It's that time of the week...

link up with Amber & Neely!!

It's okay...

that I question what day of the week it is because I'm all out of whack from having Monday off!

to not even know how I am going to survive a 5 day week after having two 4 day weeks in a row...let's not think about that now.

to see that your ipod has a low battery when you go to workout and then jump with joy that it didn't turn off before you were done!

to have done like 20 proper push-ups (with Paul standing over me like a drill sergeant ~ MEN) 3 nights in a row and even though I'm sore ... I am MIGHTY proud!!

to get up and leave Starbucks (even though you went to chill ~ sip coffee ~ and blog) because the music was EXTREMELY annoying and loud!

to have convinced myself that the iced green tea I have to make at work now (because Starbucks closed and there isn't one in the entire downtown area of Jacksonville!!!  Crazy I know!!!) tastes better than what they make at Starbucks.  Maybe I should start selling it to peeps at the firm for like $5 a cup!!!

to have like 20 scratches on your hands from playing with your cat ~ Kitty why you gotta be so mean??

to buy like 100 different shades of pink/red because you want one that looks like watermelon ~ why can't they just make a color that looks like watermelon and call it ... I dunno ... WATERMELON!!!!

that I have lived in Florida for like 15 - 20 years now and I still have NO CLUE when hurricane season starts.

that even though I am a Madonna fan I could truly care less if Lady Gaga even SLIGHTLY ripped off Express Yourself for Born this Way!  Look Lady Gaga (and fans) if it wasn't for Madonna being over the top ~ in your face ~ not caring what anyone said or hated about her ~ you wouldn't have Lady Gaga today. So just give each their props and SHUT IT!  P.S. do you know how much music is sampled today ~ almost nothing is authentic!

Don't forget to link up with Amber & Neely!!

Ask Shia's Advice #4

Dear Shia,

I'm recently out of a relationship (my first big one) and I've never really needed to "put myself out there" before. So how does a girl that usually tends to be one of the guys be flirty?

From Friendly to Flirty

(see even guys need help)

Dear From Friendly to Flirty,

As for flirting, I am a firm believer in "be yourself". You want this person to like you for you...not some misconception of what they thought you were so just be yourself.

Also, self confidence is key.  It doesn't mean that you have to act stuck up or better than everyone in the room.  You just need to be comfortable in your own skin.  

So, you should just strike up a conversation about something you enjoy and ask his opinion.  Don't pretend to like something that you don't.  For example, if you are out and there's a game on TV and you either could care less or hate the teams be honest.  Say...I don't get all the hype about ___________ or I really don't like ______________ because of ______________ and chances are he will keep the conversation rolling. If there's nothing around to latch onto for conversation just start off with small talk. Try to refrain from it becoming a game of 20 questions but usually when you speak to a guy first you break the ice which gives him more confidence to talk to you ~ most likely he was standing there trying to figure out what to say to you to get the ball rolling.

So you tried to chat with some guy and he shot you down or blew you off ... okay his loss - don't get discourage because you'll notice that some other guy in the wing is willing to step up and take over the conversation.  It's like that saying ... practice makes perfect.  You need to just get used to talking to guys and then it will just become second nature.

As for being "one of the guys", I am a firm believer in that guys and girls can never be friends ... any guy that has EVER seemed to be my guy buddy ... I've found out later he had more intentions of just hanging out in a friendly manner ... so look around your group of guy friends ... there definitely is one waiting for his moment.

Let me know how it goes!  Good luck!!

I hate this mascara!!!

Dior Show - $25 at Sephora

I know I know...it's been listed in magazines as one of the best ... but it's not!!  Save your money!!!

I bought this mascara a few months ago at Sephora when I had a 15% off coupon ... I thought ... why not give it a whirl.  Let me just say that I should have picked something better to use my coupon on.  This mascara is HORRIBLE.

The wand is too big so it touches like every part of your eye lid and FORGET trying to put it on the bottom lashes!  It comes out too thick on the brush so it goes on like an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico!  Once you get it on and fix all the mess you get to work and realize that it has smeared across your eyelid AND burns your eye like someone is poking you in the eye with a red hot poker!

The worst part (as if it could get worse) it doesn't even do anything extraordinary to your lashes ... it doesn't make them look fuller or look longer they just look like you have mascara on.

So since I paid a little over $20 for this mascara ... I've been wearing it and suffering everyday for it.  So over the weekend, I said to myself ... enough is enough!  I am going back to the mascara that I love and that works GREAT.

Maybelline Great Lash!!

I got it for a little over $4 at Target!  This mascara is great!  It comes in a few different varieties which are all great except for the new Lots of Lash (I did a post on this click HERE).  

So sometimes the best things in life are the cheaper ones!!

