So I may have mentioned that I'm doing Jenny Craig. I love it. I love the ease and I love the food. However, this last two weeks some stuff has come up and I could not get my Jenny food so I had to eat low calorie low fat food and really watch myself. I already know that I cant be trusted when it comes to eating especially since I am such a foodie. I had seen a picture on pinterest on some egg muffins and I tried my own version with two eggs, a ton of diced green chilis, and a small amount of cheese. The flavor was so yummy that I made them for breakfast and dinner that night. Ok honestly, I ate them four days in a row. But only because it is so easy and I was running low on groceries. Sunday morning I knew I wanted to have them but maybe a little different since I had been eating them a lot already. So I looked in my fridge and grabbed what I thought sounded good. Some turkey pepperoni (you can eat 15 of these for 17 calories) I think I grabbed 7 and chopped it up. Then I chopped up some baby bella and spayed them with a little olive oil spray, added garlic salt and pepper and popped them in the oven on the broil setting on high for about 5 minutes I mixed together two eggs added some chopped tomato and cheese. Then I added the pepperoni and mushrooms. And then I added two table spoons of spegetti sauce because it is what I had. ( I didn't take a picture of the completed mixture cuz lets be honest it looked yucky) I then sprayed the muffin tin with Pam and scooped in my mixture. I only filled each one about 3/4 full. It made four muffins. I had turned the oven onto bake at 325 and then popped them in for about 20 minutes. They don't always transfer from pan to plate so nicely :) I know you are loving my plate right??!!!! I also made a kid friendly version with just eggs and cheese for Little Joe. These are simple and yummy and honestly you could do anything with them. 2 is perfect and fills you up. So then if you are only making them for yourself you can put the other two in a container and eat them the next day! Anywho... hope you are having an AMAZING Friday!!! Have a happy weekend! ~Heather

So in my never ending quest to better myself I am going to be doing a month long better me experiment. This month will include trying to better me all around. I'll post updates weekly so you can see if you care my progress. I’m already dieting (let’s get real, when am I not dieting, I’m doing Jenny Craig so I am expecting good results), and going to the gym regularly. In addition to these I will also be trying out some suppliments to see if they change my overall health. I will be taking 2000mg of Evening Primrose oil per day, and calcium cuz’ my mom told me I have to. I will be washing my hair with shampoo and baking soda (1 part shampoo 2 parts baking soda, I’m actually really excited to see if this makes a difference). Drinking all the water I’m supposed to. Whitening my teeth with baking soda and hydrogen peroxide (via pinterest) and doing a bible study. Whew I think its gonna be a busy month!

I sat down and looked over my list of things that I want to accomplish in 2013. And I feel like I have a good start so far. I started Jenny Craig so hopefully I will be able to stick with it and get to my “magic number”! I penciled out a budget for January with a short term and long term savings goal so I am excited about that and am hoping that I will be able to accomplish what I’ve set out to there. I have so far only done 1 run on the couch to 5k. Work in progress. I will try harder, promise! Most recently though I went on a date with my Little Joe. On Saturday evening before we were going to bed he asked me if we could go on a date. I said absolutely and asked him what he wanted to do. He told me that he wanted to go to the book store which is where we went on our last date. I told him we would go on Sunday. So Sunday around 5 we went do the hill and had dinner at Panera and then headed over to the bookstore. Little Joe loves to look at the books and play in the kids area. We had a great time and he was able to get a pirate ship puzzle and I got him a little lego guy to add to his reward basket. We had a great date! This is definitely something that I would like to do on a regular basis. Mostly because it is nice for us to get to do something “out” just the two of us. He feels special when he gets to go on a date with momma and I just love having that time with him. Especially because he seems to be EXTRA good! Love that boy! xoxo, H.

