Week 16 Weigh In

I totally skipped last weeks weigh in.. last week was just a bad week. With being sick, I didn't even want to get on the scale. This week was big numbers again! 3.5 lbs! That's rewarding! I've had a rough week so that was a big morale booster! Although I'm kinda upset, Rosalie took my Wii Fit Plus disc out and chewed on it and now it won't work :( so no workouts until I get a new disc.

Now let's look at the numbers shall we!

Week One: -2.9lbs

Week Two: -1.3lbs

Week Three: +.9 (Boo. lol)

Week Four: --

Week Five: --

Week Six: -1.3lbs

Week Seven: 0lbs

Week Eight: -3.3lbs

Week Nine: -2.0lbs

Week Ten: VACATION

Week Eleven: VACATION

Week Twelve: -4lbs

Week Thirteen: -0.4lbs

Week Fourteen: -1.3lbs

Week Fifteen: SICK

Week Sixteen: -3.5 lbs

Total Weight Loss to Date: -61 lbs

Total Weight Loss in 16 Weeks: -18.11lbs!

First Goal of -50 Pounds: REACHED

Pounds Until New Goal (-70lbs): 9 lbs

Hysterical

The other night Kevin and I were doing the Wii Fit. The one exercise is you ride a segway and pop balloons and chase after this gopher. Right after it begins, our dog Buddy will run onto the screen because we have him programmed into the Wii so we can weigh him, and he'll run beside you. Rosalie thought this was hysterical so we had to get it on video. You can tell when he disappears off the screen because she'll just sit there.. then you can tell when he comes back on the screen cause she'll start laughing like crazy!

Sugar High

This video is making it's debut on my blog before Facebook because Facebook is being stupid and isn't letting me upload.. it's saying it's going to take 210 hours to upload a 3 minute video! lol so it's on here for now... will eventually be on facebook. This is Rosalie on a sugar high... nah actually her new favorite thing is "Jumping Jumping" and she does it all the time.. in the tub, in her crib, against the coffee table, tv stand, just standing..

Make sure you click the lil button in the right hand corner of the video to make it fullscreen. It'll either be a lil square or 4 arrows

Trick or Treat Bag

When I was little, my mom always went above and beyond with Halloween. I always had the best and coolest costumes.. her trick or treat bags were always done up really nice... and I even had my own special "loot bag". Back then, everyone just used grocery store bags or those big plastic generic bags you buy with a halloween picture on them, but my mom bought me a cloth bag that was shaped like a kittys face and was embroidered. It was so nice and it was nicer than anyone elses! I wanted Rosalie to have a special trick or treat bag that we could use throughout the years. I started looking last week on Etsy, but there was just so much that everything was starting to look the same.. I found two that were "okay".. but I wasn't ready to commit. So yesterday I did a google search and viewed all the shopping results and when I saw this one, I knew she had to have it! With no hesitation, I ordered. Ahh I can't wait for it to come, it's so adorable. She has pictures on Sunday so it would be awesome if it came in before then.. I doubt it though. I'm sure I probably won't get it until next week. I just had to share :)

Beautiful Girl :)

I often wonder how on Earth did I get so blessed to have such a beautiful little girl? She's so bright and bubbly and photogenic. With that being said, here's a tiny picture of update :)

Germs. EVERYWHERE.

Last week was terrrrrible. Only a few days into Rosalie being sick, I came down with it. We didn't sleep allll week and I was longing for the weekend so I could at least sleep in and Kevin could get up with Ro when she got up for the day. Of course, the weekend rolls around and guess who gets sick.. Kevin. We've been super lazy. I completely cheated on my diet last week. I was so tired and exhausted that I didn't even care what I ate. I finally got back on track yesterday and even forced myself to work out. It was fun though.. we did Wii Fit as a family! Rosalie sat and watched and laugheeeed. I have a video I'll have to upload eventually. We have our dog programmed into the Wii Fit and on some of the challenges Buddy runs with you and omg does she go nuts when she sees Buddy on the tv.

