A Texan Odyssey

I always like seeing in some of the magazines I peruse what various celebrities have in their purses, so I thought why not make up a post about what's in my purse. I'm no celebrity, but I am the owner of this blog, which gives me the right to do whatever I want with it! 1.   My roomy Converse One Star purse from Target 2.   Wallet size photos of my precious baby boy. (Yeah, I'm one of those moms!) 3.   My Liz Claiborne wallet I've had for ages and ages that I purchased at an outlet store. 4.   Pen from my church... I promise I didn't steal it, they were handing them out! 5.   My Samsung Messager Touch 6.   Old old old iPod Nano 7.   My keys along with my trusty pocket knife 8.   Conair travel size brush I got for free when I purchased something else in the beauty aisle, I forget what. 9.    HoneySuckle & White Patchouli Lotion  from Victoria's Secret 10. Everything Refresher Spray by Pink. This stuff is amazing!...

New Weight: 148! It feels great to be out of the 150's finally. I also finished week one of the Insanity workout. I'm bruised and sore and my back is killing me, but I did it! Unfortunately Ryan and I both caught a cold and are feeling pretty miserable today. Isn't it horrible when you're sick on the week-end? Also Ryan's weight stayed the same and he's ready to give up on healthy eating and exercising. I hope and pray he will stick with it so we can set a good example to Sean as he gets older.

- Dress: Kohl's - Flip Flops: New York & Company - Necklace: Gift Close up of my pretty shell necklace Shells make me think of the beach, and on a hot sunny day there's no place I'd rather be than the beach. So in honor of that longing of mine, I'm wearing shells! Ryan gave me this necklace a couple of years ago as a souvenir from a business trip, and I've never worn it until now. I paired it with a tie-dye maxi dress from Kohl's and flip flops. I left Sean for the first time in my church's nursery during this morning's service. He let me leave without crying and behaved well I heard. My little boy is growing up! My mom babysat him after church so that Ryan and I could go on a date. We went and got Chinese food and had a great time. It felt good to be out as a couple but of course we missed Sean too. The little munchkin is back with us now and he's walking around the living room making silly noises.

Well I lost the pound I gained this week and I'm right back to where I was last week at this time: 150. Am I happy I stayed the same? No. Am I happy I lost what I gained, heck yes! Let me tell you what happened this week. It all started last Saturday evening when we had friends over for dinner and a movie. I wanted to make healthy whole wheat sub sandwiches and salad but that idea was tossed out faster than we throw away Sean's dirty diapers. Instead, it was decided to order pizza and wings. On top of that, Ryan picked up sodas and chips and dip! Oh no! I'm not superwoman, when that stuff is around I eat it! I had small portions and never overate, but it was the wrong stuff to be putting in my body and I saw the consequences of those choices I made when the scale went up a pound. We had leftover supreme pizza and I ate one slice a day until it was gone. Then I had a day where I was tired and cranky from having to wait forever to see my dermatologist. I was perched on th...

Sean HATED tummy time when he was smaller. He would scream and turn red in the face in protest and make me feel like I was torturing him.  He also never turned his head to the side when he slept, but instead kept it facing straight up. My mom would tell me to put him to sleep on his side, but I was always terrified that he would turn his little nose into the mattress and smother himself. So what happened? He developed flat head syndrome. This syndrome has actually become pretty common since The "Back to Sleep" campaign of the '90's. The campaign drastically reduced the number deaths due to SIDS, but also greatly increased the prevalence of positional deformities, or more specifically in Sean's case: brachycephaly. Brachycephaly: "Positional Brachycephaly refers to a condition where the head is disproportionately wide compared to its depth. It is caused by prolonged positioning on the back of the head. The head flattens uniformly, resulting in a head sh...

I had already posted one of these pictures back at Easter time, but I decided to edit that post to just be an outfit post. I had more pictures of my sweet little Sean that I wanted to share, so here they are all in one spot!

-Cardigan: Gift -Tank: Kohl's - Jeans: my favorite Levi's - Flats: Gift - Sunglasses and Necklace: Fossil I met this cute little Volkswagen beetle when the Stars and Stripes Air show came to my town. It was love at first sight! This is another old picture, this time from when I was 16 weeks pregnant. I've been at home with Sean a lot while the hubby is working longer shifts so I haven't had a chance to prettify myself and go out. We have an appointment later today though, maybe I'll snap a few shots!

-Shirt and Tank: ??? Don't remember! -Jeans: Kohl's - Boots: Payless -Cuff: American Eagle I don't have an outfit picture from the last few days because I've kinda just been hanging around the house. Yesterday we did have a get-together here with some friends but I didn't get around to taking a picture, so I thought I'd post an old one instead! This was taken at my uncle's ranch when I was a month pregnant. I didn't know it at the time and I did some horseback riding, but thankfully no mishaps ensued.

I saw Sara's post  from You, Me & Anthropologie  about what products are in her shower and decided to do the same thing! I feel so impressionable because now I want to go out and buy everything she has! -For exfoliating my face I alternate between L'Oreal's Go 360 °   Clean Deep Exfoliating Scrub and Burt's Bees Peach and Willowbark Deep Pore Scrub. I really love the scrublet that comes with the L'Oreal product. As for the Burt's Bees scrub I find it's a little hard to rinse but I like the smell and it cleans well. -For simple face washing and makeup removal I use the generic version (Hill Country Essentials from HEB) of Neutrogena's Cleansing Towelettes. -For my hair I use Pantene Pro-V Medium-Thick Dry to Moisturized Shampoo and Conditioner. Since switching to this product my hair is softer than ever. -I generally stick to Dove Sensitive Skin Unscented Soap. I lather it up and put it on my loofah to use. -My razor of choice is Schic...

