YOU read my blog?! OH. no.

so don't worry, this will be a photo filled post eventually.  BUT first, MAJOR. DISASTER.  so trip and i are at pbsc, drinking these: 

 and hanging out with our buds.  meanwhile, i am wearing this:

(if you're interested in stealing my style, that's the Stella and Dot Palm Necklace with Starfish, Lilly Pulitzer Olette Top and Stella and Dot Starfish Earrings - click on any to order, or call Lilly Pulitzer Fashion Valley and ask for Alanna - free shipping!), and i turned to trip and said, i know i'm really matchy-matchy right now!  and he said, that's okay, i know you've been trying to accessorize more...

does this sound familiar!? ya, maybe because of THIS POST from over a month ago!  so i said, how did you know that?  i didn't tell anyone that...and he said, well, i, well, maybe...HE'S BEEN READING MY BLOG SINCE JANUARY!  (hi, hun.) SINCE. JANUARY. that means not only does he know HOW much i weigh, he's been getting WEEKLY UPDATES! 

 so. speaking of which, after drinking three of these yesterday:

(they were good but a little too sweet)

it's time to get back on the "around" 1200 calorie a day diet.  thus, i give you today's plan:

breakfast: (210c.) Weigh Watcher's Smart Ones Egg and Cheese English Muffin Sandwich - SO good and a staple in my diet - they're better than the ones from McDonald's!

snack: (70c.) container of blackberries - six oz. and a (60c.) Frigo Cheese Heads Light String Cheese

lunch: (60c.) Granny Smith Apple w/ (35c.) Light Laughing Cow Cheese Wedge and (100c.) Thomas' Better Start High Fiber English Muffin with a slice of (45c.) Kraft Singles 2% Milk Pepper Jack Cheese - as previously mentioned, tastes like delicious and incredible grilled cheese.

snack: (90c.) 2 slices of Sara Lee De-Lightful bread w/ I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Spray and Garlic Salt - basically the only low calorie way to eat 'garlic bread'

dinner: (115c.) Steam Fresh Frozen Vegetables-Cauliflower and Broccoli w/ (40c.) 4 tbsp. of Mango Salsa

dessert/dinner extended: (250c.) 10oz. fat-free frozen yogurt from Fiji Yogurt 

with this menu, I still have 125 calories to play around with before i hit 1200 - so if i want a FiberOne Bar or maybe a FullBar, no big deal!  ETA: Okay, ate the extra 125 calories at lunch...definitely had half of a chocolate frosted cake donut (180c.) and some cauliflower (53c.).  i would say oops, but...that's life - sounds like i'll only be getting 8 oz of frozen yogurt, and no cheese with my apple now!  Now, as always, let's see if I actually stick to this...i really want to start buying these:

[all images courtesy of Lilly Pulitzer]

so that means that i need to stop doing this:

P.S. I am waitlisted for the iPad - I'll tell y'all if it ever shows up!

P.P.S. has anyone heard of Brazilian Blowout / does anyone know anyone who's gotten it?  I'm tempted but at $275 a hit I don't know if it's worth it...

Glamour Brazilian Blowout Article

Studio 33 Week by Week Comparison

and here's a fun glass straw giveaway @ Fashion Meets Food:
http://www.fashionmeetsfood.com/2010/05/glassdharma-giveaway.html
and a Cid Pear card giveaway at Kitchen Belleicious:
http://kitchenbelleicious.blogspot.com/2010/05/giveaway-you-wont-believe-your-eyes.html
and Southern Living: Preppy Style's Kate Puck Jewelry Giveaway:
http://www.slpreppystyle.com/2010/05/lallie-and-kate-puck-jewelry-giveway.html

yummy diet foods on a 1200c./day diet, la-la-la-lilly and my groupon obsession

so i don't know if y'all have groupon in your area, but if you do you should DEFINITELY check it out.  here's the link for the San Diego Groupon - i seriously buy gift certificates to restaurants at least once a week.  they have lots of other discounts as well but i'm a total foodie, hence the post-deployment weight gain and subsequent weight loss missive.  

