Pumpkin Patch

I haven't been blogging because I'm having a ton of fun in California this week and I didn't bring my camera!  BUT today Christy and I took Lucy and Ruby to a pumpkin patch, and did manage to take a few pictures.  Ruby wasn't feeling cooperative (she's a little sick, and she must really miss her daddy by now), and the orange reflected off the pumpkins so her face is orange, but it was still super fun.  Christy is having a lot of fun with her new camera and was nice enough to take a few pics of Ruby.

Ruby fell apart towards the end.

I love dinosaurs.  I was obsessed with them as a kid--the first purchase I ever saved for and made with my own money was a big dinosaur book from Costco.  (I saved that money in a very cool dinosaur wallet.)    The bridal shower my sister and friends threw for me was dinosaur themed.  Having a girl meant I couldn't decorate the baby room with a dinosaur theme (although robots would also be tempting.)   Lucky for me, Christy has a random dinosaur costume that fits Ruby! So now all my dreams have come true.  I have a dinosaur baby!!

Made For Each Other

I made this while we were watching Voyager tonight.

Kyle was horrified.  I think he wouldn't love me if I had a beard and a bulbous nose.  Shallow.

So then I made this, so that Ogre Becca and Ogre Kyle can be together forever.

Awww.

It was my 26th birthday

I should probably blog about it!  Guys, it was such a great birthday.  Everything came together in such a way that was awesome.

On Friday morning, Jennifer and Timmy came over.  We played and went outside where Timmy ran around with a ball and Ruby sat and watched him. It was sunny and warm even!

In the afternoon, we went over to Kelsie's.  She made an AWESOME chocolate cake for my birthday. I loved it.  Kerry and Ashley also came over with their boys.  They sang for me and we all indulged in a piece.  We played all afternoon.

When Kyle came home, we left Ruby with Kelsie and went to...COSTA VIDA!!!!  Oh bless that place.  We ate ourselves sick, it was so pleasant.  Then we went to the Riverwoods and walked around and window shopped. We made ourselves even more sick with a delicious caramel apple.

After we picked up Ruby, Council Bluffs and Emily came over.  We hung out and ate the rest of Kelsie's cake.

It was a great day because I hung out with a lot of my friends and got to go on a date with Kyle. And...presents!

And now I'm 26.  So far so good, I guess!

Dang Food

I have been completely off the wagon all weekend.  My birthday was a break day, and I just never started again.  I feel like I've probably undone all the progress I made!  I did the fruits and vegetables thing for a week, which felt like an eternity, and I lost 4 lbs. Great.  I now feel like giving up because I'm sick of healthy food.  This morning I had Rice Chex and it was so good!  Kelsie is going to do a 30 Day no flour/no sugar thing, and that is just somewhere I can't follow.

I'm now debating. Should I just count calories for a while and see what happens? Attempt that super-healthy fruits&veggies thing again?  Do nothing? Eat myself to death? Train to be a sumo wrestler?  So many options!

It's Birthday Week Time!!!

Birthday Week began yesterday!  We celebrated by having the Broadbents over for some stir fry. Birthday Stir Fry is awesome. Thanks, Broadbents.

Today there was a really great Birthday Week Debate, celebrated with the GOP presidential candidates.  Thanks, guys.  (Especially you, Mitt. You did awesome. And you looked very handsome.)

Tomorrow, I am going to get a Birthday Week Haircut and go Birthday Week Shopping for a post-Birthday Week family picture session. Gotta get something that will look cute with a present that is very mysterious and secret and I can't wait to open!  Thanks Mom and Dad!

Thursday...actually, I don't know what our plans are on Thursday.  Probably some Birthday Week TV Thursday.  Thank, NBC.

It is weird to have Birthday Week celebrations that don't revolve around food.  Tricksy! 

I'm still going strong with my food changes, I am just bored of writing about it.  Things are good though--weight good, vegetables good, fruit very good.  If anything exciting happens, I'll let you know.

