Happy Halloween!!

I thought I'd share a few pictures of ME over the years dressed up for Halloween.

Remember back in the day when you'd just rummage through the boxes and find something that you could throw together for a "costume"?

I think this was punk rock valley girl or something. Whatever it was I remember it had a lot of make up involved haha. That's my friend Jennifer on the left and her cat's name was Pineapple. Great name for a cat ;)

My Mom made us matching costumes in 1975. We are so freaking cute!

My Mom made this bunny costume too. (That's our neighbor I used to "play with")

My brother's school carnival my Mom drafted me into helping out with. I think I was early high school here.

Scott and I on our first Halloween together. We made our "child" dog a cape. he was SUPER TOBIE! Silly kids. I was actually pregnant with Jessica here. It's hard to see but Scott latex-ed those noses on us. It was disgusting. 

Missing are a "Hobo" I think I was that for several years, pretty sure I was a clown for a couple years and also a cat. I'll have to get those from my Mom next time I go over to her house.

Have a nice Halloween and remember to stay out of the candy bowl!!

Go here and see what 100 calories of your favorite Halloween Candy really looks like.

Sick Kid, Wedding Rings & Pile On The Miles

My son is coughing up a lung today. I'm guessing I'll be home tomorrow (Tuesday). Hopefully he will be well enough to go to school for Halloween. Can't miss the party!! I signed up to bring something and hmm no idea what it was. It MIGHT have been a fruit tray but I'm not sure. I swear the older I get the more I'm losing it.

Check out this fun thing on Instagram that I saw started today. I'm not sure where the idea came from but go to #rings4katie. I just love all the rings.

There are a lot more on there but that's a few snapshots. 

Here is a new challenge I just signed up for for the month of November

Basically it's a challenge to pile up the miles of running and or walking in the month of November to help balance out all that holiday eating. Sounds like a good idea to me! I'm working on my 5K-10K program anyways so it will just help to motivate me even more. 

AND I'll be done with Jillian's 30 Day Shred October 31st (can we get a collective THANK GOD!)

You can go here to sign up. There are prizes and everything!

Grown Up Halloween Party

Saturday night we went to our little bar for a Halloween Party. This was the original reason we bought our costumes.  So once again we donned our Bat Apparel. 

We met some friends down at the bar and had a great time! We got TONS of compliments on our costumes. Everyone was telling us they were the best! FUN! FUN!

(this was taken in the kitchen area off the bar where we sat to eat). Good think I did all that exercise before we went! The food was potluck style and man was there some FOOD!

Some Hot Chicks

My Hot Guy and some of his softball team

I did a lot of dancing in my high heels. I'm pretty sure that could be it's own work out video. 

My legs are REALLY sore today!

A little NSV (non scale victory) is that when I wore this pair of shoes every other time BEFORE I lost weight they made my feet hurt so so bad. I think one time my feet were even bruised a bit from all that fat squishing into them. Last night I didn't take them off until probably ten minutes before we left. No wonder skinny chicks wear high heels so much :wink:

Awards A'Plenty

I've had several people give me this Liebster Award. I was just trying to look up what the heck a "Liebster" is and I found this The Liebster award is given to up and coming bloggers who have less than 200 followers.  What is a Liebster?  The meaning: Liebster is German and means sweetest, kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved, lovely, kind, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing, and welcome.

~ If you were nominated, post 11 things about yourselves.
~ Then answer the 11 questions the person who nominated you created.
~ Create 11 more questions to ask the bloggers you decided to nominate.
~ Choose 11 bloggers to nominate with less than 200 followers.
~ Make sure and let these people know you nominated them! No tag backs, so don't nominate   someone who nominated you. 

I was nominated by Just Jenn, Poisoned Perception, Jayelle Getting Fit, Missus.and.Sausage, and Kaylynn's Reality Thanks Girls!

So since I was nominated by a few I'm just going to mix up their questions. But first off 11 things about myself.

1.I'm 38 years old. My plan is to be nice and fit by the time I'm 40! Wasn't I cute for this Halloween picture?

