Becoming Mrs.Juju

Beyond Thankful

2011-12-27T17:58:00.000-08:00

I have never felt so lucky and thankful as I do today. I try my hardest to be thankful for everything in my life, the good, the bad the ugly- everyday, not just on Thanksgiving. I try to see the upside in everything, the silver lining. So much that my co-workers probably hate me some days. The other day a girl in my office came in complaining that about the rain. "It could be worse" i told her. She shrugged and got her morning coffee.

A few days later we had our first 'snow'. This first 'snow' was about a month earlier than it was last year so everyone at work was talking about it. Everyone complained about how unprepared they were, and how much they were dreading the snow and the cold and blah blah blah. I told her- it could be worse. What if, for whatever reason, you were unable to see snow, or feel the breeze on your face? How easily we forget of all the blessings in our lives. We take so many things for granted now a days- its quite sad.

As i sit here, balancing my laptop on my belly, I am overwhelmed with feelings of gratitude. I can feel my baby kick as I type this. My heart flutters every time i think about the life that is growing inside of me. I still can't believe that soon I will have a baby in my arms. Sometime i am find myself speechless, dumbfounded. I try to comprehend and wrap my head around the miracle that is life. Seriously. I hate to gross anyone out- but seriously, a baby, a human life is developing from an egg and sperm. Ten little fingers and ten little toes. A beating heart. A personality.

Amazing.

And i am lucky enough to get to experience this. I am so lucky that this baby has chosen us to be his parents. I can't wait to meet my baby boy. Only a few weeks to go and i will get to hold him in my arms.

I am so thankful.

Time flies

2011-11-07T17:29:00.000-08:00

As of today, I am only 92 days away from my due date. I was initially going to write 92 days away from meeting my sweet baby boy, or even better holding him- But chances of my baby boy being born on his due date are slim to none- and if he is anything like his mommy and daddy, he'll most likely be running late.

I'm a bit of a procrastinator, i can admit that. I haven't completely finished registering but im about 80% complete, at one location. =-/ trust me- its not that i dont want to finish, I just cant get Juju to take a break from all his studying. Thankfully his semester and my semester are both coming to an end- between his biology class and my 50+ page capstone paper our free time is usually split up between studying, writing, catching up on dishes, laundry, etc.

I have yet to take another week of vacation at work, and i have to take it before Jan 31st. I plan to use a few days to bridge the upcoming holiday weekends and extend them to 3 separate 5 day off spans- did i lose you? That will leave me with 2 additional days to use in mid-to-end of January. I figured I could leave them unscheduled just case I feel the need to nest one morning as i get closer to my due date.

I am anxiously counting down the days I have left of school. T minus.... 23 days until my last class, and 34 days until graduation. After that, well- really after my last day of class, Operation Baby Nest will be in full active mode.

Baby Bucket List

2011-11-02T20:02:00.000-07:00

I've read many people post about all the things they want to do before they have a baby. Some people want to travel, others want to pay down or off debt, others want to change careers or finish school.

While I do like to travel- I have to say that we did all the traveling our budget allowed us to. Sure, we didn't visit exotic places or stay at a Waldorf Astoria, but we did pretty much what we wanted to, when we wanted to.

Our finances- I don't think Suze Orman would approve the way we handle our finances but i'd like to think that we are in a good financial position. We deposit money in to our savings account every single week and we pay all of our bills on time. We've paid off several outstanding debts and are on track to be debt free (with the exception of those pesky student loans) within the next year, give or take a month.

As far as school goes, I started my last class a few weeks ago. I have exactly 5 more nights of class and graduate on December 17th, only 7 weeks away. When we got married- I promised my mom that i would finish school, no matter what. And with that ladies and gentlemen will come a very much deserved promotion at work =-)

Juju and I will be married shy of three years when we bring our sweet baby boy into this world and I think the timing is perfect. Hell- if i found out I was pregnant 3 days after the wedding- the timing would have been perfect then too.

There is/was a few things that I would like to take care of before the baby is born. There is a few things that we hope to have done before Dec 31st, 2012.

Household-

Purchase a washer and dryer

Must be high efficiency
Must have Sanitize/Steam cycle

Redo flooring in Nursery

Natural/Eco/Baby friendly

Redo our closet kitchen situation

Minimum- new sink
Add counter space

Personal-

Learn CPR and First Aid (Newborn + Infant)

Both Juju & I

Upgrade point and shoot to DSLR
Stop frivolous spending (ha!)

limit take out/dining out

Begin using coupons [before they expire]
Maternity leave stash

Food (non-perishable; frozen)
Household goods (toilet paper, detergent, face wash, etc)

Finances-

Pay off debt (goal date is Nov 2012)

Be halfway July 30th

Pay off Juju's car

Before June 1st

Save 2 months worth of supplemental income

maternity leave pay

Im sure there are tons of things that I am missing off this list. And yes- sure there will always be something that i could have done, or places i could have visited... but isn't that how life is? This isn't to bash people who want and actually do all those things- this is just one persons opinion of what I feel is important, again, to me.

DIY Maternity Halloween Costume

2011-10-29T21:20:00.000-07:00

Last friday I was honored with the most original costume ribbon at my friend Andrea's annual halloween party. Last year I won the sexiest costume ribbon - this year....not so much ;-)

Check it out.

I also took the opportunity to reveal the baby's gender. If you look closely, the baby is holding a blue rattle! Before I go on, I would like to point out that my eyeliner was not working for me that night. It was not even and was making my eyes look two completely different shapes/sizes. In real life they are relatively identical.

This was a DIY after I saw this shirt for sale here but I'm a bit of a procrastinator (found this on tuesday, party was on friday) and didn't want to spend 30 bucks on it either.

I saved the image and enlarged it.

I then put freezer paper over my scree and traced the skeleton.

I did the same for the baby skeleton

After carefully cutting the skeletons to create a stencil, I taped them onto a plain long sleeve maternity shirt. I then used fabric paint and sponged white paint into the stencil. I think i did 3 coats total. Once it was dry, I drew the rattle.

Here is a picture of Andrea and I, proudly holding up my ribbon!

And here ais a picture of the girls - minus Erica... the little leopard hadn't arrived yet.

I have to say that I had as much fun this year as i did last year. While I didn't win round after round of beer pong I did learn to play flip cup and walked away on the winning side!

You'd be Amazed

2011-10-29T14:46:00.000-07:00

at the number of posts that i have in my draft folder.

These days it seems like i start a post and get interrupted by the other 372 things that need my attention. Just wait till baby gets here. He'll probably do more blogging than i will.

Be patient and you will soon see:

DIY Maternity Costume
Baby Bucket List
Week 25 ( say what??) belly update
Random thoughts, but then again which of my thoughts aren't random?

Gender Reveal Party

2011-10-13T17:28:00.000-07:00

Juju and I decided to host a gender reveal party for our family. I baked a gender reveal cake for my sister last October and she revealed my nephew gender during a family dinner. The beforehand mentioned nephews baptism was the following weekend after we found out so we decided to wait an additional week- you know, we didn’t want to steal his thunder.

We wanted to do something fun that would involve all of our family. We decided to have a barbecue, since it would possibly be the last one for the summer.

I hung baby shirts, socks, mittens and wash clothes on the clothesline, alternating between boy and girl colors. We hung plastic diaper pins along the fence. I covered the tables with white, pink and blue table covers. I poured pink lemonade and blue raspberry drinks into clear pitcher, and used clear cups.

You can see where I was going with this.

To include everyone- We went around asking each person present what they thought Juju and I were having. Some people guessed based on intuition, others based on the fact that it was a “girl” year, or everyone they knew were having boys, and many had wives tales to help determine what we were having.

According to a few common wives tale-

Cravings- sweet or salty? – Girl

Daintiness - Graceful or Clumsy?- Boy

Skin- Acne or Glow? - Boy

Chinese gender calendar- Girl or Boy? - Girl

Dad’s weight Increase or No Increase? – Boy

Belly- High or Low? - Girl

Belly- Pointy or Wide? - Girl

Wives tale #1- Chain over hand or belly- Boy

Wives tale #2- Holding a baby of the opposite/same sex that you are carrying, apparently if it’s the same gender- baby is happy. If it’s the opposite gender- baby is not happy- Boy

The consensus at the party was that I was having a baby girl.

13 votes for girl, 12 votes for boys – Girl

Tally:

Girl- 5

Boy- 5

We honored the grandparents to be by allowing them to bite into the gender revealing cake balls that we prepared (with the baby’s gender as the inside colors)

Here are a few shots of the party-

Sister in law + Nephews

Sister, Aunts, Cousins

Sister + current favorite nephew ( shhh- don't tell the others)

Brother, cousin, father in law + brother in law

(manning the rigged grill)

Sister in law, Brother in law + etc, etc

Family

Mo, Larry + Curly

Family

Me + My Daddy

Nats + Maria

Cwisty, Me, Maria + Nats

And finally the reveal- We lined them up (L ro R; FIL, MIL, my Daddy + my Mommy) gave them each a cake ball and told them to bite into it. Everyone watched in silence.

a closer look-

My Daddy, Me, My Son + His Daddy

Celebrating the reveal

Juju awkwardly grabbing my belly

And of course a celebration is not a celebration without the a shot of tequila.

To our sweet baby boy!

Cheers!

She accidentally told me

2011-10-11T20:12:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago, I had a routine doctors appointment back that quickly became one of the most exciting days of our lives, thus far- obvi.

I had debated back and forth whether or not I wanted to find out the sex of the baby. I was leaning more towards not finding out, but Juju really really wanted to know. The odd thing is that I'm planner by nature. I like to know what we are doing, when and and with who. So you would assume that I would want to know for the baby planning right?

Wrong.

I thought it would be very exciting for us to find out if we were welcoming a baby boy or a baby girl in the delivery room. I was reluctant to 'give in' to finding out. Everyone was constantly asking what we were having and honestly I felt bad taking that away from Juju, as he was dying to know.

The day before my appointment my sister asked me whether or no we were going to find out the gender- my initial answer was no. One, I was only 16 weeks along- typically you find out at 20 weeks and secondly we hadn't come to a consensus as to whether we were going to find out or not. I was on the fence though- a part of me wanted to find out if i had a baby girl or a baby boy growing inside of me. Knowing his or her gender made it that much more real. I could stop saying it, or baby. I could call baby a him or her.

I told Gaby- if baby shows him or self to us- seeing that it would be very early to tell anyway- it was God's will for us to find out.

And baby did.

In an odd twist of events, i was asked to stay after my regular OB appointment to have an additional ultrasound. Unfortunately Juju had to go back to school, so i was on my own. A few minutes into the ultrasound, the sonographer proclaimed that baby was revealing itself to mommy- and spilled the beans.

I cried. I laughed- my belly shook. And sadly, Juju wasn't there. After that happened i decided to take the remainder of the day off from work so that I could surprise daddy in his own special way to tell him the baby's gender. We were able to keep it a secret for almost 2 weeks until our gender reveal party-which we had at 18 weeks.

Dont worry that'll post will come tomorrow ;-)

21 weeks

2011-10-05T07:21:00.000-07:00

Please excuse the missing photo. Mr.Wonderful has misplaced our camera. I assure you my belly is getting big. I will post a picture this week.

Total Weight Gain: 15 (rough estimate since my scale tends to be moody)

Maternity Clothes: I did it. I officially bought maternity tops and bottoms. The small maternity "trousers" ( funny word right?- what am i 80?) fit a bit loose.

Sleep: Thank the lord Juju has an 8 a.m class monday through wednesday. Because of this class he now thinks that going to bed at 10 pm, instead of our usual midnight or later, is a fantastic idea. You know who benefits the most from this? right here. me. So i sleep a solid 7 hrs a night now. I sleep on either side with a body pillow support my belly and helping ease hip/back pain.

Symptoms: This week i have been experiencing some lower right side rib cage pain. Mostly when i sit or sleep- but getting up to walk around every once and a while eases the pain. Nothing too bothersome though.

What I'm looking forward to: My next ultrasound in a few days!

Cravings: Fruit- anything citric. Chicken Nuggets. Chorizo con papas. Anything with cheese in it.

Aversions: Nothing currently.

Movement: Oh! So those weren't gas bubbles. I started to feel my sweet baby move in there about a month ago i would say. I just wasnt 100% sure if that was the baby or just my stomach. Baby has now progressed to kicks. and over the last few days they have become combination kicks and what i assume are punches.

Gender: I have a little secret!!

What I miss: Red Wine, Tequila. I know this seems terrible- but i truly miss me a margarita, original- on the rocks

Milestone: I am noticeable pregnant. People can stop assuming i've just gained weight.

What no one tells you, but i will: Go ahead and put away those tiny lacy thongs, g-strings, tangas and everything in between. Hello Big Momma Drawes'. The last thing you will want up your rear is a dental floss. Trust me. This doesn't meant that you cant have sexy big momma drawes'. I stocked my underwear basket with lacy cheeky boy shorts, also one size larger than usual, in a variety of colors and animal prints. Rarrrr.

Halfway & Thankful

2011-09-28T21:05:00.000-07:00

I am officially halfway through my pregnancy! I know- I cant believe it either ;-) I thank God that i have had a relatively smooth pregnancy thus far. When people ask me how I'm doing or how I'm feeling- I always say great, which isn't a lie.

I know a few other pregnant women who can't seem to stop complaining about every.single.thing. I can't speak for them- since I have yet to throw up, (stops typing...) and i haven't been nauseated by the sun, or by the stop and go traffic. But a enormous part of me feels guilty for even remotely complaining about back pain... or new this week... ribcage pain- Because i know that somewhere, out there, there is a woman yearning for a positive test result- who would gladly throw up 4 times a day, and sleep 4 hrs a night, and live with constant headaches, and get stretch marks in places you didn't event know existed- just to be lucky enough to call herself pregnant.

And I am that lucky. God has chosen us as the parents of this sweet baby growing inside of me. Every ache, every tingle, every thing seems so minuscule in comparison of the great reward that awaits us in parenthood.

Lately I've been asked a lot if childbirth scares me. Sure it does. As any first time mother- I'm apprehensive. I've heard both horror stories and 'oh it isn't as bad as they say' stories. I try not to think about it so much ( as in the pain ) because really, at the end of the day- if that's the price one must pay to be called mommy, it seems all worth while. Don't get me wrong, I would like to try to prepare myself, mentally, physically & spiritually, as much as i can. I'll do everything that i can do in my power- and leave the rest in God's hands.

So thank you God- for my sore hips, my achy back, my heavy boobs. Thank you for giving us this opportunity. Thank you for entrusting us with your most precious gift. I promise we'll do the best we can.

It was all a dream

2011-09-17T23:02:00.000-07:00

I cant count the number of nights that Juju has awakened me from a bad dream.... or is laughing his ass off because im talking in my sleep or I wake up and talk about my current dream- not knowing it was a dream.

Every since I got pregnant I have been having dreams- good, bad & ugly- just about every night. Ive read that you have very vivid dreams while pregnant. I've had all sorts of dreams. I have trouble sleeping through the night at this point in my pregnancy as it is... now throw in crazy dreams every night?!... that makes for a very sleepy pregnant woman the next day!

I once dreamt that juju was living 2 houses away from me, while being married. I woke up mid dream and told him that it would be a lot easier for us to cuddle if he moved closer.

The most recent dream included John Galliano, Yes. Galliano. He wanted me to join him as a groupie... of all women. Go figure.

A few days ago I had one of the most beautiful dreams. EVER. I saw my baby in my dreams. The baby had a head full of hair and it was just perfect. It was so realistic. I woke up and told Juju that I saw the baby in my dreams- to which he responded... You know that doesn't count right?!? I cant wait to meet my sweet sweet baby!

18 weeks

2011-09-14T20:12:00.000-07:00

Total Weight Gain: 10 pounds [i blame the boobs and the baby ;-)]

Maternity Clothes: Stretchy bottoms and medium tops. I have yet to venture in to full blown maternity clothes, but i have a feeling it wont be very much longer.

Sleep: I generally get about 5-6 hours of sleep a night. Not ideal i know- My body has this self timing self wake up at about 4 in the morning. Then i simply lay in bed just waiting to fall back asleep.

