Weekend Love

It has been a very good weekend.  And the best part - it isn't over yet thanks to President's Day.

Friday night I watched my nephew wrestle at his sectional tournament. The wrestling continued on Saturday, but I didn't go the second day (more on that later). It was a tough, tough bracket. My nephew ended up being the alternate for the state competition. He will go next weekend, but will only get to wrestle if one of the guys from his sectional can't for some reason. I would love for him to get the chance at state, but I certainly am not hoping someone else can't. I am super proud of him and how much he is improving. Last year he made it to sectionals, but was out the first night. Can't wait to see what happens next year.

Saturday, I wanted to stay home because it was Valentine's Day and I wanted to spend some time with my husband.

** Quick Valentine tangent. I completely understand the "we celebrate love on every other day we don't need to be told to celebrate it on a designated day" philosophy. But with that being said, I don't see anything wrong a little Valentine fun. We are by no means over the top celebrators, but there were cute balloons, dinner out and sweet cards. Until I met my husband (at 40 years old) I had never really celebrated Valentine's Day as a couple, and I certainly would like to enjoy it now.

Okay, off the tangent.... My husband is a bus driver and had taken a group of students to an event at a local university on Saturday. He then had to wait there all day to drive them home. Often on trips, he just sits on the bus and waits. He takes our kindle so he can read or play games. Either he takes his lunch or goes to get something to eat. I decided I would go visit him while he waited to keep him company and have a little Valentine fun. Our niece was hanging out with me, so we plotted a little surprise. First we made these little goodies.
 

They are made with cheddar cheese and red grapes. We only made one for each of us. The cheddar was aged and a little dry (and completely delicious). We had a little trouble putting the toothpicks through the cheese without it crumbling. It turned out to be the perfect little treat.

My niece and I packed a tote full of various games to play. The rule was that my husband could choose the order of the games, but he had to play each one at least once.  He is such a good sport. There was plenty of laughing. Picture my husband with a card on his forehead that says "I am a turkey."

We picked up Subway sandwiches for lunch, Since we were trying to "be good" there weren't any decadent treats :(

I knew the university has a bowling alley on campus that is open to the public. We surprised my husband with a couple of games. The first game we played straight - none of us are great bowlers. To spice it up for the second game we played each frame with a twist. We bowled left handed, granny bowled, hopped to the foul line on one foot, covered our eyes before we threw the ball...it was some extreme silliness.

Not sure why we thought this was a good idea. And by the way, if you have your hand over your eyes you can't see that your husband is taking pictures.

 We had so much fun even the scoreboard didn't want us to leave.

On our way out we noticed a little arcade room. And look what we found!!! I got completely schooled...hubby's got game.

It was a wonderful day...full of love.

No Sweets February Update - Day 15:  I succumbed this afternoon. I ate a an ice cream sundae. For the past week I have been thinking about sweets non-stop. I found my self constantly trolling for some sort of snack because I was never satisfied. I finally decided I wanted to have something sweet and get over it. I decided on ice cream. My husband drove me to Dairy Queen. At the moment I started to order, I told my husband to drive away. I couldn't do it. Nothing on the menu really seemed like what I wanted. On the way back to the house I tried to think of alternatives. So what did we do? Drove to the Dairy Queen in the opposite direction. Yes, we live about equal distance from two Dairy Queens - life is rough! I got the Brownie Earthquake sundae. If I have any regrets about breaking my sweet fast is that I didn't stop eating the sundae about halfway through. It just wasn't as delicious after the first few bites.

Tonight we are hunkered down at home waiting for the blizzard. Depending on which apocalyptic Facebook post you believe we are expecting up to 8 inches of snow before it ends tomorrow sometime. I am hoping we get enough to go sledding. We haven't been sledding the past couple of years. The good snow always seemed to happen on work days. We are both off tomorrow so I have my fingers crossed!

What Am I Doing?

Saw this on She's a Big Star yesterday. Thought it would be a fun Friday post. 




Making...these little treats for my husband for Valentine's day. I might use red grapes instead of tomatoes.

Drinking... water, always water.  I gave up Diet Coke two years ago. I still have an occasional sip of soda, but always regular so I have to account for the calories and don't let a bad habit return.

