Mommy's Losin It!

NEW BLOG!!!

2010-01-18T08:30:00.001-06:00

So I finally did it everyone...I converted the old bloggeroo to Wordpress. I'm still learning the ins and outs, but for now, I will be updating here. I'll keep this old blog up, but new posts will be at Wordpress. :)

Stay Tuned...

2010-01-17T16:48:00.001-06:00

...losta changes are a comin to the blog!!! :)

Sorry folks...

2010-01-15T06:50:00.004-06:00

...for the lack of blog action since Monday! I still have yet to get used to my early wake-up call.

And this week too much good TV has been on!

By 7PM I have been curled up in bed watching my favorite shows. :) The Phillips Ohana is a little behind in the times and does not currently have a DVR. We tried signing up for service in December, but it required a 2 year contract and we decided against it because we're not fond on Direct TV. We'll definitely be getting a DVR at our nect duty station though! :)

Rest assured though, I have been keeping up with my workouts and eating plan. Most days this week I've been burning an upwards of 400 calories and my daily caloric net has been anywhere from 1000 to 1300.

Babydaddy stole, *ahem* borrowed my lovely DSLR for work today so my pics today won't be as pretty. I'll try to catch up with you all tonight!

BTW, I'm back to my trusty blog layout...I love the "freshness" of the white. :)

Happy Friday!!

Getting Monday started right...or trying to.

2010-01-11T19:58:00.004-06:00

One of my fellow 101ers (Finding Joy! 101) gave me motivation to start making it a habit to make my bed in the mornings. As it is, our bed just stays messy until I change the sheets. Its a terrible habit that I wanted to change, since we will one day be telling our kids to keep their rooms clean.

So taking Joy's cue (and because we got a cute new coverlet this weekend), I made our bed. Such a simple task, yet it makes me feel so accomplished. :)

Of course, less than 30 seconds later, my little monsters were all up in it making a mess again.

Oh well, it was nice while it lasted. :)

My Monday morning started out a little rocky...at exactly 6:04AM our power went out. And for no particular reason at all...it just decided to go out. So there I was, in the dark, in my underwear, with my hair in a towel, with no power. It was 14 degrees outside (yes in Florida) so it got chilly pretty quickly. Thankfully, the power outage only lasted 26 minutes...at 6:30AM our power was restored. Hallelujah.

For breakfast I had a yummy sweet treat of Fage w/honey and a peanut pretzel granola bar. It almost felt like I was eating dessert rather than breakfast, it was so decadent. :)

Best of all, combined, it was a total of 340 calories. :) I read somewhere that if one has a breakfast of 300 calories, they save 100 calories throughout the day. Food for thought... ;)

After scrambling and making it out of the house on time, I find out ALL the traffic lights in the Milton from my house to the interstate are OUT! But wouldn't you know, the ONLY time Miltonites are courteous drivers is when the traffic lights aren't working. What could have been a chaotic morning commute went by rather smoothly, even if it was 20 minutes longer this particular morning. :p Thank goodness for dual-screen dvd players and the Backyardigans.

Once Noah was dropped off at school, Caleb and I made our way to the gym...I did my 40 minutes of cardio and burned 431 calories.

At home, I decided to do the upper & lower body sculpting segments of TBL's Last Chance Workout, and in 20 minutes I really broke a sweat! The lower body workouts were killer; I ended up burning more during that segment than with the upper body segment. Total, I burned 183 calories. Total cals burned for the day: 614.

Lunch today wasn't anything special...just a Lean Cuisine. It was actually pretty tasty. I also added a Breakstone's Cottage Doubles, making my lunch calorie total: 440.

We decided to make dinner a little bigger tonight, since both Babydaddy & I killed a ton of calories working out. We made some broccoli & cauliflower...

...some turkey burgers...

...and some chicken noodle soup.

Total for all that food: 545 calories! Its so much fun preparing food and finding out the calories aren't that much...I know I'm a nerd.

My evening, after the kids go to bed, blogging snack was an organic granola bar, 130 calories.

My total caloric intake for today was 1755. I burned 614, so my net caloric intake was 1141. :) A little less than the 1430 I alotted for myself, but I feel good and not hungry, so I'm not worried about it.

Sorry for all the calorie talk lately, its just a new thing for me and I am learning so much about food and nutrition. Its also a great feeling to not feel deprived; its quite refreshing actually. :) 2 benefits to this lifestyle change so far: 1) the kids are trying new foods and liking it; and 2) extra money isn't going towards take-out. Win-win!

*Yawn* I'm Ms. Sleepy Pants right now, so I'll end here...'til next time...

My Little Monsters

2010-01-10T19:31:00.003-06:00

Dinner tonight was another yummy low calorie meal! We made turkey burgers on thin whole wheat buns with Laughing Cow cheese, veggies, and mustard. Did you know that mustard has ZERO calories per tsp?! The burger was 295 calories...

...and the ranch flavored rice cakes were 70 calories per serving, making the meal a total of 365 calories! :)
After dinner, and while prepping the fruit for this week (cutting them into bite-sized pieces for the little ones and for our yogurt), Babydaddy decided to make a green monster for tomorrow's breakfast...

First Noah asked for a sip.

Then Caleb asked for one too!
My little monsters loved the green monster! Caleb was killing it; we stuck a straw in the cup and he went to town! LOL. Love it. :)

So I decided not to do any yoga tonight...just gonna chillax and do my nails. :) Since I didn't burn any calories today, my total intake of calories was 1265 for Sunday.

Have a good night! ;)

Weekend Blog-worthy Eats.

2010-01-10T15:38:00.007-06:00

So would you all think I'm weird if I say that I am actually enjoying this whole healthy-eating change I've adopted?? Its fun to see how much I can eat for a small amount of calories...and its also fun to see just how tasty these healthy eats are! Its like my eyes have been opened...I have officially crossed to the other side. :) LOL!

Yesterday, after my morning cardio workout (treadmill & elliptical; 435 calories burned), I had a yummy breakfast of 3 egg whites, tomatoes, 3 Little Smokies, & green onions. It started out as an omelette...

And ended up as a scramble. :) I topped it with a teeny tiny bit of cheese. Total calories: 236. :)

We spent Saturday afternoon gallavanting around Pensacola. We made a stop at Sam's Club, which is usually a fun little outing, but Caleb was in rare form again, so we made it in and out in about 30 minutes. We picked up Clif bars, more stevia sweetener, Kashi cereal, and diapers for the little guy.

For dinner, Babydaddy concocted a little chicken fajita meal consisting of 2 tortillas, 8 oz of chicken, 4 tbsp of fat free sour cream, veggies, & cheese. Total calories: 517. It was delish, filling, and very satisfying. :)
For Saturday, I consumed a total of 1767 calories, burned 435; my net amount of calories was 1332.

This morning, the boys let us sleep until 7AM so we had a glorious 9 hours of sleep!! My body needed the extra sleep I got this weekend. :) It was a rare occasion when I made Sunday's breakfast, but Babydaddy welcomed it. :) Breakfast was a filling and delicious mix of 1/2 cup Greek yogurt, 1/2 cup Kashi almond/honey/flax and 5 strawberries. Total calories: 230.

After a leisurely morning, Caleb went down for a nap and I went to take a shower. Babydaddy took our leftovers from dinner last night and made a yummy sandwich for lunch. With the sandwich thins (bread), veggies, & Laughing Cow cheese, the total amount of calories came to 280.

Some honorable mentions from this weekend: my new go-to Starbucks drink, a soy chai latte, no water. Total calories: 170.And always a yummy treat: Breakstone's Cottage Doubles. Total calories: 130.

I never thought I could do the whole calorie counting thing...but it really is eye-opening to see how much food I CAN have for 1500 calories a day. It also opens my eyes to how many calories I used to consume before. I don't even want to know! :p

I haven't worked out today; technically today is a rest day for me, but I think I might do some yoga tonight. I got The Biggest Loser Weightloss Yoga dvd and I'm thinking tonight be the night to try it out...I need to get some stretching in. :) I'll report back to let you know how it goes. For now, though, I'm going to enjoy the rest of my Sunday! :)

Friday morning at Pike Place Market.

2010-01-07T20:15:00.008-06:00

Wow, it sure has been SOME week! I am exhausted! In hindsight, I guess I shouldn't have started a new eating plan (that's probably 1000+ calories LESS than what I'm used to eating) and exercise regimen the week that school starts back up from a 2 week hiatus. Getting used to the 5AM (well, this week its been 5:30...my alarm has been waking me up and I HATE being woken up by my alarm!) wakeup calls AND the morning rush AND working out AND eating less was probably a bit much to put on my plate. Nonetheless, I survived...Friday is finally here! I am looking forward to sleeping in a bit tomorrow.

I needed an extra pick me up this morning so I brewed my new Starbucks Pike Place Roast coffee I got for Christmas. I am usually a bulk coffee kinda gal, so I pick up the biggest tub of Maxwell House or Folgers or Community Coffee I can find and usually shy away from those little itty bitty bags of coffee. This Pike Place Roast might have to be the exception to my rule because this was some GOOOOOD coffee! I enjoyed it very much and can't wait to brew another cup tomorrow morning. :) Its a robust, smooth coffee...yummy yum yum yum!

So, as part of my new exercise regimen, I've been adding strength training dvds to my cardio workouts. I tried to do the 30 Day Shred for the recommended 30 days, but how realistic is that? Its not usual practice to work the same muscle groups 2 days in a row, and while there are 3 levels of workout on the Shred dvd, you have to be able to complete (without cheating) one level before moving onto the next...or at least in my eyes. I'm not knocking the Shred dvd...its an AWESOME workout, but honestly, I get bored easily and like variety. So for the last couple days, rather than doing the Shred dvd, I've been doing the Biggest Loser Power Sculpt dvd.

I love it! You can customize your workout, skip and add segments, and it truly is a strength training dvd. I've only done the Jillian segment of the dvd, but next week I'll add the Bob & Kim segments. I'm looking forward to the other Biggest Loser dvds I got...you really do get a workout. In 20 minutes of the Power Sculpt dvd, I burned 200 calories. Not bad. I don't usually burn much while strength training on my own. I also burned 376 calories during my cardio workout this morning, for a total of 576 today. :)

Ok guys...I'm signing off for now...I need SLEEP! :)

Crazy mornings!

2010-01-06T19:54:00.005-06:00

Its going to take me awhile to get used to our hectic morning schedule after having 2 weeks off! I'm up between 5 and 5:30 every morning and from that time until 8:15AM, its go-Go-GO! I get ready while the kids are asleep (shower, hair, makeup--I look dead without it-- dress, etc), then Noah's up at about 6:15AM. He & I hang out for a bit; I make coffee for myself, and we sit and watch Nick Jr or play on our computers...at about 6:45, Caleb's awake, then I make breakfast (4everyone), pack lunches (4Noah), snacks (4me & Caleb), sippy cups (4Caleb), water bottles (4me), pack diapers & wipes (4Caleb), and make sure I've got everything ready for the day. This is what my kitchen counter looks like in the morning...

We've each got a bag as we walk out the door. :)

For breakfast this morning I started with my morning coffee, sweetened with Truvia. It tastes so much more like real sugar than Splenda! Love! Random fact...did you know 8 oz of black coffee only equals to TWO calories?! Decaf is actually calorie free per 8 oz. Craziness.

I also had a mini-breakfast of cottage cheese & pineapple. I ate the second half of my breakfast (2 small lemon poppy seed muffins) on the way to Noah's school, as a pre-workout snack.

I headed to the gym after I dropped Noah off and did my usual 40 minutes of cardio: 20 minutes treadmill & 20 minutes elliptical. 428 calories burned. :) Afterwards, I came home and did Day 3, Level 1 of the 30 Day Shred. I definitely feel stronger, but I still have yet to complete a workout without cheating on the cardio. LOL. I burned 267 calories brining my total to 695 calories. :)

When Babydaddy came home this afternoon he brought a box in from Zappos.com, or so we thought...I swore I didn't order anything; I had to think about it for a second there. I have been known to forget what I've ordered online. :p But after a closer look, we saw that the box was from my fabulous girlfriend, KCB! I tore into the box and read the card first...I loved the line

"We all need fabulous shoes, especially for our fabulous 32's."

OMG, I love KCB! :) Anyway, here's a pic of the fabulous shoes for my fabulous 32's:

Aren't they FABULOUS?! Now I've got a great pair of go-to shoes for my nights out; they'll look great with jeans or a LBD...I just need to learn how to walk in them first. ;) Haha!

For dinner I had another salad monster: lettuce, tomatoes, tomato-basil crackers, cheese, & Italian dressing.

I also had a serving of lasagna, which I didn't eat much of, so I added several pieces of steak to my salad.

My dessert was some chocolate...yum. :)

I have room enough for a snack tonight...I might either do fruit or some popcorn. :)

Gonna curl up in bed now! 'Night! :)

Finding my motivation.

2010-01-05T20:03:00.002-06:00

Babydaddy & I are on the weightloss/healthy eating challenge together so every night I post an inspirational quote in hopes of keeping us motivated on this journey. Here are the sayings I've posted so far...

Excuse the toothpaste on the mirrors...the boys can get a little out of hand with their toothbrushes in the morning. ;)

This morning for breakfast, Noah & I split an apple and I had 1/2 a cup of Cabot's Greek style yogurt...I don't usually see the big tubs of Greek yogurt, so even though I wasn't familiar with the brand, I picked it up anyway. It was surprisingly good. :)
I chopped up my half of the apple and topped my yogurt with it. Filling & delicious. :)

After the morning rush---today was our Monday; Noah's school always starts on a Tuesday after Christmas break---I packed the kids up and headed to school and the gym.

This morning I was in paaaaain thanks to Ms. Jillian Michaels. I've done her 30 Day Shred workout numerous times and every time I start over she always manages to make me HURT the next day. So I got to the gym and couldn't do much more than walk on an incline on the treamdill. I tried to run and did for maybe 10 minutes or so, but for the rest of the 35 minutes, I walked on a 2% incline. I burned 370 calories. Afterwards, I came home, put Caleb down for a nap and met with my trainer Jillian. :) I'm trying to do her workout for the 30 days; today was day 2 and I burned 256 calories. I cheated a little on the cardio. :p I burned a total of 626 calories today. :)

After my workout, I snacked on a Clif bar and H20. :)
Dinner tonight was a salad monster...
and a vegetarian chili.The chili was blech so I just ate the salad. :p I also added some unpictured sauteed mushrooms to my salad. It was sooooooo good and surprisingly filling! Just 2 days into my little calorie-counting foray and I am amazed to see how LITTLE calories fruits and veggies have. I could literally eat carts full of fruits and veggies and consume very little calories. Its wonderful! (I know, DUH, right?!)

I rounded out my evening with a yummy honeycrisp apple while meal-planning and watching the Biggest Loser. :)

So after talking to my dietician friend (BS in Nutrition & MS in Exercise Science) and another friend (personal training certification) and my Babydaddy (BS in Exercise Science) I am more confused than ever as to how many calories I should be consuming. Actually, let me take that back. I'm not REALLY confused...I KNOW I should be consuming more food, but a whopping 2200 calories a day?! How am I supposed to lose weight that way?! I'll get it together sooner or later but I'm just being stubborn right now :p

Anyway, I'm signing off for tonight peeps...good night!! :)

Back at it!

2010-01-04T13:33:00.003-06:00

Today is the day I chose to kick off my new eating plan (trying not to say the word "diet") and workout regimen. I had originally planned on going to the gym after Babydaddy got home but since both kids had slept in this morning, I decided to get ready, feed them breakfast and head out in the frigid temps so that I could get it out of the way. :) I'm glad I did! I am not really a fan of going to the gym in the evening because by the time 6 PM rolls around, I am winding down for the day. Anyway, at the gym I did another glorious 40 minutes of cardio on the treadmill and burned 476 calories. When I got home, I put Caleb down for a nap, gave Noah an apple and turned his laptop on for him and did Jillian's 30 Day Shred, Level 1. I burned 279 calories for a total of 755 calories burned today. :) YAY!

So with the new eating plan, I've alotted myself about 1,200 calories a day. I know I'm a dork, but the calorie counting is kind of fun...seeing how many I can consume and burn. :) This little book and food journal will be my best pals for this journey...

Now, what I didn't take into account while meal planning was the amount of calories I would be burning. After doing some checking and balancing, with my workouts, I will only be consuming 400 calories! ACK! I'll definitely be adding more to my diet.

My after workout snack was some yummy Fage & honey (180 cals)...Noah ate a quarter of it. :)

For lunch I had one serving of chicken noodle soup...130 calories;
1/2 an apple (Noah ate the other half...lol. 36 cals);
And 6 almonds (75 cals).
I luckily have an old friend from high school who is a registered dietician and exercise physiologist and she offered to give me some nutritional advice. She's the only one besides my husband and myself who knows how much I weigh. :p LOL. We'll see what she has to say... :)

Grocery store meltdown.

2010-01-03T16:46:00.006-06:00

So today was grocery shopping day in the Phillips Ohana, and we like to make it a family affair. :) The timing has to be right: after Caleb's nap and after they've eaten; so that the trip goes as smoothly as possible. Today we decided to hit up the Apple Market Grocery store in Pensacola. Its a family-owned corner store, and while it didn't live up to our hopes of being our Pensacola Trader Joe's (we don't have a TJ's here...*cries*), it was a cute little grocery store with a great deli and a cute local coffee shop chain called The Drowsy Poet. Babydaddy & I got a couple sandwiches for lunch and coffee to boot. :)

I got the classic beef: roast beef, provolone, lettuce, & tomato on whole wheat.
Delish! :) Very fresh.

