Sunday Funday...Familial Challenges

Easter Sunday. The day where you get together with your family, eat good food and celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. I haven't seen a lot of my family in awhile so I was pretty excited that most of us could get together and catch up. We all have that family member who tries to "one-up" you and brag about how well they are doing in life and how much better they are than you...maybe that's just my family. Anyway, one of my family members tried doing this today and I just couldn't understand it. Today is a holy day, a day where all differences should be set aside and we should be focusing on Jesus and all that He went through for us. The good news is that no one took the bait and engaged in her silly antics.

Getting together with family for the holidays can be a good thing or something that ends up presenting many challenges. You have family members who like to brag, those who don't really get along with each other, those who always have unwarranted advice to give, those who don't approve of what you're doing. You have to deal with all of that, but you do it because it's family and no matter what, they are the people who make you who you are. You can't deny it and you can't run away from it, you take it all with a smile and when you leave, you either look forward to the next time you all meet...or you don't.

What challenges do you deal with when it comes to your family?

Until next time....Happy Easter!

If They Say "Life is a dream....

....call this insomnia."


Another night trapped in my own head. When the sun goes down and the lights go out, everything I avoided thinking about during the day all comes crashes down in waves. I guess dreams don't come easy huh?

Until next time

Nasty Gal- LBD Edition

Get your minds out of the gutter! This is a website I discovered last week through facebook and I decided to

check it out. I'm always shopping online so it's nice to discover new websites for me to spend money! Yay!

The prices for the most part are reasonable, but there are some products that are far more expensive than I would like. One of my favorite sections of the site is the LBD section. I loveeee a little black dress and I think every woman should have at least one. They can be sexy and revealing or ultra feminine and modest.

Body-con if you can pull it off and have the body for it.

Or....

More modest and sweet.

  The Play Back Dress(modest and sweet) is actually more my style and it's only $52USD which isn't bad in my opinion. It's a cute little dress for a fun and mysterious date night! If you like the first dress better you can find it -here-. No matter what event you're going to, I believe that you'll find the dress for it on this website. As I discover different areas on this site I'll post more about the things that I love. Check it out and tell me what you think!

Until next time~

The Word Itself Says I'm Possible!

Words to live by. Don't ever think that anything is impossible! This was something I struggled with and at times I still struggle with it. I'm becoming stronger in mind, body and faith. I'm realizing more and more every single day that if I work hard, if I want it bad enough...there is nothing in the universe that can stop me from attaining it! Keep striving and most importantly....keep going! Make the impossible...possible!

Until next time~

Planning A Weekend Getaway-Flight and Hotel Site Review

I'm currently planning a birthday extended weekend in Las Vegas and I thought I'd take this opportunity to give a quick review on some of the flight and hotel sites that are pretty popular. My interest was to find out who offered the cheapest options and also the ease of using the websites. I hope that this post can be useful to anyone who is thinking about planning a trip! The following prices are based off of my trip planning. I just wanted to illustrate price differences. Here we go:

These prices are based on a 1 person trip, just to make the breakdown more clear.

Cheapseats:

-Flight Only: $354.80 (round-trip)
-Flight and Hotel: $561.20

Overall Judgement: I found that this site was a little messy for me. It gets the job done as far as booking a trip, but the font is not good and I found it to be too small. The site did not feel me with excitement for planning my trip. The color scheme is mediocre at best, and I think that the site needs to look more welcoming and less headache inducing.


Orbitz:

-Flight Only: $339.80
-Flight and Hotel: $576.95

Overall Judgement: I liked this site. I thought it was welcoming. I didn't like the wait time between processing my request, but that could have just been my internet connection. The flight only is the same price here and on Travelocity, but the flight and hotel package is more expensive than Cheapseats and Travelocity. I'm focused for on a flight and hotel package so this probably would not be the best website to book through for that.


Travelocity:

-Flight Only: $339.80
-Flight and Hotel: $561.20

Overall Judgement: I feel like this site was cleaner and easier to navigate than Cheapseats. The only downside I found was the pop-ups at certain points during the process. The flight price was cheaper than cheapseats, but the flight and hotel package was the same.


Priceline:

-Flight Only: $339.83
-Flight and Hotel: $570.32

Overall Judgement: Immediately I was sort of turned off by the creepy guy plastered all over this website. This website has advertisements about it having the lowest.best prices guaranteed  but if you look at the price comparisons. The flight only option is more expensive than Travelocity and Orbitz. The hotel option is more expensive than Travelocity and Cheapseats. Another downside to this website is that I didn't see an option to search for a particular hotel when I wanted to add it to my flight, so I had to go through 7 pages of hotels until I finally found the one I was looking for. That is very inconvenient.


