Week 1: Menu & Goals

I've mentioned it briefly before, but I am going back to school full-time to finish my bachelor degree in less than a month, and it is my goal to not only look and feel great, but to also have really awesome eating and health habits set for myself, so continuing to eat clean and excercise will not be an added stress when I'm back in school.

These posts are meant to hold myself accountable. Each week I will comment on how I did the previous week and also set new goals for the coming week. I will also lay out my menu so that I can continue to build a little bank for myself to look back on later in the year when things are busy with school.

I really hope to keep this up! Last week I started a lot of the habits and have (miraculously) carried them through to this week. Baby steps people!

On the menu this week:

• Pan seared TIlapia
• Grilled Chicken breast
• Green Bean Salad
• Hummus and pita rounds
• Spaghetti squash
• Tuna salad
• Strawberry and banana smoothies
• Brown sugar and raisin oatmeal

Weekly health goals:

• Wean off of mountain dew completely.
• Outside physical activity every day, at least 30 minutes (walking the pups or running solo).
• No fast food!
• Drop back into the 130s.
• Continue squat and plank challenges.
• Bed by 1:30AM every night.

Weekly house goals:

• Walk LG every day!
• Dishes to be finished every evening before bed.
• Sweep every day, vacuum three times a week and steam mop once a week or as needed.
• Fold and put away laundry as soon as it is finished. No more leaving it in the basket until its so wrinkled it needs washed again.

So there you have it! I'm excited to check in next week to see how it goes. I will try to make this an every Wednesday thing!

Happy hump day people!

 

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It's the little things in life...

It's the little things in life that are sometimes the best.

I admit I need to stop and appreciate these moments more, and this summer I have really enjoyed the extra time with MP now that he has a 10-15 minute commute rather than 1-2 hours.

It makes a big difference.

One of my favorite things about my relationship with MP is how we can have a great time with each other at home, with nothing more than Wikipedia and YouTube.

This sounds totally crazy, but it's true.

Last night we somehow got on the topic of Marlins, and somehow ended up stumbling across the Narwhal.

How crazy is that thing??

And say Narwhal out loud.

Isn't that the greatest word you've heard all day?

They call them the unicorns of the sea. The horn, tusk looking thing?

It's a complete mystery!

We know that it is actually an overgrown tooth, and, considering the Narwhal is a completely gentle animal, it doesn't use the horn for aggressive purposes at all. The best theory scientists have is that they use it for communicating with other Narwhals, and possibly also for sensing the conditions around them.

Totally random, right?

That is just one recent example of where our conversations can go sometimes.

The blessing of spending the rest of your life with your best friend is one of the best in life I think!

Are there any random little quirks about you and your significant other? I would love to hear them!

 

 

 

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Picashare Review

Happy Friday everyone!

What is better than the impending weekend?

A present from Ms. Paws you say?

Well, you are in luck my friends! I have a very special treat for you today!

I recently discovered an amazing app for getting your iPhone or iPad photos straight to your blogger blog.

What is this magic app called you ask?

Picashare!

There is the free version as well as the $.99 (best $.99 I have ever spent!) and they are essentially the same app.

The only difference is with the free version you can only upload three of your photos at a time. With the paid version you can upload as many as you'd like.

It is super simple, and fast!

Here are a few steps to get you started.

Step 1: After you have downloaded Picashare, you will want to log in to your Picasa account, which you automatically have included with your Blogger blog. You will use the information you use when you log into your blogger.com dashboard.

From there, you will be able to select the photos you'd like to upload.

Step 2: Once you have chosen which album you would like to choose from, your pictures will all be there for you to look through.

 

Step 3: Choose your photos (remember with the free version you can only do three at a time).

Step 4: The app will then ask if you'd like to caption your photos. This part is totally up to you. Once you've captioned them or you'd like to just move on, tap upload.

Step 5: Then Picashare will ask which album you would like to upload your photos to.

 

For photos I know are going straight to a post I place them in the second album, just so I can know exactly where to find them in the future.

Step 6: From there Picashare will automatically upload the photos you've chosen so they are immediately accessible when you are creating a post in blogger.

Step 7: As soon as Picashare says your upload is complete, your photos are immediately accessible on blogger. Simply create a new post just as you normally would, and when you are ready to upload your photos, proceed like you normally would to upload from your computer.

And select "From Picasa web albums"

 

Step 7: Select to choose from the album you saved to earlier, and simply highlight the photos you'd like to use in your post, and click "Add Selected".

 

So there y'all have it! The easiest and quickest way ever to upload photos from your iPad or iPhone to blogger and Picasa.

Let Me know if you have any questions or if I need to explain something a little clearer.

Have a great weekend and let me know if you download Picashare!

