Party Time...

Happy Sunday lovelies!

I have this group of friends...we'll call them my 'mommy' friends. We are all moms. We all met through a mommy group we were part of here in Phoenix when our babies were...babies. Now, all of the babies are in school and not really babies anymore. We have all seen each other through really rough times as well as some really great times.

We get together for play dates, family bbq's, birthday parties, Mom's Night Out and Mom's Night In. And last night, we got together to say good-bye to one of us. My girl J is moving to Denver. So, in true Diva fashion we all got dolled up and went out drinking and had some great food.

So J - know that we love you and will miss you terribly. We will miss our play time at the park, our Saturday family dinners, going out for piercings and trips to the adult store (LOL), going out for dinner and drinks and talking for hours. Thank God for texting and facebook! You better come home to visit often and I will learn to love visiting Denver too.

Weight Loss Progress...

Happy Saturday loves!

I can't believe I'm in week 5 of my new lifestyle. Working out most everyday, counting calories and just making better choices about what I'm eating and when. I'm making big progress mentally and I'm proud of the progress I've made physically. So, on that note..here are this week's new pictures and stats!

LBs lost - 2
Inches lost - 3

Today is my 'free' day so we had our Saturday morning doughnuts, YUM! I will have a slice of pizza for lunch and tonight I am going out with a group of my girls for Greek. Have a happy and healthy weekend lovelies! Get out and do something fun with a loved one this weekend, you won't regret it!

I Confess...

I Confess...I am a little more than excited that Hannah is starting cheer on Tuesday with her BFF

I Confess...I am very proud of myself for working out everyday, even if I can't do as long as I want I at least do 20-30 minutes because that is better than nothin'

I Confess...I am over all the drama going around the blogosphere lately. Let's all act like grown-ups and show some love to each other and quit trying to tear each other down, m'kay pumpkins?!

I Confess...I am so excited for the changes coming up on this here lil' blog o'mine!

I Confess...I may or may not have taken part in another swap for Valentine's Day and I am so excited to ship off my partners goodies!

I Confess...I like The Hunger Games..But I'm not totally engrossed in them like a bunch of other people

What do you have to confess today? Go link up with Mamarazzi!

Blog Critiques...

Happy Wednesday Lovelies!

I recently took part in a 'blog critique' swap. What is a blog critique swap you might be asking? Well, let me tell you then friends! Kassi and Kayli over at Truly Lovely hosted a blog critique where they matched up each participant with 2 other bloggers to review each other's blogs. We used this format for our reviews.

I got to review two great blogs, Every Day is a New Adventure and Mine For The Making. You should go check them out! The two bloggers who reviewed and critiqued my blog are Kimberly from Lush Lounge and Marci from Stone Cottage Adventures.

I cannot even tell you how helpful their feedback has been! I will be making some changes to my layout and sidebars mostly. I felt they were a bit cluttered and Kimberly and Marci both mentioned that they thought so too. So see, it wasn't all about telling me how fabulous I am...even though there was plenty of praise, there were great suggestions that I plan on taking action on over the next couple of weeks.

I highly recommend taking part in a blog critique if you come across one, really helpful information to have that only people who are unbiased will give you.

On that note, I am off to start figuring out what exactly I am going to change and how! Be happy and healthy today loves!

Happy Birthday MIL

Hello friends, I have some pretty deep emotions going on today and really want to share. I've written a little bit about my Mother-In-Law before here, here and here.

Today is Marilyn's birthday...or was I should say. That means that the 3rd anniversary of her passing is right around the corner. She died 4 days after her birthday. They always say that people tend to die around important dates for some reason. I have always wondered why. In the case of MIL, she held on til her birthday had passed and we had gotten through that and then she passed.

It has been 3 years that she's been gone and every Sunday when we get ready to make our phone call to Sean's dad I think to myself, 'we can't forget to call mom'...and then I realize she's gone and has been gone for a long time. There are still days when I want to call her and tell her about Hannah and the newest thing Hannah has said or done. Hannah was her one and only grandchild and she adored her.

I am so grateful for the time that we got to spend with her the last few months of her life, even if they were clouded with her not being able to remember who were all the time or the constant state of grief we were in knowing she could die at any day really. They were special because we got to spend so much time with her and just really show her how much we love her. She got to snuggle in bed with Hannah almost everyday and watch tv together. Or color, or take walks or watch movies.

I know that MIL is still here in the house with us, yes, my house is haunted and I don't mind a bit. I know that none of the ghosts here are out to hurt any of us or scare us. Just today I was home alone and the house was quiet except for the sound of feet shuffling down the hall from MIL's old room to the bathroom. It was exactly the sound that she used to make when she was alive and would walk from her room to the bathroom. It comforts me to know that she is still here with us. I think it comforts all of us.

