My life, explained.

If I'm not between a 3 and a 7 on the emotional scale, I'm crying.

A Contest

And this is the post where I ask for your help :-)

Our fabulous photographer, Jenni with Forever-Yestetday Photography, is hosting a contest on Facebook to win a free portrait session.  She's done all of our portraits and I would LOVE to win a free session!!

If you could help us win... well shoot, that would be amazing.  Like, absolutely & utterly amazing.

It's really easy.  Just click this link & "like" the picture that comes up (should be my blondie toddler in an aqua hoodie with a HUGE toothy smile).  Then, just "like" Forever-Yesterday's Facebook page.  That's it!

The contest ends on Friday and so far we are in 3rd place.  We are behind the first place photo by almost 30 votes right now..... your vote would be amazing :-)  Thank you so much!!!

15 months

A drive by post....

I'm sitting on my floor reading emails because I spilled berry-flavored (and colored) TheraFlu on my cream colored couch, and the cover is now in the washer.  In a minute I need to go take a shower and start getting ready for work.  My husband took the baby (toddler) to daycare and I'm here getting a few things done before I head to work for the day/well-into-the-night.

I was sitting here in my quiet house, listening to my fingers tapping the keyboard and the washer swishing away (and hopefully swishing away the berry colored stain on my couch cover), and all of a sudden I was in labor all over again.

Not really, obviously, but sometimes I can distinctly remember what I was doing & exactly how I felt on my daughter's birth day.  Every sip of cranberry juice reminds me of the cranberry juice I drank in the lobby of my medical pavillion (fancy word for doctor's offices where my midwives are located; we went there to be checked before going to the hospital), working through contractions in public and being blissfully aware of my body and absolutely nothing else.  I pressed my back into the wall and leaned forward onto Ryan's chest, supporting myself with my arms around his neck.  I labored in that position for much of the day, though thankfully not in the medical pavillion...

But this morning, sitting on the floor in silence, I remembered what it was like walking around my first floor, working through contractions and not realizing that these contractions were going to get much, much worse.  It was amazing.  I never wrote my birth story here because it's such a precious memory to me and I don't know that I could really do it justice.

15 months ago today I labored at home for 4 hours, at the hospital for 10, pushed for another 4... and delivered my beautiful girl via emergency c-section at 11:54pm.  Best.Day.Ever.

Back to WW... again.

I became a Lifetime Member of Weight Watchers in August 2011, after losing 20 pounds.  Actually, let me back up... here's a neat little timeline of my weight-loss journey:

September 2009-January 2010:  Doing Weight Watchers @ Work and lost 17 or so pounds.
February 2010:  We found out I was pregnant.  Stopped following WW plan.  OMG I am PREGNANT.  Happy Dance Every Single Day for 38 Weeks.  Also, no morning sickness & loving food & WOW my ankles are getting thick....
October 2010:  I'm up 60 lbs!!  Holy crap.  Some of it is water weight (my ankles weight 10 lbs each), some of it is baby weight, and some of it is the copious amounts of Apple Jacks I ate throughout my 38 weeks (my one true craving).
December 7, 2010:  Go to my first WW meeting at exactly 6 weeks postpartum.  I weigh in at almost 40 lbs DOWN from the day I delivered... I told you it was a lot of water weight!  Yikes.  That also means I ate 20lbs worth of Apple Jacks.
December 2010 - July 2011:  Lost 20 lbs on WW.  Didn't have the energy to work out, so it was just eating... I also nursed for 6 months, so while I did burn extra calories from that, I also needed to take in extra calories to maintain my supply.  It was a slow weight loss, but I don't think I had any weeks where I was + weight.
August 2011:  Became Lifetime Member.  BOOOO YAAAA.  Meetings are free.  Wait, I still have to pay for eTools?  That is crap, WW.  Whateves, I'm too cheap to continue to pay for eTools... I can do this on my own.
September 2011 - December 2011:  Eating-fest.  Back to school, holiday baking, whirlwind NJ tour for the holidays... it was no good.  And the "do it yourself" way of calculating Points+ Values?  HAHAHAHHAH!  Did not exist.  By the number on my home scale, I'm up 5 lbs from my goal weight today.  Not cool, especially since I bought some new jeans in a size I could only DREAM of while I was in college and well... they are tight.  Tight in a "you look like you are wearing a sausage casing" way, not a "damn girl, you fine" way.  Bad news.

January 2012:  Back to WW.  I'm going as soon as the baby wakes up from her nap.  (Note to self - I think a 14 month old is classified under TODDLER not baby.)

