Go Green!!!

I love love love this idea and had so much fun getting to know two other bloggers. I am definitely a blogger stalker at times and when I find a blog I like or just a new blog I spend a lot of time just reading through all of the posts before I have to move on to something else. I got to know Cate over at Random Crafty Georgia Girl and sent her a box, I had so much fun buying stuff for her, you can read about it over here.

My first ever Cara Box came from Krystal over at My Life of Travels and Adventures and I just about squealed when I opened my mail box and got it! Thank you so much for all of my goodies, I think I told everyone I knew when my box came in. I sent mine very early on just so that I wouldn't forget and am so excited to receive my own box! Who doesn't just love getting mail, I know I do! This month's theme was Go Green and my box was full of green items and I love every single one of them!

She sent me this cute note and shared everything that was in the box.

I opened the box and this is what I saw!

She game me the cutest recipe cards and filled out 4 or 5 of them with different recipes and included all of the health stuff on them and I loved that because I am counting points and calories and everything it was so nice.

 



I got an adorable pail that I can grow basil in, which is so cool because I love thinking that I have a green thumb and this can help me believe it for the time being. I just need to look up some good recipes that use basil and I will be all set. Another thing, there was this pellet in it and it said to soak it 2/3 cup of water and no lie it was like a pancake when I put it in and then in 5 minutes it soaked up ALL the water and made enough soil for the pail, I so wish I would have video taped it!

Then I got two eye shadows which I love! One is green and one turquoise. I usually only wear natural make up just because that's all I ever buy myself, but I love these two colors. I am actually wearing the green today and because my eyes are green I feel like they really pop out, which is great!

Let's see next was this great green water bottle, since I hike and walk so much this will be perfect, and you can never have too many water bottles in my opinion.

Then I saw these head bands and was soooo grateful. If you haven't noticed in a lot of pictures of me when I am not out with friends I wear these head bands all the time. I probably go through a pack every other month just because I lose them or they lose their elasticity or the dog decides he likes to have them more then me. Any ways I love love love these headbands and wear them just about every day. I even wore one this past week!

Finally I got these FANTASTIC candles from Yankee Candle, I am sure I mentioned in my email to her that I love candles, because I do. You can ask my roommate or any one who comes over to my house, there is usually always a candle burning just because I love the way that they smell up an entire room. Well these candles are no different, I have not burned them yet but plan on doing so this weekend.

 

For my first Cara Box experience, I am hooked! I loved being able to get to know two different bloggers and sending away one box and getting one in return.

 

I am so stoked for the May Cara Box, and you should go and sign up and do it too!!!

 

Jenny 

The Tale of the Creepy Cabbage Patch

Well I had this whole post typed up and ready to post when something happened and my computer spazzed. I know I pressed saved but I think in the madness it forgot, oh well. This probably won't be as good as the first as I don't really want to type everything again but I'll give it my best shot.

Whew my weekend has been pretty fun!

Friday night was uneventful, I went to Trader Joes to get more Fiji Water, it's the cheapest there so I got to stock up. Then I walked the dog and got gas for super cheap due to an input error. Filled up my tank for 35 dollars instead of the normal 50!! Woot woot. (note the price per gallon, someone put it in wrong on all stations)

Saturday morning I ran my April 5K (44:03) and while it was not my best time it was better then March (46:18). I am ready to kick Mays 5K in the rear and run my best time in 2013.

Saturday during the day my friend Ivy joined me for a random road trip to Helen, Ga. I have heard a ton about it because it's a German village in a sense, and since I lived in Germany for 5 years as an army brat I needed to see how it compared. It was super cute definitely resembled Germany and we had a great time.

After lunch we decided to head back and stopped at the Cabbage Patch Babyland General Hospital where the cabbage mother delivers cabbage patch babies often....yeah it is that creepy. We got to take pictures in front of the sign with the help of two random girls in a car in front of us who were also in their 20s. Then we went in the beautiful building and sat in the cabbage chair, viewed the nursery, daycare, and then the main room where mother cabbage is. We got to witness the birth of a baby boy who was named Tony John (I picked his middle name) or TJ for short. He was weighed and had a check up and then we got to hold him. Definitely an experience I will never ever forget.