Symptoms: i find myself getting OUT. OF. BREATH. a lot easier than before. Since i've always generally stayed around the same weight... these extra few pounds have been making my back a little achy. But no big complaints here.

What I'm looking forward to: Feeling my sweet baby move, punch, kick, somersault. DO SOMETHING.

Cravings: I have been very thirsty lately. thirsty for pineapple mango smoothies from McDonalds! yum. That and roast beef sandwiches. =-)

Aversions: Parmesan cheese. Just the smell of it turns me off. But i can still tear up some Fettucine Alfredo!

Movement: Nothing yet

Gender: Unknown

What I miss: Chai Latte, Red Wine

Milestone: I am noticeable pregnant. People can stop assuming i've just gained weight.

What no one tells you, but i will: Those cute 7.5 borderline 8 size shoes you used to wear? Kiss'em goodbye. Your feet are going to grow. And i'm not talking about swelling. I mean GROW. I've read that your bone structure in your feet changes to accommodate your weight gain. I have work heels in about 10 weeks. Do you know how hard that is for me? I am a slave to these cute (looks at shoes) black flats int size NINE & HALF. ( for the record i normally wear an 8.5/9)

Taking Care of My Baby

2011-09-07T19:07:00.000-07:00

Cookie is my fur baby ya'll. She's the current boss at home, don't tell her, and I love her to death. Last week I noticed an odd looking patch of hair on her back. After doing some research I self diagnosed her with ringworm. I went to petco/petsmart and purchase an anti-fungal shampoo and conditioner. In my research I read that it can be passed on to other dogs, i.e. Leche ( my in-laws dog) and humans!

I decided to take her in to the vet. We are still waiting for the ringworm test results to come back, but she did test positive for a bacterial skin infection. A couple hundred dollars later and a bag full of meds we are on day 4 of her antibiotics.

The trick you see... is getting her to take it twice a day, for 14 days.

So my brilliant husband decided to 'gut' a goldfish cracker and stuff her antibiotic in it. Clever eh? after the second dose he was a pro at carving out (not pulverizing like me) the outer layer of the cracker, as if he had done it a million times in the past. Kinda made me nervous- not gonna lie.

But you know they say that behind a good man theres a great woman? I opened a jar of skippy and slathered a healthy portion on top.

She loves the fished cuz' their so delicious, and nutritious.

Holy Belly!

2011-08-31T22:31:00.000-07:00

How far along: 16 weeks

"Hurry up babe i have to pee for the 67th time today!"

Total Weight Gain: 7 pounds

Maternity Clothes: For the past few weeks i have been living in dresses, Ponte pants and loose, flowy (or medium sized) tops. I can still wear things with buttons... like jeans- but i cant come close to buttoning them. I do wear them unbuttoned with a belly band. Actually... now that i think about it- I haven't been able to button pants for a few weeks now. hmm. I DID buy 2 maternity dresses and a pair of maternity jeans because they were a good deal but the jeans are still too big. Although the dresses are maternity i would hardly consider them maternity, i mean they do have an elastic empire waist and all, but i think they mainly accommodate the girls. And don't event get me started on those- I had to go up 2 cup sizes already. ALREADY!!

Sleep: My left side lower back/buttocks/aciatic nerve area have been bothering me, specially throughout the night. I have started to randomly wake up multiple times in the middle of the night, and not because i have to pee mind you, but just because. Matter of fact i have never been that person who wakes up just to pee. I usually pee right before bed and as soon as i wake up- move out the way...

Symptoms: Thankfully i have had a pretty smooth first trimester. I haven't experienced any morning sickness. I do begin to feel a little nauseous if i go too long between meals. There was a few days were it got really hot in these parts of town, that didnt make me feel so good either. Slight back discomfort mentioned above.

What I'm looking forward to: Feeling my sweet baby move, punch, kick, somersault.

Cravings: When i first found out i pregnant i was craving hot dogs non-stop. I could seriously eat one everyday. I've read that you shouldn't have hotdogs but thankfully they were referring to uncooked hotdogs due to potential bacteria growth called Listeria monocytogene. Other than that i only crave something after someone mentions it, for example say you casually mention spaghetti and meatball. Lightbulb. All systems go on that craving until i actually eat it.

Aversions: Lunch time. I don't know what it is about the mere thought of lunch- but it makes me feel uneasy. I still eat and what not... but as soon as the clock hits noon i cant help but shutter.

Movement: Nothing yet

Gender: Unknown

What I miss: Chai Latte, Red Wine

Milestone: First trimester is over!

What no one tells you, but i will: You get gassy. I mean G.A.S.S.Y. and you know how sometimes you fart and your like sniff sniff. meh- no big deal. oh boy. yeah not these farts... Even you, yourself, will be shocked. Juju is. Every time. Thankfully they occur in the evenings and during the night.

"Gas? What gas? that wasn't me!"

Meet Baby Reyes

2011-08-22T20:10:00.001-07:00

Baby Reyes; Meet your blog family

Blog Family; Meet Baby Reyes

Tilt your head to the left and you'll be able to make the out babys body a bit better.

My sweet sweet baby <3

Sporting the bump

2011-08-21T20:26:00.000-07:00

Im a little more than 3.5 months but I feel like I've been pregnant for way longer since Juj and I found out very early on that I was pregnant. I mailed out my pregnancy announcements to my entire family, I wanted everyone to find out roughly at the same time and I wanted them to hear it from us.

Here is my belly premier shot

Hello bump!

One of the most difficult parts (thus far...) about being pregnant, or finding out very early on is keeping it a secret. We wanted to wait until after the first trimester to officially announce our pregnancy- The only problem is that you know your life has changed... but no one else does. This makes everyday tasks that much more difficult. I lost count on how many times I had to fake a headache, or sip and spit.

I attended a co-ed baby shower- of course there was alcohol... and sangria was purchased just for me, since I'm the only one of my girlfriends who drinks sangria. "Have some sangria Lorena, we got it just for you" My poor sangria cup took so many trips to the toilet/sink where I oh so slyly poured it out.

Then, I had my cousins bachelorette party- where everyone is expected to use the occasion as an excuse to drink until they no longer look like the former hot version of themselves from beginning on the night. I threw a few shots over my shoulder as everyone was still in the tilted head position. I drank a ton a cranberry juice that night and I 'sipped' on the same plastic cup (which worked to my advantage thank God!) of champagne the entire night before heading to the bar.

I'll hopefully try to take weekly belly pics... but I'm not going to lie... I'll have to start fresh this week because I've sorta fell off the wagon since doing the announcements.

21 questions or just 3

2011-08-15T08:57:00.001-07:00

This is week 2 of coming out of the baby closet. And it feels liberating! After I told my office that I was pregnant, I told them that I was beginning to fear that they would think that I was just getting fat. I honestly felt like there was an elephant in the room. I felt that everyone 'knew' I was pregnant and I was trying to hide it from them.

One of the top questions that people have asked me, which is a little weird-

Were you guys trying?
You might have well asked me if we were going at it like bunnies. I think people who are trying don't generally tell people that they're trying. People who struggle to conceive, well the majority of them, don't make it public knowledge until they are successful.

So anyhow. We weren't checking temperatures, tracking days or trying the best positions. No, we weren't trying but we weren't trying to NOT get pregnant either, you know to keep it PG.

I always knew that I wanted to have children. I also knew the I didn't want to wait too long to start 'trying'- I've heard/read many stories about people who wait and wait and wait until they think the time is right and when they finally do start trying- they struggle and sometimes aren't able to conceive.

The night before i took the pregnancy test at home I was praying. I had the feeling that i was pregnant but i wasn't certain. And with the uncertainty came, well uncertainty. I thought to myself- what if i really am pregnant? and my mind started racing a thousand miles a minute with every possible answer to "what does this mean?" What does this mean for me? For juju? What about school? What about work? Can we afford a baby? Can we pay to send our baby to private school? it's first car? college? and then i thought but what if I'm not?

So i laid out my cards on the table for God to see and said Let it be your will, not mine. If we are meant to have a baby and that time is now- so be it, I was ready to accept God's plan.

And just like that God sent a little blessing our way the very next day.

1+1 =3 (+dog)

2011-08-13T09:20:00.000-07:00

The one time math doesn't add up- Yet it makes perfect sense.

I'm thrilled to announce that Juju and I are expecting our first bundle of joy early February 2012.

I spared you the pee tip and the brand- you know this isn't a free publicity post for first response, though i did find out i was pregnant up to six days before your missed period. ;-) I always wondered if i would be that persons who's first thought would be 'holy shit hurry get the camera' right after having peed on a stick. I am.

I can't believe I (we) were able to keep this secret for so long. I had to stay away from the blog in fear that I may just give in and blurt it out. I am so excited- its one of those feelings that you cant describe.

Stay tuned for additional Q&A, I've received plenty of question and I hope to answer the majority here. Please, feel free to stop being a shadow stalker- follow; don't stalk.

We never win- and then we won

2011-08-04T20:53:00.000-07:00

You know how people say that they never win anything? Well I, we, never win. But then again I never enter sweepstakes, or giveaways, or raffles. Basically anything where our chances are like 1 in a billion 32. I still get suckered in to buying church raffle tickets or donations.

So there I was, 2 weeks ago it was Sunday night about 9:30 when I get the phone call, from our priest, saying that our ticket was the first prize winner. I was a little flustered and wasn't sure if i had heard him correctly. He told me to 'come on down and collect my prize'. So Juju, his cousin and I hoped into the car and went to claim our first prize-

A 43" Samsung plasma (1080p- if that makes a difference)

We were in total shock. In fact Juju thought it was an intervention. Needless to say Juju was thrilled to pieces. So I've started filling out and entering every giveaway, every sweepstakes, every survey.... I'm in it to win it!!

Don't forget the tampoons

2011-08-02T12:52:00.000-07:00

On Sunday night Juju and I ran to target to pick up a few things... ( a post on that later ). When we make quick runs- we are determined to not use a cart and spend less than $50. So when we walked in Juj asked if we needed a cart. I said no. I knew this would lead to a whole lot of 'i just want to check out the clearance aisles' or 'oh uh look babe its on sale's. Reluctantly I walked back to get a cart and saw this:

I laughed so hard I almost needed # 3 to clean up my mess.

Quit Your Whining

2011-07-26T12:39:00.000-07:00

I've lived in Wisconsin all my life, as well as the majority of the people that i know. And one topic that never ceases to amaze me is the weather. Yes. Weather.

People complain when its cold. I understand. I mean Wisconsin winters consists of snow and ice and very very cold temperatures... -10F with a -30 windchill? yes. Its very common. And yet people are shocked when they step outside and their nose hairs freeze instantly. Its called winter.

Then people complain that we have very short summers. This again is true. We have falls and winters that seem to last forever. Our summers are short and sweet. We typically don't experience heat like Texas or California. We have Midwest summers. Wisconsin's east border is surrounded by water. Its called the "lake effet'.

Yesterday... it was this hot.

Not very typical for Wisconsin

And while its not the most favorable conditions to be outside, or running errands, I think we all need to take this weather with a grain of salt. Be thankful that you are able to see the sun, that you are able to feel its warmth on your face. Try explaining to the other half of the world that is in famine that your air conditioner went out last week and it is impossible to live with out it. Seriously people, lets find some eperspective here.

Im a murderer- cuz i kill time

2011-07-03T13:09:00.000-07:00

And squirrels.

Last monday i was driving to work as usual. I saw a squirrel standing on the side of the road. I knew that as soon as i approached it would make a run for it. So i slowed down. I approached with caution. It simply stood there. It wasn't trying to cross the road.

and then it did.

and i hit it.

There was nothing i could do. It darted across the road just as i was lost sight of him through my windshield. I couldn't break, i couldn't swerve.

It honestly didn't feel like i did. I mean, granted it couldn't have been bigger than a couple of pounds, but it didn't feel like i hit anything- it more so felt like i hit a small crack on the road.

The worst part of this all is that i didn't kill it, i simply fatally injured it. I looked in my rearview mirror to see it drag its fluffy tailed body off the middle of the road to safety. I felt absolutely terrible. I was on the verge of tears. I pulled off to the side thinking of what the proper protocol for something like this was. I did the second best thing to running after the squirrel and nursing it back to health- I called Juju.

He tried his best to console me- I felt so guilty. I knew this squirrel didn't stand a change, he was injured and it wouldn't be long before he died.

I'm a murderer.

a squirrel murderer.

DIY Diaper Cake

2011-06-25T08:16:00.000-07:00

A little late, but i wanted to post pictures of the diaper cake i made for my sisters shower a few months ago. I watched a few you tube videos and read various instructions and took a swing at it- I have to say i was pretty impressed with the results. Its not too difficult to make, but like with all projects, you just have to have a little patience.

First- decided whether or not your going with a theme or a gender. Since her shower was more so an animal jungle theme I decided to go with jungle like animals. You can also incorporate additional items into the cake its self. I've seen a few with bottles, baby blankets, baby lotion, pacifiers, etc. Here is a snapshot of what i used & for the cake itself i used 96 size 2 diapers, black hair ties and larger rubber bands.

First i began by rolling each diaper up and securing it with a black hair tie. I made sure i rolled all the diapers in the same direction and rubber banded them roughly in the same spot.

You want to ensure that they are rolled pretty evenly as far as tightness and that they are able to stand on their own. This will make the cake building processes a lot easier.

As i began building my cake I realized that using only 96 diapers would make a small cake, smaller than i wanted it to be. So i quick improvised and wrapped a cookie tin in tissue and added bulk/size by wrapping diapers around the tin. I've seen people wrap diapers around baby bottles, cans of formula and blankets.

As you can see the diapers are all roller in one direction. This is where the larger rubber bands come in. Once all the diapers are in place place the larger rubber band around them all to secure them together.

The mid tier was starting off unevenly proportioned to the bottom tier so i wrapped the diapers around a toilet paper roll, which worked perfectly!

The top tier i wrapped around a bottle of oregano! That was the only thing in my pantry that fell into the size proportion i needed. This flat surface also worked well for the 'cake topper', so if your using some sort of topper this might be a good idea, though it doesn't have to be oregano ;-)

Once all the layers were assembled, i wrapped a thick brown ribbon, 1.5 in i think, around all three tiers using double sided tape to secure it to the diapers.

I added an accent color to the middle tier. I decided to only add it to the middle tier because I didn't want the cake to become overwhelming to look at.

Once done, i added the small decorations to the cake and used double sided tape to keep them in place. If your wondering where I got the small stuffed animals from... long before we began to plan my sister baby shower McDonalds had an animal themed happy meal. So what did a dedicated sister do? I bought happy meals until i got the two stuffed animals that i wanted- the giraffe and the tiger.

Here is the cake topper that i used. I bought the pacifiers from her registry, curled a little ribbon and wrapped a monkey beanie baby around it.

Here is a few other pictures of the finished product.

and yes, i fixed the center ribbon once i noticed it was crooked by the baby wash.

and if your wondering that is the same wrapped board i used here and used here.

Fullbar Review

2011-06-07T04:37:00.000-07:00

In my never ending quest for weight loss, i never discard any idea or product - no matter how silly it may seem. My latest try has been the full bar. A coworker of mine gave me a box of these bad boys because they made her gassy. This concerned me, I'm gassy just because, let alone eating something that will induce gas.

And although i cant really say its a full review because i haven't followed the directions exactly, your supposed to eat 2 a day alongside your 2 biggest meals. BUT i have eaten a few of them.

Here's the breakdown: They are 160 calories and only 10 are from fat, so they are very low in fat. Though they are high in carbs, 31g, most granola, cliff, luna, etc bars are the same. My husband tries to convince me that carbs are not the enemy, and they are not, he's right. Our body needs them- my problem is that i carb over load- and that's what makes you gain weight. It has 4g of dietary fiber, and the average person needs about 25-30g of dietary fiber a day. It has 5g of protein, that ones a no brainer, protein is good for you- helps rebuild muscle.One bar has 13g of sugar, which is the same as 2 Oreo cookies, yes, the oreos might taste better, but these have some nutritional content. Overall they aren't unhealthy and they taste what you would expect from any other bar. They are a little grainy, again like many other bars, but honestly... its not a deal breaker.

In a nutshell, you are supposed to eat a Fullbar with 8 oz. of water, wait 30 mins and then eat a reasonable meal. As the name indicates, this bar will make you feel full- so by the time you eat, your stomach is partially full and you eat less. Simple, right?

