That is What You Call True Love

So I have been wanting to run again.  It has nothing to do with the fact that I am tired of hearing Jillian yammer on or having to use a crane to go to the bathroom.  Running has just been the one exercise that I really like don't hate with a passion.

My issue is that I really need to exercise in the morning.  I am just the type that really THINKS that I am going to exercise when I get home before dinner but then I get home and just want to drop.  So it is 4:30 am or nothing.  The problem with running at 4:30 is it is pitch black and I get a little worried about all the Ted Bundys out there just waiting for me to run by.  Now I realize that even serial killers need their beauty sleep and more than likely at 4:30 they are only dreaming about bad things. 

Yeah that doesn't make me feel any better either.

So I decided that maybe I should run every morning with a bat.  Rich nixed that idea as the next thing you know I am being blamed for bashed mail boxes.

So his solution was on days I wanted to run he would ride a bike with me. 

How cute is he??

I heard that Wal-Mart has really cheap bikes so we went to our new Wal-Mart which opened up right next to our Target.  This ended my I-will-never-shop-at-that-new-Wal-Mart-because-I-love-Target streak at 6 full days. 

I really do hate Wal-Mart, and I my new hiatus starts now.

So we are going to go for our bike/run tomorrow.  Wish him luck, or me luck, or Ted Bundy cause I now have my own bicycle bouncer.

And now I leave you with this:


More Later

- A Ro

What? Did We Think We Were 20 Again??

Rich and I threw caution to the wind and went to see my new favorite a cappella band Pentatonix on Thursday night.  Yes it was a school night and yes I was stinking tired the next day.  I loved seeing Pentatonix perform live, well most of the concert anyway, as we left early.

Gasp!!

OK all of you over the age of 40 will understand why in a minute.  Rich picked me up right from school as the concert was is in Hollywood and you never know what the traffic is going to be like.  However, we actually made it really quickly and we were in Hollywood by 5:30 with the concert starting at 8:00.  We planned on eating at the restaurant right next to the Fonda Theater so we headed there and after paying our first borns (sorry Justin and Andrew) to park we sat down to dinner.

 
Well even with a few drinks and some hot wings appetizers we were done eating by 6:45.

What to do, what to do??

So we went down to the Starbucks for coffee.

 

On our way I walked right over one of my favorite composers and just had a to take a picture...Rich called me such a tourist, but c'mon the man wrote West Side Story!!  

 

As we were sitting at coffee I looked at my ticket and realized that the doors opened at 8:00 and the concert started at 9:00. 

 

Wha??

 

Now realize that I am usually washing my face and brushing my teeth at 9:00...I am way to old to be at a CONCERT at 9:00 unless that concert involves lullabies and a sleep mask.

 

So we decide to get in line at 7:30 so we might be able to get a good spot.  The line was literally around the block and full of people who don't know what a lullaby or a sleep mask is, and probably just got woken up by their nannies.

 

We get in at 8:15-ish and get quickly reminded that it is a standing room only venue.

Even though we could have gotten a much closer spot we decided to stand back by the sound booth so we could have something to lean against.

 

That sound SO ridiculous but oh so true.

 

Finally 9:00 rolls around and the curtain opens to reveal....

 

...the warm up DJ.

 

You have got to be kidding me...a freaking DJ.

 

So we listen to this yuck yuck until about 9:30.

 

At 9:30 the DJ finally stops and we think...OK any minute now...

Any minute now...

 

Any minute now...

 

10:00 rolls around and FINALLY they hit the stage.

 

A really cool moment was when the beat boxer Kevin picked up his cello and beat boxed and played.  Yeah...really cool.

 

The concert was really amazing and they are still by far my favorite a cappella group.

 

We really stayed as long as we could but we had been standing for 3.5 hours, up WAY past our bedtimes, and I had to get up early.

 

Plus there is the fact that the nannies will be there to pick up the kids and we don't want to get stuck in THAT traffic.

 

I'm coming pillow.

 

More Later

 

- A Ro

 

 

Gotta Love Texting

So this cracked me up so much I had to share...I came out of the bathroom after brushing my teeth and washing my face to find Rich sitting on the bed and he says to me "well I see now that you don't have your phone with you". I said "nope i left it on the kitchen table...why?". He shows me his phone which went something like this.

