Testing My Hand at HTML...

In a nutshell, I'm terrible at this! But, I suppose (like everything else) there is a learning curve here. If anyone has experience in HTML, I will be forever grateful for your expert advice here.

You will notice a number of things on my blog right now:

1) I am using a "borrowed" public blog background and header. Its cute, but not ideal. However, when you first go to my blog, the OLD background loads first, and then changes to the new one. I'm assuming this is due to my faulty coding, but I don't know how to fix it. Suggestions?

2) I've tried to add a menu bar to the top of my site. As you have noticed, my posts are a bit all over the place - I'm enjoying sharing information with my friends and family about my life in general, which is not organized at all but rather sporatic and messy lol - so why not try and give it some order by creating a menu where you can look up relevant posts? However, for the life of me I cannot center the menu at all - I've tried multiple options but its still aligned to the left. Anyone know how to fix this?

3) I read that Blogger does not allow for multiple pages on a blog, but a workaround was to link to various tags (which is what I have done with my current menu bar). However, if anyone knows another (cleaner) option I would very much like to change this.

4) Blogger is nice with its WYSIWYG capability, but I find it to be quite limiting at the same time. Does anyone else have experienc using other sites for blogging? 

Thank you in advance to anyone out there willing to shed some light here!

Diets (Ugh): Part I

To my dear friend Rachel - dieting stinks...

However, after receiving multiple emails from people I am happy to share anything and everything to help my friends succeed in their weight loss goals. It isn't really possible for me to sum up everything in a single post (well, I suppose I COULD, but it would be a long one!) so I'll break it up into a few over the next day or two. 

My experience with dieting did not begin with our Biggest Loser competition. In fact, I didn't even want to do the competition because I was a "happy" camper sitting at my desk with a good ol' bag of chips. Having succeeded, failed, given up and joyously celebrated over diets in the past, I am no fool when it comes to this topic anymore. I have tried multiple things (including many fad diets), and while there are a couple of different methods I used to achieve my current weight loss there is one specific "diet plan" that I will continue to follow for the rest of my life. 

We will call this the Joseph Plan, in dedication to my old personal trainer who endlessly drilled the importance of a proper diet into my brain day in and day out. I assure you, it works (for everyone). 

Step 1 in the Joseph Plan - sign up for a free account at Livestrong.com (specifically due to the free account you will also receive at the Daily Plate, aka MyPlate). YES, there are other websites that track calories, NO I do not believe they are as helpful or as successful (for your reference, the Daily Plate is also available via the Livestrong App for iPhones). 

Step 2 Do not rely on the foods that other people have entered - create your own. I always used my name so it was easy to find the next time (i.e. Abby's Apple). I would gather nutritional data directly from the FDA whenever possible to ensure accuracy (or off labels if available). 

Step 3 If you are able to do so, buy a food scale. You can find inexpensive ones very easily, although I do recommend a digital scale as the manual read ones tend to be a pain in the butt. 

Step 4 Start tracking your calories - make sure you are on a calorie restricted diet (1300-1500 to start) and are eating healthy foods. This is where the Joseph Diet differs from standard "common sense" diets... you want to balance your caloric intake by 1/3 protein, 1/3 carbs and 1/3 fat. 

Please allow me to explain - by carbs I do NOT mean pastas, breads or a Krispy Kreme doughnut... I mean veggies (vegetables are a great sources of healthy carbohydrates). I would also highly recommend cutting out grains for the duration of this diet (all grains, including rice) 

By fats I do NOT mean ice creams, deep fried foods or a delicious Taco Bell burrito (...yummm....), I mean healthy fats like small amounts of olive oil and avocados (be aware... in tablespoon of olive oil has approximately 100 calories and a large sum of your daily allowance of fat). 

Step 5 Balance your meals - have, at a bare minimum, three solid meals per day (breakfast, lunch & dinner) and in each meal, have one protein one fat and one carbohydrate. This will help keep you balanced throughout the day. 

Familiarize yourself with the Daily Nutrition Breakdown pie chart on My Plate, which can be found on the right hand side of your My Plate screen: 

This is a day from my own My Plate account - it isn't ideal, but its close. You want to, ideally, have all percentages be around 33%. 

