Turtles Best Friend

Just some pictures of James feeding the turtles....he REALLY likes to feed them...and they get really excited when they see him now. He over feeds them, which is yucky for Calvin cuz he's the one who has to clean the filter.



See how he can contort himself into a little ball, hoping I can't see him putting everything in sight into the turtle tank



Yes, that IS lettuce floating around the tank. Happy turtles.

Isn't Plastic Covered Wood Still Wood?

Anyone who has been to my house recently has noticed that my carpets have reached their life expectancy. We were debating getting them cleaned, but I was doing the math and realized that if I was smart about it I could replace the flooring for the same price as cleaning it. I am a carpet lover, and I've never cared for the feel of wood flooring, but as a mother of 5, I am if nothing else, practical. I decided to put laminate flooring into my girls room, boys room, and living room. My room isn't as bad, so it can wait another year. I shopped around for a few weeks, and found a guy on Craigs List selling some used laminate flooring for roughly .35 cents a sq ft, which is AWESOME. It's just enough to do both my kids rooms and closets with about 50 sq ft to mess up with. I found some at Ikea for .65 cents a sq ft for my living room. I found some GORGEOUS Brazilian Cherry for my bedroom at Home Depot online for .99 cents, but decided to wait :(
I was waiting for a certain weekend to start and I was going to do the living room first, cuz the carpet is grossest in there, but then my kids got sick. Then I got sick. Right in the middle of Tom trying to graduate from the academy. I was sick when Jack got sick, so Calvin was nice enough to help with the cleanup. Jack doesn't make it to the toilet ever. He wanders, and pukes in random places. Including several spots on his bedroom floor this time. Calvin put towels on top of the messes, left for a while, came back, scraped up the chunkies, and then sprayed the carpet with Lysol. By the time I was well enough to assess the situation, it was too late. We decided to do the boys floor first instead of the living room. Tom was originally against doing the floors. He thought the carpet was fine. His last argument was that "it's not like they are unsanitary or anything". Naturally I didn't listen and got the wood anyway, and good thing too cuz the floor was DEFINITELY unsanitary now. Fortunately we only had to wait a week or two to do the floors. I've never installed laminate, but my BFF has and she and her husband volunteered to help us out for a weekend. We had the elders over for dinner too, and used them harshly for cheap labor. They thanked us after, and gave us a nice spiritual thought. Here are the before pics. For your viewing pleasure, I have decided to only include the pics of the wood under flooring and the finished product. Nobody needs to see pics of the carpet post puke..........

After we pulled the carpet up...................

 The closet carpet, and the wood before we installed it......

 After the installation!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

We have a goal to get the other two rooms done by Thanksgiving. I will post parts 2 and 3 as we finish them :)

Workin' Out

First posting here I come :) I have lots of before and after pictures this time. I can do this because I haven't posted anything in almost a year. The first pictures will be a series of visual commentaries on how much weight/body fat that Tom and I have lost since the beginning of the year.
When Tom started the police academy, he started running and 'working out' almost every day. I joined a gym around the same time, not trying to be a copycat, but cuz I found a place with a really good New Years Resolution deal.
Here are the before shots.......

         Calvin took this picture, sometime in the spring........

Calvin took this one in the early summertime....

Are you ready for the after pics?

Granted, the bullet proof vest adds a little extra bulk, but he's a lot slimmer :)     Calvin took this right before graduation halfway through September.........They had him eating 6 small meals a day, and eating smaller portions. He plateaued a while back, so he's probably not going to be any skinnier than this, although he could probably lower his body fat percent more if he were willing to put the time into it.

Tom took this one of me on our trip at the end of August.....

The exercising wasn't helping me lose weight, I had to change my diet. Evidently I'm not getting enough protein, so now I'm eating lots more meat and eggs. It's really hard though. I definitely lean more towards vegetarianism. My weight has been slowly but surely declining since the dietary changes, and I am shooting for a total loss of 30 pounds and as much body fat as possible :)

Feel free to post your positive, uplifting, and congratulatory comments here!