hair cut with bangs, the first big change in a while. I was shocked how dead the gym was for January. Mike made some changes to his radio station hosting.

2013 Week 4

We had math and science night at Nicholas’s school this week. I did my first Color Run in the pouring rain. We had a great time, but we were soaked to the core. We had a family movie night watching Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (first time for the kiddos). Nicholas loved the movie, except he did not like the part where Charlie and his grandpa are in danger until they figure out burping will save them. We almost had to stop the movie at that point until he was sure they were going to be okay.

2012 Week 3

Last year week 3 included Nicholas’s birthday party, a rare date night for Mike and me and us trying a new church. Jackson was star of the week at school and Nicholas helped us make his poster.

2012 Week 4

By the end of January we were getting ready to start on some home improvement projects and started by shopping for a new couch. We had Friday date night with take out at home.

Hoping to catch up with more weeks and share some layouts over the next couple of weeks. I also have a major change to share in my scrap room. I have been busy this year, so I guess that explains my continued lack of blogging.

Have a great Wednesday!

How About A Progress Report

The last time I blogged was the day we were leaving for vacation in October. It’s amazing that it has been that long. Life got busy in the fall and I just haven’t made time to do it.

When the new year hit I wrote a couple of drafts, and never put the finishing touches on them.  But enough excuses.

The lack of blogging has not a reflection on my weight loss progress.

This week I was down a total of 65 pounds at my weigh-in! To give a visual perspective to that, here I am back in July right after joining Weight Watchers compared to where I am as of today:

The last time I posted at the beginning of October I had just hit the 40 pound mark – so another visual for you - here I am today and 25 pounds ago:

I am about 2 pounds away from my halfway point. I can’t even imagine what another 65+ pounds will look like.

So what else is new? I guess I would call myself a (slow) runner now. I ran in my 1st 5k on November 4th. Mike and the boys were there to cheer me on at the finish line.  I finished in 48ish minutes and was able to run 28 minutes of that time.

I did The Color Run with some friends last month – we had a soaking, wet, blast and can’t wait to do it again (hopefully with some sunshine)!

In the past month my distance and time has been improving. I have been able to run up to 65 minutes without stopping. This past week I ran 3.12 miles in 43 minutes, my best pace to date – and without stopping. I’m still slow but I have been able to run faster and longer each week.

I signed up for another 5K this weekend, have another one planned for March 9th and if we can manage a trip to California for Easter weekend Mike and I are planning to run the LA Angels 5K.

And you know that same 5K event I did this past November? Well I somehow have managed to commit to run the half marathon instead this November. I have my work cut out for me, but I feel good about being able to get there, and I may even try to tackle another half before November.

My running hero and mentor, Christina (on my right in the picture above) may or may not have used her subliminal running powers to get me to agree to the half – but now I’m in.

In other news, it looks like I may need to go shopping soon. This past weekend was really nice and a bit warmer so I thought I would wear shorts. It was only then that I discovered that I didn’t really have any that fit.

By the way, the shorts in this picture were a bit smaller than the shorts I was wearing in the July picture above.

Trying on the show prompted me to finally try on everything in the closet and when I was done this was all that was left of my shorts and pants….it was crammed full when I started.

This is what I got rid of…

For fun I tried on this dress that I haven’t worn in at least 15 years. I always kept it in the back of my closet. I always wanted to fit in it again…someday.  Well, talk about surprised! I could get it on, (but not zipped in the back). It probably won’t be more than another 15-25 pounds before it really fits again.

(Sorry for the crappy picture!)

That’s the highlights of what’s been happening these past few months. It took me a bit longer to lose this last 25 pounds than the previous 25, but I also did it through a vacation, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and getting sick 3 times between Christmas and January.

In years past I would have gained 10+ pounds during this period and still been trying to get that weight off in February. Instead I kept exercising during this time and ate well 80-90% of the time. I had some weeks with gains, most weeks with losses and was completely back on track in January – mostly because I never really got too far off track.

That is what I call progress.

Color Run Tempe 2013

This morning I participated in the Color Run with a bunch of girls from work and a few of their friends. I had heard about Color Runs when I started reading some fitness blogs last year and I really wanted to do it. When I saw the registration come up for one here in Arizona I asked my friend Christina if she would do it with me, knowing I could probably talk easily talk her into something that would involve running. Then we got Karen to join us and then Christina challenged everyone else in the office to join us, that’s how we became  “The Jelly Bean Counters” (we’re accountants, get it?)

Last night I made sure to have all my stuff ready to go for heading out early this morning.

My Color Run T-Shirt ended up being way too big, I ordered it before I lost another 20 pounds. So it will make a good painting shirt. I was up early to get ready making sure not to forget my tatooo!

