I almost forgot!

I completely and totally almost forgot about my razzy-rita that had last night (raspberry margarita). It was fantastic, and it was a light recipe. It has ONLY 105 calories, read 105 again! Yesssss! Hey, I really don't want to stop drinking entirely, I enjoy having something to drink with my friends, and as long as I don't overdo it, I'm doing okay. Like I said this was a good overall drink. It wasn't too alchoholicky (is that a word?), and it actually had really good flavor. Recipe anyone? Here you go: (P.S. This is from the lovely ladies over at hungry-girl.com)
Rockin' Razzy Rita
(Entire recipe: 105 calories, 0g fat, 5mg sodium, 2g carbs, 0g fiber, 0.5g sugars, 0g protein = 2 Points)

Ingredients:
*1.5 oz. tequila
1/2 tsp. Crystal Light powdered drink mix, Raspberry Ice
5 oz. water
1 oz. lime juice
Optional: lime slice for garnish and salt or no-calorie sweetener for rim of glass

Directions:
If desired, run some lime juice along the rim of the glass and dip into a dish of salt or sweetener. Combine all ingredients, mix well, and serve over ice. Or, for a frozen one, place all ingredients (dissolve Crystal Light in water first) in a blender with 1 cup crushed ice, and blend on high until well mixed. Optional: Garnish with a slice of lime. Serves 1!

Party, part 2

Sadly, I did not get any pictures last night. I was focusing more on the food, and the friends than taking pictures at the time, so I'm pretty upset by that fact, because I really had some great photo taking opportunities. Sigh...
Rundown of last night. First I tweaked the heck out of the chili, I added diced tomatoes, green chiles, cumin, chili powder, garlic galore, cilantro, onions, hot sauce, tonys, season all, pepper, red pepper flakes, oh and corn. I'm sure I'm probably forgetting something, but thats the gist of it. It turned out fantastically. I still have some left, and will probably be enjoying picture taking opportunities later, lol! Everyone enjoyed it, and thats what I love. We also made some chili cheese dip, basically the revised chili mixed with mexican velveeta, very good, and it was all gone by the end of the night, I bought two bags of chips and both of them were eaten. Paul and I also made some stuffed mushrooms which were very very good, and some jalapeno popper things (thanks PW). I revised that recipe as well. I revise most recipes, but thats just what I do. The stuffed mushrooms were delicious: http://www.recipezaar.com/Stuffed-Mushrooms-57228. These were fantastic, but of course, I tweaked it a little. First off, I didn't use real bacon, why use real when bacon bits taste sooo much the same, and are easier to use? So I dumped what I considered 3 bacon strips worth of bacon bits in the pan, and I don't usually measure out my ingredients to things, so the oregano and salt were just kind of added in. We stuffed the mushrooms and they were delicious! Try them, they were actually really easy to make, and I used larger mushrooms than the small button mushrooms, just because I like to them to be a little bigger than a bites worth.
The jalapeno popper things, is what I'm calling them, but the base for the recipe was copied from Pioneer Womans website: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/07/bacon-wrapped_j/
She has amazing pictures on her site, how to photos, everything you could think of. I love her site, for her recipes. But of course, again, I tweaked it, I'm sure it would taste delicious even if you didn't, but these were a HUGE hit. My recommendation, WEAR GLOVES when messing with jalapenos, your hands will thank you later. I wear gloves when I mess with a lot of different smelly type things, like meats, onions, garlic, and jalapenos. So this wasn't new for me, but Paul did it, and I even made him wear gloves. Who wants their husband complaing about burning fingers later? Anywho-he cleared them out and all that, I made the cream cheese stuffing, basically I mixed together some onion powder, minced garlic, and some Tonys seasoning (http://www.tonychachere.com/), I don't know how much I added, like I said, I don't usually measure things like this out. Anyway, we stuffed the jalapenos, wrapped them with bacon, put them in the oven, and voila, we had an easy, healthier, cheaper jalapeno poppers, that everyone loved and gobbled up. This is going to be a mainstay recipe for me, I love the frozen breaded jalapeno poppers that you find in the grocery store, and now I'm thinking this is farrrr better for me, its yummier in my opinion. I think I can definately make it lighter too, use some turkey bacon and some light cream cheese. The jalapeno isn't bad for you, and spices aren't bad either, so you'd have a lighter jalapeno popper, I think I'll try that next time.
All in all the food was great, the company was even better, and we all had fun. We met some new people, and had a great time all around. We got to play some rock band, and just chat. It was awesome, and it was what a party should be for the most part! We won't be having another party for about another month or so, not like that, so I'll try those jalapeno poppers again, and this time I WILL take pictures! Promise! And who knows, maybe I'll have more recipes up my sleeves to try. Please let me know if you do try these recipes, I'd love to know what you think!

