I have been lazy these past few days, or at least as far as working out goes. I haven't done squat! And I'm starting to feel yucky! After working out every day for a month, it just doesn't feel right to not work out at all. My chest congestion is much better so I will be doing something tomorrow.

Looks like my Abby girl has the chicken pox now, boo! Saturday morning I was putting her hair into a pony tail and noticed a small little blister on her neck, dangit! They haven't spread all over the place, just maybe 5 or 6 total so far. She's feeling good too, maybe a small fever, but nothing bad. She has been sleeping a little extra than usual. She took a nap yesterday from like 5 in the evening until 7 and i just knew she would be up all night, but she went to bed around 9 and slept till about 8 this morning, and then she took a good nap this afternoon, actually both kids passed out in the living room, Ben on the floor and Abby on the couch. It was nice and quiet, I should have taken a picture. We were supposed to leave for Texas on Thursday, but we will just have to see how this all goes. I'm thinking at the worst we will just have to delay until Sunday maybe.

Isn't she precious?!

So, I said I found this yummy looking recipe on Pinterest the other day and I would let you know if it was any good. Well, I thought it was amazing! My family did not. I dunno if their taste buds just weren't working or what, but man I thought it was good. It was this Blacked Chicken with Cilantro Lime Quinoa.

It was super easy to make and again, it was delicious!

Well, I'm helping with Ben's schools yearbook and its due tomorrow...so I need to get back to that...and....I started reading...

I just started it today and I'm about 2/3 done...it's good. Now I want to see the movie. Usually I don't get into "fads" like this, but I just kept hearing such good things about it (and it doesn't have vampires it in) so I decided to give it a go, and I'm glad I did. Ok, good night y'all!

I think I've been putting this post off, but I can't just ignore it. I finished my 30 Day Shred yesterday! That's good news. I did take before and after pictures, and I can see some change in the pictures, but not quite what I was expecting. I can FEEL the change the most, which is really what matters I guess. But, I know I can't blame anyone but myself. Even though I was working out like a crazy person, I wasn't eating very well. I don't know if I was justifying the calories I knew I was burning or if my body just needed/craved more than I was trying to feed it, therefore I would do really good most of the day, and then dinner and after were huge fails it seemed like. Just disapointed in myself I guess. I worked that hard with my workouts and I feel like I ruined a good result just by not eating right. But, I'm not going to sit around and mope about it, I'm going to make a change.

I went to the grocery store yesterday and tried to do most of my shopping on the outside perimeters. I think I did pretty good too. I got apples, oranges, grapes, bananas, pears, carrots, broccoli, cucumber, lettuce, onion, peppers, limes, etc. The kids have already been devouring the fruit, makes my heart happy! I got some ground turkey, chicken, fish, bacon (yes bacon) and I still have some grass fed beef my parents gave me at Christmas. I got some eggs, almond milk, cheese, greek yogurt (yummmm, my favorite!) and more. I did a little research for meal ideas beforehand, which I think is a must if your going to try to cook healthy whole food meals. I'm excited about my recipe for tonight, I'll post it later if it's a success. So I feel like I'm on the right track as far as food.

Now, even though I have finished my full 30 Day Shred, I kinda felt like it would be a complete waste if I just stopped altogether. I still plan on running (taking a break this week while I'm still congested) but I feel like I need more. I've decided to keep running the 3 days and then on the 2 days during the week that I don't run, I plan on shredding. As hard as the Shred is, I felt sooo good while doing it, and like I already said, I don't want to see all the work I've done just disappear. When I do feel a little more confident with my results, then I'll post before and after pictures, starting with my before Shred pics, after Shred pics and so on. Sorry to disappoint.

Have I said how excited I am to see my family next week!??! And a shout out to my momma, Happy Birthday yesterday! (yes I did call her yesterday). She's the best mom EVER!

picture of my parents in Vegas, aren't they just the cutest?!? Oh, and my dad is the best Dad ever, but it wasn't his birthday yesterday ;-)

Hope everyone has a good day!

