Written in my last post, my husband is to deploy early next year to Afghanistan for 14 months. Over one year of my life, my husband's life, and my daughter's life will be spent with one third of our family "across the pond" as they say.

But amazingly enough, I am currently at ease with this. I hold in good faith that God will keep my husband safe and that our family will thrive even if my husband is deployed. We will survive and we will become stronger. I will have the support of our families. I will have the support of God. I will have the support of my husband no matter how far away from me he is. And the same goes for my husband.

But this at ease feeling I have makes me feel guilty that my reaction is not stronger. That instead of feeling sorry for myself or my daughter or my husband, I am thankful that my husband is going to deploy and get to do something he has wanted to do for over 8 years now. I am thankful that in his own mind his military service will not be in vain. That he will not regret his service and that he will get what he wants out of his military service. (My husband joined the military in 2002 to deploy and have the military pay for his school, deploying was the most important.)

But I digress, I feel horrible for be so at ease. I feel as if it means that I do not love my husband. That I do not love our family. That I do not cherish our time together. I feel like I should feel more depressed. That I should feel more apprehensive. That I should feel more horrible about this.

Am I wrong to feel the way I do?

And disclaimer: I am sure that I will feel more apprehensive about this deployment as it gets closer to my husbands leaving, but right now I am at ease.

(Or maybe it hasn't sunk in yet. Maybe that is it?)

Deployment 1.0

So I know I do not post much on here, but I think I might start doing so more often, but this post is special. This post is all about me venting about something MAJOR and how my life is very likely to change TREMENDOUSLY come February.

As you may or may not know, my husband is in the United States Marine Corps. He is a wonderful and wonderfully handsome Marine if I do say so myself. He is a Marine that has been enlisted for over four years and thankfully has never been deployed. This means, other than before we were married (and when I went to boot camp and AIT for 4.5 months in early 2008) we have never been apart. And no sea has ever separated us. No international calling card has ever been required. I praise God everyday for that.

Recently in light of our indebtedness we have discussed re-enlistment. This option came with the impending doom that yes I would actually go through a deployment. But I prayed that I would not. I prayed that my husband would be a constant physical part of our family and get to watch his daughter grow in a time when they change the most. Unfortunately, God has other plans for our family.

My husband is most likely deploying sometime early next year to Afghanistan. FOR 14 MONTHS! (let me say a "normal" Marine Corps deployment is 7 months.) He will leave mere months after his only child, Maggie, turns 1 and not see her for more than 3 weeks until after she her second birthday. He will be granted R&R leave during his deployment for no more than 3 weeks.

This deployment is pretty much optional. If my husband did not want to go so badly he could choose to not re-enlist and therefore be ineligible for the deployment (he gets out in the middle of the deployment which is not allowed). So my husband is basically volunteering to leave his family for over a year. I am not mad at him because I know that this is important to him, to "serve" his country this way, but makes the 14 month deployment harder to swallow. Much harder to swallow.

He will hopefully be in a "secure" job doing administrative duties while deployed but this is not certain yet. We should know in the next two weeks or so exactly what is going on. But it is not his job that worries me, it is the separation that will take place between himself and his daughter that I worry about most. He will most likely miss the early stages of talking, potty training, and much more toddler exploration.

I have already decided though that if my husband does in fact deploy, I am moving home to Florida to be with my parents. They will be able to help raise my daughter for those 14 months, and allow my husband and I to focus on paying off debt much quicker than we had hoped. Leaving almost (consumer) debt free by the time he returns. My parents live in a 4 bedroom house so both my daughter and I will have our "own" rooms. My niece will also be graduating during this time frame leaving the house one less occupant lighter (she is joining a branch of service, she doesn't know which one yet).

This move will not only help my husband and I, but it will financially help my parents as well. We have already discussed the possibility and how I can pay "rent" to them. I will be buying all of the groceries for the family of 4 or 5 (depending on if it before my niece graduates or after), leaving their check books $600-700 dollars heavier each month, which is huge to my parents who are struggling to keep their heads above water. This works out because it will be my only "homely" expense.

And did I mention that although my husband is about to leave for 14 months, upon his arrival we will be close to being debt free. This is huge for me and would not be so understanding of this deployment if this fact were not so. Being debt free or almost debt free will mainly depend on if I am able to find gainful part time employment while living in Florida or not. I hope that I am because all of my friends that have gone through deployments have said that the time went faster when they worked than when it did not.

