Busy Busy Busy Season - Christmas Pageant and Gingerbread House Makings

'Tis the Season right!?!  I feel like December is flying by and there are only 9 days until Christmas which is 8 days until Christmas Eve.  AHHHH!!!  How is that possible?  I have a lot to accomplish before that deadline.  Tommy's birthday is on the 21st and his party is on the 19th; the timeline is really making me reconsider celebrating his birthday on his 1/2 birthday.  A nice June party seems fun!  And I digress...we have been very busy over the past few weeks, but this past Sunday, we had some festive fun.

Sunday started with the Christmas Pageant at our church in Lake Oswego, Christ Church Episcopal Parish.  I have to say, I absolutely adore our church!!!  Everyone there is so welcoming and I am thankful to be a part of such a community.  Morgan was an angel and Tommy was a King.  Morgan was the "opening act" as the kindergarten and under age groups sing the welcoming songs.  They were very cute and did a great job!  Tommy had a speaking role and nailed it.  He spoke very clearly and with good inflection. I am thankful for the wonderful women who ran the pageant - Susie, Cynthia and Deborah!

Here are some pics of the kids:

Morgan as an Angel.

Tommy (as a King) & Morgan (as an Angel)

Even the King was wearing Nike shoes

Father Jeremy talking to the kids before the procession into church

Then from the Christmas pageant we headed home and prepared for our annual Gingerbread House assembly.  I baked the gingerbread house pieces last week - usually I do that on Thanksgiving weekend (it is good to have them dry out a bit for assembly), but other commitments got in the way of that this year.  But it all worked out okay.

Baking the houses.  With the extra dough, I made little gingerbread girls and boys.

This is a tradition that comes from Mike's mom, Jan Olinger.  Even as a child I remember seeing Mike's kitchen table filled with candy and gingerbread houses in various forms of completion...I always thought that was so much fun...and it is!!!  The house pieces are all made from a blue print and recipes that Jan gave me when I asked about Gingerbread Houses when Tommy was a baby. I figured it might be time to start to get the tradition started with our family.

Jan came over directly after the Christmas Pageant and she made the cement icing while I cleaned up the rest of my house that was in chaos.  Then we started to set out the candy.  Our longtime friends the Mitchells come over every year and make these houses with us.  They have been doing it since Tommy, Ari & Mckenna were little...maybe 4 or 5 years old. The nice thing is as they get older, the more freedom we can give them with the icing and they can really decorate the houses mostly on their own.

They start with three walls up and decorate the inside of their house.  Then we put the front and roof on with the icing.  The outside of the house and "yard" are where they are super creative.  Each child has such a different way of decorating.  This year Tommy was more captivated he has been in previous years (usually his attention span is not very long when it comes to crafts/creative items).  I will let the pictures speak for themselves, but I think all in all they had a fun night of decorating!

The whole crew working on their houses

Grandma Jan helping Tommy assemble his house

Even Grandpa Casey was getting in on the action

Mckenna hard at work on her house and Tommy escaping the decorating fun

This was the candy that we could not fit on the table.  Riggins' bed held it up nicely!

And the finished products looked like this:

Morgan's House

Tommy's House

Both houses with their lights on

Another view with both houses with their lights on

So all in all it was a great weekend filled with fun and festive traditions.

Cheers to Christmas traditions!

Life Gets in the Way

Well I was all revved up to clean out my house in my posts at the end of August, but life seems to get in the way of all the best plans.  I keep saying "Oh once I get through this event or get through this month"...but now I am really wanting to get this place cleaned out.  So with the taking down of Christmas in January it is my goal to get it cleaned out.

I have been really trying to spend time with people I love.  I have so many wonderful family members and friends and some are going through some rough times.  So another goal as I approach the end of 2015 is to.really concentrate on my relationships.

I also need to definitely start setting deadlines for myself as I have decided I am the biggest procrastinator that I have ever met.  So while we are in Black Butte over Christmas Break, I am going to come up with realistic deadlines for cleaning out the house, organizing the garage and getting my life back on track!

What has been going on with the Leeper family:

• School started in September and both kids LOVE their teachers.  Morgan is loving being at Tommy's school.  She now gets very defensive that it is her school as well.
• September and October were filled with a lot of soccer practices and games.  The kids LOVED playing and Morgan loved getting her first athletic trophy.
• Morgan continues her hip-hop/ballet class at Moonstar Dance and will have her recital in June.
• In November we were able to escape and go to Black Butte for 5 days and it was really fun!  
• Mike took me to a fancy-schmancy fundraising gala in Seattle last week.  It was a beautiful event and fun to spend the night out in Seattle with Mike.
• Mike is enjoying his work still with Denali Advanced Integration and traveling all over the country.  
• December is a busy month with Tommy turning 9, school activities and Christmas.  I do love this time of year, but it has really become totally insane with all the activity.  