Everyone's starting to feel better. Rosalie's has moved to her chest and she's rattling a little bit, but she can at least breathe now. Kevin's slowly getting better... at least he's not glued to the couch . I'm feeling pretty good, just exhausted. Last night was the first night that Rosalie KINDA OF slept. She slept at least 7 hours straight.. and then was up periodically. The past week she's been up every hour, so last night was a step forward! I don't think she's that sick now, I just think her sleep schedule is just that out of whack.

I've been getting ready for the holidays since I haven't had the ambition to do anything else this past week. I ordered a few presents for Rosalie for Christmas and got my Christmas cards completely stuffed and addressed (minus the 3 addresses I'm missing). All of the decorations, plates, cups, silverware, balloons, ect are ordered and here for Rosalie's birthday party. I even got favors for the boxes, just need to get candy for the pinata, which I plan on getting this week since Halloween candy is out right now so I have more of a variety. I ordered my trick or treat bags for the neighborhood kids and they came, so this week I can get my candy and stuff them and make them up all pretty with curly ribbon! I've almost finished my dad's birthday book.. it's the bomb diggity. I have everyone's birthday/christmas presents picked out.. just a matter of ordering everything. This week when we get paid I plan on ordering Rosalie's birthday outfit (which is EXTREMELY cute and matches her decor perfectly!) and I've been looking for a personalized trick or treat bag for Rosalie that we will have to use through out the years, I just haven't decided on one yet.

I'm getting pretty excited for the Holidays.. I love Christmas time!

Rosalie will be getting her Halloween pictures done this weekend with Fritsche Photography. I'm really excited cause her halloween costume is sooo cute. She was suppose to get them done last weekend, but she was so snotty so we decided to reschedule.

I just wanted to add a quick update and let everyone know how the family is doing... time to go get Kevin fed!

CIAO!

Longest Week. Ever.

Where to even begin... the past fews days have just ran together. I don't know where one day ended and the next began.

Let's roll back to Monday.

During the day Rosalie was a lil stuffy and had a runny nose. Nothing serious. Then nighttime rolls around and she develops this atrocious fever. As soon as I'd get her to sleep and lay her in her crib, she'd wake up crying because everything would run to her head and she would get stuffier. I even tried elevating the head of her mattress but the incline just wasn't enough. I wanted her to sleep in her room because I had the vaporizer going and I knew it would help clear her out.. but it never happened. I spent the entire night sitting on the couch so she could sleep on my chest sitting up. At one point I did get into a "comfy" position and wrapped my arms around her and went to sleep. It was only for about an hour. She'd only sleep for 15 minutes and wake up crying. She was so hott I had her in just her diaper and she was dripping and burning up. Tylenol wasn't touching her fever. She did sleep straight from 3-4 and that's when I slept. Other than that, she was up basically the whole night.

First thing in the morning I called the hospital to get her in. They couldn't see her until 1:20. Go figure. I had an appt at 9:50 at the clinic and I didn't want to cancel it because it took me forever to get it, so I figured her and I could kill a lil time in between appts. MISTAKE. She was so sick she just wanted to be home. I asked Peds if they could see her earlier.. they manage to get her in a whopping 20 minutes early. Her ears were clear and lungs were clear but she had a fever of 101.5. He gave us some more tylenol, saline to flush out her nose, and nose drops to put in after I sucked her out. So every four hours Rosalie was getting tylenol, her nose sprayed with saline, sucked out, then medicine put in her nose. She got 3 baths yesterday to work on lowering her temp. Finally around 5-6ish her temp finally started coming down. She still didn't sleep last night. She was up about every hour. I'm flat out exhausted.

And of course it was bound to happen.. I'm sick. GOOOOO FIGURE. You know what it's like dealing with a sick baby when neither of you have slept and you're sick yourself? Mannnnnn. I need a break. Is it the weekend yet?

Photobooking.

