Sister Day

I went to Chicago yesterday with my two sisters for the matinee of Jersey Boys. We took the train into the city. It's the best way to go. I hate the nightmare of traffic in Chicago. Somebody would have to be dying for me to drive there. Really.

The show was amazing. It wasn't a show that I was dying to see, but one of my sisters was. I went for her, but I am sure glad I did. I would go back again in a heartbeat. It was that good.

After the show, we went to the Italian Village for dinner. It had been recommended by several friends and it was so tasty. I had shrimp scampi with mushrooms over angel hair pasta in a wine sauce. To die for I tell you. I had a lovely cocktail made with three kinds of Bacardi. You know I liked that. Bacardi is my friend. We finished the meal off by sharing a piece of italian rum cake.

It was a very nice day. I don't spend nearly as much time with my sisters as I should. Life gets busy and I let my time take me to other people and things. I need to change that. We had a lot of fun and I think even going out for dinner a couple times a month would be great. I think I need to talk to them about that. I think they'll agree.

A Great Giveaway

The Monogram Chick is having another great giveaway. You can win her Preppy Travel Mug or the Tote/Carry All. If you win, you get to pick. When you enter, please say that I sent you. If you win, then I'll win too. I won her Market Basket and Tales From My Empty Nest won too because I said she sent me. So, what are you waiting for? Head over there and enter. Entries end Sunday and she'll draw on Monday. Good luck to us all!

Getting Happy!

This hasn't been my best summer. There have been some things going on that have really weighed heavily on my mind. I'm not at liberty to talk about one thing and the other is just personal stuff that will work itself out.

The good news is that I've won a few things that have made me very happy. The Monogram Chick had a giveaway for the beautiful market basket. I can't even tell you how pretty it is in person. I've used it many times already and it will be my school bag when we go back. Next, I won the Pillsbury giveaway from Tiaras and Tantrums just this morning. My granddaughter is going to love the dough boy and I love new recipes. Thank you so much ladies. You made me so happy and I needed that.

I Promise!

I promise that if you need a good laugh today, this will give it to you. I've probably seen it a dozen times and it makes me laugh everytime. Just go to Roller Babies and click on The Movie. You'll enjoy it! I sure did.

Grammy Girlfriend has a fun surprise giveaway over at her blog. Check it out. I think you'll like it. She's one of my favorite blogging friends.

Final Weigh In

It's the final weigh in for the Shrinking Days of Summer at the Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans. I had very high hopes for this challenge. I did okay, but I was hoping for more.

I lost 1.1 pounds this week. That's not bad. I finally broke through the one pound rut I had been in for several weeks. I lost 6.8 total pounds for the challenge. Unfortunately, I forgot to measure when this challenge started. I did that before the last challenge. Maybe if I had done that I would feel a little prouder now. I am proud of the weight loss, but like I said, I was hoping for more.

One thing I learned in this challenge was that I do better when I am working. I have a schedule and I stick to it. Not so much during the summer. I can go most of the day and then realize that I have only had a bottle of water and a diet coke. I have learned that you have to eat if you want to lose weight.

The good news is that I earned my 10# loss badge during this challenge. I'm very happy about that. Being on a team this time helped me. I was not only accountable to myself, but to my team. There were many times that I might have eaten that ice cream or had that drink if it wasn't for them. They are an awesome bunch of women. If we have teams on the next challenge, I hope I get as good a group.

So, that's the scoop. The next challenge will start in a few weeks. I'll be back to work shortly after that. Maybe the next challenge will be my saving grace. One of these days, I'll get that old body back. You just wait and see!

An Amazing Story

If you would like to read a truly amazing story, head over to Erin's blog and read her birth story about her new son Thomas John. You won't even believe it. She is a true supermom!

A Winner, an Answer and a Funny

We have a winner! Using random.org, the lucky winner is number seven who is my very sweet friend Sharon from Mom Generations. Please email me your address and I'll get your Visa card off to you ASAP. You can get to the email from my profile. Thank you to everyone who entered.

What was it? It was my daughter's calf and ankle with the patio table top reflecting on her. A couple of you were so close.

I cracked up the other night. My daughter's boyfriend works for his uncle who owns one of the local funeral homes. He had been downstate for a pick up and stopped over when he got home. Here is the hearse in my driveway. I had to take the picture because this was a first. The funny thing was my neighbor across the street standing on her porch talking on the phone. Can't you just hear that conversation? I'm sure she thought one of us was dead.

