This afternoon, hubs and I had a date to the movies. We had two free tickets, two free popcorns and two free drinks. So, everything was free! What could be better? So we saw Jack and Jill. It was good.

Then, after dinner, we went to Rochester Hills and saw the lights. There's a bunch of businesses there that are just covered in lights. So, we put the 3 year old in our big, mess of a stroller and walked around to see/take pictures of the lights. Yeah, that was fun.  The lights were pretty, but I could have done without the crowd.

Anyway, I'm watching "Disappeared". Freaky. when it's over, I'm headed to bed.

Tomorrow, we're taking Brianna to see Arthur Christmas. I really wanted to see Puss in Boots, but she chose Arthur Christmas. oh well. lol  I'll still enjoy it. Too bad that one can't be free!

G'night all!

I just love this one. I want to get my hair cut, well trimmed, I guess, in January for my birthday, and this one just keeps sticking out to me! Ugh.

1. The whole missing eye, thing. Um,...? It's cute, but I can't stand having hair in my eyes, lol.

2. My hair is much longer than that and I'm still trying to grow it out to donate it. If I get that exact cut, or even something close to it, I'll lose several inches and have to KEEP growing it out. Which, isn't so bad... I guess. But my whole goal is to grow it out to donate it and I feel close, just not quit there. That's why I'm trying to find some cute style that's for longer hair, so that I can get a change without sacrificing so much hair!

I'm not sure what to do. But I just love this and had to share it!  

What do you think?

For today,

1. Drink 4 glasses of water (10 pts)

2. Get up and move for a few minutes, every hour (10 pts)

***********

For the weekend:

1. Set up a worry appt. (10pts)

Obviously, spending a lot of time worrying is counter productive to good health. So, set up some time for a worry appt., where you can write down, blog down, talk out, whatever you want to do, your worries. Then, go about your day and not think about them and enjoying your day/weekend.

2. Listen to your favorite song/music. (10 pts)

3. 1 minute "vacation". (10 pts)

Basically, you just sit and relax, maybe when you're laying down in bed, and imagine you're on vacation. It could be a relaxing beach and watching listening to the waves. Maybe it'd be Vegas and all the lights. Wherever you'd want to go on vacation, imagine you're there and enjoy it! If you want to do it longer than a minute, go right ahead! lol

Have a good day/weekend, everyone!

This is my all time favorite Tradition, since we had Brianna. We've been doing it for the last few years and it always makes everything more exciting. Every day, up until the 25th, we do a special activity. We then make a chain, write down all the activities on a link of the chain and, as we do them, rip them off. That way, it's also a good visual for young kids, to see just how close Christmas is getting. Every year, I try and come up with some new activities and there are some that will never change.

Some of my favorite ones that stick:

1. Pictures for Christmas cards. I always take her picture with these two snowmen we have. It's amazing to see how much she grows year by year, just looking at those pictures.

2. Wrapping Paper Matching Game.

All I do is use some of our scrap wrapping paper and glue them onto 3x5 cards, that have been cut in half. Makes for a fun little game!

3. Making cookies!

4. Read a christmas book!

Some of my new ones that I'm sure she will love and I'm looking forward to, as well:

1. Snowman pancakes!

2. Bath paint fun

I ordered these bath paints that she's never had before. And I'm sure she will love them!

3. Hot Chocolate Party.

Last year, we did a "tea party" with her little people characters. This year, we're going to do Hot chocolate and have either candy canes or Graham crackers.

4. Picnic and Movie in the living room

5. Backwards dinner

Dessert first? Yes please!

6. Dr. Seuss Day

We have a Dr. Seuss matching game to play, a book to read and the Cat In The Hat movie.

I'm super excited and looking forward too it! We've already done day #1 and taken pictures with the snowmen, for the Christmas cards. Boy, that was a chore. She didn't want to do it... at all! lol 

What are some of your favorite Holiday Traditions with your kids?

Here are our daily challenges, for the day!

1. Drink 4 glasses of water (10 pts)

2. 10 lunges on both legs (10 pts)

3. 10 squats (10 pts)

Have a good day, everyone! 

Let me start off with saying that I LOVE Collage Video. My computer finally started allowing me to see clips of the videos and I love reading the reviews, to see which ones might be worth my time. I think the last 3 days of doing the 30 day shred, with Miss Jillian Michaels, really has boosted my confidence with fitness. I mean, I loved working out before, but I had more "easy" workouts. Well, yoga isn't really easy, but they were mostly indoor walking workouts (Love Leslie Sansone!). Anyway, I have a love affair with workout DVD's. Nothing better than being able to workout in your living room, no gym needed, and actually getting results! Anyway, every year, I try to get a few new videos to add to my library. This year, between Christmas and my birthday, I'm hoping to add 4 more. It's hard to choose, though, let me tell you. So here are some that I'm choosing between.

*****

1. Ellen Barrett's Skinny Sculpt

Let me just say, as I've never actually done any of her workouts, she looks amazing and she seems like she has a really upbeat personality. Having seen some of the clips, I would almost aspire to be her! lol

2. Ellen Barrett's Fat Burning Fusion

I love that she does things barefoot. It would be interesting to try.

