Goodbye, November

Well, the month is basically over now. Time for December! Woot! If you follow me on Instagram (@theredkitchenkatie) then you already know I've been going a little Christmas crazy over here. We're visiting family for the holidays, which means there's only so much time to finish up projects and wrap presents and all fun stuff.

By way of shamelessly bragging, I would like to tell you that I have already done the following things:

-Acquired AND wrapped 99.9% of the gifts we're giving this year
-Made (and packaged) goodies to give to friends and neighbors
-Made (and packaged) goodies to give to Olivia's preschool teachers and classroom aides
-Acquired and wrapped birthday gifts for a certain birthday boy we'll be seeing on vacation
-Made another one of these lovelies
-Planned our meals through the end of December

Lost: My Groove

Bah. I seem to have lost my groove. Such a pain when that happens. Makes me wish there was a button I could push (you know, like on a home phone) and my groove would start beeping so I could locate it more quickly.

I was so hard core about exercising and eating healthy and not being a whiner about not eating chocolate every single day. Even through the Thanksgiving break I was so good! And then we came home and I just deflated or something. Basically, all I want to do right now is work on Christmas stuff and eat treats and not exercise.

Groove, where have you gone? Please come back before I become a total fatty.

A (Muppet/Harry Potter) Christmas Carol

So I'm in this book group with a few friends. I was kind of excited when my friend asked me if I wanted to join, but kind of I feel like such a poser because, as it turns out, I never read books. But I guess I thought maybe this would be as good a time as any to pretend that I read books, so I joined.

For the month of December we're reading A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. I was actually looking forward to this since--ahem--I've never read it before and, ya know, it's Christmas time and stuff. The only problem with reading this book for the month of December is that we're meeting for book group super early in December since a lot of us are going out of town for the break. So basically, I didn't have a lot of time to read it. And I already failed at book group last month (i.e. I didn't finish the book even though it was just poetry* and it was really short) and I didn't want to fail again and get kicked out, so today I hunkered down and actually finished the book. Whew.

Then tonight Bry and I watched The Muppet Christmas Carol. Neither of us had seen it before, but last month at book group when we decided we were going to read A Christmas Carol everyone kept talking about it, so I thought I'd better watch it so I could understand all of their analogies when we meet to discuss the book.

Man, movies are never as good as the book. But, that being said, who wouldn't love The Muppet Christmas Carol? It's quite excellent. I'm especially impressed by Michael Caine's ability to be serious and heartfelt amid a host of Muppets. I feel like you've gotta have a pretty good sense of humor to pull that off. Not to mention a snooty British accent.

When it got to the scene with the ghost of Christmas present, Bryan noted that the ghost looked an awful lot like Hagrid, which got me thinking: Harry Potter Christmas Carol! Okay, okay. I know what you're thinking. You're thinking I'm one of those nutsy Harry Potter geeks. But listen.

Snape = Scrooge
Harry Potter = Bob Cratchit
Ginny = Mrs. Cratchit
Ron = Fred (Scrooge's nephew)
Hermione = Fred's wife
Hagrid = the ghost of Christmas present
Luna Lovegood = the ghost of Christmas past
A dementor = the ghost of Christmas future
Cedric = Jacob Marley

It's all there! And they already all have British accents! Someone please make this movie right now.

And, speaking of excellent Christmas films, I leave you with this gem I found at the library today:

Want, Need, Wear, Read: My List

Yesterday was Olivia's Want, Need, Wear, Read list. Today's it's my turn. :)

Want: Cotton Solids

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If working on the book has taught me anything about myself, it is this: I love 100% cotton solids. These Kona solids are such a great weight and they sew up so nice. I think a bolt of each color will suffice.

Oh, and feel free to throw in a lifetime supply of white thread. I burn through that stuff at a ridiculous pace these days.


Need: Toothbrush

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As it turns out, I am entirely un-picky about toothbrushes. I do prefer a step above the trash ones they hand out at the dentist, but that's about it. My current toothbrush is looking a little, ya know, so it's probably time for a replacement.


