Oh My Goodness....

This may seem like an inappropriate post the day after doing my weight-loss post, but where have these dark chocolate dipped Peeps been all my life?!  

I loooooove Peeps and I love dark chocolate, so this is a match made in heaven.  I suppose it's good that they only come in a 2-pack.  Considering I can easily down an entire package of Peeps in one sitting, this helps to keep the carnage to a minimum.

Thinner Thursdays Week One

I'm sure you've been waiting on the edge of your seat all week wondering how I've done *said with much sarcasm*.  Well I'm going to tell you whether you care or not.  The results are in and they ain't to shabby.  The first week and I am down 3.5 pounds!  Hooray for me!  And it was done without too much deprivation either.  I  can honestly say that I wasn't ever very hungry and I still managed to sneak in a cupcake, a few cookies, some takeout from Cafe Rio (heavenly) and dinner at the Mayan (not so good, will not be returning there again).  Mostly I just cut down on portion sizes at meals and didn't ever take a second helping.  Also, ALL mindless munching was cut out.  It's far too easy to snack all day long when you are home all day, so before popping anything in my mouth I had to ask myself if it was something I REALLY wanted or if I was just going to eat it because it was there and I was bored.  Seems to have worked, right?  That being said, the first week always seems to be the easiest for me when trying to lose weight, and I never stick with it for long.  But this time I am determined to keep going!  Hopefully I will have more good news to post next Thursday!

Thinner Thursdays

Soooooo.....it's time for me to make some changes.  Today I hit a new high on the scale (not counting the times I've had a baby in my belly - thank goodness).  That, along with seeing a few unflattering photos of myself lately, and I am definitely ready to do something about it.  And so begins "Thinner Thursdays".  I considered doing Fat Fridays, but let's keep this positive, okay? :)  I need someone to be accountable to, and that person is you.  Yes, you - the one reading this post right now.  I'm not going to tell you how much I weigh in at each week, because I'm afraid I'm far too vain for that.  But starting today and continuing every Thursday, I will post how many pounds I have lost or (hopefully not) gained.  And if you notice that I start not posting about it, call me out on it!  Because it probably means that I am slacking and need a kick in the virtual butt!  (Do you think this blog is what people are expecting to find when they google 'virtual butt'?)  :)  So wish me luck, because I love baking, and that usually leads to sampling.  Perhaps I need to stop looking at food blogs and doing posts about adorable cupcakes?  Nope, I don't think I can.  But a little moderation will be good for me.  

Foolin' Around

I've never been real big on doing anything for April Fool's Day.  So today when Ryan said "Mom, I think you're beautiful." my heart melted just a little bit.  Of course that statement was quickly followed by "April fools!".  After I pretended to be all heartbroken about it, he assured me that he really did think I was beautiful after all.  What a nice little boy.  

Anyway, as I was saying, I don't usually do anything special on April 1st.  But then I saw these super cute cupcakes and I had to make them.

 Mashed potatoes and gravy cupcakes

      

Spaghetti and meatballs cupcakes

 

And then if you put them all on a plate together they look even cuter.

Yum.

Apparently Greg cannot appreciate cupcakes like this though.  

His exact words were "Are they supposed to look like that?"  

"No," I said, "I just slapped some frosting on them and they just turned out that way." 

 "Why would you want your cupcakes to look like mashed potatoes and gravy?" he asked. 

 "Because they're April Fool's Day cupcakes."

"Oh."

At least now he understands that there is a method to my madness.

By the way, not only were they cute, but they were delicious too!

Green Day

No, not the band, but it's what my kids call St. Patrick's Day.  It's one of their most beloved holidays and they count down the days until March 17th as if it were Christmas.  I don't know what the appeal is for them, but they get pretty darn excited about eating green food.  Oh, and also the leprechaun that comes to visit.  The leprechaun never used to visit us until 3 or 4 years ago when Alyssa had a friend at school who told her that if you leave your shoes by the front door on the night before St. Patrick's Day, a leprechaun will come and fill them with treats.  Well, she had to try it, and sure enough we have been getting an annual visit from the leprechauns ever since.

  This year he left behind some Lucky Charms.