The coffee was good too...I ordered a small white chocolate mocha.
After our visit to Apple Market, we made our way back to Pace to hit up Publix. By then, Caleb was in rare form. He didn't want to sit in the cart, he didn't want to walk (he had a face-down-on-the-floor moment) and he wasn't being quiet about it. Thank goodness for the Publix Cookie Club: free cookies for kids. :) That, paired with those carts that have the steering wheels, we were good for half an hour. Even then though, he kept throwing his sippy cup at me. :p

We made our way around the store. This week Babydaddy & I vowed to get back on the healthy eating bandwagon so we chose a lot of fresh fruits and salad veggies. Here's some of the loot...

Truvia, an all-natural sweetener made from the stevia plant.

Larabars, which I have been seeing all over the blogosphere. The Fitnessista is a fan. :)
Honeycrisp apples and Bartlett pears. The honeycrisp apples were our splurge ($2.50/lb?!) and we love us some pears. :)
I picked up some cottage cheese & fruit for me (Babydaddy is NOT a fan)...my fave...
Greek yogurt of course, his & her's. I turned Babydaddy onto Greek yogurt and now he can't eat the regular stuff. :)We decided to try salad spritzers for our salads, rather than dressing. 1 calorie per spritz?! I had to try this out for myself...

I wrote up what I'll be eating tomorrow and it comes up to 1,145 calories, not including the salad greens I'll be eating with my lunch & dinner and my morning coffee. I predict I'll round out at 1,300-1,400 calories tomorrow. Bring on the food withdrawal headaches. :p I can do this, I can do this, I can do this!!!

Nighty-night. :)

What's My Age Again?

2010-01-02T19:13:00.002-06:00

No I'm not really 23 today...Babydaddy decided to be cute and switch the numbers around. :) Mommy is the big 3-2 today! I started the day with the boys jumping into bed with me and yelling "Happy Birthday!" Poor Caleb tried his hardest and ended up saying something to the effect of "blab blab baday!" :) I was blessed when those kids came into my life. :)

After a quick cup of coffee, I got dressed and headed in the frigid (for FL, that's 32 degrees & windy) cold to the gym. Ah, the gym, how I've missed you. :) I did a nice 40 minutes on the treadmill, alternating between songs walking & running; walk 1 song, run 1 song, and so on. My feet and shins were hurting but I attribute that to lack of use. :p Its been a good 2 months since I hit the treadmill...and the scale proved it. Without getting too much into it, let's just say I'm a big ol' heffer. :p

After the gym & Caleb's nap, we headed over to the outlets in Alabama, which is where I got my fabulous birthday present. :) The Coach Factory has great deals, plus they were doing an extra 20% off so I took advantage and got a satchel & matching wallet. I was in the market for a wallet anyway, but with the great deals, I had to get a purse to match! ;) Its a nice classic bag that I can use for years, plus I'm really into the satchel style lately.

I ate waaaaay too much today, but you only celebrate your birthday once a year, so I figured what the heck. I've got grocery shopping to do tomorrow, then the real nitty gritty eating plan will start.

Enjoy the rest of your Saturday, people! :)

I have learned...

2010-01-01T15:48:00.010-06:00

Happy New Year everyone! :) I love how the New Year makes everything feel fresh & new and allows people to start from scratch with new goals and objectives. I love setting new missions for the year...I also love to reflect on what I've learned in the past year...it allows for personal growth and advancement.

Last year I made the best decision towards living a fitter life: I started running. It was hard but I learned that with perseverance that I could actually do it. I did it and enjoyed it. It was great therapy for me; moving to FL was very hard for me. I was homesick and lonely and went into a sort of depression when we first moved here. I got pregnant with Caleb and that allowed me to focus my mind on things other than the fact that I missed my friends and family, and that I really had no one in FL. After having Caleb, the stress of taking care of the 2 kids (who were only 30 months apart) was enough to bring me back down...that coupled with the 50+ extra pounds on my 5'2 frame, and having to finish the requirements of my Masters degree, I was REALLY down in the dumps.

January 2, 2009 I decided to start running and I am so glad I did. I ran my first 5K on May 2, 2009, and ran another one with my family on May 7, 2009. It felt great to do something I never thought I would have. Running gave me a confidence that I had been lacking for several years.

I dropped the pounds quickly. Soon I was 17 lbs lighter than I had been at the start of the year. But then the weight stopped dropping. I thought I plateaued, so I started to mix up my routine; I cross-trained on the elliptical, took more group fitness classes, and worked out to Jillian Michaels' dvds...still, the weight wasn't dropping as quickly as I'd liked.

I have since learned that diet is KEY. I have read somewhere that what you look like is 80% nutrition. 80%! No wonder I wasn't losing any weight. So, equipped with this knowledge, I know what I have to do. I have to change what I put into my body. I've said this before...and yet I still fail at this.

I've racked my brain for the answer to WHY I continue to do this to myself over and over again.
I realized this morning that I am scared of the hard work that is required to lose this weight. What is required is not a quick-fix; it takes hard work and determination and will-power. Results won't come quickly and I am used to instant gratification. When I want something, I get it. Most things have come pretty easily for me in life, without much work required. I am used to getting what I want when I want it...and without much effort. So with the diet thing, it was so much easier just to give in to the food. I got the instant gratification I was so used to from food. Who cared if what I was eating was sabotaging my workout ventures? Working out obviously wasn't working quick enough (or so I thought), so I needed my "fix" from somewhere...and where I went was to FOOD.

I watch weightloss shows and Oprah and all say that you get fat because you have issues with food. I always said to myself, "I don't have issues, the food just tastes good!" It took a lot of soul searching to come to this realization and I am hoping that now that I am equipped with this new found tidbit of knowledge, I will be more successful in my weightloss attempts.

With all that said (and wow, that was a lot!), I am ready to do the hard work that is required of me to lose this damn weight! I am tired of talking about it and just want to do it already. :)

I got a couple things to help me jumpstart this challenge:

I got a mini insulated cooler for my lunches and snacks during the week. I spend a lot of time in the car during the week and end up not eating lunch, then binging later on in the day.
Target had the Biggest Loser dvds on sale for $9 so I picked up four: Last Chance Workout, Cardio Max, Power Sculpt, & Bootcamp. I love the Jillian Michaels' workouts so I am sure these are right up my alley. :)
I got a medium-sized cosmetic pouch by Vera Bradley (from the NEX...saved a couple bucks!) for all my workout related stuff I take to the gym: Ipods, heart rate monitor, weightlifting gloves, etc. I can just dump the pouch in my purse and go.

I also picked up an aluminum water bottle by GAIAM...I have heard great things about SIGG bottles but couldn't bring myself to spending $25 for one. :p Hopefully the GAIAM bottle will work just as well.
Body Glide. I've been using this for awhile now and this is my 3rd time repurchasing. Works wonders for chafing. :)

I plan on kicking off my 32nd brithday at the gym tomorrow...I am excited to get back at it. :)

Hello 2010!

2010-01-01T09:31:00.008-06:00

In the big scheme of things, 2009 was a rather uneventful year for the Phillips family...our family has been go-Go-GO since...heck, since we got married, that it was nice to have a year where no one gave birth, no one was deployed, no one moved, and no one got pregnant. :) Here's a look back at some of the major events in our family since 2001:

2001

Babydaddy graduated from ODU

Babydaddy went to OCS & earned a commission to the US navy

2002

Babydaddy got stationed to his first command an an Ensign in Norfolk, VA

I graduated from ODU

We got engaged

I got my first teaching job

We got married Dec. 14, 2002

We moved in together

2003

Babydaddy deployed January - May

FIL deployed to Kuwait January - April

My parents & brother moved to Pasadena, CA

Visited my parents twice in CA: April & December

2004

Babydaddy got promoted to 0-2 (LTjg in the Navy)

I switched jobs; went from teaching 3rd grade to Director of Ed for Sylvan Learning Center

Had a miscarriage :(

Started grad school for my M.Ed

My dad moved back to VA to start a new job; Mom & Ron still in CA

Moved to a new apartment

2005

Got pregnant! (and this one stuck!)

Babydaddy gone 75% of this year...eventually deployed for 6 months Sept - March

Mom & Ron move back to VA

Quit my jobby job at Sylvan to focus on being a MOMMY

Had Noah in November! :)

2006

Babydaddy got promoted to 0-3 (LT in Navy)

Babydaddy came home from deployment in March & met 4 mo old Noah for the 1st time :)

Babydaddy got surgery for a torn peck and was med down for a month!

We bought our first house in June in Virginia Beach

Spent the summer remodeling & fixing up the house

Got the PERFECT part-time job teaching 3rd grade 2x a week for a private Christian school. (To date this has been my favorite job EVER.)

Had Noah's 1st birthday in our new house

Hosted Thanksgiving & Christmas in our first house

2007

Received news we were to be transferred 5 months earlier than expected!

Mad scramble to get the house on the market

Moved to FL March 23, 2007

Sold VA house May 1, 2007 (Praise God!)

Was extremely homesick :(

Got pregnant! :)

Bought our Chevy Tahoe (in prep for Baby #2's arrival)

Spent Christmas in VA

2008

I spent most of the first part of the yr in a pregnancy-induced haze

Had Caleb in May! :)

Noah started Mothers Day Out in July

Enrolled Noah in preschool in August

Spent Thanksgiving with the ILs here

Potty-trained Noah

Took the kids to Disney World for the first time :)

Finished requirements for my M. Ed :)

Celebrated Christmas quietly...just us :)

2009

Realized I wanted to live a life worth living...started running on my 31st birthday

Attended my first group fitness class (Box & Sweat, then Bodypump)

Ran 2 5ks

Received my M. Ed diploma

Babydaddy completed his MBA

Celebrated Caleb's 1st birthday

Became consistent with my workouts, going to the gym at least 3x a week for most of the year

Got my DSLR camera (yes this deserved recognition!)

Celebrated Christmas with the entire Phillips brood in our home.

And that sums up our life for the last decade! :) Like I said, this past year was rather uneventful, but welcomed at the same time. Its funny...just as we start to get comfortable with being here in FL, we need to start gearing up for a move again. Such is the life for a Navy family! Hope you all have a fantastic 2010! :)

Toy Story.

2009-12-30T19:36:00.006-06:00

So every year I tell myself I will be more organized. I used to be such an organized, neat, clutter-free person...then I had kids. When Noah came around, his baby things took over the house, but I was still able to maintain a semblance of organization...now with 2 kiddos running around, its nearly impossible! Our house seems smaller too...the way too open layout is getting to me (I hate how you can walk through the front door and see the entire house). I am sooo ready to move! I hear the houses up in MD are bigger and most have basements, so I am quite excited. :)

Anyhow, after Christmas, Babydaddy & I knew we had to do something about the massive amounts of toys the boys had all over the house. We had to make room for the new ones, plus with the move coming up soon, we wanted to purge some stuff anyway. And so Operation Purge the Toys was underway...

We collected all the diecast Monster Trucks, Hot Wheels, Matchbox cars, and Cars figurines and put them into a large wicker laundry basket...I swear there's over 150 cars in there. The boys can't get enough of these! I picked up all the stray books I found in the living room and collected them in this basket. These books don't include the ones in Noah's room and our office. We love books in this family. :)
All the larger toy trucks and cars went into the toy chest.

After purging 1 HUGE box and several large black trashbags of toys, we put the "For Keeps" toys in their respective spots on the hearth...in a perfect world, the toys would stay there forever.
But in MY world, this is what the living room looked like 10 minutes after the boys woke up this morning. SIGH.
Oh well. At least we've got a place for everything. :) Next on Operation Purge: the boys' closets...

Christmas 2009 Re-Cap

2009-12-30T12:00:00.009-06:00

I finally have the time to sit and do a re-cap of Christmas for you all! I love days where there is nothing planned...right now the entire family is still in pajamas waiting for some homemade brownies to cool. Perfect opportunity to blog. :o)

This Christmas we were blessed to have the entire Phillips brood over at our place (with the exception of JMP who had to work...responsibilities!): The Phillips' from VA and The Phillips-Ray's from MS. It was a full house and lots of fun. :)

On Christmas Eve, Noah put out some cookies and chocolate milk for Santa...by the door because he was afraid Santa wouldn't be able to get in the house via the fireplace. The hearth is where we house all of the boys' toys and they're in baskets blocking the opening to the chimney. :p
These are the presents that Santa left by the door for the boys...

Here's Noah on Christmas morning looking for his name on the presents...
Noah opening up Santa's gifts first...
Now its Caleb's turn...

Noah was quite excited by all the presents... :)
Happy with his new Cars set...
Caleb loved opening up presents...he didn't really care what was under all the wrapping. :)
After literally HOURS of opening up presents...here's a picture of the aftermath. :p I had a mini-anxiety attack looking at my living room. :p

My favorite gifts of the season were from my in-laws...FIL got us an HD media player. Once you download movies to your external hard drive, you can connect it to the media player and have all your movies at your fingertips. No more dealing with DVDs! The best part of the gift was that FIL had downloaded 200+ movies to our external hard drive so all we had to do is hook it up. Its awesome. :) We've already watched several movies using it.
My MIL has been listening to me for some time now saying how I needed a new coffeemaker. My current one is a Hamilton Beach Brew Station, which I love, but I've had it for almost 3 years and wanted one with a separate carafe. MIL got me a Hamilton Beach percolator. I love it because it brews quickly, stays hot until you unplug it (my other one automatically shut-off after 2 hrs) and is space-saving. :) I swear my coffee is more flavor-full too.
Christmas was magical for the boys and just so much fun as they get older. I love, love, LOVE the Christmas season! As much as I love it, though, I was happy to pack up all the decor and prep the house for a major purge fest...more on the purge fest to come. :)

Babyweight & Me.

2009-12-29T11:14:00.004-06:00

Am I back?! Really back? Yup, I think I am...the Christmas holidays are through, the New Year is upon us and I have a renewed energy for blogging, working out, and just getting back on track. :)

My battle with this babyweight has been something I've been struggling with for the past 4 years. In my mind, I know what it takes to lose it, but for one reason or another, I haven't bought 100% into that idea. 2009 was the year I decided to make a change. I started running and going to the gym consistently. I worked out religiously and I enjoyed going to the gym. The weight started to come off quickly and I became more and more addicted to the endorphin high. I plateaued about 3-4 months into my new workout regime. My weightloss remained stagnant at 17 lbs.

I was delusional to think that just because I was running and working out, I could continue to stuff my face with the same old junk.

(Excerpt taken from Skinny Bitch):

"Stop being a moron and start getting skinny! If you can't take one more day of self-loathing, your ready to hear the truth: You cannot keep shoveling the same crap into your mouth every day and expect to lose weight."

"Junk food will never go away. It becomes more alluring by the minute with laboratory-developed aromas, artificial flavors, chemical food colors, toxic preservatives, and heart-stopping hydrogenated oils. We know these are impossible to resist, but no one ever got skinny on junk food. Use your head. Candy bars, potato chips and ice cream taste like heaven, of course. But they will pitch a tent on your hips and camp out all year long."

Soooo...as much as I hate it, I HAVE to change my diet. I HAVE to change what I am putting into my body. And I HAVE to make this change for life...not until I reach a certain size or weight...for LIFE.

And while I have always known this is the ONLY way I will be able to shed the pounds, I don't know why I continue to ignore this.

Maybe its because I have never really had to watch what I ate...it wasn't until after I had Noah that I had ever experienced excess weight to the extent of being considered "overweight." I continued to eat what I normally did and worked out very little as I got used to my new role as "mommy." I still had an excess of 40 lbs on my frame when I got pregnant with Caleb, and now, 20 months post-partum it is safe to say that I am easily 40-50 lbs overweight. Sooo, as I wrap my mind around that, I know what has to be done.

I think this time I'm ready...

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-25T14:14:00.005-06:00

From our family to your's...we hope you all have had a fantastic Christmas! I hope to get back on the blogging bandwagon soon...but for now, how are you all enjoying the changes on the bloggy?? :)

Stay Tuned...

2009-12-24T18:13:00.002-06:00

...for a new and improved blog for the new year! 2010 is going to be a great year, I can feel it!

Busy Busy Busy & Impromtu Pizza.

2009-11-11T08:43:00.000-06:00

Hey bloggy peeps. :) Sorry its been awhile since I last touched the blog, but like I said previously, motivation is definitely lacking this time of the year. If it doesn't have anything to do with turkey or Christmas trees, I have major ADD. The kids and LIFE have been keeping me busy too.

After Noah's birthday last Thursday, Babydaddy came home on Friday, and we did some cleaning and grocery shopping and catching up on the weekend. Come Sunday, we find out that a hurricane is brewing in the Gulf of Mexico and its headed straight for Pensacola! WTH?! Its November, for sobbing out loud! Anyway, Monday comes around and Escambia County is hoping for the best and preparing for the worst; schools are closed Monday and Tuesday, people are clearing the shelves at the grocery stores and filling up their gas tanks. Monday is also the day I decide to take Caleb to the doc's because he's been extremely fussy and pointing at his right ear for the past several days. I call Whiting Field and of course there aren't any spots, especially since they were closing early that day. Thankfully they give me a consult to go out in town and we all take Caleb to the Urgent Care in Pace...in the rain and hurricane traffic. Well, turns out it was a good thing we took him because he did indeed have an ear infection. His second one in a month, opposite ear. Sigh. Noah's had 1 ear infection in his whole 4 years and Caleb gets 2 in a month. :o/ Anyway, we get the antibiotics and we are prepared for the storm to come...

