Logging my food

Thanks for all the great feedback on my last entry (make sure you check it out if you haven't already... it's a giveaway!). I always thought I was boring you to death when I wrote about running, but it turns out quite a few of you enjoy reading about that--who'd have thunk it?!

For those of you that e-mailed me with requests for the cardiac special Peanut Butter Chocolate Cookies, I ended up posting the recipe. You can find it here.

I've been feeling so discouraged about my weight lately. I've been sitting between 145 and 150 for MONTHS. I haven't seen the 130's since before I went to Tennessee in April. I've been thinking about when I was actively losing the weight, and what I was doing then that I'm not doing now. I know it seems I'm always whining about this, but I WANT TO GET BACK TO GOAL. I don't know why it's so damn hard for me to just do it! I lost 125 pounds in 16 months... so certainly I should be able to lose the 20 I put back on. Right?!

I know that MANY of you can relate to this "Why can't I just effing DO IT ALREADY?!" feeling... I just wish we could come up with an answer!  Anyway, some differences between when I was actively losing and now:
*I was logging my food EVERY DAY. No matter what I had going on, I tracked my calories. No exceptions. And I stayed within my calorie limits--ALWAYS.
*I wasn't binge eating.
*I wasn't running as much as I am now (then: about 10 miles/week; now: 20+ miles/week)
*I was having much more dairy then (now I only consume dairy through cheese, and that's not very often). I think dairy is what caused me to get adult acne (or at least make it worse).
*I weighed in and posted that weigh-in every single Wednesday.

I think it's very clear to see what I was doing differently. But the part that I just cannot seem to get back into is my mindset. I'm having such a hard time with the same thing that so many of you ask for advice on: How to STAY motivated and follow through.  Anyone can count calories and eat right for a few days. It's the staying consistent part that trips 99% of us up!

The main difference in my mindset now vs. then is that I used to have two major goals: 1) To be PROUD of my pictures from the Indy 500 Festival Mini-Marathon (after 2008's and 2009's horrible "fat" photos); and 2) To lose 100 pounds in a year.

To be honest, the thing that kept me the most motivated was my annual Indy trip for the half-marathon. I kept remembering how awful it felt to be the fattest person in our group, to be one of the fattest people doing the race, to see guys checking out my friends and completely ignoring me. As vain as it sounds, I wanted to FIT IN and look like I belonged. THAT was my motivation for all the times that I wanted to quit and binge.

Indy 2009; Just in case you can't see me, I'm on the far left ;)

 I think that now, I'm having a hard time finding something like that to hold on to. I know that I look decent as a size 6, so what is the motivation to get back to a comfy 4? I'm the same size as a lot of my friends, so I "fit in". I can meet my running goals at this size. So where is the motivation to get back to goal??

Indy 2011

The ONE thing I can think of is that I want to be in People magazine's Half Their Size issue. Long before I started losing the weight, that was something I dreamed of. Remember when Oprah did those shows about that book The Secret? And everyone made those "vision boards" or whatever they were called? Well, I actually bought a small bulletin board, and the ONLY THING that I posted to it was the cover of People magazine's Half Their Size issue. Seriously. The ONLY thing.

Earlier this year, the PR Director of Sparkpeople asked me if I was close to reaching the half-my-size goal, because he wanted to recommend my story to People. The deadline came and went, and I wasn't there yet. However, he said I can always do it for next year--meaning I'd have to lose the weight by July 2012. Seeing as how I'm turning 30 in January, how awesome would it be to reach my goal weight and be selected for my wildest goal EVER (People magazine) to kick off my 30's?!

So I think I need to really focus on that, and do whatever I need to do to reach that goal. I need to keep in mind that I want THAT to happen much more than I want to eat _____ (fill in the blank). I have almost 4 months until my birthday, and I think it'd be awesome to reach goal weight by that time. Roughly 5 pounds a month is totally do-able. I just need to stay consistent and focus on my goal!

To accomplish this goal, I am going to have to go back to logging my food every single day. I'm also going to weigh-in every Wednesday and post a scale picture, like I did when I was losing the weight. If you notice that I don't do it, PLEASE call me out on it! I need to feel accountable to someone.

---

Okay, so I started today with a run. I only had 3 miles planned (taper week because I'm doing the 10-K race on Sunday). However, once I was out and running, I was feeling SO good, and the weather was SO nice, I decided to keep going... and I wound up doing 8 miles! I actually wanted to keep going, but I didn't want to do too much before my race. Let me be clear that it is VERY RARE that I truly enjoy running like that. I think I'll take tomorrow or Wednesday off to get an extra rest day in this week.