Reading... lots of blogs..current favorites include Finding the Skinny Geek Within, Running Just As Fast As She Can; One Crazy Penguin and Runs to Get Waisted. There are so many great stories unfolding out there :) 

Planning...to buy lots of underwear. Read an article in the paper that I can't stop thinking about. 

"When most good Samaritans reach into their wallets to help the needy, it’s usually for food, coats or shoes. One local woman, Nancy Taylor, becomes emotional when she thinks about a need that many others often don’t — underwear. To remedy that concern, she is working with the Community Hope Center in Cottage Hills to get people underwear who would otherwise not be able to afford it. She calls her new charity the Underwear Drawer.Taylor said Wednesday was the first day that she was able to give underwear to those in need and was moved to tears when recalling how happy the needy were to receive them.“It’s something new I created,” Taylor said. “There is a need for people to have underwear. People spend money on groceries and neglect underwear. So many children go to school with no underwear, and it makes me so upset." (True confession: I went to school many times without underwear - I was always scared someone would find out.)   

Wanting..my crazy pups to simmer down this morning. They have this play fight routine. The Rottweiler bites at the Dachshund's rear and the Dachshund says the most terrible things. 

A calmer moment.

Looking...forward to watching my nephew wrestle tonight in the sectional tournament. Good luck!!!

Playing...Crossy Road - takes me back to the Frogger days - I was never any good at it either. I am hooked on collecting all the characters. And that you can just play it for a few minutes at a time. I can relate to this character :)

Wishing... .we had a back door that leads into our fenced in back yard. Some mornings it is just too cold to stand outside and wait for our dogs do their business.

Enjoying...the house to myself. Every morning there is about an hour or so between when my husband leaves for work and when I have to leave. It is a nice time to blog, clean house, prep dinner, etc.

Missing...sweets.  I am almost half way through this month's challenge of no sweets. It has been particularly difficult the past few days with the inundation of Valentine goodies everywhere I look.
 
Waiting...for my fairy godmother to arrive.  

Wondering... if this will be the month I get pregnant

Loving... the whole blogging process and meeting so many great people around the country (and world). 

Marveling...at how my husband can be so diligent about diet and exercise. When he is in the zone there is no stopping him!

Needing.. .to spend some serious hours working on my "craft/junk" room. It looks like a super messy giant closet at the moment.

Noticing...weekends are too few and far between! Especially three day weekends. How are you celebrating Presidents Day? 

Worrying...that I will never get ahead at work. Just when I think my desk is getting unburied the next big thing is upon it. 

Feeling...loved.  Had a sweet evening with my honey last night.  Came home to the biggest bouquet of balloons (think Up), dinner out and a romantic screening of "Better Call Saul."

Now it's your turn... tell me one thing from the list above that you're 'currently' doing!

 

Weigh-In and Salty Thoughts

Feeling pretty good about my weigh-in today.  I lost .9 pounds. Anything less than a pound always seems like a bit of a disappointment to me considering how much I have to lose and how impatient I can be.  Truth be told, I am grateful to be heading in the right direction. The crazy gaining frenzy after the miscarriage freaked me out and made me even more sad. I was afraid I was going to gain everything back that I had worked so hard to lose last year. Talk about rubbing salt into a wound. I am still well over my October low, but I think I have, at least, conquered the uncontrolled gaining.

Much of that credit goes to my husband. My husband is back on track. And when he is on track there is NO messing around. He does his exercise and tracks his calories. This week it paid off big for him - he lost 7 pounds. I am super proud of him and thankful that his success rubs off on me too. I am benefiting from  not eating out or having snacks in the house. Of course, that is in addition to how loving and supportive he is of me :) 

I also give credit to my accountability group. One thing I have learned though, if I truly want my accountability to have an impact I have to be open and honest. I confess, there have been days when I am struggling and purposely don't tell them because I want to do what I want to do. I know that if I say "hey I need help with the sweets today" they will have a surprising influence that keeps me out of the candy jar (from hundreds of miles away!)  I love that I can go on our Facebook page in the morning and say "today I am going to do x" and later that day I will be checked in on. And if I tell them I am going to do or not do something I am so much more likely to succeed than if I just told myself.

The day before weigh-ins I am usually a little anxious about what I eat and do. I tell myself to just do it like every other day and it will all work out in the end. For the most part I do that, but after reading Mary's post on Runs to Get Waisted, I spent some time thinking about sodium yesterday.

