Coming Out of Hiding...

I haven't posted in over a month. I kind of slipped into the shadows for awhile, as I was studying for the Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES) exam, which I took on October 16th. Studying was pretty consuming - both of time and mental ability, so I honestly did not even think about updating the blog.

Donnie and I made a weekend out of my exam. I took the exam at Western Michigan University, in Kalamazoo, MI, which is about 3 hours away from where we live. We drove out Friday night and came home on Monday. It was so nice to get a few days away, even if it wasn't for some exciting vacation. On our drive home we decided to take a bit of a detour and stopped in Hell. This is one of those towns where if you blink, you miss it. There's a restaurant/souvenir shop, ice cream/souvenir shop and an inn. We picked up a few things, had some super yummy ice cream and (pumpkin in a waffle cone made right there! yum!!!!!) took some pictures.




Since then, I was busy with work and just being lazy. I've realized I've put on some weight, so this will be a serious focus starting in November. I plan to set up a tv and dvd player in our empty bedroom upstairs so I can start using my exercise videos again. We also finally had money to do a big grocery shopping trip, so I put a few freezer meals together. I bought a bunch of pumpkin puree, so I'm on the hunt for pumpkin recipes. So far, I have made Pumpkin Pie Bread, which is delicious!!! It made me realize that I haven't been keeping a list of recipes I've tried, which I need to do for my 101 in 1001 list. So, I have to work on remembering some recipes I've made over the last few months that I've forgotten about.

On the topic of my 101/1001 list, I've made some changes, edited some items, and added to my list, making it a total of 110 items! I'm really so excited about everything on it, and can't wait to get to a few specific items.

I promise to work on updating more often, now that life has calmed down a bit and I've had my time to relax. *crosses heart*.

DIY Street Fair

The thing I love most about where we live is that there are tons of awesome festivals going on all summer. This past weekend was a three-in-one art fair. We only made it to one part, the DIY Street Fair. There were tons of tents of locals artists selling their work, a beer tent where the local microbrewery, The WAB, had a bunch of local beers on tap. I fell completely in love with Mt. Pleasant Brewing Company's Coal Stoker's Blackberry Ale. I'm all about fruity beer, and this was just delicious. I will definitely be seeing if I can purchase it anywhere around here. Donnie loved Atwater Block Brewery's Dirty Blonde. We didn't get to any of the food, but it was all from the bars in town and smelled delicious! The music was all local bands, and I must say, Detroit is still filled with incredible musical talent! I wound up buying a necklace from a local handmade glass artist who had the most amazing pieces. I seriously wanted to buy everything she was displaying! We chatted with the artist a bit and she was super nice and really sweet. I will definitely be buying more of her work in the future!


It's reversible!

My First OAMC Meal!

So, I did my cooking for my freezer meals on Monday, but we just ate the first one tonight. I can't complain, since we have eaten at home all but one day this week (we ordered pizza once), and now I can wait even longer to do a big shopping trip again! The first meal we tried was the Chicken Broccoli Casserole from Once a Month Mom. Overall, it was really yummy! I forgot to a picture, but it definitely didn't look like the picture on the website. I will definitely be making this again. The only problems I ran across involved our oven taking forever, as usual.

I also made Donnie's spaghetti sauce for the first time on Friday! It's far from my "kind" of food, because it has both ground beef and pork sausage, but it's so yummy that I really can't complain. And it came out awesome! I am excited because we love spaghetti, but Donnie never wants to make it, so now I can make it myself!

My New Favorite Snack!

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Originally uploaded by Rachel0506
I had a coupon for Blue Diamond Oven Roasted Almonds, so I picked some up on Monday. I got the dark chocolate covered ones and just tried them. WOW! Delicious! I had to jump on the computer and write a post to share this!!

She's got legs...

For those of you who have never been overweight, you may not understand how excited I am about my latest "I think I may be losing weight" realization. I swear my legs are getting thinner. I've noticed over the last few days that my thighs don't seem to touch as much as they used to. I don't feel like I'm losing weight, but I can FEEL a difference in my legs when I'm walking or standing. I wear a t-shirt for work and you can't even see where my thighs touch because the shirt falls lower. I don't think I'm just imagining this! But even if I am, it's motivating me, and that's enough for me.

