Getting ready for Christmas!!

If you know me at all, or even just read my Facebook statuses you probably already know that I LOVE Christmas! I love decorating for Christmas, I love cooking special foods for Christmas, and I really love Christmas movies and music! This year was extra special for Michel and me because we got to decorate our new house! Though we didn't decorate as much as what I'd like, we used what we had! I'm hoping to go out on December 26th and buy some more decorations to fill our beautiful house for next year. I'm still happy with this year's decor, though :)

Michel really got into the spirit of decorating this year :)

The stocking were hung...

...over the kitchen countertop because we don't have a fireplace :)

 Our beautiful tree with our wrapped presents

My Christmas bear and presents that I bought from First Monday

Our nativity scene, gingerbread house, and gingerbread train (the Christmas sign should be hanging, but we haven't hung anything yet!)

Much more pictures to come once we get together with the families!!! Merry Christmas!

Our new house!!

Wow, I just looked at my blog, and I haven't updated it since the end of October??! Wow...I didn't realize that I had let that much time pass! I do have good reasoning, though! As most of you know, Michel and I were THRILLED to buy a gorgeous house earlier this fall! We submitted our original bid at the end of September, closed at the end of October, and moved in the weekend before Thanksgiving! So, from the end of October - Thanksgiving I was either at the new house painting, or at our apartment packing. Now that's it's over it was all totally worth it! Don't get me wrong...we still have a TON of work to do to get our house in shape! We have boxes in the garage that need unpacking, and need new furniture to make it a cohesive home...not just a mishmash of furniture (btw...if anyone is really good at decorating let me know! I would love to borrow your talents when we're ready to redo our living room and bedroom if anyone is willing!) But it's been so great being in a house that 3 times bigger than our apartment was. My favorite spaces have been our kitchen and master closet. The kitchen is so big, has an island, and a ton of counter top space for cooking and making my lunches for school! There are no words to describe my love for our master closet. It takes the words "walk-in closet" to the extreme. I can sort our laundry in the closet on the floor, and we still have PLENTY of room for Michel and me to be in there at the same time if need be. I just love being a homeowner! I really feel like a grown-up :)

I LOVE our entry way! We have really high, vaulted ceilings so it makes the entry way feel very grand and large! I also love the tile that the previous owners put in. It's just gorgeous :)

This is a view of the entry way from the living room

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are a few pictures of our kitchen, dining room, and walk-in-pantry...I love it all! (Have I mentioned that I love our house?? :)

The laundry room, 2 guest bedrooms, and guest bathroom

The master bedroom, "sitting area" of our master bedroom, and our master bathroom. Please ignore that our bed is unmade, the boxes in the floor, and our walls are blue but our bedding is green. I promise that I have already picked out bedding that will match the walls! It will look fabulous one day in the near future :)

And now...the MASTER CLOSET!!

Pictures really don't do this closet justice! It's SOOOO tall, and has a fabulous shelving unit that was put in by the previous owners!

It's been a busy, but very exciting month for us! Can't wait to add to this house little by little every month :)

Meal Planning Monday

I apologize for the lack of blogging on my part. I just don't feel like I have anything to blog about. Well...I guess I should have blogged when we bought our house, but I didn't think about it. I will blog about it after we close, and it really becomes ours! I  might even blog pictures of the "Before" and "After" if I can remember to do so. I'm not always good at taking pictures. Anyways, this post is about Meal Planning, and I've gotten off on a tangent. Michel and I are trying some yummy new recipes this week that I'm really excited about! Oh, and for anyone who has a sweet tooth you should make these delicious chocolate chip cookies! I'm so excited to now have a low fat chocolate chip cookie recipe and a yummy, low-fat brownie recipe! Both recipes use ingredients that we always keep on hand, so I'm not having to constantly run to the store to get ingredients when I want to make them. Here's this week's menu plan (finally!)

Monday:

Baked chicken, brown rice, broccoli in a cheese sauce

Tuesday:

Pineapple shrimp fried rice, salad

Wednesday:

Tuesday leftovers

Thursday: 

Monday leftovers

Friday:

Turkey chili taco soup, chips

Saturday:

Friday leftovers

Sunday:

Lunch: Last Sunday Lunch with ABF

Dinner: Sandwich, chips, carrot sticks

Weight Watchers Weigh In Wrap-Up

I've done a horrible job at keeping up with my blog, so I'm going to wrap up my last 3 weeks of weigh-ins very quickly. After my Sept. 24th weight gain, I lost 1.4 pounds the following week (Oct.1), then gained 1 pound on the Oct. 8th, and I weighed in today and I LOST 2.6 pounds! That's really good for me - especially knowing that this weekend we'll be eating out a lot and eating cake a lot in celebration of our 2 year wedding anniversary! I don't even care though...I'm planning on enjoying myself fully :)

Weight Watchers Weigh In Week 7

Sad news...I gained 1.2 pounds today. Kind of a disappointment after last week's almost-2-pound weight loss. Oh well...just means I need to try harder this week! I know I did a lot of school snacking, telling myself "I'll work out and work it off." Obviously that didn't work :) Hoping next week to lose all of what I gained this week + a half pound more. That's my personal goal: 1.7 (at least) pounds gone by next week!

Weight Watchers Weigh In Week 6

I LOST 1.8 pounds today!!! I really worked hard at tracking everything I ate, and I ate some good food this week! Last weekend Michel and I went to Texas Roadhouse for lunch where I ate 1 1/2 rolls, 6 oz. sirloin, a baked potato, and a salad; later that same day we went to Braum's for an ice cream treat! I had willpower though - I only ate half (that was a hard thing to do!) I love Weight Watchers :)

Meal Planning Monday

Monday:

Breakfast: Turkey sausage links, cinnamon toast, coffee, banana

Lunch: Ham sandwich, apple, carrot sticks, pretzels

Dinner: Spaghetti, garlic bread, salad, brownie

Tuesday:

Breakfast: Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie (this is the BEST smoothie ever)

Lunch: Bologna sandwich, grapes, carrot sticks, pretzels 

Dinner: Tuna Helper, broccoli, Weight Watcher giant fudge bar

Wednesday:

Breakfast: Granola, banana, coffee

Lunch: Egg salad sandwich, grapes, carrots, pretzels

Dinner: Leftover Tuna Helper, green beans, WW fudge bar

Thursday:

Breakfast: Cheerios, turkey sausage, banana, coffee

Lunch: 1/2 ham and cheese sandwich, apple, carrots, pretzels

Dinner: Spaghetti, salad, milk

Friday:

Breakfast: Pick me up smoothie

Lunch: Bologna sandwich, pretzels, carrot sticks, apple

Dinner: Easy chicken strips, baked potato French Fries

Saturday:

Breakfast: Scrambled eggs, turkey sausage, banana, coffee

Lunch: ??

Dinner: Pizza and Game Night at the Howards! (Dating Group) 

Sunday:

Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner: on my own - I'll figure it out later!