Step 6 If you are a regular coffee drinker, stop. Yes, this is incredibly painful and if you are anything like me it will result in many many headaches for the first few days while your body goes through withdrawal. However, the caffeine in coffee can and will affect your metabolism - by cutting that out of the equation it will make your dieting experience much more positive. Caffeine free tea can be a decent replacement in the mornings just to make it a bit easier on  yourself. 

Step 7 Don't eat the same foods/meals over and over and over again. Yes, a good salad can contain a protein, carb and fat... but I would not recommend having a salad every day for lunch because after one week you'll probably be ready to quit all together. Mix it up, have veggies that you enjoy. Be cautious of fruits. In fact, other than apples & grapefruits I would advise against any fruit consumption as they are all very high in sugars and can spike your carb intake. 

These tips are enough to get you started, but are just the tip of the ice berg. Dieting really is a science, but its like that class in Highschool that you'd really rather just sleep through or pretend to listen while you're texting your friends. I will post Part II, III...IV, V... etc. soon, but if you have questions as we go please ask. 

I'm no expert, but I do have a lot of experience. This isn't the only diet I've tried, even recently or currently, but it is by far the most successful and healthy diet that I am aware of. 

Happy Dieting :)

Ahh... I Got My Camera Back

Thank you Geek Squad for having my wonderful camera back in only 2 weeks! 

Like I had previously said... I vow to take more family photos from this day forward (GOOD photos, no more of those poor-quality iPhone shots!), starting today. Here are some cute ones from Matthew playing with this stacking toys and a paper towel (lol): 

Pin-spiration!

Ok, so those of you who read my Facebook updates inevitably know that I am hopelessly in love with Pinterest now. In fact, its a little ridiculous when you find yourself playing around on a website late at night pinning random images. But, that is neither here nor there...

I have had a ton of fun finding new craft ideas on Pinterest.com over the last week or so, and as my "Craft Ideas" board continues to grow and grow, I thought to myself "I wonder if anyone actually DOES these crafts, or just has fun trading ideas?" So, I decided that I was going to finally start doing all of the crafts I WANT to do, using Pinterest as my inspiration (hence then name - PIN-spiration!).

A few weeks ago, on one of my most favorite blogs ever, Andrea had posted a photo of some alphabet rocks that sparked my interest in new craft ideas AND Pinterest (thank you Andrea!), so I decided it was only appropriate for that to be my first project.

Here is the Pin from Andrea:

Its been kind of a slow project for me, since I'm still trying to balance all my roles in life, but I must confess that I'm really enjoying my evening "ME" time! The rocks aren't finished yet, but its an in-progress project that should be done in the next day or two.

(yes, that is popcorn... no, that is not part of my diet...)



I'll be sure to post another picture as soon as my rocks are done (then, what to DO with the rocks...?) along with my next project inspiration piece.

Goodbye FAT :)

Today was our final weigh in for the Biggest Loser competition at work. Finally! After 7 months of dieting the contest is OVER (please note I'm saying *contest* and not diet...). Its been fun though, seeing all of us try and win and watching everyone shrink :)

I was the lucky winner (hooray!) - losing a total of 61.2lbs and 12.62% of my body fat. Here's a before picture from early this year and an after picture this morning:

(photos compliments of Bethany O'Donnell Photography :) )

Please don't ask what I'm doing in that before picture - that's a whole story in itself...

So, I suppose now that there is no financial or competitive motivation involved, the rest of my dieting will be solely for the purpose of being healthy. While being on a diet for 7 months has absolutely been terrible, it was very worth it - the energy I have alone is worth all of the crankiness, horrible cravings, ups and downs and the weak moments.  I don't really want to lose too much more weight, but I do want to get in shape now. What I would really love to do is get better at riding my bike, and maybe enter in a race next summer (not to win, just to finish! lol).

In closing, I want to send out a very special thank you to my amazing husband who has been there to knock the Cheetos out of my hand while giving me an encouraging hug and kiss at the same time - thank you honey, I love you.



Oops! Flickr Album Fixed

My apologies to everyone who tried to access the Flickr album yesterday - I accidentally set the album as "private" so no one could see anything! Its fixed now, and you can view the slide show below, or click here to see the album online at Flickr.

