Day 1 of the Daniel Fast

Yesterday was Day 1 of the Daniel Fast.  I'm fasting and praying and believing God to answer the cry of my heart.  More than anything, my husband and I want a baby and that's our main prayer during the fast.  Even before the fast, we were, and are, dieting in hopes of losing weight and getting healthier. And going on this fast right now is an added bonus.  Shawn won a free family membership to the Y from his work, so early in the mornings, he's been going and working out with a friend from his work.  Now, I can't get up that early, so I'm gonna have to go in the evenings.  I'll probably do more walking than anything, but walking is better than sitting on the couch. 

Yesterday for breakfast we both had a banana and peanuts.  For lunch we had whole-grain wheat spaghetti and green beans.  I also took a multi-grain wheat tortilla and drizzled olive oil and fresh garlic on it.  Yummy!  Then for supper last night, we had veggie burgers on the multi-grain wheat tortilla's with grilled onions, lettuce, tomato, and organic ketchup, and then corn.  I also had some organic popcorn.  Shawn likes those veggie burgers, but they make me about to want to gag.  And don't even get me started on the veggie crumbles.  LOL!  But I am sacraficing the food I enjoy to draw closer to God so everything we are doing is worth it for me!

The Daniel Fast

Starting tomorrow, our Church as a whole is participating in another 21 day Daniel Fast.  We did this last March and everyone enjoyed it.  Our plan was to stick with some of what we learned - eating healthier, cooking with fresh veggies, however, we soon turned back to our old ways of eating out and eating canned and boxed foods and not reading labels.  So I was excited to learn that we are doing it again this year. 

We are following the fast according to this website - http://www.jentezenfranklin.org/fasting/.  We are eating no meats, no bread, no sweats, no sodas, no foods with chemicals or sugar added.  Basically fruits and veggies, brown rice, lots of organic food, and water.  It's alot of label reading. 

Last night Shawn and I ventured into Schnucks to get our food for the first week of the fast.  Seemed like last year we were in there every couple of days restocking on our produce.  I felt like we needed to grow a garden. 

That peanut butter is yummy, but it's almost $6 for the small jar.  Nothing yummy than a peanut butter sandwich made of peanut butter and a whole grain tortilla.  LOL!!

Sick of being sick

I'm so sick of being sick.  I feel like for the past few weeks, I've been sick.  The weekend before Christmas we went to Bowling Green for Steve's graduation and then went to Longhorn Steakhouse for dinner.  Immediately after we leave, my stomach started hurting.  It hurt the whole 2-hour drive back home.  I figured I just ate too much too fast.  Then I couldn't stop pooping and puking and I wondered if I didn't have a food poisoning. Later I found out that there was some kind of bad stomach bug going around.  That had me down for about 3 days.  I missed church and the Christmas play at church that night and a day of work. Then Christmas weekend, I had a house full of sickies.  Then between Christmas and New Year's, I did something to my back and had to require the use of a heating pad for a while.  Then on Saturday after New Year's, I woke up just not feeling well.  I was tired and could just tell I didn't feel good.  Sunday my throat was so sore and I couldn't hardly talk.  Went to the doctor Tuesday afternoon and he said I had a sinus infection and bronchitus.  So he gave me an antibiotic and some cough medicine with codine.  Wednesday I stayed home from work and church cause I didn't feel good.  I went to work Thursday, but ended up leaving at 3:30 cause I just didn't feel good.  Here it is a week later and I still feel yucky.  I don't really feel so bad as I do have a runny nose and cough right now.  The antibiotic is a 10-day pill, 3 times a day, so hopefully in the next couple of days I'll be back to my old self again. 

Happy New Year

For New Year's Eve we went over to our friends Heather and Bowen Robinson's again this year.  This is how we have spent the last few NYE's.  Alot of our friends come over and we always have a HUGE spread of food and desserts.  We always play the Dirty Santa gift exchange and then play games.  Usually it's Scattegories, but this year we played Taboo and then a few games on the Wii.  I had my camera with me with the intentions of taking pictures of people at the party, however the only pictures I ended up with were of Gavin.  Imagine that!  LOL!!  Gavin spent the night with Shawn and I and then on New Year's Day, we always go to eat lunch at Red Lobster with his brother and Christa so the boys can spend all of the gift cards for Red Lobster that they get at Christmas.

