Follow Through Friday - Happy Thanksgiving!

After last week’s TERRIBLE week, I knew I wanted this week to be better. I knocked out all my running by Monday night since I knew Tuesday night we’d be doing date night and then Wednesday night and Thursday we’d be busy with a house guest and Thanksgiving. I did pretty good with my eating and was down to 170.4 on Sunday (even after slightly indulging on Saturday at a baby shower) but then of course I couldn’t resist all the goodness that is a Thanksgiving dinner which resulted in a not so pretty weigh in this morning. Although surprised it wasn't worse. I usually allow myself to cheat a little over the weekends (one full day) and then I’m not as careful for one day and then good the other 5. This week I’m only allowing one real cheat day, which will be today. Today we’ll be tailgating for the UCF vs. USF game (we’re on our way there now – GO KNIGHTS!!) and I don’t plan to be good by any means but not really go crazy either.  I’ve got literally nothing else planned all weekend and week so I’m pledging to have no cheat days this week after today. I will only eat my allotted calories and do my workouts. Well, at least my runs. I really need to incorporate my strength training, but I haven’t been in the mood to do it. I guess just running is better than nothing at all and I’m not going to lie and make it seem like I have intentions of doing the strength training because right now I don’t.

Results for the week:

Weight: 173.2

Pins Moved (lbs lost): one in wrong direction  

Half Marathon training:

     Run 1: 4.02 miles in 24:00 (11:50 pace) 

     Run 2: 2.66 miles in 30:00 (11:16 pace)

     Run 3: 2.56 miles in 30:00 (11:43 pace)

     Strength Training: none

Other:

     Walk: Sunday – 0.48 miles
     Walk: Wednesday - 0.48 miles

     Walk: Thursday – 2.02 miles

Total Weekly Miles Logged:  12.22 miles

Overall Weight Lost since "Starting Point" 10/24/14: 3.4 lbs

Plan for Next Week: 

Continue the half marathon training plan, for Friday through Thursday it will include: a 5 mile run, two 30-minute runs, and two strength training days. 

Linking up with Carolyn and Fitnasty for Life with the pledge to get #FIT4FIFTEEN!

Family Update {PIC HEAVY} - Happy Thanksgiving

This picture won me a $500 gift card! 

Sometimes I can’t even believe it; I now have a 2 year old and a 2 month old! The last few months have been busy, busy but have been great. With today being Thanksgiving, I of course have to be cliché and post what I’m thankful for, and the #1 thing on my list is my little family! G and I have been adjusting well as a family of four and are so thankful for a happy, healthy family!

 

We celebrated EM’s 2^nd birthday just over a week ago! Unlike last year, where we had a huge party for her, we decided to just do a small family party on Saturday. She got some great toys but the three big ones were a trampoline, an art Easel (which may be her favorite toy ever now!), and a little quad ride-on. Oh yea, and Minnie Mouse couch (that was from us and given to her on her actual Birthday on Sunday) – she seems to really like that too! We spent her actual Birthday morning (Sunday) at Epcot. We want to make it a tradition to bring each of the girls (by themselves) on their birthday, as a special day with just Mommy and Daddy. Since she’s so young, we just went for a few hours and took her to see the characters, on the Finding Nemo ride and looked at fishes in the Living Seas. She wasn’t comfortable walking up the characters on her own (maybe because she wasn’t feeling well) or maybe she was a little scared but with being in my arms she loved seeing them and giving them 5! Of course we couldn’t leave without getting a Mickey Bar (which she didn’t eat any of – more for Mommy!).  Unfortunately EM had a fever most of the weekend and wasn’t feeling 100% but it didn’t stop her from having a good time. 

 

unwrapping presents, one small piece of paper at a time!

her new trampoline and bracelets

ELMO was on her cake!!

her favorite!

Hi Minnie!

all the fishes!

getting the hang of driving this thing!

Mickey bars!

 

Sunday afternoon, we took a ride to my parents as EM and her Paca share a birthday and we spent the rest of the day (and a few extra since I was still on maternity leave then). My dad got to spend his birthday with all 6 of his grandkids (it’s not very often that they are ALL together at the same time) where we had a nice dinner and cake. EM loves getting to spend time with her cousins. Trying to get a decent picture of them all was so hilarious.