2. My husband and I met on a blind date. He worked with my Dad and my Dad set us up. He wasn't too happy when we told him we were getting married a few months later but I guess it's worked out since we've been together for 20 years now.

3. We have 3 children, Jessica is 18, Melissa is 13 and Trevor is 9.

4. I'm working towards running a 10k some day. I haven't signed up for an event yet though.

5. I'm the oldest of 3 kids. My brothers are 9 and 7 years younger than me. Here's an old picture from 2004

6. I've lost 50 pounds (although I keep gaining and losing the same 2-4 pounds) 

7. My first job was in a fabric store. Looking back over the years I think that's my favorite outside of home job. People generally shop for fabric/crafts when they are in a good mood and aren't all mean and bitchy.

8. I've been blogging since 2007. That's a long time.

9. I was a stay at home mom for 7 years. (after Melissa was born)

10. I HATE scary movies, haunted houses and anything along those lines. The idea of a Zombie Run scares me.

11. I go to a book club with a bunch of neighbor ladies once a month. LOVE IT!

Ok now for the 11 Questions from others (are you still reading??)

1. If you could spend one hour with any other deceased human being, who would you choose? 

Most definitely my Grandma Marilyn. I miss her so much! I even briefly thought about stopping by her house the other day when I was driving down the street before I remembered she wasn't there anymore. (That's Jessica with her)

2. What is your favorite healthy version of an unhealthy meal?

Pretty much anything from Skinnytaste

3. What is one reason you want to be more healthy or lose weight?

Because being fat sucks big hairy donkey balls.

4. What made you want to start blogging?

I originally started blogging as an outlet for my brain to spill all the poison that was circling in it. Needless to say it's been cleaned up quite a bit once I knew that people that actually knew me were reading it.

5. Favorite vacation?

Hmm that's kind of hard. It always seems like vacations have their ups and downs for us. They start off on a high but by the last day of whatever I'm usually feeling stressed out and just want to go home. Although Vegas is always nice!

6.  What is your favorite animal?

Dogs and Cats. Depending on who is not being the asshole.

7. Favorite room in your house?

Which ever one is most quite. We have a small house so sometimes it's not in the house at all.

8. What is your favorite beverage (alcoholic or non)?

Whiskey & Diet Coke

9. What's the most impulsive thing you've ever done?

Got engaged after knowing my husband for a month.

10. Biggest pet peeve?

Oh God I have to pick one? I don't think I can. Let's start with dragging your teeth on a fork. EEEKKKK. Banging your spoon on your bowl when you're eating. Not acknowledging me when I'm talking to you.

11.What did you want to be when you were little?

At one point I wanted to be a teacher for deaf children. That mostly came from going to a school that had a hearing impaired program. That kind of ended one day when the deaf kids attacked me. I'm so not kidding.

Ok, I'm supposed to nominate 11 people, but seriously this award is going around so much I think everyone has probably been nominated once. If you haven't and want to play feel free to grab an award tell us a bit about yourself!

Very Valentine

Very Valentine by Adriana Trigiani

Very Valentine is our book club book for the month of October. We have read a couple other of Adriana's books. Milk Glass Moon and  Home To Big Stone Gap. She's an Italian writer and always incorporates a lot of her culture into the stories. My step dad is Italian so it's kind of fun to hear somethings that remind me of him, his mom, and their family. There was one part where she described a hand movement and my step dad totally does that. Who knew it was an Italian thing!

So the story is about Valentine, who is getting sooo old (almost 34! really!) and is the only one in her family that is not married. She also lives with her Grandmother in their shoe shop. Valentine and her Grandma make custom wedding shoes, a family business that has been going since 1903. But along with Valentine's eggs the business is on borrowed time.

Valentine's brother wants to sell the business and the building (which is worth a lot of money) and thinks it's time for Grandma to retire. Valentine is determined to make the business over. Also throw in Roman, who is a busy chef and Valentine's new boyfriend.

