More Vacation Photos and daughters birthday

This is one of the pictures of my daughters birthday. That is me, hubby and my daughter.


My niece was also there to celebrate her cousins birthday.

This was at the Opryland Hotel in Nashville. I can't believe it took me 13 years before I went to see it. I visit my sister almost every year and my brother kept telling me to go but I was always content just visiting with my sister and swimming at her house. I am so happy I finally went. I can't wait to bring my hubby here. He will just love it.
The rest of the pictures that I am going to show are from the Hotel. I hope you enjoy.


My daughter.

Me, my daughter, my niece and my sister.


My sister.


All the flowers, trees, plants and bushes were real.


Here are some pictures of us going boating on July 5th with our neighbors. Our 4th of July was terrible because it rained all day and night.

Tubing
Hubby not looking so happy while tubing. LOL


Well, it is time to go. Big Brother is on and I love that program.

Vacation and Garden Pictures

I have been trying to post a entry since I got home but I have gotten so busy with the garden and working outside that I haven't had the time.
I am pretty tired right now but I am determined to finish this entry.
This is where I spent a lot of my time. My sister and niece both had to work most of the time and I just love the water and swimming. There were days that I would spend 7 hours outside. My daughter and I are really tan. I would love to get a pool one day.

This is my sister and her hubby. He was only home on the weekends because he is an over the road truck driver. I just love him. He is so good to my sister.


We had a great bonfire one night. That is my niece and their 89 lb. puppy Bear. He is huge. We made the kids listen to our music and they kept making all these sounds and noises so we would turn it off. They called it old folks music. We just laughed all night. What a great time.

My niece and her boyfriend.

I have more pictures of my vacation but I am getting tired and I want to show you some of my garden pictures so here goes.

Here is my cabbage and some green onions we planted on the side. I can't believe how big all my vegetables have gotten since I was on vacation.
This is my lettuce which I already cut up and washed and had a salad tonight. It tasted great knowing that you grew it yourself.


Here are the brussel sprouts. We never planted these before and we are hoping they turn out. I wanted to try something new this year.
Here are the cucumber plants. We already have a few growing. I am going to try to can some pickles. My hubby bought me a book on canning and I want to try my hand at canning salsa, homemade spaghetti sauce, marinara sauce and a few other things.

These are the bell pepper plants. I just eat these raw and I also like to grill them with a little olive oil and salt and pepper.

We had so many plants this year that we had to put some of our vegetables on the side of the house. This is new for us also. It is spinach. I just love spinach. I put it in my salads all the time.
This is all the lettuce I cut yesterday. I had to wash it and put it in my salad spinner. It took me quite a while to do this.

The one on the left is one of my cabbages. I am going to make coleslaw tomorrow. The one on the right is another head of lettuce. The 2 bowls in the background are basil leaves. I love making homemade basil pesto and basil vinegarette.

Ok, I am getting tired and you are probably getting bored with all my produce so I am going to call it a night.

I do have more vacation pictures but I haven't downloaded them yet. They are pictures from the most beautiful hotel I have ever seen. It is the Opryland Hotel in Nashville.

I wanted to mention that I am still down 51 lbs. I gained a few and lost a few so I am back to where I started. I am going to get back on track.

I want to wish everyone a happy 4th of July. Stay safe.

I'M Back

I just wanted to say I just got back from vacation last night and I will post pictures and tell you all about it after I go through 24 days of mail and make tons of phone calls.
I missed you all and can't wait to catch up.
I want to tell my good friend Tabby over at Is It the Weekend Yet? that my thoughts and prayers have been with Dave since he has been in the hospital. I wish I could be there for you at this time.

I'm Leaving On a Jet Plane

Just wanted to leave a quick entry to say that I am leaving on vacation and won't be back until June 29th.
I will catch up with everyone when I get back.

I Am Trying to Stay Positive

I haven't been in a really good place lately. I am struggling with staying on my healthy eating and exercising. It all started last Sunday for Mother's Day. I won't go into the details but I was depressed for 2 days and over ate and didn't exercise. I did lose 1 lb this week for a total of 52 lbs. and total for Chubby Chick Challenge 28 lbs.
I was doing fine today and then this afternoon I started snacking and lost all control. I have to refocus. I need to change up some of my food choices. I think I am eating to many of the same things and I might be getting bored with them. This has happened to me before. I am also going to have to talk to my hubby and daughter about all of this. I was doing good with making them cookies and bringing in the ice cream and pastries but now that I am feeling out of control with the food I need to stop bringing in this stuff until I can get back to where I was.

I was reading one of my favorite blogs called Escape from Obesity the other day where she was talking about bloggers who fall off the weight loss wagon and just disappear. That is what I felt like doing. I was going to take a break from making entries. I know I only do an entry only once a week but I am starting to feel the shame of going back to my old eating habits and didn't want to post. I love the weight loss journals that I read where they are so brave and talk about all the junk they eat when they binge. I have been doing so good for 5 months and I have had a few slip ups but 4 days in the past week is over doing it, plus on top of not exercising is making it worse. When you get older it is so much harder to take off. Ok enough of my pity party.

