nope.not today

my thoughts exactly today!
i found this sweatshirt on pinterest and was like this is me. today.
i have a migraine.
i have no energy.
i want to quit the diet i am on.
i feel like gagging when i think about food.
i want to go home, lay on the couch and do nothing.
but i can't because we switch payroll company's at work and it created 10 times more work for me. nope. not today.

sorry for the rant. i am just being real.

eos

so my husband recently pointed out an obsession to me. honestly i don't have a problem he just thinks i do. i have a ton of eos lip balms. they are everywhere.....

on my desk at work

in my car... ( this mint one is by far my favorite though, don't tell the pomegranate raspberry one on my desk though) 

on my nightstand

then i have a couple extra on hand in case i run out.

these pictures don't even show half of them because this morning i found four in my purse. four. who needs that many in your purse when i obviously have them everywhere to begin with. i think that a) i should buy stock in the company. b) target should track my shopping and stop me from purchasing the same item and c) i should win a award if i finish one. 

evolution of smooth you make great lip balm and you have hooked me. my husband is not a fan though. 

weight loss

this is the cottage is summer time

i spent this last weekend at my families cottage on oneida lake. it is the most perfect place to be because you are removed from everyone, yet there is so much to do. me and the hubs went skating on the lake. parker was slip sliding everywhere because he didn't get the idea of ice..... i wish i recorded it!

 i went on many walks with parker boy as well.

atkins update: on sunday we completed our first week of the atkins diet and i lost a total of 10.4 pounds. i am so excited. my total goal is to lose 29 pounds. i just have a little under 19 pounds left. i ran across this website called cotton on which sells cloths. i will be honest and say i am not a huge fan of the clothing section but their active wear is very cute. i purchased 5 work out tanks and a new water bottle and it came to $45!! this is one way i stay motivated. it makes me more excited to jump into my next workout. 

                    

speaking of workouts, their is a ton of free one on hulu! i don't have cable but i have hulu and netflix. i found this amazing one from the channel get fit, stay fit. they have workouts that are around an hour long. then i found another site that has only twenty minute workouts. i normally pick two of those to do so i can get in my 40-120 minutes of working out in. 

one of my favorite guides to help me lose weight is this polar watch. i love how it tracks my workouts and tells me how many calories i lost based on my information! seriously its great.

this journey of losing weight hasn't been all butterflies and roses. the first three days i went through withdrawal from sugar. i was craving ice cream, cake, frosting, fruit, and chocolate! if you know me at all craving chocolate is like a huge deal it only happens at a certain time of month besides that i think its gross! i know the whole women population is wondering what is wrong with me right now. before you plan an intervention let me tell you that i am in love with white chocolate! white hot chocolate with a shot of raspberry gets me every time. great now i am thinking about sweets. 

the worst day was on thursday.... at work we have someone retiring and a ministry threw a party for him wednesday night. they left this beautiful cake in the fridge for the office to enjoy the next day. the cake was made by my favorite baker in the world. she makes moist cakes with amazing butter cream frosting. let me tell you it took everything in my body not to eat some of that. friday i was talking with another lady in the office and she was like it wouldn't have been worth it because it was dry from sitting in the fridge open all night. that did make me feel better but i was so proud of myself!!

[happy tuesday, friends]

m.i.a

sorry i have been m.i.a lately!

me and the hubs have been super busy. plus we started the Atkins diet. we are both in a wedding in june and want to lose a little bit of weight before the wedding. my plan is to lose 29 pounds. we started the diet on sunday and this morning when i weighed myself i was down 3.8 pounds!! woot woot!!

thursday we got together with some of our friends from our connect group from church and hung out while watching basketball!

friday we had date night at olive garden to down our sorrows in carbs because we knew on sunday we were not able to eat carbs anymore! i got whole wheat pasta with alfredo sauce and the hubs got chicken parm.

