Tuesday, December 20, 2011

A Much Needed Fresh Start

For as long as I can remember I just haven’t felt quite ‘right.’  I know, I know whatever ‘right’ means.   I sleep very poorly and never feel rested, even though I’m going to bed super duper early most every night and sleeping anywhere from 6-7 hours.  I also tend to have a headache most days.  And sometimes those little headaches blossom into a full out debilitating migraine.   My sinuses are also almost ALWAYS a problem.  My skin and hair are wreaking havoc on me.  Sometimes I have to resist the urge to shave my head and just ‘start over’ for my hair and I sometimes find myself scrubbing my face just a little bit too rough to try and get ‘rid’ of the ridiculous amount of blemishes I have (HELLO I’m NOT 14 anymore!).  I also sometimes find myself falling into small pits of depression that are hard to get out of and make it hard to enjoy the good things I have in life. 

As I’ve posted previously, I started CrossFit in February of 2010 thanks to the dedication and constant positive motivation from my wonderful friend JT Goodman, and have done it continuously since.   Yes I’ll admit I’m addicted, but I feel there are most def worse things I could be addicted too.  Exercise would be one of those good addictions.  I feel so much better after a WOD (workout of the day) and I genuinely miss them if I have to skip a day for one reason or another.   But for as good as CrossFit makes me feel I, still don’t feel completely ‘right.’

So I’ve reached the point of being sick to death of not feeling good and feeling like I am missing out on things in life that I will never be able to get back.   So I’ve been telling myself I HAVE to do something.  I had heard of a healthier eating lifestyle called Paleo many months ago and had minimally looked into it.  I saw there was a strict no dairy policy to the diet and figured I could never do it – cheese and I are pretty tight!  But recently, my friend Anna Caranci liked Easy Paleo on facebook.  When I saw that I emailed her to see if she was doing it and could she help me get started.  She told me she wasn’t, but would like to, and referred me to her friend Jennie Harrell who had started the blog Easy Paleo.  So I spent many days perusing her blog and I emailed her for some advice.  I am so grateful to have been able to speak with her and soak in all of her knowledge!  Through her blog I found the blogs of Robb Wolfe and Sarah Fragoso both of which were full of wonderful knowledge to help me get started.  I became comfortable with Sarah’s blog and her book ‘Everyday Paleo’ right away.  She is a fellow CrossFitter with 3 kids.  (I always think if someone else who has given birth can get back to a flat tummy then certainly so can I!)  Her transformation is simply incredible!   Check her out if you have a few minutes – you’ll see why she is such a great source of inspiration – just one look at her before and after pictures will make you want to do this.    I finished reading her book and am super excited to get started.  I know this will be just the thing I need to start feeling ‘right’ again!  I am definitely aware of how difficult it may be but I fully intend on completing the Whole30 Challenge and then maintaining a Paleo lifestyle. 

Anna and I met with Jennie Harrell in person (yay – like meeting a local celebrity, and one of the sweetest people EVER!) and got to pick her brain and clear up all of our questions about getting started.  She is such a wealth of knowledge and I found myself hanging on her every word.  One of my biggest concerns is that I don’t eat any red meat.  Come to find out Jennie used to be a vegetarian and is now 100% Paleo!  Talk about inspiration to at least try some red meat.  Which I will do.  Maybe not right away but I promise I will!  I took many notes and have started a grocery list and a 30 day meal plan so there is no excuse for this not to work.  I know I will have the support of good friends both, old and new, who will give me the strength I need to keep on keeping on!     

I will begin my journey on Sunday January 8, 2012 along with the wonderful Anna Caranci - we will hold each other to this goal and succeed! New year and new, wonderful things happening. I plan to document my journey on the blog - the good the bad and the ugly.  And speaking of ugly, I may as well put a disclaimer on here now -it is possible that i may be a little cranky and irritable at first from sugar withdrawal and totally changing my diet, so I’ll apologize in advance for that.  Just know that in the long run this will be good for me in both my physical and mental state and I will come out a better person for having at least tried!

Cheers to a new year and a new me!  In the meantime I fully intend on eating all that bad stuff that will soon be eliminated from my diet.  Get it all out of my system and start fresh and new!

Monday, December 19, 2011

Buggy Gets Her Hair Did!

So I finally broke down and gave into the wicked mess that is the Buggy’s hair.  She got her first haircut this past Saturday, December 17, 2011 at Checker’s Hair Gallery in Kernersville.  Her stylist’s name was Shannon.  And she did SO well.  I was a very proud Mama!  Although she was slightly apprehensive at first she climbed right up into the chair and sat still – for the most part.  She wasn’t totally smiley but she did behave – and she even let Shannon blow dry and use a round brush on her hair to amke it do a 'lil flip.  Something she NEVER lets me do.  Because this was a bigger step for me and my first baby, I didn’t let TOO much get cut off so she just got the ends trimmed up.  But it made a huge difference!  Check her out! :o)

{waiting for the cut}

{being a big girl}

{snip,snip!}

{more snip, snip}

{blow dry and a flip}

{all done!}

{i'm so pretty :o)}

Happy Monday - Christmas is 7 (eeek) days away!