 

 

Disclaimer: I was in no way compensated for this post, Picashare, apple and any other company you can think of all have no idea I wrote this post. It is completely my own opinion. Also, I have no idea how to use Wordpress so I can't guarantee whether this would work or not. All I know is blogger!

 

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Ch-ch-ch-changes!

I have mentioned a few times that I have the privilege of working from home.

And yes, it is a privilege.

I love not having to drive to work everyday. Not putting miles on my car every day is wonderful for my wallet as well when it comes to maintenance.

Overall, I feel very very blessed to have found this wonderful company a little over a year ago.

It is a wonderful opportunity to earn money while I also earn my degree. I also know that finding a position in the company in my degree field is a very good possibility after graduation.

I work for a large home shopping network taking sales calls. For the first year I worked with them I worked anywhere from 9PM-3AM 5 days a week. I had afternoon classes when I took the position, so it worked out perfectly to start so late.

It also has worked out well when family has come to visit and a few other special occasions.

But what hasn't benefited, is my health.

I have gained about 40lbs, my IBS and diet issues are worse than ever. I am smoking cigarettes again...

It is a scientific fact that no matter what type of schedule you think you have set your body up for, your metabolism does not function correctly at night.

And this is so true for me. My body doesn't handle food well after midnight, I usually will end up sick in the mornings. I also at night have a really hard time realizing when I'm full. And when I'm tired? Food is my go-to to keep me energized and awake.

 

I was also recently accepted into the Bachelor of Science program at my college, and I'm so excited to have a final goal and a finish line in sight.

I want my health to be better when I start school at the end of august, and I know studying will be easier if I have more energy and feel better.

I had myself on a very screwy sleep schedule last semester, but it was a schedule and it worked.

And you know that wonderful company I mentioned earlier?

Well they have allowed me to change my schedule!

My new work window will be 6PM-12AM, 5 days a week!

No more zombie Ms. P!

This also means that I will be working the same hours as MP.

I cannot wait to rejoin the living.

This also means that I am going to be back on a normal schedule, and I cannot wait to see how my workouts and also my school work improves!

I am hoping to also fit in a lot more blogging. I don't know if you all have noticed but I have been trying to post every week on Monday's, Wednesday's and Friday's. I would like to post more and hopefully will as time allows!

Thanks again for following along y'all! I cannot wait to share this new journey with you!

Happy hump day! :)

 

 

 

 

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(Free) DIY Patio Makeover

As you all know, we moved a little over a month ago to a new place, about 45 minutes away from where we were before.

There are quite a few reasons for why we left where we did, because really, we LOVED our house. We always said if we could have picked it up and taken it with us we would have.

It just wasn't in the best neighborhood. And I'm being very nice putting it that way.

There was also the 45 minute commute for MP to and from a job where he already spends his entire shift driving around town.

There were good and bad things about where we lived before, but the best, was our backyard. It was fully fenced and BIG.

Needless to say, with four pups it was something we were not looking forward to giving up when we moved.

We knew we weren't going to renew our lease at the end of the 12 months, so we honestly started looking for our new place in DECEMBER. Yes, you read that right. We started looking about 6 months ahead of time.

And we STILL found this place almost at the last second.

We had a long wish-list, but there were a few"musts" at the top of the list. I wanted to feel safe, be able to walk my dogs right out my front door, and I knew I wanted to shorten the commute for MP...

But, we also knew that finding a place that allowed all of our pups was our biggest challenge, so we (and by we I primarily mean me) started looking really early and kind of took on the mindset that we would take what we could get as long as they let us keep everyone together.

And then, after some searching online, I happened to find the only apartment company that allowed all of our dogs, which also happened to be the only one in our entire city that has fenced in back yards.

The "complex" is really about 40 acres of matching duplexes. We have two pools, a dog park, and so much more.

The area is so quiet, everyone has a background check to live here, EVERYONE has dogs,

I am sleeping so much better at night knowing how safe we are here.

And...

O, my goodness y'all.

Our yard... Is huge.

 

And we have a covered patio.

It's an oasis.

MP and I are technically paying an extra $100 a month for patio and the larger yard, and it will be the best $1200 spent at the end of our year lease, I can guarantee that.

I talked a little about it here, and as soon as we moved in we knew that we wanted to spend a lot of our time outside, taking advantage of the space.

Before we moved we did a little research and realized very quickly that the patio set we wanted was way out of our budget right now. There is always the chance that we will find a great deal, but for now we are resigned to the fact that we can't make that big of a purchase right now.

I told my parents about this, and when my mom came to visit a few weeks after we moved in, she brought with her lots of goodies.

She kept pulling things out of her trunk, and I was reminded of Hermione's magic bag in The Deathly Hallows.

Two of the things she pulled out were patio chairs that our family had used since I was a child.

