So, I cracked up a little when I read this post today and saw how Erin titled it. It made me laugh because I've had images of food to upload for three days with this title in mind. Apparently, great minds think alike! Since cutting back my calories, the evening meal has been my favorite and the most important when it comes to content. Although I know you are supposed to eat "five small meals a day", dinner always winds up being the heaviest one and I want to make sure it counts. Monday night we had chicken fajitas. They are a staple at our house and both girls will enjoy dinner with no complaints. This time, I happened to have fresh chicken tenders from a local market, but boneless, skinless breasts work just as well. I grilled the chicken on the stove with my cast iron grill pan, using ...
Run, Mommy, Run!
Saturday was the big day. A little over eight weeks since I started running, I ran my first race. I was really excited, but really nervous, too. I've never done anything like this, so I had no idea what to expect, how to prepare or if I would embarrass myself! My best friend ended up not being able to join me, so I ran with my uncle Heath and his wife Susan. Josh was out of town for the weekend (Final Four in NOLA, of course), so he texted me throughout the morning to keep in touch. I've been pretty consistently running a 10 1/2 minute mile outside and a little longer than that on the treadmill. As much as I would love to be faster than that, I'm just not there yet. My goal was to run in about 33 minutes, giving myself 11 minutes per mile. We started in a huge crowd of people, but after ...
Dino-riffic
We went to a pretty terrific birthday celebration for our sweet friend Preston early last month and I haven't shared the photographs with you yet! Preston just turned one and is a little boy who stays with Sophie during the week. His big sister Madeline is a friend of Ella's and his mom, Michelle, did a fantastic job on the party. It was so funny listening to the little conversations going on around the tables. We still think these are "little" kids, but sometimes their conversations are so grown up! Ella's face cracks me up so much in the photograph -- she was smirking at me -- and is pretty typical of her these days. I cannot believe I didn't get a close up of the table! Michelle did such a great job and the spread was divided into two categories of food -- herbivores and ...
Project 365: Week Thirteen
Q: How do you know you've turned into a terrible blogger? A: When there aren't any posts between your last two Project 365 reveals. Gah, y'all. I'm terrible. Terrible or not... here's the rundown of our last week together. I'm not making any promises, but I'm going to really try to get back on the bandwagon next week . And these pictures are terrible. This probably seems like a poorly executed April Fool's Day joke. It's not, bear with me. Sunday, March 25 (Day 85): So, breakfast. I probably had the same two slices of peanut butter toast that I have almost every morning. Or it could have been an omelet if SD was feeling really generous. Either way, I didn't photograph it. I decided I would take a picture of our dinner instead and guess what? I forgot about that, too. I ...
Project 365: Week Twelve
This week was long and hard. The girls were out of school for spring break and between running, running errands and working like a mad woman at the office this week, I pretty much crashed into bed every night. I'm thrilled to get back on a regular schedule this week, with the girls in school and my intense project at work wrapping up. I have some great photos to share from a birthday party a few weeks ago, some birthday plans of my own for Sweet Sophie and some photos of the work we've been doing in the yard the last few weeks. Until then, here's what we've been up to! Sunday, March 18 (Day 78): After church on Sunday, SD headed out to play golf with the guys and the littles and I spent the afternoon outside. I finished up a little yard work that we started on Saturday and watched them ...
This Week
I have been reviewing a spreadsheet at work. It has so many rows that after four days of constant glaring, I'm a little over half way there. There are colored highlighters and rulers on my desk and it looks like an elementary school project has taken over. I only lost 0.4 pounds and I'm frustrated. I realize that a little loss is better than no loss, but I'm tired of seeing ounces on the scale. I'm 4.4 pounds and one pants size from my goal. I vow to be there by summer! We had to take Sophie to the ER. She dropped something on her foot Monday night and we were worried it might be broken. Thank you, Lord, for soft baby bones because it turned out to be a soft tissue injury. After four hours that we'll never get back, a baby-talking x-ray technician and a Tasmanian devil, we got home after ...
Project 365: Week Eleven
How can it be Sunday already? Now that I'm doing a linky party once a week, it feels like Sundays sneak up on me awfully fast! We had a lot going on this week and I got some pretty cute iPhone photos. I know I should probably strive to taking a "real" photograph with my "real" camera each day, but when I committed to doing Project 365 this year, I knew that using my phone would make it much easier to keep up with. After all, it's quite rare that I'm somewhere without it! Here is what we've been up to over the last seven days. Sunday, March 11 (Day 71): On Sunday, we had lunch with Josh's parents after church. I mistakenly packed shorts and short sleeves for the girls, with the assumption it would be a beautiful day. 55* and cloudy meant they were a little on the chilly side. We had taco ...
Won’t you be my neighbor?
Right next door is a pretty little house. It's old and charming like mine. They are really close to one another, share a wrap around drive and some pretty great trees. For the last eighteen months, it has sat empty. We were blessed for several years to live next door to my aunt Heather and her three wonderful children. They were such an important part of our lives and we were so sad when they moved on to bigger and better things. Ella has been pretty depressed about the empty house for awhile and dreamed of having neighbors, especially if children could be involved. We've known for several months that it was very possible some very good friends might move next door. Parker & Ella are the same age, Conner & Ella are in the same class at school and Carson & Sophie are two peas ...