Eatin' Healthy & Getting Fit

This is honestly the LAST thing I thought I'd ever write a blog about. Meal Prep!? REALLY!? Who has time for that??? Well, WE made time! And WE are seeing results already and feeling great. January I decided to set a "goal" of eating better and losing some weight. We discussed some options for us, weight watchers...counting calories....portion control...how about a mixture?

Not a set plan, but what we did was chose 2 meals for the week (for lunch prep only, dinners were different) and we spent Sunday evening prepping. Grilled chicken, sweet potatoes for me, red potatoes for the hubby, steamed green beans, steamed squash & zuccini. Weighed & Measured it out, and wa-lah! Lunches for both of us for a couple of days, and dinner Sunday evening.

Monday evening I made turkey meatloaf but in a mini muffin tin! They were EXCELLENT! I'm not sure how "healthy" it is, I used my old faithful meatloaf recipe and went light on the breadcrumbs and used turkey meat.
1lb ground turkey
few dashes of Worcestershire sauce
few dashes of hot sauce
few dashes of ketchup
italian bread crumbs to thicken
1 egg
(Sorry, no pictures of these, I forgot!)

So we each had 3 meals of chicken w/ veggies & a starch, and the other 2 days I had a serving of turkey meatloaf & a salad with boiled egg & easy on the dressing.  

We usually eat dinner out 2-3x a week. Which is RIDICULOUS. It's expensive, unhealthy, and one or both of us get frustrated as to "who's turn to pick a place" and we can never decide. We ate out ONCE during the week. Sunday-Friday ONE time! HUGE accomplishment! We had a continuing education class, and had Mexican food during the class. If we hadn't had that, we would have ate something at home! 

Dinners we had: 

Grilled Chicken & veggies on Sunday

Turkey Meatloaf on Monday

Steak on Tuesday

CEU class on Wednesday

Grilled Chicken Parm over spaghetti Thursday

Left over night on Friday

Usually Friday morning we splurge for donuts, NOPE, not this week! And Friday night is usually our Mexican food take out night...NOPE not this week! Today (Saturday) we did keep our routine of Chick Fil A for breakfast before grocery shopping. Then I got so busy cleaning the house & steam cleaning the (playroom) I didn't eat lunch!  Whoops. :-\ You're totally not supposed to "skip meals" when trying to lose weight! Then we had dinner out with my in laws at Golden Corral. I did control myself, somewhat! Ha! 

Jan 1-Jan 31st, I've lost 7lbs & Travis has lost 10lbs. Not bad, and on the right track. I'm only about 13lbs over pre-pregnancy weight at this point. My "goal weight" to be achieved by March is already almost met, so making new goals as appropriate! 

Anyways...life is busy as normal, but there's always time to cook a decent dinner. This little man is getting SO big so quick. 15 months already. Wow. I can't believe I probably need to start looking into themes for a 2nd Birthday Party. Where does time go!? He keeps us busy, he's our pride & joy and just loooove picking Mommies flowers! He's definitely an outdoorsman...and loves to get dirty! 

Until next time....

Tara ;)

Goals

So, it's a New Year. Many people set "resolutions" but we decided to set "goals". Maybe it'll be more realistic, instead of "my resolution is to: Lose 100lbs!" Yeah, not happening.

We are both very goal oriented people, hence the fact that we started dating May 2005, had goals, KEPT the goals, and are exactly where we wanted to be at this point in our lives.

Goal #1: Cut spending costs & pay off debts! We do really well with managing our money, that being said we tend to "blow" money on things we don't necessarily "need". This one has subcategories:

