Updates

I can't believe it's already February! And James will be 5 months old soon. Time just moves too quickly. Here are some pictures of the boys. James started daycare 3x/week 2 weeks ago when I went back to work full time. Working full time has been fine- especially since I can work from home 3x/week, but it is utterly exhausting. And there has been one day where I never got to hold James at all since he put himself to sleep so early. James seems to be fine with daycare- and they have said that he is a very happy baby. Really, he only fusses when he's hungry, tired, or wants to be held. 

Stephen and I hadn't been out on date since December (or maybe even Nov) so we got his cousin Amy to come and watch the kids while we went out for a nice lunch at Oakley's Bistro:



It also happened to be time for my cheat meal (I get one/week) so I made the most of it with a glass of wine and dessert. I've been following the nutrition program at HTS which is essentially this:

Since starting it 2.5 weeks ago, I've lost 4-5 pounds. I'm still in the high 150's but am slowly able to start wearing nonmaternity pants (thank god). Anyways, by summer, I'd like to be down in the 140s again with (hopefully) under 20% body fat (I was measured at 25% body fat at the start of this challenge). So far, the eating has been relatively easy. I'm not completely cutting everything bad out. I still have a tablespoon of coffeemate every morning, a tiny bit of brown sugar with my oatmeals, english muffins, etc. But I definitely have incorporated MANY more vegetables in my diet (most of the groceries are vegetables- that's never happened before) and I don't binge eat any more. It's helped me to stick with eating the same foods over and over (avocado, black beans, red pepper, etc). 

We are in the process of getting our home re-financed. We found that we were over paying into our retirement and so that freed about $300 every month. With the current rates, we could move to a 20 year mortgage and only pay $100 a month. And if our house appraises high enough, we might be able to get rid of PMI. Our appraisal was last Tuesday so we should be finding out this week how it came in. We frantically worked on the house the previous week and a half to get as much done as possible. That meant buy a bunch of new hard wood doors, painting molding (we only got some installed), cleaning the carpets, patching drywall areas, etc. Fingers crossed!

Stephen started his class a couple of weeks ago. He goes midday 2x/week. So far, so good but things around here have definitely been hectic.