December 30, 2012

Out with the Old. In with the New


Since we have spent most of the day (read: weeks) cleaning and organizing our house, I thought it would be just appropriate to blog about change.

The New Year is rapidly approaching and I can't help but get a little excited about it.

I love a New Year.
A Clean Slate.
A fresh, new, crisp Planner.
New focus.
New goals.
New memories.
New start.


As I reflect back on 2012, we have endured a lot of change.

Our human family of 5, dropped down to 4. Although that change was unexpected, it has been nice. Really nice.

Our furbaby family evened out. We lost Lucky, the cat, in June, (You can read about that here.) and gained a new pet in September, Mr. Boots (the pig). He's been such a joy to have and I love his personality. His size is something else though, whoa pig! He's a fatty for sure, but a sweetie nonetheless.

Our life isn't go, go, go all of the time now. We still go a lot with both kids playing basketball for the school, but it's so different than soccer. We don't have to sacrifice every weekend to soccer, like we did then. Our time is spent with each other, with the family, or working on our house. and we do still have lazy days every once and awhile.



Anyway, instead of me rambling on about our year, here are some highlights via pictures. Enjoy.




Happy New Year!



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November 30, 2012

Friday's Letters


Dear Scale: I'm not sure why you decided to go in the direction of down this week, but I LIKE IT! Keep it up!! 

Dear Nook: I plan on spending quite a bit of time with you this weekend. I'm beginning to like you a lot! 

Dear Scentsy Stock: Seriously. We need to separate a bit. 89 bars in stock?!? That's cray cray! Glad the girls at work were looking for fabulous deals before Christmas, because I am the mother of fabulous deals! (when it comes to Scentsy, at least!) Do my lovely readers want a fabulous Scentsy deal? Ok, twist my arm. Email me and I will hook ya up. :0) 
89 bars in 1 bag + 20 floor @ work = workout.

Dear Peanut Butter: We've been having a little bit of a love affair lately. I enjoy our time together around 2:00 - 3:00 every afternoon. Yummmmmmmmm



Dear Bedroom: I'm so excited to pursue a remodel on you in the next few weeks. New king size bed, dresser, tv, paint, fan, bedding, etc. It will be so fun and so worth the time and effort. 

Dear November: In some aspects it seems like this has been the longest month ever, but then I'm like "whoa, it's almost December. Christmas is like 25 days away." That's crazy talk.


Dear Gray Hair: Please ease up. I'm 2 weeks away from my next appt. and I'm looking a little rough. Note to self: appts will have to be four weeks apart, not six.


Hope you all have a great weekend! TTFN





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November 29, 2012

It's OK Thursday!


So happy that I'm back into the swing of blogging and doing this link up!! 



It's Okay....

That I may or may not have spent some time today reading these tweets:
It's Okay...

That the pig and I combined weigh:


See - fat piggy! 
It's Okay....

That I'm down 2.4 lbs since Monday! (The number above is, again, the PIG and I together. Pinky Promise!)
Learning to sit! 

It's Okay....

That we didn't win the lottery! 








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November 28, 2012

Heartstrings....



When I logged into my Blogger account last night and promised more writing, I had no idea I would be writing about this today. One of my favorite blogs to read is Living in Yellow. It is typically a very light-hearted and funny blog that makes me laugh out loud...a lot. The past couple of days, it has been a little somber over in LIY world. You can read more about that here and here.

I hate cancer.
hate it.
hate it.
hate it.


I especially hate cancer when it affects little kids. Kids are so innocent and pure and deserve to be happy, carefree, and healthy. All of the things in life that you and I take for granted every. single. day., this little guy only can hope and dream about.


Please do what you can. Pray, donate, do whatever you can to help this little guy and his family out.

There's a paypal option on Erin's site. I tried to transfer it to mine for easy access, but it wouldn't work. Please help. If you are considering a donation to the lottery fund, please consider a donation to Mr. Isaac and his family.

Thank you! 

November 27, 2012

Promising to do better.....


Wow! It's been awhile. It feels so nice to be back in the blog world, fingers on my keyboard, typing away. I've missed this. I've missed my blog friends and I have missed sharing our life with my readers.

Things at work are slowing down, so this gives me a good opportunity to jump back into blogging. (read: reading blogs.) I have so much catching up to do here in this bloggy blog world. Please bear with me as I am not 100% back tonight, but I promise I will be coming around more frequently. I have a crapton of photos to share. So much so that photobucket has been angry at me for awhile, not allowing me to upload anymore photos. Bums.

So...let's call this a teaser if you will. A teaser that promises more to come. And a teaser that keeps my mom and my husband entertained for 5 minutes. I kid, I kid.  Speaking of husband, this is his contribution to my blog. Enjoy.... jkjujjjjj. Such a sweet guy, huh? 


Here are a few pics, just to keep this post interesting. Ha!


Promising more tomorrow!

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November 6, 2012

Go out and vote!!!

Some of us have been waiting for this day for the past 4 years. Exercise your rights and vote in this election.

I don't care if you are team Romney/Ryan or team Obama/Biden, if you want to make a difference and/or see a difference, then do something about it.

