I'm Still New at This

I am still new at this whole blogging thing.  I am loving it!  I am loving stalking following all you crazy ladies!  I am still learning everyday.  My blog is still a work in progress.  I still can't figure out the buttons.  I had to google what GFC meant.  I thought I was cool and added an awesome favicon, but I still don't see it.  Hopefully in a year soon I will have a fancier blog and be up to par with all you tech divas out there! 

30 day shred

I like starting things on the first of the month... or on a Monday.  Well this whole morning I thought it was December 1st so I started the 30-day shred.  I JUST looked at the date in the bottom right of my laptop... November 30th.. HA! I guess I am ahead of schedule.  Well that's good, I probably needed that extra day... holy crap I hate that workout dvd!  I struggled through it.  I stopped when she told me not to, I was watching the easier version of the workouts and then made my own easier version.  I.am.so.out.of.shape!  BUT, I need this.  I am obviously going to struggle, I have 50 lbs of extra weight weighing me down.  I am glad I did it. 

I took out a workout mat my husband bought me for xmas last year (per my request), and yep I never opened it...

Still in it's semi-box. 

 

I do have to say, thank you to Sylvia who commented on my last post.  As I was waking up this morning, I check my facebook and email, and to my surprise I had a nice encouraging comment waiting for me.  It was what made me think about starting the 30-day shred to actually doing to it. 

 

Today is my longest day of the week.  I get to bartend all day (10:30-9:00).  Good money, but like I said in the last post, working at a restaurant sucks when you are trying to lose weight.  Especially since I get free food for being one of the managers.  When I used to pay for my meals, I wouldn't eat there because I didn't want to pay.  Now, it's saving me money if I eat there, since I don't have to bring food from home.  This is what I had for lunch yesterday and probably the most healthy thing I could think of. 

 

 



6oz chicken breast, broccoli, and apples and grapes.  With a side of bbq.  (I had to dip the chicken in something!).  I will probably be having the same thing today.. yippee!!

As my mother would say.. "another day, another dollar".. let's hope I make more than a dollar today! (and hope that I am not so sore from Jillian by the end of my shift that I am crawling out of the restaurant.)

Cheers!

Back at it

I'm gonna try this again.  Went to the gym today with my husband.  We are both in workout mode right now, let's see how long this time lasts.  I can't be the only one that is in workout mode for a couple weeks, then stops for a couple weeks months.  Well here we go again!  Hopefully this time I won't tell myself that how I am is okay.  I tend to tell myself, "I am okay with being a bigger girl", "why do I have to be skinny".. The reality is because being skinner is healthier.  I am not healthy right now.  I don't want to become pregnant starting at 220lbs.  I don't even want to be 9 months pregnant at 220lbs.  So here we go again.  I took all my stats.  Hopefully in a month, every number will be smaller. 

Weight: 220.8 lbs (surprised I am maintaining since last time I weighed myself... I thought I was 225 or 230)
Waist: 38 inches
Stomach: 48 inches (yes 10 in difference between the smallest part of my waist and biggest part of my stomach.. weird.)
Hips: 51 inches
Thighs: 27 inches (in a perfect world, my waist would be this small)
Arms: 15 inches
Calfs: 17 inches - I buy wide calf boots.. if you want to know where you can get big girl boots that actually fit over large calfs AND jeans let me know!

Front view.. Team Mama tank... MamaLaughlin is my inspiration check out her blog here

 

 I have a side tattoo that goes from my side boob to lower hip.. I want to show that off this summer!!!

 

Started Couch to 5k (again!).. started on week 2 this time because week one seemed easy... at least that is a plus!

 

 

Random pic of our puppy Panzer, got his ears cropped so we decorated his post.  :)

 

Now I get to serve tables for the next 8 hours.. yay! Working at a restaurant that serves awesome food makes it SOOOO hard to lose weight... ugh.

 

Happy Thursday! 

 

 

 

We have a visitor...

Nate and I have both experienced some weird things happening in our house. It's not like doors randomly closing or opening, or things falling off shelves, we have a ghost that likes to say "hi" to us.

Okay, I know what you are thinking.. you people are crazy! I thought so too! Until it kept happening, every couple months! We both now have had two times by ourselves that the ghost says hi, and once when we were in the same room. When we first questioned it with eachother, we described the same voice... cccrreeeeeeeppyy!! It's a little girl, probably 7-10 years old. So here are all the encounters with this girl.

