Decisions decisions....

It's been a fairly mellow week. Last Saturday, at the very last minute-Chance was invited to the neighbors birthday party. Which was nice. He had a great time and we finally got to meet a few of the neighbors. They rented a big bounce house so you can imagine we didn't see much of Chance during the three hours that we were there and had to drag him home. (it started at 5pm and the only reason we left is b/c it started pouring down rain, which only ended up lasting for 20 mins or so) The house across from us, their son is having a birthday party on Sunday-so he was invited to that one as well.

I have definitely got to get myself to a chiropractor soon. My neck is still killing me, but not so bad that I am confined to the couch and heating pad like before. Today I figured it was a good day to get out and do something. So we spent the day out. Had a nice day. Went to Tinseltown and bought tickets for the 5pm showing of UP. Did a little shopping around that area and then had time to kill still. I was attempting to find a health food store over on Montwood but it wasn't exactly what I was looking for since it was more like a protein powder type store. John picked up a couple of things he has been needing though so at least it wasn't a total waste of a trip. We happened to drive by a self service car wash, so I whipped it in there and said we had to try spraying under my truck to get my brakes to stop grinding before it drove me insane. They have been making the most awful sound ever since we made it into El Paso. And I'll be damned if it's b/c I need new brakes since we shelled out $600 before leaving the east coast on new brakes on the front and rear of my truck, and a tune up. I think we left our water hoses in GA, and you aren't allowed to wash your cars in your driveway here anyway-so i've been putting off the chore for awhile now. But today when I was in the parking lot of starbucks and went to stop to let some people pass.....I guess the noise my brakes make are louder to those on the outside since the look the guy in the parking lot gave me was priceless. So anyways, we went to the carwash and John sprayed under it really well and wouldn't you know....no more grinding! I'm sure I had a bucket or two worth of sand all up in there. Gotta love El Paso! Now I just need to get an oil change. John went the other day and had it inspected and got it registered here, so that's good to go. Now we get to pay it off finally!!!! WHOOOOOOOOOOOO!

The movie was cute. Chance loved it. Disney does really good 3D. We weren't too impressed with the 3D on Monsters Vs. Aliens, but Disney does it right. It's a little sad that I am so excited for the G Force movie coming out. Yep that would be the movie about the gerbils. And then Toy Story 3 next year! After the movie, we went to Cheddars. This place is just awesome. Has an atmosphere like Chili's or Applebees but actually a little nicer, and it's soooooo cheap! John got the check and told me how much it was and I said that it had to be wrong. We bought an app, two entrees and a kids meal and it was $29! The service is really great too. We can never seem to eat for under $50. On the way home, I asked John if he wanted to go by the bookstore since ya know...we'd be driving right by it on the way and he just laughed at me and told me I already knew the answer to that question. I am thinking we probably should just get the Barnes and Noble credit card. Especially if they do rewards. We'd probably get a free vacation to Hawaii with the amount of money we spend in that place. I picked up another 4 books on my list. One of those being the first book in The Black Dagger Brotherhood series. I've long since finished Twilight, and I have heard these are good, so I hope they live up to my expectations. I did exercise some self control and didn't buy every single one in the series all in one go tonight. But I figure if the first one is good, then I probably will just buy the rest in one trip to save me the experience last time when I went to buy #4 in the Twilight series only to find that freakin Walmart only spld it in the Spanish version. I thought I would break out in hives and start climbing the walls. I ended up sucking it up, going across town a few days later and spending $22 to get it at B&N. Crisis averted! I had to order three books tonight that I am missing out of one of my other series' that I read and they should be in within the week, so I'll try to plan for finishing "Dark Lover" around that time, so I can pick up the others then too if I like the first one enough to continue on.

Chance is doing great in karate. He earned his green stripe the other week when the instructor caught him standing at attention so well. Then he got his first black stripe on Tuesday for his attendance, and then his second black stripe on Thursday. Once he gets one more black stripe, I believe he gets promoted to the next rank. I about fell out of my chair laughing though. of course this happened AFTER Chance got his green stripe for showing how well he can stand at attention...but they had turned on the music and while all the other kids were standing perfectly still....there's our child over there doing the robot, walking like an Egyptian...dancing his little butt off. I'm just waiting for Chance to get busted since he's so in his own little so you think you can dance world over there, he's not seeing me giving him the "STAND STILL!!!" look....well Mr Lance catches him and I was sure he would tell him to stand at attention but oh noooooo. He busts out laughing and looks over to make sure we are seeing this. Then Mr Lance starts busting a move right along with Chance. It was hilarious. I wish I had gotten video of that. On Thursday, Chance was trying sooooo hard!!! It was actually to the point of being comical. He was sitting cross legged, back straight, hands on his knees, had a serious face on....looking dead ahead...yes maaming....doing everything right. The instructor took notice of that and Chance got to wear the black belt for the entire class! And this happened before the official start of class. Most kids seem to come rolling in right around 4:15, which class starts at 4:15, but we get there around 4pm to get a seat in the front and that way Chance can play the silly games that the instructors play with the kids who actually get there early. Which usually only four or five of them are there before 4:15.

I have a couple of videos from last week and some pics that I'll try to post sometime this week. I'll have alot of time to catch up this week.

