Happy Sunday!

Oh my word blog friends!! I know it’s been ages since we chatted and I apologize! We have been super duper busy.

I have been studying for my MA exam which determined if I graduated in May with my Master’s degree. It was over every author, every literary work…literary time periods…I mean everything in the English teaching world. As you can imagine…it was very hard. And I was very stressed trying to study for it…work as a graduate teaching assistant…run a photography company…oh and most importantly be a great Mamma to my sweet pea.

And guess what…..

I DID IT!!!!!!!!! Praise God!!! I passed….and will be graduating in May!!! For those of you who have been with me during this journey you know that it has been an uphill battle. Grad school is never an easy journey…but it sure is worth the VICTORY!

I also had the awesome blessing and opportunity of doing Jaxon’s school pictures at the Montessori school he attends. It was so fun! And all the kids were just precious!! School pictures are so different that individual client sessions…it was a blast!

Gosh I just love him SO MUCH!!!

-------------♥

Hope you all are doing WONDERFUL!

XoXo,
Tiffany

Spring is almost here...
Jaxon raised butterflies this past month...his Granny bought him the kit for Valentine's Day.
It was such a neat experience.

We released them this weekend....Jaxon loved holding them.

 
XoXo,
Tiffany

Confession Time.
I just had to check and see when my last blog post was, because I could not remember!

Eeeek!

My excuse is:

Heck yes. I broke my foot this week!!

I fell walking out of my front door to work. I face planted!! And I heard it snap. I am so CLUMSY!

OUCH!!

At first I was devastated. How could I train for my Color Run in March with a broken foot? I honestly felt like I was gaining weight for every second I couldn’t run.

Crazy right?

Then I realized I could do this. I would just have to think of another way.

Thank God I have an AMAZING circle of support. My brother immediately emailed me alternate workouts. My friend gave me her recumbent exercise bike.

And I discovered. I really like the alternate exercises. I can go two hours and never even get sick of it. Wow!!!

Even my Jax loves getting in on the workouts.

And speaking of my Jax….

I so love this boy!!!

 

Hope your week has been AWESOME!

And can I show you something?

I took a picture of myself this morning. Mainly to document my foot injury. Then I remembered that I had a picture wearing this same dress from a wedding I shot back in September.

I could not stop crying when I looked them side by side……

Can you believe????

Never. Never. Never. Stop believe you can lose the weight.

I am so far from where I started…but I still have many miles to go.

And I can finally see results.

I still haven’t stopped crying.

Never stop believing in and loving yourself.

Have a GREAT weekend!
XoXo,

Tiffany

Thursday…recap of the week so far

Holy rusted nails Batman! Is it already Thursday?
Wow.
This week is BLAZING by us!
My workouts this week have been 3.5 mile runs on the treadmill either at the crack of dawn at 4:30ish or late evening combined with a 3 mile power walk with my workout partner. Total 6.5 miles daily. My goal this week is 26 miles total and as of today I am at 16...just 10 more!



My brother let me borrow his Garmin 405 Forerunner watch to track my route. Oh my gosh I so NEED one of these! It was AWESOME!!!




I am obssessed with baby carrots. I never leave home without them!



My sweet little sugar bear. We have been so tired this week. I am soooo hoping for some R&R this weekend!



He took a book to school today and was SO EXCITED!



And my baby carrot obessession continues….this was my morning snack at work.

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And my stash at my desk!!

My brother is here on leave so we are planning a family hiking trip to Big Bend again for Saturday. I cannot wait!!!!What are your weekend plans? How are your workouts going?



Hope you have a SUPER day!!
XoXo,
Tiffany

Happy Monday!

Is it really Monday again? Oh my word.

Tomorrow I start back to work at my graduate teaching assistant job at the University and of course Spring 2013 is in full swing. I am already slammed with homework. Awesome!!

I didn’t do any workouts over the weekend…but did a lot of out of town photo shoots.

We had a BLAST!!

