Decorators are Worth Every Penny

I hate decorating. I'm an OCD, linear, non-creative person. I like neutral colors, symmetry, and matching. None of those qualities are conducive to decorating. My boss's wife is a decorator, and she decorated our formal dining, formal living, kitchen and den. We saved for these big projects, and had her finish them as they fit in our budget. Four years after moving in, there are still several rooms that need to be finished. I just wanted her to do the "major living spaces" though (rephrase--I wanted her to do it all, but I didn't want to pay to have it all done). I figured I could swing the smaller rooms. And so began my adventure of decorating our guest bathroom.

I saw this shower curtain on Target's website, and it served as my starting point. I just loved it. I thought it looked so Anthropologie. But it looked so different than the rest of my house once I got it hung! My house is not very "whimsical". So...I remained inspired by the birds, the brown, and the blue, but found some different things.

This is how it turned out:

The rug, the pictures, and towels were my first purchases (T.J. Maxx), then I found a shower curtain that coordinated (Target), picked up a new curtain rod, rings, and bath mat at Bed Bath and Beyond, and finally accessorized at Kirklands and Hobby Lobby.

Overall, I am pleased with it. I keep finding reasons to go in there just to take a peek at my handiwork (reasons other than the obvious reasons you go in a bathroom).

One of the Reasons I Love This Man.

This past weekend was a big weekend at our house...the first full weekend of March Madness. Thanks to the DVR, we are able to multi-task this MM season. A couple of things my husband did on Saturday (totally unprompted I might add):

1. Mowed the lawn and cleaned out the flower beds.
2. Washed the windows.
3. Suggested we switch out our closets and drawers from fall to spring.

No lie.

I. Love. This. Man.

And he doesn't just do these things half way. Here's a picture of one of his drawers and his closet shelves:

Seriously? Sometimes I can hardly believe my good fortune...

Girls' Weekend Pictures

My mom sent me some pictures she took from our girls' weekend, and I just had to share. Love these gals! We are in my husband's aunt's backyard, and it is so gorgeous! Staying the weekend there is like being at a resort!

Happy Birthday, Kamryn Paige!

Six years ago today, my independent, smart, sassy, and incredibly spirited niece, Kamryn Paige, was born! She makes me laugh with her funny comments, makes me cry with her sweet prayers, and I feel a special kinship with her because we're both "little sisters". Have a happy birthday, love!

Weight Watchers Report: Week 4 of 8

Week: -.5
Total: -3.5

Okay, so not a stellar week, but still some loss. I'll take it! I'm a little bit discouraged that I'm supposed to be down 6 pounds by now (goal was to lose 3 pounds every 2 weeks), and I'm obviously off mark, but I know why so I'm not too surprised. Weekend visitors, a weekend girls' trip, and March Madness is usually a recipe for weight gain so I'm trying to look at it as a victory that I've managed to lose 3.5 pounds amidst those things.

I'm bored with my workout regimen. Dreadmill, free weights, blah! I'm thinking about getting Jillian's 30 Day Shred. Anyone tried it?

March Madness

Is it just me, or does March Madness seem like a 3 week Super Bowl party? Just makes me want to eat pizza and wings! Not good. Steady progress on weight loss is not looking good at the moment. I think I'll be focusing on maintenance the next week or 2.

Sigh...

Losing in the Championship is Better Than Not Playing in the Championship.

We had such a fun weekend at the Big 12 Women's Basketball Tournament! There were 11 games over 4 days. Mom and Lori caught 10 of them, and I caught 8 of them. Lots of basketball! We saw so many buzzer beaters, and we got to see the Aggies play 3 times. We watched them beat K State in a close call, upset OU, and then finally fall to the Baylor Bears. The loss in the championship was disappointing, but losing in the championship is better than not playing in it! Mom and Lori got duded up in Aggie gear with me, and I even had them "sawing Varsity's horns off" during the fight song! I had to capture the moment on my camera phone:


Amidst all the basketball, we mixed in some shopping, visiting with my husband's precious aunt, a pedicure, and a delicious birthday dinner at Ted's. It was a wonderful weekend--love you, Mom and Sis!

Weight Watchers Report: Week 3 of 8

Week: 0
Total: -3

No weight loss this week, but no weight gain either so that's a good thing! I did fairly well with eating this week. I tried to strictly adhere to my points during the week because I was going out of town Thursday through Sunday. I tried not to completely over do it this weekend, and mostly succeeded except for a night of Mexican food for Mom's birthday.