• Cut eating out. Have you ever looked at your checking out and literally have your jaw drop at all of the transactions for FOOD!? And then still spend $100+ at the grocery store!? How does this happen? BUSY lives is how this happens. It's much more "convenient" to pick up food vs coming home, cooking, cleaning, ect. We're not going to be hard core or unrealistic and say "NO MORE EATING OUT EVER!!" Our goal: 2 eat outs or less a week. This goes for all meals. TWO. (3rd week in, we've done really good with this so far!) 
• PAY OFF DEBT! Thankfully we never let credit cards get the best of us. We have our Disney one we earn points on that we use and then immediately pay it off, simply to help with our future Disney trip one day. But we do have student loan debt. And after figuring out bills, budgeting, and running numbers...we should be able to easily pay off 1/4 student loans this year, with a little more effort we could pay off 1/2! That's AMAZING!! 
• GET HEALTHY! We need to eat less, and by not eating out as much will help as well. We have done better at exercising and getting off our rears with eating less in general. We shall see! I have 10lbs I'm packing from Corbin still. 
• LOVE and APPRECIATE what IS, not what WAS or what COULD be.  Life is too short to worry about everyone & everything. All we can do is pray about difficult situations and know that God will see us through. We can only account for our actions. 
• More time with those who matter most. Which is FAMILY! and FRIENDS! Our son amazes us everyday. I can't imagine missing out on anything with him, so spending more time with him and my wonderful husband are a must. Also with everyone in our families!
• Better Wife, Mom, Daughter, PTA, Ect. That speaks for itself :) 

I hope everyone's having a great New Year so far! Corbin is almost 15 months, and he's just an amazing little person who we adore. I love it when he intentionally comes up and gives you a kiss. Melts the heart :) 

Until Next Time...

(Sorry no Pictures! Boo!) 

Extreme Couponer?!

Hi everyone! Co-workers, family & friends are always asking me "How did you get that for that price?" "How did you get that for FREE!?" Well, first of all I try not to wait until we're completely out of something to buy it. However, this ALMOST happened this time with diapers!

We have always found the best deals at Target, "Buy 2 boxes get a $20 or $15 gift card" and I'd always be lucky to snag some $3/1 boxes of diapers. Luckily we haven't found a brand/style that we absolutely hate. I'm still not sure why we waited until Corbin was around 4-5 months to try out overnight diapers, they are the best dang things ever!

So here's today's haul from Target! Let me explain how we did this.

In their ad today they had a coupon "$25 gift card when you purchase $100 worth of diapers, wipes, formula, ect" I had 2 Huggies $3/1 coupons, my in laws so kindly gave us theirs and I had a $1.50 any size pampers from a previous box we had purchased. 

We get to Target and we get to take our time, (again, thanks to my in-laws for hanging out with Corbin while we couponed!) We notice the HUGE packs of Up & Up (Target brand) diapers are "Buy 2 get a $15 gift card" PLUS the qualified for the whole "Spend $100 get $25 gift card"! We were excited! SO, we snatched those 2 boxes up, grabbed a box of huggies and were on our way. We decided to do one entire transaction, and then go back in with all of the gift cards, use another "Buy $100, get $25" and get 4 more boxes. 

So at the register we received the $15 gift card when she scanned the 2 UP & UP brands, on the razors I had coupons for "$5 off of 2" & "$2 off of 1", but Target had a deal "$5 gift card when you buy 2" so I just did that deal twice, to receive 2-$5 gift cards. The Glade I had a coupon for $1.50 off twin pack (not the BEST deal in the world, but I needed more refills!) And lastly on the go-go squeezers (Corbin loves these, we keep them on his shelf because when he gets home from "school" it's an easy grab snack for him!) They were "Buy 2 twelve packs, get s a 4 pack free" and I had a coupon for $1 off 4 pack or larger. 

Now, going to break it down for you...the first transaction: 

Huggies $24.99

Up & Up $37.99

Up & Up $37.99

----------------------

$100.97

-$3.00 (coupon) 

----------------------

$97,97 (We received $25 & $15 gift cards to use in a diff transaction) 

Glade Plug In Refill $4.89

                               -$1.50

---------------------------------

                                  $3.39

Go Go Squeeze:

12pk :$6.99

12pk: $6.99

4pk:   $2.00

----------------

          $15.98

         -$1.00 (coupon)

         -$2.00 (buy 2 get 1 4 pk free) 

--------------------

         $12.98

Razors:( I got the 3 pack disposable ones, the cheapest item with the most bang for my buck!) 

