Happy New Years!

You all have a great New Year's celebration!  {even if it's sitting on the couch with the TV!}  Our New Year's tradition is to have a movie night and slumber party/movie marathon in the living room with popcorn, milkshakes or whatever kind of junk I feel like feeding my kids!  It's the ONE time a year they get to do this, so it's quite exciting.  We're mixing it up a bit this year, but they're still going to have fun.

Now with the holiday festivities over and school going to start back up again, maybe, just maybe I'll get to actually pull out a project and relax.  Okay, wishful thinking...but a girl can dream, right?!

Happy New Year's!  What are you guys doing tonight?!

...oh, and as a gift to myself while I clean the house, take down decor, and have some "me" time while I work, I downloaded "The Help" from Audible.com - worth every penny.  Best book I've listened to in a LONG, long time.  For me, it's more fun to listen to a story like this because the voices bring the story to life.  At this rate, I'll get the whole house cleaned up and not even notice I've been working!!!  yessssss.

We've Got Winners! and Round 2!

Whew!  After calculating all of the numbers myself, we finally have a WINNING PAIR!!!  With a total of 7.15% weight loss between the two of them, they had the highest number!  If I didn't hear back from you, I'm so sorry if we missed you.

Our winners have been contacted and will be sending me photos and info, so I'll post about them when I get all of that!

In the meantime...


Let's do this again!  There is a lot of interest, so EMAIL ME NOW and we'll start Round 2 without partners this time!    Many of you emailed me requesting that we do this without pairing up and I think that's a great idea.  Same rules - same concept.  Let's go 3 months this time to really give us a challenge! Shall we say April 1st as an end date? April Fools?!

Once again, I really don't want to keep track of your statistics, nor do I want to tally everything myself...so this will be an on-your-honor event.

PLEASE READ THE DIRECTIONS BECAUSE THEY'RE VERY IMPORTANT!

Loose as much weight as you can THE HEALTHY WAY by APRIL 1ST.   (no puking, gagging, laxatives, starving, or anything deemed unhealthy. Getting the flu would be to your advantage, though.)

This competition will be limited to no more than 40 participants.  EMAIL ME NOW!!! (address is on the sidebar of this blog)  I WILL NEED YOUR BEGINNING WEIGHT.  Sorry---it's the only way to be fair.

EACH PERSON sends $10.00 to my house and I'll put it in the pot for the winner.  If you don't send in your $10, you are disqualified and we'll all be upset with you because you short-changed us.  

NO CHEATIES!  This is an "On-Your-Honor" kind of deal.  You can weigh in and start as soon as I get your email - nothing prior counts!  So when you hear from me....START!  I'll answer emails as soon as I get them.

WHEN THE COMPETITION IS OVER, I NEED THREE THINGS: 
BEGINNING WEIGHT 
ENDING WEIGHT
PERCENTAGE LOST  (here is a calculator)


HERE WE GO!!

I think we have a winner...

{GASP!} I'm pretty sure we have a winner...but I have to give two more couples a fair chance to get back to me today.  If they don't then I'm going to announce our winner.  EXCITING!!!  I must say, too, how impressed I am with everybody's success!  I'm envious because I lacked discipline this round and SO many of you had amazing results...but maybe we could do this again - any takers?!  I have to loose 40 lbs. by May and I need another kick-start now that the holiday temptations are GONE!

{some time later, and a few head-bashing bruises, and two diet pepsi's...}

...okay...I'm still crunching numbers.  It's going to be close.  Because everybody has a partner, it's altering the percentages and it's taking me a while.  {exactly what I didn't want to have happen...}  If I've contacted you, I need your combined beginning and ending weight.  {you and your partner}  That's how we get an accurate percentage.  Otherwise I'm throwing out people who don't submit that to me.  Thanks!!!

LAST CALL!!!

Still waiting on a few of you to email your weight loss percentage to me!!!  If I don't hear from you, I'm going to pick our winner!!!

Merry Christmas!!!...and the winner!

Tomorrow is the BIG DAY!!!  Not only do I hope you all have the Merriest of Merry Christmasness, but I can't wait to see who our WINNER will be from our quickie little weight loss challenge!!!  Sadly, I wasn't disciplined enough and I can definitely say that I gained back anything I lost...I am weak...

So after all of your Christmas morning celebrations, don't forget to email me your ending weight/percentage lost!  

Christmas LOVE!

I love this season.  LOVE IT, Love it, love it!  {hence the hearts}  It's absolutely my favorite.  And it's called CHRISTMAS.  Not "Holiday".  

Furthermore...why do people from other non-Christian religions celebrate Christmas?!  I respect all religions, but I don't celebrate their special holidays.  ...hmmm....makes me wonder, that's all.  

...and here's this year's tree - a fun change from the red & white peppermint thing I had going on for the last two years.  Peppermint was exciting, but I'm more in the mood for different colors this year.  I found a huge tub of plastic ornaments from Sam's Club and I'm glad I chose plastic because...

