Post Christmas Party and Meal Planning

I'm feeling pretty good about things overall right now. I've lost close to four pounds this week! Friday was a great eating day and I made it to the gym for a good workout.

Saturday I meal planned and went shopping in the morning. I also made some food for a post Christmas party that I went to with my college friends. I made a veggie tray and some pumpkin muffins.

Recycled picture alert! I used the same veggies this time too.

Another recycled picture. I used yellow cake mix and pumpkin this time. These are chocolate cake mix and pumpkin.

My plan of attack once I saw all of the food was to try a little bit of everything that I wanted. I had a turkey sandwich with some cheese, some veggies off of my tray, cheesy mashed potatoes, some kind of salad (don't know what it is called), and some green beans. For dessert I had a couple of rice crispy squares, a muffin, and a gluten free brownie. I stuck to Dt. Mountain Dew for my drink of choice.

After eating we played a white elephant game. We randomly handed out the gifts and the host read a story where we had to follow the directional words in the story (right, left, across). Two of my friends that live together ended up with each other's gifts, so they went home with the same "crap" that they found in the garage. I thought that was pretty funny. I ended up with the first gift that was handed to me. It was a small box that rattled, so I assumed it was jewelry and was right. I got this bracelet that I'm sure I'll end up wearing to work many times.

The rest of the afternoon was spent playing games on the Wii and talking. It was the perfect bit of fun and relaxation I needed before school starts next week.

Sunday has so far been spent getting chores/errands done. After my usual breakfast (which I'll be eating again this week), I made my food for the week. For lunches I'm having pizza and applesauce.

For dinner I'm having sloppy joes with sweet potato puffs (basically the sweet potato version of tater tots).

I'm also having the same snacks as last week. I know that sounds boring, but I don't mind eating the same things for breakfasts and snacks for a long time before switching. I was still craving strawberry "pumpkin" muffins, so I made some again.

Here is what my meal and snack boards say for this week's meal/snack plan.

I have even been organizing sections of the fridge with my different meals/snacks for the day, so all I have to do is grab from the right part of the fridge and enjoy.

Breakfast

Lunch

Dinner

Snacks

I also found these today, and they are pretty good. I love Skinny Cow candy!

 

I'm off to do some cleaning around the house, get stuff ready for work and class tomorrow, and spend some time with the hubs.

Christmas 2012

I'm starting to feel the Christmas spirit a little bit more since there are now festivities going on. I spent the weekend before Christmas and Christmas Eve mostly cleaning and organizing the house. The house is clean, but I had to stop organizing just to get it clean in time for the holidays. On Christmas Eve I went to a restaurant called Tiebel's (it is a nicer restaurant where lots of gatherings are at) with my hubby and FIL. We all ended up getting the all-you-can-eat chicken. The whole meal included potato soup, salad, rolls (their rolls are wonderful), mashed potatoes, fried chicken (in which I peeled the skin/breading off but I did steal a few bites of breading), and peppermint ice cream for dessert.

Christmas morning I went to my sister's house for breakfast and opening presents. I got to see my parents, sister, niece, and brother-in-law. My sister made a bunch of goodies and breakfast items. I started off healthy with scrambled eggs, tomatoes, and cheese on a wheat tortilla. Then I went for the sweets.

After breakfast we opened our presents. My niece is three, so she is at the right age to be really into opening presents. She had a very Tinkerbell Christmas, but also got some Barbie stuff and a wooden rocking horse. As for my presents, I got some Bath and Body Works stuff from my sister, a license plate frame from my dad, and a Nook tablet from my parents.

My sister and niece checking out the Tinkerbell doll set.

My mom and dad opening presents.

My dad's present to me.

My parent's present to me.

My sister's present to me (and the stuff in the next picture too).



 

My aunt gave me some music books (pictured above) and made me a little scrapbook of pictures from the concerts we have gone to together.

My birthday present from my sister. I also got it on Christmas since my birthday is at the end of November and we haven't seen each other since then.

I went back home to have lunch with the hubs and FIL. My hubby cooked us a wonderful dinner of a turkey breast, green beans, stuffing, and acorn squash. Unfortunately I was starting to feel ill at this time and wasn't very hungry, but I do have plenty of healthy leftovers.

After lunch we opened gifts starting with the doggies. They got a bunch of those flat, stuffing-free dog toys. They went nuts playing with them. Sebastion grabbed a few, went in the kitchen, and played by himself.

Lilly had fun shredding the paper off of the gifts.

Benjamin went into toy hoarding mode.

I got my hubby the Sonic Racing game for the WiiU, a Mystery Science Theater 3000 DVD set, some history DVD's, some work pants, a calendar featuring our dogs as the pictures, and a bunch of snacks in his stocking.

As for my gifts, I got a new computer monitor from my FIL to help out with grad school.

My hubby got me a food steamer, a Final Fantasy music game for the 3DS, two necklaces, and my stocking had one item- a wool scarf (very soft and he got it at a good price!).

I also got some hand made ornaments in the mail from a family member that lives in Georgia.

For dinner we went to BC Osaka's and tried their buffet. The buffet was huge with many choices and you could also have something grilled up with your choice of ingredients. I had mostly chicken with broccoli, fried rice, some green beans, and ice cream for dessert. A very unconventional meal for Christmas Day, but it was a good one.

The day after Christmas we got to spent with friends. Two of them are from out of town and we don't get to see as often, so it was good to see them. We went to Abuelo's for lunch and the hubby and I split an order of chicken fajitas.

