1.) Made red velvet cupcakes, thank you Betty Crocker

2.) Made some rockin' buttercream frosting using this recipe...super easy and SO fluffy and creamy and all the things you love about buttercream [however - I took recommendations and used half butter/half shortening and only 3C of confectioners sugar]

3.) Had my handyman hang up my curtain rods so I could FINALLY hang my curtains up! Picture coming soon

4.) Made a crock pot full of bacon-wrapped smokies, or "hokies", as Brad calls them. No idea where he got that. These things are downright sinful but oh.my.heavens, soooo good.

Okay, so that's it, so far. I still need to fold laundry and vacuum before we head over to the in-laws to watch the Packers v. Vikings game. It's big deal around these parts, folks!!!

checking in!

Hopefully this font will be easier to see? LOVE my design but am always wishing the font was darker.

SO - my no breads/pasta/rice diet is going fabulously!! In all honesty, once you cut back on those things you realize just how much your diet is made up of them, and I really don't even miss them that much. I'm eating more salads and vegetables, probably the same amount of meats and cheeses, but no kidding - I feel SO much better. I've lost that uncomfortable stomach bloat and just feel a little lighter and thinner. Haven't weighed myself, but I'm really not so concerned about my weight, more about how I feel.

Probably also helps that I'm going to a kickboxing class twice a week and running on the other days. OH - and drinking 34oz of water a day. Still not my required amount, but if you knew me, you would know this is a small miracle.

Just enjoying the day today - going for a run soon here, then coming home to clean and do laundry, then watch Mad Men tonight! Season finale tonight, and I'm so excited to see what's going to happen to SCDP! Not to mention Don Draper's love triangles...

Happy Sunday!

Cuttin' back

If there is any food I would choose to eat on any given day, at any given time, it would be pasta [preferably mac&cheese].

If I were on my death bed, I would choose to eat a ginormous bowl of pasta. Again...mac&cheese.

If I'm ever needing comfort food or my husband's out for the night hunting/fishing/camping, I buy a big 'ol box of Kraft Velveeta Shells and Cheese.

Do you see where this going?

I loooove me some carbs! Funny thing is that for the past 6 months I have had this super heavy feeling that, no matter what I did, what I ate, how much I exercised, I just couldn't shake. It was starting to get downright ridiculous. And the straw that broke the camel's back - I know I will have lots of company with this one - is my shopping trip this past weekend.

Monday night I got to thinking about the kinds of foods I eat, or make for Brad that I usually end up eating cause it's easier. They consist of:

Spaghetti
Lasagna
Meat & Potatoes (mashed, grilled, you name it we eat 'em)
Stuffed shells
LOTS of hamburgers/cheeseburgers/hot dogs this summer (uh, with potatoes. yep)

Here's what I eat when I've been trying to eat healthy:

Whole wheat penne
Whole grain rice
Cous cous
Wraps

Um....is anybody else wondering where my protein is??!? For heaven's sakes.

So, the conclusion I've come to is that:

A) I LOVE CARBS
B0 ALL I EAT ARE CARBS

Well, duh, no wonder I feel like I'm an extra million pounds and can't get rid of it! With that being said, I decided that I wasn't going to eliminate carbs, but to cut back on them for a while. And you know what? It's only been two days, and I already feel much better than I did all summer!

Here's what I've been eating:

Vegetable soup (lentils, cabbage, squash, carrots, cauliflower)
Tomatoes stuffed with tuna salad
Spaghetti squash with italian sausage/pasta sauce
deli meat/cheese wraps (these are for snacks)
yogurt and fruit for breakfast
LOTS of vegetables

My goal isn't to cut carbs out completely, and I know some people have a really negative perception of carb cutting (Atkins diet, hello), but for me, I think the amount of carbs I was eating was getting a bit much. They became an easy fix for dinners cause I didn't have to think about anything, I could just throw something together. Now I actually have to put my brain to work!

lately

Saturday morning photos! I'm trying out Picasa's photo collage feature, and it's actually pretty cool...pictures aren't exactly arranged how I would have them, but oh well :)

two things

cause it's just after 7am and my brain can't handle much more right now...

1.) minted -- oh my heavens....this website is my new obsession. I could (and have) spent hours looking through the "Design Challenge" section. If I had any clue how to create something so beautiful as some of those cards, I would be downloading Photoshop & Illustrator right.now.

2.) I found out last night that my little, itty bitty small town gym just bought spinning bikes and is starting spin classes in October! my class instructor was SO excited to tell me cause I've been bugging her about it for over a year now. I'm considering it an early birthday present :)

okay....7:15 and I've got 45 min to get out of my robe, do my hair/makeup and get dressed. better get moving!

proof

my $6 shirt! ignore the wrinkled-ness and the funny bunching around the top, I was running out the door to go to work. oh, and the 'closet' on our footboard. it's a terrible weakness for both me and my husband.

best part about it? I can wear it to work. hallelujah.

what is happening??

at one time in my life, I enjoyed buying nice clothes. In fact, there was a year or so when I was making great money working in a big city, and bought lots of nice clothes, pretty frequently.

when I moved to Small Town America, I knew I would struggle with the lack of malls. shoot, the lack of stores. but I was confident that I would make lots of trips back to Minneapolis [my shopping Mecca], and of course I would just buy online!

here's what I didn't take into account with that great plan:

1.) Minneapolis is over two hours away. It's not a drive we do in a day.

2.) Because we don't do that drive in a day, we usually get a hotel room, eat out w/ friends we haven't seen, etc, etc. That means that leaves me with $ to buy clothes instead of $$$.

3.) I hate shopping online. It's the most un-fun thing in the whole world.

Leaves me in a tough place, right? So I make do with buying a few things here and there when we go to another town about an hour from here that has a mall. Or I might buy something at Maurices, which is not my favorite but will do [we just got one this summer! HUGE deal for our little town]. Add to all of this that I'm currently going through RI-DIC-U-LOUS clothing withdrawal, and, well.....I did something crazy.

I bought a shirt at Family Dollar.

Yes, really.*

If you had told me two or three years ago that I would walk out of a Family Dollar being absolutely STOKED about my new shirt, I would've laughed in your face. Not cause I'm all hoity-toity, brand-names-only, but just cause it's Family Dollar.

Guess that makes me a really great match for my husband, huh?

*note - the shirt is very cute! soft cotton (surprisingly), gray, longer torso, and has three quarter sleeves that button on the sides.