Monthly Archives: August 2010

Daily Post!

I know that it is only Tuesday, but I am soooo looking forward to this weekend. I know that I just got back from camping, but my sweetie and I are going with my sis, Nette, Michael and all of their kiddos. I think we are going to Florence, but I have to call tonight and find out where for sure!! I am excited! If we have as much fun as we had this last weekend, then it will be a great time!!

Ok, so a little more about this last weekend. Jason and I really had a lot of fun. Jason was totally in his element, running from campsite, to campsite, helping anyone who asked – that is what he lives for, he is my happy-helper man!! I had the most fun getting to know more of my family members, and playing with my nephews. Aaron and Gavin were in our campsite, and I just had SOOOO MUCH FUN playing mom! Ok, well honestly I was totally part-time mom because I didn’t feed them or sleep with them, ok – so I guess that is called being AUNTIE!! YEAH!!!

You can probably can tell, I am soooo distracted tonight – I am watching On the Road with Austin & Santino. I am trying really hard to get through my DVR before we leave town again! and I just LOVE this show! They are soooo sweet, some of their designs are a little ‘different’,  but they are ingenious that they are able to make the dresses that that they are able to with a limited amount of resources and a limited amount of time!!! I would LOVE to let them make something GORGEOUS for me!!! Today they are making a wedding dress. Ok, so CONFESSION TIME!! I am soooo damn hormonal!!! They just showed the bride her dress for the first time, and I actually just starting tearing up!!! Ok, I am pulling it together!!! 😉 This dress is pretty, and frilly, and girly, and just beautiful! Austin and Santino just come across as so sincere, and they really treat their client du jour as the most important woman, and she really gets their absolute best. I LOVE THIS SHOW!!

Alright, so I am going to go spend some time with my sweetie before bed!

Thought of the Day:

“People love to tell you that you can’t do it, if you have a feeling inside that you really want to do something, you just go do it, you just do it, that is all there is to it!” ~ Danny Devito

I am still struggling to figure out what I am supposed to be when I grow up, but I am just looking for the signs! Opportunities for growth, improvement, and all around happiness, and fitting with my natural talents and personalities!!! In the mean time I am just going to live, live, live, and make as many memories as possibles on the way!!!

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉

I’m Back!!

Short version: Our family campout was a success!

Long version: Our family campout was a success, and I had a lot of fun hanging out with my peeps!!

I took a lot of pics, and I think that I will share some of those with you now:

Here is the family who were there this weekend. From left to right, back row: Me, Jason, Michael, Lynette, Ryan, Flo. Left to right, middle row: Murphy (the little white hairy one), Aunt Alice, Katrina, Gavin, David, David (yes, there are two of them), Colby. Left to right front row: Paul, Charlie (another hairy family member), Alice, Aaron, Austen, and Shasta (another 4 legged member of our family!

This is my nephew, Gavin, hanging out in his “Flobbit Tree”.

This is my nephew Aaron! I just love this little smile!!

This is one of my sisters, Alice. She is the momma to both Aaron & Gavin.

My sis-in-law, Lynette, and her cutie fiance, and our future brother-in-law Michael!

The Intimidators!! David, John, Austin, Christopher, and Colby.

NAW!!! Here there are in their natural state!!

This may be the only picture I have of Aunt Alice – how the heck does she do that??? She is just sooooo stealthy!!!

Hee! Hee! Hee! Someone is getting his hienie pinched! John and Lynette!! 🙂

Myself, my youngest sister, Trina, and my sweetie, Jason!

Everybody LIFT!!! Michael, Lynette, David, Christopher, David, and Jason is the one that is horizontal

This is THE BEST picture of Jason and Christopher!! Christopher looks soooo handsome!!! 😉

David, Jason, and John! What a handsome bunch of men!! 😉

Gavin posing for pictures!

Jason was Mr. Helper to everyone there, and I caught him sitting there staring off into space, doesn’t this face looked sooooo tired!?!?!?!?

My girl, Auntie Flo!!! She is such a hoot!!! 😉

The Family again looking as prim and proper as can be expected!!

There, that’s more like it!!

The End! at least until tomorrow!!!

Have a FABULOUS evening!

Wednesday’s Update!

