Just a few nifty tips for ya

Don’t drink 20 ounces of water right before bed if you want to sleep the whole night through.

Also don’t drink 20 ounces of water before you have to drive across town and you’re already running late and stopping somewhere is not an option.

Do have lots of toilet paper on hand if you are going to drink the recommended daily amount of water. (Unless you are better than the rest and already do this- then you’re body / bladder is already adapted)

Do invest in soft cushiony yet strong TP if you’re going for the whole 65+ ounces of H2O. 

Have lots of hand soap ready for all those bathroom breaks.  Preferably the lotion-y kind as your hands will get super dried out.

If you’re going to go to fat burning class, don’t go in your 13-yr old daughter’s sweats, especially if they are 4 sizes too small.  But if you do make sure you have a humongo shirt to cover the top portion of your lower portion.  LOL.   Ahhh sometimes I just amuse myself.

Do have a pony tail holder if you have long hair for fat burning class unless you want hair- wet sweaty hair, in your eyes, up your nose, and flying in your mouth and any given movement.

Do tuck that shirt in unless you WANT to flash everyone when you are doing those hip extensions.

Do work on counting out loud up to 8 and then backwards.  There is no 9 in fat burning class.  And to shout it out will only turn heads.

Don’t laugh when uncoordinated people can’t get it together.  It hurts our feelings.  So what if my arms are up when yours are down and I’m kicking left when you’re kicking right.  We can’t have it together all of the time you know!

Fat burning class will not kill you (though the thought does cross your mind) it will only make you stronger.  Again, LOL - I crack myself up!

Do take a picture of yourself after fat class… its… interesting weird humorous ugly memorable- definitely a moment to remember – completing fat burn class #one! 

I can't believe I'm posting this!

Victory treat?  I think soooo!!  A nice warm ooey gooey brownie!!  Or if your me, you have a nice gritty protein drink that they provocatively say will continue to burn fat for the next 3 hours while I’m home sitting on my rump watching American Idol.   Can’t beat that.

A little thing I like to call Brownie Covered Oreo's (note: this was drafted before started Thin & Health)

Are you intrigued by the title of this blog?  I was when I found it at one of my favorite blog sites - this one here!  (Also happens to be my bossman's wife)  And trust me when I say whenever he brings in her super awesome uber yummo delicious treats, its a party in my tummy!  (Sing it with me... its a party in my tummy! its a party in my tummy! it's a party in my tummy!)  Anyone that watches Noggin will know that song... just FYI.  Or for that matter anyone that eats her super awesome uber yummy delicious foods will also be singing that song.  Favorite of hers is cake balls.  I promise I will future post that one.  Let's just say - Ohhhhh Myyyyy.  Put it on your bucket list to eat one.

Ok, back to brownie covered Oreo's.  If you like brownies you are in for a treat.  If you like Oreo's you are for a treat.  And you can be super creative with these. 
This here is bossman's wife's actual blog about these wonderful creations. 

This is the whole grueling process:  (I'm just kidding- they are super easy!)

Basic Ingredients:  Brownie Mix (or if you're imbitious you can make homemade), eggs, vegetable oil, water, and Oreos!

Mix your batter up.

Give the oreos a nice brownie bath.

Put this in a WELL GREASED cupcake pan.

Pop em' in the oven.

After 10-13 min or so pull them out and run a knife around the edges so there is no sticking.

Now here is where you can be as creative with them as you want!

Or add some chocolate drizzle.

Mix in some nuts and chocolate chips and you have yourself a yummy treat!

If you're a chocolate lover these are right up your alley!  Enjoy.

Meet Patti

Fun things happen at work.  One of them is a friendly competition among other businesses to grow the biggest most beautiful Shamrock plant.  I know you are thinking... Um Joy.  That is not that fun.  PEOPLE - doing non work things at work is totally fun!  And just for your information it wasn't us that came up with this little competition thank you very much.  It was thrust upon us and we are taking it on, whole heartedly and with a passion that will put all green thumbers (word? IDK) to shame.  We are all playing a part in the nurturing of our little Shamrock aka Patti.  Of course I will keep you up to date on our progress!  You didn't even need to ask! 
Meet Patti.  Freda name it.  We love it.

