10 things worth blogging about:: Day 3

Women Food and God.
this book deserves its own blog post.

 

my friend April lent me this book. 

I'm not huge on self-help books. i usually zone out while reading them. I like novels about drama and love and mushy crap.

BUT

this book is awesome.

it's a completely different approach on weight loss. it's basically mental therapy. you can't lose weight and keep it off or be healthy til you love yourself, which is mental. this book focuses on just that. loving yourself, focusing on NOW, accepting what you've been given, and just to appreciate being alive. it teaches some great concepts. we get so caught up in the daily war against our bodies, that we forget what truly beautiful things they are. we also fail to notice life going on around us when all we care about is our size and how we'll never be good enough.

its like this book spoke straight to me.

it was relieving, and at times i felt free, like a big weight was lifted off of me.

its so hard these days to not compare ourselves to others. and since there is so much emphasis on our appearances, those of us who struggle with weight feel ugly and not as important. through pretty simple and what seem like common sense methods, this book teaches how to be happy. even though it does seem like common sense, its crazy how hard these concepts are. for so long, i've been fighting against myself, placing myself worth on how much i weigh. its hard to break free of that type of thinking, but she writes about how to do it. it's a very interesting book. she gets a little weird at times, with meditation and religion stuff, but basically it  boils down to learning to love yourself again.

i know i need to read this book probably like 6 more times to fully soak in all its wisdom and advice.

She also writes other books about food and eating and bodies. I want to get my hands on those too!

10 things worth blogging about:: Day 2

Spring.

I love spring more and more every year. This year a lot for some reason. There's something about the earth coming to LIFE again after dreary months of deadness. I love me a good dead tree , don't get me wrong, but somedays I felt that if I looked at another dead tree, i'd punch someone in the face! And that's never healthy. So, when the blossoms started coming, something woke up inside of me, like i think it does everyone in the spring. 

Spring doesn't last long here. Before you know it, the blazing heat settles in. And walks to the park are no longer possible. You have to spend your days at the pool or inside. I'd rather deal with a hot, hot summer than 6 months of a stinky, cold winter.

But for now, I'm going to enjoy the warm, fresh breeze, blue skies, birds chirping, sleeping with my windows open, kids on bikes, kites in the sky, and blossoms. blossoms everywhere!

10 Things worth blogging about:: Day 1

I always have about a billion things that i want to blog, but then when it comes down to it, i never follow through with those intentions. so, right now i'm going to give you 10 things that i think are worth blogging about. Actually I've decided I'm just gonna give you one of them a day because really, it will take too long for me to fit this into one post.


1)  PCOS--

 i have it. It means "polycystic ovary syndrome". I have been officially diagnosed with it. Its bittersweet knowledge for me. bitter because well, it SUCKS. it sucks that i'll have to battle this for the rest of my life. Sucks that regular women don't have to deal with this stuff. Sucks that weight will always be an issue with me. Sweet because now i know what the crap is going on with me. the moodiness, crazy periods, painful cramping all month, the short battle with fertility i had, the weight gain, tiredness/no energy/no motivation, depression, and other cool things. Here's the textbook definition: Polycystic ovary syndrome is a condition in which there is an imbalance of a woman's female sex hormones. This hormone imbalance may cause changes in the menstrual cycle, skin changes, small cysts in the ovaries, trouble getting pregnant, and other problems.
The way the Dr. explained it to me made sense. She said I'm insulin resistant , meaning my body doesn't get how to use sugar. It tells my body it wants sugar and carbs (ahem, cravings) and I'll give them to my body, and my body doesn't really get how to use them, so it stores it as fat (weight gain), then it tells my body that i want more sugar because the sugar i just gave it didn't register to it...okay, well it makes sense in my head . Apparently this is hereditary and 1 in 10 women have it. It's something i was born with and will have for the rest of my life, although it can be treated. They put me on the birth control to even my cycles out and after a few months of that, they'll start me on metformin , which will help my body control and use sugar. I actually know of 4 girls who have this, its more common than people think. I also think people have this and don't know it lots of the time, too. Anyway, it sucks BUT i am thankful that i live in this day. A day with internet, countless facebook pages, blogs and kind people to support and help each other with crappy disorders, illnesses or problems. yes, a  lot of drama can stem from it, but a lot of good come from it too. I don't have to feel so alone in this, and I am thankful for that.

