I need some motivation

So besides school, the one thing occupying my mind is my weight, sad I know. I was doing good for so long and I recently didn't just fall off the bandwagon, I threw myself off the edge! What can I do? I need some advice from my skinny friends on how to control the urge to eat every 5 seconds. I have a normal BMI but I still want to lose 15 pounds. I need some motivation, skills, whatever you can to help a sister out. Thanks!

What?!!!!!

Okay, so I was at Church on Sunday and this friend of ours comes up to Brandon and I and starts talking about some post that Brandon put on our blog. I personally haven't looked at our blog in a few months, so I was questioning what on earth she was talking about. Brandon doesn't blog? So I immediately come home and start balling my eyes out as I'm reading the last post. He is a turkey for not telling me but amazing for writing it.

A disclaimer to all of that though is that straight A's is not that big of a deal at all. For one, I was only taking 3 classes, second I am definitely not getting straight A's this term so it was probably just a fluke. Either way I love Brandon so much I can't even express it. He is better than any man I know, and I wish I could be half the person he is.

Melody Is Smart

I don't have much time right now (dang final exams, I should be studying for an Employment Law final right now) but I wanted to tell everyone just how smart Melody is. If she sees this post she may delete it, sorry. As many of you know, Melody began taking online classes this year through the college here in Salem. Melody attended some college right after high school but then has taken five years off to go to Massage Therapy School, Cosmetology School and of course take care of me and the girls. After such a long absence wouldn't you think she would be a little rusty in the academic department? No, and it makes me sick. She took three classes and got straight A's. She got a perfect 4.0! If the school gave out A+'s, she would have had a 4.3 because she finished each course with higher than 100%. She was informed this week that she made the Academic Honor Roll. She did all of this while taking care of three crazy screaming girls and me (mostly absent husband/father trying to stay above water in law school). Most of her homework and studying came between 9 p.m. and 1 or 2 in the morning. She is pretty nerdy, but quite smart and so incredibly wonderful and beautiful. So if you see her, give her a pat on the back or a congratulations, or something, she deserves it. Melody, the girls and I love you and are very proud of you, keep up the good work.

Weigth Loss Challenge Update

We have had a pretty big response for the challenge, it is really great. We are going to set the start date for next Monday, March 23. If you have already let us know that you are planning to participate, or even if you are just deciding to, please send us an email at loserchallenge at gmail dot com. That way we have your email addresses and can relay the rest of the information and rules to all the competitors. Please do this within the next couple of days. Thanks!

Weight Loss Challenge

As you have seen here in a prior post by Melody about running, we have been trying to live healthier lifestyles. After months of doing really well, we have both hit a wall and are constantly seeking new ways to stay motivated. I recently ran across a blog entry of an old friend who did a weight loss competition and lost 28 pounds, winning $500.

Because we enjoy money and want to lose more weight, we are starting a weight loss competition and invite everyone to join. To join, you need to pay $10. The winner will take the entire pot. The prize awarded will depend on the number of participants.

Details

How long: The contest will last eight weeks, beginning as soon as we have at least 10 participants.

The Format: Have you ever seen The Biggest Loser on NBC? It is a weight loss challenge where people compete to lose the most weight, calculated by percentage of weight lost. If A weighs 250 pounds and loses 25 pounds, he has lost 10% of his body weight. If B weighs 150 pounds and loses 15 pounds, she has lost 10% of her body weight. For the purposes of the challenge, A and B are tied. The reason for basing the contest on percent of body weight lost is to level the playing field. Our contest will also be based on percent of body weight lost.

The Rules: When we decide on a beginning date, each participant will be required to submit their official starting weight. You can email it to me and I will not disclose the number to anyone.We will designate Monday as the official weigh-in day. Each Monday you must weigh yourself and send me the latest weight. Again I will keep the actual number confidential. I will calculate the percent of weight lost that week and make a new blog post listing the top three losers and their percent of weight lost. At the end of the eight weeks, whoever has lost the greatest percentage of body weight will take the pot. As I mentioned above, I want to wait until we have at least 10 participants so the pot will be at least $100 but hopefully more (just enough to buy a new outfit to show off your new look).

If you are interested, leave us a comment or let us know on Facebook and we will email you with more details.

We didn't fall off the face of the earth, but we want to

Oh my gosh! Life has been so busy. So I started school and ever since I really don't have time for anything. The girls make doing homework during the day pretty much pointless, so that leaves from 9pm to 1am for homework. Ahhh! Teaching better be worth it dang it.

Brandon is doing really great in school. We are trying to figure out where we will go after he is done in about a year. We were thinking of taking a trip to Colorado over spring break because everyone we talk to loves it. It would be great to stay in Oregon, but we need to leave our options open.

The girls are doing great, we have been potty training all week and have made some progress! Cali is now 7 months old, crawling and standing on things, and I just pierced her ears! She looks so cute. I will post some pictures soon.