Fast Food

  Last month Logan and I spent the night in Phoenix before he flew out for work, on my way home I was so hungry. I stopped at a gas station and got some Jack in the Box. I browsed the menu, hmm nuggets or chicken strips? Well I thought the chicken strips sounded "healthier", like just breaded chicken... Wrong! They were like extra large chicken nuggets. I ate them on my way home and not to long after my stomach started gurgling at me. Ugh! Hate that feeling. 

 Yesterday, the kids and I went down to Anthem to meet up with my friend and her kids at the outlet mall. I did good and ate a Subway 6 inch flat bread. Ellie had a 6 inch on Italian and Garrett had a slice of pizza. (Blaine ate from everyones) So that was good. 

  After hanging out with our friends, it started getting cold. I suggested going to McD's to let the kids play inside. At the time I was thinking of getting a chicken wrap for my self, but once standing in front of the big menu, I drew a blank and fell on to the usual. I got one 20 piece nugget meal plus an extra 20 piece nuggets. We were there for a while and Garrett comes to me and tells me he needed to poop. He did this 3 times while we were there. The nuggets almost went right through him! My belly was once again gurgling at me and cramping up. Oh man! Then it was time to go home. Ellie finished off the nuggets in the car while getting gas and then all 3 slept on the 2 hr drive home. Once home we got the kids moved into their beds and after mid-night sometime Logan and I went to bed too.

  My alarm went off at 6:30 this morning to get Ellie ready for school. Ugh! I go into her room and turn the light on and she sits up and tells me her belly is hurting. I automatically think she is just hungry and start scanning my mind for what to make her for breakfast (its grocery week and we have nothing right now!). She then gets this look on her face and I ask her if she is ok? She told me no and I asked if she was going to be sick and she shook her head yes. I scooped her up from her bed and raced to the bathroom and my poor little girl thew up. It was the worst smelling puke I think I have ever smelled! There wasnt even much to it. After that she wanted to lay in bed with me. I was hoping she'd go back to sleep. Once in our bed she got fidgety, a sign I know that she is going to be sick again. I asked and she said yes. We rushed to the bathroom again. Once she thought she was done, I was wiping her mouth and she puked on the floor (yes, right next to the toilet...I hate that!) Still the worst smell I've ever smelled. Thank goodness I am not pregnant or I'd been tossing cookies too! This time there were olives from her Subway sammy in the mix. Once back in bed she said she couldnt sleep so I moved us out to the couches to watch TV where she puked one more time and was done.. I got some sleep (not enough!)  ***Sorry for some much TMI details!***

Hours later and she is fine.. My verdict on it all, no more fast food!! The only "fast" food we will be doing is Subway (an the occassional Papa Murphy's pizza but its fresh take and bake pizza so it dont count!) It's obvious since we do not eat fried food much at all anymore (when we go shopping we usually do Subway or a sit down restaurant) that our bellies are just not happy when we do eat it. I'm kinda glad that it has made us all sick in one way or another. Now I know we will stay away from the crap! 

Shoot, I had to take a break to take care of Blaine and get him down for his nap and lost all train of blogging thought! So basically, I have learned my lesson and we will no longer be stopping at McD's for nuggets or Sonic for burgers (*cry* even though it has been a long time since I've had one) and corn dogs or any where else like those places.

 Here's to getting healthy!

New Take On A Menu

 I havent been making a dinner menu in a while which causes me to fumble through dinner time. What to make? What do I have to make? So, I've come up with a great idea (for me) to help with making a menu and hopefully being able to make things easier all around..

 I have named the days of the weeks, based on a meal (or a drink in one case). Here it is-

Margarita Monday
We like having a couple drinks here and there. Even though I am trying to lose weight I do not want to cut things I enjoy completely out of my life. So, on Mondays I will let my self enjoy a couple Margaritas. I may even buy the stuff to make "Skinny Margaritas." As for dinners those nights? I have no idea yet. Lol Minor details ;) **After typing this all up, I started thinking of other things like "gourmet" sammies for dinner. Guess this night will be the nights I do other things that dont really fall under the other days.

