Weigh-In

I have gained over 30 pounds since John and I have gotten married in June 2007. Whew... there I said it! Most of those pounds have been over the past year during our pregnancy struggles. I eat when I am sad. I eat when I am happy! I eat when I am [insert any emotion here]. I am just an emotional eater. As you all know we are about to the point where we will be trying to conceive and I have vowed to get back to my fightin' weight! No, I will probably never be a size 2 or 115 pounds. Let's get real here! Baby got back! I am usually so embarrassed about how much I weigh or have gained, but the first part of recovery is admitting you have a problem. Right? So I think that it is time to get real with you. I weighed in last Friday for our work's Biggest Loser Competition. I weighed in at 173.2 pounds. The most I have ever weighed... ever! More than most of you have or will weigh 9 1/2 months preggo! So now that that number is out there you can be my motivation! I don't want to be embarrassed any more!

Initial Weight: 173.2 - February 26, 2010 (33.2 lbs to lose!)
Week 1: 169.8 - March 5, 2010 (-3.4 lbs, 29.8 more to go!)

Also as part of the journey I am going to give you some tips you can use! I am going to journal each meal I eat (including the nutritional value & cost!) and all of my exercise. I want to prove that you can eat healthy for a reasonable price! Right now our monthly grocery budget is around $400. Which is pretty high for two people, but that includes every meal and snack that we eat. (Plus Princess too, but seeing she only weighs 6 lbs I can't blame her for much!) We only eat out once a week. My goal is to cut that number down closer to $300 per month. So starting next Friday I will have weekly updates on my weight, what I ate, and how much I spent.

So gotta go eat some lunch now! Pizza buffet here I come! Ha! Just teasing. It's Wolfgang Pucks' Minestrone soup for me! .....But really pizza does sound kinda good!

A day in the life!

Check out this cool lady's blog!

http://www.kellyskornerblog.com/2010/03/show-us-your-life-what-is-your-typical.html

Today is "Show us your life - A Typical Day"

Here is my ideal typical day.

6:00-6:30 - Wake up (depending on if I have to wash my hair ha!)
7:30 - Get to work
7:45 - Eat Breakfast at work!
Work til 11:00
11:00-11:30 is lunch. Some of the time I stay at work, but a lot of times I run errands
Work from 11:30-4:00 or 4:30 (Depending on what is on my desk!)
5:00-6:00 - Try to run or lift weights
6:00-7:00 - Cook dinner (or usually there is some meeting at the church)
7:00-9:00 - Work at home. (We don't watch t.v. very often so this time is spent on house project, laundry, video/photo editing or playing wii)
9:00-9:30 - get ready for bed
9:30-10:30 - laugh and giggle with John. We have to actually get into bed early because we usually end up talking and laughing for a good hour before we fall asleep.

Newest member of our family!

We are proud to present our newest "member" of our family!

Attached is a photo of Mufano Kazungu! He is our adopted Compassion International child!

Here is his info!

Birthday: February 1, 2003
Age: 7
Gender: Male
Region: Africa
Country: Kenya
Program: Victoria Baptist Church Child Development Center

Personal and Family Information:
Mufano lives with his mother. His duties at home include carrying water. There are 4 children in the family. His mother maintains the home.

Soccer is Mufano's favorite activity. In kindergarten his performance is average and he also regularly attends church activities.

If you would like to adopt a child like Mufano. Please go here http://www.compassion.com/

Your monthly contribution will provide:

* Ongoing Christian training
* Educational opportunities
* Treatment & training to maintain child health
* Development of self-confidence & social skills
* Key life skills & vocational programs

Be the Biggest Loser!

At my work we started our Spring Edition of the Biggest Loser. Everyone pays 5 dollars and the winning team gets the money. I have vowed to lose 30 pounds. (I know that sounds like a lot, but trust me I have it to lose! It's been a rough year! Ha! Look at me making excuses for myself!) But if you have made a commitment to lose weight join with me and pledge using the Biggest Loser's Pound for Pound Challenge. For every pound you pledge, 14 cents will be donated to the food bank of your choice. There is one in Tulsa! So get up off that couch and get moving!

http://www.pfpchallenge.com/

My Tiny Little Giveaway!