I'm sick, blah! Every time I get sick, seems like no matter what it is, it gets in my chest and I can't sleep at night, I get short of breath when running or exercising and just feel like poo! That's where I'm at right now, nice chunk of congestion in my chest. I couldn't sleep last night because if I layed down flat I couldn't breathe very well and if I propped up I was just uncomfortable. So, I was very tired this morning. I had planned on running this morning, but I figured I needed to give myself a rest so I can be healthy again. This is probably what's best for me anyways, with my shins hurting as well. I came home this morning after bringing Ben to school and snuggled up on the couch with my Abby girl. She let me snooze for a little bit while she watched a movie. I decided to go ahead and do my Shred though, because I want to FINISH THIS!!! I think it actually made me feel better, got my blood pumping and gave me some energy. Tomorrow is my last day of the Shred!! I'll talk more about that later this week. Hopefully I will feel good enough to run again next week.

The kids and I skyped with my sister and parents last night. That's always fun, until the kids get wayyy too excited (thanks alot Grammy! haha!) We are sooo ready to see them next week!!! Just hope the kids can keep the chicken pox away, and so far it's lookin good!

I need to go be productive now. Date night with the hubby tonight, looking forward to that! Hope everyone has a good day!

In Abby language "Me tired!". I'm just draggin' today. I've been a bit under the weather this weekend, I guess a cold or something. I've been taking Airborn like crazy (that stuff is my best friend if I can start taking it right when I start feeling sick, usually keeps the worst of the sickness away). The kids and I went to church this morning and I worked in the nursery with the toddlers. David stayed home, though I don't think he's contagious anymore, he still has spots and we don't wanna freak people out.

4 more days!! Including today. Days of Shredding I have left of my 30 Days. I'm just a tad bit excited. My right shin has been killing me after I shred and run (shin splints probably?) and from all the research I've done on them, I should probably stop exercising so hard so that my shin can heal, but I've only got 4 more days left of the Shred, and I AM GOING TO FINISH! My shin will heal after that...no lectures please.

I found a recipe on Pinterest (shocking!) that looked sooo yummy! It was this Lasagna Soup by Bobby Deen. I picked the wrong day to make it, it had been pretty warm that day, but it was still good! It's his lighter version of his moms (Paula Deen) soup. It was really easy to make and the whole family liked it (I had to scoop some out for Abby before I added the cheese and she liked it too).

(not my picture)

Off to finish laundry, do some Shredding and get my kids to clean up their messes, blah! None of that sounds very appealing. Better get it over with so we can enjoy the rest of our evening!

I hate sleeping on the couch. I've always loved taking a nice afternoon nap on the couch, it's always seemed so cozy. Not after 2 nights of sleeping on it. I've been sleeping on the couch while David has the chicken pox...trying to keep as much of the germiness confined to our bedroom as possible and away from the kids as much as possible. As tempted as I am to sleep in our room again, I told him I'm not touching our bed until our whole room is completely disinfected! He is doing much better today. Alot of the pox are scabbing over and he has more energy and I think is starting to get antsy and ready to do something, anything. No sign of the kids getting them, time will tell.

Soo...the countdown has begun. The countdown till my last day of the 30 Day Shred that is. I did add a day for the day i missed this past Saturday, so my final day of doing the shred should be next wednesday. 7 more days. I am totally looking forward to being done with this!!! It has definitely challenged me. It's hard work. I don't know how much others can tell a difference, but I can totally feel the difference. I feel the muscles where there weren't muscles before. I have more endurance than I had before. I definitely have more confidence in myself. I'm seeing what my body is capable of when I just push it a little bit farther. I'm glad I challenged myself to this 30 days, but I will be glad when it's over!

My favorite blog to stalk these days is Mama Laughlin, and today she shared a success story on her blog. Finding Joy in the Journey. I just started reading this blog this evening and I'm already feeling a renewed sense of excitement. A desire to become healthier, not just by exercising, because I know I can do that, but a desire to start eating GOOD. She talks about how her food is fuel for her body and how you really need to 'fuel' your body right so that it will work right. Just like we wouldn't put dirt in a car and expect it to drive, we can't put all kinds of processed, nasty junk in our bodies and expect it to feel good and have energy to live our lives. I know what the good things are to eat, but honestly, I've just been lazy. Sometimes those good foods for our bodies take more effort to prepare, and sometimes they don't taste as good as that fast food sounds. But I know from experience how GOOD eating right feels. It feels like good, pure energy, no bloating, no gas (to be honest), and just clean. After eating clean and knowing how good it feels, why do we go back to eating soo bad?? Anyone have the answer? I sure don't, and if I find it and how to avoid it, I'll be sure to share. I've heard it before, but in this blog she reminded me that it's best to shop the perimeter of a grocery store which is where you find the fresh produce, lean meats, dairy, and other good stuff. Allllll those aisles in the middle are mostly made up of over processed junk.