My weekend was really busy but fun. On Saturday we celebrated my nephew turning 30. He was really surprised. He said he did not know about it. I love those kinds of surprises. We had to pay a cover charge but I didn't because it was to eat pizza and drink alcohol. I ordered a salad with chicken in it and had one glass of Merlot. I got a to go container since the salad could have fed 3 people. As it got later in the night I told my sister in law to put some extra pieces of pizza in it for my hubby and all the time I am thinking I wanted it for me on the ride home. She gave me about 15 slices of pizza. I had one on the way home and one when I got home. Pizza is my downfall. I can't be near it when I am feeling overwhelmed with food. I had a few more the next day and finished 3 more slices today. Thank goodness there is no more left.

Yesterday we had a family reunion but it was more of my cousin's side of the family. It was nice and I brought old time pictures that they loved looking at. My brother from California came. It was so great to see him. I invited them over for Memorial day. I think I will make a few steaks on the grill and not sure what else. He will be 60 on Wednesday and I asked him what he wanted to do but he said a few of his friends were having something planned so I might make a cake for him for next Monday. I swear I won't eat any. LOL

Last week I seen a fox across the street.
It had something in its mouth. I thought it was a rabbit but it was a squirrel. I told my hubby not to let our dog Bambi out in front because I think that fox would just grab him. I seen the fox a few more times earlier in the month. I didn't think they came out during the day. I thought they hunted at night. I wish I would have gotten a picture. He was out there for a few minutes. I just copied a picture of this fox from the internet.

Happy Mother's Day

I want to wish everyone a Happy Mother's Day.

We had a big party for my Mother in law yesterday and it was wonderful. She only wanted money so she can go on the gambling boat. It is always hard to buy for her because she doesn't need anything so I love when it is as easy as putting money in a card. LOL

My Mother's day is starting out fine. My daughter is still sleeping and my hubby asked what I wanted for breakfast. At first gave him a big list of what I wanted but I was only kidding. I had yogurt with walnuts and wheat germ, 1/2 an apple and some skim milk. I have already started a load of laundry. I know I should let my daughter do it but by the time she gets out of bed it will probably be the afternoon. I told hubby I would like to go on a long walk today. I think it is going to be in the 60's today. I haven't watched the weather channel yet but that's what hubby said.

I have lost another 3 lbs. for a total of 51 lbs gone. Chubby Chick Challenge 27 lbs. gone. I am feeling so much more energized and even though I still have a long way to go, I am feeling so proud of myself for getting this far.

I am feeling a little lazy right now so I am either going to go back to bed for a little while or jump in the shower and start to enjoy the day. I might try to convince my hubby to go to Dunkin Donuts and get us some coffee. I really don't drink coffee anymore but today I have a taste for it. We do have some in the house but I have a taste for a non fat latte. YUM

Oh before I forget I did order my airline ticket and my daughter and I are leaving on June 6th. I did order my ticket back yet. We are probably going to stay until July 6th. I can't wait. I haven't seen my sister in 2 years. I am so happy that she wants me to stay for an entire month. It is time for me to order a swimsuit since I don't have one and she has the most amazing pool. We will probably swim about 10 hours a day and then my sister loves night swimming but I am always so tired from being in the pool all day that I never really get in the pool at night plus the bugs eat me alive. LOL

Have a great day everyone.

Walking Away the Pounds

Lost another 2 lbs. making my total 48 lbs. Chubby Chick Challenge Total 24 lbs.

My hubby and I went to get all our vegetables and herb plants today. I didn't buy any flowers yet. I am probably just going to do one window box and maybe a few hanging ones. This year I am more into our vegetables. We bought a few new ones like lettuce, spinach, and brussel sprouts. I wanted zucchini but I couldn't find any.

I went to see a new surgeon on Thursday for my hernia. He wants me to lose another 40 lbs before he does the surgery in September. I am happy he made the decision because I didn't know if I wanted it done now or later. I am exercising almost everyday and I didn't want to give it up for 6 weeks after you have the surgery. I am still in pain but he told me the area that I am feeling the pain has nothing to do with the hernia. Oh, well I guess I will just keep taking my pain pills. I am hoping once I lose all this weight that the pain will go away. I have had it for almost 10 years now so I am hoping that is the case.

The next couple of weekends are going to be so busy for us. We have a Mother's day party at the sister in laws house next Saturday and then the following weekend we have my nephew's 30th surprise birthday party and Sunday is my family reunion picnic on my side of the family.

I am going to order my plane ticket to Tennessee tomorrow. I think I am going to stay for a month. I am not sure yet but that is what I will probably do. My daughter and I are going. I asked my hubby if he wanted to pick us up instead of me flying home and he said that he didn't want to use his vacation time to drive 7 hours so we will fly back. The price isn't to bad. The last time I checked it was only $48.00 one way. My niece got her ticket for $39.00 so she will be here in about 3 weeks and then my daughter and I will fly home with her. Sounds like a plan.

Well, I am going to get back outside and enjoy the weather. Take care everyone.