...the storm came and went with much hoopla and little follow through. :p We've had worst thunderstorms! We are thankful that Hurricane Ida ended up being a dud though. :) Thanks to Hurricane Ida, Noah was off from school and Babydaddy was off from work...we got bored quickly so we headed out for a drive. :)

We decided to try a pizza place we've driven by many, many times: Santino's Pizza & Grinders. We'd heard good things about the place and Babydaddy & I were hungry...we were pleasantly surprised! Santino's is attached to a gas station, which is why we had never gone in...how good could pizza from a gas station be?

Well, turns out pizza from a gas station can be AWESOME!!! :) I'm not typically a pizza person, but this pizza was the bomb diggy. Loved loved loved it. I had 2 slices. :p
We will definitely be heading back to Santino's! ;)

Well, today is Veteran's Day so Noah is home from school again...3rd day in a row! Babydaddy's command decided to come into work today and possibly get a 3-day weekend instead. Hopefully they still get one, even with their 1.5 "free days" they got this week. Anyway, I foresee today being a lazy day...its gray outside and there's nothing on my task list that needs to get done today, so today will definitely be a curl up with The Vampire Diaries kinda day. ;) Have fun, ya'll!

Lack of motivation.

2009-11-04T10:19:00.000-06:00

Hey peeps. Yes I am still alive...I have been in single-mom-mode since Sunday and have been lacking motivation in the blogging department...as well as the workout department, but I chalk the latter up to the time of the year. As soon as November hits, I am in holiday-planning-mode and just can't get into a fitness routine. Anyway, Caleb has decided to nap a tad bit early today (which I am scared about...the evening should be fuuuuun) so I decided to upload some pics and do a little blogging action. :)

I actually had a pretty decent breakfast this morning (as opposed to picking off my kids' plates). I was cutting up some strawberries for Noah's school lunch, and decided to cut some up for myself too...

...I added the strawberries to some yummy Greek yogurt & honey...
...and added a 1/2 cup of Vanilla Honey Bunches of Oats for crrrrunch. ;)

It made for a delicious and filling breakfast. :)
I, of course, had my gigantor mug of coffee because I was dragging this morning. The 5-ish wake up calls are ok for the first 2-3 days, then by Wednesday or Thursday I am beat. I have been getting to bed rather early though, which is a good thing. Last night before bed, I decided to wrap Noah's birthday presents and pack the goodie bags for this classmates. We pick the cake up today...I love birthday time. :)

This year's birthday is Disney's Cars-themed. We got him a little backpack for school...not pictured is a matching lunchbox and a coooool Lightning McQueen t-shirt. :)

We also got him some action figures...on sale at Target a couple weeks ago! ;)
And we got him a game cartridge for his Nintendo DS...he's gonna love it.
Here's a pic of the goodie bags...since he goes to school M-F, I packed enough for the students that come Tu/Th & MWF. I added a slinky, bubbles, and sunglasses to each bag. :)
He's going to love it all! Since Babydaddy is away for the week, we'll also celebrate on Friday with a little cake and probably a Mexican dinner...I can't believe my baby is turning FOUR!

Well, let me relax a bit before the K-Bobzilla wakes up...talk to you all later!

Happy Halloween!

2009-11-01T07:39:00.000-06:00

The boys had a ton of fun trick-or-treating last night! :) This was the first year we actually took Noah because he had either been too young, and last year he was dead set against it (he went through a phase where he didn't want to try ANYTHING new) so last night was new for all of us. :)

We dressed the boys up as Disney's Cars drivers and we spiffied up Noah's costume a little more with a wig and moustache. He was a hit! He had the neighbors taking pictures of him...lol. You know these peeps love them some NASCAR. lol.

Here's a pic of the little man... We loaded them up in the wagon and they were ready to go...of course we had to pack the trusty sippy cups. Can't risk the kids getting thirsty on the trip. :)

I think this was one of the first houses we hit...no one answered. Party poopers! :p
LOL...a lot of people thought he was Mario from the Super Mario Brothers...Last picture of the night...there came a point where Caleb was sick of getting in and out of the wagon, and when that time came, we knew it was time to head home. The boys had a great time though...can't wait for next year! :)

Friday Wrap-Up

2009-10-31T08:00:00.000-05:00

So I totally meant to write a post last night before hitting the hay, but I 1) had too much wine and 2)got distracted by a pair of boots on DSW's website, thanks to the Fitnessista. :)

Here's the culprit: a yummy glass of moscato that turned into 2 glasses, then 3...I am such a lightweight that being in the same room as alcohol gives me a buzz, so you can imagine how I was after 3 glasses of this yummy stuff...
For dinner we had chicken adobo, the unofficial dish of the Philippines...Babydaddy makes a mean adobo. :)

Served over rice, the combo is heavenly....definitely one of my favorite comfort foods. :)
The rest of the night was busy trying to keep the boys up an hour past their bedtime, in anticipation of the time change this weekend. We cut their hair and let them run around the house in their diaper/underwear. :) Fun times at the Phillips Ohana. :o)

Tonight is TRICK-OR-TREAT time!!! We're especially excited because we are taking both boys out for the first time...Noah's never gone trick-or-treating door-to-door; last year he was too "scared" (silly boy) and the previous years we just passed out candy. This year we're loading 'em up in their wagon and heading out...should be lots of fun!

Alrighty folks...enjoy your Saturday. It should be a rather leisurely one for us; it looks like rain right now. :p

Pumpkin Time!

2009-10-30T12:45:00.000-05:00

Happy Friday, ya'll! I thought this week went by pretty quickly, don't you? I am glad because I can definitely use some sleepy time in the morning...this waking up before the birds business is for the BIRDS! :) I woke up needing some extra oomph this morning, but didn't have my normal cup of joe...I held out and made a Starbucks run with the hubby for my lovely pumpkin spice latte and a pumpkin muffin!! Oh so delish...

Here it is again, in all its pumpkiny glory...
After our Starbucks run we made a cameo at Noah's Fall Festival. His school had it yesterday too for all the Tu/Th students and since I didn't have anyone with me to help me with Kbobzilla, I decided to go today with Babydaddy. Today it was held indoors because it is just so HUMID right now on the Panhandle, which was just as well since there are typically less students on Fridays.

Here's good ol' Kbobzilla, just itching to wreck havoc... :)
Noah on the hayride...
Pickin' a pumpkin at the "pumpkin patch."This picture just sums up Noah: goofy. :o)

All 3 boys are napping right now while Mommy enjoys her quiet time...enjoy your Friday everyone!

Weekend Wrap-Up

2009-10-25T19:32:00.000-05:00

What a nice, relaxing weekend this was. :) There's nothing I love more than weekends because weekends mean non-stop family time. I hate to see it end, but it was definitely a good one. :)

We started our weekend by going to see the airplanes at NAS Whiting Field's 66th Anniversary. It was pretty chilly when we left the house and we had forgotten how much colder it is on the flightline! My head was frozen by the time we left...and we were out there only about an hour!

Caleb was so excited in this picture...he was yelling something! :)
Noah in a Marine helo...aircraft doesn't really excite him as much as trucks do. :o) LOL.

And here he is...in front of a firetruck...excuse his expression...he really WAS excited! :)
The three of us in front of a firetruck...
...and the 3 of us in front of a plane...

Babydaddy and the boys in front of a POW Ford F-150...both boys were quite excited about this one. :)
After about an hour, we headed home because it was naptime for Caleb, and because Babydaddy needed to get the Tahoe serviced. After both kids napped, we headed out for a sweet treat from Baskin Robbins...
There's my 17 month old looking like a little man. :)
And my almost 4-year-old (in a week!!) acting like an almost 4-year-old! ;)

I ordered a small milkshake...and Caleb seemed to like it more than I did. :)
As we were walking outside of the Baskin Robbins, I spied a store selling New Moon t-shirts! I had to take a look...and ended up empty-handed! Oh well...
We rounded out our evening with a grocery store trip to Publix and a nice relaxing Saturday evening reading...

This morning we all slept in until 7:45AM! Babydaddy made a delicious Southern breakfast of biscuits and sausage gravy. I looooooooove me some biscuits and sausage gravy! It must be the 22 years I lived in Virginia...although after living here in the DIRTY south, I no longer consider VA as a part of the South... :p

We made a quick trip to Hell on Earth, aka Walmart for 2 items, and ended up spending $100 on Wii accessories, pjs for the kids, and the New Moon soundtrack. Don't you just love that?! :p

We had lunch at home, put the kids down for a nap, which they really weren't feeling since we had slept in so late, and made an impromptu trip to the mall because I wanted to exchange my empty MAC containers for a new lipstick (check out MAC's Back to MAC program) and I needed to repurchase a lipliner and an eyeshadow. I also ended up with some cute tops from Old Navy (can't beat $8!) and I got my eyebrows threaded thanks to a new kiosk in the mall. New makeup, new clothes, threaded eyebrows=quite the happy mama right now! :)

For dinner, we had the yummiest Crock-Pot baked potato soup ever...soooo easy. I got the recipe from my homegirl MRG, and its been a staple in the Phillips Ohana ever since.

8-10 potatoes peeled and cubed

1 block of light cream cheese

2 cans chicken broth

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 small onion, diced

5-6 pieces of bacon

Place cubed potatoes and onion in the bottom of the slow cooker. Put the block of cream cheese on top of potatoes. dump in the two cans of broth and soup. place the bacon on top. Cook for 5-6 hours on high. Serve with shredded cheddar cheese.

Heaven in a bowl. :)

That was our weekend in a nutshell. Gonna rest up for the week ahead...night, ya'll!

TGIF! :)

2009-10-23T09:32:00.000-05:00

Hey folks...sorry for the lack of posts this week. It was pretty hectic the first half of the week, and has thankfully slowed down these last 2 days. I kept Noah from school yesterday and today due to his phlemy cough and runny nose. While it sure hasn't broken his spirit, I was scared being around other kids might 1) exacerbate his condition, and 2) spread to the other kids. So he's stayed home the past 2 days. I find that lazy, unscheduled days can be good for the soul. :) Especially when those days are rainy, like today. Here's a picture right before the rain hit...the sky was an eerie hue, but I don't think I captured that with my camera...My first part of the morning has been spent looking for birthday presents for my soon-to-be four-year-old!! I know this is going to sound very cliche, but I feel like I just had him yesterday! I ordered some pretty exciting stuff, including a Disney Cars personalized lunchbox & backpack (I have since gotten smart and started personalizing with our last name only so that things can be used by BOTH boys. *wink*), and a cool Lightning McQueen t-shirt. :) Target is also having a sale on Cars toys, so I'll be heading over there to stock up for Noe's birthday AND Christmas. :) Thankfully both boys love Lightning McQueen...makes shopping easier. ;)
I have nothing planned for this morning but to read some more of my book: The Vampire Diaries by L.J. Smith. I finished the first book in the series (there are 4 in all so far, with more to come), The Awakening, and while it was an easy read, I have mixed feelings about it. There are parts that I like, and there are parts that I don't care for. While Stephanie Meyer's Twilight was written for the young adult set, it was written in a mature voice; The Vampire Diaries are clearly written for who it was intended for: young adults. I'll finish the series because I started it, but so far I don't really recommend it.
Oh and in other news...anyone digging my new template? I gotta give props to Simply Fabulous Blogger Templates for letting me use it...I love the orange and green. :) I also changed the layout of my 101 in 1001 blog...that layout was courtesy of Aqua Poppy Designs. What can I say? I'm fickle and get tired of one look quickly. :)

Alrighty off to do...nothing! Enjoy your Friday folks!

A Day in the Life of my Monday afternoon...

2009-10-19T19:13:00.000-05:00

So a little after I posted to my blog this morning, Caleb woke up from his nap and it was time for lunch. The little man had some turkey and watermelon...

He seemed to enjoy it very much. :) After lunch, his shirt was covered in food...the boy doesn't do bibs. :p
Mommy had some leftover red beans and rice...it was quite delicious.

Soon after lunch, we left so that I could make a stop at Starbucks, which is located in the local Target...we used to have a drive-thru Starbucks closeby but it closed down in September. Boo. So now if I want a caffeine pick-me-up I gotta drag the kids outta the car and take 'em in...
Today I have a $2 grande pumpkin spice latte coupon so it was so worth dragging Caleb out of the car to get one. :)After my Starbucks fix, we headed to Pensacola to get my other baby from school.
We got home a little while later, put Noah down for a nap and it was cuddle time for Mommy & Caleb. Babydaddy came home soon after and we decided it would be a sandwich night for dinner. I had roast beef...

Yum...
After dinner, we also decided to whip up some beignets with some mix we got at Publix. We have both had the real deal from the famous Cafe du Monde and wanted to see if the mix could compare.
Not too shabby! We made them a little flat, so they weren't as fluffy as the originials, but not too bad if I do say so myself. And they went perfectly with my pumpkin spice coffee. :)
Well folks, that was my Monday...not terribly busy, but tiring nonetheless. Gonna call it a night! See you all tomorrow...

A Day in the Life of my Monday morning...

2009-10-19T10:11:00.000-05:00

Good Monday morning people. :) Hope everyone's is going well thus far. Mine started bright and early at 5:19 (I set my alarm for 5:30AM but HATE to have the alarm wake me so I usually try to get up before it goes off) with my usual potty break and Blackberry FB/Twitter/email sesh. Yes, now you have a visual of me sitting on the potty checking out my Blackberry. :) After my early morning to-dos (lol), I got in the shower to get ready for my day.

This morning I was craving chocolate, so what better breakfast than Reeses Pieces cereal?! LOL...I didn't say I was going to be having a healthy breakfast this AM...

I also had my yummy homemade pumpkin spice coffee as I packed Noah's lunch for school. :)
After breakfast and a little playtime, we were off to Pensacola for school...here's a pic of the kiddos in the parking lot of the preschool. All nice and bundled up this AM! :)

We dropped Noah off without incident and made our way back to Milton...no gym for me today because Caleb has a cough and a runny nose. I swear, will these kids EVER get back to 100%?! :p

I played with my camera on the drive home...here I am sportin' the new shades... ;)
By 9am, it was only 52 degrees...its usually 85 degrees! So we Floridians were shivering our tukuses off.
The main road outside of our neighborhood. 9:30AM and its dead...isn't it usually rushhour at this time???The road leading up to our house...

And K-Bob...who spends all week in his carseat, taking Noah to and from school everyday.
Caleb's napping right now, but if he wakes up in time, we may just try to go to the park before we get Noah...and after I get my $2 pumpkin spice latte. :) Til next time...

Some new loves...NONfitness related.

2009-10-17T14:38:00.000-05:00

So I have been absent from the Blogosphere for awhile...the kids got sick, then they got sick again, and just as our weather changes and gets cooler, they may be getting sick yet AGAIN. My kids are mini-men so they are extremely high maintenance when they're sick. :o/

Anyway, yesterday everyone was feeling well, so I decided to participate in a little retail therapy after we picked Noah up from school. Retail therapy always makes everyone feel good, right? :)

I told myself I would never ever fall prey to the skinny jeans trend for two reasons: 1) they looked funny and 2) I was NOT skinny so I had no business wearing skinny jeans. Well, never say never because I am on my 3rd pair of skinny jeans. :) I am pleasantly surprised by how they make me look, and they are the perfect jeans to wear with flipflops. :) I have 2 kids so no high-end jeans for me...I got a pair from Old Navy yesterday for less than $30. :) I own another Old Navy pair and a pair from the Gap...LOVE them! Before this year I hadn't really bought any new jeans, and had been wearing the ones I've had since 2005. I thought they looked ok until Babydaddy informs me they look "a little dated." WTF?! Dated?! Oh hell to the no...I went out and bought me some new jeans after that and am glad I did. :)

After the jeans, I was on the look-out for some new sunglasses. I tend to have a certain style of sunglasses that I stick with: black, oversized and wrap-around. I currently wear Von Zipper Debutantes, which I adore...they fit perfectly. They're a classic style so I can wear them forever. Since I tend to buy sunglasses that are classic and I can wear forever, I don't mind the expense. But lately I've been eyeing more trendy styles, like the Von Zipper Trudies. But because they ARE trendy and might not be in style next year, or even next season, I couldn't bring myself to spend the extra $$$ on designer sunglasses. So, imagine my delight when I spot my ever-so-stylish girlfriend KCB in a pic wearing very similar shades...I ask her where she got them and she tells me TARGET! Yay! I love being a frugalista. ;) I got these shades from Target (below), only in black. Can't beat $12.99! :)

So in addition to my jeans, I have been looking for a new bag to tote my kids' stuff in. YES...I said it. I can't seem to find the perfect bag. Nothing is convenient enough, or organized enough, small enough, big enough, whatever. I even tried carrying around a big purse and putting their stuff in it, but without the organizational compartments of a traditional diaper bag, I was fishing around for things and sippy cups were leaking in my designer purses. I needed a medium-sized bag with lots of organization, pockets for sippy cups, and interior pockets for my stuff. I read a review on the Petunia Picklebottom touring tote and thought it might be right up my alley. :) That, and another one of my fabulous girlfriends MRG has one and loves her's. :) These PPB touring totes can be pricey, but I was lucky to find one on sale, so I saved a buck or two...plus got free shipping. :) Can't wait til it gets here!!

