getting anxious

17 more days until I get to start loading up for round 4. It seems like an eternity. I'm soooo ready to start hcg again. It's funny how when you're on the diet it seems like all you can think about is being off of it and when I'm off of it I just want to be on it again. figures

My husband went to Costco the other day and bought me a TomTom. I am such a pathetic person. I get terrified to drive in Spokane......literally terrified. I like to know where I'm going. Exact street names, which lane I need to be in etc etc. When I'm in Spokane it overwhelms me and I panic. There are so many times I want to go to Spokane and go to various places but will never venture there alone. I always make my husband drive. Anyway, he broke down and bought me a TomTom so I can start to drive in Spokane by myself. Next Saturday I'm taking Amanda to The Melting Pot and I was in a full blown panic attact because I didn't know how to get there or get home. Yesterday hubby installed the device and let me drive there myself .......we basically did a dry run. It was pretty smoothly. There were a couple moments where the TomTom didn't tell me to get over into the correct lane as fast as I would've liked....but now that I've been there and back.....I feel confident I won't die next Saturday when I'm on my own. lol

So next Saturday I take Amanda out for her birthday, then a few days later it'll be my daughters 4th birthday....but we'll wait to celebrate until the following Saturday, so everyone who works can attend. Then a few days later my sister in law will be staying with us a few days....and I'll be using the Thursday and Friday she's here to load for round 4. It's going to be a crazy 3 weeks.
I'm a little bummed that I'll be on hcg during my 9th wedding anniversary....but in a way it's the best gift I can give myself. Last year I was 275 lbs and miserable. I felt huge, ugly, and so unworthy of my husband. This year I'm already 50 lbs lighter and hopefully by my anniversary I'll be around 60 lbs lighter than last year. I'll be doing a full 6 week round and will also be taking the appropriate 6 week break before I start round 5.

Taxes!

I woke up this morning to see both our federal and state taxes were deposited into our checking account , woohoo!! When we bought our house in May we put our refrigerator, snowblower and air conditioner on a home depot credit card. We put it on the "no interest if paid off within a year) cards. We planned on using our 2010 taxes to pay it off so we wouldn't have to pay the interest. We'll have a nice chunk of change leftover, but I think we're going to save it to put towards getting our back fence replaced. It's about 17 yrs old and is rotting and the boards are twisting and nails are popping out. It's a mess and it absolutely has to be replaced. I wish I could save that money towards a vacation or something, oh well. A new fence will be worth it too I spose. ;)

Amanda's birthday is a week from today. I'll be taking her to The Melting Pot next Saturday........we're both super excited!

My weight is still as stable as ever. I looked at the calendar and I will be loading March 17th and 18th for a 6 week round of hcg. I'm hoping with a ten week break that my body is fully rested and will start to easily shed weight once again. My ultimate goal is to be under 200 lbs by the end of this round. I'm pretty confident it'll happen.

This is the dress I mentioned in my previous post. Isn't it adorable??

scarlet fever

I took my son, Hebron, to the Dr. yesterday thinking he might have scarlet fever.  Turns out I was correct.  He'll be taking this whole week off of school since he's contageous.  I am hoping and praying that this is the last of the sickness!  I am soooo tired of dealing w/ sick kids, a sick hubby, and being sick myself.  I'M DONE! 

Bad news on the sugar free lemon curd.  The erythritol ended up sugaring or crystalizing.  So it ended up being grainy w/ little bits of crunchy "sugar" throughout the curd.  Boooo!  I did some research and saw that it can have the tendency to do that sometimes in certain recipes.  Oh well.  The cheesecake never did that.  It's still super smooth and creamy.  I ended up taking a couple tablespoons of Smuckers brand of All Fruit (jam made w/ only fruit and fruit juice) and melted that in the microwave w/ a tiny bit of water and made a strawberry sauce.  I drizzled that over a slice of cheesecake last night and it was devine!  It was so light and refreshing and reminded me of summer.  mmmmm

I pulled a pair of jeans out of the dryer and put them on yesterday and they fit perfectly......I can't get over how awesome that is.  For soo many years whenever I put freshly washed and dryed jeans on they were always tight and uncomfortable.  It made me smile yesterday to not have to deal with that.  =)  I feel like the weight I've lost is a true weight loss since it's been stable for 3 months.  4 1/2 more weeks and then I'll be starting hcg again....I can't wait! 