Wear: Color Skinnies

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A few months ago I bought a pair of skinny mint green chords and, let me tell you, I am hooked. They are so fun to wear! I kind of wanted to buy one in every color, but I didn't think Bryan would appreciate the effect it would have on our budget.

I'm especially digging the navy blue, mustard, and lavender options. Mmmm.

The ones above are from Old Navy. Size 12, please.*

*When I walked into Old Navy the day I bought my green skinnies I overheard a rather flamboyant employee telling the lady who came in just ahead of me, "These skinny pants run extra skinny!" The lady responded in disappointment, to which Mr. Old Navy replied, "You're the only one who sees the number when you put it on, and if they're taking it off they don't care!" Slightly inapropros, but it still makes me laugh every time I think about it. :) And, yo, it makes me feel better about wearing pants that are at least two sizes bigger than I normally wear.


Read: Mollie Makes

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I've seen this UK magazine pop up more and more on blogs lately and it always looks so full of crafty goodness. Bry gave me a subscription to Martha Stewart a couple years ago and I really enjoyed it, but I find I can only take so much of the richy pants craftiness, so we didn't bother renewing. (Though if she was still publishing Martha Stewart KIDS it would be an entirely different story. Miss that mag so much!)

My parents have given Bryan subscriptions to two of his favorite magazines (National Geographic and Popular Science) every year basically since we got married and it has been an awesome gift over the years. Magazine subscriptions are truly the gift that keeps on giving. This one looks like fun.

Want, Need, Wear, Read: Olivia

My mother-in-law has started requesting that Bryan's younger siblings create Christmas lists with the following categories: want, need, wear, and read. I thought it'd make for a fun post and, hey, it's NaBloPoMo, so anything goes.

First up, I thought I'd do Olivia's Want, Need, Wear, Read list:

Want: Sports

top -- bottom

Despite having entirely unathletic parents, Olivia is nuts about sports. She especially seems to love dancing and soccer. A couple of her friends from church are in a local ballet class and I think she would love to join, but her parents are too cheap to sign her up. I think she would also equally enjoy playing on a little soccer team, but she won't be old enough for the local teams until next fall when she's four. (By the way, you should be so impressed by me that I actually know about the local kids' soccer teams.)

Need: Nightstand

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Well, actually, Olivia doesn't really need anything. Bryan and I thought about it for two whole days and couldn't come up with anything. We even asked Olivia what she needed and she said, "nuffing." This, I think is awesome. It is a testament to how richly we are blessed that our sweet little girl doesn't really need anything more than what she already has.

Still, I was trying to round out the list, so when Bryan finally came up with the fact that we've been meaning to get her a nightstand, I figured I'd put that here. All she really has next to her bed are books, so this little bookshelf would make a perfect "nightstand"... and conveniently match the rest of the shelving in our house.

Wear: Skinny Jeans

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Olivia is finally starting to grow out of her jeans, which means it's time for some new ones. And with her super skinny little legs, skinny jeans are both practical and adorable. I've seen great options at Target and Old Navy, but can't find pictures online. So, I give you these super overpriced ones from Gap. Size 3T, please.

Read: Elephant and Piggie books

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I've mentioned it before, but, man, Olivia is nuts about these books. They're cute and funny and they have an elephant, so what's not to love? They're also great because they're non-annoying easy reader books. Win-win. See the bundle HERE on Amazon.

Confession:

I have a confession to make. I'm kind of glad I'm not pregnant.

If we're blessed with more children someday, I'll be ecstatic. But right now, the more I get used to only having one child, the more I secretly love it. Maybe this wouldn't be the case if I were a better mom or a more kind-hearted person. Or if I was good at potty training. Or if I loved pregnancy. But since none of those things are true, I'll freely admit that part of me really loves only having one child.

Yes, of course I think newborns are sweet and adorable. Yes, of course big families are super fun. And, yes, at least once a day I feel bad for Olivia that she's so bored out of her mind because she doesn't have any siblings to play with.

But.

If we really ended up having Olivia as our only child, well, I think that could make for a pretty awesome life. I've given it quite a bit of thought. Ahem.

We could have a really luxurious, comfortable house with a big work studio and all the other cool things luxurious houses have, but at a much lower cost since, ya know, we wouldn't need a very big house.