Hmm, what else? Oh, SCHOOL! Not really sure what's going on there. I went Tuesday to turn in my unofficial transcript and my paper to get in state tuition and they were going to let me go ahead and pick my classes. The very first class I need to take for culinary...she tells me the times and I'm like "I can't take that class! I have to get my son to school" This class started at 8am, it's about a 25 minute drive from here assuming traffic isn't crazy and Chance's school starts at 8:15am. So she tells me to look over the catalog and try to figure out what I want to do to make it work around Chance's schedule. I get home later that evening after karate and sit here for HOURS trying to figure out how to make this work. And it's just not going to unfortunately. The classes either start too early, or end too late....overlap, etc. There's really just no way right now. I thought about afterschool care at the Y for Chance and I'd just have to take the later classes that end at 4:30pm. But since those classes were on Tuesdays and Thursdays, what about his karate? We've already paid for 6 months of karate and it's something he really enjoys so I am not going to deny him that. After school care would have been another $100+ a month and I am sure gas is going to be back up to where it was last year. I thought about maybe just trying to go part time to school, but then I am not sure if I could get financial aid and well....to be honest....I was denied financial aid when I went to college the first go round and I divided up the cost with my parents and paid a decent sized portion myself and that sucked. So if I can get financial aid, I want it! But obviously culinary just isn't feasible right now. John goes on TDY's here, and I would be expected to start my 1st round of field training so its too much to take on with so many unknowns. There's no way I could finish up before we leave here. If I had a support system here, it might be more realistic, but I have no one here except John. So I guess I will keep dreaming that maybe we'll end up at Ft Bragg next and maybe I could do culinary there. I have family and a couple of friends there and Chance will be a little older. I looked at their course description and compared it to EPCC and I think I like the the Fayetteville one better.

I did look around at some of the other things EPCC offered and came across their massage therapy program. That is actually something that interests me and if the schedule I saw online is the right one, that's totally something that I could work with. All the classes start at 9am. And most end at 2pm. There's a couple of months of classes that end at 4:30pm, but if I went for it-I could still utilize after school care for Chance since it would only be a couple of months. It's not a degree program, so it's short. It's something I need to look more into, like finding out that if I did it-how difficult it would be, to be licensed in another state.

The kicker of all this....I finally realized I couldn't go back to school right now for culinary, was somewhat at peace with that and then today I got a letter in the mail telling me I am eligible for the max amount of financial aid. Soooo I guess I'll go back up to EPCC this week to turn in the paper I have to sign and ask about the massage therapy program. I mean something is better than nothing right? There's no way I can get a job here. I "no habla espanol" so that's pretty much a deal breaker right there.


Anyways, this has gotten way too long. And it's getting late. I'm having a bit of a homesick night. I tend to get that way everytime I go to the bookstore. Brings back a lot of memories. Came home and started looking at alot of old pictures which made it even worse. And now I'm listening to the music on my blog which most of these songs are circa 2000, so yeah. Gone are the days of being able to call up a friend at the last second and taking off to do whatever without a care in the world. I'm sure approaching another year older isn't helping at all. Chance keeps reminding me that I have "alot of birthdays". Wow. Thanks kid. As if i'm not already dreading it enough...I get to spend it alone. Again. Third year in a row. I think I am going to subtract all the birthdays John has missed and that will be my age. Which means this year I will be turning.....21.5! Lol, yes that's a half. One year he was in the damn field for my birthday and only came out way later on in the day when he was popped in the eye with some smoke grenade and they fubarred his eye all up. So that year gets a half. He was deployed for it in 03 (should have been home by then though, thanks Dubya!) he was in the field in 04 and that's the year I count as half, deployed in 05, deployed in 07 and 08 (if not for that 15 month bullcrap, he would have made it home for that one-again, thank you Dubya!) and he'll be gone for 09 as well, but really-who's counting? I think it's just the army playing their evil mind games. Like his R&R for his second deployment. He would have made it home in time for Chance's first birthday had the damn plane not broken down keeping him there an extra day. He made it home the day after. Go figure! Anyways, enough of that. It's depressing. It's just a birthday anyway. I've learned to not care much about it anymore. At least he was here for Chance's birthday this year. NOT having him in the shithole country of Iraq is all the birthday present I could ask for, so for that, I count my blessings.

Not much blogging lately

I've been dealing with a wonderful pain all down my neck and right arm for a week now, so I haven't felt much like doing anything really. Lots of laying on the couch. And sleeping. Last night I browsed on Bookcloseouts.com for some books on my mega book list and found quite a few, not to mention a hardback edition of The Notebook! They only had one copy, so I jumped on it before it was gone. It's rare to even find Nick Sparks books on there. Usually they have a couple of audio books, but that's about it. I bought thirteen books online for less than $50 before shipping! Then I managed to drag myself off the couch and away from my heating pad long enough today to go with John and Chance to the bookstore and I picked up a "few" more there. It's getting a little out of hand to say the least. But it keeps me occupied and away from the mall and outlet shops lol. Have a good chunk crossed off my list.

Anyways, so yeah....maybe this week I'll finally start feeling better and can get back to my food log.

May 19th, 2009

Today ended up being a pretty good day. John only worked a few hours and was home by 10am-ish. Then he and Chance went to the mall to pick up a game John had reserved. I opted to stay home (yes, I stayed home from the mall!! I must really be getting old) but I stayed home so I could go to the school to drop off my application.

I thought I would just drop it off, get the transcript request form and be on my merry way but oh nooooooo. I walked out of there with a card that had my student ID number, and EPCC email address on it along with an acceptance letter. So my next step is to get a form filled out by John's commander so they change my status to in state residency, and to turn in my unofficial transcript until my official one can get there.

So that is all exciting, but I am not gonna lie. I'm extremely nervous as well! But being nervous isn't going to get me anywhere, so I'll have to get over that quickly.

Another reason today was an awesome day.....Chance was on top of his game in karate today!!! He did amazing! Even his instructors noticed it. He actually earned a green stripe for standing at attention so well. Then they played a game where they had to try and snatch the belts off of one of three of the assistant instructors without getting bopped on the head with the pads (ideally they were supposed to use blocking techniques to avoid this) anyways, he managed to snatch the belt off of Instructor Nance who was the biggest one. I think only one other kid managed to grab a belt off of one of the teachers. Then they broke off into groups and he was with Mr Lance's group and they practiced high kicks by standing with one hand on the wall. We couldnt' see Chance from where we were, but the instructors commented on how well he was doing with his kicks. We had him show us when we got home how high he could kick and I was impressed! So yeah, he definitely had a great day overall in karate.

