FAST and furious

Day 3 of my 21 day fast was a beast of a day.  WATER AND JUICES ONLY!  It was tough.  Started my day off totally wrong.  Not thinking before I acted, I woke up, drank some tea and took my vitamins.  WHY DID I TAKE VITAMINS ON AN EMPTY STOMACH! 2 seconds later.....it was not a pretty picture.  But I can promise you that I will NEVER do that again.

The rest of the day just felt soooooooo long.  No food can make for a grouchy household.  Between the many bathroom breaks and watching my kids eat the juicy hamburgers I have seen in my life, this day was truly a test of will power and strength.  Well, I passed the test, but not with an A:-(.  I'm sorry but I needed something.  So a baked potato with broccolli caused me to have a less than perfect grade.

But I'm still standing.  And I'm able to make it through the day.  This is teaching me that I don't NEED half of the stuff that I eat during the day.  And I think the same can go for things in my life.  I don't think I need half of the things that I have in my life.  Do I really need over 20 scarves,  do I really need 30 hats.    So I am not only purging my body....I'm purging my life.

The Week of the Frog..Planning begins for The Princess and The Frog Party

So tomorrow my countdown begins for the big Princess and the Frog Birthday Party for my baby girl. This weekend the supplies arrived from Oriental Trading. I have to give them a call first thing tomorrow morning because they didn't pack the froggie finger puppets that I ordered. HOW WILL I SURVIVE WITHOUT FINGER PUPPETS. LOL. I will be just fine. My daughter is turning 3 so all she really needs is a simple play date; I don't think the finger puppets will be missed. And that will be $8 that can be placed back in the budget (According to my co-party planner Michele, I have created an imaginary budget that I am doing a great job sticking to :-)

Another way I'll be saving some money is that instead of hiring a character to show up to the party and making me $200 dollars poorer, we bought a Princess Tiana costume from Costume Craze for about $35 bucks. Please pray that when I remove it from the bag tomorrow it doesn't look crazy. I'm trying to see if a neighbor is available to wear it to take pictures with the party guests but if that doesn't work out, Mommy Princess will have to do :-)

Tomorrow I'll post pictures and I'll let you know how my prepping is going. EXCITED!

Countdown to my rebirth: Day 22

Wow wee!! I am so behind with this blog. But those of you reading that have kids know that finding time to do anything "not kid related" is very difficult. But here I sit at 12:30am writing my blog because I promised myself that I would see this to the end.

So let me catch you up a bit on my birthday celebrations. My last entry was Day 30 where I spent a relaxing evening with "The Man". Well, I think that peaceful evening near the fire sparked something in "The Man" because this is no longer my personal countdown, it has become his countdown. Since my last blog, I have woken up to cards, flowers and wonderful surprises.

Day 24 he gave me a word puzzle that was my clue to the days event. Soooo cute. We went downtown to the fashion district which is a spend thrifty womans paradise.

Day 23 I went to I Fly which is an indoor sky diving place. I am soooo glad I tried the indoor skydiving before I did the real thing. I was not feeling it. I'm a cheesy, smily, laughy type of person and none of that could be done in the air chamber without losing all the breath in my dag gone body. I felt like my cheeks were gonna fly off because the air pressure was so intense. But woo hoo for trying something new before I turn 40.

And here we are at Day22....an amazing day. I went to hang out with some girlfriends and when I returned home, there was jazz music playing and candles lit throughout the house. In the dining room there was an arrangement of cheese, crackers and an awesome array of exotic teas. Does this man know me or what?! I am a tea drinking fool. So we sipped tea, relaxed and then he enjoyed the sound of my snoring once I fell asleep half way thru our mini date. Ah, the simple things in life make me so happy.

Countdown to my rebirth: Day 30

There must have been something in the air because my toddlers were on level 10 tonight. Screaming, crying and temper tantrums were in effect the moment they walked in the door.

My son is like TV Mike from Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (no young'uns, not the one with Johnny Depp). If you let him, he will watch tv until his eyes roll out of his head. So tonight, we said homework, then a few "minutes" of tv, then bed. My child got possessed by the Tasmanian Devil and started spinning around the room because we had the nerve to not allow him to watch a full movie at 8'o clock at night. Well, he spun himself to sleep once he didn't get his way and Day 30 pampering began...

DAY 30: ENJOY AN EVENING BY AN OPEN FIRE

I have been in my place for over 3 years and I have never used my fire pit. I think the main reason is that the yard is the home to every creature this side of the 405 freeway. Take your pick, I got 'em. You want ducks...I got 'em. You want raccoons.....I got 'em. You want skunks...well, I know you don't want skunks, but I got'em. But I "man'd up" and took my backyard back from the wild kingdom....and brought the dog and the man with me for back up.

