Surprise, Surprise

During this journey to a healthier (and slimmer) me I have rewarded myself along the way. I bought myself a purse at 5 pounds and got a great pedicure at 10 pounds. I decided that when I reached 15 pounds that I would do something for you guys! So, I am having a bloggy giveaway! All you have to do to get into the drawing is comment on this post. Now, I know I have a lot of lurkers. My profile views have gone way up since I started this blog! I know you are out there and anyone can be considered for this drawing! So, here is what you win. A journal from "The Pepperpot", a groovy set of note cards from "The pepperpot", a reuseable water bottle (gotta get in those 64 ounces, a cool coffee mug, Dove Beauty body wash (my fav),and Mary Kay Microdermabrasion set ($50 value, love this stuff)! I will have a very scientific drawing (putting your names in a basket) tomorrow at 5 p.m. Central time! Good Luck!

I heart SF!

Our trip to San Francisco was nothing short of awesome! We saw some beautiful sights, ate some great food and had a wonderful time just the two of us celebrating 10 years of marriage! We missed our kids terribly but it was good to get away! Here are just a few pics for you. I wish I could share them all but I took something like 250! Did I shop? What do you think? Is the sky blue? I loved shopping at Macy's, H&M and some stores I really couldn't afford (Chanel, Louis Vitton). Did I exercise? Well, no officially. But SF is a walking city and its very hilly (is that a word?). By day 3 my thighs were so sore! The hills will definately give you a great workout! Enjoy the pics and I will get online later today to tell you about your surprise!





The Chinatown gate! What a truly neat place! We bought the girls chinese pajamas, jade bracelets and a chinese lantern. We bought little man assorted toys plus a Trolly that has a bell, he loves it!

Here I am with my children! Ha! These statues were on a park bench just outside the Chinatown gate! I just had to have my picture taken with them!

Oh goodness the famous sealions at Pier 39! Boy were they loud and smelly!

Here I am at Fishermans Wharf with Alcatrez in the background. Don't mind the messy hair, it was windy!

Okay I know you think I am crazy but I had to take a picture of this. This is one of the courses at one of our dinners. This reminded me of the Mastercard Commercial where the couple waits so long to go to this fabulous dinner and the food was tiny so they have to go to the convience store afterward to get food! Ha!

Here is a huge highlight of our trip. This is hubby's nephew with us. We don't get to see him very often because he lives in San Rafael (about 30 minutes from SF). It was nice to get to visit with him!

Here we are at our Official Anniversary dinner at "Michael Mina" inside the Westin St. Francis Hotel in downtown San Francisco. First of all, Michael Mina is a credit card melter! I don't think I've ever had a more expensive meal! However, it was a once in a lifetime experience!

At Muir Woods Forest in front of a Giant Redwood.

Here I am standing in a Giant Redwood tree at Muir woods forest. Those trees were huge! It was so peaceful there. We only had an hour there while we were on our tour and I wish we could have had more! I would have loved to have explored some of the hiking trails.

The Golden Gate Bridge rising up from the fog!

This is what we saw as we were coming back from Sonoma across the Golden Gate Bridge. This is at 5 pm! The sun was shining! I couldn't believe how think the fog was! It seriously looked like a wall! Wow!

Here we are at Madonna Estate Winery.

The vineyards in Sonoma were gorgeous! I really could move there!

Here we are at Cline Vineyards in Sonoma. What a beautiful place!

Guess What?

15 pounds gone and a surprise is coming for you! Details soon!

You still have time....

Go, do this now, and mention my name! Pretty please!

The race is on, and prayer please

Today I ran in my very first 5k. So exciting! I am now addicted! I can not wait to run in my next race! I finished with a very respectable time of 30 minutes and 43 seconds! I hope to run in one on May 26! We'll see.

Tomorrow is the visitation for our friend Rachel's husband. It is from 2-4. The funeral is Monday at 1. If you remember please be in prayer for her, her family and his family during those times. The next day will truly be the hardest 2 days of their lives. On behalf of Rachel, thank you.

ETA: I just checked the standings... I was 5th place for my age group!

A time to Mourn

I know you all are waiting for pictures from our trip to San Francisco, but I am afraid you will have to wait just a few more days.

This afternoon we got word that a dear friend of ours lost her husband today. She is 31 and he would have been 40 next week. They have 2 children ages 2 1/2 (one week older than my 2 year old) and 6 months.

