:o)

Hi guys.

I don't know what it is but I am in a SLUMP right now. A slump where I feel like doing....nothing.

I am currently re-evaluating a lot of things in my life and I just honestly don't feel like blogging about my food right now.

Honest truth. That's my reality. I do this EVERY summer. I go through a phase of low self worth and a feeling of failure. I think it's too much sunshine really. haha. All this sunshine and HEAT makes me FEEL like I should be cheery and happy...gosh it just makes me feel horrible. It's such a time of rebirth for my surroundings, however I always put a giant shell on and bury my soul deep with in myself....so that's where I am.
D will also have the camera this week in DC so I won't have pictures anyway. (not that I have been posting! haha)

I'll give you a "life" update though!

Let's see... You know we did all those house stuff. I have FINALLY picked out curtain fabric for the ENTIRE house!! (PRAISE GOD!!) It's been HARD since I'm picky.

I begin teaching a bible study in 2 weeks at my house which I am very excited about.

I have 8 million baby blankets to make since the entire world is having babies. Seriously.. honest to GOD I would have a baby right now if it would pop out a toddler. I just do NOT want an infant!! D and I have opened up the foster discussion once again. We really just need to go to a meeting and get it out of our systems!

My Papa gave us a lawn mower but it died upon one use. We don't buy anything on credit unless it's interest free so we have 12 months to pay for our new TORO mower! I might actually get on that thing! So that's exciting I guess.

We have a YARD SALE coming up in June, which is very exciting. I love my Yard Sales.. I go most Saturdays.

I need to find a time to have my in-laws over for a big Birthday Celebration but D is never off... so it's hard.

I have applied for an Adult Education job at the Community College.. fingers crossed and little prayers sent up would be appreciated!

Hmmm.. I go to the Dr. tomorrow to have my knees checked out. They're hurting like MAD lately making FIRMing very difficult. I suspect something new is torn. :(

Okay.. I think that about sums it up. I am still in a funky-funk.

Maybe I should change my blog to LIVING FREE FROM FAT FUNKY FUNK. Hmm. :o)

My Life= Crazy!

Hi Guys!! I should have known this would happen. Every Year when Spring Break hits.. it's as if the kids morph into gnarling monster's and time well... time is non existent in the "free" sense that is. Anyhow I am SO busy! With work, D having 2 jobs, my Papa and everything else, TRYING to keep up on working out my "free" "me" time is VERY low. My PLAN is to update my blog ONCE a week on SATURDAY'S through the month of May. I was telling D that with the stress that May brings in general (Lot's of B-day's, Mother's Day, END OF THE SCHOOL YEAR---that's number one, etc.) I simply CANNOT believe I negotiated buying a house this time last year. It's a TRUE miracle I made it through that one! haha!! So that's the plan STAN! :o) You're not really missing much right now. I am as always eating oats for breakfast like clock work.. except on the weekends when I eat a turkey bacon, egg, cheese sammie muffin OR cereal. My lunch is just as interesting as ever and since I am too busy to cook We eat a lot of subbies and I eat salads and potatoes! MMM! :o) Tomorrow night I AM finally cooking for D so I might throw up a little picture.. but it's his b-day celebration. And by celebration I mean I am baking a cake, cooking dinner, renting a movie and giving him a card.. lol. I haven't planned his "real" party yet. He's going to DC at the end of the month... that should be his party! lol. A week away from me!! I HAVE however stumbled across MANY fine funny things here in Hopkinsville...hehe.. you just wait!! Thanks for being troopers and understanding!! I have lost 2 more lbs.. Please.. do a happy dance for me. :o)

Longest Week Ever.

You heard that!!!

I'll be back after dinner with updates.

Can you say long day?

I can...times 2!! This has been the LONGEST week of my LIFE and it's not even over yet!!! Yesterday felt like 5 days in itself. I don't even want to talk about yesterday it was so bad.
Let's cut to the food.

Breakfast---BOTH DAYS chocolate banana oaties.