$6.99

$6.99

$6.99

$6.99

--------

$27.96

-$5.00 (buy 2 get $5 off coupon) 

-$2.00 (buy 1 get $2 off coupon) 

----------

$20.96 (And we received 2-$5 gift cards to use on a later purchase) 

Fewf! SO, if you do the math we received $50 in gift cards to use on a future purchase!! 

Total purchase price: $136.60 (we have the Target Debit Card Red Card which saves you 5%, so it took off around $5!) Ok, so maybe that's not an 'amazing' deal, but it's all things we NEEDED, and it saved us a lot of money. PLUS now had $50 gift cards! 

I had a gift card from Christmas for $25, and knowing once we checked out I'd receive $25 on a gift card, I added mine to the mix, making it $75 in gift cards going in to tackle this! 

We loaded the car, and headed back in. We didn't HAVE to do it this way, but to keep from confusion at the check out we did it this way. 

We purchased: 

Pampers :$24.99

Huggies: $34.49

Huggies: $24.99

Huggies: $24.99

----------------------

  $109.46

-$3.00

-$3.00

-$3.00

-$1.50 

----------------

$98.96

-$5.00 (Razor Gift card from earlier)

-$5.00 (Razor gift card from earlier)

-$15.00 (from Up & Up diapers)

-$25.00 (From previous $100 diapers purchase) 

-$25.00 (Gift Card we already had) 

------------------

$23.96!!! I was so impressed, the cashier wasn't, so either she has no clue how much diapers cost and how quickly one tiny tot blows through them or she just really wasn't that impressed, haha. 

So after red card and taxes we paid out of pocket $28.76! AND we received $25 to use next time, so if you want to look at it that way...we paid $3.76 for $109 worth of diapers! 

I'm definitely not an extreme couponer, but when there are good deals to be had I like to get the best price possible.  So when one asks "HOW!?" Watch the sales, clip your coupons, and learn the stores. Targets debit card has saved us a TON, I prefer to use cold hard cash, BUT if it'll save me 5% on everything, totally worth it. Also their "Cartwheel" App always has deals going on. 

Sorry if this was super oober boring :-) 

Maybe next time I'll actually post some insight to some "goals" we've set for our New Year 2015! 

Until next time...

A very Merry Christmas

Happy New Year to all! I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, I know we sure did! This was the first year in MANY years we've been able to see and spend time with each of my 4 siblings and their families. Family means so much to me, it was great to catch up and enjoy time with everyone. We stayed busy with traveling to my parents house multiple times around Christmas to be able to celebrate with everyone, but it was worth it. 

Above: My parents with my 2 brothers, Ted & Billy 

Above: My nephew Mason opening a "chain of money" 

Above: Pappy & Corbin enjoying time opening gifts

We celebrated Christmas with my Mom & Dad In-Law on Christmas Eve. We enjoyed getting to spend time with them and loved all of the gifts, Corbin had a great time!

Above: PawPaw getting help from Corbin with his gifts. 

Below: Corbin and Mommy excited about Corbin's new backpack for daycare!

Below: Corbin being a mess :) 

Grammie showing off the art work that Corbin made for them!

Typical Corbin :) 

Corbin with his Grammie & PawPaw!

Christmas Day! Oh I love Christmas and traditions. We began our own this year since little man was a little older and a little more "into" Christmas...(I mean, just a little...) 

He woke up to his new basketball goal & ball...he was a bit more excited about the ball than the basket, but rest assured, Daddy showed him the way! 

Stocking stuffers are one of my favorites. I figure, who DOESN'T like to find goodies first thing in the morning!? We set a price limit on everything for Christmas so we don't go overboard, and to keep in reasonable! 

This year we went with $20. I thought I did good. I got an awesome deal for $10 for a bit set Travis wanted, some of his favorite candies, and some scratch off tickets! 

He however...went over budget! He had a lifesaver storybook in there (he knows it means a lot to me because that is one thing that has been in my stocking ever since I was a young child!), some reeses, and a gift box with a note. It led me on a scavenger hunt throughout the house! How fun! (NOT! I dislike the anticipation! haha! BUT I played along) 

The first one led me to Corbin's room in his "zoo", it was a wrapped gift with another note, so I followed it to the next place which was in Corbin's bathroom...another gift, another note. Then on to our shower...another gift, and ANOTHER note. Then to my office...a final gift! So I gathered up all of my gifts and opened them in order. 