J'Adore

I just love Kelly Clarkson.

She has such a positive attitude and look at her looking all hot!

I love dress she is wearing it is from Fall 2011 Collection of Erdem.

Believe me...I did research...I really wanted it until...I found it as

1) no longer available and 2) PRICEY!!

Doesn't she look fab?

It's okay Thursday #14

Link up with Amber & Neely!!

It's okay ....

to eat strawberries, fat free cool whip and reduced fat nilla wafers for dinner ... I mean it was only 4 points and YUMMY!!

to leave your house 10 mins early JUST so you can go to Starbucks but then decide not to...I mean 4 points for a grande iced caramel soy latte ... not worth it this morning.

to talk about points even though you probably have no clue what I am talking about ... it's cool ... this is how I live my day now...and it starting to become second nature so win win for me ;)

to be so determined to work out on the weekends that I found a website where you can find a tennis buddy in your neighborhood AND she emailed me back...so hoping my Saturday will be filled with tennis!!

to think about joining a beginner's yoga class ~ so I did some googling and then found out that there doesn't really seem to be a "beginners" class AND yoga seems to be a lot of bull...I mean no offense if you do yoga...actually email me and let me know how you started out. I really just think that yoga is pretty much for people that already know how to do it...so how does one learn seems to herein lay the problem.

that I actually arrived EARLY to work today but still hid in my office for fear they would expect me to be here at this time EVERYDAY ... LOL

that yesterday it was raining so I did the stairs in the building for exercise ... hello 19 flights!! Okay I admit at about 14 I had to stop for fear of my legs giving out and a moment when I thought I was gonna throw up.

that I am just a little sore from yesterday...beats the last time it rained and I had to do the stairs...I felt REALLY sore for like 3 days.

that I bought a poncho yesterday so I can walk the bridges in the rain...of course not if it is lightening!

that I FINALLY got a good night's sleep - after tossing and turning for 2 and then having a nightmare the night before. Sleep ... ahhhh my good old friend.

to weigh yourself every morning and every evening ... I really think that the reason I tend to put pounds back on is because I would never step on a scale. I think I might weigh myself a bit too much but sometimes I think it's good because you can see how your body reacts to certain meals, exercises, etc. 

that most of this post is about exercise, food and weight but hey that's my thing at the moment ...when I get to maintenance I need to have a solid lifestyle in place so I gotta work on it EVERYDAY at the moment. I try not to bombard my blog with my Weight Watchers stuff but seriously folks it is totally my life at the moment and honestly I am happier that it is because I look great and feel great. 

that ... that's all I got for this post.

What's okay with you today??

Don't forget to link up!!

Bad Dreams

So we all have bad dreams right...for the most part it is like dreaming something stressful like you're in high school again and you realize that you haven't gone to "math" class for like the whole year and you're trying to figure out 1) why you just didn't go to math class and 2) how you are going to pass said math class without having gone.  Seriously I have dreamt this NUMEROUS times...lol.

But even though we are all grown and know that there's no such thing as the boogie monster we OCCASIONALLY have nightmares.  Unfortunately, I am someone who will wake up from a bad dream roll over and go back to sleep and just go back into the dream as if I just hit the pause button on the dream.

Well last night I had a nightmare ~ the first one I can remember having in a long time.  When I woke up I thought okay it's over get your mind off of it.  Then my fear from the dream started planing tricks with my mind.  I was seriously afraid.  I knew at the time I was being silly...child like in fact...but I couldn't stop being scared.  I woke up Paul...who probably now has confirmed to himself that I am a nutcase...even with his willingness to ease me back to sleep.  I laid there not wanting that inevitable pause button to switch to play.  I didn't want to go back into that dream.

So I got up...drug myself downstairs to read a book to get my mind off the nightmare...fearfully turned on the light...just then remembering the ONE scary scene from The Innkeepers (where the chick wakes up from a nightmare and the ghost is in her bed ... which then you find out she is still in the nightmare...or was she)  Oh yeah THIS FACE....

Again...silly I know.  I mean there was like 10% of me telling myself to grow up.  So I settled down on the couch with my book, "Why Not" by Shari Low (actually a really great British novel...kinda like Sophie Kinsella but funnier!) and started to read.  However, before everything was just hunky-dory and the reading eased my mind...I began to freak out because Kitty was just standing at the end of the couch looking at me like this...

(not Kitty but the closest google image I could find to her expression)

so then the cat is freaking me out because again I am convinced that she can see something I can't.  My mind is rationalizing the paranoia ... seriously folks I was thinking...okay our townhouse CANNOT be haunted it is BRAND NEW...or what if it was built on a cemetery....AHHHHH Kitty stop looking at me like that.  

