Been a while, but summer is here!

So it's been a while since I've been on, getting the end of the school year finished up. So here's my updates....

tay has ended 7th grade. It was a rough year but she made it through. She has accepted that school is just going to get harder..just as life does..and really wants to go to a specific private high school so she is going to be working hard towards that goal next year. I can't believe that I have to start applying for high school for her next year. Crazy!

She finished out her volleyball season and had a great time. She does love the competitive sport but wishes that her team was more competitive. There were some new girls on the team and they never quite got that competitive edge to them. I was disappointed and expressed it to the coach. It is quite expensive to play these sports and you just want to see the team as a whole building up towards something. Tay did improve quite a bit and while she is not the tallest kid..she loves playing the net and has an awesome jump. She is also quite the libero. We are on the fence for next year, but I'll probably have her try out for more than just her reqular team. Just to see what is out there.

She recently tried out for a comptetitive soccer team and made it. It is very exciting for her as soccer is her first love. I like this team because they play local teams only. No extended travel. Plus they are offering a free soccer camp over the summer. Mommy loves her freebies! This soccer team will play all the way thru december so this ought to keep us quite busy.

She is also looking at going to a few camps but we will see how the money tree shakes down. Right now the fruit is not in season. LOL.

We have adopted a new cat, renamed from baby girl to cookie, and she is driving me crazy. She is so mean to my cat and she misses the litter box ALOT! I have to remember that she was not treated very well at her last home but she's working my last nerve. I am trying to break her this weekend and it isn't going very well. I have moved the litter box outside and sent her out to do her business. Keep your fingers crossed she doesn't have an accident tonight. Oh and did I mention she has no teeth and has to eat soft food. UGH! Such a softie, I know.

Job is going well. Just completed my 14th year and got my super 14 award at this years graduation ceremony. This year I helped the parents organize graduation and got a taste of whats to come next year. I think I might spend the whole year crying. oh well. Due to my lack of vacation last summer I MUST take time off this summer even though I am broke. So I will spend some time organizing my house and hopefully have a garage sale later in the summer. I will also be travelling to so cal with my cousin and aunt to look at colleges for her. From malibu to san Diego. Although I think my aunt is more interested in disneyland. How to explain I don't have the $$ for disney. Still working on that!

On the personal front...I'm still fat. I own it and I would love for a magic pill cause this eating right and excercising thing is really not working for me. I never really got back into the gym after my injury. I do walk while tay is at soccer and log in every good and bad thing I eat. I have good days and bad. I know it's a mind set and while I wish I was in better shape, I have very little incentive mentally to get off my ass and do something about it. Oh except for living longer blah blah blah.

We are still on for our hawaiian vacation this fall. I guess thats another reason to drop some poundage. I'm ready to go back to hawaii. it's been a while and I've missed it. I'm excited over the hawaii property. It'll be nice to be able to get last minute airfare and free hotel.

That's it for now. Hope you all have a great summer.

Back from Vacation and had a whale of a good time!

Just back from our land and sea disney vacation this past spring break and I already wish I was going right back again. Tay and I had a great time and the best part was no rushing thru airports and long transfers. We just drove to socal disney, something we do anyways and from disneyland it was a quick trip (with stops) to the port. It was so lovely to see that boat in the harbor.

Here's the rundown with limited pics ( I forgot my camera and relied on my iphone)

We left our home and my booboo kitty in the dark of night with all intentions on being early into the park. Tay slept the whole way down, lucky girl. It was a pretty uneventful drive with a couple of cars swerving at times. I like driving in the middle of the night, less traffic and no whiny kid. I stopped for gas/coffee at magic mountain around 6am and got to disneyland around 7am. A nice traffic free drive. We were staying at the Villas at Grand California, DVC's new addition to the Grand California Hotel. I gave my bags to the bellhop and moved our car to the free guest parking across the street. I decided to take a quick 20 min cat nap since the park didn't open until 8am. Tay was wide awake now and let me get a quick "zzzz". We headed over to DL and walked right in at 7:55am. I was trying to get something to eat quickly but nothing opened until 8am. In retrospect it was a good decision as our first ride was space mountain and it left me a tad queasy. I have noticed that the rollercoaster rides are now leaving me feeling ugh when I get off of them. It's a bummer but I'm sure comes with my old age. I think thats why my favorite ride is toy story mania now. Mellow shooting game..aahhh

Tay and I had finished out all of the main rides and headed over to California Adventure right as they opened.

