I'm officially a Nutrisystem Nation Blogger!

I know I've been sort of mentioning this for the past few posts but it's official now -- I'm finally a Nutrisystem Nation blogger!  I'm extremely excited to have Nutrisystem as one of our sponsors for the next few months.  Hopefully with the help of the new way of eating (not diet!) I will be able to lose a considerable amount of weight to motivate and share with everyone here. :)  I'm going to be making my Wednesday Weigh-In posts into a Wednesday Weigh-In as well as a review of some Nutrisystem foods!  Can't wait to get started!

Want to lose weight and get healthy on Nutrisystem? Join today by calling 1-888-853-4689 or by visiting http://www.nutrisystem.com/nsblog

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One Step Closer...

As some of you know in July I started attending college again.  Well, not actually attending...going to school via online but it's still college either way you look at it!  I've had a hard few months of working on a few introductory courses and in December started my first actual course, Introduction to Business.  Believe it or not, this course was actually very difficult!  I learned about the types of businesses, corporations, how a business runs, types of accounting, insurance/savings and a lot of other basic fundamentals of business.  Well, yesterday I took my final exam for my Introduction to Business course and got an 88!  I have an A- average, so far, for my entire course at this point.  Hopefully I can keep my average up in the A's!  

Why am I so excited about this?  I was never good in school.  Talking to my mom last night, she said I probably just wasn't motivated when I was in school, which is completely true.  I never wanted to be in school and hated my school experience. (Bullying, mostly.)  This time, I'm completely motivated, working everyday on some schoolwork and really pushing myself above and beyond to study, pass tests and ultimately, to get my Bachelors degree -- finally.  :)  I want to be a good role model for my girls and I want them to know that even though I'm a single mom and work two jobs to support them, I am able to graduate and get my degree too.  I just want to be that strong person that they can look up to in the future. (When they don't hate me!)

My next course is World Civilizations...that's going to be even more difficult (and probably boring) but I know I can conquer it just as I did my Intro to Business.  I have faith in myself this time around.

:)

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Weigh In Wednesday - Self Discipline, A Gym and #NSNation

I'm actually writing this Weigh-In Wednesday post on Tuesday night.  Oops. :)  I'm going to be so busy tomorrow with working two jobs and being a mom, I won't have time to write this post!  

As of today I am down 2 more pounds.  That's a total of 12 lbs lost and I am not complaining.  I did have one small cheat dinner this past week when I went out with a friend, so I'm definitely not complaining about losing anything!  I'm actually surprised I lost 2 lbs with a cheat dinner.  Happy day!  

Contradicting my last post about exercising, I joined a gym. I'm currently going to Planet Fitness and trying to go every other day for 30-45 minutes.  I actually love going and I am so surprised.  Everyone is so friendly and helpful there, they are cheap and have free personal training sessions, it's never too busy and their hours are 24 hours during the week -- very convenient!  I'm just starting out and haven't been to a gym in quite a few years so I'm re-learning everything but I am sure I'll get myself into a normal pattern/routine eventually.  I'm proud of myself and extremely determined this time.

I finally signed with Nutrisystem Nation so they will be sponsoring me & my weight loss journey starting in February!  My food is ordered and now I just await it's arrival and the start of that plan!  Hopefully I will have the same or even better results & love the idea of having to be accountable to myself, my readers and Nutrisystem.

I can't wait.

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Need to Figure out Exercise Plan

I'm already exhausted working two jobs, going to school and trying to have a social life.  Although having two jobs keeps me more on track with my diet, because I don't have time for snacking, it's just so tiring.  However I know I need to find some sort of exercise plan to do.  

For 5 years I've had a membership to the Planet Fitness around the corner from my house and only went the first year for about 4 months.  Yeah, I've been wasting $10 a month for that long.  I mean, I have the membership, why don't I go?  I can't figure out when.  I work my day job from 8am-4pm and either work my second job from 5pm-9pm, go out with friends for a few hours, spend time with my kids or just completely pass out from working so many hours.  When in the world can I fit in time to go to the gym?

