Thursday, July 30, 2009

It's the weekend... and some new loot!

Sorry I haven't been around... I've had way more important things to do than blogging... like showing off my mad coloring skills...

No need to be jealous :)

It's the weekend!!!!!!!!!!!! I was so ready for this weekend to come!

Backing up to yesterday's food...

I made JR and I smoothies for breakfast... my favorite combo of 1 banana, 1/2 cup frozen cherries, 1 cup chocolate unsweetened almond milk, protein powder and some almond butter... good stuff :) (I had this today, too... I'll spare ya a repeat of that!) For lunch, I ended up at a place called Roly Poly sandwiches...it's funny they call it sandwiches because really, they make wraps... hmm...
I got their Cider House Melt... which is...a Whole Wheat Tortilla, Smoked Turkey Breast, Baked Ham, Reduced Fat Swiss Cheese, Spinach, Mushrooms, Onion, Grilled Golden Brown w/Side of Fat Free Apple Ranch Dressing

I had it with about half a bag of harvest cheddar sun chips and a bowl of cherries, strawberries and blueberries....


It was really yummy!!! I always forget about this place!!

My 3 year old, Maddie, called JR and I in the middle of the afternoon yesterday asking if she could stay the night with grandma and grandpa... so JR and I ended up having an unplanned date night!!!

We headed off to see a movie... which we haven't done in um... months... and finally went to see "The Hangover"! Told ya we are behind with our movies!!! It was pretty darn funny!!!

Then we headed off to our favorite pizza place, Mellow Mushroom for dinner!!! Yummy! We started off with the bruchetta (and a big glass of red wine!!)... I had two of these...
and then we each had two slices of pizza... my side had spinach, chicken, mushrooms, onions and green peppers :) Yum... check out that CRUST... droooolll...

I have got to get going and jump in the shower... so I will be back later to report the rest of date night food but before that... I haven't had the chance to share this with you all as of yet! I received my Annie's prize pack from Danica on Monday! We got LOTS of great stuff!
Maddie RIGHT away claimed what she wanted!! She loves her "bunny fruit"!
I am planning on using the bbq sauce this weekend for a couple of meals! Same with the new Mac 'n Cheese :) Annie's brand of macaroni is the only brand I buy for Maddie to eat... Awesome ingredients!! Thanks Danica!

Okay! I'm off to shower and then we're heading to the mall so I can get some new work out shoes... I'm thinking of getting some Nike Shox... Lisa and I have been doing Zumba classes (my new LOVE!) and I've heard they're awesome for that and all around workouts... so we're heading to the Nike Outlet in hopes of a good deal!

How is your weekend going so far? Any plans?

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Thank you!!! Long post... please hang in there with me!

Hello!

Thank you all for your awesome responses on my last post. I was a little ashamed to say anything and almost decided not to... but I absolutely want this blog to show the true struggles of weight loss/maintenance and thought not only could it be helpful for me... but maybe it will help someone else who's struggling, too!

It's weird to say... but growing up overweight, I some how knew that I would lose the weight, exercise... and be the healthy person that was waiting inside! I hoped to be a great example for my family and that they would be proud of me for doing this for myself.

But as a teenager, my main goal was to be "skinny"!! High school wasn't so great for me - I was teased constantly! All I wanted to do was to be pretty and "skinny" so they'd leave me alone! and that would be "it", ya know? All of my problems would be solved and life would be peachy-keen!

WRONG!

There are so many aspects to weight loss and then weight maintenance! I had no idea of the emotional impact that would come along with it. There was transitioning from the big girl to the skinny girl, the loose skin that came with major weight loss that will never firm up and be there unless I have surgery, thinking if I had a cookie or something I was really craving I was being "bad" and therefore, ended up eating everything in sight after, etc, etc... I'm not gonna lie, it was/is a tough road! I have learned A LOT over the past ten years of my journey and in a way, I'm thankful for every step I had to take. It's an every day commitment...

Here's a couple of pics of me... close to my heaviest point...right after high school
All of that to say, I know there are set backs and this probably won't be the last! I'm not perfect - I never will be and life shouldn't have to be that way!

I got an email from one of my favorite bloggers that was awesome and totally made my morning! In it she said this, "Hating yourself is not productive; doing something about it is"... That was the main thing I learned from my "journey". The harder I am on myself - the worse shape I'm in... it's emotionally and physically draining! I struggle with this the most... and sometimes feel SO lost on how to change it. What do you do to turn the negative tapes off? I try to... and then they creep RIGHT back in!

