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.



Oh Hey Friday

Hey Friday there you are…thank god that means this crazy week is almost over!

Not that it hasn't been fun, but seriously the older I get the more tiring "fun" is lol.

This will be short a sweet since the crazy is not over yet, Wednesday we went to the Katy Perry concert. We all got off at 3:00pm and went over to our friends Jen & Brad (who scored some tickets and came with us).  Seriously this girl is the hostess with the mostest… lol 

But watch out she has a mean Mai Tai recipes (which we loves maybe a little to much)

 

Then because Brad is so awesome he got his driver (yea talk about fancy) to drive us to the concert

We went to Cheesecake Factory for apps (and I was a good girl and only had a few of this and that).

but as you can see i this picture maybe one to many Mai Tais as I'm not sure what the heck I was looking at!

We had pretty decent "cheap seats" and turns out Jen & Brad sat right behind us!

I am still trying to recoup, since my Back -to- School night was last night (I have not been home in 2 days) and I will finally get to go home today but only for 2 hours before I have to pack up and head out to Barbs for the Survivor Mud Run tomorrow morning…praying I survive.

Linking up with Paula and  Jennie.

Petting Zoos and Pools

Look at DQ she is in heaven!! 

 I sent this picture to the hubs and he asked "What are those?" my response "Our new pets!" he about had a heart attack seeing as I talked him into chickens a few short weeks ago lol.  He was happy to hear that they were Guinea pigs and that none were coming home with us. (We were at a birthday party at Zoomars a petting zoo in San Juan Capistrano).

After the party we headed home to make these sinful things otherwise know as "Slutty Brownies" that evil bitch!

to take to an end of summer work pool party… and yes they love and hate me for them!

The pool party was in Canyon Lakes so I pretty much drove 200 miles in one day for parties.

but so worth it.  Sun, water and friends. 

again to many weekend snacks and those damn brownies, cause of course I had to do quality control first, then I may have had one two more that night ugh.

To try and redeem myself, I got my ass out of bed at the crack of dawn Sunday to hike the Claremont Loop with TaTa.  It was so stinking hot and muggy even at 6 in the morning, but we got it done.

and that was all before 9 am!!

The rest of the day was spent in the pool trying to stay cool and not snack.

Linking up with the Motivational Monday team, Katie and Meg

WiW…Progress is Not Always Perfection

Whoop Whoop I am actually down 2.2  freaking pounds this week!!

But I have a confession to make…. I didn't hit all my goals I set for the week.

1.Tracking check, I had that shit down, and even with all my fun weekend actitvites and going out to eat (a lot) I made sure to write every damn thing down. It may not have been perfect and I may have guesstimated a few things but at least I tried and had an idea of where I was.

2. Getting to the gym twice this week..nope not quite.  I did make it there once and it was a great work out I did 30 min on the elliptical and 20 minutes on the rowing machine.

3. At home activity…once YES!! actually more than that and that is also why I didn't make it to the gym more than once.  I was really trying to push myself to get to the gym another day but it was so hard to try and squeeze it in.  I had all my stuff packed and ready to go yesterday when DQ asked "hey mama can we go swimming?" I said no we have to go to the gym…Oh her poor little face and as I drove home to the gym I thought "What the hell am I doing??" This is why I am working so hard, to play and have fun with my kiddos. to be able to keep up with them and make lots of fun and active memories.  So I turned around and went home…to go swimming with my kid!!  

here's a pic of me (and my crazy hair) afterward DQ was already getting the stuff ready for the "carwash".

And it was FUN, we played, had swimming races, and I had her doing a few "aqua class" type things with me first me being the "teacher" then her turn to show me some moves lol. 

 Afterwards we decided to have a carwash and sponge fight :)  

It may not have been the gym workout I was planning but I made sure to really play hard and get in lots of movement so it would "count", and DQ and I had fun the ultimate goal.

DQ did a pretty good job of taking my pic I'd say :) but don't mind my weird face lol

Linking up with WiW, Liz, and Shanna.