Party at the Hirschs

Yeah, I can't tell you if thats proper English, is it Hirsches, Hirsch's, Hirschs', or just plain Hirschs. Whatever, it is in proper english, I'm just going with the easiest I guess.
So tonight we are having our first party in 4 months. A platoon party, well ,at least we invited everyone from the platoon, who knows if they will actually show up or not. I LOVE entertaining, so I love having parties and having guests over, and since I made so much chili, I'm going to be feeding everyone chili cheese fries, chili cheese dip, and frito pies if they want them. Of course, there will be drinking, there will be laughing, there will be games. After this week, a party, or rather drinking is entirely necessary, lol.
So today will be a day of grocery shopping, cleaning and preparing. I'm tweaking the chili recipe even more. Adding a bunch of things to it, some cilantro, lime, ground sausage, a little beer, tomatoes, ect. It should turn out for the best. I'm excited! Post pics later!

Fully Loaded Chili...Milk Free Cornbread

I LOVE Chili, but this chili wasn't my favorite. I still thought it was good. Now, just a warning ahead of time, most of the recipes I use, I just base my recipe off of. I usually add or take away a few things, and make modifications as I see fit. But here are the recipes.

FULLY LOADED CHILI

1 lb ground beef

1 med onion, chopped (I used a sweet onion, because the other onions at the commissary looked puny)

1 med green pepper

1 3/4 cup water

2 cans (8 oz each) tomato sauce

1 can (16 oz) kidney beans, rinsed, drained

1 can (15.5 oz) great northern beans, rinsed, drained

1 can (15 oz) garbanzo or chickpeas, rinsed drained

1 can (15 oz) black beans, rinsed, drained

1 tbsp baking cocoa (weird right?)

2 tsp. Louisiana style hot sauce

1/2 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp chili powder

1/4 tsp garlic powder ( I definately used wayyyy more than that )

1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

Garnishes:
reduced fat sour cream, baked tortilla chip scoops, reduced fat cheddar cheese

In a dutch oven over medium heat, cook th beef, onion, and pepper until beef is no longer pink; drain.
Stir in the water, tomato sauce, beans, cocoa, hot sauce, and seasonings. Bring to boil, reduce heat; cover and simmer for 30 minutes ( mine sat for a lot longer, I like the flavors to meld well together ). Garnish each with whatever your heart desires!

Now I will say that I tripled this recipe, as stated above, I like chili, and I froze some, made chili dogs out of some, I'm going to make chili tacos, chili cheese fries, and frito pies with this chili as well. I also added some rotel and didn't think that it would be too hot, so I added more spices. It turned out hot, we had to add some sour cream to cool off the girls bowls enough so they would eat it, they also drank a lot of milk, lol. It was a good recipe, but it wasn't my favorite chili recipe either. But its healthy with a total calorie count of 351 calories for a full cup, which is a lot for chili, so I was very pleased with the health factor!

