8.31.2011

WILW

I'm loving that I've lost 10 pounds since starting Weight Watchers five weeks ago.  Slowly but surely wins the race...right turtle?!



- I'm loving that we have a three day weekend coming up. Yay for Labor Day!  I'm hoping I convince Baron to go look at model homes this weekend.  We drove around last weekend looking at houses (way outta our price range) just for fun but I wussed out when it came to actually go inside and looking at any of them.  Not sure why...I guess I just feel like an impostor or something. Ha!


- I'm loving that it's time for Gator Football on Saturday!! Yayyyyyy!  It's going to be an adjustment to be a Gator up here in Alabama, but you gotta do what you gotta do I 'spose.



- I'm loving that in less than two weeks my sista-from-anotha-mista is flying here just to drive all the way back to Florida with me the very next day.  I am so. freaking. excited.  I lived with this girl for six years of my life.  The hardest parts of my life were lived with her, but also some of the best.  I'm so so excited!!

This is typical!


I'm loving my little family. Love my husband and my two hounds that seem like lately are costing a pretty penny but they make me smile every day!

Happy Wednesday everyone!

8.27.2011

Birthday Photo Dump, Speeding Ticket, & Allergies

How's that for a whole bunch of random?  Let's start at the beginning of the week, shall we?  I was coming home from my Weight Watchers meeting last week (I lost weight and reached my first "mini-goal" yay!), crusing down the highway at 70 miles an hour, being passed by a ton of people who I'm sure all were irritated at the person with the Florida Gator's sticker on the back that was slowing down to find her exit. Then I saw the lights...


Wahhhhh! Insert tears.  I was seriously mad that I've driven for 11 years and never gotten a ticket, then I move to Alabama and am crusing along at what I thought was the speed limit and ooops, you're actually 20mph over! Holy cow.  Apparently the whole speeding ticket thing is a lot more serious here than in Florida.  You can't take online traffic school, only the ones that the court offers.  Oh and P.S. the class costs $150 on top of the ticket price. I felt like the biggest loser ever.  I can't imagine how real criminals feel.  I'm off to the courthouse on Monday to get it all figured out, I wanted to take care of it sooner but it takes 5 days just for your ticket to be in the "system". Ugh.

My 26th birthday was on Friday, I'm on the short bus to 30 now!! Had a good day and Baron came home with flowers and a Diet Coke...ahhh perfect!  He left me little surprises to find during the day while he was at work too. There were several cupcakes harmed in the two days that were my birthday celebration...all points were counted but I'm a tad nervous about weigh-in on Tuesday. Here's some pics...









Macey has had several ear infections in her lifetime, usually I'll just flush her ears for a couple of days and she'll be back to normal.  This week she got one that I couldn't get rid of after a few days and it appeared to be really bothering her.  We went to the vet and he thinks she has allergies.  She's been licking her feet constantly and said that it usually shows up in a dog's ears and feet :(  She got a steroid shot and some meds for her ears.  We're hoping it's just a seasonal thing, but the vet said that a lot of dogs have problems here in the "Tennessee Valley" because there are a lot of inhalent allergens here.  Hmmm.  Guess this sweet girl's allergic to Alabama.


Sister is now eating and drinking like it's her full time job!! She's been kind of a finicky eater these past couple of months but we decided to get the huge bag of dog food when we picked some up tonight...I'm thinking we'll go through it quick and Macey's gonna have to start working out with Momma.


Here's hoping for a better week this week!! Hope you all have a great week! 

8.22.2011

Freaking funny.

Look closely and you'll see Macey has the Elvis-lip thing going on.  I must've taken 100 pictures of these two wiggle worms and thought I finally captured "the one" with this photo.  Oh well.  This is funnier than two normal looking dogs :)

2 Dinners & a Love Note

I'm rounding up Week #3 doing Weight Watchers and made two very good dinners last week.  First up was some "homeade" ;)  spaghetti sauce made in the crockpot served over baked spaghetti squash with a side of ricotta cheese.  Very good!  5 points for everything!


Next was Barbacoa Pork served with Cilantro-Lime Rice & Black Beans.  One word...yum! It was 13 points for everything but very good, will definitely be making it again soon.  The pork was made in the crockpot but it wasn't one of those sit and cook all day long kinda things.  There were a lot of steps involved but it turned out good.


So Baron always asks if I've blogged lately and I didn't really think he paid much attention but last week when I opened up my little Weight Watchers food journal look what I saw.

How sweet :)  He's gonna be mad that I posted this picture :)
Yesterday we celebrated our 3 month anniversary by eating breakfast at 10:30 and watching 48 hours Mystery shows all day :)  Eventually we got dressed and went over to one of Baron's old coworkers house for dinner.

Hope you all have a great week! It's my birthday week! Yay!

