December Update!

Um…I wrote this in December!! Apparently I never hit Publish. Ah well, here it is anyway!

Wow! Finally time to update the b.l.o.g.!  I’ve been meaning to for quite some time but things have been hectic and extremely busy around here!  However, with all this world ending talk…I sure would hate for my last blog post to be the depressing one I left you with in September.  Gross!! So here’s a new one for you plus some updates!

The good news is that almost immediately after airing out all of my feelings, I felt WAY better!! From that point on, my feelings and attitude turned a 180. I’ve just let a lot of the stress go. Stress does not help anything so I’ve done my best to just let it go and not worry about it.  Things will be what they will be…and will turn out how they will turn out! And I’m completely happy and content with that.

With that being said…updates!

Pregnancy

• It’s still been pretty easy on me. Thank the good Lord for that! I really have very few complaints other than my back hurting occasionally, my sciatic nerve problems are flaring up again and I find it hard to sleep more than 6ish hours because my hips end up hurting from laying on them so much! 
• No food issues at this point for the most part. I had an aversion to meat in the beginning but now, I am pretty much back to normal. Sometimes I can’t sit and eat a steak but now, as long as the meat is part of a dish, I don’t have any issues eating.
• Still no cravings to speak of. Leighton has had to make zero 3 a.m. trips to Tom Thumb for ice cream and pickles!
• I do like sweets more than I ever have in my life. I am not a sweets person at all but I really find myself liking ice cream (really only Marble Slab with bananas and strawberries) and sometimes cookies. I’m hoping this goes away after the baby’s born.  I like it that I don’t like sweets!!
• Midwife says everything is going along normally and still have nothing on the radar that I need to worry about. Baby has been strong, moving, good heartbeat, good sonogram, good blood work…all good.  She even said that many of my vitamin levels that are usually very low in pregnant women are in a great high range in my blood work. (AND I’ve taken maybe 10 prenatal vitamins the entire pregnancy) So that’s awesome. I’m really not purposely NOT taking them…I’m just really bad at remembering to take pills.
• I hadn’t been sick my entire pregnancy until Christmas Day. The good thing is, the bad part really only lasted about 48 hours. I had a fever, but it never got crazy high. It was really, really hard though not to go grab my TheraFlu and down a cup! I did good though and I just rested, drank lots of water and ate lots of soup! I still have a cough and a little congestion but I am all better for the most part!
• I haven’t been eating as healthy as I’ve wanted to but what can you do? The past is the past! The good thing is, I am still well within my healthy range for weight gain in the pregnancy. I still have about 13 lbs that I’d have to gain to be out of the healthy range. I don’t think I’ll gain that much in just the few weeks I have left! I am going to do a Whole30 in January, though, to finish off my pregnancy. I’m pretty excited about that. I want my body to be in tip top shape for the birth and I can’t think of any better way than eating healthy for a month!!

Baby

• No, we don’t have a name yet. And…let’s face it…we may not until after she’s born!
• Our nursery hasn’t even been started and we are only ~5 weeks away from D-Day. And I’m not even worried.
• We virtually have nothing that we “need” for the baby. I use the term “need” loosely.  We have diapers, wipes, newborn outfits, 0-3 outfits and a bassinet. I mean, we have other things…but as far as essentials…that’s what we have. Sometimes when I think about it, it is overwhelming to think of everything we are missing but, it will all work out I’m sure!
• I absolutely LOVE going to Buy Buy Baby. That store is simply amazing!! I don’t even have to buy anything to have fun there!
• My early labor fears have passed. I was really scared I might go into premature labor for whatever reason and really, it could still happen. However, I am reassured by the fact that at this point in pregnancy, both of my sisters had already been born and, even though it wasn’t easy, they are both just fine and developed normally! (side note: it’s really scary to think that some people elect to induce this early to fit some “schedule” they need to work around. Absolutely terrifying.)

Work

• Leighton still works for Casey Donahew Band and is doing some other freelance things on the side when he’s not on the road. He is still loving it and he really is working for some good people. He gets treated right and they are very generous with time off and also working with us when Leighton needs off unexpectedly. Couldn’t ask for much better! It will be hard at first when he has to go back out on the road after the baby is here but, in the end, he will actually probably be home more hours in a week than a dad working a typical 40 hour a week job!
• I am still working for Paychex but this year I was fortunate enough to receive a promotion back in October!  I have moved from the Operations department as a Client Trainer training our new clients on our payroll software into a new position in our Sales department.  I am not a sales person, rather, I demonstrate our software to prospective clients and I am also the technical guru for when client’s have technical questions about our software, interfacing or custom reporting or requests. This new position allows lots of flexibility with where and when I work (I can do some of it from home!) and it is much more challenging than my last position, which I love. I feel like every day I learn so much more and every day a new challenge is thrown my way for me to work out.  I also work with some really great colleagues. They’re a fun and energetic group of people for sure.