Taco Tuesday
Original eh? I want to try out new types of tacos. We usually do hamburger meal, but I would like to do chicken, pork(?), heck maybe even fish or shimp... Oh and also the Veggie taco.

Crock Pot Wednesday
Pinterest is a great place to find Crock pot recipes. I have so many "10 Easy crock pot recipes" or "50 healthy crock pot meals." I hardly ever use the crock pot and its so easy to use! Prepare the meal, toss it in, turn it on and walk away, check back in a few hours and viola, Dinner it done! These will be made with any kind of ingredients (pork, beef, chicken, etc) however, I will try to keep it on the healthy side of things.

Beefy Steak Thursday
Yeah, I know, red meat isnt the best for you but we dont eat it in a large quantity (though I would live on a nice steak and potato every night!) To have a ribeye or t-bone or new york steak once a week isnt going to kill us. I usually look at them good and pick out ones that have the least amount of fat on them and then we cut most of what is on the steak off once its cooked.

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner Friday
Typing that made me think of fried chicken. Not sure why (probably because I'd die for some KFC right now) Chicken is good, Chicken is great, and Chicken is good for you. I cant wait to try new recipes with Chicken.

Porkin' Saturday
A great way to try out new pork recipes. Right now we eat Ribs and chops. Both usually done either in the grill or in the oven. I need to broaden my horizons of Pork. I've also done loins before but again just in the oven and nothing crazy.

Big Salad Saturday
We love salads. When we/I go out to eat some place, majority of the time I will get some kind of salad. I love the Apple Harvest Salad from Red Robin. O'Charlies had one that I loved too (might have been similar to the R.R. one) We will also have little salads with our other meals, just because thats what we do. lol But I want to make other big salads. Cobb salad, Ceaser Salad, etc!

Alright, with all that said, I may not ALWAYS stick to this. I mean, life happens. Sometimes Im to tired to give a flop or we arnt home. We do grocery shopping every 2 weeks, so that night I may do something different for dinner (coughpizzacough)

I also still need to figure out Kid lunches. I really want to start feeding the kids better foods. Luckly, they have started eating our dinners better, but lunches still consist of hot dogs and nuggets. I just need more ideas for them. Gosh dont get me started on them... Im so tired of hearing "Im hungry!" even though they just ate 2 grill cheeses, chips and olives (just an example) Garrett will even do this after having a big helping of spaghetti and a bowl of salad.  So, I really need to work on filling these kids up with the right stuff..

Also, something Id like to give a shot at is Smoothies but I think Ill save that for another post :)

Here's to a new Menu planning! :) Ill keep ya'll posted and maybe even start doing a recipe post. :)

Im excited to announce........

  Im NOT pregnant.. LOL Sorry, I couldnt resist. Usually when there is a title like that its usually followed with "Im pregnant!" which I am NOT! Gotchya!

  No really, I am excited to announce that I am going to be adding new things to my blog. New topics and posts that will hopefully be fun and exciting and more importantly, keep me motivated to move on in this great life and help me keep a positive outlook on things!! (Here's hoping at least!)

 These topics will span all over in my life. Anything from fitness, healthy lifestyles, food, kids, relationships, home decor, organization, possibly future give aways, link-ups, and hopefully a lot more! Please stick around, you never know when Ill through in something fun for all of us to do!

Week 8- Bad Week

Well here we are again. Lets just say last week was a bad week. I only worked out on Monday and Saturday. Boo to me! I've been very frustrated with my self. I want to see results like yesterday! But I know it doesnt happen that fast, but I couldnt get over not seeing results of any kind. I'm tired of bouncing between 210-207. Some days I see 205 but thats not on my weigh in days, so it really doesnt matter. 

Here's my stats for this week. 

Start weight- 210

 Previous weight- 210

 Current weight- 208

  This week loss- 2 lbs

  Total loss- 2 lbs

This has been going on for 8 weeks now. I've been bouncing up and down and Im tired of it.. 