So this is a totally random post but just thought I would put out what was going on in the Leeper home.  I will have more composed thoughts and subjects soon!

Cheers to crazy December times!

Playroom...check

Hello again!  I know this is crazy, two posts in a matter of one week.  You might wonder what has happened to me.  Well apparently I have a lot to say.

Today I conquered the playroom.  I know it is not even September yet and I started "the great cleanout."  One room down, many more to go!

The problem with the playroom is there are so many little pieces and they are all shoved in each little crevasse.  None of the games had all the pieces because they had been spilled out and then placed in whichever basket was closest.

Playroom - BEFORE

So it took all day, but I cleaned out each wicker basket, sorted and organized each little piece of everything that was shoved everywhere.  I also moved the "stove" out as Morgan notified me she was "done with that."  Which is good because little does she know about the large puppet stage (she is getting for her birthday next week...shhhh) that is going where the stove used to sit.

Playroom - AFTER (with area cleared and ready for Morgan's Puppet Stage)

So tomorrow I will have an extra large black garbage back out by my garbage cans, but totally worth it to get the clutter out.  I am slowly piling all the stuff for either the garage sale or donation in the living room (or what I refer to as the unused room).  But I need to get it out by next week as it is Morgan's birthday party, so I am fairly sure most of the items are going to get donated.

But it feels really good to have that room taken care of and finished.  Hopefully the kids will keep it somewhat orderly, but who am I kidding, I will need to keep on top of it.  The next rooms to get tackled are the kids rooms. Ahhhhhhh.

Cheers to one room being "done!"
 

As the School Year Approaches...

September is coming at us full force...next week it is September.  That means school starts and the schedule starts getting real.

It has been a while since I have blogged...really the past two years have been a complete blur.  I WAY over-committed myself with Tommy's school, church and community volunteerism and pretty much could not keep my head above water from September of 2013 to mid-July 2015.  As of mid-July, I have stopped all my leadership roles in volunteering and have decided to focus this school year on our family and on me - what really makes me happy.  For a while there, I was too busy to even think about if I was happy and then I was so over-stressed, I realized I was not happy at all...in fact I was downright miserable.  So now begins the work.

I am going to clean out my house...this is my goal for September.  I am writing it down so I can somewhat be held accountable for this goal (not that I think that people who ready my blog will actually track this), but if I write it down and throw it out there, I will make it happen.  I need to purge the excess in our house and then with the salvageable items either have a huge garage sale or take many trips to Goodwill.  I did already start this process and clean about a 5ft x 5 ft space in our bonus room called my "wrapping paper closet."  This ended up with a large black trash bag filled with garbage and then a stack of stuff that is either garage sale or Goodwill bound. So I have started.

I am also going to try to be a better friend and family member.  I am going to try to schedule coffees and lunches with friends.  I just need to reconnect to people because while I was always really busy over the past two years, I was lonely because I was too busy to stay connected with friends.  I also need to really live in the moment with my family - not be looking at what meeting I need to get to or what project I need to get done.  I need to appreciate being where we are at and savor the times where we are just together...hanging out.

Getting back to working out...for a while my world revolved around getting my workout in.  That has severely dropped off and I am really looking forward to getting that back.  Working out is my stress relief and makes me a very happy person.  But I also know it is going to hurt...I am nowhere near where I was two years ago, which not only makes me sad, but also a bit discouraged.  But I need to get back on that horse and start to ride that road again.

Volunteering in both Tommy and Morgan's classroom is a must-do this school year!  I love being in their elementary school...I never realized how much I like it until I was spending most days there over the past two years.  It is a great place to be and Tommy's (and now Morgan's) school is a really wonderful place.  I love the staff at Charles F. Tigard Elementary School and I love helping in any way that I can.  So I am looking forward to volunteering in both of my kiddo's classrooms this year.

On top of all that, I am going to do a little self-discovery and figure out what I really like to do.  I am thinking about taking guitar lessons (I know crazy talk, but I have always wanted to do it) ...now that the kids are both in school for the whole day, I am excited to explore new things.

So while I might have a severe identity crisis as the reality of both kids being in school full-time sets in, I am also going to celebrate uncertainty in my identity because I feel that in times when I question what my identity is is when I am able to really find out about my true self.  And then hopefully I will be able to figure out what path I would like to take with my life.  I guess I am always thinking about that age old question, "what do I want to be when I grow up?"

Cheers to a new school year, a year of self-discovery and a year of making the most out of each day!

So much happening!!

Okay wow!  So much has happened since my last post...I will try to give you a quick update on our lives and then hopefully I can just start blogging about the current happenings in our lives.

I have failed miserably with my baking experiment.  I pretty much have just baked what I blogged about in the beginning of the year and that is about it...things got chaotic.  I might try some recipes this fall, but we shall see if I can find time.

