Girls Night!

It's girls night tonight! I'm sooooo excited! I'm going to dinner with my girls that I've been friends with since I was a wee TOT and we are gonna have so much fun. We haven't gotten together in so long so it's gonna be one of those nights. LOL! 

I'm sure we'll be THAT table in the restaurant that no one wants to sit by because we are so loud and obnoxious. Yep...that's us! And we love it!  I got my nails did today and I painted my toes. This needed to be done so bad.

This occasion also means drinks and gossip! Except for one my besties, Ash, who has a little munchkin on the way. She is graciously driving us. The key at this point is to always have a friend who is pregnant, but still wants to have fun. That way you always have a driver. :) Just kiddin' Ash. You know we love ya!

I will update this post later with a pic of my girls! Tons of fun here!  Stay tuned!

Stuff...

This week started out ok, but yuck...Neil got sick with a stomach bug, then I got sick with a stomach bug, then Lila woke up from a nap SCREAMING yesterday.  I think her canines are starting to come in.  A little ibuprofen later and she ended up being fine.  I hate teething.  Have I mentioned that before.

Many of you know that I have a BodyBugg and I love it.  Well yesterday, I purchased a Nike+ Sportband.  This device will do everything I need for my runs.  And there is no subscription to the Nike+ website, like there is to the BodyBugg website.  Right now when I go for my runs, I wear my BodyBugg and take my phone to track my mileage with an app called MiCoach by Adidas.  I love the app, but it's a lot of gear to wear when going on a 20 mile run.  I'm hoping the calorie counter on the Nike+ Sportband will be as accurate as the BodyBugg, but if it's not, I think I'll still be happy.  I honestly just wear the BodyBugg to count my calories burned for curiosity, not to lose weight...I'm not trying to lose weight.  I'll be sure to let you know how I like the Nike+ Sportband!

Update on the "healthy eating" in the Atkins household....BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!  Well, we've been sick this week, what do you expect?  Also since Tuesday, I have not taken my Skinnygirl Daily packets.  Again, I've been sick.  I'm hoping to drink/eat one at lunch today.  We'll see how my stomach feels.

I started reading "The Hunger Games" last night on my friend Sarah's Kindle.  1. I love the Kindle....I think I need one, seriously.  2. I couldn't hardly put it down.  I read 4 chapters last night (a lot for me; I'm a slow reader).  I read while Lila was watching TV, while she was taking a bath, while I was rocking her to sleep, and when I got in bed.  It wasn't until my eyes started crossing from being so tired that I put the book down and hit the sack.  It has such an intriguing story line.  I can't wait to finish it.  Book review to come!

So Blessed

I wasn't really sure what I was going to write about today, so it's really just gonna be a little bit of everything that is on my mind.

This morning, Lila and I slept in until almost 10:00.  It felt sooooo good.  I have to admit that I woke up about 9:30 and pretty much just watched her sleep for 30 minutes.  I never get tired of watching her.  Sometimes I can't even focus on a television show because all I do is watch her her play or study something to figure out how it works or scream and cheer at the basketball game that's on the TV at the time.  She never ceases to amaze me...in the best way possible.

I had a 16 miler today that I have to say I've been dreading this week.  I don't know why, but I just didn't want to do it.  My body has been feeling very tired and weak the last couple weeks and I'm not sure if it's fully recovering from the long runs I've done in the past month.  I am hoping and praying that it tells me what to do and when is enough.  That being said, I hope that "enough" can wait until April 28th.

I know sometimes we get caught up in the chaos of life, but today, even with my iPod blaring in my eardrums, it was so apparent to me that God was with me.  The weather was absolutely gorgeous.  A lot warmer than it has been for my long runs, 40 degrees warmer than my last one to be exact, and I was kinda scared how the weather was gonna affect me.  Thankfully I made it through with little pain today.  God even knew when I was getting pretty warm and gave me a cool shower for about 3 minutes.  :)  All I could do was smile.

For those of you who don't know (shame on you), we are in the midst of MARCH MADNESS!!!!  One of my favorite times of the year, aside from my birthday and Christmas.  LOL  My bracket is still in ok shape even though Duke and Mizzou both got upset.  I'm at a good place with my teams right now.  Here is a look at my bracket as of now.  Not too bad.

Update on my Skinnygirl Daily packets.  I'm still loving them.  I think they are starting to affect my bowels a bit more, but I do think they are working, cleansing the bad out.  I'm wondering if that has something to do with why I've been feeling a little different.  Maybe my body is used to the toxins (how sad is that) and now it's just trying to get used to working without them.  Of course that's how it should be.  Today I mixed my packet in a smoothie that I created myself.  It's a pretty simple smoothie, but it was delicious.

Lindsey's Skinnygirl Smoothie

About a cup of V-8 Fusion Juice of your choice - I used Strawberry Banana
About 6-8 (hell who knows, maybe more) frozen strawberries (you can use fresh, but be sure to add more ice if you do so)
1 banana
Handful of ice cubes (if you have ginormous hands, a little less than a handful)
Tad of Apple juice
Skinnygirl Daily Cleanse and Restore packet

I tossed the V-8 juice, strawberries, banana all together, topped it off with a little apple juice and got to blending.  Then I checked the consistency.  It was a little runny so I added the ice cubes.  Add more than I did if you like your smoothie thicker.  I like to drink it out of a straw so this worked for me.  Once it was all blended to my standards, I added the packet, blended once more for good measure and voila a smoothie.  How easy is that?

