Well, well, well...and some pictures!

Here I sit. I have so much I WANT to write about, but not enough time (at least I don't think). So I'll start and see where I end up...

Found out last week that I do NOT have to have surgery on my ankle. Doctor wants me to do some physical therapy and wean off the boot. I haven't worn the boot much the last 2 days just b/c it's so cumbersome and slows me down so much. But boy could I tell it this morning! I felt like one wrong turn and my ankle would just split in half. So, I start physical therapy on Thursday and should only have to do it for a few weeks. I'm hopeful I can go back to working out soon.

I really MISS working out. My eating has been crap b/c I feel like if I can't exercise, then why eat right. I know that is a horrible mind set but it's the truth. When I would work out, I always felt like I had to eat right b/c I was working out and fueling my body for those work outs. It's a vicious cycle these mind games we play with ourselves.

DS2 was been sick since Thursday. I had him at the pedi on Thursday afternoon where she gave him a shot for croup. Saturday night we were in the urgent care and they treated him for pneumonia--gave him a shot of antibiotic (he HATES oral medications) and started him on breathing treatments. Chest x-ray came back negative but they told me to go ahead and keep treating him.

Have you started your Christmas shopping yet? I have! DS2 is pretty much done minus his stocking stuffers and clothes. My neice and nephew are done and DS1 is started and I just have a few more things to get him. Now...to tackle everyone else on my list. Every year my list seems to grow but my budget doesn't. :)

So here are some fairly recent pictures of the boys and me.

This is DS2 on Halloween--he was a spider. Cutest spider EVER!!! But I may be a bit biased.

This is the boys and me and the dog (Sophie). DS1 was Transformer BumbleBee and Sophie was dressed up like a pumpkin. :)

This is DS1 on his first day of kindergarten--back in August. He hasn't changed much other than maybe gotten taller.

So there you have it...an update of sorts. I'm still here, still fat, and still non mobile. Fun times in Amanda-land! :)

Down...maybe out???

And I don't mean down as in losing weight down...

Two weeks ago (10/14 to be exact), I was walking DS1 out to the bus and my right ankle just rolled out from under me. I never fell per se, but I knew I had hurt it. Couldn't put any weight on it AT ALL. Went to the doctor the next day for an x-ray b/c I was for sure it was broke. It wasn't. So he tells me to rest (yeah right! I have 2 kids how can I rest?!?!) and take ibuprofen. So I start popping the motrin and the pain is hidden very well. Fast forward to 10/21 (my birthday). Doc's office calls back they need to speak to me ASAP about my ankle. I wasn't home and doc was getting ready to leave the office until this past Monday. I called back on Friday to see if the nurse would tell me anything...she couldn't/wouldn't. I knew then that it couldn't be good news. My foot/ankle had started to feel better but then it had started getting worse again. Doc calls me on Monday and thinks I may have a break somewhere and/or tendon/ligament damage, he sends me to a specialist ASAP. The NEXT DAY, I see the specialist. He orders an MRI and thinks I have tendon/ligament damage. He gives me a walking boot, tells me to wear it any time I am weight bearing and also gives me a compression sock to wear at all times as well to help w/ the swelling. The MRI is this coming Monday (11/2) and I have my follow up appointment w/ him next Thursday to make a definitive diagnosis and plan.

So...needless to say my workouts are now non-existent. I am so bummed. I may be looking at surgery...and if I need it, I'm not having it until January. I will NOT be laid up during the holidays. I don't care, I won't do it! I will NOT miss this time with my boys. And we're talking 8-10 weeks of recovery after surgery OR 8-10 weeks of physical therapy (if I don't need surgery). I had all these plans to do a half marathon in May. There's no way I can do that now if I can't even begin to think about working out for that until March! I'm so disappointed and discouraged.

So, I'm thinking about going to a Core lifestyle for eating (thank you Colette!) and doing a lot of pilates to strengthen my core and upper body. I love my legs and they've always been strong (or so I thought) so hopefully they will bounce back from this quickly. I don't know how to swim correctly and I don't have anywhere to go (FREE!) that I can use a pool in the winter. My diet is going to have to be PERFECT if I want to lose any weight. :( And we all know how hard that is!

So that's my update. My week has sucked eating wise, but I am going to try super duper hard this coming week. DH has put a monetary incentive out for us. Whoever loses the most per month (based on a percentage), will get an extra $50 of spending money in their budget for the month. WOO HOO!!!

Have a great weekend and HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Maybe I'll post some pics of the boys in their costumes...if I can get DS2 to wear his. He threw a FIT to even try it on!