(Props to Ivy, who was such a sport because all I ever did was take pictures and say "I am going to use this on my blog!!")

Saturday night I went to an event called You Come We Go which was a house show to raise money for some of our friends to go on missions trips to Uganda this summer. My roommate was asked to play and so I went to support all parties. The picture below is of my friends Christina, Kasey, Lindsey (my roomie), and Myself (the only crazy in shorts, it's super cold here still but I get hot easily)

Sunday was a simple day of church and we got to celebrate another birthday with our friend Charlie. We had a good time and ate Yeah! Burger for dinner which sells all natural products only, it was good, their fried pickles were not and that's always a bummer but that is ok. I had the chicken sandwich and it was very good!

Me and Charlie and Andrew...and some creepers in the back.

I also need to take a look back at my weekly goals I set last Monday, let's see shall we.

1. Drink More Water - 100% success my water intake has gone from about 10oz a day to 100oz a day, I don't know the total amount each day but I have every little bit written down and am going to write about it on my weigh in wednesday post.

2. Pick fruit instead of snack packs - I did this but not as much as I could have, there were still some snack packs in there but I think it was better, I would give myself a 50% on this one.

3. Walk 3-5 miles a day - eehh I did this maybe like 4 out of the 7 days so I guess not too bad, I still want to walk 3-5 miles so maybe I will set it as a new goal.

So here are my new goals for this week!

1. No french fries - I need to go on a french fry fast, they are my weakness and I think going a week without them will not harm me.

2. Track every single thing that goes in my mouth - I am usually good at this but skip a few things every now and then and if I want to lose the weight I know that I need to do this always.

3. Walk 3-5 miles a day - I really want to be able to complete this one with 100% next week.

I have done a lot better this weekend then I have been and I am still drinking all that water and am exercising regularly, I will go into detail on my Weigh In Wednesday post because I WILL be weighing in this week no matter what.

Jenny

High 5 4 Friday!

Goodness gracious it has been a crazy crazy day so far in the life of this nanny!

I didn't have to come into work until 9 rather than my normal 8 which was fantastic and luckily they caught me 5 minutes before I was about to leave. I am one of those people though that when I am up, I am up and there is no going back to sleep. So I figured I would get in a run. I did my week three day one of it was nervous because I have never gotten that far before but did so good and probably could have run a little more. It is a shorter workout this week so it threw me off when I only did 1.68 miles but I only did 27 minutes rather then my 36 last week. I know in the end it will all pay off!

I am running my April 5K tomorrow morning, just have to find and pick one, but I will update when I complete it. I also plan on going up to the North Georgia Mountains, particularly Helen tomorrow just for a change of scenery and because I can ha!

Anyways here are my 5 pictures of the week for High Five for Friday over at Lauren Elizabeth.

1. Yummy, yummy fried pickles (yes I know not the best choice, but sometimes you just have to) at my favorite restaurant here in Atlanta. I could eat a whole thing by  myself and I use to but now I share with people at the table which is great accountability.

2. My April Cara box came in on Monday from Krystal over at My Life of Travels and Adventures (thank you so much!) and the theme was Go Green! Everything in my box was fantastic and I loved every bit! I am writing a post about it and will be posting it soon to link over with the rest of the boxes at Wiffesionals.

 

3. Monday night I hung out with my roommate and another friend who both happen to be dating roommates and friends, confusing I know. Anyways the guys were out having "guy night" we had girl night and went to Moes for Moes Mondays and then went to Petland to snuggle and hold precious puppies...I didn't want to let him go!

4. I did this chart for my kiddos and did a whole post about re-doing our bathroom to make it easier for the kids to be more independent when it comes to brushing their teeth. It has worked wonders and the kids love it. It is much cleaner and we all appreciate that. You can read the post here.

