Playing Blog Catch UP

I have been quite lazy about my blog the last couple of weeks so here I am with an attempt to catch up. First I'll get some business out of the way - the prizes from the last contest went out in the mail yesterday, I will post pictures as soon as I know the girls have received their prize! I am trying to think of new contests and new prizes so please, please, please let me know if you have any ideas!

Now on to the stuff that has kept me so busy these days. First off John & Diana came for a visit. It was a fun filled weekend for sure. We hit a couple of parks, did a lot of eating and shopping and just some much needed catching up. I can't believe how long it had been since they came to visit or how long it had been since we'd seen them period and hopefully that doesn't happen again!




Though we had a great time with John & Diana there was a bit of a shadow hanging over their visit, Mike's mom was in the hospital she had to have emergency surgery to remove her gallbladder. She is thankfully home and doing much much better though as many of you know my mother-in-law has many health issues she must deal with so she will never be 100% healthy but she's a tough little thing for sure.

Some big news - Mike and I are going on our first cruise! We had been planning to go back to St. Augustine because we loved it so much last year but last week I got a sudden instant message from Mike asking if I was still interested in going on a Disney Cruise, and after a little discussion we were booked!! We set sail February 19th on a 3 night Bahamian cruise and I just can't wait. I've never been on a cruise so I'm nervous I certainly don't want to get sea sick but we will go prepared! But my excitement overshadows my nervousness, I can't wait to get on the boat and enjoy the activities and being out to sea and just being away from it all!! I'm super excited about visiting Castaway Cay and I'm willing to bet that I'm going to take thousands of pictures!

Taking pictures leads me into more fun times my birthday! Mike gave me my birthday gift early as usual and he got me a FANTASTIC new camera! I'm so excited! It's a Canon PowerShot SD890 IS and it takes amazing pictures I've been having such a good time with it. Also for my birthday Mike took me to Citrico's at the Grand Floridian, oh my goodness what an amazing meal we had. We ate so much but it was so delicious that we ate every bite, our wait staff was fabulous and the meal was well paced. Mike had told the restaurant in advance that it was my birthday so I received a special menu and my dessert was decorated it was just a really really nice night out. Monday was my actual birthday and I wasn't feeling well, I actually haven't been feeling well all week but I got a ton of phone calls and messages with birthday wishes and that definitely brightened my day so thank you everyone for making me feel special on my birthday.



So that's what's going on here, I've sadly not gotten into the craft room very often lately but I need to remedy that and I haven't made any new recipes lately but I have to get on that too. My sister got me a new cookbook so I really really need to get going on making things from there. On the diet and exercise front I've been doing great on exercise and managed not to gain weight when John & Diana were in town but the eating hasn't been so great lately hopefully I can shed a few pounds before heading on the cruise!! We'll see!! More soon I promise!

New Recipe and Contest Winners

Yep that's right contest winners! I decided since this contest generated the most comments I would surprise you guys with two winners and here they are:

Anonymous said...

My goal is to lose 25 lbs, read at least 10 books, and have a positive attitude, especially about work!

Nicole L

Joy said...

My goals are:
to help you adopt a baby!
to lose weight and get healthy

Ok so Joy if you could email me your address I will get a prize out soon. Nicole I will include yours in with Mom's birthday present and I certainly hope you will both keep me updated on the progress you are making with your goals!!

So today was the first weigh in since Mike and I started another diet and I'm happy to report I lost 5 pounds! It's a great start though I still have a long way to go I am trying to get healthy and not put so much pressure on myself. I have also set up goals. Mike and I have decided that when we both lose 20 pounds I will let Mike make an eggplant/chicken parmigiana combo that he is dying to make and as a mini goal I have vowed not to spend one of the gift cards I received for Christmas until I lose 10 pounds so I'm halfway there! I discovered Exercise TV ON Demand and I've been trying some of the workouts and some have been great! I am getting into a routine, starting each day with yoga trying to gain some calm and balance - I feel better physically but emotionally I'm still a mess. Then after I take Mike to work I come home and do some sort of cardio and in the evenings I either drag Mike on a 30 -40 minute walk or to the gym for 30 or 40 minutes and I guess it's working especially considering one night last week we ordered pizza and cheese sticks and ate out on Saturday eating fries and fried cheese and I still lost weight so wish us luck!



So as promised last night I tried a new recipe. I got this recipe out of the new Rachael Ray cookbook - The Big Orange Book but you can also find it here. This recipe is called Austin Mac 'n' Cheese Suizas! It was so delicious! It didn't take long but I'll warn you it uses up a lot of pots and pans so I'm glad I opted to try this on a Sunday instead of during the week. It's not to spicy and not to heavy and though it says it serves six we easily have 6 servings still left over so I definitely think it's good for a crowd. We'll be eating leftovers for dinner tonight so it's nice to know dinner is taken care of.

On Thursday John & Diana arrive for a long weekend so I really have to get my house in order it's coming along but I'm procrastinating this morning.

Over the weekend we took in a couple of movies since I absolutely love the award season I wanted to see a couple more movies before the Golden Globes. We saw Disney's Bolt which was super duper cute and we saw Doubt, which was fantastic though it would be hard for Meryl Streep to churn out anything not fantastic!! It was just a great movie and got you thinking. Now I have a list of movies I have to see before the Oscars!

Well I better get moving! Have a happy Monday everyone and Congrats again to my contest winners!!!

Welcome 2009

Here are a few photos of our little family at the tail end of last year and early this year!

Well here we are a week into 2009 and so far so good I guess. I did carry over some of my crap mood from 2008 but I'm making a much more conscious effort to push past it. Mike and I have been trying to eat healthy and get some exercise in each day. I've been trying to start each morning with yoga in the hopes it will center and calm me - we'll see how that goes. The exercise thing hasn't been bad I really like to exercise but the eating thing has been tough it's only been a few days and already I feel like I want pizza in a big bad way but I'm pushing forward. Wish me luck!

Now that the holidays are over and the new year has started I want to get back to trying a new recipe a week. I'm sure the first several at least will be semi-healthy meals but I'm sure it won't be long before I try a sweet treat or two. I am considering pulling out one of the new cookbooks I got for Christmas out and finding a recipe for tonight. I will absolutely keep you posted.

I have yet to get into my craft room this year and I am hoping to get in there before this week is out. I have so many pictures I want to scrap, stories I want to tell and projects I want to try. I want to post a lot more fun things in the weeks and months to come so I guess I should really get working.

Next week John & Diana will be coming for a visit. It has been over a year since I've seen them and longer then that since Mike has seen them so I'm sure it will be a great visit. Mike has already spilled the beans on my birthday dinner plans and I'm super excited about that too!! And we are hoping to take a trip in February sometime so this will be a full year and hopefully a good one. I hope everyone else's 2009 is off to a fabulous start!

OK and now for the first contest of 2009 - What are your goals for this year? Post your answer in the comments and I will pick a winner on Monday!! As you know I send out little prizes so hopefully that is motivation enough!

Happy New Year Everyone! Let's make 2009 GREAT!

More Soon...