2013!

Yep, that's a sad excuse for a title.
But guess what?
On this day, next year, when I am searching for my New Years Resolutions, I won't have trouble finding it.
So, there.

My goals for 2013.
Some small.
Some large.
Some impossible.
Some will be given up before Jan the 7-ish.
Not the point.
These are the goals.

1. Have a baby. Or at least have a bun in this oven before Christmas.

2. Slap a 13.1 sticker on the back of my car. Even if #1 happens. Or if that doesn't work out, go to the store and buy a sticker and slap it on my car. {My momma always taught me that there is more than one way to skin a cat.}

3. Pay off my credit card. Instead of making a payment, then going out the same day and charging on it so that it kind of defeats the purpose of said payment. Except of course to make sure my credit is still perfect because I'm a little sensitive about my number.

4. Buy a shed {or build a shed if I decide to be real dangerous in 2013-not gonna happen} for our backyard. Move all junk from our garage into the shed. Outta sight, outta mind.

5. Buy a golf cart to put in that spot in the garage. Sorry, FH, you thought that spot was for your truck?

6. Buy a bike. One with a big booty seat (obviously).

7. Ride that bike at least once or twice. Or at least take a picture of myself sitting on it. For blogging purposes, obviously.

8. Host a favorite things party. This sounds soooo fun and I really want to do it. Any excuse to host a party is good enough for me!

9. Do a big giveaway on my blog. I don't know what to give away, or when to give it away, but somebody needs to win something up in here.

10. Reach 500 followers. Or more. Basically become a cool kid. I just want more friiiiiiiieeeeeends!

11. Start my online shop with Janessa. We have big plans for 2013! Now, we just have to get the ball rolling.

12. Go on more blates. Cause that's what married people do. They go on dates, with bloggers, called blates. Who wants to go on one?? I'll meet you halfway.....

13. Take my kids to the beach.

14. Save up vacation time at work and not leave early every Friday. Yeah, who am I kidding? That will never happen. Me no likey work.

15. Lose 864 lbs. Before and After #1 happens. After all, this should help with #10. Before/After pics bring all the bloggers to the yard. Win-win.

16. Start a bunco group.

17. Go on dates with my husband on the reg.

18. Buy a rental house.

19. Take FH to the horse races in Hot Springs. He hasn't ever been and I LOVE horse races!

20. Be a good blogger, finish my book {oh you didn't know?}, and make people laugh on a daily basis or at least die trying.

Easy enough.
Bring it 2013, I'm ready!!

Happy 2012 friends! I have loved getting to know each and every one of you (that has commented) this year and I hope to get to know more of you that silently stalk my blog never leave comments!!

Be safe and don't do anything I wouldn't do. :)
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All the Cool Kids are Doing It

Guess who's back. Back again......

So I saw this linkup here and decided to join in on the fun...cause all the cool kids are doing it so that's obviously enough reason for me to do it too. Right? Right.

Me A-Z

A. Age: 30/over the hill

 

B. Bed size: Queen. Maybe one day I will have a king but for now, I like to sleep as close as possible to my husband anyways.

 

C. Chore you hate: dishes. FO SHO. I will clean the entire house and leave the dishes for my husband.  

D. Dogs: none. I'm not an animal person.

 

E. Essential start to your day: checking IG, other than that I don't really have one. I don't drink coffee.

 

F. Favorite color: Green. 

G. Gold or Silver: Silver

H. Height: 5'4ish"

 

I. Instruments you play: I played the piano in elementary school but totally can't anymore. My mom messed up when she scheduled piano lessons during recess...I was much more interested in playing football with all the boys. True story. 

J. Job Title: Accountant. Wife. Mom.

 

K. Kids: Kate-9 Alex-9 (they are 9 minutes apart. LONGEST 9 minutes of my life)

 

L. Live: Tennesse. 

M. Married: to my best friend in June 2012. Newlyweds! 

N. Nicknames: Lolo, Lolli, Pop

 

O. Overnight hospital stays: just when I had K&A. I was super sick and had to stay in the hospital a week before they delivered...most boring time ever but I slept the whole time.

 

P. Pet peeve: the word "ain't" {cause it ain't a word, for reals)

 

Q. Quote:   If it were easy, anybody could do it!

My mom told me this over and over and over again when I was a single mom and in school. And it's totally true!

 

R. Righty or Lefty: Righty.

S. Siblings: 1 sister and 1 brother.

 

T. Time you wake up:  5:00-5:30

 

U. University attended: University of Memphis 

V. Vegetables you dislike: 99.9% of all of them 

W. What makes you run late: I hate to be late and try to NEVER let it happen. But with kids, it happens every once in awhile.

 

X. X-rays you've had: legs. teeth. I guess that's it.

 

Y. Yummy food: Let's all go to the Mexican joint!

 

Z. Zoo animal favorite: I love the giraffes. I love how they love on each other by cuddling their heads together. I try to do this with my husband and I'm pretty sure he rolls his eyes!

 

Join in on the fun...I love reading these things!

Just leave me a comment so I can stop by your post and read. :)

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Facebook Just Got a Little Bit More Crowded-er

Yes, I'm fully aware that "crowded-er" is not a word.
But I think it sounds good.
And it's appropriate since this morning, I took the plunge.
I made my own facebook page.
Won't you go like it here so that I don't look like a rahtard with no friends? I knew I could count on you!