Toddler Craft Ideas

After my last post about finger painting, I started thinking about the fun stuff that Matthew and I can probably already to together (craft wise), even at such a  young age. Besides, if I make things myself they will probably wash right out in the washing machine (or maybe we'll have naked baby finger painting...). I've been having some fun on Pinterest recently and found some fun ideas to start our craft time together.

Source: ohmyhandmade.com via Laura on Pinterest

This chalk looks super easy to make & I have a feeling Matthew will enjoy scribbling on the driveway.

Source: theidearoom.net via Laura on Pinterest

Finger paints! These are more gel-like finger paints, which might be a fun for Matthew since he'll probably squish around in the paint pots rather than actually painting. Regardless, I'll be going to Hobby Lobby soon to buy some big paper for him.

Source: chalkinmypocket.com via Laura on Pinterest

This might be something we wait for - although I'm sure he'd get a kick out of ME drawing on the bathtub and letting him mush it all over the wall! These looks pretty easy to make as well.

Source: beckyhiggins.com via Laura on Pinterest

Ok, so this one might be more for my benefit than Matthews, but it would still be fun. Easy to combine with the finger paint day too. He just seems to be growing up so fast - including  his little hands and feet...

So, anyway, I created a board in Pinterest to start keeping track of all the fun crafts I come across that we can do together. I only have these 4 so far, but you can keep track of anything fun & new here.

Montezuma Camping Trip

This weekend we went on our first camping trip this year up to Montezuma (near Keystone). Nothing de-stresses you better than the mountain air, even when the trip doesn't exactly go as planned. This weekend we learned four things: 

1) You shouldn't take a beater jeep way above treeline, up miles and miles of four-wheel drive roads

2) Sharing a tent with a 1 year old isn't exactly comfortable

3) Trees don't move... even when you try really hard to push them
4) Cat-dogs aren't designed to "rough it"

Yes - this weekend was nothing short of an adventure. While everything ended up working out just fine, and I had a wonderful weekend with my friends and family, we sure had some hiccups along the way!

Here are some photos from our adventure: 

Matthew helping to set up camp

Taking a tour of camp

 

Four wheeling around 

Happy Camper :) 

Going for a walk (or rather making a break for the puddles!)

Now we are home, safe and sound, all completely exhausted. It was a wonderful weekend and certainly the best way to start off our weekend adventures.  

I took a ton of photos over the weekend - you can view them online here. 

Artsy...

I can't wait until Matthew is old enough to enjoy arts & crafts - my mind is overflowing with ideas of all these wonderful things we can draw and paint and create together! In the meantime however my thoughts are clouded by the thought of Matthew dumping paint on the carpet or redecorating the house with markers...

I just came across this on Pinterest - I can't create a board yet since I haven't offically been invited to the site (lol) but hopefully I'll properly give credit where credit is due here. Doesn't this look like fun?!

Source: flickr.com via Ayie on Pinterest

Camping Traditions

Growing up some of my fondest memories were when my parents would take my brother and I camping. While I'm sure it wasn't as frequently as I recall, it felt like we spent every weekend somewhere up in the mountains enjoying getting dirty, climbing every rock within a 2 mile radius, and washing up in the freezing rivers. It would be next to impossible to pick out a single time that meant more to me than another, however there are a couple of things that really stand out in my mind. 

As we would get closer to the camp spot (mind you, it had to be THE camp spot, not just A camp spot), Sam and I would always jump out of the truck and ride in the back - but only once we were on the dirt roads. I have this perfect mental image of my brother sitting in the back of the truck over one of the wheels with this ridiculous grin on his face, nearly flying out whenever we'd hit a big bump. Even though we'd been endlessly waiting for the moment we'd actually park, that time in the back of the truck never seemed long enough. 

My dad would always make a swing out of a piece of firewood and some rope for Sam and I, so no matter where we were camping there would always be a makeshift swing somewhere near camp where we would take turns (probably swinging way too high). I just remember finally finding a camping spot and we would eagerly await the swing setup - as if that were the most important step of getting ready for our weekend adventure. But with all of the new things left to explore I really don't have any recollection of swinging for more than a brief time at the very beginning of our trip (although I may just not remember!). We would always bring a big watermelon camping, which is funny only because I do not remember ever eating watermelon at home or at any time growing up when we were not camping. This obviously can't be correct - no child grows up NOT eating watermelon - but its funny to me that I make the immediate connection watermelon = camping. We would keep it in the river to stay cold until just the right time (or until Sam and I would bug my parents enough to cut it up) and would devour the entire thing. 

