Nearing week one...

After my last post, I decided to suck it up and start Weight Watchers. I feel better this week, but I haven't noticed a distinct change in weight or measurements. To be fair, I didn't take my measurements last week, so there's no way I can tell if that's changed. I've cut out most sugar, started eating Greek yogurts for breakfast (and Publix has conveniently had them on sale this week!) and bought stock in Lean Cuisine for lunch. I went extra one day on my points, but it was for Michael's 40th so I feel OK about it. :)

This week's been crazy and a little bit stressful-- full time summer camp starts Monday and while the enrollment is much better and there are lots of irritating last minute drop ins filling in the spots (so I shouldn't complain, but really? You wait until the Friday before camp starts to enroll your child for the ENTIRE SUMMER?), but I'm still a little bit antsy about things going well. The staff is all set, and I think they're down for the way I have things set up, but you never know until something happens how it's going to do!

I've had a little taste of my afternoons off and I'm pretty excited. Next week's going to be weird since Hunter's not in, but after that I'm totally pumped for getting home at 3:30p and getting stuff done, watching my Hulu, doing some dishes, and grilling dinner!

That's about all for this week-- I know I'm late on pictures of the garden again, but this week's been so busy! Tomorrow we're with the kids and Michael all day, then Sunday we may head out for a pool party, and I have to go in to work for a while on Monday and try to get some stuff done with nobody around. Hopefully I'll have some time for them tomorrow, though!

Counting Calories

In a renewed effort to lose the 20-odd pounds I've gained in the last year, I'm starting on a revised version of the Weight Watchers theory, a diet that did me fairly well when I was in college-- calorie counting. I'm not very active, I sit at a desk all day and type, and when I get home I'm so exhausted I can maybe talk myself in to a few minutes of situps. If I remember after dinner, laundry, and spending a little bit of time with Jeremy. Truth is, I'm lazy. I need to start paying attention to myself if I want to be healthy enough to have a baby in the next couple of years!

All these entries will have a Calorie subject, so you can skip them if you're not that interested, but I figure this will give me a minute bit of accountability!

Today so far I had a Fage yogurt for breakfast (130cal/17g sugar) and snacked on a Chocolate Chex Mix bar (140cal/13g sugar). I figure that since my friend Heather (who is slightly smaller) was recommended a cut to 900cal/day, I could probably get away with between 1,000-1,200cal/day. I also need to cut down on my sugar intake, so yesterday was my last gratuitous desert!

I'm going to really buckle down on eating those yogurts for breakfast as opposed to Pop Tarts which have almost twice the sugar, 16 grams less of protein, and 3 times the calories! (since a serving is ONE Pop Tart, and who eats just one?)

We have a pretty decent amount of fiber in our diets, nearly problematic at times, but we need to get more protein, less sugar, and less fats-- no more eating half a package of bacon. Which we totally did a couple weeks ago... each.

The grill is going up this week, so I'll start grilling some veggies and some chicken, and go to the farmer's market to get lamb since it's high in protein and very lean.

Talking about all this food has gotten me nibbly, so on to my Lean Cuisine lunch!

PS, I'll have more pictures up when I get home-- hopefully the rain will hold off!

Just an update

I'll be taking pictures of the garden later, but Jeremy's out on the porch working on the bench (which seems to be giving him fits...) at the moment.

I'm updating this from my new Eee PC, and it's pretty exciting! I got it at Best Buy on sale for $250 because it has Windows XP. If it gets me $100 off and it's not Windows ME, I don't care what OS it's running!

I started working on my resume, which looks better every day, and have been able to get a lot of other stuff done just by using my old laptop as an entertainment center and using the Eee to do work and pay bills, etc. I'm pretty excited!

We've been pretty busy lately, after school is wrapped up for the most part and we're moving in to summer, but things aren't looking fantastic for enrollment... I need at least 15 more children per week to make things worth it, but people just aren't signing up! And a lot of the people who are signing up are splitting the summer up between several camps, which is frustrating to say the least-- who the heck wants to deal with five different camps over the summer?! Blargh.

