Baxtron{Life}

Friday, February 24

Restless Blog Hop & Some Randomness...

Hey Lovelies! I just got back from a crazy wonderful three week adventure that was equal parts fun and exhausting! We were in Texas visiting my sister & her family as she welcomed her newest baby girl into the fold. I couldn't wait to get back and see my husband…and he was a quite a site for my sore eyes last night at our little reunion. :) Looking forward to catching up with you all and finding my groove again!

I also want to take a minute to thank each of my awesome guests that contributed during my time away. I couldn't have mentally survived and enjoyed myself without each of you!! Thank you all so much!!

I have many pictures to share over the next couple of days, but for now I just want to share my new haircut, and a few random facts, as well as welcome my new lovelies (that's you!)!

11 Random Questions (& Answers):

Favorite Food: Seafood, and I am a total snob about it, it has to be from the Pacific Ocean to be good.

Favorite Nail Polish: Ballet Slippers by Essie

Hidden Talent: Intuition…if we lock eyes I can read a lot about what is going on in a person.

Hot Cocoa or Apple cider? Hot Chocolate for sure, with a mountain of whipped cream on top!

Favorite Childhood Memory: Snowmobiling or Camping with my family.

Who are the gifts from (Christmas)? In our family the gifts are from each other via God's blessing.

If I could live anywhere: San Diego, California

Favorite TV Show: I am hooked on the Bachelor/Bachelorette. In my defense that is the ONLY trashy show I watch.
How many books do I read a year: I start probably 5-10 but only finish a handful!

What is your best quality? I am an honest person. I'm the friend you call when you want to be heard, understood and then receive truthful feedback. Not the friend you want to call to join a pity party.

What is your biggest fear? That I won't fulfill my purpose in the time I have left in my life.

P.S. I have to tell you, these ten questions were from a tag post that I received in DECEMBER, but life got busy and it got lost in the shuffle, but hey, better late than never. (Thanks Amanda for tagging me!)

And now, moving onward, I want to give a big shout out to Christa at Young & Restless, for choosing me to co-host this week's Restless Blog Hop!!

WELCOME to the Restless BLOG HOP!

A blog hop is, its where you link up your blog, FB, twitter, etc and hop around to the other links, say hi, and find blogs you might like! (As well as be found).

Kind of like one big blogger meet and greet :)

RULES:
Follow your Host & Co-Host (Me!)
Grab this button and place it on your blog for the weekend!
Its smart to make a special post about the hop and talk about yourself or post something fun to draw people in :)

<center><a <span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">href="http://<span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">christanncox.<span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">blogspot.com" target="_blank"><<span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">img alt="young and restless" <span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">src="http://i239.<span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">photobucket.com/albums/ff281/chrissyann336/Faerie_Wings.<span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">jpg" /></a></center>

Thank you so much for visiting, linking, following, etc! Can't wait to meet you! And let's get hopping!

Thursday, February 23

Muffintop Meltdown {v.8}

Progress! Points! & The Skinny Fridge

Progress Report:

Weight Lost Since Last Weigh-in: 4 pounds!!

Total Weight Lost: 11 pounds

Inches Lost This Week: 5.5 inches!!

Total Inches Lost: 19 inches

Points Earned:

This Week: 85

Points Balance: 422!!!

I'm back in NYC! Woot! I can't believe how quickly three weeks flew by! It was sad saying good-bye, but it feels great to be back at home and getting back in my own routine. I'm now 10 days into Medifast, and I am THRILLED with the results I have had so far. I know I went off track early in my trip to Texas, so I am sure I gained a bit of weight before starting Medifast, so the fact that I am down 4 pounds despite that fact, is AWESOME! And motivating!

I never had an actual work out during my trip. I had hopes to get on the treadmill, but the treadmill was moved to the garage so a playroom could be created, making it inconvenient and unnecessary. I will say that for probably 85% of every day, I was on my feet! I barely sat down friends. Now I know the secret to losing baby weight…have more kids! LOL. As I sit here typing this I am thirsty to exercise and will be doing Pilates just as soon as I finish sharing with you.

I am convinced that Medifast can and will get me to my goal weight and expediently as well! When I did my weight loss projections based on the minimum weight loss expected, I will be in my most ideal shape by my 4 year anniversary in June! I will blow past my goal weight before Zion's 2nd birthday! Can you tell how excited I am?

Before I know it, I will be looking like this:

My sister has a fridge that is a great ego booster, I call it her "Skinny" fridge. Every time I saw my reflection in it, I was thrilled with how a skinny/fit Courtney will look!

This Week:

I'm proud of these choices:

I'm staying disciplined and not cheating on Medifast!

I'm drinking tons of water again.

I made it through my stressful travel day without breaking my Medifast.

I'd like to work more on:

Continuing to cut back on coffee, perhaps switching to only one 8oz cup of coffee + adding one 8oz cup of Green Tea instead of my 2nd cup of coffee.

I'm adding exercise back this week, and I am really hoping to not overdue it and since I have only been "functionally active" for the last three weeks.

I totally cheated when:

I got home and this morning I had no Splenda or sugar substitutes, so I added a teeny bit of spicy cocoa and Agave nectar to my coffee eek!!

How did you do this week?

Want to catch up on my weight loss journey?

Muffintop Meltdown V.1-V.7

Wednesday, February 22

O.M.Y. {oh.my.yum} Featuring Jo from Holding Onto The Little Things

Hey friends, Jo from Holding onto the Little Things is here today sharing a delicious pumpkin recipe. I know it isn't fall anymore, but this recipe is too good to keep to myself! Enjoy and make sure to pop on over to visit her blog and say hey!

I am so excited to have finally found time to post my most favorite fall pumpkin recipe. Maybe one of my favorite breakfast/dessert items.. We use fresh pumpkin and I believe that is what makes this recipe so delicious.. Well that, and maybe all the brown sugar. I accidentally added too much cinnamon to my streusel, so in the final picture, the tops are darker than they should be.
The following makes a little more than 2 dozen..

ingredients:
1 cup of softened butter (2 sticks)
2 2/3 cups of packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 cups of pumpkin (a little extra is better)
1/2 cup of evaporated milk
3 tsp. of baking soda
1 tsp. of salt
4 tsp. of cinnamon (a little extra is better)
1 tsp. of powdered ginger
1/2 tsp. of ground cloves
3 1/3 cup of flour
streusel topping:
10 TB. of flour
12 1/2 TB sugar
10 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup of butter

You can adjust the spices to your liking. I use extra cinnamon, because it is my favorite. Adding a few drops of vanilla is also yummy as well!

You will need to preheat the oven to 375 degrees. You cream the butter and brown sugar.. add egg.. add pumpkin and evaporated milk.. add baking soda and spices.. then slowly add the flour.. Mix after each addition. Do not over stir.

Pour into regular sized greased muffin pan. Fill the cups leaving a little less than 1 cm empty. Cover with as much topping as you like. I add at least a tablespoon to the top of each muffin before throwing in the oven. Cook a dozen at 20 minutes. Makes 28; 30 if you don't eat the batter.. wink wink.

my signature

Monday, February 20

"Pinning!" {wk.13} P.S. I Love You

Welcome to "Pinning!"!!!

First timer? It's simple:

Follow & Link-back to your hosts: Courtney & Kimberly

and

Link up your favorite pins post for the week

Participate in the theme of the week

This week's theme: P.S. I Love You!

This week's theme is really open to your own creative interpretation, for me, I chose to think about the person who is constantly reminding me how much he loves me. That person is God Almighty.