Happiness Is Homemade: Feeling Inspired!

Hubby, staying warm in his jacket.

This past weekend my family came up to visit us. That includes my mom, dad, brother, and brother's girlfriend. The original plan was that we would be moving ... but that would mean that we had closed on the house. Which we haven't. Not yet anyway. More on that later.

My parents.

So they had planned to be free this weekend to come down and help us move and get into our new house. Since we hadn't closed, they didn't technically have to come down and see us. But since they are awesome, they did anyway! And they brought food!

We had a picnic! It started out pretty chilly. Luckily that only lasted for as long as we ate, and it got warmer afterwards when we went for a walk. But back to the food!

My mom brought some onion roll ups. If you've never had onion roll ups, you are seriously missing out! Onion roll ups are a part of the family. They come for every get together. And they are dearly missed when they are absent. They're super simple too. Just some deli meat, rub some cream cheese on it, and roll up a green onion inside. Dee-lish!

My brother's girlfriend and I.

She also made some kind of broccoli salad. I didn't take pictures because my fingers were frozen and I don't know what was in it because I pretty much inhaled it. It was really good. I could probably ask her for the recipe, but I'm sure it's not Whole30 compliant. What I don't know won't hurt me, right?

Hubby and my brother. Getting friendly.

I made some of the PaleOMG Mexican Egg Hash Bake that we love so much at our place. I also learned that I need to invest in one of those casserole travel carriers. Would make life a bit simpler. I ran into a little problem while I was cooking too. I forgot to season. Not just salt and pepper, but all the seasonings. I just forgot to add them. My brain must have been snoozin'. So I actually just sprinkled all of the seasonings on the top of the casserole before I put it in and warned people to mash generously before biting into it, lol. It didn't turn out as great as it has before, but it was the only warm food there, so I think they still appreciated it.

Bro and bro's girl. : )

For dessert there were key lime cupcakes (courtesy of my mom) and she brought some lemon frosting to put on top for those of us who are addicted to sugar. And my brother's girlfriend made some pistachio pudding. I am not really a fan of pineapple, but the pudding was pretty good. I also noticed that I could only do 2 mini cupcakes before needing to stop, as opposed to the 6 ... or 8. Sugar seems to act a little differently in my body than it used to.

Poor girl. He does this to her all the time.

Anyhoo, we ate and had a good time, then packed up the picnic and took a stroll through the park. That's when the sun came out and warmed us all up. And since I am experimenting with taking photos in manual mode, it really messed me up too. I haven't figured out how to shoot in very direct sunlight yet. Practice makes perfect though.

One armed pull ups.

Balancing act!

After the walk we went to the Halloween store. I never knew you could have so.much.fun. in a Halloween store. It was great. And then we went to Hobby Lobby. My mom and brother's girlfriend and I LOVE Hobby Lobby. We sent the boys off to check out the gun store while we went window shopping. We found all kinds of things we'd love to have and I got a few ideas for Christmas too! : )

Climbing the rock pile.

As we were getting ready to head back to our apartment to meet up with the guys we started talking about weight loss and fitness and nutrition. We all want to do it, but have problems with motivation at times. Don't we all? But my brother's girlfriend and I have decided that we are going to do our best to follow or own food plans and workout routines until she finishes the 30 day program she is currently doing. And then we are going to attempt P90x together! We definitely need this 21-ish days to prepare because that stuff is serious business. So I will be trying to stay Whole30 compliant and doing my Fitness Blender workouts (I love Fitness Blender) and she is doing her diet and 30 Day Shred.

I'll keep you up to date on how it all goes! But bro's girlfriend has inspired me. So I started on Sunday. I skipped the donuts at church and stuck to my nutrition plan and even did a workout AND took a walk. Got my vitamin D for the day! I'm feeling pretty good! I'll have to take some "before" pictures soon and weigh myself. I love numbers and results! : )