One Week

         Last Tuesday was the last day I had coffee. Oh how I miss it. Today will mark a week in which I have been coffee less. I know it is self inflicted for Lent but still oh how I miss it. It's not just the caffeine of it all because I can have caffeine in other forms but it is the taste and since I drink it breve (with half and half) it is nice and smooth (not to mention fattening). I will move on past my thoughts of coffee now or I will just wax on about it's wonderfulness and miss all that much more. Sigh.
        DH got his new shift bid today, they change something like every six months, boo. He will be moving from swing shift Thursday Friday off to day shift Monday Tuesday off, yay! More family time as a family unit. Yay! Kind of causing chaos for a vacation plans, boo. It will be okay, we will figure it out and make it work. I hope all of you are have a decent week thus far. I bid you adieu and leave you with a picture of what our sunrises here look like (because I think it's pretty).

Happy Fat Tuesday!



                             It's Fat Tuesday!! Laissez le Bon temp rouler!! (lay-zay lay bon ton role-ay)

Let the good times roll!! Happy Mardi Gras everybody! I hope you enjoy your last day of the Festival of Carnival. As I am sure you all know the Festival of Carnival celebrates the ending of winter and the coming of spring and that Mardi Gras is only one day of the Festival of Carnival; that's right Fat Tuesday; today. Unfortunately I am still sick with the flu or something (no fun) so I haven't done any feasting this Carnival and I don't see that changing tonight.
 

                        Tomorrow as any catholic out there know is Ash Wednesday and therefore the first day of Lent. For anybody who might not know Lent is a time of sacrifice for Jesus. The traditional purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer through prayer, penitence, almsgiving and self-denial. Lent last for about 46 days from Ash Wednesday (tomorrow) until the Holy Saturday (also known as the Saturday before Easter).
 

                      While I am not a strong catholic by any stretch or the imagination I do celebrate (can I call it celebrating???) Lent every year. I do not go all vegetarian for Lent. Nor am I giving up chocolate or something I don't really eat anyways. This year I am giving up coffee for Lent. Scary? Yes I know it is. I have a strong relationship with my coffee I love my coffee but in the true spirit of self-denial I will be giving up coffee for 46 days this year. Wish me luck and strength in this endeavor. One more look at the lovely wonderful thing I will be giving up.



                              On another note I believe I might make benyas for tomorrow if I am feeling better. My coworker suggested I make some, she said it was too much of a fuss for her to make some. So I if I am feeling better tonight I will mix up some benyas and put them into the fridge to chill over night and be fried up and drenched in powder sugar in the morning.. Yummy yummy benyas. If you haven't ever had some benyas I really do recommend them. And I disagree that they are a fuss to make.

Day 9869

                I have be officially told to stay out of the laundry room and the family room until it is finished. No I didn't do anything to mess anything up. DH decided he didn't need or want my help. Which I am not going to complain about. All the new drywall is up and taped (yay!) or so I am told since I haven't ventured back there (see I can follow directions). So I am guessing but next he will mud sand and all that fun stuff. Then spray texture, primer and paint. After that he will tile (because I refuse to let him tile then paint) and put in the cabinets. Originally this was all going to be completed by the end of this weekend but DH and DS1 woke up sick this morning. Hopefully it is only a 24hr bug but I guess we will see tomorrow. This does mean the two rooms won't be done until next weekend. DH has Thursdays and Fridays off. Since he doesn't want my help it will just sit there until he feels well enough to finish it. Don't worry DH isn't doing it all alone, my FIL will help him if he needs/wants it. I think he wants me me to be amazed by how great it looks completed. I am just looking forward to decorating it. :)
                I hope you all have a fantastic weekend and that nobody in your homes are ill.