We ended up going to eat at Golden Corral and met the sweetest couple. The husband was celebrating his 85th birthday today. The lady came up to me and asked me why I looked familiar to her and then she just started talking to me about random stuff and invited me to join the NCO Spouses Club on post. They were too adorable. They came up and asked John if he would take a photo of them since it was his birthday. The man was in World War II as a medic if I heard right, and he ended up coming home after he was injured and stayed in the hospital for 14 months. They were just so cute and you could just see how happy they are.

That's about it for today really. Tomorrow we have an FRG meeting. Which I find to be odd, but I guess we're going.

5 Years Old!

So today was Chance's birthday! I can't believe he is five years old already. I think despite it being just the three of us and not being able to do a party for him, he had a good day. We went a little overboard on the gifts to overcompensate the situation this year. But he loves everything, even down to the t-shirt lol. Let's see if I can remember it all. He got a big Master Chief, a Star Wars Lego set, Star Wars gun thing he's wanted for awhile now, Star Wars action figure, an UP sticker book, Night at the Museum video game for the Wii, a shirt, bubble bath, HALO poster, and some new 'big boy' bedding for his bed. I baked a cake and John did all the frosting and decorating. Chance had requested pizza for dinner so I made pizza. Tried my hand at a whole wheat dough but yuck! Not that impressed. Chance even said it was "disgusting" b/c it "didn't have ranch dressing" on it. But he put some ranch on there and ate the rest so I guess it wasn't too horrible. I made a plain ground turkey for us but since I had enough dough to make two pizza's, I decided to get creative on the second one. I made a pizza for me with fresh basil, a TON of garlic, sun dried tomato, leftover brazillian chicken that we made last night for dinner, and artichoke to go along with the red sauce and mozzarella. It didn't finish cooking until well after we had already ate a slice of the ground turkey pizza, so I put it in the fridge and will try it tomorrow.

Not much going on around here. Chance's karate school had a military appreciation day on Saturday that we went to. It was alot of fun despite Chance whining and crying almost the entire time. It's cool that they do stuff like that, and on Thursday they are going to have an ice cream social.

Last night I was sitting here bored waiting for the Dane Cook special to come on and I thought "hmm, I have nothing else to do, so I may as well start the process for school" So I went ahead and filled out my FAFSA and submitted it and hopefully tomorrow I can go drop off my application for school and get the form to request my transcripts NC. Hopefully SOMEONE will take the form to GTCC for me and take care of that. I just want to know already if I will be going to school or not so I know if I need to get my hopes up. I got an email today saying that my FAFSA has already been processed! I hope that means I didn't mess any of it up.

Anyways, I need to get back to regular blogging. Or at least logging my food. I've definitely been bad since I haven't logged in a few days. Still haven't went and looked for bolts for my treadmill, but maybe I can do that tomorrow.

I'll try to post some pics from today and this weekend as well tomorrow. I need to get this kid out of the tub before he turns into a prune.

May 13th, 2009

Boring day today. Part of me is saying "let's go to the bookstore" but then the other part is saying "get in the garage and organize!" Not sure which side will win at this point especially since I already mentioned the bookstore to John. We do need to go to Target to return some curtains and a table we bought, but ugh. That would mean I had to put gas in my truck and drag Chance out which means he'll probably act a fool like he always does. I'm not sure I am in the mood to deal with that. Chance's birthday is in 5 days. Yikes! We haven't even been shopping or anything. I had planned on doing a party for him until John told me that the majority of the platoon would be out of town on a TDY. So that's out. I think we are going to surprise him with tickets to the circus to make up for no party.

Anyways, food log for today.

Breakfast-
John cooked, so I had a slice and a half of bacon (Chance stole the other half) and eggs.

Lunch-
strawberry lemon slush with flax

Snack-
frozen slim fast coffee concoction

Dinner-
abs diet guiltless chicken wings-which was chicken tenders tossed in a hot sauce mixture, garlic bread, mixed green salad with good seasons italian dressing.

Snack-
yogurt with berries and flax

A few photos

Here are a few photos from today's class. I thought it was going to go well since it seemed at first like it would be a small class, but instead-everyone seemed to show up right AT 4:15pm when class starts. So that went out the window. Cell phones were ringing, conversations were going on, there was a loud game boy behind me....it was a nightmare. The irony of it all, the instructor is sitting there telling the KIDS not to talk while he is talking....and yet the parents kept going on and on. Then again, I was in the front row and all but leaning over the wall straining to hear him talking to the kids, so the other parents probably couldn't hear anything. Maybe they should implement knuckle pushups for parents who can't keep it quiet during class? I bet then they would shut up.

Chance did okay. I can tell he is trying, but I know he can do better. He really needs to work on his listening. When they are supposed to be sitting down at attention, which is cross legged and hands on their knees-he'll be sitting on his knees. It was making me crazy. I'll give the kid credit for raising his hand when he wanted to talk, but he kept on and kept on and kept ON raising his hand when the instructor wasn't even asking a question. I am sure if they had asked Chance what he wanted to say, it would have been something completely random and have nothing to do with karate.

I'm just at a loss on how to handle him lately. It seems like he has such a horrible attitude and then the minute we get to his class, he gets his act together. Which is great for his karate instructors. But then the moment he bows out....he's literally whining or complaining about something. Usually it's him wanting to get something to eat and not at home. We got take out ONCE after a class and since then, he's whined about it every single time after class. I think I am just around him way too often. Hopefully he'll get better once he's back in school. Maybe then I'll be in school. Anyways-here are the photos. Would have gotten more except thanks to someone taking the camera out of my bag yesterday and taking random photos of pictures he colored....the battery went dead in the middle of class.

Here he is before class, notice how he is sitting.