5. If you read my Weigh In Wednesday post you know that I struggled the month of April in terms of weight loss and life in general. Well on Wednesday night I stopped by Trader Joe's to drop off something to a friend who works their and decided to get myself some flowers as a reminder that everything is going to be ok, and that I can lose this weight. They have been fantastic to look at in my house and I have done way better this week so far!

That's it for this week, May is upon us and that brings vacations and birthdays and getting ready for summer for this nanny.

Jenny

 

On a Better Note

I feel like yesterday's post could have been such a bummer and I don't like that at all so I feel like today's post needs to be as positive as possible.

Let's see.....

I succeeded in drinking 100oz of water yesterday...yes I did pee 100 times as well, but I guess that's the price to pay for being healthy!

I did not over eat yesterday, in fact after my evening workout I still had like 7 points left to eat so I popped in one of my homemade quesadillas to use up those points for the day.

I don't know if I mentioned it but a friend of mine and I switched cars last week and while it was fun I am so glad to have my Camry back, the gas mileage on my car is fantastic (and it has to be working 45 minutes from home)

I did my Ease into 5K week 2 day 3 yesterday and I think this is the farthest I have ever done on one of these so I am excited and oh so nervous to start week 3 day 1 tomorrow, stay tuned!

I bought these beautiful flowers for myself yesterday at Trader Joe's. 1. Because I just love fresh flowers. 2. I needed a reminder that everything is ok and that it was the start of a new week. (Yes I know it's Wednesday but that's when I weigh in and my points and everything food wise starts over) I think I might start buying a bouquet every week and Instagram (@jennylynn4390) why we need flowers in our life.

I gave myself plenty of time this morning to actual get up, shower and straighten my hair. Most mornings its work out clothes and pony tail, braids, or bun. I decided to put a little more effort in today and like it a good bit.

My roommate and I are going out to dinner together tonight, we are both super busy and the way our schedules work there are times we go 5-6 days without seeing each other at all. So this is much needed and I am excited because we are going to a place we both really like!

I am joining Jess over at Operation Skinny Jeans for a 10 week challenge which takes us to the week of July 4th. There is going to be a facebook group for accountability and I am looking forward to participating!

That's it for now, we have gymnastics tonight which basically means I take my laptop while they do gymnastics and look at blogs and pre-write some more of my own.

Jenny

Weigh In Wednesday - Week 6

You know the saying, it's been one of those weeks. Well for me it's been one of those months. As I went out to dinner with some girlfriends last night (who all happened to be sisters, 4 of them, I loved every minute of it!) we were discussing the month of April, yes I know we have another week left but still. My month was crazy, so crazy. Starting with my birthday and continuing with more family issues and crisis and crisis in my own life on the direction God is taking it has been crazy. I am amazed I have not had a mental breakdown and just completely fallen apart - I am sure I had a mini one, one night but it was short lived and I was ok. So anyways I did not weigh in today, I know that if I did, it would have been really really bad and I did not want to disappoint myself again. May is going to be a busy month, I have two vacations planned, and it's the end of the school year for the kiddos and the start of summer activities. I choose today to start a new. I am going to start counting my points again, exercising regularly, taking in water, and making better choices, because I care about myself. I can't allow my body to keep taking the hit for things when they go terribly wrong, I need to learn to manage my feelings. Here is to a new start, hopefully this is the last one of these kinds of posts for a while....or ever. I am writing out note cards to put in my bathroom and making sure I have my friends hold me accountable, I know I cannot do this by myself.

I do have a non-scale victory for this week however!!! I have up'd my water intake tremendously this week. I got this new water bottle...and seem to have no picture of it right now. But its a Camelbak and it holds 24 oz of water, my goal each day is to drink 3 full bottles putting me right at 72 oz of water. I have done it mostly for the past week and have felt really good, my soda intake is wayyyy down and I love that. I know it won't be soon before caffeine headaches dissapear all together and I won't need it anymore.

My diet bet ends in like 3 days and there is no way that I am going to reach my goal, so I am losing the $25, oh well that's on me. I think I am going to try to get in on another one starting in May and hopefully will succeed at that one.

