Weight Watchers: Week 4 & My Saturday

I went to my Weight Watchers meeting this morning and lost 0.8 pounds this week. It was harder for me to stay on track this week, so I am happy with even a little weight loss. Each week is a new start, which is great! I am back to feeling motivated. I ate healthy for most of the day and got to splurge on a Frappaccino.

Here's my big accomplishment for the day: I mowed the grass for the first time in my life! Yep, I never mowed the grass before. Since I was sooo good at mopping the floors and inside chores, I never got the chore of mowing the grass. Most of my parents' yard is on a hill or a "swamp", so my parents did not want me mowing the yard. Now that I have my own house, I need to know how to take care of things around here. John is starting a summer class soon that will be five nights a week for five weeks. Since he will be busy, I offered to help with the mowing during that time. We have a good mower, but I learned today that it is a lot of work! My next household maintenance item to tackle is getting on the roof. The problem is that I am afraid of falling...

We visited the Apple Store today to check out the iphone. It is pretty cool, but I could not justify spending $500-600 on it. The funny part was that John had trouble typing on it since it is made for smaller fingers like mine.

I also got some pages done for the wedding scrapbook. I am really trying to my supplies instead of buying more stuff. I did get some cool scrapping stuff for my birthday that will be fun to use.

Scrapbooking Websites

I have discovered two good scrapbooking websites that I want to share:

Paperclipping
This website includes a blog and videos you can watch about scrapbooking. Noell goes over some basic design principles including starting a layout, visual triangles, and color. I am spending my Friday night watching and listening.

PHutch Sketches
Scrapbooking sketches are great inspiration. I have used some printed/published sketches and I have made my own sketches. I do not always follow the sketch exactly, but it has helped me to break out of a rut. Usually my pages evolve from the original sketch or idea, but that it part of the fun in my opinion.

Car

We paid off the car in May and received the title today in the mail. Yeah! This is the first loan that I've paid off. The title says "Sara Bachman" since I bought the car in 2002. Now it is time for John to get a car or truck.

June 25th

Some Famous People who also have a June 25th Birthday:
George Orwell
Carly Simon
George Michael
and per John, "Also Joseph Foullon, but he doesn't count since he was a hated French politician that was brutally murdered at the beginning of the French Revolution."

Yeah, my husband has been reading a French Revolution book along with a book about how to build robots. There will probably be future posts about robots...

Birthday Weekend

I turn 28 tomorrow! John and I went downtown yesterday for my Birthday Weekend outing. We visited a couple of places that we had not been to yet in San Antonio. We had lunch at Schilo's Delicatessen. It is a very good German deli near the Riverwalk. Loved the root beer! We had been hearing good things about it lately. We wanted to go for one of our Sunday lunches out, but they are closed on Sundays.

Next we visited The Museo Alameda, which opened in the spring. It is affiliated with the Smithsonian. It is not a huge museum, but it had neat exhbits. I learned about Conjunto music and thought its connection to German immigrants is pretty cool.

Friday night Sharis (friend from work) came over to scrapbook. I am working on my wedding scrapbook and plan to have it finished by our third anniversary at the end of July. Today has been my lazy day at home. No special plans for my birthday since it is a work day, but I enjoyed my Birthday Weekend.

Weight Watchers: Week 3

I woke up this morning looking forward to going to a Weight Watchers meeting. The Saturday morning group is quite lively and the leader is fun! I got a good surprise when I weighed in this morning. I lost 3.2 pounds! It had been a week and two days since my last weight in, so the time did help. The good thing I did was really track all that I ate. Even when I ate too much at Bunko on Tuesday night, I made myself sit down and track each item. I was able to stay within my points for the week, but I did not eat enough fruits and vegetables. (Something for me to work on...) My goal for next week is to lose 1.2 pounds so that I can hit the 5 pounds lost mark. One gentlemen at the meeting was recognized today for losing 100 pounds! It is great to watch people make positive changes in their lives and succeed.

Scrapbook Layouts

I've taken pictures of a couple of my scrapbook layouts. I have not figured out how to get them super straight, so I cannot completely crop out the background. I'll keep trying, but this is the start. The Our Backyard layout is from a Becky Higgins sketch in Creating Keepsakes magazine. Reading the scrapbook magazines has helped me try new layout styles. (Most of my early pages all look the same!) I had fun playing with some ribbon and stickers for the Halloween layout. I may still try to scan some layouts...

