It's finally the end of January and the end of my first monthly challenge of the year. My goal was to go a whole month without pop or candy, two of my biggest weaknesses. I am happy to announce that I made it successfully, with both of them.
Although at the beginning of the month I found myself reaching for other sweet foods (cookies, etc) to replace my lack of candy, I'd say I did better towards the end of the month where that need to reach for something sweet diminished. That does not mean, however, that I'm not craving candy like a mad woman. I did a lot better with drinking more water, but then also switched to flavored water, which I'm not sure is any better than the sugar (or fake sugar) in pop (or diet pop).
I think what I did get out of the whole challenge this month was that I need to be more mindful of the mindless eating and drinking I do. It was very easy to grab a handful of candy, only to go back and grab another handful a couple minutes later after not realizing how fast I ate the first handful. Usually that grazing happened as I watched tv, read, or any other activity. I'm not so quick to just grab other types of food to eat mindlessly on the couch, so this really helped me learn that I don't need those foods for that reason. Also it wasn't a surprise to see me walk into work with a large $1 pop from McDonalds every so often, only to realize at the end of the day that I only drank that, and no water. This helped me better track my water intake and realize how much or how little I was really drinking every day.
Is this something I plan to continue? Hate to say it, but probably not. I'm not going to lie, I have a 2-liter of Diet Wild Cherry Pepsi waiting for me and I won't be surprised if the candy that has been sitting in my desk drawer at work will finally be eaten tomorrow...BUT I do plan to be much more conscientious of the amount of candy and pop I consume from here on out. And, if I notice that I'm consuming too much of either again, maybe I'll put limits on myself instead of just eating/drinking it whenever I want.
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Some relief..
After a weeks worth of studying for my test I took yesterday and getting my 2nd quarter grades done for my students at school, I finally have some time to blog again. It's not that the work for this math class is too terribly hard, there is just a lot to memorize and 9 sections worth of work to remember how to do. Ugh, I am already not looking forward to the next test in a few weeks, although I think the first test of any class is the hardest because you just don't know what to expect.
Anyways, we haven't been up to a whole lot here, aside from trying to figure out all this weather - the bitter cold last week, the snow we got over the weekend, and then the ice, warmer temperatures, ridiculous amounts of rain, and floods we have been having the past few days. All I know is I look forward to the day that the temperatures increase without the threat of snow the next day. I know we have the possibility of snow for the next 3 months, but I'm done with all this crazy weather!
Last weekend while we were downstairs, I was doing some scrapbooking and realized it was a bit too quiet on the other side of the basement. Much to my surprise, this is what I found when I went to see what was going on. The boys definitely like climbing on things, but are usually pretty good with using their stools to sit at this table to do their puzzles.
I guess their stools are more fun to use as push toys when the put them upside down, instead of sitting on them like they should be!
The boys have always been drawn to music and for the longest time they loved watching a YouTube video of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight", but now they are into One Direction and the song "More Than This". I know, a little scary that my boys are into a boy band, but what can you do?
And while Logan watches intently at the video, Ellis acts like a madman jumping and bouncing around dancing!
The next day I actually got a little video of him dancing:
Ellis does most of the jumping and grunting, but Logan has his little moves too!
Lately their nighttime snack is either some fruit or a handful of popcorn. One night we had some popcorn, and apparently what I gave Ellis wasn't enough. So after he ate what Logan didn't finish, he found the bag I left out, opened it, and put more handfuls in his bowl, and actually ended up eating all of that too! They definitely go through their spells of either being really hungry some days or barely eating other days. It's just the age, I suppose.
On the baby news front (no, not us!), we were happy to find out that all of our pregnant friends are having boys! How awesome to get all of them together in a few years when we have get-togethers! Also a close friend of Troy's is having twins (well, his friend's wife) and is actually in the hospital to deliver as we speak so hopefully she has a quick labor and will have her two cutie pies tonight or tomorrow!
Aside from that, nothing really going on. This weekend we don't have much planned except for watching the Super Bowl with the Chandler's, but that's about it. I don't mind having a relaxing weekend after doing nothing but studying last weekend.
Hopefully I'll blog again soon, but cut me some slack if I don't update as soon as you'd hope. I'm one busy mama over here!
Anyways, we haven't been up to a whole lot here, aside from trying to figure out all this weather - the bitter cold last week, the snow we got over the weekend, and then the ice, warmer temperatures, ridiculous amounts of rain, and floods we have been having the past few days. All I know is I look forward to the day that the temperatures increase without the threat of snow the next day. I know we have the possibility of snow for the next 3 months, but I'm done with all this crazy weather!