So, as for this "plan" I referred to...there really isn't one! I don't think that being completely restrictive on myself is going to help things along. That usually ends up backfiring and making it worse. I'm trying to be really simple with my food...not worrying about making elaborate meals, just stuff that's easy to put together... whatever sounds good at the time! I am trying to cut back on sugar, though. When my eating was out of control... I was having two desserts a day... cookies in the afternoon, big bowls of ice cream at night. Not small, portioned desserts... and all I was craving was sugar and starches... so for me, if I really want something, I'll have it... but other than that, trying to stay away from it is the best choice for me right now! I usually have desserts on the weekend... so i have that to look forward to :)

On the work out front, I have decided to finally use Jillian's 30 Day Shred as it is intended. I have used it here and there and threw in whatever level sounded good... and when I took my 2 week work out hiatus, I thought a good challenge would get me started again. My husband has not had a great work out schedule since March... AND I knew this would be a great opportunity for our best friend, Lisa - who has lost 50 pounds and is doing AMAZING... to start a new challenge of her own! In fact, she will be doing some guest blogging on her Shred experience! :)

Here's gorgeous Lisa...
Here is Lisa, our friend Liz and me (Mandy)

Along with Shredding, I will be adding in some extra strength training - I love lifting heavier weight way too much to stop for 30 days... and also some extra cardio!

Today was a rest day... will be up tomorrow for Day 5 of Level 1 and some Upper Body work!

Sorry for this monster post! I hope it made SOME sense!

Last thing... Megan is having a great Chobani yogurt giveaway! I'd love to win this myself... so don't go check it out... haha :)

Just for laughs... I will leave you with a picture of our "first born child"... Pepe Le Pew... he has this thing with laying in my flip flops... I finally caught a couple of pictures of it :)


O
kay... I'm out of here for the night! Thank you to anyone who could stick through all of that :)

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Things are a-changin'!

Hey everyone!

First of all, thank you all SO much for your support on my last post! I really appreciate it :)

I have to make this VERY quick because I can't keep my eye lids open anymore... but wanted to make sure I let you know that if you came here lookin' for a "Peanut Butter Lovin' Mama"... you came to the right place! :) My husband, JR is INCREDIBLE and made this new banner for me and also helped me come up with the new title :) Peanut Butter Lovin' Mama was just kind of a filler till I found what I was really looking for!! I'm so excited!

I will be making more updates this weekend probably... Finally some About Me Info, Before & After pictures (which you can see a couple of pictures here).. maybe some meal ideas? I'm not sure!

What would you guys like to see? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

What do you think of the header? I love the new page color... I'm such a girly girl... it fits me completely!

Off to bed! Night!

Monday, July 27, 2009

Make Up Monday... and a confession....

Happy Monday everyone :) I hope it was a good start to the week for ya!

Make Up Monday will be short and sweet :)

First... here are a few fun pics that my sister, Brittney sent me! She's great with playing with bright colors!! I so wish I could do that!

Thanks Britt! :)

I thought instead of posting my mug all over the page , I thought I would share with you one of my can't-live-without products!

My favorite mascara - L'Oreal Voluminous!


I have tried many expensive and inexpensive mascaras and ALWAYS go back to this! In my opinion, mascara is one of those things you can save your money on when buying make up. I think there are some that really stand up and even pass the quality of the high end make up lines!

Why this mascara ROCKS:
  • It's cheap! It's around $7... I can usually find coupons for any L'Oreal eye products, too... and if you watch Walgreens or CVS, they have lots of buy one, get one free sales. When I find this, I buy one, get one for free and use my coupon... and usually end up only paying $3 for two tubes! Bonus!
  • The volume and thickening is amazing! I only need a couple coats... makes my lashes feel so luscious!
  • I put it on in the morning and no need to worry about touching it up throughout the day! It has great staying power!
I absolutely recommend this mascara!!

One great tip that every lady should follow before you put on your mascara is to curl your lashes! It will make your eyes look ten times bigger!

What about you? What is your favorite mascara? Please share! :)


Confession time....


I have mentioned before in the past few posts that my eating hasn't been so great as of lately. I don't know what has kicked me off my normal healthy routine! I am not going to go into how badly my eating has been... but will say that it's consisted mainly of sweets (big cookies, ice cream) at least twice a day, and not a ton of veggies or fruits at all... lots of junk food that I don't normally eat or want! And lots of it!

