Craftyness

Shirt Before...

So I've been off work since Christmas Eve.  I have "free time" for the first time in ages.  With no holiday travel on our agenda, I've used this "wide open" time to get ahead on some crafts.  I have 4 friends having babies by July, all of them looking very bumpalicious :-) I have some really cute ideas for things I'll be making for them----but----had to make these for my Mimi.....

Voila! Tights!

Here's mim drinking her espresso after a pretty intense modeling session.....

I can't show the rest of the stuff yet because it'll spoil the surprise for two of my besties who read this blog---nice try ladies! You'll have to wait and be surprised!!!

Exercise Fail!

Blah! I'm so pissed at myself.  Over the holiday break, not only did I eat chocolate and large dinners like it was my job, but I kept trying to "fit in" my runs in between parties, and celebrating and church and visiting.....EXERCISE FAIL!  I only ran twice in the last week or more.  Pathetic.  I was running 3-4 miles 4-5 times weekly.  And tonight you ask? I went to the gym and really only ran about 1.5 miles before I got tired and gave up and went home.  Was it because it was 11pm and normallyI'm in bed at them time? Was it that I hadn't exercised in days? Was it because I was hot because I wore a long-sleeved shirt? Who the F knows.  I am hovering around 182 lbs, feeling flabby and blah and just really torqued at myself.

I came home from the gym and ate a pickle and resolved myself to not let this happen.  I LOVE my new smaller self, and sitting around lounging eating mint flavored hershey kisses and fancy Christmas treats while I lounge in sweat pants won't keep me at this size.

I think that over the last 6 months I've had goals and deadlines--like having to finish the 5K program and a run a 5K, doing the fastest 5K program and having to run a time trial at the end and show improvement.  What will be my next goal?  I think running a 10K, but who knows.  I also am really ready to do this raw thing.  My body is so messed up from being off at Christmas, including my sleep, food, exercise....I really want my old self back again.

No photos today.  Just my rant about falling off the wagon. Blah. Blah. Blah.

Merry Christmas!

Today I feel happy, rested, and blessed.  Last night we had 6 people over for Christmas Eve Dinner and made 6 lbs of Crab Legs (mmmm)! We sat up drinking wine and relaxing and finally at 3am the house was clean and my family was "nestled all snug in their beds" while I finished wrapping stocking stuffers and then crawled into bed with my toasty husband.  We slept in until 9am and woke up to the most delightful day.  It was sunny and warm today.  We let Mimi unwrap gifts in her new chair that our friend Kim got her . She did okay with the unwrapping, but she got a little bored so we got to open the rest.  We feel so unbelievably blessed that there are so many great friends and family that sent Mimi such nice gifts.  We bought her a wagon awhile ago which was her Christmas gift and my husband is making her some blocks out of some nice poppler wood we bought.   My husband and I exchanged stockings, not gifts, and I must say I was most impressed with his originality and thoughtfulness this year!  He did Mimi's stocking too, and came up with some great finds for hers as well.  I think his favorite was either the pickled okra in his stocking or the cufflinks, hard to say, he liked them both.

We went to mass which of course was kind of a nightmare with the Memester, but we survived.  I put Mimi in this adorable bishop smocked dress from ebay that my friend's little girl actually wore last year.  We went to a friend's for lunch and enjoyed some of the best holiday food I've ever had.  We came home and all napped for 3 hrs! lol

Now, with Mimi all "nestled snug in her bed" again, I sit her next to my gorgeous husband, on our cozy couch, with our dimly lit tree and rain hitting the window feeling so content.  I am thankful for my lovely friends and family, my health, and all great things we fail to stop an appreciate most days.  Thank you to everyone who reads and comments and enriches my life.

The Warm and Fuzzies---awwww

Two of our dearest friends got married last weekend.  The week has been so crazy I am just now putting these up.  What a beautiful wedding.  I feel so blessed that Martin and Tricia are in our lives, and even more blessed that we got to be a part of their day.  I was a bridesmaid and my husband officiated the ceremony.  I didn't get any of my own photos at the actual wedding, but I'll post some when the bride gets hers up.

I got to be all helpful and doting to the bride all day (and weekend) and my husband kept the groom smiling and on task.  We danced the night away and enjoyed our baby free weekend.

Here are some photos I took at the rehearsal and some from the wedding.

