Shoulda had a V8...or the mashed potatos for that matter....

I hate it when I think I'm doing something right and it turns out incredibly wrong.  I might be overreacting a bit, but let me explain...

Since it is such a beautiful day, and Blake is sleeping and both Peyton and myself were about to go stark-raving mad if we didn't get out of these doors soon, I decided that Peyton and I would go to the park and then go get ourselves some lunch.  (Right about now I am realizing that I should have taken some pictures of Peyton at the park to accompany this post, but hey, what can I say? I'm an amateur...)  Anyway, the park was a blast as it always is, and afterward we went to KFC for some lunch. 

KFC has become one of my favorite fast food places recently because they offer grilled chicken meals and it is DE-LI-CIOUS (I say in my best sing-song voice).  Usually I get the grilled chicken breast meal with a double order of green beans and - against my will - I don't eat the biscuit.  Today I wanted something different so I got green beans and cole slaw.  I don't have any type of internet service on my phone so I couldn't look up the points values before I ordered but cabbage is a vegetable, and while the dressing IS mayonnaise based I still figured it couldn't be too bad.

Cole slaw.  That couldn't be so bad, right? I mean I figured it would have been maybe three points...WRONG. FIVE points for a side of slaw. FIVE! Can you believe that??  And to just put the icing on the cake (umm...cake....) the mashed potatoes WITH gravy are only three points.  I'll know next time.  You better watch out, mashed potatoes cause I'm coming for you!

Still catching up...

I still wanted to take some time to catch up on the things we did around Valentine's Day so here goes!

In my desperate attempt to be crafty and cute, I got Peyton to make Valentine's card for Nana (Blake's mom) and Grandmother (my mom).  She had a blast with the paint and I think they were a hit for the our moms too!
This is the one she made for my mom:

And here is her working on Nana's!

I had every intention to take pictures of her getting her Valentine present from mommy and daddy cause I KNEW that she would love her gifts, and I wish I had a better excuse for not taking them, but I just forgot. :(  I tried to re-create the moment, but she just didn't understand why I was taking her goodies and putting them back into the bag.  Needless to say she wasn't very photogenic at that moment.  But, if you know Peyton you know how totally OBSESSED she is with all things Minnie so we got her the I Love Minnie DVD and some Minnie crayons and coloring sheets and Minnie tattoos.  SHE LOVED THEM! And everything except the DVD came from the $1 aisle at Micheal's!

I think that just about covers the shenanigans that my little family has been up to. Hope everyone has a great day!

...tomorrow is another day...

Welp. Here I am.  It's funny how my attitude can change in just a few (not so) short days.  My attitude is crummy and defeated.  In not just the diet subject, but others as well.  Peyton has been sick for a few days and Blake has moved to night shift, thus my world has been totally turned upside down.  It's crazy, really.  Peyton hasn't been TERRIBLY sick and Blake rotates shifts every two weeks.  So I find myself asking, "What the heck is my problem??"

One thing I have learned about myself in these past few years is that I am a creature of habit.  I LOVE  a schedule.  I don't mind doing the same thing over and over again with just a few minor changes.  Maybe that's why I was so good at customer service and why I enjoyed being a bank teller.  Or maybe I just got comfortable with those positions...but then again, what's wrong with comfort? 

Anyway, I always have a hard time adjusting when Blake changes shifts.  Especially when he goes to night shift.  I can't stand having half of the house shut off during the whole day while he sleeps.  I always find myself having to go into our room for one reason or another and if I wake him up he always thinks its on purpose...but really it's not. Really. 

For the past two weeks Blake has been on first shift and I've had a pretty good thing going.  Peyton usually wakes up between 7-7:30am and will nap from about 1pm-3pm and then she's in bed by 9pm (don't judge me...that's what works for us...) I had been doing my workouts when she napped and then I would shower and be dressed by the time Blake got home around 3:30 (and by "dressed" I mean wearing jeans and a t-shirt instead of sweatpants and t-shirt *tee hee*).  Also, I would keep myself busy during the day playing with her and doing my "chores" so that I never really wanted to snack. 

Well, now everything is just topsy-turvy.  Peyton has been sick and has just wanted to lay in my lap all day.  And that makes me want to eat. She was sick enough that she didn't care what we watched on tv so if you know me, you know I was watching the Food Network. And that makes me want to eat. Ugh...idle hands really are the devil's workshop...especially if the devil is making cake in the kitchen.  Today was the first day that Peyton has really acted like herself and I tried to get back on my schedule for working out, but I guess she felt so good she didn't want to nap cause 20 minutes into my run on the elliptical, she came pitter pattering into the room. 