1. DVD "What happens in Vegas" 

2. DVD "Bridesmaids" 

3. Beautiful cross with a pink flower in the middle

4. See picture below!

As you can see...that's slightly over budget, but one of the most thoughtful and planned out surprises since our engagement I'd say! He's gotten me a watch before...and the battery died, so I got it replaced...then it died AGAIN. So I quit wearing it. With working in healthcare I always could "use" a watch, but rely on my phone for time usually. This watch is powered by daylight. So no battery to replace...and it's pink, and it's perfect. We had seen it at Kay when getting my rings inspected earlier in the year, but knowing our price range-and budget...I didn't even think to ask for this. He's the best. 

We proceeded to open gifts. Corbin just wasn't very interested so we tore into our loot. Travis got a new Wii U game "Donkey Kong", a new electric shaver, some new under-roos, and Costa Del Mar Sunglasses. 

I picked out his sunglasses a few weeks prior, not thinking we'd have time together to go look before Christmas. Then we had a day (the Friday before Christmas) and we went looking, the ones I had picked out and bought...didn't fit him! OH no I thought. I felt awful but I didn't say anything while we were at Academy. When we got home I gave in, told him and let him have them early. Sure enough, didn't fit :( We went to go exchange them before Christmas but the line was INSANE. So he still needs to get out there and get his sunglasses exchanged, they are LONG over due since he's had his Oakleys going on 8 yrs and they are scratched and scuffed! 

I received of course my pretty watch, a very nice James Avery charm bracelet with a dog print charm for remembering our Pudge by, 3 pc set of stainless steel mixing bowls (They have pink rubber non-slip on the bottom...AWESOME!) Very wonderful & great Christmas!

Above; Corbin FINALLY got into his gifts. We are "bad parents" and gave him 3 of these V-Tech play sets, what he doesn't know is 2 of them are getting re-wrapped for Birthday gifts in October! He received so many toys just a few months ago for his Birthday, and then Christmas...we're good. haha.



Later Christmas day we went to Port Lavaca to have Christmas with my parents.

Above & Below: My mom is addicted to these Butterscotch candies. My Aunt Sue & I must think alike! We both gave her boxed FILLED with bags of them!!! 

Christmas Eve Day we celebrated with my sister Amy, her husband Tommy, nephews T, Timothy & Joey & his wife Amy & their son Rholand! Great times were had!

Above: Amy was excited about her GreenBay earrings!


The week after Christmas my sister Tab her husband Danny, and 3 nieces & 1 nephew came down from Waco area!

Above: Corbin having more fun opening gifts with Mimmie!

My brother in-law Danny & brother Billy, showing him the M&M jar with $$ in it we gave him! (Thank you Pinterest!) 

 Above: Everyone liking their gifts! Hannah with scrapbooking stuff, Dillan with a remote control and Corbin with SO many goodies!

 Above: Sneaking a candy cane off the tree....tisk tisk...

Above: My sister Tab & I !

 Above: My dad with 2 of his 3 girls, just missing Amy!

3/5 of their kiddos. The ONLY one I forgot to get a picture like this with was Amy!!! At least she lives close enough...we can have a make-up-photo!

Mimmie & Pappy with 5 of their grandkids! 

And then of course you know we wrote thank you notes for all of the lovely items we received. It's not about the gifts, it's about family at the end of the day. The fact that we all wake up each day is a gift from God we can never repay. Always be thankful for everyone in your life. Don't hold grudges so long that it's too late to make peace, life's too short to hold onto hostility and anger towards each other. For those who did go out of their way and thought of us on this holiday, we hand wrote thank you notes, something Corbin will be taught to do to show appreciation for someone taking time to think of him. In those notes we included a little special picture of our little Santa who's all finished with Christmas for this year, time is flying for us with this little man growing up so fast...Merry Christmas to all & a Happy New Year 2015! 