MILK FREE CORN BREAD

1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg
1 cup rice drink ( the one I bought was flavored vanilla for a slightly sweeter taste )
2 tbsp canola oil
2 tbsp, unsweetened applesauce

In a small bowl, combine all the dry ingredients. In another bowl mix together all of the wet ingredients. Stir together both dry and wet just until moistened. Transfer to a 9 in square baking pan coated with cooking spray.

Bake at 425 for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Serve warm. ( make sure to add some butter and some honey to make it that much yummier! )

ENJOY!

Weight control...

For the past few days I've been doing okay, weight wise. I mean I came back to a weight of 208.0, today I was 204.6, which is a definate better weight. Still not great though. I'm still jet lagged, so I haven't been hitting the gym as I should. But I'm eating okay. This morning another bowl of fiber one with ff milk and banana. Its definately not as bad as it sounds, lol. I actually enjoy it pretty well. But then around 9:30 comes and I have been eating something, usually the size of lunch...then not eating lunch because I'm not hungry, then eating dinner. Last night though, I didn't even do that. I actually went to lay down in bed to read, and was out by 4:30....I didn't wake up until 4:00 this morning. Ummm..yeah...still jet lagged, much? I'll get back down there, it doesn't help that I went to the states and pigged out where ever I could. Or when Paul came home that we both kind of let go, and I just piled on the weight. It sucks for me, because Paul doesn't gain weight like I do. We each had Popeyes the other night. He weighed himself the next morning, he was the same weight as always, I on the other hand, had supposedly gained 1 lb. I swear, you put a brownie in front of me, and even if I don't eat it, I'll still gain weight. I've gotten to the point where I don't care as much about it. I mean of course, I want to be thin and healthy. But I don't want to dwell so much on it. I just bought a sign that says, "Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out, screaming, "WOOHOO, What A Ride!."" Thats my new motto. Don't get me wrong, I would love to be thin again, I would love to look good again. But that sign is right. Whats it going to matter when I'm passed on? I don't want to obssess with it. So I mean, I'll do my best, I will work out again, I will eat well as much as I can, but I'm not going to berate myself when I fall down. I'm not going to scream inside my head when I gained a lb. I'm not going to kill myself trying so hard to lose weight as much. I'm just going to take it one day at a time.

This has relieved a HUGE weight off of my shoulders. I've always been so obsessed with getting thin again. Not necessarily healthy, just thin. I don't like being overweight, and I would obsess about it. What the scale said, strongly affected how I would I feel for the rest of the day. If the weight was up, I was depressed, if it was down, I was happy. Thats not the right way to live your life. At least not for me. So, I'm going to take it one day at a time, I'm not going to obsess anymore, and I'm going to see where this takes me!

Thrift Store???