Nate was in his truck going to work when he heard someone say hey! in his back seat, sounded like a little kid. Since we have an 8 year old, he looked in his back seat to see if he was there... no one there... weird. When he told me that, I just shrugged it off.

  Fast forward a couple months later, I am sleeping in, nobody is home and I am awaken (is that a word? awaken, woken up by.. that's better) I was woken up by hearing "hey!" I look around the room, obviously no one is there.. I brush it off, maybe I was dreaming.

A couple months later, Nate is working on our hot tub outside late at night (nobody home again) and here's a little girls voice say "hi there!" He searches around the outside of the house.. nobody. At this time I told him about my encounter in the bedroom, he asked what it sounded like and we both said little girl... creepy!

Then we come to this morning. I am sleeping in (what else is new) and I hear my NAME!!! Sarah.. in a little girl's voice. She knows my name! w.e.i.r.d.

  I never believed in ghosts before, until I started watching Long Island Medium.. that shit is for real! So we have a little girl that just wants to say hi to us hanging out. I tried researching the history of our house. It's not that old.. built in the 50's. I came up with nothing. Maybe I will have Theresa Caputo come to the house and see who this girl is and what she wants.

  They say dogs have a sense for these things... Sadie (our cockapoo) definitely barks at nothing on occasion, maybe she see's her! who knows..

  Tonight we are going to do a EVP recording to see if we hear anything... with our high tech phone app (HA!) I will let you know if we hear anything.

Blog Party!

I am linking up with some pretty cool bloggers to meet more bloggers! :)

Black Friday.. I mean Thursday!

Nate and I decided to go shopping after Thanksgiving. I have never gone shopping on Black Friday, I work in the restaurant business and that is a busy day for us as well, so I am usually working.  I can't say yet what we bought because we may have gotten a present for my only follower.. but I will say, we got a great deal and it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.  We went to Walmart and everything was very organized.  They had different lines for different things that were on sale that were big ticket items.  Our line was about 7 aisles long :).  Oh, and we did NOT leave our Thanksgiving early to go shopping, we left at a reasonable time and drove an hour and a half back home, chilled out for a little bit and then went to the store.  Here are some pics! 

Last row at Walmart, I think we even made our own parking spot.

 

We got to the home stretch of the checkout line!

 

Chilling out in the freezer section while waiting for our item (pun intended)

 

Like I said, I had a great time! Talked to a lot of people in line.  This one older lady was at her second store of the night and was still going to another store after Walmart... all while walking on a broken foot with no crutches!! What a trooper!

 

 

 

Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving we went to my aunt's house about an hour and a half away.  I was in charge of baking the pies... and boy did I bake!  I have learned a couple things while baking pies this year...

1. pie recipes will almost always have you make for filling than a pre-made pie crust can hold.
2. make sure to READ the recipe!

 My first two pumpkin pies... Creamcheese pumpkin pie!... this recipe made 1 1/2 pies, ... the pie on the left is only about half full

 

 

Before shot of my apple pie.. never made this recipe before, it was delicious!

 

 

How many apples I had left over that the recipe called for... probably could have filled another pie, but I didn't have enough crust

 

After baking.. yum!

 

 Chocolate swirrled cheesecake!

 

 

My lesson of making sure to read the recipe, there is even a picture on the can!! I bought sweetened condensed milk, when it asks for evaporated milk!  This makes the third trip back to the grocery store for forgetting ingredients.. oops!

 

 

I put the already made pumpkin pie mix in the fridge until I bought evaporated milk, ended up making the pies the next day.

 

And now Thanksgiving dinner!  There were 26 people total I believe.  Everything was wonderful!

 

 

The table went in the living room and turned into the dining room to have enough space

The desserts! My favorite part :)

 

 

 

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

 

We even had time to do black Thursday shopping.  That post will be next!

 

My First ever Link-up... hope I do it right?!?!

Some bloggers that I have been following are doing a Turkey Day Link Up. Since I was to be as cool as them, I am going to try to do this... but I am probably doing it all wrong.. bare with me. A lot of them did a video blog.  Let's be honest, I am still new to this blogging thing.  A video blog will not come until I have mastered typing!

1. What do you look forward to more: the food, football or parades?
Out of the three, I would definitely look forward to the food the most.  I like to have the parade on in the background, and I could care less about football... unless the Vikings actually are in the play-offs.. then I act like I know everything about football ;P

2. What is your favorite non-traditional Thanksgiving Day dish?
Non-traditional? Our family is pretty traditional when it comes to Thanksgiving.  Although I have some aunts that like to make things that they see in magazines, on Oprah (when it used to be on), etc.. sometimes those dishes are a little non-traditional.  For the most part its Turkey (obviously), mashed potatoes, yams, green beans, salad, pie, etc.  Oh, now that I think about it... I have one aunt that ALWAYS makes glorified rice... do you know what this is?? rice with  colored marshmellows... i have never tried it, and i never will.