So, last night, I made the stairmaster my B. Okay, well I only did it for 11 minutes but I climbed 50 flights of stairs and my bum is now killing me. I haven't been on the stairmaster in FOR-EV-VER (with my best Sandlot impression) so it was good to switch things up a bit. I also did HIIT (high intensity interval training) on the the treadmill. Don't know what that is? Don't worry, I didn't know either until about last year when my husband informed me that I was wasting my time doing a cardio machine on easy for so long. Apparently, in order to burn more calories, you do intervals. So run as hard as you can (and feel like an idiot in the gym) for about 2 or 3 minutes, and then walk super duper slow for about a minute, then repeat. Yesterday I ran at a 6.5 pace...I know this might not be fast for most of you, but you should know that I was blessed with the shortest and thickest legs in history so it's pretty fast for me. And then I walked at a 3.5 pace. Let me just tell you....that shiz works. I was drenched with sweat when I got done. I would have taken a picture but I'm what we like to call an ugly sweater (not to be confused with a sweater that you wear, is there a spelling difference? I'm not sure but you get my drift.)

Also, on my list of last night accomplishments, I must tell you that this happened:

Yep, the husband wanted to go eat Mexican, my fave. Normally, this is a direct route to stuffing my face. I can swim in a fountain of white cheese dip, I can eat enough chips to put the place out of business, and of course, I want some tortillas too.....but I'm on no carbs until New Years so I was a little panicked. But my IG family was there to save the day. I already knew I would get grilled chicken and just leave off the tortilla, but my good friend Laura told me to get some guacomole.....well I am not a fan of guacomole but I LOVE avocado so I ordered that to go with my chicken and it was AMAZING! I had no chips, no white cheese dip (besides a small amout on my chicken), and no tortillas. And I still felt great afterwards.
Mission Accomplished.

I know one of my problems is that I don't drink nearly enough water. So I had this great idea to have everyone post a picture on IG of an empty bottle of water each time they finish one off and tag it with #drinkmorewater.....I'm hoping this makes me and others drink more water....but we shall see. Join us! Drink more water! They say it is good for you......not to mention, your day can go by faster if you spend 85% of it in the bathroom. :) {follow me on instagram @mrsloyoung}

Oh and guess what? IT'S FRIDAY Y'ALL! I'm excited......if I can make it through today......My work BFF is off work today and two of my email buddies are off work too.....so make sure you leave me a comment or I just might  not survive this day without using any vacation time....and we all know I don't need to do that!

Happy Friday!! Pin It Now!

Annnnnnnnnnd Another One Bites the Dust

And now you will be singing that song all day.
You're welcome.

In case you are keeping score and lezzbihonest I'm always keeping score this is the current score in our house.

house plague-1 Kate-0
house plague-1 Alex-0
house plague-1 FH-0
house plague-0 Yours truly-1 {knocks on wood}
house plague total-3 family-1

That's right. Poor FH has fallen to the plague that has taken over our house. And yours truly is still standing strong....for now.

Since the girls are with their Dad this week and FH was in bed sick all afternoon/night, I was a single lady out on the town! {Can I get a witness?!}

Would you like to know how my wild and crazy night went?

gym
grocery store
laundry
cooking
shower
early to bed.

A little GTL GGLCSE, if you will.

It was an eventful night.

But for real, what the crap do people that don't have kids do every night?? Please ignore this question if you don't have kids...because at one point, I was single and didn't have kids either and I know life was super busy. No disrespect to anyone, but I think it's not really the no kids thing, but more taking out any factor that you spend lots of time on, suddenly, you are lost! It's so weird when your life is on a different path for a few days....

For instance,
Dinner? I'll just eat leftovers. I mean, I only have to worry about myself so I'm not cooking.
Gym? What time is it? Who cares? I don't have to be anywhere to pick anyone up or feed anyone dinner...all I care about is the amount of time I have been on each machine.
Bedtime? Whenever I please. I think I'll just go to bed now cause I'm tired....or I'll stay up late because I don't have to ship anyone off to school tomorrow.

It was pretty great....but soon enough I'll be ready for my babies to be back home and in my hair!

In other news, I finally signed up for the St Louis half marathon yesterday. I'm super excited/scared to death. I've never ran more that like 3 miles and walked about 5 or 6. And I have only walked that far when I was running my mouth with friends...so I have no idea how I will do it, but I know I will finish. Somehow.
You have to say how long you expect to finish the entire race and I chose the longest amount of time, which is around 3 hours. SURELY I will do better than this, but you just never know...and well, I would rather be at the front of the loser group than at the back of the winner group. Does that make sense?

Cheers to half marathon training......I'm tired just thinking about it!

Happy Thursday!! Pin It Now!

Remember That Christmas When.....

Remember that Christmas when we went to see A Christmas Carol at Theatre Memphis?

The girls absolutely loved it and want to be in the play next year.

And then afterwards, we went to eat dinner in a bar, with kids, at 10PM? The girls love their hot wings and were elbow deep in them.

Remember that Christmas when I decided to start a running club in the middle of December?
Last Saturday was our first meeting...and only 3 of us ran. Well, plus 2 junior members who entertained themselves on the playground after they got tired over running one lap.

Remember how we talked so much so that we didn't even notice that we walked almost 5 miles? That's the beauty of exercising with a group.....

