Weight Loss/ Fitness Plan

I've been at a loss over the past few weeks on how to lose weight and get healthy.  It always seems that after a few weeks, I seem to falter and go back to bad habits.  I just want to say that I've been inspired by two people.  The first person is my sister Bethany that has gotten super-skinny (after two kids) by watching her portions and exercising daily.  The second person is a friend that I met here in Mississippi named Robynne.  She's lost 51 lbs in the past 7 months and has moved from a size 18 to 8.  Using her and my sister's stories, I've decided to do the following:

1)  Watch my portions
2)  Don't drink soda
3)  Cut out sweets (once a week only)
4)  Walk/Run 3 days a week
5)  Do a circuit/ aerobic workout 3 days a week (Jillian Michael's Videos)
6)  No eating past 7:00 PM

This is my plan starting tomorrow!  I am so excited. Hopefully I can do well with getting back into shape and living a healthier life!  

Kitchen Appliances

I love cooking and I've just recently rediscovered why I love the slow cooker so much thanks to this blog:  A Year of Slow Cooking.  I was preparing the orange chicken for dinner and contemplating how much I love the slow cooker.  Then I took out the brown rice that we eat with the chicken (just to have it out so I won't forget it this evening) and I realized that I love my rice cooker as well, since it cooks my brown rice for me and is completely hands off. 

I love cooking for the most part.  I love baking and slaving over good food that my husband, Evan and myself enjoy.  But there's something about the convenience of having a rice cooker and crock pot that is so nice. 

Then I started thinking about all the kitchen appliances (counter top) that I appreciate because of convenience and I came up with my favorites:

 1) Microwave---It's just so convenient to throw in frozen meat to defrost, veggies to heat up,  and leftovers to reheat.  I'm not a fan of the microwave we bought when we moved here, but it works for what we need it for.
2)  Slow Cooker---It's so nice to spend only a few minutes prepping dinner and then throwing it in the crock pot to cook.  I love doing this because it's hands off and I can do other things with my time like playing with Evan, cleaning, and going for a walk.  I also love that if it's all in the crock pot, they're are very few dishes to wash, which I am always a big fan of. 
3) Rice Cooker---I won't cook rice if I don't have a rice cooker.  Seriously, I hate watching rice on the stove.  It always boils over and burns on the bottom. 
4) Blender---I need a better one, but I really enjoy the blender for making my smoothies. 
5) Electric Skillet---I need a new one of these too, but I really enjoy the electric skillet.  On the stove, you not only get a pan dirty, but usually the burners and the stove top also.  With the electric skillet it's all in one place, and it's usually a big enough size for our family's meals. 

Honorable Mentions:  Griddle (the griddle we have is crazy... heats up unevenly), Foreman Grill, and Electric can opener. 

I would like to get a Kitchen Aid Standing Mixer (they're just so expensive!).  Any thoughts on your favorite kitchen appliances?

11:00 AM Church

I am praying that we won't have this time in Maryland... Seriously, I really like it.  But, it's right in the middle of someone's nap time (not talking about Rick).  And since Evan's not old enough to go to nursery yet, he's a holy terror!  It's exhausting! 

Anyways, in other news, we've started to pack up the house already.  We're doing the move ourselves.  In the Air Force you can choose to do it yourself and the AF gives you money based on the amount of weight you're moving OR the AF will hire a company to move you and they come in and pack it all up, which is really, really nice.  However, Rick and I are looking forward to having some extra cash, so we're moving everything ourselves.... yeah, that's going to be fun!  But, we have started packing up so that way we won't be too overwhelmed!  (at least we hope so!)  The housing inspectors don't do a white glove either, which is way nice! 

I mean, we have to clean and make it look nice, but since we're packing up the rooms one at a time, we're also going to be cleaning them and shutting the doors so that they stay clean and are used no more! 

We are so looking forward to leaving Mississippi.  But, it's time to move on.  (mainly because of the tech school environment)...

Only 50 some more days (give or take a few days!) until we leave! 

Growth Spurt

Somebody has been an eating monster, a cranky monster and a sleeping monster the past few days. 

I've also noticed that he seems to be getting taller, very noticeably.

He's been waking up really early, taking about a 4-5 hour nap everyday, and then falling asleep at 6 at night. 

Whenever he wakes up, he's really grumpy.  My poor boy.  I don't think that the growth spurts were as obvious when he was smaller because he ate and slept most of the time anyway. 

Oh, and the picture of him is when he fell asleep in his high chair during his lunch.  He finished off most of his peanut butter and jelly though!

Cute Little Man

Completely off the bottle now.  Check out that gut..

Removing books from their proper place.

Eating or perhaps kissing the doggy.

Playing with his Mickey Ride along.  He hides the blocks under the seat.

No idea what he's doing here.

At the Italian Buffet we went to.  He really enjoyed his corn and pizza.

At church (Stake Conference) we were in the YW room and he fell and smacked his head on his sippy cup. 

He put each of his doggies in their new doghouse.

Eating lunch today.

Getting tired. 

Evan is seriously the greatest.  He's so weird, he cracks me up.  I really wish that we could communicate better already, especially since I would love to know exactly what he's saying and thinking about.

He likes pulling out our books from the bookcases.  He takes the big Harry Potter books in both hands, runs over to me, looks up, drops them on the floor and then takes one of his books and puts it in the book case. And sometimes I find the DVD shelves (which he takes the dvds out of) full of blocks and sippy cups also.