And as I reread this post, I find that I am talking about this deployment in a tone happier or more optimistic than I feel in my heart. I guess that although there are upsides to the deployment, the idea that I will be apart from my husband while he is in a war zone scars me to depths of my soul and I cannot imagine the heartbreak I will feel showing my husband pictures and videos of our daughter growing. And I will carry a burden that will be to make sure that my daughter does not forget her father in the time that he is gone. I am already scouring message boards and deployment websites for ways to keep him an integrated part of our life even with a sea separating our family.

No one can imagine the pain that goes through someone's heart and mind when they find out news such as this, unless one has been there before. And I have not been here before and so my heart and my soul and my mind ache trying to fathom 14 months without my husband, without the father of our child, without my companion.

I am scared. And I already feel isolated and alone.

Admiration

So I absolutely adore Beth Anne over at The Heir to Blair (please go read, she is HILARIOUS! and honest. and down-to-earth.) Well recently she launched a page on her blog that is dedicated to a charity, specifically The Ronald McDonald House. If you don't know what the Ronald McDonald House is, please know that it is a home that the families of pediatric patients can stay out while their children are undergoing treatment.

This charity hits home. Why? Because when I was two months old my family was invited to stay in a Ronald McDonald House while I under went pediatric neurological surgery to correct a birth defect. Because I was born with a birth defect. I was born with a whole in my skull in the middle of my forehead that could have lead to serious complications. In 1987 when my parents where invited, they could have stayed in the house for $20 a night. They would have access to the kitchen, that was stocked with food. Breakfast was provided. They had in house laundry room. It was to be a low-cost housing alternatively that make the families feel more at home while the people dearest to them fight for their lives, undergo surgeries, physical therapies, et cetera.

So I admire Beth Anne for what she is speaking about and I am excited to see where this leads. I AM EXCITED!

today.

Today was a good day overall.

1. I scored a copy of P90X for $40. SCORE!! (Hopefully going to start tomorrow, if I ever get tired enough to go to sleep.)

2. Maggie ate a chicken nugget for dinner.

3. I won $20 to buy organic baby food for Maggie at ecomom.com from Jessica Loves To Save Money. (Go check out ecomom.com- it is a really cool site!)

4. I made an over $300 payment to Scott's credit card today! It is so exciting. This time next month we hope to have his balance down below $2000. We are super excited, we are actually seeing progress on our "getting debt free" journey. I cannot wait to see all of our balances at $0.

5. (This happened yesterday, but whatever.) We found out our rent is not going to go up for our next lease period and so we do not need to move.

I do ask this though. Please pray that one of the many job applications I have put in recently will lead to a job. I am really in the need of a job, especially come October and would love to get one of the ones I have applied for recently. And please pray that if a job does not come of these applications, that God helps us find a way to provide after I lose my school income.

I hope that everyone is having a wonderful day and has awesome plans for the 4th of July. I will be spending it with friends. I can't wait for the long weekend.

I also started my second to last class today. 10 WEEKS LEFT!!! 10 WEEKS LEFT!!! 10 WEEKS LEFT!!!

And I am a worry wart

So I worry- a lot! I stress and stress and stress about EVERYTHING, to the point that sometimes it interferes with my life. And my husband knows this. Right now, the main contributor of stress is well, money. And the ever approaching day that Scott gets out of the Marine Corps, which means a loss of income, health care, dental insurance- EVERYTHING. And without going into too much detail, being a military family comes with sacrifices, such as living away from the area you ultimately want to settle down in. Because of this, and lack of money, and the indebtedness, it is hard to just up and travel to job interviews to find a job somewhere you might actually want to live voluntarily. And so we looked for other options.

Our options were:

1) Me go active duty.

2) Me find a job.

3) Me commission and hope to find a full time reserve position.

4) Me find a job.

Scott re-enlisting was never an option. Until Sunday, when he brought up the idea. I was like "Whoa, what?" Because this has always been a closed subject. SCOTT WAS NOT GOING TO RE-ENLIST! That was just how it was for the better part of the last three years. But after research and discussion and prayer and thought and discussion, Scott is *hopefully* going to be laterally transferring (changing) jobs and re-enlisted for another 4 years in the Marine Corps.

But what changed our minds you ask. (Right? You did ask that?)

DEBT changed our minds. And after researching we found out that job Scott wants to re-enlist as carries a bonus of $44,000 (that's more than we make in a year!!). Can we say good-bye debt? Can we say have everything paid off within 18 months of today? Without having to scrape our budget tooth and nail to pinch every penny and "save" every single dollar? So our plan now goes as this:

Scott re-enlist into the Marine Corps. Scott goes to MOS school, Scott graduates, and the Marine Corps deposits about $30,000 into our bank account. We pay off Scott's credit card (if not already paid off), we pay off my motorcycle, we pay off Scott's motorcycle, and we pay off most of my loan (oh and we buy a new bed WITH bed frame, a pistol, and Scott concealed and carry license). We sell my bike. We pay off my loan and we continue making payments on what is left, my car. In February or March 2011, we should receive a pretty hefty tax refund check. We use it to finish paying off debt, as much as we can (because then we will move on to student loans). And we will pay as much on those as we can until they are paid off. We then move to baby step #3 and get 3-6 months expenses in the bank (or about $12,000). And then we move on. So please tell me, I think we will be out of debt and have an emergency fund in place by the end of next year.