I came home and made a pumpkin smoothie for lunch, which turned out gross--I'm sure it's because I put yogurt in it, and you know how much I hate yogurt. I thought the other ingredients would cancel out the taste, but they didn't. The reason I was using yogurt in the first place was because I accidentally froze my almond milk. It was in the way back of the fridge, which is cold enough to freeze almond milk, apparently. I thawed it out, and it looked nasty--curdled and like water with chunks of white in it.

Yep, I went grocery shopping after that.

And I even carried all 14 bags of groceries and a gallon of milk from the car to the house in one trip. I totally felt like a rock star when I did that. I was bummed that nobody was here to clap for me.

---

Do you try your damnedest to carry all your groceries into the house in one trip? Jerry always tells me that it would just be faster to just take three separate trips, because I spend so much time meticulously placing bags on my arms and figuring out how to carry it all at once without breaking the eggs or smashing the bread.

---

Continue Reading...

My first giveaway! (NuNaturals)

You guys, I'm so excited to be hosting a giveaway! As I mentioned, NuNaturals generously sent me some Stevia products to try out. As someone who despises sugar substitutes, I was very skeptical about whether I would like these products; in fact, I actually tried Stevia before (years ago) and wasn't crazy about it.

But after trying out these products in tea, cookies, smoothies, and oatmeal, I was pleasantly surprised at how good it is!

I am really psyched to be able to host a giveaway, courtesy of NuNaturals. Not just one, but FOUR of my readers will be randomly selected to win the following:

1 (50 count) box of NuStevia Packets

AND

One (2 oz) bottle of Vanilla Stevia liquid

I've been using the Stevia packets in tea, and adding the Vanilla Stevia liquid to smoothies and oatmeal.

Anyway, this contest is open to Continental U.S. residents only (sorry!), and I'm making it very simple for you to enter. As I've mentioned before, I'm not desperately trying to increase the number of readers of my blog or anything, so I'm not requiring you to post about this on your blog or on Facebook or Twitter (I don't even have a Twitter, actually). Of course you are welcome to share this giveaway any way that you wish, but it's not required to enter.  I would love to see some loyal readers win this stuff ;)  All you have to do is:

*Leave me a comment on this entry, telling me what you enjoy reading about on my blog or what you'd like to read more about (I'm looking for feedback so I can have some direction on future blog posts).  If this is your first time seeing my blog, please tell me how you found me!

The contest will run starting now through October 7, 2011 (that's this Friday) at 11:59 PM.  I'll randomly select the winners and announce them on Saturday, and I will need you to e-mail me your info, so I can pass it along to NuNaturals.

Regardless of the giveaway, you can send for FREE SAMPLES right now--you can find instructions how to do so here.

NuNaturals is also offering a discount when you order from their website--At the checkout page, you should enter this code :  BLG1211, and you will receive a discount of  -15% on your total order.  And, you will also get FREE SHIPPING to the Continental U.S. on all orders totaling $35.00+, after the special discount. This offer ends December 31, 2011.

Keep in mind that there are FOUR winners and I don't exactly have a huge following of readers, so your chances of winning are pretty good ;) 

Continue Reading...

A relaxing Saturday... to the 10th power

My main goal for today was to do absolutely nothing. I've been feeling crappy lately (mood-wise, not health-wise) and I just wanted a day to have nothing planned. We had no plans of going anywhere, so I took a couple of Xanax (I couldn't sleep much last night because I was so anxious--about nothing, as usual). After playing what felt like a hundred games of Go Fish with Eli all morning, I actually felt like doing some housework.

I tackled a big task--cleaning my pantry. I have a really big pantry--it's 12 feet by 4-1/2 feet. When we chose the layout of our house, there was a room between the kitchen and the master bedroom called a "sunroom". I thought that was really stupid--what the heck does one do with a sunroom?! So I had them split it down the middle, and half became a pantry, and the other half became a walk-in closet for the master bedroom.

Lately, we've been throwing all kinds of stuff in there--the vacuum cleaners (why we have two, I don't know), broom, mop, recycling bin, etc. And Paolo has been sleeping in there. So today, with Eminem for company, I cleared it all out, swept and mopped the floor, and kept most everything off the floor. Now it looks like this:

I know it's not entirely organized, but it looks MUCH better than it did before--and of course I didn't think to take a before picture.