So far, I've never felt gassy after eating a Fullbar. I follow the direction and drink at least 8 oz of water, but i tend to drink more. I also eat the bar slowly, by choice. This actually may be the reason why i've never felt gassy or bloated. Then came the moment of truth... 30, 40, 50 mins later and i didnt feel hunger. I eventually got lunch because i was afraid this feeling of fullness would wear off and i'd binge later. I eat a smaller lunch than usual and felt completely satisfied.

On another occasion i actually substituted my lunch for the Fullbar. I had my regular grande coffee round 8:45a, had my normal 20 oz of water before noon. I opened up a Fullbar and had at least 8oz of water with it. I didn't eat until about 3pm once i got home and again i wasn't crazy hungry.

Go on now, go. Run and try it. What do you think?

30 Day challenge?

2011-06-02T08:54:00.000-07:00

We've decided to go to the dells for Jujus birthday. That means i have exactly 30 days (as of Tuesday) until i get into a swim suit. That also means i have 30 to try to lose a few pounds and tighten jiggly areas, if possible.

My biggest issue is my stomach. Its not like its incredibly huge, but it'll be challenge to suck it in for the 3 days that we'll be there. My biggest obstacle right now is my toe. Darn toe. I'm still limping around on my crutch and some days, by the end of the day my foot is swollen and i can feel my heart beat in my big toe. That's my excuse right now, at least its a good one. I tend to always have excuses for not working out, but this one is legit.

So today is day 3 of my 30 day challenge.

I am eating a lot better. I'm not eating just lettuce and carrots, mind you... I'm no bunny- But I've cut down my portions and opt out of empty calories. I haven had soda in a few days. Not even diet. I'm drinking more water- because reserve logic... drinking lots of water helps you release retained water. I wish fat would work that way too.... hm.

Even with my injured toe i have managed to get some exercise in. I did Pilates one day and i did Turbo Jam the other. Both days i "butt blasting" (yes, Butt Blasting") workouts to work my bum. Yesterday i even ventured on to the exercise ball, and i only fell over twice. That's progress ladies and gentlemen.

I've been keeping a food diary, and include everything i eat during the day. Including half a frozen pizza. There's something wrong with me, i know.

To tell you the truth, I'm not sure if 30 days is enough to make a difference but I'm going to try pretty darn hard. I figure, I'm aiming for a six pack... if i fail, and fall short, a four pack will do.

wobbling wobbling

2011-05-27T18:36:00.000-07:00

Why you shouldn't kick things.

Don't kick doors. Don't kick tables. Don't kick chairs.

You WILL fracture your foot and jack up your toe.

trust me.

wanna be a baller?

2011-05-26T08:07:00.000-07:00

Maybe you could end up on CNN.com

DIY-Moon Manicure

2011-05-25T18:51:00.000-07:00

Let me begin by apologizing about the pictures. They are pictures from my phone.

So the concept of the moon mani is that there is a moon at the base of your nail peeking out. You can really do any color combo but i wanted my moon to be bright.

I did them myself, when i asked the nail shop.... (yeah i know)

if they could do it and she said it was only possible with a full set. So after a little research and you can see my results above.

Its pretty easy!

1. Paint your entire nail the color you want your half moon to be. Or you could leave it unpainted with just a clear base coat

2. Allow the nail to completely dry. Its important because if its not fully dry. You'll see. Use hole reinforcement stickers ( you know those little circle stickers that you use when your paper punched hole rips and no longer stays in the binder? yeah, those.) and place them on the base of your nails.
3. With the next color paint only above the sticker. Again. Wait for the polish to dry again.
4. Remove the sticker.
5.Apply a top coat and Voila!

DIY- Favor bags

2011-05-25T05:09:00.000-07:00

My sister, Gaby had a baby! 2 months ago. Remember? I made the gender reveal cake for her? Well i was also very happy to co host her baby shower back in February. I'll tell you more about her shower later- but meanwhile i wanted to show you a few ways i personalized her shower for her and my then soon to be born monkey.

I decided on a jungle them for her shower and i wanted to incorporate it as much as i could. Everyone loves shower games (sorta) and prizes so i decided to decorate the gift bags.

I bought paper bags with ribbon handles- and yes i know that was sorta girly but they didnt have any blue. Baby wouldn't remember =-)

I purchased jungle animal stamps at Michaels, along with a few colors. I only did a few colors because i didn't want to 'bite off more than i could chew' and end up with ink everywhere.

I had acrylic blocks at home that i used for my wedding. You can see it in the lower left hand corner, its pretty neat the gummy stamp sticks to the acrylic block, the block is see through and has guiding lines

I then stamped on green vines along with a variety of animals. Note that the monkey appears twice... sure im a little biased. Once that was dry i went through and free handed the word BABY across the 4 bags.

Its nothing extremely difficult (or fancy)... but its the little details that make any event special.

Plus i like to test my Martha gene out every once and a while. Sometimes i crash and burn... but others, not so bad.

i dont want ice cream

2011-05-23T21:55:00.000-07:00

I want a flat belly. That's what i want. I went to the doctor on friday and their scale was a bit more forgiving than ours at home. Which is always nice. I mean theirs could be wrong- but i'm just gonna go with that. I wish carbs were the 'new' thing and it was recommended to drink six to eight 8-ounce glasses of wine and walking in heels was all the exercise you need.

But it's not.

So i have to dig deep. and find some self restraint, some will power, some self control. I seriously just need to say no. No to chips and snacks and regular soda.

We might head to the dells for Juju's birthday and there is NO way i would get into a swim suit. Matter of fact i've actually been looking at one piece suits. How sad. Seriously, how old am i? a one piece? Though i did find some very sexy one piece, but i digress, you're missing the point here.

Im making it a point to be more active. I didn't say exercise, i said more active.

.....I'll let you know.

Amen to that!

2011-05-06T23:25:00.000-07:00

Since i have recently DRASTICALLY curved my shopping habits i have learned to be a little bit more savvy with my money, but sometimes- just SOMEtimes....

couldn't have said it better myself.

now.... if only someone could please kindly explain this concept to juju.

Hello? ANYone there?

2011-05-03T16:30:00.000-07:00

I'm supposed to be working on a speech that i have to give tomorrow. What am i doing blogging then, right? Well these last few ~~weeks~~ months I've felt as if may (end of) would never get here. I was/am taking 4 classes, working (duh!) and not only doing my work- but also training a new hire and covering an office for the last 4 weeks- which has been no walk in the park i tell you. My days run 5:30a ish to midnight ish. And i am beyond stupid tired exhausted. I was I'm-crying-because-I'm-so-tired-but-I'm-doing-this-for-us-and-it-WILL-get-better-soon,-i-hope tired.

Last night I had my Fin. Accounting final. Last week was my final week of Non-western Religions. In 2 weeks my speech and theater class will be over. Oh and btw (as you kids say now a days) I got an A in both class. Today i can almost sorta see a speckle of light at the end of the tunnel. And it feels DAMN good.

It feels good to know that my life will return to normalcy, what ever that is. I feel terrible because i have been a bad wife, daughter, sister, aunt, cousin, friend, furmom, etc etc. Not to mention that Ive really let myself go these past few months- eating dinner at 10 just about every night, guzzling more coffee than H1 guzzles gas, and living off whatever the change at the bottom of my purse could buy me at the vending machine. But soon- it will all be over. And it feels DAMN good.

So instead of working on this impending speech- i just wanted to share this DAMN good feelin'

I'm Back!!

2011-02-07T20:28:00.000-08:00

I'm finally home. I had to extend my trip an additional 2.5 days due to inclement weather in Texas and O'Hare. Honestly, i was devastated when i learned that our flights had been canceled. I was beyond ready to come home. Don't get me wrong, I love my family, but i love them in little increments- I had spent all the time i wanted to with them already, i missed juju and i missed cookie, and i missed my bed, and i missed my toilet, and i missed having hot water at the turn of the faucet. I was just missing HOME. I'm sorta bummed that i missed the snow days, i had been looking forward to one all winter long. I really hope we get another storm, thought i highly doubt it.

I feel guilty to say that I'm tired, i know, i know, I just came home from 'vacation', how could i be tired? Well, I'll tell you how. Our flight left from Leon at 6:45 am on Thursday, so that means we were up pretty early to allow enough time for travel to the airport and those pesky mandatory waiting hours prior to your flight departing. Its impossible to sleep on an airplane, i don't care what anyone says. We landed in O'Hare, which was nose hair freezin' cold, shortly before 2 pm. I got home, tried (using that term loosely) to tidy up, but all i wanted to do was be attached to Juju's hip. After eating, we settled in front of the T.V were i dozed off for about an hr. Went to bed around 11 or so. I was up the next day by 6. Worked 10 hours, had a school group meeting at 7:30, ate dinner at 10 and was knocked out by midnight. The next day i was up by 8, went up to work for a few hours, seeing that i missed an additional 2 days of work. Juju and i spent our entire Saturday being couch potatoes. AND I LOVED IT. Sunday was all about homework, except for the few times i felt asleep on my business law book, a little Superbowl, and then back to homework. Out like a lamp after midnight. Beep, Beep, Beep. Stupid Monday morning. Back to the grind. Work and now I'm in class. Ive had 3 cups of coffee in the last 3 hours (& a headache to make matters worse), and I'm pretty sure I'll be out as soon as my head hits the pillow- why? well because i have to be up at 5:30 tomorrow.

I'm starting to think that these grocery bags under my eyes will never go away.

I have yet to download the pictured off my moms camera, once i do, i will start recapping my pilgrimage to San Juan

Pilgrimage to San Juan

2011-01-25T07:24:00.000-08:00

So its taken me 4 separate attempts to write this post. Why? I'm not sure- I think its because its hard for me to convey what I'm feeling. I usually manage, you know, italicize here and there, bold/CAPITALIZE when i want to get loud, you know- the usual. So if you can, try to understand.

On Wednesday I'm leaving to Mexico with one purpose. I am going on a religious pilgrimage.

Kinda out of the blue huh? Let me explain- Every year, at the end of January, there is a pilgrimage to the church of the virgin of San Juan de Los Lagos, in Jalisco, Mexico. People make promises to take the pilgrimage to San Juan to visit the Virgin of San Juan in exchange for a miracle. Sounds like a deal right? Well, technically yes. I know i make it sound like a physical exchange- like you are trading baseball cards, but its more like a test of faith. You have to have faith that what your praying for will come to fruition. And you have to really pray. You cant assume that you can pray once and all your worries will disappear- or you can leave it all up to God, without you doing everything you can before leaving the rest up to the Big Guy.

People make promises, or mandas, to make the 100+ kilometer pilgrimage (depending on what part of town you are coming from) to San Juan on foot, and depending on the magnitude of the persons faith or miracle, people complete their mandas barefoot, or carrying a child, or even on their knees. Let me explain. Some people pray for smaller things, or miracles, such as a mother praying for The Virgin to help her rebellious child finish high school, or for an estranged relationship to mend, Others pray for bigger things like a desperate couple trying to conceive after several miscarriages, or a husband praying for his wife to become cancer free. You see, you can pray for anything, you can pray for the simplest of things to the most impossible of things- Yet if you have faith that it will come to fruition, it will. Like i said, it may be hard for some of you to understand what I'm saying, or where I'm coming from, but please- try to understand.

Now that you know a little bit of the background. I can explain what my involvement in this. My mom has a manda to complete. So as soon as what she prayed for came to be, she wanted to complete her end of the promise. My sister Gaby, was supposed to travel with her to Mexico- since she doesn't like traveling on her own. But my sister is all knocked up now, she'd be about 33 weeks at the time when they were suppose to travel. So my mom asked me to accompany her in her travels- not in the manda.

Never did she expect me to complete the pilgrimage with her, nor did she ask me to do it. But I immediately started to think about it. I actually couldn't stop thinking about it. Gaby asked me right away- She wanted to know if i was doing the pilgrimage with ma or not. And i thought about. and i thought about it. and thought about it some more. I really didn't have a reason per say, to do it. But i couldn't stop thinking about it. I really wanted to do it- but i was scared. I was nervous. I got butterflies in my stomach every time i gave long thought to it. But along with the nervousness and butterflies, there was something inside of me that said, go ahead! Do it! C'mon! Do it! I started to think of what it would be like to experience such a pilgrimage with people, who in essence, had been saved by their faith. Even though i had no reason to do it, i felt like i was given this opportunity for a reason. I felt as if at the end of this pilgrimage something, i didn't know what, was going to be revealed to me (like an epiphany of sorts)- Like I was being called to do this- and by God's will, the sequence of events happened as they did, for my benefit.

So on Wednesday morning, around 3 am, my mom and i will make our way to Chicago to catch out 6 am flight to Mexico. As of now, we are scheduled to begin our pilgrimage on Thursday before dawn. Depending on how long we rest for, it will take us about 29 hours to complete our 52+ mile pilgrimage.

I know it wont be a walk in the park- pun intended- as it will be open terrain, gravel and dirt roads, mountains, hills and plenty of sloops, and some paved roads. I am confident that i will make it- many people don't on their first attempt. But i can say that i am, cowardly, afraid of the physical pain i will go through. But i am confident that i will make it.

If you pray, keep my mom and i in your prayers.

And in case you were wondering, I later found the purpose of my pilgrimage. And no honey- its not for the packers to win the Superbowl. I hope to be able to document my pilgrimage. As i write this... this butterfly in my stomach have eased, and now I'm onto a feeling of excitement.

I will be back in a week.

Sit tight boys and girls- when i come back, I'll walk you through my journey

Speaking of B's

2011-01-04T21:05:00.000-08:00

On Thursday, NYEeve, i took a spanish CLEP exam. The CLEP exams are meant to help students save time and money by granting college credit for high scoring test results. Scores range from 20-80. In order to earn 6 credits you need a minimum score of 50, to earn 12 credits you need a minimum score of 63. Well ladies and gent(s)[<---maybe]....

I made that test my BITCH.

Yeah, i said it. my bitch.

I got a 78 on that bad boy!! Hold your applause.

I was thrilled to pieces when i found out i earned 12 credits, I was only expecting to earn 6 credits so i was floored when i saw 12 credits on the results page. TWELVE credits. 4 classes worth. Do you know what that means? I am saving a couple of thousand dollars and my precious precious time. This doesn't change the number of classes I'm taking next semester.... as i still need those classes, but I'm dropping a class I'm waitlisted on and not taking another class all together, and ill end up having an extra credit or two by the time i graduate.

Okay, go ahead. Now you can clap.

Things i Hear

2010-12-28T13:17:00.000-08:00

sniff sniff. "You smell like chicken"

"No i don't."

"ah. Yeah. ya do"

"No i don't. You smell like chicken"

"No, its you, it didn't smell like chicken until you got in the car. Its you"

silence

Location: Red light next to a KFC

Don't worry, we figured it out.

Mi Vida Loca

2010-12-27T10:11:00.000-08:00

My crazy life. Not that gangta'. But indeed it will be crazy.

Yesterday, i had a lot going on in my life.

As of today, i have a butt load going on in my life. Times 2.

With the intent of graduating in December next year, I am taking additional classes next "semester". I use " " because i don't really have semesters, i sorta go to school year round, which is why I constantly feel like im on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Anyhow. I'm considered a full time student due semester hour technicalities, even thought i only have classes on Mondays. Well... technicalities no more i tell you. I will be taking 2 additional 16 week classes at MATC and 2 additional 6/7 week courses at Stritch (not simultaneously, but consecutively).... to accompany my regular Monday night class.

Lets recap shall we?

Monday- Regularly scheduled class at Stritch 6-10... my next (Business Law) class starts on Monday.
Tuesday- Mequon campus MATC 5:30-7:00pm Intro to Nutritional Science... say whaa?? yeah. Its an elective. I need so many electives since I'm am already scheduled for all my required courses. And when i transfer ed my credits from MATC to Stritch, my earlier (non business degree oriented) credits didn't transfer... damn you early childhood education credits. damn you.
Wednesday- West Allis campus MATC 6:30-9:30pm Elements of Speech. Oddly enough i need a speech class, who would have thought? And allll these years no one told me. hmmm.
Thursday- Stritch (2/10-3/17) 6-10pm Managing Cultural Diversity (meh) Another elective class.
Thursday-Stritch (3/24-4/28) 6-10pm Study of Non-Western Religions <--- I'm looking forward to this one the most... diversity shmiversity
Friday- you will most likely find me drowning in a bottle of wine. maybe two.

