New Dog.... *Daisy*

So, this is our new dog Daisy. There is a WHOLE big story about how she came to live with us: she walked into the bank I work at and since we didn't know who she belonged to my mother in-law agreed to take her. We found the owner and gave her back, but two weeks later she was back at the bank again. So my mother in-law took her again, and this time the owners told her to keep Daisy. ( What a bunch of jerks, huh? ) So, she has been living with my mother in-law for a few months, but they recently moved to a new apartment that only allows one pet. Since she already had a dog other than Daisy, we volunteered to take her. Sure, she is cute and adorable, but she came with a whole set of issues. Oh well. We love her though.



Clark is ALWAYS pestering her and wanting to play but I think that she just gets annoyed by him. Like a typical man, he just doesn't take a hint.

I thought that this picture was cute because it shows how Daisy eats. She picks out the pieces of food she wants, puts them on the mat, and then eats them one by one. Strange...

Fun Pictures of Spencer and Meggie

We had an activity at the bank I work at and Bridgette brought Spencer and Meghan to visit me. I LOVE it when she brings the kids to the branch. Here is Meghan in a chef's hat that Bridge had bought for Spencer.

Spencer with the chef's hat on. What a nut.

Me and Meggie. She is so adorable!

Clark and the New Apartment

We have a balcony that is off our bedroom and Clark LOVES to go out there and check things out. He just hangs out most of the time and basks in the sunlight.




Clark ALSO likes the window in the kitchen. One of these days I know he is going to see food and jump right through there.

Clark is passed out on Dave after a long day of sniffing the carpet. ( seriously, he does it all the time. )

New Apartment!!!

In July my husband and I moved to a new apartment that is TONs closer to where each of us work. It is not as nice as the one we lived in before; only because it is about 20 years older. But it is a nice two beadroom townhouse so we are really excited. My brother and sister in-law already live here, so I was really excited for that too. Anyways, here are some pictures of the kids " helping" me move in =)



This is the closet in my dining room. They camped out in there eating ice cream sandwiches.

This is a window thingy that is right above my kitchen sink and looks out into the living room. The kids think that it is sooo cool that they can stand on the landing on the stairs and poke their heads in at me.

Shannon got totally BUSTED playing in my make-up that night. They were SUPPOSED to be in my room watching a movie, but little did I know that she was putting on my make-up and Spencer was doing his hair with my mousse. Needless to say Shannon and Spencer got put in time out, but not for too long. How can you be mad at a face like that???

Exercise...

So I made the commitment to loose some weight, and I roped Dave into doing it with me. He is great at keeping me motivated, especially on the days when I want to be lazy. We told ourselves last week that we would exercise every day this past week, and we did it! I walked with Dave and our dog for most of the days, and walked with Lindsay and the girls the other day out of the week. I know that walking doesn't burn a huge amount of calories, but atleast it gets me into a routine of walking. I am really trying to eat better and watch my portions, which I think is even harder that exercising. But I'm going to keep at it.

And the diet continues....

Well, this whole diet and exercise thing is proving to be a lot harder for me here at home then it was for me in Cali. I hate to say it but I think that it was because I wasn't living around my family. Honestly, I know that all of the family dinners are whats killin me. Mymoms cookin is so friggin good, and its hard to say no. But I am trying. Anyways, I have been doing good this week. Last night I did more exercises in my house, and wow am I sore! My legs hurt so bad from doing all of those dang squats. And then tonight when I got home I took Clark on a walk which was really nice. We walked for about 35 minutes and I was hurtin by the time we were done. I have also been eating better too. I decided that a diet is just not going to work for me, and lets face it, most diets just suck. So I decided to just correctly portion what I am eating and it seems to be working. I am totally dedicated to this and I hope that other people join me. I am just sick of being overweight, and I am sick of my clothes not fitting. Does anyone else out there feel my pain??? Its a hard knock life... =)

Day one of the diet....

ok, so day one... not so bad. I woke up and ate breakfast just like I said I would, even though all I had time to grab was a granola bar... No matter what I do, or how early I get up, I am always, ALWAYS running late in the morning. Thus, the reason for the pathetic breakfast. sheesh... Anyways, lunch wasn't so good because Sarah Coy came and visited me at work. And you know that when someone comes and visits you at work you HAVE to go out to lunch. Its in the "friend/family member" rule book. Seriously, look it up! =) So, lunch kinda blew my diet plans, but I vowed to do better at dinner. And I did. I ate some refried beans inside a tortilla with a liiiiiitle bit of cheese. Not even enough cheese in there to taste it, but I KNEW it was there and that was all the comfort I needed. So, then for my exercise I decided to try something new, and I exercised while I was watching TV. Every time a commericial came on I got up and exercised until my show came back on. I did crunches, squats, girly push-ups, and even running in place. And WOW did I get a work out. I'm sure I looked like a nut, but it was actually a very good work out! I got in about 125 crunches, 30 push ups, 20 squats, and about 10 minutes of running in place. It really was not a bad deal. So, anyways, That was my day. not too shabby. Sure beats Taco Bell and a night with the remote. =)

My new goal

Ok, so this is me. AFTER I have gained back all of the weight that I lost in Cali and then some! So... I was thinking, and I know that I need to start loosing weight again, but everytime I think about it I just get lazy and put it off for another week. But now, after seeing what I look like lately, I have decided to get my butt into gear. And I have also decided to update my blog daily with the info on how I am doing with my weight loss goal so keep you all updated on my progress. And it would be really awesome if all of you would do it with me. I am totally serious about this, and it would be great if we could all do it together. So, my goal for this week is to work out every other day and to eat breakfast every day. I usually skip that meal, which leads to me pigging out by lunch time. Ok, I'll update as I go along. Who's with me?