Fast (and easy) Sunday

Finally, an easy day. Yesterday was Fast Sunday, so that made it a lot easier to control my meals and appetite.

Breakfast: fasting

Lunch: fasting

Dinner: Big salad (spinach, carrots, red bell pepper, corn, pinto beans, a teeny bit of cheese, and fat-free Italian dressing) and one piece of cornbread with honey as a treat

Kyle is loving this, by the way.  He has fully embraced eating salads for dinner and fruit for dessert. It makes things a lot easier for me.

I was very excited to weigh myself this morning, expecting some big results...and was sorely disappointed.  I lost TWO TENTHS OF A POUND.  Come on! I ate ONE MEAL--and that meal was A SALAD.  Sucks.  Oh well, maybe tomorrow I'll lose a ton. If I can stick to it today.  It's sad how easily my motivation goes down the drain.

Meanwhile...

When NOT obsessing about food and weight and cravings and being healthy, we are having a fun time!

Ruby is hilarious and entertaining.

We've finally made friends and feel comfortable in our ward.

There are a bunch of kids Ruby's age in our building, and all their moms are cool, and we have play dates almost every day.

After Ruby goes to bed, Kyle and I watch Star Trek: Voyager.  We just started season 3. We're having a blast.  That's how cool we are.

My birthday is on Friday!!! I am so excited this year.  My birthday last year was the worst birthday ever, so it won't be hard to beat.  I have a couple presents coming that I know about that are thrilling, and we have fun plans.  PLUS it is a break day so I can eat whatever I want!  I'm already planning my food that day.  I am really, really looking forward to it.  Kelsie is making me a chocolate cake and apparently it's amazing.

It's likely that we'll be taking family pictures on Saturday. What am I going to wear??

Ruby is overly confident when walking.  She has 2 bruises on her face--so far.  One from tripping and falling on a DVD case, and one from running face first into a door frame.  Crazy.

Healthy eating--Saturdays Suck

Saturday was hard.  I expected the weekends to be a bit more difficult, because Kyle and I just love food so dang much, but man. I almost broke so many times. And this juice thing--ugh.

For lunch I had "juice"--more like a shake, really--made of a ton of spinach, pineapple, and an apple. It was terrible, more because of the texture.  The texture was identical to vomit.  Thus, I really wanted to throw up.  Poor Kelsie's was so much worse, as it was just vegetables with kale as a base.  We managed to drink it though.

The rest of the day, all I wanted was something that tasted good.  That juice really filled me up, so I wasn't hungry at all--just craving something tasty.  I almost caved a million times. And not being able to have something delicious made me MAD.  Poor Kyle. I think I took it out on him a bit.

Before I did something crazy like eating something dripping with cheese or have chocolate milk with so much Nesquik it became a solid, I decided to enjoy a small indulgence.  A peanut butter sandwich.  And it was GOOD. It satisfied my craving, but wasn't wildly unhealthy.

Well, it satisfied my craving for a little while.  Once it got to be late at night, I was about to cave again.  I struggled all night.  At 11, I walked in to the living room and announced to Kyle that I was going to have either chocolate milk or Rice Chex.  Then I clapped my hand over my mouth and went into my room to go to sleep.  Sleep was the only thing that would get me out of that situation without a million more calories. Luckily it worked.

And it was worth it!  This morning I weighed myself and did a little dance on the scale.  I'm back down about 3 pounds! I made up for the 2 pounds I gained from Friday, and lost an additional pound.  The peanut butter sandwich might have cost me a little bit, but that's okay with me because it kept me sane.  I was about to give up, but weighing myself this morning re-ignited my motivation.

Oh, and also--the juice thing is not happening anymore.  Anytime Kelsie thought about drinking it again, she almost threw up.  We discovered that we would both rather starve than drink any more, which is certainly not the point.  So we decided to abort.  And were both suddenly so much happier.