SPEAKING of which i've decided to put my foot (i just spelled foot 'fut' and had to erase it...why would that happen? at what point in my life did i decide to speak german?  anyways.) down when it comes to this post-deployment weight gain thing.  HOW, you ask?  i, alanna, will NOT buy one new dress until i have lost my post deployment weight.  this means that today, i woke up after drinking  three full camelbak sippy bottles of water instead of what everyone else was drinking, delicious wine...all while watching my beloved Bachelorette.

yay me, and yay Crystal Light (and on a slightly more embarassing note, yay Kool-Aid 5 calorie packets as well).  That being said, I woke up this morning at 149.2.  As you all may remember, that is not at my highest (159 during deployment, 152 post-deployment) and certainly nowhere near my lowest (129 while sick, 133 while dieting & working out) and unfortunately, still nowhere near my pre-post-deployment weight gain (142).  Thus, I have devised a 1200 c. a day plan with delicious little substitutions that, so far, feel quite indulgent.
Breakfast: (100cal) English Muffin w/ I Can't Believe It's Not Butter spray butter + a slice of (45cal) 2% Kraft Singles Pepper Jack Cheese, microwaved for 20 seconds.  Results?  tasted like a delicious and seriously indulgent grilled cheese.
Snack: (50cal) Fiber One Yogurt, Vanilla + (37cal) 3 oz. Blackberries (don't worry, I didn't measure, I just grabbed half the container).  Results?  the Fiber One yogurt was surprisingly thick and creamy, and really good - I'll buy it again.  obviously the blackberries were delish!
Lunch: Lean Cuisine Tortilla Crusted Fish with Rice, Poblano Peppers and Corn in a Sour Cream Sauce (290cal) + a (60cal) Frigo Cheese Heads Mozzarella String Cheese
Snack: 2 servings of Baby Carrots (so about 2/5ths of the bag, 70cal total) tossed with Roasted Garlic and Red Pepper seasoning
Dinner: (270cal) Lean Cuisine Shrimp Alfredo + (115cal) SteamFresh Vegetables, Cauliflower and Broccoli (tossed together so LC sauce gets all over my veggies, yum!)
Dessert: (180cal) Peach Cobbler LOFTHOUSE COOKIE!  I love any diet plan that I can make where I can STILL EAT LOFTHOUSE COOKIES!

seriously scrumptious!
So, if all goes according to plan, in only a few short weeks (hopefully a week and a half) seven and a half pounds will be gone, and i will be looking gorgeous in what will be my first Lilly of the 2010 summer:
Daphne Dress Jacquard (don't the stones look like candy!?)

but you guys know me...i didn't manage to survive my first shift at Lilly without picking up a little something - the Katia wrap top!  I've worn it twice already - it's UBER cute and SO versatile:

love it!
and now finally, the bachelorette...le sigh.  so we LOVED Kasey (first photo), despite his clear and distracting speech impediment - he's SO cute!  totally bummed to find out in the preview of the season that he's evidently NUTS.  my pick for overall winner is Chris H. (second photo) - who doesn't want a Ryan Reynolds look alike next to them every morning?  and personally, i also like Jesse (last photo)...how about y'all?

as a final P.S., my girlfriend has a SATC2 segment on the CW tomorrow morning as she's a personal stylist, and she just invited me (the token redhead) to be her Miranda - while I have a work commitment so I can't attend, you know what else is keeping me?  my weight.  definitely time to do something about it!

 and check out Pink Preppy Lilly Lover's Murfee Scarf Giveaway - amazing and so generous!
and Confessions of a Law School Dropout's newest Emily Giffin book giveaway!

promotion and the BACHELORETTE!

so 1) despite my chronic claims to not actually be a fan of any television besides 'The Real Housewives of [insert any city in America here-if they made a Real Housewives of Tuscaloosa I'd probably watch it...although in reality I am a little disappointed they haven't done a Houston or Dallas as I could get great hair tips]', I did, in fact, get suckered into watching a few episodes of the Bachelor and the Bachelorette here and there, usually because I was in the room when Becky had it on.    Thus, I am now on the hook for their weekly girls' night viewing of this upcoming season of the Bachelorette.  For some reason unbeknownst to me, my best friends developed the habit during my absence of getting together weekly for their favorite TiVo'd shows and copious amounts of wine.  I, for one, do not see any point in drinking if not to get drunk, so while I wholeheartedly commit myself when I imbibe, I'm a little quizzical about the calorical benefits of weeknight drinking for the purpose of watching a television show that would, hopefully, be interesting enough without alcohol.  Now, being the sweet girls they are, they're waiting until Tuesday to watch the Bachelorette with me (since I work - first night, yay - at Lilly tonight!), so while I'll definitely be there, I think I'll skip my requisite two bottles of white wine.  Speaking of which, C forced me to start drinking wine (and by forced I mean went out of her way to get Diet Sprite for me to mix into it, thus trying to baby step my way into what I'm sure will be a lifetime of overindulgence), and I've found that I actually like some of it.  Not so sure about the alleged worst hangover ever that correlates, but still...it's kind of fun to drink.  Still don't understand why people drink red, though - have these people never done mirror checks afterward and realized what color their teeth have turned?!

2) today is PROMOTION DAY!  that means a balla raise and some new respect, just based on my uniform devices.  check out the bling:

woot woot!  and i got slated into my next job, which will be in Pascagoula, Mississippi, at least until the new ship is built - then it's back to San Diego!  Which I'm toootally psyched for because it means I can really commit to house hunting.  I have to say...I'm not too pleased with what $350k buys these days! 