8.19.2011

Mom, will you carry my baby?


I saw on Oprah yesterday that a 61 year old woman was a surrogate for her daughter and son in law who were infertile.  Um....what?!  They did IVF and she carried her own grandson, went through 30 hours of labor and then had a c-section. Wow.  I have mixed emotions.  On one hand it's the nicest thing you can do for a person and such a beautiful, self-less gift, on the other, how could I put my mom through that?  Maybe I've seen too many complicated pregnancies but I don't think I could ever ask my mom to do that for me. Or say yes if she offered. But I guess you don't know until you're in that situation.  The daughter and son in law had been through several trials of IVF and each time it ended in heartbreak.  I can't imagine the pain of infertility.  I truly can't imagine it.  It was a beautiful thing that this mother did for her daughter and the little baby was just perfect.  Everything went well and the grandmother is back to "normal" after a few weeks.

I texted my mom and asked if she'd ever do that for me and I'm not sure if the "haha" or the "nope" came first :)

8.17.2011

WILW

Another Wednesday and time to link up with Jamie and talk about all the things we're loving today!


I'm loving this cool weather we're having.  In the mornings and evenings it's actually nice out and makes you want to be outside. Ahhhh, what a change.  Unfortunately I think it's only gonna last a day or two longer.

I'm loving that I have a little bit more energy today and starting to finally feel better.  With a little Tylenol Cold & Hot Tea anything is possible!





I'm loving that we made it to the rodeo on Friday night.  It was a lot of fun!! Couldn't get any good pictures but it was fun to watch all the events.  Of course the bull riding was most exciting but Baron and I were having a hard time figuring out all the rules and such.

I'm loving that we had a fun/relaxing Saturday before I got sick on Sunday.  We didn't do much but we did manage to take both dogs to Petsmart because we needed a new filter for our goldfish, Jack.  We bought the filters but sadly Jack died yesterday (of course while Baron was at work and I had to flush him!)


On the way to PetSmart. Macey is enlightening Max about the cookies at the register.

I'm loving that it's almost my birthday week!! Yay!! My mom sent me the harness Macey is wearing for my birthday.  It's a Puppia brand and I really like it, feels like I have more control over here.  She is only about 30 lbs but she feels like 50 when she uses all her muscles to drag me somewhere!

Doesn't she looked thrilled with her new harness?! Ha!
 
Colombian Steak

I'm loving that this Weight Watcher recipe turned out great.  What with the egg on top and everything I had my doubts but it was really good.  10 points for everything but the roasted broccoli was delicious! Another recipe from skinnytaste.com

I'm loving that I had a burst of energy/feelin' good last night and Baron and I took the pups to a park nearby for a walk.  It was nice to get out of the house and enjoy the nice weather.  Dogs had fun chasing geese.

If that doesn't say tired, happy puppy I don't know what does!!
Today my goals are simple.  Do laundry and make it to the grocery store.  Anything else is just extra.  I can't wait to be 100% again.  Hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday!!  What are you loving today?!

8.16.2011

Sick :-/

This has been my life the last couple of days...


I feel like I'm turning the corner today but I still don't feel too hot.  I can't wait to start Lysol'ing the bejeezus out of my house.  I hate the sickies living in here.  Hope the hubby doesn't get it.  I've been camped out on the couch for the last couple of days taking naps and watching lifetime movies (and whining, who am I kidding).  Yesterday when I got up to get my fourth popsicle of the day I came back and found this...


Apparently this whole mom being sick thing has really stressed her out.  Poor dog.

I did make it to Weight Watchers this morning and lost 1.4lbs.  Yay! I thought it might be more since I haven't really eaten much the last couple of days but a loss is a loss.

8.11.2011

The Simple Things

Here we go, another link up...sometimes I find it hard to think of things to write about so these link ups held a lot!!  Today is appreciating the simple things in life.  The things that maybe don't seem like a big deal but keep you happy and smiling.



...hot coffee in the morning...
...kiss from Baron when he gets up & I'm still kinda sleeping...
...when Macey hops in bed after Baron gets up ;)...
...waving to my neighbors while walking the dogs...
...texts from my Momma all day long...
...sweet emails from friends (with pictures included ;)...
...when Macey & Max curl up for a few minutes...
...Happy Hour at Sonic & Diet Cherry Cokes...

So many simple little things in our lives that make us happy :)


8.10.2011

What I'm Loving Wednesday!

Hey girls, linking up with Jaime over at This Kind of Love for "What I'm Loving Wednesday".   A collection of things I'm loving, I'm thankful for, and things I appreciate on this beautiful (but hottttt!) Wednesday.