 

playing with cousin Mason

sharing her special day with Paca

 

 



gotta love the faces!

unrelated to her birthday, but thought this one was cute of her playing with her other cousins a few weeks ago at the playground

AB turned 2 months this week, where has the time gone? I’m now officially back at work full time as of last week. My maternity leave went SO fast. With EM, I was completely ready to go back to work by the time it was over, this time around, not so much. I think I stayed much busier this time, so I didn’t have many (if any) boring days. I mean, I didn’t even get to finish Breaking Bad. (I have now though, woah, great ending!) AB is definitely not as “easy” of a baby compared to how EM was. She doesn’t love the swing, whereas with EM, it worked instantly to calm her down and put her to sleep. She doesn’t sleep through the night yet either. EM started the week I went back to work, which I know is abnormally young to start so I wasn’t expecting it with AB, and sure enough, it didn’t happen yet. Luckily, she usually only gets up once to eat and goes right back to sleep, but still sucks to have interrupted sleep. Hoping once she starts daycare in January it’ll help exhaust her more and get her to sleep longer. At least that is our theory as to why EM started sleeping through the night so young as she started day care right when I went back to work. Anyways, even though AB is a little more difficult compared to EM, she’s really a pretty good baby, not very needy or fussy. She started smiling a week or so ago and rolls over from her tummy to her back since 2 weeks old. (Although doesn’t do it often). She loves her play mat too! She’s already grown so much, she weighs around 9.5 lbs based on my unofficial weighing (we haven’t had her 2 month appointment yet - it’ on Monday) and her features are really starting to change! Here are some of her pictures over the last two months.

 

7 days new

 

7 days new

 

 

smiles!

 

 

2 Months Old!

 

 

EM is doing extremely well adjusting to being a big sister. She checks on her every morning and looks for her as soon as she gets home from daycare each day. She doesn’t want to hold her often and when she does it’s for like 5 seconds before she’s pushing her away but she has asked for AB to be next to her on a few occasions. She’s also helped feed her a few times and even brought her a blanket once. She loves to pull the frog/music maker on the bouncy seat when AB is laying in there too. I couldn’t be happier with how she’s been with the baby. I was a little worried since she’s quite the Momma’s girl but I think including her in all the baby activities (fetching the bottle, helping with diaper changes, etc) has really helped her adjust well.

helping feed Sister



such a big helper!



shatring her Minnie Couch in their Eagles gear, watching the game

 

 

This one just cracks me up!

 

Now off to go stuff my face with some awesome Thanksgiving Day goodies at my in-laws! Happy Thanksgiving! Hope you get to spend it with some of your family and friends!

 

 

 

 

Citrus Lane November 2014 Review

I feel like it took FOREVER for my Citrus Lane box to get here this month. Didn’t help my Mystery Box and other items I purchased came like 2 weeks ago, in two separate shipments, so I felt like was being taunted. When it finally came, it was super heavy, so I was curious to see what was in it. And lately I’ve been wrapping most of the items for Christmas presents for the girls too!

 

For those of you that don't know, Citrus Lane  is a monthly subscription service where you get a box of goodies for your child that are geared towards their current age (and sometimes Mommy) each month delivered to your door. You never know what you are going to get, but overall I have not been disappointed. Plans start at $29/month but if you buy longer subscriptions you can get them as low as $19/month or even cheaper when they run specials).

Citrus Lane always includes a very nice information card with their boxes that lists the items and descriptions and some coupon codes! 

 

 

This is what I got in my 24 Month Old, Toddler Girl, November 2014 Box and the approximate retail value I found for each item from their specific website (or Amazon, since if you know me, I'm an Amazon Junkie and would most likely buy from there). Sometimes I have to do some math because the sizes aren’t quite the same, hence why they are approximate values.

 

Melissa & Doug Mermaid Dress-Up Chunky Puzzle ($9.99): Lately, Citrus Lane has been letting us choose a specific “option” of one selected item for our box. Or you can choose for them to pick for you. This month’s selection was this puzzle and we had a few variations to choose from and this is the one we liked the best. EM really likes puzzles so I was excited this was included.

