it's been 30 days!

i've finished the first 30 days of shredding! whoohoo!

i don't have time to go into a detailed post today, but i wanted to make sure i posted an update. i have way too much to do before we leave for vacay tomorrow; we are headed to palm springs! and i'll be laying out poolside for four days, which means i'll also be cheating on my diet. haha but i'm committed to at least running in the resort's gym every day. we'll see how that goes....
anyway, i was a total cheater this last week. we had a busy weekend with mikey's birthday party, baseball practices starting up, jiu-jitsu belt promotion...by monday night, i was exhausted and went to bed at 7:30pm. I worked out only once since. :( but, i was pleasantly surprised to weigh-in and take measurements today and not be completely discouraged. you can find my original post here to see where i started.

sorry for the poor picture quality. like i said, i'm in a hurry. and i didn't get to change into my workout clothes because liam's therapist was walking up my driveway as i took the picture. sigh....but i did put my hands on my hips to emphasize that my lovehandles are still there. hahahaha

weight: 149.0 lbs (-2.4 lbs)
arms: 11 inches (-0.5 inches)
upper waist: 33.5 inches (-1.5 inches)
lower waist (around belly button): 38.5 inches (-2.0 inches)
hips: 39 inches (-1 inch)
thighs: 20.5 inches (no change)

in 30 days of exercise and diet changes, i've lost a total of 2.4 lbs and 5 inches! whoohoo!

i was most excited to see changes in my midsection measurements, because i've mentioned before that this is my most troublesome area to work on. and, guess what else!? i have THE LINE...you know...that ever-elusive line on the inner arm that shows definition between the bicep and tricep? now i totally get why bodybuilders kiss their biceps...it takes a ton of work to get 'em!!! i have to hold back from kissing my own...in public. and i'm actually NOT looking to lose inches in my hips and thighs...my butt is flat enough as it is and i'm pretty comfortable with my thighs. today's measurements were so encouraging and i'm definitely going to continue with this new lifestyle.

thanks to all the fabulous mamas that participated in this link-up. if it weren't for all of you, i probably wouldn't have gotten as far as i did. just making exercise a part of my daily routine was a huge change, and it was definitely easier to do it with all of your support. YOU ALL ROCK!!

HAVE A FUN AND SAFE 4TH OF JULY!!!

miscellany monday - june 27

{one}

boy  #2 is turning FOUR years old on wednesday. what the?! i know!!

we had a birthday celebration for him today and he savored every moment of the attention and love from everyone. he was the sweetest little booger and kept thanking me and the mister for everything...like, thanking us for something every couple of minutes. 

"thank you for my birthday party." 

"thank you for my cowabunga cake." 

"thank you for making fruit kabobs."

 "thank you for putting bubbles in my goody bags." 

and, mister mikey, i am thankful for you and the sweet, sweet boy that you are. i love you to the moon and back.

{two}

i love it when i capture photos with expressions. even when the boys are 50 years old, these moments of childhood joy are what i will look back on and cherish.

{three}

i love that liam is starting to pose and smile for the camera. i don't think i have a good photo of him between the ages of one and two-and-a-half. so i'm definitely going to be making up for lost time and capturing more of this sweet face.

{four}

isaiah was promoted to grey belt in jiu-jitsu on saturday!

he was such a proud student and we were extremely proud of him for his dedication. he's been practicing jiu-jitsu for three-and-a-half years and this is his second promotion. the jiu-jitsu belt system is very different from other martial arts, like karate, because the students aren't considered for promotion until they've attended at least 96 classes. and while he attends class three times per week, he's only eligible to promote once per year or so. this sport definitely takes some dedication. movement doesn't come quickly!

