Joint Project

My hubby and I completed this project last week. I tell you what, it has already been a life saver! This was a complete group effort,but he did most of the work, lol. 

It started as just an idea he had and then he went to work looking on-line for ideas on different ways to do it. This is actually the beginning, we plan on making some changes too it as time and money allow. 

What caused this whole thing to come together started after I opened my laptop (fairly new mind you)  and found that the screen was cracked! I was sick, what was I going to do now?I looked to see how much it cost to get the screen repaired, wow! might as well buy an new one (which I am going to have to do anyway, booo). But what do you do with a laptop that is in perfect condition, memory wise anyway, but you still can't really use it? We did hook it up to the TV's from time to time, but let's face it, no one wants to give up TV time for mom to be on Pintrest. So that is where we began. 

For those of you that know me I have four busy children that just keep growing up! Boy, did I think they were busy when they were little, now that they are becoming teens, we are even busier! Between drama, band, sports, church activities, the list goes on and on, it is really hard to keep up. Not to mention, how many times, ladies, have you told your husband about some activity coming up and he says he doesn't know what you are talking about ("You never told me that was going on?"), well now no one has an excuse! 

Back to the nuts and bolts. My hubby went to a local computer repair place and found an old monitor for $20, he then came home and mounted it to the wall. We had an old monitor bracket laying around from a different computer, but you can use a regular TV bracket if you want, just make sure that the monitor you get can be attached to it. Then he just hooked up the computer. He cleaned up my laptop, got rid of most of the "extra stuff" on it so there was a lot of space and memory. He then went looking for a program on-line that would work for the "hub". We came across this one,http://www.tudorspan.com/trial.aspx. It works great for us. He then started tweaking things. He made it so that I can listen to my music off of iTunes. He then downloaded a weather program, a must in Oklahoma! It just went from there. We are still tweaking it, ultimately he wants to get me a touch screen so it will make it even easier.  I will keep try to keep you all up to date on the things that we add to it. Right now he is working on a grocery/pantry database to help keep track of all the food and household items we have on hand. He then wants to get me a scanner, like in the grocery store, so that all I have to do is scan items as they come in the house, or go out so we always know what is on hand!

As for the "look" that was where I come in. I didn't like the look of the scratched up black frame of the monitor, and it was an odd shape for a regular picture frame (which might also work if you can find one to fit the frame). So my hubby went to Lowes (Me too after I messed up the first time) and we picked out some decorative molding. We don't have a miter saw, nor know how to use one, so we got the "bullet" molding to put in the corners and then I just cut the molding to fit the space, some Gorilla Glue and some sawing and voila, you have a frame. I did have to do some work to make sure that the buttons on the front of the monitor would be accessible, so I used my husband's Drimmel to cut out the space for the buttons. It was a lot of fun and it looks really good. You can then paint it to match your decor. Another thing to remember, this monitor had built in speakers, they were on the front. For us this wan't a problem, they didn't work anyway, so I just covered them up with the frame. We had to hook up some external speakers, they are probably better than what the monitor had anyway, lol. But if you do buy a monitor with external speakers you might want to take note of where they are if you are going to frame it up.

Well, I hope you like it, I know we do! I plan on expanding my wood working projects and my hubby his tech abilities. So as more projects come along I will try and post those too. Thanks for taking a look at our first one!

Ok, I know it has been quite awhile since my last blog. I really have no good excuse, just been out of my mind trying to get all things put together. Do any of you ever have this problem, you have about 1,000,000,000,000,000 things flying around in your head (things you need to do, want to do, ideas you have, actual things going on, etc.) and you just can't nail one thing down. Well, that is exactly where I have been. I would like to blame it on ADHD which I have self diagnosed myself with, but sometimes it is just a case of my want to dos out way and win over my have and need to dos.

I said before that I was going to keep up on my weight loss journey, so here is my official second entry. As I hope you can tell from this picture the program is working! I know this picture looks a little weird, I took it with my new camera and it was an above photo, so my shoulders are up around my ears, lol. But it was one of the few ones that I actually liked. I have lost about 30lbs. That I know is great, although when I look at my husband and how much weight he lost in the same three months I feel like I am so far behind! I just hate that men loose weight faster and easier than women! That is just so unfair!!! But I try not to dwell too much on that. I am proud that I have lost what I have and really, very easily. Don't get me wrong, there are some very tough days in there, but to say that I have been on this diet for three months now and never gained once is a big deal. I will continue to lose and I just have to remember that the point is that I will get there, not necessarily how long it takes me to get there. I have dropped down to the size I was at when I stopped Weight Watchers the last time, and that really is a pretty big deal! I can fit into my smallest size in the closet and that is fun, I love going to my closet and knowing that whatever I pick out is going to fit, if not be too big. That is something I haven't been able to do in a long time. So all and all so far so good. I look forward to the way I am going to look this summer, when I know I will be able to fit into even smaller things, I might even try wearing tank tops this next summer, who knows?? Well, I better get back to work. Will try and write more soon.