As of February we have a new addition to our family.  His name is Riggins Leeper and he is a Siberian Husky that was born on December 8, 2012 (my sister/brother-in-law's anniversary).  He is great but also a lot of work and a lot of energy.  So we have a routine down at this point, but it has taken a lot to figure it all out.

First day of Riggins in the Leeper home!

Riggins in the pool in August.

In April we headed to St. Augustine, FL to see Mike's step-brother (John) and his lovely bride (Erin) get married.  Unfortunately Morgan had an asthma attack and she and I missed the wedding due to her being admitted to the hospital.  We also missed our flight out on Sunday morning after the wedding, so we were in Florida two extra days.  We were very sad to not participate in the wedding, but Mike and Tommy were there to share our love.

Our summer was filled with swimming, Tigard Safety Town, 4th of July trip to Black Butte, and more swimming.  The good news is Morgan the final two weeks of swimming lessons decided she could jump in and just swim.  So that was exciting.

The first weekend of June I did my first Triathlon.  It was AWESOME!  I loved it and the next day signed up for the Portland Triathlon that is next Sunday, September 22nd.  It was a wonderful experience and people that do triathlons are all so friendly and helpful.  Everyone is there just to do their best - whatever that may be.  So it was an outstanding experience and I am excited that I took the dive and tried out this sport. This upcoming triathlon I am a little intimidated for because 1.  I have not been training as much as I had for the June race and 2.  Mike bought be a new bike and it is WAY too fancy...it is a tribike (made especially for triathlons).   I am pretty sure it might kill be because I fall off my mom-hybrid-road bike so say a little prayer or happy thought for me a week from today because I will need it!

Post Race Medal :)

My pit crew...Mom was invaluable part of the experience.

Me, Salina and Tracy post-race beer!  Always the best part!

My littlest sister (who really is our neighbor from growing up - that Diana and I adopted) Ashley married Matt (our new brother-in-law) last weekend.  So the summer was filled with super fun showers, dress appointments and a bachelorette party in Black Butte.  It was so fun to celebrate this wonderful young lady and get to spend time with family.  Their wedding was amazingly beautiful and so much fun to see the union between such a lovely couple.  Tommy and Morgan were ring bearer and flower girl.  They were super cute and I am so excited to see pictures of them in the wedding.  They were also amazing on the dance floor!

Making sure the tux fits...and pretty much being too cool for school.

Morgan in her princess dress.  

End of the evening and they are still smiling :)  Aren't they so cute?

I am still health coaching with Take Shape for Life.  I love talking to my clients and finding out how happy they are about the health they are creating in their life.

Tommy started the school year as a 1st grader the day after Labor Day.  He LOVES it!  He has had a great start to the year and feels like a "big boy" because he is at school all day.  Of course his favorite parts of school are recess and lunch.  Morgan also started school at Wee Wisdom (or as she calls it "brother's old school."  She loves it and gets to hang with the ladies who love her!  So great to be back at Wee Wisdom.

My volunteer obligations are pretty much at maximum capacity.  I am PSO (Parent Support Organization) President for Tommy's Elementary School, I am chair of the Advisory Committee for my church's preschool, I am the co-registrar on the Tigard Safety Town Board and I am the Volunteer Table Coordinator for our church.  So I am trying to balance that all out and still keep life fun.  It is a challenge at times, but all are good things so I am trying to make it all work.

I think that catches you up on what we are up to.  I will try to be better about blogging with what we are doing and how we are doing.

Cheers to trying to catch our stride!

Improvement

Okay so last year was all about improvement in my health - mainly getting my weight under control (see my previous post).  While I am still working toward Optimal Health and really love working to help other people with their health goals as a health coach, one of my goals for 2013 (and probably 2014) is to work on my skill of baking.  While I am not planning on eating the items I produce (because I do not want to undo losing over 85lbs), I truly enjoy baking...it is definitely one of my happy places and strangely enough I do some of my best thinking and relaxing while baking.  So here is my plan to work on my skill of baking:

Mike purchased the book Bouchon Bakery by Thomas Keller and Sebastien Rouxel (With Susie Heller, Matthew McDonald, Michael Ruhlman and Amy Vogler - Photographs by Deborah Jones) in November of 2012...I did not pay much attention to in as Mike has a cookbook buying problem and it arrived during a time where multiple large cookbooks were arriving at our house.  I was annoyed at all these books because we truly do not have the space for them.  Well this bakery book sat around for a while, but then I picked it up one random day.  I have to tell you this book is not only beautiful and large, I think it is really going to stretch me as a baker.  So I decided that in the new year (2013) I would start to bake through this book, page by page.  Now I am not promising a recipe a day or even a week because my schedule is so crazy, but I promise each time I do a recipe, I will post it (with pictures).  Even if I fail at a particular recipe, I will post it because we not only learn from our successes but our failures as well.

