Going down

Another week and another pound gone.

I am officially down FIFTEEN pounds from when I started blogging.

That means I am down 35 pounds total from last April.

I would love to be down 50 by this April.

We are moving in 4 weeks and life is about to get crazy so I must stay focused!

Nine weeks to lose fifteen more pounds.

You know that yoplait commercial that talks about making one good decision leads to another.

I can totally relate this week.

I find that if I make on bad decision...

(example: eat mac and cheese with my daughter for dinner)

I then tend to just blow the entire evening because I already failed right?

Or at least that is my rational.

I then ate a huge hunk of cheese and a piece of chocolate and ritz crackers etc.  AHHH!

One bad decision leads to many in my case.

I need to change my thinking that if I cheat a little I can still redeem myself.

And just to update you on my coffee vs. working out motivator.

I totally cheated. 

I hate to say but yes I am a cheater.

I worked out ONCE this week and it was so lame. 

I drank coffee three days this week. 

I HAD to people.

Love Letters for Sarah

Watch out Very Bradley here I come.

Okay not quite. 

But I am getting the hang of this sewing thing.

My beautiful niece Sarah is turning fourteen four in just a few weeks and I am helping with her tea party.

To practice some sewing skills I decided to try to make these cute little love letter wristlets.

Tutorial Here.  I did make mine just a bit smaller since it was for little ones.

They are intended to look like envelopes.

Perfect for a bunch of toddlers to stuff full of chap stick, jewelry & more.

Each one is a little different and way cuter than regular plastic favor bags plus just as inexpensive.

They cost just under a $1 a piece to make.

My mother-in-law had just given me a huge tin full of her mother-in-laws buttons.

I spent hours having fun sorting through the buttons and organizing them.

I had so much fun imagining what Grandma Elle was planning to do with all the buttons. 

Some were so elegant and beautiful and must have come off something special.

I thought they would be perfect for a closure on the envelopes.

I am now wondering if the girls are going to be able to get them open. 

Uh Oh!

So then I decided to make a regular little pouch with a zipper.

I may have to make a few more of these for the little gals that won't be able to do the buttons.

More time at the sewing machine.

Too bad.  :)

Stalled

I have stalled in more ways than one this week.

My SUV decided to break down on me and fittingly I only lost 0.6lbs. this week.

Both made me sad and one fix cost me over $400.

If only I could pay $400 to someone to fix the other issue I would be all too happy!

But it is not that easy.

I have to fix this breakdown myself.

I tried motivating myself with coffee last week and it did not really work.

Instead of taking up working out I almost gave up coffee.

Well not totally true.

I walked around the mall one day with my sister-in-law and our kiddos.

However, she is only 2 weeks post c-section and I was distracted by all the store sales so I am not really sure how many calories I burned. 

Plus I rewarded myself with a grande fat free white chocolate mocha from Starbucks.

I also shoveled the driveway half the driveway on Saturday with my three year old.

Because she is three and would not keep her gloves on we only lasted about 25 minutes.

But once again I allowed myself one cup of coffee for my efforts.

Not exactly a successful week of workouts but I guess it is a start.

I will continue that challenge this week and see if I can do better.

Squashed It

This evening we had spaghetti squash for dinner and it was so delicious. 

I often forget about this little squash that was first introduced to me by my good friend Abby.

However, my mom is looking for some glutten free and healthy options in her diet too so I told her I would make this.  She had NEVER made or had spaghetti squash before.

For you first timers out there:

It looks a bit like spaghetti but does not have the same texture.

It is a bit firmer and has a very mild taste.

It is however a great substitution, a great way to get more vegetable in your diet, and my three year old had no idea I switched it out.

How To:

Cut squash in half lengthwise.  Scoop out all the seeds and mush from the center.  Bake at 350 for 45 minutes to an hour until tender. 

Remove from oven and allow them to cool enough you can handle the halves.  Then using a fork shred/scrap the inside of the squash into a bowl.

 

This is where it will start to resemble spaghetti.  Keep scrapping until you reach the rind.

Top with a little butter & Parmesan and enjoy. 

Or do like me and add meatballs and marina to your "spaghetti" to fool the kids.

I served mine with meatballs to die for, ciabatta bread smothered in pesto then baked until nice and crispy, fresh strawberries & a yummy salad.

The meatballs were made from whatever I could find in the fridge and this is what I had and what I did:

In large bowl combine:

1 lb. extra lean ground beef

20 pepperonis-chopped

3 slices of provolone cheese-chopped

1/2 large onion-small dice

2 eggs

1 & 1/2 cups Italian bread crumbs

3 Tb. milled flax seed

1 Tb. Italian seasoning

Salt & Pepper

Mix ingredients with your hands.  Add in 1/4 cup water at a time until moist enough to hold together and roll into golf ball size balls.  I added a little over a cup of water.

Brown meatballs in a skillet with olive oil until nice and brown.  They will fall apart just a bit.

After they are nice and brown remove and put on a paper towel to drain excess oil.

