This looks fun....

Anyone in for tomorrow morning?

Oh, Monday.

Let me just make this very clear.  Usually I LOVE Mondays.  Actually, it's my favorite day of the week. Fresh starts, back on schedule and routines and a day back to the gym after a (usually) very calorie filled Sunday.

Today *started* out okay.  Usual early morning gym sess...but then the wheels fell off.  This morning was CRAZY and behind schedule...I still can't figure out why! And right as we were running out the door already late for school my STUPID loaner piece of crap car BROKE.

I've been without a vehicle for over a month...a family member borrowed my vehicle and hit a deer and the insurance company wrote it off.  Since then we've been waiting for Charlie's mechanic to get another vehicle fixed up for me to use and while we wait he let us borrow one of his vehicles.  And then Charlie goes out of town for a week and now it breaks down.  Awesome.

I hate it when mornings are stressful.  Growing up in a house full of kids mornings were usually pretty chaotic.  I usually do everything I can to make sure that doesn't happen for my kids, but this morning was a write off and I've felt guilty about it all day long.

Luckily, things have turned around! :)  I went "into town" with my favorite person on earth - my Gram.  I got a ton of groceries and when I came home my uncle had fixed my vehicle. Phew.  A relief.  Now I can wait for my kids to get home with a house full of snacks and some Timbits for for dessert.  I can still make this happen! :)

Monday might have won this morning...but the rest of the day is MINE! :)

The BEST salad!

Yes, I took a picture of the menu...lame, I know, but I really wanted to try to make it again later.  It was FABULOUS!

I had an excellent weekend.  Granted, to most it wouldn't sound very fun, but I loved it!

J coming home was awesome...he was VERY different though.....mostly good different.  Hopefully he will loosen up a little bit in the coming weeks.

The rest of the weekend was spent with THIS GIRL.

Ray Ray.  We had a great time doing 1000 Calorie sessions at the gym, eating sushi and just relaxing around.  We also did a bit of shopping and she helped me pick out a super cute sweater that I never would have even THOUGHT about looking at and I LOVE IT!

Miss B. got to go to her cousin's birthday party and had a fabulous time.  I'm not gonna lie, I'm kind of jealous of what a great mom my SIL is sometimes....I don't think ONE of my kids got a birthday party this year.  Yah, I kind of suck.  Oh well...maybe 2012 will be my year. LOL!

I've been really using MY FITNESS PAL to count every calorie and track all of my workouts....I have a goal weight I want to be by my BIG milestone birthday.

It doesn't seem to be working.

But I'll keep going.  It's only been a couple of weeks.

I've learned over the years that my REALY WEAKNESS is these:

When I'm craving a treat, this is the only things that will really work....I will try lots of other things but I won't be satisfied until I get one of these.

With that said....I probably shouldn't have bought THREE BAGS of THESE:

Deadly. I love that I talk about salads and peanut butter cups in the same post.

Have a fabulous, FREEZING Sunday! :)

Uncle J...

I love all of my siblings....but there are a couple that I share and extra special bond with.

Like J.

And J. will be home from his adventure away TOMORROW.  I am so excited I can't even stand it.

I just know I will BAWL because I already do, even just THINKING about seeing him again.

Purse Love

...and, really, what's NOT to love???

I have been to visit this beauty not once, not twice but THREE TIMES this week at a local store...( I KNOW!  Something cute here in Mo Town?  What gives?!?!?!)  A friend of mine picked up a similar one in a different color and I was instantly in love and vowed to get one of my own.

Sadly, (or happily?) I have been doing AWESOME on our family budget and my jars are currently bare. :(  I helped a friend pick out a bag today at the same store while visiting my beauty and promised myself I would send my hubby, Charlie, in to get me that bag before it was long gone.  The sooner the better. A girl needs this kind of thing to ease the pain of turning 30 in three weeks.....

IMAGINE my absolute delight when my friend who bought my lovely purse's sister at the store today showed up after school with an EARLY BIRTHDAY PRESENT for me!!!!

My new favorite accessory!  Thanks Macie! :)

Now I just need a vehicle so I won't have to be stuck at home all day.  I've got to get out on the town with this lovely bag on my shoulder! :)

You Can Take the Girl....

Out of the city, but you can't always take the city out of the girl!

