New Suit

Snow day again today. And, guess what arrived at my backdoor - hint, it wasn't the snowman quilt. The tankini is one size smaller than the one I've been wearing. As of monday, I've lost 9.8 pounds since the first of the year. With luck, help from my friends, a lot of exercise and calorie/point counting, I'll be buying another new suit before this one wears out.

Wind chill outside is around -15. Brrrr. I'm enjoying the quiet day at home. Going to go sew for a bit. If I stick with it, I might have pictures to post later.

Oldest child

Usually, when I describe my oldest child, the word proud is in the description. Today though, I am sooooo jealous of her. I received a rather cryptic e-mail from her earlier this week. She said she was going to have an adventure and told me not to worry, the place has a 100% safety rating and she wasn't going to be the one to change the rating. Because of a hint in a previous e-mail I immediately knew what she was up to! She and a friend made arrangements to skydive. The did not get to skydive that particular day because of high winds but, after several days and four attempts they finally made it. And, I'm proud to say the companies safety rating is still 100%. Why am I jealous? Because I have always secretly wanted to try skydiving but am too chicken. I may be jealous of the girl but I'm proud of her for doing this.

Yippee, Skippy!!! It's a snow day today. Hubby is at work, son is sleeping and will probably sleep all day. I'm going to enjoy this lazy day!

I'm not a Spammer!!!!!

Well, after being shut down for a week, I'm back. Apparently Blogger thought I was a spammer. Let me make this perfectly clear I am not now, never was and never will be a spammer. I hate spam - out of a can and on my computer!

Anyhow, it's cold here. Not a lot of snow but enough. I am ready for spring. I am also ready for an afternoon marathon cooking day. Did this last weekend and the hubby, son & I ate pretty good this week. This weeks meals are all coming from the low-fat recipe section of recipezaar.com . This is a terrific web site.

Went to the mall yesterday and bought myself a sweet little salad bowl for school lunch. Unfortunately, I didn't buy fresh lettuce at the grocery store. Oh, well, the intent was good. I also bought some new patterns at the fabric store for my pattern collection. The patterns were onsale for only $1.00 apiece. Good to have on hand. Picked up a sweet quilting magazine cause it had bright vibrant colored quilts in it. Even thinking of making one. Bought several fat quarters because they were warm and bright colors.

Just read an explanation why fat quarters are called fat quarters. Never knew this. See, fabric is sold by the yard (or portion of a yard). If you purchased a quarter yard of quilting fabric the piece of material would be 9" x 44". This make a piece of fabric 396 square inches. Not a very usable piece of fabric. But, some entrprising person said "hey, lets cut the fabric down the middle making the fabric 22 inches wide instead and make the length 18 inches. The piece of fbaric is still 396 square inches but a much more usable piece of fabric. I like to have fat quarters on hand for various appliques.

Have been in touch with the oldest daughter. She is in New Zealand this week. Sounds like she is having a great time. Can't wait to visit her.

Enough rambling for now. I have work to do.

Busy Lazy Day

Lounged around all morning, cooked all afternoon. Baked cinnamon swirl raisin bread and hamburger buns. Actually, the bread machine did most of the work. I also roasted a chicken, made the sauce for bbq chicken sandwiches, pulled the meat off the chicken bones. For supper tomorrow night we will have bbq chicken sandwiches on homemade buns.

After pulling most of the meat off the bones, I put the bones in a pot with water, a stalk of celery, 3 carrots, an onion and some spices to simmer. Tomorrow, I will skim the fat off and freeze the chicken stock in ice cube trays for later use.

I was going to make wet burritos for supper tonight but someone ate most of the cheese. Unfortunately, I did not find this out until I had three pans simmering on the stove, one with meat, one with beans and one with grave. Well, I finished simmering, let them cool a little and put them in containers in the fridge for dinner, probably Tuesday or Wednesday.

Made shepard's pie for the first time. The son surprised me - had 3 helpings. He usually avoids foods with veggies. The hubby was thinking about taking his 3rd or 4th helping when I intervened. Seems he has this problem, if there is food he will eat it. I got two containers, a small one for me for lunch tomorrow and another one for someone else - whoever gets it first. Thank you to all the wonderful chefs at recipezaar.com for these delicious recipes.

Unfortunately, I did not get much exercise tonight but ... tomorrow is Zumba - yeah!

Lazy Lazy Day

Question of the day - why do grown men play football with short sleeves in the snow. Doesn't make sense to me! I guess the paycheck they get makes it worthwhile.

It's Friday!!!!! Yeah, the weekend has arrived and all I've done is eat the surf the web. While surfing the web, I found recipes for next week and made an online grocery list. Tomorrow morning I'll tweak the list and go grocery shopping. I'm also going to the mall to buy a new salad fixin' bowl for school lunch. Next week I'm ramping up the diet/life style change. Lunches will be salads with some protein. Breakfasts will continue as oatmeal, raisins, milk & juice. I'll slip a protein shake in mid afternoon to keep the candybars away. Suppers have to keep the men in my life somewhat happy so the calories will be spent there.