Birthday Weekend Events

I'm 29! Woot Woot!  I gave my husband a few requests for my birthday, which I thought were all pretty reasonable....
Sleep in (YES! I got to sleep in until 10!)
Run (didn't do it until Sunday, but I did it! Did my last time trial!)
Get our tree and decorate it (Check and Check)
Have a nice family dinner (Check)

Saturday was very nice.  I slept in (as noted above), had a nice egg breakfast, and spent time with Mimi and Daddy.  My friend Grace took me to Panera for lunch where we both indulged in delicious chocolate pastries, soups and sandwiches.  We hit up Joann Fabics after and Fat Quarters were on sale for 99 cents! Woot Woot!
Franco and I went to a Christmas tree farm and picked out our tree.  It was really sweet watching Mimi run around the tree farm like a chicken with her head cut off.  It was sunny and 70! A perfect FL winter day!
I even let Mimi eat a candycane in the car.  She LOVED it, I'll deal with a little sticky mess in the name of letting my kid experience all that is Christmas!  I decorated the tree while Mimi napped and my husband cooked.  He made me delicious soup and tabbouleh and bought some eggnog icecream.  I seriously almost felt sick from all the eating out. My coworkers took me out to lunch on Friday, I grabbed veggie tacos with a friend for dinner that night, out to lunch saturday.......geesh. Too much food!











Above--Mimi leading Daddy out of the tree lot
Right--me stringing up lights
Below-Voila! Scraggly Xmas Tree!

Sunday was pretty nice too.  I had my annual Christmas cookie party, which I think I've done for 3 (maybe 4?) years now.  I get all the ladies together and ask them to bring a recipe and we trash my kitchen for a few hours and everyone takes home a few dozen cookies.  I was able to get my time trial 5K run in right before the party, which didn't make me feel as bad sampling the cookies!

So how am I feeling about the big 29? Well, I feel pretty good. I always told myself that if I was going to lose weight, I should do it before I'm out of my 20's so I can enjoy and be happy with my body for the rest of my youth!  Well I've almost made it!  I am 12 lbs from my weightloss goal and feeling great.  I officially can wear a size 12 from any store and medium size tops.  This has not happened since I was probably 13 years old. I know, kind of sad right?  It's kind of cool to have a December birthday, you can make birthday resolutions and new year's resolutions that go together!  I want to really get fit over this next year, if all goes as planned we'll be ttc this time next year!  That is going to be something to look forward to!

Your baby is what you eat....

Whenever I watch this ladie's videos I always think the same thing.  Does she not see what a hypocrite she is?


She totes herself as an advocate for breastfeeding, cloth diapers, baby sign language, all in the name of giving her children the best.  Some of her statements and videos criticizing formula-feeding non-breastfeeding mothers have not been well-received by her followers either (see and example of one of her pro-breastfeeding videos here).  Here you can see a response another mommy made to her video.





How can you in one breath advocate "breast if best" and the enormous heatlh benefits of breastfeeding, and in the next breath shove down a bowl or spaghettios (where 1 cup serving has 26% of your daily suggested sodium intake) and some Jack in a Box burgers (21 grams of fat and even more sodiums (837 mg!))?  
Where does she think the junk she puts in he body goes?
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Obesity is generally associated with high intake of junk foods rich in energy, fat, sugar and salt combined with a dysfunctional control of appetite and lack of exercise. There is some evidence to suggest that appetite and body mass can be influenced by maternal food intake during the fetal and suckling life of an individual. However, the influence of a maternal junk food diet during pregnancy and lactation on the feeding behaviour and weight gain of the offspring remains largely uncharacterised. In this study, six groups of rats were fed either rodent chow alone or with a junk food diet during gestation, lactation and/or post-weaning. The daily food intakes and body mass were measured in forty-two pregnant and lactating mothers as well as in 216 offspring from weaning up to 10 weeks of age. Results showed that 10 week-old rats born to mothers fed the junk food diet during gestation and lactation developed an exacerbated preference for fatty, sugary and salty foods at the expense of protein-rich foods when compared with offspring fed a balanced chow diet prior to weaning or during lactation alone. Male and female offspring exposed to the junk food diet throughout the study also exhibited increased body weight and BMI compared with all other offspring. This study shows that a maternal junk food diet during pregnancy and lactation may be an important contributing factor in the development of obesity.

