May he always be amazing.....

Here is the dedication to my Sean; I can't believe he's 13. Thirteen things (or so) I love about him:
1) He's a great big brother.....teaches his siblings things (and maybe a few he shouldn't)

2) He will share even when it isn't easy to.

3) He is brave and adventurous; although watching him snow-ski makes me cringe b/c he is Kamakazi man.

4) He always has a smile on his face.

5) He LOVES dogs and if Fritz slept with him it would be perfection.

6) Much like his Momma - LOVES seafood and would eat crab, shrimp, fish everyday if he could.

7) He loves to be outdoors; he prefers sunshine, surf, snow, and fresh air to video games anyday of the week.

8) He humors me with constant photo ops; never-ending nicknames; and even kissing me before he leaves for school.

9) He enjoys team sports and respects his coaches. Coach Eric is his favorite baseball coach ever. We will miss him terribly.

 

10) He is fiercely competitive. He will give you everything he has and leave it all on the table.

 

11) He loves New Orleans Saints football; Angels baseball; and the LSU Tigers. Looking forward to attending all sorts of sports in the Dallas area that involve our favorite teams.....first up Angels vs. Rangers this summer :)

12) He is a great friend. He is loyal, funny, and wears his heart on his sleeve.

13) He is handsome....his curly blond hair (when it's long) and his blue eyes melt my heart. How did this 8lb.6oz. bald baby become a teenager so fast.

Now I have to go and measure to see if he is officially taller than me. He said "it's my present to you, Mom." I'll grab a tissue on the way because typing this post has made me cry.

 

 

Sometimes survival mode is good enough

Things have been pretty routine and smooth overall. Ya know, the regular routine of work, homework, making dinner, dishes, etc. 

Today started off better than usual, with warm grits on the stove and hot chicken soup in thermoses for lunches. I've been battling a sore throat and a bit of a cold so they sounded good. The day was rolling along nicely. Work went smoothly then I lost track of time at the park with the kids afterschool and forget to pick up Maggie on time. Oooops......then it sorta went down hill. She and I headed to Sprint to get Sean's 13th(!) bday gift; it only took two hours. Thanks to security questions and passwords we can't remember, combined with a husband in TX who is the main account holder, it was a bit of a fiasco to get my dear son his Iphone 4S. (His excitement will outweigh the annoyance I'm sure.)  Disaster averted, I headed home to toss together dinner and my voice is d.o.n.e. My cold has settled into laryngitis (last time I had this was when Amanda was in ICU; so stress = laryngitis for me I guess). Not my best dinner.....popcorn-coated chicken, Kraft mac n' cheese, and raw carrots/cucumbers with ranch.....sad, but they got feed. I tossed some extra chicken strips into the oven to bake so I could make chicken salad and off I trotted to attempt to read with Amanda. Well, let's just say, the strips got forgotten. I won't even feed it to Fritz.

It makes for a funny picture-of-the-day I guess.

Completely voice-less I stumbled through bedtime routine and tackled the mound of dishes. Here, I sit drinking the remains of my hours-old caramel latte and munching an oatmeal raisin cookie. Not even, chocolate chip because I gave that up for Lent.

I'll pass on a do-over of today, but can I go back to Monday when Ian made homemade dot-to-dot messages for me to complete......





I'm so glad that I'm still rolling with my picture-a-day goal because sometimes looking back makes looking forward easier. Looking forward to tomorrow isn't easy when my 2nd child turns 13!

"Holding it together"

Before Collin left for Texas, Ian informed him that he wasn't sure I could "hold it together" for very long. (I think this is hilarious, albeit true) So it's been a week and I'm doing ok 'holding it together'. I've surely had my moments of insanity but I had those long before the added miles between my husband and I. It's pretty much our hamster wheel of a routine so I can't complain. It's just really lonely. Sigh. Doing this solo isn't easy but now we have a light at the end of the tunnel.

Yes, our contract on a house started today!!!! We will soon exit this little cracker box we call home. The kids are beyond excited to have their own rooms; I am excited that the Xbox will be OUT of my living room; and we are all excited about some elbow room. Not sure we have an official countdown timeline just yet, but I'm sure the time will fly. For now, I'm thinking Spring Break........

Here is a picture of the new place we hope to call home soon -

Happy to have a house that ISN'T STUCCO!!!!!!

Food, glorious Food

Meal planning time again......all set until March 1st! Feel free to share some ideas and/or snag some of mine:
2/2 - baked potato bar with cantaloupe and strawberries
2/3 - Superbowl! hamburger/hot dogs, chips, etc......NOT counting calories
2/4 - beef stew over creamy polenta
2/5 - baked ziti with Italian sausage; baked eggplant
2/6 - pork chops, perogies, stmd. broccoli
2/7 - oven-fried chicken, beans, salad
2/8 - take n' bake pizza (Mom scrapbooking)
2/9 - bbq shrimp, sauteed green beans, homemade applesauce
2/10 - chicken piccata, brown rice, stmd. broccoli
2/11 - turkey tettrazini, salad
2/12 - Mardi Gras! red beans and rice, french bread (maybe make a pecan pie)
2/13 - pulled pork sandwiches, coleslaw, garlic steak fries
2/14 - tuna melts, fruit salad
2/15 - meatloaf, mashed potatoes, green peas
2/16 - Boboli, make your own pizza (saus., pepp., veggies)
2/17 - herb-grilled chicken, roasted red potatoes, stmd carrots
2/18 - ham steaks, scalloped potatoes, soy beans
2/19 - tacos/chicken quesadillas, refried beans
2/20 - lasagna, salad, garlic bread
2/21 - crab cakes w/ lemon aioli, green beans, risotto
2/22 - Sean is 13! Chip-HALL-tole (homemade burritos/ Chipotle style)
2/23 - chef salad (ham, turk., hb eggs, celery, cuc., bell pepp, bac. bits, avoc., carrot, lettuce, cheese)
2/24 - pork loin stuffed with spiced peaches, stmd broccoli, wild rice blend
2/25 - roasted whole chicken, couscous, steamed cauliflower w/cheese
2/26 - spaghetti w/meatballs, salad, garlic bread
2/27 - hearty minestrone soup, crusty bread, fresh melon
2/28 - baked fish, baked sweet potato, sauteed spinach
3/1 - popcorn-coated chicken, salad, mac n cheese