So Mom, Happy birthday to you! We love you and miss you terribly!

Vivid Dreams

Hello my lovelies! I hope you all had a great weekend, I know I did. Unfortunately the weekend ended with my baby girl getting sick and throwing up all over the place, but she is feeling better today so I'm sure she will be back at school tomorrow. So that means in the middle of the night last night we spent an hour at least getting her cleaned up and doing some clean up of the floor and stripping the bed and starting those in the wash. Needless to say, this mama didn't sleep much last night and I am super tired today! But I have been spending all day deep cleaning Hannah's room, cleaning the carpet with the big carpet cleaner thingy and finishing washing all of her bedding. This day should be moving a heck of a lot faster than it is if you ask me! haha

Today's topic for the Blog Dare is Vivid Dreams - I don't know about you but I have a lot of dreams and I usually remember them. I have always been like this. I remember when I was a kid I had a recurring nightmare...for years I had the exact same nightmare. I haven't had it in years, but I occasionally still will have that same nightmare. More often than not lately though I will have dreams based on TV shows I watch a lot! LOL

We have the True Blood DVD's and had been watching an episode at night before bed. After a few nights of this, I had a dream that I was IN True Blood! I was a character in the show and was sleeping with Eric (Yes, Please!!).

Source: trueblood.wikia.com via Kathryn on Pinterest

For the past month or so I have been watching Gossip Girl on Netflix when I work out or when Hubby has to work late at night and Hannah is already in bed. A couple of nights ago I had a dream that I was in Gossip Girl. I can't believe I am going to tell you guys this, but in the show I was totally sleeping with Chuck Bass. What the wha?! I can't stand his character! But I was totally sleeping with him in this dream.

Source: Uploaded by user via Jenny on Pinterest

My most vivid dream that still creeps me out to this day happened when I was pregnant with Hannah almost 8 years ago. Everyone knows that pregnancy does really weird things to women. All those hormones wreak havoc on our bodies and our emotions and even our minds. For me, I had a dream that my parents and my brother had moved into our 2 bedroom apartment with me and Sean. For some reason, my parents were sleeping in my room in my bed. I went to wake them up and there were rattle snakes everywhere. On every inch of floor and all over the bed. I ran out of the room to find my brother and he was sleeping on the back patio in a sleeping bag and again there were rattle snakes all over the ground and on his sleeping bag. I ran back into the apartment and there were rattle snakes literally EVERY.WHERE. There was not a single space anywhere that didn't have snakes.

Now, before this dream happened, I didn't have a fear of snakes. They weren't my favorite creature but I wasn't creeped out by them. Ever since this dream though I cannot stand the sight of a snake of any kind. They give me the heebie jeebies and I flip the (bleep) out. It was and still is so vivid in my mind even 8 years later that I just can't handle it. LOL

Well I hope I didn't creep y'all out to badly with my snake dream..instead just think on Vampire Eric..or if you must Chuck Bass. ;)

Living Room Re-Do

Hello Lovelies!

This weekend has been a bit of a crazy, chaotic time in our house. We rearranged the living room, which also carried into the dining room a bit. We recently got a new TV for the living room (my first time ever purchasing a new TV but that's a post for another day) and it was delivered the other day. So, hubby got off work early yesterday and we decided to hook up the new TV and to do that we had to rearrange the furniture and take everything off the walls.

I forgot to take 'before' pics, so I just have these after pictures, but we aren't completely done with the re-do yet so there will be more pictures eventually.

The couch was on the wall that the TV is now on and the way we have the room now, it seems SOO much bigger than it was! Shocking how that works.. Anyway, I am wanting to change up the decor in the living room since rearranging and getting the new TV so I wanted to see what y'all think of what my plans are. See all that empty wall space on both the wall where the couch is and the wall with the TV? Yeah, it is so empty it's killing me. This is what I want to do on the wall where the couch is...

Source: thewhitelibrary.com via Chrissy on Pinterest

I have a french door in the garage that needs some sanding and painting and then I plan to clean up the window panes. I need to find the pictures I want to put in the panes to use as a frame and then I can hang that on the wall over the couch. But I really love this idea.

As for what I want to do on the wall where the TV is, this is where I need the most help. I love crayon art and think it would look really 'cute' but I'm in my mid-30's and is 'cute' really what I want for my living room? I want something more sophisticated but don't know exactly what...

