Ramblings

Both of my kids slept all through the night last night, both in their own beds.  It doesn’t happen often so when it does, I have to acknowledge it.  I wish it would be this way every night but not yet.  One day…it will.  I believe it. 

Our screened in porch is coming along.  I am so excited to have this project completed.  It has been almost a year since we moved in (November) and I’ve been patiently waiting for it to happen.  It’s probably half way there now.  And what’s even better is it is just in time for fall.  I feel the days getting cooler and the evenings are great.  Soon I can go outside and sit without worrying about mosquitos and other random bugs attacking me.  I think I’m a bug magnet.  I hate bugs.

I’m slowly working through my house trying to get it clean and clutter free.  I’m also working on the smaller details that I haven’t had time to address since we moved in.  Mostly decorating details which I am not so great at.  I am not very creative so I am searching the internet and pinterest for ideas on each room I’m working in.  There are so many things I want to do or re-do, but I’m taking my time.  It’s the only way to go when you have two young kids who demand your attention if they are awake. 

Weight Watchers is going great.  As of Monday, I was down around 12 pounds.  Still love it.  Still scouring the internet for blogs and other websites for recipes I can use.   My mom is also doing the plan now.  She’s been on it about three weeks now.  She’s not getting as much weight off as she wanted, but she’s not going up on the scale either.

We’re taking Lyla to her first college football game this weekend.  It’s at both mine and Corey’s alma mater which is North Carolina State University.  It should be awesome!  She’s done great at sporting events over the past year.  Britt will be staying with Grandma and Grandpa.  He is not quite ready.  But one day soon.  Oh yeah!

I can’t believe it is almost fall.  Summer has flown by.  I’m not a fan of summer and the heat but I don’t want life flying by so quickly.  Anyway, I’ll definitely be enjoying fall since that’s one of my favorite seasons.  I have that brand new screened porch to enjoy along with all the fall festivals and hay rides that are available.  I would love to get to the mountains this fall.  What a beautiful place North Carolina has to experience.  I would love to take the kids to Tweetsie Railroad and Grandfather Mountain.  It might have to wait one more year but I haven’t ruled it out yet.  So much to do.  I love it!

Still going strong!

I have been doing Weight Watchers for about 7 weeks now and I am down, as of this morning, ten pounds.  Woo hoo!  I got a little slack about posting my progress but after my last post I thought I would be up instead of down.  Turns out I was still down that week.  Things are going great!  For the most part, things are pretty easy.  This past weekend I went to the beach and tried to be good.  Saturday night I had some yummy pasta my friend made and I didn't count the points for that.  It would have been impossible to figure out.  But I was down on Monday anyway.  Awesome! 

I'm constantly looking online for recipes for me to add to my collection.  It is so hard with my limited choices to find something to eat.  I seem to eat the same things over and over.  The one thing in life I can not and will not live without is peanut butter.  My all time favorite food is peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  Peanut butter contains quite a bit of fat, even though it's the healthy fat, but still contains quite a few points.  I discovered a wonderful peanut butter from another blog, pbfingers.com (Imagine that), and immediately ordered it.  For two tablespoons it is only one point.  And even better I found a store locally that sells it.  The first batch I bought online from the website (bellplantation.com) but now that I have found it locally I don't have to pay shipping.  Score! 

With this wonderful discovery, I'm eating peanut butter everyday.  Yep.  It's the one food I do not get tired of.  Some days I eat it for breakfast and lunch, other days, just lunch. 

Recently I also discovered another peanut butter called "Better'n Peanut Butter" that is sold at Trader Joe's.  Luckily there is a Trader Joe's near by.  It's 2 points + for two table spoons.  Still not bad.  Not bad at all!

Most of the time I eat the same thing each day for breakfast and lunch, with small variations.  But supper time is when I change it up and try to find new things to eat.  I have a few options I haven't tried yet but are on my list.  They involve huge portabella mushroom caps.  I'm loving me some mushrooms lately. 

I'm feeling really good about myself, with losing these 10 pounds and I am still highly motivated to keep going.  My mother has gotten on board now too.  She's having success and we're enjoying doing this together. 

Just Isn't Happening...

