Weight Loss Re-Boot Week 1

Well, they say getting started is the hard and sticking to it is harder.  I have survived my first week into this journey to a thinner, healthier and stronger me.  I can't wait to be that person! Up until yesterday, I stayed under my calorie goals.  Last night, I went to a bachelorette party and went a little bit over! EEK!  So, today, I was going to take as more of a rest day- mostly a day off but not happening.  I know that I can't be perfect all of the time and I decided last night to cut myself some slack and enjoy myself.  It's not every week that I go out to a bachelorette party.  In fact, that is one of 3 (aside from my own) that I have ever been to and it's been 2 years since my last one.  So, I'm not worried.  I'm allowed a little bit of flexibility and fun as long as I don't take it too far! 

I lost 3 pounds in my first week!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!  So, I have 22 left to lose to get my dog.... it's getting closer!  According to the program I'm using that is much like Weight Watchers but is free and there's an app for it, I should be down 12 pounds total by mid May which means I'll be half way there in 1 month!  How awesome is that?!?!?  I'm pretty stoked and very motivated to do this. 

I'm not doing it alone though.  I have a great support system in my hubby, Chris and my mom (she's my workout buddy at the gym), and I have some supportive and motivational friends too!  Encouragement and accountability are the best things for someone striving for a weight loss goal.  My biggest supporter is GOD.  I've been praying for a kick in the pants to make me get off my lazy butt and DO IT!  He gave it to me with the news of my high cholesterol.  I think I'll be bringing it down quickly with HIS help!  I'm praying daily for his continued strength and support and for him to keep me motivated in this journey!  I plan to build a healthy life style once I get to my ultimate weight loss goal, to maintain it and be comfortable in my own skin and confident again. 

I used to get looks from guys all the time (not that I really noticed buy people would tell me).  It's a bit disheartening when you're out with your friend who is the same age as you (a few weeks older in fact, and she gets carded when you're out and you don't.)  That has been bothering me for years.  Now, I really only get compliments on my hair - which is really nice but I want my old body back that I totally took for granted.  My weight gain isn't entirely my fault - mostly yes but some no.  Having the thyroid problem made me suddenly gain weight because it caused my metabolism to drop drastically.  I'll be on medication for my thyroid for the rest of my life - BOO. There are worse things though!  A pill every morning and a blood test every so often to monitor the levels isn't so bad.   I'm very blessed that I have such an awesome husband that loves me and still finds me sexy even in this bulky and lumpy body.  I can't wait to FEEL sexy again.  It's been a very long time since then.  I'm going to get there!

So, I made it to the gym 4 times this week and exercised every day whether at the gym or at home.  I've been eating healthier and found some awesome healthier snack and meal alternatives and I'm already feeling a bit thinner in the middle and stronger in my core!  I worked on my abs for 6 days straight!  I'm taking a day off today to let them rest... maybe.  That could change later though! 

Hope you all have an awesome day and if you're looking for motivation to get started, pray about it.  I needed it and I got it.  Ask you and shall receive!  I'll be glad to encourage you if you'll encourage me! Until next time.... 

Weight Loss Re-Boot

As some of my readers know, last year I embarked on a weight loss journey.  I did ok and lost 10 pounds.  I have kept those 10 pounds off but I have had a hard time losing anymore.  My schedule now that school is in, makes it more difficult.  I had no problem getting my exercises in and making myself healthier meals because we didn't have to get up and go anywhere in the morning during the summer months.  I made myself egg white omelets with fresh ingredients and turkey bacon with fruit a lot.  I don't have that kind of time before we head for the bus stop on weekdays. I usually don't eat before we leave. 

The reason for this weight loss re-boot is that I finally got my cholesterol checked again and it went back up to 214.  The doctor wants me to get it back down under 200.  I don't need to go on medication.  Just need to change my diet and exercise.  So, I plan to do it!  It's kind of the kick in the pants I needed to get off my butt and make it work.  I have a hard time giving up my relaxing time in the evening after the kids go to bed but I'm going to give up an hour of it to go work out 5 days a week if I can.  I could work out in the morning before they get up but I need the sleep too much.  I have Hypo-Thyroid-ism which causes me have a slower metabolism and require more sleep than the average person.  Chris most nights comes to bed after I'm asleep and gets up before me and he's fine.  I fall asleep watching tv a lot.  It's not normal. Unfortunately, this disease also makes it a lot harder to lose weight.  I'm praying I can do it!

