Weightloss! Oh boy......

I have a blog?.....oh yeah! I cant believe I let so much time go by without annoying you lovely folks with all these crazy details in my life (that I'm sure you find obnoxious but that I just feel I MUST share with the world :-) ). I honestly started this blog before I ever imagined my life being this crazy, but isn't that what we always say. Its easy to just blame our lack of motivation on "not enough time" and yet we (and by we I mean I) never seem to get anything accomplished.

So, since its been ages since my last posts, I thought what better way to get back into the swing of things than to start blogging my dieting process. I know, I know....If you have seen one weight loss blog then you have seen them all right?! Well, rest assured, this catalog of blogs to follow will probably contain nothing special from the rest. However, I feel it might help me stay more accountable. After a recent trip to the doctor with not so happy results and not to mention the fact that I am obviously overweight, I have decided that my life and my health are too important to me to let my current weight situation continue any longer.

Now, even though I haven't always been overweight, I have however struggled with weight off and on for roughly the last 10 years or so. A roller coaster ride of weight gain and loss. Once I became pregnant with my daughter in 2008, I gained about 50 lbs and by the time she was born I weighed about 170. The normal stress and chaos of new parenthood left me to gain an additional 30 pounds and now I am at a somewhat steady 208! Holy cow did I just announce that to the world?! Heck yes I did. And while I'm not proud of that number, I do know that many of us struggle with weight and that if I am going to take this serious then I cant sit back and let a silly number be something I'm afraid of. Its no one fault but my own that I am the size that I am. I like food.....and cake.....and dr.pepper.....so sue me!?! I'm sure you do too lol. And those are all things that are leaving my life for a while......cue the funeral music....

My goals for this weight loss journey are to set small achievable goals for myself. One thing at a time. I just started this past week with working on cutting back on my very serious Dr.Pepper addiction. Were talking 2-3 large size McDonald's cups worth a day, YIKES! While the first couple days were rough, it seems I have made it through that rough patch and are not having the huge head ache withdraws. I cannot quit the caffeine cold turkey so I have switched to limiting my self on sweet and unsweet tea while drinking as much water as I can. Now that I'm over that hump, my mail goal is to cut out processed foods, fast foods, fried foods, sugars and starches with be limited and moderated......that's a mouth full!

As far as my blogging goals, I plan to check in once a week with updates on my progress, my mess ups, pretty much any thoughts or interesting stuff about this whole process. It honestly scares me to death to attempt this because when it comes to dieting of any sort, I ALWAYS fail! I have to stay strong and keep the end result and big picture in my head. I CAN do this! I WILL do this! I have faith in myself that it can be done. Now, to just keep my but in gear! Wish me luck! 

Magnet Make-up Board, another Pinterest inspiration!

So here we are, yet again. Another Pinterest inspiration. I actually had intention of posting this a LONG time ago right after I had made this. But, as you know, time slipped away from me. It was October so the hustle and bustle of the holidays was right within grasp as well as finals and just the normal craziness that happens from October-Jan for just about everyone! My cousin turned 15 in early October and I struggled with what to get her. I have lately turned to making gifts for people since its a lot cheaper, you can give something one of a kind, and with all the fabulous ideas on Pinterest, it gave a crafty person like me a reason to try something new!

Here was my inspiration:



Found on Pinterest via LauraThoughts81.blogspot.com



Here is what I came up with:

This was actually so easy to make! I did supply her with magnets so that if she wanted to use it as a make-up board she could, but she could also use it for what ever needs she found suited her best. I just thought it turned out funky and fun and just perfect for her! Here is the process of how I made this magnet board:

First, I found a cheap frame at the thrift store that had great shape and an awesome design in the molding. Its obviously an ugly frame but it had great potential! I only paid $4 for the frame!! WooHoo!!



Then I had to find something that the magnets could stick to that was light enough to work with. So, the best thing I could find was this Galvanized Flashing. I'm not sure what the actual use for this is, however it was inexpensive and was perfect for what I needed it for. The roll cost about $13 however, there is enough flashing here for me to do about 20 more smaller frames. Needless to say this was a purchase that will come in handy for many other projects down the road. I would say I used about $2 worth of the product, roughly.





Next I just traced out what I needed, then painted the frame a shiney black color.

Now, I didn't want the metal to show so I found some fabric that was on sale at Walmart that I thought would really "pop" in her room. If you have seen my daughters bright neon green walls in her bedroom, then you would be familiar with my cousins walls as its the exact same green color. I felt this pink cheetah fabric, that I only paid $1.20 for, would really work well against the green!