Today is Day 5, no shampoo, no hairbrush, and my hair is still rockin’! Ok, I realize that I am having a moment of SEVERE VANITY, but really when do I EVER have something that I can say looks good on me!?!?!?!? But, do you know the scary thing??? I swam in my overly chlorinated pool last night for a really long time, and NORMALLY that would have left me with poofy frizzed out hair for days, and look at this pic, this is my hair TODAY!!! WOW!!! I am a believer!!! I want to tell every curly girl of this new power that I have discovered! THEY SHOULD HAVE THIS POWER TOO!!! HAHAHA! Ok, that was a little evil, like I want to take over the world laugh, but I digress!! If you have any questions, please feel free to ask in the comments section, I would be happy to tell you exactly what I am and have been doing to make my hair look the best it may have ever looked!!!

Anyway, today is Wednesday, and I am soooo ready for the weekend!! Jason and I are meeting our family at Beverly Beach to go camping for the weekend! We are going to have soooo much fun! and I am planning on taking A LOT of pictures!! We are having a fun family cookoff on Saturday evening, I can’t wait!! Jason is biting at the but to cook our meal that night, and I can’t wait to taste everyone’s dishes, you see we are all sharing whatever it is that we make, so that should be SOOO MUCH FUN!!!

Anyway, I am going to go spend some undivided time with my sweetie!!! I look forward to hearing from you!!!

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉

No Shampoo/No Brush Hair Day 4!

Ok, it is late! I am sooo tired, and I am heading up to bed as soon as I finish this mini post! I promised that I would post some pics of my No Shampoo/No Hair Brush day 4, so here goes!!!

Here it is wet, about 30 minutes after my shower.

Thank you, Sweetie for taking my pics!!! 😉

This is my hair about 5 hours later. I actually got my first complements today!!! YEAH!!! “Have you done something different with your hair? It is looking soooo good!!”, “Your hair is sooo curly, what did you do to make it so curly?”

YEAH!!! That felt good!! 😉

Anyway, I will chat more tomorrow!!

Have a FABULOUS evening!

Happy Monday!!

How has your day gone today?? Mine has gone pretty well!! I always feel so jazzed when I have gotten the things from my to-do list done for the day, work – check, groceries – check, make dinner at home – check, blog – well, that will be a check, and read some more of my book – check, check!! 😉

I came home after grocery shopping a realized my sweetie has fixed something that has been bugging me since 4 years ago when we moved into this place, and that is, he replaced the house numbers on the front of our place. I always tell you, it is the little things in life that bring you joy!! I am not sure who put them there before us, I am sure it must’ve been the lady who lived here before us, but for some reason the numbers had been painted fingernail polish pink – as in hot pink! They were hard to see, AND they were UGLY!!! I had just been tolerating them there, until I forgot they even existed!! but, my sweetie knew I had hated them and thought it would be a nice surprise, and it was!! HONEY, can you hear the brownie meter going up??? I do!!! 😉

Anyway, I am on chapter two of the book that I am reading, Secrets of Simplicity: Learn to Live Better with Less, has really inspired me to start reading about Henry David Thoreau. He seems like a fascinating man, and I have loved all of his lessons that I have heard so far. You see, it sounds like all of the greats had an oasis of sorts to go to center themselves, and rebalance. Thoreau had Walden Pond, Epicurus had his house and gardens, Buddah had a fig tree, where is your Walden Pond?? Where is mine? Good question. I would LOVE to say it is my home, but I think that right now, it has to be the ocean. I always am able to recoup, and get refreshed there. I am going to make it my mission to create my oasis!

Now for that oasis, what would I take with me??? If you were going to be stranded on a desert island. What would you take with you? What could you not living without? Choose for each of the categories below:

  • Two articles of clothing.
  • One food item.
  • One beverage.
  • One form of entertainment.
  • One piece of technology.

What did you choose???

For me my answers are:

  • Two articles of clothing:  A day dress, & my mom’s pink jammies (who would I be trying to impress???)
  • One food item: grilled chicken (I am guessing there is already pineapple, papaya, and coconut there???)
  • One beverage: iced sweet tea
  • One form of entertainment: my entire family
  • One piece of technology: an i-phone

There is soooo much more that I feel I can’t live without, but this will have to be my chosen basics – for now!!!

On to more frivolous matters, it is day 3 of my no shampoo, no brush hair challenge, and so far so good. My showers in the morning take a lot longer than they used to take, but because I am not spending so much time in front of the mirror painfully brushing out my hair, I think the time to get ready takes me about the same amount of time, so that is good! The front of my hair today looks a little greasy, but it feels soooo soft – not greasy at all, that is surprising to me. AND my hair does seem much curlier than it usually is, although it does appear pretty mousy and dull, which I was told, is expected during the first 2 to 3 weeks, so onward I go!!

