A Positive Way To Start My Day

I just wanted to share a small triumph in my journey. It has been almost exactly 3 months since I have started this journey. DAY 1 was on February 25, 2009 (actually the official first day was a couple days earlier) and I would just like to share a little positive thing that happened this morning. I stepped on the scale and was excited to see that the scale read (drum roll please!!)... 183.6!!
To some of you this may seem like a pretty high number but it was definitely higher. Even to me this seems like a pretty high number (which I am definitely surprised that I'm sharing) but as long as the number keeps going down til I'm at a healthy weight, then I will be happy. I have not been 183 in a long time. As a matter of fact, I think that when I was gaining weight, I actually skipped right over it on the way up (if that's possible.).

Well, I have to get going. I have a soccer game to coach this morning (and next week will be my last game... :-( lonely tear drop) and then we are moving... AGAIN. We have not had a very good experience where we are so we decided to move again. I HATE moving but we have been here for a month and already know that we can't stay. But where are moving to now is WAY better and a couple hundred dollars cheaper. Score for us!

Have a great Saturday everyone! And good luck to all you bloggers out there that are running races this weekend!!

My Hubby Is So Thoughtful

Taylor was so kind as to take a picture of his lunch yesterday and email it to me! He knows that I've been trying to take pictures of my meals (which I haven't done at all today) and he doesn't really like when I do it when we're not at home so I thought this was really cool that he took a picture of his lunch. I thought it was very creative but a little too much hot dog for me. :-) He has three hot dogs covered in melted cheese & relish. And then he added some strawberries on the side. Very creative hubby!
Now I am off to work. Trying to catch up on everyone's blogs today. And hopefully something worthwhile to post tonight. I can't believe it's already going to be the end of the week!

In addition, be sure to check out HangryPants for an opportunity to win some delicious Element Bars. Check it out soon as the contest ends today!!

Weekend Wrap-Up

So, this weekend didn't seem very jam-packed at first but somehow, It got packed! It was a wonderful weekend. I don't have too many pictures so I will keep the words brief because I know most people like to see all the pictures with the posts. And I still have to get use to carrying my camera all over the place taking pictures. So, here we go!

FRIDAY
On Friday, we had Family Fun Friday. Often times we have watched a movie but I'm think that next week we might have to mix it up. Tyler (our 9-year old son) loves movie night because I don't think he got to watch enough movies where he was before he lived with us (may have to write a post on that someday) but I think we need to have some variety. Anyhow, first Tyler and I took a walk down to our local Blockbuster (1pt for TSL) to rent a movie. Since we get a free rental when return our Blockbuster Online video in the store, we definitely had to do that. The movie we rented was The Sword In The Stone. After that we walked (another point for TSL) to Albertson's (local grocery store) to get the food for Family Fun Friday. We basically just bought some ground turkey and some packages of Spanish rice. Then we walked home (another point. YAY!) Roundtrip, the walk was about 1.5 miles. And amazingly, my little Tyler didn't whine or complain the whole time.... but he was looking pretty tired. We didn't have to buy anything else at the store cause we had everything else we needed. I cooked up the ground turkey and the rice. Then I mixed them together. Then I put them in tortillas to make burittos. After they were wrapped I put them on the George Foreman grill for some extra goodness. :-) They were so good! And as for the time for the movie, Taylor (hubby) and I did not last very long. When 9:00 hit, we felt like it was midnight. I don't what happened but we had to call it a night. We had to tell Tyler that we would finish the movie another night. I guess we are getting old. :-) Here are the goods.

Inside the burittos were ground turkey, rice, and cheese. Then after they came off the Foreman, I sprinkled some more shredded cheese on top. On the side we had pineapple slices. In case you haven't noticed, I love fruit but I am lacking on the veggies. I need to change that. And then just for extras we had some Flamin' Hot Cheetos. Sorry no pic. SATURDAY

Saturday morning, we started off with some pancakes with more pineapples on the side. I think pineapple is my favorite fruit! In the pancake mix, I added vanilla and cinammon. It turned out SO good! But clearly I cooked one pancake longer than the other in this picture. Oops. :-) Still tasted good!
After breakfast, we headed out to our soccer game. The whole team consists of 7 players. 4 are allowed to play at a time. And we had THREE kids not come and their parents never let me know that they were not coming. So, the four players I had did an AWESOME job! These are the four players I had:

LYRIC: She is an amazing player. She always plays hard and she listens to instructions very well. Her personality is a definite bonus to this team!
DAYLIE: She loves to play defense. Sometimes I think it's just because she's lazy but she does do a good job of playing defense. But she always wants to stay back. But she came through for us on Saturday!
KRISTINA: She appears to be a shy quiet girl. She is very polite and considerate. She is usally a little bit timid on the field but this Saturday she really was on fire. She was attacking the ball over the field. She was amazing!
TYLER: Last but not least is my son. He has really improved a lot this season. He is actually following directions better and learning to have more control. He played really hard on Saturday and I am very proud of him!