The hardest part of this whole project was finding a way to attach the fabric covered metal piece to the frame so that it would hold. I tried hot glue, super glue, just about 5 different glues I could find around my house. It finally held but lets just say the back is something left to be desired lol. Lucky it wont get seen and all you will see is the fabulous front! It turned out to be a hit and she loved it! I'm thinking of making myself one for the kitchen to keep track of notes, school papers, and reminders. Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

 

Stove top scents!

I hope everyone is enjoying their Holiday season and have hopefully managed to get most of their shopping done. I still have a ton do buy and do but it will all get done sooner then later I hope :). I'm not sure what the appropriate name for this would be, so I'm just calling it Stove top scents. This scent will fill your entire home with the most beautiful scent just perfect for the Holidays. The best part is its extremely cheap to make and almost all the ingredients were already in my pantry! Who doesn't love stuff when its almost FREE?! Here are the ingredients I used for this stove top scent but you can honestly change it to how ever you want your home to smell.

•Apple Juice (optional, I used about 2 cups worth)
•Water, just enough to fill the pot about 3/4 of the way after adding the apple juice
•Orange Zest (as much as you can get off that sucker!)
•Orange slices (I only used half the orange)
•Apple slices (I only used am half again)
**Fresh Cranberries would be wonderful in this as well!**
•About 1-2 teaspoons of cinnamon, nutmeg, and pumpkin spice.
•1 tablespoon vanilla extract
•1 tablespoon whole cloves

Place all your spices into a big pot on the stove and set the heat to high. Cook on high just until it starts to boil. Once it starts boiling, turn down to a low simmer and cook how ever long you want :) You want to make sure you keep your eye on the pot, if the water starts to get low you need to continue to add water, do not let all the water evaporate out. This pot of scents will last you about a week. YES! A whole WEEK! I haven't had it going a week, only one day but Ive done some research and every thing I have read said you can keep the mixture for a week and it will continue to smell amazing the whole week.

Remember, there are tons of options to this! Any spices you have that you think would create the scents you want your home filled with, add them! You could even probably add any scent oils if you have any of those. The options are endless! And you can use as much or as little as you want. Use less if you want a more subtle smell and use more if you want to make sure everyone smells it right when they first walk into your home. Either way you will be so happy you tried this! Happy Holidays Everyone!

Lauren Holmes

GIVEAWAY!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends and all the food your tummies could handle! The Thanksgiving Holiday weekend is coming to an end and Christmas is on its way here! So, just in time for sending out those Holiday cards I have a giveaway for you. Actually, not me, but I'm providing you with the link to a GREAT giveaway that is sure to be something you all could use! One of my long time friends that I grew up with from grade school (We were girl scouts together too! "On my Honor!" hehehe) has her very own blog and its filled with lots of fun pictures, stories, and other fun stuff almost all about DISNEY! You can check her out at Domestically Hip. Could it be any better really?! Her photos are great and I just love learning so much about Disney and all the fun things to see and do for our up and coming trip in the spring by all the fun stuff she posts! This giveaway is for a code to redeem for FREE Holiday picture cards from Shutterfly and a FREE Calender! Yes, FREE! All you have to do to win is this:

1. Follow my Blog and Twitter :) <----This is not part of the contest, but any help I can get the better :)

2. Go to HERE to find out the rules of the contest.

Its that simple! Good Luck to all!! Hope everyone is able to recover from their food comas just in time to get back to normal on Monday!! Happy Holidays everyone!!

A moment of realization.

