Something Fun for the New Year!

Happy New Year! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday time! I wanted to share something fun with you that I am a part of this year. It's called Glitz Grab by Inspiranza Designs.Glitz Grab is a monthly subscription where you receive a beautiful high quality piece of jewelry from Inspiranza Designs every month. It will usually be a surprise or you might get a little hint of what's coming earlier in the month if you "Like" them on Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/InspiranzaDesigns. It's only $9.99 a month and you can cancel at any time. Inspiranza's jewelry is excellent quality and so lovely! I own plenty of it and I love it all! This Glitz Grab is a fun and inexpensive way to build a beautiful jewelry collection and it's always nice to get a pretty surprise in the mailbox! Every month I will do an "open bag" video where I open up my Glitz Grab for you to see. I'd love to see or hear about what you get each month in your Glitz Grab as well! Just the link below to see my January "open bag". ideo.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YO9D201kl0Yv

Here is the link if you want to try out the Glitz Grab and join in the fun!
http://www.inspiranzadesigns.com/glitz-grab-monthly-subscription/
Have a HAPPY Day!

Coconut Watermelon Breeze

                              Coconut Watermelon Breeze

Ingredients: 3 cups cubed chilled watermelon 1 cup coconut water squeeze of fresh lime ice sprig of mint Throw it all in a blender. Blend till smooth.

I saw this recipe on Facebook and just happened to have a watermelon that my daughter Paige was taking to a pool party. I cut it up into bite size pieces to fill one half of the empty watermelon and there was a small bowl of watermelon pieces leftover. Just enough to make this tasty drink. This recipe was super quick and easy. I did not have a lime on hand, but did find a small container of limeade in the freezer. I poured a bit of the concentrate in instead of the lime juice. I almost threw in some frozen blueberries too, but decided to just stick with watermelon this time. This drink is not terribly sweet, but quite nice and refreshing. If you don't like coconut water you could use any type of juice, lemonade, or flavored water and it would be tasty.

 Paige took this delicious watermelon with her to a pool party. I could have eaten the whole thing myself!

 Fresh mint leaves from the garden smell so good! Makes me want to make Mojito's.

 

A few handfuls of ice and it's ready to be blended.

  

That's all there is to it! My version turned out looking a bit thicker than the picture with the recipe, but it was good and I think I prefer it a little thicker like a smoothie than watery. (It was still more watery than a smoothie though)

 

I want to continue focusing on being Well and not on the idea of being skinny. The fact is that I am not a tiny skinny lady and what I would have to do to be one...I'm not interested in doing :-) I do want to stay healthy,strong, in good shape, and most importantly HAPPY!

 

Speaking of happy, here is a happy event that took place earlier this summer...

Midwest Dance Academy's year end concert that Paige was a part of was wonderful! It was an awesome show with beautiful dancing.

 There she is in the front looking so very graceful! They all did a fabulous job! Now we are looking forward to going to the St. Louis Ballet's performances this 2013-14 season, especially the Nutcracker this Christmas!

 I am planning to blog more often than I have been. It's been about a year since my last post. The summer is flying by! The weather has been so much more enjoyable than it was last summer. I must admit that I am getting into a fall mood just a little bit. It will be here soon enough! Have a wonderful weekend!

Poppin In to Say Hi

Hi! I have been out of blog mode, but thought I do a quick post to say hello. Hope your summer is going great and you all are staying cool! I must say that I am really ready for Fall. I wore jeans today because I just felt like it, but I got soooo hot! Guess I will have to wait just a little bit longer. I'm in the mood for pumpkins, beautiful leaves, crisp air, apple cider, Pumpkin spice frapps, bonfires, jeans, and hoodies! How about you?

This month is flying by! I started biking with my mom and my son Gabriel a couple of weeks ago and I LOVE it! We are riding early Sat morning with a group from the YMCA. They ride to a coffee shop and then ride back. A total of 34 miles. I hope it's a nice cool morning! I'm also looking forward to riding in the fall on chilly beautiful days.

This past week I helped paint the tennis club where I work. It looks so fresh and new! The walls are different shades of calming gray and we have new pretty red chairs. All set for the busy Fall and Winter season.

