Wanna lose a few pounds?

And no, I'm not going to get all infomercial on you.

I've lost 5 lbs. in a month. How did I do it? By chugging a TON of water throughout the day. I decided to quit feeling bloated and made a commitment to drink more water. It's worked. I know that the weight loss is just water weight, but I don't care. I feel healthier. My skin feels fantastic. It was just a great move.

Now if I could just lose more. Hopefully my thyroid will be nice to me and allow that to happen! ;)

It's done!

Remember this post?

Well, Richard worked his butt off this week and it's finished! Well, there's still stuff to be put on the walls, but I'm going to take my time with that.

Let me talk about colors. The baseboards and chair rail is white....as white as white can be. The walls are a color called "New Brick" by Behr paints. The ceiling is a color called "Chai Latte" and it's also Behr.

The inspiration for the dining room came from a show on TLC called "Moving Up". The specific episode was called "The Lottery Winners". I NEVER watch this show, but saw this episode and was inspired by the room on there.

She's still here....

I'm talking about my mom. I'm starting to notice how small the world really is and I think she has a hand in it. It gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling all over.

First of all, my sister will be going back to work soon. Their new house is being built and soon they will live about 20 miles from where they are now. Their house is on land that's been in our family for years. It belonged to my grandma and grandpa, got passed down to my dad, and now Lisa and Nate own it.

So, when it came time to decide who would take care of Brant, they came across an old friend of the family that we've known for years. In fact, she and her husband were big buddies with my parents long before Lisa and I were even born. They used to vacation together and everything. She's since lost her husband, but she will be the one keeping Brant during the day when Lisa and Nate travel doing home health. Strange, huh?

A while back, Nate's mom came to Austin for some sort of convention. She was sitting in a room full of hundreds of people. She sat by a lady and ended up talking to her and asked where she was from, etc. Turns out that they lady was my mom's best friend from high school! Nate's mom couldn't believe her luck! I mean, really. What are the chances of that happening?

It truly is a small world. I miss my mom dearly, but I know that she's watching over us. Even through all of the rough times in life, I feel tremendously blessed.

I, the babysitter.....

Aunt LaLa and Uncle Nate came up on Friday evening because they wanted to get some shopping done on Saturday. Guess who got to babysit for 5-6 hours on Saturday? The girls and I! They were so excited. Mr. Brant was very good and even had a few firsts. He's been pretty fussy on the initial formula, so they switched him. This picture was taken after a feeding when he was just so darn content and went back to sleep! And guess who took this picture? MAEVE! lol! Not bad, huh?

Since their vehicle was loaded down on Saturday, they left their 3rd seats here. She will come tomorrow and stay Tuesday night and Wednesday. We want to take the kiddos to the pumpkin patch here in town. After all, Brant needs some pumpkin pics too for his first Halloween!

We have a vistitor right now. Miss Calli got left behind. I *think* she's enjoying her time here. She pouted initially, but she's getting along with Mia and Zoe pretty well this time around. I'm sure she'll be happy to see her mommy again tomorrow though!

I couldn't make this stuff up.....

Maeve: "My bellybutton talks to me at night."

WTF?

"Zoe" by Kyra

***This is something that Kyra wrote the other day. I will type it as it's written. It's waaaaay too funny not to share.

I am Zoe. I live in (our hometown). Wach this I will stell food. My ownur said "Bad Dog go in your crate!" So I did. I don't know whey she is mean? I will try something els. I now I will rip the pellow. My oner said "Bad Dog go in your crate!" So I did. The next day I was calm. For now on I was a good dog.

Kyra LOVES writing stories. Below this one was a picture of Zoe with a pillow in her mouth! ;) I think she'll write quite a few childrens' books. Good. Maybe we'll all be rich one day!

Things I love.....

Some local DJs had this really cool idea to make a list of their favorite things (a la Oprah) and read it on the radio. I thought it would make a great blog post. After all, we all have our favorite things. Here are some of mine. To make it easier, I've hyperlinked everything that I could. Enjoy!

1.) I love itunes. I have it pulled up right now. I have no idea where my life would be without it. I don't want to know.

2.) I love my ipod video nano. From running to teaching at the gym, it really helps me out. Richard wanted to upgrade and I'm glad he did. It also makes learning my Body Flow choreography a breeze. I can take it anywhere.

3.) I love my Ryka N-Gage Studio shoes. I use them for any kind of floor aerobics or stepping that I do at the gym. I love them because they are very light. I got introduced to them by a professor that I had at A&M ages ago and I have loved them ever since. I tried a black pair once and now I'm hooked. I'll never buy white Rykas again! ;)

4.) I love my Saucony running shoes. I got introduced to them when I used to run with my boss in Victoria. She wore them and swore by them. The thing that I love most about them is that they are for bigger, wider feet. And they are affordable!

5.) I love my T-mobile Dash. Richard got it for me and at first I was skeptical, but it's really the best phone that I've ever had. It's Windows based and very ease to use. Thank God. That Treo drove me nuts. I could never figure it out. Richard got finally sold it because he didn't like it either! lol!

6.) I love Natalie Walker. I just discovered her music through itunes and love it. It's very soft and sensual. I think it would be well suited for Body Flow. I must let Jackie know. ;)

7.) I love massages. My friend Cherrie that I go to in Kyle is awesome. My back pain is almost gone. If I would have gone to the doctor, they would have given me muscle relaxers and sent me on my way. It's so refreshing to have someone want to take care of the root of the problem!