Our main reason for doing this. So that when Scott's EAS date comes around again, we will have no debt, money in the bank, and less stress about looking and landing jobs. And by then I should have my MBA as well, making job hunting hopefully even easier.

Oh did I mention this also means we can have another free baby (medical bill wise), free health insurance, cheap dental insurance, and a steady paycheck. The peace of mind is worth the 4 extra years to us. And so we commence Operation: Re-Enlist. Please pray that he gets the job that he wants. The paperwork is already flowing.

Wow- an update

So to start this post, I want to show you something cute, at least I think so.

"Look ma, NO hands."

Just as long as she doesn't do that while riding her bike, I think I'll be okay.

And then, something beautiful (I hope). This is me at my niece's junior year Military Ball. She is in NJROTC now in high school, the same NJROTC program I was in, and I wanted to be a part of a special night for her by going while visiting in Florida. And so I did. The handsome man beside me is Retired Lt Colonel Nardo, a man I am proud to look up to. He has such a sweet soul, and even though I have known him almost 10 years now (EEK, did I say that??) this is the first picture I have ever gotten with him. But now he will be someone I can point to and talk about graciously to my grandkids (grandkids, what? I JUST had a baby!).

I know it has been a while since I wrote. A long while actually, but I am going to try to get back into it. The thing is though, once I returned from Florida, I started summer school. Which means I am taking Pre-Calculus and I absolutely loathe it, but have somehow formed a very attached relationship with my book (aka studying). I am also continuing my accelerated classes at the University of Phoenix and taking another class at the community college. Add on top of my studies the search for a job, and potentially a new house to rent AND a seven month old and it makes for one busy Momma.
But on the flip side at least I am doing well in all of my classes, I might have a C in one of the three, but I am okay with that. And I have less than 80 days until I turn in my last assignment as an undergraduate student!!! HOW FLIPPIN' EXCITING IS THAT?!?!?! (It makes me want to jump for joy! It's only taken me five years to complete.) Which by the way, I am going to save my money from now until September and I am going to buy myself a Nook as my graduation present, sounds blissful doesn't it?

We did find that Magaroni likes swimming, if you have a well heated pool and a floating device shaped like a turtle! Because on Father's Day, Scott, Maggie and I lathered on the sunscreen and donned our swimsuits and headed to the pool. AND NO TEARS!!! It was great the 20 minutes we were in before there was thunder and the pool was closed for the rest of the day. But now we know we can go swimming with the babe. And I think we might try and make it a weekly thing (as long as I do not have drill) until September when they close the pools again (who has ever heard of closing a pool in Coastal NC in SEPTEMBER?). Thank goodness a friend of ours also has a pool that we can use as well.

And when it comes to exercising, well I haven't. I have been so tired lately and it has been so hot that it is just so hard to even get off the couch (not really, I do play with my child) that exercising seems way out of the picture. But I am back up to 170 pounds and NEED to start doing something SOON!!! So I think I will spend tomorrow hydrating, because I didn't today, and run Saturday morning. Sound like a plan? It does to me too. Anyone want to join me. ANYONE???? I may also get my husband to go to the gym with me at some point to show me how to use some weight machines, because well I do have a child care pass to use at the gym and I need to get my money's worth out of it.

But I think that is enough updating for now. And hopefully I get better at this- again. If I do, I think I might even have someone design the blog for me (and possibly switch back to wordpress, because I like how you add photos better).

Maggie loves to eat

And Plum Organics are her favorite type of baby food (other than what I make myself). And I would love to win the contest over at

Plus the whole site is WONDERFUL!

Week 2 Day 5

So yeah. I am just going to give up until I get back to North Carolina and then we will get back at it full force. Plus I am still not feeling well and have no desire to eat or drink or run or sit up. So I give up. For now at least. See you next Thursday.

poor sick baby.

"I am sorry for ever doing this to you." - my husband to Maggie

Tonight starting at about 7pm our exhausted Magaroni started getting really cranky. This is abnormal for her. Bed time is normally pretty easy. Not tonight. And so I walked. I patted. I laid her down. I walked. I patted. And repeat for almost an hour. We gave her Tylenol (Up & Up brand) thinking her teeth were bothering her. We gave her a teether. We gave her teething gel. Still we had a screaming, whimpering, runny nosed little baby on our hands.

