One 15x11x4 box, 550+ pages, $90 in photocopying, and endless man hours later....

........... and it's been delivered!!!  Oh man, what a relief!!  It seriously measured 4" tall, people....that is ridiculous!

This is our whole life pictured here... for the past 4+ years, at least.  We had to include proof that we have kept in contact with one another since we've been apart, so we have Vonage bills, Verizon bills, emails, photocopies of cards/letters, etc.  We had to photocopy plane tickets, travel itineraries, hotel reservations...the list goes on.  There were a million forms, some of which we had to include multiple copies of.  There's proof of Luke's medical exam, 3 police clearances, 4  passport photos, and most importantly the receipt of all the money we've paid!  There's photocopies of tons of wedding stuff, 60+ pages of photos....too much stuff to list!! :)

These are our photocopies on the right....I spent over an hour at Staples, at $0.07 a copy, so spent like $90 on a full set of copies of everything for both Luke and I - eeeep!!!  That's a lot eh...I almost died when I realized.  But there's not much we could do about it - we both needed to have a full copy of the package....

And this is me, losing my mind when I'm about to leave for the post office to send this bad boy out....look at the size of it!!! :)

And now the real stress begins.  We have faith....we're staying positive.  We're likely not going to hear anything for at least a month, so that will be a wee bit frustrating, but that's just the way it is.  Anyway, this is it....it's a huge relief and stress off our minds to get this thing out of here!  We're excited and anxious and positive to get this process underway :)

Keep us in your prayers!  We sure appreciate it!! <3

Kitchen Floor Repairs - Thoughts & Opinions please!!!

Since Luke and I are going to be selling our house (God-willing), we're planning on accomplishing as many small repairs as we can while I'm visiting Colorado in March.  There are a number of things we're hoping to do including fixing up the bathroom (new floor, wainscoting, paint, new toilet, etc), tile in the foyer, painting in the kitchen and office, putting a door between the kitchen and sunroom, repairing some small holes and imperfections in some of the walls, painting doors and trim, and figuring out some way of repairing the kitchen floor.

That's what I really, *really* want opinions on today....our kitchen floor.  Here's some photos of the issue....

This was taken before we moved into the house - on one of our many walk throughs.  As you can see, for some very strange reason, the owners cut out a portion of the original wood floors....maybe for repairs of some sort?  Although, that doesn't even really make sense as the pipes under the kitchen floor can be accessed through the open ceiling in the basement....so I have no idea what this is about!  But it's ugly!  I'ts right in front of the kitchen sink.  We've been covering it with a rug lately, but we know that it will be a huge drawback from anyone looking at buying the house, so we want to be able to fix it somehow.

Here's another couple of angles:

So it's pretty ugly eh?!  So we have a few thoughts...  Do we buy hardwood pieces that we can then find a comparable stain, and try desperately to match it up and not make it look TOO piecey and patchwork.  The issue with that is I'm afraid it's going to look very much like we patched something, instead of blending in really well. Do we try to make it look like it was purposeful?

We could do something like this, with tile and a border and everything:

Then the next question about that would be, would we do tile all the way down the length of the kitchen? See the first photo for an idea of what I mean....from the wall where I'm taking the picture from, to where the counter L's?  So it would be tile in front of all the counter space.  Would that look ridiculous?  Or would you do tile or something in front of just the sink area?


The other thing I was throwing around was more of like a rubber flooring?  Since that's all the rage in kitchens these days, having those mats that are all rubbery and commercial with all sorts of back and knee support, etc.  They make those types of flooring in tile form....would it be better to do something like that instead of the tile?  I'm not sure if we could achieve the same polished look however...

Here's another angle of the kitchen, from another shot we took before we moved into the house:

The offending area is obviously on the left side of the picture....on the right side of the kitchen is the fridge and stove.  When I look at this, I honestly think, should we just tile the whole kitchen area?

Please excuse my obvious artistic abilities!  But just tile the area of the actual kitchen?  Leaving the other sides of the room, which is the entry into the living/dining room at the far end of the picture, and the eat-in kitchen (which unfortunately houses the washer/dryer at the moment) on this near end of the photo, as the original wood floors?  Maybe that would achieve the same idea, but look way less patchy?

I NEED HELP!!! :)  I would love, love, love some thoughts and opinions everyone!  Please be honest...tell me what you think, what you love, what you hate....I want to know what your thoughts would be if you walked into the house and saw all that I've described.  Fill me in!!

