Shredding

I've been living barefoot and in flip-flops since I tried to kick my pinky toe clean off of my foot.
Not so conducive to running or going to the gym.
But, I promised myself that I'd be ready for a swimsuit, ASAP, so I can't just sit around on my ass, staring at my green and purple foot. Staring burns less calories than one would hope.
So I checked out what was OnDemand, to see what I could do, barefoot in my living room. 30-Day Shred, woot-woot! Jillian Michaels isn't really my favorite, but I love this series. It's the right combination of torture and feeling great when I'm done. Probably because the workouts are only 20-something minutes long. But seriously, you seem results pretty quickly despite the brevity of the workout. That's golden.
Check out how pumped I was to shred.

LOL, I've been 5'11" for over 10yrs now, so you think I'd get over it and stand up straight. But no, I always have to catch a glimpse of my horrid posture in a mirror or photo (or case in point, both) and remind myself to push my shoulders back.
I've only lost 4lbs since I took the photos in the bikini, but progress pics seemed in order anyhow. I'm cheating a little since the rise on my yoga shorts is considerably higher, hiding one of the problem areas, but give me a break, I've had two babies in there, most of the problem is thinner, looser skin that is only going to improve (or not) over time... So take your tickets to the gun show and shut up :D



Thong Mono-kini, here I come! Not really. Last time I checked, I don't have any car show promo modeling coming up LOL

Supernatural

Honestly, supernatural brownies need no embellishment, but I got a bug up my butt when I saw a box mix for "mud brownies." Naturally, the afternoon project became making some brownies. And is there anything better than a whole house filled with brownie aroma? MMMMMMmmm.

I justify a generous piece by doing the 30 Day Shred while I wait for them to cool :D

Veganized

I mentioned my butter and cheese obsessions before... but I've passed dairy up for 3.5mo now due to Bauer's sensitivity to the proteins in my milk. The thought before was unbearable and without something like his health and my sanity (don't get much sleep with a baby writhing and crying with intestinal upset all night) hanging in the balance, it's not a leap I would have ever taken. And you know what, I don't really miss it! The same thing happened when I gave up soda as a teen. To this day, sometimes a root beer sounds sooo good, but when I get it, the carbonation burns and I'm over it a few sips in. Sometimes pizza sounds divine, but I'm okay.
Anyway, the point is that I've ventured into trying some vegan alternatives and I'd like to share some reviews.
Daiya cheddar-like shreds: I made a grilled cheese sandwich on wheat sourdough with it. It was okay. It tastes like liquified cheese-its. Toward the end of the sandwich when there was a glob of it, I gagged a little trying to swallow it. But I'm weird in my love for sharp cheddar, so most people probably would be fine. Case in point, I made mac-n-cheese with it tonight (used milk in the rue though, so I didn't get any), and the hubs and Emberly wolfed it down unawares no problem.
Eatpastry cookie dough: There's nothing taboo about eating the dough straight from the canister because there's no egg in it! My favorite so far is the Chocoholic Chunk, it's de-freakin-lish. The other flavors are okay.

I really think I could go vegan. But without commitment from Damon too, I doubt I ever will. So for now, meat and eggs still make my menu.

It's in the air!

Spring that is.
It's warming up and our color palette is brightening!



My favorite find so far this season is my denim shirt from H&M! I'm already wearing the hell out of it.

And I've been doing a lot of "window" shopping online. I don't know why I do this since I almost never buy anything, but now I'm in love with this shirt.
I asked Kendi over at Kendi Everyday for tips on finding "knock offs" when you just can't part with J. Crew type cash. She was quick to respond and true to form, humorous. She hipped me to a website, shopstyle.com, where I can search keywords and it will bring up items from various retailers that have those words somewhere in their description. Pretty freaking neat.

*blogger's note: I do realize that it isn't Friday, but I drafted this yesterday, and *surprise* I didn't get around to uploading my pics until this morning. Please forgive me.

