Summer Time is over...

Unless you check the weather report for Houston, it seems as though Summer is over.

Fall is my absolute favorite time of year. Pumpkins. Fall colors. Boots.
Pumpkin. Spice. Latte....

However this year... there is something that has happened that made Fall feel like it came too fast.

My baby started Preschool Today.

Worst/Best part of it? He waltzed right in, found a cool toy, and was done with me.

Don't worry, I waited until I was in the car to blubber and call Lee and whine about how my child doesn't need me anymore.

I have to pack a lunch at this school and here was my first Bento attempt:

I froze the drink to act as an ice pack and I was OCD enough to place the cookies on the opposite side. When I pick him up today we will see how much he liked it.

This school will be much more structured and focused on independence. They even have DROP OFF starting mid-September where I get him of the car and send him off with a teacher into the school. After my shenanigans this morning I don't know how to feel about that!

In the midst of all this, we have been renovating our kitchen. I will post photos tomorrow of before/after. I feel a little silly about remodeling an already remodeled kitchen but it was just not me at all and this is our 2nd home - with the hopes of it taking us far into our life - so we decided to jump in and make it our own.

I have one hour before I am leaving to pick him up at school and I am so anxious to see how he did.

Back tomorrow! Hope you are still out there after my hiatus. I was inspired by Kelly that this is for ME. I love that people read and comment but when I focus only on viewers and content being just so - I get bogged down and stop posting. Now that Logan is almost 4 and starting new adventures I would like to put them on here for memories.

Bonus points if you guys enjoy the ride with me :)

Big Boy Room

The time has come. The time to retire the baby bed and upgrade to a new one.

I am waiting a few more weeks for my cousin to take the crib/toddler bed before we put the new bed in the room. This is hard because I am one of those people that once I am ready to do something I want to do it NOW!

I didn't really want to pick a "theme" because I already did that a little with his nursery. That being said, I saw a really sweet pillow at Pottery Barn Kids that I loved the colors on, so I got that and went from there.

Logan loves tools, and it was on sale, so I decided to start here.
I got a pillow case from this line but went looking around for solid sheets and comforters that interchanged with the colors on this pillow. I still have to think about window coverings and I am considering simple roman shades because drapes seem bulky. His room is already 3 full walls of shelving!!

Speaking of, once we put the twin bed in the room, I won't even have room for a dresser. I ordered 12 multi-colored bins to put on some of this shelving to house his clothes and I am actually looking forward to this. There is so much shelving in this room that I have no idea what to do with it all. At least this will get a few shelves taken care of!

The only thing I am thinking hard about is whether or not to get a safety rail to put on either side of the bed. I am so scared he is going to fall out. Thoughts?

In about a month we will be done with the transformation in his room! I just need to get the rug and the shades and get it all put together. Pictures will follow!

Valentines Day for Toddlers

First of all, as I start the hunt for a more education-related daycare, I realize Toddler is not the word for Logan anymore. He is Preschool Aged.

I'm sorry - what? PRESCHOOL? Meaning he is getting prepared for school?

This guy?

I perhaps need to take a moment to gather myself.

Back to my original purpose here.

Valentines Day.

Surely I am not the only parent who dreads going to the school and hauling off a giant bag of CANDY that my child has been given. I don't understand it, really. My Valentine gift to the kids was playdoh, bubbles, and goldfish! Why all the chocolate and crap?

Don't get me wrong, I am not one of those "my kid only eats organic" parents. He has his fair share of nuggets, mac-n-cheese, and corn dogs. I seem to have drawn the line with Candy. I hated giving it to him as a potty training tactic. My husband and I don't eat candy.

Maybe it was getting in the car this morning and seeing the large plastic sack of candy (which I threw away in the parking garage at work. Not ashamed). I kept the little paper valentines so Logan can look at them and we can talk about his friends. To me that is the important part.

Ok - Rant Over. I need coffee.

Healthy Meals

Weight Watchers kills me.

I'm hungry, y'all.

I like to eat. I generally eat like a man.

Now I get 26 points a day and I am rather depressed. A glass of wine is 5.

Lee and I are in this together, at least Monday-Saturday, so I am scouring Cooking Light and other healthy sites for recipes. This week I was most excited to try this one:

I am changed it up a bit with a jar of my favorite Vodka Sauce and it was yummy! - Though - I will admit, good ole thick marinara is best...

The rest of the week gets a little interesting. I have Pilates on Tues/Thurs so we are eating quick meals like salads or I put a chicken in the oven right before I leave and it is ready when I get home to serve it.

Lunch is the real challenge. I tend to go out for lunch every day, either with my group or with vendors as a treat. I am going to have to look for the "guilt free" areas on the menu. How boring is that....

I am just glad I started now, a good 4-5 months before it's hot enough for a swim suit again. I am frustrated and trying not to cheat. I am thinking of trying smoothies for lunch a few times a week and maybe even Snap Kitchens juice cleanse to try and get some weight loss started. I can tell a HUGE difference in how my body is reacting to a diet from when I did this a few years ago. I have hit the age where weight clings to you and dropping it is near impossible.

