One of those pictures...

I think every woman has one at some time in her life.; a picture that totally opens your eyes to what you look like and how you have changed. Well, I now have one of those pictures from this weekend.

Here is the picture:

You are probably thinking..."what is wrong with this cute picture of a little gal and her momma at MOA?"

----------Get ready for some brutal honesty here------------

I took one look at this picture minutes after it was taken (cursed digital cameras) and immediately threw away my half drunk Caribou skim milk chocolate mocha (without whip cream-makes me feel better to put that in).

I was shocked at....my face! Where did that chub come from? I have chubbier cheeks than my toddler; at least they look cute on her. As for me...UGH...need to get rid of those. Dora's cheeks are more taut and defined than mine!

OK, now don't go worrying about me and thinking she is crazy if she thinks she is fat. I don't 'think' I am fat, but I do know I have gained a few pounds (stupid Midwest winters) and need to get back to my exercise and good eating habits. I have definitely fallen off those two respective bandwagons lately. I am also in a study of the book of Daniel in the bible and we learned about over indulgences and how our current culture encourages us to overindulge, but we must avoid the indulgences and take care of our God-given bodies.

So, here is my plan (I am telling you so you can hold me accountable if you ever see me sneaking up to a table full of donuts or going back for seconds at a buffet). I have signed up for three 5K races this spring; have to train for those otherwise I will just keel over on the course. I am weaning off and giving up my indulgences: Caribou mochas (going to be a tough one), burgers and fries (don't eat them often, but man are they tasty); snacking after 7pm. I am sure there are more, but those are the immediate ones I can think of.

For all you women who have had that picture, I would love to know how you reacted and what you did about it. I think this is definitely something only women understand.

Here's to willpower and God's strength and guidance (as I hold up my brewed coffee with non-fat half and half and splenda)! :)

My little gal is growing up...

My little gal has gone from this:

To this:

Congrats Julia on reaching another toddler milestone! You are growing so fast! Now, to continue on with the potty training.

Decisions, decisions

We are well on our way to painting the interior of our house. Mike and I (mostly just Mike since I really don't like to paint) will be painting a few rooms, but for the others we searched for a painter. We now have a painter (thanks to my friend Suzanne's recommendation), we have a tentative start date, BUT we need to decide on color. Talk about an overwhelming task when you have 6 rooms to paint, some of which flow together!

The painter, Tim, gave some great recommendations and ideas on how to make colors flow from room to room and even knew the exact names of paint and their numbers! He has been painting for 24 years, so he knows his stuff.

I have lots of these to choose from:

I have our small 1/4 bathroom color picked out-an easy one to choose and Mike is going to paint it. As for the other rooms, I have the master bathroom narrowed down to two colors: Nantucket fog and Sarasota springs (both bluish-gray colors)-wouldn't you love to have the job of naming paint colors?

Anyway, in order to avoid not having the exact colors I want, we are going to get those little sample cans and paint a small swatch on the wall. I wish I would have done this for our master bedroom. The color is fine, but it isn't exactly what I wanted. It is tolerable though. When I asked Mike what colors he would like he said "I don't care, as long as it isn't purple". OK then...noted.

So, my Saturday may be spent picking colors, buying small paint cans and streaking our walls with many different colors.


More to come on the interior decorating and painting saga...