And then we realized her little constipated tummy may be bothering her. And so we called Nurse Advice (okay Scott called). They advised us to give the little one warm apple juice (something we already tried yesterday). They did say not to dilute it. And that she could have up to 5 ounces a day. And so the warming and feeding of apple juice commenced.

And then I fed her for a second time in two hours.

And then we tried to decide what to do from her. She was still crying. She was still upset.

Then the light bulb went off. Take her temperature rectally. It could stimulate a bowel movement. As I took her temperature she started passing gas. And within 30 seconds of removing the thermometer, a little poop ball fell into her diaper.

Scott held her little legs. I massaged her tummy. I tried to help her relax. And she pooped. And she pooped. And she pooped. And now our little screaming constipated little girl is asleep in her bed.

But I can say this. You know you are a parent when you sit around your child and try to help them poop to make them feel better.
(Scott however apologized for having to take her temperature rectally. And hopes that it wouldn't scare her for life.)

Week 2 Day 4

Today, no detailed update. It wasn't bad. Oatmeal for breakfast. Chicken, dressing, corn, mixed vegetables, water, baked pineapple, and a small piece of cake for lunch (we went to my husband's grandparents, and Grandma always cooks a spread. But I was good and ate small portions.) For dinner I ate a roast sandwich. I also had a medium white chocolate mocha.
I was not feeling good today. I woke up with a headache and sore throat. I was not in the mood to run. I was not in the mood to even get out of bed. No sit ups. No push ups. Nothing. Just riding in the car to and from the grandparents. But I did not eat any other "junk" food. Go me. I had a few glasses of water, but probably not enough.
I also took a pumping day off. My nipples hurt. And I fed Maggie more than normal today as well so I decided not to pump.
Currently at my parent's house I have over 10 ounces.
I will get back at everything tomorrow. (Hopefully, if I feel better.)

(Okay so this would have just been easier to write out as a normal post. But now I am not going to go back and change the set up.)

Week 2 Day 3

Water: not nearly enough
Breakfast: small bowl of Lucky Charms
Lunch: a few pieces of gator tail, a few fried pickles (its a vegetable right? RIGHT?) and a hamburger with cheese
Dinner: Hot dog with ketchup & relish and baked beans
Random: Cherry slush from Sonic (there happy hour is horrible)
Activity: I ran and did 31 sit ups
Pumping: 5.5 ounces in 2 sessions

Today wasn't that bad. Maybe it is because I have been busy ALL day long! I do however need to drink more water. MORE WATER CARLA. MORE WATER. I still have at least an hour before bedtime so I will be sucking it down until then.
Can someone also come kick me in the rear to do push ups. It is the one thing that I hate doing while people are watching me and therefor I do not really do them.
But as much as I am working out, I am not losing any weight. So I think I have resolved that I am going to go STRICT on Weight Watchers when I get home from vacation. I hate not seeing a change in the way my clothes are fitting or a budge in the scale. So I am going to keep up the working out (plus I think I am going to try to add in a EA Sports Active for Wii workout 4 or 5 days a week). I NEED TO LOSE MORE WEIGHT!!!
Goal weight is 145 pounds, so about 15 pounds to go. I really really want to be that weight (and more importantly look good). I also would LOVE to be able to 1. run a 5K 2. fit into a size 8 (or even better a size 6) and 3. not have a muffin top and "front butt". We shall see.
Anyone have any helpful tips? Anyone have any helpful tips to keep the motivation up? PLEASE HELP!

BANANAS

So today I decided I wanted to feed Maggie some mashed up bananas for breakfast. While my mom was holding Maggie (and the rest of the banana) Maggie decided to dive in and eat straight from the banana. And she did great! She loves munching on the banana. And it was the cutest thing trying to see her grab the banana and eat it. (Sorry no pictures.)

Well after nomming on the actual banana, she ate some mashed banana mixed in with cereal. And she loved that too! It was so good to her that she actually got mad at me when the bowl was empty. I guess that is good because it is all she can eat (new anyway) for the next three days. Mashed banana. Yummy mashed banana.

Go Maggie.

(So currently we know she can eat green beans, banana, and apples. Because if she has had apple juice she can have applesauce too right? Apple are apples, right?)

Week 2 Day 2

Water: 2 liters, plus some

Breakfast: nothing- horrible I know

Lunch: burger and fries from Five Guys- again HORRIBLE I know!!!

