Things Eli said over a bowl of sherbet...

"My sick little Drewboo.  He's so precious.  I need him to feel better so we can play like best friends again." 

In a very Eeyorr tone, "I wish we could go to a partyyy.  And play with friennnndssss. And eat some icecreeeeeam."

"Trying new things is scary. Like swimming.  I want to swim, but I think I'll wait until I'm just a little bit older.  Then I'll be good at it." 

"Sometimes when I say words that start with one letter, it sounds like a different letter.  Like cake. I don't think it should start with a C" 

"I need to start making monies. I need a job. If I'm going to be a superhero I need a costume. Batman wears a really nice costume and has a lot of Batarangs. They cost a lot of monies."

 

"I always want to call that girl Harley Davidson.  But that's not it.  What's her name again!?" 

"You're the best, Mom." 

 

"Joker don't want to mess with me. You know why? Because I'm Batman. I'll slap him really loud, right in his face."

Earlier this morning after sleeping about an hour last night, "Why are you in such a crappy mood, Mom? It's not really nice and I don't like it."

Eli- "I'm gonna kick Joker in the stomach.  I'd kick him in the nuts but you don't like it when I say that."

Me- "Well you still just said it.  That's really not nice to say or do."

Eli- "Right.  That's why I didn't do it, I just told you I would have.  But I didn't."

Me- "uh.  Ok."

No New Clothes

I made a commitment to myself that during the month of April I would not buy any new clothing. I don't know about the rest of you, but this is a big deal for me. 

I don't go on crazy shopping sprees (often) but I do have an awful habit of picking up something here and there and "Oh, it's 30% (heck, even 1%) off, I need it!" I had also tried to get dressed every single day. I kept it up for about a week and then ***thumbs down and mouth fart noises. 

I have gotten better about not going to the store in my workout/lazy clothes, granted I may not have my hair fixed and make up on…but progress. Baby steps. 

I didn't really think through the whole April is Easter thing though but I stuck to it and wore something that was in my closet. And guess what. I didn't die and my family still thought I was beautiful. I'm really ashamed of the amount of clothes I have and how much I love them. I always think that with the change of seasons I need at least 3 or 4 new outfits…so not the case. How dumb. I plan to continue not shopping throughout May! 

 I can do this! 

Silly post, but…it's just my thoughts for the moment!

My Jams

Don't judge me by what I'm about to tell you... But I think the most important part of getting a good workout in is the music pumping into your ears.  I'm not a cool person who knows what songs/bands/groups are popular until they're playing on the radio every other song.  And I'm not the kind of person who gets annoyed by this, unless it's any Frozen song on Disney XM. So, unless these songs are overplayed and you hate them, listen to these songs! I like them.

And this is where the please don't judge me part comes in :)

1. Beyoncé - Partician 

2. Katy Perry- Dark Horse

3. Imagine Dragons- Radioactive 

4. Lorde- Team and Royals

5. Jason Derülo- Talk Dirty to Me

6. Macklemore and someone else- Can't Hold Us 

7. Pharell- Happy 

8. The Lumineers- Charlie Boy 

9. The Temper Trap- Sweet Disposition

10. Mumford and Sons-The Cave

Some of these are good for running and some are good for weight lifting. These are just my top 10. I left off my Miley songs because I know that I would most definitely be judged for those. :)

Easter Weekend

I believe that most military families will agree that one of the best things in life is when family and friends come to visit you. It's really rare for a lot of us families that this happens. And it's understandable, everyone has their own lives and their own things going on. But I have to say, my parents are tops when it comes to dropping things for a weekend and coming to visit us. They hadn't been out since February for Eli's birthday and these boys were counting down the seconds until they saw ChiChi and Papa. They usually take off early on Fridays and drive to us but we found awesome ticket deals this time and their trip was about 10 hours shorter than it usually is. When we got to the airport and when they saw their grandparents, I am not sure who was running harder to the other to get hugs. My parents hugged me after the kids had had enough of the loving. When you become a parent, your parents only care about your kids ;) 

On Saturday afternoon we dyed eggs. This was not good for my nerves. Andrew kept dipping his hands into the dye to get the eggs out and by the time we were finished, his hands were Hulk green. He was so happy about that. Thankfully ChiChi got his hands clean that night at bath time. Daniel and I went to eat and watch the new Captain America movie. I wasn't really looking forward to seeing it, but it was so good! I cried. Sunday morning was a little rainy so we had to wait until the afternoon to hunt eggs. Drew was once again hilarious because he wouldn't pick up the plastic eggs, he only wanted the hard boiled eggs. Sunday night they took us to see Rio 2 and it didn't disappoint. My parents got the first one for Eli when he was about 18 months old and they have watched it a million times. We laughed throughout most of it. It may have even been better than the first. 