We could go on more big, fun family trips.

We could actually (maybe) pay for Olivia to go to college and on a church mission if she chooses.

WE WOULD ALREADY BE DONE WITH POTTY TRAINING FOREVER!!!

I could be done breastfeeding forever.

I could be done being pregnant forever.

We could be the adorable little Gap family with nice clothes and nice stuff because we would actually be able to afford it.

We could give a lot more to the church and to charities because we could actually have surplus.

We could have money in our savings account! (Okay, so this one probably has more to do with Bryan graduating than how many kids we have. But still.)

Anyway, sometimes I feel sad about not having more children yet. But lots of times I feel so awesome about it. And the more life keeps going on this way, the more I feel awesome about it all the time.

Home again home again jiggedy jig

Visiting Bryan's parents for Thanksgiving was nothing short of superb. Still, after seven hours in the car, it's nice to be home again. And, despite the fact that it was lightly snowing for about half of the drive, we had a safe and pleasantly uneventful journey. It's good to be home!

The longer I stay away, the less I miss it

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At Olivia's (and her grandparent's) request, we were sent out on a date tonight so they could have happy fun times without us. Well, fine by us! We decided to go grab a bite to eat and then see a movie. Like, in a real theater.

The funny thing about us going to see movies these days is that I never know what's playing anymore, let alone what the movies are about and which one I'd want to see. Bryan, on the other hand, almost always seems to know what's playing, which ones he wants to see, and whether or not I would like his choices. I have no idea how he stays so in the know. It's like he reads the news or something.

Anyway, so he narrowed our choices down to three movies: the Abraham Lincoln movie, the latest James Bond movie, and Life of Pi. The Life of Pi looked kind of trippy, and after watching the trailer, Bryan (who has actually read the book), said that it looks like they changed a lot of stuff from the book, so, no. The Abraham Lincoln movie looked like it was mainly a lot of shouting and shooting. Perhaps historical, but, no. The latest James Bond movie also looked like it was mainly a lot of shouting and shooting, but at least it wouldn't leave me with nightmares about things that actually happened. So the James Bond movie it was.

I have three things I would like to say:
1. James Bond will never die. Ever.
2. I hate movies where the bad guy is insane. But at least this bad guy isn't as insane as the scarecrow guy or the joker from the batman movies.
3. I feel so over movie theaters. May I never have to watch a movie in one ever again.

So, we got there pretty early because, ya know, we're lame and boring now. We got pretty good seats, which turned out to be a bad idea for two reasons. First of all, we sat in the middle of a row and, despite the fact that I used the lavatory right before the movie started, about five minutes after the movie finally started I had to pee real bad. And then I had to hold it for the next two hours. Second of all, Bryan was socially unawkward and left a seat in between him and the group of people we sat down next to. The theater was packed (never go on a holiday weekend) and right before the movie started a guy finally weaseled his way through and sat down next to Bryan. This wouldn't have been a big deal, but the guy had some serious B.O. going on. Eeew eeew eeew. So there we were, trapped in the middle with a really smelly guy. And I had to pee real bad.

Insert two hours of people shooting at each other. (But, of course, they never kill James Bond, despite the fact that he's totally out in the open a bajillion times. Sigh.)

Also, why is it that every spy-ish movie we've seen in the past year or two the spy always seems to die and then come back to life by not dying after all? Don't worry. I haven't given anything away. It happens at the beginning. And, ya know, because it happens at the beginning, it was totally predictable  Actually, I think it even shows it in the trailer. So whatevs. I will, however, spoil the ending by saying this:

Happy Thanksgiving!

We welcomed this day of gratitude in with a turkey trot this morning. Bry and I ran the 5K with Bryan's mom and Olivia and Bryan's dad ran the fun run 2K together. It was fun! And Bry and I jogged the whole way without stopping or walking! We're pretty proud of ourselves.

The rest of the day was, of course, spent preparing and eating our delicious thanksgiving feast. Mmm. I've been so good about eating healthy lately and my body wasn't really up for the big meal today, but I enjoyed it all the same.

