Sending out an SOS

Dear Friday,

Thank you for allowing me to wear jeans and being all around the best day of the work week. You always guarantee at least 3 different group conversations on random tangents that keep me out of the cubical for more time than I deserve. I will always be grateful for days that start with F.
- Cubical Caroline


Dear Nickelodeon Storytime Live!
Why must you insist on turning on all the lights for a 15 minuet intermission during a 90 minuet children’s show. Don’t you know that once a toddler is distracted it is very difficult to get them to sit still for the rest of your show?
- Love Mommy
Ps. $15 for a Dora light-up-flashy-thing, really?
P.p.s My three year old niece could even spot Moose was just “a man wearing a costume”; for thirty dollars a ticket I think you could splurge on a little more mush fabric to cover the actors face. Kthxbye.


Dear women with very large curly afro/extensions sitting in the row in front of us yesterday,
I am sorry my son thought your hair was the best part of the show and insisted on standing behind it the second half of the show (please see above letter to Nickelodeon). I am also sorry you thought my son knew what the stank eyes you kept flashing meant; he’s a toddler, you’re at a toddler program, get over it. Oh yes, I am genuinely sorry he eventually pet your friends hair, that was crossing the line.
- Love The naughty boy’s mom


Dear Chick Fil A,
Why must you be so tasty? Why must you be so close to my house? Why must you play mind tricks on me and force me to eat your fried chicken sandwich and waffle fries last night? So nicely packages, so reasonably priced, so happy afterwards. You are evil and I refuse to visit you anymore.
- Love #1 with no pickles

Dear P90X,
Chickey made me do it; it’s a trace I get sucked into and can’t escape. Yes I promise to stay focused this weekend, no I won’t eat co worker chocolate cake, yes I plan on doing ab ripper X tonight. Please forgive me. I love you Tony Horton.
- Love Day 4 failure

When joy burst your heart.

This is pure joy.

(being attacked by Daddy, The Tickle Monster)

What was I thinking?

I promise this will not be an everyday topic but I am right in the middle of suffering and needed to share. Yesterday I felt on top of the world with P90X and the 90 day time limit felt obtainable….today, not so much. Well let me backtrack with the rest of yesterday. The rest of the meals/ snacks went great and I actually couldn’t finish my dinner. We waited two hours (once Moses was in bed) to start our first workout and it went well. I was able to do the entire video (maybe not for the full time allotted) and struggled through ab ripper x; the main point was it was a good day. This morning I woke up excited about my protein shake for breakfast but then around 9am started feeling real hungry. With snack time an hour away I realized I didn’t have my protein. I figured lunch was so tasty I would just wait but by 11:15 I was starving. After eating lunch I’m sitting here feel discouraged. I’m hungry, well not starving, but hungry enough in about two hour I’m going to need food. My afternoon snack is 2 oz of cheese, that’s it! And then after work I have my aerobics class so I’m looking out a 7pm dinner. That’s over six.long.hours away! I’m just scared and craving sweets. When I say I had an addiction to sweets I wasn’t lying…it’s killing me to think for the majority of the next 88 days I won’t be eating sweets. I’ll be snacking twice a day and that’s it. I know I can push through but the impact this program is going to make on my everyday life is really hitting me and I’m scared. I need to push myself, one day at a time, to do this.

I have not consumed a sweet all day, what's wrong with me!

It’s here! It’s official! Today marks Day 1 of P90X. I’ve spent days charting out exactly how much food we’ll need as well as shopping then prepping for this coming week. One thing I like so far about the program is the variety in their meal plan option. I opted to stick with the meal plan because it told me exactly what to eat opposed to having to decide portions and choices of proteins, vegetables, ect. They also offered easy to follow recipes for all the sauces and meals; this allows me to eat fresh tasty food and sub out things I may not like (like hearts of palm, yuck!). The food is a mix of veggies, meat, protein, and some starch.
Not only is this program going to help me get in shape but it’s also expanded my normal daily cooking. We are actually enjoying complete home cooked meals all week long. This weekend I made lemon-dill sauce, butternut squash soup, vegetable soup, roasted red pepper soup, and gazpacho. Tonight we are eating salmon (chicken for me) with lemon-dill sauce, wild rice, asparagus, and red pepper soup. The recipes were large enough that I individually froze each item by portion and will last us the first three weeks. I can simply pull out the sauce and warm it up while the chicken is grilling and we can keep dinner at the same time we eat now. Every meal throughout the week is different so I’m won’t be feeling like “this again”; after week 1 you copy the same schedule for week 2, 3, ect. There are three meal phases to the program and we are hoping to stay on this “fat burner” stage for 3-4 weeks. I’ll be excited when week 4 comes and a whole new set of recipes come.
I am filled with excitement and determination but at the same time scared to death! I know the work out videos are hard stuff and my doubts of even being able to finish Day 1 are starting to outweigh my optimism. This is a huge change not only for my diet but for my body. It’s used to eating sweets every day and taking an aerobics class twice a week; not ball busting sweat every.single.day for three months. This is day 1 of 90 but it’s also day 1 of the rest of my life. My eating/ exercise habits have to change because I don’t want to live like this anymore; and I’m hoping P90X will transform the exterior as well as the interior.

