Valentine's Day....a week early

So, since I was about to start NutriSystem (Tuesday February 9th)...I didn't want to have a big ole cheat on Valentine's day BEFORE I'd even weighed for the first time....SO we technically had our Valentine's Day on Monday February 8th (which happened to be a furlough Day for me)...the boy was at Daycare, so my hubster and I were able to be alone :)  Normally we don't get to do anything ON Valentine's Day anyhow, because everyone ELSE gets to have Valentine's Day LOL (meaning no babysitter because everyone else is out celebrating)...so why NOT do it a week early!  We started off the morning with some Facturas for breakfast!

 

With Yerba Mate' con leche of COURSE:

 

For lunch we had an Argentine meal consisting of Entrana....mmmm my most FAVOURITE:

 

with Ensalada and some Argentine Cider :)

Was definitely a YUM day!  Then on to the gifts!!!  No flowers, no chocolate we did GIFTS...LOL which is okay with me!!  Oscar opted to have a new PS3 game:

 

For the boy we got him his OPTIMUS PRIME that he'd been asking for!

 

And myself...well I got a snazzy pair of boots i'd had my eye on from the Boot Barn!!!:

 

So yeah it was a good day :)  The next day I started NutriSystem...so it was a nice send off LOL.  I am proud to announce I did NOT cheat on actual Valentine's Day!!  I will however be cheating on my birthday which is coming soon!  But that is one of the reasons I did NOT cheat on V day...gotta have priorities!!  

A VERY Yummy Surprise

Sooooo I received my NutriSystem order on Monday night at 9pm!!  I had given up at 7pm thinking it was NOT going to arrive!  Who knew that UPS would deliver at 9pm!  I was stoked as I had planned to start the very next day!  So all jazzed I unpacked my GIANT box of food..none of which needs to be refridgerated!!  YAY.  My Toddler was even happy when I finished unpacking the box and immediately jumped IN the box ready to be shipped!  Wish i'd gotten a picture of that! 

SO...Tuesday (yesterday) I started this diet!  Much to my WONDERFUL surprise, this food is TASTY and rocks!!!  I had a CHOCOLATE CHIP....yes Chocolate Chip SCONE for breakfast which was really really really good!  At lunch time I had a rice, kidney bean and sausage meal...pretty darned good!  Dinner I had a Pulled BBQ Pork Wrap...YUMMEH and dessert...yep Dessert was a MINT CHOCOLATE Patty cookie....mmmm that was MOST excellent!!  The food today has thus far ROCKED as well.  This is something I can definitely get used to!  They know what they are doing in the taste department that is for SURE.  Then you can add fruits and veggies etc to your meals.  Its a beautiful thing thus far!  I shall start taking pictures of these wonderful treats in the future so you all can see what i'm talking about!

I am on my way to the land of the SKINNY...with awesome tasty chocolatey food!  I have carrot cake waiting for me at home tonight...yeah you heard me!!

Your Order Has been Shipped!!!

I just LOVE those words!  Especially when its something you are really looking forward to!  Okay, so those of you who know me, know that I dumped some weight awhile back.  Well i've just been kinda maintaining that weight which is GOOD..but I always kinda wanted to dump about 20 more lbs....so here I go bitches!!  I have ordered.....drum roll please:

 

That's right...NutriSystem!!!  I am a person who does EXTREMELY well with packaged food.  Always have.  I am one of those rare people who does BETTER with limited choices.  LOL..most people want to diet but still be able to eat whatever they want to choose.  When I decide to diet, i'm pretty darned disciplined.  When I originally first lost weight...I went COLD TURKEY low carb..no pun intended LOL...literally went from being a fast food junkie to eating next to NO carbs.  Never looking back.  To THIS DAY I still do NOT eat french fries very often.  It has to be a HUGE special occasion.  Probably in the last 4 years I've had french fries about 3 times.  No joke.  But its because I knew that was one of the vices.  One of the things I liked a little too much..therefore I had no choice but to eliminate it.    So last night I decided..no more futzing around...even though i'm not GAINING weight, I also haven't been losing and its time to start losing again.  So at 9:30pm last night...I placed an order with NutriSystem.  This morning I just received an email saying my order has been shipped!  WOOT.  4 to 10 days it should arrive.  I'm looking forward to this!  Now my birthday is coming up...will I be having a birthday meal on my bday...HELL TO THE YES...i'm not into deprivation LOL...however the very next day I shall pick right back up where I left off!  Come summer i'm going to be barely visible!  LOL...

And the journey begins......

when the food arrives.......

which is hopefully sooner than later........

And then the ACTUAL journey will begin.......

Okay done for now...... 

 

Friends are Priceless

This weekend I had a chance to go out with 3 friends I hadn't seen in about 20 years!  I reunited with these friends because of Facebook!  I know some people aren't down with the whole Facebook thing, but I think its wonderful...especially since it brought me back to my friends of the past!  2 of these ladies went to ELEMENTARY school with me!  Now that is going WAY back!!!!  They are STILL the most wonderful girls that I remember them to be!  We had such a wonderful time reminiscing and getting to know each other again.  There were lots of giggles and stories and even a GIANT piece of carrot cake!  This was indeed a blast and I hope to do it again real SOON!!

