Birthday party planning

Well the birthday party is on Sunday and I am starting to freak out a bit. I have no idea when we are going to clean our house! We ordered the food although I am already thinking we should maybe order one more pizza just to be safe. We will have 19 adults not including DH and I, and 6 or 8 kids (not sure if my two neices are coming) and i ordered the following

Salad- serves 7-9
2 dozen breadsticks
Macaroni and Cheese -serves 7-9
4 large pizzas....I am thinking I need one more just to be safe........thoughts????

I ordered the cake instead of making one because i figured i woudl have to make more than one if I made it so I ordered it at Kroger, got the Dora themed marble cake with buttercream frosting....this i know we will have mroe than enough of since I ordered a 1/2 sheet.

I still need to pick up the decorations today and will pick up icecream and pop/juice boxes on Saturday when i pick up the cake.

What am I missing????? This party is definately adding up to be way more expensive than I planned but to me it is worth it versus trying to cook for that many people! I just hope everyone fits in my house okay and the kids don't destroy it too bad. Hopefully the kids will play in the basement playroom most of the time. And there won't be THAT many kids, we will have 2 one year olds(give or take a few months), 1 kid exactly Izzy's age (they are a day apart), 1 almost 3 year old girl , 1 3 1/2 yr old boy and a 6 year old boy plus my 11 year old neice and hopefully my 10 and 7 year old neice.....so I think it will be okay.

Another thing i am unsure of is do i let izzy open her presents with the guests there or do i just wait until they leave? I don't know why I am making this so complicated.....I guess I am just a bit freaked about having that many people in my house!!!

I think Izzy is catching on that it is going to be her birthday. We keep talking about it, singing Happy Birthday and asking her how old she is. She will say 2 most of the time, but hasn't mastered holding up 2 fingers. She is really going to enjoy blowign out her candles, we have been practicing that too. I bought her a cute little flower dress with leggings that I hope looks as cute on as it does on teh hanger.....

I am goign to pick up Dora plates /cups and maybe a centerpiece or somethign today at the party supply store along with the goodie bags. I already bought the fruit snacks to go in them and I just have to either by playdough or some crayons and some stickers or something.

But the biggest thing is I really can't believe my little girl is almost 2!!!!!!

In-AWE-guration!

Okay so i am working today (or trying to) and have to blog about how in AWE I am of teh crowds in DC for the inauguration!!! How AMAZING!!! I will be continuing to try to watch it live on cnn through facebook. What an amazing day in history!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have never seen anything like it in my lifetime. I hope this presidency brings the must needed change our country needs!!!!!

I am proud to be an american today!

Tuesday Thoughts

Well I am procrastinating at work so have a few things to blog I guess.

I made a new recipe last night that was for sure a winner, I took Sweet Italian Turkey Sausage and served it with bell peppers adn onions over couscous. It was really good, Izzy liked it too! I will add that to my keep list! I am going to attempt to try 2 new ones this week, but we will see if I make it. One is a chicken tender bisquick reciepe my neighbor swears by and the other is a turkey cutlet parmesan type recipe from a Rachel Ray cookbook. We will see if I still to my meal plan for the week
Mon-Sausage/Peppers
Tues-Chili with beer bread
Wed-Chicken Tenders
Thurs-Turkey Cutlets
Fri-Chicken Pot Stickers
Sat-Out to eat
Sun-Not sure yet

Lets see what else is going on. I feel like we are surrounded by sick folks and I am praying that Izzy doesn't get sick! My neice Jessie has been homesick since Friday and she spent all afternoon with us on Thursday so lets hope for healthy immune systems to fight it off!

Izzy's evite is done adn I think we are going to have a full house! We have gotten all yes's! I am going to cater teh food, probably pizza /salad etc. I am going to do goodie bags only for the little kids, I think there are only 4 other than izzy little kids....older cousins won't get one. Still need to figure out the cake but the more I think about it, I may just order it from teh bakery if we really do have as many people as I think we will. Right now I think we will have close to 20 adults and 10 kids! 3 of the kids are over 8 years old though, holey cow that is a lot if people all at my house!!!!!! I better get my act together, party is a week from Sunday! A friend recommended going to Party City for decorations supplies etc. I think i am going to do a Dora theme only because Izzy LOVES dora and I think she would really get a kick out of it. So i guess i better get cracking not to mention cleaning!!!!