Break Day

Yesterday was a little break from freakishly healthy eating, because of two previously scheduled events revolving around delicious food.

Kyle and I had a lunch date at Macaroni Grill (courtesy of a free lunch coupon) where I had a very moderate (and sooo good) meal.  Half sandwich and a little salad--better than pasta with gobs of cheese yeah?  And I drank water! I HATE not ordering drinks at restaurants because a)I'm in the mood for fun and b)I don't want the waiter to think I'm cheap.  But does that really matter? No.

Kelsie and I planned a big soup dinner for a ton of people in our condo complex, which was awesome.  I made 4 batches of corn bread and only ate one little piece.  I chose the least healthy soup (sooo cheesy) but at least it had broccoli and carrots in it, and I only had a small amount. I only ate half of my bread bowl.  Aaaand I then had 2 brownies. Oh well.  Other than that, I only had water all day.  AND I made a ton of new friends, so it's worth the unhealthy food.

Break days, while fun, are costly.  I just weighed myself--ouch.  I had lost 3 pounds, and now I've gained back 2.  It's okay though.  This was a practically a planned weight gain. Once I start eating healthy again, I think the pounds will drop off easily.

Kelsie is going on a juice fast.  (Yeah, just like in Modern Family last week!)  Basically you take 6x more vegetables than you could ever just eat and turn it into a glass of juice and that's your meal.  It's nasty. It's really hard.  We watched a movie about it, and people were like practically suicidal for 3 days because they were doing it.  Kelsie, however, is going to be awesome.  I am going to do a very laid back modified version.  I'm just going to continue to eat the way I've been eating, with just fruits and veggies.  (No more Ezekiel bread--the stuff is just way too nasty. I'll give the rest of my loaf to Kelsie.)  I'm just going to replace lunch with the really gross "juice"--we don't have a juicer so it'll be more like a thick, goopy, chunky, frothy, smoothie.

Anyways! That's the plan.  I'm not even dreading going back to eating fruit and vegetables.  Honestly, it's not that bad.  I don't always feel hungry like I thought I would.  I could do this for a while, I think.  With some obvious break days (like my birthday! next Friday!).

Healthy eating, pt. 2

You know, this really isn't too bad.  It's just once in a while I reallllly want something I can't have--usually chocolate milk.  And in those time, I either think "what would Kelsie do?" or mention it to Kyle or Christy--they are my good encouragers.

Yesterday:
Breakfast: an apple

Lunch: Ezekiel toast with homemade raspberry jam (the only approved sugar)

Snack: grapes and a little bit of pineapple

Dinner: big salad including spinach, lettuce, carrots, bell pepper, broccoli, and pinto beans
Dessert: apple with peanut butter and honey. (I have never felt more indulgent--or guilty.  I may not have been breaking the letter of the law, but I certainly broke the spirit of the law.  I should not have enjoyed that as much as I did.)

Grapes and apples are definitely what are going to get me through this.

Oh and I've lost 2 pounds!

A new me?

My life is CHANGING! Thanks to my friend Kelsie.  For some reason, she is able to make me try weird vegetables, she gets me to eat salad, and she is extremely motivating when it comes to altering my diet to include good things and cut out bad things.

Here is a typical day in my normal eating diet:
Breakfast: Rice Chex and milk with a ton of sugar
Lunch: Chocolate milk
Dinner: Whatever Kyle and I eat, usually involving lots of cheese and noodles
Dessert: More chocolate milk

No wonder I'm not losing weight! I eat the worst food.  Kelsie does intense things like going 30 days without flour or sugar.  She mostly eats raw fruits and vegetables.  To me, that has always seemed IMPOSSIBLE.  Until...NOW. Something has just clicked in my mind, and now it seems like such a great idea!  Even though I don't like many vegetables, I'm determined to change my taste buds so that a) I like more vegetables and b) I want to eat vegetables.