400 Glorious Pages of Beautiful Baking

The first recipe is "Pecan Sandies for my Mom."

That is my plan today...to make these Pecan Sandies.  I will let you know how they turn out - along with pictures (hopefully tomorrow or if I get ambitious, later today).

Also I know many might ask, what will you do with all the baked items?  Well, the nice thing about Mike working in a big office is there are a lot of people there that can help consume the baked goods.  Remember nothing is terrible for you in moderation...I encourage making healthy choices, but the occasional yummy is also okay with me too.

Cheers to stretching yourself in what you enjoy doing!

How I lost over 85 lbs!

Well this is the weekend…the weekend that started my weight loss journey.  Since February 2012, I have lost over 85 pounds.  My sister’s wedding was my reason for finally getting serious about the weight loss process.  I know it is silly but I really did not want to be the large lady in her wedding pictures.  But I am so thankful this journey started because I have gained so much more than just not being the large lady in pictures. 

So starting out I was 233.8 pounds.  This was me in Hawaii the week before I started the program Take Shape for Life.  

My friend Susan had done the program and lost weight; subsequently, Susan had become a health coach for the organization.  For some reason I just knew this program would work for me. 

My biggest problem (in regard to eating) was I was not eating in the morning and then just gorging in the afternoon/evenings.  My story is not revolutionary at all…I am a mom who is responsible for getting two others dressed, fed and out the door in the morning, so it was a miracle that I myself was getting dressed – I did not think I had time to eat.  Plus in my mind I would think “Isn’t it good for me to be cutting those calories out anyway since I really wanted to lose the weight?”  NO!!!  Your body needs fuel to start its day and if it does not have fuel it is going to hold onto that fat with all it’s might because it thinks you are starving it.  And then on top of that, I would go exercise HARD for an hour so then my body was really starving. 

I started Take Shape for Life in February and it has changed my life!  Here is general information on Take Shape for Life:

Take Shape for Life is a comprehensive program that is safe and effective. It was designed by doctors to help people not only lose weight, but to reduce Blood Pressure and Cholesterol and help Type II Diabetics stabilize blood sugars.

Some of the reasons that people love Take Shape for Life is:

-Free personal Health Coach 
-Lose 2-5 lbs per week for the first two weeks and 1-2 lbs a week thereafter 
-Low hunger, high energy, no cravings 
-Able to reduce or eliminate medications 
-Cost neutral or less than what you currently spend on food

The program consists of high-quality, medically formulated meal replacements combined with free coaching support to help you lose weight and keep it off. It is not a diet, but a two-phased approach for weight loss and maintenance.

The first phase/the “weight-loss” phase of the program is called the Medifast 5 & 1 Plan which includes eating 5 Medifast meals and then 1 Lean & Green meal. So you get to eat 6 meals a day and still lose weight…how great is that? Then there is a transition plan that will gradually increase your caloric intake and re-introducing a wider variety of foods. And then there is the Maintenance Phase where you will monitor your weight and balance your calories. You will stay active and make smart choices.

As far as what really interested me about this program was the ease of it.  In the 5 & 1 plan, the 5 Medifast meals are all interchangeable and there is a variety of foods (shakes, soups, bars, pretzels, brownies and even more).  So as I was jetting out the door in the morning and needing breakfast, I can just grab a bar and know that I am getting 20% of my daily vitamins and minerals in that one meal…along with a ton of protein which will help me from being hungry.  So it was a win win…I also could eat brownies (WHAT!?!).  So I hit the program hard and have not stopped being committed to it.

I hit my goal weight of 145 mid-November.  I am now in the middle of the Transition phase, and it is going well.  I have stayed right between 145 and 147 through the transition and that is even with Thanksgiving smack dab in the middle of it.  It was funny as I was about halfway through losing this weight, I was really nervous about the transition/maintenance phase…I did not think it was possible to keep this weight off, but now that I am actually at my goal weight, I truly know that I will not go back and this program has given me the tools to know that for a fact. 

Playing in the snow with the kids at Whistler

(I will also post more pictures of the wedding later - I just can't find any this morning :)) 

Because I have had such success on this program and really truly believe it is so much more than a diet, I have decided to become a Health Coach for the Take Shape for Life organization. I want to pass this gift of health onto my friends and family as well as anyone else who is ready to make a change in their life! If you want more detailed information on the program you can visit my website – just think you/a family member could be pounds lighter by New Year’s… wouldn't that be outstanding? 

Okay I think that is my story… and if you have any questions or need any further information, please feel free to call me (503.780.4027) because I would love to talk with you about how my life has changed.

Cheers to a new chapter in life!!!!