Touch N Brush

As Luke was watching the commercial for the Touch N Brush today, he started saying that his bathroom was a mess and he needed to buy the Touch N Brush for his bathroom. What, what? Dude is 3 1/2 years old and doesn't have $19.99. Of course, I'm now worried that he will have a house filled with As Seen on TV items when he is on his own. He makes me laugh.

Miniature Golfing

It seems that going to Stone Mountain and partaking in some miniature golf has quickly become one of our favorite activities to do. Luke chooses it over riding the train. Must-hit-ball-with-stick! He is all boy :)


Luke has made up his own rules for the game of miniature golf. He will be patient with me and "tee off" correctly but then he goes to where his ball stops, picks it up and places it right next to the hole. He then putts it into the hole. Every hole is a Par 2 as far as he is concerned. I guess he is results oriented like his mommy :)

We also rode the train. All aboard!

A hero

Luke, unexpectedly, went under the water not once but twice while we were at the pool the other day. Both times, I calmly walked over to him and pulled him up and sat him on the steps of the pool. Poor dude was shaken both times and I think the incidents have given him a healthy respect for the water. Here is the conversation we had that evening:

Luke: I don't like sinking in the pool.
Me: No, that can be very scary and you can get hurt if you're not careful.
Luke: But you saved me. You're a hero.

Doesn't that melt your heart? I'm a hero in a tankini :O)

Summer fun!

I decided to take Luke and Maddie to Stone Mountain by myself on Friday. I love the summer and find it pretty easy to ignore my chores on a sunny day. The outing was very successful (everyone returned home in one piece) and we enjoyed playing miniature golf and taking the Sky Lift to the top of the mountain. Woo-hoo! I also decided to take some pictures to document our fun time:

Okay, how do you get both children to look at the camera at the same time? This is a mystery to me. I would appreciate any tricks you have discovered.

January 3, 2009 - A dark day

Saturday, January 3, 2009 at 12:30 pm was a dark day in the world of Misti Mancini. (Which was extremely unfortunate since it was only the third day of the new year.) Why was it a dark day? It was the day I found myself sitting at my very first Weight Watchers meeting. I found myself wondering how I got to the point that I needed help with losing weight. Why was I unable to do this on my own? I had lost some of the pregnancy weight during early fall but the scale started going back up during the holidays. I was now 30 pounds overweight. What, what? Dan and I both joined Weight Watchers and decided it was time to make some changes to the Mancini family diet and eating habits.

The line had been drawn in the sand and the big "D" (discipline) was going to be my word for 2009. If I thought Saturday, January 3 was a dark day, it was quickly topped by Sunday, January 4. That is the day my inner child kicked, screamed, and complained that she was starving to death. I eventually had to give her a timeout and let her know she wasn't starving. She just needed to learn how to eat until "satisfied" instead of eating until she was stuffed. Each day got easier and by that Wednesday even my inner child was convinced we could do "this" :)

So, the last five months have been about planning.

For the first time in our almost 15 years of marriage, I started creating a menu for the week. There was no more getting to Thursday and going to Moe's because there was no food in the house. We also started introducing a new recipe each week to make sure we don't get bored and revert back to eating out more then we ate at home.

Saturday, April 11 is the day I reached my weight loss goal. All the hard work (planning, eating healthy, discipline, and etc.) paid off. I was amazed at how quickly the weight came off. I thrived under the structure of the Weight Watcher's program which isn't surprising giving my personality. Also, having Dan's support was invaluable. If I was ever tempted to "cheat", he was there to keep me on task and encourage me. Plus, he too is now 30 pounds lighter. How cool is that?

Now the focus is learning how to maintain my current weight and figuring out how to introduce exercise into my calendar. I'm hoping this new part of the journey will be less time intensive since I've missed the blog world. We'll see :)