Back to the Grind

With Summer fading away and the school year about to start, it's becoming more apperant that I need to get my family on a schedule. It's hard going from no commitments to needing a stringent routine!

I'm going try cleaning my house by days. Monday will be kitchen, Tuesday bathrooms, Wednesday living room, Thursday bedrooms & Fridays will be dedicated to organizing. Obviously laundry and tidying will be daily chores still, but hopefully going by a schedule will help me to feel like my house is not always dirty. I can live in a messy house, but not a dirty one!

Going back to school also means homework. To be perfectly honest, I have never been one to enforce homework. Last year Jax almost never turned in his homework packets on time. That's not really a great look for the PTO V.P., is it? So, this year I will become the mean ol' mom who makes her kids do homework the instant they get home ( I NEVER did my homework when I was in school) but it's not really a cool mom move to stunt your kids' learning, either!

I am also accepting offers for playdates. I could easily get in the groove of cleaning/erranding all day and that's not really fair to poor Ellie, who's always had a sibling home to play with all day. So far so good with that. Lizzie and I will be taking the babies to swim lessons in October, and  Jen and I will continue meeting one day a week like we have all summer, which I'm so happy about!

I know I'll be super busy between doing my household stuff, playing, PTO stuff, Advocare business & maintaining a healthy lifestyle... but hopefully if I become a more regimented person, it will all be a breeze!

bring on the sunshine!

 sprinkler+trampoline=summer fun!

 our new suits... we opted for classic black and white this season.

 cuteness

  i SO love her little buddha belly

 ellie always gets told she looks just like boomer, but you can see the similarities between these two in this pic. it melts me how much he loves his baby sister.

my man 

WHA?!

The other day my neighbor Olivia stopped by to have me take a look at her measurements because she's about to do the 24 day Challenge (I'm so excited for her, BTW) along with her measuring tape. I pulled out my stats and started going over exactly where she should have measured her waist and happened to notice my number was not the same as 17 days prior. I thought, hmmm....maybe Pam measured me wrong?  I checked my iliac crest. Wrong again. Maybe Olivia's tape is different from Xfit's tape? Checked my hips. Different. This time I realized that there was no mistake... I have actually lost even more inches since the challenge! I literally had goosebumps and teared up. I couldn't believe it! I haven't even tried. While on the Challenge I made sure to be SUPER strict with my diet, but have given myself WAY too much freedom since. Taking my MNS religiously everyday is the only thing I've not slipped up on, to be perfectly honest.

So yesterday, on Day 44 of my Challenge I decided I wanted to be weighed and measured again. I lost another 2 pounds and another 5 inches (pretty much all in my midsection/hips)!!! With the help of Advocare products I have lost 9.5 inches and 8 pounds in the last 44 days! CRAZYNESS!!! I believe in these products wholeheartedly and am so excited to help the people I care about change their lives too!

RESULTS ARE IN! (edited to add pics!)

SKI TO SEA:

In our leg, which was canoe: we placed 253rd overall and 23rd for division.

Our team placed 360th overall which is great, and finished 20th in our division.

It was an amazing experience I hope to do again. I'm so happy I was able to accomplish such a huge feat hand in hand with Jason. We did so awesome for it being our first time!

24 DAY CHALLENGE:

I made it through my 24 day challenge and did well overall. It was definitely a trying experience at times, but it was well worth it. I finally broke my plateau and am hoping by continuing the MNS portion I will lose/gain even more (if that makes any sense at all).

I lost 6 pounds, 6.4% of my body fat and 4.5"

DAY 24

LAST DAY!!!!!

It's the last day of my challenge. I may do one extra day because I have an extra day's worth of supplies, but it's totally not mandatory anymore! YAY! I made it! Wahoozie!

In the beginning it felt like it would take forever, but it really has flown by. At times it was rough and emotional and challenging. You'd think maybe I'd have expected that, it is in the name for pete's sake! I tweaked the plan a bit to suit me better. And cheated a bit here and there. BUT i think it's helped change my way of thinking about food. I know I can go a month without eating out. I know I can go without indulging in every craving. I will be replacing my bad choices for healthier options (you finally won the whole grain pasta war, jason!). I've learned a little bit more about what foods to eat and when. Overall, this experience has taught me a lot and that makes it worth the time and effort. Money well spent.

I'm a little bit worried about my weigh-in taking measurements. Not for any good reason, I just feel like I have reverse body dysmorphia (let's pretend that's a real condition) because I feel like I look better in real life than I actually do. I see pics of myself and think "Who's that? Surely it's not me. I look way better than that!" But whatevs... that's a okay problem to have I guess. Anywho... I may have my stats taken today, or maybe first thing friday. I just really hope that my numbers reflect the way I feel!

