More weight loss ish

Today is day three. I wanted to give more tips and things that I am doing.

Working out should be fun... Right? I am completely unmotivated at times... Like most of the time. To help solve this little issue I grabbed a mason jar from Michaels, added some glitter, and made a deal with my husband.

Every time I do a work out (running, push ups and sit ups) I get a dollar in the jar. Every three pounds I lose I get three more dollars. It really seems simple and childish, but it will keep me motivated. Once I get to $100 in the jar, I get to go shopping and buy myself whatever I want. Plus, the hubby can't complain if it's only a dollar every time :)

Next is have a goal and a partner. My goal is to do The Color Run in Portland on September 29th in Portland. That gives me all summer to prepare with no school or work (I know, I'm a lucky girl) to distract me. My other is a weight loss goal. Both of those are important so I have something to work towards. Partners are important to keep you motivated and accountable. My sister Megan is going to do the 5k with me. My friend Amber walks with me two times a week. That leaves me at least three days on my own, but my husband keeps me accountable for those.

I think the plan might be the most important part of all this. Here is my plan-

For The Color Run I will keep the workout schedule to the right. It's simple enough but also pushes you quite well. Plus, it's made for training for your first 5k and The Color Run. I will do that at least three days a week, along with my other workout stuff, and then two days of walking with Amber.

For weight loss I bought a scale, obviously, and put a notebook and my money jar next to it. I weigh myself every day and write down the weight in the book. Plus, the working out will help with the weight loss. Simple right? It's a harsh reality sometimes when I look at e scale. It is so hard for me to cope with the weight gain. I was always so little and never ever had to worry about weight. Then one day I saw how much I had gained and just didn't know what to do. After about 6 months of being depressed about it I am finally taking control of it.

The hubby and I are starting to eat healthier- at least one fruit or vegetable every meal. Less snacking- which was never really a problem of mine. Today, I decided I am done with soda. This pains me to say, but I can't drink it while I am trying to lose weight. No skipping meals. No eating for the last three hours before bed. Lots of water.

All the things above are simple changes that will be easy to do and will make a difference. I really hope that anyone who feels the need to lose some weight or make changes in their life will start with me. It really does help to have people to talk to and motivate you. Let me know if you're joining me on this journey!!!!!

 

Posted with Blogsy

Hectic Week is OVER!!!!!

This week has been absolutely insane! Let me give you the weekly breakdown.

Monday was the hubby's surgery. He didn't get anything done that will help heal his shoulder, but now we know what is wrong. His doctor used a camera and inserted it in the front of his shoulder and then into the back of his shoulder. Basically, his humeral head is non-existent now. It can be from a few things, but most likely from not moving it. His body stopped sending blood to that part of the bone because it wasn't being used and the bone died and was absorbed. So his shoulder joint is just cartilage. Now, you may be asking, what is the course of treatment? Well, after my brief discussion with his doctor after the surgery he told me three options. Obviously the first is a joint replacement. He can also drill holes into the bone to get blood back into the humeral head and hopefully the bone will regrow. The last is a joint replacement, but using a donor humeral head from a cadaver. As of right now I have no clue which way this is going to go. We meet with his doctor on August 1st, so we will know then and hopefully begin scheduling his next surgeries.

An hour after we got home from the hospital with Richard I was at the vet. For some reason we may never know, Coco had a seizure. That was one of the scariest things I have ever experienced. My poor puppy was so scared. We ended up watching her over night and giving her muscle relaxers. The next day she was so much better. Hopefully that never happens again.

The rest of the week was uneventful compared to Monday, but let's just say I am glad it's over. Last night/this morning, the hubby and I went to see The Dark Night Rises. Three hours later, it was really good. I enjoyed it a lot, but I won't say too much because I hate when people ruin movies for me. Just go see it.

My heart thoroughly goes out to the families affected by the Dark Knight Rises shooting in Aurora, CO. It is so sad that someone could be so messed up that they begin a shooting at a movie premiere, seemingly at random. Everyone is in my prayers, including the shooter and his family. I hope that everyone can find peace at this time of tragedy.

So there you have it, a quick rundown of the important highlights from my week. :)

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

Happy Birthday To Me!

