Day Thirty: Nature

While Brandon's family was in town this week from Indiana, we took them horseback riding (because that's what everyone does in Texas right!?!) This is about as 'nature-rific' as it gets around the big city! They were all a tad nervous but ended up having a great time...the weather was perfect and the scenery was beautiful!

Day Twenty Nine: Inside Your Fridge

Typically, my fridge is very bare...I have the few bare essentials needed to be somewhat healthy. I usually always have greek yogurt, apples, carb free tortillas, and typically a bag of salad. My freezer is full of frozen dinners and different kinds of fish. But that's about it. Right now, it is STOCKED with all kinds of healthy goodness. Amy would be proud!

Prepared bowls of grilled chicken, salad, eggs, hummus, tons of veggies and fruit...I'm impressed with myself!



Day Twenty Eight: Light

Weight loss is a constant battle with me...I do love girl scout cookies and I'd prefer to never work out! But I can see the 'light' at the end of the tunnel!

I love to travel. Last year, in about a 12 month span, I took quite a few trip...and yes, I enjoyed every single minute. I spoiled myself and it was worth every dollar I spent (or didn't spend on some of them) and every calorie I consumed! Costa Rica, NYC, Hawaii, Carribean Cruise...all phenomenal vacations. And even more so, phenomenal food. This girl can eat...and I did...A LOT. I also gained quite a few LB's in the process. I grew out of most of my pants last year at various times and have struggled to get the 15lbs off that I gained 'first' in Costa Rica. I may go down 5-7 and then back up 5-7 and then back down and then back up...you get the painful and frustrating picture. Anyway, my last post was about the 10 day cleanse, but in addition to that, Mica challenged several of us to start an 8 week challenge. And I'm in...all in. Monday, 4/2...game on. I may not be able to 'win' the competition, but I can certainly give the other girls a run for their money. It's such a cool competition that awards you points for all of these 'good' activities during the day, every day...working out, not eating after 9pm, no sweets 6 days/week, drinking water, eating fruits and veggies, etc. You also get points for pounds lost (from your lowest weight...so there's  no up and down points awarded). It's a way to develop great 'habits'...most of which I'm already doing, but hopefully will hold me accountable now that I have to report every week the number of points I've earned and lbs lost. And it just so happens that Bama's wedding in Cabo is exactly 8 weeks away...so perfect timing!

Here's the link to the competition and a printable form if you want to start your own challenge with someone!

http://www.sixsistersstuff.com/2012/01/8-week-printable-weight-loss-get.html

Day Twenty Seven: Lunch

Mom and I decided to tackle a 10 day cleanse (products through Advocare) that has a very specific diet. Mike and Mica just finished it and had really great results. The diet is actually really healthy and the best part is we can still EAT. I do not know how Mica people do the diets that are all liquid or very little food intake at all..cray cray! I mentally couldn't do it. But, with this, we can eat fruit, lean protein, veggies and complex carbs. We basically have to give up sweets (eeek!), alcohol, dairy, soda, sugar and  'white' flour. We.Got.This. I basically eat healthy overall anyway...except for the occasional ONE.BIG.SPLURGE. which just so happens to occur more frequently lately than it should.

So basically my lunch for the next 10 days consists of salad and grilled chicken, cucumbers or carrots and hummus. My dinner will consist of fish and steamed veggies. My snacks will consist of almonds, fruit and raw veggies. I am determined to lose weight before the Cabo trip in May!!

Day Twenty Six: Colour

Brandon's parents have been in town the past several days (part of my excuse for not blogging...thanks for the free pass Mica!) so I've been busy! I suggested to his mom that we go take pics in the blue bonnets....part of a good ol' Texas tradition and she loved the idea! So for this post...here is my 'color'. I tried to focus in on one blue bonnet (very center) with the surrounding flowers blurry...and I love the splash of red in the background!

Day Twenty Five: Something You Made

I'm not very creative so rarely do I 'make' anything...especially the past few months. Holy Busy! So for this post, I'm going with...Something I made myself 'do'. Clean out my closet! Yay me! We all know I love to shop and I have more clothes than one girl needs...a lot of them that haven't seen daylight in YEARS. So I've commited to start regularly cleaning the crap out that I know I'll never wear. It's hard...but these two bags prove I've at least started. Baby Steps. Now I need to get them out of my hallway!

