Life update and other happenings

I am so sorry to my blog followers (if I have any). I have been missing in action for a long while. I let life again get in the way.

Let me catch you all up. We finally made a decision on vacation. We are going to Universal Orlando for fall break plus a little surprise that I can't tell you about but if you knew then you would be doing the happy dance with me! I promise you that. We are going to be staying at Loews Royal Pacific Resort which is on site at Universal Orlando. The resort is a Polynesian themed resort.

It looks so beautiful and peaceful!! It is very exciting to stay someplace new and try out 2 new theme parks. If you have read my other trip reports then you know I am so not a thrill ride seeker so I will be taking lots of pictures to capture my family on all the thrill rides at Universal. I am excited to see the shows and the tamer rides. One thing that is exciting to try and see how it compares to Disney's Fastpasses is their express pass that comes free with our hotel stay. It is a Front of the Line pass that is good for certain rides all day long, no time frame and unlimited. I have said that I will not compare Universal to Disney because they are 2 different parks but I know it will be hard for me. I feel like I am going to the "dark side"!!

We are getting just their standard room which comes with 2 queen beds.

It seems to be in between the square feet of a Disney moderate and deluxe room. I do wish it had a daybed like the Disney Polynesian and Contemporary. I am excited to try it out.

Here is our plan as of right now (minus the surprises):

Day 1 - leave home and travel to Valdosta, GA for the night
Day 2 - get up early to finish drive to Royal Pacific Resort -- check in and RUN to Universal Studios
             We have purchased 2 day Park to Park tickets with our hotel stay. So we can switch over to  
             Islands of Adventure this afternoon. It seems the parks close early in October from my
             research and the hours aren't out yet so I can't confirm this bit of knowledge yet. That evening
             we will be playing mini golf at the brand new courses in City Walk and doing some shopping.
Day 3 - get up early and check out then head to Islands of Adventure for our 1 hr early entrance for
             Harry Potter World.  We will finish out our day and switch back to Studios if we want to
             repeat anything. Then comes the surprise which I can't tell you about yet!!!
Day 4 - surprise
Day 5 - surprise
Day 6 - surprise then head to Valdosta, GA for the night
Day 7 - head home -- sad face -- vacation is over

I can't wait for this trip but I have like 212 days!!

That's all on the vacation front. We do have a new kinda pet. Her name is Lillian as my daughter named her. She is a beautiful kitty who showed up on our back porch. My hubby built her a little house and she is so happy out there. We just can't have another inside kitty right now. Our baby Biscuit just isn't taking to Lillian so since Lillian seems happy being an outside kitty. We will leave her be outside with her nice little house.

Just an FYI -- the diet is moving slowly. I have not been all that great and I have only exercised 2 times this week. I know how terrible that is.

Thanks for sticking with me and for stopping by!!

Good Sunday Morning!!!

I hope everyone is having a great weekend. Mine has been great. Yesterday, we celebrated my daughter's 16th Birthday early with a family party. It was great fun! We missed one of my brothers, Gerald, because he had to work so we sent him cupcakes home. We also missed one of my niece, Marki and Al's sister and her husband. We had yummy food and a Spongebob cupcake.

And of course what party wouldn't be complete, without playing some Rock Band. 

Then Jamie went to her friends for a sleep over and then today she has a Super Bowl Party!! She is one busy little teenager. hehe

In between the coming home from the sleep over and the Super Bowl Party, we are also practice driving because Thursday is the BIG day!! So Thursday, we go take her driving test after school then Jamie has requested Bahama Breeze for dinner. Then Friday, her friend party is at Golf and Games in Memphis. It is a Lasertron Party!! Yes, my 16 yr wanted a lasertron party with her friends. Then all the kids (about 12) are coming over to our house for a movie party or hang out party. Then the girls are staying for the night.

I also wanted to let you know that I have tweaked my diet because I start today on the 6 week Kettle Worx body transformation. I added lean proteins to my diet but other than that it is about the same. Here are my before pictures!! I can't believe I am posting these pictures for the world to see. I am going to post monthly pictures to see the difference.

