Lunchbox Ideas

Fellow moms out there, if you're anything like me, you occasionally get caught in a rut of lunchbox packing.  Sandwich, carrots or celery/peanut butter, some type of wheat cracker, then fruit.  That's what my kids get 99.9% of the time on their preschool days.  Mind you, their little bento boxes come home empty, but I have a feeling they wouldn't mind if I changed things up every now and then.

I found this fantastic website today - may it inspire you as much as it did me!  170+ pictures of awesome ideas...

http://easylunchboxes.smugmug.com/The-Best-Lunchbox-System/Yummy-Lunch-Ideas/10136835_YSuyb#!i=696914291&k=YxmUd

Living Room Redo - Part 1

We've been updating the living room in recent weeks.  Our TV crashed after almost 10 good years, so we had to buy a flat screen which our entertainment center didn't have a spot for.  We sold the entertainment center on craigslist and purchased a new TV console piece.

Of course, it would have been waaaay too easy for the color of the console to match our crown molding.  We had looked and looked for something, and what we bought was the closest thing to what we wanted, but the color was too creamy yellow.  Enter our wonderful friends at Victory Painting (who did our walls and crown), and now it matches perfectly.    

Here is our old entertainment center/TV (too big, dark, and heavy for the room, IMHO):

Here is our in-between fix... a totally rad office table from Jason's OKC office to put the TV on, and the kids' downstairs toys and books ever-so-elegantly and perfectly displayed below.  Although the kids liked the easy access, this made me just a little bonkers!

And here is the console piece in the painting stage last weekend.

Before (the edge pieces... just not the right color):

And.... VOILA!  Eight hours later, the finished product.  Darryl and Jake are the best!  The detail work in the staining is phenomenal!

 As soon as we get everything situated and I decorate, I'll post updated pictures.  My hope is that will happen before 2025.

The Pounds are Gone

I'm going to use my blogging liberties to just brag on myself a bit here.  When I ended our membership at our previous gym, I knew I had two weeks until the new gym opened.  I decided rather than sit around like a lazy butt and be tempted to eat too much, I would do this little thing called the HCG diet and see how much I could lose in those two weeks.

Jason has done the HCG diet before and had great success, so I was excited that he could answer my questions, help me figure out the food to eat, etc.  The normal HCG diet consists of 500 calories a day for 3 weeks followed by a second phase of increased caloric intake (I think), but now that the FDA has started regulating HCG in the marketplace, any over-the-counter drops no longer contain the hormone.  So, all that being said, the drops I purchased were basically a really good appetite suppressant, in my opinion.  Which is sort of a must-have when you're consuming 500 calories a day.

So here's what I did in those two weeks:

Breakfast - Handful of strawberries, 1/2 a grapefruit, or an orange
Lunch - 4 oz. shrimp, chicken, extra-lean ground beef, or tilapia PLUS 2 cups of vegetables (I had a huge list to pick from, but my favorites were asparagus, tomatoes, celery, and cucumbers)
Dinner - same meat and veggie choices as lunch PLUS one of the fruit selections

And that's it.

For two weeks.

And I actually did it for almost 3 full weeks because the results were so amazing.

Drum roll please.......

I lost 14.5 pounds!

I must say, however, that my ultimate goal would've been to have lost 20 pounds, so I plan to lose the next 5.5 by running my little toosh off at the gym, doing weights and classes, etc. Because that, to me, is the FUN way.

I have only one pair of jeans that fit me now, so today I stopped by Stein Mart to see if I could find some on sale.  I was so happy when I tried on a pair that was 2 sizes below my normal size and they fit!  Yippee!!!

So here's my plan going forward in order to maintain this new figure:

1)  Basically cut out almost all dairy and almost all bread products and pretty much all sugar.  I'm really kind of intrigued by the Paleo Diet way of eating.  Check it out if you haven't... it makes a lot of sense... http://www.thepaleodiet.com

2)  Allow myself two meals per week to eat whatever the heck I want.  Including dairy and bread products and dessert if I want to.

3)  Continue to work out HARD five days a week.  Our new gym makes this pretty easy, and having my kiddos in childcare during this time also motivates me to go.  :)

4)  Relish the fact that my baby-making years are coming to a close and really start to think of this new chapter of my life as my 'fit' years.  'Cause I sure haven't been fit in a long time.  And that sucks.

So that's my weight-loss story in a nutshell!  I can't say that I advocate doing this diet to everyone.  It is HARD, it takes so much stinkin' willpower it's not funny, and if you don't maintain good eating and exercise when you increase your calories again, the pounds will jump right back on.  