Friday thoughts

Okay it is friday. I made it through my first week of classes for my workout program. I was VERY sore yesterday which really suprised me because when I was doing the strength circuit on Wednesday i didn't feel like it was super hard and knew i would be a little sore but wasn't expecting just about every muscle group to feel it. Today was our first cardio workout and it wasn't bad at all. They gave us another one to do as homework so now i have to try to fit that in this weekend.

I got my 1500 calorie meal plan (YIKES) now comes the hard part of sticking to it. I knew this is what i would get but hate how hard the first 2 weeks or so are, i feel hungry all the time! The nutritionist gave me a weight goal of 129, so we will see! I honestly don't know the last time I was under 130, never as an adult, probably in high school! Honestly my main goal with this class is to lower my body fat and get toned, so if I can lose 7 pounds on top of it that will be a bonus....but only if i get there and can stay there, i don't want to shoot for a weight that I will be at for a week or two but not able to maintain...so I will continue posting progress on that! Oh and we got our body fat percentage today and i have to say i was suprised i think it is a little high, i htink the trainer was a little off in the location on my leg where she took the measurement but whatever, it came back at 29% which is definately high that what i want. I don't remember the exact numbers from last year but when i started team weight loss last year weighing 153 it was 31% i think and at the end weighing 138 i t hink it was 26.5% So i definatley want to see the 29 come way down.....

Other progress updates on my goals for 2009. I tried 2 new recipes this week from my Rachel Ray cookbooks. A pasta dish and a chicken dish...I would say so so on both. I was proud of myself though for planning the meals from Mon-Thursday and sticking to it. I need to get hte weekend meals planned too, we normally eat out once a week so that one is a free night

On the Izzy front yesterday was a challenging day, I don't know why she was so cranky and clingy but it was quite frustrating! I hate when she cries and whines for no apparent reason and wont' tell me why! I was so thankful when 3:00 came around and we picked up my neice Jessie. That put izzy in a great mood! She loves playing with her.

I am also in the midst of planning Izzy's 2nd bday party for 2 weeks from Sunday!!!!!! To be honest I HATE planning b-day parties! I feel like some parents go so over the top especially with the young ones, with themes, favors, games etc i feel totally inadequte! I am planning no games and no real theme. I will probably get Dora goodie bags and fill them with playdough, suckers and i don't know what else. I haven't decided on cake versus cupcakes yet. We will be serving lunch (catered pizza/salad probably). I kept the list all family with 4 friends/neighboors so that izzy will have a few little friends to play with but i won't have a household of toddlers running around. Am I a bad mom? Any tips on easy fun activities or goodey bag fillers?

I haven't posted a picture in forever so here is one of my girl modeling her hawaiian sun dress from my parents...too bad it si 20 degrees outside. Hopefully it will still fit this summer

Basline Testing Results

Okay, I did my homework for my class yesterday and the rest of my strength baseline testing today.
My homework was to go as far as I could on the treadmill in 30 min. I have to say this sucked! It was the longest 30 mins of my life, I am used to working out on the treadmill but at such a high intensity. I had to do a combination of run/jog/walk but I did the best I could. My max speed was 5.5 on the treadmill and lowest was 3.9. I went a total of 2.3 miles in 30 minutes...so not horrible but definately tons of room for improvement.

Today we learned our strength training circuit and I know my legs will be very sore tomorrow!

The baseline testing we had to do was
-As many pushups as we could (real push ups on your toes)= I did 7 (put didn't go down super far)
-As many sit ups as we could in 30 sec with someone holding our feet= I did 20
-Hold the plank position as long as we could--- I made it 1 min 25 sec

Then we learned our circuit and had to partner up, I partner with a man named Frank, he seemed nice enough, I think he wil make a good partner. not sure if we will always have the same partner, probably as long as we are both there. The class is mostly women with 2 or 3 guys

So other than the fact that I am still having problems sleeping and now coming down with Izzy's cold I am hanging in there. I am looking forward to when my body gets used to the new crazy early routine and hoping that this cold doesn't get any worse.We should have our meal plans from the nutritionist on Friday although since it will be similar to my TEAM weight loss class I have a good idea of what to expect. Biggest challenge with the meal plan is to eat 5 times a day and stick within my carb serving allowance. So we will she what she comes back with.