Remember that Christmas when I took off work to go to the girls' Christmas parties at school? And then we spent the entire day shopping until we dropped?

And Kate won the snowman competition at her party? She was a good snowman....

And Alex literally did drop after shopping?

And then they both randomly decided to get their hair chopped off?

Remember that Christmas where stuff was piled up everywhere and I couldn't get the house straightened to save my life?

Maybe one day I'll get all this stuff put up (and that new TV put together). Maybe.
Remember that Christmas when the kids had more fun with the photo props than they did with their new toys?

Remember that Christmas when Alex got $80 worth of makeup?
I'm pretty sure I don't have $80 worth of makeup and I'm actually allowed to wear it on the reg.

Remember that Christmas when pink eye shadow was back in style? Yeah, me either but Alex does.

Remember that Christmas when Kate got the most ridiculously ugly shoes? The ones that came with wheels? Ugghhh, so ugly, but she loves them!

Remember that Christmas when I got a Forever Young ring? My husband is the bomb.com.

Remember that redneck Christmas? When the kids got guns, camo, a camping tent, and sleeping bags?

**check out that outfit, looking good Alex**
Remember that Christmas when Kate was sick and Alex was jealous because she wanted to be sick too?

**her wish was granted the night of Christmas, don't you worry**

Remember that Christmas that we spent in PJs watching movies?

Remember that Christmas spent waiting FOREVER in the ER?

And FH only had about 4 hours sleep within the last 48 hours? And Kate was embarassed because she had to wear a mask and she thought she looked ugly in it?
And then we finished off with Chinese as our Christmas dinner?

This Christmas weekend was a LONG one. Not exactly as we expected it, but sick kids means lots of cuddle time.

I'm so grateful for the time I spent with my family this Christmas, I'm so grateful that we are almost always healthy and rarely spend time in the hospital, and I'm so grateful for each of my readers.

Hope every one had a very Merry Christmas! Now I can't wait to get off work today so I can get all my decorations put back up in the attic...am I the only one that wants everything put up immediately following Christmas?? I almost put it all up last night, but laziness won over.

Happy Hump Day! Pin It Now!

Holiday LinkUp

Apparently all the cool kids are doing this holiday linkup and I like to pretend like I'm one of the cool kids....so here goes nothing!

One day, I swear I'm gonna vlog....but today's not the day.

What's your favorite holiday movie?Home Alone. Hands down. I love that movie...and I think I might just have to watch it again tonight. This is followed closely by Christmas Vacation. Those are both classics.

Do you have any special traditions?Bella the Elf. Not to be confused with an elf on the shelf. K&A will quickly tell you that their elf is not an elf on the shelf. You can touch ours. Apparently. We have had that thing for about 4 or 5 years now and she is still going strong.

Also, the girls sleep together the night Santa Claus comes. My sister, brother, and I started this tradition....but now I just sleep with my husband the night Santa comes. Or in our case now, no one. Since FH will be working. Boo.

What's your favorite ornament or decoration?

all the plates that my kids have made over the years...and well, the ones I made when I was young too. We have wannabe artists in the family.

Best gift you've ever received?That's tough...I'm not even really sure. Ever since I can remember I been popping my collar I have only gotten excited about K&A's gifts...and I'm pretty sure their electric scooter that Santa got last year was the coolest. That or the pogo sticks. Although I'm still not skinny enough to jump on them.

Worst gift you've ever received?

I remember a really horribly ugly blanket. Yep, that was probably the worst. Or actually, one year, my husband at the time went out on Christmas night and was suppose to come back to watch movies with me and he didn't show up until like 3AM cause he stayed out partying....that's not really a gift but that was close enough to the worst thing ever. Luckily I now have a husband that would rather cut his limbs off than leave the house without me. Karma is my friend. :)

Favorite winter accessory?hooded sweatshirts. LOVE. and I have at least 400 of them.

Real tree or fake?fake for now....but the husband is working on changing this.

When and how did you find out that Santa was not real?Santa IS real. Hear that kids?? And I'm still hoping he comes to see me!

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If You Need Anything, Just Ask My Mom

Last night, we went to Target.
As in the Target across the street from the mall.
As in bumper to bumper make you want to flip off your neighbor type traffic. But I made FH drive so it wasn't too bad.

Alex looked so cute for our shopping date that I had to take a picture.
Please note, Kate looked cute too, she just wasn't in the room when I took this picture, and she hates pictures usually.

If only I had those long skinny legs.
FH works at FedEx until I make him quit and be a stay at home Dad.
Needless to say they are slightly busy this time of year and he is working SUPER long hours.
I can't wait to have my husband back!
But since he has been working so many hours {did I mention he has two jobs?!}, we are behind on some of our shopping.
So this is the run down on what the 4 of us had to buy last night.
It took some maneuvering to make it happen.

Alex had to buy Kate a present.
Alex had to buy FH a present.
Kate had to buy Alex a present.
Both had to buy me a present.

All without the other one seeing.
I checked out 3 times and FH checked out twice.

Oh and funny side note, FH text me to ask me what size shirt Kate wore....and I texted him back and told him her same sized twin was standing right next to him.

And unloading the car was quite difficult.
But we made it happen.
And ate pizza while at Target.
What's better than Pizza Hut in a Target? Well, taco bell in a Target of course, but this is a close second.

Once we finally made it home {we live about 45 minutes from the mall}, it was a mad dash to get K&A bathed and in bed and get FH a nap, showered, and out the door to work.
This is why we never go anywhere during the week.

