the time is now...

Wow!  Since December I've been working on earning a trip through Arbonne, and at the end of May, I did it!  Now, after months of anticipation, we leave for the Bahamas!  It's time!  How exciting!  I've never been to a beach before.  My kids have never been on a plane before (that they remember).  And it's been nine years since we've gone anywhere further than Texas.  It's so surreal!


So, what am I doing up just over two hours from when we're supposed to leave.  Things that I procrastinated at over the past couple of weeks.  Don't get me wrong...I've done a lot to prepare for this trip.  I started packing bags a week ago.  We've secured people to take care of our animals and watch our house.  (Of course, since we're farm headquarters, someone is here all the time anyway.)  It's all the little things that I hadn't done.  Like clean out my purse and pack my carryon bag.  And choose a carryon bag.  :)  Update my ipod and my phone.  Making sure I haven't forgotten anything.  Cleaning up the house so it's not a complete mess when we get back.


When we get back, summer will be officially over in our house.  School starts the day that we come home, so the boys will miss the first day of school, but what's better than a first day of school picture in the Bahamas?  I can't think of a thing!

my new friend...the wonton wrapper...

Oh, how I crack myself up.  I talk in one post of how disappointed I am about not writing in my blog and how I'll do better.  Then the next post is seven months later.  I've totally redeemed myself...NOT!  (I'm a child of the 80s/90s, so I can still use that "not" like that, right?)


I won't waste the time trying to catch up.  A lot can happen in seven months time.  So, I'll just jump in as if I haven't been absent.


Here goes:


For those of you that know me, I am not a grand cook.  Often, people think that I'm lying about this, but I'm totally not.  Yes, my mother was an excellent cook and baker, but I did not inherit these genes.  I don't enjoy it, so why try to kindle a love for something that you know you don't?


However, having a home business, two growing boys, and a husband who works nonstop but loves to eat, it's a necessary evil, so I've been trying to find a database of go-to recipes that I can easily make.  One that I found, tried, and loved was from kevinandamanda.com (which has tons of recipes and free fonts, too, like the ones found in my header).  As soon as I saw the picture for mini lasagna cups, I knew I had to try them.  And let me tell you, it was a crowd pleaser!  That is, with the exception of my oldest son who is the pickiest eater in the world, but with a few alterations, I know he'll learn to love them, too.  Of course, to try and fool him into liking them, I called them cheesy sausage wontons.  I know he doesn't like lasagna, and I know he doesn't like hamburger, so I omitted those words.  All was well until his little brother said, "Hey, I thought you said something about having lasagna."  That's all it took to make him stop eating.

After filling up my muffin tins, I decided to experiment with the leftover wonton wrappers.  I had never used them before.  They are my new friend!  In my mini muffin pan, I put the remaining wrappers in the tin and added goodies.  In one group, I added peanut butter and chocolate syrup.  In another, we had butterscotch chips and chocolate syrup.  And the favorite of the night was peanut butter and blackberry jam.  YUM!  Why have I never used these little wonders before?  I can imagine so many possibilities!

How about you?  What do you put in your wonton wrappers?  And do you have a picky eater?  How are you able to please them?

happy 2011!

Happy New Year!
Okay, so maybe I'm a week late.  I hope yours was a great one.


So, I've been beating myself up.  It's the time for new beginnings, but it seems that I can't get over my past.  Not necessarily about things that I've done but rather things that I haven't done.  I haven't followed up with people as quickly or as often as I initially planned to.  I haven't kept up with systems that I put in place.  I'm constantly trying to get organized and have yet another failed attempt.  I have so many plans in place and then just don't get them done.  And yet another...I'm going to write on this blog on a regular basis.


But...I'm not going to beat myself up anymore.  When I logged on, I realized that I doubled my amount of posts last year from the year before.  That's a definite improvement.  I'm constantly working on becoming a better me.  Some days I succeed.  Other days...not so much.  So, I'll just keep on working on me and hopefully become the person that God wants me to be.


Today may have been a fail, but I got things accomplished, so it wasn't a total fail.  I'm going to focus on the positive.


I'll list my new year's goals another time...that is, if i return to the blog in the near future.    If I don't, it's all good.  :)

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a week of activity...

I try and I try and I try, but I just can't seem to stay committed to checking into this blog.  Maybe it's because I feel like I have to have something profound to say.  Maybe it's because I know that no one is reading this but me.  Maybe it's because it's for me to get my thoughts out, and I talk so much on most days that I don't feel the need to write it all out.  But the truth is, I forget things, and I want to keep them in my memories.  I want to look back and say, "oh, yeah!  I remember that!"  Rather than events being completely forgotten.  On that note, here are a few events from the last week.


Daylight savings time ended and we gained an extra hour of sleep.  Is this really worthy to put in a blog?  Maybe not, but I love it that I get that extra hour back because it puts me on time again.  When we "spring forward" into the time change, I lose that hour and I struggle to be on time.  It totally throws my sleep schedule off, and I am not a morning person, so it makes a huge difference.  So, we gained an hour.


