Oh Hey Friday's Five with a WiW Mix

This week has been rough.  Besides being that last full week before Christmas this is the week that I got sick.  Ugh… really of all weeks. so needless to say I have been trying to chug along and do my best. Which meant a lot of whining and complaining and trying to get shit done, but of course that left no room for blogging so today is a mix of my Fridays Five and WiW all rolled in one.

{one}

Most of the week after working (yes I made it to work but just barely) and then hitting the stores for those last minute gifts I would get home and snuggle on the couch with the little.

what is Christmas with out Elf…syrup anyone??

{two}

I was down one pound which is great seeing as I never did anything more strenuous that push a shopping cart around in the last week. I think it's probably because I did more sleeping than eating.

{three}

and as most of you mom's know that even when we are sick we still need to get our shit done and yes that damn elf…. 

{four}

I may have taken my Christmas pictures in July but that didn't stop me from waiting until the very last minute to send those babies out.  

{five}

and of course the daily struggle of a teacher durning the holidays...

#notavegetableinsight

Have a great weekend all.  Linking up with

Stormaggedon

Hey all, sorry about missing Friday. It was our annual Christmas program at work so it was a whirl wind of a day and not to mention it was apparently "stormaggedon" too.  We here in So Cal are such babies that the littlest bit of rain puts everyone in a  panic. 

 

Even with the rain it turned out to be a great weekend. The hubs and I took DQ to a Winter Wonderland holiday thing at a local park along with some friends.  It was lots of fun they had all different types of activities.

 

 

This is how we do sledding and snow in Southern California lol,

 



can you tell we were totally unprepared.  Poor DQ id in Vans and we totally forgot the gloves.  

 

But she did get to see Santa so that made the freezing hands and wet feet worth it.

 

After that I went out with my girls.  Our work party did not happen this year, kinda sad but no one wanted to host it so it just sorta fizzled out.  we made the best of it and got the crew together for dinner and dancing in downtown Temecula.

 

We are such dorks but we do have fun!

 

Finally after getting home at 1 in the morning my ass had to be up at 6 to get ready for my last holiday shoot of the year. 



It was actually two families that were related I was worried it was going to take forever but it went really smoothly and we were done in just over an hour.  Now I'm just putting some finishing touches on them and will have them out later this week.

 

linking up with Healthy Diva Eats and Life of Meg.



WiW....The Big Easy or So I Hope

I'm up a bit this week just a bit over a pound 180.6.  Seriously it was those cookies.  I can just say no to Thanksgiving (seeing as I stayed the same that week  but put a cookie in front of me and all bets are off.

But I'm getting right back to business because I am giving myself 7 weeks to lose 10 pounds (I'm shooting for 15 but I will be totally happy with 10)  because in 7 weeks this is happening!!!

Yup the hubby did it, he is taking TaTa and I (and TaTa's boyfriend) to New Orleans for our 21st and 40th birthdays (our bdays are exactly one month apart.)  I can't even tell you how excited we are.

So to keep on track and lose that weight I stocked up at the farmers market this weekend.

The beets are so good.  I can't believe that it has taken me all this time to actually like beets.

#beetproblems

I also found some yummy brussel sprouts (yup just started liking those too)

and of course keeping up with the workouts. 

Cookie Monster

This weekend was our annual cookie baking party.  The Grammies, me, my girls and Auntie Bible (a friend and the bible teacher at work so DQ has always called her that) and in the last two years Carrie (who couldn't make it this time) have gotten together to spend all day baking up a storm of Christmas goodies.  

It has been a wonderful tradition that is going 6 years strong now.  The funny thing is the Grammies and Auntie Bible don't bake lol.  I didn't know this when I started it but they all try once a year for me and it so much fun and something crazy always seems to happen. Like one year Grammie C was making rice Krispie treats and just poured in the cereal and marshmallows in all together and made a big burning clump of crispy Krispies.

 

TaTa making some Oreo Truffles yumm...

Auntie Bible and Grammie J make the famous PB Blossoms.

 

and since there was so many cookies happening and of course we had to do some quality control and taste (just a few) TaTa and I decided that between every  batch coming out of the oven, or any waiting time (there were 4 of us using one oven) we would go in the backyard and run, squat, lunge, to the fence and back...that fence was far).  I even got in all 10,000 steps.

We are doing high knees here :) 

 

Then we always exchange small gifts.  This year I made every one a personalized cup.

 

and Auntie Bible gave us the most snuggly blankets ever!!

 

Linking up with Healthy Diva Eats and Life of Meg

Oh Hey Friday Five

So real quick cause it's still crazy here,  but I promised my self I post today (even if it's late). 

One 

In all the craziness we did get our tree up last weekend.  DQ loved putting on all the decorations and needed no help from me, but did need a little daddy help.

Two

I have been getting my Christmas craft on.  I made this cute mug for DQ's teacher after I blew the dust off my cricut machine.  I'm going to fill it with a gift card and some other goodies :)

Three

You would think with the holidays approaching traffic would get a bit lighter (with most colleges being out) not so much. But I found this awesome podcast Serial that is making the drive go by so much faster.  It basically is a takes a true case and delves deeper and deeper into it every week. Seriously so good.

