Booking It

3/366

Boys with Books

The theme for Friday was "This Year I'll..." 

After spending the better part of winter break doing what they wanted, play video games. I'm kind of over it.  I want to get out, I want to do things. I regret not doing more Christmas Festive things.  I sat in a quiet house, read 3 books, and didn't get much fresh air.  On one hand, we didn't get sick, like so many people we know.  On the other hand, I didn't spend as much time with family and friends like we like to.  I also enjoy seeing lots of Christmas lights, and visiting the museums all decked out for Festivity.   My kids don't care about that.  I'm sad about that.  

So this year, I'll...  Do what I want to do, by myself if I have to.  

Because they don't want to, if I ask.  But when I say I'm going to do this... then they want to.  It boggles my mind, and makes me Nutsy! 

Friday we met my Dad for lunch.  I wanted wings with my Dad.  I wanted to leave the house.  The kids didn't want to go initially, and were pretty rude about it.  But then when we got to Brozzini's, they were happy.  We were running late, because I couldn't find the pencils for my Stepmom, or the Barnes and Noble gift cards that we had received.  Because I was thinking after we headed to lunch, I wanted to go to Barnes and Noble.  We don't have near enough opportunity to head down to the Barnes and Noble. It isn't close, but now that I have three children who read; the library and bookstore are always big hits of places to visit.  They'd received Gift Cards for Christmas. 

After lunch, we had the opportunity to spend them. Jacob didn't have one, and he didn't have money, but I let him pick a book anyway.  Each one of us got to pick one thing.   We also picked up some nifty goodies for Cole, our nephew whose birthday was earlier this week, but his party was this weekend. Perhaps I went a little bonkers at the Book Store, but they always have a good time. 

Funny, how me requesting to do my favorite things, eventually results in smiles from them. 

I want wings and books, and even though they initially said no, they love it.  

And we stocked up on books!  They had fun after all, even though they got a little wild there at the end.  I shouldn't have taken them for cookies at Starbucks for good behavior.  Sugar and video games shouldn't be the right rewards for them.  Books are though, I didn't see them for the rest of the day because they were curled up reading their books, or using their Minecraft books to prepare for epic Minecraft battles. At least they are reading... even if it is to prepare them to be better gamers.

Black and White

2/366 

OK, since I'm off to a bit of a delayed Start on this Photo Challenge, I'm switching it up.  I technically took this photo of the boys Chilling and Snuggling on New Year's Day. 

 And To Post it on Instagram, I Black and Whited it.  But I figure that Counts. 

This is the Original. 

A Lot of Color.  

A Lot of Cuteness.  

p.s. they weren't really sleeping, just snuggling and giggling

My favorite sound in the world is them giggling.

Happy New Year!

1/366 

For Christmas I received a New Camera, so this year I'm going to work on it, take more Photos with it, and do the Photo A Day Challenge from Fat Mum Slim. 

Last year, I took photos, most likely daily, but I didn't post about them.  

This Year, by gum, I want to.  

In addition, my New Year's Goals, are to Exercise More.  When I weighed in yesterday, I had lost a net of 3 pounds in 2019.  Yeah, not so groovy.  I'm starting to feel the weight of being heavy.  Being down with this last surgery, I have not been able to bounce back like before. Last night, I started a Wall Sit Challenge I found on Pinterest.  And a 31 Day Challenge of 5 minute exercise boosts from LiveStrong Women.  The Exercise is only 5 minutes, but it made me break a sweat.  That's Enough for This Month.  I hope to also work my way up to completing a Couch 2 5K.  Eric's going to train for the Mini Marathon again, even though he's also committed to Serving on a VDC Weekend the same time, so he'll have to complete it Virtually.  But that's a thing he can do.   Meanwhile, I'll be happy to drop 10 pounds, maybe more, and get my butt off the couch.  

I want to get out with the Kids more.  

They've spent this Break playing Video Games.  

But that makes them happy.  

We talked them into playing some other games this week. 

This is my HAPPY Photo.  

Eric's Parents come over for New Year's Eve every year, and this one we took  as we watched the 

Ball Drop. 

This is more like it.  

Boys playing games.  

Star Wars Monopoly. 

I like this version so much better than the other one. 

This one is from this morning, just a bit ago, because they are HAPPY playing their Minecraft game. 

They did all their jobs in record time so they could play.   

That makes them happy, therefore, I'm happy.  