*Bayol SA et al. A maternal 'junk food' diet in pregnancy and lactation promotes an exacerbated taste for 'junk food' and a greater propensity for obesity in rat offspring. British Journal of Nutrition, published online 15 Aug 2007.


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Okay Okay, I'm not trying to say I don't indulge in treats or the occasional junk food item. But I'm not a habitual junk (or restaurant food) eater either. I also don't think i'm some sort of goddess for never having given my child formula, I'm proud that I persevered through 13 months of breastfeeding, but proud of myself and smug about it are different attitudes though.


I anticipate nasty unapproving comments from some of this chic's legion of followers.  Go for it.

Diapers and Decaf

This week has been nuts.  My boss was on a rampage, I caught a cold, we had two holiday parties, one new babysitter, and partridge in a pear tree.

Not to mention the frigid Florida temperatures!! I know you northern and Canadian readers don't have a lot of sympathy for me on this one, but it's truly cold here!  Like frost on the ground, need to warm up your car cold.   After living in FL for seven years (formerly from NY), my blood has thinned and I am such a baby now. Although, I did run 3.5 miles in shorts yesterday, lol.  My legs were bright red and freezing when I got back.

So having a lot of trouble sleeping this week.  I don't know if it's stress from work or from the Muscinex D I've been taking, which I guess makes some people jittery.  Either way it sucks, I wake up at 5am with nightmares and restlessness and can't get back to sleep.  Today I stop trying to get back to sleep and just got up and did some laundry and made some eggs.  I didn't feel like making espresso at home and figured I'd have a tea when I go to work--except this is the only tea I had left in my stash---Decaf! WTF! My husband told me I should go off coffee for awhile, he said when you do that and go back on it later it jives you up a lot more.  Is that a good thing? lol


I'm pretty impressed with how my body has handled this cold compared to the last one.  Last cold I got turned into bronchitis in 4 days, this time around I was more proactive with a netty pot, extra vitamin C supplements, exercise, and better use of my asthma inhalers.  Mimi got the cold too and just has a runny nose, she seems fine too.

So I wanted to tell you guys how I buy diapers because it's a steal.  I buy Huggies Little Movers and use the Amazon "Subscribe and Save" program, which let's you combine it with a mom's club discount.

I don't know how well you guys can understand this--so basically you decide how many diapers you use in a month, then you set up auto shipments of that purchase on a monthly basis.  You get a 15% discount for using subscribe and save, and a 15% discount for being an Amazon Mom's Member (which is also free). so I get 100 diapers (the large case) for $22.63--NO TAX and FREE SHIPPING.  You can't deny this is a great deal.  I upped mine to two cases a month, one case didn't quite get us throught the month.  I'll cut back if I get overstocked.  You can increase or reduce your quantity at anytime and move the ship date earlier if you're running low or something.  If you have a kid in diapers, try it out, works for other brands too of course, and wipes.  I buy my wipes at our local grocery store though, they have an unscented one I really like that's cheap.

I think that's it.  I have one run left to on my Fastest 5K program, which I'm going to do Saturday (My Birthday! Yeah 29!) and then i'll see how many minutes I cut off my official 5K time!  We're also getting our tree Saturday and Sunday I'm have 10 of my lady friends over for our annual Christmas cookie party.  I'll have photos to share of course :-) Keep warm everybody!