I used gum to curb my sweet tooth. I've never chewed so much gum in my life-I constantly felt like a Valley girl!

 CHEATS
*spoonful of PB most nights for a late night snack
*1 jolly rancher at a weak moment
*low carb tortilla on a burn day
*dressing on my salads(the best I could find,2TBS at most/watered down)
*potatoes in my breakfast scramble on race day + larger portion
*changing up my ratio to 2 burn days:1 refuel day

We have a date planned for Friday to go to Red Robin for fries smothered in ketchup and to see the new Snow White movie with Charlize Theron. Also, I have one of Lizzie's famous peanut butter cup brownies in a tupperware that's been taunting me from my counter since our BBQ on Monday! MMMMM!!!!!

is she on nyquil?

tomorrow is ski to sea. i have a cold. no fun. hope i get more rest tonight than i did last night. i really need it. on a positive note... i found biceps in the mirror today whilst doing my hair. that is all. goodnight.

Failures and Triumphs

So today was the last mid-session fit test. Steps. I was so super pumped up about it that I decided to go at 7am (which is unheard of for this non early bird). My goal at the beginning of this session was to do core workouts at home on off days so that by midsession my situp fit test improved enough to get me to 650. Well, my situp fit test was yet another bust, so I had to make it up in steps. 308 of them. I was going at an awesome pace and for one reason or another, only mustered up 302. I was beyond pissed at myself. I had a very short pity party, about 2 minutes worth, in which I shed a few tears. But brushed myself off and turned that into a celebration instead. I pulled off breaking 300 steps, which is totally awesome! Also, I beat my high score of 589 AND raised my total fit test score from 533@ the beginning of this session to 644 this time. That's 111 points people!!  PLUS... I now have some added motivation to meet my goal by EOS. The right way. By working on my weakness on off days, which is my core strength.

To sum up the way I'm feeling about not meeting my goal, AWESOME & MOTIVATED!!

Happy Monday!

I'm off to a great start of the morning and week. I woke up and stretched, greeted my boys with a smile and powered through my fiber drink, got on the computer and saw that my sweet baby brother had accepted my friend request on Facebook. And not only did he accept me, he actually asked to "add me as his sister" for the whole world to see! I know I shouldn't be moved by such a small thing, but I teared up a little over it. Siblings SHOULD automatically do those things. I guess I kind of feel like he's all of a sudden proud that I'm his sister? Whatever. I'll take it!

I need to make beanbags for the Sockhop toss game today and clean the house, but I'll throw on my favorite Pandora station and rock it out. Later is my favorite fit-test, pushups! Not that I'm particularly great at pushups, I'm just not as pathetic at them as I am some others. Like situps.

I hear a babygirl babbling. She may look like me, but she almost always wakes up on the right side of the bed. That's all daddy!

because blogs without pics are boring

rough

today has been rough. i've been cranky and moody. i'd like to think it's not anything to do with my current diet, but i'm pretty sure it is. i was ticked this morning at my mom for being late, which was probably just because that in turn made lunch late. i was literally bummed that i missed my afternoon snack (it's seriously what i look forward to from 10:30am on). i was seriously near b-word-y at dinner because it was not ANYTHING i'd be excited about. this better all be worth it in the end!  GRR!  i think it's time i go to bed and try again tomorrow.

DAY 1

**This post is basically just for my personal record, but if you're interested in the challenge and what it's all about... by all means, go crazy and continue reading!

Today was day 1 of the cleanse portion of the challenge.
*I don't think I've ever drank so much water in a day in my life! A gallon in a day is absurd, but it is needed to help flush out all the grossies.

*The fiber drink makes me gag. Like nearly as bad as a glucose test, though in a different way. It is gritty and pulpy and slimy and not awful tasting, but not good either. Tomorrow I will try it as a "smoothie" and blend it in ice and drink it with one of Jason's ginormous milkshake straws. Maybe not as much will hit my tongue that way!

*I have a very sensitive gag reflex... but eating when I'm not hungry does it too.  I'm used to getting a craving and indulging when I'm not hungry, but it's really hard to eat food you don't necessarily like much when you aren't hungry.

*Having everything pre-made and portioned out makes it SO EASY. The only thing I ever had to think about today was the schedule, which I know will get to be second nature in a few days.

*I have found that I look forward to my snack times. I love fruit and nuts, so this is my favorite part ;)

*I was measured and weighed today and was up a pound and down a percent (I think) for body fat since September. I'm glad I haven't done it since then, because man alive, is that discouraging! I know I'm changing physically. Slowly, but still... the numbers don't reflect it :(  Now that I know this information, it makes me excited to jumpstart my metabolism with this challenge!

