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I am taking a break from blogging today to allow our dog Ziggy to type out a quick note to The Niece, aka Lily who will be coming here for Thanksgiving this year. Lily is less than fond of dogs and Ziggy is a really sweet dog so we're hoping to help her get over this unnecessary fear. Ziggy doesn't want to spend his Thanksgiving in the basement, we really just want everyone to be happy. Rest assured that if Ziggy DID do something naughty or couldn't calm down, he'd be in the basement faster than you could say, "Please pass the turkey," but he is usually a very good dog and LOVES children. My sister will be sharing this post and pictures with Lily before she visits, we're hoping it helps a bit. So, without further adieu... here's Ziggy!
My dear Cousin Lily:
How are you today? I hear you just had a birthday... happy birthday! I wanted to come to your party but Mommy said, "no" because I tend to have "issues" in the car and it's kind of a long drive. I know you're four now, that means you're almost three years older than me! Wow! I knew I looked up to you for a reason! What a big girl you are!
Hey Lily, do you know that when you and your family come to my house, I get really excited? I love to have visitors and so I run around a little bit and want to sniff, sniff, sniff, sniff, sniff. As soon as I say hello to everyone and get all my sniffing in, I'm fine to just hang out and leave you guys alone. Just ask your cousin, he loves to hang out with me. I'm really excited to meet your little sister, I hear she's really cute and babies always have extra good (and bad) things to sniff. Did you know that doggies especially like what humans think are the "bad" smells. I know. We're kind of gross sometimes.
Sometimes I bark and I sound a little scary. I don't mean to, it's just that I'm a big guy so my voice is deep, kind of like your Daddy. When I bark it's because I love my people and I think that I'm a watch dog. I want to bark to warn anyone outside that I'm guarding the house and taking care of my family, I guess you could say, I think it's my job to keep any bad guys away and barking is how I do that.
Last but not least, when you start to cry about me being here, I feel bad Lily. I really like kids and when they cry, I get worried and have to investigate, it's just in my breed, we German Shorthair Pointers are what they like to call "family" dogs and we don't like it when kids are upset because we really want kids to be happy so if you don't want me coming around you, it's probably a good idea to try not to cry and make squeaky sounds when I'm around, it just makes me all the more curious and concerned. I would never hurt a kid. NEVER! I love kids.
Do you think you can handle all that Lil'? I do, Mommy tells me you're a really good girl and we're all so excited that you're coming to our house on Thursday. I can't wait to see you and get my sniff on! Remember that time you said I had "fancy legs?" That made me feel SO good because I like my fancy speckled legs and I know how you like fancy stuff (like Fancy Nancy) so I guess that means you like me! I'll be a good boy Lily. I promise!
See you soon! Woof!
Love, your Canine Cousin, Ziggy
edited to add... Be sure to check out the comments on this post as it's intended recipient has left her own comment. Thanks Lil!
Sorry! I disappeared for a couple days. I'm getting ready for Thanksgiving which I'll be cooking at my house. In fact, this will be the first Thanksgiving EVER that I've had at someone's home... at least that I can remember. My family usually goes out to a restaurant, this year, we decided to switch things up and I'm really looking forward to a more traditional type of Thanksgiving this year, at least according to other people's standards.
Well, if you are interested in my food journal, I decided to start a new blog. It's called HungryMomma/HealthyMomma and eventually, I would like it to be my healthy living blog, right now, it's truly just a food journal because I have lots of other things to do but I wanted to continue a more public food journal for those who were interested. I've had a couple people mention to me that they were enjoying reading about my food choices and got some ideas from it and it's always helpful for me so I want to keep it up in a more public way. I see it becoming a place where I can talk about my lifestyle, my food choices, yummy products and all other things healthy. That way I can keep my regular blog separate. I'm finding that I am getting confused and unfocused with so many topics on my regular blog. Give me a few weeks and it will be much more organized, until then, let's just consider it a food journal extension of this blog.
Speaking of living healthy... I lost another pound last week and this is not generally a week in which I thought I'd lose. (Ladies, you know what I mean) So, I'm down over 78 pounds now! Unreal! Fantastic! Thrilling!
I've got a busy weekend ahead of me as I'm sure many of you do. Stay healthy and enjoy your weekend!