While I was doing all this, I decided to have a glass (or two) of Chardonnay, which just made the task more fun. ;)  I also may or may not have made a batch of chocolate peanut butter cookies... that look like THIS:

That may or may not be a layer of peanut butter filling inside of a chocolate/peanut butter cookie. And that plate may or may not hold what is left of a batch of 20 or so cookies. For the record, I chose to count said cookies as my dinner--not that it minimizes the damage. My kids may have eaten some too!

It would be really wrong to post this hypothetical recipe on my "healthy" recipes blog, so I won't. But if you really want to clog your arteries, I can e-mail it to you.

While I was cleaning out the pantry, I came across this soup that has been there for nearly a year:

Now, I won't mention any brands (ahem, Healthy Choice)... but THAT SOUP is the reason I refuse to eat canned soup anymore. When I broke my jaw last November, a church was super nice to give us a bunch of food (since Jerry took a few weeks off work to care for me, and money was tight). There were two containers of this soup. When I ate the first one, I found something that made me decide that I was never again going to eat canned soup:

Yep, that would be a piece of "chicken" in the chicken noodle soup. I'm kind of repulsed by chicken as it is, but seeing that just confirmed that it truly is disgusting.  On the rare occasion that I make chicken, I "trim" it so much that I probably waste about half of the meat--but I make sure to get rid of every speck of fat and connective tissue.

I also decided to do something about my hair today, that has been in desperate need of a haircut for, oh, eight months now. Instead of dragging my kids to a salon, I just watched some youtube videos and cut my own hair. It was much easier than I expected, and I think it looks decent--you really can't tell that I cut it, which is what I was going for. My hair is super thick, so I can't just cut straight across--I have to cut layers. I really just wanted to get rid of the split ends. I think I may go to a salon sometime before Sarah's wedding. I'd like to get a couple of pink hair extensions to match my dress ;)

I'm going to be posting my first giveaway soon (possibly tomorrow!) so make sure you check back for that.

Continue Reading...

It IS possible

The other day, when I asked if anyone was planning on doing the Indy 500 Festival half-marathon next year, I got some responses that said there was no way they could do a half-marathon by May. I just wanted to convince you that you CAN do it. You may not be running it, but you can certainly be prepared to walk it!

I am so passionate about this particular race, because it is the race that changed my life. That was the goal I placed so much focus on while I was losing weight. I wanted to have pictures from the race that I could be PROUD of, so I kept trying. And I did it!

My first time doing the race was 2008. I was about 207 pounds at the time, and I didn't do ANY training for it. I figured, "I know how to walk, so of course I can walk 13.1 miles!" And it was a HORRIBLE experience because of the fact that I didn't train for it. Even though it was "just" walking, it does a number on your body!

The next year, 2009, I weighed my heaviest--253 pounds. However, I had learned my lesson in 2008, and I trained very well for it. I followed Hal Higdon's walking program for a half marathon, and I completed the race feeling much better than the previous year, despite being heavier. However, when I saw those pictures, I was HORRIFIED at how I looked, and they later became my official "before" pictures for weight loss.

And you know the rest of the story. I lost 88 pounds before doing it again in 2010, and knocked about 30 minutes off of my finish time. I still wasn't a runner, however. I walked the whole race. After that race, I made a goal to run the next year's race. And I did, finishing in 2:10:40!

So my whole point is, if I could do this race at my heaviest, you can certainly do it, too. It's a great race for a beginner, because the whole course is very flat. It's also the largest half-marathon in the country, with 35,000 participants. There are THOUSANDS of walkers, and there is no shame in walking it. There are tons of bands set up along the entire route, and thousands of spectators that cheer you on.

See that glass walkway waaaay in the back? That's where I was ;)

I just posted the blog posts that I wrote back in 2008, 2009, and 2010... so you can read those to get a feel for what the experience was like. I wish I had been more detailed in the first two years.

---

Thank you so much for your nice comments yesterday about my depression and anxiety. I realize that I'm not the only one who goes through this, unfortunately. It was interesting to learn that I'm not the only one who gets the lump in my throat for weeks on end.

---

I had the most interesting breakfast today--and it was delicious!! I wanted to try one of the NuNaturals recipes, so I picked out a chocolate smoothie recipe that sounded good. I made the smoothie and it tasted just like melted chocolate ice cream(!!) and then I had the idea to make a peanut butter bowl and pour the smoothie into that to eat with a spoon.