New Year’s Resolutions: Make My Home A Home

Earlier this month I made a list of New Year’s Resolutions. This is the final installment of six that will be detailing my goals. Whew! Got them all in before the end of the month!!

Organize

I’ll keep this part short and sweet because this stuff is boring, but necessary. I have lots of rooms that need to be worked on and I’m hoping by spending at least 15 to 30 minutes a day in each, I’ll be able to make some progress in getting them organized this year. There are probably 10 or 15 boxes in my house that haven’t even been unpacked from when we moved in in 2009!

• Office – most of it hasn’t even been unpacked since we moved in. um…yea.
• Garage – we have a storage closet in our garage that still has building materials from the last owner still in it. Yup. Time to clean it up! I’d rather have MY stuff in there!
• Studio – Leighton has transformed his “Nerd Room” into a full-blown studio (Hideout Studios, y’all!! Spread the word!) and it was done rather quickly and there is a lot of things sort of strewn about. My goal this year (for Leighton) is to get that room a little more presentable.
• Kitchen – I started this one at the beginning of the month!! The organization of my kitchen is just not working. Everything is just shoved here and there and every time I need to get one thing, I have to pull out 100 other things just to get the one thing.  This year is time for reorganization so I can cook a bit more efficiently. Already moved some of my spices, my cookbooks and cleared off some of my cabinet space.

Remodel

As I said before, we are budgeting money to remodel parts of our house. Provided we can find some great deals, our plans are to redo the floors in the entire house, remodel the master bathroom, replace the countertops in the kitchen and bar area and put blinds on all the windows in the house. We have very limited funds to pull this off so pulling it all off WILL be a challenge but Leighton, Pinterest and I are up for the challenge! We hare hoping to have as little done by professionals as possible as that gets very expensive very quickly. We will be doing as much as we can on our own. If you have any advice or good websites, please send them our way.

Well, that concludes my series on my 2012 new years resolutions. What do you think? What are your resolutions??

Day Three…

Today is day three of my eating right.   Here’s a synopsis of feelings and workouts…

Man…Monday was killer.  And I mean killer.  Trying to not snack…making a healthy choice at lunch (Jimmy Johns Unwich with lots of veggies…and no chips).  I did make it the entire day without snacking (unhealthy) and then ended it with CrossFit.

CrossFit was a massive fail on Monday.  I couldn’t do a squat right, I couldn’t do a lunge right…I was just off.  The whole time.  A workout that was about half as hard as I’ve done there in the past completely kicked my butt.  It was terribly discouraging. I was angry with myself afterwards and I’m still a little irked at myself to be honest with you!

Tuesday…better.  Much better.  I still stuck to my healthy eating plan and said no to potentially unhealthy lunch plans (since I brought my own healthy lunch!!).  Tuesday, food-wise, went a lot better than Monday.  I didn’t struggle quite as much and it was a lot easier in the evening to eat right.  I’m sure a lot of that had to do with the fact that I purged my pantry and fridge of virtually everything that I shouldn’t be eating.  2 1/2 trash bags worth, in fact.  Most of it was donated to some very hungry teenage boys, but some of it was just tossed.

And that brings us to … today.  Breakfast went well…2 boiled eggs, 1/2 c carrots, 1/2 avocado ($0.77 at Sprouts right now BTW).  I was running late this morning and forgot to grab something for lunch.  Kenny & I met Mike up at Chipotle and I made as good of a choice as I could there (steak “bowl” but it just had steak, grilled onions & peppers, corn salsa, pico, easy sour cream, easy cheese, lettuce; tea) and I didn’t really eat all of it…about 3/4.  CrossFit went MUCH better today. Workout was to complete 4 of 6 workouts: Lap around the building in less than 1:30, 12 push ups, 50 squats, 250 m row in less than 1:20, 15 box jumps 19″ in less than 1:00, 20 sit-ups in less than a minute.  I did all of them except for the squats.  Lap: 1:29:06 (Hey, it was close but I made it!), push ups, Row: 54 sec, box jumps: 56 sec, sit ups: 44 sec.  The hardest thing for me were the box jumps.  I’m slightly scared of falling flat on my face but at the same time, I wanted to finish the damn things. I was sure I wasn’t going to make it (and I’m not completely sure that David’s watch isn’t a little slow! LOL) but I did…with 4 seconds to spare.  :) I was so proud of myself.  I finished 5 of the 6 and probably could have done the squats if I had about 10 more minutes.

And the food details…

Monday for dinner I had roast that Leighton made.  I know its not the healthiest thing in the world but I did remove as much fat as I could and cooked it without all the fatty stuff. I had some raw zucchini and a clementine with it.