Still before the official start of class. The assistant was just playing some games with the kids who were already there and he and Chance were a team, and the other kids had to try and knock them down. Don't think any of them managed to do it either!


During class

May 12th, 2009

Today is Tuesday! Which means karate day! Hopefully it will be bearable this time and not a loud cluster**** like last time. Anyways, I slept through breakfast again thanks to staying up until 3am to finish a book. I can't help it. When I get to a point in the book where there's only so many chapters left, I think "well crap, I can't put it down now....might as well finish it" and that's what I did. It was a cute book though. It was called The First Assistant, which was the follow up to The Second Assistant. They are easy reads. I'm in that kind of mood lately. If you are into the celebrity gossip thing, then they are worth the read. Have a stack of books still to choose from and then the other day I made out the mother of all lists to take with me next time I am in the bookstore. Which will be before the end of the week I am sure.

So I started using a few Burt's Bees face products the other day and wow! Already I can tell a difference! While they weren't the huge, mountainous red zits I am used to getting-my forehead was very bumpy just with the tiny zits that were easier to just feel than see. While the redness I used to have in my cheeks mostly went away when my doc Rx'd me something for my acne, I still have the redness issue on my nose. I have only been using these products for a few days and already my forehead is so smooth (meaning no more teeny tiny zits everywhere), the redness on my nose is almost gone (but with glasses-I expect there still to be some redness where those rest, but that doesn't bother me) and overall my face looks clearer.

Here are the products I am using-

Orange Essence Facial Cleanser



Peach and Willowbark Deep Pore Scrub



Herbal Blemish Stick


I will admit though, the herbal blemish stick smells like death. It smells like licorice which I am definitely NOT a fan of, but whoever said beauty was easy? I'll use it if it works though, so oh well. I think I mentioned the other day how awesome it would be if BB's made makeup. Well. I found out last nigh that they DID make makeup but have discontinued it and have no plans to do it in the future. Crap crap crap!!! Figures. So I'll have to keep looking I suppose.

I found a really cool site last night. You can check it out here. It's a cosmetics database. Quoting from their website-

Skin Deep is a safety guide to cosmetics and personal care products brought to you by researchers at the Environmental Working Group.

Skin Deep pairs ingredients in more than 42,000 products against 50 definitive toxicity and regulatory databases, making it the largest integrated data resource of its kind. Why did a small nonprofit take on such a big project? Because the FDA doesn't require companies to test their own products for safety.

Fascinating stuff. Makes me really reevaluate what we are using in our home. It lists makeup, skin care, oral care, fragrance, nail care, eye care, hair care, and baby care products. They don't leave much out. This was actually how I found out that Burt's Bees used to make a cosmetics line.

Alright so that's enough of that. I'm going to try and be productive even though John has already did all the laundry today. Not that I am complaining. I know he's awesome.

Food log for today

Breakfast-
slept through it again

Lunch-
roast beef on whole wheat hoagie with swiss cheese

Snack-
blackberry kiwi slush with flax. Pure awesomeness.

May 11th, 2009

I didn't blog yesterday so I'm making up for it today. Yesterday was a great Mother's Day. John was home this year, so that alone made it even better. They woke me up with breakfast in bed, then we just lounged around for awhile and called the moms back home to wish them a happy mother's day. The boys had some gorgeous tulips delivered for me yesterday. Then John told me to pick out where I wanted to eat for dinner. We picked a japanese place hoping it would be as good as Masato's back in Savannah but no such luck. It was still a nice night out though. At least now we know to cross that place off the list of places to go in the future. We made a pit stop at Baskin Robbins on the way home.

The eating well went out the window yesterday but I'm back on track today. I think John's all finished up with the Bowflex, but now I just need to get in there and get everything situated where I want it. Right now there is no balance in there at all. The treadmill isn't where it needs to be, his weight bench isn't even set up, the bowflex is just in the middle of the garage, empty boxes everywhere, still bags and bags of packing paper needing to be taken to the recycle center.

So here's the food log for the last couple of days. Feel free to pass over the log for Sunday lol.

Sunday

Breakfast-
bacon, eggs, turkey sausage, french toast

Lunch-
mixed green salad with good seasons italian dressing, whole wheat bagel with capers, whipped cream cheese and smoked salmon.

Dinner-
steak and chicken hibachi, vegetable broth soup, ginger salad, shrimp app, grilled vegetables, fried rice. Honestly though, I ate three bites of soup, a few bites of salad...I did eat most of the zucchini, and most of the rice. But left most of the onion and meat. So maybe I didn't kill the diet all in one sitting after all.

Snack-
kids scoop of jamocha almond fudge from BR.


Monday

Breakfast-
ummmmm whoops, didn't have it

Lunch-
strawberry melon slush with flax

Dinner-
roast beef on whole wheat hoagie with grilled onion, bell peppers, flax, swiss cheese and salsa.

Snack-
organic french vanilla yogurt with blackberries, all bran and a blob of cool whip free

May 9th, 2009

I slept sooooo late today. Which is weird since I actually went to bed earlier than usual. So I ended up sleeping through breakfast. So I ended up making a smoothie to take with me to the grocery store. So here's my food log for the day. Forgot to take my vitamins and supplements today as well, but i'll make up for it tomorrow.

Breakfast-
nothing

Lunch-
pumpkin smoothie with flax

Dinner-
marinated skirt steak, chipolte garlic bread, salad with good seasons italian dressing

Snack-
strawberry mango slushie

May 8th, 2009 pt 2

Today was a pretty nice day. John was home and we ended up going to Target to get some more curtains and curtain rods for the game room. I realized only after the air was FINALLY turned on, that there are no vents in there! Which blows my mind since it has huge vaulted ceilings, and five windows. It gets a little warm in there, even with the air finally on.