My sister has a picture of herself in a cute black and white dress w/ a bright pink sash on facebook.  It's an adorable dress.  I called my sister and she said I could borrow it anytime.  It's a size 12.  I'm currently a size 16.  I'm confident that by summer that dress will be finding itself on my body.  YAY!!!! 

Mmmmm lemon cheesecake!!

So the cheesecake turned out AMAZING!  I did make it with a regular graham crust just because most of my family likes it that way and they don't need to watch out for carbs.  I just scraped it off my slice.  Anyway I used a regular cheesecake recipe and substituted the sugar for splenda and erythritol.  I put a pan of water on the lowest oven rack to help keep the oven nice and moist while the cheesecake baked.  Once it was out of the oven I ran a toothpick around the edge of the cheesecake so as it cooled and started to shrink it wouldn't tear and create big cracks on the top.  After the cheesecake cooled on the counter for 30 minutes I put it in the fridge.  We pulled it out after almost 5 hrs of cooling and cut a small sliver.  The center was still ever so slightly "soft", so it probably should've chilled for a good 6 hrs before being served.  The texture was wonderful.  Silky smooth.  The flavor was nice.  It was a VERY light lemony flavor.  I personally like a bit more tartness but with the lemon curd spooned over the top, it was out of this world.  My husband couldn't tell it was sugar free, and to be honest, neither could I.  I really think using half splenda and half erythritol made all the difference.  Here is the original recipe I used.  I omitted the sugar and instead used 1/2 cup splenda and 2/3 cup granulated erythritol.  Everything else I followed exactly.

http://thepioneerwoman.com/tasty-kitchen/recipes/desserts/mamae28099s-lemon-wedge-cheesecake/

Here is the recipe I used for the sugar free lemon curd.  Again I used 1/2 cup splenda and 2/3 cup granulated erythritol instead of the sweetener listed. 

http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/desserts/r/locarblemoncurd.htm

This cheesecake would also be great drizzled w/ a raspberry puree or fresh sliced strawberries. 

For those that are curious about erythritol, read this http://altmedicine.about.com/od/herbsupplementguide/a/erythritol.htm



Enjoy!!!

drowning in laundry detergent

Ha, so I'm REALLY drowning in liquid laundry detergent!  I saw on slickdeals.net last week that RiteAid was having a sale on Xtra liquid detergent.  It's on sale for $1.97 a bottle.  There are also coupons out there for $1 off any bottle of Xtra.  So I went on ebay and bought 20 coupons for $2 and went to RiteAid today and got 20 bottles of laundry detergent.  Although the bottles say they do 44 loads, I get more like 35 loads out of them.  So for $28 (cost of coupons and 20 bottles of detergent plus tax) I'll have enough detergent to do 700 loads of laundry at roughly .04 per load.  On average we do about 4 loads per week.  I won't have to buy laundry detergent for at least 3 1/2 years.  lol   LOVE IT!

I finally got around to making that sugar free lemon cheesecake today.  I also made a sugar free lemon curd to put over the cheesecake.  I tasted the lemon curd after it was done and I honestly could not tell it wasn't made with real sugar.  I used a mixture of splenda and erythritol.  The cheesecake is still cooling, so I haven't had a chance to taste it yet.   I hate eating cheesecake when it hasn't had sufficient time to cool properly.  The texture is all wrong if you eat it too soon.  I think I'll try a slice tomorrow after lunch. 

Well it's time to put my kiddos to bed.  Hope you all had a lovely weekend. ♥

YAWN!

Sigh.....I'm sick again.  My daughter is going through a relapse of her cold and apparently shared it w/ me.   Waaaaaahhh!!!!  My nose is so stuffy and I feel like just curling up in a ball and going to bed.  I had to go run some errands today and ended up making a stop at Target.  I haven't been in Target since we moved into our house 7 months ago.  I love Target.  I came to the realization today that I hate Target when I have 3 kids in tow.  It wasn't so  bad when they were little enough to push in the cart, but now they're too big.  I did score some nice finds in the Valentine's day clearance area.  I grabbed a few bags of Vday M&M's.  They're the perfect colors for my daughters birthday cake.  She wants a Hello Kitty themed cake.  I'm excited to make it.  I think I'm going to do a two tiered cake w/ a gum paste Hello Kitty on the top. 

I got on the scale today and I'm exactly the same wieght I was last week.  LOL  At least I'm consistant!!  At this point in the game I think I'll be happy to be able to stabilize until I start my next HCG round. 

I really wanted to make that lemon cheesecake today......but I feel so tired I'm not sure I'll get to it.  Maybe tomorrow.  ;)