Patti

Technical name: Oxalis acetosella.  But she prefers Patti.

The Bossman purchased a beautiful teal pot (I'm going to name it... just don't have that perfect name for it yet) for our little one to live out its beginning days in.  (I might have to steal it for my aloe plant once its no longer home to Patti... shhhh!)  It's gorgeous.

How preat! (pretty + neat)

Freda and I used some of these rocks to put in the bottom of the no name (Cascades?) pot for good drainage.  These are premium rocks let me tell you.  We picked them with tender loving care.  I won't tell you that we probably had to use these choice rocks because they were the only rocks we could find, outside of scraping gravel off the side of the road. 

Cream of the crop rocks

Then Tanner sent Stan to find some dirt.  She specifically wanted a little ground dirt because it has clay in it and that will help hold the water better.  See how much we our looking out for our little Patti's best interests!

What happened next I'm a little fuzzy on because actual work got in the way of my desire document every moment so I can blog the whole thing *from home of course.
So by the time I was done, this is what had transpired:  Freda so graciously brought in some miracle grow soil from home so we can give our little plant a yummy feast we just know she will enjoy (apparently is smells like cat food also).  And Freda sent her lover out with a little shovel to gather some mulch so that we can preciously surround our tender shoots of green with the joy of mulchiness.  Sigh.  The joys of being shamrock.  Ah, so much love.

Mulch Love

The end of the day Shamrock was sitting happily in her new home of Preat? Casca? (short for Cascades).  Enjoying her perch at the front counter of my desk listening to me explain the ins and outs of all things insurance mixed  with a few er a lot of my own personal stories. 

Tanner giving our lil Patti a drink

Tomorrow I'll get her beginning measurements so we can track how fast our office baby is growing.  Funny, tomorrow I have to get measurements taken so I can track how fast (hopefully) I shrink.  :)  Till tomorrow I'm going to enjoy a nice frozen Thin Mint.

Rainber

Mariah is my rainbow.  Or in her words, 'rainber'.

 
Red symbolizes her heart.  Tender and kind.  Yellow is her brightness - my world would not be so bright without her in it.  Green is the way she's growing into this beautiful strong woman.  The blue is the way she can bring relaxation with her humor.  Orange is her fire, the burning desire she has to reach others that are hurting and share the love of God with them.  Purple is the mark I leave on her cheek when she doesn't move out of the way when I hit her ;) (playfully of course!)  And all the other colors is how she colors my world with love, pride, gentleness, laughter, goodness and fun.  Love you - my rainber.

My dream post

2010 Ducati Streetfighter S

My first purchase with income tax money.  A Ducati.  Love it.  Do you?  Now I just need to learn to drive it. LOL  Can you just see me vrooming around in this!?  I CAN!  It took some persuading of the hubby to even consider the idea.  Midlife crisis?  NAH!  I've alwayssss wanted one.  Plus look at how much money in gas its going to save me!  Bring on the warm weather and smooth roads and a good helmet!

























Psst... if you didn't catch the title to this post- this could only happen in my DREAMS.  I sadly have not purchased this Ducati.
Yet ;)
Hubby says no...

rays cut

As I mentioned in this post here , Ray cut her hair.  Beautiful long blond ringlet curls. Gone. Boo.

Before she decided to be her own beautician

We had this situation arise in school a few months ago.  Ray and her friend decided to cut each other's hair and a friends.  That time it was just a couple of snips of bangs.  Not a big deal (eh,  it kinda was at the time).  So I figured she had it out of her system AND she had been scolded several, several, times that scissors are not for cutting hair. (Not at her age anyways).  Guess I was wrong.



Check out these expressions.  I was still chewing her out as I was taking the photo.



Ray was downstairs in the basement playroom and all of a sudden comes up and says "Look mom! I moved the front to the back!"  I'm still not sure what she meant by that, except the correct phrase shouldve been she cut the front and left the back.  She looked like Joe Dirt.  Sigh.  It was too late that night to take her to the beauty shop so it had to wait until the next day... after school :/   Hubby thought we should play a trick on the teacher and not say anything to her when I dropped her off in the morning and then when he picked her up in the afternoon say something like "Ray! What happended to your hair!"  Lol.  Goof. 