Chris and I had a talk about my joining a gym.  I wasn't sure how he'd feel about it because we own an elliptical.  I like it but there's no really going slow on that thing and I need to get my joints strong again.  I tore my meniscus in my right knee when Daniel was a baby and if I over-use my knees, they get really sore. I also tore some ligaments in my shoulders and have had tennis elbow in my right arm.  I'm contending with Plantar Fasciitis in my right foot right now too.  Every time I get up after sitting for any length of time, my foot hurts badly.  I'm doing exercises to help it heal but it's still sore for now.   Needless to say, the elliptical causes my body to hurt too quickly and I need to do more than 10 to 15 minutes of exercise.  I've started taking walks.  Its getting nicer outside so walking is doable and nice because I can get our dog, Konie out for a walk too.  After talking about it, Chris agreed to the gym.

I like the idea of joining the gym, not only for the exercise but for the chance to have some me-time away from the kids and to spend some time with my mom.  She is already a member at the gym so we can go together and keep each other going. :)

My total weight loss goal is 60 pounds.  I'm not aiming for that right now though.  I'm aiming at more attainable goals so I will stay motivated.  So, I'm aiming for 10 pounds, then 25.  At 25, my reward is getting another dog.  I've been bugging Chris for another dog for a year now and he kept saying no because we don't have the space in our car for another big dog.  He asked me if I wanted motivation for this weight loss.  I said YES!   He said, when  you lose X amount of weight, you can get a dog. We then discussed the amount and agreed on 25 pounds.  I think after that point, I will be addicted to working out and I'll keep going and maybe by this time next year, I'll be down the 60.  Here's hoping and praying I can keep it up and do it! 

I'm really excited and I think Chris having that idea to motivate me was the perfect plan.  I really really really want another dog - not just to have one but because I'm passionate about rescuing dogs that would otherwise end up euthanized.  Dogs that have been abused (like Konie was), just need a home and someone to love them.  I believe every dog deserves a family.  My boys also want another dog and I believe Kona has been lonely since we lost our other dog, Buddy.  He's been gone for 4 1/2 years.  I also had a cat for 18 years and she died a year ago.  I'm an animal lover through and through.  I need to love them!  I know that probably sounds funny to some of you but I've always been that mothering type.  ALWAYS. I've always needed to have a pet too.  I've only been without a furry pet for 2 years in my life and those were the worst 2 years!  We had fish.  Fish are NOT pets.  You cannot PET a fish therefore they are not PETS in my opinion.  HA!  This is just my opinion.  I would love to get another cat but both Chris and I are allergic to them.  I wasn't allergic to my cat for a long time but developed an allergy after we got married.  Weird but true. So, no more cats for us. 

Anyway, that is where I'm at right now.  Today is officially day 1.  I tried to start Saturday but things didn't work out that well.  We did eat a healthy dinner though and I got to go for a walk with Nathan and Konie but I ate cheeseburgers for lunch (I didn't have breakfast and we were out all morning and afternoon so it was a convenience and desperation thing!).  Yesterday, we had a big Sunday Dinner at my mom and dad's including spaghetti, ribs, 3 different kids of dessert, green beans and baked potatoes.  It was delicious and I tried not to eat too much but I did anyway.  So, it begins today.  So far, I've had coffee.  That's it.  I'm hoping Mom will go with me to the gym tonight. 

Prayers for me and my journey would be awesome!  I mostly want to get healthy so I can be around a long time for my kids and just so I can feel better in my body and about my body.  Thanks for reading!

