Chocolate!

One of my problems is my sweet tooth. It's huge! I love sweets! I got this recipe at a WW meeting years ago. I love it, they make a great breakfast! Tiny Dancer calls them "Poop Muffins", you'll see why:

3 cups Original All Bran Cereal
2 1/2 cups water
LF Brownie Mix
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

Soak All Bran in water for 5 minutes. Mix in the Brownie Mix and Baking Powder. Scoop into 24 Muffins. Make for about 15 minutes.

Yummy! Sweet, kind of gooey, filling, and yes, Tiny Dancer, full of bran, which can do things to your intestinal track, so be careful with these!

Diet Pop Cake

As I mentioned on Monday, I made a few of my favorite snack/dessert recipes this weekend. Some probably call this Diet Soda Cake, but where I live it's Pop, not Soda!

This could not be easier!

One Cake Mix - any flavor, I used a Reduced Sugar Yellow this time
One can of Diet Pop - find a flavor that goes well with the cake your chose, I used Diet Sunkist.
Two egg ehites

Mix is up and bake it according to the package directions.

You can mix so many different flavors, it's almost endless. Next time I make it I'm going to use a Reduced Sugar Devil's Food and either Diet Dr. Pepper or Diet A&W, it will depend on which I have on hand, but I think either would work great. Oh, or Cherry Coke Zero!

This is a list of other possible combinations I pulled off of the Weight Watcher Boards:

- spice cake mix w/ diet orange
- Banana cake mix w/ diet root beer
- lemon cake mix w/ diet 7-up
- Chocolate cake w/ Diet coke
- Lemon cake w/ Diet ginger ale
- orange cake w/diet Mountain Dew
- cherry chip cake w/ A& W diet Cream
- Lemon cake w/ Diet Lemon lime
- angel w/ Diet Orange
- White w/ Diet Orange
- yellow cake w/ Diet orange
- white cake w/ Diet Peach
- spice cake w/ diet lemon-lime
- White w/ diet ginger ale
- chocolate cake w/ Diet cherry coke
- devils food w/ diet vanilla coke
- chocolate cake w/ rootbeer
- marble cake w/ diet cream soda
- lemon with tangerine diet rite
- white cake mix w/ diet sprite
- Red Velvet w/ Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr Pepper
- Banana cake w/ diet root beer
- Pineapple cake w/ diet Squirt

I personally don't frost mine or I just use some FF Cool Whip if I want something on it. I really just like cake! If you do want some frosting you can add one box of SF Instand Pudding (just the dry mix) to 8 oz. FF Cool Whip.

I have another yummy sweet recipe for tomorrow!

What a Glorious Weekend!

It was beautiful here in the Frozen Tundra. I can't really call it that anymore, it's not Frozen here anymore! Far from in fact! We had highs around 70 this weekend. We spent a lot of time outside doing gardening and yard work. Everything looks so much nicer now! I can't wait to be able to plant my annuals. I do a lot of annuals in pots. We have a swimming pool and we spend A LOT of time in that area of our yard during the summer, so I like it to be full of pretty blooms.

What else...Tiny Dancer had a long dance practice on Saturday. She has a competition coming up this coming weekend. It will be a busy one, but lots of fun!
Dough Boy and I discussed getting the pool opened up. It's WAY earlier than normal, but it's been so warm I'm afraid the pool will start growing things if we don't fill it up, put the chemicals in, and get the pump going. I spent some time outside on the deck reading yesterday. I did a bunch of low fat/low calorie baking on Saturday. I'll be posting those recipes in the next couple of days. They are so easy and if you've ever followed Weight Watchers you've probably seen them, but they are a couple of my favorites.

Lots coming up this week...the usual dance practices, Tiny Dancer gets her spacers in for her braces and then of course the dance competition.

Hope you all have a fabulous Monday!

Shock!