Then I came across the 10lb Challenge & shoot, I need to lose weight so why not get paid.

So...


I joined the 10-pound Challenge hosted by Newlyweds on a Budget. Lose 10 pounds in 12 weeks, win $$$. Are you in?

Chicken Soup

My poor husband is sick. It started with the baby's runny nose and while she seems to be feeling ok (minus the nose), my husband picked it up and he's just sick.

So today I made chicken soup. From scratch. And I am kinda proud of it because it was so damn good.

My soup!

I used this recipe as the starting point and kind of made it up as I went along, but it was so good that I wanted to write it down so I had it for next time I needed some soup. It actually cooked up pretty quick, though it would probably also be good to simmer all day on the stove. It makes the house smell delicious :-)

Chicken Soup Ingredients:

• a whole (raw) chicken... I think I got a roaster chicken


• a bunch of carrots


• a bag of celery stalks


• whole onion


• spices - I used salt, pepper, rosemary, oregano, thyme, and chicken boullion cubes


• egg noodles

Recipe:

• Put the chicken in a big soup pot and cover with water. I added 3 carrots and 2 stalks of celery, chopped in really big pieces. You'll end up tossing these, so the bigger, the better. I also added half of the onion, cut into 2 quarters. Bring the water to a boil and keep it boiling until the chicken starts falling off the bone.



• Skim the foam off the top of the water every so often. I have no idea how long I let the chicken boil; maybe an hour? But the chicken will totally start falling off the bone - you'll know.
  


• Meanwhile, clean and chop the rest of the carrots, onion, and celery. Set aside.



• Once the chicken is done, put another big soup pot in the sink and put a strainer over the second pot. Drain the chicken/veggies/broth into the strainer. You can then put the second pot on the stove. That's the broth. You can toss the cooked veggies (they will probably be really smooshy) and cut the chicken however you like it. I did a combo of shredded and cubed.



• Toss the raw veggies and chicken into the broth on the stove and let it simmer. Add your spices - I used 3 chicken boullion cubes, salt, pepper, rosemary, thyme, and oregano.



• Bring water to a boil in the first pot and cook the egg noodles per package directions.



• When the noodles are done, add to the chicken soup. Stir it up and it's done!
  
  

I think it took 2.5 hours to make, but I wasn't really paying attention to the chicken and I didn't have the forethought to cook the noodles and have them cooked and waiting to be tossed in. You shoudn't cook the noodles in the soup because they'll get really soggy; I bet if I cooked them along side the chicken I could have shaved 30 minutes off the total cook time.

This makes a huge pot, so we have lots of leftovers. Yum :-)

It's that time again...

The obligatory Christmas card post :-)

Honestly, my favorite time of the year now starts on October 26 - my daughter's birthday. Before she came along, my favorite time of the year started on November 7 - our anniversary :-) I love jeans and sweatshirts and crisp fall air, and that rolls right into Thanksgiving and turkey and Black Friday shopping and baking stuff and not really doing a ton at work (or is that just me?) and SNOW and family stuff and Christmas trees (!!!) and trips to see family in NJ...

And now we get to kick off the season October 26, so we're in full swing here. Clearly it is time to start thinking about Christmas cards because they have to go out kind of soon... I like to get mine out the first week in December so that our family & friends can see our smiling faces for a full month. How sneaky of me to be spreading the good cheer so early, right?

We just did our annual family photo shoot and I have a bunch of great pictures to choose from. The only easy choice I have is going with Shutterfly for the cards. We used Shutterfly last year and I was so impressed with the quality of the paper and the beautiful printing! But after that? I am lost. I have a bunch of awesome pictures, they have a bunch of awesome designs...

This one is called Mod Holly and I loooooove the bright, but simple, colors.

Or something classic like the Rainbow Greetings Christmas Card? Guess you'll just have to wait and see!

Shutterfly also has photo calendars (good for grandparents, I assume?) and a variety of other photo gifts, making it super easy to give personal gifts that your family will love.

In exchange for my honest review, Shutterfly gave me 50 free photo cards, and I cannot wait to order them! Are you a blogger? Want a chance at 25 free cards this holiday season? Register here: http://goo.gl/DDw7Q

Can't wait? Shutterfly also gave me 3 codes worth 25 free photo cards each, and I'd love to share them with you! Leave me a comment below with your email address - first 3 to leave me comments get the codes.

Birthday Eve

This showed up in my inbox today:
And I promptly teared up.