June 2013

I'm so behind and my OCD won't let me blog out of order!  I have half a mind to just scrap these missed months posts but I don't want to forget these little moments so I'll try to blow through these to get to the meaty stuff. 

June 8

Alyssa's grad party

Remember in mays post the madness that was my desk?  That was the creation of little Missy's graduation gift of a years worth of photos and mementos her mama cleverly snuck away.  I was glad to provide my artistic abilities.

June 14

Book club

Ms. Lindsay did an amazing job with our china themed party.  She choose the book Shanghai Girls by Lisa See.  The details in the book were so intricate you could picture everything.  It was so emotional and raw, incredible page turner, I had to get the second book because I had to know what was going to happen next!

As always we do what we do best eat, talk, kiss babies, eat, talk and eat some more!

June 16

The entire month of May my sister and her hubby were touring Europe. (Yes jealous!)

We had them over for Sunday dinner, I made my first ham and tried my hand at grandma's potato salad.  I did pretty darn good too.  My lovely sister brought me these delightful goodies, soap from Paris, bowls from Italy bracelets from Spain.  All in my favorite color, aqua!  It looked so pretty like this I left it to display in my book shelf.  

June  22-23

Yearly I put on a craft day which has affectionately become known as CYBO (craft your brains out) for 10 delirious hours of crafting food and games.  I normally to do it at a local high school in a big room but my connection retired so we were on the hunt for a new location.  Only problem is we were so used to the nice accommodations and being free is a big plus!  Another change this year was that I now have a house to host in, so I took the challenge of fitting 15 crafters between 3 rooms. 

I think these girls look pretty happy.

Zoe de Chanel

This is the newest edition to our family Zoe de Chanel.

Last week hubby went to Albuquerque for work and all week Coco was depressed.  We had indended on getting him a buddy when we moved because he was used to being with another dog.  So I jumped on craigslist to see if there was anything reasonable out there.

For those of you who dont know, Coco's original name was Max.  Not a favorite of mine.  I really wanted to call him something like Lennon, after the color and the beatle, but he wouldnt respond.  Finally I said its to bad your a boy because you look like a Coco and wouldn't you know he came to me.  To make it a little more masculane his official name is Glen Coco.  You go Glen Coco.

If you dont know what this means, you should probably watch the movie Mean Girls.

We had every intention on nameing our new dog Gretchen Wieners, another character name from that movie, but this little sweetie would not respond.

She came with the name Khloe.  This is way to much Kardashian for me.  I thought about calling her Maddie, because she was super matted.  Tried several names ending with the E sound.  Had a three people suggest Chanel to go along with Coco.  She didn't take to any of it.

 So at Petco we went ahead and made her a name tag Chloe....and as its getting engraved I see a demo tag with the name Zoe.  Why didn't I think of that?  I looked at her and asked is your new name Zoe?  Her little ears perked up.  Hubby said Are you kidding me?  It happened again? 

It's to late on the name tag, I'll have to get her another one eventually.  Coco needs a new one to, with our new address.  I love play on words so she gets both Zoe and Chanel as a name, just like the new girl actress.

So there you have it folks, I got my new baby girl.

Thing one and Thing two need toys of pink and toys of blue.

I love how she sleeps with one ear up.



Getting Knitty with it...

Na na na na na nana (in my best Will Smith voice)

I started a knitting club and this is why I was rushing to pull my house in some kind of decent order.

Saturday night had some of my girls over , my homies, BFF's, comadres, sisters, friends...to get their yarn on.  Everyone got a cute little owl bag to carry their projects, we came out with 6 new knitters and 2 new crocheters.  We had a ton of fun, wine and laughter.

The only down side for me is that I went WAY off the paleo wagon.  So far off that I stayed off all Sunday and Monday, bearly seeing the wagon wheels fade into the sunset haha.  I made enchiladas and beans, there was a abundance of appetizers and dessert!  Shamefully I put away the remaining pieces of tira misu last night.  I was hungry! So now we've rolled around to Tuesday and I'm having all these cravings for things I know I shouldnt be having.  Hubby will be leaving super early tomorrow for Arizona through Friday.  I gotta take those days to reset and get back on track.  Next Friday I'm hosting book club!  So now starts the search for some Paleo friendly munchies. 

