Take Shape for Life Days 1 & 2

Well, I survived day #1 of my new eating regimen. The Take Shape for Life meals that I eat 5 times a day turned out to be surprisingly delicious. I had a dark chocolate shake for breakfast. Then, a few hours later I had a bag of their mustard flavored pretzel sticks. Next, I tried a Peanut Butter bar which was truly divine! On the way to my Arbonne monthly meeting I snacked on some nacho cheese flavored puffs. After my meeting, I had another dark chocolate shake followed by my lean and green meal. It was pretty late by the time I had my lean and green meal and I was tired and didn't know what to make. So, I ended up making scrambled eggs with baby portabella mushrooms. But, today I figured out that most of the vegetables are to be measured out BEFORE cutting, dicing, slicing, chopping, or mincing. So, instead of my three cups of whole baby portabella mushrooms I ended up with 3 cups of finely chopped (Thank you to whoever came up with the idea for the mini food processor- my new best friend). When all was said and done I couldn't decide whether my scrambled mushroom eggs looked more like oatmeal or vomit. But, on the upside, they were delicious. I seasoned them with some Mrs. Dash (my other new best friend because her seasonings are on the "approved condiments list" - in moderation, of course).

Day 2 today went a lot better because I knew what to expect. Instead of waiting until the end of the day for my lean and green meal I had it for lunch. My friend Rachelle came over to visit and we had lunch together and we both agreed that the vegetables must be measured pre-cutting because the recipe for the omelet we were making ended up being too full of veggies and just didn't look quite right. So, we improvised and added more egg beaters and turned them into scrambled eggs. So, these were supreme scrambled eggs. They had crumbled up morningstar farms spicy sausage patties (they're really soy instead of sausage), lots of chopped up spinach, lots of white mushrooms, lots of chopped up black olives, and lots of tomatoes. Then, we seasoned it with some caribbean flavored Mrs. Dash. They were excellent!
Aside from the scrambled eggs, I've had a dark chocolate shake, a chocolate bar, a chocolate brownie, and a peanut butter bar. And now, I'm going to have some hot chocolate before I go to bed to finish off the day.

So, really, it hasn't been too bad. The hardest part really has been to remember to drink all of my water. I haven't been overly hungry like I'd expected and so I have to remind myself to eat all my meals too.

New Year's Resolution #1

New Year's Eve -
Andy and I had a great New Year's Eve. My friend Angel and her husband and 4 month old baby came to visit for a couple of hours. They now live in SLC and I hadn't seen them in a year and a half so it was great to visit with them and to meet their little girl. She is precious. Angel was worried that after the long drive (we were the first place they stopped after getting into town, aren't we special??!!) because she was a little fussy and hungry. But, babies just LOVE Auntie Nikki and she took to me really well. I fed her her bottle and burped her and held her for most of the time they were visiting. When it was time for them to leave, Angel came over to me and started putting on her coat and then her little girl started crying. And, she wasn't too happy when I tried to hand her over to Angel so they could go. It must be all the practice I have from Nursery. Little ones just love me now. Hopefully, it will carry over to when Andy and I have our own children.

Now on to my New Year's Resolution #1 -
It's GO TIME - I officially start my TSFL program in 8 minutes. TSFL stands for Take Shape For Life. I found out about it from a few of the sisters in our ward. I'm really excited. I would have started it as soon as my TSFL food arrived, except I felt it would be too difficult to survive Christmas and New Year's Eve without any slip-ups, so I decided to start on Monday January 3. So, technically, it's really not a New Year's Resolution I guess. Maybe, knowing in the back of my mind that it's NOT "technically" a "New Year's Resolution" will make it harder to break. At least, I hope. I got my food about 2 weeks ago and it's a good selection. I have hot chocolate, brownies, ice cream, a few kinds of soup, pretzel sticks, scrambled eggs, oatmeal, chocolate chip pancakes, various shakes, meal bars, and some various other yummy stuff. I have spent the last 2 weeks eating whatever I want as a way to say good-bye to my favorite foods for a while. I didn't gain any weight either in fact I lost about 7 lbs. Luckily, I hadn't been eating too terribly before those 2 weeks and I think my stomach shrank because half the time I wasn't even able to finish what I had started eating. In fact, the other night I really wanted Blueberry pie, so I fixed a plate with pie and ice cream and was only able to take two bites before my stomach let me know it didn't want any more. I went to Coldstone the other night and got a quart of make your own ice cream and I only a small bowl full. Well, it's after midnight now, so I'm going to go and get so sleep. Tomorrow is a big day for me.

Christmastime is Here!

Merry Christmas!!!!!

It's been so long since my first post so I thought I should post today since I have a spare moment. I wish I could say I have something profound to say. But at the moment I do not.

I'm just really grateful for my wonderful family, especially my sweetheart - Andrew. He means the world to me! He is the world's best husband and I am humbled by the fact that out of all the righteous, beautiful, talented, amazing women in the world - he chose me to be his wife.

We are blessed to have everything we need - LOVE, good jobs, a home, and all of our other needs met. We didn't have anything on our Christmas lists this year.

But I wanted to get Andrew something special that he would never buy for himself. So, I did tons of research, scanning tons of ads and asking anyone and everyone which retailer was going to have the best Black Friday sale on video game consoles. Then, came the trickiest part of all - I had to find out without giving away the surprise which console he'd prefer: the PS3 or the XBox 360. I did it though without being found out. It was unbelievably hard. But I did it. After work on Black Friday I went out and got him the PS3. But then, I didn't know where to hide it or how to get it into our apartment without being found out. So, I decided to give it to him early. After all, he deserved it. So, I called him when I got home from the parking lot and said that I needed help with carrying up some groceries. When he got to the car I told him the truth. I made him close his eyes and open the door. (It was kind of like opening a present, right?) He was really surprised and excited. He'd wanted one for a few years, but even though we could probably afford one he didn't want to spring for it. So, I saved up some money from a bonus check and it was well worth it just to see the look on his face!

However, not to be outdone, a few weeks later while we were watching tv a sappy jewelry commercial came on as they frequently do this time of year. I started making comments and oohing and ahhing. Then, Andrew left the room and came back with a small blue box with a bow on it and handed it to me.
The above diamond necklace was what was in the box. It really melted my heart.
I don't know how he knew but it was the best material Christmas gift I could have gotten from him this year! I've always wanted a diamond necklace! It's beautiful and it's perfect! I couldn't have picked a better one myself! He has such good taste! If I'm not mistaken, I believe the credit has to go to Suk, but I'm sure Angela probably gets some of it too!

First Post

I started this blog about a month or so ago and today is the first time I'm posting something on here. I whine when Angela doesn't post enough on her blog and yet this is the first post I've done thus far. So here it is. It's done. It's on the web. It's there for everyone to see. These are the cupcakes I made for Andy's birthday. They are witch hat cupcakes. I got the idea from a magazine. They were a huge hit at his office and at mine. I made a double batch since I have a co-worker who shares Andy's birthday. Aren't I such a sweet wife? Anyway, here you go Angela, I hope you enjoy this post and that it doesn't make you too hungry since you can't really cook in your new abode.