Dinner: buffalo chicken strips (WW recipe) and mixed vegetables with cheese sauce (45 calories a serving)

Random: pretzel M&Ms (150 calories per bag), a few Skittles, a few honey roasted peanuts

Activity: 35 sit ups

Pumping: 5.5 ounces in 3 sessions, one of which was a missed feeding (I did buy more Fenugreek today. Maggie is now sleeping in her own room at night which means I have to get up to get her, which helps make me pump between 4 and 6 am, meaning I can easily squeeze in at least 2 pumping sessions in a day. And sometimes three depending on what we are doing.)

Today was hard for the plain fact that we went to Five Guys and it is delicious so it is hard to say no to a burger and fries for a boring salad. But whatever. I have come to the conclusion I am just meant to weigh what I weigh right now. At least if I don't want to feel like I am starving. Today other than that was a great day. I even found a Nine West purse for $20 and I love it (I realize this has nothing to do with health, but it was exciting to me).
Would someone like to explain to me how you stay motivated to dieted and how you resist temptation. Sure I eat more vegetables. Sure I can say no. But I can't say no all the time (hence going to Five Guys for lunch this afternoon). And when it comes to the same weaknesses my husband has I have a REALLY hard time resisting say Peanut Butter M&Ms when I see him munching on a bag of them. HOW DO I DO THIS? Of course, without spending tons and tons of money?

Teething HELL

Okay, so while Maggie has been teething since JANUARY, she has now entered teething hell, inclusive of random crying fits full of "GIVE ME MY MOMMY", "I DON'T WANT TO SHUSH", and "GIVE ME A PACI THAT'S BEEN IN THE FREEZER RIGHT NOW". At least that is how I am interpreting the SCREAMING and the tears (oh the tears) and the squealing.

Last night she was up 3 times and today she napped for 45 minutes and was then up screaming for the next 2 hours. The only thing that makes her happy is eating or sleeping, but we can't even get her to do those two things as normal. HELP.

Does anyone have any suggestions? We are already using teething gel, teething tablets, Baby Tylenol (Up & Up brand of course), water filled pacifiers in the freezer, wash clothes, and chewing on Sophie. WHAT ELSE CAN I DO? Please, oh please, tell me!

Week 2 Day 1

Well hello everyone. To start, this is WEEK 2 and I am not doing so well. The scale said 163 this morning. Yeah 163. I know I didn't eat that badly, but whatever- just need to be even more strict this week and get back on my water drinking bandwagon. I WILL LOSE MORE WEIGHT. I WILL PASS MY PT TEST. I WILL. I WILL. I WILL. But we all have these weeks. Even Blair has these weeks. Even Nicole has these weeks. WE ALL HAVE THEM. AND WE WILL ALL GET OVER THEM! Next Monday will hopefully offer a much better number on the scale.

Weight: 163

Water: 75 or so ounces

Breakfast: oatmeal with raspberries and a teaspoon of sugar

Lunch: lasagna

Dinner: Classic Sheppard's Pie (WW recipe)

Random: 4 sour straws, bag of Skittles, half a large bag of popcorn

Activity: 32 sit ups and ran for about 13 minutes down my parents road and back (the distance to come soon)

Pumping: 1.5 - 2.0 ounces in 1 pump (but I have set up a pumping station and so pumping should now be a little easier to work into my day)

And my goals for this week, Week #2.

1. DRINK WATER.

2. RUN RUN RUN

3. SIT UPS SIT UPS SIT UPS

4. PUSH UPS PUSH UPS PUSH UPS

5. No junk food.

6. Eat healthy. (Can we say carrots people, can we?)

How was your week? How was your weight loss?

Week 1 Day 7

Water: 30 or so ounces of water, plus additional fluids

Breakfast: Fruity Pebbles

Lunch: Bourbon Chicken, fried rice, green beans

Dinner: lasagna with garlic bread

Random: coffee, Limeade from Sonic, 1 Snickers (trial size), half a container of Sour Straws

Activity: nothing

Pumping: 1.5 oz in 1 session (I was WAY too tired to pump a second time, shame on me. I NEED TO GET BACK ON SCHEDULE!)

Today was Mother's Day and I was surprisingly (semi) well behaved in terms of eating, with minimal snacking, but one day I hope to eat fewer things that are LOADED with sugar (like that Snickers). ONE DAY.

And it was Mother's Day and on my first Mother's Day why worry about what I eat and what activity I do. I was going to relax and celebrate and RELAX. I get one day right? But back at it tomorrow. BACK AT IT.

I am really enjoying this and I hope to keep it up and make it better. To get better. BETTER. BETTER. BETTER. I just want to be better. I want to lose this muffin top (of which was confirmed today when I wore a dress and STILL had a muffin top).