WOOT! So excited to not think about dinner for another month. The kids love it and have told me multiple times "I really like knowing what's for dinner." I like being able to log in the calories for my fitness pal/counter thing. AND I'm happy to say that except for the night out with Collin to The Habit while I was scrapbooking, our family did not eat out ONCE last month. I am really trying to spend money on good food and not eating out (too $$$$, too bad for you, blah, blah)

To answer a couple of questions that friends have asked:
1) I shop at Albertson's and Sprouts. I make an ingredients list twice a month. I go in the beginning of the month and again around the 16th or 17th. I buy meat when it's on sale or even clearance. I use coupons as much as I can for all the extra stuff like yogurt, cheese, toilet paper, etc. Buy store brand stuff; not loyal to any labels. Most of my produce comes from Sprouts because the prices are amazing; seafood comes from there as well; I buy bulk stuff there too (flax seed meal, nuts, couscous, brown sugar, etc.).
2) I shop only at Costco WITH a list. Things like butter, granola bars for lunches, eggs, lunch meat, canned chicken, trash bags, choc.chips, kitchen wipes. You have to have tunnel vision and avoid the samples (empty calories and way too much temptation). Trust me - I know how good those little chicken sandwiches are, Ma'am; AND why am I drinking this smoothie stuff because I will never buy it; Wait, maybe I do need that super-deluxe-mega-awesome-soup-making-blender.
3) I try to bake from scratch on a regular basis. I make chocolate chip cookies and banana bread (and add in wheatgerm and flax seed meal, muhahahaha)
4) We have family dessert on Sundays. Sometimes I make something; sometimes it's a Sara Lee cheesecake; sometimes it's an angel food cup with berries and whip cream.

BUT before you think my kids only eat healthy.....let it be known, they eat ice cream or popsicles after school every day!!!! (Did you know Blue Bunny is cheap at Walmart?) :)

Hmmmmm, maybe I know what they should give up for Lent?

Re-focus one day at a time

(was supposed to post on 1/25 but I have internet connection issues)

 

No matter what your weight, you have to be comfortable in your own skin. Some people will say “you are fine, don’t stress” but I am one of those people who is NOT comfortable in my own skin. And I’m the only one who can fix it. So along with meal planning, I HAVE to jump on the exercise bandwagon. As much as I would like to say ‘I’m allergic to exercise’, I’m not. To kick myself into gear, today I downloaded two apps…..a Fooducate one that gives nutrition values, grades the item, food value pts. for diet programs, and suggests alternate food choices; the second app is the MyFitnessPal Calorie Counter. Super cool! – I can input my daily food intake, input exercise, note water consumption, and make notes. It also calculates how many calories I can eat along with exercise to meet my goal weight.

Here’s the tricky part --- I can only eat 1200 calories. Huh? What? Say that again? Soooooo, after entering my food intake up to 4pm I was in the RED and heading toward dinner. Lovely! Just when I thought I had a good day.  Here is what I ate today…..

Breakfast – banana, one slice of ww toast with tbsp. peanut butter

Snack – 60cal Colby jack cheese stick with ½ cup soybeans

Lunch – small piece leftover chicken pot pie, an orange

Snack – piece cinnamon chocolate cake from Starbucks (THIS is the killer, grrrr)

So, up until 4pm, I had three servings of fruit and veg and about 9 cups of water. And I technically had no calories left for dinner. Seriously?!?!?! I have to eat dinner. I logged it in and found myself majorly in the red. Dinner was two tuna patties, roasted red potatoes, and steamed carrots. I got my five a day of fruit/veg in and THREE more cups of water.

AND, in my desperation, found myself exercising at 9:45PM! 25 minutes of Just Sweat on the Xbox, two sets of sit-ups/leg lifts/crunches. Better than a sharp stick in the eye, but geez the program said I would lose a total of two pounds over five weeks if I kept up with my days like today. NO WONDER I can’t lose weight. I watch what I eat 85% of the time; I eat breakfast, pack snacks and small lunch for work, DO NOT fall to temptation in the teachers’ lounge (on most days), and drink lots of water. I have about one diet soda a week and maybe an occasional iced tea or lemonade. I drink a beer or a glass of wine MAYBE once a month. It’s truly the lack of exercise. I am blogging about this because I need to hold myself accountable and will hopefully see some results. I have a picture but I'm saving it for comparison.

2/1 Update: one week down!!!! and doing good with calorie limits/ it even told me one day I wasn't eating enough. Exercised three days of the week. We'll see how Superbowl Sunday goes.....I might need a 'cheat' day.