Home Sweet Home - Mid way Photos

I say midway because there's always something to improve on a home.  I finally emptied my craft room of boxes, I even brought a rack to hang my embelishments from a closing scrap store.  Slowly getting the pieces were I want them but this is pretty much what my room looks like.  The cabbage patch in the chair is one of the original all cloth pieces from Xaiver Roberts, my grandma had purchased one for each of her grand daughters in the early 80's.  there's also a desk to the left centered under the window but my camera is not that wide angled.

On to the bano (guest bath) Picked up this sweet little shower curtain at target.  Giving it a try, its a little shiny for my liking but the color is dead on!

Our Bedroom

Kitchen
My mom worked really hard to help us pull together our country kitchen look.  Just waiting on a few more personal touches.  Hubbys great grandfather actually peddled milk!  Can't wait to put up some authentic milk bottles and canning jars.

View from the other side.  We'll be hanging some lanterns on the wall soon.

The Den, curtains and art hung!

Love that the ceiling fan has a matching Edison light bulb to the pendants in the kitchen.

There's only one room left to do now, its our front entry/parlor area. 

Move is a four letter word

I've come to realize there are more 4 letter bad words, they include Pack, Move, and Demo.
This past weekend we officially moved...to a box fortress. Kidding.

Here's a few up date pictures of the demo process and what our home felt like before we took over.
Master Bedroom:

  Plaster

   Prime 

Move In

Having Fun Ripping wall paper in the kitchen:

Stripped

Painted

Stripped

  Painted

My Office:

Then

Now

The Den:

As soon as all the boxes are cleared and the dust has settled I'll post the finished photos.

Home Sweet Home - Before Photos

This is the house I grew up in, the house we will be moving into hopefully by next weekend depending on the work that needs to be done.

From the front door on your right theres a living room that was converted to a bedroom.  We're going to UN convert it and open the space back up.  We also want to take down the funny stone half wall to widen the entry way.

The Kitchen - New Cabinets eventually

When we remodel the kitchen the pony wall will be knocked out to open the view to the den.

The Den

The hallway:  leads to 3 bedrooms, laundry room and bath.

Left Bedroom: Going to be Hubby's new office

Right Bedroom: Going to be my new scraproom...and then hopefully a nursery.

The Master:  Needed the most work.  Tearing out the old A/C, patching holes and ripping wallpaper.

Updated Photo: start of tear down.

last but not least our cute little patio.

So the carpet's been ordered, right now the delivery date is next Thursday.  If that all goes well we can move furniture in next weekend.  In the next 2 weeks I should have some good after "face lift" photos.

Dominos

I've maxed out my brain capacity; there are to many things whirling around upstairs. 
I'm going to write it out in a list because its the only way I can make sense of all the domino's.

1. Credit Issues
My sister's first name and my middle name are similar.  Our socials are also 2 digits apart. Resulting in our identity's via the credit bureaus getting crossed up.  Unfortunately she has a some not so bueno things showing up and it is now tanking my credit score.  We hired a company to get it straightened out and its going to take at minimum 30-45 days.

2. Finance
This whole credit issue is really jacking me up because now I can not get financed to put in carpet in the house. I've been getting denied left and right.  We're going to try it under Hubby's name only and see what it gets us. This is also distressing because we will have to finance the baby stuff. 

3. Work
My job location just shifted.  I knew all along that I was going to be working in a different office but I didnt anticipate things to change with in a few hours.  Its kind of hard to explain the whole scenario because I report to one person but have a dotted line to like 6 other departments.  So I came from our Brea office to our Chino office to train and cover for someone else and my supervisor decided it was a good day for me to just make Chino my perminant home.   So I'm learning new people and new tasks.  Also for the time being my hours will be 7-4 M-F, but once my department gets in full operation I'll work 6-6 W-S with a alternating 3 and 4 day week.  Yes that S stands for working Saturday!!  Yuck.

Hubby also started his new job on Monday.  He's loving it.  I just wish he'd cut ties with his old company but thats a whole nother Oprah.

