Christmas Vacay Recap.

Disclaimer: I promise this blog will not be this boring forever - new layout coming soon.

Hello loves,

I hope 2012 is off to an excellent start for each of you. I feel refreshed, motivated, and blessed as I begin what promises to be my most exciting year yet (do I say that every year? Well, it's true).

I returned on Saturday from an excellent, and blessedly long, relaxing trip to Indiana where I'm pleased to report I finally met my niece...

Noa. Sweet Noa.


Noa and her crazy Aunt B. ; ]

I flew in just in time to witness a Colts win (those were few and far between this year).

(this is my sweet baby sister Ruthie)


Me & my sweet Momma.


Got to see my best friend!

And have breakfast with my college roomie (well one of them).

I read 4 books, did a little shopping, ate too much, only worked out once...and came home excited for all the Lord has in store for me and my precious family in 2012.

Love,
B

This Hiney is in Gear.

Image.

Fall finally feels like it's here in Tampa, with the highs in the low 70s! My AC is finally off, my windows are FINALLY open, and I can enjoy having the balcony open when I'm at home which - oh wait, hasn't been much lately! I thought with the end of the 2011 event season at work, life would get a little less chaotic for me. It turns out this fall/winter is going to be crazy in a whole different way.

The good news is I'm back in my groove which is making my feel like myself again. You know, super OCD, super organized, super over-the-top. Feels like home. It's good to be back to my crazy old ways.

I'm no longer living at the office and have returned to my (almost) daily workouts, card writing, and book reading ways. I managed to finally get a few fun packages out to my most loyal pen pal, Lacey, and my bff Candy this week. I've finally returned the 30ish letters I got last month. My laundry is done AND put away, for once. I returned my suitcases to the garage until at least mid-November. The girl at my gym doesn't regard me as if I'm new or she should know me but can't quite place my face because I'm gone every other week. And I've actually seen and talked to my neighbors within the last week. I'm almost done with two, yes, two books.

This girl is baaaack!

I'm happy to report that as some of you know I've been on a budget mission lately that has kept me busy, thrify, and a little obsessed. The good news is - it's working. I declared via twitter a few weeks back that the last item on my 'to pay off' list is my house and then this girl will be totally and competely debt free. Thanks Dave Ramsey!

I've been obsessively saving as well because you know me I had to focus my attention somewhere new as soon as I finished the pay offs, right? I've already saved for all the Christmas gifts I need to get done which will be taking place next weekend on an outlet mall trip with Kayla. I'm also happy to report my hardwork is paying off in tangible, fun ways. This week when Southwest announced their sale for the week which included flights in Jan and Feb, I had the money in my travel budget to spend and I bought myself a ticket to visit my best friend the first weekend in Feb.

This my friends is what were working for, right? Financial freedom and the freedom to have fun without having to pay interest on it for months to come. Ah.

In case you were worried I'd lost my freakishly organized edge - have no fear. My custom made two photo Christmas cards arrived in the mail yesterday from Vistaprint. Can I brag on my thriftiness for a moment and tell you all that I managed to swing 50 cards and envelopes with two photos and shipping for less than $20 bucks? AND I have them before the end of October. This way, I figure I can start addressing a few a week and then drop them all in the mail (without pulling a December 20th all nighter) in mid-December. Ah.


I've been furiously writing in my Harriet the Spy notebook (ok, really, I tote a cute notepad with me everywhere so I can write things down as they come to me). I'm in holiday overload already and I'm loving every second.

I COULD use some help on what to put on my Christmas list though. What's on yours? Maybe I'll want one too.

Love,
B

Easter Weekend Recap.

I know this is a few days delayed but I hope you all had as good an Easter weekend as I did. I've shared before that since moving to Tampa holidays are just not the same. With no family within a 5 hour radius, I find that holidays are vastly different. Not bad different necessarily since I have a great church family as well as I great friend base that keeps me from feeling totally alone, but it's not the same as veggie around the house stuffing my face with family, you know?

Well this Easter I didn't get to be with my own family but thankfully Thomas's family drew me into theirs and I was able to spend the Easter weekend with them. Friday night T and I went to my church, Grace Family Church for our Easter weekend service (we did the same service Friday, Saturday, Sunday) and it was so much fun to introduce him to my pastors and friends.

Saturday morning I did make the red velvet pancakes I mentioned here. They were a big hit. They were easy to mix but hard to flip, so if you make them yourselves I recommend making them smaller than you think and cooking them longer before you try to flip them or you'll end up with a bunch of halves! But we topped them with whip cream and chocolate syrup or at T's suggestion - Nutella. The general consensus was that they were delicious AND they tasted great that night when we took them out of the fridge as well. So, we recommend them.

Thomas cleaning up my mess after I turned the whole kitchen red with my pancake mix.

Post pancake lounging.

