Winner!!!

Just wanted to let you all know that
I'M THE WINNER!
Woo Hoo. I won, I won, uh huh, uh huh I won. I am doing the happy winning dance in my head right now. I am jamming to the winning beat! $150 in my pocket. OH YEAH baby!
I lost a total of 21.7 pounds, for a 13.75% of body weight lost. Not bad huh? I am feeling skinny. Oh, wait, I have had 2 Thanksgiving dinners. I am NOT feeling skinny at this EXACT moment. But I am a lot skinnier now than I was 10 weeks ago. So that is something huh?
Thanks for all of the encouragement and faith you had in me to do it. I wasn't easy, but it was worth it. That is a scripture somewhere isn't it? "I never said that it would be easy, I only said that it would be worth it." Of course, I don't know that Jesus was talking about losing weight to win money. Probably not! (move to the side, here comes the lightening)
Anyway, I thought that you would all want to know the news. I am very excited.

Weigh-In Eve

Ok everyone, I am on FINAL Weigh-In Eve. I have eaten, or drank rather, my last supper. I have drank my final glass of water for the evening. I would hate to retain water overnight, so I am not eating or drinking anything else. But here is my problem...I just handled the Thanksgiving turkey. It is cooked and ready to eat. It is a smoked turkey, so my hands smell so delicious. I may get so hungry during the evening that I eat my own hands. I have washed them and all, but it is like onion smell...it won't wash off. OH MY GOSH! It smells so good. Do you think that if I just licked my hands that I would gain weight?
I am so nervous about tomorrow. As of lastnight, there was only.02% separating myself and another lady for 1st place. She is the CHEATER who is taking diet pills, laxatives, having body wraps and sauna baths done this week. (I don't care what you say Kimbo, I still think it is cheating. Rules or no rules!) There is such thing as ethics and integrity and morals, and when you compromise all of those things to win a contest, I think that is cheating. Ok, enough of that. My point is, she has an edge, she has advantages that I don't, since she is doing all of those things for free. It would cost me a fortune to do all that crap. Plus, it isn't healthy. I just can't take diet pills. I can't do that to my body. So, I am only .02% ahead. So everyone wish me luck. I am so nervous. I really want to win. I have worked hard and have lost, as of this morning, 19.7 pounds.
So wish me luck, say a prayer in my behalf and I will let you all know what the results are tomorrow. Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Eat lots of turkey. I will, providing I don't eat my hands off of my arms tonight!

Test The Water

Ok, so I missed another day of blogging. Yesterday I was too upset and depressed to blog. Indeed, I went to bed before 10:00 pm. That is a sure sign of something's not right in paradise.
Due to user error, my ads got taken away. Sniff Sniff! It was my own fault and I am praying that my appeal will indeed appeal to some computer techno geek in the google adsense world. I am hoping that they will take pity on my mere stupidity and chalk it up to beginners error and let me have another chance. Ahhh, but we shall see. Serves me right for wanting to know what the prices were of those strawberries. They were way to expensive anyway. $50 for a dozen chocolate covered strawberries! Who in their right mind would pay that kind of money for 12 chocolate strawberries. Frankly, I don't see what the big deal is over those things. They are delicious, yes, but they are SOOO easy to make! Maybe that is the same thing for my ads...they were soooo good to have on here, but someone decided they were soooo easy to take away, so they did! Sad huh?
Does anyone feel sorry for me? I am feeling sorry for myself. Sometimes I just don't get the way the world turns and they way things work out. It is easy to say "Woe is me, everything is against me." Especially these past few weeks around here. It has been one user error on my part after another. I guess I need to learn from my mistakes and learn slow down and figure things out before making rash moves and decisions. I am the type to jump right in before testing the water. Erik is the opposite. He evaluates, sticks his big toe in before jumping in. Sometimes it drives me crazy that he just can't make a decision fast enough on certain things. But at the end of the day, the week, the month and year, he is better off, for he has erred much less than I have. So next time I get a good idea in my head, such as starting blogs with ads on it, I guess I should slow down, read the fine print and find out more info. That way I won't get burned so fast after jumping into the pool of boiling water!

