it's about time

I just came off of a wonderfully busy wedding weekend.  My best friend, Betsy, got married to her boyfriend Michael, and I could NOT be happier for them!  Lots of pictures and stories to tell, but I'll get to that later.  

Being at the wedding (and all of the activities leading up to it) was incredibly surreal for me.  Not only because one of my best friends was getting married and I was so excited for her, but also because it was a landmark for me.  I have been working since January (20th, to be exact) to lose weight, using this wedding as extreme motivation.  My friend and all of her bridesmaids are beautiful and I really wanted to look good for these pictures and just the memories - it really meant a lot to me.  So I started Weight Watchers in January and almost four months later I am officially down 25 pounds!

I was thinking about it and I'm kind of embarrassed now that I haven't lost any weight sooner.  I mean, right after I had my girls I lost weight because you retain a lot of water and things like that when pregnant, but besides that I hadn't taken any of the necessary steps to shed the pounds.  I know that the ingredient to success for me was that I had something important I was aiming towards - I just really wanted to look good!  But man, I just wish I had done it sooner.  It wasn't even that bad.  On Weight Watchers you get to eat pretty much whatever you want as long as you count it towards the points you have.  You could still have Oreos if you really want, they're just 3 points for every two cookies you eat, so you gotta watch it.

I really need to put any shame or guilt away and just be proud of myself.  After all, I have two daughters.  That's 18 months of weight gain.

I lost 25 pounds!  I'm only 4 pounds away from my original goal weight, and I'm thinking about lowering it 5-10 pounds.  I did it, and I can't believe it, but I did.  I actually look pretty thin, which is hard for me to see still.  But I do.  I have people tell me a couple times a week that they notice at this point. (Not trying to stroke my own ego, just pointing out it is noticeable to the naked eye finally.  I have heard that people won't notice you've lost weight until you're down 12-20 lbs., depending on your height.)

Thank you for the kind words after my last post on weight loss.  They were really encouraging.

Here's to 10 more pounds!  Pretty soon you won't recognize me. ;)

trip to the northwest

Holy wow,  does anybody else feel like they need a vacation when they get back from vacation?

That was a heck of a 10 days we just had.  One thing my family does fairly regularly is vacationing over spring break.  I know I'm not in school and am not really taking a break from anything except cold weather, but it is nice to have a time set aside for a little vaca.

We've been talking about going to Seattle for a couple years now.  We have family there that always seem to be visiting us but we never get a chance to go see them.  We finally made it happen and booked a trip for 10 days.  Luckily for us we were able to stay with our cousins, Brynn and Haley, so that made things much easier and less expensive than staying in a hotel.  

This was my first vacation flying with both girls.  And Luke wasn't able to come because of work, so that left things mostly up to me and the help of my mom and grandma.  My sisters came as well, and of course my sister Chelsea brought her baby Carter.  We were quite a bunch of estrogen and a tiny baby's worth of testosterone.  Poor Carter is growing up in a sorority.  

I'm not going to lie, the flights were difficult holding Parker on my lap (she's so busy at this stage!  Constantly moving), but two flights later we had made it.  We rented a really nice minivan, a Toyota Sienna.  I've never wanted to be a minivan owner, but this one was really nice.  If I ever own a minivan it will most likely be one of those. 

We had a really nice time staying with Brynn and Haley.  It was great to spend some time with them.  Parker and Carter were both not feeling well and we had them checked out by a family friend who is a doctor and Parker tested positive for RSV - which, in case you're unfamiliar, is a respiratory virus that mostly effects babies/children.  She was prescribed some antibiotics that she hated, but had her feeling well within a couple days.  And unfortunately, Haley's grandma wasn't expected to live much longer, and sure enough, within a couple days of being there she passed away and Haley had to go to Oregon to be with family and attend the funeral. 

The next day we headed to Portland, OR to visit Carter's grandparents and stay with them for a couple days.  The trip down was awful, because Parker was in the worst part of her RSV and screamed a good majority of the 4 hour trip.  It was really awful.  Another family friend was nice enough to check her out again because she just seemed to be in so much pain, and I guess her ears were really bothering her.  We then knew to alternate between acetaminophen and ibuprofen to keep her ears from hurting so much and also to lower her fever.  After about an hour of being at the grandparent's house, Carter's grandma Mary received a call and started sobbing.  Come to find out, her brother-in-law took a nap that afternoon and never woke up.  He was only 60.  We thought we might have to leave so Mary could fly to be with her sister, but she ended up deciding to wait and we were able to stay.  I was glad we were able to spend some time with them.  They live in the most beautiful home right on a gorgeous river in the woods.  It has an atrium almost completely made out of windows that you could sit in and just look out at the amazing view of the river rushing by.  I could sit there all day.