It doesn't look like I'm going to ovulate this cycle. Taking my temperature drove me crazy too much. I started taking it at 5:25am because I randomly woke up at that time the day I wanted to start. This led to stressing over getting enough sleep, sleeping poorly, and waking up WAY earlier than I wanted. We also turned the a/c off during this cycle and started sleeping with the windows open, and that seems to have really thrown things off. My cervical mucus doesn't seem to be showing any changes in my hormones, either. We will see how things go in future cycles.

I've started really trying to focus on my diet again. I am trying to make sure we eat home more than we were, so I'm trying once a month cooking. Now, I don't have the freezer space for a month's worth of meals, but I have five meals in the freezer right now and have two more that I will make in the next day or two. Our biggest issue is not planning ahead and when it comes time for dinner we can't decide on anything, are missing a bunch of ingredients or just don't feel like spending the time to make anything, so we order out. I'm really excited to see how this works out for us.

On another note, I found out today that I am eligible for the Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES) exam that I registered for, so I ordered my study guides today and will be taking the exam on October 16th! I'm so excited! I don't know if this will help me find a job in the near future or not, but it won't hurt when I apply for jobs.

A Little Catch-Up

I've been really bad at updating lately. Hopefully after the grocery shopping trip I have planned for tomorrow and getting back to really gung ho about my diet I will be posting more.

I started charting this cycle. I had the WORST period of my life to start it off with. I was seriously in agony. There was a day where sitting in the chair at my desk hurt so much I just laid down on my office floor. And I work at a car wash, so nothing (other than the cars coming out!) is clean, including the office floor. But it felt so good! It's been hard getting back into the habit of charting after two years of not doing it. I'm hating taking my temperature in the morning! I have to temp vaginally because I sleep with my mouth open. Yesterday I think I was so tired when my alarm went off to take my temp (5:25am, because that's when I randomly took it the first day) that I forgot to actually turn the thermometer on and then fell asleep. When I woke up I removed it and turned it on and saw a really low temp. I don't think it was an actual reading because the last temp always shows up when you turn it on, and that temp didn't show up today. So, yeah, temping is driving me crazy. I will get used to it though, just like I did before. I've also been checking my cervical fluid. I have found that checking internally is the best for me. I didn't start this until a few days after my period ended. I definitely went from dry to one day of sticky to a few days of creamy so far. Tonight, though, it had a very pink/red tinge to it. I'm excited thinking this may be ovulation spotting, but it could also be any number of things, including my cycle being lame and my period being on its way. So we will see! I'm getting back to checking my cervix as well. I'm not marking these readings down yet because it's a sign that's very difficult for me to get accustomed to. So I'm kind of just scoping it out right now.

Okay, I just have to say that I love going out to eat and having complete control over my meal. Donnie and I were off today and ran some errands and decided to go out to lunch. We went to BD's Mongolian BBQ. I don't think if this is a national chain or not, but it should be. Basically, you get a bowl, go through a "salad bar" type line and pick your meat/seafood/pasta, then your veggies, then your sauces. Then you take it to a big grill and watch them cook it for you. I LOVE this place! I've been really trying to eat the best I can lately, given that I seriously need to go grocery shopping. This meal just made me happy. I had two plates today. The first was chicken (boneless/skinless), shrimp, broccoli, bean sprouts, pineapple, onion and edemame with soy and ginger sauces. The second was all veggies (since I was full but really wanted more!): broccoli, onion, pineapple, pea pods, baby corn and edamame with a sweet orange peel sauce and teriyaki sauce. Now, granted, the sauces weren't incredible choices as I'm sure they're filled with sugar and definitely lots of sodium, but I think overall it balanced out well. I just love that I had total control over my meal. I didn't have to ask for substitutions or feel bad about anything I ate, I didn't have to feel like "Well, most of this is good, so it's okay", or anything like that. I chose exactly what I wanted and it was delicious. And it was good for me, and totally within my diet. I walked away uncomfortably full but HAPPY.

Tomorrow I'm making salmon and I can't wait. I've managed to talk myself out of making it the last few nights because I never felt like going to the store to get stuff to go with it. How lame is that? The scale is not being friendly, so I'm very excited to go shopping and fill the house with yummy, healthy food!

OMG OMG OMG OMG

I owe Donnie $20. But I also have actual reason to think I ovulated! Gonna be charting this cycle to see what happens. Maybe I can check "ovulate at least once without medication" off of my list! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PCOS BE DAMNED!!!!!!!!