School Lunches

Some of you that read my blog are friends of mine on Facebook and you know that I have been looking for new ideas for Daniel's lunch that he takes to school.  He was taking a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with 2 fruit/vegetable snacks, and a dessert.  He recently asked me: "Mom, why do you always pack peanut butter and jelly for me?"  and I replied "Because that is what you told me you wanted."  This short conversation started a whole big search for school lunch ideas and my asking friends on Facebook what kinds of things they pack for their kids.  I got a few ideas from friends but mostly, I found some sites through Pinterest that offered up many suggestions for school lunches.  A LOT of them included a bento box of some sort.  So, I started looking for something like that.  I found these boxes made by a mom for packing lunches called Easy Lunchboxes from www.easylunchboxes.com   .  I am in love with these boxes! They have made packing lunches for him a breeze.  This is a short week of school this week - only Monday through Wednesday but I got his lunch packed for all three days last night.  I didn't get a picture of today's lunch (SORRY).  I did get the tomorrow and Wednesday's lunches though.  I love how easy they are to use.  Here is tomorrow's lunch:

He has a morning snack - the fruit, an afternoon snack - the celery (or vice-versa),  a Dole Fruit Squish 'ems apple sauce, goldfish crackers, a roast beef and cheese roll-up sandwich, a fun sized Hershey bar for dessert and a Capri-Sun Super V juice box.  The goldfish crackers are in one of their little containers that you can get - they come in a pack of 8 for $7.95 called Mini Dippers and the large containers come in packs of 4 in all different colors for $13.95.  I bought 2 sets of 4 in the 2 color collections and 1 set of the mini dippers.  They are great! They are not leak-proof (the mini dippers are though) so don't put loose yogurt in them unless you get their cooler bag they sell to put them in and that will keep them upright.  Daniel has a pottery barn lunch box and it stands up in his back pack so I won't be putting a yogurt parfait in there but for something like the above lunch - PERFECT and yes a sandwich does fit!

Here is a view of it closed up:

Daniel's favorite color is purple so we used that one first. 

Here is Wednesday's lunch:

For Wednesday, he's getting a ham and cheese roll up, mixed berries for snack, celery for snack, a frozen Go-gurt that should be thawed by lunch time, goldfish crackers, a Meijer Naturals fruit twist and 3 York Peppermint Patty minis along with his juice box.  He gets plenty to eat this way and he can open it by himself which is great! 

I'm kind of obsessed with these boxes.  I'm a dork, I know.  I can't explain it but the organization of it, just makes me happy!  I love having things organized.  LOVE it!  Being able to get all of his lunches done for the week Sunday night makes me happy and relaxed because I'm not having to do it every night anymore. 

We can also use them for our road trips to visit Chris's family that live out of state.  I can pack a lunch for each person and pull it out of the cooler and each person has their meal all neatly packed.  It almost makes me excited for the next 9 hour drive! LOL  We can use these for picnics over  the summer or if we have someone that doesn't like having their foods touch.  Chris can also use these for work and then in the fall, I can use them to pack lunches for Daniel and Nathan who will be taking his lunch 4 days a week too.  YAY!  They also stack nicely.  Here are the above 2 stacked in my fridge (please disregard the burnt out light bulb!).

My mom expressed concern with things not staying fresh being packed in there all week.  I found that the berries kept better in these containers that in their original packaging and everything else kept great too!   I just wanted to share my latest find with you!  Hope you enjoyed!

First Tooth Loss!

No, I didn't lose a tooth but my big boy son, Daniel did!  Friday night, 10 minutes after his dad left to go out with his friends, he came running out of his bedroom with his tooth in his hand.  "Mommy!  My tooth came out!!" 

Daniel just turned 6 in February.  He's in Kindergarten.  A lot of his friends have already lost some of their teeth.  This was making me wonder why he hadn't lost one yet.  One his top front teeth has been a little bit loose for a while now but hasn't gotten much looser since I noticed it was loose a couple weeks ago.  Tuesday, Daniel was playing outside on recess.  It was a nice day - meaning not snowing or raining and the sun was out.  While playing outside on his first recess, he fell off of the play scape and hit his mouth on a bar on the way down to the ground.  The school called me and told me what happened and that Daniel was OK and went back to class but that I might want to check on his teeth.  Sure enough, his bottom 2 front teeth were super loose!  One was downright crooked.  It made me think that he would lose that one at any minute.  So, when he came out and showed me it was the other tooth, I was surprised.  That crooked one's roots are still holding on! 