The past couple weeks, really months, have truly given me alot of time to think about many things in my life and the direction that our paths have led us. When I say "us" I mean myself, ofcorse, and my family. Its so funny how when you vision your future, what it will look like and who will be in it you don't always foresee what will actually take place and who will truly be the ones to impact and influence your life. Almost exactly 2 years ago our family, my husband (then fiance) and our daughter moved to a new town. The move was inspired by the fact that I was no longer employed to be able to stay home and take care of our daughter and he was driving 45 minutes to work and back every day. And with the hours he was pulling with many 16-18 hour days at work as well as the price of gas sky rocketing, moving was what made perfect sense. I had so many mixed emotions about how this would effect our lives. Where were we actually going to be living? Who would be our neighbors? Would I like it there? I was ready for a change that is for sure! I think we all sometimes get in a rut in our lives and sometimes we feel a fresh start in a new place is just the thing to get us out of it. I was not so certain about how I was going to feel about being 45 min. away from family and friends, but I did know that I wanted more time with my husband and to maybe start saving back a little bit of money for our future instead of waisting it on gallons and gallons of high priced fuel. At the time we were living in a tiny two bedroom duplex in the middle of town in a cramped neighborhood filled with nothing but teens and college students. It wasn't the ideal neighborhood for a young family starting out. It wasn't a "bad" neighborhood, you just didn't see too many families and certainly not very many, if any, kids for my daughter to someday "befriend". We were able to find a home about 15 mins out from my husbands work located in a very small (were talking the kind with one stop sign and a gas station) town. It was a two bedroom home, which was about twice the size of the duplex that sat on 5 acres of land. At the time all I could think about was "YAY! My daughter can run and play and run and play and run some more!!" I was so excited that we could have some privacy and we could have all the room to play outside in actual grass! We had only about 10 feet of grass at the duplex. So, we turned in our notice at the duplex, packed up a UHaul, packed up about 4 cars and a trailer and moved out of town! Little did I know how much my life would shift and how different things would be for me....

For about the first year or so I was pretty...I guess bored would be the best way to describe it. I enjoyed being with my daughter every day, don't get me wrong! I was and am still VERY blessed that I am able to spend so much time with her and be there for her every day. Its a blessing that I would not change for the world and I'm fully aware of how lucky in a way that I am and don't take it for granted one single bit. But, we were so used to seeing friends and family on a regular basis, having many play dates with other friends of mine and their kids that when we moved to the "new" home and weren't able to just run down the street to visit "so and so" that it became very boring in a sense. Gracie and I started to become very cranky all the time. We started falling into another rut and just began to see no end in site. I didn't know any one in our area and honestly I started feeling a little depressed. I had nothing that was mine in a sense. No outlet for my day to day stress. Nothing for me to do, no "me" time. Not to mention, it wasn't long after we moved in that we found out we had a HORRIBLE land lord who pretty much neglects to fix anything in the home until it is completely falling apart, literally, and takes months before he gets around to doing anything about them when he actually does fix them. He never returns phone calls, doesn't fix the issues correctly, and has even gone months without cashing the rent checks we have mailed him. We live in a nice home, but in the manor to which he takes care of the home, it will not last before the home will need major repairs. With our plans to buy a home back in our hometown I have found myself praying and wishing we would be back there sooner than later. I have found myself saying "I hate this place" and "I just wish we could get out of here!" Little did I know that my heart would have planted itself and grown roots in places I could have never seen coming!

Soon, I looked into going back to school and found that because I was a "single mom" at the time I was able to go to school and have it paid for! YAY! This gave me something to do, something that would help better myself and continue plans I had made many years ago before I became a mommy. I started to feel like I was investing in myself again :).

I think the biggest challenge that I had to face since moving here was to put myself out there. I had been in the same town, had remotely the same friends, hung around the same people since high school so "making friends" just wasn't something I ever thought about or even really had to try to do. I wasn't a majorly popular person, but we just knew so many people that there was always someone to hang around, always something going on. Granted, when we had our daughter the friends sorta limited to those that also had children and limited our outings to events that allowed me or my husband to bring a child. But once we moved here, I seemed to be to new kid in town and so I had to some how find a way to meet new people. Well, that soon became one of the best things ever! I was so lucky that my husband had already made so many great friends at work. He had established friendships with a great group of men from his work that were also apart of the CERT team and considered them family long before I had truly gotten to know them. Soon we started getting invited to friend gatherings, birthday parties, night on the towns, etc... I started to pay attention to these already friends of Cat's and noticed that these great group of guys also had wonderful wives and great kids and they were all interested in the same types of things that I was into. Some had kids around the same age as Gracie, while some had some a little older, but still young enough to be able to play with our daughter. It wasn't long before the number of events/get together that we were going to with this group of people became more frequent and I really started getting to know these women. We started to become friends on facebook and really becoming great friends in person. We started having play dates together and it just grew from there.

