Cough.Sniff.Cough.

Ok, so I'm not THAT sick. It's actually more annoying this way, I think, because I'm not nearly sick enough to get any sort of pity, just sick enough to FEEL blah and NOT like exercising at ALL.

But it's gorgeous and sunny out and so sooooo soooooooo pretty that we simply HAD to go out. So we took a 3.5 mile walk and called it "good." This is more than I did yesterday when I just sat on my couch and watched Gilmore Girls, courtesy of the local library. It felt good.

It is not good, however, for the triathlon training. Nor is the ungodly number of (rather delicious, I admit) twizzlers I ate while sitting on the couch (I mean you might as well go all the way if you're going to do something decidedly un-triatlon-ish.

I DID however, drive over the run course on post. So that's something.
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In other news, Dave is happily munching on cheese and scrambled eggs and a little bread. It's adorable.

Living from Envelopes

As part of our "husband is home from war" to-do list, we are taking stock and reexamining our budget.

If you know me at all, you know I LOVE saving money, or feeling like I'm saving money (two entirely different things, lets be honest). This budgeting business is just another way to do it ... or to do it better ... or to keep track of how I'm doing on it. Whatever.

I've been inspired over the last year by a variety of sources, including ladies at my PWOC chapter, a few blogie friends and, most recently, the lovely Alisha, to look into the whole Dave Ramsey budgeting system, which includes a detailed plan and paying cash for certain things, such as groceries.

Over this holiday weekend the husband and I have made a budget and started using the envelopes. We are doing a few practice weeks over the end of February, just getting the hang of things, and will start diving fully into the system come March. The reason for this is our fluctuating income (thank you, post deployment) and an inability to figure out exactly HOW MUCH we are making due to the whole mid-month government LES business.

Alisha will be making me some truly lovely envelopes so that I dont have to use the boring white ones. So phew that's done. And I'm taking a new view towards our groceries to make sure I'm not only using coupons, but preparing meals that are economic to start with (think: chicken and vegetarian meals based off commissary sales).

For this coming week (starting tomorrow) our menu plan is:

Tuesday:
Hamburgers (a Luke request)
Pineapple

Wednesday:
Cheesy beans and rice

Thursday:
Honey-mustard chicken

Friday:
Ravioli with sweet potatoes

Saturday:
crock-pot sloppy joes (to use up those extra hamburger buns from Tuesday)
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In other news, I'm actively preparing for my triathlon! I'm going to try to add a countdown clock to this blog. Luke bought me a bike we found on sale! ... more info later.

Checking In

It's been a minute -- ok, more than a minute -- since I've checked in here.

Why? Well right now I'm watching Antiques Roadshow. Clearly this is taking up a lot of my time.

Just kidding.

Pretty much I've been crazy busy going to the Y. And exercising all of the time. And figuring out how it is that I'm stuck in this parallel universe where THE NUMBER ON THE SCALE NEVER EVER GOES DOWN!

I ask you -- how is this possible? I go to the stupid gym 6 days a week. 6 days! And run miles and miles (4.25 is the current record) and swim and do other hard core, painful stuff. Let me tell you, that's dedication. And I've been doing that since Luke got home so, almost a month. And while, yes, I haven't been eating the BEST but I certainly haven't been eating POORLY ... HOW HAVE I NOT LOST ANY WEIGHT?

I'm serious. .... number on the scale has not gone down one stupid single number. Blah blah blah I know gaining muscle, whatever. It would seriously be a confidence booster if it would go down a teensy tiny bit. Come on, give a girl a little love over here!

In related news, I discovered that Fort Lewis host three - THREE! - sprint length triathlons in the summer. And I convinced the lovely Alisha to join me! Bwhaha. (By the way, she is incredibly good with the cakes and with the craftiness. You should be her friend ... I think standing next to her makes me look good). So two points to me for having a tri-partner. Hopefully no surprise weddings will keep from actually COMPETING in my triathlon this time around.

So ... that's what I've been up. Exercising. Not loosing weight. That sort of thing.

... to keep you entertained, here's a recent photo of my adorable son ...and his daddy:

Less Boring

I felt yesterday's blog post was so boring that, after I got back in bed this morning when Luke left, I spent several quality half-asleep minutes vowing to write a WAY LESS boring post today.

But then I got up at a NORMAL PERSON TIME (in this case, 7:30 a.m.) and read my comments and discovered four! on yesterday's boringness ... that's like tying my all time high there, people (take that as a hint that you should comment more, mmmk?). Either it wasn't really that boring OR I just made you hungry and you had to comment. I'm going with the hungry.

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In less boring news, David starts swim lessons today! I have this crazy idea that my kid is the next, next Michael Phelps. If that is true, then today is the day the beginning. I shall take pictures. I shall write a journal entry. I shall otherwise document its monumentalness. And then I shall put on my swimming suit and get in the pool for mommy-and-me swim class. ... anticlimactic, I know.

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In case you were wondering, last night's alfredo shrimp was delicious, but mostly because I used the real deal half and half instead of the fat free stuff. It would've been better with fresh shrimp instead of frozen ones. That's what Luke said.

Tonight: black bean taco pizza. Ill copy the recipe if it ends up being delicious. If not, I'll spare you.

