Roaring Like a Lion

Today's the perfect day to quote one of my favorite praise/worship songs.

The words are so powerful to me, even without any music.

These lyrics basically speak to any issue you may be facing in life, with your faith, with your church home: God is alive, living in us, and he's not just chillin on the sofa as a passive observer.

His love is LOUD. like a lion.

Let love explode and bring the dead to life
A love so bold to see a revolution somehow

Now I'm lost in your freedom
This world I'll overcome
My God's not dead, He's surely alive
And He's living on the inside, roaring like a lion

Let hope arise and make the darkness hide
My faith is dead, I need a resurrection somehow

Let Heaven roar and fire fall
Come shake the ground with the sound of revival.

 This song has so much strong, vibrant language in it. It should be our prayer to God everyday.

We should beg to see an EXPLOSION of love in our lives, a BOLD love that starts revolutions. 

His love gives us so much freedom, we literally get lost in it...at least I do.

Sometimes I pray for understanding just because I can't even fathom the idea that God loves me for me without any qualifiers, regardless of my failures.

When my faith feels dead, God's love somehow brings back hope and resurrects my faith.

That's what Easter is all about right? God's power to resurrect?

Immortality. That's what makes our God truly holy. Only HE can conquer death.

And when He reveals His power, heaven ROARS. 

That just fills my heart and makes me want to shout His praises.

and also rock out to David Crowder:)

Just What You Wanted

I know y'all only check my blog to see pictures.

That's ok.

It gives me something to do late at night while I can't sleep.

Like play with collage makes online.

Here's beautiful Chunk.

She makes so many adorable faces.

The last week or so she has really started to grow and develop at a rapid pace.

She can pick up a chew toy (no, not a dog toy) and bring it to her mouth.

She can almost sit up without doing a face plant.

She got to take a bath with Maddy (in the Bumbo, which floated, so I had to drain most of the water).

Here's Moo.

In these pictures (starting with top left, across the top row), she's drinking juice, wearing her Hello Kitty backpack and drinking juice, standing 3 inches from the TV with her PJs hiked up, sitting in her pretty halter top dress, standing pigeon-toed in her night gown that was dragging the ground at Christmas(she has grown so much!), pitching a fit because her juice or "joo" is empty, wearing adorable pig tails, and playing in the bath.

Oops, I missed one.

She's playing with the little flippy menu thing at Zaxby's.

Cause you wanted to know all of that, right?

Here are some of what I consider "family" photos.

Basically, that means more than one family member is in the frame.

Even if it's just a hand.

Here are some side by sides of Lillee and Maddy at particular ages.

Lillee's on the left and Maddy's on the right.

Here's Newborn, then 2 months.

Then 3 months and 4 months...

And finally... 5 months.

I can't believe Chunk is already 5 months old! 

 

Then, just for fun, here's me and Scott in Vegas just after we got married (over 3 years ago).

We look so young!

Girl you trippin, ain't nuthin but a thang

Today I walked over 3000 steps.

That's about 175 calories burned.

A mile and a half walked.

about half an hour spent pushing the chirruns in the stroller.

I had a juice for breakfast (carrots, apple, grapes)

I had iceberg lettuce, a can of tuna, and some salsa for lunch. It was so hard not to add mayo to the tuna. mayo is like crack.

For dinner we had salsa chicken, whole grain rice, and black beans. I admit I added sour cream and shredded cheese.

And I drank a sweet tea, hoping the caffeine would help my headache, brought on by lack of coffee.

It didn't help.

At all.

Then I had a ghetto-talk text convo with my mom.

it involved a lot of "hoe"s and "girl you trippin"s and a few other colorful phrases and ended with me saying "i don't even know what that means but I heard a black girl say it"

Sorry, I'm not sorry if that offends you..

Sometimes I just hate the world

have you ever gotten out of bed feeling like crap and decided to hate the world for the day?

you know, everything is someone's fault, and whoever happens be in the room is pissing you off?

well...today was one of those days.

Scott went in to work overtime last night and didn't wan to take pizza leftovers for lunch.

then at 4 am he calls me to say "don't freak out when I come in. I'm going to get that pizza."

I finally fall back to sleep, and am getting the best sleep of my life (ok, in all honesty, I probably wasn't sleeping that well but since I was pissed off I had to exaggerate it).