I love a good challenge!

After hearing lots of fellow gym members' testimonials about Advocare's 24 day challenge off and on for nearly a year, I've decided to buck up and give it a go. I start tomorrow and I'm pretty excited/nervous.  Jason and I spent literally the whole day and night from 8am-10pm, prepping our food for the week. Less a 30 minute Costco trip, 2 hrs at mom's doing yardwork, and 2 hrs in town for our first softball game (that we WON) and dinner/family yahtzee game. That's 8+ hours of prep in 3 shifts!! I do believe we have WAY too much food, though. we'll see how much we'll have wasted come next sunday.

click on photo to enlarge

Dinners for the week include *shredded chicken tacos (mine will be in a lettuce shell)lots of veggies and black beans/rice *turkey meatballs w/ roasted veggies and wildrice/quinoa mix *turkey breast dinner salad and rice (twice) *chef salad *chili *stirfry w/ rice 

The biggest thing I'm hoping to get out of this is healthier eating habits. I wouldn't call myself a junk food junkie or anything, but I know I could benefit from some of the things this program makes you stick to. Plus, Jason would be SO happy if we cut out white flour from our diets completely. As it is, he buys his own pancake mix and has made every attempt to get me to not puke in my mouth at the mere mention of whole grain spagetti noodles. He's so evolved (eyeroll). Also, if we get into the habit of preparing all our meals for the week on sundays, it would ease a lot of dinner related tension. Jason would never get mad that I don't have dinner waiting for him, but I know it's his longtime daydream. Those are my two goals going into this. I honestly haven't really had any expectations physically. I did make sure to have Jason take "before" pics, because I was told I probably should.  IF there is noticable change bodily, I will post them with "after" pics when my 24 days is up. Which will happen to be June 1st. Along with that, I will get my weight and measurements taken tomorrow and again right after.  Again... IF there's a change, I will post those too.

*note to self: in said "before" pics, you were wearing your size M white cami, not the L, and your nude bra (to keep the pics fair)

Not much is cuter...

Yard and Garden April 2012

 

th

                                                                                                         this post is mostly for my own record of how things are growing. i'm sure that i'll appreciate pics of the trees and such in 20 years when they are all big and full. also, i know grandma appreciates seeing things like this since they don't get out this way very often ;)  

**GRANDMA: click on the pics to see them bigger!

Upgrades

I've been meaning to start decorating the house for the longest time. We had IKEA clip frames on the wall for awhile, and that just felt really cheap looking. We upgraded frames (still IKEA) and I ordered this personalized vinyl off of etsy. Now we just need new family pics to put in them!





We recently bought a new rug and I upgraded our old storage baskets for table under the TV. I've been searching for some kid-friendly decorations for the empty shelves above the baskets, and found the family sign at Ross for $4. it was an ugly red, so I just repainted it the blue that's in the rug. Now I need to figure out what the whoozie to put in the other spot?





Finally, when ordering the vinyl for the family picture wall, I came across this family rules one. I knew it would be perfect for the huge empty wall above the stairs.





We still have a lot to do, but I've finally got the ball rolling...3 years after we moved in. Hey, better late than never, right?!

*Tif, I hope you aren't sad I didn't have you make these for me. It would have ended up saving me money, but I was lazy and just wanted to avoid the extra steps. I appreciate that you were willing to do it for me, though :D

funnies

out running errands, mama opens the car door for boomer

B: "thank you gentleman"

mama: "ahem...excuse me?!"

B: "OH! sorry. (sheepish grin) thank you gentle ma'am"

he's so witty. just like his daddy.

trendsetter?!

Boomer loves when I ask him to pick Ellie and himself out clothes for the day.

*basketball shorts/tie combo
*4th of july shirt in march+teal+pink and purple striped leggings.

On the homefront

Today we sat down with Larry, the guy who drew our house plans, to discuss an addition to our house. We were told to bring in a sketch of what we were thinking for him to jump off of. We pretty much planned it ourselves and he fiddled with it so everything could be built to code and whatnot. Sooo... the first step in the process is done! Next step is taking some precise measurements to send him, then he'll make the official blueprint plans, then all we'll have to worry about is how to pay for it! aside from actually building it, that is! Pretty exciting!! We will be adding a big dining room off of the back of the house and a decent sized mudroom. Which will mean no more tracking dirt through the house and dirty hands can be washed in the utility sink!!! maybe, just maybe, my bathroom will be clean for more than half a day! And above all that will be a big bedroom. We'll have to switch around the upstairs bathroom a bit to make room for a hallway to the new room, but it's all doable!

