I'm back!...With Tornado "After" Pictures

Hello Everyone!

As you can see I am back on the grid. And boy, does it feel great!!

So first thing is first and I want to give you guys some pictures of our house- Post Tornado. If you flip back to the tornado pictures here you will see that some of the colors have changed, new furniture in the living room, a brand spankin new kitchen (it was all white previously) and well...walls and a ceiling. lol.

New paint color on the fireplace wall. New chair, couches, etc. I still need to accessorize the fireplace. The mirror that was there and the lamps were totaled out.

All new kitchen. Complete with munchkins. The table was custom made as part of the island for the kitchen. It is a two tone kitchen with cherry cabinets and ubatuba granite. Then the island is kona (black) cabinets with a butcher block top. Originally there were florescent lights which were upgraded to can lights and pendant lights (which I LOVE). The pendants are from Lowes and are a contemporary stained glass. Adds a bit of funk to the room. We still need to get real dining room chairs which I have picked out at IKEA. They will be clear chairs with a contemporary flair.

 The dining room. The light fixture survived. Thank God!! The dining set was completely stripped and refinished. New fabric on the chairs and a new non scratched glass top was ordered. Also we added the buffet cabinets you see to the alcove. It was planned when we moved in to eventually do it and it seemed stupid not to. The wine racks were originally there.

Landry's room. All new furniture. I love the armoire with the shutter style doors. The stripe and paint were color matched with what was there originally.

Xaviers room. I had to give him something special because he didnt get new furniture or new bedding. He did have a small mural (2'x6')  that was ripped down because the walls had to go to studs, so I replaced it with this baby. It is 10'-6" long by 6' tall. I love how it turned out!

Master bedroom. I was able to get our bedding set replaced exactly. It was on clearance too. The color was switched up to have a brown accent wall that matches the brown in the bedding. YES we are still on an air mattress. Ugh. And I have some accents picked out at IKEA for above the bed. It will be slow going replacing things we lost but we will get there. I really want to add some funky unexpected things to each room.

Another shot of the master bedroom. All new furniture. The candle screen survived though some of the glass candle holders didnt.










So that is the tour of our home right now. As I add more things, I might put some new pictures up.

Now a recap of my weekend and the bacholorette party.

I did do good with my eating. BUT...I didnt do so hot with my drinking. LOL

I was DD so I didnt go overboard. We went out at 8pm and got some food. I started with a glass of wine. We had some tandori chicken skewers- which were fantastic, and some portebella and spinach quesadillas. Our appetizer was these beef bruchetta type toast points. They had a cream cheese and horseradish on top of the toast with a piece of beef on top of that with some balsamic vinegar drizzled over that. All the food was awesome and I shared it with my sister so it was a very light dinner.

From there we went to a different bar where we met up with her friend. There over the course of most of the evening, I had two Guinness and two shots. Oh and a piece of cake. LOL LOL. The cake was way too cute. My sisters friend who met us at the bar made it. It was a round cake with fondant icing. On top of it was a naked Ken doll lounging over the top of the cake with a blanket over his non-existent private area. Loved it! And the cake was chocolate with white icing. It literally tasted like a HoHo.

Then we headed down to a different bar where I stuck with water. So overall- not a horrible night.

The next day is when it all fell apart. LOL. I started off well when I got to my parents house. I had to sit my niece while my sister recovered and my mom went down state to see my grandma in the nursing home who isnt doing well.

When I got to their house I made an omlette with string cheese, bell pepper and tomatoes. Yummy. Then I just snacked and snacked and snacked. It always happens when I go there. Not really sure why. Probably just the mindset I get into when I am there. They live on a lake and it is a very relaxing atmosphere. That and I was trying to get my niece to eat anything and everything because seriously she is one of the pickiest eaters I know. And I hate to see food go to waste. LOL.

My mom ended up coming home early because of an accident on 75 south so she gave up fighting traffic. My sister was NOT feeling well...lots of free shots for her coupled with Killians beer...so my mom watched my niece so I could go float on the lake. Glorious! Got some sun and a bit of burn but all good.

We snacked a lot on spinach dip and gluten free crackers. That night over the bonfire I had mojitos and a chicken sausage on a bun that I cooked on the fire. Then had cheese spread and smores and mojitos and mojitos...well you see how this is going.

Sunday I got up and went to church with mom. Came back to her house and made a breakfast sandwich with english muffin, egg, swiss cheese, tomatoes, bell pepper, onion and ham. Yummy.

I came home and had left over buffalo wild wing wings. And I had chips...and an english muffin and a couple hard boiled eggs. Then I had my favorite summer drink which is lime vodka and sierra mist. I finished off my lime vodka when I had a couple big drinks.

So when I stepped on the scale this morning it really didnt surprise me to see that I weighed 174. Oh yes. Water weight and bloat. Dont worry I didnt freak out.

So then the plan was to go to the gym. My youngest had other ideas when I got to the gym, got the boys in the play room and my youngest started to cry. Ugh. I was ANGRY!! So I loaded them back into the car and came home. Ok...so instead I did my 20 minute zumba dvd and P90X Ab ripper. I am trying not to do anything but the Ab ripper right now because I really want to learn proper form. I have a really bad right shoulder right now and I dont want to hurt it more.

Tonight I did about 45 minutes on the elliptical before I finally gave in for the night.

Tomorrow is usually my busy night at the gym but the fireworks are tomorrow so I will be rearranging my schedule. I will only be taking one class and it will be RPM at 10:15. I will be getting up and going to the gym early so I can get in a good run and maybe some stepper before class.

As far as the diet is concerned, I am back on the wagon with mainly clean eating. Obviously the weekend was a departure from that. I plan on watching Fat Sick and Nearly Dead again. I also am still having my morning smoothie, my normal lunch of an english muffin with natural peanut butter, baby carrots and two hard boiled eggs. If I have a huge gym night planned, I have some canned tuna (nothing added) with the baby carrots. These next couple weeks, I plan on having another smoothie for dinner. My departure day will be 4th of July. I want to keep my lunch the same to make sure I am getting enough protein to keep my energy going for my gym nights.

So that is my news for now. Sorry for the really long post, but as you can see, I am REALLY excited to have the internet back.

TIP OF THE DAY!!!

Fritos- a favorite old snack food of mine when I was craving salty foods. Yummy, crunchy, salty, greasy, RIGHT???? Well, did you know that you can light them on fire?? Seriously folks. You can light them on fire and get a good flame. My husband saw Les Stroud do it on Survivorman. And we put that into our bodies!! We even tested it tonight and had to put the flame out in the kitchen sink. Definitely think about eating clean. There are so many types of natural chips out there. Invest in those. Your body will thank you. And those old Fritos? Dont finish the bag. Keep them as a fire starter for your fireplace in the winter.