Frida

When I was a kid, I remember looking through a photo album with pictures that my parents took when they lived in Kansas City. This was before they had kids, and there were lots of pictures of their dog, Max. I wondered why they took so many picture of the dog. Now I understand. Here is a picture of Frida wagging her tail.

Another Championship

The SPURS have won their fourth championship since 1999 and their second since we have lived in San Antonio. There are a lot of happy people in San Antonio.

Weight Watchers: Week 2

I am working on Saturday, so I will not be able to make it to a Weight Watchers meeting that day. I went to a meeting tonight since my goal is to go to a meeting each week to stay motivated.
Weight Lost: 0.6 lb. (in 5 days)

It is not a huge weight loss but a good start. I am thinking back to the Tortoise and the Hare: slow and steady wins the race. The next week I want to go to the gym more to help my weight loss. I am following the Flex Plan and I can earn Activity Points. In the past, I would swap Activity Points for food. The leader at my first meeting did not recommend that. She reminded us that the Surgeon General recommends at least 30-45 minutes of exercise a day. And that does not mean 30-45 minutes of exercise a day in order to eat more!

Back to watching the SPURS and watering the lawn. Gotta love South Texas.

Other Uses for Scrapbook Supplies

I removed a sticker from the outside of one of the bedroom doors. I discovered why the sticker was there... to cover some patch work. I gathered some scrapbook supplies to make this:

Mini Album

This was John's last Valentine's Day gift. I made him a surprise mini album and had a lot of fun playing with paints.

Attitude & The Passage of Time

Ali Edwards posted about Choices today on her blog. She quoted Charles Swindoll, who I referenced in my high school graduation speech about Attitude. When there are multiple valedictorians, all the speeches can sound the same after a while. I gave a speech with my friend Jamie about the impact of a positive attitude and hoped it would be a unique topic. I should still have a copy of the speech, so maybe I'll dig it up to post on this blog.

I have been very aware of the passage of time lately:
Ten years since I graduated from high school
Three years since I moved to Texas
Getting closer to age thirty
Married for almost three years

Even as time passes, I am still an optimist.

June 11th

Happy Birthday Dad! I am happy to share my birthday month with my dad.

June 11, 2004 was the day that John and I moved to Texas. We left Dayton on June 10th and split the 20 hour drive into two days. We arrived on the evening of June 11th with John's sister Jenni and their Mom. It was a Friday and I started my job at UTSA on Monday. We have now lived in Texas three years... wow.

Weight Watchers: Week 1

I joined Weight Watchers today! Okay, so this is not the first time I have joined this program. In the meeting this morning, someone made the reference to being a "repeat offender" for joining multiple times. What will make this time different? Here are the lessons I have learned about weight loss from losing and gaining the same few pounds over and over again:
1. The balance of exercise and careful eating is key. Following Weight Watchers points without exercise is not enough and just exercise without changing your eating habits is not enough. Now I have to put together what I learned from the person trainer and what I am learning from Weight Watchers.
2. I need something to hold me accountable. I am not good at being consistent with my eating and exercise from week to week. After a good week, I seem to slip.
3. I have to go to Weight Watchers meetings every week. The center with many meeting times is not far from my house, so I have no excuses.

Each time I start to lose weight, I seem to lose motivation. My reasons for wanting to lose weight include:
1. I want to be happy with my body.
2. I want more energy.
3. I want to be at a healthy weight before I have kids. (This is becoming a much bigger motivation since I will be 28 soon.)

A few months ago, I caught The Tyra Banks Show when she and her guests all had their weight posted on their swimsuits. She did the episode in response to all the press about how she weighs 160-something. It was so liberating to see people of all shapes and sizes share their weight. Three women shared their "So What" statements. While Tyra is not promoting being unhealthy, she does not want people to get so wrapped up in this number. Thanks to Tyra, I am going to post my current weight and my progress each week. I was hesitant to post my weight until I remembered watching that show. This blog is one more way to hold myself accountable to weight loss and being more healthy.

Starting Weight: 166.2
Heighth: 5'4
Goal: 135

I even had John take a "before" photo this morning.

