Having "The Talk" With A 3 Year Old

No..... not that "talk". The other "talk".

You know the one. The "talk" where you have to break the news to her that Blankie can't come to preschool. Yeah, that talk. She did take it pretty good though. She starts preschool on Monday and is very excited about it.

Later that afternoon, I heard her talking in the living room. I snuck in and there she was sitting on the couch with Blankie. She was having "the talk" with Blankie. She told Blankie that even though she loves her and wants her to do everything with her, she can't come to preschool. It's only for a few hours and when she gets home she will tell her all about it every day. Then she gave her Blankie a big hug and kiss. It was so cute!

In the meantime though, these stripper tapes are kicking my bum! I have done them 2 days in a row but today.... my chubby girl parts are screaming! If the screaming aching parts are what are getting the workout, I am happy. Those parts need to have their bums kicked into gear. The best thing though is a hot bath. The best thing to go with a hot bath? Scrubbing salts! Yvonne @ Stone Gable did an awesome post on how to make your own scrubbing salts. She is so uber cool! I mean how awesome are you when you make your own scrubbing salts?!

I did change it up a bit. Just a bit though. I mean there are only so many things that you can do with 1,852 pounds of cucumbers. I made pickles, relish, salads.... but you start to run out of ideas. Working with all those cucumbers I realized how much I love the smell of them. So.... here is one more ideas to do with cucumbers.

I followed the Stone Gable tutorial on how to make the smelling salts here. I used a vegetable oil though. Grape seed oil and olive oil have a smell that I didn't want to incorporate into my salts. I made an infused oil to use.

In a small pan add the oil, one sliced cucumber and 5 mint leaves. Bring to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Strain the oil to remove the cucumber, seeds and mint leaves. Let the oil cool to room temp and proceed with the Stone Gable tutorial. I also omitted the food coloring as the cucumber/mint infused oil will turn the salts a pale green. It is pure heaven! Although Yvonne's scents are also incredible too. I can't decide which I like more!

Hmmm.... maybe I need to go and try them both again....

The First Day Always Sucks

Today was the first day of the Reinvention Party. I did change it up a bit though. I am trying to lose inches not necessarily weight. I could care less what my weight is the inches are what bugs me. I know that sounds odd. I learned long ago in the army that when you are dieting and excercising you need to check your inches. Muscle that is in shape and tone will weigh more than muscle that isn't. Alot of people get discouraged when they are dieting because they feel they are getting smaller but not losing pounds. My goal is to lose 10" around the waist and 3" off the bum.

So, what does a fat wannabee stripper eat? I know you all are dying to know! I did change things up a bit for my own tastes.

Breakfast - 2 scrambled eggs wrapped in a wheat tortilla with salsa, 1/2 banana and a small glass of juice.

Snack- 1 slice of bread with 1 tsp of peanut butter

Lunch- 2 cups of spinach with 1/4 cup diced ham, 1 oz cheese, 1 hardboiled egg and 1 tablespoon vinaigrette.

Snack - 1/2 cup cottage cheese and 1 apple

Dinner - 2 veggie burgers with 1 cup broccoli and 1 cup carrots, cooked

It doesn't sound like alot but eating every 2 hours did make me feel full all day.

I was even good and didn't just watch the exercise DVD's. I actually participated. There I was in the living room feeling good cause I could actually do the exercises with out getting a cramp in some ridiculous position. My hubby walked in to get something and I just thought I was looking really good doing these.

"Are you doing those stripper exercises?"

"Yup" says me trying to pour on the sexy look.

"And you are doing this for exercise not some new career right?"

Heehee I think. I look so good doing these he is starting to get worried! "No, they are just for exercise."

"Good, cause I was going to tell you to practice more if it was a new career"

Guess who just slipped from my #1 customer slot....

I Don't Want To Make You Jealous....But I Can Still Wear The Earrings I Wore In High School!

It's the end of summer.

I don't know if that is a good thing or not.

The kids are back in school. I don't know why Brianna got on the high school bus this morning. Can I really be old enough to have a high schooler?

Nah....

2 down and one to go. The bitty one will be starting preschool next Monday. 3 days a week for 3 hours I will have nothing but deafening silence. She is so excited but I don't think that she realizes that Mom is not staying with her. She asked me what I was going to wear for my first day of preschool the other day.

Just a big huge smile honey!

Thank you to everyone for your concern. Thank goodness no bail was required! Now maybe things will settle down and get back to normal. Whatever normal is. Even some semblance of normal would be welcome.

I have decided on one thing though. The other day I was cleaning in the basement and came across some pics. I was looking through them. One pic I found and I thought "Who's the fat old lady.... OMG! THAT'S ME!" I don't know who thought that it would be funny to give me wrinkles and an extra 50 pounds but I don't find it amusing.... a bit! So one thing that I will be doing is changing the eating habits and starting a workout program. Yes I will! Right after I finish off that apple pie and gallon of ice cream.... Now to incorporate the diet with the family without them knowing it. For the next couple of weeks I am going to try. I'll also try to post the meal plans here if anyone else is interested.

As for these excercise DVDs, I don't know about them. I had to take a nap after just watching them to see what they had in store. I saw these tapes advertised on TV and thought they looked fun. Like working out without knowing you were working out. The fun part is that they also teach you how to do exotic dancing. I mean, did you expect me to get a normal workout tape?! I did start out with the small group which doesn't include the stripper pole and DVD tapes. I figured the last thing I need is to try to explain to everyone how I ended up with my ears wrapped around my butt trying to use it. I do have to say though that after watching these DVDs I now know why all the good strippers have bodies to kill for. If anyone else would like to be a closet stripper, here is the link for the DVDs.

I also have some recipes coming up. The garden has been overflowing and keeping me busy trying to keep up. I mean, how many different things can you do with a cucumber? I know that sounds weird after all the stripper pole talk, but I do have a "recipe" for you all that I am just nuts for. As for now, I have a menu to plan for the week....