Firsts

So yesterday (5/7/10) Maggie ate her first vegetable, green beans. It was slightly boring. She didn't make a face. She didn't try to spit it out. She just ate the green beans just as if it were cereal. I was expected something funny. I was expecting something fun. But nope, she just ate. So I guess we at least know she is going to be a good eater. Probably a great eater, at least that is what I am hoping for.

Today she got in the swimming pool for the first time. We went through the whole ordeal. Sunscreen on 30 minutes early. Huggies Little Swimmers diaper. Cute bathing suit. Cute hat with a strap. Sunglasses. All of it. And we headed outside to the swimming pool. Scott got in the pool first and I handed Maggie into him. And she cried. Not wailed, but she definitely wasn't having it. We put her in the float we have for her. And she cried. Scott held her again. She cried some more. So swimming pool trial #1 was a FAIL.

We think the water was too cold for her at a mere 86 degrees. We are hoping the water warms up and she likes swimming more, because Scott and I both love to be in the water. And Maggie loves her baths, so we are hoping this passes and she eventually likes the swimming pool.

(Pictures of both of these to come soon.)

Week 1 Day 6

Water: not much, but probably about 50 ounces

Breakfast: oatmeal with frozen raspberries in it with a teaspoon of sugar

Lunch: sandwich with ham and chicken, slice of provolone cheese, and mayo

Dinner: beef and vegetable cheese casserole (WW recipe)

Random: one cup of coffee with coffee creamer in it, 2 lasagna noodles, M&Ms, popcorn, cookie

Activity: ran on my parents road (probably about 1 mile or a little more total) and 26 sit ups

Pumping: I got 4 ounces in 1 session, after a missed feeding

Today I did really well until my mom and I went to a friends house for snacks and movie night. We watched "It's Complicated" and it was such a cute movie (highly recommend it). Oh well, we shall see what tomorrow (Mother's Day brings). I know it brings a pedicure, manicure, and lasagna. But who knows what else.

::Skampers off to bed:: It is after all already 1am.

Week 1 Day 5

Water: Probably about 30 ounces of water plus 30 or so ounces fruit punch, Kool-Aid, and sweet tea. (Yeah in terms of water intake, today SUCKED!)

Breakfast: Blueberry muffin (I went to Muffins for Mom with my sister and niece at my niece's elementary school. Which is that same elementary school that I went to. And teachers still remember me. I am infamous for being on GNN, their morning news show. It was kind of cool.)

Lunch: Fiji Apple Salad from Panera bread with one of the pieces of bread. I resisted the urge to eat my husbands piece.

Dinner: Spaghetti with pink sauce (spaghetti sauce with ricotta cheese blended into it)

Random: peanut butter M&Ms (probably about 20 all day), root beer float ice cream (probably about a cup)

Activity: I did not run today because I ate the muffin before running this morning (and if I eat before I run I puke so that was a no go). But we did walk around the mall and Wal-Mart. And when I was walking around Wal-Mart (probably about 1.5 hours) I was wearing Maggie (all 14.5 pounds of her).

Pumping output: probably about 2 or so ounces in one pump (I need to get on a better schedule here, but hey it is only day two of vacation).

Today was not TOO bad, but could have been better. I really need to talk to my husband about offering me M&Ms. He is not conducive to being on a "diet" and losing weight and I have about 1% will power, so we are not a good pair.

Tomorrow my goal is to drink more water. MUCH MORE WATER.

Week 1 Day 4

Disclaimer: Travel day = 12 hour drive from North Carolina to Central Florida. Yeah, didn't do so well today. Oh well right? Everyone deserves a cheat day.

Water: I drank a ton of sweet tea, but hardly any water today.

Breakfast: hotcakes and sausage from McDonalds
lunch: JR bacon cheeseburger from Wendy's, a few fries and Root Beer
dinner: nothing
random: 6 Archer Farms fruit strips, honey roasted peanuts, peanut butter M&M's

I pumped about 5 ounces all day in 2 pumping sessions.

I ate like crap today and did nothing but ride in a car and unload all the stuff in the car into my parents house.

(I may not update everyday but I will update as much as possible. And hopefully I will eat kind of healthy while on vacation.)

Week 1 Day 3

Weight: only updated on Mondays

Water intake: 80 oz. Or so (I forgot to take a water bottle with me while running errands)

Food log:

breakfast: vanilla Light and Fit yogurt

lunch: chicken with pasta, broccoli, and alfredo sauce

dinner: Nachos (homemade)

random: pretzel, 1/2 cup homemade applesauce, 2 fruit strips from Target (archer farms)

Activity: none, shopping and packing- I was just too busy getting ready for vacation to workout

Ounces pumped: in # of pump sessions: 4.5 oz in 2 (I missed a feeding while I was out in town doing last minute preparation for vacation)

Measurements: To come later, my husband has my tape measure.

