The Lone Start Love Potion

This was the most recent production at Masquers Theater in Soap Lake. It was a hysterical comedy with lots twists and turns and surprises. Chris and I really enjoyed it and laughed so hard!

Here are some of my favorite shots from the play.

The basic premise is that the owner of a big huge ranch in Texas dies and everyone gathers for the reading of the will. The niece inherits the ranch, but the butler, Jarvis is allowed to stay and live there for the rest of his life. Jarvis then brings out a bottle and a letter all about this formula for a love potion. The twist is that it works backwards, making the person who drinks it completely irresistible to those who smell them. The sample of the love potion gets tried out on different people throughout the play with hysterical results.

The other cool thing about this production is that I was invited to design the program for the play. I worked with my friend Holli and put together some great western elements. Here are a couple of the pages I created. So proud of how this turned out.

I love being included in things at the theater. This was a fun one to work on. I’m going to be taking the headshots for the next play tonight, and will be doing that program too. Excited for these little jobs and the experience.

Do you enjoy local theater?
What is your favorite play?
Do you like comedy or drama or musicals the best?

Project Life Weeks 5 and 6

I bought a refill for my dymo label maker and decided to use that on my scripted week cards to show the dates of each week. I love that its still black and white, little enough to not loose the impact of the scripting, but does the job. I’ve since gone back and added the date range to weeks 1-4.

So today I have weeks 5 and six to share.

Week 5 began with a trip to visit Hannah (and baby Harper) for a new haircut and color. I really wanted to get to a platinum blonde color, and we almost got there. See my Hair Diaries post here. The first of February brought the beginning of my Life Scripted class at Studio Calico. I was invited to be a model at my friend’s CAbi party and had so much fun. Fitting into smaller size clothes and trying on tons of outfits was a blast.

On the weekend Chris and I went to Wenatchee to celebrate our Half-aversary (just a few weeks late) and I got Chris a brand new acoustic guitar as a gift. We enjoyed steaks at Applebee’s and did a little shopping for grey boots for me. And Sunday was the Superbowl! The Seahawks won, and it was neat to watch with some real Seahawks fans. So glad we were invited to watch with Cliff and Stacey and their family.

Here is week 6.

February brought some snow to our little town finally. The best part of it was being able to shovel our driveway without getting winded or having to stop half-way through. I got to go for a lunch with my friend Holli and have some girl talk that we both desperately needed. And I did a ton of practicing and creating for my Life Scripted class. I am falling in love with this art form.

Chris and I have worked together to create some great HCG recipes that we really love and enjoy eating. Its been great to share these recipes with people on my blog. Friday was our first read-through of our next play at Masquers called “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” And on the 9th I was under 190lbs!! An exciting milestone.

There are lots more Project Life posts on the way…I’m only a week behind in creating the pages but a little more behind in sharing. Hehe. Man, I love this way of memory keeping.

Love is Louder

This Kid President…he speaks truth. So touched by this video I had to share it.

“You’re awake…you’re awesome! Live like it.”

And if you’re needing a bit of a pep talk today, he’s got you covered there too.

Transformation Tuesday

I read an amazing book recently about one woman’s journey through weight gain and loss. I saw myself in so much of what she said, but nothing hit me quite like this quote she included:

“Those who do not move, do not notice their chains.”

That was so true of who I was before we began this journey. I was “content” and “happy with myself” because I didn’t know any different. I just was, and wasn’t moving. I was stagnant in so many ways, physically and emotionally. And because I didn’t “move” I didn’t feel how tied down I was…I didn’t notice my chains.

But looking back on myself at that point from this point…oh man! I was completely a prisoner to the food I was eating and the lifestyle I was leading. Bad choices, and too large of portions, and drinking pop, and sneaking treats, and eating whole loaves of bread in a day. I didn’t see those things as holding me down…I thought that meant I was in control. But things were out of control and I was completely captive to it. I was being held by invisible chains.

And then something clicked in my head and as we started to make changes, drastic ones, I could really see and feel those chains that were holding me down. And I wanted to bust free! And so we’ve been working hard together as a couple to bust free of our chains.

In preparation for this Transformation Tuesday post Chris and I went to our favorite photography spot and recreated some pictures from when we were at our heaviest. The wind was blowing like crazy, so don’t mind my hair!

Images on the left are from October of 2011. Images on the right are from March 16, 2014.

I am truly blown away by these pictures. Our clothes are just hanging off of us. We have really come a long way these last few months, and I think you can see it in our faces. We feel freer… we are freer! We’ve still got more work to do… weight to drop and muscle to build, but the changes we’ve made have been internal and external and monumental.

We’re busting free of our chains!