A few days ago, my husband had to go get a haircut at the barber shop. So I went into the thrift store to check it out. I was looking at some of the furniture that they have in there, a lot of it is actually really neat because its all German, but then I looked at the price. I thought...wow, isn't this a THRIFT store. Thrift, meaning frugality, prudent use of money, etc.? One of the dressers in there, which btw, had issues of its own, was 165.00. I mean ARE YOU SERIOUS? I know its an old dresser, maybe even an antique, but 165.00? I can buy a brand new dresser for that much money, even less. Now it was solid wood, and it definately was old, but there was a handle missing, and it needed some paint, but I just thought to myself, that is entirely NOT thrifty for me. Maybe it is for someone else, who knows? I'm sure they have some good deals in there. The books are probably only a dollar each, but I do remember being at goodwill in the states, they were anywhere from .25 to .50 cents. Dressers, no matter how old they were, were never more than 100 bucks. I saw cups in there going for 2 bucks a piece. I can go to the px and still get plastic cups for only a dollar. So I was very confused. There was a coffee table that looked kind of neat, it was 120.00, I wouldn't have spent more than 50 on it, being its at a thrift store. So what gives? Why have things in a so called thrift store be outrageous prices? I was stumped. I will tell you one thing though, I can't wait to get back to the states to go to a normal goodwill when I need to with normal prices. I can't wait to get back to the states where I can just go to Walmart and get a 125.00 dresser for my kids...I know, its not solid wood, its not made all that well, and it won't last but maybe five years, but its cheaper! I've had to notice where our money is going lately because 1.) my car was in an accident and that = $500.00 deductible, and 2.) we have to save up as much money as we can before we go back to the states. Oh, but I am counting down the days until we can be back in the states. We really want to buy a house when we get back to the states, as soon as we can. Which means back to frugality. I mean, I will more than likely be getting a job when we get back. I need something to do with my time other than attempt to take care of the house. I want to be able to do something. I would like it if I could work at the school cafeteria or something, I know not an ideal job, but its something, and I wouldn't have to work when the girls were out of school I don't think. But like I said, back to being frugal, and thrifty, and not just spending money all the time. Unfortunately over here we don't have a lot of choices as far as being frugal. I mean you either buy the food or you don't, they don't have walmart brand prices, or a variety of places that you can shop around. So I'm noticing more and more what the prices around me are like. We were just in the states, we were able to buy a whole Turkey dinner for about 50.00, over here it would have cost us around 200-300 dollars. Its ridiculous. And we even had to buy spices. Anyone who knows me, knows that I have just about every spice known to man, so for the price to be so low, it shocked both Paul and I. Soon, we will be able to head that way though. Soon, we won't feel as if we are bending over. I mean why does the army even pay us Cola over here, it just goes right back to food/clothes/etc. The amount that we pay vs. the amount we would pay in the states is entirely different. Needless to say, we have our work cut out for us, we have to save as much money as we possibly can in the next few months, and it won't be easy. But we'll manage.

Driving me crazy!