We had so much fun, I'm sad it's time for them to go now. Now it's time to start counting down to the beach this summer!

My Life

I pride myself in going with the flow. For the most part, I don't make a ton of plans. If I do, I stick to them but I hate the thought of something looming over my head. And it's hard (for me) to make plans with little kids. You never know if you're going to get the Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde of their personalities...every day, every hour/minute/second/millisecond is an up in the air coin toss. Recently though, my friend Heather (who has 3 small kids of her own) and I have been visiting the YMCA about 4 times a week to work out while our kids go to the child watch area. This is my only "every day" plan. I've gotten better about making sure Andrew takes a nap every day after lunch (although he isn't today). I've never had the boys a set nap schedule and I wish it's something that I had done. Ah well. Can't go back now.

My ADD has kicked in and I've forgotten where I was going with this post. After the last paragraph I looked up to watch my youngest jump on the trampoline for a moment and then had to run inside and grab my camera. I wanted better quality that my iPhone camera. I leave you with a picture that let's you know just what I'm dealing with on a daily basis. I did make him put underwear on after I took this. He thanked me and said, "That's good. I don't want my peep to blow away!"

What I eat...

Oh I am on a roll today! 

Another big question I get is "What can I eat!?" when someone wants to know about the challenge.

And the answer is really simple… You can eat anything (sort of). 

Anything real. During the first 10 days you are cleansing and detoxing. Dairy, white bread, sugar, and caffeine (other that what you get in your Spark) are off limits. Making 80% good decisions (where as I use to make maybe 30% good decisions) is key.

If you see that it doesn't have dairy then I ate it on the cleanse. Most everything I ate on the cleanse portion I carried over into the max phase…I just sometimes put a little cheese in there!

Breakfast Options:

• Oatmeal- Steel Cut or Old Fashion. I would sprinkle a little Stevia bc I just can't eat it bland and add either a couple cut up strawberries or blueberries. A boiled egg or two on the side (sometimes I would eat the yolk and sometimes I wouldn't). I have realized that if I eat more protein at breakfast then I am not absolutely starving at lunch time. 
• Omelet or scrambled eggs bc I stink at making omelets -self explanatory. You can put so much goodness into these! I like chop up spinach, mushrooms, red bell pepper, onion,  and tomatoes and throw them in. You can also have whole grain during the cleanse so a piece of toast wouldn't kill you. I just stayed away from the bread during this part. 

I am not very creative when it comes to breakfast so that's about as crazy as I get. Once the max phase begun I mostly used my meal shakes in the AM. It was just easier.

Dinner (usually had leftovers for lunch)

• Gilled/baked fish/chicken. This was always an easy option. I looked up recipes for salt free seasonings and it was pretty simple. My favorite sides have been roasted asparagus, diced roasted sweet potatoes, roasted zucchini and squash… Get the picture? It's also an easy option. The sweet potatoes have been our favorite. I dice them up, drizzle olive oil and lay them out on a baking pan. I sprinkle with black pepper and just a little garlic powder… I never thought that would make a good combination but it does. I only thought that sweet potatoes went with marshmallows, sugar and butter!
• Anything that I use to cook with ground beef I replaced with ground turkey. We ate burgers without buns, tacos on lettuce, spaghetti with spaghetti squash instead of noodles…It's all about little changes. And to me the ground turkey is just so much tastier. And back to the spaghetti squash, if you haven't tried it, DO IT! It is SO cool! 
• I would make up a whole dish of baked chicken and tear it up for salads. Instead of salad dressing I just mixed half virgin olive oil and half red wine vinegar and drizzled a little so it wasn't dry. Once again adding in lots of extra veggies and berries. I love strawberries on my salad…
• And finally (some people consider this gross) but a can of tuna and mustard. Add a side of veggies and it's a quick meal! 