There was a quote going around the MLFC for a while- "You cant out train a bad diet." I know this is my problem. I eat "ok" and try to workout and am seeing no change. I dont eat horrible most of the time. Usually for breakfast its yogurt and granola and sometimes a banana, when we have them. Lunch is generally a salad, sometimes other things. Dinner is where it probably gets me. We eat a lot of pasta. We usually eat beef steaks a lot but have cut back on them to once a week. Been trying to eat more chicken and more pork. The nights we do have pasta, I try not to eat to much of it. We usually have salads with dinner too.. But then there are nights that I dont cook us dinner. Those nights we usually have like cheese crisps or bean burros. Logan makes some good salsa and we can eat a bag of tortilla chips in one night. I know thats bad. I say to myself as Im eating it, this is bad! But does it some me from over eating....nope... 

I think one of my biggest problems is I havent has that Ah-Ha! moment yet. The moment that makes me really realize I need to get healthy, to get fit. I know Im out of shape (unless you count round!) I know Im unhealthy and according to the BMI chart, obese. I'm tired of looking at my floppy belly and my big thighs... But this stuff isnt really enough to make me commit 100% to fixing me. 

Watching Biggest Loser, it seems like everyone has a reason for being over weight. Their fathers died at a young age, bad child hood, etc. They all justify a reason. I cannot. I didnt have a bad childhood, I have 2 great parents, I have a great sister and a great brother. My mom was really over weight when I was young. She has a tummy tuck and then the gastric by pass. My sister was always the skinny one, who worse size 0-2 all her life. My brother was always average built. Oh and my Dad has always been skinny too. I never really held anything against my sister for being skinny. She is 6 yrs older then me, so when she was at home, I was to young to think of that stuff. After she had her first baby and didnt lose all the weight, there were times I thought to my self, now you know how it feels, but tried to encourage her to work out. 

I didnt get over 200 lbs until I got pregnant the first time and I too never lost the baby weight. Least not all of it. Then I had 2 more babies back to back (2010 & 2011) and still havent lost that weight. So I know why Im over weight... Because I've had babies. And while I can sit here and blame the weight gain and the floppy belly on pregnancies, I know the truth isnt just that.. Its also because I am lazy and unmotivated and though I want to change, I just dont have what it takes to make the change yet. 

So, even though I am struggling with myself, I am going to still try my best (even though my best isnt my hardest) to do what I can. 

Just for laughs and because I can totally flip my flap like that (ok, not really like that, yet)

Biggest Loser Week 7

  Well, this wee was a gain. Womp :( But Im not going to whine and cry. I know what I did wrong. All I can do is try to do better this next week.

I know a big thing was all the booze I drank this last week. But Im not ready to completely give up all the fun things in life just to have a healthy life. Its not like I drink all the time anyways. 

This week I need to work on doing the C25K workout and the Biggest Loser At-Home Challenge. Those are my two goals.

Speaking of goals, no I did not make it to ONEderland by the 14th. Booo!! New goal, make it to ONEderland by the end of the month. That is ten days. I can do it if I focus on my workouts and my eating.. 

So here are my stats,

Start weight- 210

Previous weight- 207.5
Current weight- 210
 This week loss- 0 lbs (gained 2 1/2 lbs)
 Total loss- 4.1 lbs

I can say that this does make me a little sad because I was 206 on Friday. I think after BL is over, I am going to move my weigh ins to Fridays. The weekends kill me. Even if I dont go out or really do anything different, some reasons they still effect me so much! 

Here's to a good week! Keep up the hard work!

Our Weekend Away

  This last weekend Logan & I were able to get away without the kids. (Thank you Nana S!!)

Friday we left and had to go through Prescott to drop off tax papers and get papers for the new business Logan is starting. Yes, my husband now is a business owner! After stopping at a couple tire stores and getting lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings, we were on the long road to Laughlin, NV.