I was considering getting a smaller treadmill but they are so expensive.  The cheapest one I found was from Walmart and was $250, which isn't a bad price... but where would I put it.  Back in 2007 I made a horribly impulsive purchase on QVC of a $600 elliptical.  I fell for the, "This elliptical folds up and fits right against a wall without anyone noticing it!" lie.  Well, maybe it wasn't  a lie, but I didn't think to realize they probably meant in a normal sized home it would fit against a wall.  Not a city-like two family home where the rooms are a little larger than shoe boxes.  Well, this elliptical sat in our living room for nearly a year before we finally found someone to buy it from us.  I used it a few times but it was HUGE!  It was such an eyesore in our living room.  

Planet Fitness is a 24/7 gym but I can't bring myself to go before bed, I feel I'll be too hyped up to sleep.  Getting up earlier in the morning sounds even more exhausting, I'm not a morning person!  Along with the membership I also have Wii Fit, Dance Dance Revolution and EA Sports for the Wii, I could possibly do that but then my kids want to play with it and I end up having to give in to them.  It's so damn difficult to figure out how to exercise with my schedule.  I'll probably end up going back to Planet Fitness, once I can find the time to fit it in, but I just had to write this all down -- it was driving me crazy!  I really wish I had a friend who could go to PF with me, it would definitely motivate me more.

What do you do for exercise?

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The Older You Get, The Tougher it is to Lose Weight...

...by then your body and your fat have become very good friends.

I actually found that quote online quite a while ago and I remember laughing hysterically about it.  However, it is true.  Even though I feel ancient sometimes I'm really not old, I'm 27 (and  3/4) years old but feel like I've been dieting all my life.

My diet started on January 2nd and I feel like the weight is taking a while to come off this time.  It's a little frustrating for me but I also have to realize that losing weight slower is the healthier way to do it.  I've lost almost 10lbs at this point and can't complain too much if I really think about it.  That's 10lbs in about 3 weeks, which seems like a healthy rate of weight loss for someone just starting out.  I just feel frustrated because I really want to be thin and feel like it's never going to happen.

What am I doing for a diet?  Well, I tried low carb about a year ago and while that worked great for me, I felt hungry all of the time.   I'm currently following a low calorie plan by eating Lean Cuisine, Smart Ones and Weight Watchers means while also making my own food.  I'm trying to currently stay under 1200 calories a day, which is working for me.  I considered doing Nutrisystem but dismissed it as it was too expensive for me.  Thankfully, Nutrisystem contacted me and asked if I wanted to review their system at the end of February, so that is coming up and I'm very excited to start writing about being a Nutrisystem Blogger!  Keep looking out for my Nutrisystem posts because I'm completely excited to promote such a great plan and a great company! 

I'm going to be weighing in weekly on Wednesdays and posting my feelings, thoughts and progress on here.  I'm actually very excited and feel like I'm going to have to be accountable to each and every reader of my blog.  (Let me think that, please! lol) 

So, why exactly am I losing weight?  I'm losing weight for myself and for my kids.  I don't want to not run around outsite with them because I can't breathe, I don't want to be ashamed of going to the beach or waterpark with them because I hate putting on a bathing suit, I don't want to be called the "fat mom" anymore.  I'm also doing it for my own health; I was diagnosed with diabetes a few months ago and was told that if I ate the right way I might actually be able to control my diabetes without medication.  I also am trying to control my gallbladder and gallstone issues too.  After a horrible attack that put me in the ER overnight over the summer I realized that eating everything like I had been at that time was causing me to be uncomfortable and sick.  I just want to be healthy and not have to have surgery!  (I also may be losing weight to impress someone as well...but that's between you and me. lol)

Good luck to everyone else who is trying to lose weight and get in shape! You can do it!

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My Current iPhone Homescreen - Version #1

Phones are an important part of our life in this day and age because they basically store our lives and businesses.  That's why I think it's important to share & find new apps that may improve our productivity, organization or lives.  Every so often I am going to write about new apps that I love or share my current iPhone home screen.  Why am I going to do that?  Because I love apps and download quite a few to test out.  