This recipe used the NuNaturals vanilla Stevia drops and the cocoa bean extract drops, but I imagine you could make any chocolate smoothie recipe you like and then pour it into a peanut butter bowl--I can't believe I never thought of that before!  Seriously, chocolate + peanut butter was a gift from God.

---

I've been thinking about going back to doing weekly weigh-ins on Wednesdays. Remember how I said I was only going to do them once a month, on the 19th? Well, the 19th came and went and I completely forgot about it. I need to feel accountable, even though my weight isn't budging much from 148. So I will weigh-in on Wednesday and post it. Please call me out on it if I don't do it!

---

Continue Reading...

The lump in my throat

For the past five years or so, every so often I get what feels like a lump in my throat. Sometimes, it's so bad that I worry my throat is going to close up and I won't be able to breathe. I've been to a couple of different doctors to see what's going on, thinking the worst (throat cancer?) but they've never been able to find anything that is wrong with me. It usually lasts for about 3-6 weeks at a time, and then one day I realize it feels normal again.

About a year ago, I discovered what causes it. Depression + anxiety.

Source

I've mentioned before that I've had depression for many, many years (since I was about 11 years old). The anxiety started about 8 years ago. The one thing that I have such a hard time explaining is that my depression and anxiety is not TRIGGERED by anything--it's always there, lurking in my head, and sometimes it just gets really bad for no reason at all. I know that I sound like a nutcase because I honestly have no real REASON to be depressed or anxious. I had a great childhood, have a great family and life right now... I just think this is something I'll always have to deal with.

Anyway, I discovered that when my depression and anxiety get really bad, I get a lump in my throat that stays for a few weeks. In fact, I sometimes feel like maybe I'm getting sick (sore throat) but I don't get other symptoms, so I realize it's just the "depression lump". I can take Xanax for anxiety, but it doesn't make the lump go away.

Anyway, the lump appeared once again, and I've spent the last couple of days feeling really down about everything. Jerry came home from work early yesterday (it was overtime, so there wasn't a penalty for him) because I was feeling really upset--for no reason at all! I've been constantly worrying about my flight to Arizona in a couple of weeks, so that could be a trigger, I guess.

Anyway, I don't want to sound like a total Debbie Downer, so I won't keep talking about it. But if my posts aren't very happy, that's why. I'll return to normal soon--I always do! ;)

---

In good news, I reached two big milestones during my six-mile run today! I don't know if anyone actually looks at the running stats on the side bar of my blog, but I've been approaching 1,000 miles run total. That total includes every run I've done since I started running in 2009.

It definitely seems like I should have reached that number a looong time ago--I've logged every single run I've done!  A lot of runners log over 1,000 miles a YEAR--and there are plenty that log thousands. But anyway, this was a fun milestone to reach. (For perspective, you'd have to run 2.74 miles EVERY DAY to reach 1,000 miles in a year. In the 18 months that I've been running, my average works out to 1.86 miles per day.)


Another milestone was that this month, I've run more miles than I ever have before. My previous record for one month was October 2010, when I ran just barely over 100 (less than 101). This month (not including tomorrow's 4-mile run) I've run 103.2 miles.

It's interesting, because I am running more for 10-K training than I did for half-marathon training. The intermediate 10-K program is definitely more involved with more mileage and speed work than the beginning half-marathon program. The only change I made to the program I'm doing now is that instead of racing a 5-K midway through the training, I just kept increasing my long run by a mile each week--this week I did 10 miles for the long run.  I want to keep running a lot through October, so that I'm in great shape when I go in for my tummy tuck.

---

Did anyone watch the season premier of the new show called Suburgatory? I LOVED IT!! It's so completely sarcastic, which is definitely my kind of humor. Jerry and I both laughed so hard while watching it--it actually pulled me out of my funk for half an hour, which was nice. There are quite a few new shows on this fall, and I'm going to have to be choosy about what I watch--I think I watch entire too much TV in the fall! ;)

---

Continue Reading...

Date night

Jerry and I actually did end up going out last night. We went to dinner at Red Lobster (I've been craving that for a looong time). It was such a strange experience, because I actually felt like a normal person in a restaurant. Usually, I'm either dieting or bingeing due to my all-or-nothing mentality. I eat like a horse or I eat like a bird.