Monday after work, off to the beauty shop we went, with hopeful anticipation of a good fix to her hair creation.



SNIP SNIP SNIP





The end result:

She's still so super cute.  My precious baby.  She just looks so different!



CHEESE!!



What's been goin onnnn

We are dorks!

I've missed blogging the last several days.  Life is getting in my way.  I'm not complaining though, don't get me wrong.  Just haven't had the time to blog.  This is what's been going on in my life lately.  Friday, Mariah and I left for Muncie Indiana for a youth church event called Acquire the Fire.  Perhaps you've heard of it.  It was Friday and Saturday.  The best part of the whole thing was Friday night's concert- Casting Crowns was there.  They are AwEsOmE.  It was nice to get away with my daughter, friends and family.  BTW, my daughter = hilarious.  We typically always have a lot of fun together- if she leaves the attitude behind and is not ____ (I'm trying to think of the word she hates to be called... grumpy? irritable? a grump?)  ;) 
Oh and I sang the whole 2+ hours to the event.  And if you don't know this already, I'm not the best singer in the world to other people other than myself :D  Poor Mariah.  Although I personally think that I DID get progressively better by the end of the night. 
Coming home Saturday night, it was late.  Me + car ride + night = zzzzzzzz zzz zzzz night night.  Not good when I'm the driver.  So to stay away I made Mariah keep me talking.  We talked about all kinds of stuff but mostly about childhood memories- only the good ones.  My fav's are always revolved around vacations.  So note to self - take kids on vacations - its memorable.  Not that I ever needed another reason to go on vacation.  I'm NEVER opposed to them.  My checkbook is.  Dang that checkbook.  This year though, it's on.  Let the vacation/vacations begin!  We are going to Disney.  Thanks to the IRS and a little thing called tax refund :)  Can not wait until this hits the account.  I have so many plans for that money.  Pay off bills, take vacation, grad presents (daughter Tuz, sis Victoria, other sis (college) Kay).  I have several presents in mind for them.  I'm totally in to going on an adventure.  Such as this one: CLICK ME  How much fun would that be???   I KNOW!, RIGHT?
Back to drive home on Saturday night, did not get home until 12:15. AM.  AND it was the night to turn the clocks UP a whole HOUR!  Yep, I skipped church that day. 
Which brings me to Sunday.  I dropped an entire bar of soap into the toilet.  Apparently soap doesn't flush like I thought it should.  It gets stuck in the gooseneck(?).  So the man of the house graciously borrowed my dad's snake. (Which when we were discussing the use of the snake, Mariah says "Not a real snake, right?" LOL)  He heroically broke the soap down and we were once again able to flush the toilet all the way and have everything go down the way its supposed to!  YAY.  At least we were snaking soap and not something else.......... Ew. 

Before she got to the scissors

Then Sunday night.  Ray cut her gorgeous curly blond locks.  GRRR.  Future post. 


See, busy busy.

The letter G

I was driving to work after dropping off the kiddos at school and I got thinking about the letter G.  I can’t quite remember why this popped into my head.  The letter g at the beginning of a word typically has a ‘guh’ sound not a ‘juh’ sound.  So tell me why George is not spelled Jorje?  Girl, grill, great, golly, gorgeous, gallop, gumption, great, giggly, etc, all ‘guh’.  Now let’s try to think of ‘juh’ sounding g’s… George, Georgette.  It’s the only one I can think of.  Any other ‘juh’ g words out there - please stand up. 

And the Hubby wonders why when he asks me what I’m thinking about (obviously he can tell I’m in deep thought) that I say “nothing”.  Because why go there when the thought on my mind is about the way letters sound.   It’s not like there is much conversation to go with the thought.  But obviously I thought it was a blog worthy.  Speaking of blogging.  Ray said something the other day and I said – “oh, that is so bloggable”.  Me thinkith I’m getting a little carried away-ith. 

Oh, thought of one more- giraffe. 

Putting it out there for all to read...

