Hodge-Podge Post... The latest news.

I'm 7 lbs from goal weight. Check out my baggy pants!



It feels so good to be so close! Still need to tone up, though, of course. Exercising has definitely gotten away from me lately, but don't worry, I will jump back on that horse. I REALLY want to rock a bikini this summer!

Stop-light self-portrait....



Someone has a little more energy than I can keep up with...



He's only still and quiet if I hold him standing up.



Don't you just love that freckled belly?

Good thing he is so cute!



Jorge is pretty much unfazed by him now, and Julio is doing so much better. Except Pablo stole his favorite mouse toy and ripped the tail off. Julio was not amused by that in the least. I think it's even safe to say his heart broke a little. Hopefully we can make a stop at IKEA when we go up north and get him a few back-up mice toys. He really does love them.

Josh has ONE MORE DAY of school left  next week and then he is out for 3 weeks.... YAYAYAYAYAYAY! I could not be more thrilled. The weather is getting better, I've got some quality time with the Hubbin in the very near future, I get to entertain next weekend (having another couple over for dinner), the garage (and house) are getting repainted soon, my garden is doing well, and I think I'm going to take some much-needed fun time for myself this weekend and go thrifting. I haven't been in forever.

Life is so very good. :)

PS I am thinking about changing the name of the blog. Already changed it on my Instagram account, and am thinking of starting a fresh twitter account, too. Time for change... I am ready to change my blog header, and I thought "why not just change the whole shebang?" Spring does that to ya.

Update from Dog World

First, thanks to those of you who left sweet comments about Pablo. We're really enjoying him!

But, woo, it's a big change going from two dogs to three! Especially when one spends most of the time acting like he's jacked up on Mountain Dew.

Jorge is coming around pretty well. He even played tug of war with Pablo yesterday!





It's not the best picture, but I had to take it since it was the first time one of his brothers showed him any love.


Again, I am grateful for our yard. Jorge and Julio do not use it to it's full potential, but little Pablo does. He runs and runs and runs and runs and runs and runs and runs so fast that you can't even keep up with him with the naked eye. Then he collapses for about 3 seconds and then gets up and does it all over again. Yesterday, he found a grody softball in the corner of the yard... guess it came over our way from someone else's yard. It made for some cute pictures, though.







He's also very pleased with his new bed.



One little fella in our house is not quite as pleased.



Yes, those are tears in his little blinky-blinky eyes. He was so desperate for some one-on-one time with me last night that he sat on the floor by the bathtub while I took a bath, peeking over the edge every so often to lick my nose.



Sigh.




So he got to sleep in the bed last night (and snored louder than a freight train, might I add), and he's doing better this morning. Tolerating Pablo much better. It's only been two days, I think everyone will be buddies within another week or so. Can't wait for that! But now I've got 12 feet following me all over the house instead of just 8....

Weigh-In! Week 16! And a picture of me when I was too darn skinny.

Another pound down! This morning my scale read 117.2! To say I am thrilled is an understatement. I saw the same number a little over a week ago for a couple of days, but it was back up a little for weigh-in last week. Hope to see another pound gone next week.

My goal weight is 110 - still a good 10-12 OVER what I used to weigh, so don't give me any crap about it or tell me I am aiming too low. I know my body. It's mine, and by gosh, I like it. But this time around, instead of just being skinny, I want to be fit. I want to have muscle tone.

I don't plan on looking like this again (92 lbs here - I looked like a skeleton. Look at my face and arms!), so don't get your britches in a wad!

That shirt I'm wearing? That was my ex-husband's when he was like 6 or 7. And he was a small kid. So no, I don't ever want to look like this again.

7.2 lbs from goal right now!!!

How quickly life can change in 48 hours!! New addition to our little family.

We're parents!

Well, DOG parents, that is. Of course we already have two dogs (Jorge and Julio), but they are from my previous marriage. Josh is an extremely good Poppa to them, but I know he misses his dog from his first marriage (he wasn't lucky enough to get joint custody), and has been wanting a dog that is truly his/ours. I told him if he wanted one he needed to either do it this summer (so he could train it and everything) before he goes into the nursing program this fall, or wait until he graduated. He wants to do everything the "Cesar Milan" way, so he wants to be in charge of the training. Cesar Milan would run the other way at Jorge and Julio. They are not dogs, they are lazy, manipulative (and adorable) teenagers. At least that's what they act like.