And what does Scott do? he calls me at 8 am to say "hey you wanted me to wake you up to work out when I got home, so I'll be there in 15 minutes"

looking back, that was actually really nice and considerate and all that, but I was like...WHAT THE WHAT?!

I could have slept 15 more minutes, and now Lillee is awake from the phone ringing and I don't want to go workout now because he didn't do what I asked and I HATE EVERYTHING RAWRRRRR!

So I figure I'll lay in bed with Lillee and coax her back to sleep so I can run to the weight room for a few minutes when Scott actually gets home.

FALSE.

He fell asleep on the couch and I didn't wake back up until 9am.

UGH.

So I got up, pitched a little mini fit in my head, and proceeded to smash everything in clean the kitchen.

HOLY duke.

(that's Scott's word for crap)

I felt so bad from eating pizza last  night and drinking like 3 cups of coffee yesterday.

Like, for real felt like I was going to die or explode or something.

In that last few days I've eaten BBQ, zaxby's, Pizza, TONS of cheese, cheetos, gatorade, like 2 pots of coffee, and I'm sure a bunch of other food crap.

Needless to day I am fed up with feeling like this.

I don't even want food anymore.

So after a little potty break (ok, it wasn't exactly a short visit to the b-room), I started to wash dishes again.

It was very therapeutic.

I managed to wash 3 plates before I quit.

I was so angry and pissed and miserable and depressed.

And then...I looked at my kitchen table and saw my juicer sitting there.

That was my AHA! moment.

I'm angry mostly at myself because I've slacked off lately with my health.

I haven't been eating right, I quit juicing, I haven't been working out like I should.

And all of that leads to my house being a wreck because I use all my energy on the girls and then feel so lethargic I don't really even care about vacuuming the carpet or sweeping the kitchen.

And then I feel guilty because Scott doesn't ask for much, but he wants a clean house.

And then I get angry at him because that's easier than accepting the guilt.

Don't worry! It's all good.

Slamming dishes around all morning and washing a couple plates and looking at a juicer sort of flipped a switch for me. I stopped what I was doing and got all the fruit and vegetables I could find and made me a big ole fresh glass of juice.

I drank the whole dang thang y'all and I feel so much better.

I saw Scott laying on the couch and stopped being angry at him.

I washed as many dishes as I could fit into the drying rack. (without slamming a one)

The anger disappeared.

I still haven't worked out today, but I feel more motivated.

I may not make it to the weight room today but I'll take the girls on a walk.

I am thankful for so many things. But sometimes I forget to be grateful. 

Does that make any sense at all?

I have so many amazing blessings in my life, but I get so caught up in myself I forget that God can take it all away as easily as he gave it.

1. the man asleep on my couch right now. 

2. the love that #1 shows me every day

3. two beautiful little girls who look like their daddy

4. a roof over my head. 

5. clothes strewn all over the house

6. dishes in the sink. and on the counter. 

7. a positive balance in the bank account

8. juice stains on the carpet from Maddy learning to use a cup

9. a new shower curtain

10. Lillee's chub rolls

11. Maddy's mile-long eyelashes

12. a TV to watch my Duck Dynasty

13. dreams

14. food in the refrigerator

15. coffee. and creamer.

16. a vacuum cleaner--even if I haven't used it in a few days

17. my body. far from perfect but it's mine and it's whole.

18.a fifth living generation

19. America

20. a double stroller. I can imprison both of them at once

21. hard times that make me stronger

22. Scott's forgiveness

23. and God's, of course. Salvation.

So much more in my life inspires gratitude. I need to acknowledge every single thing.

Be patient with me as I fill you in on all of these blessings.

What fills your heart with thanks?

Don't ignore me...seriously think about because when you actually give it 5 minutes and purposely recognize your blessings, it's really hard to be angry or pitch a fit or slam the dishes around.

Look at my girls...my heart is so full of their love, how can I possibly be angry?

and Scott loves me every single day, even when there are dirty clothes on the floor or I didn't scrub the toilet. How can I blame him for leaving his underwear out? 

Today has been a major turnaround for me, and it's not even 10:30 yet.

