Addicted.

Hi. My name is Jennifer (or Jenny, or Jenn). And I am addicted to *cheap* purses. I love them. I buy a new purse about every 3 months. I know it. Except it. Justify it because they are cheap purses. I'm not addicted to expensive designer handbags. Josh knows it, excepts it, and indulges my purse hunts.

Purse hunts you say? Yes. When I get it in my head that I need a new purse I go shopping and shop until I find one. It consumes me. I go to every store that I have ever seen a purse I like at. And I'm so darn picky. I have a list of standards I have to have, organization, good easy access key pocket, be large enough, but not to large, be unique and a whole list of other things. And it must be *cheap*.

But now is where the addiction comes in. Yesterday I bought a purse. I don't even need a new purse. I still loved my old one and it was still in good shape. But I saw a purse I had to have (see above) and I bought it. So completely uncharacteristic. But it just looks like fall and my other one was just to summer-y for my mood, I guess. And how could you not love the new one? It's so cute!

So what are you crazy addictions? And maybe I'll tell you more of mine!

Freeing Food = Forgetfulness

What happens when you completely forget about food?
When you are hungry or when it's meal time you go to the fridge
and you eat whatever it is that you have assigned for that meal.
It's like I am finally free from the food.
I don't crave things, as much.
I don't feel like eating something
and then for go the the store or restaurant to get that specific thing.
I'm not ever thinking about food anymore.
The food becomes fuel.
This has been the most freeing way to diet.
It completely takes the focus off of the food.

So much so that yesterday.....

I forgot to pick up the food.
It's like I just expect food to be
in the fridge when it's time for dinner.
But it wouldn't have been
had I not gotten a call at 6:15,
an hour after my pick up time,
reminding me.
I can't imagine what would have happened
if when we sat down to eat dinner
and there was no food.

It's coming.

Although I am not at all ready for summer to be over,
I am finding myself so excited for fall!
I feel like I haven't done near enough this summer.
But I these cool mornings and early darkness has
me looking forward to sweaters, hoodies, blankets,
herbal teas, and maybe even...brown hair again!
So I guess I have a few more weeks to live up summer,
because before we know it, it will be FALL.

Once every two weeks...

This beautiful little thing is why I live my life in two week increments.
Ok It's not quite that bad, but close.
I can't believe how fast she is growing up.
She's so darn cute.

Jess I'll have you know that according to her,
this last weekend, you bought her everything!
Unless she knows dad bought it.
Some of it she got right like her Carebear.
But I don't think you bought her every shirt in her closet.

She wants to be so grown up.
She wants to play games with the big boys. "Checks" with Jared and Josh.
Friday Dad had her in Princess Panties. That was an adventure.
That is not why she's in her swimsuit.
That had something to do with Jared spraying her when she was wearing clothes.
Did you know you can make all sorts of jewerly
from glowsticks?
Necklaces, braclets, and earrings!
On another note...I screwed up my blog tonight trying to place the new header.
But I think I got it back to normal. So what do you think of it?

Seen at the gym...

Can't people let go of their image for a few minutes while they get on the treadmill? All you could hear was him clanking the whole time. I hope he enjoyed all the attention he got.

A few mid-week goals.

1. Learn to drink 2 cups of milk a day without gagging.

2. Go to the gym 4 times a week at the least.

3. Stay away from the candy at work. (This maybe the hardest thing!)

RELIEF

So after picking up our food yesterday I could not believe the overwhelming sense of relief I felt. It's so unlike anything I've ever tried before. And boy have I tried diet after diet. (As I'm sure you can see just from all the things I've tried so far this year.) Before I would be excited to start a new plan, whatever that plan would be. I'd get my weeks meal plan together and grocery list and head off. But when I got home (3 hours and $300.00 later) I would almost dread all the work that it was going to take to get what I had bought to our tummies. But this plan is different. I feel like my whole world has opened up to me and freed me from my kitchen. No mega shopping trips, no cooking and preparing 6 meals a day, and mostly NO DISHES for hours. So this means that I can go to the gym everyday with no excuse because there is no kitchen holding me hostage. I can keep dabbling in new hobbies in order to figure out what to do with my life. I just finally found something I know will my a HUGE difference in my weight and life.

So the downside if there is one...maybe all this food isn't what I would eat if I were to pick. Like maybe there are not enough servings of fruits and veggies a day. But when it comes to losing weight calories are the most important thing so that's not a huge issue. And it's kind of odd not knowing what exactly is in your food so that would be bad if you had food allergies. We do have to do a little teeny tiny work to supplement Josh's diet because he needs some extra calories. But all in all it is AMAZING. I would and have highly recommend it to just about anyone.