Tuesday for dinner I ran to Sprouts and got some of the lemon pepper chicken kabobs and cooked those up on the grill.  Then I made sautéed brussels sprouts and baked zucchini with evoo and oregano.  It was great…loved it.

Today for dinner I made an as-healthy-as-I-can-make-it enchilada casserole.  I browned 97% lean ground beef and then rinsed with water (I know, sounds gross…but it gets rid of excess fat), then I sautéed onions, added 1 can of tomato sauce and 1/2 c water.  I added the beef back in and let the sauce thicken. I then grabbed a bowl and put a layer of the mixture, some low-fat cheese on top then a corn tortilla on top (just found these AMAZING ones at Tom Thumb that look like they were made 5 minutes ago!! sooooo goood) and repeat that until you run out of mixture (3-4 times).  Then cover and put in the microwave for 2 minutes.  Topped with Rotel and fat free sour cream and serve.  Yummy!! Had a clementine too.

We talked about breakfast ideas and got a new great idea I made tonight and will try in the morning!!  Omelets made in baggies boiled in water.  I know it sounds nuts…but its great!! If anyone wants the recipe, just ask and I’ll share!!  I’ve posted a couple of pics on Facebook.

I also need to put a note in here about my amazing husband.  He’s been doing CrossFit for 3 weeks now and he is doing awesome!!  He’s also turned a complete 180 with his eating.  It is going to be so much easier since we are both in it together!! I just love him to pieces.  Vegas, here we come!! Hotter and healthier!! 10.10.10

Cooking…

Things I made yesterday….

Beef Tenderloin with homemade Terragon Butter

This was not the exact recipe. The exact recipe is in a Weight Watchers cookbook but this is the closest I could find to show you.  I wished the WW recipe had given me the info on how to shape the butter…but it didn’t so I slopped it on all unpretty like

I also made Spicy Onion Tartlets to go with the tenderloin.  These were not as successful.  I could not find the phyllo shells so I had to make my own.  That was more/less successful.  They probably would have tasted better if I’d had a little better cooking skill than I do  The filling was great…it was just the shell that was questionable.  And I think I added a little too much Gruyere to the fillling…but I love cheese so its ok…

Here’s what it looked like (after the butter melted)…

And while I was making our dinner, I prepared my veggie chili for Meatless Monday.  It takes forever to make, plus really needs to sit overnight to be good so I decided to make it Sunday night.  Get the recipe here.

Tips for this recipe:

1. Make it the night before…you’ll thank me later.  It’s great the night of…but SO much better the day after!!!
2. I typically add 2 or 3 more cups of broth because I like it more of a stew than chili
3. I like to add avocado chunks to the topping when I make it but I forgot this time.
4. Try to find Emril’s Southwest Essence…if you can’t (like me) here’s a link to the recipe for Emril’s Southwest Essence. I’m going to make it myself next time since no one seems to carry it.  If you find some place that does, let me know!
5. Be careful when topping with sour cream.  You want the chili to be hot, but not too hot or the sour cream will not taste so good anymore!!
6. In the past I’ve added extra beans and less tomatoes (we’re not tomato fans) and that also tasted great.
7. Use Mexican diced tomatoes instead of regular diced…gives it a lot more flavor and spice
8. I cover it while it simmers…the recipe doesn’t call for it but, like I said, I like it a little more soupy!

Here’s what mine looks like nearly done….

We had vegetarian chili tonight with Emril’s Vegetarian Egg Rolls.  The chili is always successful but this is only my second time making egg rolls.  I don’t have a thermometer so the oil was too hot at first so they were all bubbly and overcooked on the outside and the first few were undercooked on the inside.  I’ll invest in a thermometer before attempting these again.  Also, don’t waste your money on the dry mustard.  Thank goodness Sprouts is awesome and lets you buy spices by the oz or I would have wasted money on that.  The mustard sauce was awful so we just ate it with regular low sodium soy sauce.  I’ll also likely cook them in good ol’ vegetable oil next time since the peanut oil cost me $7 and wasn’t really even enough.  Probably needed another 1/2 bottle or so.

My tips for this recipe:

1. Have a thermometer!
2. Don’t waste your money on peanut oil
3. Don’t waste your time julienning veggies.  Just buy the packaged shredded broccoli and carrots mixture.  Saves you lots of time and energy.
4. Don’t waste your time on the mustard sauce.
5. And something I learned in the past about egg roll wrappers…make sure you DO NOT get them wet while preparing!! They will all stick together!! Wait until you’re ready to roll (and you’re ready to wrap the egg roll) before you wet it.
6. Wet the egg rolls with your finger…not a brush.  It just takes the tiniest amount of water.

Sorry…no pic of the egg rolls…they were disasterous looking.  But they were an alright eat.  Leighton even went back for seconds.

I’m hopefully going to have enough chili to last me a few days’ dinner  Next I’m going to cook tortilla soup. We’ll see how that turns out later this week.