23. Man oh man.

Let me tell you about my epic birthday cake!

One box Devil's Food

One roll cookie dough

One quart ice cream

Fluffy vanilla frosting

Sprinkles

Delicious.

I baked the Devil's food according to the package. You'll need two layers, mine were 9".

While those are cooling, press the package of cookie dough into the cake pan. For mine, I baked it for about 15 minutes at 350 degrees. Pop that it of the pan onto a cooling rack.

Allow all layers to cool completely. Now, from my error, put the cookie layer on the bottom.... It's the heaviest and when it freezes the hardest to cut. So you have your cookie layer, then do a layer of ice cream. I used chocolate chip cookie dough. Then I did a layer of cake followed by ice cream and the last layer of cake. I covered it in fluffy white frosting and rainbow sprinkles.

It was epic deliciousness. Luckily it's birthday cake, so calories don't count :)

 

On another note, the day before my birthday is kind of sad. My aunt was born on July 12th. Sadly she passed away a few years ago and now her birthday is another one of those sad reminders. I miss her terribly. It was awesome having our birthdays so close. I remember one year She was complaining about getting old, so I went and bought her a huge, and I mean huge, cow balloon that said over the hill. She laughed so hard when I brought it to her. It was one of the greatest reactions ever. I still have the birthday card from that year too. I can remember it so clearly and I am pretty sure it is my last birthday with her.

Sorry this week has been very little posting. It's been a very busy birthday week! This weekend might be a little slow too... I'm going to be camping. Oh, fingers crossed and prayers for Richard on Monday, he goes in for surgery Monday morning.

Until next time.

Lovelovelove

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

DIY Mineral Veil

This one is really simple. While perusing Pinterest, I found this pin. Making your own mineral veil, who would have thought. I am one to spend a lot of money on makeup, but this is one place I will now save.

I will admit, this may be the easiest project you will ever do. One ingredient, that's it, just one. Cornstarch. I bought it at Fred Meyers for under $1.50.

Now let's do some price comparison down here.

This mineral veil costs $20. Look at its ingredients below... Notice what the first ingredients are? Oh yeah, it's about .3 ounces of product...

Ingredients

Zea Mays (Corn Starch), Corn Starch Modified, Zinc Stearate, Magnesium Stearate. May Contain: Iron Oxides (CI 77491, CI 77492, CI 77499)

Now my 12 ounces container of cornstarch cost less than $1.50. How do you even validate paying for the other one?

If you have an empty mineral veil container from the last time you bought it you can just reuse that. If not, just buy a container that you can find in the travel section or even use a small Tupperware.

If you want to add a slight color to the mineral veil, just add some of your powder that you already have. Otherwise, this will just leave a nice translucent cover on your face. It really helps to set your makeup and make everything smoother.

There you have it ladies (and gentlemen I guess) the easiest project you will ever do from Pinterest.

Since I missed last Monday I am going to do another Pinterest Interest tomorrow. :) I know, you all love me. Check back tomorrow!

 

 

Lovelovelove.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Crafting

I've been watching Craft Wars on demand today and it is quite interesting. I am super jealous of all the cool craft supplies that they get to use. It is the most epic craft supply room. I am so jealous of the crafters on this show. I wish I was good enough for it.

I need to find something to create today so that I can blog about it tomorrow. Any ideas?

Officially one week until my birthday! Woo hoo!

Lovelovelove.

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

Finally back home.

Hey everyone! Richard and I made it home safely last night. While I loved California, I am so glad to be back in Oregon. I am so sorry I didn't blog more during vacation, but we were busy and I had crappy Internet. So, now I am going to give you a quick run through of vacation :)

We got in EARLY Wednesday morning and took a shuttle to the Anaheim Hilton. We hung out there until we could check in. Then Richard wandered around with some people he knew and I took a book up to the pool.

Thursday, Friday, and Saturday were all basically the same. Richard went to Vidcon and I went to the pool and also did some shopping.

Sunday is when the fun began. We woke up early and went to Disneyland!!! We had so much fun (probably me more than him, but still).

That picture is from the downtown Disney Lego store. I absolutely love it. They had some other cool Lego statues, but this one was my favorite.