Next weeks proposed work out schedule is pretty intense.
Monday 5:45 Pilates
6:30 Zumba (can't miss this)
Tuesday 5:30 spinning (you'll hear about my sore butt)
6:30 hot tub and sauna to soothe what aches us
7:15 Water Aerobics
Wednesday 5:45 Pilates
6:30 Zumba (even if it kills me)
Thursday 7:15 Water Aerobics

Another goal for next week is to say no to any sweets the dear sweet hubby waves in my face. Air popper is coming out of the cupboard.

Now, all I have to do is make it through the weekend without binging.

My Abs hurt

There are days when I think I have one friend too many. Today was one of those days. My work out buddy has our workouts ramped up. She convinced me to go to pilates and Zumba class Monday night. During pilates I informed her I was going to kill her! Last night I tried to roll over in my sleep and woke up because I couldn't move. My abs hurt so bad, I thought I had appendicites. Last night was water aerobics - did I mention she had other plans. Tonight, we were back at the Y for a repeat of Monday night. Why do I let her talk me into this?

At work today I receive an e-mail from my so called buddy. In the e-mail was this link http://www.webbikinistore.com/ and a message that that is where we will be able to shop.

I only found one suit I would be caught dead in but, knowing that I could lose enough pounds/inches to be able to consider one of these reminds me her friendship is extremely worthwhile - sore abs and all!

Happy birthday to the wild child. Hope most of your dreams come true -

Non-Productive Day

Arrived at work this afternoon to absolute mess. I have difficulty working until order is returned. Tomorrow morning will be very busy as I continue to attempt to restore order. Last night we were under a tornado warning. Personally, I believe a tornado rolled through and blew books off the shelves. This is the start of order. Notice how all the the books are spine facing up, in the same directions. Is this a difficult concept?

Enough complaining.....

Tonight was water aerobics class - my workout buddy has stitches in her toe and can't get her toe wet - missed you workout buddy. Class was sure full tonight, around 15 people. Once again, newbies with new years resolutions. I hope they can stick with their program, whatever it is. I know I feel a lot better when I work out.

Work and work out

Well, after a lazy weekend it was back to work today. Sure wish I could educate my bos to work more efficiently. The way she passes work to me is so time consuming, she creates extra, unnecessary work for me. I always have to clean up after her twice on Mondays which make Mondays crummy. I'm still playing catch up from Christmas break. Next week is a day without students. Hopefully she will leave me alone so I can catch up.

Ok, enough complaining. I finished the skirt & jacket yesterday. I agree with my critics, it is quite blue. I've included a picture. Sorry, I don't how to turn the picture, just turn your head.

Zumba class started today. I met a friend at the Y early, we were going to walk the treadmills. But, since it is the new year, there were a bunch of newbies there using the machines. Instead we crashed a Pilates class. As soon as Pilates was done we raced upstairs to the gym for Zumba. It was good to be working out again. I don't think I did any exercising at all since before Christmas. Because of Zumba, I managed to chart over 10,000 steps today. My other goal was 8 glasses of water. I didn't meet that goal. Tomorrow I will pack 2 bottles of water to take to work. Hopefully I will have time to use the bathroom tomorrow.

Laundry

I hate to fold clothes! I don't mind doing laundry. Heck, the washer and dryer do all the work. Unlike my oldest daughter who does her laundry on rocks - but that's another story for another day. I just hate to fold clothes. I have been known to toss clothes in dresser drawers without folding them and I will probably do so in the future. I found this interesting web site http://www.howtofoldashirt.net/ . On this website they show us how to fold a shirt. By folding shirts using their methods, I have cut folding shirt time in half! Check it out, it really works. The hardest thing for me was remembering which had to put where. Now, it's easy to remember, I shake the shirt (usually a T-shirt) out while holding both shoulders. Then, I leave my left hand on the left shoulder and move my right hand into position. This will all make sense to you once you view the video on the how to fold web site. Well, the dryer just called, time to fold the shirts.

Good Morning

Yes, it was a good morning here. Both of the men in my life (son & hubby) spent the morning sleeping while I read the morning paper & sipped coffee. Can't believe I made it through the whole morning without snacking (well maybe one small piece of candy slipped through my lips). My diet tracker tells me, however, that my breakfast of oatmeal, milk, juice & coffee was 75% carbs. Hey, it was less than 400 calories though. Since my goal is 1600 calories a day I think I'm doing ok so far. Now both hubby & son are up and moving around. Does that mean I have to fix them something to eat?

I'm going to spend the afternoon in my newly converted craft room. My oldest daughter moved 1/2 a world away last spring. We have kept her room untouched through 3 years of college but now that she will be gone for 2 years, I think it's time to use the space wisely. Her stuff still remains on the walls, in the dresser and in the closet. There is still a bed for her if she ever returns but for now, the bed is my cutting table and the sewing machine & ironing board fit quite nicely. Maybe later I will post pictures of anything I accomplish.

Lazy Day

I haven't accomplished much today except make some food and eat it. Last night I was in the process of making cinnamon raisin bread in the bread maker. Hubby & I were sitting in the living room when all of a sudden there was a loud crash from the kitchen. We both rushed into the kitchen to find the bread machine in 5 pieces on the floor. Moral of the story, don't leave a bread machine near the edge of the counter during the knead cycle.

Tomorrow I want to exercise, clean my craft room and work on a couple of sewing projects. Hmm, these were my goals for today too.