Wow! All I can say is Wow! We took Tiny Dancer to the orthodontist in the beginning of March. I did not expect to walk out of there that day with 4 appointments and her getting braces within a month a half, but that is what happened.
Today I had the "parent consultation". They've taken x-ray's, models, measurements, and photos and have now developed "the plan". So, I sat there an listened for an hour this morning while they detailed out the problems she has, what they want to do to correct each of those problems, potential risks, and of course THE COST!
Wow, expensive little suckers. The bad news is that she needs to have 5 baby teeth removed soon. Two of them she could almost pull on her own, there is no root left. So, being the kind parent that I am...offered her $10 a tooth if she can get them out herself! That way I don't have to pay to have them removed! :) We'll see if she actually does that!
Our big journey starts next week. Thursday she gets spacers to make room for the bands on the back teeth. Then on Tuesday the 27th she gets the brackets put on. Luckily she doesn't need the teeth pulled prior to these appointments.
That's the excitement here today. I'm still on track with my Weight Watchers. Having fun doing Wii Fit!
Happy Thursday!
Mama to One

Weigh in day!

I've decided that Tuesday's will be my weigh in day. Since I doing WW online I do the weighing myself, which has it's ups and downs. When you weigh at a WW meeting you feel accountable someone else sees it. It can also feel embarassing!
This time around I just didn't feel like I had the time for the meetings, I'm going to try it on my own. I was successful this week, down a little over 3 pounds. It's encouraging, but I also know that this first week weight loss is usually mostly water weight. I try not to dwell on that and enjoy the 3 pound weight loss!

As I try to blog through this journey I hope to share some of my favorite WW recipes and tricks. One of my favorite lunches is chiken salad on crackers.

Chicken Salad
1 small can of chicken (they come 3 cans in a sleeve at my store)
1 TBSP light Miracle Whip or Mayo
Pickle Relish to taste
Black Olives to taste

Mix it up and enjoy it on Wasa 7-Grain Crackers. I personally like to make the salad ahead of time and refridgerate it, I like it really cold. Yummy!

Other than that I'm tired today. We had some storms roll through during the night and Rocky doesn't like storms. So for a while I slept with a dog curled around my head and his neck stretched across my neck. I had a fur stole, something every girl needs in the middle of the night!

Enjoy your Tuesday!

Mama to One

A Jorney...

These are two pictures taken of me in January during our trip to Mexico. I'm not very proud of these pictures. I don't like to have my picture taken. Especially in a swim suit! I'm over weight. I need to do something about it.

No, I'm doing something about it. I joined Weight Watchers(WW) online last week. I've done Weight Watchers before, but always gained it back. I know what I need to do, I need the motivation to do it. I went to the doctor last Tuesday, I joined WW on Wednesday. I can't keep going like this. I want to be healthy, I want to be able to do things with Tiny Dancer and Dough Boy.

It's been easy this week, but then again the first week is always easy for me, I'm still motivated, excited and ready to conquer this. This feeling will change, I know it will, but I choose not to let it get to me. Not to let it stop me. I've achieved my weight loss goal before only to then stop the "diet" and gain it all back. NOT THIS TIME! I'm changing my life. I'm not on a diet. I'm going to be healthy, reduce my risk for the breast cancer my mom had, reduce my risk for the diabetes my dad and uncle have, reduce my risk of high blood pressure my mom and grandparents have.

This time will be different.

A Day in the Life of Ruby..

This is Ruby.

She is one of our adorable Cavalier King Charles Spaniels. We have two. We couldn't say no after the first one. Ruby is the older of the two, however we actually got her after Rocky. Ruby is 9 years old and a retired breeding dog. According to the breeder she's had three litters, I don't know whether to believe it or not. We thought we were buying Ruby from a reputable breeder, however we've discovered several neglected things, teeth, ear infections, etc. So, we consider her our rescue dog, even though she isn't a true "rescue".

Ruby lives the life of luxury now and that's all that matters!

Here is some of how Ruby spends her days...

This is Ruby wedged in between my leg and the edge of the chair. She's taking her early morning nap! Right after waking up, going potty, and eating breakfast.

Oh dear, the flash disturbed her, well, maybe not...still half asleep.

This is Rocky and Ruby during their morning nap while mom is working from home.

Uh oh, something woke her up...

Let's bother Mom while she's trying to work and stand by her leg and scratch her until she scratches my ears, yeah, that's a good idea! I'll give her the sad eyes, those always work!

Well, that didn't work, kick that pesky puppy out of my bed and stretch out for my afternoon nap!

Maybe if we wait patiently in our crate while Mom makes dinner she'll feed us sooner!

Dinner is over and that little person that lives here is sitting still, I have more room in my chair when she's sitting there, so up we go for our evening nap before bed.

