I’ve worked out for 6 days this past week. Yahoo! I’ve never made it past one day before. And I never thought I would actually look forward to getting off my bum and moving, but I do!

I’m a bit embarrassed to admit this, but it’s the wii fit that’s kept my short attention. I used it once when we first got it & then put it aside. After having to go on blood pressure & cholesterol meds though, I started eying it again. Thinking that 30 minutes of sweating is better than dirt, I huffed & puffed my way thru the first day & now I’m addicted.

Sure, if I was actually in shape, maybe this wouldn’t really do anything for me. I’m so far from having to worry about that though, I just found my lost abdominal muscles a few days ago.

A few months ago, I came across  some makeups tuts (I went looking for pse 7 tuts…have NO idea how I ended up where I did, lol) and was hooked.  I was being all conservative and using my stash, until, I came across makeupgeeks  Barbie Loves Mac one. Omgosh…I fell in love with those colors. Too bad they’re from a previous collection.

This is something I really dislike about myself, but when I’m going through an obsession, I must have everything! Seriously, it will be my undoing one day.

Yesterday, it was ulta…today, I hit the mac store at woodfield. I had the best makeup artist! I told her to do what ever she wanted & what colors I was drawn to. She explained why bright green is wrong for me…dang it, I love that color! It’s all good though. I left with some pretty eye candy and some seriously eye-catching (pun intended) eyes.

Here’s her handy work…please ignore the brows…guess I need to start wearing my bifocals. I didn’t realize they were so out there.

Oh, and she gave me a nice compliment. She said she could put mascara on my eyes forever, they were so long. Awww…made me feel all fuzzy inside. Would’ve felt warm & tingly if she would’ve said my face was free from blemishes, wrinkles, and bags. Man, I did not appreciate my 23 year old skin…

And here’s all my beautiful new pretties!

Please, if you see me in mac anytime soon…show me the goods! LOL

Please take a look and add your vote!

My little guy looked at me so earnestly and said, “I hope I’m lucky enough to catch me a wife.”

and then asked how people go about getting married. His little noggin must be swirling with interesting thoughts.

I asked him how many kids he’d have & he said he’d have 2 boys…no 3…no 4…

I asked if he thought he’d have any girls. To which he turned to me with a serious expression and said, “I’ll have to think about THAT”.

It wasn’t until we were almost to the school that I asked him if he had it. To which he replied, “no, but it would be nice to have.” Total deadpan. Sometimes he can bring me to my knees in a moment of pain and other times, like this, I can’t help but laugh until I’m crying. Even with having to go back home, we still made it in time.

Hubby let me in on my Christmas present last night because he’s tired of trying to get a wire around my finger so he could surprise me with having my wedding bands fixed. Apparently, for the past several nights, he’s been playing with my fingers and I haven’t liked it one bit. This might explain why I’ve found myself waking up with my arms curled underneath me, almost like I’m hiding them.  And why he’s been looking so tired. lol

Right now I’m working on Ali E’s 25 days of Christmas album and Jessica Sprague’s Stories In Hand class…not to mention I still need to finish her Now We’re Rockin’ class…anyways, I’m really impressed with these two ladies generosity! They are talented, well known, and could easily have charged for these projects. Makes me want to give something back, ya know?

My little guy is on the countdown to a 9 day turkey day vacation. I’m so looking forward to sleeping in. Think it might actually happen? lol f-i-v-e more school days to go.

Baby girl is all excited. Dad is taking her and some friends to see dir en grey next weekend. My mom & I thought it was some type of classical Japanese music & she was looking forward to going. Boy were we wrong! Baby girls friends played some clips for me and my jaw dropped to the ground. This is not my mom’s music! Thankfully, baby girls boyfriend wanted to go in her place so all is well.

When we first arrived, one of the teachers came up to give our table instructions. She looked so familiar but I couldn’t place her. So familiar…it kept bugging me that I couldn’t remember who she was! Then it hit me…she was baby girls kindergarten teacher.

When she came back around we both, at the same time, said we remembered who each other were & got to talking. We couldn’t get over how long ago that seemed. Then I told her Rach was graduating this year and she said, “Don’t tell me that!”. To which I said…”I know! Don’t tell me that!” It was nice to see her again, but man, now I’m all mopey again about how fast these years are whizzing by.

I just have to show off what my baby girl did in art class:

She astounds me with her talent…wish I had a fifth of it! She is such a true artist, too. She drives me insane because she is gifted in drawing portraits, yet refuses to do them because she doesn’t like to. I’ve offered to pay cash if she’d do one of her and her brother…nope. The only reason she did this one was because she had to for class.

Under my grandparents Christmas tree sat these tiny little houses with different colored foil windows. I can remember laying underneath the tree and imagining all the goings on of the families that lived inside. When my Grandma passed away, I inherited a few of the houses. Alas, they couldn’t withstand the attentions of my youngest child…so when Maya Road came out with these cardboard houses, I knew immediately that I needed to buy some! I I still need to buy the largest one…thinking of making that into a church with stained glass windows.

So the days are getting cooler…still wearing my flip flops. I won’t give those up until we’ve reached an inch of snow. We’ve slowly found our routine. It’s a bit boring during the week, but I’ve found if we deviate from it, someone…ie ME…pays for it the next day. Craving creamed soups, afghans, and hibernation.

Now that the kids are back in school (YAY!!!!), I have some time to myself again. As much as I love having them home all day with me…it is sooooo wonderful to be able to complete even just one thought in peace!

So, what’s new?

1. my little guy went off to kindergarten this month. It’s been a huge adjustment for both of us. I’m loving it…him not so much! In fact, he caused quite a commotion the first day at school by running away and hiding. He earned himself a talk with the principal. Ay yi yi…..
2. baby girl is now a Senior! And like clockwork, her & her friends already have ‘senioritis’.
3. and lastly, my mom is a nut…but most of you already knew that, didn’t you, so that’s not what’s new, lol. We were talking about possibly going to an event in St. Louis…well, she got fired up & signed us all up…she’s a very sweet nut. So, we are off to St Louis sometime next year. I still need to look at the specifics….such as dates….
4. We are one step closer to getting this remodel from heck done! The guys tore out a few walls & put windows and a sliding door in! Woo hoo! Here’s a ‘in the process’ photo,

Looking thru my photos from the event, I can’t help but smile and laugh at all the craziness and fun times. Just a few of the highlights were meeting up with friends and meeting new ones.

Getting lost with mom when Jenn would leave us to our own devices. What an awesome place to get lost in!

One night, I had insomnia & I guess they got tired of me jumping on the beds trying to wake them up, so Jenn took me for a walk around the entire hotel. As we passed under a waterfall, I asked to hold her hand & told her if I liked her just a bit more, I would kiss her. Gotta love the looks we got from the couple walking behind us!

Here’s one of mom winning a prize in the Creative Cafe class

Here’s me accentuating the positive

Jenn, Mom, & I trying to be serious

And here is the book we did in Heidi Swapp’s class

I’m so glad that we went to this event! I was concerned about a few of the classes, cuz I’m such a paint by the numbers type, but once I saw what we were doing, I loved them! And it’s SO refreshing to hear peoples honesty, you can’t help but respond and build on that. So refreshing after being at other events where I felt like a $ sign sitting captive while someone hawked their wares.

What I took away from this time away was

• tell your story or it will be lost
• value family and friendships
• be open to new ideas
• be gracious
• have fun!

Which I knew all of this, but sometimes I need to have this reinforced since I get caught up in just getting thru each day.