Okay so finally I settled down with my book and about 30 mins later I am drifting off to sleep...I go back upstairs...with no fear...climb back into bed and go to sleep and I can't even remember having a dream after that.

So....why am I telling you about this?  Well...good story duh...and even though I acted 99.999999% like a scared child ... I now know how to break the bad dream cycle.  Read for a few mins and that pause button turns to stop!

Sticks and Stones

So as I lay here trying to will myself to sleep knowing that ... that dreaded Monday morning is approaching I am unfortunately finding it hard to sleep.  So instead of letting my thoughts (which are keeping me awake) keep swirling around in my brain...I thought I would share.  

So I had a pretty eventful/terrific/FABULOUS weekend only about 0.00000000000000000000001(you get where I am going)% was "bad". 

My niece told me that her dad called me that dreaded f word.  I want to say that it didn't/doesn't bother me but yet I am here...blogging about it.  Well I am fighting down the urge to let it bother me ~ let's put it that way but I really felt like if I addressed all the swirling madness in my brain I would feel better so here it goes....

First, let me give you a little synopsis of all the stuff swirling around in my brain about the comment...

1) WHO CARES!

2) Ouch!

3) I hate when people feel like the only way they can cut me to the quick is by calling me that horrible f word.   

4) Why do I let that word plague me when it is said about me? 

5) OMG would I even still be thinking about this if I hadn't just started Hannah Montana time??  

So these thoughts usually can manifest into negative thoughts and self esteem issues yada yada yada.  But no, I am not going to let my sister's ex-husband get me down.  Why?  I'll tell you why....

1) Newsflash dippy (him not you) you haven't seen me in like FOREVER!  I have lost over 25 pounds!!

2) AND even when I had those extra pounds on me...my man (ahem [under breathe] a way better man than you could ever even IMAGINE being) LOVES ME...no matter what! 

3) I had a basket of too small clothes and I tried all those ma'am-a jam-a's on and THEY FIT!!!  Who just doubled her wardrobe with her own clothes...THIS GIRL!

4) I went to the outlet malls today (I know I hate the outlets but for once I got a great deal) and bought a bunch of skirts from the Loft and drum roll they were the size right before the size I am trying to slim down to as my goal so guess what buddy boy...I am ALMOST THERE!

5) Almost forgot ~ when I weighed in on Saturday I had lost almost 2 pounds after two weeks of just losing .6 and fearing I was hitting a plateau!

So with all this awesome stuff that has happened over the last 48 hours, there's no way I am letting my awesome achievements be diminished by that horrible f word.  I'm better than that word and I will always be better than that word...no matter what anyone says or however many times someone wants a cheap shot...I am the only one that can give that word power and it will NEVER have power over me!

So I would like to say as my response...Sticks and stones will break my bones, but being called fat (see no power...so I'll say it) will never hurt me...OR ruin my fabulous weekend or my much needed night's sleep.

It's Okay Thursday #13 (wait should I skip and make it 14??)

Link up with Amber & Neely!!

It's okay ...

that I did this on Monday - haven't blogged since - and I am doing it again!  I mean you don't really care ... right?

that sometimes friends aren't friends anymore.  It's hard at first coping with the loss and realizing that said friend was never a really a "friend" but life goes on.  Friends come and go...but family is forever...love you bratty lil sisters of mine...LOL.

that I just found out that Splenda isn't free in recipes because one packet has 1 carb therefore a cup of splenda has 28 points!  It was a little upsetting to think that I was eating that wretched stuff when I could have just ate SUGAR!  (1 cup of sugar is 22 points!!)  

that I am giving up Bravo tv.  I have to DVR all my shows and then watch them on the weekend...which usually just turns into watching them on Sunday because I'm usually out and about on Saturdays.  So I literally just sit in front of the tv all day watching show after show....WHY??  I have WAY better things that I should be doing.  So I am going to give it up.  The Housewives will go on without me!

that I backed out on going to lunch with a co-worker because I hate to miss my afternoon workout.  I am still meeting up with her for a few mins afterwards.  She seems to understand...I mean do you see that countdown to the left...when I put it up there was over 260 days until my wedding now it states 132!!!!!!!!!

to want the NBA finals to be over...why do they need to play 7 games each time!  OVERKILL!!!  It just feels like I am being forced to watch the same game over and over again!!

to consider going to the tanning bed even though you know it is bad for you...I mean I don't want to be orange...I just need a good base but isn't that how tanorexia starts?

to wish I had those Mary Poppins snapping skillz to get this paperwork off my desk.

to have my week consumed with listening to the second book of Hunger Games and have no time for blogging....I am almost done with Catching Fire and I just downloaded it on Monday!!  I had to take SOME breaks...I felt like I was slipping into a Hunger Games coma.

to put a Hello Kitty band-aid on a bad paper cut.  I mean I only have like 3 boxes of these band-aids lying around my house for any boo boos that might arise when nieces (especially Marissa - Hello Kitty obsessed) are over.  Am I the only person who thinks band-aids are racist?  Why are there only "white" ones?