Yep, that's how I spend my days of "retirement"!

Blind Dates really do work!

One of the blogs that I read My Little Life has been having interesting Valentine's Day topics on her blog. One of the recent topics was Engagement Stories, so I thought I would share ours.
I have to back about 6 months from the actual "pop the question day". It was late February; I was almost 24 years old and still living with my parents. Up until that point I had been pretty OK living with my parents, but now having been dating Dough Boy for 6 months I was starting to feel like it was time for my own space. Dough Boy and I were talking about it one evening and he said "I really don't want you living alone, why don't you move in with me." I think I was kind of stunned at first. The first thing that popped into my mind was his roommate would have to move out; I wasn't doing the "Three's Company" thing. He said, fine. I told him I needed to think about it and discuss it with my parents. I was terrified to talk to them about it! We had never really discussed living together before marriage. I had no idea what their reaction would be. To my surprise they were OK with it, the only thing my mother cautioned me about was to make it very clear to him that I wanted to get married and that living together would not be a permanent arrangement. So I told him that and he said OK.
Fast forward about 5 months...July, I moved in that month (took a while for the roomy to find a place, etc.) our first anniversary was coming up in Mid-August. Somehow we got talking about the arrangement and I reminded him this wasn't permanent; I wanted a ring on my finger someday. He suggested we go shopping for one! So, we looked around at several stores and finally found one.
As we were discussing our first anniversary and how we wanted to celebrate he suggested we go to the jewelry store, buy the ring, and go to dinner. Needless to say I was beyond excited! We get to the jewelry store and they pull out the ring (little did I know he'd contacted them and had a larger diamond put in the center!). This is a small jewelry store and they size the rings on sight in about an hour! So, we went to dinner in the mall while it was being sized. We went and picked it up, me expecting to wear it home was a bit surprised when he said to put it in a box and bag! I was now bummed!
We are driving home, the ring is in the back seat of the car, he won't let me take it out and look at it, won't let me wear it, nothing. I told him "You have no idea how hard this is for me. It's something every girls dreams about. What if I told gave you a brand new car and wouldn't let you drive it, that's what this is like for me!" He never gave in. We get home and I go stomping up the stairs to our bedroom. There on top of the TV cabinet is a dozen roses, balloon, and card. I turn around and he's running down the hallway and slides into the entryway on one knee and proposes! He had planned it all along, but didn't expect me to go tearing up the stairs!
He's such a sweetie! He had actually planned on trying to wait until September as we had a vacation planned and he thought it would be fun to propose then, but he didn't think HE could wait that long!
What's your engagement story?

Not Me Monday!

I did not allow my child to have lemon buttermilk cake for breakfast because she had such a good parent/teacher conference the night before! Nope not me, I always make sure she gets a balanced and healthy meal before heading to school. I would never send her all sugared up!

I would never make my families favorite meal (Creamy Chicken & Red Potatoes)for a school dinner and not allow them to eat any of it! Nope not me, I always make enough for the family too!

Creamy Red Potatoes and Chicken

As I promised in my last post, in addition to the heavenly Lemon Buttermilk Cake I made one of my families favorite crock pot dinners. I found this recipe a long time ago on the Internet. It was a collection of crock pot recipes. I have no idea now where I found it or where to point you to get the whole recipe book, sorry!

Here is a picture of it bubbling in my crock pot! Doesn't it look yummy!

Here is the recipe:

Creamy Red Potatoes and Chicken

1 1/2 pounds of Red Potatoes - chunked (I quarter or half them depending on the size)

8 oz. Neufchatel Cream Cheese (this is the 1/3 less fat variety)

10 3/4 oz. can of Cream of Potato Soup

1 Envelope Ranch-style Dressing Mix (I used Hidden Valley, not the one for making dip, the one for making salad dressing)

12 ounces Chicken breast without skin - cut into bite size pieces

Place potatoes in the slow cooker (or crock pot). Beat together the cream cheese, soup and salad dressing mix (I never bother with this step, I just add everything put the potatoes into a bowl and mix it up!). Stir in the chicken and spread over the potatoes. Cover and cook on Low 8 hours or until potatoes are tender. Stir once after 5-6 hours (not really necessary if you aren't at home, I've done it with and without stirring doesn't make a difference!). Stir before serving.