Above is my current iPhone home screen -- I'm OCD about this screen.  I want to make sure that everything on my home screen I need or use and definitely want it to look organized and neat.  Why do I have only three rows of apps when my iPhone holds 5 rows?  Basically because I want it to look clean and streamlined.  I only want what I use every single day on my home screen and that's what's there.

Sparrow Mail - I never liked the look or feel of iPhone's native mail app so I went searching for a new app.  Sparrow may cost $2.99 but it's an amazing app for mail.  You can add multiple e-mail accounts and it looks clean and is extremely easy to organize your mail.  I'm actually obsessed with this app right now.

Chrome - I'm a loyal Chrome user on my PC & Mac so it's only fair that I use Chrome on my iPhone & iPad as well!  I absolutely love how fast chrome loads versus Safari and love how bookmarks & recently viewed pages stay on the home screen of the app as well.  It's great!

Camera + - I use my phone as a camera multiple times a day, it's one of my favorite things to do with my phone.  Camera + actually takes than the native app and I love the zoom & grid features. 

Google - Anyone who knows me knows that Google is one of my favorite things.  I am constantly Googling random facts or things I need to know about.  Instead of constantly opening Google up in my browser, it's only fair that I have the app for easy access. 

TD Bank - Easy access to my checking and savings account & account balance. 

Week Cal - I just like this app better than the native Calendar app.  I think it has a better interface and easily switches between work, personal and other calendars I may have.  It just has a more clean interface to the app and calendar. 

Pocket - Pocket is one of those apps that I can't live without.  I can easily send websites and blogs directly to Pocket to read later on.  It's similar to Instapaper and was formerly called Read it Later.  This is an app I definitely recommend to everyone.  

Reeder - BEST RSS reader.  I love it!  (I don't love the way my unread count continuously goes up though! LOL I subscribe to too many blogs!)  It's feature heavy and allows you to mark all read/unread, keep favorites and edit your subscriptions right from the app.

AnyList - I have to be honest, I use other "list" apps too but AnyList is one that I can't seem to part with.  I'm not 100% in love with it but I don't hate it either.  I love the fact that the "banner" tells you how many tasks you still have to get done.  It's helpful because the annoying number of undone tasks continuously has me looking at it to see what I can get done to make that number go down or away. lol

Evernote - I just recently fell in love with Evernote but seem to use it quite a bit.  I use it in conjunction with Pocket and Reeder.  If there's something I want to save to use later I will use Evernote to index it so it is easier to pull back up later.  This app is so feature packed and has so many advantages...

SongPop - Love Love Love this game. Enough said. 

Dialvetica - Has definitely replaced my native "phone" app.  Firstly, I don't use my phone too much for actual calls and talking so I don't need to constantly use the "phone/contacts".  However when I do need to make a call Dialvetica knows who I call the most and lists them first with all of their contact information.  This way it is extremely easy and quick for me to pull up one of those contacts to call, e-mail or text.

TweetBot - I used to use the regular Twitter app just until a few days ago.  I'm currently testing this app out because I wanted a change of pace.  I'll probably know within a week or so if this app is a keeper for Twitter...I use it quite a bit so I need something that I actually like!

The other pages have:  

2nd Page:

• IM+ for cross platform instant messaging.  
• AT&T Navigator for GPS -- I love this app even though it costs me monthly.
• Calculator because I'm # challenged.
• Farenheit since I always want to know the temp and love how it shows it in a flag on the front of the icon.
• App Store just because I'm such an app addict.
• Optimum is my cable provider and I love that I can watch TV from the app, manage my DVR and use my phone as a remote via WiFi.
• Capture as a video recording program.
• Settings since I use settings quite a bit.

The third page has all of my folders which I name with verbs instead of other titles.  I use titles such as "work", "photograph", "listen", "watch", "shop", "organize", etc...  I feel it makes me more productive for some reason!  I also have a folder for apps that I am currently testing and a folder for the native iPhone apps that I barely ever use. :)  

I love that my phone is organized, it makes me feel like I have at least one thing under control in my life.  