We will just call these players my superstars! None of them have missed a game, except Tyler missed one due to being sick. All the ones that were not here have missed at least two. And there are only 9 games! Anyhow, we had a great game on Satuday!

So, then after we got home, and started doing our Saturday chores, my mother-in-law calls and asks if Tyler can come over to watch a movie with them. This was such a good thing becasue then Taylor and I got to hang out by ourselves. We went to Pick Up Stix, which I had a gift card for. We split Wok Combo which had sweet and sour chicken, steamed brown rice, and an egg roll. It was VERY satisfying! And then after we left there, we went to Golden Spoon to split a New York Cheese Cake Frozen Yogurt. We added strawberries, brownie crumbs, cookie dough, oreo crumbs, and of course hot fudge!!+ It was great! We got to enjoy a couple hours together with just us and we didn't spend a dime!! Well, except the gas to get to those places!! Sorry, no pictures. :-( Bummer because our food and frozen yogurt was really good!

So, then we went back home and dropped off our leftover frozen yogurt. And then we picked up the little one. By the way, we walked to the in-laws when we dropped Tyler off and when we picked him up (More points for TSL!).

So, after we got back, we just chilled at home. Tyler played with his LEGOS and Taylor and I just relaxed some more. Then we started Tyler through his evening routines of shower, chores, bed.

SUNDAY
We started Sunday morning with just some cereal. Had to keep it light because we always go out to lunch after church with the in-laws. Then we headed off to church. We had a guest speaker from Colorado (I think). He was pretty interesting. Basically he talked about having spritual courage is just like having faith. Interesting.

After church, we all headed out to Panera Bread. I just had some Cream of Brocolli soup. I did not want to ruin my appetite for the barbecue later. Usually I get the You Pick Two and get a soup and a sandwich. So, I had to resist. :-)

Then we went home and relaxed for a couple of hours. Then I cut up the watermelon for the BBQ. Around 3ish, we headed out.

The barbecue was great. There were LOTS of good eats and there were some great people there, too (some of which I haven't seen in a couple of years! So, it was kind of like a reunion.

Here's the goods!

BBQ Chicken, Hamburgers, Turkey Burgers, and Hot dogs. The Burgers were the first things done so they went fast and that's why there aren't many in this picture. They were good! Home made patties.

Deviled Eggs made by the lovely host!

Now, this is not actually my plate but it was pretty close. I only added tomato to my burger. I don't this person got all this other stuff because I couldn't even barely take a bite with just the burger and tomato. The burgers were HUGE! On the side baked bean which were delicious and corn on the cob which I heard was amazing but didn't try because of my braces. :-(

The Spread - Great variety of chips, lots of veggies, watermelon, jelly beans, pretzels, etc, etc, etc.... good stuff!
Taylor and I spent a lot of time playing table tennis. We were trying to get three balls going. We could do it for a little while but not too long. Two balls at once worked pretty well, though. It gave me a little workout to work off all the food I ate.
And here are our amazing hosts!! Matt and Bobbi McCormick. Aren't they just beautiful?!?!? I love these guys. They are so down to earth and genuine! I am truly blessed to have them in my life!

So, that pretty much wraps up the weekend. We stayed at the barbecue until about 8:30 talking with everyone but then we decided it was time to put our little man to bed. So, we headed off.

Today we have been invited to a birthday party for Bobbi's niece. And I assume at some time today we will do something for my brother-in-law, Griffin. Nothing has been said yet but his birthday is today and usually we do something at the last minute. So, that will probably be dinner tonight.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend! God Bless!!

Yesterday's Eats and Date Night

YESTERDAY'S EATS

In all actuality I am really only going to show you pictures from yesterday's breakfast. Oh wait! I will also show a picture from my afternoon snack! And the reason I'm not showing the other meals is because they are not interesting. As a matter of fact, I didn't even eat lunch...again! And for dinner, hubby and I had french toast pizza with slices of pineapple on the side. It was great (mostly because it was easy) for date night which I will get to later.

