I need to follow your lead Karen and not hop on the scale daily. It's really discouraging. I still have 4-5 lbs to go and now I'm getting really frustrated. Someone just asked me yesterday "but you've reached your target clothes size, right?" and that put it in perspective. I am officially in a size 6 jean. I need to shut up and stop complaining. I have lost 3 sizes (I was a 12) since January. I'd like to be in a 4 but I don't think my body type is such. Big hips and booty no matter how much I lose. So, I've decided it's not the weight that I'm aiming for, it's the tone. I just need to keep reminding myself of that. I think I need to put the scale away. It's in my kitchen!!! I went out and went crazy buying snacks from the bins at Sprouts for my 6+ hour plane ride coming up with DD. I want to have tons of stuff to entertain us. Crayons, coloring books, books to read (for her and me)... and snacks. I got dark chocolate covered raisins, jelly beans, salt water taffy, sugar coated peanuts, yogurt covered raisins. And two outrageously expensive dark chocolate organic chocolate bars. I'm planning to take a bunch of protein powder with me too so I can use that when I get hungry instead of relying on take out for when I'm running around with the bride. The hard part will be not overdosing on my favorite foods while I'm there. I have some serious cravings for home food, and none of it is diet friendly. Anyone have any travel food suggestions? I want food that will last, take up time, and be interesting. I plan on eating a big breakfast so I'm not hungry, but I'm pretty bored on planes!

Well Holy Cow...it was another non-elimination leg of the race. What in the heck happened to TK & Rachel? We were playing a game while we watching and I missed how they got so messed up with their flight. They were three hours (?) behind the other teams? I was so happy that Dad and Daughter came in first! He did not yell AND we have not heard about his hernia in at least two weeks...an improvement! They did a good job. Did we all KNOW that the Grandson would get LOST while driving the car in the city? He has gotten lost EVERYTIME directions are involved. But they did a good job. I was a little worried about Grandpa but he made it. And, Nate and Jen. They did better than I thought they would. I would still like them to be the next to go. She is such a brat. Why does she have to whine so much? Nothing is EVER her fault. I hope TK and Rachel are able to get past the speed bump of next week. They are not as strong as I thought they were, but they are nice to eachother and that counts for a lot. They never yell, whine or cry. So, what did all of you think? sooey

If I didn't know the word, I would have just started trying letter combos, sooner or later you MIGHT hit on it or give yourself an idea. To sit there and worry or complain was a giant waste of time. I heard his mom say "I can't help you" at least once. I'm sure they weren't allowed to give them ideas of words after the one went to the letters. I like when teams use the U-turn, it's just smart racing to try to slow down the good competition. I think they've had to do both tasks before, haven't they? Or was it a time-penalty? Maybe both. I think that Luke used the U-turn to keep his favorite girl team in it, he was buying them time. I could be wrong about that, but it seems like those 2 girls were doing OK without that help. The problem now is going to be to get the other teams to trust them, seems like they may be thinking they're a bit sneaky. Although, eliminating the tough competition helped ALL those other teams, if Amanda and Kris hadn't gone, some other team would have. I liked the wood stacking challenge, we stack wood all the time and there is an art to it, but that wood was nice and small and looked fairly easy to work with. I had to laugh when the sisters started out by sorting the wood. That would have taken forever, they obviously started to do it on the fly because they finished up pretty quickly. The Siberian men sure had a thing for pretty American women, didn't they? I found that a bit opportunistic on their parts.... (taps cheek, gets hug or kiss, ick.) If you have to ask, it's not completely voluntary. The brothers- I liked them at first, but that one brother seems snotty to me, I'm not liking him as much these days. But, changing tasks was smart for them, their height would have made stacking that pile of wood difficult, I'm surprised they didn't figure that out at the start. The house was right in front of them? I missed that part. Darn! Victor was a little better Sunday night, I thought. I guess his goof-up last week taught him a few things. I'm glad, I really like Tammy. I don't really have a favorite team right now, and I don't have one I really dislike either, which takes the stress out of the race for me. lol

Hi Kids, Running in your underwear? Pleeeze... Where do they come up with this stuff? If it's an activity that is 'enjoyed' by the locals I would have expected that there would have been some locals running along with them, also in their underwear. I guess when they say that it is enjoyed by the locals, it's as a spectator sport. I thought that one was silly at best. The rest of the show was OK. The challanges did not seem to be very hard but I'm sure it was very, very cold and uncomfortable. 'Snow plow' looked easy as did 'Brides', getting to the locations must have been the real challange. I'm glad they are on their way out of Russia. I know it was the editing but I am not left with a very good impression of it. I know that there is much beauty in that part of the world but, winter is not the best time to show it off. So off they go...on to India. The blonds are still in it...saved by a thong? sooey