Me, Myself, & Michelle

BEWARE: dieting woman ahead

So, some of you may have noticed my weight gain over the past few months... well, I've officially decided to do something about it.  I don't believe in "dieting" as in starving myself to death, but I do realize that I've got to make better nutritional choices.  I'm also going to weigh myself weekly to track progress and post the results on my blog.  (Hopefully, having to be accountable will help me beat any cravings for big fat fudge brownies or cool ranch doritos or Debbie's "little Debbie bars", etc!) 

  

The very first thing I'm cutting out of my diet is COKES!  I have never in my life drank so much sugary soda.  We always have 1/2 a dozen or more different kind of soft drinks here at The Pink House, so my daily intake of sugar & caffeine has become outrageous.  My plan is to have SlimFast and a piece of fruit for breakfast & then a lean cuisine type meal for lunch with a couple of low fat/low cal snacks throughout the day.  I'll have to eat something every 2 hours and then make sure not to pig out at dinner time.  (yeah right!)

I haven't figured out how to fit in exercise during my day, yet.  No promises there, but I do plan on being more active throughout the day.  (Not much sitting in the evening, more walking around and maybe even some lunges or crunches in there sometime.)  Wish me luck!

So, in order to help keep me honest... I'm going to post my weigh in # each week to track my progress.  All your supportive comments will be appreciated, but no taunting!  :)  Look for my new "Wednesday Weigh-In" column to start soon.

Memorial Day 2008

The Dulaney's had some great quality family time yesterday.  :)  We started it off early... went to a neighborhood church yard sale at 8am.  Each of the kids were allowed to pick out one thing.  Zoe struggled the most, because she wanted multiple things, of course!  Bella finally settled on a cute stuffed puppy, but she also wanted this neat glass box that contained a flower arrangement and had a wind-up base which played music.  My son, Zane, picked up a few things but didn't seem particularly drawn to anything special.  So, instead of getting just anything... he decided to choose the flower music box for Bella, so she could have it to fall asleep to at night!  Everyday, he grows more & more into the loving, compassionate, well-mannered man that I imagine him to be.

After the yard sale, we went back to the house and I made waffles for breakfast.  Not the frozen, stick 'em in the toaster kind, either.  I actually cracked an egg into a bowl, added the mix/milk & oil, and broke out the George Foreman waffle iron to cook!  The kids like their waffles a little soft, but I like mine crispy.  :)

Around 11am, we headed back to the church that had the yard sale cause they were also having a free festival.  The kids got to jump around inside an inflatable Scooby Doo bus!  They played a bunch of carnival games, too. Bella was by far the most into the games.  She was a ring-tossing, ball throwing, bean-bag pitching maniac!  The kids all got a big bag of candy & toys for their efforts.  We also had hot dogs, chips, cokes, & cotton candy... and that was only half way thru the day.

Mike was able to take the afternoon off, so he met us at the carnival and helped me round up the kids (our 5 plus the 3 neighbor kids we brought!)  Then Mike went to the store to grab some snack food, and I ran up to The Pink House, because I had agreed to have a customized album finished by 5:00pm on Memorial Day!  Who does that?  Why overbook yourself so much?  I guess I'm one of those people who have trouble saying no. 

So we finally headed out to Fort Moultrie around 3:00.  Mike brought along the kites, so the kids had a blast on the beach there (Sullivan's Island again.)

 

We made it home before dark, so the kids were able to play outside some more with the neighbors until dinner... Mike brought home Qdoba - yum!  Over all, it was a fabulous Memorial Day for the Dulaney's.

Monday @ Frankie's

Mike was off on Monday, so he took us all to Frankie's Fun Park over on Ashley Phosphate.  We had such a good time.  Our quality "Family Time" has been pretty scarce over this past year, so it was nice to be hanging out with my husband and kids for awhile, even though we were keeping the kids out on a school night.  Pact testing - shmack testing... a good night's sleep before the year's major test is over rated anyway, right?  Well, good thing my children are geniuses.  :)

That's my husband, Michael, loading up the "Fun Cards".  They don't use the token system.  You get what looks like a credit card and swipe it at each game or ride.  "sluuurrrp!"  That's the sound of $150 being swiped.  ouch!

The first thing on the Dulaney Agenda was Go-Cart Racing!  Bella & I sat out of the first round, so it was Daddy versus the Buddhas... Zoe/Zane/Zophia/Zadie.  And the winner is... ZOE!

Bella chickened out of the big slide, too, but it didn't stop Phia & Zadie from zooming down.  They both loved the last bump because it popped them up in the air like they were flying.

After the slide, we all went on the bumper boats.  The boats had water guns, so we all got soaked!  The kids especially liked spraying their daddy.

Then the girls went on the Drop Zone & Buddha (aka Zane) climbed the rock wall.

Here's me & my first born, Zoe (aka Drama Queen).

After we hit all the rides, each of the Dulaney clan picked out their colored golf balls and we putt-putted around the mini-golf course.  Bella really liked the practice green, so she and I hung out there while the rest of 'em went ahead.  Bella got pretty good at it.  She goes "I'm a Rockstar at this!"  Is she her mama's daughter or what?  My #4, aka Zadie Michelle, was the first to make a Hole-in-One, and then Zoe got one right afterward.  Sorry to say that Mr. Golf himself did not sink a 1-putt.  Maybe next time honey.