Oh... and for $hits and Giggles (<--- one of my new favorite sayings) I successfully completed a "History of Wisconsin" course at MATC.

AND I have a CLEP Exam scheduled for Thursday. (NYE eve) Might as well finish the year off with a bang right?

I know what your thinking.... are you nuts? Its up to debate, but no. I'm not. I'm determined. This extreme overload in school will only be for a few months. Sure, I'll be stressed. Sure, I'll get some grays. Sure, I'll be the biggest B word for those few months. But it'll be worth it. I know its a lot. But thankfully, i have an amazing husband and an amazing family and amazing friends, in a nutshell, an amazing support system. And at the end of the day, I'm doing this for him, for them, for me.

In fact, it might not seem like it, but I'm actually being precautious. See, I'm scheduled to graduate... December... let me check the calendar.... December 10/11 ish of 2011. All the extra classes on my schedule end by May 18th. I chose to take all the classes in the first half of the year, didn't want to leave anything to chance, ya know?

Ok, so now that you think I've completely lost it. I plan on doing all this.... WHILE trying to get promoted at work. Come January i will be on a personal developmental plan to get to the next step in my career. Lovely.

Can we negotiate?

2010-12-23T09:00:00.000-08:00

Santa-

I didn't want you to think i was being unreasonable. So I did a little research and found a comparable item, that is less than half the price and i like 3/4ths as much (you follow me?) as the Michael Kors one.

And i guess i could do with out the DB Florentine Vaccheta.

Santa, baby....

2010-12-22T14:21:00.000-08:00

All i want under our MIA tree is this:

Please?

Maybe not for Saturday.

Maybe not for Sunday.

I can do Monday.

Please take into consideration how good I've been this year. And i only want this.
and maybe a DB Florentine Vaccheta (med east/west in natural)

Thank you.

I love you.

Aficionado

2010-12-21T14:34:00.000-08:00

I would like to defer from calling my self a shoe addict. Because im not. If i were an addict i would have countless number of (useless) shoes in my closet, just collecting dust, for the hell of it. And i don't. All my shoes comfortably reside in their original respective homes. And if my chance, in translation, one of my pairs lost its home, they were given temporary (but very permanent) sterallite homes.

I label myself a shoe aficionado because i find great joy in all shoes, not just women's shoes. I also would like to think of myself more in terms of a shoe connoisseur, if you will. Very few things bring me the joy a well made shoe brings me. I think this is why, i don't like a pair of shoes. I fall in LOVE with a pair of shoes. if there is anything i loathe is a crappy pair of shoes. i mean... if your in the shoe business, you have to keep up with the Jones's (a.k.a trends). No one wants to rock parrot key nose pumps....

Its not all aesthetics people, its the fit, the comfort, the shoe run. I mean sure, i shoe can look pretty... but can you stand to" walk the walk" in them? I recently added another staple, but non the less important, pair of shoes to my family. I am pleased to introduce the Nine West Rocha in black leather.

Yes, if your wondering, i DID take off my shoe at work, planted that bad boy on my desk and took a picture of it. I just had to, these shoes are amazingly comfortable. Plus they look great with dress pants and skirts. They have a perfect almond toe and although 41/4 inch heel sounds a little high, the 1/2 inch platform gives them a p.e.r.f.e.c.t balance.

Disclaimer, i do not have kanckles. Its just a weird angle. i swear.

And another angle.

And to prove I'm not an addict.... i threw these in there as well. I just wish i had a baby girl to gift these to. They are just so perfect...The color is fabulous. Every girl, even at the ripe age of 6 months, should own a pair of red shoes. (The correct shade of red though, never bright and tacky) Velcro Mary Janes? A must for the toddler on the go! And the elastic back ensure all day comfort.

Find these here!

Mending Signs

2010-12-13T02:00:00.000-08:00

Its funny how God sends you signs. All.The.Time. Whether or not you choose to see them is a completely different story. As for me, i feel like Truman, everything is a clear sign... though I'm smarter, I recognize them.

I know a lot of people who have a lot of anger, pain and sadness in their hearts. And specially during the holidays, it fills me with a tremendous amount of sadness, when i realize how many people are O.K with living their lives this way. Maybe its me. Maybe I'm crazy. Maybe its the fact that can (am) viewing things differently.

Forgive & Forget. Possibly the 2 hardest words in the English language. Some argue that you cant have one with out the other. Some people feel they can forget but never forgive. Or they say they have forgiven but cant let it go, forget. But why is it so hard? What is it in our nature that makes it impossible for us to do both?

Can you forgive someone with out them asking for forgiveness? Or do we feel cheated? Can people genuinely forgive someone? and at the same time forget or let go?

Sometimes i feel like people cant do both. Mainly, because people have the misconception that Forgiving is Forgetting. It is not. Forgetting is dismissing something from your mind; to stop remembering. Forgetting is being unable to remember, to forget to do something or leave behind unintentionally. Forgetting isn't Forgiving either. Forgetting is denial.

When i say forgive and forget i don't mean forget that it happened. Or forget the feelings or emotions that were felt. I mean forget it... let it go. I know it sounds hard, but by not letting go, you simply harm yourself. Many times, the person who hurt you... is no longer "there" emotionally, meaning this doesn't affect them anymore, they've moved past it. And you, well you, you are still living in the aftermath of whatever happened, you are still being eaten alive with pain, anger, sadness.

Forgiving some one is as important for yourself, as it is for the person you are forgiving. Can you forgive someone with out them asking for forgiveness? I have. But that is up for debate. Some people need acknowledgement or closure to their problems, which is an understandable request. But have you ever thought that perhaps the person who hurt, offended or sinned against you has such a tremendous amount of guilt that they are unable to face the problem? Or they sit on the other end of this problem/issue that came between you two, feeling the same way, looking for the courage to say the first word? Looking to mend your relationship. Just saying.

I leave you with this....

For if you forgive men when they sin against you,

your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

But if you do not forgive men their sins,

your Father will not forgive your sins.

Matthew 6:14-15

I may have gotten the sign, But i hope you see the message.

Im a sucka'

2010-12-10T14:20:00.000-08:00

Yes, That's right. I am a sucka' for infomercials. Self diagnosed Infomercial-aholic

Seriously. Ask my family.When i was younger i was able to convince my mom to buy just about anything. I seriously could not watch an infomercial with out rushing to get my moms credit card from my her purse. We eventually became the shameful owners of multiple "Ronco" line products, endless exercise dvd's (back then tapes) , anything that began with AB-roller, rocker, machine, twister etc. etc.

Whats that? Order in the next 10 minutes and you will knock off a payment?

But wait! There's more? Be one of the first 200 callers and get a travel bag, a travel size product and double the warranty? A $90 value???

And then of course i'd ask about the upgrade to expedite shipping. Which for some reason always seemed to take as long as regular shipping.

I eventually learned ... "paid actors, dramatization, results may vary, results not typical, paid audience, not real testimony" ..... were never a good sign of a good product.

UNTIL last weekend.... (my birthday in fact)

Juju and i were heading out the door and caught a few minutes of the an infomercial for the "Top Styler" (i think its from the makers of the InStyler)

I watched in awe... as clam after clam came off the models hair revealing perfectly, bouncy, healthy, shinny curls.

And THEN ... the girl sitting in the chair did it herself. with OUT a mirror. (*warning* Infomercial-aholic speaking) And the results were perfect, and if she could do it, i could do it.

Whats that? your telling me it wasn't her first time doing it? Preposterous!!

Anyhow.... Im not sure i'll be too quick to pull out my debit card to purchase them, if i remember correctly, they were about $100 ( plus s+h). Oddly enough, i cant seem to find them on the internet. I read a few places that they are so brand spankin' new they're not avaible.

But i actually think these things work.

** sigh **

I'll keep you posted.

A whole latte budget

2010-12-08T13:21:00.000-08:00

To know me is to love me. Seriously. I am many things, funny, smart, strong, (in)&dependent, beeutiful, loud, animated, polite, spontaneous, goofy and a little ghetto. But in FABULOUS way.

I am an avid coffee drinker. I like all sorts of coffee, lattes, any kind of "ccinos", you name it- I'll drink it.

At work, the people at Starbucks were gracious enough to pass on the recipes for all their signature drinks. Thankfully they are not as expensive as they are at the real Starbucks, though they are the real deal, taste the same. Still it can get costly.

Grab a pencil:

A.M : Grande Verona - $1.50

Mid day Tazo tea- .75c

P.M Grande Latte ( mocha, chai, americano, etc)- $2.75 ish

TOTAL: $5.00

X 5 days a week- $25.00

Remember kids this is just on your daily fuel (coffee in case you were following along) and if you don't brown paper bag it for lunch, you will spend a minimum of $5 a day.... again $25.00/ week

grand total $50.00 week!! That's over $2,500 a year!! {gulp} Truth be told.

That was me.

So what does someone, who's a little ghetto fabulous, and on a budget do?

My friends I give you- Lolos 'faux'ocha

Colombian Instant Coffee

Ghirardelli Ground Chocolate w/ cocoa

Marshmallows ( of course )

This set me back about 12 dollars. Half a weeks worth of coffee, 3x's as much coffee. =-)

Look at that marshmallowee froth!!

Oh SN: I also have 3 different boxes of tazo teas at my desk. And i seldomly buy lunch at work now. This means im saving tons and tons of money... I think someone deserves a new pair of shoes as a reward. Just saying.

Why thank you, Flo!

2010-12-04T08:27:00.000-08:00

Though I do think you're rather annoying.

i {heart} Target

2010-11-22T20:29:00.000-08:00

I absolutely love target. I do. I ~~was forced~~ stopped going to walmart years ago. I know walmart has better prices all around, but you cant beat Target's friendly team members, their clean stores, starbucks, and great selections in their clothing line, plus they also have awesome guest designers.

(you like the makeshift photo shopping?...)

While Juj was in Michigan for his uncle's funeral i went to target to pick up a copy of Toy Story 3 ( which i adore!) As i was checking out, the cashier asked me if i wanted to apply for the Target REDcard or Visa. I politely said no. She then asked me if wanted to apply for a Target REDcard DEBIT card. Before i had a chance to speak, she began rambling on how great the target debit card was and how convenient, and no annual fee, and how its like using your regular debit card and how you save 5% every time you shop and how you can choose a charity to get that xx% cash back.... i jumped in as soon as she took a breath. I asked her to let me see the terms and conditions.

I read the fine print.

She was right, no fee, no charges, no nothing. Just drafts directly from your checking account and you get 5% off. I know 5% isn't much, but its something.

So far, just by using the card we've saved about 18 dollars and on a separate shopping earned a $5 gift card. $23 big ones. I strongly recommend the card if you're an avid target shopper like we are.

Bootie Love

2010-11-18T14:02:00.000-08:00

We've all heard of love at first sight, right? Whether you believe in it or not is a totally different topic. Well feast your eyes on theses puppies.... The BCBGparis BAM bootie. Go ahead. i'll give you a second to fall in <3

Aren't they gorgeous?? They are stunning, the rich purple color is amazing, the tulip heel is so elegant, the almond toe adds an updated look to the shoe. I HAVE to have them. I just have to. Plus, i have been looking for a great pair of booties. My biggest challenge in finding the perfect pair of booties has been: 1- the foot/ankle opening on the bootie. I have seen a number of great bootiesout there [chuckle] but once i try them on my ankle is swimming in the opening. And its NOT cute. i mean i know i have thinner legs and all, but you'd need serious cankles to fill those booties. These on the other hand, the cut is so different than the other booties out there. As you can see, the front of the opening lands more on top of the foot than around the ankle- making a snugger fit, not to mention the elastic 'cut out' And 2- Since they are so the "it" thing right now, well, sadly the prices get driven up. And like all shoes, they're seasonal.

Seriously, when i purchased my nude shoes a few months ago- I saw a cute pair at a retailer that shall remain nameless. They shamefully jacked up the price 15 dollars from one day to another. Sure 15 bucks isn't that much, but its definitely upsetting. I mean wouldn't you much rather pay $90 instead of $105?!?

Although i saw and LOVED the purple ones first. It would be more beneficial, and functional, for me to purchase the black ones.

I want to go check them our in person, since i've only seen them online. I'll let you know how it goes.

Any chance i can get these for my birthday, honey?

My Confessions

2010-11-16T07:46:00.000-08:00

I have something to confess to you all.

I have been a little heffer these last 2 weeks. I have been eating really crappy and it seems that i have lost all will power. its gone. i have no idea where it went. Remember when i said i was starting insanity? Well I did. sorta. I did day 1, which was the fit test. I completed the test, wrote down how many of each exercise i was able to do in the time allotted.

Then came day 2. I woke up early before work to get my work out in- i popped in the dvd and was ready to go. I started jogging in place, i got to the jumping jacks and before i knew it, my head started pounding. i mean pounding hard- as if my brain was trying to escape my head. I shut that bad boy off and went to lay back down.

This happened the following 2 times i tried doing the workouts in the morning. Im not sure what i can attribute the headaches to, i think i just need to start my mornings off a little bit slower. Juj thinks its a lack of hydration. So i need to make some time in the evenings to workout. I just find it difficult, seeing that i have class twice a week and well, at the end of the day i'd rather crack open a cold one than pop in an exercise dvd.

Bloggiversary

2010-11-15T08:55:00.000-08:00

I know im a little late but, November 5th marked my blogs 2 year anniversary. {enter applause} I initially started this blog when Juj and I got engaged, or shortly thereafter. I wanted to document our plans and progress with the wedding and include our everyday adventures, obstacles. The wedding came and went. Then i was left pondering what would happen to my blog. Would i start a new one? would i just find myself to busy to continue blogging? After a rough patch of blogging, i decided that i wanted to continue writing- for myself if anything.

I was once asked- So... what? are hoping that someone discovers your blog and wants you to write a book or publish some of your writings?. No. first, Although i do enjoy writing i dont believe i write well enough to ever be published. 2. its an outlet to help me express my thoughts and feelings. and 3. shut up. who asked you?!? ;-D

So although my blog has helped me get through some tough times, and its gone through some tough times. We're in it for the long haul. Im not sure were it will go. Not sure how long it will last... maybe through our first house purchase, maybe through our first baby, heck maybe through babys first day of school, who knows.

So raise your belated glass to toast to BecomingMrs.Juju's 2 year anniversary!

(clink)

sip

(nod/smile)

You got a minute?

2010-11-05T12:45:00.000-07:00

Yeah? ok do this- this made me literally laugh out loud. Check it out:

1. Go to Google maps

2. Go to "Get Directions"

3. Type Japan As the Start Location

4 Type China As the End Location

5. Go to Direction # 43

I'll have you all know that is the only thing holding me back.

Things i hear

2010-11-04T18:45:00.000-07:00

Boss at Product Development meeting.

Boss: "Allison, Can i take a quick peek at your rack?" Referring to a Z-Rack tucked away full of preproduction samples.

awkward.

Co-Sleeping alone

2010-11-03T09:53:00.000-07:00

Juj's uncle passed away last week and his services are being held in Michigan, yesterday and today. He, along with my SIL & MIL left to Michigan yesterday. I thought no biggie. He'll be gone for 2 days- top. I had a meeting at church yesterday from 7-8:30 so i figured by the time i get home from work (6) and take my mom to work at 9:30, do my exercises- it'll be bed time before i know it, right? I ran to target and strolled through the aisles at a leisurely pace. I came home, ate dinner, watched a little tv. My head was pounding so i didn't exercise. Before I got into bed at about 11, I turned off all the lights in the house, except the bathroom light, as usual. I went into the bedroom to find cookie making herself comfortable in the bed. It was quiet. And Dark. I got out of bed and checked all the lights, and windows. Locked the door. Got back into bed. Did i put the milk away? I got out of bed to check. (yes, i had) I got back into bed. I put on a movie on netflix because the room so dark ( even with the light coming through the window ) and quiet. At one point cookie jumped off the bed and into her own ( nooo! i quietly cried)... and what did i do? I got up and put her right back into the bed with me. Finally i fell asleep around 1 ( last time i checked)

3 am. Then i had a scary dream. Said a prayer. fell back asleep

4 am. Woke up gasping for air. Same scary dream. Walked into Jujus closet and got his robe. Said a prayer and fell back asleep, holding on to Juj's robe.