Green

I think the challenges may be over, but, it's St Patrick's day and I can still talk about green!
Cute green:

Not-so-cute green:

My big toe toenail is black I assume from increasing my mileage quickly. And then Monday I stubbed my toe horribly and while my toe is swollen and has purple spots, the whole left side of my foot turned green. Sexy.

Finance Challenge Day 4

Toni's challenge today was to build a debt snowball. Dave Ramsey's technique which she employs, goes by order of smallest debt first because the sense of accomplishment as the debts disappear and your snowball grows keeps you motivated. Which I think is awesome for those that lose steam, but I was already going at gazelle intensity and wanted to save the most on interest that I could, so we tended to tackle the debt with the highest interest first.
We've only got our mortgage, BUT, you're in luck, I actually saved one of our spreadsheets from our debt snowball. It didn't end up working out quite this way, but you get the idea!

Date	Total Debt	Visa (9.00%)		Hyundai (5.14%)		Toyota (6.97%)			Interest
		Balance	Payment	Balance	Payment	Balance	Payment
September 2008	$22,644.44	$1,909.60	$755.99	$2,476.84	$246.00	$18,258.00	$438.01		$119.97
October 2008	$21,324.41	$1,162.14	$755.99	$2,240.26	$246.00	$17,922.00	$438.01		$115.24
November 2008	$19,999.65	$409.26	$409.26	$2,002.97	$592.73	$17,587.42	$438.01		$104.13
December 2008	$18,663.78			$1,416.20	$1,001.99	$17,247.58	$438.01		$101.24
January 2009	$17,325.03			$416.01	$416.01	$16,909.01	$1,023.99		$93.97
February 2009	$15,978.99					$15,978.99	$1,440.00		$77.68
March 2009	$14,616.67					$14,616.67	$1,440.00		$77.95
April 2009	$13,254.62					$13,254.62	$1,440.00		$67.63
May 2009	$11,882.26					$11,882.26	$1,440.00		$61.77
June 2009	$10,504.03					$10,504.03	$1,440.00		$51.89
July 2009	$9,115.92					$9,115.92	$1,440.00		$45.41
August 2009	$7,721.32					$7,721.32	$1,440.00		$37.16
September 2009	$6,318.48					$6,318.48	$1,440.00		$27.93
October 2009	$4,906.41					$4,906.41	$1,440.00		$20.51
November 2009	$3,486.91					$3,486.91	$1,440.00		$11.72
December 2009	$2,058.63					$2,058.63	$1,440.00		$3.66
January 2010	$622.29					$622.29	$622.29		$0.00

Finance Challenge Day 3

Today's challenge is to set up a budget box. Mine is not as pretty and colorful as Toni's but it is functional. The way mine is set up actually came from It's All Too Much by Peter Walsh. Staying on top of mail was (sometimes still is) a struggle of ours.
I have a plain 'ole hanging file box, with folders for every month. In each folder goes the bills for that month and any receipts for major purchases. As I come around to that month again, I shred anything in the folder that is not pertinent to tax info or something. I have a folder for legal stuff, like traffic fines info, birth certificates, marriage license, etc. I have a folder for medical stuff, where our EOB's and duplicates from well-checks and things go. Last is my folder for taxes. I put anything we might need in there, as well as keep last year's return in there. Each return eventually gets it's own folder, and I'll shred it once's it's over 10yrs old.
Ideas I got from Toni that I'm implementing:
1) A separate folder just for pay stubs. I had been putting these in their respective month, but I think it'd be more convenient to keep them together.
2) A separate folder for print outs of our monthly budget. I've never printed these out before, and I think it might make me more goal oriented to have that hard to look back on.

