Success Along the Weigh

Do you guys remember how we spent Christmas Eve eve?  We found out our hot water heater was on the fritz and not to jump on the TMI train but the Mr and I had to take a speed shower together if we both wanted hot water.  Twas not romantic. Ask us how we spent New Years Eve eve. Taking a speed shower together trying to both get some of the last tank of hot water left before we had to turn off the gas line because of a gas leak in the new hot water heater. 2014.  Put a fork in it... via So I thought in the spirit of other blogging traditions of end of year lists, I'd make one of my own. Here's a look back at some of my favorite posts from 2014 because if I don't see something positive out of this year, twill have felt all for naught.  You dig? The Day I Said Yes Vacay Recap Week One Vacation Recap Week Two Personal Goal... Achieved Side Table Makeover 100 Happy Days Completed An Armoire Gets A New Lease on Life The Soundtrack of My Life ...

It didn't wanna shine. Well, our Christmas was uh...different. If you follow on Facebook, you know that Christmas Eve Eve our hot water heater decided to die.  Yep.  Right there on the spot, the day before our big Christmas Eve gathering with my mom where I have nothing to do all day but run around like a chicken with my head cut off. I already had some sinus issue where I couldn't smell/taste for the two days prior.  (Thanks a lot sick dude at the Christmas concert.  Note to self:  No more Christmas concerts the week before Christmas)   So I wasn't in the merriest frames of mind to begin with.  Then I notice there isn't hot water when I'm washing my hands.  The Mr checks and says the pilot light is out.  We wait for the scent of gas to dissipate (relying on his sniffer, not mine obviously) and he relights it.  Ten minutes later, it's out again.  Repeat. Great. We were already thinking it needed to be replaced because ...

Enjoy every moment, one day of indulgence won't kill you so don't sweat it too much, take a walk with family after you eat and then savor a well deserved nap when all is said and done. ( via ) Merry Christmas to you all! ==================== Like this post? Don't miss another one...subscribe via email or RSS feed. (Or you can follow me on Facebook )

One of my favorites and a good reminder... "It's Christmas Eve.   It's the one night of the year when we all act a little nicer.  We smile a little easier.  We share a little more.   For a couple of hours out of the whole year we are the people we always hoped we would be. It's a miracle...it's really sort of a miracle because it happens every Christmas Eve.   And if you waste that miracle, you're gonna burn for it. I know what I'm talking about.   You have to do something. You have to take a chance and you do have to get involved.    There are people that are having trouble making their miracle happen.  There are people that don't have enough to eat and there people that are cold.   You can go out and say hello to these people.   You can take an old blanket out of the closet and say "here" or make 'em a sandwich and say, "oh by the way... here ." l get it now.  And if you give, then it ...

Today the Mr and I have "officially" been together for 23 years. It's been 23 years since my 17 year old ears heard his 19 year old voice say "I love you" for the first time.  Of course anyone he told face palmed because the dude isn't supposed to say it first and certainly not after one official date three days prior.  What can I say, I was irresistible!  ;-)  Saying it that first time was as easy as it is saying it now. Somehow even then, I knew.  I knew that this Christmas romance wasn't a passing thing and that we would share many more "I love you's" over our lifetime.  We've shared many highs and good times.  We've been through our challenging times, often feeling like it was us against the world.  But our closeness, friendship, respect and love for each other is something our families, friends and basic strangers have told us they wished for themselves or their children for years.  For that, I am proud. It's good to ...

It was a whirlwind weekend. Lots of baking. Delivering cookies. The Christmas concert was good and we looked at some Christmas lights when we were done. Baked more cookies. Ate cookies. Then it was Christmas with a branch of the family tree.  We had a nice time even if there was an extra guest that was a little grating.  She's a nice enough girl but as our Christmases with older grandparents become less taken for granted, I'm selfish with the time I'd like to spend as a family with them.  This person is in town for 3 weeks, why do they need to hone in on the one time per year we see this grandma?  This is my haul from her. I was so glad to get this second set of silverware.  Dante's Peak is one of those movies that I like but don't know why.  Any time it's on, I have to watch it.  Newhart makes me look like I'm 80 years old and should be drinking prune juice cocktails.  I guess I really should've followed my instinct and take...

