Happy Halloween!

My favorite part of Halloween besides the candy is all the cute little kids! We had one little girl come and tell me that she doesn't actually live on this street. haha that's okay I'll give candy to anyone as cute as her! And very early in the night a pick up truck filled with kids in the bed of the truck came by...only in the south! But because it was raining here in good old Pensacola there weren't too many kids out...so sad. So this is how we spent our night....waiting....watching for little kids...while I ate my fair share of peanut butter cups

Time for Training

I signed up with a trainer at the gym on base today. Did everyone know that it's free besides me?!? Sometimes, I'm just so unaware of life going on around me...

Her name is Sara and I think she is fabulous. I met her during my first Gut Cut class it was her first time teaching it. Over the next couple of weeks I saw her at other classes and while I was just at the gym doing my own thing. Then the other day I'm in the zone running on the treadmill and she pops up next to me and is helping this other girl out giving her pointers and has a whole schedule planned out for her. After I was done I found her and asked her how much it would cost to meet with her and do the same thing. And she said it's free...Awesome!! So starting next Monday I will be meeting with her 3 times the first week and then we will see how it goes after that. I am so excited!!.

And because so many people recommended the couch to 5k I'm going to start today. Thank you for the suggestions!! I really like the idea of getting new shoes...maybe those can be an early birthday present. :)

I want to be a runner too!

I want to be a runner. I never really been great at running but I want to change that now. I want to be one of those people who wakes up early before work and just goes out and runs like 5 miles...just because they can. I'm jealous I'll admit it. I want that freedom where my body (my mind) doesn't stop me. I am very impressed by runners. Therefore, I want to be one! When I go to the gym I usually pick the elliptical over the treadmill. But now I'm addicted to the challenge of running...trying to be faster or go further than I have. I don't try both at once though. I can run for two miles without stopping at treadmill speed of 5...which is about 24 minutes. This is great because before two weeks ago I don't think I've ever even tried to run two miles. I would like to try a 5k. There is one on December 5th that I am tempted to sign up for. That's more than a month away. I am nervous because I don't know if I will really be ready for it. At the same time all I need to do is add another mile and some change to my current run and I'll be there....at the same time that seems like a lot and nothing. There's also one in January that I am more leaning toward signing up for just because it's further away. Is there anyone out there reading this that has any advice on how to prepare for a 5k? Or that went from being a non-runner to a runner?

Ant Bites

My little puppies were just outside running around chasing each other when all of a sudden the little one started yelping and and licking her belly. She wouldn't even let me hold her! **Starting to panic** She went inside and ran into the living room still whimpering and moving around and acting weird. Finally, I saw it there were ants all over her. They must have ran through one of the anthills while they were playing. I called the emergency vet to see if there is anything I should do and basically they said to watch her to make she she doesn't have an allergic reaction. OK well that's great except I'm a bit of an over reactor and now I'm looking at her thinking does her belly look swollen? Is that her normal breathing? It's taking all I have not to wake her up every few minutes. I'm such a Nervous Nelly. Because of this I may end up letting them sleep on the sofa tonight instead of making them sleep in their crate. I hate Florida and the many millions of stupid ants!!

Wishful Wednesday

Check out Seattle Smith's http://kelseyandgabriel.blogspot.com/ to join in on Wishful Wednesdays!

'I wish' .... I was six years old and going trick or treating, and my costume would be a Pink Pirate!

When I was little I was always a Disney princess - Belle and Ariel were my favorite but since there really hasn't been a popular princess out lately I think I would choose this. It's girlie with a little bit of toughness. My grandma and mom are amazing sewers and made most of my costumes when I was little.

On another note, when I have a baby I'm going to have a hard time choosing a costume for him/her because there are so many cute baby costumes, like these two! I love cute Halloween better than scary Halloween...but that's just me.

Motivation

I love all the comments on my last post about the quotes! That really got me motivated to get started. I bought my quote today. I was torn between two but I only wanted to buy one in case I don't really feel like doing two. I narrowed it down to these two. I want something to hang in the front entry way...I ended up getting the family one.