Wish me luck because the lack of wine is not putting me in a very good mood at all!

Olympic Style

Lee and I are always obsessed about the Olympics. We sit around all evening and weekends and watch the games, no matter what is on.

Same goes for the opening ceremony. Though I spent the first half up and down off the couch trying to get Logan to stay in bed and ignoring the demands he yelled under his door, I really really really enjoyed the ceremony.

I may even have an inkling to go to the ballet now.

The part I always look the most forward to is the Parade of Nations.

This year - I was underwhelmed. I mean - nothing really impressed me!

Let's start with the best and work our way down...

I thought France had the most classic, preppy look:

Then Bermuda kept tradition strong, although I am sure they had cold knees.

In the middle I have USA. I am on the fence on these sweaters. With a little work, they may be re-used for the Ugly Christmas Sweater parties, or given to various elementary school teachers to add to their seasonal sweater collection:

Also - are those sweatpants?

Next to last - Germany:

I think it's the pants that pushed me over the edge. The white ones you can see on others work better than the granny flower red ones.

Most tacky I feel goes to Russia:

Furry fringe? No.

Finally - Wow - Lithuania:

Just say no to chartreuse. Always.

One question that bothered me the whole time - what is up with the ice queen looking chick walking them in?

Did you enjoy the ceremony?

all images i found on Yahoo.

Crazy Days

Work is kicking my ass right now. I think the lightbulb finally went off today on WHY.

LAST January, our Sr. Designer quit. I was basically insta-promoted and took on her accounts along with my own since all accounts were a little slow. This also meant I was now *gulp* managing people.

Fast forward a year. ALL those accounts got crazy busy at the same time, because my luck sucks. So now I have to manage people (*gulp* again) while also managing multiple accounts that are all very busy. I also spent the majority of May thru last week on the biggest project of my career, while still managing all the other things.

Today I realized... all the problems I have been running into (mistakes on projects mainly) aren't because I am doing poorly at my job.

I am doing poorly at managing.

Managing time or your own workload is one thing. Managing time, your work load, 2 other peoples workload, and - oh yeah - home life - is a whole new ballgame.

So, almost like my boss has ESP, she calls me today and says "I am signing you up for Managing Training."

So maybe things will get better from here.

Next week I hope to share the finalized photos of the large, fancy, beautiful, exhausting project I worked on for over 6 months.

Tonight, I will chill. We will watch opening games:

while drinking wine and trying to relax off this crazy, hard week.

I'll try to at least manage that.

Workin It

I can't really recall a time in my life where I was happy with my body.

2 years ago I did weight watchers and I lost some weight and I was pretty happy about that, but still very uncomfortable in my skin.

Lately, I have been pretty stressed at work and trying to balance home life (and as I wrote this, at 2pm on a Sunday I got a work call. See?) Wine didn't seem to be the healthiest way to deal with my anxiety...

I decided the first step was exercise and "me" time. Though pricey (in comparison to a regular gym), I joined a pilates studio less than a mile from my house.

Go visit the site here - Pure Body Studio

This is exactly what I needed. It's fun, it's different every single time I go in, and the classes are MAX 16, though that has only happened once so far.

Through Houston Mom's Blog, I entered to win a Passport with PeerFit and won! I never win anything!

I had already tried the ROW place with Tiffanie, and it kicked my butt. I grabbed my friend Lauren, who is also my right hand at work, and we hit Big Yoga as our first free class.

If you know me, I mean really know me, you will know I HATE being hot. Winter time is my comfort time because while everyone else is bitching and wearing fuzzy boots and hats, I am walking around in leggings and a sweater like HOLLA!!

When I walked in and the room was 90 degrees, I looked at Lauren like - great. I knew it was hot yoga but nothing prepared me for the wall of b-o-scented heat that would hit me when I walked in the room.

In the end, I enjoyed it, but was very hot for a few hours. My face stayed the color of a tomato for at least 3 hours!!

The next try is Pure Barre this coming Sunday. I am excited about this one because I can never attend the barre classes at Pure Body because they don't fall in a time slot I can hit. I have my sticky socks and am ready to go!

The next step in my journey here is to work on my eating. I eat like a boy. Cheeseburgers. Hot wings. Pasta Pasta Pasta.

I am considering My Fit Foods or Snap Kitchen for my work lunches, maybe a juice cleanse here and there, to get things kicked off. Lee and I are also about to join the YMCA so we can work out on weekends and Logan can run off some steam with other kids.

Lee and I also just joined Weight Watchers, so we can keep each other accountable and motivate one another.

I don't consider this a new years resolution, seeing that I started in November.

What are you doing to like your body and de-stress?

Also, I realize this post is directly after a post related to very unhealthy food. I see the irony, don't worry!