Today's been a VERY relaxing day. We spent the morning cleaning indoors and out, and the rest of the day has been spent lounging around. Tonight Babydaddy and I have a much needed date with some fantabulous friends for sushi!! Pics to follow...

Alive.

2009-10-14T06:48:00.000-05:00

Gonna get back into the blogging mode soon...kiddos still not 100%! :(

And I started off with such pep in my step too...

2009-10-05T09:45:00.000-05:00

I woke up feeling refreshed and ready to take on the day this morning...I was looking forward to an awesome workout after taking 2 much-needed and deserved 2 days off...I was even okay with the fact that Babydaddy was gone for the week. Then IT happened.

I was dropping Noah off at school and Caleb was acting clingier than usual. He usually loves to run around the school, play with the water fountains, look at himself in the mirror. Not today. He stood still for awhile, then put his arms up to me, motioning for me to pick him up. I did and he was super quiet. He kept swallowing, and for a split second, I had a vision of him getting sick. The vision became reality when the poor baby threw up his entire breakfast on me, himself and the floor. :( I know I have 2 kids, but this has never happened to me...ever. The only vomit I have ever had on myself was my own. But I didn't have time to think about myself, my poor baby was pitiful. Pitiful! I just wanted to scoop him up and hug him, but he needed to be cleaned up...thank GOD I had some clothes for him in the truck. I will ALWAYS have extra clothes with me from now on! Some lovely ladies at the school helped me clean up Caleb's mess and I jetted on out of there to get some clean clothes on my baby. Because it was raining, I had a windbreaker in the car, so I took MY shirt off and put the jacket on...yes in the freaking parking lot in broad daylight. Sorry for those who had to see it, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. Once we were dressed, I got the car going back to Milton...and Caleb was asleep not even 5 minutes into the car ride. That's how I know he's not feeling well. :(

I made an appointment for him tomorrow morning, which means Noah will probably miss out on school. I'm hoping its something "minor" like an ear infection or an upset tummy...please, no flu. :(

Movie night with my Babydaddy!

2009-10-02T18:13:00.000-05:00

Hey folks! Hope everyone's Friday is going superfantastic-ly. :) Mine's going well...after taking Noah to school this morning, Caleb and I made our stop at the gym and today he was NOT feeling the gym's Kid Kare. :( I ended up only working out for 32 minutes before the gym peeps came and got me. I was shooting for 40 minutes of cardio, so I didn't do too shabby. I did 20 minutes on the treadmill: walking at a 2% incline and 12 minutes on the elliptical; I wanted to do 20, but Caleb had other plans. :/ All together I burned 257 calories.

Babydaddy came home early enough from work that he got to come with us to get Noah from school. Afterwards we stopped by the mall so I could look at the book The New Rules of Lifting for Women. I decided against buying it because it contained too much of what I've already seen in the books that I own. I think I'm just going to tweak the Body for Life workout and tailor it to my needs at the moment.

We spent the rest of the afternoon lounging on the couch in front of the TV...and it felt wonderful. Nothing like just lounging.

Dinner was thrown together at the last minute. We decided on some turkey burgers...
We used our Bella Kitchen griddle... ...and put it on a whole wheat tortilla with greens, provolone and a little mayo...
...wrapped it up, and voila! Dinner. :) It was quite good, I might add.

We also had a bit of watermelon...
It was light and refreshing.

After the kiddos go to bed for the night, BD and I are collapsing in our freshly sheeted bed (nothing beats fresh sheets!) and watching one of the many movies my FIL gave us. :) So nice to know that I don't have to wake up to a 5:30 alarm.

Ok guys...signing off for tonight...

Friday! Friday! Friday!

2009-10-02T07:19:00.000-05:00

I don't think I've been so happy to see the weekend! I'm not sure if its because I'm coming off of a vacation, or because Aunt Flo reared her ugly head, or the fact that this week's schedule has been so busy, but whatever the case, I feel like I have been hit by a mack truck! I am 100,000% welcoming the weekend AND the coffee this morning. :)

Anyway, before I move on...who else is loving fall?! Florida is usually the last state in the country to feel any cooler weather but the past week has been gorgeous! Its been about 65 degrees at wakeup, 70 degrees when we leave the house, and we hit 80 degrees at the warmest time of the day. Its just been soooooo nice! I have to chuckle at myself though when I'm dressing the kids in jeans and long-sleeved shirts because its "chilly." I know I have been in Florida too long when I consider 70 degrees chilly. :)

Some other things I love about fall: the colors and pumpkins. :) I loved the display Publix had going earlier this week...

...and who forget pumpkin spice lattes from Starbucks?! That just screeeeeeams fall. :) On a sidenote: I did end up finding the International Delight pumpkin spice coffee creamer at Food World and bought all they had. Yes, its that good!
Anyhow, for breakfast this morning, I took inspiration from the blogs that I'm following and had almond butter and 1/2 a banana on a whole wheat tortilla. Can we say YUM?! It was definitely what I needed this morning!

Paired with my coffee and pumpkin spice creamer, it was a breakfast made in Heaven. :)
That will definitely be one of my go-to breakfasts. :)

Alrighty peeps...gotta get the kids ready to leave the house...speaking of the kids, I can't believe they let me blog this morning! Caleb is actually sitting still watching the Backyardigans and Noah is hiding in the computer room playing some Nick Jr games. Now if only ALL my mornings were like this!!

Enjoy your Friday everyone!

I know. I'm boring.

2009-10-01T11:27:00.000-05:00

Is it Friday yet? This week has been exhausting! I give props to moms who run carpools everyday...this driving Noah to and from Pensacola (17 miles ONE way...augh) everyday is NO JOKE! We will all definitely be resting up this weekend. :)

My morning at the gym was a little sloppy and all over the place. I went with the intention to do some weight training, which I did, but man its seriously been years since I've done the freeweights, so I felt like I had no idea what I was doing. BD & I used to work out together back in our Golds Gym days, so he trained me and told what to do...now its just me and I'm like, "HUH?!" :p I did upper body weights on both the machines and using freeweights...I also walked on a 2% incline on the treadmill for 20 minutes. In my 40 minute workout I burned 267 calories. Seems low, but I have to remember that my workout was pretty low-intensity.

I snacked on a Clif bar on the way home from the gym and for lunch I had the same as yesterday's wrap and fruit bowl, only instead of grapes, I added some strawberries. Yes, I am boring. :)

Not sure what the rest of the day has in store...in about 1/2 an hour I'll need to make my way over to Pensacola again to get my other offspring, and we're hoping BD gets off early today. He's got short-timer syndrome right now as we're awaiting orders...he's ready to hightail on outta there! :) I must admit...I am too...I'm ready for the next adventure! :)

Step away from the scale...

2009-09-30T11:12:00.000-05:00

I made a mistake by stepping on the scale today. It had been a good two weeks, and in keeping with everyone's Wednesday Weigh-Ins, I decided to give it a shot. Yeah. Um, no. I should have known better. I mean, just coming off vacation and a month long hiatus from exercise, as well as it being my PMS week, I knew it was not going to be pretty. And it wasn't. I am a whopping 5 lbs heavier than when I left for vacay 2 weeks ago. But I'm not discouraged. I actually feel good about getting back into the gym and running again...the weight gain did, however motivate me to have a healthy lunch since last night's dinner wasn't so much. :p

I had a little bowl of fruit: seedless watermelon (still holding onto summer...not. LOL) and some grapes...quite a refreshing mix. :)

I also made a wrap using a whole wheat tortilla, Laughing Cow cheese, some spring mix salad greens, and chicken breast...
A delicious combo indeed, and just what I needed today...

I woke up this morning feeling every muscle in my body, from my quads, to my calves, every back muscle and even my abs. It was glorious. :) I welcome that kind of pain. I hit the gym again today for a little cardio sesh: 35 minutes all together...25 minute treadmill intervals (2 min. running, 30 sec. walking) and 10 minutes on the elliptical. I burned 367 calories total. Tomorrow I think I'm going to do a weight-training circuit on my own. I used to be big into the weights before I had kids, doing a lot of the exercises with free weights, but I have since moved away from that, sticking to classes (Bodypump) or dvds (Jillian Michael's). I think I'll bring along either the Making the Cut book (by JM) or the Body for Life book to guide me. Should be interesting!

Well, it is wonderful naptime for Caleb right now, then off to Pensacola again to pick up Noah...talk to you all soon! Enjoy your day!

Back to the grind.

2009-09-29T13:58:00.000-05:00

We are officially back to the grind. Noah started his new 5 days a week school schedule (well, minus the 1 day he missed yesterday) and Mommy started her new 5 days a week workout schedule. I didn't really feel like I got into a groove when Noah started this school year at the end of August, because all we could think about was our VB vacation...and because Mike was off a couple of the mornings and we took Noah to school together...in some ways, I feel like today was the start of the new school year, especially with the cool fall weather we are experiencing today! :) Anyway...I know this is also the start of me feeling like I live out of my car... :p

I have definitely put some miles on this baby since we got her at the end of 2007! BD's 2003 Camry has 56K miles on it, and the Tahoe has 42K! Hello!

After we dropped Noah off at school, I made my way to the gym...and felt myself getting excited when I walked through the doors. Even Caleb was happy to be at the Kid Kare. :) I took it slow this morning, since it had been a month since my last workout (I know, I can't believe it either) and did a 32 minute workout: 15 minute run, 15 minute walk on 2% incline, 2 minute cooldown. I burned a total of 360 calories. I'm hoping to do something a little more high-intensity tomorrow. :)

After the gym, I took Caleb home so he could nap, which he did, but only for an hour or so. We had lunch, then I made my way back to Pensacola to get Noah from school. Before we picked him up though, I took Caleb to the park next to Noah's school for a little outside time. :)

Right now Noah is supposed to be napping, but I am afraid that naptime is officially over for my soon-to-be 4-year-old because for the past couple days he has been laying in bed for an hour and NOT going to sleep. Sigh. All good things must come to an end! He actually held on to his naps for longer than most...I know some mamas who have had their 2 year old give up naps! Oh the horror! :p I live for naptime. :D

Alrighty...since the boys aren't napping, I might as well take advantage of this weather and let them run around outside! :)

Back to reality.

2009-09-28T19:47:00.000-05:00

My first Monday back "at work" (all of you know my work is my boys) went surprising well. The boys were happy to be back in their surroundings and with all their toys they haven't seen in 2 weeks, they were kept occupied all day. I let Noah skip school today (I know, I'm encouraging bad habits), and he was content to just play with his Monster trucks and computer games. :) And they both had missed Noggin (which interestingly enough turned into Nick Jr this morning), and were happy to spend the day with Dora and the Fresh Beat Band. :)

We took a break from our laziness to run a couple errands and to take Noah to get his preschool physical done, and afterwards we came back home to be lazy again. :) It was a gorgeous day out, but SUPER hot...90 degrees at the end of September?! The rest of the week is supposed to be 80, so I'll definitely take advantage of that by taking Caleb to run around outside somewhere. :)

Being away from home made me miss my usual breakfast of old fashioned oats, almond milk, and almond butter...oh so delish!

I discovered that International Delight coffee creamer made a pumpkin spice flavor, so I picked it up from Publix yesterday...my favorite fall coffee at Starbucks is definitely the pumpkin spice latte, so I had to check this out...
To my surprise, it was VERY good and tasted very much like a pumpkin spice latte!!! I'm going to go back to Publix tomorrow to by the rest of them. :) LOL.

Heaven in a cup. :)

My late-day snack was 3/4 cup of peanut butter Puffins and vanilla Honey Bunches of Oats...yummy and filling. I'm thinking of having this for breakfast tomorrow. :)

I'm prepping for tomorrow...Noah's first day back at school in 2 weeks (he starts going 5 days a week this week) AND I'm attempting my first day back at the gym in a MONTH. Hopefully Caleb will sleep in tomorrow and take a later nap...*crosses fingers.* I'm excited to get back into it. :)

Ok peeps...gonna start the whole bedtime routine now...hope you all have sweet dreams.:)

A new love...and an old flame.

2009-09-27T20:56:00.000-05:00

So while in VB, I stopped by Trader Joe's a couple times and stocked up on Barbara's Bakery Puffins because I had read so much about them in the blogs I follow. I am a cereal girl (I can eat cereal any time of the day), so I knew the 4 boxes I picked up would not go to waste.

The Puffins are 100% natural...I'm gonna make my kids eat this stuff for breakfasts and snacks too!
And they're not skimpy...oh, and they are ono!

I noticed that Publix carried them as well, and not for much more than in VB, so I can replenish my stock when I run out. :)

So I've decided to take up running again...its been a month since I've run and this time, I'm taking my runs outdoors. I am typically a treadmill runner mainly because pushing a double jogger on a daily basis is brutal...oh, who am I kidding?! I don't run outside because I am scared of what others think of me. There. I said it. I'm scared they're going to be thinking, "Oh check out the fat girl running," or "Look, she's going to have a heart attack." :P Stupid right? Anyway, running on a treadmill is b o r i n g. I think that's the main reason I can't go longer than 30 minutes. So I am challenging myself to take the runs outside...with the weather cooling down, and Noah in school 5x a week, I only have to put Caleb in the single jogger, outdoor runs should be feasible. Oh and I totally stole my Garmin 350 back from BD. :p LOL. Poor guy. I gave it to him a couple months ago because I wasn't using it, now I'm taking it back. :) Of course he doesn't mind...or at least that's what he told me. :)
The trend in the Blogoshere has been to name one's Garmin, so this time around I think I'll do that...any suggestions?! :)

We made it!

2009-09-27T16:25:00.000-05:00

We left my in-laws' at 3AM and we're in Fayettville, NC by 7:30AM. The kids were awake by then and we all needed to use the potty AND eat. We made a pit-stop at McDonalds. I swear, I am DONE with McDs after this road-trip! Breakfast of champions. Augh. The iced mochas tasted just like chocolate milk. LOL.

Lunch and dinner was much of the same: fastfood nastiness. :p We decided to make the entire trip in one day and got home at 7:30PM CST. Total number of hours driving: 17. ACK! We got home, bathed the kids and put them right to bed. BD & I showered and were in bed by 8:30.

I had 11 hours of sleep last night! I was OUT...dead to the world. I woke up at 7:30 this morning and saw that we needed groceries. First on the agenda though: coffee! We made an emergency stop at Starbucks for a much-needed pumpkin spice latte.

We then hit Publix and got some necessities for the week: milk, almond milk, fruit, salad, bread, etc. I plan on getting back on track with the exercise and diet. I cringed when I saw pictures of myself from this vacation...its just so frustrating. Augh. But that's a whole 'nother post. :)

Last day in VB.

2009-09-27T11:40:00.000-05:00

Our vacation went by so quickly! Before we knew it, our last day had arrived. It was so good being home...even Noah kept telling us over and over again that he wanted to live in VB forever. He definitely loved being around his grandparents. :)

Our last morning was spent lounging around...the kids played and danced while BD & I relaxed on the couch... After Caleb's nap, we headed over to Sam's Club, then Trader Joe's to stock up on some wine and Puffins...here's a pic of my little terror looking innocent at Sam's...

After our mid-day outting, we came home and my MIL was preparing a feast for our last dinner in VB. She invited some friends and my brother (who is their adopted son)...the lady can cook. :) I took some pictures of the food during preparation, but was so overwhelmed when it came time to eat, I forgot to take a pic of my plate! :p

Scalloped potatoes...
Baked macaroni and cheese...

The beef tenderloin...
Green beans...
The wine of choice was this sweet red from Trader Joe's...I love this stuff so much, I went back and got 4 more bottles, plus a bottle of Prosecco. :)Our last day went by so quickly, before we knew it, it was time to bathe the babies and put them to bed. Mike and I did some last minute packing (most of it was done the day before) and were in bed by 8PM...we had a 1:30AM wake up call, and a 3AM estimated time of departure...

Adieu, VB...we'll be back soon!

Red Robin fun...

2009-09-24T20:47:00.000-05:00

Oh how I love being on vacation. Oh how I love sleeping in and waking up to the kids having been fed...sadly, all good things must come to an end, as is my vacation in approximately one day. :( We had a great Thursday though, and Friday, I am sure more fun and relaxation is in store.

I started my day with my MIL's yummo coffee: chicory with a tsp. of ground cinnamon. Delish! Paired with my French vanilla coffee creamer, it is da bomb! Grandma & Grandpa took Noah out for a little one-on-one time while BD & I stayed home so that Caleb could nap. After Caleb woke up from his nap the 3 of us met up with Noah, Gma, & Gpa for some lunch. Restaurant of choice: Red Robin.
We love that its super kid-friendly...this is actually one of the few restaurants where we don't feel like our kids need to be super quiet the entire time. Caleb loved his balloon and crayons. :)

Noah loved the crayons and coloring page as well...I love that these little distractors can keep them both busy...for awhile at least. :)
Caleb & Gpa waiting for the food...now you all know who K-Bob looks like. ;) Twins, right?!
This is Noah's new picture face...too cool for school. LOL.