It makes me a little teary eyed to think about it - as we got older there were always better things to do - I was far too important to spend an entire weekend with my family (ha!). Plus, squeezing all four of us into that truck would have been a task in itself. Eventually my dad sold our camper, which to this day still kills me, but just two days ago my brother called me and said he thinks he found THE camper - for sale! Wouldn't that be amazing.

When Zach and I found out we were going to be blessed with a baby of our own, one of the very first things that ever came to mind was camping. I wanted to relive all of those wonderful memories and give Matthew a chance to experience the mountains the way that I did when I was young. We tried last year - and went once - but he was obviously much too young to appreciate it. This year will be different since he's discovered the wonders of dirt and rocks and carrying as many random objects as you possibly can, only to throw them into another random pile. I expect that my child will turn a grayish-black color within moments of our arrival, which is why I am bringing a makeshift bathtub so I can at least hose him down at night. 

So, needless to say, I'm a bit ecstatic at the mere thought of our upcoming trip this weekend. It marks the true beginning of our mountain adventures as a family and I hope, one day, that my dad will be here to go with us as well and make Matthew a swing to play on.

Chataqua Park - Boulder

Had our first hiking trip today to jump start the weekend adventures. The incoming rain, and Matthew's marathon morning nap, resulted in a small change in plan - we went to Chataqua Park for our hike rather than up to Lyons. Luckily we did beat the rain and made it home before the clouds rolled in. Zach downloaded this hiking app to try out - its a neat idea but I'm a little disappointed in the (very) low quality of the images. 

Lesson learned though - wearing a camel back AND a Boba carrier is not comfy lol... I only made it less than a mile before poor Zach ended up carrying both of our packs. I think we'll give hiking another shot tomorrow, hopefully up in Lyons, and take only one pack. 

Matthew did have a blast playing in the river there though - but had to ride home nearly naked since I forgot to pack a change of clothes for him (shame on me!) lol.

Find trail maps for California and beyond

The List Goes On!

I'm getting excited now that the weekend is almost here - ready to begin our series of summer adventures. I spend a bit of time updating our possible weekend list and came up with some different ideas (some close, and some quite a ways away). Luckily it looks like this Saturday we're finally going to have a break from all of this crazy rain and hail!

If anyone would like to join us on our weekend adventures, we'd love to have you!! This list isn't in any order of course - just a group of random places and possibilities.

·         Dinosaur National Monument – Colorado/Utah border – visit the Quarry area and see the dinosaur bones, whenever it reopens!  http://www.go-colorado.com/Dinosaur-National-Monument/

·         Mesa Verde National Park – Mesa Verde, CO - view the archaeological sites http://www.go-colorado.com/Mesa-Verde-National-Park/

·         Black Canyon/Gunnison National Park – Colorado – go sightseeing J http://www.go-colorado.com/Black-Canyon-of-the-Gunnison-National-Park/

·         Grand Lake – Colorado – enjoy a long weekend on the lake & relive some of my favorite memories growing up http://www.grandlakecolorado.com/

·         Glenwood Hot Springs – Colorado – relax and play with Matthew in the kiddie pool http://www.hotspringspool.com/index.php

·         Garden of the Gods – Colorado Springs CO – Go for a long hike http://www.gardenofgods.com (also – this is hilarious – they do segway tours!! Too funny! Obviously not possible with Matthew, but a fun idea nonetheless http://www.gardenofgods.com/yourvisit/familyfun/index_694.cfm)

·         Seven Falls – Colorado Springs CO – climb the 224 steps up to the seven falls observation platform & feed the trout with Matthew http://www.sevenfalls.com

·         Boyd Lake – Loveland CO – enjoy a day at the “beach” at Boyd Lake http://www.parks.state.co.us/Parks/boydlake/Pages/BoydLakeHome.aspx

·         Devils Tower National Monument – Wyoming – enjoy some good ol’ fashioned sightseeing http://www.nps.gov/deto/index.htm

·         Yellowstone National Park – Wyoming – see all of the geysers, walk around and be tourists, and possible go on a wildlife safari! http://www.wyomingtourism.org/NationalParks/Yellowstone