My parents had since upgraded, but had always kept the old, white plastic set in the gazebo.

I am so thankful we did!

She also brought me a few cans of white paint to spruce them up a bit.

@

Amazing what a few coats of paint can do!

Now that we had the two chairs, we knew we would need a table of some sort.

Tada!

We flipped over a Tupperware bin that we had used for moving and painted it white.

 

The plastic wasn't the best at holding the paint, and it was a little hot that day so we had a few drips, but overall I am very happy with the way that it turned out.

My lovely momma also brought us the cushions, and I think they really tie the space together.

So there it is y'all!

My (free) patio makeover!

Let me know what you think!

Happy Monday and have a great week!

 

 

 

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Elfa Closet Redo

I have been in my new place a little over a month now, and there are quite a few things that I have already done to make it even more functional.

It really wasn't that bad to begin with, there were just a few storage issues that had to be worked out.

For instance?

The closets.

Ugh.

The doors are those awful sliding doors, with tracks that have been painted over about 100 times and are just worthless at this point. Those were the first things I removed.

And as soon as I started to hang things in my bedroom closet, I realized that the wooden "rod" they had in place was just not going to cut it.

With just barely a third of my wardrobe hung it was already starting to sag. Not good.

So that came down. 

And I was left with the empty closet that you see above.

So when my mom came to visit, a stop at The Container Store was at the top of our list.

I will go ahead and say, if you don't really know what you're looking for, the Container Store can be pretty overwhelming.

After looking for a few of the more obvious items we needed, we made our way over to the closet section.

The Container Store has a brand called Elfa, which really reminds me of Ikea in that it is very DIY centric and is meant to transform awkward spaces into organizational dreams with very little skill required.

There are employees there who will help you specifically design your closet. You can literally create a new closet from scratch, from a little broom closet to a monster walk-in-closet, Elfa is your one stop shop.

This is where I come back to what I said earlier.

This entire process has the potential to be either very simple, or incredibly overwhelming. It really just all depends on how prepared you are when you walk in.

I am sure there is a way online that you can figure everything out from home before you go in, but my Mom and I didn't do that.

We just walked in with very, very basic measurements of my closet, and a general idea of what we wanted it to look like.

Add to that an employee who obviously didn't know the system very well?

It was very frustrating.

In the end though, we walked out very impressed and I was very excited to put everything together.

A few days later MP and I tackled the project.

About an hour later, we were done and I was so impressed.

Complete transformation.

It is very sturdy, and, for the first time since I lived at home, I can actually fit everything that I want to hang in one place.

I have a ton of clothes, it's kind of ridiculous.

Anyone want to shop my closet?

Ha!

Anyways, back to the magic Elfa closet...

It also solves the issue of a place to store linens, as I do not have a linen closet.

And, look at the awesome Pinterest trick I learned!

 Store your sheet sets in one of your matching pillow cases so it's all in one place! Yay for Pinterest!

And yay for lifehacks!

Are there any spaces in your home that were just not functional at the beginning that you were happy to change?

Share your hacks! I'd love to see them!

And I have a few more of mine coming up as well!!
This post was not sponsored in anyway by The Container Store or Elfa. I was not compensated in anyway for writing this. These are my own opinions. My mom purchased the materials at full-value, without incentive.  This again is in no way affiliated with the Container Store or Elfa.

OHP: 4th of July Style!

Since we moved to Florida 3 years ago, it has somehow become a tradition to spend most holidays at MP's parents' house. 

His entire extended family in the area joins in on the festivities.

There are usually 11+ dogs and about 10-15 people.

This creates quite the zoo at times.

But it is so much fun.

These holiday gatherings have come to my favorite of the year, and I wouldn't want to spend these special days any other way.

This year the 4th is going to be even more special, because I have been put in charge of deserts!

And we all know where Ms Paws turned first for ideas....

Good ole Pinterest.

And since today is Wednesday, and tomorrow is the 4th, what better way to share my findings with you all than a quick lil Oh How Pinteresting??

I'm so excited to join Michelle in this link up, she's one of my favorite bloggers, I have been following her since before she was married and now she has the most adorable little baby boy.  Baby A is quite the cutie! You should definitely stop by her blog and check out her adorable family! She also  recently got a promotion towards her dream job, so wish her congratulations too while you're at it! :)

PS: This post was so frustrating to put together. I've got it now, but the new way to embed pins is really just plain annoying, especially compared to how easy it was before.

PPS: Does anyone else rarely take the time to change the description on the pin? *Raises hand* So please don't judge the captions. They're not mine. I just liked the pretty pictures. :)


































And that's all folks! Head on over to Michelle's page to link up, and I hope yall have a wonderful day tomorrow! Happy 4th!