Been a while!!

Sorry it's been s while since I've posted anything, so I thought I'ld catch everyone up........ with everything!
Talmage is in his second semester at Colorado Film School and has quickly become known as "THE EDITOR" at school. He is booked with projects all semester and has even been recommended by his teachers to other students for help. He loves his classes and has been keeping busy between that and working in the "cage".
I am still trucking along at MLK, and really coming into my own groove there. I love the kiddos (most of the time) and we are currently preparing for our spring concert. I have given the kids harder music and set the performance bar really high- so far they have risen to the occasion and have really been working hard to learn parts and work all the other musicality portions into their performances. It is hard work, and I am exhausted by the end of the day, but we have fun. :)

I am still eating Primal and have loved the results! I hit my 20 pound mark this morning (I did a lilttle dance in the bathroom) and am almost at my goal weight. Even when I do reach my goal I do plan to keep eating this way because I feel sooooo good, I get to experiment in the kitchen (almond flour pancakes were a major fail yesterday, due to a stupid recipe), and the food rocks. It has become so easy to plan meals or even eat out. I LOVE IT!! I think my ma may even try to eat primal- I'm excited to see how she does :)

Had an awesome girls day out with my mom on Saturday in one of the coolest stores ever! Charming Charlies was so much fun- we spent two whole hours looking at jewelry, purses, hair accesories, and clothes. I have to say it is always so nice to spend time with the mama, she makes my heart happy:)

We had a great weekend last weekend which we were able to share with our good friends Evan and Karina. Other than Thanksgiving it was the first time we hosted at our house. I made an AWESOME salmon filet and veggies, and they brought Scattergories. Needless to say it was a night full of good company, great conversations, fun Mario moments, and hilarious answers to scattergories....(things that grow----muffin tops!!) Can't wait to have them over again.

Talmage has been encouraging me to become a certified ZUMBA instructor since I love to do it, and I have had several requests by other people to do so....... I'm thinking I will try to do that this summer and see how it goes from there. For right now I'm content to take classes at the rec center.

All in all we are moving forward, having fun, enjoying each others' company, and still very much in love. Life is good!

The Paleo continues

Alrighty folks I gotta say I officially am hooked! I have slept better than I usually do, had enough energy (on a MONDAY!!) to sew a complete pair of pants and do yoga :), and I am having fun challenging myself to try new things and create new recipes. I even bought brussell sprouts this weekend! I know- amazing right? I still haven't been brave enought to try them, but I will definately share the results. As weird as this may be I took a picture of my lunch to share with you- this is rapidly becoming my favorite lunch, the paleo BLT.

I have continued to lose weight, and feel myself not dragging by lunch time- thanks to not having a glucose crash. And I am not craving candy like I used to. The first couple of days I HAD to have some dark chocolate and 3-4 squares at that. Now if I have one square I find myself feeling sugared out- and I never thought that was possible.

Overall I LOVE IT!!

Catch up!

Alright, so as previously stated in my last post, we have gone PALEO! I think that the hardest part for me initially was cleaning out my pantry. When I saw how much stuff went into the boxes for "food storage" I had a mini panic attck. I've always loved an overstocked pantry for those just-in-case moments. Well here are the pics to prove what a loss it was:)

BEFORE AFTER

The baking goods on the bottom of this

pic were only left there due to not wanting

to move them downstairs.......

To get started with this whole process I stepped on the scale, GASP!! After a wonderful week with family and Utah I was looking at the beautiful number (sarcastic) of 186 and a smaller wardrobe selection. I had decided to follow this PALEO trip on myfitnesspal.com as well so that I can track calories and just exactly what I eat and how I lose weight with this lifestyle.

So I "half-started" on Sunday, by which I mean I ate PALEO but had some sparkling cider and a small candy bar. Even with that I still felt better (minus the caffiene headache).