 

 Plan Toy Vegetable Play Set (~$10.80) he link isn’t to the EXACT set we got, looks like this set was exclusive to Citrus Lane   but this one was very similar. Plan Toys does sell the items individually as well, so that is how I came up with the estimated value. EM loves her kitchen and the food accessories she has, so this will be a nice addition.

 

 Bear Takes a Trip Board Book ($6.56) We already have this book but from a previous Citrus Lane  box, so I’ll be saving it for a baby shower gift. Lately a lot of baby showers have been requeting cards inlieu of books and I love it. My shower was the same way and EM got so many awesome books before she was even born.

 

 

  Fast and Slow Board Book ($6.51) Citrus Lane had included a little note card stating they threw in an extra book since we may have received a duplicate item from a previous box,, which we obviously did, so I’m glad they wanted to make up for it and gave us this book, which we don’t have. This is a good board book showing opposites. 

 

 

 

Annie's Homegrown Cheddar Organic Snack Mix(~$0.44 for 1 oz package) I’ve heard good things about Annie’s products but I’m not a huge “must be organic” person so I’ve never bought them. These sure are yummy though!

 

Total Estimated Value of Box: ~$34.30 (not including shipping)

Total Cost of Box: $29.00 (free shipping) -- I only paid $10 though because of an awesome deal I found on Plum District --> definitely keep an eye out for those on Plum District, Groupon and Living Social!

 

Overall Impression:  If I didn’t count the “extra” item that they threw in because of the duplicate, the value wasn’t that great, but overall love all the items. Especially the Veggie set! I’ve been eyeing it for a while and have seen it included in boxes before so was SUPER excited to get it in ours!

 

If you are interested in signing up for Citrus Lane, CLICK HERE, and by using my link, you will get 50% off your first box (new customers only). Remember, you can cancel at any time, so your first box would only be $14.50, not too shabby!

 

Did you get Citrus Lane this month? What'd you get and for how old of a child?

 

Disclosure: This post contains referral links!

Follow Through Friday - Just Terrible

This week was terrible. I made a lot of very bad decisions and sabotaged my efforts from last week. I never want to move pins OFF the "lost" rope, but unfortuantely when you do what I did, that happens. Let's see all the bad choices I made: I ate at Chili's twice, celebrated my daughter and father's bday with two days of cake and big meals, went to happy hour and had 2 beers and a bunch of yummy (unhealthy) appetizers and only ran twice. Oh yea, and I still didn't pick up any weights. I went back to work this week which actually wasn't that bad, most of my sabotaging happened before I actually made it back to the office. But there is no sense dwelling on it, there is always next week (which includes Thanksgiving the night before my weigh in, eeek!). If I want to improve my running endurance and lose weight, I really need to FOCUS!! This is not a good start to my training or my goals and only I can do something about that! Oh yea and last week I said I only needed a 2 mile run, so that's what I did, but then when I went back and looked at my actual plan, it was supposed to be 3, whoops!

Results for the week:

Weight: 172.6

Pins Moved (lbs lost): Two in wrong direction (2 lbs gained)

Half Marathon training:

     Run 1: 2 miles in 24:00 (12:00 pace) 

     Run 2: 2.52 mils in 30:00 (11:54 pace)

     Run 3: none :(

     Strength Training: none :(

Other:

     Walk: Monday - 3.00 miles

     Walk: Tuesday - 0.23 miles

     

Total Weekly Miles Logged:  7.75 miles

Overall Weight Lost since "Starting Point" 10/24/14: 3.4 lbs

Plan for Next Week: 

Continue the half marathon training plan, for Friday through Thursday it will include: a 4 mile run, two 30-minute runs, and two strength training days. 

Overall, like I said up there, terrible week. Carolyn from Fitnasty for Life wrote a great post on discipline vs. motivation today, and I'm clearly missing my discipline. It seems like whenever I start "training" for anything, my discipline goes away. Mentally, I must be taking the fun out of it or something because I have no desire lately to do anything. UGH, must re-FOCUS and get going! I don't have any big plans over the weekend, so I'm going to try to knock out as much of my runs as possible before my 3 day work week and Thanksgiving. I figure even if I'm not running on the "right" days according to my plan, as long as I run, it's better than nothing!

Linking up with Carolyn and Fitnasty for Life with the pledge to get #FIT4FIFTEEN!