Well, this week isn't turning into the best week for dieting.  I ended last week at the beach, Saturday through Monday.  I splurged a bit while at the beach.  I was not able to weigh in on Monday but I did weigh on Tuesday just to see how much damage I had done.  I was surprised to see I was only up 1.5 pounds.

Wednesday night we went out to dinner with friends in honor of my best friend's birthday.  She picked Olive Garden which I was thrilled to go to.  I L-O-V-E that place!  I felt like a kid pulling up at Chuck E Cheese last night when we got to the restaurant.  I think a little giggle slipped out too, from giddiness.  I know the dish I usually eat, fettuccine Alfredo, is extremely high in points.  In fact, most everything there is high in points.  I ended up going with the lasagna which was the lowest points dish I could find that I could/would eat.  However, I also indulged in an appetizer, the salad, quite a few bread sticks, and then proceeded to eat all of my lasagna.  Nope, I did not weigh this morning.  I didn't even want to see how much damage I had done with that meal.  No way! 

Today, my best friend I mentioned above, delivered twin babies.  I am so excited to go meet them this evening and see her too.  We decided that we would be going to Pizza Inn for supper and I totally plan to eat that yummy pizza.  I will not over do it but I will enjoy it! 

So basically this week is a bust.  I still plan to do my points through the weekend but I do NOT expect to see any loss on the scale Monday when I weigh.  I will start anew on Monday and will also begin my exercise regimen.  I did actually get on the treadmill Tuesday evening.  Yay me.  Now just to create a routine and consistency for it.

Best Laid Plans

Yesterday I finally decided it was time.  I’ve been on the Weight Watchers diet for two weeks now and have lost a few pounds.  I’ve had motivation to begin exercising but I just haven’t made that commitment to actually do it and hopefully stick with it.  Until yesterday. 

I made the decision to get up this morning and start the c25k over at day one. ( I have done day one twice, so this would make me starting for a third time)  I had myself all psyched up for exercising this morning.  I laid out my work out clothes last night and even went to bed about 30 minutes earlier than usual knowing I would be getting up earlier.  Our alarm starts going off around 4:50 so I would get one snooze in before I got up at 5:00. 

Well let’s go back to around 12:30 am.  I wake up to something lying up next to me.  It’s Lyla.  She gets in our bed at some point quite a few nights during the week.  I usually get up and put her back in her bed, which I did.  A little later, I remember hearing those feet coming down the hall again.  This is also not unusual.  Once she fell back to sleep, I put her back in her bed.  I knew I was going to begin my work out this morning so I wanted her in her own bed so the treadmill wouldn’t wake her up.  The treadmill is in our bedroom.  She did stay in her bed the rest of the night, so that issue was solved.

At 3:50, I hear Britt stirring.  He’s ready for his usual snack/early breakfast.  I knew this would probably happen so I wasn’t surprised.  I hoped he would nurse and go right back to sleep which is what he usually does.  For whatever reason, he fought going back to sleep, and fussed and wiggled in my lap.  I decided to change his diaper since I noticed it was pretty full.  That just ticked him off to the point of non-stop crying.  Then I calmed him down and decided to lay him in our bed to see if he would fall asleep.  He wiggled and tossed and turned and sat up and crawled around.  He finally got still and all of a sudden the stinking alarm went off.  He jumped up startled and I realized it was already 4:50.  *sigh*

I got up and went back to the living room and rocked him in the recliner until he fell asleep.  It was 5:15 at this point.  I decided it was too late to start my work out because by the time I got my clothes on and treadmill ready, etc. etc., that I would be late getting ready and getting to work.  Plus be a bit tired from being up half the night!

So….tomorrow I shall try again.  I still have the motivation.  I love the feeling I have after the workout, of accomplishment, of knowing you’re taking that step towards being healthy and losing weight.  And whatever that feeling (hormone?) is you get from the actual exercise.  Love it. 

So far so good..