The girls were anxious to wear their new PJs.
And they looked SO cute in them.
Reminded me of when they were toddlers and I put them in similar PJs and it made my baby pneumonia kick in.

And once I finally got them settled down and into bed, I noticed this on Alex's door:

Let's be honest, I was tempted to erase it...because well if anyone needs anything, Mom is off duty during night time hours.
Another reason why I need FH to be a stay at home Dad.
But it was too cute to mess with.
And then maybe 5 minutes later, Kate came in my room to tell me she couldn't sleep.
She said that she was going to go in Alex's room but then she saw the sign on her door.
Go figure.

And then this morning, I get the following pictures from FH along with the texts:

That's my girl. Rain or shine, school uniform or not, gotta get your game on.

It's a rainy and dreary day here, which is quite appropriate for the last day of the world. If you all don't hear from me tomorrow, well, you know what that means.....
{I'm too busy shopping and NOT at work!!! Hallelujah!}

Happy it's my Friday but as of right now I still have to work on Christmas Eve so get with the program Mr. President Thursday!!
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Tell Me About some Randoms

Today's Tell Me About It Tuesday is on a Wednesday.
And we also have Wednesday Random linkup....so here's
Tell Me About Some Randoms!!

1. Road rage. The guy in front of me this morning had it...and I almost got to see a fight. What kind of person am I that I got a little excited and wanted to watch a fight? Is that wrong? As long as I'm not involved, I'm okay with it. Tis the season, right?

2. Yesterday, I didn't run. My knee has some fluid on it and was hurting. I know better than to run when my knee hurts. But now I don't know when I'm going to get another chance since I'm shopping tonight and getting my hair did tomorrow.

3. Blonde hair or brown dark blonde hair. That is the question.

4. My fitness pal. Who uses it? Do you like it? I think I might do better if I had some friends on there because I sometimes put breakfast on there and then forget about it the rest of the day. I really don't want to have to put down that I ate 473 chocolate covered oreo balls and for friends to see that.....

5. I took off work on Friday. It was necessary since the girls have their Christmas party at school and they get out at 11:30. I'm never going to be able to save up any vaca time....oh well. I'll worry about that again next year {which is like 2 weeks away...} And speaking of work, it's up to good ole Obama whether or not we get off work on Christmas Eve.

Dear Mr Pres, I may not have voted  for you and wouldn't if my life depended on it, but if you could please give us hard working people off work on Monday, it would be greatly appreciated. If you have a heart, you will do it. And while you are at it, could you please give us government workers maternity leave...I'm sure the average joe doesn't realize that we don't get maternity leave....BUT WE DON'T AND THAT IS JUST BS. So if you could please just take care of these two things for me, I'd be a happy camper. Please and thank you.

6. The top google search to find my blog is most recently "What is a steppe sister?" This made me laugh....as if this is an extra special stepsister. If you are really that interested, you can find out what a steppe sister is here. Glad I could help.

7. When I first started blogging, I had no idea how much online shopping it would lead to. Just ask my bank account about yesterday....Merry Christmas to me!

8. The world ends this week, right? Gosh, I hope I don't go out with a random post like this....oh well, we can't all end on our favorite blog post I guess. At least I'll be shopping tonight with the fam, I can totally end the world on that note. And I guess I should probably indulge in Taco Bell this week, you know, just in case the Mayans {or whoever predicted this mess} are right.

9. Instagram. Really? How much money do you think you are going to make on my pictures? Not. Very. Much. And I'm not scared...I'm way tooo addicted to your amazing app to delete it..and I honestly am too lazy to learn the ins and outs to a new app....unless of course, anyone wants to join me and go back to MySpace. Anyone? JT? You let me know, I'll be thinking of what song I want to upload for my profile.

10. Christmas Presents. Do you know that my husband leaves for work every night and there are presents with my name on them in the house...presents that are just wrapped in bags so I could easily peek.....10 year old Lora is DYING to peak. But don't worry, FH, I haven't given in yet. I learned my lesson that one year that I found my ENTIRE Santa Claus loot hidden under my mom's bed in a suitcase and I had to act surprised Christmas morning...it's actually much more fun to be for real surprised.

Who's ready for Christmas?? Who's opening early presents like a sneaky dickens {thank you for that new word, Jersey Shore cast}? Who wants to come to Memphis and join my running team? Who is working on their MySpace account right now?

Happy last Hump Day before Christmas!!!!


And I'm an idiot who can't ever get the Random Wednesday button to fit on my blog right so follow this link to check out more fun posts! Pin It Now!

R.I.P. Sparkle

Last night was a bad night.
Alex's fish bit the dust.
He took the plunge.
He moved on to be with bigger fish in the sky.
He went down the toilet.

It was a sad night.
We didn't realize there was a death in the family until I was tucking her into bed and then she lost it.
She's had that fish for over a year and took really good care of it.

I swear that fish had 9 lives.
FH & I went on our honeymoon and came back in town a week later to a still swimming, super active fish.
One time last year, we thought he/she/how do you tell on a fish was dead only to find out an hour later that it was faking.
But this time it's for real.

Something about fish in our house around Christmas time.
Kate lost her fish in December of last year.