That being said... I was already up about 7 pounds from my "happy weight" that I had been at for over a year... and now just from the past two weeks, I'm up 13 pounds.

I even had to go out and buy new jeans and a couple of new shirts! I don't have the money to be doing that right now!

Ugh...

I wasn't having an issue with my workouts... until Brittney came.. .then our schedule was CRAZY! We were out of town and I was up much later every night than I normally am and it threw me way out of whack. I didn't work out for about two weeks! I finally started up again on Saturday... thank goodness!

It's been a constant hate battle with my self confidence. I have been avoiding mirrors and tight clothes at all cost because I'm so mad at myself! I've kept off over 100 pounds for almost 10 years now... and at my "happy weight" for quite some time after having Maddie (and in better shape than I was BEFORE having Maddie) and that weight seemed to come naturally and I had no issues feeling satisfied with food! But now that I've gained so much weight and so quickly... I am ashamed to let family, friends, co-workers see me! Most people who know me as "the weight loss girl"... the girl they come to for some advice when trying to lose weight... I feel like such a failure right now!

I'm trying to take a step back... and look at things in the long run - I haven't gained back all of my weight - just 13 pounds. Yes, it's a good amount... but not 100 pounds!

I need to stop yelling at myself! The guilt does NOT help!

I can either choose to continue to eat this way and make things worse... or I can keep my eats simple for now to help me "detox" a bit and get back on track...

This is all about my health... not JUST losing weight!

Now, I don't have a HUGE plan to change things...but wanted to be open and talk about all of this here... since I wanted to be honest and share what's REALLY going on with me!

I will talk more tomorrow about my small "plan"... it's nothing outrageous or a crazy, intelligent plan... but what I think will work for me!

I'm sorry for all of that... but thank you to whoever listened!!

The batteries in our camera are dead.... and we are out of batteries! I keep forgetting to snap pics of my food today because I'm not used to using my cell phone for it!!

So for breakfast, just imagine a whole wheat bagel, with cheese, eggs and a slice of turkey bacon...

For a snack, a banana/pb sandwich... half with PB&Co's Might Maple PB and the other with PB&Co's Bee's Knee's PB :)

Lunch was leftovers of my pizza from Saturday night... and a big side salad with four small strawberries, onion, tomato, carrots, and a sprinkle of feta cheese... I got some pics with my cell phone of this...

Afternoon snack was a big ol juicy braeburn apple... YUMMM... and a small serving of Trader Joe's Trail Mix... good stuff!

For dinner, I just threw together a bunch of things that needed to be used up.... I sauteed some onions, peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes and asparagus.... threw them in with some quinoa and some leftover chicken sprinkled with some parmesan cheese... simple but yummy!This morning, JR and I got up and did our Day 3 of Level 1 of Jillian's 30 Day Shred... then we added on 20 extra minutes of cardio... I burned a total of 446 calories!

Now I am off to do some more work... and then going to bed. I have a horrible headache!!

How did your Monday shape up? I hope it went by quickly!

Sunday, July 26, 2009

On the go, go, go...

Hey everyone!

Why is it that every weekend seems to fly by faster than the last? I can't believe July is almost over! It's going to be Christmas before ya know it! Maybe that's why Maddie has been asking about Santa almost every day this week?!?

To finish off our Saturday night, JR and I played a game of Rumy. It's one of our favorites to play together... although, I have to say, I hate losing to him! haha! I had to give in and go to bed around 12:30...I'm such an old lady! But no fear... one more round and I'm sure I'll kick his tail end! We were both feeling snacky when we started our game...so we had this while watching our season 10 DVD of Friends (who else misses new Friends episodes?!?!?!) and playing cards...
That's mine with the added M&M's and almonds! So good!

Maddie woke me up bright and early at 7:00 this morning (while daddy got to sleep till 10am!!)... did a few things around the house, caught up on some blogs...when I finally felt hungry ...I wanted... chocolate :) Chocolate for breakfast? Hey, I'm PMS-ing - it's allowed!! Okay, so really... it looks like mud... but I promise it was yummy!I first microwaved 1/2 cup oat bran, unsweetened Almond milk, water, 2 tbsp liquid egg whites - for some added protein, 1/2 tsp vanilla and agave nectar... then stirred in some dark chocolate cocoa powder... added some chopped cherries, banana and dark chocolate chips! With some almond butter on the side...

