Five for Friday RETURNS

Five for Friday RETURNS - Here are five great things about today...
1. First day in quite a while that I've had to myself....
2. Bought hair dye - just can't embrace those gray's like mom suggested.
3. The World's Greatest Husband filled my car with gas and that continues to be the biggest treat of the week.
4. Date night - I love that guy and can't wait.
5. Went to Michael's with no children - when that happens, it's always a good day.

Happy Weekend Paper Peeps.

Weighing in on my Weight

I am a big girl now, well quite literally.
I had to find a bit of courage and finally step back on that bathroom scale.
It took every ounce of inner strength to once again face the music.  Let's just say, this sucks.
So my weight loss journey began a month after my 20th high school reunion in summer of 2009.  I know that sounds ridiculous but I seriously went to my 20th reunion weighing the most I've ever weighed in my life.  Why I couldn't have lost the weight prior to the party? I will never know. But after the party? I rocked the scale day and night and lost 30-ish lbs.  The summer of 2010 I felt good, dropping 3 dress sizes and feeling healthy.  Last summer (2011) I slowly began to chew to my little hearts desire and haven't stopped since.

Today was interesting.  I have gained 16 pounds since my weight loss.  BAD - but not as bad as I thought it was.  I had a number in my head - when I stepped on the scale and to my surprise the scale was 25 pounds less than the number in my head.... I had to stop and think. . . .  as women we are seriously hard on ourselves.  In my head I have avoided the scale for months because I had a stupid number in my head and when I put my big girl panties on to weigh in (actually, I was buck naked, why add to the disaster) the number was 25 pounds less than what I imagined.  I am not saying let's not entirely worry about the number because I do want to focus on the number 16 -- 16 is the number of  pounds I want to lose and I want to lose 16 because I am afraid of other numbers like blood pressure numbers diabetes and cholesterol numbers.  But really ladies, it's a number and I wish fear hadn't paralyzed me from stepping on that puppy sooner, maybe my number would have even been lower at that point.  It's a journey, FOR SURE and Yes, I want to look like a hot 41 year old mom to five.   Sweet Sixteen, wish me luck.

What I broke on my summer vacation

We were only at my parents home for a few hours when we started to break things, like a lot of things.  But honestly, nothing on purpose!

So what did we break? Well for starters, in the first 24 hours, good morning, we popped an air mattress.
Only to be followed by knocking down the blinds on the sliding glass door in our bedroom.
The kids in a little argument and slight slam knocked the computer keyboard sliding shelf off the track.
Ran a curb with the brand new cadillac at Burger King (and my two couldn't wait to squeal and tell grandpa)

THE KICKER?
I painted my dearest little niece's nails at kitchen table, got nail polish remover on the table and took the finish right off the table.  Now that was a doozie - But having the loving, good parents, that I do, they simply said, "Oh we were going to get that refinished anyway"
We may not be invited back for some time......

A Vera Bradley Bargain!

Are you one of those women who gets a bit giddy over finding a bargain? Well sit down, do I have a story for you.
Actually, giddy doesn't even begin to cover it.
This past weekend while vacationing in paradise, we decided to end our trip with a visit to the Miromar Outlet Center.  While looking at the property map and printing my special invitation for a discount coupon book, I squealed with delight to learn that there was a Vera Bradley outlet.  I've been to the Wrentham outlet Vera Bradley store a few times and I knew I was in for a deal and Grammy had already promised one mini hipster for the birthday girl!

Little did I know what sort of deal I would find ----

Fast forward -
So when walking in to the Vera Bradley store the sales clerk said, "Welcome, it's buy one get one free" and handed me a postcard.  I admit my heart did a little jump.  The store is so overwhelming with every pattern and style packed to the rafters.   It sends a fan like me into a little tizzy.

Now, I assumed that the "Buy One, Get One" referred to the pretty little items on the postcard.  I quickly realized that the intense energy and glazed eyes that my fellow woman shoppers had was all about "BUY ONE ANYTHING and GET ONE ANYTHING" not just what was printed on the postcard, it was for anything in the entire STORE.  So after looking with disbelief at my mom and daughter while giving high fives and thumbs up, it was time to shop like the girls we were trained to be.

After an hour and a half we decided on our purchases and proceeded to the register.  The sales clerk, yes I love that sales clerk, asked if I would like to receive a birthday gift.  I said yes and registered.  My daughter pipes up with "Well it's actually my birthday" so the clerk or as I affectionately remember her, sales goddess announces "then we will have to give you your $20 coupon off today" -  My mother chimes in with, "Oh I got that in May" and never used it and the Sales Queen announces, "Well then let's give you your coupon too"  We looked at each other again in disbelief, another $40 dollars off the deep discount and the buy one get one..... only to shyly follow up with "hmmm, I guess we won't even ask about the 15% discount coupon book savings"  when my favorite sales clerk in the whole wide world states... "Oh yes, we will give that to you too"


It was one of those foggy moments where life starts to blur a bit.... really? Wow.  A few minutes later we skipped out of the store  with $283 dollars worth of retail Vera Bradley for only $50 bucks.  Yes, you read that right.... $50 for $283 worth of Vera Bradley.  We were so thrown by the the discount we had to go sit on a bench and recalculate the savings and look at the sales slip with pride and joy.

We don't get to shop as Mother, daughter and grand daughter very often and when we do we call it a "Club Meeting"  let's just say, that was one club meeting I will never forget.

One Direction? DVR? VCR? no, You Tube Silly!

And the generation gap widens...(once again)
I was thrilled to stumble upon "ONE DIRECTION'S" performance on SNL last night.  Being a good Paper Mom and Step-Mo, I quickly DVRed the performance for my two tweens to enjoy.  They are so into this band of Cutie-Patooties!  So this morning, with a bright smile I happily announced, "I taped One Direction for you last night.  They sing two songs"  Excitement abounds As the performance starts, until  tween one announces, "OH, I've already seen this on you-tube."
So apparently, SNL was a re-run and I am still in the DVR age, I guess that is better than the VCR age? It's the thought that counts right?
I continue to pray to get through these next few years.....

Guess What I am Up To......

Guess what I've been up to...
Here are some clues....
I've experienced complete panic...
I've burst out in full blown laughter all by myself behind a closed door.....
I've practically cried....
I've talked to complete strangers for morale support....
I've started to sweat as I assembled myself....
I've been confused as to how certain aspects actually work...
I've started to sweat as I worried how to get out of this contraption without having to call out for help.....
I've carried 55 items in and 55 items out.
I've witnessed bad lighting, white skin and horror to boot....
I've had a couple of spoonfuls of chocolate and peanut butter cup ice cream in an effort to calm my soul....
Any guesses out there?

Yes ladies, most of you know what I am doing... I am on the hunt for the perfect bathing suit. The one that holds em up, sucks it in, covers the right spots, takes off pounds and inches and creates an hour glass waistline all while being the right color, size and price.   It's sort of like finding a needle in a haystack.  Actually, while explaining the entire 3 hour hunt to the World's Greatest Husband we laughed about it being a miracle and I explained there is actually a company out there that markets and designs a suit called "The Miracle Suit" unfortunately not even the miracle suit met my needs yesterday.

Time is ticking.... my 9 day beach excursion is practically upon us and I am not prepared.  I am running out of time.  I've been to all the local retailers, now I need to branch out to a 50 mile radius.  Wish me luck paper peeps.  I need it.