How do you organize your phone? What are some of your favorite apps?

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Santa was good to my girls this year.

When I left my house to go to see Les Mis last night it was snowing like crazy.  As much as I hate snow I was extremely excited since it was Christmas Eve.  There's just something about snow on Christmas Eve/Christmas that makes it really feel like the Holidays.  I was hoping the snow would stick a little, enough for us to have a white Christmas but by the time I got out of the movie theater the snow had turned into rain.  

The girls were sleeping on the couch when I got home so I carried them each to my bed.  Alayna was perfectly fine and still asleep when I put her in her bed but Olivia was scolding hot.  I had a feeling that she had a pretty high fever so I put her in bed and got a thermometer.  Turns out I was right, she had a 102 temperature and refused to take Tylenol for me until I dissolved the meltaway on a spoon for her.  She went back to sleep and woke up again 10 minutes later crying that she didn't feel good... That went on for about 2 hours.  Finally at 5:30 AM she was asleep soundly, her fever seemed to be down a little bit and I was able to make sure that Santa put the presents under the tree.  

Olivia and Alayna woke up about an hour later and shook me awake to open presents.  Keep in mind, I only had an hours worth of sleep and was falling asleep while the presents were being opened.  However I stayed awake enough to take a few pictures of my girls opening presents.

They made out like little bandits! They got a Fisher Price Serving Surprises Table, pretend food, Alayna got a guitar & Olivia got a keyboard, Journey Girl dolls, Play Doh, games, craft sets, dollhouse furniture and so many more goodies that we can't wait to play with together!  After opening presents Olivia asked if she could go back to bed and not play with her toys until later; that's when I really knew she was sick.  She usually wants to rip open everything and play with it right then and there.  

After presents we prepared for my uncle and grandma to come, just our usual small family get together, for dinner.  We had a great Christmas despite Olivia being sick.  I still have no idea where we are going to stick all of these new toys but we now have an excuse to put together the second bookcase that we've had in a box for about 4 months! :)  I hope everyone had a great Christmas! 

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Merry Christmas Eve to everyone!

'twas the night before Christmas and all through our house,

Cookies were baking the scent was so grand,

Kiddies all dressed in their PJs by the tree,

Ready for later that night & Santa Claus to land.

Merry Christmas to all our readers! Dinner is done, the alarm for the cookies just sounded, we are off to put the cookies and carrots on a plate with a nice glass of milk for Santa and Reindeer! My little elves will be off to bed soon, anxious for Santa's arrival tonight! I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas Eve with their families!

From our family to yours. :)

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Pre-Christmas Adventures with our Family!

Due to my new job (that I have been at for almost 3 months now!) and my mom, kids and I being sick, we were pretty late on doing everything Christmas this year.  I didn't get to do my Black Friday haul but still got my shopping done by budgeting $100 every week for my kids, family and friends presents.  I think I did pretty well with what I had and have no complaints at all.  Our tree (shown above!) was put up the weekend after Thanksgiving but we did not get around to decorating the tree or the house until just two weeks ago.  We went a little overboard this year getting decorations done...I mean putting a Christmas toilet seat topper on the toilet and a Christmas rug in the bathroom. 

Next came Olivia's 5th Birthday & Party on Dec. 21, 2012.  I couldn't believe my little princess turned 5, it was so hard to accept that she was another year older because she is my little baby! (And she will ALWAYS be!)  We had her party at Michaels Arts & Crafts with just a few of her friends from Pre-School.  The party went over extremely well, even though we only had 3 other girls aside from my two!  Olivia had so much fun and couldn't stop talking about her big girl party!  We all made foam Gingerbread Houses in honor of Christmas, which was right around the corner!  I also took some time out of my morning to make Snowman cupcakes for her party, which turned out adorable!

