Memorial Day Weekend Update

I almost hate to admit it for fear of cursing everything, but for the past few days our children have been rather pleasant to be around! J has been sleeping a bit better the past few nights (which may be partially related to him not feeling well, but I'll take it), we've been swimming, playing ball, spending lots of time outside and just generally enjoying our summer 'break.' Even with a brief illness that J luckily only had for about 24 hours, we've done our best to do some fun summer things before mom and dad leave and grandma gets to have all the fun.

Our fabulous babysitter will be watching the kids some while we're gone and it sounds like he and his mom have some big plans for the kids, and I know grandma S always has something fun planned for while we're gone, so when we get back I will have 2 very spoiled rotten little children. I think they are looking forward to it as much as we are! I feel so thankful to have people in my life who I can trust to care for my children for such an extended time. Matt and I certainly need a break. Since the 4 of us are always home together, it's sometimes nice to have some time apart! Just 5 more days!

Tomorrow my niece and nephew are coming to visit and go swimming with the kids so of course my children couldn't be more excited. I love holiday weekends. It's nice to just have that extra day to get caught up on things!

J just upgraded to a new big boy room so I'll have to post pictures soon. His choice of decor is rather interesting.

Special Talent

I believe everyone deserves to have a child like J. I mean that in many ways, but especially because you can't truly know how clean your carseats are unless you have to remove them frequently and disinfect them because your kid threw up all over it. I've learned the very important skills of removing a child covered in vomit from the car, removing the carseat without making the mess bigger and then thoroughly cleaning every nook and angle of his Britax Marathon. I probably could put that sucker back together in my sleep. Tonight we were on our way to see Shrek and we were about to pull into the parking lot when it all went down. It doesn't even bother us anymore. We just laughed about it, turned around and went home. No big deal. I've been doing this for 4 years now and apparently my kid is never going to have a tough stomach. Any amount of sinus drainage, cough or wind blowing the wrong direction can make him throw up. It's just one of his special talents I suppose.

Sleep Update

The sleep thing? Not going so well. I'm still getting up at least once a night to either send him back to his room or go into his room because he won't come out while the bell is on his door. Last night he managed to sneak in and sleep on the floor for a few minutes before I woke up and ushered him back to bed. Then a few hours later he woke up crying so I had to go in. Oh and he got up at 6 for the day. Fabulous. I know the kid has some serious allergies right now so I'm cutting him some slack but seriously he's going to make me crazy! Today I bought some dark curtains for his room so at least maybe he'll sleep a bit later. It's worth trying. He's unbelievably stubborn. I haven't given in once since we started this and he's still trying me every night. The doctor swears he'll give it up when he realizes I'm not giving in. Not so much. Even the rewards and sticker chart aren't motivating enough right now. We'll keep on keepin' on though.

Only 8 more days and then grandma gets the night shift!

Mexican Manicotti

What you Need:

4 uncooked manicotti shells

1 cup cubed chicken breast

1 cup salsa, divided

1/2 cup reduced-fat ricotta cheese

2 T sliced olives (I didn't use these)

4 T fresh minced parsley

1 green onion, sliced

1 small clove garlic, minced

1/2 tsp hot pepper sauce

1/3 cup reduced-fat Monterey Jack cheese

What to do:

Cook manicotti according to package directions. In a small bowl, combine the chicken, 1/4 cup salsa, ricotta cheese, olives, parsley, green onion, garlic and pepper sauce. Drain manicotti and fill with chicken mixture.

Spread 1/4 cup salsa in 8 inch square baking pan coated with cooking spray. Top with manicotti shells and remaining salsa.

Cover and bake at 400 for 20 minutes. Uncover and sprinkle with Monterey Jack cheese. Bake an additional 5-10 minutes until the cheese is melted.

Makes 2 servings.

Nutrition:

Calories- 390

Fat- 10 g

Cholesterol- 81

Sodium- 783

Carbs- 38

Fiber- 2

Protein- 35

I'd love to try this as a vegetarian recipe with black beans instead of the chicken. I actually mixed in some black beans with it when I made it and it was fabulous. It was a bit too filling with the chicken and black beans though so next time I'll probably make mine with the black beans and Matt's with both.

