Challenge: Days 74-90+

I can't believe I never finished blogging about my 90 day challenge. That goes to show just how crazy things have been. Like I said in the last post, i plataued with my weight loss and was doing good at least maintaining what weight loss I did have. I even lost a few more pounds. At that point I was just doing one shake for breakfast and loving it. I have never been much of a breakfast eater so shakes are perfect for me, although now I am enjoying eating the fruit and cream oatmeal. I have been feeling so much better.

Unfortunately the holidays are SOOO hard for me! I don't know why. Maybe just all the goodies laying around everywhere, and all the chips and dips and the snacky foods. Oh it is all so bad! So I ended up gaining back everything that I lost, so I am basically starting over again. Also among all of this, I ran out of my shake powder. I was getting it from my chiropractor who is a distributor, and we were getting a huge discount through a program through Mike's work and our insurance, so it wasn't costing me much at all. Well, the insurance decided they weren't going to pay for it anymore, so now I have to pay full cost, darn! It really is a great price for what you get, but I have been trying to pay down my credit card from before Christmas spending, so it has been a while since I have had any shake mix. I decided to use Carnation instant breakfast, which has been ok to at least have a shake for breakfast, but it only has about half or less of the nutrients that the Vi shake does. I have also noticed my energy levels are not what they were when I was drinking Vi.

So now that I am back up in my weight, my clothes aren't fitting well and I don't look all that great again. So my goal is to start getting my Vi shake again ASAP! As soon as the card is paid off, I will get my shake again and then stay out of debt!!! We are going to be out of debt minus our house, school loans and medical bills by the end of this year, we are very excited! Oh yeah, my hubby had two major surgeries between August and November last year too, that didn't help with my stress levels, which cause weight gain as well.

Life is just great though! Even though I can't look great, like I want to, right now, I am still happy with myself and my life! I am so overly blessed! The Lord knows exactly what I need and when I need it. I have struggled being the primary, especially with the class I had last year. It just got to the point where I couldn't handle the kids talking and being loud through the whole class. This year I am in the nursery, which is a lot of fun, and very laid back. Addie is in there with me, which is fun to be able to play with her and all the other little kids to. It also works with my stake calling. In November they called me to be on the stake girls camp committee. I am over certification which is pretty much all of camp. It's a huge job, but I have so many people to help me make it great!

We had our winter retreat last weekend, which was great. We have some really incredible young women to help and some amazing leaders that I am getting to know and love so much! I am supposed to be with the youth for some reason, I don't know what that reason is yet, but I know I have so much to offer them and teach them. My life hasn't always been easy, especially as a young woman. Not fitting in and not having many friends is hard for a yong woman. I hope that I can help teach the young women that there is more to life than high school and friends and popularity. I have stuggled with self worth since I was 9, which is too long for anyone to have to worry about that or struggle with it. I have started, just in the last 6-9 months, finally realizing that it's not about me! Yes, it is great to love yourself and be happy with who you are at this moment in time, but more than that, is coming to realize that my Heavenly Father is always there and is always ready and willing to listen and to help, and also learning that he loves me for me! Yes, my Heavenly Father loves me, and He also loves each one of you and knows you personally! When you know this, everything else seems to melt away and is replaced by self worth.

That's just my little testimony. I have always wanted to be a motivational speaker for the youth of the church. I know I have so much to offer them. Maybe it all just starts here with the youth of our stake. Then I need to work on not being so nervous when I speak in front of people. I am slowly overcoming this with having to speak with Mike in the wards throughout the stake with him on occasion. Anyway, I love life and hope that you all do as well, and hopefully you all see that when you talk to me or see me. Have a great day, may God guide you in all that you do!

I don't know when the last time I posted was, how sad is that?! My cousin said I needed to post again, which is very true! I have been so very busy since November getting things ready for Christmas and then for a baby shower for my sister in law, who is having her first, which is a little girl! We are so excited for her!

Need some ideas for Christmas gifts for this year, since it's January and all, it's never to young to start planning, right?

For neighbors, we made about 20 dozen mini muffins including, lemon poppyseed, butterscotch chips, pumpkin chocolate chip and oatmeal. It's pretty easy to make that many when they are small and you double the batch. We ended up taking around over 20 plates to neighbors and friends in the ward.

Then I started on teacher gifts. I don't usually do these because of the time and money that you have to put out. Guess I'm just cheap, and always forget until the last minute. I decided to do something that maybe they didn't have already. I know some of you have made these before or have even received them as gifts before. This was my first time trying these out and I have to say, they were very easy!

I found some little terra cotta pots at Michaels for less than $1 each and had the kids each paint one. Then I made flower pens. The pens I had gotten for free with coupons sometime last year, which helped me to use quite a few of them. I got flowers and floral tape from the dollar store and then wrapped pen with tape and a flower. I also had some little wooden letters that we painted and put on the pot for the teachers initial of their last name and then we glued a butterfly on the side as well. I put popcorn kernals in the pot to hold the pens in. They turned out so very cute and from what I hear, the teachers just loved them! So yay for us!

I just had tons of little projects that I did up until Christmas. The next one is an upcycling project.  I have wanted a necklace holder for quite a while now and have tried to figure out the cheapest and easiest thing to do. Since we finally finished our shed out back, we had some scrap wood left over that we werent using. Cedar 2X4s to be exact. So I had my most wonderful and handy husband, cut it down for me. I painted it with some acrylic paint that I have had for a long time now. For the knobs, I kept them from a dresser we had that our kids destroyed, but I just couldn't throw out the knobs, they are so vintage. So here is the finished necklace holder. It hangs in my closet and I just love it!

So my final project that I finished was a rag quilt. In trying to decide what I wanted to do for my sister in law for her baby, I remembered I had a bunch of girlie flannel. I googled and looked on pinterest how to make a rag quilt. I found one pattern that I just loved. It doesn't have a back on it, you make each square with batting inbetween each square and then sew them all together. I started cutting out what flannel I had and then realized I really didn't have enough to make the whole blanket, and I had way too much pink in it. My sister in law is not a fan of pink, so I didn't want it to have too much, so I ran to the store and way able to find some really cute blue fabric that had kittens on it and a green check fabric, these turned out so cute with the rest and went very well together, especially for being random. It was time consuming, probably took me about 10+ hours start to finish, but it was easy, all straight stitches, so it sewed up pretty easy, the worst was trying to cut all the edges so they will fray when you wash it. I dear friend of mine let me borrow her sharp scissors, which went really well, but I cut for about 2 hours straight and must have damaged a nerve in my thumb or something because my thumb was pretty sensitive for a couple weeks after, so if I were to do it again, which I hope to, I will take a break every 20 minutes or so. It turned out great though and she just loved it and I hope she gets some good use out of it!

So this was my month before Christmas. 2013 has been busy and fun as well. So many more projects, not so many sewing, but crochet. I learned how to make round scarves. I did make a little tote bag for a girl I babysit that she can take to church and keep her things in. But more on that another time. Have a great day everyone!