Tasty Tuesday #3

This is a post of things I want to eat but I should not and am trying not to eat.

Soda – I really want a Pepsi RIGHT NOW.

Candy – a Butterfinger sounds great as well.

Sandra’s Bakery donuts – geographic location is the only reason I have not had this.

McDonalds Oatmeal – Some of you may remember my obsession from when it was first introduced into the world. So good. I may or may not have gotten this everyday for a month. Still not sure about it completely.

Starbucks Grande Carmel Macchiato with extra carmel and whip. That is right – whip.

McDonalds Carmel McFrape’.

French Fries – Wendy’s preferred.

 

 

A Little Off…

So I have been feeling a little off since we received some news earlier this week. It was something I had been expecting in th eback of my head, but now it is real. Alot of my plans for this past week were kind of thrown out the window and will stay there until around Valentine’s Day.

Random Things … Petra I am blaming you for my new found love of posting lists.

We have no food in our house. Nick is the grocery shopper…not sure how this is to work going forward, but that is for another post.

I am going to try and start clean eating…maybe it is a good thing Nick won’t be the shopper.

I am having a hard time being motviated to run. I mean yes, I do get a paid hour off of work if I work out three times the week before. That is motivation, but walking outside to get to the gym in negative degree weather is not much fun. I feel like I should get something extra just for that.

I need my running partners back.

The school I work at will be offering Yoga during work hours and I can attend. So very excited to get to actually do it and not pay for it, and use it towards my hour off of work.

I get annoyed by Karen on MobWives. The show cracks me up – but that b*tch needs to calm the crap down. It is not all about her and who cares if Carla has Drita’s back – they are friends. Karen needs to take some prozac.

I still love the Spice Girls and will admit I have all three CD’s and I also have Geri’s CD when she left the group. Convincing Nick to rip the CD’s to his iTunes and put it on his iPod (which is now mine) so I can run to them is another story.

My daughters are really annoying me today. The needy and whiny attitudes they have today need to leave. I want my loving babies back.

I want to be able to read more in the next couple months. I have felt my intelligence is slipping. I watch way too much Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  Some good reads are on my list. Fiction, biographies, non-fiction – everything is on it.

I have made some new friends and I am happy – I didn’t like being lonely. My friends in NC still have each other so they don’t call or answer as often as normal (with the exception of like 3-4). I know their life is going on like normal – but it still hurts a little.  I still got lo.

I found I am nore independent than I even thought. I knew I was just for the things I have gone through – but up here, I have added a whole new level to it.

My first born will be going to school this fall. I have started getting things in order and it makes me freak a little bit. I don’t know if I am ready for them to grow up – this has us thinking….maybe another?

I swore I wouldn’t do Pintrest. I was wrong. I found some great motivation pictures and sayings. And thank you Martha for pointing it out the same day I tried it out 🙂

I love Nick’s new iPhone – I just know I will crack it. I have no luck with stuff like that. I will have phone envy for a while until the newness wears off.

Have decided I will buy one Christmas present a month this year. I am also going to stick with Etsy to do it.

I really do believe that prayer has the ability work miracles and I will continue to keep a list of people to pray for.

I wish I could find a way to make some extra money without actually having to sell something or make something (cards). I have tried it all I swear, but I just really can’t seem to make it work. I just want to be able to write, or something like that – on my own time (not that I have a lot of that these days).

I still have a strange love of pens and pencils. I still need to go to OfficeMax. I am just worried I will spend $20 on pens. Wait – I know I will.

Okay – that is it for now. More to come as I have been making lists in my notebook of things to do and how to accomplish.

P.S. – spell check isn’t working right now…please excuse the bad spellng as I am sure it is in here.

 

 

Managing Monday #3

I am back to my planner! I was so happy to get mine on sale for $2.50 this year! It is plain but it works! I literally have everything in it. No joke.  On Saturday or Sunday of each week I review the upcoming two weeks worth of things that are going to happen. I then plan when I need to have items done so that I am completely ready beforehand for it.  I write it all down – I mean everything no matter how big or small. I can’t rely on my brain to remember anymore after having kids – I swear it went out the window!  I give the girls a bath every other day and I have that in my planner so I can remember to plan for it that evening.

I have also started to use my phone for reminders as well. I always have it with me so why not? It is a smart phone, so it should start being smart!  I can use it to start lists or input quick reminders. Those on-the-go “ah-ha” moments don’t get lost that way!  I also like to use this tool on the weekends when I review my schedule and then I can write those things that have been captured all week into the planner with the rest of the items.  That way I don’t have to look to more than one thing each time I check what I am supposed to be doing.

This allows for me to start my week of right on Monday morning by already knowing what I am supposed to be doing. That way there is no surprises to ruin the day.

