Saturday, March 5, 2011

Yum!

Ok, so I haven't done a Food Friday entry in a few weeks. I've been struggling to come up with recipes. Right now I'm on a diet so I've been trying to find healthy and filling alternatives to what I used to eat.

I was shopping at Festival Foods last week and found these:
They're called Sandwich Thins. I found them by the deli case both at Festival and Pick N Save. They're a healthier alternative to bread.

I usually take 2 sandwiches to work with me: one for "breakfast" that I usually eat around 8am and another for my actual lunch around noon or so. Today I have turkey breast with Havarti cheese and a chicken salad sandwich with Provalone. I can't wait to get into them!! For my snacks I have 2 containers of Yoplait light and 1 serving of Thin Mints. I also have my one bottle of soda (Pepsi Max, with ZERO calories) and the rest of the day I get water. I don't even bring money to work for the vending machines anymore, and if I do, it's only enough to get a bag of chips to go with my sandwich.

People ask me which diet I'm on. Well, I'm not on a specific diet. What I'm doing is watching my portions and trying to make healthier decisions as far as snacks go. For example, instead of eating a whole tube of Thin Mints like I used to, I only have one serving per day...which is 4 cookies. So far I'm down 11lbs and only have 9 more to go before I hit my goal. When I do finally hit that goal, I might try for 5 more pounds, but won't be too upset if I don't.  It's great because I told myself that I wouldn't be allowed to have another baby until I lost all the weight from this one....and I'm almost there! I'm feeling better about myself, too. It's motivating when my pants are getting too big and the numbers on the scale keep going down. As someone who has been really skinny their entire life, it's been a struggle to be happy with the way I looked after having a baby. They're not kidding when they say nothing is where it used to be. But my husband loves me anyway, and that's been a really big help.  I think with the next baby I'll be a little better about my eating. I gained WAY too much weight in my opinion.

Anyway, check out the sandwich thins if you're looking for a healthier sandwich option. They're tasty!!


Friday, March 4, 2011

Is it Spring yet?

I just bought a new vehicle yesterday. Today, it's freezing rain outside. Wonderful. I'm ready for warmer weather.

I even saw tulips sticking out of the ground in my back flower bed.

I can't wait for the snow to be gone and the warmer weather so we can start spending more time outside. I want to get my hands into my flower beds. I want to be able to take Clara and Scooter for walks outside. I want to go camping and have fires in the backyard. I want to be able to be out in the garage or run to the mailbox without having to wear my winter coat (don't get me wrong, it's like having another refrigerator, which is nice).

Sigh.....

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Oh joy...not.

So it’s that time of the year again. It always seems that the 18 months goes by so fast, but here we are in shut-down mode at work again. Without getting into too much detail, I’ll put it to you this way. During the time we are shut down for 30 days (hopefully not more), we bring in 400 or so people to help out with projects that couldn’t get done while the plant is running. Most of these people I wouldn’t trust to work on my car, let alone work in the plant. We affectionately call them “The Carnies”. They travel all across the country working at different plants. Don’t get me wrong, the money’s good. In fact a lot of these guys cram 6-7 people into one small hotel room in order to save their per diem money, too. But GOOD GRIEF. We call them carnies for a reason, and it’s not just because of them travelling all over the country. I’m convinced most of them have a criminal record. And it’s the same thing every day. They’re not smart enough to figure out how to get into the plant, but they’re going to take it apart and work on it. Yikes. I’ll give you a prime example. We have walk-thought metal detectors. These people will walk through the metal detector wearing steel-toed shoes, but they can’t figure out why the metal detector is alarming because they’ve already emptied their pockets. Shut-down officially starts on Saturday, but I’m already sick of it.



Enough said about that.



So in school right now, I’m taking a class called Microcomputer Applications. I thought the class sounded interesting. Boy howdy, it is! I’m having a lot of fun with it. It’s basically teaching us how to use Microsoft Office. You’ll probably start seeing a lot more interesting looking blog posts from me. I’ve learned so much about Microsoft Word, like how to put pictures in, doing word art, and all kinds of other things. I’ll even be helping my hubby with some power points…if he wants my help.  I had a lot of fun with that particular portion, too. The class is so easy that I’m generally a week or more ahead with my homework! My other class isn’t quite so exciting. It’s an Introduction to the Study of Religion. I needed a humanities course and that was the only other one besides Feminine Studies or something like that. I have to say, I hate liberal arts. I’m better with fact than with theory or philosophy. I’m not saying I’m not learning anything, but I am saying I hate the class.



