Can't believe we're celebrating 7!!!!

Two more cute videos...

Mimi's visit...

Mimi arrived at 11:00 PM before BJ's 4th birthday and what a fun way to celebrate his special day. He awoke to find Mimi at our house:) Mimi spent the day with the boys while Rick and I both worked and that evening Mimi took us all out to dinner and we came home to enjoy a cake that Benny decorated and to open a few presants.

It was hard to believe that a week could go by as quickly as this one did.

Mariner's game...

It was quite a treat to go to the Mariners' game when we were in Tacoma earlier this summer. It was quite pleasant outside that evening, we had very nice seats between first and second base in the outfield section, yummy cotton candy for the boys, and lots of laughs. One of the highlights to me was that we were able to ride the city bus to and from the game, boarding just blocks from Sonja's house, so it was very easy (of course dad and Sonja did the background work to get us on the right bus).

Visit from the Ogawas

Oh my did we have fun. We were so lucky to be able to see four of the five Ogawa's in this one visit, including the beautiful baby E. Two of these three videos are clips of everyone racing...

BJ's FIRST BASEBALL GAME!!!!!

Beautiful evening...a bit on the chilly side if you can believe that for July! BJ had a spectacular baseball evening, to start what might turn into a lengthy baseball career. He was chosen as lead off batter for the Rockies, and ended the night with two wonderfully hard hit base hits. He was chosen to be the team's starting pitcher, and jumped on EVERY ball that was remotely in his range to snag. When you watch the attached video, I want to you pay close attention to who emerges from the dogpile with the baseball in hand??!!! Did we have any doubt? You'll notice he finishes off the play with a little celebratory slide into the pitcher's mound. The camera cuts off just as he's going into his second slide. The second inning he was placed at shortstop, which he played equally aggressively, taking a few balls that could have gone to the pitcher, but the coach told him to play up, so he did! The game ended with true BJ flavor...he started by joining the other team and their postgame snacks (fresh cut oranges) and then joined his own team for two packets of Gogurt. He couldn't have been happier:) Needless to say, we're looking forward to our two games coming up this week before we hit the road. We can't wait to see everyone!!!

Trip to Tacoma - Tall Ships

These shots were taken Saturday morning when we went across the "glass bridge" into the Tall Ships. We had so much fun!

Love this one!!!!

BJ's Graduation...

These are SO precious. BJ's school had a fabulous graduation ceremony at a special building in town. All the kids and teachers walked from the church to the graduation building, which was only around the block, across from the high school. They had to cross the street to get there and those of us watching, parents, high school students, people in the cars watching the young kids, took such pleasure in watching these precious young children in their red caps.

I'm so far behind in sharing images from our incredible summer. We've had so much fun with all our visitors. These pics were taken at the beginning of June. And yes, it did snow on June10th while Charles and Sarah were here!!!

40 pounds lighter

I am so delighted that I can share the good news...as of this morning, I've worked off 40 pounds! Which motivated me to run 5 miles this morning before we head out of town to Tacoma.

That has included MANY miles on the treadmill or the streets, a bit of low-fat cottage cheese, consistant routine of hitting the student rec center (gym) four days a week at 6 AM when I'd really rather still be in our warm bed sleeping snuggled next to my honey, a longer run on the weekends, and several sizes lost!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is a work in progress, and I'm working on losing more weight.

But the ultimate goal of all this is a lifestyle change that includes healthy living and healthy eating. Proportions, good choices, and being in control of what I want to feed my body.

In celebration of the success I've had so far, I've signed up for a class this fall called "abs and glutes" at the university. This is WAY out of my comfort zone, but I've said all along that once I lose a bit of weight, I'm going to branch out and try some new exercise options. I'm still hoping to try yoga or a spinning class someday:)

A major celebration for me along this adventure so far was on Mother's Day. Topher brought home a paper from school with responses about me and for the sentence, "My mom is really good at...", his response was "running 4 miles every day."

I have been logging in 22-28 miles a week this summer.

Happy 4th of July everyone!