My other saving grace (I hope) starting this week is meal prep and menu planning. I stress over meals – especially the Monday night meal. I want a good meal my first day back to work for the week. I don’t get home till around 6 with my new job and I usually like to feed my kids no later than 6:30 pm.  Nick gets home anywhere from 30 minutes before us to hours prior. More of the 30 minute range on most days though. So to help everyone out this week I made meals for Monday-Wednesday yesterday, also yesterday’s meal was a soup that I could bring to lunch today and tomorrow.  It was easy to put together with a lot of the same items I used for during the week!  I am not talking silly meals….We had meatball soup yesterday, chicken salad today with chili and garlic crusted chicken, aloha chicken, and meatloaf. YUM!  I also was so inclined to make two pies!  One blueberry  that I am not so sure about and a pear pie which I can’t wait to try today – for national pie day.

These are some things that help me!

Sharing Saturday #3

So today I am just going to be somewhat lazy and share some random things that I have thought about or seen or just whatever.

1.  I have become very good at avoiding another time suck like Pintrest (I have an account but have never done anything with it that I am aware of).
2. I like Janet Evanoivich and the Stephanie Plum series.
3. goodreads.com – for any  book lover
4. The mail up here is awful.  I did find out from lovely Lydia in the campus store mail room that you need to use delivery confirmation. Apparently is makes all the difference in the world.
5. I have some OCD tendencies – but I have found that I can control some of the things that really bother me. Like the fact that I really feel the need to have a red pen at work and they have none. NONE.
6. I will be going to Office Max this weekend for red pens.
7. I am going to start the gym soon. I can’t wait. I hate the feeling of sitting.
8. The school I work at offers a program for those who want to get Personal Trainer Certified. Hot Dog am I excited for the next one to start!
9. Working at a school has its perks and I can’t wait to start taking advantage of them! Like free undergrad classes, running at lunch, swimming at lunch, or walking the trails at lunch. Of course this will all take place once the weather is warm enough for me to walk to these places with out freezing.
10. I am glad that I have made friends with a super cool chick up here. She makes fun of me and lets me drink coffee with her in the mornings when I drop the kids off before work.
11. Walgreens has a military discount.
12. I bought 5 bottles of shampoo and conditioner (2 conditioner bottles were the really big size) for $8 at Walgreens. Score.
13. I miss fresh fruit. What I wouldn’t do for a pear or a banana right now.
14. I always made fun of Petra and her talk of the magic power of garlic – and now I keep it with me as I do not want to get sick here.
15. I love to puree vegetables and hide them in meals in the hopes that one day Ryley will gain some weight.
16. I will be trying to manage the task of dinner by prepping all meals on Sunday so Nick can just put them together during the week.
17. Nick made my first week of work awesome by ordering Moose’s Tooth pizza for dinner – which in turn means that breakfast and lunch was taken care of today and it was good!
18. “Power Cleaning” on Saturday mornings might work after all.
19. I love that Nick grocery shops.
20. I am tired of snow.

Petra – I feel so much better now that I have made a list for the world. I now know why you do it!

Tasty Tuesday #2

I think it is funny that I am only #2 of this Tuesday post…I sit and eat things and say to myself all the time – I should blog about that….and then forget about it as I am eating deliciousness. I am a girl with a short attention span – what can I say?

Here is my first review of a GREAT place to eat.  Moose’s Tooth. Yes – it is amazing. Every time we drove by it was packed – so it had to be good to always have a full parking lot day or night, weekday or weekend. We pulled up and to our huge disappointment there was a 2-2.5 hour wait. That will never work with kids. Fail.  4 days later we tried again and it was only 1 hour wait. We waited.

While you wait you can enjoy one of their many beers that they brew. I decided against it, because I am funny about new beers. Nick on the other hand liked it very much.

My mouth entered Heaven. I ate their Club Pizza and one of their white style pizzas. The white was good – not bad at all.  The Club pizza I am telling you was a whole other level of good. It was a sandwich – yet pizza. I can’t even describe the awesomeness of this pizza.

It was so good that we ordered it about 2 days later and brought it home. It was still awesome. 

Then it happened. We go to order it last week and it happened. The Club was no longer. It was a special only. So I made sure that while I declined getting any other pizza they knew it was like they ripped my heart out. It still get me my pizza and it still didn’t make me feel better.

After me and the girls went snowboarding a week or so later,  guess where we went….Moose’s Tooth. Oh yeah. I ordered a Picante Chicken pizza and added BACON (yummy). It was good and spicy just as I wanted it to be. I was happy about the food again, but I still made sure to tell the waitress that discontinuing the Club pizza was their worst decision ever.

Will I be back – HECK YES! Am I still butt hurt about my Club Pizza – HECK YES!

If you ever are in town or live here – Moose’s Tooth.  There is no other choice.

Proverbs 31 Woman – Virtue #4

4. Health – A Virtuous Woman cares for her body. She prepares healthy food for her family. (Proverbs 31: 14 – 15, Proverbs 31: 17, 1 Corinthians 6: 19, Genesis 1: 29, Daniel 1, Leviticus 11)

Since getting here I have done some Zumba (one class and some using my Wii), jogged once, and played with my kids a ton. Not really as effective as I would like for it to be.

I have gone snowboarding and found that to be a lot of fun and effective in the building up of my leg muscles – just have to take a break right now due to my butt meeting the ground while exiting from the ski lift. Ouch. It will not beat me and I will continue as I really do like it!