I was so in the mood for a burger for lunch today! Red Robin has a pretty big burger selection...
I chose the sauteed mushroom burger...OMG what a meal. I think this meal has pushed me over the edge. I have felt like a big tub o' lard all day since. :P
We snuck away again for another kona mocha frappe from Melt...this vacay has been 2 weeks worth of gluttony, seriously. :P I'm not ready to get back to FL, but I am ready to get back to a normal eating and exercise regime...I'm feeling a little fluffy. :p

A Day Out with Gma & Gpa.

2009-09-24T20:37:00.000-05:00

Grandma and Grandpa took Noah out to the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center for some good ol' educational fun. :) I let them bring my little purse camera so they could capture those precious Kodak moments. Noah had a great time and loved his one-on-one time with Gma & Gpa!

Hodge Podge Wednesday.

2009-09-23T18:50:00.000-05:00

Wednesday started out weird because 1) Caleb slept in until 7:40 and 2) I slept in until 8! Hello, that never happens! Another weird thing was that Noah woke up before 5AM, super excited for a walk with his grandparents, then asked to take a nap at 9:30! Caleb went down for his normal nap at 10:30, and we were all out the door for another day in VB around noon.

First on the agenda: lunch! Another weird thing about today: we actually ate at Burger King! Its been years since we've eaten there, and I am totally suffering from our meal still; 8 hours later. :p The kids seemed to enjoy it...

After our 5000 calorie lunch, we headed to the NEX because MIL needed to get a security sensor removed from a shirt she purchased last week. While there, BD decided to feed his North Face addiction by trying on some jackets. Mind you, he has 2 fleeces and he just bought a NF jacket last week. :p
A pic of the boys with Grandpa...

After the NEX, we drove down the street to the Red Mill Commons for some (window) shopping.
Noah waiting for Grandma outside while she pays for stuff...

BD & Caleb waiting outside for Grandma, watching and listening to the jets fly...sounds like freedom. :)
After shopping, BD & I snuck away so I could take him to Melt...
OMG we are going to miss this place when we go back to FL! The kona mocha frappe is to die for. Period. BD & I will be getting another tomorrow...heehee! :)

Dinner was fried wontons...these things are sooooo bad for you, but so good!
I also had some fried rice and a part of a pork chop...all so good. I had to make BD take the plate of wontons away before I ate them all.
As I am nearing the end of vacay, I am feeling the dreaded consequences of all my eating. :P I keep telling myself I am going to hit the gym hard when I get home! :p

You'd think we were Mexican.

2009-09-22T15:51:00.000-05:00

The Phillips fam loves them some Mexican food. Seriously, we have it 2-3x a week some weeks! BD and I decided to take the in-laws out to lunch at our favorite Mexican jaunt: Guadalajara. BD & I have been going there since 2001 and the staff is like family. :) Here is one happy boy knowing he'll be getting some chips, salsa and guacamole...

Here's the face of another happy boy knowing he'll be getting some good eating too. :)

Guadalajara has my all-time favorite guacamole...I craved this stuff when I was pregnant with Noah and now Noah loves it!
Salsa and Guadalajara's famous "white sauce..." I haven't been able to get this anywhere but in VB!
My entree is one of my all-time favorites: chicken taco salad, no beans. :)
We spent the rest of the afternoon doing what I do best: shopping! :) Of course, we were smart and didn't buy anything...it was nice just looking around. :) Oh, we did have to buy diapers though...man, priorities, I tell you! :)

@ the in-laws and dinner with the chicas!

2009-09-22T15:02:00.000-05:00

We made a smooth transition to our in-laws' yesterday...when we vacay in VB, we usually split our time between the grandparents' homes so everyone can get their grandbaby fix. :) When we arrived at the Phillips' Ohana a feast was awaiting us...Grandma can cook her tushie off! :)

Noah loves him some pancit, so he dug right in...not even 2 minutes after we arrived!

That is the face of one happy boy. :)
We relaxed for the rest of the afternoon and even made a trip to the NEX so that Babydaddy can pick up the newly authorized BDUs for the Navy...

In the evening I had a much anticipated dinner out with the chicas: Mrs. M, Mrs. B and Mrs. C to be...I MISSED my VB friends so much! Nothing like hanging out with girls you've known all your life. :) We had dinner at Fire Ninja near the Virginia Beach Town Center.

My mother-in-law had made homemade pho for dinner and made me try some...I ended up eating a whole bowl! It was delish. ;) Because of my "appetizer," I only ended up getting a yellowtail roll and a salmon roll. Yummy and easy on the wallet. ;)
Mrs. M's meal...
Mrs. C to be's dish...
And Mrs. B's entree.
I definitely missed having sushi done right! :) After dinner we drove across the Blvd to the VB Town Center for dessert. Melt, where have you been all my life?!

I ended up ordering a Nutella crepe...OH EM GEE.
And a kona mocha frappe freeze...double OMG! It was the perfect blend of coffee and sweetness. I'm definitely going to have to pick another one up before we leave.
We ended up closing Melt and talking almost another hour outside of the restaurant...like I said earlier, NOTHING beats hanging out with girls you've known all your life!!

Chill Sunday.

2009-09-20T19:16:00.000-05:00

I woke up super tired today, even after 7 hours of sleep. Don't know what it was, but I knew I just wanted to take it easy today. My parents decided to take Noah to church today, and afterwards, he was going to accompany them to a wedding my mom was officiating, so it was just me, BD, and Caleb today. Here's the little man dressed up to go to church...handsome little devil. :)

We decided to head over to Phillips' Ohana with the other little guy for some lunch action. As soon as we got there, he was already finding things to get into. In this case, it was the nightlight...quite fascinating, I tell you! ;)
As we were waiting for lunch to cook, Caleb made himself right at home, exploring and looking for things to break. :) Heehee.The yummy steaks marinating...I swear I have had my fill of red meat on this vacay and we're only halfway through!While waiting, I had a fig from my MIL's backyard...I had never had one before and it was ono! (Hawaiian for delicious).We also broke open the bottles of vino...Prosecco, which my FIL loved...

And the Joseph Handler sweet red...
To show an example of how much my MIL cooks, here was BD's appetizer... a burrito that rival's Chipotle's! It was HUUUUGE!
The delicious cheese that we shredded onto our salads...Our salads that consisted of sweet red onions, iceberg, tomatoes, peperoncini peppers, and homemade croutons...The main course was definitely a man meal...steak and potatoes! BD's favorite. :)

After lunch Caleb kept us entertained by wearing Grandma's apron around the house... :)
After watching Anthony Bourdain in the Philippines, we headed home to meet with Poppy, Grams, and Noah and ended up playing the rest of the afternoon and evening at the park. The weather was gorgeous and the boys had tons of fun. :) Tomorrow we leave my parents' house and stay the rest of our vacay at the in-laws'...this is where I will gain most of my vacay weight, I'm sure! 'Til next time, folks!

A visit to Norfolk and our alma mater...

2009-09-19T18:04:00.000-05:00

Another fun-filled day visiting our old jaunts! Today we made a visit to MacArthur Mall in Norfolk, which is less than 20 minutes away from my parents' house in Virginia Beach. What I love about this area is that everything is less than 20 minutes away and there are multiple places to shop and eat...you rarely get bored here because there is so much to do! Anyway, first stop as soon as we got to the mall: lunch! We decided on California Pizza Kitchen...we don't have one of these in FL!

We got our all-time favorite: spinach-artichoke dip.
My main course was pasta with a garlic cream sauce and chicken & mushrooms...

BD got the Meat Cravers pizza. We did a little window-shopping and ended up getting Noah some new Vans...I am a sucker for kids' Vans! Love 'em! Mommy & BD got nothing for themselves, but isn't it always that way??

After the mall, we decided to take a 10 minute drive down the street to our alma mater: Old Dominion University! BD & I had my younger brother with us; he recently graduated from ODU and currently works on campus so we parked the Tahoe and did some walking around the new University Village.

My oh my has the campus changed! Its been a good 8-9 years since we graduated from ODU and when BD & I went there the campus looked nothing like it does now.

Probably one of the biggest changes to the university is the fact that we now have a football team! Yes this is our first season of football in 69 years...and guess what? We are 3-0! :) Here's a picture of the new football stadium...
Here are a couple pictures of the new University Village, which houses the university apartments, bookstore and a variety of restaurants and shops...this was NOT here when BD & I were attending...
The University Bookstore was awesome and had a Starbucks attached to it. Yes, beats the Bookstore of our college days...
We came home to find the boys playing nicely with Poppy and Grams and dinner cooked! My mom cooked chicken adobo, a traditional Filipino dish...

My dad cooked steaks for my meat-lover BD...
...and we had some steamed veggies. Dinner was delish!Tonight will definitely be a low-key night...just doing some laundry and maybe heading out to get some dessert...I think I'm going to gain 10 lbs on this vacation!

Eating my way through VB.

2009-09-19T06:17:00.000-05:00

I am officially in a food coma. BD and I have been eating our way through Virginia Beach! For lunch yesterday we totally had Cheeseburger in Paradise. We have one in Destin, but we don't eat at it often and yesterday BD and I were having a craving for it. :) We started with a spinach and crab dip...I had a little...it was too cheesy for me.

My main course was a mushroom and swiss burger. It was huge! I could only finish half.
After our lunch at Cheeseburger in Paradise, we headed over to the mall for some refreshment...boba tea was our refreshment of choice! :)

BD had a coffee boba and I had a peach...we ended up trading. ;)

After strolling around the mall, we decided to visit the new Trader Joe's! BD & I had never been and we needed to see what all the fuss was about. :)

I was excited about the price of almond butter! $5 a jar?! In FL, its $9 a jar, so you know I stocked up...I got 4 jars and will go back next week and grab a couple more. :)
The wine section was great too...we picked up a couple bottles of a sweet red, which is DELISH and I got a bottle of Prosecco...I think I'll be visiting the wine section one more time before we leave.

After putting the boys to bed, BD & I had dinner with our friends from the Rock House. Good times, good food! :) We had dinner at the No Frill Grill...BD & I had never been and the food was pretty YUMMO! :)

I ordered the fish and chips and was shocked to see how BIG it was! I don't think I finished a quarter of it...I did take it home though, so I am sure I will be picking at it today. ;)
So much food!!! This area has a plethora of restaurants that Pensacola definitely does NOT...and next week we'll be staying with BD's parents and my MIL can cook her behind off. I keep telling myself I'm going to hit the gym HARD when I get back to FL...sigh.

*Pictures taken with my new Nikon S220...not too shabby! :)

In VB & a new member of the family...

2009-09-17T20:41:00.000-05:00

Hey Blogosphere! I am 110% exhausted but I decided to take some time out to let you all know that we made it to VB...we all survived the trip AND we got here early! Babydaddy and I ended up falling asleep around 8:30 Monday night and I woke up around 12:30AM outta nowhere. I laid there for awhile, couldn't go back to sleep and tried to sneak outta bed to double check out bank accounts and move Babydaddy's paycheck over into our joint account...anyway, as soon I started to creep outta bed, BD turns over and was like, "You too?"--meaning he couldn't sleep either. So we both got up and decided to leave earlier then our planned departure of 4AM. We ended up leaving 2 hours ahead of time! The packed Chevy Tahoe...we did good this time...we're usually bursting at the seams!

We woke the kids up just 10 minutes prior to this picture being taken...they were quite excited to be getting in the truck while it was still dark outside.

We ended up driving all the way to VB in one shot, rather than stopping over in a hotel for the night. We got to my parents' house around 8PM, so it ended up being a 17 hours trip...GAH! The boys did super well though...we stopped every couple hours so the boys could walk around and overall they were a dream. :)

Its been great being back home...I have missed it so much! Seems like BD and I are eating our way through VB...I will definitely be hitting the gym hard and getting back on track with my diet when I get back, but for now, no worries! :) I wish I had more pictures of the restaurants and food I have been enjoying, but I've been too lazy to lug my Nikon D40 DSLR everywhere I go...I finally convinced BD that I needed a point and shoot to carry in my purse for all the missed photo ops and got the Nikon Coolpix S220...a nice enough camera that I am sure will be a nice addition to the family. :)
So now that I've got this camera I will be sure to take lots and lots of pics of the food I've been indulging in...and I believe tomorrow BD and I will be making a trip to the ever popular Trader Joe's!! :)

Ok peeps...gonna sleep for now, but I will blog again soon...

What a calorific and caffeinific day!

2009-09-14T15:14:00.000-05:00

Happy Monday peeps! :) Its a rainy, gloomy one here in the Sunshine State yet again and the fam and I are spending the later half of the day chillaxin'. :) Babydaddy was off today (its his 31st birthday!) and we spent some time window-shopping while Noah was in school this morning. I'm looking for some cute animal-print ballet flats, but haven't found any that strike my fancy...

Anyway, I took a day of rest from blogging yesterday, so I might as well take take today to tell you all about it. :) Babydaddy purchased donuts from a coworker and we went to pick them up at none other than...

I can't tell you the last time I had that little piece of heaven called a Krispy Kreme donut! Its been over 2 years. I do remember running my first 5K in May, though...the route took my right in front of this very Krispy Kreme and the smell was to die for...it took all I had to stop running and grab a yummy donut! LOL.

I also had one of their lattes...I ordered a vanilla latte and Babydaddy had a caramel latte. His was much better and he was gracious enough to trade. :D Whatta guy. (He also knows how grumpy I get when my much anticipated cup of coffee is not to my standard). The caramel one was definitely up to snuff. :)

We used the rest of Sunday morning to wash the cars, then we all cleaned up and roamed the mall for the remainder of the afternoon. We also stopped by Target and I was reminded that this is Pumpkin Spice latte season at Starbucks, so I had to get one...YUMMO!

Tonight we are all hitting the hay early (bathtime will start at 6PM sharp!) and waking up bright and early for our trip up north! The trip is typically a 13-14 hour drive, but with kids it becomes much longer, so we'll drive tomorrow until dinner time (that should bring us to South Carolina, or possibly NC), stop at a hotel, have dinner, sleep, then up again early Wednesday morning for the rest of our trip...my goal is to blog when I get the chance, so stay tuned...

'Til next time, bloggies!!

Caddies, cakes, cars, and shoes.

2009-09-12T15:04:00.000-05:00

Happy Saturday everyone! Its a rainy, dreary one here in M-Vegas but we aren't letting the weather get us down because in 3 days we are heading to VB! Woohoo! We are spending alot of the weekend prepping for our trip, then we leave bright and early (and I mean early) Tuesday morning. :)

I started with making a list for the boys' suitcase...they require so many things daily that if I don't write them down, I might miss something. I tend to overpack, and this time I swore to myself that I wouldn't, so I limited each type of clothing to 3. Mike and I are packing whatever we can fit of our things into an XL ADIDAS duffle...I've noticed that with each trip, we have drastically reduced the amount of things we bring, which is a good thing. :)

We got out the road maps and dusted them off...we don't even really use them anymore now that we have our trusty Garmin, but you never know when you might need a road map. :)

While shopping and preparing for this trip, I have discovered a love for caddies! Typically, we carry a whole other (big) bag just for toiletries, but we can actually fit ALL of our bath items (mine, Babydaddy's AND kids') into ONE caddy! I also got a caddy for Caleb's diapers; we can use it in the car AND at our parents' houses, which are 2-stories...it was a PAIN bringing Caleb up and down the stairs just to change his diaper...with the caddy, we can bring IT up and down the stairs as needed. After our trip, I'll just keep it in the car. The 3rd caddy I bought will be for MY makeup and hair stuff...so convenient!

Diaper caddy:Mommy's makeup/hair stuff caddy:Bath caddy:Some of the things I NEED when traveling (esp. now with little ones) are gallon and quart-sized Ziploc bags and antibacterial wipes. Gotta love Target's new Up & Up line.
We also got these neat coolers that are "flat." We figure they'd be handy because we can put them underneath the boys' feet, since they can't reach the floor anyway. :) They each hold 24+ cans, so they're quite roomy!

We picked up a booty-load of Community coffee for the in-laws...they're originally from MS, and down here Community coffee is everywhere...apparently VB doesn't sell it.

And just for fun, Babydaddy decided to make some "million dollar cake." It was a hit at the luau we went to several weeks ago, and we had the ingredients, so Babydaddy made a cake!

Million Dollar Cake

INGREDIENTS·

1 (20 ounce) can crushed pineapple with juice·

1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix·

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese·

1 (12 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed·

1 (3.5 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix·

2 cups milk·

1 cup chopped walnuts

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour one 9x13 inch pan.

2. Drain pineapple. Put pineapple in a clean layered cheesecloth and wring out remaining juice. If pineapple is not well drained, it will make the filling runny.

3. Mix and bake cake according to package instructions. Pour 1/2 of the batter into the prepared pan. Discard or find another use for the remaining half of the batter.

4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 20 minutes or until done. Let cake cool in pan on a wire rack.

5. Beat softened cream cheese until fluffy. Slowly add milk, combining thoroughly. Add instant pudding and beat until thick. Pudding mixture will thicken when refrigerated. When cake is cool and pudding mixture is thickened you can assemble the cake. Spread pudding mixture on top of the cooled cake. Sprinkle drained pineapple over pudding. Carefully spread thawed frozen whipped topping over all. Sprinkle chopped walnuts over all. Refrigerate. Enjoy!