All week long the forecast had predicted rain, making the outfit choice in question. I settled on layers of white. And at the last minute added a white trash bag to my bag.  Not that it would matter I would be soaked long before the race even started.

Our start time was at 7:30 and we planned to meet by 6:50. By the time I found everyone the only dry part of me was that covered by the trash bag. The rest soaked.

Of the 9 of us that signed up, 7 of us braved the rain (because, that had not let up at all).

There are color chutes every kilometer and after the first one I would rather get colorful than worry about keeping anything dry and I ditched the trash bags.

While I am certain the color is messy on a dry day, the rain made it that much more fun.

Christina got us to run and jump in the huge puddles.

Trisha got a whole lot of blue dumped on her.

In the end we were completely soaked and happily colorful.

And we thought Trisha looked like the blueberry girl in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (which coincidently is the planned movie tonight for Family Movie Night)

Trisha and me after I ended up with red smeared on my face – which doesn’t look like much in this picture.

Every layer I had on was soaked and the color bled through each layer, including my socks and some of my skin is still blue after a shower.

Would I do it again?

You bet – rain or shine. But I am putting in my order for shine next year!

Project Life 2013…oh, and Hello again!

It’s been awhile, I know. Somehow the good intentions to blog just seem to be swept aside by life. One of my goals for this year was to blog here and over at Getting Healthy at least once a week in 2013.  I guess I am a bit late to the party, but that’s life. In 2012 I finished my first full year of doing a Project Life album. I will admit that the last several months were finally documented mostly in December. But it was an accomplishment nonetheless. It made me excited to tackle 2013 a little more timely. I helped that desire along by subscribing to Studio Calico’s Project Life monthly kit.

My week’s for the 2013 album will go Monday to Saturday with the plan to document the previous week the following weekend. I don’t worry about having a picture a day, I am trying to capture our week.  I may skip weeks or combine them, whatever works. This is not a high maintenance project for me.  So far, I am still on track.  I am planning to keep it simple by using only the supplies I throw in my Project Life basket throughout the month and the Studio Calico kits.

This album is totally worth doing. Yesterday it was awesome when I was working on the week 2 pages and Nicholas and Jackson came over and sat with me to look at the pictures and talk about the week.

That is what is really about…documenting our everyday life.

This year I thought it would be fun to share the Project Life pages I do each week or two and also show the pages for the same period in 2012. (Whether or not it is fun for you, I know it will be for me. )

2013 Project Life

Here is my 2013 opening page…I thought of a 1000 ways to improve it after I finished, but then I called it good and scrapped a layout instead.  (The photos were taken by the sweet and talented Becca Pikula)

I loved the cards that were included in the Studio Calico kit, it made the cover page come together really fast and focus on the family photos.

Week 1 -  I used a combination of the Studio Calico Project Life and regular kits and some various printables I already had. I prefer to use the Design A page protectors, but hope to mix it up this year somewhat – I have all the other sizes, so I just need to think about it when I select and print my pictures for the week.

Week 1

s

After I select and edit my pictures in Lightroom, I use Picasa to do quick collages. I don’t even bother with Lightroom or Photoshop for the collages. For me, it is a lot faster in Picasa.  I use this especially for the 3x4 pictures I pick 2 vertical photos and pull them into a 4x6 grid collage; save and ready to upload for printing.

Week 1 (Left)

I like to include a lot of pictures from the week and collages allow me to do it.  I don’t need one photo and one journaling card a day.  I combine jpurnaling for a couple of days on a 4x6 sometimes. It’s all good.

Week 1 (Right)

Week 2

It was Nicholas’s birthday this week and we had extra pictures so I added an American Crafts 6x12 3-up page in between the normal Design A pages. I love the 6x12 for squeezing in a few extra pictures in a week. I really only want one album for the year so this helps me accomplish that.

Week 2 (Left)

Week 2 (Right)

and here is what we were doing last year at the same time…

2012 Project Life

2012 Cover

Last year’s opening page included pictures from our photo shoot with Sarah Heinle who did a fabulous job with the kiddos even with an incredibly uncooperative little Jackson.

Week 1

Last year I used the Clementine core kit by Becky Higgins with a little supplementing from my stash.  I had also picked up the coordinating digital life kit from Jessica Sprague which is now available at AC Digitals. Early in 2012 I did a lot more hybrid cards and photos with Project Life. But as time got away from me I did less of it.

Week 1 (Left)

The polaroid and white bordered frame collages were done in Picasa. I did pull it into Photoshop Elements to add the digital paper background, but you could cut the photos out and adhere them to normal paper too.

Week 1 (Right)

Week 2

Another time I used the American Crafts 6x12 page protector. We had Grandma and Grandpa visiting that weekend and Nicholas’s birthday so we had extra pictures I wanted to include.