I know I mentioned about a week back that I was going to give you a tutu tutorial. The Niece turned four at the beginning of this month and we celebrated on the same day that The Sister had her new baby's christening. I was SO excited to give The Niece her present because she requested "dress up stuff and Fancy Nancy stuff." My dad gave her a cute chest full of glittery, sparkly things just right for any little girl and I added a few more things that she could put in the chest as well. Three different tutus, a hula skirt and lei and a couple tiaras/veils to complete any well-dressed preschool young lady's wardrobe. (We also gave her a copy of "Fancy Nancy" because you know this former classroom teacher loves to give children's books as gifts.)
The tutu I'm featuring for you today is a filled tutu, I saw something similar on "The Martha Stewart Show" for Halloween and I made it work for The Niece. I am thrilled with the way it came out. It's very easy to do. The following directions make a tutu that would fit your average 2 to 6 year old but it would be very easy to do to make it smaller or bigger as you see fit.
Supplies:
Tulle
1.5 inch wide ribbon (I used grosgrain)
stuff to fill your tutu
thread, pins and other sewing paraphernalia.
You start with the standard tulle that you'll find at any fabric store, I am not sure of the width but it's all pretty much the same, You'll need 1.5 yards or more if you want it really puffy. You're going to fold it in half and then in half again. Sew up the shorter sides, keep the fold at the bottom and leave the top, open.
After you complete that you should have a two-layered pocket with a large opening at the top. Use that opening to fill your tutu with any kind of cute, glittery, girly stuff you want. I used white flowers and multi-colored sequins.
Cut yourself a length of ribbon about 22 inches long. This will be the inside of your waistband. I folded in the edges on the side before I pinned the tulle to the ribbon band. Find the middle of your tulle, leaving the opening at the top. Pin the middle of the tulle to the middle of the waistband and pin the edges of the tulle to the edges of the ribbon. Pleat/gather the tulle and pin it evenly along the ribbon waist band.
It should look something like this:
Stitch the tulle to the ribbon. Remember, this is going to be the inside of the waist band so don't worry if it's not totally neat. Next, cut yourself a length of ribbon approximately 65" long. Find the center and pin the center of that ribbon to the center of the portion you already sewed, sandwiching the tulle between the two ribbons. Pin and stitch these together, you'll want this to be neater since this will be the side that shows. I did a seam along the top and bottom of the ribbon. It wasn't perfectly neat but it's a dress-up tutu so I didn't freak about non-neatness.
That pretty much sums it up... Here is the finished product, modeled prettily by a beautiful four-year-old girl.
I also made this one with the same method but didn't fill it with anything, it already has metallic, rainbow colored stars on it and any one who knows fashion knows that metallic, rainbow stars stand on their own just fine.
Pretty huh? Yeah, the skirts are cute too!
Have a great day everyone!
Breakfast (not as "hearty" as usual, I'm heading to the gym early today)
Fiber One Blueberry Muffin 170
1/2 c. Raisin Bran 120
1/2 c. skim plus milk 50
Breakfast Total 240
Snack
5 oz.watermelon 45
1 oz. TJ's crunchy curls potato and lentil snack 130
Snack Total 175
Lunch
1 cup TJ's LSO roasted red pepper tomato soup 100
2 Wasa 70
1 laughing cow cheese wedge 35
1 can No sugar added peaches. 60
1 TJ's chipoltle skewer 130
1 TJ's European style yogurt 130
Lunch Total 525Dinner/Dessert
6 oz. Pork tenderloin 279
1/2 c. brown sprouted rice 135
1/4 c. TJ's Black beluga lentils 50
Roasted Veggies 75
1 c. Breyer's Chocolate Chocolate chip ice cream 280
1 Vita top muffin 100
Dinner/Dessert Total 919
Total 1859
Exercise
3.25 miles on treadmill 420 calories
"Leg Day" weights approx 150
570 burned (approx)
I'll readily admit that my food journal this week is not my shining moment as a blogger. Not at all, I get really bored when people post excessive pictures of their food choices along with the calories etc. but I'm doing it to help keep myself accountable to what I eat and to help out my friend Melissa who wants a few suggestions on things she can eat. I will not be doing it after this week, at least not for a little while.