I'm in town for the next 2 weekends so I hope to make some steady progress over the next 2 weeks.

Oh, My. Must Try.

I picked up some plain, 2% Greek Yogurt at the store last week (I bought the FAGE brand --pronounced fa-yeh--and found it at Natural Grocers, but I know United Supermarkets has it, too).
Oh. My. To. Die. For. Seriously.

1 cup of it (of the 2% kind) has 150 calories, 4.5 grams of fat, and 19 grams of protein! 19 grams of protein? I've been having it for breakfast (and even had it one night for supper). I mix 1 tablespoon of honey with it per half cup of yogurt and then put frozen blueberries in it.

Greek yogurt is so creamy. I mean, it's unlike any yogurt I've ever tasted. In fact, it doesn't taste like yogurt at all. Maybe more akin to pudding? The tablespoon of honey gives it the perfect sweetness, and the fruit--who doesn't love a little fruit in their yogurt? And with all that protein, it's so filling!

All other yogurt is dead to me.

Other Sports I Love

Today I'm going to Oklahoma City for the weekend to watch the Women's Big 12 Basketball tournament with my mom and my sis. I am so excited! I'm certainly there to root for my Aggies, but in general, I just love to watch good basketball.

Sports were a huge deal in my family. All 4 of us played sports growing up so not only were we playing a lot of sports, but we were watching each other play a lot of sports. Lots and lots of time was spent in a gym. If we had had cable or satellite growing up, (yes, I survived being raised on just 5 channels; the satellite came after most of us were gone!) I'm certain the channel would have been stuck on ESPN. And now when we go home, it usually is.

We were talking at work, and a coworker said they can usually pick out the people who played competitive sports growing up . The person said this is because people who played competitive sports usually:

1. Are good "team players".
   
2. Know they're role. (Not everyone can be the star!)
   
3. Know how step up to the plate during crunch time and don't get as frazzled during crunch time. (I wonder about this one. I think I have grown in this area. Crunch time on the court usually found me crumbling, but not much phases me at the office.)
   
4. Are more gracious in defeat and victory. (You definitely learn that anything can happen on any given day so you better be a gracious winner and loser.)
   

I thought that was interesting. Being raised with sports, I guess I took most of that for granted, but I can see some truth to it. Sure, you can learn all of those things doing things other than sports, but I like that sports added something to my life other than bad ankles, a sore shoulder, and a bruised ego.

Go, Ags!

Does Muscle Weigh More Than Fat?

Nope. 5 pounds is 5 pounds. But look how much less space 5 pounds of muscle takes up:


Isn't that unbelievable? That motivates this gal to keep exercising and step up the strength training!

Weight Watchers Report: Week 2 of 8

Weigh In -1
Total -3

I lost my mind! Not really, but I read that the human brain weighs 3 pounds, and I've lost 3 pounds so far so I've kind of "lost my mind".

I had a good week. I stayed on track through the week and planned to save plenty of points for the weekend since we were on a different schedule than we're used to. I did goof up on Sunday night because we went out to eat, and I hadn't planned on that. Not only did we go out to eat, but we ate Mexican food, and I had too many chips and ordered enchiladas instead of something better for me like fajitas.

I'm working on not letting those goof ups be a reason to scrap the whole weight loss plan though. I tend to do that. To meet my goal, I need to lose 3 pounds every 2 weeks, and I'm right on track. Still, when I "mess up", it makes me feel the urge to scrap the whole thing and go back to my overeating ways.

Funny how mess ups happen. We ate Mexican food on Friday night, and I did great. I had only a few chips (I think 3), and 1 fajita. But last night...the willpower just didn't win out! Oh, well. 3 pounds is 3 pounds. It's time to work on another 1.5 this week. I'm 1/4 of the way to my first goal. I need to look at it that way.

Not Just the Two of Us

We have an even dozen nieces and nephews (8 from my side; 4 from his). Most of them have stayed at our house before, but we have never had any sleepovers without parents. This weekend we had my older brother's 2 oldest children stay over (almost 7yo and 4yo). There was a local production of Peter Pan, and we got tickets. The rest of the weekend...we just planned to have a good time. Here's how it all worked out...

