Just a little complaining

 My top 3 complaints at this moment (because I can't think of anything else to blog about): 

- Planning a birthday party for/with a soon-to-be 12 year old girl. This is not fun times. 

- Hunts sugar free gel snacks.  These are not good.  Jello brand = 100% better.

- The new blogger set-up. I still hate it.  It sucks hard.  So many bad things.  Zero improvements.

Basketball

This morning was game 4 of 8 for my son's basketball team.  He still gets very distracted and just doesn't really want to learn how to play. He's there because he has to be.  He does seem like he's trying ever so slightly more than he did 4 weeks ago, but he could definitely pay more attention and try harder...if he chose to.  Anyway, here are a couple pics from this morning's game:


And yeah, mine would be the kid playing basketball in Vans just because his regular sneakers "aren't comfortable". Gotta choose your battles...

Foul shot

At least in this picture he appears to be going after the ball! :)

Ready for bed!

Today, I spent my day volunteering in my son's second grade class.  After making about a million copies for the teacher, I took students out one at a time to go over their sight words with them and let them read to me.  It's amazing the difference in reading levels from one child to the next.  There were a few kids that surprised me a little bit with their reading skills while others, well, not so much.

There was one kid who, when she got to a particularly easy couple of lines that she read decently well, stopped and said "haha, that rhymed".  I realized at that point that this kid had been reading this book for the past 10 minutes and, as a direct result of her poor reading, did not know that the entire book was rhyming! Kind of made me sad.

After school, I forced myself to go work out.  I was really not feeling like being there, but I pushed through.  I spent a little over an hour there, then came home and (after scarfing down some pizza) actually took Bella for a 3 mile walk.  Not too bad for not at all feeling like like doing anything but coming home and sitting on my butt! 

Checkerboard Cake

I have been wanting to buy one of these checker board cake pans and try it out for a while now.  So, since my younger daughter's birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks, I figured I'd go for it.  I think I'm going to try it with red velvet and white cake (colored pink).  Hopefully it will turn out nicely!  I'll be sure to post a picture of my masterpiece.  Well, unless I screw it up. ;)


Image found here: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/p/checkerboard-cake-pan-kit-9-x15/22248252

Hard to believe!

Today marks 8 years since my mom passed away.  Not a day goes by that I don't miss her and wish she were still around to see her grandchildren grow up and, selfishly, still around for me to talk to and just have my mommy.  :'(

Competitions

Well, I did not end up needing to drive for my daughter's competitions this weekend.  I did, however, go to the one today that was at a neighboring school district to watch her.  They say not to record anything, but I managed to be a little sneaky and grab a couple of short videos of her.

In this one she is the one on the far left:


In this one she is the one that ends up in the middle of the screen at the end:

Just got back from the Y.  I was happy with my work out today.  I did 30 minutes on the elliptical, 30 minutes on the recumbent bike and then did some abs and arms.  I was sweating like a pig!

Frustrating!

I hate not knowing how things are going to go. Right now I am out running errands that are taking waaay longer than expected. I did not eat breakfast this morning because I thought I would be eating an early lunch. Now I am starving and cranky and mad that I didn't eat something before leaving my house to get my metabolism going for the day. :(

On top of that my daughter's color guard coach sent out an email earlier in the week saying he was still in need of a parent driver for competitions this weekend (Saturday AND Sunday). I replied the same day saying that I could drive and I never heard back from him. Apparently he told the girls at practice last night that he still needed a driver and my daughter asked if he got my email. He said he did but then did not say anything else about it. So, I still don't know if he is now assuming I will be driving or if he somehow knows I'm a terrible driver and is hoping someone else will step up or what. ;) Seriously though, this is frustrating. I even had my daughter text him to try to find out and still no reply. At this point I'm ready to say eff him, but I don't want to go back on my word I he is expecting me to drive. Ugh!!

Finally...

 After the last several weeks of losing only ~1 lb/week, I finally had a good weigh in today.  3.4 lbs this past week! I think I was holding on to some extra water.  I picked up the number of times I worked out and upped my calories a bit on work out days and that seemed to work out well.  I am finally seeing and feeling the difference.  Clothes that were once snug are now fitting loosely.  I am just over half way to my ultimate goal weight, with a total loss to date of 41 lbs.  If I could lose 35-40 more I will be very happy.  Then it will be a matter of maintaining and toning up my muscles.  At least I know I am on my way to where I want to be!

Ooooh!

It's American Idol time again!  Yay!  Yeah, it's a guilty pleasure of mine. 

Just gotta laugh...

So, I get up to go check on dinner and find this on the counter:


Yes, that is a popcorn sandwich!

Then when I go back into the living room, this is what I find:


Busted! As much as Bella chases Molly around and Molly growls and snaps at Bella in response, maybe there's hope for them after all. :)

Burn, baby, burn!

I sooo didn't want to go out today!  I wanted to stay in my warm, comfy bed.  But, my alarm went off at 7:00 this morning and I realized I hadn't heard my oldest daughter moving around getting ready like I usually do.  I went in to check on her and, sure enough, she was still asleep.  Just an FYI, her bus comes at 6:45.  So, I had to wake her up and after she rushed to get ready, I drove her to school, getting her there just in time.  Good thing too, since this is exam week for her.

I came home and got the other 2 kids up and moving, got them on the bus on time, ate breakfast, and then forced myself to go to the Y and work out.  I hit the grocery store then came home and took Bella for a quick walk.