You can see how crooked the remaining tooth is after his fall and the spot where the other tooth was. 

He was very excited to come out and show me his tooth.  He asked me to take a picture and send it to Daddy.  We did and then we called his grandparents (both sets) so he could tell them himself.  Everyone was very excited for him.  :)  Of course, the Tooth Fairy came and brought him a prize too! The following night, we had a new babysitter coming to watch the boys for us so we could go to a wine tasting fundraiser.  She is the daughter of Nathan's preschool teacher (she was also Daniel's teacher too) - Mrs. Sweet.  We have a magnetic calendar in the hallway for them to look at and we have a magnet for lost a tooth so I put it on Friday for him to see.  When Mrs. Sweet and Danielle came over for Danielle to babysit, he had to take Mrs.Sweet and show her the magnet on the calendar.  He's very proud!

I can't believe we are at that stage already.  Time really does fly by.  I still remember back when we were trying so hard to have our first child and how excited I was when we finally conceived Daniel.  Now, he's 6 and such a big boy.  I'm so proud of him and the great person he's becoming.  Love him to pieces!  Thanks for reading :)

Thank You Notes for a Teacher

Today, I'm sharing the thank you notes I made for my friend Tabatha Whittaker who is a teacher in Tennessee.  She asked me to make 20 for her.  I came up with 6 different cards.  She chose 3 of them.  Here the lucky 3 she chose:

These are small 3X3 note card thank you's for her to send her students for little gifts they give her (at least this is the impression I got from her.. LOL) I used a stamp set I bought a while ago for scrapbooking the kids' school years.  It's called Recess.(All products used are Stampin' Up!) I used one other set called Sprinkled Expressions for the "thanks" sentiment.  The card stock used on the one with the girl is Whisper White, Pretty in Pink, and Melon Mambo.  I used my chevron embossing  folder to give the light pink layer some texture and then punched out a large scalloped circle in the melon mambo and added some doodle dots with my white gel pen.  I used Stampin' Up markers to color the image and black Staz-On to stamp the image.  The image is on a 2 1/2" circle punch.  The "thanks" is stamped in melon mambo and cut out, attached with a silver mini brad. I used dimensionals to give it dimension (haha!  I'm so clever right?)

For the boy versions, I used Whisper White again for the card bases, Real Red and Midnight Muse card stock.  Same gel pen with the doodle dots. The inks used were Real Red and Midnight Muse for the "thanks sentiments".  The images again were stamped in black Staz-On ink and I used the same mini brads to attach the little flags.  I used the stripes and woodgrain embossing folders for their color layers. 

Ok... enough of the run down...  I think these cards came out pretty cute and I think I just MIGHT make more of them for Nathan's preschool teacher as a thank you gift for her and I also just MIGHT make some to sell in my Etsy store.  I will share a link to my etsy store as soon as I get it up and running!  In case you were wondering what the "rejected" samples were, I'll share those too.  I think I might make some of these to sell too.  I think they are cute and would be cute for kids to give their friends and also for some adults to send for a little thank you note.    Here they are!

 I thought this would be cute to give a girl.  It's certainly cute for a kid and fun with the "thank you, human" sentiment!  I used a set called Best Bots Forever for these 2 cards.  I also added some bling with the rhinestone... what girl doesn't like a bit of sparkle?  The girl card is all Whisper White and Melon Mambo.

 The boy robot card is in Whisper White and Midnight Muse (one of my new favorite Stampin' Up colors!)  I used the Word Window punch for the sentiment for this one because this robot turned out a lot taller than the girl one... had to improvise and I like how it turned out.  :)  Somtimes an oops turns into a great thing, I think!  The background embossing folder is the honeycomb - another new favorite of mine!

