Sloppy Joes

This recipe was really yummy. Made it tonight. Rachel had seconds (a sure sign I actually made something good!)

Super Sloppy Joes

The most amazing hair product. Ever. No, really!!

Ok, this is a totally UNSOLICITED, UNPAID FOR, UNREQUESTED review. (Although if the company wants to pay me AFTER the fact, go for it. Or better, yet, just send me some more of this stuff please?)

My hair is super curly. It gets REALLY frizzy (even in Utah’s dry weather – you do NOT want to know what it used to look like when we lived on the humid east coast. Suffice to say – EVERY DAY was a bad hair day). Anyway, I’m always up for trying new products – always hopeful that SOMETHING will tame the frizz. I typically use Garnier Fructis Style Fiber Gum Putty – and it does an ok job, but my hair still usually overpowers it and curls up too much and/or gets too frizzy.

I also used to use Scruples Enforce Sculpting Glaze – this stuff was AWESOME. My only complaint about it was that it made my hair too “crunchy” – but you could “decrunch” it by grabbing a bunch of curls and squeezing for a second. I’m psyched to find it now available on Amazon. That was the other big problem is that I couldn’t find anyone that was selling it!

Last week, I brought the kids into SuperCuts to get haircuts because Wednesday was “picture day.” While we were there, I started looking at the various hair products they were selling in the salon. One of the haircutters was trying to convince me to get this, and I didn’t buy it right away. (Mostly because of the name of the product. “Curl Amplifier” makes it sound like it’s going to make my hair MORE curly. This would not be a good feature!) Instead, I bought something else that didn’t do what I wanted. It was some kind of “wax” thing from Paul Mitchel.. basically the end result was that not only did it do nothing for the frizz – it just made my hair greasy feeling. So I went back there to exchange it – and again she tried to convince me to give this product a try. Being that my selection hadn’t gone so well – I figured, I might as well listen to her!! LOL! So I bought it. TOTALLY TOTALLY Awesome. Seriously. No friz. No crunch. My hair curled up into perfect little ringlets without my spending hours twisting them together to force them into some organization. LOVE IT!!! Anyway, it’s called: TIGI Catwalk Curls Rock Curl Amplifier.

If you have super curly hair – you’ve definitely got to check it out!

Attention Walmart shoppers: You are not getting bigger, the world is getting smaller!

So I finally got out for my clothes shopping spree. As it turns out, I’m not a size 10…. I’m a size 8. (!!!) My initial reaction was “NO FREAKING WAY!” and then I remembered… I’m being played. Big time. Do you remember hearing about that whole “vanity sizing” thing. Oh, yeah. Bummer! Well, the truth is I have *never* been a size 8. I remember when I was in college, and I went through a starvation diet phase – I managed to get myself down to a size 9. I bought a pair of jeans. Neither the diet or that size lasted very long.

So in the last few years, they’ve changed the size scale. But still – I’m sticking with the fact that the last time I had to buy a pair of jeans (which was in 2005 or 2006) I was buying size 16 jeans. I can’t believe the size scale changed since then (if it did, SHUSH! I don’t want to hear about it!) 😛 There is also the issue that I tried on jeans from Costco, Walmart (Levi brand), Old Navy, and in all cases the size 10 were too big – size 8 fit. So unless they’re all trying to play to my ego, could I have really gotten down to a size 8?? Being that I am still a size 16 in my head – as far as I’m concerned, this is all just a cruel joke the world is playing on me.

I’ll never know the truth. Either way, I have jeans that fit me, they’re not falling off. They’re flattering, and I feel good in them. That’s all that really matters.

Updated: Actually, I may need to bring these jeans back. :/ The stupid sizing is pissing me off. After wearing them for a few hours they feel too loose. I’m not sure if they’ll shrink or not… but with the vanity sizing these companies have done, and with the weight I’ve lost, I’m just totally confused what I should be wearing. I wish they had a simple chart that would tell you what size to buy based on what your measurements are. Screw generic sizes!!

Mental Weight-Loss

Status report: I am currently maintaining my 30+lb weight loss. I am only 4-5lbs from the lowest weight I can be and still be healthy and not be too thin. (I can’t even begin to tell you how weird that is. I can’t wrap my head around that).