American Idol 2012

if you know me at all you know that i can go the WHOLE YEAR without watching TV, but when its American Idol time, i mean serious business. before we got DVR, let me tell you how much heartbreak missing this show caused me. waaaaay back in 2009 (haha), we'd record it on video tapes, (well one video tape that we'd use again and again) and eventually those video tapes got really crappy so half of the show would be messed up or cut off. it was a sad, sad part of my life. BUT NOW we have DVR, the magical magical DVR! we record it, wait til the kids are in bed and with no interruptions, we bask in the beauty and magic that IS american idol. I kind of love this show a lot.

Tonight,  I am bringing to you, my opinions (which are like gospel truth facts and feelings) about each of the american idol contestants this year!


this is the order they uploaded in and i'm not changing it

okay
#1 Erica Van-Pelt

 Erica. This girl is okay. I don't feel too strongly about her either way. I feel like she could give us more. All i really hear with her is a deep alto voice. She's not one of my favorites, but she seems like a nice girl.



 #2
Phillip Phillips

He gets two pictures because he is my favorite. I love him so much. I've loved him from the time he first auditioned with his own version of michael jackson's thriller. this guy is amazing and different and HOT. he takes every song and does his own growly, hot thing with it. his eyes, his face, his scruff, his chest hair that sometimes sticks out, his passion for his music, his non-dramatic easy going personality, EVERYTHING about him i totally love. He's only 21, so i feel like a cougar lusting after him the way i do :( I even had a dream about him the other night. I had a dream i saw him on a TV show and i screamed "there's phillip!" THEN somehow i got to meet him in real life. i confessed my love for him, but i could tell he didn't feel the same. and the way i could tell that is because next thing i knew i was being ravaged by a pack of hungry vampires. Phil had the choice to save me but chose not to! what a jerk! i can't help but feel a little bit mad at him now when i see him perform. But i still love him and want to jump his bones! eeeeee!! andrew knows about this, so settle down. i told him he gets to choose one celebrity that he likes and talk about her non-stop the way i talk about phillip.


#3 Joshua i forgot his last name.

This guy is cute and sweet but sorry, forgettable to me. The one time he impressed me was last week when he sang "when a man loves a woman". i actually got goosebumps, it was that good. he sings like church gospel choir type music which doesn't do much for me. there isn't much more to say about him, really. he's not one of my faves.

#4
Colton Dixon

Colton, ahh. He's cute! i love his dark brown eyes so much. but not as much as philip. yes, colton appears to be taller than Phil, but i don't care. Colton is my other guy favorite. he's punk rocky and modern. he puts his own style on everything he sings. even if i've never heard the song he sings, i still like it. now THAT'S a good artist in my opinion. (phil does it too!) I think he'll go pretty far in the competition because he's cute and modern and he's what you'd want to hear on the radio.

#5
Elise Testone.

 She is one of my girl favorites. Her last name really bugs me though, sounds like testosterone. that aside, i love her. i feel like she NEVER gets the credit she deserves. she's seriously talented and fun to listen to, but for some reason, america is not voting for her. She's another one of those singers that can make any song sound good and interesting to me. i would love to see her win, but unfortunately i don't know if she'll make it too far which ISN'T FAIR! i want to punch the TV, its just not right!


#6
Heejun Han 

 I used to like his voice, but every week i'm liking it less. his asian accent kind of gets in the way of his singing and bugs me.. BUT i love his personality. He's so funny and sarcastic. one of this mentors was confused by him and said this isn't a comedy show. psshh why can't there be funny people on it? And this week, Steven Tyler said he needs to take his music more seriously. that may be true, but he sure is hilarious and therefore entertaining. i honestly don't know how much further he'll make it.