Headin' to bed now.  Peace out.

Easter 2012

Easter morning was a bit chaotic!  I had to sing on worship team, so my friend Velvet picked me up at 7:30 a.m. so we could practice with our other friends Melissa and Hannah for our "How Deep the Father's Love" quartet before 'official' worship practice.  Daddy was stuck with getting all three kids ready for church on his own.  BIG task and he deserves the Medal of Honor for such a feat.  I still think it's hard after all these years, and he's not used to doing it on his own.  So well done, O Brave and Mighty One.  :)  I didn't have any special 'new' outfits for the kids, just some of my favorites that they already had.

After church, we stood in the front yard for some pics with the kids.  I'm not sure why I chose to put us on the muddy ground where we had a leaky sprinkler head and the grass hasn't started growing.  I think I just really wanted to make these special and classy.

I love how Jaxey's tie is about 6 inches shorter after church than before.  You know a boy's been hard at play when his tie looks like this!

After good and long naps, we went to Grandma and Pa-Pa's house for Easter dinner and Easter egg hunting.  Here are the kids running around with 'C' as I'll affectionately call him for a while.  Uncle Travis has become a foster parent, so we've enjoyed getting to know C.  He's got such a sweet little spirit, and the kids have a blast with him.  

(Quite a few of these photos were taken by Uncle Trav's roommate Matt who has a great, fancy-pants camera).  

I was telling Jason just how much I loved finding Easter eggs when I was a kid, so he stayed outside and hid four eggs just for me.  I had Emerson help me, and that little toot found the first one!  I admit I'm not very good at finding eggs, so Jason had to play the hot/cold game for me to find the other three.

It ended up being a wonderful, laid-back day of celebrating our Risen Savior and celebrating family, too!

Jaxeyboy turned 3

My little man.  Where oh where has the time gone?  You looked like this just yesterday, it seems...

You turned three a little more than a week ago, and it seems to me like you've entered the world of 'big boy' way too soon.  Every now and then I catch a glimpse of toddler-ness and do my best to hang on to it, but those moments are happening less frequently now.

I adore your blue eyes and blonde hair (I remember telling Daddy years and years ago that I would give anything to have a blonde-haired, blue-eyed little boy).  I love your smile that lights up a room, your sweet and sensitive spirit, and your bear hugs and kisses that you give so freely.  Please don't ever stop wanting to snuggle and sing with your Momma at bedtime, okay?

We had a little family party for the birthday boy, and I told him it was going to be a monster truck party.  Technically, the only thing monster truck-related was the monster truck highlights DVD I had playing in the background.  I borrowed my friend Cristin's "Cars" tablecloth, and his cupcakes had checkered flags on them, so it kind of ended up being a "Cars" birthday.  I thought I would totally get away with it, but about a week later we were sitting at lunch and he all of a sudden exclaimed, "MOMMY!  I didn't have a monster truck birthday party!"  And the look on his face was one of mixed disgust and indignation.  I quickly reminded him of the monster truck DVD, and I think that satisfied him.  What that tells me is that I'm at the end of my no-big-deal birthday party decorations.  He's old enough to care about a theme, so I'm gonna have to step up my game next year.

Here are pictures of the birthday boy's par-tay:

Wearing his birthday hat and ribbon from preschool... and looking really old.  *sniff*

He got very serious while we were singing to him.  I think he was mentally preparing to blow out the candles and needed to focus.

Emerson has the men-folk enthralled in her storytelling.

Hayden and Pa-Pa are twinkies.

He loves his new putter!

Daddy has some SERIOUS golf tan lines going on.  The first burn of the spring is always a doozie.

Hayden found a willing swing buddy in Gi-Gi.

Even birthday boys need an attitude adjustment every now and then.

March Picture Post

I'm slowly sorting through Jax's birthday & Easter pictures, but then I realized I haven't posted my favorite snapshots from March.  So the birthday update will have to wait a few days.  This momma can't keep up with it all at the pace I used to!

I love this girl... she's always ON and always in character.

The three amigos doing some pack-n-play time.  

She loves her piano (used as a chair, of course) and grabs her favorite books.

It's funny how quickly they can go from this...

To this.

At some point during almost every single day, Jaxeyboy is wearing these goggles and that hat.  Thank you again, Katie!

A fun Sunday afternoon at Haikey Creek Park.

Just a-swingin.'

And this one, like his daughter, is also always ON.  So thankful that my kiddos have an animated daddy!

Gettin' silly after dinner.

These next two express just how she feels about her molars coming in.

Best friends.