I'm BAAACCKKK.....

with a confession.....GASP!! Yes, I know I've been MIA for quite a while.....stuff going on....nothing going on....just "life" happening. But I'm not going to update or try to remember everything that happened since I last blogged...nope, my brain can't remember that far back. Let's just move on shall we? SOOO, I have once again started going to the gym. Here's my confession......I. HATE. IT. Every single morning, I try to talk myself out of going: I'm too tired, I'm sore, I have SOOO much to do, I just want to relax, I'll go tomorrow, I need a break...ect, ect...you get the picture. I hate everything about it. I hate sweating, I hate the pain (OH, the pain...lol), I hate walking back from the gym (and sometimes to the gym). I lied, there are SOME things that I like about going to the gym, but I think I could do these things just as well in the comfort of my home. I like listening to my music on my Ipod, I like de-stressing and having some "me" alone time where no one is asking me for anything. I like to be alone with my thoughts and clear my head. THAT I do like. BUUUUUT after all the procrastinating and complaining and dragging, once I get there....I'm kind of glad I'm there and when I'm done and walking home, I feel GOOD, I really feel good and I'm glad I went and I wonder why I tried so hard to get out of it. It's only an hour out of my morning and I go early, right after we drop the kids off at school. So I can still come home and get my stuff done and have the rest of the day free to do whatever I want until the kids come home. I've heard people talk about going to the gym and REALLY like it, LOVE it even. I wonder if I'll ever be one of those people.....maybe, but for right now I'm doing it because I NEED to. I need to get back in shape. Not just to fit back into some of my smaller clothes, but to just feel better about myself. Which I do already. I've been cutting back, watching what I eat and drinking TONS of water for two weeks now. This is only my 4th day back at the gym, but already I feel a HUGE difference in my body. I don't feel "yucky" in my middle, my clothes are already starting to fit better. Yesterday while running on the treadmill, I noticed that I had to keep picking up my pants because they were falling down! YAY!! I haven't weighed myself and I don't really want to or plan to because I don't want to be a slave to the numbers. I want to let my body speak for itself. I'll know what progress I've made by the way my clothes fit and the way my body feels and looks and really that matters more to me than a number on the scale. Since I've been back to the gym, I've been using a technique that my friend Kim from church told me about that's used I think for training for a 5K. I'm not planning on running a marathon or anything any time soon, but running is something I've always wanted to be able to do. Don't ask me why, I just do. So I've been doing this thing for 20 mins (some days a bit more) where I run 1 min/walk 1 min. The first day I was able to do 45 mins of that. The next day...not so much...lol I was SUPER sore...so that day I stuck to the 20 mins. Yesterday, I did 35 I think as well as today. It's getting a little easier and I am nowhere near as sore today as I was that first day....thank you God! But I'm not sure if I will be ready to move on to the next level next week which is running 2 mins and walking 1 minute ( I think) for 21 mins. I still kind of have a hard time towards the middle of it all with my breathing or feeling like I didn't catch my breath enough before it's time to start running again. I wonder if my allergies have anything to do with that? Mountain Cedar and other stuff has been blowing around and I've been blowing my nose like crazy! Anyway, I'll be taking the weekend off since the kids will be home and it's harder for me to get to the gym and to let my body rest for a couple of days. God willing, I'll be back at it on Monday. I'll try it out and see if I can handle going to the next level, if not, I might just stick to the first level for another week until I feel more comfortable with increasing the running time. Sooo, that's about it here on my end. Oh, tried brown rice per a friend's recommendation and it is YUMMY.....nice to not have to cut out everything yummy :)

Pictures Of My Grandmother

My grandmother just passed away two days ago at 89 years old. I'm uploading these pictures here for my sister because she is making a slide show for the funeral home.