Saturday, I noticed on facebook that Josh's cousin had gotten another dog and that just put Josh's dog search into overdrive. He wanted a white-bodied rat terrier with a black head. After some internet searching we found Oreo, a rescue dog (he is a Rat Terrier with a little bit of Jack Russell in him, but his nose reminds me of a Bull Terrier-So cute). He had been found by the side of the road as a little puppy and was with a foster family. We could tell by this picture alone that he was a strong candidate to be the next addition to our family.



Could he be any cuter with that crooked little mouth?

Josh filled out the application, they checked our vet references to make sure Jorge and Julio were well taken care of and up-to-date, and then brought Oreo by for a home visit last night. He made himself right at home, loving on us and playing with a toy. I think it was our nice big yard that clinched it for us, though. The lady remarked that it was a great yard for him and he agreed by running in circles around it and peeing and pooping like a champ. Then Josh signed the papers and he was ours! Oreo became Pablo Montoya Parker just like that. I even asked her, "He's ours? Just like that?" and she said she can tell right away when a situation is right and that little Pablo was truly home.

Jorge and Julio aren't too thrilled quite yet, but they will come around. Jorge couldn't stand Julio when we first got him and now he worries and fusses over him like a true big brother. Jorge is a little better about Pablo right now than Julio is. Julio feels betrayed. He is used to being the baby and attention hog and this is just not fitting in well with his life-plan at all.

Please excuse all the blankets and pillows on the couch (we put a quilt over it when the dogs are there, and Josh had the pillows and extra blanket on there while he was studying), but this picture is probably as close as we're going to get to household peace for a little while (Jorge was elsewhere freaking out about the rain). Also, our walls aren't that turquoise and grainy, it was the filter I used for the picture.





Look at his sweet spotted belly!











We loved him immediately and look forward to giving him a great life!


P.S. Guess it's time to work on a new blog-header? ;)

Happy Easter!

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend. We hosted two brunches with the exact same menu (to make it easier on me). Saturday we had Josh's mom, niece and nephew over. Sunday we had Josh's dad, stepmom, and stepbro. The food was great both times, and everyone seemed to enjoy it. My souffle on Sunday didn't rise as high as the one on Saturday, so the picture won't be that impressive (since I photographed the Sunday one). But it was still delicious.

Menu:

Spicy mochas with homemade chocolate whipped cream:





Ham and Gruyere Souffle:





Sausage and Cream Cheese Casserole:





Yummy Blackberry Pastry:






Bacon and Brown Sugar Crackers:





We are so used to eating light that eating this food two days in a row made our bellies very unhappy (though it was delicious)! We sent the leftovers home with the guests, and I weighed myself last night to see the damage... my weight was normal.

Weighed myself again this morning and somehow lost a half a pound! Not sure how I did it, but this food was so heavy that I really didn't eat much the rest of the weekend. Come to think of it, I still feel kind of full.


PS- Easter Bunny came, too!

Late weigh-in (week 15) and current obsessions.

Weight is the same as last week. I am grateful that I am only 7-8 lbs away from goal. Might be able to get it all off by summer, who knows?

I have been too busy reading http://www.websleuths.com/ to update this thing, because I am currently obsessed with the Holly Bobo case, and finding every new bit of news I can on it (although law enforcement is very tight lipped). I hope she is found soon.

Other obsessions at the moment? Gwyneth Paltrow's new cookbook:

I will be the first to admit I didn't really warm up to her until she became a mother (what is it about motherhood that makes otherwise unlikable celebrities seem human?), and even then I could really take her or leave her. She seemed rather cold and anemic to me and "Macrobiotic diet" seemed like a fancy phrase for "anorexia". Plus the Bipster is pretty much in love with her and she's been all over the TV for months now - I was suffering severe Gwyneth burnout... until I got my hands on this book. I challenge you to not love her a little bit after looking at all these mouthwatering and EASY recipes (I'm dying to try the slow-roasted tomatoes), and reading about how she feels her macrobiotic diet was her way of trying to heal her cancer-sticken father "by proxy." That melted even my ice-cold heart.

And these two photos of her are just stunning:

If all I have just said about her has somewhat thawed your cold heart a little, too, and now you're thinking about renting "Country Strong", I feel it my duty to warn you that it is a very depressing movie that may stick with you for weeks and keep you from ever looking at Tim McGraw the same way again. But still, rent it, because I cannot carry the heavy emotional load of that movie alone. Really. It scarred me, but I'm really sensitive.



My last obsession (for now) is Thai spring rolls from Lean Cuisine:

Seriously, try them!

Ok, I am off - busy weekend ahead. I am hosting two back-to-back Easter brunches this weekend, and although this is the kind of stuff I usually thrive on, I am way out of practice. Time to get back on the entertaining horse, with the months of warm weather that are coming...