As we were waiting in line for Screamin' tays dad called to let us know they had arrived. Tays dad, stepmom and stepbrother were meeting us down in DL. They had to leave later as R made it into the science fair the night before. We did a couple of more rides at CA Adventure then headed over to meet up with dads fam in DL.

First ride was Matterhorn. R was very excited! We padded around both parks until our room was available. Downside of DVC at DL is they clean those rooms last and they are NOT available until after 4pm! We got the call at 4:05 that the room was ready. We headed over, had the bags delivered and got in our suits to head to the pool. Did I mention that it was freakishly hot on friday. R stayed in the room while the adults and tay headed to the pool for swimming and cocktails, shirley temple for the kid. It was nice to relax before heading over to the park again. We went back around and split off..I came back to the room at 10pm while the rest went to ride space mountain. Our room at the VGC was beautiful. A balcony overlooking World of Color so I sat in the room watching the show while getting ready for the next day. We had early entry to the park at 7am. Up early saturday morning to hit the park running. We had a big day saturday. Hit all the non fastpass rides in the morning then did the plaza character breakfast.

Then off to ca adventure to get our fast passes for world of color. Tays dad had never been to Ca Adventure and R hadn't been to DL since he was 6 so he barely remembered. It was fun to see the park with newbies. I love their excitement and enthusiasm. Once again we took a break in the middle of the afternoon. It wasn't warm enough to swim on saturday but J and I took a cat nap. Tays dad headed off to watch the muppets and then we were supposed to meet up with him to watch aladdin. Unfortunately he had R's ticket on him. After a little begging the lovely ladies at the gate allowed us to enter the park w/o a ticket for R. Tays dad did not have a phone but luckily tay got her had stamped from CA Adventure. PHEW! Needless to say R's mom collected his ticket and kept it with her. After Aladdin we went to ESPN zone to have a nice relaxing dinner with many drinks. I love vacation! We headed back to CA to watch world of color and then once again called it a night. Another early entry day on sunday and they we were going on a BOAT!

Sunday we all did early entry to get some final rides at DL. After that tays dad and his fam left us to head out to the boat while tay and I headed to CA Adv. to do some final rides. I wanted to ride Toy Story and Tay wanted to do screamin' . We finished in just enough time to get back to the room and check out at 10:59am! The night before tay had fallen with her phone in her hand and completely destroyed it. On top of some underwire issues I was having, we decided to pack the car and head out to do some errands before the boat.

My plan was to arrive late to the ship for 2 reasons...1. I didn't want to hit another 24 hour period for parking, save myself 12 bucks! and 2. I wanted to carry my bags on straight to my room. This was selfish as I just didn't want to pack my bags to protect breakables. Thank goodness for a stop at Macy's and AT&T. We arrived at the port at 2pm. Perfecto! No lines, no waiting, just picked up our Key to the World card and headed on board. Straight to our room. Dropped the bags and went to go find everyone. Found tays dad making sure his lifejacket was proper. Even thought you don't need to wear it to the drill he wanted to check them out. Below is a video of how he felt about us making fun of him.

I went to the disboards meet but briefly. Met my dinner companion and some other nice people. We stayed up on deck for the sailaway party for a sailway that didn't happen right away! I went down to my room to unpack after the party and an hour later found us still in port for some unknown reason. We met up with tays dad, j and r for the show and then dinner that night. Once again I found myself in a new situation. The bumpy sea was messing with me. This was new to me. It took a day to get my "sea legs" but thankfully they arrived. It was pretty bumpy that night however it rocked me to sleep! The next day was a sea day and a little chilly so I did alot of inside things in the morning. Trivia, DVC meeting, more trivia. Later in the afternoon, I took tay to the sports deck to play capture the flag and as usual she made fast friends. That night at dinner was the last night we saw tay. She was off with her middle school BFF's she had made. Tuesday we arrived in Cabo, a little late and lots of long lines for tenders but it was no sweat for me as I had no intention of leaving the boat!

The view from our SPH room on the boat in Cabo. It was gorgeous this day. I put on my suit and headed up to the pool to find a mecca of chairs and just a few people. A true luxury on a packed cruise ship. I spent my day at the pool, to only leave to refill my drink or grab a snack. Tay was off with friends. This pattern repeated itself on wednesday in Puerto Vallarta. My view was not so great this day as they were doing maint. outside my window most of the day. Thankfully since I was at the pool I didn't care. They had extended our day in PV that morning to a 10pm onboard. Had I known this in advance I would have done some research and planned an authentic dinner of the ship but no internet met dinner onboard. Tay went off with her dad and fam to go ziplining for the day. She came back tired and cranky. She didn't have alot to say about ziplining. But I found out later that if there was no hiking involved it would have been more fun. Talk about lazy kids.

