Friday

I Moved my Blog to Wordpress!

Hi all my wonderful readers! I just wanted to let you know I made the jump to lightspeed! Just kidding! But, I did make the jump from Blogger to WordPress! You can still find me under http://marylutz.com! I added Feedburner to my WP blog over there, so be sure to subscribe there so you get all my amazingly awesome posts!!! LOL. See you at WordPress!

Thursday

Details of Kaleb's Race

This evening I had the awesome pleasure of dressing up like a great big pink and brown marshmallow and standing on a ski while my toes went numb and my knees, back and hips stiffened up! LOL. Yes, I went to my son's ski race at Boyne Mountain.

It was interesting to say the least. Kaleb got second in GS, but the interesting part was his slalom race. His first run he did amazingly awesome...until the very end. He slipped, missed a gate, and almost went through the finish gate, but was able to stop himself, climb up the hill couple of feet and go around the gate and then through the finish line. It only took him a couple of seconds to do that.

Well the time keepers are supposed to restart the clock when something like that happens. I heard them announce Kaleb's time at 28 point something but that wasn't written on the board for a really long time. The score keeper missed his time and had the boy whose name was above Kaleb's had a time of 22 point something. Well there was no way there was a 6 second difference between his and Kaleb's time. Kaleb is one of the fastest skiers in his league. Even one of the other fast skiers had a time of 28 point something, so we knew something was askew. Eventually the score keeper wrote in Kaleb's time of 28.05, but then shortly thereafter crossed it off. Everyone was confused about his time because of him missing the gate. Finally one of the race moderators went into the time keeping shack to supposedly get it all straightened out. When he got back, it was an even bigger mess.

They gave Kaleb a time of 36 seconds, which is totally ridiculous. Supposedly the time keeper restarted the time clock after he missed the gate, but everyone knows it didn't take him 8 seconds to go back up the few feet, go around that gate and then through the finish line. The finish line was only 2 meters away from that gate, which is a whole other story! We think Kaleb should have gotten a re-run, but they didn't give him one. They stuck him with the 36 seconds. When Jeff looked at the video, from what we could tell it only took him 4 to 6 seconds from when he slipped to when he went through the finish line. But, Jeff just tried to upload the video from the SDcard and it's corrupt, the whole card!!! It keeps saying it needs to be formatted, but if you format it, it will wipe it clean! Ugh!!!!

So, for the record, Kaleb got second in GS and we're not sure where he placed in slalom. We still think he did pretty well, but not first like he probably would have done. Oh well. Crap happens. What can you do? Nothing, just carry on and do your best next time.

Monday

I'm so Honored!!!














I was going through my 1000+ items in my Google Reader (Why yes I'm behind! How can you tell....lol) and my email notifier popped up with a message from
Cindy, aka Mom Maven! She nominated my blog, this one, the Cool and Fabulous Award!!! How cool and fabulous is that!? I think its pretty cool and fabulous!!!
The Fabulous-Coolest Butterfly Blog award comes with a few rules: Put the logo on your blog or post. Nominate at least 10 blogs which you think are fabulous and cool. Be sure to link to your nominees within your post. Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog. Share the love and link back to this post on MomMaven where I nominate your blog.

Okay, so now the hard part! Choosing 10 cool and fabulous blog! It's hard because I know a lot, and I mean a lot of blogs that deserve this award! So, here are the 10 I choose in no particular order!

Two Blocks Ago, by Lisa Block. An amazing blog by a great mom, wife, person and friend! She is open and honest and a great writer!

Adventures of a Single WAHM, by Tishia Lee. Tishia is my friend, and her blog is amazing! She too is open and honest with her feelings. She is also ver humorous!!!

At Home Mom Blog, by Genesis Davies. Genesis is a WAHM with a really cute and cool blog! She has a lot of great ideas and tips for working at home.

All 4 My Gals, by Nicole. This is a fairly new read in my Reading list, but it's so inspirational, it truly deserves the cool and fabulous award!

Not Your Average Soccer Mom, by Brandy. This woman is a lot like me believe it or not! She is an out of the box mom, writer and blogger. Her writing makes me laugh out loud!!!

The Homesteading Housewife, by Dana. Another great and funny writer! Her blog is also full of great recipes and other fun stuff!!!

My friend at Too Many Hats. I just love her and I don't even know her name :( I might but it's not on her blog, so anonymous it is! But, she has an awesome blog, funny and inspiring!

Baby Boogers, by Kelly. You can probably tell by the title that this is another hilarious, out of the box kind of mom! You can probably also tell I love these kinds of moms and their blogs!!!

Becoming Me, by Mrs. Naz. This is a favorite because it is so inspirational and I get a true sense of peace when I read it!

Only one more...geezZ! This is go hard!!! And the winner is...

It's Time for the Burkulater by Burkulater. Again, another hilarious mom writer! I just love reading her stuff!

I hope you will all take time to visit their blogs and be sure to visit Mom Maven too! Thanks Cindy for this awesome award! I truly appreciate it!

So, I was just proofreading this post before publishing it and noticed it said I must nominate at least 10 blogs for this award, so that means I can nominate more, yeah!!!! Here are some more, again in no particular order!

Ooh La La Mama, by Cindy. You guessed it, funny and hilarious blog! She uses terms like fart, butt and junk! I love it!!!

His Boys Can Swim, by Tarzan and Jane, seriously!!! A very funny blog, who'd of guessed, by a husband and wife who are blogging their entire pregnancy journey!