So basically, the program is a 3 day 20-26 minute workout with a kettleball. Then I add 2 other 10 minute workouts that I am adding in on other days. The plan is to do 5 days of kettleball workouts and 2 days of bike workouts plus I think on the 2 short days that I can add in another bike work outs. I start today with the real workout using a 5 lb kettleball. I did the introduction with a 10 lb one and I could barely do some of them because the weight was too much and I was so sore!!

I gotta run but I will be back on later to give you the results of the first workout.

Thanks for stopping by!!

Am I Missing in Action......

Hello!! I am so sorry that it has been FOREVER since I have updated on anything. I have been finding it hard to update on Facebook, My Fitness Pal and the blog. So I have decided that I am going to focus on the blog and facebook. I hope to be posting almost daily again.

So what's been happening in my little part of the word.....

I had a mini meltdown this weekend twice. Bless my husband's heart because he is a saint when I have a meltdown. I really think I am having some mood swings from my hysterectomy. I did some reading about menopause and this seems to be a side effect. I will be talking to my doctor when I go for my follow up appointment in March. So in the time being, I will be trying my hardest to remain calm and not overreact. I tend to me a worrier and freak out about silly little things that never worry or bother anyone else. It is weakness but I shall overcome it. Now that I have announced it to the world, it is time to change it. I will let you know how I do.

Eating Plan -- Yeah, I am not calling it a DIET because I am changing for life. I want this to be my way of life so it can't be a diet. I have ate plant based every day except for this past Saturday when I had a slight lapse in judgement. I didn't beat myself up about it because I know I will make mistakes. After the first 6 weeks, then I can add some fish, chicken, turkey, eggs or fat free milk if I am missing these. I think I will be doing that but I also want to stay mostly plant based. I am thinking using the meat as a tiny portion like 1-2 oz per meal but most of the meal still being salad, veggies, beans, fruit. It's a work in progress so I want to be able to do it forever.

Exercise -- I have been riding my bike every day (I think I missed 1 day) for at least 20 minutes!!

Weight Loss -- Well, my first week weigh in was Thursday, 1/26 and I lost 6.5 pounds!!! Yeah!! I was shocked and so happy!! I can do this. I hope to lose 90 pounds by our October Disney trip.

Disney -- The school board is meeting tonight and hopefully will pass the calendar for next year and I can book my trip tomorrow!!!! I am so freaking excited!!! We keep switching back in forth on what resort. We are thinking Port Orleans Riverside most of the time but now we are thinking about the new Art of Animation. I will let you know tomorrow when I book.

 I think that is everything that has been happening to me. Thanks for dropping by!!

Good Saturday Evening!!

Hello Everyone! Well, when I last posted I was almost finished reading Eat to Live. I finished it and started following the plan on Thursday. It has been easier than I expected and my family is doing this with me. My hubby and I discussed it and decided that we would try to to get our cholesterol in the normal range and hopefully get our blood pressure down so we can come off our medicine. Our daughter is sorta following it. She still eats some meat but understands that we are doing this for our health. We have been eating lots of salad, beans and fruits. I know we have had a couple things that were not on the plan such as one night for supper we had black eye peas over cornbread, salad and green beans. The cornbread would not be considered on the plan but I don't want to waste food. Today, for breakfast I had 1 biscuit and cantaloupe. So we are mostly following the plan but making it fit our family. Our main focus is getting our cholesterol down and off meds. Of course we will lose weight eating better but we want to make sure we are healthy. I bought some yummy stuff at the grocery store to fix this week. I got eggplant and zucchini to make vegetable lasagna. I am going to make Chili Mac with no meat!! I got some soy cheese for the lasagna. I am making veggie pizza. Then of course we have lots of fruits and vegetables. I weighed this morning even  though it's not the official weigh in. I have lost 4 pounds since Thursday!! Yippee!! In the book, it is stated that the weight will drop off and it has for me so far this week. Here's a couple of my days and what I have been eating.

Breakfast
cantaloupe and banana

Lunch
salad
chili beans
green beans

Dinner
salad
black eye peas over corn bread
green beans

Breakfast
cantaloupe
biscuit

Late Lunch/dinner
whole wheat bun
veggie burger
sauteed onions
homemade french fries
banana

Snack
popcorn
orange

I am enjoying the food and I can't wait to try new things. I will keep you posted on my progress.