In other news, I finally got off my butt yesterday and went running.
I finished week 6 of my 10K trainer app.
It was a 5 minute warmup and then a 22 minute run.
Sometimes I can walk faster than I run, but that's not the point.
I had to take two 30 seconds breaks in my running, but it was necessary. I was proud when I finished.
So proud that I came home and ate peppermint bark chex mix.

I think I should start a website with human shaming.
Similar to dog shaming...but with humans {obvs}.
The first picture would be me, in my sweaty glory, holding up a sign that said "I ran 3 miles and then came home and ate chex mix" with a guilty look on my face.

Regardless of my guilty chex mix indulgance....
After reading several blogs like this one and this one,
{now you have to follow the links to see which blogs I'm talking about, see what I did there?}
I've decided that I'm starting a running group.
The problem is that I've never actually been in a running group.
I have girls that are interested so now I just have to make it happen.
So, tell me, how do I keep the fast runners motivated without discouraging the slower runners/walkers?
Does everyone run together?
Or do we set a goal of a finish line and everyone finishes on their own?
Help! I want to make this successful and help other runners in the process. And I just really want to have a party with all of them at my house too, but that's not the point.

And now, I have to figure out if Santa is going to bring a new fish to our house...our track record with fish is not too great, but I'm not interested in any bigger pets.

Happy Tuesday/One Week before Christmas!!!!!


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Be There At 6 PM

What an exhausting weekend.

and what a FUN weekend!

Let me start off by telling you a funny story.

So the BFF is late everywhere she goes.

I am usually early.

So I like to tell her to be places before she actually has to be there.

Normally when I tell her an early time, I laugh so she knows I'm joking but only joking so she won't be late.

When she asked me what time my party was I told her 6.

Mind you, there was an fb invitation that said 7.

And she is an fb ninja so I assumed she saw it and knew I was joking.

So Saturday night at 6:45 I get a random text.

Something along the lines of calling me a dirty name and asking me what time the party REALLY started.

I was confused.

And I told her 7.

She called me out and said I told her 6 in an email and she just drove by my house and no one was there but us.

She was cussing me because I gave her the wrong time....

and so I informed her that she was 45 minutes late then!!!

It was hilarious and she was the first guest to arrive.

I'm actualy quite proud of her and will be doing this again to her in the future. :)

So, friday, shopping with my momma.

That was fun.

And I'm pretty sure I'm finished with my Christmas shopping now...except for last minute randoms that I decide people must have.

FH has at least 426 presents under our tree.

He might be a little spoiled.

So much so that my daughter told me I should buy some presents for myself and wrap them instead of buying him more stuff.

Saturday, I cleaned ALL DAY LONG.

I love how clean my house gets when I throw a party.

I should make it a point to throw one at least every other month or so and then my house would get a regular deep cleaning.

We also had a basketball game Saturday....brought home another W.

Our girls are just really good.....and I'm so proud that my sweet girls are finally being aggressive.

It only took me a few years of telling them to pretend like every girl that has the ball is your sister so be mean.

Of course, Kate always gets mean when I want to take a picture of her with her sister.

One day I will blackmail her with pics like this:

The Christmas party was great.

FH&I planted a gag gift in the dirty santa exchange and everyone just about died laughing when it was opened.

There was TONS of food.

But leave it to me to not take pictures.

The girls stayed in the house while the boys were "playing" out in the garage.

And there may or may not have been a little bit of Magic Mike on the tv.....

It was NOT fun cleaning up after the party the next day...my house looked like a tornado came through...and I had just scrubbed it from top to bottom the day before.

Totally worth it though to be able to hang out with great friends.

One of my friends made these GREAT christmas props for our photo booth....and we didn't use one single one of them.

I'm so mad we forgot about them, but at least K&A put them to good use once they got home on Sunday.

That poor child really has her leg kicked up since she was going to kiss Santa....it's gonna be a looooong couple of years when she gets to be a teenager.

The girls also insisted that FH&I open up an early christmas present...and well, I'm not one to turn down a gift.

I knew the girls made us plates at school.

I remember making these for my mom when I was little and she still has every one of them so I was anxious to see how they looked.

I'm really proud of both of them and I'm so excited to have these.

And you know it's true love of my child that I appreciate a plate that has a big orange T on it!

I can't believe Christmas is just around the corner....now if we can just survive this work week and hopefully it will go by quickly!

Happy Monday everybody!

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Bloggers in Different Area Codes

All bloggers have lots in common.

We all like to talk about ourselves.

We all share this blogging community.

There are so many great blogs out there, that if you have half of a normal life, it's almost impossible to stay on top of them all.

But, if you are like me, you are still always browsing for new blogs to follow. New friends in the blogosphere.

Every once in awhile I discover a blog and think "How am I just now finding this blog??" "Where have you been all my life??"

So, let's help each other out.

Let's do a linkup to meet new people.

Link up your main blog URL below.
{Make sure you follow this blog in order to link up}

Tell your friends, tell your neighbors.

The more, the merrier.

Let's have a blogger party, y'all!

Look around, you never know, you might meet your new BFF today.

Happy blog hopping!



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Top 5 Reasons Smart Phones have made us Dumb

It's Friday!

You know what that means?

I don't want to use my brain at all today.

Unless it's to write that email to the boss requesting to leave early.

But I pretty much have that email saved from sending it every single Friday.

I realized recently that my smart phone makes me dumb.

It really does.

It also distracts me from almost everything I do...hold on, I have a text...

okay, I'm back.