It's been a while...

I can't believe how long it's been since I blogged...WOW!!! A lot has happened but I'll post the major stuff...

DS1 started kindergarten in August and LOVES it. He just got his first report card last week and is doing so well. He's gotten a 'green light' every day which has shocked us!

DS2 is now 18 months old...and he is MEAN! LOL!!! But he is so stinkin cute and sweet. We absolutely adore him and he is his mamma's boy.

I'm still playing with 5# that I gained over the summer. I want to lose 10# by Christmas and I was doing really well in the work out department....but then I suffered a severe sprain on 10/14 to my ankle/foot. Actually, the doctor called me back last week and left a message that he needs to talk to me about the results of my x-ray. Well, of course they called on Wednesday (my birthday) and left the message but that the doc would be out until Monday. So, now I wait until tomorrow to find out if it's really broken or if it's a torn tendon or what. I am so bummed!!! I called the office on Friday to see if the nurse would tell me what was going on but she told be that the doctor himself wanted to talk to me...that can't be good!

I had a birthday last week--the big 3-1!

DH and I had an anniversary in June--9 years!

We started Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover in May and are now credit card debt free for the first time in our marriage AND all of our vehicles are paid for (we have 3). I am not sure on the total amount of money that we have paid off but it's been AWESOME for us and our marriage. We live on a budget now (never did before) and we don't argue at all over money. WOO HOO!!!

We are debating baby #3. DH is all on board but I am not. I really like the age Zac is now and I really, really, really hate the baby stage. I hate feeling tied to the house and I did until Zac quit nursing. I loved breastfeeding him but I hated feeling like there was so much I couldn't do. I never got a moment alone...and now I do. Tonight, both boys played outside together for well over an hour...if that's what next summer is going to be like, I'm all for having some time to myself again! I know that sounds selfish but between working full time, being the primary care giver, and running the household--this girl gets worn out! I think we will wait at least another year to make any major decisions.

That's all I can think of for now. I'm going to try to get back to blogging...but I'm addicted to facebook! I'm always on there...sometimes just wanting people to post something that I can read--LOL!!! I'll try to get some pictures of the boys on here soon...they are growing like weeds and eating us out of house and home!

I survived!

I did it. Almost 3 days alone with my boys. WHEW!!!

Did I mention I was also taking care of my neighbors animals while they were on spring break? So on Friday and Saturday, I had the 2 boys, 3 dogs (1 which was mine), a cat and a turtle to take care of. Oh and the neighbors dogs were sick while they were gone so I was scrubbing poo out of their carpet too at least once a day Tuesday until Friday. Yeah, fun times.

Can you say EXHAUSTED?!?! Oh yeah, that was me. I decided Saturday that I wanted to go out for dinner with my boys since I hadn't sat down the entire time DH had been gone--I'd even ate my meals standing up! I did get workouts in both Friday and Saturday. By Sunday, I was toast and so sore so working out was not in the cards. I got the house cleaned and straightened up, laundry done AND I KEPT it that way until DH got home. How come it's easier in that regard when the man isn't around?!?! I was so happy to see him walk in the door Sunday afternoon. We went out to dinner at Steak N Shake (more on that in a minute) and then I got to go to the store--ALONE. DH also let me take a shower UNINTERRUPTED after he got home so we could go out to dinner. It's the little things like that...whew. I have to hand it to any single moms out there--I bow to you. And to those whose husbands travel a lot for work (diet coke and zingers comes to mind right now as does Miss July)--I don't know how you do it and work full time! But we made it and everyone is happy and has their limbs--weekend was a success!

So, we went to Steak 'N Shake for dinner--DH orders a Diet Vanilla Coke. I LOVE Diet Vanilla Coke. So, I took a sip.....and it was the NASTIEST thing I have ever had! Oh it was gross! How did I ever inhale that stuff when we would go to Steak N Shake?!?! It was just plain gross. Makes me so proud to have broken that habit...and it's a lot cheaper when we go out too! :)

Gotta get some work done...Have a great OP Monday!

Oh how I have missed you!

What have I missed you may ask?? What is it???

THE 160s!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I HAVE ARRIVED!!!!!!!

