weighn' in - week 1

week 1 of P90x is done. i only exercised monday, tuesday, wednesday and friday. that's still four days of working out that i otherwise wouldn't have done, so i feel good about that, but i wish i had also done the thursday and saturday workouts as well. sadly, when i hopped on the scale on friday it registered the same as the week before. not a bit of weight lost :-( i guess it might take a little while to get the weight loss ball a rolling. i KNOW i have to keep working on what i eat. i have a major sweet tooth and if there's a sweet in front of me, i will eat it. we had girl scout cookies in the house last week and lemon pound cake and a giant hershey chocolate bar... thanks to me eating most of it, they're all gone now. could be why i didn't lose a bit... happy to say there is no junk in the house right now except for bub's samoa's - bleck! who eats those things?!? and a couple of weight watchers desserts that i'm going to ration for a treat now and then. the working out feels great though. it's SO SO SO hard. which stinks. i did this before i was pregnant and could kick booty at alot of the workouts and now i'm barely able to keep up. it was wonderful to start back into a routine and i hope to get a workout in every day this week... happy to report monday is done! woot! and i managed to not eat any junk today.

we had sort of a nutty day. a random creepy dude yelled at me b/c a dog (who is NOT ours) ran in front of his car. he screeched at me to keep the dog on a leash and then stopped his car in the middle of the street and stared at our house for a few minutes... why are people so weird? and then i got myself all worked up about the bad weather we were forcasted to have. so, i want to end this post by counting some blessings for the day.

- praises that the bad weather skipped right over us and we are safe.
- sweet nuggie had her first real laugh today. oh what a sweet and wonderful sound!
- we made it to church yesterday for the first time in a LONG time - nuggie did great in the nursery and bub    and i were able to hear a great message.

tomorrow is march 1 - spring is on it's way!!!

hey mr. postman

my sweet mama sent me a little care package this week! look at all my treasures...

so let's see... i've got well, some new books for my sweet nuggie. we LOVE sandra boyton books! now she's got three new ones to add to her collection. the tall box in the back with the flowers on it is wall art cards that have proper flower names on them, A thru Z! then of course we've got some practical little things - more filters for nuggie's water pitcher and baby toothbrushes - though she's still waiting on some teeth to appear! the pink blob is a little knit beanie for nugg and all over it mom clipped little hair bows for sweet baby girl. there in the middle is a little something for me - a new wallet and a jar of oregon marionberry jam - my fav! oh oh, and the little blankie it's all laying on was mine when i was an itty bitty gal, so now nuggie can love on it :-)

getting care packages is the best - makes me want to send one to a friend real soon!

anyone else watching the oscar awards? i'm loving anne hathaway and james franco! so many pretty dresses! what's your fave? i LOVED mila kunis' dress...

it's just so pretty and girly! i would love to have a reason to get so glammed up and go out on the town. maybe that's what i'll do when i've lost this baby weight? though i'm really just excited about fitting into my skinny jeans!!

happy oscar watching everyone!! i'm guessing the social network wins the top prize... we shall see!

yum, yum

Fennel!

 Sorry for another recipe post - but this was so yummy, I had to share! Last week Whole Foods was running a special on whole organic chickens. I wish we could have a diet of all organics, but it is so expensive, with our weekly grocery budget it just isn't possible right now. BUT - like I said, these chicks were cheapty-cheap, so I got my booty down there and picked up a couple. I then went in search of a roast chicken recipe. I've never roasted a chicken before, but its been on my list of things to try. As I've said before, I adore Ina Garten, so I got a recipe from her! Ina Garten's Perfect Roast Chicken. I had to add a few unusual items to our grocery list for the week. One being the pic above - fennel! I didn't even know what it looked like and had to get help finding it. The stinking stuff cost $6, but we didn't need a whole lot else for the week and it didn't throw off our weekly budget much.

 I had frozen the chick, so I took it out on Wednesday to thaw - it took all two days (in the fridge) for it to not be a giant frozen mass anymore. I got my super awesome kitchen assistant - Nuggie - and set to work. We had a blast :-) She listened to music and kicked around and I, I shoved my hand up a chilly chicken rear. I HATE touching raw chicken and here was a WHOLE raw one just staring at me - gizzards and all. It was ok though, I cleared off the counter and set out everything I would need to touch with my chickeny hands and let the prep begin.

"Mommy, why are you sticking your hand up a chicken's tooshie?"

 It turned out wonderfully! A few things I wish I had done differently... 1) I should have filled the pan more with veggies, I didn't know how much they would cook down 2) I added sweet potatoes to the veggie mix and they turned out great! 3) I was too cheap to buy the fresh thyme, but I wish I had sprung for it. I just used dry and it was ok, but I think it would have been even better had I used fresh.


 Here's the final product! It was so so so yummy! Took a little time, but it felt great to cook with organic and healthy ingredients.

Lemon Love

oh lemon, how do i love thee? let me count the ways! i LOVE lemon. lemon-aid, lemon soap, lemon candy - LEMON ANYTHING! i made this super amazing and pretty easy lemon yogurt cake this past week. it was meant to go to community group with us, but nuggie had a meltdown (really? her? never!) and so we decided to stay home that evening. there aren't enough yummies to explain how i feel about this cake! it's a recipe from the Barefoot Contessa - Ina Garten - LOVE, LOVE, LOVE her! here's the link. make it, you won't be dissappointed. oh and one other delightful lemon treat out there right now... girl scout's lemon chalets! i must repeat to myself over and again - i'm on a diet, i'm on a diet... lemon chalets will not help with operation fit into my old jeans! 