This one is super cute for anyone!  Whisper White and Midnight Muse with a touch of Tangerine Tango card stock on the flower.  The inks used were Pool Party and Old Olive.  I also used that pesky white gel pen again and a rhinestone for some of that sparkle again.  The embossing folder used on this is a new one that is available as a freebee in the Sale-a-bration catalog. If you spend $50, you can get it free!  It's called Vine Street and it coordinates awesomely with the Sycamore Street Designer Series Paper, ribbon and buttons.  The paper and the ribbons and buttons are all available as sale-a-bration items for free.  YAY!  If anyone is intersted in any of these items to make your own cards, you can leave a comment.  If you'd like to order anything you've seen, leave a comment... or you can wait for the etsy store to be up!I can and will do custom orders for anyone too!  Thanks for reading!!!

My New Recipe Compilation

Hi friends!  It's been a while since I last posted on here.  Sorry about that!  I've been keeping busy with the kids, the house, the activities, working on starting an etsy shop and my new love- cooking.  I used to absolutely HATE cooking.  I dreaded making dinner and I used to make Chris do most of it.  He enjoyed cooking all along and he's a great cook.  He's more of the experimental type of cook where I am all about the recipe.  That is why I always loved baking - there's no guesswork or estimating.  There are absolute rules about how much vanilla extract or baking powder to use.

I joined Pinterest a while ago and started pinning recipe ideas on a few different boards.  That made me start thinking about cooking some of those recipes.  There were a lot of them piling up in there.  The main thing I always dreaded about making dinner every night was that I never had a plan and I would stress about it all day until I figured something out.  UGH - not fun!  So, I decided to start making a weekly menu.  I choose 6 or 7 recipes for dinners for the week, figure out what we don't already have and then make a list, send Chris shopping (hee hee!) and then I'm prepared for the week.  We can choose which thing we want for that night and then I'm set to go.  This method of planning has worked out GREAT for us.  We also don't buy too much fresh ingredients that often anymore and things don't go bad as much.  Another win! 

I compiled quite the list of recipes on pinterest and decided I should print them out so that I don't have to have my computer in the kitchen with me all the time when I cook.  For Christmas, I got an amazon.com gift certificate from my in-laws so I decided to use it toward making my own recipe compilation of my favorite things to make.  Recipes we really like make it into the book.  I just got this stuff a couple weeks ago because it took me a long time to decide on the book and style I liked best.    Here is the one I chose:

It's called the: "Create Your Own Collected Recipes Cookbook - Turquoise & Gray"  It comes in other colors but I have turquoise in my house and it's one of my favorite colors. :)   I liked that it came with the dividers and that I could choose the labels for the tabs that I wanted to use and there were some that were blank for custom sections.  I had to purchase the page protectors separately but that's ok.  I can get more if/ when I outgrow the initial 2 packages I bought.  I like using the page protectors because they are wipe-able if something spills or splatters on them!  Here's a shot of a few of the tabs:

 

Building this book has been a decently long process and it's still ongoing.  I find new recipes to add to it a lot.  I wanted to find a cool font to use in it so I did a few searches for free fonts and found some really cute ones.  I ended up going with one called KG Strawberry Limeade.  It's got some cute curls and it's fun but still easy to read for me.  I copied some of the recipes straight from the internet and when I pasted them I had the program change them into my format so it was quite easy.  I'm sorry these pictures aren't the best but here's a sample:

  

 I also like having the freedom of being able to spread a recipe over 2 pages and not having to cram into a small space like I was trying to do with another program I have.  I like this too because I can just keep adding more until the book is full.    The above recipe is one I have made a few times by the Pioneer Woman - Ree Drummond.  I've kind of become obsessed with her cooking.  I even bought her cook book with that amazon.com gift certificate too! 

Here's the recipe I made for dinner last night.  Sorry the picture quality isn't great!  It's Chicken Cordon Bleu Roll-Ups.  I like the pattern on the dividers too.  Cute stock pots, right? 

Over all, I'm super excited about this recipe book and the convenience it will provide me in finding favorites and having them within arms reach.  Chris is pretty psyched about it too and wants me to put some of his favorites in there as well. 