In conclusion  I guess there is no "perfect" website for booking a trip. It's a give and take situation. You just have to find out what you're willing to sacrifice. I hope this helps you in some way.

Until next time~

Madness Is Genius

"Imperfection is beauty. Madness is Genius, and It's better
to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring." -Marilyn Monroe

Stressed Spelled Backwards is Desserts

Ever have one of those days where you're expecting things to be a certain way and then BAM! It's something totally different? Well, if you're like me, that stresses you out and what do I do when I get stressed?...I eat everything I'm not supposed to. Cake...cookies...soda...it's all fair game. That is the kind of day I had today, but I didn't give in to those cravings. I read something that said a craving only lasts 20 minutes and if you can find something to occupy your mind for that amount of time, you won't crave it anymore. I had the chance to try this out 3 times today and surprisingly it works. I'm not saying it's easy, because when you want ice cream as badly as I wanted it this afternoon, you'll do almost anything short of murder to get it. I am claiming a victory today, I was able to stay strong and committed and I'm really proud of that.

So remember....if you find yourself craving something bad, give it 20 minutes and this to shall pass! ;)

Until next time~

Wide Awake...Good Friday Edition

I made some realizations last night.

1. I'm stronger than I ever thought I was.

2. My feelings matter. 

3. My independence is worth more than anything. 

4. I won't be pushed, pulled or swayed in your direction. 

5. I need to learn how to be less forgiving. 

6. Sometimes I wonder if I'm just in love with the thought of love. 

7. I have amazing parents.

8. My friends mean the world to me. 

9. I need to learn when to give up the fight. 

10. I don't like arguing about things not worth arguing about.
11. I'm blessed to have gotten to know some pretty amazing people online.

12. I'm still maturing.....
13. I'm still growing....and that's okay

Happy Girls Are The Prettiest Girls...

"I believe in pink. 
I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. 
I believe in kissing, kissing a lot. 
I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong.  
I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls.  
I believe that tomorrow is another day and I believe in miracles"
Audrey Hepburn

Pitch Perfect

Synopsis:
Becca, a freshman at Barden University, is cajoled into joining The Bellas, her school's all-girls singing group. Injecting some much needed energy into their repertoire, The Bellas take on their male rivals in a campus competition.

I watched this movie a couple of weeks ago and I completely fell in love with it. I love everything about acapella music and groups. It's a Glee thing! lol First I'll start with some facts about the movie. 

It was directed by Jason Moore, the screenplay was written by Kay Cannon. The cast includes Anna Kendrick, Skylar Astin, Rebel Wilson, Anna Camp, Brittney Snow, Ester Dean and Alexis Knapp. There are more characters, but I'm really excited to get to the fun part of this post. 

Let's start with some of my favorite quotes:

"This is all very hard for me to admit to you guys." -Cynthia Rose 
"We all know we're this is going." -fat Amy whispering to Aubrey 
"Lesbe honest here." -Fat Amy 
"For the past couple of years I've had a serious... Gambling problem." -Cynthia Rose. 
"What?" -Fat Amy 
"It all started when I broke up with my girlfriend" -Cynthia Rose 
"Op! There it is!" -Fat Amy.

"What's your name?" -Aubrey 
"Fat Amy." -Fat Amy 
"You call yourself Fat Amy?" -Aubrey 
"Yeah, so twig bitches like you don't do it behind my back." -Fat Amy 
Fat Amy has to be one of my favorite characters ever. Most of the times I laughed during this movie was because of something she said. I don't think that this movie had any deep meaning to it, it was just purely entertainment. I don't know about you, but sometimes I just need a movie that doesn't require me to think to hard or find a purpose. I don't want to spoil the movie for anyone who might be interested in seeing it, so I'll leave it here. 

I hope you get as much laughter out of this movie as I did! 

Until next time~

Movie and Musical Sounds?

Fun topic time!!! I love Pandora, it gets me through my toughest days at work. I made a Glee station the other day and was surprised by the fact that it started playing some of the soundtracks of my favorite movies and musicals. I almost flipped over my desk when "No One Mourns The Wicked" started playing. I love The Wicked OST. I don't know very many people who enjoy or are even interested in the soundtracks of movies or musicals, but I've always loved them. I guess it has something to do with the fact that I love Disney cartoon movies and we all know that they are full of sing-worthy material! It's almost embarrassing to admit, but The Lion King is my all time favorite movie ever. I could quote any part of the movie or recite it from beginning to end. My mom has so much fun with this embarrassing information that she often times makes me put on an impromptu performance for anyone she meets. It's okay, I'm a huge kid at heart and I learned life lessons from that movie, a very important one being "Hakuna Matata"! :) Another example of how much i love this movie....I have 2 dogs and I named one of them Nala. Wow, I'm sharing all of my Lion King obsession and the more I write, the worst it is becoming.