My oldest daughter, Autumn is a sweet girl. She's a beautiful girl. She's probably the nicest kid you'd ever meet. She does have a few problems though. We aren't precisely sure that her problems are being treated to the best of their ability, but we are trying to get her help. At first the doctors thought she had siezures that you couldn't see. But I never once thought that fit. I told the doctor after a while of taking anti seizure meds that it wasn't working. So we tried what I think may be the issue. ADHD meds. She doesn't have the H (hyperactivity) so much as just the attention deficit. She constantly loses focus, and on the parental side of things, it gets very frustrating. Especially when I have other things to do. I'm still not entirely sure this is what she has, or that the medication is working the way it should, but it has helped her. Especially in school, which is where she needs it the most. In preschool she was nicknamed the Daydreamer...which describes her almost to a T. In Kindergarten, her teacher thought she was behind schedule of the other kids until she started working with her, but she was surpassing the other kids, she just couldn't focus long enough to show it. By the end of Kindergarten, she was on the siezure medications. They really didn't help. Before she started 1st grade, we'd finally gotten her on the adhd medications, and her teacher thought that she was doing great. This year, she started a different ADHD medication because the Ritalin only works for a few hours, and I needed her to be able to do her homework. So she started Concerta. She is doing much better in school with the exception of the days that she forgets her medicines, then her teacher does notice the difference. Still, I wonder whether or not, she really has ADD or its something else. I can't wait to get back to the states to get her tested again, and find out if there is something else going on. I never thought I'd be a parent who touted medications for their kids. I don't even like taking medications, but I do when necessary. I just always thought that maybe ADD or ADHD was just another form of way for dr.'s to get more money out of us. But its a very real situation for me now. My Dad and stepmom don't agree with me giving her the medications. They think that kids don't need them. But to be honest, she wouldn't be doing well in school, and she also would drive me nuts at home if she didn't have them. Being a military wife, and my husband being gone 70% of the time, I get frustrated easily with her sometimes.
For example, this morning, I have to keep calling her name to remind her of what she should be doing. She's 7 years old, she should be getting herself ready for school. She's very capable. She just doesn't do it. I have to keep asking her if she has her clothes on, if she has her socks and shoes on, if she has her hair brushed, if she has her teeth brushed, etc. It takes her almost an hour just to do those few things. I even get her up much earlier than needed so that she can finish it. Usually in the mornings, I'm putting away last nights dishes, cleaning up a little bit, doing things that need to be done, and I shouldn't have to be in her room watching her get ready for school. Sometimes I have to though. A lot of times it seems like she just isn't listening, but its more than that. She has a disability. I only found out because my 5 year old is quite normal. When told to get ready in the morning, it takes her about 20 minutes by herself to get dressed, shoes on, hair and teeth brushed. It doesn't help that her sister is usually there to talk and play though. Like I said, the whole focus thing is frustrating.
I just had to talk about it this morning, because I'm frustrated right now, and I'm going to have to go in there, and sit with her until she's done getting ready for the day. Right now, I hear her whispering in the bathroom, and I told her one minute ago to brush her teeth. No water is running, no teeth are being brushed. She's just playing, making faces in the mirror. Sometimes she acts like a 3 year old, and I have to wonder if everything is okay with her. She's such an amazing child though. She's innocent, sweet, beautiful, caring, she has amazing qualities. But not being able to pay attention is the downfall of it all. I love my daughter very much. I want her to be okay, I want her to make it through this life not relying on drugs to get her by. I want her to be successful, and smart, and be who she is. I just have to pray for patience to be able to handle the things thrown my way. I have to pray for the patience to wait...7 minutes later, the water is finally going, but she still isn't brushing her teeth. Its time for me to try to help her.

