Inspiration

Stumbling around the internet I found this great idea that has inspired me.

101 in 1001.

So the idea is that you make a list of 101 goals and then you accomplish them in 1001 days.

Seems simple in a way. But I am torn do I stick to the original idea or should I tweak, cause heaven knows I can't leave well enough alone! I have just over 200 days till I start school up again, and I was thinking about making a list of goals that need to be accomplished before school restarts.

Now to determine a list of items. I must admit I took some list ideas from different sites. Wanted to see how others were organizing the lists and so forth. Google 101 in 1001 and tons of responses come back to you.

So first step is to make a list. My deadline is Sunday at midnight!

Almost 20 days later

So how about that I call myself a slacker and vow to do better and what do I do????

Slack off some more!

Well at least I slacked off with he blog not so much with eh real life.


Lets see the last 20 days....

Job searching
Job Searching
Mexico (amazing)
Job searching
stomach bug that made me lose 5 pounds (now I have to keep it off!)

Did I mention job searching

No really I have done other things too. I finally finished cleaning my side of the office. Needs decorating and bookshelves but it is useful now.

I have been knitting away at my second attempt of the Owl Hat, and I am making great progress.

I am reading a great book.

I got Kiddo enrolled with a new speech teacher.


And I finally have an interview tomorrow!! A work from home position that i think would be perfect for me.

So all in all life goes on!

Slacker

Who hasn't wrote anything in a while.....who.....oh that's right me!

So I am back in the nursing program bitches!! I have to wait till next year and is space available of course. So now here I go being a bad person and wanting people to fail. Sad I know but I am almost 30 and I need to get done with school.

And since I have a year off I have to gain employment. Ick job searching Ick!! I have had one interview so far, with no call back!! But I dropped n application off at the job site where a bunch of my friends work so there is hope there. Then I get to work in an office and wear cute clothes and heels!! I think that I will probably try and get a job at an in home care place also for a couple shifts a week providing in home care on top of the office work. Get me that little extra bit of money and keep my patient skills top notch.

The saddest part of it all is that when I lost my school funding I also lost Kiddo's school grant. So now he has lost his friends, teachers and speech therapy. If I can gain employment that pays enough I am going to put him in the school down the street that looks amazing!!

OK so on to me and what I am planning on doing!

I plan on re-decorating this entire house!! I am going to go through and clean it up first and then take before pictures of every room. I have been scouring the decorating blogs for ideas and I am pretty sure of what I want to do in each room.

I have also stumbled upon the best website ever. It is this amazing place where a housewife in Alaska makes her own furniture and then posts the designs I want to make this media cabinet and this closet storage and this craft table/desk and ultimately I want to make this bed with the BF, how romantic would that be!!

As for my weight loss journey it has been a rough and bumpy (my thighs) road. I gained about 5 pounds during the last couple weeks of school and I have slowly been getting it to come back off. I am back to my weight before finals. I am going to stay strong and use this as a way to encourage me to continue being diligent!

Last night I was goofing off around on the internet, stumbling around. I fell on this website about eating raw. Now I don't think that I can eat raw or give up meat and dairy! But I did have a smoothie for breakfast.

Green Yumminess
1 Mango
1 Fuji apple
5 Strawberries
Handful of Kale
Half a cucumber
6 oz of water

Chop up and throw in a blender and bled till smooth!!


I took a bunch of their smoothie ideas and made what i could with what was in my kitchen. Best part is since it is all fruit and veggies.....a big fat ZERO points!!

Later I am going to breakdown my rooms and ideas for each one. Till then have a good day!!

Salmon and Risotto

This is out of order but I made Salmon with pesto and I served it with a mushroom risotto.

I made the pesto first and I was not to sure how this would turn out. The recipe doesn't use any nuts in it and when I tasted the pesto it was REALLY strong! I added a little water to the recipe, since it was soooo thick. I then spread it on the top of my salmon fillets and threw them in the oven.

While they baked I started in on the risotto.

Saute the shallots.

Next add the white wine and then the rice.

Then comes the tedious part. Add a cup of the chicken stock and stir it till the rice soaks it all up...and then repeat....and repeat....and repeat....and repeat....and repeat...you get the idea.