Monday was hard-especially since it was my last day before returning to work, so it was easy to be lazy, but I DID IT!! Yay for a conscious effort :)

Tuesday was soooooo easy since I pre-packed my meals for my work day. I didn't have to think about what I was eating and I really enjoyed my meals and was completely satisfied. I think that Talmage is enjoying this eating style because I am cooking every night to ensure that we are eating good stuff :) My only complaint about that is the amount of dishes I have to do now hehe. I already noticed my energy levels were higher and my body felt better too.

Wednesday-I was worried about this day because it was my first day back with students and I tend to snack on junk food when I'm teaching or the kiddos stress me out. That was the first night I made sure that we had dark chocolate on hand- I REALLY needed something sweet after a full and busy day, but I stuck to PALEO, even going out to dinner with friends at a Mongolian BBQ restaurant, and upped my water intake (and bathroom trips)!

So today is Thursday and I feel like a rockstar :)My second time on the scale read 179- I am down 6 pounds already!!! I am definately not a PALEO expert and I have a lot of exploring to do when it comes to preparing different dishes, but I really feel confident that this is a lifestyle that I can adopt for long term. After a lovely text conversation with the wonderful Kristyan in regards to the 21 day plan in the back of the book we are using I will be adding the appropriate

excersises and suggested plan for the day since I was not paying close attention to that. With the amount of success I've had just cutting out processed foods I'm sure that I'll be one hot mama even quicker by working out a bit too:)

YAY for PALEO!!

Going Paleo?? Our adventure starts.......

So here we are.... 2012 and already starting a new "diet"

Due to some inspiration from Kristyan and Aaron during our Utah stay we have decided to go PALEO. We are definately piggy-backing off K & A since it was their original plan, but I am excited to see how well this works for us (since I love meat😄). I thought it would be fun to blog about the experience and see how those around me feel about this eating style. If you are doing PALEO too add your comments and observations, i'ld love to hear them

So today I did a mini PALEO intro to my system. I tries to eat as PALEO as possible but I did give in to a few treats and used ranch dressing on my salad. The only complaint I have so far is the headache I have from not having had any soda today. I hope that will go away soon, especially once processes sugars (my downfall) out of my system.

Wish us luck-more info to come.

Final Walk Through

So today we had our final walk-through in the house with the builder.

Everything looks really good, and there were only a few little things to fix before

we close on Friday! This is soooo exciting!

So here is one more look into the finished great room.

This is looking into the finished kitchen -appliances and all (no fridge)

And here we are standing in front of our new place (as of next friday)

Here is the landscaping that they did this week. We have rock along the front

of the house and the side, shrubs, grass, and a couple of trees!

Almost there!!

So we are getting close to the closing date-which should be about the 8th (the 4th of July weekend messes everything up! Darn independance :)

We went on another house field trip and were so exited to see what

was going on in our house!

WE HAVE CARPET!!!!!!!

Not only that but all countertops, cupboards, sinks, and fixtures are in- WOO HOO

This is my new favorite pic of the house. This is looking down stairs into the

great room from the upstairs hallway. You can see the carpet and the entry way light fixture- SO PRETTY :) Doesn't it look like a real house?

Here we have another kitchen view with the countertops and sink in- still waiting

for the appliances.

Here's another shot of the kitchen. looking in from the great room.

This is our downstairs rec room, all prettied up with fixtures and carpet.

We are so ready to be in this house and are counting down the days!

Two weeks and counting!

So we went out again today and we found a few new things to show you all! I'm starting to get really excited and planning what I want to do with the house (girly stuff). T is already wanting to look into "energy saving" stuff like solar and wind technologies and how to landscape the back yard :)

So here are some of our doors- they have been painted and are

awaiting installment in our basement

Here is our laundry room, with LINOLEUM and the counter top base!

This is the BEST part! We have kitchen cabinets (bathrooms too) and Linoleum throughout the house! Plus the carpenter guy was there working away on putting the base for our countertops up in the kitchen and bathrooms!

This is looking into the kitchen from the great room. It's starting to feel like a real kitchen