There isn’t too much of anything else going on right now. Adam’s still going to school full time. He’s looking to start at Bellin next year. It’s going to be a lot of work, but hopefully worth it when everyone is tripping over themselves to hire him. He’s also still working on his writing. He’s got a blog (www.adamwriting.blogspot.com) where he’s posting about his writing endeavors. I’m really excited that he’s getting more and more things published. 



I think that’s about it for now. I only get a chance to do nice long blog posts while I’m at work…unfortunately, I can’t get it posted from my laptop at work, so I’ll be waiting til I get home. Hopefully I can get it to work there.

Monday, February 14, 2011

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Stupid phone.

So I was going to upload a bunch of new pictures of Clara, but my phone is being retarded. If it keeps up, it'll be on the list of things that are getting replaced!!
We had a busy weekend!

Friday night we (Adam, myself, my mom & dad) dropped Clara off at Grandma & Grandpa Mueller's house and met my brother and sister-in-law at Mackinaw's in Green Bay for our "Tin Can" supper. What the heck is "Tin Can" supper, you might ask? Well, we've been saving aluminum cans for quite some time and my Dad finally cashed them in. It came to around $84!! So those of us who contributed to the can collection got to use the money towards dinner. It was a great time!
Saturday Adam's mom came down by us and picked up Clara for the afternoon. I got quite a bit done! Her laundry got done, I did a LOT of grocery shopping, and I got a little homework done. Adam got a lot of homework done, too! Then we packed up and headed to his parent's house to pick up Clara and have dinner with Grandpa. It was a great time! And it was nice to see Grandpa again. He can't believe how big Clara has gotten since Christmas! While we were there I got a call from my Grandma Ruby. She wanted to come down on Sunday to visit.

So, Sunday my Grandma, Uncle Russ, and Uncle Carl all came down to my parents' house for a visit. Clara got all dolled up. She looked so adorable!
In other Clara-related news, we've started her on single-grain rice cereal in her morning bottles. Her appetite seems to be pretty voracious lately and plain breastmilk doesn't seem to be doing the job anymore. We're slowly introducing the rice cereal, so hopefully she'll be staying full longer. We'll also be adding it to her bottle before she goes to bed. She's been waking up earlier and earlier everyday. This morning she was up at 3am! Not cool, little girl. :)

I bought her a Bumbo. So far she's liking it, though not for long periods of time. Hopefully she'll get more used to it. Here she is sitting in it. Scooter was checking her out, too. He just loves his little "sister!"

Friday, February 4, 2011

Food Friday

It's Friday once again. I didn't have a lot of time to find a fancy recipe for you guys so I'm posting one of my family's good ole' stand-bys.

Wienies & Noodles

2 cans Tomato soup
1 pkg Oscar Mayer hot dogs
1 pkg No Yolks egg noodles (I usually use dumpling size)
Worchestershire sauce
1/4c. brown sugar
3/4 Tomato soup can Water

Slice the hot dogs part-way through and brown the entire package in a pan with a little butter. At the same time, cook the noodles according to the package instructions. When the hot dogs are browned, add the soup and water. Mix in the brown sugar and a splash of Worchestershire sauce. Cover and simmer, stirring frequently. When the noodles are done, drain. Top with hot dogs and sauce.

This is a great recipe because it only takes about 20 minutes start to finish and it's filling! We usually have leftovers for lunch the next day.

Next week I'll try to find a healthier alternative! :) I haven't had much time because of school, work, and Clara. :)

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

An open letter to my daughter.

My dearest baby girl,

Three months ago today you came into this world, but from the time we found out you were coming we already loved you. Since you arrived in this big new world you've touched so many lives. Your daddy and I love you so much. We can't imagine our lives without you. I look at you now and can't believe how big you've gotten and how many things you've learned. Daddy says you're becoming like a tiny person. My biggest wish for you is to continue to be the healthy and happy baby that you've been. Know that your dad and I love you very much and will give you everything you need in life.

Love,
Mommy & Daddy
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