I just completed week two on the Weight Watchers diet, ahem, lifestyle change.  Things are going great.  I've lost 5 pounds in two weeks.  That's a bit more than the plan wants me to lose in this time frame but I'm sure it will balance out over time.  I like seeing the progress I'm making and I can tell I'm not as hungry between meals on most days.  I'm snacking less between meals, but I do want my supper earlier in the day.  My big test will be this coming weekend when we spend a few days at the beach.  I believe we're planning to eat in most of the time so that should help some.  Going out to eat is a bit more difficult for me to find something that works with my points but so far I'm handling it.  We went to Outback Friday night for the first time in a couple of months.  I had gone on a site to figure out what I could eat.  I was going to get the 6oz sirloin special with broccoli and a salad but when we got there we saw the specials list which had mahi mahi on it.  I haven't had mahi mahi in forever and I knew I'd be eating steak Saturday night so I thought, why not?  I had the mahi mahi and broccoli and a salad.  I really don't know exactly how many points I ate but I feel pretty confident I stayed pretty close to my daily allotment.  If I did go over, I had plenty of weekly points plus to use.  I actually didn't use all of my weekly points plus last week.  My next goal is to start exercising so I can  add some activity points to my stock pile. 

Budget fun

Why did I get excited today when my Corey told me we were going to start using a monthly budget?  I've been wanting to lately, to track our spending, but I wasn't sure how to start it.  Well, Corey took care of it thankfully.  Everytime I buy something, I have to post the cost under a category.  I get a certain amount of money for MY spending each month, as does Corey. 
This will help me reign in my spending which I'll admit has gotten a bit much lately.  I can't say I bought anything crazy or extravagent but I tend to buy things I want and don't necessarily need. 
One good thing I have going on is my diet.  I have to plan my meals and on this particular diet (Weight Watchers) I don't eat out much.  So grocery amounts might go up but eating out is down.  We used to go out to eat quite a bit and it wasn't at places like McDonald's and Wendy's (although I challenge you to eat cheap there these days).  Another thing we can do is go to places that allow kids to eat free.  That will help us out, considering our kids eat small amounts so it would be nice not to have to pay anything for them right now. 
Anyway, we hope to use this budget to not only save money but to help us control our spending on frivilous things.  So as of today, we're budget friendly.  Ok, off to go post things under my spending since I did go do a little shopping today before I found out about the budget.  Fortunately it was only $7.00. 

Losing Weight

I joined Weight Watchers a week or two ago but I have not been tracking points or keeping up with foods I eat.  I needed a few weeks to get used to the new points plus system they are using and figure out how many points my favorite foods are.  I also needed to find new snack foods that were very low in points.  I know that between meals I will get hungry and I need something I can eat to get me through to the next meal. 

I've discovered that I can still eat one of my favorite things daily.  Peanut butter sandwich!!  I use the Nature's Own Double Fiber Wheat bread that is only one point per slice.  And the peanut butter, it's usually the problem.  But thanks to a blog I've been reading, I found something called pb2 at http://www.bellplantation.com/ that is a powder and you add water to it.  It's only one point per two tbs serving and for me, that's awesome!! 

I also found a bagel that's low in points, thanks to the same blog, called the Alternative Bagel (http://www.westernbagel.com/) and combining that with some raspberry jam, that's my new breakfast.  So for now, I'll be eating these things most everyday as I discover new things to add to my list. 

I have such a limited variety of food that I eat, especially when it comes to veggies and fruit, which is what Weight Watchers promotes eating.  I'm going to work on eating more fruit.  It's a slow process that I have to work through.  But I'm determined! 

Anyway, I started officially keeping track of my eating yesterday.  This morning I weighed, just out of curiosity, and was down 0.6 pounds.  I will NOT weigh everyday, even though I will be tempted.  But if I keep up the good work of sticking to my points allowance I will expect good results come next Monday morning. 

And if I can just find some time (and get up off my lazy tail) and hop on the treadmill, then I would be able to add a few extra points to my limit each day.  I have the desire.  It's there.  I just need to make the determination to whittle out 30 minutes from my two munchkins' demands.  With my two, it's pretty hard.  And it's still early enough in the process that I'm easily swayed to do something else, or even nothing at all. 

Green Tomatoes dish

Is it Tomatoes or Tomatos???  I'm pretty good at spelling but I can't decide which looks right.  Hmmm.  Eh. 

So, I heard some good news tonight from the hubby.  Some of our tomatos were ready to be picked.  And guess what?  They were still green.  Yep, it's the only way I'll eat a tomato.  Green.  We have a great dish that we cook every year once the tomatos turn green and get plump.

