A new beginning- My journey to avoid the knife: Another accomplishment

Yup.

This says it all.

Moms- well we work twice as hard.

Balancing home life.

Diet

Exercise

WHICH is why I didnt get a chance to work out last night like I wanted to :sigh:.

After the Pampered Chef party last week, the basement looked like a bomb went off in it. A Great. Big. Toy. Bomb. And all week I have nagged the kids to pick up. This of course doesnt even include the toys that I had previously taken and locked away in a closet because they didnt pick them up. Ugh. I originally thought that I would just pick up the toys myself and once again lock them away in a closet with the others that I had taken, but then I started thinking...

I really cant put too much blame on them. After the tornado, when we were unpacked, I just had the movers dump toys into bins and not sort anything. So with Christmas coming up, I thought this was the perfect time to go thru everything.

I purged toys they grew out of. Saved some for my niece. Threw others away. Got rid of all the stupid McDonald toys. Threw away broken toys. Sorted out all the lego and seperated others into appropriate bins. Duplos, Legos, stuffed animals, dress up clothes, matchbox cars, etc. It was a lot of work. But an accomplishment for me. AND I was REALLY glad I did it once I started BECAUSE I found a razorblade in with their toys. Yup. I said it right. A razorblade. Like the kind you use in a boxcutter. Now it wasnt a new blade. Very old. BUT I have NO IDEA how it got there. My only guess is that the cleaners when they were going thru the toys to clean everything switched out their blade and lost it in the box. Regardless, I found it before someone got really hurt.

AND I had another accomplishment yesterday.

For one of my half price Pampered Chef items, I got their new brownie pan. This thing is the best ever!! Yesterday for breakfast I made the kids little omlets with cheese. Then last night I made slutty brownies. Yup. They are called slutty brownies. You use cookie dough on the bottom and spread that out in each well of the pan. Then I put a peanut butter cup in each one in the middle but you can use rolos or oreos...whatever floats your boat. Then you top with brownie batter and cook. Bites of yummy deliciousness. And I didnt have one. Yup. I didnt have a single one. Xavier had one for dessert. Then I took two down to my friend P and her husband. And I took two across the street to my friends A and C. Spread the love people. Aaron even had one too. He REALLY liked them. I still have a few left. I just need to hold out my willpower. I did lick some of the batter and ate some of the little crusts that fell off the sides of them. But that didnt even equal to a 1/4 of a brownie. Probably not even an 1/8th.

not my picture, but this is what I did.

I LOVE to bake and cook...I just dont want to necessarily eat what I like to make. LOL.

I look forward to using this pan. You can do everything in it. Mini pizzas individualized for what each person wants, cornbread, quiches, omlets, cakes, everything!

And so with all that, I was really surprised to see that with no extra exercising, I lost a half pound today. I will take it. Down to 174.0. Would LOVE to get back into the 160's again. Slowly I am getting there.

I went to the farmers market yesterday too and got enough stuff to make a good salsa. So that is what I did to top my turkey burger instead of regular mayo and ketchup. Yummy! I also got peaches, an all natural, clean, dark chocolate candy bar for when my craving hits, sweet peppers, a ton of jalepenos, tomatoes, and I got Xavier a hot dog for lunch.

A very productive day in all.
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And last night my sister told me that she got her photos back from the photographer. She got over 250 of them and is having a tough time deciding which ones she really likes. I thought I would share some of them with you.

my Sister and I


dad, my sister, Norah, mom and I

Bridal Party

Xavier doing his Michael Jackson Thriller moves

This is my dads side of the family. Every single kid is looking the right way and smiling. This was a retake because originally I was missing from the picture trying to get the kids out of the bathroom.