{five}

the mister took a detour through a neighborhood the other day, and thank goodness he did! we stumbled upon a sweet yard sale and i snagged a few great finds for myself. and guess how much...$1 a piece! so i spent a whole $3 on these beauties.

happy monday to all!

embrace the camera - june 23

i'm embracing the camera with my man today. 

i'm feeling extra giddy about this hunk of a human being lately.

maybe it's because he's coaching isaiah's baseball team. 

or maybe it's because he motivates me to work out every day. 

or maybe because he finally fixed the door knob on the front door that hasn't been working right for a long time now. 

oh, i know. it's because he brought his dress shirts to the dry cleaners just so i wouldn't have to do ironing in this crazy heat.

thanks, babe. you da best and i love you mucho.

30-day shred ~ week 4

i haven't had a chance to post any updates on my 30-day shred with jm. but don't think it means i've given up! i'm still going at it and i'm surprisingly loving every minute of it. can't believe i'm even saying this, but i'm kind of...addicted...to working out. what? i know!

for all of week 1, i did the level 1 workout. on the monday of week 2, i moved on to level 2 and that's where i've been ever since. but i'm also deviating a little bit. many days i don't do the 30-day shred workout and, instead, i do the p90x videos with my husband. p90x makes me sweat more, and i like that.

i'm already feeling healthier -  my vision of healthy is simply being able to do the things that my four little manimals need me to be able to do. i need to be strong, in order to lift and carry my heavy babies without hurting my back or shoulders. i need to have endurance to get me through the days, if anything, but also to be active with them instead of just watching them be active.

if i've learned anything thus far, it's that becoming healthier requires a lot of changes. it's about breaking habits. it's about constantly being aware of my body.

my biggest vice is definitely the fact that i'm a starbucks addict. i buy a drink at least once a day. there are many days where i buy more than one. my most favorite drink is a triple grande soy mocha. while my afternoon drink is a grande soy chai latte. and sometimes i'll just stick to a regular brewed coffee or iced coffee. i knew i wasn't going to completely cut starbucks out of the picture, {because that would not be good for anybody around me} so i knew i needed to re-evaluate this habit first. i'm sure you can imagine the high-calorie count in those aforementioned beverages, so i'm not even going to go into specifics with that. but i will tell you that i only allow myself to order ONE beverage now {well, i guess it's really two because i can order it hot or iced}: a venti brewed coffee with two pumps of sugar-free vanilla syrup and nonfat milk. only 60 calories. an incredible amount less than what i used to order daily and it still satisfies my starbucks craving just fine.

another bad habit was fast food. with four kids with completely different schedules, we're constantly on the go and it always seemed easier to swing through a drive-thru and pick up lunch. five mouths fed, no work put in by me, easy peasy. but now, not only am i eating healthier, my kids are eating healthier, too. and we're saving so much money at the same time. of course, we still sometimes have to scarf our lunch down in the car while on the way to jiu-jitsu or baseball or soccer, but we're now scarfing down homemade sandwiches and snacking on carrot sticks and celery. once i learned to manage my time better {and there's always room for improvement there; that could be a whole different post on its own}, we all eat better and reap the benefits.

i've learned to be more conscious of my body. i've learned that i don't need to feel full in order to have had enough. i've learned to stop eating because i'm stressed/overwhelmed/bored and exercising instead, in order to relieve those feelings. i've learned to drink water and not hate it. i've learned to push my body beyond what i thought were it's limits, push for a few more reps when i feel like i can't do anymore, push for another minute of cardio when i feel like i'm just going to pass out. just like jm says all the time, "it's mind over matter".

three weeks in and i feel great. my personal success is not measured by the numbers that show up on the scale or what the tape measure reads at 30 days. my success is about learning more about myself, learning how strong i really am, and giving myself the opportunity to be healthy, to be taken care of, because no one can do that for me, but me.

ice cream in a bag

i read a post from buggie and jellybean this morning about how to make your own ice cream in a bag. i've never done it before, although i've heard of it many times, but it sounded fun and easy enough. so when the bigs got home from summer camp, we went straight to work. now, mention the words "ice cream" to mikey and his excitement level skyrockets. he just couldn't wait for the ice cream.

i took a quick look at the instructions and gathered our ingredients.

we filled the large bags with ice and started shaking away. 

the bigs got tired of shaking about 25 seconds into the process, so i finished it off. let me just say that i will never, ever make fun of the shake weight infomercials again. just eight minutes of shaking those ziploc bags and my arms clearly had some new definition that wasn't there prior to this ice cream making process. i may even consider buying a shake weight for myself...or not. i'll stick to shaking for ice cream. at least then there's a delicious and motivating end product.