While in Portland we were able to eat at the Carver Cafe.  If you have seen the Twilight films, you will remember in the first movie, titled "Twilight", Bella has dinner with her father, Charlie, in a little diner.  That diner is the Carver Cafe.  We sat in the same place that they sat in the movie and had breakfast.  It was pretty cool to be there and we were able to sign a fan book that Catherine Hardwicke (the director of "Twilight") had signed as well.  


We also dared to head out to the midnight release of "The Hunger Games".  I am not much of a midnight premiere person anymore.  I am a tired mommy of two girls for goodness sake!  But we decided to do it anyway.  The crazy part is that in Oregon it is two hours earlier than it is in Iowa, so it was like seeing the movie from 2-4 a.m. Iowa time.  But we did it!  And it was awesome.  We loved it!


We made our way back to the Seattle area to spend the last few days of our trip with Brynn and Haley again.  It was nice to be back and have our babies feeling well this time around.  Haven's attitude didn't really improve however with her schedule so messed up, but we dealt with it the best we could, aka a lot of time-outs and melt downs.  Honestly, I was about to pull my hair out dealing with her.  Luckily for Haley, Chelsea and I, our family was willing to watch her while we took the three hour drive North to FORKS!  YESSSSSS!!!!!  I am a huge Twi-hard.  Yeah, I am kind of a freak about it.  But I wasn't going to be in the Pacific Northwest without heading to the "home" of my obsession.  In case you're not familiar, Forks, WA is where the Twilight movies are supposedly set (even though they aren't actually filmed there).  So we made the long drive northward.  We rode a ferry, drove through lush green forest, and around beautiful lakes.  It was a very scenic drive.  When we actually arrived in Forks, to be honest, it was a letdown.  Forks is the lamest town I have ever been to.  I have to give it a little grace however, because we did go on a Sunday afternoon during the off-season.  I am sure if we had gone on a weekday during the summer it would have seemed a little more hoppin'.  But yeah, the town was really small, and empty.  We stopped at a store devoted to "Twilight" and bought a couple souvenirs and learned that the town visitors center was up the road.  We went there and they gave us a map with different tourist destinations related to the movie.  They also had Bella's truck sitting out front so we were able to see those and get some pictures taken with them.  After driving around town a little bit, we ate at a diner simply called "Coffee Shop", where the ambiance was lacking (to say the least), but the food turned out to be pretty stinkin' good.  

Last but not least, we made our way to First Beach in La Push.  We figured we better give it a looksie before we started the long drive back.  Actually, Chels and Haley wanted to leave, but I begged them to make one last stop to hopefully make the drive worth it, and they gave in. Best decision ever.  La Push was beautiful!  It was cool out, just the way I expected it to be.  The beach was covered in driftwood and small round rocks and just off the beach there were rounded cliffs in the water.  We looked around for a while and took pictures.  There was a local surfer standing by his car filming something in the distance, and we kept accidentally walking into his shot, not realizing what he was filming.  After doing this a couple times, he said, "Do you guys see what I'm filming?" And he pointed out into the water, where there were a couple whales swimming around together.  It was amazing!  They were beautiful.  We looked to our right and there were more whales, and we think maybe some seals as well.  It was awesome.  


We made the long trip home.  It didn't seem quite as bad this time.  When we got back we packed up our things since we had to catch an early flight back to Des Moines.  We chatted, hugged, said our goodbyes, and went to sleep.  The flights home were pretty easy.  Well, as easy as they can be holding an 11-month-old on your lap for four hours.  I was happy to get home, back to Lukey where I could have some help with the girls.  It was a great trip, despite the challenges we faced.  I can't wait to see them all again.

Flying over mountains on our way to Seattle

The weather while we were there.  Seattle-like.

girl cousins

coolest place!

fresh flowers everywhere

these shrimp were the size of my hand!

the produce was so beautiful

huh?

waiting for the movie to start

the sickie starting to feel better, looking out at the beautiful river

the river again

breakfast at the Carver Cafe

Catherine Hardwicke's signature

Carver Cafe

on the sky tram, eek!

the amazing atrium overlooking the river

Crescent Lake on the way to Forks, Breathtaking.

I got a little excited.

Haley, Chels, and I

liiiiittle place

the high school sign, as seen in the movies

La Push, baby, it's... La Push

hanging out on some driftwood

more driftwood

I've never been to a cold beach before.