I had to practically beg just to get them our yesterday to turn it on. They were stuck on the east side on a job and weren't sure if they would make it here or not. Thankfully they showed up right before 3pm and got everything taken care of. While it's far from being central air, it works okay for now. But he told me that in July and August, it probably won't seem like it is working well-but that is just how these systems work. I actually got to use a blanket last night when I went to bed! It's amazing the little things we take forgranted haha.

Chance had karate yesterday as well. I was really really bothered by how much the other parents seem to completely disregard the fact that the children are IN CLASS. The waiting area is so loud! I am straining to hear what the instructors are telling the kids and as it is-they are yelling as loudly as it is already. It has to be a distraction to the kids. I am hoping to bring it up to the instructors somehow and hopefully they can do something to calm the madness in the waiting area so the kids can concentrate and the parents who are actually there to WATCH, rather than join in social hour.....can do so.

John's working on putting together the Bowflex. I had gone upstairs to read my book and ended up falling asleep. Came back down a couple hours later and he had started on it. So far, so good he says. Just looking in the book at all the exercises you can do was enough to make me tired.

I was looking the other week for some new shampoo and conditioner since my hair and I have NOT been getting along lately. I was looking for something organic but I ended up getting these:



I am late coming into the Burts Bees products. I have some lip products from them but that's about it. However, the shampoo and conditioner is enough to make me a loyal customer! I looooove this stuff. It's not organic, but they don't use any sulfates and they put that informative little ribbon on every product stating how much of the product is made up of natural ingredients. I liked the shampoo and conditioner so much so, that I picked up a deep conditioner today at Target along with a facial cleanser. Target seemed to have a pretty wide selection of their products. I'm already window shopping on their website to see what my next BB purchases will be. I'm thinking they will replace my bath and body works addiction. Annnnnnnd another reason to buy these awesome products-they are made in North Carolina. I wish they made make up. I've been using the physicians formula stuff, but it seems like it's either way too dark, or way too light and no in between. The little things that excite me these days.

Anyways, I guess that's about it for now. It seems like there was more I wanted to post about but I'm drawing blank.

May 8th, 2009

Plan on blogging more later-just starting my food log before I forget.

Breakfast-
slim fast shake

Lunch-
leftovers from last night. But I took the buffalo chicken breast off the bun and just ate the meat.

Dinner-
turkey and cheddar pita wrap from Target with a Nantucket Nectar lemonade.

Snack-
4 kashi stoneground wheat crackers with whipped cream cheese and smoked salmon

May 7th, 2009

I'm in a foul FOUL mood at the moment thanks to this air conditioning (or lack thereof) drama, so I am keeping this short to just the food log to keep this blog pg rated.

Breakfast-
slim fast shake

Lunch-
lettuce wraps with guacamole

Dinner-
was in one FINE mood after Chance's class *sarcasm* and we ordered Chili's to go.
ate a few bites of loaded mashed potatoes, one beef slider, one buffalo chicken slider, and a few boneless buffalo bites from the triple play app we were sharing and by that time I was too full to touch the sandwich that was my actual entree. Def did not eat well, but tomorrow will be better I hope.

May 6th, 2009

One more day and we'll finally have air conditioning! It can't get here soon enough. Today I guess I have to get back in the garage and get the rest of those boxes out of there since the Bowflex will be here tomorrow. That's going to be a blast.

Anyways, not much to say today. Baby Taylor arrived yesterday sometime right after noon. He weighed 6lbs 13oz. Still waiting on pictures though.

Food log

Breakfast-
frozen slim fast shake

Lunch-
Totally not the best choice out there, but we were out in the garage bagging paper and breaking down boxes and John said "Let's go eat" to which I responded "like in the house?" and he said "No, we're going somewhere else" lol. Okay. We ended up going to The Hamburger Stand and I had an all beef hot dog with kraut and mustard. No mayo!!!! I am so proud of myself. Just say no to the mayo! I should have just said no to the bun but oh well. I didn't get fries or anything. Just had a strawberry lemonade with it.

Dinner-
one grilled chicken breast. was too lazy to throw it on top of a salad.

Snack-
a slush with strawberry, pom, kiwi, plum, and flax. Didn't finish it or even come close b/c I wasn't feeling it. It was really bitter for some reason.

Snack 2-
gonna slug down my last v8 before i go to bed to get my GSE in for the day. I haven't had any yogurt today, or my cereal-so I really need to at least get the GSE.

Our Karate Kid

Quick post with pictures!

I'll post a couple of videos tomorrow. Think I've pretty much overloaded my blog today.

Candida

Alright so here goes. Over the years, I have always thought of myself to be pretty healthy as far as not having very many heath issues go. I don't know if it just comes with marriage, or having kids or what-but it seems like once I had Chance, my health went out the window. I swear these kids really do suck the life out of us. My memory is crap, my energy level is crap and over the years is has just gotten substantially worse. There was that 8 month period that started in March 2006 and lasted until November or so when I was constantly sick with those stomach issues that would literally wake me up out of a deep sleep. Never did get an explanation for that after a million and one trips to the doctor (lol, well I take that back. A Nurse Practitioner said it was probably a stomach virus. Um yeah, a stomach virus that lasted eight months. Okie dokie then) , but the pains have only showed up maybe three or four times since then so whatever it was, it's not really an issue anymore. That's just one example. More recently I have had an issue with my legs. I remember exactly when this started. It started after I came back from North Carolina back in summer of 2007. I've gotten no relief at all, it's gotten worse since when it first started. Not really any answers from a doctor. I was given a referral to have a nerve test done but it involved sticking a bunch of needles in my legs and shocking me. Which sounds as appealing as a lobotomy so I opted to forgo that test after discussing it with a few other people who have a little bit of medical knowledge. But you can imagine after almost two years of dealing with the problem, it has gotten a bit annoying. I wouldn't know what "normal" felt like anymore. I only know this tingly, crawley, burning feeling I have every day. It's hard to explain. But the best I can do is that they are "on" all the time and they never turn "off".

