Just The 6 Of Us

The Reba concert was just as I expected…AMAZING! I went with my 2 good friends Angie & Mindy, we had such a wonderful time!

Melissa Peterman-AKA Barabara Jean (her character on TV show Reba) opened for her. She is hilarious!

Reba came out and sang new songs & old songs.  I loved singing along reminiscing about the older songs she was signing. Love, Love, Love, that is all I can say!

If you are friends with me on Face Book, I will have all the videos I took during the concert, but here I wanted to showcase how she ended the show.

She left the stage and I was so disappointed that she didn’t sing Fancy. The crowd was up on their feet chanting, applauding, screaming and then her video for Fancy started playing. The crowd & Us went crazy!

Reba came out in a red dancing dress….

Watching these videos today still give me the goosebumps! I am so blessed that I was able to see her live in concert!

We were up early, dressed, lunch packed, breakfast eaten and hair gelled! Noah was looking pretty cool this morning. He was a good sport when I asked him to let me take his picture. He said, “wait…let me get my book bag!”

He made sure I had the whole 1st day back to school photo!

I can’t believe he is in Middle School and in the 7th Grade! His back pack is filled with school supplies, but not all of them. There was so much required for him to have, that he will have to take it all in over the next several days.

I know that he will have a blast this school year and we are blessed that he likes school and is a great student!

I seriously can’t wait to see her in concert tonight! Me and 2 of my good friends are having post birthday celebration with REBA!!! I just have to remember to take my camera

Crouching Tiger Hidden Adam

8/01/10

It’s never to hot in the summer to wear a Tiger costume!

39 years old that is This past Saturday was my birthday and I had the best weekend. Dale is such a spoiler when it comes to my birthday, I mean he spoils me daily but on my special day he goes overboard! It was one of the most romantic weekends of my life!

Adam had his first sleep over at Uncle Brads & Aunt Suzies. She took our boys for the evening. Dale & I were worried about how Adam would do, but since Elias was there he did so well!

We headed off to a nice  evening 24hrs alone! First a nice dinner, just the 2 of us. Dale & I don’t eat out anymore. He and I have done so well with weight loss and eating healthier we don’t have the need to go out. But since it was my special day, we went to Red Lobster….YUM! I even had a mixed drink….oh the calories, but I drank it and it was divine!

So much food, I could not eat it all and took most of my dinner home. The waitress said, “You hardly ate anything are you sure you are done?”  If she knew that last year I could of eaten my dinner & Dales, she would have been proud of me for not eating all of that. LOL!

We headed to the Mall next, we walked into Dicks Sporting goods hand in hand and we trolled the exercise equipment section, Ohhh-ing & ahhhh-ing over all the of the treadmills, ellipticals and weights.  Now that is romantic! I loved it! We do everything together and sharing  weight loss and getting fit journey with him has been the icing on the cake!

When we got home, we watched several movies on the couch all snuggled up close together. We shared left over Red Lobster, talked & talked, laughed until our sides hurts and slept in.

It was the best birthday present he could have ever given me. Thank you sweetheart for the perfect weekend! I, too, have never loved someone so much before!

Me & My Sister Christina

To the outside world we all grow old.  But not to brothers and sisters.  We know each other as we always were.  We know each others hearts.  We share private family jokes.  We remember family feuds and secrets, family griefs and joys.  We live outside the touch of time. ~Clara Ortega

Christina & I

Happy Birthday Chris! I love you very much! I truly hope that you have a wonderful birthday and that you are spoiled rotten today! Thank you for everything you have done for me in the past and present. I am so blessed to have a sister like you!

Last week was Dale’s birthday. The kids and I made it extra special for him, because he is an extra special man! We made his favorites.  Dark Chocolate Brownies with walnuts & chocolate frosting and soft shell crab sandwiches. His Mom used to come over on his birthday and move me out of the kitchen and make those very things for him. It was a really great evening! I even made little Brownie bites for him to take to work. Although he forgot to share and brought them back home that evening….ROFL! The best part was when he walked into the door after work all 3 of our boys ran up to him, hugging him and chanted Happy Birthday! They really love their Dad!

I really wished I had captured that on video! It was the most adorable thing!

Friday night Mom & I went to The Delaware State Fair to see Paula Deen. With temperatures near the 100 mark we both were kind of worried about sitting outside sweating it out just to see Paula. We saw a lot of people with paper fans with advertising on them, we set out to hunt them down. Walking through some of the buildings, I didn’t find a fan right away but found a cute pair of DG sunglasses for $10…score! And of course Silly Banz for Elias. Rounding the corner there they were a stack of fans. We grabbed 2 and headed to find our seats.

We didn’t have the best seats in the house and that was fine by us, because looking at the “good seats” I was glad I wasn’t sitting in them. The people were all packed together with no shade from the sun. We were very grateful for the over hang of the grandstand and the A/C that would blow over us every time the door to the clubhouse opened.

The set up they had for her was amazing! A working kitchen right there on the stage.

Paula came out and I was surprised to see how small she was. Tiny little legs..lol.