Bella's truck

The only way I could get him to stop crying on the way home.  hahaha, sorry little guy.

So happy to not be sick anymore.

Haven throwing rocks into the Puget Sound.

girl on a mission

If you're friends with me on Facebook you're probably thinking, 

"Seriously, would you give it a rest?"

But no, I can't.  I'm so excited, and I just can't hide it!

On January 20th, I began Weight Watchers.  I've really needed something to whip me into shape for the last few years.  When I was pregnant with Haven I gained 50+ pounds and that is so not easy on the body.  It's something I just never even thought about in my pre-pregnancy days.  I never would have known that pregnancy ravages your body.  I didn't know that stretch marks and loose skin were in my future.  I think if everybody knew that their body would be ruined they wouldn't be so excited to get pregnant and have their first child.  That sounds so bad, but I hear so many young girls talking about how excited they are to have kids and that they want to get married and have them right away.  As much as I love my children, I just want to scream to them, "ENJOY YOUR YOUTH AND THAT SKINNY, FLAWLESS BODY THAT YOU'RE NEVER GETTING BACK!"  Ok, that may be a little dramatic, but it seems true at times.  

Oops, sidetracked.

After almost 6 weeks of dieting and exercise I am down about 20 pounds!  I am so absolutely excited about it and never thought I could do it.  I mentioned before that I have one of my best friends weddings coming up, so that's some really good motivation.  Who wants to be immortalized in pictures as the fat bridesmaid?  Certainly not me.  

I've actually had quite a few people tell me that they can see a difference in me.  That's when I know I am actually doing something.  Somebody ELSE noticed without me mentioning my diet or anything.  There is no greater compliment.  Seriously, nothing.

Yesterday my (new) jeans were starting to get really baggy so I decided to wash them and a couple other pairs so they would hopefully shrink, and so I could hold off on buying MORE new pairs.  (This weight loss thing is a real burden on my wallet!  wink!)  In the meantime I needed to run to the store for a couple ingredients for dinner.  I had just started washing my pants when I realized I needed to leave the house, so I started digging through my drawers for something to throw on.  I came across my pre-pregnancy jeans, and wondered if they could possibly fit.  I knew I had lost weight, but I was a little skeptical as they haven't fit me in almost 4 years.  I tried on the bigger of the two pairs and wasn't entirely surprised that those fit because they were just a little bit tight before.  So I took another risk and tried on the smaller of the two pairs and those fit too!!!  I couldn't believe it.  And they weren't even skin tight - I might even say they were loose.  I am wearing them right now and am just reveling in my accomplishment.  I, Courtney, lost that much weight, and am still going strong and am going to lose even more.  If there's one thing that can make you stick to your diet, it's confidence boosters like the ones I've been receiving lately.  

If I have one piece of advice to people, it's TELL PEOPLE if you notice them losing weight.  I had one of my managers tell me she noticed that I'd lost weight but didn't want to say anything at first because it would be like saying that I used to be fat.  I don't think of it that way at all.  It's a big pat on the back, and great motivation to keep up the good work.  

P.S.  If I keep posting about weight loss, just bear with me.  I am excited.

The Grammys at Grammy's

Yesterday morning I was dreading another boring Sunday night as Luke went off to work.  I've always thought I should have a party during any of the big award shows, so I called up my grandma (who we call Grammy) and ask if we could have a Grammys party over at her house - the perfect and go-to party house in our fam.  Plus it's fun to say, a Grammys party at Grammy's.

Anyway, we decided to make it a small pot luck as there were only a few of us in attendance.  I have been on Weight Watchers for about a month now and purposely not talking much about it as that is usually an instant diet-ender for me.  I'm pretty into it now so it doesn't scare me to tell you guys that I'm proud to announce I've lost 15 pounds!  Wooooop!  

So when I thought about what to bring I wanted it to be delicious and WW friendly.  So I decided to make some chicken noodle soup - very low points.  And my friend, Ashlee, whom I've known since I was one-year-old, told me she knew how to make buffalo chicken dip - which I've tried, but have been dying to know how to make because it's so stinkin' delicious.

The original recipe goes as follows:

Buffalo Chicken Dip

2 - 10 oz. cans of chicken

3/4 cup Frank's Red Hot Sauce

2 - 8 oz. cream cheese bricks

1 cup ranch

1.5 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Put chicken and hot sauce in skillet and shred chicken with your spatula, once it is shredded and the mixture is warm, add cream cheese & ranch at the same time, stir until the cream cheese is melted, then add 1 cup of the shredded cheese and stir it in until it melts, add mixture to a crock pot on low, put the rest of the cheese on top for garnish.  Use crackers or chips to dip.