   Once we got to Laughlin, we checked into our room. It was after 5 already so I got changed for the night. We were staying at the Edgewater. They have our favorite river side bar and the black jack computerized game. As long as you play the games with $10 or more, they comp your drinks. Awwwesome! lol So we played a little black jack and had like 6+ drinks each. What was I drinking you might be wondering? I'll make a list in a minute of all the drinks I had that night.

  After a while we decided to find where some of  Logan's friends were handing out. We found them eventually and we all went to a clue/bar that was doing Karaoke. Had a pretty good time, no I didnt do any singing. Pretty sure I'd have had WAY more to drink than I actually had.. After that was over, we all moved on to this bar called "The Loser Lounge". Not even 5 minutes in, one of the guys with us was escorted out by the security. Im pretty sure I saw the guys getting ready to fight..  He didnt come back. lol The rest of us had a good time drinking and dancing. Yes, I did actually get up and dance once. From the windows-to the walls! Sweat wasnt dripping from my balls. Lol!! We stayed out ill like 3:30 AM!

Here's my drink list.

Amaretto Sour (drank the most of those)

Bahama Mama (yuck!)

Strawberry Daquari (2 of them)

Irish Car bomb (1 "shot")

7&7 (Logan was drinking those but I drank a couple of his while he wasnt looking)

Cranberry & Vodka (bought it for another girl but she didnt drink it. Didnt want to waste it ;)  )

AMF (Adios Mother F'er)  (So much boooze in that Motha!)

Fire Ball (a cinnamon shot- Yuck!)

Yeah, that was all in one night. Pretty sure that was all I had. lol!! The next morning? I woke up at 6 something, ugh! Then around 7 something when Room Service was knocking on the door. Guess I was to drunk to put the sign outside DO NOT DISTURB!  Ooops! Then I laid there in bed till a little after 8. Finally decided to get up and shower, and get ready for our busy day. Logan wasnt feeling very good when he got uo (cant imagine why!? Oh maybe is was the shots of crown and mixing liquor and beer, duh! ) We went to breakfast at a real popular stop there in Bullhead City called Black Bears. Yum! So good. Then after that we went to the tattoo parlor we went to last May. We had already made plans to get new tattoos.

The guy we see (Larry Topping) is flat out amazing! We told him our ideas and we were both very open to having him come up with something. After talking for a bit about our plans, he drew them up, right there in front of us. Then we got started.  Logan was up first......

All Done!

Next was my turn. I'd be lying if I said it didnt hurt. Honestly, there were 2 places that really hurt. Did I cry? No. It was so cool to get to sit there and watch him do it. To see the needles vibrating back and forth and the ink going in. Also to see it come together. 

Mine's all done! After we got the new one done, we moved on to my last year one because he wanted to fix it. The guy who did it originally doesnt even work at their shop anymore. When he did do it he gave me so much crap about reaching our price limit and it wasnt even completed yet. So Larry not only touched up the entire tattoo but added the start dust as well. Now it looks more like a completed tattoo, instead of 3 separate ones. Oh and I actually dont remember if that one hurt this time or not. Im sure there were places that did hurt more then others. 

Left is the one done in May. The "arret" on Garrett had completely come out. The colors in the stars didnt hold well either. I know its a different angle but the names look so much better now (on right) then they did on the left. The colors do too! 

Saturday night we went to a steakhouse called Saltgrass. Talk about PACKED! The wait was like and hour and 30 mins. There was room at the bar though, so we got in real fast. YEEY!  After dinner we tracked down the group of people we know and hung out for a little bit. I swear I wasnt lit already in this picture. I only had 2 drinks at that point (An Apple Cider Margarita and an Amaretto Sour) Think the look was from just being so tired!! Shortly after that we decided to go back to our room and get some sleep!

Sunday morning we went to breakfast at the Black Brear again. We had a little bit of a wait this time but it wasnt long. Then we went back over to Laughlin to the outlet mall and walked around. We got Logan a new hat, some coasters for Logan's mom for watching the (sick) kids, and some kitchen gadgets. Then it was time to head home. We stopped on the way to see Logan's grandparents for a while then headed on home.