Last night, I decided to just eat normally without putting too much thought into it. I knew I didn't want to leave the restaurant feeling stuffed, like I have in the past, so I kept that in mind. I ordered what sounded the best to me--shrimp scampi and shrimp linguine alfredo. Instead of getting a heavy side (because I didn't want to feel super full) I got broccoli. When I ordered my shrimp, the waitress said, "If you get the all-you-can-eat shrimp, it's $1 cheaper."

Oh, come on, now!

So I thought for a second and then said sure--not because I wanted to pig out, but because I know that the all-you-can-eat portions are usually smaller. And of course I'm going to get the one that's cheaper!  I ate half of my caesar salad and one biscuit (in the past, I would've eaten the whole salad and a whole basket of biscuits, with an appetizer, followed by a huge plate of food, and dessert). I ate my meal slowly, and I stopped before I was stuffed. I ate all of the linguine (about 1 cup) and all but 4 of the shrimp scampi (probably 8 shrimp); and a few pieces of broccoli. I was full, but not uncomfortably so.

I went home feeling so GOOD about the whole experience--which to a normal person, probably sounds ridiculous. I actually made decisions based on how my body would feel with it; that is some good progress! Like I've mentioned before, we very rarely go out to eat, so I haven't had much experience eating out since losing the weight.

---

Anyway, today I got a package in the mail! About a week ago, NuNaturals contacted me and asked if I wanted to try out some of their stevia products (no strings attached). I know that a lot of bloggers get free stuff from companies hoping to promote their products, but this was a first for me. I'd only tried stevia once, years ago, and wasn't crazy about it. It's pretty expensive, so I didn't buy any after that. But to try it out for free? Sure! As long as I get to write my HONEST opinion about it on my blog, I'll try pretty much anything.

They sent me way more than a sample...

All those products plus a ton of recipes. I was excited to try it out right away. I found a recipe for chocolate peanut butter cookies (you all know my love affair with cookies, and chocolate + peanut butter? yes please!)  The best part is that the recipe only made 6 small cookies, so I wouldn't be eating a whole batch ;)

The recipe called for 1/4 cup of the baking blend, which apparently measures the same way you'd measure sugar, (plus flour, peanut butter, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder, egg white).

I was on the phone with my mom, so I got distracted and forgot to taste the dough (doh!!)  ;)

Jerry was here and willing to try the cookies as well. I definitely tasted the stevia (which, no matter what anyone says, does not taste the same as sugar) but I actually really liked the cookies. The stevia was most pronounced in the first two bites or so, but after that (I ate two of the cookies) I quit thinking about the stevia and just enjoyed the cookie.

Jerry said, "It tastes kind of healthy. But I like it." and then a few minutes later, "Yeah, I like these a lot!" My kids came home and each ate one, and they liked them--which really surprised me. Every time I make "healthy" treats, my kids sense it and tell me it's gross. I kept waiting for them to say, "Eww, what's in these cookies?" but they just asked for another. I think maybe I'm just hyper sensitive to the taste of sugar substitutes. I've never liked Splenda or any of the artificial sweeteners. I'm definitely going to try out some more of the recipes with the stevia, though.

---

Have you tried stevia? What do you think of it?

---

Continue Reading...

Running partner

Today I had an "easy 3 miles" on the schedule.  My friend Andrea asked me if I wanted to meet her at the State Park to run with her, so I said sure. I've only run with someone once before--I'm definitely a solo runner--but I thought it would be fun.

We met at the park, and did the 5-K loop. I was running faster than I normally would have (especially considering the 10 miles I ran yesterday!) but I wanted to let Andrea set the pace because the last time she ran was early springtime, and she knew it was going to be rough on her. We chatted for about the first mile and a half, but she was struggling a little after that, so we didn't talk much. We finished the 5-K loop in 30:02, which I thought was fantastic for her not having run in months (and that included two walk breaks)!

Having someone to run with actually made the time go by much faster. And I wasn't a paranoid freak the entire time about getting attacked in the middle of the woods (when I run alone, my imagination gets a little wild). We might go again on Thursday; I'll have to do an extra loop before she gets there to get in my 6 miles.

I counted calories yesterday, and so far I'm doing well today. Lately, it seems like I only make it a few days before I quit counting. I've been bouncing around the upper 140's for MONTHS now. I was really hoping to get into the 130's for Sarah's wedding, but that isn't going to happen. Thankfully, I've been running a lot lately, which is keeping the food damage to a minimum.