See what I did there?

Stupid Apple.

Why didn't I think of smart phones first?

Then I could come out with a new iPhone every other week so people just HAD to upgrade.

I swear, I almost thought of it first.

And now that everyone has smart phones, life is impossible if you don't have one.

Kind of like facebook.

It might annoy the crap out of me, and I might consider deleting my account...but do you know that even my work has a facebook account now? I can't keep up with what's going on in the world if I get rid of facebook. If only I could stalk keep up with everything but delete my account.

Oh well, I couldn't have survived without fb anyways, who am I fooling?

Okay, back to my smart phone making me not smart.

I have come up with the top 5 reasons that an iphone has changed my life. Maybe it has changed yours too?

1. math homework. You might not know this, but I'm an accountant. Math is one of my favorite subjects and I WAS quite good at it. But now when my kids ask me to check their math homework, I whip out my smart phone with it's handy calculator and finish in 5 minutes flat. I can't add anymore, I can't subtract, and don't even get me started on division.

2. history/science/any other homework. No, I'm not going to go to the glossary in the back of the book to help you find this answer Kate/Alex. I'm gonna google it. Cause it's faster. And easier. And my phone is already in my hand. "Really Mom, didn't you go to school?" I sure did....and I learned to be resourceful....and I graduated college so that I could make enough money to afford an iPhone. So I could use google.

3. gossip. It's so much easier with an iPhone. Just the other day at our work Christmas party, we were gossiping, maybe. I won't say for sure...but it's no longer "Do you know so-and-so? Here, let me bring up her fb profile to show you her picture." or "Did you see that girl he was with? Here, let me show you who he checked in with on Friday night." You see, even gossip has changed. We have solid proof on some things. And can facestalk at any given moment.

4. Have you noticed that when you go into someone's home nowadays, there's something missing from the bathroom? Yep, there's no magazine rack sitting next to the toilet. You know why? Cause people have their iPhones in their hands so they don't need to browse a random Reader's Digest while sitting....you laugh, but you know it's true.

5. Pictures. I can take a picture of ANYTHING nowadays. I would have even more pictures if my phone weren't so ancient. Not a moment is missed, especially if you are a blogger.

And now, take away our iPhones, and the world will be chaos. Similar to a zombie apocolypse....

Well played Apple, well played.

Can you survive without your iphone?

Is there something else that you can't live without??

Happy Freaking Friday Y'all!!!!

PS Christmas party at my house Saturday night....come one, come all...or maybe not, but I will be keeking! :)

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Momma Don't Need No Presents

I love that my kids are thoughtful.

They love buying presents.

They try so hard to make sure they buy me something for Christmas that I really want. But sometimes what I want and what they think I want are slightly different.

For my birthday this year,

Kate got me a University of Memphis Tiger pillowpet.

Now, she was right, I do LOVE my tigers!!!

But that pillowpet? It sits on her bed, not mine.

I would put it on my bed since she bought it for me, but somehow my gift was taken from me before it made it to my room.

The same year, Alex got me a picture frame for the wall.

She said she had to go to Target because that was my favorite store.

Smart girl.

I love the picture frame, but she just HAD to put pictures in it....and she didn't have time to get pictures printed out, so she found the most random pictures she could find and put them in the frame.

And these were all pictures that were laying around the house that weren't put in a frame for a reason...

I don't have the heart to change out the pictures so it sits in my room,

on the floor.

One year the girls were super smart and got me a Target giftcard!

But the thing about giftcards is that they are super fun to get but not very fun to give.

This year, the girls were talking about my Christmas presents and what they are going to get me.

Poor girls, they couldn't keep a secret if their life depended on it.

Alex said "Oh, I know what I am getting you, Mom. Best present ever."

A few minutes later she says "Mom, you like Taco Bell, don't you?"

Kate said "Mom, I think I'm gonna go to Walmart....you like jewelry don't you?"

Me: "No, Kate, you know, I really don't wear jewelry that often."

Bullet dodged.

No matter what the girls get me I will love it.

I think I enjoy listening to them talk about shopping more than I enjoy actually getting the gifts.

And FH has a great time talking to them about what to buy....

Bless his heart.

I've already overheard him say several times "No, I think that is something you would want, not something Mom would want."

Is anyone else as excited as I am about Christmas hurrying up and getting here so we can open presents?!

FH is killing me showing me the tracking of presents that he ordered me.

Hope everyone is having a killer Thursday. Can't wait for the weekend!!

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Triple 12

In case you haven't noticed, or if you just woke up {I'm jealous}, it's 12-12-12 today. In honor of the date, I'm going to do 12 blog posts today. Kidding. It will only be 10 2.

I had a few people ask me about my Christmas work party yesterday.

Let me break it down for you.

Bar food.

Hot wings, chicken fingers, loaded potato skins, this post is already making me hungry, and cheese sticks.

Not to mention cake and pie. There was sugar free dessert as well, but when you are already having fried everything you can think of on your plate, why bother with the sugar free dessert?

I even went all out and had a real Dr Pepper, skipping the normal Diet DP. I know, I know, it got crazy up in there.

Giveaways.

Yes, there were door prizes.

But unlike the lucky IG'er that I follow that won an iPad mini at her Christmas party, ours were sucky not quite as great.

There were tshirts, and umbrellas, and giftcards.

Two of my friends won prizes.