I know that it's doable to shop from mainly the outside perimeter of the store, it may take a little more effort as far as preperation goes, but in the long run, it's all going to be worth it.

I just want to add how thankful I am for my parents. They may seem kinda weird and out there as far as health goes sometimes (not just to outsiders, but to us kids as well) but I feel like I'm better equipped as a parent and an individual. Better equipped in the sense that I know what things really are healthy and good for my body, and that different foods aren't really all that scary. I remember my dad growing sprouts in the window when I was a kid and I thought they were disgusting. Now, I love sprouts on a turkey sandwich with some yummy whole wheat bread. I have to say though Dad, I still HATE lentils!! GAG! I did try them again recently and just could NOT do it, sorry! But, all that to say, no matter how nutty my health ideas may be at times, I know my parents will support me (or be the source of my nuttiness :-) Thank you Mom and Dad for being the best parents EVER!!! I am soo incredibly blessed to be your daughter.

I guess I'll stop rambling for now. Tomorrow I'm going to do my 2nd run for the week, some more 3 minute runs, and honestly, I'm kinda excited about it. I know I can do it, and I know it's not gonna hurt me, and I'm actually kinda ready for the next time increase. Ok, goodnight y'all!

WARNING: this could be a long post. Sooo....this has been and interesting and busy past few days. So I'll just go day by day...

Friday: David and I finally got to get away for the weekend WITHOUT kids! Woo hoo! We booked a hotel in Del Mar (little north of San Diego) for 2 nights. David sent me a text Friday morning saying he felt like he was getting sick (blah, of course, someone always gets sick when we go out of town) but he was still up for going on our trip. We got up there in the evening and were gonna eat somewhere by the water, but it was Friday night and we just weren't up to fighting the crowds. So instead, we went and checked into our hotel (which was very nice for $60 a night, thank you Priceline) and we ordered room service for dinner, lounged around and then went and sat in the hot tub for a little while. Not bad.

Saturday: We woke up pretty early (of course, our chance to sleep in because we had no kids and we couldn't sleep, geez!) Oh well. David wanted to go to the Gun Show at the Del Mar Fairgrounds (huge fairgrounds, and known for good fairs) and I found out they were having a Kids expo in the next building. The kids expo was kinda a bust, I thought there would be more stuff considering it was in a big city, but not so much. I finished in there in less than an hour, so I made my way over to the gun show. It was soooo crowded! Lots of people. David wasn't feeling any better but he wanted to look around so we made our way through it pretty quickly for the size. He found some of the things he was looking for and then he was tired and his body was getting really sore. After we left there we found some lunch and then my sweet man took me down into San Diego so I could try to do some shopping. I really wanted to go to the Nordstrom Rack because I found some really good stuff last time, this time it was a bust, didn't find squat. After that I saw an Off Saks 5th Avenue just accross the street, so I went in there. Bust #2. They had some cute stuff, but their prices just weren't marked down enough for me. Hey, I'm cheap, what can I say. After that, David was feeling a little better so he took me over to Fashion Valley mall (a very nice, upscale outdoor mall). We did do a little better there. David found some jeans and I found a shirt, just a simple t-shirt, but I loved it, and I got a good deal on it. I found some cute stuff for Abby at Gap kids, but then I saw the check out line and changed my mind, just wasn't in the mood for waiting, maybe I'll order it online. After the shopping, we decided to go downtown on the bay to eat some seafood. By the time we got back to the hotel, David was feeling pretty poopy again so we decided to get in the hottub again. After that we went up to the room and I guess he pulled his shirt off and I saw some red spots under his arms...yup...red spots, just a couple, but they were like small blisters, and he hadn't started feeling better, worse really. His body was getting really achy too. He felt like poo and asked my if I could go get him some Ben Gay or Icy Hot or something because his back hurt really bad and then some pain relievers. I went to a Ralphs down the street and by the time I got back to the hotel he was out. I didn't want to wake him up to give him meds if he was already sleeping comfortably.