Once JR decided to get out of bed we headed to get the Sunday paper and make a Starbucks stop... I grabbed a grande skinny cinnamon dolce latte...

While I was upstairs doing some cleaning, JR and Maddie did some cleaning of their own... going through ALL of her stuffed animals trying to figure out what she still plays with and what we can put up till the next little one comes along! Where's Maddie? HaHa...

Between oatmeal and the latte, I did not want any food until almost 1:30... I was craving a grilled sandwich! I used some Trader Joe's turkey, havarti cheese, lettuce, tomato, smart balance mayo with 1 tsp smart balance light butter to grill it... individual bag of sun chips on the side! YUM! This is really the first time I've had the havarti cheese... I really like it!
Also got some baking action going on today!...I made these Berry Rich Muffins... I needed to use up our buttermilk and also had way more blackberries and blueberries than I think we could have eaten before they went bad... so this was perfect. Excuse JR's fingers in the picture... he's trying to grab one before they've even cooled! ;)

Once we got Maddie down for her nap, we got our work out on! JR worked out with me today! We did Level 1 of Jillian's 3o Day Shred... I used mainly 5 & 8 lbs throughout the work out... and then did some extra lower body work after we finished. I burned 361 calories....after that, I had 1/4 of one of the muffins and probably about a tablespoon of my new Trader Joe's trail mix for a snack... then got dinner ready!

Dinner was easy tonight... I just marinated some lean pork in a teriyaki marinade, some roasted rosemary red potatoes and steamed up an asian veggie medley...
I have been a busy bee all day! I got meals planned out for the week, which was a chore! I felt so disorganized! I haven't planned meals in quite some time and did not know where to start! How do you make out your meal plans???

I then clipped all the coupons I wanted from the newspaper... I was using them faithfully for awhile... and noticed a big difference when I stopped! Do any of you use coupons?

Now I'm heading off to bed... getting up early for some more Level 1 Jillian and some cardio action! Night all! :)

Clean kitchen, happy mama... and workin' out with the kiddo!

Hey everyone!

How's your weekend going so far?

Yesterday was pretty good for us... it was nice to finally be home for more than to just sleep, get up and go all over again!

I woke up pretty early on my own yesterday... I knew I'd toss and turn if I tried to go back to sleep, so I just got up to start the day. I thought I'd make us all a yummy breakfast since I had so much time on my hands! I remembered I had some buttermilk that HAS to be used up, so I found a yummy waffle recipe to start our day with! Definitely worth making! I only made half of the recipe and got a few more than it said because my waffle maker is on the smaller side... but I think I may make more today and freeze them to toast up for easy on the go breakfast during the week! The recipe is here! I had one with some chobani vanilla yogurt, blackberries and banana. And of course, I had some PB&Co Bee's Knee's on it after I snapped the pic :)
After breakfast, Maddie and I got ready and headed out to get her hair cut! She said she was going to see her favorite "hair cutter lady, Ms. Glory". She did great with staying still and moving where Glory needed her to! I was a little afraid she'd be antsy and all over the place! Glory had some extra time after cutting her hair... so she played around and gave her a pretty princess hair do :) I only had my cell phone with me and only got one pic... but here's what the back looked like! She loved it! :)

Since Maddie was such so good for her hair cut, she got to pick where we had lunch! She said she wanted "turkey and cheese", which is her way of saying she wanted Subway! No pic... I'm sure y'all know what Subway food looks like! ;)

We ran to Trader Joe's... then came home and both took a nap! I slept for maybe an hour and got up and forced myself to get a work out in! I can not even remember the last time I worked out. Oh wait, it was right before we went to Alabama! Wow! Yeah, eating has been horrible since then, too. That's a whole other post that I plan to get to, though!

So I put in Jillians' 30 Day Shred and got going with Level 1. I used 5 & 8 lbs weights, depending on the exercise. It felt good to sweat! Sometimes it's SO hard to get going.. but once you're in it and finished, it feels amazing!!

After that, I had to conquer our kitchen. I almost took a picture of it to show you how bad it was... but that was wayyyy to shameful! I honestly could not see our kitchen counters! And who knew what was in the fridge at this point! I swear, from the day Brittney got here till yesterday, we haven't been home at ALL. It took me probably two hours between washing dishes, loading and unloading the dishwasher, going through papers on the counter, putting things away, and cleaning out the fridge! Now that it's done, I feel like a hundred pounds have been lifted off my shoulders...