4. Insurance
Kind of ties in with work...So since Hubby's new job is based in Canada (which has standardized health care) they have not quite figured out how to cover his insurance.  The game plan was go put him on insurance through my work and expense the cost difference.  It was going to work out smashingly because I'm supposed to get benefits starting Feb 1.  Surprise! My work doesnt offer medical insurance...they give us the option for supplemental coverage.  Something like Aflac.  So I am now on the hunt for individual coverage and its looking like about $300 for each of us. Yikes.

5. WW
Last Monday I missed my lunch time meeting because of a work meeting.  This Monday I missed because 1. I was in a new city and didnt feel like navigating and 2. I had another meeting to rush to for work back in Brea.  Monday's are clearly not working out for me.  Once my schedule settles down I'll have to pick a new meeting time near my new office.  In the mean time I've slide down the slippery slope of Cold Stones ice cream to the effect of being up 2 lbs.

6. Dr Apt.
D day is Thursday.  For so long it was so far away and now its right around the corner.  I have a wide range of emotions, I wish I could say excited but anxious is a more appropriate word.  I had this whole rosey colored bubble in my head that we'd meet with the dr and I'd show him my progress with weight loss and he'd say we have great odds.  My bubble hasnt totally burst, but I do feel down about not making my weight loss goal.  With no clue as to what we're going to discuss I feel almost vulnerable and I have a gut feeling like I'm going to be told to come back after I'd lost 50 lbs.

All this stress is jacking me up.  My period is MIA, I have a sty in my left eye and my psoriasis is flared up (I could play a mean game of connect the dots on my stomach)

I just need to get through this week....3 more days.  Hopefully I'll have a more positive post on Friday,  I know you'll want all the gory details from my visit.

Lean Mean 2013

So I didn't quite make the 13lb benchmark by January.  I missed the last 3 weigh ins.  According to my scale I was up and down over the 3 weeks; when I went for my official weigh in yesterday I was down .2 lbs.  At least its not a gain and I can still maintain my all loss book.  I've been on "break" making brownies and Mexican food (Why not go for bust since I wasn't counting anyway) but now its time to get back on the horse.

I've kept my promise to myself and I joined the community center gym.  I also went ahead and purchased Active Link to track my soon to be activity points.  I'm still trying to figure out how to use it but I'm excited about the tool and hoping it will give me more incentive.

My team leader was nice in saying "don't worry about the past, that's last years weight." 
Very true, I'm ready for the boost.  I'd love to say I'm going to lose 2 lbs a week and be at my goal for next year but realistically I'm going to put it out there to shoot for a 1lb a week knowing there will be ups and downs.  That will put me at a hopeful loss of 50 lbs!

So here's some other goings on for start of 2013.
As mentioned before we are moving!  In 5 weeks and counting...Officially February 16.  This has caused me some major stress in the past month but now things are settling down.  Hubby officially got a new job.  As of today his start date is January 21, but he's trying to get it bumped up to the 14th.  Seeing they want him on a conference call that day, I think it's fair the payroll clock starts then.  He'll be flying to Canada on the 21st and then to Atlanta to meet his new counter part on the 31st.

There was a lot of back and forth on the flight schedule but I'm happy to say He'll be able to go to the first fertility apt we have scheduled for January 24. 

Now I've read the starter packet back and forth and still have no clue what we're going to discuss in that first appointment.  But what I did find out is that we have to meet with a financial planner before we start any kind of treatment plan.  I thought this was kind of funny because don't you need to know what your planning to do before you know how much its going to cost?

The house we are moving into, I believe was built in the 70's.  Now my parents did some remodeling during the 20 years we lived there, but in the past 8 years the place has been screaming for a face lift.  At bare minimum we need to paint and carpet the place.  Gold, green and burgundy just AREN'T my colors!  There is also a leak in the master bath the feeds into a wall that will need to be taken care of ASAP so I've spent WAY more time in hardware stores than I'd ever imagine.  Why do I bring all this up?  A dirty little word called Finance, it's looming over my head. We don't have the up front cash to fix the house and I refuse to borrow it from the bank of Mom, so we'll have to finance that on top of what I'd already figured we'd have to finance for the medical stuff.