We had a great weekend and am so thankful we got the chance to go. (Again, thank you Nana S!) 

As for sick kids :( I guess each one too turns puking between Friday-Sunday. This morning (Monday
) Blaine puked twice in his bed and Garrett once in the toilet. There are no other symptoms other then snotty noses. So tonight Im going to turn the humidifier on and hopefully that will help with the boogers and drainage! **fingers crosses**

Hope everyone had a great weekend! 

Craft Project Post

Over at Colorful Creations Brandi (also on her BLOG) has a challenge going to make something Valentine's themed that isnt a card or a page layout.  I made this cute little banner for Valentine's Day! I was inspired by Jen's post HERE . 

I used my Cricut to cut everthing out. Using the Doodle Charms cart to cut the hearts out, the scalloped hearts at size 5 1/2 and the pattern hearts at 5. I then used the Calligraphy Collection cart to do the Xs & Os. I cannot remember what size I cut them on, maybe 3 or 3 1/2 (Sorry). I also used Tim Holtz Distressing Ink in Barn Door on the edges of the patterned hearts to help them pop from the white paper. I then used a white/clear glitter glue and went around the scalloped edges of the white hearts. Used a hole punch and some white yarn to string them together.  

I really enjoyed making this cute little banner. It was pretty easy to do! 

Hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day!!

3 yrs & 15 Mons

So as for being on top of undating about the kids b-days/milestones, this mama isnt winning any awards :)

Garrett's 3rd B-day was January 25th. We didnt have a party till February 2nd. Here's his stats...

Height- 39.5in

Weight- 36 lb

Im never very good at listing what the child is up to now a days. Garrett loves cars, trucks, tractors, motorcycles... Basically anything with wheels on it. I think he is going to be a mechanic like Daddy. Today, he lifted the hood on a truck and said he was fixing the engine. He can be super sweet but is a spit fire! He is having a hard time learning to share and learning that others can play with his toys when he isnt playing with them. He is also into Toy Story right now.

Blaine is now 16 months old. His 15 month check up stats were..

Height- 33.25 in

Weight- 27.61 lb

Yup! Big boy! Blaine is for sure my handful child! He likes to climb the chairs and dance on the kitchen table, fish in the toilets and flush things down, as well as play in the trash can. He too likes to play with car toys and mega blocks.

Some pics from G's b-day party.

He got some great gifts. Nana Rhonda made him a cute Cowboy get up. Totally cute. He got a digger for outside and a woody doll and this neat monster truck. 

Until Next year! :)

Biggest Loser Week 6

I had a decent week. Tried my best not to over eat or eat junk. But sometimes thats hard when there is a bag of leftover candy in the closet from your kid's bday party... Though I was hoping to lose more this last week, I am happy with what I got.. It was a loss!

Start weight- 210

Previous weight- 208.6
Current weight- 207.5
 This week loss- 1.1 lbs
 Total loss- 4.1 lbs

A 1 lb loss for the week. I will take that. Its great for what I have been doing and what I havent been doing. I havent been doing the BL At Home Challenge. Oh but I did restart the Couch 2 5k program. I am determined to do a 5k! There is one in April called Run or Dye. Its the same thing as the Color Run. I would love to do it. We will see! If you know the C25K program, you know it is only 3 days each week. Well I am doing it more. Yesterday I did it in the AM and in the PM. It felt good :) 

So Im my goal of hitting Onederland by the 14th, Im not sure I can do it but will try my hardest. Its going to be a busy week here. My Mom is coming to stay 3 days with us. My SIL has her big ultrasound on Wednesday. We will probably do lunch together and I will be strong (no matter where we go) and eat good. Then this weekend (Fri-Sun) Logan and I are going to Laughlin, NV. Woot! Im so excited and cannot wait. I will have to ask if they can make skinny drinks. And hopefully we wont be eating as much as we did last May. Oh plus, this is a short trip, wont have as much time to eat.