Thank you muchly! :)

Edited to add:  Money is tight....we have a relatively teeny budget....so refinishing all the floors would be ideal, and amazing looking, but not realistic at the moment :)

EDITED AGAIN!  Luke just brought up an interesting idea as well....should we take up the wood flooring under the fridge/stove area....maybe tile under them, and use the wood flooring to patch the hole?  Would it still look ridiculous and patchy?  Or would we be able to blend it fairly well?  I'm unsure....

Feathers in the Wind...

I was reminded of this story today - it's always been such a perfect example to me of the damage that can be done with words...

There is a 19th century folktale about a man who went about town slandering the town’s wise man. One day, he went to the wise man’s home and asked for forgiveness. The wise man, realizing that this man had not internalized the gravity of his transgressions, told him that he would forgive him on one condition: that he go home, take a feather pillow from his house, cut it up, and scatter the feathers to the wind. After he had done so, he should then return to the wise man’s house.

Though puzzled by this strange request, the man was happy to be let off with so easy a penance. He quickly cut up the pillow, scattered the feathers, and returned to the house.

“Am I now forgiven?” he asked.

“Just one more thing,” the wise man said. “Go now and gather up all the feathers.”

“But that’s impossible. The wind has already scattered them.”

“Precisely,” he answered. “And though you may truly wish to correct the evil you have done, it is as impossible to repair the damage done by your words as it is to recover the feathers. Your words are out there in the marketplace, spreading hate, even as we speak.”

Once it's out there, it's pretty impossible to take back....

My hCG Journey - long!

If anyone’s known me for any length of time, you’ll know I’ve always struggled with my weight.  I don’t want to start off making excuses, because I know it’s primarily due to the fact that I’ve lacked exercise, have overeaten and have just generally not taken care of myself like I should have.  Even as a young pre-teen and teenager I always felt more overweight than any of my friends.  But looking back on past photos and comparing them to now, I think, wow, how did I let myself get like this?  It’s a really tough thing to talk about, but I know that I’ve found inspiration through other people’s blogs about weight loss and have identified with the struggles that they’ve had, so I wanted to put my story out there in case it just might inspire or help someone else. 

As I’m writing this, I’m still humming and hawing about adding my “before and after” photos.  It’s a vanity thing – I know it is.  I know I’m overweight, likely obese, but man, I like to *think* I’m not!  I like to think my friends and family don’t see a big fat cow when they look at me, but looking at these photos I don’t see how you could see anything but that.  I think the photos tell the real story of this diet I’m about to describe, but in my mind I’m thinking, “Now everybody’s going to know how huge I am.”….come on Kristi, they already see you!  I’m still contemplating this one ;)

I was introduced to the hCG diet in October 2010 when we were at our annual church convention.  A number of people I knew had done it and had great success with it.  I honestly just sort of brushed it off as a fad diet.  I had recently lost 20 lbs since June of that year with good old hard work and eating well, and I thought I was probably better off to just continue doing that and being happy with maybe a quarter  to a half pound of weight loss a week or something.  I thought this was just going to be one of those diets where you lose a lot while on it, but the instant you start eating normally again, you’ll see it all come back on immediately.  But through a lot of research online and reading tons of different reviews and people’s experiences with it, I found that a lot of people have great success keeping the weight off for an extended period of time, even years.  This one lady I read about had done at least one round of the hCG and she ate Christmas dinner and didn’t gain anything. 

The idea behind hCG is that you take these homeopathic drops for anywhere between 23-42 days.  It was developed I believe in the 60’s by a Dr. Simeons – at the time it was used as an injection, but is now taken orally with an eyedropper, and held under the tongue.   It’s a hormone that develops naturally in pregnant women, and is then extracted to make this supplement.  Dr. Simeons found that patients who took this hormone lost stored fat instead of lean muscle – hence, the reason why it works so well – it attacks the stored fats in your body which as we know, are incredibly difficult to get rid of any other way. 

Step 1:  You go through a 2 day period at the beginning of the diet where you “load” – you eat at least 3,000 calories a day of extremely fatty foods, while taking the hCG drops.  The idea behind this is that it transports the hCG into the stored fat cells of your body.  It sounds absurd, I know, but they say this is an extremely important part of the whole diet.  People used to go and stay at clinics when this protocol was first developed (as it used to just be an injection administered by a professional), and the doctors say they could tell who did and didn’t eat enough calories during the loading part of the diet.  Those who did eat a lot had a greater success rate than those who were only moderate on their loading. 