So grateful for healthy bodies and loving family and wonderful food. Not to mention a whole life filled with endless blessings. I love that we celebrate Thanksgiving as a national holiday. We have so, so much to be grateful for.

Bryan's nose hairs

Actually, that has nothing to do with this post. Except that Bryan is reading over my shoulder while I write this and I can see up his nose hairs.

Anyway, blogger is getting the pictures all out of order (as per usual when posting from my iPod), but, yo, we're on Thanksgiving break now. So there.

Maze (free printable!)

So, my husband Bryan likes to draw mazes. But his are always way too easy. Tonight he finished a sketch of something that wasn't a maze and when I turned it over I found a familiar sight: a super baby cakes maze. After teasing him about it, he insisted that if I thought it was easy than I should try and make one. So I did.

Now maybe this is just proof that it's easier to focus and try really hard and be good at something when you're trying to impress the boy you like. Or maybe I am just the superior maze-drawer in the family.

If you'd like to give it a try without having to run your finger all over your screen, you can print a copy HERE.

You GUYS

Sometimes it absolutely kills me

Lately

I have been busier than I have been in a long time. Mom time, book writing time, church stuff, family time, and lots and lots of exercise. I know everyone wants you to think you can get skinny by only spending five minutes a day trying, but that is such a lie. From the time I change into my exercise clothes until the time I hop out of the shower is close to 2 hours. Every single day. And, by the way, it is paying off. So there.

I have been wearing my hair up in a high bun almost every single day. (Much like my beautiful freshman roommate, but hers are prettier. I am so trying it her way this week.) Since I've been exercising at night and then showering right before bed, the high bun has been a winner since I can both sleep in it and wear it the next day. And it keeps my hair off my neck and out of my face--a must.

I have, for the most part, stayed caught up on my book project schedule. At any given time I'm really either ahead or behind (currently: behind), but I'm still very positive about finishing all of the test runs for each project before we leave for Thanksgiving break in a few days. If and when that happens, it will be AMAZING. Guys, seriously. You have no idea.

I have been wearing these little black flats every day, except when it rains. When I first bought them they were a little too small. Now they are slightly stretched and oh-so-perfect. Cute, comfy, and they go with everything. And they are definitely a few notches up from my regular "I put no thought into this outfit" footwear choice.

Merry Christmas! (Free Printable Pendant Banner)

Christmas is just around the corner, so I thought it'd be fun to celebrate with a new fun printable banner. This year's edition is a fun and simple little pendant banner in two sizes.

Get the free printables and instructions after the jump!

Holla!

Yo. In honor of my favorite holiday (CHRISTMAS!!!) coming up, I have decided to celebrate by marking everything in the shop down to 50% off for a limited time. No fussy coupon codes, just crazy awesome prices. Enjoy!

Things we're good at

Here's to noticing the little good things too.

This is random, but I was thinking about it tonight. And I think it's true.

I think everybody is good at a lot of different things, but we usually only get recognition for a few of the those things.

Right? I think in general we get categorized by other people as being good at that one thing. She sews. She cooks. She's a nurse. He's a doctor. He's really funny. She's really smart. And it makes sense that we kind of memorize people that way, I guess, but I also think there's a lot of value in knowing the talents--big and small--that we and others posses which so often go unrecognized.

A few weeks ago we went to drop something off at the medicaid office (Yeah, we're poor college students) and while we were there some nice people from United Way were offering free kindergarten readiness testing for kids ages 2-4. We had time to kill while we were waiting, so I went over to check it out. The "testing" basically consisted of a set of questions about your child which you answered. Then the ladies in the booth evaluated the answers and told you what your kid should work on to be ready for kindergarten in X amount of years.

But the funny thing about the "test" questions were that hardly any of them had to do with scholastic things. It didn't say, "Can she read?" or "How high can she count?" or "Does she hold her pencil correctly when she writes?" They were just questions about where she was at developmentally, not unlike the questions you sometimes fill out for your child at the pediatrician. They were questions about how far she could jump and how long she could stand on one foot and if she could repeat numbers we said to her and so on and so forth. We also got a peek at the tests they give to the 3 1/2 and 4 year-olds and I can tell you the questions didn't get much more focused on schoolwork in those sets than they did in the 3 year-old set we got.

