Look out Becky Bloomwood!!!

Happy Monday All! Its almost 9 a.m. and I am fully buzzing on caffeine. I hope you all had a glorious weekend. Ours was alot of fun. Let me clue you in on the festivites...

On Friday, Anthony and his friends decided to have an impromptu poker/guys night at my apartment (which I was mortified that our apartment was a complete mess but Anthony assured me that guys could care less anyway, lol) which led to me not wanting to be at home which led to my impromptu mini-shopping spree at TJ Maxx (my fav store!). I love a good excuse to go shopping! So I got myself and Miss Sophia showered up and ready and we hit the road. Boy, was I glad I went b/c I made out like a crazy bandit. For the last 4 1/2 years I have been wearing my favorite green winter coat that I purchased from Victoria's Secret for $99 (mixed in with a few other coats but that one was the top runner). Lately, my old faithful was showing true signs of wear & tear and I think I was prolonging it, but my hubby gently let me know that it was definitely time to retire "ole" green. Tear. Sniff. NOT! Hello, its like a fantastic excuse to go buy another one! I swear I am Becky Bloomwood in another body (yes I have read all and loved all of the books). So off I go in hot pursuit and do I score? I do and not once but TWICE! I always enjoy shopping for seasonal items at the end of the season b/c that is where you get the great deals so I waited patiently and it paid off. I found a gorgeous red wool winter coat by Laundry (retails for $300) and I paid $29 flipping dollars. Then as I was floating on retail cloud 9, a bright orange number caught my eye. It was an equally adorable, knee length, wool coat with a drop waist and the price tag? $20 dollars!!! So here I am with two gorgeous winter coats for less than I paid for my green one. Now I have 2 top runners for the next few years!! On top of my "steals" I also made out with a really cute white shirt that was originally $44 marked down to $6.99, a gray "slub" top with embroidery for $14.99, and a plain gray bubble top with an open back cutout for $9.99. Armed with some CHI thermal heat protectant hair treatment ($14 down to $7) I headed to the register. Of course the fun does not stop there, folks. In the past I have been very lucky to arrive when they have freshly unpacked a box of "upscale" beauty products that I have gotten first pick of (before the "grubbies" of M-town have opened everything and stuck their fingers in the makeup ruining it for all of us paying customers out there). And like a shining beacon of light...there they were a full display of Hard Candy makeup and eye shadow palettes. Now, at this point my lovely baby girl had decided that the shopping trip should be over and was squirming her little butt into a mini-tantrum. So what does the true shopaholic in myself do? I grab one in every freaking color. I mean, they were only $3.99 a piece (from ranges of $12 -$20 originally) and there were about 6 or 7 different ones so I spent like $30 bucks on what could have very easily been over $100 had I been in Sephora. La La La. I made out like a freaking bandit. Two gorgeous coats, 3 adorable shirts, and some awesome hair and beauty products for $120.00...woop woop. Becky Bloomwood ain't got nothing on me. I could budget shop her into oblivion. Now now, this is not an everyday or every week activity but a girl's gotta let her hair down now and again right?