Here's what I ate yesterday:
Breakfast: I hadn't started yet, so just Rice Chex
Lunch: Humongous salad with Kelsie, including kale, red cabbage, tomatoes, red onion, bell pepper, kidney beans, avocado, corn,  celery, carrots, and I can't remember what else.
Dinner: Salad including lettuce, red bell pepper, pinto beans, and corn
Dessert: none

You guys don't have to read it, but I am going to blog about what I eat.  Just for a couple days.  I'm totally not doing this long-term--I'm just trying it out.  No milk, no sugar, no nothing.  Just fruits, veggies, and beans.  Oh and I can eat a little bit of Ezekiel bread--I got some yesterday and it's all right.

Kelsie took me to Sunflower Market yesterday and I loaded up on produce. It was fun and so...we'll see how this goes!  Usually, my goal is always weight-loss.  But this time, health actually matters to me!  Kelsie has shown me a couple food documentaries that are mighty convincing...

Scary Ruby

I can't stop making these ever since I discovered these Halloween effects on Picnik.  Umm...Zombie Ruby is  so cute.

I think I'm obsessed with Halloween. And don't worry, her costume is cute--no beard this year.

October

So, October is my FAVORITE!!!  I am so happy it's finally here--September felt sooo long!  Now it's finally a little rainy out (although still way too hot to feel autumbal) and I can light my Mulled Cider candle.  I tried really hard to wait until October 1st to decorate for Halloween, but I caved.  September 29th we decorated for Halloween--and I LOVE it!  In two weeks it will be my birthday, in three weeks I'm visiting California, and in 3 weeks it's Halloween, my favorite holiday!

I wanted to make a wreath, and I wanted it to be way easy and pretty cheap.  I already had a plain grapevine wreath, so one trip to the dollar store and some hot glue later, this is what we have:

Cockroaches, spiders, and snakes. Understated and creepy. And sooo easy!

Toddler

One minute, you have a baby who crawls around everywhere.

The next minute--literally--she's a toddler. A toddler who WALKS.

Honestly, it's like a switch was flipped.  Yesterday Nieman taught Ruby to walk and now that's all she does!  She is so proud of herself--she gives me a smug little grin and claps for herself constantly.  I can't believe she's a walker now.  She woke up this morning and took off walking--and has been walking all day.

We went out walking on the grass today and she did great.

She's still a baby though. Right?

I only cried once. A teeny little bit.  I'm being very brave!

Berry Picking

 I love U-pick fruit farms, and it's something I really miss about my home--going to Brentwood and picking peaches was a huge deal, even though I don't even like peaches.  I never really sought one out here in Utah, but I just discovered one and have now been there twice in a week.

It's called McBride Briar Patch, and it's located in Mapleton. No website, but here's their Facebook page with directions and info.  It is SO GREAT.  They are all out of blackberries (dang it) but their raspberries are going strong.  There are a million!  And they're only $3 a pound.  A STEAL.  The first time, I went with Kelsie and Landon and we picked 3 pounds between us.  That night, Kelsie and I made 2 batches of raspberry jam that is to die for.  (We also made 6 batches of plum jam that night.  I'm all jammed out!)

Kelsie hard at work

Sweet, sweet Landon. I adore this child. 

Cool tricks!

Ruby looooves raspberries now.  She could eat a million of them.

She got a tart one! I think this picture is hilarious.

I wasn't feeding them to her fast enough.

A couple days later, I went with Jennifer and Timmy.  This time, the owner was there. He is AWESOME!  It was way more fun having him there to show us a great spot, give Timmy a little Batman pail, and show Ruby where the swings were.  And we met their sweet dog, Belle.  Mr. McBride is soooo nice!  It really added to the experience.

I only got one picture, on my phone, of that trip:

This time, I bought 1 pound to just eat fresh.  I thought it would last a day or two, and maybe we could have some with crepes.  Unfortunately, that evening Ruby and Kyle and I sat on a blanket in the grass to play. We ended up eating the whole pound.  Oh well--I think I'll have to go back!