Finance Challenge Day 2

Day two's challenge was to set up an envelope system. Toni over at A Bowl Full of Lemons has five envelopes. I do practice the concept and believe in the principal behind this, but don't feel the need to be so stringent. I have one "envelope" and it's the grocery money. $80 cash per week. Recently, I do occasionally spend some of it on latte's, LOL, but once it's gone, it's gone, so I try to make sure I've got my meals planned out and have the ingredients on hand. Here are my thoughts on the other ones Toni talks about:
1) Gas: I get gas at Costco and you can't use cash. Also, I honestly I can't cut anything from this. I work from home, and I don't make special trips anywhere (for example, I don't just run to the mall. If I don't have a good 2-3 other stops I need to make by there, I won't go). I don't even pay attention much to price increases because I have to go where I have to go, no sense in getting upset about it.
2) Entertainment/Clothing: I do have amounts budgeted for these. Clothing is a revolving fund. I budget so much a month for it, and if it doesn't get spent, it rolls over to the next month. I keep track of that on a spreadsheet and typically shop online for deals so a cash envelope isn't really relevant. Entertainment... I'm good about sticking to a budget here. I would like for my husband to as well, but I'm 99% sure that if he had cash, he would spend that and then pull out his card, because he's likely a little inebriated. He's never agreed to go to cash for that. But the card he carries has a pretty low limit so he can't get into too much trouble with it. And for all of our cards, we pay off the entire balance every month because we're careful not to spend money we don't have. I might bring up the subject of going to cash for this again, since we have so many events going on this year, it makes sense to be a little more strict the rest of the time.
3) School: my oldest is almost 4, so it's not quite an issue yet.

Reading Dave Ramsey's book a few years ago was really my first introduction to the idea that not everyone has to or even does live paycheck to paycheck or that you can live life without debt. It's just not how I grew up and so I just went along with the assumptions of the status quo. For example- I kind of thought I would always have a car note. It never occurred to me to buy a car I can afford and then have a fund for it's eventual replacement where I put the money that would have been going toward a car note. And I also always thought "you have to spend money to make money." Which might be true but, I was subconsciously adding a few words to that saying in my head; "You have to spend money {you don't have} to make money," and that's definitely not true. I spent a lot of money (wracked up debt) on clothing/hair/makeup/photos/gas in my late teens under the guise of needing to in order to get my modeling career started. And I actually would have been okay, if once I'd started making money, I'd paid all that stuff off instead of going on trips and buying even more stuff. But hey, there's another saying, "Youth is wasted on the young." :D

Get set, go!

The first task for the ORGANIZE YOUR FINANCES challenge was to create my budget and track my spending.
Tracking spending is a lot like tracking calories. When you force decisions to be conscious and deliberate, you behave differently.
I immediately regret the large specialty latte I purchased and drank this morning. LOL
I really like this template because it helps you see projected/ideal versus the actual. The site recommends some software to get into more detailed budgeting, but it mainly involves linking up to one's bank account, so while the idea of letting software keep track of my spending for me is appealing, it wouldn't work for me because I rarely use my debit card or write checks. I use my credit card for online purchases and cash for everything else. Plus, again, it's more deliberate to have write it down/enter it myself.
Today I spent $4.27 at Saxby's Coffee and $57.93 at Fresh and Easy on groceries. I'll probably have to pick up more milk at some point this week, but I've got everything for my meals taken care of!

Financial Check Up!

Lately I've been blog-hopping, trying to find my inner OCD housekeeper. I'm one of those people that will be *perfection* at something forever until something happens to throw me off a little bit and then procrastination sets in and eventually you would never know how great it used to be.
During the hopping I stumbled upon A Bowl Full of Lemons. I was perusing posts, finding inspiration for the various projects around the house I want to accomplish, but not feeling like REALLY jumping in.
Until today.
Enter the latest weekly challenge, ORGANIZE YOUR FINANCES. The challenge is based mostly on the teachings of Dave Ramsey, who I already love, and is kind of geared toward those who are in debt. Thanks to Dave Ramsey and The Total Money Makeover, we became debt free when Emberly was a baby (well, until we bought our home). And I became the infamously frugal penny pincher. My husband even has a slur just for me :D
BUT, we do not have a fully funded emergency fund. And I've become a little lax, as proven by the late charge (gasp!) I just had on my gas bill. So I think it's a good idea to revisit my budget and follow along with the challenge anyway, to refresh my penny pinching skills! AND... I totally want to win the Clean Mama Printables gift pack :D