My newest obsession.

Okay so maybe it started back when I was pregnant with Rosalie. After her baby shower, I wanted to scrapbook all of her shower pics but didn't want to spend all the time and money into making a scrapbook. (Something I use to love doing and now I just don't have the time and desire).. That was when I discovered Photo Books on Shutterfly! AMAZING. So I made this big 12 x 12 book of all of the pics from Rosalie's shower... and never got it printed because it was kind of expensive.. soooo the book stayed in my shutterfly account.

Then last Christmas came along. I made my mom and Kevin's mom books of Rosalie's first month pics. They came out soo nice!

Then about a month ago I got an offer from Shutterfly for a free book! I spend soo much at Shutterfly (My 2nd favorite website, Gymboree being #1 of course!) so I'm a preferred customer and get all sorts of great offers all the time. I had this free 8 x 8 photobook and didn't know what to do with it. It was a one day deal. I said forget it, I don't know what to make! The next morning I get up and have an e-mail from Shutterfly saying they extended the offer.. I knew it was a sign. I decided to make a book of the pics from Verona when we took my mom since it's one of my favorite places and it was hers too. The book came out soo nice.

Click here to view this photo book larger

Yup.. go ahead and look! :)

My mom loved it.. she wanted a copy! So I changed a few things like the cover page and ordered her her own. She said that she wished she had one with her Venice pics.. so I made her one with her Venice pics too! It's so much fun!

Then I got all these special offers from Shutterfly and decided to order Rosalie's $60 baby shower book (only a year later! lol!) With all my special offers I only ended up paying $30 (that includes shipping!)! AWESOME

.

Click here to view this photo book larger

Yup, you can go ahead and view it too!

I can't wait for all my books to come!

Now, I've started my next project.. a birthday present for my dad.. shhh don't tell him! lol! It's a hard cover book of his racing career! It's going to take some time since I have to have my mom scan pictures and e-mail them to me.. but I know he's going to love it! I've got the layout made, fonts, and colors picked out.. I started the cover of it.. and I got some pics in it.. from years 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010.. but now I have to wait on my mom because I don't have anything else! Don't tell him :) It's secret.

If you've never made a photo book.. it's an awesome way to preserve your pictures with no need of a photo album, scrapbooking supplies, or actual pictures! Just upload your pics to shutterfly and add them to the book!

A sick baby and picture update

Hmm yesterday. Rosalie didn't nap at all. She fell asleep while eating lunch, so we took her out, got her dressed (while she was still sleeping) and went to the base. She woke up half way there and that was her nap for the day. Terrible. She's use to napping twice a day.. at least an hour each nap.

Around 5:30, she passed out. Understandable since she didn't sleep all day. Usually when this happens, she naps for half an hour, gets up, eats, baths, and goes back to bed. TWO hours passed and she wouldn't get up. It took Kevin awhile to get her to get up. She was soo whiney. I got a bottle in her and she was fine, so I got her bathed. She was WIRED. Doesn't surprise me since she had slept for over two hours.

At 8, I decided it was time for her to go to bed. I got her all fresh and got a bottle.. she finished it and I took her to bed. No fight, she went right to sleep. At 9 I went to bed since Kevin was watching the Steelers game, as usual I went in and checked on her before I went to bed and she puked everywhere. She didn't cry. Just puked and went back to sleep. We have really sensitive baby monitors so I'm really shocked we didn't hear her. Good thing she's a belly sleeper.. and she was smart enough to move to the bottom of the crib instead of laying in it. So at 9 at night, Kevin took her into our room, stripped her down, I gave her a lil sponge bath and put fresh jammies on her. I stripped down her bed sheets, wiped down her mattress, and put fresh sheets on. Thank god she has TWO blanks that are pretty much identical because i switched her blank out (even though it was puke covered she still was cuddling with it when i went in) and gave her a fresh one.