Last weekend while we were downstairs, I was doing some scrapbooking and realized it was a bit too quiet on the other side of the basement. Much to my surprise, this is what I found when I went to see what was going on. The boys definitely like climbing on things, but are usually pretty good with using their stools to sit at this table to do their puzzles.
I guess their stools are more fun to use as push toys when the put them upside down, instead of sitting on them like they should be!
The boys have always been drawn to music and for the longest time they loved watching a YouTube video of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight", but now they are into One Direction and the song "More Than This". I know, a little scary that my boys are into a boy band, but what can you do?
And while Logan watches intently at the video, Ellis acts like a madman jumping and bouncing around dancing!
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| This picture just cracks me up. It looks like Ellis is just singing away and busting some moves! |
The next day I actually got a little video of him dancing:
Ellis does most of the jumping and grunting, but Logan has his little moves too!
Lately their nighttime snack is either some fruit or a handful of popcorn. One night we had some popcorn, and apparently what I gave Ellis wasn't enough. So after he ate what Logan didn't finish, he found the bag I left out, opened it, and put more handfuls in his bowl, and actually ended up eating all of that too! They definitely go through their spells of either being really hungry some days or barely eating other days. It's just the age, I suppose.
On the baby news front (no, not us!), we were happy to find out that all of our pregnant friends are having boys! How awesome to get all of them together in a few years when we have get-togethers! Also a close friend of Troy's is having twins (well, his friend's wife) and is actually in the hospital to deliver as we speak so hopefully she has a quick labor and will have her two cutie pies tonight or tomorrow!
Aside from that, nothing really going on. This weekend we don't have much planned except for watching the Super Bowl with the Chandler's, but that's about it. I don't mind having a relaxing weekend after doing nothing but studying last weekend.
Hopefully I'll blog again soon, but cut me some slack if I don't update as soon as you'd hope. I'm one busy mama over here!
Friday, January 18, 2013
I'm still here!
I know, I know, I've been horrible at updating the blog. After a 2+ week unplanned hiatus, I'm back.
To be honest, the main reason for my lack of blogging is a lack of anything to blog about. I'm back to work after a very nice 2 week Christmas/New Years break, and also back in class for another semester.
The boys have been doing awesome. Sometimes they just totally crack me up at the things they do. I was changing Logan's diaper the other day before bed but I was in the basement, so instead of putting his pants back on, I just kept them off since I'd put his pajamas on him once we went upstairs. Well, Ellis thought it was hilarious to go up to Logan, tap him on the diaper and run away - like he was playing tag with him - and Logan thought it was funny too.
Another night, we put the boys to bed in fleece pants and a thermal shirt instead of their normal all-in-one footed pajamas and when I went to wake them up in the morning, this is what I found:
It's crazy to know he did this in the middle of the night considering when I checked on them before bed at 10:30, he was fully clothed (and by the way, the diaper is around his knees and his pants are in the opposite corner of the crib). So needless to say, before we left for the day, a load of laundry went in the washer.
Last week we enjoyed the unseasonably warm weather and even went on a wagon ride. The boys just love their wagon.
Other pictures to share:
The boys aren't much into coloring with crayons, but recently I had out some of my colored pencils that I used for card making and they just went to town scribbling with them. I feel like when they tried using crayons, they didn't see as much color on the paper and lost interest, where as colored pencils need little pressure to get more color to show up. So, last weekend we did quite a bit of "coloring" too.
And in case you were wondering how I've been doing with my January Challenges, I'm doing well with both of them. I haven't had any pop nor have I had any candy. The pop part was much harder at the beginning, but lately the desire to have candy has been entering my head more often (especially with an open bag of candy in my drawer at school). I text Troy one day saying it was killing me not to eat the candy in my drawer, secretly thinking he might say "then just go ahead and have one", but nope. His response was "it will eat away at your conscious if you have one - you'll be mad at yourself". Yeah, he's right. Plus, anyone who knows me, knows I wouldn't have had just one! =) It's been hard, but I'm over half the month through it, so I think it will be smooth sailing from now until the 31st!
So, that's it for us. It's time for me to go pack up to scrapbook tomorrow. Have a great weekend and stay warm!
To be honest, the main reason for my lack of blogging is a lack of anything to blog about. I'm back to work after a very nice 2 week Christmas/New Years break, and also back in class for another semester.
The boys have been doing awesome. Sometimes they just totally crack me up at the things they do. I was changing Logan's diaper the other day before bed but I was in the basement, so instead of putting his pants back on, I just kept them off since I'd put his pajamas on him once we went upstairs. Well, Ellis thought it was hilarious to go up to Logan, tap him on the diaper and run away - like he was playing tag with him - and Logan thought it was funny too.
