Biggest Losers! (not quite)

No we were not the Biggest Losers but we did come in 4Th out of 11 teams. We were behind the leader by 1.825 percent. The top 3 were all within that 11 percent. Then there was us with our 10.049. I knew from about week 2 we probably wouldn't win, but it was a great motivator to have a partner that you didn't want to let down by gaining. In all I lost about 15 lbs! I almost feel like we should do it again so that I can lose the other 15lbs I have left to go. But I am glad that its over too. I told myself that I was gonna have a huge cheat day after this was over but I have to wait until next week because we are doing the Preparedness Drill. So next week I will finally use that Cold Stone Gift card I've had in my wallet forever! Look out Cold Stone, 1 Shawnel Special comin' up!

Survival of the Most Prepared!

So we were chosen, along with 9 other families in our ward to participate in an emergency preparedness drill. This morning at church we were handed envelopes with a letter stating that we were to live only on the food and things that we had in our house for one week. And one of those days we have to use only our 72 hr kits. So no shopping for this week. Rules are that you can barter though. Luckily I went to the store Saturday.

So I've kinda known this was coming for a while but I thought that it was going to be for 2 weeks. So this is actually nicer. The only thing... We don't really have any 72 hr kits made up. We have a box of misc stuff in our closet that we had wanted to put into some but never did. We decided that today was going to be that day since it was already half over.

When we got home we pulled out our "box" and noticed that we had water, Jerky, trail mix, and a box of assorted crackers with various fillings. The Jerky was long since expired but I decided to try it anyway. It was uneatable. The crackers are stale and soft but we have been eating them anyway. The trail mix is the safest thing in there besides the water. Even though the raisins are a little hard. But I don't eat raisins so it didn't bother me. I'm just looking forward to tomorrow when I can eat all the food that I bought on Saturday.

The Church had a 72 hr kit class on Sat. I'm glad I went and was totally ready to finally get mine together. I was surprised that this thing came so soon. I was gonna get them together soon, but not this soon. But at least now I know that keeping the same food in there for 3 yrs probably isn't very good. I think now we will make it a yearly thing that at spring conference time we will go through our kits and use what we need to use and restock.

I'll let you know how the rest of the week goes. I don't think that it'll be too hard since I just went to the store but if there had been a week 2 it would've been a little tougher

Oh, I found this blog about food storage and thought that it was cool
Food storage

After 3 years of waiting.... They're here!

So Big J finally caved and gave into the nagging about the ugly gross 15 yr old carpet and got me laminate flooring! So if you haven't seen or heard from me in the last week this is why. We found a good deal on the laminate at none other than COSTCO. (The place just about everything in our house comes from) The whole thing with trim and new base boards only cost us about $2,000. The only catch, is that we installed it ourselves. Why pay at least $2 a sq yd to have them installed when we can do them for free. Installation would have cost us more than the laminate.

So anyway.. I always think to myself,"I need to take pictures so that I can show everyone" and I never remember. No matter what it is that I'm doing I always think it but never remember. Well I remembered this time only we were already going. But I have a few.

So this first one is of when we were rolling up the carpet and mat. (so yucky)


And this is what I found under it all..... 15 years of dirt! I cant believe I ever let my kids crawl around on that! After this I don't want carpet ever again. Mind you this is just one spot on the floor. It was everywhere. I thought about building a sand castle with it all.

After we got that all cleaned up and took all the base boards off and got all the tack boards and nails out we had to put this moisture barrier (black plastic) down. Then we were able to start laying the laminate.

So here is a picture of the living room almost done. Lookin' good!


And here it is! The new floors with my furniture back inside. All we have to do now is wait for all the molding (which are the pieces that go from the laminate to the tile and places like that) Its not a very good picture but you get the gist.

Garden Update....

Well the Garden is about 90 percent planted. There are only a few things that I am waiting to plant until it gets a little warmer. But so far I have planted strawberries, rhubarb, zucchini, peas, beans, peppers, tomatoes, corn, carrots, and potatoes. I know.... I know... what is there left to plant? Well I will be planting more peppers, cucumbers, watermelon and a pumpkin (at the request of Big J. He wanted the Giant seeds from Lowes but I told him that we didn't have the 15' needed for it to grow. so he settled for the less giant but still huge pumpkins. So now I'm just crossing my fingers for things to grow. I think that my odds are good for at least one thing to turn out. I sure planted enough.