I'm back on track.

with my eating.

with my fitness goals.

with my attitude.

with our finances.

with Scott.

with God.

yeesh.

i wanted to write something funny, cause i'm one funny kid, y'all.
but i have something else to say real quick.
i have been thinking a lot lately about jealousy.

i have seen a lot of it in the people around me lately and its pretty ugly.
it makes people say and do things that are hateful and full of spite.
these people are deceptive, conniving, and manipulative, all because they can't face their own shortcomings in light of others' success.

i dont want to be ugly that way.

so the thing is, jealousy isnt inherently evil...its how we respond when start feeling those pangs of envy.

i have found that often, jealousy, if unchecked, blooms into hatred, insecurity, selfishness, and hostility. those things are so unattractive.

i am on a journey to reroute my thought process when it comes to jealousy.

you see, i had this epiphany.

everyone has a struggle or insecurity, right?

but also a strong trait that they can or should be confident about.

so why be jealous of anyone at all? i mean...the envy and non-envy pretty much balance out so most people are pretty neutral when it comes to enviable characteristics.

first, i want to be happy for that person for the thing that inspires envy.

 she is skinny? good for her, that takes a lot of hard work.

he makes 6 figures a year? what a blessing.

her husband is romantic and "perfect"? God is good. and i bet her husband isnt a hero;)

but then i want to realize that even though i see the things i am jealous of as great, that person has struggles that i cant see or even imagine.

the skinny girl might have a boyfriend who belittles her, the rich guy doesn't have time for a family, and the romantic guy doesn't want kids when she does.

they could all be jealous of me, for all i know.

my point is, when i feel jealousy rising up, i need to stop myself and make it something positive.

I'm happy for that person for having something enviable in his/her life.

And I sympathize for whatever struggle they may be facing and hope they stay strong and overcome it.

then i have to do whatever it takes to get myself to the point they are at that i envy so much.

i need to work hard to get fit, and maybe one day it will pay off and i will be skinny.

i need to start being financially savvy. saving more, spending less, cutting costs as much as possible.

and maybe, just maybe, i'm missing how romantic the hubs really is.

i mean...heck. he goes off and does this crazy dangerous, stressful, massively underpaid job and lets me stay home with the girls.

and doesn't complain.

everyone should be jealous of me, not me jealous of them, right? (ok, maybe that's pushing it)

 i will work on it starting now.

another thing i have realized lately is just how addicted i am to food.

thank God i am fairly healthy and not severely obese or anything, so for right now it is not life threatening, but it could be.

my fitness goals seem to just fly right out of my mind when i think about eating.

sometimes i dont even feel hungry, i just want something.

sometimes it is even something healthy.
always, i find myself with food in my mouth before i realize that i even opened the fridge.

i do not understand why food addiction is so acceptable.

i mean, seriously.

the problem is no one will call it what it is.

ADDICTION

compulsive need for and use of a habit-forming substance characterized by tolerance and by well-defined physiological symptoms upon withdrawal; persistent compulsive use of a substance known by the user to be harmful

ok. compulsive need for and use of [food]...so true. it is like i HAVE to have it. there are times i cannot stop thinking about it.

habit forming...um hello: i am in the habit of going to fridge/cabinet freely, to the point that its like autopilot. i dont even have to think about it.

tolerance/withdrawal: the more i eat, the more i need to be satisfied. its like i just cant stop putting the fork to my mouth. and certain things cause major withdrawals. coffee. steak. bread. mayo. no lie...i could eat mayonnaise on almost anything. 

so why are we disgusted by drunks and junkies, but not people who constantly stuff their face?
i mean, now that i've realized that there truly is an addiction here, i'm pretty disgusted with myself.
the bad thing is that, like other addicting habits, food is now designed and enhanced to CAUSE addiction.
what the what?!


on an encouraging note, Scott and i overheard two teens talking at dinner tonight.
girl: yeah, like, i dont really like the whole dieting thing, you know, like i dont want it to be a lifestyle or anything.
boy: yeah i hate it when, like, you are around a group of people and they say something.

wow. i feel like possibly i missed something, but that's definitely what they said.
but now i feel a little better about my health/fitness, because i do, after all, want to have a healthy lifestyle. also, i feel tremendously intelligent when compared to that conversation.

also, today i told scott that i had done something "a while ago" and realized as i said it that as a child, i truly and honestly thought it was "awallago"...
you know, as in "why is that dog hungry? i just fed him awallago."
oh, growing up as a hick kid.