...Brooke loves to rip them off with brute force and eat them.  After having four kids, I've finally learned to decorate with plastic!  It's a Christmas Miracle!!! 

My humble Nativity.  The reason for all of my excitement - the birth of our Savior.  I get giddy thinking about how exciting it all must have been for all of us in Heaven, for those waiting His arrival on Earth, and even for the unknowing during that time.  What a beautiful, humble, exciting moment in time. 

{And let's not forget that noble donkey. He/She had an important job!}

Cooking 101-Open Faced Breakfast Sandwich

Okay, so let me paint a picture for you - clap if you can relate: I'm tired out of my mind, yesterday was traumatic, this whole week has been traumatic (I'll explain later), this morning was "late start" for school which means I had a chance to sleep in, but NO, babies don't know what that means, so we all got up, I had four kids up and eager to talk at my face for 2 hours while I'm vigorously rubbing sleep out of my eyes, trying so hard to stay awake.  Milk in the fridge is sour, there's nothing to eat for breakfast. Baby got to 'play' in the toilet (silence means trouble), therefore needing a bath, there are no clean pants for the kids, and I have Christmas decorations strung out all over my living room.  Have you ever had a day like that?!  


SO...got kids fed and off on school busses with lots of love from mom, put baby down for a much needed nap, and as I was standing in my kitchen STARVING, I decided it was a day for.....my ultimate breakfast sandwich. {gasp!} Do you see how marvelous this all comes together?!

You HAVE to try this if you're a fan of this type of breakfast/brunch food.  Some people despise eggs, so those wierdos can ignore this post - but the rest of you will definitely want to try this!

Fresh Ciabatta buns - cut one in half 

One or two eggs, cooked with a little olive oil, salt & pepper 

Swiss Gruyere cheese - mmmmmm.... (no substitutes-do yourself a favor)

Hickory smoked turkey - needs to be smoked on account of the great flavor

Grill bread with a little butter on a cast iron skillet, grill turkey a little on both sides...

Assemble with a little cheese in between and get a fork and knife because breakfast just got exciting!  This is SO good with a cup of cocoa, too.  These flavor combinations are really, really incredible!!!

...kinda makes a hectic morning melt away.

Baby Needs Bling!

...PUT DOWN THE GLUE GUN...

My home has been needing a wreath update for a long time.  I've looked and looked at different ideas and this year I'm drawn to the bright colors - kinda reminds me of an Elf Shop or something!  Anywee-Kadie had the same idea so we went supply shopping yesterday and NOW...may I present to you my latest creation...

This wreath is big, too - it takes up almost the whole width of my door!  My glue gun is smokin'!!!  This worked up really fast, though, and can I just say how much I love glue guns?! I DO think my happy wreathy needs some spray glitter bling, though.  Baby needs BLING!  It needs to sparkle more {because Christmas is sparkly!} and I'm just not getting enough sparkle vibe.  Until then, though, it's going to hang pretty on my door and blast anyone who comes over with a bright, cheery, Christmas welcome!  {It's even got jingle bells!!! gaspity gasp!} 

You start with a bunch of random junk and just start gluing away.  Start with the biggest ornaments, arrange them symmetrically, and fill in the gaps.  You can do it under an hour!  My wreath & most ornaments came from Hobby Lobby and the other ornaments came from a multi-pack at Sam's Club.

WHERE does the time go?!!

Is it just me or do the days just seem to blaze by in a blur?!  {say that 10 times fast!}  I either need to get it together or something because I miss my little bloggie!!!

Okay, first things first:  How's the weight loss challenge going for all of  you?!  I'm not having you report your numbers to me because I think the secrecy gives you advantage in this short of a challenge.  I will say that I've only lost 5 lbs., but since being on my thyroid meds and this whole 'get skinny' challenge, I've lost a total of 11 lbs.  YAY for me!  (...now only 40 more to go... haha.)  Kadie and I are going strong starting tomorrow, though, so look out.

Secondly:  IT'S CHRISTMAS DECOR TIME!!!  {squeal!} Tomorrow I get to dig out all of my yummy, festive fun stuff, plug in my fave Christmas tunes, and decorate.  Okay, let's be honest.  With the exception of my amazing advent tree, my decorations are crap and I'm looking into updating my old stuff - but I'll put up what I have and try to make some newer additions...

...LIKE THESE!  I've been working on some (and ruining others with spray snow-don't buy that stuff), but I hope to have a little mini-forest of trees soon.  {eek!} love these!!! Get the pattern here at Allsorts.  Mine have some hand beading and I love it. I can't wait to show you all of my creations!!!

All Full!!!

Alright, everyone!  You all came through - good for you!!  We've got plenty of teams now - I'm compiling a list - and I"ll post it after my herd comes home from school.  Sorry, but I'm not taking anymore teams at this point - it's 2:50 p.m. Eastern time - if you emailed me sooner than this than I've got you down.  YAY FOR YOU!!!  Now get to work.