March : Currently

grateful for the warmth of the spring sunshine.

loving lime flavored seltzer water. Helps with my pop cravings.

determined to make the most of the creative opportunities in front of me.

honored that my boss had enough confidence in me to go on vacation for 2 weeks and leave me to hold down the fort.

feeling like I need to go for a pedicure sometime soon.

eating when I’m hungry and stopping when I’m not, which is a huge shift for me that is having a big impact.

asking for your opinion on what camera I should buy: a full frame Canon 6D or the cropped sensor (and cheaper) 70D? Thoughts?

happy that my dad came out of his surgery okay on Friday and is already improving.

accepting my challenge to myself and knocking it out of the park!

watching The Voice and Suits again on HULU.

reading a recommendation from my boss called “Code Name Verity.” I love the friendship portrayed in the story. Can’t wait to really dig into it.

wondering if we’ll be able to sell our Mercury Cougar this spring. I hate paying for a car we’re not using!

wanting to have a date night with my husband soon.

What are you up to currently?
And please share your camera opinions below!

Project Life update

With my office in transition, and no time to set up my new Canon Selphy printer, I’ve been a little delayed in creating and sharing my pages. But with the help of my prolific instagramming habit and picture taking I’ve been able to put together my pages relatively quickly. Its time like these I’m glad I’ve got a great memory and take good notes!

So today I have 2014 weeks 3 and 4 to share with you. Again, I’m using my brush scripted week cards. Still working on what I’ll do to list the actual dates in there, but I’m sure something will come to me!

Here is Week 3.

On Monday we were finishing out our “date weekend” and drove home by way of Wenatchee. I did some work while we were driving and snapped this cool picture of what I dubbed my “mobile office.” We went to the new Public Market there in Wenatchee and enjoyed some gelato and bought some specialty olive oil. Then we went and saw The Book Thief.

On Tuesday we spent the afternoon in the dentist’s office waiting for Chris to be seen for an emergency visit. His face was swollen up so bad and he was in so much pain. He did like the dentist we eventually ended up seeing, so that was good. My sister Megan made a quick trip down that evening to pick up some merchandise for the spa. It was nice to see her even for just a little bit.

The rest of my week consisted of a couple really long days finishing up the HAZWOPER curriculum for an NICA class. There was editing of content and formatting of pages and printing of 20 books… a HUGE task. But I’m really proud of the finished product!

This week was also the one-year anniversary of having Gibson in our lives. We did a special photoshoot with our little one.

Then there was a party for our friends Jimmy and Marla. I wrote a bit about what their friendship means to us and how excited we are for the next part of their journey at Couple’s School.

Its amazing to me sometimes how much can get crammed into a week of my life. I love this project for being able to take things one picture or memory at a time and really savor it. I used a lot of the Sunshine Edition cards this week again, along with some stickers from my stash. I am getting to the point where I need to get a tray or something to house all my cards so I can see and use them.

And here is Week 4.

Week 4 was consumed by our HAZWOPER class. It is a 40 hour Advanced Disaster Site Worker that ended up being filled with Jehovah’s Witnesses, which made for a pretty special week. We used the curriculum I helped to build and prepare, did hands-on activities like Decon and barrel handling.

On Wednesday we didn’t provide a lunch like usual, we made the class eat food out of their Go-Bags! Made for a fun afternoon full of little cook stoves and 2000 calorie bars. I got to wear a cowboy hard hat the day we did our Confined Space training and I really enjoyed getting to know the teaching crew that Kris put together better. I learned a lot this week; lessons that will impact me for the rest of my life. This job is so valuable to me!

I added a picture of our On Sunday of this week Chris and I started another round of HCG and these are my starting pictures. Its been amazingly helpful to share pictures and stories from this journey the last few weeks. I’m glad for this space online I have to share.

Well, its back to the office rearranging for me! And maybe a few more layouts. I just love this project. 

Things I love Thursday

It has been a long time since I did one of these TILT posts, but as usual, the internet has been super inspiring and I had some interesting things to share.

 

>>>> Since I decided to start sharing my weight loss journey, I’ve discovered many on the same path via instagram. Hashtags are pretty cool for connecting you with like-minded people. Jennifer and Diana have been super inspiring to me, and I love their before and after (during) pictures.

>>>> I haven’t really gotten into podcasts in the past, but a couple bloggers that I follow have been diving into this world lately. And Kyla Roma’s first podcast was super informative! All about making your blog a superhero and not a villain. I took pages of notes from this thing. Can’t wait till she does more!

>>>> The ladies over at A Beautiful Mess have started doing a monthly book club. February was The Fault in our Stars, a book I absolutely loved, and their selection for March is The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri. I just placed a hold on a copy from my library with my Kindle app. Looking forward to reading along and discussing it.