Yes there are a lot of goings on in my head.  On the funner side,  I have my annual scrapper bowl coming up February 9 and I'm hosting book club in March.  I've also added a knitting circle to my craft menagerie.  Sprinkle in a few photo shoots and we've got a full spring line up.

I just want to say I appreciate all my "cheer-readers" out there.  It mean's alot that you keep up with my silly stories and keep me encouraged to keep on my way.

Reprieve

Well I dragged my rear to the WW meeting today even though I didn't want to.  Turns out they were closed!  Probably due to the fact that I go to a meeting in a community center not a actual facility.  So this week I get a reprieve.  I think I needed it anyway.  I weighed myself this morning and thankfully I've lost the pound I gained due to grilled cheese bliss.  So I'll be adding that to my online tracker and we'll just call the past 2 weeks a wash *wink*

I've been seriously considering switching to a Friday meeting.  For me its easier to behave during the week because I only eat what I pack for work and my dinners are really planned out.  It's the weekend where...

Since the world did not end on Friday we decided to keep our Saturday plans and go to a friend's house warming.  I lived up the weeekend.  I did not pass up fresh baked norweigen bread, potatos and glass of wine....didnt take pictures, sorry my hands were full!  Sunday we had a nice breakfast while watching love it or list it my new fav home show followed by a AMAZING kabob lunch in Brea.  I dont know what to chalk it up to, life, stress eating, or just down right rebellion but I need to turn this ship around or I'm not going to make my January goal.  I have 4 more lbs to go to meet my 5% loss.

You might be wondering why would I be stress eating now?  We are still waiting to hear back about the job offer from Canada.  It all seems good, they've even given a start date but there's been no $$ given.  Normally I wouldn't stress about Hubby getting a job because he has a job currently.  Well you know how I had previously mentioned big changes are coming...this might be closest to the biggest one of all.  We are moving into my child hood home, most likely at the end of February.  The mortgage is a horse pill to swollow.  We can make it with our finances now but the new job would make things a whole lot smoother.

Also I sold alot of our stuff when we moved last year which means I need to re purchase things like a kitchen table and laundry machines.  Its going to be so funny having a house with no furniture.  I'm sure I'll post pictures as we go.

Right now I'm looking forward to tomorrow, an extra day off, we're finally going to sit down and read/fill out all the Dr's paper work and move along with that process.  Our apt is exactly a month away.

Hobbies and Jalepano's

I don't have anything super wonderful to report, but I feel like writing so it's time for show and tell.

Since its been cold and raining, the general feeling is to be inside nice and cozy.  So here are a few of my current projects. 

I started a mini book that I had intended to give as a baby shower gift.  That didn't happen and now the baby's heading into 4 months lol.  But I had all the stuff and so I decided to go ahead and finish it, the up side is I can now add pictures instead of giving it to my friend blank!

Next on my list of cozy projects is knitting.  One day while walking through Michael's I noticed this scrumptious sample of yarn, Loops & Threads Bunny Tail (pom pom).  I had to have it.  It looked really hard to work with, so I did my research and found some patterns to use.  Last November one of my besties and fellow knitter came over and we watched multiple you tube videos to figure out how to cast on these little monsters.   Once we got it down the rest was easy peasy.  The trick is you knit one stitch between the balls. The funny story about this blanket is that it called for 70 stitches.  I decided I wanted it a little bigger so I cast on 80 stitches.  Then I had my sister look at it and she said might as well make it a even hundred.  Well NOW the blanket is about 6 feet in length.  What started to be a lap blanket will now be a couch blanket for me and my hunny.   Since I usually scrap during the summer (and we've had a unseasonably warm winter) this project got pushed in the closet and was recently resurrected.  I'll be sure to post a picture when its done.  At the rate I'm knitting should be some time in January.

Last but not least I joined a book club.  This past month I read "The Lost Wife".  It was REALLY good so much I wish I had more book to read.  Tonight is the first meeting I'll be attending and the dinner theme is Gourmet Grilled Cheese, Soups and Champagne.   I'm in trouble lol.  I made jalapeno poppers pictured below.  Not too bad, I used the reduced fat crescent roll dough and re cut the sheet into 32 squares.  With a tsp of cream cheese and some chopped jale's, they come out to 1 point each.   I also made some with mini chocolate chips and brown sugar, also 1 point each.

