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's Five

Like what I did there in the title lol so let's get straight to it 

 

{one}

 



I have been detoxing from my vacation and this has been my breakfast of choice lately a green Protien smoothie and a slice of cinnamon raisin Ezekiel toast.  So good! 

 

{two}

 

Staying strong in my detox mode I have fought these urges.  Not that it's horrible but I had already eaten my lunch, so I popped some gum in my mouth and just said no. 

 

{three}

 

It is finally sweater weather here, if you can call 65-70 degrees cold...sorry my mid west and northern friends. 

{four}

In keeping with the name of my blog I need to stay on track and get to losing because I must borrow this outfit from TaTa... So cute and I am digging her new pixie cut.  Sorry for the shitty pic.

 

{five}

 

And lastly this first week back has been the longest week ever!! So I had a at home happy hour.  It was so yummy and I kept the portions under control to minimize any damage. 

Have a great weekend!! 

 

 

 

 

Oh Hey Friday…My Crazy Life

The first week of school (for me) is over and I must say it went  pretty smooth.

Not to much crying me or the kids so that's good, and a few parents have welcomed us with sweet gestures like starbucks cards and even a bottle of wine (ya they just became my favorite lol)

besides school starting for me this week has been a bit slow so I decided to share just a few random happenings in my life.

{one}

Yes this is a typical day in my life a turtle wedding.

{two}

as I have mentioned before with DQ you never know what you will find.  She caught this beautiful butterfly to show her friends.  Don't worry we did let it go afterwards.

{three}

This is THE MOST EXCITING thing EVER!! We finally booked our big vacation!!!

We have not taken a big vacation since our honeymoon 10 years ago. So we decided it was time and what's even more fun is the bestie Carrie is coming too.  Only 7 more weeks YAY.

{four}

Speaking of the bestie, here is Carrie and I at Body Pump yesterday.  We are on a roll we have kept our Thursday gym date for over a month now.  

{five}

I found this funny will stalking instagram the other day.  So funny and so true.  I have to admit I'm kinda over running long distances. Not that I ever ran a full marathon but I have done quite a few halfs. Long Beach Half is actually coming up in a month and I still haven't signed up and not sure if I will.

Linking up with Paula, September Farm, and Jennie.

WiW....Letting Go

Hi today is WiW and my weekend recap since I was to lazy(not gonna lie) to post on Monday.

 

 

 

It's not bad but I am up one pound. Honestly that is way better than I thought it was going to be. 

 

  I fully expected it with all about the salty snacks this weekend.  But I stuck with make sure to exercise though I did take Friday and Monday as rest days. 

 

My baby is all grown up... and that makes me one old proud mama.

We spent the weekend moving TaTa in to her own apartment, not even roommates. She is doing it all on her own.  Like I said this makes me so proud and happy for her but at the same time a little nervous a worried.  Not that she won't be able to do it, that I know she can do. It's just the living all alone that scares me a bit, luckily she is pretty close by though. I just have to let her go and trust in her.  Moving actually went pretty quick though seeing as she really hasn't accumulated a bunch of crap yet...But oh the stairs, I swear I must climbed 100 flights.

 

After we were done we met up with friends and had dinner at Lazy Dog.  I wasn't to bad I stuck with the chicken lettuce wraps but I did have a few nachos and a few too many sangrias.

 

Sunday I woke up early and picked up TaTa (bouns of her living so close now) and we hiked the Claremont Loop going up seemed to take forever but then we ran most of the way down.  Then hit up the farmers market for some fresh veggies and of course a starbucks.  I also finally got my chicken coop it's too cute and we got most of it together I just wasn't to weather proof it before we finish it.

 

 

 

Monday was super laid back, our friends came over and we swam and relaxed by the pool.  It was a little harder to be as good food wise with all the yummy chips and dip around (they brought lunch) and an awesome sub sammie.  Again with a few drinks so no wonder my weigh is up.  Time to get back to it.

 

Linking up with WiW,  Fitness Blondie, and Shanna. 

Oh Hey Friday…Dance Party

I have been doing really well at getting in my 30 minutes of activity and most of the time I am doing more than that. I guess the no expectation is working (so far).  The thing that has always helped is my tunes if I have good music I can do just about anything.

So for this Fridays Five I  put together my faves for the last few weeks.

{one}
I LOVE this song besides being fun and catchy the message is pretty damn awesome!

{two}
This is my new anthem.  The older I get the more I really don't give a you know what!
It's kinda liberating :)

{three}
This is my high school self coming out, 

{four}
I can get down and work up a good sweat to this one enough said!

{five}
another great sweatin' song but every time this comes on when I'm run I lose my rhythm,
cause the latin in me just wants to dance! haha

So  there you have it the music of my life :)

Linking up with September Farm, That Friday Blog Hop, and Friday's Favorites.

Back to Normal

Life is somewhat going back to normal this week.  It's no less busy but at least I know what's coming.

This weekend we had to take Ash back home to Arizona.  This is actually only the second time we have had her for more than a few hours (in the early years the hubs and his ex did not get along at all, but in the last few years things are so much better.  Everyone seems to be in a happier place in their lives and getting along which is great.  It makes me so happy to work on becoming one big happy family and the ex is actually pretty ok).

So we started off early Saturday. As you all know I'm the morning person, and the commuter so of course I drove while they all slept.

Shh don't tell but I actually like it that way, it was a nice quiet drive with my thoughts and the radio.

After dropping Ash off we headed to our friends Amy and Jason it was great to see them and the girls and DQ had so much fun playing with them I really wish we could have stayed longer, next time for sure!