I am going camping this weekend, so this should be interesting. Not the camping, I know THAT will be a BLAST, I mean the hair care situation there – I will have to keep you posted!!! 😉

Oh, and it has been two days, and I have not purchased even ONE book!! Now, that is not so impressive you say???? Well maybe not, but books are my one weakness and I found that I was bringing between 10 and 20 books a week, I kid you not!! So, I had to have a come to Jesus meeting with myself and put my priorities in the proper order. AND maybe save some money to go on a big trip that I am taking in January!! I am not going to talk too much about that yet, as I don’t want to put a ken ayina hora, a Jewish hex, on it. I will let you know what is going on as soon as I get some more plans finalized on this!! YEAH!!!

Anyway, it is getting late, have a FABULOUS evening!

Life Inventory Checklist!

I am reading this TERRIFIC book!!! It has been in my house for almost a year, but I just picked it up this morning to read through it. This AMAZING book is called ‘Secrets of Simplicity: Learn to Live Better with Less‘. I got through the entire first chapter, and spent the rest of the day doing the first assignment – GOING THROUGH YOUR ENTIRE WARDROBE!!! Whew!! That is soooo much harder than it sounds. I spent the whole day doing that, and bagged up 6 bags of clothes, shoes, and other miscellaneous things from my closet!! It was difficult, time consuming, and at times, I thought I would quit, HOWEVER now that it is all done, I am sooooo EXCITED, and it is nice to have taken stock of everything that I own (wardrobe-wise!)

A few more things that I am taking from this book right away are:

  1. I will focus on reading the books I have, and not purchase any books within the next 30 days
  2. I will not use shopping as my therapist. If I’ve had a bad day, I will do something to pamper myself like a mani or pedi; and if I had a great day, I will let that great mood continue on to my evening by playing some fun music and dancing with my sweetie!
  3. The most important things in my life, are not things – they are people and experiences!

Here is an excerpt from the book ‘Secrets of Simplicity: Learn to Live Better with Less‘, written by Mary Carlomagno:

Answer the following questions with “Always,” “Sometimes,” or “Never”

  1. Do I make time to exercise?
  2. Is my home life serene?
  3. Do I have downtime?
  4. Do I take time to deal with incoming mail and bills?
  5. Do I have time to volunteer for charity?
  6. Do the significant people in my life receive my attention when they need it?
  7. Do I keep my appointments?
  8. Do I see my friends?
  9. Do I eat regular, healthy meals?
  10. Am I in control of my calendar?
  11. Are my home repairs done in a timely manner?
  12. Is my pantry stocked?
  13. Do I find time to get out and enjoy nature?
  14. Am I getting enough sleep?
  15. Do I take regular vacations?
  16. Do I work less than 10 hours a day?
  17. Is my work fulfilling?

Total up your “Always,” “Sometimes,” or “Never” responses. Place stars by the questions that surprised you, and think about what they reveal. Are your “nevers” standing in the way of your livelihood, your healthy, your ability to ultimately grow? Has “always” become a burden, leaving you without control, without the ability to make a conscious choice? As you review your responses, think about whether they represent a life of your choosing.

I would HIGHLY encourage ANYONE wanting to find balance in a materialistic culture, GO OUT AND PICK UP THIS BOOK!!

On a side note: it is day two of my new NO SHAMPOO, NO HAIR BRUSH routine from the book I finished reading yesterday,  Curly Girl. My hair is looking alright, a little greasy this evening, not itchy, I am still passing the sniff test – my husband says “hmmm..smells good!” Thanks, Baby!! 😉 I promise to get a picture posted tomorrow!!! My pics this morning didn’t turn out!!

Anyway, I am going to head up for bed!

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉

It Is Official…I am a Curly Girl!

Ok, so on one of my weekly voyages to one of my favorite places, the book store, I KNOW SHOCKING, right?? I picked up this… no, wait – let me go back to the beginning!

Last week, at the bookstore, I was checking out, and my cashier, who was also one of the store’s managers look at me and said, “Have you ever heard of the book ‘Curly Girl‘? You should get it, it will literally change your life FOREVER!” I lied, and told her that of course I knew that book, matter of fact, I already owned it.