But before I get started on that project I have another one to complete for Thanksgiving. We only have 4 dining room chairs and because E's parents, his brother, and his brother's girlfriend are coming for thanksgiving we were short on chairs. Because I love a good bargain and a challenging project I wanted to try and find chairs that I could paint or recover...something. So today we spent a couple of hours at garage sales and were able to get 4 great chairs for $20. I'm really excited. We probably could have gotten the price a little lower but I was just so excited I didn't even think about it. So I'm off to Joann Fabrics tomorrow to try and find a pretty fabric. My only problem is that I pick something out and then I don't like it as much as I did the day before I have a hard time committing to one choice when there are so many choices that I love. I'll probably start all this on monday. I'm just so excited to have another couple of projects to work on while E is at work.

Feeling Creative?!

I have an idea...but I'm not sure it will work. The reason I want this to work is because we will be moving a lot over the next couple of years. So we will probably be renters for a while longer. But what I love are those transfers you can put on your wall. That was a bad description but I don't really know what they are made of...so here's an example.

There are so many different websites that sells them now...finding the best company will be a challenge. But anyways, I love these but I don't want to stick it on the wall for the next 4 months and then not have it when we move...or worse if for some reason something happened to the wall. My thought is to buy a piece of wood...not as cheap as MDF but something along those lines paint it a pale color tan, off white...and then transfer the quote on to that. To make it a little more of a finished look I was thinking about buying molding to go on the edges of the board and painting that black or brown something to make it look like a frame. then the whole thing can be moved when I'm ready to move it. Also, this would be a good way to use quotes in different rooms at different times of the year. I thought of all this last night so I haven't been able to price it all out...may just be too expensive and not worth the hassle...but again I really like the idea. I was also thinking that would a great gift idea for my sister who lives in her/our sorority house. Since she can't put anything on the walls or mirrors but she can hang things on the wall. I'm going to look into it this weekend. My other thought was to find a nice mirror at a flea market or yard sale and transfer the quote in it...this would work really well for a bathroom related saying.

Willow Rose Studios & Room Remix

There is an amazing give away going on at http://roomremixblog.blogspot.com/!
Willow Rosa Studios, http://www.willowrosastudios.com/ has beautiful artwork that would make great holiday gifts. Here are a few samples of the art.

So now that you've seen them...go check out the websites and enter in the giveaway!! You'll be happy you did!

Sorry I don't know how to make the links words and make it all neat and organized...I'm learning..it's a process.

Puppy Love

I love my dogs...I love them probably more than any sane person should. I think they are the cutest little pups ever....I believe they are smart but they are stubborn. They make me smile many times a day everyday. They are a handful....they like to dig and eat everything! But I love them. I'm so obsessed with them mainly because I don't have children yet and I don't have a job that demands me to think of anything but them. Yesterday, I went to a pet store with a friend to get some treats and look at toys...to see if there was any new indestructible toy. At this pet store there were dogs there for adoption. Now keep in mind I still think my dogs are the best... but I am a sucker for a cute puppy face. There were tiny dogs..which aren't really my thing but beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I'm more of a big dog person. And then there was one who just stole my heart away. He was a mastiff puppy mix. This puppy was probably 3x bigger then my two. Gorgeous color and so calm. I just wanted to sit down and warp my arms around him and then of course take him home. oh how my heart breaks when I see homeless animals and if I had the money and the space to take care of many more animals I would. For about 10 minutes I stood there looking at him trying to figure out how I could adopt this dog and make it work at home. This is the type of dog my husband has always wanted - a bull mastiff...but he'd take any mastiff. I'm positive if we had gone together we would have a thrid dog. I didn't always know what a mastiff was...so for those who aren't sure the dogs are big! Here is a picture I found when I googled Mastiff...Because they are laying down you really can't tell just how big they are.
They usually weight anywhere from 75-200lbs. Males are bigger than females as with most breeds I believe. So this new addition wouldn't be small. and with 3 animals already I'm not sure we could handle it. It would be a lie if I said I wasn't still thinking about going back to that pet store and trying to find out if the dog is still available to adopt. ohh maybe one day! While trying to find out more information about adopting a mastiff I came across this website www.sosmastiffrescue.org lots of good information if you are looking to adopt one of these dogs.