Thanks for stopping by!!

I am still alive.....

Good Evening!! Sorry that I left you all high and dry....I have no excuse except I was too lazy to log on. I know, how sad is that. Well, the good thing is I have been logging my food into My Fitness Pal except for this weekend but I went back today and updated that. I had slacked on my exercise over the weekend too. I let my laziness take over. I just did a short but powerful workout on my new exercise bike. I bought it online from Walmart. It was $89.00 and I was worried about the quality. We picked it up at our local store today. My hubby put it together and I worked out. I am shamed to admit that my little ride about killed me. I rode for 1.02 miles which was like 7 minutes. I was huffing and puffing. I know I am fat and out of shape but holy smokes!! It is bad. My goal is to double my time to 15 minutes by next week. I can do this!! I eventually want to get to where I am riding it 30 minutes in the morning and evening so I have an hour workout. The quality seemed fine. It's $89.00 bike and it logs your time, calories and speed so I think it is fine for the money.

I have almost finished a new book. It's called Eat to Live. It is very good and makes you think about what you are putting in your body. Check it out. I bought it for my nook for like $10.00.

I have been taking my daughter to practice her driving. I can't believe that in less than 1 month she will be 16. She is improving but is still nervous.

I can't think of anything else that is happening. I will be posting some vacation specials later so check them out.

Thanks for stopping by!!

Friday Update

Good Evening All!!! I am so glad it's the weekend!! Yippee!!!!

Well, I had a great week. I think I stuck to my plan and goals great this week.

Today I had:

Breakfast: oatmeal and 2 slices of lean center cut bacon
Lunch: Salad and soup
Dinner: Chicken sandwich and waffle fries

Exercise: 20 minutes on treadmill and 20 minutes on the Wii Exerbeat

It's a short one tonight!!

Thanks for stopping by!!

Thursday Update

Good Evening!! It was a great day!! I am so glad tomorrow is Friday. I am sleeping in on Saturday!!

Here's my goals for today:

Breakfast: chick filet a chicken biscuit
Lunch: grilled chicken salad
Dinner: chicken salad

I am on a salad kick right now. Hubby and I went to the grocery store after work and I bought a premade cobb salad for lunch tomorrow. I did buy some frozen meals for lunch next week. I am feeling good.

I just finished my 20 minute workout on my Wii Exerbeat. I really like this workout game. It is fun. Today I did a latin dance workout. It really works your waist and abs. It doesn't seem like you would get tired but you do.

I tracked all my meals and exercise today.
I drank my 4 glasses of water.
I did not cook today :-(
I did get in my exercise!!

That's about all there is tonight. I took a antihistamine for allergy symptoms I am having so I am getting very sleepy. hehe

Thanks for stopping by!!

Wednesday Evening Update

Hello!! I just wanted to complete my day. I did a 20 minute aerobics workout tonight and for dinner I has a chicken taco salad with lettuce, tomato, cheese, and sauce. No chips or shell!! Yeah me!! It was very yummy!!!

I am struggling with the water but I am trying hard.

On with Disney update.... We are trying to plan or should I say that I am trying to plan our next Disney trip and the school hasn't released next year's calendar. I so need to know when Fall Break will be. I called today and it should be out Feb 1st so I hope I can book at that time. Also, we have decided that we want to stay at Port Orleans - Riverside in their preferred rooms. We really like the new renovations. I will keep you posted with all the updates.

Daughter and friends senior trip will be May 2014 after graduation instead of fall break. Our plan is to stay at Bay Lake Towers in a 1 bedroom villa. I will get it booked as soon as the dates open up.

That's all I have for tonight!!

Thanks for stopping by!!

Wednesday Mid Day Update

Good Afternoon! Just a quick update. My day is going great!! It's hump day and I am so glad!!!

Breakfast was oatmeal and 2 slices of lean center cut bacon
Lunch was Chick-fil-a sandwich (no mayo) and cup fruit

I am not sure what dinner will be tonight.

Goals for today:

• Track Food -- yes, for breakfast and lunch
• 4 - 8 oz water -- still working on that
• cook 5 meals -- dinner
• lunch from home -- didn't make this one today
• 15 minutes of exercise -- will tonight

Thanks for stopping in!! I will be back on later tonight and I have some update on the future Disney trips.