I won nothing.

I only gained 14 lbs from said food.

But don't you worry, I didn't go home empty handed....

cause after we were dismissed {and some people stayed behind to get trashed}, I headed out to the war zone. Aka shopping.

I went to Walmart, Target, the Dollar Store, Lowe's, and to another Walmart.

Yes, that's really two Walmarts. Stick a fork in my eye.

Please note, I would rather have my toenails pulled out than go to the mall during this time of the year.

Unless of course, FH drives me.

Then, I'll totally close my eyes and go along for the ride.

But if I'm alone, it's not gonna happen.

Well, probably not.

It really makes me mad that you bandwagon shoppers take over MY mall during this season. I mean, where are you during the year when us hardcore shoppers are stimulating the economy?

Huh? Huh?

We shop on the reg so when it's time for all y'all seasonal shoppers to come out, we are not happy.

Rant over.

I did accomplish something yesterday that I never thought possible.

Only the brave can take on this challenge....

.........wait for it.......

I spent $43 in the Dollar Tree.

I know, that takes talent, right?!

What can I say, I'm a classy girl.

Everyone got $1 each for the gifts and I went hog wild.

Or else I just bought a ton of stocking stuffers there.

And speaking of stockings.

One certain husband is getting a HUGE stocking this year.

It weighs at least 49 lbs and is packed full of goodies.

Can't wait for him to open it!

And now I'm back at work.

It should be mandatory that all Christmas parties be on Fridays....

who wants to leave work early yesterday in a Friday-ish atmosphere only to come back to hump day?

Not I.

Happy Hump Day!

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I'd like to thank my Mom....

Any award speech should start with thanking your Mom.
Trust me.
As a mom now, I know what kind of crap we put our moms through...

I have been nominated for the Liebster award by Erin and by Alexandra.....Thanks girls!

So, basically, they both give me questions to answer...if only I had questions to answer every day, blogging would be so much easier!

Erin's questions:
1.  What is your favorite holiday?
my birthday. I celebrate it for an entire month (July) and I expect to do no work that month. If asked to do anything, I simply respond with "but it's my birthday!" This drives my husband nuts...and now he does it too.
2. What's your favorite food?
easy. Mexican. I could take a swim in a bowl of white cheese dip on the reg.
3. What is your favorite memory that includes alcohol?
(sorry Mom) this would have to be that one time at band camp when my BFFs and I went to the beach together.....just pretty much that entire trip is my favotire. Oh yeah, and then this one time, my friend Natalie and I went on a bachelor party, the only girls. Now, that was a good time.
4. Favorite memory without alcohol?
the morning after talks with my BFFs during out single days...I remember us sitting on the couch talking about the night before and laughing until we cried. Miss those times.
5.  How long have you been with your significant other?
We have now been married for 6 months! And before that we were together for about 2 years.
6. Where did you meet them?
I met FH at a wedding...I was a bridesmaid, he was a groomsmen. It was definitely not love at first sight. I had a huge crush, he liked my friend. But, if you know me, you know that I love a challenge and from that point on, this girl was on a mission. I knew he would love me one day, he just didn't know it yet.
7.  What would be the first thing you bought if you hit the lotto tonight? A white jeep wranger. I've always wanted one. And when we recently bought a new car, I decided now that I could finally afford one, I didn't actually need one. Something about 2 (hopefully eventually 3) kids getting in and out of a jeep just didn't appeal to me. but I'd love to have one to drive every other weekend!
8. What is your dream car?
oops, please see #7
9. Where would be your dream place to live?
I would never move because all my family is here....but if I could take all my family with me? I'd say near a beach maybe. I'd have a tough time giving up my small town though, so maybe we should just say a mansion in the town I live in now. :)
10. If you could get plastic surgery today, what would you get?
lipo. suck that gut out with a quickness.
11. Where's your favorite place on earth?
at home, on the couch with my husband, with K&A close by. Nowhere else that I'd rather be.

Alexandra's questions:
1. If you could invite three people living or dead to dinner, who would they be and why? I'm gonna have to say that dinner would not be dinner without eating it with my husband and my kids...so those would have to be my 3 people. Boring I know, but it has taken me YEARS to be as content as I am now, so my dinner table is a good place to be.
2.What is your most embarassing moment?my 16th birthday party. my halter top dress had strings, one string broke. you do the math.
3. What's your favorite alcoholic beverage? jager
4. What's your favorite beauty product? I am not loyally to any beauty products...I like to try new things...so I guess I don't have a favorite.
5. What's your favorite band/singer? Currently, The Band Perry. and Pink.
6. Whats your favorite exercise? anything bootcamp style done in a big group. What can I say? I love competition and knowing I have competition pushes me 10 times harder.
7. What's your biggest pet peeve? the word "ain't". it makes me cringe.
8. What's your favorite guilty pleasure show? Teen Mom 2. without a doubt. I love those hot messes!
9. What's one thing you gotsta' do before you die? feel comfortable in not just a bikini but in day to day clothes. Or travel the world. one or the other.
10. What would you choose to be your last meal? mexican food. all the way.
11. If I gave you $5,000 what would you spend it on? I'd pay off some bills, and then go to Target and stay there for hours.

Thanks so much for nominating me girls!

Hope everyone has a happy Wednesday! :)













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So a Work Group walks into a bar......

Today is my work Christmas party....in a bar down by the river.