saturday we went grocery shopping for the diet. i literally bought 12 peppers, 10 onions, 4 heads of broccoli, cabbage, 3 cases of eggs, 4 blocks of cheese and so on. the guy who rang up our groceries was looking at me so funny. i am sure he is thinking what are these crazy people doing!!!

saturday night me and the hubs went to my moms house for my cousins birthday party. it was a mad house full of beautiful little children. i was able to catch up with my other cousin about her atikins diet journey and get workout tips and stuff from her. she lost 20lbs is two in a half weeks. i was getting meal ideas from her and so on.

sunday we booked our one year anniversary trip! we are going to boston for 5 days, possibly more! i am so excited!! this will be my second trip to boston. i am so excited to explore the city because me and the hubs have a dream to live in the outskirts of boston someday! also, because he works at a hotel we were able to get our hotel in boston for only $39/night!!!!!! i looked up the price of our room on the hotels website and for the whole 5 days it would have been $2,237, we are only spending $223 for the whole 5 days!!!! how crazy is that!!!

this week i am going to post about the items i got on my march budget, what i am lusting for in april, along with some parker spam and possibly a few new outfits ( i always feel weird posing in front of the camera)

happy spring!

today is the first official day of spring! woot woot. except when i went outside this morning it was snowing. that's a great way to ring in spring! then to top it off, beginning of next week we are expected to get a mini snow storm. lol happy spring new york!

despite the snow i am going to think happy thoughts and show you some of the things i am looking forward to this spring!

1| pastels

2| ankle pants

3| floral print

4| tulle skirts

5| white pants 

what are you most looking forward to this spring season?

tater tot casserole

this is a recipe that i remember eating all the time growing up. my great-grandma made it and passed it down to my grandma and my grandma passed it down to my mother. the infamous tater tot casserole!

this is a really simple recipe to make and has the ability to interchange ingredients if you don't have everything. 

ingredients:

1 lb. lean ground beef (i have used half ground beef and half ground turkey)

1 med. onion

1 can of cream of onion soup (you can use cream of celery or cream of mushroom as well)

1 cup cheddar cheese ( can use mozzarella, coby jack, etc.)

1 bag tater tots

Steps:

1| pre-heat your oven to 350F

2| sauté ground beef and onions together (make sure to completely cook the ground beef leaving no red.)

3| once cooked, remove heat and drain the fat from the pan

4| stir in can of soup off the heat… it may look gross but trust me its not!

5| place beef mixture into a casserole dish (i used 3 quart)

6| sprinkle cheese on top

7| line up tater tots 

8| place in the oven for 30-40 minutes (i always do 40 minutes) 

enjoy!

march madness

okay i have a confession… i love march madness! my husbands family all fills out brackets and we compete against each other to who can get the most right. the play-in games start today. i have my bracket filled out, and let me tell you its a winner because i have 'cuse going all the way!!!!!! (syracuse.. for non-basketball people) i know i am a winner, right!

shirt: kohl's

blazer: kohl's

pants: NY& Company

shoes: kohl's

well if you haven't noticed kohl's is one of m favorite places to shop. i love the lauren conrad collection along with the elle collection. if you find things on the clearance rack you can get up to 30% off of that. one time i went got 4 shirts, a dress, and a necklace and only paid a little over $8! how crazy is that!!

st.patrick's day

happy st. patrick's day!

the past couple of days have been filled with craziness. 

rob worked overnights at work on friday, saturday and sunday. i barley got any sleep because i was in the apartment alone and in the bed alone. 

saturday: i got up, lounged around the house while rob slept. me and parker played, went for a walk, then we sat and watched heart of dixie. once rob woke up he was hungry so we went and got sham shakes from mcdonald's, (our celebration of st.patricks day!)  then we kinda hung low for the rest of the night because he was exhausted. we watched the movie holes. it is an older movie that stars shia lebeoef. i am so glad i watched it because i forgot the whole concept of the movie.

