I'd like to thank the Academy

I love blog awards. I have only ever received one of them, until today baby. Well, yesterday to be more exact. Ishmael and Kelly both called me out on their blogs and awarded me with the stylish blogger award.


I love both of these ladies, they inspire me, make me smile and their brand of hilarity is right up my alley. 

So here's my price of admission.
7 things about me, wow let the narcissism flow freely. 

1. I am first and foremost a momma. From the time when I could form the "what I want to do when I grow up" thought, it was always, be a mommy. My munches are my world, and they are hilarious.

2. I am terrified of engineering failures. I am convinced that I am going to die in some catastrophic building collapse, or the big glass ball at the Fox theater is going to land on my head. In related insanity I am also convinced that my double wide trailor is going to someday just fall apart like two halves of a clam.

3. I am a musical bi-polar. My IPOD boasts Queen, Anna Nalick, The Glen Miller Orchestra, Frank Sinatra, Pink, Lady Gaga and Bon Jovi.

4. I'm a slob, big time, crap everywhere slob. I will wear every peice of clothing I own so I can put off doing laundry for as long as possible. It's good that Jeeves is such a neat freak, he keeps our house from being condemned.

5. I -hate- sweating. I hate the feeling of sweat running down anywhere. It makes me feel like things are crawling on me. I will wear more clothes than needed so the clothing will soak up the sweat and I don't have to feel it dripping off of anything. Sweating makes me feel like I'm trying to diffuse a bomb or something, it makes me anxious and irritated.

6. I sing along with the kid shows on Nick Jr. I know the words and somedays I even get up and dance around. My kids are toddlers and they think I'm hilarious. We do alot of goofy jumping and dancing around on a daily basis.

7. I sleep better with my kids in bed with me. Both girls, Jeeves and myself can all Tetris our way into a comfy position and sleep soundly all night long. It's like I need to be touching them for my body to relax enough to sleep well. I'm pretty sure it goes back to when Pumpkin was first born and I could only rest when she was sleeping on my chest and I could feel her breathing. We are co-sleepers and I don't see that changing in the near future. This makes Mutti crazy.

Alright I'm supposed to nominate other blogs for the award. So I'm nominating

The Fat Mom - who is fabulous and doesn't realize it as much as the rest of us do.
Vavoom Vintage - who is more stylish than anyone I know.
Kreating Kristen - who is a Momma-bear and stronger today then I will ever be.
Calories and Crunches - who is so adorable I want to hang out with her cause I'd be cuter by association.
The Gasoline Free Commute - because he is showing us that dudes can be stylish bloggers!
Dancing Towards Myself - cause she can do something I want desperately to learn, belly dance!
Stephanie - who is kind and amazingly supportive of her fellow bloggers.

Since Kelly and Ish already have the award I am not going to re-gift, but I love you both more than my knee high black boots (trust me, that's saying something).
Sooooo, G'night!

So Far So Good

Foods for the day:
Balance Bar- 190 cals
Progresso Soup- 160 cals
Yoplait light- 100 cals
Total: 450 calories
Water: 52 ounces so far.
Not too Shabby

I have an ambitous plan to get my shit together this week. Two weeks of holiday nonsense threw up all over my house. Yesterday after church I went home and washed every stitch of laundry in my house and cleaned out the fridge.(I got rid of the toxic leftovers). I cleaned out my closet, stuffed two bags full of outsized clothes and organized my closet. I cleaned my bedroom and set up the munches new bed on the floor. Then I did my dishes and went through my youngest's clothes. She is between a 24month and 3T in size and there are several things she cannot wear so I weeded out the stuff that doesn't fit and put it in a bag to take to my SIL for my neice who is a little over a year now and growing like a weed, but a very, very cute weed.

I was up from 5:30 yesterday morning until around midnight. I got so much done that it inpspired me to do some more. Today I am tackling Pumkpins clothing and the spare room. I need to get the hoarder-esque pile of crap out of that room and begin turning in into the guest room/mommy room it needs to be.

I have an office/craft space that is in dire need of a good clean out, but that will be a project for after I work out my Etsy store business plan. I am going full out crafty this year, I want to be able to sell fun crafty things and make some extra cash at the same time. Adding to the crafty insanity, I am also asking my cousins if I can make the costumes for thier girls at halloween this year. My girls want very much to be the Disney Fairies and I currently have patterns for about 8 costumes, so hopefully we will have the cast of Tinkerbell to photograph this halloween. I want to get the costumes done kind of early and do a photo shoot for our elders, they love great pics of the munchkins in the family, especially my grandparents. (plus I like to dress up too, so I'll be designing some costumes as well.)

Today has been a good day, nothing crappy going on, and food on target. Water is going in easily and I'm feeling industrious at work today. I think good days are often overlooked, not everyday has to be an amazing explosion of excitement, sometimes it's a relief to just have a solid, middle of the road, boring good day.

Who you calling easy?

Tom came for a visit this week,(joy) and brought with her a wicked craving for chocolate. Thus far I have been able to resist the urge to gnaw my way through a box of truffles, but it's been close a time or two. In the spirit of changing my habits and way of eating my response to a craving has been to get busy and do something. When I finish a task, cleaning, gift, whatever: I re-evaluate and if I still want something sweet I indulge in a small protein bar. (larabar makes great minis and at about 80 calories the price is right) At least then I'm getting good stuff too.

In related news: my closet is clean, I have no dishes in my sink and I am very close to finishing all my Christmas gifts.  I've kept the calories low every day this week and with my workouts, my deficit has been pretty high. Amazing considering this time last year I ate cookies as a meal a few times.

Speaking of which, I've been doing some evaluating of my habits prior to making this change. I didn't gain fast, I gained steady, about 2 pounds a month for 2 years. I did eat a lot of junk, but I'm not a binge-er. When I cut out regular soda, candy, cookies and chips from my everyday diet, what I eat now doesn't look all that different portion wise to what I was eating before, granted I make better choices now, but the amounts are very similar(probably the reason I don't feel all that deprived) I now know calories basically off the top of my head, the math I do while eating looks a lot like what the real totals are at the end of my day. I don't have trigger foods, I don't have issues with self control, I even like healthy foods.

My only excuse for becoming fat is distraction. I didn't pay attention. I'm not going to lie and say that there was no stress in my life, but basically I'm a laid back chick, I take the path of least resistance.  I believe I let my habits get bad because it was easy. I have a full time job, and it was easier to grab 2 packs of ramen noodles for lunch everyday(800 calories in that meal by the way) I wanted to spend time with my kids when I got home and it was easier to eat peanut butter and jelly and chips for dinner every night. I enjoy candy and beer and it was easier to just consume until it was gone than figure out what a serving was and how it fit into my day. I've started to think now about the things that have become easier since I've lost weight.

It's easier to walk up stairs
It's easier to feel pretty
It's easier to walk down the street alone
It's easier to wake up in the morning
It's easier to meet people's eyes
It's easier to climb in the back seat
It's easier to run and play with my babies

That's the path of least resistance, make living easier.