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!!!!

New Program...Better Behavior?

So I have decided since it is Monday and I am feeling a little wacky, the kids and I are going to start a new program today...it is a program that I learned about from my fabulous friend in Indianapolis, Kiera Dubach. She explained it to me when I was out there in September and I have been meaning to implement it since then, but just have not had a chance. 

So here is how it works:

• Each kiddo starts out the day with a set amount of "coins."  The example that Kiera gave me was you give the child 4 quarters, but I think I am going to start out with $.50 and then gradually build as responsibilities build.
• Throughout the day, they can either keep all their coins or if they are being crazy(in a bad way), not listening, fighting with each other, or whatever they might be doing that I deem not good behavior, I can take away a coin or all the coins depending on what the instance is.  I also think as this evolves, if they decide to do something nice/outstanding, I can reward an "extra" coin.
• Whatever they are left with at the end of the day, they get to put into their piggy banks (or in Tommy's case, his football helmet bank).
• Then after a period of time (I think I am going to chose 2 weeks for the first little bit and then adjust to what works best), you have a counting party - we count up how much money is in the bank and then separate it into thirds...1) for saving, 2) for spending and 3) for charity of their choice.

Our first day...today!!

I am super excited about this because I think it will give me a parenting tool for better behavior/listening and it also teaches the kiddos about saving, spending and the importance of giving to charity. I think Morgan might be a little young for this program, but then at least she will be into it later - plus I think it would be hard to start it with Tommy and not with Morgan since she wants to do everything her brother does.

So let me know what you think...have you done anything like this?...has it worked?...I would love to hear your opinions.

Cheers to fun new programs that will be beneficial to both me and my kiddos!

It has been a while...

Okay so it has been a while...so much has happened since June:

• Tommy started kindergarten at our local public school (Charles F. Tigard Elementary - CFT for short)
• Tommy started playing soccer with Southside Soccer (3 x a week)
• Morgan started Pre-Ballet class
• We found bridesmaid (or matron in my case) dresses for my sister's wedding
• Morgan is almost potty-trained
• We have been traveling a ton...Seattle, Indiana, etc. (and that does not even include Mike's travel schedule)
• And the biggest news of all, I have almost made my weight loss goal of over 85 lbs and I have become a Health Coach with Take Shape for Life (the fabulous comprehensive program that has allowed me to lose all this weight and what I feel confident will help me keep the weight off for good!)

So let's take these one at a time...

Kindergarten
So far the year has been great!  Tommy really likes his teacher Mrs. Darby and seems to be making some good friends.  I was just able to volunteer in his classroom last week for the first time.  It was so much fun and I loved being around the kids.  I am volunteering in his class at least once a month and then I am also being the Art Literature (a volunteer parent program) teacher.

Was he excited or what?

Southside Soccer
This has been great!  Tommy is on a 6 person co-ed team called the "Purple Hornets" - there are three boys and three girls on the team.  We practice on Tuesdays and Thursdays and then our games are on Saturday.  Our last game is tomorrow.  We are working with Tommy on sportsmanship and not grabbing onto the other players during practice or games.

Pre-Ballet Class
Morgan started her first ballet class in September.  She loves it and constantly asks if it is ballet day.  She is taking it with her friend Hannah.

Bridesmaid Dress/Diana's Wedding
My sister Diana's wedding is in December and over the summer we found a bridesmaid dress...YAY!  So we are set to go there.  This fall has been busy with a shower and a weekend bachelorette party so the festivities are fully underway.  We are looking forward to her intimate wedding in Whistler in December.

Potty Training
Morgan is mostly potty trained, if mom stays on top of it...not necessarily if I do not remind her, but we are getting there.  I am looking forward to no more diapers in this house!

Travel
We had two weddings in Seattle in August, so that was really busy and then I went to Indiana to surprise some of my best friends from college in September.  It was such a fun weekend and they were so surprised! It was awesome.  I have to give a big shout out to their husbands who helped me pull off the surprise - so THANK YOU Nathan and Josh!  You guys rock!

Me, Krisha and Kiera...LOVE these ladies!

Mike and I celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary in Seattle because Mike had a Microsoft conference that he was attending and it gave me a reason to spend three days in Seattle.  SO much fun!