Here is my altered ingredient list:

Almost Fat Free Buffalo Chicken Dip

2 - 10 oz. cans of chicken

3/4 cup Frank's Red Hot Sauce

2 - 8 oz. FF cream cheese bricks

1 cup light ranch

1.5 cups shredded cheddar cheese 

celery sticks for dipping instead of crackers

Really there's not a change in the ingredients, but I think swapping those two highly fattening ingredients makes a big difference.  I was skeptical about the FF cream cheese, because sometimes FF just doesn't work.  As a matter of fact, at a Weight Watchers meeting I attended once they told us not to even bother with the FF cheese because it tastes awful and can't even melt!  Weird.  But to my surprise the dip tasted fantastic.  I think one of the main reasons it was still so delicious is that the Frank's Red Hot Sauce has zero calories, so I was able to use that still and that is mainly what the dish tastes like.

Buffalo chicken dip on a celery stick, and my soup simmering in the background.
And yes, I borrowed Haven's nail polish. ;)

The dishes were definitely a hit.  We watched* the Grammy's with full bellies.  I loved Adele and Bruno Mars, the tribute to Whitney Houston, thought the double-performance by Chris Brown was a little much, and realized I'm either too old or not cool enough for deadmau5 (pronounced "dead mouse" for those of you who are too lazy to google it).  Fun night.  I can't wait for my next award show party!

*By "watched" I meant, waited on my needy children hand-and-foot.

midnight

Twilight Edition.

Friday night around 8:20 p.m., I left my house to go and pick up my sister.

We went to our local Target to attend the midnight "Breaking Dawn part 1" DVD release.  They had it set up so that you could pick up a ticket at 9 p.m. that would guarantee a DVD to that person.  Then at 11 p.m. they were going to show a clip from "Breaking Dawn part 2" which is going to be released on November 16, 2012.  (This was particularly exciting for me as there haven't been any scenes released yet.  Also, they announced that day that the trailer for "Breaking Dawn part 2" is going to be revealed as a preview at "The Hunger Games" - another movie I'm stoked to see!)  And finally at midnight they would give out the DVD's.  

Chels and I thought it would be total madness at Target.  We got there a little early and saw about 5 people standing in line for tickets.  We got in line and in the next 10 minutes or so there was a line of around 20 people behind us.  There were a few options as to which DVD you could purchase and you picked a ticket with the corresponding color.  I picked the Limited Collector's Edition that came with a flower from the wedding scene encased in this cool plaque.  How cool is that?  A little piece of the movie is mine!  Bwahaha.

After that there was 2 hours until the next "event".  Chels and I realized this was an evil ploy by Target to get you to spend money in their store.  We just wandered around Target for a couple hours, finding things to buy in the meantime.  I ended up with a scarf, three bracelets, a dry erase board, a bottle of nail polish for Haven, and a bag of Quakes* because I got hungry walking around aimlessly for so long.  

Finally at 11, they set up the TV's in the electronics section with the video.  It had flashbacks to the other movies, a little bit of behind the scenes from the new movie, and then finally a short clip from "Breaking Dawn part 2".  It was really exciting to see Bella as a vampire after all this time.  They really made her look beautiful.

At that point there was a little less than an hour until the DVD's would be given out.  I never stay up that late.  My daughters get me up early so I'm usually in bed around 10.  At a little after 11, I was seriously dragging.  We went back to where the line for the DVD's was set up, sat on the floor, played with our phones, ate our snacks, and chatted for close to an hour.  After hours of aimless Target wandering, they started handing out the DVD's.  Hallelujah!

We were only a few back from the start of the line of about 100 or so.  We got our movies, payed for them, got in the car, and headed home.  

I was in bed around 12:40.

The next morning (yesterday) I watched all of the special features including a really cool documentary on the making of the movie.  It was awesome to see how they made Bella look so thin and haggard during her pregnancy.  They really did an amazing job.  I have a new respect for the people who make the wolves look so real - even if it was my least favorite part of the movie, they did an excellent job making it look real.

Overall it was a fun night, but they probably could've condense it into two hours instead of four.  And hey, it was worth it!  I got my long-awaited movie.

Chels and I - soooo happy to have our movie and go home.

