Creed's a Walker

Can you even believe it! He has been doing this more consistanly the last day or so.

Creed walking at 10 1/2 months old.

Emma's a PRO

People Respecting Others, that is.

This highly coveted reward is given once a month to students that show "exceptional Christian character and a positive attitude toward others at school both in and out of the class room."

The teachers nominate the child and so E had no idea she had won this reward until we told her. We had no idea until we got a letter in the mail with the certificate and an invite for Emma to dine with Miss Trittin the school Principal on Wednesday to a resturant of her choice, within Crookston.

We are so proud of our girl!

Practice makes Perfect

Our Night Time Routine

Playing with dad before bed
Cuddles before bed

Getting ready to lay Creed down. Here the three of us are praying together, Awww

Never ThinkYou Are Done

I created a new blogspot for my 12 week Eating For Life Challenge. This way I can keep this as a family update blog. The link is www.neverthinkyouaredone.blogspot.com I plan on logging in everyday's menu and workout schedule, my ups and downs and my weigh in's plus the hard to post before, mid way thru and after pictures.

Eating For Life 12 Week Challenge

Ok, so, I am not going to use my blog to get on a weight loss ego frenzy or anything like that, but I have come across something very interesting and I want to share with you from beginning to end so that if you feel like you are looking for a change you can have a reference.

For the past 14 weeks I have worked very hard to get my baby weight off, and with much success. Today I am down 24 lbs and have released 16 total inches off of my body! However, I am sitting with about 26% total body fat; the healthy total for a woman is 17-20%. This is something I would like to change for my over all health and well being.


I came across the book Eating for life by Bill Phillips and his non-dieting philosophy has me hook line and sinker, because it is practical, it is family friendly (baby friendly), so I will not be making 4 different meals every day ( that is important to me!). The "right recipe" for this challenge is 4 basic steps: 1. Right Foods 2. Right Amounts 3. Right Combos 4. Right Times.

Up to this point I have been following the "balanced" meal plan so the "right combos" is not a new concept for me, I am also used to eating smaller meals 5 times a day so eating 6 times a day isn't going to be inconvenient either. That is it! Easy! Oh, and did I mention the "cheat day"?


I encourage you to check this book out or go to his website at www.eatingforlife.com and let me know if you are with me. I will give monthly updates to let you know how it goes. My end date is the 17th of January a day after my 10th anniversary and I think health and wellness is the greatest gift to give to my husband and my family.

March 2008

October 2008

Update

I have been so bad about keeping this blog updated. I don't have any pictures, so this might be a bit boring for some; anyhow...
Last weekend Lisa and I took the kids to Bemidiji. She had a Cookie Lee Jewelry show on Friday night, so I tended the kids. Looking back on that, we concluded that our kids have no idea how spoiled they are, they got their own room...at 3, 5, and 6! For spacious sake we reserved adjoining rooms, Creed stayed in our room while the 2 boys and 2 girls had the other. It was a great time, swimming, pizza, staying up late & listening to Ella talk to herself while the others were sawing logs-fun times. Creed did pretty well, he was catching a bit of a cold and was awake from about 2-4 in the a.m. only to wake up for the day at 6, but he fell asleep for the whole ride home.
Friday night around 11:30 Rob called to tell me that they were shut down for rain. We were already saturated so the total rain for the weekend sent us over the edge, there were flood warnings and the whole bit, it was pretty apparent that beets were not going to be hauled for the next whole week.
So, watching Rob wait for the fields to dry out was torture for me, I mean he is a pretty patient guy, but it is tough especially when Wednesday came along and neighbors were starting up again. Our field was just too wet. We lost most of our crew due to the fact that harvest usually last 2 weeks that is what most take off from their regular jobs. We started up again today the 20th and we are going only about 15-16 hour shifts rather than 24, just for lack of help.
Now, you are up to date on the farming bit...is that clear as mud? Good :)

2008 Beet Campaign

It is very hard for me to believe that we are in October, let alone Beet harvest! But, with the 1st of October comes the 1st day of campaign. They started at 8 a.m. yesterday and will run now for 24 hours until there is either a heat shut down or rain (like hard continuous rain) they work through sprinkles and, believe it or not, snow. If they get "sticky" with rain they pull the trucks through the field with a tractor. We pray against that :)

This is the beet lifter.
The beet lifter dumps the beets into a truck that takes it to the beet piler where they store all the beets till Spring.
It is quite the production. Alot of long hours riding in a truck or a tractor, but we so appreciate everyone that comes back to help us out year after year. This year Rob is actually behind the equipment, he is driving the Semi from 12 a.m. to 6 a.m. He usually is the maintenance/supervisor/fill in guy. I think he likes the change this year. Of course, if something breaks down he has to stop driving and fix whatever needs fixing, so that is the risk. I am praying for an uneventful campaign, please join me!