I have heard people talk about limiting sodium or flushing with it out of their system with water (especially around weigh-in time.) I am curious about how much sodium really makes a difference to water retention. For example, I ate a Lean Cuisine (don't judge) with 660mg sodium (28% RDA). Would you expect something like that to affect a weigh-in?  Obviously, I wouldn't go to a Chinese buffet the night before weighing-in (I mean, I would never go, ever), but if you are within the RDA of sodium would you expect to see an affect?

Then say you did have too much salt, does drinking a tank of water really flush it out?  How long does it take all the extra water you drank to exit your body?


Yes, I know it is all about the downward trend in weight loss and obsessing about weigh-ins isn't my point. I am just curious because so many people allude to it and it makes me wonder how in tune with my body I really am.

I can say for certain when I am eating better and getting some exercise I definitely feel better and that is a win in itself.

February Summer

This weekend had the most unbelievable weather. The 60s in February - crazy! Just a few days earlier we had super cold weather and some icy road conditions.

Saturday morning I dropped my husband off at work and decided to beat the rush to the car wash. I had Millie with me and wasn't sure how she would react to being in the car while I was spraying it with the high power sprayer. I think she found it rather interesting.

Most of Saturday was spent indoors watching another wrestling tournament. This weekend was the regional competition. My nephew is on the left making his opponent work to try to stop him. He couldn't.

For 1st place, my nephew (in red) had to go against the 3rd ranked wrestler in the state. I was excited to see this match. They have met in the past and it hasn't been very close. My nephew has improved considerably in the past year and it really showed.

I would have loved to have seen my nephew beat him, but it was so much closer than last year. I was so proud that my nephew never gave up. He spent most of the third round on the verge of being pinned, but kept making moves like this to try to escape. I couldn't do that even without a 200+ pound guy trying to hold me down!

And this is what happens when you spend all day at a wrestling tournament.  Even the wrestlers need a nap. Truth be told I needed a nap too, but I pretty sure I would have been wedged in there for life if I tried.

Our niece spent the night with us and requested Dutch Babies for breakfast Sunday morning. I was a little nervous because I knew I would want syrup, but didn't feel like that fit my "no sweets" goal. I decided on a topping of fresh bananas and strawberries. It was super tasty. Did I miss the syrup? A little bit, but not much. Did I feel good about my choice? Absolutely :)

I was telling my niece (12 years old) about my sweet/salty snack cycle and how it made me eat even more. She suggested I just have one snack - Peanut M&Ms:) It is no accident those evil things were invented. For people like me.

Since it was such a beautiful day on Sunday we decided to go to the park to play Frisbee golf. Someone had the questionable idea to take Millie with us. I had a ball and a Kong Frisbee to keep her occupied, but the first time she saw my husband throw his Frisbee she went tearing across the course to grab it. It took a full-time puppy wrangler (me) to keep her out of the game.

With the perfect weather I couldn't resist grilling. We invited my in-laws over for lunch and grilled up a mini feast. I marinated chicken breast in two flavors of marinade. One was a garlic, rosemary, balsamic and the other was lime, garlic, dill. Both were tasty. We also grilled corn, asparagus, onions and mini peppers. I made some mac n cheese for our guests. Yes, there is a tiny bit on my plate, but the lean protein and fresh veggies are the stars.

I am pretty impressed with how well I am doing on my "no sweets" February goal.  It has been an entire week! I have not had one single bite of sweets - no cookies, no ice cream, no candy, etc.  I confess though, at this moment, given the opportunity, I could drop my face into a trough of brownie sundae and not look back. Thankfully, that trough is not available :)

Tackling Snacks

The past couple months seems to have been all about stumbling in my world. I am looking forward to the looking back and understanding that is was all just a part of my dance.

I feel really good about how February has started out. I haven't had any sweets since Monday. I had gotten into such bad habits of letting myself have sweets whenever I wanted. I would stop by the bakery to get one cookie and leave with 3 or 4. It seemed like I just couldn't get enough. The last thing I wanted to do was track my food because I didn't want to give up the goodies and I knew they were going to put me way over on calories or be super difficult to calculate calories, I seemed like I would get discouraged and give up anyway, so why bother?  I am still not tracking calories, but without the sweets I am much more mindful of what I am eating.

