Tonight's Healthy Meal

My dear husband has requested that I make something other than chicken (to be fair, I do make some awesome chicken dishes, but he wants some meat!).  So I am trying new things and this week I am braving Italian Sausage.  Tonight was the first time I had every in my life made it, and I have to say that it turned out SO good! 
Italian Sausage Skillet

We made brown rice to go with it, but I was good and just had the skillet creation.  Will definitely be making this again!

It's been 4.5 days...

and I'm down 1 pound!!  Right on track! haha  To be honest though, I have not been focused at all, so I'm super lucky to have lost that pound.  I will be adding a more significant amount of exercise and working on that willpower!  Best Buy had a fantastic Deal of the Day on Friday...Just Dance 3 for $11.99 and shipping was free!  And the final nail that sealed the sale for me was they accept Paypal and I happened to have about $15 in mine :)  I have been looking to buy Just Dance (didn't care which version) for well over a year, but I had no interest in paying $39.99 (used!).  I didn't want it THAT bad.  But this one is on its way to me and I can't wait to use it.  I love to dance, and even better, the KIDS love to dance...this is something we can do together.  Talk about motivation to work out!  There is also a very sweet mama from a parenting board that I frequent who is sending me a Yoga workout DVD for free.  So I'm hoping to do Yoga in the morning before the kids are up and the baby I watch gets here, and then do the dance during the day or in the evening with the kids. 

Diet is a struggle for me.  I have such a hard time giving up the food I love....and I LOVE FOOD!  I'm hoping to do it one thing at a time...eliminate baked goods, then soda, then heavy carbs, then add in more water, more greens, etc. 

30 pounds in 133 days!

Since our move, I have slacked on my better eating and exercise...to the point that I gained back 10 of the pounds I had worked so hard to lose!  So I'm back to it.  We are going to Vegas for a wedding on November 1 and I have exactly 30 pounds to lose to reach my final goal.  That's 30 pounds in 133 days.  1 pound every 4.5 days.  That's less than 2 pounds a week.  I CAN DO IT!!  I'm not going to do any fad diets.  Just smarter eating and exercise.  Cheer me on...I'll update once a week!

ROAD TRIP!!

We are excitedly planning our family vacation. In about 2.5 weeks we will set off on a road trip starting in Orange County, CA. We will travel through Arizona and New Mexico, and then spend several days with good friends in San Antonio, TX. Then we will travel to Oklahoma to see more friends and family. Then heading back on the northern route, visiting the Grand Canyon on the way home. This is so exciting for us...we can't wait!

Happy Happy Birthday Baby

Today is my oldest son Jordan's 4th birthday. Seriously, where does the time go??! They really truly do grow up too fast.

Yesterday we took him to the zoo to celebrate. I didn't have the energy to throw a party and figured this would be much more rewarding for about the same amount of money. We went to the Santa Barbara Zoo and I am thoroughly impressed. Connor was free, of course, but to get tickets for the rest of us, train tickets for everyone, parking, 3 meals, a souvenir, letting Jordan feed the giraffes and gas was UNDER $200!! You can't beat that at all. Then today we just did cake and ice cream and presents here at the house. Very relaxing. I hate the stress that birthday parties cause. All these people in my house, destroying it, eating food that *I* paid for. And then *I* have to clean it all up. No thank you! lol

So all in all I think it was a great birthday for my baby boy. Now to stress about planning Connor's 1st!

The grocery store scares me

Somehow I always end up going over budget...sometimes WAY over. Even when I would make a list, it wasn't really planned out. So for today, I planned out the meals for the next 2 weeks, and as I decided on each meal, I would write down the ingredients I needed for it. That was my shopping list. Then I added the extra things (snacks for the kids, condiments we needed, etc). When I got to the store, I stuck strictly to the list. If it wasn't on there, I didn't buy it! And I carried my calculator with me so that I knew exactly how my total was progressing...no surprises. I had a budget of $200 MAX. I got groceries for 7 people (4 adults and 3 kids) for 2 weeks for $190!!! Super pleased with myself.

We are also starting to stockpile the incidental stuff (toilet paper, laundry soap, dish soap, shampoos, toothpaste, deodorant, etc) because that stuff gets very expensive and we want to make sure we have plenty when we are ready to move, just in case we get in a bind at any point. So I got 2 big bottles of Tide, a big package of Charmin, 2 pouches of Cascade and 2 big bottles of Pantene for only $60! Combining Stater Bros coupons with manufacturer coupons, I saved over $20 on just those items! Going back Tuesday before the store coupons expire to get more!

Window Shopping makes me anxious...

After Jeremy graduates in May, he'll get a full time job while we wait on a decision from the Navy, and we will be moving back into our own place. Definitely a rental, but hopefully a house :) When we moved out of our place last summer, we sold/gave away everything except the boys' bunk bed, so we will need to buy all new. We did this because 1) we did not want to have to store it all and 2) everything we had was used even before we got it. Our bed I got off Freecycle when I was still with my ex, our couches we paid a whole $100 for the pair, our dining set (I use that loosely) was a thoughtful hand-me-down from my sister, and it was used when she got it! Plus, having only lived in apartments, we didn't have a fridge or washer and dryer at all. So, we'll be saving for the next several months to purchase a whole new house of goodies! Today we went to shop around to see what we want and get an idea of where our price point is, that way we know how much we need to be saving.

It's exciting because we will have nice, good quality items that match and that WE picked out and no one else has used before! The thought of spending that much money is a little nauseating lol But, at least we are planning ahead. And, depending on what they can offer us, we may do one of their no interest financing options and then pay it off using the savings. This way we're building more credit too.

I'm excited for the next several months to pass so we can get back into our own space and get our lives started again! :)