Four

Another car picture for ya. Yes that little punk is eating pizza in the car on the way home (thanks Grammie) ugh my whole car smelled like pizza heaven!

Five

But I stuck to my guns and had a yummy dinner of (leftover turkey and veggies) no pizza heaven but it works. 

WIW...She's Alive..

Why Hello… Yes I am actually still alive.  The Holiday craziness is in full swing and I seem to have not been prepared for it. Between people calling for last minute photo shoots, getting my Christmas craft on and being that mom thing I have not had much time to blog. 

So I will do a quick catch up for you all, before I weigh in  dun, dun ,duunnn

So I started out Thanksgiving day with a beautiful 5 mile run (a slog really but at least I got my butt out there).  It was slow but I really enjoyed it so what ev.

I followed my run with some turkey pancakes lol...

not what you though huh I saw this really cool FB post on this guy who makes all kinds of crazy pancake art, so I thought I would give it a try.  I may not be Picasso but DQ loved it.

Then of course I ate all the carbs

The rest of the weekend was pretty mellow. I did some Christmas shopping (no crazy Black Friday stuff just some get up when I felt like it and browse the store with a red starbucks cup in hand).

Saturday a family that I babysat for asked if I would do an all day thing. We weren't busy and the extra cash is always handy this time of year and DQ loves to play with A.

I did ask if I could run some errands with A and they said sure they'd leave the carseat, but when I got there they had changed their mind and asked if I would mind using their car since the car seat was a bitch to get out...

Ummm hello no problem!! Yes that beautiful car right there was my ride for the day.  Porsche Panamera I think I love you! It drives like a dream (yes that kinda dream lol) and it fit two car seats why you would put a car seat in one though... Any way it was fun being all fancy for the day.

So now it's back to reality (and my Prius)... and of course weigh in time

  So I stayed the same. I actually was up a bit last week (due to my monthly friend) and am back down again. Hey after thanksgiving I'll take that as a win :)

Linking up with

Weekend Shenanigans

Happy almost Thanksgiving.  Can you believe it the holidays are here, I swear it was just summer wait I live in Southern California it was just 85 degrees last week.  Any way the holidays marks the beginning of all the crazy weekend shenanigans, and this was the start for me.

Saturday was my friends Kerry & Dan's wedding.  It was held in a beautiful winery in San Juan Capistrano.  

We clean up pretty good.

the hubs and his best impression of the thug life lol.

and then of course the best photo bomb award goes to this guy who offered to take our picture.

The wedding was so much fun we drank, danced, and did a little more drinking.  

Sunday was my first official photo shoot of the season and it was with one of my favorite families.  Gary is actually my running buddy Barb's brother.  I just love them and their boys are so stinking cute! I want to marry DQ off to little Gary :) 

Then of course I used the rest of my free time making bows and such.  I'm seriously thinking of reopening my easy shop. I just need to build up my stock first.

How was your weekend?

Linking up with Healthy Diva Eats and Life of Meg.

WiW...I May Have Found the Secret.

Happy WiW everyone.  I have been working.  Not necessarily  working out  but working at figuring out why my weight loss has seemed to have stalled this last year.  I know some of it has been because I've bounced around and tried different things (you can read about that here). Then one day I started going through old blog posts and thinking about what I was doing not just on the blog but in my life

then it came to me...

  I was doing a lot of crafting.  I love to craft, I love trying new crafts, I even turned TaTa's old room into my crafting/office when she moved out.

  I sew, do paper crafting, some jewelry making, and bows.  I used to LOVE to make hair bows.

 I would sell them at my school and even had an etsy shop for a bit.  Then for some reason I just fell out of it. 

When I was reflecting I really thought about it and tried to figure out why I was doing better with my weight during that time. DUH... I was busy, busy making or sewing.  Planning or taking pictures.  My hands were always busy. 

EUREKA!! 

My hands and mind were busy.  So there was no mindless snacking.  I would stop long enough to make and eat meals, and I wouldn't go back for seconds because I needed to get back and finish what I was working on. I wasn't mindlessly eating.   HOLY CRAP! I think I may have found the answer.

Also I love to watch TV and lately I've been sitting with DQ or at the kitchen table with my iPad and watch but then I would get bored and start looking for things to snack on. So I just brought my iPad in to my craft room/office and watched it while I was working on things.

and this is the result of finding the secret to hopefully my success  …

down 3.4 pounds

Now, any guesses to what I'm doing next? lol

Linking up with Fitness Blondie, and Weigh in Wednesday.

Vacation Recap Warning (tons a pictures)

So I have finally gone through my vacation photos and there were just so many (as you'll see).  It was a great time and we had a blast.  Not gonna lie the resort Be Live Canoa was just ok.  Don't get me wrong it was beautiful, but the service was just so-so.  But really I'm not going to complain because

The hardest decision was whether to go here.

or here

We also did some awesome excursions, like a catamaran.

snorkeling

we swam with sharks (a tad scary)

and rays

a sunset boat ride.

We also found time to hit the gym and get in a few good workouts (even though there was no air conditioning and we were sweating balls)

and some fun workouts like kayaking.

to counter act all the liquid calories

so...

many…

liquid calories...

So that's it in a nut shell.

Have you taken or are you getting ready for any vacations?