Oliver Twist

Wasn't it Oliver Twist who asked for "More soup, please?" Well I think that I might know how that little fella was feeling. I'm soooo hungry!
As many of you know, I am in a weight loss competition. It is a 10 week competition, based on percentage of body fat lost. It ends on Thanksgiving morning, so that we can go stuff ourselves silly after the final weigh-in. The first place winner gets $200, second place gets $100. We are all paying in a total of $50 over the 10 week period.
So where do I lay in the group of dieters? First place baby! YEAH ME! I am in first place for the time being, but I am not singing till the final results are in. And, should I be the winner, it won't be the fat lady singing...but it will be me...15-20 pounds lighter, singing and dancing a jig. My goal is 20 pounds, and I still have 4 more to go by Thanksgiving.
Which brings me to Oliver Twist. I am starving! I am not starving myself, but I am not eating my usual portions of food. For dinner I had a meal replacement shake which is a whopping 120 calories. I added in a few bites of chicken though. So 2 hours later, my stomach is growling as though I haven't eaten all day long. I really want to go raid the pantry, pack on some Oreos and milk. Eat the bag of Barbeque Lays that are in there taunting me. I want to devour the bag of caramel Hershey Kisses. I really want to eat. But more than I want to eat, I want to step on that scale on Thursday and have it read 2 pounds lighter than I was last week.
So for now, I guess that I will have to remain strong and just go to bed hungry. Thank goodness I have never been a midnight snacker. Wish me luck, please, in reaching my goal and most importantly, winning the $200 that is on the line. I really want it...really really bad! Not that it will go very far this holiday season, but every little bit helps huh?
So, for tonight, Oliver Twist and I will go to bed hungry, in hopes that tomorrow brings a smaller stomach, or "More soup, please!"

YEAH ME!!!!

Today, I did it! I am an official runner! I ran in my very first race today! WOO HOOO!!!
I am so excited to report that I ran in a 5K race, 3.1 miles. I did in in 35.40 and it was actually a little over 3.1 miles. The lady in charge said that it was probably closer to 3.5 miles.
So I finished 39th place out of 50-60 people. It was so much fun! Except for running by a dead animal, that part stunk....literally! ha ha.
Anyway, it is pretty humbling when I am running as fast as my short, fat legs can take me, which is pretty slow f.y.i, and I am not even half way to the half way point. And what to my dismay do I see? Other REAL runners already coming back the other way! Tis true!
The real highlight of the race for me was coming upon the half way point to the water stand. I got to drink my water and throw the cup, still half full of water, on the ground! I felt so official! Do you have any idea how hard it is to drink and run at the same time? I could have stopped to drink, but I know that I never would have got going again! So I kept running, drank some water, sallowed a bunch of air with it and kept going. It was so cool. Except for the air part. That hurt my chest, but with enough steps in the other direction, it came up! Thank heavens for that!
The other highlight was coming to the finish line and seeing that clock ticking away the seconds. There was a guy standing in front of the first number, so all I could see was the 5:30. I thought it must be 45:30 because it usually takes me 40-45 minutes to run 3 miles. But he moved to the side when I crossed the finish line, with my arms up, just like real runners, and it was 35:40! I was so excited. I beat my personal time! Erik even came out of Parkeway to watch me run in and he was late. He said "You are 5 minutes early!" So he missed it, but he was proud of me anyway!
So my next race in on the 24th. It is going to be the Gobble Wobble. It is a 5K/10K, walk/run/wobble! After eating 2 Thanksgiving meals, I may be more prone to the wobbling!

I was just wondering?