some of scott's recent words:
muster(that's the meeting all the PO-lice have before their shift) = mustard.
scott know that it's actually muster, but says mustard to get on my nerves.
sirene (that's sigh-reen) =siren ...like scott says he goes "lights and sirenes" to a wreck

Maddy's recent accomplishments in the english language:
night-night
shoe
juice (joo)
Lillee (yuh yee)
Scott

Lillee's recent accomplishments:
rolling around like a mad woman
eating REAL food. her favorite is kale.
screeching

my recent accomplishments:
well, i got out of bed today, didn't i?
 

Strolling...Strollering?

Hey y'all.

I got a pedometer app on my phone.

Took the girls out in our sweet new double stroller.

I walker approximately 4, 740 steps.

and that is about 2 miles.

and apparently about 230 calories.

and it took 48 minutes.

I walked around the stupid apartment complex parking lots like 9 times.

that's all.

kbye.

Today was a long but productive one.

I got up at 8:15, which is just in time to catch the sunrise.

Scott walked in and spent some time with me and told me about some guy whose guts were hanging out his stomach.

He had been stabbed.

I think he's ok now though, so try not to worry a whole lot.

I had coffee while we chatted, the girls got up, Scott watched them while I took a shower and got ready (which is probably one of the greatest gifts he has given me lately...I mean, seriously, a 15 minute shower without any screaming or knocking on the door? that's like heaven).

Then Scott wen toff to sleepyland while the girls and I got to it.

It was a beautiful day so both girls got to wear adorable summer dresses.

The best part was the bloomers.

I love baby bloomers.

:)

We went to SAMs Club.

Got a few staples.

And a juicer.

Now, it's not the one that Reality Barbie used here and here but it will suffice.

We went to the Post Office to pick up a package.

It was closed. Turns out you can only pick up packages here in Al-binny at one USPS location.

So we drove back across town to get our package and headed home.

Then we unloaded our goodies, put groceries away, and opened our package.

It was Christmas gifts for my family that got back ordered and finally arrived today.

After that, the girls took a nap.

A long one, thank goodness.

While they slept I washed dishes.

By hand.

Still no dishwasher repair.

Anyway, when I got them all clean, I busted that joker out.

(in case you need a buzzer for every time the subject of the conversation changes, I'm referring to the juicer now.)

I already knew from Barbie's mishaps how to operate the thang.

I threw in a cup of baby spinach, 3 big ole carrots, a whole dang mater, a "navel" as it says on the package (it was orange so I call it an orange), and an apple.

It made about 30 oz of juice. I drank about 8oz and was STUFFED.

I'm talking like thanksgiving dinner #3 in one day stuffed.

So I put the rest in the fridge and came back about an hour later to finish it.

Actually Maddy drank about 6 oz of it.

That'll be a fun diaper change.

Anyway it was super delicious.

THEN...

Maddy and i colored with chalk all over our little patio.

Maddy thought it was great and shse barely even did anything.

She loved watching me draw.

 

 

This Past Week

ok. so I'm just going to catch up on the last week or so in this post.

I put my Insanity workouts on hold because we had to go out of town.

I mean HAD to. no choice.

We had the opportunity to visit with Mamaw(that's like "ma'am awe"), who is Scott's great grandmother.

That makes my girls 5th living generation in their family, and Mamaw had never met Lillee.

She's 92.

I love her.

She is just an amazing lady.

She loves Jesus more than you could understand and she has no shame about sharing her opinions:)

She really loved on my girls, and I am SO happy that they got to meet her.

We also got to visit with some other family while we were in North Georgia for the weekend.

Well, not really North Georgia as in the mountains/blueridge/dahlonega/etc, but when you live in Albany(which, by the way, is pronouced "all-binny", not all-buh-knee), pretty much any where in Georgia is "north".

This is Scott's aunt Dawn.

She has 4 kids (we call them Maddy's kids cause they help babysit Maddy...for example, "hey Maddy, wanna go see your kids today?")

She is a fantastic mother/wife/teacher/aunt/friend and  a great inspiration for me.

She has helped my little family more than she realizes and is truly one of my favorite people.

More to come on her and her family in a later post, mayhaps.