 My newest purchase and it was a bargain :)

With upcoming weddings in the next couple of years (possibly) that I will be a part of (probably), I have made it a goal to lose weight.  Fifty pounds.  Sounds like a huge number - and it is.  But I figure that I have until at least the end of 2012 to reach this astronomical goal, so by my calculations if I can lose FIVE little ol' pounds a month I can reach my desired weight.  I figure by me putting it out here for all the world to read, hopefully it will be motivation enough to get busy.  Here's the thing.  I LOVE food.  I work at a desk eight hours a day.  I'm not at that age that you can just eat anything and it has no effect, sadly.  My weight has creeped up and up over the last ten years unfortunately.  Needless to say, I have a difficult time losing weight.  Not any more.  I say that with determination and a fierce growl, lol.  I will document at the end of the month how much I've lost.  Now I definitely will have to work hard because I don't want my whole two blog readers to call me out on it!  (This is secretly the real reason I started blogging) Hahaha.  So knowing I needed to pick up my exercise practices, I turned a corner of our basement into the "exercise room" or Ray's "fun new place to swing from things room" while I "esersize".  

I have big dreams for this little space.  Here it is as of right now, not a pretty site, but it has potential... at least I think so.



Let's see... we've got the gazelle, ab lounger, treadmill, stair stepper and the bike.  Need just a few more things to make it complete.

So, once its at least 50 degrees outside I can clean and seal up those unsightly walls.  I'm thinking about painting the floor and putting up a bunch of length sized mirrors, though why I would want to watch myself exercise is beyond me, but I want to do it anyways.  Possibly put in a drop ceiling or something and there we go.  Exercise room complete.  Now I just have to use it!  Which I have been, but I need to be a little bit more faithful to it.  Plus in addition to my room - my darling sister Victoria showed me that I have exercise on demand on my TV.  OHHHHH sooo fun.  So many exercises to choose from - a lot of dancing exercises like latin, hip hop, bellydancing, bollywood, even urban strip dancing.  I've tried two of the above... can you guess which two :) ?

I'm not going to say what the starting weight is but at end of March I will tell you if any pounds were lost.  If you care to know anyways.  Even if you don't care, if your on here reading , you're going to find out, lol.   Here's to saying goodbye to the first five... sayonara! 

 



Picture Day

Lets discuss school picture day.  It stresses me OUT! 

Ray being glamorawesome

The first set of pictures around the beginning of September, no problem, it's expected, they wear their uniforms, all I need to do it comb the hair.  Piece of cake.  In the last couple of years they have now sprung spring (like that?) pictures at me.  We never had this when I went to school.  And not only do they surprise me with it two days before the event they also say they are welcome to wear whatever they want (within their guidelines).  Now let me clarify this is not a public school, so jeans - not in guideline.  I flirted with the idea of foregoing these spring pics to save on money and stress, then I felt bad because frankly you can not have too many pictures of your kids. Or as Ray would say "I am not a kid, I am a child".  So... too many pictures of your children.  For Ray the only stress is her hair.  Its crazy, I'm just saying. (By the way I'm just saying is a phrase I'm not entirely thrilled with that I say all too often).  Ray's clothes, not a prob, she doesn't really care what she wears except for the occasional times she might think she looks weird like the time I tried sending her to school wearing a Bengals jersey.  COME ON RAY!  What is weird about that!  I thought she looked glamorous :)  Or it could be that I just think the Bengals are awesome- even when they're not.  And Ray is always glamorous.  So add Bengals + Ray = GLAMORAWESOME!  So back to picture day, I throw a decent shirt and some black pants on her - totally within guidelines and then comb her hair to the best of my ability especially after waking up 45 minutes later than normal (adding to the stress of pic day). 
Mariah?  I asked her if she wanted her picture taken and she said she has nothing to wear.  Which I believe, because in reality she has uniform pants and jeans that's about the extent of it.  And besides a uniform shirt she has no normal shirts that would go with the pants.  Needless to say, to avoid an inevitable argument an undue anxiety I let it go and decided the pictures she takes of herself on her IPOD will work for a spring picture.  I am fully intent on blowing one up and framing it. TEEHEEHEEEEEEE.  I just have to figure out how to get it away from her and then how to get the pic off it.  Such a weird thing to be stressed about... Picture Day.