And here's where I really dropped the bomb: after dinner I wanted something chocolate. I tried to just eat a serving size of my yummy delicious chocolate graham crackers with milk chocolate cream cheese.  But lets be honest, who's that serving size for anyway? A midget?  I'm embarrassed to say how much I actually ate.  But here goes...I ate a whole sleeve of graham crackers and about 1/4 of the tub of cream cheese.  Like a boss.

Tomorrow is another day, and I really really hope that I do better.  I don't want to give up so soon.  I don't want my size 12's to win...

So here's a little bit of what I've been up to...

I mentioned in my post yesterday that I have been SUPER busy and have thus forsaken my new found blogging responsibility. There is so much that I want to catch up on, but I think I will have to post them in separate entries. So here's the first:

This past Saturday (Feb 11th) our Adult Bible Study class (ABS class) had our 2nd annual Valentine's Date night dinner.  Two ladies in our class, Brooke and Rissie (who also happen to be good friends of mine) take it upon themselves to set up and plan the party, as well as buy, prepare and serve the food.  This is no small task, mind you, as there were almost 40 people at our party this Saturday.  Anyway, for just $15 a couple each person was served salad, rolls, baked chicken, mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese as well as a dessert selection to DIE FOR (pic to follow...). After the dinner we all (well...almost all of us...) played the newly wed game.  Blake and I won our round (two years in a row, woot woot!!)

Anyway, I can't remember if I've mentioned it on my blog or not, but I am doing Weight Watchers online, and I really really want to stick to it. So far, so good! But on this particular Saturday I was very nervous about my weigh in day (which is Sunday).  Blake happened to be off Saturday and when you get the two of us together, we are a ravenous pair.  We love to eat!  Side note: Blake says one of the things that first attracted him to me was the fact I was not a "salad and water" girl.  Homegirl can EAT!  Anyway, Blake's mom had agreed to keep Peyton until Sunday afternoon, so around lunch we headed to her house.  Now, I love my husband, but do you know what that sap sucker did? He went through the Burger King drive through. I could have KILLED him! After a rather heated internal debate between the fat devil-girl and the angelic bikini-clad girl in my head, I decided to to bypass the Whopper with cheese and french fries and opt for the grilled chicken sandwich with *insert sad sigh here...* no fries and a diet coke. Afterwards, I looked up the points value and learned that the sandwich was only 13 points. A considerably larger amount of points than I normally eat for lunch, but not too bad for drive-thru food, in my opinion.  Here is a pic of me enjoying my chicken sandwich:

And here is a pic of my darling husband enjoying his double whopper with cheese while driving our family down the interstate:



















And here is my Sweet P with her child's meal. Unlike Blake or myself, she is not a big eater. We were having to coax her to eat her cheeseburger and fries and bribe her with the toy.  I tried to explain to her that one day she will wish someone will make her eat a cheeseburger and fries, but I'm not quite certain she understood...

 You will also notice the lovely pink bedpan we keep in our car now and is Peyton's permanent travel companion due to her motion-sickness....

So my decision to opt for the healthier sandwich is just one battle won in the war against my size 12's.  Now lets talk Valentine's Party!  Here are a few pics:

And here is a picture of my dessert plate....*dreamy sigh* isn't she BEAUTIFUL!

And...I might have went back for seconds!  Anyway, my point is that I can still have little splurges every now and then, but I have to limit them.  And, I'm learning to control my portions.  Some of you may look at this dessert plate and think "overkill" but for those of you who know me personally you know this is considerably less than what I normally eat.  And the good news: I WEIGHED IN AT MY GOAL WEIGHT THE NEXT DAY!

I'm not going to lie, I'm exercising for 45 minutes EVERYDAY (except for Sundays of course) and I'm passing up food that I love, and making sacrifices, but the payoff is when I look down at my scale or when I can slip off my jeans without unbuttoning them.  The view on this weight-loss mountain is getting better folks!  The fog hasn't completely cleared, and I can't see the top yet, but I can definitely see my next few steps!

I have not given up!

I know it has been a few days since my last blog post, but I wanted you guys (all four of you who follow me...LOL) to know I have not given up!  This weekend and week so far have been SOOO busy for me.  I started not to even post today because I am the type of person that wants to do something right (or at least what I think is right) or not at all - and I don't really have the time to upload all the pics I want to share with ya'll.

...In fact, as I write this, my sleepy-eyed two-year-old is walking down the hallway, just up from her nap...ah....what a glorious three-and-a-half minutes of mommy-time that was!  I promise there will be a lengthy blog soon to catch up! 

I'm worried about worrying...

So I said in yesterday's post that one of my "new" hobbies is weight loss. To help with this little adventure I joined Weight Watcher's Online, and for the most part I really enjoy it.  It's kind of like a game for me; recording my points, seeing what's the most yummy for the least amount of points, or how much food I can stuff into those points...that sort of thing. But me, being the anxiety-stricken person that I am, started worrying at day one what I would do when I reached that plateau in my weight loss regime.