Now, I admit, to some degree I was a little disappointed when I saw the questions. I felt like saying, "She's so advanced, but that doesn't even show on this test! She's starting to read! She can count to 30! She's writing by herself! And all you want to know is how long she can stand on one foot?" But then, as I filled out each question, I realized that, actually, I'm really proud of her being able to stand on one foot. And kick a ball. And climb and run and jump and play and remember things we tell her. Actually, those are super valuable skills. And then I got to thinking, "Man, what if I got credit for all of the little menial things I can do? That would be awesome!"

So I decided to jot down a quick list of things I'm good at, but will probably never get much (if any) recognition for. Here it is:

I am good at the following things:

So tired

I have been for reals really busy lately. Crazy amount of exercise. Lots of book project making. And, ya know, being a cool mom and stuff. Tomorrow is looking like another good-but-full day. I'm grateful to be busy with good things.

And I'm totally looking forward to the long break over the holidays.

Cute girl

The writing she gets from mommy.
The drawing she gets from daddy.
Love this girl.

Random pictures from lately

Rad little camera on a rad little shelf.

Pomegranate crime scene.

Highly suspect. (And soo good!)

Made myself this grown-up bento box the other day. I really must do this more often. Who knew having your lunch compartmentalized made it more fun? If only I had cut my sandwich up to look like a kitty and my veggies into shooting hearts. Sigh. Maybe someday.

This girl rocking her scarf.

Took a little family trip a couple weeks ago. It was just a short day trip, but it was so what I had been craving. Just a little time away with my two favorite people in the whole world.

Luckily, Bry is a champion and drives the whole time on road trips. Partly because he's nice. And partly because he's more afraid of me driving. Fair enough.

Pretty hanger wall at The Container Store.

Five-Seven-Five

Me brushing Marae's teeth for her on one of our infamous road trips (circa 2007)

Bonus post tonight. After accusing me of "lice cream" in my last post, I couldn't contain myself and had to call up one of my old college roommates and very best friends. Which, by the way, was wonderful. We probably haven't talked in years, but if you had been listening in on our conversation you never would have known. Those are my favorite kinds of friends.

And, in honor of our super ridiculous conversation, I was compelled to write the following haiku. We used to write ridiculous haikus to each other all the time in college, so, ya know, it's fitting and nostalgic and stuff.

Anyway, here it is. Have fun counting the syllables.

Homemade Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Ice Cream (made in your regular old blender)

So, remember when Bryan and I were eating vegan? Yeah, we're not doing that anymore. It was too expensive and time consuming (and, let's be honest, too restricting for us) and we got burned out after a month or so. But even though we're not eating that way anymore, I'm still glad we tried it. And there are still a few things we started making during our vegan days that we still make now. My favorite? Banana ice cream.

I first learned about it here on The Londoner. Basically, it's "ice cream" you make in your blender and frozen bananas are the main ingredient, but ours tastes a heck of a lot more like chocolate peanut butter ice cream than bananas. (Or at least, to me it does. My sister was not as convinced, so I guess it's up for debate. But I am personally of the opinion that it tastes just plain delicious and entirely like chocolate peanut butter ice cream.) 

Oh yeah, and did I mention it only uses 4 really normal ingredients? Yeah. It's time to make some. Like, right. now.

Favorites

Love these two.

TREAT DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I only have one minute left to post and have this be "on time," so I'll probably fake it and schedule it for 11:59 pm because that's when I started it, so I'm calling it legit. So there.

So, I have 36 unread e-mails in my inbox. Well, technically that's not true. Several of them I've read and then marked as unread so that I'll remember to respond to them when I get a chance. But so far I haven't gotten a chance. If you've sent me an e-mail or some other form of electronic communication in the past few days and you haven't heard back from me yet, please forgive me. Let's still be friends. Things have just been busy.

I almost said that things have been crazy busy, but I don't think that's true. There hasn't really been any crazy going on (thank goodness), but I have been busy. Our mornings are always a rush these days, I'm already behind on my book project schedule, and I have been doing my darnedest to not be a fatty.