People!  Can you believe it is the Friday before Christmas!?  This is what I've been talking about...you blink and suddenly you're in crunch time and the time will suck into some kind of wormhole and throw you out on December 26th wondering what the hell happened to this last week. Today I am baking, baking and maybe a little baking.  Not just the stuff for friends but the stuff for us too.  We have a holiday concert tonight and I must note for future Christmases that going to a Christmas concert the Friday before Christmas is not the best way to take stress off of myself.  I also learned that Jif is weak peanut butter to use for buckeyes and will be reverting back to store brand which tastes infinitely more like peanuts.  Pffft. But enough of my Christmas crank, let's get to... Are You Enlightened or a Control Freak? What Your Airplane Seat Choice Says About You   (I'm a first class window person...yep, this nails me.  Except for the pr...

I don't know about y'all but I'm knee deep in flour, baking for family and friends.  (And ourselves this weekend)  I like to keep up on what friends I bake for might like and they shared a pic of cookies with a bear holding an almond.  I couldn't find a bear but we did already have a santa so I used him. Then I forgot after baking some cookies for my MIL to turn down the oven and santa had a tan. D'oh! No worries, I made a new batch.  But they are super cute and I know my friend will love them! When I'm making mega batches of dough, I like to pre-mix the dry ingredients when I have time earlier in the month.  Then when baking day comes, I can dump all of the dry ingredients in after I've whipped up the wet ones.  Just make sure you list what recipe it's for and what ingredients you added so you know not to re-add them. In case you need some new recipes to try, here are some of the ones I consistently make for family and friends. Ch...

Yesterday we had some pretty mild temps so I figured we'd better catch some walks when walking weather presents itself.  This time we thought we'd tackle the local outdoor shopping plaza.  Yes...we were mall walkers.  Anyone remember that craze in the early 90's of the elderly walking malls before the stores opened? I cannot tell you how nice it was to be among the throngs of people darting in and out of stores with their must purchase gifts knowing I've been done for 6 weeks.  I know that for some people shopping closer to Christmas is half the fun but I am just not built that way.  I need to be able to leave if people start to annoy me.   Which always never happens. We walked about 2 1/2 miles around the perimeter and then backtracked and hit a few stores.  I did have one gift I wanted to pick up in Anthropologie and since I knew we'd be there, I left my hands feeling like sandpaper.  (Anyone else feel like they could sand an old wooden ben...

Twas quite the weekend! As I mentioned Friday, our friends had to cancel our Saturday gathering because they were both sick as dogs.  I turned around and made plans right away with another friend for a Sunday brunch.  She's a super sweet girl who almost married into the family but that didn't work out.  Thankfully we have kept in touch and get together on occasion.  She mentioned my baking and I decided to bake up her and her boyfriend some non traditional cookies.  I don't know how but I saw a recipe for potato chip cookies and I was totally intrigued.  I decided I had to make some and I'd let her be the guinea pig, we'd eat a few and the rest go to work with the Mr.  I followed this recipe and man, they were GOOD!  If you're a fan of sweet and salty, they are awesome.  I told her they were 'sweet and salty shortbread cookies' because I don't know if people will weird out when they know the ingredients.  So I dipped mine in chocolate...

Yesterday's visit with the chiro went well.  He told me no high impact the rest of the year since I had such great results laying off this week.  I don't mind and he said it'll just help me heal that much faster and I'm all about that, yo!  Must make him some cookies for next week too.  I know...it's a sickness.  When I know they're for someone else, I'm not tempted by them so no worries.   Yet. On a doing mama proud note, the Mr caught one of the little bastards that has been molesting our curbside lighted Christmas trees yesterday!  Like IN THE ACT.  He gave him a good little 1970's style tongue lashing that will mean absolutely nothing because his parents likely would do nothing if confronted with his misdeeds.  He even broke the one he pulled out of the ground and we just bought those damn things 2 1/2 weeks ago!  NOT happy!  We think he was one of four that have been yanking it out of the ground as I saw three others walk by ...

Happy "Is It Friday Yet?!" Yesterday I started feeling the stress of all of the entertaining I have coming up. I love to entertain, trust me, I live for it, but there just aren't enough weekends in December when Thanksgiving is so late.  I need to make a to do or rather a 'to bake' list and when everything needs to be made.  I've got butter softened so I can start pre-making my cookie dough and freeze it.  I will be glad when those things are all in the freezer and I can just thaw, scoop and bake.  I cannot believe it's two weeks until Christmas.  SO much to do and seemingly so little time to do it.  Just need to finalize a few visits and I can plan a little better and make my lists on what to buy at the grocery stores. We started to do Powerstrike and I realized a few moves into the kicks that this was not going to be good for my vow of low impact for the rest of the year to heal up.  I felt a little pain shoot into my toe and while I might've ...