So what's okay with you today?

Don't forget to link up!

Case of the Mondays

So normally I'll link up with Amber & Neely

for It's OK Thursdays but I found this on 

Pinterest this morning and thought...

why not do this sort of post today!!

It's Monday but it's OK because....

~ the second/third books of Hunger Games finally were available for downloading!  I have been on the waiting list for FOREVER!!!  So yes...my life will be CONSUMED with Hunger Games for the next 14 - 21 days (basically have to listen to both books BEFORE they expire)!  Let the games begin!

~ I've reached the half way mark to my weight loss goal and I was just sitting here worrying/thinking about how I need to step it up a bit because I am worried about hitting a plateau when I received an email from a co-worker stating she just saw me in the hall and didn't recognize me at first because how skinny I am...definitely brightened my mood.  

~ That I can feel like part of an elite group at the office of those who watched Mad Men last night!  I know lame but hey ~ gotta have something to brighten a Monday.

~ so even though it's that dreaded day of the week...what's okay on your Monday??

What's your Hobby??

I HATE when someone asks me this question seriously it is like my biggest pet peeve "get to know you" question.  I feel like I have NEVER been able to answer this question.  Surely I have hobbies ... right?  I mean blogging is kinda a hobby...right?  See where I am going with this...LOL.  

I just think I don't have a dedicated "hobby" so you know me...I googled it.  Actually I googled...list of hobbies and on notsoboringlife.com there is a list of 238 things dubbed acceptable hobbies, here are a few that I found a little weird/funny....

#1  Aircraft Spotting

Seriously this got the #1 spot?? 

Okay I just realized they are in ABC order…

big sigh of relief!!!

#8 Animals/pets/dogs

How is this a hobby? 

Too many and you are an animal hoarder!!

#24  Bird watching

#25  Birding

Are these different??

#36  Bridge Building

Um...hopefully not the ones I walk over or drive on!

#48  Casino Gambling

Did making Meth make the list??

#97  Glowsticking

LOL!!!!!

#127  Lawn Darts

Weren't these banned after some kids got hit in the head with one?? 

As Jeff Foxworthly would say...you'll be getting coloring 

books for Christmas for the rest of your life after taking up this hobby.

#165  Pyrotechnics

Do I even NEED to go on?

So I guess I've learned a lot from googling...1) ANYTHING can be a hobby, 2) OMG ~ there are some pretty crazy ones out there and 3) So maybe I am okay with not having one...LOL.

So now I am going to ask you that dreaded question...

What's your hobby??

Best Lip Balm

I bought this two pack of eos Lip Balm recently at Ulta for about $5.  A single lip balm runs about $2.75 to $3.  What can I say...I love this stuff.  As I have mentioned in the past, I have very dry lips and now they are super smooth!  I use it about 2 or 3 times a day and my lips healed pretty quickly after the first use.

The purple one is passionfruit and the pink one is strawberry sorbet.  They also sell lemon drop with SPF 15, summer fruit, honeysuckle honeydew, medicated tangerine and sweet mint.  The flavor is very light but yummy.  The main thing I like about this balm is that it seeps into your lips so you don't have a heavy greasy feeling for long. 

The only thing that is weird about them is the packaging.  

It doesn't twist out of the package so once you wear down the dome ~ you'll have to scoop it out with your finger (sounds gross I know).  

I've had mine for a few months and this is the one I use at my desk (and use the most).  Here is what it currently looks like....

so at least it will be awhile!

While doing some searching for pics online I found that you can also

find them in a regular stick.  I haven't seen them yet but of course you

can always order them online.  I think the egg is kinda cool but next time

I think I'll hunt down the sticks.  Have you seen them anywhere?

As always, let me know if you use this?  If you like it and if you try it?

Or what do you use that works great?  

I'm always up for trying something new!

Snow White

Snow White has always been my favorite Disney Princess...even before you had to pick sides!

Not only was it the first Disney animated movie but

growing up we had this 1987 Snow White movie...

I've always thought Diana Rigg played the BEST evil queen!

I found this movie onDemand recently and forced Paul to watch it.

I still love it!!

So I can't wait to see Snow White & the Huntsman.

Mirror Mirror on the Wall will Charlize Theron be the 

Evilest Queen of them all??

I can't wait to see!

As proof of how obsessed I am with Snow White movies....

I even plan on seeing this....