Tightening that belt

So I am taking a break from my workout to post. I'm mowing the yard and I consider that a major workout that some days gets divided over a couple days due to how huge our lot is. It feels really good today so hopefully I can get it all done. But I had to wait longer than normal for the morning dew to dry since it was a much cooler morning (nice change!). So it may be too hot soon to finish it all up.
That was a long tangent.
I have been doing pretty well with my workouts lately. Last week a lot happened keeping me from wanting to do a really heart pumping work out for a few days. I am proud to say though I still made sure and got out and had a leisurely walk so I could stay in the routine of moving some each morning.
I need to get back to really eating better. I'm doing good, but it's not good enough to loose weight. It's just enough to keep me from gaining again. That is still a good thing I'm proud of, but I do want to make that extra push. I have been watching a show recently called "Cook Yourself Thin". I really like their cooking style. They don't believe in denying you the things you like to eat, they just teach you better ways of fixing them to make them healthier. They show you how to make things still flavorful without all the fatty ingredients. They use a lot more spices and non-noticable substitutes. I have checked out the cookbook from the library many times, so I need to just buy it. But for now I can spend the money saved on ingredients for the recipes. I am going to try my first recipe from it tonight and hopefully it will go over well with the family. I have a back up for the kids if it just ends up all wrong.
Like I said earlier, I am holding my weight right now. But the good news is: I AM GETTING SMALLER! I am starting to tighten and tone. I stopped in JCPenny the other day with my mom to make a return and help her with some shopping. I noticed jeans were on sale, so I decided to go back the next day and look for some for me. I really didn't want to buy any till I had really lost a good amount of weight, but I was down to one decent pair and they are fading fast. Since the prices were so good, I decided to go ahead. I tried on a couple pairs I liked in the woman's section but they just weren't comfortable. So I went ahead and tried on some in the juniors section. They fit! I need to really find a good ab work out so they can look a little more flattering, but I couldn't believe I had gotten back into a pair of juniors jeans that made my butt look good! I also was down TWO sizes from the last pair of juniors jeans I had purchased last winter! I got those ones to go with some boots since that was the only section that had some that worked. But they weren't that flattering. I think they were actually a bit big, but the size just below that was definitely too small.
I am very excited to be getting the results I want! I also tried on the shirts I am working to get into for my birthday. I can get into them! I could also wear them if I really wanted, but I think a few more changes are needed for me to feel like I really look good in them.
Had to get this all down so I could have it where I can see that my hard work is getting results!

Be vewy, vewy qwiet! We're hunting canned pumpkin!

For over a month now I have been struggling to find canned pumpkin. I am a freak for all things pumpkin. And with my dear friend Lori introducing me to the Spiced Pumpkin Latte from Starbucks a few years ago, the addiction is even more insane.
If you have been dropping in for a while, you may remember this post of finding my own recipe for one last March when I had a craving for the drink that is only made September through December.
Well the anticipation of its return had me a bit on the impatient side. So back in August I had the itch to make one. I've had the itch many times, but couldn't find the canned pumpkin. I figured it was just the wrong time of year for it even though I know I've seen it year round in the past. My thoughts were surely it would be on shelves in late August. Apparently I was wrong. No luck ANYWHERE! And I mean ANYWHERE! I went to MANY grocery stores looking. In addition to my coffee craving my husband was starting to crave pumpkin bread with all my talk about not finding canned pumpkin.
So Starbucks released its drink, and I began spending WAY too much money on pumpkin coffees. So I start mentioning my lack of finding on my Facebook page. I got many kind and attemptingly helpful comments. But I could tell that many thought I was just doing something wrong in not being able to find it.
Last weekend I went over to Lori's house with the girls to visit with her and Lucas while her hubby was having to work at the Cowboys game (he is an editor for the Dallas Morning News). We went to the grocery store to get stuff to cook for dinner. I thankfully thought to look for my precious canned pumpkin and FINALLY found some!
The next day I was happy with my find and about to start making various pumpkin goodies. But when doing some of my daily blog reading I found a title that stopped me. This post from 5dollardinners.com explained a lot.
So I quickly called Lori and informed her of my new found information and asked her to please pick me up some more cans. I also started getting my family to all hunt for me too. With knowing about this shortage I became even more desperate.
That evening Lori's husband came home bring treats from a business dinner. He was disappointed due to not finding a standard pumpkin treat he loves. Lori informed him of the new information I had given her. He decided that might be an interesting news tip to put out. So he passed it on to his higher ups who agreed. And low and behold we have an article that I am in!
I am tickled pink that my hunt for pumpkin is news worthy! And I'm not crazy after all! hehe