Tuesday Evening Update

Good Evening!!!

I took my daughter driving to practice her night driving skills. She turns 16 next month so we are practicing for her test. She did very well!!

My hubby cooked us dinner while we were out. He made chicken breast tenders, mashed potatoes, green beans and rolls. It was very yummy!!

I am going to walk on the treadmill tonight while I watch Biggest Loser.

I feel good about my changes and sticking to my goals.

I can do this!!

Goals for today:

• Track Food -- yes
• 4 - 8 oz water -- yes
• cook 5 meals -- yes
• lunch from home -- today I had a salad
• 15 minutes of exercise -- yes, 30 minutes on the treadmill

Thanks for stopping by!!

Tuesday Update

Good afternoon!! Sorry I didn't finish my Monday post after my workout. My Internet went out and was out all night. I did a 20 minute Denise Austin workout tape and I drank a slim fast shake afterward. Then I drank 2 more glasses of water. I met all my goals!! Yeah.

Now on with today. For breakfast I had a cup of oatmeal and 2 slices of lean bacon center cut. Lunch was a salad with chicken. I have had 2 glasses of water and I am working on my next 2. I use a tervis cup that is 16 oz. It keeps my water really cold. I plan on cooking the tuna pasta dish with green beans for dinner. I will need to get in another snack of some sort today. I am under my calories per My Fitness Pal.

I will check back in later to let you know how the rest of the afternoon and evening goes.

Thanks for stopping by!!

Lunch update

Good Evening! Well, I ended up cooking Bear Creek Cheddar Broccoli Soup and I added some chopped up potatoes. Then I cooked some chicken tenders for some protein and rolls. I had a cup of soup, 2 chicken tenders and 1.5 rolls plus 2 glasses of water.

I am having a peanut butter sandwich with fruit cup for dinner and 2 glasses of water.

I have logged all my food into My Fitness Pal.

I also updated my goals on My fitness pal and I entered my weight today.

15 minutes of exercise  --- not yet but I plan on doing this at 7:00

Track food-- Yes

4 - 8 oz glasses of water -- will met this with dinner

Cook 5 meals per week -- I cooked breakfast and lunch today so 2 down

Lunch from home 4 days a week -- lunch was at home today since I was off so I will count that.

I will be back on later to cap the day!!

Thanks for stopping by!!

Tuesday Update

Hello!!! It's chilly here today. It is 35 this morning!! I am so not going outside!!

I cooked pancakes and bacon. I had 2 small pancakes and 2 slices of Bacon with 1/2 mug of coffee with milk and sugar.

I planning on making a tuna pasta dish with green beans for lunch today.

I am not 100% sure what is for dinner but I will keep you posted on that.

I will probably do mini post to make sure I am following my goals for the year.

Here's my check off to make sure I am sticking to my goals. I have a word document with this over and over for every day til March 2. Then I will create a new set of goals. BTW -- yes, I am one of those people who love list!! hehe

Goal	Mon 2/6	Tues 2/7	Wed 2/8	Thurs 2/9	Fri 2/10	Sat 2/11	Sun 2/12
15 minutes of exercise
Track food
4 - 8 oz glasses of water
Cook 5 meals per week
Lunch from home 4 days a week

Thanks for sticking with me on my journey and feel free to comment. I know I have some visitors. :-)

Happy New Year!!!

I hope you are having a wonderful and magical new year!! Mine has been great! Last night, my hubby, daughter and I went out to eat Mexican then home to watch the Dick Clark's countdown show and patiently (really not so patiently on my part) the BIG announcement from Walt Disney World. Then we had a toast with sparkling grape juice at midnight. Today we had a HUGE breakfast and have relaxed all day. I have done some vacation quotes and research. It has be wonderful.

Tonight, I think we will watch the Princess and the Frog movie and eat some dinner. I am sure dinner will be some bad fast food. I know I know. The weight is not going to come off eating that junk but I am giving myself one more day. The story of my life but really this time I am serious. My daughter works out during soccer and she has still since the season is over. We are going to be work out buddies to make sure we do something every day. I have a neat new workout game on the Wii that I love. It is called Exerbeat and it really is good. I have done it several times (like 4-5) the last couple weeks since I bought it. It tracks how long you have worked out and how many calories you burned. I think I have done over an hour. I know that eating fast food and not exercising is the problem and changing that is the key. I also want to get strict again about counting my calories each day. I am going to make goals for each quarter of the year to meet. Then I will evaluate and add to those goals for the next quarter.