Today makes day 9865

      I haven't posted in awhile but I don't really have any readers so no harm no foul I guess. What has happened lately, we had to redo all of our plumbing in the laundry room. Shame on whomever did the plumbing to start with it for doing it WRONG. Sigh. Thanks to all the water being there it means replacing the floor and the drywall and insulation (which wasn't much there to start with. But it does have all new correctly done plumbing now. While most of our house has real oak floors our bathroom, kitchen and dining room are tile. This whole house has become a complete gut job, unfortunately we didn't gut it and redo it all before moving in ( which I now really wish we would have, and any future remodel job if we will live there it will be after the gut job). Of course we didn't realize at the time that everything would have to be redone, including plumbing and electrical. DH has been doing most of the work, but he is kind of sick of it and the mess it causes while remodeling stresses him out. He is one of those people who is happiest in a clean orderly house with everything in its space. Preferable with somebody else doing that cleaning and putting things in place. So this is turning into a long and stressful process for everybody except maybe the kids. They seen unfazed by it all.  Which is a good thing.
        We went away for a long weekend. Stayed at a resort in the mountains, it was nice and peaceful. We had a lot of fun and came back uninjured. Which is always a plus. My birthday came and passed, I am now another year older and I am pretty sure being 27 makes me officially in my late twenties. Which doesn't seem much different then my mid twenties. I need to unload a lot of baby stuff we accumulated after having two kids. I am not sure if I should sale some of it on craigslist or have a yard sale or just take it all to goodwill. We already gave away the crib and the bassinet. We still have the stroller, car seats (which I am not sure if we can really do anything with them), jumper, excersaucers (yes we have like two of them), infant and toddler toys, high chairs and not to mention clothes and shoes galore. I have tried giving stuff away but it seems that most of my friends want to buy new stuff. Which to me seems crazy. We did buy a decent chunk of our stuff new. And a few things I wouldn't even consider getting used. Baby stuff can be very spendy.
          I hope that life is treating all of you well. Life is going decently for us here, even if it is a bit stressful at times.

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!

That's all. HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!! <3

45 Life Lessons

1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.


2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.

3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone...

4. Your job won't take are of you when you are sick. Your friends and parents will. Stay in touch.

5. Pay off your credit cards every month.

6. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.

8. It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it.

9. Save for retirement starting with your first pay check.

10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.

11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.

12. It's OK to let your children see you cry.

13. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.

14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.

15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don't worry; God never blinks.

16. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.

17. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.

18. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.

19. It's never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.

20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.

21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don't save it for a special occasion, today is special.

22. Over prepare, then go with the flow.

23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.

24. The most important sex organ is the brain.

25. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.

26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words 'In five years, will this matter?'

27. Always choose life.

28. Forgive everyone and everything.

29. What other people think of you is none of your business.

30. Time heals almost everything. Give it time.

31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

32. Don't take yourself seriously, no one else does.

33. Believe in miracles.

34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn't do.

35. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.

36. Growing old beats the alternative -- dying young.

37. Your children get only one childhood.

38. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.

39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.

40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back.

41. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.

42. The best is yet to come.

43. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

44. Yield.

45. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift.

Self Inflicted Torture

         That's right I am now inflicting torture upon myself. I am back doing the gym thing. This times sans DH. He ditched me to work out with some guy friends a few months back. For awhile I stuck with the going to the gym thing solo but I hated it. I don't like the gym, I dislike it more so alone. Which resulted in me slacking off on the whole exercising thing. Aside from the small amount of yoga I did here (which isn't really fat burning exercise). So back to the self inflicted torture.. I will be going to the gym and taking aerobics classes. The two classes I want to take is the PUMP class and the Zumba class. (I added links to some YouTube videos of those types of  classes in case people didn't know what it was and wanted to check it out.)Which just happen to be back to back. Two hours for exercise in a row (they are an hour each). See torture, my body will think I hate it. Which since in a way I do I guess it would be right. The plan is to attend the classes three days a week. The girl who is nice enough to attend the classes with me wants to try the Turbo Kick (another YouTube video link) class and since she is doing the 2 straight hours of exercise, three days a week with crazy me. I can take the one hour turbo kick class 2 days a week (they fall on different days than the PUMP and Zumba class).  Eight hours of exercise a week should make me be fit in no time or kill me. Now she might not stick to booth the Zumba and PUMP class (heck I might not stick to it) or she might not like the Turbo Kick class (even if I hate it I will stick it out since she doesn't want to do it alone and she is attending the other two with me and she isn't looking forward to Zumba). So wish me luck. This isn't a new years resolution for me. I want to be healthier and skinner. I think the main motivator is I want to be closer to my pre-pregnancy size. I realize I will never be a size zero again but I would love to be closer to it.