 

So after all the games & rides & mini-golf, the kids wanted ICEE's & chips... the dinner of Champions!

 

Oh My 80's Big Hair Day

So this morning I decided to put gel in my hair and just blow dry instead of using the time consuming round brush dryer which smoothes out my hair... the result is "Oh My 80's Big Hair"!!

Whoa - can anyone say "deep conditioning needed?" 

(BTW:  Can you see my burnt shoulder peeking thru?  That's from Sunday at the beach.  Just the one shoulder burnt!)

Sunday @ Sullivan's Island

After surviving our Donna Weekend, I actually had a day off and decided to take the kids to the beach.  I go to Sullivans' Island (lane #21 - where the big rocks are) because their aren't usually too many other people there, also because I don't know how to get to any other beach. :)

It was crazy windy, but the kids had a blast anyway.  We had the wagon loaded full of towels, beach toys & snacks.  Bella likes the little natural pools near the big rocks and the bigger kids love to play in the surf with their boogie boards & skim boards.  I pretty much just count heads the whole time.  I locate each one, okay all 5 accounted for, take a couple pictures, and then start counting again.  I forgot to put sunscreen on (it wasn't hot) and so I got burned on my right shoulder.  Yes - just my right shoulder!  I guess I must have been standing at that angle for the majority of the day?

      Looks like I didn't get any pictures of my son, Zane, but that's because he stayed out in the ocean the whole time except to come in for a snack every once in a while.  At one point, he gave up his surfer/swim shirt to his sister like the young gentleman that he is!  (Zophia was either cold or getting scratches on her tummy, so Zane gave up his shirt.)

Donna Downey - day 2

Here are a few shots of the "Journey of Me" class.  To be honest, it actually was an even better project than I thought.  It's cardboard base worried me (cause I'm one of those sticklers for acid free), but we totally covered it all in the papers of our choice - "papers that make us happy" - and it's meant to be a catch-all for the things that we want to hold on to that just make us smile.  This album provides a place to store things that aren't necessarily ideal for my traditional scrapbooks.  I really like it!

 

I didn't get a whole lot of pictures of the last class, but here's Donna's finished project & my ummm shall we say less than finished project:

Dinner w/ Donna!  The Dulaney & Downey kids were too cute together all weekend.  Here they are at dinner squeezing in to the corner booth at the Noisy Oyster in N Charleston...

 

Donna's not a big fan of fish or seafood in general... so of course we took to her a seafood restaurant - duh!  I guess I could have asked first if she had a preference?  Well, maybe next time.  By the way - Donna has said that she'd like to come back!  I guess we weren't as big of freaks as we thought?  So, mark your calendars for next Spring.  We're hoping to re-schedule for early May, maybe even sooner?  We'll let you know.

Thank you so much to Donna for being a fabulous guest teacher.  You were as "real" & genuine in person as you seem on your blog.  I learned a lot.  Thanks to Bill, too!  You have been a big help throughout the whole planning process.  I hope you and the kids had a good time.  One last VERY BIG THANK YOU to The Pink House staff - you ladies ROCK!!!!  We definitely could not do any of our wonderfulness without Mom, Ronee, Shere, Debbie & Kelsey.  I love you all!  And to our most awesome friends (a.k.a. customers/students) I hope you had as much fun as we did.  Thank you all so much for helping The Pink House grow.  We appreciate you.

Donna Downey - day 1

(First things first... yes, I know that I have been such a slacker for not blogging in 2 weeks, but we have been so crazy busy.  Many apologies.)

So Donna-Day 1 was everything I hoped for and better!  I love you all and plan on filling you in on all the details, but for now the pics will have to do.  It's 2:00 in the morning and I need to go home to get a few hours of sleep before jumping right back into the scrap of things.  :)

The Dulaney & Downey kids are so cool together.  They are perfect ages for playdates.

Since our crop room/kitchen/office space only holds 16, we had to use the garage for Donna's classes.  Tonight's "Year in the Life" was SOLD OUT! 

 

Havin' a great time!

See you in the morning.

Zadie's 6th Birthday

So, yesterday my #4 - Zadie Michelle - turned 6 years old.  I can't believe it!  It's been six years since she was born.  FYI:  Zadie is the only one that I had false labor with.  Wouldn't you guess?  She is by far the most "energetic" of all my kids.

Well, yesterday her Daddy took her to Frankie's Fun Park.  She got to drive her own go-cart and rode a ride that went "up and then down."  For dinner, she chose hibachi but fell asleep at the table before they could come sing happy birthday to her.  She told her Dad "it was the best birthday ever!"

Today, I took Zadie and Phia and Bella to the mall to get her ears pierced.  We went to Claire's, and Zadie picked out the diamonds of course!  She was a little bit nervous, but she really rallied thru it.  Her eyes got so big when the guns pierced her ears but she didn't cry outloud at all.  Some tears came down afterward until the numbing medicine took effect.  I'm extremely proud of her!