California Girls

This weekend was so full of fun and awesomeness....It was bestie Carries b-day and we went for not one but for two days of California style celebration.  Friday I snuck out of work early to play on this piece of awesome

 

Yes that is a ginormous slip and slide!! Add that with a few Mai Tais and it is party central.  I was a good girl and the DD so I  only had two.  We also did a little swimming

  and Carrie did a little more drinking, enough to let us throw her down the slide, yes we threw her lol it was epic!

Yes it's sideways ugh but it's too funny not to share!  

 

Then we made our way to Fred's in Huntington Beach, little did we know it was the U.S Surf Open!  The place was packed and crawling with beach bums, I think every one of them in the state of California  was there.  But we had a good time and I was good here to one skinny margarita and fish tacos (grilled not fried, go me!). We went to HB Brew Co. after and had another drink (water for me aren't I good) then called it an early night because we planned to go paddle boarding early the next morning.

me and the littles (the younger girls)

 

Saturday we were up and out by 9 and off to Newport beach were we had a groupon for Balboa Fun Tours. When we got there we were a bit confused (as I have never done this before) it looked like the shop was not really near the water, (I expected it to be right on the beach) but guys at the shop were so nice they  told us that we would be right around the corner in the marina. They  got the boards loaded it up into a little wagon and biked it over to the beach for us gave us some quick instructions and we were off.  It was a bit tricky for a minute but once to get your balance it was pretty easy.

Remember I said I had heard it was a good core work out, it's true.  Nothing super intense, but you could feel your self working some muscles! 

We had a blast paddling around the marina check out the beautiful houses and boats.  We got back a little early (we had two hours) so played around and  tried some yoga poses on top of our boards (this is a real thing, people actually do yoga on a paddle boards wtf??)  

 

I rocked the shit out of that warrior pose!
 

Then TaTa had to show me up and do a back bend
 

I LOVED it and will be doing this again soon (I already bought another groupon) for $20 you can't beat it.

After we walked down to the beach and had some lunch, it really works up an appetite.

yes one more drink (a skinny mojito and the three of us shared that big ass basket of fish and chips.

What fun things did you do this weekend?

*Linking up with  Katie, The Motivational Monday Girls, and Leeann. 

WiW… No Rest for the Wicked

After a week of no workouts and no calorie counting….

So as I expected I am up 2.6 pounds.  I honestly thought I would be more seeing as I only got in one good workout while on vacation. Not to mention all the sitting we did while traveling all over.  Also all the fantastic Mexican food we ate!!  So I'm ok with it and like Desiree from Skinny Geek Within told me Monday "now time to get back to work!" and that's what I'm doing.

Of course it's still not easy, because I'm really not back to my regular routine.  As soon as I got home from Mexico the next day we drove 3 hours to the  Arizona/California border to pick up my step-daughter Ash and turned right back around to go home (she is staying the week).  Which meant more sitting, but at least there were restaurants with salad (and milkshakes but I refrained except for one or two bites)

I may be turning into a rabbit.  And this weekend we are driving her all the way back to Phoenix (5hrs) but at least we will be making it an overnighter and staying with our  friends Amy & Jason. It's been forever since we saw them last.

Though this week is crazy trying to figure out where the girls will be, or who will stay home with them, it's all working out!  I've even managed to get in some work outs.  I got a 3 mile run in on Saturday

then sunday I went for a 5 mile hike with Claudia and her sis in law Debbie.

Followed by all day at Knott's Berry Farm.

 Holy crap I don't know what I was thinking, my legs are still quivering, and my fitbit said I had walked over 24,000 steps and climbed 175 flights of stairs!

My goal was to hit up the gym on Monday & Tuesday but I was so tired that I 've been asleep  7:30pm.  So today I will make it to Aqua cause I LOVE the class and I gotta lose those 2.6 pounds.

Linking up with Liz, Shanna, and WiW girls.

I NEED Veggies!!

Holla Amigos, I'm back!!

Whew that was one busy but fun week, I do not know how people who travel a lot do it.  I am exhausted!!  It truly was a trip and not a "vacation".  I saw lots of family that I haven't seen in almost twenty years (all who do not speak a lick of English) so needless to say my Spanish got very good there towards the end. So much so that I swear I started to dream in Spanish lol.

