I Will Not Fall Off the Wagon!

Thought I was going to miss a week, did you?  Nope!  A little delayed, but still here.

Last week wasn't very eventful.  Brie started rec league soccer practice and this will definitely be a very different soccer experience than her years of travel soccer in Georgia.  Hopefully she'll enjoy it and have fun with her friends.  The weather went from really cold last week (a couple of days in the low 30s) to really warm this week -- yesterday hit 82 degrees and today and tomorrow will be just as warm!  What crazy weather shifts!  But the warm weather and sunshine is wonderful for my spirits, and also wonderful for the flowers.  Mark and I took the dogs for a walk last night and saw gorgeous cherry blossoms, Japanese magnolias, forsythia, daffodils, tulips, and hyacinths.  Absolutely gorgeous.  I'll post some pictures of the gorgeous spring flowers soon.

Brie has an 8th grade semi-formal dance coming up in May so on Saturday she and I ventured out to the Tyson's Corner mall to look for a dress.  The mall is huge -- really huge!  A lot of the stores are so expensive that I wouldn't even think of going in them.  I pointed out some examples to Brie of the fact that no amount of money can buy class or dignity.  :-)  We found one potential dress but it wasn't quite what Brie wanted.  I was shocked at how short all of the short dresses were...they didn't look long enough to even be knee length on a child.  And so expensive!  But, fortunately, I found a dress online that she liked and we ordered that.  It arrived yesterday and she likes it. YEA!  It needs to be taken in and we'll get that taken care of this weekend.  I'm just thrilled that we found something.  We also found a couple of swimsuits online that hopefully will work.  I know Brie was frustrated with how hard it is to find something modest and acceptable, but I appreciate the fact that both of the girls have never given us a hard time about dressing modestly.  We are very blessed.

My friend Paula MacLeod and her husband were up here on a house hunting trip last week and so she and I got together Friday evening to do some shopping to look for work clothes for her.  It was nice to spend time with her.  She'll be staying with us for a while when she moves, while they wait for their home in Georgia to sell.

General Conference was this weekend and it was wonderful.  SO many good talks.  I'm still working on making sense of my notes but I will post a few things.  I was really struck by the themes that stood out to me -- importance of virtue, faith, strengthening home and family, and having peace in troubled times.  A harbinger of things to come, I fear....but it remined me how grateful I am for living prophets and for the gospel.

Alyssa will be home in just about three weeks.  YEA!  Can't wait!

We bought a gas grill over the weekend since we left our old one in Georgia.  Mark grilled chicken for us last night and it was so good...I had forgotten how good grilled food can be!  The George Foreman grill is an ok substitute, but definitely not the same.

So what is the title of the post about?  I have given up caffeine.  When I got sick last weekend I didn't drink any Coke because I just didn't feel well enough to have anything in my stomach.  I decided it was a good time to just quit caffeine.  I was drinking too much of it.  I'm still craving Coke, but not as much as I was last week.  It's now been a week and a half without Coke and I'm doing ok.  I'm slowly increasing my water intake and have switched over to caffeine free Coke, but I limit how much of that I drink per day.  My goal is to cut out caffeine, gradually cut out most sodas, increase my water intake, and lose a few pounds.  It's so tempting to grab a Coke when I'm so sleepy and tired during the day, but I'm going to stay strong.  I have learned that I have an addictive personality -- I'm an all or nothing kind of girl.  I can't do just one Coke per day and be ok -- it seems that when I start drinking it I just can't stop.  So I'm quitting cold turkey.  I will be successful!!!