Lunch- Tuesday---I have no picture because as I was going to lunch I was told I had to give a student a test... I had to stop what I was doing, get the student and take him to lunch. Then take him BACK to a room where he could eat (he couldn't be around other kids since he hadn't taken the state test for the day) THEN march myself to the lounge and eat. When I sat down I realized I'd left my camera in the room. Do you REALLY think I cared at that point? Well no. OF ALL DAYS to forget the camera in the room too!! I didn't have the USUAL lunch! haha. I ate a salad with parm and honey mustard, 1/2 a can of tuna and yogurt with fiber one. I probably eat way more fiber one than I should with my yogurts. Darn that free sample! hehe! TODAY for lunch I had subway left over from last night. (sorry for the spoiler) I have a picture. check it out!! :o) Well... I just realized I left my camera at school!!! Pics will have to wait until tomorrow. :o(
Snack--- Luna Bars-- BOTH DAYS. I didn't have an extra afternoon snack either day because I didn't have time to grab one.

Dinner: TUESDAY: Subway. There was NO way I was cooking after the horrible day I had. Not to mention I got home after 7. D had McDonald's and I had subbie way. Turkey on Wheat loaded with lettuce and baked lays. I also had one of my bunny bars.
WEDNESDAY-- I cheated... big time. We had Mexican sooo I ordered what's called the Jalisco special. I thought it was just rice, cheese, chicken, with onions and peppers... but it also had steak and shrimp. I did a poor job reading that description. It came with 3 tortillas... yeah I pretty much ate it all. To top it off I had a JR. Frosty Dairy Dessert. EEEP! I'll walk extra tomorrow.

Today hasn't been that great either and I know with May just around the corner (literally) that the rest of my days and weeks will ONLY get harder. Please keep your fingers crossed that I find a DECENT summer job. :o) So far.. not so good.

the simple life.

This is what I want. A life of sewing and simplicity. I can dream right?

To start this not so simple Monday off, I had chocolate banana oaties that I ate at work so they were cold. To my surprise they were good cold! I mean I don't want to eat cold oats PURPOSEFULLY.. but if I had to again, it would be okay.

Lunch-- SAME OLE BORING LUNCH I ALWAYS HAVE. There were some rainbow goldfish in my mailbox today so I had those as well :o)

Snack-- Well my TEN cent Luna bar of course!!

Once I got home from school and the DR I had oh about 7 of those almond crisps, cheese and a scoop of peanut butter. I then did some laundry Watched Top Chef that I taped, talked to my Papa, STARTED my blog and oh! I fell asleep. As soon as I hit the chair I must have gotten cozy because I woke up later with the laptop in my lap! haha. Needless to say at 7:15 when I woke up I wasn't cooking dinner. D brought home McDonald's which was just smelly gross. I threw together a quick salad and had a burgie. I am addicted to these Blue bunny light creamy black raspberry bars!! Mmm! They're WONDERFUL!! Now off to find fabric to make these curtains!! Wish me luck!

And the weekend is over :(

Like everyone else in the world I LOVE the weekends and am always sad to see them go. Gosh.. where do I even begin to recap the last FOUR days?! I saw we skip Thursday and Friday, since they were work days and you know my routine by now and shoot to Saturday and today. Wait.. for lunch Friday I added an EGG ROLL from the cafeteria and Mmm!! It was well worth it! That would be the only change to my normal regime.

SATURDAY.

LOVE Saturdays. We did something Friday night that meant we didn't get to bed until late. Obviously it wasn't that fun because I can't remember what it was. I only mention this because I was planning to to yard sales Saturday but didn't think I would because I got to bed so late. The early bird came to visit me though!! I was up and ready to go buy stuff I didn't need! I did just that. Yard Sale monies spent: 4.75! Woo! I bought 12 dessert plates, a vase, a darling antique white bowl and an end table that needs some TLC. Snazzy.

Once I returned from the sales, I had banana rama chocolate oaties. Of course they were good. I have NOT kicked blue berries to the curb! oh no.. I can just never FIND them at the store. The rest of Hopkinsville must be on the South Beach diet (they use blueberries a lot) and so I can never find them. Frankly I became annoyed that I could never get them and stopped putting them on my shopping list all together. As for strawberries... Wal-Mart's are always gross looking and Kroger never has them when I go shopping. EVERYONE always has bananas!!

Lunch was SO GOOD. For Spring Break week, I bought Morning Star Veggie Corn dogs but never ate them since we ate out practically all week. Let me tell you... these are WONDERFUL. They taste JUST like regular corn doggies. I plan to try more things from the morning star line!! For dessert: a black raspberry blue bunny light bar or something like that.