Now let me just say for the record. I still completely ADORE my friends from back home. I still miss them VERY much and I cherish the time that I do get to see them. I wish it were more often and I hate that I am missing out on so much of their lives. Laci, a good friend and also my hair dresser, is one that I love catching up with and gossiping about fun and exciting things going on around us and she just makes me laugh and I love being around her. Amy, a great great GREAT friend of mine! We worked together and soon realised we actually graduated together lol and now she has two beautiful children (one of which I have yet to even meet :( ....) is someone that I love getting together with when ever I can. She is such a fun girl and I always have a crazy and exciting time when I hang out with her. She makes me feel young again and just knows how to have a fun time! Many others from my home town that I could go on and on about that I miss every day! I don't want it to go unsaid how much I miss and love you :)

But when you move away and are in a new place with no one around to talk to and no one to hang out with, you gotta do something right?! lol. You cant just sit around and mope about how boring life has become. You cant sit and think that now because you are a mommy that your life is over and you cant have some fun too! No, you have to work with what ya got! You have to see the new changes in your life as a challenge and face them and know that you can be everything you were before mommy days, just find a way to do it AND enjoy your little ones at the same time :) You have to put yourself out there and meet new people. I have to say that I couldn't be more blessed with some of the new friends I have made over the last two years since we moved here. Its so funny how it all turned out but in so many ways I'm so grateful and thankful for them everyday! Both the old and new friends ;)

After putting myself out there, overcoming the fear of meeting new people I am one happy momma :) Today, I am a member of the YMCA that I enjoy going to with my dear friend Nicki! I love going to Zumba classes and working out with her. We also enjoy taking our kiddoes every now and then to go swimming at their awesome indoor pool! I also enjoy going on play dates with her to Micky D's when we get the chance. She is my one friend that is also a stay at home mom/student so we are able to make play date trips out during the week. And one of my most favorite things to do is Coupon Nights! Its a night were myself and the girls, some of which are wives of other officers that my husband works with and great friends of mine, and a few are just some great friends. We all get together about once every 2-3 weeks and clip coupons, trade deals, gossip, eat food, gossip, eat some more food... ;). Its a GREAT time and I get excited for it every time its coming up. I love getting together with those girls and just catching up on whats going on in their lives. They are all great women who are strong and inspiring and I honestly learn so much from them when I am around them. They are women that I look up to and truly feel blessed that I can call them my friends!

I guess the whole point of this is that, even though I still cannot wait for the day that we can buy a home, one that is sentimental to us as a family, and one that will put us near family and our old friends again. I could have never imagined that I may have started to actually make friendships and relationships with people here that will just tear me up inside to leave behind. These women all bring many different things to my life that have all impacted me in great ways and even in just two years have changed me as a person, as a mom, and as a friend. They have given me more then they will ever know. They have been there for me, laughed with me, some even danced with me lol. They have taught me things about myself that I never knew and for that I am grateful. And even though those plans of purchasing a home and leaving this town are so far no where in sight as of yet, I still think about it frequently, about the day I actually move away. And as silly as it sounds, its only 45 minutes away. Its not like I'm leaving and going so far away I will never see them again. And our husbands will still work together and they will still be in our lives. But I wont be close enough for play dates :(, and workout dates, and coupon nights.... It will truly leave an empty spot inside my heart. They will never know how much it will hurt. So I will enjoy the time I have with them now even more and more then I did before. I will listen closer, and laugh harder. I will be more of a friend then I was before and hopefully I can leave them with the same lasting impression that they have left upon me. So to those of you, and you know who you are, I love you and am blessed to know you!

XOXOXO and many blessings,
                                Lauren Holmes

Whats new with you?!

Hello fellow friends and blog world! I haven't posted in awhile, and thought I would stop in and say good morning! Alot has been going on the the Holmes household, enough to make our heads spin! We've had some fun moments and then they all ended with an incident with my car that has now left me without a vehicle. But we wont talk about that lol. I thought I would update everyone on what we have been up to this summer. We have had a pretty good summer so far and honestly, I'm very sad that its coming to a quick end. Gracie and I both start school again next month as well as we will celebrate her 3rd Birthday!! I cant believe my baby is growing up! Its honestly like a sick joke to a parent to watch your babies grow up and need you less and less. Anyways, back to our summer!

This summer we have spent ALOT of our days at the splash pad with our great friends the Erskine's! You can check out Nicki's blog here.



Gracie playing with the water guns

This is the "magic sensor" that turns the water back on once its turned off. :)

