Whole30

Happy Saturday, bloggers!

     I have very recently embarked on a new journey, as in I literally just started yesterday. It is called the Whole30 program.

Have any of you heard of this program? Tried it? Looked at it and thought the people were crazy and went on your merry way?

Never heard of it? Check out the site to learn more: http://whole9life.com/2012/08/the-whole30-program/

     The gist of the program is that you remove grains, dairy, alcohol, legumes, sugar/artificial sweeteners, white potatoes, carrageenan, and sulfites from your diet for 30 days. No cheat days, no slips, it is all out. I don't look at this as a diet, AT ALL. It is more a way to make healthier choices, while becoming more aware of what you are putting in your body. After the 30 days (sometimes it takes longer depending on the person and circumstances), your body has "reset", and rid itself of the years and years of junk you have overindulged in. You can slowly begin to reintroduce those foods into your diet, and you can ultimately see what kind of effect they have on you.

     The thing that caught my attention the most were the testimonials, and one in particular. It was about people who have had headaches and migraines for years and after doing this program, their headaches had diminished. For those of you who don't know, I have been battling headaches every day for the last 8 or so years, so no wonder this stood out to me. The thought of going without a headache for a whole day leaves me speechless. I would not even know what to do with myself. Once I looked into it on my own, I talked to my brother more about it and he sent me the book It Starts With Food , that really goes more in depth in explaining the reasoning behind all of this and why cutting out those food groups can make such a difference. In no way do they say you should never have those things again, but those foods and additives have so much power over how your body works, from daily battles with cravings to medical issues. Once I read through the book, it just made even more sense. I would highly recommend just reading it, even if you have no desire to do the program, it really puts things into perspective!

     I plan on blogging my experience, recipes, etc as I go, mostly as a way to track my progress. And hey, who knows - maybe I will even convince one of you to give it a try! I can say that tomorrow may be the biggest challenge of the 30 days considering it is Super Bowl Sunday, good timing on my part! If I make it through that, I think I will be fine :)

     Stay tuned and I will post my first few days of meals/recipes soon, as well as any other changes I notice in energy, attitude, appearance, etc. I won't be posting any weight loss, because one of the stipulations to this program is that you are not allowed to step on a scaled or take any measurements for the duration of the 30 days. However, if I start losing some weight I am sure I will be able to tell simply by how clothes fit and how I am feeling. Wish me luck, you guys! I really hope I am able to come back in 29 days with some great news and changes!

Enjoy the Super Bowl, eat up and have a drink for me ;)

Lately

     Oh my stars, it has been ages since I have blogged! I was really going to try and do better, especially sharing all of the house updates we did, but then life just got in the way (in a mostly positive way, of course). I last blogged in August, at the very beginning of a new school year in a new grade and the start of my Masters program. Because I don't want to sit here and ramble on and on, here is a quick run down of my life since then:

*Started teaching in a new grade, with a class of 18 students which is totally different from last year.
*Began my masters program at Arizona State University (online)
*Went to Charlotte, NC for a beer festival with my family and to visit my cousin that lives there
*Concluded my year of being a bridesmaid with my last two friends tying the knot in October
*Hosted the first gathering at my house on Halloween
*Ventured to Nashville to take Dave to the Bears v Titans game for his 23rd birthday
*Visited Arrington Vineyards in Franklin, TN -- which was beautiful!
*Ventured to Lynchburg and Tullahoma with two good friends to explore the George Dickel distillery and Jack Daniels distillery. We also stayed in this quaint Bed and Breakfast that was just perfect!
*Enjoyed Thanksgiving with my wonderful family
*Watched David become a graduate of the University of Memphis :)
*Earned a 4.0 in my first semester of my masters program
*Enjoyed Christmas with my whole family, my brother flew down with his pup and spent 10 days here!
*Hosted my first dinner party for 13 people. Cooked 60 Italian Spinach Meatballs, spaghetti, and Italian spinach + a few delectable desserts
*Ventured to Cherokee Village, Arkansas and stayed in a cabin on Thunderbird lake with 9 other people to ring in the New Year

     That is pretty much a summary of the last 5 months of my life. Overall, they have been great, especially the little trips that I was able to take. There have absolutely been some down times, but that is life and it is what ultimately makes us all appreciate the good times even more.

     I am not one for New Year's Resolutions, as I always tend to break them within about 13 seconds. So this year I have taken a new route. I am simply going to strive to be better. That leaves me with a lot of options of how I can be better, whether it is being more active, cooking more, listening better, reading more, saving money, etc. By leaving it vague and open to interpretation, I can't really break any "resolution". As long as I am always doing something, no matter how small, to better myself then I will consider it a success. I am looking forward to a new year and a new beginning. Hopefully I will be a little better about blogging so I am able to share some of the fun times with my few, yet faithful followers! With all of that being said, I will leave you with a few end of the year pictures.

Happy 2013, y'all!

Tacky Christmas

My sweet Mildred flew in from New York to spend Christmas with us!

Peppermint Oreo Balls for the dinner party.

Merry Christmas from these sweet girls

View from our cabin for New Years

Some of the group

New Years Eve

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Master Bath Update

Good evening! I feel like I haven't blogged in forever. I just wrapped up my first week as a general ed, 1st grade teacher and finally feel like I can breathe. Sure was a crazy week, but I am excited for the year ahead. Figured I would start sharing the house updates! We have FINALLY finished (well 90%) I wanted to start with the Master bath. As you may remember - it was the one with the hideous pink tile and delightful sliding glass "swan" shower doors. Well, it looks like a whole new bathroom now! We did everything we could to update it without having to gut out that tile and take out the sliding doors. We took the wallpaper down, painted it, added a picture, new mirror, new light fixture, replaced the switch and outlet plates, painted the closet door, and hung a shower curtain right in front of the doors to hide them. I think it turned out just beautifully! We are going to add another picture or two, but you get the idea.