So, THERE you have it!!! I'm glad I got to add the other two!







Friday

Using the Internet for Weight Loss Success

As most of you know and for those who don't know, I am fat! LOL. Not funny that I'm fat, but do you like how I just come out and say "I'm fat"? Well I am. I love everyone who says "You're not fat", but come on, I am about 80 lbs overweight and have had it. I'm over it. I am ready to get this extra poundage off and start eating healthy and exercising!!! I've already started and have been doing it for 3 days now.

So, what am I doing to lose weight? Oh, you want to know? Okay! No, not some fad diet (I hate the word diet anyway!) and diets don't work. Oh sure you might take off some weight, but unless you really change your eating habits and lifestyle, you aren't likely to keep it off. I've successfully lost weight in the past on those diets, but obviously I didn't keep it off. Why? Because I didn't change my thinking about food and what I was putting in my body. I knew what I could and couldn't eat and how much I could eat to take the weight off, but I didn't stick to a healthy eating plan after I took the weight off. For some reason I thought that once I was at a decent weight, I could go back to eating like I was and wouldn't gain it back. How silly is that?! Have any of you ever done that??? And quite frankly I get tired of eating "diet" food. I got tired of measuring and counting and all that stuff you have to do on a "diet". When I am hungry I just want to get something that tastes good to eat! Period.

Well that's where the mindset has to change! And that's where meal planning comes in. A little thing called discipline. I wish I had one of those personalities where I planned everything automatically, it was a way of life for me. But, I don't. I have the personality type where I am spontaneous, fly at the seat of my pants on a wing and a prayer. I do have a little bit of planner in me, but the spontaneity usually over rules the plan. I am good at thinking things through to see the most likely end result and I am organized but I like to have fun, and often if something fun comes up, it over rules doing something not as fun.

What I'm getting at is meal planning is an effort for me. Planning meals ahead of time takes a conscious effort and I don't always take the time necessary to plan meals properly like I should. But, I am going to work at!!! This week when I went grocery shopping, I picked up a ton of veggies for salads, and I made a big bowl of salad that is convenient for lunch or dinner. That's what I had yesterday as a matter of fact, for lunch and dinner. For dinner though I added some ham and turkey and cheese for extra protein. It was yummy!!! And easy, since the salad was already prepared!

There is a great article called Healthy Weight Loss Success you can get for FREE here: Free New Years Success Pack for Moms. There are also other great menu planning ideas and guides there you can check out as well!

I've also been keeping a journal on a social networking site (Ning) called Open Talk Mom. I've posted my before picture (what I look like now) ugh, and on my blog there I posted my current weight and my goals. I've been journaling every day what I eat, how much water I drink and any exercise I've done (not much!!!). I will tell you that having that picture is a BIG motivator for me!!! I hate looking at it!!! You can join Open Talk Mom Ning site as well and use it to record your weight loss progress too, meet other mom's who are losing weight and all kinds of fun stuff!

I also went to Weight View and had a virtual weight loss picture created for me. Using the "before" photo I mentioned above,Weight View created a picture of me 50 lbs thinner. I have it on my desk top. Weight View is free to use and you can get a picture of you with whatever amount of weight you want to lose too. The highest they go is 50 lbs. though. But, what a difference 50 lbs. makes!!!

Another thing I'm doing to help motivate me is I receive a weekly newsletter from Your Total Wellbeing. It's free as well. Yep free! When you go to that page, a pop up box will appear where you sign up to receive the weekly newsletter in your email. They have great tips and recipes to help you on your way to a thinner you! You also get a free 32 page ebook all about metabolism; what it is and how it affects you!

Good stuff that will help get you started, keep you motivated and reach your weight loss goals!!! I encourage you to click on all of the links above and check out all the free information available to you, literally at your finger tips!!! I did and now I'm motivated and really on my way to weight loss success!!!

Tuesday

I am Animal!

My friend at 2 Too Many Hats had this fun little quiz and so of course I had to do it too!!! Yes, I am Animal. Not surprising. I can talk like him quite well! Ask my hubby and kids!!!



You Are Animal



A complete lunatic, you're operating on 100% animal instincts.

You thrive on uncontrolled energy, and you're downright scary.

But you sure can beat a good drum.

"Kill! Kill!"

Monday

My First Online Interview as a WAHM!

It's pretty exciting when you are chosen for an interview. Genesis Davies (I love her name!) sent out a call to WAHM's for a possible interview, and I quickly responded. So, it wasn't like I specifically got called for an interview,non the less it was my first and it got published, so I'm pleased :) If you'd like to read it, click here!

Saturday

So proud of my Son!

Gonna brag a bit on my son, Kaleb who is a senior in high school and 18. He's an amazing skier!!!! My hubby posted this blog about his latest ski meet, that we missed!!! Darn it! Kaleb lives with his dad, and Jeff and I hadn't printed the ski meet schedules off yet from the school's website so neither of us were prepared to go. Trust me, it takes a lot of mental preparation, work preparation, dinner preparation and so so to go stand out on a ski hill. I love seeing him race, don't get me wrong, I just need to be prepared and we didn't find out about the race until the mid afternoon. The race was at 5:00.

Anyway! As Jeff pointed out in his blog (for those of you who haven't clicked on the link above yet) Kaleb took first in the meet!!! He came in first in both the GS and Slalom. He's doing awesome and I'm very proud of him. Next time we will go for sure and have the camera!