New Experiences

I'm not sure what exactly I want to write about today. I'm sitting at our apartment waiting to head over to the church. Tomorrow is the primary program so today is the rehearsal. I think I forgot to mention before that I got a new calling! I'm the primary pianist. I absolutely loooove it. I've always wanted that calling, ever since I was in primary. It's so fun to be down with the little kids, especially when one of the really little ones makes some adorable comment. I couldn't have asked for a better calling right now. It gives me something to look forward to all week.

Today I'm going to try new things. I'm going to can peaches, make peach jam, and make homemade french bread. I'm nervous and excited. I'm learning a whole lot of new things since moving to Blackfoot. I've learned how to pick/wash/freeze fresh raspberries from Mathew's mom's garden. I've also helped with husking/bagging fresh corn from Mathew's family's corn field. I've learned to prepare weekly meal plans and follow through with them. I'm going to learn to crochet. I bought a book and a hook and everything. It's been quite a little adventure for me.

My second weight loss journey began as well. I have to say, this time around has been MUCH more difficult. My previous experience, I was single, had lots more weight to lose, was on my feet almost everyday at JCPenney, was eating what my mom prepared, and was able to really focus on my goal. This time has been way more difficult. I'm married, which equals making food Mathew will enjoy instead of making overly healthy food, it also equals bc, also equals not feeling like I need to improve myself to impress the BYU-Idaho men. Also, I have less weight to lose so it's not coming off as easily, I'm at home all day and only have so many things I can do on my feet. Anyhow, after that long list of why it's hard, I'm happy to say, I have lost 3.4 pounds. I know, it's a seemingly insignificant number, but it's a huge accomplishment for me. The first couple weeks I was trying to lose weight, the scale literally would not budge. It was stuck so I'm just so happy to see at least a little movement. I still have about 9 pounds to go to be where I want to be but I feel like it's possible now. I feel like after that 9 pounds I can maintain it. I know I should probably be smaller than that, but it would be really difficult to maintain. Of course I'll always try to stay healthy and then if my body feels like it wants to drop a few pounds, that's great, but if not, at least I know I'm healthier.

A Few Obsessions

Here are a few things I've become obsessed with recently.

and

these workouts kill me but make me feel awesome afterwards. I think I have found a replacement for P90X because quite frankly, Tony Horton, you are now annoying to me.

I tried these on at Macy's and fell in love with them but they were $89.99 and we aren't made of money. Then I went to Ross and found them for $25.99 and had a gift card for like $30. Score!

Okay so I've always been obsessed with Gilmore Girls but lately I seriously watch them all day. I have it on while I'm cooking, cleaning, everything. I'm so happy I finally brought my seasons back from Idaho Falls!

We buy the peanut butter chocolate ones. Oh they are so delicious.

She makes cooking fun for me!

Puppies!

Most of you probably know that I have a major love for animals...especially baby ones. I love to google images of baby things: lions, tigers, horses, bears, pretty much everything. Okay I don't do this on a regular basis but sometimes I really just love to look at cute little animals. It made me really sad in Madagascar 2 when Alex was a little baby and got separated from his daddy. I was horrified. I can't watch that one commercial for the humane society or whatever it is where it shows close-ups of dogs and cats faces and they look depressed and hurt and Sarah McLachlan's song In the Arms of an Angel is playing in the background. I'm not kidding, it makes me cry like a baby!! I can't watch or hear it playing. Homeward Bound has only been watched one time by me. Oliver & Company makes me cry, the poor little kitten. That one tiger movie about the brother tigers, yeah that one was a tear jerker. In war movies, I always feel way more sorry for the horses that die or get injured than the people. The horses get no say in the matter, they are just forced to ride straight into battle. So not fair.

Where is this going? Well, one of my lifelong dreams came true this week. I have held brand new puppies. Mathew's sister's dog had puppies on Monday. I was over at their house husking more corn than I've ever seen in my life and all of a sudden, I heard that the dog just had a puppy! I was so psyched. It was so cute and I just wanted to hold it. She ended up with 7 puppies and I can't get enough of them. Most everyone else thinks they're boring because they still haven't opened their eyes and can't do anything. This is true. But I have never experienced new born puppies and I am fascinated and in love. I want to absorb every second I can with those cute little things. If only our apartments allowed pets. Anyone want to babysit a puppy for us for like a year? I want a puppy or a kitten so bad.

Oh also...yesterday I got charged by a hobo spider. It FREAKED me out!

Remake #1

So remember how I said I wanted to remake some of my old clothes...well I finally did! Well, I remade one thing at least.

Before

I bought this dress during my service at JCP. It came with a cute little black waist belt. I fell in love with the shape of the dress when I tried it on. However, now it's too big, too short, too big of openings at the sleeve and too wide of a neckline. Too many problems to try and fix. So instead of fixing and keeping it a dress....I just turned it into a skirt.

After

Here's just a little step-by-step of what I did...and what I shouldn't have done.

Step 1. I decided how wide I wanted the waistband to be. I figured 2" would be good. So, I folded the dress in half and measured a line 4.5" above the already sewn yoke line.