4:45 am. Up again. Everytime i went back to sleep i would pick up right where i left off in the scary dream.

5:30 - 6 am. Awake. That's it. Im not going back to sleep. no-uh. nope. not gonna. So i sat up and tried reading a pages in my book. My eyes were burning and feeling heavy. I turned on the TV determined not to fall asleep anymore.

7:45 am. woke up to cookie staring at me. AH $#*T. I overslept. (she could've nudge me or something)

Who knew, that after sharing (and i'll use that term loosely, since he's a bedhog) a bed with juju, one night a way from him would be so scary, so lonely. And to think, that i was looking forward to having the entire bed to myself- I ended up sleeping, curled up with his robe on his side.

road kill?

2010-11-03T09:49:00.000-07:00

My daily commute, depending on the time of day, can take me anywhere between 27-50 minutes.

Yesterday- was a very traumatic 38 minute commute.

Gross.

Endless bulge battle

2010-11-01T11:47:00.000-07:00

You may know that i am a little ~~obsessed~~ dedicated to trimming off a few pounds, primarily, from my stomach region. I have tried numerous ways to loose a few pounds here and there, but i just put'em right back on. Im not looking to lose a lot, in fact, i dont have a "target" weight. I just want to be able to comfortably fit into my pants, bottoms and jeans.

I started watching what i ate and actually did a decent job counting my calories. I have been counting calories for close to 2 months now. I started off at 129, got down to 123, but then gained 1.5lbs. so im starting again at 125. A good solid buck and a quarter.

Today i will be starting a new workout regimen, a little something called INSANITY! wait, before you think im insane for purchasing the DVDs, my generous friend, Preeti, gave me a brand new set as an early birthday present. She is awesome! I read all the inserts and pamphlets, put up my workout calendar up, and read through the "before you being" section that everyone skips over. I took before pictures in a bikini i wore during our honeymoon. By no means was i beach body ready then, but lets just say i looked aiiight in the bikini back then. Anyhow, back to the picture, not sure if im going to post them, because, well, c'mon... im only human, that really putting myself out there! Maybe ill post it at the end of the 60 day to compare results.

Shamefully, i was a little heffer this weekend. Bread. Rice. Ice cream. Cookie. you name it, i stuffed it in my mouth, you know, like a "one last night" sorta thing, except with junk food.

I'll try to update you on a weekly basis. Track any progress, and review the program as well. I hope to be able to call my current work pants my "fat pants" in the near future ;-D

Not My Will

2010-10-29T11:52:00.000-07:00

You ever have those days-were its just your day? Sure! we've all found that close parking spot, or found a great deal, or an awesome pair of jeans on clearance and you think to yourself today is my lucky day!

Wednesday. all.day. was my day. I'm not going to say it was my lucky day, on Wednesday i felt God doing his work in my life. All of Wednesdays events were an act of God's will, and there is no doubt in my mind that God has bigger and better things for all of us, we just have to learn to see these things. Remember when i said that i don't talk about Religion, Money or Politics? Well today is your lucky day!

I am currently reading 2 books- one of them being "The Purpose Drive Life" by Dr. Rick Warren. I purchased them about 2 weeks ago. I was very eager to start reading it, but since i was fairly busy last week, I first picked it up on Tuesday night. In my mind, this book, that i hadn't even read a single word from was already changing my life. I was anxious to start reading it. I had been doing a lot of meditating and praying on the days leading up to the purchase of the book. I am only through the first 2 chapters, but i can feel this books affect- the ability to feel it, the understanding, the realization, the knowledge that comes with it.

I had been feeling all sorts of anxiousness. I've had so many things running through my head- my education, my husband, my family, my faith, my career and so on. I have thought long and carefully about where I'm at and where i want to be. I know when I'm graduating, and everything i need to do to get there. I know where my career is going , and everything i need to get to my next promotion. I know where my family/husband life is at, and everything that i need to do to keep it healthy and balanced. Now when it comes down to my faith, i know where i am at, and where i want to be.

I have a tremendous amount of faith in my God. I trust in him blindly. I surrender to his will. I rejoice in all that he has given us. I have been humbled by his work in my life, all the good, all the bad, all the uncertainties- In everything.

But i want more. I want to feel his presence in my everyday life, just as i did on Wednesday. This might turn you off, but I'm am not 100% in agreement with organized religion. I don't always agree on all of the positions the 'church' takes on or against. What i do agree on is that God is good. That God is an omnipotent accepting and forgiving God. That God has a master plan for you and like the prayer, "Hagase TU voluntad aqui en la tierra como en el cielo" - His Will will come to fulfillment. That God is always there, even in your darkest hours. That God deserves your love unconditionally, the way he loves you.

And i want to grow in that. I want to grow in my individual faith. I want to set an example for those who are not there yet. I have very contradicting thoughts. I understand and accept the concept of evangelizing, but i don't believe in forcing God or specific beliefs on someone. We are here to spread his word, literally and/or by example. I know so many people who have been pushed away form religion by Cathoholics- those who are die hard religious, but cause more harm than good, intentionally or not. There are so many people who have the desire to have a relationship with God, but are not accepted by a religion because of the way they look, or who they love, or what they are not.

Back to the book, A Purpose Driven Life, and its main concept- Why am I here? What is my purpose? What on Earth am I here for? I think its time that more people start asking themselves this question. You might find that what you thought- isn't, and where you're going- is bigger than your big picture.

Don't mean to step on anyones toes, and this is why i usually don't discuss religion, money or politics, but after all this is my blog, and it is tittled Becoming Mrs.Juju, and growing in faith helps me become a better Mrs.Juju. Can i get an Amen?!

Wall Art

2010-10-27T14:23:00.000-07:00

Juju has taken over my dinning room. That's right my dinning room, well now its his. He has set up his laptop and has spread his school books across every inch of my beautiful dinning room table. Then he uses this old, a bit broken down, white board to keep track of his assignments. Since this whiteboard is unsightly huge, he usually props it on the floor, against the wall, on a chair etc etc. because there was no way i wanted him to hang that thing on the wall.

See? It takes up 1/3 of the wall.

Here enters the brilliant idea of having it be functional for Juj and not an eyesore for the rest of the world. Since we are still working on a budget, we had to figure a way to solve this issue- inexpensively.

After much brainstorming, we decided on the project below. There was a few adjustments along the way, 3 visits to the store ( 2 Menard's, 1 Joann's) and blood, sweat and tears.

We purchased the needed supplies to build a tension cord system.

Here is a close up of the metal cord, cord 'crimper', turnbuckle and eyelet thingy.

Next we took 4 (14x18 i think) wrapped canvas that we already owned, and wrapped them in fabric purchased (on sale 50% off! orig.39.99/yd) at Joann's. For anyone interested in wrapping canvas in fabric, i strongly suggest purchasing a can of fabric adhesive. Its not necessary, but it makes it a lot easier to align the fabric to the desired position. Then simply fold and staple.

Watch your fingers though, using a staple gun can be very dangerous.... here is were the blood part came in.

Here is one canvas just about done being wrapped.

Here is a close up. Pretty darn good eh?

Next we took 2 wrapped canvas an reinforced them together by adding a wooden backing, supporting each frame individually. This created 2 separate panels. In the left picture (on the right side) you can see how we created a panel, using 2 individual canvas. We measure 4 in. from the edge and carefully ( if you drill too fast you will snag and create pulls in the fabric) drilled holes to insert the hooks that would hook on to/sit on the actual metal cord.

So here you have it- Finished project. To hide the eyesore that is Juj's whiteboard we simply slide both panels together, creating a 'mural' if you will.

AND when juju needs to use the whiteboard, he simply slides the panels apart.

Overall this project was very inexpensive. It cost us about $48, and we have a lot of left over parts, pieces, 'capital' if you will, for our next project.

Baby Cake

2010-10-26T12:59:00.000-07:00

I bet by now you are thinking that something went terribly wrong during the baby gender reveal cake that has kept me from updating? No. not really. I think it went pretty darn good. The cake itself was Delicious if i do say so myself and the butter cream was Delicious too, the decorating part... welll... that was aiiiight. I mean I did the best with the tools that i had, which weren't many.

So on Friday after eating dinner and send Juju off to hang out with the guys i started baking the cakes. I gathered all my ingredients and invaded my MILs kitchen, since my oven largely resembles an easy-bake oven. I spent the last few days leading up to the cake i was searching for a basic cake i could add pineapple filling to it.

I decided on a classic vanilla cake, pineapple filling and vanilla butter cream. I followed the recipe from Annie over at Annie's Eats She made them cupcakes as you can see, but the recipe and instructions ( minus the baking time ) work just fine. Since I'm still a rookie, I copied her ingredients/instructions below.

Vanilla Bean Cupcakes

Ingredients:
3 cups cake flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
16 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups sugar
5 large eggs, at room temperature
1¼ cups buttermilk, at room temperature
1 tbsp. vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line two cupcake pans with paper liners. Set aside.

In a medium mixing bowl, combine the cake flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk together and set aside. Add the butter to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Scrape the vanilla bean seeds into the bowl of the mixer with the butter and discard the pod (or reserve for another use.) Beat on medium-high speed for 3 minutes, until light and creamy in color. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat for one more minute.

Add the sugar to the butter mixture, ¼ cup at a time, beating 1 minute after each addition. Mix in the eggs one at a time until incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl after each addition. Combine the buttermilk and the vanilla extract in a liquid measuring cup. With the mixer on low speed, add the dry ingredients alternately with the wet ingredients, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients and mixing just until incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix for 15 seconds longer.

Divide the batter between the prepared paper liners, filling each about 2/3 of the way full (you will likely have batter left over after filling 24 wells.) Bake 18-22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pans 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely. Replace paper liners and bake remaining batter if desired. Frost cooled cupcakes as desired.

My Adventure:
*I made the cakes on Friday night. I followed the instructions above to the T. The only semi sorta problem that i encountered was after mixing the ingredients, dry/wet/dry/wet/dry, i stopped the mixer to prepare the cake pans, when i returned to the cake mix, it seemed to be separating. So i quick turned on the mixer again, tried whipping it up to the int ital consistency. I maneuvered the bowl to get air back into the mixture and although it did come together it wasn't the original consistency. That worried me.

*While baking, my edges started browning too fast. And since the cake itself was colored, it looked very odd. next time i will ensure i prepare the pans with parchment paper, i used butter and flour. rookie mistake

*I let cake cool in the pan OVERNIGHT. And i shouldn't have. The next morning i didn't have a problem getting it out at all, but i feel it did affect the cake a smidge.

Here are a few pictures of the process. I think I can put this one down in the books as a success.

First came the crumb coating. Since I crumb coated both layers, i kept them both cold in the fridge to ensure none of the colored crumbs were visible.

The filling was pineapple, I had to make the filling twice since the first time around, while trying to thicken the filling i began making "dough dumplings" because one person can only sift and stir fast enough.

I didn't spread the filling all the way to the edges, while researching proper filling techniques, i learned that the weight from the top layer will cause the filling to fall out of the cake if its too close to the edge.

Here is the cake crumb coated, filled and layered.

Here is the cake with the butter cream frosting. I know it looks a little rough, but i "wanted" it that way ;-)

Neutral green and yellow decoration dot thingies.

Another view. I wanted to add "more" to the cake, but being a rookie and all, i didn't want to mess up the "good" thing i had going already. And i didn't want it to look like too much. I wanted a simple cake that would serve its very important purpose.

I have to work on my cake writing technique, i never knew i had such a shaky hand!

Oh and if your wondering what the gender is.... Well your going to have to keep'on waiting, Gaby has yet to forward me a picture of the cut cake. blame her.

Busy Bee!

2010-10-21T09:51:00.000-07:00

Ive been very very busy this past week. Hence, why i haven't blogged. Whats that? Why have i been so busy?

Monday- Class
Tuesday- Studying for Midterm
Wednesday- Studying for Midterm
Thursday (today) - Midterm [ahhhhhhhhhh!!]
Friday- Prep for Sat 9 am School meeting
Saturday 9 a.m- Shool team meeting, much needed: cooking, cleaning, laundry-ing
Sunday- Church, Breakfast, homework due monday.

Jealous?

I have started to recap the baby gender reveal cake I made for Gaby.
I've also got news about Vegas Baby!
Rave about an awesome book I'm reading, and the next one on my list
And....
A rough draft of my Life Plan for the next year and a half or so.

What kinda baby is it?

2010-10-14T14:56:00.000-07:00

I mentioned a few weeks back that i was going to be an auntie, a titi if you will. My older sister, Gaby ( & hubby Jesse), are expecting their first little peanut in March, and i couldn't be more thrilled. Few reasons why:

Takes the pressure off of us to have a baby anytime soon
I really want a niece. We have nothing but stinky boys in the family
The youngest nephew in the family is like 7/8? i know its bad that I'm not sure.
Takes the pressure off of us to have a baby anytime soon

I am so very thrilled to announce that i will be making a gender reveal cake for her, when the time comes to find out whether its a mister peanut or misses peanut.

Out of respect, I will not reveal the baby's gender until Gaby gives the O.K.

After all, it is her baby. (* hint hint for any people spreading her business out there)

So I'm a little nervous. I'm making the cake from scratch. I am also decorating it, or at least will try to. I have a nice set of decorating tools- bags, tips, decorative edges etc. etc.- that i will be using. My plan is to ice the outside of the cake all white, the inside will have pink cake for a girl, and blue cake for a boy ( the filling will be based upon the future mommy's request) and the decorations will be gender neutral, green and yellow. When you cut into the cake, you will find pink, or blue cake, revealing the babys gender! I am so excited!!

We Gaby plans to reveal the gender of the baby to the family as soon as she knows what they are having. I will reveal pictures of the finished product, maybe... if it doesnt look too awful. If Gaby says its ok, I'll let you know what shes having.... until then you shall know my future niece/nehpher as niecphew. Yup, thought of that one all on my own.

Road opposite of rage

2010-10-12T07:35:00.000-07:00

I like to think I am a pretty good driver- others beg to differ. I can admit that i am a nervous person all around so i don't like to drive when Juj and I are going somewhere. Don't tell him, but he's not a good co pilot. We'll be driving down the road and he'll say something like okay turn..........back there. Sigh. That's when i get nervous and start asking... stay right? go straight? speed up? So to avoid these situations i prefer for him to drive.

On my own, i am great! I can dip in and out of traffic, i am an excellent blind spot checker, and a very tactful driver. I tend to not use my horn to "yell" at people when they drive stupidly, or ride their breaks, or stop short, or cut me off- heck, I'm that person that lets the other person go first even when their the ones backing up into a busy street.

And trust me, I drive out to me Menomonee Falls everyday, that means i have to merge from 94 to 45 ( fon du lac) and that merging area is notorious for cars cutting others off.

And although sometimes I'm in a rush... i shrug it off. No biggie.

Why you may ask?

Years ago at church, I once heard a sermon that talked about being appreciative and being kind to others. I know what your thinking, "i do let people merge when they put their signal on... its those jerks that cut you off that make me upset." Well today one of those jerks cut me off. The sermon talked about how we all live in our little worlds and really have no idea what is going on in that jerks head- Meaning, that jerk might be having a rough week, maybe he is over worked and under paid, maybe he is rushing to his second job- just to make ends meet, maybe he is on his way to visit someone terminally ill at the hospital.... Maybe, just maybe him/her getting in front of you or in front of the line will be the best thing that will happen to him/her that day.

Crazy eh?

Only God knows why this person is in such a rush. You've been there. And I'm sure you've wanted to be given the right away when your rushing to work, school, doctors appointment, etc. So be kind. Be kind to that jerk because on occasion you have or one day will be that jerk.

Smart Man = Awesome Purchase

2010-10-11T11:04:00.000-07:00

For a while now, I have been going to school sans a laptop. We have a home windows desktop and a mac laptop. While the mac laptop is functional, it has limited mobility due to battery life and a few technical flaws. So Juj and i have been talking about getting me a laptop for some time now. We both knew that it would be a mac operating system- that right off the bat puts me at dropping at least a grand for a barebones minimum Macbook. We searched and researched and contemplated purchasing a used Macbook/pro. We didn't want to spend too much on used laptop either, for the obvious reasons.