8 minutes of shaking later....and we had the creamiest, best tasting ice cream we've ever had. NOT!!!!!

obviously, this little experiment was complete and utter failure. isaiah's bag was a fail even before it catastrophically failed. it was like a double fail! i didn't check that his inner ziploc was sealed well, and when he started shaking, all of the milk just spilled into the ice. i should have known at that point that this was going to be a complete disaster. 

lessons learned:

1) if your gut instinct tells you that it's strange to put 1/2 a cup of rock salt into milk and expect it to turn into ice cream...it probably is. but, c'mon. who doesn't like salted vanilla ice cream. we were going for the salted caramel style...that's all the flavor rage right now, isn't it?

2) always follow your instructions step-by-step. reading it over once just doesn't cut it, no matter how photographic you believe your memory to be.  i guess it's been such a long time since i worked in the lab that i've completely forgotten the number one rule in executing standard operating procedures. 

now, off i go, packing up the brood and heading to the grocery store. if i don't, the mister is gonna be annoyed that i wasted all the half and half. he's not gonna have anything to put in his coffee tomorrow morning. maybe we'll even get some ice cream.

father's day

we enjoyed a nice, relaxing father's day this year. shawn's dad and stepmom invited us over for a delicious father's day feast and we celebrated with champagne, wine and great conversation.  the boys always have a great time running wild at gpa and gma's.

before we went to my in-laws' house, we stopped by the cemetery to visit shawn's grandfather. he passed away early this year and we haven't had a chance to visit his grave since. the boys did not attend the funeral, so this was their first time to see their great grandfather's grave.

he is laid to rest at golden gate national cemetery in san bruno, a beautiful park dedicated to the veterans of our armed forces. 

upon entering the grounds, you're immediately surrounded by countless, identical, white headstones in every which direction, aligned in perfect rows.

 

at this sight, i was immediately overcome with emotion. i was overcome with a sense of gratitude and love for each and every person that rests under each and every one of those headstones. because of them and their dedication to their country, my family and my children have the freedom and opportunities that people all over the world can only dream of. we wouldn't be who we are, or have anything we have today, if it wasn't for these heroes that fought {and the soldiers all over the world that continue to fight} for our freedom.

i never had a chance to know shawn's grandfather. when shawn and i got married, grandpa irv was already very ill. my only memory of him was when we went to visit him at his rest home. but i certainly wish i could have known him, could have heard his stories {i'm sure he had some great ones}, could have asked him to share his wisdom with me. and, most importantly, i wish i could have thanked him. 

early start

we're having an early start to our father's day celebration with a lil sangria over a movie. fun times.

p.s. notice my cute little carafe? one of my fave scores while thrifting. i love the 'A' embossed into the neck. so perfect.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless Phone

dad life 4 life

happy father's day to the illest daddy we know. 

thanks for always embracing the crazy and rolling with {and taking all of} the punches. literally. 

we've got ourselves a pack of super sweet, silly, witty, sarcastic, adventurous, and completely unafraid boys...and i'm sure it has a lot to do with their daddy, who is also all of the above.

this one's for you, 'cause i'm sure you've got "dad life 4 life" tatted on your chest. keep it tight, player. 

and a happy, happy father's day to my own dad. you are best ever and we are all so fortunate to have you in our lives. with all these grandbabies, you're sure to be smothered with love and slobbery kisses for a very long time!

stick it to me

i took the boys to the park yesterday {again. my goodness, i'm so sick of sitting around at parks, but i'd rather that than be sitting at home listening to them bicker} this particular park has a small creek that ran alongside. Of course, the bigs thought it would be a lovely adventure to hike down the little slope and explore the wilderness.

they hiked back up carrying armloads of sticks that they gathered...insisting we bring them home. umm, ok. sure. this photo wasn't even half of it all...

later that evening, the mister found mikey arranging his sticks into what looked like japanese characters, or power ranger power symbols, on the grass. you see, mikey firmly believes that he was born a power rangers samurai. and he has absolute faith in his fist of justice. 

just another day in my life....