This one is Maddy playing marbles with two of her kids.

She loves them and just cracks up laughing the whole time she is around them.

Dawn is like a master scrapbooker.

Like, if there would levels of scrapbooking, she would be on level NINJA.

She has nearly 20 years worth of scrapbooks from her wedding, family vacations, kids' births and birthdays, proms, summer camps, family reunions, and way more.

I love to look through them because I have come to be very close to their family and now the scrapbooks include me and Scott and the girls as well.

This past weekend, I found a picture from my wedding that I had never seen in any other album.

Dawn happened to take the picture and no one else at the wedding captured it.

 

This is quite possibly one of the best pictures of our wedding.

I love it.

And him.

Since we stayed with my parents for the weekend, I got to help work the garden.

It was actually sort of like slave labor, but I absolutely love working in the garden.

I don't have pictures to share right now, but stay tuned for pictures of the fully blooming vegetable and herb garden in a couple months.

We spent almost our entire day starting seeds and sowing our cool weather plants.

All that work inspired me to grow some things in containers on our patio.

Who says you can't have fresh veggies in an apartment?

More on that tomorrow.

While we were visiting with mamaw, there was a yard sale across the street and everyone wanted to go check it out.

So we hauled Maddy, Dawn, Nana, Mamaw, Me and Dawn's two girls across the road.

And I found a bread machine for just 5 bucks.

Hot dog!

I am in love. 

We go through a lot of bread because Scott takes a sandwich almost every night with him to work and Maddy eats a PBJ or Nutella sandwich almost every day.

Making my own bread has already started to save us money.

Here's the first loaf I EVER made.

It's actually quite tasty.

Speaking of tasty and homemade, I have been trying some new recipes lately.

I took pictures of the first one, but totally forgot on the others.

First is the egg n' biscuit bake.

 You start by making homemade biscuits.

I made minis.

Then you take the tops off and layer the bottoms in a casserole dish.

I could have just used the same dish but this one was too shallow for my eggs.

Then you cover the bottoms with sharp (or extra sharp--YUM) cheddar.

Then put the lids back on.

As you can see, I sort of mixed up some of my lids with my bottoms.

LOL I crack myself up.

Then you beat 6-8 eggs with about a half cup of dairy. Heavy cream makes it wonderfully creamy but plain ole milk is fine too. Also, add some salt and pepper to taste and then pour the yumminess over your biscuits. Then sprinkle with more cheese.

Then you just bake it at 350 for about 20 minutes.

I was planning on putting my pork chop bites inside the biscuits before I baked it, but the pork chops wouldn't thaw out.

So while the casserole was baking, I was frying some chops.

I just sliced a 1-inch thick chop into bite size pieces, coated in a milk-and-egg mixture, then covered it with flour and fried em up in some vegetable oil.

Everything turned out delicious.

Here's what it looked like.

If you don't know how to get the pork chops delicious and melt-in-your-mouth tender, let me know and I'll go into details and such.

These were PERFECT!

 We ate ALL of the chops and got seconds of the egg n biscuits.

My other two recipes that have been wildly successful this week are both crockpot chicken recipes.

So basically I'll just list the ingredients, cause you just chuck em in and leave that joker on low for 6-8 hours.

#1

Salsa Chicken

2 chicken breasts

1 jar salsa

1 cup (or more if you like) sour cream

Shred chicken before serving...you really don't even have to shred it. It's so tender it practically disintegrates when you touch it. 

I served it over rice with black beans.

#2

White Bean Soup

1 lb dry white beans (mine were northern beans...I'm sure there are other names)

about 5 cups water or stock

1 can Rotel

1 tsp each of dry oregano, cumin, and cayenne (seems like a lot of cayenne, but trust me, it needs that much)

1 or 2 chicken breasts ( I did two and it was enough to feed like 6 people)

Just before you serve it, shred the chicken then add a cup of sour cream or greek yogurt and blend it really well.

I served mine with a slice of fresh, homemade bread with some butter on it.

Top with shredded cheese and sour cream.

It was SO good and perfect for a chilly day.

I have so much more to write about, but this post is getting a little lengthy.

I'll post again tomorrow and hopefully that will get me caught up.

love y'all.

kbye.

 

What do you want to hear about?