Ina Garten's Super Awesome Lemon Yogurt Cake!

wednesday randomness

rosiecakes just had a MAJOR meltdown at target, so momma is just gonna blog a few random things for now, my brain is fried!

- we dissected sheep hearts in lab today - why is it that the insides weren't nicely color-coated like they are in our textbook? it's a little hard to tell stuff apart when it's all the same color :-P

- is it bad to drink a glass of wine in the middle of the afternoon??? don't answer that. let me just say again, sweet nuggie really did have a huge, major meltdown while we were out running errands. she was screeching like a banshee when i strapped her in her car seat and let's just say i got a few suspicious looks. like i'm the first one on the planet to have a fussy baby??? guess she just wasn't in the mood to go shopping.

- if you read this blog would you pretty please leave a comment??? i know you lovelies are reading, i think you are anyhow. i would love to know who i'm writing to!

- we watched Easy A the other night - it was actually really cute. i LOVE stanley tucci, so anything with him is good with me :-) we also watched The Social Network and while i think the movie was really good, it made me feel sort of weird about Facebook. has anyone else seen it? what were your thoughts??

- it's wednesday - ole! that means Modern Family tonight!!!  i've got a sociology test tomorrow night that i must do well on, so guess watching that tonight will be my study break :-)

well that's all i really got for now. happy wednesday everyone!

schoolhouse rocks

does anyone else remember school house rock? like the OLD one, that would occasionally show up on tv during cartoons or something? there's a fabulous Pandora radio station that i play for nuggie - children's folksongs - that will play "3 is a magic number" and it takes me back to being a nerdy little kid. i think my favorite was "conjunction junction"... anyone else have a favorite? i wonder what nuggie will remember in 30 years as she thinks back on her childhood?

so i think on tuesdays i will blog about school. i'm loving it and want to share my journey as an older student. this semester i'm completing some of the pre-reqs for a nursing program. i'm taking anatomy/physiology II, moral theology and sociology. i truly love going to class. i have the a/p class tues/wed/thur mornings and the other two are each one night a week. college the first go around seemed just like the thing to do. at the high school i attended it wasn't really even an option, that i can remember, to NOT go to college (any fellow LPCS-ers care to chime in?)  seemed like everything we did somehow turned back to - well, you'll need this in college, and when you get to college they'll expect you to know (fill in the blank mrs. b) ... so my first college experience was i think, wonderful - but more b/c i was growing up, getting to stand on my two feet for the first time and learning to live in a brand new city. it was a time of alot of personal growth and alot of fun! i met bub in college, made some amazing friends and had a great time. educationally, eh, school is really hard for me, i did what i had to do to pass and ended up graduating with a totally, completely, massively USELESS music business degree and tens of thousands of dollars of student loans to go along with it. THIS time around i'm savoring it. i feel like i'm finally persuing something that i really, truly care about. i think i'm more focused and therefore i'm doing better in my classes. i think something i realize now vs when i was 19/20/21 years old, was that something you really want requires work and commitment. i think when i was younger i wanted the result, but didn't want to make much effort. i also really love that i will have a degree in something actually useful. something that will almost guarantee i can find work after graduation. it takes getting unexpectedly fired from a job just one time to put some serious fear into your heart about what you will do if you find yourself very randomly without an income. i love that there is some stability and certainly a demand in nursing. i can work almost anywhere and do almost any hours - which is great since we for sure want to add to our family, but i love being home with our baby. so i can work weekends, nights, whatever.

so here i am - currently a "nursing intent" student at aquinas - hopefully i'll be a full-time for real nursing student this fall. i applied to the program and hope to hear something sometime in may - i'll keep you all posted.

one last chance...

i needed a change - so here it is - a new blog and name... i'm going to give it a little more time, make some real effort to write interesting things you lovelies care to read and hopefully we'll all enjoy the ride :-)

day 1 of P90x commenced today. i'm going to write very candidly about how it's going. i need to stay accountable and keep track of my progress. i stood in line behind two snooty women at a baby consignment sale this weekend. they both looked like they were about 5'2" and 105lbs. they were telling a pregnant girl in front of us not to worry - baby weight is SO easy to get off... all you have to do is get to the gym immediately after the birth of your baby and go EVERY DAY. um, that might work for some lucky women who are well off enough to afford a nanny and not worried about things like, oh, working, keeping a home, and showering - but i wanted to pull that sweet girl aside and tell her - honey, you CAN lose the weight, but it's not that simple. so i'm going to share my real struggle with it.

so here are the facts: i gained 60 pounds with my pregnancy. yes, SIXTY. part of this massive amount was, i think, due to genetics. but the majority of it was me just being a fatty. i ate alot of ice cream and anything else that looked good to my preggo eyes. and i didn't work out. i tried. but at about 6 months i pooped out and it was summer and it was hot and i was busy chasing a toddler as a part of my job and i just couldn't muster the energy to work out. so i gained and gained and gained.

after baby (who was born 4 months ago) i dropped 40 pounds pretty quick. but these last 20 haven't wanted to budge. thus, the P90x. i have no time to get to the gym. i thought i would, and maybe i could if i wanted to head to the Y at 10pm - but that isn't happening. i tried a few 20 minute workout dvd's at home - they got nothing on this baby chub. i realized it was time to step it up a notch. and when bub announced he and his team at work were the winners of a super fabulous vacation to san diego this summer, i knew i wanted to get back to my old self.

ok - day one - was tough, but i feel good about it. i'll weigh in on fridays and keep track of any change. i'm also eating a pretty boring diet of kashi cereal for breakfast, lean cuisine for lunch, and a healthy meal for dinner - with of course a few snacks tossed in.

operation fit back into my old jeans begins today!