Before we did anything. Hard to get the full effect of the awful wall paper though!

After the wallpaper was stripped and we painted.

The final product. New mirror, outlet cover, and fixture.

Before anything

Before anything
 

After we painted, you can KIND of see the swan doors here..

After the paint, new picture, and shower curtain.

Much better!

There is still so much that COULD be done if I were a millionaire, but I think we took what we had and made it work :) I will post a bedroom update tomorrow. I am saving my FAVORITE room, the living/dining room, for a little later on. It is by far the thing that changed the most and I absolutely love it. Have a wonderful Friday my fellow bloggers!

DIY: Chevron Table

Let me start by saying I am not much of a crafter. I am not creative nor do I possess hardly any basic artistic skills -  so this table is my pride and joy. My very first DIY furniture project, and I am pretty darn proud of it! Figured I would share not my so perfect journey to get to this finished product with you guys.

I started with the table below, which I found for $20 at a yard sale a few weeks ago. I decided it would go in the lounge/bar (sunroom) in my new house and that I wanted to make it a little more fun to look at.

To start my project, I had to sand the tabletop down so the paint would hold better. So I sanded away. I've never done that kind of thing before so I had no clue hot to know when I sanded it enough as you will see in a bit. I sanded it and got it taped out, thanks to help and brainpower of my sweet man, David. I then went out to stain it, which was my original plan for the table. However, I did not read the instructions well enough and screwed up the whole staining thing. This resulted in my having to re-sand the entire table and start over. This actually turned out to be a bit of a blessing because I realized I had not sanded the table NEARLY enough the first go around.

The stain. It looks fine here, but because the table wasn't sanded well enough it didn't ever set right.

After I sanded off the stain, and re-taped the pattern.

After sanding for the 2nd time and spending a solid hour figuring out the best way to get this pattern taped out on the table, it was ready for paint! I decided to totally forgo the stain and just paint it 2 colors instead. I chose grey and navy.

Finished tabletop!

I let the table dry and top it was a paint sealer to help prevent chipping. Then I moved on to the legs. I decided on Behr "Yellow Gold" and think it really looks cute. I also decided to distress them a little to give the table a little more character, but you can't tell that much.

Waiting on legs to to dry to put it back together

Finished product

My new table :)

Though this table was frustrating at times, I really enjoyed working on it. Now that I have done one, I know it will make other projects a little easier because I definitely learned a lot throughout this project. I'll be blogging a house update very soon, I start moving this weekend :) Hope you all have a great weekend!

Starting Over

Happy July, y'all! I have not been on in a bit, but I am going to try and change that over the next couple of weeks. I recently got some news regarding my job for this coming school year, and I wanted to share it with my little blog family. I was told around Spring Break that there was a good chance my teaching position (k-2 resource) would be cut in this upcoming school year. I am thankful to have a principal that was so upfront with me from the beginning and keeping me as filled in as she could throughout all of the changes and budget cuts blazing through the teaching community. I had several options as to what I would potentially be teaching this 2012-2013 school year, and seeing that I am dually certified for regular ed or special ed - the options were almost overwhelming because they all were dependent on some other factor. So, since Spring Break, I have been on edge waiting to find out what I would be doing and I finally got my email... I am going to be teaching in a 1st grade general ed classroom this coming school year! I am so excited and cannot wait to get started (but not wishing these last 3 weeks of summer away too quickly :) ) it will be a completely new world, but I have a great team to help me through! If any of you know of any good 1st grade teacher blogs, please direct me that way. I will be on the hunt for lots of ideas over these next few weeks. I will be back again soon with some house updates next week. We are ALMOST finished with everything, yay! Have a great weekend!

Bachelorett Party Mania

Just thought I would share some pictures from the two bachelorette weekends I have taken part of these last couple of weeks. I will be ending this month celebrating the marriage of  Mr. & Mrs. Saunders - so I think it is safe to say June has been a pretty good month!

My little table note for the Future Mrs. Saunders

Free cake for the bachelorette. (The waiter thought it was her birthday..)

Overlooking Hot Springs

Future Mrs. Hehn in New Orleans

Bridesmaids - (and bride-to-be of wedding #3 of 4 I will be a part of :) )

Bachelorette and bridesmaids

Got to experience some delicious Beignets at Cafe du Monde

Heading to dinner on our last night in NOLA

Sure had two great weekends, celebrating two wonderful people. I couldn't be happier for them and am so looking forward to being a part of their big day!

House Update

We have been working on the house a few days a week over the last month, and we are really making some progress. My dad is doing all of the main painting, while I am doing some trim and bookcase painting. We have gotten the ceiling damage fixed in the sun room and living room, the master and guest room/closets/ceilings painted, the hall and full bath walls and ceilings painted, and got the first coat of trim down in the living room! I am getting really excited to see the end result. It is amazing what some fresh paint can do to a room/house. Here are a few pictures I have taken of the work done thus far. Some of the lighting isn't the best, especially the bathroom picture, but it will still give a general idea of what it is shaping up to look like! I will try and get some more updates up next week, but now I have to go get packed up for my weekend in Hot Springs for Katie's bachelorette party. Hope y'all have a good weekend!

Here is one of the before pictures of the full bath

Here is the after of the same wall. No more hideous wallpaper! Will be shopping for decor in the next couple of weeks :)

Before of part of master bedroom

After of part of the master bedroom. The white trim has made the biggest difference in the house!