Weigh-in Week 14

I wasn't expecting much since my eating last week looked like this thanks to eating so much convenience food due to being in a hotel most of the week:



Can you guess which day I was eating my emotions?

Though I tried to make fairly healthy choices with my fast food options, it was still a LOT more sodium than I was used to having and I noticed a 2 lb weight gain when we finally got to come home from the hotel. I did my best to get back on track right away, staying in my calorie zone as best I could. I thought I'd still have a little bit of a gain to show this week, but I am pleasantly surprised to say I am .2 lbs less than when I weighed myself before we were displaced by the storm. I am a little more than 8 lbs away from goal, and down a total of nearly 12 lbs! So I lost all the weight I gained last week, plus .2 more! I'm really, really happy with doing the calorie counting thing now.

Don't get me wrong, I ADORE Weight Watchers.They got me halfway to goal, and their recipes will be the ones I use for maintenence. (I won't bust out the Barefoot Contessa recipes except for Holidays and dinner parties.) But right now I am concentrating on calories, rather than points, and it's working for me. My calorie budget per day is pretty low (1200), so I make sure to eat as healthy as I can instead of just having 1200 calories of crap a day. Whole grains, fruits and veggies and lean meats like fish or chicken. Josh has been working out like a maniac and these food choices are great for him as well. He's losing a little bit of weight, in terms of pounds, but it's mostly helping him build more muscle. He looks wonderful! Very little filler food in our diet these days, but I love it when I can budget in a little treat. It is Cadbury Egg season, after all!

Happy Wednesday... we're halfway to the weekend!

Summer Goals!

Inspired by a couple of my favorite bloggers,  Danielle and Victoria, I have decided to post my summer goals. So, without any further ado...

1. Get the gosh darn garage painted!

2. Go to Ohio to visit my family and possibly Josh's family in MI... we've already got this on the books for next month!

3. While in Ohio, indulge in the things we don't have in TN... Tim Horton's bagels and iced cappuccinos, Open-faced roast beef and gravy (from my favorite diner Freeway), and Mexican food from Ernestos!

4. Entertain people we love a lot more often at our house. Whether this means me going all out making dinner or just throwing some stuff on the grill and burning some sticks in the fire pit, we need to do this more! My brother and sister-in-law moving to CO makes me regret that we didn't spend more time with them while we could - we thought they'd always be here!

5. Going through every single box in the garage and getting rid of everything we don't need at this house or the next one (we'll probably only be here 2-3 more years, so I don't want to get rid of stuff that would be of use to us in a bigger space).

6. Depending on what we no longer want/need: donate to Goodwill or have a Yard Sale.

7. Celebrate my 35th birthday this summer at Arrington Vineyards. I usually don't like to make a big deal out of birthdays, I prefer low key, but this year I want to celebrate with friends, and lots of wine and cheese!

8. Spend quality time with the Hubbin on his 3 week break before summer classes start and during the summer as much as possible. He will have classes every day during the summer (M-F), but it's only one class and a lighter workload. The hard stuff is going to begin when he starts the nursing program this fall. So I am just going to try to make the most of every second I will have with him before it all gets Cuh-RAZY. Even if we're just feeding ducks at the lake or singing and dancing at home, I need to soak up every second of it!

9. Hire a personal trainer, finish getting this weight off and have the body I want and deserve. I will be one of those chicks running on the treadmill in nothing but a sports bra to show off my abs by the end of summer. Count on it!


10. Start my canning earlier this year by buying everything in season at the Farmer's Market... it's right around the corner!

Man Plans, God Laughs.

Yesterday, April 11th, was supposed to be the final day of my 30 day shred with my good pal Jillian Michaels.

'Sup, J-Dawg.

I had to stop about halfway through the 30 days due to hip/knee issues. And then the storm happened and we were in a hotel for several days so I really couldn't have done it anyway. So what yesterday ended up being instead was a trip to an orthopedic specialist. Even though I went through this same thing last year with a different specialist (rheumatologist), they focused solely on my knee and not my hip (though that doctor suspected IT Band issues and gave me steroid shots there). So yesterday they x-rayed my hip and the diagnosis seems to be bursitis. The treatment plan for that for now is shots as needed (he can do them every 8 weeks or so) and he recommended I take yoga classes.

He also gave me the go-ahead to start with a personal trainer as long as I don't do anything too aggravating for it (I guess that's a budget-permitting issue now thanks to pesky things like insurance deductibles that have popped up). Tomorrow was originally supposed to be the day I started with the trainer, so it remains to be seen when I will start now. Gonna give this shot a chance to start working first... Usually they give me relief after about 48 hours. I am hopeful the trainer can work around my issues and we can do low-impact cardio type stuff and really focus mostly on strength training, particularly my bottom half... it will really help my leg issues.