So this weeks goals are to still do my C25K 1-2 times a day, and do the Biggest Loser At-Home Challenge. Wednesday might be the only day (and Friday) that I wont be able to the BLAHC..


Hope everyone has a great week!

Biggest Loser At-Home Challenge Review 2

 Let me start by saying, this morning the top of my thighs were sore! Not as bad as doing the 30 Day Shred, I could still sit to pee.. lol 

 This morning I did the Phase 1 Strength part of the Biggest Loser At-Home Challenge. On the scale of difficulty, I'd say it was pretty easy. However, there are a lot of plank moves! Though, they do show the easy versions of those moves as well. (Thank goodness, thats all I could do! lol)

 Oh and for this Strength training, you do not need weights. So that is nice if you do not have any. 

 So for anyone who is looking for a low impact work out, I would recommend the Biggest Loser At-Home Challenge. To me, it way easier than the 30 Day Shred! 

Biggest Loser At-Home Challenge

 So as I promised, I am doing a follow up on the Biggest Loser At-Home Challenge. Today I did the warm up, Phase 1 Cardio and cool down. It wasnt to bad on the level of difficulty. There were a few moves I had to do the "easy" version of. It killed my legs for sure. The rest time between each move was more then the 30 Day Shred, which I liked. Its not, bam bam bam move after move. Though they do combine a few moves. 

 Tomorrow I will do the Phase 1 Strength. Ill do a little up date on that as well and how I feel tomorrow after doing the cardio.

Biggest Loser Week 5

 I still have a hard time believing I started this Biggest Loser challenge 5 weeks ago... Here's my status. This morning I weighed in at 208 (forgot to remember the point something)... So I stayed the same from my last BL weigh in. Which is great considering how horrible I ate all weekend. 

 Recap.... Saturday was Garrett's 3rd B-day party. We did a Cajun boil. You know, shrimp, potatoes, corn, lots of sausage in a big pot with hot seasonings. I did good before and made a veggie tray with 2 different greek yogurt dips and a sour cream dip. I tried to eat a lot of the veggies so I wouldnt want to eat much of the other stuff.. Well when it was done cookin, it was pretty much to spicy for me to eat anyways. So I guess I didnt do horrible eating that day. I havent had water to drink since last week. Booo to soda :( Had a couple slices of pizza yesterday at a B-day party. Not to great of a weekend. Thank goodness its a new week. :) 

Start weight- 210
Current weight- 208.6
 This week loss- 0 lbs
Total loss- 3 lbs

Last Friday I bought The Biggest Loser At-Home Challenge DVD. Hopefully I can do this one. I just cant force myself to do the 30 Day Shred :( I know, how dumb is that. I cant do push ups... Plus right now, my wrist is freaking killing me and I couldnt imagine trying to do one push up. Ill do a follow up post later today on how the BL At Home Challenge went. :)

Moving on... Here's my calendar from last week. Sad, huh? :( The only good thing is on Wednesday I did over a mile and a quarter.. That was nice... But I didnt push through the rest of the week. (Friday- grocery shopping, Saturday- G's party, Sunday-another b-day party...)

This week I will push harder to get more done! I will! I will reach ONEderland by the 14th :)

Also, last Friday I bought a bunch of fresh veggies to cook. I want to roast/bake them in the over to go with our dinners. Hopefully it turns out good :) 

Scrapbooking for January

  So on one of my scrapbook board we are doing a 100 pages for 2013. This year, I am determined to make that goal. I am working on 2012 and started with December and working backwards. At the end of each month, I will post my layouts. So far, I am off to a great start to the 100 pages of 2013. 

That is a total of 12 pages. The last set of pages still needs journaling done on the right page. Ooops. I have to say, I hate my handwriting and wish I could print all of my journaling. Oh well. Oh and on the pages with the green background paper, I need to add the glitter glue to the red strip of paper on the right page....

Do you scrapbook? Do you have a gallery on line? 

Check back at the end of February for this months layouts! 

Happy Scrapping!