Amber, I actually followed a recipe.  In the past, I always used ground beef but since I'm not eating it, I used 3 kinds of beans, celery, Rotel tomatoes, onions, and zuchhini and quite a bit of chili powder and cayenne.  We finished it  last night (except for what I had frozen)- it tasted better since I added some 50% jalopeno cheese.  Cabot makes some tasty reduced fat cheeses. Monica and the boys came over and I also served veggie chicken tenders.  Abby came home yesterday to pick up her hoodies for the cooler weather and we had a nice time; she wanted a new purse so we went to the outlet mall.  Now today it's back to the old routine- I'm making a bow tie salad with lots of veggies and will serve with tuna and low fat dressing. Grandson turns 5 Sunday so I'll be going there for a party- this is the first year he's not having a big one;  he just invited 2 friends.  I should tell you about Monica's labor story with him.  She called me around 9 Am that morning and said she was in labor and had called her doula (woman to help her so she could go natural).  I went to their house to watch Mason, they left for the hospital around 10AM - it was an hour drive and she called me at noon to say 6 minutes after they arrived she had delivered Jude!  isn't that crazy?  There wasn't time to even consider changing her mind about an epidural!

I sure hope Pat is all rirght and posts when she's up to it.                     NaN

 Nan- hope you have fun at your Grandson's 5th birthday!  Lexi won't be 5 until April.  Your daughters birth story is great, we could all hope for such quick births!  My labor was 20 hours with Lexi and almost 16 hours with Haylie.  Haylie would have been born a lot sooner but she was facing the wrong way and wasn't coming down, it took 5 hours before they would let me start pushing though I was fully dialated.  She ended up coming out "sunny side up" (face up instead of down)  Boy was that painful, I bruised my tail bone delivering her.

Pat- I hope everything is going well, update us soon.

 Hi Amber and anyone else reading.  Pat, I'm thinking about you- post when you feel up to it.

Amber, I had fast labors too and all three were different- first- 4 hours; second induced at 8AM with pitocin and he was born at 10:45AM; thrid- c section!  Monica would love a htird but soninlaw says NO LOL. ih nis defense, the boys were awful sleepers.  I attribute part of that to co-sleeping heehee but I kept my mouth shut.  My kids all slept in their own beds/cradle from the first night home from the hospital.  I had a monitor with Abigail and she was the worse sleeper too. Does Haylie sleep in her own bed? Monica never used the crib except for naps!  She nursed (I had better not say the other word or post might not be approved)  but so did I.  I just got up and sat in a rocker and then laid them down to fall asleep on their own.

I just saw a really good weight loss tip on Dr Oz- I really like that show.  He had a big plastic container with lid and said fill it up with all the food you will eat for the day, refrigerate and when it's gone, you know you're done!  He had lots of produce, lean meats, fruit in it!  I might try that next week- it would mean no ice cream LOL.  I bought some soy dairy free yesterday and it is calling me- I figured it wouldn't tast that good but it did!!!  I think the party boy picked pizza for his birthday so that won't tempt me.  Daughter ordered a cake but I prefer homemade so I can stay away from that too!  Just keep the chips away HeeHee.  I did make myself some tortilla chips yesterday- just cut corn tortillas in wedges and baked a few minutes- nice and crispy.

Have you tried any new foods?  I have been looking at recipes.             NaN

 Hi Nan!  Yes, Haylie sleeps in her crib, she always has.  She's always been a pretty good sleeper.  As a newborn, she would wake for feedings but go right back to sleep.  Lexi on the other hand was a terrible sleeper for her first month.  She would stay awake until 5 am and then go to sleep.  She would be wide awake from 9 pm until 5 am, with not even an hour nap, it was exausting!!

Hope you have a good time at the party!  How did your weigh in go today?

One of my new favorites is chicken with stuffing.  I put chicken breasts, boneless skinless in the crock pot and mix together stuffing, chicken broth and lowfat cream of chicken soup (I also add celery and onion to my stuffing) and dump that on top of the chicken, let it sit in the crock pot all day.  It comes out really good, Dane and the girls love it too. 

 Weigh in was the same but I feel a bit bloated LOL and I didn't even eat at the party.  Abby came home for that and also, a 9 AM dental appointment this morning and we left before the cake cutting LOL.  Jude had his buddies and lots of parents there too so a houseful.  Monica saved me a sliver of cake!  Parties have changed since my kids were young- even Abby.  The parents all stay and you feed everyone.  It would be like you inviting a couple of Haylie's friends and their parents and sibs all come and stay for 3 hours.  CHAOS!