Rich: what u doing
Rich: in there
Rich: I love you
Rich: A lot
Rich: A lot a lot
Rich: Your beautiful
Rich: REALLY beautiful
Amy: Hi Rich it is Bella and thank you
Rich: prove it
Rich: Amy?
Rich: My love
Rich: Are you there?
Amy: Bella your love
Amy: (see picture below which was in the text)


Amy: your welcome

Bella told me that she was really sorry that she read my texts but my phone just kept going off...I think she just likes to mess with Rich.

I wouldn't expect anything else.

More Later

- A Ro

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Weekend Roundup

So it was a long weekend and here I sit on Monday night thinking about going back to work tomorrow and what a wonderful weekend it was.  I also realized that it is January 21st and I didn't take a single picture until last night.  That either means that we do nothing around here that is picture worthy or I am just a bad photographer.  Well either way it makes catching up on my scrapbooking a heck of a lot easier.

So last night we had a fire pit and had s'mores.

Bella and her BFF Hannah.

Please ignore the horrible red eyes...I haven't figured out how to fix them yet and it was really dark so that flash was a doozy.

It was a beautiful night for a fire pit and Rich and I sat out for about an hour after the girls had enough and just talked and looked at the beautiful sky...very nice.

Due to my lack of picture taking for the month of January I decided to take some pictures of some of my favorite new things.  Now since this isn't Oprah I am not giving you any of these items you just get to enjoy mine.

This is FINALLY the shelves we found to put in our foyer.  It really beats the T.V. table I had there before.  I need to put a few finishing touches on it but so far I love it.

Our new chair for our family room.  Now more than 3 people can watch T.V. at one time.

Did I mention we went to Ikea on Friday?

I really love Ikea.

OK...this is my really new favorite thing.  Both my sisters-in-law had these really cool night lights that you put this candle type stuff on the top and it melts and smells wonderful.  I finally asked them where they got theirs and they told me it was from a company called Scentsy, and it is one of those party type sales event that you can get them from, not a store.  Stacia asked me what color I wanted and she would get me one the next time she went to a show.  I told her purple and seconds later she is handing me this one and some vanilla candle pod thingys.  She is cool like that. 

So thanks Stacia...I LOVE it.  It smells so good and gives us a nice night light.

OK last thing.  I got these from a student this past holiday, and I love them.  They are from Bath and Body Works and they are stress relief lotion.  Real glass bottles tells me it is serious stuff.  One is Vanilla Verbena and the other is Spearmint Eucalyptus.  They smell so good.  I put some on before I go to bed and love it. 

OK so there you have it.  If you are from Bath and Body Works, Scentsy, or Ikea and want to send me free stuff for endorsing your products...feel free.

If you want to give me another long weekend so I can catch up on some January pictures I'd love that too.

More Later

- A Ro

Reunited

Zona was my Dad's dog. Well actually she started out as my brother Ryan's dog. He got her shortly after Andrew turned one. I am not sure of the exact story on how Ryan got her or how my Dad ended up with her but she was his and they were good friends.

He was right beside her when she had her puppies...

...and she was right beside him when he died.

He had a heart attack and she never left his side...I have always thanked her for that. He wasn't alone.


She came to live with my Mom and John and there she stayed, a good friend and a sweet dog.

She loved all of us and I know we all thought of our dad as we said hello and patted her head.

Today Zona died.

I always felt sad that my Dad never really got to know or meet all of his grand kids but am happy and confident that he knows all about them tonight.



I love you Zona and you will be missed.

More Later

A-Ro




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Weekend Round Up

It seems like only hours ago that I was blogging about how excited I was about the weekend and now I am sitting here waxing woeful that it is over.

Rich and I had an amazing dinner at a fancy steakhouse on Friday night. Don't feel one bit guilty that we were dining on filet mignon and ahi salad while the girls were home with Papa Johns pizza....now don't forget each of those pizzas come with garlic dipping sauce.

Saturday Rich and the kids went to the movies. Sarah and Bella went to see Les Mis and Rich and Andrew went to see D'Jango Unchained. None of those are Amy movies so I stayed home and putzed. I love to putz around the house and it really is never very quiet around here so it was a nice break.

Sunday was full of studying for finals as you can see by these pictures.





















Stir crazy Bella + new laptop computer from Dad for christmas with camera = not much studying.