I'm excited to be active again! Bring on da gym!

all images via "weheartit".

Weekend!

Well, Friday we got to go back to our own house! Our electric is fixed, and the insurance adjuster is supposed to come out Wednesday to assess the rest of our damage.

Saturday, we had a big job to do - cleaning out fridge and freezer because all of our food was RUINED. And there was some priceless stuff in there, too - muscadine cider from our honeymoon, etc. Oh, and the TOP OF OUR WEDDING CAKE! We decided to take our chances on that, though... guess we'll find out on September 4th whether or not that was a bad idea.

Anyhow, cleaning out the fridge and itemizing every single thing that was in it doesn't sound too hard until you actually have to do it. Five and a half pages, y'all! I think we had at least 7 kinds of mustard. Then I went and spent $200 at the grocery store, but you'd never know it, the fridge still looks so empty.

Kroger bargains!


After fridge cleaning we got to go to the airport and see LeAnn for a little bit. As (good) luck would have it, she had a layover here in Nashville on her way to Wisconsin. We drank (very overpriced) airport Starbucks Coffee, munched on some "sammiches" and chit chatted for a couple hours. Wonderful to see her, but it's never enough time!





Blurry photo by Starbucks barista of the 3 of us:


Blurry or not, gosh, I married a total babe.




We managed to score some prime cushy airport seating as well!

I'm worrying for my garden. Lettuce likes soil that is a little bit on the drier side, and well... our garden is still pretty drenched from all the rain we had last week. We also lost 3 of 4 Jalapeno plants. I trimmed off the soggy lettuce leaves and I am just hoping all will be ok. Of course, more storms are expected today!  I just shudder to think of having to deal with anymore storm damage (I noticed yesterday that one of our garage windows is cracked from the storm - it was fine before), or a dead garden... and we're getting sattellite TV today, too (the price won my penny-pinching husband over)... I hope we don't lose our signal the first night of having it due to rain!

But anyway, here's how my garden is looking. We haven't used any asparagus, although we can use some of it this year if we want to. I think we're just going to let it go again this time so the root system can get stronger and we'll have even more next spring.



For giggles, here is Julio trying to catch a fly.


Hope you had a happy weekend!

Weight Watchers/ Calorie Cutting weigh-in, Week 13

Unlucky number 13! I know this is a day late, but weighing in has been the least of my concerns thanks to this:



Long story short. Storms and Tornadoes on Monday, neighbors tree in our power lines, surge in cable line that somehow crossed into our electric system and kaboom. There you have it. We are very lucky the house didn't burn down.

In lieu of WW, for the last week and a half or so, I've been monitoring my calories with the help of the "MyFitnessPal" iPhone app. There are no words for how much I love it. You basically log what you eat - they have EVERYTHING in there- and it keeps track of your calories. It's incredible. When you start, you put in your current weight and then your goal weight and it tells you how many calories to eat per day to get to that weight.... then all you do is keep track! As of the weekend, I had lost 1.2 lbs.

Last week looked like this:



Very good, huh?

This week, due to hotel living and convenience eating, looks like this:



Not so good, huh? I didn't even eat dinner yesterday because I had blown all of my calories by lunch.

Here's an example of what a daily log looks like:


There is also a nutrition tab so you can see how well you are doing with that:



All in all, I love this app, even though it's hard to keep in my calorie range with all that is going on. This lovely suite is our temporary home:


... but I think we get to really go home tomorrow. Now I'm just praying the insurance people don't give us any trouble and we get our claim settled as quickly as possible! And hoping for a good weigh-in next week, too!

Happy Birthday, Jorge!

My eldest (dog, as I have no children) turned 9 on Saturday! Hard to believe I've had him that long.

First we celebrated with birthday cake ice cream.



(Hey, birthday boy, there's a sprinkle on your nose)

Then they each got a gift (Julio got a stuffed duck and Jorge got a cow).

I attempted to get a photo of the birthday dog and his gift...


But someone decided to swipe it...


...And "keep an eye" on it for the rest of the day.


Jorge didn't mind, though... he was just in it for the ice cream!



P.S. Our weekend was non-stop busy! Between the gardening and the cleaning and the organizing... Love productive weekends, but man, I'm tired.

This guy managed to find some time to be lazy (he always does):


AND... my shoe closet got organized... there's even room for the Dyson in there now!


We took a truckful of stuff to Goodwill, too, and recycled a bunch of boxes... can't wait til Josh gets a break from school and we can really get crackin' on the garage!