Since I've been doing it in such a "public" forum, I've realized something. I am a Trader Joe's ADDICT! Have you noticed that? I affectionately call myself a "Joe Ho." Their foods are SO good and many of them are really healthy. Do you have access to a Trader Joe's? There is so much there to try but you will need to spend some time reading labels. There are many choices that are not so healthy too. A couple of the things I've really enjoyed so far are:
Mushroom Risotto in the freezer section, it cooked up really quickly in the microwave and I served it with some kind of lean protein which I've already forgotten about. It was good whatever it was. I believe this was about 170 calories per 1 cup serving and my pictures are flipped the correct way in my photos on my computer but Blogger is flipping them for some reason, does anyone know how to fix that?
The Gnocci Alla Sorrentina, also in the frozen section, I think it was also about 170 calories for a one cup serving. I served this with TJ's Chicken sun-dried tomato sausage which is 110 calories a piece. We also had some roasted veggies.
And probably my most favorite item at TJ's EVER, their steel cut oatmeal that you can find in the freezer section as well. It's two servings per package and each pack is only $1.59! It comes frozen in giant oatmeal hockey pucks that you just microwave. I add 1/2 cup of fresh cranberries and 1/2 cup of frozen berries, also from Trader Joe's I then add two packs of Splenda and a ton of cinnamon after it's all heated up. It's so delicious and easy and yummy and comforting and...
Anyway. Try it. If you're an oatmeal lover like I am, you'll like it for sure.
I'm also LOVING the TJ's Low-Sodium Organic Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Soup but if you check that out, make sure you get the LOW-SODIUM as the regular, (like most soups) is high in sodium and we don't want water retention now, do we? You'll want to check the sodium content on many of the foods since prepared foods tend to be higher in sodium but you can keep in mind that the recommended intake of sodium a day is 2400 mg or less.
Have a great day everyone! I just looked at the time and realized that I have to get The Son ready for school and myself ready for a hopefully "grueling" workout with my trainer. Sounds like fun, doesn't it?
Breakfast (same as yesterday, yeah, I'm boring...)
Trader Joe's Steel Cut Oatmeal 150
1/4 cup fresh cranberries 15
1/4 cup frozen berries 35
High Fiber English Muffin 100
1 T. Light Butter 50
Breakfast total 350
Lunch
1 packet Garlic and herb tuna (would not buy this again... not as good as hickory smoked) 200
1 cup TJ's LSO tomato and roasted red pepper soup 100
1can pineapple 140
2 Wasa crackers 70
Laughing Cow cheese wedge 35
Light coffee yogurt 90
2 TJ's mini-chocolates 60
Lunch total 695
Dinner and dessert
2 TJ's Chipoltle chicken skewers 260
A lot of roasted potatoes (w/horseradish and mustard) 180
Roasted veggies (eggplant, onion, carrot and red pepper) 75
1 Vita top chocolate muffin 100
1c. Breyer's Chocolate Chocolate chip ice cream 280
Dinner Total 895
Total 1940
Exercise
Treadmill 5K 410 cal
Workout with trainer approx 200 cal.
burned 610
Breakfast (same as yesterday)
Trader Joe's Steel Cut Oatmeal 150
1/4 cup fresh cranberries 15
1/4 cup frozen berries 35
High Fiber English Muffin 100
1 T. Light Butter 50
Breakfast total 350
Snack
banana 87
1 c. Skim plus milk (Over the Moon Brand) 100
Snack total 187
Lunch
1 cup Trader Joe's Low-Sodium Organic Tomato soup 100
2 Wasa Crackers 70
laughing cow cheese wedge 35
Trader Joe's European Mocha yogurt 130
2 TJ's mini chocolates 50
Lunch total 385
Total 922
Dinner... Ok, we went out to dinner again... twice in one weekend is a rare occurrence but it's been such a busy weekend and we all just wanted to have a little time to hang out and be together. We went to a little local Italian place where I had a small caesar salad (bad. I know.) and a meatball stromboli. I took TONS of cheese out of the stromboli and I only ate about half of it. It was good, probably not the healthiest choice but I was SO in the mood for it. Considering I had over 1100 calories left for the day, I should be fine. Also, I'm working out with my trainer tomorrow.
I had a cup of Breyer's light ice cream (280) and then a bowl of Raisin bran later tonight (180 + 100) so yeah. I was hungry. I'll be back on track with full force for the rest of the week. After a 3.5 pound loss last week, all I really hope for at this point is to stay the same, any loss is just gravy... or the icing on the cake... no pun intended. ;)
Hope you all had a great weekend!