Vote!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

October 24, 2012

Let's talk Advocare!

**First of all, let me point out that I am not affiliated with Advocare at all, and I am not getting paid   
   for this post. **


I was at work when I overheard someone talking about Advocare. I've heard of it before, but hadn't heard about it, so I listened. 2 girls in my office sell Advocare. One lady is in her 50's and runs on her lunch break. She is a role model to me. She's beautiful, healthy, and in total control of her body. The other lady that sells Advocare, found it because she needed help. Her body was not functioning properly and she was overweight for her size. She has lost 60 lbs with Advocare. She is making good food choices and exercising regularly. That's what it's about folks. Simple, huh?

Well you would think that it would be just that simple, but it's not. I know. I've been there. I didn't struggle with weight before or right after I had kids. 9 years ago, I started struggling with my weight. A little bit here and there, body was changing, the infamous "FUPA" appeared. It was dreadful. It seemed to happen overnight. 

A few years ago, I had enough. I was sick of being "fat" and shared my disgust with a co-worker. She turned me on to a weight doctor in OKC and I made an appt. My boss at the time, was very generous and offered to pay for my initial visit, as well as my co-workers. That was a great gift and a very nice gesture. 

I lost 17lbs in the first 6 weeks. It was coming off left and right and I felt great. I was eating all of the right things, but I wasn't exercising. About 3-4 months in, I was down 30lbs. I was exercising about once per week (playing indoor soccer), but that was it. When Spring rolled around, I was walking 3 days per week about 30 minutes each day. The weight stayed off, but it became boring, quickly. 

I couldn't eat carbs, I couldn't drink beer, I couldn't have a normal lifestyle. Carbs and beer are pretty normal in our family, especially in the summertime. Summertime rolled around and I decided I didn't want to "diet" during the summer. 10lbs were back on within 3 months. I was devastated. I thought, no big deal, I will just start again in the Fall. I just couldn't get the motivation back. I had worked so hard eating all of the right things, depriving myself at Thanksgiving time, depriving myself on NYE, to have it all wasted on a "summer break from dieting". 10 more lbs came on, and then finally the number on the scale grew to where it was at the beginning of my journey in November 2008. 

Talk about wind out of your sail...it was a blow for me. Someone who has been thin their entire life, can't control the weight as an adult. Seems so unfair. 

I tried again, visiting my weight doctor month after month. $100 after $100 visit. I just didn't have it in my heart. My motivation was gone. My mind wasn't able to focus like that again.

In December 2011, I joined Weight Watchers. That worked for me. I lost 10lbs or so just by tracking what I ate, but I hated that. I didn't want to track every bite I took every day. That's not me, not my lifestyle, and it didn't fit. I quit. Basically I would splurge on lunch or dinner and had the frame of mind that I already blew it, might as well enjoy it. 

Dieting is not easy for me. I love food. All kinds. Sweets. Soda. Beer. Wine. Cheesecake. Mexican food. Brownies, etc. All kinds - I say. I'm not racist when it comes to food. I eat it all. 

What's funny is, I love healthy food. too. Fruit, veggies, salad, chicken, etc. I love it. I'm an equal opportunity lover of food. Yep that's me, porky pig here. NOM! 

Anyway, I wanted to find something that was healthy and easy for me. Something that could work with my lifestyle and it would still be beneficial, so when I heard chatter about Advocare, I started researching. It's a wellness company and has a lot of great reviews. Everyone was talking about this 24 day challenge bizness, so I looked into that. 10 days of the herbal cleanse...uhhhhhhh. Then 14 days of a lot of pills, but you aren't required to follow a strict diet 100% of the time. It suggests 90%. In my mind, I'm like "Yeah buddy, 10% to eat what I want!"

I contemplated selling it, because I like having control of that sort of thing, but I already sell Scentsy, so I didn't want to add anything else to my plate. (on top of my cookie making business, ya know)

I texted my sister and begged her. I think my exact text was "Will you please sign up to sell Advocare, so I don't have to?" I didn't get a response back from her...until later. A few quick messages back and forth and she was signed up. I told her I "Dan misted" her into doing this. (BB14 was in full swing then). We ordered the 24 day challenge and I started mine on October 9th. Well I didn't measure myself beforehand (bad girl) and I didn't weigh myself beforehand (bad, bad, girl), but I have lost weight and inches. 

I know I have lost about 6lbs. Maybe more, but I didn't weigh the first two days of the 10 day cleanse. I know I have lost several inches. My pants are becoming looser and I'm sagging like a brother in some pants. My "FUPA" is shrinking a bit. but nowhere close to being gone.

Here's what I love...it has been fairly easy. Really. Much easier than I anticipated. I went from drinking 2 to 3 cups of coffee per day, to zero cups. Drinking one coke zero or diet coke almost everyday, to zero. 1 glass or 2 of wine every evening, to zero.