So ladies and gents, you are looking at the proud owner of an iPad!

The iPad was only a fraction of the cost of a entry level Macbook and cheaper than tons of used laptops that we found.

Juju helped determined what I would use my laptop for the most. We made a list and figured out that i would realistically need it for school work (word, powerpoint, excel), personal use (web[blogging],apps and [i'm very excited about this...] it doubles as an E-Reader [like the kindle/nook]) and just for fun stuff like youtube, netflix, etc. etc. Matter of fact I am blogging this from my iPad as we speak!

I'll have to learn and review more about all of its functions. I was just too excited to not say something!

Eatin' Cheap

2010-10-08T12:59:00.000-07:00

I find that this post is perfect after my rant about budgeting. Last week Thursday, i think, i was reading a post about Restaurant.com and an amazing one day promotion they had going on. I rarely ever "take people up on discount offers", plus it sounded too good to be true so i wanted to check it out myself.

I browsed through the restaurants in my area and found a lot of restaurants that i have been to, like, or would like to try. So there i was loading my cart with tons and tons of gift certificates to all these restaurants. I know what your thinking, what about your budget? Well amigos... take a gander- this is what i got:

$50 Restaurant.com gift certificate
$50 Wards house of prime
$25 Houlihans
$25 (3)Kil@wat
$25 (2)Molly Cools
$25 Bistro Bar 333
$25 Pepino's Pizzeria
$25 Libiamo
$10 (2)Marchese's Olive Pit
$10 (2)Antigua

Ok, lets add those bad boys up... Ok, lets see carry the one... $365 dollars worth of gift certificates. Even if i got them at 50% off i would never spend that much, specially up front for them.

Grand total $17.60

And if my math serves me correct, we got all these gift cards at about a 95% discount. I know, what.a.deal!!

Please hold your applause. Seriously, sit. No need for a standing ovation.

Something funny though, Juj must have looked at the account afterwards because he was like... "wait!?! what is this purchase for restaurant.com?" He thought it was fraud since i did 2 separate transactions and they were both very small.

Shoe Strings : ONLY

2010-10-06T14:05:00.000-07:00

We aren't broke broke. We are cant-afford-to-take-a-vacation broke. We have food on our table and a roof over our heads. We have clothes on our back and a borrowed washing machine to wash it in.

I joked with a coworker saying "We're on a shoe string budget, meaning, i cant afford to get the shoes, just the shoe strings"

Its difficult trying to work with a budget because you know that you cant "splurge" on much. We have done very well trying to cut down on unnecessary expenditures. We have reduced the number of times we go out to eat or get take out. I try to keep the fridge stocked with food so we can eliminate the "There's nothing in the fridge" thoughts, that have so easily led us to go out to eat. No one said budgeting would be easy, but if they did, it was most likely because they had a large budget. With Juj working less, we became more aware of what, how, where we are droppin' the dough.

I've been doing some research and according to many budgeting websites and tools your budget should looks a bit like this:

Housing- 25-30%

Food-15%

Gas/Transportation-15%

Utilities-10%

Payments on Debt-10%

Savings-10%

Entertainment-5%

Medical-5%

Charity-5%

Clothing-5%

Now I'm not going to bore you to death with all the details of our finances, but we tend to shift around the allocated percentages.

Housing- 23%
Food-10%
               -I tend to be a very smart shopper, finds sales, stock up on BOGO (cheese freezes well) and
                since for the most part we don't consume much meat we tend to not spend too much on food.
Gas/Transportation/Ins-28%
               -This is for our car payment, insurance & gas
Utilities-12%
               - This includes household and our cell phone bill we pay for 4 lines ( juj, MIL, mom, & I)
Payments on ALL Debt-25%
               -Oh this is high. too high, but it does include just about everything, credit cards, student loans,
                regular loans etc etc.
Savings- ~%
              - Some months are better than others, some months we are able to save 10% others 1%
Entertainment-5%
              -This is varies, we can go weekends with out spending anything, then there is times when we
              drop F-bombs when we pay our part of the tab/bill. We for sure spend 9 dollars on netflix/mo.
Medical-0%
              - Thankfully we've got more than enough money set aside in our Flexible Spending accounts to
                cover any medical bills our insurance doesn't cover
Charity-0%
             - Though I volunteer my time at different charity events, we give no monetary donations.
Clothing-5%
             - I can seriously say that i have not spent much out of pocket money on clothing. For example, i
               had gift card to kohls, a merch. credit, kohls cash and my employee shop day and employee
               discount. I purchased 3 tops for roughly 25 dollars. NOWHERE near the 5% that I we should be
               using.( hint hint babe!)

I know that by this time you've take out your calculator and figured out that totals 108% and taking into account that a few of our areas fluctuating, such as savings and entertainment. Well ladies and gentlemen, somehow, i make it happen. Well, we make it happen. Even though i do most of the bill paying we both try to keep within our budget. Over time things such as the debt area will go down, perhaps we'll take a leap and purchase a home, but a lot of things can throw a monkey wrench into our budgeting plans, i.e. Cookies expensive medical bills, new brakes, etc etc. Conveniently, I just got a sweet raise at work- so that's always a plus!

Overall its not difficult, it would just be a lot easier to manage if we were just given one big lump sum at the beginning of the month =-D

Things i hear

2010-10-04T13:03:00.000-07:00

Boss at meeting: "Im Excited! We aren't all Idiots!!"

It's Over

2010-10-01T12:13:00.000-07:00

Finally. It's over. There will be no more hearings. There will be no more depositions. There will be no more living those horrible moments that Cookie endured.

The kid who brought the pitbull into our yard and attacked cookie was 'sentenced' to serve his year probation at a Rehabilitation Treatment Center, RTC today.

Today we heard any last arguments. I addressed the court once again. I was composed and was able to express my empathy for this kid and his mom. I made it clear to the court that this, this whole case, went beyond what happened to Cookie, beyond the money and beyond any 'retaliation/seeking justice' for my dear Cookie. This was about getting this kid the help he needs to have a fighting chance at being a productive member of society when he grows up. This was about helping him find his way onto the correct path. This was about saving another person from potentially spending the rest of his life in jail. And we did.

The kid addressed me. He apologized, he sobbed... and i cried right along with him. My heart went out to him- because at the end of the day he is just another child, a victim of his family's inability to raise and educate him properly, another broken child, product of a broken home, who was never shown or taught how to be a good kid.

Today i feel such a sense of relief.

I really hope that we have changed his life for the better. I hope he can one day look back and feel appreciative of what he went through and know that if it wasnt for us, well... who knows where he'd be. I can only hope.

The Things i Hear

2010-10-01T08:21:00.000-07:00

Last night in class:

Student: "How did they manage to leave?" (something along those lines)

DR H : "Oh, they simply snookied out of the situation"

JerseyShore Fan much?

Mo' money Mo' problems

2010-09-30T12:26:00.000-07:00

Generally, there is 3 things i dont like to discuss with people: Money, Religion & Politics.

But lately all i have been able to think about is money money money money mo-ney... mah-nay! (sing to the tune of the money song) But i've been thinking about it in a good way. Everyday as i read through my status update feed on my facebook, i see people talking about how much money they have, or how much they make, or at least make it a point to insinuate that they have money. I loathe those people. Not because im envious, nor jealous... But because it shows how superficial those people are- always talking about what they have, where they are going or what they just bought.

Its funny because Juj and I were having a conversation about people who have money, or at least try to front like they do. Those people, who brag about how much they made, or how much they shop, really don't have money to live the lifestyle they say to have. Those people tend to live out of their means just to keep up with the Jones's- or simply to keep up with their own charade. That's why mo' money comes with mo' problems. People who have real money are not running around spending it frivolously- and then talking about how much they spent. People who have real money are humble, hard working, financially responsible and don't have the need to proclaim how much they have.

My good friend is quite loaded. She and her husband own a few businesses and recently built a gorgeous home. She takes simple vacations and is modest in her appearance, never flashy- but always put together. Her children aren't spoiled and her parents are never in need. She never talks about money- but she is quick to help friend in need. That my friends, is people who have real money.

Money has such an affect in our lives. I've never been a conformist, but I'm not money hungry either. Money changes people both in a good and bad way. Not having money really makes you take a step back and realize how truly blessed you are to have what you have- very humbling. Not having money makes you aspire to have it, but for all the right reasons.

One day, i want to have money... by the butt loads if possible. I want to do good things in this world, i want to give back to every person who has ever been there for me, i want to be able to provide for my family, my friends or a homeless man in on a corner.

Even if it kills me

2010-09-28T09:53:00.000-07:00

I've always been a fruit eater. Even as a child I loved me some fruit. Any kind at that. I used to consume an entire cantaloupe by myself- when i was 7. The one and only fruit i will not eat is papaya- for smelly reasons- other than that... bring it.

And so the apple brought it. One lovely day, years ago, while enjoying a nice crispy Gala apple, something happened. About 3/4 bites into it... i began getting an itchy, tingly sensation around my lips and gums. Meh. Didn't think much about it. So there i was munch. munch. much. My throat started feeling funny. So i walked over to the mirror to find that the inside of my mouth was bright red and it looked like blood had rushed to the surface in some areas and my throat was red and swelling.

There you have it ladies and gents.... I was allergic to apples.

That was the abrupt end to my relationship with apples. Recently, i have been having immense cravings for apples. I mean, what is the fall season with out apples??? A while back i discovered that i am mainly allergic to the actual apple peel. (Thanks a lot factory farms who have made it nearly impossible for me to enjoy an apple, with all your chemicals and toxins you use to produce your apples) If i peel the apple the affects are significantly less, but its not the same, you don't get that crunch and satisfaction of biting into that outer peel. I have succumbed into temptations a few times at work, but i make sure i tell a co-worker that I'm having an apple, just in case i loose consciousness due to airflow restriction.

Last week at the grocery store, while picking up a bag of apples for juju (lucky punk), i made a decision.

Apples, your not the boss of me. I am the boss of you, sorta.

So i took to bags, one for juj and one to make applesauce with. Last night i peeled, cored, and chopped up a bag of apples. I added a pinch of cinnamon and a special secret ingredient.... and tah-dah! Homemade applesauce, super easy, super fast and it is au naturale- no added nothing, well except cinnamon and my secret ingredient =-)

I only taste tested it last night since i was exhausted, but i didn't feel any reaction coming on. Although it does not offer the crunch i long for in an apples, it satisfies my cravings for them.

Vegas Baby! (maybe)

2010-09-23T12:23:00.000-07:00

Last year, before my fabulous birthday in Chicago with Mon and Christy, I decided that i wanted to do something "big/special" for my 25th birthday. Yeah i know, 25 isn't that big of a milestone, BUT my golden birthday was when i was 4, and im pretty sure my mom had absolutely not idea what a "golden birthday" was so i kinda lucked out. Now Juj, his birthday is June 30th-that means his golden birthday will be when he turns 30 and that's a big milestone, again... sorta.

So I would really like to go to Vegas this year for my birthday. Its a lot harder said than done, specially with Juj working part time we have very little discretionary income. But i really want to go.

The plan is that the gang- Juan, Maria, Christy, Mon, Juj and I- would all try to go but making it budget friendly, because honestly, no one of us is balling out of control.

If there is one thing you should know about me is that I'm a planner. I like to plan things. I like to know what we are doing, when we are doing it, who's going, what time, etc etc. Though i do like spontaneity, i don't like to leave big things to "chance". I want to get all of the possible Vegas entourage together to further discuss the plans, what dates, etc etc.

As a planner, I've been doing some research. I started looking at hotels, reviewing attractions, checking on flights. As of now a round trip non stop from MKE to LAS is at 255 (incl tax). Not bad. BUT it could get better. I want to find the air fair more along the vicinity of 215-235. I know in the scheme of things its only 20 dollars cheaper but that could at least cover any luggage we would need to check. As far as hotels, we have yet to decide if we are going to do a 2 queen for 4 of use or try to get a suite for all 6 of us, either way we'll do even Steven- making it more affordable for everyone.

Wish me luck in my planning endeavours. I'll hopefully be able to say that i celebrated my 25th birthday in Las Vegas (Baby!)

Is it because im a girl?

2010-09-21T08:18:00.000-07:00

Just a quick vent. So I'm currently taking a statistics class. I really like math, always have, always will. But stats? well, um... i do like it, but i feel the professor could do a heck of a better job with his teaching techniques and it also doesn't help that the traditional 16 week course is crammed into 6 sessions. Any how, back to my vent. So we have a team project to complete by the end of the class, which just happens to be next week. My team consists of 2 guys and 2 girls (including myself).

We decided to do some sort of test ( Z/T/Hypothesis) on NFL quarterbacks. Fine. I like football and the more i understand it, the less number of question i pose during each play, and the more enjoyable it is for those around me. So there i go, i find statistics ranking the 32 quarterbacks giving their age, seasons yards ( passing, completed, rushing), completion rates etc etc. So i did my homework on this, not only this but i bounced off ideas off of a few sports enthusiasts at work. So before i met with my team i emailed a nicely formatted spreadsheet with all my statistics. I have to admit i was a bit proud of myself.

Once i arrived at Starbucks for my team meeting:

Me: "Hi Guys! ~~Sorry I'm late!~~ I emailed all of you a spreadsheet of what i think is a great foundation for our project"

Guy #1: "Oh, I'm not online, I haven't checked my email"

Guy #2: "Oh yeah, I looked at it"

Me: silence....waiting for feedback.....
"Well?..."

Guy #2: [smugly] "Oh, I deleted it"

Me: "What? Why?"

Guy #2: [confidently] "We can't use it, Its outdated information"

Me: [SLAP] [OK, j/k i didn't, but i wanted to]

Me: "Really? Outdated data? So do you proposed that we use this years data? The football season literally just started" A Durrrrr!

Guy # 2: [with tail between legs] "Oh, i knew that... let me get it out of my recycling bin"

In the words of Stephanie Tanner.... How rude! I was so upset, i couldn't believe both of their attitudes. I mean seriously... what year are we in? Is a woman not capable of have a little knowledge (sorta) in a male dominated sports industry? Sure maybe I'm not a football guru but I'm not stupid, and brought a heck of a lot more to the table than those 2 bird brains!

Things I Hear

2010-09-18T13:23:00.000-07:00

This new little segment is brought to you by the random things i hear whether they are to me, around me or from me.

"im not saying your not pretty, all im saying is that you got potential"

Lady Gah-ross

2010-09-17T07:52:00.000-07:00

Did anyone happen to catch the VMAs this past weekend?

Eww, eww, eww. I know shes out there and all, but really? I'm not appalled, nor am i upset, nor am i insulted, not even because i don't favor meat. We've all worked with raw meat before right? that coldness, that texture. oh and not the mention the smell of cold raw red meat.

source

She was quoted "It's certainly no disrespect to anyone that's vegan or vegetarian, As you know, I am the most judgment-free human being on the earth. It has many interpretations, but for me this evening, it's 'If we don't stand up for what we believe in, we don't fight for our rights, pretty soon we're gonna have as much rights as the meat on our bones."

Uhh...Sure... what about the rights of that animal shes wearing? looks like the its rights were less than the meat on its bones.

Don't get me wrong, I like her music. Just some of the things she does are really not necessary. Sorta like the meat dress.

For a Mule

2010-09-16T13:03:00.000-07:00

The last couple of days I've been feeling a bit under the weather. I finally gave in to the caring pressure of others, and went to the doctors. Found out i have a double ear infection really? How old am I? , an upper respiratory infection, swollen glands and just a bunch of other viral stuff. I got the usual, runny nose, sore throat, headache, tingling/achy body viral stuff. So i went to the doctor and they gave me these bad boys....

I joked that these pills looked like mule tranquilizers, they sure are big enough. I was cautioned to break it half, take it with food and plenty of fluids to reduce the risk of getting it lodged in my throat. Great! Now not only am i sick, but I'm risking my life with every dose of amoxicillin.

I Have a Crush: Booties, Booties, Booties

2010-09-15T11:49:00.000-07:00

"I like big butts and i cannot lie, you other bro...." Wha? just kidding, not the kind of booties your thinking.