I had a Mint Chocolate ZONE for a snack. OH YES!! I GOT CHOCOLATE PEPERMINY STICK LUNA BARS FOR TEN CENTS A BAR! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?! You have to know me to appreciate this. I am a BARGAIN shopper, a coupon clipper, super saver of a gal. However.. ANYONE would be excited about this find!!

Dinner was Cracker Barrel. What do I ALWAYS get at CB? Let the pictures do the talking.

I always find the weirdest things at Cracker Barrel. I swear these are the result of an LSD trip GONE bad!!

SUNDAY

I didn't feel like chocolate banana or banana cinnalove soooooo I made Brown Sugar/Cinnamon, banana love oaties. SO GOOD. my NEW FAVORITE!!! Very filling and DELISH!

For a quick snack before going to C-ville.. I grabbed a Land O Lakes Co/jack square and about five of my new almond crisp crackers. I will have to find out what these are REALLY called later! haha.

Lunch & Dinner: We went to Rafferty's since my entire family likes it. I ordered the club sammie with a baked potato and a house salad.
Here's my lunch portion (I only ate 1/2 of the potato) ----PICTURES WILL BE ADDED ONCE I RECIEVE THEM FROM MY CAMERA PHONE--------


and my dinner (minus the honey mustard and with I can't Belive it's Not Butter Spray)


and my dinner dessert!!



Feels good to be back on track AND have the house looking nice. Here's what I've been working on this weekend AND pictures of the bedroom. Enjoy!! Thanks by the way for the sweet comments about my personal pictures!! Amanda.. I WISH we could fly to Portland TOMORROW!!! I know we'll never want to leave!! eeep! Do you have room for us and two more cats?!

Much love.

:o)

I will have updates later this evening!!! (which means after dinner since I have a loaded day)

I've had loaded days this weekend!! That STILL hasn't stopped me from playing with bags on kroger.com. lol. Sorry I've been neglectful. See you this evening!!

I have GOT to get...

...BACK on TRACK!!!

Spring break got me SO out of whack. My eating, blogging, remembering to take pictures has all been jumbled! I think I have lost readers too.. which is really bad seeing as I didn't have many to start with. Oh well.. LIFE happens. sorry.

The post is late because I am doing 9,000 things for work right now. I have T-shirts for the kids, and 8 million little flyer things to make for teacher appreciation week. Well.. I guess that's really only two things but they're time consuming. I also had that church meeting tonight. I think I just FEEL overwhelmed because of all the things I NEED to do. Finnish the house (paint the brick on the living room and MAKE CURTAINS!) I also managed to donate our old door knob to the church (don't ask) so now I HAVE to paint the front door and change out the knob by Sunday. Hrm.

Okay let's talk about food.

BREAKFAST: Banana oaties! The bag method worked like a charm! No, it wasn't as ripe as I like however it was better than it would have been had I NOT used the bag-- so happy I was!

Lunch was not as good as yesterdays!! But who can really compete with a subway subbie?! I had My new VERY delicious bread with deli chicken, green peppers, yogurt with fiber one and about half of the chips you see pictured. I did NOT have to eat with little kiddie monsters today which was the REAL treat! :o)

Snack-- I ate the rest of my baked lays from lunch and a mini ZONE bar. I love these little Zone bars. I knew I had a lot to do when I got home so I grabbed a Happy Hour Diet Dr. Pepper from Sonic on the way home. I have phases where I crave soda... I am in one now DARN it. I am back sliding people. I crave all these sweet good foods and it needs to STOP. Gotta keep reminding myself of that. :o)

Dinner-- Oooh yes I indulged in my yummy food. I was PLANNING to have a grilled chicken salad. Using LEFTOVER grilled chicken from Tuesday night. Seeing as I had subway, I had no leftover chicken and I didn't have time to grill some before the thing at church. SO i ate what I took! It was SO good. I made Chicken Casserole, Hashbrown Casserole and my mom added Corn and Green Beans. Now, my mom also makes these casseroles but it's been decided by my family than when I make them they taste better. It's the extra love really. ha-ha. I forgot my camera at home :( Oh yes.. I also had a tiny piece of redvelvet cake D made and about a T of strawberry ice cream.