Steph and Mike on our anniversary night after dinner at RN74 in Seattle

Health Coaching
Since February I have lost over 85 pounds.  Most of you who know me know I have been exercising my little heart out for the past 5 years; however, the weight that I wanted to lose was not coming off my body.  My friend, health coach and now business mentor, Susan, had done Take Shape for Life and become a coach about 2 1/2 years ago.  I was very interested in doing the program, but it just never seemed to be the right time.  Finally in January of 2012, I pulled the trigger.  It was time to get this weight off!  So I began the program in February and was very committed to it. Because this program has been so successful for me, I decided I wanted to pay this healthy journey forward so I decided to become a Health Coach with Take Shape for Life.  I am having a great time helping people and really look forward to chatting with anyone about what I have done/am currently doing!

I do not have a current before and after photo, but it will be coming soon...stay tuned!

So there is the update on the Leeper family...things are busy and it seems like it is not going to slow down until the New Year.

Drop me a note and let me know what you have been up to!

Cheers to so much happening that I have not had a moment to blog :)

Pick Something

Today I am wishing I could pick something and do it really well.  I feel like I do many things okay, but nothing really well.  I see all these wonderful things that my friends (and by friends I do mean my friends because they have amazing talents, but I also mean my cyberfriends that exist in the world of Pinterest) can do and everyone that has these wonderful skills.  I feel like I am always doing things half-assed...which is possibly the most annoying thing I can think of.  These are some of the skills I would like to fully develop/do until I became really good at them so I could see where they could go:

• Baking
• Cooking
• Sewing
• Organizing
• Gardening/Veggie Growing

I would also LOVE to have something like this actually produce income for my family...yet again, I feel as if I am not contributing to the bottom line of the family.  I know I am because being a stay-at-home mom is one of the hardest and also rewarding things I have ever done, but it does not help pay the bills.

I also have the volunteering options in my life...at church, at Tommy's new school and anything else I can get my hands on.  I do love to volunteer, but my problem is that I cannot say no (even if I am in over my head).  So I worry when I volunteer that I will get in over my head and be miserable - which then in turn makes people around me miserable...

Humph...I guess I will just keep plugging along and have faith that I will find the right direction for my life. 

Sorry about the rant, but for some reason I am struggling with this today.

Cheers to struggling because without struggling you cannot figure out the right path!

Jesse Leeper - "Big Guy", "Biggs"

Jesse Leeper was our dog and really he was our first child.  We loved him like a child and he was definitely considered a member of the family.  He had many the nickname, but Biggs was the one that stood the test of time. 

1999ish-May 2012

We adopted him from Mike's Aunt, Uncle and Cousins up in Battle Ground.  It was fate.  It was Christmastime December of 2000.  We were at Mike's Grandparent's house up in Auburn, Washington.  I was telling everyone how much I wanted a dog for Christmas.  Mike was NOT ready to get a dog.  I thought he might surprise me for Christmas, but he was not ready to budge on the dog front.  This is when Mike's Aunt Linda told me this story: 

Mike's cousin Joel, who was attending Pacific Lutheran University at the time, found Jesse.  He called the owners who were on Jesse's collar and they said they did not want him anymore - he ran away too much.  So Joel tried to keep him for a while, but a college living situation did not do wonders for a big dog like Jesse.  Jesse went to live with Joel's parents, Aunt Linda and Uncle Warren. 

Aunt Linda and Uncle Warren already had a dog, but were housing Jesse until they could find a suitable family to adopt him.  I begged and begged Mike to just stop at Aunt Linda and Uncle Warren's house on our way down the road to at least meet Jesse.  Mike finally agreed and we stopped and met Jesse.  Jesse was the most strikingly beautiful dog I have ever seen.  He looked like a husky in appearance, but not necessarily full husky.  Mike said we could think about it.  The wonderful thing about Jesse was he was not a puppy, so he was completely potty trained.

Mike and I headed down the road and had a party to go to in Salem.  I pestered him all the way down to Salem and then I told everyone at the party what a perfect fit this would be for us.  So then they would go up to Mike and say, "Why won't you let Steph adopt this dog, he sounds perfect!?!"  Finally about half way through the party, Mike came up to me and said we could adopt Jesse.  We were headed to Black Butte for New Year's so Mike called Linda and Warren to see if it would be okay if we could pick him up after we were home from the trip.  They said yes and then he was ours.

We picked Jesse up one night in early January 2001 and brought him home to our house.  We took him out onto our back deck and took him off his leash.  We completely forgot to close the door from the garage to the back deck and Jesse took off out the open door.  We used to live close to Terwilliger Blvd (a very large and busy street in SW Portland) and of course as we chased Jesse, he ran closer and closer to Terwilliger Blvd.  We decided to stop chasing him and somewhat "walk" home.  He stopped and followed us...finally we got him home, but needless to say our confidence was shaken.  Were we really ready for this?  Mike kept reiterating, "NO."