Scrapbooking

The photos above show many of my scrapbooking supplies. I want to experiment with the best way for me to post my layouts on this blog. My LSS (local scrapbook store) charges $1 per page to scan my 12X12 layouts. Hmm... that will add up over time. I can try to scan layouts on my scanner and stitch two images together to cover a 12x12 layout. Scanning would have been easier if I scrapped 8.5x11, but I like the large square of the 12x12 size. I can also take pictures of my pages, but I am not sure how that will look. I plan to post some layouts in the next week or so.

I started volunteering with my neighborhood association and now coordinate the pool and clubhouse rentals. I was cleaning up at the neighborhood clubhouse and found some scrapbooks of the University Oaks Garden Club from the mid to late 1970's. They made scrapbooks before it was popular! It was interesting to stumble upon these books with officer lists, club information, and pictures. The only problem is that these books are starting to fall apart thirty years later. These books serve as proof that it is worth the money to buy acid and lignin free products!

On Saturday I was visiting a friend who is interested in starting scrapbooks for her daughter. She has boxes of photos and memorabilia and is ready to get these into books. I made her a list of my top ten supplies to start scrapbooking:
1. Cardstock (I like Bazzill and Die Cuts With a View.)
2. Patterned paper (match the colors of your photos or the theme of your photos)
3. Black acid free journaling pen
4. Dry Adhesive (I use the Herma Vario Tab Dispenser, but there are lots of brands available.)*
5. Wet Adhesive (I have used the Zig Two Way Glue because it can be temporary or permanent.)*
6. 12 inch paper trimmer
7. Fine point scissors
8. Album/page protectors
9. Alphabet Stickers
10. Art Bin/Plastic Case (good to start organizing your scrapbooking supplies and portable)
*A less expensive option to these are acid free glue sticks.
Estimated cost: $100, depending on the exact items you purchase

You want to make sure that your supplies are acid and lingin free so that your albums will not fall apart in thirty years like the ones I saw in my neighborhood clubhouse. If you want to include any newspaper articles or items that may contain acid, you can buy somethings called Archival Mist to neutralize these items and prevent them from breaking down over time.

Here are some additional products that I have added to my stash: stickers, rub-ons, ribbon, brads, pens in a variety of colors, punches (circles and squares are good), corner rounder, stamps (buy acid free ink), scrapbook paint, stencils, and colored staples. It is easy to overbuy, so start off slow. I bought supplies for my wedding album when I first started scrapbooking. I wanted to practice on other photos first, so I am now working on my wedding album two years later and some of my early purchases do not fit my style anymore. I bought a 500 pack of cardstock at Costco at a great price, but there are colors that I will not use in there. Also, I prefer the textured cardstock now since it gaves a richer look to pages. I bought some paper packs on sale, but I do not like some of the paper now. I have bought some purple items over time that do not match, and I now try to look for coordinating lines of paper, cardstock, and embellishments to make sure that my supplies match.

I am still looking for an album that I love. Beware of buying inexpensive albums because they can fall apart. (I have been guilty of this...) I am going to try out a Creative Memories album for my Australia album. Sometimes I do not scrapbook in order, which can be a challenge with the Creative Memories albums because you scrapbook direclty onto the page. I love American Crafts products, so I want to try out their Modern Album. I recently saw a neat post about how you can use their binder albums for multiple size pages. Now that I am using more embellishments on my pages, some albums do not make my pages lay flat.

I cleaned out my scrapbooking stash on Friday night, which was really helpful. I threw away all the scraps of paper and cardstock that I will not use. I organized the remaining scraps by color. I found some paper, cardstock and stickers that I do not think I will use, and I am going to donate them to a local church that makes scrapbooks for children in foster care. This effort was inspired by one of Ali Edwards' articles.

The internet is full of sites to give you free information about scrapbooking. Scrapbook.com is one of my favorites and includes articles for beginners. 2 Peas in a Bucket has a message board for beginning scrapbookers to ask questions, which is really helpful. A couple of my friends sell Creative Memories products. Their approach is a little different than what I learned at my LSS, but I am really impressed with their quality of products. Scrapbooking is my first true hobby, I am really enjoying it.

On another note: Go Spurs Go! I am happy to see the Spurs and the Cavs in the finals.