I have also attached pictures of the cuties I made for my work friends. Enjoy!! :o)

PS.
I know I still need to show you more pictures of the house! Hang tight, I will have those oh by at least Sunday.

FOUND!

My Camera! haha. Too little too late however. It WAS indeed at my parents house but neither of us had time to go get it until after dinner. Let's RECAP!

Breakfast---- BANANA OATIES!! I love my sweet oaties! We're fresh out of ripe 'nanas soo tomorrow I will have PLAIN cinnamon oaties?! I dunno how those will be. I think I am going to try putting a banana in a brown paper sack tonight. I hear that ripens them faster? We'll see.

Lunch--- LEFTOVER subway! This was my IDEAL lunch! With a sammie this wonderful UNDER 250 calories.. who can REALLY complain. Well.. I can! haha. I was SO full after lunch. I don't like feeling this way during my work day. After lunch I sat around like a lump for an hour. With my sammie I had baked lays and strawberry yogurt with fiber one. MmMm good!

Snacks-- Ugh. Another horrible bar. Zone Fruit Bar---Orange Cranberry. I REALLY hate to throw these things away because they're not cheap. $1.25 for a bar is high. However this tasted like ROTTEN O.J. I ate half of it and decided I had tortured myself enough. Out it went. When I got home I had a small snack size Zone Chocolate Bar. Much better.

Dinner-- SUBWAY AGAIN! lol. I didn't have time to cook tonight. Well let me take that back! We have a monthly women's meeting at our chuch and I have to cook for it tomorrow.. soo I made two casseroles for THAT however, didn't have time to cook anything for me and D. Tomorrow is also Secretary's Day and I just love all of those ladies at school so I made them all a little something. Anyhow.. I wanted a meatball sub this time. The calories weren't really that bad and I don't feel guilty. I ate my sub on wheat with cheese and a serving of baked lays.

That's all I have kids! Tomorrow I will have FUN FILLED PICTURES. I'll see what picture I can dig up for you. I am sure I have something interesting hidden on my computer!

A Kid took this picture of me in December '07. Obviously I was quite confused as to 1- why he had MY phone and 2- why a photo was being snapped of me!

And now.. after losing 30 + lbs----

Weight loss total: 35lbs! Just imagine if I had been working out this whole time. I need a good SHOVE out of bed in the AM.

MISSING!

My Camera! I seriously cannot find it! I guess I left it at my parents house last night. I have talked to both of them today and neither said anything about it. Hrm...

For dinner I had subway! Mmm! I REALLY wanted a meatball sub... but I resisted and had turkey on wheat instead. To be more specific---turkey, american cheese, loaded with lettuce only on wheat. I also had a serving of baked lays. Sorry this post is so late! My dad came to pick me up around 6:30 to go to Lowe's to pick up a door. I wanted a door to put up to the living room so the cats don't get in there when we're not home. I don't want them infesting my new furniture with kitty hair!! It IS spring after all and that means my cats "malt". Ugh. The WORST thing about cats... their dumb hair. I seriously want to shave them both and if I had my way--- they would be. I might just do it anyway. D can get on over it. :o) Okay so that's what it is until I find my camera!! Camera phone pictures are just plain crummy so why bother you know?!

See ya tomorrow!!

Monday Monday!

Let me just say it again... It's SO good to feel better again!!

I am still not back in the habit of taking pictures of my food again.. sorry. Now things are CRAZY at work. If you're from KY you know all about CATS testing... so you feel my pain. It's the standaridized tests the kids must take at the end of the year... CRAZY! haha.

DINNER SUNDAY

For dinner last night I went over to my parents house since D was working. My dad grilled out chicken and steak! I had half a piece of steak and a half piece of chicken along with sauteed broccoli and brown rice. Sooo good. I like to have steak whenever it's available... and I don't have to pay for it! haha. I love it. I also used A-1 for dipping and made my own honey mustard using Dijon mustard and honey. Yummy!! Of course the leftovers doubled as my lunch today!!

MONDAY

Breakfast---- Banana oaties!! sooo good! I have missed my sweet oaties!

Lunch, like I said was a repeat of last nights breakfast. I don't have a picture of my lunch because I left the camera at home and because I was eating with 19 loud, rude 8th graders. I completely forgot to use my cell phone. Oh well.. You saw (or will see) what I had last night... so that should do!