Frustrated

So for almost a year now i've been quiet, supportive and laid back about the whole situation of my husband not working.  He was laid off back in March and has yet to find work.  I'm starting to panic now.  I feel pressure of being the only person working..and the fact that i'm furloughed has really not helped at all!  I am literally making a poverty level salary right now...i'm pretty sure of that.  Then my medical insurance went up and put me even that much farther behind.  The situation of knowing that I will NEVER make more money in my current position is very frustrating...yet I can't risk finding another job in this economy where I will end up bottom of the totem pole with no status should layoff come up.  At least where I work, it would take a while for them to get to me should layoff's arise.  I should be feeling grateful that I have SOMETHING...yet i'm not.  I'm currently having a pity party.  And I think I deserve it.  I've spent a year ignoring the severity of the situation and keeping a positive attitude and recently its hitting me that I feel too much pressure and I am not happy with the current situation.  My husband is in NO way to blame.  He's a hard worker.  He spends every single day looking for work only to come up with dead ends.  I'm SURE this is even more frustrating for him.  He gets passed up all the time by others who either have more experience or don't have a strong latin accent.  YES i'm sure he's been discrminated against because of this.  And these are $10 an hour jobs and he's still not getting them.  The economy is horrible right now.  I'm feeling pressure to find a part time job to ADD to my full time job.  No one is asking me to do this, but i'm feeling that I should.  This will all be very sad for me as it will mean less time with my husband and my 3 year old son.  But what else am I to do?  I can't force people to hire my husband.  Its all out of my control and that just makes me feel helpless.  I think my recent bantering of wanting to leave California so badly lately is MOSTLY due to this....this and my EXTREME fear of earthquakes...I should never have been born in California for this fact...seriously.  But that is a whole other story.  I just don't know what to do right now.  Things at this point seem helpless to me.  I told you I was having a GIANT pity party.  But right now that's where i'm at.  Maybe in a few days or a month i'll crawl out from underneath my pity party...but right now i'm there.  Table for one.

TELL ME WHERE TO LIVE!!!

LOL okay so finding out where you want to live is a royal PAIN IN THE ASS!!!  So much research put into this...interrogating others as to WHY they like and don't like where they are living.  Who's economy is decent...who's sucks etc.  Its all very mind boggling.  So I went to this website:  findyourspot.com and type in all my info.  It asks you a series of questions and then according to your answers gives you a list of places that would best suit your likes/dislikes...here is what mine came up with: 

Jacksonville Florida
Houston Texas
Orlando Florida
Charleston South Carolina
Agusta Georgia
Fort Worth Texas
Tampa Florida
West Palm Beach Florida
Nashville Tennessee
Dallas Texas
Oklahoma City Oklahoma
Memphis Tennessee
Gainsville Florida
Tallahassee Florida
Greenville South Carolina
Galveston Texas
Clarksville Tennessee
Hattiesburg Mississippi
Clearwater Florida
Braedenton Florida
Beaumont Texas
Port Arthur Texas
Tulsa Oklahoma
Atlanta Georgia

Interesting that there is NO WEST COAST in there anywhere!!  Which is where I currently am.  I think someone is telling me to live in Florida or Texas or that region.  Well, truth is, we have kicked around Florida.  SO...maybe Tampa?  Not sure yet.  When Oscar took this quiz, he got all these PODUNK towns in the South and East!  VERY odd places i've never even heard of...and with Snow..which i'm NOT fond of.  SO we've decided to take this quiz together to see what we come up with compromising.  This is no easy feat let me tell you..and this is the easy part!!


I need a drink.

California....NOT what it used to be....

Remember when California was considered the best place to go?  The best weather, pretty people, palm trees, gorgeous beaches etc?  Everyone saw California on the TV and immediately wished they could live here!!...Well its all a lie people.  Its a lie.  Unless you are a person of a wealthier stature, then California is for the SHITS.  I kid you not.  California has become the dumping ground for complete CRAP.  Los Angeles...most of it is nasty.  They don't show you that on the TV.  Usually on the TV they show you parts of Beverly Hills or upper class neighborhoods that make everything look so darned awesome!  But the reality is...most of Southern California is smog infested....we can BARELY even see the mountains...the public school system sucks..you have to worry about whether your child will actually learn something or whether he'll come home having been harrassed by other kids all day.  The schools are overcrowded, everything is chaos.  My child is only 3 and in a WONDERFUL daycare where he learns alot from a wonderful lady who is a retired school teacher.  I want to get out of California before my child becomes school age.  I want him to grow up in a HOUSE that we can actually AFFORD, in a nice neighborhood with other kids, a nice school where he learns the things he needs to learn.  A place where we don't have to Upper Class just to own something nice.  A place where people actually look at you and maybe even speak to you...a porch, a backyard...maybe even 4 seasons.  Is this too much to ask?  California has become in my opinion one of THE most horrid places in all of the U.S. with a FAILING economy that has very little chance of recovering itself in this decade.  Its so hard to be able to just pick up and move though....finding work, finding a place to live...most people won't hire you over the phone...yet there is no way of moving unless you first secure a job in another place...at least that is how I feel.  I'm not keen on the idea of moving with nothing waiting.  I have to have secured a job with benefits before I can uproot my family.  But I shall keep on viewing the possibilities out there....

Anyone out there in Blogville LOVE where they live??  If so, tell me about it...