Picked up Paul, car accident, oh my!

Sunday afternoon I went to pick up Paul at the Frankfurt airport, after driving around the airport for almost an hour, he finally got in the van. I found out that his bags were not with him. The airlines had left them in Atlanta, just great fun. So we decided to stop off for some lunch/dinner at the KMCC mall. I had a delicious bbq chicken wrap and some loaded fries from Charleys. Very yummy, but very bad too. We were all exhausted by then. So we came home, as I was driving over the hill to turn into the area where we go through the gate, the vans brakes locked up, and I went sliding right into a rock and a sign. It was HORRIBLE. The accident happened around 4:30 or so, we were all exhausted at this point, and I know that maybe if I wasn't so tired, I could have made a better decision about where the van ended up, but it happened, and there is nothing I can do about it now. The van was stuck. We waited for the MP's to show up, and they had to take statements, yada yada yada. We were literally there for almost 2 hours. We had planned on picking up Lexi, but of course, our plans went completely to hell. We finally came back to the house, still with the MP taking our statements, asking questions, and he left around almost 7 o' clock. I was miserable, crying off and on. I mean the last thing we needed was to have another 500 dollar deductible. Needless to say, we are going to have to really watch where we are spending money. Seems like one thing after another.
Monday, Paul had to go in for formation, they almost made him stay, but luckily he was able to come home (he didn't have his uniforms from Delta yet). We both ended up passing out for a good four hours in the morning, and then ran to the commissary, and ran a few more errands. He had to get a haircut, we also got all of our mail, and ran to the px to get a few things as well. We came back to pick up the girls from school and went over to Danielle's house to pick up Lexi. When we got home, the dog puked, I don't think she's sick, I think maybe it was just some car sickness, so she's okay. Paul finally got his bags around 6:30 pm last night and we just ate some Popeyes for dinner. We've GOT to stop doing that. I love Popeyes, but my waistline really does not....speaking of waistlines...
Yesterday my weight was 206.0, it went back up from all the crap that I ate last night to 207.8 this morning though. I was examining my body in the mirror after my shower today, and was just utterly grossed out. I've got to work on losing some more weight. Today I decided against going to the gym though. I still don't feel all that great, so I took some cold medicine and I feel a little bit better. I still don't feel up to working out though. I'm really going to have to EASE into working out again. I really wish I had a treadmill, but between us maybe leaving in July, and now the van has to be fixed, we really don't have the money for anything that big, or that extra righ now. Nor do we really have the room. I could make room, probably, but I don't really think it will work out. Hopefully we can save enough money for us to be able to buy one to put in a house that we buy in fort hood. We'll see though, and that really isn't for quite sometime. Hell, maybe I'll even be able to buy one off of craigslist or something crazy. I feel so heavy and gross right now though. I mean I haven't been this heavy since before Paul left for Iraq since we've been here. I was about 211, and before that my heaviest was 223. Talk about gross. Now I'm only a few lbs away from all that. Its got to stop. Sooo, I'm trying to resolve to do better. My food is what hurts the most. For example: today I ate some fiber one cereal with some banana, and some ff milk. Good breakfast right? I was still hungry around 9:30, so I ended up eating the leftover mashed potatoes and red beans and rice from last night. Ick. I mean well, its very yummy, but ick for my diet. I'll pick myself back up and try again though. I'm going to have a turkey wrap when I get hungry later, it has hummus, turkey, red bell pepper strips, and lettuce on a whole wheat tortilla, so its yummy. I usually have an apple to go with it. Tonight for dinner, I haven't decided if I am going to in fact make the tuna helper, or go ahead and go for the chili that I've been wanting. Either way, I'm going to do one or the other today. Tuna helper isn't exactly healthy, but I'll make a salad, and some reduced fat crescent rolls with it. The chili is healthy though, and I'm going to make some milk free cornbread with it...just a new recipe, and I'm also going to make a light boston cream pie cake too. I'm making a lot of chili, so that we can have a chili dog tomorrow, and a frito pie the next night or something. Hopefully it will end up being cheaper that way. Can't be spending thousands of dollars right now. Or just dollars, period.
I woke up this morning with Paul, I think I'm going to try to keep this up, waking up with him in the mornings. I was able to do the dishes, clean up the kitchen a bit. Get Autumn up and ready, get Sierra up and ready and Autumn had time to play for a little bit. Sierra has just been taking forever eating so she hasn't had much extra time, but I like doing this, and I think I'm going to keep it up. Plus I can eat breakfast at 7 and by 9 workout until 10 or 11, and come home, shower, eat lunch and do anything else I need to do. I think thats a good schedule personally. I had planned on doing some of the laundry that he's piled up, but I have to go back to the commissary for the rest of the chili fixin's. I may try to start a few loads later when I get back or something. My house is soooo messy right now, Paul has all of his stuff piled up all over in the living room. He swears it will go away...but I'll believe it when I see it. He pretty much emits messes, if it wasn't for me, he'd probably live in filth. But wouldn't most men?
Alright, I better be going. I have to drive the van again sometime, putting it off won't do me any good when I have errands to run. The bumper looks just plain awful, dented, paint scratched off and orange paint scratched on it. I can't wait to get it fixed, but I may have to wait till the 15th to ensure that we have enough money to pay for it. I refuse to dig into savings anymore. Really sucks that we have to save so much money too, I really wanted to go back to Poland, and Italy and Amsterdam, but I'm not sure we'll be able to now, sigh....until next time.....

Where to begin...