On a happier note, we have been able to spend more time with the kids lately-- those two are our favorite little people around! I took them last weekend for a birthday party and had a blast in spite of their craziness; Julian's got to give up this oral fixation or we're going to have to duct tape his mouth shut! Beads up his nose, coins down his throat, everything in his mouth it's just ridiculous. I've started sending him to his room when he puts stuff in his mouth, but I'm sure half the time he just puts the stuff in his room in there, too. I've seen kids with oral fixations before, but Julian makes it a sport! (one that I will win) Violet's a full on walker now, and she's pleased as punch with the setup. Target has these foam weapons that are only a few bucks each and, having a PK son, Michael's got a whole arsenal (for under $10) that Violet's taken to hoarding and then berserking on everyone. She'll pick up an ax and a sword and just run at you-- or, if she wants you on her side, she'll pick up an armful and start piecemealing them out so that everyone has the weapon she wants them to have. And then she'll attack Julian. He's going to have to toughen up or move out of the way!

Anyway, it's been fun spending time with them, and so nice to see how much they love us. It's important for kids to have a community of adults they can rely on and learn from, and it's an honor to be a part of Julian and Violet's lives!

That's all for now, I'm going to go watch the season finale of Bones (yay for the internet!) and drool over the Nori Nori menu a little more... ciao for now!

Garden Week Four

Blogger was being ridiculous earlier this week, so I didn't get to inundate you with pictures from week four! Week three was a crapshoot, no good light at all, so here we are:

The cilantro is hit or miss, we'll see

The Impatiens are a lost cause, I think, but flowers that weren't already cut never really were my thing. The lemongrass is doing wonderfully, though! I think it's enjoying the muggy weather we've been having!

Currants, and two Golden Bell Peppers

This guy is a giant hybrid-- he grew this big overnight! I also looked closer at the tag, and apparently if I leave the fruit on it'll ripen in to a red pepper! All I'll be missing is orange!

Our first cayenne to poke through

Our second one, who is definitely outdoing the first

Dripping with peppers!

The poblano is moving a little slow

Here's more of the hybrid

And the poblano poking along

More seedlings-- some of them didn't survive the transplant, I did it too early, so I'm waiting longer with these guys to move them out.

The tomatillos are looking GREAT!

Look at those pretty flowers!

the currants are also starting to bloom

Cucs are getting big

The golden bells are even slower than the poblano

our other flowering currant

The little cucumber that could! I know I should use this pot for something bigger, but I'm just rooting for him to make it! The mescluns died, sadly, so he's the only leftover!

The whole gang :)

I'm just so excited and proud of us-- I'm hoping by midsummer to have quite a collection on our hands! Maybe even some beans and a lot more peppers! We're trying to get the grill situation figured out, and grilled peppers are the best!

Until next time!

Garden whaaat?!

Hopefully we'll get home in time for decent light tomorrow, but the peppers are going crazynuts! Our cayenne is sprouting them left and right, we probably have about 8 growing in at once, the poblano is still taking its time, and the giant green bell is about the size of a walnut over the course of three days! The tomatillos are sprouting flowers, the currants, too! And the golden bells (the prizewinners) are starting to look like they want to sprout! I can't even explain how excited I am about this! (perhaps the abundance of exclamation marks will make up for it?)

We had dinner with Marc and Jan tonight since they were in town to pick James up and, as always, it was very nice to see them. Especially since I'm obsessed with Marc's new car... he got a new Hyundai Sonata and it's preeetty! It even has one of those push button starters, which is completely snazzy in my book. Amusingly enough, it would appear that 13 years later, Hyundais still don't beep at you when you leave your lights on. I'm still angling for one of these one day... the Hyundai Santa Fe!

Anyway, I just wanted to get on and drop a line about the garden-- hopefully I'll have pictures soon!

Garden: Week Three

The light's been terrible for shooting when we get home, but here's a whole ton of pictures of our little front porch garden!

Cilantro

My Impatiens, which aren't faring as well

Lemongrass, used in the pretty excellent chicken verde soup I made this week

Currant Plant 1

Golden Bell

Golden Bell 2

Mystery plants-- my estimation is Mesclun Greens and a cucumber

Golden Bell 3

Current 2

Golden Bell 4

Golden Bell 4

Golden Bell 4

Currant and Golden Bell

Currant 2

Unknown seedlings

What I think are 3 cucumber plants-- I separated them out today

More unknown seedlings, most likely peppers

The Three Amigos

Giant Bell Pepper (Green)

Giant Bell

Poblano

Poblano Flower

Cayenne

Our first Cayenne Pepper!

Cayenne

Cayenne (it looks to be very profitable!)

Cayenne Flower

First pepper

Poblano and Cayenne

Cayenne

Giant Bell

Poblano

We're hoping the peppers are a bumper crop this year, and if our seedlings produce any Habanero, we'll go in with Iggy and Wade on the Muscadine Habanero jam!