So then I didn't sleep all night. Because of her teeth, Rosalie has a runny nose so she was coughing a lot last night and every time she'd let out a cough, I'd run in and check on her and make sure she wasn't puking. I literally just laid in bed all night and stared at the baby monitor.

Now she's sick this morning.. a stuffy and runny nose.. and a lil cough. I'm going to hook up her vaporizer and get it going before she naps that way she can get a good nap in. At least she's happy! She's being quite the lil goof this morning.

On another note, Rosalie's winter wardrobe is starting to roll in! I seriously love Gymboree more than words can describe hahah! I love how adorable everything is, how everything matches, and how everything stays so nice. This is one of Rosalie's new outfits. It has a sweater that goes with it that has cakes on it, but it wasn't cold enough yesterday for her to wear it. I wish I could find the matching tights.. but I can't even find them on ebay. boooooo.

Rosalie got this rocking horse for Christmas last year.. it's been up in her room since and every time she's up there she wants on it.. so finally brought it downstairs

She's suchhhh a clown

Wearing one of her new bows from Miss Khloe's Bows. I love that place!

Sooo on another note, I plan on hitting my diet hard this week. My goal is 2 lbs. I'm so close to 60 lbs. I can't wait to hit my 70 lb goal so then I can start working towards a new goal! By next Christmas (2011) I want to be down 100 lbs total! That would be AWESOME. I think it's feasible since Kevin will be deployed next year.

Ciao for now!

Pizza Biscuit Bake

When I said what I was making, Kevin acted really disquisted.. but then he ended up LOVING it. So I'm posted.. no pic, camera batteries are dead :(

PIZZA BISCUIT BAKE

Ingredients:

1 lb ground beef

6 Pilsbury Biscuits

Pizza Sauce

Pepperoni

1 c mozzarella (shredded)

1 c cheddar cheese (shredded)

the original recipe also called for onion, green peppers, and mushrooms, but Kevin likes none of those so I left them out.

• Brown beef
• Cook the biscuits til they are about half done.. this will prevent them from getting really mushy in the bake
• Brown beef and drain
• Place 6 biscuits in a greased 2 qt dish (after they have been baked half way)
• Pour on sauce
• Add beef
• Layer with cheeses
• Add pepperoni
• Bake uncovered at 350 for 25-30 minutes
• Let cool & serve!

What's Going on in the Hollis House

Boy.. things have been.. crazy.

First off, I'm going to start volunteering at the hospital. Maybe 1 or 2 days a week.. just to get back in the swing of x-ray taking and hoping to eventually turn it into a job. It'll be a while though before I start because I'm going through the whole process of orientations and yaddy-ya. PLUS I have to find Rosalie childcare. She's been signed up to go the CDC (Which is our daycare on base), but she's on a waiting list. I'm also considering doing the parent co-op. I volunteer my time at the co-op and in exchange I can take Rosalie there while I volunteer at the hospital. I put so much thought into this. I don't want to leave her.. even if it is for a few hours.. but she NEEDS it. She needs more interaction with other kids and needs some time away from mommy because when we do go back to the states and I do go back to work, the separation will be hard for her if I don't start doing a little weening. I'm also considering going to play group that way she has more interaction with other kids. So that's that.

Rosalie also had a play date this week with our neighbor boy. Those two are just too cute. Rosalie seemed to have a good time.. but it was a rough teething week and she ended up puking every where and they both started getting a lil whiney so that ended their date after about 2 hours. lol

I've been on a new recipe kick lately. Cooking and baking so watch out. Recipes are going to start flooding my blog! Out of everything I've tried, only one thing was a no-go. I attempted to make calzones and Kevin said it was just too much meat and not saucy enough for him. They were hard to make, especially considering I was doing the dough from scratch, so no sweat off my back. I won't attempt to make them again. I found lots of new recipes to try next week so I'm pretty pumped! I recently discovered Pilsbury has recipes on their website and I found some good ones, plus I've been spending a lot of time on Taste of Home. I have a Taste of Home cook book too, but I've pretty much went through it and dug out everything I wanna try in it.

