wednesday weigh-in: week 16

So Ive been really proud of myself all week long. Ive made it a point to go out and walk everyday this week. Even saturday & sunday! Go me! I kind of made it a mommy & baby thing too. You see theres a local park in our neighborhood. Not real big or anything, but definitely holds some sentimental value. Seeing I used to play on that playground when I was little. And softball on the fields till I was in high school! So after I pick up matthew from my sisters I would rush home, throw him in the stroller (not literally) and then walk the long way around the neighborhood, with our final destination being the park. We'd swing a little, climb on the slide, and eat wood chips meet neighbors. Then walk the long way home. Yesterday I even made it a Mommy, Baby, & grandma thing! I convinced my mom to walk with us and then to come over for dinner while hubs was at his award ceremony for work.

Basically, I was feeling good about myself. Considering last week i gained .2lbs (oops did I forget to update last weeks post, my b). And Ive been eating healthier all week. You should see the amount of veggies I have accumulate this week! But back to my point, feeling good, and then all of a sudden I step on the scale this morning. The morning of my weigh-in. The scale Im not supposed to step on, because I weigh in at the meeting not at home. And it looks like Ive gained this week too. How is that possible? I was so good? And its so disappointing. :(

Im not going to get too emotional about it until I weigh-in tonight at the meeting. Hopefully my scale is off/broken? :/ I would hate to feel defeated after all the effort I put in this week. Wish me luck.

lbs shed this week:  -.8 (not too bad, better than gaining like I thought I would)

lbs shed in total: -17.2 

lbs still need to shed: 32.8

first goal: 10lbs - reached on 2/13/13

•     reward:  mani/pedi and possibly massage (still havent done this yet)

second goal: 25lbs

•     reward: new rollerblades (I need these ASAP!!! i want to rollerblade so bad! im hoping my want for these will turn into more motivation!)

final goal:  50lbs

•     reward: epiphanie camera bag

success: exercising everyday this week! eating lots of veggies.

set-backs:  not tracking every day. I do good Thursday & Friday, then the weekend comes and i try to remember in my head but forget to put it in my app, and then by Monday Ive just stopped tracking altogether.

exercise: lots of walking, even if it was only for 20 mins I made sure to do it everyday this week.

fridays letters

dear hubby, im so proud of you for receiving the blue diamond award from your company! I know you were a little let down and aggravated about your performance review a couple weeks ago. But look at it this way, you performance review is done by your manager, the blue diamond award is given by the executives. obviously, the people with authority (and not jealousy) are impressed by your work. and I know that youve been doing awesome! so keep it up! matthew and I are so proud of you!

dear matthew, i cant believe you are going to 1 in a little over a month, i know I keep saying this, but you are growing just too fast! slow down for mommy ok? until then I must start planning your 1st birthday party. why must your favorite show be little einsteins? there is literally nothing in stores to buy that are little einsteins!

dear disney junior, if you are going to continue playing little einsteins on air, whos decision was it to not produce any more merchandise or party decorations? wost idea ever. you are making this 1st birthday party planning alot more stressful than it should be. now I must hand make everything, and although pinterest is a great source, it is also time consuming. i could always go the etsy route, but thats just more expensive, urrggghh, whats a mother to do?

dear sister, i know you are just trying to help, but calling me this morning while I was working to let me know that not only do I need to indeed start planing matthews birthday, but also figure out whether I am going to get him the swingset, has now made me overwhelmed. thanks for that. not.

dear self, i know you want this whole 1st birthday thing to be oh-so-special for your lil man, but honestly, he isnt even going to remember, its more for your own pleasure. So stop being so stressed and make this as simple as possible, but with personal touches.

dear groupon, why must you always have such good deals? like the emeals groupon i bought yesterday? i honestly dont have the extra money to be spending right now, but I just couldnt pass up this offer!

screenshot was taken yesterday, so it ends sooner than whats in the pic, better hurry!

dear emeals, im so excited to start using you! Im hopping not only will you help me be more involved in cooking dinner (im not the cooker in the family lol) but also just help plan dinner in general, as well as save with grocery shopping. my only problem now is deciding on which plan to choose! low fat? low carb? slow cooker?

dear work-at-home-moms, does your little one stay with you when youre working? ive mentioned it a couple times on here that i drop my son off with my sister mon-fri while I work (at home). But lately ive been debating whether i should just keep him home with me? i would love to spend more time with him, and it would save me about $125 a week, but im also a little nervous about actually being able to get work done. any tips or suggestions welcome. tia

dear sister-in-law, i understand youre ecstatic about the little bambino growing in your tummy, as I am just as happy to meet my new nephew. however, your baby shower isnt going to be until august, so please excuse me if all of my attention isnt on this event, as my sons 1st birthday is fastly approaching and at this moment that is more important to me. thanks. love you.

dear mother-in-law, it would be greatly appreciated if you could please find a house before august and be all moved in. as it would be so much easier and less of a headache to have your daughters baby shower there, opposed to at the relatively expensive restaurant she has proposed to have it at. thanks. love you too.

dear hubby, because you and matthew always get two, im secretly hoping that your work kicks you out early again today (to avoid overtime) so that you can come home and vacuum and clean the house while I finish work.

dear matthew, tomorrow daddy and I are going to take you to the beach for the first time. i know, why we waiting this long is beyond me. but I do hope you enjoy it just as much as your mommy does. there is always the slim chance youll absolutely despise it like your father, but mommy is hoping not. im expecting lots of sand eating. And possibly some squeals of excitement. but no need to worry, mommy would never leave the house without her camera, so were sure to get a few good memories from the outing.

and because Ill never leave you without a cute pic.