As well as having lots of family time we also did A LOT of sight seeing. My dad is very big on exploring and not staying in one place for to long. and making sure we see every freaking stature in the state and a mummy museum to boot, true story!

So while I was gone I learned a few things.

1. There are a few places in this world where it is just not safe to run.  My Dad's hometown was a great place and everyone was super friendly as long as they were NOT in a car! I swear they drive like maniacs seriously they play chicken for sport. And the sidewalks were pretty non-existent. But I did climb a butt load of stairs sight seeing!

Just one of the many flight of stairs we climbed. This is the Guanajuato University

2. There are no veggies in Central Mexico!  Ok that's not really true, but it felt that way. There seriously was not a salad in 99% of the places we went, and no veggies with your meal.  I'm not really sure why and my dad couldn't say either it's just the way it is I guess.

but the tacos were Ah-Mazing!

 

 

3.  Going "off the grid" was way harder that I thought is was going to be. I guess I never really though about how much I/we are on our phones, tablets, just technology in general.  By the 3rd day I was ready to sell DQ begging for some wi-fi.

So that pretty much was my trip in a nutshell I don't want to bore you with a play by play, but I'm sure I will be peppering my next few posts with a story here and there of our trip.  And I'll finish this post with a few pics.

Last but not least I want to say a BIG THANK YOU to my bestie Carrie for throwing in a guest post last Wednesday for you all.  Not going to lie I am a bit jelly of all the fun those girls had! Looks like we might need to plan another so I can go :)

We had to sit through two Catholic masses in one day! Holy Crap I forgot how long those babies are..

 

Daniella the Birthday girl.

 

The city of Guanajuato

Checking out the mines...so many stairs...

 

Having lunch al fresco.

 

The Famous Juarez Theater

Me and my Pops

 

 

Linking up with Katie and Leeann.

WiW.....guest staring Me.......bestie Carrie

Happy Wednesday all.  I've never Blogged before and I'm going to try my best to make Alma proud. That's Alma for you, always the motivator and the gal who gets you to try new things!

I figured I would keep her WiW tradition alive. Granted I'm a little scared  because I'm coming off a girls weekend in San Diego to celebrate one of our friends, who turned the big 3-0! I do my weekly weigh-in's on Fridays, so I normally get 2 more days to recover. 😁

Woo hoo only up .5lbs! 🎉 It was a great weekend, the only thing missing was Alma! She made it safe and sound to Mexico!  I got this gem of a text "made it safe, it's pouring rain, found food for DQ so she won't starve lol! She's already playing with cousins even though they don't understand each other! Lol!

So, for a little recap of the fun times she missed out on. A group of us gal pals headed down to San Diego, to relax by the pool and dance the night away in the gas lamp district! I was super proud of myself because I made each of the girls a "weekend survival bag" I put in a bunch of goodies like a cup, cocktails, snacks,  gum, Advil, band aids, sunscreen, Chapstick, fans, and safety pins. They were a huge success!

We stayed at the Marriott Marquee and Marina, it was beautiful! A little Pricey, but worth it! Oh, and  it was $28 a day to self-park! 😳 Somehow we scored because all of our parking got comped! 🎉 I channeled my inner Alma a went for a run along the marina Saturday morning! The girls thought I was crazy! I also tried a new bootcamp style class with our friend Barbie (you've seen her here before). The pool was very relaxing, and my tan was greatly improved. 

Now for the fun stuff! Drinks, dancing, and shots of Adios mother f-ers to help Michelle say "adios" to her 20's! Haha I'm so clever! 

A little back story..........I am really good at taking really bad pictures, but I love this picture! It's my favorite from the weekend. Do you think Alma is jealous yet???? Not until she reads about my experience in "Man Diego" I experienced first hand how this little nickname rings very true! More back story.....I'm the eternally single friend who they are always trying to hook up. ☺️ These gals suckered me into trying out Tinder (a dating app based on your location) OMG! They had more fun playing on it and pimping me out all night to all the beautiful men with perfect arms out and about. Pure torture I tell you! 😂 Good times, I kept wishing Alma was there! I truly missed her!