 Cheers to a New Year! 

Date Your Spouse

OK, I love to go out to eat.  You all know this.  

And May is my Month.  

I mentioned to Eric last month as May approached, that sometime in May I'd like to go have Sushi and Fogo de Chao. Unfortunately, birthday week barely went according to plan.  

So it wasn't until this week we got to go where we wanted.  

On Wednesday, Eric took me downtown for lunch.  

As we were going down Washington Street towards Fogo, I got a view of the tops of these buildings. I'm pretty sure our night at the Conrad down the street, we had views of their roofs from our room.  

I like this view too.  Sometimes when I'm downtown, I think how neat it would be to live down here. 

Expensive though. 

But oh the eats! 

I love Fogo - some days I just crave a pile of meat.  

Though their salad bar is good. 

I was so moved by the yummies since it had been a while since we'd been (maybe Rio Olympics, maybe Easter a couple years back, not sure), too long.   I tucked in, so did Eric. 

We went to town. I found myself wanting to only eat the beef.  

My favorite was the picanha, top sirloin.  

And this fella.  He and I both enjoy some good beast.  

It was so good.  

It's hard not to stuff yourself!

So we make sure, that after every time we go to Fogo, we get this Papaya Creme for dessert. 

It's like fruity ice cream, if we're good they'll top it with a little Cream de Cassis. 

 The story goes that inside papaya there are enzymes that aid in the digestive process.  I haven't researched that, but I will say, I've been here on days that I get the Papaya Creme, and I have days where I don't.  Let's just say that on the days we get the Creme, even if we have absolutely no room, I feel better when we go home.  I love the meat so much, I stuffed myself. But I fill in the gaps in my stomach with this ice cream, and it works. Not sure how.  But I love it.

Take the circle north. 

We enjoyed our lunch so much that when it was time to leave, we realized Eric had a meeting in Carmel, and we had to drive up there directly to drop him off.   So we took Meridian straight up. We never do that.  It was actually a nice drive up there, the bummer was staying there until rush hour and having to navigate back in that traffic with construction.  Good thing I'd had an amazing lunch. 

Two dates in one week! 

Yesterday, I had to go to Carmel again.  It's an even longer story.  Let's just say my Doctor is making me jump through a lot of hoops, so I had to get to get a little work done.  I had it done last year, and it was by far the worst procedure I'd ever had done.  I anticipated feeling pretty terrible afterwards.  So I figured we'd have lunch together afterwards.  However, this procedure wasn't as bad as last year.  

I didn't feel so terrible.  

Eric suggested sushi. 

We'd tried Miracle Sushi last year for the first time on our 20 dates for 20 years. 

And it was so Good, I wanted to go back. 

So I put it on our Date List for this year.  

The goal being that we want to go on at least want to go on one date a month. 

For our mental health. 

So Miracle Sushi it was. 

Two salads. 

I love Seaweed Salad.  

Eric seemed to recall us trying this seafood salad, which was cucumbers, tuna, salmon in a hint of spicy sauce.  We got both.  And they were GOOD!

Isn't that Pretty! 

The White and Green was the Miracle with white tuna and wasabi. 

The Crispy Unagi was covered with our favorite, Eel.  

We got a fancy spider roll called the Creamy Crab.  

And E always has to get spicy things, so we got a Spicy Californian.  

We ate well and it was good. 

I can't wait to go back. 

I want to go back right now. 

The Mixtape Tour

For my Birthday, Kathleen wrote me and asked if I wanted to go to the New Kids On The Block Mixtape Tour show that was coming this weekend.  

I was like YES!!! 

Then I realized we had other things going, but blessedly, my family and Kathleen were flexible, and we were able to make it all happen.  

So she kidnapped me and we went downtown for my Ultimate Youth Extravaganza! 

Picture it - NKOTB, Debbie Gibson, Tiffany, Salt -n-Pepa, and Naughty by Nature. 

It was Cathy of 1991's Ultimate Dream Come True! 

There was so much Awesome stuff!  

It was Vintage Awesome. 

Going in, I decided I wanted a Concert T-shirt.  

I had never seen any of these performers live before.  We had always been too broke to ever see NKOTB in concert, ever.  Nor get a fancy Tshirt if I was privileged to go to a Concert. 

So Kathleen and I waited in the world's longest line to get a T-shirt.  

