Ketchup

Wow, gotta go clear back to Thursday! Alicen and I have devised a plan to let us both get a good work out in at least once a week. She takes my kids on Tuesday mornings so I can ride and I take hers on Thursday so she can not have to stop and tend to her baby. So Thursday I spent the morning with her sweet little ones while I canned the last of my potatoes, made homemade bread and tried a new jam recipe. That night I was privileged to go to my last ward and teach a canning class. What great gals, I miss them. I think it went ok, you know...criticize the whole thing, go over in your mind what you wanted to do vs. what you actually did....but I think it was OK. I had a great time even if no one else did!

Friday we left bright and early to head to Tuscon for the Geography Bee. It's Stephen's third and final year to compete. Let me just sum it up, it did not go well. I felt really bad for him. I don't know what happened, but he just couldn't even guess a 50/50 right. He was holding back tears the whole time. In his defense, most years, it's unusual for many to miss more than one or two out of 8 or 9, but this year, the majority missed almost half. It was a tough year for everyone. We still made a good day of it and went to lunch and had a good time spending time together with Dad and Grandma as well. Later that night, Glade and I went to dinner with the Johnson's. Glade was grouchy and so was Jenny so it worked out great to have a totally chill dinner with no real plans or expectations. I love having friends like that!

Saturday started nice and early again. Brooklyn and Bo both had 10 am ball games. It got really hot and I ended up with a slight sunburn. A little color is good! Brooklyn won her first game and Bo, well...Bo's was t-ball. After games, we all came home and did Saturday chores and got a little nap squeezed in. The kids were about to explode waiting to get to the ward Rodeo. (only in Queen Creek!) So we finally got them there where they were able to put pants on a goat, ride on a burlap sack behind a horse (not sure why this is fun, but even Katy loved it) and ride "mechanical bulls". It was a dirty, happy day! We rushed home just in time to welcome our Games Night friends in for this month's date night. We never got around to playing games, but had some great conversations. Have I ever mentioned how blessed I am with great friends??

Today has been a very relaxed day. Katy was in my bed eating a cookie at 5:54 am, that wasn't such a great start, but it was fine. Got to church in time, kids behaved and Stephen bore his testimony. Talk about make a mom proud. He cried like a baby, just like his daddy. What a great kid. Whitley has been sick for almost 5 days now with a fever and a bad cough. I started her on some Anti-biotics I have to see if maybe we can get it kicked. She feels awful and I feel awful for her. Poor thing. Dinner was terrible and my kids let me know about it. So much for 'last minute'. Didn't work out so well. Ah well, they got fed.

I started doing the hcg again on Monday and today is my last day of taking the drops. So far this week I have lost 11 lbs. Hoping for one or two more over the next couple of days and then I will be on maintenance. This time I'm going to try a little harder to stick to it, don't want to keep doing this! In total, I have lost 15 lbs since I first started it. I really need to do at least 10 more, but that's a different story and a different month....I want chocolate!