Life Doesn't Get Any Better Than This

My Daughter Cracks Me Up!

The topic of being good for Santa came up the other night, when Margaret started asking everyone if they had been good that day. When she got to me I told her that I had been mostly good, but that I had lost my temper a few times. She so sweetly smiled at me and exclaimed "That's okay! We can just buy you a new one!" I love this girl.

Early Resolutions

As the year winds down, most of us begin to think about New Year's resolutions and what we would like to improve on over the new year.  I have to admit that I am a pretty typical "resolutionist" myself: lose weight, exercise more, go to bed earlier and wake up earlier, read my scriptures more regularly, pray more often, be a better mom, etc. Well I've decided not to wait until January 1 to begin my New Year's resolutions this year. Some may wonder why there aren't any recent pictures of myself on my blog. The answer is simple enough: I am too fat and don't want my obesity recorded in the anals of history. Without revealing too much, I need to shed about 100 lbs. in order to reach my ideal weight. "Wow, surely you're exaggerating a bit, Audrey!" you might say. But I kid you not... 100 pounds!
How am I planning on reaching my goals? By working out like crazy and eating clean. Tosca Reno is my new food guru and I'm in love with everything that comes out of her mouth. If none of you have ever heard of The Eat Clean Diet, then you should check out one of her books. She's all about eating "clean" foods, the less it's processed the better, and pairing complex carbs with lean protein at every meal (all six of them.) I followed the plan for about two weeks earlier this year when I was working at UPS and I lost 20 lbs. in the process, so I know that it works. I've been doing it for about a week this time around and I've already lost 5 pounds... and I'm feeling great!

As far as exercise goes, no one gets me motivated like Cathe Friedrich. She was responsible for my weight loss a few years back, so I know that she can do it for me again. She has about 80 workout DVDs with everything ranging from step aerobics to kickboxing to weights to a 9-month cycle program. Not only are her workouts amazing, but she's amazing as well. Her body is amazing, her personality is sparkling and she really knows how to get you to want to work harder. Every workout that I do with her she absolutely kicks my behind!

I'm going to brag for just a minute and tell you about my day; one, because I'm so proud of myself and two, hopefully it'll give you a better idea about what I mean when I say eat clean.

6:30 Wake up
6:35 Yogurt and orange slices, 800 ml water
7:00 Leg and glute workout
9:30 Smoothie with banana, blueberries, almond milk, cottage cheese, oatmeal, protein powder, wheat germ and flax seed, 800 ml water
12:00 Scant handful of almonds and an apple, 800 ml water
2:30 Salmon fillet with roasted asparagus, tomatoes and 1/2 of a sweet potato, 800 ml water
4:45 Vegetable crudites with hummus, 800 ml water
7:15 Whole wheat pita with spinach, sprouts, tomatoes, apple slices, nonfat plain yogurt and water-packed tuna, 800 ml water
10:00 Scrambled egg whites with spinach, red bell pepper and garlic on multi-grain bread, 800 ml water

And that's how I've been eating for the last week! I love it! Okay, so I did have a moment of weakness the other night with that cheeseburger. I was so proud of myself because I made it through the McDonald's drive-thru with only the kids' Happy Meals, but when I got it home and started getting their food out, wouldn't you know it there was an extra cheeseburger sitting at the bottom of the bag. I checked my receipt just to make sure that my junk food subconcious didn't order it while I wasn't looking. But it wasn't on there, it was just a mistake. I actually considered taking it back to McDonald's just to get it out of the house, but I knew that they couldn't take it. So what did I do? No, but I wish I had thrown it away. I ate the darn thing! I'm just glad that it was only a cheeseburger and not a Big Mac or 1/4 Pounder! And oh, did I feel sick later. After eating clean for an entire week, that grease just did not sit well with me. Motivation to keep on chugging away!

So in a nutshell, my New Year's resolution this year is to lose 100 pounds. Lofty...yes. Challenging... without a doubt. Obtainable...you'd better believe it. Bring it on, 2012!

Silk

In school this week we've been learning all about Ancient China. Part of our studies have been about the discovery of silk from the threads of the silkworm cocoons and how this affected China. This is the conversation that took place between my kids last night.
Steven: "Margaret, did you know that silk comes from wasps?"
Me: "You mean from silkworms."
Steven: "Oh yeah, from silkworms."
Margaret: "Wow!"
Steven: "Yeah, silkworms are from Ancient China."
Margaret: "But not from Texas, right, Steven?"
Steven: "Right."

Well, now I know they're listening!

Shutterfly Site

I just wanted to share the link to our shutterfly site with everyone today. It's www.thesabins.shutterfly.com. For anyone who complains that I haven't put enough pics of my kids on this blog, go over to the other site. There are pics on there from 2007 to the present and even a video of me dancing while VERY pregnant on the video page. Check it out!

All Good Things Must Come to An End (Temporarily)

Steven just finished his first season of soccer and he's missing it like crazy. I had no idea that the kid would take to it so much but, to be honest, I'm glad. I love seeing him so excited about sports and so excited to get ready for games and practices. I love sports myself, and we have alot of fun practicing drills in the backyard. Steven's level is the first year that the kids play with a goalie and Steven's coach, unlike most coaches, will let every kid have a turn playing in all of the different positions. This way they can get a feel for what they prefer and what they're good at. Steven naturally gravitated towards the defense and especially goalie. He thrives on getting the ball away and kicking it down the field. And I have to admit, he makes a darn good little goalie.

Here's Steven dribbling the ball down the field

Here he is again

I'm not sure exactly what he's doing here, but I love this picture! Both of his feet are off the ground!

The next few pictures are blurry, but I had to show off Steven's goalkeeping prowess. Here he is with a great save.