I have been trying to build a small photography company for the past few months. I have taken several senior pictures, a few weddings and one family. In order to get some more business going I am going to make you and your friends an offer you cannot refuse. If you post a link to this post on your blog and leave me a comment telling me you have done so, I will do a photo shoot and edit the pictures for you for FREE! That's right all you have to do is tell others about my business and I will give away one free photo shoot. Be sure to tell your friends about this offer! I will select the winner on Sunday at 8:00 pm central time. Good luck and get my name out there!

Happy Valentine's Day to me!

John and I stayed in Tulsa for Valentines Weekend. This is the second year we have done this and it may be one of our favorite traditions. It is just far enough away from home to feel like you are on a mini vacation but close enough that you can keep the cost relatively low. Friday night we stayed in and play a board game and ordered a pizza. 

Then we attempted to watch the movie we brought on the DVD player we brought only to discover that we brought a BlueRay disc and a regular DVD player. We couldn't figure out why it wouldn't work. Duh! 

We got up early on Saturday and ran the Sweetheart Race together along with our friend Jason. John and Jason wanted to know if they could register as a couple to get a better time than John and I would! I only ran the 5k but John and Jason ran both the 5k and the 10k. But they are weird. 

 

I might mention that it was butt cold. The wind chill was around 20 degrees.

Then the boys and I went to eat at Teds. Afterward John and I took a shower and a nice long nap. John had ordered us Kupcakz ahead of time so we stopped and picked them up on our way to the movies. We saw Valentines Day. It is the only time of the year I get to pick out the movie. :) Then we headed to Pf Changs for some yummy yummy dinner. Then it was off to the room for some more relaxing.

We slept in on Sunday (which is a rarity in our house!) and took our time heading home. We stopped by Whole Foods (which is my favorite place in the world!) and Fleet Feet for some new running shoes. Well, only I got new shoes. The poor salesman spent 2 hours fitting John for shoes to no avail. He has weird feet and he couldn't find any "perfect" shoes. It took me maybe 15-20 minutes. I am pretty easy to please.

Last night we had home group with some of our youth group kids and we celebrated Valentines Day with heart shaped Papa Murphys pizzas, cup cakes, candy, Crush soda, and a huge mixed up game of Compatibility.  I love them. They are the best!

It is going to be an insane week at work so this may be all you hear from me for a few days. We are having our State Evaluation this week!

Beautful fire pit!

For John and my dad's super bowl* party John wanted to try a new recipe. So he found a recipe for jalapeno pepper poppers.  They sounded relatively simple. In fact they were pretty easy and they turned out pretty good. I had fantastic pictures of them and of the events that followed but my camera ate my pictures today. So you will just have to trust me!

I cut and de-seeded almost 30 jalapenos and created a filling mixture with cream cheese and cheddar cheese. Then we filled the empty jalapenos with the filling, breaded them and baked them. They came out looking pretty scrumptious. John was running a little behind (shocking I know!) so I wrapped them in foil and sent him on his way.

Then it happened....

I was catching up on my TIVOed shows and realized that my hands were ON FIRE! So I rushed into the kitchen and frantically washed my hands seriously 10 times. Ahhh... relief. So I went back to the couch. Then 1-2 minutes later FIRE!!!! So again I washed and scrubbed my hands. I sat down certain that I had washed away the blazing hot demon juice from  my hands. Nope.. didn't last long. I found my self stumbling through the house praying for an answer to relieve my pain. I went to the bathroom where I knew all the good stuff was. I began dumping aloe vera on my hands. Nope. Then I tried peroxide, and alcohol, and even bikini cream! Nope, nope, and nope. Finally I go back into the kitchen determined to save my poor poor hands. When my Chemistry minor finally kicked it. Recall that blazing hot demon juice is an acid. I need to neutralize it using a base. Quickly I lunged towards the refrigerator for milk.

There it was! Refreshing, cold, and empty gallon of skim delight milk. Darn that husband and his double-stuffed Oreos! By this point I am strategizing how I can manage to drive down the road to the grocery store with fire on my hands. And wondered whether or not they would kick my out for pouring milk on my hands right there in the refrigerator section. Then I decided there had to be another way.

Then there it was staring back at me. Gleaming with all the goodness that is....... baking soda. I mangaged to get the box open with my crippled fingers and mixed the soda into a paste. Then I gooped that mess all over my hands and and the Hallelujah chorus rang out. I had saved my hands from eternal damnation!

Lesson learned: Let your husband make his own darn football snacks!



*(ha ha ha the first time I typed that I typed bowel!)