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Holiday Hoob-y What-y!?

So within the past few weeks or so Emma has taken the ‘terrible two’s’ to the EXTREME.  I mean really.  I’ve wanted to write about it but words have failed me.  We’ve gotten through however yesterday morning it turned to a new level.  I woke her up for school (which is always a terrible horrible thing for her) and she just had a complete meltdown!  She was screaming and crying to the point of losing her breath.  Not to mention the hitting and kicking and squirming and running away from me back into bed as I try to get her dressed.  Along with the hollering ‘no shirt off,’ ‘I want jammies on,’ and ‘no shoes, no shoes!’  Although she is cute as a button and I love her to death she has most definitely worn me out the last few days especially.  Then yesterday we came home from school and work and went in the back yard to throw the tennis ball to the dogs.  It was nice exercise and fun for all of us.  But that is where the fun ends.  When I told her it was time to go in the house because it was starting to rain you would have thought the world was ending.  I’m really not sure what has her so upset lately.  And it goes in waves.  She will be happy go lucky, smiling, laughing, one minute and then the next she is completely a mess.  Please, please tell me this is just a phase!?! 

Now on to more pleasant writings.  My mom came down for Thanksgiving again this year and we had a very enjoyable long weekend.  In lieu of cooking a big ol’ turkey we opted for a honey baked turkey breast and some homemade sides – and it was all very yummy! We also spent the morning with the Rye’s eating monkey bread and watching the babies play.  Thanksgiving night we took a ride through the Tanglewood Festival of Lights.  Emma was very intrigued by the lights and kept saying ‘look, look!’ Very cute.  And we also put up the Christmas tree.  I tried to be laid back this year and pretty much let Emma do all the decorating – with the exception of the few ornaments I put near the top of the tree.  I have yet to do any outside decorations – not because I don’t want too but because I don’t have the proper décor to outfit the new house and because the décor from the old house just doesn’t work with the new house – and yes I did attempt!  It was a great weekend overall – and of course here are a few pictures of the fun! 
    
{giving Brayden some love on Thanksgiving morning}

{a pre-Thanksgiving meal time out}

{Thanksgiving prayer}

{wreath at Tanglewood}

{Tanglewood Merry Christmas}

{doing Grandma's hair for some Black Friday shopping}

{trying on some bling bling}


{bug hung these 4 snowmen on the tree and said "Emma, Lilly, Sophie & Brayden" - how adorable - she loves her friends}

 {getting out one of the Buckeye ornaments - prior to it's demise into shards on the floor!}

{happy bug decorating the tree all by herself!}


Friday is only 4 days away!!! :0) Happy beginning of the holidays!!


Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving!

since tomorrow i will be super busy doing pretty much nothing i wanted to wish everyone a happy thanksgiving now! 

so HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!! and remember to be thankful for all the things you have and try not to look at the things you don't - easier said than done i know, so my goal for this year is to do just that - for one day at least!



Happy eating, football watching, and whatever else you do on Thanksgiving!  


Tuesday, November 22, 2011

I'm up to my knees in paint!

The painting has begun at the house.  I finally decided that I can no longer take the ickyness (yes I made up this word) that the previous owners left behind.  I say ickyness :0) just because some of the colors are NOT what I would choose for myself.  Not that they are bad colors by any means.  My first pet peeve is that both the dining room and what we are making Bug’s play room were painted exactly the same.  And they are the first two rooms you see when you walk into the house.  I definitely did not like that.  And I also discovered while painting over the weekend another thing I think I did not like about the original color scheme.  There is chair rail in both of these rooms and the previous owners put the lighter color on the bottom and the darker color on the top.  This is not appealing to the eye in my opinion – almost makes the room feel as if it is floating upside down, if that makes any sense?!  So anyways I spent a lot of hours this weekend diligently painting what will be the dining room – that is when we can afford to get a nice dining room table.   The previous owners did not pay much attention to detail and I can see now in the finished – well almost finished – product where they made mistakes.  They must not have taped off the walls because there is a lot of the old blue on the white trim.  So even after I meticulously taped off the walls and was oh so careful while I did my trim work, I will have to go back and do some touching up with white paint along the basebaords and chair rail.  Oh and one quick rant about blue painting tape – I HATE IT!  I have yet to find a tape that works how it is supposed to - and I've tried a lot of them to get this right.  This time I used 3M brand and in some places it stuck so tight I could barely get it off and in some places it didn’t stick at all and paint went through.  Argh.    What a battle – but it will NOT hinder me from my love of painting.  I may not be quick about it and may make a colossal mess in the process but I absolutely love the feeling of seeing hard work pay off in the end with a beautful "new" room! {Furniture to be added later!}


{before}



{after}

Please don't mind the somewhat wavy pictures - i used the Panorama App on my phone (which I LOVE but it can be a slight bit difficult to use and line up correctly!) but you get the idea! 