Get a couple of green tomatoes, wash them to get all of the dirt off, and slice. 

Place them in a casserole dish and smother them in Red Roasted Italian Dressing and a few shakes of parmesean cheese. 

Then place in the oven for about 30 minutes.  This isn't exact, I usually do 30 minutes at around 350, but if I happen to be baking something else in the oven at a higher temperature, then I'll still put the tomatos in at that temp.  Once they've been in the oven for 30 minutes, remove and place provolone cheese on top. 

Cover with aluminum foil and the foil will hold the heat in which will melt the cheese.  And viola. 

You're done.  Such an easy side dish to your meal.  We cook it with anything, but mostly with our steak on Saturday nights.  It tastes just like an Italian dish.  As picky as I am about food, I love this dish.  So as long as those plants out in our garden will make tomatoes, they'll never see the "red" of day.  ha ha

Let's try this again....it's certainly time.

I stepped on the scale the other day and did NOT like what I saw.  The numbers have been climbing recently but they are at the point where I am going to do something about it.  Last summer I was much smaller as I was nursing Britt and since I'm a milk machine after I have babies, I was feeding/pumping lots of calories out.  Breast milk is full of calories and I was making so much more milk than Britt was taking in.  (I won't even say how many bags of breast milk were thrown out that were never needed)  But I'll say I used breastfeeding as my way to lose weight last summer.  I could eat just about anything I want and would either maintain or lose weight.  It was great!  But as Britt aged, the need for so much milk lessened.  These days I'm still nursing but not so much.  So I'm not really counting on those calories anymore....and there is my problem.  I haven't scaled back on my eating to compensate for the lack of calorie output.  I'm probably 15-20 pounds heavier this summer than I was last summer.  Ugh.  With that being said, I've decided to start weight watchers.  Actually last night while at my parents' house, my Mom and I joined.  Ok well I joined and we both are going to use the information to lose weight.  I think my Dad is even going to get involved also.  I tried Weight Watchers a couple years back on my own and did ok with it but this time I'm joining officially and paying.  Last time I did WW it was with the "old" system.  They have now switched over to a "Points Plus" system which I'm not familiar with so I'm having to relearn things.  Ironically, my mom, dad and I are all different weights yet we all get the same daily points.  I find that kind of odd but that's how it works.  I'm hoping to start exercising very soon, once I can find 30 minutes a day to hop on the treadmill.  Anyway, I'm pretty excited about this new "lifestyle change" I'm starting.  And a little incentive is a possible trip in a couple years to St. Lucia and I want to look hot!  So I have that long term motivation and for the short term, just feeling good about myself and being healthy are good enough. 

Yard Sale

Do people go to yard sales anymore?  My mom and I are having a yard sale Saturday morning.  We're wondering if it's even worth it.  As we've been out and about the last few Saturday's, we've seen yard sales but very few cars sitting in front of the houses.  Albeit it's been around 9:00-9:30am and most yard sales are fizzling out by then but it kind of makes us leary of putting all the work into something that might not yield much.  And when I say yield much, you might think I mean money, but it's not just that.  Sure, making a few bucks would be great, but I mostly want some of this stuff OUT! 

This time I'm mostly selling baby stuff.  We know we have no plans for more kids so as Britt out grows things then it's time to get rid of it.  Baby bath, toys for infants, newborn clothes.... And since there will be no more kids, there is no need in keeping the girl clothes either.  So it's all up for sale.  I'm hoping some people come by with the need for baby stuff.  I hear that's the hot ticket at yard sales so maybe I'll get lucky.

Anyway, I remember when I was younger I saw yard sales quite often.  It seems like I just don't hear about them as much.  And when I do, it's those block sales, where many houses in one neighborhood will have a huge sale, drawing lots of people.  Well, we'll find out soon enough.  It's only a few days away and I need to get hopping.