I did watch what I ate all weekend. I am obsessed with roasted broccoli and cauliflower right now. It’s SO GOOD!!!

I made up for no workouts this weekend by completing my longest run ever so far.

I ran 3 miles without stopping! Whooohooooo! I did a quarter-mile warm up and cool down. And then killer military ab circuits that my brother taught me. They kick my but every time. I swear after having Jaxon I have ZERO abs! Slowly I will someday though!!

Hope you had an awesome Monday too!! Here’s to a great week.

I plan on doing a few two-a-day workouts this week to get a boost on the calorie burning so I will keep ya posted on how it goes!

XoXo,

Tiffany

Follow me…

If you are an Instagrammer…I’ll be posting my workouts and food stuff.

Follow me and we can share our challenges and successes!!

Find me at: http://instagram.com/easiepeasieco

 

It is so nerve-racking to put up my workouts and all that jazz. But you know what, it certainly keeps me accountable so this is exciting!!

Have a SUPER day!

 

XoXo,

Tiffany

Changes….

Hey guys!

Hope your new year is off to a GREAT start. Ours sure is!

Jaxon is back in school and my last semester of grad school starts this week. Last one!! In a few months (fingers crossed) I’ll be DONE with my Masters degree and moving on to a PhD. I just cannot even fathom that I am almost done!

If you would have asked me 2-3 years ago where I would be right now…it would not be here. Not in this amazing,  blessed and successful place.

Man, it’s just SO EXCITING!

And proof that if you put your mind to it, you really, really can do anything.

In addition to all my crazy school activities in the next few months, I am also training for two races/events.

The first one is in March….and will be the Lubbock Color Run!

Eeeek! SO EXCITING!!!

image via Pinterest

And then the second event is in October…and it is the Dallas TOUGH MUDDER!

Oh. My. Word.

I may have lost my mind.

Never heard of it? Watch the video.

2013 Tough Mudder

 

Am I even CLOSE to being ready? Not at all!! But I am determined and WILL BE!

I have come such a long way. This was me a few years ago….

I can’t even believe I am confident enough now to post this picture publicly. Wow. It makes me sad to look that girl in the picture actually.

A few adjectives to describe how I felt back then:

Fat. Depressed. Embarrassed. Miserable. Sad. Did I mention miserable?

This is me now…..

I have soooooooo much farther to go. And I can’t even tell you how much weight I have lost since back then. I was too mortified to look at the scale back then.

I have changed my life in so many ways. My next changes are to conquer these races and take my health and body to the next level.

So long story short, my blog may not be as crafty or photography oriented this year as in previous years. I thought I would start sharing my journey. What I’m eating, how I’m working out and showing my fitness progress. Being public with a journey like this keeps me motivated and accountable. I am a single Mom, grad student, own a biz, work as a grad teaching assistant and everything else in between. This is my real life, and I plan to show how I navigate all of it, and still improve my health and fitness.

So, here’s to gaining OPTIMUM HEALTH this year. It’s not about being skinny, dropping an unrealistic amount of weight or being unhealthy.

I want curves, I want muscle and I want SUPREME and OPTIMUM HEALTH!

And I want to be VICTORIOUS at TOUGH MUDDER this October!!

Have an AWESOME day!!

XoXo,

Tiffany

Texas Beans & Chili…and hello!!

Hi there friends!!

I cannot believe I am blogging. What is blogging? Ha ha ha!

It has been such a nice break from EVERYTHING. But I definitely MISSED YOU GUYS!

We have SOOOO MUCH to catch up on! Let’s do COFFEE SOON!

To get back in the blog groove I thought I would share a chili recipe I made today. It is cold, rainy (turning snowy) here in West Texas and chili just HITS THE SPOT.

Texas Beans & Chili:

((please note I always create Hodge Podge Chili – meaning I always add a little of this and a little of that. But this is my  basic recipe.))

