If you're a bird, I'm a bird

On Wednesday, April 15, Joe and I weighed for our Isagenix Weight Loss and Deep Cleanse program. I was soooo nervous. My breasts were sore and so heavy. I was not feeling hopeful. We always do Joe's measurements first. He lost a whopping 28 lbs. and 16 inches!! Then it was my turn. *sigh* As I was documenting each measurement, they were smaller than the Day 11 measurements and hope began to soar. When I weighed, I couldn't believe my eyes! The scale said I lost 12 lbs. in 30 Days!!! As I added up all my measurements, I lost a total of 22.75  inches!! I had a piece of my niece's birthday waiting on the counter for me. I really debated not eating it. I was so proud of my weight loss that I didn't feel good about eating it. It was good, what little I did eat. Then my head started to hurt. I had all these glorious plans for eating out three meals a day. Little did I know that the foods I thought I wanted, ended up not being all that I thought they'd be. I ate a ch

According to Wikipedia "Yarn bombing  is a type of  graffiti  or  street art  that employs colorful displays of  knitted  or  crocheted  yarn or fiber rather than paint or chalk. While other forms of graffiti may be  expressive ,  decorative ,  territorial ,  socio-political commentary ,  advertising  or  vandalism , yarn bombing was initially almost exclusively about reclaiming and personalizing sterile or cold public places. " I have a part-time job of placing exchange students with host families. It is not always easy finding families to open their homes. If they are a interested, there is something else holding them back, like moving or their husband or the size of their house or the schools. Life happens. I love when I find families that jump right in and we finish u p the process in a couple days and before I know it, they are selecting their student! One day I came up with an outside-the-box idea about getting the word out there. Yarn Bomb Beaufort! I have bee

I wanted to get a manicure before work. Since I work on Lady's Island, I found a place close by. I picked out my nail color and soaked my hands to soften my cuticles. The lady was speaking another language to the male co-worker, as usual. It sounded similar to Chinese. I asked her where she was from. She said Vietnam. I was so so excited to tell her about our exchange student coming in August! I asked how to pronounce his name and if the Saigon restaurant in Bluffton was authentic Vietnamese food. She said that she would be willing to help with translating if he needs help or cook for him if he gets homesick. She has a 12th grader "who is a good boy." I told her which high school he would be going to and her son goes to the same one. Her son will be going to college 1.5 hours away, but I'm sure will visit on the weekends. Then if meeting a Vietnamese woman with a teenage son wasn't cool enough, she proceeds to tell me that she lives next to the high school. It

Still going strong with Isagenix. Last time I weighed I was down 7 pounds but I do not weigh often because I get discouraged. Joe is down over 20+ pounds now. His pants pull away from his body and he has tightened his belt 2 notches. It is amazing how much food you can eat with a 400-600 HEALTHY meal. Joe and I decided to eat our meal at lunch today because he forgot to take his shake packet to work. We'll be drinking our protein shake for dinner instead. Arrived to work early so I walked instead of sitting in the van Our last day of Isagenix is Wednesday, April 15. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday we aren't sticking to the plan. We are eating some of our favorite foods- hamburgers, Chinese, pizza, coffee, and BBQ. Our next 30-Day box is being shipped out today and we will start Sunday, April 19. Making my 400-600 calorie lunch strawberries, tomatoes, flax seed pitas, 3 boiled eggs, and almond butter

I was given a 3-ply wool blend of yarn many years ago. I held on to it not knowing what I wanted to do with it. I've been looking into dying yarn recently. There are natural dyes that I plan to use in the future like spinach leaves, black beans, onions, red cabbage, etc. While browsing, I discovered a recipe for Paas Easter egg dye. So when I was buying our kit to use with the kids, I picked up an extra box for a dying project. Natural state of the wool Any box of Paas with the tablets can be used I rinsed the yarn and hung it to dry on the drying rack outside. It dried in an afternoon. This morning I had to soak the yarn again so it would soak up water and absorb more of the dye. While it was soaking in a bowl, I started getting the dyes ready. I added 3 tbsp of vinegar and a cup of hot water to the dye mixture. Wool soaking in room temperature water Bowls of Paas dye I draped the yarn in each bowl and made sure the undyed parts transitioned into the bowl t

Phong I take my job as Academic Coordinator for Cultural Homestay International very seriously. I enjoy the challenge of looking for families. I set a goal for myself to recruit 6 families by August 2015. I have already placed 4 girls as of March! These families have selected 3 Japanese girls and 1 Spanish girl. Our family selected to host a 15-year old boy named Phong from Vietnam. He looks very sweet and there were several things in his profile that we thought would mesh with our family. He has been accepted into his high school already! I'm excited about having a teenage boy in our home. It will definitely be different than two toddlers. I have three informational sessions at libraries in April and May. I have registered for the Relay for Life in April. I already have another family that is a definite, but they are waiting to move in June/July to do the application process.  I honestly think I am going to place more than 6 students! I have two families in the "think

I'm going to be honest. I'm feeling a little discouraged on this Saturday morning. I am faithfully doing Isagenix. No cheating. I weighed this morning and I was 174.4. I notice changes in some parts of my body and I wish there were more changes in other parts. I am trying to "up" the physical exercise and Joe and I are going to do some "lunges, squats, crunches, push-ups" kind of exercises in the evenings, in addition to our family walk. We are also still going to try to do our individual walks during the day. Joe is looking fabulous! He's lost quite a bit weight and it is noticeable. I do not feel like my 6.8lbs. pounds is, even to me. I know guys lose weight easier and the heavier you are the more pounds you have to lose. It is not fair to compare myself to him because it is like apples and oranges. I'm not going to give up, I'm just going to push harder. I guess that is why people say not to weigh yourself everyday or do not look at the nu

On Friday, March 27, Joe and I weighed and measured necks, arms, chest, diaphragm, abdomen, buttocks, thighs, calves, and upper knees with a tape measure. Joe went first and lost 6 inches and 13 pounds. I was nervous so he wrote everything for me. I lost 8.4 pounds and lost 11.25 inches!! Grant it, we had just finished a cleanse so we had been drinking liquids for two days so I see why they have you measure on Day 11. It is getting harder for me to drink enough water the longer we have been doing this. I guess because I was hungrier at the beginning when we first started, I would drink water to fight off the pangs. Now I find myself getting a dry throat from not drinking enough. Omelet in the pan Our 400-600 calorie meals are still going well. I think the one we had last night is my favorite. It was a spinach, tomato egg omelet. I baked 2 corn tortillas and had a homemade tomatillo salsa that Joe made and a cup of strawberries. The omelet was 6 eggs (1 whole one and 5 white

Saturday, March 28, 2015- As I scroll through my facebook feed, there is a picture of chocolate cake...and frogmore stew...and steak...then my co-worker comes back from lunch and tells me about she ate at an expensive restaurant during her lunch break. I bought my kids and in-laws a hot and ready pizza from Little Caesars. The aroma filled the van and my tongue salivated. I scroll through Pinterest and see food recipes and photographs all over the place. Oh, and my mom sends a plate of cookies home with my kids. It's like " Don't all my friends know that they are torturing me?"  Joe and I have already planned a "break" after the 30 days. Our 30th Day is April 15 so on April 17th, we are going to The Filling Station for dinner, Open Mic Night at Common Ground, and breakfast at IHOP. We'll start Day 1 again on Sunday, April 19. What do you do when you have cravings? R