In other equally exciting news, for the past few weeks I've been taking Ellie to the potty on a regular basis. I even bought her a potty seat for the toilet last week because she was on the pot so often. The girl is pretty regular, so most the time I can anticipate when she needs to #2 it. Almost every morning she goes. obviously she still goes in her diaper throughout the day, but I make sure to take her to the potty everytime she gets a diaper change and most the time she tinkles while there. Tonight she surprised me and Jason by getting this really panicked look on her face. Jason said to her, "What? Did you just see an alien?!" she was pooping and realized that's not the place for it! We ran to the bathroom and she finished the job there. She was so proud of herself, but we were even prouder. Our baby is turning into a big girl and it's bittersweet.

Little Miss Sassafrass

Just in the past week or so, our sweet daughter has really been finding her voice. At first it was just singing and babbling in her own little language, that turned into her starting to expect you to decipher said language. Which in turn has resulted in a whole lot of tears and most recently... SCREAMING. It is surprising how many more decibels she has in her little lungs compared to boys. The boys never screamed like that. The poor dear is so frustrated with not being able to communicate. I'm getting frustrated too! I think it's time to start teaching her some signs. I never really felt like the boys needed signs. Jax talked really early and Boomer was just totally chill.

Please, for the love of Pete, if you see us out in public and witness the shrieking... DO NOT REACT!!

random

we've been up to a lot in the last month, but it's all pretty random stuff.

i made the kids heart shaped pancakes for valentines day breakfast.

we've always known jax was smart, but recently he proved it to the everyone else. his teacher called me in to the class one day while i was at the school doing PTO stuff. i was nervous but she told me it was good news. she wanted to share with me his test scores-he tested at mid to end of second grade level in math and reading! that's a grade to a grade and a half ahead of where he's supposed to be!
jax had his last basketball game and finally made his first basket with 5 minutes to spare. his coach was so awesome and made sure the other kids passed him the ball often that last game. he was the only kid who hadn't gotten a basket yet. he's just very considerate and passed the ball whenever a kid would ask him to. he learned so much and we're so proud of how much he progressed and that he pushed through frustrating times. we're excited for what's next...he's deciding between baseball and soccer.

jax also lost his first top tooth yesterday. he looks so dang cute when he smiles. he's been practicing with all the different things he can fit in his gap. last night it was a carrot stick. too funny.

boomer had his last hip hop dance class complete with recital of the dance he learned. it was super cute and he's a natural. he's such a cool little man, so open to and excited about new experiences. that's where he's just like his daddy ;)

ellie said "jax" for the first time this month, is so close to jumping, is at the stage where she has her own language that noone understands. she's a petite little miss, in size 18month clothes, she's still the only kid of mine who has ever worn the "right" size clothes. she's VERY much a great-grandpa's girl, is an awesome eater, loves shoes, builds lego towers with her bubbas, swimming, anything frilly and pretty. she hates clips in her hair and having her hair washed. she loves looking at books but don't you dare make her sit on your lap through an entire story. she's a sassy little thing and has recently perfected the art of "mean-muggin'".

the other day helpful little boomer decided to unbuckle ellie in the time it took jason to get out and open her door. she tumbled right out and took a headfirst dive into the driveway. she had a HUGE goose egg on her forehead and i was terrified she had a skull fracture or internal bleeding or something. of course, i overreact while jason is mr.cucumber. i hate that. but i'm glad for it too. i don't know how it would work having two drama queens in one marriage.

jason and i are still going strong with bootcamp. he's smoking hot already, i'm more of a tortoise when it comes to results. but i'm okay with that. i've been slowly changing bad habits. one at a time. i gave up soda over a year ago, didn't have one sip of eggnog over the holidays, and this season, i'm giving up cadbury mini eggs. i LOVE those things, but end up eating way too many. i don't think this one will be so hard because i'm not giving up chocolate all together. i'm not really sure what will be next yet. there aren't too many more vices to give up. i need to start adding healthy habits into my routine. like ab workouts on my off days. i keep saying i'm going to do it, but haven't followed through. also, i need to add more veggies to my diet and actually take the vitamins i'm supposed to. i recently bought a bottle of apple cider vinegar because dr.oz said adding a shot of it to a large glass of icewater will increase your metabolism by 30%. i haven't tried it yet. i'm a bit scared to. it sounds really gross!

potty talk

i'll start by saying i totally know that my baby will not be potty trained for probably years, BUT... she totally pooped on the toilet tonight! we were letting her have some nakey girl time and she started showing signs of needing to poo. so i stuck her on the toilet and we talked a bit and then she did it! i thought for a split second after she went that maybe that was a bad idea and she could have been traumatized by it, but she thought it was pretty neat. anyway, just had to write down ellie pooped on the potty at 14months because i have a terrible memory.