I drink my Spark twice per day. 
I survived the 10 day cleanse. (It really wasn't bad at all...the worst part is the fiber drink. It was pretty dreadful, but it's a fiber drink, what do you expect?) 
There's a lot of pills. (A lot of big pills, but if I can tolerate them, I'm sure you could too! I'm really amazed.)
I don't crave a lot of the crap I was consuming before. (wine, bread, soda, coffee)
I eat, or try to eat, every 2-3 hours. (Breakfast - snack - lunch - snack - dinner)
If I do splurge on dinner (Chick-Fil-A or Sonic), I don't beat myself up. If I start to feel bad about it, I go for a walk
I drink a boatload of water every day. 
I pee a lot - because of said water consumption

I really do feel good. If I were to fall off the wagon, it would have happened this week. Hubby is traveling, so this is my chance to blow a diet by eating take out. Monday night, I made pizza on the grill. Tuesday night was Subway. Tonight, it was just me and my son, so we splurged on Sonic. Otherwise, it would have been BLT's. I ate chicken nuggets and a few tater tots. Felt a little guilty (as I weigh myself daily and want to see a smaller number), so I went on a walk. No biggie.


Everything is okay in moderation. That's my mantra. I don't need that crap in my body. It tastes good for a second, but then it's over and gone.....

2nd day of the challenge. This shirt fit me snug then. Now it's much more loose. 

Today. Not a great comparison, so I will see if I can get a full body pic taken soon.



Guilt is over, my stomach is still crazy full, and I'm outta here to go rescue my piggie from the backyard. 
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October 23, 2012

Negative Nancy

I hate walking into work late. It just messes my whole day up, but when Scott's traveling, it's almost inevitable.

That's how my day started. I pulled into the work parking lot at 7:57 (according to my car clock). By the time I got to my desk, my desk phone said 8:08. Weird. I'm pretty sure it doesn't take 11 minutes to go from the parking lot to floor 20. 

Anyway, that's how the day started. 8 minutes late to work, no reminders on my calendar, shut off the alarm, so instead of waking up at 5 something, I woke up at 6 something. I did get the pig fed, everyone out the door on time, trash to the curb, kids dropped off at their respective school. Doh. Forgot to feed the dogs. Daggnabbit. Poor puppies. I bet they were hungry all day. I'm glad I didn't realize that until this evening, or  I would have felt horrible all day long. I already felt bad for leaving them outside on a cloudy day. I am so glad it didn't bust out pouring rain. That would have been bad. 

I digress...

I get to work 8 minutes late. Argh. Still ticked about that whole thing. I'm pretty sure our work clocks are off, but I guess that would mean we are leaving before 4 everyday. Boom!

There's a lady at work that I will refer to as "negative Nancy" (NN). (I'm not trying to offend any Nancy readers, just trying to make a point. I think. And please note...her name isn't even Nancy) When I walked into work late, she (NN) is already gritching about something. Not just a typical gritch (oh wait, for her I think it is typical), but a sons of b***hes this and sh*t that. I think, "Great. It's going to be one of THOSE days." I, along with the other 6 innocent bystanders in our department, had to listen to her go on and on and on and on about this, that, and the other (which basically in a nutshell was a rant about her duties and her broker...aka her job). And trust me, when it's a problem for her....it's a problem for us all. 45 minutes of griping. This whole time I'm thinking about jumping out of the 20th floor window, even though they don't open. I'm also texting my friend who used to work in that department, but bless her lucky soul, she moved to Dallas in June. She felt my pain for a second. She remembered what it was like when NN went on about her inconveniences in life, (NN seems to have many - many being an understatement). She (my friend) was quick to remember that she was smart several months back and jumped ship. That was the end of her feeling sorry for me. 
I don't blame her. I wouldn't feel sorry either. 

Oh wait. What's that?!?! 

The rant about her having to do her job is over. THANK GOD! Uh oh? Not the debate.....NNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

So that my friends led me to putting in my earphones for the remainder of the day. My ears were practically bleeding from the constant flow of gritch coming out of this lady's mouth.

I mean, we all have bad days, but ya'll don't understand. This lady lives in a bad day kinda world. Everyday it's a new problem, bigger than the last. I constantly have to try and think of something different during one of her rants, otherwise I will be sitting in the HR office, getting wrote up for "not playing nice in the sandbox". 

So I tried to focus on happier things......

Pandora is the bomb.com
These pens rock. 
#pretty #colorful #happy


Take that, Negative Nancy. 






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October 22, 2012

Weekend Update!





All furbabies in the bed - minus one! 
Girls day of shopping while the boys attend the OU /KU game
Fun times @ BCF (Burlington Coat Factory)
Eat Mor Chikin
FROYO at Orange Leaf 
More fun times for the girls! 
Practicing with the curling wand while watching Hunger Games
All done.....2 HOURS LATER!!
Being Silly!! 
Chocolate Chip pancakes just for Jayden
Fruit for my pancake
It was so good - can't wait to have it again! 
Still love my Jayhawks, even though they got their asses kicked by OU Saturday. 
88* on 10/21/2012 @ 4:30pm?!!?!? Yes Please! 



Thunder Up! Probably the only game we will attend all season, but it was cheap and fun, so I'm glad we got to enjoy it! 




Laters Baby! 





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