3. After dinner, is it football or a nap?
After dinner is.. football will be on the tv and all my uncles, and my father will be sitting around the tv watching  it  napping.  The women are usually visiting in the kitchen cleaning up.  I know, my family has sex roles down to a T.

4. Do you watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade? Which is your favorite float?
Thanksgiving day parade is usually on the tv, but we never really sit down to watch it.  It ends at noon usually (right?) so it's a nice way to relax with the family either before going to Thanksgiving dinner, or before everyone get to the house.

5. Where do you go to celebrate and eat your big meal? Who is there (family, friends)?
This year we are going to my aunts house.  There will be about 30 of us there.  It always is usually a big get-together.  My parents also like to host, so it usually is every other year at their house, and every other year at one of my aunt's/uncle's house.  (My parents like to host because there are always a ton of leftovers ;) )

6. What is your favorite turkey day dessert?
I LOVE dessert.  This year I am in charge of most the dessert.  For 30 people... I will probably make pumpkin pie, apple pie and cheesecake.  My husband hates cooked fruit, so this is the only time I can enjoy apple pie :).. but he loves pumpkin pie.. so that's why I am making that... and what is Thanksgiving without pumpkin pie?!?!

Okay, I hope this link-up works! 

Well, we got a new puppy!

Meet Panzer.. pronounced pawn-zer not pan-zer (he's not a pansy!)

He is a doberman pincher and currently 11 weeks old.  We just got his ears cropped last week (spare me the comments on how that is horrible for dogs, etc... he wouldn't look like a doberman without them cropped)

He is our second doberman, our first one (Diesel) we had to put down in March because he got into Advil, and that will shut down a dog's kidneys. 

Panzer has been such a good puppy! We are still working on potty training.  He knows that when he is outside he should go, but sometimes indoors he doesn't give us enough warning that he is going to go right then and there.  We have been learning that he whines when he needs to go out, but he also whines if he doesn't know where we are, or if he is bored, or if he can't get to Sadie (our other dog), or if he doesn't want to be in his kennel, etc.  So needless to say, we still haven't mastered all the whining.

For the most part he is sleeping through the night also.  Well that being from 11-midnight to 6 in the morning (when Nate usually gets up).  Lately he has been accidentally scratching his ears, which are still healing from the surgery, so he will yelp, but then go back to sleep after that. 

The ears will take a couple months to heal. We will keep them cropped up with the block for a while.  That is just a foam block that we glued his ears to with a non-toxic glue.  We give him Calcium pills every day to help the cartilage in his ears to stay standing and not flop over.  After about 2 months of bandages, Diesel's ears stayed up permanently.  We are sure that Panzer's will do the same. 

Okay here are more pics of Panzer and a couple pics of our first Doberman Diesel, who we miss very much. 

 

First bringing Panzer home

After getting his ears done, totally bandaged for a week.

 

Diesel was such a momma's boy! <3 Love <3

One Year Anniversary!

This past Sunday, Nate and I celebrated our one year wedding anniversary!  We started the celebration early, going out to dinner on Saturday night at Bucca De Beppo.  Then we met up with some friends up in the cities.  On Sunday, it was a pretty low key day.  After getting home, we napped for a little bit (we didn't get much sleep at our friends house).  Then I did my Sunday routine... try to get all my homework done before midnight!  Another Sunday night tradition is watching The Walking Dead and we tried a little bite of our wedding cake we had in our freezer.  Randomly, we took the bites at 11:11pm.  This number comes up a lot in our lives considering we got married on 11-11-11, our address is 1111, etc.  The cake wasn't the best, it tasted like freezer, but we didn't put it in an air-tight container... just saran wrapped it.  It was hard to throw the cake away, but it had to be done.

Here are some pics to sum up the best day of my life :)

Seeing eachother for the first time

The church

Dad walking me down the aisle

Giving me away

The whole wedding party

Lighting the Unity Candle

First kiss as husband and wife

Getting introduced into the reception

Father Daughter Dance

Let's get this party started!! (Dancing to Party Rock by LMFAO)

And then this happened... YES!!

Best time of my life!