And another amazing save!

And another...

and another! Yes!

However, there's plenty of this going on too. Playing around inside the net whenever there's no action.

And doing whatever it is he's doing!

We miss soccer and we can't wait for the spring season to start. At least we have gymnastics to tide us over in the meantime (pictures forthcoming.)

October

Our October was much the same as yours, I'm sure. There was the pumpkin patch, Halloween, and alot of sewing for those of us who like to make our children's costumes. This year, we were set on a Star Wars Clone Wars theme with Steven as Anakin Skywalker, Margaret as Ahsoka Tano, and Joshua as Yoda. Just as I went to buy the fabric, Margaret changed her mind and decided that she wanted to be Sleeping Beauty instead. I couldn't argue because I love that my little girl loves princesses so much, so I went with it. In the end, I decided to buy Steven's costume since there were so many accessories for it, and also because I wasn't sure how to construct the armor that Anakin wears on his chest and shoulders. And I'm glad that I did because he looked JUST like Anakin and I had more time to figure out Joshua's Yoda costume.

Here he is, in all of his Yoda glory. I ended up taking his bathrobe and creating a pattern from it for both layers of the Jedi robes. For the dark brown layer, I left off the hood and the sleeves and I added a tie at the waist to hold it closed. The outer layer doesn't have a tie, but it has a hood and sleeves. The hat was alot of fun. I borrowed from a pattern I used a few years ago to make a Batman hood for Steven; I just sized it down a bit so that it would fit Joshua's head. The ears were of my own design. They ended up being way too big so that he looked more like Gizmo that Yoda, but he still looked so cute in them!

Here is Margaret as Sleeping Beauty. I completely made her dress from scratch and it took me forever. For some reason, I was having a really hard time getting into the project, so it would take me a whole day just to do the sleeves, or something else ridiculous like that. There was also supposed to be a flange across the chest and shoulders (you know, that part that sort of points up at the shoulders on Sleeping Beauty's dress), but I completely ran out of steam and didn't finish it. Overall, I still think she looks beautiful.

Margaret loves to love on Joshua and Joshua always wants whatever Margaret has.

Here's Steven as Anakin Skywalker. His favorite part was definitely the light saber, which we've already had to take away from him for hitting his brother and sister in the faces with it.

Two amazingly handsome fellas

Candy just makes everything better

We didn't make it to an actual, traditional pumpkin patch this year. I'm not quite sure why (lazy on my part, I guess), but we made it to the next best thing. The city held a huge Pumpkin Fest with lots of carnival games, face painting, bounce houses, pony rides, etc. We went and had a total blast.

Here are Steven and Margaret playing one of the games. I love Margaret with her shades... so chic. And Steven cracks me up with how much he got into shooting that water gun!

Margaret had her fingernails done while we were there. And no, that wasn't the first time she's had her nails painted. I paint them for her all of the time!

Here's Steven working on a little sand art project. So focused.

There was a group at the festival called the Dallas County Cowboy Church, which is an actual church that cowboys attend because they live too far away from town to drive every Sunday. They had a bale of hay with a cow's head on it that the kids could lasso if they wanted to. First, one of the cowboys would demonstrate how to do it, then they would give the kids a chance to do it. Margaret was too shy, but Steven really got into it.

Not bad! Way to go, cowboy!

Margaret did try her hand at "milking" a cow. There was a rubber glove with milk in it and each of the finger tips had a small hole in it. After one of the cowboys showed them how to do it, they got a chance to do it on their own. Margaret was very shy and delicate about the whole thing, but I'm glad that she gave it a go.

Steven on the other hand, was milking every udder at once by squeezing it to death. I'm just glad that it wasn't a real cow. Ouch!

We also had the chance to enjoy some yummy snow cones while we were there.

Margaret's favorite part... the pony ride. We went when there was a lull, so she got to pick the pony she rode and the ladies let her ride for a very long time. She loved it!

Steven loved the bounce house, of course. It was the very last thing that we did before we left and he was so happy to finally get to do it.

This is just a bit of the goings on in the Sabin family for this month. I know that I've been awful about blogging, but I'll try to improve. Hope you're having fun as well. Happy Fall!

"The Comment"

Okay, so it's been almost a year since my last post (pitiful, I know), and in that time Blogger has changed alot! I had no idea that I had to approve people's comments before they would be posted to my site as a way to filter spam. One day last week I decided to login to my dashboard just on a whim and saw that I had 400 comments waiting to be posted to my site! Granted, most of it was junk, but there were comments from some of you out there that I didn't even know were floating around in cyberspace. I was so delighted to read those hidden gems, that it set my mind to thinking ("A dangerous pastime, I know." From Beauty and the Beast.)
We all know that wonderful feeling when we go to check in to our blog and we see that we have 2 comments. "Two comments!", you might say to yourself. "I wonder who's been checking in on me!?!" And as you click on the comments link to see who they are, your heart begins to race and a small smile forms at the corners of your mouth in anticipation of a giggle to an inside joke. And then you read your comments, and for that brief moment a wave of love for that person, no matter who they are, washes over you and all seems right with the world.

Everyone loves the euphoric "2 comments" feeling, just as we all despise the disheartening "zero comment" experience. Come on, we all know that one, too. To put it simply: 0+0=0. "I have zero comments which means zero people are thinking of me, therefore I am a zero." Slight exaggeration as this might be, it's not far from the thoughts that go through some of our minds as we read "0 comments." The thought is fleeting and inconsequential, but we experience it just the same: brief disappointment.

Ahhhhhh, the power of "The Comment." For good or for bad, that guy has worked it's way into our sense of well-being in these modern times. Someone needs to remind him that "With great power comes great responsibility."