Onto Saturday...my cleaning was postponed due to running errands and taking a random drive with the hubby (we like looking at houses). At 4 we headed out to my parents house for a family dinner and birthday cake for Daniel, he's 15 now! Em had mentioned earlier about all of us heading over to The Castle after cake but my parents didn't feel up to it so they were gracious enough to watch Sophia, Mia, and Bubba so we could all go. The Castle is this "fun center" type of place in Chester where they have a roller skating rink, lazer tag, go karts, mini golf, arcade, rock wall...you get the pic. So we (Me, Ant, Em, Kev, Kris, Dan, & our cousin/Dan's bff Aarron) piled into mom's van and headed over around 7. Em & I were really only interested in the roller skating so once inside, we all paid and the boys went their way and we went to rent our skates. Now mind you, I have not been on a pair of rolly-anything since like 1995 so I was a little nervous but half expecting it to be like riding a bike. Wrong! After getting my fat ass off the floor I quickly discovered I was not the graceful, balanced person I was back in the day. Any ounce of agility that I had was gone. So, I made it onto the ring and me and Em had to hold hands for a good 15-20 minutes to make sure that neither one of us would wipe out. I have to admit though, it was alot of fun and very reminiscent of the old days with pigtails and high scrunched socks. And what a crowd, it was supposed to be family night so this is what you had: the poor little 5-10 year olds that were trying their hardest and wiping out everywhere, the 13-17 yr old roller bladers that were too bad ass for words with their cool moves not giving a rat's ass about the poor little ones wiping out, and the middle aged single fathers that were doing everything in their power to get a pair of cuties ( like ourselves lol) to notice them. And what does a middle aged single father do to get a ladies attention? Act like a tool of course! He shakes his booty, jives to the music on skates, wears some rad, fingerless gloves that are absolutely pointless, and the best move of all-he takes off his shirt and flings it over his shoulder and skates in a wife-beater. Too cool for school. It reminded me of those Budweiser commercials, "Real men of genius..." Haha. I could hear it in my head..."we salute you Mr. too cool for school with your wife beater, fingerless gloves, and roller skates, with your fly moves and funky grooves, trying your hardest to find a new baby's momma for your future baby tool offspring." lol. Anyhow-it was a great time...eventually we were able to part and skate on our own and Em had a great idea of having a 70-80's theme 30th bday there...maybe we'll even get the VIP area right over the skating rink. Stay tuned.

Sunday was not as exciting. Ant headed off in the morning to paint ball with Kev, Kris & Dan and I stayed back to tackle my extremely delayed weekly cleaning. Sophia hung around with me watching "Bee Movie" and "Toy Story". It was a very quiet and productive afternoon. Then, at 5 I headed off to work to make no money since we were dead and managed to make it home in time to catch the end of the Oscars. There were sooo many movies that I really want to see very badly and can't wait to see them . The Reader, Slumdog Millionaire, Milk, Benjamin Button just to name a few. It is hard to get to the movies with Sophia so we pay the $10 a month for HBO and wait for movies on there or just rent them if we can't wait. Then there is the occasional date night or night out with the ladies.

Speaking of ladies night...its Monday! Usually Mondays are at my house with The Hills (now its the disappointment of The City but we watch it anyway) but tonight we're shaking things up. At 7 we are all meeting at The Outback for dinner (helloooo discount) followed by seeing Confessions of a Shopaholic. Yes I did read Tricia's spoiler blog (I couldn't help myself) but I am still curious about how it will be played out. I will let you know. I am very excited to hang out with my girl's and get dressed cute nonetheless. I even plan on wearing some of my new swag from TJ Maxx. Holla!

I know this blog was a little long and maybe drawn out (I think I am the queen of the run on sentence) but it is fun to recount my activities with you all. I hope every one's workweek has begun fabulously! Ciao! xoxoxo

My Laundry Coat that I got in Red: http://www.qvc.com/qic/qvcapp.aspx/view.2/app.detail/params.aol_refer.false.tpl.detail.msn_refer.false.item.A85184.ref.BRS?cm_ven=BIZRATEFEED&cm_cat=Fashion&cm_pla=Outerwear&cm_ite=A85184

Re-inspired at last!

I know I've been pretty lazy with the blogging but I think I got caught in my usual winter rut that typically occurs around post-xmas time until the first scent of spring air. I hate this time of year the most...I think it is brought on by the hype up to xmas that ends abruptly at midnight on Dec 26th. That is when I am officially over the snow and freezing cold weather, am financially recovering from xmas all together, and overdone with cabin fever that it drives me to the brink of insanity. This year was a bit tougher, being that I am super confined to the indoors with the kiddies. As soon as warmer weather hits and the ground isn't muddy anymore, I will be able to take them outside to play and get a bit of fresh air myself so it'll be better. I also hate how freaking dark it is all of the time. By the time Em gets the kids (4-4:30ish) I only have about 30-45 minutes of daylight left. Its so damn depressing! I long to move somewhere warmer, but that is a whole other issue that me and Ant have been debating over for a long time now.

