Weekly Menu

I can't believe today is the last day of January! Where has the month gone? Wasn't it just yesterday we were all blogging about taking Christmas decorations down and putting them away?  January has been a bit blue for me, but I'm determined to perk up for February. It's a short month and before you know it.. it will be March and I'll be headed to Texas then having my foot cut on.
Nick and I are still doing our "no white" diet. I'm hovering at the 5-6 pound loss, which is typical for me. I'm going to step it up this week by finally incorporating some exercise. (yuck) As soon as I finish typing this out, I'm headed across the street to our community center (yes it's that close) to get on the elliptical. I'm hoping the boo boo foot allows me to get at least 20 minutes in.
This week's menu
Sunday: Taco Soup
Monday: Artichoke chicken and broccoli (South Beach Diet Cookbook)
Tuesday: Beef with asparagus and mushrooms (another SBD recipe)
Wednesday: Chicken stir fry
Thursday: Slow Cooker San Francisco Pork Chops
Friday: Hamburgers, Sweet Potato fries
Saturday/Sunday Italian Hoagie Bake  (normally our cheat day, but I'm thinking of switching to Super Bowl Sunday!)
I have been buying about two rotisserie chickens per week to add to salads and just have a little easy protein handy. I'm trying to hang in there for one more week before I start adding a few whole grains back into my diet. Otherwise, I may lose it.
I'm hooking up with Michelle over at Married/Single Parent for a weekly menu hop. Join us if you make your own menu.

Weekend Update

We have had a great weekend. I had decided we would spend Saturday as a family, even if it meant running errands and doing some shopping. Alex was less than thrilled at the idea, but he had a good time anyway.
Saturday morning started out with some cinnamon bread in my new bread machine. I prepared the ingredients on Friday night, set the timer and we awakened to the smell of bread baking. YUM. Since Saturday is our "cheat day" on the diet, Nick and I enjoyed plenty of bread. Needless to say, by the time we left the house around 10:15 AM, there was no bread left.
Our closest Sam's Club is closing for renovations and is having a huge clearance sale so we headed there first. We have been looking at flat screen TVs to slowly get rid of the remainder of the old tube televisions in our house. We played with the idea of getting one of their outstanding deals, but in the end, just couldn't spend the money.
As we were driving through town, we saw a LAZ Boy gallery and decided to take a look around.
We have been throwing around the idea of new furniture for a while now but haven't agreed on anything. The furniture we have now was Nick's bachelor furniture and while it was functional and attractive enough, it's worn out. It reclines (which I hate) and after several moves, it's just all beat up. We lucked out and found this sofa on sale.

The fabric is from last year's collection and they are clearing it out. We also bought the love seat, a chair and an ottoman. Normally I would not want a whole set that matched. I like to mix it up a little, BUT it was that good a deal. We agreed to take the chair and ottoman upstairs to Nick's office and leave the other two pieces in the living room with the leather chair and ottoman we already have. I'm so excited to have new furniture. It's to be delivered on Friday. I think I'll buy some fabric and make a few colorful throw pillows to jazz it up a bit.

One of my biggest concerns with getting new furniture is this.

This is Cleo. She likes the sun. She also likes to sneak up on my furniture when we leave the house. Cleo is a funny dog, but she stinks and I don't want her on my new furniture.

She has a nice comfy little bed. She loves her bed.

She even has a pink blankie that she likes to be under when she sleeps.

That doesn't mean she won't abandon her snuggly bed for my new couch when I'm not looking. Fortunately, I have little gadgets we call "squealers" we can put on the furniture. They are motion detectors and squeal loudly when they are disturbed. One squeal and Cleo remembers her little bed and jumps down. It keeps her down for a good long time. We'll be using those again very soon.

After furniture shopping we set out looking for lunch. We had decided to go to Hooters for fried pickles and hot wings. However, as we were driving, we saw an "On the Border" Mexican restaurant. Nick and I both go excited!  We rarely eat Mexican food even though it's one of my favorites. In Hawaii there was no good Mexican food and since we've been here, we just haven't seen much of it.

We whipped in there and started enjoying chips and salsa. I had a yummy margarita, enchiladas and a taco. I left so full we didn't eat dinner at home last night.

Today we went to church, hit the commissary and have been puttering around at home. It's been a nice weekend. I'm feeling very relaxed!

What's On My Mind

I seem to have LOTS on my mind lately and since I can't seem to put an interesting blog post together, I thought I'd throw my thoughts out there.

* My current diet/weight loss journey is definitely taking up some brain power. I'm struggling to find meals that I will enjoy and that are fairly easy to prepare. Then there's the picky boy in the house that sometimes has to have a separate meal. I have to say, I'm starting to get bored with this and that's not a good sign. I'm going to have to introduce a few new things to keep this up.
*JD and Meghan's wedding rehearsal dinner. Since this is our responsibility I need to get busy on it. It's difficult to do from so far away, not to mention it's in a city I'm not familiar with so I have no clue what would be a good venue. I seriously need to get moving on this.
*My upcoming surgery. My foot is really bothering me lately and I seriously wish I could do it tomorrow and get it over with. It would be so nice to have it behind me when I go to Texas in mid-March instead of looking to do it as soon as I return. I'm also a little worried about the results. Leaving it the same is not an option, but having the ends of two nerves removed is a little scarey. I wonder how having numbness in that area will affect me.
*Wondering what the Army is going to do with us this summer. Nick graduates from the War College on 10 June and we'll be ready to move.  We have the wedding to attend on the 25th of June so I can't even know right now if we'll pack out before or after the wedding. It all depends on where we're going. Will he get a command? If so, will we be able to pre-position to the area where he'll take command in 2012? If not, what will we do for a year? Move Alex to yet another high school? Will Nick get a brigade command or a district command? Being in the Corps of Engineers both are possible. Which do I prefer? I'm torn.
It doesn't really matter what I want concerning command or the move. The Army is going to do what the Army is going to do. I can research several different options and think I have my ducks in a row just to have them say something I hadn't even considered. (coming to The Naval War College is a great example of that)
So, my mind is wandering. It's bringing me down a little. The cold dreary weather isn't helping.
I'm so glad it's Friday. Tomorrow is cheat day and I'm going to enjoy it! Nick has Monday off so I'm hoping we can do something fun on Sunday as a family. We have a chance of more snow, so it may be simply movies at home. I found Lonesome Dove on Netflix and I'm SO excited to introduce it to Alex. I was the first to show it to Nick after we were married. It's one of my all time favorite movies.
Have a great weekend everyone!