Source: unsimpleliving.wordpress.com via Chrissy on Pinterest

Source: Uploaded by user via Chrissy on Pinterest

Source: Uploaded by user via Chrissy on Pinterest

I also really love the look of these and would love to have something like these in my living room...

Source: alisaburke.blogspot.com via Heather on Pinterest

Source: mapstotreasure.com via coast on Pinterest

Source: thishumblehome.com via Emily on Pinterest

My other issue is the other wall that is the entry from the dining room into the living room. There is a cable and a surround sound speaker on this wall and I would like to paint just that wall a darker color to sort of help the cord and speaker to blend into the wall. I'm leaning towards like a dark grey color like this...

Source: littlebluedeer.com via tinley on Pinterest

We are also thinking of painting the other two walls (TV and Couch walls) just on the bottom half with this same color and putting a chair rail type thing in the middle of the wall and leaving the tops of the walls the light color they are now. See, I need lots of help! What would you do with this room?

Have a great evening lovelies!

Weight Loss Progress...

Happy Saturday lovelies!

I hope you've all had a fantastic week and that you are getting to spend your weekend doing fun, healthy things with your loved ones.

I had a great week both physically and emotionally. I ate really well and did something to sweat every day. I did decide to make a change though as far as the plan I am following to lose weight. I had joined Weight Watchers last year and had great success. This time around I was not having the same success both on the scale and in the meetings. The leader this time is different than my last time around and this leader just didn't inspire me. Several of my friends have been talking about using myfitnesspal.com both online and the app so I decided to give it a try. If I liked it I would cancel WW and just use myfitnesspal (which is FREE btw). So Monday was a holiday and both Hubby and Hannah were off so we spent the day shopping and eating out. Not always a great combination but we made healthy choices for lunch and dinner, we walked a lot and I used myfitnesspal on my iPhone. I was in love with it from that first day. I find it so much easier to understand and track than WW and the whole concept of counting calories and exercise makes more sense to me than having to figure out what the points plus value is for every food and exercise.

Since I started on myfitnesspal last monday I have dropped several pounds, many inches and I have found my stride in tracking and exercising. So, here are the week's progress pictures and stats.

LBS lost - 4
Inches lost - 14.5 (!!!!!)

I don't know if you all can see the difference from week one to week 4, but I can definitely see a change in my body in these pictures. I have a long (long long long) way to go, but I am focusing on this one day at a time and I am seeing results. I am FEELING the results, in my attitude, my confidence and in my body.

Go out and be healthy loves!

The Nail Files

It's time for another week of The Nail Files with Tara and Vicki. You know this girl won't be missing a week of mani/pedi's! So here is this week...I have been feeling the dark colors lately so I went with Essie's Carry On and a Sinful Colors dark purple glitter (just on my ring finger on each hand). I love the little bit of extra sparkle it gives.

Go get yo' mani/pedi on and link up with these girls!

I Cried So Hard...

Hello lovelies! I was thinking about today's topic for the Blog Dare - the last time I laughed so hard, I cried. I can't remember the exact circumstances of the last time this happened, but it happens to me all the time.

The one time that I absolutely remember so vividly of this happening happened several years ago. I was pregnant with Hannah and we were over at my parents house for a Sunday night dinner. I think I was about 5 months along. We had finished dinner and were just sitting around the table talking and telling stories. At this point in time I was still a newlywed, so there were a lot of stories being told with the families still getting to know all the history of each other.

I don't remember who started telling the story, but we we started talking about this one time when I was a teenager in Sacramento. We had some friends that we were helping to move. All the ladies were scrubbing and cleaning inside the house while the men were doing things outside or painting inside. The brother in law of these friends of ours had been painting and went to the kitchen to rinse off his paint brush. After he got all the paint rinsed off he was headed outside. He goes walking through to the back sliding glass door...I think you know where this is going...and WHAM! Slammed right into the CLOSED sliding glass door and bounced off it leaving a trail of water from the paint brush all over the freshly cleaned sliding glass door.

At this point of my parents retelling this story to my new husband, I am seriously dying of laughter. Now, when I laugh I LAUGH. My whole face turns red, I can't breathe, people start laughing AT me instead of with me. So I am 5 months pregnant, laughing hysterically for about 5 minutes straight when all the sudden I start sobbing. Absolutely sobbing, tears streaming down my face - ugly cry, sobbing. It was like within .2 seconds of laughing hysterically that I shifted to sobbing and I am not exaggerating when I say this, I bawled for 4 hours straight after that. Damn pregnancy hormones. And to top it all off, I peed my pants when I was laughing/crying so hard at my parents house. Again, damn pregnancy.

I hope y'all got a chuckle out of this as much as I do remembering it now almost 8 years later.

xoxo