The last two months have just been the usual routine: babysitting, Outback, mommy & wife. I haven't been doing a whole lot of lia sophia stuff but that is quickly changing. Next month, I am signing two girls onto my team. One more girl and I am earning my trip to Cancun for 2010! Its very exciting stuff. One of my personal goals is to be promoted to a Unit Manager which I believe is very attainable over the next couple of months. This June, I will be attending my first conference for the company and I am SUPER pumped about our celebrity guest speakers. One of them is Bill Rancic, who I could care less about but he will be joined onstage by his wife Guilianna DePandi Rancic of E! news and I am flipping to see her! I love her! The next speaker is...drumroll...TIM FREAKING GUNN!!! You heard me right, project runway fans, I will be seeing him live in person! I absolutely adore him and both of his shows on Bravo. The conference is in Milwaukee and Ant is going to go with me for a little getaway. We will be flying into Cincinnati, Ohio, after it is over, to meet up with our friends who will be there for a wedding in northern Kentucky. We'll spend a few days there and drive back with our friends. I'm pretty stoked at the thought of a little vacation. And most of it will be a business write off! Gotta love it!

This Valentine's Day was alot of fun. Me and Ant were planning a little romantic dinner and movie but my mom called that morning and informed me of a last minute family gathering b/c Aunt Patty, Uncle Mike, and Breanne drove up for the Nascar 500 race. It was sooo much fun and I was so grateful to spend the night with my awesome fam. There was a ton of us there! I love seeing family that I don't get to see often. It was so nice to see Aunt Patty too. She shocked us with how amazing she looks! You'd never know she had been through several rounds of chemo/radiation. I swear she is going to be the miracle of the family(As well as Tricia and Joe, who we pray for every day as well)! She also has converted several of us to the "raw food" diet that she has been following. Em is pretty much 100% but I have been slowly adding elements of the diet to my lifestyle. It really is a fascinating lifestyle change that produces amazing results, although it does require an extreme amount of self control. I am trying to do breakfast, lunch, and snacks with a healthy dinner. I am motivated with the fact that bikini season will be here before we know it!

I was thinking the other day about the topic of "guilty pleasures" and although I have too many to list, one of them I must confess b/c its kind of cheesy but whatever. There are a plethora of girls out there who have these fashion/makeup/hair VLOGS (video-blogs) that they post on youtube and I cannot stop watching them. My favorite is this girl named DulceCandy87 who is this tiny little Mexican girl who lives in California and just got out of the army. She is sooo pretty and funny and looks exactly like Jessica Alba. But in all seriousness, I have learned so freaking much from her. She gives the greatest hair tutorials and I try out most of them on myself. I used to have two left thumbs when it came to doing my own hair but this girl has helped me out. I have even thought about doing my own little vlog, based mainly on fashion. I have always wanted to be a personal stylist/shopper but never really ventured into that field. I know it may sound crazy and maybe the cabin fever has really gotten to me but I think it'd be kind of fun and also act as a creative outlet for me to channel my stress into. lol. Whether people watched it or not, I think I might just give it a try. I will keep you posted on that for sure. What are your guilty pleasures? http://www.youtube.com/user/DulceCandy87

Well I think that is enough for now...this weekend should be fun. Tonight is going to be calm and relaxed, just me, Ant, and Sophia. I think we may finally watch "Step-Brothers" that I borrowed from my little bro. Tomorrow morning is my weekly clean-fest and tomorrow night we'll prob do something with the fam for Dan's bday. Sunday morning we'll prob do some laundry or just hang out and then I have to work Sunday night. Then its Monday all over again. Sigh. I wish weekends would last just a little bit longer sometimes...I hope you all enjoy yours as well! xoxoxox