So my goals for Jan 2 - March 2 to met are:

• Do at least 15 minutes of exercise every day
• Write down and track everything that I eat every day
• Drink 4 - 8 oz glasses of water a day
• Cook at least 5 meals during the week so we don't eat fast food
• Take something from home for lunch at least 4 days at work

What goals do you have for the new year??

Thanks for dropping by!!

Long time no see.....

Good Evening!! It has been a week since I posted and I am so sorry for neglecting my blog. Well, I hope that you had a Merry Christmas!  Here is a picture of my little family on Christmas morning.

We enjoyed all our gifts and got some laughs from watching our kitties play in the boxes and bags.

We also went to my parents house for lunch and presents. Here are my parents, brothers and their families.

Then we went to my hubby's parents for late lunch and gifts. Yes, I said late lunch. I was too stuffed so I couldn't eat anything but I enjoyed seeing everyone. Here's my daughter's great grandmother. She is wonderful and we love her so much!!

We went home after this and RELAXED. Christmas was over for us and it was time to enjoy our gifts and relax.

We have watched some movies while we enjoyed our long weekend off. We watched The Box and that was a strange movie. I don't know if I really liked it or not. It was just strange. We watched the Tooth Fairy too. I thought it was funny and really good. We laughed alot. Tonight we watched The Green Hornet and I really enjoyed it and recommend it. It has some cussing and fighting so beware for little ones.

My exercise and diet have not been the best lately. I got side tracked but I am back on the wagon and will continue this journey. I can do this.

So I have been planning for our Oct 2012 trip and I think we may be able to afford a trip in a value resort. We have never stayed in a value before so I am excited to try something new. I will keep you posted on which one we decide to book with.

I almost forgot. I have now opened an online store called My Favorite Things. There are all kinds of items. Please check it out. Here's the link:
http://www.cafepress.com/myfavoritethings2

I think that is all my updates for now.  I will be doing a vacation special update soon too.

Thanks for dropping by!!

Happy Wednesday!!

Good Evening!! I just have to share that last week I set a goal to exercise 90 minutes for the next week. I did it!! YEAH!! My next goal is to do 150 minutes. I feel better. My weight is slowly dropping too.

I am sticking with it and I will make it!! I know I can.

Our good friends welcomed their sweet baby girl this morning!! We stopped by and saw her at the hospital tonight. She is just precious!! I send out a big congratulations to Brad & Katya!! And I know Kaylee will make a wonderful big sister!!

I am ready for the holidays. All my presents finally arrived. I can now rest and enjoy the holidays.

Friday, I am going to have a spa day and I can't wait. I have a massage scheduled and a fiji scalp treatment that sounds heavenly.

Well, I don't have anything else.

Thanks for stopping by!!!

Happy Monday Morning!

Good Morning Everyone!! I feel very good this morning. I hope everyone is having a good day so far.

For breakfast this morning I had 2 slices of Cinnamon raisin toast with butter and a cup of coffee.

Lunch plan is the 15 bean soup I made yesterday with crackers and an apple.

Dinner plan is the 15 bean soup and cornbread.

I brought a banana for snack today.

I will do my best to check back in later today to let you know how I stayed on plan and my exercise results. I have not been doing good on that lately.

Thanks for dropping by!!

End of the Weekend Update

Good Evening!! The weekend has come to an end. It's been a nice weekend. We just finished watching Pirates of the Caribbean - On Stranger Tides. I love Johnny Depp.

This morning we went to a local restaurant to have breakfast. We got there at 10:30 to find out that on Sundays they only serve breakfast til 10:30. So we had to have lunch. It was yummy but I was so craving breakfast food. For dinner I cooked some 15 bean soup. It smelled wonderful all afternoon and it tasted so yummy. Here's a picture.