For my presents I got a super adorable Dumbo pillow pet and also an etch a sketch case for my iPad. It is ridiculously cool.

 

This picture is from the Toy Story Midway Mania ride. It is really fun. You sit in a car and it is 3d carnival games, plus you compete with the person you are with. Richard beat me by a lot, but it was still fun.

We got to go to Disneyland the week after the new Cars land opened. They did an amazing job on it. This picture is from the Radiator Springs Racers. When you go there, you feel liked you walked straight into the movie.

We waited in line for 30 minutes for a fast pass for this. It was worth it. When it was time for us to use our fast pass the regular line was at about a 3 hour wait. Normally for a two minute ride I would say that is ridiculous, well even for this it was ridiculous, but the ride was really cool.

They even had princess Merida!

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love Goofy. This was one of his singing shows at California Adventure.

We spent one afternoon at Venice beach walking along the boardwalk. It was kind of fun. We got some ice cream, watched the skateboarders at the skate park, and saw some crazy muscular men at Muscle Beach.

 

We also did our In-N-Out meal that same day. For anyone who hasn't been there, you need to go! It is really good and really fresh. I just wish we could have them in Oregon.

When we did our afternoon at Santa Monica we ate at Bubba Gump Shrimp Company on the pier. Oh Lordy, this was the best fish and chips I have ever had. Completely serious about that too. Richard and I split a meal and completely inhaled it. So, if you are ever near one of these, eat there.

 

Here is my first Pinkberry. It was good I'll admit, but it was just frozen yogurt. I went so that I could say I had been. And honestly, just look at that deliciousness. They do a very nice presentation there. We also ate at Yogurtland, which we have one of in Oregon. It was also good, but again, just frozen yogurt.

 

This is one of my favorite pictures of the whole trip. We were getting ready to land in Portland and Richard was looking out the window. We had a really pretty sunset as we were coming in to land. I really love flying at this time of day.

Richard and I had a really great trip and had so much fun. It was a great way to start off summer vacation. I cannot wait for all the cool things we have coming up this summer. Next up is my birthday and then Richards surgery.

Today it has been exactly one year since we met. Crazy. Some say we got married too soon, but he is my best friend and I love him to death. I can't wait for all that our life together will bring us. I hope you all will continue to follow my blog and stick around for the ride.

Next up is my birthday and then Richards surgery. Hopefully we will be doing something super cool for my birthday. And fingers crossed that his surgery goes well!


 

Lovelovelove.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Just a few more hours...

Until the hubby and I leave for Anaheim... :) And just look at this weather! I am so excited. (sorry dad, no rain or tsunamis)...

My post tonight won't be too much, I am actually thinking if going to sleep soon because we are leaving at 4:30 for the airport. Tomorrow might be a little better, but I'm feeling another early night from the long travel day. I'll decide how I feel then.

Anyways, I hope everyone has a wonderful Tuesday evening and I will post more tomorrow!

Lovelovelove.

 

Mother's Day :)

For Mother's Day lunch I was in charge of desert.... It is my favorite :) So I logged onto my Pinterest to find something delicious. It was way too easy.

 

This was my original inspiration, which can be seen on my Desert Board. But, my sister Megan and I wanted to make it our own. So we did.

Our bottom layer was a mixture of crushed up Oreos, Oreo cream, and a little butter to hold it together.. We are still working out a way to perfect this, so any ideas would be awesome. I think I had more fun taking the cream off of the Oreos so that I could mush up the Oreos easier. For real, it was a lot of fun.

Anyways, back to the cooking. Mush up the Oreos so that they are as fine as possible. I recommend doing this in a plastic bag and using a rolling pin... Or letting a little kid step on it a few times :) Once the Oreos are crushed, pour them into your pie pan. Next, in a small bowl throw all your Oreo cream and about 2tbs butter then place it into the microwave to melt it. Mix this into the Oreo crumbs until everything is covered well. Press this into the pan well and bake in a 300* oven for about 8-10 minutes to help it set.

Next is making some mousse. I decided to use a White Chocolate Jello mix for this. A small box of the mix will work just fine. Mix that with 1-1/2 cups heavy whipping cream. Whisk it until it is nice and thick. Now is putting together the pie.