Step 2:  This is Phase 2 of the protocol.  You decide how long you’re going to take the drops for, and you start a very low calorie diet of 500 calories a day for anywhere up to 40 days.  You take the drops 3 times a day – I was taking 10 drops at a time (sometimes up to 12 if I found my hunger was bad that day).  The hCG drops help to suppress your hunger while your body gets used to eating such a low calorie diet.  This is the part of the diet that worried me the most – I figured my body would go into starvation mode and either not lose anything at all because it’s “storing”, or I would lose a lot and then put it right back on the minute I upped my calories again.  However by reading Dr. Simeons’ book, Pounds and Inches, it explained in great detail why that was not the case.  I’m linking to the manuscript online, as it’s way too extensive to post on here!  It really is a *very* informative read if you’re contemplating the diet, or just researching.  Read the complete book HERE!

Here’s an excerpt from his book that really explains why you need to ONLY stick with the 500 calories:

“Under the influence of HCG the blood is saturated with food and the blood volume has adapted itself so that it can only just accommodate the 500 Calories which come in from the intestinal tract in the course of the day.  Any additional income, however little this may be, cannot be accommodated and the blood is therefore forced to increase its volume sufficiently to hold the extra food, which it can only do in a very diluted form.  Thus it is not the weight of what is eaten that plays the determining role but rather the amount of water which the body must retain to accommodate this food.”

My diet:  There are strict guidelines as to the foods you can and cannot eat on this diet.  There are also strict guidelines as to how much water you need to be drinking.  They recommend that you drink half of your body weight in ounces of water….so if you weigh 200 lbs, you would drink 100 ounces of water a day.  That’s a lot of water!  And I’ve come to the realization that I may have the smallest bladder in the universe ;)  It was tough sometimes!  You can have as much tea and coffee as you want, but only 1 tbsp of milk a day, so most people just drink it black and unsweetened.  You ARE allowed to use the sweetener stevia as much as you want, but I chose not to add that into my protocol.

Excerpt from Dr. Simeons’ book on what he wants his patients to eat:

"Breakfast:	Tea or coffee in any quantity without sugar.  Only one tablespoonful of milk allowed in 24 hours.  Saccharin or other sweeteners may be used.
Lunch:	1.      100 grams of veal, beef, chicken breast, fresh white fish, lobster, crab or shrimp.  All visible fat must be carefully removed before cooking, and the meat must be weighed raw.  It must be boiled or grilled without additional fat.  Salmon, eel, tuna, herring, dried or pickled fish are not allowed.  The chicken breast must be removed raw from the bird. 2.      One type of vegetable only to be chosen from the following: spinach, chard, chicory, beet-greens, green salad, tomatoes, celery, fennel, onions, red radishes, cucumbers, asparagus, cabbage. 3.      One breadstick (grissino) or one Melba toast. 4.      An apple or an orange or a handful of strawberries or one-half grapefruit.
Dinner :	The same four choices as lunch.

The juice of one lemon daily is allowed for all purposes.  Salt, pepper, vinegar, mustard powder, garlic, sweet basil, parsley, thyme, majoram, etc., may be used for seasoning, but no oil, butter or dressing.

Tea, coffee, plain water, or mineral water are the only drinks allowed, but they may be taken in any quantity and at all times.

In fact, the patient should drink about 2 liters of these fluids per day.  Many patients are afraid to drink so much because they fear that this may make them retain more water.  This is a wrong notion as the body is more inclined to store water when the intake falls below its normal requirements.

The fruit or the breadstick may be eaten between meals instead of with lunch or dinner, but not more than than four items listed for lunch and dinner may be eaten at one meal.”

This is what I ate on a fairly regular basis:

Breakfast:  One medium sized Gala apple, sliced up with the skin left on, and one larger travel mug of herbal tea, unsweetened. 

Lunch:  3 ounces of chicken breast, seasoned with garlic salt and S&P, 1 large cucumber sliced up (peeled) and one Grissini breadstick, whole wheat.  I varied my veggies every once in awhile, but I stuck with cucumbers mostly as they’re very easy for the type of work we do – I can spread them out throughout the day.  Sometimes I would take a thermos of hot cauliflower or broccoli, and sometimes a cup of grape tomatoes were added into my lunch bag. 

