Abs and Belly Buster Update

For my records and motivation and to help others!

So, today is Abs day 17 and the Belly Buster diet day 16. The past few days I been lazier than usual. Nick's birthday threw off the diet again with his darn cake balls and dinner out...a taco salad which wasnt too bad at all but the fried edible bowl...not great.

BUT, somehow today finally the scale dropped a pound. And I even weighed myself after breakfast and drinking a lot of water.

To date I am now able to run my fastest mile ever, 8:57.

And am now able to do 10 solid minutes of abs and have the ability to finally do the long arm crunch as well as not struggling to plank for 30-45 seconds.

 I am also now doing 10 solid minutes of arm workout with the exception of right and left plank. Impossible. I only last about 3 seconds on my left and 5 seconds on my right. I cannot do half push-ups either. To be honest, it feels horrid! I can feel my chest muscle squeezing my implants and its horrendous! I supposed I will get used to that. I am using 3 pound weights but really would like to go up to 5 pound weights we must wait until we move. No point in getting them now to be shipped to NM next week.

Still doing about 50 incline push-ups per day but I could easily increase this if I tried.

Pictures: in which I can finally SEE a difference and not just feel stronger.

 Egh, Look at the stretch marks over my hips...why did I let myself get so out of shape to begin with?

Reminder of my goal:

Less jiggle and and more muscle.

The Dads 31st Birthday

Yesterday was the Dad's 31st birthday along with the 8 week mark until we are that plane!

The morning started out with me finishing up last minute touches on his gifts and making a no bake cake! That's right, a no bake cake. We don't have an oven in this condo so I had to come up with something.

Thanks to pinterest again, I found this: 

http://chef-n-training.blogspot.com/2011/09/no-bake-cake-batter-truffles-take-2.html

A no bake cake batter truffle!

After finishing his gifts I put them under the tree.

Caden licked the cake batter from the mixer. And got it all over his belly.

These are the truffles before the candy coating on top.

And this is the inside of them after they were finished.

I'm not kidding here when I say eating these was like licking the cake batter from the bowl.

Wait, No...eating these was even better than licking the cake batter from the bowl.

They were amazing.

(And yes, I went off the diet a tad to eat these!)

Dad opening his gifts.

One of which was a chalk board made by Mom. We are always writing messages to each other with window crayons in the bathroom on the mirror, so I thought this would be fun. 

Plus it matches the color scheme of our bathroom to be in New Mexico.

After this excitement the kids received a very big box from Mimi and Papa

containing their Christmas gifts. We decided that it would be a good time to open them because we dont want them overwhelmed on Christmas morning. Last year it took literally ALL day for them to open gifts. They would open something and get distracted with something else and then go back to the item they just opened and we would beg them to open another gift. This year they are much older so it might not be like that. Also, we figured it was a good time since it was Dad's birthday.

So we proceeded.

They got tons of goodies but here are only some pictures.

They both got a new blanket.

Kayla got a hippopotamus for Christmas!

And here she is hanging it on the tree.

Caden got a couple of hats!

And some Chuck toys.

Sock for New Mexico!

How crazy is it that my children don't own socks?!

No need for them here.

A new tutu! Her pink one is finally starting to get too small. 

The Dad got a family heirloom gift. Cuff links that belonged to his grandfather.

There is no price for things like this.

And after the opening of gifts from Mimi and Papa, we got dressed and headed out to Dad's birthday dinner.

This is us in the lobby of the hotel before getting into the car.

(and  yes, that is Caden's hand on my boob. I didn't even notice.)

Update and Tammy, Mark and baby to be, Hannah Dawn

For those who care about following our long time infertile friends Tammy and Mark...

Their journey of infertility has come to an end and I couldn't be more happy. This is been 8 years in waiting!

Their latest update from their blog:

We talked to the birthmom on Friday. You can tell she's in a lot of pain...a lot of pain. She's having contractions and really bad low back pain. I felt so bad for her when we were talking to her. 

She sees the doctor on Tuesday again. She's hoping to set an induction date. I guess the earliest they will do it is a week before she's due so we're hoping Dec 20 but we'll see what the doctor says on Tuesday.

What's truly amazing is that we had told our social worker that my mom would be there and so before the conference call she told Lois to see how she felt about my mom being at the hospital. Get this...she says it's okay for my mom to be in the delivery room!! Isn't that awesome?? The birthmom said this is our special day and our time and she says whoever we want in the delivery room is just fine and she's very open. 

She is so sweet. I just love her. I've always wanted my mom in the delivery room when I had my first child and she will be. :) Not the way I imagined but I still get my wish. :) 

I know I say it all the time but we really are truly blessed.

My favorite part of this blog post is that Tammy and Mark might have their miracle baby by Christmastime!

AND, what a amazing gift for birth mother to allow them into the delivery room to see their birth of their daughter.

One of my all time favorite memories is being present at Kayla's birth. There is nothing more astonishing than watching your child come into the world. Seeing their first bit of baby flesh peek into the world, seeing her eyes for the first time, hearing her first cry and watching her take her first breath. We are so lucky to have such great birth mothers to allow us to be included in such a private, special moment in their lives.

Lucky.

Tammy and Mark are now up to $310 on their chip in fundraiser on my right side bar. This is wonderful!