So I have spent endless hours googling my little heart out trying to self diagnose what this could be since I have given up on doctors.

No idea when but I came across something one day about Candida. Not sure of the exact page I read-but i'll just quote from one I just found.

Symptoms vary from person to person and fluctuate in severity, or may come and go. Most symptoms are invisible, which makes it difficult for others to understand the vast array of debilitating symptoms with which we contend.

The most common are:

* an incapacitating fatigue
* problems with concentration and short-term memory
* flu-like symptoms such as pain in the joints and muscle
* extreme tightness in the shoulders and neck
* hyper-acidity/acid reflux
* brown colored mucus in the back of the throat
* blisters in the mouth/tongue/throat
* either white or "blood blisters"
* un-refreshing sleep
* sore throat
* white coated tongue
* dark circles under the eyes
* an aversion to being touched or jumping
* "crawling" skin
* chronic sinus problems and headaches including migraines
* chronic dental problems

Visual disturbances may include blurring, sensitivity to light and eye pain.

Psychological problems may include:

* depression
* irritability
* anxiety
* panic attacks
* recurring obsessive thoughts
* personality changes and mood swings (irrational rage or crying for no reason - fear of talking to people, any kind of confrontation, isolation)
* paranoia

More of the physical symptoms may include:

* chills and night sweats
* shortness of breath
* dizziness and balance problems
* sensitivity to heat and/or cold
* alcohol intolerance
* gluten and/or casein intolerance
* irregular heartbeat
* irritable bowel
* constipation and/or diarrhea
* painful gas and abdominal bloating
* low-grade fever or low body temperature
* numbness, tingling and/or burning sensations in the face or extremities
* dryness of the mouth and eyes
* difficulty swallowing
* projectile vomiting

Also:

* menstrual problems including PMS and endometriosis
* recurrent yeast infections
* recurrent ear infections
* rashes and dry, flaking skin
* eczema
* dermatitis
* acne
* skin discoloration and/or blotchiness
* dandruff
* jock and rectal itching
* chronic athlete's foot
* chronic toenail and fingernail fungus
* ringing in the ears (tinnitus)
* allergies and sensitivities to noise/sound, foods, odors, chemicals
* anemia
* weight changes without changes in diet
* light-headedness
* feeling in a fog
* fainting
* muscle twitching and muscle weakness
* restless leg syndrome
* low sex drive and/or numbness in the genital area

These are only the symptoms most commonly reported and documented.

Not even going to bother naming off all of those symptoms that I have, but it was enough of them to make me stop and say "whoooooa". The crawling skin thing really made me wonder if this was it!

If you want to read more on it, here's a good article:
http://www.womentowomen.com/digestionandgihealth/candida.aspx


So once John and I decided it was time to shed the weight, I also decided it was time to once again battle with the Candida. There's a simple test you can do at home that is supposed to be as accurate as it gets, but I have yet to try it. I really should do it, and I might still give it a try-but for now I'll just post directions for the test if anyone is curious.

The Spit Test
Might I have a problem with Candida Yeast?

You can try this simple test to find out.

First thing in the morning, before you put ANYTHING in your mouth, fill a clear glass with room temperature Bottled Water. (*apparently it's important that it is NOT tap water)

Work up a bit of saliva, then spit it into the glass of water. Check the water every 15 minutes or so for up to one hour.

If you have a potential problem, you will see strings (like legs) traveling down into the water from the saliva floating on the top, or "cloudy" saliva will sink to the bottom of the glass, or cloudy specks will seem to be suspended in the water.

If there are no strings and the saliva is still floating after at least one hour, you probably have Candida under control, and have nothing to worry about. Congratulations.

If you want to see an illustration of what the result may look like-you can check it out on this page: http://www.adhdrelief.com/CandidaTest.html

Anyways, I guess I have been taking the grapefruit seed extract regularly for about a week now. Before that, I would forget and not take it every day like I should. Then on Saturday, I started taking my probiotics again. Along with that, I try to eat some *organic* yogurt daily. I am picky about my yogurt. I don't bother with that crap Jamie Lee Curtis is slingin', but I use Stonyfield Farms only. It has all of the good bacteria you need to kill off the bad. They have six live cultures in their yogurt, it's gluten free and it's ORGANIC! I'm not even gonna step up on my organic soapbox for now, but it's really the way to go and i'll leave it at that. To my yogurt, i'll add some fresh fruit. We went to Costco the other week and loaded up on fruit! I came home and washed everything, then cut up what needed it and put it in the freezer. So now I use this for my yogurt or when i want to make a slushie. Lately I have been adding All Bran and flax meal to my yogurt. Just to give it that extra little something. Usually when I cook, I always add an insane amount of garlic to whatever it is I'm making which helps as well. If a recipe calls for "one clove" of garlic that translates into my head as "at least four cloves" lol. Can't get enough of that stuff. But I haven't cooked much lately due to the heat so that doesn't really apply to my regimen this week.

So I haven't really changed things much. Some of the things I have read say to eliminate all carbs while you are getting rid of it but I'm still eating fruit. However, I have actually noticed over the last few days that I am not really craving bread or sweet stuff at all. I had Subway the other night for dinner but I can't say it was a dire craving by any means.

I can tell my efforts are working. The die off symptoms can be a real drag but that's just my body telling me it's working. My body hurts, especially my lower back and my knees....my head is cloudier than usual and I just have an overwhelming feeling of overall BLAH. They say that die off feels alot like the flu which is somewhat ironic at the moment haha. Although, I might want to knock on wood since John hasn't been feeling well last night, and still feeling bad today. Chance even seemed warm to the touch earlier before karate but it's 90+ in this house so I figured that was why. I will definitely keep an eye on them both though and myself just to be on the safe side.