Possible spring picture minus the friend? LOL

Blue Paint and blog post turned blog story

Mariah's been begging for months - if not years to paint her room.  Months and months of picking up paint samples and bringing them home for her to tell me over and over that those weren't exactly what she had in mind.  Finally I took her to Sherwin Williams last weekend and let her pick out the blue of her little hearts desire.  Capri is what she came up with:

Color:Capri

So we brought home a little sample of the paint and experimented with it on all four of her walls- because we just couldn't stop with one wall.  I say its because given my vast knowledge of the best way to choose a wall color- you have to see it in all lights and at every angle. Teeheehee. (I can't remember the last time I painted)

Don't look at the mess...

Or this one either...

Feeling inspired by this bright bold blue and determined to be the next diy wonder mom, I felt the necessity to makeover the old-stain covered-ugly pink-was going to the dumpster at work-thought I'd bring home anyway- office chair.  It went from ewww to beastly - but in the good way:

Even Mariah said, "Mom I am so proud of you!"  YAY, my heart leaped and a happy dance resonated in my head.  I almost broke out into the running man.  I did that once to show Mariah that it was very similar to some new dance that's out now - the jerk, its just backwards from it...kind of... WELL she almost keeled over from laughter.  Now I try to keep my dance skills to myself.

SO, Friday after work I set my goal to get her room painted.  Stopped at Sherwin Williams and bought Capri in eggshell Sherwin Williams' Harmony.  The man very convincingly told me it was low in odor.  Score.  I was already plagued with an irritating headache so I was hoping to not add to it with overwhelming paint vapors.  With materials in tow I headed home looking forward to a productive night and excited to see the end result.  Then I got home.  I started pushing and pulling and stuffing things out of the way of the walls.  I was ready to start painting above the trim and along the windows and ceilings.  I thought that I'd try it without taping it all off.  I hate taping things off.  I also hate going along the trim wiping away all the paint I got on it - which is what I ended up doing 20% of the night.  Anyways I was all gung ho and ready to go when in comes the kiddos.  Ray being the rambunctious 4 yr old that she is was being...normal.  Wanting to help paint and take a few spins on the beastly chair and grasping at all her older sisters cool but yet prohibited stuff, such as the fair sticks that she is never allowed to play with because she instantly turns them in to swords.  This set off the 13yr old.  Horns came out and attitude reigned.  She was not going to paint with Ray in the room and Ray was not going to be anywhere besides the room where all the fun was going to happen.  Hubby thankfully bribed her with the promise to turn on Icarly.  YAY hubby!  However Mariah had already declared she was not painting and set herself to win the pouting with the most attitude trophy.  So it looks like I was painting all by my lonesome for the night with the occasional visit from Ray to take a few spins on the chair and roll the spare paint roller on the wall.  I was not entirely opposed to going at it alone. It was keeping me from going ballistic on how absolutely absurd Mariah was being and I was fully preparing a 'she's grounded for the rest of her life' punishment slowly turned to I need to turn this into some kind of a life lesson slowly turned to I think I should make them share a room to force them to get along with each other then came to my senses and though that would make it worse not better.  An hour and a half into it Mariah came around discarded the attitude and horns and put on her humble sweet hat and came in to help :)  Life lesson speech saved for another night.  By now the room looked like this- almost ready to roll:

 Now: bring on the roller and let's knock this baby out!
Wall one, DONE.

 Ray did a happy dance- while I was taking the picture.


Wall two, then wall three, DONE.

Even Frank got in on the paint action:  

Mariah finished up wall four, DONE.  Room = DONE.  With painting anyways. 

Still on list: paint desk, paint dresser, crown molding, maybe take out carpet and refinish wood floor, make curtains and a headboard, decorate and maybe a fun chandelier like this one here, though out of my price range or this one here which would soooo go with the beastly chair. 

Rolled right over corner of closet

Hit the ceiling

So the night ended with one raging migraine (though not from fumes) and a capri blue room with only a few oops-a-daisies:

Mariah dropped roller on the floor

Stay tuned for more of Mariah's room list being crossed off.