The other day I was laying on the couch because I wasn't feeling well and Evan was running around and playing when all of a sudden I feel something cold and hard hit my face.  When I looked at him, I realized he was pushing his phone into my face.  He wanted me to talk on the phone.

He likes lining up his sippy cups (he usually has one for juice and one for milk).  So, he'll take the the two cups and put them on the window sill.  In between the two cups, he always puts a toy (usually a stuffed animal).  It reminds me of a memorial, with the sippy cups as candles and the doggy as a picture of the person.

Sometimes he just runs back and forth, talking to himself.  He obviously understands what's going on, even if I don't have a clue.

My boy also loves his books. I catch him a lot now when he's just sitting on the ground and reading a book.  Usually it's a book that's age appropriate to him.  Sometimes it's Harry Potter or another book that is still a little advanced for him.  :)

He's getting taller and, looks thinner because of that.  I'm sure his weight will catch up to him soon again and he'll look a bit chunkier again.

He's starting to bite our fingers when we brush his teeth at night.  And he doesn't sit down in the bath tub unless we make him. 

He likes making dashes for the kitchen when the gate is open and he runs to the fridge to play with his Leap Frog magnets.  I usually have to pry them out of his hands because they automatically go into his mouth. 

When he doesn't like where I am leading him when he's walking, he's starting to stop and sit down.  He becomes limp and unresponsive and gets upset when I give up and pick him up to take him where we are going. 

He's a total pain in church.  Man, I am so ready for him to be going in to Nursery (only 4 more months).  I can hardly sit through Sacrament Meeting and I don't bother going to Sunday School.  The only break I get from him is when I got to Young Women.  Then Rick takes him because he isn't teaching at that time. 

He's beginning to climb a lot more.  Usually I stick him in the dry bath tub when I am washing out his dirty cloth diapers into the toilet, and the other day, he had one leg over the edge of the tub before I stopped him. 

He enjoys getting lotion on his hands (whenever he sees me put it on, he does it too.)  He also likes to try to eat my chapstick. 

He just loves being outdoors.  He loves being in the car now.  He takes in everything possible.  And I always have to remind myself that he is learning something new everyday.  I really want to make sure that I am a part of that.  And I am so grateful that I am the first person that sees these things, instead of someone that's watching him. 

Don't get me wrong.  There is nothing wrong with being a working mom. It's just not for me.  I just love being at home with Evan and just being there for him.  Most of the time now it seems like he doesn't even need me anymore.  But, when he is tired, hungry, hurt or just upset, he comes running toward me. 

I am so thankful to be a mother and to have this little boy in my life. I pray that I can know how he needs to be raised and how I can help him.  I get so worried about the future and the state that this world is in.  I worry that Evan will be bullied in school or that I won't even want to send him to public school because of the education system right now.  I worry about his health.  I worry about his spirituality.  I really hope that I can be a good mother for him;  I know that I am supposed to be his mom and that gives me a lot of comfort because Heavenly Father knows me and my personality and He knows Rick and Evan as well.  I don't think that He would have sent Evan to us, if we wouldn't be able to raise him properly.  

Just some thoughts on the best job I've had before (also, being a wife is quite awesome too).

A Good Kind of Stress

It's getting to the end of our long haul here in Biloxi, and we couldn't be more excited to be leaving. 

Rick, because he wants to get out of the Tech School environment, and myself so I can move on to somewhere that we will be staying more permanently (for at least longer than a year) and getting more settled. 

Evan just wants to see all of his family in Arizona, California, DC and Maryland. 

It's nice to have a change, and since there's not much to do in Biloxi, we're really looking forward to our move. 

Of course, we're extremely stressed out.  Even though Rick has his orders already, he still has 3 weeks left of school in Bryan Hall, and then he has to wait to get in to a Security + class.  We're not sure if the Security + class will be 2 or 3 weeks long OR how long it will take for Rick to get in to the class. 

We've estimate that we will be leaving in the middle of March (keeping our fingers crossed).  Until then, we're going to be extremely busy, with packing, deep cleaning the house, arranging for transportation to Maryland, arranging for a storage unit, arranging for transportation back west, etc.  I also am going to be extremely busy with Young Women for the entire months of January and February. 

But, it's all a good kind of stress...  because we'll be off to a new place and a new phase!

Hello 2011 Goals!

So, I am really excited about 2011.  Seriously.  We have a lot of plans for this year, with Rick graduating Tech School (finally), moving to Maryland, Evan's 2nd birthday and hopefully fun trips to places and spending lots of time with family. 

2010 was the beginning of our Air Force adventure, and it sure has been fun AND stressful lately.   But, we have big plans for 2011. 

The past two new years I've made resolutions/goals for myself.  I always like to do this in order to reflect and become re focused.  Here are a few of the things that I have in mind for this year:

1) Going to the temple at least 12 times this year (That should equal once a month, but who knows when things get crazy).
2)  Read Book of Mormon every night before bed.
3)  Drink only water and milk.  No more soda, not too much juice and sports drinks only when sick or exercising.
4) Run a 5K.
5) Run a 10K.
6) Start a garden in Maryland. Rick got me a square foot gardening book so we can start one when we move.
7) Sew myself some clothes and quilts this year.

That's about it.  I'm trying not to overdo it.  Before I've said that I've wanted to run like, a half marathon and that sort of stuff, but, something has always come up (ex: getting pregnant).  And I'm trying to focus more on the being healthy side opposed to the losing weight side, since that angle hasn't really been working for me.  I'm also trying to be better with budgeting and being frugal with things.