Dump oil out of skillet and put in pasta sauce.

Put all the meatballs back in.  This time settled nicely in pasta sauce.

Simmer on low to cook thoroughly.  About 15-20 minutes.  I suggest you cover it unless you want a splattered stove to clean up afterward.

It was a very random mix of ingredients but really they were the best meatballs I have ever made.  One of the better dinners I have made in a while.

It has made me decide that it is time for kitchen clean out again.

I do this a few times a year when the fridge and pantry get overloaded with items.

I refuse to go to the grocery until all the produce (fresh and frozen) as well as protein is gone. 

So the next few post will be fun ones.  A hodge podge of meals thrown together with whatever I can find.

Wish me luck!

3 is the new 2

In December our little mermaid turned 3 and she had to have an Ariel themed party.

I normally go WAY overboard when it comes to parties, themes and decorations.

However, since we were having the party at my in-laws' house I kept things simple and just did Little Mermaid themed desserts.

 Ariel sitting on a sand hill in the sea. 

Thank goodness my mother-in-law is such a wiz with a piping bag. 

She did an amazing job piping on Ariel's tail.

I made all the shells and fish with a mold and some melting chocolate from the craft store.

The sand hill is a cake covered in frosting then graham cracker crumbs.

 Oyster cookies were premade cookies filled with pink frosting and a yogurt covered raisin to look like oysters full of pearls.

The sushi was delicious and perfect for toddlers.

Sushi Rice=Rice Krispy Treats

Fish=Gummi Sweedish Fish

Seaweed=Green Fruit Rollups

 

 There was an abundance of princess barbies. 

 Perfect for our little princess.

Smooth Move

My family LOVES smoothies.

For breakfast, lunch, afternoon snack and for dessert after dinner.

So it was time I found a way to make a smoothie at home

fast, easy & healthy.

I decided to preportion them out so I can throw them in the blender without any measuring or fuss.

I purchased a large container of greek yogurt.

If you have not jumped on the greek yogurt band wagon yet you MUST.

The benefits of greek yogurt over normal yogurt are amazing  It is a bit pricey so buy it with coupons when it is on sale and you are going to freeze it so load up.

Next ingredient was fruit.

I bought two large bags of frozen fruit when it was on sale at the super market.

For those of you who think fresh fruit would be a better check out eatingwell.com.

They explain how frozen is just as healthy and just as nutrient rich (if not more) plus way cheaper.

The third and final ingredient is juice.

Here is where you can get creative.

For the first batch I mixed strawberries, bananas & orange juice.

The second batch was blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries & Naked Green Machine  juice.

I found this juice at Starbucks and it was so yummy and full of so many good things I decided to put it in my smoothies. 

If I had a juicer I would try to make my own juices to mix in my smoothies but until then (hopefully my birthday hint hint) I will use Naked juices.

To measure and freeze everything I used my old baby food containers.

(I told you Dave it would come in handy keeping all these instead of throwing them out)

Each container holds about 3oz.

So for a 6oz smoothie I can mix one yogurt container and one fruit container.

To make them a little smoother you may want to add a little more juice or milk when blending.

The fruit cups would also make great mixers for adult drinks with just a shot of pineapple rum and some ice added in the blender.

Men's Shirt to Girl's Dress

My 23 year old brother was moving last month and cleaned out his closet. 

In the process he gave me over a dozen polo and button down shirts. 

I was so excited to try to turn them into something fun. 

Inspired by a pin by my girlfriend Abby on pinterest of course.

Then Children's Place here in town was going out of business so EVERYTHING in the entire store was $4.99 or less.

So I loaded up on t-shirts, tanks, and long sleeve shirts to "play" with. 

I took a simple tank shirt with a little embelishment on top and attached the bottom half of a man's button up shirt.

I added cute little cap sleeves.

Put a ruffle around the middle for fun.

And for a finishing touch I changed out the buttons to fun flowers and butterflies.

It was not until I was finished that my niece pointed out that it looked like Snow White's dress. 

Which made her love it even more.

My beautiful niece Sassy posing in her new dress for me. 

I did not ask her to pose like this. 

She did it all on her own. 

Now you understand the nickname.

It was lots of fun to make and a fun way to continue practicing my sewing skills.

Funday

Yesterday was Monday and yes I did remember to weigh in. 

This week I am...

(drum roll please)

...down another pound!

That brings my total to 13.2 lbs.

I have decided to set some short term goals to help motivate me.

My next goal is 20lbs total. 

If I hit my goal I am going to cut my hair.

BLUNT bangs. 

Like Zoey bangs.

I love them but they look terrible on my round face.

So they are going to be my reward when I hit my 20 lb. goal.