   At the beginning of the summer some of my family, Gracie and I went camping along the river! We had a great time, however our camp site location was horrible! The site was great, we LOVED the location, except we had HORRIBLE neighbors who partied all through the night. The crazy thing about that was that they literally never went to sleep the entire 2.5 days we were there! They had the worlds largest bon fire going, biggest one I had ever seen, and drank endless amounts of beer and insisted on yelling profanities the whole weekend. I was honestly shocked that people could act like that. I understand that when people have to much to drink the say and do things they wouldn't normally do. And then you wake up the next morning with a hang over and cant imagine drinking that much again for awhile and act "normal" again. Well, not these people. These were grown adults, with small children with them as well. We complained the first night, waiting until around 10 or 11 to even say anything, and they took that as a personal insult and continued to do what ever they could to make our trip uncomfortable. After the first night when we complained, they continued to stay up all night, party as loud as they could and then at 8am the next morning started banging on pots and pans as hard as they could and yelling "Its time to wake up! Its 8am!!" I'm telling you these people were crazy! Not to mention, the camp resort we stayed at had two main camp areas. One was a camp area mainly for those that want to stay up later and party and have a good time. The second camp area, where we were staying, was designated for families, those that want a low key camping weekend. I don't understand why these men and woman were acting that badly, but all I can say is that I think more than just alcohol had something to do with it. No normal human being acts like that, even if they were irritated that we complained and rained on there parade! Even the last morning their dog came over to our camp site and proceeded to relieve himself ON OUR camp site. We shooed the dog away and they came over towards us puffing their chests telling us "He's just taking a p**s". Anyways, we were lucky that during the day we were having so much fun on the river that we didn't even bother to think about the crazy group most of the time we were there. We still cant wait for our trip next year and just hope to not have scary crazy neighbors!!



My cousin, her friend, and Gracie catching fire flies :)



My mom and sister hangin out!



My crazy cousin on our horse back ride. She's such a goof ball!

Everyone lined up and about to head out on the trail :)

Trying to get a picture of me and Gracie on our horse. No horse in the picture but you get the idea :)

 After we have packed up the campsite and head home, we stop at the Pizza Hut just on our way out of town. Its our last meal of the trip and our tradition to do every year. We always sit in the large back room that always seems to have no one else back there and we just have a fun crazy time. There are these candy and game machines back there and one of them has nothing but face facial hair "stickers" and some even have fake moles!! Its so funny, and the girls spend crazy amounts of money ever year putting money into the machine to see what facial hair or mole they will be so lucky to get. We get some great pictures and it really is alot of fun!

My crazy cousin and her best friend with their lovely mustaches lol

My other crazy cousin with her beard lol.

One afternoon we decided to take the kids to see the new movie Cars 2.



This was the best picture I could get since it was dark and I couldn't see what was going on lol

 Then, just last week a good friend of mine and I took our kids who are just a few days apart in age to the Zoo. We had alot of fun, even though the temps got over 105 degrees that day lol.

We started the morning off by catching a Sea Lion show.



This is Gracie and Little Z man, he's such a cute little guy! I love this picture, such an honest feeling between a boy and a girl lol. They really do like each other, just not at this moment I guess lol.





It was so neat to be front row! The Sea Lion demonstration was right in front of us. I sure enjoyed it but Gracie wanted nothing to do with it being so close!



Then we took the little ones on a carousel ride. They had alot of fun!



Of course, we couldn't leave the Zoo without making a trip to see the new baby Elephant. She is only a few months old and just so cute!! She squeaks and is a very playful "little" thing, comparatively...lol

 Overall, this has been a great summer! I'm having so much fun with Gracie. Its so sad that she is getting older and growing up, but at the same time its so fun that she is able to do more things and last longer in the day without naps. We have so much fun together, I just wish Daddy was able to join us more often :( But he is such a good daddy who works so hard to provide for Gracie and I. We sure do love him :) However, this weekend he is taking some time off of work and we are going to spend the weekend in TX visiting my Aunt and picking up my sister to bring her back to the good ole state of OK for school. It should be a great weekend!!

I hope all of you are having a wonderful summer as well, despite the heat! I don't normally say this but I'm honestly ready for fall to get here, if nothing more then for some temperature relief!

New and Improved!

Yes, I know. Another stay-at-home mommy blog. If there aren't already a million others out there, and probably every single one if them is way cooler, more informative, way more interesting then this blog is. My mission in life is to be the best mom, wife, friend, person that I can be. I've learned so many things from my family and friends over the years that have helped mold me into the person I am today. I only hope to use this blog as a sort of notebook of all the things that I learn along the journy of my life and maybe you will find something of interest to you :).

So in rediscovering my blog (Thank you Pink Chicky for inspiring me to get back into this btw!!), I have wanted to find a way to have everything more organized and put together. That way its easy to find specific topics I post about. It took me awhile but I have finaly finished what is now the new Holmes Sweet Holmes blogging home page! Im so excited and cant wait to start posting and blogging! Stay tuned because I have alot of neat ideas/recipes/crafts and just plain fun stuff to share with you all!