Hindsight

I completed another Six Tunnels Half Marathon. I ran this race while I was pregnant last year, and also blogged about it on my prenatal fitness blog.
Long story short, 6 weeks of training not pregnant is in no way better than 16wks of training while pregnant. Especially when you have a stomach bug for a week of the insufficient 6 weeks of training.
I finished with a better time and felt better during the race last year! The only thing that was better this time was not having to deal with the constant sensation of needing pee that comes from having a baby sitting on your bladder.
Hindsight immediately provides me with some oversights I made this time, in addition to trying to increase my mileage so quickly.
1) Last year it was REALLY windy and I was cold at first. I also got a weird tan on my legs from the sweat and dust settling on them. So I opted to wear pants and a long sleeved dryfit top. I was so hot this time! It was a beautiful day and much less breezy and I would have been much more comfortable in short sleeves and shorts.
2) I thought I could run the entire thing, rather than doing the run-walk intervals I did last year. This resulted in running 8mi at a great personal pace. Then I slowed down for 2mi. Then I walked a good 75% of the last 3mi.
3) I never felt particularly hungry or woozy on any of my training runs like I had pregnant so I thought that I'd rather not have to hold anything and skipped out on any energy gels. I got dizzy around mile 11 and wished I'd had a gel to down a mile or so back.

So, I'm both proud of myself and disappointed. Proud for the plain and simple fact that I did it. Disappointed that I didn't think things through enough, couldn't run the whole thing and finish with a better time.
Oh, well, I'll consider it a wash if I lost a pound and have more muscle definition in my legs :D

Memories

I blogged earlier this week about every moment being photo worthy. I also want to remember the things my kids say. I recently posted on Facebook about a conversation with my almost 4 year old where she called my husband a "laser" which was her combination for "crazy" and "loser" because he had attempted to eat her yogurt. One of my friends from high school, who has a daughter a little older than mine, commented that she had a book of quotes, which she planned to give her daughter when she's older. Grand idea, right? I know, I actually already started something like that 18mo ago. I bought a notebook, and numbered every page with a date of the year, with the idea that I would write something she did or said that day, every year, until the book was full. I did it for like 5wks and haven't touched it since. What a shame. I'm busting it back out because she is just too funny for these things to fall into the obscure corners of my memory!

WWDD

One of my girlfriends here put on this whole flash-mob type thing for Miller-Coors and Bacardi at the miracle mile shops and asked all her friends to show up. There were free drinks while we mingled before hand and then food and more drinks after. Good times. Typically, that's where I would have called it a night... I could be home by 10pm and get a good night's rest. So when Niki told me that they had a table at Pure and that it'd be great if I came and I almost automatically declined, I paused. Damon has been pushing me to have more "me" time. He goes out exponentially more than I and I sometimes I forget I'm a 20-something living in Las Vegas. I decided my motto for the evening was "What would Damon do?" and that was obvious. He'd go to Pure. I had an absolute blast. Knocking back some kind of shot with red-bull in it, it was 2am before I knew it. On a Tuesday night slash Wednesday morning. Niki's job is absolutely crazy.

And of course, the video from that night! You have to pay pretty close attention to catch the glimpses of me LOL

Slow Turnaround

It takes me a lot longer to get things done as a mom. Why? Because now I see the opportunity for impromptu "photo-shoots" in just about every moment. Everything seems like something that should be commemorated. And I really don't get tired of looking back on them all so it just encourages me to keep it up!