We didn't get to see Santa until yesterday, the day before Christmas Eve and boy was there a line.  We waited for about an hour and 45 minutes to see Santa at the mall, but that hour and 45 minutes was so worth it when my girls got up to see him!  They told him what they wanted for Christmas and Olivia got to tell Santa that her birthday had been just a few days before.  She was super excited when Santa said, "Happy Birthday!" to her.  The picture came out great and I also snapped one really quickly on my phone as well! 

After meeting Santa we ran over to mail our letters at Macys.  This was especially important to Alayna since every letter that's "mailed" is a donation to the Make A Wish foundation.  Alayna has a best friend that has been in the hospital in Philadelphia for almost an entire year.  He needs a heart and kidney transplant and so far has had no luck, but he is part of the Make A Wish foundation and that cause has become very dear to my 7 year old's heart because of her best friend.  

So today I got a bit of last minute wrapping in when the kids were still asleep and I am in between doing some cooking for tomorrow and getting ready to bake cookies for Santa.  Tonight I'm going to be seeing Les Miserables with one of my friends at the movies so I want to make sure I get everything done with my girls and get them into bed before I leave!  Santa will be here before we know it and I'm sure he'll leave lots of presents for my girls -- they've been good this year. (We won't talk about the times they weren't!)

Merry Christmas Eve to all of you!  

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Mommy Gone Crazy -- Where's my sanity?

This is my day after I leave work today.  

I usually work until 4pm with my day job and get home by 4:30pm, I work about 30-35 minutes away from where I live.  Today I have absolutely no free time at all today, not even after 11:30 when I finally get home from finishing shopping.  

A few weeks ago I found out that I have a leak in my air valve on my front passenger side tire and it keeps losing air. I finally just put electrical tape around the air valve, it did help, but when it rains it looses it's sticky and it starts losing air more rapidly again.  The only time I can get to the dealer is on Saturdays and they have no time until after Christmas to see me.  Finally, I called Firestone and asked if they can do anything for me.  Thankfully they said that they can replace the air valve for me instead of the whole sensor -- but my air pressure light will still be on my dashboard.  Who cares about the damn light, I just don't want to have to constantly fill my damn tire with air every other day!  I set up an appointment at 4:40pm for that, directly after I get home.  

Yesterday my oldest, Alayna, woke up with a fever, horrible cough and very scratchy throat.  I figured it was just a 24 hour thing and gave her Tylenol while she stayed home from school.  Optimism is definitely my thing because I thought she would be better this morning.  WRONG!  She still had a fever this morning and felt even worse so I kept her home again and made a doctors appointment for her at 5:15 today.  Now I have to run home from Firestone after that is done, get Alayna, my mom and Olivia and go to the doctors office.  Why do I have to bring them all with me?  I have a job interview at 5:45 with H&R Block.

For the past 7 years I have worked seasonally at H&R Block as a receptionist and this year will probably be no different.  Yes, I do have a day job but unfortunately I need a second job to help catch up on the bills we were late on when I was unemployed.  I figure that this seasonal job (jan-april) will help with paying those bills down so we are current on all of our bills.  Right now we don't have too much leeway with money after paying bills and I wish we had some extra. So basically I have to leave my mom and the girls at the pediatrician's office while I run to the interview and then pick them back up.

After that (bored yet?) I have to finish Christmas shopping, I'm going out with one of my friends for a few hours of sanity tonight and then come home and make:

• 18 Christmas bags for Alayna's class
• 22 Christmas bags for Olivia's class
• 22 Birthday/Christmas cupcakes for Olivia's birthday tomorrow. (Class)
• 15 Birthday/Minnie Mouse cupcakes for Olivia's birthday party tomorrow night
• 15 Goody bags for Olivia's birthday party tomorrow night

I also have to prep her Birthday activity for her party since we are having a bunch of 4-5 year old making foam gingerbread houses at the party.  I'm going to be up until probably 3 am doing all of this and I don't know how I'm going to do it.  Nobody better bother me tomorrow, I'm sleeping for as long as I can before I have to do a million more things....

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