Thanksgiving Week

School has kept me busy as it nears the semester's end, so I've had little time for blogging. I was so grateful (even THANKful) for this 5-day break that accompanied the Thanksgiving holiday. I've gotten some things accomplished and got in plenty of relaxation, which was much needed.

We had our own little T&H Thanksgiving dinner. Tony's parents went to see his sister, Carleigh, in California and since we couldn't afford to take days off to go with them, we decided we wanted to do our own little feast. It was a lot of fun and very delicious! We started our day by going on a jog (our own little "Turkey Trot" if you will). We ran about a 5k distance since I hadn't been running in a while. It was really fun to go running together again. We'll have to do it more often! After showering off we began our meal.

We only had a turkey breast so it took about 4 hours to cook. I didn't make everything from scratch but some new recipes I did try from scratch were cranberry sauce and stuffing. Both were very successful recipes and I would make them again. I usually don't like cranberry sauce (especially when you can see the rings from the can still in it) so I decided that maybe making it fresh would be better--I was right! It was so yummy. And the stuffing was good enough to impress even my dad, the ultimate connoisseur of stuffing/dressing. Here are some pics from our Thanksgiving feast:

Tired, but trying to look happy!

On Friday I ventured out into the wild to find some deals on Christmas gifts. The crowds actually weren't as bad as I was imagining and I got some really great prices on a couple gifts for Tony. I also got to go out for lunch with my friend, Amie, and it was really fun to see her!

We wrapped up our exciting Thanksgiving weekend with a trip to the Greek Orthodox church in Salt Lake City today. No, we're not converting, I had to do an "inter-ethnic activity" for my racial and minority groups class. I suppose going to their service works. It was an interesting experience and it reminded me a lot of the time we went to church in Bulgaria. It was really fun to go on an interesting adventure. After the Liturgy was over we headed over to temple sqaure to take some pictures for Christmas cards. It was a really fun weekend! I'm kind of sad to see it come to an end, but excited that in two weeks, I'll be done with classes!

I hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving.

Report

So if you didn't notice on the sidebar, I lost .6 pounds this week on my little program. I'm okay with not meeting my 1 pound goal since I lost almost 2 last week. I have to tell you it's amazing I even lost .6! Two times this week I had french fries, and last night I ate apple pie. The apple pie kind of frustrated me after I ate it because I don't even really like it! I could have saved myself several (thousand) calories ;)

I told Tony yesterday that this week would be my healthiest week ever. I don't know how that's going to happen, but we'll see! Last week I kind of consider an off week, so I'm hopeful for the upcoming week.

In non-weight loss news:

We got Christmas decorations this weekend! I got some lighted garland for the fireplace mantel, a wreath for our door, some ornaments for the tree, a STAR for the tree (yeah, we've never had a star on our married life Christmas tree...sad I know), some garland, and other fun things. It is killing me inside to make myself wait until after Thanksgiving to decorate, and I don't know if I'm going to be able to do it. I really love decorating for Christmas! I want to clean really well before I do it though, so maybe the fact that I don't want to do that will help me wait to put the Christmas decor up. I'm just as bad as my mom :)

My Attempt to Be Trendy

Lately I've been seeing a lot of cute trends that I want to try. One of them being the flower clip. I think it's a really cute and classy little hair accessory. Note I said LITTLE. I'm so not into those humongous flowers that take up half the side of your head. Here are some examples:



So, while at the mall yesterday as I was picking up some awesome boots, I stopped in the store Icing. I saw some of these small flower clips and they were buy one, get one 50% off. So, I splurged and purchased a black rose bunch, and a cute brown flower similar to the second picture above. I think they are so cute! I just can't seem to figure out how to use them. This morning I tried to clip my black flower in my hair but I couldn't get it to work without it looking like a small animal created a nest on my head. I liked the look I got when I put it by a ponytail, but I wasn't in a ponytail mood today.