I was just wondering everyone....what are your Thanksgiving plans? What are you having for dinner? What is your favorite dish?
Our plans are getting more set now. We will be eating our dinner on Friday when Erik's Dad and wife come into town to visit! We don't have our menu planned yet, but we are working on it. We don't know if we are going to have traditional, or go with chicken and steak. Either way, we will stuff ourselves silly and enjoy being with family. I am so excited to EAT! AHHH...I have been in a weightloss competition for 8 weeks, 10 total weeks by Thanksgiving day, and I am HUNGRY! But I have lost 15 pounds, so I guess it has been worth it.
Ok, back to the subject, as for my favorite dish, hmmmmm, let me think.... I think that I love it all. Mashed potatos and gravy, deviled eggs. I love stuffing with gravy on it, as long as it doesn' thave water chestnuts in it. Never have been a fan of those. Oh, and the homemade rolls. Who doesn't love those? Of course, I make mine from the frozen state, not homemade. They are a good substitute, but not as good as grandma's!

So let me know what your plans are, what you're eating and what your favoite dish is! I look forward to knowing what all of you are going to be up to!

Pictures!

YEAH!!! I finally got a few pictures on here. As soon as I download the pics from Halloween, I will get those on here too. Not that they look so precious in those pics, what with the red eyes from fit throwing and crying, but that is a whole different story. I will save it for when I get the pics on here. It will make much more sense.
Anyway, here they are, the "little girls"! (That is what Beverly calls them!) Aidre is just outside of our house, and Kinslee is on a field trip to a pumpkin patch in Kilgore. Aren't they just adorabible?? (no, that is not a typo---I tell the girls that they are "Adorabible" all the time. Pronounced ADOR-A-BiB-LE-the I is short sounding, not a long I as in BIBLE, but short as in Bib!) Aren't I just an English Scholar if you have ever seen one? =)
(scroll down to the bottom of the page, you will see them. The pictures are so huge you can't miss them! )

Thanksgiving for the kids

Ok, so everyone knows the joys of cooking Thanksgiving dinner. I love to be in the kitchen. I am so looking forward to cooking all day long. I just love it. But enter 2 wild children wanting to help, and it can become a little hectic. Some of you have more than 2 wild children. I remember Thanksgiving's where there were 10-15 or more wild children running around grandma's kitchen! So what do you do with the little rugrats to keep them occupied and still make them feel as though they are "helping"? Well, this is just an idea I had a few years ago, and my daughter loved it. She made personalized placemats for everyone. I got a piece of scrapbooking paper, I even let her pick the color. I pulled out markers, crayons, stickers and let her have at it. She was just beginning to write her letters, so she put everyone's name on their placemat then decorated it with lots of scribbles, doodles and stickers. Then she got to put them out in the spot where she wanted everyone to sit. She loved it. She really felt like she contributed to the whole holiday! Everyone made sure to make a big deal out of her artwork!
So you will need:
-Enough Pieces of cardstock for everyone at your table
-Thanksgiving Stickers
-Markers-(make sure they are washable)
-Crayons
-Clear Contact Paper-this is optional, but you can laminate each mat with clear contact paper. I recommend you do this if you are wanting to keep the placemats!
-Enough happy little gobblers to get the job done by the time dinner is served!

You can also let them make napkin rings with the cardstock as well. Simply cut the card stock into wide strips. Probably 2 inches wide. Let the kiddos decorate each strip, then roll up your cloth (or paper) napkins. Wrap the strip around the napkin and fasten with double sided sticky tape. I wouldn't use glue because it will have to be held together while the glue sets up. Double sided sticky tape is going to be much faster, less messy and easier!

