Healthy Challenge

There is this lady in my ward who got a group of us together to participate in something called a Healthy Challenge. Basically, for 10 weeks, we follow these guidelines/rules. For every rule we follow, we get a point. At the end of the challenge, whoever has the most points wins.

Wins what you ask?

Well, we all pooled our money, so the winner gets the cash.

I thought it was a great idea and there are enough of us in the group to keep each other motivated. And if THAT doesn't help, there's always that money to think about!

I think this idea is genius! If you get enough people together, you can stay motivated and get healthy! Just think, you could implement this at a workplace or in your family or....anywhere, really!

Here are the rules we are following that we get points for each day:

1. 45 minutes of exercise
2. No soda {we changed the rule for our group so technically it is only diet soda, but I don't usually have any anyways, so no big deal!}
3. At least 48 oz. water
4. NO treats and/or sweets
5. 4 servings of vegetables
6. 3 servings of fruit
7. No eating past 8 pm.
8. Take a multivitamin
9. Write a food journal
10. Follow your individual food plan

I honestly thought this was going to be easier than it was because I thought I was pretty healthy. LET ME TELL YOU: that food journal really makes me see how much I'm eating. Whoa mama! It's a lot more than I probably should eat! AND, it's a lot of junk {like a small handful of M&M's here, a few doritos there...etc.} that I'm obliviously munching on. So, it's good to write everything down!

Also, I'm really having trouble getting in all my fruit and not eating any treats or sweets! All I want is candy! Sugar free hot chocolate isn't cutting it! So, I'm hoping that by the beginning of next week, my cravings will be gone!

I'm trying to stay busy with my blog and think of healthy recipes filled with veggies and good for you foods.

Three cheers for being healthy!

Hello Goodbye

Gordon called me today. It was strange. I heard my phone ringing and saw his name and thought "uh-oh...why is he calling...this can't be a good thing!" 

Oh, but it was! 

The guy in charge of his platoon {or whatever it's called} told everyone that they could call their families! I'll have to thank that guy.

So he called and it was awesome.

He sounded tired and he totally misses us! {What a sweetheart! I love him.}

Brooke got to talk to him on speaker phone and she said:

"hi dad"

Brooke, what did we make today with Keira? {her cousin who is 6 weeks younger than her}

COOKIEEEEES!

What are you eating for dinner?

"chicken, peas, fries"{pointing to her plate as she talks}

What are you dipping your fries in?

KETCHUUUUP!

She gets excited for cookies....and ketchup apparently.

You had to be there. It was super cute.

4 days in and I'm feeling ok. This afternoon when Brooke and her cousin were napping I decided to take a little snooze too. When I woke up from my nap, I felt really funny, like something wasn't right. So I thought about it some more and realized that I'm just adjusting to life without Gordon. It's not my 'norm' so I feel a little weird. And it's not like in a bad way, it's just different and I'm not used to it. All part of the experience, I suppose. Gordon is also doing some adjusting and he feels weird too. He told me today. Because he called me! 

I love that guy, even though he's 800 miles away.

Oh efffff..............

This is a continuation of the last post I wrote about my blasted car.

My car was broken last week. $900 later it was fixed....except in fixing that problem they encountered another problem that needs to get fixed.

Dare to guess how much that will cost?

Go ahead. Guess.

Nope. Higher!

.....................................

A little higher!

.....................................

Bingo!

That's right my friends. $1400 for the next repair.

WELL BLOODY HELL.

We had a savings account from our tax returns. Now, do I spend literally the rest of all the money we have to pay for our car to be fixed or get a loan and get a new one?

Thoughts?

PS- I get to do this on my own because Gordon is at training and isn't allowed to contact me at all. AWESOME.

PPS- Damn you Oprah for not giving me a free car!

Let it be known....

that I hate our car. PASSIONATELY.

We just got it working properly again and guess what?

Something else {a lot bigger} went wrong. 

Who needs a savings account anyways, right?

I am tempted to drive it off a cliff, move to New York City and take a cab everywhere.