The second I heard that the red Starbucks cups were out I just had to make a trip to my nearest city and order my old favorite...a Nonfat Peppermint Hot Chocolate, extra Hot with light whip.

It always tastes better in a Christmas cup.......

Kind of in love....

With THIS:

What an AWESOME TOOL!  I will obviously ALWAYS be loyal to my beloved Weight Watchers, but it's fun to change it up sometimes and this is ALMOST the same thing!

PLUS it has the added benefit of being FREE!  The one thing that's always bothered me about Weight Watchers is how expensive it is.  I feel like they really take advantage of desperate people in sad situations.  They used to pay me ABSOLUTE peanuts to be a Weight Watchers leader and tell me that people didn’t do it for the money, they did it to help people.

Well….SOMEONE was making a PILE of money off of that…and it wasn’t me.

Back to My Fitness Pal.  I love doing it online and I love the added benefit of having it as a free app on my phone.  Super convenient.  My Sassy Sis and I text each other our journals at the end of the day.  She is super strict and her journal always looks WAY better than mine!   

Give it a try…even for a day or two!  It’s awesome to see your daily intake grow with exercise too.  Last night I was DYING for hot chocolate so I made myself go and earn 150 calories on the treadmill first.  Didn’t even take that long!

Let me know how you do! :)

Who's With Me?

Wanna Be Morning Person

About two weeks ago I made a seriously life altering decision.  I am going to be a morning person.

I know,  right?

A good friend of mine has been getting up BEFORE 6 every morning to hit up the local gym.  Sheer madness, in my mind.

Well as a few extra pounds have crept on over the course of the last few months since my whittle down for the infomercial I decided I needed to do SOMETHING so I agreed to start hitting up the local gym EARLY with her.

I might kind of love it.

No word of a lie.

It is SUCH a relief to get my workout out of the way so early and be ready to hit the morning action hard when I get home from my workout to get the kids out the door.  Having a time change thrown into the middle of things made things MUCH easier, let me tell you.

As I've moved away from the big city and my teaching load has been lightened SUBSTANTIALLY I've noticed my fitness level hit the basement.  I always have good intentions to get my workout down but as the day goes on, my motivation diminishes.  Now I have one less thing on my to do list every day.

So I do 45-60 minutes of cardio every morning to start my day.  These old knees are STILL giving me trouble so I mix it up on either the bike or the elliptical and then throw in a Body Pump 3 times a week after the kids go to school, plus my teaching, which is anywhere from 1-3 mornings a week.

I seriously HATE cardio machines.  I feel like the time goes so slow and I get so bored! I've been downloading Jillian Michael's podcasts onto my ipod to listen to and texting my sassy sister RayRay to pass the time.  Then there's also taking pictures of myself sweating to prove I was actually there at 6:07am....

You're going to notice my on a MASSIVE health and fitness kick over the next few weeks.  I want to look AWESOME when I hit my milestone birthday in 3 weeks.....it will help me feel less traumatized.

I hope.

Barf.

Have I ever mentioned how much I LOVE dealing with sick kids?

Seriously.  Who doesn't?

How about sick kids who throw up ALL over MY BED, throw pillows, shams, duvet, quilts AND curtains that happen to be behind the bed....roll out of the bed THROUGH the vomit and then wander around the house looking for me shedding bits of half digested chicken McNuggets out of their hair and off their clothes?

SUPER Awesome.

Can I just add that is SO much more fun when it happens in the middle of the night, takes three hours to clean up and THEN they barf all over their own bed and themselves AGAIN?  I always wanted to dig through boxes looking for baby quilts for my kids to sleep on because I have 27-fling-boogied ALL my extra bedding - thanks flylady!

WAIT WAIT!

It gets better.

Today I also had to make the 1 hour drive to teach fitness classes for my BFGM (Big Fat Gym Morning) like I always do at the absolute crack of dawn on Thursdays.  So on NO sleep, smelling suspiciously like barf and looking KIND OF like the dogs breakfast I dragged my sorry butt to the gym to teach BODYPUMP and BODYATTACK.

Thanks goodness this time tomorrow I will be on vacation in a nice warm place by a pool...

FYI - as I was googling clip art and maybe a funny cartoon to go with this post all I came across was pictures of moms snuggling and tucking in sick kids and making forts in the living room for them to hang out in while they were sick.  

Um, whoops?