Travel with Christy K

That is one of my all time favorite Christmas songs.  I absolutely LOVE Christmas time.  I love it for what we celebrate, the family traditions, decorations, music, EVERYTHING!


When my sister and the kids were here it happened to be the opening weekend of the Polar Express in Lubbock.  So naturally we had to go and experience it :)



We had so much fun!  My poor sister had caught the stomach bug that morning but was a trooper and still went and participated....on the bumpy train ride and going backwards on the train and all :)  They encourage the kids to wear their Christmas pj's and if you don't know this about me....I don't ever pass up a chance to wear pj's in public...lol.  My mom and Nana even participated!
Once we were on the train the fun began!  The conductor  came by and punched our tickets just like they do in the movie/book and then we were served the BEST hot cocoa I have ever had.  I had pinned (yes....I'm working on the addiction :) the recipe for their hot chocolate before we went and I'm so glad I did!  They also served little sugar cookies to go with it.  Then after all were served one of the "chef's" came up and down the walk way with the book as the narrator read the book to us.  Before we knew it we were at the North Pole!  And we had a visitor visit us on the train....
Ran got excited and started looking at what all was going on, looking for the big guy in the red suit.  Finally Santa came to visit Ranston and Kenner and gave us all silver bells.  It was a really great time and I hope we can do it again next year.

I love decorating my house for Christmas!  I had found an idea on Pintrest for hanging big sparkly ornaments from curtain rods in your living room and decided that was something I really wanted to do.  Thank goodness Mike was there to help because I would have gotten it done but it was way faster and way easier for him to just stand there and put them up for me.  The bottom part of that picture is that I decided to use a container on my bookshelf that you see when you first walk into my house, and put ornaments from my childhood in it. At first I couldn't decide how I liked it but it has been really nice to walk by and see it and reminisce. Little bit of trivia...how many people do you know that has 2 baby first Christmas ornaments? Wait...from 2 different years? Lol. I do! I was supposed to be born on December 25th and was 3 days late. They had already purchased an ornament and I got to keep it :)
I also changed the colors of my tree a bit this year.  I have had different shades and textures of browns on it but added teal this year.  It really made the tree so much better!  And yes....I only have a 4 foot tree.  I can't bring myself to get a bigger one quite yet.

 
This is the new wreath that I made....



Last year for my vendor shows I had bought these decorations for my table and ended up putting it where I normally have candles next to my bath tub.  I think it's so cute and really adds something to my house by decorating the bathroom a little bit.








I love coffee mugs and when I posted this picture on Instagram I asked if I was old because of it :)  It's such a cute mug.  Really puts you in the spirit while drinking your coffee or hot cocoa :)






Now it's time for some caroling :)

It's only a facial one but I decided to do it.  I am waiting to do the body comparison until I've lost 100 lbs and that shouldn't be to long!


The picture on the left was taken around Memorial Day and the picture on the right was taken Thanksgiving day.  Everyone tells me they can really tell in my face and now I see it.  I can tell in my clothes and what not so I know (and never doubted that I was) losing weight but i can definatley tell a difference with these 2 pictures.  I can' wait to post a full body picture and it may be soon!  As of today (and the 10 lbs I lost last week can be credited to the stomach bug lol :) I have lost.....

68 lbs!!!!


To my first goal:



Stay tuned for the full body comparison....

This just in.....

The pie was amazing....

I LOVE to cook...

But I have never made a pumpkin pie.  Until tonight!  I love pumpkin pie and I'm limited on the sugar intake I can have so I decided to make a pumpkin pie following Libby's famous pumpkin pie recipe ( It says it's famous on the can so I'm taking her word for it....I mean why would Libby lie to me? ;) and substitute Splenda for the sugar.  Here are the ingredients you need:


3/4 Cup sugar (or splenda)
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves
2 large eggs
1 can (15 oz) Libby's 100 % pure pumpkin
1 can (12 fl oz) evaporated milk
1 unbaked 9 inch (4 cup volume) deep-dish pie shell

Mix sugar, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves in a small bowl


Beat eggs in large bowl.  Stir in pumpkin and sugar-spice mixture.  Gradually stir in evaporated milk.


Pour into pie shell.  (Now I did not want to over due myself so Pilsbury helped me in the crust department :)



Bake in preheated 425 degree oven for 15 minutes.  Reduced temperature to 350 degree's.  Bake for 40-50 minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean.  Cool on wire rack for 2 hours.  Serve immediately or refrigerate.




I'll let ya know how it tastes tomorrow :)  I hope the Splenda I put instead of sugar doesn't change the taste of the pie to much.  We shall see.....

I am still in shock as to how much I can eat. Yes, I realize that they did remove 3/4 of my stomach but I don't think about it until I eat. Today for lunch I had 2 scrambled eggs and I feel like I ate an entire pizza. I am so full! It's an amazing feeling though. And it has taken some adjustment for sure. Some times I'll just eat 1 string cheese and 3 thin slices of lunch meat and think "Oh this isn't much...". Then I eat it and can barely move!

I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about the holidays and eating but since I'm finally getting how much I can eat I don't think it'll be a problem. My portions will be super small and honestly there's probably only 2 things I'm looking forward to.

Everyday I get more and more excited about the changes ahead. The way my mind, body, and soul are changing is amazing :)

Since my surgery!

I can't believe it's already been that long!  It feels like forever ago that I had it.  I'm healing really good and I am now at the point that I get to start incorporating soft solid foods into my diet.  Which is really exciting because I am so sick of soup lol.  I had my one month follow up on Friday and we just went over my vitamins, protein, and food.  I'm full all the time and when I do eat it's not much.  Only a couple of bites but I feel like I ate the whole thing.  It's an amazing feeling.  I've been pinning (refer to my Pintrest blog below to find out about my addiction lol) vegan recipe's that I want to try so hopefully this weekend I will be able to.  I'm not  by any means turning into a full vegan but if there are recipe's that I find tasty then I'm defiantly going to be using them.  Why not incorporate it if it's tasty right ;)? 

And now to annouce how much I've lost since Sept 22nd.....drum roll please.....


52 lbs!!! I'm so stoked! It's so nice to get on the scale and not worry about it being a plus sign instead of a minus....

Hi my name is Christy and its been 8 hours since my last pin.."hi Christy, glad you're here..."

Pintrest can be so addicting! It starts with one pin here and one pin there and 1400 pins later...you have an amazing closet, fabulous home, and your meals planned out for the next 10 years.

My friends Cristan, Kim, & Analee decided to have a pintrest craft day. We could've done them alone but it's oh so much more fun doing it with friends :). I had decided to do some mason jar drinking cups, Cristan did a Halloween themed hanging sign, Kim did a Christmas wreath, and Analee made a hanging sign for her Grandma for Christmas. There's turned out awesome! Mine on the other hand....not so much lol

Well I decided to paint the sides and when I first decided to do this project I was going to use paint pens. I went against my better judgement and when I got to Hobby Lobby I bought stencils and patio paint (I figured that paint would weather better for washing...lol) instead of the paint pens I originally had thought to purchase. After putting the stencils on and painting it I let it dry. When I felt it was time I pulled the stencils off...and the paint came with it. I even tried with acrylic paint. No luck. I did try with spray paint but didnt like how it turned out.

Even though my craft didn't turn out that great it was still a really fun day! I can't wait until our next one! I'm going to be doing things for decorating my house for Christmas and I will be taking pictures to post with my blog :)