What are your thoughts on garage sales? Is it worth my while or should I just give it to the resale shop? I've been cleaning all these closets and I have a ton of stuff. It's mostly not junk. Pretty good stuff, just stuff I don't need. Most of it is stufff I forgot I had. I'm going by the Clean Sweep guys rules. If you haven't used it in six months, you don't need it. Most of this stuff I haven't seen in years.

That's it for now. I hope everyone has a great weekend. It's our first weekend since the end of May that we don't have something going on. The weather is supposed to be good, so I just plan to relax and hangout. Bye!

You Capture/Shapes

You Capture this week is shapes. I thought you might like to see the shapes of my self imposed torture. I have circles and rectangles. I guess I shouldn't really say torture, even though sometimes it feels that way. I made a commitment to changing my lifestyle a few months ago (thanks to the Sisterhood) and I've lost just over ten pounds. I feel really good about this. I have a long way to go, but I think I am off to a good start. If you notice the circles, I am up to eight pound weights. I started out with three pound. In the rectangles, you will see the famous Jillian Michaels from Biggest Loser fame. There are days that I want to reach in that tv and punch her in the face, but she has done a lot for me.



It's time for you to head over to the You Capture homepage and see all the other shapes that people have captured. I'm excited to check it out. There were so many ways to go with this challenge. I want to thank Beth for starting this challenge. I think it has really made me a better photographer. I put so much more thought into my pictures now. It's just too bad that the assignment this week wasn't baseball. I have some great shots from the Cubs game I went to. See you all next week!

Weigh In Wednesday

Ah yes, the Shrinking Days of Summer. I remember how I had such great hope when I started this challenge. I still have hope, just not like I had at the beginning. Team Red has pretty much been in the middle of the pack the whole challenge. That isn't a bad thing. It's way better than being at the bottom. It's just that anytime I do something like this, I always believe that I can win. Just like when people have giveaways on their blogs. I always enter thinking I am going to win. Sometimes I actually do, but I always think I'm going to win. Some kind of weird character flaw, I guess. My point is that I don't think Team Red is going to win. It's okay though. We gave it the good hard fight. There is only one week left and short of cutting off a limb, I don't think we can catch up.

I know that I could have done better. This week I lost .5 pounds. A whole whopping half a pound. I thought I did pretty good this week (except for the fried fish last night), but you just never know until you step on that scale.

One thing I have learned this summer is that I do much better when I am at work. In summer, I forget to eat. Really, I do. I have no schedule, therefore I have no eating pattern. The only thing that stays the same is dinnertime. I always eat dinner because I have to cook that for the family. The other meals is pretty much make your own. Everyone is doing different things at different times, so making your own works best. There are days when I am making dinner and I'm thinking "I had two diet cokes and a water today". On another day, it's a Fiber One bar and a cheese stick. Get my drift. When I am working, I usually have a Fiber One bar and yogurt for breakfast while I'm getting ready for work. I pack a Lean Cuisine and a Live Active cheese stick for lunch. I make dinner when I get home. I don't do that now. It pretty much proves the theory that you have to eat to lose weight. I have consistently lost weight this challenge, just not anything major.

I also don't exercise as much as I thought I would this summer. I walk three to five miles five days a week without fail. It's the other stuff that I have to push myself to do. I always think I'll do it later in the day and then I don't. I do it sometimes, but not all the time. Once again, when I'm working, I do it first thing in the morning because I know it is the only real time I have. I can't believe I am going to say this, but I really need to get back to work and it's a month away!

The point is, I've fought the good fight and I'll continue to keep fighting. I know that this isn't a diet. It's a lifestyle change. I need to work on my lifestyle being the same year round. I can't have one for summer and one for the school year. Who knows. Maybe if I eat right this week, I can finish with a big loss next week. I'll do my best Team Red. I'm proud of all of us.

What is it?

I took this picture the other day when I came across it. I thought it was so cool. Can you guess what it is?

If you haven't entered yet, go to the last post and enter my 100th post giveaway. You can win a $25.00 Visa gift card.

I'm excited for dinner tonight. The men in the family have done some fishing and we are frying it up tonight. I love fresh fish. There is nothing like it. It probably isn't the smartest thing to eat fried fish the night before my weigh in tomorrow, but I'll risk it. It's that good. I'm in charge of dessert. I'm making apple cake and chocolate dipped peanut butter and Ritz cookies. I can pass on those to eat the fish.