It's hump day, y'all!   Did anyone watch the 50th anniversary Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer last night?  It doesn't matter how many times I've seen it, it's appointment TV every Christmas season.  Who can resist that face? ( via ) I was reading a post by my friend Kristen at the Putt Putt Runner about taking in moments .  She makes good points about taking in not just the big things like the holidays, occasions and such but the little things.  She talked about even being able to go to the grocery store and that some people have to go hours to get groceries and I've got four grocery stores in walking distance of me.  I'm also grateful that the Mr and I go together.  I never realized how rare that supposedly is because when I would mention it at work people always asked how I got him to do it.  Uh, I said 'let's go to the store' and he came with me.  But her post got me thinking of my favorite little moments of the past few days. ...

Howdy do, y'all! I'm not ashamed to admit I didn't haul my bum outta bed until 10am yesterday!  That's right.  I slept hard too.  I'm paying for it but needed the sleep.  Walking for 90 minutes on up and down terrain at a pretty fast clip was enough to make us both a little sore.  So we got up and had a bowl of cereal with some cut up nana and chia seeds in there and lounged a bit. The Mr took the movie back, we decided to eat some lunch and get to a belated task.  Our dog and my mom's dog are buried next to each other in a pet cemetery and we always have their Christmas trees on their graves at Thanksgiving.  Time got away from us this year but we made it out and wired some small stuffed animals they would've loved playing with on them and got them looking all purty.  It brings us great comfort to know that not only were they great friends in life but will be next to each other forever. When we were done there, we decided to go walk the his...

Twas quite the weekend around here! Friday we went to a Christmas jazz show and it was wonderful.  It really set the holiday mood and the city was lit up under the foggy blanket over the buildings.  We came home and put on the Christmas music station, lit some pine incense, turned on the tree and any other lighted decoration and enjoyed a mug of tea and a truffle.  It was exactly one of those times that I talked about being able to sit back and enjoy the season.  It was perfect.  If every day felt like that, I wouldn't feel the stress the rest of the season brings at all! Saturday we hit a few local stores, grabbed some deep dish at a pizza joint then headed on our road trip to more Christmas tomfoolery.  We stopped by an antique store where I'm pretty sure these come to life at night. We've been going to these candle lightings our whole marriage and sadly, the town is morphing from an old timey feel to just a regular mom and pop any town USA feel....

Finally Friday y'all! I am under orders from the chiro to dial back the exercise intensity for a few days.  I made the stupid mistake of piling on a bunch of high impact stuff when I felt better and woke in pain and unable to walk in the middle of the night.  Oy, the road to recovery is always so fun.  Not. But enough of that crap, let's get to... 11 Restaurant Scams That Sabotage Weight Loss   (Those sneaky bastards) Sleepy Hollow LOL Video: Silly Clips Imagine Headless at Home   (I almost wee'd at the dinner music video.  But go to Neil's channel and watch the Oz video as well as some of his songs.  Totally talented) 25 festive life hacks for a stress-free holiday   (Some are good, others like #2...please don't ever do.  Ever) 48 Healthier Holiday Cookie Recipes   (Yummy!) The Dirty Spots that Can Damage Your Home (and How to Clean Them)   (Yeah, I totally need to do the A/C and dryer vent) 27 Things You Migh...

I've been seeing a lot of lovely home tours lately of people's abodes all gussied up for Christmas.  Now I don't have some big ol' house to show you my many rooms, nooks and crannies because it's just the Mr and I and we live in a shoebox that is close to being paid off.  But that doesn't mean you can't come on in and sit a spell.  Hot chocolate is on the stove...come on in. This is the project I've been eluding to the past few days... I saw this picture on Country Living's website and given how much the Mr loves skiing and our recent stay in a skiing mecca of Stowe, VT, I knew I wanted to do it in our home.  Two days later, I was hunting through antique shows and stumbled upon this set of skis for $25!  One of them was stained but we can either keep them that way or when the season is over, I can strip the wooden skis and re-stain them. I knew if I did the wreath on them it would add a ton more weight and cover the leather straps on ...