Ok y'all (all 3 of you), I have about a weeks worth of posts to write.

Do you want to hear it all in one post or broken up into mini posts?

Here's what I plan on posting about:

*our visit with Mamaw*

*gardening*

*our new frugal plan*

*juice*

*INSANITY update*

*Moo and Chunk pictures*

*living with a night-shifter*

Which ones do you want to hear about most? 

Leave me a comment about which ones/which order.

Also, ask me a questions or three to answer in my next post.

love y'all.

kbye.

Insanity Day 7: Rest

Today was a scheduled day off.

I didn't have to do a workout.

I didn't get to sleep last night either, so thank goodness for a rest day.

I had a 500 calorie lunch.
500 calories doesn't sound like much, but it was a ton of food.

A can of tuna, 5 leaves of green leaf lettuce, a half cup of sliced strawberries, a quarter cup of baked beans, a quarter cup of cashews.

And I drank about a quart of water.

Then I had a delicious snack of strawberry smoothie.

It was 6 strawberries, half a cup of plain greek yogurt, a teaspoon of honey, a hlaf cup of organic, 1% milk and ice cubes.

YUM.

For dinner we had cheesy egg biscuit bake, which was basically homemade biscuits covered in cheese, then soaked in whipped eggs and milk, then baked.

I served it with bite size fried pork chops.

YUM again.

That's not all my food for the day but that's the highlights.

Insanity Day 6: a healthy meal

Prepare yo selves.

This gon' be a long un.

I have so much to share from today, so I hope you're ready.

I could post a bunch of small posts, I suppose.

But I'd rather just make on monstrosity:)

Let me preface the monstrosity by saying that I am totally exhausted.

Last night, some punks decided that 1 am is the perfect time to hang out at the apartment building and scream and yell and hoop and holler and scream and yell.

I seriously almost went out there and said some bleep-bleeps.

So when I woke up this morning, I had about 2 hours of sleep behind me and both girls were up and crying.

So I decided I was gonna really have to work hard to keep them occupied and happy.

Especially since I left dishes in the sink last night.

So I put Maddy in the high chair and started giving her activities.

This was whipped cream with neon colored food coloring. She pretty much knew it was food before I even put the food color on it.

But she did have fun smearing all the colors after she ate the whipped cream.

Then we cleaned up and got some flour out. As much as I cook/bake, I've never just grabbed some flour and moved it around in my hands. it was a lot of fun and super soft and fluffy. Like a cloud.

Then she ate the flour...

She used my kitchen tongs to pick up blocks and put them in the little bucket. We actually did this twice today, hence (haha, I said hence) the two different shirts. She actually was doing a really good job by the end.

Meanwhile, in the living room...

Chunk is getting super strong and loves tummy time.

Maddy continued to play with the flour and such til she got ready for something new.

And Chunk got a bath, a new outfit, and apparently a very good nap.

It's a little out of season but she's a little Georgia Gurl!

While I cooked dinner, Maddy was totally grossed out by the spaghetti squash guts. 

I had this snack after my workout today. its greek yogurt, peanut butter, honey, and white chocolate chips. Tastes like cookie dough greek yogurt. Plus, it makes celery edible:) I only ate about 2 tablespoons of it and Maddy had some too.

These are my mini white chocolate macadamia nut cupcakes with nutella buttercream frosting. All completely from scratch. So good. I haven't eaten one yet today, but I have a feeling I wont be able to resist much longer.

Here's what I cooked for dinner (I took lots of pics that I'll post later in a recipe):

Salad with 2% cheese and ranch dressing and Turkey Taco Spaghetti Squash. Yum. I love it. Scott ate it but didn't seem happy about it. I guess some people just can't do spaghetti squash. I love that junk y'all.

The spaghetti was basically turkey taco meat, but I added shredded carrots and grated some celery into it just for added nutrition. You can't taste it but it adds some goodness to the meal. I also took 3 doritos chips and crumbled them over the spaghetti. it really added a nice crunch.

I think that's all for today y'all.

I think I might go stuff a cupcake in my face.

kbye.

Insanity Day 5

Today I did Pure Cardio.

I couldn't do 100% of the moves but next time I think I will be able to.

I barely ate enough food today...actually I probably ate too little.

I managed to get about 1400 calories but that included a delicious homemade cupcake.