...with this houseful of boys. each evening, as soon as the mister walks through the front door, this is the chaos that ensues. at least this time, they let him change out of his dress shirt and slacks and into appropriate wrestling attire.

thank goodness for daddies, because this is not any kind of fun this mommy would be able to bring.

sweet success!

and this particular success is, literally, very sweet! you have probably read about my gluten-free baking woes and how i couldn't find a chocolate chip cookie recipe that works and tastes good. well, finally we've found one that we love. and i say we because all of us love these cookies! they are perfect. cakey on the inside and crispy on the outside...it's like a little piece of chocolate heaven landed in my oven. 

the recipe is by one of my gurus in gluten-free cooking, the gluten-free goddess. my other guru is the gluten-free girl. they both have amazing gf recipes that don't make you feel like you're living without. there are some things that i make which the whole family eats, since it doesn't make sense to cook/bake two kinds of everything. c'mon, i know i'm supermom...but that's just too much. bwahahaha.

before this recipe, i've never used buckwheat for anything, gf or not. but i'm somewhat obsessed with it now and trying to figure out other ways to bake with it. i've also learned that i dislike rice flour, white and brown. both kinds leave a gritty, displeasing texture to the food, leaving me feeling like i dropped my cookie in the sandbox and ate it anyway. 

buckwheat chocolate chip cookies

note: this is my version of the gluten-free goddess' recipe. you can find the original recipe here. 

dry ingredients:

1 cup buckwheat flour

1 cup sorghum flour

1/2 cup tapioca starch

1 1/2 teaspoons xanthan gum

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon sea salt

"wet" mix ingredients:

1 cup spectrum organic shortening

1 1/2 cups light brown sugar, packed

1 tablespoon vanilla

2 eggs

add-ins:

2-5 tablespoon vanilla almond milk, as needed

1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

whisk together the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl.

i love all of the different shades of white and off-white in the dry mixture.

in a separate bowl, beat the shortening, brown sugar and vanilla extract until combined.

add in the beaten eggs and beat to combine.

add the dry ingredients a little bit at a time and beat to combine, until a dough forms, adding a tablespoon of vanilla almond milk at a time to achieve a sturdy, smooth dough. 

add the chocolate chips by hand. cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill the dough for an hour.

preheat the oven to 350 degrees. line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

using an ice cream scoop, scoop wads of dough and form them into twenty round balls. place them on the lined cookie sheet, about two inches apart. press down on the dough balls ever so slightly, but keep a slightly mounded shape - not too flat.

bake in the center of a preheated oven for 12 to 15 minutes, until the cookies are firm to the touch. remove with a thin spatula and place them on a cooling rack. they will crisp as they cool.

this recipe makes 20 large cookies. the goddess says that, for some reason, the larger size bakes up better than the smaller, so i will take her word for it. she is the goddess, after all. i just let the boys eat half a cookie at a time.

miscellany monday - june 13

hello, monday! are you ready for me? 

yeah? well, that's great. but, i'm so not ready for you.

warning: my camera got no love this weekend, so all photos were taken with my phone.

{one}

it absolutely sucks when the mister has to work on saturdays. granted, he rotates with others in leadership and only has to work two saturdays every six months, but it doesn't make it suck any less. and tell me why he chose two saturdays in a row? he went in this past saturday and goes in again this coming saturday. genius move, honey. don't be surprised if i high-five you as you walk through the door in the evening and i head on out for a moment for myself to breathe...as i take a stroll through target. alone. with a starbucks cup in hand. 