And there you have an idea to keep those little hands happy while you work on that non-lumpy gravy! (by the way, does anyone know how to make non-lumpy gravy?) =)

Christmas Goodies

Christmas time is always my favorite time of year. I love to make my own Christmas card, make Christmas crafts, paint ornaments and do all sorts of Christmas baking.
One of my favorite things to make at Christmas time is Buckys. Some people call them Buckeye Balls, some Peanut Butter Balls, but we have always called them Buckys! (even before it was my last name!)
I don't have a premeasured recipe, but here is what I do.
1 Cup Peanut Butter-creamy, preferrably, but crunchy is ok too
1 Stick Butter (optional, but I highly recommend it..adds to the creamy texture and flavor)
4 cups Powdered Sugar.

Put all indgredients into a mixing bowl.
(Roll up your sleeves and wash your hands, it gets messy here.)
Mix together until well blended (Yes, I use my hands to do this, no beaters, no spoon, just my fingers. Makes for easier clean up and besides, it is fun to lick my hands clean after I am done!)

Add more powdered sugar if mixture is too sticky to roll into balls. Keep adding until mixture is dry enough to roll into balls, but not falling apart.

Next, place a piece of wax paper over a cookie sheet. Start rolling peanut butter mixture into small balls. Place balls on wax paper and refrigerate 4 hours or more.

Melt 2 bags of Chocolate Chips. I use the Milk Chocolate, but you may prefer semi-sweet chocolate, or even chocolate almond bark. Any kind can be used, milk chocolate chips are just my favorite.

Immerse the cold peanut butter balls into the melted chocolate. Remove with a fork once completely covered in chocolate. To leave any peanut butter showing would just be a crime to all chocolate lovers out there.

Place chocolate covered ball back onto wax paper. Continue dipping balls to your hearts content! Refrigerate until chocolate has set up. Enjoy, share with friends, or do as I do...eat most of them yourself! (hence having to diet the rest of the year!)

You can make up the balls and freeze them in advance. Simply dip the frozen balls instead. It is much easier, but you may have to remelt the chocolate throughout the process.

These are truely my favorite holiday candy. I love to fill up a tin with these, cookies and a few other goodies and give them to neighbors and friends. I have found that my friends look forward to getting them every year too!
Just be aware of those with peanut allergies. It is a good idea to let people know ahead of time that they are peanut butter balls!
I will post more of my favorite Christmas Goody Recipes later!

I hope that you enjoy!
Shalon

About Me

Crazy is as crazy does.
Ok, so I am not clinically CRAZY, just mildly crazy. Crazy is such a loose term anyway. I once rolled down a hill outside of a local restaurant. Some, including my husband, would deem that to be crazy. I deemed it as tons of fun. It was the perfect hill for rolling down, and my friend and I could not resist! So we did it, and you know what? A few other patrons of the restaurant actually left their tables and came outside to do it after seeing us do it out the window!
I am a 30 year old mother of two with a green question mark tattoo on my right ankle. Why a question mark? Well, I was 18 and stupid and not even drunk. I didn't know what I wanted, so the tattoo artist said..."How about a question mark?" Me-"DUH... OK!" Forked over $40 and am permanently reminded of a stupid, crazy mistake.
I do feel crazy on most days. You know, the "I am losing my mind, I think I am going insane" feeling. That feeling you get after a day of dealing with fit after fit after fit from your 3 year old. The feeling you get after getting absolutly nothing accomplished all day long and your husband walks in and says, "so exactly what did you do today?" Like the mere accomplishment of NOT killing the children wasn't quite enough, he expected a sparkling clean house too! Does anyone else know that feeling? And actually, right at this exact moment, I am starting to feel a little psychotic. It is 10 p.m. and my 3 year is refusing to give it up for the night. Instead she is pulling my hair. Little does she know that I too would like to pull my hair out right now!
At the end of the day though, I think that a little crazy is a good thing. It is good to be crazy, to have some fun. Roll down that hill, even though you are a wife, a mom, and many more things. What fun is life if we just look at the hill and remember the good ol' days of our youth when we would do something like that. I say, go for it....roll away my friends, roll down that hill. Be crazy, have fun! But as for the question mark tattoo....Um, just say NO!