My goals for this week:
- To not break my diet one single time
- To workout every single day, even if I can’t physically do all the video demands
My 90 day goals:
- Loose 30 pounds! (yeah, that's right, 30!)
- Be able to do all the physical components of the hour long work out! (which includes pull ups!)
- Drop 2 sizes in my clothes; I would love to wear the 7 pairs of jeans that sit in the back of my closet collecting dust!
- Feel great about myself in a swimsuit!

[hooray]

1. Not only are peanut butter pockets great for a toddler on the go but there are also great for a diva-naught-sassy-I refuse to eat my healthy dinner- I throw my food when Mommy isn’t look- I don’t care if I get in trouble- I bang my cup with anger- wild toddler. Everyone should think about making them for days like this.

2. I made a great, big, alphabetical list of everything we need for our P90X meal plan and got a big slap in the face by Publix. You mean your store isn’t arranged alphabetically? You mean you don’t have dried soba noodles? You’re charging my how much for basil? You store has how many isles? Half way through the list I was an hour deep, defeated, broke, and exhausted. Before I go again this weekend the list will be changed so it’s arranged by appropriate isle and I will really evaluate what we can do without! If we bought everything on the meal plan for the next three months I might as well get liposuction because it would be cheaper.
3. Something about a buff dreaded young aerobics instructor that blares “crunk jams” makes Tuesday and Thursday nights a whole lot better. Rap so loud you can’t hear yourself think while getting low to the ground in a deep squat feels great! When we kick our knees as high as we can while leaning back and throwing our hands up makes me feel like I’m in a lil’ John music video…but don’t anyone.
4. We drove home from daycare Wednesday with Moses casually throwing his hand up for a quick wave while he (in a sing songy voice) told the passing cars “Hi”.

Kelli makes my belly jelly!

A looong time ago I mentioned having a great cook (and women) write a guest post about something we all love; food! Even though I don’t know Kelli all that well she is someone I look up to and respect; she’s a pastor’s wife, resilient, a lover of God, and great cake baker, and an all about lovely person. Over on her blog she posts very straight forward recipes she cooks for dinner (lucky husband); most of them I’ve never heard of but look tasty. When we were discussing what recipes she was going to give me she mentioned she was making an avocado pie soon….yeah….she’s brave! The dessert she picked is great for these hot Florida summers! Enjoy!

Mini Key Lime Pies with Chocolate Graham Cracker Crust

Ingredients:

¾ cup key lime juice (or regular lime juice)
4 egg yolks
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 stick butter, melted (plus some for greasing pans)
1 sleeve chocolate graham crackers
Crust:

Place one sleeve of graham crackers into food processor. Pulse until very finely ground. Pour in 1 stick of melted butter and pulse to combine. Brush two muffin tins with melted butter. Place 1 tablespoon full of mixture into each muffin cup and press to form crust. (It will not be all the way up the sides.)

Filling:

In a mixing bowl beat egg yolks until smooth. Add the sweetened condensed milk and lime juice. Mix together until creamy. Pour app. Two tablespoons mixture into muffin cups. (I used a large cookie scoop.) Bake at 325 degrees about 15 minutes, until filling is set. Refrigerate at least one hour.
Enjoy!

Top with your favorite whipped topping and enjoy!!

*For a lighter option try using fat free sweetened condensed milk. You won’t be able to tell the difference!

Taste the salty air.

Our weekend was spent childless is Destin enjoying everything it has to offer. We were going as part of hubby’s birthday-week-of-celebration.

My happy birthday boy!

Yes, that’s right, he feels the need to celebrate all week long! We were fortunate enough to stay at a condo right on the beach and wake up to the true emerald coast’s green and blue water and do, well, whatever we wanted! It’s so easy to fall back into the self-centered patterns of a kid free life which include staying up till 5 am because no one is calling your name to get them out of their crib at 7 am or eating at a loud Irish bar without asking if they have a kids menu or high chairs. By Sunday afternoon we couldn’t wait to see Moses and actually had an entire discussion revolving around who gets to hold him first and whose car he would ride home in. A friend- couple of ours were able to join us for the weekend as well as one of Davy’s best friend and girlfriend who live 15 minuets from our condo.

Our out of town friends!

I loved having hours of girl time while hanging with our men; friend- couples are great. The weather was nice enough to take the boat out which ultimately was an awful idea for me because I got motion sickness a lot quicker than I thought I would and spent half the time forcing my thoughts to pretend I was on land. All the moving around on the boat and floats caused my sunscreen to rub off and I’m pretty sure I’m still getting sunburned by the florescence bulbs today. No Destin trip would be complete without a trip to the outlet mall; within two hours of arriving I had both arms full of clothes to try on and by the end of the weekend racked up some great deals. I am seriously contemplating taking Saturday trips down there every couple months to stock up on Gap and Banana Republic because I have never found such great prices in town. Our goal is to make it back down there before it gets cold and take Moses so he can share in our amazing time!  

Our lunch table :) (be jealous)

Ps. For any locals wanting to head to Destin it is for the most part oil free. They do have those $18-an-hour-oil-workers stretched across the beaches in case tar balls float ashore but the sand is still fluffy white, the water still blue, and the beach life is still beautiful!