Day #11 Full steam ahead

Day #11 brought happiness this morning as I have been dieting for 4 days now. Yesterday was the first official day of following the food protocol and this morning my scale greeted me with a number that was 4.5 pounds less than on Saturday! Can you say motivation???!!!!

Now here are the deets: I did feel hungry yesterday. I feel less hungry today, and hopefully that will go away. My skin is starting to break out which is said to clear up around the 2nd week. Thank God! Today I have realized that I am a psychological eater. Somehow the need to snack all day long is very high for me. It is not true hunger.

But 4.5 pounds lost in 4 days is incredible. Hopefully when I get into a more comfortable weight range, I will feel confident posting some before and after pictures, as well as the daily weight reduction.

Anyway, on to THE LIST. Today is going to be very busy, so I will not have the time to address much on THE LIST. I was able to go purchase some knitting needles and yarn to get started on that this week. Unfortunately, I am only about 1/4 of the way through my book, and I am NOT a slow reader. I really need to step this up a bit, but when you have a 4 year old at home, a PTA meeting, school pickup, Kung Fu, cleaning out the car for tomorrow's field trip, and cooking dinner, that doesn't really leave much free time for reading or learning to knit today. But I have to blog anyway, due to #19.

By this evening, I could mark off #11, for one day, tell everyone like it is. I have definitely been telling my kids the sad truth, and while in a meeting today, I said some things that were true, but that people may not have wanted to hear. Sorry.

Let me just say that now knowing the basic stitches, I have realized that I don't have the patience for knitting. Most people say that it is calming and relaxing but it just made my fingers and neck hurt. So my goal was to learn to make something....and I made something....a bookmark. LOL!!! Don't think knitting is for me. Mark off #24, learn basic knitting and make something. Here is my poor excuse for a bookmark!!!!

Day #10. Progress....

First day of my new diet with my friend. Since it is pretty obvious that what I was doing is not working at all, I jumped the bandwagon with Brandyn and officially started this diet. No, this is not a new way of life. This is a diet. To be honest, I just need the weight off. I don't really care how it comes off, it just needs to go away.

So far, so good. I ate Special K and skim milk for breakfast, and I made a chicken stir fry with fruit for lunch. Dinner will be steak, zucchini and squash, and fruit salad. My goal is to continue this for 6 weeks at least. This is it!

Addressing the list has been a very interesting experience for me. The surprising thing that I found out about myself, is that even though things are pretty busy, I really do want to learn more about a million different things. Hopefully I can continue to work on things and experience more in the months to come.

Today I worked on a little project. Caleb has a couple trophies and some medals that he won in various activities. Instead of just hanging his medals on his corkboard, I wanted to make them more artistic. Here is what I came up with...completely FREE



The two frames were gifted to me two Christmases ago. Had not found anything to do with them yet so they were sitting in a drawer just waiting for my inspiration. The matting is cardstock I have had forever, and then I kept the medal in place with double stick tape. Gives those medals just a little extra personality, I think.

LIST WATCH: I began reading today. Hopefully by tomorrow, this book will be complete. As a child, I read all the time, but now, I am lucky to read a food label.

Day #9...warm, yummy goodness...

Oh Sunday, you take forever to get here and then breeze by so quickly. It has rained all day today, and while I could have killed two birds with one stone on my list today, I just really didn't feel like playing in the rain today. Laziness took over and the kids and Josh played games while I napped on the couch. Oh beautiful slumber, you are elusive. I miss you and love when we can spend time together in bliss.

Opportunity arose to bake some bread this afternoon. Now rather than make a typical yeast bread, which I definitely want to make soon, I decided upon a delicious looking Chocolate Banana Bread. Since everyone in this house eats banana bread, it seemed like the obvious choice. However, tomorrow I will be beginning a diet with my friend, Brandyn, and banana bread shall not be on the menu.

Mark off #14, bake bread from scratch.

Day #8 Watch out she's packing heat!

Mark off #21, fire a gun. I was scared to death, but Josh took me out to his parents house before the anniversary party for a quick tutorial. They live out in the country and have a good sized pond that we shot at. The first gun I shot was the Desert Eagle. Now we couldn't I have started out with something easier like a small pistol or a .22? I pulled the trigger and squeeled like a little girl. Then I realized that I didn't have earmuffs on, so Josh's dad gave me a pair of his. Then came the big gun...an AR-15 Assault Rifle. This is one I didn't want to shoot, but Josh convinced me that contrary to it's size, this one would be easier to shoot than the Desert Eagle. That one I shot three times, and was done. No need to shoot any more guns, unless I can get a purple handgun that I can put rhinestones on, then I am in.

The grandparents' anniversary party was a success and we all ate way too much yummy food. There is something about having a party that make you feel like eating a small boatload of food. Here are some pictures of the family celebrating Buddy and Bernice Simmons 60th Anniversary

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Day #7.....hopes and trees

Day #7 begins with marking off #17 on THE LIST, writing a letter to my future self. In this letter, I just wanted to be basic and not overly philosophical. There are TONS of things that I would love to have done in the next 15 years. Essentially, it would be very similar to THE LIST, however the items would be bigger, better, more elaborate, etc. But this is not the time to write these down in a letter to myself. Let's just get down to the nitty gritty, shall we?