Another night, we put the boys to bed in fleece pants and a thermal shirt instead of their normal all-in-one footed pajamas and when I went to wake them up in the morning, this is what I found:
It's crazy to know he did this in the middle of the night considering when I checked on them before bed at 10:30, he was fully clothed (and by the way, the diaper is around his knees and his pants are in the opposite corner of the crib). So needless to say, before we left for the day, a load of laundry went in the washer.
Last week we enjoyed the unseasonably warm weather and even went on a wagon ride. The boys just love their wagon.
Other pictures to share:
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| Ellis loves helping me with the laundry. |
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| Apparently climbing on a stack of pillows and rolling off is a fun new game too. |
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| Logan drawing on their new MagnaDoodle Easel that they got from Uncle Sky for Christmas. |
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| And Ellis loves it too! |
Like I said, nothing much going on - unfortunately not many pictures being taken, so I will try to do better in the coming weeks and post a little more frequently.
In slightly unrelated news, I want to congratulate one of my close friends (you know who you are!) who got to bring her little boy home from the NICU earlier this week. He's a strong little boy and grew fairly quickly for how early he was. I can't wait to see the cutie pie in person and hear all about your adventures as a family of 4. It also looks like this is the year of boys being born! 3 of my friends are pregnant and due within a month of each other and 2 of them so far appear to be having boys (1 of them isn't 100% certain due to having an early ultrasound) and 1 finds out next week. Gosh, can you imagine the extreme fun we will be having in a few years when the boys all hang out to play?!?!? I can hardly wait!!
And in case you were wondering how I've been doing with my January Challenges, I'm doing well with both of them. I haven't had any pop nor have I had any candy. The pop part was much harder at the beginning, but lately the desire to have candy has been entering my head more often (especially with an open bag of candy in my drawer at school). I text Troy one day saying it was killing me not to eat the candy in my drawer, secretly thinking he might say "then just go ahead and have one", but nope. His response was "it will eat away at your conscious if you have one - you'll be mad at yourself". Yeah, he's right. Plus, anyone who knows me, knows I wouldn't have had just one! =) It's been hard, but I'm over half the month through it, so I think it will be smooth sailing from now until the 31st!
So, that's it for us. It's time for me to go pack up to scrapbook tomorrow. Have a great weekend and stay warm!
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Monthly Challenge - January
As I mentioned in my last post, I am not creating "resolutions" for myself this year, but instead monthly challenges. Things that will help me be a better person. Since it takes a few weeks to make something routine, I think that a month is long enough to make a change that could better myself. I'm not saying I will stop the challenge right away when the month is over, but hopefully I can create new habits by committing to something for a month. And the reason I've decided to mention it on here is to inform those friends and family that I see often what I'm doing so that I don't get funny looks when I mention it in passing.
This month, I have 2 food/drink related challenges. This month, my challenge is to have NO pop or candy. For anyone who even somewhat knows me, this is going to be hard (especially because I have some candy in my desk drawer at work that I forgot to bring home with me before Christmas). I usually have my morning "coffee" (which is really pop in a coffee mug - but for some reason I get fewer weird looks than if I just had a can or bottle of pop at 7am!), and usually some other pop for dinner, with water in between. Or a huge ass $1 pop from McDonald's which lasts me the whole work day. Lately though, the water has been very minimal, which isn't good. I go in spurts with candy, but again, lately, I grab a handful here, or handful there, and before I know it - the entire bag of whatever it was is gone. Pam and I are known for making a candy run during our break at work to keep in our desk for the times we have a sweet tooth every once in a while. Sorry Pam, no gas station runs this month!!
So, we'll see how this goes. I'm not going to lie. It's only Day 2 and I'm totally craving some candy and I do have a slight headache (maybe caffeine withdrawl?!?), but I also think it has to do with the fact of being home during the day and not being completely busy with things to do. It's all about making better food and drink choices, though right? Hopefully this will help!
Anyone else have any sort of resolution they are working on this year?
This month, I have 2 food/drink related challenges. This month, my challenge is to have NO pop or candy. For anyone who even somewhat knows me, this is going to be hard (especially because I have some candy in my desk drawer at work that I forgot to bring home with me before Christmas). I usually have my morning "coffee" (which is really pop in a coffee mug - but for some reason I get fewer weird looks than if I just had a can or bottle of pop at 7am!), and usually some other pop for dinner, with water in between. Or a huge ass $1 pop from McDonald's which lasts me the whole work day. Lately though, the water has been very minimal, which isn't good. I go in spurts with candy, but again, lately, I grab a handful here, or handful there, and before I know it - the entire bag of whatever it was is gone. Pam and I are known for making a candy run during our break at work to keep in our desk for the times we have a sweet tooth every once in a while. Sorry Pam, no gas station runs this month!!