It was sooooo peaceful. We don't get much quiet time together, so it was long overdue. An evening of conversation under the stars is something that I wish I could do every night.

Well, the Tasmanian woke up so I gotta run...

Countdown to my rebirth: Day 31

Again I say, whose bright idea was it to do this countdown! I am exhausted! Day 32's closet task has spilled into Day 31 and it is 1 in the morning so we are technically in Day 30. What the heck. See, this is why people become hoarders. This purging thing is for the birds. My stuff isn't bothering anybody so why should I bother my stuff.

So, ONCE AGAIN there was no major pamper today. Just a continuation of the closet fiasco. But tomorrow, lookie here...I'm getting pampered one way or another. My better half has something planned for Day 30, so watch out now!!

Countdown to my rebirth: Day 35

$1.99! $1.99! That is all it took to make todays pamper day a success.

Day 35: Buy a dozen doughnut holes and don't share.

My daughter is an eater. She has a passionate love for food...at 2 years old. Not sharing my food with her is usually IMPOSSIBLE. So once the midday sleepiness fell over the house and all eyes were closed, I went on my mission for doughnut holes....ALONE. The reason why alone is in caps is because mama doesn't get too many ALONE moments. I had been running around with them all morning an they were on fire. They ran laps inside the bank and I had to apologize to a million people in Trader Joes because my kids kept running over everybody's feet with those silly little shopping carts. Who's dumb idea was that? To look at, they're cute. But function wise, a 2 year old turns into a bull in china shop with this thing. Once we got in the wine section, it was time to go because two buck chuck was about to be all over the floor. (And yes, I hear some of you saying, "well why did you give it to her?" Because I wanted a screamfree shopping experience. And, what?)

Unfortunately, out here in Southern California, there aren't any Dunkin Donut shops. (No freaking white castles either. They're killing me!) So I went to my local Yum Yum Donuts for their great variety of doughnut holes. Glazed and....and...and that was it. Really?! And I know the girl behind the counter thought I was a snob because I had the nerve to ask if they were fresh. I'm just saying. They were prepackaged in a plastic bag that was tied in a knot sitting on top of the counter. So I grabbed my pre-packaged doughnut holes, headed home and hid them on the highest shelf in the kitchen. And now that the children are asleep for the night, here I sit munching on my holes and sipping on some milk.....all by myself :-)

Countdown to my rebirth: Day 36

Once again, my pamper moment almost didn't happen today. Being the mother of two toddlers, finding free time is dang near impossible. But after bath time, bedtime and a late night conference call for my sorority, I am finally in the "me moment".

DAY 36th: Soothe and massage your tired feet with a hydrotherapeutic foot spa.

As I write this, I am soaking my feet in some lavender water while sipping on a glass of wine. Ahhhhh, this feels great. Sometimes I feel so guilty when I "sit down on the job". There is a mountain of laundry to do, bathrooms to clean and about an inch of dust staring at me on top of the entertainment center. Oh well!!! I am learning to accept the fact that the world will not crumble if I leave a dish in the sink. If I am going to take care of my family, I have got to take care of myself. And once again, I am doing so in a cost effective way!! I love being frugally free!!

So , now I must go and massage my feet with my Balinese Jasmine Oil from Cost Plus World Market (Thanks for the recommend, Kia :-) I am really milking this pampering thing and LOVING IT!!

Send me some ideas for out of the norm pamper projects, because the book that I'm using is about to have me line and organize every drawer in my house. Uh, no thank ya!

Countdown to my rebirth: Day 39

Well that time is almost here. I am reaching a point in life that so many women dread but I am attacking head on. I am about to be the big 4-0. So everyday for the next 39 days I have decided to do something special for ME. I found this book (500 Ways To Pamper Yourself) that lists 500 things that can put a smile on my face. I was off to a rough start today but I kinda got it done: Lining/Cleaning a drawer. I didn't get the pretty paper that I would have liked but I used this as a great opportunity to recycle magazine pages as the liner. And I had to wait till after the kids bed time and after tv time with "the man" so I was (and still am) TIRED. But I got it done.

Before:

Recycled Lining:

After:

My First Blog

Wow...I can't believe I am actually doing this...an online diary. Ha Ha!!! This is hilarious. Well, I am creating this as my release. I want to write about my experiences as a fairly new mom(19 month old girl and soon to be 3 year old boy), a woman looking for a career and as a person that can make the smallest smile create an abundance of sunshine....

Well this was just a test, so stay tuned. This week I will be blogging on planning a carnival themed birthday party for a 3 year old. The big day is Saturday so I will need to do a lot of releasing this week...Ha Ha...

FYI: I am an educated woman but let me tell you now that my grammar and spelling is probably going to be a little off...a lot off.