130 Pounds

There is a list a mile long of things I couldn't do at 130 lbs heavier that I can do now, but in celebration of my 2 year weight loss battle I'm just going to list a few.

1. Say my weight to anyone who asks and not think twice about it.

2. Run 6 miles in under an hour (which I now have a blister from on my toe)

3. Start up conversations with moms at t-ball or at

the park and make new friends.

4. Sit on the ground on a blanket in 90 degree weather coloring with our new friends while the boys play ball.

5. Get up off the ground without effort after the coloring time was over. :)

6. Eat 1500 calories in a day and feel genuinely

full because I ate good foods.

7. Run until I get bored, not exhausted.

8. Make good food choices most of the time because I want to and feel better when I do.

9. Look forward to wearing my cute new swimsuits on vacation!!

10. Love myself and the person I have become. I feel much more confident and comfortable. I finally feel like myself and don't have the weight holding me back anymore.

So there you have it. I've lost a whole person. I've lost the person who hated getting dressed in the morning because fat people clothes suck. I've lost the person who sold herself short and had no idea how strong she was. I've lost the person who thought it was ok to bury my feelings and thoughts with food. What came out on the other side was someone I didn't expect, but I feel very at peace and settled with who I am now. I l

ove my husband, my kids, my friends and my family who have seen me through the last 2 year

s. I love the new friends who have come into my life who didn't know me when I was fat and

unless I choose to share that information, they will never know I was that person. I love that going to the gym this morning was not only my workout for the day, but also a chance to talk to friends and socialize because these are my people that I see every day. :) Then this afternoon I was able to hang out with some friends while our kids ran the neighborhood and although we complained about how hot it was, there's nothing better than your kids wearing themselves out while you catch up on neighborhood gossip.

I love my life right this minute. I have people around me who I trust enough to watch my children for 10 days while I relax with my husband. I have a husband that adores me no matter how crazy I make him some days. I have a great family that has been such a great support system for me. My kids are mostly ok. :) I love them like crazy no matter how challenging they are some days. Life is good at 130 lbs lighter. The end. Never going back.

MIA

You'll have to forgive my lack of posting. My youngest child has decided he's going to make my life a living hell with this sleep thing. Luckily, my sister has had them this weekend so I'm caught up on sleep and ready to go again tonight. I'm hoping he'll be so tired he will sleep all night without complaint because I have things I want to do this week with them and it's not going to be any fun if we're all tired and cranky. I'm trying to cram in some summer fun on top of the t-ball, dance, piano and MDO that are already on the calendar for this week.

On the bright side, I lost just a little over 5 lbs last week with strict dieting and just running and doing turbokick. I did weights 3 days with intervals of jumping jacks or jumping rope in between each set. Less than 2 weeks until we leave!

I have some pictures of J from t-ball and a new recipe I need to get posted sometime. We'll see how long it takes me to get those up. :)

Sleep Issues and Summer Schedule

I haven't posted much about this, but J has some major sleep issues. Almost every night since he was born he has woken up at least once a night for something. He starts out in his room and at some point he wakes up and either tries to get in bed with us, lays in the hallway, turns on his light and plays or screams until one of us goes in there. After much deliberation and talking to his pediatrician we saw a child psychologist the other day and got some advice on how to deal with it. While in the room he went through every single toy she had within 30 minutes. He was very deliberate in pulling things out one at a time, playing for 20 seconds and then promptly putting it away and getting out something else. After about 10 minutes she asked me if he always plays like this and of course the answer is yes. He has very little attention span which is one of the main reasons we finally went to see her. His teacher mentioned that she was having trouble getting him to sit and do any sort of school work, story time or group activity. This wasn't a surprise to me since I myself had stopped taking him to library storytimes a long time ago because it wasn't worth fighting him the whole time to get him to sit still. Long story short, my child has some serious attention issues. And some sleep issues. She gave us some things to work on and we go back in a month to see if we've made any progress. Last night went ok. If he does well tonight he gets a reward tomorrow. A friend of mine has a son who is a few years older and has some similar issues and she gave me some great advice. We'll be working really hard on things when we get back from our trip, but I hate to start too much and then we leave for 10 days and have to start all over again. Right now we're just working on getting him to stay in his room until morning. When we get home we'll work more on the behavior and attention problems. I have some hope that maybe if he starts sleeping better then his behavior will improve some too. It can't hurt.