In my head I am still fat. Not that I think I am fat. Logically, I know I’ve lost weight and I know I’m at a good, healthy weight now. It’s that I don’t FEEL thin. I think it’s the same thing as it with age. We don’t always FEEL the age we really are. I don’t FEEL 39 years old. I don’t FEEL 30 lbs lighter. How do I lose the weight in my head?

One problem that I know I need to address – my clothes. This is such a huge issue. On one hand, I’m afraid to throw away my fat clothes. What if I get fat again?? On the other hand… OMG. If I get fat again, someone slap me!! So yeah, I’m wearing clothes that are in some cases 3 sizes too big. Even a belt can’t help that much of a difference. Do you have any idea how ridiculous that looks? I had been holding off buying clothes because I wasn’t sure what size I would settle down at. But now, I really can’t lose much more weight. I can tone up some, but even if I do lose those last 4-5 lbs, it shouldn’t affect clothing size too much. At my largest size, I fit into a size 16 (sometimes 16/18) jeans. If I can sneak out of the house today, I’ll be looking for a size 10.

I have to admit, I may hold onto one or two of the larger jeans. Some of them were expensive. I should just throw them all away. I’ll agree to throw most of them away. I can wear a size 12, although they’re really baggy – so I’ll probably hang onto those (but I think I only have one or two pairs). Anything 14 and up has to go. Maybe once my clothes fit me better, I’ll FEEL my size more. I wish I had taken more/better “before” pictures to remind me of how things used to be, because even sometimes looking in the mirror it’s hard for me to see the difference. I know there’s a difference – but aside from the fact that my pants are falling down, I just don’t see it. My brain still sees me 30lbs heavier.

The best place to solve my problems…

... is in the shower. Seriously. I don’t know what it is, but if I walk into the shower with a problem circulating in my head, I usually have an answer, or at least a direction on how to solve it by the time I’m done washing my hair. I’m not sure whether this is because by virtue of my being in the shower and having removed myself from the source of the problem I make myself open to new ideas instead of just coming back around to the same solutions (that didn’t work) – or the fact that it takes me a really long time to wash my hair and you could probably figure out how to solve world hunger in the time it takes me to get shampoo out of my curls.

In either case, this morning, for what must be the millionth time, Sam and I argued about discussed the lack of storage space in our house. We argued about discussed the fact that my only method of storing clothes is my dresser and that it doesn’t have enough space. We argued about discussed the fact that while our closet would probably be a better place, it is poorly designed and therefore does not fit the bill. We argued about discussed the fact that our closet is also being used as a medicine cabinet as well as a linen closet because our bathroom doesn’t actually have one. (See original discussion about house lacking storage space). We argued about discussed the fact that getting a different dresser wouldn’t necessarily fix the current problem – because unless we got something MASSIVE (and that would also look really out of place in the bedroom), I still wouldn’t have enough space.

Really this house amazes me. Somehow they managed to squeeze in 5 bedrooms in this little tiny house… but the storage space is lacking so severely – that if you really had enough people to FILL all 5 bedrooms… I honestly don’t know what you’d do.

In any case, the dilemma has existed for over 4 years. We have lived in this house longer than we have lived in any other single residence. Yet, we have never solved this problem. I still dig my clothes out of the plastic bins that we used to move here from Massachusetts, and these ugly plastic bins decorate our bedroom because I have no idea what else to do.

The problem went around and around in my head when I stepped into the shower today. And I came out with plan!!!! The closet is the answer. It needs to be completely gutted and redesigned – but that is how to fix the problem. We set up the closet a certain way, and certain things got stuck in my head, thinking that’s where they had to stay – but really there wasn’t any requirement to keep them that way.

So basically I need a wall unit with tons of drawers and shelves for my closet. I have everything spec’d out. I even went to IKEA thinking I’d be able to get what I’d need, but unfortunately, what they have is 3 inches too long and will bump into the closet door and not allow it to open or shut. So on Monday, I’ll need to call some other places and see what they can do. I hope that since I already have it designed, and measured and I know exactly what I want that it won’t be too expensive, but I guess we’ll find out.