 White Chocolate Macadamia Nut with Nutella buttercream frosting.

YUM.

I gotta tell ya this Insanity is awesome.

The workouts are super hard and intense but when you finish, you feel like it was easy and you got a really good workout.

And then you're just sore enough to feel new muscles but not be miserable.

I feel really good so far.

I want to do it more.

But I seriously burn some calories cause I keep getting hungry and almost lightheaded, like I haven't eaten all  day.

And I have more energy but am super tired at the end of the day.

Also, I got my super hot bath tonight.

No beer.

And the teeny tiny water heater only holds enough water to fill the tub about 5 inches before the water turns cold.

Thank goodness I'm chubby so I displace a lot of water;)

Insanity Day 4

Today was the recovery workout.

Basically yoga/stretching.

There wasn't really any cardio, but it was still pretty difficult.

I took my before pics today.

I'm not posting them yet.

Sorry.

Maybe when I can see a definite difference I will post my before pictures along with "in progress" pictures.

I just don't have the guts to post fat pictures right now.

I do have some pictures to share though.

They're from my long, busy day.

I forgot to take a few pictures, so I'll have to add those tomorrow.

Her shirt says "Grandma is a hoot". I was trying to take a picture for my mom, so I used the front camera and Maddy thought it was face time. She says "hey".

Lillee and I did about 4 loads of laundry today. As you can see, it gets pretty tiring folding baby clothes.

This was Maddy's breakfast/snack. A spoon full of peanut butter and an oatmeal cream pie. She also ended up having Nutella on Ritz crackers. So healthy. Mom of the year, right here people.

We finally busted the old high chair back out storage. The cushion had a gross stain from the storage building so it was in the wash during this pic. Check out those leg rolls, y'all. I wish my fat was that cute;)

Now, I told you my day was long and busy. Obviously my pictures don't cover all the busyness.

I also played with Lillee, which was more important than it sounds like cause we did tummy time and practiced sitting up.

Chunk can lay on her belly, then lift her head up to look at you so high her belly button is off the ground. 

Let's see. I washed pretty much all of the dishes we own.

I've been doing them by hand just because it saves a TON of money for us to buy dish soap instead of dish detergent.

I decided I would skip a load, and then use the dishwasher when I had enough dishes.

HA. The stupid dishwasher doesn't work. It just fills up with water and sits there. And won't drain. Which stinks.

So anyway, I had like three days worth of dishes that I was going to just shove in the dishwasher that I ended up doing by hand.

Then I did all that laundry.

And put most of it away.

Then I attacked Maddy's room.

O. EM. GEE y'all.

It took nearly TWO hours to clean up all her JUNK and rearrange everything.

Now all (well, most) of her toys are put up in the closet where she can't get them in the middle of the night.

The crib is taken apart and put out of the way.

Her bed is moved, remade, and decorated with all the crib stuff.

Her clothes (and Chunk's) are all completely organized and put away.

And I painted her other dresser.

That's what I forgot the take pictures of, but it's super cute.

Now I'm so glad to be able to walk/see the floor in there.

It was ridic y'all.

Then after that I cleaned the living room/scrubbed the kitchen, and dusted.

Yeah, dusted.

That's weird, right?

I mean, I never dust.

But that ceiling fan was FUNKY.

Anyway...Scott got to sleep all day without interruption, I did my workout, Scott was happy with a clean house and surprised at Maddy room.

We enjoyed some Hibachi chicken/shrimp/steak and lots os fried rice and special sauce and left overs for both of us for just $20.

Twenty dolla make you holla!

Now Scott's at work and all I want is take a nice hot bath and relax, but we live in an apartment.

I don't know if you know this, but apartments tubs...well... 

it's one thing to wash your kid in there, but it's a whole other story to lay there and try to relax when you think about all the people (with varying degrees of hygiene) that have used that tub.

Tomorrow, I'm bleaching the crap outta that thing and having me a beer and a bath.

Please help!

I desperately need activities for Maddy to do indoors that are cheap or free.

What do you do with your toddler when you can't go outside?

We've already watched too much tv/movies. She's 20 months and wild and crazy. Help!