Sunday: David still felt horrible, and the red spots were getting worse. We got packed up and decided to take advantage of our time without kids and the beautiful weather. We went over to this little island called Fiesta Island. It's just a small island that you can drive onto and around. We did that for a little while and then parked and layed in the sun for a little bit and then went for a little walk.

After that we decided to start heading home. David let me stop at Viejas (an outlet mall). I found some jeans and a shirt for each of the kids. By the time we got home Sunday evening, we determined that David had chicken pox. Yup, chicken pox. We couldn't think of anything else it might be. I immediately quarintined him to our room.

Monday: We decided to keep Ben home from school until David could get to the doctor and we could make sure of what he had and if Ben should go to school or not, we don't want to expose everyone. The kids and I had a good time. We played outside, did a little shopping, had some lunch.

The doctor confirmed our suspicions. It's chicken pox. Poor guy, I think he has just gotten worse and worse. He has pox allll over! Thank goodness he's not itchy though. He is achy and his back has been sore, and just basically feels awful. There's not alot I can do for him. I 'got' to sleep on the couch last night, just trying to keep as much of the germiness in our room as possible. I think maybe he's feeling a little tiny bit better, and hopefully were past the worst of it now. Now it's just a waiting game to see if the kids get it.

So that's what we've been up to. I'm tired. I missed my Shred on Saturday because we were out and about all day and then we were on the 2nd floor of the hotel and the Shred requires some jumping...yah, I just didn't want to do that to the people under us. So I did miss 1 day, but I did Shred on Sunday night after we got home. Level 3 is HARD! But I'm still feeling good. I'm not even gonna talk about my food, just not worth it (and hey, I was on vacation all weekend! ha! but I did NOT gain any weight!) Today I started week 3 of my 5k running. I was really really reallly not wanting to run this morning. I was grouchy and tired and I saw that I was gonna have to run for 3 whole minutes! I know that sounds pathetic, running for 3 minutes, but that's a long time when running. So not looking forward to it. But I did it! And I have to say how stinkin proud I am of myself. I kicked butt this morning!!!! I ran those 3 minute runs without stopping!!! That totally turned my day around. It put me in a good mood, I'm not feeling very tired anymore, and again, I'm sooo stinkin proud of myself!!

Well, I'm sure I've taken up enough of your time with this post (if you're even still reading) and I need to get busy cleaning this house, it looks disgusting and i feel like it just needs to be totally disinfected! Blah! See ya' later!

Sooo...my running time went up today. I feel kinda pathetic complaining about running for 90 seconds! What the heck?!?! Nah, it wasn't too horrible, but I had to work at it. Just building that endurance. I really need to do better on the eating, I'm not going crazy and eating everything in sight, and I'm staying around the 1500 calorie goal, but I know I'm not making very smart choices. I usually do pretty good at breakfast. I'll either have 2 of those oatmeal muffins, 1 muffin and a piece of fruit, or I'll make a smoothie with strawberries, bananas and or other berries. I bought like 7 pounds of fruit recently and divided it all up, about 1/2 - 1 cup per bag and then i froze some plain greek yogurt in an ice cube tray and added a couple of those to each bag of fruit. So when I want a smoothie, I just empty a bag into my blender and I've started adding about 1/2 C. of vanilla almond milk to add some sweetness, and I'll even add a little water just to thin it out a bit. I wasn't using the milk at first, was just adding water, but I needed a little sweetener, so that's what I did. Easy and yummy. So breakfast is good, but then lunch is when I get busy, so lots of times I'll just snack on the kids crackers and maybe a piece of fruit, which obviously isn't satisfying me, because by dinner time I'm starving. What I'm saying is that I need to eat healthier options. I'm not going to do a major diet overhaul right now though with the Shred and the running, just knowing myself, I would feel too much pressure and would totally fail. So, I'm already starting to play around with ideas about how to change up my diet when I'm done with the Shred. I'm kinda thinking I may challenge myself to eat only whole foods for I dunno, 2 weeks or so. Nothing with preservatives, just fresh fruits, vegies, lean meats, beans, stuff like that. I'm still mulling it over. But I know I want to do something. My question for the day...where do kids get ALL that energy from?!?! Good grief! I wish I could suck some of it up sometimes. And, who wants to come over and do laundry and clean house and cook dinner for me tonight?? Any takers?? Didn't think so. I guess I better get off my bum and get busy. Tomorrow is Friday though! WOO HOO!!