*If you're on a diet, Quakes are these delicious rice cakes that come in lots of different flavors.  I like the cheddar cheese ones.  They are really good and the serving size is pretty big comparatively to other baked chips.  Not to say these aren't good for people that aren't dieting.  I would eat them on or off a diet.

 

Anyone can look ugly

**Daddy Edition**

        Having one of those days where you're not quite at the level of beautiful you'd like to be?  Well you've come to the right post.  Maybe.  I suppose since anyone can look ugly that would include ugly people.  I don't work miracles, but if you're having one of those 'off' days, take some solace in this.   

I have a pair of little girls.

The youngest is a 10-month old named Parker.

        Slightly cute, I think you'd agree.  I might go so far as to say that I haven't seen a more beautiful girl.  I mean, sheeesh, I think she just woke up in this picture and her eyes were instantly penetrating my soul.  (Not even a dash of makeup either.)  But I think God gave us our bad hair days to keep our egos in check.

Just in case you missed the ugliness, here's the highlights..

        So if even this little cherub can look like she got bashed by an ugly stick, lets all realize it happens and make a slight adjustment to our ego's.
'Cause anyone can look ugly.


=====
This is dad, and I have a life too. 

glue

Pre-blog, side-note:

How'd you guys like my new staff writer?

I've gotten nothing but positive comments, so I'm assuming you guys like him as much as I do.

Ok, not that much. ;)

But enough that I think I'll keep him around here at MLAM headquarters.

Sunday morning was typical.

I got up early enough to get myself showered and ready, and to get the girls lookin' pretty for church.  I was actually on target to be early to church and that never happens.  We're usually pulling in to the parking lot about five minutes after service starts.  I am trying my hardest to be more punctual.  It's an uphill battle, but we're getting there.  

Back to Sunday...  

We were seconds from heading downstairs to get into the car.  I decided at the last minute to throw a scarf on that I had in my closet.  I grabbed one from my recently hung scarf rack, and threw it on.  I put the scarf rack up myself.  I have been meaning to put it up for years.  Literally, years.  It was sitting in the closet at our townhouse waiting to be hung the entire 3.5 years we lived there.  Now that we have a much bigger closet I have a nice space for it and I hung it up.  I didn't have the right size screws or a drill to use so I just got the biggest nails I could find and hammered it into the wall until I could get the right screws.  So when Haven saw me grab a scarf she went over and grabbed one too...and yanked.  And my haphazardly hammered in scarf rack came flying out of the wall and hit my poor little girl in the eyebrow.  My first reaction was to be mad at her, but I almost immediately realized that she was hurt by the way she was crying.*  I picked her up from under the mess of scarves and sure enough there was blood on her eyebrow.  I made sure to keep her parallel with the ground to minimize the bleeding and so the blood wouldn't get on the carpet.  I laid her out on our bathroom counter and asked Luke for a towel.  I applied pressure like any wannabe-nurse would, and then took a look at what we were dealing with.  Sure enough, the cut was open and looked like it needed stitches.  It wasn't very big - probably slightly less than half an inch long, but I could tell it needed some medical attention.  And also she had a fat lip and the inside of her mouth was a little bloody.  So it turned out we got all dressed up just to go to the ER.  We dropped baby Parker off at my mom's house and headed to the new hospital that is nearby.  Luckily for us, when we got there the ER was empty.  I imagined it would be on a Sunday morning, but I figured people get hurt regardless of what day or time it is, so I wasn't sure how it would be.  Anyway, we got right in.  The doctors and nurses were very sweet to Haven.  She was a very good girl and just sat on her hospital bed, snuggled her teddy bear, and let everybody do what they needed to.  She was actually more scared of the bandaid being pulled off than for the impending stitches.  When the doctor came in he took a look and said that he wasn't going to give her stitches, because it can be pretty traumatic for little kids.  They ended up opting for glue.  The doctor held her wound together and applied a thin layer of glue, waited a few seconds for it to dry and then added one more layer.  That was that, good as new.  She really was quite the trooper.  I was proud of my little sweetie.

It's only been a couple days and you would think that she just scraped her forehead.  It is amazing how tiny it looks.  Most people probably wouldn't even ask if there was a story that came with it.  

In the ER waiting room, with her bear, Helen.

You've always got to dress like a princess, even on a gurney.

The wound after gluing.  And her tulip earrings.

Just a really cute picture in her new dance outfit for good measure.

*If you're not a parent yet you might not know about different cries, but oh yes, there are many.  Some examples are:  The fake cry, the in-pain cry, the tired cry, the bratty cry, and the whine cry.  This particular cry was her in-pain cry.