But for this fall, when i think of a nice transition shoe, i think of booties. I'm really liking the menswear inspired collections in a lot of designers fall lines. Many shoes designers have tapped into this look by introducing oxford style booties! My favorite are the first ones below. They are a part of Ralph Laurens Fall collection.

I'm a little biased to browns, and different shades of brown, such as cognac, maples, etc since earth tones become alive during the fall months. I did throw in a few color ones in there just to give you some variety, but darker colors, such as gray and dark or navy blue work great in the fall too!

source

I know a lot of people aren't fans of the bootie, but i think they are so versatile! You can wear just about anything with your booties, from dresses, to skirts to jeans ( even shorts and stockings if your daring enough!). On cold days you can throw a pair of tights on with your skirt or dress and finish of your look with a great pair of booties. I also like that booties tend to be very comfortable since they hug your feet. I have a great pair of gray Vera Wang suede booties, but i have limited wear on those since they are suede. (cant let my babies get nasty in the rain!) My Vera Wang booties are so comfortable that i can seriously take a hike in them.

So run out and get yourself a pair...., go ahead... turn your computer off. Run along now.

Cookies Justice

2010-09-13T11:10:00.001-07:00

You might recall that my precious little princess was maliciously attacked by a pitbul back in April. If you are just joining me now, this is what I'm talking about. When ever i talk about what happened to cookie, my mom cringes and asks me to stop. She cant stand hearing about it, and while it still makes me feel that anxious pain in my stomach and that knot in my throat- i actually like to go back and read every thought, every emotion and every feeling that was running through me. It makes me appreciate how far shes come and realize just how lucky we are to still have her in our lives.

Anyone who has ever had a pet before a child knows that they are our babies. She means the world to Juj and I- and we have personified her to be our baby, well maybe me more than him. I refer to us as "mommy" and "daddy". a little weird??? sure! Oh but she knows who "daddy" is when she gets scolded by "mommy". Any how, everyday that i get to wake up to her rank kisses is truly a blessing, stinky breath and all.

And anyone who knows me, knows how much i love her.

That is why i have spent countless hours going to all the hearing and dispositions regarding the kid who owned the pit who attacked. I've been to court a total of 4 times now. This Friday should be the last one. It seems like obstacle after obstacle have been presented in court and has kept it from being resolved, but i have faith that this will soon come to an end.

Matter of fact, on Friday the judge will decide where this kid will spend his year long probation. Obviously his attorney and his mother want him to spend his probation time at home with therapy and social services involved. My family and I (& the state) want him to enter a Rehabilitation Treatment Facility, RTC to serve his year probation. In an interesting twist of events, this kid has been interviewed by an RTC and he "let the record show" that he wanted to go to the RTC that interviewed him. He would rather go to the RTC than go home.

As mad as I am about what happened to Cookie, I am also thankful that he will get the help he needs to give him a fighting chance at having a normal adulthood. I believe in giving people a second chance, and by this kid actually saying himself that he wants to got to the RTC, to some degree, shows me that he is repentful.

I only pray to God that this leads him into the right path and then we can all start to fully forgive him.

Vera Wang for the Cure

2010-09-09T13:53:00.000-07:00

I was very excited when Kohl's introduced this "Women's Cause Merchandise". Kohl's is known for their community programs such as Kohl's Cares for Kids, Associates in Action, Green Initiatives etc, etc. Earlier this year Kohl's announced a large donation ans partnership with the American Cancer Society and the Milwaukee Affiliate of Susan G. Komen foundation.

A few days ago they launched an exclusive line of Vera Wang Committed to the Cure merchandise. What is awesome about the line is:

1. All the merchandise is only $5 or $10!
2. Everything is available at your local Kohl's, i say this because the majority of my readers are in WI ( All 7 of you, ;-D) and in the event that you want to share this with people across the nation, it is also available online at Kohls.com.
3. It has Vera Wang's stylish flair.
4. And most importantly 100% of the net profits are donated to support the fight against breast Cancer!

These are just a few of the items in Vera Wang's line, there is tons more at Kohls.com.

Here are a few of the many great items that are available:

Coin Purse- for the girl who has all her change at the bottom of her purse

Coffee Mug- For the coffee lover

Slippers- For the person whose feet are always cold

Pajama set- For the girl who has everything.... except for PJ's

There is tons more on Kohl's.com. These are all great gift giving ideas, or you can also get yourself a little some-some.... all while still contributing to a great cause!!

My Reasons for the Seasons

2010-09-07T13:00:00.000-07:00

With Labor day behind us, the weather dropping and the cooler days rolling in, my brain automatically begins to think of the changes up ahead. Its hard for me to pick a season as my favorite season. If i had to number them in order of my liking for them it would have to be- Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring.

Summer- I like the warmth, i love the sun, i love wearing sunglasses, i love busting out the chicken legs. And truthfully, the heat doesn't "get to me" as it does to other people, in fact i was asked: "Do you even sweat?!?" I love the smell of the grill. It reminds me of eating hot dogs, in tortillas, after swimming with my sister. I love that the days seem to last forever.

Fall- I like the smell it has. I like the sound of leaves crunching under my feet, not to mention the different shandes of amber the tree leaves turn. I like sweat pants, a lot, i even wear them in the summer =-D i like socks and footies and sock footies and chanclas. I also like the fact that its cold enough to have an excuse to drink hot drinks. I like pumpkin flavored a.n.y.t.h.i.n.g. I like pumpkin spice lattes, pumpkin seeds, pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin breads, muffins, ice cream, cheesecake, pie, etc. etc. hell i have even had pumpkin shampoo. I like the fall because you can have bonfires and drink wine as you listen to the wood(& any other items you might have thrown in there because the stupid thing wouldn't stay lit) crackle.

Winter- that's a no brainer, like any other ~~child~~ person, i favor my birthday season. I love being ridiculously bundled up ( because im a coldy cat ), I like driving in the snow with my snow tires, I love that i can still wear my sunglasses because it is unbelievably bright with snowfall. I love the fact that i live far enough from work to milk any large snow fall, and of course snow days!! I'm beginning to like Christmas as the time passes. Having lost my brother, and by no means close to the Christmas season, always made my (our) Christmas feel so incomplete, so sad, so cold (no pun intended), so 'dark'. This past Christmas was my little family's first, we did a lot of things to the house to make it seem more Christmasee. We I decked the halls with something jolly and i was happy. I actually don't mind that cold all that much either. I like the feeling of my face defrosting when i step inside a warm house, makes me feel alive!

Spring- I don't like spring. two words. WET & WINDY yuk! I know, April shower bring blah blah blah. But it gets so nasty and gray outside. It makes me not want to do anything. at all. Heck even cookie dislikes spring the most. She loved to sunbathe, she too, likes the sound of crackling leaves under her paws, and although she is a coldy cat like her momma, as long and their is a path she'll walk to do her business. She does not like the rain. at. all. in fact when she walks as close to the house as possible to find refuge under the small dry area the roof provides. Another thing i dislike is that once the snow melts, there is always those few leaves that have been buried all season long and get all wet and mushy and stick to the bottom of your shoe because of all the rain.

With fall right around the corner, I begin to get excited to transition into my fall wardrobe, which i have yet to buy =-D

Just because

2010-09-06T11:40:00.000-07:00

I don't think i let him know this enough. Juju is the most wonderful thing that has ever happened to me. He provides such an amazing support in my life i would honestly go nuts with out him. Im not going to sugar coat this, because im sure you all think- yeah, yeah. what a blessing, yada yada yada. hes so amazing, blah blah blah. Don't get me wrong, sometimes, I want to beat him with an orange stuffed sock in his sleep- but as i approach him, sock in hand- and i see his face snuggled into his pillow, covered to his neck with his half, and my half, of the blanket and his big (envious) pout- my heart melts.

I go to school, I have a very demanding job, I am involved at my church, I am constantly running around like a chicken with out a head, whether it be for school group meeting, to run errands, to take my ma places, or for work related activities- he is always there, trying to help. Poor guy hasn't had a decent home cooked meal in a while. We try to make time for us- but sometimes our schedules conflict. Does he complain? no.

A few weeks ago i hosted girls night for some of my girlfriends. The entire 2 weeks before hand he dedicated all his spare time to clean our house. Seriously. I mean he dusted, he washed, he scrubbed, he mopped, he swept, he organized, re organized, dis organized. He was a machine! He helped me so much, and then come the day of, he came home, helped with some finishing touches, took a shower and headed out the door ( you know, its girls night.... and all). Did i ask him to help? no, not once. He is just that good.

Hes got my back. And i got his.

Stereotypes at their best

2010-09-03T11:12:00.000-07:00

I for one, hate stereotypes. I do. They are so nasty. They are never "good" stereotypes, they are always negative. As much as i like to give people the benefit of the doubt or even toy with the idea that they ( the subject of the stereotype) are the exception to the rule, something always happens to shake that idea away.

Like this past weekend for example. We went to Mexican Fiesta to enjoy some food, overly priced drinks and to listen to a band or two. I was truly disgusted ( cant even say i was surprised, because, well that is what i expected to see) at what some of the people were wearing. I saw things. Ugly things. I saw butt cracks. I saw saggy boobs. I saw pants so tight they looked like they were painted on. I saw plenty of people wearing inflatable like preservers. I saw people stuffed into a dresses 3 sizes too small. Not to mention grown men with girls on their arms that looked young enough to be their own daughters.

C'MON!! People- we, as a culture, as a race, as a 'minority' are trying to move forward. We want to be an educated well rounded asset to society. Society does not want to see your Assets. It made me so upset to see how much (or little) respect these people seemed to have for themselves. Its hard enough to break through the stereotypes and the barriers against Hispanics... and you go and pull something like this.

I was discussing this with my sister, and i say(s) to her- I wonder what they think they they are picking out their outfits? I understand that fact that some people are really comfortable in their own skin and all the power to you. But you can be a beautiful confident person with the adequate amount of clothes on as well. Then i pondered to myself... I wonder if juju thinks I'm an old hag. I wonder if he wants me to be that girl- that girl that leaves nothing to the imagination. That girl that is so high maintenance, she that wont step out of the house with out a lick of make up on. Or wears 5 inch heels to the festival grounds, which by the end of the night, looks like shes been walking on cactus pricked feet all day.

Oh and don't even get me started on people who use Zs at the end of words that should end with an S.

Ay, maybe I'm being over critical, maybe I'm the exception to the rule.

Ketchup Day

2010-08-25T08:05:00.000-07:00

Random compilation of whats going on:

Juju is back in school, and i couldn't be prouder. He is so organized and determined to get his education back on track that its inspiring. Luckily, i only have to manage a class at a time while he is managing 5 classes. Sometimes i sneak into bed while hes off buried in his books. What a nerd! In all seriousness I think that it is finally his 'time' to finish school. Not everyone knows what they want to be when they grow up, little less fresh out of high school, and I've come to realize how much more one can appreciate their education as an adult.
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I'm going to be an auntie! Titi Lolo if you will. I can finally spill the beans as my sister, Llella, has hit her 13th week. Shes officially in her 2nd trimester. I am very excited, we have nothing but boys in our family. I really want her to have a little girl. I find myself looking at baby girl outfits online. I know..... i know, it doesn't what it is as long as its healthy. BS!! i want a girl , =-)

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Its been roughly 6 months since I last bought something on borrowed money, in other words, a credit card. I find it liberating, but at the same time i liked spending frivolously. Now, i look at all the tags and really analyze my purchases before heading to the register. I've learned to live with out those things ( garments ) " I swore i just had to have", I look back at the things that i would spend my money on. Really? i would spend $400 on a purse? a purse? mind you, my purses only lasted me a year before it would bore me. Not only has my shopping habits changed, but actual spending habits have changed as well. I find myself being the voice of reason with our money now, whereas before, Juj was the one who had to try and manage my shopoholicism. Don't get me wrong, I'm still Fabulous, I'm just a little more Financially Fit (& responsible) while being Fabulous ;-D
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We have another court hearing for cookie coming up. We've been to court 4 times already, i think. September 10th will hopefully be the last court we have. We should be able to wrap things up and finish sentencing with placement arrangements this time around, if not, i might just have to take matters into my own hands. OK maybe that's a little too drastic, but seish, one only has so much patience.

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My hair is all gone. I cut about 12.5 inches, donating 11.5 of them. I was very excited to do it for a second time. I donated my hair about 2 years ago and i immediately knew i wanted to do it again. Although having it this short ( a little past my chin ) is a lot more up keeping i know its worth it. It makes me sad to think of all the children that are in need of hair, and that's all they really want, and that, hair, is enough to make them happy. I know there is plenty of great charities and causes out there. And i also know there is tons of more ways to help as well, but sometimes people don't have the time or the money to make contributions to charities, but your hair? Its just sitting there, doing nothing- most of the time, unless your having a bad hair day then you know what its doing, you know that really odd sideways curl, you know what I'm talking about. Plus the hair costs you absolutely nothing, except time to grow it back.

That's it for now. Maybe i can jump back into posting a bit more regularly. We'll see.

me? MIA?

2010-06-07T08:00:00.000-07:00

Sorry i was away on vacation. I have yet to recap our anniversary and i will then begin to recap my family vacation. Im going to upload pictures tonight and let the recapping begin!

I love Ju(ju)-Life Ethics

2010-05-19T15:25:00.000-07:00

Today im lovin' Jujus Life ethics.

I know what your thinking life ethic? Yes, his ethics! Juju is one of the most persistent people i know. He's obviously more persistent when its something that really interests him. He does what a lot of people don't do... he researches. He researches everything and anything he buys. He researches until he is 110% satisfied with the results. He is not a man who gives up easily, nor can he be convinced to. I mean yesterday alone he spent 20 minutes in the coffee aisle deciding which coffee to buy. He always reaches his goals, both big and small. His persistency has gotten me up from writing 12 page papers to go watch a basketball game, his persistency has made me leave piles of dishes undone to eat popcorn and watch a movie, his persistency has resulted in middle of the night jogs.

Along with his persitnency, Juju has a unique outlook on life. I am the type of person who likes to have fun, shop, go out, entertain, travel- regardless of what it costs or does to our pockets. He on the other hand always has our best interest at heart. He always talks to the future and thinks of things long term. He brings me back down from the clouds when necessary, but he also knows how to go along for the ride. He knows when to splurge and went to save. He knows when to give in to my pout and yet knows when to put his foot down. He not only critically thinks about his( & our) decisions but also thinks about them logically.

Even though i am the voice of reason in the majority of situations, he always helps me see his side of story. His persistency is most noticeable when he is fighting against the grain, when he doesn't give up, even when others tell him to let it go. He shows true passion for what he believes in, even if its not pretty. He is relentless to give in because of what people think is right or should be right. He never compromises what he believes to play no ones game.
His persistency shows courage and is admirable. I admire it. I admire him.

I love Ju(ju)- Swagger like that

2010-05-18T15:37:00.000-07:00

Today im lovin' Jujus swagga'. Juju has a distinct sense of style. When we step out, hes dressed to impress. Hes not afraid to step out the boundaries of acceptable norms for fashion. Not only does he dress well, but he helps keep me on point too. He always offers constructive criticism when i ask him how something looks. He is quite fashion savvy, both in men's and woman's fashion.

Along with his ability to dress and impress, he is able to keep my stomach aching with his sense of humor. I've never been in a situation that Juj hasn't been able to turn right side up with his sense of humor. I remember when i first met juju i thought he was by far the funniest person i had ever met. I've always told him that the day he cant make me laugh any longer... its over. I love that he doesn't take himself too serious (only when needed). He can make light of any situation and is not afraid to act like himself in front of my family. His sense of humor is easy going, non offensive and honestly unique.

His swagger goes beyond 'no on the corner has swagger like us' .... His swagger is confidence and sophistication. His swagger earns him respect because he conducts himself in a respectful manner. His swagger means he owns the room because of his natural charisma.

I just have to say... If he's Mr.Swagger, I'm Mrs.Swagger.

I Love Ju(ju)- i love thee face

2010-05-17T13:46:00.000-07:00

There are many reasons why i love him. Today, I'm loving his face. That's right, his face.