Now Lila is taking a much needed nap.  Perhaps tonight we'll venture over to Carbondale to find some cute material to make some burp cloths and bibs for a baby shower tomorrow.  Who knows what the night will bring us!

Bit of a Challenge for the Atkins Family

Neil has really been taking advantage of his gym membership gift certificate that he got for Christmas.  I mean really.  He is looking good, if I do say so myself.  I mean his arms are like ROCKS!  mmmmmmm

He's wanting to get stronger and leaner (I don't know about the leaner thing though) and has requested that perhaps we start eating a little healthier.  Now this isn't the first time he's requested this, but after many many times of fixing one meal and trying to stay healthy, this time I'm gonna do it.  I figure if I post about it, then maybe I'll keep my motivation in eating healthier.  We don't constantly eat junk food, but we can always do a little better, in my opinion.

Here goes the first night 3/12/12

Harvestland turkey burgers on the grill seasoned with Lawry's Seasoned Salt and garlic on whole wheat sandwich thins (which were way bigger than the burger by the way)
Mashed sweet potatoes (one of my favorite things ever)
Grilled onions, green bell peppers, and mushrooms

WOW!  It was good.  I know the burger looks kinda like an egg in this picture.  I put cheese on mine and Neil had the inside of the onion slice.

I also made kale chips.  I've been wanting to make these for a while now and finally got to it.  They are a healthy substitute for potato chips and they aren't that bad.  Believe me, I LOVE LOVE LOVE potato chips.  This is the recipe I used for the kale chips.  I got it from the Food Network.

Try it, you may just like it!  

The past week

So this past week has been a really good one.  I feel like I haven't talked much about Lila lately, so here goes.  You're about to get an earful.

Lila has been amazing me this past week way more than usual.  She's picking up on a lot of things that you just don't know until they come out of her mouth.  She can identify almost everyone in our family now.  Used to, we would have to point at the picture and say "who is that?" and then maybe even give her a clue.  This past week she'll just walk by a picture, stop and look at it and say "Capel" or "Holly" or "Poppa".  She definitely knows who everyone is.  She also identifies most common animals and follows up with what sound they make.  I'm such a proud momma!!!

Not only is she identifying people, but the other night as we were strolling through Wal-Mart in the movie section, she points and screams at me, "Mickey Mouse".  Now when this happened, I thought that a worker was going to have to come pick me up off the floor.  I mean seriously.  And there was no "what did you say?" because it was so clear that I didn't even have to ask.  So once I got my jaw up off the floor and looked at her and actually noticed that she was climbing out of the cart to pick out a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse movie, I was even more stunned.  I immediately thought, Neil had to have been working with her in the mornings this week (he was on spring break and took her to daycare every morning).  So the next morning, first thing out of my mouth was asking him that.  He said that he had smily been talking to Lila about Mickey Mouse, but not really working with her to say it.  Needless to say she got the movie.  She did NOT, however, get the Mickey Mouse stuffed animal that she also screamed bloody murder for in the store.  I thought I was gonna have to take her out on a stretcher when I told her no for that...little brat. :)

One more huge thing that surprised me about her happened tonight in Wal-Mart.  No we don't go there every day...I hate that place, but sometimes there's just no way around it.  We were in the baby food section getting her a new plate, fork, and spoon.  Once we did that, I picked her up and we walked on.  She then reached for some Gerber Yogurt Blends.  Whatever, she can have it, I thought.  So I simply asked her if she wanted it.  I gave it to her and plain as day she said "thank you".  Once again, I was stunned.  I just feel like she grew up in a week.  She's now giving herself a bath and washing her armpits on her own, something I always do for her.  Where has the time gone?  Excuse me while I go wipe the tears from my face.  :)

Day 2 - Skinnygirl Daily Cleanse & Restore

Yesterday I went and bought the Skinnygirl Daily Cleanse and Restore packets.  I'm excited to start using them daily and see if it really does cleanse my body.  I'm also going to attempt to eliminate junk from my daily routine.  My husband says I need to do this.... :)  We'll see how that goes.

I'm anticipating these "cleanse" packets will make me poop more.  LOL  This should be a lot of fun!  I'm hoping to get the toxins out of my body and restore with good stuff.  This is something that I should be doing anyway, but now more than ever since I'm training for the marathon.  I need to keep my body in peak condition.

https://admin.skinnygirldaily.com/blog/cleanse-restore-101/

Love Bethenny...Go to her Skinnygirl Daily website and check it out!!

I'm planning on keeping track on how I feel throughout the next month to see if these packets are worth it.  Stay tuned!

New Ideas

Here are some things I came across that I plan on doing in "all my spare time".  Some are Pinterest ideas, some are things I've gotten off of other blogs, but I'm so excited for all of them!

Something Turquoise Blog

This is such a great idea.  Take all of your wedding cards and make a book out of them.  I found this on Pinterest, but the blog it originally came from, I had a little trouble finding the post where this was included.  The blog is AWESOME by the way.  I'm also going to do it with Lila's birthday/baby shower/baptism cards.  It's such a wonderful idea instead of tossing them in a box for no one to see.

I also want to try to make some curtains for the living room that have a ruffle on them like this.  They look relatively easy....

http://www.anthropologie.com/anthro/product/home-curtains/22688683.jsp

I am also going to be making some bibs, burpcloths, and mini blankets.  As soon as I get the material and get them made, I'll post pics.  If you like them, I can make some for you!  I'm very excited about all my projects!  Wheeeeeeeeee