Now our bedroom... that's a whole other story... sigh...

Maddie woke up from her nap as I was in my last circuit of Jillian's work out... She decided she wanted to join mommy and get her exercise in! I love that... always makes me feel so good about her seeing me and JR exercise. After we finished, she asked to do HER exercise dvd... I found this awesome kids work out dvd about a year ago. They do lots of stretching at the beginning and then in the middle, running, walking, marching, hopping, leaping, etc.... then they do a "freeze dance"... where they freestyle dance... she has a blast! I snapped a couple of pics of her stretching at the beginning...
She then found my hair band that I use to keep my hair back when I work out... put it on and just HAD to do her "exercise movie" (as she calls it) again because it made it SO much easier for her... haha

As I've mentioned before... Saturday night is pizza night in our house! We tried out Publix's premade dough this time around. It's pretty good... although I missed my Whole Food's dough! Some day we'll be brave enough to try to make our own.... when? I don't know! I am pretty intimidated by it... not sure why!

This week... my side had some Trader Joe's sundried tomato and basil chicken sausage, peppers, onion, mushrooms... that I cooked in some water, dried basil and oregano before baking on the pizza. I had maybe half of this beer with it...

I am going to end this monster post here... but will be back with other things to round out the weekend!

Do you have any "weekend traditions"? Saturday night has been our pizza night here... and we've been making our own now for the past year... and I would now much rather have our pizza than going out for pizza!

**Tomorrow is Make Up Monday! I'd LOVE to have someone send in a review of a new product they have tried, or something they love... or even one of your favorite "looks". If you have something you want to share, let me know!**

Do you guys have a favorite recipe that uses buttermilk that's pretty healthy? I need to use up the rest... I don't have too much left but have to use it today! I'm thinking of making some pumpkin chocolate chip muffins... but would love to hear any other suggestions!

Friday, July 24, 2009

Best.Grilled.Cheese.Ever.

Okay... maybe not EVER... but for me - it rocked!!!!

I found this recipe on the Oprah website... her side-kick Gayle had traveled around trying different sandwiches... and this sandwich always stuck out in my mind because it used an ingredient I had never heard of before in a grilled cheese.... honey! I was curious... and a little scared! But also knew it used fresh basil and tomato... and we had some basil and tomatoes from our CSA delivery that needed to be used asap... and I had just bought new honey last night... so why not give it a try?? :)

So glad we did!!!I had a big spinach salad with red onion and strawberries and then some mango, blackberries and cherries on the side... So yummy!

Here is the recipe! Let me know if you try it :)

We did not use all the cheese it asked for... I didn't buy any fontina... and we did not use as much butter but either way - it was GREAT!

After dinner, I did some work (yep... on a Friday night.. and all this weekend!) and JR and Maddie played Candy Land... do you guys remember playing Candy Land when you were kids??? Oh the good ol times :) Maddie beat Daddy's behind all three games, btw! ha ha! Go Maddie! That's my girl! Just kidding honey... Love ya ;)



We have a pretty laid back weekend planned... tomorrow I am taking Maddie to get her hair cut, then coming home and cleaning like a mad woman and doing some more work!

What are your plans this weekend? Doing anything fun? I'm thankful to be able to sit around and veg this time around! I feel like we've been going non-stop for a month now!

Night all :)

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Sunshine on a rainy day....

Thank you all for your sweet comments on Maddie's video! I don't know if you could tell from the video... but she was copying everything she saw Taylor doing in the video!! Too funny!

Did anyone take advantage of Starbucks free pastry day yesterday? I most certainly did! I got a skinny latte and their three berry coffee cake, which I have to say - was VERY yummy! Britt got the lemon pound cake. She loved it!


I ended up in bed MUCH later than I had planned last night! I have been trying to "recover" from our trip last weekend and from Brittney being here... I missed out on a lot of shut eye! I thought I was going to get to bed early last night... and that just did not happen! So I let myself sleep in this morning... and woke up to nasty, nasty weather! Wet and cool... not a way to start a day! Especially after your baby sister leaves! :(

But the day did get better!!!