Dinner:  I ate steak occasionally, but I found that I didn’t see wonderful results the next day, so I stuck with chicken breast for the majority of my diet.  I would eat 3 ounces of chicken breast, seasoned the same as above, with a couple cups of broccoli or cauliflower or asparagus or cabbage.  One thing I came to love was a fresh tomato sliced up and sprinkled with basil and S&P – delish!  I also ate my last Grissini breadstick at around dinnertime. 

Snack:  If I wasn’t at my 500 calories, I would add in a handful of strawberries in the evening, or another apple, or an orange.  And I would drink as many herbal teas as I liked…I usually had 2-3 in a day. 

I didn’t stick to Dr. Simeons’ protocol completely – there are so many to choose from online.  He recommends only eating one type of vegetable per meal – I usually did that at lunch time, but I mixed a couple of veggies at dinner and never seemed to have a problem with it.  Dr. Simeons recommends not eating broccoli and cauliflower, but I did, and again, didn’t see any harmful effects. 

Step 3:  After you’ve completed the amount of days you’ve decided upon (I did 25), you go into what’s called Phase 3.  You do Phase 3 for the exact number of days you did Phase 2 (The 500 calorie part) – in my case, I will doing it 25 days.  Starting today, I am to add about 200 calories a day to my diet, until I reach an average of 1,500 calories a day.  I can add dairy, eggs, larger amounts and a variety of protein…..just about anything really.  The two things I must avoid like the plague are any sugars and starches.  So for example, this morning, I relished my first cup of tea in almost a month, with stevia and milk!  Soooo good :)  Now instead of just chicken breast, I can eat thighs and legs instead – the dark meat.  I can take some nuts with me to work as a snack, and I can eat things like cheese and milk (obviously everything in moderation).  

This is a very important part of the hCG diet as it stabilizes your new weight.  You are not supposed to lose or gain more than 2 lbs of weight from your last-day-on-the-drops weight.  They say you can introduce exercise in this phase, in moderation, but this is the time to focus on setting that new weight point, not necessarily losing more.  So I’m planning on sticking to no exercise for about a week or so, and then maybe adding in some weights and ab exercises, to help tone up.  I will leave the cardio until Phase 4. 

Step 4:  (Phase 4) – This is basically back to real life now…you can eat whatever you want, whenever you want, including starches and sugars.  The key is moderation in everything that you do.  You’re not supposed to go over a 2 lbs weight gain – if you do there are instructions on how to fix that.  You’re to weigh yourself every day, religiously.  You want to make sure that nothing you eat puts the weight back on.  I think this is a lifelong commitment, but hopefully the weight loss that you experienced is a huge motivating factor – I know it will be for me!

My results:

I lost 23.4 lbs in 25 days on the hCG diet – I am beyond thrilled at this!  I’m at a weight that I haven’t been for a very long time, and I’m within 3ish pounds of a goal I’ve had for years and years.  I’m super motivated to get back to exercising, when the time is right, and super motivated to eat well and eat properly for my body. 

I know I have a long way to go; I’m definitely not a Skinny Minnie by any means!  I probably never will be – I don’t know if my body’s designed for that :)  But I definitely have a new self confidence that hasn’t been there for a very long time.  I tried on a jacket in Walmart the week I started hCG and it didn’t fit – the zippers didn’t even meet!  But I went back in there a couple days ago and bought two of those jackets ($7 woot woot), because they fit me with room to spare :)  It is a very, very good feeling!  I know I have a long way to go, but I feel like I’m really on the road to being successful with this. 

Please don't judge these photos too harshly....it's taking every ounce and morsel of courage I have to post them!  I just know that while researching this diet I found people's photos to be very inspiring and really tell an amazing story of their success.  Also, there's some weird shadows, which of course help me look bigger, which is greeeeaaaat!  Don't mind those either ;)

Ugh, it pains me to share this with the world!!  But if it helps inspire or motivate one person, then I guess it's worth it.  I have a long way to go, as you can see, but I am on my way!  And I am very happy to be finally getting there! :)  I'm going to do another round at the end of April, and I'm already looking forward to it.....to be honest with you, I'm already looking forward to the loading days! HA! just kidding ;)