Her husband came out and also her son and grandson Jack. What a cutie he was.

I was really thankful for the big screen and close ups

She didn’t do any cooking, but had a chef cooking some things on stage. She told funny stories and I can say this she LOVES her fans! The whole night she interacted with the audience, she took time to sign autographs and have small one on one conversations. It was really great! She also praised God for all her success. What an awesome testament to him!

Paula was telling us about the best banana pudding you ever put in your mouth and she just happened to have one already prepared. She shocked us all by giving the pan of pudding to a stage hand and told him to pass it around…ROFL! People were actually lining up to get a sample…the sample being a spoonful dropped in their hands!

“Just wipe your spoon off and pass it around”

The concert was great, I really thought she would be more like she was on her show, but as she said, “You can turn on your TV and see me cooking at least 3 times a day.” Paula is the sweetest person and really funny! I truly enjoyed it.

After the show we went to check on the entries Mom put in the fair and she won a couple of prizes! I knew she would

1st Place for her Applesauce Cake

2nd Place for her Pound Cake

2ns Place for her Blackberry Jam

3rd Place for her Strawberry Jam

And you can’t leave the fair with out getting to experience the farm animal exhibits. I took these photos for Adam.

Now, how cute are they?

On my way out of the fair I realized that I need a present for Adam. Lord knows his world would have turned upside down if I gave Elias something and not him. I settled on a light up sword. The kind that make all the noises when you swing it around…..I am now regretting that decision…..immensely!

Last night we declared a Movie Night! We had several movies we wanted to watch this weekend, so at Wal-Mart I told our boys to pick out some “movie candy” and I would go get the pop-corn and we would met back in the middle. I raced off to get the pop-corn (ultimate butter, of course!) and when I came back to met them they were in the ice cream isle. Instead of getting one big tub of ice cream they each picked out little tiny single servings of Edy’s. I went with Skinny Cow, which by the way is yummy!

We get home and after 2 hours of swimming, we started getting ready. Blankets and pillows everywhere. I had bowls of pop-corn set out, Noah picked Junior Mints and Mint Chocolate Chip ice-cream, Elias had Bottle Caps and Cookie Dough ice-cream and Adam had the DS (LOL) Sour Skittles and Cookie Dough ice-cream.

My pictures aren’t very good, because I was in a hurry and heard, “Mom we are trying to watch the movie!”

I said, “I am making memories!”

Boys, “We won’t remember the last part we saw if you keep flashing us with the camera.”

Bwahahahahahaha….Point taken!

Adam didn’t make it through the second movie and was asleep by midnight. The rest of us were up until 1am and after I went to bed I heard laughing and those 2 little stinkers (AKA-Noah & Elias) were still up at 2:30! Guess who is still sleeping as I type this post?

We have had movie night before, but never with all the little things that make it a real movie night! It was awesome family time!!

I really hate eating in the morning, truly I do. I have found a new love for Breakfast. Going through my weight loss journey, I have learned you have to eat breakfast.

Here part of an article I read about why you should eat breakfast.

“If you don’t eat something in the morning, you are literally forcing yourself into running on empty. Say the last time you ate was 8 p.m. last night. If you didn’t eat lunch until noon today, that’s sixteen hours of no refueling! Your body is screaming out, “Give me some help here!”

The fuel that keeps our motors running is glucose. Your brain and your nervous system need glucose to work: that means walking, speaking, stretching, typing - any activity requires this fuel. If you don’t supply it, your system resorts to finding stored carbohydrates or it tries to turn fat into glucose. Why put your body through all this?”

At first I was eating an egg and a piece of whole wheat toast. That really gets old after a week or 2. I was hanging out in the cereal isle, patiently waiting for my boys to pick out their cereal for the week and saw the Kashi display.  I had heard people compare it to eating styrofoam rice cakes…yummy, right? I read the back of a couple of boxes and was really happy that I could have a bowl with my 1% milk for less than 300 calories..SCORE! The price was a little high for me, but I found eating healthier does cost a bit more, so it didn’t bother me to bad. I figured if it taste bad I would go back to the egg.

I settled on Kashi Go Lean Crunch Honey Almond Flax.

It was so yummy! The crunchy little clusters, the almonds and the slight sweet taste was so good! 9 grams of protein, which helps keep me full longer and 200 calories! Good stuff I tell you!!

After I finished that box, which lasted a week, because I ate the recommended serving size, I tried different ones.

Strawberry Fields

Strawberries & Raspberries , rice/wheat flakes, low fat & 120 calories for 1 cup…Oh yeah!! So wonderfully good!

Cinnamon Harvest

When I was younger I love Frosted Mini Wheats, this is an awesome alternative! 180 calories for 1 cup, 1 gram of fat and no sodium! And let’s not forget cinnamon! Love this!

I like love Kashi!

If you have not had a chance to taste it, go out and get a box! You will be pleasantly surprised and maybe learn to love breakfast like I do now!

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*these are my opinions, I was not compensated in any way for my blog post*