Snacks!

• Unsalted almonds
• Fresh fruit and veggies 
• Hummus with veggies or my weakness- a warm pita
• Plain rice cake with natural peanut butter and banana…if I'm being bad I add a couple of dark chocolate chips. 
• Apples and natural chunky peanut butter
• Plain sunflower seeds, not the kind you have to open yourself. Ain't nobody got time fo' that!
• Beef jerky- (not Slim Jims) I'm not really sure if that is really healthy or not, but I like it...

What I Dank:

WATER, LOTS AND LOTS OF WATER! And Spark! 

These are just some of the things that I liked to eat and cook while on the challenge, and even now that I'm done. And can I just say, my afternoon slumps are gone. I get up in the morning and most days I  have all the beds made, breakfast dishes cleaned, floors swept from breakfast mess, at least 1 load of washing started and us ready to go for whatever we are doing that day by 9:30. My kids are up by 6:30 every day at the latest. I use to give them cereal, turn on cartoons and snuggle with them until 9. It was so hard for me to get going, even with coffee! Yay for being a functioning morning person now!

Woo hoo!

24 Day Notes

I kept a few notes while I was on the challenge and thought that I would post them here to share with anyone who is currently on the challenge or thinking about it. 

• Day 1: Fiber drink is WHOA. I'm not sure what I expected because…It's a fiber drink. It's kind of sweet but the texture is a little rough.
• Day 2: My mom suggested using a straw for the fiber drink and that made a huge difference. I haven't pooped my pants, so…yay
• Day 3: I definitely feel more energized this morning. Drinking all the water every day is the toughest part.
• Day 4: YAY, no fiber drink…I am definitely more "regular" … I feel lighter but a little like something is missing since I didn't take the fiber drink earlier.
• Day 5: Still feeling good. No crazy cravings.  
• Day 6: I can tell my stomach isn't as bulgy in my clothes. I almost peed myself today. Remember to go immediately before leaving the house. Drinking 1 spark in the AM and one around 3 pm helps get me through the roughest parts of my day!
• Day 7: Going to the bathroom like clockwork for the past few days. No surprises… I was worried this was going to make me "go" a lot…
• Day 8: I was so glad to have the fiber drink back today! After going the few days without it, it was kind of a sweet treat!
• Day 9: no notes…
• Day 10: I put my pictures side by side from today and day 1. I can't believe that just by eating healthier and ridding my body of all the junk I have had such a drastic change. I know I felt bad but I didn't know I felt THAT bad…I feel like a brand new person. And a little psycho for being so excited about this. 
• Day 11: Lots of pills today! Luckily I love vitamins. The green one reminds me of the alfalfa hay we use to feed our horse…Oddly comforting. haha
• Day 12-15: No notes
• Day 16: I started adding in a little whole wheat pita bread. I ate one today with roasted red pepper hummus. It was so good…I felt like I was doing something bad…
• Day 17: I have changed up different days when I drink the shake. I skipped one day so I drank 2 today. I have never liked any meal replacement shakes until this…super yummy…
• Day 18-23: No notes
• Day 24: 8 lbs down and almost 9 inches gone. I can tell that I'm toner in my butt and thighs and obviously my stomach, which has always been where I am most self conscious. Why in the world did I wait so long to do this?!

I don't believe that I ever shared on here my final pictures… On day 10 a light bulb in my bathroom was blown and it made me look tan. I was a little disappointed on day 24 that I really don't look that dark… HAHA. There was not a HUGE change in 10-24 but I can tell my "pooch" had shrunk, and I had gone down an inch and a half in my waist. I should have taken the pics at the same distance and junk but it was always really early in the morning and I wasn't really thinking about anything other than taking the pic and then eating.

Probably shouldn't have said that...

The kids have been bickering since before the sun came up.

Andrew has cried 13 times because his brother pushed/hit/pinched/said something that was not received well.

Eli has cried 7 times because his brother wouldn't follow the rules he had established upon their early rise. 

Me: (in a frustrated plea) Please guys, just PLEASE, no more yelling. No more fighting. Just be kind or stay in different rooms. You two have been acting like fart heads all morning and I just can not take it any longer. I need you to be nice if you want to go swimming. That's it. And if you can't do that the you'll get spankings and have to nap for the rest of the day. 