Adopt a US Soldier

On Wednesday I was just looking around online and I came across a link to the website for Adopt a Soldier http://www.adoptaussoldier.org/ If it was your blog that I got this from I'm really sorry I'm not giving you credit I just can't remember where I read it! Any who, I think this is such a great opportunity for people to get involved and support our troops especially those who aren't really sure how. I am a military wife but I know my husband will never be deployed to Iraq or really anywhere overseas. The only place he could go is Bahrain and I lived there while I was in high school. I know there is a difference between being a student in the middle east and being a part of the us military...but Bahrain is no Iraq and I'm well aware of this. So, while I will still go through deployments, PCSing, and other military life situations I know I'm one of the lucky ones. I can't imagine right now how it feels to have your spouse so far away for so long. I wanted to be able to show my appreciation for all the men and women all over the world who are standing up for our freedoms. I signed up and after the three days as promised I was given a soldiers information. My pen pal as I refer to him is my age and has a wife and two kids (my heart breaks for his family). Please checkout the website, sign up, and pass it along to anyone you think would be interested. It's amazing how a few kind words to turn someones day around.

For the love of DIY

I love DIY projects. Some people are so talented and can do so much on their own and I am envious of that. Even if I'm not capable of as much as I would like when it comes to DIY I'm working on it. I have only been married for about a year and a half. So needless to say we have a lot of hand-me-down furniture from our parents. I have two dressers from my grandma and before we moved my dad gave me two end tables. All the furniture is old and because my parents are military the furniture was moved around a lot before we took hold. We have been looking at getting new furniture for our bedroom but have put that on hold till I get a job again. So I with free time and a limited budget I decided to repaint all of that furniture. Now the most expensive part was the new hardware. But it would have looked really bad without the new handles.

I don't have a picture of the before for the end tables because

I was just too excited to get started I forgot. Opps!

Here is the before of dresser one

After of dresser one

Before of dresser two

After of dresser two

Know I'm trying to figure out what to do about a headboard. I've read some DIY blogs about fabric headboards made with MDF but I'd really like something more intricate than what I can make. I might just have to suck it up and buy one eventually. This was a great project took a while to sand all the furniture and I would recommend not doing it in the middle of summer in Florida. But I love the finished pieces! And I have left over black paint so I know there will be more projects coming up!

Brownie Experiment

Over the weekend we had a little get together with my husbands friends from work and their wives. I was in charge of dessert. I love to bake from scratch but sometimes it's best to just use a box. So my plan was to make brownies. I couldn't find the right pan for this. (I still have boxes packed from the move) I do however, have muffin pans in the shape of squares. I love cupcakes so I requested multiple cupcake pans on my wedding registry. I figured it was worth a try. So I filled each square halfway with brownie mix and popped it in the oven for half the time. I'm one of those people who will cut into the brownie in order to have a piece without any crust. I was worried that they would come out too hard. So I took them out a few minutes early and just let them cool in the pan. The brownies were amazing. Because they weren't cooked as long they were gooey and just plain delicious! I received multiple compliments on them. Many were very surprised by the shape of the pan. These would be great as a brownie ice cream sundae.

The Sisterhood

While I was reading tonight I came across a button that intrigued me. It said something about shrinking jeans, which made me laugh a little and of course I wanted to find out more about it. So I went to the website, http://shrinkingjeans.net/ The website has a lot going on and I don't completely know how to use it best yet. But it is easy to sign up and seems to be pretty interesting. It has different fitness challenges, such as Wii Fit 30 Day Challenge, 5k challenge, shredding with the sisterhood (30DS), and Fitness Friday. Part of the sisterhood is to weight yourself every Wednesday and to post about successes, failures, anything really about the past week in weight loss. This is supposed to help hold everyone accountable for continuing their weight loss journey. There are also recipes, giveaways, and success stories. It seems most members are very active and encouraging. Because you can never have too many people behind you to encourage your goals. I joined.