That is all.

*Even though I'm a big fat complainer, I am grateful that we got our tax returns and are able to afford these repairs. We remain completely debt free. {!!!!!!!}

Who wants cookies?

Once upon a time, I submitted a recipe for a cookie contest.

AND THEN I WON!

These are the cookies I submitted.

You can check out the site for LDS Living where I won.

Holla!

PS- Brooke is completely potty trained. No diapers anymore, even at night time! I bought some size 5 diapers a few months ago when there was a super sale thinking I would need them. NOPE! Anyone need diapers? 

OPRAH!

As some of you know, I went to Chicago to meet up with my best friends from college, Amy and Amy to hang out, have girl time AND go see Oprah! Holla! I had an absolute blast and love these girls to pieces! We arrived Thursday, went to Oprah Friday morning, walked & shopped on the magnificent mile, had chicago pizza, etc. Saturday was a spa day and we did more shopping! Sunday was up to 80 degrees--beautiful weather! We had to come home Monday morning :( Our fun had to come to an end some time. 

I was happy to get home to see Gordon and Brooke, but will never forget the fun times!

Here's to Vegas in 2012!

Amy & I waiting outside the building Friday morning at around 6:45 am to get in to see Oprah!

All 3 of us outside waiting. It was awful weather so we were happy the walkway was covered and we didn't get soaked completely.

Unfortunately the show was about child abuse! Lame. It was so sad! I was seriously hoping to win a car. Thanks a lot Oprah. 

If you want to watch it, it will air April 15th. You can watch it to see if you can see us in the audience. I will not be watching. I don't really want to watch it again. 

The famous Oprah Sign you see at the beginning of her show.

All 3 of us after the show, after we hit up the Oprah Store!

Hello Harpo Studios! You can see the people lined up underneath the walkway for the second show of the day.

Saturday, we were pampered and had a spa day: manicures, pedicures, facials and massages. It was AMAZING! The Massage therapist was from Lithuania was awesome! Her name was Donna. I wish we had gone back to get a photo of her because she was so hilarious. Usually massages are supposed to be quiet and relaxing, but she kept talking to all of us. 

When we weren't shopping or at the spa, we were usually talking and/or laughing. Most of the time Amy was laughing and the other Amy was unimpressed.

click here to see what we were laughing at!

Amy's newest family member, Watson. He is a ball of energy!

Amy took this photo of me taking a picture. I liked it, so I posted it.

Amy and I on the magnificent mile. It was chilly and windy, but luckily the rain stopped!

Hancock Building.

Hello Chicago! 

Amy and I on Sunday. We couldn't believe how warm it was! It was gorgeous weather!

News

I haven't been a very good blogger! Things have been happening and I have neglected to tell you all!

So, the biggest news probably would be Gordon signing up to be in the Army Reserves. I was always opposed to this idea because although there are a lot of pros to him joining, it doesn't make up for the fact that he might not come home alive one day in the future. Well, after a lot of thinking, praying, fasting, etc. I suddenly felt very good about this decision. It was literally night and day. One night I was completely against it and literally the next night I was fine with the idea. Kind of weird, but I was glad to have gotten an answer to a prayer and I felt completely at peace with it. Gordon was really excited because he's been wanting to do something along these lines for a long time.

The funny thing is these last few months, we both have felt that nothing was working out for us. All the jobs Gordon was applying for just weren't ever working out. So after months of rejection, we thought "what other options do we have?" So, the reserves was one of the options. After we made our decision, he officially joined, we told everyone and all of a sudden things started working out. That tells me this was meant to be and was definitely the right decision for our family.

At this time, Gordon is working at the fruit company for another week and then he'll be done! We will have a week of him being together with us/tying up loose ends and then he'll leave for Basic Training on April 25th. It's a 12 week program, so he'll get home the end of July. Officer Candidate School will be 8 weeks of training starting in January. After that, he will have Military Intelligence training {which should be pretty long}. We don't have any dates yet. And, if it's longer than 18 weeks, we'll be able to go with him.