I started my day trying out two new peanut butters!! I'm sure they are not new to the blog world...but definitely new to me :) New nut butters ALWAYS makes a bad day better :)
I had two Kashi waffles and smeared Peanut Butter & Co's Mighty Maple on one and Bee's Knees on the other....stinking incredible!! Also pictured are more new fun foods for me....Kashi Honey Sunshine cereal and for Maddie a MUCH healthier version of cinnamon toast crunch! They taste exactly the same :)

Then I found out I won my first blog contest!!! Danica at Danica's Daily graciously gave away three Annie's prize packs... with two packages of Mac 'n Cheese (the ONLY mac 'n cheese I buy for Maddie!), Annie's bbq sauce (the only kind I buy for JR and I!) and Annie's coupons to buy even more great stuff!! Thank you again, Danica!! I can't wait to get my stuff :)

Speaking of Danica - she is in the running for the best dessert in the Who Makes The Best Summer Dessert? contest for Myrecipes.com. Her entry is for the Nectarine Raspberry Sorbet over Fresh Fruit

Doesn't that look AMAZING?? Danica needs a bit of help with the voting to win... please head here to vote for her dessert and push her all the way to the top!! Hurry! Voting ends Thursday!!!

After work, I got my hair cut! Nothing major.. just a good trim, layers, etc... and my stylist (who I adore) went on and on about how great my hair color is now and how healthy my hair felt! This was awesome for me - I used a drugstore hair dye this time around AND have really only been using "cheaper" products in my hair to wash and condition with! Proving you don't have to spend a ton of money on hair products! Surely made my night!

I also had a wonderful glass of red wine while getting my hair cut... just what I needed today!

And to end my night... I had an (unpictured) vitabrownie with some peanut butter and whipped cream... ahhh yeah :)

I am going to catch up on a few blogs... and then head to bed to get up to work out. I um... haven't worked out in a WEEK people! What is with me? Speaking of that... I will be back tomorrow to talk a little bit about my food/drinking habits this week. I am needing a bit of inspiration and support!

Night all!!

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

A star in the making...and adventures with Brittney!

So my daughter... who is only 3... is already obsessed with Taylor Swift and has recently found Hannah Montana, too. How is this happening already?? I swear I was like 10 before I was obsessed with the New Kids On The Block (oy... is that aging myself or what???!!!)!

The two songs she always requests are Taylor's "Love Story" and also her newest single, "You Belong With Me". Taylor's new video was on TV tonight and we happened to pass by it... Maddie got her microphone and started singing away... and I thought I'd share :) Something to smile about today since my sister flew back home this evening (MISS YOU BRITTNEY!).


What do you think?? Is she ready for American Idol?

So as I said, Brittney went home today... I have had such a blast with her this past week! Maddie was so sad to see Aunt Brittney go! Thankfully, we don't have long until we see her again. We will be heading down a month from tomorrow for my brother's wedding (which I can't believe my "little" brother is getting married! Now I'm REALLY aging myself!).

Brittney told me she has never had a pedicure before... WHAT? We HAD to change that right away! Sunday, we headed out to do what we do best together - make up shopping! We hit up Sephora and MAC! It just so happened that the place I love to go for pedicures is right across the street from the mall... so I did what any big sister would do and treated her to her very first pedicure! She loved it! I think she's hooked :) We already have plans to go together when I visit Florida next month before the wedding!

Our all done up toes...mine are the french tips... she went with this awesome OPI color that I need to find out the name of! It was a deep purple color but when in the sun, had awesome blue undertones to it!We cleaned up to get ready to head out to dinner... but first posed for a quick picture...
Britt always requests Mellow Mushroom as one of her "must do list" when she visits us. No complaints from her big sister on that one! It was AMAZING as always! I am very much a big, doughy type girl... I just am not a full fan of thin crust. It will do in a pinch but I am very picky about my pizza crust! :) JR lets me pick my pieces first so he doesn't have to hear me complain later :) This pizza had chicken, roma tomatoes and fresh basil on it.

I ate the crust (of course), most of my toppings... but left the bottom part of both pieces to save room for this....

That is a yummy cup of TCBY chocolate/vanilla swirl with Reese's pieces (another thing I LOVE... ANYTHING Reese's!)

Maddie got her usual Rainbow Swirl... which is actually vanilla ice cream in a butt load of food coloring (nice and healthy, huh?)...

I think she liked it. :)

And this concludes our monster post of the day! :) I hope you enjoyed hanging out with my family! I'll be posting random trip recaps this week when I can!

Last... I leave you with my favorite picture of this week with Britt...