If friends were flowers you'd be the one I pick

Anyone who moves a lot knows how challenging it can be to make new friends. Well, this move is a little different from the others I've made because I'm no longer in school. School is the best/easiest way to make friends. This has been my crutch in the past since I can be a bit shy although it is something I have been working on it and I must say I am improving. I still wouldn't be the first person to strike up a conversation with the person sitting next to me on an airplane...I'm a realist...I'm always going to be a bit of in introvert. Anyways, tonight a very exciting thing happened. I made a friend. We bonded over that fact that we don't like where we live, that we will only be here for another six months and that we would love to move back to the city we just came from. As I was telling my better half about this exciting news. I realized that this is a little like dating again. Which is something I haven't done is almost 6 years come November when I first met my husband. Before she left she gave me her number and I got all excited because this is new and will make what I thought were going to be a looong horrible 6 months not that bad. So I would consider today a happy day. :)

Dog Parks

Now that my babies are at officially 4 months old as of yesterday and have had all their shots, they are able to go to the dog parks! There are 3 in the Pensacola area and one is even a beach so the pups can get introduced to water! Very exciting. I love the idea of a dog park because the first trip out on a leash wasn't great. The "little one" as we affectionately refer to our lab/doxin mix can wiggle out of her harness when she gets scared which is pretty much every time the wind blows. So my goal is to take them both by myself tomorrow. We aren't going to the beach I would like to be more confident in their potty training abilities so we don't pull a Marley & Me scenario. ((If you don't know what I'm talking about, in the movie Marley poops in the beach water and that's a big no-no)) Since it is not supposed to rain tomorrow...which is a pretty rare thing on a Saturday in Florida I'm hoping there will be other dogs at the park but not too many that my little one's will hide behind me the entire time. Looking forward to tomorrow!

Moving Again!

When my DH found out about this school he is currently at he told me it was only for 9 months...but that it would be a good move for his career if we moved. So I said my good-byes at work and to friends and we packed up the house and moved 100's of miles to the panhandle of good old Florida. A couple of days ago he brought home the new list of place we could go. This always brings me a sense of excitement and fear. There are some really cool places Alaska, Hawaii, back to Washington DC, and then there are places in the middle of no where that I'd rather not be. There are a few places in Virginia. DH and I are both Virginia Beach, neither of out parents still live there but they are close to that area. So needless to say he would like to move back to the area. I on the other hand want to live in a few more states before going back mainly because my best friends are married to the military also and don't live there anymore. So while I'm trying to decide on the order that I want the potential new homes to be in, my dad calls to tell me that he has received his orders. (I've been a true military brat my whole life) He's going to Afghanistan for 3 years! Whoa. I really wasn't expecting that. I mean there was talk in the past but I didn't know the length of his tour and it was just in passing so I didn't think it was a serious option apparently it is. So now I'm all sad because my daddy is going to be sooo far away for so long...in not the greatest area....doing things he can't tell his family about. Lame. Now my options in the middle of no where don't look so bad. We are putting our lists in a different order now...My sister is in her sophomore year at college so my mom will be pretty much alone minus the pets. The last time my dad was stationed overseas we were in high school and the following year we moved over there with him..to Bahrain. There's no chance my mom's moving this time. So now we are hoping to go to Virginia. DH's parents are going to be thrilled...they would rather have us living down the street from them...but an hour away will be fine too.

UPDATE

So project skinny me...took off to a slow start. I realized that I was too out of shape to complete the 30 day shred let alone try to do some other exercise. So I gave up on that after the first week. I did continue to go to the gym about 4-5 times a week and I lost 5lbs which is pretty good. Like I said a slow start but that is still a loss. So now that I feel a bit more confident I have started the shred again. I am really going to try not to give up this time. I have my sister checking in with me daily to make sure I do. I am also spending an hour doing something aerobic. Tomorrow, will be day 5 of this 30 day shred new beginning. And I feel better about the whole process now.