·         Go for a loooong bikeride on one of the many bike trails in Denver & enjoy a picnic somewhere along the way

·         Hanging Lake/Spouting Rock (courtesy of AnneJ ) Glenwood Canyon  – go for a long day hike http://www.hikingincolorado.org/hang.html

 

·         Grizzly Creek Trail (courtesy of Ashley J )- Glenwood Springs CO – enjoy another long day hike http://www.localhikes.com/Hikes/GrizzlyCreek_0000.asp 

New addition:

Go to Tiny Town and ride the train (Thank you Michelle!) http://tinytownrailroad.com/  

Easily Entertained

 

One (more) awesome thing about children is how easily entertained they are. And that translates to ME being able to enjoy the little things in life as well. I'll tell you - last night we had a blast playing with nothing more than a bunch of plastic cups, leftover from Matthew's birthday part in May. Who knew something so simple could result in so much fun?! 

This video could have gone on much longer, but you get the idea :) 

The interesting thing is that Matthew has a thousand toys in the living room - and yet he has so much fun playing with the recyclables, water bottles, tupperware... basically anything he can get his hands on that is NOT technically a toy. Why waste money on toys when things you already have in your house are so darn amusing? 

No More Routine!

This weekend I was casually perusing articles on family travel, looking for tips on the long international flights with a child, day dreaming about the day when we will actually make it to Singapore to visit my dad. To my surprise, I found quite a few articles discouraging travel with children. I never in a million years would have made the connection that having children means you are bound to your home. What on earth?! Shouldn't you give your children the opportunity to see the world, and experience new things (even if those new things are just down the street)? I'm not saying I'm going to take my baby to the Brazilian jungles and pray we don't get attacked by drug lords, but why would I seclude my family to the house when we could be out making memories together?


Well, whatever, I guess I'll be a bit rebellious and "fight the man" here... I want my children to see the world.


I'm getting a little bit stir crazy these days - it seems like my week is so busy and then when Friday finally comes around I'm staring out the window wishing I was anywhere but in the house! So, we've decided that, starting this weekend, we will make it a habit to get out of the house and have a new adventure each weekend. Even if that adventure really is in our own backyard, I'm sick of being in the house!


There are so many beautiful places to visit here in Colorado that it shouldn't be too hard to start off on the right foot. Last year we went to the Royal Gorge bridge and had so much fun (even though Matthew was way too young to appreciate it!)

 

I want to make a list of places to visit this summer - some that are close by, and some that require a bit of planning. I think I'd like to start with Mesa Verde State Park and visit the ruins up there. But, being down by the four corners, that is a bit of a drive. Definitely on my list, but will have to be a long weekend type trip I think.

Seven Falls is another area I'd like to visit - the longest hiking trail is only about an hour, and shouldn't be too difficult with Matthew (as long as he's in the Boba).

I'm  hoping with the help of my friends I can put together a great summer list - anyone have any suggestions?

No more monotonous weekends - I'm so ready to do something fun and new! 

An Exciting Start...

I've decided to take the plunge and learn more about the fabulous world of social media by branching out past my "Facebook Comfort Zone" and test my hand at blogging, Twitter and LinkedIn. So far I've gotten needlessly confused on the LinkedIn Site, posted something strange on Twitter that took me forever to delete, and now here I am crossing my fingers that my initial blog post actually makes its way to the website flawlessly.

While I'm still trying to figure out my "blog identity," I think the biggest thing is that I will have fun learning to blog while sharing information with my friends and acquaintances about my beautiful family, my fulfilling life and all of those chaotic moments that make up my day.

I'd like to give a special THANK YOU to my friend Rachel who helped me get started by helping me find the perfect name for my blog. So, Rachel, here's to you and your fabulous creativity - thank you!!!

Secondly, thank you to Andrea for inspiring me to blog in the first place. I have loved reading your blog posts and staying up to date on your beautiful family (who I've never met lol) through your blog, and thank you in advance for the inevitably beautiful header you will create for me to help make everything really come together.

And finally, thank you to my amazing husband Zach for being the balance in my life, to my beautiful little boy Matthew for always giving me something to laugh about, and to all my friends and family who have made everything in my life something worth sharing with the rest of the world.