Among this, they have received some great packages. I have already mailed one out full of baby bath products, and they have already gotten it. I have a second box ready to go this weekend and my wonderful friend Jennifer at Little Crazy Family has sent them a package too.

I want to blog about her package for a special reason.

Included in her package was this:

1 green/white tutu and 1 red,white and blue tutu.

Why is this reason to blog about?

Because:

Her beautiful adopted daughter (just one month older than Caden)

wore the red, white and blue tutu.

And Kayla wore the green, white tutu for her first St. Patrick's day photo shoot when Dada was deployed in 2009.

And also, my cat wore the red, white and blue tutu. Ha!

And so did Kayla, for a photo shoot right after Dada deployed in 2009.

These tutu's were Kayla's in 2009, then passed to Noey right after her birth in 2010. 

And now passed onto baby to be Hannah Dawn in 2011.

They are pretty handmade tutu's from our old photographer Jamie.

But not only that, they both hold special memories and sentimental value.

And Thank You greatly to Jennifer for passing them down to Tammy and Mark's to be daughter to hold even more special memories. 

I CAN.NOT. WAIT. to see Hannah wearing them.

554 RHS Christmas Party

 Friday Dec 3rd was the Red Horse Christmas party. It was nice. It was my first time leaving the kids in the care of strangers. Strangers I trusted but still...strangers. Another squadron's wives volunteered the watch the kids. We showed up and I took the kids to the child care area. Introduced them to the area...we were the first there so no other kids were there yet. I showed them the kid chairs, the drink area, the tv area, the couch, etc and then sat them down at the kids coloring table. I explained to them I was going to go eat dinner with Dad and then be back to get them. We said our byes and off I went and stood in the doorway expecting at least one of them to beg me not to go. And neither one did. I was in shock.

And the whole time at the party I was constantly thinking about them. What a wuss. After dinner I gave in and went to check on them. I was sure there was at least one having a melt down. I snuck in the door making sure they didnt see me, and I saw then standing at a baby crib just watching a baby having a melt down. They were both side by side doing just fine. Again, shocked Mom. I went back to the party and...

 It was 7:45 and I gave in and went to get them. And we came home.... I'm such a wuss. They were fine and I was not. Sad. ha. When I picked them up Kayla was snacking on fruit with all the kids her age and Caden was sitting at a coloring table coloring a Christmas Tree. I saw Kayla first and she didn't even want to go home. I had to talk her into it. And then I went to Caden and he didn't even realize I was there next time. It took him a good minute or 2 to realize, Oh Mom is here! Then he was excited. Again, another state of shock.

 Here is the Dad before the party.

And the Mama and Kayla before the party.

Mama and Kayla.

The Kayla.

Caden waiting for the elevator.

The back of my dress. I love the tie on it.

And not to mention the nice leg muscles I got going on! ha.

554 Red Horse Christmas Tree at the party

Outrigger, Guam

Mama and kids

Family.

Red Horse and flag on the prize table.

Tables, really nicely decorated. I love the Christmas ball tree! Great project idea for next year!

Tree

Prize table, 3 grand worth of them!

And the best part...the buffet. Yes, I was off diet for this. 

I had 3 plates...salad plate, dinner plate and dessert plate. BUT, the plates I had were the small plates. I opted for those instead of big dinner plates thinking I would eat much less and it worked!

I had a salad plate with chicken keleguan on top, a  bread roll, a pita bread triangle and 3sushi rolls.

My dinner plate was some fried fish pieces (not sure what kind it was) some broccoli salad, some potato salad, some really good steamed veggies and a few pieces of baked potato bites, and the BEST part honey walnut shrimp. I had some meat from the carving station but the beef was way too rare for me so I didn't even eat it.

And then the dessert plate...I only picked out 2 small pieces out of a table full. (Hey, its only once you get to go to a squadron Christmas party!) A slice of chocolate cake which I didnt eat all of it. It was way too rich for me and then a small slice of cheesecake topped with raspberry sauce. It was great.

Belly Buster day 10 and Abs day 11.

The Christmas party threw me off :(

Way too much good food to turn down, and the few days of set back was worth it for the moment.

But that was it.

Our last visit with a Guam Santa!

We saw Santa at the mall yesterday. 

For.the.very.last.time.on.Guam!

58 days until we leave!

And our household items are being packed on the 13th and shipped out to NM on the 14th, which means 

this big guy is scheduled to arrive on the night of the 10th

for the Alessi kids!

For my records, abs day 10 belly buster day 11.

For my records,

Maybe I see a VERY small change now. But yesterday was the Christmas party and I had some cheesecake...and some foods that are not on my accepted list of foods to eat. 

But 1 day, well controlled, within the past 11 days isnt bad. ;0)

Now back to it.

Leavin on a jet plane!

Here it is!

In black and white!

Wednesday 1 Feb, 2012
Delta Airlines
Depart Guam Island
Arrive Tokyo
Flight Time 4 hours 0 minutes nonstop

Wednesday 1 Feb
Delta Airlines
Depart Tokyo
Arrive Los Angeles, CA
Flight Time 10 hours 15 minutes nonstop

Wednesday 1 Feb
US Airways
Depart Los Angeles, CA
Arrive Albuquerque, NM
Flight Time 1 hour 57 minutes nonstop

Wednesday 1 Feb
Pacific Wings
Depart Albuquerque, NM
Arrive Alamagordo, NM
Flight Time 1 hour 0 minutes