What makes this story so much more terrible than it already is, is the fact that this is the second husband she has lost. Her first husband died on September 16, 2001 (just 5 days after 9/11) while playing basketball with my husband and 5 other guys. I will never forget that day or the days that followed. And now this. I can't think of anything worse that could have happened to her. Just so you know, he wasn't sick (neither was the first husband), this death was a sudden tragedy.

She is a lovely, caring person who loves God with all her heart. Please keep her in your prayers tonight and for nights to come. She needs the prayers of many to get her through this. Her name is Rachel.

There is so much more to this story that I could tell you, but for the sake of time I will keep that for a later post.

I'm Back!

Ok, I have to make a confession. I told you a little lie. Yes, our internet connection was messed, the cable company did tell us that it would be Tuesday of last week before they could fix it, and yes, I was writing that post from the local public library. However, Hubs couldn't handle not having the internet so he called his best friend who is a computer whiz and they put their heads together and figured out the problem and had the internet connection back within 24 hours. However, I was extremely busy that day because I was packing for SAN FRANCISCO! Yep, Hubs and I spent all of last week in the city by the bay! We were celebrating our 10 year anniversary! Now, lest you feel sorry for our children because they were left with grandparents, don't. They are now in what we call "Nana Detox". This consists of a few simple rules...

1. No, we can not go to Dairy Queen EVERYDAY.
2. No, you can not stay up as late as your little heart desires.
3. No, you can not have 20 popsicles a day.
4. And no, I am not mean. You are just spoiled.

Anywho, We had a great time! Hopefully I will get around to posting pictures today, but I have a ton of laundry to do!

I will miss you!

Right now I'm am sitting at my local library typing this post. We had major storms roll through here yesterday afternoon with very bad lightning. Now, I don't know how this is possible, but, for some reason it affected our internet connection which we have by cable modem. Apparently the damage is quite widespread in this area. The funny thing is, that we have cable on the T.V., its not affected.

So, Hubs calls the cable company and apparently they can not come out until Tuesday and maybe not even then! Ugh! We can't check email or anything! Hubs is extremely upset because there are several things he needed to keep tabs on this weekend for work.

So, he might be a nutcase by Monday morning.

On top of all this, our HVAC is sick. We came home Thursday afternoon to a very warm house. The repair man came out and said that we need a new unit. We have known it for a while but we keep putting it off. The unit is 16 years old and we have spent lots of money making repairs on it since we moved in 2 1/2 years ago. Looks like with all the repairs we are doing that my house will be practically brand new.

Maybe.

Just a friendly letter

Dear Belk Purchaser,

First of all thank you so much for the not one, but two $10 off any purchase coupons you recently sent me. I was delighted to receive $20 toward ther purchase of some clothing since I have recently lost 14 pounds and am in need of some new pants.

However, I saw a misprint in your store. Instead of reading "Petite Department" I think the sign should read "Old and Short Department". I feel the obvious demographic your are trying to reach is the 70+ group. Am I wrong? Let us look at the evidence.

Pants with elastic waist even in smaller sizes. The last time I wore elastic waist pants that were not made for lounging or working out I was 39 weeks pregnant and a little on the rolly-polly side. After giving birth I swore that I would never wear another pair of elastic waist pants again and 2 years , 5 months, 22 days and 6 hours later, I have kept my word.

Alfred Dunner. Who is he? And most importantly why do you carry his clothes? Now, I will admit that Garanimals are pretty darn cute on my 2 and 4 year olds, but at 31 ( and still trying to at least appear to be a little "hot") I do not fancy an outfit of polyester elastic waist pants, matching jacket, and coordinating blouse. My mother-in-law loves Alfred Dunner, she's 80.

I know that one day many years ago when you were just a rookie purchasing in housewares trying to work your way up to the big leagues in ladies apparel that you received a memo that said "All petite women are old and enjoy wearing synthetic fabics". Well, I am here to tell you that that memo was a lie. Some ignorant man came up with that rule. All petite women are not old. We are 25 and 41 and all ages in between. We like pants with real waists and clothing made out of real fabric. And don't give me some lame story about how Belk doesn't carry high-end labels. I have been to your flagship store in Charlotte, North Carolina and I was quite impressed by the many labels I saw there (Juicy Couture, Lilly Pulitzer and a ton of Ralph Lauren).

So, please throw a 5 foot tall, 31 year old mother of 3 a bone. Give me some clothes that fit me and look good on me!