I have met a super cool and sometimes crazy chic named Cassandra up here and besides being my new babysitter and friend, she is my new workout partner. When she asked if I would do 5K and 10Ks with her this summer – I knew she was just as awesome as me.  God always brings you what you need and I needed her to push me and make fun of my OCD.

As far as the eating goes I have not been able to eat as I like to. I have not had a banana in forever and it is making my really want one.  GRRRR….fresh produce is a foreign term up here. I will figure something out, but I am thinking fruit will have to wait for a while.

I have been on the kick of hiding my vegetables in meals so my kids will eat healthy even if they don’t know it. Ryley is getting to be skin and bones – more so than she ever was and it scares me. She doesn’t eat as I would like for her to so I will just do what I can!

We are cutting out the soda again and a lot of the processed and frozen easy meals.  It may change some when I start working again – but for now I am happy to be doing something that is good. I will update you in a month or so after I get some work outs in to tell you how it will be.

Fitness Friday #2

So up here in Alaska the weather doesn’t really allow for me to just go out in the morning with the kids in stroller and run.

I can tell you the snow has doubled since this picture

SO I have been trying to figure out how to get back into the feel good shape I was in. I am talking the no stress, no anxiety, no real health issue feel good shape.

I tried to Zumba at the gym on base. One word for ya. AWFUL.

I tried to run on the treadmill at the Arctic Oasis Play Area.  #1 My kids don’t let me run without stopping every 2 seconds…#2 I hate running on a treadmill.

Sound smote like excuses than anything right? Partially right.

I actually ended up buying the Zumba Fitness II to get through the mornings and give me something. Not my favorite, but it will do. I can actually get some sweating in and enjoy it.  I still miss my girls and it makes me mad every time I go to workout that Cayce and Jennifer aren’t singing the silly latin songs, Deanna isn’t making funny faces at me in the mirror, Bonnie isn’t flipping everyone off in her moves, Jessica being the only instructor who would do “She Movin'” for me, and Jen isn’t right beside me. GRRR…

I applied to a job at the Alaska Club so that maybe I could get a free gym membership to a gym. I also like to motivate people so this would also be a job where I can motivate those on  the circuit machines. Yes I have some friends who hate them and don’t believe in them and I agree, but some people do like them and if it gives me a job I will take it!

Just being in the place and seeing the fun that can be had it made me want to look into my certification for Zumba….um, none to be had in Alaska and when I wrote them they basically told me it was just that way.  Nice.

So then I remember a friend of mine who had faith in my enough to want to help pursue getting me personal and group fitness certified. Chris aka NinjaMan – you will be proud to know I am looking into it right now.  I found that there is training being offered on base in March or April and I will be looking into getting it done.  I want something I can take with me anywhere and I will be ready to go when we get back to North Carolina.

Plus it will give me some of those feel good endorphins to get through these winters!

Whats New Wednesday #3

So I have to admit – I am not a fan of the Alaska winter. Over 80 inches of snow have fallen here and that is more than the annual snowfall normally. Lucky me to come during this winter.  I miss good ‘ol Sanford, North Carolina.

I have found that I do not like to be stuck in this house with my two precious daughters.  I love them – but spending an entire day with them, everyday, no break – it is hard. I commend each and every  one of my stay-at-home mom friends for what they do all the time.

I have been able to find a way to enjoy this lovely snowfall – and that is to snowboard. Keep in mind I have only done it once and despite coming away with some bruising and sore elbows and knees from the falls, I will be going again.

I went with a  group of girls – two which I had met that day and one I had met a couple of weeks ago.  Cassandra is the little meet up queen and I am thankful that I found her!

I am hoping that our next excursion of Country Line Dancing is just as fun!

BTW – the gray poof sticking out is not my stomach – I had to pull up my top coat to get my Chapstick out of my pocket and didn’t get everything put back together properly 🙂  Yes I am female so I have to validate the bad picture.

Proverbs 31 Woman – Virtue #3

After a long break to move to Alaska, I am back!  I am picking back up where I left off!

Mothering – A Virtuous Woman teaches her children the ways of her Father in heaven. She nurtures her children with the love of Christ, disciplines them with care and wisdom, and trains them in the way they should go. (Proverbs 31: 28, Proverbs 31: 26, Proverbs 22: 6, Deuteronomy 6, Luke 18: 16)

I have since become a stay at home mom as I have not been able to find a job so far. I have learned a great deal in this new job.  I have struggled with patience, shared my love of reading, and just in general found out more about my kids that I have in the past!

Since I am not sure when I will become employed outside the home again – I have decided to work in a routine for my family!  I think the new year always helps you get into a new routine as well.

I know that they need to continue to learn, so tomorrow some new learning tools will be sought out at the local office store.  I need to make sure that we continue to read stories and grow. A healthy dose of napping, meals, and love will be thrown in. I am very excited for this.

I am also going to put into play some new tools and rules that will be outlined in a couple other posts for you later on.

Also in order to keep my sanity and love for my children I am going to build in some quiet time for myself!

I hope you all have a great new year!