Next week I start classes. I'm very excited to get started! It's been a long time since I've been in school.

We've also been busy planning Paige's Sweet 16 Zumba party that's coming up in a couple of weeks. It should be a fun time!

So that's what's happening around here! Thanks for stopping by!

Yay for Friday!

Happy Friday! I'm linking up at Life Rearranged for Instafriday.


It has been sooo hot that I am now dreaming of Fall weather and decided to light this 1803 Apple Dumpling candle to enjoy the smell of Autumn in our house!

This past Monday was Gabriel's 18th birthday. We had a fun day! He requested key lime cheesecake and pumpkin pie. My mom made both and they were so delicious!

Here is my Gabriel on his first birthday. Time really flies!

We went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast on Gabriel's birthday. Here are Paige and Sami waiting for our yummy breakfast.

Whipped cream and icecream at the birthday celebration.

Sami loves butter and eats it right out of the little containers at Cracker Barrel. Funny girl!

Pepsi in the ice buckets...

We stopped by the Bike Surgeon this week. I am going to start biking with my mom and Gabriel as soon as the weather cools off. Looking forward to it! Here are Gabriel, my bro in law Erik, and Patriot at the Bike Surgeon.

My mom bought me this cute, colorful, little wallet/handbag. I think it's fun and cheerful! I don't don't like carrying large purses, so this one is perfect for summertime!

I am excited for the Olympic opening ceremonies tonight! With the weather so hot, watching the Olympics will be the perfect thing to do  inside. Hope you all have a great weekend!

Instagram Fun

Happy Friday! I am linking up over at Life Rearranged.......
 
Here are some of my Instagram pics from this week....

I think this is such a pretty picture on my calendar for this month.

Beautiful flowers from my mom's garden. I also love this pretty placemat from World Market.

Out to lunch with a fabulous friend! I LOVE Mexican food!

My lovely friend Jamie enjoying some coffee and magazine's at Barnes & Noble.

Katie and Paige relaxing with us at Barnes &Noble.

JNL's book that we bought from her at The Arnold this past winter.

I liked this mug. Pretty cute!

Sweet, silly Simon waiting for me to throw his beloved football off the deck.

Have a GREAT weekend!

I Want To Learn This.......

Now I just need to find some Crossfit peeps to teach me!

Trader Joe's, Salads, and Mud Pie Mojo!

 Do you shop at Trader Joe's? We do, but not as often as we'd like because it's about 30 minutes away. That's not all that far, but a little to far to stop in for a quick shopping trip. I love that store and wish so much that we'd get one closer to us. My mom's friend gave her this Trader Joe's Cookbook for her birthday. There are plenty of great looking recipes that I want to try.

 Here is one thing that we love from Trader Joe's. 100 calorie dark chocolate bars. Dark chocolate is good for you!

 These are some recipes that look good to me......

 Here is one we tried last night. Avocado, Orange, and Olive Salad. It was delicious with such a good mix of different flavors. Very refreshing and Summery.

    I always love salads, but especially during this hot weather! I think fresh veggies and colorful salads look so pretty! I snapped some pics of different things I've eaten over the past couple of weeks. This was a yummy Asian Salad with avocado and boiled eggs......

 

 I am really enjoying our fresh home grown tomatoes from the garden. The cherry tomatoes are so sweet! I topped off my spinach scrambled eggs with some of these delicious tomatoes....

  

A simple spinach, avocado, and cherry tomato salad and a tuna salad with baby carrots.....

Salmon with green beans and butternut squash risotto....So good!

I admit that this weather also makes me crave icecream! I have things under control and plan to have one icecream treat day a week.  Have you ever tried this........

It's Mud Pie Mojo from Cold Stone Creamery which is coffee icecream with fudge, peanut butter, roasted almonds, and oreo's. OH MY GOSH it's so good! I don't get the waffle bowl and I do get the smallest size. It's a wonderful treat and so worth it! I'm normally not even tempted by ice cream, but this heat really does it! Do you love ice cream during the summer?