Swissgirl Designs 12 Days of Christmas Giveaway

Check out the sweet giveaway that Rahel is having over on her blog!

http://swissgirldesigns.com/2011/12/01/12-days-of-christmas-day-1/

http://swissgirldesigns.com/

Our Love Story

Tomorrow will mark one year from the day we said "I do". But when I think about it, I said "I do" to you long before that. I'll admit that I didn't expect anything to come from that Halloween night when we met almost 8 years ago. I spent the next few hours in your company and you made me laugh. By the end of the night when we parted ways, I knew that I wanted to persue you and see where things might lead. The next few months moved very fast. Our relationship was a whirlwind to say the least. Within a month, you were staying at my apartment, three months after that we were getting our own place together, and three months after that we were expecting Mikey. Fast forward about 7 years and here we are....husband and wife. I never thought that day would come...lol, but I see now that everything happened just as it should...in God's time and not mine. I think that in this last year, our marriage has slowly grown into what God has intended for us. Things are not always perfect, but we are learning every day how to deal with our differences and how to communicate better with one another...I feel closer to you every day. I pray that God continues to work in our marriage and that He provides us with the tools we need to grow stronger, closer to Him and closer to each other until we are so close that we don't know where one of us ends and the other begins. I love you so much, baby. After all these years, you are still the person I'd rather spend my time with. You are my rock, my best friend, and my happy place :) And I pray that we have many, many more years together and that God grants us the blessing of growing old with each other. Happy First Anniversary, Shmoopy.

the shopping continues.....

I couldn't help myself! I am admittedly a patterned paper junkie! It's just SOOOO pretty!! And at half off...how can I not indulge myself? I know, I know....I've purged my paper stash at least 3 times in the last year. And all three times has been anywhere between 1'-3' of paper. Which is good and bad I guess. Good because I'm getting rid of it and passing it along to someone who will use it...hopefully! And bad because well, it's money wasted. But in my defense, I am totally becoming pickier about what I buy and do NOT buy papers solely on the basis of it being "cute" or because it's a "really good deal". I know what I like, what I will use and that's what I buy. In saying that..lol...I hung out with my sister on Saturday and we stopped in at the Crossroads Hobby Lobby and we were lucky enough to find the October Afternoon 5 & Dime! We could NOT believe it! They only had it in the 8x8 pad. And they only had TWO pads left so both my sis and I were able to snag one...YAY! If you can believe it, that was all I bought there. Over by her house, we hit up the Hobby Lobby on Bandera and I was lucky enough to find the Crate Emma's Shoppe collection pack!! WOOHOO!! It was hiding under a bunch of other paper pads waiting just for me :) I also picked up the Echo Park Be Mine collection pack. I really love the colors...not necessarily Valentine "theme". I think I can incorporate it into any kind of "love" layout or maybe other stuff too. I had debated getting the Fancy Pants "It's The Little Things" paper pad. I really wanted it, but seeing as how I've spent a little more than I'd like to spend on scrapbook stuff in a week, I put it back. Hopefully the next time paper goes half off, it will still be there. Or who knows...maybe there will be even MORE new stuff?? :) :)

What else? Oh, Lij had auditioned for this Glee Club group at NYA which is where we take him for his guitar and vocals lessons and he made it! YAY!! We got an email last week and his practices started yesterday. Because they will be performing now, they were advised to begin attending the Advanced Vocals at NYA and Glee Club practices follow that. So on Mondays, he is at NYA from 6:30-8:45. I'm really hoping this doesn't interfere too much with his school work or his bedtime schedule. We will see how it goes. I know this is something that is very important to him (his music), so we want to be supportive so I hope everything goes well. He was really excited about it when he came home last night and Miguel said the parents who happened to be there last night were invited to watch them do a bit of the song they practiced, Proud Mary, and he said it was really neat! Wish I had gone!

So, school starts next Monday. Good thing: the kids are back to school, I have more free time, ect. Bad thing: waking up so darn early! I HATE waking up early! lol But it's a good thing because I'm going to get back into my gym routine. I have been feeling super blah...my clothes are fitting tighter...not good. So back to the gym for me!