 

the house debate

The house we currently live in is our first home. Ive only ever lived 2 other places in my life. The first being my parents, and the second being our first apartment. All three places are within 10 mins of each other. Heck, the first and last are 2 blocks away from one another. Basically, i love the area we live in. Well.....technically I dont, not the exact area, but the overall area.

If you were born and raised here, like I was, there is a huge difference from living out east and living out west. Im an east girl. Hubs? Hes a west boy. Now, lets get a few things straight here, the distance between those places is no more than 30 mins from each other. Which isnt a huge difference. But the main difference, at least to me, is the closeness to the beach. I love the beach. I love being 5 mins from the beach. Ironically, i dont go to the beach often, but i feel more comfortable and at ease knowing its that close. Hubby, on the other hand, hates sand. Like despises it. Which is a huge reason I dont frequent the beach as often. Its basically a special occasion if he goes with (like Tortuga or this Sat when we take matthew for his first beach trip).

However, a major down side of being closer to the beach is that the price of homes is way higher. And the homes are older or brand new mansions. Basically, we either live in a fixer-upper or win the lotto. Ill let you guess which is our current situation.... But it was only natural for me to look in the area Im from when we were in the market for our current house. And when we found an awesome deal in the neighborhood I grew up in, i couldnt pass it up.

Fast forward 2.5 years. We are still in the same house. A house that has become our home. A fixer-upper indeed. Endless renovations for sure. Huge potential definitely. But, and Im being honest here, we didnt really put lots of thought into the whole family atmosphere. When I was growing up, sure there were kids everywhere you looked in this neighborhood. But its been 27years, and things have changed. The population of the city we live in is highly gay. Not that this is bad, it actually is extremely nice. I love my neighbors. Andplusalso, they maintain their houses way better than alot of the outer areas around here. Which helps in raising the value of the homes as well.

But with that being said, there arent nearly as many, if not any, children in the neighborhood. We live 3 blocks away from an elementary school and the majority of the kids attending are bussed in from outer areas. And I want my kids to grow up with kids. I want them to be able to go out front and play baseball in the street with the neighbors. Things that I used to do, and memories I cherish, when I was growing up.

Now the neighborhoods hubby grew up in are still currently family neighborhoods. Lots of kids. Lots of parks. Better schools. Cheaper, bigger, and newer houses. Its only natural for hubs to want to move back out west. And honestly, the idea is very attractive. Our friends actually bought a house in the area hubs would like to move to, about a year ago. And again being completely honest here? I am so jealous of their house.

So, what makes me bring this up, is we are currently trying to help my mother-in-law try to find a house. She just closed on the sale of her house in texas and is finally ready to start looking for one here in Florida. Of course, the houses in Texas are WAAAAAAYY cheaper and on ALOT more land. So shes having difficulty finding something in her price range that is as nice as her house was in Texas.

I offered to try and help find a few places for her to look at and hubs has taken her around our neighborhood as well. Well on Saturday while we were out looking at houses, hubs called one of the for sale sign numbers and was talking to a local realtor. Somehow he got into a conversation about our house and what she thought our house might sell for. And basically, if we finish doing what were planning on doing (enclosing the carport, remodeling the bathroom, & painting the house) plus with the stuff we've already done (new roof, renovated the kitchen, new tile throughout, new windows, carpet in the bedrooms) that our house could basically sell for double what we paid, thanks to the location were in.

So of course, the next conversation that was brought up was about us selling our house. Now dont get me wrong, ive known all along that this would most likely not be our forever house. And that we would probably only be here for a max of 5 years. But im just not ready to move. Yes I want a bigger house. Yes I want more room for more kids. But, i know that just because our house has gone up in property value, doesnt mean we will be able to find another house that fits our needs in the same area. I know most likely if we move its going to be out west. And as selfish and stubborn as it may sound, i really dont want to move out west :(

I dont see why we cant finish the house projects we have in store, and then continue living her for another couple of years. I mean technically, our lot is one of the bigger lots in the neighborhood. We have a huge yard. And its hard to find a big lot in this area. We could literally enclose our back patio. Add another patio. Add a pool. And still be perfectly fine with space. We could even add on additional rooms, whether it be a second story or on the sides, and make it our forever house. But hubs disagrees, and doesnt think its worth it to put in that much money when we could make double by selling.

Its a huge debate going on in our house. And in reality it shouldnt even be a debate until we get the aforementioned projects completed. However, its so hard not to browse Trulia for houses we could afford while helping my mother-in-law out. Maybe we will find another awesome deal and be able to stay out east. We shall see....