Within that first week of owning Jesse, we took him to the vet at Banfield to have him checked out and to get him any shots that he needed.  That is where we met Dr. R.  She is an amazing vet that I am so thankful was with us through Jesse's entire life.  She estimated Jesse's age to be about one and a half years old.  So still puppy in attitude, but not so puppy that he did ALL puppy things. 

We had many adventures with Jesse throughout the years.  He lived in our garage while we were at work when we first adopted him.  Our garage was huge, heated and carpeted (the owner of our house - who we were renting from - used to use the garage as his "gym").  So Jesse had a bunch of space during the day and then he would be in the house with us the rest of the time. 

At one point we were carpooling to work and we would leave my Toyota 4-Runner in the garage.  We drove home one day and could not find Jesse in the garage...it was really strange.  Then we searched the backyard and could not find him there.  We then went back into the garage and realized that Jesse was sitting in the front seat of my car.  I had mistakenly left the back window down in the back of my car and Jesse jumped to the back of my car.  As far as we could tell, he had hung out in the car all day.  He could not get out of the car because the back window was about one foot from the garage door and about five feet off the ground.  Hard to jump in, but nearly impossible to get out.  While he was trapped in the car, he chewed off my gearshift nob and a few CD cases.  He was very happy to get out of the car and I never left my window down again!

Eventually Jesse moved into the house once his puppy tendencies subsided.  He was a great dog, although very intimidating to people who were not dog people.  He would jump up on people pretty much until the last year of his life when they arrived at our house...not because wanted to hurt anyone, but because he wanted to welcome them.

Jesse loved the snow...after all he was a husky.  Some of my favorite times with Jesse was being with him in the snow.  Mike called it his "rollie-pollie" because he would dive nose first into the snow and roll back and forth on this back.

Post "rollie-pollie" just soaking up the snow!

Jesse loved the move to our current house in Tigard.  The backyard was bigger and the walks were better because there is a trail right by our house that stretches for miles.  So when we would get home from work in the evening, Jesse would get his walk.  You could not say the word "walk" around him because he would get so excited his feet would do a "happy dance" and you could barely get his leash on him.

Years passed and in December 2006 we added a new baby to the mix.  Jesse was amazing with Tommy.  While he did not like his crying just as much as we did not like his crying, Jesse was enamored with this little baby boy.

Jesse loved baby Tommy and his Daddy, so never was far from them.

And then in 2009, Morgan joined us and I think Jesse and Morgan were soul mates.  Morgan is our child who LOVES animals and she loved giving Jesse pets and loves. 

Jesse was never too far from the action!  He loved being with the family.

You may remember from my previous posts that Jesse had a growth develop in early 2011.  You can read more about it here.  Jesse ended up having surgery on the growth and it was cancerous.  It was a fast growing localized cancer, so it would come back.  The vet said the surgery was a great time buyer, but we needed to be prepared for the cancer to return.

It was a very long recovery and poor Jesse had to wear a donut on his head so he would not lick the incision.  When he was so drugged up, he did not seem to mind the donut because it acted like a pillow.  But he got tired of it and so did we.  See pictures here.

But then he recovered and was pretty much back to his old self.  He was having some arthritis issues in his back legs, but that was to be expected of a dog his age.  We so enjoyed the last year of his life and really being able to hang out with him. 

In late April this year, I started noticing how hard it was for Jesse to get downstairs in the morning, as well as the growth had returned and was growing rapidly.  He would basically almost fall down the stairs each morning and it was really hard to watch.

Finally I said to Mike I think it is time - he was hurting and we always said we did not want him to hurt.  So May 5, 2012, Mike and I took Jesse to Banfield one last time.  It was very humane, but also very devastating.  He was our first kid and it was so hard to watch him go.  But we reassure ourselves that he is in doggy heaven.  The kids often talk about how much fun he must be having in doggy heaven. 

I think the hardest part of losing Jesse has been the day-to-day stuff that you never think about, but make a huge impact on your life without you realizing it.  He was always at the door to greet us when we returned home.  He was always there if we accidentally dropped food on the floor.  He was always in our room at night, sleeping on the bed (in the early years) and on the floor (later in life, when his jumping ability had declined).  He always had a smile on his face when he saw us.  He was always there for us in every way.  We loved him with all our hearts and miss him every day. 

Tommy and Morgan playing with Jesse and taking him on a "walk"

So cheers to one of the best dogs we will ever know - Jesse we love you!!