Next week our summer schedule officially starts! T-ball on Saturdays and Tuesday nights, dance on Wednesday, Mom's Day Out and rock climbing on Thursdays. Monday and Friday we'll be at the Y doing toddler time with some friends. Obviously Sunday will be our only day "off" during the summer this year. In the past, summer has been a time to relax and have no schedule but it seems the older the kids get, the less relaxing we do during the summer. I'm really looking forward to hanging out on the driveway until way past bedtime having fun with our friends though. We had a nice preview of summer the other day and we let the kids get out the water toys and play. It was like they hadn't seen water since, well, September. It was fabulous. There's nothing that says summer quite like a lawn chair on the driveway, kids playing in the water and a Sonic cup in hand. At least around here that's how we do things.

Food Log 5-20-10

I'm too lazy to write out my entire food log today so here's my summary:

Breakfast- smoothie

Lunch- Subway chicken salad sandwich, yogurt

Snack- Luna Bar

Dinner- Salad with chicken and raspberry vinaigrette

Total Daily Calories: 1550

Total Calories Burned: 2776

Deficit: 1226

I went back to drinking coffee this morning because the whole no caffeine thing just wasn't working for me. Still no pop, but I apparently need the caffeine to function. I wouldn't have made it through my workout without it today. Tomorrow we have no big plans so I'm going to find something fun to do with the kids. They're going to my sister's house for the weekend and they're super excited.

The Graduate

Today my big girl graduated from Pre-K! Here's a picture with Mrs. B who has been a teacher to one kid or the other for the past 3 years. This year she had J but both kids love her like a second mother.

M with her 2 teachers from this year (also both Mrs. B).

M watching the slide show with Grandma Sonya.

M opening her card from Grandma J.

The 2 Pre-K classes singing their songs.

Our big girl is off to Kindergarten next year and couldn't be more excited. Three months of fun summer activities and then she'll be in a whole new world. I can't believe how fast the time has flown by!

Food Log 5-19-10

Breakfast:

220 Smoothie

Lunch: Jason's Deli

495 Lite Club

90 Fruit

60 Fruit dip (ate very little of it)

Snack:

10 Sugar Free Jello

Dinner:

330 Mexican Manicotti

80 corn

65 strawberries

Daily Total Calories: 1350

Daily Calories Burned: 2667

Total Deficit: 1317

Food Log 5-18-10

Breakfast:

100 yogurt

15 strawberry

90 banana

120 granola

Total: 325

Lunch:

100 Flat Out wrap

20 teriyaki

45 cheese

120 chicken breast

100 yogurt

10 lettuce

Total: 395

Dinner:

330 Mexican Manicotti

85 watermelon

10 lettuce

50 dressing

20 croutons

Total: 495

Daily Total Calories- 1215

Daily Calories Burned- 2533

Deficit- 1318

Made a new recipe today and I'll get it posted soon. It was wonderful!

Food Log 5-17-10

Breakfast:

100 Yogurt

120 granola

90 banana

15 strawberry

325 Total

Lunch:

100 Flat Out Wrap

120 4 oz chicken breast

45 2% shredded cheese

30 Roma tomato

20 Teriyaki sauce

100 Yogurt

70 Rice snacks

485 Total

Dinner:

269 Baked Chicken Chimichanga

85 Watermelon

10 Lettuce

50 Dressing

20 Croutons

434 Total

Snacks:

100 Flat Out Wrap

20 1 slice ham

5 mustard

Total: 125

Total Daily Calories: 1369

Total Calories Burned: 2537

Deficit: 1168

Today was hard. Let's just leave it at that. No caffeine and I hate eating this little. It makes me cranky. Just 18 more days though.