I strayed completely off topic and should have labeled this entry as "My Crazy Obsession with The Lion King". Anyway,  The Wicked, The Lion King, Perfect Pitch(a movie review coming on this soon) and Rent are some of my favorites. What is your favorite movie or Broadway soundtrack?

Until next time~

Special K...good or bad?

I mentioned in my last entry about how I've been eating healthier and exercising and I wanted to let you guys in on one of my many secret "diet" weapons. Special K products. I was skeptical at first because we all know that "diet" food is sometimes misleading. Special K has made a believer out of me. I'll list some of their products that I'm currently using.

Breakfast Foods:
Chocolately Delight cereal
Chocolately Strawberry (Limited Edition) cereal
Cinnamon Pecan cereal
Sausage, Egg and Cheese Flatbread sandwich

Protein:
Protein Shakes(Strawberry, Chocolate, French Vanilla)-so so so so good. All of them!
Protein Water Mix(Pink Lemonade, Strawberry Kiwi)- I haven't tried the Strawberry Kiwi yet,
but I can tell you that the Pink Lemonade is really good, especially if you're like me and have a hard time drinking plain old water!)

Bars:
Chocolately Pretzel
Blueberry
-there are many other flavors that I haven't tried yet, but I will soon.

****Bad product review(maybe, bad is a harsh word...it's just my personal preference. I don't really care for the protein bars. They taste a little chalk-like and gritty to me, and I was actually very surprised because it was the first time I encountered a product from them that I didn't enjoy)****

Snacks:
Pastry Crisps(all of them)
Popcorn Chips
Cracker Chips
Brownie Bites

Those listed above are just a few of the many products that Special K offers those of us who are looking to lead a healthier lifestyle. I wouldn't be able to make it through my 2 hour workouts in the morning without Special K. They have products that fuel me before working out and then re-fuel me when I'm done. I don't consider it to be "diet" food, it's good, nutritious, healthy food and who doesn't love to eat food that not only tastes good, but is good for you?

I'll leave you with a warning...Any food you eat, diet or not loses it's effectiveness if you consume too much of it. In other words, no matter how good they taste...don't eat 4 packs of Brownie Bites. You'll be defeating the purpose! :)

Until next time~

Me+You= 2

Wow. It has been such a long time since I have blogged anything. I've been super busy these last couple of months with work and just life in general. I need to get better about finding the time to update as frequently as I used to. There just aren't enough hours in the day to get everything I want to do...done. I'll update you about a couple of things I think I talked about the last time I blogged. First, I did my teacher evaluation test for dance and passed, so I was able to sign up to teach the teenagers. It has been a challenging experience so far, but overall it has been quite rewarding. It is most definitely harder teaching 16-17yr old's. My body just doesn't want to cooperate sometimes to get these kids to the level they should be performing, but luckily I have an AMAZING co-teacher (Kelly) that often picks up my slack! ;) I still teach my babies and let me tell you...they are a breath of fresh air after dealing with the attitudes of teens! LOL

Work....what is there to say about work? Well, it's been kicking my ass something terrible these last couple of months. My boss has taken several vacations, which means more work for me. It pays the bills and also allows me to buy the things I want, so I will refrain from complaining too much about it. :)

I have been on a health craze since January. I totally re-vamped my eating and exercise habits and I've made a pretty amazing transformation. Since January I have lost about 40lbs..which is amazingggg and I'm totally patting myself on the back for that. This journey is not over yet, and at times it's so hard I feel like giving up, but then I look in the mirror and I see how far I've come and how far I still want to go. The mental transformation is enough to make the 4am gym workouts worth every torturous minute! :)

Now, on to the title of this post and what it means. I have a special guy in my life right now, which is one of the reasons why I've been absent from my blog. I needed time to enjoy "us". If you know even a little bit about me (or have read my past entries) you can probably guess who my guy is. Things between us are going well. Not much has changed with our new title and I love it. We still argue, we still get on each other's nerves, but it's nice knowing that someone who you've known most of your life, will always be there for you no matter what. I still have the fear that our new status will somehow change us and it'll ruin the friendship that we've built over the years. He has done everything to assure me that, that would never happen and I'm starting to believe it. Our motto is "If it doesn't work, we at least know that we tried." Let's see where this goes. :)

This post has gone on long enough. I'll try to be more diligent about updating. 

Until next time~