Another week down and this time I lost 3 pounds! New weight: 150. Goal for next week? Another 3 pounds please! Oh and my hubby lost 2 pounds! I'm so glad we're both making progress. I exercise five days a week, I don't snack in the evening, I stay away from soda, and I have small healthy snacks in between healthy meals. I can do this! Sample Day: Breakfast: Oatmeal with fruit & milk Snack: Cottage cheese with 1 tsp. of maple syrup & 1/2 tsp. of vanilla Lunch: Pork chop/half a sweet potato/green beans Snack: Apple with 5 or 6 almonds Dinner: Spinach salad with tuna/tomato/onion/vinegar/salt & pepper Dessert: Cup of chocolate milk

Top: Ross - Jeans and Shoes: Kohl's -Sunglasses: Target -Necklace: Ebay I'll start with the fact that it rained! A lovely, wonderful, exciting thunderstorm blew in bringing us a lot of much needed rain. Sean and I sat in front of the open sliding doors to our balcony and enjoyed the mist of rain hitting us and the cold breeze. It even hailed a bit, but I closed the door before that started! The cloud cover was so thick that it looked like night outside even though it was noon. That was a little eerie but I loved it. I've always loved storms and feel really alive when the lightning and thunder start! We also took Sean to his 9 month appointment today and everyone was pretty impressed that he's walking already. The visit went well despite some confusion at one point where the pediatrician thought I said we were giving Sean 4 six ounce bottles of juice a day! I was talking about formula, of course, but he misunderstood and it got a little weird until we all figured ...

I feel so blessed to be a mom and I greatly enjoyed my first mother's day. Hubby gave me the sweetest cards, one from him and one he wrote from Sean baby. It was so cute! We went to church, visited with family and I got to see Thor  with my mom. And by the way, my mom is the most amazing woman I know and also my best friend. I couldn't ask for a better mother! The rest of my Sunday was pretty peaceful at home with my awesome husband doing most of the baby-watching for me. It felt great to be pampered and now I'm getting my Star Wars on! We finished Phantom Menace and are on  Attack of the Clones now. Toodles! - Top: Target - Skirt: Kohl's -Shoes: Isaac Mizrahi via Target  Bracelet: Victoria's Secret - Watch: Fossil

-Top and Shoes: Target -Shorts: Lee (Don't remember where I bought them) -Watch: Fossil - Bracelet: Kohl's (Gift) My hubby Ryan took this picture of Sean and I before we headed to my sister's house for a little pool party for my niece who just turned two. We had a ton of fun and got to stay later than the other guests to watch a movie afterwards. I wore one of the shirts (buy it here) I got at Target yesterday and Ryan was so sweet to compliment how I looked! We both watched what we ate, only drank water, and got to have a little "cheat" with a little bit of cake and ice cream. Good times!

Drum roll please! I lost......................two pounds and I am now 153! My cruel, cruel scale psyched me out though by flashing 151 before switching to 153. My heart jumped when I saw that I was four pounds down! Oh well, I am quite content with two pounds though, and I hope next week will be at least two as well! On a side note, my husband is doing really well too! He's already lost 7 pounds. He's cut back DRASTICALLY on sodas, and is eating something small and healthy every three hours or so. I was especially proud of him last night as he was serving himself the supper I made-- he had served a little too much at first, and then put back some in order to have a healthy portion size. Good job babe!

-Top and Jeans (rolled up this time): Kohl's - Shoes: Steve Madden via Marshalls -Sunglasses: Target - Watch: Fossil - Bracelet: Abercrombie & Fitch (Gift)  Ran out to lunch with the hubby, baby and my mom-in-law today. We just grabbed a quick bite at Arby's during her lunch break. I was very good and had a salad with roast chicken and ranch on the side. At home I prefer vinegar on my salads, but a little bit of ranch won't kill me! To drink I just had a water. I'm so proud of myself for sticking to this week's goal of staying away from sugary drinks. It was a hot day, as usual, and I just wanted to be comfy and cool so I decided on jeans and a t-shirt. (Something I do quite often as you'll begin to notice.) Later I ran to Target to return some jeans I bought last week. They were cute, but the dye smell was just WAY too strong. (I'm assuming that's what the smell was.)  I exchanged them for a few shirts. I was particularly happy to find a so...

I was looking over some old photos of when I was pregnant last year, and I decided to post a few that show just how huge my stomach was! No wonder I'm having so much trouble getting my stomach back in shape! This was taken during a trip to the beach when I was 32 weeks pregnant. Yes, I climbed to the top of a lighthouse while pregnant!

I've been meaning to take some pictures of my son with some Easter paraphernalia, so I took his basket and stuffed animals over to my Mom's back-yard to do a little photo shoot with him this evening. Better late than never! (Edit: I added a picture post from this shoot here .) Here's what I wore: - Everything from Kohl's except the shoes - Shoes from Target Besides having fun at my Mom's house, I was very happy to eat healthy throughout the day and exercise as well. Sean took a long nap that let me work out uninterrupted! Hooray! Also my sweet hubby got groceries after work and brought home fruits and veggies and salad fixings. I'm so proud of him for getting healthy stuff!  Now it's off to bed with me~