Springtime in Peoria

Here's a peek into the world of my sister as of late...

Their new house, just down the street from their old one.  Isn't it darling?!  It's amazing how she's cozied it up in just a few short months.

Miley and Avery in a field of dandelions.

Hudson and Eric - in their track jackets.  Cute!

Love this one - the lighting is perfect.

Looking at these pictures gets me really verklempt.  If any of you live 9 hours away from each of your siblings, you know what I'm talking about.  I never in a million years dreamed my brother and sister and I would be raising our babies miles apart.  Life has a funny way of taking over and you just adjust to the distance and live for the times you get to be together.  But when I really sit still, look at pictures of my niece and nephew growing and changing right before my very eyes without getting to give regular hugs and kisses, it's almost too much to think about.

I love you, sweet sister of mine, and I love your babies like they were my own.  God has gifted you with everything you need to be what they need.  Never forget that.  Enjoy your Mother's Day on Sunday.

Currently...

Inspired to do this post by my friend Amy...

Watching: The TV is off - and glad for the quiet.

Drinking: My water glass is on the kitchen counter, but I haven't actually taken a drink yet.  I'd better get on that...

Wearing: Gray v-neck tee and maroon shorts.  Very hot.  

Eating: Nothing yet.  But will have 2 eggs in about 30 minutes.  

Listening: to the kids playing upstairs before I call them down for some milk and a show.  

Avoiding: the pile of laundry on the laundry room floor until after Daddy finishes his shower.  

Wishing: that our anniversary trip wasn't still a few weeks away.  I'm ready NOW.  

Feeling:  pretty groggy.  For some reason, every spring I have a hard time getting out of bed, even with 7 hours of sleep.  It must be something allergy-related.  

Missing:  my brother and sister.  

Thankful: for healthy children.  A few days ago I was doing some filing in the office and realized I just have one file for each of the kids' medical paperwork since birth, and none of them are anywhere near full.  I told Jason that I can't imagine what it would be like to have to face health issues and how thankful I was for God's blessing of health on our family.  

Craving:  nothing at the moment.  But undoubtedly at some point today, a certain spoon may need to take a dip in a certain peanut butter jar.  

Wondering: when I'm going to find time to shop for our anniversary trip.  

Praying: for daily patience and a good attitude with my wee ones.

Needing: to create multiple spreadsheets for payroll and kind of dreading it.

Thinking: about the naked man in my shower right now.  I know... TMI... but that's how I roll.  

Dreaming: of our family vacay to Nashville this summer and having all of the cousins together again!

Loving: the Monday morning barbell strength class at the gym.  Even loving the soreness this morning because it means results.  

April Picture Post

When Harrison comes over to play, these kids are straight up silly geese.  

Roses on parade! Ava, Anna, and Caleb came to play this month, too.  

Daddy and Hot Sauce - I love these people.

Jax and Em pose with Claire, the big 5-year-old, at her rock star birthday party.

Emerson and Kate.  Kate's gonna be a big sister today!  

Sacked out.  This is my kind of sleep.

They love to climb in these chairs for their book time.

She's giddy about having a brown marker in her hand.  Note the mark on her cheek.  I'm sure at some point I actually took it away from her.

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.