Citrus Lane Mystery Box Review "Melissa & Doug Clock Sorter"

From time to time, Citrus Lane offers mystery boxes. I've never bought one before but have always been tempted so finally I decided to jump on the deal since I had some Citrus Lane shop credits and am glad I finally decided to do so! I got my box today and was excited to see what actually came in it!

For those of you that don't know, Citrus Lane  is a monthly subscription service where you get a box of goodies for your child that are geared towards their current age (and sometimes Mommy) each month delivered to your door. You never know what you are going to get, but overall I have not been disappointed. Plans start at $29/month but if you buy longer subscriptions you can get them as low as $19/month or even cheaper when they run specials). 

The Mystery Boxes are a separate purchase, not a subscription and they usually cost $29 and estimated to have a $60+ value.  There were several options to choose from based on the age and gender of your child. I chose the Melissa & Doug Clock Sorter Mystery Box which was described as "Items are appropriate for a variety of ages, recommended for preschool girls (ages 3 years+) and features a Melissa and Doug clock sorter." The only downfall to Mystery Boxes is you have a chance of getting some duplicate items if you are a current or past subscriber. Since I selected a box recommended for ages 3+, I was hoping I wouldn't get too many duplicates.

They don't send information cards with the mystery boxes but this is what I received:

Melissa and Doug Clock Sorter ($11.99) - EM LOVES working with shapes so I figured this would be awesome for her and will eventually help her learn her time as well. Until then, it'll be helpful with continuing to learn her numbers and continue with the reinforcement for the shapes and colors. Figured it was a good change from her normal shape sorter toys. We're giving this to her for her birthday this weekend. This item was what made me decide to try a Mystery Box to begin with (obviously, since it was the only item that was disclosed).

Bumkins Wet Bag in Disney Minnie Icon Print ($10.95) -  This was a duplicate item, just a different print. We received a different Minnie one in our June 2014 Citrus Lane box. We don't use our wet bag that often, but it did come in handy after swim lessons. I know these are super popular for people who cloth diaper though!

Wild Horse Winter Book ($6.95) - We aren't quite ready for "real" (non-board) books yet as EM is a little rough with them, but we'll save this for when she's a little older. Although we did wrap it her as a Christmas gift We can never have enough books!

Emily Press Parade Love Shoe Labels ($9.99) - This is kind of a duplicate item. We received very similiar labels in our September 2014 Citrus Lane box, except they weren't specifically "shoe" labels. I love these labels because they are waterproof and durable and these particular ones will be great once Emily starts trying to put on her own shoes. They have half matching animals to differentiate between right and left. 

Fun Things to Color form A to Z Artivity Book ($7.99) - EM is getting really into coloring lately (like we color EVERY NIGHT!) and is getting an Art Easel for her birthday from her Aunt which comes with markers. That will be our first at home experience with markers, and if that goes well, then she can have this as a Christmas present too (the markers are washable and she'll be supervised but still a little nervous about markers in the house). 

Pearhead Handprint Wall Art (~$12.95) - This is another duplicate item, although one I love, so am happy to receive it. We received it in our December 2013 Citrus Lane Box. We actually didn't make handprints on our previous one, I had taped off "I LOVE YOU" with painter's tape and then let EM paint it, let it dry and then peeled of the tape and it made a cute gift for my mom for mother's day. We had tried to do the handprints but EM wanted no part of doing that nicely and that's one thing I love about this item, if you make a mistake, you can rinse the paint off, blot dry and start again which is what we did after we realized the handprints weren't working out. 

Total Estimated Value of Box: ~$46.92(not including shipping)

Total Cost of Box: $29.00 (free shipping) -- I didn't pay anything though since I had Citrus Lane shop credit.

Overall Impression: Well it wasn't quite the $60+ value they stated, but they do often times over-estimate some items and/or sell them for more than I can find them for on Amazon but overall I'm very happy with my first mystery box (even with the duplicate items) and wouldn't hesitate to order one again.

If you are interested in signing up, CLICK HERE: Citrus Lane, and by using my link, you will get 50% off your first box (new customers only). Remember, you can cancel at any time, so your first box would only be $14.50, not too shabby!

Did you get a Citrus Lane Mystery Box this month? What'd you get in it?

Disclosure: This post contains referral links!