By eliminating all sweets I have immediately noticed that snack much less.  I am not in a pattern of sweet/salty/sweet/etc. In the past, I would buy a sweet snack and a salty snack at the same time because I knew if I ate one I would want the other. Snacking at work can turn into a problem quickly because I am alone most of the time. There is no one to know what I am eating all day. No one to make Piggy Anna behave.

Here is the snack going to work with me today - 1/4 cup natural almonds and a Cutie. I really like the combination. It satisfies both the sweet and salty even though the nuts are not salty and the Cutie is a bit tart.

My husband has gone back to tracking his calories, so that by default is going to help me. No more thoughtless eating out, keeping "bad" snacks in the house and making high calorie meals. I have to plan dinners that fit his calorie needs. At this rate, I think I might be tracking calories again soon :)  I am so thankful when my husband and I are on the same page. It seems nearly impossible for me to succeed without the support (words and actions) of the one closest to me.

We are back to walking (him- running) in the mornings. I can't wait until it gets light earlier, but for now it just feels good to be out there. I am doing 2 miles a day at a decent pace.

I have not been super successful on the weight loss challenge I am participating in. I was lost a bit, gained a bit, but this week I did lose again - 1.3 pounds :)  Hoping I can string together a few good weeks to finish the contest strong.

Bottom line  -  I am feeling hopeful that I may truly back to more dancing and less stumbling.

I would love more suggestions for satisfying snacks.

Sweet Victory

I am two whole days "sweet free." I will confess by evening I have been a bit crabby and craving the sweets. But I have resisted. Yesterday we spent all day with the funeral services for Sam. After the cemetery, we gathered for a dinner organized by a local church. After a draining emotional day, too long without eating and an incredible dessert buffet (nobody rolls out a spread of baked goodies like church ladies!) I am still shocked I resisted. It was a perfect opportunity to fall off the wagon and I am proud for staying strong.



Sam was a huge Ninja Turtle fan and just for fun I wanted to share a couple of the adorable cakes celebrating that love.

My Millie is as silly as ever. I don't understand how she could be remotely comfortable sleeping like this. Talk about a distorted body image :)

I am so eager for the longer days. I loved the sunrises when I was walking every morning last summer/fall. I miss seeing the neighborhood when I walk.  For now, I will have to rely on my senses. In this first picture, I was smelling someone's breakfast cooking.  FYI Sausage Fryer, it is was a tortuous smell for a hungry walker half a mile from home. I didn't know whether to walk fast or slow :)

In the next picture I am walking by a super loud garbage truck. There have been many mornings when those things have woken me up. Not today!  I was thankful for a chilly morning so I didn't have to hold my nose while I walked...summer garbage days can be pretty stinky.

I may not have had sausage for breakfast, but I did enjoy this steamy bowl of oatmeal with cinnamon and blueberries. I think I might want it for lunch too.

I am back to work today. I am a little nervous to be in an environment where I don't control the availability of sweets. I feel good about my plan and I can do this!

Rest in Peace

Today our friends had to do the unimaginable...they buried their 6 year old son. Ten months ago,his parents took him to the ER with abdominal pain. He was transferred immediately to St. Louis Children's Hospital. A large tumor was found on his liver, as were tumors on his lungs. He was diagnosed with Stage IV Hepatoblastoma - a childhood liver cancer. Sam then completed 18 weeks of chemo and had surgery to remove the tumor along with about half of his liver. The doctors were very optimistic and everyone celebrated. However, a scan in September indicated the tumor was back and more aggressive than ever. By late December they had run out of options. On January 28 his fight ended.  

An unbelievable number of people were touched by this sweet little imp. For months a special Facebook account has been flooded with pictures and stories of his antics...all in the midst of the greatest trial. His visitation and funeral were attended by hundreds eager to share how Sam had impacted them. 

Throughout his treatment Sam amazed people with his smile and his energy. His silliness could not be diminished. Just a couple weeks after his surgery, we went to the driving range with his family and Sam was right in the middle of the fun - he seemed complete unstoppable.

Sam mastered the art of the selfie. I believe everyone who knew him must have had at least one taken with his sweet smile.

 And he certainly wasn't afraid to use your camera to add more silliness when you weren't looking :)

"When you die, it does not mean that you lose to cancer. You beat cancer by how you live, why you live, and in the manner in which you live."

 -- Stuart Scott

Sweet silly Sam....you beat it.  Rest in peace.