Our "New to us" Home

I thought I would show the transformation of the house we bought a few months ago into what has now become our new home.  We first saw it and fell in love with it instantly.  I had thoughts of furniture placement and paint colors running through my head before we ever committed to buy it and even before we left to go home the first time we saw it.  The only deal breaker that we talked about on the way to see it was where the back door was located.  yeah, something like that could be a deal breaker!  But as soon as we pulled up we saw the door was on the rear of the house, not the side.  We knew we would use this door to enter and exit the house so with the layout of our current driveway/yard we needed it on the rear.  No Problem.  Some of the things we did to the outside:  painted the shutters and replaced the windows, new front storm door and painted the new front door red (love it!) and a few more maintenance needs.  There are plans to replace the vinyl in a year or two. New french doors and windows and door in the rear.
Next on the agenda for the rear is our deck and screened in porch (yay).  I can't wait.  It should be a good sized deck, partially covered, uncovered and then a portion of it will be screened in.  I'll post that when it's finished.
Inside:


Living Area:  it's a large open space that I love.  We used part as our "living room" and part as the play area.  This works out GREAT because Lyla never utilized our other play room unless someone was in there with her.  Now they can both play with their toys while Corey and I watch tv or do whatever we need to be doing. 

Before:




Looking towards the front

 


Looking towards the rear

Britt checking things out



During:

Ending:

I love the paint color in this room.  And the white trim really makes it in my opinion. 

The walls had this textured paint and after a little back and forth, we decided to go ahead and put up new sheetrock and it looks SOOOO much better.

 

Dining and Kitchen:  We covered the existing linoleum with some of the "faux" wood flooring which we had in our singlewide.  I love this floor.  It will take a beating and keep looking as good as the day you put it in. It doesn't get scratched by our cats' claws and dropping something on the floor won't ding it up.  It's great.  We put in a new french door, chandalier, and actually removed about two feet of carpet to make the dining area seem larger.  That's about it for this area.  The kitchen cabinets and counter top were in pretty good shape.

Dining Room

Dining during





 

Kitchen during



Lyla's Room:  I went a little bright in here.  It went from this pale blue to a girlie purple. 

Yes that is a toilet in her room.  It's not there anymore.



It's amazing how different the colors seem in different light.



Britt's Room:   



There will be nothing close to Carolina blue in our house!



Finished



These were taken around Christmas time.

They both have walk in closets in their room which for now, has plenty of room for clothes and toys.

Guest bath:  We replaced the counter tops in here, added tile flooring, new mirror, hardware, new light fixtures and the same blue paint from Britt's room.

Master bedroom:  I took a chance on this paint color.  I matched it to the comforter set I had just bought for our room in the single wide.  I really like it now that I have everything in there.  New celing fan, windows (all through the house), and paint is all we did in here. 

Some boys had broken in and punched/kicked holes in some of the walls at the
previous owners house.

Master bath:  Ahhh, look at all the room in our master bath.  Storage!!!  Something we did not have much of before.  We put new tile flooring in, light fixtures, counter top, hardware, toilet (in both baths), and actually made the window larger than what was in there.  There are two closets in here for storage and the little nook I use for cute things.  I love my black and white them.  I think it looks sharp with the green color (which is the same from our bedroom).

Master closet:  We did not change this room but I wanted to show how HUGE this is!  And yet, we have already managed to fill it up to over flowing.  I will admit, I just need a day or two to spend in there and could probably make it into something organized, but I haven't yet been able to do it.  It's also a nice place to throw things when company is coming or maybe I just don't want to deal with it right then. 

Once the back deck is finished, our next project will be to do landscaping at the front of the house.  What I love about this the most is that we helped to make it.  The "bones" were there but we helped make it.  Corey's Dad did most of the work and my Dad helped alot too.  Of course Corey worked in there in his spare time and I even helped sand the sheetrock.  I love that it was a family affair. 
I love our new house.  It's becoming our home as each day passes.  New memories are forming there.  When I came home from work one day in January, the single wide was gone.  I had a few moments of sadness because that is the house we lived in as new husband and wife, that's the home we brought Lyla and Britt to from the hospital.  That's where we had friends over and family to celebrate birthdays and exciting milestones.  I have photos and my memories so it's time to let that go.  I love having the additional space in this house and the sturdiness of it.  It's much more "me" as I've taken the time to decorate it the way I like and fits our family.  Maybe I should say it's "us".

Most of these photos were taken many months ago.  It's just taken this long to get this post finished.  We still haven't gotten anything hung on the walls yet but that's about to change.  I'm ready to get the finishing touches done.