Not only is he easy on the eyes, but he has an amazing smile. That was one of the first things that i noticed about juju. Not only does he have a great smile, but its highly contagious. I think about how smitten i was when i first met him. I was like a school girl, i couldn't help but smile when he smiled. Juj likes to smile, and he looks good doing it, and hes not afraid to do it either. Not like those guys who think they are too 'tough' to smile and when they try to smile they look odd. Not only his jujus smile perfect, it is perfectly proportionate to his face.

I also love his big brown eyes. I can remember how intrigued i was when i first looked at him in the eyes. From the get go i knew there was something different about this boy. In a good way. He seemed so rough and tough on the outside, but one look into his eyes and i knew he was nothing more than a big teddy. Plus he can wink both eyes, not simultaneously.

I love his ManBrows. He is as rugged as the brawny man but his manbrows don't give it away. They are nicely maintained, never caveman like nor too girlyman like. They are perfect.

I never met someone that had this particular skill or talent he has. Not only can he wiggle his ears, he can wiggle both of them. He was the first person i ever met that could wiggle his ears. He can also flare his nose. I know that's not that impressive, but i cant do it, so he has one up on me.

I love his lips, well because of the obvious, but also because he can sing. He doesn't do it often, or in front of many people, but every time he does it make me smile (& melt a little on the inside). He is also really great at speaking in foreign accents, imitations and just right out funny noises.

Does his hair on the top of his head count as part of the face? Because if so.... He had me at hello with his curls. 'Nuf said.

Fast Approaching

2010-05-16T13:06:00.000-07:00

In less than a week Juj and I will be celebrating our first year anniversary. Its crazy how fast time flies. Its not unusual to hear people say, "oh we want to wait at least a year* to have kids after we get married" Boy does a year come and go quickly. *Note, NO we are not preganant nor will we be any time soon. This past weekend i was remembering that a year ago, i was going crazy, i was busy trying to finish my monogrammed aisle runner, I had a laundry list of things that i had yet to do for the wedding. But, i was also the happiest, and luckiest, girl in the world. I was days away from marrying the man of my dreams and today i am days away from celebrating an unforgettable year of being married.

In honor of our anniversary this week will be extra mushy and lovie dovie with a daily segment of : I Love Ju(ju)

I have a crush: Michael Antonio

2010-05-16T07:32:00.000-07:00

I recently discovered a shoe designer that I'm currently gaga over. Seriously. He has awesome shoes, great prices and who doesn't love a name like Michael Antonio? (Not to be confused con El Buky Marco Antonio Solis)

He has some Badass heels and some great looking flats for those who don't care as much for a heel.

I cant deny that shoes make me happy. Matter of fact.... remember these strappy taupe ones?? I can take those off my list. Those arrived in the mail on Friday. Eeek!!

You see the first picture, of the woven strappy ones? I actually saw someone wearing a 'replica' of the shoe. I'm sure its discouraging to designers when companies imitate their designs. Though I'm sure the designer still feels a bit honored, no? One thing i can truly ates (sp?) to is that the real deal, the designer shoes, are heck of a lot more comfortable than imitations. I mean, sure designer shoes are more expensive, and sometimes you feel like you are just paying for the name, but you are also paying for a better fit and construction of the shoe, let alone a better quality.

So when ever you eye up a pair of designer shoes that are a wee bit over the amount you anticipated spending, just remember.... they are not a expense, they are an investment. =-)

If i were a boy

2010-05-12T16:14:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, i amaze myself- really. I always have these really romantic ideas. Or very thoughtful and carefully crafted projects. Or i spend weeks upon weeks researching and exhausting all my options to find the perfect anything.This leads me to believe that i would make a great boy, or guy, or male in a relationship. I mean it was February and i was already bouncing ideas off my friends for a great anniversary gift. I know girls are wired differently than guys are, but still. I mean we are identical in make up, with the exception of a few parts.

So what is it about guys that seem to lack this Romanticism? Or is that we, as girls, forget that men aren't generally in touch with their softer side? I think a lot of times we get swept away with the protagonists from those romantic comedies. You know, where the girls walk away from the relationship and he sits at home all alone, thinking... only to discover that he really does love her and takes a plane, a cab, a train ( anything ) to find her and profess his love for her before shes gone forever? And at this point it has started raining and he catches up to her in the middle of the street and simply pulls her in and kisses and embraces her in the pouring rain.

*sigh*

So if i were a boy, would i be as romantic as i have proclaimed to be? or would i simple be that. A boy?

I have a crush

2010-05-10T07:59:00.000-07:00

I have been doing really good lately. I haven't shopped much. Do i want to? yes. Is there a few things on my list that I really ~~want~~ need? yes. Unfortunately, im the type of person who gets what she wants, not in the way your thinking. In a non-mean girl type of way. Once the idea is in my head, it really wont go away until it comes to fulfillment. For example, not long ago i had a thought. I said- "Lolo, You need a good pair of nude shoes" so i searched high and low, online, on sale, at the store... everywhere. I knew i wanted them. In my head... i already had them, i just needed to find them. In my head, they looked great with a top i had just purchased (with my debit card =]). One day as we were shopping for some new work clothes for juju, there they were. Sitting, being nicely displayed in the store's window. I asked for my size and they were perfect, and so they were mine.

Below is a random compilation of all the things that have recently caught my eye....

So honey, if your reading this, these are a few of the items i may or may not like as a gift....in the near future. Please.

I just notice how many shoes are on my crush list. You know what they say 'Diamonds and Shoes are a girls best friends'

Mother's Day!!

2010-05-09T20:06:00.000-07:00

Happy mothers day to all ya'll Mommas out there!

I spent the morning finishing up a HUGE paper and presentation for school today. Then it was off to celebrate with my family.

I ate relatively healthy. Sorta.

I had Caldo de Res, or Beef soup with 2 tortillas. Only drank diet soda. Then i had a Johnsonville Chorizo Sausage. That's right, Johnsonville. Who knew Johnson was into Chorizo? I snacked on a few chips here and there but other wise fully satisfied.

And i guess your probably wondering what the results of my diet where?
Well im down 3 pounds. Not bad eh? Im going to keep eating better and trying my best to work out. I'll try to log my meals, not too much in detail, but when i log it, i feel a little bit more accountable.

Day 6

2010-05-08T19:47:00.000-07:00

Today was my last day. Seeing that sunday was mothers day there was just no way i would be able to follow my diet through the weekend.

Saturday morning i had a meeting with my school group. We met at the starbucks by my house. I resisted the temptation of drinking a nice hot frothy latte.

I went home and had the soup for lunch with black coffee.

Then juju and i spent the day shopping for our mothers. Before we knew it, it was 5pm and we were both starving. We gave in and went to eat an early dinner. And that was about all i ate for the day.

Later on in the evening, Dulce stopped by and i had 2 glasses of wine with her. So even though i didnt follow the diet to the T i still didnt eat too much.

Day 5

2010-05-07T19:30:00.000-07:00

Today fairly easy, as we could incorporate meat into our diet.

Breakfast-
Black Coffee
Sliced strawberries

Lunch-
1 cup of soup
cubed cantaloupe and grapes

Dinner-
12 ounces of steak
frijoles de la hoya =-)

I didnt work out today. I've been terrible busy with school... i cant hardly stand it, (in a southern accent)

Day 4

2010-05-06T23:50:00.000-07:00

Today was odd. According to the diet you were supposed to eat at least 3 bananas and drink skim milk all day today, along with the soup of course. I say it was an odd day because i wasnt sure if i was allowed to eat other fruits and veggies.

Breakfast-
1 lrg banana
via cold coffee made of skim milk

Lunch-
2 cups of soup
1 med orange

Afternoon snack-
1 lrg banana
via cold coffee made of skim milk

Dinner-
2 cups of soup
grilled squash
1 lrg banana

By the end of the night i was hungry. VERY hungry. I was able to resist the temptation of eat anything else for the day. I did work out today but i was sore from yesterday and really didnt give it my all. Oh well. i tried.

Im allergic to....pasta?!?

2010-05-06T08:33:00.000-07:00

I have definitely been feeling better the last couple of days. I mean my eating habits have drastically changed. I've eaten very little to no starchy foods, no breads, no wheats, no nothing. Recently, my Dr. and i discussed gluten allergies. She told me that many people develop allergies to gluten as adult. For some it can be drastic- like those who have Siliac (sp?), for others it can be very mild- like a few stomach aches here and there. In a nut shell, if you love pasta as much as i do, you know that after stuffing your face with pasta and garlic bread, your stomach starts hurting and not just like a "ouch" i ate too much, more like an "ow.. i feel bloated, with a sharp pain when i try and suck it in"... feeling. And its not only when you eat a wheat/flour filled meal. For example, If i had pasta for lunch and then i had pizza for dinner, then perhaps a sandwhich for lunch the next day, your stomach ache never really goes away.

Some days i would wake up and my stomach was already ( or still ) hurting. I would easy off the wheats/flours and slowly it would feel better. So for a while i stopped eating as much breads/flours/pasta/wheats when ever i could. This lasted for about 3/4 weeks. Now just to make it clear, I'm not talking about starches, like potatoes and rice. Those, actually are ok to eat if you have gluten allergies. My stomach felt better, i slowly introduced wheats/flours slowly back into my diet, but still regulating my intake, making sure i didn't eat them more than once a day. My Dr. also recommended homeopathic remedies. I picked up a bottle of 'Carbo Vegetabilis' at Outpost and it definitely works to soothe the pain associated with gluten allergies. Now since ive been eating nothing but fresh, natural, raw food my stomach has been feeling better than ever. It really makes me think twice about what i put in my body, don't get me wrong, I'm only human and i do get cravings, and giving in once in a while is fine, but i really enjoy living pain free as well.

Tough call, huh?

Day 3

2010-05-05T08:31:00.000-07:00

Today was easier than the first and second day. Today i was able to eat both fruits and veggies along with the soup.

Breakfast-
black coffee
cubed pineapple
cubes cantaloupe
sliced strawberries

Lunch-
2 cups of soup
carrot sticks
broccoli florets

Afternoon snack-
grapes

Dinner-
2 cups of soup
grilled squash
butter/pepper green beans

Evening snack-
watermelon

I exercised on Tuesday for about 20 minutes. I did my turbo jam work out video! Its awesome. And today i kicked it up a notch and did worked out for 40 minutes. Man those videos really make you break a sweat. My obliques were very sore today, but i guess that means I'm doing the "zig zag" right =-) So far so good. I am halfway there. I haven't weighed myself, i sorta don't want to jinx it.

Day 2

2010-05-04T11:33:00.000-07:00

So yesterday didn't quite go as planned. Not in a bad way though. Out of all of my fruit i only ate the oranges and the pear. Oh and turns out I'm also allergic to pear peel. Bummer. Before i went to class last night I picked up a black coffee and during our break i ate my 2 oranges. I was actually hungry by the time i made it home, so i served myself another cup of soup. The nice thing is that you can eat as much and as many times as you want.

Today was soup and veggies- Fresh, raw, canned, cooked- how ever you like them. This morning "breakfast" was harder. Its odd eating veggies in the morning along with your coffee.

Breakfast- (odd)
tall black coffee ( w/ sugar in the raw)
1 sliced cucumber (con sal y limon)

Lunch-
2 cups of soup- i added some hot sauce for a little kick
2 cups broccoli
water

Snack-
carrots
celery

And for dinner... wait for it...

2 cups of soup, grilled squash and a BAKED potato ( w/butter ). That's right. A baked pah-tay-toh, that's if you haven't cheated, sorta. I'm really looking forward to it tonight. =-) On day 5 you incorporate 15-20 ounces of meat into your diet. I think this will be the longest I've gone with out eating meat since we were temporary vegetarians. I'm not a big red meat eater, i can't however, get enough chicken, veggies and pasta. Red meat is really hard for your body to digest and excess consumption can lead to heart and cholesterol problems. I'm looking forward to not eating meat for a couple of days, and even on the day i have to incorporate beef into my diet, I'm having chicken.

I forgot to talk about by starting weight. I was 128 when i weighed myself on Monday morning. I'm not expecting to lose a miraculous amount of weight. I would be happy with 5 pounds.
I'm also going to work out. I have tons of workout DVDs that are currently collecting dust on our bookshelves. I did a few crunches last night before going to bed, nothing much ... but i figured hey better that than nothing, right?

Day 1- Lunch

2010-05-03T11:27:00.000-07:00

The soup was not bad at all! Even i was surprised. I was expecting it to be bad, and i would have to lie to myself (& others) saying that it was good, but not need to. I did add a little bit of salt and black pepper. I went easy on it while cooking it last night. I also added chicken bouillon (the diet said i could) since I'm not a big fan of beef soups/stews/stocks.

I wonder if i can make the second batch with chicken stock instead of beef? i don't see why not... Oh and also, I'm not a big fan of big chunky cooked tomatoes, i get bad heartburn, so i really ate around those. The soup itself was very filling. I actually had 2 cups of soup and watermelon. I couldn't muster up the courage to eat the orange. I am too stuffed.

SOUPerb Dieting

2010-05-03T08:32:00.000-07:00

Go ahead, say it... Dork! ( the tittle )

Today is diet day 1

First of all i would like to say- 'Save the drama for your momma' if your going to say something crazy about me dieting. I've heard it enough. and no, I'm not obsessed. I just cant fit into my clothes. End. Of. Story.

This diet basically consists of a soup made up of veggies that you have as your main meal, supplementing it with fruits, vegetables, protein, brown rice and liquids. I know sounds silly right? Each day of the diet is a bit different from the next. Its a combination of foods that help you loose weight. For example today, I will have soup 3 times a day, eat as much fruit as i can and drink water, unsweetened juices, cranberry juice etc.

The soup itself is pretty easy to make and if you like veggies like i do, then you wont have a problem eating it- The soup has: tomatoes, carrots, celery, green beans, green peppers, and then it has Lipton chicken noodle soup mix, noodles and all. Not that there is a lot of noodles, but still gives you the satisfaction of eating noodles. i love noodles. Salt, black pepper, season to taste.

Breakfast-
cubed cantaloupe
sliced strawberries
black coffee ( with raw sugar )

Lunch:
2 cups of soup
sliced watermelon
1 med orange
water

(scheduled) Before school snack:
1 cup of soup
sliced apple ( peel off- i'm allergic )

(scheduled) School snack:
1 med orange
1 med pear
1 bottle cranberry juice.

Since i have class tonight i'll have to have another cup of soup when i get home. I need to eat the soup at least 3 times today.

I'll get back to you after lunch to let you know how the soup was.

A New Chapter

2010-04-27T11:19:00.000-07:00

A few months ago Juju and I decided it was time to cut up the ol' plastic cards and rely solely on our debit cards or cash

Those of you who know me, know that i may or may not like to shop. I like shoes. I like purses. I like tops. I like bottoms. I like shinny things, i like big things, i like little things, i like things with price tags.

I shop when I'm happy, i shop when I'm sad, i shop when there's sales, i shop full retail, i shop for myself, i shop for juju, i shop for others, i shop alone, or i shop with the crowd.

Oh but you, you were always there by my side, my plastic little card. All 3.5 x 2 inches of your thousands of dollars worth of purchasing power. You never failed me, you never said no, you never cared how expensive anything was. You simply took each swipe with pride, knowing you were making me happy.

For the last few months you've been tucked away in that little compartment on the side of my purse. I know you're yearning to be brought out and get swiped, but instead, i reach beyond you all and grab the debit card. I know you all hate it- sitting there, with a smug look, knowing its getting all the action.

And today, after months and months of being in my purse, unused, I bring you out once again. Sadly, its to say goodbye. There is no point in keeping you all, It's not healthy, i don't want to lead you on to believing you will be used again.

But before i do the necessary-

To you, my Express A-lister Credit Card:

You and I first met back in December of 2003. I had just turned 18 and for my birthday you got me a beautiful ($200 dollar) jacket. God, I will never forget that day. After that day, you and i were inseparable. You were my first credit card.You always kept me well dressed and never let me down. I will miss you the most.

xoxo,

Mrs.Juju

Halfway cutting though the express card, i felt it was appropriate to leave that one for last. So i started with library card, you know- just to ease in to it. I proceeded with Bank of America, then Chase, then....the rest. And this is what i was left with.

I could almost hear cash registers crying with each cut. Its quite sad, they had no idea it would end like this.