The smart thing to say here would be, "Well, just step up your game. Exercise more, challenge yourself more in the choices that you make where food is concerned." But you see, I don't work that way my friends. I am a creature of habit, and I don't take too kindly to anything mussin up my routine. Before my size 12 pants became my worst enemy, I had a pretty good routine going: something breaded and sweet for breakfast, a salty snack, something hearty for lunch with a (not so) small something sweet to follow, another salty snack and a big ole country style supper with all the fixins and if I didn't have anything in the house to satisfy my sweet tooth for dessert...well DQ is literally 5 minutes from my house. And we still haven't even discussed my bedtime snack...

So you can already see that the so called "minor" changes to my diet are not so minor to me. I love to eat, but I love my daughter more and I want to be healthy for her...and I HATE my size 12 pants...

Since I started WW I have lost (according to a reading from my scale first thing this morning on which I stood post-urination and in my birthday suit...) about eight pounds.  I feel better, and my size 12's are no longer cutting off my circulation. But I have a ways to go - 22 more pounds to go - and I'm freaking out. 

You see, according to my scale this morning, I'm only down .4 of a pound from yesterday. Yes I know you are not supposed to weigh everyday, but I HAVE TO. It's an addiction. DUM DUM DUMMMMM.....so does this mean I've plateaued?  Do I already need to step up my game? What if I can't lose the weight without doing something drastic, like exercising TWICE a day, or never letting another carbohydrate touch my lips again??!! 

Now if all that worrying wasn't enough I'm worried that my worrying might cause me to jump off a cliff doing a swan dive into the bowl of M&M's sitting on my counter. I mean, come on, what dieting woman keeps an open dish of M&M's on her kitchen counter? Ugh. I'm a masochist to the core...

I guess this means my view for today pretty intimidating.  I feel like I'm hanging on the side of a cliff and I'm too far to jump to the ground, but still miles away from the top. But I will make it to the top, eventually, and the view from there - as I stand in my considerably smaller jeans - will be pretty freaking amazing.

Welcome (back) to the blogging world!

So here I am. Sitting at my computer, making an attempt to start a hobby. Again. I have made an attempt at blogging once before but needless to say, it fell flat. Blake (my husband as of 2008) always gives me a hard time when I take up new hobbies. Avon - fail. Sewing - fail. Couponing - fail (although I promise myself daily that I will get back into that one...we shall see..) Now my targets are healthy eating, weight loss and of course, blogging.

My sister is a blogging pro. And proof of my claim can be seen here. I attribute it to her BA in English. She's really smart (I'm saying that in my best Forest Gump voice....) and I hope that doesn't offend you. I'll probably be making a lot of politically incorrect jokes here. That's what I do. I stick my foot in my mouth for the sake of a laugh or two.  Which brings me to my next point. I'm really not blogging for you...I'm blogging for me.

The idea of a diary seemed kind of outdated to me.  And what a shame that the only way it would have been read would be after my death. I mean, what a waste. If you wanna read about my life, I wanna know that your reading - know what I mean? But either way I'm using this as a outlet. An outlet for my happiness, sadness, anger, frustration, complacence, and probably most of all, my boredom.  I got a lot of junk floating around in my head and I think it best that I release some of that...and here's where the sigh of relief comes from Blake...he's been getting the brunt of my emotions for the better part of 5 years now.

So I guess since there is a slight possibility that there might be some total strangers reading my blog I assume it's only appropriate that I give you a quick bio: my name is Courtney and I am the wife of Blake.  I have a 12-year-old step-daughter, Taylor. More on that topic in the blogs to follow, I'm sure. Blake and I have a two-year-old daughter, Peyton who was the answer to prayers before I had ever even prayed them (I'll explain later...) and Haylie who would be 18 months old on the 18th of this month if she hadn't gone to be with Jesus before her birth. We have a dog named Rufus and he and I share a love/hate relationship.  I am a SAHM, but my PR degree from UA sure does look pretty hanging on my wall...(note the sarcasm...)

Now, lets talk about my blog title. I got the idea from a book that I am reading. Well actually a series of books by Karen Kingsbury. Anyway, one of the characters has a very refreshing outlook on troublesome times. He says - and I'm paraphrasing here - that if the climb up the mountain is this challenging, then just think how great the view from the top will be. And that got me thinking about a message our pastor preached not too long ago. He said that everyone falls into one of these three categories in reference to  trails: you're either headed into a trial, in the middle of a trial or coming out of a trial.  So then I thought back to my books (and I'm a visual thinker) so I pictured a person at the foot of a mountain, climbing up the side of a mountain, or on the top of a mountain.  And there are views every step of the way. Thus, leading me to ask...How's the View?