So, yesterday for breakfast, I decided to make some french toast. I use to make french toast ALL the time but haven't for a long time. But last week I went to my beautiful friend, Bobbi's house for breakfast and she made me french toast. So, now I have the craving for it. Here is mine. The mix is two eggs, 1/2 cup of low fat milk, vanilla, and cinammon. And then I top it with powdered sugar. I also made scrambled eggs. There was a little bit of the egg mix so i just added more eggs to the mix (which I've never done before) and scrambled them up. It definitely makes the texture a little different but they were still pretty good. And then I added some leftover slices of oranges.
And then for my afternoon snack, I decided to try to make another Ice Blended Mocha. It tasted great but I still need to add more ice to make it a little thicker. Once I get down just right, then I won't have to buy them at Coffee Bean anymore... that's money in my pocket!! (and another point for TSL. This time I topped it with whipped cream and powder for hot choocolate! Mmm...


DATE NIGHT

In our home, date night is supposed to be on Thursday night but we haven't really done it SOOO long. But last night hubby and I made sure to just relax together. We didn't go out anywhere since we didn't ask my dad to babysit, so we rented a movie (Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull) and just had an easy dinner at home. It was really nice to just relax and just be together without stressing out about the everyday things that bog people down. I don't have any pictures which is fine because there really wasn't anything to take pictures of. Next week we are planning to have a picnic outside after our little monster goes to bed. We are going to put a blanket out in our yard, light some candles, eat, talk, and enjoy the beginnings of summer nights!

So, now I am going to be off to work. And I am definitely glad it's Friday and a 3 DAY WEEKEND!! I hope everyone has a fun, safe holiday weekend!

PLANS FOR THE WEEKEND

Friday - Family Fun Friday, will walk to Blockbuster to rent a movie and walk to the store to by food for Fun Friday.

Saturday - Soccer game in the morning, swimming at in-laws... hopefully child does not act up, RELAX

Sunday - Church, Lunch with In-laws, BBQ

Monday - We amazingly haven't made any plans. Maybe that would be a good day to get a game of ultimate frisbee together in the morning before it gets too hot!

ENJOY YOUR WEEKEND!!

Today's Eats and Farewell to My Midnight

TODAY'S EATS

This morning I woke up pretty tired. At first I was thinking that I was going to just skip breakfast because I was just feeling SO lazy. I don't know what has been going on recently but I have just been feeling so lazy and tired all the time. But this morning I was determined to make myself a hot breakfast no matter what. And I will definitely say that I am glad that I did because it was so good! I made chocolate chip pancakes sprinkled with powdered sugar and a few peanut butter chips on top as well. Then I also had some cut-up pieces of watermelon and a cup of orange juice. I also tried to make my own Ice Blended Mocha (another point for TSL) but it didn't turn out anything like the ones I get at Coffee Bean. It's a work in progress but it still tasted good.

For my hubby's breakfast, I made him one large, chocolate chip pancake that was sprinkled with powdered sugar and had a heart on top made out of peanut butter chips.
Somehow, I managed to not eat lunch today. This actually happens pretty often since I started working again. But amazingly I didn't feel hungry at all until about 7pm. That's probably cause I had such a filling breakfast.

But for dinner, I made Quesadillas, Mac 'N' Cheese with sliced hot dogs, and sliced oranges and strawberries for the hubby. I had almost the same thing but instead of quesadillas (not a big quesadilla fan), I had a frozen french bread pizza. I made the quesadillas with Mission whole wheat tortilla wraps. And the strawberries were so big that I only needed to cut up four! Inside the quesadillas was cheese (obviously!) and thin slices of ham.
So, that sums up all of my eating for the day. I'm surprised I was actually able to take pictures of most of that stuff. Usually I forgot especially when it smells so good. And I am definitely one of those poeple that has to start eating while the food is freshly hot off the stove, oven, or grill.

FAREWELL TO MY MIDNIGHT

So, today was the day that I had to say good bye to my lovely dog, Midnight. I almost cried when the new owners drove away with my dog. I still can't even believe that he's not with us anymore because he was, I mean he IS, such a great dog. Here is the last picture of him I will ever have. I took it today while we were waiting for his new owner's.
I will have to post some other random pics of him on another post just for the heck of it. Well, I need to get to bed. I really want to try to get up at 5am tomorrow so I can get in some exercise. I've REALLY slacked since we moved but I really need to get my schedule under control. I hope everyone's week has been going well so far. Be encouraged that it's halfway over and we (most of us) have a 3-day weekend!

Question of the Day: What are the exciting plans that everyone has for Memorial Day weekend?

GOOD NIGHT!!