Yours Truly,

CM

PS. Since you got "peeps" in the fashion world, feel free to forward this letter to them. Haute Couture in petite sizes? Me likey!

Morning Indulgence

Rachael asked the question "What's your morning drink of choice? Coffee, Tea or Juice?"

Well, I adore coffee. The funny thing about that is that I didn't really start drinking it until after baby #3 was born. I quickly realized that I had to have that jolt of a.m. caffiene to keep up with a newborn, a 22 month old and a 4.5 year old.

I am a one cup a day kind of girl though, and during the week Hubby drinks his coffee at the office so its pointless for me to make an entire pot. (plus, I'm a really horrible coffee maker) So, last year we purchased the Black and Decker "Home Cafe" one cup coffee maker. It uses these little pods to make just one cup at a time. It truly makes perfect coffee and although the instructions say to only use their brand of pods, I've found that the Senseo pods work with it as well giving be a bigger variety of types of coffee I can try.

Black coffee? Nah! That would be like getting dressed and not accessorizing! I use 2 packets of Splenda and 1 Tablespoon of Coffee Mate creamer. Right now I'm using "Marshmellow Mocha" but most of the time its "French Vanilla".

On the weekends when Hubby is home he makes a big pot of coffee every morning and he is a good coffee maker! Right now we use "Community Coffee Medium Roast". This coffee is hard to find where we live (I've only found 2 stores that carry it), its a Louisiana based company and anywhere you go in that state you can pretty much guarantee they are going to serve you Community Coffee. It really is good and now Hubs has the people in his office addicted to it as well.

So, what's your morning drink of choice?

PS. On Rachaels blog there is a discussion of chocolate. I love chocolate. The darker the better too. What about you? Milk Chocolate, dark, or none at all?

Struggling?

I was inspired to write this post after reading a post yesterday on JKW's blog. I have to say that I totally understand where she was coming from when she said that she was having trouble staying motivated to get up at 5 a.m. to get to the gym. Then there are the cravings and the urge to totally pig out. Its hard. I can't tell you how many times I wanted to get into the kids Easter candy and pig out on Snickers bars or eat an entire bag of M&M's. I've wanted to eat an entire cheese pizza. When those cravings hit I do my best to remove myself from the situation. I get out of the kitchen and try to go clean something. I'll go play a game with the kids or read to them. Anything to get my mind off that craving. If I just can't I get on my knees and ask God to take away the craving. I have also guzzled a whole ton of water. Its pretty hard to crave anything when your stomach is filled with water.

Then there is the matter of pigging out. I love food. I'm like JKW. I like the way it tastes, I like the way it smells. Almost everyday I get the urge to eat more than what I need too. I try to keep a few things in mind though. With the exception of breakfast, I do not eat unless I am hungry, and I mean truly hungry. I know its tempting to eat because the clock says its noon and that means lunch, but are you still full from breakfast or from your mid-morning snack? God created our bodies in a magnificent way. He made it so that we would know exactly when we need to eat and when we are full. If you are hungry eat. Don't ignore that hunger signal because it will ultimately slow down your metabolism. Eat slowly. Don't rush your meal. Chew your food and enjoy it and when you are full, stop. Get up from the table put your plate away, and put the left over food away. Don't think you have to clean your plate. (and don't make your kids do so either) Your body knows what it needs and if you are constantly filling it with too much food you can't expect anything more than extra pounds. Another thing you are doing is teaching your children self-control and possibly keeping them from having weight issues when they are adults as well.

Lets talk about exercise. Its hard to fit in time to get to the gym. We as women have so many commitments and people we need to take care of and many times taking care of ourselves takes a back seat to everything else. I try to make it to the gym at least 3-4 times a week. But I have a little confession to make (it seems I make lots of confessions on this blog, doesn't it?). I do not use the weight machines at the gym. I hate them. I don't know what my aversion is but I think it has something do with the thought of other people sweating all over and touching them. Yuck! I use the treadmill, the stationary bike, the stair climber and the elliptical. That's it. But don't think for one second that I don't do strength training. I do it at home. I'm not trying to build huge muscles, just lean toned ones. So here's what I do.