I love the colors it is so very springy!! The bright green of the salmon pesto and the salad. And it was delish!! Got a thumbs up from the kiddo and the BF said it was great too!

Speaking of the BF he came home and surprised me with flowers!! He makes me feel so good sometimes.

Finnally a weigh in that I am not ashamed of...

So today was weigh in day and after two weeks of big gains I stepped on the scale with no positive thoughts. And to my surprise there was a 2 pound loss. So I guess that means I am on my way back towards losing.

My lovely breakfast and this weeks little book!

Try to make sure that Steven also has a healthy snack during our meetings!


At today's meeting we talked about how we recover from set backs. I shared that my life has fallen down around me and that for two weeks I gained but this week I was able to turn it around and I lost two pounds. I realized that while I have lost control over my life and future (for the moment) I can control my weight.

Today I just feel down. Feel tired and grouchy and sad and just not good at all.

Yesterday I spent a wonderful day with my nursing school friends shopping for a wedding dress. It was wonderful, I was really worried it would be awkward due to me being all kicked out and stuff. But we had fun, there was laughter and good tears and lunch!

Made pork chops for dinner tonight with mushrooms and shallots. Served with multi-grain bread, salad, and leftover risotto. Super yummy, but just did not really feel like eating.

First I seasoned the pork chops with salt and pepper and threw them in the cast iron for about 5 minutes on each side. Then they went in the oven at 350 while I finished up the sauce.

In the same pan that the pork chops had just been in I threw in a little extra butter adn then one cut up shallot and part of an onion that I found in the fridge. Once they were soft I added a cup of chicken stock and then the mushrooms. This is where the BF came in and started cooking with me. He added some red wine to the mix and was my stirrer.

We took the chops back out of the oven and threw them in the sauce so they could soak up some of the flavor.

What a lovely looking dinner. Too bad I didn't feel like eating....sad face.





Maybe if I go to bed early. I am starting to lose interest in the things that I thought I would spend my free time doing. I have not knitted or read since my test. I did do some organizing today. Started on the guest room and the office. My goal is to get them completely organized and usable and presentable.

Some Food Pictures

I can not wait to get a nice fancy camera that will take pictures that look like this.

Those are my Rootbeer Float Cookies that I made for a fundraiser at school.

Instead my food pictures end up like these:

This is my St. Patrick's Day dinner. It was amazing! Found the recipe over at my favorite skinny recipe website ever! Also found a recipe for cauliflower that I even loved! I am not usually a fan of the cauliflower!

Or even this picture:

This is my breakfast. My goal is to get back on track with weight watchers. Because I am going to have to start doing it on my own without the meetings so I need to get my ass in gear! This is my 4 point breakfast.
oatmeal cooked with frozen berries and just a tiny sprinkle of brown sugar.
Fresh strawberries
Earl Gray tea.

Filling and delicious!

I mean these are taken with a point and shoot digital camera so there is a limit to what I can do with it but what a difference! The cookie picture was taken by my friend Amy and she definitely has an artistic eye! Here's hoping that once I get a fancy camera it comes with the artistic eye included already!!

The new coupon lady!

Now that I am out of school and my main source of income is gone!! Sad day!! I am going to be a coupon clipping, penny pinching, red headed lady! Well hopefully we will see.

I love to shop!! I am not going to lie and keep that hidden, I LOVE TO SHOP!! It is great after a hard to day, or a rainy day, well any day really. But I need to stop using that (and food) as a way to deal with life and stress.

So I started googling around on the internet and found the Krazy Coupon Lady's website. Fell in love!! I printed everything off I needed to start couponing away! Even went to all the different coupon sites and printed off a ton of coupons. Then I came home spread it all out and started clipping away.

Notice the wine, can't coupon without it!

I am now just waiting on the inserts I bought from Ebay to get here and I will put together a coupon binder!! It is surprisingly hard to find those plastic binder pages that kids use to put their baseball cards in. But find them I did!

So once they get here and I can take the coupons out of the envelopes they are in I will take some pictures of my progression. And of course once I do a shopping trip with coupons I will post about that also.