I hate resolutions. I have every intention of keeping them I work really hard at them for about 4...hours and then I think maybe tomorrow. Needless to say, I have not lost the 10lbs. I wanted to for the last four years. I was not as crafty as I wanted to be, although I must say I did a couple kick butt things this year, and even surprised myself at how my vision for my cookie exchange desserts came out. Its really no fun to get halfway through the year and be discouraged because you didn't stick with your dumb resolutions. Last year my theme was "New". I did take this theme seriously. I got a "New" hair cut. A new job. I tried lots of new things. I thought my "New" theme worked out pretty well. A theme is much better than resolutions in my opinion. This year I would like to do something completely different. My theme for this year is "Inspire". I feel like there have been so many sad events over the last few months. People that I love are hurting and I feel at a loss in how to help them. I truly feel like God has put it on my heart to do something. Is this something new, no. I have felt this for about the last two years. But I have pushed it aside and not done anything about it. I think part of this years theme is that I want to inspire others, but also inspire myself. I still have a lot that I want to accomplish this year,and of course I'll list those things shortly but really I want this year to be about others. Hopefully I will look back at the end of 2013 and be pleased with this years theme. I don't have any details about how this theme will unfold, but I ask that you would please be patient and follow along and I am hopeful that it will be "inspiring"! Along with my whole inspire theme, I would really like to accomplish a few things. No these are not resolutions but they are things that I would be excited to get some of them done and checked off my list. It would make me happy! So here is my list of things I'd like to accomplish: 1. Hit my goal weight 2. Start and stick to a budget 3. Save money 4. Have more date nights with Little Joe 5. Do at least 2 large scale "craft like" projects that i have on my list 6. Couch to 5K (dang, I just put that in writing) 7. Do at least 2 bible studies 8. Really listen to what God is telling me 9. Blog more! 10. Be more positive in 2013 11. Have the bulk of my Christmas shopping done by October Each of these things can be accomplished. I just need to do it. What I plan on doing is a running list. This is the beginning with 11 things. As I check them off I'll add another. I may also add them as I think of them, but this is a start. I will try to hold myself accountable here :) I hope that you will follow along with my "inspire" theme. Let me know what you think. Anywho, two posts in two days. Already working on one of the things on my checklist! We'll see what happens tomorrow! xoxo

2012 started off pretty swell for us. My parents, Buddy and I flew to Chicago for my best friend Will's wedding. It was beautiful and AWESOME! We were so lucky to be apart of it! This was Easton's Valentine this year. I thought it was super cute! I loved it! ! We had an AWESOME Easter at my mom and dad's in San Dimas! Christ's Church of The Valley had an amazing service and we followed it up with an Easter egg hunt and BBQ. Buddy was very excited to meet some new friends! We went to Legoland and Disneyland for Buddy's birthday. Buddy turned 4! He is growing up so fast. Too fast! We had lots of fun over the summer! Adventures all over! Mamma (me) lost her job in July so I got to stay home for a month with Buddy and I LOVED every minute of it! Buddy got to go to his first Padres game! Got AWESOME seats in the Omni Premier club. Spent some time at the beach and Buddy started soccer! This was his first organized sport and he did fabulous!!! He loved soccer! I am so excited to see how much he grows from doing these sports! Buddy started school again in the Fall. He loves his school and all of his teachers! Buddy was a very cute Police Officer for Halloween! We spent Thanksgiving with mom and dad up North in El Dorado Hills with our family up there. Fun trip! Buddy met up with Santa too! There was lots of baking done over the holidays. Pumpkin bread, cookies, cookies, cookies for my annual cookie exchange. Mini Cheesecakes, and lots of other yummies So, as you can see we had an eventful year. I am focusing on the good and plan on having a great 2013!! oh and one last tid bit... Buddy changed his cowboy name and would now like to be referred to as Little Joe. So for now, from Mamma and Little Joe...Happy New Year!!!