Day Twenty Four: Guilty Pleasure

I have many guilty pleasures but will only tattle on myself with one today...Peanut Butter filled Pretzels. OMG. I love them. Fortunately, I found these small bags at Kroger instead of buying them in bulk like I used to have to do. I typically can't stop eating them once I start...so this helps me stay a bit more in control!

Day Twenty Three: Something Old

When my grandmother passed away earlier this year, it became very apparent to all of us as we sorted through all of the stuff in her home, that nobody knew what was 'really old and valuable' vs the junk she bought on QVC. She had a huge china cabinet full of dishes...some old and some she bought on sale at Dillards. None of us did a very good job of getting those details before she died so we'd know what had sentimental value (her great grandmother's biscuit jar vs the biscuit jar her crazy friend from Clifton gave her). We did find some things that we were certain were old or had some sentimental value to them...one being something that I wanted badly...not sure why, but it reminds me of my Papa so much. He died 24 years ago...but the memories I have of him growing up will last forever.

My 'something old' is a picture is of his lighter...it's obviously old and has no fluid left, but it still smells a bit like it used to when my Papa used it. He retired from Owens-Illinios, as well as my dad and my dad's mom...so it has a lot of 'value' to me.

Day Twenty Two: Shoes

Most people wear many 'hats' in life...these days, I have a few but not as many as I will one day when I get married and have children...my 'hats' will multiply (wife, mom, teacher, coach, confidant, disciplinarian, fun ruiner...among many others I'm sure!) Today, I just wear a lot of 'shoes' each and every day. Here's one day of the shoes in the life of Kellie...whew, busy day!

5AM-ish...NB Minimus...I'm working up to the number of miles I can go in them.

Normal Asics Running Shoes...I switch after a couple of miles in the Minimus

7AM-ish...Work Shoes

6PM-ish...Run home, change clothes/shoes, go to grocery store, Brandon's for dinner and out to vball courts in cold weather shoes

9PM-ish...Switch to Sandals that are worn only at Sand Vball courts

Day Twenty One: Reflection

March 21st reminds me of Lisa…it’s her birthday. So this post is dedicated to Lisa and a reflection of our friendship.

Lisa and I quickly became friends in college and I can’t imagine life without her now. We have so much in common, it’s sometimes scary…we’ve even been asked if we were twins…twice…and the people were serious! (if you know us, you know this is absolutely bizarre...we have nothing in common from an appearance standpoint) Lisa and Jeff were already married when I met them. In college, I practically spent my last year hanging out at their house, we worked out together every day, we ate dinner together most evenings (shout out to Body For Life!)…poor Jeff had no idea that he’d never get rid of me! Ha! During college we met Mica on our Anderson internship, the 3 of us bonded and have more inside jokes and crazy funny memories than you can imagine…to this day, most of our times spent together involve lots of laughter and Mica taking mental notes to ‘surprise’ us with later! (Just FYI, if you are at my future wedding and don’t ‘get’ something in the MOH toast, don’t feel bad, most likely (and hopefully) 99% of the other people won’t either!) After college, Lisa hooked me up with a job at jcp…as much as we tried to hide our friendship; it quickly became clear to everyone that we were fairly inseparable! We established a daily ‘coffee chat’ (which may not have always involved coffee…just a chat), ‘private meetings’ on each others calendars to have time to catch up if the coffee chat wasn’t enough (priorities!), loooong shopping lunches especially during the holidays and an occasional sporadic period of working out through the years (which never lasted). As Jeff and Lisa began having their own family…now a beautiful family of 6 with 4 boys (holy busy!)…I have been involved as much as possible and love those boys like they were my own nephews! Lisa is a role model of an amazing mother, wife and friend…to everyone that knows her! Here are a few moments captured on camera from the reflection of our friendship!

Lis and I in college, back in the BFL days...oh how we WISH we could get into those jeans today!

Lisa flipping pancakes at one of our UW fundraisers at JCP...fun times at work!

My 30th birthday in Waco at my parents...a little apple pie and hot tubb'n!

One of our girls trips to NYC...with our moms!

Lisa, always willing to be the 'fun' mom to entertain her boys!

 

And of course...our girls trips are never without many laughs...she was NOT going to pay to check that bag!

Just being silly girls...

So many great memories...thank you for being such an amazing BFF, Lis!! Love ya tons!



