Encouragement

I took this post from my fitness blog, Figuring it Out wwww.aaloftus.blogspot.com because I felt that it could truly be applied to every day life and relationships.

Today I'm running/walking another 5K with a friend. It's her first 5K and she's really looking forward to it. I'm really proud of her. 3.2 miles is a big step for someone who's getting started. She's been working really hard to move towards a healthier lifestyle.

A couple weeks ago I met with her and we discussed food. I loaned her a book about clean eating and getting the right fuel at the right time. I think sometimes people just need to talk their goals out with someone; they need to hear some encouragement and they need to know that other people struggle too.

My friend has seen my transformation. She knows that I've struggled before, but she saw how my hard worked payed off and how much I now enjoy my healthy life and body. She knows it wasn't easy...but it was definitely worth it.

Something I've recently seen is that its really hard to lose weight in a group setting. For example, the girls at my work thought they would all get together and lose weight. The idea was that they would keep each other on track--well, that didn't go exactly as planned. Once one fell off the wagon, the others quickly followed. This was almost 16 weeks ago, imagine the weight they could have lost by now. Think about how much better and happier they would feel if they had stuck to it...

I think what they lacked was "encouragement". They needed someone there who was making changes and seeing results. They needed to be pushed and lead into a direction of health and fitness. Without the support and encouragement of others, you will most likely fail.

So think about the people in your life. Are you encouraging them to reach their goals? Are you supporting their efforts? Are you running the race along side them and letting them know you are there?

Also, are you thanking those that have been there for you? I know I wouldn't have reached the successes I have if I didn't have my strong support system and the love and encouragement that I receive from those who care about me.

Back to School

I couldn't stay out of school too long, could I?

Looks like I'm going back to school as of the 27th of next month! WOW! I must truly enjoy stress. Ha ha ha! I've applied to Walden University's online program for a Master of Science degree in Administration, Manangement and Leadership. I'm actually really excited! I thrive when I'm under pressure and I think that this is something that I really need to do for myself right now.

Having the degree won't earn me more money or land me a better "job" right now. I'm happy with where I am in my career and I enjoy owning my own business and being my own boss. Having the degree will however make me BETTER at my job and will improve the quality of my program without doubt.

Its a 20 month program, 10 classes, 1 class at a time, each class 8 weeks long. Not too bad! Its a lock-key program, so no need to register every sememster, they know exactly what class I'm taking and in what order.

So, off I go! I'm ready for the challenge!

Piano is here!

The Petite Grand Piano that we bought for my daughter was delivered this morning. I sat in nervous anticipation as the movers unloaded and reassembled this massive instrument into my living room.

I must have asked the movers no less than 6 times if they thought it was going to fit and/or look right in my home. They were probably so sick of my nervous energy. Once it was assembled, I literally felt sick to my stomach. Was this piano too big for our living room???? Would my husband say that it overwhelmed the room???? I was a mess!

After about an hour of rearranging the furniture, it all landed right back where it started and I decided that is what looked best. We shall see how this feels over the next few days. My daughter is going to be ecstatic when she arrives home from school today and sees this! I can't wait!
Updated:


Marissa apparently told her teachers that she was excited about getting a piano. The first thing she asked when I picked her up from school today was, "did you get the piano!?!?!" I just said, "let's go home and see..."


When we pulled into the driveway, she could see the piano in the window and she got so excited. As soon as we were parked in the garage, she jumped out and ran into the house. She pulled out the bench and began to play. She was ecstatic!


I haven't been able to get to her to stop playing, not that I mind. I'm thrilled that she is so happy and I'm delighted that our home is filled with music!

No better way to relax...

than to sip tea and listen to a thunderstorm. Its raining hard in Annapolis this evening. Its still light outside, but the rain is beating down and all you hear is the "shhhh"ing of the leaves and crackling and rolling of thunder and lightening. Its a beautiful spring song.

I'm sitting in my bed admiring the view of the river and the rain out our large windows and feeling my body unwind from our busy weekend. I look out the sliding glass doors to my left and see the raindrops hit the wooden deck. Plop Plop Plop. The rain does not come down angrily, but more as if it were giving the earth a drink. Its refreshing, satisfying and warm. I feel clean and revived. I imagine how the trees must feel to soak it all up.

