Happy Birthday Ella!

Happy Birthday to my sweet baby Ella who turns 7 today!!! 

Whew...what a day!

Ella's birthday isn't until Sunday but we had her party today after school.  We went with a candy/pom pom themed party and had a houseful of the cutest little girls!  I'm exhausted from the day so I'll just share a couple quick photos and be back with more later.

 

WW - Week 1 Weigh In

Ugh.  I didn't get the result I was hoping for.  Not a big loser this first week.  

Starting Weight:  172

My current weight:  171.5

My goal weight:  154

Gain/Loss this week: -.5  

I tracked everything ("If you bite it, write it.") and had over 30 points come the end of the week.  Upon some investigation I think the biggest culprit was salt.  Evil, evil sodium.  I was so set on tracking my points that a great deal of my food intake was Weight Watchers sponsored food and Smart Ones.  You know what that means?  Processed food.  Processed food = excessive amounts of sodium.  Oops.  Guess that's why my rings are tight.  So while I was drinking lots of water, it wasn't enough to counteract all the salt. 

Live and learn.  This next week is going to be a rough one.  It's my daughter's birthday and my birthday and there are lots of opportunities to really, really blow it.  Wish me luck!

 

What I Wore Wednesday

It's been awhile since I've done this, but I want to get back into the habit...why?  Cause it's fun!  And I love reading others and finding new blogs to follow. 

I am linking up with Lindsey at the Pleated Poppy ....thanks Lindsey for the opportunity!

Dress, Cardigan -- Target

Jeans, Necklace -- LuckyBrand  (My favorite thing to do is wear a dress over jeans-so comfortable)

Boots -- Ariat FatBaby

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Cardi, Boots -- Target

Dress -- Uh, I don't remember

Jeggings -- Yeah, I have jeggings.  These are Jessica Simpson brand from Macy's.

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Ruffled Cardi -- TJ Maxx

Tank -- Old Navy

Jeans -- Target

Necklace -- Allora Handmade, love these necklace and forever get compliments on it.

Black suede flats -- Had these forever, Mervyns maybe? 

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Bonus shot! 
I just got this trench and I LOVE IT!  Love the color and love the print inside!  The trench is by Lauren Conrad. 

Room Redo - Part 1 - The Library

I was getting bored with things around the house and we decided to do a big switch-a-roo.  A few years ago we added an addition onto our home which gave us space to have my office and a family room.  At that time, what was the family room became our 'fancier/quieter' living room.  (i.e. The no TV room).  Given that that room is also open and a major thorough-fare for the house, it never was very quiet and was kind of a waste of space.  I had the idea to move the TV/video games/noise/mess into that room and make the addition space a 'library.'  I must say I am brilliant!  Without further ado, here are some before and after pics....

AFTER:  THE LIBRARY

Oh, did I also mention it's the exercise room?  ;-)

Our pub table is now the perfect game table...Aaron plays the piano and records music almost daily here too. 

My favorite spot in the house is now curled up on the leather loveseat with a book.  The blue couch is really just a large dog bed and space filler.  We now have a wall of books-3 bookshelfs side-by-side --- love the wall of books --- I am still arranging and filling with books that seem to be all over our home.  I have an idea of what to do with the big open space above the loveseat too.

We have enjoyed this room immensely in the short time we've redone it.  So much better functionality and the best part?  It's quiet.  A quiet place to hide.  Ahhhh....

  
 

And the winner is.....

   

Your EOS 'sweet mint' lip balm will be coming to you soon!  Most likely with your son's homework...lol...

Thanks for playing everyone!  I love doing giveaways and I now have a list of new lip balms to try! 

Stay tuned for future giveaways!

Move More, Eat Healthy Update

Yeah it ain't working.  Still can't fit into my favorite jeans.  Or any of my jeans actually.  Had to buy new jeans.  I'm resorting to calling in the big guns.  Weight Watchers it is.  I'm a Weight Watchers veteran and actually have qualified for a lifetime membership so I know that it works.  Point counting is easier than calorie counting for me and so I'm now a slave to the wonderful (seriously) WW Mobile app.

This time around I'm doing Weight Watchers Online vs going to weekly meetings.  It's cheaper and this blog will serve as my weekly meeting.  My weigh in day will be each Friday.  So here we go...

My current weight:  172

My goal weight:  154

Gain/Loss this week: 0  

 

The mix tape just never goes outta style!

This year for Valentine's Day, Aaron and I exchanged mix 'tapes' full of love songs.  This is SOOO much easier in this day and age to do...download the songs, pop into a playlist and burn a CD--done!  Or even simpler just copy onto an iPod. 

Back in the day (late 80's for me), I'd sit and listen to Power 98.9 on Saturday nights for hours and hours and try to be quick with the record button to tape my favorite songs onto cassettes.  Or I'd tape hours at a time and then go back using the 2 cassette feature on my dad's boom box and 'remaster' an all-hits tape. Priceless to me is that I still have many of the mix tapes I made back then!  In fact I have 4 boxes full of my old tapes...now I just need to hunt down a tape player to actually listen to them...hmmm...  

Anyhow, it's been awhile since Aaron and I made CDs for each other so we decided to resurrect the idea for V-day this year.  Aaron went all sweet and included songs that are meaningful to us over the years.  He even recorded a couple that he played and sang and included them on the CD.  Did I go sweet?  Yeah not so much...started out nice but then took a turn to crazy obsessive love street!  Ahh...talk about going old school....  ;-)

(My 'Crazy Love' mix to Aaron is below.)

 

New Obsession...EOS Lipbalm - (Giveaway Post!)

It's been documented on my blog before but I am lip-gloss addicted.  About a month ago I came across a new to me 'chapstick' that just makes me happy.  It's EOS Lipbalm and comes in the cutest little egg shaped orb!  It's not a chapstick you can pop into your pocket because of the size/shape but it's one you can easily find when it falls to the bottom of your purse.  I started with the honeydew melon and have proceeded to collect 3 more flavors since--can you say obsessive?  I now see on their website there is a tangerine available, gotta have it!  I found my EOS at my local Rite Aid and Walgreens stores and they cost about $3 each.  It's very moisturizing and smooth and all the flavors have a good taste too.  I must say it's not the most long-lasting lip balm I've tried but it's so fun to put on I don't mind! 

And just for fun I picked up an extra EOS 'sweet mint' lip balm that I thought I'd give away to a blog reader!!  Just leave me a comment here on this post telling me what your favorite lip balm/lip gloss/lipstick is and you will be entered to win.  I will draw a name at random on Monday, Feb 21st at 9pm. Good luck!