Eli: (choking back tears) I don't know why you would say that.

Me: What are you talking about?

Eli: You called us fart heads.

Me: No, I said you were ACTING like fart heads. And I shouldn't have said that. I'm sorry.

Eli: It's OK. I just don't know what a fart head acts like. (He does a silly face and dance.)

Me: That's the opposite of fart head. That's fun and nice.

Eli: Well fart heads aren't nice?

Me: No. They are mean to their brothers and don't listen to their mommy.

Eli: Well, I think me and Drew ARE fart heads sometimes.

Me: Well, maybe. But let's try not to be. Let's be happy, good boys. And that will make us all happy.

Eli: I will try.

Drew: I want a snack.

I wasn't allowed to say 'fart' growing up. Or 'butt' or even 'pee'…

Someone tooted, their bottom hurt and they had to tinkle…

We were in Target one day and the Despicable Me Fart Gun toy was picked up and Eli enthusiastically announced what he'd found and another mother nearly passed out. She grabbed her kid who was probably 8 or 9 and scurried away. Do you let your kids say fart? I don't really encourage it (which you may not believe due to the conversation above) but I don't scorn them for saying it… Just curious… 

Mommy's Weekend Away

Several weeks ago (maybe even a couple months ago) two dear friends of mine moved to San Antonio for work. Texas is right below Oklahoma so I thought that this would be the perfect opportunity for me to go visit some old friends and have some girl time…

When I googled OKC to San Antonio, I was told that it would be about a 5 hour drive. Maybe from south OKC to northern San Antonio… It took me about 7&1/2 hours each way… Oh my Lord. I didn't need that much alone time. But it was so worth it. I listened to a couple of short Jack Reacher novellas on audiobook which made me realize how grotesquely inaccurate it was for whoever made the movie to cast Tom Cruise in that role. I'm late to the party, I know. Anyway, I made it safely both ways…obviously.

When I got down there Friday afternoon, Daie and I chatted for a bit and then went to dinner at my absolute favorite place that Daniel and I use to eat at, Tiago's and then we went next door to the Palladium to watch Divergent and then next door again to BJ's for a pazookie dessert.  Those 3 things (plus seeing my sweet friend) made the whole day of driving SO worth it. Meanwhile Elizabeth (who is a nurse) was sleeping and then left for work since she was on night shift. When Elizabeth came in from work on Saturday morning we went and ate a delicious breakfast at The Pancake Haus. OH MY WORD. Do Germans do anything wrong? Blueberry pancakes, scrambled cheese eggs and ham plus 2 cups of coffee later I had died. 

Yea, eating like I had just escaped from prison did not sit well in my…system. 

Still, I continued to live like each meal was my last. 

After breakfast Elizabeth went to bed for the day and Daie and I went to the outlets. We came, we shopped, we conquered. That night we went down to what I think was the Pearl District for food. A BBQ joint we went to first was what I can only describe as hipster fancy and not as BBQ-y as we had hoped. So we went to a little food trailer called The Luxury and ordered at a window… We were handed a toy alligator and sat waiting for our food to be delivered. The wait was long but SOOO worth it. I have never had a sandwich as delicious as this and I devoured it in about 6 bites. Daie ordered special fries for us to share that were topped with onions and some type of mayonnaise sauce and ketchup. Heavenly is how I choose to describe this meal. The only thing I did "good" was getting UNsweet tea...

The creepy little toy alligator with babies on its back :/

Elizabeth does paleo and this was her steak salad. The tenderness of that steak was unreal.

my mouth is watering…

Later we went and walked around the River Walk and I introduced them to the dueling piano bar Howl at the Moon… Everyone in there was either really young, really old, or having a bachelorette party. 6 years ago I felt like I fit in a little better…plus, knowing that Daniel was at home with the kids, I felt just a little weird and out of place. But, I am often weird and usually out of place…

Sunday I drove back home to my loving family and was only asked what prizes I brought home after/during the reception of big hugs… Everything is back to normal and no one even remembers me being gone…  

Instagram Post

April Fools... Of course, I'm the only fool in this scenario.