3. Leslie Sansones 5 Very Big Miles

I love her. She's so upbeat and makes working out so much fun. I really wanted to have a DVD that I could walk 5 miles on. I can do 1 mile on my need a quick workout days and 5 miles on my i really want to burn a ton of calories days.

4. The Firm Ignite Calorie Burn

This looks tough, but I love the idea of 8-10 seconds of going all out. I need that.

5. The Firm Total Body Makeover

I like the variety of 4 different workouts.

6. Jennifer Galardi's Sweating Sexy

Sounds and looks like fun, but I'm not the dancer type. That's why it's not first on my list.

I could go on and on, but these are the main ones. I can only choose 4 and it's already really hard to choose! But I'm excited!

1. Drink 4 glasses of Water (10 pts)

2. 5 minutes of Deep breathing (10 pts).

Hope everyone has a fantastic day!

I've been kind of down in the dumps, lately. Anyway, today is a hot mess and, because of that, it's given me a few reasons to be thankful.

1. I managed to put my daughter down for her nap, just in time to see the garbage men pick up the garbage. I was then able to get the cans back in the garage, before they blew halfway round the world. It's rainy, windy and miserable out. But, yeah, I'm thankful that I didn't have to chase them all over the place!

2. I get some time with my sister. She just called and asked if we wanted to go somewhere.

3. My daughters cold is finally gone. she still has a runny nose, every so often, but who doesn't? lol  At least she hasn't coughed in a few days and her fevers been over for a while. She seems back to her normal self.

4. I challenged myself to do the 30 day shred. My muscles are killing me, but I've never done that DVD two days in a row! Go me! lol

5. And, now, I get some time to chill and be on here/play games/read before we go out with my sister. And, i'm drinking a coke! haha. Simple pleasures.

6. I only have two more activities to plan for our Christmas countdown, which begins on Dec. 1st. I will be blogging about that sometime. Once I have the other two plans changed (I had them all done, but decided to switch two. Maybe it's just one, I can't remember lol)

7. I love christmas lights.

Happy Tuesday!

Here our are daily challenges for the day.

1. 3 Glasses of water (10 pts)

2. 10 push ups, any style (10 pts)

Nothing too hard, for the day.

I'm about ready to go do my 30 day shred, but my muscles are pretty sore. I'm of the belief we should give our muscles some recovery time, but then where would the challenge be? So I'm doing 3 days on, 1 day off. Just to give my body a break.

I also hear there's a possible winter storm watch for tonight. Possible 3-5 inches of snow. If that happens, that's even MORE work for me, lol.  Since i'd be shoveling it by hand... probably by myself, as usual. No, i'm not ready for winter. Just no! Ahh!

I should start by saying that nothing "eventful" started till this evening, just a little while ago in fact. But, overall, this has been some day.

My morning was as usual. Workout, chores, lunch, nap. Bri took a 4 hour nap, again. Some days it's like that, others it's less than an hour. I'm thankful for the longer ones, even though bedtime is a mess. Meh, she can stay up late. Not a big deal. She's had a four hour nap, after all.

I wake her up, make a yummy spaghetti dinner and we get ready to take the trash out. Oh, and before I get to that part, during our yummy spaghetti dinner, my daughter decided to use a colorful word she heard on Amazing Race. I'd like to think that Amazing Race is a nice family show, so my daughter frequently, well pretty much always, watches it with us. Well, she usually plays with her toys, while we watch it, but she does stop to watch every once in a while. Last night, she was sitting on the end of the bed, watching along with us when one of the contestants said, "dammit". Well, then she felt the need to repeat it. *sigh*  So, tonight she used it again at dinner. lol  I had a hard time not laughing, basically because of how anti-swearing my family is and it's just embarrassing. of course, my gramma told her how her Uncle Bob used to get his mouth washed out with soap. I don't intend on doing that or anything, but I'm sure it worked wonders. Thank you, mom, for not doing that to me! lol Anyway, I'm at a loss as far as how to stop it. She's, unfortunately, at a stage where she can repeat anything and, unfortunately, tv. has become one big swear fest, now. it's everywhere. I sincerely miss the days when certain words couldn't be said over the air. Quite frankly, I wish they could keep swear words off the air (I don't care to hear about words are just words. yeah, we give them meaning. And, therefore, I don't want to be exposed to them on the tv.) 

Anyway, moving on. Back to the part about taking the trash out. See, our neighbor is a 70 year old woman who had found out, rather recently, that she had a brain tumor. She just came back home, after living with her son and his family. Anyway, I just happened to notice that there were no lights on and I could see through her sliding glass door. Normally, she would have those blinds closed. I mentioned it to my mom who thought it was a little strange, but left it at that. About an hour later, this womans Daughter in law calls us and asks her if we've seen her (I had earlier that day). They said no one could find her/get a hold of her and wondered if we would go see if she would like answer the door. Well, we knocked, but she never answered. Her car was in the garage, but there was nothing. So, we're all just kind of hoping that she's out with another one of her kids, who no one can reach by phone, and that they went to a casino. I guess she likes to do that. I just had this feeling in the pit of my stomach that something wasn't right. So when my mom wanted me to come with her to check on her, I was really panicked about what we would find. Like I said, I hope she is at a casino with some other kids of hers, but... if she's not. I just can't imagine what the person going into her house is going to feel like. Ugh. Hopefully, we'll hear more later.