This morning on my scale I was down 2.6 from last week and my weight was 169.3!!!!!!!!!! WOO HOO!!!! I have been floating on air ALL DAY LONG!!! I'm so excited. This puts me with 3.3# to go before I get to the pre-pregnancy weight of 166. I am so freaking stoked, you have no idea! Tonight at my WI, I was down 1.8 for a grand total of 12# since going back to WW 3 weeks ago! On my scale, I've lost 8.6# in those 3 weeks so to say I am excited/thrilled/ecstatic is an understatement. I was really worried about this week too. This past weekend was not good, BUT I wrote it all down, accepted how many points I had went over and then paid back my flex points before today too. I only got in 1 day of exercise this week too :( I wanted to get in more but my body needs sleep in order to exercise and I didn't have much of it over the weekend so I think I've been making up for it this week. I hope to get in more days this week so we'll see how it goes. DH is leaving Friday night to go to his mom's for the weekend to take care of life insurance stuff with his mom--he may not be home until Sunday! I am going to be alone with the boys Friday AND Saturday. That should be interesting! As long as we all have all body parts intact when he returns, I will consider it a success! I may have some more gray hair that I just had covered but oh well. :)

I have 2 pairs of Gap Long and Lean Jeans in a size 12. Pair A fits me great, even falls off of my backside after a few hours (hello? what happened to my butt?!?!) and I love them. Pair B on the other hand is a totally different story. I tried to wear them today and they were pushing on my stomach so bad b/c they were tight it was insane! But again, they fell off of my butt! WTH?!? I guess Pair A was tagged wrong or something but darnit those are my FAVORITE jeans!!! I even love Pair B but it irritates me so much that they don't fit as well as pair A. UGH!!! I need to go shopping for some new pants but I am waiting to drop a few more pounds.

I have been diet coke/soda free for 153 days now! Five whole months without anything but water and the occassional sweet tea. {Pats self on back} :)

Tonight at the meeting, the topic was eating at social events--weddings, baby showers, 4th of July, Memorial Day, etc... The leader said something that really spoke to me--Don't focus on the food, focus on the EVENT. Wow. How brilliant is that? I love it and am really going to try to put it to use this upcoming 'event' season. Mine starts with my boys' birthday party. Izaac will be 1 in 3 weeks! How crazy is that?!?!

I am signing off now. I am getting up to work super early tomorrow (like 5 a.m.) so I can be done by 7 and hopefully before the boys wake up. Have a great OP weekend!

Weigh in, the Bahamas, menu planning...

Went to my meeting Thursday night. I wasn't real sure about this WI b/c I hadn't exercised as much as I would have liked to the past week. I got in 4 days but the week before I had gotten in 5 days and some of those days had two-a-days in them. My scaled had only shown a .3 loss for the week, which BTW, is/was fine with me--at least it's down! Well, when I got to my meeting I was pleasantly surprised--DOWN 1.6 for a total of 10.2 in 2 weeks! HOLY COW!!! I was so thrilled!!!

I am going to have to be really diligent the rest of this week however. I am out of flex points and this is the first time I've had that happen since I've been back to WW. Actually, I went over my FP already this week. I had a Pampered Chef Party Friday night, ate out Thursday night after my meeting with some friends, then went out Saturday night with friends. It's been a crazy eating out weekend! I plan to get in some kind of exercise at least 4 out of the next 5 days. I really do like getting up early in the morning to get it done, I just need to go to bed earlier. :) I am .5 away from what I was on my scale back in December. I would like to at least lose that this week. I have my menu planned for the week so I shouldn't have any surprises.

Speaking of menus, I have been planning them out a month at a time and it's worked out SO WELL!!! We have our favorite meals that we rotate and we are also trying new things. It takes out so much stress from the hours of 5-7 every night. I highly recommend planning out your menus. When I think of something that sounds good that I want to have for dinner, I jot it down and put it in the menu at some point. It makes my grocery shopping easier since the meals are already planned! I have found another site that does a WW recipes. I've made a few from there and been happy with the results. You can see the site by clicking here.

DH and I booked a trip to the Bahamas at the end of May! WOO HOO!!! It will be just me and him for 6 wonderful, long, glorious days! Can you tell I am a wee bit excited about this trip? DH even asked me "what are we going to do for 6 days without the boys?" My reply was "SLEEP! A LOT!!!!" Oh gosh I can't wait to go on that trip. We've never been to the Bahamas so we are completely stoked about going. I realize I won't be bathing suit ready but darn it I am goign to try my hardest to look decent by then. I have a little less than 2 months at this point. I am so psyched!

I think that's it for me for now. My comments somehow got shut off on my last 2 posts. I have no idea how that happened but I have fixed it. Leave all the comments you want! Have a wonderful OP rest of your weekend!

Testing...

to see if the comment link shows up....

IT WORKED!!! YAY!!!!