For now I am sitting in my bed, as my boss told me I didn't have to come in until I needed to pick W up from school which is 1pm, so I think I might go do the next run on my ease into 5K, eat lunch and then head over that direction to complete my day. I am still going to attend a weight watchers meeting even though I probably gained again for the 2nd week, but I know I need to be there.

Jenny

The Toothbrushing Capers!

Watching 3 kids can be an interesting job at many a times. I attempt to make sure that whatever the parents want being done is done. In the same way I have my own style of doing things that's well unique to me and works for how I need to get stuff done. I am a list maker to the core. I will make lists of things that need to be done all the time. As the kids are getting older (5, 6, and 8) I want them to be able to become more independent, especially in areas of getting themselves ready in the morning. Last summer I made Summer checklists that the kids had to complete every single day in order to receive 2 stickers on their sticker chart. In all reality it was a major help and reminder to me of everything that needed to be done in the day time before we went off on our grand adventures. When you have breathing treatments, wart tape, beds being made, and teeth to be brushed it can get a little hectic around here. Anyways one of our big things that we are working towards independence on is tooth brushing....can I just say I am not a fan of this. It seems to be such a spectacle to get all 3 children's teeth brushed, flossed and rinsed in a decent amount of time without World War 18 breaking out (3-17 have already happened in this house). After teaching and prompting the kids a number of times I decided that we needed a nice chart to help aide in the process, and off I went.

When the kids are with me they brush their teeth in the downstairs bathroom. We have three toothbrushes and three toothpastes to accommodate the needs, or more like wants. We also have a bowl of flossers, two timers (one for brushing and one for rinse) and a big bottle of pink rinse. There is a little side table next to the sink and in the drawer we keep all of the above except the pink rinse which sits below. I implemented the timers about a month ago to ensure that we brushed for 2 minutes and rinsed for 1. They have worked well other then confusion on which timer to use and which button to push. I took all of this into consideration when I created our chart. (First I bought new tooth brushes and paste, brushes because it had been about 3 months and paste because for some reason more ends up on the outside of the tube then on the toothbrush, go figure)

This is what our tooth brushing space looks like.

 

 

We keep that white stuff on the bottom of the drawer to keep everything from sliding everywhere when its opened and closed, which is often.

 

This is what the chart looks like and you can find a copy of it here on Google Docs if you want to use it.

 

 

 

On the actual copy that I printed out I put matching stickers on the timers and on the sheet so that the kids could tell them apart. There are pictures too because my youngest two cannot really read yet and so the pictures help them understand what they are doing. We also sat down and had a discussion and another run through on how to properly brush teeth to make sure that everyone was on the same page.

 

 

This kiddo is pretty happy about the changes and I am as well, so ready to see how much they help in our morning routine.

 

 

 



No he is not actually going to the bathroom, he took his Ipad in their and sat on the closed toilet so that he wouldn't waste any of his Ipad time (he only gets 1 hour a day)

 

Jenny 





First Things First!

Time for another edition of First Things First with Halie @ Penguins, Pasta, and Polka Dots.



1. First thing you would do/buy if you won the lottery...The first thing I would do would be pay off all of my student loans so that I don't have to worry about a monthly payment anymore. Definitely so many more things I would rather spend my hard earned money on then to the loan people. Now the first thing I would buy would be this beauty right here.

 

It sits in North Georgia and is only $300,000 so chump change if I won the lottery and I would just use it as my weekend get away house and invite all my friends to come over. I will own a log cabin one day in the Georgia mountains, it might not be as fancy as this beauty, but it will happen.

2. First Person you call when you get amazing news - Ok so I feel like I have sort of a phone tree that I tap into when I get good news. I usually tell my roomie Lindsey and my friends Kasey and Kirsten since they live up here in Atlanta. Then I call my friends in Florida, Abby and Mallory. Then my sisters and my mom. It's rarely just one person that I call, and it depends on what the good news is about as to who gets the first phone call haha.