I shoved everyone in the car early again on Sunday to head home.  We hit a ton of thunder and lighting storms on the way home.  It was so neat to watch (we have very little "real" weather in Southern California). It even broke up enough to get a rainbow.

After sitting all that time I really need to move around, I thought about going to the gym but there was so much that needed to be done around the house, and DQ has been asking to plant the garden again, (obviously we are very late in our summer planting this year) and I just watched Food Inc..  (more on that later) so I went full force on the garden and that was my work out. When I was done I was dripping sweat and smelled like rosemary better than manure I guess but that rosemary bush was a bitch to get out!  It looks so pretty now though and hopefully we will have some melons, squash,peppers and a pumpkin or two (that was what DQ really wanted)  in a few months. 

One last but awesome thing Tia over at Hand On Pants Off is hosting a giveaway for a $25 Target gift card, so why not head on over and enter!

Linking up with Katie,  Leann, and the Motivation Monday girls.

Oh Hey Friday

It's (almost) the freakin weekend!!

So that means it's time to link up with Kari from September Farm for

{one}

This week started out well enough.  I always started out feel enough with good food choices for breakfast and lunch.

{two}

Then dinner came and all that good planning went right out the window.  

not dinner so much as dessert.  I made this cool little pinterest project for a homemade s'mores station.

Ya it was a hit with the kids and a danger for me! I love me some charcoal marshmallows.

{three}

Even though I was off for a week I had to take off Thursday for a doctors appt. It was time for my 6 month check up (after surgery).  Nothing like rocking a hospital gown :0)

{four}
Since Ashleigh was here for just this week I made sure to get everyone (aka TaTa)  all together for a quick family photos shoot.  I don't want to totally give it away but this year's Christmas card is going to be epic!

{five}

Finally tomorrow we will be heading out to Phoenix to drop Ash off back home I will miss her.  We do not see her nearly enough, I really hope now that she is older that will change a bit.  She is just the most polite and sweet girl.  She is as quite as Syd is crazy the seriously are total opposites.  But I love them both and it's fun to watch their relationship blossom.

also linking up with Paula and Jennie

WIW...Out of My Comfort Zone

   

I'm down another pound 175.  It may not be much but this makes two weeks with a loss which is more than it's been in a while.  Slow and steady that's just he way it is for me.  

This week has been pretty good Sunday I did a 5k run before the hubs went to work,

and Monday I was planning on going to the gym, but when I got home it was so darn hot and as I looked out the sliding glass door to the backyard I yelled at DQ to get her suit on and we played in the pool for almost two hours, and I mean play,  no lounging in the sun that day. I did a lot of stuff we do in aqua like running, wall explosions, jack and what ever elseI could remember.

 Yesterday I totally stepped out of my comfort zone and hit up a Pilates class at my gym.  I met the teacher at a body pump class I took and I loved her teaching style (turns out she's a math teacher by day maybe that's why) she really took the time to make sure we were doing the lifts right and giving the more advanced class goers some hints on how to improve or tweak it to really get the most out of the class.
She and mentioned she also teaches Pilates I've always wanted to try it so I went.   I  really want to say I loved it, but I don't think it's for me.  Maybe before surgery I would have enjoyed it or could do it  but it is all core work and some moves it felt like my abs were going to rip apart... So I won't be doing that again  Maybe I'll try yoga?  Though Pilates wasn't for me I was happy I did a little something to step out of my comfort zone. 

 Another thing I did this weekend that was WAY out of my comfort zone was to put on an actual bikini!! Yes you heard that right.  I was a little nervous which was funny because it was on Sunday when it was just the Hubs and DQ.  But I haven't worn a bikini in over 15 years. I just thought,  I have worked hard to lose  weight,  Carrie had given me one as a hand me down and damn my belly is white.   So in all my whitness and imperfections here it is.

wow look at the difference my poor belly needs to see the sun!

What have you done to step out of your comfort zone??

Linking up with Shanna 

It's Hot, Sticky, Sweet....

 So what do you think?... I changed things up a bit on here.  I blame the Diet Dr. Pepper I drank at 4pm on Friday night...I should know better, but any way.

It was another great weekend, wow I am on a roll.  The beginning of this summer I promised myself that this year I was going to use our pool more and so far so good!

Saturday we had the "un-birthday" party for DQ lol.  A few close friends came over for pizza and swimming it was super laid back and though we did do pizza,  I made sure to have lots of  veggies, fruit and salad. I will admit to a slice and a bit of ice cream cake but I was balanced and still enjoyed with going over bored.

nothing like eating cake in the pool

The other great thing about summer time swimming is since you are outside you can have tons of messy drippy watermelon then just jump in the pool (cause I'm a cool mom and don't pool days count as baths in the summer??.)  Honestly I absolutely love watermelon it's the perfect healthy summer treat, but I used to never buy it because I HATED cutting it and I'm too cheap to buy the pre-cut.  Talk about sticky, juicy mess twss I know sorry couldn't help it.  That is until I learned this little trick.

Thank you Pinterest!

How To Cut a Watermelon with Less Mess

 1. Get a BIG ass knife (I like to use my serrated bread knife)

2. Hack off the top and bottom of the watermelon.

3. Carefully cut the rind off, so you kinda have a naked looking  watermelon.

notice there is hardly any juice...see it works.

4.Now just slice and dice how you like (you can pretend your Dexter)

 now there will be some juice at this point but I found if you do it on a cookie sheet it pretty much stays contained  (I was just to lazy to do it yesterday so by the sink worked just as well)

The great thing I still have a ton of watermelon left over for this weeks snacks!

 Linking up with these awesome chicks...