I would give you a rundown of my daily schedule, but then creepers could stalk me and that would be no bueno. So instead I'll just say that things are busy. Busy with book work. Busy with being a mom and and a wife and a friend. And busy with lots and lots of exercise.

Your turn

While waiting at the swimming pool, it helps to wear cute shoes. (@theredkitchenkatie on Instagram)

I'm tired and I got nothin' right now. In lieu of a worthwhile blog post, I would like you all to write really funny comments. Or share a link to your favorite YouTube video. Or the saddest story of your life. Whatevs. You choose.

(Not) Professional Me

It's only 11 am and today has already been weird. I woke up super early and have been paying the price all morning. Bah. And I've been so busy working on the book and exercising lately that I haven't even had time to catch up on blogs or really do much of anything online other than respond to e-mails.

So this morning I took a timely little break. Instead of plugging away at all the must-do's I vegged on the couch, watched a show, ate some toast, and then finally got up and at least came downstairs to check my e-mail and read some blogs I've been missing. All of this has been nice. Except... except looking at all of my favorite blogs has made me think about my own.

Our really simple exercise bike that we like

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So the other day I was bragging about our exercise bike and then I had some questions about it. Here are the answers to those questions:

My swanky new wall calendar

FYI: I haven't won a single game of Yahtzee on that score sheet. Bryan has been kicking my trash lately.

So the book. I'm still working on it. I thought I was pretty close to being done with the making-projects part of it (again), but then I went through my notebook (which is funny because it's literally where I take notes for my book... get it?) and realized I still had several projects that needed tweaking or that I hadn't started on at all yet. But I'm still working steadily toward my goal to finish the rough draft by the end of the year!

But, actually, my expectations for that goal have changed some now that I'm getting a clearer picture of where I'm really at on things. Now my goal to have all of the projects finished and have all of the instructions written up in my notebook before the start of Thanksgiving break. Then between the end of Thanksgiving break and the beginning of Christmas break I want to work hard to type up all those lovely instructions, streamline/cohesify (just made up my own word) the whole whoppin' pile o' instructions for all of the projects, and see where I need to go from there.

So, in some ways, my goal to have a "finished rough draft" of the book by the end of this year is still my goal. But right now I'm really just focusing on getting the preliminary sewing done. Then I can focus on the writing. And then I can focus on making really pretty, spiffed-up versions of everything. And somewhere in there I'll work on trying to talk some really nice person into publishing this book.

Anyway, so the current goal = finish the sewing part. None of the sewing is hard (be so excited for this book someday, guys!), and I already have mental images and sketches of most all of these unmade projects, but I've felt kind of lost and wander-y about which ones to work on when. I made a list on my iPod last week of all of the projects I still need to make, but the list was daunting and it scared me more than helped me. Boo. So today I set out to make the list a little less daunting and a lot more doable. The answer? The fancy new book-project-a-day calendar I made for myself out of note pad paper. Jealous? You should be. It's pretty swanky.

It's beginning to look a very little bit like Christmas

If only these gorgeous little versions of Christmas-in-a-jar were at my house instead of Anthropologie.

Our house has been kind of trashed lately. We've been awesome about doing the laundry, but terrible about putting it away. It's all accumulated in a big fat pile at the foot of our bed and the other day, when I was getting dressed in the morning and Olivia was in our room with me, she said, "Mommy, watch! I jump into the clothes!" Uhh... no.

Aside from over half our wardrobe being on the floor, there's been random stuff out all over the place, the bathrooms have been needing a good wipe-down for weeks, and I'm pretty sure the floors have been ignored for a month or more. (Okay, so I know it's more, but I'm trying to not sound so gross.) We had big plans to clean up the entire house yesterday, but then neither of us were in the mood, so we went for a little window-shopping outing instead. (Hence the pretty Anthro jars. Find me on Instagram @theredkitchenkatie.)

We had stake conference today (i.e. only two hours of church instead of the usual three) and when we got home we decided it was time to battle the cluttered, icky house. Feel free to judge us about it not being a Sunday appropriate activity if you want, but I can tell you that our house feels way more peaceful now than it did this morning. So there.