So yeah, that's all I am really doing for now. Not working out yet, but the Bowflex will be here in two days and I plan to start once that is put together assuming the die off subsides a little. Who knows if this will really help me in the end, but I am all for at least trying. So far I have lost some weight, my stomach is not so bloated as before, not getting giant zits like before and a few other improvements. Who knows if it would work for anyone else-but this is just to clarify what *I* am doing to try and feel better overall.

I've also talked to John about maybe visiting a chiropractor to see if that could possibly help as well. He said he would go with me and give it a try as well, just need to find someone in the area who is reputable but also reasonably priced since our insurance doesn't cover them at all.

Alright so that blog took all day. Had to stop on and off all day to tend to laundry, making Chance and I lunch, go to karate etc. Lol, so no I didn't type this all out in one go.

May 5th, 2009

It's Cinco de Mayo! Which means only two more days until we have air conditioning finally. And it also means that my cousin's baby will arrive in the world possibly even before I finish this blog. I can't wait to see pictures and hear all about him.

I'll make a separate post once he's here and I have stats and pictures.

I'm going to keep this blog short. I promise!! I have another I want to start that will probably be a long winded one, and then once I have pics-a post about Baby Taylor, so this is mainly going to be a food log post.

John came home and told me that according to his weigh-in today for his PT test, he has lost 8 pounds since we were on leave at his parents house!!! So that's amazing! His new unit doesn't do PT...i think he's gone in once for a run or something then he had his PT test today, and he goes to the gym once or twice a week on his own, then he has his MMA workout on Wednesday nights. So I am really proud of him.

I am NOT weighing myself every day because that is just setting myself up for disappointment, but I did weigh myself today. So it's been 3 days since my last weigh in. Hey, I said I wasn't weighing *every* day, but I think 3 days is long enough to wait! Maybe eventually I can get it up to a week between weigh ins. At least since I tossed out the old digital scale, I have to go through the hassle of using the wii balance board to weigh in. Anyways, I am down another 2 1/2 pounds! Seems a bit excessive for a matter of three days, but i'll get to explaining that in my long winded post. So now I'm right up there with John at 8 lbs lost.

Dinner tonight is gonna be a YOYO (you're on your own) night since Chance has karate. And I am still on oven/stove strike until Thursday. I'll probably end up doing a salad and some fruit or something like that.

Ahhhh, I totally forgot to mention the fact that I logged a little bit of Wii time yesterday haha. I played the Mario Olympic game with Chance. Probably the most activity my body has seen since last July when I stopped going to the gym and that's sad since it wasn't all that bad. However, my right arm is telling a different story today. Every little bit helps right?

Enough of the babble-food log for today:

Breakfast-
bowl of Kashi Vive <----love this stuff! It tastes so good, that I don't think about it being super duper good for you.

Lunch-
slush consisting of one small plum, half a kiwi, handful of strawberries and some all bran thrown in.

Snack-
5.5 oz glass of low sodium V8 with 10 drops of grapefruit seed extract

Dinner-
it's not much of a dinner but it's one of those days. I made some homemade guacamole (avocado, tomato, green onion, garlic, lime, cilantro) and I'm eating it with some organic blue corn chips. Although, Tostitos think they are being some sneaky bastards since these chips aren't certified organic by the USDA, so they aren't 100% organic.

May 4th, 2009

Started my day off late thanks to crappy sleep. I hate this heat! Had planned on getting a bowl of cereal but opted to just grab a glass of Slim Fast instead and clean up the kitchen.

Not sure what we'll do today. John's off of work. Lol, no surprise there. I'm thinking I'm going to go in the garage and start bagging up some paper and breaking down the boxes. That idea doesn't really appeal to me at all but it needs to be done and I'll feel better once there's some sort of organization going on in there.

We have decided to throw a birthday party for Chance. We'll just do a small thing here at the house. I know he has been expecting a big party and he STILL talks about his birthday party last year, so I felt awful thinking he wouldn't get a party this year since we really don't know anyone here. But when we went to the hail and farewell, one of John's co workers started talking to Chance and asking him gift he wanted him to bring to his party. Well shoot....lol. Have to have one now! But once he said that I thought that maybe we could just invite some people in John's battalion. I'm going to specify on the invitations that gifts are not necessary at all because that's not at all why I want to do a party for him. I think 5 years is a big milestone for kids and I want him to have his day. So the other week, we had him pick our his invitations and he picked Star Wars. Lol, how this kid ended up a Star Wars fan is beyond me. I think I have the Star Wars Lego video games to blame for that. So yeah....we're going to give this party a try and see if anyone will show up. Probably just pick up some ready made stuff from Costco since they have some mmmm mmmmm good looking stuff there. I guess it will be a good way to once again meet some of the wives in the group but I decided yesterday that I am giving up on making friends here. If it happens, it happens and that's awesome but I'm not going to go out of my way. Hopefully in the fall, I'll be in school (really need to get on the ball with that if I want to make that happen). So that will be something to keep me occupied.

As I posted before, Chance is in karate and he is loving it. He has classes 3 days a week and once he gets his yellow belt-he can go 5x a week if he wants. He came home from his class on Saturday and showed me what he has to do if a stranger grabs him. It was too cute. I was checking John's email to read about the spirit week they're having this week where they can wear silly socks, crazy hair etc, and there was another email in there from them about another program they're starting on May 9th. They're going to be doing a special family class where if you have a family member already enrolled, you can come with them on Saturdays and train for free. All you have to do is buy a t shirt and pants. I saw that and got so excited. I told John I definitely wanted to do that. I was disappointed when I saw they didn't offer a family class and that's another reason I didn't join. So that will be something else for me to do one day of the week.

Okay I had no intention of posting so much but we know how that goes. Chance is telling me it's time for a choc shake so I guess i'm gonna go make one for him. Lol, he's getting all into the shakes and smoothies like John and I. For real though, the Magic Bullet is the BEST. By far the best investment we have made in some time. That thing gets used sometimes three or four times a day.