Rosalie is trying to get her molars.. a nightmare. She screams. Digs in her ears and mouth. It takes tylenol, teething tablets, and orajel all together to pacify her. Her appetite has decreased again. At least she is still eating and not puking up everything like she usually does with teeth.

Well I have to get a baby down for a nap, so I'm cutting it off here. Ciao.

Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole

I have a recipe for chicken cordon bleu and I just can't seem to get it right... it's "okay". I found this recipe for a casserole and decided to give it a try and Kevin said it was really good! Of course since I'm dieting, you don't get my opinion hahah. I did change the type of ham that the original recipe called for.. it just called for sliced deli ham. I thought the cubes would give it a lil more texture. I didn't get to get a pic because Rosalie was having a screaming fit over her gums, so Kevin had to pull it out of the oven and hacked it apart before I got Rosalie pacified. Here it is!

CHICKEN CORDON BLEU CASSEROLE

Ingredients:

1 box stove top stuffing

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 c milk

4 c cooked chicken (I use tyson ready grilled chicken)

1/4 teas pepper

1/2 of a 1lb bag of John Morell cubed fully cooked ham

about 4-5 slices of swiss cheese

1 1/2 c of shredded cheddar cheese (divided)

• Prep stuffing according to directions on box
• Combine cream of chicken and milk.
• Place the cooked chicken in a 2 qt baking dish (GREASED)
• Sprinkle with pepper
• Layer with ham
• Layer with swiss cheese
• Next comes 1/2 c cheddar cheese
• Add soup and milk mixture
• Place stuffing on top
• Sprinkle with remaining cup of cheddar cheese
• Cover and bake at 350 for 30 minutes
• Uncover and bake for another 45 minutes

Week 14 Weigh In

CHA-CHING! Another loss week! But I gained something this week... a lil bit of self esteem! I told myself I wasn't going to try on old pre-pregnancy clothes until I was down 10 more pounds, but the weather has been changing and we've been having some chilly fall days. With this, not only did I panic and order Rosalie a crap ton of warmer clothes, but I panicked about my situation... I don't have any jeans to fit! Last winter I was convinced that I was going to fit back into my old AE jeans that I refused to buy new jeans. So now here comes this winter, and I still have no jeans. In my panic mode, I went to my closet and started pulling out all my old pregnancy clothes, setting myself up for a let down. Surprisingly, TWO pairs of jeans fit! PLUS I tried on old capris and TWO of them fit as well! It was such a happy moment for me. About 2 months ago I couldn't even get them up over my butt, let alone up over my butt and buttoned! That was my moment when i said to myself "The rest of this weight is coming off". I want to fit in those other jeans so bad, but hey, two is better than none! On another positive note, I'm down TWO pants sizes! WOOOT! The stuff that I bought this summer won't even stay up over my hips!

As I said, this week was a loss week. I'm down another 1.3 pounds. Anything over a pound I feel is a good week. I can't believe how far I've come. I won't lie, I'm so proud of myself. I see the light at the end of the tunnel and know that I can get back to my old weight. If you would have asked me that 6 months ago, I would of said there was no way, that I would just have to accept this new me.

Now let's look at the numbers shall we!

Week One: -2.9lbs

Week Two: -1.3lbs

Week Three: +.9 (Boo. lol)

Week Four: --

Week Five: --

Week Six: -1.3lbs

Week Seven: 0lbs

Week Eight: -3.3lbs

Week Nine: -2.0lbs

Week Ten: VACATION

Week Eleven: VACATION

Week Twelve: -4lbs

Week Thirteen: -0.4lbs

Week Fourteen: -1.3lbs

Total Weight Loss to Date: -57.5 lbs

Total Weight Loss in 14 Weeks: -15.6lbs!