- I'm loving that I lost.....wait for it....don't get too excited.... 0.6 lbs this week.  I was a little disappointed after losing so much last week but according to Weight Watchers we're supposed to be aiming for 0.5-2 lbs per week to lose.  I just felt like I ate healthier and I know I worked out more this week than the first, but we'll see.  It's a small step in the right direction.

- I'm loving that Baron got to come home early last Friday and we had a little bit of a long weekend together! Here are those pictures from Monte Sano I talked about yesterday.  I can't wait for it to get cooler so we can go out and spend more time there.



- I'm loving my husband and puppies as usual.  They are the loves of my life :)

Naptime...melts my heart!!

Max is getting big!
- I'm loving Mrs. Carrie as usual.  I want to be her friend.  Most of the time when I'm at the gym I think about her legs and how I should probably keep going because maybe onnnnnnne day I can like a lil like Carrie. Hey, a girl's got to get her inspiration from somewhere.




8.09.2011

State Park & Bang Bang

We have a pretty neat State Park near our house but it's been so hot out lately that we haven't been able to explore much.  We drove up on Sunday and just kinda drove around inside the park.  I think it'll be fun to go when it's a little cooler and take the dogs for a hike or something.  It was really pretty.  They also had cabins you could rent that appeared to have AC and a bathroom!  Now that's my kind of camping!

Nothing new going on here.  Baron and I both did well with Weight Watchers this week.  Stuck to our points and got some good work outs in.  I go to my meeting in a few hours so we'll see :)  I made a version of Bang Bang Shrimp last night like the kind from Bonefish and it was really good!  Not fried and not the exact same as the restaurant version but it was pretty close.  I got the recipe from skinnytaste.com.  I've only tried a few of her recipes but they've all been very good!  I recommend you stop by and try some of them.

Bang Bang Shrimp, Butternut Squash, & Salad


I was going to try to post some pictures of the State Park but can't seem to get them uploaded :-/  Will try later!  Hope you all have a great Tuesday!  

8.05.2011

Culinary Creations

So I was finally learning how to cook and making some really tasty meals for hubby and myself.  I was so proud of myself!!  But seriously people, how can something not be good with an entire stick of butter and cheese and butter in it?  Did I mention the butter??  So yeah, then I joined Weight Watchers and the butter now sits sad and lonely in the back of the fridge.  So now I'm trying to learn how to cook healthier without losing the taste.  Here are some recent creations:

African Meatball Stew with Cous Cous
Ok so first things first, I love Africa.  I could write a whole post about my experience in Botswana but I'll save that for later.  This caught my eye because of the name.  I'm not really sure why it's African, but didn't matter...I was gonna make it!!  I've never made meatballs before, so that was a small challenge in itself, I think I cooked them four times a little too long but Baron ate them with a smile.  The sauce was pretty good and had a lot of flavor.  I liked the sauce mixed with the cous-cous, but couldn't stomach the rubber balls of meat that I made.  Oh well, you win some, you lose some :-/

So here is my Weight Watchers Win!
Grilled Chicken with Capers and Asparagus


Oh my goodness, y'all!  This was so good.  Don't mean to toot my own horn, but honk, honk!!  Now we don't have a grill.  So I had to bust out the George Foreman (which I never use and was slightly irritated that Baron wanted to move it up here because who-the-heck-uses-a-George-Foreman-anyways?!)  The prep time on the recipe said "20 min" but if it took me five minutes, it took an entire hour.  I grilled up some squash that we got at the Farmer's Market too and it was sooo good.  6 Points if y'all are into counting points and all that jazz and highly worth it!

Ranndom pic of the pups for Grandmas :)
Macey & her shadow



8.04.2011

Crossroads

I'm at a crossroads people.  I could use your thoughts, prayers, ideas, etc.  I decided I wanted to be a nurse right before I received my Associate's Degree at a community college and I kind of had to make a decision about what I wanted to do with my life.  When you're a single gal that doesn't think you'll be settling down soon you have to make a plan for your life, your career becomes of greatest importance to you because you have to figure out how to support yourself.

So I went to nursing school with the goal of becoming a labor and delivery nurse.  It was hard.  Nursing school is one of the hardest things I've ever done, but I made great friends, and even met my husband through someone that I went to nursing school with.  I've realized now that even I never would have worked a day as a nurse that nursing school was not a waste.  I met my very best friends and ultimately met my husband because of my choice to become a nurse.  But work I did...I got my dream job right out of nursing school in one of the best hospitals in Jacksonville as a Labor and Delivery nurse.  I was so excited, so nervous, so thrilled to be there for people and help them through the happiest day of their lives.  I jumped in feet first and learned as much as I could about pregnancy and delivery.  I quickly realized however, that it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows and baby rattles.  Sometimes there was serious illness, there was heartache, there was pain, and sometimes sadly, there was death.  Over the next three and a half years I worked hard and took care of hundreds of patients. I was the primary nurse at over 200 deliveries, not to mention all of the people that I took care of while they labored (but didn't get to meet their little peanuts), the people we worked tirelessly to keep pregnant because they were too early, and women that had significant complications during their delivery.