I'm not sure who had the bright idea to have our party at a bar...all the old people are staying at work....and they sent out an email telling us that we can't drink. Cause 10AM drinking with coworkers is what everyone wanted to do.

 I'm just excited that it's a short day, my hair is curled, and I am going to do a little shopping after we are dismissed from the party.

Lately I'm not motivated to work out.

Which, let me tell you, is NOT a good thing.

I am a HUGE yo-yo work-er out-er.

Yep, I really just said it that way.

Some weeks, I am obsessive and can't get enough.

Then some weeks, I want to sleep.

And be lazy. And read a book. And eat.

This week is one of those weeks.

But I refuse to let it take over.

I feel so much better when I get my butt kicked on a run or by Jillian.

So, today's exercise will be brought to you by Power Shopping.

Yes, that's real exercise people.

Do you know how much walking you do when you shop?

Do you know how much I work my abs when I'm trying to stuff myself into a pair of jeans in the dressing room?

Well, a lot.

And then, it's great for my diet too.

The more clothes I try on, the more I want to get liposucction stop eating.

It's a win-win.

Except for my bank account. It doesn't need to get thinner.

I'd say 2 hours in the office is enough for today.

I also took a picture with my friend Amy and Santa Claus.

Except Santa Claus is a coworker.

Nothing says awkward like "Can I sit in your lap and get my picture made?" to a coworker.

But maybe this is better than saying it to a stranger??

I'm not real sure....either way, I'll stick to sitting in my husband's lap.

I'm off to party like a rockstar like a good little employee.

Hope you all have a great day!

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Keek it to the Left, Keek it to the Right

So I found out this morning, that you should never keek in the morning.
Especially a monday morning when you roll out of bed and you look like death and have nappy hair.
I mean, that sounds like a recipe for cuteness on a video, right?!
Not sure why that was a fail this morning.....
{Not sure what I'm talking about? Keek'in is the new IG'in. Although IG is going nowhere, don't worry. Follow me here on keek.
And do not ever expect any videos that actually make sense.}
I'm pretty sure all of us bloggers just needed another form a social media to keep us connected. And we are all bored, really bored.
So now we can write out "Happy Monday!!" on IG and then go say it out loud on Keek. Cause that's normal.

Moving on.
Bella the elf is back.
Yay. Didn't think we would see her this year since my daughters have recently grown horns and decided to never get along.
Okay, well not that recent, but I think they are just growing into their girl-nis and want to fight like cats.
Lucky FH living with 3 women. He totally loves it tolerates it well.

She kind of fell into the stocking while she was hanging out on the fireplace. Hate when that happens.
The girls wrote Santa a letter asking for a second elf this year.
Santa is probably going to write them back and tell them those elves cost way too much money for him to buy another one that his elves are busy making toys and he can't spare another. Naturally.

Saturday was the girls' first basketball game this year. I'm pretty sure I was more excited than they were. You see, basketball was my favorite sport growing up and since I'm too old and chunky and too busy to play it anymore except when I pretend to be Michael Jordan in my driveway, I like to live through the girls playing. So so SO glad that the girls love sports as much as I do. They have been undefeated for like two years, we kind of kick booty. And we started this season off with a W. I won't even mention that I was slightly nervous before this game started. Janessa and I were about to go to the other team and ask the 6 ft tall 4th graders for their birth certificates. But the bigger they are, the harder they fall. And well, the slower they run cause our little rebels won by about 20 or so points. Go Rebels!!!
And thanks for the pic J.

I also won't mention how the game was stopped in order for the refs to throw out a rowdy fan. It's not good to be a sore loser. Especially in church basketball Mr Rowdy Fan. And sorry that you lost.

Speaking of losing.....we went bowling yesterday.

The girls had a birthday party to go to at the bowling alley so FH and I went off to have a mini competition of our own. Always one to think every single thing in life is a competition {cause it totally is}, it was a fierce game. Now let me just go ahead and tell you, that I pretty much never beat FH in this "sport". But this time, well, it was the middle of the day, the lights were on, and FH was only drinking Diet Pepsi so he was off his game.
And so I kicked his booty.
I'm not one to brag.....I just put visuals all over the world wide web.

Once we moved onto air hockey and I beat him in that, I realized that I needed to scale back my awesomeness a bit or I was going to have a grumpy husband, and no one likes a grumpy husband.
{Love you FH!} Oh and so he doesn't kill me for blasting this out on the blog as if he wasn't expecting it, I should note that he kicks my butt in the basketball game there and at Chuck E Cheese.
Also, we tried to win a stuffed animal in one of those claw machines.
It was the cutest little elephant ever and looked like it belonged in a nursery.....so right when we were walking up to it, I decided that we needed to win it and put it in our future nursery. So I told myself if it happened, there would be a baby.
And then we spent like $8 trying to win the thing.
And then I told FH about what I was thinking.
So we spent about $10 more trying to win it.
And never freaking won it. I'm sure that means nothing though. Surely not.
And then a little boy from the bday party walked right up beside us and won an ipod.
Because that's how the universe works.

We finished off our weekend with no kids. They went to their dad's house to help put up his Christmas tree and we sat on the couch and watched like 4 shows. It was great. And relaxing.

And now I'm going to have to spend the entire week detoxing from all the food I stuffed in my face this weekend...you know, like I do every weekend.

Happy Monday Keekers/NonKeekers!!

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