The thunder rolls on and on and I can hear it moving farther away. My son comes upstairs; the rain storm has awaken him. He hasn't been asleep very long, but he asks if we can hear the rain. He watches outside for a moment before finding his way back to bed. He asks my husband about the thunder. My husband tells him that the clouds are crashing and rolling all over themselves; that seems to appease him and he is happy with that answer.

The rain ceases and a gorgeous sunset replaces it. I can still hear thunder in the distance. Ahhhh. Refreshed, relaxed, revived. The rain has washed away my tension as it washed the earth. Peacefulness overcomes me and I'm ready for a good night's rest and a fresh new week.

Fest in the Forest

Tonight I'm attending a fundraiser/party hosted by our friends for Lymphoma. I'm glad to be able to participate in such a worthy cause. The husband of the couple is a Lymphoma survivor. What an amazing thing for them to do for the foundation to show their gratitude to the nurses, doctors, specialists and their family and friends.

We're supposed to wear something fun and flirty...I'll see what I can dig out. The weather isn't as gorgeous as its been the last couple days, but at least it's not raining. I'm going with another good friend, Pam, while the husbands stay home with the kiddos. Initially, Marty was going to attend with me but we had a last minute babysitter snafu.

I'll post pictures when I get home. Should be a fun event!

UPDATE:

Well, no pictures. I forgot my camera/phone. Bummer. It was a lovely event and it was so nice to chat with some of the other guests. There were probably over 200 people in attendance and the hosts mentioned they raised over $20,000 for Lymphoma. Fantastic! Definitely and evening well spent, although I missed my husband's company.

Music to My Ears

We'll be hearing plenty of music soon; we just bought Marissa a Petite Grand Piano. It is being moved here to our home on Monday. We bought it used, got a great deal and its a gorgeous instrument!

Its a Kohler & Campbell KCG 450 – 4’-9” Mahogany finish beauty! I'll post pictures as soon as its all set up in our living room. I think its going to look phenomenal in our home. I'm really excited for Marissa and I think that this is going to mark the next big step in her musical endeavors.

Let's just hope she sticks with it; I'm sure she will.

Need some cash! Sell your Gold!

I recently cleaned out my jewelry box and I found a TON of broken necklaces, old bracelets from highschool boyfriends, lone earrings who had lost their match, random pieces that I probably got from a holiday or birthday many moons ago... I collected all the jewelry that I couldn't remember ever wearing or that I knew I would never wear again and headed to Smyth http://www.smythjewelers.com/ at our towne center.

$1500 later, yes, $1500 I found myself shopping for something that I would LOVE. They have a wonderful buy program. They priced up my gold and then gave me back a credit, you get 50% more if you take a store credit, so naturally that's what I did!

I had lost one of the diamond earrings from a set Marty gave me our first Christmas together, so I was able to match it and get my set back! I was thrilled! I still have some money left over too so I can't wait to see what I can find to spend it on. Knowing me, I'll probably get something from Marissa. LOL.

I've never trusted one of those "We buy gold" parties, but I felt very comfortable at Smyth and I'm glad that I did it. $1500 is nothing to sneeze at and I cleaned out my jewelry box, replaced a missing diamond earring and got money for what I considered "trash". YAY!

Maybe you have some hidden treasure in your jewelry box... Check it out!

Mother's Day

We had our Annual Mother's Day trip to Hershey Park, PA today. It was a gorgeous day and we couldn't have asked for better weather. I was surprised that the park wasn't more crowded, but not at all ungrateful for the short lines and more relaxed atmosphere of the park.

I absolutely love that this trip has become a tradition for us. I've been a mom now for almost 7 years and we've gone every single year since I've become a mother. My kids now expect it and very much look forward to our trip. I can't think of a better way to spend my special day that to be with my husband and children in the "sweetest place on earth". :)

This was a big trip for us. Marissa hit many milestones. She has graduated from face painting to hair wrapping. This was our longest line wait; almost 1 hour later, she had a 14 inch blue, purple and white hair wrap complete with beads and a dolphin charm.