Weekend Recap

 This weekend was a mixed bag.  I don't know if it's hormones, or stress or what, but man Saturday I woke up on the wrong side of the bed--scratch that, I woke up on the wrong side of the earth! I was grumpy as hell from the minute I woke up.  I was pissed at my husband for not picking up diapers on his way home from the volleyball game Friday night, I was mad that he wouldn't let me sleep in, I was mad at our entire household, even the dog.  I had a laundry list of stuff I wanted to get done on Saturday, because the weekends are the only time I can do ANYTHING it seems.  But alas, my husband had made plans for us all to do to the Natural History Museum, as it was faculty and staff appreciation day so it was free (including the butterfly garden seen above).  All in all I'm happy we went as a family, especially since family activities aren't always the top of my husband's list.  Mimi loved the butterflies, and all the other great things to see in the butterfly garden (turtles, coy fish, etc).  We got some nice up close photos. These reduced quality ones don't do it justice, but there you go.
After the museum we went to a greek place for "Linner", which is when you eat a hug meal, a little after lunch but before dinner, which then becomes dinner.  Mimi ate gobs of hummous and falafel with tahini.  I feel really blessed that my kid will eat almost anything, it makes for easy outings.  She's more like my husband with food I think.  Which is good.  Saturday night my husband went out AGAIN to see volleyball (I think he likes the girls in those shorts?), and I stayed home and crafty.  I made the most adorable appliquéd snowflake shirt for Mimi.  I was rather proud of it.  I washed and dried it already and it managed to still look pretty awesome.  I have a feeling I'll make some more.  I've really been getting into sewing and crafts.
Should I feature some tutorials of what I've done for you guys? Or are you not interested? I've been told my blog and vlogs are getting boring because all I talk about is running and weightloss.  I even had a few unsubscribers, which is fine.  I guess I talk about running and weightloss a lot because it's one thing in my life right now I can apply myself to and succeed.  I juggle all these other big things in life, including finishing my dissertation, and running is a challenge I am succeeding at.  So I'm sorry if it is boring to you guys.

I know a lot of my subscribers are moms, some of which I know are trying to get in shape/lose weight too.  I want to give back all the support that I get from all of you!

In other news....Sunday I took Mimi to her little boyfriend's 2nd Birthday party.  She had a blast.  The timing could not have been more perfect.  I took Mimi right after she woke up from her nap, so she was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.  I didn't look so bright-eyed myself, having run around like a chicken with my head cut off all morning trying to get done all the stuff I couldn't get done Saturday.  I dressed her in this adorable baby gap tutu I got for $7 on clearance at the outlet and a cute onesie from gymborie that was part of another jumper outfit.  She managed to stay clean even with cake and icing flying everywhere by 10 other toddlers. She LOVED the bounce house they had set up, but I had to let her in with the other (bigger) kids weren't going crazy in there.  When we left she through quite the fit which was rather embarrissing, but it was getting late in the day and I needed to get some real food in her before her sugar crash post-cake.
See the plastic playhouse in the photo below? I need to find one of these on craigslist, she friggin' loved this thing.  She got really mad when other kids tried to ring the doorbell.  We had to have a little lesson on taking turns.

Okay guys, let the crazy Christmas party weeks begin!  This week we have to Christmas parties and then my birthday (the big 29!), followed by a cookie party at my house this weekend.  Twill be a busy week!

Love to all my blogger buds!

Outfit of the Day

This is a first for me.  I don't ever do "Outfit of the Day" posts because I have no style.  Seriously, between having worked at an environmental dept where I was in the field all the time, to staying home with a baby that spit up until she was 10 mths old, to now working in a office wearing business clothes that are two sizes too big for me.  Can you see why I have no style!?

Grace and I were shopping in target last night.  She was trying on cute maternity dresses (see her dress here) and shirts and I was checking myself out in the 3 way mirror while she tried on stuff.  Sounds conceited right? Let me just check myself out.....No, I was really just mentally criticizing my clothes and my body.  I need new clothes, not because I have no clothes but because I have no clothes that fit me properly.

So, once weekly (or more if I have time) I will attempt to do Outfit of the day. I'm hoping this inspires me to be/look more put together.  Today I'm doing it with my IPhone in my office bathroom, classy right? Well, hey, if you want photos and blogs you have to take em' where you get em'.


So today I'm wearing tweed pants (see pattern below) from American Eagle, a white tank from Jcrew, a black "dream" turtleneck sweater from Jcrew, and Earth Spirit embroidered brown leather shoes.  Notice how classy I am with my "no sock" sock things sticking out. Very Classy.  Oh and my belt is from Kohl's.

Birthday Month!

My husband's family does this thing called "Birthday Week" when you celebrate the entire week of your birthday.  A few years ago I joked that I wanted "Birthday Month!"  I announced to my husband last night that "It's my birthday month starting tomorrow!!!"  He said "no it's Jesus'," then he said "Actually Jesus wasn't born until April."  I replied "Well it's my birthday month!!!!!"

I LOVE december.  Friggin love it.  Love the holidays, love the cold (in FL that's 55 degrees), love the celebrating (even though my boss is a scrooge and we're doing NOTHING), love the decorations, lights, etc etc!!!!

So 10 more days until my big 29 bday!
So excited as well to run another 5K tomorrow!

Mimi's ready for Dec in her Green and Red!!!