There you have it, yummy goodness, quick and easy!

Enjoy!

Mama to One

Lemon Goodness!

Tiny Dancer's school has two Staff Appreciation Dinners each year. One during the Fall Parent/Teacher Conferences and one during the Spring (if you can call February Spring in the Frozen Tundra, I can't!). But I digress...

I wasn't able to help out during the Fall dinner this year, due to my broken foot back then. I volunteered to bring a dessert this time. I receive these quarterly recipe magazines from Betty Crocker. They are very fun, usually themed, like Summer, Appetizers, Cakes, Cookies, etc. When deciding which dessert to make I came across this Lemon Buttermilk Cake recipe. I had bought the ingredients to make it once before and ended up throwing out the buttermilk before I had a chance to make it, but I decided now was the time. And let me tell you, it is TO DIE FOR! I am not kidding you! I'm not a huge lemon fan, I like it just fine, but I'll pick chocolate over lemon any day. But I like variety, I like making new recipes and this one sounded good. Holy Cow! I might have trouble picking chocolate over this one.

Here is a picture of my half eaten piece!



Tomorrow I will post the Creamy Red Potatoes and Chicken I also made for the dinner. It is one of my families favorite meals and it's made in the crock pot, so it's super easy!

Enjoy!

Mama to One

We're back!

We are back home safe and sound. We actually came home on Saturday 1/30, it's just been so busy around here I haven't had time to post!

We had a fantastic time in Mexico. For the most part we had beautiful weather. A bit windy most of the time, so beautiful hair there was not! But it was nice and warm compared to weather here in the Frozen Tundra.

This was the few from our balcony, very pretty!

This is Tiny Dance hanging in the water.

We did lots of fun things while we were there. We went to Xel-Ha, a natural water park. We snokeled, swam, sat in the sun, and had a glorius time there.

We spent a couple of evenings wandering 5th Avenue in Playa Del Carmen. It was a fun street that was for pedestrians only, it is lined with all kind of shops, tourist stuff, hotels, and restaurants. Here is a photo of one portion of the street in the evening. It was very fun.

We spent a lot of time just sitting in the sun and swimming at our resort, but we split up on Friday. Tiny Dancer and I went horseback riding and Dough Boy went scuba diving.

Here is Tiny Dance on her horse and Dough Boy doing his Pool Dive.

So, in a very nutshell, that is what we did. I've got all kinds of ideas for upcoming posts, so please come back and visit again soon!

Mama to One

I'm leaving on a jet plane, don't know when I'll be back again...

OK, so sadly I know when I'll be back, but I'm choosing not to think about that today! I'm beyond excited to be done with work, finish up last minute details and get on that plane!

This is what I'm thinking about...

This is Tiny Dancer on our trip last year. Last year we were in Cancun, this year we are going to Playa Del Carmen, just a bit further south. Can't wait to see that beautiful blue water, the sun and feel the warmth of the sand beneath my feet.

Take care!

Mama to One

Vacation Craziness

What I call vacation craziness has begun! This is the point at which you realize you leave very soon and all those last minute things need to get done NOW! You can't continue to put them off any longer.

It's happening at work, home, school, and dance! I choose not to say anything specific about my work, for confidentiality reasons, but suffice it to say people start coming out of the woodwork with things that need to be done when they realize you are leaving, tons of fun!

At home, we decided to have part of our house painted (on the inside) while we are on vacation. Our neighbor and friend is a painter, so we trust him with the keys. But that means taking down pictures, curtains and curtain rods, moving furniture to the center of the space, etc. I'm very excited for the painting. I need to try to remember to take some photos of the before and after. We are finally painting our dining room/stairway space. Our living room overlooks this space, so we've always just kept it white as it is such a large space and flows with most of the main portion of the house. I finally decided it's time to add color! It's not a wild color, something call "Familiar Beige", kind of a medium tan. I'm so excited to see how it will warm the space!

Tiny Dancer has last minute things going on as well. For school, we are trying to see if there is homework, etc. that she can do ahead. Then there is dance. She's going to miss a week of practices during a critical time, they are learning all of their dances for the contest/recital season. Contest paperwork and fees are due while we are gone, so lots of paperwork to fill out. It is also very exciting! Even though it means more practices and driving, Tiny Dancer loves it so much! I love to watch her!