Sea day on thursday and pirate night. Now at this point in the vacation I started to get a sore throat. Thinking nothing of it, just overdoing drinking talking etc. Little did I know....

Friday we were in cabo again and I had heard that many people were staying on the ship which prompted me to leave and walk around for a bit. Tay and I headed out with the Hughes Clan to check out cabo. It was pretty hot and the kids were kinda whiny, but it was pretty. We ended up getting a beer and some snacks at CaboWabo, some cough drops at the pharmacia and then went back to the ship. We saw a seal/sea lion playing in the water as we headed back to the ship.

Such an awesome boat! I went back up to the pool deck and right back into my tanning mode. As usual I have noticed that my age is making my skin burn instead of tan right away, but I did get a great tan for a week. I should have gone to the tanning booth before but oh well. On our way out of Cabo we saw whales. Below is a video and If you can look beyond my crappy iphone skills and my reflection in the window you will see what they were doing for a while alongside the boat. It was awesome!
It became super windy that afternoon..I mean SUPER windy. Everything blowing everywhere so my tanning was over :( In fact most of the outdoor deck activities were over. It was so cold and windy as we headed back to LA. Saturday was more of the same. At one point Pat, Nolan and I went to the front of the ship and watch nolan waving in the wind. Hysterical! This was the last night and I made tay come to dinner for a bit. She was waiting for her friend to finish and once they were both done they headed off to edge for the final night. We relaxed and finished up dinner. I went back to the room to pack up for the next day and then headed down to pub night with kim. My favorite night on the ship. If I were not upon the sea..... My cold had come on full force now and I was regretting not getting antibiotics in mexico. The next morning we headed down to breakfast with our luggage for our last meal on the wonder.

Tay and her shipboard BFF! They were sad to leave each other at the end but she lives close so there is hope they will have a playdate!

Since Tay and I had our bags we could leave anytime we decided. So after breakfast we headed off the ship. Tays dad had not been called and we actually walked off briefly with the hughes but got seperated at immigration. There was a small line to show your passport and then we walked out of the port, saying goodbye to the ship and hello to our very dirty car in the lot. It took a little time to get out of the parking lot then we were on our way home. Tay slept for about 4 hours in the car. Which was nice because I didn't look forward to the "are we there yet" and "i'm hungry" utterances.

All in all a fabulous vacation. So great that we rebooked for next spring break. I doubt we will do disneyland too but we'll see. Maybe next year we'll stop and do universal studios. I haven't been there in a LONG time. Long time to plan. Fun things to do. And once again a reminder that I used my disney time share to pay for this vacation. My cash out of pocket for the whole trip including gas/parking was under $500. That's a great deal for 10 days! If any of you are considering DVC, don't forget to say my name! Pay it forward. Our next vacay will be a trip to our new home resort on the island on oahu later this year. Cya later!

I'm Baaaacck!

I'm happy to report that the cast is off and I'm walking, driving and most importantly back in the gym. I am extremely happy to report that even thought I didn't workout for 4 weeks (28 days to be exact) I only gained 1lb but lost body fat. AND let me tell you I didn't exactly eat super healthy while I was laying on my ass on the couch.

Today, while at the gym, a trainer told me to up my strength workout and I will stat seeing more of a difference in my overall weight loss and body fat regardless of what I eat. However he did stress that if I ate better overall I would be on a quicker loss. I know I know, it's just so hard!

To celebrate my cast removal I headed to tahoe with tay and some friends over presidents weekend. Tay had been sick for quite a while so it was nice to see her feeling better and excited to head to the snow. It has been extremely cold her in cali and tahoe was getting quite a dumping of fresh powder. It took 5 hours to get up and I'm pleased that we decided to leave friday morning instead of thurs. night. Most of the people I knew that left thurs were sitting in massive traffic and the fastest anyone got up was 9 hours! We arrived to lots and lots of snow. Tay was thrilled. We went to get ski's for tay and cash at the atm then lunch. The girls put on their snow gear and headed outside with sleds for a bit while the rest of us chilled inside. Since I had just gotten my cast off and still had a limp I was being extra careful. No snow play for me.

Saturday morning tay, em and ben headed out to ski. Tay had not been for a year, but em and ben are experts. It was kind of them to work with tay and help her along. She had a great time. They came home and we changed and headed out to reno to see Elton John at the Reno Events Center. Since there was a severe winter storm J had booked a hotel that night so we didn't have to drive back that night. The concert was good. He played for 3 hours lots of old, classics along with some newer songs. Tay had a good time but was tired at the end of the night.