So here we have the Oreo layer... On top of that I put a layer of strawberries. After the strawberry layer was the mousse layer. Then, after the mousse layer I put another layer of strawberries.... Finally, I topped the pie off with some melted Hershey kisses and semi-sweet chips. We put this in the fridge to set for about an hour while we ate dinner and so that the chocolate could harden up.

While we were kind of worried that this pie was not going to turn out, it was delicious. I know there are stil. Some kinks to work out, but I will definitely be making this again and again... And really, who doesn't love strawberries and chocolate?

That's all I've got for cooking originality... I also made some lemon cookies which you can find in my desert board and they were outstanding.

All in all, this weekend was awesome. Here are some of my favorite pictures from it.

Lexie cuddling with uncle Richard and Coco.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lexie showing Avery how big kids play with the toy piano... He loves his big sister.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Subscribe on YouTube!

Follow me on Twitter!

 

Mother's Day Crafting with Lexie

Hey everyone. Yesterday was a huge day for the hubby and I. We got a new car :) a 2007 Nissan Altima. It is gorgeous. After that he had a VA appointment so we were out in Hillsboro. We decided to go out to my sister Megan's house so I could do some crafts with the kids and have a little BBQ.... We are having great weather for that finally! Below is a quick tutorial for the crafts Lexie and I did, plus a video tutorial because I didn't get a lot of pictures.

First project is painted candles. For this you will need:

A pillar candle

Wax or parchment paper

Hair dryer

White tissue paper

Acrylic paint

And a cute little kid, like Lexie... Obviously this one is optional because an adult could do this as well.

Begin by laying out some parchment paper, this craft can get a wee bit messy. Then, cut a piece of tissue paper slightly smaller than your candle. This will be your painting surface. I gave Lexie about four colors to choose from and let her paint however she wanted. Now, Lex is two so her painting wasn't more than dots really. Anyways, I let her paint and after she was done I added some finishing touches. You'll see those below in the finished picture.

Once your kiddo is done painting, and you've added your finishing touches, wrap the tissue paper around the candle, paint side out. This part is a little tricky since you don't want to smear the paint, so just be patient and take your time.

Next, wrap the parchment paper around your candle and tissue paper. This will be a handle for you to hold onto while you use the blow dryer. Now you should find a comfy spot next to a outlet and plug in your dryer. Sit down, hold onto the parchment paper, turn the dryer on high, and start blowing the candle. Soon, you will start to see the tissue paper disappear and the colors become brighter, and don't worry, you can take the parchment paper off while drying too and check. Basically, your candle should feel like wax again and not tissue paper. Below you can see the finished products, one for mom and one for grandma.

Another cute project we did was footprint animals. These are a cute way to remember feet at different ages, and makes a great gift from little babies like Avery. You can see ours below.

I love the way all these projects turned out :) I hope you all enjoy doing some Mother's day crafting and I know all the mom's out there will love these crafts.

 

Enjoy the crafting :)

 

Pinterest Interest

Pinterest constantly takes over my life. Here are my latest Pinterest loves.

Let me warn you before you make these.... They are HIGHLY addictive. Peanut butter chocolate chip shortbread cookies. We loved them, honestly it was more like obsessed. These are melt in your mouth deliciousness.

If anyone knows me, this little quote may be the most true thing ever.

I just love everything about this onsie. It's fairly cheap, $13, but could easily be reproduced. Maybe this will be a tutorial soon.. I think baby Avery needs one :)

I love these little sock monkeys. Seriously, they are so cute. Every baby born in my family from here on out will be getting a sock monkey. Totally fun and cute. I'll be doing my tutorial on this soon with a video.

For some reason, I love this whole room. Every single thing about it is amazing. I need to find some time to do interior decorating.

 

 

These little shells are delicious. It's like hamburger helper on crack. Taco seasoned ground beef, taco sauce, salsa, shells, and cheese... Lots of cheese. Let's just say these are keepers.

 

 

 

 

So there you have it, my addiction to Pinterest :)

Follow me on Twitter.

As always, follow me on YouTube and help me get a new camera :)