Earlier in the day, Babydaddy and Noah decided to take advantage of the lull in the rain and vacuumed and detailed the Tahoe...it was a HOT mess before, I should have taken pics, but you all will have to settle for AFTER pics:

Even the carseats got some vacuum action...they needed it. Crumbs galore! :P

DVD players are ready to go...its gonna be a loooong trip! But our family loves road trips. :)

To top off an already perfect day, I got to go shopping! I needed some new shoes for the fall...since this year I'm wearing "dressier" (and I use this term loosely) clothes, I needed new boots. I went through our shoe closet and discovered every single pair of leather boots I own were from 2004, before I got pregnant with Noah! I usually wear flip flops (I can wear them all year 'round here in FL) or if my toes get too cold, I wear Uggs. I had nothing even remotely "nice." So I found these shoes by Jessica Simpson and I am in looooove. :) Can't wait to wear them!

Well, folks, I can believe its already 4PM here! Gotta figure out what's for dinner...talk to you all soon...enjoy the rest of your Saturday!

Weekend To-Do.

2009-09-11T07:52:00.000-05:00

Happy Friday bloggy friends! :) Mommy is quite excited today is Friday because Babydaddy's leave starts this weekend AND we have T-minus 4 days before we leave for civilization. :) I can't wait to get away from M-Vegas and just be around family again. :)

We leave on Tuesday and have lots to do before then...this weekend's to-do list looks a little like this:

wash, vacuum, & detail Tahoe.
dust living room and bedroom furniture
sweep and mop kitchen & dining room floors
clean bathroom
laundry
start packing
oil change & tire rotation for Tahoe
change vehicle registration decals & paperwork
print out new insurance paperwork (we do this before roadtrips to ensure we have a current copy with us; last year we didn't have a current copy and got pulled over. We were issued a citation and were told if we could produce a current copy, we wouldn't be responsible for the ticket, but it was a process.)

That should be it for now, but I'm sure the list will only get longer. This post is going to be a short one...I gotta get Noah off to school!! 'Til next time...

I really am losing it.

2009-09-10T11:06:00.000-05:00

The motivation to exercise and keep up with this blog, that is. I think I'm going through a slump. That and our schedule has changed yet again and I am finding it hard to fit workouts and blogging in. Don't get me wrong. I'm not quitting...I just need to get back on the wagon. I still check everyone's blogs out daily, but at least for the rest of the month, my workouts and post may be few and far between.

I'm trying not to be too hard on myself. I mean, I have been extremely consistent (3-4 workouts a week) with my workouts since January. I figure an off-month isn't something to kill myself over. I mentioned our schedule changing: Noah's back in school and Caleb is switching to one nap, so Caleb is napping most of the time Noah is in school. Yes, that should be a good thing, but not if I want to head to the gym. Sooo, as of today, its been 2.5 weeks since my last workout. Oh and did I mentioned we're going on vacay next week?! Yup, another wrench in the workout plans. Oh well! :) Like I said, I'm not too broken up over it...I'll just get back to it once we get back from VB. :)

'Til then...happy blogging folks!

I could never blog for a living.

2009-08-27T05:59:00.000-05:00

Because seriously, I would get fired! :P Sorry for the lack of posts this week...you can always tell when I'm PMSing because my posts are pretty sparse. That, and my energetic kids give me hardly any time to sit and post (Its 6am right now, and Caleb's asleep, giving me time right at this moment) and by the time they're in bed for the night, I am spent and usually turn the computer off and crawl into bed! Anyway, enough about that...

I have been a bad girl when it comes to the new eating plan. Well, not terrible...I'm keeping my calorie intake below 1800 calories a day, which I believe is helping with maintaining my 5lb weightloss from last week. And with this week being PMS week, that's pretty darn good. Earlier this week I had even lost a pound or 2, bringing my total weightloss so far to 6-7 lbs. Not too shabby.

My workouts were awesome last week. I attended TWO Bodypump classes and by the 2nd one, my legs were totally feeling it. I couldn't do the lunges that were required! :P This week is a different story...I worked out on Monday, and that has been it! BUT this week has been a little crazy; Caleb has had some green boogery stuff (sorry) coming out of his nose for the past several days, so I couldn't take them to the gym daycare and Noah has broken out in some kind of mystery rash all over his face and body! We took him to the doctor and he says that it seems to be viral (probably Fifth's Disease), but it doesn't itch and there's nothing else wrong with him so they didn't prescribe anything; that and viral infections usually can't be treated by antibiotics. They say it should go away in 3-5 days. I hope so because it looks horrible. :( And he starts school on Monday!!!

The weekend is turning out to be busy...Friday is Noah's open house at school, Saturday is Boo-Boo's 2nd birthday party in Mississippi, and Sunday is going to be spent at church and gearing up for a busy fall schedule!

We've got several notices of good news this week...first and foremost, we received news that my FIL's surgery last week was successful and the doctors got all the cancer out. :) PRAISE GOD. Second, my brother received word that he is leaving for the Navy's Officer Candidate School in October! He's been waiting over 6 months now...our family is super excited. Long live the navy tradition in our family. :) My brother and I were Navy brats; Dad is a retired SCPO. And Babydaddy is a Navy brat (not to mention active duty Navy!); his dad is a 38 year LDO CAPT (now retired). You better believe our boys are going to (at the very least) CONSIDER the Naval Academy to complete their college educations...or do ROTC or SOMETHING! Its in their blood! :) Anyway, the 3rd piece of good news is that our little family is taking a much-needed vacation to see our families in VA in mid-September. Yay!

Alrighty, so there it all is in a nut-shell. Sorry no pics...I still have to figure out how to upload pics to my new laptop (yes, I got a new laptop!!! Noah has decided to take over my old one, so Babydaddy got me a new one. It wasn't a hard sell, he loves to buy new electronics). But as soon as I do, there will be some pic-postin! :) Happy Thursday everyone!

I finally got the scale to MOVE!

2009-08-19T19:21:00.000-05:00

Yes, people, that's right...I got the scale to move to the LEFT rather than the right. :) I weighed myself and am proud to say I am 5 lbs lighter today that last week when I started my new eating plan. YAHOO! Now, I know that all nutritionists and dieticians and fitness gurus say that the best, safest way to lose weight is to lose 1-2 lbs a week. I have an explanation for why I lost more than the recommended amount in my first week...you know how on The Biggest Loser, they all lose so much in the first couple weeks because they HAVE so much to lose? Yeah, I think that's what happened in my situation. Its not like I only have 10 lbs to lose...I have 50 lbs to lose, hence the "bigger" number of pounds lost last week. Of course, I am not a certified nutritionist or dietician, nor am I what you might consider a fitness guru, so take what I say for a grain of salt. :)

I CAN say, though, that my keys to success so far (HA! its only been a week!) have been:

paying attention to labels, serving size and calories per serving
allowing myself "treats" now and then (you all recall my Mexican meal earlier this week!)
blogging, and
food tracking in a journal (pictured below).

I write out what I'm going to eat either the night before or in the morning, include calories, and check off the food I've eaten as I eat them. I shoot for 1200 calories a day, no more than 1400. And with my BMI, I believe this is adequate. I also try to workout 4-5x a week, and I try to burn 500 calories per workout. I'm a on 3 on-1 off schedule for working out, and with that schedule I'm working out 5x a week.

The weight lost this past week has motivated and energized me...its quite empowering. :)

Anyway, on to my meals...this morning I made a green monster for Babydaddy and I to share...

I also had some coffee and maple brown sugar oatmeal...
My post-workout snack was none other than my cottage cheese and strawberries! :) Today I did the treadmill for 32 minutes and the elliptical for 10 and burned 450 calories. :)

Lunch was 1 serving of chicken noodle and vegetable soup (approx. 160 calories)...

And a big bowl of greens with 1/4 c of tuna and 2 tbsp. fat free ranch dressing.

My PM snack was some yogurt and strawberries.

My dinner was a single serving of beef stew (apprx. 160 calories) and a salad with fat-free Italian dressing, but I don't have a picture of it...I also had some of these yummy strawberries and kiwi, as well as 6 almonds.

The kids are in bed so I'm about to curl up with Harry Potter (I'm still on book 3 because Babydaddy has been home and I haven't had a moment to sit and read!) and my new favorite dessert: those yummy sugarfree fudgesicles. :) Good night folks!

Some healthy new choices and Monday's recap.

2009-08-17T19:54:00.000-05:00

I've been straying a little from my "secret eating plan" because this weekend we spent a lot of time out of the house...equipped with my newfound knowledge of serving size and calories I ventured out and ate a "fastfood" meal from Subway...my new favorite is the turkey sandwich on wheat, lotsa veggies, olives, and honey mustard (only 290 calories)...

I also found a dessert that is TO DIE for:
Believe me when I say that these babies are mighty tasty...I couldn't believe they only have 40 calories!!

Anyway, moving on to today...breakfast was apple cinnamon oatmeal...
...and my all-time favorite: cottage cheese and strawberries! I swear I can eat this all day long! And I was never really a fan of cottage cheese, go figure.

We had some errands to run at Corry Station in Pensacola and needed to get lunch, so we headed to our favorite new Mexican restaurant, just across the street from the Naval hospital.

Such a neat little place...the boys love that the booths have little 19 inch TVs!

Noah enjoying some salsa verde...

Caleb enjoying some chips...

The to-die for guacamole. I exhibited self-control and dipped ONE chip...that was all! :)

I knew my main course was going to have more calories than I usually allow for lunch...I got the burrito supreme and took all the guac and sour cream off...the burrito is under there somewhere!

Babydaddy's yummy meal...I stole his enchilada. ;)

After hitting up the NEX, I needed a little caffeine pick-me-up, so I got a sugarfree Red Bull...only 10 calories per can!!
After our errands, we tried to put the boys down for a nap, and it didn't turn out so well. :P LOL. I decided to leave Babydaddy with the boys and head to the gym. I ended up doing 3 miles on the treadmill (427 calories burned!) and a Bodypump class (452 calories burned!)...it was glorious.

When I headed home, Caleb was already in bed and Noah was bathed...I had a small dinner: bowl of salad greens with fat-free Italian dressing and my favorite cottage cheese and strawberries! I actually ran out of the cottage cheese so I need to get more!

Not sure what is in store for tomorrow, but I know right now the laundry is calling my name! :P 'Til next time folks...

Friday-Saturday recap and a couple tangents.

2009-08-16T08:31:00.000-05:00

The boys have been outta control for the last couple days so we have tried to be out of the house as much as possible to keep them occupied. The kids go batty when they're in the house for too long, and getting them out ANYWHERE is a quick cure for that. So Friday was spent doing our regular routine of grocery and Target shopping.

For the last month, I've tried a new approach to tackling our grocery bill. Babydaddy and I have inherited his mom's shopping technique of going in and getting whatever we need without looking at prices or using a list. Using that technique, we were spending an average of $120-150 a week. I took a census, and that's typical for a family of 4. But still, that $600 a month pricetag was getting to me, so 2 weeks ago, I printed out a 2-week meal planner with breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack slots and used it to plan our meals as well as our grocery list. Using it, we spent $135 (at the commissary) for TWO WEEKS worth of food! I was so freaking impressed with ourselves! So, this go 'round I did the same thing, and whaddyaknow, we ended up spending $132! YAHOO! Can you imagine if I started to clip coupons?! I just love saving money. :)

Anyway, Friday was spent grocery shopping and we also made a Target run. We picked up a few things, including Jillian Michael's Making the Cut book and The Biggest Loser Complete Calorie Counter.

Since being on this new eating plan, it has taught me a lot about portion size, serving size and calories. I was doing some research of my favorite comfort meals and I was SHOCKED to see how many calories ONE meal had! For example, my all-time favorite Chick-Fil-A meal has a WHOPPING 1070 calories!!!!!!! Hello, that's 1 day's worth of calories! And my go-to Starbucks drink has 470 calories! Ok people, do the math...THAT's why I wasn't losing any weight! You'd think its simple: eat healthy, work out, lose weight, but when you're NOT counting calories and when you're eating out a lot, you don't know what's going in your body! I am also learning that I CAN eat out and enjoy myself while trying to eat healthy, I just need to make better choices. So instead of having the fried chicken sandwich, the large fries and the large sweet tea at Chick-Fil-A, I can have a chrgrilled chicken sandwich (230 calories), a medium fruit cup or side salad (approx. 50-70 calories) and a diet lemonade (50 calories) for a total of 350 calories. MUCH better than 1070 calories! I cringe every time I think about that!

ANYWAY (that was tangent #2, folks), we bought the Calorie Counter book so that we can gauge what we're eating and how many calories we're putting into our bodies. I think I am really on my way to making this lifestyle change. :)

So after our usual Friday activities I posted on my Facebook page that I was "bored in Milton." Seriously, this place has NOTHING to do! Thank goodness my family provides me enough entertainment to keep me occupied most days. :) Anyhow, one of my friends saw status, and thankfully called me to invite Babydaddy & I out...we quickly took them up on the offer since our lovely friend also has a lovely daughter who is a certifed babysitter. :) Yes, people, Babydaddy and I had a BABYSITTER for a Friday night...something we have NEVER done! (Before moving to FL, our parents used to watch Noah for us, but rarely at night!). So Babydaddy & I, along with our Milton BFFs had a night out "on the town!" We hit up Milton's Mainstreet Cafe & Courtyard Bar, not even 10 minutes away from where we live. :)
It was "live music" night...the guy was actually pretty good...he sang some country, but even threw in a couple Better Than Ezra songs. A plus, since Babydaddy and I are huuuuge BTE fans. :)My drink of choice: MG 64...only 64 calories! I nursed it most of the night and had water too...

It was an awesome Friday night...we love our Milton BFFs! :) We decided Saturday would be a Foley outlet day...we just love those Foley outlets. I had a 20% off coupon for the Coach Factory, but would you believe it if I said I walked out empty-handed?! I know, blasphemy! Nothing jumped out at me...oh well.

Since we were out, we had to have lunch, so we stopped by Zaxby's and I had their House Zalad with grilled chicken and lite ranch. It was delish, and of course I came home and looked up its nutritional value...freaking 604 calories!!!!! Note to self: just because its a salad doesn't mean its low-cal. :P
Saturday night's dinner was 1 serving of chili and beans (approx. 230 calories) and a bowl of greens with 3 tbsp. fat-free Italian dressing.

I also had a little bit of cantelope...yummo. :)

After Caleb went to bed, Babydaddy and I did Jillian's No More Trouble Zones dvd and boy was it a doozy! I was dripping sweat and got a really good workout! In 50 minutes, I burned almost 400 calories! Jillian rocks!

I'm not sure what today (Sunday) will bring...Caleb's naps have been sporadic and off-schedule for almost a week, so I think we're going to lay low and let him rest up today. It looks like rain anyway. For breakfast I had 1/4 cup of cottage cheese and 4 strawberries...

It was delicious! Definitely a new favorite of mine. :) I also had a granola bar and some coffee...

Wow, this was a long one! :) 'Til next time...

For the birds.

2009-08-13T20:41:00.000-05:00

Seriously dieting is for the birds. And I hate using the word "diet" because it should be more about a lifestyle change than a quick fix, but in my situation, what I'm eating now IS considered a diet compared to what I was eating before! I'm going to keep trucking, but I am seriously hating every minute of this.

Maybe its because my meals are looking very similar and I'm getting bored. We're hitting the good ol' commissary tomorrow so I can add some variety to my diet...but aside from variety, its WHAT I'm eating. I would seriously rather be eating some waffle fries or chips and guacamole. :P

I was so disgruntled this morning that I didn't even take a picture of my meal...I had a chocolate chip scone, a little bit of coffee, and a serving of grapes. It took a lot to get me going this morning and didn't even leave for the gym until 10:30.

After my wonderful sweat session (40 minutes of cardio, 470 calories burned!), I needed lunch, so I prepared my salad greens with 2 tbsp. of fat free dressing and a 1/4 cup (approx. 50 calories) of tuna...

I decided rather than eat them separately, to just put it all together...it was actually pretty tasty!
A couple hours later I had a yogurt...fat-free and approx. 100 calories.

I exhibited major self control this afternoon when we hit up the mall...the boys were going stir crazy and needed to get out, so we decided to drive over to Pcola and walk around the mall. A trip to the mall almost always includes a stop at the food court, this time being no different. It was time for my afternoon snack, which I had alotted some Laughing Cow cheese and an apple, but since we were at the mall, I didn't have my food with me. I opted for a small fruit cup from Caleb's Chick-Fil-A kids meal and that was all!! So gosh darn proud of myself! :)

Dinner was another salad (I'm getting sick of all the freaking salads!), some dressing, 1 serving of beef stew (approx. 150 calories) and 1/2 cup of applesauce. Applesauce is becoming my treat of choice. I get the sugar-free sweetened with Splenda...its only 50 calories per 1/2 cup.

Yes this weight loss thing is painful. PAINFUL! But I know that I've gotten to the point where I need a good swift kick in the butt and some tough love. I can no longer eat what I want and expect to lose the excess 50 lbs I have on my 5'2 frame. I have an awesome support system though...Babydaddy is doing a modified version of my eating plan, so I'm not watching him eat steak and fries while I'm eating cardboard, and I have my virtual friends to keep me going too. So I KNOW I can do this...augh but its so hard! I keep telling myself, I just need to get through this first month... :P

Not so bad today.