{two}

because he worked on saturday, we didn't get any to do any of the stuff we usually do on saturdays {i.e. stuff that i would never do alone with all four kids}. so, we did our grocery shopping on sunday...and it took almost five hours. five hours, people. we hit grocery outlet, ranch 99 {our local asian market}, costco, winco and safeway. we were spent {physically and financially} by the time we were done. why so many stores? because i plan out our shopping trips so that we can get everything we need at the cheapest price possible. i have to honor the hard work the mister puts in every day to support us, and one of the ways i do this is by feeding our four growing boys well, as economically as possible.

{three}

while the mister worked on saturday, we spent the entire day at my dad's house with my sister and her family who were visiting from reno. we also had an early father's day dinner with my dad since this was one of the rare days when my dad, my two sisters, my brother and i would be together {with our families, of course}.  my dad was so happy {and exhausted} to be surrounded by all of his grandbabies. even though it looks like liam would rather be doing something else {far right}.

{four}

wyatt is five and half months old. at his well-check last week he weighed in at twenty pounds. what in the? i don't think he got the memo about how big babies are bad for my back. and it doesn't help that's he's so squishy and makes me want to carry, kiss and cuddle him all day long. i still have trouble believing that this brick of a baby was only 6lbs 8oz at birth!

{five}

my mikey has got major skillz. and i'm not just talking about how he's so highly skilled at talking so much and so quickly without even stopping for a breath. he has mastered another, much more important and useful life skill. see for yourself....

embrace the camera - june 9

me and wyatt - embracing the camera at our babysitter's high school graduation party.

it was a pool party in her backyard and, as soon as the boys caught wind of that minute detail, they made sure we didn't miss it.

little fish, these boys are. little liam plopped right in and splashed around.

wordless{ish} wednesday

they love to eat. a lot. 

especially in places they're not supposed to be eating.

ohh...you know. like, over the off-white carpet.

it just makes food and drink that much more enjoyable.

sneaky cooking

four kids into this whole parenting thing and most days i still feel like i have no idea what i'm doing. they won't do what i ask, they won't nap when they obviously need the rest, they forget their manners, they bicker and fight over E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G, every trip to every store has a soundtrack with the hit songs, 'can we buy this?", "can i have this?" or "oooh. i want some of that." yeah, you know those songs....

when i finally get them all tucked in at night, i fall into my chair in front of the computer and let my fingers get away from me and do the venting. this is when i find myself so grateful for the wonderful ladies i've met in the blogosphere. whether my post is me ranting about my spoiled rugrats, or me raving about milestones and good moments, my bloggy friends are always there to provide encouragement and support; two things that any mother, or any woman for that matter, cannot and should not do without.

so i was happy to hear that my friend kristine is hosting a linky party every tuesday called 'help a momma out'. she encourages us to share a tip, advice, funny story - anything - that you think could help another momma out. so, c'mon girls, reach into that bag of tricks that i know stays attached to your hip and share. 'cause we all know that sharing is caring, right?

one of my biggest struggles with my kids is to get them to eat their vegetables. i always worried that they don't get the nutrition they need...until i discovered the sneaky chef! if you haven't been to her website yet, you must go! there are recipes for make-ahead purees, which basically puree all the veggies that many kids don't want to eat but are sooo good for them, and provides recipes for foods that kids love which you can sneak those purees into. it's soooo sneaky....but sooo smart!

my favorite puree is the green, which i put into spaghetti sauces. i will actually be using it in our dinner tonight of speedy stovetop lasagna. the first puree i ever tried was the purple puree and snuck it into the brawny brownies, which turned out really good. that might be a good one to start with since it's blueberry season right now. there are so many other purees and recipes, i just haven't had the chance to try them all...but they all sound amazing and the kids will get so much nutrition without having to pull teeth. i also love that she has gluten-free recipes, as well, since one of my current challenges is cooking and baking gfcf for liam.

i hope i was able to help a momma out and you get a chance to try a bit of sneaky cooking. i'd love to hear whether it worked for you and your family or not. happy tuesday!

miscellany monday - june 6

write random and join in with carissa at lowercase letters.