>>>> I loved this post and little video from Melissa Esplin on 5 easy ways to improve your handwriting. Her calligraphy is magical, and I would love to take one of her classes. These little tips are super helpful though!

>>>> I was so moved by this post, even though I’m not a mamma, I think the questions we ask our spouses can have such an impact on our relationship and our days. Totally worth the read. It let to a great conversation between Chris and I.

>>>> And here are some items on my Pinterest Wish List board. Apparently I really dig sweaters this year. I am totally drawn to this Aztec pattern, especially when it includes pink. And now that I have an iPhone 5c I’m scouring the internet for cool cases. This etsy shop has some great ones. And I am desperately needing some organization for my Project Life cards. These carts from Ikea are so cute and useful! 1//2//3//4

What are you loving this week?
Who inspires you?
Please share in the comments below.

Our favorite HCG Phase 2 recipe

This is our go-to meal during Phase 2 of the HCG diet. It calls for 100 grams of chicken breast with all the fat trimmed off, and a ton of cabbage, which is becoming our favorite veggie.

Prepare that and pull out all the spices that you’ll need. We do 2 different versions of this meal at the same time, because Chris likes his really spicy and more like a stir fry and I like mine more like a soup and can’t handle spice at all! We’ll show you both versions.

Be sure to always weigh out your meat for each portion. There is 3 portions of meat shown above, because we usually make enough for Chris or me to have it for lunch the next day too. A tip for keeping your chicken moist: don’t thaw it out all the way so its still got moisture frozen in the middle when you put it in the pan. When slicing your cabbage think about it as if it were the noodles of a soup…so long and stringy. My mom likes to buy the bagged cabbage that’s already cut into strips. It saves a step! And pull out your seasonings: pepper and salt, crushed red pepper (for the spicy version) ground ginger, paprika, onion and garlic powder.

Using virgin coconut oil, heat up your pan on medium-high heat till the oil is shimmering.

Then add your chicken to the pan and lay it out so one side of each piece is touching the pan. As it cooks on the first side add your seasonings.

Flip your chicken pieces to the other side, add a little more seasoning and allow the chicken to brown. At this point, turn your heat down to medium. Once the chicken is browned, add a little powdered stevia for sweetness to counter-balance the flavor of the ginger.

Then add water (or low sodium, no additive chicken broth) to the pan and bring it to a fast simmer. And now its time for the cabbage!

Add it right to the pan and allow it to wilt a bit and cook down with the water and chicken. Stir occasionally to allow the flavors to coat the strips of cabbage. At this point, Chris removes his portion and adds his red pepper flakes and hot sauce. And then I add more water to the pan for mine (I am getting lunch the next day, so there are two servings worth in here).  I enjoy it more like a soup.

And there you have it: Phase 2 HCG friendly Chicken and Cabbage done 2 ways. A fast and easy meal that is one of our favorites.

It is so helpful while on Phase 2 of the HCG diet to think of the foods you can have in different ways. Get creative and you’ll never get bored with the minimal list of acceptable foods.

And this is one recipe that we’ll continue to eat in Phase 3…just adding other things to it like snap peas, carrots, sesame oil and maybe some peanuts. So much variety and lots of healthy options!

Hope this helps some of you out there looking for meal ideas. Check out this post for some other recipes my husband and I have done together and shared.

Have you found any recipes that are fast and easy for your family?
What is your go-to meal on a rushed night?
Please share your recipes and links in the comments below.

March Squat Challenge

This month I’m taking my weight-loss and health goals one step further and adding in some exercise now that we’re done with Phase 2 of our HCG diet. I’m doing a squat challenge for the month of March and invite you to join me! Here is the plan for every day and my goal is to work up to 200 squats on the 31st!

What are the benefits of doing squats? They are a functional exercise that help you perform real-life activities better. They help promote balance, mobility, flexibility and body-wide muscle building. They are awesome for your legs and butt, but also impact your abs and lower back muscles. An overall amazing choice of exercise. I’m really excited to work on this for the month of March.

I decided to keep track of how my body changes so I took before pictures (who me? hehe). I got that TimerCam app on my iPhone for taking self-portraits and it worked really great for these.

So will you join me? Feel free to start with 35 tomorrow, or start at the beginning and just go a couple days into April. I’d love to hear your story and motivation for wanting to try the challenge. Lets encourage each other! I’m using the #marchsquatchallenge on instagram during the month to stay connected. Feel free to join me.

Have you done a month-long fitness challenge before?
Were you successful? What struggles did you face and how did you overcome them?
Please share your stories below in the comments.