Y3W

Home SWEET Home

This Y3W has a double meaning for me. First of all, my mom, Eva and I travelled over the highways to Virginia on Tuesday. I would love to say we were there for pleasure, but this trip was all business! We went there to search for a new place for our family to live once we PCS (for non-military people, that means Permanent Change of Station) this summer.

I was dreading this trip. Normally I am a 'rider' on long drives. Both my husband and dad like driving on long treks. Unfortunately, neither of them was with us, which meant my mom and I would be doing the driving. And to top it off, the weather was predicted to be rainy and gloomy for most of the trip.

When we got there, we quickly changed and got out and about looking at places. And we saw a lot in the 1.5 days we were there. In case you weren't aware, the housing market in Virginia is a little on the expensive side. (especially compared to our current home-state of Texas which is on the cheap side of the spectrum!) And since I'm not working, we have to budget our expenses off the small housing allowance we get from the Air Force.

So the apartments/houses that were in our price range were depressing me. They would be cute, but tiny and lacking storage. Or I'd have to sacrifice a bedroom and/or bathroom. Or they would be in a not-so-desirable part of town. So after 1.5 days of this, I decided to just make a spreadsheet of everything I saw, so my husband and I could look at everything and just pick the best available option. I was discouraged to say the least.

I had a couple more apartments left on my list, that I had ruled out because they were a little far from the base (or so I thought at the time). Yesterday morning, before we left, I decided to stop by these apartments on the way home. I mean, what could it hurt, right? Well, we only ended up looking at one.

Because it is THE one!

It is a 3 bed, 2.5 bath townhome, with washer/dryer connections, a nice sized patio, wood-burning fireplace and updated kitchen and bathrooms. The property manager was genuinely a sweet lady, and the apartments were well maintained, inside and out. originally I thought it was too far from the base, but it turns out, that it will only be a 15-20 minute drive, at most.

So I left Virginia in a great mood. And I returned to Ohio in an even-better mood. We were blessed with beautiful weather on the trip there AND back, and only experienced a couple light showers during our stay. The driving went much better than expected.

And NOW, I can finally focus on Eva's party, which is NEXT SATURDAY --- EEK!

Have a good weekend!

A Martha Stewart Remix...

So in my travels across the world wide web, I have found tons of pictures of beautiful homemade poms made out of tissue paper. And apparently, Ms. Stewart is behind them all.

I found this little tutorial and thought 'Oh! That looks easy! I've got to try it!'

Darn you Martha. Why do you do this to us? You make these awesome arts and crafts and homemade delicacies and do it with such ease that we think - 'surely I can do it exactly like she did, no problem.'

Um, no.

So, here's a picture of the beautiful Martha Stewart poms:






Here's how my attempt at a pom turned out:

Yeah - that's hot.

And in case you're wondering, I also tried it in the large version. I actually attempted the large one first, and got similar results to the above pics.

I was kinda bummed out, but started playing with the pitiful pom and came across two different options that I really like.

First, I stumbled across this little tissue-pom-turned-flower.



Since it's naturally messy, I found it hard to mess up. I even tested it out in a vase.

And secondly, I realized if I didn't pull out all the layers, I could make these cute little circles instead:



So I plan to use my new 'skillz' in decorations for Eva's party. I'm sure you'll see some flowers and some circles.

Maybe, just maybe, I'll finally figure out how to make a perfectly round pom as well!

Ah - don't hold your breath on that last one.

;)

Remember this?

A couple weeks ago, I posted this little beauty:

via Sprinkle Bakes

Did you think I'd let Easter pass without attempting it? If so, you were very, VERY wrong. ;)

So here is my version below:




Of course it looks a bit different. I made several changes. First of all, I decided to only do a 2-layer, rather than 4-layer. The ingredients are kind of expensive, so I purchased half to save some dough. Plus, even as a 2-layer, it's a very rich decadent dessert, so I'm very glad for that change.

Also, I skipped the peanuts (I don't like nuts. Normally I may try to incorporate them somehow for people that do, but it was kind of difficult to do 50% with and 50% without for this dessert). I didn't whip the ganache for the sides, I just poured it all over. And I skipped the chocolate curls and peanut butter cups (on top), because other than being pretty, I didn't think they'd be missed.

Now, I must say that this is really good. It's also super rich and a small piece will do you for a few days. IF I make it again (I'll be honest, even cutting out some steps this is still labor-intensive and takes several days to complete) here are the final tweaks I would make:

• Cut the caramel in half. It was just too much. This could be due to the fact that the cake was missing peanuts, but it was definitely caramel overload.


• Cut the peanut butter frosting in half. As much as I tried to use it all, I still had about 1/3 cup left after I was finished.


• Put more peanut butter cups in the cheesecake. I didn't follow this part to the 'T' and it definitely could have used more peanut butter cups.

So I hope I haven't scared you off from this tantalizing treat. I'm glad I tried it, it wasn't difficult, just time-intensive. And I'm saving it to maybe try in the future with oreos & whipped cream replacing the peanut butter cups and peanut butter frosting, respectively...

Y3W | Long blogging break

I'm soooooooooooooo sorry for the long hiatus. As I mentioned in my last post, I'm currently in Ohio. Why, you may be asking???

Next week my mom and I are trekking to Virginia so I can house-hunt. Then the week after that, we're having Eva's birthday party! So this 3-week trip to Ohio had a two-fold purpose.