Friday night: Have dinner with Mommy and Daddy and twin baby sisters before riding with Aunt Min and Uncle Jonathan to their house (1 hour away). Bailey and Landry are super excited. They are very concerned with "how much farther" it is to our house.

Get home, take baths, and watch part of a movie in our bed. I say a prayer before bedtime. Can you tell this little boy is raised in an agriculture family?

Landry: "Why you not pray for rain?"

Saturday: Early to rise! 6:30am the pitter of patter of little feet! They get in bed with us; I turn a movie so we can get a little extra shut-eye. It's up for breakfast then time to "swim". Oh, to return to the days when the hot tub seems as big as the swimming pool!

Playing "shark"...

Jonathan decides to trim our bushes after "swimming". The kids thought it would be fun to help.
They thought it was more fun to play with sidewalk chalk and bubbles though...
It was time for lunch so off we went to Chick-F-La for lunch. We had hoped to go to the park for a picnic and to feed the ducks, but it was too windy. Instead, we played there then came home. Little did we know, the balloon we got at lunch and computer games that came with the Kids' Meal would be great entertainment! The kids played the computer games all weekend...
It was soon time to go see Peter Pan. The kids were excited...
The show was long, but the kids were so good. I told them on the way that I had two rules. Bailey said she knew one: "Hold hands at all times." Her mommy would be so proud! I told her that was a great rule (we now had 3): 1) hold hands at all times 2) no talking when the lights go down 3) except if you have to go potty. Landry was entertainment for our section. He did not like the "scary" parts and would clap his hands over his eyes and say, "Oh, my. I cannot watch this."

The Aggie men were playing an important game while we were at the show. We recorded it and watched it when we got home. The kids were good to watch it with us and yelled when we yelled. It was especially cute when Jonathan would yell (after a good play), "That's what I'm talking 'bout!" and little Landry would echo, "That's what I'm talking 'bout, too!" Bailey kept score on her new notepad.

Our favorite quote of the day was when Landry said, "My mommy thinks I talk too much." We tend to think his Mommy is right!

We had movie night after baths and watched Kung Fu Panda. The kids loved their popcorn and M&M's...
Sunday: We went to church, and the kids were well behaved. We went back to the house and watched High School Musical 3 and had lunch before we fed the ducks, played at the park, and met Daddy to go home...
We love you, Landry and Bailey! Had so much fun!

What’s Up Next for Running?

I want to race every month this year. I went through our local racing calendar and came up with one a month. At first, I wanted to work on speed. But at this point, I’m just going to work on getting some runs in during the week and getting out there on race day. Sure, it’s not very ambitious, but it’s still running, and I’m good with “un-ambitious running” right now.

Next up is the Gold’s Gym 5k on March 21^st.

Other Weekend Fun

After hanging out after the race and visiting with our friends and other Amarillo runners, we watched the Aggie men beat Iowa State, then we went to my sister’s. We caught the end of my niece’s soccer game, had some hot cocoa and caramel apple cider at Starbucks, then spent the evening in. It was fun to spend time with the kids (they’re growing so fast!) and visit with my sis and her hubby. Here’s a pic of the cuties:

Bri, Kam, & Brody~you are so much fun! I love you as much as the whole wide world!

Weight Watchers Report: Week 1 of 8

Weigh In: -2

This is what one pound of fat looks like:

I lost 2 of these! When I think 2 pounds “isn’t that much”, I’m going to peek back at this photo.

Overall, I had a good first week. I stayed on plan through the week and saved most of my “extra points” (WW gives you 35 “extra” points a week) and “activity points” (the points you get for exercise) so that I could eat what I wanted over the weekend (within reason). This worked out well!

I was mostly worried about eating out. We ate out Friday night, but I was able to find some delicious mahi mahi and rice on the menu. I knew Saturday would be a high point day because we planned to watch the Aggie game at Buffalo Wild Wings. I also knew that my sis would have relatively healthy fare at her house though. I exercised some self control and only had one cookie a day at Lori’s (she always has delicious homemade cookies!) so I considered that a victory. I did go over on my points as a whole so I was surprised to see that I still lost 2 pounds. I’m sure a portion of this is water weight, but I’ll take it. Any scale movement is motivating!

I'm going to follow WW for at least 8 weeks. (I came up with 8 weeks because that is how long it is until I go to Kauai! Thanks, Sis!) I hope to lose 12 pounds by then. That's 1.5 pounds of weight loss per week.