Our boot camp program is almost over. I can't believe it's been almost 8 weeks!! We have one boot camp workout left on Friday. It's been a bit of a struggle. My health got in the way a bit, otherwise I think my results would be even better. With that said, I'm very happy with my results thus far. The workouts have not been easy. They have been pretty intense with increasing intensity each week.

Last night was my final workout with my personal trainer and I found out my final results for the eight weeks. I lost 3 pounds before starting the program, but during these past eight weeks, I've lost 15.6 pounds; almost 2 pounds a week. That puts my total for the year at 18.6 pounds, but I wasn't really trying to lose before the program. I've lost several inches, too. I've lost 6.5 inches in my chest, 3 inches in my bicep, 4 inches in my chest, 5 inches in my hips, 3 inches in my right thigh and 3.25 inches in my right calf. I'm very very happy!

Also, over the course of the past eight weeks, I went from a size 26 to a size 22. And my size 22's are already getting looser.

At out first personal training session, we did a little fitness test and I could do 10 push ups on my knees. I couldn't do a sit up. I could hold a plank for 10 seconds and static quat or wall squat for 30 seconds. At last nights fitness test, I could 3 military push up and 17 on my knees, 10 sit up (not crunches), hold a plank for 36 seconds and the wall squat for 1 minute and 15 seconds. That is amazing to me!!

When we started I struggled up and down our stairs and I was always very winded and out of breath by the time I got to the top. I also struggled to keep up with Jarom when we go somewhere and walk together. He often had to slow down to keep pace with me. I no longer struggle with our stairs. In fact, i can power right up them and I'm only slightly winded, but it only take a couple deep breaths to get my breathing back to normal. I can keep up with Jarom now, for the most part. I know he could still out-walk and out-pace me, but he doesn't have to slow down so much when we walk together to stay next to me, because I can keep up with him and not be out of breath to do so.

I still have a long way to go. I still want to lose another 100 pounds at least. But I'm sure once I get there I will want to lose the last 20 pounds, to be on the lower end of my weight range. This has been a great boost and motivator.

Our group has plans to stay together as much as possible to workout, share tips, encourage and motivate. I set up a Facebook group for all of us and we all have each others' email. We plan to have some reunions along the way too.

A big thanks goes out to my friend and neighbor, Leanne. She has been a huge help and one of my biggest cheerleaders. She told me about the boot camp program, brought me the application and returned it for me.

Thank you to my husband, too. He has been very supportive, but the ice cream and candy have been a struggle. It's hard enough to avoid those things, but after a conversation about it, he has been a help. He makes me think twice before I eat it.

Thank you to my group! You are all so wonderful! And knowing that we are all in this together, has been a huge help and motivator.

To our trainers, Jessie, Shane & Gabe, a very big thank you! You busted our butts, but gave us the encouragement to keep going and push harder each day.

Finally, to all my family and friends for all the words of encouragement through email, phone calls and FaceBook.

As I progress, I'll keep everyone updated. I'll try to post every couple weeks, my progress.

It has been one busy month rolling right into the next.

We spent President's weekend in Prineville, leaving the Wednesday before and coming home on President's Day on Monday. It was a great time! I really enjoyed myself and was relaxed, well, except for the two days Paul and Oriana were there. I'm just tired of the crap and I think all the siblings are for the most part. Jason wasn't there much when they were and Jenna disappeared upstairs after dinner, but we did family photos one night, visited, played games and stayed busy but also just enjoyed a relaxing weekend where we didn't have do anything or go anywhere.

The family pictures are a project I decided to take on and Carla and I talked about different poses that afternoon and everything. The main family photo of all of us will be the centerpiece and the larger photo and then around the edges we will have the five couples' photos and the all girls and all boys photos. I'm going to silkscreen the mats, now I just need to find the frames, touch up and crop the photos.

President's Day also brought some great news! I was able to get my unofficial CBEST score online at 5pm. I PASSED!! I rocked it!!! And I was so worried that I would have to redo the writing section. I did far better than the minimum scores on all three sections. That Saturday, my official score report and transcript arrived in the mail. Now, I just need to get busy taking the next steps to substitute teach.

I ended the month starting a boot camp at the Laguna Creek Racquet Club. It is an 8-week program, with boot camp three days a week for an hour on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Part of the program is also having a personal trainer and working with them once a week, which I do on Tuesday mornings at 9am. Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays, we can work out however we want. Sundays will be my day off for church and family. Thursdays and Saturdays, I plan to do some work on the stationary bikes and some weight/strength training. We are in our second week of the eight and I lost 3.5 pounds last week. Last week, I was all kinds of sore. This week, I'm still sore, but not anything like last week. I'm continuing to hurt now, because I'm pushing harder and our workouts are gradually getting harder. This week, on Friday evening, we will have our first group meeting that will help with motivation, and education on eating and fitness. I hate getting up at 5am, but I feel great after each workout and it's helping me reach my goals.