I also forgot to pack a snack this morning so I had to wait until 4 to have a snack! I was starvin' marvin! haha!! I had 2 blueberry Eggo's with sugar free syrup. :o)

Delish!
This afternoon... well right now I am going for a walk. I love spring (minus the sunshine.) The temperature is GREAT. Just throw me some clouds.. that's all.
See ya later!!

(i'll add pictures when I get back.. well probably after dinner)

Ahhh!

Have strep throat was absolutely horrible. horrible. I think it was so bad because it was unknown territory for me. I am used to getting sinus infections and I know what to expect with those. I know how to self medicate and exactly what I need to feel better. With this I had no idea what to expect. Anyhoo.. three days in bed (or in recliner really) did the trick! Along with an antibiotic and gargling with peroxide as well! I am just glad to be feeling better. I am making these little monsters use germX like crazy from now on. I am already a germX Nazi...so I guess I will move up into dictator status?! I don't know. All I know is that I hope it's 2030 before I ever get strep throat again!!! :o)

I have also eaten enough Campbell's noodle soup to last me the rest of the year. Today I was glad to eat real food again! For breakfast I had TWO blueberry Eggo's with sugar free syrup and a little powdered sugar. These will be a SATURDAY breakfast ONLY!! I ate them around 9:00 and by 11:30 I was ready to eat D's arm. No. Really. Lunch was a mess... no comment... so I ended up having peanut butter and simply fruit Black Raspberry jelly on LIGHT honey wheat bread. I. Love. This. Bread!!!! They were out of my Double fiber Bread, so I settled for this. It's wonderful!!! It's soft and delicious! I love Nature's Own Breads. Anyhow... I also had a land o lakes colby jack wedge and a banana. Yum. A typical grade school lunch! haha. :o) Hopefully dinner will be more sophisticated. We'll see!!

I am GLAD to be up and running again and hope to get back to some sort of schedule! With Spring Break and being sick I am a mess!!

Hope all is well everyone!

:(

I have strep throat?!
What's going on here!! I have been sick more in 2008 than I have been in YEARS! I think Dr. Bressler is going to put me on allergy shots. I have a check up in 9 days and he'll make that decision then. Anyhow.. I feel like poo. I haven't had strep throat since MIDDLE school sooo I plan to just sleep a lot. Sweet dreams and stick with me! I promise I will be up and running soon!

Stephanie is sick :(

Well unfortunately Stephanie won't be able to post her day for you this evening, she has been in bed sick. She asked for me to come on here and to let you know that she will post again when she gets better. She goes to the Dr tomorrow and will hopefully get better soon! Talk to you later. - Dustin

Hello Again!

I AM alive and my house Is complete!! Well, mostly. We only lack small things like trim and changing out doorknobs and outlets! WoooHoo!!! We KILLED ourselves and I am so proud of the work we completed! I seriously cannot believe we got so much done. We.... Repainted our Bedroom Painted the Half Bath Sanded and Painted the cabinets in the half bath Painted the hallway Installed light fixtures in computer room and half bath New fixtures for half and full bath NEW counter tops, sink and faucet!!!!!!!! (that I LOVE) Listen to this.. I literally had a FIVE inch sink before.. my new SEVEN inches feels like a 10 inch difference! I love it. Sanded and painted all kitchen cabinets Bought new furniture & a new bedspread (and lots of fun kitchen gadgets!!) Changed what outlets we could.. the store was all out of outlets! lol. My father in law helped the with changing of faucets and kitchen work... THANK GOD! I am so grateful for everything he's done to help us get our house complete. I really wanted to paint faux bricks on one wall in our living room... so I did. However, I HATED it so I had to paint over them :( I painted red bricks and it really needs khaki bricks. Some weekend I will paint them up there. I also need to make curtains for every room. I do apologize for the week long hiatus it seems I took, however, as you can tell we were VERY busy. Yesterday at school I swear I fell asleep a few times. lol. Actually, I almost did. In the afternoon I work one on one with a few kids and I was so tired my speech was slurred and the poor kid just kept looking at me like I was a crazy lady. I need to rest last night. I was asleep by 8PM! :o)