TTFN,
 Celestia

Before Picture

OK,  as promised I am now adding a before picture. This is just as much for myself as for others to see my progress. I will be weighing tomorrow here at home and then I have my first follow-up, check up with my doctor on Tuesday so I will be posting more about my progress then. This is not a full view, but it is the picture that really got me motivated to start losing again and for the last time. In the picture is me with my hubby,  father and my oldest right after she was baptized. One of the happiest days of my life and one I will always want to remember. I just look forward to the day when I can look on this picture and not just see how big I had gotten, but remember the joyous occasion and see how far I have come.
My dear hubby, as I believe I have already posted has already lost a lot of weight since that picture. I will have to try and get a picture of him and post it soon so you all can see his progress, those of you who haven't seen him in a while will be impressed. Well anyway, here is the "before picture".
TTFN

First entry on my Diet Post

Alright, I just finished my first blog post about a week ago. Yes, I meant to post more often, but due to my dear husband spending more time on the laptop than usual I have not had the chance. After all, I spend the bigger part of my day sitting at a desk on a computer, when I get home if I want to get on the computer I only want to use the laptop on the couch or in bed, I sure don't want to use the desktop. Anyway, enough complaining. I didn't say I was going to be writing about my computer but my diet.
I will start from the "sort of" beginning. I have been overweight most of my life. When I say most I guess according to today's standards I should really say ALL of my life. My smallest size as an "adult" has been a size 13/14 when I was in collage, and that was after being sick for a very long time and living on soup. So this has been a constant struggle. I didn't really start to work on it until I got married. I know that kind of sounds weird, but I had always been that way and until I lost the weight in collage I just never knew any other way to be. After I lost that weight I was very happy at the size I was at, after all I was smaller than I had been in high school and I felt I looked pretty good.
Then that wonderful thing called motherhood happened. I remembered how much fun it was to eat while I was pregnant. There was no stopping me then. You know when you have four children in the first 6 years of your marriage there really is very little time to diet and a lot of time to eat! I remember that I would try to exercise and all between pregnancies only to find out that I was pregnant again. Well after four children and gaining I don't know how much weight I finally had enough. I told my husband that I wanted to start Weight Watchers. He told me that if that is what I wanted to do he would sign me up. I really did pretty good on it, the first time. I lost about 60 pounds and was feeling so good. Then the dreaded happened, the lose started to get slower and slower. Then I got sick for about a month and a half and stopped working out, and then it was Christmas time and since I wasn't working out or doing well on my WW, we might as well save some money and end my membership, you  can guess where it goes from there. Now a little more than a year later and most of the weight is back.I tried to go back on WW a couple of more times, only to give up-or never really start- again and again.
Then one day my husband was talking to our doctor and he told him about a weight loss program he and his wife had been on. He too was some overweight and so he thought he would try it. Well the weight started to drop off of him. I mean drop. He lost so much weight and so quickly. I started to feel very depressed, and even fatter. Did I do what he did, no, it scared me to death. I couldn't imagine eating so few calories, not to mention it seemed soooo restrictive. I just love food way too much. He kept telling me that I should try it, he said I would love it. I was very skeptical, but he finally talked me into it.
On July 5th of this year I started the same program. I am glad to report that so far so good. As of this past Monday I have lost 13 lbs. That is pretty good considering I haven't even been on it for a month. I will keep you all up to date on my progress. Sorry for the long story to get to this point, but I thought it would be good to give some background. I will try and post some before and progress pictures soon. Thanks for reading and
TTFN

Let's get started

OK, I know everyone always starts out their blogs this way but for real, I have never done this before so please bare with me. I am by no means a professional writer, and I don't even lead some grandiose life, I am just a regular person with everyday, not really that interesting, things going on. I don't have anything to sell, I am not a professional at anything, and I don't do reviews (although I may post things from time to time that interest me or that I really like or don't like). OK, have I board you enough? Are you still there? Well if you are, I guess I will get started.

I don't really know what has started me on the blog thing except that "All My Friends Are Doing It". I know that is the one thing that we tell our kids is not good to do, but hey, I have some good friends and so I guess it isn't a bad thing to do what they are doing? This all started when I ran across my friend "Pinky Chick's" blog. I loved it! She was able to write how she was feeling about things going on in her life and it was interesting to read. Not just because I like her and she is a new friend and it is fun to find things out about her, but because I got to read about some of her struggles and see that I am not alone. We all like to find out that there are others out there who struggle with some of the same things that we do, I guess that goes back to misery loves company? I am overweight and currently working on losing it just like she is and so even though we may be going at it in different ways, we still share the same struggles and it is always nice to see that you are not alone.

 Then I ran across another friend's blog. Her's is a lot about her family, her husband and her child. Well, I have a few kids, and yeah I am proud of them (most of the time, lol). I have a husband that I love and he has a crazy stressful job, actually the same job as her husband, so I can have an endless amount of material there, so why not write about them from time to time. She also is one of my coupon friends and she blogs about that, well I can do that too. So there was another motivator.

I then read yet another friend's blog, her's was about her family and also about her success at weight loss. OK, I am not there yet, but seeing her success gives me motivation and encouragement. Well, I think I can do that too. So when I look at all of that I thought "Why Not"?  It might be kind of therapeutic? I mean what does a mom of four (one teen, soon to be two teens) who works full time need more than therapy? Since I can't afford to see a therapist this is the next best thing, and it is free. So please bare with me, like I said before. My posts may be insightful (I doubt it, but one can hope), they might be funny, they might bring a tear, or they might just be boring, but then again, that is my life. One day I am pulling out my hair trying to figure out how I am going to go to a meeting, be home when one child gets home from camp, and spend time with her husband that she hardly ever gets to see. And another I might just be complaining because I have found a moment of down time and I am board out of my mind trying to not eat everything in the fridge? Any which way, I hope to feel some better at the end of my post.

Thanks for getting this far, if you did. I hope I didn't scare or confuse you.

 In the wise words of Tigger, TTFN