Um, can't think of anything else to write for now, so here's a pic of my new papers. Oh, I've been doing alot of scrapping too...lifting of this woman who's blog I visit. Her link is in my sidebar "mugsyboo". I just love her pages! And speaking of inspiration, I love to watch scrappy vids on You Tube and one particular woman whose vids I like to watch is kraftinkate. She does alot of haul vids, but she also shows alot of her pages and she makes the cutest cards! She recently started up a blog, so go on over and check her out http://www.kraftwithkate.blogspot.com/ I think my new pages are uploaded to my scrapbook.com gallery...not too sure. I'm a bit lazy about uploading them here, then there, then facebook...so sometimes I just don't want to do it! lol Okay, that's all for now...bye!!

Women be shopping....

lol...I remember the comedian on the first Nutty Professor movie where Eddie Murphy and Jada Pinkett go to that comedy club and Dave Chapelle is doing his act and he's talking about how "women be shopping..." lol Anywho! lol I had seen at one of our Hobby Lobbys last week that they were putting out new paper pads. TONS of new stuff...lots of new Paper Studio pads, new MME 180 sheet pads, Crate collections, Basic Grey 6x6 pads, 7 Gypsies 8x8 pads, Glitz 8x8 pads, Jenni Bowlin pads, lots of Graphic 45 pads. I was in awe of all the new stuff. And I lucked out today because they had already put up the signs for next week's ad so I was able to get the pads at half off today when the sale doesn't really start until tomorrow...bonus! I picked up one of those 180 sheet paper pads of MME Lost and Found! O-M-G! They papers are BEAUTIFUL! And I especially love it because it's the flat paper as opposed to the glittery ones they have in the open stock. I'm not too crazy about glitter on my paper. I also got the Glitz Afternoon Muse 8x8 paper pad which is also LOVERLY (BTW, I say loveRly with an R on purpose..lol), and a 7 Gysies 8x8 paper pad from the Lille collection. I cannot wait to do some scrapping with my new papers! And I know the LAST thing I should be buying is paper especially after all the times I've purged FEET and FEET of paper. I can't help it...it's my weakness!! I think I want to get the Crate Portrait collection which they also had, but I think that is all. Even though everything new they have put out is just YUMMY...I think I've learned what I will use and what I won't and I'm just wiser about my paper choices. I think stamps were on sale too...including acrylic and I did notice alot of new cute stamp sets, but nothing that I wanted or "needed"...lol..to buy.
I've also been doing alot of scrapping lately. I actually did a page today and I can't remember which day this past week my sis came over, but I managed to make 3 pages that day. I'm too lazy to upload them here, but if anyone wants to check them out, they are posted up in my scrapbook.com gallery. Anyway, that's pretty much it for now. Oh, last night after I had gotten out of the shower, I heard Max barking up a storm so I went outside to check on him because I saw him pawing at something on the ground. It was a baby possum! And I think he injured it because when I was coming up on him to see what he was doing, he grabbed it with his mouth and ran. I'm pretty sure he punctured some part of it. It was kind of sad seeing the poor thing struggling to breathe. So, now we are thinking of having Max leashed up overnight to keep him from going into the darker parts of the yard where who knows what can be lurking there!
Well, it's late and we have church in the morning...so good night :)

When it rains, it pours....