Food Log 5-16-10

Breakfast:

120 Granola

100 Yogurt

90 Banana

15 Strawberry

325 Calories Total

Lunch:

Panera pick 2 with BBQ Chicken Salad, French Baguette and Chicken Noodle Soup.

520 Calories Total

Dinner:

269 Chicken Chimichanga

20 Greek Yogurt

85 Watermelon

10 Romaine Lettuce

50 Dressing

20 Croutons

454 Calories Total

Total Daily Calories: 1389

Total Calories Burned: 2484

Deficit: 1095

First of all, this is the lowest calorie range I have ever tried while dieting. I usually never go below 1500-1600 and just up my workouts to make it work. This time I just don't have time to put in over 2 hours a day at the gym. That just doesn't work for me right now. I'm keeping my workouts to 5 days a week with my basic schedule of Turbokick, running and lifting weights.

Secondly, I gave up all pop this round. I don't drink a huge amount of pop to begin with so I just replaced my morning Diet Dr. Pepper with coffee and a bit of Splenda instead. I don't want to fight the headaches so I can't give up having something in the morning right now. And this is purely a diet. My lifestyle is already changed. I already have good habits. This is a last ditch effort to lose as much as weight as possible before we leave. That's all. If giving up pop helps, I'll do it. As soon as I step foot in the airport I'll be grabbing a Diet Coke. And possibly some peanut butter cups. The essentials. I just don't want to lose any weight when we get home. I'd rather do it now and get it over with.

Baked Chicken Chimichangas

What you need:

1.5 cups cubed cooked chicken breast

1.5 cups picante sauce

1/2 cup shredded reduced-fat cheddar cheese

2/3 cup chopped green onions

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp dried oregano

6 flour tortillas

1 T butter, melted (I actually just used spray fake butter)

What to do:

In a bowl combine the chicken, 3/4 cup picante sauce, cheese, 1/4 cup onions, cumin and oregano. Spoon 1/2 cup mixture into the center of each tortilla. Fold sides and ends over filling and roll up. Place seam side down in pan coated with cooking spray. Brush with butter.

Bake, uncovered, at 375 for 20-25 minutes or until heated through. Top with remaining picante sauce and onions.

Makes 6 servings

Nutrition:

calories- 269

fat- 8 g

cholesterol- 39

sodium- 613

carbs- 31

fiber- 1

protein- 17

These were really good! I actually doubled the recipe and we'll be eating them for a few days. I topped them with Greek yogurt too. It was great to make ahead, throw in the fridge and just put it in the oven at dinner time. I'll definitely make them again. After I get through the other million recipes I have on the list.

**From Taste of Home Comfort Food Diet Cookbook**

And Here's Where I Begin Annoying You

A few days ago I bought a new recipe book with tons of new and healthy recipes to try. I'm really excited to start making them and posting my favorites. Up first, chicken chimichangas! Then I have a whole list of ones that I want to try including desserts, drinks and even breakfast! Of course to go with these new and fabulous recipes, I'm also jumping back on a hardcore diet starting Sunday morning. It actually has nothing to do with wanting to weigh less, but I want to be able to go on vacation and be able to gain 4-5 lbs and not feel guilty. Most people do it the other way and lose the weight when they get home but I think I'll be much more relaxed about it if I go in weighing a few pounds less and know that I won't have to pay for it when I get home. So I have 3 weeks to lose 5-6 lbs. Ugh. My poor husband will have to live with me through this and I know I'm not much fun when I can't eat what I want. I think he's really enjoyed the fact that I've been much more relaxed about what I eat and take a day off here and there from the gym. It's only 3 weeks though. Then we have 9 days alone. In paradise. Hopefully I can handle it. In the meantime, you're stuck with me whining about weight loss again. Sorry about that. To make it worse, I think I'm going to post my daily food log too. Lucky you!

Recipe!

This is less of a recipe, more of a random thing I threw together that is super yummy! I needed a fruit dip a while back so I mixed 1 tub of Cool Whip Lite and 2 containers of Strawberry Shortcake light yogurt. Use fruit to dip. Easy and yummy. Doesn't get any better than that!