First Goal of -50 Pounds: REACHED

Pounds Until New Goal (-70lbs): 12.5 lbs

I love a loss week. It gives you the motivation to pull through the next week. Oh, and those numbers, I even pulled that off with having 2 cinnamon buns since the last weigh in! Shame on me! lol

Updated.

Whew. Lots of new entries. I posted from our trips to Pisa, Polcenigo, and Venice. I got some new pics and videos up of Miss Rosalie. That's it for today. We had a rough night. No, scratch that, rough morning. Rosalie was up at 3:30, which is the longest she has slept in awhile, but went back to bed. She was exhausted. Well the neighbor's dog woke her up at 6am, and she was NOT ready to get up. She has whined and cried all morning because she's still tired. Hopefully she takes an early nap. We've got errands to run today and I can't do it with a whiney baby! That's it for now.. hope you enjoy all the new entries. I'll try to do Florence some time this week. It was my favorite place :)

(you'll have to go a ways back to the see the Venice entry! I don't know why! Or just click here)

Pisa, Italy

Pisa.. is overrated. lol. We took a 2 day trip down to the tuscany area.. one day would be spent at Florence and the second day would be spent in Pisa. We stayed the night at Camp Darby, an army base, and it was TERRIBLE. It was probably the worst night's sleep I've ever gotten. The beds were pretty much cots.. it was dirty.. ughh. To think we paid $75 a night for it. Never again. We'll stay in an Italian hotel if we go back down that way. It was convenient because it was only 10 minutes from the Leaning Tower.

So we got up and got ready for the day.. checked out.. and headed to Pisa. We parked like 2 minutes from the tower and thought it just seemed shady because it was these Jamaican guys directing everyone to park. I figured it was because they were trying to sell their knock off stuff, but whatever. We paid for our parking and headed to the tower. Everything to see in Pisa is in one little square. We spent an hour looking at the three structures, shopping, and then headed back to the car. We load up the jeep and leave.

We're going down the road and mom hears air coming in. We pull over and sure enough the freaken Jamaican guys broke into my jeep through the back window. At least they were smart enough to unzip the window and not cut it. I would have died had they of cut it. The only thing we had in the way back was our suitcases of clothes so they didn't get anything. If they would have leaned up into the back seat (which i don't think it would have been feasible), they would have gotten Rosalie's dvd player which would have made for a LONG ride home.

ohhh apparently I'm too short. Hahah actually we were not in a good spot, plus my height, made for a crapola picture.

Mom, Ro, and I in front of the famous Leaning Tower

The Hollis Family at the Leaning Tower. Love this pic of us

He thinks he is too cool.

Wish my pic turned out as cool as Kevins :(

The Cathedral and the Leaning Tower

The Baptistery, which also leans.

Love this pic of us!

Spray paint artist

Pisa was too much for Miss Rosalie lol

All three structures

The Leaning Tower and the Cathedral

Polcenigo, Italy

Polcenigo is only about 10 minutes from Aviano and it's probably one of my favorite places here yet. It is home to the famous Spring of Gorgazzo. It's an underground spring where water runs down from the mountain and over time has eroded to form a little pond. The color of the water can't even be described, it's just something you have to see in person. It's so beautiful.

The Saturday when my mom was here, we went to the base to get some things and decided to swing over real quick. We were there for about half an hour.. long enough to take some pics and for mom to steal some grapes out of someones yard! hahaha!

The Spring of Gorgazzo

Daddy and Roey at the Spring (Her face is priceless!)

The Hollis fam @ the Spring of Gorgazzo

Mom, Roey, and I

Daddy and Roey

Promised Pictures

Just a few pics of my big girl!

Yup. You guessed it.

ANOTHER VIDEO. lol!

Seems all I do is upload videos anymore! lol! I do have some pics on my desk top that I will get up this afternoon, but someone, I won't mention any names (Rosalie), is being an absolute and total crank today. She hasn't been sleeping good the past 2 days.. nor napping.. and puking.. and whining.. and digging. I'm pretty sure she's trying to get her molars. So here ya go, Enjoy!