Sunday we headed back to incline from reno. Once there the girls played in the snow again while we packed up. Due to the high number of people in the area and the storm we decided to head home sunday night and once again avoid the long traffic home. It turned out to be the right decision as it only took us 3 hours to get home! Giving me plenty of time monday to start back at the gym (pilates in the am and toning at night) and cleaning and laundry. Plus tay had a ton of homework to catch up on before school on tuesday.

Tay is plugging along at volleyball. She missed a tournament due to her illness but she went back to practice this week. Softball also started this week. It's nice to see her healthy again. She is getting very excited for our vacation next month then she is off with her classmates to washington dc for a week. She can't wait for either.

I am back at the gym but no cardio yet. Doc said to take it slow for another 4 weeks...no dance :(
I will be doing lots of weightlifting and some light cycling and walking on the treadmill. Again, not where I wanted to be for vacation but at this point i'm just glad I'm not on crutches on a cruise ship!

I was contacted by old vacation friends to see if we want to meet up next feb to vacay again. It's very attractive. I'm going to book while onboard to get a discount but we'll see if it works out. Tay has a huge paper due at that time. She will have to be totally on her game in order for us to consider missing a few days of school. We'll see. As it is we are already heading to hawaii with her cousin at thanksgiving and just before that tay is headed to oregon to the shakespeare festival with her class. Lots of travelling in our future.

Here's hoping March marches right on by so vacation will be here before I know it!

A giant setback....

My lofty goals of being gym bound daily have been thwarted by a ridiculous injury. Let me share my stupid story!

My gym had a contest that started in January. Lose the most body fat and win a big fat cash prize. There are 3 places overall for male and female members over the whole company (40 locations) and then each gym has individual winners and there is an overall prize for a "trip" to hawaii...I read about that and it's really just $1000 towards a trip, but I'll take it. Even though I go to the gym regularly, I don't go with any friends but I usually work out with the same people. So due to this contest I got aquainted with several other participants. We decided we would form a team to help each other along, cheer up and text to make sure we are all going to the gym regularly if not together. All is going according to plan..daily texts to see when we are going to be at the gym, healthy diet and excercise. I have done my initial weigh in and body fat..too depressing to mention, and then at my second one I had lost 3lbs and 1% of BF. Not the start I was looking for but a good start none the less. The following monday I am in my weight training class with ruby and we are having a good time. We were 45 minutes into class when Hailey came to the door and started teasing us and we were giving back to her...and I decide to start jumping up and down like a jackass and next thing I know...POP goes my calf muscle. I have never felt this kind of pain before. Now I don't want to stop the class for everyone so I scoot over to the corner to see if I can stretch out my leg, but nothing is working. I can barely walk and the pain is just getting worse and even more horrible is Zumba is next and the line to get in is sooo long. Well my class ends and I make my way out. H and R and a couple of others are offering to help me but I don't want them to have to miss zumba so I decline and suck it up and hop out of the class. It takes me a good 15min. to get to my car and I pretty much ready to hurl from the pain. As soon as I get in my car I just start bawling. I'm no wuss but this is bad. I call my friend whose a doc and she recommends a trip to the ER, I call my friend whose a PE teacher and she says Ice/break/heat repeat, I call my brother whose telling me to go to the ER also. BUT I'm CHEAP and there is not giant copay in my future. Luckily I have crutches in my garage leftover from a previous knee surgery. I get home ice/heat etc. and hobble on crutches to my room. Then next morning...I can't stand up. The pain is still incredible. I send tay off to school with carpool and call urgent care. Flashforward a couple of days and the diagnosis is Acute Calf Sprain. Doesn't that sound so stupid. Treatment...wearing an aircast, using crutches, pain meds and muscle relaxants and NO DRIVING! I have been depending on the kindness of friends for almost 3 weeks now! I'm so ready to drive and get my independance back.

The prognosis is good but slow. I should be released to drive next week and start physical therapy. I should be able to get back to the gym around March 1st but no cardio for quite a while. So my hopes for a respectable cruise body have been thwarted! Send positive healing my way!

Happy Valentines Day!

New Years Resolutions and other BS!

Who makes resolutions anymore? They always seem to be defeated within the first week of the new year. My theory is...as long as you are aware of what you should or need to do and try to succeed you should feel positive about your efforts. RIght?!?

Anyways my goal, as it is every year, is to get healthy in every aspect. From body, finance and home. Lofty goals for myself as usual. On the body side I still go to the gym regularly. I try to get there 5-6 days a week for 2 hours a time. I'm tied into classes not doing the treadmill or weights so it makes it a very regular schedule. Tay is supportive but on the nights I don't go she's happy to snuggle with me on the couch when she's done with her homework and get a little mommy time.

