Natalie's Performace at the Suns Game

Natalie, Mikyla, Callie and friends before the performance. They were all being silly and giddy.

Natalie's dance group, The Rockstars, and the other performing dance groups from her dance studio got to dance before the Phoenix Suns' game on April 7. They did a mash up of several popular songs, including songs by Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus. They had matching outfits... their tan tights with tan jazz shoes, royal blue leotards with matching booty shorts, earrings, sparkly red and white tutus, sparkly red ribbons in their hair. They all had to have high ponytails with the ponytail curled and stage makeup. (That's Natalie's favorite part.) They danced a few minutes before the game started.

Our whole family ended up going. Originally it was just going to be Kent, Natalie and I, but then Kent thought it would be a great idea to have the whole family come. We went to La Tolteca for dinner, and then we went to the game. It was a lot of fun for everyone except Drew. He really does not like loud noises, and with crowd was pretty loud. The boys had a lot of fun, and want to go to more games in the future.

Natalie still had a smile on her face when I picked her up after her performance.

Fathers and Sons & GNO!

Friday was the ward Fathers and Sons camp out. I pulled the boys out of school early so they could leave early. Unfortunately Kent got stuck on a business call, so they didn't leave for over an hour after they got home. They haven't told me much about it, but I know they got to stop and eat in Payson, Drew freaked out because he left his pillow at home, and Trevor kept waking up screaming. (Have I mentioned his propensity for sleepwalking? This includes episodes of him waking up in the middle of the night crying or screaming. If I approach him to find out what's wrong it wakes him up, and then he's terrified that someone is in his face. It's been going on since at least 2002. He usually doesn't remember anything, but if he's over-tired it happens more frequently.) When they packed up camp on Saturday morning they went with some of the other men and boys to go shoot their air soft guns, rifles and pistols.
Meanwhile, back at the fort, I kept Natalie home from dance because her cough was really bad when she was moving around. We went with Jennifer, Rylie, Kaeli and Avery Savage to dinner at the Olive Garden, then to see The Last Song. We ran into the Lamoreauxs, DeTemples, Yeagers and Jennifer Pickles from the ward. My mom and niece, Melia, also showed up at the same movie. Great minds think alike! Natalie had Rylie spend the night. They were both asleep within 30 minutes of getting home. Then they got up at 6:05. (I didn't get up that early, but they had fun playing the piano, playing Go Fish and watching TV.) A little after 8 we went and got the co-op food, and then they played a while longer until we went with Jenn to get pedicures. Whew! Busy weekend!

Natalie and my nails after our pedicures. She had polka dots and I got zebra strips with purple and white. Natalie's not sure if I can really claim that they're zebra stripes because there is no black, and the stripes were white. Hmm...Natalie and I at the end of the day. We had some normal pictures, but she thought this one was the funniest, and wanted me to post it to the blog.

Progress

It's been 6 1/2 weeks since I started my diet. As of last Tuesday I was already down 22.5 pounds. Yay! I was walking 5-6 nights a week, but since Tuesday the wind has been so bad that I haven't been able to get out. It's caused my asthma to flare up, and Trevor, Natalie and Drew's allergies to act up. We've had lots of coughs and sniffles going around.
I've been diligent in eating better, eating the foods that my dietitian has instructed me to eat, and I'm doing fairly well. I started my third phase last Monday, and this is the one that I was the most worried about. I'm not having the protein shakes anymore, but real food. Argh! Stress. I've been eating either eggs (for the protein) or Cream of Wheat (for the taste). I used to put 1 T. of brown sugar, but now I put on some cinnamon and 1/2 t. of sugar. Sometimes I have a plain piece of toast too. Lunchtime is no longer a sandwich. I usually cook up chicken one night early in the week, and use that for my lunches for the rest of the week. Usually it's half a chicken breast and some fruits or veggies. I've tried to substitute for the chips that my kids eat for something more healthy. I found a solution in the baby food aisle of all places. Gerber makes these cheese crisps that taste better than Cheetos. Best part about it is that I can eat 18 of them and only consume 35 calories. I still totally crave and miss my daily caffeinated beverage, but I have found the Fuze drinks have either 10-20 calories per bottle are good in a pinch. I drink tons of water still, but sometimes I need some flavor. My dietitian pointed out that drinking a ton of water with my dinner was actually not a good idea for me. She said that it's flushing the food out before my brain got the signal that I was full. So she suggested that if I absolutely have to have a drink with dinner that I have only a few sips. Then 30-45 minutes later I can go back to drinking as much water as I want. It has been helping me eat less, which surprised me.
Natalie has reversed her previous decision. She initially said that she wouldn't like me anymore if I got skinny. She has now decided that it's okay if I lose weight, but she doesn't want me to look "disgusting." Wow, what support and love I feel knowing that.