I left, with my purchases in hand, and I went straight to the car, where my husband was patiently waiting for me, ready to go home, and the first thing I said to him when I hopped in was, “Does my hair look bad????” Side note: don’t ever do this to your man, he was looking and feeling like he was being set up for trouble!! HAHAHA! Of course he totally saved himself and said the EXACT THING I wanted to hear, “Of course not, Baby, your hair looks FABULOUS!” GOD BLESS THAT MAN!! Well, I knew that wasn’t exactly true, when I had left the house that morning, I was feeling like I was looking pretty cute, but this was something like 15 hours later, and I had been running around like a fiend all day, so I am sure my hair wasn’t “FABULOUS”. Well, I told Jason what the lady had said, and he told me to just put it out of my mind. Sooooooo, I did EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE!!! I fretted and worried about it all week!

You must know that I have had a LOVE/HATE relationship with my hair since I was a little girl! I have always wanted straight, thick, beautiful hair, but what I actually have is baby fine curly/wavy hair that has a mind all it’s own, and frizzy at the mere mention of rain (Living in Oregon, that is a real problem). Matter of fact when I was a teenager my mom used to spiral perm my hair regularly, combine that with a chin length bob haircut, and I always looked like Rosanne Rosannadanna from SNL. NOT PRETTY!!! I came to realize that I actually had curly hair when one year I was determined to change my look, and I was going to grow at that damn perm once and for all, and I shockingly discovered that that wasn’t a perm anymore – THAT WAS ME!!!!

ANYWAY, I picked up that book last night, Curly Girl and read through it in one evening, and thought I would give it a try. To oversimplify the book, I am going to not use shampoo and I am going to stop brushing my hair for the next 2-3 weeks just to see what the natural state of my hair is. I am hoping that it is curlier than it is wavy, and seeing the results from just day one, I am thinking that it is. I will do my best to post a pic for day two tomorrow!!

It is getting late, I am heading off to bed!

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉

Happy Wednesday!

Today has been a very productive day!! Work, a long lunch with one of my favorite girlfriends, more work, home, shower, jammies, chores, dinner, more chores, take a breath to write to you this evening, do some more chores, head upstairs, do a little reading, bed, sleep!! Ok, so obviously not ALL of that has happened yet today!!! 😉

I am excited about tomorrow! After work tomorrow night, my family is coming over for dinner and then we are all going to go swimming!! YEAH!!! I always have SUCH a GOOD TIME swimming with the kiddos!! They have such a MARVELOUS way of making you feel like a kid again!!! GOD BLESS MY LITTLE KIDDOS!

Well, today was weigh-in day, I am not sure if I told you, but I am on Weight Watchers and am doing my darnedest to lose weight! I am following Weight Watchers, am on a 24 week walking plan, and have a personal health coach!! So, all of that combined with the fact that I have such a great support group around me, I am optimistic that I will be able to get healthy ONCE AND FOR ALL!! I will keep you posted of my progress!!!

OH, you know what has really been on my mind today?? It is called the 100 Thing Challenge. I have heard about this a few times over the past 6 months or so, but for some reason the idea just really intrigued me today, and made me start to think, “If I had to limit belongings to just 100 things, what 100 things would I choose?” Well, right off, I think that would be REALLY, REALLY DIFFICULT!!! Second, there are a few things that I would have to group as one thing, right off the bat, like my library, that would have to equal 1 thing, but really I have almost 1,000 books, So with that in mind, here is a stab at my list…

  1. My wedding ring
  2. My mother’s dresser
  3. My library
  4. My bed
  5. My couch
  6. My dining room table that my mom-in-law found for me
  7. My piano
  8. My artwork – can that count as one thing??
  9. My little black antique leather chair
  10. My cornet
  11. My laptop
  12. My i-pod
  13. My Kindle
  14. My tele
  15. My DVD player
  16. My DVD collection
  17. My pink bicycle, Roxy
  18. My grandfather’s art box
  19. My art easel
  20. My costume jewelry collection
  21. My shoe collection
  22. My clothes (OK, you can see where this would get REALLY DIFFICULT!!)
  23. My CD collection
  24. My game collection
  25. My puzzle collection
  26. My decoration collection

Ok, I am going to stop myself here! I think this might actually be an impossible task for someone like me. Sometimes I just get sooo disgusted with myself because I am such a stuff person. Don’t get me wrong people are more important than stuff any ol’ day, but there is something about being surrounded by my things that make me feel some much at home. With that said, I want to leave with a bit from George Carlin talking about stuff. Enjoy!!!

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉

Marriage Can Be Rough!