Above: Corbin 14 months old :) 

December to Remember

Well, as you may remember from the last post...we (I) saved a little dog. We took all measures possible to find the owners...no such luck. So, I didn't have the heart to take her to the shelter...the cold loud kennels...afterall, the words of Pudge's trainer "Everything happens for a reason" kept playing through my mind. Pudge loved Yorkies. Not many dogs/people did he like...but he loved Yorkies. This little girl is a mix, but she fits in so perfect with our family. So, Travis really wanted to keep her (usually it's me...but I'm guessing my heart just wasn't "ready" for another dog) but we discussed, and decided...she's ours. Her name is Daisy. She just recently got spayed, microchipped, and all of her shots. WoooWeee! 

Besides saving the world one dog at a time, we have been working on different projects around the house. Travis finished Corbin's "Zoo" animal holder! My dad cut out letters for it, but I just need to paint them (again, I still haven't finished Corbin's dresser...maybe by the time he's 21...) 

Fall is my favorite time of year...mainly because I had ample decorations, the scents were amazing, and it meant leaves falling, cooler weather & fewer days spent mowing our huge yard. Haha! But I'm loving winter! Especially having a little tiny tot to enjoy it with, makes it even more grand! I love pinterest...and when I saw this on there, I knew I had to do it this year because next year we very well could have a different door (ya never know!) I thought he was cute! AND I'm using the garland as my card holder with decorated clothes pins! 

I've always loved the huge mesh wreaths, but never really took time to figure them out. Until now that is! Travis & I took on this project after Corbin went to bed one evening, it tested my patience but it was worth it! Came out cute!



Since we already had everything we needed for decorations (minus the wreath and a few odd and ends, we bought a lot of stuff super clearance after last Christmas) we splurged since Corbin doesn't have a stocking (he had a "babys first Christmas" last year), thought these were cute! And there's a couple of more characters we can add to the mix in case our family (hopefully!) grows!


I still get choked up, wonder "what if" and haven't to this day made a special "shrine" to Pudge with his dog tag/collar/picture...but I saw this one day in my email and honestly I didn't care how much it cost, I loved it. Travis soon fell in love too, so we purchased this so we can always remember our Pudge. Miss you buddy.



Now that I'm weaping like a baby...on to happy thoughts...
As you know, Dec. is an important month for us! Not only were we engaged in December, we married Dec 18th! This year makes FOUR years! YAY! We had some wkdays off, so we decided to take advantage of free rooms in Couchatta since my in laws so graciously took care of Corbin while my parents took care of the pet-kids. We had a great time, unfortunately I'm not writing to tell of my great fortune...We did see an awesome Elvis impersonator perform a Christmas special, amazing!


The 2 nights in Louisiana were immediately followed by a night celebrating Christmas with my husbands work party. We had a great time, I found this cute dress & belt at Cato just hours before the party, what most don't know, is I picked out a rather fitting black lace dress that was AWESOME and I was about to walk out the door when I noticed it was torn :( Luckily this dress was my backup, and good thing, no one at the party had it! Someone did have the other dress! My husband cleans up so nicely, I love that he wears his ties when he can! Such a handsome man!



And lastly, another photo from our Christmas Pictures!





Life is busy, I'm glad I had 10 minutes to sit down to blog, I was simultaneously uploading pictures to print at walgreens...and more Christmas cards! I ran out! haha! Oh well, better to send more love than none at all.

We have a busy rest of the year ahead of us, so if I'm not back on here before then I hope everyone has a great Christmas & a Happy New Year!

Nailed it! (Cute Adorable Photo Alert!!)

Sometimes I wonder if I will ever be creative enough to invent my own, personal idea in a pin on pinterest. Until then, I continue to search for endless hours for cute things I can recreate and make our own. One particular Christmas image stuck with me for Corbin. When the time came, I knew we HAD to do it! I think it turned out pretty much just as we planned. Unfortunately, I think we sealed our fate and 2-1 outnumbered Travis on ever being able to have a real tree in our home...Corbin & I are very allergic **Ahhh Chooo!!** is what you hear when Corbin & I are near this thing! So for us, it'll be artificial trees! Enjoy the photo's from our outing today! 

I do believe we "nailed" this pin!

Of course it's not all smiles & games...this is his "are you kidding me?!" Pose!