I have to quit relying on my running, though, because once I get my tummy tuck, I'm not going to be able to run for weeks--and I think you know how much damage I can do in several days, let alone weeks! ;)  I don't have anything else going on until the wedding, so I have no excuse to get off track! I'm actually looking forward to the ice cream shop closing for the season, because Reese Cup Flurries are going to be the death of me.

My kids are spending the night at my parents' house tonight... so that means date night with my husband! I doubt we'll go anywhere, though. Usually, date nights consist of watching one of "our" shows (The Biggest Loser tonight) with a drink or two.

Continue Reading...

Double Digits

Thankfully, I'm not talking about my dress size or anything! Just my dreadmill--the stupid machine saw DOUBLE DIGITS for the first time ever today!  Ten miles scheduled, and of course it would be pouring rain again. However, after I managed to run nine miserable miles on the dreadmill last week, I figured one more this week was certainly do-able. I set it at 6.0 mph for the duration, and found that pace easy.

At mile 7, I realized why it was so easy. I forgot to set the damn incline! I NEVER do a 0% incline. When I'm running, I set it at 1% to make it feel a little more like running outside. When I realized it was on 0%, I bumped it up to 2% for the last three miles.

A couple of people have asked me lately about my treadmill. It's called an Epic TL1700, and I bought it at Sam's Club for $600 (now it is $650). I've mentioned before that I like to buy my expensive purchases from Sam's Club because if something goes wrong with it, they have never refused a refund (in my experience). I feel "safe" spending a lot of money there. They don't have a huge variety to choose from, but the things they carry are always good quality. 

Things I like about this treadmill:  The speed goes up to 12 mph and incline goes to 12%--most treadmills in this price range only go to 10. It's quiet compared to other treadmills I've been on. It doesn't take a doctorate degree to figure out how to use it. It feels sturdy and of good quality. The buttons to change the speed or incline are one-touch--meaning you don't have to press an "up arrow" or "down arrow" for a long time to change speed/incline. Just push one button and it changes to the speed/incline that you want. It has speakers for your mp3 player, so you don't have to wear earphones. The preset workouts make the time go by faster if you don't feel like running for 30 minutes straight.

Things I dislike:  If you accidentally pull the emergency cord while running, there is no way to recover the info from your run. When doing a manual workout, you can't set it to count DOWN the miles--it only counts up (when running 10 miles, it'd be nice to see it count down!)  When viewing past workouts, you can't see the actual number of minutes you worked out--it's shown in hours. So, if you run 20 minutes, it shows 0.3 hours--get it?  There is no book/magazine rest.  It's not SUPER quiet--I still need the TV on as loud as it goes to be able to hear it over the treadmill.

That said, I haven't used all the features on it. You can use the iFit workout cards with it, which I've never tried. But I would definitely recommend this treadmill--as much as I love to hate it! It's great for someone who wants it for running/walking without all the bells and whistles that you pay an arm and a leg for (like a built-in TV).

I was catching up on my Google Reader this morning, and I'm feeling SO left out! It seems like everyone is training for a fall marathon except me. Lots of people did their 20-mile training runs Sunday. The marathon/half-marathon that I had my sights on happens to be the same weekend as the wedding I'm in on October 15th--and considering I'll be in Arizona, I obviously won't be able to do it. I really hope to be able to run the full marathon next year; I just hate feeling out of the running loop right now :(

Has anyone else registered for the Indy 500 Festival Mini-Marathon next May? I, of course, registered as soon as I got home from the last one. I got a few e-mails from people who were interested in doing it in 2012, so I was just curious if any of my readers are going to do it. It ALWAYS sells out, so if you plan on it, make sure you register ASAP--and then let me know, so maybe we can meet up! ;)

Continue Reading...

Surprise party

My dad's surprise party went off without a hitch yesterday. He was genuinely surprised, and I think everyone had a good time. Despite the prediction of rain yesterday, we actually had good weather.

Jerry took the kids with him to the park to help set up tables, so I was able to get ready by myself, which was nice. My "job" was to pick up Mark from the group home on the way to the park. Mark is a 54-year old man that we met when we lived about 20 minutes from here. He lives in a group home because he is intellectually disabled. I think if he had grown up in a "normal" environment, he would probably be able to live on his own, but he was orphaned very young and only went to school through  (I believe) second grade.