So what do you think??

Happy Tuesday!! 
 Two days away from a FOUR DAY WEEKEND!



Wednesday, November 16, 2011

I find therapy in music....

All kinds of music.  Yes all kinds.  My iPod is full of every different kind of music you can imagine.  And my playlists go from slow to rock to some R&B then some country.  I just always seem to be able to find some comfort, support, feel good thing about lyrics in songs.  Or songs themselves.  And not all lyrics in the song get me.  There are usually one or two stand out lyrics that I like - which sometimes you will find as my Facebook posts.  I must say though - PLEASE do not look into it too much when I post a lyric.  They don't neccassarily have anything to do with my personal/work/friends/family or anything like that.  Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't.  It's been a little while since I was last able to blog and I have some songs that I've been liking a lot lately that I wanted to share.  So yea I have a 2 year old and the Disney Channel is pretty much on ALL the time, hence the Selena Gomez song (although I'm not afraid to admit I do think she has an extremely pretty, deep raspy voice ANNNND I don't mind watching Wizards of Waverly Place at all!  in fact I may have caught myself watching it AFTER Bug has gone to sleep :0) )  Ok no more blabbing - here's my songs picks for recently.  

{Selena Gomez & The Scene - Love You Like a Love Song}


{Taylor Swift - Ours}


{Sugarland & Matt Nathanson - Run}


{Zac Brown  Band - Quiet Your Mind}


{O.A.R. Crazy Game of Poker - yea I know this is an old one but you just can't NOT like it!}


{LMFAO - Sexy and I Know It - come on, this one is just hilrious.  and the video makes it even better.  had to end on this one for a for sure smile!}

Happy Hump Day all - Friday is ALMOST here! :)

   

Monday, October 31, 2011

It's HALLOWEEN...but this blog has NADA to do with Halloween - Enjoy anyways.

For Emma's birthday the Goodman's got her a gift card for Build A Bear Workshop (yay! and THANK YOU!).  Although prior to having Bug I found this store a bit disturbing - something about taking the empty carcass of an animal and stuffing it full of whatever just weirded me out a bit - now I have been in the store several times and that thought has mostly diminished.  Yes mostly, it does still creep in here and there.  I'll be honest.  So since Emma is now old enough to semi-grasp the concept of this store, the gift card came in handy.   And we paid the store a visit.  Like always pictures are worth a 1000 words so here goes!


{a little leary at first}


{okay i'll try, with a little help}


{picking out a heart for the bear & the owl - oh yes there was a sale on an owl animal so we were able to get her 2 animals!  very exciting for this frugal momma}


{bear gets a heart}


{okay i've got this now}


{fist bumps}


{bathtime for the new bear - the owl didn't get a bath so he came  home dirty!}

{heading home with her new friends}

{are you in there guys?}


Overall Emma enjoyed her Build A Bear experience.  I wanted to get her there to create a HAlloween inspired bear and I think we got in JUST IN TIME!  She made a bear with a teeny little witch costume on and a tye dye owl at Mommy's request - yes I have a thing for owls now!  I just love 'em. 

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU Goodman's!! 


HAPPY HALLOWEEN!! 
Life is short - be WICKED!!!! 

Halloween weekend pictures soon to follow! mooo hahahahaha!




Friday, October 28, 2011

Cheers to the Frickin' Weekend - Drink to That - Hey yeah!

Yes I like Rihanna even though she has nothing to do with Halloween which is the point of this blog.  I like all of her stuff, has a great voice.  And she's gorgeous.  How could you not like her? So being that this is Halloween weekend and Halloween is my favorite holiday and I am doing my best to get into the Halloween-y mode I chose Rihanna for my title, puts me in a good mood.   Plus that song is just fun, you have to admit. 

Ok so Halloween did not sneak up on me this year however I am not ready for it to be here.  I am usually MUCH more excited and MUCH more into it.  I didn't even put any outside decorations up this year.  Yea depressing I know.  I did get out my cute little skeleton guy though and he is in the living room (and to be honest I may just make him a permanent fixture in the house, he makes me smile, I like skulls).  I'm anxious for Emma to dress up and for trick or treat this year.  She is walking, running, jumping and all that on her own much better this year so I'm thinking she will get the concept better.  And she loves carrying around buckets, baskets, purses, boxes whatever she can find and filling it with things - so the getting a bunch of candy in a bucket should be fun for her.  But there is an important thing missing from my Halloween weekend.  So as silly as it seems I'm already looking more forward to NEXT Halloween.  I know I shouldn't be wasting away life and days and should enjoy each one, and I AM (for the most part), BUT next year is looking good. 