I started doing some indexing work on FamilySearch.org. It has been sponsored and encouraged by our church. I first learned about it last summer, when Uncle Derek and Aunt Michelle talked about it, I was intrigued. I finally looked it up and read up on it. Last Friday was my first day and I did 50 names. I haven't had a chance to do any work since, but I plan on doing some tonight. I have a goal to index 50 names a day and I haven't been doing very well with that goal this week. I am really enjoying it though.

Finally, I have picked where I left off on the Lahr family calendar last year. I have had great success finding my great grandparents that I never knew and I've even found his siblings and his parents and aunts and uncles. The information I have found on FamilySearch has been amazing. After the family calendar is done, next year, I hope to start really doing some major genealogy work on the Lahr side of the family and hopefully create our family tree. The Lahr's (my mom's side) are German but I don't know where the Brady side come from yet. The Mitchell's (dad's side) is Irish and I can't remember where the Lewis/Barker clan is from. It's very exciting! I've always been interested in family history, not just mine but every one's. However, I've never really wanted to do any of the work-there is so much and it seems I'm always overwhelming myself. But, I think as long as I'm not working I can do some work each day and then when I'm teaching and working again, I will try to set a goal to indexed two or three times a week. I find it very fascinating!

Well, we both are a year older now, as our birthday have come and gone. My birthday was on a Sunday this year and Jarom and Mike took me to lunch at Marie Callender's. Originally, we were just going to get a pie for my birthday dessert, but decided to stay for lunch and had a nice time. We brought home their delicious Lemon Cream Cheese pie.

The following weekend, on the 5th, I had my CBEST exam. It was at 8am at Sacramento State University. After getting signed in, we finally started the four hour long exam at 8:45. Unofficial scores will post online after 5pm on the 21st, so I have a few more days, and even then, based on the wording, it will only be my math and writing scores. The official scores will be mailed out on the 24th.

I feel okay about it. If I have to redo anything it will be the writing part. By the time I got to it, I had an hour to write two essays. All I know going into it is that one will be an issue essay where I have to take a stand and the other will be an experience essay. I feel okay about the reading & comprehension section and really good about the math section. As I was doing it, I felt the practice exams I did had harder math and reading questions than the actual exam, so time will tell and we'll see how it goes.

Once I pass, I know someone at church that works for the Elk Grove School District as a vice principal is going to get me in touch with HR and I will apply for a substitute job. I want to substitute for a few years and get experience on my side in the classroom. From what I hear, you can work as much or as little as you want as a substitute. I want to work pretty much full time but I want to be able to take off to go home too, ans subbing will allow me to do that and work with any schedule.

When I got home from my exam, Aunt Teresa and Coley arrived just after me and we had some lunch before finish up the food prep for our birthday party that evening. The clam chowder, fruit salsa and cinnamon chip needed to be made, angel food cakes frosted/glazed, and get the rest of the food on the platters. We had clam chowder, cheese and crackers, fruit salsa with cinnamon chips that are baked, not fried. I had chicken marinating and we cooked that up and cut it into strips for Tandoori Chicken Sticks, marinated two kinds of Moroccan olives, and I cut vegetables the night before for a vegetable platter. We also had bruschetta. For desserts, we had an ice cream cake from Baskin & Robbins for Jarom. Leanne wanted an angel food cake, one of which we frosted with lemon frosting and one we glazed with a lemon glaze. I really wanted and had planned to make a croquembouche, but when it came down to it I just didn't have the time to do it. I'm still going to make it, but probably next week.

We celebrated three birthdays that night-mine on the 30th, Leanne's on the 4th and Jarom's on the 8th, since we are all so close. It was a really great time. Some of the guys played pool before the UFC fight started that we bought on PPV and had on upstairs. The kids and all us women, stayed downstairs and we danced with Just Dance 2 and visited. The kids also played with the pool balls when nobody was playing pool and I brought out some of my Barbies for them to play with, they also danced and did a little art project I had on hand since I didn't make it to get something specific. It was a great night and we really had fun!

The following Tuesday was Jarom's birthday, and I thought we'd go to dinner at the Outback but he came home and slept, so we didn't do anything. But, we did order him a couple books he wanted that should be there by the time we get home.

We left Wednesday, and came to Prineville for an extended President's Day weekend. The drive was okay, kind of long. We hit some snow, but for the most part the roads were clear. It got a little slick from Klamath Falls to about Chemult, but other than that it was clear. Another snow storm is blowing in over the weekend and then it should be clear when we drive home Monday just before the next storm comes to town. We went to lunch yesterday and I had a mini shopping spree at Bi-Mart. Today, I had another mini shopping spree at Bi-Mart. I got some yarn that I've been looking for and it was 2/$5 and I couldn't beat that price. I picked up a couple little gifts for Madysen and Trenton. I think we are going to dinner tonight. While we were out, I picked up some "boutique" beers from Wallace from a couple Oregon breweries and a bottle of Shiraz from Leanne from one of our Wineries. They are caring for Gus & Miss while we are gone and it is just our little thank you.

