What was I thinking?!?

I am not sure exactly what I was thinking, but yes I am paying to have someone yell at me while I work my booty off in an effort to get back in shape.  Today is day three of my boot camp experience.  Along with the pleasure of being yelled at and pushed to my max, I am on a strict diet that coincides with the workouts.  Saturday was orientation and it was quite an experience.  After going through expectations for the next month, I was weighed in and measured (before pictures were taken) and then we headed to the grocery store and I was showed what exactly consists of a healthy diet.  Today is day three of the diet, but last night was my first workout.  HOLY COW!!!  There is a reason I don't work out.  I almost didn't make it to the car, my poor knees were buckling and I almost kissed the pavement.  Getting out of bed this morning was a struggle, but picking Harrison up out of his crib is when I realized the extent of my pains.  I just keep reminding myself that pain is good!  Being sore is a constant reminder that I am on my way back into my old clothes.  What is my motivation?  My closet full of clothes just begging to be worn.  I am determined to be reacquainted with my skinnier self.  I miss her so much :) 

As far as the diet goes, I am not doing anything crazy.  No calorie, carb or fat gram counting.  I am simply trying to eat more natural and less processed food.  Breakfast options include eggs, whole grain oatmeal (without the good stuff....butter and brown sugar) yogurt and fruit.  I can snack on unroasted, unsalted nuts, fruit, yogurt and cheese.  For lunch I eat some lean meat (chicken or tuna is what I have been having) with a spinach salad and some cottage cheese.  Dinner options are lean meat or fish (Sergeant Kyle prefers salmon for dinner) with a sweet potato and asparagus.  All day long I can munch on green veggies until my tummy is content.  I have also given up all soft drinks (including my beloved diet coke) for water (I throw in a little Chrystal Light to mix things up a bit every now and then).  Here are some of the adjustments I am making to my diet....

Eat this                                                              Not this

                                   

 

Before and After

Before

After (Tip, don't attempt stripes your first try.  My mistake!!)

I LOVE to do home projects.  I am convinced if I had the right tools, I could do anything!  I finished recovering a chair last night and thought  would share some of my favorite before and afters with you.  I wish I had the time/money/space to do more.  It is a fun creative outlet for me, but also it is such a feeling of accomplishment once the project is finished. 

My Peddler's Mall find

After some serious sanding, stripping, and painting!  With the help of brick tiles, 2 x 4s, and plywood it made a beautiful faux fireplace.

The Kitchen Before (Well, after I painted the walls and cabinets, but before I tiled.)

The Kitchen After.  These are 1"x1" glass tiles.  I wasn't too bad, I really enjoyed it!

Teal Mobile

The "Teal Mobile"

For those of you in the Louisville area, there is a (fairly) new amazing radio station.  100.5 GenX Radio is my new "go to" station whenever I am in my car.  This radio station instantaneously awakens a feeling of nostalgia.  Today I was driving home listening to this fantastic station and "Bye Bye Bye" came on.  Immediately I am back in my Teal Mobile driving to school or Hometown Pizza.  I can smell crayons (yes, that car smelled like crayons for some reason) and I am back in my fabulous CAL uniform.  This is a picture of my first baby.  There could not have been a more perfect car for me at that stage in my life; I loved it!  Now I cruise around in my "mom" car and listen to more Baby Einstein than I do music with words, but I could not be happier (see picture below of my precious cargo to understand why).  I can always daydream about rocking out to Britney Spears, right?  

My "mom" car

My precious cargo

This little piggie went to market

Somehow my poor boy got mommy's feet.  No, not my normal feet....my swollen pregnant feet.  The child has never worn a pair of shoes a day in his life because his feet are so fat.  Yesterday I was trying to put some precious white shoes (to complete his adorable Easter ensemble.  See yesterday's post) on the blobs that are his feet, and I just had to laugh.  It was like a scene out of Cinderella when the ugly step sisters were trying to shove the glass slipper on their over sized feet.  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE his little sausage toes.  Here are some pictures for you to compare HD's feet to my feet when I was 8 months prego (somehow they managed to get even larger the following month!!)

Happy Easter

Today Matt and I journeyed to Danville with Harrison and my sister Lauren to spend Easter with my grandmother, Mimi.  We visited her church and enjoyed a wonderful Easter service and then headed back to her house for a delicious lunch.  We then celebrated Mimi's birthday (which was yesterday) with presents and a scrumptious lemon meringue pie.  Here are some pictures from our afternoon....

Drum roll please......

It's official, we are going to Alaska!!!  Matt, Harrison and I are going to visit my sister Courtney and Ryan this summer.  I just booked our plane tickets and I can not tell you how psyched I am.  I miss my sister so much and I can not wait for her to show me where she lives.  It is a bonus that she lives in the gorgeous state of Alaska.  Anyone who knows me knows how much I love the outdoors and wildlife.  I am looking forward to some amazing hiking and sitings of some unbelievable creatures.  I think I am going to need another memory card 'cause I'm gonna go picture crazy!!!  (Can you tell I am excited?)  I am hoping to come home with some pictures similar to these....

 

Hi. My name is Danielle and I have an addiction.

I make lists.  I make a list for everything.  It helps keep me sane.  It is my way of decluttering my brain.  Once I have my list made I can relax.  The problem I have run into a couple of times is the madness that comes over me when I misplace a list.  It seems like there would be a better way to keep track of things, but so far I have not found one.  I have lists on my refrigerator, in my wallet, in my jewelry box, in my car, in a notebook, in my Bible, in my sock drawer.  I am telling you, it is a little crazy. 

Here is a list of some of my lists:

Grocery
To Do
Honey Do
Christmas Gift Ideas
Movies I want to see
Favorite Bible verses
Packing (for vacations)
Baby Names
Places I want to visit
Books I want to read
Blog post ideas
Home projects
Blogs to check
And then I have a list to prioritize my lists.  Not really (although now that I think about it, that isn't such a bad idea).