It's one of those days

It's like I have severe PMS today but I am no where near time for that. It's so crappy that I had half a post written out, but hated it so much that I erased it.
My main thing is to thank Larry for his putting up with my crappy mood that seems to be being taken out on him for no reason. He is doing all he can to help me out even with needing to work.
And thank you to my good friend Tina for calling to talk/vent at the perfect time. How do friends know what you need without you saying it? Those are the angels in disguise!
I don't know what has me in this mood, whatever it is, I hope it leaves quick or whatever I need to fix it better come soon.
Ok time to go, cause this posting isn't working either to help me.

Thought I would so I will

My Charisse said I may do this so I think I will. But first, go check out her new page! It's fabulous!!!! And I love the quote/description. It fits her perfectly!

Now her questionnaire

1. What is you favorite line from a movie?
"And we're getting maaaarried!" From Father of the Bride. I loove the way the little girl says it. Makes me smile each time.
2. What group did you belong to in high school?I was an honors brat, band nerd. Ditto
3. If you had $1,000 to spend on yourself, what would you spend it on? I would end up spending it on things for the house.
4. Favorite childhood cartoon? Tom and Jerry and still love it!
5. What kind of sleeper are you? curled up side sleeper
FIRST questions
1. Do you talk to your 1st love? Nope
2. First alcoholic drink? honestly don't remember. Jack and Coke I think
3. First job? Chick-fil-a
4. First car? '88 Ford Tempo
5. First person to text you this morning? Tina.
6. First person you thought of this morning? Kids and getting them up for school
7. First grade teacher? Mrs. Stigler
8. Where did you go for your first flight? Hawaii to visit a friend living there I was 20.
9. Who was your first best friend and do you still talk? Roseanne in 1st grade. And yes. Actually just went with her to a baseball game this last Saturday
10. Where was your first sleepover? First attempted one was with Roseanne, but got homesick. First successful one was with Nicole Taylor. My friend who died due to a car crash 12 years ago.
11. First person you talked to today?Larry, he was telling me what time it was since I over slept. I told him I know since he said it when I was getting up.
12. Whose wedding were you in first? Well I was dressed and waiting for my friend Jenny's to start right after graduation, but it didn't happen since the marriage license was no where to be found
13. First thing you did this morning? Go to the bathroom. Same as every morning.
14. First concert you went to?The Kissmas Concert. Concert given by local radio station every year with bunch of various artists. I was near the ticket spot when they announced one of the spots on the radio
15. First tattoo?Don't have one
16. First piercing?Ears, of course...ditto
17. First foreign country? Does Mexico count. Only one I've been to
18. First movie you remember seeing? I really don't know. A lot pop to mind and who knows which was first
19. State you lived in first? Texas-only
20. First roommate? Lori
21. First detention? never had one
22. One thing you would like to learn, given the chance? play the piano
23. Who will be the next person to post this? no one that I know of

LWT and LGT and...

LBT and LBJ. Those are my goals. That is White T's, Grey T, Brown T, and Blue Jeans. I have some T-shirts I had bought recently and ones that had been bought for me. Not on purpose, but they were bought a bit on the small side. It is my goal to be able to wear them where they look nice on me by my birthday. I feel that is a reasonable goal. I don't need to drop too much weight to get into them. I also would like to buy a new pair of jeans. While taking the kids clothes shopping back before school, I saw a number of cute brands I would like to purchase.
I noticed a couple things last night and today that had me over joyed with my results so far. I have not lost weight yet since I really just got back into it this week. But last night I was doing some various activities that normally wear me out. And instead I still had energy when I was done. And I have noticed that I have been doing much better on food choices. I am finally finding things that fill me up with much less food! Woohoo! It's about time!
Just wanted to share my goals and results so far. I think this time they are ones I will be able to make long term.
And here are some pictures from my walk this morning which turned out a bit too long. I got a little too into exploring and went way farther than I should have. I wasn't prepared for that hefty of a workout today.
It's been raining for over a week and I was only able to do outdoor workouts two mornings this week. And this was what I saw all over during this morning's workout.