#7
Holly Cavanaugh 

 I like her and have liked her from her first auditions also. She's this cute really really little thing that can BELT.IT.OUT. I love her tone of voice. its sort of celine dion-ish, but better sounding in my opinion. i'm not a huge celine dion fan.  i can't figure her out though because sometimes she talks normal and other times she has this accent where she can't say her r's or certain sounds...weird. but that doesn't interefere with her singing. i think she'll make it pretty far too.

#8
DeAndre i don't know his last name

 I don't care too much for him. well, actually i'm liking him more and more. he seems like a cute sweet kid. he will sometimes sing in this high pitched falsetto voice which bugs, but he's pretty good.. not one of my faves though.


#9
Jessica Sanchez

 I think she might win. She is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO(a million more o's) GOOD. i mean GOOD. she's 16 i think and holy crap. she sang whitney houston and killed it (in a good way). she's got it all. she can growl, she can go way up and way down, she has a pretty and modern tone to listen to, and she's sings so mature! its nuts! i think she'll win!!! one of my faves too.

#10
Skylar something

Not a huge fan, and i think its just because of her face! ahhhh i'm horrible right? but for real, if i don't look at her, she's pretty good. i don't like girl country singers very much though. and she is the epitome of girl country. she's like reba mcentire (however the crap you spell that). i'm a little bothered that america loves country music so much. i am still pissed that scotty won last year. she has way more talent than scotty but she's obnoxious with that country twang. she's actually not bad though. the audience and judges love her, so i think she'll go far.




and there are my opinions. top faves are: 1) Phillip 2) Elise 3) Colton 4) Jessica 5) Holly.


k, do you watch idol? i know of ONE of my friends who watches it. yeah that's you staci!!!
i wanna hear your opinions--but only if they agree with mine ;)

hahahaha but it's kinda true!!

St. P's Day!

Anyone who knows me, knows that holidays are a BIG DEAL at our house. Mason wasn't too enthused, but jax had a blast! the leprechaun surprised him with a treasure hunt, we had a green dinner and ate rainbow cupcakes!

Vegas, Biotches!

today i told myself i would blog. to me, that's something that's always on my to-do list and here i am, crossing something off!

a couple weeks ago, we were so lucky to be able to go on a little vacay WITHOUT THE KIDS! yes! My brother and new sister in law's christmas present to us was to watch the kids for a couple nights while we went somewhere...yeah talk about a HUGE christmas present, huh? We were so excited to use it. Since we had credits that were going to expire through Worldmark, we decided to go to vegas!

Andrew & I had more fun than we've had in a long long long time!

see, who says you can't find beauty on the trip to Vegas?

i do admit its one of the ugliest most boring car rides though!

crazy windstorm on the way there...

PF CHANGS....whaaat?

yep, thats right.

 

yes, that is our reflection, and yes andrew is wearing my purse around vegas!

i assured him that there is enough weirdness there that no one will possibly notice his man purse.

everytime i want to set up my tripod! just imagine the possibilities.. 

guess where we went? a seafood buffet! yep. i hate seafood. i love ALL food, except seafood! so imagine our surprise! p.s. don't go to the buffet in the flamingo..well unless you like seafood!

my first ever bloody mary. have you ever tried one? well, don't. take my word for it.

unless you love to drink spicy V-8 juice just for the fun of it, don't bother.

we about died when we saw this sweet puppy! he is so cute! i did get a picture by him, but i look super chubby, so you don't need to see it.

no, we didn't go to a stripper bar! i know that you were secretly hoping for more pictures of that..nope. this was just what we saw for about an hour while we waited in line for Marc Savard's comedy hypnotist show! it was sooooo sooooo sooooo much fun! we laughed til we cried. Andrew actually went up on stage at first and tried his hand at being hypnotized. while i was really really hoping it would work, (because he needs the relaxation more than anyone on that stage), nope, it didn't. but i'm glad we got to watch the show together!

 

thank you so much carson and whitney for watching the chiglets so we could do this!!!!!! we love you!