Wow, has it been a long time since I've written on this blog! Lots of changes for us in the past 7 months.

DS#1 is in his last semester of college. He is pursuing an art degree. DD#1 is taking a semester off of college and working to save money. DS#2 graduated high school and is now in paramedic school. He's working as an EMT and loves it. DS#3 is a junior in high school and working on getting his driver's license. DD#2 is in the 8th grade and is growing up way too fast!

DH and I are going through Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University. We bought the home kit and just finished the Dumping Debt lesson. We are no longer using credit cards. We should have mortgage #1 paid off this year and the car paid off next year. DH is really getting into it now that he sees it's not boring and it does work.

Our 24th anniversary is this Sunday. We celebrated by buying Walmart's cheapest DVD player ($30) because the Playstation 2 that we'd been using will not play the newer DVDs. We'll go out for dinner on Sunday and use gift cards that we received for Christmas.

I completed 2 more semesters towards my accounting degree. I have 6 more to go. This past semester I took 2 classes instead of just a single and it really worked out well so I'm doing the same this semester.

I have also met my weight goal with Weight Watchers in June and became a Lifetime member in July. Soon after I began working for them as a receptionist. I normally work one meeting a week, but sometimes substitute for others an manage to earn a bit more money. I really enjoy helping other people meet their weight goals.

All in all, 2008 was a pretty good year for our family. I'm hoping 2009 brings a lot of financial advances for us as we strive to pay off the debt.

As of tonight, I have officially lost exactly (and I mean to the 10th of a pound!)......35 pounds!!! I needed to lose .6 this week to get there and that's exactly what I've lost. I have gone from a size 18W to a size 8/10, depending on the make of the pants. I still have 22 pounds to go to make it to my Weight Watchers goal, but I will get there, slowly but surely.

I've decided to switch from the Flex plan to the Core plan for the next 3 weeks to see if that jump starts my weight loss. It's really slowed down lately and I've read that many that switch from one plan to another seem to rev up their metabolism again.

So I sat down tonight and entered my emealz for the week into the Food Planner to see if this will work with the meals I've planned, and it does. I still have 11.5 weekly points left to use as I like for other meals. And I can earn more with the exercise I do.

So this will be a new phase of weight loss for me. I'll be learning to be more in tune with my body and it's hunger and fullness levels and eating accordingly from the list of Core foods and counting those that aren't on the Core list.

I am trying something new for our meal planning that should benefit my Weight Watchers lifestlye and our family time.

While listening to Dave Ramsey early mornings in the office, I've heard ads for e-mealz. I decided on Friday to check into it and see what it was all about. After reading through their website and looking at their sample menus and grocery lists, I decided to sign up for a 3 month subscription and give it a try.

I chose the Point-System meal plans since I'm following the Weight Watchers Flex plan. I then decided to get the menus for any grocery store. Our area has a Super Walmart coming soon, so I'll probably switch to that choice once it's open. The cost is $5 a month, but I was able to find a coupon code that gave me a $2.50 discount.

Once I registered, I had access to 2 weeks' worth of menus and grocery lists. I really like that there is a dinner menu for 7 days of the week. That is the hardest point of cooking for me, deciding what to make.

So tomorrow after work I'll be going grocery shopping and picking up the needed items to begin using the menus. I am anxious to see if I do save money as they claim, but even more anxious just to have a plan all laid out for me.

I decided to reapply for term life insurance again. You may remember that I was rejected last year because of my blood pressure and the cyst they found in my brain. Since my health has totally turned around since then I figured I'd give it another try.

The neurologist says the cyst is no problem at all, that lots of people have them and don't even know it. The blood pressure is now running 110/70 with the new medicine and I've lost 32 pounds so far with Weight Watchers.

I am back to a size 10, which is still overweight for my height and frame, but I'm still working on it. I have another 24 pounds left to get to my goal weight. The Flex plan is really working well for me. I've been walking with Leslie Sansone and doing yoga 2-3 times a week. I decided this time that the only exercise I was going to do was what I could continue doing the rest of my life. No more half killing myself to burn calories. I'm too old for that now. LOL!

So hopefully in a couple of months I'll know if they approved me and if so, I can cancel the whole life insurance and cash it in. We plan to use it to buy another coal stove for the main part of the house or to replace the roof.

This week is going to be an expensive one for us. Tomorrow we take our oldest DD to college. It's 2.5 hours away and we'll be leaving right after church so we'll need to eat lunch and dinner. Lunch will probably be McDonald's, but we decided that dinner is going to be a special treat at Red Lobster. We don't have any Red Lobsters around us so we're going to take advantage of the trip and treat ourselves. DD#2 will also be going along with us.

Then on Tuesday, DH's father is having 5 heart bypasses done so we'll need to travel 2 hours to the hospital where that is taking place. Another day of eating out. Hard on the pocket book, but necessary.

Also hard on the WW plan. LOL! I am .4 pounds away from hitting the 30 pound mark so I am trying to be very diligent with my eating and exercising.

We celebrated our 23rd anniversary yesterday. After work we went out for dinner to one of our favorite restaurants. DH had received a gift card for this restaurant from his supervisor at work, so that was really nice. I indulged and went off my diet for that one meal and had crabmeat stuffed shrimp and peanut butter ice cream pie with hot fudge topping for dessert. I only ate 2 of the 5 shrimp and one third of the pie. The servings were just too big!

We bought a Magic Bullet and each got nice headphones for our anniversary. We were going to go see a movie but never did make it there. I'm not a movie person and tend to fall asleep so I hate the thought of spending $10 for me to sleep through the movie.

I got a call early this morning from my boss telling me that she was not going into work today and neither was I. Hey, who am I to argue with that??? LOL! The weather today is terrible and since I had an accident last year getting to work on a day like this, I think she worries about me traveling over the hill. So I have an unexpected day off. I plan on spending it working on my homework for the week and reading.

We have started Turbo Tax in my class now. I'm not quite as familiar with it as QuickBooks, but I have used it before so I don't expect any problem with it. Only about 3 more weeks and this class will be done.

I probably won't be going to Weight Watchers tonight. With the roads so bad, it's not worth the drive and I can't stay for the meeting anyway. Tonight is DS#3's first basketball game of the season so I would need to drive 12 miles one way just to weigh in and then leave.

It feels so good to have the furniture debt paid off! Every time I think of it being paid, I smile.

As of last Monday I have now lost 25 pounds. That was really exciting for me, especially since it was the Monday after Thanksgiving and I'd lost 2.2 pounds that week! Yeah me! LOL

Tonight was my Weight Watchers meeting and I was hoping to have my total weight loss be 20 pounds. I actually surpassed that goal and made it to 20.8!

It felt good last week to make my 10% weight loss goal and receive my keychain and so to get to 20 pounds this week has really motivated me to keep going.

I'm exercising every weekday and try to get a good outdoor walk in on the weekends as often as I can. My morning routine is either a "walk" with Leslie Sansone or some yoga.

I signed up for the monthly pass for Weight Watchers ($39.95) the middle of July. At first I thought it was really silly to pay someone to weigh me each week, but I have to say that it is really working. So far I have lost 20 pounds. I enjoy the meetings and am meeting new friends. I find encouragement and support at the meetings. Knowing that someone is going to weigh me in each Monday night keeps me honest with counting points.

The main thing I like about Weight Watchers is that they have a maintenance program. You gradually add in points until you find the amount you can have each day that maintains your weight.

As soon as I get within a healthy weight range for me I'm going to apply for a term life insurance policy.