Mushrooms!

T is for Toby!

Got both kids back to school today, and the hubby need to use my jeep, so I am most definitely stuck at home for the day. But that's ok. Need to get some disinfecting done around the house and hopefully working on a few projects (back to work on some).
So much to do today leaving little time to post.
But I had to share this blog post with you. It's not new, but I just read it in some of my catching up. Check out the adorable shirts her two oldest children have on for their first day of school. What a FABULOUS idea!!! Wish I had little ones again to do that with or had thought of it when mine were little. I could go on and on about how great it is, so check it out for yourself!
And have a great day!

Fairness in Drainage and Ginger

First off, so loving the leading into Fall. As with every September, Crock pot cooking is becoming a big thing again. So I am enjoying the easy of finding new recipes. Now to just start putting them into use.

Saturday night Larry and I went out to dinner with my parents. We had a nice light meal at Souper Salad. Perfect for the rainy weekend. The best thing about eating there is dessert for me is Ginger bread. Love that stuff! But I haven't had any in such a long time. And that made me realize I need a good recipe to make it myself. Anyone know of a good one?

My oldest has developed allergies. I noticed a few weeks ago she was taking Tylenol often for headaches. I figured it may be sinus headaches, so I told her to start taking Zyrtec daily like her sister does. Tylenol or Advil daily is NOT GOOD! As figured, it takes a bit of time to get into your system. So she complained for a bit that it wasn't working. Over Labor Day weekend she forgot to take it and felt pretty bad Tuesday and had to miss school. She seemed to figure it must be working after that.

This last weekend she had to go without it again and started feeling pretty awful last night. She said that the medicine really must be working. She got up and got ready for school this morning, but was really dragging and ended up missing her bus. I think she was hoping I would just send her back to bed.

Few problems with that.

1- ATT guy was coming to replace the receiver in her room since apparently the one put in last week was no good. And I knew (which he did) that he would want to try a few things before he put the new one in.

2 - It's just not good to miss school!

3 - My other daughter suffers from SEVERE allergies. Hers usually start getting super bad late October/early November They last for a month or two then die down till Spring . She often has rough nights due to all the drainage, and coughing. But she knows she still has to go to school and pushes through. If we kept her home every time they were bad, she'd be home more than at school each year. I do keep her home when they are super severe.

I realize allergies are a new thing to Haylee, but it just doesn't seem fair to let her stay home when she feels cruddy when the rest of us push through. Especially when her sister pushes through with way worse.

I felt a bit mean talking to her about it, but told her she really has to work to figure out when it's just allergies she can push through since all the rest of us do and when she is truly sick and needs to stay home. I hate when my kids feel bad. I want to just baby them, but that's not how the world works. It doesn't stop each time we feel bad, and neither can we.

(Just a few pictures thrown in that I had taken over the past few days)

Losing more than just cats

Still no sign of Milee. I decided to not put it off and told Holly of her disappearance. I told her how I have experienced this before and have had the cat return. So she is handling it well. On my way to run errands today I passed a black kitten in the road who had met an early demise. I was quite sad and thought about Milee. I fear this is ultimately what may have happened to her even though she has a fairly large fear of large moving objects. Larry believes that someone probably has lured her in and tried to make her their own. I am continuing to debate the idea of a companion for Matty. Normal rule of thumb is if I were to do this it would surely cause the return of Milee. Wonderful, but then will put me over the limit of household pets legally and sanely. For now I will just continue to wait.
Today I got super inspired. I am just over a month from my 30th b-day. I have big plans for it. But I made a new one today. I recently purchased some cute t-shirts that ended up being a little on the small side. This was not done on purpose, but I did hope after discovering it that it would lead to returning to my weight loss goals. I decided today though that I would really love to be wearing them when my birthday arrives. I have been able to do a work out two out of the three school mornings this week. The one I missed was Tuesday, the first day back, and it was due to circumstances I could not control. So the main thing I now need to focus on is sticking to working out each week day and back to eating better again. So I hauled off to pick up some healthy snacks. My goal for tomorrow is to plan out healthier lunches and breakfasts. If I stick with focusing on changing my meals that I majorly eat alone and stick to my normal dinners, I think the results will come quickly. My main problem with my snack shopping spree is storing them. I am trying to keep them handy but put away from the rest of the family so I will have what I want. But I needed a snack earlier and was not able to get to it without being noticed that I pulled something out of a secret place. I will have to find a new location. I hate being sneaky and keeping things from the kids and hubby, but with the non stop eating that goes on with two growing kids and one very hard working husband, you have to hide it.