It's a story of learning, loving, and a lot of hard work. In the Goodreads reviews a lot of people thought that there was an overload on the descriptions but it didn't bother me at all. I felt it just helped me to see the whole picture and I really would like to go to Capri some day!

Over all I enjoyed this book and I'm looking forward to reading the next one in the series.

Running for 40!

I'm so glad that the 31 day Jillian challenge will be over next week. I've done it for 26 days straight and I'm so ready for a rest day! Each night I keep waiting later and later to get it done this week. Procrastination much? I'm really hating level 3 and the jumping they have going on.

Instead of running yesterday I finished reading my book for book club. (will post about that in a separate post)

So I went out this morning and did the "long run" of the week. Week 3 day 3 of the 5k-10k program is a 5 minute warm up, FORTY MINUTES of running and then a 5 minute cool down. I've never in my life ran for 40 minutes. EVER.  I remember back when I was freaking out about the 20 minute run in the c25k program. Eh, piece of cake now. Never though I'd ever say THAT!

One good thing is starting your day with a 500 calorie burn! Bring on the breakfast!

There are 3 weeks until the 5K in Pacific Grove, what a difference in the way I feel NOW compared to my first 5k. Should be fun!

Halloween Fun Party!

Onto the Halloween ParTay!

We got there and my sister in law was making my brother into a zombie while my niece Adrian watched. They were discussing how it was "just make up". I thought it was funny that she was wearing her princess dress she was supposed to wear for her birthday but refused! Can't tell THAT 3 year old what to do, she has a mind of her own!

This is how most of my pictures of her are. "No Cheese!"

Check out my awesome Grandma Back From The Dead sister in law!

and my Zombie Milk Man brother

The food was ROCKING

Check out all the kids while my Dead SIL makes the "Witch's Brew"

Look at my niece Ava (and my darling Snow White)! Her mom made her cute costume. She said it cost her about $2!

She got a little hungry later...

My nephew was super cute? too 

Me with my belt put on better

My Dad & Mom dressed up too, how awesome is that?

and we can't forget some of the decorations, my sister in law is getting pretty awesome at these parties!

By the toilet in the bathroom, cracks me up!

In the Entry Way

and the fireplace mantel

I forgot to take a picture of the "Bloody Mary Bar" complete with a mirror hanging over it.

Here's the group!

and one more of me then and now for fun ;)

Super Hero Costume Shopping

Saturday night we went to a FANTASTIC Halloween Party at my brother and sister in law's house. Well, actually we went to the mall first and spent wayyy too much money on Halloween Costumes. 

We were still going to go with the whole "super heros" theme even though our friends decided to be zombies or vampires or something NON super heroish and ruining our whole fabulous four thing we were going to have going on. (That's actually for a party NEXT weekend but we are obviously only buying one costume). We went to the Spirit store and they had quite a few costumes for me to choose from.

There was the vintage looking Cat Girl. Oh my lord, this one was HILARIOUS!! Cropped it above the belt line to save you from seeing why I did NOT buy this one haha. So it zips up the back, and the head part is connected, which means if you aren't careful your HAIR is also zipped up. I think I only left a few strands in there. Also the gloves are attached so you wouldn't be able to use your iPhone the whole time you are wearing it. FAIL! 

 And then we have Robin. Or is it RobinGirl? Robinettte? Slutty Robin? Debated on this one a bit but my rib cage is a bit too large it appears. And whew, is that a SHORT skirt. Obviously I'm contemplating how I would be bending over while wearing this when I took the picture.

and then we have Batgirl. Bat Girl? Hmmm I'm pretty sure I said I wasn't going to wear this one. Scott told me to make sure I pointed that out. BUT really it's the best fitting. (We couldn't take the accessories in the dressing room to get the full effect). 

They had ONE Batman costume in Scott's size. Is that meant to be or what?

Here we are before we left for the party. I tied the belt higher later, which looked much better. Oh and notice the addition of leggings. Yeah wayy not enough fabric to cover the vital parts without those!

Ready to fight off crime!!

and my darling children

 I'll tell you about the party next!