3. First thing you do when you've had a bad day - this is where old habits die hard. I usually get in a really really good sob/cry as I lay on the couch or my bed. Then I climb in the car and seek comfort in something from a drive thru window, and once I get home I always put on Grey's Anatomy. I own all the seasons and so I am attempting to watch them all again right now. It's awful I know. It just seems to be the way I cope. I have gotten a lot better though and am now attempting to walk/jog more then going and getting something from a fast food restaurant. Baby steps.

Not going to lie I am dreading Weigh In Wednesday tomorrow, it has been yet again another rough week and it has all been emotion related. I have been feeling off my game and am not sure why, I am praying and hoping that whatever this is passes quickly and I can get back to how I normally feel. I think I need a vacation...good thing I am planning one to hit up St Augustine in a few weeks just for a weekend get away with a friend. It can't come soon enough.

Jenny

Quiet Weekend and Some Weekly Goals

It's funny to me that I base what I did over the weekend on the amount of pictures I have on my phone. I love taking pictures on my phone even though I run out of space quite often. But this weekend there were not that many, which is ok.

Friday night I went to dinner with Kasey and her roommate Hannah and all of Kasey's family. I love this group of people so much, they are hilarious and I always have a good time when I am around them. We ate a Mexican restaurant (and I must say I did ok, I got fajitas but didn't eat the tortillas and only had a little rice and no beans). I got their before Hannah and Kasey and so when they walked in they handed me an Urban Outfitters bag, which I knew meant that my birthday present was inside. I think I mentioned it on my birthday, how they bought me the camera I have wanted for about a year but they were waiting for it to come in the mail. Well it finally did and I just about peed I was so excited I was attempting to rip it open as the lady was trying to seat us. Once we got seated I proceeded to rip it open and put it together so that I could use it. It's a Fuji film Instax Mini - White Polaroid Camera. Who doesn't love a good Polaroid camera!?! I got the first picture taken of me and the girls and then another picture taken of me holding the Mexican birthday dessert that they had them give to me since I got my present! On the way home from the place I decided that I wanted to make something cute to display all the pictures so I gathered my supplies and made this beauty. You can read all about it here.

Saturday was a wash, I had many a plans to do all sorts of things like organizing and what not but I ended up spending a majority of the day in bed and then on the couch. I did however finally get to the store and made Quesadillas and Sweet and Sour Shrimp to help me eat a little better this week. I cooked everything and cleaned the whole kitchen in an hour and then found myself back on the couch. Kasey texted me and asked me if I wanted to do dinner with them at my favorite restaurant in Atlanta so of course I said yes and traveled on down to eat the best tacos and fried pickles ever (it could have been way worse!). After that I went back home and got ready for bed. My roommate was out of town this weekend leading worship somewhere beautiful and so it was just me and this guy but I love him to death.

 

Sunday my plan was to go to church and then do lunch with a friend and then pretty much do nothing the rest of the day. My friend canceled on me though so I spent the whole day at church, which I loved! I had a great time like always and the message was on loving others and unity in the body and it was something I needed to hear. Since there are only 10 pictures in a roll on my Polaroid I went to the mall with a few friends to go get some more from Urban Outfitters. We also got smoothies and somehow happened to score some free pretzels.

 

We ended up at the same restaurant for dinner as the night before but like I said, it's my favorite and I am the one who suggested it because I love it so much!


Now here are some goals that I need to make for this week to help keep me on track. I think if I can succeed this week I will get a prize, we shall see.

Goal #1 - Drink More Water - I got a new bottle last week and have been doing pretty good, so I just need to keep it up.

Goal #2 - Pick fruit instead of snack packs for a quick snack - this is hard as I am usually on the go with the kids and it's so much easier to get a bag of Cheetos then a bowl of fruit, so I just need to prepare ahead of time.

Goal #3 - Walk 3-5 miles a day - I am so good at this but sometimes I do 2 miles and decide that's enough but it's not for me I need to get some more in.

It's already past the middle of my day here at work and for some reason I am exhausted, probably headed to bed early tonight after getting in some more miles and a quick gym session.

Jenny