"Midnight" Madness and Dancing With The Stars

So, I would like to introduce you all to my wonderful Black Labrador... His name is Midnight. I absolutely love this dog and I am very saddened to inform you all that we have to find a new home for him. We recently moved to a place where the owner originally told us that we could bring him with us here. Well, almost a month after we moved in, we have been informed that we can no longer have him here anymore. So, we have had the stress of trying to find an immediate new home for our awesome dog! We have been blessed by the sister of one of my co-workers who is going to take him and I know she is going to take good care of him. It is a very bitter-sweet feeling. I am so sad to lose my Midnight but I am definitely very happy that he will still be in a good home. I will very much miss him! :-( Can you believe that I am actually tearing up just writing about this?!?!?!?!? So, tomorrow afternoon, my Midnight will be living with another family. So, moving on because that is very sad to me. Sorry to be so depressing...

So, what did I eat today? Hmm.....

This morning I simply had a bowl of cereal with some strawberries. This is the Stater Bros. (local grocery store) brand version of Honey Nut Cheerios. I was being pretty lazy so I just had this bowl of cereal and a glass of orange juice.
Then for lunch, I tried one of these CedarLane Burritos. At first I wasn't quite sure if I was going to enjoy but I actually liked it better than I thought I would. I'm not quite sure how healthy it (it is a frozen burrito, after all) but here are the nutrition facts. They were pretty filling but kind of pricey.
I accompanied this burrito with some Salsa Verde Doritos and some grapes. And I brought them all to work in my handy-dandy lunch box that I got from coaching my son's basketball team.

And as for my dinner, it so ridiculous that I chose not to take a picture. It was just one of those French Bread Pizzas by Red Baron. Totally not healthy but I love them and they're easy.

DANCING WITH THE STARS
So, I just finished watching the finale for Dancing With The Stars. I don't know about you all, but I LOVE this show! It makes me really want to take some dance classes. I love to see the progress that some of the stars make - especially the ones that start off not so good and then become one of the contenders. Anyhow, tonight was a really good finale! And the person that I wanted to win was the winner! Good Job Shawn!!! (not that she would ever read this) i would love to be on this show.... Too bad I'm not a star. :-( I just wanted to throw that out about this show because I really enjoy it.

I hope everyone's week is going well so far! Mine has started off rough but I hope it gets better from here. I'm sure it will!

Weekend Wrap Up

So, I was quite dreading the social worker visiting but it actually was not nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. This social worker was actually somewhat reasonable. When the FFA (Foster Family Agency) social worker came, she nitpicked at EVERYTHING which was so annoying. I asked her to wait a few days since we just moved in but she said it wouldn't matter as long as we had the basics (smoke detectors, fire extinguishers, first aid kits, and stuff like that) but then she started dinging us for having boxes lying around and little things like that. It was SO annoying.... but at least this worker was so much more understanding.

Since I was already late to work, I decided not to ride my new bike to work because I wanted to get in as many hours as possible. But I did have to take a picture of just for you guys. It's a picture kind of taken at night so I will definitely get a picture, probably tomorrow morning when I am about to ride to work. But this will do for now.

It was a fairly inexpensive bike (especially with the cans and bottles I recycled to help pay for it). It is a Triax Mountain Bike. Notice that it still has all the store tags on it! Yep, I've actually been riding it like that! :-) Such a loser, huh?

We were supposed to have Family Fun Friday but my son was still kind of sick but he was being such butt-head because it was refusing to eat or drink anything that actually might help him get better and all he wanted was junk food. So, we cancelled Family Fun Friday and gave my son some vegetable soup which he absolutely hated and refused to eat. Hubby and I had vegetable soup, two slices of pizza and some mixed fruit. We had all kinds of fruit available so I just cut up a pear, a banana, and some strawberries and mixed it together.
That pretty much wraps up Friday. So, moving on to Saturday...

Saturday morning I coached my son's soccer team BUT without my son. We made him stay home on sick bed because he was still sick and refusing to eat. Well, since Tyler was still refusing to eat, we put him on "sick bed" all day on Satuday. He claimed that he didn't care. But when he found out that I planned a suprise pizza party for the soccer team, he was NOT happy. So, he completely missed out on that. That cost me 5 points on the TSL challenge but it was totally worth it to have the party for my team. Unfortunately, I am a lame loser and have zero pictures from the party. Lame!

And the rest of Saturday was pretty non-eventful. I was pretty tired after the team party. I wanted to go to bed early. And then when Sunday came, I woke up with a huge headache so I skipped church and tried to rest. Unfortunately, my son was still being a butt-head today so there wasn't much time for rest. But I am going to sign off for now and hopefully get some rsst. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!! Will check up on some blogs in the morning! Good night!