    

I was glad about this because I didn't even have to wake up early and make a fancy "green" breakfast.  They were more than happy to tear into their own box of cereal and eat it in front of the t.v. while I got to sleep in.  (Gotta love being off-track!!!)

Lunch was green pasta....

And for dinner green homemade rolls and punch to go along with my favorite white chicken chili.  What?  No corned beef and cabbage?  Nope, never tried it.  Nor do I have any strong desire to do so.  But if anyone wants to prepare some for me, I would be more than happy to give it a try.

I just couldn't bring myself to dye the chili green, although the kids begged me to.  Some things I can eat green, some things I can't.  

And you can't forget dessert.  Key lime bars....yum!!!

I even got in a crafty mood earlier this month and decided to make some cute St. Patty's Day decorations.  I've gotta say I was rather pleased with how cute everything turned out!

I hope you had a good Green Day too!  

BEST. IDEA. EVER.

Or at least the best idea ever when it comes to shoveling the driveway, which I do not enjoy at all.  However, I can't take credit for this great idea.  It comes from a friend of a friend who made a comment on Facebook regarding shoveling snow.  

"Go tell your kids to roll snowmen on the driveway and down the sidewalk."

I'm not even sure he was serious, considering it was followed by an "LOL", but since I was trying to muster up the energy to get my boots on and go out to shovel the 8 inches of  very heavy wet snow that fell during the night, I thought it was a brilliant idea. (Especially since we don't have a snowblower, or even a halfway decent shovel.  I think our shovel was about the cheapest one at the store when we bought it 10 years ago.  Perhaps it's time to loosen the purse strings a little?)  :)

Anyhow, I sent the kids out to get rolling, and they proclaimed it "the funnest job ever!"  They probably picked up about 75 percent of the snow on the driveway and sidewalk.  That still left me with some shoveling to do, but at least they lightened the load quite a bit!  Of course I still had to help make snowmen, but what a bonus to get in some fun time with the kids while getting a chore out of the way at the same time!

  

Tyler (who is also a birthday boy today!) took care of the sidewalk.

 These three enormous snowmen were almost entirely made with snow from our driveway and sidewalk!  

 

This will definitely be my preferred method of snow removal from now on!

       

Lady Luck

Yup, that's me....also know as The Luckiest Girl in the World.  Just what reasons do I have for making this claim you might ask?  Well, it's simple.  I am a winner.  I win things....a lot.  Some of the bigger prizes I have won over just the last few years include:

*An ipod touch

*A ipod nano

*A family pass to Sea World

*$360 U2 concert tickets

*A stay at the Castle Creek Inn Bed & Breakfast

These are just the biggies, but I've also won plenty of other cd's, concert tickets, and various gift certificates

I've won from newspaper contests, drawings at model homes, and most often from the radio.  The weird thing is that I don't enter contests very often.  You'd think from my track record that it's what I spend the majority of my time doing, but I rarely even listen to the radio.  As for other contests and drawings and such, I don't seek them out either.  If I happen to be somewhere where there is a drawing to enter I will do it, but that's about it.  Maybe I should look into making this a full-time job.  Apparently it's what I'm good at.

My latest winnings were front row tickets to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra perform their annual Christmas Concert and backstage passes to meet the band.  It was so much fun.  I saw TSO several years ago, and loved their show.  I have been wanting to go again over the years, but it seems like it always fell on a day that wasn't convenient.  Well, it just so happens that I won tickets to go this year, and I was so excited.  They put on an amazing show, and being right on the front row was amazing!  If you're not familiar with TSO, I'm sure you've at least heard one or two of their most popular songs.  You can check out 60 seconds of the fun time we had here.
And here are some pics from the show.

I was kind of tricky getting a decent shot with all the smoke and lights and pyrotechnics, but these are some of the better ones.

 Apparently you've got to have long hair to be in this show so you can whip it around all cool like this.

And afterward we got to meet some of the band.  The guy on the left and some of the other band members have been playing together for 31 years.  He is one ugly dude, but he has an awesome singing voice.  

Okay, so if I had to choose a band to go backstage to meet, this would not be the one, but I did have a great time!