My home needs alot of work. While I finally moved into the master bedroom, just as I suspected all along, I didn't finish some tasks. I still have alot to do and maybe I'll get to it or not. I have no drive in that area. None at all.

My finance..well it's just pathetic and I have no drive to correct either. I am gainfully employed and very thankful for that! I love my job. Spending all my time with kids keeps me young in my mind.

We are a busy house as usual. My little sporty spice is getting ready for her first volleyball tournament. While I'm not one to toot her horn (boast for the kid) she's been practicing amazingly over the last few weeks. I hope it holds up when we get in our first tournament. We are also going into competitive soccer try outs. This year she is going to try out for 2 different clubs. We'll see how it goes. I hope she makes it because I'm her mom and she would be so happy but it's a HUGE commitment, lots of practices and games all over the bay area. I'm not so down with that. I'm so happy for her on her house team. Local practice, local games short season. Mommy happy!

Keep your fingers crossed for her.

On a much happier note..there are only 10 weeks until VACATION! I can't wait to sit my ass in a lounge chair on the mickey ship and read! I plan to come back brown and relaxed. Looking forward to my tequilla crawl in cabo too!

Happy january!

My age is catching up to me!

Happy Holiday Season. While I still haven't decorated anything nor wrapped a single gift I have finished my holiday shopping. I have two weeks off and even though I do plan on going into my office several days, I have grander plans on cleaning and organizing my house. On top of spending alot of time at the gym. I'm going to try to get in as many workouts as my body will take so I can enjoy my xmas and new years meals.

Now onto my age. I was invited to a holiday party this year which was awesome. It's so rare that my friends have adult parties so I was truly looking forward to dressing up, wearing heels (crazy right?) and heading out. I spent my morning doing 2 hours at the gym to offset the major calorie load I was planning on and then found a great mani/pedi place across the street. Very thourough mani/pedi for an extremely reasonable price. A quick nap and then getting ready for the party. I went across the street when I was done so I could prove to Val that I can look like an adult. She was impressed.

The party was wonderful. E and her husband were so welcoming and the food (checkers from livermore) was great. Especially the vegitarian stuffed mushrooms, oh and I know you must be freaking out that I was eating stuffed mushrooms but they were phenom! It was nice to catch up with old friends and chat with new. Being the women we are we truly outlasted the men. I carpooled with friends and the husband was ready to go at midnight but we weren't so off he went and we stayed with some other women and chatted the night away until we realized it was past 2am! Somebody made the grown up decision to head home. We were laughing and taking all the way. I got home and passed out from the fun night. BUT my internal time clock decided that I should be wide awake at 8am. So I have been fighting exhaustion all day. All of the things I needed/wanted to do feel by the wayside. This is where my age shows. I just can't get my shit together when I don't get enough sleep. I used to party like a rockstar and go to work the next day. Now I'd have to call in sick. It's just a good thing that my kid is at her dads this weekend. I wouldn't know what would have happened if I had to be a parent too LOL

Now I've got to get my recipes together and get ready for the holidays. I hope I can find everything I intend to make.

Happy Baking!

It's beginning to look alot like xmas..just not in my house!

Somehow I have managed to not decorate for xmas this year. Call me scrooge as everyone else has, but I'm loving that I won't have to clean up anything this year. I will pull out our stockings to hang by the chimney with care and the small ceramic tree to put the presents around, but we won't be home so no reason to decorate. We have the schedule all worked out and our xmas eve menu is set. Just need to do some grocery shopping closer to the day.

I am going to a holiday party this year. Kinda excited as it's a dress up adult thing. I'm going to my friends tomorrow to show her some sample options. I'm going to get my hair did and possibly make up done too. Really glam it up. You never know who will be at these things?!?

We've decided not to go to dland for new years. I'd rather spend the money when we go on our cruise next year. Not sure what that means for my new years plans. Probably the same as last year...hanging with jean. Lots of fun though. Maybe I can convince her to go to a movie. We never go together. Sounds so exciting LOL

I have upped my workout plan. Trying to do 6 days and 2 of those are 2 hour workouts. Mostly because I'm eating more crap this time of year but starting in the new year I'm going to kick my diet into shape and really try to shed some more weight. I like the way the gym is changing my body but I need to drop some lbs not just tone the fat up.

Hope you all have a great holiday and a wonderful new year! Maybe I'll put one more post out before the new year...maybe.