Genius!

Want to know why I'm willing to spend so much time in the car? I have a secret weapon. iPads are a genius invention! Each kid has their own headphones and they can watch movies, play games or whatever they want as long as they leave me alone. Isn't that great?

Playing Catch-up! (Again!)

We've been busy so this is is a big catch-up blog post. We had a very eventful weekend that started Friday morning. M got all dressed up for her Kindergarten visitation.

Luckily for her, our wonderful neighbor volunteered to take her and pick her up because I had to take J for a school field trip. We got to see on the animals up close and personal! I spent a lot of time hoping my son didn't try to join the rhino in there.

J got to pet and feed the lemurs. They were so cute!

He also spent a lot of time sitting in the bunny area petting the bunnies. He was so sweet and gentle with them. I think we spent more time in the bunny area than anywhere else. They were awfully cute.

Then on Saturday M had her first dance recital! M and L were so excited! (So were their mommies.)

The girls did great and M has decided she wants to sign up for the summer session too. Gone are the days where summer was a vacation. Now apparently it's a chance to squeeze in a few extra activities.

Sunday was of course Mother's Day and we spent it with the moms in our lives. We went out to breakfast, I did a little shopping (alone!!) and then we headed to my parents' house to spend the afternoon. After dinner we came home and put the kids to bed and Matt and I watched a movie until bedtime. Perfect.

Monday we made the drive back to my parents' house to pick up my mom since she had a doctor's appointment Monday afternoon and then this morning we're at the surgical center so she can have a procedure done. Fun stuff.

The next few weeks are looking pretty hectic. We have some fun end of the year things at school, pre-k graduation, summer activities starting and then Matt and I are going on vacation in the beginning of June. Yay!

Frisco, TX!

For our little weekend away family vacation we headed to Frisco, TX! One of my favorite places! Our first stop was at the American Girl store. This was like heaven to a little girl and her mommy. Not so much for her daddy who was footing the bill. We came out with a Bitty Baby and the starter set. Very exciting!

We played GI Joe out in front of the hotel. This was actually a rather pleasant way to spend some time while daddy got some work done.

We went to Dunkin Donuts so the kids could experience what real donuts should taste like. And mommy likes the coffee. J took a turn with the camera.

Then of course M had to take a turn too.

Then mommy got a turn. Look how happy everyone looks with good donuts and coffee!

Daddy got to ride the carousel with the kiddos.

We went to the Fort Worth Zoo which was amazing. The kids had such a great time and all the grown ups did too! We could have spent all day there if the kids hadn't worn out.

I love this picture because it's a glimpse into what usually goes into getting pictures of our kids. Matt tries to bribe them and of course they rarely cooperate.

M's favorites were the Macaws. She's a bird lover. Too bad for her that mommy hates birds. A lot.

M being pleasant and cute.

J, grandma Sonya and grandpa Mark headed through the zoo.

Grandma was even brave enough to take the kids swimming outside. I still couldn't swim with my new tattoo but I heard the water was freezing so that's ok with me!

I would say the trip was a great success. It took us 2 vehicles to get home our IKEA purchase, the rides there and back were rather peaceful, the kids love traveling with grandparents and everyone slept fantastically! That's what I call a successful vacation!

This trip was exactly one year since our first trip to Frisco to see Kenny last year. We drove by Pizza Hut Park while we were there and talked about the many hours we spent in the parking lot, the horrible storm we stayed through the first time and the miserable heat we stood in 2 weeks later when we went back. Ponchos the first time, aloe vera the second time. And 2 trips to IHOP because it was the only thing open after 10 PM. The first time freezing and miserable and the second time deliriously happy and sunburned. (And we went to IHOP 2 times on this trip too. Good memories) Driving by there I could still hear him singing. I could still remember every detail of how it smelled, felt and sounded. If he plays there next year you can bet we'll be there to do it all over again. Summer of 2011 I'm sure will make up for missing him this year! I can't wait!