So, we'll see how this goes. I'm not going to lie. It's only Day 2 and I'm totally craving some candy and I do have a slight headache (maybe caffeine withdrawl?!?), but I also think it has to do with the fact of being home during the day and not being completely busy with things to do. It's all about making better food and drink choices, though right? Hopefully this will help!
Anyone else have any sort of resolution they are working on this year?
Happy 2013!
Did everyone have a great New Years? We did. Here is a little of what we've been up to the past few days:
Ellis has learned how to "sing" into the microphone that was part of the piano they got for Christmas.
For New Years Eve, we spent the evening with Kelly and her family and friends. It was great seeing her while she was home from Vegas for the week. The night started out with an awesome Prime Rib dinner with green beans, basked potato, and salad.
Dessert was your choice of the biggest ice cream bar (dipped in chocolate and nuts) ever or a cream puff. I opted for the cream puff. It was heavenly!
After lots of good eating, we thought we should head down to play some Xbox Kinect and work off some of our food! The guys started off with some golf, but then we played some of the other games, like river rafting, some sort of "fill the holes before it fills up with water" game, and some obstacle course thing where you had to duck and jump over things. It was hilarious! With a few beerita's in my system it was hard to stop laughing at times!
Of course around midnight we stopped to watch the ball drop, enjoy some champagne, and take a few pictures before leaving for the night.
A huge thank you to Nicole and Mark for watching the boys for the night. They had an awesome time and were good little boys, well, except for the sleeping thing. Unfortunately when Troy and I got back there around 1am, we were barely asleep before Logan started crying. It wasn't just the "where am I?" cry, this was a bit worse. After a while of trying to quiet him, I realized he might be getting his 2 year molars a little early. He kept sticking his hand in his mouth and pulling at his ear. We got him quiet, but he ended up sleeping with us, which meant very little sleep on a night we were already out late! Last night he woke up again with the same scream at about 10pm and was completely pissed when I gave him some orajel and tylenol, but once it kicked in, he was good to go and they both slept in until 8am! This momma was very happy about that!
While we were out, Bella had her first experience in the Petsmart Hotel. Troy got her a hotel suite for the night and she got to hang out with the other dogs at Doggie day camp during the day. She even got a little "Pawgress Report" when we picked her up.
That's our past few days. Now it's time to look ahead into 2013. Anyone with any New Year's Resolutions? I don't have any, but I have decided to do some monthly challenges. I know it is a little unrealistic to say "eat better" or "exercise more" or "spend less", etc. By week 2, you ask yourself, what resolution? Oh well, no one keeps them. So, I thought I would challenge myself to do (or not do) something for a whole month. I figure with an end in sight, it might make it a little easier to do. Then I can change it up and try something else. Stay tuned to January's monthly challenge.
Ellis has learned how to "sing" into the microphone that was part of the piano they got for Christmas.
For New Years Eve, we spent the evening with Kelly and her family and friends. It was great seeing her while she was home from Vegas for the week. The night started out with an awesome Prime Rib dinner with green beans, basked potato, and salad.
After lots of good eating, we thought we should head down to play some Xbox Kinect and work off some of our food! The guys started off with some golf, but then we played some of the other games, like river rafting, some sort of "fill the holes before it fills up with water" game, and some obstacle course thing where you had to duck and jump over things. It was hilarious! With a few beerita's in my system it was hard to stop laughing at times!
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| Kelly and her dad in the river raft |
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| Kelly and Chris in the obstacle course |
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| Kelly and I making sure our tank doesn't fill up with water. |
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| Wow, we look really serious.. |
A huge thank you to Nicole and Mark for watching the boys for the night. They had an awesome time and were good little boys, well, except for the sleeping thing. Unfortunately when Troy and I got back there around 1am, we were barely asleep before Logan started crying. It wasn't just the "where am I?" cry, this was a bit worse. After a while of trying to quiet him, I realized he might be getting his 2 year molars a little early. He kept sticking his hand in his mouth and pulling at his ear. We got him quiet, but he ended up sleeping with us, which meant very little sleep on a night we were already out late! Last night he woke up again with the same scream at about 10pm and was completely pissed when I gave him some orajel and tylenol, but once it kicked in, he was good to go and they both slept in until 8am! This momma was very happy about that!
While we were out, Bella had her first experience in the Petsmart Hotel. Troy got her a hotel suite for the night and she got to hang out with the other dogs at Doggie day camp during the day. She even got a little "Pawgress Report" when we picked her up.
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| Looks like she even partied it up on NYE! |
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