It took me a good year before I would stop being teary-eyed during the deliveries.  There was absolutely no greater feeling than handing a brand new baby to his Mom and Dad for the first time.  On the other hand, I never would have imagined how much I would enjoy taking care of women who lost their baby or those in terrible situations where we all knew that nothing good was going to come of the situation.  I guess enjoy isn't the right word.  I hated that these families had to go through the lose of a baby but I felt so humbled that I was in a position to make the situation just a little bit more bearable.

I'm not really good at anything.  We all know people who are athletic, or really crafty, or can sing or whatever.  I'm not one of them.  I never had anything I was really talented in.  Once I had been working in L&D for a few years I felt like I was finally good at something.  I feel like I gave it my all and devoted my entire attention and energy to my patients while I was at work.  Unfortunately I also devoted my time when I wasn't working.  I took a lot of my work home with me.  I constantly worried about my patients, I cried for them, I always wondered if there was anything else I could have done to make a situation better.  I kept saying to myself, "Just give it another year and maybe you'll be more confident."

Then I met my future husband and we got married and moved two states away.

I was heartbroken when I left my job in L&D.  Of course I was ecstatic to be getting married but there was a tiny part of me that thought that I may not ever do L&D again, so it was doubly hard to leave my coworkers and patients at the hospital where I worked.

So here I am, trying to decided what to do with my life.  I feel like that scared college sophomore all over again, but now maybe I can do something that I enjoy but am not crazy stressed about.  Maybe I don't have to work on Christmas and Thanksgiving.  Maybe I can be home when my husband gets off work every day. I'm looking into other types of nursing jobs now and hoping that something will come along that I can do and be good at again.  I hope that I can work hard and bless the people that I take care of like I feel like I did in L&D.  At lastly I hope that somewhere out there a scared little graduate will get her dream job in L&D and get to do it for a little while and know the joy that it brought me.

Until then......I wait for my Alabama nursing license to come in......and Max to be potty trained :)

8.03.2011

WILW


It's that time again! Here are the things I'm loving (in the 100 degree heat) today:
- I'm loving that I lost 4.8lbs this week! A good first week on Weight Watchers!  I have to admit that I've done Weight Watchers a time or two and usually at the beginning I have a fairly big loss then it kinda slows down from there.  But this was a big step in the right direction and quite the motivation!

- I'm loving that my mom had a safe trip back to Florida after her little vaca in good ol' Alabamy!



- I'm loving that this little booger above is doing so well after his surgery.  He doesn't act bothered at all. He went home on some pain meds, antibiotics, and vitamins because he was a little anemic.  Where do I get these dogs with all the problems?! Haha!

- I'm loving my husband as usual :)  I was actually annoying myself with how many questions I was asking while we were watching the movie, Salt, last night and he just patiently answered them to the best of his ability, ha!  I love his the comments he makes to me with a smirk about my DVR habits too, "Oh I see you've recorded Step Up 3"  Hahaha!  Don't judge...I loved the first 2 Step Up movies! :)

- And I'm not loving that I have to go to the dentist today. Yuck.

Happy Wednesday to you all!! <3

8.02.2011

Big Surgery Day :(


Just dropped this little boy off for his big surgery today.  No puppies for us in the future!  I hope he does ok, he's getting the rest of his shots and a microchip during the surgery too. Poor little guy :(  He has to stay until about 5 this afternoon so I'm taking advantage of him being out of the house today!

Got my first Weight Watchers weigh-in in just a few minutes, hope it goes well.  I did really well this week, followed the plan perfectly.  Makes it a lot easier with a husband who supports me and eats my Weight Watchers conncoctions and tells me they're delicious.  :)

We had a great visit with my mom, it was so good to have her here.  Macey was crazy-excited when she walked through the door and slept with her a couple of the nights she was here.  We got a pedicure, went shopping, and made it to the Farmer's Market and Cathedral Caverns.  The caverns were awesome!! I wasn't sure if it would be interesting but I was so glad that we went. It was 60 degrees inside the caverns which was such a relief after being out in the 90+ degree heat and humidity.  We also drove through some of the tornado damage close to our house.  It's really humbling to see these foundations that used to have houses on them, makes you think twice and count your blessings.


Outside the opening of Cathedral Caverns


Looking out from the inside...awesome!

Driving allllll over being a tourist, caught a pretty sunset :)

Some tornado damage near our house

Just a few extras :

These 2 went to Chili's back home & sent me their pic :)  Course I was there in spirit!! Miss you two!!

Found this pic on my phone.  Taken @ Lindsay's wedding, haha, love my family :)