I am leaving for work soon- client has doctor's appointment she changed or I'd be home!  She has no problem changing appointments when she feels like it heehee.  Her phone bill is high too; she refuses to give up call waiting and caller ID and is always telling me she is getting rid of ehr phone because it's too expensive. I imagine we'll go to the dollar store and probably 2 thrift stores too.

That chicken sound delicious.  Mom used to make something similar with pork chops.  I fried Abby some homemade chicken tenders and made her mashed potatoes for ddinner.  I had some potatoes- didn't add anyhting but skim milk so they were legal.  We both like potatoes in any orm.  My dad used to rice them; he always cooked our Sunday noon meal and usually had beef or pork roast, carrots and riced potatoes.  Does your husband cook?  I am winging it today foodwise but no fast food, including Subway.

 Hi Ladies!!  Yes it's me and I'm back just to update everyone on what I found out.  Nothing!!!!  If the dr. said "I don't know" or "Maybe" or "Possibly" one more time I might have slugged him...very frustrating.  No surgery for now at least but I do have to go in for more tests.  I have to have an ultrasound of my coratid arteries in my neck (not sure on spelling) because he heard "swishing".  I also have to do a stress test (on the treadmill).  He did agree that I have a cyst on my heart, but he doesn't think that it's causing my symptoms of exhaustion, chest pain, shortness of breath etc.  He seems to think that it is more realated to my high blood pressure (that I've had since I was a teenager) and perhaps heart disease even though I'm still quite young (I think anyway).  If I don't get answers after the stress test, I'm going to the Mayo Clinic and work with the drs there that my sister works with everyday.  So we're back to wait and see.

As for Alli etc, I'm going to take a break.  I'll miss all of you dearly.  Even though I haven't been posting, I've been reading and checking up on all of you.  I feel I just need to put school, family, and health first and that doesn't leave a lot of time for typing on the computer.  I'm sorry.  I wish everyone all the best and am so excited to know that you guys are doing so terrific in your weight loss.  Keep up the hard work and know that I'm still thinking about you even though I'm not here on the boards.  I wish there was another way to stay in touch.  Take care...I'll miss you.

Pat

 Pat- so glad to hear from you.  I will miss you but I completely understand, it must be so hard for you right now.  I wish you had more answers, that must be so frusterating!  Too bad they don't have pm's on here so we could exchange email addresses.  I wish you all the luck in the world that you find answers and get healthy.  We'll miss you and hope you are able to come back in the future!!

 Nan- it was originally a pork chop recipe, and I didn't know if I could have them so I used chicken :)  What does "rice them" mean with potatoes?  My hubby only makes frozen pizza and he grills!  His mom didn't teach him much in the way of cooking, laundry etc.  She did it all for him.  He does seem to enjoy cooking though when he tries!  He usually follows my recipe and makes me lasagne on my b-day and for valentine's day. 

Lexi wants a party with her friends this year for her bday.  Thank goodness we have until April to plan it.  We are on such a tight budget and have to figure out something fun to do for her party.  It is hard when you have the kids to entertain plus their parents when you are trying to plan something relatively inexpensive.  I know whatever we will do will be between meals so we just have to serve cake and snacks.

 Pat, so glad to hear from you. I was hoping you'd occasionally post- I know no news has to be so frustrating.  My bil has had hypertension since he was a teen too- it kept him from being drafted in the 60s. Mine just started at age 50 but it runs in my family. Keep us informed if you can.  NaN

 Amber, I didn't see your or Pat's posts until today, the 7th!  I stayed the same weigh-twise but today, I'm down 2 pounds YAY!  I really had a good day yesterday-mainly ate veggies.  I cooked up a couple bags of frozen mixed ones in chicken broth  and added a little pasta and ate and ate LOL.  I can't say it was tasty, but it filled me up.  I still have a bunch of apples to use up but not the motivation LOL.  I should peel, slice them and just freeze with a little lemon until I decide what to do with them. 