2009-08-12T19:50:00.000-05:00

I was miserable yesterday. All day I thought about going to Chick-Fil-A and getting me a chicken sandwich and some sweet tea. Today wasn't so bad, although on more than one occasion I did think about getting a chicken sandwich and some sweet tea. :P But I perservered! I felt fuller today and not so grumpy. The starvation headache was almost non-existent today...all in all, it was a pretty good day. :)

For breakfast I had my new "diet coffee," as well as a cup of whole strawberries and a granola bar...I alotted a 6 oz. yogurt for breakfast but ate it as a post-workout snack instead.
Lunch was a salad with 2 tbsp. fat free dressing, 1 serving of chicken salad with 1 serving of melba toast. Yes, melba toast, people. It was actually pretty filling. :)
My afternoon snack (that I didn't bother taking a picture of) was 1/2 cup of applesauce and a sliver of laughing coow cheese (I'm starting to fall in love with this stuff again). We also made a Target run and darn Target for having a Starbucks in it...I couldn't resist, but instead of getting my usual grande iced white chocolate mocha, I got a tall sugar-free, non-fat, 1 Splenda vanilla latte. I think I found my diet drink! :)

Dinner was another salad with 2 tbsp. lite honey dijon mustard dressing, a single serving personal pizza (approx. 250 calories) and a 1/2 cup of applesauce.

Its only day 2 of my new eating plan, and already I am becoming aware of serving sizes and calories...I have NEVER EVER EVER paid attention to serving sizes or how many calories was in something. Its a real eye-opener. Babydaddy and I were perusing the frozen food aisles at Target because it was raining cats and dogs outside and were looking at frozen Lean Cuisine meals and comparing them to the "regular" ones...what a HUGE difference in calories! We also looked at the little personal pizzas; some of them were almost 600 calories! To think about all the slices of pizza we have had over the last couple months...no wonder the weight hasn't been coming off! It was like an a-ha moment for me. I honestly think I've been consuming 2500 calories a day before, maybe even more. It kinda (pardon the language) pisses me off to think about HOW much junk I was eating. ARGH!

Anyway, I went to the gym today kid-free! It was like a vacation! No lugging 2 kids, plus a diaper bag through the gym and then picking them up all sweaty. I was in and out, no fuss. :) I did a total of 40 minutes of cardio (30 minute run, 10 minute elliptical) and burned 475 calories. It felt great. Tomorrow will be another early gym day kid-free...love it! :)

Ok folks...off to meet with Harry, Ron, and Hermione! 'Til next time...

Junkfood withdrawals.

2009-08-11T19:44:00.000-05:00

Today was the official start of my new secret meal plan, and so far so HUNGRY! Well, not really hungry, because believe me, I had a hard time finishing all the food alotted for today; I am moreso going through junkfood withdrawals. :P I am used to eating whatever I want whenever I want and eating according to a plan with set serving amounts was hard for me. But I survived today! Hallelujah! They say the first 3 days is the hardest, then its pretty much smooth sailing from there.

For breakfast, I actually ate breakfast! I had a much smaller coffee, sweetened with Splenda and a splash of fat-free coffee creamer. I may switch to sugar-free creamer though...I also had 15 grapes (1 serving), a 6 oz. fat free yogurt, and a chocolate chip scone ("approved" by my new eating plan).

For lunch I had a huge helping of salad greens, 1 cup of cucumbers, and 4 tbsp. of fat-free ranch. I also had 1 serving (approx. 160 calories) of fettuccini alfredo (not pictured).
By 2PM I was feeling the whole diet thing and needed a pick-me-up. I had a small apple and a sliver of Laughing Cow cheese. Right before dinner I also had another 6 oz. yogurt that I had alotted for lunch but couldn't finish.

I was famished by dinner and had another huge helping of salad greens, 1 cup of grape tomotoes and 1 cup of cucumbers, with 4 tbsp. of lite honey dijon mustard dressing. I also had one serving of meatloaf and potatoes (approx. 290 calories).

I had my 64+ oz. of water and I even worked out today! Since it had been a good 2 weeks since I'd hit the gym, I took it easy and did a 20 minute treadmill run and 10 elliptical workout. A total of 365 calories were burned. :) Sweat is definitely a mood-booster!

More tomorrow folks, I gotta catch up on my Harry Potter! :)

The last 2 weeks.

2009-08-10T15:03:00.000-05:00

I've taken the last 2 weeks off from blogging and working out for various reasons: Caleb was in the ER with a really bad cut on his finger 2 weeks ago...then last week Babydaddy had unplanned surgery to remove two golfball-sized abscesses, which was supposed to be an outpatient surgery, but they ended up keeping him for 2 nights. And that brings us to this week...today I was a chauffeur and had to take Babydaddy for his follow-up appointment at the naval hospital in the morning and in the afternoon we got some grocery shopping done. To be honest, I am exhausted!

I'm starting full-force again with the diet and exercise; I plan on hitting the gym tomorrow and I start my new diet tomorrow...its a secret as to what I am actually doing, but I can tell you it involves 5 meals a day totaling to 1200 calories. Wish me luck...I'm at the point where I need to go hard, or go home. :P

More tomorrow...

Alive.

2009-08-09T20:04:00.000-05:00

I am. I promise. Its just been a crazy couple of weeks. I'll get to posting something blog-worthy soon. :)

Spoke too soon.

2009-07-29T15:46:00.000-05:00

And jinxed myself! I knew things were too good to be true when my Monday went so marvelously. HMPH. I woke up bright and early on Tuesday, ready to take on the day; got showered, dressed, got breakfast for the kiddos. I even got a green monster ready for Babydaddy to take to work, and even read some Harry Potter when I decided to get the kids ready to take Noah to his last day of MDO.

I did as I always did: told Noah to go potty and to meet me in Caleb's bedroom afterwards while I got him dressed. I sat Caleb down on his changing table like I usually do, kept one hand on him while I searched his dresser for some shorts for him to wear. Usually as I do this, he likes to pull on the window blinds, which drives me nuts because he's broken them already. I looked up and saw he was doing this again and that he broke the blinds even further. I pulled his hand away from the blinds...he had a vice-grip on them so I had to pull his hand a little harder and while I did this, I scolded him for breaking the blinds again. I was about to pull his shirt over his head when I noticed that he had blood oh his left thigh. ALOT of blood. At first I was confused...why did he have blood on his thigh? Then I looked at his hand and saw that blood was gushing from somewhere on his left hand...I couldn't figure out where exactly, all I knew was there was a LOT of blood...I was freaking out because he was soaking through tons of babywipes (the closest thing I had to stop the blood) and I couldn't get the blood to stop. Finally I called Babydaddy at work, told him we were going to the ER (thankfully less than 3 minutes from our house) and he said he'd meet us there.

The blood slowed down considerably when we got to the ER and it turned out it was like a papercut x 10 and luckily didn't require stitches. They just cleaned him up, applied some kind of ointment and tried to put bandages on him. We came home and he bled out 3-4 times afterwards, but it was easier to control the flow each time. Today we haven't had any bleeding incidents but the cut looks painful. :(

Augh. I swear Caleb is going to be the kid that is in the ER monthly. Not that I wish for that or anything, he is just so rough and tumble and into everything! He about gave me a heart attack yesterday. :P

Oh, and Noah never did make it to his last day of MDO. :P

Marvelous Monday & My First GREEN MONSTER!

2009-07-27T19:31:00.000-05:00

Happy Monday folks! I typically loathe Mondays...the weekend is just too short! But today, the kids were being awesome, I got my sweat session in, and Babydaddy came home early from work so it turned out to be a pretty good day. :) Plus, getting that Monday workout is crucial to my overall positive outlook for the week. All in all, today was a Marvelous Monday!

We had a rough weekend with naptime for Caleb this weekend. He ended up skipping his PM nap on Saturday, which led him to skip his AM nap on Sunday...its funny because the LESS sleep he gets during the day, the MORE erratic his sleep becomes in the coming days, so I always stress out when he doesn't get a good nap. Anyway I thought he was going to give me a hard time today, but he ended up going down perfectly in the AM and ended up napping for TWO hours! His PM nap was also substantial, so we may be in the clear. The last time he had interrupted naps, he didn't get back on schedule for almost 2 weeks. Sigh.

We went to the gym in the morning after Caleb's AM nap and I had a pretty good workout. 40 minutes of cardio: 2 mile run and 1.5 miles on the elliptical = 464 calories burned. I felt like I worked pretty hard this morning and my body is definitely feeling it! I love me some sweat though...sweat is awesome. :)

This afternoon we hit up Publix and got some stuff for the week, including the ingredients for GREEN MONSTERS! :) All the authors of the blogs I follow swear by these things, so I had to try it. Apparently, Angela of Oh She Glows started his phenomenon and has had such a response that she's had to open up an entirely different site just for answers and inquiries about the green montsters. :) I got my recipe from the Green Monster Movement ...I used the Virgin Green Monster recipe and added peanut butter.

I must admit, I was scared to try it. I mean its green, for crying out loud! But I was pleasantly surprised! It was refreshing and delish...Babydaddy and even Noah liked it! :) (I put some in a red cup for him, as you can see above). This will definitely become a staple in our diets. :)

Ok peeps...I'm going to curl up in bed and read the rest of HP #1, then move right on to HP #2! :) Good night ya'll!

Recipes.

2009-07-26T18:42:00.000-05:00

Hey bloggy friends! Sorry for my lack of posts the past couple days...I took a quick hiatus due to lack of motivation, but I am back. :) Babydaddy and I have been having fun with some new (and not so new) recipes and have been trying our hand at meal planning; we're hoping it'll help our grocery bill as well as out waistlines. :)

On Saturday I made my "famous" rotisserie chicken...the kids and Babydaddy seem to love this dish and its easy-peasy! Sorry for my chicken scratch...

The finished product...we used thighs, but a whole chicken can be used at well...

Today's dinner was another of those salad beasts...here's the chicken on the skillet...

Our favorite Salad Toppings and homemade dressing...this dressing is DA BOMB seriously:

1 clove crushed and very finely minced garlic

1/2 tsp oregano, ground in hand (or not)

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

Juice from 1 lemon juice

½ cup olive oil

¼ cup honey

2 tablespoon yellow mustard

Splash of red wine or balsamic vinegar

Place all ingredients in a small jar and shake well until emulsified.

The finished product. :) Sooooo good, light and filling!

I'm looking forward to another week in the gym...last week energized me and got me motivated for more. :)

Lazy.

2009-07-25T18:48:00.000-05:00

To blog, not to workout. :) I've actually been working out pretty hard this week, but by the time evening rolls around and the kids are in bed, all I want to do is curl up with Harry Potter. I'll get the motivation to post something good back...hopefully soon. :)

Its HUMP Day!

2009-07-22T09:26:00.000-05:00

Mornin's folks. :) We're taking a break from the craziness today because Noah ran a temp of 103 yesterday after school! We gave him some children's Advil and managed to keep his temp down for the rest of the night, and this morning he woke up hungry, thirsty, and thankfully without a fever. :) I've decided to make today Laundry Day with a little bit of blogging and Harry Potter on the side. ;)

This morning's breakfast consisted of 1/2 c old fashion oats, 3/4 c 2% milk, and 2 tbsp of almond butter...oh and my gigantor mug of coffee. :)

I decided to boil some eggs for today's salads...
The first mound of laundry accomplished for today: pool towels. Many more loads to come!

Caleb's blankie even got a much needed bath. He goes everywhere with this thing. Its a Carter's animal blankie and Silky blankie sewed together. Whatever works, right?!

While Noah was at MDO yesterday, I did manage to get a sweat session in...the same as Monday: 30 minutes treadmill, 10 minutes elliptical with a total of 464 calories burned. Its a good thing I'm taking a cardio break today; my shins are hurting from walking/running on an incline! I planned on going to Bodypump tonight, but we'll see. As soon as Babydaddy walks through the door, I forget all about my intentions to work out because I want to spend time with him! :P I know, I know, get over it.

I'll post later with some Wednesday Words, but for now, the kiddos call!!

Productive.

2009-07-21T10:05:00.000-05:00

I've been up since 5AM (on days I need to take Noah to school, I must get my shower before they wake up, hence the crack of dawn wakeup call) and by 9:30 I had accomplished so much! First things first...breakfast...

This morning I decided to have a banana and almond butter...AB is so delish, but why oh why does it have to be $9/jar?!
Yummy start to the day...I turned Babydaddy onto these little suckers, now he's addicted!
And of course my customary cup o' joe. :)

So after breakfast, the kids and I hung out until it was time to drop Noah off at MDO...they were driving me a little crazy so I packed them up and headed out a little early since we needed gas in the truck. Afterwards, as we were making our way towards Pensacola, I noticed we were going to be super early (I have this dysfunction where I can't be on time to anything...I'm always early! Even with 2 kids!) so I decided to hit Target up for shaving gel, baby wipes, and a Backyardigans dvd. :) Gotta love those Backyardigans. After dropping Noah off at MDO (we were still the first ones there, even after getting gas in the truck and stopping at Target), I popped the dvd in the dvd player, handed Caleb a Snack Trap with Gerber puffs and hoped he wouldn't fall asleep in the truck on the way home. It worked! As soon as I got him outta the truck, I changed his diaper and put him down for a nap so I can have some Mommy Time. :) And this all by 9:30AM! I may still try to make it to the gym, after Caleb's nap and before I have to pick Noah up...we shall see!

Have a great Tuesday ya'll!

The Salad Beast.

2009-07-20T17:49:00.000-05:00

So after being quite depressed about my appearance today (is it PMS time already?!) I knew I had to do something to jumpstart this weightloss thing again. I know that I must up my cardio and add strength training and I KNOW that I need to revamp my diet. Babydaddy and I did our typical weekend grocery store trip this weekend and stocked up on greens and fruits. We have vowed to start adding more salads to our diet.

The Fitnessista makes the most delicious looking salad beasts and I am definitely taking her cue and making huge, yummy, colorful salads for our lunches and dinners.

The greens... The broiled chicken breasts we added to the salads...

The greens and the chicken, fresh from the oven!

My salad beast: greens, broiled chicken breast, cheddar cheese, pecans & almonds, and lite honey mustard dressing...

My salad on the left, Babydaddy's salad on the right...he called his a salad o-beast. LOL. (Like obesed...silly boy).

We also had some cherries...they were BOGO at Publix! :)

The salad beast actually filled me up and it was delish! Tomorrow we're adding avacado...

YUMMO!

Tomorrow Noah's got MDO and with Caleb's nap schedule and dropping Noah off, I'm not sure if I'll get to the gym tomorrow. I'm hoping so though. I'd like to at least get in a quick sweat session. :) Enjoy the rest of your night people!

Hoping to start a new obsession and some other stuff...

2009-07-20T09:04:00.000-05:00

I am a die-hard Twilight fan. Die-hard. I love Edward and I love Bella and I love Alice and I love Emmett...you get the picture. Since finishing the series last Fall, I haven't been able to get into a books the way I got into Twilight, and I want to. I need some page-turning action and I want to get sucked in to a book the way I did with Twilight. So, I thought I'd try another series. With the new Harry Potter movie that's out and with all the talk about it, at the urging of one of my command-spouse-friends, I decided to give it a whirl. She, too, is a Twilight fan (she got a life-sized poster of Edward for Christmas and framed it and hung it in her teenage daughter's room. LOL) and she fell in love with the HP series. So I got the 2 books this weekend and have managed to make it to Ch. 5 of the 1st book. I like it so far! I just wish I had more time to read...I read at night when the kids are asleep, and can only read for an hour before my lids start to flutter; not because the books are boring, but because I'm sleepy! But I hope to get through the books rather quickly...I love to read!

I made it to the gym this morning and was happy I did. I notice that if I go to the gym on Monday, it sets the tone for the week...when I don't go, I'm more likely to skip the rest of the week too. :P I gotta get back on the gym wagon...need to get serious about the weightloss thing again. I am finding it so hard to stay on a consistent routine now that Noah is out of school for the summer, but no more excuses...I gotta do this! At the gym today, I did another 40 minute cardio session and burned 475 calories. I'm hoping to do this 3-4 more times this week, plus add some strength training too. Wish me luck!

Alrighty folks, bye bye for now...I'm hoping to blog again later! :)

Afternoon at the pool...

2009-07-18T19:53:00.000-05:00

We woke up to gray skies with promises of rain so we had no idea that by noon we'd have blue skies! We definitely took advantage of the weather and packed the kids up and headed to the pool after naptime...well, naptime for Caleb; Noah laid in his bed for an hour singing and counting. :P

Here's the big boy slide that Noah's always asking to go on...unfortunately he's a tad bit too little for it...

A shot of the pool from our little corner under the trees...
Caleb during break time, eating Teddy Grahams...

My silly boy. These pictures were taken with our Sony point & shoot so the details aren't as sharp as I would like...

A very rare pic of Mommy & Noah! Enjoying ourselves as the dark gets darker...we call ourselves the Brownies. ;)

Today was nice and relaxing. I love family time. :) This evening will be spent reading. I got the new issue of Parents Magazine in the mail today, and I got the first 2 books in the Harry Potter series! I haven't read any of the HP books yet, can you believe it?! I finally decided to try them with a friend (who is also very much into Twilight) said she loved them as well. Let the obsession begin...good night everyone!

Simply Fabulous.

2009-07-18T06:43:00.000-05:00

After months of trying to find the perfect look for my bloggy, I think I have finally found it! Thanks to Simply Fabulous Blogger Templates for my coolio new template...I finally figured out how to upload XML to Blogger and everything looks great if I do say so myself. :) There shouldn't be any more major changes as far as templates go, but you never know...I am quite fickle and do change my mind a lot. :P

Aloha Friday!