The hardest part about being married is that you are married to someone who is not you! I have basically lived as a single woman for the past 8 months, and now that my sweetie has moved back home, I am trying re-trying to learn how to live with him all over again! He sure can make it tricky, although I am sure I don’t make his life too peachy at times too.

The biggest issue that I am having right now is that I AM A NEAT FREAK, and we live in a very little place, in relation to how much STUFF we have!!! So, to me, it is really important to keep the house as clean as we are able to, on a daily basis. My sweetie? well…let’s just say, NOT SO MUCH! He is a drop it as soon as I come into the house kinda guy, which drives me BATTY!! I am trying really hard to loosen up, and just be sooo thankful that he is home, and I have been doing REALLY well, too well, because when I got home from a hard day of work today, I walked into my house, and WHAM!!! There was 3 mini mountains of his stuff that he brought home today. OH, not how I wanted to be greeted by my haven, needless to say.

To make a really long, downer-of-a-story short, the “mountains” of stuff are gone, the kitchen is clean, there is the FABULOUS smell of sauteing onions in the air, and I am feeling sooo much better!!! I think that the 100 degree weather, and a crazy busy day at work just made me a little irritable, and my sweetie knows exactly how to make it all better!!! I really do LOVE that man!!! 😉

Right after I finished writing this sentence, my husband called me into my dining room, and he had made me a candlelight dinner!! SO SWEET!!! OK, he’s forgiven!!! 😉

OK, so I am watching this movie from 1956, “You Can’t Run Away From It” with Jack Lemmon and June Allyson, and during the commercial break there was this commercial that was advertising something called a Yonanas, which inspired me to google how to make ice cream using frozen bananas, and honey, you just know mama has to go get her some bananas to try this recipe!!!

Anyway, apparently I was REALLY craving something sweet, because I found myself in the kitchen crunching up some graham crackers, putting them at the bottom of mini carafes, piled on a little mini marshmallows, toss the whole bunch of heavenly goodness under the broiler, and top with some lovely chocolate syrup!!! Yummy, low cal, did I say YUMMY? dessert!!!

Anyway, I am heading upstairs to go spend sometime with my sweetie!!!

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉

Day of Ups and Emergencies!

WHEW!!! Out of two weeks of absolute craziness, today was a day that I could FINALLY breathe!! HAAAAAAA! I am sure you felt that from where you are sitting!! I am sorry if I just blew your papers off of your desk!!! 😉

OMG, I am watching America’s Got Talent off of my DVR, and there is this little girl, who is only 10 years old, she literally made me stop in my tracks right now!! She sings opera and the voice that comes out of her little body is just AMAZING!! She must have the voice of an angel out on loan, because really WHAT A GIFT!!! She has literally stop me, and my writing of my day, in my tracks!!! Well, honey! you get my vote!!! 😉

Oh, btw, her name is Jackie Evancho.

Well, after a day like today, and an entertaining performance like that, I should just get into my pjs and go to bed now, because it can’t get any better than that!!!

Ok, not really! I have had a really good day, I had a mini crisis this morning at work, but my co-worker was there to give me a hand, thanks T!! Then I was able to just plug away with one task at a time, and before I knew it I was crossing things off of my to-do list again!! When I left work I hit the car wash, which always makes me feel SUPER pampered!!! Came home a cooked a healthy dinner, and spent some time hanging out with my girls, and I plan on going upstairs, getting ready for bed…

OMG! I just a medical emergency at my house!! Thank God my sister-in-law is a PA, because her and her boyfriend (God bless them) rushed over from dropping her kids off 20 miles away – I wonder how fast she was driving on that freeway to get here!!! I am not going to go into details about what exactly happened, that will remain private, but long story short my husband will be alright IF I can just get him to stay in bed! We will see!!! I may have to work remote tomorrow, to make sure he is in bed, with his medications, and not moving AT ALL!!!

Anyway, I am heading off to bed now!! but before I go, I want to leave you with a yummy treat that you can make and enjoy!

Treat du jour:

Graham Cracker “Ice Cream” Sandwiches

Take 2 low-fat Cinnamon graham crackers, and about a fourth of a cup of Cool Whip Lite, and sandwich the cool whip evenly between both graham crackers, and place in the freezer, until frozen. Take it out and enjoy!! I love this treat, it is smooth, and creamy and it such a YUMMY replacement for my ice cream fix!! And it has soooo many less calories than my favorite premium ice cream!! YUM! I hope you give it a try!

Have a FABULOUS evening!!!