Arms - I own a set of 3 pound dumbbells and a set of 5 pound ones. I also own a resistance band. Every other day I work my arms. I try to work every single muscle of my arm. If you are not sure how to work out with dumbbells go to Shape.com or Self.com. Both websites have tutorials on form and differant exercises you can do in your own home. If I am watching T.V. I will get out my dumbbells and work my arms during the commercials. If I have 5 minutes and nothing else to do, I grab my dumbbells.

Legs - Again, no need to get to the gym. I do squats and lunges. During commercials you will find me standing in front of the T.V. doing squats of lunges. I have to tell you that my thighs are looking really defined right now. I am almost embarrassed to tell you this one but, here goes. We have a pretty large staircase in our house. I set a timer and see how many times I can run up and down it in five minutes. My kids think I'm crazy, but every little bit helps.

Abs - Get ye to the store and buy a big ol exercise ball. This is the absolute best way to work your core. Again, if you don't know how to use it, get online and search for exercises you can do using the ball. Your core will thank you for it.

Jane, Billy, and Denise - Exercise videos are abundant. Carmen Electra even promises to get you in shape by teaching you to strip tease. Nowadays you can download them off the Internet. There are 8 minute abs and 10 minute buns. No matter how much time you have you can find a workout to do at home.

Walk - strap on your shoes and get outside. Even if you can't find the motivation to run. There was one day last week that I thought that I just couldn't run that day. My legs were sore because I had done a ton of lunges the night before. I got outside and started walking and in a few minutes I was running. I just couldn't help myself. Strap your kids into the stroller and take them. Getting out side will benefit them as well and pushing that stroller adds resistance for you. If they are too big for a stroller let them ride their bike and you walk or run along beside them.

Remember, every little bit helps. So what if you didn't get to the gym that day? Cut yourself some slack. Ask yourself, Did I wait till I was hungry to eat?, Did I stop eating when I was full?, Did I resist a craving? Did I move just a little?. If the answer is yes to most of these questions, then you had a good day. If not, oh well, tomorrow is a new day. It starts bright and early just like everyday. We can't be motivated everyday. Even after all of this there are days that I feel like a big fat lazy slob. When those days come, I get my "fat pictures" out and take a look at how far I've come and try to remember what my ultimate goal is. Every little thing you do to get healthy all adds up to the big picture!

Oh and last of all, reward yourself once a week with a cheat night. It keeps me motivated to not pig out and give into cravings all week. I helps boost your metabolism as well.

Woo Hoo!

This morning the scale told me that I have lost 14 pounds! Woo! Hoo!

Tonight is cheat night and I am going on a date with my hubby to our favorite Italian restaurant and having authentic Italian pizza! Yum-ola!

So, in summary the scale may not read the same in the morning. That's okay cause I've got permission from Bob on "The Biggest Loser" to have a cheat night.

Amen to that.

Where to start?

Oh my yall, this
is an awesome book! (Rach, I think you will love it, since our favorite book is the same.) I could not put it down! I was so drawn into the characters. I could totally relate to why they made the decisions they did and it broke my heart at how those decisions affected their lives! You have to read it (and do so my April 12th so you can watch the movie on Lifetime).

This week I was supposed to go to the Gynecologist for my annual showing (that's what I call it, don't you just love that? not the showing, the phrase). But I cancelled cause I just wasn't feeling up to it. I know, I know, bad excuse, but I will reschedule soon, I think.

Today has been horrible. We are getting new windows for our house. People its cold here today and the heat is off and there are men trekking Alabama red clay all on my carpets. Yes, you read that right. Have you ever had Alabama red clay on your beige carpeting? Well for those of you who reside in the northern parts of our great country let me tell you a little something. You may have heard it referred to as "Georgia Red Clay", "Mississippi Red Mud" or "Alabama Red Clay". Its red. That is the soil we have down here in the deep south. When said soil (and I'm not sure it qualifies as soil) hits fabric or carpet it DOES NOT COME OUT. Period. Not with a man named Stanley and all his Steamers, not with Resolve and not with that hyper Italian guy and all his "oxyclean". The Foreman of the bunch looks at me and says "oh I'll get that up". I wanted to tell him that he better get on his knees and start praying for God Almighty to send him a miracle cause his company may be replacing my carpet. Which could be a good thing. I'm not happy but I'm trying to keep this pretty little southern smile plastered on my face. They are almost done. Thank the Good Lord. The bad part is that next week we will be getting a new roof (due to hail damage) and new ceramic tile in the kitchen (due to the original tile not being properly installed) at the end of the month. I might be looney by May. Say a prayer sisters.