OH!! I just remembered that I wanted to show you what I made for my friend for her birthday! It probably might seem cheesy but I thought it was cool. I made the coupon on my computer cut it out and glued on foam paper. I hope she likes it:-) 1 pt for TSL!!

Good night!!

Friday At Last

So, it's finally Friday and the morning has started off kind of rough. My son was having some major attitude. Last night he refused his dinner which was soup (with lots of veggies) so I, of course, warmed that up for his breakfast as I always do when he refuses dinner. Well, he tried to refuse it again this morning and only got partially finished. He took FOREVER getting ready. He missed the bus and he was late to school. Grrr. In addition I have Tyler's adoption social worker (one of the THREE social workers that we have to deal with for Tyler...ugh) is coming by today to see our new place so he can inspect it. Well, techinically, it is 10:12 and he was suppopsed to be here at 10:00. So, right now I'm just waiting...Oh wait! He's here now! Will write later!!

Hooray For Hump Day!!

Well, honestly today was a pretty decent day. It started off wonderful (Thank you Bobbi!!) and it ended great, too. So, let's start from the beginning.

This morning my wonderful friend, Bobbi, was so kind as to make breakfast for me. She not only made me breakfast but she made a WONDERFUL breakfast. She made me some amazing french toast that had some peanut butter spread and top and was topped with bananas and blackberries. It was SO good. She also had fruit on the side and she made fresh squeezed orange juice as well. Is she amazing or what?!?!?!? Well, I think she's amazing!! :-) Here are some pics of the wonderful breakfast.
Then after breakfast, I brought Bobbi to work to help her not to drive for the TSL Challenge. And then after that, I went straight to work which was a pretty normal day. Nothing too exciting happened

I have suddenly gotten so tired. So, I think that I am for the most part going to skip the rest of my day and get to the good part. Basically, I got a new bike today!! Woo hoo! I saved up some cans and bottles to pay for a portion of it (not as much as I thought the recycling would add up to) and I was able to get a bike today. Unfortunately I won't be able to ride it to work tomorrow because I have to go straight from work (early) to pick up Tyler and take him to a psych visit. But if he didn't have that appointment, I would be riding my bike to work tomorrow. it's been a while since I have actually owned a bike so I am pretty excited. I rode it around a little bit just in our yard and my legs were already starting to get tired. That doesn't look to promising for me. :-( Well, I have to get off to bed. I will post some pics of my new bike tomorrow. Hope every had a great Hump Day!

My Boy Is Home Sick

This morning when I woke my son up for school, he started complaining about his head hurting and was trying to tell me he didn't feel good. Well, being the hard-nosed tough mom that I am, I sent him to school anyways. In the past he has tried to pretend to be sick so that he could get the nice, cushy sick treatment. Well, today I thought that I would just send him to school and if his teacher could be convinced that he was sick then I would just come back and get him. Well, she did call and say that he wasn't feeling well. Apparently he wasn't too bad but he got worse as they got in to the day a little bit more. So, off I went to go pick him up. And here he is, all laid up in bed. Can you believe that he said it was okay for me to take this picture?
So, since Tyler is home sick, I had to take the day off of work. Now, I was kind of bummed because we need the money but it's also a good thing since I really feel that I just need a day to myself and I think this the closest to a day to myself that I am going to get. But since I have the time, I might as well update a little on my daily eats.

Yesterday's Breakfast; Very Simple Toast and Eggs

Yesterday's Mid-day Snack: Marble cake with chocolate frosting. I made this for myself on Mother's Day! :-) But have been sharing it with the fam. I wonder if that counts for a point for the TSL challenge. Hmmm....

Yesterday's Lunch: Turkey sandwich with a banana. Accidentally took a bite before I remembered to take the picture. Oops.

Yesterday's Dinner: Turkey burgers on the George Foreman Grill. Also had some chips on the side.I forgot to take a picture of dinner. Have to get use to taking pictures of what I eat.

Didn't seem like yesterday had balanced meals. There were some healthy things in there but I can't believe I didn't add any fruit to any of those meals especially since we have so much fruit in our house.

As for this morning, I made some delicious pancakes which I also forgot to take a picture of. They just smell so good when they are piiping hot, I just had to dig in. :-)

And since I have been home I have done some laundry and tidied our bedroom which has been a disaster since we moved. And now I will have to sign off and get some more stuff done. Have a wonderful day everyone! And tomorrow morning I get to enjoy the wonderful french toast from Mrs. Bobbi McCormick! Woo hoo!