Hey, it is my always sideways picture. Gotta take a new one sometime!

After that we came back to the house to talk and play some video games. Later that evening one of my hubby's friends (that was with us earlier that day for lunch), decided to surprise my hubby with his Christmas present. When the hubs and FIL went out for dinner, he came back and we assembled his Christmas present of a new office chair. His friend left and I acted like nothing happened to see how long it would take the hubs to notice his new chair. Unfortunately, he noticed it right away! Not as surprising as we thought.

Finding Christmas Spirit

I have to admit it has been hard to feel very "Christmas-y" this year. I don't know if it is because of the weather or all the changes going on (all good changes, but changes nonetheless). I have had the decorations up since the day after Thanksgiving, but all the boxes and unused décor is sitting around the great room and making it a hot mess. I usually buy things on sale throughout the year for presents, so I didn't have to buy very much and have had the gifts wrapped for two weeks or so. I guess I'm prepared but not feeling it.

I spent the last week (or even longer for some grade levels) at work singing Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, and los Posadas songs. Some classes got to watch movies that went with their songs such as Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer and A Chipmunk Christmas. I even wore Christmas shirts and socks every day this week (and for some reason I don't have pictures of Friday's outfit).

Maybe I'll be feeling it more when I'm officially on Winter break.

I know that this is supposed to be a weight loss blog and there has been a lack of writing about that recently. I haven't been losing weight, but I do have my healthy moments of eating (which is usually my meals) and my not so healthy (which is usually my snacks). I've been thinking about what I need to work on and will try to get back on track after Christmas. I don't plan on going crazy because it is a holiday, but I will enjoy what food there is within reason.

Catching Up on Exciting News + Day Three

Today is day three of trying to get back on track. I think I did pretty well, but it wasn't exactly as planned since I did have an Egg McMuffin and a couple of rice crispy treats from my stash (for a reward for students) at work. Everything else was on my plan for this week.

I also got another 15 minute workout completed tonight with Your Shape and the Kinect. Yesterday I did a personal training session called "Nice and Easy" which is what you need when you haven't worked out for months. There were a lot of squats and lunges involved which left my legs slightly sore today. Today I did two easier kickboxing classes and a zen class which was a little over 15 minutes. My plan is another 15 minutes tomorrow and to increase to 20 minutes next week.

I missed out on blogging about some exciting stuff in my life between Black Friday and the beginning of December, so I thought I would sum up all that stuff in this post...

The King Size Bed Disaster

My hubby and I found a sale on a king size mattress at Sears on Black Friday and bought it. I rearranged all the furniture between the three bedrooms to make space for this bed. Then Sears totally sucked on actually getting it here. They scheduled when no one was home, delayed the delivery, and then wanted to deliver just the frame and box spring. We cancelled our order by this point. The mattress disaster story is still continued to this day, because we ordered another king size mattress for about the same price from a local mattress store. They were supposed to deliver it on Monday, but we ordered the last one left at the warehouse and it was damaged. They are supposed to deliver a non-damaged on on Saturday between 9:00-1:00, so it better happen! We've been sleeping on a full size bed since we got married. Now it is the two of us and three mini dachshunds in the bed and it is a little crowded.

My Birthday

I also had my 29th birthday on the 29th of November which means I finally had my golden birthday. It is strange to think that I am getting close to 30 years old, but at least I have this year of 29 and holding, right? I had most of my fun the week before during Thanksgiving break. My husband was out of town on a business trip and that night was one of the many nights the king sized bed was supposed to be delivered and it wasn't. There were some good things too such as playing Sing Party for an hour (my present from my hubby) and eating Red Lobster and Turtles (my present from my secret birthday pal at work was a gift card and the box of chocolates).

My aunt that I go to the concerts with sent me a flute Christmas ornament for my birthday.

Notice the hint to the big 3-0 that is coming next year!

Musical wrapping paper!

The ornament on my tree

I've also gotten several cards, a few bucks, and a gift card to Kohl's from my father-in-law.

I have loved Garfield since I was a little kid.

Christmas is Coming

My hubby and I decorated the house for Christmas on the evening of Black Friday after eating a great home cooked meal that he made.

We got the tree up and most of the decorations are in the great room. I put a couple of decorations out in my hubby's room as well. I do have a couple of lighted decorations for the front window and yard, but I don't know if I'm gonna get to them this year or not.

Some decor for my hubby's bookcases

And Christmas cheer for the kitchen

The dining room table

Great room

A Charlie Brown Christmas tree on my old timey record player

Even though I don't have a mantel on my fireplace, the stockings are hung with care. The big green one is one that my grandma (on my mom's side) made for me as a little kid. I do have a picture with it then, so I'll have to find it and put it on here sometime.

The tree

Usually by now I would have my Christmas cards ready to mail and my gifts wrapped. I do have the cards and gifts, but they definitely aren't ready yet. I hope to have some time this weekend to work on that.

Grad School is Real Now

I finally got the official acceptance letter for graduate school from the Purdue Graduate School (my program already accepted me the Tuesday before Thanksgiving). I signed up for my background check and my advisor is signing me up for my two classes this semester- Ethics in Mental Health Counseling and Intro to Measurement and Evaluation. Now I need to get registered for the online portfolio system and get some books!

A hand written note from a college friend of mine to congradulate me on getting into grad school. She just got her master's degree, so she knows what I'm getting into.