To hit that goal I know I am going to have to start exercising.  And to me exercising is a four letter word.  My weight loss has slowed dramatically and it is just a matter of time before I have a week when I start gaining.  Yet, I have not been able to motivate myself to work out yet.  I went out and bought Jillian Michael's DVD and kettle bells but still no motivation.  To get motivated last Monday I decided that I was not going to allow myself to drink coffee unless I worked out first.  If you know me you know I NEED coffee to function.  When my husband was recently in Florida for a week golfing and lounging without me leaving me at home to care for our children alone (that rant is for another day) I was going to Starbucks almost every day and sometimes making it a triple shot.  After that week I knew I had to cut back or find another way to wake up in the mornings. 

Getting yelled at by Jillian and getting my cardio going will wake me up.  However, I am sad and dissapointed to admit that I have yet to work out still this week.  I did keep to my deal so I have also not had any coffee this week.  NOT A DROP!  It has been terrible.  But I am determined to keep to this deal.    

Weight off my Shoulders

It's Monday.

Weigh in day.

I am back down 12.2 pounds total. 

At first I was a bit disappointed that I am only down 12.2 after all this work so I decided to put it into perspective. 

This is a 5 pound bag of potatoes.  I have lost 2.5 of these. 

I imagine what I would look like if I took all those potatoes and stuffed them into my clothing in various parts of my body.

I think about carrying 2.5 of these around all day with me and how miserable that would be.

I excited I am no longer carrying 12.2 pounds or stuffing that extra weight into my clothes!

Did I mention I am also down a jean size?  I almost cried in the dressing room at Nordstrom Rack when I had to go get a smaller size.  I am not sure that has ever happened for me.

Upgrading to Chrissy 2.0

Everyone is constantly telling me I need to upgrade. 

I am told to upgrade my cell phone, upgrade my cable, upgrade my TV to 3D, upgrade my car to more fuel efficient, and upgrade my style. 

This year I am upgrading myself. 

I am going to upgrade my insides and my outs.

In NO particular order I am going to be able to call myself the following this year...

Skinny 

No not model skinny but me skinny.  I want to be able to wear skinny jeans and be happy.  I want to wear a cute dress without spanx under it.  I want to feel good about my weight.  I am not sure what that number is yet I just know how I want to feel and I want to feel skinny.

Healthy 

I will force myself love to eat at least one whole serving of a vegetable a day.  Yes, I am starting with one because there are too many days I eat none.  The only meal I even cook veggies for is dinner.  (slim fast for breakfast and lunch)  When dinner comes around I want carbs and meat.  I always cook a veggie but usually a potato of sorts or corn, peas or green beans.  I want to love peppers and brussel sprouts and asparagus and broccoli.  So this year I will force myself to eat my veggies first instead of leaving them on the plate.  Eventually I will learn to love them.  Now I know that just eating one vegetable a day will not make me healthy, but it is a start.

Faithful

I want to crave Jesus like I crave chocolate. 

I want to ache for him.  I want to think about him morning, noon and night.  I want to lay in bed and dream about him.  I want to devour him!  Like chocolate Jesus goes with everything and makes everything better.  So why do I ever go without?  Why don't I put him on everything? 
I read People magazine and check celebrity websites daily.  For some reason I want to know what Jennifer Aniston is wearing, what Jessica Simpson is eating or what Brad Pitt is doing.  Why don't I feel the same way about God?  I have believed in God as long as I can remember.  I have never had a period where I questioned my faith or where I would end up after this life ends.  Yet, I have never felt that I have a close personal relationship with Christ.  And sadly I have never really desired one.  I have been content hearing about him from my pastor or praying to him at meal times, bed times or times of trouble.  But I want to want to know him.  I want to desire to learn more about him.  I want a better relationship with Jesus.  And not just for me...but for my daughters too.  I want to set an example.  I want to pick up my bible while lounging by the pool instead of a trashy magazine.

Outgoing

I want to be one of those people that when strangers meet them and walk away they think "wow she is really nice."  But too often I don't give strangers a chance.  I judge others too quickly.  I have a wonderful group of friends and somehow think I do not need anymore.  Like my friend jar is full.  Why do I think like that?  I need to get a bigger jar!  I want room for more friends. 
Instead of being nervous because I have not seen them in ages or cannot remember their kids' names or won't know what to say I will walk up and just say hello.  I will send thoughtful notes via email, snail mail, text and facebook.  I want lots of jars FULL of friends!

Quiet

I know this sounds totally contradictory to the previous post.  But I want to learn to be quiet and just listen.  I want to be able to have a conversation with someone without interrupting to give them advice or give them my expert opinion or finish their sentence.  I want to learn how to show others I care and I am listening without saying a word.  Is that possible?

Wrong

Okay, I know that may be weird but I want to be able to say "I am wrong"...and not because I am being forced to.  I want to feel okay with being wrong.  I know it will make me a better mother, wife, daughter, sister, friend etc.  I am bullheaded and stubborn and bully people into believing whatever I am saying.  (some people more easily than others)  I HATE that about myself.  I want to sit back and be wrong and be okay with it.  I want to be able to learn things from other people when I am wrong about something instead of constantly defending my mistakes.  This may be my greatest challenge this year.

A Homeowner
Enough said!

Looking forward to another amazing year.