My mind is running a million miles a second trying to figure out a way to get it all on my blog. I've been away a while. I left, with kids in tow, on the 11th of December, and got back yesterday. My "vacation" was good. The reason I have quotes around vacation is because to me, a vacation would be no cleaning, no cooking, not having to take care of the kids, ect. Of course, I at one point, had to do all three. Not that it was a huge issue, but it was a little stressful at times for me. I started off going to my Dad and my Stepmom, Melissa's, house in Frisco. They have a gorgeous house, but at times it feels a bit like a museum. I had to get onto the kids more than I have in a long time, just because I was so paranoid that they would break something. And who wants their parents getting onto your kids? I certainly don't. But it was nice to visit, and hang out with them. I got to do a little shopping, and I also got to drive Melissa's bmw. I know which car I want as soon as the kids are out of the house...I would love to have one now, but its not exactly conducive to my life, lol. It was very fun to drive, and beautiful, and clean, and I loved every second of that. Even if I was entirely afraid I would do something to it and have to pay for it. Luckily nothing happened, and all was good in the world. I was at their house for a few days, then we all got on a plane to go to Cozumel, Mexico. We were leaving from Texas when it was semi cold, so of course, we all get there and are immediately drenched in sweat. It sure was gorgeous though. The ocean, the breeze, the trees. We arrived at their newly built house, which is absolutely AH-MAZING btw, and as my Dad is unloading suitcases, his car got ran into....talk about fun. Needless to say, that took a good portion of the rest of the day. The girls and I settled in, and looked at the ocean for most of the day. The pool was icky when we first got there, so we couldn't swim, but it would have been a welcome relief with the weather as warm as it was. Luckily, Dad and Melissa have internet and cable at their house, so everyone was sated well enough. A few days after being there, we went back to the airport to pick up Paul. He came in from Augusta, after being in BNCOC (which he got Distinguished Honor Grad, and I'm super proud of him for it). We got to do some sightseeing, and it was a relief to have him there to help with the kids and every day life. To have someone else, so close to talk to, and to relate to, was also very nice. Unfortunately, right after Paul got there, the northern started to come in, and the ocean got choppy, and it started cooling off and getting rainy. We didn't get to go to the beach to swim, but we were able to let the girls swim for a while, and we also hiked a little bit to see some Mayan ruins. Very interesting, and nice to be able to be outside. Too soon, we came back to Texas.
My Mom picked us up on the 21st, and we spent the rest of the time with her. We definately were able to relax more, she definately doesn't have a museum for a house, lol. As a matter of fact, she hardly has anything in her house. But she had enough for us to enjoy ourselves. We were able to get food that we have been missing so much, we were able to hang out, shop, and we even got to go to a few movies. Paul and I saw Avatar by ourselves, that was really nice, and talk about one kick ass movie. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing that movie with him. We watched it in 3D, and I was absolutely amazed at the detail. We will be buying that movie. Another movie we saw while there was the Princess and the Frog. The girls really enjoyed that movie, and we will probably be buying that one as well. We had a wonderful Christmas, my Mom got the girls some games, movies, toys, clothes. I got my new Kindle, of which I'm extremely enthusiastic about, although I really wish I hadn't bought some books while visiting my Dad. Just a few more books to read, and I'll be able to start reading on my kindle. Paul got some video games that he can't wait to try. And overall, it was a good visit. Of course, I got a little cranky, its not my house, so I had no control over the heat in the house, and I got really hot fast. I also felt dirty at my Moms house because she lives in the country, on a dirt road, that was completely mud. But it was still a good visit. Paul and I did get to rent a car and head down to Fort Hood to check out the area. I really want to live in Harker Heights, its the nicest area around there, and its where I'd like to end up, if we can, but its not the cheapest, so that will have a lot to do with what we choose, or where we choose to end up. My Mom took us to Medieval Times at one point, and that was really fun, the girls had an absolute blast. We hung out with my little sister, and played games one night, all of us drank too much tequila (we finished off a bottle of Patron, and went a little into another bottle that we brought back from Mexico). We even talked my mom into taking a shot....lets NOT do that again, lol.