We got matching T-shirts.  Because we haven't done that in a while. Also, waiting in line wasn't too terrible because I had so much fun people watching. #GeekingOut

Would it be terrible to hunt them down at a different concert and go again?!

Oh yes, we're ready now! 

And yes, I'm totally sporting my vintage hypercolor t-shirt that I pulled out of the bag of stuff I want to make into a quilt, but haven't yet.  Don't think I will with this one.  <3

Beautiful lights. 

So, there was this app that NKOTB recommended.  It didn't want to cooperate on my phone, but in theory, it turned on the flashlight for all participants.  It worked for Kathleen. I just opted to take a photo of everyone else's. 

They gussied up the Stage so it looked like a Mix Tape. 

Brilliant! 

The lights and confetti, how fun is this?!  

It really was the most amazing concert.  

Debbie Gibson sat down at the piano for her second performance, and started playing Lost in your eyes.  At which point, Joey McIntyre came out and began singing with her. 

And I cried. 

It was the most awesome duet ever.  

Even though I couldn't really hear it well, I still cried.

So truthfully, the sound kind of sucked.  Can you even tell which songs these are? 

I don't know if you can, or if not.  I could, because they've been driven into my bones. 

That's what growing up in the 80s and 90s was. 

True great music driven into our bones.  

And half of them came back to town on this night.  

So freaking awesome. 

I didn't go to any concerts between Weird Al and the Monkees in 1987, and John Denver in 1993. 

I was never cool, I never got invited, and we were broke.  

That's a crucial thing for a teenager to miss.   I don't doubt I missed out.  

But this event, this amazing gift, I made up for it all one night. 

For once, I got to be one of the cool kids. 

And it was Awesome.  

Thank You Kathleen. <3

A Quiet Day at Home

2/365

We did nothing most of the day .  We worked on putting things away on New Year's Day.  

And Daddy had to go to back to work today.  

It was weirdly quiet all day.  The kids were doing their own thing, playing with presents, being quiet.  It was weird all day.

Except this one.

Of an entire nicely organized closet for him to choose

But what he really couldn't wait to wear....

his new yellow bathrobe.  

And just so you know, I love his baby curly hair.  

Liquid Resolutions

1/365

It's a New Year, another year for great New Year's Resolutions.   I always get a little overwhelmed when thinking about what I want to do in the new year.   It never fails I fizzle out come spring.  This year I decided to participate in my Young Living Leadership Support Team Challenges for January.  I can commit to a month.

One diamond leader is doing a Water Challenge.  I've done this before... but always in summer.  I'd not thought of upping my water intake in winter.  Rather brilliant really.  I know the effects.  I guess I'm so dehydrated, I'm just not thinking that something as simple as water is what I need.  But I do.  So I am all in.  In fact, I just pulled my decorated jug out of the cabinet, didn't add anything fancy.  I've done this before, set the numeric goal, drink half of my body weight in ounces of water per day. Gotta tell you, after hopping on the scale this morning, that number was HIGH.   But I've been eating Holiday style for days, and my body is done, I just need to stay home. And that is the Plan. Luckily, we have little going on, so staying home and drinking  and peeing all the time sounds Great. 

Step 1 - Water with a drop of Slique Essence Essential Oil blend.  

This blend contains Grapefruit, Tangerine, Lemon, Spearmint, Ocotea, and a tad of Stevia extract.

It's refreshing, and balancing to the blood sugar, while supporting the whole body during weight loss. 

So, I thought I'd start my day with this. 

130 ounces is a Lot of Water. 

Plus, I've been sick. 

Even my tissues are talking to me. 

I'm tired of being sick and tired. I'm weaning off the prednisone and I feel terrible. 

I lost my voice right after Christmas. Drinking and peeing all this toxic crud out of my body sounds Fantastic.

The other YL leader Challenge is a Ningxia Red challenge.  That one won't be hard for me to hit, as I've been drinking it daily since I started feeling crummy anyway.  I don't have stash enough to get all 5 of us going on it. I should've started drinking it in November to keep my immune system supported through the season, maybe I wouldn't have gotten sick at all.  Who knows? 

I want to jump start my YL business again, I want to get off my duff, I want to take more photos, (thus starting the count again), and I want to do these drinking challenges.  

Hopefully,  the combination of these liquids, drinking good things will lead to getting healthier, and moving my butt will help me lose weight too.  These are all my New Years goals.  Wish me luck!