We attempted photos at our house prior to going to the park, we realized it was a nice day, Corbin was in a good mood and we needed to make a trip to Hobby Lobby & drop some things off with my in laws anyways, so might as well just swing by the park for some better photos...glad we did, we completed our Christmas cards with one of these photos! 

And then there are times when you know you have a toddler on your hands and the photo shoot just kind of "flows" with whatever the child wants to do! Made for some cute pictures though! This is one of the few pins we've 'pinned & nailed it', most things unfortunately aren't quite picture worthy at completion :) 

Hope everyone enjoyed, and have fun preparing for Christmas, Jesus is the reason for the season! 

Until next time...

November Memories

November is one of my favorite months. I love fall in general, but something about November...when Halloween has past, and you're beginning Christmas prepping but still waiting on that Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. We decorated for fall a little early, well, September, so needless to say, I am always eager to put it away this time of year! And like every year in the past...our tree is up...not fully decorated yet, but it's up...and Christmas decor is out! Travis put the lights on the tree, we're waiting for a certain little boy to be awake and help us out tomorrow with hanging ornaments.

So, November. We always do "Thankful 30" right? Well. I'm not doing that this year. I'm thankful for everything just as years past. But recently it was brought to my attention that I am a caring person. I've always known this, but I guess I just really "realize" this now. A few Thanksgivings ago, it was before we were married, so 09 or 10', Travis & I were driving from Port Lavaca to Victoria to his grandparents house. On hwy 87 2 dogs running, dodging cars...one big, one little. Well, my soft big heart saved those two pups. Travis & I hauled them back to Port Lavaca, got them all situated and set up, and proceeded to Victoria for Thanksgiving. My mom & I posted ad's EVERYWHERE and we were beginning to feel hopeless that these 2 dogs would have to go to the pound if their owners wouldn't come forth. What do you know!? The owners saw our ad on channel five advertising and they went back home with their owners!! :D Good deed done! So then fast forward a few years...to last year at this time when I was on maternity leave. A friend of mine posted a pup she saw get dumped. She was a cutie. She took her to the vet but the vet could only keep the pup so long. So I loaded up Corbin & to Port Lavaca we went, we got "Bailey" and brought her back to Victoria, set her up in our garage, and I began searching for her a forever home! A young lady came by and took Bailey, I knew she'd be in great hands...the girl named her Bailey & she is spoiled rotten! Now, this year. Same month...I was taking Corbin to daycare one morning, and there was a small dog dodging 4 lanes of traffic. I stopped, flashers on, pup came right to me. I was relieved at first, fewf, a collar AND a tag! Easy fix, right!? Nope. I dropped Corbin off at daycare, and went to the vets office. Only thing on her tag, was her name. No owner info, no microchip. :( As in previous blog, ya'll know we are a 1 dog family now. So we thought, is this God's way of telling us we need her!? Well, we've decided no. We're not ready, and she's SO hyper! Cute little thing. Anyways, so ad's are posted, and haven't heard a word. We are taking her to the local adopt a pet on Monday if no one claims her. I will miss having her here, but we just can not take on another pet right now, especially with us wanting to expand our human family in the near future.

Speaking of human family...I felt crafty and have been on pinterest WAY too much lately searching for neat Christmas ideas, I made this little charm for Corbin to play with in **hopes** that he keeps his toddler paws off our Christmas tree & my snow village...anyone making wagers on how many broken ornaments or snow village pieces yet!?

I got the idea as said off of pinterest, it's just felt and little charms from the artsy craftsy stuff for Christmas make up ornaments that I slapped some "rough" velro to for them to stick easier.
The felt I got for $3 for a yard, it only took 1/2 yard, and the ornaments were $1.99 ea for 3 packs. The scrap fabric and paper I had already. Simple, and lets home entertaining!

Other than that, not much has been going on. Just trying to complete Christmas shopping and prepare for Thanksgiving! :D We took some pictures last Saturday, mainly for Christmas but to also capture Mr. 1 year old at his best. Here's a sneak peak that our photographer Crystal sent to us! 

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving week! I've been working quite a bit lately, looking forward to a 4 day weekend with my little guy & family! Gobble till ya'll Wobble.. until next time...