Down side, I had a off site meeting for work today and they provided lunch.  The lunch in itself wasn't bad, 7 pts.  But I was STARVING and ended up eating the 12 point cookie that came in the lunch box.  I'm contemplating taking my own dinner to book club tonight so I don't totally botch this week.  We'll see what the scale says on Monday!

Live a Little

Happy Monday Ya'll

I bet your wondering what the big loss was this week... a whopping 0.4!!  Whoo hooo!!

I'm just going to say I have no regrets from this last week.  Every morsel I ate was worth it, I did the best I could to track and hey at least I didn't gain!  So I'm still on track for my book of losses.  Since I was given a new book to go with the new program I am now trying to accomplish 20 losses instead of the original 16.

I can't say exactly where I went wrong last week, I just know that I was tired. 
Wednesday we went out to dinner and had sushi.  The sauces are just too oooey gooey delicious.
Thursday they had a appreciation lunch for us at work, no idea what they put in those potato's *wink*
Friday while I was at Costco picking up my photos I tripped and fell into a very berry sundae.
Saturday I went to a scrapbook crop, I had a salad for dinner but it came with garlic bread! and a cake pop for dessert.
Sunday we spontaneously had friends over for dinner.  Hubby did the cooking and it was fabulous steak with brandy cream sauce...along with my glass of wine and chocolate cheese cake to top it off.

Can you hear my buttons popping?

So no, it was not a surprise that I didn't lose as much as I "could" have, but some weeks you have to LIVE and that's what this program is about.  This week I'll get back on track, need a bigger loss this week.  I'm shooting to be down 15 lbs by Jan 1 and I have 5 lbs 10 oz to go.

We also got our paper work from the fertility dr on Friday.  It was SO much paper work to go through.  I basically skimmed it over long enough to see that they don't agree with herbal remedies.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do, if I should keep on my herbs for the next month until I go?  Or stop them now?  I'll have to read the whole packet and make some phone calls.

Hubby has a interview on Thursday, it's in Canada!  The job will be based on the west coast though.  This is the final interview so I'm hoping he comes home with good news.

Big changes ahead....stay tuned.

Pina Coladas

Today's weigh in:  -1.4
Grand total: 9.2

They rolled out a new plan today that I'm not sure I like yet. Could be that I'm just not a fan of change.  The points are the same thank goodness because I'm used to them and they are working for me.  New thing called Spaces and Routines.  The reason why I'm not crazy about them is they are things I'm already doing.  Routines is very similar to 21 day challenges and Spaces is just controlling yourself in trigger environments.  I'm sure they will be helpful to most people just starting out.  We'll see how I feel in a few weeks.

Tips from the week:
1. I've never actually used Simply Filling part of the program until this past weekend and I did it subconsciously.  We went to a anniversary party which was pretty impossible to count the food.  So I filled my plate with "safe" food.  Salad, Veggies, a small portion of meat, yams.  I kept sipping on water and avoided the dessert table. Yea Me!

2. Last Wednesday I had my hair done by my wonderful sister.  We had some nice conversations and I told her about doing WW.  It was nice to have her support me because when we went to dinner afterward she encouraged me to split a meal with her.  I'm grateful because those veggies were certainly laced with butter.
So even though on these 2 instances I wasn't exactly sure what the points were I still counted and even over estimated a little for just in case.

3. My friend and WW buddy turned me on to La Croix coconut seltzer water at Target.  The flavor is great coconut/vanilla, so I googled the name and recipe.  I got the idea to make a skinny Pina Colada!  By using a cup of frozen pineapple bits from trader joes, 1 can of coconut water and 2 oz of coconut rum, it makes 2 servings.  Technically the rum should cost you 2 points per ounce and the rest is free, but for some reason when you put it in the recipe builder it bumps you up to 4.  Its your call on how you want to count it.

I basically spent the weekend singing "If you like Pina Coladas, blah blah blah in the rain"

It helped cheer me up, since my car just got recalled for the engine catching on fire!

Hmmm I guess I could have gone around singing "Great Balls of Fire"....