2009-07-17T20:36:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I'm changing my Fun Fact Fridays to Aloha Fridays! :) In Hawaii, Aloha Friday is the day to take it easy and look forward to the weekend, and that is soooo what I did today! I was awoken at 4:47AM and this time not by my smooshy baby Caleb, but by Noah! The poor kid had an accident in his bed (his first one!) and he was soooooo upset about it! So I had to get up and change him AND his bed, after all that, there was no going back to sleep. Caleb was up at 5:30 and there wasn't enough coffee to wake me up this morning! I fell asleep on the couch sitting up with Caleb in my lap (the second time this week!) while he was watching Elmo, and when he went down for his AM nap, I konked out in my bed with Noah next to me watching Clifford the Big Red Dog & Sesame Street. Even after that I just couldn't get it together this morning...then the rain rolled in and I knew all hope was lost. Today was just one of those days...I didn't do a darn thing and it felt pretty good. :) I got a second wind right around the kids' bedtime and cleaned up a little, but other than that, today was definitely a relaxing day.

Oh and some bad news...we had to cancel our Disney trip with the Moodys from Mississippi. :( Apparently December is a busy month for work (?!?!) and the dates just didn't work out for both families. Oh well. A plan is already in works for a Phillips/Moody trip to the OBX next year. :)

Alrighty peeps, Mama is going to hit the hay. Its been a day. Have a good one!!

Military Spouse Appreciation & what Daddy does when Mommy is away.

2009-07-16T20:28:00.000-05:00

I attended NAS Whiting Field's inaugural Military Spouse Appreciation luncheon today and came away with a renewed sense of pride for what we do as spouses. I was also really shocked to see how young the majority of these wives were! Our base is mainly a training base for student pilots and the majority of the pilots coming through are Ensigns/2nd Lts straight outta their commissioning program, so we're talking 22, 23, 24 years old. A lot of these student pilots are married to really young women! (Or maybe I'm just old and they look really young to me). Even Babydaddy commented when he saw a bunch of them crossing the street to the luncheon; he thought there was some kind of pool party going on at the base pool. LOL. For the first time since I've attended military functions, I felt like the old lady. :P lol.

Anyway, let me back up a little...for breakfast I tried a new version of Cheerios I picked up earlier in the week: Apple Cinnamon! It was quite delish. :)

As I was getting ready to leave for the luncheon, I realized that my bedroom had become really quiet...Caleb wasn't throwing things around and I couldn't hear him yelling at Noah on the bed...I walked in and saw that he had learned how to climb on the bed! Sigh. He's really become quite the monkey in the last couple days. I had Babydaddy lower his crib to the lowest slots today.

I took the kids on base to Babydaddy's office so we could trade vehicles so that he could take the kids home. I informed him that he needed to feed them lunch, so he got them some chicken. Caleb's got this habit where he throws everything from his highchair tray to the floor and screams and yells to get let out. When we let him out, he proceeds to eat off the floor! So Mike took it upon himself to skip a step and put Caleb's highchair tray on the floor with the food on it. Caleb ate his lunch that way! The things Daddy does when Mommy is away...

SIGH.

I didn't make it to the gym today...the fam & I decided to spend some time together since Daddy was off for the rest of the day. :) I'll make it tomorrow, I promise! :) Have a good night folks!

No rest for the weary & being thankful.

2009-07-16T09:01:00.000-05:00

Ok seriously. Just when I get Caleb on the perfect schedule, and just when his naps were slowly working toward a longer PM session, a little excitement this weekend and he's all OFF schedule! My kids are sooo inflexible when it comes to their sleep schedules, its enough to drive me batty!!! He's been up at 5AM everyday this week, with the exception of Tuesday and I am finding it hard to keep MY eyes open during the day. That extra hour of sleep really makes a difference! And because he's waking up soooo early, his AM nap is at 8 in the morning! Ridiculous, right? Yes, I think so. :P He's lucky he's cute or I would've returned him by now. ;)

Anyway, enough complaining...time to be thankful for stuff. :) This morning I am especially thankful for my husband's job...yes, it has its drawbacks, but I see the positives more often than the negatives. Go Navy! :) I am very thankful for my in-laws...I have a great relationship with my in-laws (shocker!). I've known them 12 years and I truly think of them as my 2nd set of parents. They are the most helpful, generous, FUNNY people and I am thankful God blessed me with them. I am thankful for the friends God has put in our lives...we don't have many but the ones we do have we cherish; we know we've got lifelong friends in these people.

I plan on heading to the gym this afternoon...I'd like to get to a Bodypump class...its been too long! 'Til next time folks, enjoy your Thursday! (Its almost Friday! Yay!)

Workout of the Day...and some words of appreciation.

2009-07-15T16:08:00.000-05:00

After waking up in a grumpy mood at 5:30 AM to Caleb yelling at the top of his lungs (he woke Noah up, which got me even grumpier) I made it to the gym, half-heartedly around 10AM. Even as I was driving up to the gym I kept thinking, Augh, I do NOT want to workout! but I knew I needed to, so I made my way through the parking lot, dropped the boys off at Kid Kare and hit the tread. I'm so glad I did! I did 30 minutes on the treadmill and 10 minutes on the elliptical. I used a different elliptical today, the Precor EFX 556, which I like sooooo much better than the Lifestyle or Nautilus ellipticals. Anyway, I burned a total of 475 calories in 40 minutes today. :)

Here are a couple picutes of the Precor elliptical I worked out on today...

I'm hoping to make it to the gym tomorrow after the military spouse appreciation luncheon on base...I'll probably just pack my gym bag and head over to the base gym. We shall see. :) Hopefully lunch isn't too heavy. ;) Babydaddy took time off so that I could attend the luncheon; I was totally not going to go if I had the 2 rugrats tagging along! Speaking of Babydaddy...I totally, 100% appreciate him because he is very sensitive to the fact that I stay home with the kids all day. I love that he makes a conscious effort to get his workouts done in the morning so that when he's off work, he's off work. He's not high maintenance and he doesn't require a manroom to get away from us, nor does he like anything that takes too much time away from his kids, or me. :) Don't get me wrong, he will go out every now and then and enjoy himself, but I just appreciate that his "hobbies" don't take any him away from family time. Also, he's 100% hands-on with his kids (although I do have to chase him down to change a poop diaper every now and then!) and gets down and dirty with them...no chore is off-limits for him; I'm sure his helpfulness contributes to the fact that I haven't fully lost my mind. :) Oh, another great thing is he supports my fitness pursuits and never moans and groans if I live the house in the afternoons for a group class as soon as he walks in the door from work. :) So there are my words of appreciation for my military man. :) Appreciation can definitely go both ways!

Alrighty folks...gonna sign off for now...enjoy the rest of your Wednesday!

Disney, here we come! :)

2009-07-15T12:50:00.000-05:00

Well, it didn't take much convincing to get the Moodys from Mississippi to come to Walt Disney World with us! :) After a couple emails and phone calls, we just decided What the heck! and booked our reservations at the Shades of Green Resort on WDW. :) Rooms were very limited from now until the end of the year, and we think it may have to do with the Armed Forces Salute that Disney is offering to active duty military members: AD military members are entitled to a FREE 5-day ticket to WDW! HELLO! And on top of that, military members are entitled to five 5-day tickets for $99/each for family & friends. Double HELLO! Regular 1-day tickets are as much or more than that! And the price of our rooms are also fairly inexpensive considering we are staying ON the WDW complex. Soooo, we are totally doing frugal Disney; well, as frugal as we can get. ;)

This should be a fun & interesting vacation...c'mon December!!! :)

I have a confession.

2009-07-14T09:58:00.000-05:00

Babydaddy got me the Garmin Forerunner 305 for Mother's Day after I moaned and groaned for months about not being able to see my progress on my outdoor runs and how it was a great training tool, and blah blah blah. Really, I wanted the cool new techy gadgety thing because I thought it would make me look like a runner. Well, I have managed to use it less than 10 times; really, I've used it like 4 times. Seriously. I finally told Babydaddy to take it because he is more of a runner than I am (by 1000%) and does all his running outdoors. He took it on an inaugural run yesterday on base and was superstoked with it. I'm glad its going to a good home. I know Babydaddy will make great use of all its functions...he's totally motivated to up his mileage now. :)

Now that Garmin, Sr. has gone to someone who could treat it better than I ever could, I would still like a running watch that tracks my heartrate, as well as my mileage when I do start running outdoors again (its too hot in FL right now!). I don't need the GPS function, just something that could give me a fairly accurate estimate of miles ran, and something that doesn't break the bank so I won't feel guilty if I only use it several times a week. I researched and found that Garmin makes a heart rate monitor that tracks mileage with a footpod, so it could be used indoors and outdoors...that and its less than $80! The Garmin Forerunner 50 seems to be right up my alley. The reviews state that calibrating the foot pod could be annoying as well as a tad bit inaccurate, but I won't fuss over a .1 mile inaccuracy. Its all good to me. I like how I can it wear indoors and outdoors and that it tracks heart rate, calories, and distance. I don't need all the other high-tech stuff. I haven't purchased it yet, but I just might...$75 is too good to pass up!

They had us at hello.

2009-07-13T19:46:00.000-05:00

What a fun-filled weekend we had! Fun-filled and exhausting. We had the Moodys from Mississippi come and visit and oh what a time we all had! The Mamas & Papas got along super well and the kiddos loved one another...it was definitely a match made in family heaven. I liken our experience with the Moodys from MS to meeting your soulmate: its like the stars are aligned, the angels are singing, and its like you've known each other all your lives...in a few short words: They complete us.

LOL! Seriously, our Family of 4 got along so well with their Family of 5...we will definitely be making some time to see them again. Mama & Papa Moody have known Babydaddy pretty much since elementary school and I had the pleasure of meeting them last year. They've got 3 kiddos: Big Brother (4yrs), Boo-Boo (2yrs next month) and Little Princess (7 months old). Big Brother and Noah hit it off and were attatched to each others' hips all weekend; Boo-Boo and Caleb are so alike its scary...they even look alike; and Little Princess was an absolute doll all weekend. :) We lounged around with the kids in the morning, had lunch, went to the Naval Aviation Museum (more about that to come) and even did a little Target shopping. Simple fun, and so nice in the company of great friends. :)

Saturday morning, Papa M and the boys playing with Monster Trucks. Saturday's lunch at the Shrimp Basket...Noah, Big Brother, Boo-Boo, & Mama M.
Babydaddy & Papa M could be brothers...lol.

Little Princess and Caleb at the Naval Aviation Museum.

Babydaddy acquired 2 extra boys...

Brothers from another mother. :)

I'm trying to convince the Moodys from MS to go to Disney World with us!! :)

Music gets you movin...

2009-07-10T22:06:00.000-05:00

Since I've been back on the running thing this week after an almost 2 week hiatus, I decided to post some of the songs that really get me movin'...and some new songs that I'm adding to the ipod as I type. :)

Current Faves:
Face Down by The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus
My Life Would Suck Without You by Kelly Clarkson
Green Light by John Legend
Boom Boom Pow by B.E.P.
Take You on the Floor by the Veronicas

New Downloads:
Use Somebody by Kings of Leon
I Gotta Feeling by B.E.P.
You Belong With Me by Taylor Swift
Fire Burning by Sean Kingston
Mare by B.E.P.

What tunes get you moving?!

I made it to the gym today and pumped out 3 miles in 40 minutes (I added several minutes of walking on a 2% incline at 3.5 mph)...and burned 487 calories! Woot! Now I just need to do this 5-6 times a week and I'll be good to go! :P The last couple weeks have been a little topsy-turvy, and I'm hoping things are better for me, gym-wise, in the coming days.

Alrighty folks...I gotta hit the hay. We've got the Moodys from MS coming...it should be a fun-filled weekend!

Playing catch-up Friday

2009-07-10T07:53:00.000-05:00

Hello Bloggy Buddies! I hope you forgive me for my abrupt post yesterday and lack of posts the last couple days! We've been dealing with some health issues of our extended VA family (prayers please) and we've been preparing for our guests this weekend. I maintain a clean house daily (well, as clean as its going to be with 2 kids), but like to do a thorough cleaning if guests will be visiting, so I spent a lot of yesterday evening cleaning, straightening, sweeping, mopping, and disinfecting. What fun.

Yesterday during the day, though, Noah asked me if we could head to the pool, and since it had been a week since we had gone, I decided to forgo the gym and get a little workout in the pool with the boys. :) The weather was perfect in the morning: sunny and in the mid- to upper-80s. Its a good thing we had decided to go to the pool in the morning because by noon, they had shut the pool down due to threats of lightning.

So, as soon as it was decided that we'd be pooling it, I had to gather everything in my industrial-sized beach/pool bag...

And of course I had to pack it with the essentials: sunscreen, diapers, snacks, towels...
And lots of water for the family...FL heat can be brutal!

When we got back, I fed the kids lunch and put them both down for naps...they both napped for 2 hours! Niiiice. While they were napping, I chose the winners of the Bondi Band Giveaway...

The evening consisted of (as I said earlier) cleaning...as soon as I put Caleb down for the night, I went to work...here are After pictures of the kitchen...

And a picture of the master bathroom in process...

We still have quite a few housekeeping things we need to get done today, and I am also planning a trip to the gym this morning, so busy busy busy! I hope everyone enjoys their Friday!

Bondi Band Giveaway Winners!

2009-07-09T20:02:00.000-05:00

This is just going to be a quickie post announcing the winners since I have soooo much cleaning I need to do tonight to prepare for our guests this weekend...the winners are (drumroll please!):

Heather of RUN FASTER MOMMY

and

AviesMom of Lisa's 101 in 1001 Days!!!

Congrats ladies!! Heather, email me with your address and I'll get the package out ASAP, and Lisa, I'll just give you your winnings next time I see you. ;)

Good night everyone and I'll be back tomorrow to post more...

Back at it...

2009-07-08T20:09:00.000-05:00

I woke up a tad bit later than usual this morning, so it has just completely thrown me off schedule...6:30AM doesn't seem late to most people, but I am not most people and my kids usually don't sleep in that late! I walked around in a daze most of the morning until I had my daily fix of caffeine, and I was even contemplating not going to the gym again, but knew I had to...its been almost 2 weeks since I've run and I totally needed to do it today.

So I got ready while Caleb was having his morning nap (I wonder when we'll go down to 1 nap a day...as it is, he's napping around 9-10AM for an hour and again around 1-2PM for an hour; I am totally a slave to his naps!) and packed the kids up and headed to the gym. Its been so long since I'd been in the cardio room that they had added an extra wall and a massage therapy room! Anyway, I ended up running for 30 minutes and doing the elliptical (I hate that machine!) for 10 minutes. I burned a total of 493 calories in 40 minutes! Niiiiice. It motivates me to go back for more! :)

Here's a blurry pic taken with my Crackberry...it states I worked at 85% of my max...woohoo.

The plan is to hit the gym again tomorrow AM, and hang out with the boys in the afternoon. I have an Ombudsman meeting at 5PM...woohoo (sarcasm).

Good night everyone...and don't forget tomorrow at noon the Bondi Band giveaway ends!!!

Trip to Sams and strawberries...lots and lots o' strawberries!

2009-07-06T20:53:00.000-05:00

Our Daddy had today off, so we decided to use today to make a trip to the local Sams Club...we have friends visiting this weekend, who happen to have 3 kiddos, so we knew we needed some bulk food items for when they get here. :) Before we headed out though, Babydaddy took Noah on base because BD was in desperate need of a haircut. While Babydaddy and Noah were out, Caleb watched some Elmo while I tried to get some stuff done...or at least I thought he was watching Elmo...

This little guy is such a GOOB! :) He never ceases to make me laugh...
After Caleb's AM nap, we headed out to Sams in Pensacola, busy as always, even with the rain. Our little family enjoys outtings to Sams...weird, aren't we??? Anyhow, we mananged to keep our purchases under $150, so I am pretty darn proud of us. Here's a picture of Caleb after we got home and I was putting stuff away... :)

Here are some of the healthier things were purchased...

We tried these drink pouches at AK's birthday last week...we loved them because not only were they yummy, they're organic and contain 1/2 the sugar than most other juice pouches! We found a 24 pack for less than $8 at Sams...oh, and they are from the makers of Honest Tea!

I also picked up some pita chips. Publix sells a much smaller bag for $4...Sams had this huge bag for less than $6!

Of course we got some avacadoes...

And our bargain of the day...a 4LB container of strawberries for $4.98! HELLO! I snatched those babies up QUICK! Our fruit of choice in this house (besides watermelon) is strawberries. :)

Babydaddy had a marathon strawberry cutting session this evening and stored them in plastic containers so they're ready to go! :)

We filled up 5 containers plus a Zip-loc bag full of strawberries...we'll be eating these for awhile!

The rest of the week should be pretty easy...not too much to do:

Tuesday: Noah's MDO; possibly the gym after Caleb's AM nap

Wednesday: gym & pool

Thursday: not sure yet; I have an Ombudsman meeting at 5PM on base though

Friday: gym; cleaning up to get ready for our guests this weekend. :)

Saturday: Blue Angel's Pensacola Beach airshow!

Alrighty folks...gonna get ready for bed. I have to be up bright and early at 5:15 in the morning! Have a great night!