Dave and Clark... Best Friends

Dave and Clark LOVE sleeping together. Seriously, I catch them sleeping on the couch together all the time. Which is funny because I don't like it when Clark is on the couch. But Dave is the nice parent. =) Anyways, they are totally snuggle buddies.




Aww... look at them. So cute =)

My new Job!

I recently started a new job with Graystone bank and I LOVE it! I left the old bank I worked at because it was HORRIBLE, and found a job that I truly love. The office that I worked at just opened on May 12th, and the office is brand new. They hired me as the Branch Sales Manager, which basically means that I am the branch manager. Wahoo! Its a great place.



This is a shot of my office before they moved all of my furniture in. It is so nice to have my own office with my own things in it. Everyone needs to come visit me at work!

Me and Kammy

This was taken shortly after Kamyden was born and I just love it. She is probably the cutest little girl in the world! I absolutly LOVE holding her and putting her to sleep. Except lately she has gotten into a habit of spitting up on me EVERY time I hold her. Oh well, I still looover her!

Dave and I

I took advantage of the fact that we would be taking some family pictures and snagged a few of just Dave and I.

The Family Pics

For mother's day this year we decided to take some pictures of the family while my mom and dad were in AZ visiting her family. It was really fun to get all of us together.

For the kids, this was kinda the best that we could get. They were all over the place. Go Figure

Making some ducks =)

Tonight I had some friends come over and help me make these cute little duck eggs which we are selling for charity at the bank I work at. They are so stinkin cute!


Close up shot of one. This is my favorite one because of the polka dot bow tie!
These are my partners in crime: Monette and Ashley
All three of us after a long hour of feathers and hot glue. What a mess!

Cute Meggie and Shannon

I happen to think that I have the CUTEST nieces in the WORLD! Here are some pictures to prove it!

Random Pictures....

My name is Clark! I like to jump and bug Dave and Jolene ALL day!

This is a regular thing. Us eating and Clark sitting and looking at us. He does it all the time!

This is Dave on his first day of school... awwwww.....

NEW BABY!!!!!

This is probably the worst picture of me, but the baby sure does look cute!

Tonight I got to go to the hospital and see new baby Kamdyn. She is soooo cute! She looks nothing like her sister because she has the cursed Shoemaker nose! She also has black hair which she gets from Lindsey's side of the family because we all know that the Shoemakers are nothing but blonde hair and blue eyes. She is just so dang cute! This just makes me even more baby hungry! Dave and I are trying but nothing yet. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

New Post!!!! Finally!!!

So, I finally got a new camera so I will now be able to update my blog more than once a year. Unfortunatly at this point the only interesting thing I have to take a picture of is Clark. I love how in both of these pictures you can see the little white brisley hairs he has on his chin. What a nerd!

Daves Marathon!!!

As most of you know, my husband has been training for the Big Sur Marathon for over two months now. And this week end all of his hard work finally paid off! For me, the whole concept of a marathon was foreign territory. I had no idea what to expect, and this being his first marathon, he really didn't know either.. Dave's training included running, weight training and dieting. Weekends leading up to the race were especially hard because Dave would use those days to complete his long training runs which were anywhere from 15-20 miles long. So, needless to say, he was VERY excited for the weekend of the actual race to get here. yesterday we went to Monterey and picked up his race packet which included several phamplets, his chip timer ( this is something that you stick on your shoe that times you as you cross the finish line) his bib number, and this nice red shirt.

Look at the goofy grin! So, early this morning (sunday) we got up at 3:00 am to take Dave and his friend to meet the busses in Monterey. Since the race starts in Big Sur, they bus all of the participants there. Here is a picture of Dave all ready to go this morning.

3960.. a lucky number =) After I dropped him off I went back home and slept for a while. But Dave hopped on the bus and rode out to Big Sur. The race didn't actually start until 6:45, but there were like 5000 participants, so it took a while to get organized. The weather was really foggy and cold today, but Dave said that made it nice because he didn't really get too hot or too cold. He also said that the first 15 miles went by really easy and he wasn't hurting at all. Dave ran up until the last 3 miles when he started walking because of the pain in his legs. But as he saw the finish line he sprinted to the finish line and ended with an AWESOME time of 3:49. He was shooting for 4:10, so he did a lot better than he though he would.

This is just a shot of what the finish line looked like. Unfortunatly I didn't catch Dave crossing the line. I have NO idea how I missed him because I was standing right by the finish line, but oh well.. I was still there...

This is Dave after the race. They gave all of the marathon participants a medal if they finished under 6 hours. Its a hand made medallion which is pretty cool. Hes still got the same goofy grin on, but the grin soon left as he tried to walk around the house. His legs are hurting pretty bad.

This is the only injury he had. A blister developed on his ankle which popped and then bled for the last half of the marathon. The whole bottom part of his sock was soaked in blood. Gross huh? For his first marathon everything went really well and I am so proud of him. He worked so hard and I am glad that he was able have such a good experience. He's gonna do more in the future, but the very DISTANT future. =)