We made a little list of all the things we wanted to get done/places in the house that needed to be cleaned up and got busy. Bryan worked on the mountain of dishes in the sink while I... made a bigger mess. I couldn't help it. I started dusting and then while I was dusting I was thinking about moving some things around and, before long, all of the books on the bookshelf in our living room were sprawled out all over the floor and I was standing there staring at the bookshelf, trying to decide what to do next.

I could really go for some sweet potatoes right now

Don't even try to get between me and my pomegranates. Follow me and my pomegranates on Instagram @theredkitchenkatie.

I've literally been sitting here at the computer for the past five or ten minutes, staring at the screen, trying to think of something witty or uplifting or interesting or cool to say, but the truth is, I am too hungry to think of anything interesting. So there.

The health challenge is doing me nothing but good. And, even though I've been a champ about not eating anything after 9 pm, I honestly haven't even been hungry because of it. Win-win, eh? Except tonight. Tonight I am HUNGRY. 

I've been using MyFitnessPal to track my calories and, in case you haven't heard me say it before, I love MyFitnessPal. I don't love tracking calories, but whatevs. When I lost a bunch of weight a couple years ago (curse the holiday season for ruining that) I used MyFitnessPal on my regular computer, which was really good, but I love it even more on my iPod. Mainly because that means I don't have to go down to the computer ever time I want to enter something in. Also because, with the (free) app, I can scan bar codes and it automatically uploads the nutritional info for me. So awesome. 

Anyway, I've been tracking calories and stuff. And most days I totally come out ahead, partly because I exercise in the evenings and then don't eat anything after I've exercised. (I do drink a boatload of water though. Or perhaps enough water to capsize a boat.) Today I came out ahead again and, if I was eating after 9 pm, I would totally be eating something right now. But instead I'm blathering on about how I'm hungry. Fun, no?

In other I'm-trying-to-be-healthy news, I bought a pomegranate yesterday, finished it off this morning, and already bought two more this evening. The two I bought this evening were huge. Here's proof:

And that's how Gilmore Girls is making me skinny

Man, that friendly candy corn cup looks really freaky in this picture. Sorry guys.

So, I have been trying to lose weight for, well, basically this entire year. Even when I thought I was pregnant I was secretly still wishing I'd drop a pound or two. But then I miscarried/was never really pregnant and I don't really know anything about how that effects one's body, but I swear it has messed with my body in so many weird ways. Or at least, any time my body has done something weird this year I've blamed it on that. Because my body has been so out of whack. And in no way has my body been more out of whack than in its ability to respond to my multiple efforts to lose weight.

Bah.

In the past year I have tried counting calories, going running, shredding with Jillian, going on the exercise bike, going on walks, running a 5K, going without treats, going without sugar or animal products, cutting back on carbs... the list goes on. Now I'll admit that I haven't stuck with any of these things for more than a month or two, but, seriously, I should have at least seen some kind of improvement.

But no. My body is at 155 and that is exactly where it wants to stay. Boo to you, body.

Then this week I started doing a health challenge with a few friends and family members. I've done this health challenge before, but it ended up being right in the middle of when I thought I was pregnant and then I miscarried and then I laid on the couch feeling sick for a month and then I didn't care about losing weight (or trying to move) at all.

So... the last go around didn't go so well. But, hey! Look at me! I'm trying again! This time around we're not doing the whole money thing and, ironically, I've been a lot more motivated. I've gotten a perfect score every day this week except for Halloween, which was my treat day. And--drum roll please--

It's the most wonderful time of the year

Despite the terrible morning I had (don't ask), I'm really happy that it's November. And for so many reasons! Christmas is around the corner, Thanksgiving is coming up (both of which mean fun family time), and--drum roll please--it's NaBloPoMo!

For those of you who haven't been subjected to this in years past, welcome! NaBloPoMo is what all the cool kids call National Blog Posting Month. So, really, when you say NaBloPoMo you're really saying, "Hey guys, it's November! I'm going to write on my blog every day this month!" And then you feel the inevitable pressure set in that you might accidentally miss a day or something and have to figure out ways to explain yourself and your continual lack of perfection. Hmm.