It worked out well because between my workout and the walk, I completely burned off my breakfast AND lunch calories.  Woo!  Don't worry though, I'll probably make up for it by sitting on my butt all evening! =)

Hmm, decisions, decisions...

I always want to grow my hair out, but when I do, it just starts looking really bad.  So, I'm at a point now where I need to make a decision whether to let it keep growing or get it cut.  I could let it grow out until spring and possibly donate it (though, that would leave my hair a bit shorter than I'd like, I think), or I could just go get a few inches cut off of it now and hopefully not hate it. What to do...?

Stupid Sodium!

While I came in under my calorie goal yesterday, I went way over on sodium and it showed on my scale this morning big time.  I know people always say not to weigh yourself every day, but well, I do.  I can't help it.  I don't have the patience to wait an entire week to see if I'm having any kind of success.  It can, however, be a bit of a bummer to see my weight go up 3-4 lbs in one day. :/  I know that it had to be from too much salt and it will go back down, but it still sucks!

And, while I'm complaining, I'll just go ahead and throw it out there that I am *still* hungry all. the. time.  Sigh. 

What the....

Am I doing something wrong or did blogger change up their entire set-up? I log in and all of a sudden everything looks completely different. I don't like it. I don't like change, blogger! :P

Today...

I had a decent day today. Church this morning with my dad, lunch, then baby shower for my SIL. Came home this afternoon, the neighbor across the street was out with his dog (Bella's buddy) so I took Bella over and let her run off some energy. Then, I hit the gym and came home and took a 15-20 minute walk.

After a shower, I'm now relaxing and watching an episode of Chopped with 2 of my kiddos. In the appetizer basket, the ingredients were frog legs, anchovies, dates, and Bourbon. EW! Nothing about that sounds good to me at. all. Ick!

Next up: lay in bed and watch another episode then go to sleep!

At least I don't feel hungry right now!

I had a decent workout this evening. I did some time on the treadmill (even jogged for 5 minutes straight, woo!), a few arms and abs, and about 10 minutes on the recumbent bike. According to my heart rate monitor, I burned 460 calories in 55 minutes. Maybe that isn't excellent, but it's a little more than usual from just walking (duh!). By the time I got home, I was absolutely starving and craving pasta, so I made some rotini with a little sauce and absolutely inhaled it along with 20 oz of water and now my tummy is not too happy with me. Think I'ma hit the shower and lay in bed with my laptop and a movie! Oh yeah, I gets crazy on Saturday nights!

Feeling discouraged

I have stayed at the same weight now for over a week. I seem to be stuck. (I know I have my other blog for this topic, but I just haven't been using it. I'm pretty sure no one reads this blog anymore anyway.) So, I'm feeling a bit discouraged. I haven't changed anything as far as my calorie goal or anything, so I don't really get why the sudden stasis. I know I need to work out more. I always fall short in this area. I'm not going to lie, I just don't like working out. I don't enjoy it, I don't find it relaxing, or any of that other BS that people say about it, and I really have a hard time making myself work out alone. I have always felt this way, that's nothing new.

I did get a membership to the new YMCA in my area and have been a few times. It is a really nice, brand new facility and there are lots of different things I could do (weights, equipment, track, basketball, swimming, etc), but I just can't seem to feel the motivation I need to get my butt over there! I signed my son up for swimming lessons starting Monday, so for the next 6 weeks, I'll have no choice but to go there at least once a week. Yes, I realize once a week isn't going to do me much good, but it is a start and could perhaps get me into the mood to go more often. Hopefully.

I've got to get out of this rut and get the scale moving down again!

Fruit Bars

I am a big fan of Edy's Fruit Bars! So far I have tried acai blueberry, grape, lime, pineapple, pomegranate, and strawberry. The only ones I didn't love were the lime ones, because they were too sour for my taste. My favorites are grape, strawberry, and pineapple, so far. I like how the ones like strawberry and pineapple have little bits of actual fruit in them! I would love to try them all, but I haven't seen all of the flavors in the stores I frequent. I am going to have to keep an eye out for the new mango and peach flavors. I have a feeling I would enjoy me some those!

Chopped

I never really got into watching the Food Network. I like watching it, but it's just never been my first choice in channels. If I sit down and watch TV, it is usually with the purpose of watching a show I recorded. Well, a friend of mine told me about the show Chopped, and I thought it sounded like something I would like so, I started recording it. I've watched 4 episodes, so far, and I'm hooked! I like the competition, and learning about new foods (some stuff I'd never heard of, or at least didn't know what it was). The only problem is that it always makes me hungry when I watch it. I want to taste the foods! My stomach growls the entire time I'm watching, but I watch it anyway. :)

It's a new year!

My oldest got back from her trip to Florida today. She had a good time at Universal's Islands of Adventure and really enjoyed the Harry Potter stuff there. She was not too excited to return from 60-70 degree weather to super cold and snowy here though, nor is she happy about having to return to school tomorrow. She is, however, glad to be home and no longer on the bus. :)

Right now, I'm getting ready to watch the The Biggest Loser, which starts a new season tonight! It is good motivation. I wish I could be motivated enough to work out 6-8 hours a day. I find it difficult to spend an hour at the gym, but I'm working on it, slowly but surely. I did start out the new year at a weight that I had not seen in at least 10 or 11 years though. So, that's good! Here's hoping 2012 is a good year!