Christmas Festivities

This year was Gavin's first Christmas....he was 10 months old. I can't believe how time has flown. Since Shawn and I have been together, for Christmas, we have always gone to St. Louis to visit his family and then we have Christmas with my family a few days before. Well this year, I wanted to stay at home for Christmas and spend it with Gavin. It was his first Christmas and he was old enough to know what was going on. So Shawn went to St. Louis and I stayed home. Mom, Beth, Tommy, Gavin, and their dogs came over Christmas Eve and spend the night. We made a Christmas breakfast for supper and opened presents that evening since Beth had to work on Christmas Day. We ate a yummy meal of biscuts with sausage gravy, sausage patties, fried potatoes, scrambled eggs, and OJ. It was yummy. After eating, we decided to open presents. It was so fun watching Gavin open his presents and play with his toys.  Shawn and I bought Gavin ALL kinds of stuff for Christmas.  I think we ended up getting him two pair of jeans, two shirts, four pair of jammies, some big boy bibs, a sippy cup with his name on it, a Build-A-Bear puppy with babies first Christmas bib and diaper, a monkey backpack, a jungle musical toy, a toy organizer with 12 bins for toys in it, some snackies in his stocking, and I think that was it. 

We bought the monkey backpack earlier in the fall when Shawn and I took him to the Evansville Mesker Park Zoo.  Every since Gavin was born (well not so much anymore, but I think I am going to start back up), I've called him my little monkey, so I was always buying him monkey stuff.  I had seen these backpacks online before, and had always wanted to get him one.  I just think it's so cute to see little boys carrying their backpacks with their toys and things in it.  Of course it's too big for him now, but in a few months when he starts walking, he can wear it.  I love the expression on his face in this picture when he opened it.  I put it on him and stood him up and then I started putting some stuff in it.  Well I guess I overloaded it cause when he sat down to start crawling, the backpack took him over and he couldn't get up. Every time he would try to get up to crawl, it took him back down again. It was so funny and every time I look at these pictures, it just cracks me up.

Here is my sad little Christmas tree this year.  Actually it's better looking than last year.  I actually put some ornaments on it this year.  About two years ago, right after Christmas, I went to Target and bought all new ornaments and lights cause I wanted to have a themed-tree.  Well that next year, we got Hershey and that puppy was into everything so I didn't put a big tree up and put up the little tree.  Then this year, we got Reese and same scenerio, so I put up the little tree again this year.  But next year for sure, I'm putting up the big tree.  And if I have to put some baby gates around it so the dogs, and tiny Gavin fingers, don't get into the tree and presents, then I will. 

Everyone was sick this Christmas too!  The weekend before Christmas Beth and Tommy were moving, so mom and I kept Gavin and their dogs here at the house.  Well I got an awful stomach bug that was going around and was sick all that weekend.  I must of passed it on to Gavin cause he had it throughout the week.  Then the next weekend was Christmas and while everyone was at my house, his mom and dad both got a touch of it.  They weren't as bad as me, but they both didn't feel good.  Actually Tommy has some stomach problems, so I think his was more of that with a touch of the yuckies that I had.  But everyone seems to be doing better now. 

The Sunday after Christmas, I rode to Shawn's parent's with his brother and his wife to do Christmas with them.  His parents got us a $25 Red Lobster gift card, a $25 Bath and Body Works gift card, a wall clock, and $600 cash.  So we split the money and each get to use our half on whatever we want.  Usually I already have something big in mind that I want to buy, but this year I didn't.  I've got a couple little things in mind.  And then we were in Big Lots the other day and there is this really fun black 12 cubbie shelf that they had that I would love.  It was only $99 so I'm contemplating getting it.  The only thing is that it's bigger than the area where I would want to put it in the scrapbook room, so I would have to do some rearranging and I'm not sure how the other stuff would look then.  So I'm going to keep my eye on it.  I could use it in the living room and then move that big black bench somewhere else, I'm not sure.  I might just go ahead and buy it and then figure out later where to put it.  The only bad thing about that black furniture is that it gets dusty so fast!