Week 2 (Left)

Another thing I noticed I did more early in 2012 was include more of the day stickers for each photo. That ended too when I had enough to worry about just getting the weeks together, let alone trying to remember which day was which.  Again – following the KISS method  (keep it simple silly) .

Week 2 (Right)

I liked using the digital cards to type my journaling on using a typewrite font, maybe if I keep up more this year that will work out, and then again maybe it won’t. Who knows? We’ll just have to wait and see.

Thanks for stopping by.

Monthly Check-In September and Weekly Weigh In(s)

I missed posting my week 14 weigh in and I promise it was not on purpose. We are getting ready to go on vacation and work has been crazy busy. So time was short and life was full. Anyway, let’s get on with it. First here is a comparison from where I started this summer to this week.

September was shaping up to not the best month in the weight loss department. I was sick almost half of the month which really slowed down the physical activity. I hurt my arm in the middle of the month and that resulted in about a week and a half away from the weights.

However, since I am writing my month in review post a few days late I am including my October 3rd weigh in, which rounded out September with a strong finish:

Yes, that’s right I lost 6 pounds this week.

6 POUNDS!!!!

That of course is after having a slight unexplained, no good reason for it small gain the week before.

Let me tell you about that gain first.  I always weigh myself in the morning before my meeting. Last week my home scale said I was down 4 pounds. It seemed a bit high, but I had a good food week, just less exercise.

When I got to Weight Watchers at lunch time for my weigh in the scale said .2 pounds.

Call me irritated. Really.

And I know the normal leader response is to ask how your week was and if you expected it. I don’t like to make excuses and it was not my normal leader asking, so I just said it was a great week.

And I called Mike after the meeting and b**ched about it for 15 minutes. I should have hit my Weight Watchers 10% that day, so I was mad.

Then I moved on.

I had one more weigh in before vacation. I knew I did what I should that week, other than less exercise and that the scale will eventually reflect my efforts. And I really wanted a good week before vacation.

So I dug in and started building back my workouts after being sick. Food wasn't really much of an issue, I had been following the plan consistently and had stayed on track.

When I weighed myself at home I was down 2 more pounds from the week before (including that 4 that my scale had been showing for the past week).

And guess what, when I weighed in I was down 6 pounds for my official Weight Watchers weigh in.

I don’t know what happened with the scale the previous week or why. But I didn’t let the scale control me. I was excited to get my 10% award, another 10 pound ribbon and my 16 week award from my normal leader, Sue. Maybe that is why the scale held out on me, so I could share it with her. Sue has really been the best leader I have ever had in all the years I have tried to follow Weight Watchers. And I do think it has contributed to my success.

When I really look at everything in the grand scheme of things in just about 3 1/2 months (15 weigh in’s) I have lost over 30 pounds. I love exercise. I have lost over 18 inches off my body and I feel so much better than I have in years.

This month I was able to get rid of some clothes that were too big.

Lost weight the week after I traveled to Dallas.

Tracked every single day even when traveling. And even after losing control one afternoon and eating a cold leftover quesadilla that was in the fridge. That ended  up being my dinner, since I blew my points for that day on it.

And although it wasn't my best month with exercise. It sure wasn’t a bad one compared to my past and it was pretty good for a month where I was sick for 2 weeks, dealt with an injury and went on a trip.

I secretly had a goal to be at a total 40 pound loss by our vacation. Which I am so pleased with myself that I achieved, even when I didn’t think it was going to happen.

Now, even though I don’t like really having number weight loss goals of x pounds by a certain date. I feel like hitting 50 pounds off by my birthday at the end of November should be totally manageable and I should even be able to surpass that.

But first I need to survive this next week. We are going on vacation and we will be at Disneyland. I plan to work out at least 5 mornings and have been working on my food strategy for the week.

I hope to post at least a couple of times while I am there on how I am doing and hope to be able to share some tips and tricks that I learned. Vacations for me have always been full of abandon when it comes to food, and I don’t plan for that to happen this time.

WEEK 14/15 GOALS:

• Track food and activity each day – DONE
• Balance exercise recuperating from being sick – DONE
• 4 days of exercise – no specific workouts just do something – DONE
• Stay focused to prepare for vacation – DONE

WEEK 16 GOALS:

• Track food and activity each day
• Navigate the food obstacles while on vacation, specifically eat 2 meals completely on plan and for the 3rd meal enjoy within reason.
• Allow myself to eat all my weekly and activity points if I want to.
• 5 days of exercise – mostly cardio focused
• Remember it’s really just 7 more days and it isn't like I am never going to be able to eat these foods again. I just don’t need to eat everything.

And now I am off for a C25K run and then we are packing the car to head to California!