Insanity Day 3

Insanity Cardio Power and Resistance

it's actually pretty easy.

the tough part is making yourself do each circuit without stopping.

i lie. the tough part is doing the circuit for the THIRD time in a row.

it's an incredible workout though.

i'm not miserably sore but I'm tired and i can already feel muscle that weren't there this morning.

like my triceps.

todays workout had 3 or 4 different tricep moves and they were killer.

i'm really excited and motivated about this whole 60 days.

the only hard part is adding in another hour of activity to my todo list.

actually more than an hour because it involves coordinating nap times, rearranging errand, showering afterward, setting the computer up with the TV, etc.

Lillee watched me workout today and it put her to sleep.

 anyway, I feel really good after today's workout, but the livingroom was messy when Scott got up 

and i didn't get to the bank on time to deposit our check.

and then i left the laundry basket in the kitchen.

and i didn't fold the blanket that Scott slept on the couch with.

and then i set the casserole on top of a warm burner by accident so the chicken was super tough.

ugh.

now i'm just waiting for the teeny tiny water heater to fill back up so i can go to take a long hot shower and turn sunburned-lobster-red.

p.s. i promise i will post before pics/measurements soon

Insanity Day 2

Here are my results from day 1, which is the fit test.

You get 1 minute for each exercise to do as many reps as possible.

1. Switch kicks (you basically do a front kick with your right leg, a little hop, and then a front kick with you left leg. that makes one rep. 2 kicks = 1 rep) I did 45.

2. Power jacks (jumping jack with a squat when you put your legs out) I did 35

3. Power knees (you put your arms over your head, a little to one side, and one leg slightly back to the other side. You bring your arms down and your knee up to meet right in front of your belly button. you only do this on one side.I used my right knee) I did 76

4. Power jumps (squat, then jump up in the air while still in the squat position) I did 19

5. Globe jumps (squat, then jump left into another squat, then backward into a squat, then right into a squat, then back to start position. 4 squats or 1 circuit = 1 rep) i did 7

6. Suicide jumps (This is what I would call a burpee...? bend over, jump back to plank, jump back to a squat, then jump up in the air) I did 9

This junk gets tiring when you do it for a whole minute.

7. pushup jacks (literally, pushups and jumping jack at the same time. when you lower yourself, you jump your feet out wide, then jump them back in when you push up) I did 0. actually I did 2 face plants during this 1 minute interval.

8. Low plank oblique (plank position while on your forearms/elbows, then you have to crunch one knee at a time up to your elbow.) I did 50.

Today was day 2, which is the plyometric cardio workout. It's actually mostly easy moves, you just have to do them all in a row with really high intensity.

I made it though about 15 minutes without stopping and total about 25 minutes. 

I wont lie. I skipped about 4 or 5 minutes at the end cause I HAD to stretch or I was gonna die.

Also, I did this barefooted(GASP).

I know that's bad for you or whatever but my shoes are in the bedroom and someone is all snuggled up asleep. Then again, he worked all night so I'm not really mad about it.

Oh, and I guess for accountability I should share some more info.

Age: 21

Height: 5'4"

weight: 158 lbs

goal weight: well, realistically the smallest I've ever been was about 135 and looking back, that was tiny. i want to get down to 140 but to make my weight loss a nice round 20 lbs, I'll say my goal is 138. Honestly, I think I would have to remove a leg or something to get lower than the 130s. 

I also want to have size goals, but as of right now I don't even know my sizes.

I will add measurements as soon as I actually do them.

I will tell you I wear a size 10 in jeans and honestly just want my size 8s to fit, but I think I can get to 6.

OH. and just because I want to ramble some more, I am trying a new technique for potty training. starting today, Maddy met her Cabbage Patch Kid baby doll.

The doll's name is supposed to be Marina or something, but we named her Mini Moo.

I have been helping Maddy teach Mini how to drink her juice and pee pee in the potty ( Maddy doesn't know it, but I just hide a little squirt bottle behind the doll so she "pees" in the potty). 

Maddy is taking such good care of Mini. She changes her diaper, and puts her in the bouncer, and gives her "juice". I even staged an accident, and Maddy cleaned up the "pee pee".

I'm hoping this method is as successful as all the stories say because I would LOVE to go buy some underwears and be done with the pullups.

yes. I said underwearS. with an S. 

My father taught me that.

Image courtesy of RonnyJacks.com and Red Top Mower.