Hope everyone is having fun this summer. I got on a cleaning binge yesterday and cleaned four closets. That Clean Sweep guy would be proud of me. Now, I have to decide if I want to have a garage sale or just donate it all the the resale shop. If I have the sale, I could use the money toward new school clothes.

Okay, I'm off to tackle the next closet. I don't know where all this stuff came from. I found things I don't remember that still have tags on them. Bye!

Fun, Surprises and a Giveaway

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted. I've just been in a little funk and although I had posts in my head, I couldn't get them out of my head and onto a post. I missed You Capture for the first time since it started. That was huge for me. I love You Capture. I think it has made me a much better photographer. Before I would just take the picture. Now I think about it and I'm even getting good at editing.

I went to the Gary Air Show with my daughter and son-in-law. This is the third year I've gone and I love it. I am amazed at the skill of those pilots (yes, that plane is upside down). The show this year was a little shorter than before, but what there was was quality entertainment. We watch it from my son-in-law's grandpa's house. He is right on the water and his yard is terraced. We go up to the top level which is pretty much above the tree lines. It is a totally awesome afternoon of skill, good food, good friends and family.

We went to a Cubs game!!!!!!!! This is something that I have wanted to do since I was a little kid. The tickets were an end of the year gift from a very special and generous preschool family. The Cubs/Sox rivalry was a fun thing that I carried on with the son all spring. Imagine my surprise when he gave me an envelope after graduation and said "Here's your dumb Cubs tickets!". I laughed then almost passed out when I opened the envelope. They have no idea what that meant to me. It is something that I have always wanted to do, but would never justify spending that much money to do it. The same thing with Notre Dame tickets that I have gotten from other families over the years. I've always said that you have to love your job to work at a catholic school because you certainly don't do it for the money. I truly love my job. I think it is the best place in the world to work. While I don't make a lot of money, sometimes I get some amazing perks!

There are also perks to parenting. Maybe not perks, but really nice surprises. I got one of those surprises the other day. If you would to share in my pride and love, check out my daughter's blog. She is the best!

This is my 100th post! I love blogging. I never thought abut blogging before I met Beth and she introduced me to her blog and encouraged me to start my own. Thank you so much girl! I have met so many wonderful people through my blog. Some I have actually met in person and others I feel like I've known forever. It is an amazing thing. You all mean so much to me. I worry when you don't blog for a few days or weeks that something might be wrong. I get excited when you have weddings and new grandbabies. I worry when you have health problems and I'm proud when you accomplish things you've tried.

Now, in honor of this occasion, I'm giving away a $25.00 Visa gift card. Being it is my 100th post, I will draw a winner in 100 hours. That would mean I will draw a winner on Friday at 12:30 p.m. CST. All you have to do is leave a comment to be entered. Tell me how you found my blog or why you read it or anything else you'd like to tell me. What the heck, if you follow me, I'll give you an extra entry.

Lastly, I promise to get back on track with my posts. Weigh In's on Wednesday, You Capture on Thursday and everything else in between. Hope to see you all then leaving comments. I love comments.

p.s. I've gone back and tried to make paragraphs up there, but it won't work. Don't ask me why. They look like paragraphs in the draft. Of course, now that I wrote this, it will probably fix itself when I post it again. I never said I was techno savvy!

You Capture

You Capture this week was Photographers Choice. It took me a long time to decide what I wanted to do. Of course, I had to include the two cutest little girls in the whole world.

In case you were wondering what to do when it's a little too cool out for the pool, you just go in grandma's hot tub.

Baby sister's new smile includes her tongue. She is still as cute as ever. Tongue or no tongue.

We got a bubble machine for the girls this week. We had a lot of fun with it. I especially loved this shot of the bubbles floating high in the sky with the moon still out. I just thought it looked so neat. I wish you could see it bigger though. You can really see the moon and the bubbles so much better.

Lastly, I read Beth's post before I did mine. I decided to take a picture of myself. I didn't look too bad because I had just gotten back from a retirment party. It was kind of weird. I'm usually the one behind the camera. Sorry about the towel in the background, but everyone was asleep and the only mirror I could find to use was in the bathroom.

Now it's your turn to head over to Beth's blog and see all the other captures. I'm excited to see what everyone else chose.