WW Wednesday

Today was my WW meeting. I knew a lot of people would be joining today as part of their resolutions to lose weight, but MAN! There were a LOT of people. More power to 'em! err, us. :)

As I have said recently, J was off for a nice long stretch over Christmas and New Year's and we might have gone to IHOP once or twice three four times in that period. (Four? I think it was four.) Before you judge, just know that the only time we eat out as a family is at breakfast because that is the time we can depend on both of our children being awake, agreeing to eat what's in front of them (even if that is a chocolate pancake, bacon, and chocolate milk), and happy/sane.

We decided to really enjoy our time with Daddy home and at least I had coupons. :)

(The above bacon was cooked by Pa, and yes, it is that good. His bacon is photo-worthy.)

Anyway, even with all the IHOPping, I managed to work it into my day well. If we had a big breakfast, we ate light the rest of the day.

It paid off because I had a nice loss today during my weigh-in.

Lesson learned this week: If I'm honest with myself about exactly what and how much I'm eating, then it's easier to work in all the "fun" foods. In WW terms, "tracking" works.

Goal for the upcoming week: Plan what we are having for dinner by 10:00 am that day. I could say, "Plan the whole week" but that's not something I can commit to. I need flexibility. So let's be real and say that by 10:00 I am going to have dinner planned -- even if dinner means leftovers. I am being real here. :)

BigBoy's room update

Outerbanks is on the walls. It wasn't our finest paint job, but it's done and we're happy with the color. (Rex is too.)



We've been painting the chest of drawers and bookshelf in the garage. J bought a space heater and 2 new shop lights for the garage so we can actually see to work when the frigid-cold-shielding garage door is closed.



I'm loving the no-VOC Olympic paint we chose. It's a lot more pleasurable painting without the paint stank all over you.



The chest of drawers still has (hopefully only) one more coat left and the bookshelf needs two, but these pieces really haven't been that bad.



Famous last words, right? :)



I'll keep you updated. Who doesn't love a good "Before & After"?

BigBoy's room

Hi all! J has been off work since Christmas Eve and we've been tackling some home projects.

We're still in the midst of BigBoy's room makeover, which started out as just a paint job for the contractor-beige/white walls. Here's the color we chose (Outerbanks by Sherwin Williams):

It may seem an odd choice for a little BIGBoy, but he had so much color going on in there already that I thought it was all the room could handle. Now it looks like we are changing things up a LOT, though. His chest of drawers and bookshelf are being painted and his "theme" will now be dinosaurs. I say "theme" in quotation marks because I'm not big on the bedroom-by-numbers matching-trash-can-and-border kind of thing. We're also re-arranging his furniture and we took the doors off the closet.

This is one view of his room as it was before:




I hope to have the after to you by the end of the week. We still have more painting for the furniture and then it needs to dry for a couple days before we move it in.

I also need to acquire bedding, window treatments, and wall art. BigBoy got to pick out a couple dino posters but I would really like some chunky white frames for them.

I don't know what the end result is going to look like in here yet but I'm thinking "dinosaurs meets National Geographic meets Pottery Barn on the (relatively) cheap."

A snowy parking lot

That's why my dental surgery was cancelled yesterday.
The roads were clear. The parking lot was not.

BOO.

Since I didn't have my wisdom teeth removed, I got to go to WW today.
Mind you, I thought I was going to be on a semi-liquid diet for a few days this week, and I ate with that in mind. :/

And for the weigh-in... I was up. Just a little. As in 0.6 pounds.

And it's all made of chocolate, baby. :)

This is my way of reminding you I probably won't be posting over the next few days because of the ole wisdom teeth.

Blurg.

Easy Santa's beard Advent Calendar

I meant to post this all December, but here it is on December 26th.

I made the easiest advent calendar this year:

1 Santa decoration from Dollar Tree

1 bag XL cotton balls

Glue of any kind

Total cost: $2.50.

All you do is take the $1 Santa and write the numbers 1 - 25 on the beard. Be sure and space them out well if you plan to use the XL cotton balls like I did. Every day you just glue a cotton ball over the date, and Voila! A super-cheap and easy, fun advent calendar for the kids. BigBoy loved it and it was cute on our pantry door. I had one like it as a kid and loved it.

I think this will have to come back next year.

A White Christmas Day too late

What we woke up to.

The backyard.
Snowhere else I'd rather be. :)

(yes, I AM a dork.)