And by the way. Breakfast was tasty!

The moment you've all been waiting for.

Ok so maybe not but I've looked forward to it since Friday.
I picked up my food today. And it all looks and smells so good.
A very yummy breakfast quiche.
Lunch-Pasta salad. Look at all those veggies!And a tasty dinner of pork chops, mash potatoes and green beans.

I just keeping getting the feeling that it is to good to be true. Although so far nothing has disappointed me! I'll let you know how it tastes soon.

The next plan.

So I have a new plan for my crazy summer dieting. I'm so excited for this. This is better then Nutri-system or other similar programs. This is like having an extremely cheap personal chef. So what is it?

Chandra's Healthy Eating.

This is a local company. You get 21 meals a week. They are all made fresh, never frozen, dehydrated, or other wise preserved. You can have them delivered (for $25) or pick them up twice a week so you never have old stuff. And the price? So reasonable. They have 3 calorie choices. 1200 only $85 bucks a week, 1500 is $95 or 2000 for $110. And another great thing is that even though Josh and I will be on different calorie intakes we will be eating the same things. (Unlike other programs.)

So it this lazy or what? Well it might be. But it's also time and believe it or not money. We have been so crazy lately that we haven't done laundry in 2 weeks. If we haven't even had time for that we certainly haven't been taking the time for things like 3 hour shopping trips, hours of meal plans and cooking and packing lunch at home. So needless to say we have been eating convenience and fast food to much this summer. And with the price of groceries lately I have been spending 300 dollars a week on groceries when I do make meal plans and go shopping. This saves us 100 a week and we have no reason not to stick with it no matter how busy we are.

So I hope I'm not so excited for this and it ends up being nasty. I'll let you know next week! We pick it up on Tuesday and start on Weds.

Bowling.

So after our LONG Saturday in Idaho. Camille called to say that they (Camile, Jason and our cousin Ken) were coming up for dinner. (We have the BEST Thai restaurant right in our back yard!) So we of course decided to go out and play with them.
We went bowling. It was way fun even though we were all way tired. They had been boating all day. They had a dj and fog and giveaways.
Jason kicked all of our butts TWICE. But we all did pretty good. We are really becoming bowlers lately with them!
It's always great to see Ken too. It's great that he has been able to spend time at Hill so we could all get to know him better.

Giggly Gibb Girls

We always have such a fun time with Josh's cousins. The are so fun. And they are the best of friends. And they were being so silly.

This is the only picture we got of Josh's cousin Debbie. (The girls mom.) She was driving us around with the music blasting. She's such a great mom!
Des just graduated from high school and is about to start college.
Brit is 15. She's a cheerleader who never stops dancing. She was so excited to get home to go to dance.
Meg is the sweetest little sister.

Thanks to Debbie for having such a great idea to get together in the middle-ish. We must do it again. You guys are the best!

Quick Trip: Twin Falls

Last Saturday we got up at 5:30 am (on a Saturday!) and piled in a car with "The Folks" (Josh's parents). We were on our way to Twin Falls where we would meet Josh's cousins Debbie, Des, Brit and Meg. After an early lunch at the cheapskate-ist McDonald (where they charge for EVERYTHING!) we went to the Twin Falls Temple Open House.

The temple is beautiful. They took the Idaho state flower the Syringa and incorporated it into the whole temple. It's in the floor, the stain glass window, the wood work and the gorgeous chandeliers. They also had a huge mural of the area including the falls in the endowment room. Although it was really busy that day so we were a bit herded through, it was an amazing experience especially for the girl who had never been through one before.

After we finished at the temple we went to the falls. It was a great way to spend the afternoon. We enjoyed the cooler temps and great views. Shoshone Falls are higher then Niagra Falls. And the Snake River is so pretty.

After the falls we had an early dinner and then we were on our way back home. Idaho is a very pretty place and we enjoyed seeing Debbie and her girls very much. Even though it was a long day I'd say it was a great one.

Six word Memior

Both Katie and Jenica wrote beautiful 6 word memiors. And then Katie tagged me. So I thought and thought and this is what I came up with so far. I don't know if I love it but here you have it.

Daughter, Sister, Wife, Just being ME.

As way of explanation....I feel like I lived a lot of my life to be a good daughter, sister, friend, girlfriend, wife etc. I gave of myself to the extreme sometimes. Then I had a really hard couple of years emotionally before I realized that I had to live for myself. And now that is what I work on. Just being me. So there you have it.

Now I'm tagging....Jess, Melinda, Havilah, Jenn and anyone else who wants a little introspection.