He had a hat on all morning and I love the frizzy little halo around his head LOL

What? Really?

Yeah. It's over 70 degrees today. Winter in Vegas is practically over. How did this sneak up on me? The resort pools will start opening up next week. Ack! No one wants to see me in a bikini. So apologies are being offered now, since I'm totally going to show you.
Here I am on the left last summer. Gloriously tan and belly full of baby. On the right is me now. Practically translucent. The baby came out 7mo ago, but apparently, my tummy is saving room for him to crawl back in there should the need arise (oh, wow, that was kind of gross, huh?).

The scale has been sliding down and the thighs shrinking with my running, but my eating has been kind of... well, crap. The love handles and mama paunch probably aren't going to flatten into abs until I get that under control.
I am hereby pledging that the 1/2lb of See's candy I purchased today will be my last. Not my last, but, you know, until I have some visible abs I don't need any more. I am jumping back on the low sugar lifestyle bandwagon. I don't know why I've been trying to make sugar replace cheese in my diet, but it ends here. I also pledge to continue running after the race is over. I will reach my goal and be shamelessly lounging about some sparkling pool practically naked by the end of the month. Watch me!

Pussy Bow

*Gasp* Right? LOL No, really, I was on a apparel retail website that's UK based and they were referring to blouses like my purple one with the bow and peter pan collar as "Pussy Bow Blouse." I don't get it, but I like it!
Anyway, outfits 29 and 30 mean I'm done!


That middle one is me checking out my pussy bow. Nice. ;)
My top 5 from this challenge were pretty easy for me to pick (hint, apparently I like to accentuate my waistline. With belts. Yeah.):






Agree? Disagree?

Sweet Sweet Sleep

A girlfriend of mine posted on FB today about failed sleep training with her 5mo old. I shudder a bit because frequently "sleep training" is synonymous with Cry-It-Out (CIO).
I don't really believe in sleep training. Everything with babies and children is a phase. As soon as you find something that works, they grow, teethe, get sick and a whole other host of bullshit that f*cks it all up LOL
I think that it has more to do with your child's personality. I'm not a proponent of CIO. My first daughter slept like absolute shit. My son is an awesome sleeper (relatively, at the least!).
I think you have to just follow your babies cues and do what's right for you. For me, listening to my baby cry feels wrong and literally makes me sick to my stomach. I'm not going to ignore that because of some book. What are mothering instincts for?? If you don't feel that way, then fine! But don't let others pressure you into it.
The only thing I do differently this time around is pay closer attention to his "I'm sleepy" cues and not RUSH in as soon as I hear the baby cry, which I did do with my daughter (and I still think that she would just work herself up anyway, so it wouldn't have made a difference), but he often cries out or fusses for a minute and falls right back to sleep if I don't disturb him, further rousing him.

Perspective

During my style challenge, I've been running like a fool, trying to train for a half marathon (in a week and a half, eek). My jeans that I picked are starting to fall off after they've been worn once (and I like to wear my jeans a good few times before throwing them in the laundry). I can probably squeeze into my size 6 stuff now. My goal is to comfortably fit into my size 6 pants/jeans, squeeze into some of my 4s. And while I was running today, I remembered a day a few years ago when I fought back tears because my print booker had my new cards printed and on them it said my dress size was 4-6. Seriously. If I hadn't spent most of the day in public, I would have bawled. A size 6!!!? I was solidly a 2 and had busted my ass to be there. I was sure that it was going to cost me runway work. Anybody could fit into a size 6. Samples aren't that big.
And now here I am, 5yrs and 2 kids later thinking a size six would be ideal. Maybe even a little skinny LOL

Home Stretch

My 30 for 30 style remix challenge is almost over. I'm sad and excited at the same time. Exsadded. Sorry. That was lame.



I know you can't see them too well in my photo, but I'm wearing some handmade earrings that were gifted to me by the talented Whimsy Design Girl. Her etsy shop here.