Her next big milestone was that she won prizes at one of the game booths. She had to roll a bowling ball over a hump and have it stay in the second dip. Does that makes sense? Well, she did it TWICE winning a plush bowling ball first and then a 3 ft. plush bowling pin. This made her day!

The final milestone, wasn't so joyous. She rode her first rollercoaster. She was so brave; I'll admit I was even a little nervous. Once the coaster took off she lost it. She was terrified! Nevermind the fact that the coaster did an upside down loop, she was scared through the whole thing and cried. Perhaps she wasn't ready for this one. We were proud of her and she was happy she got her first one done and over with and I imagine it will be a loooong while before we get her on another one.



Christian had a blast today too. He measured up to Hershey Kiss (which is his FAVORITE candy!) He rode a lot of rides with his daddy while I was with Marissa getting her hair wrapped. When the two of them finally rode some rides together, they had the best time!



He also played some booth games with his daddy and he won a teddy bear (I had won one earlier for him too so he came home with two). I think his favorite ride was the train. He always looks forward to that one, but I think I've got a daredevil on my hands because what he was really wanting to ride were things that he was too short for this year. We'll see what happens in the next couple trips!

We finished up our trip with the usual ride throught the chocolate factory. My kids love the singing cows and for the entire two hour drive home they would bust on in chorus, "Hershey's Milk Chocolate!" I'm thankful none of us truly had "sweet tooth" at the end of the day and we managed to get out of the factory without purchasing any candy. The kids did however get a pillow each. Marissa's is shaped like a Hershey bar and Christian of course got a Hershey Kiss.

So that was our 2011 Mother's Day trip. It pretty much was the perfect day...

The Naked Palette

I finally jumped on this bandwagon. I wasn't exactly sure what the big hype was all about and quite honestly I thought it was ridiculous that anyone would spend $48 for 12 shades of eyeshadow. Tons of women I knew were raving about this product though and store couldn't keep it in stock.

I got an email that my local Ulta store had restocked them, so I thought, "what the heck, let me check it out." So I walked in, bought my palette (along with some randome hair products) and left $120 poorer...insane, right!?!?!?

This morning, I did my first combo; Naked, Virgin and Buck. OH EM GEE. Seriously, this stuff goes on like butter, barely takes any to get the color and lasts all flippin' day. I'm in heaven. I don't think I'll ever use another kind of eyeshadow. Sorry, Mary Kay, I've been faithful for so long, but I think you just got the boot. The color combo looks amazing, feels fantastic and my eyes just pop. I think that I waited too long to check this product out. For me, it was definitely worth the $48 plus tax. I can't wait to try new combos. If I could get a good picture of my eyelids, I'd post like crazy, but a picture of the palette will just have to do for now.

Check it out...you WON'T be sorry!

Trying something new

Everyone knows that my hair is constantly changing. Growing out, cutting short, new styles, etc. I've been stuck for a while now though and I'm losing my mind. I'm not quite to the point in my life where I'm ready to play with colors yet either, so I'm having to get a little more creative.

My hair is pretty short right now, so I was nervous to try it, but I decided to go ahead and curl it. It actually turned out "ok". This isn't the greatest pic, but it gives you an idea.

I've been playing around with it; I add some hair barretts and some flowers. Its ULTRA girly, which means its just my style!

I'm going to look into how to create a more substantial curl without getting too much volume. I'll keep you posted. This mama's got to do her best to keep stylish

She made it!!!

Whew! I got the phone call today right before picking Marissa up from school! She's made the chorus! I seriously got teary eyed! I told her when I picked her up from school and she was/is so excited! We are very very proud of her and I cannot wait to tell everyone I know (although, she's being very shy about it and is acting very private; I think she's overwhelmed. Poor boo!)

So here we go... I tell ya, she's going to be famous someday! :)

High Hopes

We haven't heard from the All Children's Chorus director yet... She said she would be in touch with us on Sunday; its now Monday night. I'm starting to think perhaps they didn't have a spot for Marissa :( It would have been nice of her to call when she said she would.

I don't want to get my hopes up too high, not to mention Marissa's, but I can't help myself. I really wanted this for her and I think that it would be something she would love. I'm crossing my fingers that they let us know one way or the other soon.

I hate waiting.