{one}

have you ever had millet? no? me, either. until today. i've been experimenting with different gluten-free grains and flours for liam's gfcfsf diet and was on the hunt for millet flour at our local grocery store. they didn't have millet flour, but they had whole millet. {i don't even know if i'm using the word correctly, but whatever. you get it.} 

the mister and i decided to try and cook some up and learned that it's pretty simple. bring one part millet and four parts vegetable broth to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes or until all of the broth is absorbed. then it fluffs right up, just like couscous. the mister mixed in some tomatoes and kidney beans...and we had ourselves a delicious and super easy, gluten-free meal!

{two}

more on my gluten-free cooking experiments. i've been trying to make my own baking mix {which would substitute for flour in pretty much any recipe}. there are some really good ones out there that bake up really tasty but, unfortunately, most of them contain soy or almond meal, both of which liam is intolerant to. :( so i'm having to experiment with different combinations and have spent entirely too much money on the various flours and starches out there and still haven't come up with a mixture that tastes good. we'll keep trying, though, because i'm sure what once i do figure it out, it will save us some money in the long run. i did bake up a batch of chocolate chip cookies the other day and they were absolutely disgusting. liam seemed to like them...but i think he'll pretty much eat anything with chocolate chips in it. 

{three}

i posted about mikey's awesome imagination the other day, and i have yet another fine example. today he had all sorts of duplos weapons and tools slipped into his belt loops. like, every.single.belt loop. and he could point to each one and tell me it was his "house phone" and his "work phone" and his "ninja sword". this boy just cracks me up.

 {four}

our babysitter just graduated high school and is moving away for college. :( the boys are sad, i'm sad, the mister is sad...shoot, even the dogs are sad. she is the best babysitter ever and it's going to be really hard to replace her. but, of course, we are all really proud of her, she's an honor student and scholar-athlete {track}, and i'm sure she will do great things. 

congrats, ariane! we heart you!

 {five}

i have a love affair....with vintage pyrex. and surprisingly enough, the mister is totally ok with it. i'm sure he's glad that i'm spending his hard earned money at thrift stores where everything pretty dang cheap {but you'll still find me at the register trying to haggle prices. even isaiah is embarrassed to go thrifting with me} relative to other places to could be shopping. i went thrifting at my favorite shop today and found these beauties....

a divided serving dish in milk glass. 

i love milk glass. more so when it has designs on the sides, but plain milk glass is gorgeous to me, also. i'm on the hunt for a loaf dish in milk glass and also a set of three nesting bowls in this mushroom design. my mom had a set of pyrex bowls in that exact design when i was growing up, and i'm dying to have the same set in my kitchen cupboard.

and a coffee carafe with gold snowflakes.  i about died when i saw it sitting there on the shelf calling my name. 

{six}

i want to be a potter. as in...i want to learn how to make pottery. i want the thing that spins and get my hands dirty and maybe even reenact that scene from the movie "ghost".  yeah, you know what scene i'm talking about. and judging from the vagueness of my description of making pottery, it's probably obvious that i have no idea what i'm talking about and have no idea what making pottery entails. both are absolutely true. but, oh well. i want to learn anyway.

during my thrifting escapade today, i also snagged this cool piece of pottery. 

i'm probably going to use it a spoon rest since someone {cough cough...the mister...cough cough} poorly placed the one i had into the dishwasher and it broke. i'm convinced he did it on purpose because, since the day i brought that spoon rest home from the store, he never stopped poking fun at it. he didn't understand why i needed a special dish to place my cooking utensil in while cooking. 

ugh. men. they just don't get it.