Remember to click the bottom right hand corner of the video to make it full screen!

Buffalo Wings

I didn't try these.. because 1, i'm dieting (duh).. and 2, i'm not a wing person.. well boneless because I can eat them with a fork, but I hate anything that makes a mess when you eat it lol, but Kevin said they were good so I'm posting. They looked great, but unfortunately I couldn't get a picture because as fast as they were coming out of the fryer Kevin was eating them!

Buffalo Wings

Ingredients:

1 c flour

1/2 teas paprika

1/2 teas cayenne pepper

1/2 teas salt

1 c butter

1/2 c hot sauce

dash of black pepper

dash of garlic powder

3 doz wings

• Combine the flour, paprika, cayenne pepper, and salt.
• Line wings in a container with a lid.. I just used a baking pan and covered with foil.
• Pour flour mixture over top of wings; cover; refridgerate for 90 minutes. DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP! It's very important to make the breading stick!
• (90 minutes later) Preheat oil in deep fryer to 375
• Combine butter, hot sauce (I used Franks buffalo), black pepper, and garlic powder in a small sauce pan. Heat until butter is melted.
• Fry wings until golden brown.. you're looking at about 12-15 minutes per batch.
• Toss with hot sauce mix and drain off excess.

Sesame Street Love

Rosalie LOVESSS Sesame Street. Scratch that. She loves ELMO... but as soon as she hears the theme music playing for Sesame Street she gets so excited.. this is her scrunching her nose out of pure excitement lol

Remember to click the box in the right hand corner to make it full screen!

Yup, she's a Walkin Fool

Rosalie is walking like crazy these days.. it's hard to believe that it has been less than 2 weeks since she started walking and she's now this sturdy and on the move.. Here's a new video! ENJOY!

Remember to click the little box in right hand corner of the video to make it full screen! It'll be 4 arrows!

Cinnamon Buns

Tonight we are doing the whole "Breakfast for supper" thing. I love breakfast, even though I'm terrible at making it. Sure, I can make box pancakes.. I've got them pretty well mastered ahhaha, but I can't even do a dippy egg. I ruin about 4 eggs for every 2 eggs that are good. If we have eggs, Kevin makes them. I can't do it. I'm really working on getting better at it.. I even found some new recipes. So tonight we are trying an actual french toast recipe (instead of just taking eggs, throwin in some milk and cinnamon), with some breakfast sausage, and *drum roll please* CINNAMON BUNS! Cinnamon buns are probably one of my biggest weaknesses, although I have never made homemade ones! I found a recipe.. read about 4857345 reviews and picked things from all the reviews to make these guys perfect. I decided to make them first thing in the morning since the process is pretty long. So at 6:30 this morning after Rosalie got her breakfast, I started making some cinnamon buns. 3 hours later, TOTALLY worth it. It was seriously heaven. The pictures aren't the best.... you try frosting hot cinnamon buns.. i'm not a neat froster to begin with.. but underneath the frosting is a perfectly measured bun.

Cinnamon Buns

Ingredients:

For the Dough:

1 c warm milk

2 eggs (room temp)

1/3c melted butter

4 1/2 c bread flour

1 teas salt

1/2 c granulated sugar

1 pk active dry yeast (7grams)

For The Flavoring:

1 c brown sugar

2 1/2 tablespoons cinnamon

1/3 c softened butter

For the Frosting:

6 oz cream cheese softened

1/2 c butter softened

3 c confectioners sugar

1 tea vanilla

1/2 teas salt

• Beat 2 eggs and add warm milk, mix in dry yeast. Add sugar, butter, salt, and eggs. Let stand 10 minutes.
• Add flour to yeast mixture and mix and knead.
• Cover and let rise for ATLEAST 1 hour ( i did just over an hour and my dough was ready.. but my kitchen is also pretty warm)
• After dough has doubled, place on a floured surface, cover, and let rise for another 10 minutes.
• Combine brown sugar and cinnamon.
• Roll dough in a 16 x 21 inch rectangle. (not as easy as it sounds.. took quite a bit of work!)
• Spread dough with 1/3 c of butter and sprinkle the entire thing of cinnamon and sugar mix on top.
• Roll up dough (Roll the long end, if that makes sense. You want it to be as long as possible, not as thick as possible.)
• Cut into 12 rolls and cut the ends off. I had mine exactly 21 inches long, so I cut mine into 1 1/2 inch wide rolls and disregarded the end pieces
• Place rolls into lightly greased 9x13 pan (do 3 columns of 4 rolls and make sure you can see the rolled cinnamon side)
• Cover and let rise for about 30 minutes
• Preheat over to 400 degrees
• Bake until golden brown (about 15 minutes).. they will APPEAR burnt on the bottom, but it's not burnt, it's just the excess sugar/cinnamon running out. I about had a heart attack thinking I burnt mine!
• In the mean time, combine all the frosting ingredients. I ended up using a mixer (which i HATE using.. I would rather hand mix everything) but there were clumps that i could not get to go away!
• Remove buns from oven and frost while hot. The frosting will run down the sides and in the creases. Let sit and cool and add another layer of frosting on top.

ENJOY!!

Week 13 Weigh In

This week has been a hard week for me with sticking to my diet. I'm not sure why, but I just had no will power this week. With that being said, I figured when I would jump on the scale I would be up. I had brought myself to the reality of a gain this week.. but, I still LOST! It's not much of a loss, but a loss is a loss right! Anyways, I'm down 0.4 lbs this week!

Week One: -2.9lbs

Week Two: -1.3lbs

Week Three: +.9 (Boo. lol)

Week Four: --

Week Five: --

Week Six: -1.3lbs

Week Seven: 0lbs

Week Eight: -3.3lbs

Week Nine: -2.0lbs

Week Ten: VACATION

Week Eleven: VACATION

Week Twelve: -4lbs

Week Thirteen: -0.4lbs

Total Weight Loss to Date: -56.2 lbs

Total Weight Loss in 12 Weeks: -14.3lbs!

First Goal of -50 Pounds: REACHED

Pounds Until New Goal (-70lbs): 13.8 lbs

Today, you have been too good to me.

Wow. My life has been a rollercoaster lately with hormones (and no, i'm NOT pregnant).. the birth control I'm on (I know, TMI) has me so messed up and I've been an emotional wreck lately... serious mood swings, feeling down and blue for no reason, no energy, but today, things have changed! Maybe it was because I got sleep last night, I'm none to sure, but I feel great.

Rosalie slept 8 straight hours last night, something she hasn't done in months. Thank you teething. Even though she was wide awake at 4:15, I didn't care. I felt amazing. An awesome thing about sleep, when you go without it, a few hours seem amazing. I felt like I could run a marathon when I got up. For the first time in weeks I woke up thinking "I'm ready to start today". And that's what I did. I got up and started my day.

By 9am my house was almost spotless and my morning routine was done. Rosalie was fed and bathed. By 10:30am, Rosalie was down for a nap, my house was immaculate, bread was rising, I was showered, had make up on, and real clothes. It's been forever since I've put real clothes on during the week. Usually I just live in sweats (who sees me besides kevin and rosalie?), but today I had the ambition to get real clothes on!

My neighbor came over after Ro got up from her nap.. it was nice talking to someone other than a 10 month old and a dog. I felt my sanity slowly coming back to me with every bit of conversation.. any more I feel like I'm a shut in!

Something else good happened this afternoon.. but I'm not about to talk about it on my blog... not just yet.. and again, no I'm not pregnant.

Now it's time for me to stuff some chicken breasts and peel some potatoes. I'm making Kevin and Chris an awesome supper tonight... too bad I can't enjoy it. Eff you diet.

I lied.. no pics yet lol.. I swear they are still on my camera.. more and more accumulating every day!