Day Twenty: Someone You Love

I love Brandon Woods. I have waited a long time to know what the feeling of finding ‘the one’ truly feels like. I have dated on and off quite a bit throughout the past 15+ years…some only one date, some a few months and some a few years…but I have never felt about any of them like I feel about Brandon. The best word to describe our relationship is EASY. Things are just so easy between us and have been from the first date. There have been no games, no question as to “will he call again?”… “is it too early to text him or call him? is it my turn or his turn?”… “when will our next date be?” Throughout the years, I’ve watched all of my close friends find their guy, get married and start having a family of their own. At times, I struggled with that, thinking, “when is it my turn?” I’ve shed many tears and I’ve had many long talks with my girls being assured that my time would come. Patience is not my strong suit. As a single girl in her 30’s, some days were rougher than others but overall, I can honestly say, I was happy. I had an amazing life. More friends than I could keep up with. My life included tons of fun single activities sports, church, hometeams, girls nights, birthday parties galore, vacations, dinners, shopping for myself…amazing bonds with my friend’s kids….a supportive family…I bought my own house…I have an awesome career…no credit card debt…a nice savings…I am proud of my independence. And I wouldn’t trade any of that for anything. Don’t get me wrong, I want a family and my own kids BADLY, but I had a life and experiences that many people long for. I had…have an amazing life. And it just keeps getting better.

One of my favorite quotes from the pastor at my church is, “Worry is a faithless waste of time”. I won’t pretend that I never worry. Unfortunately I have inherited the quality of making worry an art from my mom! But, deep down I knew God has perfect timing. God would provide me exactly what I needed when it was the right time. And I feel like he did EXACTLY that. I feel like everything happens for a reason and as each of those past relationships ended; I tried to learn something from them. I tried to put into perspective precisely what God was trying to teach me in those periods of my life and how I was to apply it to my future. I feel like I am a better friend, a better girlfriend and will be a better wife because of my past learnings.

Brandon and I have been dating for 7 months and I knew after a very short time that I would marry this guy. He is amazing. We have so much fun together. He’s exactly what I was waiting for. He treats me like I am his biggest priority. He puts my feelings first. He goes above and beyond to always make me feel special. He is a leader and exactly what I want in a Godly man. We are both on the go and love to stay active. We run together, we play volleyball together, we go to church together, we have intimate conversations about the future together…and most importantly we laugh together. We’ve had tense moments but always come out stronger. I am one very blessed girl and I couldn’t be happier. The best thing about it all is that I had NO IDEA a relationship with a guy could be this amazing. I LOVE Brandon Woods and can’t wait for the day that I carry his last name and show the world exactly how different ‘this guy’ is from all the others.

and he is perfect...perfect for me.

Day Nineteen: Sweet

Megan set up an account on Instagram with her iTouch...and it just cracks me up. I love seeing what she posts and what the comments she puts about each photo. She can be so sweet...when she wants to be.

FYI...as 'sweet' as this is to me, beware following her yourself, this is just a few pics that's she uploaded within the 24 hours she had it on her phone...she blew my 'wall' up. She posts everything...which makes it a little annoying...but still melts my heart a little. :)

Day Eighteen: Something You Bought

I'm so excited...I finally found a groupon worth buying, to have laser hair removal on my legs. Score...

Now the hard part is figuring out when to start it since I'm supposed to stay out of the sun while getting treatments...that's tough for me and my love of the water come summer time!

 Somehow I don't think my legs will look like this...but a girl can dream!

Day Seventeen: Water

I don't claim to be creative so I won't pretend to be today. I asked Brandon what I should post for this picture today that might be a little more creative than my water bottle...he said, "Take a picture of our boat...that goes on water". Uhm, we don't have a boat. "Exactly, we should. Let's go buy one."

Pretty sure we all know one large purchase comes before that large purchase. Therefore, no additional comments necessary....

...hence, the picture of the day.

This is my water bottle...not creative, but with this, starting Monday, 3/19, I will vow to drink 5 of these a day. I need to lose weight...drinking water is key. So, I will do my best at drinking a minimum of 5 bottles daily.

Day Sixteen: Morning

Most mornings, my days start with this app on my iPhone (with the exception of the days I have Amy). I love it. It's called nike+ and it's so cool. You can track all of your runs, pace, distance, calories burned, indoor/outdoor tracks and challenge people to competitions. Brandon and I recently won the 1st couple to 99 miles against some friends of his in Indiana. We all have the app and it updated and kept us up to date on the standings as everyone completed their runs. The online site gives even  more information and lets you set personal goals, teaches you to run certain distances if that's what you want...good stuff. It's definitely helped to keep me more accountable lately with running. Big fan!