Milee

Last night was a bit of a rough night. I woke up in the middle of the night due to a dream. In the dream I was aggravated with the hubby and one of the kids. She had acted up and Larry ignored my handling of it and took her to the movies. Something totally crazy especially since the house we were living in was the one I grew up in and I was hiding in the garage across the street to cool off. I woke up in the middle of the attempted cool off and hung on to the upset mood all the way through morning. HORMONES!

Also our cat Milee is missing. We went camping over Labor Day weekend. Apparently while we were gone she disappeared. There wasn't enough food missing for two cats to have been eating all weekend. When we have been gone for a bit, she becomes very clingy. She doesn't normally want to be petted much but she is dying to be held when we return from a day or more away. This time she didn't show up for her normal shoulder riding and cheek scratching I give her.

Our cats are indoor/outdoor cats that come and go as they please. This is how it always was when I was growing up and had cats. So I am always prepared that something may happen. The last time we lost a cat though, Holly was only 4 and didn't really notice him missing. Milee would rather meow back and forth with you than sit in your lap, so no one is quite as attached to her as our other cat we currently have, but it's not going to be easy if she doesn't show back up soon and I have to break down and tell my youngest she's missing. My older one already knows. She has caught me outside calling for her and looking around.

Like I said, she isn't one to be a lap cat. She's very independent. But she is a super pretty one and was an anniversary gift from Larry for our 4th anniversary. I was in the wreck that lead to finding my tumor the day before our anniversary and couldn't do anything to celebrate, so Larry got me her. He knew I had always wanted a calico.

That is the other reason my night was so rough. Worry and every time something jumped into the bed I would wake up thinking it was her just to find out it was Matty our other cat.

Now for the super hard part. Continuing to wait without worrying too much since I have had cats disappear and then return, and to decide when will be the right time to inform Holly.

Then what to do? Does replacing her make it easier? Does Matty still need company? We had gotten our cat Flash (that we had to send to my Aunt's) as a companion for Matty. We still had Milee to keep him company when we had to let him go so I didn't replace him. Matty hasn't shown any signs of being lonely so far, but he does enjoy wrestling with the other cats we have had. He has never minded other animals so I don't worry about a territory thing as much as him getting lonely.

Ugh, this is why it is often easier NOT to have pets.

SEPTEMBER

Is here!! Woohoo! And starting the end of last week, the temperatures have started cooling down. It has really been nice to be outside lately. Not quite nice enough for me to turn off the AC and open the house up, but I think that will be coming sooner than normal.
Sorry haven't gotten into the posting regularly again yet. The first week of school was a bit hectic. Haylee ended up deciding that the athletics department was a bit rougher than she cared for. Thankfully it was no problem getting her switched over to P.E. She is much happier. She has also proven me right and quickly made friends. She is already making plans for hanging out at a friends house after school soon to do homework and have fun. I'm very pleased. From different comments Haylee's made about the girl, she sounds like another one with a good head.
Holly is enjoying being in intermediate, but she enjoys anything new so it's no surprise. She's my easy to please child. Strong willed, but easy to please!
My other problem is my computer has a major virus detected so I can't use it now. So again on Larry's. I really need a new one anyway. So may finally seriously look into getting a new one (that one is 7 years old now), and redoing mine and making it into one for the girls to use without me worrying about what they do on mine so much.
Ok, off for today. Got to get some cleaning done and then errands run. Hope to finish up most of my major chores this week, then spending most of the days next week at my mom's while my dad is on vacation with my brother. We have some projects to work on. Then the next week get to work on organizing and painting my laundry/computer room. Hopefully I'll have time for sewing/knitting and reading somewhere in all of that.