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I've started watching Lost again. In doing so I remembered why I stopped watching it in the first place -- it stresses me out beyond belief. This is the same reason I don't like 24. Too much crazy. I've not found Heroes stressful because I'm watching it with Luke .. I think ... but there is the possibility that the later seasons will make me want to take a hot bath and decompress. Sigh.

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I hope this has been more entertaining.

Eating From Pantry Challenge

I'm going to join in on this because it is kind of fun and because I had already decided to do it before everyone else did, therefore, I'm not on any sort of band wagon. I'm anti band wagon.

So this challenge started last week. The idea is that you attempt to diminish your stock pile of random canned goods and freezer food over the month while buying as little as possible at the grocery store. This is a good time for me to start this since I just now got a husband back to eat food and, when Karissa moved, it all of the sudden hit me that the Army probably WON'T move my giant pile of canned food on behalf.

So I trotted back to my food shelf and checked what I had. Here is a list of the stuff I wanted to make dent in of over the next few weeks:

5 cans of chicken broth

5 cans of beef broth

4 cans of pumpkin

3 cans of yams

2 cans of mushrooms stems and pieces

2 cans of diced tomatoes and green peppers

2 cans of diced green chilies

1 jar of banana peppers

2 cans of black beans

1 can blackeyed peas

1 can tomato paste

4 cans cream of mushroom

1 can cream of chicken

1 can evaporated milk

3 cake mixes

2 can crushed pineapple

2 cans cream of potato

1 cream of celery

1 can refried beans

2 boxes vanilla pudding

3 boxes jello

A variety of canned veggies

Jar of taco sauce

Wow that was a boring read.

Now, because Luke heads of to work in the deep darkness of the early morning and because Dave is still a baby cereal kind of guy, we don't really do breakfast and lunch around here. My menu plan is basically all dinners. The panty challenge therefore started with New Years dinner:

Ham

Sweet potato casserole

"Pink stuff" (pineapple/cottage cheese/cool whip creation)

Pumpkin pie

... bye bye 2 cans of yam, one can of pumpkin, one crushed pineapple and one box of jello.

Last week I made:

Pumpkin sausage noodles (NOT delicious so no link for you)

Texas ranch chicken casserole (totally delicious -- but no link available -- and made a TON, so we ate this pretty much off and on the rest of the week)

Pumpkin dessert bars

... bye bye 2 more cans of pumpkin, 2 cans of chicken broth, a can of diced tomatoes and green peppers, a can of diced green chilies, one cream of chicken and one cake mix.

Now, this week's plan:

Shrimp fettucini

Mexican chicken skillet (baked into tortillas), (can of corn, can of black beans)

Black bean taco pizza (taco sauce, can of black beans, diced green chilies)

Pumpkin lasagna (that final can of pumpkin)

Eclairs (both vanilla pudding boxes)

And next week, so far:

Chicken pot pie (one cream of potato and the cream of celery)

Chili (remaining diced tomatoes and tomato paste and chicken broth)

mushroom chicken noodles

So! My list should look more like:

3 cans of chicken broth

5 cans of beef broth

1 cans of yams

1 jar of banana peppers

1 can blackeyed peas

4 cans cream of mushroom

1 can evaporated milk

2 cake mixes

1 can crushed pineapple

1 can cream of potato

1 cream of celery

1 can refried beans

2 boxes jello

A variety of canned veggies

So that was a terribly boring post. Sorry about that.

I Would Like a Snack

Today was day number five in a row at the gym. That's awesome. I AM AWESOME.

(Hey, if you can't give yourself a big fat pat on the back on your blog, where else can you do it?)

I would also like a snack. Or 10 snacks. Hmmm ... chips!

Yeah, so all that exercise has made me hungry. It's unfortunate that the point of exercising is to not eat extra and loose weight.

I will be eating a lot this weekend, so I suppose it's OK. Luke and I are going on our first ever away-from-Dave trip. I've never, ever been away from him for more than like 6 hours at a time. And that was a really long time the one time it happened. But this ... THIS ... is going to be for a little over 48 hours.

That is a lot of hours.

In that amount of time I am going to eat more calories than I've worked off in 2 months. We are planning to hit several delicious restaurants and eat the largest breakfast on the face of the planet. Seriously, folks, it's like 4 courses.

So I should be good on the snack thing after that. Meanwhile, I just drank 2 cans of diet coke. Go me.

2010

See you THINK by the title of this post that I'm about to be all "happy new year" and "boy did 2009 suck except for when I got Dave which did NOT suck."

Well, you're wrong. I'm going to do that later. Right now I'm just checking in. A few things:

1. I can't really see this right now because I don't have my glasses on, soooo if it's weird that's why.

2. I'm still alive. Even though I haven't been blogging. I know this is incredible to you.

3. It's foggy outside. I like the fog.

4. I am wearing flip flops at this time

5. The pool at the Y reopens tomorrow. Woooooohoo! Dave starts swimming lessons next week. That should be super fun. He DID like the great wolf lodge, but has yet to ask to go back. Maybe that's because he can't talk.

6. I like having Luke home. I have yet to have to make two trips to the car to carry all of our stuff, the baby AND the trash because of ALL THE EXTRA ARMS. It's amazing.

And that is all for now. I know, riveting.