After the pancake party we ladies let the boy unpack the Uhaul of furniture that Thomas's parents had brought with them from South Carolina to further furnish their place and we headed off for manicures and pedicures. There are few things I'd rather do on a Saturday morning that have my legs massaged, lets me real, but it was also nice to have pretty toes for the Easter weekend - pretty teal toes, that is.

After our pamper trip I headed back to my side of town, grabbed some Yogurtology with Marta and hit the pool for an hour. I flew through the remainder of my book, Baby Proof, took a little nap, and then cooked a dinner for Marta so we could enjoy a night in, in our sweatpants. I made the baked penne recipes I shared on Tuesday and we feasted on a random assortment of items including skittles.

Sunday I headed back up to the northside to do church at Lifepoint with Thomas and family. Both Friday and Sunday it was neat to be able to worship with T for the first (and second) time in our relationship. I enjoyed the worship and message at Lifepoint and meeting some of T's pastors and friends as well as a few of the students in the high school ministry he volunteers with.

We made sandwiches back at the boys place for lunch that day and I managed to eat 5, yes 5, homemade truffles Thomas's mom made that were delicious. I have such a weakness for chocolate it's disturbing. And as Marta pointed out after my consumption of the 5th, no wonder my stomach hurts so often. Fine, caught. I couldn't resist.

I caught up on sleep and started another book that afternoon and at home before getting ready and joining the whole family for dinner at Maggianos. I love Italian food almost as much as I love chocolate so this was basically an epic fail of a day as far as my diet was concerned but it was worth it. I had pesto linguine that changed my life.

It was a wonderful holiday weekend and though it was sad my whole family was spread out across the US (per our usual these days) I felt right at home spending Easter with the Barbians. I've been trying to work those truffles off in the gym ever since...Hmm. I hope each of you had a special Easter holiday as well and that you remembered the reason for the holiday. What an incredible sacrifice was made and better still, to know that our Savior has risen.

Love,

B

Holidays.

Planning ahead is my thing. I love to plan, prepare, and be organized. So naturally, I like to get a jump on the holidays. I book my Christmas flights in August. I start my shopping by September. I make my Christmas wish list, which is organized by item, price, color, and has print screen pictures for my Mom by November. I don't do this because I have to, I do it because I LOVE the holidays and this is my weird way of showing it.

This year I have a new challenge to tackle with the holidays...

I'm in this great groove with my healthy eating, exercise, and weight loss - so what happens over the holidays? You know me, I'm not missing out on the chance to go to parties and celebrate this amazing time of year. But being surrounded by baked goods and not losing my stride is going to require some discipline and self control.

Being diligent with my exercise is going to be key. When I've given my all at a workout, I don't want to kill it by eating back all the calories I burn. So that's big. Staying with my 6 day a week workouts.

What else?

One thing that works for me with when I go out with friends, I never go hungry. If I'm hungry I'm way more likely to overeat AND to eat things I would normally avoid. Can't be doing that.

Above those, I'm taking suggestions. How do you stay on track with your health related goals over the holidays?

Love,

B

Randomness.

First off, I want some comments telling me what you fabulous people are up to for Labor Day Weekend….traveling? Staying put? Relaxing? Grilling out? With friends? Family? Tell me the deets. I love holidays and hearing how people spend them.

My plans are still working their way slooowly into place so I don’t have too much to share on my front yet. I’ll tell you what I do know. I will be spending the holiday with friends but sadly, not with any family members. Jess and I are headed on a road trip, our first in I can’t even remember how long. Too long. The plan is to head to Atlanta and meet up with some GA friends up that way for a night, maybe two? Exact details are ALL TBD. You know how hard a lack of plan is for me – I’m an itinerary kind of deal. Hazard of planning travel for work regularly? Perhaps.

Can I share something else sad on the organizational topic? I actually stooped so low as to make myself a chore list this week. I know. Shock. Horror. Patheticness. The list could continue from there. But it seems that after a weekend away (on the road) you have to have a plan to get caught up on the things you would have done over the weekend, if you’d had a weekend. Last weekend was Nashville, this weekend is Atlanta. So this girl had to get a plan or her house was going to be a hot mess. But still, I can’t believe I resorted to a chore list…I use to shake my fist behind my mom’s back about those growing up. She posted one in my bathroom while I was in HIGH SCHOOL. Embarrassing, right? : ] Good thing I survived the humiliation so that I can share with you all about it now – it was touch n go for a while there.

I like to occasionally post fashion related thoughts (or statements). So on that note, has anyone been to see Lauren Conrad’s collection at Kohl’s? I’m not a big Kohl’s person myself but they’ve recently been carrying Vera Wang’s line and well as LC’s – both of which have some cute and somewhat reasonably priced items. I invested in a LC by Lauren Conrad dress last night that I adore.



Thoughts?

Ok I promise that images of the home improvements are coming soon!

Love ya,

B