This is an old photo of Mark and me, but I don't have any current ones of him

My dad always used to see him walking around smoking cigarettes, and he would stop and talk to my dad sometimes. My dad then started buying him a carton of cigarettes once in a while, which Mark thought was really cool (his money at the group home is rationed, and cigarettes aren't high on the list, haha). Anyway, when we moved out here where we are now, my dad started picking up Mark from the group home now and then to go fishing. Mark's birthday is on Halloween, and every year, we have him over to my parents' house and we celebrate his birthday before handing out candy for Halloween.

Mark really looks forward to being able to go somewhere, so of course my mom invited him to the party. I picked him up from the group home, and the woman working there said, "Now Mark, you CANNOT SMOKE. If Katie sees you smoking, she's instructed to bring you right back here."  Mark has asthma and apparently he's been sneaking cigarettes lately.

Even though I'm totally anti-smoking, I believe Mark is an adult and can make that decision for himself, so I felt kind of bad for the way she was talking to him. As soon as we got to the park, he saw someone else smoking, and he bummed a cigarette! I just said, "Mark, I'm going to pretend I don't see you smoking right now, but don't let it happen again, okay?" Hahaha.

Wow, this entry is going to be a mile long if I don't stick to the subject.

My dad is huge into fishing, so that was the theme:

Peanuts in a minnow bucket on each table

Dirt cake inside of worm containers

My mom's friend made his cake

There were quite a few people there when my dad showed up with my sister. He was completely surprised (as evidenced by his clothes--if he knew it was HIS party, he probably would have dressed nicer, or at least matched his shirt to his pants!)

I saw a lot of people that I haven't seen in a while. My aunt and uncle were shocked when they saw me, because the last time they saw me, I was 253 pounds. One of my cousins kept looking at me and then looking away, and then when I went to say hi, she said, "Oh, it IS you--I was trying to figure out who you were!" and she kept saying how "gorgeous" I was.

I think my favorite part of the day was getting our pictures taken by Renee--she's a photographer and lives next door to my mom. I don't have HER pics to post, but I have some that someone took with my camera. We got a sibling picture (my sister, brothers and me) and a pic with my parents. 

Brian, me, Jeanie, and Nathan (my siblings)

With my parents and Noah & Eli

Goofing around

I love the look on Nathan's face

A few of my cousins are cops, so when the cops showed up at the party, it wasn't necessarily a bad thing... ;)

Nathan, me, Jeanie, and Brian

Me and Jeanie

The cop was taking the pic, and I was a little late... but Nathan and Brian handcuffed themselves together and acted like they were running.

Nathan, Brian, Jerry, and I went for a walk on the railroad tracks through the woods. When I was a kid, we used to walk on those tracks all the time.

Jerry and me

After the party, we went back to my parents house to help unload everything. My dad opened his gifts and cards, and he got a TON of gift cards for Cabella's (an enormous fishing/hunting/sporting goods store). I was super exhausted and we went to bed by 9--lol.

I ate way too many desserts yesterday, and I definitely need to get back to counting calories today!

Continue Reading...

Kabobs

I could hardly sleep last night because I'm so excited about the news!! I woke up at 6, and it was raining outside--which wasn't cool, because I had a 4-miler on the schedule. I decided to just get up and do 4 on the dreadmill before the kids had to get up for school at 7. It felt like forever, but I was glad to get it done.

I got the kids ready for school and drove them to the bus stop (because of the rain). Then I went over to my aunt's house to put together some kabobs for my dad's 60th (surprise) birthday party tomorrow. My mom, two of my aunts, and Audrey (a family friend) were there to cut the veggies and meat, and then skewer it all. It was fun to chat, and we got everything done pretty quickly.

This is just a fraction of the total kabobs we assembled!

My mom is expecting about 80 people tomorrow. My dad is completely clueless! And for those of you that asked, no, my dad doesn't read my blog :)  Actually, nobody in my family does--and my "real life" friends don't, either (at least as far as I know). They know that I write, but nobody has ever asked for the address.

My sister is flying in tonight. Jerry and I are going to meet up with her and Audrey and Audrey's husband at a bar for Keno and the Tigers game. My older brother Brian is flying in tomorrow morning. And my little brother was able to get the day off, also. So the four of us will be together for the first time since last November, I think (when I broke my jaw).

Jerry just came home from work early, so I think I'll make dinner now. I'm sure I'll have lots to write about tomorrow after the party!

Continue Reading...