This year Emma will be a punk rocker.  Yep even got the ABSOLUTE CUTEST little biker-type boots for her costume.  And I made her a skull t-shirt and have some pink to put in her hair.  Very inexpensive because most of the stuff I already had.  So frugal momma likes that a lot!  Pictures will follow of course.

                         {Now please enjoy Rihanna and cheers to the frickin' weekend!}


{ok and in honor of Halloween my ALL TIME FAV Halloween song EVER - old school Michael Jackson and Thriller - come on - you know you like it just as much as me!!  i'm not ashamed to admit my love for Thriller - and yes i may know the dance! :0)}




And remember, 'life is short, be wicked - but don't be a trick, be a treat' - make sense?  not really - but i liked it.


Cheers!  ;)

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Buggy is 2!

Wow.  I can't believe it.  I really can't.  Seems like yesterday she was born.  Time has flown the last 2 years.  And yes I am 5 days late on the birthday blog but it was a fun-filled, crazy weekend! She had her first birthday party this year at the Greensboro Children's Museum with all her friends.  This party was A LOT different from her 1 year birthday party - much smaller and not so much family.  The hardest part about living away is that not all family can be at her parties.  This year we were super happy that my mom could make it down for the festivities! 

I took so many pictures of the big event and her mini celebration on her actual birthday that I just picked out a few of my favorites to share.  Oh and the video of her blowing out both of her candles ALL ON HER OWN and being so proud of herself - listen closely and you can hear her say "I DID IT!"  Such a great moment.  I've probably watched this video a good 30 times by now I love it so much!

{"I DID IT"}


{taking cupcakes to her class for her birthday}

{first time blowing out her own candles}

{i'm pretty sure she has gone up and down this slide 100's of times before the party actually started!}

{Jillian, Emma, Joanna}

{Emma Jane & Sophia Reese - best friends in the world :)}

{Lovin' on Curious George}

{what are YOU looking at?! (i ABSOLUTELY love this picture!!)}

{Lilly & Emma - Buggy's newest friend from school}


Here's to the next year of Buggy-isms!!


Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Fall has arrived!!

My FAVORITE time of the year has arrived!!!  Fall is here which means Halloween, pumpkins, leaves of all colors, spiced cider, candy corn....ok you get the gist!  Seems this year October brought with it the cooler temperatures, which I adore.  Jeans, sweatshirts and boots.  My fav!  And on top of all this the Disney Channel is having 'Monstober' all month long with all kinds of fun Halloween shows, movies and music.  Pretty much doesn't get much better than that.  No, no it doesn't.

So to kick off Fall, the Kiefer Family made the annual outing to a pumpkin patch.  This year we tried a new place, Oakhaven Farm in Pelham, NC, about an hour drive away from K-Ville.  So worth the trip.  We ended up spending a good long while at the farm with all kinds of activities including a hay ride, corn cannon, barrel train, climning spider web, inflatable horses, corn maze, giant jumping pillow, petting zoo and of course picking out our pumpkins!  The farm was ABSOLUTELY gorgeous and the weather was perfect! And to top it all off this was the most affordable fun around!! (http://www.comegetlost.com/) I took so many pictures of the afternoon, here are a few of my favorites!

{Oakhaven Farms}

                                                  {riding the barrel train ALL on her own!}

{checkin' out the chicken coop}

{getting a little frustrated in the corn maze - we ended up somehow exiting through the entrance!}

{corn cannon}

{another of the farm from the hay ride - GORGEOUS!}

 {horsie}

{the lake at the farm}

{Pig Talk}

{Oink, Oink}

{I got my pumpkin!}

{Here lamby, lamby, lamb!}

On another side and somewhat sad note - I got my Halloween stuff out of the garage this weekend to put out.  Well, last year I made a bunch of little ghosts for our front tree, turned out really cute.  Only problem is WE HAVE NO FRONT TREE at the new house!! :(  So where in the world do I hang my little ghosts?  Not the same on bushes.  So alas they went back into the box.  Time to plant a new tree I say!!

Oh and shall I just say - pumpkin spice things are out in full force and I intend to stock up on as many as possible!  (I've already gotten a bag of Pumpkin Spice Hershey Kisses, Pumpkin Spice Marshmallows & several boxes of Pumpkin Spice pudding).  There will be no shosrtage of 'pumpkin' in my house!

{HAPPY FALL Y'ALL!!}