I finally started my work out last weekend. I had hoped to get started sooner, but I've just been so busy. And for not working out, and coming off the holidays, but trying to really be conscious of what I eat and only eat when I'm hungry, I had a great surprise last weekend when I played on the Wii.

I got onto the Wii after helping my neighbor with an IQ test she needed to administer on five people. She asked if she could administer it to me and I agreed. She brought Madysen over and she played Just Dance on the Wii and then colored, played Barbies and then bowled on the Wii. Before turning it off after they left, I decided to do a Wii Fit body test to see where I was and be ready for my first official workout of the year.

My great surprise is that I lost 3.1 pounds! I'm so excited. I was really trying to be so good this past holiday season with my portion control and eating only when I was hungry and trying to limit all the sweets and less healthy foods, so you could imagine my great pleasure to find that it worked well in my favor. I also lowered my BMI by one whole point, as well!

After doing the body test, it calculated my Wii Fit age and I LOVED the result! Normally, I am in the upper 40's. Last Saturday, I was 30!! And I'm going to be 32 next Sunday! Is that the coolest, best late Christmas present, early birthday present ever?? Now, I just need to keep it up and continue to lose weight. I reset my goals last Sunday. My new goal is to lose another six pounds and lower my BMI one more point by January 29th. I CAN DO IT! And, I WILL DO IT!

Happy New Year, everyone!!

I hope everyone had a happy, fun and safe Christmas and New Year.

We had a very nice, quiet Christmas here at home. I wanted a Christmas at home this year, as much as I would have loved to spend it with our family. We travelled the last two Christmases and we have travelled a lot just this year besides the holidays. I wanted to end the year relaxed without having it rush around here and there and back home. We did have our friends, the Schaefers over to have dinner with us and I had a gift for everyone, too.

I did all my baking and deliveries the Sunday before Christmas. Last year, I did 10 treats and I had narrowed in down to 6 and then as Christmas creeped closer it moved up to 13! Here is what I made that are traditional: Peanut Butter Balls, Spritz, Lemon Bells, Gumdrop Fudge (2 different kinds-cherry, lime vanilla & the regular), Chocolate Fruitcake, Cranberry Swirl Biscotti and iced Pumpkin Cookies. The new ones I tried this year and will most likely make it next year too are: Oreo Cookie Balls, homemade Caramels, St. Nick's Dove Sticks, Chocolate-Filled Cookie Bonbons, Cosmo Cocktail Cookie Bars and Peppermint bark-regular and one with a semisweet chocolate base. I baked for a whole week, three to four things each day until I got everything done on Friday. I had eight trays to do. We delivered a few trays on Saturday and the rest on Sunday. I've hear great reviews of everything and I have another new favorite-Cosmo Cocktail Cookie Bars. All the recipes are fantastic, but these are just so light and refreshing. A great contrast to all the sticky, sweet, richness of all the other goodies on the tray and that we eat throughout the season.

Christmas Eve, I cooked out little 11 pound turkey, green bean casserole, rolls, stuffing, potatoes and gravy. Christmas day, I made my Brown Sugar Pineapple Ham and broccoli salad. Everything was wonderful. For dessert, I have a pumpkin roll I made a few days earlier and the cherry pie I made at the beginning of the week, plus a pumpkin pie our neighbors made for us and a chocolate silk pie that I bought. We had dinner, visited awhile, opened gifts, ate dessert and then ended the evening watching Salt.

Perhaps we cheated a bit when it came to opening gifts, but it was Christmas day. We got to bed so late, that is was almost 2am, and Jarom and I decided to open them before bed and sleep in. Jarom really spoiled me this year. We agreed on a $50 dollar limit and he went way over, while I still haven't been able to finish his embroidered shirts. I finished on last week and got one done yesterday, but I still have three more polo shirts and a t-shirt to do. He bought me some Australian sheepskin boots, in lieu of the Uggs I wanted, Cricut ultimate accessory kit, iTunes giftcard and the EA Sports Active starter kit and supplement workout accessories. We got a couple movies from his parents and socks. Jarom also got some clothes and I got the soundtracks for New Moon and Eclipse. Jason drew my name this year and he bought me a Cricut cartridge and Paul had Jarom and he gave him a nice polo. My sister and Dan spoiled us with some really cool travel mugs, DVD, candy, CD and a couple giftcards. My parents send each $100. I bought the YourStory Bookbinder & Laminator and the new (not even in stores until spring and out of stock online) YourStory Photo Personal Binder from ProvoCraft from Cricut.com and HSN, respectively. Jarom bought a new stock for one of his guns.

We had a great day and enjoyed how relaxed everything was. New Year's was extremely quiet and relaxed, too. We stayed home and didn't do anything. I watched a couple movies while Jarom slept and then he got up and stayed up until midnight rolled around. I was so tired that I got really sleepy around 11pm, so I was lucky to make it to midnight.

Now, I'm just trying to get Jarom's shirts done and studying for the CBEST. I am taking the test on February 5th-also the say of our combined birthday party with our neighbor, Leanne. I've planned a Wii birthday party for the three of us and I just know it will be a blast!