I know eventually I'll figure it out, but I thought I would turn to you, my loyal blogreaders. Have any of you tried this flower trend? How do you get it to work? Where exactly on your head to you place it? I don't want to look too "out there" with these flowers, but I really would like to wear them because I love them! Should I bag this altogether? Like I said, I really like the way they look when I use them with a ponytail or a messy bun, but other than that I can't seem to get it right, and I want to wear them more than just when I pull my hair back.

1 down, 20-something More to Go

This will be short because I have to finish getting ready for work, but I just wanted to direct you all to my sidebar "weight loss goal" area. I'm proud to announce that I lost a total of 1.9 pounds. I'm proud of this, but I didn't eat very well this weekend at all so I'm considering myself quite lucky to have those numbers. My little program seems to be working and I'm excited! I already feel a lot better because of the healthier foods I'm eating and the pounds dropping isn't too bad, either.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Monday morning!

Bringin' It

So I don't usually do this because of my fear that I will fail miserably, but I want to keep myself as accountable as possible so I meet my goal. I guess I figure if I have to stay accountable to Tony, my family, and my blog readership, it will increase my chances of success. So, here it goes.

I am starting now on a journey to lose about one pound per week until May 2nd (for a trip I'm planning on going on that I'll need to look ridiculously good in a swimsuit for :) ) I want to lose a grand total of a 20lb. Technically I could do this by March, but I'm giving myself some wiggle room by setting my goal date in May. A lot of people have told me that I really don't need to lose that much weight, but I could. I would still be in the middle of my healthy weight range and I feel like I would feel so much better. I want to get as healthy as I can before I have kids so that I will have developed those habits when they are here. I've been thinking a lot lately about how I want my children to have a healthy lifestyle. It's so important on so many levels and I know that it starts with me.

I'm not doing any crazy crash diets or body cleansing systems. I'm doing it through good ol' diet and exercise. Tony bought me a lovely (no really, it's really nice) heart rate monitor for my birthday and it is going to be my companion through this weight loss adventure. It not only reads my heart rate so I can check if I'm "in the zone" but it tells you how many calories you burned during your workout based on information you enter about yourself. Sweet deal, huh? Last night I finished the day right about even with my new determined caloric intake for the day and burned a whopping 540 calories, thanks to the plyometrics workout on P90X. I feel really great today, and so far I'm doing well (ha, it's only day TWO!)

So, there you have it. Hopefully I won't fail miserably, but I'm trying really hard to make it so I won't. I'm going to put up my stats on the side of the blog (not because I think you care, but so I can track it) and the whole world will see it. It's really hard for me to do this but I think I'll be okay. You're all friendly folks, and I don't think you'll bash me if I gain here and there :)

An Affair to Dismember

This past Friday night we hosted our first Murder Mystery dinner. It was really fun and it turned out really well. We worked pretty hard on it so we were quite pleased with the sucess.

Table Setting and Decorations

Appetizers

All of the monsters getting to know each other before dinner begins

I was Lizzie Bordeaux, a gothic Frenchwoman engaged to the deceased Neville Aster-Night

Here's a short little video of us questioning Madame Garlique about the fake garlic necklace she was wearing.

Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of Tony (Hannibal Schecter) but he was just as well dressed as the rest of us. The characters in this "episode" were really funny, and everyone did an awesome job of staying in character throughout the night. I'm so glad everyone could come!

The characters were:
Hollie- Lizzie Bordeaux
Tony- Hannibal Schecter
Cory K- Balihi, the Rogersandhammerstein Monster
Alli K- Madame Garlique, fortune teller
Shereena F- Glumda, the Wicked Witch of DePressed
Aaron F- Mummy of Aldrinktotat
Ian M- Asthmadeus, Prince of Dimness
Amie N- Dr. Angela Deth, psychotic dentist

I would totally recommend this murder mystery! We just bought it in a package and it came with everything we needed (except the food).

I hope everyone had a Happy Halloween!!