Also on Sunday, we celebrated the members of our church who have passed over the last year by lighting a candle for each of them.  It was painstakingly horrible.  I know it was meant as a tribute, but for me it brought back all of those reasons why we miss Myron so terribly.  As his name was read, there were sobs throughout the church.  It's just so crazy that he isn't here anymore.  So, the week was a bit rough dealing with that depression once again.  Not that it has completely left anyway.  


We did try to pull ourselves out of the funk on Sunday evening by going to see Megamind. As I had hoped, laughter was a result.  But how can you not laugh at a movie that features the voice of Will Ferrell.  That reminds me...I need to pull out Elf for the holidays.  :)


On Thursday, while everyone celebrated Veteran's Day (BTW...Thank you to all of you soldiers who are willing to risk your life and fight for our freedoms), we celebrated a very special day.  It was the day that my husband was shoved out of his 20s.  That's right.  My hubby joined me in the thirty something crowd.  He's now 30!  Why do I exclaim it?  You see, he always gives me a hard time about already being there, but now he's here with me.  :)  Of course, he's sure to rub it in that the same thing will happen when I turn 40.  Oh, the joys of marrying a younger man.  The family all met at our house that evening to have an incredible steak dinner to celebrate both Nick and Jerad's birthday, and we topped it off with a giant double doozie cookie and a trip to Rialto to see Secratariat, another incredible movie.


Friday, we ran to the German restaurant for another incredible meal.  Then, Saturday, we had friends over to celebrate Nick and Jerad's birthday.  We must be getting old or boring or maybe both because everyone was out of the house by 10:30.  Although, we had a great time with those who came by.


We ended the weekend with a trip to the city to see Shrek the musical.  The boys thought it was one of the best ones they had ever seen.  We had box seats which gave us a different perspective of the show.  We were able to see a lot of technical things, which for our family is greatly appreciated.  We ate Olive Garden for lunch, and for the first time ever, I didn't order pasta.  I looked at the menu online before we got there so I could try to make a healthy decision, which was much needed after the weekend that revolved around eating since Thursday.  I was surprised that I maintained my weight throughout all of that.  Now for a week of big weight loss!  I have the final weigh in for the Lose 2 Win challenge next Tuesday.  I've got to stay on track this week!

motivation...

Do you ever wake up in the morning and feel totally blah?  How about the opposite?  Do you ever wake up totally motivated and ready to conquer the day?  That's how I feel today.  I'm not sure what it is (maybe it's the time change), but I feel ready to get things done.  There are so many things that I want to accomplish, I'm having a hard time focusing on what I want to do first.  On a normal day, I will wake up and get the kids out of bed do a few things to try and wake myself up while they are getting around.  Solve a few arguments between the two of them.  Tell them to stop messing with the cat so they'll actually get their morning routine finished.  Then dart into town to get them to school, sometimes just barely before the tardy bell rings.  I do all of this while still in my pajamas.  That's right.  I leave the house in my pajamas.  No combed hair.  No bra.  I just hope I never get a flat tire during that time.  I noticed a difference last week.  One day I took the kids to school in my pajamas then came home and had a hard time getting motivated to do anything.  Another day, I put on workout clothes (to which I received this comment from Brickman:  "I thought you didn't wear a bra to take us to school.")  When I came home, I got so much more accomplished.  So, that's one of my goals each day now: to wake up and put on clothes to workout.  At very least, even if I don't work out, I'll get something else accomplished.


I've gotten quite a bit accomplished in the past few weeks as per weight loss.  I finally feel motivated to get that done, and I love seeing the results.  I'm down a pant size and have lost 12 pounds.  I feel so much better with just that amount off of me.  I'm trying to get into exercise.  I'm doing things each day to be more active.  I borrowed my sister's Zumba DVDs, which have been a lot of fun.  I think the biggest thing is that I actually see myself getting it done this time.  I'm changing habits that I can stick to, but am still allowing myself to have some of the things that I love.  Something that I know I'll love is the way that I look once I get more weight off.  I can't wait to see myself two months from now when I go to Arbonne's Global Training Conference.  Or six months from now.  Or a year from now.  I love it that I see myself thin and healthy.  I'm not there yet, but I will be.  I'm motivated.  No more procrastination.  I'm motivated and am taking action.

did you vote?

Today I am thankful that I live in a time and a place where I can vote.  So many people fought for that right, yet so many don't exercise that duty.  Of course, if a person is to go to his/her polling place to cast his/her vote, I certainly hope that he/she takes the time to get educated about the candidates and the issues.  I believe that everyone has the right to their own opinion [even though I may like mine more than yours :)] so I won't tell you that your vote was stupid because of what you voted.  That's something that I see all over the social networking world.  I also believe that you should vote for the best person for the job, not necessarily straight party.  But then again, how can you truly tell who is the best for the job?  The best thing to do is to continue to pray for our leaders, whether they were the ones who we hoped to see put into office or not.  And speaking of elections...here's one other thing I'm thankful for:  no more political mail or phone calls!