More later

A-Ro

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

T.G.I.F.

It is Friday...woo hoo.  Can I just say I am very happy it is the weekend?  I survived the first full week back at school and with finals next week and a little easier of a schedule AND a four day weekend I don't really have to be back to full reality until January 22.  However, Bella and Sarah will be taking their first finals this next week so I am sure this weekend will full of knashing of teeth and flash cards flying about.  The nice thing is that it is supposed to be cold here (and when I say cold here I mean the 40's or 50"s) so no one will want to be outside this weekend anyway.

Tonight Rich and I are going to use a gift card he got for Christmas and go to eat at a fancy steakhouse and do some shopping.  I really can't wait.  I know it sounds sappy, but we really do miss each other during the week and even though we see each other every night it is always full of cooking dinner, dishes, homework, and what not.  It is nice to just be still and enjoy each other.

I am very excited because one of my new favorite groups Pentatonix is touring and their first concert date is in Hollywood.  They are an a cappella group that won the third season of The Sing Off and one of my students showed me one of their videos and I instantly fell in love.  They are all high school choir geeks who all studied classical music and their voices are very operatic in style.  They can really sing anything and of course I attribute that to their being in high school choir.  But the really cool thing is that we sat next to two of them on our plane ride home this Christmas.  Andrew sat right next to the bass and I got to talk to them briefly when we deplaned.  They are gracious and very humble.  Anyway I got tickets for Rich and I to go to their concert on the 24th at 8:00 pm in Hollywood...get this...on a SCHOOL NIGHT.  I was not going to do it, but I just couldn't pass up the chance.  I am very excited.

So in honor of it being Friday and being cold I am going to post their Carol of the Bells video...it is absolutely amazing.  Now I know it is after Christmas and I am usually a stickler of no Christmas music after Christmas, but I can't help but listen to this one.  Historically speaking this carol is originally a Ukrainian song about spring that someone turned into a Christmas song so I am in on a technicality.


Enjoy and I hope you have a fabulous, mindful, weekend, and I hope that the knashing of teeth is minimal.

More Later

- A Ro

The Real New Year's Resolution Post....geez

Sorry about the early post, still not sure how that happened.

So we are about one week into the new year and while pondering what to write about I am reminded of the big topic of New Year's Resolutions, because one of mine was to blog more often. Now notice I didn't say that I would blog EVERYDAY because that is really just setting me up for failure. Now, I think you all know what I am talking about because by this time of the new year most of us have already failed on a lot of our resolutions.

Now I am all for setting goals and improving ourselves. I just think that January 1st shouldn't be the day that we start stressing about all the things we don't like about ourselves, but it should be a gift of mindful thought about how we can make the new year the best year it can be.

So a bit of a back story. I subscribe to the magazine Cooking Light. I love this magazine. It is about cooking good whole food in a healthy way. They had an article by Dr. Susan Albers that caught my attention. She isn't a dietitian but a psychologist, and she really hit the nail on the head about what I want most out of my life. It touches on my relationships, my impending loss of Andrew to college, my fear of getting cancer, my obsession with food (both eating it and not eating it), and my life as a teacher.

It all boils down to being mindful. Being mindful with everything you do. Live in every moment and really do things that make you feel good about yourself. Give yourself JOY.

The book I immediately bought for my kindle was her book regarding food. I have an unhealthy obsession with food. Now you might think this means that I am a over eater, but that isn't the big thing for me. My family has a lot of cancer in it, and I just married the man of my dreams and have SO much life to catch up on with him so I am obsessed with food and making sure that I "eat all the right things" so that I can live a very long life. This attitude causes me to diet and restrict and then binge when the restriction gets too much, which it always does.  I have always been someone who loves to cook healthy and I have studied nutrition and eating habits and have found some books that really have changed my life and my attitude towards eating. I am no longer on a diet. I am no longer obsessing about food. I am so happy that I am not worried so much about food. I am concentrating about eating healthy food and eating food that I like.  Now changing habits aren't always perfect, but that is what I love about her she talks a lot about forgiveness and working towards goals not perfection.

Dr. Susan Albers changed my life in my opinion her way is really the only way to change with regards to food.

Here are my books (I would insert a picture but blogger is not cooperating, I have a couple of New Year's resolutions for them):

Michael Pollan - Food Rules

Dr. Susan Albers - Eating Mindfully and her "But I deserve this chocolate!"