Today I stayed busy and other than starving and needing to get something to eat when I got my hair done (pretzel) I feel like I did a pretty good job today. And back to running on Friday (tomorrow will be spent in the car traveling from NC to FL).

Week 1 Day 2

Weight: only updated on Mondays

Water intake: 96 oz.

Food log:

breakfast: vanilla Light and Fit yogurt

lunch: one serving beef baked ziti

dinner: chicken with pasta, broccoli, and alfredo sauce

random: 2 taco shells, 6 saltines with peanut butter, one bite of ice cream, I forgot a bag of popcorn (the individual size bag)

Activity: it was my day off

Ounces pumped: in # of pump sessions: 3.5 oz in 2 sessions

Measurements: To come later, my husband has my tape measure.

Today was not as hard to stay on track considering my daughter is teething and wanted to be held ALL day long. We even took a nap together. Today was my day off though, after running 3 days straight. Tomorrow it picks up again. Last run at home before going to FLORIDA!!

Meet Up Monday.

So I think i will participate in Meet up Monday. We all need readers. Well okay, I don't NEED readers, but I would like some. And honestly I think my story could help someone. And I hope that it does help someone. Someone has already contacted me for more information about Dave Ramsey. I just put the blog up last night, y'all. LAST NIGHT.

But if you are coming from Just Another Manic Momday to join in on Meet Up Monday, welcome. And enjoy my like 6 posts. And please come back!

(Okay, and well the link to her cute coffee cup doesn't seem to be working, but maybe later.)

Outstanding debt

Currently Scott and I are trying to pay off debt. So I am going to post our current debt tracker to let you see how much debt we are in (yikes), how much we have paid off year-to-date and from month-to-month. I will update this every month just as I update the budget.

Total Debt Total Paid off YTD Difference MTM

January- $46,811.59

February- $45,770.85 $1040.74 $1040.74

March- $43,067.90 $3,743.69 $2,702.95

April- $40,810.58 $6,001.01 $2,257.32

We have also paid of a $79 balance on a student loan that is not included in those numbers. We are getting somewhere!

And you ask how we paid off so much so quickly. We started this process January 1, and with full speed on February 1, and we were therefore able to benefit from a tax refund, a bonus from work, and my annual training pay. We are finding on average we are able to pay off about $200 in debt above and beyond minimum payments each month. After June 15th though, Scott and I have decided we are going to become even more intense and cut out even more expenses (like I already gave up my smart phone and he is doing so in June or July, lowering our cell phone bill).

Just keep up and you will hopefully see how we lower expenses and therefore increase how much money we put towards our debt snowball.

THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING!

May budget

Here is the May budget. Keep in mind we use a zero based budget, meaning we spend every penny we earn, mostly to pay off debt faster than we would without using this method. We are not paying as much toward debt this month as normal, but that is because we have my mom in town and are allowing some extra money in there for that (you know buying dinner for 3 adults instead of 2 kind of thing). But here goes.

		1st	15th	Month
Income		1455	2138	3593
	Income Scott	1455	1455	2910
	Income MGIB		683	683
	Income Carla Drill			0
	Miscellaneous			0
Housing		950	0	950
	Rent	950		950
Utilities		160.49	297.58	458.07
	Electricity	98.09		98.09
	Water	42.4		42.4
	Phone		156.23	156.23
	Trash	20		20
	Cable/Internet		141.35	141.35
Food		0	425	425
	Groceries		345	345
	Eating Out		80	80
Transportation		153	263	416
	Gas	80	160	240
	Car Fund		30	30
	Car Insurance	73	73	146
Personal		30	370	400
	Present fund	30	0	30
	Allowance		200	200
	Scott hair cuts		60	60
	Vacation Fund		50	50
	Diapers and Wipes		60	60
Debts		86.51	782.42	868.93
	Bank of America CC			0
	Wachovia CC	86.51	65.42	151.93
	Bank of America Loan		244	244
	Suzuki		229	229
	Yamaha		244	244
Miscelleneous		75	0	75
	clothes	25		25
	other	50		50
				0
				0
				0
Total Income:		1455	2138	3593
Total Expenses:		1455	2138	3593
Left over for Debt Snowball		0	0	0

Goals.

I guess I should give you a run down of my goals to my journey to healthiness, right? Right.