April 16, 2010

Dear Amber in 2025,

Wow! As of today, you are 29 years old and hopefully not in the prime of your life. I know how scared you are, not of the age, but what it represents. The truth is, I hope you look back at today and say, "That was the best time!" I hope that you are incredibly happy in your life right now.

Here is what is going on as of today: Caleb and Jansen are 7 and almost 5. Josh is working at Dow, and you are a stay-at-home mom that is involved in the kids' schools. Caleb is in the 1st grade, made the reading team, plays soccer, loves Monster Jam and any Mario video game, and is learning more every day. Jansen will be in kindergarten in the fall, has a majorly stubborn attitude, does Kung Fu, and is learning how to read and write. It has been your dream to stay at home with the boys and I am so happy that even if you only did it for a year, at least you did it.

So, you are 45, Josh is 47, Caleb is 22 and Jansen is 20. My hope from 2010 is that the boys are either in college or have graduated college and are happy and healthy. I am so excited to see how they turn out and to see what happens with Caleb. Are the boys friends? Do they live at home? (I hope for their sake they don't.) Do they know what they want out of life? Have they found love? These are all interesting questions that I am dying to have answered.

Where are you now? Are you finally thin? Are you involved with something meaningful? Do you still live in the same house? Are you traveling? Have you finally been to Europe?

Without getting to deep and philosophical, I just want to say that I hope you are in a wonderful stage in your life. I hope that you are making time for yourself with the kids gone. I hope your relationships are full and rewarding. And I hope that life is not marching all over your face.

Love,
29 year-old Amber

Mark off #17

In addition, mark off #7, plant a tree. We are now the proud owners of a Silver Maple, planted in the front yard. My dad is currently nurturing some tree sprouts for us at his house and we have picked out spots for those in our backyard. I am very happy to have some new trees and can't wait to watch them grow. It is so satisfying to look at something so small, that you planted, and watch it grow into maturity. With that in mind, here are my little trees with our new tree..

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Day #6....baking, caking, and coloring

Today I started baking the cake for Josh's grandparents' anniversary party. I have the biggest respect for those cake bakers and decorators out there, as this is very time consuming and artistic. Absolutely could never do this for a living!!! For the most part, I spent the day in the kitchen, baking and organizing. About half way through, I noticed that a pack of couplers I bought about 2 weeks ago were missing. UGH! It always annoys me when I am in the middle of something and have found the groove and everything comes to a halt. So a trip to Hobby Lobby was then called for.

Good thing that happened though, because I totally forgot about a check that had been sitting in my car for a week, just begging to be deposited. Thank goodness that I finished it, and it is pretty good for my first time at something like this. I found some major mistakes and figured out how to do things differently. Here are the pics, because I LOVE pics...

Being cooped up in the kitchen all day makes me start to itch and gives me a tic, so I stopped to address THE LIST. Today was the day to color my hair. Jansen had tried to help all day in the kitchen and was begging to help with this. Absolutely not. Honestly, I would prefer that he be playing with his monster trucks as opposed to joining me in domesticity. Not that teaching children to be clean and self-sufficient in the kitchen is a bad thing, but I think that in combination with coloring Mom's hair crosses the line. But I colored my own hair. Mark off #22...Pictures for proof of the before and after...(Please ignore the lack of makeup and flat iron).

Oh and this post was written on Thursday and then I fell asleep on the couch and didn't post it until Friday. So Friday will get two posts. Lucky Friday.

Day #5...and the beat goes on...

Today began with a Caleb meltdown, and when he is out of sorts, I am out of sorts. But I glanced at my list and chose some things to tackle today. Of course, no sodas, only crisp, clean water for me today.



This morning was the perfect time to hit the grocery store to stock up on our family needs, as well as the final ingredients for my husband's grandparents' 60th anniversary cake that I will be making for the weekend. Pictures to be posted later. While I was at HEB (which I loathe because of the layout and the country music blaring through the speakers), I decided to pick up the last few things I needed for addressing numbers 14 and 20 on THE LIST. From here on out, just know that when I say THE LIST, I mean the 30 things I want to do in the 30 days before I turn 30. Whew, now that that is out of the way...



My friend, Faith, sent me a recipe for Roasted Brussel Sprouts with Bacon, and well...you know my motto (Everything is better with bacon!). It looked delicious on paper so it should be delicious in real life, right? So I came home and began to cook. About 15 minutes into the cooking time in the oven, I smelled sauerkraut. Ew. I do not like sauerkraut. I do not like it, Sam I am. Persevere Amber! This may be fantastic. Don't discount perfectly healthy vegetables on smell alone.



Well here it is...



And you know what my 2nd motto is...everything is better with Ranch! Ohmygoodness! It is actually much better than it smells. Nice buttery flavor and a really creamy texture. Maybe I won't use the Ranch at all...well, let's not get hasty. I LOVE brussel sprouts! Mark #20 off THE LIST!



By the way, I have chosen a shade of red in order to accomplish #22, coloring my own hair. I hope it turns out a little darker than the box, because I am hoping to shift to something darker. This will be the project for tomorrow. Come to think of it, I should wait to color my hair on Monday (after the party). Nope, I am feeling adventurous. Que sera, sera!