Yesterday, well all of yesterday for me, the 1st and the 2nd, we were on our way home. Paul forgot his suitcases at my Moms house, so he couldn't stay with us, but we managed on our own. Luckily the girls aren't so needy that I have to entertain them the whole time. We went to one of the shops, got some water, played their video games, walked around, I got some lunch (they weren't hungry), and waited for our flight. Our flights gate changed, and was out of the EXACT same gate that we left in when coming here originally. That was kind of neat. The flight got delayed twice, it was supposed to leave at 2:35, then 3:00, and finally at 3:30. I probably would have gotten some sleep if the girls had let me, but they were having to go potty, or needing something out of their bags, or something else. So I really didn't get much sleep. Sierra was getting cranky and I made her sleep, but Autumn wouldn't have it, and was awake the entire time. We managed to make it to Frankfurt, and we were one of the first people out of the plane, one of the first through the passport check, and one of the first at baggage claim. Unfortunately, we were waiting on our big red bag, and it was literally one of the last ones out. I don't remember seeing anyone else waiting for their bags. The only good thing about that, was that we were able to skate through customs, it was much easier going through customs in Germany than anywhere else that we've gone. We made it outside, and my phone wouldn't work. I couldn't call Lauren, so we started walking, I finally found the van, and she had ran in to check on the flights, so we just waited. She came out, we loaded up the van, and headed back. It was so nice to catch up with her. I missed her, and I'm unsure how I'm ever going to move away from her in the future, lol. We'll just have to keep calling each other. I'm glad she was the one to pick me up and drop me off though. We came home, and of course, I have to park, FOUR freaking cars down from the parking space I used to have. I hate that. For two years I've parked in the same spot, we were the only people with two vehicles. This year, everyone in the building now has two vehicles with the exception of one couple. So now the parking is a madhouse. I feel guilty for taking my old parking space back too, because one of my neighbors has three small children, and I feel that she should have that space, at the same time, I had bags to unload, groceries to unload, and I was too tired to deal with it any other way. I did manage to get to the commissary and buy a few things for us to eat. It won't last us very long, but it works for the time being.
We made it home, I unloaded groceries and more bags. We had 6 bags that we checked, and three that we carried on, and somehow I was able to unload every single bag yesterday. We all fell asleep for a few hours, then I woke everyone up, we ate pizza for dinner, and watched Snow White, then we watched Tinkerbell and the Lost Treasure together. I managed to put almost everything away. The girls toys, their clothes, all of the souvenirs I had with me. The only thing I didn't get to, was all of my clothes, they are all kind of just sitting outside of my closet right now. Lauren and Dean also came by, I was almost asleep at this point though, and didn't even get up, I feel bad, lol. They dropped off Brody. He had to get used to the house and figure out where he was, but once he did, he curled up on me, and stayed with me. When we finally went to bed, around 10 last night, I went to the bedroom, attempted to read, fell asleep and Paul had called to tell me when his flight would be in. I guess they changed everything around for him, and now he's coming in much later than he was originally. Thats fine, I wasn't entirely sure I'd be up in time to get him anyway, and any more sleep I could get without having to worry about it was very needed.
I did wake up a few times in the night, but fell asleep soon after. Brody stayed curled up next to me the entire night. Usually he doesn't sleep with me the whole night like that, he'll make his rounds, eat something, but last night he stayed right next to me all night. He must have really missed me. I did wake up at 5 am this morning though, and while I'm still tired, I can't seem to sleep, so I woke up, took a shower, and here I sit. I did weigh myself. A shocking 208.4 came onto the scale. I'm trying to ignore it, but I can't. I have a plan in place for getting myself back to where I was. I'd like to start getting back to the gym consistently and eating well again. I'm sure that some of it is just water retention from the flight, pizza, and not getting nearly enough water yesterday. But I'll make it. Speaking of which, I have to go get some breakfast ready, I'm going to be eating some bran flakes, banana, and ff milk this morning for breakfast. I'll have to wake up the girls soon and get them ready to pick up Paul. Hopefully today won't be as tiring as yesterday was, and I'll be able to get a few things done.

Yum!

Chicken Waldorf Salad, Stephanie style. I didn't take pictures or anything, but it was delicious and healthy:

1/2 cup rotisserie chicken
1/4 cup celery
1/4 cup tomatoes (cherry)
1/4 cup grapes
2 tbl feta cheese
1 tbl walnuts
2 tbl light balsamic dressing
2 cups mixed salad greens

This was DELICIOUS! Enjoy!