Oh gosh...what a week! Mikey and I had our dentist appointments on Wednesday and when I had called ahead of time to get an estimate on how much it was going to be for both of our visits, it was well over $250....YIKES!! But what are we going to do...it needs to get done. Anyway, on Sunday Miguel had been outside cleaning up the backyard for Max and when he came in, he told me that he thought Max was trying to get out of the yard by trying to crawl under the fence because he noticed two "scratches" on his cheek. I asked him if he was okay and he said "yes", so I didn't think any more of it since Sunday mornings are always hectic trying to get out the door in time for church so I didn't even see him until later that evening when we came home after running errands and such. I went out to give him water and food and when I saw his cheek, I FREAKED! My poor baby had a circular patch about the size of a silver dollar if not a tad bigger on his left cheek and it was bloody and his hair was all gone in that one spot. I immediately called Miguel who had left to buy some bags of ice he had forgotten to get. I'm a big time worrier and "mother hen", so what I really wanted to do was call the vet and take him in right then and there. But I decided to bathe him so clean it up and get a better look at it. It looked alot better after I washed it off and I put a whole bunch of Neosporin on it, but no sooner had I left him, he was scratching at it again and got it all messy and bloody again. I cleaned it up again and decided to leash him up on the back porch to keep him from getting it dirty and possibly infected. I did a Google search and from what I read and what it looked like, we came to the conclusion that it was "hot spots". We remembered from the last time he had the skin infection on his leg (can't remember if I blogged about that) that we had seen "hot spot" treatment stuff at the grocery strore so Miguel picked some up. But we had to apply it with a cotton swab and anyone who knows Max knows that we cannot do anything to this dog! He does NOT like being "restrained", so we had a heck of a time trying to get the stuff on him. Somehow we managed to get it on him 2x a day, but Tuesday, it wasn't looking any better. I suggested to Miguel that while Mikey and I were at the dentist, he should take Max in to the vet. So I made Max an appointment for Wednesday at 2:00. So, Miguel dropped Mikey and me off at the dentist at 1:00 and took Max in. And by the way, my root canal ended up being a tiny bit painful. I shudder just thinking of it. There was a couple of times he was "poking around" and I actually felt it so he had to give me some more anesthetic....thank you. I still felt a tiny bit of pain on a couple of other occasions, but I just tried to suck it up and be a trooper. I really, really hope I never have to do that again! Oh, so Mikey and I were done before Miguel so we waited for him to come back for us. Turned out we were right about the "hot spots". The vet said it must have started out as some kind of bite or scratch and Max probably scratched it alot and irritated it and it ended up getting infected. Miguel had to leave him there because they had to sedate him (there's that thing with Max again) to be able to shave and clean the area. He came home with antibiotics and we have an e-collar on him so he can't scratch the area. It looks like it's drying up nicely because it was gross and "wet looking" is the only way I can describe it. Oh, but getting back to the "raining/pouring" thing.....this unexpected vet visit cost us over $1oo, so we easily spend close to $400 in ONE day! OMGosh! I get a headache just thinking about it! But thankfully, no matter what...we always have enough....and a little bit more...thank you God for that! :)
On a lighter note, I did a bit more scrapping two days ago I think. I finished up two of the other pages I had packed that day I went to my sister's house. I just need to take some pics and upload. I have a stack of about ten LOs or more that are sitting on my easel and need to be put in albums. Sometimes I'm so lazy about doing it! I went by Hobby Lobby today just to pick up some grey colored cardstock. I saw the super talented Sasha Farina use grey as her background on a page and LOVED it! It might be my new Kraft substitute! I also picked up like 14 sheets of this Girl's Paperie Ledger paper that I just LOVE and use alot, so I wanted to have enough on hand! lol Only because I know at some point HL will stop carrying it and I won't be able to get it at half off anymore. This happened to me already with this awesome Paper Studio grid paper they had a while back. I even bought what I thought was a good amount to last me a while, but I do use grid ALOT and now I'm down to maybe 6 sheets. And unfortunately, they don't carry that pattern anymore :( And speaking of paper, I looked at the paper pads there and found that they have a few new Paper Studio pads which were very pretty, but just not my style. AND....the MME Lost and Found papers in one of those awesome 180 sheet pads! I could NOT believe it! I SOOOO want it, but I'm waiting until the packaged papers go half off so I can get it for ten bucks!! I filed through it and the papers are LOVELY! I know paper is the LAST thing I need to be buying, but I can't resist...it was SO pretty!!
Hmmm...I think that pretty much covers it. Just really trying to keep this up. Even if no one else reads this, it's nice to look back later and see what was going on in our lives :)