I'll be updating my food log throughout the day.

Breakfast-
Slim Fast shake

Snack/lunch-
combined the two since we got caught up in the garage
5.5 oz glass of V8 to choke down the GSE, leftover 6 inch sub from Subway

Dinner-
No appetite thanks to feeling like a pile of crap, but attempted to eat a little bit of ham. It tasted weird and gross so after a few bites, I tossed it.

May try to eat some yogurt and berries again tonight as a snack but I feel really really yucky. Think I will start another post about that.

Bedtime snack-
Broke down and got a snack. Gotta just keep swimming through this yuck.
So for a snack, organic french vanilla yogurt with frozen berries, flax meal, and scoop of all bran.

A new day

I've put this off long enough but it's time to lose this weight I have gained and to get healthy. I can't blame the weight gain on the stress of moving anymore since we've been in the house for a month now. Granted, I gained most of the weight back before we started the PCS process anyway, but details details....

John and I had talked about maybe getting a Bowflex once we were settled depending on if our new home allowed us the room to have one. We live about 15 minutes from post which isn't bad at all, but it's such an inconvenience I think to pack a gym bag, drive to the gym and back, line up child care or rotate with John so he can stay home with Chance....I just hate it. Which is why I haven't been in a gym in 8 months. It's so hard to keep consistent without a gym partner for me too.

We were in Sports Authority the other day browsing around and looked at the machines they had in the store. Prices seemed okay, but they charged a whopping amount for shipping. Yesterday out of boredom while John and Chance went to see Wolverine, I was looking online to see if I could find a better price online for the machines than what they had in the store. Oddly enough, I found myself on the Sports Authority website. They had the Revolution Bowflexes for about the same price as the power rod we saw in the store. Not only that but the shipping was FREEEEE!!! Whoohoo. I looked around some more online trying to find a better deal, but it would seem as though the Sports Authority deal was the best since it was already marked down to $1299 from $1999, the shipping was free and they included the $159 bench for free right now as well. I waited until John came home and talked it over with him (like he would say no anyway lol) but didn't place the order quite yet. Got up this morning and went back to the page to place the order but decided to check my favorite deal site for a coupon code. I try to avoid paying full price for anything and I love getting deals, so bookmark www.retailmenot.com and check it out anytime you want to order anything online. It's awesome! Well surely enough, they had a 10% off coupon code with a 100% success rate. I really didn't think it would work b/c it said can't be combined with any other offers, so I figured with the machine already being marked down $700 and getting the free bench and shipping-it wouldn't work. But it did! So that was another $130 off. So the order is placed and hopefully it will be here in the next week or so. That gives us enough time to get some of these boxes out of the garage to make room for it.

I hope it's easier to find the motivation to work out. I figure if John works out here instead of going to the gym, we can work out in the garage at the same time. I'll use the treadmill while he uses the Bowflex and vice versa.

I need to dust off the Wii Fit. I unpacked it yesterday to use the scale. It said I hadn't been on it in 136 days. How embarrassing! I can't remember when I was last weighed, but I went to the doctor for something and nearly passed out when they told me how much I weighed. Granted, that was fully clothed but still. Not a number I ever want to see again. So after that, I swore off the scale altogether. I remember that when I started working out when John was deployed, I started at a very unhealthy 152 pounds. I'm admitting that since I need to be held accountable. The weight the doctor gave me last was more than that, but actually if you deduct a couple of pounds for clothes, probably 152 still. I've been changing my eating habits in the last couple of weeks, but haven't really did any sort of exercise to go along with it. The good news is, I weighed myself yesterday and I am down a few pounds from the 152. But I have no idea the span of time that weight was lost since I haven't been weighed in awhile. I *think* the doctor visit was in february, so we'll go with that.

I bought a few pair of shorts the other week at target and while I always buy shorts a couple sizes too big to avoid any muffin top or them being too tight in the thighs, these are already bigger on me than when I bought them.

We went to dinner the other night and ordered an appetizer combo. John ate a couple of the potato skins, but left two on the plate, and I ate all of the little jalapeno pepper bites. By the time our entrees arrived-we were already full. I ate a few bites of my sweet potato and two bites of meat and asked for a box. I didn't even touch the salad and took it home as well. John took a couple bites of his food and asked for a box as well. Portion control is a major issue with both of us so this is a step in the right direction.

Chance is even helping us out in a big way and he doesn't even realize it. Everytime we're out, he would always ask for a Happy Meal. I've really tried to curb the addiction so to speak and the last few times we've been out and he's seen one-he'll say "I know I know, i'm not even going to ask. Happy Meals are bad for you" So this has kept John and I from giving in and eating the junk too.

So I am going to try and keep a log of what I eat and my activity log. I am awful about keeping up with logs, but I'll give it a try I suppose. Might as well start with today!!


Breakfast-
2 pieces of french toast (my husband rocks!)
probably a capful of pure organic maple syrup
glass of organic vanilla soymilk with one scoop of slim fast

Lunch-
a strawberry mango kiwi slushie with a splash of pom juice and flax meal
made it in the magic bullet mugs so it comes out to probably 5 strawberries, half a kiwi, and two slices mango. Still sipping on it even though it's been a couple of hours probably since I made it.

Snack-
5.5oz glass of low sodium V8 since it's the only way I can get down my grapefruit seed extract supplement without throwing it back up. (more on the GSE later!)

Dinner-
John's headed to Subway to pick up dinner. It's way too hot in this house to cook anything. So for dinner I'll have a 6 inch Subway Club on wheat with tons of vegetables. Not the best choice I'm sure, but not the worst. I'll save the other half for tomorrows lunch. I'll drink water instead of him getting me a drink and I opted not to get the chips.

Snack-
a cup of organic french vanilla stonyfield farms yogurt with a few frozen berries and 1/3 cup all bran mixed in.