1 lb ground beef (you can use 2 lbs, I just only defrosted 1 lb)

1 T olive oil

2 cloves garlic, chopped

8 oz can tomato sauce

8 oz can whole tomatoes

15 oz can kidney beans

15 oz pinto beans

small can of chopped green chiles

3 T chili powder

1 t ground cumin

1 t ground oregano

1 t salt

pinch of red pepper flakes (you can use cayenne pepper, but I was out!)

6-8 cups of water (depending on your pan size)

pinch of cornmeal ((I didn’t have any other “thickener” on hand—I don’t even know if it worked LOL!))

Heat olive oil in a cast iron skillet. Toast garlic until slightly browned. Add meat and brown. Drain excess fat. Add remaining ingredients and simmer on medium for 2 hours or longer. I let my cook all afternoon and revel in all the yummo smells in my house.

It is DELISH!!

 

Have a WONDERFUL and WARM day!

XoXo,

Tiffany

Jaxon’s first Christmas program….

Jaxon has his first official Christmas program this week. I laughed…I cried…I laughed…and I cried. Aren’t little kid music Christmas programs the best?
I cannot believe my little man is old enough to be in a Christmas program.

Be still my heart. My baby.

XoXo,
Tiffany

A recent senior session…

I captured Miss Donna’s college graduation pictures a few weeks ago and wanted to share all the cute fun we had. She graduated from Sul Ross State University this past weekend from the Vocational Nursing program. BIGTIME congratulations to her on her AWESOME accomplishment.

We had SO MUCH fun!

 

 

Happy Monday EVERYONE!

XoXo,

Tiffany

Savoring time to paint…my joyful sign

It’s Saturday.

My Pandora station is Edif Piaf.

My house is quiet.

And I finally had time to get my paintbrushes out.

I’ve had a few blank old wooden signs my Mom made me at least 6 months ago. I’ve waited to paint them, waiting for the perfect words.

This morning I read this verse and I knew exactly what I wanted to paint.

♥Be joyful always♥   ---1 Thessalonians 5:16

It isn’t always easy. But choosing joy daily is the way to overcome the drudgery of every day life. Try it. I promise it will change you for the better.

Choose joy.♥

[[To make my sign I used my blank, old wooden sign ((made from vintage barn wood)), paint, Modge Podge and glitter.]]

 

I painted the words and then let them dry.

After the paint dried, I used a paintbrush to apply Modge Podge to the top of each letter. I dusted them all with glitter. And viola! Old wood + glitter + JOY. It just doesn’t get much better than that!

 

Ahhh. Painting is good for the soul.

 

I hope you have time to paint or do something artful, soothing and crafty today too!

XoXo,

Tiffany

Big Bend National Park adventures…

A little while back I mentioned that my family and I went to Big Bend National Park. One of the MANY benefits of living where I do is all of the outdoor parks and places for hiking and adventures. We have actually been going to Big Bend National Park since we were little bitty. It’s a long-time family tradition.

I thought it was time to finally post a few pictures from our adventures.

Jaxon and his Uncle Josh skipping rocks on the Rio Grande river. What awesome memories.

That is Mexico on the left side of the canyon….and the US on the right side.

I ALWAYS see HEART cactus on my hiking trips. Love them!♥

I have a thing for taking pictures of wildflowers. Love them!♥

This boy absolutely LOVES hiking.

My brother and Dad decided it would awesome to climb this enormous rock. These pictures do not capture how BIG this rock is. I tried to climb it and freaked out. I’m a little too old and little to pleasantly plump to do such things. But don’t you know my Jax wasn’t afraid at all. Lol.

Jaxon loves when his Uncle Josh goes hiking with us. Josh is his hero!

It’s Friday and I’m itching do something “outdoorsy” this weekend. It’s the perfect time to stargaze, so if all else I’ll be sipping some hot chocolate taking in some moonbeams…but hopefully I’ll get a little hiking in too!

Hope you have an AWESOME FRIDAY!

XoXo,

Tiffany