sunday: we went with our relater to look at that house that we were lusting at for months now. it is an old victorian style house built in the 1860's that needs work. the perfect diy house. it had a elementary school right across the street to send future kids to go play in the fields. the pictures made the house look lovely with tons of charm. when we got there we were so excited to possibly walk though the front door of what could be our home. we were horribly mistaken. every room was very tiny. kitchen was very outdated. it needed tons and tons of work. we decided to pass. we aren't going to house hunting again until august time because we are in our apartment until november. 

i absolutely love the outside of victorian styled homes but the downfall is that their is no open floor plan to them. rooms are small. and most bathrooms are tiny because they used outhouses and later crammed bathrooms in the home. 

anyway, i hope that you all have a fantastic week. 

with a little spice of ankle boot

shirt: target

vest: hand-me down

belt: kohl's

pants: new york & company

shoes: dsw

last month i went with my mom and sister shopping. it is a regular occurrence for us. my sister was looking for some ankle boots that she could wear with leggings. we stopped at many shoe store with no luck. then we went to dsw. i headed back to the clearance section like i always do and down those ankle boots shown above. they are originally $59.95. i got them for $17. but that isn't the best part….as i was checking out a girl at the checkout next to me just finished her transaction and had a gift card left over with a little over a dollar on it. She asked me if i wanted it. so i only paid $15.35 for these ankle boots. 

these are going to be a staple for me this spring time. i obviously stalked pinterest for different ways to wear ankle boots and became so inspired. you will see these shoes more often i am sure. 

puppy spam

to the people that say puppies are not like children, i competently disagree. they wake you up in the middle of the night. you have to feed them. entertain them. bathe them. cuddle them.

parker is going to be the death of me. this morning he decided to paw me in the face because he wanted momma to get up. did i mention he is a german shepard lab mix. it hurt! i did get up. fed him. gave him water. took him out. and all he wanted was to play. momma doesn't want to play at 6 in the morning.

parker learned how to drive this week. 

parker gets really cold and shakes when we bring him outside, so rob found this baby sweatshirt form one of my cousins kids and put him in it. 

meet bubba. this is my parents dog that i grew up with. bubba is parkers best friend. bubba on the other hand is unsure about parker still

they were roughhousing one day. then all i heard was silence so i look down and this is what i see. how cute... maybe bubba likes parker after all. 

i believe that's enough parker spam for one week. i can't wait till he is a year old and huge so i can look back at post like these and see how little he was.   

snow day!

i had a snow day from work!
i know i said i may possibly get one, fat chance. but it actually happened.
me and my husband both had off.

first i went on a date with my husband, we went out to breakfast at a little dinner in town. it was nice that we could go out to breakfast together. 

then we went home picked up parker boy and went to my parents house for the rest of the night. 

our county had posted a ban on driving unless it was absolutely necessary so we were kinda stuck at my parents. at least parker had my parents dog to play with! i did a little online shopping. oh, and i watched frozen! it was such a cute movie.

at the end of march i will let you know what i spent my march budget money on because i keep shopping and falling in love with different things. 

i hope that everyone day a wonderful day yesterday because i know i did. 

march budget

once i became married i was placed on a budget, the money that i made was not only mine anymore. it belonged to me and my husband and both of us had to decided where it goes. so instead of always fighting with each other about money we made a budget. (the three main things couples fight about is PMS - power, money, sex….my dad always told me that and i firmly believe it)

i wanted my budget for clothes to be $100 - $200 a month and he said no that is ridiculous no one needs that about of money for clothes (boys!!!) so we settled at $50. he wanted zero so it was a compromise.

here is the items i want to get with my march money….