This morning, I found a new recipe on Pinterest on my Breakfast recipe board called Bacon Egg and Cheese Breakfast Ring.  Here is the link to it if you'd like to try it:
http://www.navywifecook.com/2012/01/bacon-egg-and-cheese-ring.html

Here are some pictures of it.  It came out pretty awesome!

Above:  Just out of the oven.

 A cross-section view

 And my lovely (yet slightly blurry (SORRY)) paper plate with yummy breakfast goodness on it.  mmmMMmm  This was a great recipe and not hard to make at all.  I think total it took me about half an hour to make it and that included cooking the eggs and bacon, shredding cheese and baking it for 16 minutes.  Not bad!  We happened to have all of  the ingredients for it and I was hungry so I decided to go for it.  It paid off!  Thanks for reading and happy cooking!!!

Bullying

About 2 weeks or so ago, Daniel got off the bus upset.  He didn't say anything but I could tell something was wrong.  I tried to cheer him up and told him we were going to his Dika's (Grandma) to get his hair cut.  He was really in need of a hair cut. He didn't cheer up at all. When we got to my mom's for the hair cuts, he still seemed down so I asked him how school was and he said it wasn't good.  He didn't want to elaborate though.  I had to pry it out of him and he told me what happened. First, a boy from his class poked him in his mouth with the pointy end of a stick.  The teacher talked to that boy and everything was fine there but on the playground, Daniel was playing on the play scape bridge and a boy came up and pushed him from behind causing Daniel to flip over the side and fall, landing on the top of his head.  I was outraged that no one would call me when he fell on the top of his head like that. Apparently, no one saw this. He didn't tell anyone either.  I was very upset and concerned for him and poor Daniel was crying about it for a while that evening because he was scared to go to school the next day.  I emailed his teacher and she said she wasn't aware of it and would bring up at the staff meeting that morning that that area needs to be watched more closely and that she would have Daniel show her who the boy was that pushed him so he could be dealt with.  I couldn't believe that my son, only 3 weeks into Kindergarten, could be going through his first bullying experience.  After talking about this with a friend, she made me realize that it probably seemed very deliberate to Daniel and by all means scared him but that boy probably didn't hurt him on purpose.  It was probably an accident but the boy didn't know he knocked Daniel down... he was probably just pushing him out of his way while he was running across the bridge.  Never the less, the boy should be talked to about the proper way to play.

I received a lot of feedback about this topic on Facebook.  Many friends said I should speak with the boys' parents.  Some said I should march into the principle's office and demand something be done, etc, etc...  I chose to talk to his teacher (via email and in person) and ask her to keep an eye on Daniel to make sure nothing like this happens again.  I chose not to go in to the principle's office this time because his teacher told me she would handle it.  I trust that she will. This was a one time thing as of this point.  The boy that poked him in the mouth was  from his class.  Daniel came home a couple days later with a card from him  that said "I'm sorry Daniel".  That was really nice of him to do that. (I'm sure his mother made him though,  ha ha)  The boy that pushed him was a first grader that Daniel didn't know.

This whole thing really hit home for me because I was bullied as a child too.  Although mine wasn't physical bullying, it made me dread going to school too so I completely understood how Daniel was feeling.  I had low self esteem for a very long time because of my bullying experiences.  Kids can really be very mean.  I really hope and pray that we can be the generation that teaches our kids NOT to be that way.

One thing I realized as I was going through how bad I felt for Daniel and how upset he was, was that the boy that bullied him (if he was intentionally bullying him) is probably being bullied at home or by someone else in his life.  He needs to be shown love and acceptance to encourage him to stop being a bully.  So, I plan to build Daniel up as much as we can and tell him what an amazing kid he is and not to worry about bullies. They only do that stuff to try to make themselves look or feel better because they don't feel good about themselves.  So, in closing, I pray for those bullies that someone will love them and show them acceptance, build them up and make them feel worth while so the bullying will stop.

Thanks for reading. Comments are appreciated.