The Michael Pollan book tells us all about food and nutrition from a researchers point of view not a dietitian and Dr. Albers book tells us all about how to go about eating.

Put away the diet pills and stop spending money on "weight loss food, and diets".

But most importantly live mindfully, enjoy the moment, and life.  It goes by too fast.  I hope that by January 1st 2014 I am happy, healthier and not sad that another year of my life flew by.

More Later

- A Ro

A Few More Pictures

As I sit here writing this I am listening to Sarah practice her clarinet scales.  She has been furiously practicing her scales and memorizing them because she wants to audition for the band that is the next one up.  I am a music teacher and I have never seen a person work so hard towards a goal.  As soon as she came to live with us she wanted to re-learn how to play the clarinet.  She wanted to join the band in high school.  That meant she had one year to get it together.  We got her a clarinet and some lessons and away she went.  She joined the band this year AND the marching band and it was the best thing for her. 

I am constantly amazed with how much this girl has blossomed since moving here.  She has only missed two days of school since she has been with us, she has learned the clarinet,participated in marching band, and has a 3.57 grade point average. 

She made it onto the marching band academic honors team.

We are so proud of her!!

So I mentioned that I have some other adorable nephews and a niece and since my sister-in-law Michelle sent some pictures of our adventures in Iowa I have a few more to show you.

This is my beautiful niece Sami.  She is very glamorous and has the best clothes.  She is super sweet and so smart and full of energy.

Here are my nephews JoJo and Tyler.  They are also so smart and darn cute.  JoJo, the younger one, just loves his Tyler and always is right next to him.  It is a very interesting cousin dynamic.  My two are the oldest and kinda do their own thing.  JoJo and Sami are about six months apart in age and they are two peas in a pod.  JoJo adores Tyler and follows him around, and little Abby just loves them all and is the caboose in the cousin train.  They just walk around all following Tyler.  It is so cute.

Here is the dynamic trio with their mom's.  I love this picture.  It was such a happy evening.

And if you ever wondered out of the four siblings which two cause the most trouble just look at the following picture.

Let's just say Kate and I keep things on track.

More Later

- A Ro

Hey! It's Me...Happy New Year

First I have to put a disclaimer out there. I am attempting to blog on my iPad. So we will see.

So to ease me (and potentially you) back into this blogging thing I decided to start with some pictures of the goings on around here.

I have decided that I love making cookies and if I ever won the lottery I would open a cookie shop. I know more than likely if I ever won the lottery I'd be on a beach somewhere with an umbrella drink thinking about anything else but opening a cookie shop, but one could hope.

Here are some that I did for the holidays, by the way these cookies also won me an award at the cookie exchange again this year, that makes 4 in a row...

...but who's counting.




I gave these away with some snowmen cake pops as teacher and friend gifts. I also did some peppermint candy cookies.



Sarah went back to Iowa to visit her mom on Christmas Eve so we had a "Sar-e Christmas" on Sunday the 23rd. We went to her favorite sushi restaurant and went home to open gifts.






Bella's gift from Sarah...a penguin she made in ceramics class.


This is her opening her new Kindle.

The rest of the family opened gifts on Christmas morning before we left for Iowa.


Our tree.


Maggie and her stocking.

We left for Iowa and got this welcome.


Part of my mom's yard.


The cows outside our back door.


A little Abby peeking out.

Speaking of Abby she made it into a few of my picture...now mind you I have two other cute nephews and another cutie pie niece and I promise I'll post some pictures of them soon.


She loved sitting on Andrew's lap she would come up to me and ask me if she could go find Andrew and sit on his lap...most of the time she was shy around him.


She also liked to cuddle with Bella she was sad in this picture and just needed Bella.


She kinda liked me a little too...





Vegas loved her too...sometimes.


Bella took her outside in the snow...so cute!!


Justin came to hang out with us too.


And Christmas wouldn't be the same without me and my siblings and our "wallpaper" picture...geez how come I missed the tall gene.

We went to a place called Incredible Pizza and played mini golf.


One post I will have to tell you all about my crazy phobia regarding life size statues. Let's just say this was a tough picture for me to take.


Kate and Andrew tore up guitar hero.

Well that's a start. More to come I promise. No really I promise.

More Later

A-Ro