I got out the Halloween/Thanksgiving stuff and have decorated a bit.  I'll leave the turkeys until later LOL.  I haven't bought any candy which is good- usually, I buy on sale early and even though I don't have a big sweet tooth, I get into the Snickers...dirty word around here LOL.  I'm almost tempted to not buy any candy and turn my light off but I hate to do that.  I usually get around 40 kids- our lots are all 1/2 acre and no sidewalks so the little kids come early. My granny always made popcorn balls for all the kids; I usually make a batch for us but I shouldn't this year; my recipe calls for butter, sugar and corn syrup!  Abby was here last weekend and probably won't be back until November so I can't give her any or use that as an excuse heehee and the boys aren't allowed to eat many sweets. Now I'm making myself hungry and I already had my alli and breakfast!

Amber, we had a ricer- a small 'appliance' that had 2 metal cups, one with tiny holes and a handle you squeezed.  You put cooked potatoes in the inner cup, squeezed and the potatoes came out looking like rice.  Think of a big garlic press!  Of course, Dad always managed to get sticky potatoes on the counter.

I'm off to a meeting 50 miles away but they have a Joan fabrics there so I can buy what I need for Halloween costumes.  They also have an Aldis which has cheap prices- there was one in my hometown so perhaps, you are familar with it.  It's HOT here and very unseasonable but we've had a pretty hot summer.

I'll be home before lunch- I bought some low  fat ravioli yesterday and had it with a nice garlicky tomato sauce so that's on the menu again with a nice salad and homemade applesauce.

Have a good day!  NaN

 Sorry I haven't posted in the last few days.  More computer drama.  They called and said the computer was ready, so we packed up my parents laptop to bring back and went and got ours.  Well, apparently they replaced almost every part in the computer (the tech said he was surprised they did that and didn't just let us pick out a new laptop) but after "fixing" it, they never bothered to turn it on to see if it worked.  So, we ended up bringing it back and they called yesterday and Dane and I have both tried calling back but haven't gotten a response.  So, hopefully today we will hear something.

Nan, we do have a nearby Aldi's, but I haven't been in there.  What is it like?   I love Joann Fabrics, I like Michael's too for crafting.  That is funny that you have too hot of weather, here in MN, it is freezing!!!  It is unseasonably cold this year, the normal high is 63 at this time, for the last 2 weeks it's been in the 40's.  We are actually supposed to have snow this morning, I haven't looked outside yet though since it is only 6 am and still very dark.

Hope you enjoy your weekend!  Becki, where are you at?

 Hi everyone, sorry for not posting in a while.  I've just been busy but I'm still going strong.  Checked in today and down another 2 pounds. I thought I would have I would have a three pound week but my weight has been flucuating do to hormones this week. That brings my total to 38 pounds. I am almost at my 2/3's mark how great is that.  I keep telling my husband that when I get there I'll only have twenty to go and after doing the first 44 pounds what is twenty right.

Went to work yesterday and they hada birthday cake for a coworker and everyone kept saying that you can have just a little peice but I said no thank you and I did not even feel deprived.  I did not even want a bite.  I also have a baby shower to go to this afternoon and I feel good about it because I know that I do not have to have anything that isn't good for me.  And my body is now used to not have junk so I do not crave it.

How has everyone else done this week?  Great I know because as long as you are taking care of what is important all the other stuff falls into place.

Bye for now

 Amber, it was 93 here Friday and probably 90 yesterday! Grandsons spent the night; we all went to bed at 9 and this morning they were up soon after I was at 5:30!  I've fixed them breakfast and they're watching a Halloween movie now.  We have Sunday school at 9.  I made a blueberry crisp yesterday since Jude loves blueberries and we had sushi for dinner- I bought it and not a roll left from 2 packages.  They just love sushi if it's not the spicy kind.  i will weigh in tomorrow since my stomach is full LOL.

Becki, good news on the weight loss!  I am still motivated but haven'y been exercising enough.  I have to commit myself!!!!  I can do more!!!

 Hi ladies!  Nan, I bet your grandsons enjoyed the sleepover!  It is wonderful you are able to spend so much time with them! 

It is official, we have 2-3 inches of snow in October, ugh!  Going to be a loooong winter!  I took the girls outside to play in it this morning.  Haylie could hardly walk in her snow suit, LOL.  They had fun and are excited about the snow.  I miss summer already!

Tonight for dinner I am making terryaki (sp??) chicken and rice.  Lexi loves "terry hockey" chicken :)  Last night, I tried the turkey bacon Nan, it wasn't bad.  We used it to make BLT's, they were very yummy!

How did your weigh in go Nan?  Mine is tomorrow and so far, I've only lossed a pound this week, I am hoping to lose 1 more by tomorrow!!