That's the craziness of my life right now. Given that craziness I don't know if I will be posting again before our vacation and I won't have access while on vacation, I'll be back around 2/1!

By the way, I'm feeling less worried today, which is good, much calmer!

Take Care!

Mama to One

Worry...

Do you worry excessively? I do, I'm terrible. It's tough to admit but I worry too much about things I can't control. I know I do it. I tell myself it's out of my control so whatever will be will be. I tell Tiny Dancer (who already worries too much) that it doesn't pay to get so upset over things we can't control. Yet here I am, an upset stomach, why? Because Saturday we are headed out on vacation! A wonderfully fun thing right? Should be, but for me I sit and watch the weather report showing a wintery mix coming here to the Frozen Tundra (as MckMaMa calls it). I worry, what time do we need to leave for the airport, how long will it take us to get to the airport, what if the flight is delayed, do we need to pack extra snacks so we don't spend a fortune in the airport eateries? And the list goes on and on...

I'm also worried about getting sick. I feel as though I've been fighting off a cold for a week or so. I've been doing different herbal type remedies (not sure I believe in them, but hey it's worth a shot, right?). I've been using the generic version of Airbrone twice a day, I bought some Coldeze drops (those are yucky!). But I'm determined not to get sick. Mind over matter I say!

My third worry is about me getting around on our vacation. You see, I fell through the floor of our attic down onto the cement floor of our garage in October. I broke my right foot, messed it up good. I am thankful and eternally grateful that my life was spared, it could have been so much worse had I not landed on my feet! I keep telling myself I'm a cat, I always land on my feet. Anyway...back to my worry...I'm finely walking around in regular tennis shoes, but I feel every step I take, I walk slow, get tired quickly, and I worry about how I might hold Dough Boy and Tiny Dancer back from having the fabulous vacation we had planned before I got hurt. Dough Boy is suck a wonderful guy he told me he'd get me to a lounge chair by the pool (yes we are getting out of the Frozen Tundra!), told me to bring lots of books (I'm a reading maniac!) and that he would take Tiny Dancer to do the things I can't, but it was suppose to be a "family" vacation.

So, today I'm vowing to let go of my worries. I'm going to believe that God had a plan for me when I got hurt, he obviously still wanted me here on this earth, and let things come as they will...well at least I'm going to try!

What do you worry about?

Peace and Joy be with you!

Mama to One

Welcome! About me...

Welcome to my blog! I started this blog a LONG time ago when I was a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator. I gave that up about a year ago. I've begun thinking about blogging again to document our life, the fun we have, and journal about things. First off I figured I should tell a little about me.

I am currently in my late 30's, a wife of 12 years, and a mother for 11 years. I work full time outside the home. I won't be going into details about my work, where I work, etc. as I don't want to violate any company policies. Suffice it to say I work as a Supply Chain Manager for a major financial institution, enough said.

In my spare time, which there often isn't a lot of, I like to read (nothing deep, mostly fiction), garden, swim, shop, bake, and just be with my family. I'm pretty much a homebody, don't need to go out much (not that I mind going out!) I just enjoy being at home with my family.

I've been married to my husband for 12 years. For purposes of this blog I'm going to call him Dough Boy. He's by now means fat, it just seems to fit him as he is a baker! His passion is golf! He also bowls, swims, and does an amazing job of taking care of me. I know this because in October of 2009 I fell and broke my right foot, he's amazing is all I can say!

We have one beautiful daughter I'm going to call Tiny Dancer, because she LOVES to dance! She takes dance through a local community run program that we absolutly love. She keeps us hopping, dance is 3 nights per week and we are coming up on contest season so extra practices will be coming soon! She is a typical 11 year old, wants to be a teenager, but isn't quite there yet. Once and a while she still needs her mommy so I'm savoring those moments as I fear they will soon come to an end.

We have two dogs, Rocky & Ruby. That is their real names, I figure you can't search them on the internet, so who cares if you know their real names! I'm sure you can figure out mine anyway! They are cavalier king charles spaniels and we love them to death. Ruby is 9 and Rocky is 3. Nothing like coming home to two waggy butts as we call them! Their tails can't go fast enough when you first come home for the night!

Well, I think that is probably a long enough post for now. I'll be back soon and add some photos of us, etc.