8.) I love the internet (duh!). Here are some of my favorite websites:
Perez Hilton
Dlisted
The Weather Channel
Games 2 Girls (a safe way to keep the girls occupied)
TWOP FNL forum

9.) I love Z' Tejas. If Richard and I ever have a night alone, this is where we eat. Their appetizers are the best. Shoot, I go there just for the skillet dumplings!

10.) I love my Dish DVR. It has made life a lot easier. The kids tape their shows and I tape mine. We never miss a show. You can record up to 100 hours. Oh, and every once in a while, one of Richard's shows stays taped on there. ;)

11.) I love Purpose Gentle Wash. One of the local DJs mentioned that his wife was using it. A dermatologist recommended it to her. This stuff is amazing! And it's cheap...$5.99! And you can find it at HEB or Walgreen's!

12.) I love my Ped Egg. Skeptical? I was too! But this thing works! I use it all of the time....in between my monthly pedicures.

13.) I love the Twilight book series by Stephenie Meyer. Thanks to Jen for getting me hooked!

14.) I love vinegar. I've decided to "go green" and wean away from all of the harsh cleaners. I use vinegar and water to clean my floors, so why not everything else? Plus, it's cheap!

15.) I love my digital camera. It's probably the best one that I've ever had.

16.) I love Jimmy John's. Their sandwiches are yummy! My favorite is the Beach Club. I wish they had a location down south for us!

17.) I love "Europop". These are pop groups from abroad. My favorites are Girls Aloud, Rogue Traders, and the Sugababes.

18.) I love Caffe D'Vita French Vanilla Cappuchino. You can get it at the grocery store where all of the coffee is. Instead of drinking it hot, I add water and ice to the powder and put it in the blender. It's soooo good. It's my newest obsession.

19.) I love "Friday Night Lights". Another given. I am watching new DirecTV episodes somewhere online. The rest of you can see it on NBC in the springtime. ;)

20.) I love Mary Kay cosmetics. I no longer have to go to the store to buy makeup. It comes to my front door! :)

21.) I love Gold's Gym. Duh! It's where I am mostly every day! And I teach there too!

22.) I love Les Mills fitness classes. My favorite class is Body Flow. And I teach it too!

23.) I love Bali bras. They fit wonderfully and look very sexy and feminine for us girls that are a little bit more endowed. ;)

24.) I love Opi nail color. The names of the nail colors crack me up every time. I want the job of naming them! Fun!

***I was trying to get to 25, but my list is complete! If you're reading this and are bored, then you make a list too! And then I want to read it!

Enjoy your weekend!

Hopefully, you'll have this stuck in your head all.weekend.long. Brings a smile to my face every time!

What kept my husband busy this week....

He worked on our dining room. It's no longer all plain walls anymore. Notice the chair rails! Next project is to paint the chair rails white. Above that the walls will be a brick red color. I have decided to paint the ceiling a very faint mustard color. The fan will go and be replaced with a hanging, elegant dining light. The table will eventually go too. It looks nice, but the kids have ruined it over the years. Luckily, their work isn't visible in this picture! lol!

And there you have our work in progress. More updates to come!

When radio was king....

I have wanted to post about this subject for a while now, but somehow never got around to it. That is until the emails between my dear friend Jen and I seemed to escalate. We share a lot of emails that begin with the words, "Gosh, do you remember this?" or "Holy crap! I haven't heard this one in a while!"

I'm talking about music. Mostly 80's music. Sure you hear some songs being played on the radio once in a while, but I'm not talking about those. I'm talking about the little gems that NOBODY plays anymore. I'm talking about one-hit wonders. I'm talking about the songs that were lesser known by popular artists. I'm talking about songs that you almost don't remember at all.

When I was a young girl, all we had was radio. Sure we had TV, but when we would sit in our rooms just being girls, the radio was on. We got to buy a cassette tape every once in while if we could convince mom to let us get one. Something I *do* remember is sitting by the radio with a blank cassette tape and listening to "Rick Dees Weekly Top 40" on the weekends. When a song that I liked came on, I recorded it off.the.radio. WOW. How times have changed. Now if we like a song, we go to itunes and download it. Then we transfer it to our ipod. If we want to burn to a CD, we create a playlist and hit a button. It's as easy as that. And let's talk about sound quality too. The music is crystal clear. Hearing music taped from the radio allows for very poor quality. But back then, we thought we were so cool!

It seems like there was more of a variety on the radio back then too. Now, we just hear the same songs over and over again. What's sad is that I wouldn't want to buy the songs/CDs that I hear on the radio because I get so sick of hearing them. Maybe we heard better music because it was the 80s and pop music was gaining popularity back then. Or maybe we heard better music because there wasn't all the "red tape" like there is now. In any case, radio was our life.

As for TV, this show was very popular in our house on Friday nights if we were lucky enough to stay up after my mom finished watching "Dallas" and "Falcon Crest". This was also something that we watched on TBS. In fact, I remember the day that we got cable and there were more than 13 channels on our TV!

I'm happy to say that radio is still an important part of my life. There's a lot of crap out there, but there's a lot of good stuff too. You just have to pick your battles. ;)