Step 2. I carefully cut along that line. This is where I made my first mistake...

Word of caution, UNZIP the dress before you cut through the zipper. Otherwise you'll end up with this:

And it's impossible (at least for me) to get the pull tab back on the zipper.

Well, I didn't have a plan B...and no buttons...and I didn't want to put in another zipper...so I decided I'd just wiggle into the skirt and take out the zipper and sew up the seam.

I did as skinny of a seam as a dared since there wasn't going to be any kind of closure.

Step 3. I folded down the waistband a half inch, then again two inches. Then I slip stitched the whole thing. Well, I started slip stitching then got tired of it so I blind stitched the rest. (much faster and easier but maybe not as effective.)

Okay I know it's not too exciting...but I'm excited to have another skirt to wear!

Also, I very much enjoyed taking all these pictures, I hope you enjoy them. :)

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

Yesterday was a terrible day. I won't go into details as to why. But I thought that I would make some cupcakes for Mathew to take my mind off things. So, we had a chocolate fudge cake mix and it sounded so good to make some peanut butter frosting to go with them...Reese's anyone? Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:

1 Betty Crocker chocolate cake mix-I used chocolate fudge
1 cup sour cream
1/3 cup oil
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and get your cupcake liners ready

2. Mix all the above ingredients until smooth

3. Fill your cupcake liners 2/3-3/4 of the way full and bake for 15 minutes

4. Let them cool and while you wait make this delicious frosting

Frosting Ingredients:

4 oz. cream cheese
1/4 cup peanut butter
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon milk

1. Mix the cream cheese and peanut butter until smooth and creamy and delicious looking

2. Add the powdered sugar a little bit at a time until spreadable...adding the milk about halfway through

3. Put it in the fridge for one hour and spread on the cupcakes once they are cooled


Even though I'm trying to eat healthier...I still ate one of these and was under my calorie limit. Score! I savored every bite...I don't get to eat stuff like that very often, but it was totally worth it.

Becoming a homemaker

One thing I have loved about moving to Blackfoot is that I have time to cook and clean! To my family, this may seem like a major shock and contradiction, but seriously, it's awesome. I felt really bad that while we were in school this last semester, I hardly ever cooked. I either didn't know what to make, we didn't have the ingredients, or I was constantly doing homework and barely had time to eat, let alone cook. To top it off, our apartment was always a MESS. As soon as we got it cleaned up, it would all of a sudden become messy again. So, with all of that said, I love having time to keep our new place clean and to cook full meals for my husband.

With all the cooking though, I think I'm losing my faith in recipe blogs and/or online recipes. I found all these "healthy" recipes on familycircle.com and was so psyched to try some, so I went and stocked our fridge with all the ingredients. Well, I only tried two before I realized they were seriously gross. I was sad and had to quickly come up with ways to use the ingredients for the other recipes before the produce went bad. I did not want to waste time and calories making a yucky recipe. Then let's rewind back to last semester. I tried some recipes from a blog and I didn't like any of them. I could barely eat them, but the blogger just raved about them and made them look and sound so good.

I was about to give up on any and all online recipes. Then I turned to my Pioneer Woman cookbook that my wonderful aunt gave me at my bridal shower way back when. Sadly, this was the first time I used it...I was a little intimidated for some reason. I started looking through and was feeling much better about these recipes. I made a grocery list and went back to town and went shopping. Well, I tried the first recipe last night: meatloaf. Recipe here. It was SO good! I tried to cut a few calories by using extra lean turkey bacon and super lean beef. Mathew wasn't too psyched about the turkey bacon but he ate it and didn't hate it. I personally liked it. I also really liked using an actual cookbook instead of trying to protect my computer in the kitchen and awkwardly trying to touch the track pad to wake it back up without getting food on it. Yes, I'm definitely more of a cookbook fan. No more online recipes for me...unless they come from Pioneer Woman....or desserts from The Girl Who Ate Everything. On that note, if you want a super delicious dessert...go to that blog. They make my mouth water just looking at all of them. I've only tried a few, but they've all been good. Sometimes a little annoying because of all the weird (kind of unnecessary) prep steps. Oh that reminds me, I made her Strawberry Cheesecake cupcakes and a little word of advice if you also make them...use more butter in the crust, make about half the crust and frosting recipes, and embrace the sour cream/yogurt...it does amazing things to cake.

Biggest Loser

I'm pretty sure anyone who reads this blog will be a friend of mine on Facebook. But just in case, I really want to get a Biggest Loser competition set up. Last time I did it, I found a whole new sense of motivation. I really surprised myself and sooooo many good things came from it. My whole life was changed. Well, as I've said before, it changed again when I got married. I need to shed some pounds and get my body healthier again. If anyone wants to join me in a Biggest Loser challenge, please let me know. We would choose the winner based on their percentage of weight loss versus number of pounds lost so really anyone could win! Only one person would know the weights of everyone, and it would only be so we could determine a final winner. Absolutely no judgement. We could set up a blog and google doc or something, emails for motivation. Any suggestions are totally welcomed. Send me a message here or on Facebook and maybe we can get something rolling!