Truth: I'm tired of working out sooo much! I've never been a big fan of working out, it's hard work (durr)! But on the up side, it makes me feel sooo good (after I can catch my breath and sit down, ha!) Oh well, that's what I get for gaining weight, right? I'm determined to complete my goal though, day 15 of the 30 Day Shred is DONE and I can't believe I haven't missed a single day! Woo hoo! I also started my 2nd week of my Couch to 5k running. I thought my running time went up this week, but I guess I was wrong. 1 minute of running and 1 1/2 walking. Not bad, finished it without having to rest and it really is much easier when the wind isn't blowing like last week. I had to get some insoles for my tennies because my feet were killing me during the shred and my back was hurting after running, much better now. I honestly haven't been doing amazing with the eating, haven't been tracking over the weekend. I didn't go super crazy, but I didn't exactly eat healthy. I took the kids to the fair yesterday and really wanted all the horribly disgusting delicious food they have, but was semi proud of myself for just having a couple bites of Ben and Abby's corn dog and pizza. Enough of the workout and diet talk. On Saturday some people from our church had a hot dog stand out in the desert at one of the BIG off roading events out by the Salton Sea. It's called TDS (Tierra Del Sol). David's friend Rick started doing these hot dog stands a couple years ago, he goes and sets up on one of the trails and offers free hot dogs, his practical way of showing God's love. Well, this thing has grown like crazy! I had never been to the one at TDS but he does one out at Superstition as well (desert thats only 20 min. or so from us) that I have gone to a couple times. Anyways, we went out Saturday morning to TDS and hung out (I really didn't help at all because there were soo many people that showed up to help) but they served over 1,000 hot dogs, chips, sodas and water. It was crazy!! There were soooo many people and jeeps and more jeeps. I didn't take any pics, but it was really cool to see how many people came through and got free hot dogs and maybe even got a seed planted in their hearts about God's love for them. This crazy momma decided to take the kids to the California Mid Winter Fair....yup. David stayed out at TDS all weekend so the kids and I were bored. I kinda wanted to take them to the fair because that stuff is still fun to me and I like to let my kids experience different things and have fun (hey, they're kids!) but at the same time I didn't want to take them because I know how crazy and busy it can be and it honestly kinda freaks me out taking my kids out to such crowded events, especially by myself. But, like I said we were bored so I decided to take them. It was perfect. We went about noon on Sunday, before the crowds got too bad. The kids had a blast! I didn't really know what to expect with them and the rides, I didn't know if they would like them of get scared. Well, they loved them! I took a couple pictures and videos of the kids, here's my favorite...

How cute are my kids?!?! That was probably the most tame ride they did. They had a mini roller coaster for little kids and I think that was Abby's favorite ride. Ben loved the fun houses. He really really wanted to do the bumper cars and when we finally found them he was sooo dissapointed because he wasn't tall enough to ride them by himself and all 3 of us couldn't ride in one, bummer, next time! Well, this should be a somewhat uneventful week, which is just fine with me! Hope y'all have a good day!

It's finally Friday! Woo hoo! Nah, this week wasn't that bad, but man am I tired! I dunno what's going on. I have a sneaking suspicion that I havent been drinking caffeinated coffee the past 2 mornings. I grind my own coffee beans, and lately I've been doing have regular and half decaf. I made some decaf for David the other night and have a feeling I've been drinking decaf in the mornings because I've had a killer headache the past 2 days and like I said, I've been soooo tired! Pretty sad that my body is so dependent on the stuff, but oh well, I'm not willing to give it up completely right now. I finished my last day of my first week of 5k running. I did complete it today, but seriously, what is my deal with picking the windiest days to run?? It was windy on monday and it was windy today, and man that's a killer! And it was WINDY, not just breezy. Oh well, just makes me stronger right? This is the picture that came to my mind during my run this morning...

I started the 2nd level of the 30 Day Shred....and it wasn't as bad as I was expecting from the things I had heard. It IS hard, and I did do the lower impact moves until I build up the strength to actually do the whole move, but I was still sweating like a pig! That Jillian sure knows how to give you a workout! I'm feeling good though, and I'm very proud of myself for not missing a single day since I started, which would be 12 days! Well, off to get the kids ready for bed. Hope y'all have a good weekend!