Since I've only allotted myself 2 days to house-hunt in VA, I have been consumed with looking up homes and apartments online for the past few days. I want to fit in as many places as possible, and organizing it all is such a daunting task.

So that's why I've been away. I have some fun posts planned, and hopefully I'll be back into full blogging swing by this time next week!

Have a wonderful weekend and enjoy your Easter ~ remember that Jesus is the reason for the season ;)

Take It Off Mondays

I'm kind of tired so this will be a short post.

I was discouraged after last week's weigh-in. But I'm happy to report that as of yesterday morning, I was down to 160. Which is especially great, since I was traveling on Saturday and didn't work out much last week. I was so busy packing and preparing for my trip to Ohio (more on that later) that I only was active about 3 days. But I'm finding that I only need to work out 3-4 times a week, and as long as I keep my eating under control I can at least pull a 1-2 pound weight loss.

Here's the stats at a glance:

Starting Weight: 167.5

Weight Loss this week: 2 lbs

Weight Loss to date: 7.5 lbs

Weight Left to lose: 5 lbs

First goal: 7.5 lbs (REACHED 4/4/2011)

• Reward: A new craft organization box

Second goal: 12.5 lbs

• Reward: A new bathing suit

Final goal: To fit a size 10 pant

• Reward: A new outfit for my new bod ;)

Success: Not letting my setback last week discourage me

Set-Backs: Eh, I can't think of any this week

Exercise: Since it's pretty cold in Ohio, I'm just going to aim for 4 workouts per week using the Fitness channel on the cable. If we get out for a walk, that's a bonus.

11 months old!

Eva turned 11 months on Saturday. This post is a few days late. Who's keeping track? - if so, sue me.

Baby on the move!

My little princess is growing by leaps and bounds. She can still wear some 12 month clothes, but she's mostly in 18 month stuff. She's super active and is a pretty fast crawler. (crawler - is that a word?) She walks along the furniture. If her father or I try to hold her arms so she can walk, she wants nothing to do with it. In typical diva fashion, if she doesn't want to do something - she won't do it. She also can understand simple commands like 'come here' or 'stop' or 'get down' (usually in reference to standing directly in front of the TV)

Eva loves taking everything out of the diaper bag. Especially my keys. Those are probably her favorite 'non-toy' toy. The only problem is she loves to stick them in her mouth. Like so:

Chilling on the slide with Momma

Our diva has become quite the picky eater the past few weeks. She's actually rejecting most table food now and nursing more often (just as I was ready to start the weaning process) I've been giving her bottles mixed with whole milk and breastmilk and slowly increasing the whole milk. Hopefully by the end of this week she'll be taking at least one fully whole milk bottle per day. Eva LOVES other babies and kids. She's not shy at all. Actually, she's a little bit of a bully, even with the older kids in our moms group.

She is so animated and makes the best facial expressions. This is one of my current faves:


Wait, I love this one too:

So pumped on the swing at the park, lol

Yesterday, I SWEAR she said 'Momma'. She was whining, but I promise you in the midst of her whines she said 'Momma' at least two distinct times. My husband disagrees. I think he's been sipping the haterade.

Little Miss Eva brings me mounds of joy daily and I thank God for the privilege of being her mom. I can't wait to celebrate her first birthday and look forward to watching my darling girl grow!

Take It Off Mondays

I didn't want to participate in Take It Off Mondays today. I had such a good week last week and to follow it up with this post is somewhat depressing.

BUT, I committed to publicizing my journey, which thus far, has helped keep me accountable. So I must continue, even though I'm a little embarrassed about this week.

I did well all week, and almost reached my fitness goals (minus one walking session due to the insanely hot Texas weather - it hit 100 degrees on Saturday!) And during the week I ate really well. But on Saturday and Sunday I managed to sabotage my good work. How, you might ask?

I had way too many liquid calories. For some reason both our milk and orange juice went bad the other day. We were out of water and my husband had the car most of the weekend and forgot to refill it. So I drank kool-aid all weekend. Which is so frustrating, because it's not even because of what I ate. But due to drinking liquid sugar for 2 days this is what I saw on the scale this morning:

162.

I gained 3 pounds.

Now to make myself feel better, maybe one of those pounds is additional muscle, because I do feel stronger and I have been weightlifting regularly. But that can't account for all 3 pounds of gain, which I completely attribute to this weekend. It's sad because I had just hit a goal and was hoping to come close to hitting another one, but now I've taken two steps backward. I'm trying to use this as motivation to keep doing what I was the past few weeks. If anything, this proves that what I consume is more important than exercise, as this week was the most active for me since I started.

Okay, I'm done writing, because honestly I just am not in the mood anymore. Here's this week's stats:

Starting Weight: 167.5

Weight loss this week: +3 lbs

Weight loss to date: 5.5 lbs

Weight left to lose: 7 lbs

First Goal: 7.5 pounds (REACHED 4/4/2011)

• Reward: A new craft organization box
  

Second Goal: 12.5 pounds

• Reward: A new bathing suit.
  

Final Goal: to fit in size 10 pants!

• Reward: A new outfit for my new bod ;)
  

Success: Increased activity

Set-Backs: The liquid sugar that I was doing so well at avoiding...

Exercise: Keeping my exercise goal the same, hopefully I'll finally achieve it! I'm aiming for 3 walking sessions, 3 cardio workouts and 2 weightlifting or ab routines.