I really didn't think that it had been so long since my last post. August, that is like a crazy long time. Well, since August our lives have been upside down, sideways and uggg... you get it right? I'm pretty sure that I've written about 20 posts in my head since then with awesome pictures but alas none of them have made it to the blog. I've done some great projects that maybe eventually I'll post :) I do plan on doing Christmas goodies for the teachers so hopefully I'll get all that done this week and post something fun about that. I started a new job, way back in August, We've traveled up North for Thanksgiving, and quiet honestly the thing that has taken up all my brain for the last few months has been a custody case that is now mostly behind us. I cannot begin to express the emotions that have gone on over the last few months. I will not get into the details but I will say that it was filled with ups and downs and in the end my feelings on the outcome are mixed. I cannot say that I am 100% happy with where we ended up, but I will say that I know that God has a plan for us and I know that in the end it will all work out. There have been some bright spots and I am trying to focus on those. Today is the first day that I have ever sent my boy off with someone that I didn't completely trust. That is hard. It is hard to know that you are putting your child in someone elses hands. Although I have realized that all I can do is pray that while he is not with me that he is protected. That his heart and mind will not be polluted by people who have very different morals and thoughts than we do. I am praying that we have loved him enough, and instilled in him good values. We are teaching him the love of Jesus, and to have a good and kind heart. I pray that these are the things that stick with him and carry him through his life. I'm glad that the last few months are behind us and I am glad that we can look ahead to a new year. I think tonight of the parents who are faced with the horror of not having their babies with them this Christmas or ever again. I cannot fathom their pain or grief. I mourn with them. This kind of tragedy is unthinkable and there is no way to even describe the sadness that I feel for these families. I am just thankful that my baby is asleep in his room right now. I believe that this holiday season I am most thankful for the ones that I love. Thankful that they have been placed in my life. And thankful that I don't have to go through these days without them. Love is a blessing and I am blessed beyond measure. I am thankful for our family and friends who prayed with us and for us through this tumultuous time and thank God for getting us through. xoxo

So I have this awesome craft that I have been meaning to do for Pinspiration Sunday but yesterday when I was cleaning prior to working on my project I thought of something that I had been wanting to do. I have seen all of these cool cleaning tricks that I have been wanting to try so I thought that this week for Pinspiration Sunday I would try those, especially since I still need to pick up a couple items for my fun project. So here are the pins that I tried out. I hate to admit that when I clean the bathroom every week I mostly focus on the floor, toilet, and the sinks. I have neglected the bathtub/shower area, so this whole idea would be perfect. So I started out with my cleaning essentials... Almost all of these pins suggested using baking soda and vinegar to clean, but I enlisted a couple other tried and true cleaners just for the extra help. Here is what my bathtub/shower head looked like before I started. (I'm embarrassed to show you but for this project it was necessary). So I started out with the shower head. I filled my baggie with the suggested 1/3 cup of baking soda and then added the cup of vinegar. Guess what happened? Once the vinegar hit that baking soda it started bubbling and overflowed out of the baggie (wasn't expecting that) I added a little more vinegar to the baggie and placed it over the shower head. Then I set out to clean the rest of the tub. I should note that before I had decided to do this project I had already sprayed the whole thing down with Mr. Clean, but I went ahead and added the vinegar and baking soda solution as directed. Then I waited a little while, then started scrubbing. And then guess what.... it didn't come clean...hmmm imagine that. I scrubbed hard to, it was sort of annoying. So since I had gotten this far I decided that I needed to enlist the big guns... .....and started scrubbing..... And low and behold it started to come clean. Magic eraser and elbow grease, imagine that! I didn't even realize how yucky the walls were until I started scrubbing them as well. The worst part of that whole thing is that I know exactly why there was so much build up. I bought the Costco/Kirkland brand bar soap and boy is it yucky! It leaves a gross film on your skin and everywhere else. I actually don't even use it I use body wash but bad mamma that I am let Buddy use it because honestly the box of soap was like $13 and I didn't want to waste the money. When I was done my tub and walls looked like this.... I then took the baggie off of the shower head. (the pin instructions said to leave it on for an hour to over night) it was definitely better but not perfect. I do think I may try it again tonight and let it sit overnight and see if that makes a difference. Overall, it took me about an hour to do all the cleaning err experimenting and then cleaning. In the end I'll just stick with the magic eraser and save some time. So save yourself the trouble of not trying any of those pinterst cleaning techniques...maybe some of them work but really cleaning twice when they don't is no fun! BTW- sorry, when I save the pictures that I took off my phone for this post they appear to have saved small. Oh well you get the idea! xo, Heather