Goal 1- pass my PT test by May 21, 2010. That's in 19 days, y'all. 19 days!!! (And did I mention I will be on vacation in Florida for 12 of those days?) So I really have to get with it and WORK WORK WORK!

Goal 2- Lose weight.

Goal 2.a. Get to goal weight of 155 (pre-pregnancy weight).

Goal 2.b. Get to goal weight of 150.

Goal 2.c. Get to ultimate goal weight of 145.

(I learned from Blair over at Heir to Blair that you should tackle your weight loss goals in manageable chunks.)

Goal 3- I would like to be able to run a 5k by the end of the year in 30 minutes of less.

Goal 4- fit into my size 8 American Eagle jeans without a muffin top. That's right, without a muffin top!

And there you have it. My goals. Not to hard, right? Hopefully not since I have all of you to be accountable to. Not to hard. (I must keep telling myself that.)

Week 1 Day 1

Weight: 161.5

Water intake: 96 or so ounces of fluids, water and sweet tea

Food log:

breakfast: Light & Fit vanilla yogurt

lunch: can of Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup, 10 saltine crackers

dinner: one serving Beef Baked Ziti (a Weight Watchers meal)

random: 2 oz dry ziti pasta, 1 cup broccoli, carrots, cauliflower in cheese sauce, small piece of red velvet cake, 1 teaspoon peanut butter, small amount of ice cream

Activity: 2 minutes of push-ups (15), 2 minutes of sit-ups (26), ran 1 mile in 9:26 (correct mile pace to pass PT test, but only ran 1 mile)

Ounces pumped: in # of pump sessions: 3.5 oz in 3 sessions (lame, I know)

Measurements: To come later, my husband has my tape measure.

I have decided being at home is horrible for a diet for me. All I want to do is eat when I am home by myself (well with Maggie) and that's NOT good.

My goals this week:

1. Take my fenugreek like needed.

2. Drink 80 ounces of fluids or more everyday.

3. Exercise at least 5 days this week.

4. Keep up to date with my Weight Watchers points.

5. Try not to eat to much unhealthy food on Thursday on the way to Florida.

6. Pump at least once per day.

To start.

So I will start with telling you my "health" story.

I weighed 120 pounds at my heaviest in high school. I weighed 140 at my heaviest in college. I weighed 155 at my heaviest after getting married, but before getting pregnant. I weighed 205 at my heaviest being pregnant. Today, I weigh 161.5. Only 6 pounds above my pre-pregnancy weight.

I had my daughter 5 months ago on November 24, 2009.

I am in the U.S. Army and MUST pass my physical fitness test (PT test) by May 24, 2010. Three weeks from now. Exactly three weeks from now. And I have been lazy up until this point. But I MUST get up off my butt and I MUST pass my PT test. (This includes running 2 miles in 19:48 or less, doing 50+ sit-ups in 2 minutes, and 17+ push-ups in 2 minutes.)

I want to start building my freezer stash again and so I am now going to start pumping no less than twice per day. I still exclusively breast feed Maggie.

So here is what I have done. I started on Saturday May 1 with GETTING OFF MY BUTT! I ran/walked 1 mile in 11:30 and did 28 sit-ups.

May 2 I ran/walked 1 mile, but forgot to wear my watch and time myself.

I started pumping Saturday night as well, along with supplementing with Fenugreek, and so far I have pumped 5.5oz (4 pumping sessions). That's one bottle in the freezer.

The real "meat" of these posts start tomorrow.

G'night.

Welcome.

So I am switching back over to Blogger. I would rather have a pretty blog than a cool dashboard. (Even I was bored looking at my wordpress blog.) But I can't way to start this. I can't wait to start sharing my life *shudders* with not just the world, but with myself. (Writing it down helps me process my life and maybe along the way I'll help someone- maybe).

And I am going to do this in three major categories. Finance. Health. Maggie. (Within the Maggie category, life might get thrown in there a little bit. You won't sue me will you?)

Finance. Under this category I will update at least monthly. I will post my budget. I will post our most up-to-date debt outstanding. I will post how I felt about money this month. Any new insights I have. I will post anything else I find interesting about my finances (or finance in general).

Health. I will post everyday about my activity for the day, a food log, a water log, and pumping output. I will post my weight weekly. I will post my measurements once a month.

Maggie. Well, Maggie. Pictures. Updates. Anything relevant to her, being her mom, et cetera.

Please bear with me as I make this blog pretty. It may take me some time (especially since I am about to go on vacation). Plus I have to remember how to do it. It has been a while. I start all my posts tomorrow.

Please come back soon.

P.S. My blog URL, momofmagoroni, comes from the fact that my daughter, Maggie's nickname is Magaroni.