1| chambray pin-dot shirt : Old Navy $12

2| Ivory Sweater: Old Navy   $23

3| Flannel Shirt : Old Navy  $12

4| Skirt : Old Navy $15

TOTAL: $62

this month i am obsessed with old navy. you always seem to get fashion forward items for cheap there. 

so you probably noticed i am over my budget. i have to cut one thing out and i am not sure what it should be… it is going to be either number 3 or 4. i am obsessed over 1 and 2 so i a defiantly getting them, but i am not sure about the other two. i have a ton of skirts so i am thinking of cutting out number 4.

let me know what you think i should do!

spring time arrival!

blouse: kohl's

cardigan: outlet mall

pants: gifted

shoes: charming charlie

the weather was so warm today that i couldn't help but wear bright spring time colors! the high today was 57 degrees. i even took parker man out for a run. it was the first run of spring (can you call it spring when a snow storm is about to hit tomorrow) we are supposed to get 10-12 inches of snow. can someone say snow day!!!! it most likely won't happen but yet i still dream. 

i hope you all have a wonderful evening. i am husbandless tonight so i am going to make some homemade white bread and watch heart of dixie! 

Royal Blue

cardigan: ny & company

dress: kohl's

stockings: i don't remember (you can find them anywhere though)

boots: kohl's

sorry it is a little blurry. i just got this dress at kohl's for $16.80, plus i had a gift card so i basically got the dress for free! finding things on the clearance rack is one of my all time favorite things. the only thing i don't like about this outfit is the cardigan with the dress. i think that it pulls away from the zippers and overall look.  i am thinking about wearing this dress to a wedding in june. the dress has a wide straps so it will be perfect for the wedding. i can pair it with some black heels that i have.

i am loving the royal blue color of this dress. many people have told me that royal blue and green are great colors on me.

what are your thoughts on this outfit? 

wlw | app style

today for weight loss wednesday i want to share with you the app that has kept me on track while losing all the weight i have. in december of 2012 i was 190 pounds, and my best friend asked me to marry him. it completely shocked me and made me want to lose weight. i have tried so many methods, p90x, diets, and weight watchers. i am happy to say that i lost 30 pounds for the wedding. weight watchers worked the best with their point system but it was so expensive each month. then i found the ultimate value diary. i did pay for the app. i believe it was $3.99/one time, but compared to weight watchers $18/month it was worth it.

this app works in a point system like weight watchers. you get so many points per day and then weekly points you can use if you go over your daily points. i don't feel like i need to be on a diet and calculate how many calories, fat, or carbs i am eating. i just scan whatever i eat and it gets entered in. i eat cupcakes at parties and chips at night. it is all part of moderation and if your points allow it.

you are able to track the progress of your weight and recalculate the daily number of points you are to receive. 

here is the diary area where you enter the food you eat and the exercise you do.the bar code at the top is used to scan the packaging of the food and it automatically calculates the points for you. 

also there is a calculator so if you know the values of the food and it will tell you the point values for it. 

this is my favorite app to enter in a food diary. life gets really complicated for me when i try and figure out how many calories of this or that i ate. i am all about simplicity. yes, i still enter in the food but all i do is scan the items i eat and it is entered. the app also saves the things you entered so that you can easily add it again on another day. 

i hope that you find a food diary app that helps you in the ways that this one has helped me. 

oven potatoes

tonight on the dinner menu is

parmesan tilapia
oven potatoes
steamed broccoli

oven potatoes are one of my all time favorite ways to add a potato to a meal. i am not even sure how i found out about making these. i must have been experimenting in the kitchen trying to make natural potato chips and instead came up with this. it is really easy, very yummy and healthy for you. you can make as much as you need or as little as you need. tonight my husband is working so i am only cooking for one.


ingredients:

potatoes
olive oil
salt
pepper
thyme






steps:
1 | peel and wash potatoes
2 | cut the potatoes in thin slices

3 | place them on a taking sheet
4 | add some olive oil, salt and pepper to taste and thyme

5 | mix all together
6 | bake in the oven at 400 degrees for 30 - 40 minutes or until potatoes become slightly brown. I like when they have a crunch to them!

enjoy! and happy cooking!