3) One of my pet peeves...when you start reading a blog that you love and you want to comment, but at the same time you realize that the person may know you, or may know people who know you, and you kind of don't want to lead the way back to your little blog with all of it's honesty, rambling and admissions to shopping for homegoods at TJ Maxx, despite having to take it directly to the storage unit afterward (which, might i add, is looking quite like a little living room - what with my full sized couch, scrapbooking stuff, kitchen table, piano keyboard and 42" TV - if only they didn't have those pesky laws about not actually living in your storage unit, I could hang out there all the time).  

What I really need to do today: 

• buy groceries (a euphemism for buy diet food so i lose this effing post-deployment weight...hoping that working at lilly and wanting to look adorable in my work clothes will be good initiative)
• buy iPad (I keep not making it to the mall, which is probably for the better as we're all aware.  also, Trip (the boyf) convinced me to get 3G...as he logically pointed out, in a month when you're sitting somewhere without WiFi, you're going to really wish you got it...you're not going to be sitting there in your hungover stupor and thank your lucky stars you saved that extra hundred bucks for the bar last night.  obviously he didn't say lucky stars, but you get the picture)
• go to work at LILLY! so psyched!
• go over to Trip's to watch Millions...if you haven't seen this, drop everything and put it at the top of your Netflix queue STAT - it is SO. GOOD.  here is the Rotten Tomatoes review: 
• Synopsis: It is rare that a family film is both visually sophisticated and emotionally nuanced. MILLIONS, the fantastical tale of two British brothers and the large sack of cash literally dropped onto them... It is rare that a family film is both visually sophisticated and emotionally nuanced. MILLIONS, the fantastical tale of two British brothers and the large sack of cash literally dropped onto them from the sky, is just that--a multi-layered, majestic feast for both the eyes and the mind. Young brothers Anthony and Damian Cunninham, whose initial response to their unexpected fortune is a Robin Hood-esque spree of charity, have only one week to spend their 265,000 British pounds before their nation switches over to the Euro. Though the premise may seem trite or predictable, unexpected details--including Damian's ability to see visions of saints and the recent death of the boys' beloved mother--add complexity to the story. As the 7- and 9-year-old Cunningham brothers, lead actors Alex Etel and Lewis McGibbon prove to be those exceptional child actors who are appealing without being precious and their understated, mature performances add gravity to a largely whimsical film. Danny Boyle, the director best known for stylishly violent films TRAINSPOTTING and 28 DAYS LATER, might seem an odd man to helm this comparatively innocent movie. However, Boyle's visual and narrative gifts turn out to be perfectly suited to this modern day fable, adding much-needed flavor to a genre that is all too often ignored by cinematic talents
•  and here, more importantly, is the ADORABLE star [complete with British accent - if you're a fan of Charlie Bit Me then you'll be just as obsessed with this movie as I am]:

and i leave you with promises of boyf & i photos...eventually.   assuming i ever buy that stupid Ipad. 

ETA:
Have y'all heard of the Sinless Margarita?  Has anyone tried it?  I'm seriously considering ordering a case, given that it was recommended by my favorite diet foodie, Lisa @ www.Hungry-Girl.com
and check out my girl Jen @ A Girl in Pearls and a Boy with Toys' Kickoff to Summer Giveaway - feel free to tell her Alanna @ Sparkles and Sundresses sent you!

my NEW JOB!! yayaya!

first things first...i am so sorry i have been doing such a terrible job commenting since i've gotten back from deployment!  i occasionally surfed over and caught up with everyone, but i unfortunately dropped my laptop (yes, the cute hot pink dell one) the third day after i got back so i've only been surfing at work (every fourth day when i had to go in) and on my blackberry.  not conducive to blogging at all!

-anyways-

we're back to a normal work schedule (although hopefully i'll be getting off earlier because there is only truly so much paperwork to do, haha) and thus i have decided to pick up a little extra cash by working at..

lilly pulitzer! [again] 

so beyond excited...i start my first shift on monday night after i get off work and canNOT wait to get my booty into the summer 2010 stuff.  it's SERIOUSLY gorgeous.

and btw, since i dropped my poor laptop i'm thinking about picking up an iPad instead.  anyone have one? thoughts?  i think they're totally baller and since i do all of my 'work' at work, i don't really need things like MS Word or Powerpoint.

 also...definitely news on the boyfriend front...i want to wait till i have a photo or two to show you, and photos of the wedding...y'all will be so excited!

finally, check out the undomestic mama (formerly jimmy choos and a baby, too) for a great
sTuck in the Coop giveaway!