While the soup was cooking and before we watched the movie, I did some Disney Trip planing. Remember I told you that October 2013 we are planning on taking our daughter and her 2 friends to Walt Disney World to celebrate their high school graduation. I have priced the trip out several different ways and I think we have decided a 1 bedroom villa at Bay Lake Towers is the way to go for us. It will give us 2 bathrooms, a separate bedroom and enough pull outs in the living room for the girls. Plus her friends have never stayed on site so what better way to show them then to stay in a Magic Kingdom View room. I priced it and it falls in our budget. I am now trying to figure out which dining plan to do. I think we will do the quick service dining plan because we don't want to be running to dining reservation times the whole trip but we still want 1 or 2 sit down dinners. I am trying to figure out cost of food not included in the dining plan and the food for the drive down.

My hubby has been laughing at me that I am planning this trip that is a little under 2 years out. What can I say??

On top of that I am trying to figure out taking our family next year Oct 2012.

I will keep you posted on everything.

Thanks for stopping by!!

End of Week and Saturday Update

Good afternoon!! I hope everyone is having a great Saturday!! I am so far. It has been busy. Sorry I am a couple days late on my blog. Life has gotten in the way again!!

Let's get started.

Thursday
Breakfast -- muffin and banana
Lunch -- hot turkey sandwich and baked potato from Danver's
Dinner -- chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy and biscuit

Friday
Breakfast -- muffin and banana
Lunch -- chicken, black eye peas, macaroni & cheese and cornbread muffin from Abbay's
Dinner -- homemade BBQ chicken pizza and sweet tea.

I am going to stop here and tell you about this pizza it is wonderful and low in calories!!! I buy the Kroger brand pizza dough that you make. It is so easy to do and the best part is is low calorie. The pizza feeds 3 (4 if you do a salad too). There are 640 calories in the entire pizza crust. Then I take 3 pr 4 chicken breast tenders and cut them up into tiny pieces and brown them in a skillet with Pam Spray. The chicken for all is 100 calories. Then I put BBQ sauce on the pizza dough which is 60 calories. Then I slice up an onion and put that on there. Then I put the cooked chicken and top with cheese. I don't have my cheese bag but it was low fat 2% cheese. So I think 1/3 of the pizza is like 400 calories at the most!! I think that is a great meal then add a salad.

Saturday
Breakfast -- eggs, bacon, biscuit, gravy
Lunch -- I haven't ate yet so it will be a lunch and dinner meal.

Jamie had some volunteer work today for Key Club selling some Christmas trees. She worked from 9-12 and had alot of fun.

Then we went and got our hair cut and brows waxed. I am now waiting on my color to finish. Hold on...

My color is now done and I have started dinner. I am cooking sauteed chicken with mushroom and onions, green beans, bow tie pasta and cheddar garlic biscuits. It smells so good!!

Well, that is about everything so far for today!!

Thanks for dropping by!!

Wednesday Update

Good Evening!! Let me start by saying that my roast last night was incredible. My husband said it was the best roast he has had in a very long time. I really don't know what I did different but it was so yummy!!

Today, We went to the grocery store and we bought lots of healthy things.

Here are some items:

• bag of apples
• bananas
• Cinnamon raisin bread
• 2% milk
• mixed nuts by planters called nutrition energy (very yummy snack)
• tuna
• lots of healthy soup for lunches
• mix to make some homemade soup
• beans to make 12 bean soup
• canned vegetables, beans, and peas
• fresh broccoli
• lettuce
• green peppers
• baby carrots
• pasta
• Alfredo sauce (I know it is not perfect but it is a quick meal and I add broccoli and mushrooms to it)

I can't think of what else we got but I was happy with my purchases. We are going to try and do some meatless meals. I got to work on my water. I have not done very well with that this week. In fact, let me go get a glass now.

Now with my water in hand. I can move on. It snowed last night and this morning here. We got a nice layer probably around 2 inches. I know that is not much for some areas but we are not use to snow. It melted on the roads so all was good there. It is almost all melted on the ground. :-(   I hope we get some more later in the month. I would love a white Christmas. I don't ever remember it snowing on Christmas.

I didn't get my work out in today since we went shopping so tomorrow will be a really good one.

Well, it's getting late so I am going to call it a night.

Thanks for dropping by!!