Lets talk about food! I didn't keep track of anything I ate last week since eating was so hurried. Also, we were eating at our kitchen table with all sorts of junk on it, so the pictures would have looked horrible. I think I only ate breakfast maybe twice all week since I was eager to get work. Mind you, don't think we slept in either. I think the LATEST we slept was 8:30. ugh. Anyhow We ate fast food all week and I ate sensibly... grilled chicken salads, a burger and a salad, Pizza and a salad.. a sub with baked chips. Of course some days I just didn't want a salad so I'd have a hot dog and fries, pizza and bread sticks. Because I remained cautious-- I managed to lose a pound! WOW! haha. However eating that way made me start to CRAVE those foods again. So I am having a hard time eating my broccoli and such for lunch again.

TODAY For breakfast I had a whole wheat Eggo and peanut butter sammie. I have no photo because I was running late to work and had to pull over and let my car defrost, I was a mess this AM. Lunch: Back to normal I suppose! A deli chicken sammie on Whole Wheat Bread, broccoli, grapes, and yogurt with fiber one. You see pictured a mug with tea. I didn't drink this because our microwave at work is gross and I didn't want to heat up water in it. I was scared that the water might take on the smell of the microwave and that just grossed me out pretty bad. For a snack, I had a mini Zone Chocolate Peanut Butter bar, and while getting groceries I had a Zone Banana Nut Fruit bar. The fruit bar wasn't so bad.

You might be wondering about my bite plate from the dentist. I was scheduled to go back last Friday and pick it up. However the dentist HIMSELF called to let me know the company who was making it was running behind. They called today to let me know it was in. I can tell it's REALLY going to help a lot. I've noticed at night I clench my jaw and bite down VERY hard. No wonder my jaw hurts so bad. I am excited to wear it tonight. Okay kids, I need to unpack groceries and get dinner going for tonight! I will add pictures after dinner :o) I am glad to be back on track!! So sweet to read messages and know I was missed. Oh no, I didn't let what I was eating stop me from posting, I was literally SO busy all day long.. I just didn't have time to stop and post since it takes 3o minutes to an hour to do a full post complete with pictures. Haha.. I aM SURE if I wouldn't type so much that it would only take 15 minutes! haha.

Here I am looking LOVELY painting the hallway! haha. I wore these clothes ALL week. I had to wash them EVERY night, that was a chore in it self. Speaking of laundry I think I did something like 9 loads last week!

Half Bath Before:

Half Bath Now--- Notice the litter kwitter on the floor!! Wooo!! The litter kwitter is now on the toilet so they are learning to use it!

Living Room Before--This is the day we moved in so nothing was set up.

Living Room Now--- it still needs art and faux bricks. I'll keep you updated.

Kitchen BEFORE:

Actually, it looked worse than this! IF you can believe it! We put all new appliances in the day we moved in. Before that they were horrible white appliances. In this photo, I had already painted the walls

The kitchen NOW! I love everything about this kitchen from my little spice cabinet to the antique table!! I loove it!

I will add more pictures later! I forgot to take the bedroom and bathroom pictures. Oh yes, we've changed the front around as well. We have more work to do on it. I'll keep ya posted for sure! :o)

Dinner:

Lean meat patties with brown rice and sauteed broccoli. I made D a cheeseburger and easy fries. He was happy since he hates broccoli. For dessert I had 2 Dove Rich Dark Chocolates with Almond candies. Yummy!! :o)

Notice my new cutie melamine salt and pepper shakers. I love melamine !

It is what it is...

and the truth IS that I just do not have time to keep this updated this week. D and I are working our fingers to the bone! My mom had pretty much fed us this week, so I am at her mercy for food! I AM eating as healthy as possible and "cheating" only when there is no other option. Like tonight my mom made chicken casserole, mac and cheese, lima beans, and biscuits. These things, mind you, are not cooked very healthy! haha. What I have now decided to do is give highlights FROM this week probably on Sunday. I will also have pictures of the house ready for you!! !!! I am SOOOO E X C I T E D about our HOUSE I could PEE!! Okay, maybe not THAT excited. You just wait. We've done a lot. Sadly I don't have a lot of before and after pictures. I kind of forgot all about that. I mean I have BEFORE we bought the house pictures and now which will do :o) Thanks in advance for understanding guys. !!! (that was more excitement.)