Have you seen this flyer?  My friend Carrie recently saw it in England, where a man replace Lionel with his own face.  Hilarious.

Long time, no see!  So, what have you been up to in the last...year!?  I've been thinking about updating this blog for almost a month now, but put it off.  I'm just not sure that I can keep up with it when school starts up again.  Sure, during vacation and fun summer time I have lots to say and publish.  I am somewhat sane and can put two words together at night to form a thought.  I have a running dialog in my brain about what I could write and share.
But during the school year?  Especially last year...not so much.  This past year consisted of a very heavy workload, which zapped a lot of my mental energy, and waking up at 4:30am almost every morning to workout.  Most Saturdays consisted of grocery shopping and errand running, while Sundays were "prep lunches and dinners day".  As if that wasn't enough, I picked up yoga twice a week and fell in love with it.  There were days I didn't see Kyle for more than 15 minutes; 8:30pm bedtime will do that!  Heck, there were times that I had to run out of yoga so I could get to bed!  My eye was constantly on the clock so I could remember to go pick the kids up from school on time, get dinner done quickly, have some reading time with the kids and get them into bed.  Once that was done, I melted into the couch.  Most nights I was too tired to read and often fell asleep on the couch.  So, why would one do this to themselves?  Well, I reached my weight goal.  By Spring 2011, I lost 65 lbs since starting my weight loss journey in 2006.  Yes, it has taken me a looong time to finally get here.  There have been lots of ups and downs ( I was going to offer some links to old posts, but there are so many ups and downs...) but this past year something stuck.  I put my head down and just did everything my trainer told me to do.  Exhausting yes, but worth it.

So, what will this year bring?  The kids are starting public school (not til next Wednesday), which as it turns out is a big switch from private school.  Mikaela is starting Kindergarten (think I may need to update the video section??) and Cameron first grade.  They are both going to start classes outside of school (dance, martial arts).  My job has changed a bit and I am hoping the workload will be less (and yet more fulfilling).  I don't foresee a lessening on the exercise or food prep front--that is just a part of life now.

All this is to say that I hope to have the energy to write, but I also hope to have the time to read the food and exercise blogs I have gotten into this summer, and to finish the kids' baby books (!), maybe even create some family pages, read a book every once in a while...and those are just the things for me.

The words swirling  in my head are related to:  weight loss (exercise, nutrition, general health), hiking trips we have made, baking and cooking that we have been doing, books I am reading...  If you are still out there, what would you like to hear most?

(Blog updates...obviously I need a lot of updating around here, but it's going to be a slow progression.  I've updated my recipe feed on the left, took out some irrelevant items, updated my profile info--though not the pic--and will be making other changes as I can.)