Okay now i have to drink some of this coffee and hope it perks me up a bit!

Day one complete

Well I successfully made it to my 6 am workout class, my alarm went off at 5:10 and i was out the door by 5:30!!!!! That is for sure a first! I think it is going to be good, today was kinda a wasted day as everyone had to be weighed and measured so we were pretty much on our own on the treadmill or eliptical machines....i weighed in at136, 2 pounds less than when I finished Team Weight Loss last April! Kudos to me!!! I am pretty proud to have kept off the weight all summer and through the holidays.

They changed the format of the class it used to be 2x a week strength training one day a week cardio with cardio homework....i guess for this class at least for the first month it is goign to be 2x cardio one day strenght training with strength homework...we will see how that goes. I am really interested to see the strength training circuit on Wednesday because I think this is where I will see the most difference, because this is the stuff I don't do much of now.

I also already have homwork I have to complete by Friday. I have to see how far I can go on the treadmill for 30 minutes. I am not a runner, AT ALL, i have no stamina for it! I have been working out for a year but still can't run more than 5 minutes at 5.0 on the treadmill....I can walk on an incline of 15 on the treadmill but I can't run. So I am sure my 30 minutes will be mostly walking with running a few minutes in between....but it is a starting point...a bench mark. We will do the same thing half way through the class and at the end to see the progress that we made....so lets hope I make progress in being able to run a bit more than I can now. I think they also measure # of push ups, sit ups, chin ups , plank (whatever that is) I think we will learn about all this on Wedneday when we do our first strength class.....

They did say that it will be up to the class if after a month or whatever we wnat to switch to 2x strength one cardio. I don't even really know who is in my class because they had us group with the team weight loss class today so i don't knwo who was in which program. I will know better wednesday but i did meet two of the woman in the class, one has taken it before and one hasn't , they were both friendly enough

So I am excited to see what i am going to learn and see what progress my body makes. I don't need to lose a ton of weight I really just want to increase my endurance and tone up my bottom half especially.

I will keep you posted! In the meantime i am going to try to take a nap while izzy naps because i am exhausted, i could not sleep last night and then when i finally did fall asleep i had crazy dreams that would wake me up then the alarm went off at 5:10!

2009 Here I come

Okay so it is that time for new years resolutions etc. I have never been very good at this type of thing but Brooke has inspired me with her very ambitious very cool list of 101 things to do in 1001 days. Now I have not come up with a list of 101 or even close to that but I wanted to list a few of my goals for 2009

-Complete my 3 month TEAM Fitness class---it starts on Monday at 6am! I think I am in for a huge challenge, this class is seriously going to kick my butt! Lets hope my butt is firmer at the end of it :)

-Read one book (of my choice) a month. I was on a huge reading kick over the summer, read tons of books, but i haven't touched a book in months!

-Clean the cat box 2x a week (I am terrible at this I wait way too long to do it and DH did it for several years when I was TTC so I owe him to do this)

-Create Izzy's adoption story scrapbook, using all of the pictures etc that have been sitting in a pile on my desk for over a year

-Limit my alchohol consumption to 2 nights a week

-Play a game with DH at least once a week (cards, wii whatever)

-Plan on go on a girls weekend trip in 2009- i have been talking about this forever but have yet to do it

-Potty train izzy before the end of 2009- i am not looking forward to this next stage but when she is ready in the next few months we will get this started/done

-Eat at least 2 servings of veggies 5 x a week

-Schedule and go through with having my wisdom teeth pulled in the next 6 months

- Try a new reciepe 2-3 x a month

-Eat 3 meals and a snack minimum 5 days a week and bonus if i can fit in my second snack


That is my list for now, i will be adding to it as I think of more. Thanks Brooke for getting me thinking. I will give regular updates on my progress